*To Do Reps, or Not to Do Reps? That is the Question.

Oh my.

Anyone who knows me knows that I look at a set of 12 in the same way most people would look at a three mile run- unpleasant as hell, horrifyingly boring, and yet, not all that difficult. I've trained with every possible set and rep scheme, ranging from 100+ reps to pure singles, and everything in between. I find myself, however, tending toward the extremes, doing 20+ reps when going light (usually on bodyweight exercises), and then sticking to 1-3 reps on everything else.

If you have to do high reps and low weight to get ripped, someone needs to inform this Bulgarian he's fucking up.

When loading weights for sets of 1-3 reps, I typically keep my poundages between 90-100% of my 1RM (one repetition maximum), and never drop below 85% of my 1RM. Why, you might ask? Wouldn't that fry my CNS(central nervous system)? Would that be *gasp* OVERTRAINING?

The simple answer is no. Not at all. And fuck you for using that word in my presence.

The Bulgarians are notorious for stomping throats and breaking hearts in Olympic lifting competitions, and have dominated that sport for decades. Over the last 40 years, their workloads and workout volumes have increased exponentially, to the point where they now train 6 days a week, for 6-8 hours a day. They split their workouts, like Louie Simmons' Westside program, into speed and power sessions, but fully 70% of their workouts are conducted with poundages at 80% or more of their 1RM. (1)

Well, wait a minute, you might be saying. You do single-only workouts all the time! the Bulgarians only max on 1.05% of all of the total lifts, and only train at 90%-100% of their 1RM 7% of the time. Well, yes, my grasshopper, but I don't do the Bulgarian routine. No one with a job or life outside of Bulgaria does that routine. I merely posted their workout volume to show you that the human body can take a hell of a lot more punishment than Hany Rambod or Joe Weider seem to think, even in the face of empirical and anecdotal evidence to the contrary.

Bulgarian Olympic Weightlifter Ivan Stoitsov doesn't look overtrained to me.

So, we know you can get strong and muscular doing low reps. I highly recommend cutting rest times down on low rep sets to increase hypertrophy (hypertrophy is increased as the muscles must recruit more muscle fibers to combat fatigue) and to stay lean. I like this method immensely, especially given the fact that people who take long rests often stand around jawing far more than they lift, which is annoying and pointless. Is this method ideal? Science says no. For me, I'd rather go into the gym and lift brutal amounts of weight than fuck around on a cable machine doing triple drops for 6 sets of 12, but that's a matter of motivation for me. I know that if I go into the gym and REALLY get after it, I will either grow or die trying. Thus, I suggest you try the low rep method, shooting for 20-30 reps per exercise, and see where you stand after 3 months. If you're not considerably stronger and more muscular, I will eat my fucking shoes.

Throwing a 242 lb stone over a high bar might seem like reps, but it's really singles with REALLY short rests.

1) Zatsiorsky, Vladimir M. Science and Practice of Strength Training. Champaign: Human Kinetics, 1995. p.97.

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Now playing: PsyOpus - Whore Meet Liar
via FoxyTunes

I call him Lefty.

So my work-on-stuff-and-post-it plans got a bit messed up when my dude decided he is a sports superhero and dislocated his shoulder.

He tells me he was making a totally amazing catch in softball and somehow fell. So Lefty and I spent time at a tiny walk-in clinic (which was majorly depressing and full of sad poor people.) I have been babying him a bit evn though he isn't even being a baby about the whole thing. he is just kind of useless at doing anything!

But he is back at work with flashy red arm sling, so I can work again.

I finished my calendar (Which Cathy totally guessed it would be!)



I decided to add colour after all and I think I like it. If you are not a "write stuff on a calendar" type person, I have also made one without the grid, which I will be listing tomorrow. It has a slightly different colour scheme.*EDIT* Here!

I also snatched up a second Etsy shop username, which I am going to start planning on setting up and filling up in the near future. Its still sort of a secret I guess. ;-)

Working on something new...

Spiders like flowers.

Can you tell what it will be?

I had this illustration board hanging around that is not the usual surface that I like to paint on. Its slick, and even has a bit of a shine. It seemed perfect for ink.

The surprising thing is that I actually did a pretty organized and complete sketch. I often just go "EH, I will figure it out as I go" and that is sometimes a horrible idea. I then decided to use an ink pen instead of the acrylic ink and brush I have been favoring lately.



This is actually a test print of the drawing, after it was scanned and Photoshopped. I was going to add digital colour, but once it got to the completed ink stage, I just liked it as is. Its not a secret that I always like line art better then the coloured versions. I bet I had a lot of blank colouring books as a kid.

I am not even going to pretend that this is going to be finished before monday. Its the weekend! No one wants paper goods with Cheetos fingerprints on them. :-)