It’s an interesting article.
@bulldog9899, if you read it I think you’ll see what JMaier is talking about. The article is more about trade-offs you have to take if strength and strength alone is your focus more than anything else.
My problem with his article is the talk of how top end strength is less important than reps or whatever. The last video he makes a big dea about RAW DEADLIFT 455x8 when in actuality, there are guys on here that can probably do that who weigh less than him and are in great shape (look at Brady for instance). I think the article should be more geared towards not getting super big instead of super strong. His standards are for a 200 pound male to deadlift 200 pounds 12 times. Most trainees will be able to blow through this with minimal effort and still be able to do a full workout after regardless of training age. It just seems like a very bullshitted article. If you go from a 500 to a 600 dead, you’ll be able to do more reps with 455. Where’s the logic then? Honestly, his argument about the car being on your wife and kids or whatever is irrelevant as well due to your “fight or flight” sense. Once adrenaline gets moving, 130 pound moms can lift that shit to get their kids out. It just all seems irrelevant. Especially since there is little to no talk of conditioning work.
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I presume he trains atheltes. Going from a 500lb to a 600lb deadlift is not worth the risk of injury for them. That said they still need to get stronger. training for 1RM is not the only way to get strong. Plus Lee doesn’t claim to be strong.
I get that and I don’t see the point in going for it at an elite level. For the average person however, I don’t see why one wouldn’t want to get stronger, faster, better than yesterday. Getting stronger doesn’t always equal getting injured. If one is smart about it, patient, flexible and mobile, and conditioned, the likelihood of injury is very small. Ou could still get injured with his body weight for 12 deadlift. Most people will get more hurt doing reps in a conventional deadlift than they will do doing singles doubles, or triples.
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It’s an article about strength only. It doesn’t offer a template or program to follow. Most articles have a focus and don’t include all aspects of training - - even here.
The strength recommendations at the end don’t really mean much because that kind of thing is all relative. Using the 200 lb example I’d say a 5’5" 200 lb guy should be moving more weight than a 6’5" 200 pounder.
I think most of us have reached or will reach a point where we sit back and say “what’s the point?”
What’s the point in chasing a 4 plate squat or 3 plate bench? Is it necessary for me? Will it improve my quality of life?
These are my goals and I’d still like to reach them but I also find myself asking those questions (due to nagging hip and shoulder pain). Would it be better to do DB bench and push for PR records with the 100s? Maybe but it won’t transfer to a big bench without actually doing bench.
The article says newbies and young folk should hit the compound lifts hard and grow but after you’ve been around awhile you might be better off settling for decent levels of strength and all around health and performance. I think this could be a different age for everyone. For some, it might be 30. For others, it might be 40 or 50.
For me, I would like to have a decent or better than average level of strength well into my 50s and 60s. I think that would be better than having high levels of strength in my 20s and 30s and then falling apart and quitting weight training altogether. I’m not saying you have to do one or the other but you have to admit there are a lot of has beens wandering around the gym talking about the glory days.
To each his own but at some point we’ll all be faced with the decision to worry about our 1RM or just training for overall health and performance.
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All I have to say about this topic is, from my cold dead fingers.
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This is how I feel too since I mostly train in higher rep ranges. I would have to take a big break in my normal training to transition all that into a decent 1RM all with the added risk of injury. That is just for bragging rights just so I can go back to what I was doing before. I still get carryover to real life stuff, you’ll never need to pickup a 500lb object but any things you pick up will feel easier regardless if you train for 300xlots of reps or 500 1RM, etc.
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I wanted to add in this since it’s caused a stir, that training for a bigger 1RM doesn’t just mean always going for a 1RM. Ou have to train reps and such as well to be well rounded. My issue with the article was saying there is no difference between a 500 puller and a 300 puller. That statement is ludicrous in terms of strength carryover.
In response to the above post, yes, the likelihood of having to pick up something that weighs 500 in real life is very small, but if you can pick up 500 in the gym, chances are the muscles needed to pick up any object are going to more built up than a guy who can only pull 315 10 times. That was the root of my argument.
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Ya, he seems to think lower reps with perfect form are better than a 1RM that is ugly. That’s certainly debatable and context matters here.
I’m also not sure who his target audience was for the article, but it obviously wasn’t powerlifters or even Strongmen. I think it was really just geared towards guys like want to stay in decent shape. Not guys competing in anything
FTR, I’m not arguing for the article, that’s just my interpretation of it.
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A lot of “real life” stuff has nothing to do with how much you dead lift and everything to do with conditioning for that specific activity and technique.
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I would hope everyone in his thread is here like this. I love this forum because I can “argue” and converse with people who are likeminded individuals like myself and have a good discussion. On that note:
I don’t like the idea of an ugly 1RM in any context outside of competition. That is why I refereed back to activitiesguy because that is (in my mind) how ALL gym PRs should look: hard, but manageable. That to me is the key to longevity in training. Sub max training with honed in form and attention to injuries/injury prevention.
I think everyone here is on the same page, just on different sides of the spectrum. My original point was that I do not see a problem in chasing a bigger PR as long as it is done patiently and with a thinking brain.
I truly enjoy threads like this and feel like I learn a lot from them, so I hope everyone else understands I am not trying to be as argumentative as possible.
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Agreed, conversations like this can be enjoyable and enlightening.
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Me too. Its a good way to hash out the particulars of a larger concept.
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Lol, to really throw a wrench into this thread, I think what Boyce is talking about is actually one of the reasons Crossfit has become so popular. Games aside, it’s about setting personal records normally based around time. Obviously, a lot of Crosffitters push for heavier weights and I’m glad they do, but the bench mark WODs are almost always about how fast you can do something with a submaximal weight. So, at least partially, it fits in with Lee’s theory.
*The author was Lee Boyce, correct?
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Fuck it. In my idealised world, supertotal meets (powerlifting + weightlifting) would be common place.
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I could be wrong but doesn’t training your CNS have a bit to do with it? The big three seem to have bigger effect on me mentally being able to lift more it seems. I generally feel much stronger when I’m getting better at these three movements. I don’t know that it means I’m necessarily making mass gains or anything though.
I do them, because I generally like doing them.
-Bench press: I like the challenge of it, especially without a spotter. Basically get the weight up or die (obviously a bit of an exaggeration, but some truth to it).
-Deadlift: I can move the most weight here so yeah, it’s an ego thing. Plus, it’s got obvious cross over to the real world. There are not many times I need to lift more than 100lbs over my head, but picking heavy stuff off the ground is almost a daily thing.
-Squat: I stopped doing these for a long time, and started doing them again. I’m finding them enjoyable again so that’s why I do them.
That’s not to say I don’t appreciate other lifts as much. Pretty into loaded carries as well for example.
I’m more of a noob compared to some of the guys on here who have been lifting for 15-20+ years, so there’s that too.
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Somewhat relevant.
Pendlay Total:
Squat
Push Press
Power Clean
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Screw all these silly exercises.
You only need one.
The Bent Press.
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In your idealized world, people would compete for 30 hours at a time. I can only imagine what kind of goat rope that meet would be.
Lol, what a shit show.
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