Hello, it has been some time, I hope you’re well!
Just taking the time to make a quick post regarding an experiment/new method I’ve adopted in attempting to enhance my journey of constantly bettering myself.
If you know me and have read my works, I believe you should know that I use the Kaizen method of bettering myself (though this information may be buried somewhere in a blog post that I have yet to finish). For those of you who don’t know or have continued to read without clicking that link, the Kaizen method is essentially making sure to get 1% better every day.
Kaizen Method
I use this method because it is easy and reasonable to adhere to, there is no excuse as to not being able to better yourself 1% every day, especially if there are multiple available categories to choose from.
To more easily visualize what the Kaizen method is asking of you, here is the amount you need to get better every day visualized on a graph:
See how small that is? No matter the size of your goals in bettering yourself, over time, that 1% really adds up. Showing the importance of progress needing to be made, any progress at all. It the size of your steps doesn’t matter, what matters is that you continue to make them. The value of this is shown on this graph here, sourced from theartofmanliness.com:
The way I have implemented this in my own workouts is as follows: when lifting weights, I make sure to lift 1 more rep than I did previously (You may view my data in my Workout Data page to see how I employ this). I have always employed this method in my workouts once I became serious about them, especially because I was keeping track (on a physical note pad or within the notes app on my phone) I was able to go back and see my progress. Logging your own data to see where you have come from and where you have been is very important. This is more explicitly seen in the business world where before any intelligent business owner makes a decision, they are sure to view the available data regarding that decision pretty extensively (or have someone they trust do it for them). They want to make sure the decision is worthwhile and will generate improvement for themselves/their business.
Your body is your business and should be treated as such, in my humble opinion anyway.
If you view my workout data page, you can see that my exercises increase overtime, this promotes the influence to build back better in my body. The body is infinitely smarter than many make it out to be, one of the greatest feats of engineering (or nature, if you ascribe more to that, it’s technically both in my books) and it constantly works ON ITS OWN to adjust itself according to the stimuli it receives.
As time went on
As my workouts have continued to increase, so has my needed rest time. I used to work out every single day, but I have had to switch that habit to every other day. Until I increase the weight of my dumbbells (resetting the number of my reps back to 1) the intensity and time of my workouts will increase. I previously increased my weights after reaching 50 reps for an exercise in one day, but I believe I will continue to throw around these 75lb dumbbells until I have reached 75 reps of an exercise in one day. It wholly depends on my body and how far I intend to jump up in weight, I have been debating for awhile now (no conclusion as of yet) as to whether I will increase the weight to 85, 90, or 100lbs. The jump from 50lbs to 75lbs was a bigger jump than I had realized so, while I would love to jump to 100lbs, I believe it will be safer (so as to not injure myself) to jump to 90 or 85lbs, we shall see and I will adjust based on the signals from my body when the time comes.
As time has continued, I have continued to improve, but as it does I couldn’t help but wonder if it were possible to do more.. since I don’t want to increase my reps further (it’s a heavy weight for so many reps) or the weight (I would like to be able to handle my current weight with ease) I was at a loss for some time… that is.. until I remembered something I had seen in my childhood.
Weight/Gravity Training
What I remembered from my childhood was this scene from the popular Japanese Anime: Naruto.
For those not familiar (I won’t go into too many details), this scene takes place in a tournament where the students (aspiring ninjas) from two different villages are testing their skills against each other.
Rock Lee (the ninja in green) was up against Gaara (ninja on the ground) and while Rock Lee is formidable, Gaara was exceptionally strong. Not only that, but Gaara is able to use ninjutsu and genjutsu (chi and weapons), while Rock Lee is only able to use taijutsu (hand to hand combat).
The battle is goes alright, but Rock Lee is up against a literal wall and severely out-matched. As it becomes apparent that he won’t be able to win, it is revealed that he was wearing leg weights the entire time.
Rock Lee removes his weights, which seem unreasonably light while actually revealing themselves to be roughly 1700lbs or roughly 850lbs per leg when he drops them to the floor (numbers unverified and taken from the youtube comments in the video. Also, in anime everything is exaggerated and ridiculous, if you want realism, cartoons are not the place to find that).
Once his weights are off, he proves to be quite the formidable opponent, moving incredibly fast when he already moved fast with them all in the first place.
A lot of Naruto and other cartoons I watched had a very prominent effect on my psyche, they taught me many truths to life. On a tangental side note, I actually believe many many truths of the world are hidden in cartoons, many important messages. I believe they are put there because not only can anything happen in a cartoon, but also because they are not taken seriously by those who wish to manipulate through television programming. There is no doubt that those who wish to manipulate through television programming are using cartoons to influence young minds, but they are seriously inept at it and those in control of making the cartoons are able to overshadow those attempts with the overarching message– between those two things, those that want to manipulate with television programming don’t put as much stock into it. I digress…
Gravity/Weight training is not just limited to cartoons (almost every anime with combat ha), it is an antiquated practice that has been around for some time. In The Punisher, there is a scene where Frank Castle can be seen going pull-ups/chin-ups with a cinderblock (no idea which episode this is and I’m not going to go find it). Also, using chains as added resistance in bodyweight workouts is pretty normal, even The Rock does it.
Thoughts on Gravity/Weight training
Gravity/Weight training is something I have considered, but never followed through on. I am of the mind that if I’m going to buy a weight vest, I want to buy one that can add weight in increments and will last a long time (those styles cost over $100 usually) and for whatever reason I never considered ankle and wrist weights. I was just fixated on the vest which was never a completely justified purchase for me when I wasn’t making a lot of money and already had a gym membership with all the weights I could possibly want. Not only that, but while I am somewhat immune to the thoughts/opinions/judgements of others, wearing weights all the time would have most people see me as a vain weirdo, why wear all that weight if you don’t want to look good? Well, I’ll get to that at the end…
It wasn’t so much that I cared about the thoughts/opinions/judgements of others so much as I didn’t always want to be talking about them, it’s an odd and out there thing that nobody does, it’s bound to be brought up in conversation every single day (especially after moving to New York) where people only appreciate a certain level of physical activity and reserve their jealously/inadequacy (there’s probably a better word for it, but this is a raw word that is fitting) for those who to them “excessively” work out. “Why work out so much when there are so many other things to be doing? Business, business, business, your body is not as important as the work you are going.” At least, these are the prevailing thoughts and while these thoughts that are thrown can be deflected, it gets tiring to doing it so constantly… I know this from being on the zero-carb/carnivore diet.. at the office it was all anyone could ever talk about at lunch and so annoying/draining. “Leave me alone,” I would think, “I just want to eat in peace and what I eat is none of your business.” (There will be more on the zero-carb/carnivore diet from me at another time if you’re all interested.) This had the same annoyance on me as a broken record or someone talking about veganism/crossfit all the time, ok I get it, shut up and talk about something with more substance please.
I wasn’t even the one to bring it up, I don’t care whatsoever what anyone else eats or how they live (so long as it doesn’t infringe on the life, liberty, and/or pursuit of happiness of another entity), that’s their freedom to live their life in the way they wish and it is absolutely none of my concern..
but since it’s so different and “out there” others can’t help but just comment on it.. it’s not even just that specifically that, it’s just humans can’t help but interject their own 2 cents into a conversation. Pay attention to this and you’ll notice it, bring up your favorite breakfast with a group and say what you do/don’t like in a breakfast– I guarantee you at least one person will have to interject their perfect breakfast into the conversation as well. Sally likes a couple boiled eggs and her coffee black, Richard can’t stand oatmeal but always goes for a piece of darker toast with butter and an egg over-easy, and so on, Patrick loves a fruit parfait but no raisins please, Jennifer likes a nice sugary bowl of cereal as a treat for morning the loss of her night (“wrong” instance of the word used on purpose)… I digress once more..
Gravity/Weight training now
Now that I am fortunate enough to work from home and am also back in my home state, away from the craziness of the city, and searching for a way to continually better myself I decided it is now the time to pursue this experiment and see what results it will yield. I also really don’t give a shit what anyone says or thinks way more than I used to, it’s apparent that so many people can’t even wrap their heads around a new idea beyond the boundaries of their mind/knowledge without spitting on it (especially if they have preconceived notions against it for whatever reason). People will give advice without being asked or even asking if it’s wanted and on top of that rudeness (I understand that giving advice is often done as an act of kindness and trying to help others, but I am of the firm belief that nothing should be given without first seeing if it’s wanted/welcomed.) they will judge (unavoidable really) and try to present you with reasons why you shouldn’t do it and talk like an expert when they have no actual knowledge on the subject. Don’t take financial advice from poor people, don’t take automotive advice from someone who has never owned a car, don’t take health advice from unhealthy people, etc. If someone who is unqualified tries to give you advice, just smile and say, “thanks, I’ll keep that in mind” and move along with your day. It’s not worth it to educate someone who gives advice without educating themselves.
As an example of my diet conversations, plenty of folks would scoff at me and say I was eating “unhealthily” and “without the environment/ethics” in mind. Without diving too deep into this, the first thing I will say is there is not a single other person who made those comments who exercised regularly or knew more about diet than what they have been fed by the mainstream media, they were often overweight and proved that they don’t know much by calling certain foods “healthy”– food is not healthy, people/animals/plants are healthy, food is nutritious. Healthy food and health foods are made up terms. The only time the term “healthy food” applies is in that, you probably shouldn’t eat sick/unhealthy plants/animals. Also, if you wanna talk about environmental waste, you should check out how all those avocados you eat have literally completely dried up villages so they have to import water now. Not saying a zero-carb/carnivore diet doesn’t have it’s environmental/ethical problems, just saying that everything has a bad side if you look close enough… most of these people don’t know or ask to find out that I was vegan for a time as well, so quick they are to judge… Anywho, my last digression… I hope… ha!
Gravity/Weight training progress
I began wearing 2.5lb ankle+wrist weights (for 10lb added total) on 15 May 2022, as I write this it is 23 May 2022. It has not been long and I am starting lower than I would like, but since there is so little data on doing gravity/weight training I am making sure to be extra careful as I don’t want to hurt myself or have unintended negative consequences on my body. For the “light” weight of 2.5lbs extra on my body (it didn’t really feel like much), I was very surprised how sore I was from the first week, I didn’t feel the soreness till the morning. After a week my body felt normal, I also did my first run with the 2.5lb weights on 22 May 2022 where I am surprisingly sore the next day as well (I also did my 40 chin-ups and 40 pull-ups for that day with the weights on which probably helped the soreness accentuate.
It takes 30-60 days on average for the body to adjust itself when the diet is changed (what I’ve learned from exploring diets, if you’re ever trying a new diet and feel bad initially, this is because the internal fauna within your stomach grew a certain way from being exposed to what you regularly ate and your body routes that “nutrition” [if you can honestly call what you eat nutritious] certain ways to make the most of it. Once you change diets, your internal fauna needs the time to adjust as well as these “pathways/conveyor belts” within your body. Before abandoning a new diet I would advise you to try it for at least 30 days, if not 60 to give your body the time it needs to adjust to the new/different workload you have given it.). And with most supplements, it is the frequency and duration with which you take the supplements that is most important rather than the amount of those supplements.
While that fact applies to diets/supplementation, I’m going to apply that same timeline for the time it takes my body to adjust to added weight. Here is my current timeline in my head (subject to change based on the results):
- 30 days – 2.5lbs on each limb
- After 2 weeks with the 2.5lb limb weights – 20lbs weighted vest
- After 1 month 2.5lb limb weights – 5lb limb weights
- After 1 month 5lb limb weights – 10lb limb weights
- After 1 month 20lb limb weights – 25lb weighted vest
- After 1 month 25lb weighted vest – +5lbs every month until maxed out
- After maxed out weighted vest – ????
As you can see I have some pretty high hopes and, if I had to guess, my body will probably not be able to adhere to the timeline, but of course I will be monitoring it closely and adjusting accordingly. I am of the belief currently that my body will be able to adjust, 30 days doesn’t sound like a lot, but it really is– have you ever had to wait for something you’re excited about for 30 days? Once you get there, the time feels like it flew by, but as you approach that time, it potentially feels like agony. My fears about this project are just a couple:
- I fear that my arms my grow longer with the weight pulling them down
- I fear that my spine will be compressed from the vest
Of the two fears, the later is more scary to me, back problems are a no-no and I don’t want to squish/mess-up my spine. I’m going to proceed very slowly and carefully only because I am a fully grown male adult (the male body supposedly stops developing at age 21 and the male brain supposedly stops developing at the age of 25).
A Word of Warning
It is at this point that I would like to stop and remind you that I am a PSYCHO.
I DO NOT suggest anyone else try this UNTIL I HAVE MY RESULTS.
I especially DO NOT suggest anyone else who DOES NOT HAVE A FULLY DEVELOPED BODY AND BRAIN TRY THIS UNTIL THEY ARE FULLY DEVELOPED.
SAVE YOURSELF ANY PAIN/INJURIES BY WAITING TO SEE HOW IT AFFECTS ME I will be the willing guinea pig.
I say this because I do not want you to get hurt. I also say this because, while one may think that if you do this while young your body will adjust faster/better to the stimuli. I am of the strong mind that THIS IS NOT THE CASE. This is because, as one who is not fully developed, your bones/body/brain are still growing. This makes them malleable, they are liable to grow or bend into the wrong direction. I believe Gravity/Weight training will actually inhibit natural growth, getting stronger is not a race and there is plenty to do in the meantime so please please please don’t do this if you’re not fully finished growing yet.
I understand that you, who are reading this, are likely of the same mind in wanting to be your absolute best and work as hard as you can while you’re young and to not have to make up ground later and, well, again getting stronger is not a race.
Final Thoughts
The last thing I think I need to address in case it wasn’t clear in the above is my motivations. Some people may see this training as vain and as me wanting to be as strong and good looking as possible. This is not the case.
While I do care enough about my looks to want to be presentable, looking good is just an unavoidable by-product from working out (and completely subjective).
I do want to be as strong as possible, but not for my own ego. I want to be as strong as possible to be able to stand on my own and fend for myself. This, and most, types of physical training also doesn’t just train the body, it also trains the mind. I find discipline to be a very practical and astute trait to nurture/develop. Strength of mind is more important to cultivate than physical strength in my books, though physical strength is nothing to scoff at. Additionally, my strength is not for me. My strength is for my family, my future wife and child(ren), my friends, and my community. My strength is to purely be of service to others and only used for good. With my strength, I will be able to help those in areas where they are not (yet) capable of helping themselves and give back to a world which as given me so much.
I expect very positive results from this training so long as I am careful and go slowly.
I will update you all on my journey accordingly.
Wishing you all the best,
FCP 🙃
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