Strength of Will, Always Burning

Strength of Will, Always Burning
Welcome to my Blog.

Here I will outline the current training I am under taking.

Friday, June 29, 2012

Return of the Good Mornings!


June 29th, 2012 - Session#: 290
Weight: 211 lbs
Power Phase
Squat
Bx3, 135x2, 225x1
275x1B
335x1Bx6
Deadlift (in kgs)
70x1, 110x1
177.5x1Bx6
Pump Phase
Squat
235x(5x3)
Deadlift (in kgs)
115x(5x3)
Assistance Work
Good Mornings
135x3
225x2
245x3
275x2
Glute Ham Raise
BWx10
Training Notes
Ok session. Didn't have much time today.
-Aaron

Wednesday, June 27, 2012

Bench n' Press


June 27th, 2012 - Session#: 289
Weight: 210 lbs
Power Phase
Bench
Bx5
135x3
185x1
225x1x5
Press
Bx5
115x1
125x1x5 <- going to lower weight, was leaning back majorly on these
Pump Phase
Bench
165x3x3
Press
90x3x3
Assistance Work
Close Grip Bench Press
135x5x2
155x5
Dumbbell Row
110x5x2 w/wraps
110x10 w/straps
Dips
BWx5
Glute Ham Raise
BWx10x2
BWx5
Training Notes
Good session.
-Aaron

Monday, June 25, 2012

Short Session


June 26th, 2012 - Session#: 288
Weight: 212 lbs
Power Phase
Squat
Bx3, 135x3, 225x1
275x1B
335x1Bx5
Deadlift (in kgs)
70x1, 110x1
177.5x1Bx5
Pump Phase
Squat
235x(5x1)
Deadlift (in kgs)
115x(5x2, 4x1)
Assistance Work
Pendlay Row
70x5
80x5
Training Notes
Ok session. Didn't have much time today.
-Aaron

Friday, June 22, 2012

Good day.


June 22th, 2012 - Session#: 287
Weight: 210 lbs
Power Phase
Squat
Bx3, 135x3, 225x1
275x1B
325x1Bx8
Deadlift (in kgs)
70x1, 110x1
172.5x1Bx8
Pump Phase
Squat
235x(5x2, 3x3)
Deadlift (in kgs)
115x(5x2, 3x3)
Assistance Work
Glute Ham Raise
BWx10x2
Training Notes
Great session. No video today.
Planning to switch to 531 for Powerlifting again.
-Aaron

Wednesday, June 20, 2012

And so...

The Pro-Men's Movement was born!

imPRESSing...


June 20th, 2012 - Session#: 286
Weight: 209 lbs
Power Phase
Bench
Bx5
135x3
135x2P
215x1x8
Press <-pinkies on rings ftw
Bx5
120x1x8
Pump Phase
Bench
155x5x3
155x4x1
155x3x1
Press
85x5x3
85x4x1
85x3x1
Assistance Work
Behind the Neck Push Press
115x2
135xF, F2, F3
Rope Pushdown
120x5x2
130x3F
Dumbbell Row
110x5x2 w/wraps
110x8 w/straps
Glute Ham Raise
BWx10
Training Notes
Good session. I found keeping pinkies on the rings, and a few other tips, was great for overhead press. No video, though definitely better than last few weeks.
-Aaron

Monday, June 18, 2012

Progress.


June 18th, 2012 - Session#: 285
Weight: 211 lbs
Power Phase
Squat
Bx3, 135x3, 225x1
275x1B
325x1Bx7
Deadlift (in kgs)
70x1, 110x1
172.5x1Bx7
Pump Phase
Squat
235x(5x1, 4x1, 3x3)
Deadlift (in kgs)
115x(5x1, 4x1, 3x3)
Assistance Work
Pendlay Rows
70x5
80x5
85x5
Glute Ham Raise
BWx5
+10x5
+25x3
BWx10
Training Notes
Great session. No video today.
-Aaron

Friday, June 15, 2012

Liberation through truth


Rape
·         In rape cases, the feminism generates a world-view where:
o   All men are rapists
o   Being the woman is synonymous with being a victim
o   To reduce rape, instead of encouraging something that was well-meaning and sound advice for women to stay safe, blame rape on men.
o   1 in 4 college women will experience sexual abuse
·         As it were, rape is not a one-way street and does indeed happen to many men.
·         Focusing on the 1 in 4 statistic, when the study is examined, some fiddling becomes apparent. The women who responded that they had never been raped but had had sex under ANY influence(even one drink), and a few other cases that would not be called rape by any layman’s standards, were included as having been raped. Why is this so? Feminists ironically, look at women as relatively weak-minded individuals. They believe that in many ridiculous cases, women cannot give consent. Some have even stated that women as a group are too weak to give consent to sex individually.
·         The feminist action on this issue has been most severe on college campuses, where they’ve moved to push for easier convictions in cases of rape accusations, by increasing the time limit a victim has to come forward, and lowering the standard of evidence required to a “preponderance of evidence” which could create a conviction on nothing other than a possibly false accusation.
·          
o   4.8% of American men claim they have been forced to penetrate someone else. That’s more than three times the number who have actually been raped according to the FBI’s “penetration” definition of rape.
o   The 1 in 5 number for female victims in the CDC report also uses a definition of rape which conflates sexual harassment with sexual assault and rape, revealing a strong ideological bias.
o   While the CDC survey counts 1.3 million rapes of women in 2010, the total number of rapes and sexual assaults (of males and females combined) in the Justice Department survey was 188,380”. These two numbers are an entire order of magnitude apart.
o   Prison rape, due to the overwhelmingly male prison populations in western nations, also targets predominantly men and results in roughly twice as many men raped in prison each year than women raped outside of America’s prisons
·         Further reading:
Domestic violence (eg. VAWA)
·         Feminists play on the common belief of domestic violence solely being men beating on women. The actual statistics show:
o   "30.8 per cent (almost one in three) victims of domestic assault were male." "The SA Interpersonal Violence and Abuse Survey (1999)[4] found that 32.3 per cent (almost one in three) victims of reported domestic violence by a current or ex-partner (including both physical and emotional violence and abuse) were male." http://www.avoiceformen.com/feminism/feminist-lies-feminism/on-male-victims-of-domestic-violence/
·         In light of this evidence, it makes little sense for feminists, who purportedly desire to make the world a better place to push this repeated narrative that ‘men are oppressors and abusers, women are victims. If feminists want to do what is right, and reduce DV on the whole, it makes sense to look at both significant portions.
·         What do feminists actually do on this matter? They push biased legislation such as VAWA, oppose any proposed changes to the bill to make it more gender neutral and fair, and completely ignore other biases such as the numbers of safe houses for battered women versus men.
“The movement whose early second wave was funded by bankers and statesmen has driven a wedge of hatred into the heart of society, pitting men and women against each other, destroying the social cohesion of the family, leaving many women to lives of dependence on the state.” http://www.avoiceformen.com/feminism/feminist-lies-feminism/lets-belittle-men/
Reproductive rights & male contraceptive pill
·         Feminists oppose any reproductive rights for men, hoarding power over everything that happens to a child after conception.
·         A known saying in cases where cheating may be involved is “Mommy’s baby, Daddy’s maybe.” The purpose is to note how a woman always knows that the child is hers, while the father does not without testing.
-Aaron T
Next time…the harms on people and society from feminism as well as its core: radical feminism.

'Nother day.


June 15th, 2012 - Session#: 284
Weight: 211 lbs
Power Phase
Squat
Bx3, 135x1, 225x1
275x1B
325x1Bx6
Deadlift (in kgs)
70x1, 110x1
172.5x1Bx6
Pump Phase
Squat
235x(5x1, 3x4)
Deadlift (in kgs)
115x(5x1, 3x4)
Assistance Work
Glute Ham Raise
BWx5x2, x10x2
Training Notes
Great session. No video today.
-Aaron

Refutation

I was recently directed to a post by someone on twitter. Upon reading I felt it best to repost and refute piece by piece. Here is where it can be seen originally.

Why the "Men's Rights Movement" is misogynistic

Put simply, men are not systemically oppressed. Only disadvantaged, blamed and ignored, right? Whilst it's true that most male individuals are oppressed as members of the working class, and might also be oppressed as people of colour, members of sexual minorities, migrants, trans people, disabled people, etc., men as a group are not systemically oppressed. Through the governments as well as throughout society, we can see evidence of men being moved deeper into roles as second-class citizens to women. Often feminists will trumpet claims that "your privilege is showing" if they think you're using too much science or logic. We can say that men have been ignored as the one who commit more suicides, and make up most workplace deaths and war-time deaths.

Women might make assumptions about them or be unduly suspicious of them because of their gender, but this is not systemic oppression and is largely a result of women's oppression.  Men might be expected to be promiscuous, dominant, emotionless, physically powerful, but this is a direct cause of women's oppression and oppresses women more than it does men. The naturally inclined gender roles of men and women are not a system designed to oppress women. In the natural roles, men take on risks, and are the ones seen responsible for the family unit's success. This system is designed to protect women, as the sex with the higher biological value in reproduction. Men who are seen as "feminine" might be shamed, but this is because femininity is seen as inferior and is therefore even more inseparable from women's oppression. When men are seen as feminine, this is in most cases apart from homosexuals due to the feminist influence in numerous avenues of life. Femininity is not being seen as inferior, and by the way, the author ignored the cases where women are seen as being manly, but whatever. In our water (xenoestrogens), the food we eat(soy), the 'knowledge' spread by governments in what we should eat, as well as societal acceptance in numerous cases, we can see attempts to make men less independent and accepting of authority. It is natural that some see this decline and oppose it.

Now let's look directly at the so-called men's rights movement's flagship issue: the family courts. That's usually the first to be brought up, though there are others that could be seen as our top issues. They cite the alleged bias of child custody cases against the father as an example of "female privilege". Indeed. 

A woman is the party filing for divorce in about 66% of divorce cases.
http://www.pobronson.com/blog/2006/07/will-this-marriage-last-who-wants-out.html
“How often was it that many more of women wanted the divorce more than the men?
2/3. The same as the amount responsible for divorce filings. And yet another study of divorced couples found that the majority of divorced wives and husbands both agreed it was the wife who wanted out.”
Women receive custody in about 84% of child custody cases.
In the spring of 2002, an estimated 13.4 million parents had custody of 21.5 million children under 21 years of age whose other parent lived somewhere else. About 5 of every 6 custodial parents were mothers (84.4 percent) and 1in 6 were fathers (15.6 percent), proportions statistically unchanged since 1994
(Table A).
http://www.census.gov/prod/2003pubs/p60-225.pdf 
Source: Here
  I don't have the time to go searching through media reports and statistics which themselves are skewed as often as not and try to sort the fact from the fiction, so I don't know if such a bias actually exists or to what extent... but that isn't the point.  If such a bias exists, then in the big picture it's a rational bias in our existing society in which men are all-powerful in sexual and relationship politics. So your misguided beliefs about relationships somehow justifies the bias shown against men in family courts? In courts in general? It's taken for granted that men are the active, and usually dominant, partners in any heterosexual relationship... so much so that a lot of heterosexuals see the more active partner in a lesbian relationship as "the man"; this assumption is rarely challenged, and any time the reality deviates from it, society does its best to make it into a badge of shame for both parties. I would be interested to see any evidence of gay people protesting other gay people who are versatile.  Any woman, particularly a heterosexual woman, who takes charge of her own sexuality is shamed as either a "slut" or a "prude" - often both, as paradoxical as that is. At other periods in time, it could seen as advantageous for a woman to be promiscuous, however in this time, with the threat of STIs and the significant issue of 'choosing the father' it is not smart or natural for a woman to act in such a manner. http://www.avoiceformen.com/women/a-slut-by-any-other-name/  As has been said before: "Mommy's baby, Daddy's maybe."  And the contrast between young girls being largely discouraged from any strenuous physical activity and young boys being constantly bombarded with the "need" to be good at running, good at sports, strong in the arm, above all good at fighting, means that the natural physical advantages of most men over most women are even more pronounced. Last time I checked, the issue was that children needed more activity in general, I don't see any being discouraged, simply not motivated. In this context, it's scandalously easy for a man to be both an abusive partner and an abusive parent, and certainly far easier than for a woman. And yet the stats showing women as more likely to be the abusive parent as well as the instigator in domestic violence means what to you? http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=5lHmCN3MBMI http://www.avoiceformen.com/video/male-victims-of-domestic-violence/ http://www.avoiceformen.com/feminism/how-feminists-corrupt-dv-research/ "30.8 per cent (almost one in three) victims of domestic assault were male." "The SA Interpersonal Violence and Abuse Survey (1999)[4] found that 32.3 per cent (almost one in three) victims of reported domestic violence by a current or ex-partner (including both physical and emotional violence and abuse) were male." http://www.avoiceformen.com/feminism/feminist-lies-feminism/on-male-victims-of-domestic-violence/  So to campaign for family courts to be "less biased" to women without offering a better solution, How about fair sentencing based on the evidence from each individual case? How about not indoctrinating the family court judges in private courses where the material is kept secret from public? How about violence and abuse actually being held up to a standard like "innocent until proven guilty" so they are not just cards a woman plays in divorce to get more. whether any individual campaigner is aware of it or not (and I don't doubt that many "men's rights activists" genuinely believe that men are persecuted and are blissfully unaware of their complicity in women's oppression) is to campaign for the last legal recourse of heterosexual women in abusive relationships to be undermined. Straight women have more power than that in a relationship. If you ask police in numerous areas, they would tell you that they are instructed to arrest and remove the male in any cases where domestic violence and/or abuse are called in. Therefore, women have the ability to call proxy violence upon men, both in relationships, and in society, ex. false rape accusations. Any honest campaigner for an equitable family court system should be first and foremost a campaigner for women's liberation. Any logical, honest, and/or well-informed campaigner for an equitable family court system would campaign for equity, that is, no bias or propaganda, only fair treatment of men and women under the law.

Every way in which men are "oppressed as men" is inseparable from women's oppression, and can only be solved or mitigated either through women's liberation or by oppressing women further. People's rights and the law surrounding them are not in any way a zero sum game. To liberate women does not take from men, and to oppress women does not give to men exactly. Society is more complex than that.  So every "men's rights activist" who is genuinely not misogynistic A tired false statement. Opposing feminism does not mean someone or thing is misogynistic. should be primarily a women's rights activist.  Unfortunately, the "men's rights movement" as a campaigning community almost never mentions women's rights except as a token or in an attack. The MRM as a campaigning community seek to reach for a more egalitarian world by opposing misandry that seeks to imbalance the world further, and encourage both throughout legislation and society, a fair and peaceful relationship between men and women. Ergo, we are not misogynists, and neither is our movement. 

Thursday, June 14, 2012

Opposing Feminism =/= Misogyny

"Feminism is not a group of people. It is an ideology.
That’s a thing formed from ideas.
Many MRAs (men’s rights activists) oppose the ideology of feminism.
Feminists, those who believe in feminism, are people.
But they are special people, convinced the ideas of feminism must be true.
Even though feminists are people, who they are, and what they think, are separate things.
Who you are is your identity. You cannot easily change this.
What you think are your thoughts. Your thoughts change all the time.
This is true for other people too. People’s ideas and people’s identities are not the same things.
Some feminists pretend their selves and their ideas are the same thing. To them, disagreement with their ideas is the same as hatred of themselves.
Of course it is harder defend an idea than to cry out : “you hate me”.
Some feminists like to do what is easier, so they become skilled at saying “you hate me”.
They are good at this, and many observers have forgotten that their crying is fake.
They make an awful racket, and they have been doing so for many years. This ruckus is quite disturbing to everybody else.
Many other people also like to do what is easy.
For them, it is easier to give in to children throwing tantrums than to correct their error.
This is the error in which disagreement is the same thing as hatred.
By contrast, some people don’t want to do what is easier.
They prefer to do what is right.
When cranky children say: “you hate me” these individuals don’t take the easy way out. They don’t simply give those children whatever they demand.
Unlike things formed from ideas, women are people.
They are human beings, like you, and like me.
Hatred of people based on their identity has a special word. That word is bigotry.
Because they are people, hatred of women has a special word too. That word is misogyny.
When that word is used to describe disagreement with ideas, it is used incorrectly.
Pretending disagreement is the same as hate is a trick. It is a trick to cultivate shame, or to silence those who disagree. This trick is easier than forming logical arguments around an idea. Sadly, this trick is dishonest and lazy.
Some people are in love with their own ideas. These people know that there is a difference between themselves and their ideas. But they do not defend their ideas.
Instead, they pretend disagreement with those ideas is hate against themselves.
Some people are so much in love their own ideas, they become confused.
This confusion causes them to mix up what is themselves, and what is an idea.
When faced by disagreement, these people become angry and upset. For them, disagreement with an idea is the same as hate against themselves.
This is because they have mixed themselves up.
They have forgotten that themselves and their ideas are not the same things.
For these people, pretending disagreement is actually hate diverts attention away from their ideas.
It sometimes even distracts others if those ideas are not very good.
Bad ideas can be sheltered by distracting those who disagree.
Claiming “you hate me” or “you hate women” is dishonest and lazy, but it works well as a change of topic.
Some people who play this game of distractions are filled with hate.
Hate, for them, is a special kind of fear.
Those people filled with fear and hate will hide themselves behind their game of pretend.
So, they say those who disagree with them are also full of hate.
This is easier for them than being honest.
This game also gives them an excuse to play the role of victim.
When they talk, it sounds just like this:
you just hate women! you’re a misogynist!
To adults, these people seem to be dishonest and tiresome liars." John the Other, http://www.avoiceformen.com/miscellaneous/logic-should-not-be-transexual-kryptonite/

Wednesday, June 13, 2012

Pressin' issues.


June 13th, 2012 - Session#: 283
Weight: 211 lbs
Power Phase
Bench
Bx4
135x4
215x1x7
Press
Bx3
120x1x7
Pump Phase
Bench
155x5x3
155x3x2
Press
85x5x3
85x3x2
Assistance Work
Behind the Neck Push Press
120x2x2
125x2
135x2
145xF2
Dumbbell Row
110x5,x10 (first set with wraps, second with straps)
Glute Ham Raise
BWx10,x5x2
BW+25 x5,x4
Training Notes
Ok session. Wasn't in the mindset today. Found overhead presses were not cooperating at all, ended up push pressing some.

-Aaron

Monday, June 11, 2012

Movin' on UP!


June 11th, 2012 - Session#: 282
Weight: 213 lbs
Power Phase
Squat
Bx3, 135x3, 225x1
275x1B
325x1Bx5
Deadlift (in kgs)
70x1, 110x1
172.5x1Bx5
Pump Phase
Squat
235x(4x1, 4x3)
Deadlift (in kgs)
115x(4x1, 4x3)
Assistance Work
Pendlay Row
70x5
80x5
85x5
Glute Ham Raise
BWx5, x7, x10
Training Notes
Great session.

-Aaron

Saturday, June 9, 2012

The focus coming from a newly discovered training song...


June 9th, 2012 - Session#: 281
Weight: 211 lbs
Power Phase
Squat
Bx3, 135x3, 225x2
275x1B
320x1Bx8
Deadlift
135x1, 225x1
365x1Bx8
Pump Phase
Squat
235x(5x3)
Deadlift
245x3 (oops)
255x(4x3)
Assistance Work
Glute Ham Raise
BWx5x2, x6, x7, x8
Training Notes
Great session. Focused and determined. I was definitely 'on' today.

-Aaron

Wednesday, June 6, 2012

Solid day, OK pressing.


June 6th, 2012 - Session#: 280
Weight: 213 lbs
Power Phase
Bench
Bx3
135x2
215x1x6
Press
Bx5
120x1x6
Pump Phase
Bench
155x5x2
155x4
155x3x2
Press
85x5x2
155x4
85x3x2
Assistance Work
Barbell Row
225x1
245x5
275x5
Rope Pushdown
120x7
120x5
Behind the Neck Push Press *first time with these, alright movement.
135xF2 (means 2 fails)
115x2x3
155x3
125x2
Dumbbell Row
110x5x2
55x10
Training Notes
Good day, not intense, but just a solid session. The 4-6th sets of bench press were actually my best, the first couple were slow. Overhead press has always been a poor movement for me as well.

-Aaron

Sunday, June 3, 2012

Slow Sunday.


June 3rd, 2012 - Session#: 279
Weight: 211 lbs
Power Phase
Squat
135x1, 225x1
275x1B
320x1Bx7
Deadlift (in kgs)
70x1, 110x1
166x1Bx7
Pump Phase
Squat
225x(5x5)
Deadlift (in kgs)
110kgx(5x5)
Assistance Work
Pendlay Row
70x3x2
80x3
Glute Ham Raise
BWx5x4
Training Notes
Slow day.

-Aaron

Saturday, June 2, 2012

Chat Response


Your statement implies a disappointment in the lack of people needing a God figure to enforce a moral code these days. As has been demonstrated, there are people with the will to act ‘morally’ without fear of retribution from an imaginary force. There have been many that use ‘God-fearing’ and religion as their cause for many negative effects. Therefore, I find it saddening that you desire more people to be weak-willed enough to require such a belief system when you could desire for more people to have the strong-wills and independent spirits needed to move beyond post-conventional morality.

Friday, June 1, 2012

Pitter Patter....Rainy day.


June 1st, 2012 - Session#: 278
Weight: 210 lbs
Power Phase
Squat
135x2, 225x1
275x1B
320x1Bx6
Deadlift (in kgs)
70x1, 110x1
166x1Bx6
Pump Phase
Squat
225x(5x4,4x1)
Deadlift (in kgs)
110kgx(5x4,4x1)
Assistance Work
Glute Ham Raise
BWx5x4
Training Notes
 Good day.
-Aaron