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Other/Mixed Universal Truths

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Other strength modalities (e.g., Clubs), mixed strength modalities (e.g., combined kettlebell and barbell), other goals (flexibility)
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is there such a thing as linear programming at all? Even when some programs may have some kind of linearity in it, they usually go back, and recycle with a bit more of intensity.

I think there definitely is, but probably only for rank beginners - and even then, only for a short while.
 
I've noticed two things that seem to be pretty consistent.
- Presence/focus at the practice and set scale.
- Processing/thinking outside of practice/set about what can improve in the next practice/set. This can be pretty unconscious. A while back I was on an pretty intense snatch protocol. I remember on many occasions falling asleep with my body twitching as it was already dreaming about doing snatches. Usually for me it's conscious, something like "the press didn't go as well today, and I didn't follow the bell with my eye like I usually do. Remember to put that back in."

We've all seen and some have been (right here) the person who has been going to the gym for years, but their mind is on the TV, the podcast, the music, the other people, while they are there and they don't think about it again until they are there next time looking for an empty machine. I suspect if nothing in their training got more sophisticated, but these two things changed you'd see progress.

As if to illustrate, I walked by the gym in my apartment building and saw this. Had to stop in for a picture:
Gym.jpg
 
Inspired by this post: Running without knee cartilage!

A universal approach to coming back from an injury, and perhaps just training in general seems be: Do what you can. Work around what you can't. Don't stop.

I've noticed this in a ton of incredible comeback stories in this community. Perhaps most memorably for me in John Sullivan coming back from being hit by a car two weeks before passing a level II cert.
 
Universal truths...
T-A=0
(Talk minus action equals zero)
Universal Indeed! My wife was just explaining to me a similar idea which is apparently at the heart of the philosophy presented in the Bhagavad Gita. My second hand understanding is that there is thought, there is action and there is results/reality. In this context there is a principle of harmony, which states that the more your thoughts and actions are aligned, the more reality will come into harmony with them. The more the two are misaligned, the less reality will reflect either one.
 
"There's nothin wrong with bein strong."

I tell my students this all the time, especially the females who are just getting started. It warms my heart to hear them say it to each other after a challenging practice!
 
"There's nothin wrong with bein strong."

Perhaps I grew up in mysterious and isolated bubble... but, is this really a thing? Guilting the strong, or the strong to be? As a 47yo who's lifted since, IDK... 12yo... this is just really weird to read.
 
I think that you can go round the houses looking for the magic bullet. The more that you read, the more confusion reigns. Most of my willpower has been sapped over the years trying to balance being a father, husband teacher and then going to the gym and trying to work out 78% of my training max. I'm 39 now, I'm relatively strong, I love using S and S because of its simplicity and complexity. If I want to tap into my character I'll go and box/spar for a few weeks and this will satisfy that itch. in 2015 I did what I enjoyed, pushed myself when I could, run, swam boxed and lifted bit made it fit around family commitments...
 
Perhaps I grew up in mysterious and isolated bubble... but, is this really a thing? Guilting the strong, or the strong to be? As a 47yo who's lifted since, IDK... 12yo... this is just really weird to read.
More of an issue for women than for men, I think. Not that it should be, but for many, it is.

-S-
 
"All of this is what led me to my philosophy of strength, which is: You can build your body in 1,000 different ways and can have a 1,000 different kinds of strength and endurance, but indirectly, every kind of strength interacts with the others to a certain extent."
-- Steve Justa
 
@aciampa @Steve Freides has it right. a large majority of my students are 40+yr women and strength training is quite often foreign to them. encouraging them to challenge themselves to get stronger is the context for this "truth". No guilt involved just trying to help the realize that being strong is not only "ok" its extremely advantageous.
 
I think there are strength athletes that wish they wouldn't have pushed their strength so far in one direction though. Maybe the truth is balanced strength is good, anything on top of that in a specific direction is a personal goal and less universal. <- Reads like good=TGU
 
More of an issue for women than for men, I think. Not that it should be, but for many, it is.

I'll second that. @aciampa Al, you just don't know how much mental crap you bypass in the female trainee's mind when you just act as if, "Of course you want to be strong, and of course you can do the same things that men can do." It works brilliantly. But I think you may not even see how much of it is there because you so effectively cut right through it. Women have a right to do what they want with their training and their bodies, but I think that overall, bodybuilding has really done a number on women's perception of strength training. Most women don't know the difference between bodybuilding and strength training. CrossFit has helped a little bit and for that I give it credit, but even that goes a bit far into building a certain kind of body that many women aren't after. So, they just don't know that they can look like themselves, but healthier and stronger, by training to be strong.
 
@Anna C I think Crossfit gives women an even more false impression of lifting weights than bodybuilding. Bodybuilder women are quite obviously taking HGH, testosterone, and steroids because they lose many feminine qualities. The Crossfit women take the milder stuff like Anavar and build a lot of muscle, but still retain many feminine qualities. Women look at them and think that if I lift weights I will look like that, when that is only naturally achievable for an extremely small percentage of women.

Men fall for the same myths perpetuated by the fitness industry, sports, and actors.
 
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a large majority of my students are 40+yr women and strength training is quite often foreign to them.
More of an issue for women than for men, I think. Not that it should be, but for many, it is.

An interesting discussion. 10 years ago I owned and operated a gym, and didn't "hear" this of my females. Or maybe I chose not to? I mean, they would be surprised at what they could achieve (no different than men), but I didn't get the vibe that they didn't know they could be strong. Perhaps I attract a particular kind of student or, rather, repel a particular type. Which leads me to... Anna...

But I think you may not even see how much of it is there because you so effectively cut right through it.

Yeah, I never viewed females as weak or incapable. Sometimes my mother believes that I mistreating my wife because I don't carry the world around for her. I think, "she's strong enough". Its not a question of chivalry or respect; its one of allowing her to have her own self-respect through her own strength.

I did nothing more than treat you the same. Soon after you first started, I couldn't for the life of me understand why you would never grab the heavier bell for practice when you knew that you were strong enough for it. Now, you're snatching the 32. My, how times have changed =]

I think there are strength athletes that wish they wouldn't have pushed their strength so far in one direction though.

I will admit to this.
 
@aciampa, you are undoubtedly much more than a teacher who is competent in your content area - you lead by example, you put out expectations higher that your trainees might ever have considered for themselves on their own and simply expect them to be met, and without a doubt, your strength of character serves as motivation and inspiration for your students. And in doing this, you change lives for the better.

Still, there are times when a student can't meet you somewhere in the middle and you have to start where they are, or where _they_ think they are.

Pavel offers that wonderful Bruce Lee quote in PTTP, about how (I'll paraphrase), when he started, a punch was just a punch, then he realized how complicated it was to do correctly, and finally how he came to think that a punch was just a punch again. That third stage, although it makes for very nice reading to use the same words to describe it as the first stage, is actually a long, long way away.

I don't think one can always look at all people - it's not just women - who are afraid of strength training and say, "Just don't be afraid of it - you can do it," and leave it there. In exercise, we have a baseline, and we move forward with progressions but we bring people to that baseline with what we call regressions, which are nothing more than progressions starting at a earlier point on the path. I think attitudes need to be treated like that, too. Sometimes we can progress towards strong, but sometimes we have to first move from "I'm weak and I'm supposed to be," to "I don't have to be weak," before we can move to "I want to be strong." Not everyone is ready to, in one fell swoop, bypass, as @Anna C succinctly put it, all that "mental crap."

Related to this, an article someone pointed out to me recently.

13 things mentally strong people don't do

My wife and I had a great discussion about this after we'd both read it. She comes from a very "you can't do anything" upbringing; my sister and I joke that the only reason our mother didn't encourage us to think outside the box was that our mother didn't even know there _was_ a box that you had to think outside of. She would just look at us whenever we'd boxed ourselves in and say, "Why?" It worked with us as children - would that it would as well with adults.

I have undoubtedly rambled pompously on past my welcome here so I'll stop - thank you for indulging me.

-S-
 
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