Not settling for less
The definition of fitness has changed throughout the last several decades. Back in the early 19th century, lifting was primarily either the power lifts or Olympic lifts. The Olympic lifting world was mostly dominated by western Europeans until Tommy Kono came into the picture and became champion in the Olympics throughout the 1950‘s breaking 26 world records. The Olympic lifting world is now again dominated by western Europe. Pyrros Dima is one of the best. He was able to clean and jerk 469lbs in competition. Do you know why Olympic lifting has been more elite in western Europe. Its because of the modernization of fitness equipment in the United States.
Many average people are stuck in the nautilus machine prison or whatever other machines are. The process is very methodic and mundane. For example the YMCA nautilus intructor gives a very repetetive workout to the trainee. The prescription given is do each machine 1 set for 8-12 reps. The process is painful to watch and to do every week too. The process entails sitting on a machine, doing the motion, then getting up and wiping the machine done. You can’t skip the line in front of other people you must do them in order.
No wonder people quit on fitness. Imagine doing that monotonous workout 3 times of week. These types of workouts for the most part only frustrate people and discourage them from their fitness goals. Before I discovered the weight room, I was stuck in cardio and nautilus prison until I was 14 and started doing bench.
I am not advocating that everyone should do power and Olympic lifts. But the idea of the modern machine workouts just don’t yeild results.
This is where people settle for less. They think there doing the right thing. They make no progress though. Some gym goers tend to find their own nitch and don’t lift to their potential. I will give you an example. My roomates go to the gym with me for the most part. One of my roomates JD can lift at my intensity and can progress. My other roomate Tony is stuck in his own little rut of no progress. We were lifting one night and I told Tony to do some dips. He tried and fell of the dip rack. Like a six year old he said, “ I can’t do dips and I ll never be able to.” I was disappointed and I said that there is no can’t in the weight room. There are many gym goers like Tony stuck in a rut. They never try to strive to be better.
There is one brand of fitness that culminates the best elements of fitness and combines them masterfully. It’s called cross fit. It is a combination of metabolic workouts, Olympic lifts, and a little bit of gymnastics. This program is used to train elite military forces and ultimate fighters. There is one workout called fight gone bad which consists of wall ball tosses, deadlift high pulls, rows, plyo box jumps, and barbell thrusters. All of the workouts are either timed and set certain amount of reps or there is a time frame that one tries to do as many reps as possible. Although cross fit is used to train elite task forces, it can also be modified for a beginner. If you stick to cross fit, you are bound to make progress.
I have been a serious power lifter for a couple of years now. Whenever I do a cross fit workout, I am more exhausted doing those high rep workouts then my intense power lifts. I finally discovered that I can have both worlds. For the past 2 weeks, I have incorporated cross fit style body lifts to my workouts. I do a power lift like say for instance deadlifts. I hit maybe 4 by 6 or 5 by 4 something to that fact. I then do something like wide grip pull-ups. I set it to a high amount of reps like from 50-100.
I always worried that high rep workouts would get me skinny. Trust me from experience it does not. After a week of trying this, I lost some fat from my mid section and put on muscle mass.
<message edited by gunshowkeough on Monday, December 04, 2006 9:51 AM>