More on Joseph Pena

[The_GOAT]

The only way to significantly (more than 20%) increase the SVJ is for a fat guy to lose a LOT of bodyfat.

Hurray, there's still hope for me.

[Mark Rippetoe]

Probably not, but keep telling yourself that.

[crookedfinger]

Equipped squats are still "legit" squats. They're just different. Lifting equipped isn't as easy as putting on the gear and immediately adding weight.

This. I am not a fan of equipped lifting. BUT, I don't care if you have a single ply suit and knee wraps, just walking out 600, 700, 800, let alone 900 fucking pounds takes a serious set of balls. Especially, for a high school kid.

I saw Joseph the morning of the meet that he squatted 930, I talked to him while he was warming up. We talked about his training and I asked him what he was going to squat that day. He looked at me and said something to the effect of, "well, sir, I am not quite sure. I haven't had a suit or wraps on in a while. But I am thinking my 3rd lift will be somewhere around 900-950." Kid was polite, soft spoken, talked shit on his deadlift and went out and kicked some ass. Suit or not. I wish we had many more like this in the world.

[Mark Rippetoe]

His parents have raised an exemplary son. Would that we all could have done as well.

[Bill Been]

His parents have raised an exemplary son. Would that we all could have done as well.

Amen.

If I was his football coach, I'd go for 2 on every dang PAT and run him Refrigerator Perry-style. That way, after the D Linemen were tired of him pushing them all over the field as a blocker, they could get tired of him running over them as a ball carrier.

[Tiedemies]

Truly remarkable. Looking at this from northern Europe, I find it hard to wrap my head around the whole American football (or "armpit ovoid" or "hand egg" as some people prefer to call it) culture. Weird as the football thing sounds, at least it seems like the kind of a template where strength will be valued highly at least for certain positions.

I saw a young man who plays soccer working out at the local community gym yesterday. The season just ending soon for them (the summer is damn short here) so he says he'll work on his strength. He was squatting 400s which is nothing obviously compared to Pena, but at least it was heavy compared with what other soccer players seem to be doing. He says he just started strength training about 2 years ago, all the while doing soccer and that strength has improved his game. Not that this relates otherwise, but perhaps other sports could use exemplary kids like your wunderkind here. Maybe, just maybe, they'd start thinking stronger players are better players, other things equal.

[MattJ.D.]

Hurray, there's still hope for me.

doubtful, bc there are plenty of fat guys that can jump the fucking dickens, look how high serg clears when celebrating

[The_GOAT]

I was being mostly insincere.

[hector_garza]

Were the 4 hour lifting workouts that Pena does so long more because of higher volume? Or were they so long because bigger breaks are needed between such heavy lifts? Or both?

You and everyone else Pena worked with have obviously done something really special. Would be interested in the programming.

[Mark Rippetoe]

Workouts involving supportive gear get pretty long. Plus, this was a story by a journalist, and therefore it is wrong.