Training.

6/19 - deadlifts

Fantastic work.  juststeezen: : "The difference. April 2012 - my last night drinking ever. Hated who i was March 2015 - Night before my last IFBB Comp Stick to it, we’re all going to make it"

Training.

6/18 - bench, row, tricep pushdowns, alt band curls

Still mediocre today [fuck sickness and all its resultant weakness aftermath] but way more endurance today than yesterday, so take the small victories where I can.  Keep grinding, keep moving forward.

Training - "Complacency and stagnancy are the enemies. Kill them."

6/15 - press, ez curl

Back after 2 days sick [maybe food poisoning?] so a crushingly mediocre session today.  They can't all be winners.  Put in the reps and keep moving forwards.

The Pandora Approach to Life | Max Shank: "Eating as Entertainment: Skip going out to eat and do an activity. Batting Cages, Go-Karts, sculpture class. These are just ideas but the point is that even just doing something different is good for you brain. The more varied your activities are, the less stagnant, and the more alive you become. 

 While I’m on this topic, let’s talk about the perverse fixation on going out to eat above all other forms of adult entertainment. What in the hell is up with this? Ask a few friends if they want to grab a drink and you get 100% success rate. Ask the same crew if they want to throw the frisbee around or go rock-climbing and you’re lucky to have anyone join you. 

 The reality that going out to eat is the adult form of “entertainment” is a burden borne by our society as a whole. Stuff your face, watch a movie. These are acceptable adult fun. Getting drunk is apparently cool too. I’m not here to judge anyone or imply that my way is better. But all you have in the end are the experiences you’ve had. I’d rather have mine happen on a wakeboard than a barstool. Learn more things. Do more things. Inspire others to do more things. Complacency and stagnancy are the enemies. Kill them."

Change Your Life in 5 Minutes | Max Shank: "If you add just 5 minutes of movement in the morning we can add: 5 minutes 7x per week = 35 minutes per week That’s 30% extra. That’s going from a D to an A, or C to an A +++ If you ask anyone with a background in finance if they’d like a guaranteed 30% return on their investments they would probably laugh at you because it’s just not possible. But with your physical health and wellness, it is. This little extra time has a dramatic effect on your strength, flexibility, and overall well-being. When you do the math, it just freakin’ makes sense. Heck even if you’re already doing 3 hours per week that’s still a 20% improvement with just 5 minutes a day. When you add up those 5 minutes per day it equates to an additional 30 hours of movement per year. Do 5:00 every morning. It’s the critical period for your day. Start every day off the right way. Make some big circles with all of your joints head to toe, or do some yoga/dance/martial arts movements. It doesn’t have to be scripted or rehearsed. Just move."

Whatever it takes.

America, Land of the Fat, Home of the Fat.

Average American Woman Weighs As Much As 1960's American Man — Men Have Ballooned As Well: "As you can see from the graph...  the average weights of Americans (both sexes) have absolutely ballooned in recent decades. The average weight for women in America is 166.2-pounds, a fraction below the average 1960’s male weight of 166.3-pounds. In this same span of time the weight of the average American male has gone from 166.3-pounds on up to 195.5-pounds.

Assuming the data accounted for outliers, you need to stop for a second and realize that over 50% of dudes in America weigh 195.5-pounds OR MORE. And that’s not even the most shocking part of the data. Just look at these figures from WaPo’s Wonkblog and realize how big and awesome we Americans are compared to our international brethren:

 The average American is 33 pounds heavier than the average Frenchman, 40 pounds heavier than the average Japanese citizen, and a whopping 70 pounds heavier than the average citizen of Bangladesh. To add up to one ton of total mass, it takes 20 Bangladeshis but only 12.2 Americans. Together, the world’s adult human beings added up to 287 million tons of biomass in 2005, according to the BMC Public Health study. But if every country had the same weight distribution as the U.S., the world would be 58 million tons fatter, an increase of 20 percent. The study concludes that “tackling population fatness may be critical to world food security and ecological sustainability.” The average American is 70 POUNDS HEAVIER than the average citizen of Bangladesh?!?!? "

Oddly enough that huge uptick corresponds [though causation is impossible to prove] with the recommendations of the McGovern commission, in line with the recommendations of Ancel Keys re: the lipid hypothesis [around since the Eisenhower years.]  Go figure.

United States Senate Select Committee on Nutrition and Human Needs - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia: "In January 1977, after having held hearings on the national diet, the McGovern committee issued a new set of nutritional guidelines for Americans...  they suggested that Americans eat less fat, less cholesterol, less refined and processed sugars, and more complex carbohydrates and fiber. (Indeed, it was the McGovern report that first used the term complex carbohydrate, denoting "fruit, vegetables and whole-grains". The recommended way of accomplishing this was to eat more fruits, vegetables, and whole grains, and less high-fat meat, egg, and dairy products. While many public health officials had said all of this for some time, the committee's issuance of the guidelines gave it higher public profile."

"People with real power never fear of losing it. People with control think of little else." - Joss Whedon

Preach.

Blind pole vaulter Charlotte Brown is awesome.

My excuses all suck.  Charlotte Brown – Texas Sized Balls - JimWendler.com: "Charlotte Brown – She does more than you.   Every so often you hear about someone who makes you feel like a giant pussy. Charlotte Brown is one of those people.  About a year ago, my wife and I heard a report on ESPN radio about Charlotte Brown and just started laughing. Not because we thought it was funny but because it was so outrageously awesome.  Since then, Charlotte has become the barometer on which we base our expectations. Not just for others we work with but for ourselves.  So Charlotte, we salute you, she of large Lady Balls.  Not just because you have shattered every expectation that others have put on you but because you showed how the rest of us need to sack the fuck up. Charlotte Brown is blind. Charlotte Brown is a pole vaulter.  She jumped 11’6″ this year and runs anchor on her 4×400 team.  She finished third at the Texas state meet this year in the vault and plans to attend/compete at Purdue University."

World Gone Mad: "Microaggressions."

This Counts as a Microaggression: "America is the Land of Opportunity" - Hit & Run : Reason.com: "When the phrase "America is he land of opportunity" is considered a form of racist, sexist, or classist speech, the wheels really have come off."