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Thread: Choosing the Path Less-Traveled

  1. #1
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    Default Choosing the Path Less-Traveled

    • starting strength seminar april 2024
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    by Bill Starr

    Do you still want to be stronger than the average bloke waddling around the supermarket looking for more junk food, or have you given up that idea? What the majority of the people in this country want is to have their cake and eat it too. They want to be strong and fit, yet they’re unwilling to put in the effort to make that dream a reality.

    Article

    Resources Page

  2. #2
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    Thanks for the good article.
    That's pretty cool that Bill tried to emulate Milo.

  3. #3
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    "Here’s what it boils down to: you have to constantly force your body to extend itself, to do a bit more that what has been expected of it previously. This is true for older strength athletes just as much as it is for collegiate and professional strength athletes. The body only stays in a static state for a very short period of time, and then it’s either moving forward or backward. This means that at every workout, you must be pushing yourself to the fullest so that you can jar the muscles and attachments out of their complacency. In other words, you have to overload your body with work. Most who train understand this principle, they’re simply not motivated enough to put it into practice."

    You don't know how excited this paragraph makes me. I CANNOT WAIT to get back into the gym on Wednesday. Such a fantastic article. And I swear all of this SS/barbell training/Starr/Rippetoe stuff has been one of the most beneficial learning experiences of my life, the other being accomplishing university degrees.

    Keep up the good work. Thank you.

  4. #4
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    With all the praise old-time weightlifters have been getting on the internet lately, I think we should note that in 1962, as a light heavyweight 82.5kg lifter, Tommy Kono snatched 135kg and clean and jerked 170kg. In this year's World Weightlifting Championship, both USA 77kg and 85kg lifters outlifted Tommy Kono with 144kg/175kg and 150kg/180kg respectively. They each finished in the 20th and 25th position... Ken Patera in his best performance would have finished 10th in this year's World's.

    Just a little perspective.

  5. #5
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    Good article, especially the first paragraphs talking about how Athrur Jones and Nautilus affected gyms, people who trained, and the numerous among them (myself included) who utterly failed for years while taking the snake oil. I was there, I saw it happen, and I wasn't smart enough not to line up for it like the bonzo's in the Twilight Zone episode, To Serve Man.

  6. #6
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    Hi Bill, nice to see you're still writing articles. I remember reading you in S & H back when you were
    a kid
    Bill St. John used to work out at a gym I was at in the early 70's, Supers in Deptford NJ.
    He seemed like a nice guy, helping out young lifters.

  7. #7
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    Quote Originally Posted by vacass View Post
    With all the praise old-time weightlifters have been getting on the internet lately, I think we should note that in 1962, as a light heavyweight 82.5kg lifter, Tommy Kono snatched 135kg and clean and jerked 170kg. In this year's World Weightlifting Championship, both USA 77kg and 85kg lifters outlifted Tommy Kono with 144kg/175kg and 150kg/180kg respectively. They each finished in the 20th and 25th position... Ken Patera in his best performance would have finished 10th in this year's World's.

    Just a little perspective.
    I might be mistaken, but don't the better bars make it easier to lift the same weight today than 50 years ago?

  8. #8
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    Quote Originally Posted by vacass View Post
    With all the praise old-time weightlifters have been getting on the internet lately, I think we should note that in 1962, as a light heavyweight 82.5kg lifter, Tommy Kono snatched 135kg and clean and jerked 170kg. In this year's World Weightlifting Championship, both USA 77kg and 85kg lifters outlifted Tommy Kono with 144kg/175kg and 150kg/180kg respectively. They each finished in the 20th and 25th position... Ken Patera in his best performance would have finished 10th in this year's World's.

    Just a little perspective.
    And world records in the sprint have been demolished since then as well.
    What's your point? It's the nature of competitive sports for people to push the envelope of what is possible.
    This will only stop when we hit the absolute limits of the human body, and can't figure out a way to squeeze a
    little bit more performance out of it.

  9. #9
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    I think the other point that's being made a lot, at least on these boards, is that the US has not progressed as the rest of the world has in weightlifting. Yes, the 1962 results might not compare to today's results - but there's a reason the US was at the top of the game then, or at least highly competitive for the top spots, and the US is no longer there today. So it's not that the US lifters are weaker than a generation or two ago, it's that we're weaker in comparison to other nations...and by comparison weaker, maybe, not just under the heavy bar, but in a lot of other areas as well (education, health care, technical & industrial infrastructure, etc)
    Last edited by Dave_Allen; 10-11-2010 at 12:51 PM.

  10. #10
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    starting strength coach development program
    Bill Starr as always, telling it like it is, I LOVE it. NO crying about testosterone levels dropping after 1 hr of training, he speaks of the greats training 2 or 2.5 hrs 5 x week even after a full time job.

    F**in awesome stuff, they all trained w/the simplest of tools, a barbell, dumbbells and bodyweight.

    I wonder if we will ever go back to these days, OR, are us die hards too easily noticing all the BS in the world of strength and conditioning?

    I guess it's a great time to keep my head down and get back to the heavy iron.

    Thanks Coach Rip for always making this happen and BIG thanks to Coach Starr.

    As always, you inspire me!

    Thank You.

    --Z--

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