Was udderfilt's post an unfair discussion point for this thread? Why ban him?
And I share the same sentiment: if barbell training can do all these great things, then why hasn't it really caught on, outside of these niche internet communities such as SS?
A small point of order. It is not the strength training community's responsibility to teach the medical community how healing works.
This is not to say that the strength training community does not have something to offer. This is to say if they want to learn it, they should pay someone competent to train them. That being the case, how can there be a "failure to reach the medical community"? No check has cleared. Just because they are wrong does not make it our responsibility to "fix them".
This only comes up when the medical community's lack of understanding (which is not universal, we have counter examples) conflicts with sound training advice.
Rip and others have gone so far as to demonstrate why their advice is better in certain cases. This is where their responsibility ends. It can be argued that it does not extend that far!!!
If there is any fault to be found, it would be a lack of receptivity by much of the medical community to superior understanding and superior results. Some fault lies with a legal system, in which, being open to better ideas is being open to lawsuit.
This combination has impeded progress, but does not pass the responsibility for progress to the strength training community.
I suppose it's a fair question. But if you look more closely, you'll find this type of stuff in all fields. We've talked about some of them concerning medicine. Hypertension is a good example. It's extremely common, easy to understand, simple to treat, yet virtually everyone is doing a really terrible job when everyone should really be nailing this one. Cholesterol is not as great of an example. It's similar, but the information is new enough that it's more understandable that people fuck it up so badly. Still shouldn't happen, but when you have major guidelines saying the things that are exactly what you shouldn't do (ATP4), it gets complicated.
Also, not all patients are going to go for strength training. I personally think they should know what they should be doing to get better, and then if they decide not to, OK. It's on them. Most patients won't even go to regular rehab unless it's covered by insurance. If they have to pay for it, forget it. Doesn't matter if they will lose function. It's not an argument you're going to win.
Why do people still smoke? You can't get them to stop no matter what you tell them and no matter what happens to them. I see people all the time who have finally stopped smoking...after they have no lung tissue left, have metastatic cancer or a major stroke or heart attack. Then they start again a little while later. Who cares at that point? I'm like, "why quit now?!" Knock yourself out. I just discharged a youngish guy who told me he finally quit smoking. You put a stethoscope on his back and you hear nothing. Virtually no air movement at all and he's tripoding and guppy breathing. He has maybe 5% lung tissue remaining. He's on 6L O2 and PRN trilogy unit at home. All he can do without getting winded is watch TV. Why bother stopping now?
Also: Smart people learn from their mistakes. Really smart people learn from the mistakes of others.
If you can't set an example, at least your life can serve as a warning to others.