Kettlebell Can't have it all at the same time!

[banzaiengr]

Quite the contrary! I suck equally bad at a lot of activities.

I gave up, long time ago, trying to be good at anything. Park bench rules for the win!

You are just being humble. So my statement stands!

 

[vegpedlr]

If being a jack of all trades master of none leads to a mediocrity that is far enough ahead of the average punter to satisf, why not? Perhaps a lower level of performance relative to potential across more more disciplines is better than a narrower focus. Or maybe not.

 

[offwidth]

Quite the contrary! I suck equally bad at a lot of activities.

I gave up, long time ago, trying to be good at anything. Park bench rules for the win!

I was just going to reply with words to that effect about myself...

 

[Bret S.]

Quite the contrary! I suck equally bad at a lot of activities.

I gave up, long time ago, trying to be good at anything. Park bench rules for the win!

Do we at least get a participation trophy?

 

[Jim Lauerman]

Do we at least get a participation trophy?

I suspect Paval’s not too big on those.

 

[Bret S.]

I was thinking of starting my own organization..

The OFC aka 'Old F***s Club'

Members can fill in the missing letters any way they see fit..

We'll even have participation trophies! For a nominal fee of course

 

[North Coast Miller]

I was thinking of starting my own organization..

The OFC aka 'Old F***s Club'

Members can fill in the missing letters any way they see fit..

We'll even have participation trophies! For a nominal fee of course

You'll need a cool logo, and I'd like to pre-order a trophy to read:

"Outstanding Non-Competitive Participant and All-Around Good Sport"

 

[Bret S.]

You'll need a cool logo, and I'd like to pre-order a trophy to read:

"Outstanding Non-Competitive Participant and All-Around Good Sport"

Haha, I'll have my design staff get right on it

 

[MikeTheBear]

There is a distant point on the horizon where goals, specificity, exercise selection and programming might all appear to meet, but they never really do.

The Zen Master hath spoken.

 

[Tuebor]

Nate Morrison has a theory as stated in his ebook "Combat Conditioning 2nd edition" that one can train to and maintain standards 50-70% of world record numbers. Once you push outside of those parameters you sacrifice one for another, and you need to train all things congruently.

I personally believe much of this has to do with how you where as a child, adolescent, and as an adult. If you where a fit, fast, and strong basically an athletic child and carried that into your adolescents and then stayed into that as an adult you will and probably are a stud in multiple modalities, even when you take a couple months off. If you where a non athletic kid and adolescent you might be able to become better in adult hood but you certainly are limited in your potential. My experience (though limited to some here) has shown that men who where healthy as adolescents tend to be able to gain back what was lost and build faster than those who never where.

I also believe you can have it all within reason, It is a matter of programming, and putting in the work. Most, simply like to train in one modality (strength) and loathe the other (endurance) or vis versa. And will argue why to the death.

Offwidth makes a great point of powerlifting and marathon running. Although both are taking the modalities to extremes.
and it all comes down to what works for you and what numbers are good enough FOR YOU

Someone, I believe it might of been North Coast Miller, stated a rotation of Programs with some different goals in each throughout the year. This is exactly what has worked for me in the past. But more than anything it is consistency over a lifetime.

Simple daily 30-60min
Strength 3x week
Endurance 3x week
Spice up with some mobility and stretching.

 

[Bret S.]

Umm.. Errr .. Ok so I've been thinking about the O.F.C. I'm thinking I need to risk an IHop type advertising blunder and re-brand the name and logo to better reflect the general disposition of the O.F.C. and it's membership...

S.O.F.A. aka Surly Old F***s of America

I'll call a board meeting to discuss the proposal. As usual the members may choose consonants and buy vowels to suit their preferences

 

[North Coast Miller]

The Zen Master hath spoken.

I'm no Thomas Merton but what the heck, they're giving trophies away just for showin' up (plus a small surcharge).

 

[vegpedlr]

I'm no Thomas Merton but what the heck, they're giving trophies away just for showin' up (plus a small surcharge).

I've heard it said that just showing up is half/more than half the battle. So I'll take my trophy, thank you. And a cookie.

 

[Kozushi]

If being a jack of all trades master of none leads to a mediocrity that is far enough ahead of the average punter to satisf, why not? Perhaps a lower level of performance relative to potential across more more disciplines is better than a narrower focus. Or maybe not.

But I think that there is a lot of overlap in exercise moves, so a narrower focus isn't as narrow as it seems.

 

[vegpedlr]

But I think that there is a lot of overlap in exercise moves, so a narrower focus isn't as narrow as it seems.

Exactly. Many athletic skills cross over, around, and through. My point is that "mediocre" to a specialist, might be remarkable to the average punter. Several "mediocre" skills might be really cool.

 

[Bret S.]

I excel in MA
I suck at grammar and sentence structure

I excel as a carpenter
I suck at art

I excel in automobile diagnosis and repair
I suck at drywall work

I excel in raising aquarium fish
I suck at flying a plane

I excel in computer diagnosis (sort of)
I suck at playing guitar

I excel in reading people
I suck at picking stocks

What does it all mean?
I suck at figuring out answers to questions like this

 

[Kozushi]

I excel in MA
I suck at grammar and sentence structure

I excel as a carpenter
I suck at art

I excel in automobile diagnosis and repair
I suck at drywall work

I excel in raising aquarium fish
I suck at flying a plane

I excel in computer diagnosis (sort of)
I suck at playing guitar

I excel in reading people
I suck at picking stocks

What does it all mean?
I suck at figuring out answers to questions like this

It means specialization of labour, thus civilization.

 

[jef]

Dan John uses 4 levels (in Never let go, I think) : crappy, suck, good, great.
Those of us who suck in many fields are doing much better than others. The thing is that it still takes dedication to suck.

 

[Kozushi]

There's also a difference between your regular training weight and your one rep maximum. It almost makes me question even purchasing one rep maximum weights. If, for instance, pressing 32kg multiple times lets you press 40 or 48 for a one rep maximum, why even bother with the one rep max weight? I happen to use the 24, 32 and 40 on a nearly daily basis all of them. If deadlifting 2X bodyweight once is a "game changer" then deadlifting multiple times 1.5 bodyweight ought to be good. Speaking of which I noticed in the PTTP book that Pavel recommends getting just 300lbs for your barbell in the initial purchase. With the bar itself this could be a total maximum of 320 or 345lbs depending on the bar. That's in the 1.5 bodyweight range for the average guy. The SF certification involves 5 reps at 1.5 bodyweight.

Pavel distinguishes between great and amazing - Simple and Sinister. Simple is already great; amazing is not necessary, it's just amazing... this kind of thing.

I'd think the following are "good enough":

S&S with the 32, done very well
Deadlifting 1.5 bodyweight for sets of 5 reps
Military pressing the 32 for sets of 5 reps

At least for me this stuff is totally attainable, but maintaining it still makes me stronger as I get better at them. Owning the weight, as the books say, is more important than chasing weight.

Something else I think is that ease needs to count. At some point, even though something is possible, it isn't worth the effort any more. It's like (at this point in the game) swinging the 40kg bell. I found yesterday I could do 40 swings quite well with good form, but I needed more time than with the 32kg to rest in between. The 32 is already making me very strong and fit, and I'm compressing rest times and getting smoother with the weight, so we'll see if it ever becomes so easy that I'll need to move up fully to the 40kg bell to feel like I'm getting something out of it any longer. I don't know... Maybe the fact that I'm mixing the 40 in is part of the natural progress towards it.

I think I'd contend that for the vast majority, a 24kg and 32kg kettlebells and a barbell with 300lbs of plates is about all you'll ever need to get terrifically fit and strong.

 

[User 4484]

True that.

As a lifelong martial artist, I've always been attracted to minimalistic programs that could boost my performance on the mat, while keeping me fresh enough to train my discipline at a fairly high level.

Being strong is nice, but achieving the old 500/400/300/200 goal made me miserable and didn't help my martial art *at all*.

There's strong and there's *strong enough*. And, since I'm not a strength-sports athlete, being *strong enough* for my discipline is rather easy to achieve.

I've never seen *any* kind of improvement to my game once I reached:

- Fifteen solid reps of trap bar lifts with my bodyweight loaded on the bar. (*)

- Fifteen strict pull ups and dips with no extra load.

(*) Five to eight reps of clean + front squat + push press with my bodyweight loaded on the bar is my other benchmark and rather accurate predictor of my performance in my martial arts practice.

Anything I do beyond that, it's because I find it fun, not because I need it in any way.

This post need a bump! <3