I HATE not training

I'm disgusted with myself. I haven't lifted in 8 days straight - irritating stuff like life and work got in the way, and consequently I've began to feel some effects of not training.
The most obvious and unusual one is that I start to get a lot more aches and pains - I'll wake up with my lower back, hips and shoulders killing me, and I've just effectively done a complete deload. AND I'M ONLY 18 YEARS OLD. I've got no excuse for this. I'm still not even strong.
I guess that when I'm regularly training, I'm like a well-oiled machine, everything works fine. As soon as I stop for a while, shit gets rusty and I start aching like a 50 year old. I need to get a better schedule - training at school takes the piss.

Music-wise, here's a fucking awesome sludge band called Unearthly Trance. These guys just sound the bomb, they are thick, slow and heavy, with killer riffs.
Check out this and 'God Is A Beast', from their album Electrocution, if you have the time. You won't regret it.

In other news, I often train alone. No surprise there, considering there is about as much knowledge of lifting in the school gym as there is about quantum chromodynamics. (i.e. I'm the only one with even a vague fucking idea of what it is).
Though recently I've trained with a couple of guys in quick sessions, and I love to throw down challenges to speed up the training and get in some competition. These always let you push yourself harder than you would, and we're all guilty of slacking off occasionally, taking a few extra seconds rest or (something I don't think I've ever done but see it all too often) skipping sets and reps.
So my point is, if you have someone similarly motivated, try doing your smaller work or assistance with them, and do it as a challenge for some added fun.
Often, a partner can just get in the way on the main movements, especially if they're training different exercises. Unless you're all doing the same thing, e.g. a powerlifting club. Hence why I often train alone - I know what the fuck I'm doing, and I'm not stripping the squat bar so you can do bent over rows between my sets.

Got to go, the Nazi internet filter is about to cut off seeing as it's approaching 11pm, so see thee later.

Crossing Disciplines, aka. getting generally STRONG

Recently, I seem to be tending away from pure powerlifting, and more towards getting super-strong in general. I'm drawn to both Olympic lifting and Strongman, as it seems that they both develop more athleticism than just powerlifting. Now I know that is pretty much based on how much conditioning and athletic shit you do in your training, and I'm not saying there isn't an athletic powerlifter anywhere, but guys from both of these sports are, for the most part, lean as shit, strong as shit and just awesome.

 A steady diet of fucking heavy ATG squats

This is why I've started to incorporate other movements from powerlifting stuff now in my sessions. I'm starting to do a lot more Olympic-style squats - you can go on about different movement patterns and not carrying over to PL-style, etc. but the fact remains that bigger, stronger legs will give you a bigger squat, and it just so happens that Olympic squatting is one hell of a good way to build the aforementioned legs.

I'm also looking to slot in more overhead work, and in the medium-term I'm looking for a bodyweight strict press, and a 100kg jerk. 'Cos big strong shoulders never hurt anyone. And they can only help the bench.

Zydrunas didn't get here by avoiding overhead work. And he can probably bench a house, raw, with tits in his face.

Speaking of which...

Well, it's getting on late now, and my birthday is tomorrow. I need to be prepared for the onslaught of alcohol in all its manifestations over the next 36 hours, so if you'll excuse me for a few days - I must battle the mother of all hangovers.

Until next time.

These are a few of my favourite things...

This post will be pretty much a haphazard mess of whatever's currently on my mind. I've just finished deadlifting and set a PR in the process (147.5kg x5 - contain your orgasms) and am now looking forward to a big ol' bowl of beef stew.
My training has been progressing fairly well recently - I'm getting stronger session to session, and seem to have overcome the plateau I had been stuck at for quite a few months through sheer hate and swapping to 5/3/1. I, as anyone, am occasionally guilty of going through the motions, and I've found I don't get stronger unless I literally leave parts of my body and soul when I train. So now, if I lift, I really go after it. We're talking loud metal (obviously), caffeine, sometimes ammonia, etc. Some bloke may come along with his studies spouting broscience about overtraining and burnout, but I'm getting results, plus it's just fucking fun to let out a hellish growl before tearing a deadlift off the floor, and again just for the hell of it.

I've just been listening to Evoken's 'Antithesis of Light'. This is thick, nasty and dark doom metal. Check it out.

I'm also really into Bell Witch's EP - this is just incredible and haunting. So much so that I've just downloaded the film that the intro track samples - The Masque of the Red Death. Get a copy of it here:

http://stonerobixxx.blogspot.com/2012/02/bell-witch-demo-2011.html

By the way, I highly rate that blog - it's got some awesome new and underground bands tearing shit up.

As far as other badass shit goes, I'm also a regular follower of BadassOfTheWeek.com. This is a sick website celebrating weekly all things manly and testosterone, and showcasing the hardest motherfuckers ever to walk the earth.

Well, I've run out of things on my mind at the moment - hopefully as this blog develops I may have some structure and some regular-ish features that will be fairly interesting.

Lift hard.

I'll start this blog by linking y'all to my training log over on T-Nation:
http://tnation.t-nation.com/free_online_forum/blog_sports_body_training_performance_bodybuilding_log/from_humble_beginnings_to_hopefully_powerlifting_one_day?id=4155252&pageNo=11

I've been lifting properly for just over 2 years now.
I'm currently sitting at about 82kg BW, with best competition lifts of 132.5kg/102.5kg/170kg.

I'm currently following Wendler's 5/3/1 with slight tweaks inspired by Chaos & Pain, namely that I like going fucking heavy on any day that I feel like it.

My training schedule is actually pretty fucked most of the time as I'm at boarding school with a shit gym and no bars. So some of my training sessions almost make me weep, but I get it done, and I'm making progress. I've got a basic home gym and am part of a powerlifting club.

As far as the heavy metal side of the blog goes, I'm real big on sludge/doom/stoner metal (hence the URL), and play as much as possible, as loudly as possible. I'll occasionally link to new albums or artists that I've found and want to share.

I'll also post other various awesome and badass stuff that I run across.

I'm not sure how regularly I'll post, but suffice it to say I should get at least 2 or 3 posts up a week.

Until next time.