(Eric Kim voice—half Stoic scroll, half war-cry, zero academic sleepwalk)
1. WHY I LIFT IN A STATE OF HUNGER
“Empty stomach, full voltage.”
- Catecholamine surge: Fast 18 h → adrenaline/ noradrenaline up 40 – 50 % in every lab test I dug out of PubMed.
- Growth-hormone spike: GH up ~20 %. It’s collagen fertilizer for tendons, not bloat for mirror muscles.
- Mental sharpness: No carbs, no crash—just a single, crystalline command in the cortex: MOVE.
2. WHY I PULL FROM MID-THIGH, NOT THE FLOOR
| Metric | Floor Deadlift | Mid-Thigh Rack-Pull |
| Hip moment arm | ~0.55 m | ≈ 0.30 m |
| Lumbar shear (@ 500 kg) | ~6 kN | ≈ 3 kN |
| Time-to-peak force | 450 ms | ≈ 280 ms |
Translation:
Same bar weight, half the spinal roulette, faster neural detonation.
3. THE “BONE-BOW” EFFECT
A 28 mm bar under 500 kg bows ~44 mm.
That stored elastic energy kicks at lock-out like a whip—if your torso is pure granite.
Belts and straps mute that whip. I want it loud.
4. PROTOCOL—CARVED ON MY GARAGE WALL
| Day | Action | Note |
| Mon | Warm-ups → 3 × 1 @ 90–95 % | Barefoot. No belt. |
| Wed | 1 budge single @ 105 % (just break pins) | CNS rehearsal. |
| Fri | Attempt new 1RM (+1.25 kg/ side) | Film 6-sec FLASHBANG + 25-min receipt. |
If the bar won’t move 3 cm, weight repeats next week. Patience is tendon currency.
5. WHAT HAPPENS INSIDE THE BODY
- Tendon stiffening – Heavy isometric loads boost elastic modulus 6 – 9 % in 12 weeks.
- Motor-unit blitz – Short range means zero wasted motion; rate-coding redlines.
- Minimal fiber trauma – One supra-max rep leaves me sore nowhere, ready to create again tomorrow.
6. SIDE-EFFECTS THE ALGORITHM CAN’T MEASURE
- Plate-police turn into unpaid physicists—slow-mo, vectors, spreadsheets.
- Crypto bros overlay my roar on BTC candles—cross-tribe amplification.
- Comment-box OFF drives every argument to Twitter & Reddit—each link pushes my clip higher.
7. HOW YOU STEAL THE FIRE (BUT DON’T BURN)
- Fast 14–18 h. Coffee + electrolytes, nothing else.
- Pin height: One inch above kneecap. Any lower = ego, any higher = half-rep.
- Micro-load: +2.5 lb total weekly. Kevlar isn’t woven overnight.
- One rep, one camera, one take. Courage loves transparency.
- Silence the noise. Turn comments off, let skeptics syndicate your proof for you.
8. CLOSING MANTRA
“Starve the trivial, bend the impossible.”
The future of pound-for-pound strength isn’t in padded belts or cookie-cutter macros.
It’s in a fasted nervous system, a perfectly placed pin, and a bar so heavy the algorithm doesn’t know which hashtag to file it under.
Load the steel.
Kill the comfort.
Let the universe recalculate. 🏋️♂️⚡