Learning How To Fail

There will be a point in a girl’s training when something will go wrong. This isn’t unique to females, but it’s more significant to them when it happens. When a guy fails a weight or busts his ass squatting, he’s embarrassed and ashamed, but typically more pissed off. He’ll mutter, “God damn it,” scrape himself off the floor, re-rack the weight, and try it again. He’s pissed, yet has a hint of competitiveness. This could be from playing sports in high school or a heightened relative aggression due to an evolutionary development that results in at least ten times the amount of testosterone. Either way, when girls who are new to training fail, they can get upset and will even cry.

It doesn’t always have to occur after an embarrassing ass-busting that results in everyone in the gym staring. Instead, it can occur with experienced girls who miss a much desired PR. Sorry if you’re a tough-guy girl who feels the need to respond to every discrepancy that isn’t aimed at you, but most girls will cry at least once in the gym.

This can be awkward or difficult, because most guys won’t know what to do (and will often just want to go make a sandwich). Yet it’s relevant, because focusing on “today” is erroneous when training is actually a process. Anybody who broods excessively over a shitty workout just ends up being a pain in the ass. You’re allowed to brood if you bomb out at a meet, but not if you miss a rep off of your work set. Failing is supposed to be a part of training. It needs to happen. If it didn’t, we wouldn’t get any better.

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Happy PR Friday — post your training updates and PR’s to the comments. Also, if you participate in another sport besides lifting, I’m interested to hear about it.
Today’s post is written by my homie Jacob Cloud. Enjoy.

Another Awesome Day
By Jacob Cloud

You ever just have one of those fucking awesome days? I have them all the damn time. Sometimes I share them with Justin, and sometimes he decides to share them with you guys. Last summer, I had an epic day full of mustachiod awesomeness, and snapped some pics, and Justin put it up for all to see. Check it out HERE.

Not too long after, I was training at the best gym in Austin, Hyde Park Gym…wait, let me tell you a little something about Hyde Park Gym. Actually, a picture is worth a thousand words.

Yeah, it’s awesome. So anyway, a few days after the article above, I walk into the gym, and I’m warming up for squats, and the front desk kid comes up and kinda sheepishly asks, “Hey man…are you Jacob, from 70sbig?” I knew I was going to like this guy right off the bat. Nevermind the fact that he knew my name from the sign in sheet. His next line guaranteed a bromance rivalled only by that of Justin and AC, or me and Kittensmash. He proceeded to comment, “Dang, you look bigger in real life.” It’s official – I fell for the guy. His name is Rory.

Now, Rory is no small fella himself. He ended his linear progression at about 5-foot-nuthin and 235 pounds, a big slap in the face to all you sub 6-footers complaining about becoming adult males. He and his dad also run a food trailer featuring delicious pork, which helps. The local paper wrote it up here and even described Rory as “a student and champion powerlifter with an easy charm that makes him a better customer ambassador than his dad, whose gruff manner takes some getting used to.” Nice. They spoke highly of the pig meat, too. Go to 3 Little Pigs. It’s road-trip-worthy. Trust me.
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Maslow must be bored as shit at work, because he always sends me pretty awesome links. He sent me a list of Top 30 Jacked NFL Players. I thought it was a decent list but it seems they were just looking at muscularity. Reggie Bush, for example, shouldn’t fucking be on the list.
Here are my impressions as I looked at the list:

– I bet standing next to Mike Sellers makes you feel small
– Bob Sanders is a good athlete, but I wouldn’t consider him to be jacked enough to make this list
– There aren’t really any lineman on here, especially D-lineman
– Quincy Black is fucking legit
– So is Clay Matthews, but when you’re black your muscles stand out, so I’ll put a picture of Quincy instead
– MJD is stout as fuck
– Who the FUCK is Igor Olshansky and whose dugan did he fondle to get on this list?
– Joey Porter is a queer. Didn’t he get stiff-armed by Kellen Winslow Jr. when Winslow had two gimp knees and Porter had shit-talked him all week?
– Adrian Wilson, absolute genetic freak
– Tim Hightower could be more impressive. He wouldn’t make my list.
– Connor Barwin would.
– So would James Casey, but that’s enough white players.
– I’ve always thought Ernie Sims was jacked. And a genetic freak.
– Brian Cushing wouldn’t make the list because he’s a dipshit.
– Brady Quinn? Are you fucking serious?
– Patrick Willis is a specimen, but he wouldn’t crack my top 15 (he’s 13 here). Where are all jacked D-lineman (not the fat guys, but the ones who are truly jacked)?
– Of course Peyton Hillis would be here, but it makes me sad because Pat Shurmur is a FUCKING idiot who had Colt McCoy throw the ball 61 FUCKING TIMES and ran Peyton only 10. Peyton will be on another team next year and will kick major ass. It makes me sad.

– Terrell Owens’ half-brother was on my high school team when I was a sophomore. My friends started a joke that my friend Ted slapped him and ran off. Everyone believed it and it was put in the yearbook. Other than that, TO is yawn.
– Reggie Bush in the top ten? This countdown is pathetic.
– Getting better with Brian Orakpo and Greg Jones. Jones is legit top ten.
– Adrian Peterson and Thomas Jones are not.
– LaRon Landry bought his arms on eBay.
– Vernon Davis no, Andre Carter yes. I still would want bigger in the top ten though.
– Thomas Clayton is dece, but #2? C’mon…
– Unfortunately Vernon Gholston doesn’t even qualify as being in the NFL right now. 700 pound squat wasted. But he is more of what I consider to be jacked.

Maybe we should make a list of top 30 yoked NFL players?

Some readers are really interested in what my diet looks like. I’m the first to point out that it’s not perfect (or interesting), but whether or not there is a perfect diet is debatable anyway. I’m 6′ and usually weigh between 210 and 212 pounds. If I had to guess, I’d say my body fat is about 10%, however lower ab veins are said to be visible under 7 or 8%, so I guess I could be as low as 8 or 9%? In any case, my diet and training has evolved to the point that I’m stronger in most lifts than ever (with the exception of squat due to injury and overall body weight loss) while being the most lean and athletic I’ve ever been. Monday I pressed 220×3 on my third triple, and last week I push-pressed 260×2 on my fifth double after clean and jerking up to 315 for three singles.

I don’t really like talking about my training because I don’t like the lack of privacy inherent in a voyeur look at something that takes up a lot of my time (training, eating, recovering, etc.), especially when other aspects of my life will dictate and alter these activities. I’m not so narcissistic (like the late Zyzz) to think anyone really gives a shit anyway. The point is that I’m not that great, but I’m above average in most things to the point where my diet might be relevant. It’s not something that everyone needs to try and emulate, since I think diet is a very individualistic kind of thing, but hopefully you can get some pointers or ideas by looking at it.



My average day involves:
– Water, vitamins, and fish oil
– Fruit and whey protein smoothie
– 6 Eggs and bacon (random carb)
– Random meal (pre-workout is typically whey and random simple carb)
– At least one pound of meat, typically beef with salad and/or sweet potato
– Whey and sunflower seeds or peanut/almond butter
– Fishoil again

There are more specifics, but you can watch the video to hear them. The first three parts are always the same every day with slight variations (e.g. today I had 7 eggs), and the latter meals are variable. I’ll change things depending on if I have a high carb or sodium meal or if I drink a lot of alcohol (which is uncommon). This is sort of the baseline thing I do, and when there are significant perturbations, then I react in specific ways. I don’t shy away from awesome things like bacon cheeseburgers, waffles, or chocolate, but sometimes prepare my day around them or have set reactions to return to normal after eating them. In any case, enjoy the video. Oh, and the it’s kinda long, but it isn’t necessarily boring. Especially the beginning because I had just woken up.

There is a misconception that the latissimus dorsi — commonly referred to as “the lats” — aid in the upward movement of the bar when benching. This has bothered me for a long time, so I have broken this down anatomically to explain why it isn’t the case. We will then learn what the lats actually do during a bench press to be so important.

The Lat
First, we must understand where the lat attaches as this will dictate everything it does. The attachment sites of a muscle obviously don’t change, and the muscle will contract to bring these bones together. It’s pretty easy to discern what actions that muscle causes after knowing the attachment sites (and why you learn bone anatomy prior to muscles, because the markers on the bones are where the muscle’s tendons attach).

The lat attaches onto the spine from the sacrum all the way up to the mid-thoracic spine (the lower it goes the more of an aponeurosis there is, but don’t worry about that right now). The fibers of the muscle angle upward and diagonal from the spine to the humerus (upper arm bone). The fibers cross behind and under the humerus and wrap around it to attach near the crest of the greater tubercle (a name for a mark on the bone). If you want to see the proximal attacchment, then this picture is an anterior (front) view of the humerus, and the lat will wrap around the left side of the picture (where it says ‘surgical neck’) to attach in the area indicated. For those who are kind of confused, just look at the picture below.

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