A Special The Swagger #23 — Wednesday Hey Because Amazing Story Time

It dawned on me in the pool today.

Yesterday, I published here at FreeTheAnimal and at The Swagger that I'd revamped my stab at a workout manual all my own, now Full-Body High-Frequency For-Life and whereas I got almost zero interest on the first go-round but didn't really change super-much (more like a reorganization), I moved the needle a little bit with some overnight orders mostly in the form of new memberships, which is the ideal way to get the manual (and a $10 discount).

So right up front, before relating to you what dawned on me, how to get it.

1. Purchase directly from the download page

2. Get any level of membership (access to everything, including all other downloads)

If you opt for membership, then once you get that, then click here and it downloads automatically (if not a member or not logged in, you'll be redirected to the login page):

Full-Body High-Frequency For-Life

I'm going to go over what dawned on me, then I'm going into complete detail on workouts #1 and #2 of 20 unique and individual full-body workouts from the guide, and then I'm going to tell you about the pretty amazing prepared meal diet I'm undertaking for my workout week.

The Story

It's pretty well known that I dumped booze entirely after 2 decades of too much too often, using My Easy Way. Now 21 months into it, I've never wavered a bit. Not a drop. I'm so solid I have beer in the fridge for the gals (yea, most like beer more that anything) and three bottles of different booze under the sink for guests that prefer. I never even think about any of it. I can't say that I ever have a craving, even. Hard to believe, I know, but I think many people are prone to virtue-signal how tough it is...which to me signals weakness.

Decide. Get over it. Stick to it. MY Easy Way.

... Truth be told, it really turned out to be an anti-climatic letdown. This was my mini-epiphany in the pool earlier. I don't know what I was expecting. The heavens to open up in some ephemeral awareness and recognition of just how literally awesome I am because I kicked the curse of too-much-too-often world-class alcohol consumption?

Well, it didn't. I expected all these awesome benefits to happen, but it turned out I was still just a 61-year-old dude, only with a renewed appetite, energy, and zest for life, perhaps—the common problem of 'what will I do without alcohol' void filling up pretty quickly with long walks and ocean swims and snorkeling in Phuket, Thailand, my home at the time.

Sleep didn't get better. It got worse. It's still not great. I really couldn't point to any measurable health improvements you might expect from downing a 5th of whiskey+ (750mL/25.4oz) every day for a decade, then stopping. Huh?

Sex? About the same. As much as I drank, it was always spaced out. I was never totally shitfaced and limp-dicked—my specialty: dosing to keep a constant level of functional, moderate inebriation going. I could even fly hang-gliders in that state, and did, many times. I never had run-ins with cops.

Braggadocio? Perhaps. Better than virtue-signal lying over and over about my demons, how hard it was, still is, and how I BATTLE THE ADDICTION EVERY DAY!!! ???

You be the judge.

When It Finally Changed

That would be July 1, 2023, nearly 14 months after dropping the booze.

I took up a challenge willy-nilly to do 30 straight days in the gym...real days. That was 10 solid months ago, and I have never looked back. It so profoundly changed my life, that it became the passion I cared more about sharing with the world.

Perhaps it's simply the difference between stopping a bad behavior vs. adopting a good behavior. Whatever it is, the difference is stark.

This is what I was expecting to feel from the decision and action to drop alcohol. What I've learned is that doesn't cut it. It's not enough. It's like expecting kudos for doing your damn job.

This can be related to a lot of things. You're a fat eff and you finally started eating like an adult human and dropped the weight?

That's your damn job.

You stopped kicking the dog, beating your kids, and berating your spouse, and now you finally fulfil your human role in those respects?

That's your damn job.

I could go on you get the idea.

The point is, the gym work represents the above and beyond, the supra-human, if you will. Now you're onto something.

The truth is, I could just as easily tell you the programs I followed to get where I am, you can check them out, hit them up yourself, and you'll see what I mean. Nothing about them left me wanting. They're all fine. Anything that gets you to the gym and keeps you going and making incremental improvements—GAINZ!—is going to work out well for you.

Then Anthony Colpo happened, bless his heart. If you don't know him, he's a long-time diet and fitness dude on the internet and has a real knack for dissecting the scientific literature on both, and getting down to brass tacks. It so happened that he ended up here in Thailand, and we spent about 5 weeks going to the gym together, almost daily. He was studying full-body and high-frequency science and literature at the time, we discussed it a lot in the context of the gym and the routines we were both doing, and one day it just dawned on me: that's it!

I'm going to write a guide. And what's now Full-Body High-Frequency For-Life.

For the 1st iteration of the guide, I sorta just threw shit against the wall, even dissed the HIT guys...even though my gig isn't incompatible with HIT at all (which they would know if they had approached the dissing like men...and there I go again). I hate traditional marketing and lying, but I repeat myself, so obvious hyperbole is usually what it's going to be with me. Shtick.

But going through it and posting the updates, I got more serious about it as something that's really real and in spite of all the shaming over being a lazy ass...get off the couch, get to the gym, etc., I found that it's not all that ass-busting difficult at all unless you really will it to be so (it can be, doesn't have to be, still beneficial). I also found that it can be approached rather haphazardly and randomly, like a newbie is more apt to do.

That's why I dumped all the programs and am just touting the 20-unique full-body routines, do them 1-20, however long it takes, no matter how many days in succession or rest days in-between. Each one is a complete full-body routine. Each one is different, exhilarating. You'll never get bored. You'll never truly learn it and have it down pat. You'll still have to remind yourself about some of the less frequent exercises in the library, which are:

1. Legs/Glutes/Calves, 17 exercises

2. Chest, 12 exercises

3. Back, 10 exercises

4. Shoulders, 12 exercises

5. Arms, 11 exercises (5 biceps, 5 triceps, and 1 forearms)

6. Abdominals, 6 exercises, always freestyle (do what you like, when you like)

7. Cardio, 6 suggestions, always freestyle

Routines #1 and #2 In Detail

It's funny how if you snap a picture after each workout every day, you really have to look at a longer period of time to detect anything. Much like the scale. Water retention level, pump from particular exercises, lighting, camera position, etc.

The left is day #1, yesterday, and to the right is day #2, today, and you'd swear I lost a bit. No matter.

Here are the logs (except for abs and cardio, which I don't include because freestyle).

These are all in kilograms. 1 kilogram = 2.2 pounds, so:

220 on Romanian Deadlift, 440 Calf Raise, 198 Row, 132 and 110 Incline Bench, 44 and 33 DB Shoulder Press, and 22 Hammer Curl.

440 Leg Press, (when I began in July, I had a tough time doing 9 pushups), 132 Pull-Ups (I do the assist because I can only do 3-4 unassisted, and am a way yet from weighted), 44 and 55 Shoulder Shrug, and 165 Triceps Pushdown.

Not bad for 63 years old and I'm just guessing wildly, but my gains from July 1 have to be on the order of 200% or more. Dedication pays off.

I think I'm most pleased about the deadlifts. I jumped from 80Kg to 100Kg there. That's because I was doing 15-20 reps pretty easily at 80 (176lbs). 10 is a good number at 220 pounds. Back at 50 years old, I was doing 305 - 315lbs for 5 reps. But I also injured myself. This is better. I felt not the slightest bit of strain during or after the exercise. I'll progress at a weight where I can always get in 10 reps minimum. Good safety margin.

Here's volume, and as you can see, it's roughly the same at about 10,000Kg (22,000lbs) per workout since I reorganized.

Question is, when are you going to get started? C'mon, dudes (and gals). It only sucks a little. Otherwise, it's FUN! With this program, you'll never get bored. In fact, you'll eagerly check the app on your phone to see what's in store for the day because damned if you can remember what routine #7 is all about (or any of them). Sometimes you'll be delighted. Sometimes you'll go FUCK!!!

It's what I mean when I say that it's "Sucky-Fun."

The New Prepared Meals

This isn't available to you, but I thought maybe it could give you some ideas.

A few months back I was talking to a guy outside Muscle Factory, Leif. He's a Canadian born in the US (and lived there for some time), with a Scandinavian name. Anyway, Leig talked about starting a food business, but I didn't recall any details.

Fast-forward to a few days ago, and I'm chatting with some new friends in the pool, and they tell me about these great, high protein, inexpensive prepared meals they're using. I get the contact info, contact the place. You guessed it. It's Leif.

So my plan is 14 meals per week, 7 each of various chicken and pork dishes, 300 gram and 200 gram versions. Four of them are fresh, 10 will be frozen, and I'm told they're as good or better after thawing and proper preparation. We'll see about that.

Anyway, with one 300 gram and one 200 gram meal per day, plus the rice berry and veggies, it comes out to just over 200 grams of protein. I'll add some eggs and milk to that. I'll be using them only on my 5 workout days, so it will be 2 weeks of orders, one week to use the 8 leftover meals (frozen).

I get a discount to order weekly, it's 1,246 baht, $33.50 US. That's $67 for three weeks of workout meals covering 14 of my 15 workouts over three weeks. Total monthly cost, about 100 bucks. For that quality of food!

Like I keep saying: Stop complaining about America (or the Western Woke World). Buy a One-Way Ticket.

Have a great Wednesday, and I'll publish again on regular Thursday, tomorrow. Meanwhile, I hope I've given you a more complete view of this whole gym thing to think about.

Remember, cutting out the bad in your like isn't good enough. That's just doing your job. You've got to go the extra mile and take up something that makes you grow and be a lot better than you were.