My old man grew 8-9" in ~fifteen months between his sophomore and junior year of high school to 6'3" and played linebacker for a year at UCLA until they told him he couldn't take non-moron classes and stay on the team, so I always "knew" I'd be a "tall late bloomer". I was 5'3" as a freshman and then just grew 2-3" per year through my sophomore year in college - just like I "knew" I would. Sometimes you just have to self-meme out of being a manlet.

Linebacker at UCLA is no joke. It seems your genetics for the iron game may have been undersold.

I'll try to sell the Melk kids on self-memeing out of being short. It's gonna be tough. They already don't listen to their old man on most topics.

so…studies got in the way of his football?

I dont think this is correct at all. I think elites are very self aware and status conscious, and generally work very hard, even if they start from a place of "privelege". The stereotype is that legacies unfairly get into good colleges and jobs, but the truth is most of them actually worked hard and have the intelligence and resume they belong there.

They might not have much empathy for the hoi polloi and their condition (although most will utter the right PC shibboleth in mixed company), but they are extremely aware of status within their own caste, and fiercely compete on the margins.

Also, the truth is that American elites generally are better (this of course depends on your value system), more conscientious parents than commoners, and put way more time and effort into their children. I remember reading some study that upper middle class white/Asian women (even the ones that work full time) put WAY more time and energy into their children than pretty much everyone else, and my own empirical observances support this.

The black pill truth is that the US actually is more or less a meritocracy (not perfect, but as close as any group of humans has ever come) and if you are truly unsuccessful there probably is some behavioral reason. Not to say this means it is your fault per se, as generally people are products of their environment.

--Evoken, kudos to your dad for being a good parent despite his environment, but suffice to say a quick look around "urban environments" would indicate this is not universally typical behavior, so I think it would be a mistake to stereotype it as such.

The problem with being a late bloomer though is you get no reps, encouragement or positive reinforcement to pursue athletics. So by the time you do "bloom" you are way behind the curve, and probably have cultivated other interests anyways. The football coach (who is probably also the PE teacher) isn't encouraging 5'3" 90 lb Monte to start lifting weights and try out for the freshman football team.

Exactly. So if someone can play linebacker at UCLA, they must be pretty damn physically gifted to have succeeded that much despite minimal encouragement for most of their childhood.

I believe this is still essentially true.

Regarding the other part, also true. I guess I should have rephrased that to say "white blonde/blue/skinny from normal backgrounds". Like you said, basically everyone from an elite is there precisely because of high status consciousness.

Does absolute (rather than American "relative") poverty and being born outside of America and then moving there similar engender status consciousness? I'm less convinced, but i still think yes.

I like that you point out "there must be some behavioural reason" while also implying that it also may not be one's fault. Most people conflate the two.

I dont know if it engenders status consciousness as much as the person already had such qualities (through some combination of nature/nurture), but they just really had no opportunities in their native country.

Immigrant families that come to America poor generally pull themselves out of poverty much better than generationally poor Americans. That is because they really didn't have opportunities in their native country, whereas for generational American poors there is generally a behavioral reason.

Race is a social construct, like gender. Maybe if systematic racism against black people is "so bad" they can stop being black? Just a thought.

haha, I mean people have decided to stop being men and become women so why not?

Leg sesh yesterday
Leaning away db curls (supinated): 10kgx20, 15, 10
Hip thrust: 2ppsx22, 15, 10
Leg press: 4ppsx22, 16, 12
Leg extensions: 22.5kgx22, 2 more myorep matching sets

Going to start doing a little bit of bicep training every day. But just 3-4 sets something I can recover from easily. Then on pull day go hard.

Just taking some extra days off huge boost in performance. Gotta drop to 5 training days per week. I'll consider going down to 4 even. I need that weekend in offseason to have a life and need it on prep to structure low carb+high steps+high cardio days.

had a terrible workout today. Distracted and for whatever reason got 0 pump.

Internal rotation warmup
Machine press: 62.5kgx21, 12, 11
Incline db: 30kgx12, 8, 8
incline cable fly machine: 22.5kgx20, 12, 10
Pushdowns: 25kgx25, 10, 8, 15kgx16, 12

No myo reps, wasn't feeling it. Posed for about 25 minutes. Maybe just lighting/lack of pump/angle but I feel like I'm gonna be dieting facking forever and my bodyfat now is just below what my peak offseason bodyfat should ever get up to. Probably body-fat-rexia though and once i take pics from my standard angles AM fasted I'll feel completely differently though.

you also did legs yesterday so...water retention?

Yep, smart guy LOL. Pic the morning after with water gone even though I said I wasn't going to post pics early.

New training schedule after doing some brainstorming

Mo push
My normal push day that I've been doing

Tuesday Pull lats emphasis
Ring chins
underhand rows
pulldonws
curls

Wednesday Quads
Hip Thrust
Leg press
Leg extensions

Thursday
Push DIFFERENT
INCLINE machine press
FLAT or 15 degree incline db press haven't decided yet
Flies
Triceps
delts first as usual

Friday
Back+Hamstrings, thickness emphasis
Ring chins, while resting do both hamstring curls and leg extensions
Paused toes elevated SLDL
Machine rows
Curls

Weekends off


Generally my rest times between max pullup sets are minimum 6 minutes, so it's easy enough to fit in a set of both hamstring curls and leg extensions while I'm resting.

Still doing light bicecp touch-up usually with cables on non-pull days but won't always remember to even log it.

Mo-Fri 15k steps, 30min cardio
Sat+sun 60 min cardio 20k steps

I could easily end up pulling the sat+sun cardio down to 45 or even 30 minutes, but i'll keep the steps higher on those days.

So that's why I'm taking today off.

Things have gone so incredibly smoothly this cutting phase I sorta think I should just enter the show. Maybe instead of trying to bring that last 10% with estro manipulation, I just drop test down to 1/2 cc/wk, no AIs, throw in some anavar last 4 weeks, and see what happens. I'd be 10 weeks out starting from Saturday but I think the pics look more like 7 weeks out. IDK, I'll see how I feel then. Just because things have gone so smoothly lately doesn't mean this will continue.

The biggest game changer thing was so simple... eat a larger % of your carbohydrates from fruit and vegetables LOL. That and i'm generally much better at fatigue management and not going so hard in training. It's important to hold back more than a bit, especially while cutting but even when growing. I feel like my whole career has basically been softening up on training and getting better, all the way back to the oly days. and just when I thought I've found the point where doing less would yield worse results, it continues to give better results.

Except on steps. There more is just better almost all of the time.

Looking thick solid and tight.

+1

Back+Legs

Ring chinups: bwx20+1f, 15, 12 2nd two sets strapped
Machine rows: 62.5kgx21, 14, 10
Ham curls: 47.5kgx20, 14, 10
Leg extensions: 22.5kgx25, 16, 12
Paused SLDL: 100kgx18, 14

EZ curls: 20kgx27, 3 sets myo-rep matching

These sessions are going to be 90 minutes. Whatever, it's a Friday night I can spare the time. Pullups with straps feel totally fine, just unstrapped ended up being too much work for forearms. I'll attempt to do at least one unstrapped set every pull workout.

I feel like I've made so many breakthroughs regarding nutrition especially in the past 6 months. Since ~November or so my rate of progress has just exploded. I know people will belike "herp derp steroids" but I've been enhanced for years now and just finally allowed myself to paradigm shift out of some damaging beliefs I acquired during the rippetoe and even pre-rippetoe "max-ot" days. I want to make some long HC post about bulking and why basically nobody should ever do it and explain exactly why, but that will need to wait.

There was also one big popular thread from maybe 2011-12 on 2p2 about nutrition and weight loss which a lot of people replied to and agreed with that is just so dead wrong about literally everything. Micronutrition and gut health matter tremendously.

I have been watching a lot of women's basketball the last couple weeks and it is fascinating the observe the intersection of phenotypic masculinization (strong jaw, high forehead, long arms, deep voice, etc.), physical aggressiveness and lesbianism on display.

I know you could never do the studies for social reasons, but I suspect such studies would indicate high level female (XX) athletes would demonstrate relatively high masculine hormone profile, that would manifest in distinct "masculine" patterns of brain development and behavior, in addition to phenotypic manifestations.

There was a p funny interview with an elite WBNA who played offseasons in Russia, and how being het was a problem in the WNBA but due to homophobia in Russia the roles were reversed and her team mates didn't sexually harass her.

But yeah, it is pretty obv that gay people have hormonal problems both in utero and in adulthood. We're starting to see some better research (inadvertent of course) on how hormonal therapy could potentially solve this issue. (If we can call it an issue? Apparently adverse sexual preferences are the part of society not being tolerant of whatever.)

Although I'm sure it'd be relevant in answering the question "to what extent?", that androgens vary among people within a given biological gender and this impacts not only their phenotypical manifestation but also their brain development, thoughts, and behaviour is obvious. Sky is blue.

Yesterday did only 12k steps and 50 minutes cardio, day before did 15k and 60 minutes. Today did 0 cardio and at 9k steps at 3pm. will prob do some cardio post training.

I think I accidentally went into ketosis doing 2 low carb days in a row. I was still eating around 120g but from fruits and green beans only. BW is hitting the 92s more often than before.

New pro dieting dessert I'm loving is to cut up two green apples (fruits are tiny in China) and put em in a bowl with cinnamon, truvia, and a dash of lemon juice, mix it up, and stick it in the air fryer a few minutes. Tastes like apple pie filling. I'm gonna try to sprinkle some rolled oats on there for a sort of "apple crisp". About ~30g carbs.

Moving things to monday-friday makes it convenient to carb/calorie/cardio cycle where I can have dedicated lower calorie lower higher output fat burning days on Sat/Sun and then hit higher carbs to fuel training monday-friday. If I do eventually incorporate formal high days/refeed days I can stick 'em on mondays. I'm "10 weeks out" and it might not be a bad idea to experiment with some carb loading strategies and maybe even play around with hydrochlorothyazide to see if its something that works well for peaking with my body. Usually bbers take 1/4 to 1/2 a tab. I might try that one week and then compare with just vodka+cranberry juice night before.

--You forget most of us live in the thrall of a quasi-religious orthodoxy that holds blank slatism as a sacrosanct truth;

“During times of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act.”

George Orwell

Did you officially accept the job at the soon-to-be Macau place? Is that the one with the apartment on campus? How much does it cost to hire a videographer there to film you bringing hot physique women in and out of your apartment every night?

How tall are you? Hard to see how you’re only 92 with your build

Yeah, thankfully I don't. People in Asia are based in this regard, despite my other complaints.