Lifting & Winning

An excellent method to obtain steady progress in the squat is to alternate between front squats and back squats every three to four weeks.  This strategy has the effect of ratcheting up anterior and posterior strength and muscular development in a complimentary fashion.  This is only an approximate dichotomy as front squats are also conducive to developing the upper back, since to cave forward in the upper back during a front squat generally means dropping the weight and missing the lift.

Front squat emphasis:  Quads, abs, mid and upper back

Back squat emphasis:  Hamstrings, adductors, lower back, traps

Alternating at the three to four week interval tends to allow enough time to accumulate results in one of the lifts while avoiding the occurrence of repetitive stress injuries.  If you’ve been predominately favoring one style of squatting over the other for a long time, you may want to switch to the opposite style for a longer run of six to eight weeks to balance the body and allow time for any inflammation, pain, etc., induced by the alternative style to resolve.  After doing so, you could then settle into the recommended three to four week rotation schedule.

Think of repeatedly climbing a ladder using only one arm.  That is roughly analogous to the inefficiency of chasing higher squat numbers without utilizing both primary variations in equal measure.  Changing the style also keeps training mentally stimulating and adds a sense of urgency to pushing PRs before it’s time to rotate to the opposite style.  Switch it up and crush plateaus.

Quit thinking debt is okay.  Quit buying things you don’t need.

Some do leverage debt successfully, mostly those with deep pockets to begin with or access to more capital to shore up losses and roll another die at the roulette wheel.  If you have a solid idea and plan for a business, that is a different scenario and leveraging debt may be warranted, but I’m addressing the man who aspires to freedom and a modest level of material comfort by means of a job and career, or those who would like to start a business from a position of security to allow for time to let the business mature and yield reliable income without needing to lean on loans or unsustainable bootstrapping.

The common man without substantial external advantage must mitigate and avoid debt.  Only then can he reliably produce wealth.  Eliminating debt first and then focusing on building wealth may not be the quickest path to financial success, but it is the surest.  Imagine if you had no house, car, or student loan payments.  Think of how much money you could invest and/or save each month, even on modest wages.

Interest is extolled when earned from an investment but dismissed when constantly lurking in a mortgage or student loan and excused as ‘tax deductible’ or ‘good debt’.  In reality that interest rate and amortization schedule is a very nice business for someone who printed the original sum just as easily as you type six digits.  Think about that.  They produced the money instantly and you then spend 30 years servicing the debt.  Think of debt repayment as a stone cold guaranteed investment with returns commensurate to the interest on the loan and seize the sure thing before you spend it away on things you don’t deserve to have as a person indebted or begin taking on riskier investments.

The main reason most people don’t pay off their debt head on is ignorance.  They don’t understand the many factors involved in our debt based monetary system, including interest rates, amortization, opportunity cost, inflation/fiat currency, high frequency trading, age of retirement income bracket, materialism and many other factors that undermine the probability of attaining financial success through a conventional approach that has ever fading viability.  The financial industry lackeys and pundits can talk about time value of money and average returns in the market and normalize the ten percent to your 401k route but in the end, if you don’t take control of your debt and materialism first, this world can swallow you whole.  Your ass will just be collateral on a perpetual treadmill that you only get to step off when you’re old, if you’re lucky and shrewd.

Understand what you owe and make an extremely aggressive plan to kill it.  It will likely require substantial sacrifices for as many as five or ten years.  You will also likely have to strive to make more money during that time to speed progress.  Follow the plan, and then enjoy your freedom.  You were meant to be free.  It doesn’t necessarily mean not working a job or starting a business, the difference is you now have a level of autonomy not common amongst your coworkers or competition.  You can be free to assert your skill and identity to a greater extent than those amongst you stifled by the financial, mental and spiritual burden of knowing if he steps too far out of line, if he takes too big a risk, his precious salary might not be there anymore to pay a mortgage or student loan.

More broadly, imagine a world where people are not held hostage to immoral agendas because of their debt.  Imagine employees less afraid to walk away from immoral or simply boring companies and bosses.  A world where the righteous individual has the financial strength to resist tyranny and injustice at every level of society.  Imagine the increase in charitable acts.  Imagine the creative energy that would be unleashed.  Image being able to keep the lion’s share of your wages each month.  Imagine being able to stop working for a few months or being able to retire early.  Imagine yourself as a free person.  With discipline and sacrifice, it is possible.

Bred over millennia, but a relationship preordained by the creator, man provides dog’s basic needs and dog becomes a gateway to satisfaction of man’s higher needs.  Tending such a noble creature makes a man virtuous and enriches his life immeasurably.

No matter how well situated you are with money, time, land or any other resources that improve one’s ability to care for a dog, masterful dog ownership requires personal involvement and, quite often, sacrifice.  High energy dogs require time around their master other than just exercise to feel content and comfortable with their pack situation.  Measure your situation and inclinations extremely carefully and do your research before taking the plunge.  Don’t get a high energy dog if you are not capable of being assertive and dominant, yet not cruel or harsh.  Don’t get a high energy dog on a whim or as an emotional decision. We must be good stewards of the canines and honor their nature by giving them good lives, without negligence, cruelty, or undue boredom.

That said, let’s assume you have decided to jump in.  What might you find- from the perspective of cultivating the life of a winner?

High energy dogs help keep your drive and testosterone high, which keeps a man mentally and physically healthy.  Having such a rugged presence around on a regular basis is good for one’s vigor.  This occurs through various mechanisms, the most obvious of which is the additional exercise that is requisite to responsible dog ownership.  You can’t sit slouched over on your ass watching television getting stupefied when your dog is telling you it’s time to go outside and be active.  The more subtle mechanism is along the lines of an adaptation of proverbs:

“As iron sharpens iron, so does a rugged dog sharpen the countenance of his owner.”

When training and handling a high energy dog, you must be highly conscious of your own behavior- exacting with the timing of cues, commands and rewards in order to elicit the desired response from the dog.  The self-control cultivated as a result has a transference to other endeavors, which helps produce massive wins.  The loyalty, fearlessness, tenacity, intelligence, and awesome physicality of these dogs will inspire you and help you cultivate the same virtues within yourself.

In order to consistently and truly win, one needs to have a reasonably accurate worldview.  This starts with one’s philosophy, principles and values.  It is this platform that allows one to judge what elements from the external world one wants to give influence over one’s self or incorporate into one’s mental map of reality.  Let us assume those principles and values are sound- based in truth, love, justice, compassion, achievement, family, etc.  Unfortunately, in this world, certain groups have realized that if they can separate mankind from these values, mankind can be weakened, and in this weakened state, mankind can be controlled.

Every individual must come to this realization on his own terms.  All truth passes through three stages- ridicule, violent opposition, and acceptance.  Let this serve as a signpost on your life’s road- notifying you that someone has left the beaten path of pop culture, the media and the paradigms that have been carefully prepared for us all.  The signpost stands in front of a tall mountain.  It reads “You have been lied to, but you can find the truth this way…”

The climb is extremely difficult.  No path has been carved and obstacles have been erected.  Your family and friends will shout at you from below as you attempt to climb, “What is the point?”  You will find yourself cold and alone, at times unable to see as clouds immerse the mountain.  But if you press on for years on end, you will gain a perspective unknown to so many, yet that is our responsibility to see.

This perspective will disturb you, as you realize how mankind is marching towards its own destruction.  But you will then be able to stop marching, fall out of line, and turn back.   Once you turn back, all the things you thought you were marching towards start to actually come into view- freedom from bondage, health, happiness, etc.  Hopefully you can bring others with you.

Those who are wise will decipher this message.  There is only one rope to help your climb- information from the internet and books.  Use it to uncover that which is hidden.  Turn off the TV and corporate media.  Question everything.  Learn history.  Beware of those who tell you there is no truth and no God.  Have the courage to share what you find, knowing not everyone will listen right away or ever, but one can make two… two can make four… four can make eight… critical mass is possible.

Men don’t run from the truth or bury their head in the sand, they face it head on.

What has alcohol done for you lately? 

Has it helped you reach that physique or performance goal you’ve been falling short of?

Has it brought you together with people that are going to enrich your life and enhance your success in a meaningful way?

Has it put money into your bank account?

Has it helped you make better decisions?

Has alcohol given you more energy?

No.  It hasn’t.

Here are just a few things alcohol has done for you:

–Decreased your testosterone levels and raised your estrogen levels

–Shrunk your brain (seriously!)

–Depleted your bank account

–Made your conversations meaningless (not remembered/pointless/superficial/one-sided)

–Reduced your overall energy and health, and therefore your ability to get things done

Look, you’re either going to read this, realize the truth and then take drastic action, or you’ll convince yourself change is not necessary and go on in mediocrity.  If you want to lift and consistently win, you should stop drinking completely.

“I need to drink at work happy hours.”

“I need to drink to talk to women.”

“I need to drink because (FILL IN THE BLANK).”

No.  You don’t.

If you believe you do, your fundamental problem is lack of confidence and/or anxiety and it’s time for you to deal with it.  Order a soda water and if anyone actually hassles you about it, here is your response:

“I stopped drinking because I have too much to accomplish in 2016 and I can’t have anything holding me back.” 

If the woman you’re talking to doesn’t respect that statement, she is probably not worthy of your attention.  Move on.  Same thing for work colleagues, etc.  In reality, nobody will hassle you and most will actually admire you.

Look at the big picture and decide which you would rather have- a fleeting buzz with all its costs, OR more time, money, energy, focus, ambition, clarity and testosterone to get goals accomplished and set yourself up for MASSIVE WINS?

I never had a drinking problem according to anyone- just the typical partying ranging from once per week to once every three weeks, with occasional stretches of abstinence as I periodically grasped what a drain alcohol is on one’s power.  Despite the fact that I wasn’t a heavy drinker by cultural standards, I regret not completely abandoning alcohol sooner.  I would have accomplished much more by now.  Even one day of heavy drinking on occasion creates a massive negative ripple effect.  I got sick of throwing away gains I had worked hard for in the gym, sick of dragging ass on Mondays at work, and sick of all the other forms of weakness that drinking brings.

I could easily list 100+ benefits that I have realized from not drinking, but I’m not going to.  If you want elite wins, an elite mind, an elite body, and an elite life bad enough, you’ll take the leap and find out what these benefits are for yourself.  I don’t remember most of what was supposedly so great about the nights I spent drinking before I gave it up.  I do remember my accomplishments, all of which were achieved when sober, and each of them gives me a buzz whenever I think of them.  That’s the kind of buzz I want more of- the natural high of a MASSIVE WIN.

As you ponder this post and it perhaps pushes you outside your soft little comfort zone, you might find yourself thinking something like:

“Hey, you know what- forget about this lame idea of not drinking.  A guy needs to let loose sometimes.  After all, everybody drinks!”

That’s who you want to be like, right- everybody else?

If you find yourself bored or stuck with some of your compound lifts, consider the following control technique.

Embracing every phase of a repetition as a distinct opportunity to elicit a compensatory response is a potent means of advancing strength and muscle growth.  Lower the weight with control and constant tension, pause utilizing muscular tension, then drive the weight up with a conscious, explosive squeeze.  Make every aspect of the movement deliberate.

When executing an explosive concentric with heavy weight, starting from a strict pause demands true explosion, without reliance on any bounce or elastic response from muscles, ligaments, or joints, and thus encodes clear input to the nervous system which manifests as a specific adaptation to the imposed demand, namely- strength.  High quality input, high quality output.  A truly explosive rep also of course creates the tension necessary for triggering adaptations to our strongest muscle fibers, thus demanding hypertrophy and additional strength gains.

It takes a mature lifter to adopt such a high technique standard because it generally requires some degree of load reduction on any given movement and rep scheme.  Some lifters crave to lift as heavy as possible with passable form due to work ethic and/or wanting to appear as strong as possible to himself or others.  There is a place in training for passable form in exchange for increased repetitions, but the lifter who can toggle between highly controlled and passable at will stands to gain.

While you don’t need to lift this way all the time, you should certainly employ this technique if you are trying to break a plateau and think critically about the current quality of your efforts.  Fully executing this style of training is akin to the focus of mediation.  There must be constant intentional control in your actions.

A good mindset cue to hone into the control technique is to seek to perform as few reps as possible with a given weight, due to extreme quality of execution of each individual rep.  Each repetition should be extremely demanding.  For example, if you can squat 250 for 5 decent reps, this standard of controlled execution might limit you to 2 or 3 reps.  If you can bench 405 for a single with a quick descent and slight bounce, this method might limit you to 375.  These are approximate examples of the differences you will see if you are executing the technique properly.  Remember that exerting a constant and exacting level of control against heavy weight acts as a highly acute stimulus to the body and thus demands compensation.

Carry on.

A man needs to be able to tap into a militant state of mind for purposes of accomplishing significant tasks and goals.  If he has a significant goal he genuinely seeks to achieve, he must be willing to endure discomfort and even pain.  He needs to reprogram his mind to equate certain levels of discomfort and pain with the positive reward to come, thereby coming to actually enjoy the pain itself and after persistently doing the work, by virtue of repetition, the work ceases to become work.  The work becomes craved and enjoyed and thereby creates a flowing pipeline of success.

One who can immediately draw upon a militant mindset of discipline and apply it to the work necessary for a given goal is likely to achieve his goals because the discipline will morph into habit.  Success is a collection of conscious choices that produce winning habits that beget desired results.

The man who understands he can actively program his subconscious mind to optimize his habits and alter his very nature and embraces his responsibility to do so is destined for success in whatever terms he defines it.  The best way to internalize a winning mindset and the methods of controlling and programming one’s thoughts is to consistently read about these topics.

Leverage external knowledge resources to aid programming of successful thought patterns and habits.  Below are links to two excellent resources:

“The Psychology of Winning” on Amazon

“The Power of Your Subconscious Mind” on Amazon

 

If a man is intent upon lifting and winning, he will have limited time for nonsense.  Prioritizing the act of passively watching sports in a consistent manner is nonsense.  There are legions of fat, ignorant, and indebted men who do just that when they clearly have more pressing matters that need their attention.

Sports are awesome.  As someone who has played numerous sports competitively and for fun, I have great respect for athletes and the value of athletic training and competition.  Watching sports can be very inspirational and entertaining and is a good thing in measured doses, but following sports in a consistent and obsessive manner as a fanatic will slow and possibly prevent a man from winning in life.

Note fanatic because that’s where the word ‘fan’ originates from.  A fanatic is preoccupied with observing others as they perform at a high level (winning) on a television screen for the sort of money, glory and personal achievement that the fanatic will never glimpse if he does not wrest himself from his couch and become a fanatic about winning in his own life.

Where is the widespread sense of obligation and drive in men to be something more than average instead of abdicating that role to a small number of men playing a game who likely would find said abdication to be pathetic if they told the truth?

Some men spend an entire Sunday watching football and in the next breath claim they do not have time/money/energy to:

•             -exercise
•             -actually play a sport
•             -make side money to pay down debt
•             -read
•             -start a business
•             -learn an instrument
•             -practice a hobby
•             -learn a skill
•             -stretch
•             -coach a team
•             -meet a woman
•             – (any other non-passive, success-promoting, winner activity)

There is nothing wrong with catching a big game sometimes or watching some highlights, but a man should spend most of his time being a fanatic about his own success, not the ball player on TV.

If you train hard on a consistent basis and you are not taking soft tissue therapy seriously, you are most likely missing out on attainable relief from any nagging joint or soft tissue problems.  Repetitive postures and movement patterns lead to adhesions, subluxations, and mobility loss.  If not addressed, these issues in turn negatively impact strength and performance.  Even if you are not in pain or discomfort, you can improve performance with soft tissue work.

A friend of mine intuitively discovered an extremely potent tissue therapy that has been a life changer for me.  I’ve taken to calling it swing rolling, but feel free to come up with a better name.

By combining a chi machine with baseballs, softballs, lacrosse balls- spheres of various diameters, one can make rapid myofascial, soft tissue, musculoskeletal and neurological improvements.  In more casual terms:

Swing rolling is like foam rolling on crack.

The chi machine oscillates your body in a fish-like movement, opening up the discs of the spine and bringing blood flow to all areas of the body.  In and of itself, the chi machine is amazing and has many benefits.  Research it if you’re not familiar.

When you combine the chi machine with hard balls, by laying on top of the balls while using the machine, the massage is incredible.  The substantial body weight placed upon the ball/s combined with the fully assisted movement from the chi machine are what create the magic.  I can put in hours of intense soft tissue work with very little effort other than moving the spheres periodically.  Swing rolling is a great way to help make any time spent lounging in front of a TV productive and healthy.

I primarily target various areas in my back, but the possible techniques for targeting different areas of the body are endless and the relief is profound. For example, I lay on my side with one leg in the chi machine stirrups and a softball under my IT band.  You can target nearly any muscle or area on the body.  Different ball diameters will work better in different areas.

I’ve solved two stubborn, prolonged and distressing dysfunctions with this modality thus far- one in my right scapular area that was affecting the function of my shoulder, and the other in my right IT band that was disrupting the smooth function of my knee.  I’ve also dramatically improved my thoracic spine mobility, and my elbows feel better from regularly hitting my triceps with baseballs from a multitude of angles. Not only does my body feel more supple and comfortable, improved joint and neural function has positively impacted my performance while training. For example, improved shoulder function from swing rolling has helped me bench more since I can now more freely create and express strength in my shoulder.

It is truly difficult to convey the tremendous value of this particular therapy to someone who hasn’t tried it.  Start slow if you don’t want to risk a massage hangover from large amounts of metabolites and accumulated toxins being released and processed by the bodies various disposal mechanisms.

Below are Amazon links to what you’ll need to get started with swing rolling.  I suggest getting two baseballs so you can place one on either side of your body.

Most Affordable Variable Speed Chi Machine Currently On Amazon
Baseballs on Amazon
Two-Pack Lacrosse Balls On Amazon
Two-Pack Softballs On Amazon

Disclaimer:  I am not a doctor or certified medical expert of any kind.  Try the preceding techniques at your own risk.  Consult your physician.