(Written a long while ago, ~April 2018)
A rant :
The biggest issue with gym training is the stationary aspect of it.
Unless you’re training specifically for strongman you’re likely training only in a 2 dimensional plane, up and down.
3 Dimensional movement is superior.
Instead of up and down you add in the movement aspect.
Labor is like this (on the more endurance side of the spectrum) and strongman is as well (on the strength end of the spectrum)
This 3rd dimension is what makes the laborer or the strongman competitor superior in strength to the 2 dimensional powerlifter or bodybuilder.
Not just pick, you want the carry as well. MOVE motherfuckers! Don’t we all agree that the sedentary 1st world lifestyle we live is fucking up our physical abilities? Shouldn’t we then exercise with MOVEMENT, not solely up and down?
Now this premise may not make for the best powerlifting total, but it is far more efficient for building a strong body. In fact I’d venture to guess it also is more injury free, but whether this is due to an inherent safeness as it is more natural or because it builds ruggedness due to being in a way “harder”, I do not know. One could argue it either way.
I do know however that certain builds likely need this style of training over the gym manner.
I have a buddy who is a giant, 6’6″ ish and in the low 300s, but due to a life of video games and junk food is quite weak and awkward of movement.
I can contrast him with his uncle, who’s never set foot in a gym, also 6’6″ ish but a lean low 300lbs, who spent a lifetime in construction. You can look at him and know, that he’s the strongest person FUNCTIONALLY that you’ve ever met. This is not something built from 2d gym training, but built through loads of 3d and awkward volume.
Back to my buddy. Seeing the genetics there (his uncle), I know he could be quite big and strong, yet I wouldn’t send him off to a powerlifting gym to get built, no no no, I’d have him outdoors carrying things, pushing my car or his truck, and doing the Dave Lemancyk swamp lunge (after getting decent at lunges).
Yeah, I’d have him train some 2d up down in the form of pullups, pushups, likely a clean and press, and high pull, but the majority would be based around 3d movement.
These thoughts and similar keep hitting me lately, often enough mid set at the gym. I’ll zone out doing my reps and think to myself “this is such a sad simulation for strength building, most got strong outside of gyms, and didn’t exercise with feet stationary”.
You see it in some strength literature, the thought that the large majority of training should be feet on ground standing, not seated on some form of bench or machine. This isn’t taking the notion far enough. A step further, on your feet and MOVING, is the logical conclusion.
Yoke > squat
farmers walks > deadlift
etc, and this especially true for those with terrible leverages for the up and down. A yoke or farmers pick will be far more natural to them than a barbell to depth or off the floor.
It says something about the society and culture we live in, that a 2d blandness is deemed how to be fit.
It reeks strongly of an unhealthy narcissism and laziness on our parts.
I don’t think a few light restorative sled drags is enough either, I truly think these 3d exercises are better off as the primaries not the secondaries.
I’m sure anyone from the gym just got their panties in a bunch over this (should it be being read by them still), however I hold that it is true.
The gym is NOT truly building strength in all that functional of a manner.
The barbell is a tool meant to build you up, and the prevailing gym culture is allowing the tool to be misdirected into an effeminate vanity and/or to break one down.
Build yourselves up people, and strive for true physical strength.
Finish.
-J