Articles | competition


Leah Lutz | June 07, 2017

“Leah, 5 years ago, would you have ever imagined doing what you are now?”

Never. And this question isn’t about my weight loss, it’s about my strength training. Losing over 100 lbs was something I had doubted I could do, but I was determined to make it finally happen. And I did. Strength training and eventually competing was never, ever part of that plan to “get healthy,” but back then I clearly had little to no substantive understanding of what being “healthy” would mean. I just thought it meant to lose weight, get to a smaller size, and finally be “not overweight.” 

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Mark Rippetoe | April 14, 2017

Strength, as you already know, is the ability to exert force on physical objects. Skill is the learned ability to carry out a task within a definable framework of time and energy. Neither of these physical characteristics can be developed through methods that employ the constant variation of stress stimuli, because neither strength nor skill can develop under infrequent exposure to the stresses that cause the adaptation.

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Adam Lauritzen, SSC | March 15, 2017

Fundamentals are the basics, the things that we learn in the beginning of training and which apply at all levels for an entire career. In a complex world, fundamental things work reliably and consistently. In Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, as with most martial arts and other combative human endeavors, the fundamental concept is to get in a position where your bigger, stronger tools work best and your opponent’s do not.

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Matthew Swogger | November 30, 2016

On 11 June 2004, around midnight, I fell 40 feet off a building and broke my back. Since that time, I have been through an interesting rehabilitation. The story is lengthy, but barbell training figured into my recovery. Strength training is the basis upon which I continue to keep myself functioning on a day-to-day basis, and my experiences may be of use to you the next time you get hurt, or just cannot seem to find the motivation to go and do your squats.

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