No Iron....

       So after arriving to the land of the ice and the snow, i realize a few things, 1 i no longer have access to my old barbell and weights, 2 its cold as holly fuck here. So in order to not have the muscular development of a cancer patient at the end of this trip i will be eating any and all dead things that may come across my path.

       Well with that said instead of lifting every day well try something different.we'll call it dossomething manly, so today I shoveled a drive way. No self pat on the back but at least it was some kind of manual labor.

traveling

So for the next week or so I am on vacation, which is great except im leaving California for Michigan, which means I leave my club, my team and have to train on my own for a bit. Not a big deal because there will be a squat rack available to me and a barbell with a total of 300 lbs of weight. Although heavy deads will be out of the question, and with no bumper plates available cleans and snatches will also take a back seat. On the bright side I should be able to squat press and front squat fairly often. Ill post whatever routine I come up with throughout the week.

The Back Squat

             

                                      The Back Squat is the single most important lift....Ever.

      Many of us already know the merits of back squatting, it makes you bigger, stronger, last longer in bed, cures cancer, ends world hunger etc. Ok maybe I'm exaggerating..... but only a little. First we should clarify what I refer to as back squatting. Place a loaded barbell on your back and squat down, simple right? Well it was that simple until the internet warriors and one uppers.

     When I say back squat I am referring to the Olympic high bar squat. Now I'm not dissing the power squat or anyone who performs the squat in this fashion, I just prefer the back squat, and refer to squatting as such. When I am not referring to the back squat I'll state what kind of squat I mean like the front squat, the power squat and so on.

    So on to Back Squatting, I do not want to start an internet war on which squat is best, or how to program for the most weight or which toe angle best stimulates the quadriceps. My goal in writing this is simply to increase awareness to the masses that yes indeed we should be squatting, and we should be doing it more often.

                                                             This is the Back Squat

 

This is stupidity at its finest

 

                                                  What the fuck is going on in this picture


                                           Ok some more Back Squat to clear my head

 

 

 

             So now that we know what the back squat is, why should we do it. Well because its awesome. The back squat improves mobility, bone density, creates stronger core musculature preventing lower back pain, increases vertical jump, increases running speed, and increased muscle mass throughout the entire body, and lowers body fat.

          

             So all in all if your not back squatting you should be, and if you are you should be doing them more often. In a future post I'll tell you what my personal strength standards are on the squat and ideas for programing and different types of squats for different training periods.

 

              



 

 



 

 

 

 

Random Thought

                                           Just a quick add-on to todays post

                      Quick question Bodybuilders, why in the hell did we try to improve on this!?

 

 

                                                        Was it media that turned this

                                                                         into this

 

                          

 

                                                            American Weightlifters

DEFUQ

 

 

 

 

 

Lidia is not impressed

 

 

 

 

Food for thought

                                                                       

                                    


         So for this first post I couldn't really think of a title, or what I was gonna bitch about. So after some thought I figured I would go with my favorite two sports Weightlifing and Bodybuilding.

         First I should probably clarify that when I refer to bodybuilding I am referring to the golden era, as in Arnold and friends, not the hgh fueled monsters of today. That's not to bash on todays bodybuilders, there work ethic and diet is impeccable, its just the bigger is always better approach that isn't as ideal to me.

        My ideal bodybuilding would be athletes like Franco Columbu, Reg Park, or Bill Pearl. These men were every bit as strong as they looked.

       Now weightlifting also has a bigger is better approach, in the form of mass moves mass. Not everyone looks like Lu Xiaojun , or Dmitry Klokov.  

      So should it be a requirement to have visible abs to set a new world record, or to clean and jerk 200 kilo to win Mr. Olympia, no not at all but both sports would be more appealing to fans if we met somewhere in the middle.

      If anyone stumbles across this blog, I would like to hear your thoughts, please comment.