ALPHA MALE ALUMMNI, NEW GYM MUSIC, AND MAKING TIME TO LIFT

 

 Who remembers watching Renegade on late night USA channel in the 90's? Honestly the opening credits are better than the entire show so I never made it past 10 minutes when I was a pre-teen. But looking back on it now it got me all kinds of pumped up. I am considering watching the entire first season with a weightlifters prospective. For you young bucks that ain't tracking its outlaw Lorenzo Lamas as the buff, long haired, mystery hunk, riding a motorcycle and shooting automatic weapons. UR' MOSHIN. tell me that Lorenzo Lamas is not the hardest name you ever heard. Lorenzo is like the bastard offspring of John Stamos and diesel fuel. Spot L wearing the long hair/tucked in tank top combo I wrote about in the summer fashion post two months ago. so advanced. really looking forward to this look making a comeback.

patent leather vest with gold chain.

Before I tackle today's topics just wanna take this chance to showcase some of the baddest dudes walking this earth. The intent is to get you focused and pumped up. Form your "mental male motivator" from these guys. So walk with me as I take you through the halls of the Alpha Male  Alumni. Take a knee, silence your phones, and pay your respects to those who came before us. Harness their energy, their attitude, and their look and channel it into your next lift. 

First stop is by far the most underrated but thanks to the resurgence of the Mad Max franchise I have a feeling he will soon be adoring your laptop wallpapers and becoming a name thrown around in the weight room very often. the intimidating, haunting, and utterly terrifying...

Lord Humungus

as if this thing wasn't cool enough scope that Misfits tat on the right delt.

when you are so strong your enemies are both scared and sexually confused. Is he gonna fuck me or kill me? which one would I prefer?

strong "Under The Sign of The Black Mark" vibes.

Go watch Mad Max: Road Warrior and root for this villain.

next is an obscure inductee but hes burst onto the scene in the last few months, getting a lot of press coverage. The real life warlord Abu Azrael. His call sign is Arabic for "the father of the archangel of death" (dare you to tell me that doesn't make you wanna war). After looking at his pictures no other moniker will suffice for such a monster. Quick back story on this dude, hes a 40 year old Iraqi University Professor who has a wife and four kids. He quit his university gig and left his home to travel to the war zones in his coutnry and dismantle Islamic State soldiers personally. Hes famous for taunting IS on social media and does interviews laughing, smiling, and giving his position to the enemy, welcoming any IS hadji who wants a shot at the champ. I saw an interview where he was showing off an IS walkie-talkie he took off of one of his kills. You could hear the hadjis talking on it and he was just dialing in randomly and totally trolling the IS dudes. It was absolutely flawless. I may have teared up a little. His prop is an axe that is rumored to chop off the heads of IS militants hes killed. I seriously should not have to even type anything else to convey just how fucking rad this dude is. So refreshing to see someone actually give a shit about their country and do something about it. Here is a link to a more in depth article about him that you should check out. hes a real life fucking commando. 

Daily Mail UK Article

Abu Azrael

a triple fuck of supremacy. could be the most high speed Iraqi I have ever seen.

never a smile so intimidating in all my life.

Georg Karl Julius Hackenschmidt

this dude looked like this in the 1920's. how is this even real?

inventor of the bear hug and the hack squat.

real quick, this dude was born in 1877. this is what he looked like for most of his life. this man was making gains during the great depression, WWI and WWII. you have ZERO EXCUSES now. none. you should be ashamed of yourself. I AM ASHAMED OF MYSELF!

Hafthór Júlíus Björnsson

Icelandic strongman who plays Mountain in Game of Thrones.

He was on Game of Thrones, hes placed 6th, 4th, 3rd, and 2nd in the Worlds Strongest Man contest, and hes from Iceland. Its just not fair. there was never a chance for you.

Watch his training videos on YouTube. He can dead lift close to 1,000 lbs. the pinnacle of alpha male. Really into Iceland just constantly putting out insanely strong men and women for the last 40 years. Sometimes I think I was born in the wrong country. I want to be a product of that genetic drift from one of the strangest/rad countries on Earth.

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the fist Black Metal Militia. 70 years ahead of their time.

Lets get to it! Now that we have paid our respects properly to those who came before us time to focus on ourselves in the here in now. I got some great feedback from some fellow readers over the last two weeks. They wanted some more information about some topics that I have not touched on in quite some time. Thanks for the emails men. Keep them coming. Hearing from my fellow darksided weightlifters across the globe gives me great pride in knowing that at any given moment, somewhere out here on this planet is a like minded individual looking to breakout and conquer. Hes looking to crank it up a notch and wants to use whatever tools available to make it happen.

1. Lets update your gym playlist with some recommendations from yours truly.

Chapel - Satanic Rock & Roll

This band is so fucking good. They haven't put out anything in a long time which sucks but they are still active. This album from start to finish is an entire workout. You will never slow down and you will worship every riff. Of all the bands doing the black thrash thing these guys do it better than everyone even Midnight. a must for your playlist.


Gatecreeper - new single/music video "Poisoned Mind"

 If my blog has a "house band" its Gatecreeper. Ive been pushing these guys on everyone since their inception and not a soul has turned it away. This band was made to produce high quality, dead lift ready anthems.  Aside from how well produced their demo is and how seriously heavy the riffs are  bottom line is that they are fucking good songwriters. That is what has taken them to the next level. There are a hundred of these kind of bands but no one can write a goddamn song. they just fart out one riff and then just kinda surf it. boring. not these dudes. everything they create has been A+ heavy fucking metal. its not too late to get on this band. Just like your strength gains this band is gonna blow up.

Sovereign - "Nailing Shut The Sacrosanct Orifice"

The guitar player from Gatecreeper's other band. Sadistic US Black Metal from Arizona of all places. No joke this is one of the best American black metal bands out right now. I put them up there with Nightbringer. No fluff, no experimenting. Just ritualistic, dark, and punishing. I was forwarded this album many months ago in advance and it has stayed in my BM playlist since. This is one of the rare acts where each song stand alone is good and played together front to back is even better. I sincerely hope we get some more offerings from this band this year. Would like to see them get more exposure and infect their truly satanic hymns into other corners of this country.

with the look to match. 10/10

Metallica - "Mercyful Fate Medley"

I fucking love Mercyful Fate. I didn't think it was possible for a cover song to rival the original but this one comes danger close. Its all of the best songs and riffs of The Fate compiled into a nearly 11 minute montage of pure heavy metal done in the vintage Metallica vein. The reason this song is so good for the gym is because its long. Great introduction to anyone who is not familiar with Mercyful Fate. Which I hope is very few because they are the creators of black metal. Shout out to Tipper Gore and PMRC for launching Mercyful Fates career in the United States. Sucks that some of Metallicas best stuff is just a medley of another bands stuff. regardless great tribute and great song(s).


Aura Noir - "Black Thrash Attack"

This is a band that I knew about for the last few years but never listened to them because honestly their name just rubbed me really wrong. I just couldn't get some cheesy symphonic mall metal band out of my head. I know the error of my ways now and enjoy their tunes. Not every album is a home run but this album is my favorite. solid 90's black thrash. almost punk rock in a way. get some!

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2. Trying to juggle my life and my gains.

If you are like me then you stay moving. Your schedule is pretty rigid and you have little time to devote to outside interests. I am in school full time (M-Thur 0800-2000) and that's just classroom/lab time. I still have homework, lab reports, studying, and memorizing to do outside of that time frame. I also am a married man raising a 3 month old daughter. After that then comes my gym time. So I am stretched pretty fucking thin.

The best way to combat the fatigue or life/work/parenting is "trim the fat" and what I mean by that is pick a hobby and drop everything else. In this case if you are serious about getting strong and looking stronger than your only hobby is weightlifting. Sorry but its gotta be done. You have to make it your priority. If it cant fit you make it fit by realizing that your other interests are likely getting in the way of weightlifting. For me it was hard but I love film and I love reading. I am a film nerd. Watching movies and ranking my favorites has been a long passion of mine for many years. In the last 6 months as my life has accelerated I have had to stop watching movies. I just don't have the time and focus that I once had. Im sure later down the road the opportunity will arise where I can fit movies and books back into my schedule. Until then I have to focus on my craft.

Think of it like this. When your life slows down in 20 years and your like, say 50 years old, will you really be able to lift and "gym" the same way you can now? highly unlikely. You will however be able to sit your ass down in a chair and watch a movie or read a book. You will be able to paint a picture or turn a screwdriver on your house project or buy records and listen to music at your leisure. We must strike now. If you wait and put off weightlifting and creating the body you desire for when you "have the time" then you will never have the time! Because it has not been driven into your psych that you must lift weights. Trust me if you lift long enough it just becomes part of who you are. You do it until you can no longer physically do it. 

When you are stretched too thin it will alter the course of your strength progression. Focus on your craft when you are at your prime. Your prime is NOW! Remember weightlifting is like investing money into a Roth IRA. The more you put in now the more you will have later on down the road to work with and play with. So when you are older you can still function and be active to pursue your hearts content. I know that sounds really pussy and "deep" but its true. Build yourself today so you may stand tomorrow.

"Sir, when you go to the gym what are exactly are you lifting?"

My next published post I already have in the works. It's gonna dive into some of my all time favorite lifts and accessory lifts that have really helped me grow. A few of them you are probably all familiar with but there is a couple "dark horse" lifts that I don't see  dudes hitting. My hope is that it will help you unlock the "dark drive" that you have rooted within you. Maybe you forgot about them and when I bring it up you will be like " oh damn. that's my shit. haven't done those in a minute." I will also reveal a couple more recipes and remedies for eating on the go. When you are hurried with life and don't have the time to properly prep a meal.

STAY GRIM AND HIT THE GYM.