Writing For Publication

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Challenges and Realities

Mark Brown

June 23,2022

Writing with publishing as the intent brings a different level of challenge to the craft. There are quite a few things that makes writing a lengthy task. These are all things to take into account when writing for public consumption. First, writing for public consumption means that the grammar and spelling rules that no one cares about when making personal journals, logs, and online posts actually matter. Second, the English language is both a spoken and written language. There are quite a few differences between them. Third, assuming people know specific proper names or entities is a mistake that should be avoided. There are exceptions to this, of course, and I will get to that. Fourth, perception is reality. If the writer wants to be taken seriously, they have to write like it. This can mean a couple different things take place. Fifth, the skill of writing is no different than any other skill. It will improve over time if and only if one does it enough and with an eye for improvement. Writing for public consumption forces this to be done quicker. I will be taking these 5 things and maybe some others along the way.

Personal journals and logs primary audience is the writer and their future self. This makes a lot of the time consuming parts of writing purely a matter of choice for the writer. Yes, commas can make or break a sentence, but what if said sentence is in a journal that may not see the light of day for 10 years? Does anyone care? Probably not. When the intended audience becomes “someone else,” whether that means an e-mail to a boss or a blog that shoots content out to the corners of the internet, the spelling and grammar rules begin to become more important. One of the Youtube channels I watch fairly regularly is a called City Planner Plays. He is a city planner by trade and releases videos through Youtube and streams primarily the game “Cities Skylines,” which is a city building game. I’ve learned quite a bit about city planning rules and regulations through the game play. One of the pet phrases he uses to express frustration with the game not doing exactly what he wants in trying to fix what it messed up is “making perfect the enemy of good.” This phrase is what writing for public consumption is about and why it can take so damned long to get done. Colons, semi-colons, commas, periods, if-then, not only-but also and all of the other grammar rules than anyone who has made to the fifth grade learns are all things that must be done correctly. Everybody has slip ups on initial drafts and even final drafts. I go back and re-read some of my own content here and shake my head at the stuff that got past me a second or third time. The devil really is in the details.

I’ve heard the English language called the hardest one on the planet to learn. That is primarily because of all the grammar rules that everyone, including me, decides aren’t all that important on online posts. It’s also a language that is both spoken and written, which can’t be said for all dominant languages. The difference between communicating through voice and written word isn’t just in the vocal inflection or non-verbal cues. Those two things allow a person to speak the English language to the intended effect more efficiently than someone writing the same content. That’s just the reality for someone who wants to write with publishing in mind. The important thing to remember for the writer is that what they write will eventually turn back into the vocal English when the reader gets to it, whether they read aloud or silently. That means the goal for the writer is to get the reader to read the content, whatever it is, in the writer’s voice. That is the biggest challenge for some. The writer needs to develop a style that the reader can identify as their “voice” when it gets read. It could be the thing that draws a reader back for a second article or essay. It also helps the transfer of information the content is trying to provide from the article or essay to the reader. The writer needs to understand that development of that concept in the article or essay is ultimately out of their hands after they publish it.

It’s better that someone learns that they can’t write like they talk sooner rather than later. It will make the learning process easier, more repeatable and less time consuming. There are specific phrases that are commonplace that work vocally because grammar doesn’t matter all that much in the vocal English. For example, the sentence at the beginning of this paragraph would probably be said “The sooner that someone learns they can’t write like they talk, the better off they will be” in a verbal conversation. That simply doesn’t work on paper because of sentence structure and grammar. I catch myself when writing sentences like that one from time to time. It happens enough to be annoying. I’m not writing this paragraph to say writing is best when it sounds like a textbook. There should be flow, even when adhering to all of the principles of written English. Bill Simmons’ writing style has had a major effect on my own thought process to writing. There was a looseness to his style that made it read like a conversation the reader has with themselves. You can hear that looseness in his podcasts when he talks to guests. He uses comparisons to be more efficient in getting across what he is trying to communicate. That allows for the flow of the conversation to keep moving and flowing towards a natural end. He doesn’t write a lot anymore because he has focused his efforts on long form on demand audio, aka podcasts. His podcast is listed as the #1 sports podcast by downloads. I’ve been on board since around 2008. Have a listen, read the Book of Basketball or an old ESPN column and understand what I’m talking about.

Comparisons are good ways to help the written word be more efficient over the space of 1,000-1,500 words because making allows the writer to short hand what might have taken an entire paragraph to explain. Simmons used them to great effect in his columns and in books. The one that made me laugh the most was when he shared an e-mailer’s comparison of Shaquille O’Neals career to Peter North in The Book of Basketball. It’s so perfect because it’s both accurate and entertaining. Important note to anyone reading this on a company or school computer, do not search “Peter North” on it. Very not safe for work. It is a mistake to assume that the reader knows who everyone or what everything involved in the comparison is. Sometimes it’s in the writer’s best interest to help the reader better understand in the moment they are reading it. Other times it’s best to let “good” win over “perfect” and let the reader look it up themselves. That decision should be made based on the flow of the article or essay. These decisions help develop the writer’s voice. Simmons’ use of comparisons of athletes and sports situations to pop culture figures and events helped define his style and voice. Developing that voice or style is a key to future success. I think Simmons would agree with me.

When a writer has established a personality, either through content choice or writing style, consequences will follow from that decision. A writer can feed into the a perception they have created and only deliver content that is of a specific subject. Honestly, it’s why I have chosen to start writing about topics that go beyond lifting, such as these two essays about writing. I don’t want someone seeing “Life Through Lifting” and assume that the only content here will be strength training in nature. The “Life Through” part of the tag line is every bit as important as the last word. Given that this is a text based blog, my writing about writing shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone for any reason. Writing about all different sorts of topics helps draw eyes from a different intended audience. Maybe they will stick around for the content that is mainly written about. The overall point is to put real effort into making reality be reality, not helping feed into perception. That may be unavoidable but if a writer puts real effort into being multifaceted, the readers might see that and reward the writer with a degree of loyalty. To borrow a term from strength training, weak point training is always necessary.

A second part of “perception is reality” involves the personality of the writer. I’d like to think that everybody knows there is a difference between sounding smart and actually being smart. The latter leads to the writer to actually being taken seriously over the long haul while the former leads to the eventual loss of credibility. Using correct terms is helpful to a point but the writer risks losing credibility when they use only scientific terms to describe injuries, actions or anything else. “Dumbing it down” isn’t the answer either. The best scenario is when the writer can help the layman understand the scientific terms accurately. This allows the writer to work both scientific and layman’s terms into the essay or article for better flow and understanding. This tactic will also land the the greatest sweet spot of readers.

Sometimes the writer needs to remove verbal tendencies from the normal communication practices to get a broader audience. Anyone who has ever had more than a 2 minute conversation with me knows that words “fuck” and “motherfucker” come out of my mouth a lot. I use them as nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs. Yes, even the last one. Reader’s don’t see them here a lot because they just don’t belong in the essays I write. I thought I would use them more freely when I write but I don’t ever feel the need to use them unless specifically called for. One example I can think of is the difference between “messed up”, “screwed up” and “fucked up.” The first two mean virtually the same thing. The last is just the first two taken to a higher degree. Derek from MorePlatesMoreDates Youtube channel curses a lot in his videos and his are some of the best videos to learn about supplements and PEDs on Youtube, so both curse free and non-curse free content can be both taken seriously. It impacts more when it comes to making money from the content. Youtube, Twitch and other streaming services have specific rules on cursing, sexual innuendos and such. One can easily tell the videos that got demonetized because they are the only ones that play without ads if one hasn’t paid for ad-free content.

One of the major benefits of writing for publication is that the act of publishing written content is that it forces a writer to become better at their craft faster. This is no different from learning any other skill. Competition, as a whole, tends to show who is serious and who is messing around very publicly. Those who want to be taken seriously have the burden of learning a skill on an accelerated clock. It doesn’t help a ton to learn the skill after the moment of opportunity has passed. If a writer wants to get paid for their work, this concept is even more important. Being one of the first ones to the party might help build up loyalty in the readership before others walk through the door. Learning the writing skills will take a writer through all the sub-topics I have written above and to do so increasingly more efficiently. The ultimate goal of this training is to become instinctive so that the sentences that sound better aloud than on paper don’t even enter a writer’s brain and that the writer’s voice becomes more present automatically every draft. The important thing to do is get it done faster and better so that other more fun things can be done.

The Road to Discipline: Chapter 10

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Becoming a Prisoner of Success

Mark Brown

June 21, 2022

No single feeling is more intoxicating than success. There’s so many emotions running through someone in that moment. Happiness, of course, is the at the top of the list. Physiologically speaking, we know that is our body is giving us a huge shot of Dopamine. This feeling is nice in the moment but is also a cause for concern because we can get the same rush from outside sources that are ruthlessly terrible for us on every conceivable level. So, while completing the goal should always be the driving force to our everyday habits, there is value in minimizing the feeling success gives us. This isn’t to say major goals shouldn’t be celebrated, but the eyes should always into the future beyond the moment of success. That’s what keeps discipline in tact when success keeps piling on itself in front of us. However, there is something lost by becoming a prisoner of success. Keeping in mind the scope of how decisions made in the present effect the future helps us avoid becoming prisoners of success.

I remember my first and only eagle in my 15 years of golfing very well. It happened on hole 10 at Grand View Golf Course in Des Moines a couple years ago. The hole is a par 4 and the green is very reachable off the tee shot. I can still see the ball rolling in. I don’t even need to close my eyes. My golfing buddies from work and I started on hole 10 that day. I hit my first swing of the day onto the green 15 feet from the pin and made the putt. Bam! Just like that. I even got as birdie 2 holes later but 6 holes in I was still 2 over. Then the round went to shit. Those first 3 holes though. Damn. I’ve never even remotely come close to doing that since. It took me 12 years to get a par on the hole after I made a birdie. Success in golf for us people who don’t golf every weekend is so fleeting. I learned golf is a sport that requires me to be emotionally dead inside a long time ago, but that first eagle, man. That’s the kind of success I am talking about that needs to be put in the rear view mirror almost immediately. The seeds of the failure for that round were embedded in how I felt in the minutes after the ball went in the hole. I knew full well that it was hole 1 out of 18 and I have had some astounding “the train is off the rails” rounds of golf in my day. There’s nothing surprising about either the eagle or the round falling apart pretty soon after it.

Success is required by anyone with aspirations for a number of different reasons. The first is that it tells the person with aspirations that they are on the right track to more and bigger success beyond what they just achieved. In essence, it helps boost someone’s positive mindset. Second, a lack of it for an extended amount of time, which is situation dependent, means something needs to be changed to help better the chances of it or the time has come to move on entirely from the stated goal. Third, incremental successes buy time for someone to build up the resources to really make a push when the opportunity is presented. This why discipline is way more important than motivation will ever be. Without the day-to-day planning and discipline, the opportunity passes by without anyone realizing until afterwards. Failures lead to success because they emphasize learning the negative consequences side of failing. One can learn from the same things from success as they did from failure. The lesson doesn’t sink as well because that’s the difference between “actually feeling” the consequences and “could have felt” the consequences. This where becoming a prisoner of success can really start.

Linear progression is a term given to improvement that doesn’t dip or flatten. Ever. Or at least an extended amount of time. It is an absolute pipe dream for anyone who wants to chase this. It’s one of the signs many knowledgeable’ people I know use when wondering if people are using performance enhancing drugs or not. In a true linear progression, there’s no room for even a modest plateau in it. Any lifter who is fully natural gets stuck at some point in their lifting life. This happens because people who are natural don’t have the recovery capabilities of people on PEDs, illegal or legal and banned or unbanned. They are all PEDs to me. Right now, my 1RM on both deadlift and bench press is kind of stuck. The latter stupefies me more than the former. I understand why that’s happened. I’m not obsessed with getting the linear progression back in line because I know what I would do in order to get it at this point. However, there’s a lot of reasons why chasing a linear progression is tempting. I’m not just talking about lifting at this point. Anyone wanting to take a passion and turn it into a business is going to feel this temptation.

Attaining the linear progression can take many forms. One could do this by pushing their chips into the middle of the table every hand, to borrow a World Series of Poker analogy. This is an insanely risky strategy, of course. To throw every resource one has at a goal is both reckless and possibly necessary, dependent on the nature of it. If the goal is literal physical survival, then continue by all means. If less so, one might consider a less risky plan. One could could go the opposite route, start so low or conservative that by the time they are ready to compete, the window of opportunity has passed. Being risk averse can be every bit as damaging to success as throwing everything at the goal. Yes, one could say that they never failed along the way but the end is where the ultimate failure awaits. Both of these paths are ways where one becomes a prisoner of success. Learning to embrace failure along the way allows someone to figure out in the moment when they need to risk more or risk less, and what kind of resources they need to make them. Embracing failure breaks the mental hold success can have on someone.

Resisting the societal programming of pushing only successes is a necessary cog to one’s best growth potential. It also allows someone to be more truthful when they have a message to send. That in turn leads to the message becoming more meaningful over both the short and long terms. Putting success ahead of the truth, or at least the appearance of it, is the source of drama in the fitness social media sphere. Natty or Not Youtube videos are a popular genre of content for many mainstream content creators. The crux of the videos is to determine if a person is telling the truth about being “natural.” A few creators that influence me have dozens of them in their library. Greg Doucette has said he uses them to talk about finer points within the argument and help viewers manage self-expectations. Others are out to catch people in a lie. The important part to me is that a lie, no matter how small, discredits any work that’s been done and damages the message given, no matter how truthful or pure it is. I can separate the message from the messenger, but others can’t so the statement holds water. The most effective argument I’ve heard in both the comments and videos when talking about the subjects of Natty or Nots is that the subjects of the video are using their physical appearance to sell a product, whatever that could be, and are doing so under a false pretense by not telling the truth about their natural status. It’s not that the public at large cares if they are or aren’t natural, it’s that they are being morally duplicitous.

This drama surrounding the viability of messages sent by social media influencers, actors and athletes about health illustrates how mixed up we are about the subject. The fact is that there are more PEDs around us than there ever have been. Someone reading this should check out the World Anti-Doping Agency’s, WADA for short, banned list and then see how many boxes in their medicine cabinet are on it. Then they should read up on how many more are potentially headed to the banned list. It’s a very long list. We are marketed PEDs on a daily basis, but because they don’t have “enough” of an effect to be thought of as PEDs they don’t get the kind of scrutiny legal supplements that mess with our hormones get. That includes energy drinks, pre-workout supplements, fat burners, supplements at-large, medicines, testosterone therapy treatments and new prescription drugs entering the marketplace. That makes the drama surrounding people who are the subjects of Natty or Nots both dumb and worth paying attention at the same time. That’s where this drama intersects with my topic in this essay. Societally, being “natural” holds more value in the public realm than being publicly on some form of banned or unbanned PED. We are not at a stage where PED use in general is okay as a society at-large. I don’t know when that will change. I think it’s really stupid that we don’t just accept most of the supplements and drugs out there as PEDs. If one has to lie to maintain their progression, linear or otherwise, then they are a prisoner of success. The lie limits one’s ability to travel multiple pathways to get success. One should strive to open as many pathways to success as possible, not shut them down. Social media influencers would be much better off realizing viewers and followers care more about the lie than the fact that someone is using PEDs sooner rather than later. Strongman, as a sport, is built on the shoulders of guys who have used PEDs as a part of their plan to get the size and strength they have. Know what Strongman fans don’t care about at all? That the sport is full of guys who wouldn’t pass a drug test. That’s part of why the sport is growing quickly at a grassroots level.

Now for something less big picture. What does becoming a prisoner of success look like in day-to-day life? Someone of high discipline tends to have a highly planned life because they need to figure out where everything fits in on a daily basis to keep getting better than they were they day before. With that kind of focus, it only follows they will have an eye on the future and build days, weeks, months, and years with that kind of approach. This is how one would actually achieve linear progression if they could. In this way, a prisoner of success also becomes a prisoner of the future. Future success always comes at the present’s expense. Thus, the battle of the present and the future is always raging. One can have an eye on success over the years, but living is done in the present. Building and maintaining relationships helps mold the present and the future, both for personal and business reasons. It is important to understand that doors may open a path of success that one didn’t know even existed. Becoming a prisoner of success can lead to doing unnecessary damage to relationships. It is those relationships that help someone become better in both the short and long term. The reason why Rome survived Hannibal’s assault from 218-201 b.c. was because of the relationships the people running the city-state made with other Italian city-states. Hannibal couldn’t get city-states like Naples to forego their agreement with Rome. As a result, any advantage he had on the battlefield was lost when Rome no longer gave battle. What worked for Rome works for everyday folks in every day situations, too. Note, I didn’t say “past” when talking about the present or future. The past is irrelevant until specific things in the past become relevant.

How about some more about the present? Many prominent professional athletes have talked about regretting they didn’t smell the roses while they were busy competing in their chosen sport. It’s just one of the many consequences of living a life where getting better everyday is ridiculously hard. So much focus has to be on being in the moment that they miss the scenery around them. A major part of why the roses don’t get smelled because success is the name of the game. Bill Parcell’s quip about “why they keep score” is brutally spot on. Sports, especially at the professional level, is a zero sum game. One either wins or loses. If one ties, they didn’t win. It’s that simple. I see you hockey, soccer and football people! There are two more parts to the regret. The first is that they realize they are in a wish fulfillment position. They get paid a ridiculous amount of money to play a sport. The reality is that the vast majority of fans never had the disciple required to get close to doing it but that feeling doesn’t ultimately matter. The second is that time spent on the game field, practice field and the locker room is time that can never be replaced with anything else. A locker room is a second family to these guys. A bond gets formed that lasts a lifetime, especially if winning happened. The downside of the emphasis on success is that the bond remains incomplete until the goal of winning is in the back seat. When success is driving the train, there’s not usually a lot of stops to get off it so one has to keep looking out the window to not miss anything Becoming a prisoner of success is pretty damned easy.

Success is easy to overdose on. Getting stuff done, constantly improving and moving forward all feel good in the moment. It helps validate our goals and the practices we have to get them completed. Success also helps us make decisions we regret. Lies to maintain progress and failure to build relationships in the present because we’re too busy looking to build the future are just two paths that can be blocked when we let success drive us a little too much. Remember, other people are busy sacrificing, hopefully willingly, so we can have our moment of success. Eyes should always toward the future but sacrificing everything about the present to get there is probably a bad tactic.

2022 Week 24 Training Log

June 13 – June 19, 2022

Mark Brown

June 20, 2022

Monday
Triceps Pushdowns – 45 x 12, 55 x 12, 65 x 12, 75 x 10, 85 x 10
Preacher Curls, EZ Curl Bar Outside Grip – 45 x 12, 65 x 15, 75 x 12, 85 x 12, 95 x 12
Single Arm Laying Tricep Extensions, Dumbbells R then L – 15 x 12(x 12), 20 x 12(x 12), 25 x 12(x 12), 30 x 10(x 10), 35 x 6(x 6)
Preacher Curls, EZ Curl Bar Narrow Grip – 95 x 12, 85 x 12, 75 x 15, 65 x 20, 45 x 20 (I lost count around 12)
Seated Overhead Tricep Press – 45 x 12, 75 x 12, 75 x 12
Standing Curls, EZ Curl Outside Grip – 45 x 12, 75 x 12, x 12

Tuesday
Box Squats, Yoke Bar – 155 x 10, 245 x 6, 315 x 6, 335 x 3, x 3; 345 x 3, x 3; 355 x 3, x 3
Box Hatfield Squats, Yoke Bar – 385 x 6, 405 x 3, x 3
Calf Raises – 335 x 25, 345 x 25, 255 x 20
Banded Deadlift, with 70 lb Bands – 225 x 3, x 3, x 3, x 3; 245 x 3, x 3, x 3, x 3
Barbell Rows – 185 x 6, x 6, x 6, x 6

Wednesday
Scheduled Day Off – Recovery
Mowed, Yard Work

Thursday
Flat Dumbbell Press – 75 x 8, 105 x 10, 110 x 8, 115 x 6, 120 x 6, 125 x 4
Arnold Press – 50 x 8, x 8, x 8; 55 x 8, x 8, x 8; 60 x 8, x 7
Isolateral Bench Press, Each Hand – 90 x 6
Isolateral Wide Chest Press, Each Hand – 90 x 6, x 6; 115 x 6 x 6; 135 x 3, x 3
Side Laterals – 80 x 12, 95 x 12, 110 x 12, 125 x 10
Cable Crossovers, Each Hand – 35 x 12, 50 x 12, 57.5 x 10, 65 x 10
Bent Over Rear Deltoid Flies, Dumbbells – 10 x 20, 15 x 20, 20 x 20, 25 x 15
Bench Press Negatives, Machine – 285 x 6, x 6, x 6

Friday
Tricep Pushdowns, Pyramid – 50 x 12, 57.5 x 12, 65 x 12, 72.5 x 12, 80 x 12, 87.5 x 10, 95 x 10
Cable Curls, Narrow Grip Straight Bar – 42.5 x 12, 50 x 12, 57.5 x 12, 65 x 100, 72.5 x 10 (cheater)
Single Arm Cable Curls, Across – 10 x 15(x 15), 15 x 15(x 15), 20 x 12(x 12), 25 x 12(x 12)
Skullcrushers – 45 x 15, 65 x 12, 75 x 12, 85 x 10
Standing Curls, EZ Curl Bar Wide Grip superset with Skullercrushers – 45 x 12, 65 x 12, 75 x 12, 85 x 8
Single Arm Tricep Pulldowns, R then L – 10 x 15(x 15), 15 x 15(x 15), 20 x 12(x 15), 25 x 12(x 12)
Weighted Crunches – 110 x 15, 125 x 10, 140 x 10
Rowing Machine – 14:45 duration, 2972 m distance.

Saturday
Straight Leg Deadlift superset with Cleans – 95 x 5(x 5), 135 x 5(x 5), 155 x 5(x 3, x 3),
Hip Thrusts – 135 x 8, 225 x 10, x 10, x 10, 10, 10
Dumbbell Press – 80 x 8, 85 x 8, 90 x 8, 95 x 8
Single Arm Box Dumbbell Deadlift, R then L – 100 x 6(x 6), 105 x 3, x 3, (x 3), (x 3), 110 x 3(x 3), x 3(x 3), 115 x 3(x 3), x 3(x 3)
Isometric Lat Rows, Machine, Each Hand Simultaneously – 90 x 8, 100 x 8, 110 x 8, 115 x 8
Lunges, Each Leg – x 4

Sunday
Bench Press, Chains, 60 lbs at the top, 45 on the bottom extra – 135 x 12, 225 x 6, 245 x 6, 225 w/chain x 3, x 6; 245 w/chain x 3, x 3; 255 w/chain x 2, x 1
Narrow Grip Incline Press – 225 x 3, x 3, x 3, x 3; 235 x 3, x 3, x 3, x 3
Seated Overhead Press, ACB – 128 x 6, 138 x 6, 148 x 3, x 3; 158 x 2, x 1, x 3
Floor Press – 235 x 6, x 6; 245 x 3, x 3, x 3, x 3
Rack Pushups – Bodyweight x 10, x 10, x 10, x 10, x 10

Steps/Miles
Monday – 6,913 steps, 3.7 miles. Tuesday – 6,455 steps, 3.2 miles. Wednesday – 11,822 steps, 5.8 miles. Thursday – 6,951 steps, 3.5 miles, Friday – 7,565 steps, 3.8 miles. Saturday – 6,976 steps, 3.5 miles. Sunday – 7,254 steps, 3.5 miles. Total – 53,936 steps, 27 miles.

Notes

The training week wasn’t anything out of the norm except for pain centered on lower back during Saturday’s leg/back session for second week in a row. Unsure as to the cause. It could be how I prepare for session before doing it. Felt fine Sunday. Learned to not ice the back for too long. Pain was worse than at the gym.

The Benefits of Writing

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Personal Journals

Mark Brown

June 16, 2022

I’ve never written in a personal journal so this might off as a little self serving to write about this. However, I do write for public consumption so there is a level of “personal” to it. There are definitely benefits for writing for personal use. While it is definitely a possibility personal journals can be found by others or eventually publicized, they are primarily for the person who wrote it. I’ve already written about training logs, which is one form of personal writing, and there are apps out there for eating logs, which also counts as personal journaling in a way. There is definitely an emotional component to it. I’ve heard many people follow the rule of waiting til the morning to send an angry e-mail that they have typed out the night before to make sure they are still mad enough to send it. Journals can serve the same purpose. There’s also a logical reason. Our memories are unreliable, so writing something down might help jog the memory of a specific feeling. This is especially true if one has legitimate medical reasons for memory loss. I will take a look at each of these in this essay, some in greater length than others.

Personal journals are meant for the person who wrote them. I know that sounds too obvious to actually write but it really needs to be understood. People who are completely truthful with everyone around them is a rarity. A needle in a 5 acre farm’s worth of hay bales kind of rarity. First, that is because conversations between two or more people are hardly ever complete. There’s always meat left on the bone. What is left unsaid is prime material for a personal journal, especially if it is emotionally driven. Just putting the thought on paper can be enough to get it out of the writer’s head. That exact reason is why I have this blog. We are very good at trapping thoughts in our head and letting them destroy us from within. Second, volunteering information about how one feels fully in a conversation out of order or turn has negative consequences, especially if said information makes others uncomfortable in any of the ways that takes form. Sometimes it’s just best to leave it in a personal journal to maintain relationships or jobs. There may be a time to bring up the contents of some journals up in conversation or may not. At least it isn’t sitting around in the writer’s head collecting rent.

The last reason is the part of the movie that turns on a character finding another’s journal and changes the direction of their relationship, for good or bad. I’ve seen far too many movies where people used the information within someone’s personal journal to alter their behavior. Knowledge is a powerful thing. When the person who wrote the journal finds out, they get angry because their personal space has been invaded. How it plays out depends on what act the movie is in and what kind of movie it is. Personal journals should be treated as intellectual property. Any information gotten from these journals should be read in the writer’s voice. Anything on the page is written for their use. Yes, there are circumstances where information in the pages is necessary for public use: Criminal investigations, potential acts of violence that haven’t yet happened, etc. However, that doesn’t grant anyone an expectation to just read them without clearance from the writer. The best way to keep on top of potential volatile situations is to discuss them openly and by removing as much emotion from it as possible. I know that can be quite difficult. I know I said it above but it’s worth repeating… We’re also really good at intentionally hiding thoughts and letting them destroy us from within.

A personal journal is the ultimate version of waiting to the following morning to send the angry e-mail strategy. I’m reasonably sure that has saved millions of jobs around the world. I know the real life version of that has saved mine more than a few times. Ideally, the act of writing in the journal takes the emotional steam out of the words entirely. That leaves the writer able to move on from them. In my experience, a slight residue of the emotions in the journal is left in the writer. One variant of this ideal is the 24 Hour or “Overnight” rules I have heard from various places. I first heard about them on A Football Life about Marty Schottenheimer. The house rule is that everyone could be upset by the loss for 24 or overnight hours then everyone had to let it go. I have heard it in a few other shows focusing on athletes since then. This is what writing in the journal is supposed to do. Emotions, especially intense ones, often cloud decision making by making logical decisions sound less so while making other less logical decisions sound more so. The air needs to be cleared to make sure that doesn’t happen. If one can talk about it freely with another person, that’s probably more ideal but a persona journal can fill the void in the absence of that. Remember, decisions always have consequences. It’s in someone’s best interest to be able to anticipate what most of them will be. Being emotionally present aids that process immensely.

Sometimes a personal journal is just the launching point for deeper development of a thought in someone’s head. I do this on a smaller scale. Ideas for blogs come into my brain and the only thing I can do about them is to talk them through aloud or silently because I’m at work, lifting, driving or whatnot. Driving home from the movie theatre is when my “Realizations of Success” post came to be. I was able to get right to my laptop when I got home and get my thoughts down. Most of the time I can only type the idea out in my phone as a reminder for the future. This essay is one of those ideas. However, a personal journal could very well serve the same purpose, especially if the writer stumbles upon something that could be profitable for them and wants to keep it from view until the time is right. This is not to say someone is always stashing a movie script in a personal journal but it’s possible. I know I said this up above but it is bears repeating. The writer, and any potential reader, of any personal journal should consider it intellectual property and protect it as needed.

This all stems from the fact that most people’s memories are pretty faulty with some or all aspects of memory. Who did what when, where, why and how they did it are all details that get messed up regularly. Case studies tell us this all the time. I remember one of my professors at Drake use an example of one such case study to illustrate this. He was teaching a class called Communication Theory he shared that a case study was one in which a white man robbed a black man. By the tenth time viewing it, those doing the case study were convinced the black man was robbing the white man. I remember that being eye opening at the time just how little it takes to mess with people’s memories. So, if a person wants to remember something specific for future use a personal journal is the exact place to put it. Yes, I consider a word document about one specific topic to be a personal journal. This essay is a personal journal entry until it gets published on the blog. It becomes something else after that. Putting all the details involving the entry allows the writer to come back to it right where they left off emotionally, physically and mentally. That’s an important step because it will help develop writing skills over time. Not every little bit of work needs to be seen by other people.

The level of specificity is an important detail to follow because tracking all of that is important for self study. At some point, doing a self review needs to happen. Athletes and coaches call this self scouting. They use to see if they or others on the team are tipping plays to the opponent through specific behaviors that coincide with specific actions. As G.I. Joe said, knowing is half the battle. Being specific is what personal training or eating logs is all about. I won’t blather on about either of those logs too long because I have already done that (Training Logs – May 26, 2022). I see training and eating logs as the exact same thing so what I say for one, goes for the other. However, I will repeat what I said earlier above and on the Training Logs post. Personal journals and logs are primarily for the person making them. If others find them and get something out from the information alone, that’s extremely secondary unless a coach/professional help needs to see them. Serious lifters or people who are serious about their health don’t just quit after 2-3 years. It becomes a part of their life, possibly even a driving force. Taking detailed logs is the only way to keep all of that information accurate. It also becomes an informal medical record of the lifter. The same thing goes for personal journals.

Personal journaling should be done with one person in mind: The writer. They help relieve the build up of emotional stress to a degree, hopefully a big one. Being as descriptive and detailed as possible helps someone remember the feeling that aided in writing the words if that becomes necessary. Journals are also good spots to hide potential pet projects until the time comes to make them public. They also serve the job of improving reading and writing skills. Those two things will always be valuable to improve, even in an audio and video driven world. Lastly, they are the spot for logging activities that no one but the writer ever needs to know about and eventually look back on. Publishing content has its own benefits but you’ll just have to wait till I put that essay out.

The Road to Discipline, Chapter 9

Photo by Andrea Piacquadio on Pexels.com

The Aftermath of Your Dreams

Mark Brown

June 14, 2022

Finding discipline causes a lot of changes in one’s life. Some are anticipated and others aren’t. How one reacts to those changes has an impact on the discipline that has been acquired and the people whom it effects. Decisions and actions have consequences and not all of them will fall in one’s favor. This is the aftermath of finding discipline. Discipline takes every bit as much as it gives, if not more, from someone. It helps illuminate what is important at the expense of other things that are just as important. Relationships can be damaged beyond repair, one’s own personality can change to meet the discipline needed to achieve their goals, time disappears before anyone knows it and so many other consequences come from finding discipline. Finding discipline is the key to attaining one’s dream. That has a cost.

This particular phrase is perfect for describing the cost of one’s goals. I first heard it from the original Berserk anime series from the last episode. One of the main characters sacrifices his band of mercenaries to demons to transcend humanity. The phrase has stuck with me for 15-20 years because it’s just that damned good. Talking about the cost of the goals one seeks is a difficult one to have out loud because it can cause some real internal emotional conflict. People don’t tend to like to believe they are dicks or are selfish in any scenario. When the things that need to be done to get to the place they wanted, people leave that stuff unsaid because it can be safely ignored until it can’t be. Perhaps it will never get brought up. The steps to take to achieve the goals are easier to take more confidently in such cases. The desire not to be seen in a negative light stops a lot of people from attaining the goal they seek privately. It’s what turns people who want to be masters of their domain into jacks of all trades. Mastery isn’t about becoming well rounded.

The costs of dreams I am talking about doesn’t just apply one’s own inner soul. The way they effect other people or animals, in some cases, is just important to understand. It’s very easy to finally achieve one’s goal after years of going after it only to find there’s no one around who really gives a damn about them or it, regardless of how helpful it might be. How one treats people along the way towards the goal goes a long way to how it lands on those around when it is finally achieved. Will the people effected respect the goal and the hustle it took to get it done? That is what really matters. One can find respect without the adoration. Sometimes it has to be invented in people’s heads for that to be the case. I’ve mentioned them at least a couple times on this Road but that’s exactly what Michael Jordan and Tom Brady have done to get the stature they have in the NBA and NFL, respectively.

One of the biggest costs that goals have is time. It is a force that never stops moving in one direction and it impacts everyone. It should give everyone a sense of purpose to get what they want done in theory. We know that this isn’t the case. This isn’t just because some goals are so far in the future that they don’t really have a date to be done by. For some, the goal of merely surviving is the first one that needs to be completed then others can follow once survival has been mostly assured. Some goals require a lot of time investment doing tasks that require spending a lot of time away from home or being constantly on call while there. For those with families, one has to hope that the quality of time together outweighs the quantity of it. Relationships strain and break when it doesn’t. For single people, the cost of going after a goal job opportunity may be staying single or leaving a circle of friends behind. Even when a family goes all in together on a venture, personal or business, overexposure is a constant danger. That’s when details one wanted to stay hidden find the light. The demands goals and social responsibilities put on us are often at each other’s throats. That is because…

Dreams actively compete with other dreams on a daily basis. The only ones that win are the dreams that show intense discipline and get favorable bounces along the way. These two sentences aren’t groundbreaking by any stretch of the imagination on paper. It becomes different when those dreams come with people attached to them. Reality is that one could be called upon to end another person’s dream by achieving theirs. This can be traumatic for people who are less competitive or more empathetic. Yes, there are opportunities for multiple people to achieve the same kind of goal but there’s only room at the top of the mountain for maybe a couple of people. Most goals have windows of opportunity to actually happen. Years of planning, personal willing and other people’s unwilling sacrifice and effort all for 1 or 2 chances at it. That can be a heavy weight on the soul to bear.

Some of the costs of dreams is much more straight forward. Goals are things that are written down on a piece of paper and locked away or on sticky notes and put on the fridge. Discipline is the every day work put to make it happen. This can result in everyday becoming the same, more or less. I have watched my life become “sleep, work, lift, eat, repeat” over the last 2 years. It wasn’t much more exciting than that before 2020 so not that much has changed. The pandemic didn’t change much of anything for me, actually. If anything it was “game time” comparatively speaking to 2016-19’s “practice.” What I have noticed since I transitioned to a highly structured lifting schedule is that the act of planning is much more instinctive. There’s always elements that bring slight changes but spontaneity just doesn’t have any room in my life. If asked, I could give someone the daily schedule of the next 2 years of my life. I couldn’t care less about my personal level of enjoyment I get from it because it’s just what needs to be done. That turning personal enjoyment into something less than that is just part of doing business with the goal of greater strength or fitness. I don’t want to put discipline in a negative light but it is what it is. One never, ever gets more out of the goal than they put in. Discipline demands one’s soul be 1000% in it, and eats whomever isn’t.

Discipline creates an environment that that openly promotes loneliness. One of the things I have heard about a lot of individual sports is that they are lonely experiences. I’ve heard tennis, golf, swimming, weightlifting, and soccer are all described that way by parents, both famous and not famous, and athletes. If one’s goal is to be a high level athlete in a sport, then days and nights spent doing the the lonely grunt work is the only realistic cost. This is true for players in team sports, too. All members of the team must work individually to be as strong a link in the chain as they can be. That’s hours of shooting the basketball, reps at the plate, running wind sprints, etc. I haven’t even talked about the sleep and nutritional side of it yet, either. It’s all one big sacrifice for the team or the goal, in the case of the individual athlete. One of the best things discipline instills in someone is that desire to at least be a leader of themselves. I’ve heard this concept also called a “self starter.” If they can make it to that point, maybe someone else start to follow the lead and it takes off from there. I’ve talked to too many people who stopped going to the gym because other buddies dropped out for one reason or another. They just didn’t have it in them to go the gym alone. To take this part of the discussion out of the athletic arena, small business owners know they have to be there when no one is coming into the business for there to be any chance of success down the road. That’s time spent away from family and friends that could be used to enjoy the present. Future success is built on the decisions and discipline one shows in the present. This has always been true and will always be with one exception: The lottery.

That’s why it’s important to help brace against the harsh realities of discipline. It’s nigh impossible to achieve anything without help from other people. When dreams compete with each other, some win and some lose. There is a lot of value in both positions. The loser doesn’t always stay in that position. They figure out why they lost and come back more knowledgeable. That is an attractive potential asset for the winning dream. Not everyone’s personality is built to become a vocal leader. When people with similar dreams combine their efforts and their disciplines match, that’s a dangerous combination for other’s with the same dream. This doesn’t mean they are in lock step with each other. It means they bring the best in each other out. This is why finding a good training partner is important for progress in fitness. It’s why people who are amazing at their craft find people who are amazing at managing the businesses’ money. Former NFL player, 4 time Super Bowl champion and Fox broadcaster Matt Millen said on the episode of A Football Life about him that he was surprised at how little on-field football he was actually involved with day-to-day after becoming the General Manager of the Detroit Lions and President of Ford Field, the stadium the Lions play at. That put literally everyone who works for the Lions but William Ford, the owner of the team, under him. I would never suggest he was amazing at this, because the Lions earned the first 0-16 season in the season he got fired and was pretty terrible before that. His surprise at how much of the on field sport he did on a daily basis resonates with me because it shows that one has to both feet on one side of the door to have the chance to be successful. There are always exceptions, of course.

The long term aftermath of one’s dreams on themselves is multiple. I’ve already hit one of the ways it does so. Discipline can turn enjoyment and happiness into relief or worse without prior notice. I’ve heard players on multiple time NBA championship teams say winning felt more relieving than anything else The day-to-day nature of discipline helps one become numb to all of the elements that turn actions done that day into something they didn’t start out as. That can lead to questions like “There’s got to be more than this to what we do, right?” or “That’s why we do this?” Those questions are part of the paradox that is discipline. It demands that we ask those questions, but also understands that they are potentially damaging to it. The cost of one’s dream is that the emotional investment is total. Once something starts to compete with that investment, discipline starts to crack. Whether it is repaired or allowed to keep cracking is up to the individual. Total emotional investment is dangerous to both discipline and dream because when something unexpected hits them, whatever hits them has the force of a Mack truck. It’s pretty damned easy to become Humpty Dumpty. If someone can say something to the effect of “That’s just the cost of doing this,” that is a sign their discipline is super strong or someone is putting up a brave front.

The effort one puts into their dreams on a day-to-day basis makes the dream becoming a reality feel like an achievement. Succeeding in the goal’s completion gives them the feeling of validation that the effort was all worth it. This circle is how success breeds more success and goals become bigger in scope. Dreams cost more in every way possible with up-scaling movement. Understanding and reconciling that one’s decisions and actions have an aftermath with themselves is a step towards proper discipline.

2022 Week 23 Training Log

June 6 – June 12, 2022

Mark Brown

June 13, 2022

Monday
Triceps Rope Pulls 25 x 10, 35 x 10
JM Press – 95 x 6, x 6; 115 x 6, x 6, 135 x 6, x 6; 135 w/chain x 6, x 6
Tricep Extension, Fat Wavy Bar – 75 x 10, 85 x 10, 95 x 8
Triceps Pushdown – 70 x 8, 80 x 8, 90 x 8
Standing EZ Curl Bars – 75 x 10, x 10, x 10, 85 x 10, 85 x 10
Cable Curls – 45 x 8, 50 x 8, 55 x 8
Seated Overhead Triceps Press – 45 x 12, 65 x 12, 75 x 12, 85 x 12
Preacher Curls, Superset Wide and Narrow Grips – 85 x 10(x 10), 75 x 12(x 12), 65 x 12(x 12), 45 x 12(x 12)
Rolling Triceps Press, Dumbbells in Each Hand – 15 x 10, 20 x 10, 30 x 8
Chain Grenade, Superset all 3 balls – 45 x 10(x 8)(x 8), x 10(x 8)(x 8), x 8(x 8)(x 8)

Tuesday
Box Squat, Cambered Bar – 175 x 6, 225 x 6, 265 x 6, 315 x 6, 355 x 6, 375 x 3, x 3; 385 x 3, x 3
Block Pulls, 3 Inch From Floor – 345 x 3, x 3; 365 x 3, x 3; 385 x 3, x 3; 405 x 3, x 3; 415 x 3 (with belt)
Barbell Rows – 185 x 6, x 6, x 6, x 6
Calf Raises – 335 x 20, x 20, x 20, x 20

Wednesday
Flat Dumbbell Press – 75 x 8, 105 x 12, 110 x 9, 115 x 6, 120 x 5, 125 x 4, 120 x 4, 115 x 5
Cable Crossovers – 42.5 x 12, 50 x 8, 57.5 x 8, 65 x 6
Arnold Press – 50 x 8, x 8; 55 x 8, x 8, x 8; 60 x 8, x 6, x 8
Isolateral Wide Chest Press, Per Hand – 90 x 8, x 8; 115 x 8, x 8, x 8; 135 x 6, x 6, x 6
Side Lateral Raises – 80 x 10, 95 x 10, 110 x 10, 125 x 8
Rear Deltoid Flies – 115 x 10, 130 x 10, 145 x 8
Machine Chest Press Negatives, 5 seconds – 285 x 6

Thursday
Triceps Pushdowns, Pyramid – 50 x 12, 57.5 x 12, 65 x 12, 72.5 x 12, 80 x 12, 87.5 x 10
Single Arm Cable Curls, Each Arm From Bottom – 25 x 10, x 10, 30 x 8, x 8; 35 x 6, x 6
Single Arm Cable Curls, Each Arm From Across – 15 x 12, 20 x 12, 25 x 12, 30 x 12
Triceps Extension, EZ Curl Bar Outside Grip – 55 x 12, x 12; 65 x 12, x 12; 75 x 12, x 12
Standing Curls, EZ Curl Bar Outside Grip Superset with Extensions – 55 x 12, x 12; 65 x 10, x 10; 75 x 10, x 10
Single Arm Triceps Pulldown, Each Arm No Handle – 15 x 15, 20 x 15, 25 x 15, 30 x 15, x 15, x 10 (Last 2 sets right arm only)
Kettle Bell Holds, 30 Seconds Out in Front – x 35 lbs, x 35, x 35, x 35; x 26 lbs, x 26, x 26, x 26
Weighted Crunches – 110 x 15, 125 x 15, 140 x 15, 155 x 10

Friday
Scheduled Day Off – Recovery, Golf

Saturday
Leg Press – 478 x 12, 568 x 12, 658 x 12, 748 x 10
Dumbbell Squats – 60 x 8, 65 x 8, 70 x 8, 75 x 8, 80 x 8, 85 x 8
Single Arm Dumbbell Deadlift, Right then Left – 100 x 6(x 6), 105 x 6(x 6), 110 x 6(x 6), 115 x 6(x 6)
Hip Thrusts – 225 x 8, x 8, x 8, x 9, x 8
Isolateral Dumbbell Row, Weight in Each Hand – 90 x 8, 90 x 8; 100 x 8, x 8

Sunday
Chain Press, To Chest – 135 x 10, 225 x 6, 225 w/chain x 3, x 3: 235 w/chain x 3, x 3; 245 w/ chain x 3, x 3; 255 w/ chain x 3, x 3; 265 w/chain x 2, x 2
Pin Press – 225 x 3, x 6, x 3; 235 x 3, x 3
Narrow Gap Incline Press – 225 x 3, x 3, x 3, x 3
Seated Overheat Press, American Cambered Bar – 128 x 3, x 3; 138 x 6, 148 x 3, x 3; 158 x 3, x 3
Floor Press – 225 x 3, x 3; 235 x 3, x 3, x 3; 245 x 3, x 3

Steps/Miles
Monday – 7,829 steps, 3.9 miles. Tuesday – 7,034 steps, 3.4 miles. Wednesday – 8,143 steps, 4.0 miles. Thursday – 8,385 steps, 4.4 miles. Friday – 14,262 steps 7.2 miles. Saturday – 5,346 steps, 2.6 miles. Sunday – 8,169 steps, 4.4 miles. Total – 59,168 steps, 29.9 miles.

Notes

Heavy week of lifting because of week off for vacation. That’s why it was a 6 session week rather than a normal 5 session week. Note the number of steps being radically different.

I learned that front holds need to be done with some back support. The intention was to do one last exercise for the arms but the entirety of my back took the biggest brunt of it. Saturdays leg/back session, which was a speedy one, was highly uncomfortable. My lower back had a significant amount of pain in it between sets. I calmed it down by icing it down after the set. By Sunday nights pressing session, I was fine. I suspect the front holds with the kettle bell done on Thursday were to blame for the back pain.

Golf was terrible on Friday. Unsure what is causing the issue there. Conditions were fine I just can’t get consistent ball strikes right now. Unsure yet if strength and muscular development over fall, winter and spring of 2021-22 is helping me or not on golf course.

Unknown if vacation week off has helped lifts but cambered bar squat, block pulls, flat dumbbell press and chain press were significantly easier than the were the last time I did them.

A Slight Change

Starting Week 22, 2022

Mark Brown

June 9, 2022

I am making a slight change to my lifting program for an undefined amount of time. I am making progress in my triples and doubles on the main power lifts but am not making a lot at the top. I have lifted with Pete and his son some over the last couple weeks to see if there was anything specific that would diagnose what I need to improve on to help increase my heavy singles and 1 rep max lifts. I am going to outline what that will do to the program.

Why?

This all started 3 weeks ago when I attempted 305 pounds on the bench press solo and failed. It happened in the same exact spot as it did before, about 3-4 inches above my chest. I decided to lift with Pete and his son so I could see better what I needed to do. A failed lift done solo is vastly different than doing it with a spotter. One is able to get a lot more information when using the spotter. The first week I lifted with Pete (week 20) I failed the 305 press in the same spot but Pete saw where the weakness in my lift could be. The problem seems to be in the middle of the lift, where the triceps start to really take the brunt of the lift. So that is the first part of the change to the plan involves heavier triceps work.

The second is an emphasis on upper and middle back strength development. My legs have started to pull ahead of my back in terms of overall strength so I need to start dealing with that. My 1RM max for squat is 435 pounds and my deadlift remains 405. I have pulled 415 from 3 inches off the floor for both a double and a triple before. The difference in strength has become more apparent lately. Deadlifts are mostly carried by the legs, especially at the start, so my deadlift sessions are pretty smooth until they hit the third rep or second set at 405 when pulling from blocks 3 inches off the floor. There is a lingering tightness in my lower back for at least a day after squat/deadlift days now that wasn’t present 4 months ago. My lack of back strength needs to be addressed now.

The third aspect to the change in my program is the most fundamental of them. The vast bulk of my lifting since the fall of 2021 has been skill based lifts. Bench press, squats and deadlifts are technical lifts. I have gotten stronger and more proficient at them over that time by intention. The only other work I have done substantially is hypertrophy based isolation lifting on arms and lats. Outside of squat, I haven’t seen a lot of top end progress so a change to less skill based lifts per week in relation to unskilled, brute strength and targeted work is in order to build more raw strength. I expect some muscular development to happen as well in it.

What’s the change?

I am narrowing down skill work days to 1 day for bench press in whatever form that takes over 3 week waves. All of the barbell based lifting for bench press will be done on that day (Day 2). Chains, shoulder saver, bands, pin press, incline press, and floor press are all things that could happen that day. I may make an exception for my American cambered bar because it really feels like a dumbbell in the coming weeks, especially when Pete and his son are more ready for it. Those lifts will still be done at 75% 1RM and above so there will be plenty off strength training being done. The other chest day (Day1) will be reserved for unskilled strength work during the week. Dumbbells will take center stage and will probably be done at the gym unless I am using my press bar. Isolateral movement machines will be used for the brute strength work. They are designed with this in mind. Seated press machines could also be used for negatives, The training log for this second day will be far more interesting than the first chest day.

I am also narrowing down to 1 squat and 1 deadlift a week. I have done 2 squats and 2 deadlifts a week for nearly a year now, going back the summer of 2021. Those lifts require so much attention that supplemental lifts get less work done on them. That could be a reason why my deadlift has lagged behind my squat. The first leg day won’t change much. A squat and a deadlift will be done in variations in 3 week waves. The supplemental lifts won’t change much either. It is the heaviest lifting session of the week so far. I have thought about splitting up the squat and deadlifts on separate days but I haven’t figured out the “how to do that” part of it yet because of the logistics involved. Most of the work using barbells will be done on the first day, like with day 2 press. I might include a lighter load on a straight leg deadlift on the second day to maximize hamstring development.

Day 2 legs/back will be like the day 1 press. I haven’t done a lot of unilateral work on legs and back a lot because I find doing both legs at the same time is more efficient. However, those lifts are back on the menu as I look to build raw strength in my legs and back. A lot of these lifts I just don’t like or enjoy doing but that’s what will help so I will do them. Hip thrusts with a barbell will be a major lift on this day for hamstring and glutei strength. With no squat or deadlift in the plans for the day, a different hip hinge heavy movement is necessary. The isolateral machines for lats and upper back will be used at weights to help build strength in the those muscle groups. Once again, I expect some muscular development to hop on for the ride. The upper back strength development is either number 1 or 2 on my priority list right now and why I am making the change that I am. Upper back strength is essential in all 3 main powerlifts and overhead press. This day will primarily be done in the gym like it always has been but with little to no barbell use. Expect to see a lot of different lifts on the training logs for day 2 legs/back.

Arms will have their own day again. I have done other isolation based movements like lats and lat raises to fill out the session over the last couple months. For the time being, lat pulldowns will move to the leg/back sessions. With the focus on building strength in triceps, the bulk of this day will triceps driven. The weights will move from the hypertrophy rep range (10-12+) to the strength rep range (6-8) for at least half the sets. That doesn’t sound like much but it’s a significant change. I am also looking into the best ways to perform specific strength building triceps lifts like the JM Press and extensions. Hypertrophy will definitely be done, but it’s taking a back seat. Biceps are largely vanity muscles. Thus, they draw the short end of the stick. Bicep development is important because the bicep tendon is essential in all pressing movements. I have been battling a bit of a strain in my left forearm lately from preacher curls. It’s slowly getting better. Pete’s preacher curl bench is different than the gym’s so I can do them without discomfort in the garage. Nothing much changes with biceps in this new plan.

Nothing much changes with the shoulders in this plan. I’m not looking to compete in a Strongman competition anytime soon so anything shoulder related is purely supplemental for the bench press or hypertrophy. Don’t get me wrong. I like big, strong shoulders but there’s no need for me to try to do 1RM work on them right now. A lot of my equipment for heavy shoulder development is in the garage so that limits the scope of what I do so it will probably done in 3 week waves. Log press, seated overhead press with the American cambered bar and viking press in 3 week waves is probably how this will go.

Other things people might notice in the logs is an increase in exercises that are weighted but not lifting per se. Kettle bell swings are not lifts. That is using something of weight to do cardio. It’s no different than using a weighted vest to swim, walk or run. Same goes for anything medicine ball related. All of that stuff is done at the gym because I don’t own much in the way of kettle bells or medicine balls.

Essentially, it boils down do this if the current schedule keeps up:

Monday: Rest or Arms
Tuesday: Legs Day 1 or Rest
Wednesday: Press Day 1 or Legs Day 1
Thursday: Press Day 2 or Rest
Friday: Rest or Arms
Saturday: Legs Day 2
Sunday: Press Day 2

I like to keep my options open to me as to when lifting gets done during the week. I prefer to lift 5 days a week. I only have one rule: Arms day is done after press days, never the day before. More than likely Thursday and/or Friday will be a rest day in this plan.

The Road to Discipline, Chapter 8

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Mindset, State of Mind and Emotions

Mark Brown

June 7, 2022

If a reader is new to this series I have been putting up on my blog for the last 7 weeks, they don’t know this isn’t the first time I’ve brought up emotions as as a main topic. They are powerful agents of energy to complete whatever tasks we are demanding of ourselves or others. They can help or hinder that cause. This chapter deals more with the management of them and some of the differences between some of the key concepts involving emotional intelligence: Mindset, state of mine and the emotions themselves specifically. Each of these things is worth delving deeper into because any developing discipline is going to have to manage them for use or abuse to become stronger over time.

A good place to start is the difference between “mindset” and “state of mind.” Both of these terms indicate how or what someone is feeling and in what direction any potential decision will lean towards. However, that’s kind of where the similarities stop. Mindset can only really be answered in one of 3 ways: Positive, negative or indifferent. The third one listed could easily be interpreted as second depending on who one asks. State of Mind is much more open and can be either general or very specific about how one is feeling in the moment. The best analogy is a test question. Mindset is a multiple choice question and state of mind is short or long answer question. As a result, one could see a natural linear progression of mindset to state of mind. Sometimes that’s the case but it’s not necessarily so.

Having the mindset and the state of mind opposing each other is very possible. For the last couple weeks, where I work has produced a raging state of mind for at least half of that time due to consequences of decisions I disagree with. It it the exact feeling I had 3 years ago in a similar situation. I call this state of mind “feeling like a pissed off rattlesnake.” That means I would love to fire off stone cold stunners at every mid to high level boss I see while I hear Jim Ross’s voiced in my head, “Stone Cold! Stone Cold!” It also means that anyone who gets close enough to talk to me when I’m in this state of mind could get a very personal jab their way because I can’t make the distinction between friend and enemy. Everyone can hear the signature rattle in my voice and movement. It’s not like I’m not giving off signals. For all of that anger and disappointment I’m feeling I know I can still do the damned job. The positive mindset allows me to focus my rage into the task at hand. The effects of using that feeling to complete the task at work has lingered after work in the past. The guys from work I golf with regularly and I played every or every other Friday afternoon and the rattlesnake followed me to the course. Golf is a game where any emotion shown or felt is punished so I was quite terrible on those days. To be brutally honest, the name of the place I work for just brings up negative emotions.

A positive mindset with negative state of mind has proven to be a very powerful source of energy from people from all walks of life. Top level professional athletes have gotten the most publicity for this. Michael Jordan is the most famous of them all. The ability to turn words that were definitely compliments into something less than that in his head shows a very willful embrace of a negative state of mind. It is proof of his emotional intelligence. To gain energy and increased purpose by feeding off slights that existed in his head or in the margins of what was said shows what having a true Alpha personality is about. At the level he played at, the margin for error is so infinitesimally small that he must have known how shallow the well of energy he was dipping into to always come out on top when it truly mattered was. Other top level athletes have famously used a “chip on the shoulder” to maintain their discipline over long periods of time. A “chip on the shoulder” is just another metaphor for this concept. Tom Brady was once described as having a mountain on his shoulder. LeBron James once said in a Sports Illustrated article he was now in an athletic phase of chasing the “ghost who played in Chicago.” That’s Michael Jordan, for those who don’t know the reference. To get to this level, maintaining discipline is everything. I can’t emphasize that enough. The chip on the shoulder and the invented slights are two of the cornerstones of the discipline.

Overcoming a negative mindset is a much harder task than maintaining a positive one. A mindset is a mix of feelings swirling about in someone’s thoughts. Mix a negative state of mind with a negative mindset and it becomes all but impossible to defeat the latter. Once the emotions start to move they can pick up momentum very quickly. That momentum can create a runaway effect before one knows it. A runaway effect is what happens when something gets so far out of control that it can’t brought back in line. It is something to be avoided at all costs. A very easy example I can think of is what happened when Mike Tyson fought Evander Holyfield the second time. Having lost the first fight and not showing the ability to win the second, he bit part of Holyfield’s ear off in the middle of the fight causing a disqualification. Tyson said after the fight he forgot Holyfield’s humanity when he did it. I can’t think of a clearer negative mindset in a runaway situation. Negative mindsets create wider and greater avenues for negative events or decisions to happen or get made. If the momentum from those things isn’t stopped voluntarily, it will keep moving towards worse outcomes until it ended involuntarily. The inner battle of a person’s mindset is one that never ends. Overcoming a negative mindset starts with the belief that something can be successfully accomplished. That starts the momentum moving in a positive direction.

Both mindsets and states of mind share the fact that specific emotions often flow from them. It’s not necessary that will always be the case but more often than not specific “hot” emotions are born out of “cold” developed feelings. When I say “hot” in this context it refers to emotions that are quick to respond to stimuli and “cold” are ones that don’t. The latter are often mixtures of individual emotions that combine into a finely developed feeling. Depression, one of the best examples of highly developed feelings from a mix of emotions, is just all bad in all conceivable lights. Rage is a one as well. It is more than an elongated spike of anger. There’s a lot of disappointment, frustration, even perhaps a bit of sadness to go along with the aforementioned anger. Contentment is another example. It is a feeling of happiness and stability. On the surface, the second mixture seems to be at home in a negative mindset/state of mind and the third in a positive mindset/state of mind. However, this is not always the case. There is a lot of energy created by the cocktail of emotions that goes into rage and little that goes into contentment. That’s why a positive mindset with a negative state of mind is so powerful. It also helps create an intense personality in the person who employs such a combination. High level sports, media and business figures live professionally in an environment that requires high intensity because most of the decisions made are of the high leverage variety.

What I find particularly fascinating about the management of emotions is how much energy I get from the ones I have heard are “negative” and how little I get from the “positive” ones. Situations break down and the intensity of them ratchets up. That triggers anger first, then very shortly after that is…joy. An intense feeling of happiness arrives almost at the same time as the spike of anger. The part of me that wishes it could be easier, wishes I could work a little less hard and wishes it would end almost always gets subjugated by my desire to keep moving because that’s what my discipline tells me to do. Finding space and time for contentment is important, too, after all. Discipline demands that I learn when to feed the rage and to empower the contentment. It’s about developing emotional intelligence to help the momentum moving forward. Colin Cowherd talks about how he prefers to resist contentment every so often on his radio show when explaining why he doesn’t like staying in work place for a long time. I think I understand that feeling more now and before.

One thing I have noticed about the energy that comes from powerful emotions is that it is expensive, so to speak. It’s high intensity and requires a deep well of it because it’s spent so quickly. It is especially taxing when proper rest hasn’t been had and proper nutrition hasn’t occurred. I know that last sentence very well because it’s my life in a nutshell but it comes with the life I have chosen to embrace. One of the most important things a lifter will need to learn, especially one who lifts as much as I do, is to know when to push and when to rest. This can take some time to understand because the same kind of energy is present in situations calling for action and rest. Over the last couple weeks I have had multiple days where I felt good enough to train but rested because the plan called for it. That was done because lifting on the days I felt like lifting was going to cause my lifting week to get more complicated than it needed to be. I also have this blog to take into consideration so time must be allotted to writing as well. The days with no energy have been easier to deal with mentally because it’s easier to tell myself to train than it is to tell myself to rest. The night I got to the garage and Pete told me my eyes were closed upon entering then fully waking up after doing a 365 pound squat still stands out for that reason. There are training sessions where the energy never hits fully. Those lifting sessions are what a highly trained discipline is for.

Positive state of minds are often goal dependent and short term in nature. This is the happiness that is felt when a goal has been accomplished. Proving one’s mindset correct is a powerful stimulant forward. Think of the way professional athletes who have won that title are viewed by the media and fans. There’s more love and respect that comes their way publicly. That can supercharge self-confidence in ways that only actually succeeding at the highest level can. For regular folks, successfully accomplishing a goal can have that same effect, especially if done within view of peers. Everybody needs to feel some validation for their mindset individually. However, the supercharged self-confidence is something to be wary of because it produces a kind of high that decisions can be effected by. I’m reminded of of one such situation every time I think or or hear “Blurred Lines ft. T.I. and Pharrell” by Robin Thicke. An athlete losing their hunger to continue being great is a perfect example of this. Buster Douglas defeated an undefeated Mike Tyson in February of 1990 in Tokyo as a 42:1 underdog. His first defense was against Evander Holyfield and lost. It remains really the only 2 fights any non-boxing fan knows of his. He’s said that he lost that fire after defeating Tyson. In other cases, the compliments and awards land as increased pressure. Goals are such powerful motivators, but one has to see beyond them to even greater ones. That’s why the “next” one is Tom Brady’s favorite answer to give when asked which of his 7 Super Bowl titles is his favorite. Positive state of minds can produce big results but negative state of minds have a more proven track record of it.

Emotions are just another element of one’s discipline that must be managed day-to-day. They cannot be dealt with a one size meets all situations mentality. Learning how to make different decisions based on the same set of information and feelings about them to one’s benefit is instrumental in their long term success. Confidence is something no one can afford to lose so a positive mindset is almost required for success to have any chance of happening. Using other’s doubts and negativity as fuel for the fire has always been a tremendous source of energy to compliment that self-belief. It’s part of that combative spirit that everyone needs to achieve goals that have been set. Just understand that those 2 different things and should be treated as such.

2022 Week 22 Training Log

May 31 – June 5, 2022

Mark Brown

June 6, 2022

Monday
Scheduled Off Day – Rest

Tuesday
Box Squats, Cambered Bar – 175 x 6, 225 x 6, 265 x 6, 415 x 6, 355 x 3, x 3; 375 x 3, x 3; 385 x 3, x 3; 395 x 3
Block Pulls, 3 Inches off Floor – 345 x 3, x 3; 365 x 3, x 3; 385 x 3, x 3; 405 x 3, x 2
Barbell Rows – 185 x 6, x 6, x 6, x 6
Calf Raises 335 x 20, x 20, x 20, x 20

Wednesday
Incline Dumbbell Press – 105 x 8, 110 x 7, 115 x 5, 100 x 7
Isometric Wide Chest Machine, Each Hand – 90 x 10, 115 x 6, 135 x 6, 160 x 4
Arnold Press, Dumbbells – 55 x 6, x 6, x 6; 60 x 6, x 6, x 6
Cable Crossovers – 35 x 12, 50 x 10, 57.5 x 10, 65 x 8, 72.5 x 6
Rear Deltoid Fly, Machine – 115 x 12, 130 x 10, 145 x 10

Thursday
Triceps Pushdowns – 70 x 8, 80 x 8, 90 x 8
Preacher Curls, EZ Curl Bar – 45 x 12, 65 x 12, 75 x 10, 85 x 10
Skullcrushers superset with Tricep Extensions – 85 x 8(x 8), x 8(x 8); 95 x 8(x 8), 85 x 8(x8)
Preacher Curls, EZ Curl Bar Narrow Grip – 85 x 10, x 10; 95 x 10; 85 x 10
Chain Grenade Superset – 45 x 8(x 8)(x 8), x 8(x8)(x8), x 8(x 8)(x10)
Standing Curls, EZ Curl Bar – 75 x 10, x 10, x 10
Narrow Grip Press, Fat EZ Wavy Bar – 115 x 6, 165 x 6

Friday
Scheduled Day Off – Recovery

Saturday
Leg Press – 478 x 10, 568 x 12, 658 x 10, 748 x 10, 838 x 8
Dumbbell Deadlift, one in each hand – 100 x 6, 105 x 6, 110 x 6, 115 x 3, x 3
Hip Thrust – 135 x 12, 185 x 6, 225 x 6, x 6
Lat Pulldown – 85 x 12. 100 x 12, 120 x 12, 140 x 10
Isolateral Back Rows, Machine, Weight in each hand – 45 x 12, 70 x 12, 90 x 10, 100 x 10, 115 x 6
Kettle Bell Swings – 26 x 10, 35 x 10, 44 x 8

Sunday
Bench Press, to Chest – 135 x 10, 225 x 6, 245 x 6, 255 x 6. 265 x 3, x 3 (paused); 275 x 3, x 3 (paused); 285 x 2
Pin Press, from chest – 225 x 6, x 6
Narrow Grip Incline Press – 225 x 3, x 3, x 3, x 3; 235 x 3, x 3, x 3
Log Press – 141 x 3, x 3, x 3, x 3(strict); 151 x 2(strict), 151 x 3, x 3(push)
Floor Press – 225 x 6, 235 x 6, x 6; 245 x 3, x 3
Seated Overhead Dumbbell Press – 55 x 12, 60 x 10, 65 x 10, 70 x 9
Rack Pushups – bodyweight x 10, x 10, x 10, x 10

Steps/Miles
Monday – 26,622 steps, 13.3 miles. Tuesday – 23,058 steps, 11.5 miles. Wednesday – 21,708 steps, 10.8 miles. Thursday – 19,798 steps, 9.8 miles. Friday – 25,869 steps, 13.0 miles. Saturday – 7,843 steps, 4.0 miles. Sunday – 5,983 steps, 2.9 miles. Total – 130,881 steps, 65.3 miles.

Notes

A little less power, a little more muscular/strength development in this week’s training and for the next few weeks. I am trying to get specific muscle groups up to where they need to be.

Not Just An Equipment Review

EliteFTS Shoulder Saver Pad

Mark Brown

June 2, 2022

This would be the shortest review to date because it would be the easiest but that’s not what I do. This little piece of gym equipment is very worth getting for anyone who bench presses and wants to get better and stronger at it. I will explain why by thoroughly burying the lead.

Anyone who is familiar with strength training for a few years or trains with someone experienced understands the the concept up a board press. For those who aren’t, this is a brief explanation. A board press is a bench press down to a board that has been placed on the chest. The “board” is usually a small piece of 2×4 lumber that is about an inch thick. When lifters stack boards on top of each other the name of lift corresponds to how many boards are on the chest: 1 Board, 2 board, 3 board, 4 board, etc. They are used to shorten the range of motion of the bench press to train the movement, especially at the top. They take load off of the shoulder joint to an extent as well. Board presses always allow the lifter to press more weight so the lift aids in tricep, lat and central nervous system training.

The distance between the bottom of the pad to groove the bar sits in is 2 inches.

The problem with board presses is that they are two person lift unless someone is really good at balancing the board or has the chest to do it solo. I did them before getting the EliteFTS
Shoulder Saver Pad and they were a gigantic pain in the ass. Pete and I fashioned a 2 board out of 2x4s meant for a driveway Jenga set up put together with a wrist wrap I didn’t use anymore. There are numbers of solutions for this. Most of them are lifts with key differences that make them fundamentally different from a board press. Floor presses achieve the same effect of a 2ish board press but the floor prevents the triceps from fully loading so more of the lift is on the pectoral muscles. Pin presses can be set to the distance of whatever number board press someone wants to do but the bar’s starting position reverses the concentric and eccentric phases. Very not the same! A lifter could just do a bench press and not go all the way down willfully but it would take a lot of skill to always stop at the intended “board” level. The board makes it very easy to hit the mark every time. Boxes serve the same purpose for squats.

There’s yet another solution to the board press annoyance. One could buy a shoulder saver bar. Expect to pay near $400 and God knows how much on shipping to get it. If someone has the money to blow on a shoulder saver bar, then all power to them. I don’t. The bar has a lot of benefits though. The Shoulder Saver Pad allows any straight bar to turn into a shoulder saver bar. I can say very confidently that this one piece of equipment has done a lot to help improve my bench press gain 60 pounds in about 2 years. It’s not just the easiest way to do a 2 board press that has helped, but also the pad has made me change where I grip the bar when I bench press. My grip has slowly widened to my middle or ring finger is over the break in the knurling over the last year of lifting. Prior to that my normal grip was close to a narrow grip press. The shoulder saver pad influenced it first by allowing me to train a wider grip while pressing in the 75-90% 1RM range. That’s not exactly 2 birds with 1 stone but the metaphor isn’t far off. Adding the floor press to my program has also aided in my training of a wider grip. It’s significant because the way the wider grip puts more on the pecs and lats than the triceps.

One can easily see the effect of the center knurling on my Shoulder Saver Pad over the last 2 years.

Now for some thoughts on the pad itself. Dave Tate, co-owner of EliteFTS, said that the lifter’s body would collapse before the shoulder saver pad does in a video on product page about it. He’s not lying. That is one sturdy piece of equipment. It’s got a nice smooth leather covering and is pretty easy to get on and off. I just have to bang it into place on the bar and it just takes a few firm hits to push it off. The leather on interior groove, the part that attaches to the bar, has become a casualty to the center knurling of my Ohio Power Bar but that’s okay by me. It’s the most vulnerable part of the pad and it still goes on and comes off easily. The knurling on the Ohio Power Bar doesn’t mess around either. The biggest problem involving the Shoulder Saver Pad is that it is so good that EliteFTS has a hard time getting it in stock, especially with these chain supply issues. It is currently not in stock. The price, $40 currently, is definitely not a hindrance. Keep this on the wish list and the Christmas list when it comes back in.