19 September 2011

To Cut Or Not To Cut #3- The End

Remember, lean doesn't mean weak.

For starters, let's back it up a second- let's take it back to two days out.  I left out something of note for Wednesday which interests the shit out of me, but happened to forget to include in the last installment.  Beginning Wednesday morning, no matter what diet you've been following, cut out starchy carbohydrates and red meat.  Both starch and the creatine in the red meat will cause you to hold water (3g of water per gram of glucose or creatine).(Ferriss, How To Lose)


Having gotten that out of the way, let's move onto the day before the weigh in.  Friday morning, you should begin limiting your liquids to 1/3 of what you normally drink, and it should consist of naught but purified or distilled water.  Your consumption of food and water will end with a light meal on Friday evening around 5, and that's when your water consumption for the day will likely end.  Prior to hitting the hay, however, you should weigh yourself to see where you stand.  Time Ferriss recommends using 2 scales twice each, and then averaging the results.  Additionally, he recommends consuming enough water that you're two to three pounds off from your desired weight before you hit the hay if you're close or under, and I can personally attest to the fact that going to sleep with horrible dry mouth makes for a terrible night's sleep.
Unless you're sleeping next to that, in which case you might have trouble getting your eyes closed.


Should you find yourself more than two or three pounds away from the promised land, you're not going to run. In fact, I strongly advise against doing cardio in a "sauna suit" for those of you who are familiar with them.  It'll leave your legs weak as shit, and it's far less effective than the method about which I'm about to tell you.  Additionally, you do not want to do this shit the day before your weigh-in- this is strictly day-of shit.  You need to limit the time you spend in a dehydrated state, as dehydration drastically impairs your performance.  According to one study, even mild weight loss from sweating (1-2% of pre-exercise weight) resulted in a significant degradation in performance.(Armstrong)  More extreme dehydration can reduce your endurance by about 55% (Sawka), and depending which of four separate studies you consult, can reduce maximal strength by up to 11%.(Maughan)  Additionally, Ferriss chimed in with a statistic of his own (unfortunately uncited, but I believe it's  Bosco et al (1968)), that dehydrating a muscle by 3% can result in a loss of 10% of contractile strength and an 8% loss of speed.(How To Lose) For those of you posting numbers that aren't world-changing, this means that dehydration can be the difference between first and last in a meet, and as such, you'll want to be at your weigh-in weight for as little time as humanly possible.
Though liquor is a diuretic, this is only ideal when the meet's either a ways off or in the past.

To get to that weigh in weight, however, you're going to use one of two things- hot baths or steam rooms.  Ferriss is a huge fan of the former, as a hot bath has 100% humidity, and the "higher the humidity, the less the evaporation, and the more your body must sweat to cool core body temperature."(How to Lose)  For this  you should use a bath containing water "that does not burn the hand but causes pain if the hand is moved underwater."(How to Lose)  For anyone who's been in an overly-heated jacuzzi, this can generally be a godawful experience.  Never fear, however, as Matt Kroczaleski has the solution for you- use a combination of hot bath and steam bath, in thirty minute intervals.  According to Matt:
I start by entering a bath with the water as hot as I can get it without scalding myself, and I submerse my entire body except for my mouth and nose. I prefer the hot bath because it facilitates raising my body temperature as fast as possible and being submersed in the water is somewhat more comfortable (at least for me) than sitting in a steam room, especially a dry heat type of sauna. After fifteen minutes, I get out of the bath. I leave the shower running though on pure hot to maintain the steam and heat in the room. I don’t know what the precise temperature gets up to, but it’s typically as hot as any steam sauna I’ve been in. Next, I either sit or stand in the steam for another fifteen minutes. At the 30-minute mark (bath and steam time combined), I exit the bathroom for five minutes. This allows me a break both physically and mentally and lets my core body temperature return to a more normal level. I’ll feel much better physically. After five minutes in the cool room, I return to the hot bath (I drain and refill the water each cycle to keep the water as hot as possible) and begin the process again. (Kroczaleski)
To make the steam room he mentions, Kroc has a pretty slick method- he just fills the tub by running the shower on full hot with a towel stuffed in the crack under the bathroom door.  Using this method, you'll just keep weighing yourself with your two scales until you're there.  To aid your loss at this time, you can use two over-the counter supplements- Dandelion Root and Caffeine.  The two work synergistically to help you shed water, and taken at the prescribed doses shouldn't have much of a negative impact on your helth, especially since dandelion root is potassium sparing, in addition to being high in Vitamin A and Choline.  Ferriss recommends 250-500 mg 3 times daily (preferably with food) of the Dandelion and 200-400 mg 2-3 times per day of the caffeine, and suggests they should be taken with a potassium supplement, though if you've taken my advice on Mrs. Dash, you're getting more than enough potassium.  For my last meet, I used a supplement called Cranker 2, which seemed to work pretty well, although it only contained caffeine of the aforementioned ingredients.  Instead of the Dandelion Root, it includes a variety of other herbs, so if you try that, it might not hurt to throw some Dandelion in on top.
Electroshock therapy for your nipples and tongue is unnecessary, and might be best reserved for the post-win orgy than the pre-weigh-in prep.


Obviously, if you're doing a same-day weigh in, this shit is not for you.  You could use some of these methods, but given the research I cited above, you might be too fucking drained, or lack the necessary rehydration time, to make hard cut feasible.  As such, I'd experiment with a few different cuts and test your strength thereafter.  More than a few pounds, however, is likely going to be way too much for you to recover.
Perhaps a better way to commence the carbohydrate consumption.

Rehydration and replenishment is even more important than the dehydration phase.  Yes, that should be an "is", as the two words are parts of a singular hole- there are some grammar nazis on Reddit who were going to get all up in my shit if I didn't make that apparent.  The first thing you're going to want to do is rehydrate- eating will come later.  For this, Kroc uses Gatoraide diluted 1:1 with water, but Ferriss recommends straight Pedialyte instead.  "Commercially available sports drinks" he contends, "and so called 'replacement fluids' contain much too high a concentration of sugars (high fructose, dextrose, glucose, sucrose, and maltodextrin) or other solutes to move efficiently from your stomach to the primary site of absorption in the small intestine."(Hot to Lose)  The key at this point is to achieve a state of hyperhydration, which differs considerably from what most housewives will tell you when they see you chugging water and tell you that "too much water can kill you."  This is true, but that condition is called hyponatremia (water intoxication), is caused by a sodium imbalance rather than a surfeit of water, and is characterized by "nausea and vomiting, headache, confusion, lethargy, fatigue, appetite loss, restlessness and irritability, muscle weakness, spasms, or cramps, seizures, and decreased consciousness or coma."(Wikipedia)  Hyperhydration, on the other hand, is awesome, as it can induce improve power output and oxygen delivery.  Endurance athletes use hyperhydration for this reason, and the way to ensure that you end up with the one rather than the other is to consume 75mg of sodium per 8oz of water.  Additionally, Tim Ferriss and Christian Thibaudeau recommend consuming hand moisturizer to increase the amount of water you hold intra-muscularly.  Before you start rummaging through your nightstand and eating your onanism lube, ensure that it's made of glyerol, which will be called glycerine on the cover label.  As the majority of you likely roll with something more along the lines of Lubriderm, your stash should remain at home, uneaten.  Glycerol has been shown to improve rates of hydration, and even if you don't give a shit about looking "full", "pumped", or "shredded", you should consider including .543g/lb LBM of glycerol and .3984 fluid ounces/lb. LBM.(Ferriss)


Ninety minutes to two hours after you've chugged a gallon of glycerol-infused Pedialyte, you've got two options.  Ferriss recommends using the time-tested endurance ratio of protein to carbs (4:1)- this is probably most easily accomplished with some Waxy Maize and a blended protein (not whey, as you don't want to go catabolic during your meet).  Throw on top of that 100mg of ALA per 75 lbs of bodyweight and 50 mcg of chromium polynicontinate (not picolinate) to increase your insulin sensitivity, in addition to a 15 minutes soak in an Epsom salt bath for magnesium supplementation and muscular reaction, and you're off to the races.  Ferriss, by the way, mentions that you can absorb a tremendous amount of water through the skin even in a shower, demonstrating that it is after the weigh-in that you should shower or bathe, rather than before.(How To Lose) Kroc, on the other hand, eats a real-food meal as soon as possible, and eats as much as he can possibly fit down his gullet.  He also recommends continuing to drink throughout the day, which I would think goes without saying if I didn't see so many people do so much stupid shit every day I leave the house.   
I was looking for a picture of some hot hippie broads with the intention of saying that they needn't ever shower and I will still smash the fucking granny out of that, and found this picture of Dirt Diva, where's she's hilariously referred to as a hippie by someone who cannot spell a simple six letter word.  


... and that's how it's done, motherfuckers.  If you'd like to read about how I did it before doing any research of any kind, check it out here.  Expect the posts to come fast and furious over the next couple of weeks, as I have been slacking.


Sources:
     Armstrong LE, Costill DL & Fink WJ (1985): Influence of diuretic-induced dehydration on competitive running performance. Med. Sci. Sports Exerc. 17, 456–461.
     Ferriss, Tim.  How to lose 30 pounds in 24 hours:  The definitive guide to cutting weight.  The Blog of Tim Ferriss.  http://www.fourhourworkweek.com/blog/2008/01/18/how-to-cut-weight/
     "Hyponatremia." Wikipedia.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyponatremia#Symptoms
     Kroczaleski, Matt. How to Cut Maximum Weight for Competitions with a 24-Hour Weigh In.  http://www.elitefts.com/documents/cut_max_weight_for_comp.htm
     Maughan RJ.  (2003): Impact of mild dehydration on wellness and on exercise performance.  Eur J Clin Nut.  57, Suppl 2, S19–S23.
     Sawka MN & Pandolf KB (1990): Effects of body water loss on physiological function and exercise performance. In Perspectives in Exercise Science and Sports Medicine. Vol. 3, ed. CV Gisolfi & DR Lamb, pp 1–38. Misc: Indianapolis: Benchmark Press.
     Thibaudeau, Christian, and Chris Shugart.  Shredded In Six Days.  http://www.t-nation.com/free_online_article/sports_body_training_performance_diet_mass/shredded_in_6_days
     Wingo JE, Casa DJ, Berger EM, Dellis WO, Knight JC, McClung JM.  nfluence of a Pre-Exercise Glycerol Hydration Beverage on Performance and Physiologic Function During Mountain-Bike Races in the Heat.  J Athl Train. 2004 Jun;39(2):169-175.

47 comments:

  1. Don't eat hand cream! you can get straight glycerin aka glycerol in any pharmacy. WTF. Also for those of you who may be dealing with IOC/WADA drug testing just be aware that glycerin/glycerol taken for plasma expansion (which is the intended purpose here btw) is a banned substance. I shit you not. They "apparently" now have lab data to tell whether or not you got glycerin/glycerol from a low-carb bar of from chugging from the little bottle from the pharmacy just besides isopropyl alcohol. just lettin you know.

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  2. Always wanted to try this. However, strongman = weigh-in 8.30am, first event 9-10am.

    Ever try licorice? From what I've heard, effective but not potassium sparing.

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  3. Obviously, cutting weight would do you no real good there. Getting lean and making weight, however, probably would. Never tried licorice. I assume you mean black, not red, as I have a vague recollection of a bunch of kids dying from eating too much red licorice... VItamin K deficiency or somesuch.

    @Eric- the shit they sell for your hands is, by and large, straight glycerine from what I've seen. I think I was pretty clear people should not eat hand cream, but for those of you who still think you should do so, don't- eat glycerine. As for the IOC thing, that's interesting in that it's basically retarded. The IOC seems to just like to ban every goddamned thing on Earth.

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  4. For those of you who thought this was shitty, feel free to make some suggestions for shit you want to read, haha. You motherfuckers are hard to please.

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  5. I just wish you posted more often haha. But I understand there are only so many topics to be covered.

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  6. I am but one man, and unfortunately don't get paid to do this, so it's strictly a free time thing. I picked up the pace again a bit last month, but took a week's vacation this month and the wheels fell of the bus. I've got a ton of shit half-written though, so we're inching towards and explosion of posts.

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  7. Jamie...have you done a movie top 10? if not you're due. What makes your stuff interesting is the blend of training, nutrition, anthropology, porn and music... and that you don't sell anything. Get the shirts back...I'll get one.
    Desmopressin (not banned by WADA, not controlled by USDA) is the best anti-diuretic to take and is also a nootropic/performance enhancer. It prevents your kidney from excreting water...which could lead to complications...but re-hydrating from a completely dehydrated state you will ironically feel the need to piss before you've finished rehydrating. Talking about losing 10-15 lbs of water here...and putting it back for meet time.

    @J...What do you mean by licorice not being potassium sparring? It has a mineralocorticoid-like substance that makes you hold water...an anti-diuretic of sorts.

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  8. The shirts will be available through Zazzle soon. If any of you know shit about Zazzle, I'll be making a pittance off them- they're for you guys. They'll have the new logo on the front and a variety of things available on the back, or nothing at all.

    Thanks for the suggestion on the blog- I'll do one of the dreaded off topic posts, haha. I've never heard of desmopressin, but I'll look into it. Thanks!

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  9. Sorry for the mis-info. Desmopressin now on the WADA shit-list since january 3rd. Another thing. You know they looked at creatine 15 years ago and came within inches of putting that on the shit-list too.

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  10. Great post as usual. The Four-Hour Body is a great book, lots of interesting ideas I will be applying to myself.

    On the subject of people bitching about your content, then fuck them really. With all the information you and many other websites have posted, if they aren't anywhere near where they want to be fitness wise, then they just don't want to. I'm in the best shape I have ever been in reading your site, Enamait's, TTSDB, etc etc.

    Ideas for posts? Shit You've Never Tried Before, Baddest Motherfucker's are cool series to update. Debunking horseshit training and diet advice as you always do with better advice. Shit like that.

    Thanks for the reading and work you put in, because there is a huge chance I would have never read about a bunch of shit you have posted about without you posting about it. Thank you.

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  11. Javier- Thanks for the suggestions. I've got a Shit You've Never Tried Before In the Pipeline as we speak.

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  12. How about a special on grip-training & outdoor log-training?

    I know that there is already a shit-ton of info out there, but it would be nice to read your opinions/ideas on it.

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  13. Eric,

    Not sure what you mean... I have no idea, I'm afraid, about mineralocorticoid activity (but what I know about the renin-angiotension system couldn't fill a mouse's bathtub).

    Am pretty sure, at least in the short term, licorice is a non-potassium sparing diuretic. There are plenty of reports of licorice giving people crazy levels of hypokalemia:

    http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0167527307001933

    http://www.jstage.jst.go.jp/article/internalmedicine/46/9/46_575/_article

    etc.

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  14. Always love your stuff Jamie, even when it's shit. :) You've entertained and educated me more than any other bodybuilding site on the web.

    More book recommendations if you have any would be great. Maybe some more reviews on training related books such as that one you mentioned liking before, Better Than Steroids by W. Wiley?

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  15. Werd. I've been focusing more on nutrition in my reading lately, but I'll try to jump on some training books.

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  16. @ J...OK this is wierd...both Livestrong and Wikipedia contain conflicting info on Licorice being both a diuretic and anti-diuretic. Can't be both like a sedative can't be a stimulant. Unless there a dose dependent effect where at low-dose it's one and at high dose another. So far...we're both right.

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  17. Thanos- I don't think Jamie gives much of a shit about specific grip training. As far as I can remember, he mentioned doing baseball curls once, whatever that is, and something else I don't remember as pretty much his only direct grip work.

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  18. I really don't do much grip training, but have been meaning to buy a book on hand and grip strength. What I do really wouldn't make much of a blog. Here's Glen's post, though, which details his grip training: http://chaosandpain.blogspot.com/2010/08/want-some-angry-fucking-forearms-heres.html

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  19. Write less about gay things and more about lifting heavy things.

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  20. lol at "catabolic during your meet." I thought we had gotten past that little bro nugget.

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  21. Though I realize that I tend to write a considerable volume of homoerotica, what exactly do you consider to be "gay things"?

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  22. "Gay things", from the brevity of the post, probably means anything that isn't training or training videos. I suspect even nutrition is ambiguously gay to the poster.

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  23. Ah, well, since I clearly created this blog as a testament to my own awesome, I suppose I should get all of my cameras together and make a training montage of some sort. As I do all the time, because I love filming myself lift. It's the best. There's also a tremendous amount of light to shed on training, so I'll jump right on making some ground-breaking proclamations. All for the Blob. And the kids... we mustn't forget the kids.

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  24. To me, nutrition is generally gay unless it is about the advantages of guzzling blood. I put it to you that primitive man did not care about his appearance unless it was to intimidate the enemy or to be accepted as a gimp (if you have evidence otherwise let me know), and also I contend that aiming to be pound-for-pound strong is unwittingly seeking to be one of these guys:
    http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=midget+wrestling&hl=en&safe=off&prmd=imvns&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=CGp6ToTgLqLU0QWf5OGjAw&ved=0CEIQsAQ&biw=1280&bih=593

    That said, I don't mean to belittle you're insight here, and your series about eating like a rapper eats underage pussy was pretty good.

    Are you getting anywhere with your two-hands anyhow attempt? Since that was usually done with a kettlebell in the left hand, and this is now become the go-to for women who worry they are getting fat and remember that their mothers did aerobics and genuinely became fat I thought you would all like this quote from Arthur Saxon:
    "In ring weight-lifting the principle feat, of course, is to hold these out at arm's length." i.e. 1RM attempts.
    Apart from the obscure exercise trail, your "Badass" articles of always pretty good and I am impressed with your decision include Charlie Bronson, who's exercise book includes the chapter on meditation with the end goal being to knock out a cow with one punch.

    Lately I've gotten into neck training and for myself like to do a headstand against a wall then take away my hands, but since your sport is just plain lifting I doubt you've got much interest in that.

    Here ends my elaborate opinion.

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  25. Blob, have you ever tried Mike Bruce's headstand rolls? I did them a while back, and they're pretty fucking fun.

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  26. I've not heard of them, but if it's rolling the head around while in a handstand, then "yes"; and if it is something to do with a normal forward roll then "no".

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  27. That would be a yes then. I worked them in with some plain headstand holds and a lot of rolling bridges and bridge switches afterwards, and the entire thing took about 15 minutes.

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  28. http://www.questformuscle.com/articles/musclemass.html


    any thoughts on this stuff?

    true, false, bullshit?

    thanks,

    -j

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  29. one more thing while im thinking of it,

    what are your thoughts on lifting heavy 6 days a week period, no light days mixed in?

    for example:

    mon heavy push/ pull
    tues heavy legs
    wednes heavy push/ pull but diff lifts.
    thurs heavy legs
    friday heavy push /pull same scheme as mond.
    sat heavy legs again

    too much? not enough "recovery time"?

    too much stimulation for mass growth?

    keeping with a rep scheme of 10 x 3 of course or more, whatever i feel up to that day.

    -j

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  30. Why don't you try it and find out? I rarely take light days anymore unless i'm feeling particularly beat up or i'm suffering from a disgusting hangover. Do as much volume as you feel you can, somedays i'll just work up to a heavy max other days i'll do triples til my balls explode, just get on with it.

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  31. Jippo,

    fuck it, i might as well right!

    nothin to lose with hittin it hard.

    thanks mate.


    -j

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  32. to guys over here, while I wait to Jamie's answer, I'm getting a nasty hand pain near my thumb, when squatting and BTN pressing. Maybe a wrong hand placement?

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  33. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Slzt2JA3zIs&feature=player_embedded Here's the full Ricky Bruch documentary (The Soul Is Greater Than the World) with English subtitles.

    I'd be interested in hearing more about saturated fat and testosterone. I think you promised a post on that.

    I'd love to see a post on power and speed. Shotput, fighting, that kind of thing.

    Also, check out this band, Raubtier. http://grooveshark.com/s/Terror/2opQ9n?src=5

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  34. Awesome documentary thanks for the link. That guy is the epitome of the bollocks! Fucking insane but monumentally badass.

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  35. Anyone got any idea how much that btn jerk is at 11:46 in the first part? Can't quite tell but seems to be around 200kg.

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  36. @animalrage- I covered that here: http://chaosandpain.blogspot.com/2011/08/cant-gain-weight-guess-what-youre-doing_18.html

    I'll do some research on power and speed and get that in the mix in an upcoming blog. New blog tonight on an only moderately gay topic.

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  37. On a similar topic, the early post mentioning the Great Gama's training was a good one. Hence this video about Indian wrestling or something:
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mlf-nX9QzjI&feature=related

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  38. Just what I was looking for. Thanks for all the work, dude. I can't speak for anyone else, but I'm certainly reaping the benefits.

    Also, for anyone interested in some more anecdotal evidence, increasing my cholesterol has led to a fairly noticeable increase in test. (I'm at college and I almost live off hard-boiled eggs from the cafeteria. Saturated fat has been harder to get with all their "healthy options" and shit like that.)

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  39. @animal...what kind of increase are you talking about?

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  40. Quite noticeably leaner triceps area for one. (ala Poliquin's biosignature) But sex drive is the biggest difference. It's always been "abnormally" high, but the amount of wacking off I have to do these days would put a 15 year old to shame.

    (I also get way more aggressive while lifting. I've always trained at home so this one could just be because of all the fucktards I'm suddenly being exposed to.)

    And also the fact that I (unfortunately) am forced to eat a fair amount of utter shit and am still as lean as ever. This did not used to happen whenever I had to eat crap for extended periods. And my lifts are climbing much faster than they were before. These last two could be related to any number of things, of course.

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  41. Gee-whiz, with as many comments as this, you might even think it's time to start a Chaos and Pain forum! I bet it would be successful and not feature Rant!

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  42. There already is one, featuring exclusive (and extensive) details on how much I suck. Also, whoever updated that site previously stopped.

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  43. Thank you for the recent cutting posts, these are gold. Thanks to your advice I went from fat sloppy fuck with a beer gut to almost 4 pack abs in like a month, and all of my lifts are still going up.

    As for suggestions for content I second whoever said to belittle shit training and diets, because although all of the best training info could probably be boiled down into a single bifold pamphlet there will always be 91238592835 retarded fads taking place.

    If you're looking for targets I recommend taking a stab at girevoy kettlebell or even yoga. It would be awfully funny for you to shit on yoga.

    Also, out of curiosity, what's your 1RM bent press?

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  44. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  45. Used both these articles that you cited (before finding this article) to drop 21 lbs in 16 hours, gained 27 back before the meet and was good to go. It works.

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