StretchMediatedHypertrophy

Hmmmm, don't be fucking with your butt there C! I've got some of the most vicious arm cramps ever rn gd it. I actually decided to see what my benching was like and the answer was.....not bad, I mean not amazing, but ok. I just went to 6 at 92kg and tbh I might have got another 4-5 reps but they were all quite slow at this weight and the first rep descent wasn't the best so no heroics. I could develop speed through speedwork, and work on first reps, and other powerlifting things. When I can be bothered. Now a couple of times I've done a few negatives on the dip bar attachment to our big rig. I decided to do a few, and then I realised...hmm I can do a couple of reps, so I did 3. Weren't easy, but was happy I could do them A few minutes later (supersetting), I got 4. Then 6. Then 8. And then finally....10 reps! Now the dip bars are diverging and I was holding them near the ends , and I am not gong to tell you ROM on every rep was magnificent, but I don't think most of them were completely terrible. I was doing dips during lockdowns, so I sort of thought I should be able to do them but it was gratifying to see that it was possible. Though if I had done backoff sets on the bench they wouldn't have happened, and I'm not sure I'd want to do them cold either - so we'll have to see whether I can really fit them into programming. The cramps are probably from close-grip ez bar preacher curl. I still hate this exercise in some ways but it does hit the bicep in a different way and I'm increasingly of the view that if I don't want to do something, then maybe I should be doing it - except bench, which is stupid tbh. WHY CANT I QUIT YOU! Lurkers - don't do flat barbell bench press.

So lol I know I probably shouldn't take tips from Sam Sulek, but I watched him do leg extensions the other day and the stretch he was getting on his quads.....I decided I was ready for more. So the chair went back a notch, and the weight went down but 2 x 20 at 30 then 32.5kg felt great. I mean tough, but in a good way. Can definitely go a bit higher in weight, but definitely need to pace yourself when it comes to the force on the knee. This was after hack squat. I did a topset of 6 at 110kg with the yellow band and it felt pretty ok, then I took the weight down to 60kg with no band for 8 and it was pure suck. Which is really weird because even if a 25kg band was doubled & at max strength there would still be 60kg at the bottom. So maybe I've been doing really shitty hack squats for 2 weeks...but I honestly feel there has been stimulation I am going to switch to a thinner band though. I am happy I did abs though.

There is much to envy about Scandi life, but not so much the brutal long winters Not much to report really. Bought a chest expander for $5 in Budapest and it's better than you might think. So I was spamming that for a few days, and today back in the UK I decided to start with the straight-arm fly machine/reverse fly superset because I got in there before the rush and I knew I wasn't getting on it later. So we'll see if we can bring the rear delts up. I did the fashionable '1 and a lengthened partial half-rep' for my final backoff on the chest fly and it murdered me. Then I did the ol' sit sideways on the machine chest press one-arm thingy, lol I've become such a bodybuilder. I will bench again lol....eventually. I have been *very* tentatively playing with the idea of btn pressing - so have been using my pandemic workout band bar and just trying to lower that on to my upper traps. It's interesting. Realistically I've let my shoulders become stiff by *not* doing barbell back squats, and maybe I need to try to change that this year....I certainly wouldn't be able to do low bar right now. I've been doing single arm overhead db presses with the arm slightly back in terms of a weighted progression. I'm definitely not interested in doing heavy btn presses but I think in theory at least I should probably be able to do a few reps with 40kg, so we'll see. 3 more weeks in this gym, looking fwd to going hard on the hack squat and GHR tomorrow.

I can't quite help but think of Macho Man's time in the DANGERZONE~! with that finisher name, but they should absolutely just push Nemeth like he's John Cena for the next 18 months at least.

I honestly had also considered mentioning Wenger-vision.

Levesque's response was horrible, but in my heart of hearts I sort of understand why he might not have wanted to read that document about the grandfather of his kids. And ultimately, yeah tbh I looked at a few yt royal rumble clips this morning. Maybe this is a good opportunity to make my break with WWE, maybe I will, quite probably actually, but I won't pretend it's easy for people with careers in WWE and people they're looking out for to know exactly what the right thing is. As far as we live in any kind of ethical world thesedays, we live in a culturally consequentialist & pluralist one and there are few easy answers. As viewers of content, which exists in abundance, there are somewhat easier options. It might just involve throwing out some t-shirts idk.

People are talking about CM Punk, but apparently he eventually wants to take over NXT from Michaels. And if Paul Levesque is pushed out, then hard to see Michaels (or Regal) sticking around, and he could well be running it in 6 months. Ultimately this is going to leave a dark cloud over a lot of Attitude era footage, which could actually really kinda damage the legacy of Steve Austin, whose big run was almost completely intertwined with 'Evll Vince'. And whilst I think it is vaguely possible to separate Chris Benoit the wrestler with the man who killed his own family (I mean I couldn't really tell you when I watched one of his matches, but still), I think it is completely impossible to separate Vince the character from Vince the real-life person. Whether it has deeper effects I don't know. I mean Hollywood is a cesspool & well....let me just say 'Instagram Influencers being flown to Dubai' and leave it at that. Question in my mind is whether Stephanie, Linda or Shane McMahon are willing to really push the button and publicly disavow him. There's this idea that Stephanie can now return to WWE but I just don't see how that makes any sense for TKO unless she's willing & successfully able to position herself squarely as a victim. Additional: obviously the story/stories is/are appalling, but I don't see much point in adding my thoughts to that. My more casual wrestling fan brother linked part of it to me and said 'a bad day to have eyes'.

Thanks for that video link, I only watched a bit but it was very interesting. To be absolutely honest, I think almost all '>pretty small' live events = some of the dumbest way to spend your moneys imaginable. It boggles the mind how much ppl spend, though I guess I'm glad they do it.

The other key thing is just device access - maybe it's possible to legally stream Raw right now, idk. But with Netflix, piece of piss. 5 quid pm if you can bear ads over the Lashley video packages - Raw, SD, NXT + PLEs on demand...plus archive and ofc whatever else Netflix has going on. I mean it's alright innit? Definitely a good deal for 'WM season'. Perhaps this isn't for everyone, but anyone in US who can get past Netflix's fairly rudimentary VPN blocks can presumably just use Netflix + VPN rather than Peacock. Might be a bit brave with Live TV idk but who can say right now? Maybe US subscribers won't be able to access WWE content even if they 'travel to Europe'. I guess ppl could be doing that already with Peacock - they probably shouldn't be, but when you've got Uncle Roger promoting VPN use to get the best out of Netflix every other yt upload then it feels like ppl think it's fair game. Amazon Elite Wrestling anyone? Oh yeah, & presumably we see 4K for the first time. Eep.

With regards to Fox on Smackdown, I think WWE were *very* nonchalant about that show at the start. Looking at a list of the main-events and.....goddamn.

It looks like my plans have changed. It seems like I'll be finishing up at my major television client in a few weeks - this means bye-bye work gym, and probably hello old gym. So I am pretty much focussing on stuff I don't have in the old gym. So I decided to try not hating hack squats again. I dug around my stuff and found what I think is the right band for it - I've tried not to use one but then I saw Mike Israetal (who advises against it) hang out at the EliteFTS gym and they had REVERSE BANDS ON THE HACK SQUAT. So had a session without bands on Saturday and with the band today. If I go to heavy it strains my lower back a bit so just going to get what I can from it over the next few weeks. On the GHD I normally do setting 4 with no shoes, or 5 with shoes. Today I did 4 with shoes and it was tougher. Also did a set with the band. I don't think I'll do much else but GHR variations for hammys for now. I supersetted with the hack squat which was interesting as there is some glute activation in both. My old gym does have a chest flye/reverse flye machine, but it's not great plus the gym was v. busy tonight and this is a machine you can hog and superset to death so lol yeah had to be done. I really like the chest-supported plate loaded low row, and have been finding new grips to play with: Saturday, supine grip which felt like a Yates Row. Today high-up on the neutral handles, which really seemed to hit the low and mid-traps - very cool sensation actually. I will miss this machine very much. I also squeezed out a couple of sets on the plate-loaded shoulder press machine, & that was ok but not much more than ok. Now I think about it, I think I may have tweaked myself going heavy on the cable-stack shoulder machine in my old gym over xmas chasing higher and higher weights. So yeah, probably will leave shoulder press machines alone for a while. On Saturday, I actually played with the reverse grip bench press, utilising the 'talon grip'. Stole it from Alex Leonidas.....yeah it's interesting. Didn't fall in love but may play with it again, but maybe not until I get to the old gym.

I beat you to the punch by 1 minute muahahaha.

If you think globally, then absolutely. Hell turns out I didn't even know what channel Raw was on in the UK. From 2024, I'm not going to have that problem. US is still a huge market, but there's a bigger picture unfolding slowly but surely.

Tbh right now, I can't really see a reason to do a live show except spoilers. Are ppl going to sit through 3-minute Lashley packages on the ad-free tier when they can just watch it on delay and not have to do that? It's one thing for PLEs, but for weekly Raws it's hard to see.

There's a flipside to this: the viewing data Netflix will be collecting will be epic, and presumably WWE get access to a lot of the more pertinent stuff. This is not to be underestimated.

The really interesting thing to me is how it sits with the admittedly limited NBC deal done last year - including those primetime specials. It sort of locks NBC up from looking at AEW.......I mean probably at any rate. In the UK, Sky being without WWE feels like a moment. Sky has been showing WWE content even longer than ppl may realise..I remember watching Survivor Series 88 taped off Sky Channel. Later the PPVs were moved to Sky Movies and then Sky Sports. If you're Tony, do you think 'f it' and consider running Monday nights? The other thing I am wondering about is...XFL?

I haven't seen anything other than clips, but it appears even when she was a few matches deep she was at least hand-holdable to acceptable matches. She was only 50 matches deep when she started in Japan. Now she's 150 deep, with like 100 matches in 9 months..so one can understand if she needed some time off, but it remains unclear how she will adjust to the more sporadic schedule and it doesn't feel like she'll be working elsewhere right now.

I'm struggling a bit to see what the fuss is about. He was wrestling the same before, & he's still curtain jerking on Smackdown? I mean he's still great, and it's not like Pretty Deadly aren't great but I'm not sure what ppl are expecting in terms of upside

Generally MAGs and their imitators are at least little easier on the grip, and some ppl like doing the reverse grip where it sort of acts like an ez-bar curl. But there are like 8 official ones with different widths & grips, so YMMV with regards any individual one. I've somewhat voluntarily cut back on the soft drinks as well last couple of weeks, though I still drink a lot of fizzy water. Trying to make better choices- again not really seeking a big deficit whilst banged up but setting the table for a cut. Had a couple of sessions of close-grip bench supersetted with one-arm rows (I like a wide stance and have my arm across the body for a stretch at the bottom), trying to keep the rest times long enough to catch my breath but where I'm out of breath afterwards. Yeah it sucks, but probably what I need. My benching kinda sucks too, but I'm used to that after forsaking flat bench for a piece - the issue is that I'm not feeling close-grip in my chest at all anymore; it's all front-delt. I'll probably complete the 3 week wave and then move to a slightly wider grip but it's weird - I honestly have had no problem in the last couple of months feeling at least upper chest on incline even with a close grip. Confession: I did not infact do abs last gym workout as I was shattered after doing my previous supersets. I did do my leg raises at home today though, along with kb swings & other minor work. I've been doing bent-over raises and they've actually felt really good - not something I've done a lot of but they're the right exercise for right now imho. I actually did some lateral raises at home today with a 4KG kettlebell and I think they were ok though there is definitely some stuff working itself out on the left side still. The burning has gone touch wood. I did a little bit of SSB squatting the other day, just went up to 80kg for a challenging 6 but it was ATG with a pause so I'm good with it. Probably not planning on anything too heroic with regards free squats anytime soon, but I know I should do it so I'll probably try and go 90kg then 100kg for reps over the next couple of weekends. As for the SLDL and OHP work I was doing before, probably I'll come back to that in February. Truthfully less sure about the hack squat, I may have decided I hate it and not in the right way. But we will see!

That's not actually true - Edge had his 1st from WM through New Year's Revolution 2006. Over 9 months total. MITB last year was July 1. It is semi-ridiculous given he basically has 5 ppl to help him - my guess is that they're going to do the cash-in and Balor is going to screw him. But if Rollins can't go, perhaps they do just do the cash-in & have the screw job later. It's been rumoured that HHH hates the MITB cash-in. The wider issue with Priest is that he's 41 and, whilst they clearly like him, they probably don't see him as a real main-eventer...and we're coming into a WM season that feels very full.

I think it was domestic violence allegations. I mean look I don't think Davey Richards has much of a reputation to destroy, but we should at least be clear about what he was cancelled for.

The Young Bucks is a great choice anyway, because frankly they could do with some heat and beating Sting, preferably with the Ric Flair turn, would be great. Hell when (let's just go with when) Omega comes back, tbh I think coming back with Flair, even as a much more limited/careful worker, could also potentially be really great.

'The Anti-Jericho Narrative's awfully broken' 'Sorry Shart; the mob has spoken!'

That sure does sound like a threat to me as a viewer.

I feel like ROH had a pretty decent way of generating random title matches in the Joe-era by having him be on the losing side of tag-matches and then having to fight one of the Briscoes. Jinder would have been perfectly fine as champion if he was good in the ring. Which of course he wasn't. But tbh I like the idea of midcarders having a banner year, & tbvh I am actually bored of knowing who is going to win practically every match in AEW outside of PPVs. Unpredictable things happen in sports, f**k Ruso for making it seem crazy to occasionally lean into that. I actually like the idea of Hook beating Joe for the title, and giving the Firmly Undisputed Pinnacle of Kingdoms the runaround whilst Adam Cole heals up. I like Joe, but the title ain't no gold watch for service to the biz.