Ten Things I Would Have Done Differently (6-10)

Greetings Friends,

A bit over a week ago we sent out an email in which I talked about the great start I got in heavy physical training. How I was blessed to start the way I did, but that the wisdom of years has taught me that there are things I could have done better. Things that would have given me a faster start and a leg up on the road to super-strength.

Here are the other five things I would have done differnetly:

6. Started combination or “Twisted” training from the beginning. The combination of single rep training and high rep training together has been one of the most productive things I have ever done. In my study since the beginning I have found in one way or another everybody who is super-strong does some form of this training. I would have wasted less time on cycling reps and spent more time training different exercises in consistently low, medium and high reps.

7. Really heavy upper-back work. Very few people I think really do this even today with the exception of a few of your bigger lifters and strongmen. We pound our legs with low rep squats, lower back with low rep deadlifts and upper body with low rep presses and then we finish it with for some reason, high rep pulldowns and other moderately effective exercises instead of the big bang-for-your-back upper back moves. For some reason we’re afraid to treat rows like any other major compound upper body movement. But my upper body strength, musculature and appliable strength took a huge jump when I started to train brutally heavy rows just like any other big movement. Low reps and with as much weight as I could handle.

8. Power rack and partial training. When I started this training no one thought it had any validity. It was an old way of doing things that even the hardcore training people thought they were “more advanced than.” The phenomenal muscular and strength gains I achieved fromt hat kind of training prove that it’s not out of date or ineffective. I think the benefit you get from that training especially in the joint strength, bone density and body loading is indispensible for that kind of strength gains.

9. Stayed away from supportive gear. At the time I began lifting weights it was with competitive powerlifters. The supportive gear they were using at the time is nothing like the hydraulic suits of today. And they only used it for short periods of time in a training year. So it’s really neither here nor there. I don’t think it did me any benefit in long-term training. The real thing I should have been doing is staying out of a weightlifting belt for everything except the heaviest sets giving my abdominals and back a chance to strengthen in the same proportion as my hips and thighs. I think you should use a belt for your heaviest lifts, but only those lifts. Stay out of it as much as possible to create the greatest strength benefits.

10. Odd object and strongman training. Even though this was only 18 years ago, as far as strongman training was concerned it might as well have been the dark ages. You think odd object lifting is an underground theme now?? At that time it was barely even a historical anecdote or a glimmer of evil in most insane people’s eyes. So consequently I was already weightlifting strong when I started picking up rocks and kegs and anything else that wasn’t bolted down. But… my ability to apply my strength to any area of life and sport as well as my general level of strength took massive jumps when I began this outlaw form of training. How much stronger would I have been if I had started it from day one? Not bragging, but I was tough enough to play college football. Had I had four years of the kind of training that I do now at the time that I went to college, I would have been lethal. It makes THAT much difference.

Examine your training to see if you’ve done these ten things that we’ve talked about. If all of these things aren’t in your training then you’re missing out. If you’re training someone new and you’re not teaching them these things they are getting a short education in strength. If these ten facets aren’t there you’re only a whisper of the strength that you could possess. If you want to learn more about how then you should visit us at http://strongerman.com/storefront.html