The older and more experienced (and more broken) I become, the less and less convinced I am of the need for "gut bustingly hard" herculean marathon efforts to attain exceptional results.
I've known my share of world class athletes and many (if not most) were NOT the hardest workers. I know this because if they had been trying hard in practice, there was no way I would have ever beaten them. And yet I beat them often in practice... and they destroyed me in competitions.
The "elite" work hard... very hard... sometimes. They can turn it on when they want to or need to, but most of the time they are cruising. Most of the time they are just cruising, making forward progress steadily, and making small, meaningful adjustments along the way.
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After seeing, literally, hundreds of people struggling (sometimes unknowingly) with squat form, I decided to create the Squat Rx instructional videos on squat form and training. This blog is meant to be a platform for those videos, and a place of discussion about strength and conditioning issues for coaches, trainers, teachers, athletes, students, and enthusiasts. Posts and articles are meant to provoke thought, inspiration, and reflection.
My athletic background is in gymnastics, Tae Kwon Do, competitive swimming, powerlifting, and kettlebells. I have coached swimming at the age-group, high school, D3, and masters levels, served as a S&C coach at the high school level, and conducted kettlebell workshops and classes for CrossFit, high school students, and personal trainers.
Please leave a comment or a question.
Good Squatting!
About Squat Rx
After seeing, literally, hundreds of people struggling (sometimes unknowingly) with squat form, I decided to create the Squat Rx instructional videos on squat form and training. This blog is meant to be a platform for those videos, and a place of discussion about strength and conditioning issues for coaches, trainers, teachers, athletes, students, and enthusiasts. Posts and articles are meant to provoke thought, inspiration, and reflection.
My athletic background is in gymnastics, Tae Kwon Do, competitive swimming, powerlifting, and kettlebells. I have coached swimming at the age-group, high school, D3, and masters levels, served as a S&C coach at the high school level, and conducted kettlebell workshops and classes for CrossFit, high school students, and personal trainers.
Please leave a comment or a question.
Good Squatting!
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Posts
The Best of Squat Rx
- 3 Is A Magic Number
- Cause or Symptom?
- Commitment Follows Competence
- Daily Stretches For Strength & Health
- Elbow Positioning When Squatting
- Entitlement
- Favoring One Side When Squatting
- How Bench Shirts Work
- I Can't Squat ATF (...and other tales of woe)
- It's In The Hips (That's Where It Is!)
- Lessons From The Matrix: Causality & Choice
- Lessons From The Matrix: Me, Me, Me
- Lessons From The Matrix: There is No Spoon
- Mikka Bouzu
- Motivation is Overrated
- Squats & Head Positioning
- Squats & Lower Back Pain (part I)
- Squats & Lower Back Pain (part II)
- The Joys of Ownership
- The Second Noble Truth
- The Stigma Of Stretching
- Training For New and Expecting Fathers
- Widening Your Squat Stance
- Wrist Pain When Squatting
Resources-Articles-Sites
- Become a S&C coach for Zombies!!
- Dan John's Get Up! Newsletter
- Deadlift Stud, Squatting Dud
- Digging Out Of A Blizzard: 5 Lessons For Life & Training
- everythingstrength.com
- Functional Anatomy: Muscle Tutorials
- Getting Under The Bar - Help For Stiff-Shouldered Squatters
- Lift Up - History of Olympic Weightlifting
- Shouldering Through The Pain - article
Message Boards and Blogs
- Adam "Unbreakable" Glass' Blog
- Dave Draper's Iron Online Forums
- Diesel Crew Blog
- Dr. Rob Wagner's Blog
- Dragon Door S&C Forum
- Gubernatrix Blog
- Iron Bear Fitness Blog
- Iron Maven
- Johnny Mnemonic's Strength Training Forums
- Josh Hanagarne, The World's Strongest Librarian
- Niel Patel's Blog
- Randy Hauer's Blog
- RKC Brett Jones' Blog - Applied Strength
- RKC Dr. Mark Cheng's Blog
- RKC Faizal S. Enu's Blog
- RKC Fawn Friday's Blog
- RKC Franklin Herman
- RKC Franz Snideman's Blog
- RKC Matt Schinabeck's Blog
- RKC MC's Blog
- RKC Rif's Blog
- RKC Takei's Blog
- The Strength Rules Blog
7 comments:
Gerat point! I was never the best practice sprinter on the track and field team. I trained hard but seemed to do much better in meets. My brother was by far the BEST practice sprinter but he choked in meets!
Great point!!!
Thank you Franz and CONGRATULATIONS TO YOU & YOUR FAMILY!!!
Boris, I came to the same realizations after reading some posts of Mark's Daily Apple (on "Primal Living"). It seems like in good training the frequency of certain intensity is to be inversely propotional to that intensity. Most of the time we should walk, sometimes run and rarely sprint very hard.
Ian King wrote that after third of workouts you should feel fresh. After another third - slightly tired. After the last third - exhausted.
I think this post connects with your post on caffeine. Caffeine allows people to do more - both physically and cognitively - but using it all the time diminishes its effect significantly and in fact prevents proper recovery.
Yep, the older I get I find the more important it is to do just enough and not too much. I'm struggling lately to find that sweet spot. It's often tough to say to yourself, take a day off from training - ease off the peddle a little.
In Tai Chi it is said that doing too little is the same as doing too much. We have to find the "middle way."
In modern training terms we want enough training overload to elicit a positive adaption but not so much that we begin to break down.
Thanks Skor. I think the proportions are probably right on.
Thanks Charlie. Given a choice, it's better to under train than overtrain - don't know that that advice would hold in all fields, but it certainly seems to apply to strength training.
IN other words - live here and now (train here and now), not in the future (for future result and goal :)
Enjoy the way, not the goal.
EXACTLY.
Thank you Petr.
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