If I could release a hard copy of this playlist this would absolutely by my cover choice.
I originally made this playlist for my brother Dan who requested "the curator of the evil and unhallowed" make him a playlist of deeper tracks to get more familiar with black metal. (for the record that title is a direct quote from him but I will proudly answer to it.) I am not going to say I went PG on this list but I made an effort to incorporate tracks that may be a little more palatable to the untrained ear. You have to understand black metal. You have to possess a particular mindset and dark outlook on life in order to truly "get" this genre. Black metal is not music you put on when your bros are over crushing beers and playing pong. I am also going out on a limb here and saying no one has ever gotten laid by bringing a strange girl home and fired up some Nightbringer to set the sexual tones.
OK. Enough filler and fluff. Im not some bunk ass T-mobile employee trying to get you to buy the fucking warranty on a phone that will be out of date in a year. Listen to the goddamn playlist or don't. whatever.
Tracks are in no particular order and I was limited in what I could select on Spotify because the bands I really wanted to include were not available. All of these bands are either my absolute favorites or stay in heavy rotation in my life.
To my loyal readers. HAILS! feel free to email me blackmetalfitness@gmail.com or leave comments, feedback, give opinions, suggest recommendations (music or blogposts), or just shoot the shit. I am out of school for three weeks and have a decent amount of time to internetz.
Many hails to all my fellow die-hard servants of the Iron Underworld. I'm coming in hot on tonight's post. Armed to the teeth with
motivation, purpose, direction, and dark sided pictures to look at. A lot
has been happening in the BMF camp as of late. Eager to spread the gospel with all my brethren. So lets start spilling blood right now.
There is plenty of light to shine toward the mortal figures of man. The
summer harvest of gains and thickness has been bountiful this season.
The seeds of rusted iron that we planted in the throes of winter have
now fully blossomed and are ripe for picking. The Weightlifting Lords
have heard our cries and accepted our offerings. In return the Iron
Lords have rewarded our devotion to the Barbell Temple with new PR's,
new max's, better form, stronger diets, chiseled physiques, bigger
muscles, stronger minds, and improved focus. If you are reading this
post I hope you are one of the peasants who struggled day in and day out
through winter anticipating this summer. This is your season to flex on
the weak betas and false alphas of this shit planet. Enjoy your
harvest. You fucking earned it. If you are disappointed in your harvest
and wish you planted more seeds and tended to your crops properly then I
must say to you "preparing for failure is the same as failing to
prepare."
TO KNOW THE ENEMY IS TO KNOW THYSELF.
I assume you have identified the poisonous people and threats to your well being. I hope you have shown your enemies no remorse, no mercy, with pity for none and hate for all on path to carving the giant that is your frame. I also hope you have provided help, coaching, motivation, while mentoring your gym brethren. The light of physical strength is there for all who choose to see. All you must do is open your eyes. For we are nothing without each other. Our enemies will not speak of our strength, they will speak of our weakness and exploit it to eliminate us. THIS is why we spend our waking hours and channel all of our energy into heavy weights, strange food, and mirrors. We must give our enemies nothing to speak of. They will speak with the words of a mute that will fall on the ears of the deaf. They will only tear themselves down while we build ourselves up and protect our hunt.Let all those who stand in our way of physical and mental strength gains be vanquished and shallow buried into unmarked graves. We have no pity for those who oppose in the same way we have no pity for the weights. We are trained to kill both.
Caravaggio was calling for heads back in the 1500's. goddamn if did he didn't paint some vicious depictions of enemies getting served cold. murder boner achieved.
USING THE TOOLS TO BUILD
Tools are needed to build an empire. We must lay our heads down before the creators of human history and give them praise. They have suffered so we can survive. You may ask yourself "what tools?" I speak of infinite resources at your disposal. Its 2015...WE HAVE THE NET. The internet is alive and well. Everyone can become an expert on anything now. no excuses. If you workouts suck, your progress sucks, your not getting the results you want. consult the net! find out something. anything. Its a fucking wormhole of information. Everyone is always talking about how every fitness article or advice contradicts every other article or advice. I wont argue that is incredibly true but that is not a free pass to say "fuck it. Im confused and I don't wanna try so I am out."
What worked for the other guy may or may not work for you. Weightlifting is all about learning, growing, trying, and pushing. You gotta think like you are playing a chess game with your body. Your body is fucking Garry Kasparov and you are nobody. You must find ways to beat it and constantly reinvent yourself to stay one move ahead. Men who do not lift, their bodies control them. Men who lift seriously, they control their bodies.
There will come a point your body will stop responding to your lifts because its part of its routine. This is when you zig instead of zag. Get out there and sniff out new lifts, new workouts, new gyms, new meals, or new ideas. Be open to anything that may improve your physique. If something doesn't work cross it off your list and move on. Ask my close friends and they will tell you I am always saying "its all relative" and really it is. if somethign doesnt feel right research it and try to self correct. If you cant seem to hit that 315lbs bench max get on the laptop and start searching tips on how to improve bench max. Try them. If they dont work then try something else. I feel like I really shouldn't need to type that. You must understand I am not trying to talk down on you. I am trying to remind you that what you need is there. You just have to do the footwork.
Whether you lift with a tight group of experienced brothers or are the only person in your entire backwoods village in the butt hole of Indiana who even attempts to lift weights. (all alone) The results you make are on you. All the support, knowledge, and friends in the world wont make you strong. You have to do it yourself. You ultimately do every single lift, curl, push, press, pull, squat, and pause all by yourself. Its you versus the everything. Get that in your head now. Its your fight. Time to fucking finish it. GET SOME!!
Here I am doing Lat pulldowns at my gym (ROCKWEL BARBELL CHICAGO IL) with three of my absolute best friends/blood brothers with me. I love these men and they have helped me so much but, as you can see from this photo, I am all alone. I am the man who has to pull that weight. none more powerful than me. I am an island. photo by: Chris Fowler
At the risk of being melodramatic being in the weight room is like survival. You have to adapt if you wanna stay alive. You must evolve, adapt, and overcome. Try everything you want (and a few you dont) to make yourself stronger and smarter.
How I feel when I am walking into the gym on a Friday night. A night when everyone else is spending money they don't have, at bars they hate, with people they don't really know. I am the masked intruder ready to break and enter the gym. I will walk to the weights with the mindset of a violent thief. I will take what I want. I am GOD.
If you ever wanna light a fire under your nubile ass and be ready to fucking crush the weights then do yourself a favor and watch this incredibly "real talk" speech given by Alec Baldwin from Glengary Glennross. Even if you have seen it already. Give it another view. I promise it gets better with every watch.
"The leads are weak? The fucking leads are weak? Your weak!"
aye dude thanks for collecting all your excuses on why you aren't in the shape you wanna be in together in this pile. I got the answer to all your excuses.... *proceeds to light the excuses on fire and then stab the fire with a knife. His buddies keep things entertaining by reciting ritual chants of Lucifer and all his magnificent power.
If you need to convince yourself that your lack of progress is someone elses fault (i.e work, being poor, being fat, not knowing where to start) then you have a lot of work if you want to run with the herd. The rest of the world is moving fast and you are standing still. Letting the strong wolves get ahead of you while you drift into the back.
In a group of wolves the slowest and weakest wolves make up the rear end of a pack. When they are threatened they flea together. The predator will seek chase. The wolves in the rear will be the first to die in the teeth of the predator. They couldn't keep up and because of that they paid a heavy price....their life. No other proof is needed to get strong and stay strong. If you are not in the front you better be as close as you fucking can to leading the herd. Because when the hunt is on and your instincts kick in if you cant maintain with the alpha, you are fucking dead.
Where do you see yourself in this pack?
go on.....
Life Goals.
Relationship Goals.
The founders/employees of Rockwell Barbell. Chicago's premier rehabilitation center. Dedicated to transforming yesterdays skinny fat, bar crawler, beta boys into tomorrows bar bending, battle tested, men of the future. Ready, willing, and able to lead from the front.
wanna share this quote my buddy Eugene dropped today at Rockwell Barbell during our Floor Press burn outs. "We want to take people from being at the bar to being under the bar."
Of the nine circles of Hell the weight room is by far by favorite.
This post is a collection of some of my all time favorite lifts. Exercises that I always try work into my long range routine. These lifts have either helped me over come injury, improved muscle imbalance, enhanced my physique, or helped me reach a new PR on the REAL lifts. All of the featured lifts here I highly encourage you to try em out. They worked very well for me and I hope the same for you. I will be excluding the Big Three from this list because if you are not tracking those lifts are mandatory for real strength gains then you are hanging out with the wrong people or reading the wrong books. Get new friends and burn your books.
V BAR PULLDOWN
in this photo the meathead is facing out for photo purposes. When you do this please face toward that machine. Its not necessary to draw attention to yourself in the gym. Let your muscles speak for themselves. BMF does not support the "water cooler runway". Stay in your corner, stay focused, and build your temple.
I rarely see anyone doing this in the gym. Well, I guess I should say "used to." At Rockwell Barbell the boys there know the drill. Before I lifted here I spent many years lifting at all kinds of gyms. Mainly military gyms on post, Cheetah Gym in Chicago, and Anytime Fitness in Olympia WA. Able to get a good read on dudes who were serious and who weren't. Anytime I saw a guy reaching for the v-bar I knew he was die hard.
This variation on the lat pull down has been a blessing for me. I give this exercise almost all the credit for sculpting my back, which I believe to be my strongest and best looking feature of my body. Watch the video below about proper lat pull down technique. This video was very helpful for me. Its short, contains no filler, he knows how to properly speak, and most importantly he is right. The dude hits the nail on the head with his explanation of the best form and why the V-Bar pull down builds a wider lat than the classic pulldown. He spends the later half of the video praising the merits of close grip pulldown and I could not agree more with him.
Another pro for this lift is you can move considerably more weight vs. classic lat pull down. So many guys sell themselves short on their back lifts. You will be surprised at how strong your back actually is. Test yourself and treat this like a deadlift. Get pumped up and dialed in. Attack the lift with hatred. This lift is incredibly satisfying mentally when you move that pin closer and closer to max capacity.
RECOMMENDED FOR: making your traps cast shadows, making your friends yell out "Shredded Wheat" when they see you from behind, and getting that "tree stump" muscle in the middle of your back.
PRO TIP: Don't get into the mindset that accessory lifts are easy lifts. Treat every exercise as an extension of your strongest lift. Get serious and make yourself sweat. No exercise you preform in the weight room should be treated as Hotel Collection 1,000 Thread Count Egyptian Cotton 4-piece Bedding Set.
REAR DELT MACHINE
Dude is so buff his head is fucking outside the frame of the photo. Muscles that transcend space and time....IM MIRIN'
Its not often that I give praise to the machines so if I do then you know its legit. This one really helped me overcome a nagging shoulder injury. For about a year and a half I could not do flat bench barbell work. Even 135lbs sent my shoulder screaming. I was forced to admit that the pain was to real and severe to push through. The cruel and unforgiving Iron Lords banished me to the wasteland of dumbells. Toiling among common folk, 5- day biceps bros, and iPhone curlers. It was weird and it sucked. Being robbed of glory from one of the "Original Six" lifts was embarrassing. I was turned onto this lift from one of my elite Army brothers. It is fun to do because after just one set your entire rear delt looks like a tumor. This muscle just activates and grows immediately.
My shoulder injury actually healed early on but I did not realize it because I was still feeling pain. Turns out I had over developed front delts. This is actually quite common. I spent three weeks incorporating this lift on all shoulder and chest days. Its like i was touched by the noodley appendage of the Spag Monster himself. I was cured. I went back to the flat bench after 18 months off and it was like someone gave me a new shoulder. Since then I have been very conscious over my rear delts and always keep them active.
You can do DB bent over lateral raises if you do not have access to this machine but I warn you if your form is even a little off you will completely miss the rear delt. R. delt is a tricky son of a bitch. You gotta walk your rounds onto the target. Its different for everybody because every persons build is unique (not special snowflake neat. you are not special or important. Dont confuse my use of unique for your vein attempt to express yourself.) I like the machine because you can adjust the seat and toss a few reps around to zero in on your target muscle.
RECOMMEND FOR: anyone who has nagging shoulder issues, over developed front delts, people not afraid of machines, men looking to make their T-shirts wear them instead of you wearing the T-shirt.
2 Kettle bell Front Squat
Kettle bells: the new yoga mat.
I am very green to the ways of the kettle bell but I have a keen interest in trying to incorporate them into my future routines. The first and only time so far I have ever used one was for this exercise. Crossfitters have shit and pissed on this vintage piece of strongman iron for the better part of a decade. What use to be synonymous with chest hair and communist Zangiff's in their backyard selling bootleg VHS tapes of their routines has now been reduced to a neon colored paper weight with foam comfort grips and soundproofing padded bottoms that fence walkers swing between their legs for "time" on a padded mat with their coach. Good to see some workhorses taking this back" bag of iron" from those busters.
Absolutely fucking killer. HIGHLY RECOMMEND. This lift fucked me up with some truth that my midsection was weak and my core is a bag wet bread. You feel this activate your entire core on the first rep. Its awesome. Not bullshitting you this is one of the harder exercises I have encountered in all my time in the weight room. Tough to do but man is it rewarding.
RECOMMENDED FOR: deadlift and squat improvement, core stability, building midsection stamina for big lifts, someone looking to shake up their routine and add something new to the fold. Also suggested for sadomasochists who need to get watery eyed in pain when they jerk off in most positions.
SPRINTS
Rugby butts drive me nuts. Im getting inside of that scrum and never leaving.
I don't really fucks wit cardio. I'm not fast-n-hard anti-cardio, I'm just more along the lines of it has its place and time. That being said if you are craving a sweat sesh after a hard nights drinking, a running junkie who refuses to quit cardio, or looking to turn up your heart rate then sprints are for you.
Sprints are incredibly beneficial because they directly apply to real world situations and greatly enhance your rate of survival. In your life you will NEVER have to run 6 miles in one direction for ANY REASON other than because you want to. You may at some point in your life have to: sprint from someone trying to attack/rob you, sprint away from gun fire (or toward it depending on profession), sprint to catch the train before it leaves, sprint to the aid of your family or friends when they are in distress, sprint toward your enemy when you spot him inside you sector, sprint toward the TV's at the local mega chain store on black Friday, sprint toward the goal line in football or rugby, sprint off a cliff to get maximum air when you land in that body of water. Do you see what I am getting at here? There is one reason for long distance running. Just one. But just listed of like 7 things for short and fast running. Off top.
Sprints are not a hard sell. They are vital to our survival as a species. Its primal. Its ingrained into our goddamn genetics for fucks sake. (fight-or-flight response)
RECOMMENDED FOR: People who want to live, those who want to enhance the human species, and poor people.
most of my friends life story.
WEIGHTED PULL-UPS
Further proof that lifting accessories are overrated not necessary to achieve strength.
If you cannot do a single pull-up than skip this lift and reevaluate you entire existence. Weighted pull ups are not only fun but provide just the right amount of challenge. I usually use a 25 or 35 pound weight or dumbbell. You can wrap chains around your neck if you wanna go Prison Yard style, you can hold a dumbbell between your feet, or tie the weight around your waist. so man different ways to do it. If you can do a few pull ups and you want to be able to knock out more than fart out a couple of these every list session despite what muscle group you are hitting. After like wo weeks when you go back to regular pull ups you will feel dramatically lighter. A great way to trick yourself into doing more reps than you think you can. The mind is a very weird thing. Your mind is what holds you back from making a lift 85% of the time. I truly believe that.
RECOMMEND FOR: people who wanna take photos of themselves looking hard, pull-up improvement, and sculpting/building abs,
CHAINS ON FLAT BENCH
Any excuse to use chains in the gym should be taken. They work best with flat bench IMO. I love throwing some chains on the end of the bar after a long bench session. Looking for that burnout bonus. Helps you get past a sticking point you may have in your attempt to achieve a new max. The weight gets lighter as the chains coil on the floor but as you push up the weight increase. The odd size of the weight really makes things interesting when your grinding out the last few reps. Get some!
RECOMMENDED FOR: everyone.
DUMBBELL TRICEP PRESS/EXTENSION
Is this Dana Carvey?
This is a great way to build up intimidating thickness in your arms. Ive been doing these for a long time. I can hit 110lbs. If you have any elbow issues I would either steer clear of this one or only hit a medium weight. Again, this is a lift best served heavy. You can aggravate your elbows fairly easy when moving heavy weight. I prefer seated because it takes all other muscles out of the picture. You can do this one standing if you'd like. It will activate some of your core and legs. Keep your midsection tight when lifting it while on your feet. That way you are getting a 2-for-1 deal. Don't sell yourself short. Everyone's triceps are incredibly strong and resistant. If you wanna make your arms "fill out" and connect with the other arm muscles for that thick looks then add this to your arsenal.
CLOSE GRIP DUMBBELL PRESS
I don't know whether to place this into triceps or chest. Regardless it hammers each of em. You can almost feel your sternum stretching and widening with each set. My Unholy Trinity brethren Dan (IG: @grateful_dan) and Marino (IG:thatsalotofblood) turned me on to this move. Keep the weights together then move them slow on the downward and explosive on the push up. You can go incline too if you are feeling frosty. These are a good addition to the end of workout. No necessarily a burn out but really requiring every fiber to activate. I get a better pump and burn out of this when I go heavy. I suggest you grab a weight that is about 70% of your ability. In my experience the light weight, while still tough, just didn't give me the same intensity.
RECOMMEND FOR: end of workout jam session, people who want to build that medial crease in the pecs, people not afraid to die.
"Some people would rather live in shit than be seen holding a shovel. I am not one of them. Pass me that fucking shovel."
screen shot of my mind en route to the gym.
vintage hammer curls.
It just wouldn't be a BMF blog post without a Mad Max, weightlifting, metalhead laying down the heavy metal law among his slave babes. When will this trend cycle back into fashion? The youth need weightlifting metal mentors now more than ever.
The Rockwell Barbell Squad cutting loose on the 4th of July. From left to right: Me aka Satanic Royalty, Marino aka The Muscely Medic, Hugene, Dan aka Prison Wallet or Mexican Henry Rollins, and Lawerence the heart, the black soul, the architect of Rockwell Barbell aka Lars, Big L, or Papa Pump.
If you are a serious weightlifter, powerlifter, or a beautiful woman who is stronger than all of your girlfriends in or around Chicago and looking for a new weight room applications for the 2015 season to become a Prospect at Rockwell Barbell are now being accepted. Follow us on Instagram if you are trying to sniff out the kind of mentality we are carving. RB is trying to bring some new faces into the fold. Serious inquires only. If you can deadlift a horse or overhead press a human corpse we want to talk to you! IG: rockwellbarbell
Even if you aren't looking for a new gym come follow us. If you are passing through the city and interested in getting in a few sessions shoot me an email and we will welcome you as our guest. Show this independently owned and operated blue collar gym in Chicago some love. share the profile with all your gay jock cockboy friends who need to get their ass into the proper mentality to build a cold hearted killer.
