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Strength in Interesting Places

Some Interesting Places

The firm I work for is renting a new building, and today I went to check it out. I went up on to the roof, and grabbed a few random photos. So here's some pictures of Kabul. Most of the buildings you can see are fairly new, but of really shitty quality. Quite a few embassies, offices, government buildings.

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P140311_1332_01.jpg


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Keep both the pics and the lifts comming man! Looks so "tranquill" in kabul on your pictures :P
 
Kabul Week 2, Workout 2: Manliness Day

Warmup

Yoga- sun salutation Ax5, ashtanga standing sequence, marichyasana A and C
C2 rower- 3 minutes


Squats

96kg: x5, x5, x5

Got a colleague to take a video of one set. He messed it up a little so I didn't get all 5 reps, but what I saw was okay. Depth and back straightness okay, but as bit more forward lean than I wanted. I think I've figured out the cue to stop that happening, though.


Bench

79kg: x5, x5, x5, x5

Did one extra set so my colleague could take a video. These were easy.


Deathlifts

129kg: x5

Tried hook grip on all warmuplifts (upto 100kgx2) and for three of the five in the work set. Then switched. Hook grip is much, much better. When the bar is going up, it feels like the bar path is smoother and straighter. Mixed grip, by comparison, feels a bit like when you bench and you don't quite get your shoulder blades set right, and you feel like your base is uneven and wobbly. Who'd have thought it? SlaveToTheDark knows something about deathlifting? :icon_twis

So these were great, although of course I could easily have been killed doing them.


Weighted chins

+7kg: x5, x5, x5

Fine.

* * *

Felt good today- all of the exercises felt either okay or better


Edit- checked the squat video, and, yes, they're okay, but just okay. The depth is just past parallel, but I know they are not full squats, I have a few inches more that I can go. I need to squeeze myself right into the hole. Next time I may keep it at 96kg and hopefully do the reps with better depth.
 
Last edited:
Justice 4 All said:
You're a living death Jaunty.
Hook grip ftw! =D

Cool pics btw.
Click to expand...

Yes, hook grip is awesome. I want to go upstairs and do more deadlifts right now, to practice it more. And also some squats.

But they say you need more than 2 hours rest between workouts.
 
I watched a documentary on the D channel yesterday called Aghan Muscle. It was about the national team and how seriously they take Bodybuilding. It was intresting to see what those guys were doing without a pot to piss in in some ways.
 
MIDMOBOX said:
I watched a documentary on the D channel yesterday called Aghan Muscle. It was about the national team and how seriously they take Bodybuilding. It was intresting to see what those guys were doing without a pot to piss in in some ways.
Click to expand...

Yeah, bodybuilding is very popular here. There are bodybuilding gyms everywhere in Kabul and the other big cities.

But actually, for middle class Afghans (or above) it's not really a problem to be able to afford these things. There's about 8,000 to 10,000 Afghans who work with development agencies who make anything from $1,000 to $10,000 dollars a month ($2,000-$3,000 is normal for a smart late twenties professional type). Rent and things are expensive but they often live in a large house with several other decent wage earners. If you add in the sons of warlords, rich business, corrupt officials... there's plenty of people who can afford gym membership, creatine and steroids!
 
This was shot in kabul, they were def middle class as they had a car although it was shared which isn't uncommon I would think. The really intresting thing was how nice the gym was compared to the are around it. Also they talked about having to drive to the border to pick up things like amino acids and protien. Steroids they didn't show.


What is the steroid situation in the countries you work/live?
 
MIDMOBOX said:
This was shot in kabul, they were def middle class as they had a car although it was shared which isn't uncommon I would think. The really intresting thing was how nice the gym was compared to the are around it. Also they talked about having to drive to the border to pick up things like amino acids and protien. Steroids they didn't show.


What is the steroid situation in the countries you work/live?
Click to expand...

I am guessing there are definitely steroids aplenty in Afghanistan. There is the bodybuilding scene, plus I am guessing that some number of the westerners who work for these big security firms are taking them too.

I never got a sense of it in Thailand. There is a decent amount of competitive bodybuilding in SE Asia, and that means steroids, as I understand it.
 
From what I believe in both counties they are over the counter medications and the availablity is there. I just find it intresting the laws that dif countries have that effect personal freedom. On one hand in the US you can say whatever you want but you can't choice what goes into your own body. But in other countries you can't speak out against the goverment but are allowed personal freedoms that american's are not.
 
MIDMOBOX said:
From what I believe in both counties they are over the counter medications and the availablity is there. I just find it intresting the laws that dif countries have that effect personal freedom. On one hand in the US you can say whatever you want but you can't choice what goes into your own body. But in other countries you can't speak out against the goverment but are allowed personal freedoms that american's are not.
Click to expand...

I would be a little surprised if you could get them OTC in Thailand. 10-15 years ago you could get all sorts of things over the counter without the pharmacists batting an eyelid- e.g. amphetamine-based diet pills, tranquilizers like valium, xanax, tamazipan. But that has been pretty much put to a stop now.

Thailand is actually more of a 'nanny state' then you might think. You can't legally buy alcohol in stores outside of the hours of 12pm-2pm and 5pm-11pm, and the government is constantly trying to raise the drinking age to 23. They can't display cigarettes at the point of sale, and they can't show anyone smoking on TV (the cigarette is pixelated out as soon as it goes near the mouth, even in a cartoon). They have all the standard food safety systems and labelling systems that western countries have, but they are just poorly implemented because of low technical capacity and corruption (so banned additives might turn up in foods, or food labelled organic or whatever might not be). The general consensus amongst the government is that the government knows best and has to protect people from themselves, and this isn't really challenged except by a tiny handful of western-educated liberals and of course foreigners.
 
well next time your home can you ask your local pharmacist just for the sake of me knowing?
 
You're getting there, Jaunty! Keep up the good work, and don't hurt yourself doing them deathlifts now, you hear?
 
VoodooPlata said:
You're getting there, Jaunty! Keep up the good work, and don't hurt yourself doing them deathlifts now, you hear?
Click to expand...

I can make no promises regarding deathlifts. They are, after all, amongst the most dangerous sporting activities known to man.
 
which is why they are called deathlifts
 
Kabul, Week 2, Workout 3 (Awesomeness Week)

Warmup

Yoga- Sun Salutation Ax3, Short standing sequence
C2 Rower- 2 mins

Squats

After warming up with some sets with the empty bar, I put a small stack of 4 plastic weights, which came a little less than half way up my shin on the floor. Then I started doing squats trying to get my ass to touch the weights. Got

40kgx3, 50kgx3, 60kgx3, 70kgx3, 80kgx3 (all touching the weight easily)
90kgx4 (missed the weight due to forward lean reducing depth)

That was fun. Then I did

96kg: x5, x5, x5
80kg: x5

Didn't increase the weight from the last time as I wasn't wild about the depth.


Overhead Press

50kg: x5, x5, x6

Okay, just starting to feel a teenie bit heavy, but I have plenty left on this lift. Especially adding 1kg a time! :redface:


Power Clean

68kg: x3. x3, x3, x3, x3

Some were better than others... I may need to take a break from strict progression at some point to polish my technique a bit. But let's get a bit more weight on the bar first.


Weighted Dips

+9kg: x5, x5, x8

I wonder if I should start doing 3x8 or 3x10 for these and weighted chins? Get some swole on.


Abs

Plank: 60 secs, Side plank: 45 seconds each side


Active Recovery

10 mins on the bicycle.

* * * *

Another decent workout, tired now, though.
 
Excellent squat and weighted dips. I think over the past few weeks, I have become somewhat of a squat snob. Not only with others, but for myself too. If I feel like it wasn't a legit squat, I just disregard it and do another one.

With weighted dips, I say crank up the weight and go 3x5. Same with weighted chins. Sometimes I will do 5x3 or 5x2 on the chins too. Talk about rough.
 
RedKryptonite said:
Excellent squat and weighted dips. I think over the past few weeks, I have become somewhat of a squat snob. Not only with others, but for myself too. If I feel like it wasn't a legit squat, I just disregard it and do another one.

With weighted dips, I say crank up the weight and go 3x5. Same with weighted chins. Sometimes I will do 5x3 or 5x2 on the chins too. Talk about rough.
Click to expand...

Probably a good policy with the squats. Too many bad reps adds up to a set that wasn't really a set.

I think you're right about the dips. 3x5 it is.
 
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