3 Things Every Beginner Should Know

     I love lifting. I've loved it ever since my dad bought me my first weight set when I was 17. I would train 3-4 hours per day 5-6 days per week. I didn't get very good results for the first few months. In the first 9 months I only gained 5 pounds. That's what happens when you get all your training info out of a magazine.

     After 9 months of fruitless training I decided to try a powerlifting routine I found on the internet. I gained 10 pounds in 3 months. Not great, but not bad either.

     After that I joined an Olympic lifting team, and that's when things really started to come together for me. Within the first 3 months training with the team, I gained 30 pounds. Now that's good gains. As an OL'er, my coach and I weren't really concerned about adding size to my pecs or arms or any of the typical things that most people in the gym worry about. No, most of that weight went on my thighs with a little left over for my spinal erectors, traps and shoulders. Because those are the muscles that help you Snatch and Clean & Jerk more.

     I still look back at my 18 year old self and think, "How much could I have gained if I had really tried to maximize hypertrophy?" Guess I'll never know.

     I don't look like a bodybuilder, but I do know how to put on muscle.  I've done it. I also got pretty strong while Olympic lifting. I made some mistakes though. I learned, more from those mistakes than I did from successes. But I don't want my successes or my failures to go to waste so here are 3 things that I feel every beginner should know.

Rigert is a freak.

1. Fitness is a business.

     Magazines, DVD's,websites, equipment, books, training programs, consultations. All of them designed to make money. The problem is...well, let's take magazines for example. Every month that company has to come up with new content. The problem is though, training isn't that complicated. Thus the company has an incentive to break training into as many variables as possible and every month publish programs with inane, meaningless differences from previous issues. Same with those infomercial fitness products. How different do you think "Super Muscle Blaster Xtreme Fitness" is from its sequel "Super Muscle Blaster 2 Xtreme"? Not much different.

     Now does that mean that all these products suck? No. Some are good, others not so good. But after you've read a few books and a few magazines, you start noticing that creators are just reusing the same material in different packaging. 

2. Consistency is the most important factor.

     Some exercises are better than others. Some programs are better than others. What matters most is getting in the gym and doing the work. There is a type of training called "instinctive training". Basically it means that you just decide what you're going to do when you get to the gym. I don't like it. The only people that I've seen successfully use this type of training were clearly on steroids. That said, a person who trains instinctively but is in the gym at least 3 days a week will get better results than the person isn't consistent.

3. Progress matters.

     I don't care if you use 5x5, Bulgarian training. Russian training, high frequency, low frequency, Max OT or even HIT. What matter more than any of that is progression. Are you putting more weight on the bar? Are you adding more sets? More reps? You have to make some kind of progress.

You think Franco would be such a beast had he not tried to add weight to the bar?

     Don't misunderstand me and think that I'm saying that you must do more every workout. Quite frankly you can't do that. Don't try, you'll just burn out. Add reps, weight or sets when you can. You will have some periods of training where your lifts go up almost every session. Then you'll go months at a time with no progress. The important thing is staying consistent and making increases over the long haul.

Well, that's it for this post. I know haven't posted anything for a few weeks. Sorry about that. I'll try to do better. Check back in a few days for a new post. See you guys next time. 

5 Reasons You Should Bodybuild

I used to be a strength athlete. I was moderately strong. I could snatch 100kg and C&J 120kg at a body weight of less than 85kg. I didn't max on squats but 150kg was my workout weight, and 170kg was the heaviest I ever lifted and it wasn't very hard. And that was done with no special prep. 

For most of my time as a strength athlete, I had an elitist attitude to towards bodybuilding. I turned up my nose at anything that wasn't strength oriented. I rationalized my view by saying to myself that strength training is inherently functional and thus carried over to real life, or something like that. Bodybuilding as I saw it, was just exercising for vanity.

As I have grown older, I have also grown somewhat wiser. And I have learned that there are plenty of reasons to train for hypertrophy. 

1. Big muscle keeps trouble makers away.

In case you are unaware, criminals and other assorted bad guys profile before they engage in their nefarious activities. Now every one knows that size does not automatically mean that you can fight. The bad guy knows this better than most people. He's probably been in tons of street brawls and knows first hand that while size can play a role in the outcome of a fight, it is not the sole determinant of success. So when he sees a swole sucker walking down the street, the criminal's ego won't let him believe that he would lose. But he does a quick, mostly subconscious, risk/reward calculation & then decides that others people would make better victims.

Your enlarged musculature will be even better at dissuading average Joes from starting trouble. We've all seen it: two guys are at a party. Maybe one guy A accidentally bumps into guy B. So guy B turns on his heels ready to kick the crap out of guy A only to find that Guy A is jacked to the max. Guy B loses his courage and nearly pisses himself. The worst part is he also loses face.

Again it doesn't always turn out like this, but it does help stack the odds in your favor.

2. Other men will look up to you.

This idea goes back to Jack Donovan's book The Way of Men (<--- by using this link to buy the book, you help support the blog.) In the book Mr. Donovan makes a compelling case that men's job in society, historically speaking, has been to "defend the perimeter". As such, anything that you do to help raise the status of the group, also raises your status within the group. So by becoming larger and more intimidating you help raise the image of your group and thus your peers will hold you in higher regard.

3. Women like guys with big muscles.

We've all heard women say how they don't like huge muscles. The trouble is, every time one of these women finally sees a large muscular male in the flesh, one hemisphere of her brain shuts down, leaving her standing there, knock kneed, with her mouth agape and her tongue hanging out.

Having big muscles significantly increases your attractiveness to women. There is something about being big that elicits a primal, visceral reaction from women. And based on what I've seen, they are helpless to stop it. If I had to guess, I would say a guy who is a 6 could raise his attractiveness to women maybe as high as an 8 if he put on enough muscle.

Women also like to be with men who are esteemed by other men. So having big muscles increases your value to women, but you get another increase in her eyes because other men look up to you. So you get double bonus points for doing one thing.

Could you imagine how that would change your life? If you're single, imagine knowing that wherever you go you'll be able to meet women who will want to talk to you. Or if you're in a relationship, imagine how much better sex will be because you partner doesn't have just a mental attraction to you but she has a primitive, subconscious "OMG! I want to that hunk to pump his superior genetics into me" kinda of attraction to you?

4. Increased strength

There is this belief that floats around the internet, especially among third rate strength athletes, that training in the higher rep ranges doesn't make you stronger. Nothing could be further from the truth. Training in the 8-12 rep range just doesn't transfer well to a 1 rep max. This is because heavy lifting in the 1-3 rep range is neurologically different from training in the 8-12 rep range. (For more on this, read an article called Grease the Groove by Pavel Tsatsouline.) 

This means that if you had been training in the 8-12 rep range and wanted to enter a powerlifting competition you would be well advised run a special training cycle geared more towards strength. I think in the Russian training system this is called transmutation. There are a couple of different ways to do this, but that isn't the point of this post.  

The point is, training in the higher rep ranges does make you stronger, which like point #1 will cause you to be admired by other males.

5. Self Esteem

Finally, and maybe most importantly, being jacked will help your confidence.Being intimidating to other men, envied by other men and alluring to women is bound to give you a healthy dose of self esteem. It is hard to imagine an aspect of your life that would not benefit from this added self esteem. 

You wouldn't sit around despondent because you're single. You'd just go out and get a date. A healthy self esteem mixed with the fact that you're looked up to by other guys means that you probably won't have problems making friends. This self confidence would probably help your career too. You wouldn't hesitate to ask for a raise or a promotion, so you would probably have more money. 

Don't misconstrue this article to mean that I have attained swoleness, because I haven't yet. I have simply realized the error of my ways and intent on fixing them. For all you younger guys out there, I suggest that you learn from my mistakes.

That's it for this post. See you guy next time.

What is Masculinity?

     I have thought about this a lot, and I think I may have actually figured it out.

     I could just tell you, but internet "gurus" say that search engines hate short posts.

     So first let's talk about what masculinity is not.

     PUA gurus and their man whore followers say, or I sense a strong implication, that a high notch count is manly. And certainly in centuries past the manliest men would accumulate large harems to satisfy their every sexual whim. These women apparently thought it better to share one manly man than to have one substandard man to their self. But being able to bed drunk women with questionable morals (the general PUA tactic), does not equal masculinity.

This guy is not necessarily masculine...in fact he's probably not.

     Some men who have acquired significant wealth would have you believe that the financial success is the measure of manhood. And of course a man should financially care for himself and his family. There is nothing manly about a grown able bodied man who won't support himself or his family. But to assume that financial success, in the absence of any other masculine virtue, is all it takes to be a man is ludicrous.

Although I'm definitely jealous, this isn't masculinity either.

     I have known criminals that tout their criminal activities as signs of their manliness. They say silly things like, "Ain't no one gonna tell me what to do, cause I'm a Man!" As if rebellion against the powers that be for no reason and often with no benefit equals manliness.

     And the last group I'll touch on are the pseudo alphas. These guys are every where. And it has gotten worse with the rise of the Manosphere. These guys think that all it takes to be alpha is a scowl, a bad attitude and a disregard for others. These guys, because of their lack of self awareness, think they have attained manliness when they've only heightened their douchebagginess.

     So what is manliness? What does it take to be a man? What is the essence of being a man?

     Strength. Strength of body. Strength of mind.

     Strength is the foundation of manliness. Out of it grow the other masculine virtues. Even Jack Donovan's 4 tactical virtues grow out of the bedrock of Strength.

Rosie's strong, but not masculine.

     Now I'm sure someone is saying "No way! Woman can be strong too!" And then they'll probably spew some feminist, girl power clap trap about women being stronger than men.

     I don't want to get into my opinions on strength as it applies to women, except to say: yes, women can and should be strong. But strength is not the essence of femininity. A woman can be weak and still be womanly.

     Not so for a man. For a man, strength is a part of who he is. Men who eschew strength, as is so popular these days, cannot hope to be a masculine man.

     This is why the America is full of men with an identity crisis. American men under 40 have spent their entire lives in a society where the attitudes concerning masculinity are largely shaped by women who hate men. This latest wave of feminism is an attempt to bring the strength of men down to the level of women. And the previous generation stood by and watched it happen.

     But this is why we're here. We know there is a problem. But there is also a solution and it starts with those of us who see the problem. The first step is to be a man.

     Start working on yourself.  Become the proverbial light shining in the darkness. Become a beacon of manliness.

     Start working on your weaknesses. Are you skinny and weak? Hit the gym. Don't like working out? Man up. Are you not well read? Head over to Project Gutenberg and start reading the classics for free. Read Plato, Socrates, Marcus Aurelius, Machiavelli. Read the writings of the Founding Fathers. Hop on over to Amazon.com and grab a copy of The Way of Man by Jack Donovan (<---By using this affiliate link you help support the blog. And seriously...read this book.)

Steve Reeves had at least 1/2 of the masculinity equation down pat.

     Become a man that other men are drawn to. Being a man that other men want to emulate is the first step in gaining influence with other men. And only by influencing other men can we stem the tide of suckage in this world.

What I See

     Problems...everywhere I look I see problems. Some of these problems seem totally unrelated, and of course many of them are unrelated. But for the longest time I've had a feeling that I couldn't shake. A feeling that some things that seem unrelated are in fact related. A feeling that some problems have the same root cause.

     I hear people propose solutions, but they don't understand the root of the problem and thus their proposals are, at best, just a band-aid on a gaping chest wound. But I think I may have found the root.

     I'm not the only one to see the root of the problem. There just aren't enough people talking about the root of the problem.

    The problem is that men have become weak. They possess not just physical weakness, but mental weakness and weakness of character. And when half of the population is being taught through television, through the internet and through the public education system that Weakness is a virtue, then that culture is doomed.

     Well, I'm sick of it. I'm sick of  seeing ignorant and/or morally repugnant individuals tell young men that weakness is better than strength, that ignorance is better than knowledge, laziness is better than diligence and that status is more important than character.

Welcome to Masculine Ideals. I'm not arrogant enough to think that I'm the manliest man ever. I don't for a second think that I am perfect. I was never a  professional athlete. I was never the CEO of a fortune 500 company. I don't have a college degree, a prestigious career or even a high notch count.

I'm just some guy. A guy who regrets the decline of masculinity. A guy who thinks that masculinity is good, and that society suffers when there are fewer masculine men. A guy who has himself, at times, slipped into decidedly unmasculine ways of thinking and behaving. A man who is determined not to make those same mistakes again. A guy determined to be better.

So bookmark this page and come back as together we explore how to be better men, and in so doing, just maybe, add a little good back into the world.