Training - "You should be proud that you weren’t afraid – not embarrassed that you failed."

3/23 - press, chins, pike pushups

LIFT-RUN-BANG: The chemical and social castration of the modern male: "Personally, I think it's hard to deny that there is a decline in masculinity in today's male.  I mean, physiologically speaking, it's not even an argument.  Men today have lower testosterone on average, regardless of age, than they did 20 years.  By a pretty significant margin.   Two studies done both showed that men these days have significantly less testosterone now. One study was done in the US, and the other on Danish men.  In both cases it was found that the average male had about 22% less testosterone now than men did, at that SAME AGE back in the 80's...

I don't think it helps that men these days already struggle to maintain healthy levels of testosterone and are then told to embrace their feminine qualities and ideals.  Men embracing feminism/femininity is like Christians embracing Satanism.  It makes no sense at all.  If you're a male, embrace your masculinity.  That is, unless you have low test and don't feel very masculine.  Then yes, of course embrace feminism so those of us with high testosterone levels can laugh and make fun of you.  It's quality entertainment for us. 

I've caught shit about writing about masculinity before but honestly, I really don't care.  There IS a problem in regards to men being less masculine.  I mean, it wasn't me wearing some tin foil hat, studies have proven men are less masculine now (have less testosterone) than they were 20, 30, 40+ years ago. 

Not only that, traits associated with masculinity are now seen as evil, outdated, horrible, horrific, unwanted, and neanderthalesque. That is unless a woman embraces them.  Then she's empowered, self assured, confident, and strong minded. Men who have those traits are seen as bullies or self centered assholes."

This is fantastic.  Bro Has An Embarrassing, Demoralizing Day At The Gym -- Until Arnold Schwarzenegger Chimes In To Pump Him Up: "Redditor GnashBrowns recently explained a no good, terrible day at the gym in the fitness sub r/gainit. He went to the gym by himself for the first time and left the gym completely demoralized and embarrassed.

"So today I went to the gym for the first time by myself, feeling pretty nervous. Headed to the locker room and reviewed the proper forms for squatting, deadlifts, and overhead press. First exercise was squatting. I warmed up with 55 then started 65 for the 5×5. Everything went pretty well until the last rep on the fourth set. Took a nasty spill and landed on my right knee to prevent myself from falling backwards. A couple people laughed. That hurt more than falling down. I got back on the horse and finished up the last set at 60. Next exercise was deadlift. I never really got the hang of the form for a proper deadlift so I practiced it while looking in the mirror. Started my first set at 55 but couldn’t get the form down, my right knee kept buckling and gave out on the fourth rep, causing me to fall once more. Same people laughed and got many looks in my direction because of the loud noise. Feeling completely embarrassed at this point, I put the bar and the weights in their places, and left with my head hanging low. I know everyone experiences failure once in a while, but having it served to me firsthand coupled with people laughing just destroyed my confidence."

...then Arnold Schwarzenegger — a King amongst the Bros and a very active Redditor — discovered the thread and chimed in. Here’s the pep talk Schwarzenegger gave GnashBrowns to pump him up: Someone told me about this. I hope I’m not too late here, I’m traveling, but I wanted to chime in. I always say don’t be afraid of failure, because how far can you really fall? You found out – to the ground. It’s right there. Now you know it isn’t anything that should scare you. You should be proud that you weren’t afraid – not embarrassed that you failed. You could have made excuses not to walk into the door, but you didn’t. You knew it would be hard, and it would be uncomfortable, and it might be awkward – and you did it anyway. That’s courage. I’m proud of you. The last guy I rooted for broke a world record in the deadlift. You have more in common with him than you think. First, he started out lifting just the bar, too (when you look at him, he may have been 3 months old at that point). Second, imagine his courage. He walked up to that bar in front of a big audience and television cameras, knowing that not only had he never lifted that much before – NO ONE on earth had – and it was highly likely he would completely fail. You may not think about it this way, but you showed that courage, on a smaller level. Finally, I’m rooting for you, too. You took the first step and you fell, but at least you fell in the right direction, so get back up and take the next step. Keep moving forward."