Strength Logic…Do You Have It?

by: Brandon Richey–Get Free Updates And Training Guides Here

Strength Logic…Do You Have It?

Not that I do this that often anymore, but the other day I walked into a health club to get a training session in for myself and after I was finished with the workout I ended up having an interesting conversation with a guy about what I was doing. I mean all I actually did was execute a little jump rope and some squats and deadlifts, but I found out real quick that even that was uncommon in this particular environment. 

Strength Logic…

So the conversation started out a little something like this “So why do you do those deadlifts? Don’t those hurt your back? I’m scared to do deadlifts now since I hurt my back the last time I tried them.” I simply replied, “No, the deadlifts are great for strengthening the back when done properly and I do them for that reason as well as  about a dozen more reasons on top of that. Anything done incorrectly sucks for the body.”

You see the interesting thing about this is that this guy was telling me how his back was hurting him from trying to perform a barbell deadlift and mentioned that he had started also experiencing some joint pain in his shoulders as well. The funny thing about this is that he was telling me this just after walking over from the dumbbell rack to finish a set of incline presses with a pair of 85 lb. dumbbells. 

Now this is where my strength logic kicks in and says What’s wrong with this picture? So let me get this straight, the guy can bench press a set of 85lb. dumbbells (170 lbs.), but he is unable to deadlift the equivalent of that weight by using his body to pull a bar off the ground? Do you see my point now? 

This well help with your strength logic! 

Additionally he’s also having shoulder issues that are starting to creep in on him. Just by looking at him that wasn’t a surprise either because I’m guessing that chest day is about 3 days a week for this guy and I don’t know how much pulling is involved in his weekly routine, but I’m guessing it ain’t much! 

Now this is a common problem with a great deal of people in the health clubs these days. There is no rhyme or reason behind what they are doing in the gym in order to get fit. Even after talking to this guy he couldn’t identify a goal that he wanted to accomplish from his training. 

He was also complaining about his weight and his size yet he was performing high rep (8-15) hypertrophy ranges on everything he was doing. If you don’t want more size then strength logic says that you shouldn’t train for it! I got a blank stare from him after trying to explain this one as well.  

You see too many times people forget about the foundation of progression as it relates to the end result. In this guy’s case he couldn’t identify a clear goal that he wanted, but as a strength coach I can identify his needs. You see he needed to lose some weight, he needed to mobilize his hips and shoulders, and he needed to completely overhaul his approach to training in order to do so. Essentially those should be his goals. 

These will help to mobilize you! 

Now when I say people forget about the foundation much of this involves them being able to master the movement and ability of their own body’s resistance before attempting to do so under the load of a free weight. Oddly enough I witnessed this very problem the time before this most recent adventure inside a health club getting a workout and talk about it a bit more in detail right here. 

As you can see people in general just lose sight of the basic progressions and needs when it comes to trying to strengthen their bodies. I think folks just tend to get impatient and when they see all of those machines and all of those bells and whistles out on the health club floor their strength logic just goes down the toilet. Hell most may just lack the logic in the first place. 

Well I don’t know about any whistles, but this is training with a real BELL!

All of this is the result of years of bodybuilding magazines publishing out these workouts and images of professional bodybuilders and their killer workouts. You see the thing is that the actual goals, set to rep schemes, and daily grind of those professional bodybuilders is lost with the average numb nuts that walks into the gym. All he’s thinking is that he saw this bodybuilder or that bodybuilder doing it in a magazine therefore it’s going to apply to him.

To be fair this also happens to be the mindset of many of the trainers in these health clubs too which I pointed out in the video above. Where does the strength logic go? If you have some stories or experiences of your own that you’d like to share then feel free to post them up in the comment box below this article. Remember that most anyone can train hard, but only the best train smart my friend. Improve your strength logic today! 

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Strength Logic…Do You Have It?