What Are You Talking About?

How's it going out there everybody???

I want to talk a bit today about specificity and why it's important to you as an athlete and how you communicate certain things to a non-athlete. It's important to make that distinction here because A) I don't know how many people come here who compete and who doesn't and B) I think sometimes we get tunnel vision when we talk to non-athletes and alienate people who would otherwise be interested in what we're doing.

For instance, I give you the King of Exercises, the deadlift!

And by 'deadlift' I mean 'Conventional Floor Pulls with A Standard Bar.'

I posted on Facebook a few weeks ago (link is to your right, btw) that I failed at this weight which is 485 and why I thought that was and how I planned to not fail the next time I tried this exercise. Now, to the average person they might think I 'deadlift' every week, and they'd be right, but I won't be doing these again for another week or so from now, so about three weeks between lifts. For me, if I do floor pulls every week I get hip pain and I don't make gains, so I've found that pulling from the floor about 3 times every two months is good for me. (Now this particular day I was pretty weak and that will be the subject of a later post, but I digress...)

However, about a week before this update, I posted a status giving a shout out to my mom and strongman promoter extraordinaire Paul Mouser and touting the fact that I had pulled 900 for a few reps. Now, that was 900 pounds and it was a deadlift, but by 'deadlift' that time I meant 'Rear Facing Strongman Style Deadlifts on a Nautilus Platform.'

Quite a mouthful I know but it's important to explain exactly what you're doing and why.

Not everyone understands that strongman requires more than just conventional strength. You can't be a complete athlete by just doing standard squats and deadlifts and such, you have to do many variations of each and your assistance exercises will almost never be the same from workout to workout. At least that's how I train and it works great for me, other famous strongmen use very rigid programs and that's good for them, but the majority of strongmen mix it up everyday and almost never do the same workout twice. 

When trying to communicate this to non-athletes it's hard to explain why you need explosive power and how the deadlift in strongman isn't just grip strength and leg  drive. Being able to use straps in the event and often with a fat bar placed higher than normal, means you need to have incredible stability through the hips and lower back and most importantly you must be familiar with holding so much weight in your hands and standing erect. If you've never held 700, 800, 900 pounds in your hand, no matter the exercise, then you can't build the confidence to do it in the competition, you have to get used to it in training.

When communicating to athletes it can be easier but it can also lead to productive discussions about the mechanics of the lift. I LOVE DEADLIFTS. Any type, any kind, I'd deadlift everyday if I could but it's not productive. Often I share workout spaces with Crossfitters whose deadlifts are very different but they focus so much on the speed of the lift that I've learned from them that foot placement is key to making sure that you remain stable through the lift. And my powerlifting compatriots taught me that assistance exercises and ab training can help a lot when forming 'the box' with your core on heavy sets.

Ultimately I think you can't become a complete athlete unless you take the time to understand your mission and educate yourself enough to be able to communicate these things to a wide variety of people. If you can't explain to someone, whether they lift or not, why you are doing a certain exercise then I'd wager to say you're spinning your wheels. Communication is the key to growing as an athlete, but without the knowledge to support your message you're not helping anyone-including yourself.

I encourage you to take the time to carefully consider your program, or even just your workout today or tomorrow and consider the reasons behind your training scheme. If you can't break it down-you shouldn't be doing it. 

Be humble, be blessed and stay STRONG!

Not too much preaching today, it's my rest day. Friday will be event training with my two good friends Crossfit Instructor/Advocare Expert/Massage Therapist Jarrod and rising pro wrestling superstar Zuka King! Definitely have some pictures to come from that.