Bscull13

Many arm wrestlers have adapted popular strength programs to arm wrestling training in an attempt to get better at the sport. The most notable is Todd Hutchings who has adapted the Westside Barbell Conjugate Method to his arm wrestling training. As a result, he is known as probably the strongest arm wrestler in the US and has proven that Strength>Technique in Arm Wrestling.

Having successfully used the Starting Strength Linear Progression model as your present in the book for barbell training, this got me thinking that the model is probably applicable to arm wrestling training as well as the best way to rapidly accumulate strength in the foundational arm wrestling movements.

I assume you are unfamiliar with what the foundational movements are since I have heard you talk about arm wrestling here and there and you do not seem very interested in the sport. The foundational movements to train are:

• -Side Pressure, the ability to go from the starting position and dragging your opponent in a sideways direction toward the pin pad.
• -Back Pressure, the ability to go from the starting position and drag your opponent back toward your side of the table.
• -Wrist flexion, the ability to curl your wrist, is mostly used for an inside move called "hooking."
• -Wrist Pronation, the ability to pronate your wrist to put your opponent's hand at a mechanically disadvantageous position, mainly used as an outside move called "Top Rolling."

Of course, I am going to continue to train the foundational strength movements as they obviously make you stronger at everything. Still, I am wondering if you have any thoughts you can give on how to apply the SSLP method to the specific arm-wrestling movements listed above.

You advocate sets of 10 on barbell curls. Do I also need to move the amount of reps per set up on the specific arm-wrestling movements because smaller muscle groups don't respond in the same way as the big lifts with sets of 5? Obviously, the incremental weight increases would have to be much smaller than the barbell lifts. Any thoughts you have would be greatly appreciated.

Mark Rippetoe

The SS method does not apply specifically to anything other than getting stronger.

The Two-Factor Model of Sports Performance

AndrewLewis

I just got my blood panel back this week with different results than I was expecting. Total testosterone was 460ng/dl with a free T of 10pg/mL.

Two years ago, I had two tests. One with total T of 243ng/dl and one at about 260ng/dl. What would cause T levels to nearly double in the course of two years? I'm going to ask the providers I'm working with, but I wanted to see what you thought. Does that seem weird to you?

I haven't been taking anything. I'm less stressed than I was at the time, but not much else is different.

Updated: I called my doctor's office to get my medical records. Here's what I've got on file.

Date - Total T
6/19/2018 - 239.6ng/dL
7/11/2018 - 476.8ng/dL
11/5/2018 - 246.5ng/dL

They don't have free T recorded for some reason. So it looks more like T has a large degree of variation - at least based on this sample.

Mark Rippetoe

As you can see, levels vary quite a bit over time. This is one of the reasons why we recommended against relying on either your levels or the reference ranges for TRT decisions.

AndrewLewis

I'm fortunate that my doctor basically said "Despite being in reference range, you're clearly symptomatic, so here's a referral to a urologist. Go get it fixed." I feel sorry for these poor men who are told "you're in reference range, so you must be fine. Go home"

John Watson

​I tested at 410 ng/dl a while back and decided not to do TRT. What influenced your decision not to go for treatment?

AndrewLewis

I got the tests because I just wanted to know what I was at. I decided not to get treatment, because I was dealing with other stuff at the time. I didn't want to double up on hormonal changes.