Big fish little pond

if you could be the best out of a bunch of scrubs, or be the worst out of a bunch of studs which would you choose? i'd rather follow studs than lead wackasses.

recently i had the privelage to lift with coach sadiv at parisi's speed school in new jersey. for those who dont know who coach sadiv is, please youtube him right now, he is also known as the human crane. the order of the day was deadlifts and boy did we ever pull some weight! with an achy lower back from sitting at the desk too long and not warming up and stretching for about a month i pulled an easy 525 and attempted a personal best of 575 which i failed but the motivation and fire was there! from there we moved on to reverse band deadlifts to help with the lockout. with this set up I pulled a devilish 300kg (get it!!! 300kg's 666 pounds)! for those that never reverse band pulled, at the lockout its pretty much all you!

ok, thats enough reporting heres the moral of the story, you are as successful as the average of the five people closest to you or something like that. success is contagious! thats why its so hard for kids to get out of the projects. and why deuchebag fratboys will always bench no more 225 and quarter smith machine squat 135 but will try to rack out the leg extension machine. luckily i had the human crane who is probablythe best deadlifter in the 82 kilogram weight class in this country and shintaro higashi who is a top 50 in the world judo player as my lifting partners, those studs will show me how to be on their level of success!

Dn't be a big fish in a small pond! if you're too big for that by not moving forward you will stop growing. Just being in that atmosphere encourages growth! Get right or you'll get left. Move to that bigger stage if you have outgrown the one you are in now. I had just one workout, one conversation, one meeting with coach Sadiv and I already know I am improved as a lifter! My mind set got right now i know what awesomeness is.

My new goals are 1400+ pound total in a powerlifting meet. Although this goal has always been there for me, it now seems more real having lifted with people in my weight class doing the numbers i wish to do. Surround yourself and you'll soon learn to do what they do, their successful habits will become yours, you'll learn whatever "secrets" they have and you'll be one of them provided you do what they did to get to where they are and you want to be.

Haterade

H.A.T.E.R.S

Having
Anger
Towards
Everyone
Reaching
Success

Olympic/Powerlifter's- All bloated fat bastards, so what if you can lift heavy weight once, you can't do anything for more than 6 repetitions without breaking out in a sweat. This includes walking.

Bodybuilders- WEAK!! All the look of Athleticism none of the athleticism. Can't move functionally to save their life. Would probably make good poppers in a breakdancing crew since all they can do is move one joint at a time. oh and do not get me started on the smith machine work, the half (at best) squats and my all around favorite smith half squat.

Crossfit-The worst people alive. Awesome 60kg snatch bro! that 95 lb thruster is really manly. form? totally overated, who needs to learn how to do a clean when you can do an explosive power reverse curl and do not plan on going heavier than bodyweight anyway.

Pilates- Those little leg circles and drawing my belly button will really help when i go lift umm i guess myself lying horizontally in a sliding bed with my feet turned out. um if i ever find myself in that situation i'm all good to go.

Yoga- nice posterior pelvic tilt I'm certain that is normal. also love the absolute disregard to woolf's law as well as lack of muscle overall

Kettlebeller's- you and your 35.2 lb balls rock! why would i ever need to put up any weight a real man would lift when i have 35.2 lb balls

Endurance athletes- Injury= (number of repetitions x force)/ (amplitude x rest)
enjoy all of your knee/shoulder/hip/spine surgeries. Your sport never caused the injury though it was that ONE time you squatted/deadlifted/benched/overhead pressed/did a pull-up/dip/good morning/anything worthwhile that hurt you snot the literal millions of reps

Functional trainees- awesome walkout into spiderman lunge into pigeon pose into worlds greatest stretch then downward facing dog/ calf stretch, into overhead squat on the way up. so cool that you can move WITHOUT any weight. its appropriate to model movements after babies motor learning patters because you use similar resistance. also enough with the bands already

I think i covered most of the stupid comments people make about other styles of lifting not their own.

I powerlift but i'm not fat, am i as muscled as a bodybuilder no. as lean as a crossfitter no. as flexible as a yogi no. core aware as a pilates practioner no. as mobile as people who focus on functional training nope. Everything has a purpose and just as in program design the important things go first, for me its my competition lifts but having more muscle might keep less likely to be injured as well as stepping my sexy game up. kettlebells are great low impact explosive hip extension, cardio, and potentially awesome for mobility if done right. Everything is a tool that is helpful regardless of your goal, would i love to have the abs that the women of crossfit have? hell yes!

What ruins everything is our Dogmatic Zealous approach to things. The paleo-lithic male lived off of wheat and worms and usually died in his teens, that doesn't mean that a diet plan that recommnends more vegetables less food that you didnt make yourself and (god bless them) more bacon isn't awesome. i shouldn't make fun of a bodybuilder for being weaker or as strong as I am even though i weigh 2/3 what they do. Why, because thats how it should be. if i compete in a strength sport then i better be stronger than the guy that competes in a physique sport. If that is not the case then I failed miserably.

Don't knock it till you tried it. An honest sincere approach. Think kb's are stupid work to get a good score on the secret service test, compete in a GS meet, train for a compete in a PL meet oly meet, do crossfit for 3 months, tryout for the games, run the urbanathlon. do yoga and pilates for a month, run a 10k . Everything has it's benefits and drawbacks, each training style (if that makes sense) impose a specific demand on the body, that demand will elicit its own specific adaptation. Said adaptation will be exceptional greater to somebody that normally doesn't train in that style. Use the right tool for the job! the more tools you have at your disposal the better job you can do

Lastly i've done all of these (except try out for the CF games but i will see you in march kids) and i've added each of that to my personal toolbox and I am a better coach and athlete for it.

NOW STOP...... HATING'S BAD