Kiacek
Level 8 Valued Member
I have been accepted the American University of Paris as an undergraduate for this upcoming fall semester!!!
That is awesome; Congratulations @Philippe Geoffrion !!!
I have been accepted the American University of Paris as an undergraduate for this upcoming fall semester!!!
That is awesome; Congratulations @Philippe Geoffrion !!!
Yes, I think I understand. However, we must define general strength. Why is it some have more strength in the powerlifts when starting then others do? Where did this general strength come from? Possibly athletics, genetics, etc. How do I define general strength? I like to be strong outside the weight room. I like the idea of going to help someone move some heavy stuff, do yard work, etc. I feel the better I've gotten at the powerlifts and the more iv'e specialized in them, the more they take out of me outside the gym. Heavy deadlifts have drained me, benching has taken a toll on my all ready injured shoulder and if you recall in previous posts, my knee has been bothered by squats. My point being if you want to be extremely good at the powerlifts, you must specialize. You must really not worry about any other strength qualities except your max in those lifts. This comes at the expense of other qualities. Jim Wendler has stated how he used to waddle up to the monolift and squat 1000 lbs. but he couldn't do much else. He didn't feel strong at all! He wanted to kick butt at many things. 5/3/1 was born. This is what I mean about powerlifting strength vs regular strength. A powerlifter doesn't nor shouldn't care about being able to farmer's walk 200 lbs. for distance or deadlift 500 lbs. for reps like a strongman. It doesn't matter what he can clean or press overhead even. Is the press not a legitimate strength move because it's not a powerlift? Trap Bar deadlift, Front squat, incline press?
I do believe that those big lifts are great for developing general strength. Namely because you can load them heavy and progress for some time. They teach you to use the body as a coordinated unit while stimulating a lot of mass, and they're relatively simple to do....at first, if developing base strength is merely your goal, at least compared to oly lifts or squats with specialty bars, . Becoming a powerlifter, is a different goal. Arthur B Jones quipped that there is a difference between getting stronger and lifting more. For strength, the latter is more important but for a powerlifter, I'd say they'd rather lift more yes?
Powerlifters also look for the easiest way to lift a weight. This means, cutting the range of motion via arches, bar position, finding the ideal leverage. This is where technique comes in. This is my qualm. That developing technique to lift more weight may not make someone stronger in general, outside of the specific exercise they do so in. I believe it is at this point that training for strength and ultra specialization in the power lifts split. By optimizing technique, you can lift more without getting stronger.
The idea of my specialized variety is to actually use lifts that I am weaker at, thus using less weight. Of course, every now and then I may add a supramaximal lift to get the "heavy weight" feeling. A thought on why zercher's may not have helped your squat. Paul Anderson loved the good morning. He found great gains in pulling and squatting from doing it. However, at a certain point, his good morning were going up while his big lifts didn't move. He discovered he learned to cheat the movement by pushing the hips back as opposed to "bending over", thus creating a better leverage advantage. He lifted more. But he didn't get stronger.
Louie Simmons has stated "It is not as important to improve your good mornings as it is to improve your deadlift by doing good mornings. Thus the groove in your assistance lifts should mimic the precise movement of the main lift." Pavel has seconded this notion.
Variety has it's place in "all sports". I don't know of any sport, and I've played a few, where "practice" is literally just playing the sport. In my track days, I barely if ever ran a 100 meter dash or did a long jump in training. Most of the training was sprinkled with standing broad jumps, short sprint strides, sprints of varying distance, jumping drills, practice off the blocks etc. Westside rarely ever does the competition lifts in training, and they have dominated in the past. However, I must discern that this is only possible, if someone has spent adequate time with a linear progression and technique practice of the main lifts for many years. I have. Before even posting on strongfirst, I trained the big lifts for years. Some who are built to powerlift can ride that wave forever. I have heard on numerous occasion..."you don't look like the typical powerlifter." Those who say it are right.
My special variety exercises have not been chosen without purpose. The yoke bar squats are similar to high bar squat with an added bonus of stability challenge and it's very nice on the shoulder and back. The floor press, as I've stated before, always seems to help my bench and allow my shoulders that breathing room on the bottom. My deadlift seems to improve the less I do it, and I feel much better in general. I had more points to make, but I've rambled. i'll leave it here for now.
I just clicked your name and saw you live in Sacramento. For some reason I thought you were French or lived somewhere nearby France. Pretty big and exciting move for you then. How old are you now? Good job on the lift increases from the first week too!
Good stuff man. I think that age is a good time to study. Still young but more mature than the 18-21 year old crowd that goes straight into university. Should be awesome!Haha my name is most certainly French! But my father was from Canada, and I've always lived in California. Never finished my higher education as I was unsure of what I wanted to pursue. Just worked many, many different jobs for the past 15 years after graduating high school and some community college. I had all the units needed to transfer and my trip to Paris finally opened my eyes as to where I wanted to go. I am 30!!!! Unbelievable.... thanks man I appreciate it!
I don't have much time and a lot to do before this move. It's constantly on my mind.
I understand you have mixed feelings about leaving your old life (for a while) with all the habits, people and familiar stuff. But man, moving to Paris with all the amazing food, the beautiful temperamental women, the special parisian light that hits the 800 year old buildings and the opportunity to learn new interesting things ... sounds like a very good time to be you.
Have you considered just getting rid of all your old stuff and just taking a single bag with you, leaving nothing behind?
I did this when I built my tiny house. Sold everything I owned of value, threw or gave away the rest, bought building materials and slept at the construction site until I had finished building. It's a very liberating feeling not having all this stuff weighing you down, just hurts a little bit when selling them.
Sure, I sometimes miss my record collection, but everything is on spotify, all my books is available online, old family heirlooms and "cool stuff" have been sold and transformed into a nice living and sometimes happiness. And I still have the pictures of the stuff that brings back the same emotions and memories as the things them selfs, and looking forward and doing new things is more fun than looking back.
And another thing... pressing a 24kg 20 times in one set? Isn't it time to up the weight then?
Bonne chance!