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There's nothing wrong with being strong. -Shifu John Painter
Many times our
Shifu says "there is nothing wrong with being strong," and I wholeheartedly agree with this statement.
Functional strength is a good thing to have. Especially if you have to face someone bigger, faster,
stronger than you. It is at that “oh sh##” moment that you wish you were at least
twice as strong than you are and had worked at providing yourself with the tools to remediate behaviors of an aggressor when
negotiations have failed. Strength is a commodity in which you can decide how much is enough.
Just keep in mind that the masters who came before me worked for a living, and they worked hard. They
pulled stuff, they lifted stuff, they carried stuff, and they threw stuff, usually heavy stuff. This occurred
on a daily basis. How many of us work this hard? Not many I would venture to say because
we are reaping one of the benefits of modern life – ease.
Ask yourself this
question -- can I lift double my body weight more than one time without struggling too much? Yes ladies,
I mean you too. If the answer is no, then all of the kettle bell, Indian clubs, stretchy band pushups will
have only limited effect on your ability to pick up heavy stuff. Remember that our ancient family members
did this all day long, not just for 30 minutes. So if one would fail the 2x body weight lift, a majority
of your training time should be devoted to this accomplishment. This does not imply that other methodologies
are invalid. It does, however, suggest that the notion that one must do this many repetitions, this many
sets, and not too much weight for sculpting exercises only is not valid. The lesson here is that
we need the ability to pick stuff up, a lot heavier than we think, and the body will adapt to the load. Muscles
will get bigger, calories will get burned and, no, ladies, you will not get huge.
Background Information
Dead Lifts
Squats
[More to Come]
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