RoryQ

Re-watching 'Dog Soldiers' .... Absolutely the best werewolf movie ever made.

@Avery Taylor I've wondered about some of that biker flash you're talking about, Avery - what the context was, and how much people really thought about the significance of some of the symbols being used. I mean, it's not like it was Jondix using something in the context of an eastern repeat pattern, or whatever - it's the skulls, deaths heads, swastikas etc. I know there are a lot of traditional tattoo enthusiasts on here, but isn't that legacy fairly hard to celebrate? I read a little about how it should be seen through a lense of tattooed people back then as outsiders and maybe an attempt at 'shock value' - but, would we accept the same argument today?

Re: DOMS - I've no doubt Kyle's right that there's an individual element to it. For me I only seem to really get it bad in the lower body - usually if it's following a workout where there was a lot of volume and in particular if it was single leg stuff: Bulgarian split squats, like Hogg mentions, or even moreso if it was lunges for some reason (think Mike Boyle has written about the physiological reason for this and the less commonly-used muscles involved). I know what you mean about lowering yourself onto the toilet, Cork. This must be what it's like to be 80. In gyms here I don't see that many people who are just lifting who have decent tattoos. The BJJ/MMA crowd seem to be more likely to have some decent stuff, particularly japanese-style work, although the preference seems to still be for fairly uninspiring tribal and black work (not exactly Thomas Hooper / Jondix calibre stuff, put it that way). I remember last year in Chicago I did meet one huge bodybuilder who had a cool Hanna Aitchison pin-up on his leg.

Been wanting to try whiskey stones! Another alternative to them would be one of those extra-large ice cubes - I gather they're used because they don't melt as quickly.

I think it depends on the whiskey. I went to a tasting run by Jameson before Christmas and they made us taste everything uncut, and then cut with water (say, half of the measure of whiskey in the glass). In the cases of particular bottles - the cask strength ones, for example - I think it makes sense to cut it to get the best from it.

There are some pretty good blogs and articles out there looking at weight training from a woman's perspective. Not that men and women actually need to train in a different way, for the most part, but in case you're interested I know my GF likes these sites- Gubernatrix blog Stumptuous blog (a blog by a Canadian trainer, funnily enough) '>Article on EliteFTS, a well known strength site, laying it down about the way limited testosterone affects the prospects of a woman accidentally getting huge through using free weights. I do believe that for most people their diet is probably the key thing if they want to improve or change their body composition ... But it's a sad thing that women are told to stay away from weight training when actually, as a previous poster mentions, adding a bit of lean muscle through that type of training is a lot more likely to get them the type of body they want than plodding along on a stationary bike, treadmill etc. And now I'm off to train.

Fastest-growing thread ever - hypertrophy in the forum context...

I think really strict paleo can be hard to gain on, agreed... Just too tough to get the cals required without 'cheating' a bit I think. I use it more when I am trying to cut over a period of a few weeks. In the normal course of things I'll still eat the likes of rice in moderation.

I'm afraid I'm not sure - I don't really all of T-nation, just particular articles that I am recommended or search for by topic...

I've been reading his articles on T-Nation for a while, and I used single leg exercises to rehab an MCL strain last year ... But I don't think I really started appreciating how smart he is until I bought 'Advances in Functional Training' and read the whole thing. Great resource - really information intensive. It's screwed up but for me the biggest catalyst to properly investigate developments in training is usually related to injury. Until I learn the hard way I just don't learn properly... BTW, unrelated, but this is a fun site http://www.70sbig.com/

It's kind of funny that it's gotten to the point when it (feels like) half the people cropping up with tattoos on my twitter feed are also on LST ... Great minds...

I saw a crazy bottle of Nikka Coffee-grain whiskey that I wanted to buy a few weeks ago (I was too skint). I think that sounds amazing.

At the moment I'm easing back into training after a lay-off due to a neck injury with a simple upper / lower body split based around DB benching, bodyweight exercises and a lot of single-leg exercises like rear leg elevated split squats and single leg squats. A lot of mobility work, a lot of prehab/rehab with bands and light weights. Ramping up back into normal training although I don't think I'll be going back to BJJ any time soon. As time has passed I have made progress using various programmes and approaches, and I'm inclined to agree with Dan John ( Dan John, Lifting and Throws Coach - great coach ) when he says 'everything works [for a while]'. The caveat I would add is that you can also injure yourself or self-limit your progress dramatically by trying to implement the wrong programme, having poor technique, screwing up your diet, not sleeping enough yadda yadda yadda. I think, if I were going to go back in time and start all over again, I would begin from the ground up in this way:- 1. I would learn how to begin my training with a proper dynamic warm-up. A joint mobility warm-up from the likes of Mike Boyle ( Strength Coach.com | Strength and Conditioning | Sports Training ) that will ensure I had the joint mobility where I needed it, and the joint stability where I needed it. Some folks need a more stable lower back ... Some people need to loosen up their hips. Neglecting something can lead to an injury down the road, or limit your lifts. 2. I'd either find a good coach or I'd pick a classic strength programme that has worked for thousands of other people in my shoes. I'm talking Mark Rippetoe's Starting Strength, or Bill Starr's 5X5 or Joe Difranco's WS4SB. Something that is there in black and white, with nothing exotic that is time-tested and well-regarded by shitloads of smarter people than you. Typically what they all have in common is lots of the fundamentals : A horizontal push, a horizontal pull, a vertical push, a vertical pull, some shoulder work, some posterior chain stuff and big knee-dominant squat variation. Most of the programmes I mentioned there are good all-round strength programmes that will put a bit of mass on a novice or intermediate trainee. If I wanted to go for more hypertrophy and mass gain I'd maybe consider something like Poloquin's German Volume Training. If I were just looking to compete in power lifting or oly lifting I'd get a proper coach and maybe follow a Westside or Mike Burgener / Greg Everett programme. Basically, I'd follow the track already well-worn by proven programmes and coaches. 3. I'd perfect my technique and make sure I was moving well with sub maximal weights before I started to try and get strong. I've added weight on top of poor movement patterns and the result is always fucked up. Less weight, executed perfectly = the foundation to add weight safely later and more progress in the long run. 4. I'd eat better. 2g of protein for every kg of bodyweight minimum. I'd watch my carbs and I'd eat more fat than 'most people' think is a good idea instead. For me I think the stuff the likes of Robb Wolfe and Mark Sisson have written about eating the way our paleolithic ancestores ate makes sense to me, but your mileage may vary. It's a pretty good way to strip fat off, but if you're a powerlifter or bodybuilder I think you need to eat a little dirty to get the necessary calories to pack on muscle. 5. I'd try and sleep 8 hours a day, which is unworkable in my current job. I'd take my rest days seriously and not bike, run, do a martial arts class... I'd rest and let my body do its job and adapt to the training I was doing the rest of the week. 6. I'd study the fuck out of articles and books about sports injuries and try and figure out ways to avoid common issues people have, again and again, like knee problems and rotator cuff problems. I'd do things like make sure my pressing to pulling ratio (say, bench to pullup) exercise ratio was at least 1:1 in my programming, and more like 1:2 if I were feeling twinges in my shoulder. If I had bad knees I'd do single leg work to bullet-proof them before things went south. If I had a bad back I would do core work and chuck out anything that heavily compressed it (like back squats, deadlifts) for a while. Education = good. So is having the number of a good physio with a proven tack record. 7. For fat loss and conditioning I think once your diet is right the best approach is old school : Carries, drags, pushes, bodyweight circuits, sprints / shuttle runs, kettlebells ... Anaerobic > long slow distance work most of the time, IMO. I reckon that's most of my philosophy:- 1. Learn enough not to get injured. 2. Pick the right programme for you and implement it properly. 3. If it goes wrong go to a professional and let them fix you. And repeat until you're put in a box and buried. Whenever I read one of those news cuttings about some curmudgeonly old veteran who is still working out at 80 and puts some teenage mugger in hospital with his cane, I think - 'I want to be that guy when I'm that age'.

Start a thread and I'm sure it'll run for a bit. I started lifting through CrossFit, managed to get through that phase without chronically injuring myself (unlike some friends) and competed in Oly lifting for a bit. Then I started just doing some general messing around ... Went through a phase of following WS4SB (West side for skinny bastards) and now I've been reading a lot of Mike Boyle stuff on functional training and kind of going down that route. In the beginning I started lifting to improve my strength and conditioning for competing in BJJ, but at this point it's become an end in itself. The BJJ has kind of gone by the wayside and I just lift 3-4 times a week. I more or less took a month off because of a BJJ injury affecting my neck / c-spine, and coming back to training now (gently) I amn't as far behind as I'd worried I would be. A week or even just a few days to let a tattoo heal is no problem. In fact breaks are probably good for letting your CNS recover if you're doing a lot of olympic lifting.

I heard somewhere that after you train at a busy gym doing anything on the ground (especially a BJJ / wrestling place) you have probably actually got a few bugs like staph on your skin afterwards. When you shower properly you wash 'em off. But if you've got an open wound, even a small cut, all bets are off. And staph is some serious shit!

It's awesome - Vin Diesel before he became a tool. The sequel was a disgrace, but the original is badass. The scene where he gets in a creature's blindspot and then guts it with his improvised shiv is excellent.

I've got a bottle of Ardbeg Uigdeail that's 54.2%. Basically, it needs to be cut with water. I used to try and drink it neat (like I would a milder Irish or something), but the truth is it's not being macho, it's just masochism - all you taste is iodine.

They're better regarded than the police in most places!

I thought at first it might be a vest-mounted LED light like this one- Inova 24/7 But the more mundane explanation would be that it's a bracket or clip for mounting a radio of some sort ... Although there looks to be one on the utility belt. That said, two radios is possible two, one analog and one digital.

For the first day or two infection is what I'd be worried about more than sweating excessively, necessarily. Some gyms can be pretty gnarly if they're proper black iron weightlifting gyms or MMA / judo gyms etc. At the best of times some of the tatami mats in martial arts places can be chock full of interesting bugs no matter how many times they are cleaned - it's just the nature of the beast, if you have 30 guys on their rolling around several nights of the week. I guess a lot depends on the location of the tattoo and the size, but to be honest I don't see a reason you could turn up at the gym do, do a dynamic warm-up (without getting yourself into a completely sweaty mess) and then do some light lifting. If you're oly lifting I mean just do some skill work with weights that are sub maximal and aren't going to really mess you up. The snatch and the clean and jerk shouldn't potentially be dragging across any fresh tattoo unless the tattoo is on your shins, thighs or upper chest, right? I wouldn't do something like circuit training, BJJ/Judo etc. with fresh work, though.

If you've got a cop with a racially offensive tattoo, or a 1% tattoo etc. I guess you've got a legit issue to be addressed. Hand and neck tattoos are probably a 'problem' in the way they would be with almost any other large employer. Other than that I think, as is pointed out in the article, almost anything can be covered up by clothing in the right circumstances (although I imagine that might not always be comfortable in a climate like Oz). To be honest they should be worrying about staffing, whether equipment is fit for purpose, corruption, crime trends, how fit their staff are ... Tattoos making people look 'unprofessional'? Seriously, most police forces should have far bigger fish to fry.

Gina Carano all the way... Even she's an even half-competent actress she could be a great female action hero. Cris Santos probably speeded her move from MMA to the silver screen when she beat her so comprehensively. Interestingly Santos recently tested positive for steroids - kind of casts her 11 fight win streak (9 of them by K.O) in a different light. CSAC: Strikeforce champ Cris 'Cyborg' Santos tests positive for anabolic steroid | MMAjunkie.com I bought Vin Diesel's 'Pitch Black' on DVD. Probably still his best movie, IMO.

The Meantime Brewery in London has made their navy hospital porter available in Marks 'N Spencers for 15 euro a bottle (750ml, 6% alcohol). The porter is based on the old porter recipe served to retired sailors from the old naval brewery at the royal naval hospital in London (or so I understand). It's aged for a number of months in Islay whisky casks, which gives it a mad iodine and salty peat nose. So that's my Friday evening drink sorted then. It's pretty awesome.

I was in Milan twice last year - my only experience of Italy - and was surprised how run-down large parts of it are ... Considering it's one of the fashion powerhouses of the world. It seemed like the gap between rich and poor was a little wider than at home in Ireland or some of the other countries I've been too. Some people were wearing Gucci and then there were swathes of people who looked a hell of a lot more down-at-the-heels. Where I was being tattooed was one of the biggest Tunisian ghettos in the city. A guy there told me that all of the suburbs were chock full of poor North African famillies, basically. To be honest in terms of safety I would prefer NYC / Chicago / London over the likes of Barcelona, Paris and Milan. No stats to back that up - just the way I felt walking around (and I'm not really the nervous type).

The last of my Christmas beers... Delirium Christmas from Delirium Tremens. Any beer with a pink elephant on the bottle is already telling you you're screwed. This one is 10% alcohol. In theory I drank a half bottle of wine which had more alcohol the other night, but somehow beer always hits closer to home. To be honest this is the worst 'Christmas' style ale I've had this year. Preferred Anchor's Special Ale, Goose Island's offering... And probably number 1. for me was Brewdogg's 'There is no Santa'.