Witness the Fitness

[luka]

what i find provocative is the notion that conventional strength training is antithical to mobility training

 

[luka]

train for sprints or long distance. what do you want your body to do? it cant do everything

 

[luka]

there is no optimum. choose. what are you designed for?

 

[luka]

this is where i kick against constant escape and his invocation of optimisation.

 

[luka]

we are born different. to get a ben johnson or a mo farah you have to submit to specalisation. what danny l as a skinny lanky person can do is different from what a squat powerful muscular person can do

 

[luka]

danny l will never be a power lifter. hes a runner bean. dont split the difference. find out what your magic power is. that's my feeling.

 

[DannyL]

I feel the key for me is to actually do it. To find something that I like in and of itself enough that it motivates me to keep doing it. It's been a real pleasure to me to rediscover how much I enjoy lifting weights.

 

[luka]

well im not going to argue against that.

 

[luka]

and also as i said on the yoga thread there are few things as rewarding as doing the thing you are bad at. in your case, lifting weights, in my case, trying to be supple.

 

[luka]

so it's tricky isnt it

 

[luka]

doing the thing you are not designed to do is maybe the best thing you can do. what do you think?

 

[luka]

the question raised here i think is do i want to be balanced or do i want to lean into my speciality

 

[luka]

now for my part i am trying to be balanced actually which means working on my weakneses

 

[luka]

and its frustrating and humiliating and quite possibly stupid

 

[padraig (u.s.)]

there is no optimum

this isn't really a useful way of looking at it

obviously everyone is born with a different and unique genetic potential

but for the great majority of people that will never come into play. it really only matters if you're a competitive athlete.

it's about maximizing your potential in whatever way you choose to

you (and I) will never compete for the World's Strongest Man

that doesn't mean you couldn't lift weights, get strong, in fact very strong compared to the average non-weightlifting person

it requires a great deal of hard and discipline (consistency, NUTRITION, rest). it is always hard and often frustrating.

Greg Lemond said about cycling "It never gets easier. You just go faster". that's true of everything.

it never gets easier. you just lift more, jump higher, do more pullups, whatever you're trying to do.

of course there's always a decision about how much time, effort, suffering you want to invest into it.

I'm 100% anti-elitism in fitness. the best is to do something. once you're doing something, you can always intensify, if you want to.

not everyone wants to live like a monk and eat 30g of protein every 2 hours and whatever, which is fine.

 

[luka]

sure, we are all runtish here. we do a bit. we will never be elite. you, me, maybe even version. i get that.

 

[luka]

we are not elite physical specimens

 

[luka]

but even so there are things our bodies are more fitted for than other things

 

[padraig (u.s.)]

but even so there are things are bodies are more fitted for than other things

that doesn't mean you can only do what you're "fitted for"

if you're not tall (and incredibly athletic etc) you'll never be in the NBA. that doesn't mean you can't play, and get pretty good, at basketball.

almost no one is an "elite physical specimen" btw

I'm usually - it's slipped during lockdown - in better shape than - conservatively - 95% of Americans

that still means there are millions of people in this country alone fitter than me. so what? should I give up?

there will always be someone stronger or faster or whatever. that's not a reason not to do something.

tbh I'm not a fan of whining about things being hard and we'll never be the best so let's not even try. no offense.

 

[luka]

i think the quandries, as runts, as padraig, as luka, as danny, are the same as they are for elite phyisical specimens. there are many things you can train your body to do