When Should Kids Start Strength Training: Part Two

You can find the first part of this article on when the time is right to begin your child in a strength andconditioning program here.

The decision has been made, the sessions have been bought and planned out, and your child is ready and rearing to go.  This second part of the article is going to take a look at what a strength and conditioning program should look like.  

But first, let’s dispel some common myths about kids and strength training.

Myth #1: Lifting Will Make Kids Short 

This is a very common myth and it is one that has been repeatedly busted in the scientific literature (Ratel).  The fact of the matter is that the body, and growth plates in particular, are subjected to much higher load and shearing forces when running, jumping, and changing direction than when they are performing lifts, bodyweight and otherwise, in a controlled and safe manner.

Myth #2: Kids Will Get Bulky 


For females and kids that compete in weight class divided sports in general this is a legitimate concern.   It’s a highly unfounded myth that is propagated by the media but legitimate nonetheless.  The fact of the matter is that these athletes are not hormonally capable of huge increases in muscle mass.  Before a male goes through puberty he isn’t producing a lot of testosterone.  If you are a normally functioning female you aren’t either.  


The literature shows that females and pre-pubescent males have about a tenth of the testosterone production as normal males.  Testosterone is a requisite compound to build muscle.  If you don’t have a lot of it you won’t build a lot of muscle.  You can get stronger, faster and more coordinated without it.  You just won’t get a lot bigger.

Myth #3: Kids Won’t Get Stronger


This goes back to number two.  It’s true that kids won’t see strength gains because of gains in muscular size.  But they will see strength gains due to an improvement in neurological function.  Your muscles and the nerves that send them the signals to move will become more efficient.  This means you will be able to use all or most of the muscle fibers that you have instead of a smaller percentage.  This means stronger, faster, and more coordinated athletes.

Now that we’ve dispelled the common myths let’s take a look at what the major points of emphasis should be in a youth’s strength and conditioning program.

Point of Emphasis #1: Mobility and Soft Tissue Work

Mobility and soft tissue work should not just be a corner stone of training programs for youth athletes, but for all trainees regardless of age, sex, or sport/activity.  The fact of the matter is that often times improving one’s mobility through soft tissue techniques will make trainees stronger.  This is because with improved mobility comes less resistance to put the body into postures and through ranges of motion that will lead to athletic success.  I.e. it makes moving easier.  When moving is easier you spend less energy on repetitive motions like running and jumping.

Mobility and soft tissue work is especially important for athletes that are growing.  Bones will often grow faster than the muscles can keep up.  This can lead to tight and weak muscles especially along the long bones such as the hamstring, quadriceps, calf muscles, and biceps brachii.  Using soft tissue techniques such as foam rolling, stretching, and activation drills, one can help the muscles elongate with the bones and keep them strong as they grow in length.

Point of Emphasis #2: Bodyweight Movements

The number of kids I see on a daily basis that start out not being able to do a push up or a proper bodyweight squat, let alone a pull up, is no longer surprising, but still disheartening.  At the same time I hear kids talk about how they either hate gym class or don’t even have to take it.  Needless to say kids need to learn a thing or two about their own bodies and how to handle them.

If a youth athlete is brand new to strength training, regardless of perceived athletic ability, they should first work to master their own body weight and then master free weights.  There is no reason why every kid in America shouldn’t be able to do ten perfect pushups, five perfect chin ups, and an unlimited amount of bodyweight squats.

The ability to do these things is NOT something that is gained as we age.  It is something we lose.  Watch any three year-old horse around for ten minutes and you will see perfect bodyweight technique on squats, pushing themselves off the ground, and if an apparatus is available being able to hold themselves up on a chinning bar.  The other day I saw my girlfriend’s three year-old son put himself into a picture perfect RDL position.  And he was just watching TV!  The hip hinge of an RDL is something that if a kid doesn’t automatically get it can be very frustrating to teach.

At the end of the day body weight movements and lifts should be the cornerstone of any beginning program and should, at a minimum, be kept up to maintenance levels as the trainee ages and progress.

Point of Emphasis #3: Proper Lifting Technique and Selection

Proper lifting technique must always be paid attention to, to ensure safety and proper muscular development.  It is beyond the scope of this article to describe proper technique of different lifts.  The coach in charge of training young athletes should not only know how to perform each lift but should be able to properly teach the lift.

When performing different lifts, whether they are with body weight, free weight, or machines, young athletes should never work with maximal or near maximal weights.  Using repetition ranges from 5-15 will ensure a manageable load and proper technique.  Most weight room injuries in young athletes occur when attempting near maximal loads before the athlete is ready.  Zatsiorsky and Kreamer recommend the three year rule when it comes to attempting maximal lifts.  That is an athlete should have at least three years of proper weight room instruction doing the basic lifts before attempting a maximal or near maximal lift.  This will ensure that the musculature needed to attempt such poundages will be properly developed to handle the load placed upon them.

Young athletes should stick to basic multi-joint exercises such as pushups, pull ups, squats, lunges, dead lifts, and presses.  A good mix of these will in each session will ensure that athletes to not acquire overuse injuries by doing the same things repeatedly for each session.  Single joint exercises (except for possibly hamstring curls) such as bicep curls and calf raises will not lead to any type of athletic enhancement and should be reserved for later in the athletes progression.

Point of Emphasis #4: Muscles to Be Trained

The sooner athletes begin to pay attention to different muscle groups the better.  This musculature includes, from top down, the upper back, the spinal erectors, the abdominal wall and obliques, and the muscles that attach to the hips (gluteals, hip flexors, quadriceps, hamstrings, and adductors).

When athletes attempt to “play themselves into shape” -only participating in sport practices to get ready for competition- certain muscular imbalances will occur.  Many times the muscles of the upper back, the gluteals, and the hamstrings will be underdeveloped, tight, and weak while the muscles of the upper chest and shoulder, the quadriceps, hip flexors, and calf muscles will be overactive and tight.  These imbalances will lead to improper postures and ranges of motion during practice and competition and will ultimately lead to a decrease in performance.

Proper execution of the exercises listed above, along with attention being paid to soft tissue and mobility work will help to decrease the imbalances and bring the body back into proper postural alignment.  Proper postural alignment makes movement much more smooth and efficient and leads to an increase in performance.

Point of Emphasis #5: Being Able To Stop

Many coaches tend to only focus on getting kids to be able to run fast, but few teach the proper way to decelerate and stop once the athlete has started running or is coming down from a jump.  This point of emphasis ties into all of the above points in that without proper mobility, body awareness, and proper muscular development this skill will be severely lacking.

Very few sports happen in a straight line with no deceleration component.  Track and field, cross country and swimming are the only ones that come to mind.  Most sports require athletes to change direction, run at different angles, and stop on a dime.  Being able to properly control your body weight and put it in the proper posture during the deceleration phase and the subsequent acceleration phase will lead to greater efficiency when changing direction and ultimately a fast athlete.  When athletes lack this skill the movements are very inefficient and often times place undue stress on the ankle, knee, hip, and low back.

Summary

The design and implementation of strength and conditioning programs for the youth athlete should be built on the basics.  Basic exercises used to develop proper movement patterns and solid body weight strength are the best way to build a solid foundation for athletic development as the athlete ages.  Do not have youth athletes attempt maximal strength attempts until they have a solid foundation of strength and have shown the ability to maintain correct posture throughout the entire movement.  Always teach and strive for efficiency and proper mechanics during movement training, especially when it comes to changing direction and stopping.  A well thought out plan and progressions are vital to enhancing athletic ability while at the same time ensuring the safety of the athlete.

Sources:

High-intensity and resistance training and elite young athletes.  Ratel S.  Med Sport Sci. 2011;56:84-96. 

Epub 2010 Dec 21.

Science and Practice of Strength Training.  Zatsiorsky, V., Kreamer, W.  Human Kinetics, 2006.

Related Articles:

When ShouldKids Start Strength Training: Part One

GetComfortable Being Uncomfortable

Musings onthe Participation Trophy Generation

When Should Kids Start Strength Training?

As a strength and conditioning coach that works with young athletes I get asked this a lot.  And as a strength and conditioning coach that works with young athletes I’m sometimes put into the position to tell parents who want their kids to start training that they are just too young to begin a structured training regimen.  If you are a parent or a young athlete looking into various training options here are some things to consider before you go out and hire a coach.

THERE HAS TO BE A “WANT TO”. 

This is first on the list for a reason.  If the athlete doesn’t want to be there no amount of encouragement from the coach is going to make a difference.  Strength coaches and personal trainers are not cheap and if the athlete doesn’t want to put in the work to get better it is a waste of time and money.  There always has to be a meeting halfway regarding effort.  I could put together the perfect plan (maybe even years long) for your son or daughter but they still have to do the work.  If not it’s just a piece of paper and I’m just some guy that mom and dad hired to babysit for a few hours every week.  So make sure there is a strong desire from your young athlete to put in the work to get better.

HAS THE ATHLETE GONE THROUGH PUBERTY YET?

While puberty is NOT a limiting factor to begin a strength and conditioning program it is definitely a consideration.  If your child has not yet hit puberty there are some things that must be taken into account.  The first is that they are not hormonally equipped to make big gains in muscular strength and size.  They may have the car but they don’t have the gas to make it run.  Before a child hits puberty most of the strength gains made will be from improving mobility and neural efficiency.  And if your child has not yet hit puberty those two things should be the primary concern of your hired strength coach.

While I’m on the subject improving and maintaining mobility while your child is going through puberty is extremely important.  Bones will grow faster than the muscles and tendons can keep up.  Keeping up lots of soft tissue work (rolling out and stretching) will be a big help once the growth spurt stops.  If it is not kept up you run the risk of having to start over with mobility work and efficiency of movement.  The moral of the story: Rolling out and stretching should be daily activities done throughout everyone’s lifetime.

The second thing to consider if your child is currently in or has not yet gone through puberty is that training, even well thought out and properly coached exercises, can exacerbate the pain that sometimes accompanies growth spurts, namely Osgood-Schlatter disease which is an irritation of the patellar tendon at the tibial tuberosity.  This is brought on by the bones growing faster than the muscles and tendons can keep up.  Again, mobility and soft tissue work should be extremely important components to your child’s training regimen and two things that are done every day.

HOW STRONG IS YOUR CHILD WITH HIS OR HER OWN BODY WEIGHT?

Every time I’m at a commercial gym I cringe when I see young kids lay on a bench and struggle to bench press the bar or a weight that isn’t much heavier.  I also cringe when I see a kid squat half way down with knees diving in, back rounded, and way up on their toes.  I cringe because I know those same kids would probably struggle doing a push up or body weight squat, let alone a similar weighted exercise.

A lot of that comes down to the fact that those kids have horrible mobility.  It also comes down to the fact that they have in their possession the best free weight on earth and have no idea how to use it.  People have gotten fast, strong, and ripped using their own body weight for centuries.  It makes absolutely no sense in my mind to use external loads such as barbells or dumbbells if the athlete can’t reproduce the movement in an unloaded (e.g. bodyweight) situation.

If an athlete can’t do twenty perfect pushups they have no business putting their back on a bench.  And that goes for athletes who CAN bench a lot of weight!  Same thing goes with squatting.  If an athlete can’t hold a bottom bodyweight squat posture and fire out into a jump, there is no way they are going to be able to do the same thing with a bar across their shoulders.

And don’t get me started on movement/sprint training.  If posture can’t be held in a static (standing still) environment forget about it in a dynamic (moving) one.  I could give the same coaching cue a million times until I’m blue in the face but if the athlete isn’t strong enough with their own body weight to actually do it then it’s just a going to lead to a lot of frustration, wasted air, and possibly injury.  And on the other side of that coin, if an athlete isn’t strong enough to consistently apply enough force into the ground to efficiently overcome their own bodyweight they will not be able to run fast or jump high no matter how good of mobility they have.

DOES YOUR CHILD HAVE THE ATTENTION SPAN?

This is going to be a case-by-case determinant that needs to be honestly addressed by the coach.  I’ve trained gymnasts as young as seven who could pay attention, make changes based on coaching cues I gave, and reproduce movement patterns based on the examples I showed them.  And then I’ve also trained teenagers and grown adults who could do none of those. 

Ultimately the coach knows what the minimum cognitive requirements are to begin and be successful in his/or program.  And sometimes a kid is just too young to be able to handle the mental load of the strength and conditioning program.  If your kid is the one picking dandelions in the outfield instead of paying attention to the game you may want to wait a year or two to have them start training.

That does not mean your child will never be able to handle strength and conditioning.  It just means that a year or two more of mental maturity is required.  If that’s the case then in the meantime let your kid be a kid and run around and play.  And if you can trick them into doing some pushups and pulls ups that wouldn’t hurt either.

WHAT ARE YOUR, THE PARENT’S, EXPECTATIONS AND LIMITATIONS?

Before you even consider taking your kid to a prospective strength and conditioning coach you as the parent need to take a hard look in the mirror and ask yourself what you are truly deep-down inside you expecting out of the deal?  Is even the most talented strength coach going to take your 12 year-old son and have him playing varsity basketball in 6 months?  Of course not! 

You the parent need to be extremely realistic about what can be accomplished.  It takes years of consistency and smart training to bring out a kid’s full potential.  It’s not going to happen six weeks out from the beginning of the season. 

That’s the boat that a lot of parents miss.  A lot of progress can be made in a few months in the instant gratification world we live in you, as parents, need to understand that there are no shortcuts and it takes time and a lot of effort to produce great results.  Twelve weeks is the blink of an eye when held up against an athlete’s entire career.  Give us consistent effort from the time they start to the time they finish high school and we’ll get somewhere.  Expect us to deliver a college scholarship in twelve weeks when they are fourteen and it isn’t going to happen.

On the same side of the parent coin here are some things that all trainers will expect from you:

• Bring your kid on time, every time for every scheduled session!  There is no bigger pet peeve than tardiness, especially if your son or daughter works out in small groups and everyone else got there on time.
• Consistency.  This is number one if you want your son or daughter to be successful in the weight room.  Consistently missing or cancelling appointments is a sure-fire way for you to waste your time and money.  All things done well need consistency.  If you can’t commit to bringing them in 2-4 times per week on a consistent basis then save yourself the trouble and wait until you can.
• If there are things that we want your son or daughter to do at home to help them in the weight room, make sure they do it!  It’s just like homework.  If it isn’t done we’ll know about it and we won’t be happy.  More often than not it will just be simple mobility drills and/or bodyweight exercises that will only take a few minutes to complete.

Those are the big things to consider when deciding whether or not your child should begin a strength and conditioning program.  If the “want to” isn’t there then save your time and money.  Strength coaches aren’t cheerleaders.  They will motivate but only the ones who want to be motivated will benefit.  If the kid doesn't want to be there then nothing the coach says or does will change that.

If there is that “want to” then as a parent it is up to you to find and hire a coach that will take the other two factors into account.  Some coaches will have cookie cutter programs that get kids in and out of the door without a real concern for results.  Make sure that the coach is going to factor any special considerations into your young athlete’s program.

And parents I can’t stress this enough, if you can’t get them to their appointments on time and on a consistent basis save your time and money.  Your best bet would be to ask the same strength coach if they would be willing to write up an at-home bodyweight program for your child and then pay the coach to teach them the movements.  I’ve done this a few times and while it isn’t a perfect situation it is better than starting and stopping over and over again.

In the second part I’ll discuss what a training program for youth athletes should look like once the decision has been made for them to begin training.

Training Update and Random Thoughts

Here’s the weekly rundown with some random thoughts at the end.

Monday:

Fat Bar Overhead Press:

155x5

115x8x3

Tuesday:

Sprints

Wednesday:

Clean High Pull:

274x1x5

Jumps and sprints and such

Bear Complex (Clean pull, hang clean, push press, front squat, push press, back squat, push press.  Doi each exercise once in that order equals one rep.  Should have videoed it.  Sorry.)

3x3

Thursday:

Upper back and arm work

Treadmill Sprints:

8.0 incline, 10.5 mph, :15 on, :15 offx4; :10 on, :10 offx2

Friday:

Squat:

385x5, 325x6x3

Good Mornings

My left shoulder right now is feeling kind of junky hence the extra upper back work on Thursday.  I think I got a little overzealous on Monday and did 20 wall walk ups with a press.  I’m going to have to modify that for future use.

There is a definite sports void right now with the end of football.  There will be news all the way up to when the season starts but I’m going to miss the action.  This hole cannot be filled by basketball and hockey.  I’m only a marginal hockey fan and since I don’t have cable I can’t really watch any of the games.  And to me NBA basketball is barely a sport.  I’ve never liked the games (mostly because I’m no good at it) and I really dislike the culture of it.  Seems to be a lot of “me” guys that are only out for themselves.  It’s also hard to like a bunch of guys that make 10 million dollars per year and live paycheck to paycheck because they spend every cent they make.  I’m sure there are guys like that in the NFL but I don’t like them either.  Case in point: Johnny Jolly.  That guy deserves everything he gets.  I was very much hoping that the NBA season was going to be cancelled just for the case study.  I thought it would have been very interesting to see how many guys went bankrupt or turned to illicit means to get by.  And I’m supposed to care about the poverty situation in America?

I had a pretty good post Super Bowl bloat from all the salty meats and treats.  Those brownie-on-top-of-Reese’s-Peanut-Butter-Cups-on-top-of-Tollhouse-Cookie-Dough bars were amazing.  Being the former fat kid that I am I’m already coming up with ways to make them better.  I think stirring in some peanut butter M&M’s would do the trick.  I really need to stop thinking about stuff like that.

Just like I thought was going to happen I pushed too hard on dead lifts.  I still had some soreness in my spinal erectors on Thursday, a full seven days post lift.  Need to start lifting with my head and not my ego.  Speaking of which, I haven’t trained my neck in while…

I’m going to start slowly adding in sprint days.  I did some kind of sprint work Tuesday through Friday.  This gets rid of my Saturday sprint day and gives me two consecutive days to rest.  None of the days are overly taxing and should help me maintain some leanness as I gain weight.

According to recent traffic on this blog the thing most people want to see is…bathroom selfies.  That post literally got 5-10 times the traffic of my other posts.  I post the links to these posts on Facebook and Twitter and I’m sure most of it came from people on Facebook wanting to see all 188 pounds of twisted steel and sex appeal.  Unfortunately that was a one and done thing unless I do another diet coming up.  A note to all male readers: Bathroom selfies are lame as hell.  Ladies, however, keep doing what you’re doing.

Squats are feeling really good.  I started incorporating a stretch from Kelly Starett (if you are having any kind of issues with mobility or flexibility check this guy out.  He's wicked smaht.) into my pre workout routine and I think it has made a huge difference on my IT band pain.  The last time I squatted I was on my first or second work set and realized that it didn’t hurt.  Here’s the stretch:

Whenever I have a client that had issue that was solved with soft tissue work and stretching the one thing that I harp on the most is for them to keep doing what they did to get it to feel better.  For instance, if they had lower back pain and it went away once they incorporated daily quad/hip flexor stretching and rolling out I’m like a nagging mother for them to keep doing it.  It takes time for adaptations to take hold.  You may feel better but once you stop doing what you were doing nine times out of ten the issue comes back.  Long story short, roll out, stretch, and do mobility work every day.

The Bruce Lee Method

“Be like water making its way through cracks. Do not be assertive, but adjust to the object, and you shall find a way round or through it. If nothing within you stays rigid, outward things will disclose themselves.” –Bruce Lee

When it comes to quotes on either philosophy or weightlifting or the philosophy of weightlifting Bruce Lee quotes get a lot of play.  Bruce Lee was known as a very wise man and also a devotee to training the body to be able to do and handle uncommon tasks.  The quote above is one that I constantly remind myself of because it is very applicable to the strength training world.  It’s also a quote that advocates trial and error.  Even though I think a lot of people (especially “experts”) would be hesitant to admit it trial and error is a necessary process towards achieving your fitness goals.

Source: Wikipedia

The water quote is the basis of how I set up my training and nutrition programs for myself.  I’m going for maximum results in the shortest amount of time.  I used to be the guy who would read this great routine or diet plan and instantly set it up and run it hoping to get the kinds of results the author(s) promised.  Oftentimes I would see results but would be somewhat disappointed.  Cookie cutter programs yield cookie cutter results.

This is because there is no such thing as a magic bullet program.   A program that works great for me could be a disaster for someone else and vice versa.  So when I’m setting up my training I try to be like water.  If something doesn’t work I change my path instead of continuing to bang my head against the rock trying to force the program to work.  That is never the smart way to go.

Find your own path.

Now there are many programs and courses out there that have yielded awesome results for a lot of beginning lifters.  But that’s the catch.  Beginning and intermediate lifters will make progress on almost any program as long as it has some well thought out progression to it.  Mark Rippetoe’s Starting Strength and Jim Wendler’s 5/3/1 are two of the most popular programs for beginners and intermediates, respectively.  I’ve never tried Starting Strength but have borrowed some of the ideas for some of the beginner lifters that I train.  I used Wendler’s 5/3/1 for about a year and made some awesome progress on it.  It was easy to set up without a lot of thinking and I got stronger but I eventually got to a point where I felt like I was spinning my wheels.  So I went in a new direction.  There is nothing inherently wrong with the programs themselves, they just weren’t right for me at that time.

One thing that I want to make clear is that I’m not advocating a huge change if something isn’t working.  Often it’s the small changes that make the biggest differences.  Maybe if I had modified a few small things when I was doing 5/3/1 it would have continued working for me.  It’s all about knowing who you are and adjusting based on that.

The same goes for nutrition.  You’ve got Atkins, Paleo, Mediterranian, South Beach, Carb Cycling, and all the permutations under the sun.  Where do you start?  Some people feel great, perform awesome, and look good eating high carbs, moderate protein, and low fat.  And some people feel great, perform awesome, and look good doing the exact opposite.   And a lot of people fall somewhere in the middle.

The point I’m trying to make is that no two people are alike.  Two people with the exact same anthropometrics (height, weight, strength, etc.) will respond differently to the same training and nutrition program.  It’s the same reason why a skinny 15 year-old kid should not copy and paste the routine of a 250 pound professional body builder that’s being hyped in the latest edition of FLEX. 

So now, this article begs the question, “What should I do?”  Like I said at the beginning, it’s all about trial and error.  Here are a few guiding principles to help you build a routine that works for you and how to recognize if it doesn’t.

1.      1.  Pick a goal- The more specific you are, the better off you’ll be.  When you decide upon a specific goal everything you do should be done to get you closer to that goal.  An example would be, “I want to get in better shape.”  Great.  So do I.  But better shape to me is probably way different than better shape to you.  If you want to lose weight pick a specific target weight or body fat percentage.  If you want to get stronger pick a few core exercises and work to progress your numbers.  Being specific gives you something almost tangible.  It is a very narrow line that defines success or failure.  All black and white with no grey.

2.      2. Stick to the basics- There are things that have been used for ages to get people strong, lean, and in better health.  And then there is the modern crap that is of little use other than to fleece you of a few bucks.  No matter your goal lifting weights in the core lifts like squats, presses, dead lifts, and weighted carries and eating a diet made up of foods with only one or two ingredients is probably going to be the best way to start.  From there, modify and make small changes to suit your goals.

3.      3.  Keep track of progress- That means keeping training and eating journals, keeping track of body anthropometrics (weight, skin fold measurements, body circumference measurements, etc.).  If you don’t know where you started or where you were the week before you have no real way of knowing if you got better or worse.  On the same token if you do the same thing day in day out and week in week out your body is going to adapt and all you’ll do is stay the same.  Maybe that’s all you want but if you haven’t reached your goal you need to change something up.

4.      4.  Make small changes first- If you feel that you’re stuck as far as progress goes first think critically about what it is that is holding you back.  If you’ve been losing weight a reduction in body mass requires a reduction in caloric intake.  If you’re strength levels have leveled off perhaps your set rep scheme needs to be changed up a bit or perhaps your recovery methods should be looked at.  Whatever the case may be do not completely overhaul what you are doing. Results are never linear and are very hard to predict.  Sometimes all you need to do is to stay the course and let it work itself out.  Either way small changes can lead to big improvements.

5.      5.  If something no longer meshes with your goals drop it- If you do recognize something that is holding back your progress then you need to drop it.  If you want to get stronger or lose weight but you feel that Tuesday night darts with including beer and wings are holding you back then you have a decision you make.  Do you sacrifice progress or you social life?  There is no right or wrong answer as it’s a case by case decision.  Just don’t complain about not losing weight when you keep up with the darts, beer and wings.

Fitness is not an end point. Your goals should not be thought of as end points. They are more check points on your lifelong journey. Reaching goals are great, but once that goal has been reached a new one must be set. And when a new goal has been set then a new path must be taken. Even maintenance can be a difficult task if not done diligently.

In the end always be thinking about where you are, where you want to be, and the best path to get there. If that path is the one you are then stay the course. If it is not, then let yourself flow in a slightly new direction to find your way to the other side.

Musings On the Consequences Of The Participation Trophy

The goal of each generation, it seems, has been to make life easier for the generation before it.  Great Grandpa did what he had to do during The Depression so his son could eat.  Grandpa went to war and came back to a manufacturing job so his son could go to college.  Dad works 10-12 hours a day and makes a lot of money so that we don’t have to work for anything and get to suspend adulthood and play video games all day.  Great.

Unfortunately the easier life is the softer we get.  I am of a mind that easier is not better.  Having zero hardships in life is worse than being presented obstacles and overcoming them.  I would rather solve a problem on my own than be given an answer.  I want to be self-reliant.  I want to stare down a gauntlet and know I have what it takes to come out the other side.

The attitude and mind set I’m trying to describe comes in many forms.  Learned helplessness, entitlement, non-resilience, you get the picture.  People are getting softer and softer.  People are getting dumber and dumber.  All you have to do is turn on MTV or VH1 or talk to the average high school student for a few minutes.  No one wants to work for anything.  Everyone wants to be given something for nothing.

If I were president I would make a few changes to how things are run.  I would get rid of political correctness.  Some people are smarter than others.  Some people are stronger than others.  Some people are willing to work harder than others.  People are not all alike.  Some people are better than others.  Some people are winners and some are losers. 

The Ultimate Warrior’s (yes, from the WWF days) attitude is that taking from those that “DO” and giving to those that “DON’T” is not “fair” and just teaches people to subsist off of others.  I tend to agree.

I would make participation trophies illegal.  And maybe this is the whole crux of the problem.    You want a trophy?  Go out and win something.  You don’t get anything for just showing up.  Showing up is a minimum requirement.  It is not something that should be rewarded.  Mark my words, “No child of mine will receive nor accept a participation trophy.”

I distinctly remember two trophies from my childhood.  One was for fourth place in the Pinewood Derby during my only year as a Boy Scout.  The other was a participation trophy everyone got at the end of flag football in fourth grade.  I remember being extremely proud of the Derby trophy.  I earned it.  And I’m pretty sure I gave the flag football one away.  It lost all value when the kid that picked his nose and didn't do an athletic thing all season got the same one.  I did not play a second year of flag football.  I’m not sure there has been a worse invention in the history of anything than the participation trophy. 

You know what's fun?  Winning.

The real world does not hand out trophies.  You don’t get anything because you paid your bills.  You don’t get anything because you graduated from college.  With grading on a curve running rampant these days you probably didn’t even deserve that.  There is a reason why graduation ceremonies are called “Commencement”.  It means beginning.  And for most it is only the beginning of their real education.

Some go on to the School of Hard Knocks and some get lucky.  That’s life. 

Coming out of college I thought I knew it all.  Then I spent some time around people who were a lot smarter, or at least knew more, than I and I realized pretty quickly that I didn’t know shit.  But I didn’t hold up my degree and say, “Wait a minute here.  I’ve got a degree so let me tell you a thing or two…”  No, I started doing my own research and self-study.  I wanted to be better than my degree so I took it upon myself to do so.  And here’s the thing about the smart people and the winners, they realize they don’t know everything.  They know there are people out there who know more than them.  But instead of resorting to jealousy and small-mindedness they seek them out and learn.  They don’t feel ENTITLED to anything, ESPECIALLY a job.

Socrates said, “I know one thing, that I know nothing.” 

This may sound cold-hearted but I think we should go back to the days of government provided shoes/clothing and cheese.  No more checks from the State to use for whatever you want.  You are given government food and clothing.  And knowing the government the shoes will be god-awful ugly and the cheese will fill your nutritional requirements but taste like shit.  That way those that are on the government rolls will have motivation to be off.  Sort of an Anti-Participation Trophy.

Yum.

And I’ve had very close friends collect unemployment for a long time.  But them’s the breaks.

Part of the problem is that people are unwilling to do jobs they feel are below them.  No one wants to work menial jobs that don’t utilize your skills and potential.  But when you’re sitting down to your fifth night in a row of Washington cheese and crackers what options do you have?  Life isn’t fair.  Einsteins and Mozarts probably die unrecognized and unfulfilled every single day.  To quote a wise man, “The world needs ditch diggers too.”

The world is a cold, cruel place.  I’m only 27 years old and I’ve already come to that realization.  I could disappear in an instant and not a thing would change.  The world would just continue going on without me like it has for the millions of years before I was around.  I am not a unique snowflake.  If I want something to happen I have to make it happen.  Whining won’t cure anything.  We have to be doers, not be-ers.

OK, rant over.  But in all seriousness there is definitely an attitude of entitlement in this country.  You can blame the schools or the government or the media or whatever but the real culprit is ourselves.  We’ve been told from day one how special we are, how smart we are, how we are going to change the world!  And we believed it.  We let ourselves sink into the trap of constant positive reinforcement that, when it stops, we don’t know how to deal with it.  We let other people solve our problems for us that when a situation arises that requires some grit and determination there is little to go around.  People quit jobs because they don’t get enough pats on the back from their superiors.  We need to grow-the-fuck-up.

It would be too easy to say it was our baby boomer parents that did this to us.  After all they were the ones doling out the positive reinforcement when we didn’t deserve it.  They were the ones that said everyone should get a trophy for being there. 

It would be easy to say that they got the concept of self-esteem backwards.  Telling kids that they are special and great and totally cool and then hoping they do good things and have a high self-esteem is putting the horse before the cart.  Kids need to do good things and then be told they did a good job.  For that a slight nod of the head and a firm handshake is plenty.

But blaming our parents or our own cushy upbringing would be exactly what everyone else would expect us to say.  Sure it was nice to be coddled when we were growing up but we’re adults now.  And adults behave like adults.  Adults solve their own problems.  Adults don’t expect anything to be given to them.  Adults work for and earn everything they have.

I dated a girl in college who came from a well-to-do family.  Let’s just say that with her situation she didn’t need to take out student loans.  Coming from a working class, blue-collar family I did need the student loans as well as summer manufacturing jobs to help pay my way.  One day she said, “I really feel bad for you. You have to pay for this stuff by yourself.”  Excuse me?  I didn’t know it at the time but I knew that there was something to be gained from having to earn your place at an institute of higher learning.  I knew the value of work and what it could help me do. 

Don’t take this as some diatribe that being blue-collar is some holier-than-thou way of life.  It doesn’t really matter where or what you come from.  What matters is your outlook on life and what kind of value you put into the work you do.  Sure, good things happen to lazy people and some people will never live a rough day in their life.  Assholes win the lottery every single day.  So-the-fuck-what?  You’re going to point to that and say, “Screw it!  I give up!”?  You still have to get up tomorrow morning so why not make the most of it and do something positive?

In all reality I could have boiled down the last 1500+ words into this: If you really want something then go out and earn it.  GO OUT AND WIN IT!  Where there is a will, there is a way.  Do something every day to make the you of today better than yesterday’s version.


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Super Bowl Sunday Funday

Unlike last year I don't have a horse in the race today.  I'm actually rooting for both teams to get dysentery and have them both lose.  That won't happen.  I'm also rooting for the halftime show to get cancelled.  That won't happen either  Whoever thought that Madonna and her praying mantis arms would be a good idea must really want the ratings to plummet for the halftime show and beginning of the second half.  Good thing we've still got the Puppy Bowl.

So without anything to really root for my focus is going to be on the food.  Twenty-one pounds of meat have been purchased among other things.  I also made a dessert that I came across on Jen Comas Keck's training log on EliteFTS.  I'm going to name them Wilford Brimley 'Beetus Bars.

To make them I lined a 13"x9" pan with parchment paper.

Then I spread a roll of Tollhouse Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough on the bottom.

On top of the cookie dough I spaced out 12 Reese's Peanut Butter Cups (In hindsight I could have used more.  I now know what Oscar Schindler felt like. [That was a joke.]).

On top of all that I spread a family size box of chocolate chunk brownie batter.  After 45 minutes in a 350 degree oven my house smells like Willy Wonka's wettest dream ever.  I can't wait to eat them.

Can you see the layers?

To try to offset all of the damaging delicious food I'm going to consume I'll be doing a little training before the festivities get under way.  Going into a feast anabolic and being as insulin sensitive as possible is the best way to try to minimize the gluttonous effort I'll be putting forth.  I'm actually just writing this out so I actually do it instead of skip it and go right for the food.

-Run around the block

-10 rounds of:
5 pull/chin ups
10 pushups
5 single arm snatches on each side with a 45 lb. DB

-6 hill sprints

Hopefully it doesn't take me much more than 25-30 mintues.

And it's now time to get this show on the road.  Have fun, be safe, and GO DYSENTERY!

Training & Diet Update, Dead Lift Videos and Random Thoughts

Here’s the play by play from the past week along with some insights at the end.  Bon Apetit.

Monday

Bench Press:

225x5

250x2 (was supposed to be five)

225x2x3

Wednesday

Hang Clean and Jerk:

176x2

220x2x5

Friday:

Dead Lift:

440x3

506x2

550x1

484x2x3

Front Squat:

185x6x3

The diet is over.  The final tally is 21.4 lbs (209.5 to 188.1) lost and my body fat went from 13.1% to 8.8%.  Not too shabby for doing it over the holidays when most of America's weight is going in the other direction  I won’t say it was the toughest thing I’ve ever done but it was up there.  I thought it was going to be over four weeks ago but Lance and I decided to push on.  Well,at least I did.  I've never been sub 10% before.  The hard part is going to be staying there.


Here's the finished product.

Bathroom selfies FTW.

One thing that kind of surprised me was that my lean mass dropped by almost 10 lbs.  The more I thought about it the more I realized it’s due to a few reasons.  The biggest one being that when I did the initial weigh in I was bloated and my muscles were full of glycogen (glycogen is the storage form of glucose).  This extra water and muscle glycogen is usually the first weight that is lost on a diet.  The second reason was that I did an herbal cleanse.  This removes toxins and built up junk from your system.  The third reason is that with Intermittent Fasting old, damaged proteins are removed from the muscles.  Over the long term this protein breakdown is a bad thing, but in the short term it’s good.  Either way, it’s time to build that number back up.

Like I said last week I’m going to slowly bring my weight back up trying to stay as lean as I can.  If I feel like I’m getting a little too puffy I’ll cut back the calories for a bit. 

I’m going to keep doing Intermittent Fasting as I think it fits well with my schedule for the most part.  I’m going to play around with different protocols and see which ones I like and don’t like.

One that I’m going to try is the every so often cheat and then fast for 24-30 hours.  And when I say cheat I mean it.  Nothing is off limits for a period of time and then no eating for at least 24 hours.  The cheat days will more than likely be Saturdays with Sunday being the fast day since I don’t usually do anything very physically taxing on Sundays anyways. I am going to be eating a ton for the Super Bowl.  Super Bowl Sunday is the second biggest eating day in America, only trailing Thanksgiving.  I fully plan to do my part.  On the menu are ham sandwiches, pulled pork sandwiches, Italian beef sandwiches, meatball sandwiches, conglomerations of all four of those, along with a whole host of other sides and desserts.  It could be along the lines of epic.


And who do I want to win the Super Bowl?  I'd actually kind of like to see both teams come down with dysentery and both lose.  I'll also be rooting for the Halftime Show to be cancelled.  Madonna?  Really?  I bet this year the Puppy Bowl has it's highest ratings ever. 

In a couple of weeks I’ll be traveling up to Wausau with what I’m sure will be a great group of kids to do the annual Wunsch Family Foundation Circle of Friends Winter Trip.  This is going to be my fourth Winter Trip and it will be the 14^th or 15^th overall.  This trip is always a blast.  All of the kids either have cancer or have had cancer.  We go skiing, snowmobiling, tubing, cosmic bowling, and do a bunch of other fun stuff.  It’s always one of the highlights of my year.

I probably pushed a little too hard on the dead lift today.  Back is going to be angry with me for a few days.  It’s nothing that some soft tissue work can’t work out, but I have to keep the big picture in mind.  Either way I’m happy with a 550 lb. pull at 188.

Speaking of which, a small part of me wants to trumpet that I did X times my bodyweight and talk about how cool I am.  But a bigger part of me isn’t going to fall into the body weight argument trap.  Strong is strong no matter how much you weigh.  People that want to point to body weight multiples to justify their numbers probably aren’t that strong anyways.  A 550 dead lift is decent but in the grand scheme of things it’s just that, decent.


Here's videos of today's lifts:











And with that, that's it, that's all, that's all there is.  Have a great weekend.

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F+(Pb) or (Ch)=Y...my theorem on the properties of peanut butter and/or cheese.