Nice.
I have to say, when people have asked me about my core strength in the past, I've always had to give them a funny look in reply.
I've only been starting to lift iron in the last 3 months (2 months of CF, started SS variation just over 2 weeks ago).
I used to run, not seriously, but enough. People used to say things like "Running creates injuries" or "Maybe you should do some core work so you don't get injured".
Well, you only get injured running if you overdo it, or progress too fast. My core? Perfectly strong enough to hold my body upright whilst propelling me forwards... why wouldn't it be? Progressive training program!
Martial arts helped too. Proper alignment, as learned through stance testing exercises, allows the body to transmit force through the torso to the ground, and vice versa.
Barbell training could be looked at as specialised stance training.
Will I do sit ups, knees to elbows, kettlebell swings, turkish get ups and other core exercises? Yes - for endurance & power once I start training kung fu again, not strength.
Will I do them now for "core strengthening". No. I don't want them to mess up the strength gains by training inefficiently. I'd rather use that time eating/sleeping/drinking milk/socialising/chasing women/playing sports/earning money in that order ;-)
Hey Mark:
The first time I saw a girl deep squat 225lbs for reps was in a small gym in Peru. She wasn't even big either (I suspect somewhere around 110lbs), she could have fooled anybody.
Same here. Every woman or girl. That's what they're going to do without stumbling upon SS:BBT or something similar. Certainly the "trainers" in the gym are not going to steer them away from the adductor and elliptical machines.
Heck, our gym is the closest thing to a black iron gym in the area (and it is barely adequate, with a small free weight area and one cage) I don't think I've seen >3 male lifters do what anyone here would consider barbell training. The younger male athletes are just as silly as the women. I've only seen two people, including me, do deadlifts and I'm the only person who does full squats. Saw a few pathetic sorta-PC attempts. Never saw anybody else do a press. Saw boatloads of one-arm DB pumping, cable curls, partial incline presses, and bench press machine work, though.
This article is going directly to all of the beautiful trainers at my local gym...I hope they read it...
Yeah, that must have presented some olfactory challenges for a while. I wonder if the skulls of those people were available for sale later? Surely enough of them.
Anyway, I hope you liked the article.