Muscular Tension & Load - THREAD

Anyone out there lookin for gains knows you need to create tension in your muscles to elicit growth.

We all understand that concept, but many of you aren’t optimizing for your body

If you’re struggling for those extra gainz, this is for you The principles for muscle growth are easy in theory:

- load up a muscle/create tension & put it through a range of motion

- incrementally increase the load over time to elicit adaptive growth

Obviously there’s more to it, but at its base, that’s how you grow

The Barnum Effect and Cold Reading - THREAD

Lotta you out there are looking to improve your social & cold reading skills. Analyzing strangers on the spot.

Using the Barnum Effect is IMO the easiest way to instantly improve your cold reading.

I’ll dive into how to use it below I’ve been fascinated with the human mind for as long as I can remember. Maybe this stemmed from being extremely introverted. Maybe from just the fascination of how things worked.

But I’ve been studying how people think of themselves & how to apply that to interactions for years

The Hero’s Journey - THREAD

Sure, many of you know what “The Hero’s Journey” is. Entertained by countless stories of that nature.

But you can take the principles from it to create an extraordinary life for yourself. Face your demons. Become your own hero. Conquer. What is The Hero’s Journey?

For the unaware, it’s a common narrative template used across many stories thruout humanity. It uses relatively similar aspects across different story arcs.

Normally falling into 3 distinct phases:

- Departure
- Initiation/Revelation
- Return

Sitting here on a deserted beach in a typically popular beach town, ripping some American Spirits & thinking about fear.

This towns been decimated this year. I think around 1/3 of businesses closed for good and that # is growing.

All because of our collective response to fear We’re designed with an acute fear response. This response used to serve as a mechanism to fight off Sabre tooth tigers and warring tribes.

Unfortunately, now it just serves to bend the masses to whatever manufactured trauma the elite want to inflict

Well I opened up Facebook for 25 seconds and stumbled across this gem....

And cuz I’m fascinated by how ridiculous the average person’s thought process is, I read the whole thing

My thoughts below.... I honestly expected this to be satire. Thinking there’s no way someone’s gonna sell people on “eating chips and whipped cream on the couch” is good for you.

Sadly, the title was not clickbait & reflects exactly what it says

Quick thread on some actionable advice for all you guys out there who look for some specific info from bigger accounts

Instead of cold DM’ing them out of the blue with a question, do an advanced keyword search of their tweets to see if they’ve already answered it. With a lot of the guys on here, they’ve written about whatever you want to know about.

But they don’t necessarily want to re-hash everything they’ve already covered.

Witn no prior rapport built, you’re less likely to get a complete, in-depth response

During the celeb Botox craze in the early 2000s, many of the ppl who got the treatment reported shifts in their emotional behavior.

This was at first odd, as Botox itself solely affects physical appearance and doesn’t interact with any sort of brain function.

At least directly Depressed people suddenly started feeling less depressed.

But for most, they started having trouble with empathy, the feeling of community and connecting with those around them.

Why the shift in emotional behavior from a superficial operation?

One form of discomfort I’ve found to be very beneficial, that avg ppl generally want no part of:

Move across the country or world for an extended period of time.

No safety nets. No support base. Limited knowledge of the situation ahead.

Find out what you can do on your own. When you go off on your own, truly on your own, it’s almost impossible to make it through that and not come out of it a better man.

As of a few years ago, more than 80% of the population lived within a few hours of their parents.

We need proper decompression after long bouts of work & stress.

Some combo of Legit vacations, heavy boozing, heaux, debauchery, nature, etc

Extended periods (talking many months) of intense, focused work require you to properly relax to optimize future performance There’s a distinct point of diminishing returns for grinding. Your output will fall to the point the grinding isn’t worth nearly as much as it used to be.

If you’ve never put in hours and hours, every day, for a goal or mission, this advice isn’t for you.

For those looking for an introduction into Quantum Physics & how energy transcends physical limitations, I highly recommend The Dancing Wu Li Masters by Gary Zukav

The book is not too advanced for those uninitiated to the concepts. It adds an aspect of practicality to the theory We tend to think in absolutes when it comes to our physical reality, and that simply is not the case all the time.

It’ll likely take a few reads to fully grasp all the concepts, but I guarantee you will have some profound realizations your first time thru.

ARTIFICIAL SWEETENERS - (THREAD)

How many of you consume artificial sweeteners regularly? Are you even aware of how much you consume?

If you think avoiding the sugar & consuming sucralose, aspartame, or other artificial compounds is a healthy option, that’s not the case We’re all about avoiding sugar, especially processed sugar. Sugar messes with your insulin levels & sensitivity. It facilitates weight gain, inconsistent energy levels, illness, & a host of other negative things

But in your efforts to avoid it, don’t rely on artificial compounds

VIKING MENTALITY TOWARDS DEATH (THREAD)

The Vikings were known as some of the fiercest warriors throughout history.

What set them apart? Their view of death, afterlife, and how that affected their lives.

What could YOU accomplish embodying the same principles? First let’s talk about Viking afterlife.

As a Viking, you were destined to one of a few realms after you died. The specific landing spot varied depending on how you lived your life and how you died.

These realms are Helheim, Helgafjell, Folkvangr, and Valhalla

I’m starting a little over a week of travel, so going to have to get creative with my training.

Lots of body weight and band work.

Honestly my nervous system probably needs a break from the heavy weights.

Will update periodically on how I’m working out And for my leisure amidst the traveling, I’ll be crushing @HKBelvedere new book

GRIP POSITION - THREAD

We all know grip strength is important, but the position of your grip is just as important.

If you’ve ever had interior elbow pain from lifting, this thread is especially for you.

I’d you haven’t, keep reading to make sure you continue to avoid it I know a lot of us are tempted to grip the bar in our fingers, w/o using your thumbs from time to time. I fall into that trap myself.

But that grip, where the bar is in more of your fingers than palm, puts unnecessary stress on the Flexor Digitorum Superficialis (FDS) muscle

We talk a lot on here about not caring what others think & obviously I think its a great concept.

But some of the biggest motivators in ur life can be caring about what others think

High level Athletes do this all the time. Someone doubts you, remember it. Use it as motivation. I distinctly remember many instances of ppls doubt. I make a point of it.

Way back At like age 14, one of my friends told me “I think you’ll always be skinny and ur brother will be jacked like your dad”

At 21, gf at the time always called me a “string bean”

Something I found to work really well with this last bulk phase:

Taking ~5gs of EAAs randomly all thruout the day between meals

This helps you maximize protein synthesis and keep your body in muscle building mode.

All while limiting insulin spikes that result in fat gain Here are pre-bulk and post-bulk fizeeks.

A bit over 6 months apart.

Some fat gain as you can tell, but packed on some serious muscle.

For a “hard gainer”, I think the constant stream of EAAs made a huge difference.

Quite happy w/ the arm & leg gains

Most fathers sacrifice a ton for their families with very little acknowledgement of the sacrifices.

It’s what society says men are “supposed to do”.

If your dad sacrificed opportunities, money, travel, exploring To make your life better, thank him today. I make an effort to do this with my dad regularly but still don’t emphasize it enough.

I’m not able to see him today, so I Sent him a long email, recognizing and thanking him for everything he’s done and given up to make my life incredible.

L-CARNITINE L-TARTRATE (THREAD)

Carnitine plays an important role in energy metabolism and aids in fat burning.

Adding LCLT could help give you a boost with your fat loss and muscle gain. There are a few forms of carnitine available.

The most common are L-Carnitine, Acetyl-L-Carnitine (ALCAR), and L-Carnitine L-Tartrate (LCLT).

My favorite for physical benefits is L-Carnitine L-Tartrate.

L-Carnitine is bound to Tartaric acid to enhance absorption.

It’s important to find the optimal ways to train for YOUR body.

Lots of ppl look to those w/ peak genetics. Can be beneficial but you need to find what uniquely stimulates ur muscles.

I was stuck in traditional lifting schemes for yrs. Biggest gains when I made training my own I post physique here often so u know what I look like. I don’t train barbell bench, barbell back squat, or heavy Deadlifts.

I have compression fractures in my spine that made lifting a struggle for years.

Traditional shit didn’t work, worse yet often had me in pain

It’s been exactly one month since I started tweeting as Thor. Biggest thing I’ve realized is I start thinking, “would Thor act like this” in most situations.

Then adjust my behavior accordingly.

Increase in confidence, energy, charisma.

Decrease in fucks given. Wasn’t even purely intentional, just something I started thinking about. If I’m tweeting as Thor, I damn sure better be reflecting that in my day 2 day to the ultimate degree.

Didn’t think I needed much of a boost in those areas before either.

Belief & mentality are POWERFUL

BOULDER SHOULDERS (THREAD)

Here’s a couple variants of shoulder exercises to blow your delts up & get those coveted boulder shoulders

- Smith Machine OHP
- Angled Lateral Raises

Depending on your bone structure, you can tweak exercises to elicit the maximum stress on a muscle With a lot of typical shoulder exercises, the angles of our joints cause a brief release of tension when conducting the exercise

Less tension = less muscle breakdown & slower/less gains

You can tweak common exercises to increase the load on the muscles