It was an entertaining shit show lol.
1 Like
Whenever I get back to squatting only once a week I feel depressed lol. Squatting for 3+ times a week almost makes me feel invincibleā¦ till my lower back is constantly sore and I need to get back to the once a week shitš©
Stronger makes everything easier. You donāt need to hurt yourself to get stronger.
3 Likes
Actually not in this caseā¦ I didnt start working full time for my father until after I was pulling well over 500.
Lol
Yeah now that you mentioned it ā¦someone else mentioning it several month ago I looked over it than.I get the general theme of it but it doesnāt mean I agree with it all.
2 Likes
Ya, I hear you. I think the standards he used are too low. A BW deadlift for, whatever it was a dozen or so, doesnāt seem very challenging.
1 Like
It might be if you weigh 400 lbs!
Any BW ratio is tough to apply across the board. Being a taller fella with long limbs, Iāve never liked those because I rarely meet the āstandardsāā¦ Except in Lee Boyceās article. I finally measure up!
I guess that is impressive, I donāt really follow oly lifting enough to know. I guess however you can get 315lbs overhead is impressive though, but it still doesnāt negate the fact that maximal strength is the foundation upon which all other special strengths are built. Also, I am not claiming he is a keyboard warrior. However, his reality is Iām sure much different than mine and what many other blue collar workers do everyday for a living. Maybe, I am taking your quote out of context and will try to get time to read the original article.
I dunno; after hanging around my sport for a while, I never felt like the tall guys had issues getting very strong.
10 Likes
I think this
And this
may be part of the problem. You will be much happier the second you liberate yourself from trying to live up to someone elseās standards. Secondly, the instance I feel I have to āworryā about any aspect of my training will probably also be the instance I will question why I am even doing it at all. I also donāt understand why so many people think that multiple attributes canāt be trained/achieved concurrently. Most of us will never reach the level to even have to consider it, even if it were true.
2 Likes
Heh Iāve seen strongman athletes trying to clean a bar with over 100kg on it. Itās not pretty, God help the powerlifters haha
I love how it says Little guy.jpg 
1 Like
Eh, Iām sure there are ways to make it run more smoothly. The first thoughts that came to my head wereā¦ Remove all weight classes. Rising bar format. Thatāll shortened the transition times a bunch. There will be 2 kinds of āwinnersā. Top 3 for biggest super total. Top 3 for highest wilks/sinclair hybrid things.
Do you mean continental cleans with an axle or?
No, real cleans. Most ended up doing continentals once the weight got to heavy to flick with brute strength.
It just takes a beat of time to learn the technique haha. Iāve cleaned 100kgs and Iām far from strong.
āAnd the thing about fat is it doesnāt make you strong. It makes you sad.ā
Literally lolāed when I read this. I think this guy is capable of writing a lot of biting satire but heās really holding back.
1 Like
Strength is important. Conditioning is also important. Whether you focus on one or the other or both is upto you as an individual but talking about either in isolation when it comes to preparing yourself for āreal lifeā disaster scenarios seems pretty silly to me. Obviously, itās different if youāre talking about benefiting you in your employment.
I guess that a lot of gyms donāt have any non-conventional equipment - trap bars, swiss bars for neutral grip benching, thick bars/axles and so on. This alone prevents people from trying them and make up their own mind, even the ones who would gladly do it.
At least, this seems to be the case here, where most gyms are probably 10 years behind US gyms, so take it for what it is.
Keeping in mind that the huge majority of gym goers donāt care to compete and usually donāt have world-shattering goals in mind even when they are dedicated lifters, I think that picking 3 lifts as Big 3 makes sense because thatās a number of lifts that allows you to specialize in stuff that gives you a great all around strength in a balanced way, while still training other variations and exercises that compliment your main lifts, general health and whatever you want to achieve via physical activity.
What Big 3 you choose, itās up to you, your goals and some minimal grain of salt you have to apply - i.e. picking cable crosses, leg press and curls might not be optimal. Or some crossfit dumbassery like burpees and sumo deadlift high pulls.
Also, itās up to what you like to do. Yes, if youāre a bit serious about lifting (even if you donāt want to compete or measure up to anyone except yourself), at some point youāll have to do things that you donāt enjoy much, but are necessary to keep progressing. This doesnāt mean you have to do things you donāt enjoy from the very beginning.
The hope is that by doing exercises you like at the start, when it comes the moment to do things you donāt like youāll be mature enough (in terms of lifting) that youāll actually enjoy them to some degree because you know that they will pay off.
As a side note, I think the usual Big 3 (squat, deads, bench) are still important for a beginner. Itās much more likely that a lifter will try and eventually stick to non conventional variations of big lfits (trap bar deads, axle bench/press and so on) if heās first exposed to the basic Big 3. They are easier to learn, to coach and donāt require any specific equipment that might be difficult to come by.
This point seems to get lost because of two scenarios happening: (1) the beginner learns the usual Big 3 and gets stuck in the recurring theme that your strength is only measured by those 3 lifts, anything else doesnāt count; (2) the beginner doesnāt even learn those three basic exercsises, so the notion itself of doing some variation with different equipment isnāt fathomed.
Most of the (admittedly, few) trainers I spoke with sang the same song.
āDeadlifts? Iāve done them a few times, Iām not a fan, hurt my back. Pressing overhead? No I donāt do that, itās dangerous. Benching three times per week? Thatās optimal.ā
Once, I was doing farmer walks and one of the trainers asked me what they were for. If youāre a certified trainer and really have to ask why carrying around heavy stuff is useful, I can only imagine what goes through the head of the average clueless beginner. It must look like some kind of pagan sorcery to him.
1 Like