ERIC KIM ₿

Seeking innovation in the human body:

1. Farmers walk

At the gym, find a trap bar, and load it up with weights. Lift up the weight, and just walk across the gym barefoot to a certain distance. If you want stronger grip, use some weightlifting chalk on your hands and apply it to the bar.

The benefits of this exercise include increasing your grip strength, getting your adrenaline and hype up, building your traps, trapezius muscles, your bicep, abs and back, and your legs. I enjoy this exercise because it is both dynamic and interesting.

Why do it barefoot? Maximal connection with the ground, no slippage, better leverage. If Hafþór could deadlift 501 kg barefoot, so can you.

2. Squat hold

And you thought I’ve been wondering to myself, why is it that we feel the need to squat all the way down, ass to grass, or even parallel, break parallel, a little bit above parallel, etc.?

At what point, thinking about functional fitness, would we have to hold a very heavy weight in our shoulders, squat down half way, and then stand up? It makes no sense.

What makes sense to me instead is thinking Milo of Croton, holding a 1000 pound or 2000 pound oxen on your shoulder, and walking around. Thus also my “squat walk” concept.

to simplify matters even further, why even walk? Why not just push the weight off the rack a little bit, pushing with your legs and shoulders, and your back, and then holding the weight a little bit, and then putting it down?

3. Rack pull

The future is photography.

Time for us to go HAM:

The source of all of our wisdom, strength and power is from our bodies and in our bodies. Therefore, building the ultimate body will yield you in building the ultimate mind, the ultimate soul, the ultimate thoughts, the ultimate spirit.

Deify your body

Your body is a temple, as our best friend Jesus says. Why don’t we respect it?

When have we been taught that our body is a vice?

Some theories;

First of all, the fallacious view of the immortal soul, which can exist without a body. The reason why this is such a dangerous thought is that rather than focusing on our current life, we plan for some sort of fantasy after life.

You’re the one:

Glorify your own body!

Pride in your own body — the new ultimate virtue?

“My body is perfect!”— has anyone ever said this?

I believe it for myself. I believe that my body is the most beautiful, the most supreme, the most perfect thing. My body is the most beautiful male body that I’ve personally seen.

Isn’t this supposed to be the goal of bodybuilding, to craft and build the perfect and ideal body for yourself?

Also, to be able to be self reliant on your own body which means that you judge your own body based on your own self and metrics, without needing the approval of others.

This is how bodybuilders are so fragile, because they rely on the judging and the metrics of a panel of random judges to write their physiques. And the hilarity is that these judges themselves don’t even work out. Isn’t this bizarre?

What is the best life? A life of adventure, challenge, risk, conquest, conquering, self testing, self expansion.

How do you want to look back at your life on your deathbed?

Probably one of the most interesting thought processes that I’ve gleaned from Jeff Bezos is the notion of the “regret minimization framework“. That when you’re looking back at your life, when you’re on your deathbed, at either 80 or 90 years old, how would you look back at your life?

Also, as Jeff Bezos said in his invent and wander book // book notes, typically a lot of our regrets in life are actually regrets of acts of omission, we regret what we did not do, we regret what we did not attempt, etc.

For example, typically things we regret is not having the courage to muster to talk to that one girl, the courage not to attempt to start that one business, or the regret of not speaking up for yourself or others when you witness an injustice.

For us weightlifters, I think the biggest regret we have is when we want to attempt to lift a certain weight, attempt a new personal record, for for some reason we checking out, and we only go halfway. I think in life, the only thing we should regret is our cowardice. In life, you must give it your all.

Some morning philosophy; what does it mean to become stronger?

The first thought is waking up in the morning and feeling your muscles bigger and fuller, expanding. For example, this morning after I woke up and put on my medium size T-shirt, I could feel my wings expanding. I could feel new muscles that I didn’t feel before.

The feeling that your T-shirt is getting tighter, and your T-shirt armpit area is starting to get too tight, because your muscles are getting bigger.

Also, sleep. You’re sleeping earlier, deeper, longer, and also waking up later. After my 640 pound rack pull, feeling my hips sore. This is a good sign.

Also, increased appetite for more flesh. Becoming more carnivorous. Carne means flesh.

Also, stronger sexual libido. Also, being more conservative with your semen. No need for porn. No “energy suicide”. No needing to rub it out.

What does it mean to see like an artist? It means to see the world as more beautiful, more full, more mysterious, more enigmatic.

See and think abstract

Focus on the details, obscuring things. To make your photos more mysterious and interesting, obscure more of the frame, obscure the face of your subject, etc.

Imprecise is good

Why is it that we are always seeking for precision in our photography in our artwork? This shouldn’t be the goal. Precision is boring. Precision is scientific, and lacks obscurity and fuzzy edges. True art has no fine lines, no hard edges, no clear definitions.

Randomness

Give randomness a chance. What does that mean? With any real artistic discoveries, or even scientific ones, I do not believe in 100% precision. For example, the invention of the microwave oven was an accident, x-rays were discovered via an accident, scotch tape, etc.

Kill your masters

With art, you must cut the umbilical cord, you must kill your masters metaphorically. There must be a certain point which you see yourself as above your master. For example, do you see yourself as superior to Henri Cartier-Bresson, to see yourself as superior to Picasso, etc.

One of the ways to create great images is that you need to inject some randomness into your shooting.