Busy yesterday during this joke ass of a "holiday" so didn't lift. Lifted today but had limited time so I kinda had to phone it in.

HBBS: 80kgx10x3
Hack squat: 60kgx10x3
Leg press: 2ppsx20x3

and gone


Next week is gonna be hell at work, and with some shoulder/hip/knee aches creeping up and perhaps getting back into the swing of things too quickly after an extended break, it's definitely not a bad idea to do very light sessions. I have nothing to gain by rushing back into old weights... I probably shouldn't expect to be near previous offseason bests for another 9-10 weeks. Just focus on staying healthy I suppose.

I decided some of my proximal bicep tendon pain was probably partially b/c of preachers, so I'm taking them out. I used to start with 'heavy' hammer curls and do more overload style training for first movement so I'll probably go back to this. Cut volume from this session to make sure not to strain proximal bicep any more

ARMS
Hammer curl//normal pushdowns: 15kgx12x4//20kgx4xfail
seated db curl//db skullcrushers: 7.5kgx10x4//7.5kgx12x4
EZ curls//rope overhead extensions: 15kgx15,15,12,12//15kgx4xfail

Today (sunday) off and tomorrow glute+hams and keep with lighter training.

Glutes+hams

Deficit dl: 105kgx10x4
Glute kickback machine 1p+5kgx10x3
Hip thrust machine: 1p+5kgx10x3
Hamstring curls: 25kgx12x7 30 seconds rests

felt simultaneously very strong and also respiratory sick like first sign of a cold/flu. covid test negative obv. Tonight idk if I will go to the gym but I will definitely train light so I don't wreck my proximal bicep. I think I'm actually gonna cut all flying movements possible and do pressing only since flies seem to strain the area more. might also take a lower volume higher intensity approach for chest even though I'm using more volume for every other bodypart.

A whole week off training because of a cold.

Deficit deadlift: 110kgx10x4
Glute kickback machine 1p+5kgx10x3
Hip thrust machine: 1p+5kgx10x3
Hamstring curls: 25kgx12x7 30 seconds rests

I was very gassed after deficit deadlift. Muscles didn't feel tired, lungs were gassed and HR got super high. bar was flying even faster than last week but lost a lot of fitness from a week of illness/inactivity. I'll try to get in some more cardio this week.

Halloween deadlift competition on the 29th. Last year pulled an easy 220kg and went on to pull much more than that offseason. This year I'm much worse... injuries, bad contest dieting strategies with too little food, and lockdowns. I think a contest prep this summer is out of the question and we gotta get some gym equipment for the house for next lockdown to lose less strength and hit a long offseason, minicut for 6-10 weeks interspersed, and big contest prep starting spring 2024.

Disaster chest workout

Incline paused bb: 60kgx10x4
Some dicking around with vcarious dbs and machines

Proximal bicep tendon still painful. Not good. Good news is that barbell incline didn't bother it almost at all so I know this is a safe lift for me. I think it was all the cable xovers and ****. Gonna go back to doing 3 lifts only for chest: Incline BB or db, slight incline or flat db, machine press. High volume or low volume idk. I won't be able to do pullups tomorrow I don't think.

Back

Pullups: bwx19 (????), 11, 7, 5, 6
Underhand rows: 60kgx10x3, x12
Single arm plate loaded pulldowns: 1.5ppx10x4 each side
Row machine: variousx10-12x4
Straight arm cable pullover SS with hanging from pullup bar for 30 seconds: variousx12x7

Despite a botched training session yesterday, I had significantly less proximal bicep tendon pain today. I don't get it either...

That's more like it... PR outta nowhere after missing a weak of training and gaining a **** ton of bw on pullups. Very unexpected. Morning bw 99.75 we'll round up to 100, gym bw around 102. I think all time PRs are 27 bw pullups at 90kg and 22 or so at 100ish. We are very close... I could probably add on 3 reps within 3 months. As silly as it sounds, I think the bar hangs and the strapless deadlifts are making the difference on pullups. I feel like I had such comically weak hands/grip before and it was probably holding me back repping out pullups.

Maybe that's a sign its time to stop playing with baby weights on quads tomorrow? IDK. I'm going to take that very facking slow with my long history of knee issues... this is gonna be a long-ass offseason anyway, no reason to take any big risks. Get to the big and more challenging weights slowly.

I drastically under-drugged and underate during my contest prep. I needed a longer prep with more of both. There was one bro I trained with who just annihilated everyone in his class. We're now both back to our offseason shapes and I look so much more developed than him and even a bit leaner. But he just handled his prep diet and PED protocol much better than me and so he looked a lot better once we got shredded down. When people are talking about prepping on 200 mg of test, 200mg of tren per week and a bit of winstrol/masteron, frankly straight up don't believe them. You gotta take a whole lot of stuff in contest prep. In offseason it's different... don't need so many anabolics since you have the insulin and a lot of food in there.


I mean somebody who prepped and actually looked good in the eyes of bodybuilidng judges. not good in the eyes of loco.

Felt like crap. I'm so full from eating so damn much.

Feeling emo but not for the usual reasons. More existential reasons like holy **** I'm a foreigner in a country that just officially changed to being an from being an authorarian corrupt but prosperous emerging economy that was open minded and continous positive changes to an authoritarian dystopian dictatorship with the most advanced police state infrastructure in the world who is possibly going to initiate WW3 and my enitre life has been set up here for the past 7 years. This is precarious. But getting out is no simple task... I'm used to the last 5 years of getting an email/callback from prospective employers within 24 hours and getting a 100% hitrate on interviews/applications. Often time it's more like 2 hours after I send in a resume...Now I've applied to FOUR WHOLE JOBS!!! in Thailand and haven't heard a word back. I guess it's normal for a fairly competitive person in their industry to have about a 5-20% hitrate on applications and literal 100% is an aberration only possible in a country of 1.28 billion people with rapid economic growth where the demand for any teacher who is not from here greatly exceeds the supply. Plus a few China policy think tank remote jobs that I'm really well matched with since even among foreigners living here, language skills are exceedingly rare. I basically spend all day distracted worrying about future events that are entirely outside my control that could have major detrimental impacts and then I get off work and barely feel present in the moment or motivated to train. Yesterday it was fine and I felt really good in the gym. Today my mind was wandering off elsewhere imagining all the sorts of catastrophes that could happen. And I feel so sad for the locals living here who don't have the option to pack up and leave... the country is going to **** and everyone knows it. Even the patriotic locals want to leave... basically anyone with a 95+ IQ realizes the when a country becomes a dictatorship it never spells good news for the future but we're all so powerless. And I feel sad because this place was so full of hope, optimism, growth, improvement, and being able to watch everyone around you have aspirational behaviours rewarded along with guaranteed rewards for your own aspirational behaviours... felt so much more meritocratic than the west and there was just this inescapable positivity and atmosphere of hope everywhere.... Now everyone is scared shitless of everything, things are getting worse and worse in every way imaginable, and it feels like we are just low worth crops to be harvested by the masters for their profit. Before maybe 2018 or 2019 or so, there was no fear of Taiwan escalation... decision making power was too decentralized and it's much harder for countries to do super dumb **** in a system that was authoritarian but still had checks and balances among the leadership... But now... things are different...

Good news is that I'm 33 and still have 3 years where i can enlist and I'm fairly confident I'd be stationed somewhere in Asia and do something I'd find rewarding because undoubtably it'd leverage my language skills. So I gotta stop freaking out so much and realize that it's ****ing october, recruitment season for schools outside of China hasn't even really kicked into full swing, and just try to stop worrying about it and enjoy BODYBUILDING. Naturally this sort of anxiety about the future is wrecking my appetite even worse. Most likely I'll fail my job search in Thailand but get a consolation prize of a job in Malaysia/Indonesia/Vietnam or something that has a much better salary:cost of living ratio than both CHina and Thailand and live a happy life there getting to expeerience yet another "childhood" of discovering and adapting to a new land. I can intellectualize this and know this, but somehow it doesn't always make me feel much better...Oh well!

Quads
HBBS: 90kgx10x3
Hack squat: 1px10, 1.5ppsx10x2
Leg press: 2ppsx20x3
LEg extneions: 15kgx12x7 30 second rests.

Having some unpleasant feels when your life is facing uncertainties is pretty ****ing normal. You'd be a major wierdo if you weren't.

I'd worry, but not worry about the worrying itself.

Yeah I guess it helps to know that I personally will definitely be alright. But I've made so many great relationships with people here and they're all totally ****ed if things go south and Mainland invades TW. Several hundred million Chinese die of starvation just from sanctions probably; but when you've got an autocratic dictator in place these sorts of decisions might realistically be made. Even if mainland doesn't invade TW anytime soon; a lot of the decades of social and economic progress have essentially been erased over the past few years and the pace of this reversal has just accelerated and that really sucks for all of them and I don't like that because most of the people I know, like, and am close with are Chinese and don't speak English or have any options to get out.

Decided I'll go with mountain dog 1.0 classic split I've used for the vast majority of my training for bbing career. Mo Back We Chest+delts Fri Legs, Sat Arms. the only difference is that I will add some DL+hamstrings on back day and don't do a free weight hamstring movement on legs or my leg days are just too long and exhausting.


Deadlift: 160kgx5x5
Pullups: bwx13, 9, 7
Barbell rows: 80kgx12, 6
Pulldowns: 3 sets
Rows: 3 sets
Hamstrings: 3 sets failure

Even though DL was maybe RPE6, I don't want to start my back workouts with deadlifts. It just too negatively affects lat focused movements and lats are much more important than erectors in bodybuilding. I will always do pullups first and then do deadlift+hamstrings last. I need to go back to pulling with straps because mixed grip is ddefinitely going to result in some back imbalances and I already feel my right trap and upper back muscles much more pumped than the left side.

China been going down this path for decades. But can't invade the world when you're poor, so here we are. On the other hand we can start hating mainland Chinese people like we hate Russian people now.

Maybe just straight up become a fed. I know quite a few who are doing very well (200k+) after taking some basic certifications in fraud when they retired. (Spoiler: Feds basically do financial crime investigations when not doing whatever they're purportedly employed for.)

Potato is a great diet food. Need to up the empty cals (butter/sugar) if you wanna make it a passable fulking food. Luckily they're prob the best base starch to accept random ****.

TBH I've only visited all the countries you listed, but I'd prefer Malaysia if I had to relocate. But I'm not sure what you really want. Thailand is pretty Americanized and the others are just too ghetto IMO, but it depends if you wanna live in KL or Da Nang obv.

Yeah I was in denial; it was probably always headed this way. The reform and opening up guys are always gonna be beat out by the more ruthless power hungry types. It was bound to happen even if it wasn't Xi. Nobody I've talked to did not absolutely love KL and I'm applying to a school there right now. My best foreign friend that I've known for 7 years and one of our mutual Chinese friends we've known for 4 years are also applying to the same school and these schools are generally far less selective than Thai/SG schools. I haven't visited, but even if I somehow end up disliking it, tons of other countries are a hop skip and a jump away to chill with my ample yearly vacation time. Salaries in Malaysia are also significantly better than Thailand/Vietnam and may even start to exceed Chinese salaries if the American fed keeps raising interest rates and the Chinese exchange rate continues depreciating.

Being a fed actually sounds awesome as long as I don't do drug crimes; the thought had never occurred to me. Thanks for the suggestion, NotThremp. I think it's most probable I remain an international school teacher; I find this work incredibly rewarding. Beyond the strictly academic stuff, your day is full of interesting social interactions with people from all over the world and surrogate parenting; if you have a temperment for that like I do than you probably find it rewarding in the same way regular people find raising their own children rewarding.

Do I hate mainland Chinese people? Hate is too strong of a word. Well... within group differences are high, but by and large the answer is unfortunately yeah I probably dislike the majority of people in this country. But if we restrict ourselves to people under age 65 and in urban areas, I only dislike a minority of them. A huge portion of them become far more reasonable after just a small amount of education, exposure, and urbanization. Even the still countryside nationalistic psychos... I try not to dislike them... they just don't know any better and if they were raised with more access to information they'd probably be chill people too. At the very least I can say I still prefer them to Americans as a monolith.

But I know you meant that colloquially, and yes you're right, mainlanders have gotten a pass far too long. So many pussies saying "h8 the ccp love chinese people herp derp" not realizing that Xi looks like a moderate compared to the typical 63 year old rural uneducated Chinese person. People who say that are making a mistake I made; they extropolate the characteristics of the elite Chinese exchange students (the ones who actually spoke English and were good students in Mr. Evoken's class) to all Chinese. They don't realize what a tiny portion of China that represents or how few people pursue tertiary education at all in this country.


All that said, I've still had some amazing and enriching experiences with awesome people here that well exceeded my wildest expectations, and yeah I'm bummed that things are about to take a nosedive for them. My only regret was not taking an additional semester to study Chinese language and not starting my post-graduate diploma in education earlier. Beyond that I'm satisfied with my decision to come here and every major decision I've made while here.

The downside of being a fed is that you're surrounded by other cops. One of the most illuminating stories was where a friend relayed the shock and bewilderment his fellow officers had when he didn't "turn a guy's head into a canoe" and instead had him lay down and arrested him. Not really my kind of people. Drug crime is gonna be mostly Border and ATF. SS/Postal Service/IRS aren't really arresting people for dope. I'm a novice on this subject so I'm sure there is a career fed cop who you can chat with if you wanna explore it. Seems like you're super happy with teaching tho. So I think that is your calling.

wrt the people: Folks get really mad when you point out that Ukraine and Russia citizens are basically identical. They are, in general, corrupt, homophobic, sexist, and racist societies that have nothing in common with the West, except Ukraine is all the pretty white people that are West of Moscow in actual Russia. (None of the weird -stan people or Asian Siberian.) Granted I live in a bubble where everyone is smart, successful, blah blah blah, but I'm trying to be more realistic with myself about the bubble I live in and how shitty most people on the planet actually are.

Guess I need to move up the timeline on visiting Taiwan tho. Missed out on the HK visit.

I didn't think Kuala Lampur was nice. It was damn hot and the girls were not. If I am going to live in that shitty weather, Singapore or gtfo.

Definitely think the food in southeast asia is better. Is Chinese food even top10? So overrated and I have eaten a shitload of authentic Chinese food. It's alright, it's alright. Maybe #9.

Considering Chinese food consists of 8 major varieties with a whole world of sub variety within each category, that ranks pretty high up on the dumb loco hot takes.

This is correct. I think I have been the biggest proponent of getting Emoken to Singapore. Downsides are that it is more expensive and he is concerned about how strict they are there on PEDs. I'm pretty sure that's a non-issue, but given how draconian their other drug laws are, he's gonna have to do a deep dive and be absolutely ****ing sure.

I guess I might rate KL a little higher than you, but still way, way lower than Singapore.

This is also correct.

One out of two for the locobro. Could have been worse.

Seems like the job market for English teachers esp American is gonna be a lot thinner in Singapore. Maybe he can get become an expert in Singlish like our folks who are attempting to codify AAVE.

Just not a fan of that shiet. Honk Kong. Northern. Taiwanese. Nah man.


Rather have Peruvian. Italian. Mexican. French. Thai. Japanese. Mediterranean. Spanish.

Then afterwards might consider Chinese or Middle Eastern. Tough call.

Shiet, my ex fiancee was Chinese. Tried everything. We went to LA. NY. SF. All the facking Chinatowns. Her dad her own restaurant in Panama. Knew all the chefs. Nah man.

They have that 1 star Michelin in Vegas at Wynn. Nah man, your roasting duck on a stick does not look tasty. Sorry guys, Chinese no bueno. Plus I got fat eating dim sum once a week. I counted that shiet in my log ten years ago. 1800 calories every Sunday morning as I watched my ex's dad eating chicken feet. Lol.

I did go to a street place in Singapore that had a Michelin star. Some kind of soy chicken. That might have been Chinese. That was my best meal in Singapore and it was $6. Now we talking. Not sure this soy chicken is Chinese or Singaporean. No clue.

But back to Singapore, what is Tom Dwan doing there? Did the big Macao games move to Sands? They had chump change poker when I was there.

Hainanese chicken rice is from Hainan, which is in China.

So the best food in Singapore is Chinese. k.

BTW I've been to that place too. It is great.

That's true, but I was under the impression that Evo isn't looking to teach English.

That seems reasonable.

On a different note, when I left the US, "Chinese" food was still heavy heavy Cantonese. I know that Xian Famous Noodles is now a thing. Peter Chang also is a thing. Is there actually more variety or is everything still pretty much Cantonese? Ironically this would explain where a lot of loco ignorance comes from since he probably isn't aware of the Chinese diaspora in the US and how they're basically all from one specific area and have heavily influenced the perception of what is Chinese in the US.

Maybe this is a global thing now? Some German guy is serving kimchi on his tasting menu since everyone else makes their own kimchi here now. (and almost all are awful)

Obviously the Ex and the family speak Cantonese and are originally from Southern China.

I know Northern China can be a lot more spicy and that's a plus.

Bro recently took me to taiwanese hot pot. Super overrated, I just kept dreaming of a Tom yum Kung from lotus of siam.

Can somebody name one good soup from China? Just one. I've tried so many. None close to Peruvian, Thai, or even a Caldo Tlapeño from Mexico.

I did have a good soup from Malaysia but that was Thai-esque maybe with a hint of Indian.

It's just not even close, Japanese and Thai food so tasty. I can think of 5+ mouth watering dishes in thai cuisine. Now we talking. Chinese all i think of is a disgusting won ton soup or some greasy ass beef soup.
Shiet, I think it's close call between Cantonese or Viet, Pho can be solid.

Anyways point is, southeast Asian good very tasty. Loco approved.

Just take the L bro.

Don't like Korean food either. Mostly not a fan of Indian either. We move on.