HOLY SHIT! Welcome to 2:1:5. Are we seriously finishing up the first week of phase 2 already? How are you feeling? The balance between strength and hypertrophy with the upper/lower split should have left you both pumped and sore. I know for me it has. Man, I am aching. Because this week reminded me that what we are doing is going to hurt, I felt it was a good idea to a) remind you guys it is going to hurt and b) give you a weekend challenge that will hurt really, really fucking bad.
It will either kill you or not kill you. But here you are doing something you love so just fucking do it and stop bitching about it.
Kai Greene, one of the WBF favorites, is a guy who knows his shit. We here are very much ideologically in sync with Kai about lifting methods. His style and his attitude makes him a natural inspiration for us.
Kai says that “if you think the pain of making a necessary change is too much for you to endure, wait until you one day experience the pain of having not changed, and when there’s not enough time in your life left to take back control of where you are, how you are and what you are.” Kai nails it perfectly here. Hold on fellas, it is coming. All the people telling you how lucky you are. Just smile at them and remember what you suffered and what you gave up, how hard you worked to get what you want.
When that pain kicks in, own it. Love it. It is yours and only yours. As Arnold reminds us, “the
All you need to do is adjust your perception.
pain that you hold is yours. There is not a single pain quite like it. Nobody else on God’s green earth can feel this pain, or have the indescribable feeling of pride you will have when you overcome it. This pain is not your curse; this pain is your privilege.”
A lot of guys make the very easy to make mistake of seeing people talk about how great their workout was and how good they feel in general and think that there is no associated misery. For those of you who are new to the game or those of you who are thinking about jumping in…..Yes….it fucking hurts. It hurts all the time. There are ways to work out for health where you maintain a regular and active schedule keeping your heart and body healthy, getting your sweat on and keeping your bodyfat at acceptable levels. This is fine for most people but this is NOT what we are doing here.
In order to get what we are going for you have to make your deal with the devil. You will wake up early. You will miss out on a lot of fun things. Your life will revolve around going to the gym, eating and cooking. When that nice spring weather comes and it is light out longer and you want to hit a bar after work and have a few drinks and a burger and just not think about it, you can’t. You need to be measuring your 8 oz of lean protein and making your salad. You need to
If your quads are not parallel to the ground you are not squatting. Team WBF goes below parallel on every squat. If this means lighter weights, so be it. We are building muscle, not measuring dicks.
be chugging the rest of your two gallons of water. Walking past those places where they are sitting outside laughing, flirting, having a nice time just to get home and get to what is essentially your second job is going to suck — and what is more, while you are doing it you will be in fucking pain the whole time.
One of my favorite Arnold quotes and one that sticks with me in the hardest times is that EVERYBODY PITIES THE WEAK….JEALOUSY YOU HAVE TO EARN.
I find that once I hit my stride, the only time I am not sore is when I am in the gym. I guess it is the adrenaline or endorphins or whatever.
Look, I am not saying that a rigorous schedule, a life focused around gym and diet, missing out on a lot of social events and constantly being sore is a good thing or that it is for everyone, but it is the price of admission to this club.
It takes a certain brand of lunatic to make this trade off. I am
In the gym we find out how much we can endure, not how much we can do.
that kind of lunatic and I know a few of you are too. If you aren’t, there are loads of ways to get in a little bit better shape, lose a few pounds and eat moderately healthy. I will happily point them out to you. But for the rest of you fucking lunatics, as we finish the first week of the second phase and go into the second, know that you are working towards something outstanding and you will get it. The cost is high, I won’t lie to you, but the reward is there.
So the WBF Weekend Challenge this week is going to be a massive volume leg press challenge. If you don’t have access to a leg press you should look into either Landmine or Renegade squats. If you don’t have access to the hinge for that, do front squats. If you don’t have a power rack you can do goblet squats.
The challenge is simple. Load up on enough weight to hit an RPE of 9 in 15-18 reps. With that weight on I want you to do 100 reps. Just one set. Not 10×10, not 5×20. Just do 100 reps. Rest where you have to, but I want all 100 of them. I almost never give out weights, but I will let you know that I will do my 100 with 270# loaded onto the sled. The reason I am telling you is because I want to tell you how I went about picking my weight.
Gonna suck sometimes.
Yesterday during my leg day I looked at my prior numbers (always bring that pencil onto the floor and mark down the weights you used…even if it isn’t to gauge getting stronger, it helps you better pick your RPE the next week) and figured I could get about 12 reps with 270. So, I loaded up the 6 plates and pushed it and when I hit 12 I had plenty of gas in the tank. Kept pushing until I got 18 before I really needed to stop.
So, the way I figure it, over 100 reps, if I could get 18 @ 9.5 RPE I will average out to about a 9 RPE for every 15 given it will be more on the front end and less on the back end.
Please keep in mind, there is no science to this — just fucking around with numbers. I will either be right or wrong and that information, one way or another, will inform my choices going forward. In the meantime, right or wrong, I will get my 100 reps with perfect form and so will you.
Leg Press 1×100
Get that grind fellas! There are 23 days until spring. Are you gonna be beater ready?