In mainland, they treat meat as literally a condiment. TW/HK less so. Like I said, decades of famines set their food culture back hundreds of years getting used to eating things anyone not in a famine would rationally find utterly disgusting.

But with zero covid fading out I probably stay put for a few years or even indefinitely barring geopolitical emergency. Bodybuilders don't go out to eat all that much and we have tons of great Japanese restaurants, Indian, middle eastern, and western restaurants when I do.

Back
Pullups: bwx12, 8, 6, 5, 4 wtf lol
Underhand rows: 50kgx10x2, 40kgx10x2
Pulldowns: 30kgx10x4
Cable pullovers: 12x10x4

Went home after this. Count as a botched workout. Sleep was really poor and the DL workout on Monday fried my CNS and lats more than I thought it would. Nutrition has been 100% for the past few days and I've gotten a really consistent meal prep routine established.

Today I was doing ****ing logistics problems trying to figure out optimal path to different equipment to minimize having to speak to anyone. And eventually some rural peasant guy that always insists on having 30 minute conversations with me who constantly asks me to come to his baijiu store so he can show off he has a foreign friend showed up at the gym so I straight up left early to avoid interacting with him. Proudly representing peak autism. Next time I start a mini-cut or contest prep I'm going to find a new gym and pretend not to speak any Chinese and pray there aren't any English speakers there.

On a positive note, after seeing my DL peaking training all of the male trainers are copying my moves and doing low rep deadlifts for multiple sets and a few of them actually have fairly decent form. The male trainers at this gym are actually pretty good at the job; we have one guy who has dome some low level competitive crossfit and at least knows how to teach basic compound lifts, another guy who's done a men's physique competition, and an MMA guy who's in good shape. The female trainers except for one who also did competitive fighting are all complete disasters who usually drag their clients to the cable machine and have them monopolize one of the stations for 40 minutes doing long rest very low intensity work which is maddening when you need to use cables.

I don't see nearly as many trainer horror stories in this city as I did in Suzhou. Literally ****ing elementary school PE teachers giving their clients jumping jacks while texting on wechat was the norm among suzhou trainers. DYEL high bodyfat chubby girls who literally don't even lift and do some pilates 3x/wk are professional trainers. And the client is paying 400 ****ing rmb per hour for this jfc. Didn't flex wheeler only charge like 80-120 usd/hr when he was training Stan Efferding? Fitness donkery and misinformation is truly mind-boggling in China sometimes.

Oof. No amount of Anavar is gonna fix that.

Impressive autism tho.

If they just got potato, you'd be enjoying the king of diet foods, boiled potato with salt. RIP Chicoms.

I'll be mini-cutting for something between 6-12 weeks around spring/summer, but a full contest diet isn't starting until Jan 2024 and it'll be around 6 months long. I've found my best results getting lean taking natty-level time frames and fairly low deficits+high activity levels. I've found my worst results by trying to rush in 16-18 weeks, huge deficits, and mostly calorie restriction instead of activity increase. I cut out rice and rice products except on big refeeds where I'm tryna get in 800g+ carbs while dieting. I love air fryer potatos and sweet potatoes. And pumpkin... pumpkin has great satiety to calorie ratio. I'm also gonna cut out whey protein next dieting phase and do largely meat/fish/shrimp, potatoes, vegetables, oats, fruits especially berries, avocado, and eggs (or whites) as my dieting foods. The goal is to never get below 150-200g carbs per day and if I have to do a 5-7 month contest prep to do this, so be it.

Had an okay squat workout but I'm not gonna go up to 170 next time and I will take a deload. Prob do 165x3x2 to build confidence next heavy squat workout 2 weeks from today.

HBBS: 60x10x2, 70x3, 100x3, 120x3, 145x3, 165x3, 140x3x3

Left hip flexor was bothering me because I only couch stretch before my squat workouts and neglect doing it throughout the day. PLus I have a huge strength and stability imbalance where my left leg is way better than the right. I cna bust out several pistols on left and can't do a single one on right. I should probably fix that if I continue squatting as part of my training, even if it's light 50-60% weights for tens with low rest.

I had a problem today of involuntary arousal on my top set. Heart rate/adrenaline pumping. You can see from my videos I normally lift very calmly but I just couldn't keep my cool for whatever reason and felt so nervous going into the top set.

I thought you meant getting dick hard.

hahaha, "couldn't squat well today because of an exogenous androgen induced involuntary rager popping out every time I hit ATG"

Arms:

hammer curl//dual rope pushdowns: 12.5kgx12x4 each
EZ curl//straight pushdowns: 20kgx10x4, 17kgx12x4
Reverse curls//overhead pushdowns: 20kgx8x4, 15kgx12x4
DB seated hammer curls//db skullcrushers: 8kgx3 sets of 15-20

Brewing up 100g of testosterona today, should be a fun time.

In all likelihood I'll have to go back down to 4 days/wk after the meet; I'm just too old and at work too many hours.

Big news. Got an interview with best int'l school in HK. Honestly, i have no idea why they're bothering to interview me because I do not have UK Qualified Teacher Status and have never taught high school in a western country. Generally the best int'l schools want one or both of these. This place also has 0 American teachers or supporting staff out of over 200 people. I have 3 theories as to why I am being contacted
1. Desperation because they literally have 1 econ teacher currently despite having near 1k students and they're short staffed enough to overlook my lack of QTS. I have a Post Graduate Diploma in Education which is an education credential, but the best british owned places generally want more than this and use QTS to gatekeep.
2. The person viewing my resume realizes that msc in econ is not an MBA and is far more challening/higher attrition and also realizes that this is a much stronger signal of competence than QTS/teaching degree and maybe they can distinguish between competence and credentials.
3. They realize that westerners who can adapt to living in the mainland and can learn mandarin are resilient and tough in that sort of cockroach way like they can endure some difficult circumstances. Foreigners in HK are ****ing wussies in terms of putting up with bullshit and are leaving in droves, leaving room for the Evo-Roach to move in.


My self esteem is still too low to believe it's theory 2, but I doubt there's a shortage of applicants from outside of china given how much it pays so I'm leaning probably toward #3. I don't have the job yet and I'm doing my best to focus on the internet but my head is spinning just thinking about leaving this place that I've spent so much of my adult life in and going somewhere that is fundamentally very different. I mean I've done it before and the degree of difference is smaller for obvious reasons, but still the idea freaks me out regardless...My cousin and one of my close friends both live in Shenzhen so when the border opens up more they'll be a quick train ride away which helps. I also have about 10 former students in HK right now.

Oh yeah I did some dl deloading training totally unfocused. Honestly I know my workouts are gonna suck this week and that's fine, interview is obviously more important.

DL: 60x15 paused at knee, 100kgx6 paused at knee, 140x3 paused at knee, 160kgx3 paused at knee, 180kgx1+1f lol
hamstring curls: barely did dick tbh

and went home now going to sleep before 9pm b/c I'm tired af yo

If I got this job I'd likely scale back on bbing a bit since I'm imagining the expectations and workload will be higher to match the much higher compensation. Generally I've heard work culture is more intense across the board in HK.

I absolutely hate powerlifting peaking training. I love my tens at low intensity with high rest. Leave the gym feeling tired but in a good way. I leave the gym after these heavy 3s workouts feeling tired in a bad way and have that "I was just in a car accident" mental feeling when I wake up the next day. Doing this meet to support my friends and help grow their niche sport in china, but after this I'm definitely done for a long while and wanna just focus on bbing training purely.

Do you speak Cantonese tho?

Hope you get that job!

Seek Discomfort. Stretch Goals. Grind in Silence. GL.

0 and I don't think I'll try to learn (granted I didn't think I'd try to learn Mandarin 7 years ago). Not needed at all since English is so widely spoken at such a high level and the only people who speak bad English there will be mainlanders who I also share a language with. I guess I will have difficulty communicating with some of the aged 65+ HK locals from lower educational backgrounds.

Good advice. The big leap of faith coming to mainland China about 7.5 years was one of the best choices I ever made in my life despite being massively uncomfortable, but it was "easy" because I was so miserable in America and felt like I had nothing to live for. This time, I'm honestly quite happy with my life even despite the recent circumstances. But I guess at some point a little bit of avarice is helpful and you can be even happier if and only if you're willing to say "no, this isn't enough and I want more".

GL on the jerb. When you said it was the best one in HK, I thought I knew for sure which one you were talking about, but when you went on to further describe it, I realized I was thinking of a different one. My opinion is at least 20yrs old, maybe things have changed since. And, of course, best is subjective. But whatever it is, it sounds like a great opportunity.

Gl

Two workouts recently

Chest and always skip delts
Paused incline smith: 80kgx11, 80kgx5, 60kgx13
incline db： tens up to 35kgx9, then a backoff at 25kgx12
Machine press: 3 sets of 12
Cable hex press(???): 7 sets of 12 30 sec rests



Yesterday Back
Pullups: bwx15 or 16 forgot, 10, 7, 5, 4
Unilateral pulldowns: 1.75ppsx10x4 each side paused
Underhand bb rows: 50kgx10x4
Machine rows: 25kgx12x7 30 second rests
Straight arm pullovers: 12.5kgx12x5
EZ curls: 20kgx20, 15, 10, 8

Both workouts felt really good. BW is trending up and composition is looking good. Lifting #s aren't at all time highs but I'm lifting with a lot more control/pauses/mind muscle connection etc.

I think another city-wide lockdown is likely inevitable, however. Things were looking good just 2 weeks ago with gov't signalling opening up and dropping zero covid, but now they've put the truck into reverse and are speeding up to 100mph further doubling down on zero covid forever. Bill Bishop the foreigner who has the best analysis of Chinese policy is suggesting zero covid will indeed persist and won't even end in march and we're looking at the long haul for mainland China zero covid 2+ more years. The recent seeming reversal was mostly local governments desperately hoping that more targetted lockdowns and not going to full city lockdowns as soon as cases are in the 3 digits can still bring case numbers under control without devastating their local economies and tax revenues, but after trying it they realize it doesn't work to bring cases down. And that's exactly how the shanghai tragedy happened... try targetting approach first, have it fail, have the central government come in and sodomize your city without lube. Who knows? maybe we'll have a similar scaled Chengdu tragedy!

I will be much less emotionally distraught from being lockded down if I have a job in somewhere besides mainland China secured and if the next lockdown occurs in the winter months when I don't really wanna leave the house anyway.

Thank god I have been given this chance to escape this idiocy and madness.

HBBS: up to 120kgx3x2

Gyms closed... pack it up... it's over...

China on lockdown while world cup going on. Chinese must be confused.





Why not just force mandate Moderna on all the Olds? I read somewhere that 90% of cases are asymptomatic in general population.

Lock it down forever, another hermit kingdom. RIP Evo bodybuilding dreams.

For one, Moderna is not available in China. At least that is the way it was last I checked a few months ago. China won't allow Moderna vaccine in China. I think China only has domestically produced vaccines available. I'm sure Evoken would know for sure.


The true figure is likely much lower. The problem is that some of these studies test a bunch of asymptomatic people, who will test positive for COVID, but after a few days, they will get symptoms. They're not asymptomatic, but rather pre-symptomatic. The problem is that when they do the studies (generally) no one tracks them down and checks if they ever develop symptoms after the fact. They just classify them as asymptomatic because that is what they were at the moment of the test. If you do a sensitive test like PCR you could easily test positive before you feel any symptoms.

lol PCR testing larps

They won't even import foreign vaccines at all. Although to be fair, the domestic Chinese vaccine compares to foreign vaccines much better if comparing 3 shots to 3 shots rather than 2 shots to 2 shots. But like everything else made in china except the women, it's not as good as the western versions.

China comes from a Confucian and Taoist tradition where there is this near god-like reverence for the elderly. In their 'deep culture', they value the lives and wellbeing of people over 70 literally more than anyone else in the country. If faced with amputating a baby's leg to save an 80 year old from death for 5 more years, in their culture they'd amputate the baby's legs every time. They're willing to trample all over the freedoms and livelihoods of all of us other people, but they're never willing to violate the rights or autonomy of the elderly. Because our lives are simply worth less than the octogenarians.

Yes, Chinese on social media are freaking out about maskless world cup. It's hard to have a hermit kingdom like NK when everyone already owns 3 smart phones, a tablet, and a laptop. Especially with millions of Chinese people already overseas who can tell the truth about what life is like in other countries. NK can isolate and propagandize much more easily and effectively. I'd estimate maybe 30% of city-folk under age 30 have VPNS now too; literally all of my students have a vpn. Just 3 years ago it was maybe 20% of students have a vpn installed. Soccer is a weirdly popular spectator sport here that nobody actually plays but tons of people watch. Generally nobody except the octogenarian class supports the policy anymore and violent protests are more and more common. The zero covid policy may end because of violent protest rather than policy pivot.

I had my interview with the HK school yesterday. It went well. 2.5 hours. I'll know by the end of next week. It ultimately probably doesn't matter how well I did on the interview because if somebody shows up who's taught at a UK high school for 5+ years, they will get the job over me unless they just totally bomb the interview and make themselves sound like a complete idiot. But of course... who knows how long HK will be able to maintain it's autonomy... 2049 may be moved to 2030. Still though, no immediate threat of zero covid or the great firewall coming into HK so I'll have a few years at least.

re: Rip bbing dreams. No. If zero covid has not been cancelled, I am out in July. I could technically leave tomorrow if I really pleased, but it'd be costly since a lot of my compensation is tied up in an end of two year contract lump sum. If I took a complete break from bbing from now until July and just do kettlebell swings/pushups/pullups twice a week at my house and some cardio on the stairs, I could still absolutely come back since I'd only be 34 at that time. 35-40 are the best years for a bb, but after 40 most people's progress slows down a lot and by 45 you're regressing. I think Ronnie was at his career best around age 41.


Lastly, I think I'm making some life/mind progress. Gyms closed, freedoms restricted, city lockdown almost inevitable, literally in the middle of a dystopian science fiction movie, but I ain't mad, anxious, or stressing out about it. Last lockdown I actually felt pretty good overall. If this was like 5 years ago I'm sure I'd have been freakin tf out.

Also I am gonna quit squatting for a while. Even on light deload workouts my left hip flexor is very painful. Meet is almost assuredly cancelled and even if it's not if I am not training before a bunch of 1rms I can snap my shiet up.

I really like unilateral squatting with dbs. A bit more glute+hamstsring action, no lower back action and my lower back is already overdeveloped. Obviously carries over great to HBBS if I decide to powerlift for a while again.

Maybe something like leg press, single leg squat, deficit deadlift either stiff legged or conventional depending on if I want to target glutes (deficit conventional) or hamstrings (stiff legged), and hamstring curl for my leg days. If I can get that done in less than 70 minutes I'll do sum glute machines like hip thrust or kickback.


Back to 4x/wk as well. Classic mountain dog 1.0 training split of back, chest+delts, legs, arms 4 days per week. John Meadows RIP one of the GOAT.

He ain't dead yet...


Deadlift: up to 170kgx5x5
Barbell rows: 60kgx 22, 14

My friend has a home gym sorta. More like a living room and some plates. He has a big dog and is not a man who emphasizes cleanliness, so it was honestly an assault on my olfactory senses that made it hard to lift. I pulled in straps. I have no idea how he lives there without going completely insane. I'd literally rather live in a quarantine facility.



Nobody knows wtf is going on... bars are reopening tonight. Gyms are possibly to follow monday. Meet might happen as scheduled. The policy-makers are shifting schizophrenically between blanket lockdowns and more targetted ones. It's extremely frustrating for people like me who are extremely future-time oriented planners who despise ambiguity and dislike improvization.


The crisis right now is that they're trying to more targetted approach to zero covid. But this is logistically impossible and just results in a slower growth rate, but still a positive and fast growth rate of infections. There are then 3 possible outcomes in order of how disasterous they are

1. They finally do the long-awaited policy pivot
2. They return to draconian lockdowns and they are still effective ways of controlling the spread, but come at extremely high cost that are obviously not worth it for any segment of society other than our elder-gods.
3. They return to draconian lockdowns and they are NOT effective and the virus still spreads despite contiued enforcement of zero covid policies. This means random bizarre inconsistency in the enforcement of the lockdown measures, lots of loss of human life from a populace that largely can't exercise indepdent judgement or critical thinking, and more events like what happened in Xinjiang over the weekend where something dumb causes needles death and chaos. We get the worst of both worlds with both limitations on freedom and economic devastation but also mass infections and the government still tries to stick the failing policy for god only knows how long.


Let's pray its number 1, be not all that pissed if it's number 2, and hope that it's not #3.

I guess very unlikely #4 is full on revolt and widespread violent protest. That might be good in the long term, but very very very bad in the short run

I know you guys probably don't follow china stuff very closely since it has no impact on you, but things have escalated like crazy over the past 12 hours. We're at tiananmen levels right now. Widespread protests everywhere even here.

This just became much larger than worrying about if I have a gym to lift in or stressin about when and if the full city lockdown is coming.


Ironically, the world cup and Chinese peasants seeing first hand that, no, the rest of the world is not dying of covid, was the spark that has started all of this.


I gotta go to another interview tomorrow here in town about an hour and a half south of where I am now and I can't possibly focus or concentrate on preparing for it. I know that if I message asking to reschedule I'm gonna look like a ****ing ****** so I'll just slog my way through it, give about 40% effort, and probably still get the offer anyway because every school in mainland China is desperate.

Add oil?

gyms open.. then closed... then open again... then closed again. Impossible to deal with.

Chest+shoulder+tri
Smith: messing around but I'm at a diff gym and it didn't feel right so i quit
Machine press: 170x14, 6, 135x10
Incline db paused press: 27.5kgx10x4
flat db: 20kgx10x4
machine fly: 10,10,10,6
machine ohp: 3 sets
rear delt+side delt superset: 3 rounds
pushdowns: 4 sets

If we enter full city lockdown I'm buying a plane ticket immediately and packing my things for Thailand. I have more than enough money to last before a new August 2023 job starts without having to dip into portfolio. I am not gonna get shanghaied. I can definitely get a job that pays about as well as my current one but with less hours per week at a "cram school" in HK doing economics if no international school jobs I like pop up. I got one offer from a place in Malaysia but I think I'm gonna turn it down because the compensation is pretty bad. Still waiting on the HK school; i'll know by friday. I have two more HK schools I've applied to and more Thai schools are posting job openings.