My Weightlifting - New routines

I guess the graph speaks for itself... Being an engineering student, I really like to plot stuff on graphs. And this graph is about my increasing bodyweight this month (till 20th the weight is what I measured, after that I put on the expected trend, used some function in MS Excel for that). As you can see, I'm putting on more weight. For the first time after 6 months, I'm actually trying to gain weight. We have our institute bodybuilding competition happening on February 5th, so this little fight is for that. Other than the actual weight increase, the routine is what appeals more to me. This routine called the "20 rep squat" routine, or the "Milk and Squats" routine is an old school approach to monstrous muscle gains and I tried to go through it.

Note: The two routines I'm going to describe is not for beginners. I consider myself an advanced beginner. I can squat 1.5 times my body weight with very good form.


To put this routine in simple words, it's just that everytime I go to the gym, I put some weight on the bar and do one set of 20 reps of squat. After the squat, I do 2 sets each of stiff leg deadlift, pullups (or barbell rows), bar dips (or weighted pushups) and military press. SLDL, barbell rows and military press, I go for 10 reps. Weighted pushups I go for 15 reps. Pullups and bar dips are till failure. The more important part of the routine is not in the sets or the reps, but in the progression. Every session I'm supposed to add 2.5kg to the squat and barbell rows, 1.25kg to military press, weighted pushups and 5kg to the SLDL. So, in 2 and a half weeks, I find myself going from 75kg squat for 20 reps to 87.5kg squat for 20 reps (I had to do 20 reps of 87.5kg last Sunday, but gave up on the 15th rep), and from 100kg SLDL for 10 reps to 120kg SLDL for 10 reps (I do squat more often than I do deadlift). The result is very obvious- weight gain at almost 1kg/week.

The obvious fact that I have to eat a lot more than I usually eat need not be stated- after the body can only grow from food I eat. I'm currently eating 8-10 slices of bread in breakfast (previously only 6 slices), 8 rotis in lunch (previously only 4-5) and dinner is pretty much the same. In addition to this, I drink 1 'glass' each of tea and milk in the morning, 2 glasses of milk in the evening and half litre more milk in the night before sleeping, and a fruit juice after workout. I'm supposed to be eating about 5-6 eggs a day, but it hasn't been happening lately.

Other than the 20 rep squat routine, which I go through only once or twice a week, I'm about to start a different custom made routine, based loosely on the Wendler's 5/3/1 routine. To outline the routine, it's like this:
The actual program says I should workout 4 days a week, 1 day for each core exercise: squat, deadlift, military press, bench press. But I'm taking only squat (for 2 days in the week), military press and deadlift (for 1 day each in the week).

First week of the cycle, on all core exercises I do, I do 3 sets of 5 reps each. The first set at 60% of my 1 rep max, second set at 70%, 3rd at 80% of my 1 rep max. First and second sets, I stop at 5 reps. But the third set, I do as many as I can after the 5th rep.
Second week of the cycle, I do 3 sets of 3 reps each. The first set at 65% of my 1 rep max, second at 75% of my 1 RM, third at 85% of my 1 RM. Again, I don't stop at the third rep for the third set.
Third week of the cycle, I do first set at 70% of my max for 5 reps. Second set at 80% of my 1RM for 3 reps. The third set, I do at 90% of my 1 RM for as many reps as I can do.
Fourth week of the cycle is deloading. 3 sets of 5 reps each at 40%, 50% and 60% of my 1rep max.


After 4 weeks, I start the second cycle. For the second cycle, the 1 RM that I based my calculations on for the first cycle will be increased by 2.5kg for military press, 5kg for squat and 10kg for deadlift.


Currently my 'guess' of my 1 rep maxes are 117kg for back squat, 65kg military press and 175kg deadlift. And for the Powerlifting competition we have at our institute (on April 9), I'm targetting 125kg back squat, 90kg bench press and 195kg deadlift.




Other from the Weightlifting stuff, I got into the habit of switching off my cell phone during classes....

Patriotism

Two days back I was watching a video on facebook. A friend of mine shared it and it was about patrioism. Video shows how people say 'I love my country', 'proud to be an Indian', etc... And then there a lot of poor, illiterate people and a lot of people living in slums without proper food and all, about all the crime and corruption that has become too common in India. Every guy who saw that video was asked to share it and so they shared. Everyone gets a little high on patriotism when they watch such stuff and wants to do something that will change the conditions of life in the country.

To change something, what must you do? Do something about population control? Do some sting operation to expose corruption? Kill terrorists? Punish all those mafia and dons and all? Whatever the answer is, the bigger question is, are you capable of doing that, even if you are, are you willing to do that, make a commitment for some 20 years to something like that. Just to get some form from a government office you have to go around them for weeks and you get too pissed off just by that, a change in the system takes a lot more than just that. And definitely, it never happens like in the movies.

We blame politicians, that they do not do their jobs. That they take up that particular position to serve the people, but they do not do that. If Dhoni drops a catch, we start with "WTF... It was such an easy catch and he..". How many of us can take a catch like that? That doesn't really matter, because when you have a player at international level, he is supposed to take those tough ones, he is supposed to win matches for the country, he is supposed to score runs in every innings, he is supposed to put up a decent performance before the media. Everyone is "supposed to" be doing something.

Now, what about you, me, us... Students. What are we supposed to do? Do you really think you are doing what you're supposed to do? People get into a school because they want to learn, if they just want to put peace, they can just sleep at home. The worse cases, people get into institutes like IITs and then start cribbing saying this is not good, that's not good, I'm not enthued in this, I don't give a shit about this, blah blah blah. If you did not want to mug, if you did not want to put fight for acads, why the duck did you even write JEE?

How many people going to college know what's happening in classes? How many can put it into use. I have a feeling it's only around 5 percent in an average college- 5% of people can appreciate what they're being taught, others just mug it off for exams and forget it after those 3 hours. What would happen if this 5% were turned to 25%? To 50%? I'm not talking just number, I'm talking about the quality of the civil engineer who built that 20 floor building in the city centre. The rate at which the country progresses is definitely in proportion with the quality of the people who work in some field. If the standard engineer in some ship building company is another Isaac Newton, he can build a better ship with lighter weight with higher speed with lower fuel consumption at a lower cost.

Extend this to law schools and medicine schools. Probably the same numbers apply here too, I'm not sure though. If every professional school increases its useful intellectual output by 10 times, or even 3-5times, India would become the best in no time.
In Asian games China got nearly 200 golds and India got 15 golds and we were too proud about that, that was our best performance after some decades. That's because every dude plays some sport only to impress a girl or that bunch of guys who are putting pseud or just to escape from all the shit in his life, but how many are really serious about that particular sport? How many are ready to give his job away because he got a chance to 'raise the bar'? I've known some weightlifters, some really go hard at it, push as far as they can till it's not physically possible anymore, and some just think they're fighting too f-ing hard and give up when they get the slightest pain.

Another thing, if you were to trust your life with someone, or heck, if you've earned some 10 lakh rupees (you fought really hard for that cash) and you have to give it to someone so that that guy can invest it, open a store or do some other business with that money and in the end give you a share in the profit, who would you give that cash to? To this dude who's too damn irresponsible, who pays to go to school, pays for the bus, and then goes there and peacefully sleeps, boozes atleast twice a month, spends a lot of cash in fags, watches a lot of movies as if there were nothing else to do, or may be does drugs too? Or would you rather give it to the guy who's more responsible, boozes or fags, but is yet under control and does his work on time? Which kind are you really? The question is, can you trust your life, your cash, your partner with yourself?

I'm no professional writer, I'm not sure if I've put the point through. What I'm trying to say, if I'm saying something, is, if you really want to do something for the country, or for your parents, or for anyone, you don't need to make donations or go to schools to educate kids and all, atleast do what you're supposed to do without fooling around. If you go to school, try to know what's happening there, if you play some sport, aim for something, don't just hang your nuts in the field. Be responsible.

Natural instincts

I've heard about how tigers or lions hunt other animals down, how vultures wait for hours in the sky before scavenging on dead animals and so on... But what I saw today was something I never expected. 3 days back, Me and some of my teammates got some nice tandoori chicken from a restaurant and we were eating in my room. A small kitten came into my room. 7 of us couldn't control that kitten when it smelt chicken.

Just 15 minutes back, I was coming back from mess, after breakfast, and at our hostel entrance, I went to get some water from the water dispenser. There was this cat that laid low and was staring at something. I checked in that direction and it was a pigeon siting on the ground. I turned to take a glass and when I turned back, this cat held the pigeon by the neck, and the poor prey was helplessly flapping its wings. Before I could take two steps to go to the cat, it ran some 20 metres, with the pigeon in its mouth.

This cat I'm talking about is supposedly a domestic cat, used to our institute. Students feed these cats with milk/chicken/biscuits/whatever. But at the first opportunity, it was bang on target and the pigeon was dead. This supposedly harmless cat, that is so cute and fluffy, can kill a bird in a less than a second. Maybe its by nature that the cat has this amazing speed and agility.

What about us? Us= Human beings. Long long back, I'm talking centuries. Human beings hunted animals with bare hands/projectiles/bows. From what I learn from some history, human being was a very fierce hunter and was feared by a lot of animals. Now, how many of us still have that ability to chase and hunt? Forget hunting. How many can run a couple of miles without a break, at whatever pace. Or how many can even stand in the sun for a couple of hours without fainting?

Human beings have evolved since he stone age. Too many things were invented when the need was there. Does that still happen? A guy needs to go to school for 15 years, then college for 5 more years before he even knows what he is supposed to be trying to do. If a thousand guys get 'educated', 1 or at max 2 of them even think about doing some really useful work. Rest are just machines that obey orders and use a computer to do even the simplest things and a majority of people who use a bike or a cycle don't even know how to change their cycle tyre or tube. Evolution.... Huh??



A friend's comment...
"I wonder, what fraction of us humans can actually hang on a bar and carry our own weight for some 20 seconds, which will prove useful, may be not in an attacking situation, but in a defending situation such as while escaping from a fire caught building! We have been using our brain and tongue too much and ignored the overall development of our body. We are supposed to be equal to monkeys in doing acrobatics. Where is all the strength gone?? or is it that, we have been failing continuously to bring it out due to our lifestyle?! If it is true, isn't it obvious that an important change is required in it ?! If we want to cut short life, we can always go and kill ourselves, after living a healthy life. But what pride is there in succumbing to serious illnesses at young age, after leading an unhealthy life ?! "

Indian 'Engineers'

This post is meant to do some serious bashing. If you're the kind of guy who doesn't like to be criticized, please don't read. I have a quiz tomorrow and yet I write this today. I always wanted to say this, but since there are just too many people around me who don't like the idea, I abandoned the thought. Today, one of our professors talked about what the so-called 'Engineers' in the country do and put his opinions on it and since they support mine, I publish this post.



You see many guys moving around with an ID card on their chest that has the name of some MNC, a job that pays a 6 digit salary and these guys go around saying 'I am God'. Fact, most guys never do anything really productive. Our prof put an example. A lot of guys are asked to do some simulations (say, in ANSYS). They're asked to do all the menial and time consuming tasks like creating a mesh and making an analysis when he has absolutely no clue of what it is about. He thinks the salary he gets is GOD-LEVEL.
I know two seniors who've app-ed (i.e. doing MS or PhD in a foreign university). One of them gets a 2.1k USD fellowship (during his PhD) and the other gets 1k euros (MS). So that's quite a lot- about 10 lacs and 7 lacs, when they're doing research as students under some professor. And how much might this professor get paid for that? Definitely a lot....
Our prof said this - "I've known people in Switzerland, France, Germany, etc... They never stick with these companies for very long. Maximum for three years and then they quit and start working on something more interesting and something that has true engineering rather than just using a calculator or a computer to make some manipulation. They have a lot more self respect than us." If you want to know what I mean, look at any forum or blog on some engineering subject, say building aircrafts. You'll probably find more amateurs from US than proper employees in our country.


Next, about 'INNOVATION'- probably the most overrated thing these days. Everyone wants to innovate, but no one's interested in inventing. Especially in the last few years, you can see a lot of start-ups coming up. Some have really good objectives, while some just want to hang around doing nothing good. 'This month you have a black colored cell phone with a screen on the top, next month you make a phone with the screen on the bottom, after that the screen goes on the back of the phone and maybe then it goes to the side of the phone.' Where's the engineering in this?
Everyone talks about i-pod as a great technology and all. MP3 players existed before that, and so did USB. Without either of them, the i-pod is just crap. Ask any 'innovator' to build the i-pod without that.

Our prof claimed he got to read the policies of certain European countries on technology (and I believe he did, he's definitely a hi-funda guy). Most countries have two key words that take priority- DISCOVERY and INVENTION. These are the things that really stand out in the long term. Innovation doesn't really bother them. Say computers. 'Real' institutes care probably only about creating memory on smaller chips and maybe creating maximum cache, processing, very low cost LCDs,etc.. but they are really not interested in working on which color the screen should be, where the mousepad should be and so on... And once again, the 'Indian Engineer' comes into the picture. For this useless salary, he's dragged into the job that is absolutely shit.

Caste System in India, continued......

My last post was about how the system originated and why it was actually favorable for the system to exist. A guy can know more about what his dad does than what someone else's dad does. And I have talked about 4 professions- Farming, breeding cattle, priesthood and ruling. Hindu society is divided into 4 varnas- Brahmana, Kshatriya, Vaishya and Sudra.

Before I proceed further, I'd first bash all the people who say this division is God's decision and that some class of people are just more privelaged than others and so on... In other words, who maintain that this division is a real genetic thing rather than just a classification based on profession. I'm talking about two different things- 1. People of one profession are grouped as one class and 2. People are divided into classes based on their parents' class and they have to stick to their profession. The first one has no discrimination at all, you choose your profession and then they call you by that name, like if I do a PhD, I'm called a doctor and if I failed in tenth exams, I maybe called a cupper. The second one is what I'm talking against.

If this division into varnas was done by the so-called 'God', why doesn't it exist anywhere else except in Hindu community? Muslims don't have this. In ancient Europe, there were just two classes, the commons and the nobles (and maybe another class of wealthy people) but nothing like what we have. There are a lot of tribal people living in forests and mountains, and they don't have any of these divisions. All they have is a ruler and other common people.


The reason behind the division into varnas is, there were these powerful guys, the rulers, who wanted their sons to be the next ruler. And all people around him had to support his son in order to impress the king and the son was obviously more qualified due to his exposure and hence he became the next king, and so on for all other castes. What is not very obvious is the fourth varna, called the Sudra.

Again, long long back, this division called 'Sudra' was just a class based on profession until the generations after those just kept doing the same jobs and it became hereditary and after a sufficient period of time, people were forced to believe that a guy had to do only what his ancestors did. But anyways, how did 'Sudra' varna come into existence? Why would any guy want to be serving others instead of doing something that can give him a respectable position?

Consider the way Shaastra or Saarang work- there are cores, coords and vols and gen insti junta who are not any of the three. Cores are like the best in the profession... like kings and emperors as opposed to local officers, wealthy men among merchants, 'Rajaguru's among priests, Court musicians and poets among artists and so on.. Then there are the coords, who are responsible for work. Like the general farmers, priests, potters, sculptors, etc... Then there are the volunteers, who couldn't get a coordship for themselves because they didn't qualify. There were people in the society who really couldn't do anything by themselves because they weren't talented enough or they didn't have the facilities, like land for a farmer. Volunteers have to work 'under' the coords, do whatever work coords ask them to do, to get their grub coupons and t-shirts. If you can't be a coord and you are not a vol, you just can't get coupons and t-shirts. If a man couldn't be employed himself, he had to serve someone to survive. Hence, there was a class of people working for someone else. This class was never allowed to do something more useful, because no one would teach his profession to his servant's son. And so we have this 'Sudra' class.

When the only way to learn was from a guy's parents, the caste system made sense. But now, how many guys really know what his/her dad/mom do? In villages, maybe there's some exposure, but in cities, a clerk's kid knows nothing about that. A police's daughter can't just be a police. Most of what a person learns is from some public school, along with a lot of other people. Hence the basic concept of caste system doesn't even hold. But thanks to all the political leaders who keep talking shit about castes and thanks to the government that makes no move to eradicate this system, we still have people 'belonging' to a caste.

Hoping that was a little enlightening. Comments are welcome. If someone wants to defend the caste system, I'm ready for a debate.. post your comment.
Next post will be on some Brahmin traditions, not what an arbit priest follows, but the original things that were started by those 'real' sages who existed long back.

Caste System in India

Just a short note on the origin of caste. There was no inspiration for writing this post, was just thinking about castes and then I realized I actually had an opinion on the origin of castes. Religions have always had fine distinctions- different religions coming from different places or being formed when a teacher or a preacher does a lot of philosophical and spiritual preaching. But castes are always totally mixed up in the society. Here's my explanation to the origin of castes.

Long long back, before kingdoms and kings existed, just when caveman started to know things like agriculture, cattle raising, using metals and stuff.... There were these dominant guys who could control people with force or influence and they were obvious rulers. Go to any remote village and even this day you'll find they have village heads who are not elected, but are so because they're more influential in that part. Then there are the farmers who have agricultural land and who grow crops. And the milkmen who have cattle. And there were also wise men who were educated (not math and science and stuff, but in general about ways of life and how you can go around if u have a hard situation).

Now there's the next generation. The farmer's son knows everything about farming since he'd been working with his dad since he was a kid and the milkman's son knows everything about cattle. The farmer's kid can't raise cattle, nor can the milkman's son plough lands. It is only fair that the farmer's son becomes a farmer and the milkman's son becomes a milkman. Another reason is, the farmer won't give away his land and belongings to some other guys son, the farmer's son owns all that and he knows how to plough, sow and reap. Hence, professions were hereditary and it is only just for it to remain that way. It must be noted that in those days a farmer and a milkman was equally, if not more, important to the society as was the ruler.

The ruler's son had always enjoyed the privelage and support from people around him because his dad was powerful. He had probably also learnt to deal with people and he's the guy to rule next. You can see this now too. Look at the congress party- Nehru, Indira Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi, Sonia Gandhi and now Rahul Gandhi... heads of Congress party.... Not because they're the best, but because since the time they entered into politics, all of the members supported them in order to make a good impression at the current head. Naturally, the ruler's son has a huge advantage against all others to become the next ruler.

Then comes the brahmins. I'd mention two kinds- The sages and the priests. The sages are those who just lived their life preaching and living on fruits and vegetables they pluck from trees, or by begging. They were only teaching. The priests were practitioners and made a living by using whatever they knew about philosophical or spiritual things. And these priests found they enjoyed a good status in society and hence they had no reason to teach what they know to everyone else. If they do that, they're not superior anymore and they'll be useless. Just like senior-junior in insti. The senior's God only because he knows more about insti and he has more fundaes on some stuff. If the freshie knows more than the senior, he won't bother about taking fundaes.

So, everything is hereditary because they have a good reason to be so. The problem was that some professions were exploited by others. In those old times, hereditary stuff had a meaning. But now when we have public schools, it makes absolutely no sense and there's no point in even saying you're of a particular caste.
Will write more on this topic soon, have to sign off now.

Independence day

And I start getting msgs saying "Advanced Happy Independence Day". Something urges me to publish this one before 15 August. The first thing that comes to my mind when junta start talking about our "Independence day" is, how many people really appreciate the position we currently enjoy. Some say we live in the best country, some say the government's too bad and corrupt and some don't really care.

What does independence and a democratic government mean to someone like me, an middle class student? Maybe right to education in any institute in the country, if I am eligible. Or maybe I can get some kind of scholarship. And I can vote and contest in elections and all similar things. Is that all? What if the country isn't independent or what if the government wasn't so good? One thing is there'll be some class of people who get things they don't deserve. And people without influence will have a really tough time. Maybe you'll have to pay more taxes. The last thing a normal person may think of is discrimination based on caste and religion and the most extreme thing may be riots.

Somethings I've recently realized. I'd suggest some movies that must be watched before you can think of "independence".

1. "Hotel Rwanda": This shows a civil war and how bad it can get. People get shot just because they don't belong to a certain class. And class isn't like our caste. People of the same race, religion, everything, just divided into two groups based on how they look and work. For absolutely no reason, children and women got shot.

2. "Schindler's list" and "The Pianist": If you haven't heard of the holocaust, look up in wiki. Jews in and around Germany were killed for just one reason- being Jews..

3. Crash: A movie that shows (or may be exaggerates, I’m not sure about how it is in there, I can only guess) how some African-Americans are treated in the United States. Not just African-Americans, just any guy from a foreign country.

4. Blood diamond: Another movie showing a civil war and how people with power exploit those without. There are lots of such movies.. Even Rambo 4 is like that...

The world war II happened when no person in Europe could ever believe he’d be safe. There were places where people were just too happy to survive just another day. Civil wars happened in Africa where people of the same country hated each other. There are countries in Africa that are struggling to survive. Even today, in Pakistan there’s a bombing once every month or two. Yet, in our country, a bandh happens and the bus service is suspended or maybe a guy’s bike gets damaged and we blame the government and say this is like hell.

The United States was too damn proud of its ideals and principles. It was believed to be the country built on freedom and rights and equality. Yet you see this country going for the Vietnam war. We, with all our strength and military, have not even thought of attacking weak countries around us, like Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Myanmar, etc.... We value the freedom of not just our country, but of our neighbors too. And how often do we even see the military interfering in state affairs? How often do we have a riot or how many times does the government turn against people forcing unease in the country?

Independence doesn’t just mean to fly the flag and then eat a sweet or greet someone. Think of this. If there was no government and no law, and you are going along with your girlfriend or your sister and a bunch of guys come and kick ur a** and rob you and harass her, what can you do? If you believe you can walk in the streets without being robbed or beaten up, that’s independence. That’s freedom and law and everything. How many times were you denied the right to board into a bus or were locked up for no reason or not allowed to sit with other people? We live in a country that’s probably the best in the world. Proud to be an Indian.

In a country where you’re free all the time, especially living in a place where I’m free to do everything I can (or almost everything), saying “Happy Independence Day” doesn't make a lot of sense to me, especially when you say that to show off you're the first guy to remember that the country got freedom on a particular day in August or do it just because that's just another occasion to send a msg or a mail.... I belong to a free country and I know that all the time, right from the time I walk on the streets to the time I have a laptop with an internet connection and I don't think anyone needs to be reminded that he lives in an independent India.
And I don't really feel I have to end all such posts with a "Jai Hind" in the end.. NO! I have respect for my country and I do follow most of the rules, atleast a lot more than most of the nation.