Brent Getting His Yoke On

True story, maybe four years ago I got into the Silent Hill series – by “got into the Silent Hill series” I mean I wikipedia’d all of the games and read the plots and character bios, watched the complete YouTube playthroughs of the first and second games and some of the third and ended up buying Silent Hill 3 from GameStop. Usually whenever I get the urge to play a game I just watch the YouTube playthroughs and end-game cinematics and I’m good.

“Oooh, Silent Hill 3,” the girl behind the counter said, “One of my favorites. I liked the second one better but three’s pretty good too.”

Girl with common interest making conversation with me? 21 year old me says, “Kseeyabye.”

Anyways I play Silent Hill 3 and I’m freaking the fuck out at everything, I get to the part where you’re in the subway and the ghost pushes you into the subway, shortly after that obese creature comes after you and you have to light his shit up with a shotgun, and I was done. Just done. Heart rate 110 to 200bpm instantly? No thanks, I’ll just watch a YuYu Hakusho marathon for the rest of the night.

I get legit creeped out pretty easily. Watched the Blair Witch Project. Almost finished the movie, but just fucking lost it at the end when the dude is just standing there in the corner of the cabin. Just too much shit for me. Watched The Ring, the American version, to completion. Had trouble sleeping for like two weeks (as in, I had to open my eyes every few seconds in the dark to make sure something wasn’t in the room with me, about to freak the fucking shit out of me). “Oh those movies weren’t even scary Brent you’re a fucking beta jelly-dicked virgin” k get an over-active imagination then go fuck yourself thanks.

My cousin got Silent Hill 1 and 2 remastered on the PS3 and we played through some of the second game – graphics still look like they’re from the PS2 engine. Game is pretty pointless problem-solving with limited action, cut scenes weren’t even really re-worked. I still squeal in terror when those straight-jacket bad guys come after you. I’m not even playing the game, my cousin’s got the controller and when the radio starts to crackle with white noise, I become frantic, sputtering “THERE’SAMONSTERTHERE’SAMONSTERTHERE’SAMONSTER” over and over until she kills it with the lead pipe.

“You want to know why Brent works out?” my uncle says. “It’s because he’s afraid of things. He wants to be prepared for them.”

If that were true, I’m woefully unprepared for the challenges I’d face in the Silent Hill universe, the past couple training days have still kinda sucked,

– snatched 225lbs
– c+jed 275lbs
– benched 250lbs for 2, 3, 3, 2
– pulled 430lbs for 4 singles

So I’m in a rut, fucking sue me. This is the main reason I haven’t been blogging as much, my training has fucking blown recently, though I’m progressing from where I was. I wish I was joking but I’ve actually PRed my cheat curls, getting up to 135lbs x 5 for a few sets, and honestly? Honestly? Honestly? This makes everything else not feel as bad. My squats are slowly getting back to the level they used to be (405lbs x 5 is the bench mark I need to surpass), in three weeks I should be PRing my deads for singles across, and my pressing has been the easiest to improve since my deload.

The deads at 430lbs weren’t PRs and were pretty difficult, but I feel like my hamstrings have benefited a lot from the weighted GHRs and natural GHRs that I alternate throughout the week. I feel like I’m more capable of grinding through the sticking point and that I’m able to continue squeezing off the floor and past the knees even when the lift feels like 99% max effort, which wasn’t typically how my pulls worked before. Before, if the pull felt heavy off the floor and budged very slowly, it wouldn’t go at all.

MOBTALK, the most I’ve ever done for my gastrocs is tack-and-stretch with the lacrosse ball on some points. The first couple times I did this, there were some pretty painful points along my gastrocs, that, when worked on, would produce some better squatting mechanics. It’s become harder and harder to find painful things with this method, and I’ve finally tried the PVC pipe approach. Promptly found my new pain cave. Rolling my gastrocs over the pipe, planting my calves on it and tack-and-stretching, doesn’t matter, both legs have a lateral banded mass that just fucking blows to work on.