Jump to content

GoldenTongue

Members
  • Posts

    2,666
  • Joined

  • Last visited

Reputation

744 Excellent

About GoldenTongue

  • Birthday 01/31/22

Recent Profile Visitors

1,018 profile views
  1. Wondering (and hoping against) seeing (spoiler from events in those two episodes) in the next episode.
  2. Not really, no. The article cited the basis(es) for the headline, and qualified it appropriately with the fact that the general election is months away.
  3. Which Trump will use as another point against her; how she's being supported by the broken system that's trying to keep him down. Drain the swamp v2.0. And his chuds will eat it up.
  4. I can completely understand. But given the amount of time I've spent being less than active, I don't have nearly as much accumulated joint/tendon wear and tear as you've amassed, despite being north of 45. 1RM efforts for me are something I consider a once/year (maybe twice) type of thing, something I'll consider trying depending on how I'm feeling at the time I'm doing a peaking phase for a competition. Squats are a big question mark for me, but I still feel comfortable enough with exposure to near maximal loads for bench, OHP, and Deadlift, as that's all included in my peaking work; all told, in a full 24 week meso (base phase plus peaking block), there are roughly 4-6 weeks where I'm touching loads at 90% or more of 1RM, and my programming uses submaximal volumizing as a form of progression for most movements, with progression in intensity limited to the big four compound movements along with four variations (done at a lower intensity threshold than the main lifts). I do feel like my passion for strongman/strongman training has had a marked effect in conditioning me not only for heavy loads, but also higher capacity work effort, to say nothing of training to handle disadvantaged loading, which has led to me feeling like my back is damn near bulletproof. Aesthetically? I'd say I'm looking better than I have at almost any point in my life, certainly better than I did for most of my 20's and 30's, although I'm still carrying more fat around the midsection than I'd like. Moving in the right direction there, but being at/near clinical obesity for most of my life means there is a lot of visceral fat to burn through, which is always the hardest to get rid of.
  5. New toys: Saxon Block Barbell Grips. Like Fat Grips, but they simulate a 3"x3" saxon bar (I have Saxon Bar Block DL for reps for an upcoming competition). I'm lovehating them: strange feeling being humbled on a 135# deadlift where pinch strength is the limiting factor, but by the same token, this is going to be a total game-changer for improving my grip strength. No more heavy ass trap bar/farmer carries beating the shit out of CNS; now I can get an absolutely incredible grip strength workout with less than 150# of load. Training going well; feeling good about hitting some new milestones later this year after next training cycle. 405 bench feels very attainable, 275 OHP should be doable, but 550 squat and 600 DL still seem like they might be a ways out. Although tbh, I'm actually wondering if my days of 1RM Squat PR's are behind me: I'm starting to feel a familiar ache in my hips that's happened in the last two cycles around the time my worksets get to ~420 lbs or so, which is right about where I'm at now.
  6. I’m a bit curious myself. Between EMDR and some various types of exposure therapy, to say nothing of some new forms of pharmaceutical interventions, trauma treatment has evolved significantly over the past 10-15 years.
  7. I'm nearly choking on the self-righteous demands of doing research before offering judgement. Take off those rosy glasses and try applying some of that critical thought you're charging others with, yourself. RFK Jr is an anti-vax nut who has acrtively advanced the vaccine-autism causal link BS, repeatedly asserted that COVID-19 was a genetically engineered weapon (and that it furthermore targets certain races while immunizing others), that mass shootings can be directly linked to anti-depressants, has claimed that per capita gun ownership in Switzerland is comparable to the US, that several notable public figures had attempted to exaggerate the COVID pandemic in an effort to profit from vaccine proliferation, among other fanciful and/or outrageous assertions. Ridiculous comments, indeed.
  8. Good to see the majority in the House shrink even further, but I'm skeptical of any forecasting/extrapolating based upon the results of this election. And as someone living in NY who's been absolutely inundated with ads for/against both for the past month...I'm just as glad that those are over. Unbridled smear games played by both sides in the runup to the election.
  9. Solidly back into my groove, although I'm probably not as far along at this point in the macrocycle as I would have been under better circumstances. Integrating sets of KB swings before and after worksets of my lifts to help develop work capacity and to get some additional density from each workout. Feeling like this cycle will definitely yield improvements in my bench, OHP, and deadlift numbers, but I'm thinking I need to increase my squat frequency in my next round of programming, as that feels as though it's lagging. Sounds like something which might have a lot of specious science surrounding it. There are any number of effective squat variations, many of which can be beneficial for strength-building and injury prevention. So far as bodyweight squats (of any variety) - once the body adapts to the stress of completing the full squat, then there is no further strength development, you are only maintaining the level of strength/mobility required to complete the movement. In order to continue developing strength, the stimulus (resistance) would need to increase in some manner: an increase in load, increase in volume (to an extent), or some other training variable, in order to present the body to a stress to which it is not adapted (that being the mechanism through which the body recovers and adapts during the rest periods between training).
  10. So, while I'm not as active here as I once was, I still lurk fairly regularly, and post on occasion. And wanted to share some good feels on something that I can't celebrate as openly as I'd like out there IRL. Two years ago today, I walked in to a GA (Gambler's Anonymous) room on the recommendation of my therapist. For the better part of two years prior, my relationship with a mobile game (Lords Mobile, for any who might be aware of it), which started as a distraction and grew to something much stronger, compulsive, and toxic, had led me to a point where dissociation from family/friends/work, habitual lying, and any number of other maladaptive behaviors had become the norm for me, all while spending ungodly amounts of money on growing and building my account in the game. Denial was a central tenet of my life - denial that I had a problem, denial of the pain I was causing myself and others, denial of what I was doing to myself, denial that I was "coping" with my problems by (trying to) escape them into the fantasy life of the game and the "social" aspect of the all-too-shallow friendships formed from other players on Discord, Line, Teamspeak, etc. So, I walked into the first meeting feeling pretty hopeless, lost in despair, and more than a little shame and guilt - not over what I'd done (as I deluded myself into believing at the time), but rather, shame and guilt over having been caught lying, stealing (from our joint savings while amassing staggering amounts of credit card debt), etc. I spent a lot of time in meetings in my first few months just talking about how badly I felt, but didn't actually start experiencing any sort of recovery until (at the prompting of another member) I starting opening up and talking about what I'd done, the terrible acts I'd committed, the countless lies I'd told, how I'd reached a point where when asked a question, my first inclination wasn't to tell the truth, but rather to run through this sort of twisted calculus in an attempt to come up with the best answer to satisfy whichever need I felt at that moment, which usually amounted to a need to be left the fuck alone so I could resume escaping into the game. But over time, after 100+ meetings or so, and with continued support from my therapist, my wife, and our couples therapist, I started to recover, to find and regain a sense of normalcy and stability. I started to understand that although I'd done some awful things, that that didn't mean that I was, or would always be, an awful person. Having always been a compulsive reader (one quirky benefit of my own compulsive tendencies), I started studying addiction, learning about the disease model of addiction, among other things. Even more valuable, after regaining a sense of clarity (and empathy, and the capacity for growth), I've been able, between work done in GA and with my therapist, to learn so much more about myself, coming to realize that the seeds of my own compulsion/addiction issues took root long ago, back in my childhood. Which is not to lay blame on anyone else - while there is plenty of baggage I'm still working on unpacking, these issues are my own, and are no less the fault of others than they are of me. But it very much feels like a mixed bag at times: gaining these insights and coming to understand more of who I am, and (to some extent) why I am the way I am, is a blessing, although I'd be lying if I said that there aren't times when I wished I could have gained these insights when I was younger, on one of the many occasions when I've experienced some particularly painful personal falls - gaming took me to a rock bottom, but I've headed in that direction on several occasions in my past, and it's entirely possible that but for some minor twist of fate, that I might have ended up in an NA room, or perhaps AA (although my more destructive compulsions seem more inclined to those which stimulate rather than depress). But regardless, January 25th is now as important a date to me as my wedding date, and in all reality, more personally meaningful to me than my birthday. Life isn't perfect, nor can it ever be, but as many in program can attest, our worst day in recovery is better than our best day in action. It still feels strange for me to say that getting caught by my wife (a truly awful day which I will never forget) might be one of the best things that could ever happen to me. I was cautious and cunning in my deceit, working hard to maintain the facade of stability, and although she knew that something was wrong with me, she had no idea of what I was doing to myself, and the ways in which I was starting to significantly undermine our financial security. If not for an email alert indicating a high balance on one of our shared credit cards, I shudder in horror to think of how much damage I could have done before something far more destructive brought my actions to light. I owe her in more ways than I know how to count, and will never forget the fear and pain in her eyes the night she discovered the depths of what I'd done. Her recovery continues along a track similar to my own; family and friends of addicts suffer a Hell every bit (or more) as nightmarish as those of the addicted. Addiction is referred to at times as the great eraser, in how it can erase and erode the feelings of safety, comfort, and ultimately, love, which bind us to family and friends, and rebuilding those things which have been lost is so damn hard. I'm blessed that my wife has remained by my side, recognizing that the person she was burdened to be around which I was in addiction, is but a diseased fragment of who I truly am (or can be). It is a (at times painfully slow) process, but we are healing, and remain united in the fierce and unwavering conviction of what we can, and will be, together. For those who've made it this far, thanks for taking the time to read these thoughts. I'm incredibly grateful for where I am, what I've regained, and for the opportunities I've been granted in recovery. If there is anyone who has any questions and would like some input from someone who's embraced the pain of self-destruction and has been able to start the journey towards healing and recovery, feel free to shoot me a message. Addiction is a terrible disease, and the unfortunate reality is that it can never be truly understood from the outside looking in, but I'm always happy to try to share my own perspective if it can help others find some degree of understanding.
  11. What do you mean by over the knees squats?
  12. Back to the gym yesterday after a semi week off from a cruise last week - went to the gym every day on the ship and did a bit of a full body circuit workout using the machines there. Got a decent pump each day, but definitely fell a bit out of groove. Now that the holidays are done and vacation is behind me, looking forward to really dialing back in on my training. One Strongman comp in April, and another in early May so I'll be focused on development and prep for those, and afterward, I'm thinking of doing minimal strength work and spending six months or so on high volume bodybuilding/aesthetic work. Using the machines on the ship and feeling light DOMS in new places was a nice reminder of the benefits of a more diversified training regimen, and I wouldn't mind the novelty of something genuinely different for a few training cycles. Standard/conventional deadlifts shouldn't really be leaving you feeling terribly sore, unless you're deliberately slowly lowering on the eccentric, but even then, doing so should end up limiting your working load. As far as being more/less risky than squats, there really isn't a valid body of evidence to support either argument. At the end of the day, nearly any barbell movement can be risky if done with poor form/poor bracing. In terms of value, it really depends. The stimulus:fatigue ratio for deadlifts makes them less than ideal for many people whose primary goal is hypertrophy/aesthetic work, although RDL's can be fantastic for hamstring development. But if one's goals include any degree of strength development, then I think deadlifts merit a spot in someone's program. Even if there isn't any perfect direct carryover in terms of how you might have to handle lifting things in real life, development of the posterior chain is beneficial for nearly everyone. And to quote many coaches, there isn't a single muscle in the body that is relaxed during a heavy pull. And for the average person, I'd argue that a simple LP using something like Starting Strength, or (even better) Greyskull LP represents the most efficient use of one's time, when time available for training is limited. Not to pick at too many nits, but that isn't universally true - if trt (or some other form of HRT) isn't pushing levels close to or beyond normative levels, then I'd argue that there isn't really a negative impact. And for those who are genuinely deficient (and not pursuing TRT for optimization, which is admittedly the case for a sizeable majority of the current TRT market), excessively depressed testosterone levels which fail to respond to all other interventions absolutely merit TRT, in terms of risk/reward. My main pet peeve with many who opt for TRT is that they use that as a first resort, without first considering if deficiencies in Vitamin D, or magnesium, or some other micronutrient might be a problem...or if they are getting proper rest, or if they are engaged in a meaningful training program, or, or , or...
  13. Trying to get back to a point where I don't feel weak af in the gym. Between a particular rough bout of COVID in November, RSV in December, and being busy as hell with the holidays, I feel like I lost almost two months of training time. Combine that with starting a new training cycle which is higher volume/lower intensity (my programming periodizes toward lower volume/higher intensity over time) and the time away plus being detrained to the higher work capacities required, and it seems like I'm feeling disgusted with myself as often as not when I finish my workouts. But, the DOMS cramping is less notable with each week since I started the new cycle a couple weeks ago, and I can feel the conditioning and strength coming back, even though it's slower than I'd like. My goal was to hit a 405 bench at the end of the peaking phase after this cycle; not sure if that will happen, but I feel like hitting it after the next training cycle should be achievable. After that, the only major strength goal I'll have to check off my list will be a 315# OHP, which could take another couple years based on where I'm at now (hit a 255# single at the end of October just before I got sick), especially I'm planning on dropping another 15-20 lbs over the next year. And since I got a podium finish competing Novice class in my first three strongman comps, I'm taking the advice of a friend/coach, and jumping over to Masters for more of a challenge. Weights are typically identical to what I'd be handling at the weight I'm working to get down to, although the competition will definitely be harder since most guys in the Masters division seem to have 5-10 years of comp experience.
×
×
  • Create New...