Commander, You're In The Well

[rootb33r]

Well, you shared the information, so I consider it fair game now.

First of all, that's very personal information- I for one don't care that you shared that story with us, because I do love to hear peoples' life stories. Everyone has trials and tribulations that make them a better person, and listening to them speak about what they were and what they mean to them is very interesting to me.

Secondly, and I really don't want to start an argument or tell you how to run your life, but it's people with your mindset that really piss me off. In my opinion, Love is a palpable, legitimate, and unique feeling that exists in our bodies. It is something that should be listened to autonomously, without influence from outside sources, even God. I have religious friends who I see getting married to other religious people; they don't "love" each other, but they "share their marriage with Christ" bla bla bla. I think that is a waste of a heart... they are not experiencing true love (I'm sure some do, but most certainly not all).

Thirdly, I believe that you are in denial; your marriage works because of God, but there is no way you still trust your wife. You'll say you do, but deep down no one can trust someone without reservations after something like that... after trust is broken and abused to that magnitude, there will always be something lingering.

Lastly, I am typing this and debating whether to post it or not. Hopefully you will understand that I am arguing the counter-point and not taking anything personally. I completely respect you, Commander, and anyone else's beliefs. I am not prejudice in any way, shape or form.

Your posts were personal, so I figured this was fair game. Sorry if I offend anyone, I'm really not trying to. Opposing viewpoints is all.

[Commander]

Originally Posted by rootb33r

Was there a single event that made you "become a Christian?" You referenced a transitional period in your story. I am honestly curious because I am not a religious person... in fact I'm a little bitter. I was dating this girl and we were crazy about each other, and she finally admitted that because I didn't have a relationship with the big man upstairs it would never work between us. I think that's a bit ridiculous. Sorry for the aside, just had to rant.

I had wrote out a long post and my friggin' internet crashed, forgive me if this one isn't a great answer, lost motivation to type as much.

No single event, I was born and raised Catholic. Fell away in college. In 2002, 2 things happened, Mormons came to our door and discussed their faith with us and my wife and I started going to a local church simple to give my son who was 2 years old at the time some social interaction.

I did some soul searching and read the Bible and on September 22, 2002, I accepted that I was a sinner and that Jesus died for my sins. I am not a Mormon or a Catholic, just a man who loves Jesus.

Regarding your past relationship, take the spiritual aspect out of it. Getting serious with you would violate a core principle of your former girlfriend. Surely, you wouldn't expect her to violate one of your core principles. The fact that you think it was ridiculous hints at further issues that would have crept up between you due to the difference in spirituality.

What's your favorite movie? or top 3 or 5 or whatever?

Blues Brothers

Favorite food (last meal scenario)?

Main Course - Sushi - tuna (fatty or regular), salmon, eel, yellow tail are some of my favorites
Dessert - chocolate torte cake with chocoate ganache

Favorite sport?

Basketball, although I stopped following it seriously when Jordan retired for the 2nd time in 1998.

Favorite website other than ABC to browse/frequent?

....
T-Nation

[Commander]

Originally Posted by ryancostill

What training (or competition) record of yours are you most proud of?

Training - Pulling 426 for 3 reps.

[rootb33r]

Fair answers... though I don't have "core principles" that anyone can violate. I am flexible and love whoever my heart tells me to. I can't control that. Love makes people do crazy things. I was actually going to church with her every weekend. I am not closed-minded, I was enjoying the music and the life message that the sermon had.

How do inter-religion marriages/relationships work? They exist and they work... why do people have to be so closed-minded?

Anyway...

What different methods of training/dieting have you tried? Go through your history of training/dieting and describe each "period" of your training and what general guidelines you followed for training and diet example:

Age 16-18: newbie lifter, used whey protein and PWO shake methodology from ABC, but my lifting was done using a smith machine and a few other pieces of equipment in my basement. My nutrition was pretty good for just starting out, I don't remember exactly what I ate, but I know that I cut a lot of crap out of my diet because I dropped from 260 to 220 in one summer.

[Commander]

Originally Posted by rootb33r

Well, you shared the information, so I consider it fair game now.

First of all, that's very personal information- I for one don't care that you shared that story with us, because I do love to hear peoples' life stories. Everyone has trials and tribulations that make them a better person, and listening to them speak about what they were and what they mean to them is very interesting to me.

I enjoy hearing other's life stories as well. I think there have been lots of great "sharing" threads on ABC lately. Just part of what makes it such a great site.

Secondly, and I really don't want to start an argument or tell you how to run your life, but it's people with your mindset that really piss me off. In my opinion, Love is a palpable, legitimate, and unique feeling that exists in our bodies. It is something that should be listened to autonomously, without influence from outside sources, even God. I have religious friends who I see getting married to other religious people; they don't "love" each other, but they "share their marriage with Christ" bla bla bla. I think that is a waste of a heart... they are not experiencing true love (I'm sure some do, but most certainly not all).

I have a unique perspective on this. I was with my wife both before we were Christian (she gave her life to Christ in 2003) and after. Trust me what my wife and I have is the real deal, I've been on both ends of the spectrum. The love you speak of is more of a feeling and Biblical love is more about action. I am not going to go into the details, but the Greeks had words for all of these types of love (agape, eros, philia, storge). You say that your Christian friends don't "love" each other. While I don't know your friends, I would bet that they are simply experiencing a different level of love. No one expects couples, who are 90 years old to be burning up with mad-desire for each other, we understand that love evolves and matures are relationship progress. That said, the feelings are still there. The great thing is, when you practice a Biblical love which is about treating your spouse respectfully, putting them before yourself and putting Christ even before them, it fans the flames of the other feeling-based love.

Thirdly, I believe that you are in denial; your marriage works because of God, but there is no way you still trust your wife. You'll say you do, but deep down no one can trust someone without reservations after something like that... after trust is broken and abused to that magnitude, there will always be something lingering.

Not true, I wouldn't expect you to understand. I don't say that in a condescending way either. But being a Christian allows me to completely forgive someone else. Christ forgave my sins completely and I didn't deserve it, who am I to withhold forgivenes to others? Therefore, when a sin is completely forgiven, there is not need to hold back trust after that. We move on.

Lastly, I am typing this and debating whether to post it or not. Hopefully you will understand that I am arguing the counter-point and not taking anything personally. I completely respect you, Commander, and anyone else's beliefs. I am not prejudice in any way, shape or form.

I don't take it personal, no worries, bro!

Your posts were personal, so I figured this was fair game. Sorry if I offend anyone, I'm really not trying to. Opposing viewpoints is all.

No offense taken. It is all fair game, like you mentioned, I started with the personal info.

[maverickBU]

Oh boy, I might have to keep myself out of this well... religious conversation gets me riled up. I'm respectful and openminded, but riled nonetheless. Plus, that's not the point of this thread. Sometimes I wonder why anybody even tolerates me on this forum... I share my religious views with Bill Maher (I was even raised Catholic like him) and I take the instinct over science approach to training, which opposes the 2 pillars of this website.

Back on topic... what's one piece of equipment in your home gym outside of the staples (rack, bench, bars, DBs, plates) that you consider essential to your training? What's a non-staple piece of equipment that you feel everyone should consider owning?

BTW, Commander, that was an incredibly mature and even-tempered response to what could be considered a very inflammatory interrogation. I've seen people fly off the handle for way less in regards to questions about religion and personal life. It's odd, it always seems as though a troll (definitely not calling anyone a troll) in a forum can bring good people down to his level, but behaviour like yours is not as contagious.

[misterjaydubyoo]

Plan on competing in any competitions soon?

What is your pet peeve?

[rootb33r]

You callin' me a troll, maverick?

[Commander]

Originally Posted by rootb33r

Fair answers... though I don't have "core principles" that anyone can violate. I am flexible and love whoever my heart tells me to. I can't control that. Love makes people do crazy things. I was actually going to church with her every weekend. I am not closed-minded, I was enjoying the music and the life message that the sermon had.

How do inter-religion marriages/relationships work? They exist and they work... why do people have to be so closed-minded?

Anyway...

What different methods of training/dieting have you tried? Go through your history of training/dieting and describe each "period" of your training and what general guidelines you followed for training and diet example:

This is partially taken from previous journal entries to help me save time.

Period 1:
Age 18-19 (1997-1998)

Initial Diet: Starvation Diet

Senior Year of high school, I had serious body image issues and starved myself from 165 to 139 at my current height of 5’10.5”. Needless to say, I looked like a twig. Note to others, starving yourself will not make you look better or give great abs!

Next diet: See Food Diet

Therefore, I decided to bulk up. It worked reasonably well, I got back up to 162 by the end of the summer eating tons of food whenever possible. I worked at a pizza shop and got to eat huge stromboli’s and make my own ice cream blizzards (yes, I gained some fat too!).

Training: Total Body HIT (influenced from Yates)

I took everything I knew at the time (which wasn’t much) and threw together a full body routine, done three times per week, one set until failure for all exercises (with the exception of bench, had to bench 3 sets, ha, ha, the typically high-school mind-set!). I got the idea of 1 set until failure from Dorian Yates, I didn’t know at the time that he warmed up! I never got hurt though, the glory of being young and having malleable joints.

Period 2:
Age 19-29 (1998-2008)

After that, I just gradually gained from 162 to about 180 over the next 10 years. I read a lot of information over those years. Unfortunately, I spent way too much time reading stuff like Muscle & Fitness and being distracted by pro-bodybuilders routines. I didn’t even know about natural bodybuilding or websites like ABC.

Diet: Eat a lot and keep it healthy (1998-?)

I still didn’t know anything about diet at this point, but I did cut out the stromboli and ice cream. It was just common sense, plus, I didn’t work at a restaurant where I could get that junk for free anymore!

Diet: Massive Eating then G-Flux (?-current)

At some point, not sure when, I stumbled upon John Berardi’s website and began reading his stuff. I loved it and it made sense to me. I began utilizing his Massive Eating plan and kept reading his stuff. I eventually read his G-Flux information and that has been my biggest dietary influence to this date.

Training: Bodypart Splits (most adapted from the pages of M&F, on and off throughout this period)

I did build some muscle over the years with this, but it wasn’t optimal because I never used any type of periodization or put any real thought into exercise selection.

Training: DC (probably around 2006, I broke from POF, for awhile)

I went to failure too often and didn’t see great gains from this program. Although, the stretching techniques that I learned from it I use to this day. I think the program would have had value for me if I was slightly stronger at the time and I hadn’t taken so many sets to failure, thus killing my recovery ability. For those who want a good example of DC working, see ASINES training journal.

Training: POF (positions of flexion, Steve Holman and Jonathan Lawson, X-rep.com, 2005-2008)

This was still bodypart splits, but with some more logic thrown in IMO. The exercise selection was based on picking 1 big compound movement, 1 stretch and 1 contracted position. This program helped me start to get some increased size and thus definition on my quads (they were still too small, but it was a start).

Period 3: 2008-present

I have learned more over the last 1 year, by learning about what other natural bodybuilders/powerlifters/weightlifters are doing, than the previous 10 years combined. But even still, after all of that learning, I can relate to Socrates better than ever: “As for me, all I know is that I know nothing.”

During this past year, I realized that I was terribly deficient in strength considering how long I have been training. I realized this had 2 main causes;

1) I never built a solid foundation. I have been doing bodybuilding type routines my whole life and never just focused on getting my core lifts up. Yes, I used big compound movements and, yes, I used progression, but the focus was never on just getting stronger and building a good base.

2) Gaps in my training. I am a husband and father of two young boys and my training has taken a back seat many times to family life. As my boys get older, it has become easier to train and get into a routine. I don’t foresee much getting in the way of my training at this point.

Diet: 2008-present

Still using G-Flux but I have adapted it with what I have learned on this website, specifically Layne Norton’s research on meal frequency/optimal protein consumption.

Training: Chad Waterbury’s Anti-Bodybuilding Hypertrophy Program (Late Summer, Fall 2008, during the Hyperplasia Challenge)

I really enjoyed this program, basic exercises, progressions built in. It worked well, I was gaining strength and bodyweight during this program.

Training: Rippetoe, i.e. Starting Strength (Late Fall 2008)

Loved this, really gained strength on my core lifts.

Training: Smolov (January 2009-present)

Working great, I am adding mass and strength. I have also employed Smolov Jr. during this time for some upper body lifts.

For the last year, I have felt like a newbie all over again. I have taken my bodyweight from 182 to 197, made dramatic strength gains, and really ignited my passion for the iron game.

Take home lessons:

Consistency - All these programs worked to some extent, the most important thing was sticking to them and focusing on adding more weight to the bar.

Keep it Simple - Having noted that nearly all programs will work, if you had to pick a program based on my experience, the simpler ones worked the best, where I was just nailing the basics with frequency and intensity. Take Smolov for example, I don’t do any other leg work, but I feel my legs look better than ever. I am not hitting them from multiple angles to try and add mass or detail in certain places, I am simply blasting them with squats 3 and 4 times per week and they are stronger and nicer looking then they ever have been.

Progression – focus on this. I tried to use progressive overload during the earlier part of my lifting but I was doing so many different exercises and taking exercises to failure so often, that I simply didn’t have the energy to really progress. I have better focus now. I have core lifts and assistance lifts, I don’t necessarily care about progressing on assistance lifts. And remember that there are many ways to progress besides adding weight to the bar; i.e. increasing reps, training density (work per unit of time), volume (sets), etc.

[Commander]

Originally Posted by maverickBU

Oh boy, I might have to keep myself out of this well... religious conversation gets me riled up. I'm respectful and openminded, but riled nonetheless. Plus, that's not the point of this thread. Sometimes I wonder why anybody even tolerates me on this forum... I share my religious views with Bill Maher (I was even raised Catholic like him) and I take the instinct over science approach to training, which opposes the 2 pillars of this website.

Because most of us try to be respectful and open-minded as well.

Back on topic... what's one piece of equipment in your home gym outside of the staples (rack, bench, bars, DBs, plates) that you consider essential to your training? What's a non-staple piece of equipment that you feel everyone should consider owning?

Hmmmm, good question. I like it. It's tough too, because I am more and more into the basics like the staples you mentioned thus leaving me less and less interested in other equipment.

Most wouldn't consider this equipment, but my milk crate is essential to my training!



I use to make my non-adjustable flat bench into a decline or incline, I use it to raise up my bench to do supported barbell rows. But the most useful thing I have done with it is incorporate it into my squats. Obviously, I have used it to do box squats. But mostly, I use it to gauge my depth. When I sit on the box I am easily below parralel in the squat position. As I have done Smolov, I didn't want to progress in weight only to be increasing my squat height to compensate for the addition difficulty. So I use the box to just tap my butt on, I don't bounce on it or perform a box squat. I simply touch it with my butt and reverse direction. This lets me know that I am hitting proper depth. The motion is so ingrained now that I probably don't need it, but it is still really nice on the super heavy lifts because there are times when body wants to start going back up to make the lift easier but I know I need to keep descending because I haven't felt the box yet. Keeps me in check.

To answer your question with something that most normal people would consider equipment, I would say a dip belt. Pull-ups and Dips are awesome, adding weight to them, even better. If someone already owned a rack, bench, bars, DBs, plates, then I would say get a dip belt.

BTW, Commander, that was an incredibly mature and even-tempered response to what could be considered a very inflammatory interrogation. I've seen people fly off the handle for way less in regards to questions about religion and personal life. It's odd, it always seems as though a troll (definitely not calling anyone a troll) in a forum can bring good people down to his level, but behaviour like yours is not as contagious.

Thanks Maverick, it seems as if my behavior was contagious.