Walking Beast's Journal

[Walking Beast]

Do you feel that your less than optimal leg training due to your knee injuries is holding you back regarding overall size?

It definately holds back my bodyweight. I felt that heavy presses for legs especially contributed to whole body size. Though I can still build my upper body even if I were to neglect legs. My inability to train back heavy I feel is the biggest factor holding back my size right now. Since that is a large network of muscle. Legs retain most of thier size (most of the mass is the upper thigh for me), but alot more bodyweight would be added and maybe upperbody mass from hitting them hard and heavy. It usually comes in cycles with my joints. So at some point I should be able to blast the fuck out of them again. With back I dont know if I will be able to train it with the weight used in the past, but I can definately see myself hitting it heavy again when my joints and wrist heal up some more.

Though my back session might appear heavy, it was relatively light to what I did in the past. Ive gone up to 640 for hammer strength rows, 355 for 17 lat pulldowns, db rows with 150s for 33, and of course deadlifts at one point. Rack lockouts with a full barbell and 730 lbs on what I called the BEAST LIFT from the lowest setting in rack. It was a deadlift but with the bar behind the legs. That was when I was 185 lbs and all that fun contributed to my ruptured disks and 2 year lay off. I would max 3 different types of deadlifts plus max inclines and flat weekly, with massive volume for everything to failure.

Even with my legs now, the muscle is way stronger then the connecting tissues. So when that is strained I am more limited, despite still having most of my strength. In those situations I just have to wait it out or train around best I can.

Ive gotten accustomed to constantly adapting and progressing around many obstacles lately. Every year there is a few new issues now.

Training comes in cycles and my intensity is always maxed out for the most part. The main things holding me back size wise would be food and drugs at this point. Training has been maxed out for my structure for a while now. Im sure I will get much stronger but I will never be able to test all that strength if I want to last long. As tempting as it is, and I will most likely do it anyway. Restraint when it comes to training is my weak point. Atleast now I will back off and approach shit from different angles when I do fuck myself up. That much is expected. Due to digestive issues (some new ones lately as well) and the unwillingness to become reliable on anabolics, I am working within some limitations. I can only process so much food with slow digestion. Though I would blow up with a proper drug regimen without having to eat super heavy as in the past, having a much slower metabolism these days. Im accustomed to painfully slow progress. As I trained nearly 10 years before fucking with any anabolics. And that was just some pro hormones at first. I dont see the point to blow up now and have to be dependant on anabolics to maintain at that level. I would rather build a super strong foundation, that way I never fall back too far. We will see in the future what it takes to keep progress moving forward, but right now I try to do whats needed to move shit forward gradually. Training intensity is always all or nothing. I dont have light and heavy training cycles. If its lighter it is just for my tendons. Right now chest is the only thing Im training pretty heavy, but thats on machines at the moment.

KILLLLLLLLLLL THAT SHIT!!

[Sexybeast777]

keep killing that shit and keeping intensity alive

[moreps]

I am hoping you can train legs with the intensity they deserve, regarding your injuries. Vince Gironda always stressed that training the legs heavy and with priority contributed to 15% more upper body growth. Can you give us an idea with what your meals and calories have been? Protein, crbs, fats? And do you still visit all-you-can-eat buffets? Thanks for the inspiration Beast. You are a unique lifter!

[Walking Beast]

keep killing that shit and keeping intensity alive

UNTIL MY SHIT IS DEAD!!

[Walking Beast]

I am hoping you can train legs with the intensity they deserve, regarding your injuries. Vince Gironda always stressed that training the legs heavy and with priority contributed to 15% more upper body growth. Can you give us an idea with what your meals and calories have been? Protein, crbs, fats? And do you still visit all-you-can-eat buffets? Thanks for the inspiration Beast. You are a unique lifter!

Appreciate the support of the journal

Thats why its here

When I started I couldnt press the bar unassisted, I was below normal size, frail, weak, I would feel like housewives were bigger then me. Progress was painfully slow. Though my self image got more warped through the process (my interpretation of my size and strength), I know how difficult it is to grind through the process. It was alot less fun back then when I felt like complete shit for many years, but I was focused on the end result and not my current state. So I put this shit out there for the determined, regardless of size, it comes down to mental drive and fight.

I dont believe in most of these so called scientific facts and statistics. I only know what has worked for me, and can only tweak that. Of course its never optimal for growth and size because I train for that vent primarily. Self exorcism. Everything else is secondary.

I miss the brutal heavy leg training. I came to enjoy it over time. Its addictive to push that pain barrier again and again for hours. At some point it should happen. It will always be in cycles for me at this point. Its not like in the past where I felt invincible and could demolish the fuck out of myself with no restraint. Now its more tactical.

I can see youve followed this journal for a while. I used to hit the buffets sometimes for 4 hours with headphones on. Now due to all this acid in my throat I have had to restructure my diet alot. I try to do more smaller and cleaner meals. Ive been doing alot of protein only meals. Salmon, hard boiled eggs, pound of shrimp, etc. Soymilk sometimes to fill in the gaps. Some days there are more carbs. The meals have been cleaner and smaller overall. Which has helped. I used to drink a shake that was 2600 calories, 105 protein and then eat a meal an hour later. No way in hell could I do that now.

I still eat large meals sometimes. My protein is only around 200 grams of protein on a good day right now. Sometimes 150 or less. I dont believe in super high protein. Even getting to 242 I only ate 200 protein. I was also on some test. Though ive always been able to gain at 200 protein regardless. Ill add more calories if I need them to grow, but protein at 200 works fine for me. It really depends on the individual though. Everyone responds differently, so its alot of experimentation. If you are not making gains then eating more is usually your best route. Assuming your training is progressive and intense with enough volume. By progressive I mean always striving to hit records on all lifts, little by little. Journal is super useful to see how your diet is and monitor your progression with the weights. I also chart measurements once a year atleast usually, with pictures.

I dont have a sleep schedule. It happens when it happens. Now with these throat closing issues Ive been only able to sleep 30 minutes at a time sometimes. So sometimes very sleep deprived. Other days I can sleep 4 hours or longer then if I want to get more rest it has to be in small bursts. Even before those recent issues, Ive been mostly nocturnal and never on a consistant sleep schedule. I eat mostly whole food these days to hit that 200.

My personal journal is more detailed and includes my full diet as well. What I post here is just the training portion. Sometimes I edit out extra unnecessary details as well.

My calories now are not that high I would assume. I dont count anymore but my guess is in the 3000-4000 range. I can get away with that now with this slower metabolism, once I got into my late twenties. For most of my training I would need 4000 to just maintain it seemed and beyond that to really grow. Sometimes 5000+. I have done higher protein in the past but when I hit my largest I was only at 200 protein. The only thing that really changed was the anabolics added into the mix. My training has always been the same intensity. The weights and reps have changed of course, but intensity was always at this level for the most part. I can generate more intensity at a lower volume when need be (due to injuries) but it was always there.

Protein is the only thing ive counted for years. I used to count everything (never fats). I never needed to count fat because I was a bone when I started with super fast metabolism. I just needed to consume mass amounts back then. I didnt care about clean.

Glad to give some insight on what has worked for me

KILLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL

[GermaniaK]

LOL! holy shit I love it how you have to tie the plates up to keep them from falling off... plus add a few more pennies on the handles.

[Walking Beast]

LOL! holy shit I love it how you have to tie the plates up to keep them from falling off... plus add a few more pennies on the handles.

Appreciate that shit


The makers of those machines must have thought they would save some big money by not extending the bars a few inches more. Its strange how they come up with that shit. The shoulder press holds 5 plates, but the fifth falls off after more then one rep, and the incline can hold six but without bandages the sixth falls off. Both hammer strength machines. The nautilus overhead press seems to be able to hold 7 plus plates.

One thing that helps a little is to take off the stopper ring before loading the plates on. I have permanently removed the ones from the incline at that location. Loading plates on the handles will help too. Other then that I was using straight tricep bars through the holes in the plates and hanging more plates off of those bars. It becomes more of a hazard and interruption to the sets when shit goes flying and falls off the machine, as shown in a few of the videos. So if its for fucking safety purposes that they limit the capacity, they fucked that up

KILL EM N GRILL EM!!

[Walking Beast]

Shoulders


Some more PRs on the nautilus overhead press. Since I did them as the first exercise this time, and since the machine is new to me.

My wrist and shoulders, elbows were pretty torn up today. I just blasted through but I may take a few days off next week and start chest on wednesday , but we will see.

Everything was back to back this week without rest days inbetween, due to gym being closed monday and tuesday.

Im starting to lack restraint again as usual with using the 80 lb dumbbells for laterals, which is dangerous territory for my wrists. Felt good to get some blood in the traps and delts though:


(225 lbs after previous nights meals)


Nautilus Overhead Press (plate loaded)

180x30 warm up, not to failure
270x20 same
360x28 (PR. Rest pause style as has been the norm lately with the hammer strength pressing)
450x14 (PR)
540x4 1/2 (PR)

Joints all starting to ache pretty bad at this point. Switched over to dumbbell laterals to just pump the shit out of my delts and traps

Dumbbell laterals

40x40 (warm)
45x30-40

Dropset (no rest til line)

55x25
45x10
-----
70x15
55x20
45x20
55x20
45x25
55x30
80x15
45x20

Hammer Grip Dumbbell Lateral Raises (I do these with palms facing forward and holding several seconds at the top of each rep)

35x12
35x12
35x12

Videos below

KILL THAT SHIT

[Walking Beast]

[Walking Beast]

[Walking Beast]

Leg presses, quads and hamstrings


Range of motion was limited today as you will see in the videos. It was either no leg presses or leg presses with a limited rom, due to these knee strains. Knee soreness before even beginning the first exercises. So leg training and ROM is still very limited.

Hamstrings have gotten better though. Despite always being very tight theyve regained alot of strength:

(222 lbs after previous nights meals, hardly ate yesterday)

Leg Extentions

Warm up, two sets, no rest
105x50
160x30
------

205x25
220x20
250x10

Severely limited with knee strain with both reps and weight

Lying Leg Curl

95x25 warm
155x20
200x13
210x8
180x10

Leg Presses (first time going over 700 lbs in a while, Range VERY limited still)

400x30
500x60
600x80
750x65
850x40
600x60

I provided two videos regardless. Just to have something here for legs, even if its shitty. This is low intensity for me right now without that depth and ability to push to failure on everything. No nausea at all. When I was getting the same amount of reps with deep range on leg press is when I got consistantly nauseated, dry heaving or vomitting every leg session. So I will have to wait until the knee strain allows that again

KILL SHIT

Videos below

[Walking Beast]

[Walking Beast]

[Walking Beast]

Chest and shoulders



Decided to switch it up today with some light lower volume work. To let joints heal. If I do high volume even with light weights it has the same wear on the joints as super heavy weight with less volume. The last 6 months or more has been all out, with alot of one rep maxes thrown in at the end of the pyramid, on the hammer strength machines.

So for the next few months I am just looking to maintain with some possible PRs and heal up some more, then start gaining size again.

Today the goal was just to get some blood in the chest. I havent bench pressed in many months. So this was the first session. My leverage is never good when I dont get lift offs, so that contributes to my reps being way down as well as not doing the movement in so long. I may throw it back in with these light sets in the beginning. Maybe going back up to 315 for some reps but I have to watch my wrist with benches for now.

My bests were 225x52 and 275x30 in the same session so these are nothing special but I will post the videos regardless.:


(223 lbs after previous nights meals)


Moving faster between sets and just going for pump today

Flat Bench Press (3/4 reps til end)

135x20
225x38 (First time bencing in a while, 14 reps from best)
275x13 (17 reps from best)

Dumbbell Incline Presses

60x60
100x15

Hammer Strength Incline press

180x30 warm
360x12

DB laterals

40x30

HS Inclines

410x9

db laterals

50x20

Nautilus Vertical Chest press (plate loaded)

270x13

db laterals

45x20

chest press again

270x8 (very slow reps)

db laterals

45x20
60x12

chest press again

270x26 (fast reps)

db laterals

45x25

chest press

320x12

db laterals

45x20

chest press

320x10

db lateral

45x20

chest press

320x5 (very slow)

Superset

db laterals

40x30

into

hammer grip db raises

40x6
--------

db laterals

45x17

chest press

320x13

db laterals

45x20

chest press

370x6
320x8

Dumbbell laterals

55x15
60x15
45x15
50x15
45x15

KILL SHIT

some shitty benching videos below

[Walking Beast]