StretchMediatedHypertrophy

Slight pivot, but while elsewhere on this board ppl are complaining about how AEW book/feature women.....there really ought to be a Dark Side of the Ring about the failure of Rousey in WWE, and let's face it, she had a good look in NXT but Baszler is the Queen of Spades of a busted flush; she's not rehabilitatable at this stage IMHO....Shafir might yet turn out to be the best of them.

I'm wary of getting too much into this, but how the AEW men's roster is beyond f'n huge and the women's roster is a tiny subset of that in terms of numbers, and frankly in terms of quality. I mean, yeah I take people's point about Purazzo but the fact that Mia Yim is being touted as some big missed opportunity tells me a lot. I mean, the best wrestlers on the women's roster are generally considered to be Storm & Hayter right? How many of the men's roster are realistically better? I mean are people really claiming that they are better than Mox, Claudio, OC, Pac, Omega, Allin or Jay White? And I mean think some of the people I didn't put on that list. This is what Khan has decided to put together, what he decided he needs. And even if he had the pick of every woman in the world, he just wouldn't be able to put together a comparable roster to that of the men's. But even looking past that, Hayter getting over a bit doesn't make her the new Paige, or Sasha, or Charlotte, or Asuka, or Becky, or Bayley, or Rhea, or even Belair. No offence to her, I think she's great and then some - but I think people have to be real about what a TV star really is.

I look forward to 'Jungle' going through all the top ECW guys already in AEW: Paul Wight Mark Henry Matt Sydal Matt Hardy Jake Hager Shawn Spears CM Punk

British people understand miles and we still use them a lot, though admittedly for running the default is km thesedays outside of (half) marathons.

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I had, as expected, pretty crazy dirty doms in my back all Sunday and tbh it wasn't much better this morning. My abs, quads and hams were feeling it too. So I set myself pretty low expectations today - basically let's try and get a triple at 85kg, 5 at 80kg and 3 x 8 at 62.5kg, and 2 sets of 15 with 24kg on the 15 degree barrel press. I got the triple at 85kg, but I got 8 at 80kg, I then got 12 at 70kg and 15 at 60kg (basically reverse pyramid 531) - none of these sets were that challenging really. Tbh I put it down to benching 3 times in the previous week - something magical seems to happen when I do this. Obviously none of these sets are impressive, I benched way more last year. But these are all nice, clean, fast reps and I feel like I'm getting my groove back. I'll do 5 at 85kg next week, and if they feel good we'll try a little 1-3 rep joker set at 90kg. Edit: Oh yeah, and the Barrel Press....somebody was using the 24kg pair so had to use the 26s. Still got the 2 sets of 15, which was slightly surprising. Maybe I will try the 28s next week, though after that I'll switch to a 30 degree. Still don't enjoy getting heavy dumbbells in place, so don't really want to go past 30kg. Squats on Wednesday!

60s on Flat DB Press or Incline? Maybe Double Dynamic Progression?

Thursday was basically speed-bench & upper-body hypertrophy day. My speed bench was actually 8 x 6 with 4 different grips (mediumish, normal, close, v.close) - just at 40kg. But I then do JM Presses at the same weight (I do some pushdowns during my warm=up, which I recommend), & today was the 1st time I got 3 x 10 at that weight. I think I will probably go to 3 x 12 before I up the weight. Today was trapbar day lol. Because I am working other lifts quite hard right now, I don't really want to throw in conventional deadlifts to the mix. But I do want some heavy pulls. One of the problems with trapbars is that they're not really standardised for weight. This one feels heavier than the barbells, probably somewhere between 25-28kg. I will assume 25. I stuck primarily with the 2.5inch deficit high-handle method I used last time, and added 15kg plates a pair at a time. I was throwing in some shrugs, even at 145kg - which is definitely a feeling. I pulled a triple deadlift at 145kg and it wasn't that challenging. But 175kg was pretty hard, and whilst I did actively consider going up to 185kg I decided what I would do instead is try 175kg without the deficit, and then maybe go heavier...and it was really quite hard and I decided that was as heavy as I wanted to go. Truthfully I was a little disappointed as my PB is 190kg and that was at a much lower bodyweight (plus Shartnado can lift that one-handed lol). However, I guess I just need to do it a bit more often - plus I had just done a bunch of heavy shrugs and it has been a hard week training wise. Anyway, I went back to the deficit for backoff RDL (2 x eight) and shrug sets (3 x 12) at 110kg, before a final set of 8 on the non-deficit variation. After a tea-break, I actually did my 3rd bench session this week - nothing too hard because I want to bench Monday but I wanted to do some machine chest work and I figured...why not just bench quickly, and grease the wider grip version. So just did 2 working sets of 10 at 60 then 65kg...kinda laughable still tbh, but nice 1s pauses and good technique remains the name of the game. Then onto all dat STRETCHMEDIATEDHYPERTROPHY with the twisty unilateral machine chest press and rows. After another quick break but tbh I was pretty beat, but quad work still had to be done. I was sort of inspired by these 2 videos So I did high-rep lengthened-partial low box squats of a Reebok step (20cm) with a 20kg Bulgarian Bag. I just did a couple of sets of these because truth is I was already probably over the edge of what I could recover from but they did feel nasty. Yeah I did leg extensions after that because I had earned them. Need to put together my Horlicks protein shake now and get to bed. I'm wasted.

If HHH, Clancy Brown and Willem Dafoe had a baby.

Added a 'kick wham' and changed his bump. His right hip may not thank him, but somehow the front bump never looks quite right so probably the right call.

This is a genuine question because I don't follow the scene, but is Will Ospreay really this much loved-figure in the UK who is getting universally cheered over Chris Jericho? That's just never quite the impression I got. He is respected for his talents no doubt, but that's not quite the same thing. For me personally, I can go about 2-3 Ospreay matches a year and if I watch his recent match with Okada then see you in 2024 Billy.

I am not sure I've been under the SSB in the last two months, but today it happened. I had some of my younger colleagues squatting in the rack next to me - and whilst their squats aren't that heavy and they play their edge depth-wise (tbh they're not that bad, you've seen worse) they're still annoyingly proficient for relative newbs to the platform. So it definitely made me push myself, and I went to 110kg x 5 - which is probably actually not bad and compares quite favourably to my 146kg single with wraps from May, especially given I am more or less doing them ATG. Tbh it was a tough set, but I suspect I could have ground out 2 more reps if really needed. I think I'm going to take a similar approach as I'm using for bench and use a TM of 100kg , & work up from there with good bar speed. You're allowed to push squat up by 5kg a mesocycle so it won't take long to get the numbers higher. Back-off work was 2 sets of 8 with 80kg, and then 2 sets of 12 with 50kg using a close stance and heel elevation. Trying to do a superset of bent-over rows and hyperextensions was probably a mistake...but spamming hyperextension is definitely not a mistake. I've sort of been neglecting these as reverse-hypers and GHD are 'cooler', but I definitely think they are something that one should be able to do 5 sets of 20 on as an accessory and I intend to build towards that over the next few weeks.

Omg I find myself not only defending the work of CM Punk but now 2002 HHH. Fun. HHH vs RVD from Unforgiven 2002 is better than anything Aldis has ever done. And I am fairly certain there are 60 HHH matches that are better than anything Aldis has ever done.

The bridging thing is indeed pretty dumb. I remember when I first saw Jeff Nipples arch & thinking he was taking the piss (and that perhaps answers your question Contentious C), but I have seen far worse since. It's interesting that he is pushing stretch-mediated hypertrophy now because, as you suggest, zero-benching is indeed the complete opposite of that. They have changed the rules in some feds to reduce arching now; don't know how that's going but good to see them try. Personally I think all of the hand should be inside the rings, but probably that won't happen. And yes, they should ban f'n sumo too lol. ------ So today was technically supposed to be leg day lol, but tbh I did some leg extensions and hyperextension on Saturday and I could still feel them a bit....and I wasn't feeling that energetic. So I decided to bench again lol. So I have decided to go with an adjusted 'Beyond 531' template, with an 85kg training max.In practice, this was: 20kg x 10, 40kg x 8, 50kg x 3, 60kg x 3, 70kg x 1, 80kg x 1, 85kg x 1, 80kg x 5. And then 3 x 8 t-shirt touch pause bench with nice controlled eccentrics at 60kg. I wasn't timing precisely, but basically no more than 2 minutes between sets. It felt stimulating enough. I'll probably up the weight on the back-off sets by 2.5kg next time, and go for a double at 85kg next time, and then probably a triple the week after that - then (all things going well) I'll raise the training max. Having said I don't like DB presses very much, I thought I would do a couple of sets as a chest finish. So I did 15° barrel presses (though I do like to twist into a semi-neutral position at the top), 2 sets of 20 with 22kg....and tbh I think maybe I hate DB presses atm because our main dumbbells at the work gym have ridiculously fat grips. Anyway, I did get that stretch-mediated hypertrophy most likely but I don't think I'll bump up the weight on these anytime soon. I did some high-rep narrow-grip pulldowns, bicep curls, pushdowns and facepulls to finish (vaguely as Wendler might prescribe)- I have one of these new-fangled tricep-straps (e.g. https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B09V148JKW/ref=twister_B08M3WGXMN?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1) and so should you. Hopefully tomorrow will be leg day

I mean his GTS isn't as good as KENTA's or his Anaconda Vice as good as Tenzan's but I think they are ok. I mean if someone wants to make comparisons between current-day 'Mid-Atlantic Tribute Act' Punk and whatever Magnus thinks he is, then cool I don't really care to watch Punk thesedays anyway. Though I saw some of Punk-Starks match and think the finish looked pretty smooth actually, infact I watched it in slo-mo and it's definitely slick (I'd probably give much of the credit to Ricky, and the ref arguably counts prematurely on the two preceding nearfalls, but Punk was fine there). Noone actually thinks Aldis is better than Punk surely?

I suspected Punk's tribute spots would get brought up, but tbh it doesn't bother me so much because Punk has hardly ever won matches with the elbow, nor do I recall a big match ever really being built around it. See also The Rock's crappy Sharpshooter. Whereas many of Aldis' matches pivot around things he can't, or chooses not to, do well.

It's really not all that good on rewatch, & to me it's another bad finish - why is Aldis doing a sunset flip like he's Bret Hart? Though I mean seriously, watch Hart-Bulldog do that spot and then watch Aldis-Cody do it. It's not good. He's a cosplay old-school wrestler basically.

I was the world's worst swimmer as a child. We had a swimming baths near my primary and so we received a lot of lessons and I was all kinds of useless. I did somehow, someway, learn eventually and I wouldn't say I'm a super strong swimmer or anything but yeah I can do it. Makes you hungry af though.

I am haha inclined to agree. I failed on a max incline bench once and the roll-off was very annoying. I think I prefer Smith for incline work, though I don't think I'd ever max out on the lift again outside of a power rack with good pin-setup. Tbh I don't really like dumbbell presses either though. Actually I quite like declines where I can lock-in the legs, but that's about it. I'll do them, sometimes, but I don't really enjoy them. I wasn't feeling great today, but I did some heavyish benching today for the first time in a couple of months and unlike last time I didn't feel anything in my right bicep. 90kg did feel noticeably heavier than 85kg, but I haven't even done 60kg recently so is to be somewhat expected. I'm not in a hurry to get it way heavier, I am quite happy to keep my focus on hypertrophy but I think I'll start following Wendler principles, take 85kg as training max and do some rep work based on that and move it up from there. If I do that for 18 months going up 2.5kg every few weeks, then I'll hit 130kg for a solid 5 and then I basically know I can 140kg for a single. Maybe that's just what I need to do. Although nothing that impressive, I did a Pendlay Row topset of 6 at 90kg which is a PR of sorts and it was an off-day so I was happy with that. I also did some bent-over rows myself earlier in the week, only 50kg (which is the max fixed barbell at my gym) for sets of 15 but it was a secondary pull. I haven't done a lot of these in recent times, and tbh I felt them in my lower-back quite a lot on the first-set...but they do feel very satisfying in the lower and mid-traps. Today, I actually did single-arm machine chest and back work. Very bro no doubt, but I was inspired by this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nSMdyHk6gaE (for some reason, vids won't embed for me) The lat stretch was indeed a new feeling, and it will definitely help me get more juice out of the machine row at my gym.

I only just found out that Mark Andrews, Flash Morgan Webster and Dani Luna not only stayed together but also got to keep their Subculture gimmick - that's kinda nice, fair play to Jim Smallman, Papa H or whoever managed to let that happen.

It started well, but the way you put it over I expected them to pay off the arm and leg work more than they did. Aldis going back to the belt in plain sight of the ref made no sense, and none of the nearfalls were convincing. It felt like the finish should have been Shelley breaking him down enough to win with the BCS, but Aldis probably hasn't tapped on a televised event in a long time so didn't feel like doing so here, therefore we got some very hacky belt spots instead. I may rewatch the Cody match again, but if the best people have to offer is Mags being 'the other guy' in a 'Cody wrestles for his Dad's title in the game-changing 10K attendance show he put together' then that in itself feels like a strong vindication. Looking at his cagematch list, I am morbidly curious about his match with Davey Richards last year. Lol.

RIP Justyn Vicky, the Indonesian bodybulder who died in a squat accident this week. A reminder to be fucking careful. Truthfully, I think a lot of gym guys have had a near fuck-up at some point - first time I barbell squatted properly I ego-lifted my bodyweight and yeah I got it up eventually, but it wasn't pretty and you wouldn't catch me doing something dumb like that now (I mean I can squat my bodyweight, but I have never failed a squat or come close to it, and I set pins - and I rarely good morning these days except off pins).

Magnus sucks. I mean seriously, yeah ok he's a solid promo, and admittedly he fit the role of NWA Champion like a glove - but did he actually have any good matches like...ever? If he'd ended up in Japan regularly, or hell even WWE..then yeah maybe he would have got better. But is anyone seriously going to point to even 3 Aldis matches worth going back and watching? I'm all for contrarian DVDVR board 'x was/is actually good' reappraisals, but it feels like Aldis is getting a pass on sucking because he was a better NWA Champ than Tyrus or something. Probably the highpoint of his career was tagging with Samoa Joe, and some team should steal the snapmare-elbow spot, but that was only 3 months iirc. Let's face it, the moment he became TNA Champion was...well hard to call anything in TNA a nadir really....but it still feels like a Top 5 lowpoint for the company.

Yeah me neither. I'm not even that great at getting them in position for flat bench and I don't really enjoy it. The only way I really like doing them is on a decline when I can lock my legs, though incline is okish for high reps. To be honest, I don't think overhead presses are particularly necessary for hypertrophy anyway. Which isn't to say I don't do them, but I increasingly favour seated presses in a Smith Machine, or machine press - though I think it is advisable to switch grips/positions rarely frequently to prevent overuse (if you have access to one of those angled Smiths, I think this is potentially good too though I am yet to try). My work gym on Sunday is quiet (not empty, but quiet), so I do sometimes go and today was one of those days. Primary of choice was 60° Incline Smith Machine Press which I worked up to 70kg + 8kg bar - I looked it up) for 3 sets of 8. Tbh this lift was a bit weird, as it wasn't quite a bench press but not quite an overhead press either, I think I prefer 70-75 degrees - but the range of motion was excellent & there's no doubt that you can bang out reps on the Smith that you are not going to get on a barbell. This is about as much weight as my wrists fancied, but at least I was able to use the wrist wraps without my left thumb complaining this time. I super-setted these (yay quiet gym) with some neutral (fairly) narrow-grip lat pulldowns. I never really did these until recently until the Natural Hypertrophy guy turned me onto them - tbh I don't like them *too* narrow but we have a good handle I like at the gym and have pushed these - I did these superstrict for 70kg sets of 10. I suspect I will have to begin using a bit of body english on these. My back is bigger, my shoulders are bigger and now I can wear a 3XL t-shirt and it fits the upper-half of my torso.....which is erm interesting. My lateral raise game remains laughable tbh, but I know how to set the height up on the cables now and I have been using wrist attachments - again necessity is the mother of invention, these are way better this way IMO - you can just really concentrate on leading with the delt. I super-set those with a super-set - which sounds like a giant set but it's more of a nested super-set (!) of JM Press and then wide-grip bench presses with t-shirt touch pause. Similar to Contentious C's squat game, I'm very much about juicing low weight on bench for all its worth. I actually did pretty heavy machine chest press on Friday, so I am doing enough to maintain overall but admittedly my priorities are elsewhere. My triceps are my favourite muscle though so they always get hammered - and the strong JM Press press game ensures that when I get back to benching for real that I only really need to worry about getting it off the chest. We have a really challenging reverse fly and last week I could barely manage 20 reps on 15kg and then I had to go back to 12.5kg for a 2nd set then call it. Today I got 3 sets of 20, though the last set was very tough. Couldn't quite get the 3rd set of 20 on my 12kg pinwheel curls, or rather I couldn't be bothered to cheat at that point to be quite honest. I did some push downs and reverse curls as finishers....and I now have the worst arm cramps I've had this year. A result I guess lol! I have a leg day tomorrow but then for various reasons I won't really have a full workout until Sunday. I may do some home stuff but not always easy to get motivated in this heat. So I guess I get to enjoy a deload.

We're into hair-splitting because obviously a lot of FWA guys were involved, but technically the 2005 show was promoted by The Wrestling Channel. Samoa Joe faced Spud (Drake Maverick) and Martin Stone (Danny Burch) in a Round Robin the next night. I gave him a can of Guinness. Super Dragon got a Krispy Kreme.