Know Your Enemy
Remember that OLD school tune with Rage Against the Machine, “Know the Enemy”?
Yep, Yep… well, with training, it’s the same difference.
After training for 22 years I am still learning more and more about my body, sometimes, ya gotta learn the HARD way.
The other day I saw a video of Louie Simmons hitting rack pulls, I was inspired, and decided I too, need to do rack pulls.
Problem is, I’ve been injured on them before, even with light weights well below my max.
Well, as my boy Jonny Hinds says, we’re part of the knuckle head crew. We KNOW not to do certain things but we still do them.
Squats of all types and trap bar deadlifts work plenty fine for me, and, eventually, ya just gotta cut your losses and eliminate some movements.
Heavy rack pulls and even light rack pulls don’t get me stronger OR make my back feel good.
Speed deads work great for me and yes, NO deadlifting works quite well, too.
I remember when I first opened my gym, I was in there a lot and wanted a lil’ change of scenery and some motivation. I decided to train at the gym next door as I was about to deadlift. I knew that people watching me would fire me up.
I hadn’t deadlifted for 2 months! But…. I had been doing plenty of similar movements such as squats with barbells, kettlebells, sandbags and even stones.
I was also doing lots of sled work at the end of each workout as well as 2 – 3 trips during my warm ups.
What happened?
I went in and deadlifted 515 for an easy single, beating my best 500 lb deadlift. I realized then I didn’t need to deadlift to break a deadlift record, but, sometimes we fall in love with an exercise and overdo it.
Be smart and LISTEN to your body, do what it tells you to do. Right now, I am in rest & recovery mode, something I haven’t done since I graduated from undergrad and finished a stressful 4 month internship. My body was wiped out as was my body. I rested and stopped training until my body told me it was time to get back in action.
The Bench Press is awesome, BUT, if it kills your shoulders even after you’ve worked with experts in the field to make it better, f**k it, get rid of it and do what works and what feels good for YOU.
Don’t be afraid to veer from a program that you love, but may be causing you some bodily harm. The more you train the more things change – your body begins to respond to things differently and you need to keep tweaking your program to find what does two things for you:
1) What makes you stronger, bigger, faster, etc – improves overall performance
2) What makes you feel GREAT, not just good, but GREAT. If the training bangs you up, change it up and drop out of the knucklehead club.
In Strength,
–Z–
PS: I’ll be laying low on external resistance until my body tells me it’s time to get back to it. As I am in rest & recovery mode, my next assault will be on taking my bodyweight & gymnastics based drills to a new level.
Follow along with me, This is Legit – The Convict Conditioning Workout
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Filed under Articles, Strength Building, Success, Underground Strength Show, Videos, Zach's Workouts, muscle building by on Apr 22nd, 2011. Comment. 
Comments on Know Your Enemy
Totally agree with that.
For me using heavy double kettlebells and sandbags
packed me some good amount of muscles and strengthened my
low back which I occassionaly tweaked when using BB.
Some people may call me a pussy or stubborn guy just because
i don’t use the BB so called the ‘king of weight’ but
if it bangs me up then maybe its wise to use other alternative
that works better.
Anyway thanks for the good article!
Keep rockin!!
[Reply]
Zach,
I have already accepted that there are just certain lifts that my body cannot tolerate well and I now avoid them. As we age I think eventually we tend to figure this out instinctively, especially from experience; injuries from aggressive lifts, bad form, etc.
Thanks for shedding some light on this topic. The fact that we can all find our own path and continue to find ways to be strong is what really matters. Great article Zach!
Train hard, but train smart!
[Reply]
Brilliant idea. How many guys over 200 can do strict rows with bodyweight? The CC chin up progrressions make for a good substitute. And I don’t care what a guy benches, those press ups with feet together are TOUGH–I’ve only seen one guy do them a superhuman rugby player/power lifter with short arms (and it looked like his head was going to pop!!!)
Plus, the handstand will keep those delts strong without presses. I’m a big “ground up” guy but I rarely press anymore…stick to BW. My shoulders don’t sound like rice crispies under milk any more…
Great ideas here, as usual Zack!
H
[Reply]
“Know your enemy as you know yourself and you will never loose.”-Sun Tzu (The Art of War)
Stones, tire, farmer’s carry, power snatch, thick bar work, Hell anything heavy, and not found in the pretty boy magazines.
There are sooo many ways to build strength, speed and power that limiting yourself to the traditional lifts will lessen your gains.
Sometimes to be a beast you must lift like a beast.
“Raining Blood”-Slayer
[Reply]
Great post, Zach. I couldn’t agree more with switching up and changing routines. I’ve been following various routines from your e-books for about two years now and I’m on month four of the Beast program. I started off at 230 lbs and trust me I had some fat to shred. I’m now 212 and ran a 5k yesterday with guys who were about 30 lbs lighter than me. I’m proud to say WE all finished at 24:37 which puts our mile time average at sub 8 minute. I haven’t run distance for a year and the only running I’ve done is the occasional 100 yard sprint coupled with sandbag squats in the Beast program. Your programs work and translate well into other phyisical endurance areas. Thanks for your help!
[Reply]
You need to train more with your Uncle Mike!
The mountain bike is your friend.
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