you cant lift like youre 20 anymore

What does the phrase 'you cant lift like youre 20 anymore' mean? 

Firing from the hip, it can mean:

- increasing weight at all costs.

- ignoring mobility.

- ignoring imbalances. 

- practicing movement dogma.

- lifting heavy every day.

Increasing weight at all costs

The biggest lie we ever learned was increasing weight was the gold standard of progression. Make no mistake, eventually weight on the bar has to increase in some format. But there are so many forms of progressive overload that you would be remiss to forget they exist.

Specifically - volume, density, range of motion, variation. Its the creative question of how can you make a light weight feel heavy other than JUST using a slow af eccentric.

Ignoring mobility 

This is a big one. Mobility for years felt like this black box. Even worse, now that its more popular everyone and their mother wants you to sign up for their subscription service to learn their certified method of moving joints slowly. Do these programs work? Probably. Are they necessary? Hell no. Mobility is building strength in all ranges of motion. You want to do this so small deviations of lifting or life do not become injury. Ye old I went left and my knees went right.

Mobility feels like an extra homework assignment no one wanted in the first place. But here is the rub. It can be done any time. I.e. rest periods of other lifting is fucking $$$ for mobility of other body parts. Even conditioning sessions can have 1 mobility and 1-2 more normal dynamic movements. Mobility is concentrated and 'rest.'

Ignoring imbalances

Not the same as mobility, but there is an overlap. Im more so thinking body constraints like flat feet and bad arches. What do you think has a more deleterious effect on your joints? A few had reps of squats or millions of steps where one foot caves in spread over decades.

Practicing movement dogma

This one is tough. I was caught in this trap for years. I.e. if I can do X then I cant make progress. Very simply, this is loser talk. Winners find a way. 

If a movement hurts or you hate it, dont do it! Wild.

Lifting heavy every day

Partially calling myself out and partially calling out my nephew. The immortality of youth is mired in shit you can get away with for free. When you are older, you have to actually care about whether or not you are recovered. This doesn't mean you cant or shouldn't do some sort of physical activity every day. Far from it. Your daily light may look like someone else's extremely heavy. It does mean you need to respect you current ability to jump back each training session.

failure to progress. what do now.

The wall exists for everyone on every exercise. The idea that you can improve indefinitely feels possible when you are in the first few weeks of a program, but that's just not how life works.

You will improve:

The nervous system 

Muscles

Tendons

Bone

Somewhere in there, progress will stall. So what do now?

Option1: do nothing

This is definitely an option but it SUCKS. It means hitting the same weight and the same movements week after week until progress occurs. 

Option2: deload

This means a week of lighter weights and volume on the same movements. The idea is that you will restart a new cycle at a lower weight (but a higher threshold than the previous cycle) post deload. Great if you plan on keeping the same movements for a longer period of time.

Option3: change movements

This is NOT a program overhaul. It is a form of deload by exchanging the stalled movement for a similar movement. This is the money shot if you have no intention of being an expert on what stalled. I.e. Gen pop, quadrant 3, non sports specific damn near everyone training.

on isolation exercises

They're good. They work. And they have their place.

But...

Isolation is one of those weird topics its easy to get passionate over. Ask yourself this - do you want a bigger body oe bigger (body part)? If you have the time and the capacity and the passion then go for it. Conversely if your entire body is weak and small, reconsider. It isn't that Isolation has no value, but it has less value in this instance. Isolation brings up weak points. But when your entire body is a weak point your training capital is best spent elsewhere. 

I.e. worry about small arms or shoulders when your big compound lifts are respectable or stalled out.

the hinges in sword. not always a deadlift variation.

Looking at the word hinge in sword workouts may make you nervous. Shit bro, it makes me nervous. The idea of doing light deadlifts dynamic kettlebell work doesn't sound too batman for someone recovering from a back injury. Here's the rub. You can and should hinge every God damn day, but hinging does not need to mean axial loading.

Examples of hinging with load

Romanian dead

Dead

Sumo dead

Power clean

Swings

Snatches 

Landmine dead

Landmine clean 

One arm deadlift

Kickstand deadlift

Windmill

Mace deadlift

And examples without loading

Pigeon pose ground or elevated

Staggered hinge against rack

Kickstand deadlift

Windmill

Nordic

Hamstring reach (turn stretch into strength movement)

Elephant walk

All of these unweighted movements can be both strength and mobility. Even if they are regressed, weight can be added for extra tension once tissue health isn't a factor.

Net net, hinging does not have to be scary. 

sword - collection of circuits

1. Fluffy Mike tyson

Elevated pigeon hinges

Mace swings with band around knees

Lateral step ups with band around knees

Great for recovery and mobility. Can just as easily get loaded heavy.

sword and shield: realistic training for multiple goals

I keep on wavering between easy strength and 5/3/1. If im being honest with myself, I want my main driver to be strength. In reality, it is size with a side hustle of conditioning and mobility. Sword and shield is a free program I've run before, but never I corporated mobility or set days based on my schedule. The autoregulation is strong with this one.

Sun: shield

Mon: mobility or sword

Tues: sword

Wed: sword

Thurs: shield, personal training 

Fri: mobility or sword

Sat: sword

Shield - upper bodybuilding for armor

Press 50 in 5 super set with Pull 50 in 5

Giant set shoulders, triceps, biceps/back all 60 in 4

Rest periods between movements in the same super/giant set can be 30-180s. In those rest periods, MOBILIZE. I.e. hold and explore different positions.

Keep the same movements until they stall (no additional reps or weight in 2-3 sessions). Swap out stalled movements.

Example

Floor press ss ring row

Bottom up press, bw tri ext, pelican curl

Sword - build work capacity 

Circuits of hinge, upper, lower.

Primary movements should consist of kettlebells, sandbags, maces, clubs, and bodyweight so this can be done outdoors.

Be volatile. The goal is conditioning not weight or hypertrophy.

Mobility

Work movements head to toe. All movement is deliberate. 

easy strength and everything else, sept 2025

The everything else is what I always struggle with when running easy strength.

Easy strength is a 15-30min workout 2-5x a week all done for easy reps. Slowly nudge the weight up over time. Profit. 

The everything else comes next. Dan built this program for athletes who are expected to practice their sport for hours on end. The minimalist program takes care of strength so all other sports specific qualities can be developed. Whelp, what if you are NOT an athlete? I.e. most people. What is everything else for you?

Here's an idea.

- 1 compound movement a day 3x8. Geared more so towards hypertrophy rep ranges. Bodyweight progressions fit in great here.

- 1 isolated movement a day 3x20. Get a pump and some blood in the muscles.

- fasting as a practice. This is not training, but it is a larger indicator of how you look in the mirror. If your volume and intensity is low, shouldn't your caloric intake match it?

- conditioning outside. This is the wild west man. The proclaimed trunk circuits, mobility, mace work, sled drags all have a great role here.

easy conditioning

My OFF days have morphed into a weird blob of mobility and easy conditioning. Im....into this. Hell, I had a baby bathwater moment this weekend where a workout was so effective that I considered dumping the rest. Note, I didnt. But I wanted to.

How we do.

1)Mobility and movement prep for the next day of lifting. This gets a little bit of movement frequency in the mix. Rotation is always a part of the show.

2)Easy conditioning for 10-20min.

- pick 2 movements and cycle through an EMOM.

- during rest time, swing a light club or mace for 10-20 reps.

Even 5-10x3 of a suspension movement is $$$$ here. The workout later in the day can be similar without the instability.

Easy means there is effort present, but at no point is failure going to happen. 

looking good versus feeling good redux

I've been in this situation before when I was doing near daily calisthenics. I feel GREAT. My energy is up. My libido is way up. Generally aches and pains are down. Conversely, I do not look as good as when I lift to beat myself into the ground. 

Its a conundrum. What do you do? Lift to feel great and see slower visual progress, or lift to feel good about the way you look? Id argue for gen pop the former is the way to go. I say this knowing fully that I want to look a certain way and am unsure if lifting the way I am will get me there.

Very likely because of the massive amount of social media influx, im jonesing after a kettlebell type physique. I.e. solid shoulder and back development. Medium on everything else. Those mother fuckers look like angry bulls with wide obliques. The weirdest shit is there is just as many kettlebell people that dont even look like they lift. And everyone has an opinion on why one way or the other.

you cant build a house on balsa wood

I accidentally built a foundation when I started lifting. Just, flailing at random stuff while still working on progressive overload. That mixed with youth got me pretty far. Trying to lift anything now is rough. Really rough. Its been so long since I've been able to lift with intensity that nothing feels right or locked in. At Joe kettlebell man states, there is no strength without stability. Thats where I am. Trying to build a house on balsa then getting surprised when it falls.

Yesterday was my first reattempt at 5/3/1. I dont really want to do barbell shit to failure, and it shows. The target muscles from yesterday arent even sore despite multiple sets to failure. And why? Because im trying to build on nothing.

Fast forward to today. I started with multiple sets of gorilla rows thinking I would switch to a one lift a day operation. It felt....fine. it was fine. But I remembered I've had a program i BOUGHT years ago. Sitting and staring me in the face. Each time I started it I stopped because I had too many limitations. I ran into said limitations again today before thinking the most obvious thing (note: the programs author, every god damn dre, also says this but it never stuck).

Not lifting with controlled form? 

Drop the weight.

Can't handle the volume?

Cut the sets in half. Cut the reps in half. Or BOTH.

Can't do a movement? 

Don't! Or cut range of motion. 

I did all of these things. The weight dropped from a sad 12kg to a pathetic 8kg. I did half sets and reps. I couldn't swing the bell so I didnt. I couldn't do lunges with my right leg so I didnt. 

And. I. Feel. Great. 

There is nothing I have that I can lose and everything I can gain. The idea that this program - notorious for being mobility and strength in a bow - can move me towards my goals is intoxicating.

baby and the bathwater

I won't erase blog posts even when I directly contradict myself. After I got back from vacation, I had an awesome idea. End easy strength with 10min EMOM of bodyweight movements. Increase the reps week by week until the volume is low key bonkers. And it IS a good idea. It felt so good, I tossed the baby out with the bathwater. 

Hey, instead of easy strength how about I just do this 10min emom! I can do press (squat and press) and pull (row and nordic) days. Oh joy! How quickly this fell apart. Because now the goal of increasing volume instead of load is mixed with movements that depend heavily on load via barbells. Am I training for strength or hypertrophy? Do I increase weight on non bodyweight and increase weight on barbell? What a pickle i created via a bad program no one asked for.

I tossed the baby out with the bathwater because I had a good idea for one aspect - hypertrophy - at the tail end of strength.

When I find myself in endless toil for sets and reps and load and movement selection, I know i am proper fucked.

Follow the program. Easy strength allows for 'everything else' so this is well within guidelines. But Easy strength still needs to exist as a base.

progress through accumulation

Resetting my training to an old standby - 10 sets of low reps + step loading. I used this successfully for YEARS. It really never stopped working, but I didnt have the wherewithal to replace exercises as I grew stale to boredom or overuse. Some 16yrs later, im slightly slightly slightly less stupid and majorly less strong. 

This doesn't mean that training to failure or fatigue doesn't work. It 100% works and works very well. It means that there are many routes to the goal of size and strength. One of those routes is accumulation. There is no special exercise or weight where things clicked (note: at the time, I 100% thought there was). Just spending enough time with the same exercises progressed in weight or reps was enough.

To be clear, this method is not great for bodybuilding or max strength. It is awesome for better than average of both for a surprisingly small time and risk investment. The other gaps in training - Mobility, athleticism, rotational strength - can all be done on its own.

easy strength and adding hypertrophy/conditioning

After easy strength is 'everything else'. This can mean sports practice, bodybuilding, whatever.

After easy strength, hypertrophy.

10 emom sets of bodyweight

Afternoon, conditioning.

20-30min of rounds

easy strength and giant sets

There is no right way to do this. In dan John's easy strength omnibook, he suggests taking as much rest as you can manage, but the program also lends itself very well to short (15min) workouts. 

Giant setting can get the best of both worlds - reasonable rest between sets of the same muscle group + keeping the overall time investment low.

Example

[Giant set1]

Inc press 1x3

Single leg rdl 1x3

Rope climb 1x3

Repeat x3

[Super set1]

Palloff press 1x5

Carry x1

Repeat x2

This is a lot of high quality of work with little to no rest between rounds required. By the same token, working other movement patterns (especially the first Giant set) introduces reasonable rest periods before the next set without having to gage readiness.

This works.

easy strength: little and often. FOR A LONG TIME

The caps are caps are caps are caps for a reason.

This doesn't necessarily apply to easy strength either. The absolute best progress i made was when I stuck with a training method for a LONG TIME that used slow progression. I.e. step loading. And here is the deal. It is not that training to failure, linear progression, basic periodization, rest pause, etc does not work. Far far from it. These methods all work great for me. The problem for me with failure training is I generally feel like dogshit most of the time. The visual and strength progress comes quickly but leaves just as quick. There is definite value to physical transformation with these methodologies but it just isn't my bag. I want to feel good MOST OF THE TIME. Training to failure for the sake of muscle growth does not support that goal.

I want to see how much a non hypertrophy program - easy strength - can introduce hypertrophy over a long period of time. Even given the low daily volume, the weekly volumes (50-70 reps per movement) with high intent and effort are not anything to sneeze at. 

Part of the secret sauce I was missing in the last round due to injury were loaded carries and mobility - both during and after easy strength. I fucking love carries, and i think they are underrated as mass/cardio supplements to a basic strength program. 

Use case on carries was my old power calisthenics program. I.e. 3x a week bodyweight only movements to failure and 2-3x a week farmers walks. I got weirdly big from this shit in my arms, traps, and legs despite the only weights used being the farmers walks (typically around bodyweight carries for 30min). I retired the same program a long time later with only the calisthenics. And wouldn't you know, I didnt gain shit for size. The strength in reps still increased at the same rate, but nothing grew and I found the actual contractions of motions didnt feel as solid. 

The camp that is carries are bad for hypertrophy are looking at them from a stimulus fatigue ratio compared to classic lifting (i cant argue there) or using them as a just do this movement. Team carries are great for hypertrophy use them to compliment other lifting. Do your carries. Just do everything else too.

you dont get it for free

Precursor, mobility has been going great. The way I move and feel now is crazy compared to juat a few months back. I want to affirm what I've always believed. You didnt get old, you just stopped getting benefits for free.

Think about this. What positions are you usually in on a regular basis? Standing, sitting, lying down. Then you want to put your body under load???? Lawd. You didnt suddenly have a bad back or bad knees at 30-40. You got 30+ years of free pain free movement. Chances are, you also gained weight without height over this time. It isn't that your body sucks now, but you dont get to feel good for free. This is where mobility rocks. And mobility does not need to be boring, or even unweighted. Mobility is low gear strength training.

Think about your body like a corporation. Anything that isn't being used gets tossed. I.e. if you never move your spine, or sprint, or sit in a squat do you really think there is any incentive to spend resources with that upkeep? Fuck no. Mobility is slowly nudging your body to spend resources building strength in full ranges of motion. Keep in mind this process is SLOW. Do not expect to see reasonable changes until 6 weeks of consistent work in pain free ranges of motion.

A fun side benefit of mobility (besides generally feeling pretty damn good) is increased blood flow and demand for food. My appetite is through the god damn roof and im not getting fatter. I wish past me knew about this so future me could benefit.

minimalist gym

Again with the thought experiments. These are just for fun, but i like to parse through in the case I move or have to give advice to a friend.

If I rebuilt my gym, what would I do?

3 sets of Olympic rings

- dips, rows

- pullups, hangs

- pushups 

1 rope for climbing, rows

Back extension or applicable rig

Nordic or applicable rig

Adjustable bench. Way more useful than what I bought it for.

A few maces and sandbags 

done 

Kratos dominoose- further in the Kratos hole

This has been going GREAT. Small tweaks have been made but otherwise we gucci.

METHOD

- daily calisthenics base.

- emphasize strength endurance.

- rest periods are mobility for the limbs that are not being used.

- EMOM 30min with progression via volume cycles.

Each upper day ends with juarez valley arms. Lower day ends with juarez valley back extension.

I want to build back to where afternoon kettlebell, mace, and sandbag work (same EMOM structure) is in the cards.

inefficiency is the goal

Are weighted dips better than bodyweight dips for size and strength? Absolutely. No contest. IF you are trying to take the fastest route to size and strength. What if efficiency is not the goal? What do you get by doing more work for less progress? Ill tell ya.

First off, endurance and cardio benefits. The ability to do more for longer. If you stack advanced calisthenics movements (note: or add basic intensity techniques) into this equation, this takes care of the strength aspect without ever having to add weight.

Second, fatigue doesn't slap the same way. Quite the opposite, I feel fucking great all the time. 

Third, tendon strength. Expanding on the 2nd benefit, less fatigue means i can hit the same muscle groups very often. Having mobile joints is great. Having mobile joints with extremely tough tendons? OP.

Kratos dominoose, moves plugged in

PULL FOCUS 

Rack pullup 

Ring row

Parallel pike pushup

Mace

Rope row climb

Rope row

Straight Pike pushup 

Mace

PRESS FOCUS

Ring Dip

Dip

Bar row

Mace

Psuedo pushup

Close pushup 

Rope row

Mace

ARMS

Close tri ext, tri ext

Ring pelican, ring hammer

Pike shorties top, pike shorties bottom

Every training day ends with one arm movement. Use juarez valley rep schemes and vary volume/intensity/control. Mace stands for ab dominant movements.

All normal rep schemes are 5/3/2 per cycle. Add intensity to the lighter movements (ex: 8/6/4) first before adding reps to harder movement. Intensity may also be injected using pause reps, 1.5 reps, etc.

I dont want to know the weights

When i know the weights, I get obsessed. What is too much or too little? What is the right rep and set scheme etc?

No thanks.

With a static weight you can get better at moving it faster, move it for more reps, or find a way to make it harder to move. Kind of a grand step loading.

I think this is why I gravitate towards implements where the weight is static or hard to change - bodyweight, sandbags. Am I bigger when I add weight? Absolutely. For a LITTLE WHILE. The tradeoff is i invariably get hurt or feel run down.

this feels fucking good

A few weeks in of calisthenics circuits and mobility. I. Feel. GREAT!

Joints feel fantastic because im never quite going to failure or repeating the same movement pattern too often. My cardio is in a place its never been before lol. Physique likewise is doing good. Injuries slowly healing. 

I like that there is no plan for weight, just difficulty. Can I do X progression today? If only for a few reps, I can pivot to something else easily. 

The easy secondary push or pull is a great lever for progression as I can increase the reps there first without burying myself.

All in all, stellar.

My personal trainer noticed how much improvement im making in basic mobility and my ability to not gas out. All this in a few weeks.

Kratos dominoose revisited

PILLARS

- Strength endurance

- Move yourself

- Move other things 

- Freedom of movement 

CALISTHENICS - AM DAILY 

- Press focus row+dip+abs

- Mobility+lower juarez+back ext

- Press focus pullup+pushup+abs

- Calves+tibs+lower juarez+back ext

- Pull focus row+dip+abs

- Mobility+lower juarez+back ext

- Pull focus pullup+pushup+abs

- Calves+tibs+lower juarez

CALISTHENICS NOTES

- ladders (5/3/2) for rep schemes.

- progression: 5 sets in 30min, increase reps of easy movement, increase main movement reps, change to harder variations.

- avoid failure.

- rest in full squat.

- sub in mace for ab work.

MOVE OTHER THINGS

- carries for time.

- get some sun.

GGBB revisited

I keep coming back to the general gains body building (GGBB) concept. Its a great progression model that takes autoregulation into account while respecting the need for both body building and conditioning as a base. What always rubbed me wrong were two aspects:

- t3 (light sets)

- t2 half sets

I had a lightbulb moment yesterday and needed to write it down.

T3 sets

How I've treated these in the past is their own individual exercise. I cant emphasize this enough, THAT ISNT HOW THE PROGRAM WAS WRITTEN LOL. T3 exercises were meant to be part of a super set with T2 - either the same or opposing muscle group is up to the user.

This can drive a set deeper into stimulation without feeling like i have to go to failure on these Tricep extensions and oh god what am I doing with my life.

Example

T2: Ring dips x11

T3: tricep extension x20 or planche lean x20s

Rest 60-90s

T2 secondary sets with T3 super set

T2 Half Sets

These are exactly what they sound like. After the initial T2 set, the following secondary sets use half volume until the overall volume has doubled. Using the example above:

Ring dips x 11

Ring dips x 5

Ring dips x 5

Ring dips x 5 

Ring dips x 5

If in subsequent sessions the primary set is still 11 reps, progression can be made through adding secondary volume. 

These secondary sets always felt too far from failure to be useful. Ideas:

- do nothing but how it is written. Adding the t3 into the mix could easily bridge the gap. do this first!

- go for 1 rep in reserve every set regardless of the rep count. The positive here is the increase in failure proximity. The negative is definitely the fatigue and blurry lines in progression. How many sets or volume does one add if the first set fails to move? By default this could be '1xhalf set reps'.

Example

Ring dips x 11 (failure to get 12)

Ring dips x 5

Ring dips x 5

Ring dips x 5 

Ring dips x 5

Ring dips x 3-5 (progression set)

the back problem, always have a plan

Yesterday, was bad. Very bad. I did back mobility and nordic curls thinking my dosc herniations would play nice.

Ron Howard VO: they didn't

Bad sleep and many pain pills later, im brought back to a YouTube channel lower back ability - a sister channel to knees over toes. Sometimes you see the right thing at the right time and NOW is the right time. 

Do i have any right to work my abs, legs, and back like I dont have nerve damage and live in low to medium pain? Fucccck no. This is my mistake. Keeping my eye so hard on the prize (lifting sandbags, kettlebells, maces outside) I've ignored the stepping stones to get me there. What we need is a plan. And I fucking love plans.

The plan

Upper body: keep doing what you're doing. This rules. No need for us to give up a jacked upper body while we work on the middle and lower.

The legs: keep doing mobility. Add in vertical bodyweight movements to ease back into deeper ranges of motion. Take it SLOW. Sled work outside is how we spend our lunch.

The abs: not sure. The McGill big 3 dead ass does NOT feel good right now. I tried standing landmine tosses for obliques and they felt pretty rad.

The back: getting schwifty. 

May-June: NOTHING! And answer on a low back ability video had to do with someone asking how soon they could start after a herniated disc. Homeboy said we'll if you just injured yourself 3 weeks ago then no. Thats a YIKES from me dog. Id like to see my daily pain be at his regular 3/10 before setting off on step 2.

July: buy a back extension. Begin static holds. 

August: consider dropping PT and starting a low back ability sub.

what does mobility look like?

Here's an example that works for me.

Knees over toes

Tib raise x20 + calf raise x20

Tib raise x20 + knees over toes calf raise x20

Tib raise x20 + Jefferson step 2x20

Mobilize spine

Bent over QL reaches 2x12 + upper isometric

Cat cow 2x10 + upper isometric 

Glute bridge (bridge progression) 3x50. Do not push until failure.

Stretches

Adductor + upper isometric

Hamstring + upper isometric

Hips

Downward dog into forward step

This is easy, repeatable, and offers movement to stiff joints. The upper isometric offers a way to flush blood into areas that were worked the day prior.

bulldozer rest pause

AM push/pull

Press x5

Press x5

Press x6

Tricep x6

Rear x6

Pull x5

Pull x5

Pull x6

Biceps x6

Rear x6

Rest 2-3min between exercises

Rest pause

- x5: 30,30,45,60

- X6: 15,15,30,30,40

PM

Work up to carries

OFF

Mobility, rope flow, calves, neck, glute bridges 

calisthenics kelso shrugs build commective tissue

For the life of me, I cant find evidence of kelso shrugs on YouTube unless its a literal shrug with weight. In kelsos actual book of shrugs, he expanded the core concept (barbell row shrug) into any kind of movement. This being said, I think kelso shrugs are horribly misrepresented when it comes to building connective tissue where it matters.

Take my current 6 week block of movements:

Ring dip, ring row 

Dip, side row

After these are all done, knocking out 2 sets of kelso shrugs with the ring row and dip can both be done under fatigue and build tissue where the movement is initiated. This lays bricks for future workouts like gangbusters.

train what you can. build what you cant

Going to use my current situation at a lever here. My right knee is an ongoing situation, and my back is a new situation. I can probably squat and deadlift a barbell or light kettlebell without discomfort or pain but that's about it. Knowing that, does it really make sense to stress building strength with damaged body parts using weights that would have been considered way too light the first time I touched a weight? Fuckkkkk no.

One of my big regrets from when I built my home gym in 2020 was i lamented my inability to squat and deadlift - movement patterns all of my programming has always encircled. In retrospect, by now I could have had 5 years of pullup and dip mastery with what i had at the time. All the while working on fixing my injuries in parallel to 'real' training. I won't make the same mistake twice.

My upper body feels awesome if slightly uncomfortable due to the constant ebb of back sciatica. Assuming this current back injury lasts nearly as long as its 2 brethren, I can dig in years of quality upper body hypertrophy. In parallel, there is no reason why back safe work cant be in progress via nordics, hamstring curls, lunges, etc. 

This injury is a gift.

its only 30min

This is a stick to the plan post.

Easy strength + mobility only takes about 30min. If you just do the lifting its easily just 20min. It doesn't wear you down for the rest of the day, and its rare my next day of lifting feels wrong.

Other programs have a large advantage on size no doubt, but the fatigue can be absolutely brutal. We dont even know the possibility of size increases on this program because we haven't seen results of long term adherence. There is no way that moving from a daily 150x2x5 to a daily 200x2x5 does not increase size.

Stick to the plan.

the long way is the short cut

Again, watching lower back ability videos. Homeboy is talking about taking 2yrs to build up progressions of this basic movements to the point where your back has the tissue build that it needs. Sounds like a lot right? Wrong.

I've been in cycles of pain for the last 12yrs. That is 6 two year cycles. My back will get better for a bit, I think im fine, then I get hurt again. When im hurt, im not making progress. Things like Jefferson curls and back extensions are developmental exercises for a reason. They are developing armor that allows you to do whack shit. 

Take the long road because its the short cut. Jumping back into exercises that push weight because that's how you will get bigger and stronger before you're ready isn't the hack you need it to be.

why fasting

My wife gets weirded out when I engage in daily fasts. It isn't because she thinks I have an eating disorder. Its because her body reacts the polar opposite when she goes without food.

Me without food: energized. 

Her without food: angry. Low energy. 

I thought through more of my why's.

- when I do eat, I feel more efficient. There is no 'low energy' period unless I eat garbage.

- better food choices are easier. Like it or not, some days fasting is more work than others. Do you really want to do the work to throw it away on a glorified protein candy bar? Thats definitely a choice, but the draw is MUCH less pronounced.

- weight loss without morning lifting shitting the bed. Weight loss is a foregone conclusion if fasting reaches 24hrs or more (note: younger really got to try to mess this up). That being said, if all of my calories are dropping between 5-8p, then more 630a weight training sessions still feel fed. 

- more efficient disposal. Poops have been great. Nuff said

5-3-2 : favorite easy strength rep scheme

Dan John proposes a ton of rep schemes to use with easy strength (note: also an even easier strength). They ALL work, but I've found the more static rep schemes dont allow for bad days as much as 5/3/2.

Why 5-3-2? The 5 is more or less the warmup. Easy to moderate difficulty that you have proven you can do sick dying or dead. You should be able to walk in and do this with 0 warmup for the actual movement minus joint prep. The 5 is also where the magic is:

- easy? Press on.

- feels moderately difficult? Do another 3-5 at the same weight and call it. Removing weight is also an option.

- didn't get 5 reps? Dont move up weight until all 5 are cake.

You can always fake a 2-3 rep set even if the 5 is difficult. Don't do it! If the 5 is tough, use this as a tonic day. Come back tomorrow and try again. Frequency drives progress, not pounding yourself into the ground.