I’ve decried the modern era of lifting for a wide variety of things ranging from people treating competitive lifting like a fun run to the idiotic dogmatism people have for certain training methods / disciplines to rampant consumerism, but perhaps no other modern era tendency in lifting is more ubiquitous or fucking annoying than the tendency people have to endlessly talk about lifting on the internet. Day in and day out people are yammering on about their latest unmemorable workout, their new program, what diet they’re on, or asking questions about a mishmash of those things and making vast proclamations about what they intended to do. This phenomenon has come to make me hate the online community of lifters that I’d lose sleep over the fact that the gym is no longer the bastion of awesome it once was, but is instead filled with people I would literally as soon kill as look at. The internet has literally ruined lifting, the lifting community, gyms, and has made just about everyone with whom I might have had something in common nothing more than prey and a target for pure hatred.
Why anyone gives a shit what you did for your daily workout is a mystery to me. I’m reasonably certain if anyone does, it’s a bunch of pasty-faced doughy fucktards jerking their dicks to lifting vids, never having lifted a day in their lives. The whole thing is so bizarre and narcissistic I have trouble understanding how I’m part of the same species. And worse than being confusingly conceited (since everyday lifting is pretty drab), it serves absolutely no purpose. “Didn’t feel 100% but posted this stupid bullshit anyway / felt off / my dog was triggered by what a cat said to him so I was distracted / whatever” THEN DON’T FUCKING POST IT. Journalists don’t get to just vomit a bunch of lackluster bullshit onto the news page accompanied by weak-assed excuses and caveats because they desperately required validation. Chess players aren’t posting random lost games online with a litany of saddie commentary about how they weren’t feeling up to snuff, BECAUSE EVEN CHESS PLAYERS ARE TOUGHER THAN LIFTERS AT THIS POINT. Where the fuck is your pride? Is that your identity? Your identity is endless excuses and mediocrity?
And if you are claiming it’s for a training log, I call bullshit. First, training logs are for the retarded- if you can’t remember what you lifted, spend less time fucking around on the internet while you’re in the gym and acting like a professional photographer and FUCKING LIFT. Maybe if you’re less distracted with fucking Fitspiration (holy shit you people make me want to smash my laptop with a hammer because you’re more annoying than a flock of midgets singing songs from the Wizard of Oz and more pathetic than Louie CK’s game with women) and taking selfies while acting like the next George fucking Butler, you could remember what you’d lifted. Second, if it were part of a training log, you’d either have insanely truncated workouts or you’re a fucking liar because you’re never going to watch 60+ minutes of training.
Which in no way brings me to my point, but as I’m gonna digress about 100 more times about how much I hate just about everyone on the planet I’ll rein it in. Rocky Marciano once said (and I think this is an old Italian adage), “Do it. Don’t talk about it.” The man was the only undefeated heavyweight champion ever and was so undersized he’d even be a small cruiserweight today. In spite of being pocket-sized and not particularly quick or skilled, he out-worked everyone and went on to win 43 fights by knockout. This beast never talked about being the champ outside of the ring- the neighborhood kids were amazed that he’d come home from fights and toss the football around with them in the street like regular-old Joe Blow. Did he ever bore them to fucking death with talk of his workouts, or his diet, or any other of the minutia you fucking people endlessly discuss as if it matters in the slightest? No- he was too busy training, or reading books, or playing football with neighborhood kids, or practicing his Italian. There’s a great big wide world out there, assholes. Shut the fuck up about training and your diet and learn about it.
What matters is exactly what you lack: effort. Execution. And the reason? You spend so much energy boring everyone to death with talk of what you’re doing or going to do that you siphons energy from what you should be doing- training. You’re an energy leech off yourself and others (not that you care about anyone else, because the internet generation are the most self-serving, self-absorbed, whiny, purportedly disordered, useless sacks of monkey shit the world has ever seen) and you’re preventing yourself from being anything than what the hideously vast majority of you are- pathetically average or below average.
While we’re at it, STOP TELLING PEOPLE YOUR TRAINING AND PHYSIQUE GOALS. Holy shit. Years ago, I thought I had driven this fucking point home harder than Paul Walker drove his into a lamp post, but here’s a refresher- if you tell people your goals, you’re less likely to achieve them than Paul Walker and Ryan Dunn are to star in the next (and hopeful last) Fast and the Furious. It’s science– you create something called a social reality in which your brain thinks its achieved the goal already, and the social recognition you all crave so much makes you so fucking happy inside that you just throw up your hands and say fuck it. And then proceed to bore us all with endless posts of spiritless gym drudgery replete with the aforementioned excuses.
Finally, the worse form of the talkers are the fuckwits critiquing form online, and they should just die. Long and slow. They’re a pussy or a cunt, their mom is a whore, their dad is a bitch, and their brothers and sisters should have been aborted. 9/10 of them have never lifted a fucking thing heavier than a jug of milk, and the other 1/10 are insecure pussies who for whatever reason feel the need to diminish the accomplishments of others to pump up their already overinflated egos It’s fucking pathetic, and while they should kill themselves, they won’t because they’re bitch-made to the point they make Kevin Spacey look like a paragon of masculinity and virtue. To them I say: I hope you all get mouth cancer and your kids are born deformed. Weak sauce, bitch made cunts.
To Wrap Things Up…
This is not your sport. And I don’t mean, maybe you’re just not all that good and blah, blah, blah. I mean this is my sport. It’s the sport of the people who trained in the 1970s, 80s, and 90s who didn’t define themselves by a particular weightlifting discipline- they just lifted and busted their asses and had fun doing it. People who were perfectly happy to hear your training maxes because they only competed to prove they were the best, rather than get some worthless trophy or medal to validate their existence. The sport of people who would all show up to a competition if someone in their gym was competing because it meant that person had a legit shot at winning– and even if they didn’t we’d descend on a pizza place in a mob and bullshit about just about anything but training afterwards. This is the sport of the dudes who trained outside at Muscle Beach in the 1960s. This is the sport of Saxon and Goerner and the dudes who trained in their gyms and trained like fucking lunatics. If you don’t want to be awesome, if you don’t want to exhibit the modicum of personal pride that should prevent you from posting lackluster videos on the internet and endlessly discussing training minutae online while skipping workouts or meals, if you need Fitspo to get into the gym or not fall down weeping when someone doesn’t tell you how pretty you are in the office one day, then GET THE FUCK OUT. We don’t want you. We don’t need you. We don’t like you. We fucking hate you. We want the fucking weight stack to fall on your weepy little head every time we see you in the gym.
Fucking spot on as always. This is some 2009-esque CnP rage. I like it. The era of “fitness” and its abhorrent melding with the, already fucking pathetic, millennial psyche has taken a gigantic, weak-flowing, estrogen filled piss, all over lifting. It is disgusting.
It is. And I'm all the fucking way back. No one is safe. No more nonsense
Spot on. More weight, more anger, and fewer fucking hashtags would do the "fitness" world a load of good.
The revolt against the internet era of lifting starts right fucking now.
Ahahahaha brilliant!
A call to arms. This is good.
Now I believe you're back. And with vengeance!
I'd say i have a take no prisoners attitude, but we've gotta feed the army. Just like in Return of the living dead, but it'll be "send more pairs."
Jawohl!
You're a fucking genius. And I'll never forget when you roasted that guy who wrote to you and "wanted" to be the most badass, tyre flipping, chalk covered strongman ever, if only you could hold his hand and tell him exactly what to do… pathetic
And you get an extra point for having that Tuco meme
I actually made all of the memes in this.
Jamie, you are a funny motherfucker. for some reason this post made me go back and read your ask the asshole posts from way back. Haaaalarious.
Haha. Thanks bruh.
I was right there with you on all this, until i read "loudmouth natty pussies"… If you're implying being natty makes someone a pussy, then i disagree. It's the opposite (usually). Other than that, good post.
I would hazard a guess that he probably meant the legions of whiny bitches on Reddit etc who spend their time obsessing over who is "natty" and the limits of "nattiness".
Whar Jippo said. There's absolutely nothing wrong with being natty- the holler than thou idiots constantly pontificating about who is and isn't on is what I was referring to.
Fair enough.
Jamie – I appreciate the time and effort you're devoting to the C&P rennisance. Awesome article!
Not sure if you're back in town but I'm out of the Reading area if you're ever down for lifting heavy shit and grabbing half a cow and a fish tank of whisky after.
Btw, do you have plans for publishing any more of your short stories/works of fiction? I loved "The Tunnel" parts 1 and 2 as I'm a huge Lovecraft fan and enjoy the good 'ol tentacle rape porn and found your story achieved both admirably, haha.
Ha! I didn't know anyone was into that. Tell you what- I'll make it a point to get more of that out. I'm always down to lift, but my license is currently suspended so you'd have to give me a ride. I actually train at a pretty dope gym in Allentown called Teambix. Hit me up on FB and we'll coordinate. Maybe an epic training session followed by Brazilian at Rodizo's.
This comment gives accuracy:
you create something called a social reality in which your brain thinks its achieved the goal already, and the social recognition you all crave so much makes you so fucking happy inside that you just throw up your hands and say fuck it
I can't tell you how many fucking times I have Soliders fucking say ranger school, air assault, and all this "I'm going to gym in the morning, I swear" hahaha i revel in the fact that I DO it every fuckin morning and probably makes them repeat social reality shit for shit gratification. Jamie, great job! Keep doing your thing! I just shared this with my Soldiers so they can rise above mediocrity
That's awesome, man. Being about it, rather than talking about it, is what it's all about.
On a wholly unrelated note, I had planned to do an article called "This is my war" using principles from Warfighting, Von Clausewitz, and some other military texts and applying them to lifting. Would you find that objectionable? I know some military operators get pissed when lifting is likened to going to battle. I see a difference however, in going to battle as a warrior and going to war as a soldier.
I don't see it being an issue, there is a difference but why would they get pissed about some article on the interwebs lol.
Good post keep this regularity up please.
Not at all man! I encourage that you bring real shit to the table. If an "operator" gets pist off fuggem! probably a keyboard warrior anyway haha! Interesting point on Warrior going to battle and Soldier going to war. Lifting is war within oneself to get off their muthafuckin asses!
Badass. I'll whip that one up next week when I'm back home and have access to my full library.
Fuck yeah, great to see some vintage CnP back! I'm hoping you bring back that boi-pussy for some more hardore bottoming action too, love that shit! Keep up the hard work!
Reddit's best shot. You guys are a fucking one trick pony.
I know your approach is based on the "it's an art not a science" philosophy (you said as much), but I'm curious if you've ever experimented with bioindicators? I don't put much stock in them the way the Ferriss-wannabes do, plotting everything, but I'd definitely be interested in your thought on the matter.
I've done a bit of that, but it was in 2008 and I honestly couldn't tell you more than they did nothing but distract me from lifting. If you lack the self-awareness to auto-regulate, you should probably just stick to playing checkers. Know what I mean?
Awesome article! Glad to see you're back!
You wrote an article a few years back about some badass warrior-philosopher types. Thought it was the Spartans, or someone Grecian or Roman. There was a term associated with it. Not only did they train their bodies, but their minds too. Tried to search for it but couldn't find it. Any chance you remember it?
I don't, but I'll hunt around and see what I find. I know the Greeks and the samurai had similar mindsets on that.
Kalos kagathos.
Holy shit that's it! Kalos Kagathos! Thanks!
Gonna say yes and no – dialectical response for you there Jamie. .
Peaking for pl meets I followed a log of my previous attempts and it helped keep me on track. Some programmes are really good – like the fighter pullup programme, and that depends on logging and incremental efforts.
Beating the book is a good way to progress. Mostly it simply means keeping a very short record, just beat the last session.
Pullups are the very last thing for which you need a program, haha. You just do pullups at every workout. That is one exercise that is just about volume, I think.
You can do it both ways. I got serious about weighted chins and dips and did the fighter pull up scheme for both. Really it works with loads of moves, dunno why it was called the fighter pull up programme. I have used it extensively.
Day 1 3, 2, 1, 1
Day 2 3, 2, 1, 1
Day 3 3, 2, 2, 1
Day 4 3, 3, 2, 1
Day 5 4, 3, 2, 1
Day 6 Off
Day 7 4, 3, 2, 1, 1
Day 8 4, 3, 2, 2, 1
Day 9 4, 3, 3, 2, 1
Day 10 4, 4, 3, 2, 1
Day 11 5, 4, 3, 2, 1
Day 12 Off
etc.
Little steps 6 days a week…you go far.
Not even trying to sound hard, but pull-ups are something I just do it till I get bored with them… come on, really, you gonna count them? Do it between exercises, do it in the middle the day, do it when you wake up, train yourself to do it with one hand, do it with different grips, do sets to be your record, do it with little rest, weighted, whatever!, have fun!, not even worth THINKING about it, let alone applying a science to it. I guarantee you'll have progress and on the top of it develop a great work ethic.
WOW! Thanks for the tips Superman!!
Fucking faggot….
Jamie! Just saw that your writing again… hell yes!
Maybe you gave up on this, but it would be awesome to read a series like your "Training for the Apocalypse" post. Maybe this time, training to overthrow an Alex Jones style new world order, or maybe to fuck up some chaos daemons in some Monster Hunter Nation or Warhammer 40k/Fantasy type shit.
Of course i'll keep reading whatever you put out… ok, enough dick sucking for now. Rock on.
Ha! I know I had one in the works- the Robopocalypse, as I recall, and I was going to use Magnus the Robot Fighter and the book Robopocalypse as source material. I'll get that back in the mix. A new BME should drop today though.
Jamie, maybe you could write about Rickson Gracie, he's great.
What at, giving you a boner? Fucking faggot.
I copy great people, you retarded troll
Another interesting mothefucker maybe would worth mentioning is jujimufu. Anyways, thanks!
Shut up, faggot
Say this to my face I take your life, you retarded cunt
faggot
wont stop typing will you, useless old cunt, lol
Faggot. Oh and thank your mom for me. She took her teeth out before sucking my cock. Very considerate. Shame you weren't there, i could have taken your teeth out too.
lol get off the keyboard you dumb ass lame bitch with this stupid ass gay name lol, fucking retarded
Cocksucker