If you had to pick one lift not to do, which one would it be?

[Cascadian]

I think he was kidding.

Who, DukeSilver or Obama?

[jeremyw]

Not to put this thread back on topic, but if you just bench press and don't press you will eventually fuck up your shoulders.

[Jdcuth]

Since we’re indulging hypothetical questions- if you could wake up tomorrow with an 800lb deadlift, 700 squat, 500 bench or 300 press which would you pick?

[Maybach]

If I can deadlift 800 I don't see how I'd have trouble squatting 700. Unless you're trying to pull some monkey's paw shit on me and an 800 pound deadlift just means my arms just grow down to my ankles.

[Jdcuth]

If I can deadlift 800 I don't see how I'd have trouble squatting 700. Unless you're trying to pull some monkey's paw shit on me and an 800 pound deadlift just means my arms just grow down to my ankles.

I guess I’m saying that if you could only achieve one, which would it be. Realistic body adaptations to the achievement would also be granted but no gross anatomical changes like extra long arms would apply.

[Cascadian]

Deadlift Rosie O'Donnell for the win.

[JFord]

If you could have only one girlfriend, from when you were 10 on, who would she be? It has to be a girl.

Easy.

If I were 10, it would be Rachel Welsh as she looked in the movie Fantastic Voyage. I would have dutifully devoted all the rest of my days to making her happy.

For my lift, it would be the overhead press because, despite Paul Horn’s best effort and his assertion that I was doing it correctly, it is excruciating for my back. I bench press because it doesn’t hurt to do so.

I don’t do power cleans either because the famous Mark Rippetoe, in a rare example of “tact” suggested during a seminar that at my age, I probably didn’t need to do them. He was also possibly judging by how incompetent I was at actually performing them. I believe he suspected that if allowed to continue, I’d probably end up on my back with a barbell over my throat.

[Mark Rippetoe]

Who is Rachel Welsh?

[JFord]

Who is Rachel Welsh?

Raquel Welch. When I was 10, her beauty permanently compromised my ability to spell proper names.

[Jason Donaldson]

I guess I’m saying that if you could only achieve one, which would it be. Realistic body adaptations to the achievement would also be granted but no gross anatomical changes like extra long arms would apply.

With that clarification, I'd definitely go with the 800 DL. With my anthropometry and history, I know about where that would put my other lifts, and that selection is what would maximize all four.

As Mr. Rogers taught us, it can be fun to use your imagination.