I think yesterday’s post is pretty important and relevant to most of you. At least go over the information and use it to start actively thinking about what you do in training. If you’d like to spark more discussion, then add it to yesterday’s comments.
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I don’t know who Warrick Brant was before my friend Jacob sent me a video of him front squatting 350kg.
This dude is cocked diesel and a solid Australian competitor. From his profile:
After Breaking my neck in 2001 and having multiple screws and plates put in to hold my neck together, I realised how important it is to do the things you love and to never give up.
Since then I have won multiple powerlifting and strongman titles and have never been defeated in Australia or by any other Australian athlete.
Apparently he’s stomping ass in Australia. Apparently he’s been a big dude for a while. Here is a vid of him doing a 412kg car deadlift:
Describing that man as a large human being would be quite the understatement. Impressive.
Justin, in completely unrelated terms (as usual for me), have you stopped counting COW? I can actually only remember 2 comments, and they were probably back in July/August…
Shit, I keep forgetting to do it. I’m usually watching football on Saturdays. I’ll have to start typing it up on Fridays.
–Justin
Of course, you need a South African born bloke to be strongest in Oz.
Warrick born and raised in Durban, South Africa.
He would make a great tighthead prop, though.
A little South African pride, eh? I’m not sure what the tighthead reference means…
–Justin
What a Trooper. I love the Iron Maiden website. I’d like to hire this guy as my bodyguard. Huge guys in rugby polos who don’t play rugby are scary as shit.
The guy is a tank. I think its interesting that he moved away from BB and started doing powerlifting/strongman. Nothing against BB, but its just not something that I care for really.
Justin, i have an unrelated question that I was hoping to get your opinion on… A few months ago I think I wrote you an e-mail or possibly asked in the comments about squatting with knee problems, presumably tendonitis. Anyway, I had my knee checked out and was supposed to get an MRI but that was too expensive so i figured i would just take it easy for a while longer and let things chill out.
Flash-forward to last week, my knee was feeling good which prompted me try some really light squats. That went well so I decided to do them again on Monday of this week. My knee still feels good and I am stretching relentlessly, usually 3-4 times a day. Anyway, I was wondering what your opinion would be about rep ranges and to how often to add weight. For example this is what i did on Monday:
2×10 @ BAR only
5×10 @ 60kg, 70kg, 80kg, 90kg, 100kg,
Again, everything feels good, but I don’t want to get over zealous and screw things up again. I understand that I should gauge how my body feels and go about training accordingly, but I was just hoping to get some basic advice. Thanks-Joe
With rehab I typically ere on the side of caution. That means each day you do a little bit more than you did the previous day and wait to see if the injury is the same, better, or worse. If it’s the same or better, then you continue with the slow and steady progression. I don’t remember where it hurts, but that would have an effect on what I’d do if it were me (depending on if it were ligament, tendon, or bone related).
–Justin
Fuck. I would love to squat that much someday, let alone front squat.
Tighthead prop is the guy on the front right in a scrum.(rugby)
Front left guy is a loosehead prop.
They need to be fucking big and strong.
Ah. Gotcha.
–Justin
When I look out my office window I look directly into the window of the “globo-gym” facility across the street. I can see right into the aerobics studio (which usually isn’t too bad a gig) but they also host those “Body Pump” classes with the hollow barbells and plastic weights. Just now I was watching two people spending their hard earned cash on the advice of personal trainers.
One guy, a larger set man, was just doing horrible form quarter squats with maybe 20 lb while his trainer nodded in approval. Then switched into horrible form 1/2 good mornings, again to the approval of the trainer.
Across the room another trainer had a relatively fit lady doing 10 or 15 lb presses while standing on a Bozu ball before switching to bicep curls without getting off the ball.
I hope, for the sake of those two people, that this was merely a warmup session before their trainers moved them into actual barbel exercises. Knowing that gym though (I used to workout there until I got my home setup), they won’t. As long as the company is making their $50 per hour, or whatever the rate is, they could care less the quality of the training. –sigh–
P.S. I can’t tell you how many times I requested a second (yes they only have 1) squat rack, but no response.
@Gregor- I feel your pain with the globo-gym squat racks. The Golds I trained at only had two. One night whilst squatting, the manager asked me to to stop hogging the rack because they were the most important pieces of equipment and useful for so many different barbell lifts. In a nutshell, he is telling me that his huge expensive gym doesn’t invest in the most useful and relatively cheapest equipment. I cancelled my membership and opened a gym in a storage unit. Best decision ever.
Speaking of Australia, when are the 70’s Big Crew going to come down and pay us a visit?
Throw another bumper plate on the barbie.
What cities are interested?
–Justin
I suppose not having Warrick Brant in the front row is why South Africa lost the Tri-Nations this year then?
@BigGayBob: My gym has just started cutting hours a lot and it is a pain in the ass to make it there. Unfortunately it seems to be the only gym in the area worth two shits (lots of power racks and bumper plates, a CF gym with a strength emphasis, I only train strength, no CF).
Anyway I’d like to change gyms and was thinking of going the storage unit route and training some people on the side. How big of a storage unit do you need? Is there any thing you have to do make it legal to train people out of one?