Joe Rogan / Pavel “Which is best - barbell or kettlebell or machines?”

Dear RIP,

YouTube

The first two minutes: “Kettlebells promote functional strength”.

I’ll waste zero airtime deconstructing the low quality content of that sentence. What’s depressing is that Joe Rogan arguably has one the of the biggest global outreaches on the Internet for a huge demographic of males (and well done to him for achieving that). However, for someone such as Rogan who has spent so long thinking and doing the things in the domain of physical male culture should say the above and continue throughout the podcast to make less than well-informed comments on basic matters of phenomenology and (as most people do) - forget the raw scientific definition of what strength IS - is very disappointing.

I wish I found Starting Strength years ago - it would’ve saved me a lot of wasted / non-optimised mental and physical endeavour and money. I can’t help but feel sad that the general public is exposed to ever increasingly vast swathes of either downright dishonest information, or in the main, seriously flawed information. Like you say, the health and fitness industry is particularly prone to this. Criminal.

Best

Robin

The nutrition industry is particularly prone to it as well. This Friday SS Radio will examine The Game Changers. Watch for it.

Very surprised at Pavel crediting barbell training on the one hand whilst implying the barbell is a less safe option to kettlebells. Okay, he is selling kettlebells and that’s his thing, but rather disappointing to hear him say that about barbells which just is not logical.

He sells kettlebells, I sell barbells. Kinda predictable.

Predictable in terms of him falling heavily on one side of the coin but I was still surprised given his relative stature in the industry that he should say such a stupid thing re. his barbell safety comment. He should’ve at least issued some sort of a caveat. And Joe Brogan commenting about how brilliant kettlebells are for building functional strength for sport, well, I think you’ve already covered that one perfectly.

If I had to summarise that topic in one word, I’d reference your discussion with Stan Efferding and say “eggs”. The general public are being royally screwed. Nothing new under the Sun I guess....

It's funny that all these people who do kettlebell and functional strength exercises still ask me to carry the fucking cooler.

It's funny that they think a 500 deadlift is not "functional." If your function is picking things up, do the math.

If I remember correctly Pavel didn't trash barbells. And of course he's going to say kettlebells are superior, it's his livelihood. But he did say barbells are very functional and effective.

3:55 “The barbell is not forgiving”

Neither is unprotected sex with parrots.

Correct performance technique in desired domains = commensurate rewards reaped (usually).

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Vinnie Boombatz

If I remember correctly Pavel didn't trash barbells. And of course he's going to say kettle-bells are superior, it's his livelihood. But he did say barbells are very functional and effective.

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I remember it the same way. Probably because I listened to a lot more than 10 minutes of the podcast. He also did say that Bill Starr was one of the greatest strength coaches and referenced Starr's books as being great as well. I expected Pavel to be a quack but he did say a lot of good shit.