Plague of Strength

Modulate Your Frequency, Part 2- Get Your Fucking Head Right

Jamie Chaos
I think, by this point, I’ve established fairly conclusively that with the proper application of will, inurement to physical pain and a heavy workload, and adequate sleep and nutrition, that the human body can handle just about anything. That stated, some people might not want to increase their training frequency, or find that the structure of their lives prevents it. If that’s the case, so be it- that’s not to state, however, that they cannot handle much higher training frequency and volume, it’s that they will not. History has shown, however, that it is by and large extreme effort that produces extreme results, so one can hardly fault their genetics for what is in essence their failure to succeed due to a failure of will.
Best pose ever?
To men who had the will and applied it, Saxon and Aston, both managed to put overhead upwards of 300 lbs with one hand- there’s not a single person on the planet who could even begin to approach that feat, much less duplicate it. Hermann Goerner, at a bodyweight of between 240 and 275, deadlifted 727 with one hand and 793.66 with two, both raw and natural, and with a double overhand hook grip. (Willoughby, 94) According to powerliftingwatch.com, there’s only one person in the current rankings at 242 who could match Goerner’s deadlift, and only 3 at 275- and none of those guys are in tested federations. Charles Rigoulot, at a bodyweight of 200 lbs, clean and jerked 402 in 1924 (Willoughby, 98), a feat untouched until the steroid era by a guy of a similar weight, and the guy who beat him never punched a Nazi officer in the fucking face- Rigoulot did, even though he was a Frenchman.
Wrong Frenchman to fuck with.
So how, then, could this have been possible? These guys trained constantly, competed far more frequently than modern lifters, and were capable of lifting tremendous poundages in an astonishing array of lifts, refusing to merely consign themselves to excellence in one or two lifts. They should not, by the standards of the modern nay-sayers, have been able to lift a paperweight, given their random, brutal, and consistent training regimens, without the aid of supplemental GH, steroids, and of course, the ubiquitous black magic utilized by anyone who does something the plebes cannot. If you’re finding yourself offended or disgusted by any part of this series, or if you’re busy making excuses for why you can’t handle more than four training sessions a week, you’re probably a generally weak person, tell people that you “test badly” to excuse your insanely low grades and standardized testing scores, and a bad lay.
This is, however, not entirely your fault. We live in a society where children are raised singing idiot songs led by purple dinosaurs. They sit in front of a television, are refused the opportunity to explore the world by their parents, who although they fear that child rapists and gypsies lie in wait for their children behind every tree, refuse to pay any attention to them. As such, the children are raised to be slothful, close-minded, virtually useless consumers incapable of thinking for themselves and bereft of the ability to make logical deductions. Whereas previous generations either encouraged or forced children out of doors to explore and get exercise, to become inquisitive and learn shit on their own, our society teaches them to fear the unknown, to sit on their asses, and to avoid anything that constitutes physical effort.
If you haven’t yet seen They Live, you need to, stat.

It’s a shitshow, to be sure, but this is the world in which we live. As such, people in the modern world are by and large both physically and mentally incapable of repeating the feats of the people of bygone eras, due to their brainwashing and soft bodies. This makes our task much more difficult, but it’s not impossible- we can regain our former glory. It’s going to be a massive pain in the ass, however, and will require a level of physical and mental effort that will transcend anything most people have ever experienced.
How then, should one go about embarking upon this journey? It’s not as though a person can simply go from being one of the obese, wheelchair-bound social networking addicts of that sheatheap movie Wall-E to an aspiring Bulgarian weightlifter in a day. Or a month. Or a year. The examples I’ve put forth were all those of people who’ve spent their lives enjoying massive amounts of physical activity, and then applying that enjoyment to becoming epic lifters of prodigious weights. Similarly, the incredibly Olympic weightlifters of Bulgaria, Russia, and China all begin their careers in the sport at an extremely young age. Thus, when they hit puberty, their bodies have already been tempered by iron, and they’re used to spending hours every day in the gym. Not only are they used to it- the best of them enjoy it. It’s a way of life. There’s hardly a person in America today, in a land where at best they play soccer a couple of months a year and no one keeps score, where everyone’s taught to a test, the nail that sticks up is hammered down, and books like Your Fat is Not Your Fault are front row and center in bookstores, who’s prepared to embark upon a weightlifting regimen that could lead them to the greatness of the behemoths of the past or the titans of the non-Western present.
Dunno if this is getting your head right… but everything about that is definitely right.
You’ve got to start somewhere, however, and here’s what I suggest:
First, you’ve got to get your fucking head right. This might mean devoting a great deal of time to learning about the people I’ve mentioned, or simply reading about people you find inspiring. Developing a positive mental environment is essential, however, as no amount of negative motivation can propel your fat ass into the gym 12 times a week. That jackass who slobbers all over the place while screaming “Lift the weight, you fucking pussy” needs to take a fucking dirt nap… or at least stay the fuck away from you. That bullshit isn’t conducive to becoming better- at best, it’s only encouragement not to continue sucking. Three books I recommend to aid you in this pursuit are The Super-Athletes by David Willoughby, Manthropology by Peter McAllister, and Gladiator by Philip Wylie. I’ve mentioned the first two ad nauseum, but the third is an insanely inspirational novel that essentially birthed the superhero fiction genre, is both thought-provoking and massively poignant, and the protagonist bears “an immense loathing for the world.” It’s not your typical goodie-goodie horseshit- it’s actually compelling. One of the quotes is part of the reason I started this blog:

“‘Eugenic offspring. Cultivated and reared in secret by a society for the purpose. Not necessarily your children, but the children of the best parents. Perfect bodies, intellectual minds, your strength. Don’t you see it, Hugo? You are not the reformer of the old world. You are the beginning of the new. . . The New Titans! Then — slowly — you dominate the world. Conquer and stamp out all these things to which you and I and all men of intelligence object. In the end — you are alone and supreme.’”

(An aside- Clearly, I thus far have had no interest in creating any progeny. My offspring are my thoughts, my opinions, and the results of my continuous and exhaustive research into strength training and nutrition. Like the protagonist in Gladiator, I fight bitterly and constantly against the philistines of the world- people who blindly accept the conventions and mundanities of our society, reject intellectualism, and heartily embrace all that is trite, so that they can pass through the world like unthinking drones in drab, uninteresting lives. For those of you horrified by this amalgamation of socio-political theory and physical culture, you probably should be- I intend to incite a small revolution.)
Is Sarah B the product of some super-secret Swedish eugenics program? Possibly. And well fucking done, Sweden.
Next, you’re going to have to experiment with increasing your frequency. This is where you apply the shit I just outlined in the above paragraph to yourself- start thinking for yourself, rather than letting others do the thinking for you. When I was first confronted with the question of how to increase one’s training frequency, I was incredulous. Why not just ask me how to get out of fucking bed? It shouldn’t even be like learning to tie you shoes, I thought. Well, apparently I’m the only one who thinks that way. As such, I gave some consideration to my transformation from a bodypart workout guy to a full body routines with higher volume guy, and recalled my experience with Chad Waterbury’s High Frequency System. The program is pretty fucking awesome, in my opinion, and is a nice primer for anyone who’s looking to increase their training frequency and dabble in the same sort of training I do. The essence of the program was essentially to use three weeks to acclimate to a training regimen unlike the bodypart split most people follow. In the fourth week, you add a second workout once a day, ever four days. At that point, then, you’re doing a morning and an evening workout once every four days in place of a single workout. By the seventh week, you’re doing two-a-days two days in a row, taking a day off, and repeating. It was pretty much fucking genius, provided you started at the beginning.
Rumor has it that Ajax used Waterbury’s programs. Read your Homer, it’s in there.
I, of course, started at the end, and I paid the price. If you’re used to slow-paced, single or double bodypart workouts, jumping headlong into a routine wherein you’re training everything multiple times a week, and twice a day to boot, is unadulterated insanity. To say that I was sore all the time was a vast understatement, and I eventually cut my training back to M-WT-S, with two sessions either on Saturday or Wednesday. It involved a lot of experimentation, but that’s what I eventually adopted as reasonably comfortable. Later, I dropped the two a days and monkeyed with the program in the Waterbury Method, adding and subtracting the shit I didn’t like. It wasn’t until George Bush utterly laid waste to the economy while I was in grad school that I started training twice a day regularly, however. Being marginally employed or employed at a gym gives you plenty of time to train, and that’s when shit really started to take off for me. I guess I can thank GWB for that.
Next up: “Part 3- the Bulgarian system, what I would do if I were you, and what I do since I’m me.”
If you want to download Gladiator in pdf format, you can do it here.
Sources:
Willoughby, David. The Super Athletes.
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Jamie Chaos Avatar
Jamie Chaos
I am a former all-time, all federation world record holder in raw powerlifting at 181lbs, a record I broke just to say fuck you to the internet’s “lifting” community and the powerlifting community at large. Over the last ten years I’ve written over 500 articles on strength training, nutrition, and supplementation, and continue to do so simply to fight the tide of weakness and sadness that currently pervades the scene I’ve called home for the better part of three decades. I’ve got personal trainin certs, BodyPump and BodyCombat certs, a BA in History and East Asian Studies from the University of Arizona, and MBAs from the Vienna University and University of South Carolina on my side, in addition to some sick lifts and a hell of a lot of rage. What the fuck have you got?

28 responses to “Modulate Your Frequency, Part 2- Get Your Fucking Head Right”

  1. Mike Avatar
    Mike

    Quite good so far. Y'know, when you occasionally drop the super-you caricature that you use and speak with sincerity, you have a pretty inspiring viewpoint, one that I agree with.

  2. Ryan Avatar
    Ryan

    Jamie, I'm a physical education major and I notcied how you touched upon the aspect of children and lifting vs. children and television
    (Barney). I, myself, lifted a couple times in middle and high school. I didn't become completely involved in lifting until college. I was wondering, what you though was an acceptable age to introduce weight lifting and nutrition. I have taught many nutrition lessons, but I have never taught any elementary weight lifting lessons. I'm just curious as to what your take is.

  3. Nic Kirkland Avatar
    Nic Kirkland

    Ryan, it's never too early. All that stuff about weightlifting stunting growth is just silly bullshit. John Welbourn just had a really good post addressing the issue:

    http://talktomejohnnie.com/lifting-weights/strength-training-for-young-athletes

  4. Manveet Avatar
    Manveet

    anybody know where I can purchase a copy of The Super Athletes? Seems to be out of print.

    Solid post Jamie. Sure to fire up many of us.

  5. Dray Avatar
    Dray

    I couldn't find anywhere myself.

    Like I've said before, more frequency seemed pretty simple to me, and I was really almost able to jump straight in. I think, pretty quickly, I'll be at a premium of workrate.

  6. Anonymous Avatar
    Anonymous

    My new office happens to be about 50 meters (thats 150 feet) away from my gym, and ever since we moved there I have been training every day (with the occasional days off) doing full body work-outs and squatting every single day, and so-far I havent felt any detriment from that, quite contrary I have been improving a lot in all aspects (weight loss, strength gains, "the naked guy in the mirror").

    So, I am not doing two-a-days, my schedule doesnt allow that, but training every single day rules!

    – Alex

  7. Paul Avatar
    Paul

    Jamie, I've got a new traveling job, and consequently will only be able to train during weekends (Fr, Sat, Sun), as I'm mainly going to be in medium cities in Europe where proper free weight gyms are difficult to find.
    Do you think training consecutively on those 3 days is going to be alright when the body doesn't have to do much for the next 4 days? Should I still eat in excess during the week, or will growth mainly be fat? (I think that muscle growth in response to stress only happens up ca 2 days after).

    Thanks!

  8. Anonymous Avatar
    Anonymous

    Brooks Kubik recently wrote a blog post about training once a week…
    I'm so confused- why would he even advocate that kind of thing when he knows so much about the "old timers"?
    Sometimes I just don't get him…
    (Here's the link:)
    http://www.dinosaurtraining.blogspot.com/

    And to Paul:
    Do handstand pushups, one arm pushups. pullups, glute ham raises and single leg squats on the days you can't use weights.
    There are countless bodyweight movements that can be done.

  9. Dray Avatar
    Dray

    Last anon- I actually sent Jamie one of the recent Kubik newsletter emails discussing with Tommy Kono the idea of training only once per week.

    I just think Brooks Kubik has gone slightly insane. He has had some good advice, such as way back when when he described training for an amateur wrestler. I believe he described- 5 days per week of 2+ hours of sprints and wrestling, 3 days per week of heavy lifting of various sorts with a ton of grip work tossed in, and a pretty interesting sandbag movement done for pretty high reps with as close to bodyweight as possible, which was basically a toss from a gutwrench position.

  10. Anonymous Avatar
    Anonymous

    Brooks has aged and learned that killing yourself catches up to you. Some of you twats need to go work a real job that requires lifting for 8 hours per day and then tell me after 3 years how well you body had adapted.

  11. Jamie Lewis Avatar
    Jamie Lewis

    Brooks' point int hat blog appears to have been that training once a day is better than not training at all.

  12. ScottON Avatar
    ScottON

    Jamie, that Gladiator book was awesome. Gonna have to check out the other two you recommended.

    Cheers.

  13. Anonymous Avatar
    Anonymous

    However the economy got kicked to the ground, we can all agree that Obama has been doing his very best to dry-hump it into permanent submission.

  14. Jamie Lewis Avatar
    Jamie Lewis

    That he has, hahaha. Well put, sir. The only man who could save us is Jesse the Body, and he's said "fuck it" and moved to Mexico. We are well and truly fucked.

  15. Anonymous Avatar
    Anonymous

    Arnie is tying to sort shit out by legalizing weed. California is making a tidy profit from medical weed atm. They will be rolling it in if they fully legalize it.

  16. Anonymous Avatar
    Anonymous

    weed is just as bad as soy
    enjoy your bitch tits

  17. Anonymous Avatar
    Anonymous

    Another epic post, great work.

  18. Anonymous Avatar
    Anonymous

    weed = good for recovery from badass training.

  19. Anonymous Avatar
    Anonymous

    it was actually bill clinton who repealed the Glass/Steagall Act of 1933, which ultimately led to the lending crisis. he also gave us NAFTA and increased trade with China.

  20. Anonymous Avatar
    Anonymous

    Soy horseshit

    http://outsideonline.com/fitness/travel-ga-201010-soy-sidwcmdev_151869.html

  21. bitchtits Avatar
    bitchtits

    this one article I found solves everything! Hurray internet!

  22. Jesse Richards Avatar
    Jesse Richards

    Great call on Gladiator Jamie, I read the whole thing in one sitting then went out and got to work. It's damn inspiring.

  23. Daniel Avatar
    Daniel

    Agreed. Gladiator is pretty awesome.

  24. Anonymous Avatar
    Anonymous

    Alan Greenspan is responsible. Dude floored the economy after 911, and now we pay.

  25. Eric Avatar
    Eric

    When's the next installment coming out?!?!?! This series has been awesome, waiting for your ideas on the Bulgarian system. Not patiently!

  26. Ziga H Avatar
    Ziga H

    @Eric: http://chaosandpain.blogspot.com/2010/10/modulate-2.html

  27. Blogger Avatar
    Blogger

    Did you know you can shorten your links with AdFly and get $$$$ for every click on your short links.

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    Blogger

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