Kyrinov
Level 5 Valued Member
I thought this was so unique that I had to resurrect my account that has laid dormant due to technical issues I lacked the patience to remedy. I discovered Steve Justa published a new book called Iron Isometrics in 2014. The book itself is useful, but largely underwhelming if you've already read Rock, Iron, Steel, but it is worth every penny I paid for one fact and one fact alone. The man is smoking what appears to be a cigarette (though one can't be too sure...) in several demonstration photos. I just had to stare at the sheer novelty and just lack of give-a-damn-ness that these photos suggested. Then I had to pause and think. One does not normally smoke cigarettes while demonstrating lifts for commercial publications. There are two conclusions which could be drawn. First, is that Steve Justa is such a hopeless chainsmoker that he can't even stop smoking long enough to take a picture for his book. I consider this unlikely. The second possibility is that Steve's trying to make a point. In seeing Steve smoke while demonstrating various isometrics, I see a deliberate iconoclasm against the modern shibboleths of strength training - that wheatgrass-imbibing, body-fat obsessed, BCAA-popping, fitbit wearing neurotic "fitness" culture. The greenhouse athlete. I'm all for healthy living but I think those of us who haven't lost our minds can agree that a lot of this nonsense has gone too far and we've gotten away from the ground under our feet. I just had to write this little reflection because I think the man's a damned unrecognized genius. I've adopted this culture myself and am not shy about having a beer to sip on while lifting once in a while, or sipping on a whiskey in between rounds of rolling with a friend. At a certain point one needs to psychologically ditch the tyranny of the "optimal" to let the bloody organism breathe and grow! Sure, is having a beer going to improve my lifting? Hell no! Is it going to sap my energy ever so slightly and reduce my performance a bit, absolutely! Who cares! The point is I'm training, and the body can adapt as it wants and given that these are things I enjoy, being able to perform with them in my system just makes sense. Without going too much down the rabbit hole of taking in toxins while training, I gotta applaud this man for making such a concise statement that speaks such volumes. Damned fine job Steve. Now if only I could find his e-mail address so I could get more specifics on the barrel lifting program. Helluva program by the way has literally transformed my body in about 7 weeks. Exhausting but exhilarating.