“Conditioned Strength”
Years ago I didn’t know the different kinds of strength I only knew
that strength and physical fitness always interested me and I was
drawn right to it. The only strength athlete was my dad a truck driver
over the road furniture mover short and thick, could lift almost
anything he got his hands on and could go for hours despite
smoking 2 packs of non filter cigarettes a day.
It wasn’t until years later that I realized there were different types
of strength, strength that can move a heavy object one time and
the strength to move a heavy object many times.
I went for the one rep max strength and over the years done more
damage to my body not to mention gaining weight and losing a lot
of athletic ability because of the weight gain and focusing on one rep
strength.
When I started to realize the benefits of “Conditioned Strength”
Strength that can I will last when you are tired and can still continue
to keep going and even become stronger at the end, to me that is
the real benefit. Strength in the beginning of a task that can’t
last is of no use to me.
When you are breathing heavy and your muscles decide they can
no longer go and you need to stop you have left yourself in a bad
situation a situation of quitting. For instance you will benefit more from
being able to do 100 pushups than being able to bench press 300lbs
one time. If you able to do 100 pushups I can guarantee you
are physically fit yet a person that can bench 400lb one time
is probably and almost always is not fit.
These men almost always focus on the strength and not the
“Conditioned Strength” of exercise and I can almost always promise
these guys couldn’t run a few short sprints. But to be able to do 100
pushups requires a full body effort including the anaerobic system the
400lb bench presser is using usually low reps usually 5 reps or less with
a lot of rest in between sets.
A lot of men don’t understand this type of Conditioned Strength unless they
are using their bodies on a regular basis to lift, pull, drag, carry at a high volume
sitting in an office it really doesn’t matter but a laborer has and needs the strength
to continue all day to get the job done.
Our country wasn’t built on men that were one rep men these men were
strong all day long think about the cave man walking carrying sprinting
wrestling “Conditioned Strength” one rep strength would be useless
I try to educate people on the benefits of bodyweight training and
natural body movements for functional fitness I believe you can and
will do better with less equipment and more creativity than complicated
training programs created by experts that have never really trained. I
loved having the meat head gym ego I loved strength and still do except
now I love “Conditioned Strength” because it has changed my life for the
better. I loved having 18 ½ “arms and a 21” neck at 5’7 and 240lbs I
looked huge and intimidating. That is what most men think, get big and
scare other men. But I can tell you this, just looking like you are athletic
lean and carrying yourself with confidence will give the same confidence
except instead of looking you are being.
I do not think there is anyone who can teach the benefits of functional
fitness better than me considering my whole life has been earning my
living with functional strength and if you include the 30 plus years of
training my body has probably triple the work and stress put on it if
not more than the most experienced fitness expert.
Toughness Builds Winners
Johnny Grube
Right on Johhny. As always, you nailed it. Like you, I also logged in countless hours in the weight room over a 30 year span. This functional strength body weight exercise stuff is no joke though–it’s hard core. Doing low rep workout in the weight room vs. a hard core body weight workout? Forget it–if someone is trying what you suggest and their butt hasn’t totally been kicked by the end, they ain’t doin’ it right! All someone has to do is alternate push ups and pull ups non-stop til they drop, then tell me body weight exercises aren’t for real!