Thoughts on life, crap, training, and stuff

Someone left this on my Facebook page today.  I found it interesting because the myth about lifting heavy at a young and stunting your growth is still flying around.  Especially by the media.

It's amazing to me some of the myths about lifting or steroids or any other "facts" tossed around by people in the news or by the media without anything to back their claims up.

Anyway, check it out.

World's strongest kid

"I need feminism, because..."

So these pictures of dudes holding signs as to why they need feminism are popping up all over the net now.  And I gotta say, I'm appalled.  I really am.

I remember quite some time back writing several articles about how masculinity in today's society is being killed off, and made to be seen as something barbaric, unneeded, and unworthy of having.

With a caveat.  Masculinity is barbaric, unneeded, and unworthy of having....BY MEN.

I think it's clear that, regardless of what you read on social media, or in some article on the net, or see on some video, that masculinity has become devalued in America today.

From sitcoms to movies, to the feminist led agenda to devalue a mans role in society.

Testosterone driven males that exhibit traits such as competitiveness, dominance, aggressiveness, and hyper sexuality are demeaned with words like "neanderthal" or "troglodyte".  They are called "outdated" or be said to have backwards thinking, you know, because the "progressive movement" has ideologies about how males should behave.  And those particular traits are now frowned upon by people that deem themselves "progressive".

When women exhibit these traits they are called headstrong, savvy, strong, intellectual, and independent.  When a man exhibits them, well he's a douche bag.

The entire gender neutrality movement is really about neutering males and empowering women over them.  It has ZERO to do with equality.  Nothing.  Zip.  Women now want to exhibit the same traits that a dominant male does, and be applauded for it, but the man can't exhibit those traits without being called a bigot, sexist, misogynist, caveman, etc.  If a male embraces qualities more closely related to feminine behavior, he's embraced by them and seen as introspective, insightful, and far more intellectually advanced than those knuckle draggers.

For those that don't think this is an issue, it can and will become one.  No different now than how bullying is seen as something kids should never go through.  Yet for centuries it was used to establish a male pecking order, and essentially weed out the mentally and physically weak.  It was something many of us, including myself, look back on as something we needed to learn how to overcome.  Because sometimes life itself witll bully you, and mommy and daddy aren't always going to be there to hold your hand or scream at a principle about it.

Masculinity isn't about not crying or now showing emotions.  The strongest men that I know have no problems with these things.  It's generally the very emotionally stunted and immature that exhibit a lack of growth in these areas.  That's not an issue with "masculinity" that's an issue with emotional growth and development.  There are plenty of females that suffer from this as well.  But because they can cry or be overly emotional we see those qualities and being assigned to something that is of feminine quality only.  I'm not sure why, they are just human emotions.

A lack of ability to display or accept them has nothing to do with a man suppressing feminine traits.  It's his inability to convey his own natural human emotions.  If males need to work on developing that ability, and some do, then it's a human condition.  Not something related to not embracing feminism.

Base Building and less qualified athletes - 

One thing I need to address for weaker guys using base building is that you probably need to adhere to the beginner routine in base building FIRST.  CAT squats using 165 pounds aren't needed.  You need to focus on building your base through heavier movements because you have not developed the ability to be efficient enough in a movement to make this style of training work.  Not only that, you just aren't strong yet.

There is a clear difference in a guy using 315 for 8 sets of 5, being as explosive as possible, and a guy using 185 trying to do the same.  I still have days where I squat with tons of volume at 315, despite the fact that my squat right now, is probably within the 660+ range, beltless.

But I have the ability to move 315 so fast that I have to hold the bar on my shoulders to keep it from flying off.  That is because of the fact that I can transfer that much power into the bar.  Novice lifters have not developed this particular trait, and need to really focus on simply adding weight to the bar, and pushing the envelope in terms of setting rep PR's.  Not fucking around with 165 on squats.

I am training a ton of intermediate guys that are having massive amounts of success using these theories, however because it's personal coaching I know how to wave their loads back and forth each week to make it work for them.

More on getting psyched for lifts - 

Richard Hawthorn just summed up, in very few words, something I have been trying to convey to guys about getting psyched up for a lift.

"The psych you want is an empty mind with one objective which is to move the bar, the weight is out the pic."

I've written a lot about guys getting overpsyched for a lift, and then losing focus, and inevitably missing the lift.

Frothing at the mouth and yelling and screaming isn't going to move a bar for you. Either you're strong enough to move the bar, or you're not. Psyche is important, but it has to be controlled and then unloaded on the bar. Not on the empty space around you.