Strong enough for what?

[Crom]

No shit???? Goddamn, I NEVER THOUGHT ABOUT THAT, Crom, you fucking genius!!!.....With 3 short sentences, you shred my analysis and my confidence in my own reasoning ability.

Uhhh....I am not shredding or trying to shred anything.
Like I said, if the examples are there...just tell us.

I have a nagging suspicion that this is a topic in which "reasoning" rapidly progresses into "rationalization" to support "beliefs".
"Being stronger" DOES sound like it must always be better, right ?
So why are endurance sports...and a lot of sub-endurance sports, dominated at even the top levels by Mahatma-Gandhi impersonators ? Are they ALL "fucking geniuses" who don't understand THE PROGRAM ?

[Mark Rippetoe]

We have discussed Phenomenology on this board several times. Feel free to look it up.

[Crom]

Who has really been doing more squats:
Bradley Wiggins ?

or Mahatma Gandhi ?


Admittedly, this is during Gandhi's peak "cuts" period, just before the Mr. Olympia competition.

[thirdstation]

I don't exactly know what being "chokeslammed" means but it sounds brutal and I would love to be strong enough to successfully express that brutality against my opponents.

In Judo terms, probably executing Osotagari and following the guy you backheeled down to the mat with your forearm across his trachea. They start to go into oxygen deficit before the back of their head hits the mat, then their head rebounds off the mat, and jams their throat into harder into your forearm. All the while denying them any more air into the lungs. So they get some head, cervical vertebrae, and brain dislocation from the multiple impacts as well as not getting air into the lungs at the same time. There are a couple of other ways to do it though.

A "chokeslam" is when someone grabs you by the throat, lifts you off the ground, then throws you onto your back.

Grant Grimes describes the encounter[1] in the article Rip references in "Strong Enough?"[2].

Probably not something you'd want to inflict on your training partners :-)

[1] http://library.crossfit.com/free/pdf...gth_on_Mat.pdf
[2] http://library.crossfit.com/free/pdf...ong_Enough.pdf

[Tom Narvaez]

Wanna know how to troll? Here's how to troll:

You are all very quick to suggest Marenghi lacks actual weight room experience which is why his perspective on the pursuit of more strength at the elite levels of sport is fundamentally flawed. However, on the other side of that equation, how many of you have ever been elite athletes, worked with elite athletes, or been involved with elite athletes in any capacity whatsoever? More importantly, how many of you have made a positive impact on the performance of an athlete at the elite or professional level?

If you've never had the opportunity to work with elite athletes, what you're saying is merely conjecture and no more valuable or insightful than someone talking about "opportunity cost" who has never deadlifted 2-3-4-5 plates. It is patently absurd to pretend that your novice LP experiences carry enough weight to make informed commentary on what should happen at the elite levels of athletics. You don't know what you don't know.

/trolled

[Mark Rippetoe]

I guess Merenghi is right, Tom. Nicely played.

[topcraig]

Merenghi leaves me with the image of the 13 year old smart ass in my 7th grade gym class who realized that I had been strength training during summer vacation. He comes up to me and says, "You think you're so strong?" Without allowing me to answer, he spits on the ground in front of me and says, "Pick that up!"

[sbrl_19]

Okay, Armstrong in 2005. He isn't a beanpole... not a powerlifter... but not a stickbug.

Lance rode around 160-165 @ 5'11". The top guys from this year's tour are around 140-160lbs, several at or close to 6' tall, with a few of the smaller guys in the 125-140 range. If not compared to other cyclists or actual Ghandi, that's waifer thin.

[donfrancisco]

Dear thirdstation,

Thank you for providing those links. It was fun to read a first hand account of the incident to which Rip referred in "Strong Enough?"

Reminds me of an incident about 15 years ago that humbled me. I caught this huge power lifter in an armbar from my guard. As I proceeded to extend his arm straight, he lifted my then 205 lb. frame like he was doing a DB front lateral raise, swung me over his head and slammed me on the mat. He was strong indeed!

[Crom]

Lance rode around 160-165 @ 5'11". The top guys from this year's tour are around 140-160lbs, several at or close to 6' tall, with a few of the smaller guys in the 125-140 range. If not compared to other cyclists or actual Ghandi, that's waifer thin.

In spite of my personal interest in road cycling, I think we would all have to admit that Tour-de-France style racing is at the EXTREEEEEEEME end of endurance sport, emphasizing power TO WEIGHT ratio, and probably almost irrelevant to what most people want to accomplish with weight training or a SS program. I was originally bringing it up only as a rebuttle to the "stronger always better" mantra, specifically "Pawn's" statement.

But I have noticed that even in much shorter, one-day races, the top competitors are "ridiculously skinny" and I have competed against actual Tour de France riders whom we would all recognize their names. That doesn't make me an expert, it just makes me notice and ask the questions.