Day three results and thoughts about going galt

I just finished day three of my 12 week program on trying to bench press 300 pounds. Today's session felt great. I noticed that yesterday, after my second workout, my soreness was completely gone. I'm not sure if that has to do with adapting to a new workout or drinking whey protein after the second workout. Day three finishes the first week, so my routine switches up next week. I'll start out with the incline and then go on to the normal bench.

If you haven't tried it, whey protein is pretty cheap. You can pick up a tub of it at Walmart for $20.

While I'm writing this thing, I'm listening to the newest black brigade debrief. I love this podcast and I encourage everyone to listen to them.

Speaking of black brigade, they really encourage going Galt. I admire people who go Galt and practice minimalism and I intend to go Galt as soon as possible. The reason for this is that I am a man who thirsts for freedom.

In today's world, it feels like the power of the individual is incredibly limited. If you want to start a business, you have to go through tons of red tape. If you want to add a structure to your property or modify something, you probably need to get permission or a permit from the county or the city. If you accidentally make a traffic violation, you could get slapped with a fine up to a few hundred dollars.

If you think you have any sort of power to influence the government..., I have no idea why you would. Your one vote doesn't change anything, you need massive amounts of other people to change something.

If you are politically incorrect or you decide to voice an unpopular opinion, you could get fired/mozillaed from your job.

Lastly, you get punished for being a productive hard working citizen. Most of your tax dollars goes to pay for other people's mistakes. Your tax dollars fund welfare, food stamps, and other government wealth transfers.

Now if you go Galt, you minimize how much the government can steal from you. Personally, each year, the government takes $8000 from me in taxes and most of that goes to wealth transfers. If I just stopped working for one year and subsisted off of the wealth I've accumulated, I would be depriving the government of $8000.

Knowing that makes me feel more powerful and important than any election I could ever go to. If I stop working for 10 years and just subsist, I deny the government of $80,000.

If 10 men like me did the same thing for 10 years, we would deny the government of $800,000. It feels like capital flight except that I'm not going anywhere.

Men realize this, if you feel angry about the direction of the country and the government, realize that you are important. Realize that you do have the power to enjoy a higher quality of life by minimizing.

Of course, I could be wrong about this. If too many men did this, maybe the government would just go ahead with QE 4.

Day two results and more

I just completed day two out of the 12 week program on my way to bench press 300 pounds. Day 2 is the same as the first day but my body was feeling worn after day 1. I was able to finish all the exercises without difficulty but the dips were starting to wear on me. I was feeling it in the middle of 17 dips.

I have one more day of the first easy week, then week 2 changes up the weight and the order.

In the last few weeks, I've been thinking about making a podcast. I listen to podcasts so much that I just want to try my hand at making one. I'm not sure all the topics I'll cover but I'll follow the normal format. Intro, personal stories, sponsors, at least one news story, and probably a video game or movie review.

So, I'll share a preview of one of the stories I'll include in the podcast. It is the story of when I was teaching my friend Cindy how to skate.

I knew this girl a few years ago when we were close. At that time, we were just talking to each other about everything and she was really interested and liked that I was a skateboarder. She always wanted to learn how to ride. Because of this, I decided to meet her at a public skatepark and show her how to ride.

Now, I knew better. I was just going to teach her how to ride, how to stop, how to turn, and how to carve. I wasn't going to do anything ridiculous like try to teach her how to trey flip or to nollie heel. I wasn't going to try to get her hurt or anything.

I gave her my board and told her to keep her front foot on the board and push off with the back foot. And she was doing pretty good. She got moving and was cruising forward. Then she started leaning to the right. And she kept leaning. Then she completely fell over and smacked her head on the ground.

It was at that point, I was thinking maybe this wasn't such a good idea.

I'll finish this story in the podcast.

Day one results and the world hasn't fallen to pieces yet

As mentioned in yesterday's post, it is my goal to increase my bench press up to 300 pounds. I've been stuck with a one rep max of 265 for a few years and I want to break that limit. I just started a 12 week program today.

The first week is easy. The maximum weight for standard bench press is 225 and the maximum weight for the incline bench press is 135. Bar dips were pretty easy. As for the dumbbell flies, it is unclear if the weight listed is total or per hand. If I don't get good results, I'll have to do this 12 weeks over again with the heavier weight for dumbbell flies.

I had no trouble completing the exercises. I just felt a little tired after the first few sets.  I did the following.

Standard bench. 225 at 5 reps. 205 at 4 reps. 185 at 5 reps.
Incline bench. 135 at 9 reps. 115 at 8 reps.
Bar dips. 13 reps. 7 reps.
Dumbbell flys. 60 total at 5 reps. 45 total at 6 reps. 30 total at 10 reps.

The schedule doesn't specify how many times you workout per week so I will be doing 3 per week for the next 12 weeks.

I'd feel a little lazy just posting about the progress of my workouts, so each time I record my progress, I'll also make a post about something else.

With the beginning of the new year, I'd come the the realization that I had been waiting to see if the world would end for the past 15 years. It all started in the months leading up to January 1st 2000. People were panicking about a computer glitch that would reset everything to the year 1900. I have a little laugh every time  I see the Y2K episode of Family Guy. You know that scene where at the stroke of midnight, a plane crashes, a train derails, a building falls over and then Peter says "Holy Crap. Did anyone else feel that?"

The world didn't end on January 1st and we were in the clear. At least until September of the following year. They say everyone remembers where they were when the twin towers collapsed. The days and weeks following that felt very uncertain. Would the economy fall over? Would there be more attacks? Would another world war start?

For the next few years, I remember hearing about a few natural disasters here and there but then in 2008, our country suffered the economic meltdown and the popping of the housing bubble. I remember being in economics class when the professor let us know the news. While it didn't affect me personally, a considerable amount of people lost a significant amount of their net worth and people had to delay retirements.

While talking to a lady at my chruch, she told me she lost $70,000 or $80,000 as a result of the incident.

Compared to the housing bubble, the next incident is laughable. I guess most people would have forgot about it but there was a christian talk show host that predicted the rapture would happen sometime in 2011. On the day it was supposed to happen, I was eating with a friend in Subway and I saw this one guy walk out of the restaurant with this head pointed to the sky and his hands lifted in the air as if he was expecting to be lifted off to heaven. I do also remember a lot of people committed rapture bombs that day.

They dropped clothes on the ground to make it look like people magically disappeared because of the rapture.

Lastly, the most recent incident where the world was supposed to end was December 21 2012. Actually scratch that. The Ebola outbreak earlier this year was the most recent thing I can recall.


So far, I'm very grateful that the world hasn't fallen to pieces yet. However, because of the last 15 years, I always have the feeling that it could come crashing down at any moment. It is for that reason that I avoid debt, long term obligations, and risky investments. The world is already uncertain enough. I don't need any more things to worry about that I do today.

Trying to push through plateaus while bench pressing

I've been lifting weights for the last 13 years. I still remember starting out as a skinny little kid in the weight room only able to bench 135. For some reason, it was a big priority for me to build muscle and get into good shape.

I guess, at the time, it was so I could build confidence in myself and not feel inferior to the kids around me. Man, I remember how awful school was.

At the time, I was also watching a lot of Dragonball Z. So to be funny, I tell my friends I started lifting weights because of it.

For anyone that lifts weight regularly, the absolute worst feeling is getting to the point where you get stuck. Where you hit a plateau. It is that point where you stop seeing progress and no matter what you do, you cannot increase the amount of reps you do or the amount of weight you can lift.

Today, my one rep max on the bench press is somewhere between 260 and 270. The problem is that my one rep max in 2011 was also somewhere between 260 and 270. A lot of this is my fault. When I started working as an accountant, I started working 60 hours per week and cut back on the intensity and frequency of my workouts. This is pretty disheartening considering all my workout equipment is in my house.

Back in 2010, I remember how proud I felt when I finally benched 250 for the first time. My next goal after that was to increase my max to 300.

At a max rep of 260 to 270, I am relatively close to my goal. I just have to stack another 30 to 40 pounds on top of my best. So, earlier today, I did a quick Google search.

How to bench press 300 pounds.

This link from Bodybuilding.com was the first thing that came up.

He details a 12 week program of the exercises to do in order to finally max out at 305 on week 12. After looking at the comments section, I saw a lot of positive feed back and decided I should make a go at it. In the next 12 weeks, I'll document my progress here by posting the results and how well I was able to stick to the program.

If I am successful with this goal, then this post will be one piece of evidence that can suggest that personal trainers can be replaced with Google searches and buying your own workout equipment.

One question every man has to know how to answer

One question every man has to how how to answer is as follows.

What do you want most out of life?

Being able to answer this questions is important for several reasons. Theoretically, what you want most out of life is what you believe will give you the most happiness. If you know what that thing is, you can devise a plan to start working towards it and the sooner you can answer this question, the better. For example, if a kid knew he wanted to become an engineer from the age of 16, he would have several years to research the requirements, what college to go to, what to major in, what sort of companies he would want to apply to etc.

This gives him the ability to streamline the process and not waste very much time. If he didn't think about what sort of profession he wanted to pursue, he would most likely waste time on things unproductive to a greater goal or worse, pursue things that would hinder him.

For example, let's say that Bill doesn't know what to pursue as a career and just blindly goes to college to major in French without a real passion for it. After 3 years in, he realizes that a major in French doesn't have the best job prospects. He then decides to switch his major to electric engineering. He effectively wasted at least one or semesters worth of French classes that most likely won't be needed for the engineering degree. In this case this is a loss, but the loss could have been worse if Bill graduated with a degree in French, didn't find a good job, and then decided to go back to college for engineering.

Since your life is limited, it is very important to be as efficient with life as possible. Even if what you decide to pursue doesn't work out, it is important to be working towards something or accumulating wealth and resources. The reason for this is that you can then try again and figure out what you do want in life.

Let's say that after a few years working as an engineer, Bill absolutely hates it. Bill is 35, has no debt, and has saved up a lot of cash from working as an engineer. At this point, he has the option to figure out what else he would like to do with life. Maybe he would be happier as a IT specialist or a welder. With all the money Bill saved up, he has the option to quit being an engineer and chose a different career because he has money to pay his ...... living expenses.

Since everyone has living expenses to pay, it is important to accumulate wealth and resources even when you do not know what it is you want most out of life. Having wealth and resources will make it easier for you to obtain what you want the most because you won't have to worry about having to support yourself as much.

Now if your ultimate life goal is to retire and minimize the amount of work you have to do, this is a decision you have to make as soon as possible. To grow the most amount of wealth, you have to streamline your expenses to the bare minimum and use most of the excess cash to invest. Since investments are risky and not guaranteed, it would behoove any man to spend as much time researching and studying different investments and how to invest.

I'd invite anyone who reads this post to ask as many people the important question.
What do you want most out of life?

Unfortunately, it saddens me to report that most of my peers have no idea how to answer this question.

Increase your emergency fund past 6 months

Last year, I wrote this post on how to structure your finances. This is basic information taught by financial professionals. One of the steps is to have somewhere from 3 to 6 months of your paycheck in liquid cash (checking or savings) in case of an emergency such as loss of job, medical expenses, home repairs, or car maintenance. However, I feel this recommendation is a little bit dated.

This information probably doesn't take into account the current state of our economy. I remember the financial meltdown of 2008. I also remember my job search at the end of 2012. It took 7 months and 16 interviews to make it to the next job in May 2013.

It is for this reason I would encourage everyone to keep more than 6 months of paychecks in checking or savings accounts. I'd recommend holding on to at least a year to two years of your living expenses in checking or savings.

There are advantages and disadvantages to doing this. In doing this, you have extra security in the case finding a new source of income takes longer than 6 months. Also, in the case of emergencies, you have cash to pay for unexpected expenses and don't have to borrow money. Since you don't have to borrow money, you don't need to pay interest.

The disadvantages include the following. In the case of losing a job, you might get a little lazy in finding a new job because you have money you can live off of. The other major disadvantage is that in keeping money liquid, that money probably isn't being invested and making a return.

Decide how much risk you are willing to bear. You can then decide how much emergency fund you want to have.

How secure is FDIC?

Zero Hedge is probably the only place I trust to get news. The reason for this is that Zero Hedge offers tons of data, charts, and information. It also covers a lot of topics not really touched by the mainstream media. After all the MSM only covers the same eight things over and over.

A few nights ago, I came across an article on Zero Hedge that was completely disturbing. To sum it up, new legislation is being passed to cover financial derivatives under FDIC. The financial derivatives would take precedence before bank deposits.

When I was younger, I had the question of what would happen if a bank failed today. What would happen to the deposit of a customer. People told me that if the bank were to fail, the government has an insurance program that would reimburse the customer up to $250,000. At the time, I was satisfied with the answer.

I was satisfied with the answer until I thought of the following question. What would happen if the FDIC were to fail?

If the FDIC were to fail, then the holder of the bank deposit would be out of luck. So, how much money is in the FDIC?

A quick Google search found me the answer also at Zero Hedge. As of March 19 2013, the FDIC has only $25 billion in the program. $25 billion may seem like a lot, but this amount is meant to insure $9.3 trillion in bank deposits. FDIC accounts for not even 1 percent of the total amount of bank deposits.

With recent legislation, FDIC will have to guarantee financial derivatives as well. Today, there are more than $300 trillion worth of derivatives.

If you feel the need, take whatever measures you can to mitigate your risk.