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Manage Your Options!
The problem with the Strength, Conditioning and Fitness community today is that we have all fallen in love with the videos of NFL guys or SEALs or UFC fighters do this and that and this prepping for something. Yeah. Me, too. I want to be that guy. I'm going to buy some tribal tats and some clothes that hug every inch of me and crank up the noise and…
And, that is great. Bless you. Then, comes the reality check: I'm always the biggest guy in the picture and I was four inches too short for my position to play in the NFL. I didn't join the Navy, so, well, that option was out and, to be honest, if you have never been punched in the face, I'm not sure why you would want to find out how it feels in a televised event.
For most of us who are trying to scrub a few pounds of fat that has frowned over the belt or compete in a sport with a just a few qualities, we can get caught up in all of this stuff. And that is the problem. As I have noted endlessly: "Everything works…for about six weeks!" Then what? I'm not going to abandon you here, just follow along for a few minutes.
Years ago, Doctor Tom Fahey told me that all an elite level discus thrower needed for strength levels was the following:
Bench Press: 400
Squat: 450
Snatch: 250
Clean: 300
To be honest, for the average person, these are big numbers, but in the area of strength training, they are modest. To get to these numbers, it would take two to five years of concentrated training for a person with a thrower's body and mentality. At the bodyweight of most throwers, those numbers work out to two "F's" and two "D's" when you compare them to the world record for the sport specialist. That is a lousy GPA!
In my case, I basically benched for four years, then Olympic lifting only for the rest of my career. In hindsight, I think it was an error as a blend of the two sports may have been best. One of my favorite articles of all times notes:
*"Brian Oldfield, Al Feuerbach, Bruce Wilhelm, and Sam Walker favored the quick lifts, while George Woods and Randy Matson leaned toward the strength lifts. …if there was any real consensus among the champion shotputters, it was that a mixture of quick and strength lifts is effective."
Dave Davis, Track Technique, March and June 1974
Here is the issue for a discus thrower, and in a moment I will expand this out to most people: One can achieve the highest levels of strength for throwing through several routes. These include:
Olympic lifting
Power lifting
Strongman Training
Highland Games
Power Bodybuilding
Frankly, they all work. I'm sure that blending these some how would work better than just doing one, but that would be a tough experiment and probably would involve a Time Machine, like the one I am working on.
You see, these schools of strength training are "Options." If there is a key to understanding Quadrant ...
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