StretchMediatedHypertrophy

I know it's wrestling, but tbh I find the whole Hangman-Dark Order thing to be very, very bothersome as yeah, Hangman is a bad person and there's no going back from that. You can understand a certain loyalty to The Elite, because without them he almost certainly wouldn't be in the position he is today....but everything the Dark Order said is true and a lot of the fans know it. The Young Bucks, in kayfabe at any rate, are dicks who never really officially face-turned and have never really done anything to compensate for their heel run except get attacked by BCC. So what do you do with this mess? In order to make Dark Order full heels they have to join Callis, but I'm not sure that's the way to go (maybe Uno could join). As far as I can see, the only real way to go to protect the character long-term is to turn Page and have him side with Callis.

So my goalkeeping will go down in the annals of history, and I got all kinds of wrist and thumb injuries so am now officially retired! They are yet to completely clear 2 1/2 weeks on but they are improving. Lol. This mini-cycle (I'll talk about this another time), I decided to actually try to do some shrugs - though tbh I struggle to find some that really feel worth the aggro. Barbell ones work but the lower back fatigue is insane, seated row shrugs are better but don't quite hit the spot, I tried chest-supported ones and it felt like I'd have to use really heavy dumbells to make them work and our big dumbells are really big (I also didn't have the angle right tbf)...so I ended up on the trap-bar yesterday. Now I'm not the biggest fan of trap bars, but especially not when you only have weights with no handles as it becomes a mare to load the fucker....they generally don't fit properly on a rack, we don't have a jack & it probably wouldn't work anyway. I also don't really like the balance aspect. But I decided I would give it a go, and because of that I thought 'well if I'm loading it up, I may as well do some kind of hip-hinge wth it'. Now normally I wouldn't have dreamt of using straps with a trap-bar but in my current condition I obviously should - and tbh it was actually a revelation because I think a lot of the balance issues go away when you use straps. I actually used the high-handles, standing on a bumper plate to do RDLs.....and frankly this still felt like an enormous range of motion, perhaps because I had to stand close-stance on the bumper and used minimal knee-bend. Two plates for sets of 10 felt challenging, though I suspect I would ramp the weight up quite a bit on sets of 6. I just did sets of 12 with the shugs, and this definitely feels like the best shrug. So I think we'll be doing a few more of these things, though I'm still not absolutely convinced I would try to go strap-free on heavy trap-bar movements again.

Basically, there's no way Adam Cole did 315 for reps for shits and giggles, no belt, even if they were partials - someone with good technique isn't going to get more reps of a partial like that anyway because you're losing a lot of stretch reflex. Somebody who can do 315 for reps comfortably is going to have a potential 1 rep max in the 400s. Cena's biggest bench is 481, and he's a beast who cares about this stuff. Cody apparently used to rep out 315 and indeed tore his pec doing 315 cold (silly lad), Claudio has peaked at 405 1rm but doesn't care, Triple H apparently peaked at 405 too. Otis has a ludicrous 225 for 46, and there are lots of videos of Boogs doing all kinds of ludicrous things. But generally speaking, in recent times I don't think wrestlers who weren't part of the Hard Nocks South crew care about bench. You almost never see it on Celtic Warrior Workouts. AEW used to have a workout set-up at Daly's Place iirc, & they used it for weight skits that were obviously fake because it basically makes no sense to do big bench sets on camera to time. You can be 'stronger than you look', but there are limits and The Man That Hypertrophy Forgot doesn't have the tricep development that might compensate for lack of pecs & delts. It ain't happening, & I am almost certain he doesn't care - infact the whole thing was obv a rib. But anyway, unless you are a powerlifter heavy bench press is pretty stupid unless you absolutely positively need maximal pushing strength. And here's the neat thing - you don't. Even in most legit sport-based scenarios you actually need power, maybe control, which isn't quite the same thing. Yeah I'd still quite like a 315 bench one day.

Athlean-X school of bench press brah! In all seriousness, I doubt either is casually repping out 315 for shits and giggles though it's obv more believable for MJF to have a 350+ bench. Cole was doing Broto Press as well, admittedly with decent consistency, but still....a real friend would have called him on that bullshit though. Cole basically does nothing in the ring that requires any upper body strength. It actually wouldn't surprise me if he does maxes and trains for strength. He seems to have some kind of actual phobia when it comes to hypertrophy though.

People are barking about Knight not getting the briefcase, but Priest & The Judgement Day needed it way more than him and besides, it's almost 10 years since they used the men's briefcase to really elevate somebody. Plus I don't think they really want him to take the title off Rollins, and lol no he isn't the one to beat Reigns. Really he should just take the US Title off Theory at Summerslam - Knight's real challenge is to try to get a good program out of him.

All Boomer Wrestling. Ah Kevin Kelly, cool that reminds me I think I'll watch the G1 and see where things are AEW-wise afterwards.

Because reasons, I have found myself in the position of goalkeeper in a work 5-a-side tournament happening on Tuesday. I suspect I will be the oldest person playing by a considerable margin, but they needed a player and I said I'd do it but I'm not match-fit for outfield so I will have to stay in goal. Although I still did my upper workout as normal yesterday, it changed my approach slightly in terms of lower day today. I went ahead and got what I am pretty sure is a PR on what I will call Bodybuilder RDLs (deep af, pause at the bottom to minimise stretch reflex) - 125kg for 7. I then did speed work for the first time in a while - for both squat and deadlift My rack was next to the sun window, but that's actually what I wanted since I'll likely be playing in the sun. I think I will do more speed work the night before the game as although it bollocks me at the time I can recover from it ok as long as I eat properly and sleep. Upper body work will have to get skipped for a day or two. I really hate lunges so very very much, but I did some based on something I saw in a youtube video for 5-a-side goalkeeping. If I am not too stiff, I'll probably do a few more tomorrow and some lateral drills though realistically I then need to let my body rest. It's a glorified kickabout to be honest, but I am mildly competitive and I at least don't want to embarrass myself if I can possibly help it.

Hammer curls with 79s is pretty sick dude. Maybe I'll have a go and trying to body english some 50s up but I don't fancy my chances tbh!

I mean....you do you obv....but that's a.....yeah.. large amount of lat and upper back volume to be doing in 1 day for a natty, at a very high amount of apparent intensity...especially if you're not doing it consistently. All those drop-sets......I can't even imagine it tbh. Like the back is big and yeah some exercises don't hit the lats super-well and some don't hit the traps super well, you want to hit all those fibres brah.....but in all honesty I suspect you could pretty half that back volume without any negative change in results. I could be wrong, I just don't know anyone in the fields who would program that. I mean vertical grip row for lat emphasis AND 2 types of vertical pulldowns AND lat pullovers??! I honestly believe there are pro-card bodybuilders who would be scared by that. Honest advice - do whatever makes you happy, but probably you should just do an upper lower-split, or a trunk-limbs split or somesuch.

Tbh 700 calories probably isn't burnt in many weight workouts, though your volume is pretty crazy admittedly. Is that all your back work for the week?

Gym weirdos are definitely a thing. I remember this guy who would always wear a cardigan, load up way too much weight on machines and do tiny ROM, plates would be a helluva racket. Tbh there have been a lot of guys at my current gym (which is a work gym, but it's practically a campus so the gym is decent) a bit like that, but the Summer has really thinned them out. It's pretty hot in the UK right now, least for the UK. It definitely saps the will to train hard & long, as does a calorie deficit. So I generally do try to keep most of the workouts to a hourish, exception will probably be Friday when I do some RDLs and realistically do need to rest between sets to make the work worth it. Helpfully that's the day when you can get Fish and Chips at the canteen (all work canteens in the UK offer fish & chips on a Friday in my experience), & I will continue to allow myself to have it (I had previously been known to eat 2, but that's out of the question currently). I am continuing to focus on shoulders, though I might do a machine chest press as primary tomorrow. I've been starting to sneak in some medium which is wide for me (pinkies in the rings) bench at 40kg for really quick sets of 12 with short breaks. On Monday I did it Larsen style...and tbh after the shoulder work it is giving me a very big chest pump - I'm basically bastardising Jim Wendler's Boring But Big protocol from 531 here. I will see how the wider bench feels as I very slowly take the weight up. Because my gym day volumes are down I do try to get mini-workouts in, so I'll probably do some kettlebell curls, abs and calves in a bit later today. Once it cools down though!

Noam Dar is such a great little shit. He was probably a bit young in his first run after the CWC. One can't help thinking they're revisiting the Alicia Fox pairing a bit with teaming him up with Jackson and Legend, but I like it. Feel a bit sad Sha isn't with him, though I know he did a guest spot at the PC a couple of months ago so maybe it's not impossible down the line. I said Heritage Cup was too good a gimmick to throw away and I was right. It's probably going to be a sort of ersatz junior title, but that's fine.

To be clear, my reference to volume a week or so ago wasn't meant to be a snark. I don't think the average schmo trying to not be a ball of inert lard probably doesn't need huge amounts of volume to gain muscle, but clearly Sharty is in a different place. At an advanced level, making gains of whatever kind is going to be heavily individualised and context-dependent. I was watching this Dr. Mike video yesterday - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s1n_jZOUJEQ And it's interesting that he poo-poos the Trap Bar Deadlift. Now I sort of think he's sort of wrong for a couple of reasons: 1) If Bradley is basically untrained, the TBD is going to produce hypertrophy just fine if done for reps 3+. I think squats are probably better for novices in terms of overall muscle building and stim-to-fatigue admittedly, & better not to do them off blocks but that's another story for another time. 2) TBD is probably not that good for stimulating large amounts of hypertrophy in advanced lifters, sort of for the reasons he says. But, in addition to possible strength gains, they will probably help maintain muscle reasonably well. Which, if you're not specialising in lower posterior chain at the time, might actually be quite useful. And they probably do it with somewhat better stim-to-fatigue than actual deadlifts, though I don't think they have particularly good carryover to the conventional or sumo deadlift if you care about that sort of thing. Segueing onto me, although I hadn't actually watched the video I was doing a leg day I really didn't want to do yesterday. I have been adding in cardio and my legs were fatigued. So basically I ramped up on DB RDLs supersetted with Bulgarian Bag step-ups for sets of 10, then I decided to do a couple of sets on the Sumo Deadlift - ended up being 2 topsets of 4. I didn't think these Sumos were going to put me on the fast track to gains or anything, but I figured they would at least give me a good bit of heavy weight across the quads and posterior chain and support efforts to retain muscle. Realistically, I'm not going to make lower body gains when introducing cardio. And anyway, my quads are almost bursting out of my pants as it is. I did also wail on my lateral delts in between sets though, and I do think I can probably make gains here as they're a much smaller muscle and not really directly targetted by cardio work. That was Friday, on Thursday went back to OHP for the first time in a little while. Did 50, 55, 60kg x 5, then 3x10 at 40kg. Felt a bit rusty but generally good. I think I will finally buy some micro-plates to see if I can eke out some linear progression as I think relatively high-weight jumps is one of the biggest problems with this movement. Did some upright rows for the first time in a long-time and they felt a bit awkward...I think I might actually try the trap-bar for this next time. I then did a pause DB Larsen Press with 15kg for sets of 20 - I actually put my feet on another bench. Given my shoulders were fatigued, I actually felt my pecs quite a lot - but again, probably not looking to make gains in this area right now. Larsen Press is a bit of a meme lift, I think it probably is safer with dumbells and without your feet floating off the bench. Tuesday I was inspired by posts above and actually decided to do some leg press! I actually put on my wraps for the plate-loaded machine, and ramped up to 300kg for a set of 6 - though tbh my ROM was oticeably better at 250kg. I did 1 backoff set of 16 at 200kg, and then actually moved to the cable leg-press and took the wraps off. I then did sets of 2-3 sets (I forget) of 20 at 140kg, but the foot pad is a lot wider. So I was able to go wider and I think I do like the cable variation more. I also did a lot of GHRs and Reverse Hypers (also did the latter Friday). Back in the gym on Monday! On Monday, I still felt my shoulder/bicep tendon from the previous bench session AND I had golfer's elbow in my right arm so my main movement was a 15 degree DB bench sets of 12 at 22kg. I also did some DB flyes, which tbh I don't think I like, and some rare (for me) front raises. I did arm work and back-work (usually unilateral) every work out so my gain areas right now are 1) shoulders, 2) upper back, 3) hamstrings maybe. More or less everything else I am realistically trying to maintain and that's it. I have begun tapering off calories a little bit, and once the cardio is bedded in I will look to cut them off more - in Summer I have a reduced appetite so as long as I can stay away from 2L bottles of soda and big-tubs of ice-cream this is probably my best time to drop-weight so we'll see.

I think Wembley Stadium normally has a 22:30 curfew, so I imagine that's first bell.

1. Why would Punk need to sign anything; he's under contract? 2. The idea that he's sitting on a potential lawsuit worth millions is highly speculative. Who are Punk's witnesses - a creature who bit someone in the arm, and a dog? Chief Legal Officer Megha Parekh was there. And noone is suggesting that Punk got hurt in the brawl are they? Yeah not seeing it tbh. 3. We're essentially talking future of the company here. That will dwarf anything realistically involved in the hypothetical lawsuit above.

There does seem to be this idea that CM Punk can basically do what he likes. I'm not exactly Mr 'he signed the contract lol' about these things, but he ain't having to work in no Sunglasses Hut and I very much doubt Punk has an 'I can walk anytime I feel like it' clause in his deal. He's obviously got some leverage here, but he's fucking with a lot of money here and yeah, it would make sense for AEW to spell that out. There's no need to explicitly threaten anyone at this stage - because the numbers don't lie and they potentially spell disaster for Punk - imagine explaining to a judge that he broke contract because he couldn't have Ace Steele at the show.

Just teasing really. I probably won't do them beyond taking the barbell off the pins to do RDLs, because I like RDLs. But I can see uses for them if you enjoy them, particularly for lower and mid-traps which can be a bit neglected. I don't think I'd use the Eleiko Bars at my gym for them though - some gyms have an old bar for rackpulls.

In all seriousness, giving up Omega and Page to WWE would probably be a mistake. Yeah they might work out, they might not - but that's not a chance I would take. Edit: Oh yeah The Bucks. Hmmm WWE has the Usos, Owens/Zayn, New Day and Street Profits just below them. Not sure I would just give those matches to WWE but that's me. I'll be quite honest, I'd run the Chicago building come what may, say fuck it run MJF vs Hangman & do the title change, Skye Blue vs Hayter, & Mad Man Pondo vs Moxley underneath.

above or below the knee?

Yeah ultimately the job of legal is to facilitate the leadership - whilst there is potentially a 'truth to power'/'protect the business' aspect to this; the reality is that they provide the risk analysis, and ultimately leadership decides. One of their jobs is to make the best legal case that can be made for the action that leadership decides, or wants, to pursue. If no case whatsoever can be made, then yeah it may put members of the legal team in a compromising position with regards good standing as lawyers - but such a black-and-white situation rarely occurs, unless your boss is Elon Musk or something. They're unlikely to point-blank refuse to greenlight the rehiring of Steele. It all sounds like an almighty mess. I'm probably not going to watch Punk matches, but I'd quite like to go back to enjoying most of AEW. It's a bit challenging right now, though the elimination of YouTube programming is, for me personally, as responsible for that as anything else right now.

Tbh I am the opposite. I can squat pretty decently but any kind of hack squat or whatever and I'm not that great. I think I have done 650lbs on the leg press for 4-5 reps, but a long time since I tried that. I can do 200kg for like 20, but I don't really think the stimulation-to-fatigue is worth it to go beyond that at my age. Squat uses a lot more adductor and glute than the leg press, in addition to the back stabilisation. You can probably novice it up from there for a bit.....though RDLs are probably a decent assistance exercise to be doing (to get more glute and adductor). Believe it or not, I also think Pendlay Rows are good in terms of developing the entire back which will assist the squat. The volumes don't need to necessarily be at Shartnado levels (!), though that can work obviously if you can recover from it.

So new SSB Squat PR - 146kg, though I did use wraps. Tbh it really wasn't that challenging but no point getting greedy. Also did 120kg 2 x6 on a deep RDL. Yesterday I ended up sharing the bench with somebody, which was useful as he let me know my bench was a bit uneven (his form was shocking but that's another story). FIrst time with the wrist wraps on this year, and I went up to 95kg for 6 - but I have to be honest, this is how I got hurt and there's going to be no more of that for a while. I have to simply work lower amounts, and maybe consider some bench press coaching. Next week I am going to be in the office every day so have decided to do a cardio every day. I might even do a Peloton class lol.

Okay, yeah I think I've used something similar. Tbh you can put your feet forward quite a bit on a hack squat to get more hamstring, though truth be told you're not getting that much of a squat in any position.

Technically not true with regards Scurll, truth almost certainly bad enough and that's the point. Re: Ryan, yeah that's fine but you don't know that The Young Bucks knew anything about any of that. Ryan was friends with everybody except Jim Cornette and maybe Tazz. He was a founder of PWG. Are we smearing everybody who worked in early-ROH under Rob 'lol ill pretend you said 18' Feinstein? Good luck with *that*.

@BryanGood chance I'm going to regret asking this, but who is the Elite buddy accused of mistreating underage girls?