Goldberg,
Still haven’t opened your mind I see.
You love powerlifting, I understand that. Just because your world revolves around powerlifting does that mean other types of training bear no fruit.
Would you call running the Navy Seal Obstacle course “gimmicky”? That workout makes “no sense whatsoever”. You could have walked the same distance as that foolsih obstacle course, and look at the energy you would have saved! And while the course might make you sore, it really does nothing to increase your one rep max. Therefore, it must be bad and a waste of time, right?
The great Olympic Gold medal Wrestler, Dan Gable used to end his workouts by cutting a deck of cards and doing as many push-ups as numbers on the card. Aces were 11. All face cards equalled 10. Gimmicky? Perhaps. Effective? Absolutely!
You need to seriously consider the many others on this site that train with weights for either body building purposes or something called “conditioning”. They couldn’t care less how much they can one rep in the squat. In fact, I would guess that there are far more on this forum who do not competitvely powerlift! Think you are helping them out with your comments?
Lets take a closer look at one rep max vs endurance strength:
A 190lb. man who can squat 200lbs for 50 consecutive repititions has no less an achievement than another man of the same weight squatting 400lbs for one repetition. In fact, it could be argued that the man who can squat 200lbs. for 50 consecutive reps has a greater accomplishemt, as he has moved 10,000 pounds in that one enormous set! Where as, the second man only moved 400lbs. once.
I train on and off with a former powerlifting champion. He was able to deadlift something on the order of 650lbs at a body weight of 181lbs. Certainly not a national record, but still incredibly good for his body weight. He is quite strong in all movements. Bench, Squat, Standing Press. I have never seen him perform a weakly in any movement.
When it comes to Chin-Ups, he can hang a 100lb plate around his belt and crank out 4 or 5 dead hang chins, and this is at his current body weight of only 175lbs! I tried this (I weigh 188lbs) and could not complete even one rep! However, when it comes to just body weight only Chin-Ups I can do over 30. While my friend can only get 21 or 22. Point being, there are different types of strength. Just because you are exceptional in one does not necessarily mean that you are equally exceptional in another!
One could also make the argument that “real world” strength involves endurance strength a great deal more than it does one rep max efficiency. For example, who would be better at the following tasks, someone who is only efficient at one rep lifting, or a strength endurance man:
Wood Chopping, Snow/dirt Shoveling, Grappling/fighting, Masonry (block carrying) work, general warehouse loading/unloading and a host of other similar things. I think we all know the answer to this. Life is not one rep Goldbeg!
My program, Crazy Eights, is intense and quite beneficial depending upon your goals. While it may not suit a powerlifters regular needs, it is a worthwhile program. It assists the trainee in learning how to train through the pain barrier. It increases the trainees work capacity. And it also can add size to to the muscles. Here is what Dr. Fred Hatfield has to say about such training:
"Beginners find it more difficult to apply maximum intensity to their training, not because they aren’t able to use maximally hevy weights, but they have yet to learn how to train through the pain barrier!
As lactate concentrations rise, or as heart rate speeds up, effort becomes harder to apply. Total concentration as well as a learned response to fatigue signals that allow further reps to be performed (via greater neuronal input) allows advanced trainees to train past the point where beginnners may falter.
High reps and sets generally yield increases in mitochondrial mass within a muslce cell. Such mass will often account for as much as 20%-30% of the gross size of a muscle!
Performing these high reps with almost continuous tension will force a greater number of capillaries to form. Thus, the vascular bed surrounding each cell becomes more comprised of a protein substance called sarcoplasm will also increase, contributing as much as 25%-30% of the muscle cell’s total size!"
As you can see Dr. Fred Hatfield has great respect for intense higher rep training. And it is important to note that Dr. Hatfield has squatted 1014 pounds! And Deadlifted 766 pounds! He is also the author of 60 books on weight training.
There are many ways to train with weights and I am thankful that T-Mag is here to encourage this. It is unfortunate that everyone cannot add to this site by being open minded to various training methodologies.
I have great respect for Godberg and the sport of powerlifting. However, it’s time for Goldberg to respect other forms of weight training and the possibilitys that they may offer those of us who are not inclined to practice low rep lifting exclusively.
