Health and Fitness

T-Nation article… 7 gym gym rules never to break… but sadly people break ’em anyways…

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This is a great article on T-Nation which a great fitness/bodybuilding site that is popular online. In this article, it lists 7 rules to never break and they’re all good ones too. Sadly, I see people break them all the time especially 1, 2, and 4.

Check out the opinion piece article here:

https://www.t-nation.com/opinion/the-7-gym-rules-never-to-break?fbclid=IwAR1P–aQJ5-I74B9fSx3IrB1loAMhqR-hWaftKpV7XkN9DlB7ITt5Y4_S14

My thoughts on No. 1, “Don’t Perv On Women”…

I do talk to women at times at the gym but I’m not there to hit on them or pick up dates. I respect the women’s time at the gym. Usually when I talk to a woman it’s just a quick “Hello, how are you” and that’s probably about it.

At the gym, I see guys chatting it up with the ladies all the time. It’s amazing to me how long they talk to each other especially in the weight room. They talk so long in between sets and it’s a waste of time for your muscles and your body. It’s not good to take really long rests in between your sets and that becomes a huge problem when people chat it up for so long. I see guys walking up to some random woman to chat her up all the time even when she’s working out! Crazy! I don’t use the gym to hit on the ladies. I go to the gym to get a good workout in and then I’m done.

Thoughts on No. 2, “Don’t Share Your Training Wisdom”…

Getting unsolicited advice seems to be a big problem and I’ve gotten that before. When people thought I was in trouble lifting weights, some meatheads would try to come over to save the day when I knew what I was doing. For example, I was benching 1 rep maxes by myself with no spotter but with these benches at my local gym, you don’t really need a spotter ’cause they have these side arms or safety arms whatever you want to call them. I missed a bench lift and some dude would try and come over and play “hero” to save me but I set the bar on the safeties and nothing happened to me. The dude thought I was gonna kill myself on the bench or something but I knew what I was doing. That’s what the safety arms on the bench are for, some people don’t realize that. I think they were built on there so you can bench alone without a spotter. This happened a couple of times when a dude was trying to save me from a missed bench when benching alone. I knew what I was doing and some dudes just want to play “hero” in the gym and nothing more. I appreciate them looking after me and looking out for my well-being, but dude, what they do is really rude. I do get a spotter when I think I’m in absolute need of one, though. I know what I’m doing when benching by myself and there are gonna be a few idiots that think I don’t know what I’m doing. I’m starting to bench in the squat rack more, though.

Thoughts on No. 4., “Pick Up Your Shit”…

Oh yeah, I hear this one. People leave weights on the floors and on equipment after they’re done and it’s annoying that people don’t pick up after themselves. It pisses me off really. Sometimes I have no choice but to go around the gym putting weights back to where they belong even if I didn’t use them just to be nice and respectful to the gym. Going to the gym maybe fun and all but there will be all kinds of inconsiderate jackasses in the gym too. People don’t put the weights back, they leave trash behind and all that stuff. Crazy.

Gym etiquette is a real problem at gyms lately and it continues to get worse. In the old days, we used to go to the gym to get away from annoying people but now annoying people are all over gyms. Real sad!

Kev

Random/off topic posts

I’m gonna make a return to vlogging but it won’t be on youtube…

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I remember in the old days of youtube, that uploading video site used to be fun to upload videos but not anymore. I used to love youtube but now I’ve grown to despising it. Why did I lose my love for youtube? It’s because I’m not a big fan of how they’re doing things now. Playing advertisements during videos but in order to play without ads you have to subscribe to youtube red. Another thing that frustrates me about youtube is the copyright pings ’cause those things are annoying. There are many reasons why I don’t like youtube anymore.

I think I’m going to upload videos to my facebook page from now on. I’m going to get back into vlogging ’cause I want to document my powerlifting adventures. I’m also thinking about getting my music thing going again ’cause I miss that as well.

I miss vlogging and I think I’m gonna get back into it this year. Vlogging kind of like my own reality show or something. Vlogging on the internet has become quite a popular thing lately and I think I’m gonna join the bandwagon. I have a powerlifting meet at the end of this month and I want to record all kinds of video footage leading up to that meet. I will record video footage on meet day on March 30th as well. It’s gonna be good to get back into vlogging.

Tomorrow I plan on making a small teaser about my return to vlogging. It’s going to be awesome and fun. Show all my supporters about my powerlifting adventures is why I mostly want to do it pretty much. I just re-installed Pinnacle Studio video making app on Ipad. Be on the lookout and stay tuned!

Kev

movies, WWE

“Fighting With My Family” was such a great movie… saw it yesterday afternoon!!!

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Yesterday afternoon, I went and saw the film “Fighting With My Family” which would be the first film I saw in theater in the year 2019. This is a WWE wrestling movie in which this is a biopic film about WWE Superstar Paige. Ya know, the female wrestler from the UK.

I was very surprised of this movie. I kept thinking I was going to walk out after the movie thinking to myself “This movie is so and so” but it didn’t turn out to be that. The movie turned out to be enjoyable all the way through. I liked it a lot actually. The writing, directing and acting by the cast was all good. Some of you think, only die-hard wrestling fans would love a movie like this. Nope. This could be a movie for non-wrestling fans too. If you’re not a fan of professional wrestling then you should check it out.

I’ve always been a pretty big fan of Paige and now I’m a fan of hers even more after seeing this. While this is a biopic film of her life, this movie only tells the story leading up to when she won the Divas title on RAW the day after Wrestlemania 30. It showed how she went through NXT so she can make it to WWE full time.

After this movie, I think it’s finally time we need more movies based on pro wrestling. We’ve had a few in the past like “The Wrestler” with Mickey Rourke, “No Holds Barred” with Hulk Hogan, “Ready to Rumble” with David Arquette and that’s about all I can think of really. We definitely need more wrestling movies for sure.

Back to Paige, it is sad that her wrestling career has been cut short, though. Remember, WWE forced her to retire due to a serious neck injury. WWE will no longer allow her to wrestle for that reason. Yeah, wrestling maybe fake and scripted but wrestlers still can get injuries ’cause they’re still doing all kinds of physical things in the ring. Even though Paige’s WWE career was short, she did accomplished a lot and I thought she deserved her own biopic movie. Her story deserved to get told for sure.

Will WWE make more biopic films on their wrestlers? Hulk Hogan is having his own biopic movie coming to Netflix with Chris Hemsworth playing him so that one should be interesting.

I’m a professional wrestling nerd. I love it so much. I was glad to watch “Fighting With My Family” and I’m definitely getting the BluRay for that film when it comes out.

Kev

Health and Fitness

I’m so glad that I’ve gotten into powerlifting full time, it’s totally worth it!!!

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I’ve decided to get into powerlifting training full time ever since my first powerlifting meet back in Aug. of 2018. Before then, I never saw myself as a powerlifter. I always saw myself as a bodybuilder type of lifter. How did I discover and got myself into powerlifting?

Well, it’s kind of a funny story. What happened was I got these friends in facebook who are powerlifters. They do powerlifting meets all the freakin’ time and I watch their live videos of their meets every time they do one. I would comment on their videos a lot giving them compliments on their lifting and stuff. I told them that they are inspiring me to get into “powerlifting” and one of them ended up inviting me to a powerlifting meet at Albany Strength which was a push/pull meet. A meet that had only deadlifting/bench press. Originally at that first meet on Aug. 31st 2018, I wasn’t going to be in it and compete. I originally just wanted to be a spectator and just watch live in person. One of my friends who is a pro powerlifter ended up asking me to compete in the meet myself and I’m like, “Okay, as long as I’m going to be there might as well try out my very first powerlifting meet which was a success”. After that first meet, I became obsessed and hooked with powerlifting. Since that first powerlifting meet, I’ve been doing some serious strength training and doing a lot of barbell stuff. I’ve been doing the big three lifts: squats, deadlift and bench ever since that first meet.

I’ve always been a hypertrophy type of trainer and now I’ve gotten into strength training full time. It’s worth it, though ’cause I’m feeling stronger and stronger each week. Yes, you can get strong doing regular “bodybuilding” style of training but you’ll get stronger even quicker with powerlifting. Since I’ve gotten into powerlifting full time, does this mean I’m no longer a bodybuilder? No. I’m doing both full time. To get strong in powerlifting meets, you’ve got to continue to do hypertrophy training ’cause that’s part of building strength too. Big muscles helps get you stronger so you got to continue to build muscle too.

My goal in life is not only look great and muscular, I want to be able to get real strong as well. I want to lift the bigger weights and powerlifting will help me get there. I love powerlifting. It’s a great sport to get into and ANYBODY can get into the sport. I want to get real strong ’cause I hate being weak. At my first powerlifting meet, I admittedly started off pretty easy but it’s a good thing to do for a beginner powerlifter. I’m only getting started.

I’m noticing that my squat personal record has finally caught up with my bench press p.r. My squat personal record is 150 lbs. and my bench press is 155 lbs. I’m not quite at 160 for bench but I’m going to give that number another try at the meet on March 30th. I’ll do strength training on bench for the next couple of weeks to see if I can hit 160 on meet day. I want to get lucky and hit the bigger numbers on meet day. While my latest p.r. on deadlift is 310 lbs., I’m going to challenge myself and try to lift a 315 deadlift as my third attempt. I’m going to work up to that number too.

I’m getting stoked for my third powerlifting meet on March 30th which is in a few weeks. For the next few weeks, I got to do more strength training and one week before the meet, I’ve got to do something called “de-load”. What does “De-load” mean? It means you’ve got to lift everything lighter for a whole week and I plan on doing just that. I don’t want to fatigue myself and wear my body out before meet day. I want to keep my strength for meet day so I can lift the bigger numbers. I hope to lift a 160 bench on meet day and I’m gonna give it a try as my third attempt. If I can’t get it again then oh well, better luck next time but I promise March 30th will be a great day for me and I won’t disappoint the audience and won’t disappoint the judges. I hope to get three white lights on everything. Gonna do my very best.

Kev

Celebrity/musician deaths, music

RIP: Keith Flint 1969 – 2019…

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KeithFlint.jpg

Some sad news in the music industry today. Keith Flint who is known as the vocalist for the eletronica/rock band named Prodigy, most famous for their hit songs “Breathe” and “Firestarter” just passed away today.

I wasn’t much of a fan but I used to listen to the album “The Fat of the Land” when I was younger. I remember first seeing the “Breathe” video on MTV and fell in love with it. Then I saw this freaky looking dude on the video with weird hair, eyeliner, pierces all over his face and tattoos all over him. That freaky looking dude was Keith Flint, the founding singer of Prodigy.

Well he just passed away suddenly due to suicide it looks like. Yep, we lost another rock star due to suicide. First Chris Cornell, Chester Bennington and now Keith Flint. If you think being a rock star is easy then think again. It’s not an easy lifestyle ’cause to me it looks like to be an overwhelming and stressful job. All the fame and money and all that could lead you to depression and all that. It’s sad but it is what it is. Rock stars aren’t cartoon characters. They are real people and real human beings like all of us so they are going to have all kinds of problems like all of us.

It’s sad we lost Keith Flint but like him or not, Prodigy was a successful band in the industry. Everyone knew who they were even though they had a few hits. Keith Flint was a recognizable figure for sure ’cause of his unique look. That’s what I liked about him. I wish I still have the “Fat of the Land” album but don’t have the CD anymore.  I can always get it back from Itunes. It’s a great album.

We lost another good one.

Kev

 

Health and Fitness

Ray Williams, a powerlifter lifts a 1080 lbs. squat at Arnold’s Sports Festival…

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All weekend, I’ve been watching live powerlifting through online youtube streaming. I was watching powerlifting competition at Arnold’s Sports Festival online and it’s a blast watching them. Best thing that happened was Ray Williams lifting a 1080 lb. squat which was impressive and mind blowing.

Someday, I would love to compete at the Arnold Festival myself and it’s my dream. On my bucket list. In order for me to do that, I need to be a USAPL member and one day I will sign up with them. I may do that this year ’cause I would love to compete for some USAPL meets around NY State too.

I love to watch powerlifting meets live online ’cause it’s a great motivational and educational tool for me about powerlifting. It’s fun to watch other people lift in powerlifting. It’s the best sport in the world and I’m glad we have a sport that everyone can take part in.

Enjoy the video above!

Kev

Health and Fitness

I love weightlifting and going to the gym and all but there will be some downsides about it…

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Okay, I need to go on a little rant a bit. Yeah, I love weightlifting and going to the gym. It’s my second biggest passion in life right behind music. While I know that weightlifting is going to have a positive impact in my life, there will be some downsides about it like the title says. There will be some negative aspects of weightlifting for sure. Not only that getting injuries for weightlifting will be a huge problem, there will be more.

When you go to the gym and hit the weights to try and change your life, the problems you will have is how people respond to you. Yeah, you will get a lot of doubters, criticizers and worriers for sure.

There are going to be some people that will worry about me weightlifting ’cause of my scoliosis condition. Some will worry that me lifting heavy weights will make my metal rod in the spine worsen by lifting heavy weights all the time. Well, I just went to the doctor earlier this week for a yearly check up and I just found out from the doctor that weightlifting won’t worsen my spine at all. Weightlifting won’t make my curvature a lot worse. That’s what the doctor said. He did explain why it wouldn’t but I forgot what he said. Anyway, I was very happy and thrilled to hear my doctor say that so I’m good to do all the wicked heavy lifting in the gym all I want to. I knew it couldn’t worsen my spine and I’m glad my doctor sees that. So no need to worry y’all… I can get into powerlifting and strongman competition all I want to.

Would I get into strongman competition someday??? I don’t know, we’ll see. For now, I’ll just stick with powerlifting ’cause I’m loving that.

Another thing I want to say is that when you get into weightlifting, you’ll definitely be getting some criticizers after you. For example, I’ve been lifting in the gym for years and people still want to treat me like I’m a beginner. They want to act like that I just started and some want to treat me as if I’m a weak little kid in the gym. That’s how some people has been treating me online nowadays especially in forums and social networking. I’ve been lifting for years and I’ve got a great enough physique for my age and yet, people want to act like I know nothing about fitness and bodybuilding.

That’s the thing, ya know??? The more successful you are in the gym, the more doubters and criticizers you would get. Yes, you’re definitely going to make people jealous for sure, absolutely. That’s why you get people negatively critiquing your form and critiquing your physique ’cause they do it out of “jealousy”, in my opinion. They just want what you have and they don’t have it. They can’t lift the heavy weights and they don’t have the great physique like you have. That’s why you get doubters, criticizers and know-it-alls coming after you. What’s even crazier is that you’ll get advice from people who don’t even lift at all and I’ve gotten that a lot, lol.

When people are proud of your lifting and you earned respect from everyone around you, that’s when you’ll get the haters you see. They get all jealous that you won respect from people and you’ve earned a lot of supporters ’cause of your lifting.

When you get into weightlifting like bodybuilding, powerlifting and strongman or whatever… you can’t listen to negativity when you hit the gym. I never listened to anybody. I just do my thing. I just ignore people and do things my way in fitness and working out. Yeah, people do critique my form a lot but I just do things that works for me. Everybody is different. I’m a self-taught lifter. I never had a personal trainer or a coach. Everything you see me do in the gym, I taught myself. I learned how to lift weights through Arnold’s “Modern Bodybuilding” book and through youtube videos.

You may think that no one is paying attention to what you’re doing in the gym but believe me, people will give you respect when they see what you do. You’ll never know who is paying attention. Don’t listen to the haters and negativity aimed at your lifting. Just do your thing and your thing only. When you’re getting haters and criticizers, it’s actually a good thing.

Yeah, people do SUCK in the fitness world and people are gonna be weird for sure but this is all about you. Not them. That’s what I do it for. I do it for me. I want to get real strong and get healthy. That’s a part of why I got into powerlifting to help me get strong. Yeah, I can’t lift the super heavy weights in powerlifting yet but I do want to get there and it’ll take some time. Someday I will be able to lift over 500 lbs. on the big three: deadlift, squat and bench. Just not rushing myself. I’ve been lifting for a longtime but I am a beginner at powerlifting. I’m already doing pretty good in powerlifting and I’m glad I got into the sport. I’m loving the sport. Best thing in my life right now.

Kev

Health and Fitness

Watch me smash a 300 lb. and 310 lb. deadlift which I did today…

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Well, I knew I could smash a 300 lb. deadlift which was pretty easy. It was such a piece of cake that I felt like that I could lift a little more so I threw an extra 10 pounds on and gave 310 lb. deadlift a shot. The 310 lb. deadlift was a successful lockout.

Yep, this what you gotta do before doing your 1 rep maxes. Gotta properly warm up beforehand so you will be able to lift the big ones.

I’m going to give maxing out on bench another try this coming Monday to see if I’m able to get 160 or a little more hopefully. Just gotta properly warm up so you won’t feel all fatigued and beat-up.

Getting ready for Marc 30th powerlifting meet and working hard for this one as you can see. I know I’m gonna kick ass that day and kill it!

Kev

Health and Fitness

Watch me smash a 150 lb. squat personal record…

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Here is me smashing an easy 150 pr. squat. It was a piece of cake that I felt like I could do a little more but I thought I would end my squat session right there so I won’t hog the squat rack, lol.

This time I smartened up and learned how to properly warm up before I max out. It felt great and it was easy lifting a 150 lb. squat. Ya know, if I started off the sets heavy and doing multiple reps, I wouldn’t have been able to lift that 150 lbs. So glad I smartened up and learned how to warm up better. Before maxing out the heavy ones, that’s what you want to do… lift light weights to semi-heavy but only doing a few reps so you won’t fatigue yourself. You want to save yourself ’til the very end.

I’m planning on doing the same when I max out on deadlift this weekend so I can hopefully smash a 300 lb. deadlift that I want to get.

I think the squat form in this video looks pretty good, though. I think the depth is good enough to get 3 white lights. I won’t max out on squats again for a long while. Not until meet day on March 30th but I’m thinking of challenging myself and plan on giving 155 or 160 a try. I probably will. That’s what powerlifting is all about is being able to challenge yourself. If you miss a lift, who cares. Not the end of the world. I’ll probably end up giving 160 lb. squat a try and I’m still going to do strength training up until meet day so I can hopefully hit that number.

I know I’m going to do real great on March 30th powerlifting meet at Albany Strength and can’t freakin’ wait! I really am working hard for that one!

Kev

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