I did my first set of 20 rep squats and my first farmers walks after reading Dinosaur Training.
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Damn ⊠havent heard that name in awhile!
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I try my absolute hardest to appreciate it for what it was at the time: a wakeup call. In that regard, I dug Justaâs âRock Iron Steelâ book, because even though NOW it all seems rudimentary, at the time Iâm sure it was mindblowing. I shared with @kdjohn a similar read with combat sports of âChampionship Streetfightingâ by Ned Beaumont, which was a book that made an argument for the role of boxing in self-defense. These days, thatâs a real âduhâ moment, but in the era where we believed Steven Segal movies the idea of using boxing to defend yourself was off the table.
But maaaaan, Brooks is just such a painful author. Paul Kelso spoiled me: at this point I want an author who lifts vs a lifter that authors. Dan John does a fantastic job of getting there too.
And in all that regard, Stuart McRobert had me pretty sold on 20 rep squatsâŠand now itâs tough to go back and re-read him, haha.
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Marty Gallagher pointed me in that direction. Definitely an interesting cat.
If youâre talking about GTG, itâs not really his. He was simply the first person to repackage techniques from the Soviet Master of sports program and into a package accessible to a wider Western audience.
Not hating, merely an observation. The whole Soviet/red star/Spetsnaz marketing schtick in the early 2000s was ridiculous to me, but what do I know.
Sure beats Matt Furey who was also popular at the time.
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Hes a good read⊠but damn he focused too hard on the drug thing and hard gainer angle.
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Marty is kind of annoying to read just because he spends so much time talking about how shit hot he was back in the day. Borders on Josh Bryant territory.
John McCallum, Kelso, and Dan John are all good shouts though
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He is a supercop martial artist and does not run like a T-rex.
And his head doesnât look like a jaundiced pumpkin.
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Thankfully Purposeful Primitive had not as much of that. At least proportionally. But those parts were definitely unendearing.
Loved McCallum as well. Despite him being blatantly on the take with Hoffman supplements and denying it the whole time, haha.
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Yeah, that one, I didnât know this lol although it was his obvious marketing schtick about âSecret Russian methodsâ that turned me off.
Itâs like âChinese rowsâ. Now what the fuck are they supposed to call them in China? No one in the world in the history of lifting had the idea to do rows with a barbell lying on a flat bench? Itâs just silly and inconvenient to set up for the average gym goer and the equipment available. Thatâs why no one bothers to do them. Just do strict seated cable rows with the wide attachment if you want to row with your body at the same fucking angle.
And what do you call âGerman Volume Trainingâ in Germany?
Itâs like that âBrazilian Nutâ joke.
Not dissing GTG btw guys. It works really well or I wouldnât have been doing it for the past 15+ years. Take the good stuff, discard the bad. Be like water and fuck Wing Chun.
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Two guys I worked with in the past have published books. Both terrible at their jobs, like incompetent. Bad to the point of being roundly distrusted, avoided and driven out of the workplace. The standard of work that did come out (and it was minimal) was abysmal.
I found that under $5K gets you an editor, a reviewer, a presence on the major book stores and a decent number of hardcover prints. Then You can pay internet services to gets you a bunch of 4/5 star reviews.
If you go eBooks and skip the editting, have a friend review then it is basically just your time.
Since then, books need a lot of positive feedback for me to bother reading.
This is why we canât have nice things.
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Most people skip the whole editing and print process. Self publishing is basically free.
I actually nearly started working for one of those companies for a side income. They were for Amazonâs self published books. Theyâd pay you for the book and a review.
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Iâve been âluckyâ enough to watch lots of martial arts guys pick fights with guys who were practicing Muay Thai when I was a kid way back before lots of those videos from China were posted on YouTube. It was always hilarious and ended the same way. I took up a very brief stint in Muay Thai at that time and even then, I was told they had included various variations of Western boxing to the sport for the simple reason that it fucking works, especially the footwork. Punching styles and tactics were added as a strategic thing even though the point system awards more for kicks.
Iâve even seen the same thing that happened in one video where a guy(I think he was a Wing Chun fighter or something) just quits right at the start after he receives a single kick and heâs obviously never experienced a real kick to the thigh before lol. Fuckers got pure a jolt of reality just from ONE basic, normal roundhouse kick.
I donât get why the more âancient/traditionalâ and âauthenticâ this crap is, the more people are attracted to them. People who actually test their âtraditionalâ shit out in the ring like the Thais adapt it constantly.
Fuck, if this shit really worked, they think the China military wouldnât already have taken over the world with an army of qigong masters? Missiles? Rockets? Bombs? Fuck them. Just collectively your qi to redirect them towards South Korea or India. Take a couple of selfies while youâre at it.
Just beware of all the Japanese reiki masters.
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This will probably catch me heat⊠but I had similar feeling about the Kroc row.
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In fairness, it was Jim Wendler that named that one.
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I did a load of martial arts that were closer to dancing than fighting as a kid. It always goes the same way, bunch of people you wouldnât notice on the street and one guy thatâs scary. Every single time. If you were lucky, they had a 65-70 year old instructor that you were convinced would destroy the lot of you at once but in reality would get blown over by a breeze.
When I became an older teen, I went to a Muay Thai/boxing gym that had produced a few champions. I walked through the doors and there are two guys sparring. Their speed, how hard they hit, the hits they took, the violence, it was intimidating - everyone there was scarier than the most scary guy from the other places.
I literally went from watching an out of shape middle-aged guy doing some Kata like shit one week to watching people whose only focus was to learn to fuck people up better and not fuck themselves up in the process.
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I seriously just call them rows done for high reps. Thatâs how Iâve always been doing them. Iâm, of course, not talking about the ones in the videos where he started showing off with straps and ridiculous weights. You definitely know what Iâm talking about, my fellow old fart friend lol.
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You guys had Seagal and probably a couple of old HK kungfu and Bruce Lee movies. We had ALL the fucking old kungfu movies on constant re-runs every weekend AND the newer ones with Jet Li.
Some fucking idiots thought they could really kill someone or rip out his tendons with an âeagle or tiger clawâ move. THATâS why the old master simply cannot display his skills. Youâd either be dead or permanently disabled lol.
And donât get me started on how deluded someone would be if he thinks he can get the chance to attempt, let alone land anything like a fucking Van Damn jumping swirling back kick or whatever the fuck itâs called accurately in a real fight.
What Wong Fei Hung was doing in the second half of Once Upon A Time in China is called wushu, kids. Thatâs for exhibition purposes like fucking gymnastics. The director replaced the martial arts choreographer halfway through the movie because even the more grounded Hung Kar âboxingâ moves, which is also mostly nonsense, that he originally planned werenât âcinematicâ enough.
If you buy that shit, then you should believe me when I tell you that tiny 12 year old gymnasts are also kungfu masters. Donât fuck with the little girls in the gym especially if they display an abnormal level of flexibility. They could be secret kungfu experts and royally fuck you up.
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Iâve gotta confess Iâve never seen anyone call an aikido guy an idiot as politely as MIKE TYSON.
My favourite âthis shit aim flying in the real worldâ video
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