Mostly Metal Monday: A Couple of Covers And Some Not Metal From Members of Revocation and JFAC

Well, hello there, good looking. Hope you had a good weekend, because I did. It essentially started with an oil change, moved on to poutine, then extra curricular activities to include getting that ol' bike up and running - much thanks to my buddy Jim, the Bikesmith, for getting the pedals swapped on it and helping a fat guy get back on a bike. 

Yay!

In and amongst the miscellany of the weekend, however, were also a couple of little hidden gems from the deep mines of METAL. 

First, and let's just go ahead and get this out of the way, one of the scariest non-metal things that involves metal you may ever see. A thing straight out of nightmares. A thing... that cannot be stopped... that should not be stopped... a thingaringading... It's a thing that happens when two (or more) talented people, at least one of which is more than slightly demented, make a video together. 

Yeah. Just watch. 

Background, as brief as it may be - Nick Schenzielos is the bassist for Job For A Cowboy and Cephalic Carnage, two very technical "death metal" bands. You may recall the JFAC song that made a guest appearance in a previous post. Damn fine stuff. Nick is also a bit nutty, as evidenced by more than a few videos on his YouTuber channel- some guys still like to have fun, apparently. Another fun loving young feller, Dave Davidson, is the lead guitarist, singer, etc. for Revocation, another technical metal band whom I also love dearly. These two cats apparently know each other and it appears that ol' young Nick asked Dave to sit in on one of his bass vids, the result of which is what you just watched. They apparently also have access to people that make scary things, and hence, screaming newborns with adult bodies play some sort of world music slash bossanova slash whatthejesusjumpedupchrist for your visual and aural pleasure.

So for that, you're welcome.

The next entry in our sordid tail... hurhurhur... tale... comes, again, from Revocation. This is something apparently long since released to the world, but I only recently discovered (thanks Google Play). It blends one of my all time favorite bands, Faith No More, with one of my current favorite bands, good ol' Revocation, to make lovely noise. As with anything, the original is still better than the newer version, but it made me teehee nonetheless.

Originally released on the as a bonus track on a special edition of Revocation's album from a few years ago, Chaos of Forms, I give you their version of FNM's "Surprise! You're Dead!"

While the original was not, by any means, the pinnacle of FNM's writing, every time I hear it I think of Mike Patton giving the middle finger to mainstream rock and metal whilst cackling and gleefully rocking back and forth during the writing sessions. BUT, metal being metal, embraced it anyway.

The original video was also very serious.

Yeah, I've posted it before. You'll live.

I love that song.

Lastly, I would LOVE to leave you with a little parting nugget of joy, a cover by Sylosis. I just recently discovered Sylosis, though they have been rocking the world for several years now. They appear to be younger dudes, but write music that seems to be a bit ahead of where you would expect them to be- definitely a more mature, riff heavy kind of doomy metal tasty goodness. Their latest album, Dormant Heart, along with scads of other good songs, has a bonus track cover of Smashing Pumpkins' "Zero".

It's been a good weekend for a metal child of the 80s and 90s.

Enjoy.

Juggernaut, The Second Wave: Wrapping up the 8s

ell, here we are. The holidays are now past us and we are well into the new year, resolutions and all. 

Incidentally, I have no real resolutions, personally, other than needing to get everything back on track with diet and lifting. They both took a hit with the holidays- gaps between lifts were longer than normal and diet, well, diet has been pretty wickedly bad the last four weeks or so. 

Part of those gaps was a little whirlwind trip to Chicago with the fam. Should have a bunch of pics from that coming up in the next few weeks.

So many pictures. Such feels. Wow.

That all said, the "8s" wave of Juggernaut is all wrapped up. The first week (Accumulation) of the 8s wave wrapped up right around the first of the year, moved into and wrapped up the Intensification week. 

I think I formerly referred to this phase as "Transformation", which is incorrect. My apologies to Chad Wesley Smith for screwing up the nomenclature. It's called "Intensification" because it's really intense, brah.

In the interest of full disclosure, I had to hurry and keep typing after I posted this image to get it to scroll off my screen. 

Yeah. Like wow.

Accumulation and Intensification squat day DOMS are, in fact, the worst. I have been adding in some light periodic stretching through the day following these, but it has yet to help.

Need to take some Wendler advice and run Agile 8 or similar on off days. Probably a few times.

God bless.

Anyhoo, wrapped up that bidness and got into the Realization phase. All went reasonably well, added weight to all lifts, time to deload and get into the 5s wave.

Metal.

Incidentally, the above track is from Job For A Cowboy's newest album, Sun Eater, which came out in November. It has managed to work itself into my near constant Meshuggah rotation, and it pleases me. If you're into the death metals, I would recommend sticking the whole album in your ear hole.

Back to lifting, etc.

A couple of things feel like they have been helping the process a bit - and it all boils down to back and shoulder work, go figure. Early in the wave, I decided to add rehab work in every session for the ol' shoulders. This consists of band pull aparts with the good ol' EliteFTS red mini Pro band and "Ws" with the orange micro Pro band. Additionally, I am trying to be sure to add in plenty of lat pull downs and T bar rows into the mix.

Diet, etc, have slipped a bit during the holidays/my birthday- turned 37 the other day.

That plus adding creatine back into the supplemental rotation has slowed things down a bit on the weight loss front.

But I'm getting all jacked and tan, right?

Yeah, not enough to make up for the weight gain.

Like next weight class up gain.

That means we must tighten back up and burn some more calories. And that means more things in blogs.

Things like bikes.

Yeah. Mountain bikes.

Through a strange and fortunate event, I have semi-permanently inherited a Motobecane 29er. Nice bike, want to ride it, need to change the pedals out. Thanksfully, a buddy of mine runs a bike repair truck and had a pair of pedals that he rebuilt that I can try before buying, so I am a 6mm hex wrench away from cardio that is more fun than running. Yay!

So that about wraps it up. Till next time, go forth and listen to more metal.

FINALLY Wrapped Up My First Wave of Juggernaut

weet Jesus, it has finally happened. After much life, trials and tribulations, a holiday, and a stomach bug, I am FINALLY wrapping up my first wave of the Juggernaut Method AND I am getting to write about it. 

The most hardcore of the hardcore will tell you that training comes first, nothing should stand in the way of striving for powerlifting excellence, etc, but let's face it - ain't no meets paying my bills. Bruh gotta eat and a family gotta be taken care of EVERY so often. 

I dare say they actually like seeing me from time to time. 

Maybe.

I knew that I as going to take a little longer than the standard four weeks prescribed to complete a wave, but damn. First day on Juggernaut was way back on 10/28, just now hitting the first day of the next wave, "8s", as of 12/15. So basically what should have taken about five weeks (call it a nine or ten day week  how I have it programmed, as opposed to a seven day week as it is written) has taken about six. 

At any rate, nothing truly spectacular happened during this cycle or its last week, but I did add a little to every lift, so there is a little progress. If I can manage to stay on the wagon through this next wave we should see even more progress, gains will be reaped, glory will be had (not really), etc.

Just realized that I hadn't posted up on the second "week" of the wave.

Suffer.

In keeping with the format of block periodization, Smith has dubbed the second week "Transformation", then week three is "Realization", then a deload, Loosely speaking, the Transformation week work is for the same number of sets as in the Accumulation week, but for fewer reps- if Accumulation 10s was for ten sets of five reps, then Transformation 10s was ten sets of three reps at slightly increased weights, more reps on last sets. Keep in mind that I am following the "Inverse Juggernaut" pattern, so as the program was originally written Accumulation and Transformation weeks would be five sets of ten reps and three sets of ten reps (more reps on last sets), respectively. Realization is done in essentially a 5/3/1 pattern, with max reps for the last set, then training max for the next wave based on a calculation using those reps over the standard for the wave.

Confused? Go buy the book, as linked in the first paragraph of this post.

I even remembered my add reps on all sets for the Transformation week. Yay, me.

Quick last week wrap up:


10s wave, Realization 1: Squat Day

This was a short session, had to get in and out fairly quickly and everyone wanted to be all Talky Talkenstein.

• Warm up, stretch - about 10min
• Box jumps - 4s 5r
• Squat - worked up to a set of 11 @ 260lbs

Done

Did you know that dancing to Meshuggah is a thing? As in, there are a ton of videos on the intertubes where people have synced up dance performances to Meshuggah songs? It's bloody amazing, and now you will all suffer for it.

10s wave, Realization 2: Bench Day


Nice and straightforward day, got my work in and got out.

• Warm up, stretch - about 10min
• Bench - worked up to a set of 11 @ 150lbs
• Incline dumbbell bench - 5r @ 40lbs, 5r @ 50lbs, 5r @ 60lbs, 5r @ 65lbs
• Straight bar lat pulldown - 10r @ 100lbs, 8r @ 110lbs, 5r @ 120, 5r @ 140lbs, 5r @ 150lbs
• Straight fat bar press down - 5s 5r @ 150lbs
• Band pull aparts - 4s 15r w/ EliteFTS red mini Pro band

10s wave, Realization 3: Deadlift Day

• Warm up, stretch - about 10min
• Box jumps - 5s 5r
• Deadlift, sumo - worked up to a set of 12 @ 260lbs
• RDL a la Duffin - 10 @ 135lbs, 155, 175, 195
• Tbar row, slow - 4s 8r @ 45lbs

Not an awful day of deadlifting, though That shows I am still weaker than a few months ago. Think I did something similar with 300+ previously. Oh yeah, I did.

I am excited to see where I am with these in another few months of running this program. It seems I do better with volume in deadlifting and squats, so hopefully this is right where I need to run.

I even managed to remember a video. Shitty, shitty video:

10s wave, Realization 4: Press Day

This was another that felt pretty good when it all came down to it. I was honestly a little worried about making or exceeding goal on this one (10 reps +) as (1) I missed the press day on the previous week and (2) press has always been my weakest lift - especially after hurting my back/shoulder last year.

• Warm up, traction - about 10min
• Press - worked up to a set of 13 @ 100lbs
• Klokov press - 4s 8r @ 85lbs
• Tbar row, slow neutral grip - 4s 8r @ 45lbs
• Straight fat bar cable press down - 5s 5r @ 150lbs
• Band pull apart - 4s 15r w/ EliteFTS red mini Pro band

As one of the fellas at the gym said, I probably cheated by kipping off of my beard. Wish I had video of it, but alas, the phone is largely relegated to timer duties to keep me on track so I have not been doing much video.

There is always Meshuggah, though.

Followed those all up with a shorted deload and we're all wrapped up. All the work is feeling good, save for that first squat day in the wave- high quantity sets of five are absolutely killing my legs. As mentioned, I am squatting a little differently now, but sheeeeeeit. As mentioned, currently into the first week of the "8s" wave, and it is really no different, DOMS, wise. Legs are murdered for multiple days after the squat training sesh, points to need for improved recovery processes and more stretching before AND after needed.

Stay tuned and destroy.