In the last 30 years or so, it has been en vogue to teach men that acting like a man is wrong. They've been taught that the problem with men is that they need to be more like women. They're told that the man who shows his emotions is the real man. And that the more you act like a woman, the manlier you are.
These days it is totally acceptable for a man to get emotional like a woman. Not only that, men will engage in emotional reasoning and not even care that they're being irrational. For those unaware, emotional reasoning is when you think that what you feel must be true regardless of evidence. This typically considered a female tendency. Even so, I consider this behavior unseemly in women as well as men. But apparently I'm in the minority. Now apparently this behavior is acceptable, not just for women, but for men as well.
Gentlemen, this ought not be. As men, being less emotional and more analytical is a strength, not a weakness. You could make a good case that being a little more emotional serves women because they have a more hands on role in raising children. But men are protectors and providers. In that role, emotions will will screw you. Emotions cloud your ability to see things as they really are, which clouds your ability to make decisions. Which in turn undermines your ability to provide and protect.
Imagine this, after catching a late movie, you and your significant other are walking to your car. When all of a sudden a masked man steps out of the shadows, with a knife in hand and demands your money. If you act as modern Western culture has taught you to act, you will get completely emotional. You'll plead with the assailant asking irrelevant questions like, "WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS???" Maybe you'll completely lose control and fall to the ground weeping uncontrollably. Maybe you'll also pee on yourself a little.
None of this will help your situation. If however, you have resisted the onslaught of feminization, you'll realize that you only have a few options. You can comply, fight, run away or scream for help. Now I'm not going to tell what you should do, other than to say that manliness does not mean that you are forced to fight. You can't win every battle and being good at being a man demands that you be able to judge when you can win and when you can't. Sometimes you may have to engage in a fight that you can't win, but most unwinnable fights should be avoided.
Don't mistake what I'm saying. I'm not saying tat you have to be a completely emotionless automaton. Love your wife, children and family. Laugh with your friends. But when it comes to evaluating a situation and taking action, use logic and reason.
That's it for today. Check back in a few days for a new post.
Saturday, February 27, 2016
Wednesday, February 24, 2016
Dose of Testosterone 7: Camaros
Time for another round of pics that get your testosterone levels up. Today we take a look at my favorite muscle car of all time, the Chevy Camaro. Looking at these pics should motivate you to quite wasting time reading articles about the evils of feminism, get off your butt and try to get that brass ring.
 |
| Great car. Bad pic |
Friday, February 19, 2016
The Bulgarian Weighlifting System Part 2
Previously I gave an introduction to the Bulgarian training system. You can find that article here. Today we’re going to go over how to actually design a program based on the Bulgarian methods.
The first thing you need to know is that this program is very specific. If you want your training to be well rounded and include some hypertrophy training, some endurance training and some strength training, then this is not the program for you. This program is for one thing: maximal strength on a few core lifts. You might be able to throw in some supplementary exercises, but not many.
Next, you should know that this routine can be very time consuming. This isn’t some HIT program where you just walk in to the gym, warm up, do one balls-to-the-wall set and leave. Depending on your goal, you may be able to organize your workouts in a way that you can be in and out of the gym in an hour. But when I used this program, most of my workouts were 2.5-3.5 hours.
Now, on to the meat of the program. When I first read about this program, sites on the internet were saying that the Bulgarians “work up to a heavy single every workout”. I (wrongly) interpreted that to mean 1 heavy single. Thus I would try to set a PR (personal record) every time I was in the gym. I tried to work up to my top weight by doing the fewest number of sets possible. So if my PR was 100kg, I knew that today I would attempt 102.5kg. I would work up like this:
50x3, 70x2-3, 80x1, 87.5x1, 92.5x1, 97.5x1, 102.5x1.
I made good progress with this program. But then the gains ceased. I was stubborn and for years refused to try anything different. I barely made any progress during those years. Eventually I went on a 5x5 type program. I learned a lot on 5x5 and those lessons helped me improve my “Bulgarian” training.
The most important lesson I learned was that intensity (whether you define that as a percentage of your 1RM max or perceived exertion.) is not the end all be all of training. Volume is a powerful aspect of training. Volume is at least as important as intensity. Most of the time, your training should be a balance between volume and intensity. 10 sets x 1 rep @ 90% is better than 1 set @ 100%. I mean honestly, just look at it. Assuming a max of 100kg, 10x1@90% means that you lifted 90kg ten times. That’s a total tonnage of 900kg. The other method gives you a tonnage of 100kg. So, who do you think is going to make more progress, the guy who lifts 900kg or the guy who lifts 100kg?
There is nothing wrong with using 1 max set. If you are new to this type of training, then feel free to give it a try. You’ll make good progress…for a while. When progress stalls, consider increasing your volume.
One way to increase the volume is do more sets during your warm up. I would get to 90% in as few sets as possible. Weight increases for sets above 90% would be small, 1-2.5kg. Assuming a 100kg max, I might try something like:
50x3, 70x2-3, 80x1, 85x1, 90x1, 92.5x1, 95x1, 97.5x1, 100x1, 102.5x1.
If I you set a new PR, then adjust your weights in your next session.
Another way of adding volume is to wave load. Basically you work up to a max multiple times in a single session. You can do it in such a way that the top set in each wave is heavier that the top set in the previous wave. So after a warm up wave 1 might be:
90x1, 95x1, 100x1
Wave 2:
92.5x1, 97.5x1, 102.5
Or you could try to set a new PR on your first wave, with each subsequent wave being lighter.
Wave 1:
92.5x1, 97.5x1, 102.5
Wave 2:
90x1, 95x1, 100x1
You could also just work up to a new PR, and then drop to 90% of your new PR and do 3-5 singles. Or after hitting your top weight for the day, you could decrease the weight and try to set a new 3RM. Or you could completely forgo trying to hit a max and instead try to do a lot of sets at 90%. Completing a predetermined number of sets within a predetermined time frame would be a signal to increase your weight in the next session, similar to Charles Staley's Escalating Density Training (by using this affiliate link, you help support this site.) The main theme here is to increase your volume with weights above 90% of your 1 rep maximum,
If you're looking to increase just max strength, a heavy single program such as this is definitely worth trying. You'll probably set several new PR's. Give it a try and let me know how it works.
Till next time, gents.
Georgi Gardev
The first thing you need to know is that this program is very specific. If you want your training to be well rounded and include some hypertrophy training, some endurance training and some strength training, then this is not the program for you. This program is for one thing: maximal strength on a few core lifts. You might be able to throw in some supplementary exercises, but not many.
Next, you should know that this routine can be very time consuming. This isn’t some HIT program where you just walk in to the gym, warm up, do one balls-to-the-wall set and leave. Depending on your goal, you may be able to organize your workouts in a way that you can be in and out of the gym in an hour. But when I used this program, most of my workouts were 2.5-3.5 hours.
Now, on to the meat of the program. When I first read about this program, sites on the internet were saying that the Bulgarians “work up to a heavy single every workout”. I (wrongly) interpreted that to mean 1 heavy single. Thus I would try to set a PR (personal record) every time I was in the gym. I tried to work up to my top weight by doing the fewest number of sets possible. So if my PR was 100kg, I knew that today I would attempt 102.5kg. I would work up like this:
50x3, 70x2-3, 80x1, 87.5x1, 92.5x1, 97.5x1, 102.5x1.
I made good progress with this program. But then the gains ceased. I was stubborn and for years refused to try anything different. I barely made any progress during those years. Eventually I went on a 5x5 type program. I learned a lot on 5x5 and those lessons helped me improve my “Bulgarian” training.
The most important lesson I learned was that intensity (whether you define that as a percentage of your 1RM max or perceived exertion.) is not the end all be all of training. Volume is a powerful aspect of training. Volume is at least as important as intensity. Most of the time, your training should be a balance between volume and intensity. 10 sets x 1 rep @ 90% is better than 1 set @ 100%. I mean honestly, just look at it. Assuming a max of 100kg, 10x1@90% means that you lifted 90kg ten times. That’s a total tonnage of 900kg. The other method gives you a tonnage of 100kg. So, who do you think is going to make more progress, the guy who lifts 900kg or the guy who lifts 100kg?
There is nothing wrong with using 1 max set. If you are new to this type of training, then feel free to give it a try. You’ll make good progress…for a while. When progress stalls, consider increasing your volume.
 |
| Milen Dobrev |
50x3, 70x2-3, 80x1, 85x1, 90x1, 92.5x1, 95x1, 97.5x1, 100x1, 102.5x1.
If I you set a new PR, then adjust your weights in your next session.
Another way of adding volume is to wave load. Basically you work up to a max multiple times in a single session. You can do it in such a way that the top set in each wave is heavier that the top set in the previous wave. So after a warm up wave 1 might be:
90x1, 95x1, 100x1
Wave 2:
92.5x1, 97.5x1, 102.5
Or you could try to set a new PR on your first wave, with each subsequent wave being lighter.
Wave 1:
92.5x1, 97.5x1, 102.5
Wave 2:
90x1, 95x1, 100x1
You could also just work up to a new PR, and then drop to 90% of your new PR and do 3-5 singles. Or after hitting your top weight for the day, you could decrease the weight and try to set a new 3RM. Or you could completely forgo trying to hit a max and instead try to do a lot of sets at 90%. Completing a predetermined number of sets within a predetermined time frame would be a signal to increase your weight in the next session, similar to Charles Staley's Escalating Density Training (by using this affiliate link, you help support this site.) The main theme here is to increase your volume with weights above 90% of your 1 rep maximum,
If you're looking to increase just max strength, a heavy single program such as this is definitely worth trying. You'll probably set several new PR's. Give it a try and let me know how it works.
Till next time, gents.
Wednesday, February 17, 2016
The Bulgarian Weighlifting System Part 1
So I used to be an Olympic lifter. For those who are unaware, that doesn't mean that I was in the Olympics. I wasn't. I rarely competed. It just means that my training revolved around the Snatch and the Clean and Jerk.
In training for the Olympic lifts, there are basically two systems. There is the Russian System, and there is the Bulgarian System.
Well, now there is the Chinese system. And judging from what I read on the internet (which is always true) the Chinese system is an amalgamation of the Russian and Bulgarian System.
It probably isn't that polarized, but from way over here in the United States it seems accurate.
I've used both systems in my training. They both have advantages and disadvantages.
Today we'll be talking about the Bulgarian System.
The system was developed by Ivan Abadjiev. According to Wikipedia, he won Bulgaria's first medal in weightlifting at the 1957 World Championship. In 1968 he became the head coach for the Bulgarian Weightlifting Federation. He brought with him his new system of training. It was this new system that transformed Bulgaria into arguably the most successful weightlifting team ever.
The system can basically be boiled down to this; train heavy all the time. For the professional lifters in Bulgaria, training is a full time job. They lift 8-9 hours a day. And that training revolves around the snatch, c&j, back squat and front squat. If they have a light workout (and in this system 80% of your max is considered light.) they may do power snatches and power c&j's instead of the full squat versions. So you have 8-9 hours of training dedicated to only 6 lifts.
Oh, and did I mention that they train 6-7 days a week? Because they do. Abadjiev believed that taking a day off increased your chance of injury.
The day's training would be broken in to little mini sessions. So you may start the day with 45 minutes of snatching and work up to the heaviest weight that you can manage. Then after a 15 minute break you would C&J for 45 minutes. Again, you would probably work up to the heaviest weight that you could lift. Then you would take another 15 minute break before moving on to squats. And again you would probably work up to the heaviest weight you can lift. See the trend yet?
And that's just what you would do before lunch. After lunch you would come back and repeat the whole process again. A lifter may have as many as 3 snatch sessions, 3 C&J session and 3 squat sessions in the same day.
This system has produced World and Olympic Champions for Bulgaria, Turkey and Qatar.
John Broz helped helped bring this system to the awareness of many non-olympic lifting types (people I refer to as sub humans). It was then further popularized by Matt Perryman's website mysosynthesis.com and then his book Squat Every Day (<---You should click that Amazon Affiliate link and buy the book. Doing so helps support the site.)
Some people say that you can't do this type of training without the use of steroids. I have read on the internet that Abadjiev has admitted this fact. I have also read (but did not confirm) that at least one of the John Broz's lifters failed a drug test. Even though drug free lifters can't follow the exact program of professional athletes, doesn't mean that we can't learn anything from their programming.
Well, that's enough background info. Check out the video below. Next post I'll go over some of the mistakes that I made with this program and show you ways that you can modify Bulgarian training to make it work for you.
In training for the Olympic lifts, there are basically two systems. There is the Russian System, and there is the Bulgarian System.
Well, now there is the Chinese system. And judging from what I read on the internet (which is always true) the Chinese system is an amalgamation of the Russian and Bulgarian System.
It probably isn't that polarized, but from way over here in the United States it seems accurate.
I've used both systems in my training. They both have advantages and disadvantages.
Today we'll be talking about the Bulgarian System.
The system was developed by Ivan Abadjiev. According to Wikipedia, he won Bulgaria's first medal in weightlifting at the 1957 World Championship. In 1968 he became the head coach for the Bulgarian Weightlifting Federation. He brought with him his new system of training. It was this new system that transformed Bulgaria into arguably the most successful weightlifting team ever.
 |
| Ivan Abadjiev |
The system can basically be boiled down to this; train heavy all the time. For the professional lifters in Bulgaria, training is a full time job. They lift 8-9 hours a day. And that training revolves around the snatch, c&j, back squat and front squat. If they have a light workout (and in this system 80% of your max is considered light.) they may do power snatches and power c&j's instead of the full squat versions. So you have 8-9 hours of training dedicated to only 6 lifts.
Oh, and did I mention that they train 6-7 days a week? Because they do. Abadjiev believed that taking a day off increased your chance of injury.
The day's training would be broken in to little mini sessions. So you may start the day with 45 minutes of snatching and work up to the heaviest weight that you can manage. Then after a 15 minute break you would C&J for 45 minutes. Again, you would probably work up to the heaviest weight that you could lift. Then you would take another 15 minute break before moving on to squats. And again you would probably work up to the heaviest weight you can lift. See the trend yet?
And that's just what you would do before lunch. After lunch you would come back and repeat the whole process again. A lifter may have as many as 3 snatch sessions, 3 C&J session and 3 squat sessions in the same day.
This system has produced World and Olympic Champions for Bulgaria, Turkey and Qatar.
John Broz helped helped bring this system to the awareness of many non-olympic lifting types (people I refer to as sub humans). It was then further popularized by Matt Perryman's website mysosynthesis.com and then his book Squat Every Day (<---You should click that Amazon Affiliate link and buy the book. Doing so helps support the site.)
Some people say that you can't do this type of training without the use of steroids. I have read on the internet that Abadjiev has admitted this fact. I have also read (but did not confirm) that at least one of the John Broz's lifters failed a drug test. Even though drug free lifters can't follow the exact program of professional athletes, doesn't mean that we can't learn anything from their programming.
Well, that's enough background info. Check out the video below. Next post I'll go over some of the mistakes that I made with this program and show you ways that you can modify Bulgarian training to make it work for you.
Saturday, February 13, 2016
Dose of Testosterone Part 6: Military Aircraft
Most little boys go through a phase where they want to be in the military. I think this is partly due to males having a genetic drive to "defend the perimeter" as Jack Donovan puts it. But another part is that the military has really cool toys. Here are a few:
 |
| C-17 |
 |
| China's J-20 Stealth Fighter |
 |
| Danger Zone. |
 |
| Osprey |
 |
| C-5 Galaxy |
 |
| 2 things you always need more of: cowbell and F-14's |
 |
| Chinook |
 |
| Apache |
 |
| Sukhoi SU-37 |
Alrighty gents, that's it for today. See ya next time.
Sunday, February 7, 2016
Petty Machiavellianism for the Modern World
Psychologists are full of crap. Not completely full of crap, but largely full of crap. I think that the problem originates with the fact that most psychologists are leftists. And to be a leftist you must necessarily ignore the existence of reality. This group then seeks to influence the lives of others. Also, leftism is a utopian ideology. That is, it is concerned not with what is, but what should be.
These foundational problems lead the field of psychology to get behind some really stupid ideas. One stupid idea posited by the field is that passive aggressiveness is bad. They even have a diagnosis for people who frequently engage in passive aggressive behavior...as if it is a disease. The entry on Wikipedia states that passive aggressive behavior "is damaging". Really? It "is damaging"? As if that is a fundamental characteristic of passive aggressiveness. So if it is not damaging, is it not passive aggressive?
Really, passive aggressiveness isn't good or bad. Its just a strategy, a way of handling things. I don't know where psychologists get the idea that things are always best handled in a direct manner. Frequently in life, dealing with things in an indirect manner is preferable to more direct means. In fact, when in doubt, use indirect methods. It is true when dealing with loved ones, for whom you have the best of intentions. It is even more true when dealing with your enemies.
For the last 15 or so years, my wife has worked with a particularly horrible woman. When everyone else has to take on extra work, she is always able to get out of it. When the employees were given the more flexible shift options, this woman tried (and almost succeeded) in having the option taken away from everyone, because she didn't want to participate. She constantly makes life harder for others. For some reason, despite several changes in management, no one was willing to do anything about this problematic employee.
But this woman has a weakness. She is obsessive compulsive and she hates change. Everything on her desk has a place and she can't stand to have people touch her stuff. Instead of waiting 15 years, hoping that management would some day do something about this woman, my wife & her coworkers could have taken matters into their own hands. Using passive aggressive methods they could have driven this woman into quitting.
Since she is so particular about her work space, the other employees should have moved her stuff every time she left her desk. I'm not saying they should trash everything. That would have been too overt. But little things like moving a pen to the middle of her desk, slightly askew, would have bothered her. Or moving her horse figurine to the other side of the desk, moving her lunch to a different spot in the fridge, or turn her keyboard face down. These are childish things that wouldn't bother most adults, but they would have driven this woman crazy. If she ever asked who was doing it, the whole office could then gaslight her by saying "No one went near your desk." After about a week of this type of behavior, this woman would have started looking for another job.
Of course this does rise to the level of Cesare Borgia. But we live in crazy times and going around annexing neighboring cities isn't held in as high esteem as it once was. The fact is that this is the type of thing most people face in their daily lives. It may seem petty, but it is perfectly reasonable to handle a situation when management is unwilling. The methods above would have been effective in this instance and would have been deniable by the participants. That makes them doubly good. Another person in my wife's office who was willing to play petty office politics was able to screw my wife out of a major promotion and about a $20,000.00 per year pay raise. This person didn't gain anything by do so. Like the say, you either play or you get played. Who cares if someone thinks that being passive aggressive is bad. I'm sure Machiavelli would have approved.
These foundational problems lead the field of psychology to get behind some really stupid ideas. One stupid idea posited by the field is that passive aggressiveness is bad. They even have a diagnosis for people who frequently engage in passive aggressive behavior...as if it is a disease. The entry on Wikipedia states that passive aggressive behavior "is damaging". Really? It "is damaging"? As if that is a fundamental characteristic of passive aggressiveness. So if it is not damaging, is it not passive aggressive?
Really, passive aggressiveness isn't good or bad. Its just a strategy, a way of handling things. I don't know where psychologists get the idea that things are always best handled in a direct manner. Frequently in life, dealing with things in an indirect manner is preferable to more direct means. In fact, when in doubt, use indirect methods. It is true when dealing with loved ones, for whom you have the best of intentions. It is even more true when dealing with your enemies.
For the last 15 or so years, my wife has worked with a particularly horrible woman. When everyone else has to take on extra work, she is always able to get out of it. When the employees were given the more flexible shift options, this woman tried (and almost succeeded) in having the option taken away from everyone, because she didn't want to participate. She constantly makes life harder for others. For some reason, despite several changes in management, no one was willing to do anything about this problematic employee.
But this woman has a weakness. She is obsessive compulsive and she hates change. Everything on her desk has a place and she can't stand to have people touch her stuff. Instead of waiting 15 years, hoping that management would some day do something about this woman, my wife & her coworkers could have taken matters into their own hands. Using passive aggressive methods they could have driven this woman into quitting.
Since she is so particular about her work space, the other employees should have moved her stuff every time she left her desk. I'm not saying they should trash everything. That would have been too overt. But little things like moving a pen to the middle of her desk, slightly askew, would have bothered her. Or moving her horse figurine to the other side of the desk, moving her lunch to a different spot in the fridge, or turn her keyboard face down. These are childish things that wouldn't bother most adults, but they would have driven this woman crazy. If she ever asked who was doing it, the whole office could then gaslight her by saying "No one went near your desk." After about a week of this type of behavior, this woman would have started looking for another job.
Of course this does rise to the level of Cesare Borgia. But we live in crazy times and going around annexing neighboring cities isn't held in as high esteem as it once was. The fact is that this is the type of thing most people face in their daily lives. It may seem petty, but it is perfectly reasonable to handle a situation when management is unwilling. The methods above would have been effective in this instance and would have been deniable by the participants. That makes them doubly good. Another person in my wife's office who was willing to play petty office politics was able to screw my wife out of a major promotion and about a $20,000.00 per year pay raise. This person didn't gain anything by do so. Like the say, you either play or you get played. Who cares if someone thinks that being passive aggressive is bad. I'm sure Machiavelli would have approved.
Monday, February 1, 2016
Its All Your Fault!
I have yet to achieve the life that I want. But there was a time when my life was much worse. I had job problems, family problems, marriage problems...basically, every area of my life was plagued with problems.
Then one day, while driving home, I was replaying in my head various bad things that had happened to me. Replaying who screwed me, who wasn't there for me when I needed them. Then came a moment of clarity..."Its my own damn fault." Those were the exact words that went through my mind. In fact I was so deep in my own thoughts that I think I might have actually said them out loud.
Yeah, I had a couple of bad bosses and more than a few bad jobs. But that was my fault. I knew they sucked. I knew they were going to screw me, but I stuck around instead of getting into a better job. People who claimed to care about me were nowhere to be found when I needed them. But had I been observant I would have seen that they never intended to be there for me.
It was my fault. All of it.
That was when my life started to get better.
You can't change circumstances, you can only change yourself. Its deeply freeing to know that its all up to you. Sounds weird, but its true.
Your success is up to you. Situations will change. Sometimes they will be more favorable, usually they will be less than favorable. But any situation that has stymied you, has been overcome by someone else. Which means that if you fail, it was your fault. But if you can identify the source of your failure, you can fix it, ensuring success in the future.
Can't get a date? That's not the fault of feminism. That's your fault. Hit the gym & work on your social skills. Become a man that a woman would be proud to date. Your wife or kids mad at you? Maybe you should improve your communication skills. Drive a crappy car? Maybe you should put down the video game controller and start looking for a second job.
If you want to rise above the horde, who mindlessly meander through life, you must constantly upbraid yourself. Accept responsibility for everything. And constantly try to improve your shortcomings. The only thing you can control in this world is yourself.
Then one day, while driving home, I was replaying in my head various bad things that had happened to me. Replaying who screwed me, who wasn't there for me when I needed them. Then came a moment of clarity..."Its my own damn fault." Those were the exact words that went through my mind. In fact I was so deep in my own thoughts that I think I might have actually said them out loud.
Yeah, I had a couple of bad bosses and more than a few bad jobs. But that was my fault. I knew they sucked. I knew they were going to screw me, but I stuck around instead of getting into a better job. People who claimed to care about me were nowhere to be found when I needed them. But had I been observant I would have seen that they never intended to be there for me.
It was my fault. All of it.
That was when my life started to get better.
You can't change circumstances, you can only change yourself. Its deeply freeing to know that its all up to you. Sounds weird, but its true.
Your success is up to you. Situations will change. Sometimes they will be more favorable, usually they will be less than favorable. But any situation that has stymied you, has been overcome by someone else. Which means that if you fail, it was your fault. But if you can identify the source of your failure, you can fix it, ensuring success in the future.
Can't get a date? That's not the fault of feminism. That's your fault. Hit the gym & work on your social skills. Become a man that a woman would be proud to date. Your wife or kids mad at you? Maybe you should improve your communication skills. Drive a crappy car? Maybe you should put down the video game controller and start looking for a second job.
If you want to rise above the horde, who mindlessly meander through life, you must constantly upbraid yourself. Accept responsibility for everything. And constantly try to improve your shortcomings. The only thing you can control in this world is yourself.
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