Whether you are a fan of Arnold Schwarzenegger or not, he is an inspiring man. He has lived his life in a continuous desire to succeed. In this video as well in his autobiography, he puts an emphasis on having a mindset that won’t fail. Everyone on this site isn’t going to be the best in the world at what they do, but you can still set your goals and stomp towards them, never letting up. Whether it was bodybuilding, business, acting, or politics, Arnold knew what he wanted and did everything he could to obtain it. Let’s do the same.
PR Friday — keep all of us posted on your training along with your recent personal records.
This is obviously a strength training website, but strength training is an important part of a healthy lifestyle. I’ve always been healthy and helped people get healthy through proper exercise and nutrition. Now that revolves around properly programmed barbell training and conditioning — no shortcuts. As James Henderson says, shortcuts only net you short responses. That means that bullshit diet pills, diets, exercise machines, and gimmicks don’t do much. You have to put the time and effort in.
I’ve always been pissed off by mainstream health, whether it be magazines, TV, or online. They will usually cite a single piece of research (which may or may not be valid research in the first place) and generalize from it. Or, they’ll try pansy-ass short-cuts, and this is what this article does (Note: I’d prefer if you didn’t click on the link so that website doesn’t think they produced something worth reading, but you’re free to choose your density).
Only a creep would want this in their fridge.
This article consists of “weight-loss tips that work” for people that “can’t stick to their diet” (which I read as “fake shortcuts” for “people who can’t commit to anything and are lazy”). They list ten things that are supposed to achieve this, and it’s one of the shittiest lists I’ve ever seen. Several of the items don’t even make sense when you consider their “politically correct” and mainstream fitness source. One method tells the reader to literally gross themselves out by getting their silverware dirty, tossing a napkin on their plate, or (get ready for this) buying a five pound glob of fat to put in the fridge. Then there’s the whole “purposely wear your old, tight clothes so that you’re guilted into not eating food” thing. When did negative reinforcement become a favorite weapon of mainstream health? These are the same people that say you shouldn’t spank your kids (or even your dogs).
One method was suggesting that you change the ingredients of your favorite fattening foods (like cake and muffins) to include no-sugar apple sauce and whole-wheat flour. This, of course, ignores the whole hormonal effect from macro-nutrients and encourages the person to continue eating carbohydrate rich foods that will inevitably continue making them more fat. It’s almost as stupid as recommending people to laugh in order to burn calories and shape their six pack. Oh, wait, they did that too.
Not only has money been wasted on doing research on laughter as exercise, they’ve gone off and RECOMMENDED that you should be laughing a MINIMUM of 15 minutes a day. I am so PISSED as I’m typing this saldkkvh’oiauwnba owhf3082hjxckmnvsxcc s1!!11!!!
No motion sensor devices are fittin' in there
Big breath, ooooooKAY. It was also recommended to purchase dishware that is smaller, since apparently larger plates make people eat too much. Oh, and fidgeting throughout the day is recommended in order to burn calories. You know how they came up with that one? They put “motion-sensing devices in underwear”. I’m not making this shit up. They put a thing-a-ma-bob in the underwear of regular people and fat people, and found that fat people were moving less. No shit?
“Say…” says the pervert, “Think we can do some research where we, uh, put some, uh, devices…yeah devices! into people’s underwear? To, you know, check for movement and stuff throughout the day.”
“Johnson, I think you’re onto something. Let’s get that funding.”
The only decent pieces of advice were getting rid of junk food in the house and doing push-ups during commercials. I didn’t say it was good advice, just decent. Because it didn’t give any hints on what you should be eating (besides cake and toothpaste) and it didn’t suggest that fat people should deviate from their normal schedule of watching TV at night. Fuck. That.
It’s hard for the average person to even know what is best for them, especially when bullshit like this is fed to them on a regular basis. They won’t understand that you can’t trick your body into becoming un-fat. Creating more metabolically active tissue, in the form of muscle mass, is the first step in a healthy exercise program. You do that by getting stronger. You throw in some interval type conditioning relative to that person’s ability, have them stop eating processed foods and simple carbohydrates, and it’s a pretty fool proof plan. It’s a shame that the majority of people trying to help them are actually hurting them.
This past weekend I decided to make Gant’s chicken fried steak and Jacob’s chili. Both of these are top Texas meals, and I’ve never made either one of them. I’m just guessing here, but I’m assuming Jacob has had chili his whole life and has made it hundreds of times. He said he had never measured anything, so that means he’s used to eye balling all the portions (almost as much as he eyeballs pictures on this site).
Gant is an experienced cook who makes meals that a man would want; smoked meats, potatoes and the like. Gant has been doing it so long it’s just natural, and he has a lot of wisdom stored up on the matter. I say all this because either one of these guys can make a video showing how to make their chili or chicken fried steak, but there are still some problems you can run into when you’re a noob. I cooked both of these meals and they were incredible. I learned some things along the way that I would have rather not learned the hard way. I am a noob cook/chef/whatever. That means that while you older guys may say, “Well, yeah, duh” to my observations, this is all new to me. And if you younger guys say the same thing, then I’m sorry I don’t waste my time watching Rachel Ray, and I don’t care how much you want to diddle her. Pay attention. I’ll try and make it entertaining along the way.
Chili
Jacob making his chili, part 1 and part 2. Here is the post with the ingredients.
I didn’t really mess anything up when I made Jacob’s chili. My only regret is that something prevented me from starting the crock pot mid-morning and it wasn’t ready in the middle of all the college football games on Saturday. I went ahead and included all of the ingredients that he listed. Before I made the chili, I remembered when Gant made it earlier this year, and he said it was a little spicy. Well, if Gant thinks it is spicy, then it’s gonna be real fucking spicy for me. Gant told me that the heart of chili is a good beer, chili powder, and cumen — everything else is just icing on the cake.
Pre-cooked chili
Jacob listed a few different types of chili powder, but I just used one type of chili powder. I used about 3 tablespoons of it, then a little over a tablespoon of cumen. Then I halved all the other peppers, because I didn’t want to get effed up (and neither did the lady friend). In the video Jacob uses Shiner Bock, which has become my stock everyday beer since I lived in Texas (I like others, as well, but when I’m eating smoked or spicy meats, I like Shiner). And I didn’t realize that it was used as the primary liquid in the chili. You see, my parents are both from Pennsylvania so stuff like smoked meats, chicken fried steak, and chili weren’t staples in my childhood. My mom is a great cook, but she doesn’t have the southern or Texas influence. Anyway, I used two Shiner Bocks for my broth (along with the ingredients Jacob listed) for about…oh, probably 3 pounds of meat, maybe more. It was sirloin tips and ground beef. I wouldn’t suggest using any kind of light beer (certainly not light commercial shit) because it won’t have any significant flavor. Gant told me he has used Negra Modelo for a nice mexican chili.
I chopped about a half cup of cilantro up, and this was the high end of what Jacob recommended. This turned out being pretty strong. When the chili was cooking for about an hour and a half, I was worried I had too much cilantro. at this point I only had 2 tablespoons of chili powder and 1 of cumen, so I added about another of each. That seemed to bring down the strength of the cilantro, and I’m glad I did it.
Before I forget; fuck garlic. Don’t waste time with this. I had never dealt with raw unpeeled garlic before, and it’s not worth it. You have to peel the crusty stuff off the top, then you have to peel the individual cloves like it’s a pistachio that hasn’t been cracked. It was a giant pain in the ass, and I was in the middle of trying to watch football and drink beer, so I was pissed. Most stores have freshly peeled/chopped garlic in the vegetable section. Fucking Winn Dixie didn’t.
I used flour to thicken my chili up after it had been cooking five or six hours. It worked pretty well. Ere on the side of less flour than not. We’ll come back to this lesson later. All in all, this chili was badass. Again, I’ve never made these Texas foods, and I will always default to Gant’s advice on food, because he A) likes eating good food and B) is good at making good food. Texas seems to this on lock down.
Chicken Fried Steak
I’ve eaten Gant’s chicken fried steak before, so I already knew it was delicious. The problem would be in replicating that feat. Luckily Gant has some pretty comprehensive videos on how to make it.
Here is the post with ingredients, and here is video 1, video 2, and video 3.
The good thing about making CFS is that you don’t need a whole lot of stuff. The odd item is the tenderized cube steaks. My mom tells me that some grocery stores don’t sell them. Well, Winn Dixie did, but my steaks weren’t nice little squares like Gant’s in the video. They looked like the butcher and his buddies were throwing them against the wall from across the room, and then let them slide down into the package. No big deal, though, because they don’t fall apart.
Depending on where you live, this may sound shocking, but I’ve never cooked anything in grease before. I poured some oil in the pan, turned it up to a little over medium, and thought, “Let’s see how this goes.” In the video, Gant said, “And if you’re gonna test your grease with water, for God’s sakes don’t put your face over the pan.” I didn’t, of course, because I listen to what Gant tells me, but I tossed a drop or two of water, and that shit popped 12 inches off the pan. Lesson here: If you’re new to grease cooking, keep the heat low. You can get fancy later.
I breaded my steaks (rub them all in flour, then add some corn meal to your leftover flour, dip them in an egg/milk mixture, then cover them in the corn meal mixture), and I decided I was NOT gonna put them in with my fingers like Dr. Badass Gant Grimes. I decided to use a fork. As I was putting the first steak in, the second half of it slipped off my fork, slapped the grease, and shot it in the air, burning the underside of my forearm in the process. Lesson here: Be very fucking careful when putting the steaks in grease. That shit hurts. I started using metal tongs and gripped them like Michael Jackson dangling his baby over the balcony. Side lesson: Apparently chapstick is good at healing grease burns.
This smarted.
(I realize that doesn’t look like much, but A) I needed some visual aids for this post, and B) when it hit me it hurt like a mofo. Go splash hot grease on you and see how it feels. Asshole.)
When I had the first two steaks in the pan, they didn’t seem to be getting that “crispy golden” look like Gant’s. That’s when I called him and learned that olive oil is the worst oil you can use for CFS. I didn’t even think about it. It was sitting next to the stove and I was drinking beer while watching Monday Night Football after training. Luckily I was able to drain the pan and use vegetable oil. The steaks turned out much better after this. And I was much more careful when I put them in the pan.
After cooking the steaks, it’s time to make gravy. I’ve made gravy before, but I made with sausages for breakfast. Basically you add flour to the grease, let it thicken up, and then add milk to that mixture. I’m pretty sure Gant poured some grease off. I was not entirely sober and just left it all in the pan. Then I added flour. Too much flour. It’s not like I turned my grease into Elmer’s glue, but when you add milk and the heat starts cooking your mixture, it thickens up. Then, as Gant told me, it will always thicken up when you take it off the pan. So in other words, you don’t need that much flour. But my befuddled brain thought I needed a good bit because I had so much grease. This doesn’t ruin the gravy, it just means you have to thin it out more and delays the whole eating process. Gant and my mom say that water is best to thin out gravy. I just added more whole milk. Lesson here: Use less flour than you think you need to. You can always add more later. Be patient with the thickening process, because it may take a few minutes on some heat. Make sure to get enough salt and pepper in there, but again, go easy at first.
Other than that, the CFS meal kicked ass. I forgot to make fried biscuits, but I did on Tuesday night. You just take the biscuit dough and place it in some hot vegetable oil in a small pot. Turn the biscuit over and you’ve got an awesome side to your chicken fried steak. If you’re trying to grow or recover from hard training, chicken fried steak, mashed potatoes, and fried biscuits are filled with plenty of calories to get you bigger and stronger. I highly recommend it.
Gant's finished CFS
Hopefully this post does a few things. I hope it inspires you to try out either one of these recipes as the weather cools off (chili is perfect football/beer food). They are amazing. Texans really have their shit together when it comes to making awesome food. CFS doesn’t cost a lot of money because the majority of the ingredients should be sitting around your kitchen anyway. If the chili is expensive, have a few friends throw down to get the ingredients. I also hope that if you’re new to cooking awesome stuff like this, you’ll learn from my mistakes (mainly getting owned by the hot grease). So try it out and report back to us.
Lastly, if you have another awesome meal you think we will enjoy, e-mail it on in. It will be even better if you create a cooking video like Gant and Jacob have done (by the way, Jacob’s second video is worth viewing again — watch it until the end to see his bloopers). And you people from the north: you’re gonna have to do a lot to impress Gant.
Refer back to the 70’s Big Face voting post. Let’s review each face.
1 – Decent face by Adam. I’d like to see a more menacing look, maybe drop the corners of the mouth down. The wrinkled forehead almost lightens the effect, but I think the arched eyebrows add to it. Or subtract, I can’t tell.
2 – Pretty good face, Aidan. Your neck is weirding too many people out with your neck though (specifically AC). I like how he is intense here.
3 – Good use of the jaw-jut, Big_Mike. I’d grade the eyes at a B, but I think you could intensify all of it with practice. A solid face, though.
4 – I like Christian. I mean, he wore our shirt under his uniform at his wedding. But this face needs work. He’s doing the kissy face. Who does he think he is? Ben?
5 – Christ almighty, Ed. This is what I’m talking about. You use your face well to send the message that not only are you here to cause mayhem, you’re gonna enjoy it too. The beard brings out your maniacal stare. Solid fucking work.
6 – I’m proud of Gabe. He has been practicing his face. I know because I saw what his original face looked like. He kind of looked like a guy having a seizure (not a joke). I’m proud to see him score high on the fan voting.
7 – While Harrison trains hard, he tries to freestyle by adding his own zest here. Not bad, just not what we’re looking for.
8 – I like Jake’s contrast between his viking helmet and Snoopy. I’m neutral with the hand on the hip. It means business, yet is kind of childish. His glare is deafening, and I’d like to see his frown grow stronger. All said and done, this is a solid picture.
9 – I get it, James. You’re pissed because you can’t make the face. At least you can take out that anger on the barbell, though, eh?
10 – I don’t know why, but Jeremy makes me feel uncomfortable. It’s probably because there’s too much intensity in the kissy face. That compounded with the shirt off gives me the willies. A for effort though, especially with that ‘stache.
11 – Jesse shows off his “I’m a guy that isn’t afraid to get dirty and build a bunch of cool shit” persona right here. This is a beast of a face in its natural environment. Pretty good with that consideration, but I’d like to see more violence. Solid pic.
12 – I’m pretty impressed with Jimmy. He throws the organically angry stare in with a solid corner-of-the-lips drop. He even freestyles a bit with one eyebrow more pissed than the other. This is a very, very good picture.
13 – John is trying hard. He needs more jaw-jutting, and could stand to bring his eyebrows in check a bit. But the thing that hurts him the most is looking down at his computer monitor. It looks like he took the picture when his eyes were in mid spin back and forth. This can use some work, but I like the effort (that’s all I ask for).
14 – Ho. Ly. Shit. Woohoohoo…a fuckin’ showdown. Matt…crimanies, Matt. This is amazing. A work of art. I don’t know how he S-curved his eyebrows, and I sure as hell don’t comprehend how they are as thick as that mustache. Great eyebrow work, solid menacing nose crinkle, and a great jaw jut. Take notes, ladies and gentlemen. This is a 70’s Big Face.
15 – Rob turns out to be the dark horse here. We saw Rob at the Atlanta workshop, and he has polished his technique. A picture perfect corner-lip-drop with a death stare. Solid.
16 – This.
Robin curiously looks like Chris with a wig. Robin is one of those guys who “gets it”.
17 – USMC.Scot…he’s intense, but he’s doing a different face.
18 – You guys like this guy because he’s crazy and I gave him a sweet name, but this isn’t the face at all. He looks like that triceratops from “Land Before Time” (there are zero pictures on the internet of those fucking dinosaurs with their mouths closed). The mouth is all wrong, but you all got sidetracked by his beard. From the nose up, he’s good, but the face is dependent on the corners of the mouth. Sorry Beardman.
19 – Haha, I like Wilmar. This picture makes me laugh. You can tell he’s hammered. He’s doing a pretty good job, maybe freestyling too much with the mouth, but altogether pretty solid.
20 – WannaBBurly slid in at the last second (“that’s what she said” jokes are pussy and lame). Not bad, but AC didn’t appreciate that he didn’t even get up from the couch to take this picture.
And the winners are…
Personally I think it should have been a vote off between Matt and Robin, but the fans have spoken. Using Jake was sneaky for victory, but it worked. His pops also did some Facebook campaigning to win this one. However, since Jake’s camp took advantage of his cuteness, he will default to second place. Matt is the second voted face, and it’s perfect. He wins. I’m going to send Jake’s dad a prize, though. I’ll let Matt decide if he wants the posters or a t-shirt. Jake’s camp will get the opposite.
Nice work everybody. I think the best faces are Gabe, Matt, and Robin. I think Robin should have been voted much higher, but some of you don’t know what it is you’re voting for. Observe…
I got this as a random text by Chris.
What should the next picture submission contest be?
I’ll announce the winners of the face contest tomorrow. This video is more important. This is a video of 20 year-old Olympic weightlifter Pat Mendes squatting 363kg/800 lbs. Completely raw. He weighs 130kg/286 lbs.
As previous discussed, Pat has dual citizenship in USA and Brazil, so he’ll probably be lifting for one of these countries in the 2012 Olympics. His goal is to win gold medals and set world records — very exciting regardless of which country he lifts for.
Pat is coached by John Broz in Las Vegas. Check out the BROZKNOWS YouTube Channel for more videos of his lifters. Here is the website to Average Broz’s Gymnasium.
This is one of the most impressive lifting feats I’ve seen. This could be because posting training videos on the internet didn’t happen until recently, so we don’t have tape on guys like Pisarenko, Krastev, Dimas, or Kurlovich. In your opinion, what is the most impressive strength feat you’ve seen?
