the'being and the nothingness - Page 2

I'm reading about the Norwegian 4x4 method for vo2max. Surely, Drone, you must know about this for cross country skiing?

4x4 method is pretty straightforward.

Warmup for 5-10 min.

( 4 min of 90-95% effort (max effort), 3 min 70% effort (recovery) ) x 4 sets

I'll probably do it on a rowing machine or stationary bike.

Increasing vo2 max is one of the best things a human can do for improved fitness and longevity.

I can't lie, I came here for a bit of dopamine hunting. Which is a really bad plan. I am just hoping the deprivation of interesting things on here lead to a spike that is somewhat substantial and not transient. Although, spike is a strong word. I am not looking for dopamine spikes, especially not dopamine spikes that leave me worse off than I started. I think my baseline dopamine levels might be lower than the average person. That's just speculation though. I know I was totally lacking in motivation today when I got home from work. I quelled up enough motivation to wash the dishes and do laundry and DuoLingo but mostly I've felt flat. It's why I want to keep a strong baseline and never get too high anymore. I remember back when I used to play poker I needed caffeine, chocolate, marijuana, tobacco, stimulating music just to get through a session which made it impossible to be consistant over a month's time. Not to mention the dopamine pump of striving for a big win and the reward of a big win. All of that probably wiped the dopamine clean for 2-3 days and it's why I constantly felt like shit when I was a professional poker player. Downsings or wiping the dopamine clean probably once a week it totallly explains my life. My off time was spent doing more drugs and drinking and partying in stimulating atmospheres. I'm glad I've been studying dopamine. It feels like it's life changing learning some of this stuff. If I can stay at about a 30 as a baseline and control it so I don't go over 100 and don't go below 30 versus going to 1,000 and going to -100. Even if 1,000 feels like a spiritual experience it's typically not and just not worth it. Of course, I have a mental illness that wants me at 1,000 and inevitably wants me at -100 there are actions I can take to mitigate that.

So, I think I just needed some space to go off on dopamine. It's interesting too that it's wise to not stack dopamine and also use dopamine sparingly and intermittently. When I lift weights I play music loud, I drink an energy drink and I get after it in the gym. 1st of all, I am going to need all these things if I want a good lift but even so stacking of dopamine is just going to lead to depletion of dopamine and I am going to have some off days. What if I just can't find music I like? What if I don't have the energy drink? What if the gym is playing pussy ass music? Going too HAM the dopamine is going to get depleted. It's good that I limit myself to 1 energy drink. I used to get in the habit of drinking 3 energy drinks and playing the music even louder and going manic. That's impossible to compete with feeling wise but the crash is going to be inevitable and painful.

I think I do have to re-think my approach a bit with training. I like the idea on working on the vo2 max. It's maybe the most important aspect of training (for longevity and fitness). I still have found tremendous benefits in increasing strength and mobility. I have to figure out a way to mix the 2. I don't want to be a fat powerlifter or bodybuilder but I don't want to be a skinny fat cardio bunny either.

I'm kicking myself because Grim Dawn was $6 on Steam literally 2 days ago and I went to pick it up yesterday and it is back to $25. I'm still on the fence if I want to get it. Diablo II: Resurrected doesn't hit like it used to. I'm not getting the dopamine spikes I want even when Nightmare Countess was dropping some crazy runes for me today. I'm super poor. I don't feel like leveling up any other characters and I don't care about this Sorc until I can Magic Find in Hell and the end result for me is MF in Hell is nothing more than a dopamine addiction total waste of life.

White tea (l-theanine) and expensive cologne is comforting. We are all going to die. Sometimes we need to break through inertia and other times we need comfort. If the nukes go off I am a goner. There are strategic military bases nearby. There is an asteroid that has say a 1 in 40 chance to hit the Earth. Climate change is accelerating. Sometimes it is hard to know what to do with all of this. My best play is to keep my head down and make money at my job for say 6 months and re-evaluate. I still need to be active in improving social connection and training. That's really what I live my life for.

I wish I could put a limiter on dopamine like I can put a limiter on the closed hi hat. Would probably be more happy long term.

Maybe I shouldn't wish for anything like that. I remember when I was in rehab they put me on this drug that limited dopamine, serotonin, and/or epinephrine. I would go on these super intense runs through a park that was ninja warrior'esque. The runner's high was phenomenal. I would go there miserable and leave feeling great. Well, on this drug I tried and I tried but nothing happened. It was like at the end when the alcohol didn't work. Fucking nightmare. I am not going to lie. I am still addicted to dopamine but at least I know what I'm dealing with today. I just found myself eating half of a chocolate bar bc it felt good.

How the f do i program Norwegian 4x4, Zone 2 Training, and strength training?

Doomscrolling is ruining my brain. Posting here is ruining my brain. At least I got my Zone 2 in today. I feel a bit better but I am running out of things to do. Video games are messing with my dopamine. Burial is meant for the headphones on a grey day.

Am I going to be one of these guys to monitor my vitals at all times during the day?

I did some research. A lot of these gadgets are not very accurate or at least less accurate than a breathing through nostril test or a singing test or a conversation test. So, I am hopping on the Norwegian 4x4 interval training and Zone 2 training hype train. I don't have to have heart rate monitors and 4 smart watches. Maybe I'll get there one day... My last A1C1 was good but I could use losing some more pounds. The strength training experiment went incredibly well. Body recomped like a mother fucker. My cardio health and overall weight loss I think is more important than strength and hypertrophy. I could be wrong on this though. I have felt much more confident due to strength training, more mobile, more virile, less stress, better strength, better balance, ... I think it is wise to do at least 2 full body workouts if I can find the time. My gains have been slowing down a lot with the shit bro split I've been doing. I think I have been doing it for 4 months with out much variation. I don't know. I'm really conflicted on how to set up my program and I am not sure if I want to pay a personal trainer for help.

Did I find the blueprint!?

peter-attia-workout-routine

Did three hours of Zone 2 training today and I feeling fucking pheneomenal. All I need now is a hot sauna and a cold plunge. Tadej Pogacar does about 5 hours of Zone 2 training per day so that is probably about the upper bound of what anyone would ever want to be at. I think I'll aim for 4 1 hr sessions per week and 1 Norwegian 4x4 interval training for now but I love to train so if I have the time it could potentially be more.

This guy is great:

I think it's easier to just be strictly an endurance athlete or strictly a hypertrophy/strength athlete. Zone 2 can be considered movement / activity / steps and not a big deal but I'm still going to sweat. It's not going to be an adequate warmup for weights. It just feels a little awkward to figure out where I want to fit it in with resistance training. Zone 2 feels the best first thing in the morning with a small breakfast and some caffeine. Then, I can go straight to my resistance training. I haven't tried Zone 2 after a resistance training session but I've heard it is not wise to do it right after. The resistance training is a fast twitch muscle fiber training and technically a form of interval training. It's better to make Zone 2 strictly in zone 2. Slow twitch muscle fiber and fat burning zone. Anyways, it feels like I'm spending too much time thinking about this stuff. Either I figure it out and do it or I don't. I figured some things out with my resistance training with variability and form I think I can get good gains out of resistance training for another 6 months or so. Mostly meaning I can get good gains with body recomp for another 6 months then I need to figure it out from there. I think it would be a shame to focus only on endurance training and there is no guaruntee I would lose a lot of weight. I mean I am pretty sure I could do it with diet at this point but the bottomline is I don't want to give up on resistance training.

I'm 6'2'' 209 lbs. at the moment so I am still in that kind of noobie stage where I'm not exactly jacked and I'm not exactly lean. As far as leanness goes I don't really care if I'm shredded. The times in my life I've had a visible 6 pack both times I was 170 lbs. 1 time I was not eating much and doing endurance training (2012). The other time I was doing loads of BJJ and hiking and on a keto diet (2015). I don't need visible abs. I would be happy with my body fat % at anywhere from 10-20%. Whatever number my testosterone levels are good and I feel good.

I'm really going HAM on all this health and dopamine stuff because that's all I have in my life right now. The nature of the outside world is almost more than I can take at the moment so I need to obsess and control what I can.

Backless tops in the gym seems to be a trend these days. I'm certainly not against it.

Sometimes I am in that phase of the gym where the weights are going up and I am feeling good. I've learned a lot recently from Dr. Mike Izraetel. I got into a zone where my eccentric was not as controlled or stretched as it should be. Just completely in the zone of increasing reps and weights but if the pump and post-workout soreness is any thing to go by having that fully controlled, deep stretch on the eccentric is feeling really good and it kind of revolutionized my training. I don't lift as much weight but the pump is incredible and scientifically it should be leading towards more hypertrophy.

Dr. Mike Izraetel and Jeff Nibbard are two to look up to improve resistance training optimization.

LeanBeefPatty for a potential new YouTube crush?

I did this workout today:



*Note: The woman in the video has crazy delts. Holy shit.

I'd have to say I've never had as crazy as a deltoid pump than I had today. I don't know how much pump should be an indicator of training session effectiveness but the pump was stupid good. It was kind of amusant that there weren't many people in the gym because I purposely go at 2pm but everyone was doing lateral raises. You had these macho guys doing like 30 lb lateral raises or higher and I am sitting there with my 5 lb weights getting better tension on the muscle.

Man, as much as I love the deadlift, I have been deadlifting too much and too heavy. I would just go for max reps every damn week for 4 months with zero deloading or anything at all. I'm pretty sure if my deep squat goes up, my lunge variations go up, MY REVERSE HYPER GOES UP, my deadlift will go up and it isn't going to tax the hell out of myself all of the damn time.

It was funny today I was doing walking lunges and on my last set I went to failure and I almost fell over and then realized the hottest woman in the gym was watching me to see when she could cross the area where people do lunges and sled pulls / pushes, etc. I caught myself and then saw her. Oh, shit! I might fall! Oh, hey there... She was way too fucking young anyways but damn where do all these women come from? We crossed paths again when I went to get some water she was following me... Maybe she really likes Gojira? (t-shirt I was wearing)...

Anyways, nowadays, it just seems like I want to lift, eat, chill, sleep. I think I get extra stressed when I get stressed because I produce cortisol over the fact that I am producing cortisol. It's really hard to just lift, eat, chill, sleep. I think all the top bodybuilders are kings at this. They get a perfect lift in, get in perfect food intake, are just chilled as fuck even with ungodly amounts of anabolics coursing through their veins, and the sleep is on point. Don't worry, I'm not considering workout drugs.

I just got through a grueling leg day and I'm alreayd thinking about chest day on Sunday. Chest is probably my weakest body part so I have to get my act together. I think I have a good idea of what I want to do the next 3 weeks. Slow, controlled eccentric with a stretch and pause at the bottom, good cadence on the lift. I was never really getting a good chest pump until my last workout but my triceps were getting major pumped. I also think I was leaving too many reps in reserve (RIR). Not that I should be going to failure on every set but there is a happy medium.

I listened to Knocked Loose's new album front to back today in the gym. As far as gym music goes it gets an A from me. Not sure exactly how I feel about it musically or artistically but it definitely has that primal, heavy aspect to it that I love in the gym. I like when women yell in songs. Poppy's scream in Suffocate I was playing on repeat when I was grinding out the deep, slow walking lunges.

I am kind of running out of music for my training sessions. For shoulders it's all grueling, grinding volume I just played like Massive Attack and whatever else the Spotify DJ was playing. Chest it's kind of fun to get violent, back it is even more fun to get violent, and legs I have to get violent for sure.