The Boring Introduction

My name is Jonathan, and this blog is about all things wonderful in life: mainly me, lifting, and Blueberry Morning cereal.

Or maybe I'll just write about the things that people ask me about or things that I wish I had known about sooner, and hopefully it'll be useful to some people. I also plan on using this forum to log my strength training and progress towards fitness and powerlifting goals. And seriously, Blueberry Morning cereal is incredible.

I've spent a lot of time lately answering questions from friends and acquaintances on my diet and strength training. I love sharing the things I've learned through trial and a shit load of errors. I'd like for this blog to become a resource for people that want to know my training and diet methods and a forum to share my thoughts with friends and like minded individuals. My physical training is an ever evolving system, and it allows fine tuning for individuals, which is important because while the majority of my core tenets I believe apply to everyone, some things need to be individualized to your specific goals and genetic make up, and I will try to keep that distinction clear.

I'm completely contrarian by nature. It's not that I need to be an individual so much as I'm not satisfied with average, and neither should you. I'm constantly curious, ever doubtful, and devoted to improving myself on all levels including physically. The direction of my physical efforts is to become as strong as possible and look damn good while I'm dong it. I could say I want to be the best I can be, and there's some truth in that overused phrase, but that's a crappy goal ... I want to be the best ever at whatever I devote my time and energy to. We all have limitations, but those limitations are rarely fixed, and I enjoy moving them. It is entirely possible; I've seen countless examples in my own life.

A common look for me: with a mouthful of good eats

If there's a core manifesto to this blog, it's to log my journey in strength training as it evolves more and more into a livable and healthy system of extreme hard-core training. The results I continue to see are continuous muscle mass increases and increasing strength levels, along with body fat levels that never leave the single digits. I'm not happy unless I can go to the beach, look like a Greek god, and pick up at least four massively obese chicks while I'm there ... I mean literally pick them up. With my current deadlift numbers I figure I'm good for 2 or 3 right now; maybe I'd have to do some physical training and dieting with the 3rd one to get her down in weight a little. 

Picking up girls for Strongmen: Derek Poundstone

Now the important part: the answer to every difficult question you've ever had. This is a big secret, and I picked it up from picking the minds of world class athletes like Derek Poundstone and a who's who list of record holding powerlifter's and strongmen. Drum-roll ... write this down:

Work harder and longer!

It's four words but don't underestimate their power. You'll see as I continue posting that most of the details of my somewhat contrarian training methods fall back on this core tenet. Forget everything you've learned about training; this is the answer. No exceptions. It is the definition of success. It is difficult some times, but incredibly effective. Follow this mantra and I guarantee you will be a better person for it. 

Here's another quick one-liner of advice that could save you a lot of wasted time in reaching your goals. This is a fact; there are no holes in it. It is completely indisputable. Again don't underestimate the simplicity of this:

You can't out train a shitty diet!

If you think about those two things in the context of your physical goals, you'll see it really narrows down your choices for executing a path to where you want to be. 

My next couple blogs will be all about little ol' slightly narcissistic me. I want to get out of the way my current personal records in the gym with some video from the last few months in my major lifts and a quick overview of my most recent training program and diet. I also just really want an excuse to post a bunch of half naked photos of myself to show where my body fat and muscularity is at right now... of course solely for record keeping purposes. I'll also post a photo timeline of sorts of the past 10 years so you can get an idea of where I started from.

From there we'll get into the science and anecdotal evidence behind how I train and how you can adapt it to yourself, along with continued updates on how my training is progressing following a program built around those tenets.

Souces:

• Me and my lifetime of having to learn everything the hard way
• "The harder I work the luckier I get" is a quote from Samuel Goldwyn and a favorite of Dennis Leary