Bastion of Fitness

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Happy PR Friday
Post personal bests and training updates to the comments.

When Ellee and I went to do the trapeze thing last Friday, there were at least five women who either did marathons or triathlons. They were probably between the ages of 25 and 45 and were all frumpy. One of them was wearing a marathon shirt so one of the girls asked her how many she had done. When she said she had done 32, the girls were impressed, “Oh my goodness! Thirty-two! Wow!”. I rolled my eyes, scoffed, and shouted, “Nobody cares!” (the last two aren’t true).

The world still defines long slow distance events as the premise that defines fitness. This marathoner, this Bastion of Fitness, carried body fat and did not have a healthy complexion. Guess what happened next? When she hopped off the 35 foot high platform to swing on the trapeze and wrap her legs over the bar…she couldn’t. This BASTION OF FITNESS lacked the strength to pull her knees up and throw her legs over the bar to hang upside down. Pathetic, but more so sad.

The 70’s Big community does a pretty good job of not being elitist concerning other forms of training, and I’d like to keep it that way. However it still bothers me when an irrelevant event like marathons are placed on a pedestal. Maybe it’s because everyone can get in their car and drive 26.2 miles and say, “Wow, what if you had to run that?” I guess there really isn’t an opportunity to look at five hundred pounds and think, “What if I had to lift that?” For example, a heavier average male black bear found throughout the U.S. weighs about 500 pounds. If you see one, the first instinct isn’t to wonder if you could lift it. Or if you could out run it in order to survive (you can’t — they can run up to 25 to 30 mph).

This black bear is unimpressed

It’s pretty unacceptable to not be able to put your legs over a bar and hang upside down. It’s not that this event is particularly specific to any relevant act in life, but the ability to do it should be a base line athletic capability. It’s kind of like PT tests in the military: they shouldn’t be the extent of your physical ability (or the primary measure thereof), but instead should be a minimum capability that someone can do randomly if needed (it’d be better if the events were more specific and relative to the job itself, but that’s neither here nor there).

I honestly feel I could train for a short amount of time and do a marathon. It would fucking suck, but things like that are more of a mental challenge than a physical challenge. The previously mentioned BASTION OF FITNESS revealed that she did a marathon at the north pole. Immediately upon hearing that I wanted to do a weightlifting meet at the north pole. Then I remembered that the north pole is located in the middle of the fucking Arctic Ocean, therefore it’s not possible to claim that you have run a marathon there, much less visited.

I’m just unimpressed with the average marathoner or triathlete. This doesn’t mean I don’t respect the good ones. I have a friend who has been to the Boston Marathon, and we’ve participated in a 1.5 mile run. He fucking smoked me, and I did it in about 10 minutes. But for the average goober, running is not the mark of health, capability, and most importantly, athleticism. But neither is only being able to lift. Play sports, work on agility, sprint around, maintain mobility — do these things so that marathoners don’t have anything on you. Not to mention you’ll actually be able to participate in random trapeze sessions. And bears will high five you.

Edit: I still need to edit/upload Ellee doing the trapeze, but here is my vid.

108 thoughts on “Bastion of Fitness”

  1. The current rage at our fire department is “running”(jogging) and p90x. Granted, most of these folks are fat-asses and are more concerned with “losing weight” than being stronger. They quote the latest statistics of this years Line-of-Duty-Deaths, (83 this year, 50 of which were heart-attacks) and see lsd cardio as the only way to “strengthen their heart”.

    So keeping your heartrate at 140bpm on a stationary bike is good for you, but keeping your heatrate at 140bpm and higher doing squats, DL etc is a waste of time.

    All I know is that when I hoist a 35′ ladder I prefer a partner who deadlifts over a partner who does marathons and p90x.

  2. One of the reasons I have enjoyed this site so well is the lack of an elitist mentality and Im glad it hasn’t changed. That said, I don’t really care to ever run a marathon (kudos to you if you do), but I know I could finish one if I took a month or two to train for it. I would have to drop other things like lifting and playing lacrosse and it would really suck but I don’t think its outside the realm of reality. I mean Pheidippides did it on a whim 2500 years ago…

    This guy is an endurance athlete that is not about LSD and what he does is absolutely amazing. Check it out

  3. @strongerthanyesterday

    They actually say this to you? If so, it might time to shift into Viking mode and pillage the office. It’s only the way. I know it to be true, and you do too.

  5. The whole deal where anybody who completes a marathon, no matter how slowly, is seen as being some exemplar of fitness, is just another manifestation of our society’s “everybody is a winner” attitude. And I say this as a former fairly good distance runner, who actually completed two marathons, one fairly quickly. I prefer the way I feel/look/function when I’m lifting a lot as opposed to running a lot. I jog a mile or two once in a while these days … no more 80-90 mile weeks for me! I can get all the exercise I need these days in 2 hours of lifting a week.

  7. I PRd in my ability to comprehend why women are so weak.

    I looked at the Wilks scores of the RAW nationals competitions, took the mean, an eyeballed the populations above and below.

    the bottom have was chock full of Fs, the top half, overwhelming majority were Ms.

    Isn’t the Wilks score supposed to equalize things a tiny bit? These are womens that aactually trained and have gone to at least 1 competition before this.

    I just don’t get it.

  13. In response to questions earlier, I’m doing SLDL’s for singles to make my hammys and lower back stronger.

    I’m currently training with Tom Martin current deadlift world record holder, and he swears by them. I’ve not done any regular deadlifts in 2 months or so.

  14. A little detail that Justin left out –

    When the women posed for pics in front of the trapeze apparatus, they were adamant that Justin be included in the background . . . swinging to and fro in an undeniable display of masculinity and physical prowess. They swooned. I got it on film, but it didn’t make the cut. This made me “tee hee heeeee”.

    Oh yeah, where my flip at?

  15. Two PRs this week:

    Deadlift – 360x5x1 (Lockout on #5 looked like hell. Going to do it again next week and clean up the form)

    Squat – 295x5x3 (I ran marathons between sets and pooped myself on the last one)

  16. Best comment goes to PENN: “If you’re gonna brag about your sport killing someone, makes sure it at least killed someone who was hard to kill.”

    I work with two triathletes. The male is laughable and the woman is.. not so attractive.

    Trapeze looks pretty rad.

  17. Justin..or someone else on here…any good stretches for Vastus Lateralis? Feels like this is going to pop when I get parallel on squats. Or should I just foam roll the shit out of it?

  19. I’m on week two of my 5×5 LP which is a PR in and of itself since it’s the first time I’ve been strict about programming. PR on power cleans because I’ve taken to cleaning 135 after unloading my deadlifts. Oh, and big ups to kpow1979 for the help with power clean programming… five sets of threes are really a good mix for me. Thanks man!

  24. Finally achieved some PR’s this week. I’m only 8 months into a LP (and lifting in general) but I feel like I’m making some good progress for an old fat guy.

    Squat: 305 lbs 3×5
    Deadlift: 385 2×2
    Bench: 175 lbs 3×4

  28. Sternum still sore when pushing anything. did do 5 modified push ups this week. woo-frakkin-who

    PR. Squatted 225lbs 13 times for 3 sets. Next week I’ll will get 15.

  29. My goal as an athlete is to be a good- if not competitive- ultra runner while also being really, really strong. After about 9 months into my journey I’ve increased in my 3 core lifts (press, dl, squat) by about 150# total and have completed 3 ultras. I’m running 105 miles in a few weeks for the first time and I’m pretty excited about it. Funny thing is, I literally have not trained at all to run and have done nothing but strength training since my last ultra in August, yet I’m completely confident I will finish with a pretty good time.

    I’m doing one 4 hour run tomorrow morning actually just to get my mind set for it, but I can attest that strength athletes transfer very well to endurance, much more so than people will lead you to believe. My ultimate goal is to run 100 miles in under 24 hours in a competitive race while having a deadlift in the 500’s, squat in the 400’s and a press over 200 lbs. If I decide to go through with it I can likely accomplish this sometime in 2012.

  30. I don’t mean to sound like a snob with my saying that I’ confident I will finish either. I should mention that I’m well aware that the lack of running training could bite me in the ass and cause me to DNF, which I will use as a learning tool for my next attempt.

    It’s funny how people are baffled when they ask if I run everyday and I tell them I strength train instead. Most don’t believe that I am being serious.

  32. An annoying achy week, no personal records, but here’s what I done good:

    weighted chin-ups (bw 175)
    bw+90 x 1
    bw+180 x 1
    bw+160 x 1
    bw+135 x 1
    bw+90 x 4

    Seated shoulder press (because my poor wittle neck hurted)

    205×3
    225×2
    245×1
    245×1
    225×2
    205×4

  36. ah, no real PRs this week. well, i guess i’m doing intensity day on sunday, so we’ll see what happens.

    i suppose i could say i PR’d in the fact that i didn’t sleep on the gym floor for two hours while i waited for my lifting buddies to finish their workouts this week. i guess it’s an energy for actually working out instead of sleeping PR, in other words.

    i’m still having a really, really, really hard time finding a consistent weekday/time schedule for lifting with grad school. i at least have made myself a new, revamped program to adhere to since doing the whole intuitive thing didn’t work at all for me during my first month of adjusting to the move and new lifestyle with school. that could be a PR, i suppose.

    anyway, jeeez this is rambling. sorry guys. i just feel like i have a lot of catching up to do. i miss visiting this site consistently and seeing all your progress updates so much. i feel so disconnected!

    oh i just remembered something else! the UNT powerlifting club is up and running! we are planning to do a meett in december and we have a handful of meets picked out for next semester! i’m soooooo stoked. i have trained with the founders a couple of times—they are super intense and they make my training extremely effective.

  37. Press 165×1, 155 4×1: squat 335 5×1: I can see the bear is as unimpressed with me as I am. Or maybe someone is taking too long to get his pickanick basket ready.

  40. I hate how people do marathons and think they are in awesome shape. I never want to do a marathon due to that. In fact the only marathon distance race I ever did had a couple special conditions. I carried a 40lbs ruck and the race was in the desert so several portions were in the sand (that sucked). I finished that in 7 hours and 46 minutes.

    Justin can easily finish a marathon with little to no training. In fact, I bet he can walk out of the door right now and complete the distance. He might take like 6 or 7 hours but he will finish it. Running long distances (not at world class speed) is all about balls. Your body is controlled by your mind so if you have a strong will then you can complete the task.

    I signed up for two ultramarathons in 2009 (a 50k and 50 miler) and also did them with minimal training and no specialized preparation. I finished the 50k in 6 hours and a couple seconds and the 50 miler in 12 hours and 48 minutes. The only prep I did was running 15-20 miles a week. At one of the aid stations for the 50k, I told the worker that I only ran that much and the worker was surprised and said I should have done at least 40-50 miles a week. I can only imagine proper training for a 50 mile race would be substantially more and probably upward to the 70 miles a week.

    @Benk
    You will finish if you believe you can. Just don’t give up and keep putting one foot in front of the other. Strength training will help your ultra due to the trail’s ups and downs.

  43. Squat: 455×1
    DL: 445×3
    Bench: 220×3

    First time 1 repping any lift was different than 5 rep intensity days. After gym time I stupidly went out and drank myself into a stupor. I was unimpressed with myself at least I crammed some food and a protein shake between lifts and booze so its not all horrible.

  44. SQ: 370×5 PR
    Press: 172.2×5 PR
    DL: 430×3 PR
    Lying tricep extension: 85x8x2 (PR? lulz)

    Loving TM. Put in the work on Tuesdays, and the PRs are waiting for me on Saturday.

  45. @ Penn: I used to do one-armed chins every Wednesday, starting from the ground though, not a dead-hang.

    @ Domjo: Thanks. I think it’s an attainable strength goal for a lot of people, just not a popular one. Yeah, I’d like to see a double bodyweight standing press without the limbo leanback or a youtube push press.

  47. Bench 87.5kg 1×5
    Jerk 120kg

    O-lift comp in 2 weeks hopefully i can sort my shit out leading up at the moment, i’m very hit and miss with max days.

    Oh and so glad geelong got up in the afl grand final because i fuckin hate collingwood.

    go warriors

  48. @icanmakeyouaman – I’m pretty sure you’re an asshole, but since you can’t even say what you mean and since you can’t use spellcheck, maybe I am wrong. I don’t think so, though.

  49. @tbone

    Hi, no I was sleep deprived and using internet explorer. I wanted to go back and edit the tone but you can’t edit comments.

    I’m just frustrated. I did some stats on the Raw nationals results, and in the weight classes where open M and F overlap (56-90), the mean Wilks for men is 385.95, mean Wilks for women is 336.91, and excluding J. Thompson it’s 331.94.

    So it’s like a 50-55 point difference. I don’t know if that’s big or small. Or what it mean about the use of the Wilks formula to decide things. Sample size is relatively small though, so I guess that’s a big part.

    Raw numbers-wise, IDK, I always feel humans in general should be stronger, across sexes. Maybe it has to do with the lack of football (which includes regimented strength training) in HS, and women don’t get that leg up.

  50. @icanmakeyouaman

    The main disparity comes from the bench press. Most women struggle to bench press more than their bodyweight while most smaller guys who compete in powerlifting can bench press more than their bodyweight.

    Football has nothing to do with it. Other sports in high school strength trained including the girl’s teams.

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