Deckard Gainz

If I have to believe in God to be able to retire at 40, I'll do it. Teach me your ways! It sounds like I have to Do A Shitload Of Stuff All The Time if I want to emulate your lifestyle, and man, I just don't know about that. At the very least it sounds like a lot more math than the coding I'm doing now. Machine learning sounds super cool though and is something I'd love to learn more about. Unfortunately I can't stand the thought of reintroducing student debt into my life.

The issue here is that we're dealing with human beings, and human beings are rarely consistently rational and predictable. I think it's less about overall height/length and more about proportions. Regardless, I could talk about torque and levers all day but some people just like doing things certain ways, even if it's not what's supposed to be "optimal" for a given body type. So it goes.

More often than you might think; there are at least a few CMS platforms written with it. My old job used it (Kentico CMS) and ehhh, no thanks. If this is purely a snake joke, disregard. Keto grilled cheese sounds amazing. The keto bread we make is basically just cheese and almond flour, so making a fake bread that is half cheese and then adding more cheese sounds like something I need to try, if I ever go back to keto. It sounds like your challenge is going pretty well, nice job!

When I was checking out some videos on the subject, one suggestion was "this might be better for people with long legs" which completely makes sense. Legs closer together means your butt sticks out more and your back is at a more horizontal-leaning angle. If your legs are long, your bottom is way out behind you. Sumo stance means your butt stays closer to the bar and your back starts and finishes closer to vertical. I on the other hand have short legs and a long torso, so my long ass back has to be almost perpendicular to the ground for the entire lift in sumo. This feels pretty awkward compared to the "normal" feeling I get from conventional because even in a conventional stance my short levers aren't forcing my butt out as far and therefore not forcing my back to be at a dramatic angle. That's just the feeling I got from one video and noodling on the subject a bit so I'm not sure how technically correct any of that is. If anyone wants to jump in and correct me, be my guest. I don't really have an update for Thursday. I went out to support my friends that made a (really damn good) short film in 48 hours for this competition. I ate a cheeseburger and went out for a margarita or 2 after the screening. I didn't get enough sleep, but as has been the theme for most of this challenge, the name of the game is mostly survival for the next few days as I go to weddings and perform some hard labor in my and other peoples' yards. The Christian god rests on Sundays, but the Allfather never rests. Skål!!

I've read this article too (and most of the SbS stuff from the past few years) and it really helped me cool off about feeling like I need massive amounts of protein. As a fellow over the two bill mark, it's pretty weird to feel like you need to eat the equivalent of five chicken breasts or more every day just to not lose muscle. I kind of forgot about the nutrient timing bit and the before-sleeping bit, so thanks for the reminder. What a great site. As for linguistics, chaos reigns I say. If you can convince enough people a word exists and/or has a certain meaning, then it does. Boom, done. No gods, no masters.

I get this. I did virtually 0 variations/accessories for like a year plus. I'm trying to expand my horizons. I consider exposing myself to new tools for the toolbelt to be a good reason. Part of the process is figuring out what these variations could be useful for. For sumo, I don't really have an answer. It just seems like trying to cheat by reducing your ROM ¯\_(ツ)_/¯. Don't @ me. It's way more fun to post about workouts than about failing to work out, so let's keep it rolling. Back 2 the Gym: Day 2 Bench press @ 220 (88%) 3x4 1x3 2m rest OHP @ 130 (80%) 2x5 1x4 1x2 2m rest DB row @ 60s 3x10 DB skullcrushers neutral grip @ 25s 1x8 2x6 DB curl 3x10 I definitely did not mean to come back and immediately crush 4 sets @ 88% 1rm but I accidentally loaded 35s instead of 25s. Those sets are comparable to where I was at when I was plateauing on 5x5 @ 225 so it's a decent indicator that I haven't lost much strength in the past month of sparse workouts: good! OHP still sucks. ✓ I deloaded my DB rows a bit to focus on keeping shoulders straight and ONLY working lats. The ROM was much more limited than what I had been doing (moving my entire shoulder socket up and down) so they went much faster and felt tighter. One of these days I will figure out how to do some kind of row well. Some day. I don't normally do BP and OHP on the same day but I don't think I'll get back to the gym until next week so I wanted to work everything at least once before letting the DOMs simmer for a few days. Oh and then I went home and ate four (!!!) pulled pork sandwiches and a caprese salad and a cookie because I forgot how hungry lifting makes me!! Hopefully my small lunch salads are small enough to counter the hungry beast that comes out after a few consecutive days at the gym. RIP deficit. Here's the schedule for the rest of the week: Friend's film screening tonight after work Work Friday Wedding Friday night Saturday morning yardwork Saturday afternoon helping a friend with landscaping project Saturday night wedding #2 Sunday: .... profit? Hope I don't die. Catch you on the flipside.

There are a lot of folks with a lot of good advice and personal experience with similar behaviors and habits, but at the end of the day it will absolutely have to come down to your own resolve and willingness to improve, and more importantly, willingness to take actionable steps towards improvement beyond planning and waxing hopeful. We can try our best to help you drum up that internal motivation, but there's only so much the outside world can do. The reason I'm saying this is primarily to communicate that spending money on self-help stuff probably isn't helping your cause if you just keep moving from thing to thing. I'm sure you know this, but it's maybe worth repeating. Besides, this forum is free! The "make bad behaviors more difficult" piece of advice from your other thread is just as relevant with non-financial issues. If you look around these forums, you'll see plenty of people fighting their urges to constantly check the internet by leaving their phones in separate rooms before bed, installing time management software, software that blocks certain websites some or all of the time, and so on. You're correct to infer that the subject of addiction usually is not the cause, particularly when chemical use isn't concerned. I'm not qualified to talk at length about addiction, but I do have at least enough experience with human sexuality to talk about that. It's also a subject I really enjoy! Given the sensitive nature of sexuality in the public discourse, I'll spoiler my thoughts on that:

Thank you! I knew it would be a lot. Part of the challenge was to have some semblence of personal order during all this chaos, but it just hasn't worked out that way. I tried! Oh no, the Skeleton King is purely a subject for study. If I did get to choose, I would probably go with vampire, especially the vampires from Blade. Let's just say, I am partial to the temptations of the flesh. But if I didn't get to choose, I would most likely end up most similarly to a draugr (undead Viking). But reading through everyone's threads, it seems like I'm not the only one that's lost track of how long this challenge has been going on. But onto more relevant news... I have to post about my first day back in the gym in over two weeks!!! I went in with the plan to take it easy, and for the most part, I did! It didn't matter; I'm sore anyway. Squats: 1x8 & 2x6 @ 315 (~75%) 2.5m rest Sumo deadlift: 3x5 @ 315 (~75% of conventional) BSS 3x10 per side Planks 1x1m - 2x 45sec And that's it! I was in and out in 45 minutes. And I tried a BRAND NEW variation: sumo deadlift! I don't think it's really for me, but I might need to give it a few more chances. For one, it seems to greatly exacerbate my lower back issues. I had my mental cues to prevent back extension, but I don't think I tucked my butt in enough? Back/butt/shoulder positions didn't seem to click until my last set, by which time my back was already pretty sore. Knees and feet are still mostly a mystery. Oh, and my damn hands and wrist kept slamming into my legs. I had to take my Fitbit off, and I even had to switch to a thumbless grip mid-set to keep from tearing my own thumbs off. Switching grip mid-DL is risky biz. This is why I don't really enjoy bothering with variations very much, and why I'm pushing myself to try and figure some new things out. It's obnoxious, but it just gives you more options in the long run. That said, I can't imagine a scenario where sumo deadlift would help me with any shortcomings... maybe knee/hip mobility? You don't really work mobility on power lifts, right?... I think I'll try deficits next; that seems a little more practical for my needs. I may or may not give sumo a few more chances first.

I know the struggle. I've taken a lot of steps in a lot of directions to try and locate a path/answer/all-that-stuff-you-listed. I've experienced some temporary relief but ultimately the irrelevance of my own existence, existential ennui, whatever you want to call it: it just doesn't ever go away permanently. Maybe others have had more success, but for me, attempting to layer and chain enough distractions over one another to push those feelings off indefinitely has been a way to at least keep me occupied with something, at least most of the time. I've also struggled with shooting down my own ideas to the point of inactivity. Making major decisions, like the best way to spend our time and energy, can be difficult because those resources are limited and decisions like that have opportunity costs. I have yet to find any one thing or even any combination of things I could consider truly "fulfilling" or "giving me purpose," but I keep on trucking because it's better than doing nothing, or being stagnant. I've even been able to experience moments of pride and self-satisfaction, though they are fleeting. I think part of it is as you've said: the human condition. It sounds like you're on track to making a move into finding a tribe though, so good luck with that, and I really hope you find the experiences at least valuable enough to entertain them for a while.

Just exercise-related fatigue. I was mostly commiserating on having an unwillingness to keep pushing really heavy sets of 5 all the time. As others have said, that's usually a sign it's time to switch things up, and you are, so good! One thing that is different between us is that I was never pursuing a secondary sport activity like taekwando. Have you ever thought about a lifting program that takes that into account? There are a bunch of good ones out there (namely all the ones @Mike Wazowski listed). The few I'm familiar with are honestly not much more complex than beginner programs.

I haven't updated in almost two weeks, so I suppose I should do that. The challenge is going... not well. It's been a hectic month or so, so here's where I make a checklist of all the stuff that's happened in the past 4 weeks and assess what I should realistically expect out of myself with all this stuff happening. In the last 4 weeks, I have: Traveled to two countries halfway around the world Got engaged (yay!) Dealt with 2 weeks' worth of spring overgrowth from being away Planned and hosted a 3-day-long party over Memorial Day weekend for 20+ people Went plant shopping* Weeded, filled, fenced, mulched, and planted 128 sq ft of raised garden beds Tore up another 30ish square feet of overgrown flower beds completely full of 3+ ft tall weeds and salvaging bulbs (replanting in progress) Underwent a minor elective surgery (insurance paid $0 because INSURANCE IS A SCAM) Dealt with a backed up floor drain * This probably doesn't seem like a big deal but I consider it to be, because I hate shopping and am not very good at it. Anyway, a lot of it has been fun stuff but just in general it's been... a lot. I have only been to the gym a handful of times, part of it was being recommended against strenuous exercise for at least a week, but the rest was definitely just me slacking. I should be good to go back by tomorrow or Wednesday. I have not tracked food whatsoever, and I literally don't even remember any of my other goals off the top of my head, nor do I remember when this challenge started or ends. Not a great showing, but I'm still alive and should still be able to motivate myself to get back on track pretty soon here. Maybe that should be the goal for the rest of this challenge is just to get back to normal/good behavior. Most of the craziness is behind me for at least a few weeks, and there be demons here...

These groups are awesome. The one in my neighborhood is absolutely hilarious. People will try to get rid of like half-opened cartons of expired milk, rugs caked in dog hair, and just generally so much stuff that is just like "wow, no, throw that in the trash, or at the very least, clean it first!" I love the concept of the groups and I'm really not trying to snarky, but I do legitimately find it very entertaining how some people value their own possessions and it's definitely worth it to look through, if just for a chuckle. In a more relevant note, I'm glad things seem to be going well for you, even if you do have a pretty hefty move-in list! I'm sure with all the effort you're putting in, the place will look fantastic when you're "finished" (but we're never really finished are we).

Your experience is eerily similar to my own, from the general exhaustion all the way down to the anterior pelvic tilt. One of the main reasons to periodize into hypertrophy levels is to increase work capacity. Theoretically, that should make the heavier stuff less exhausting, though having gone through a few cycles of a program that spends half the time in the 8+ rep range, I don't think I notice a lot of difference mentally. Heavy sets are always going to feel hard, I guess. But at least doing hypertrophy range stuff isn't as spooky as constantly picking up 90% or more, and with some periodization, some workouts are more mentally taxing than others, but at least you're not dreading every deadlift day. I did try some stuff to alleviate anterior pelvic tilt (namely deadbugs, lying leg raises, weighted hip thrusts, and reverse crunches) but I think as with most problems I've had, mental cues to help myself avoid back extension did more good than any of the accessories. Namely, bracing my core hard through the whole lift, and "tucking my butt in" on squats and deadlifts, rather than allowing it to extend and "stick out," despite that feeling more natural initially. When you talk about getting lower back stress, I have to assume the pelvic tilt contributes, particularly near the end of the workout when you're getting physically and mentally tired and form is more likely to break down. In my experience, hypertrophy work can exacerbate these problems if you're not careful, since it's usually much more overall volume and form is even more likely to break down after 50 reps compared to 25. I agree accessories are more difficult to gauge progress. You're usually not progressively overloading them the same way you would a big main lift. Progress should be gauged by whether or not it's improving the weakness/imbalance it's designed to address, and once you're comfortable with that improvement, you can take a break from it. And if it's not working at all, try something else. I also have somewhat of an aversion to accessories, but I have noticed them helping certain parts of my main lifts over time, and with experience comes the knowledge required to know what to do and when. You kind of just have to experiment with stuff for a while.

Diablo is the Lord of Terror, so it's unsurprising that his means of driving Leoric mad were through fear. As the demon lord's influences slowly eroded Leoric's will, he became paranoid, untrusting, and fearful, and it eventually got him and many of his loved ones killed. The lesson we can learn from Leoric's tragedy is that even though it would be extremely cool to be a Skeleton King, we must overcome fear before it overcomes us. This challenge is about both overcoming and embracing fear. Some fears are helpful. They keep us alive, safe, productive, etc. A life completely devoid of fear is an incredibly dangerous one. That said, a lot of fears are irrational and work actively against our goals. I'd like to address some of those. Fear of being exposed as a fraud (aka Imposter Syndrome) I'm trying to embrace my years of experience lifting, trust my instincts, and pursue more advanced lifting schemes (relying on RPE over predetermined set/rep schemes). I'm also running 100% on my own programming now. I'll need to be more careful doing this, but I can't be afraid of it not working. I'd like to outline some of my throught processes throughout this challenge and check them against the experience of alot of the more experienced folks here. I've already taken a lot of info to heart and I know there's always more to learn. Goal: Consistently write out my own programming and adhere to it for the duration of the challenge and hopefully beyond. Fear of change I have very little variety in my accessories and main lift variations, mostly because I don't know that many. The easiest concrete steps to take here are to learn and do more types of lifts and variations. Goal: Throughout the challenge, learn and perform 1 new major lift variation for each main lift (OHP,DL,BP,Sq) and 1 new accessory for each muscle group (back, hams, quads, shoulders, chest, core). Maybe I'll post what I know and do now and solicit some recommendations. Tell me your favorites? Fear of hard work I'm going to start tracking again but more specifically this time. It's a huge pain in my ass and I hate it, but I have to try. I would like to lose some body fat and there is a very straightforward way of doing that if I know my calories and macros. Like tracking sucks, but it's still better than the alternative of working my ass off just to throw all that effort into a blender with a big question mark on it and hoping it spits out the results I want. Goal: Track calories, improve accuracy by measuring. Methyphobia People having intense fear of alcohol or losing control after consuming alcohol are known to suffer from this phobia; also termed as potophobia. (This is probably an exaggeration in my case but seemed like a useful word to know). Goal: No more than 1 drink (~1.5oz alcohol) per hour under any circumstance.