Ahh to recall, 14 years old, and making the change from fat to
The school linebacker and I were enemies through most of high school.
The JROTC instructor once pulled me aside, thanked me for being mature enough to not take it to blows with him, and told me that would’ve been a fight he had no want to have to try and separate – he felt he couldn’t, he told me it’d go until the school cop came.
This kid started lifting weights asap.
I was mostly doing pushups, situps.
Though I started to lift at the end of my freshman year, it wasn’t until my junior year that I started to
Funny looking back at the 8×300 squat and 7×300 deadlift at 170 something lbs the summer between freshman and sophomore years and having that be roughly my best pound for pound rep strength ever in those lifts.
Freshman Year :
He was sprinting for sports.
I was riding hours on a recumbent bike in the kitchen.
He benched more than bodyweight.
I barely beat him on max pushups.
…..
Yes, do calisthenics, and long term they get you very strong.
Gorilla strong, doing pushups with people standing on your back.
Yes be able to run a good mile.
Freshman Year :
I recall being jealous, saying that I had more functional strength.
The Lesson :
While you’re playing sports, doing daily calisthenics, too be meaningfully under a barbell, be running sprints, and eating not like a pigeon, but like someone who wants to be brutally strong.
Funny, going back
Persistence & Tenacity