Strength & Barbells: The Foundations of Fitness

[Paulbfast]

I will resurrect this with a simple statement. You may think you are pretty strong, but you are still not strong enough!

[Michael Wolf]

I will resurrect this with a simple statement. You may think you are pretty strong, but you are still not strong enough!

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[TommyGun]

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Wolf, my son really enjoyed having you at the camp in Boston last weekend. He got a kick out of you and learned a lot. Told my wife “Ma you wouldn’t believe how strong this guy att the camp was.”

Thanks for being a good role model for a young man.

[Michael Wolf]

Great working with you and your son on Saturday! He's got a BIG head start on you, me, and probably everyone else he knows. Good things ahead for him!

[Paulbfast]

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yes

[FatButWeak]

Very good article, but you're preaching to a very open minded choir here. One of the biggest problems is that the great unwashed masses have been thoroughly poisoned by marketing, fraud and lies to believe that:

1) exercise is the same thing as training (and/or they never thought about the concept enough)
2) exercise is supposed the be fun, and fun means always doing a new, different shiny object (for the record, I also believe that training is and should be fun, too - its fun seeing your numbers climb, its fun to manipulating variables to elicit growth and improvements, its fun to test yourself against yourself and others, its fun to get swole and sexy)
3) barbells are bad for your heart - "cardio" is where its at for longevity
4) longevity is the purpose of exercise/training
5) barbells are for stupid people - smart, educated beautiful people have "long, lean toned bodies" they get from endurance based movements they have seen in media and/or from yoga and related concepts
5) strength (see WSM, SHW powerlifters and female Bodybuilders for exactly why) is ugly and un-sexy.
6) women like to believe their uterus will slither out their vag if they lift heavy, or something similarly vile will happen to them. This myth persists and is rooted in laziness
7) strength is "unathletic" and we should all imitate the speed and agility workouts of the professionals they see highlighted on their media and advertising.
8) the bundle of beliefs what we call "silly bullshit" is gospel to them

A closed mind cannot be taught, no matter how good the material is. And thanks to media (which means TV, print, advertising etc), we've all been closed Except those few of us who aren't.

The question needs to be: What is the most efficient way of opening the minds of these people to be receptive to the words and wisdom of those (otherwise excellent) article by Mr Wolf? In the absence of a consumer friendly product to sell, one which promises easy, quick and sexy results, the Answer becomes extremely challenging.

[LuciusSulla]

Great article and it’s helped to refocus me. On month 3 of NLP and have, so far, stuck to the program. But temptation is everywhere. The noise generated by the online ‘fitness’ community constantly intrudes ‘ya gotta do cardio or you’ll get fat, you can do masses of body weight exercises and it won’t jeopardise your recovery, Rip is fat hur hur hur why would you listen to him’. So much bs out there it’s unreal. Voices of calm and logic are very welcome amid the noise and misdirection that saturates the fitness world. My first goal is strength; further down the track I want to do masters (over 40 years old) Australian Rules Football, but until I build up my strength and robustness there is no point in running everywhere for its own sake. Strength first, the rest comes later.