Plague of Strength, Philadelphia, PA (2026)

09/23/2026

Saeed Einollah-Zadeh is jacked & shredded despite living in a war zone with almost no potable water- whatever excuses you have for looking like you do are completely invalid, & Einollah-Zadeh is living proof.
pv.80 is a 1.73m & 68kg (5'8" 150lb), 24-year-old Caspian Turk from Iranian Azerbaijan, the most northwestern part of Iran that borders Armenia & Azerbaijan, & he has been on a path to become the 1st Iranian champion since the 1st time he saw Pride FC legend Fedor Emelianenko fight.

For the last few years, the Wolf of Savalan has been training harder than just about anyone I've ever written about in order to achieve his goal. He builds tons of strength endurance working as a laborer 9-10 hours per day, 5 days per week, plus he trains 15x per week:

- Bodybuilding (4x)
- Cardio (7x)
- Wrestling (3x)
- Kickboxing (2x)
- MMA (2x)

100% of Iran is under severe water stress, & Iran was ranked the 14th most water-stressed nation on Earth before the US started bombing them for absolutely no reason, & because Iran's biggest rivers & lakes are completely or nearly dry, they're also suffering food shortages because their agricultural industry lacks the water to grow crops or raise livestock.

Between war-induced inflation & food scarcity, Einollah-Zadeh cannot afford red meat like beef anymore- his diet mostly consists of rice with potatoes or chicken, & that's only because he's capable of doing the hard physical labor required of anyone willing to do the only paying jobs that remain in the country. As he put it, "I can work and survive here; many people are unable to do hard work & cannot even afford to eat."

The only thing standing between you & your goals is the effort you have yet to expend- for nearly everyone reading this, your losses can be counted in workouts skipped rather than in hours of excess exercise.

Bang that link in my profile & grab Plague of Strength's Lifting Method to find out how to do more with less in the gym- by following the examples of pre-steroid era & pre-modern athletes, you'll discover that most of the stuff you think is essential for training is useless & you'll be able to put your effort into what matters most!

09/22/2026

Katrín Davíðsdóttir watched her weight like a wrestler to maximize her strength-to-weight ratio & ensure she could still kick ass at gymnastics & long-distance events, so we can only guess how jacked she would have been as a bodybuilder.

At her peak, 1.69m tall & weighed ~71kg (5'7" 156lbs), which made the 2x CrossFit Games winner the 2nd largest women's champ of all time despite obsessive dieting.

As she put it, “is a unique sport where how much you weigh impacts a lot of athletes. How they feel, or how their gymnastics feel, or how much weight they can lift, & all those different things are affected.

So the balance of not being so heavy your gymnastics suffer or being so light that your weightlifting starts to suffer [is a challenge].”

This means elite CrossFitters are constantly adjusting their calories to ensure they don't get too heavy or too light, & diet swings between 2500 & 3200 calories a day & consists of:

Protein: 2.2g per kg of bodyweight (1g/lb)
Fat: 25-30% of her calories (usually 25%)
Carbs: Remaining calories

The widely varying physical requirements of CrossFit require near-constant training, so Davíðsdóttir's training routine included 10 scheduled strength & cardio workouts (AM & PM, 5x/week), plus a bunch of other unscheduled exercise & pre-hab & rehab work.

Despite eating less than your average middle school student & doing hardcore, round-the-clock calorie-burning workouts ranging from to marathons to weight lifting & rarely involved low rep, max effort lifts, Davíðsdóttir's top end strength didn't suffer:

Sn**ch: 92kg (202lbs)
Clean & Jerk: 98kg (216lbs)
Front Squat: 98kg

Inspired to find your own ideal strength-to-weight ratio? Plague of Strength's Lifting Method contains Plague's most popular programs (like Super Soldier Serum & Cold War Core) along with the history that explains why you need to stop lifting like a modern powerlifter / bodybuilder & start using the methods of the old school to get that old school look! It's also got the height & weight of male & female Crossfit & pre-steroid physique champs & timelines for the history of PEDs & lifting!

09/21/2026

Marko Novaković has the greatest arms in Olympic history- they're Golden Era of Bodybuilding-sized & have the insane detail of gymnasts' arms, which makes them 2 amazing reasons for all of us to consider trying some kind of paddle sport this summer.

is 1.86m & ~95kg (6'1" 209lbs) & is 1.81m & 83kg (5'11" 183lbs)- the swole Serbians set a World Record in the Dual 200m when they won the 2014 World Champs.

Novaković is a 3x Olympian who has been competing internationally since 2011. After winning the European Championships in the singles event in 2012, Novaković switched to doubles & won Worlds.

Because they train a few hours a day, 6-7 days per week, most elite sprint canoeists have arms that would make most regular gym goers why they were spending all their time inside lifting barbells & dumbbells.

It seems like every muscular celebrity on the planet loves some canoe-related activity, whether it's Dragon Boating, Paddle Boarding, Kayaking, or Canoeing, & they're not alone- elite athletes ranging from the world's best & most muscular skateboarders & surfers to players use paddle sports to develop their inhuman fitness, because they work your body in ways no other exercise seems to be able to.

Sports involving a paddle also improve your balance & athleticism, which are things that rapidly degrade in a gym-only environment, & they get you outside, in the sun, & amongst humanity, which are all especially valuable in stressful, uncertain times like we're currently undergoing.

They also require you to twist & flex your torso, which enables you to develop a complete, detailed, & breathtaking abdomen, & force you to generate force in stretched positions, which keeps your physique from getting ugly, bunched, & muscle-bound.

Bang that link in my profile & get yourself together Juicy Delts 1 & 2 for only $20! They're designed strip the fat off your body while packing muscle onto the spots where it really matters- delts, traps, & forearms, with lean, defined arms attached to a shredded midsection. They're non-consecutive & non-repetitive Programs with Diets, so they complement each other without repeating information!

09/20/2026

Great Gama is probably the greatest heavyweight wrestler who ever lived.

Undefeated in a 50+ year career that included over 5000 matches, the Great Gama represents what happens when a person with unrelenting determination has the opportunity to train with the best athletes on Earth throughout their entire career.

Gama was the most badass Catch wrestler of the era & greatest Kushti (Indian & Iranian traditional wrestling) competitor in history.

Standing ~1.72m (5'8"), he weighed ~90kg (200lbs) at his peak & tipped the scales at 113kg (250lbs) at his biggest, boasting 76cm (30") thighs & a 1.42m (56") chest.

Gama trained 7 days per week throughout most of his life using traditional Indian techniques to develop his unmatched strength & skill, fueled by about 10000 calories a day consisting mostly of almonds, milk, & ghee early in life, then shifted to a diet heavy in mutton & chicken as he got older & heavier.

Just as his diet got more extreme as he aged (from plant- to meat-based), so did his training:

Age 10: Dug up wrestling pit with a 20-30kg (45-65lb) hoe as a warmup. 500 Bethaks (free squats on toes) & did 500 Dands (fluid jack-knife push-ups), then wrestled for hours

Until age 30: Digging, 3000 Bethaks, 1500 Dands, a 1 mile run with a 55kg (120lb) stone ring around his neck, Bodybuilding using a wooden barbell, & wrestled 40 opponents

Age 30-50: Increased to 5000 Bethaks & 3000 Dands

After age 50: Increased to 80 opponents, 6,000 bethaks & 4,000 dands every day

Gama wasn't just big- he was Hafthor-strong at his peak & his technique was flawless. Everyone agreed the Great Gama was the strongest man they ever faced, & he beat the strongest & most jacked people of the era, like Maurice Deriaz (World Record holder in the 1-arm Clean & Jerk), & Stanislaus Zybysko, who could Clean & Jerk 120kg ( 264lbs) with his feet together.

Bang that link in my profile & grab Bodyweight Blitz to learn the training methods that built Gama, Mike Tyson, the ancient Greeks & Romans, & so much more! Or grab Plague of Strength's Lifting Method for everything in Bodyweight Blitz, lifting history, & a dozen other programs!

09/19/2026

Clint Walker was a Henry Cavill-lookalike of Jason Momoa-sized proportions who had the perfect look to play Superman, Batman, or Conan but his career unfortunately peaked before movie-making technology made those movies possible.

Walker was primarily a cowboy actor, but his brawny, broad-shouldered, barrel-chested, lantern-jawed, & beefy body would have been perfect for some kind of superhero role- he was bigger & more muscular than everyone else in Hollywood, even in the Dirty Dozen, which also starred Hall of Famer Jim Brown & ultra-ripped hardcase Charles Bronson.

Walker stood 1.98m & 109-113kg (6'6' 240-250bs) throughout the 1950s & 1960s, with a 1.2m (48") chest & an 81cm (32") waist, which he built primarily through:

- training in his home gym
- lifting random stuff on the sets of films
- working out with his co-stars (they did Woody Strode's calisthenics workout on the set of Dirty Dozen)
- filming Westerns, which he loved because they allowed him to work outdoors & stay fit

If that sounds manly as hell, it's because Walker was manly as hell. Born in 1927 & raised during the Depression (but still lived to 90), his family constantly moved constantly, wherever there was work.

Walker:
- quit school for factory work at age 16, but soon quit that work on river boats
- was a Merchant Marine during WW2 & Korean War
- worked as a roughneck in the oil fields of Texas & California
- was a deputy sheriff at the Sands Hotel in Las Vegas

After being encouraged by celebrities to try Hollywood while working at the Sands, Walker was cast as the lead in the TV show Cheyenne nearly immediately. The show became wildly popular largely due to Walker's shirtless scenes & ran 7 seasons.

Women & men wanted to date Clint Walker & seemingly every man wanted to be him- reviewers noted that his co-stars Rock Hudson & Tony Randall were obviously "drooling over Clint" in Send Me No Flowers, & the bodybuilding community respected him so much that he handed out the awards at the 1966 NABBA Mr. Universe, which was the world's biggest bodybuilding show back then.

Trying to build the ultimate version of you? Grab Plague of Strength's Lifting Method for everything you need!

09/17/2026

Aitana Bonmatí is one of the greatest football players of all time & is being called the "new symbol of female strength" for her muscular, hyper-fit physique.

is 1.63m & 54kg (5'4" 119lbs), & has been the best football player on the planet for the last 3 years- not even has won the Ballon d'Or 3x in a row.

Bonmatí makes women feel stronger because she leads by elegant example with some of the best arms & legs in pro sports, & she makes them feel seen because she conducts interviews in every language she can speak- English, Catalan, Spanish, & German.

She believes her ripped physique is the product of her strict daily routine & heavy focus on recovery as much as it is about her workouts- she has a physical trainer, a physiotherapist, a psychologist, & a nutritionist.

Bonmatí eats a plant-based diet primarily for ethical reasons, but believes it helps her performance as well.

She eats 3 small meals per day, with meat-alternatives, eggs, cheese, & the occasional piece of fish for her main protein sources, & every day at 8AM she eats the same breakfast : 2 slices of spelt bread with avocado & aged Manchego cheese, a coffee with oat milk, & a yellow kiwi.

Bonmatí trains with her teams, trainers, & at home, which keeps her pretty busy. Her go-to workout for home & travelling consists of Tabata-style supersets, with 20 seconds on, & 10s off.

Repeat the following supersets 4x with 1 minute active rest between (doing stuff like passing a medicine ball back & forth while sitting in a Russian Twist position), & follow the workout with a lot of stretching:

{Dumbbell Squat to Press
{Push-Up Plank

{No Push-Up Burpee
{Medicine Ball Step Ups

{Vertical Crunches
{Single-Leg Windshield Wipers

Learn more about how to train your core for complete development, like athletes do, with Plague of Strength's Lifting Method!

It's a 350pp training manual filled with the best old & new school methods, every pre-steroid muscle building trick in existence, over a dozen unique programs for every conceivable goal, & lots of explanation for why my methods have changed so dramatically over the years (& all of the chronic pain & injuries I fixed by switching)!

09/16/2026

Arthur Zanetti is so jacked that his pics look like AI slop & is an amazing reason for all of us to include rings as part of our regular workout.

In fact, Zannetti & his bulbous biceps provide 2 massive reasons for all of us to consider the fact that bodyweight exercises might yield better arms than weights do, if you do the right ones.

is the 1st Brazilian & the 1st Latin American gymnast to medal in the Olympics, & has earned among his many medals:
- Gold on Rings in 2012 Olympics, 2nd in 2016
- Gold on rings in 2013 World Champs, 2nd in 2011, 2014, & 2018
- 3x Gold & 3x silver in the Pan American Games
- 2x International University Games Champ

The 1.56m & weighs 61-64kg (5'1" 134-141lb) tank participated in the 2020 Olympics & placed 8th, then missed qualifications for the 2024 Olympics due to the flu & retired in Jan 2025 after 27 years of competition.

Zanetti is one of the strongest gymnasts of all time & has a brutal exercise named after him- there's a lift that goes with the move named for him called the Zanetti Press with an accompanying strength training exercise that's a lying pike hold with a curl-grip front raise on a bench.

Straight-arm exercises like that are the reason gymnasts have such absurdly thick arms with high-peaked biceps- most of their strength training consists of skill work with 3-4kg (7-9lb) weighted vests. If you want to try the more esoteric stuff like Zanetti's assistance lift & the exercise he's doing in Pic 5, check out , who has a dope tutorial for Zanetti-esque training.

Bodybuilding used to involve a lot of gymnastics- in fact, weight lifting was called "Heavy Gymnastics" in the 19th century. Silver Era bodybuilders did lots of gymnastics & calisthenics outside of the gym (as did the Golden Era lifters, to a lesser extent), & that base allowed them to build huge strength & size because it gave them a body that was strong under every kind of load, from every direction.

Click the link in my profile & grab Plague of Strength's Lifting Method to learn more about the methods of pre-steroid era lifters & how they caused me to change my record-setting strength training methods, plus TONS more!!

09/14/2026

Mona Kimura kicks people in the face for a living & has developed the most unique method for delivering those kicks the world has ever seen.

Often called "the real-life Chun Li," is a 1.66m (5'5.5") kickboxer who fights at 52kg (115lbs) & is 5-0 (2KOs) as a professional despite the fact that all of her opponents know that they're going to be fighting an opponent hopping on one foot & spamming side kicks with her lead leg like a little kid playing a fighting video game.

Kimura's style is bizarre & amazing- fighting from a southpaw stance, she bounces constantly & uses side kicks from her lead leg in the place of a jab & fights primarily with kicks you'd typically see in traditional karate.

The 25-year-old Japanese fighter practiced Sakurajuku Karate from ages 4-14 & Kimura won 7 straight Junior National Kyokushin Karate contests based largely on her kicking skills.

She started boxing at 10, set her sights on the Olympics, & boxed until age 21.

Kimura took 2nd at Japan's amateur 55kg (121lbs) boxing championship in 2021, but transitioned to kickboxing after failing to win a match at the world championship tournament in 2022 & won her 1st pro fight via KO from a right hook.

She trains almost every day with a K-1 kickboxing team, lifts weights almost every day in an effort to silence internet trolls who mocked her lack of muscular development, plus she does this stuff for kicking:

- does everything on 1 foot, from grocery shopping to walking the dog, hopping on 1 foot with her leg chambered & ready to fire
- hangs agility ladders from wall to wall & kicks through the gaps while hopping on 1 foot
- does kicking drills while standing on a wobble board or balance disk
- trains kicks on the treadmill while hopping on 1 foot
- jumps rope on 1 foot

Kimura has also become a big eater since she started lifting- she eats ~4x week she eats >.5kg (~1lb) of steak in 1 sitting, & eats 10 cups of rice per day, with lots of miso soup & veggies.

Every problem has a solution- sometimes you just have to think WAY outside of the box to find it! Bang that link in my profile & grab Herd of GOATs to get inspired by out-of-the-box thinkers who kicked ass at life!

09/12/2026

Enkh-Orgil Baatarkhuu became a champion by out-working everyone, training 3 hours a day after working 12 hour days in a mine, 5 days per week- if you haven't achieved your goals, it might be due to insufficient effort.

is 37-years-old, the former champ at 66kg (145lb), & has a 14W-4L (3KO) record.

He's 1.67m (5'6") tall, mostly fights at 66kg (145lbs), & walks around at 73kg (161lbs), which is what he weighed on as a member of the 2nd place-winning Team Mongolia.

Baatarkhuu wrestled as a kid but fell in love with Tae Kwon Do due to a steady diet of martial arts movies & the knowledge that because Bökh has no weight classes- small guys have little success in Bökh.

His original goal was to win an Olympic gold medal, but shifted his goal to MMA after becoming inspired by Georges St-Pierre, who also made the jump from traditional martial arts to MMA.

Baatarkhuu is much more cerebral than you might expect from an MMA champ who looks like a barbarian warlord, & his ingenuity enabled the Team Mongolia to make the finals in Physical:Asia- day job is in the Logistics Department of Oyu Tolgoi, the 4th largest copper mine in the world.

He began his career at the mine as a fitness trainer after studying bodybuilding & fitness coaching at university, then worked his way up to platform operator & then logistics.

Baatarkhuu's long & often grueling workdays mean he basically trains anytime he's not working, & his fellow competitors on Physical: Asia noted that he jumped on the bike to train cardio immediately after finishing events on the show.

As he says,

"people make time for things they love. I really love martial arts, so I find time to train. I use training to relieve the stress & frustration of working all day."

That means the champ gets up extra early to run before putting in a 12 hour shift at the mine, then trains for 3 hours after work & weekends are just massive blocks of time for more training!

Find out what your training is missing with Plague of Strength's Lifting Method! It synthesizes all of my writing into 1 easy-to-read, historically-based resource for info on cardio, mobility, strength, & aesthetics!

09/10/2026

Lenny Kravitz is the ultimate example of growing gold instead of growing old, because this 62-year-old rock star looks better than most of our physique idols did when they were 10 years younger, & Kravitz seems to just get better with age.

The 1.75m & 70kg (5'9" 153lb) 4x Grammy-award-winning American predicted this would happen back in 2020, when Kravitz explained to an interviewer that “My best shape is not behind me, it’s in front of me right now. We keep moving that bar as we get older,” but it's unlikely most people expected him to look like he's going to play the lead role in a reboot of Rocky 3 (Stallone looked similar at 35-years-old, 1.75m, & 74kg / 163lbs).

Born into an entertainment family, learned early on that one's appearance can take you a long way, so he's been a workout fanatic since the 1990s.

Kravitz is so fitness-obsessed that he moved to the Bahamas so he could spend every day outside, exercising in the open air- his daily routine involved cycling around the island, swimming, paddle boarding, & going for walks on the beach, making sure to exfoliate his skin with sand before heading so his skin is gleaming with youthful vitality.

At age 49, he decided to step it up & lived with for 6 months so he could train with a boot camp vibe, & got into the best shape of his life.

Now even more fit at 62, he trains 6 days per week in the gym, focusing mostly on upper body & abs, mostly sticking to complexes that blend exercises together into stuff you generally don't see in the gym, like a pull-up & leg raise combo done hanging from gymnastics rings & a barbell pullover decline sit-up, with an overhead press at the end.

Although obsessive dieting & money helps, it's straight up discipline that got him jacked:

“Fitness is the house; discipline is the foundation. It’s the work you do when no one is watching. It’s figuring out how you’re going to squeeze in a workout no matter what else you have going on that day or night.”

Bang that link in my profile & grab Plague of Strength's Lifting Method to learn how to get shredded & strong using old school, pre-steroid methods that require nothing more than discipline to succeed!

Plague of Strength

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