I feel bad for this generation of lifters.

I'd say that 99.99999999% will NEVER know what it's like to JUST train for the sake of training and have NO phone around them.

The kids I train nowadays always sneak a look at their phone when they grab a drink. Eventually ya gotta tell them to STOP taking a water break after EVERY SET.

The beauty and purity of a training session where / when there were NO cell phones is beyond what my words can describe.

When I was 17 years old, my buddy worked the front desk at the gym.

He was a bodybuilder and he had skinny legs. He knew legs were his weak area and he wanted to train with me because he knew I was nuts when I trained and that would give him the push that he needed.

So I came up with an idea to challenge him.....

I had read in a book or a magazine about 1 of the bodybuilders holding what was called "Squat Parties". They would get to the gym AFTER closing and squat late at night for up to 2 hours.

So, when this gym closed, I told my buddy we would have a Squat Party.

There were 4 or 5 of us and man we squatted like mad men!

We even did drop sets on the squats.

405 x MAX

315 x MAX

225 x MAX

135 x MAX

We even did forced reps on each set! I remember my buddy was wobbling as he walked 225 lbs out of the squat rack. In my mind I was thinking "Oh shit, he can barely walk this out, how's he gonna squat this weight?"

Well, he did it. We pushed one another and screamed so much I lost my voice.

No video proof. No photo proof. Just memories that I have from about 23 years ago.

Lifters today will never know about that feeling.

I am part of this culture now. Running your business online and making a million videos. It's NOT what I want, it's what "they" want.

I'm getting back to writing more and doing less Videos.

I will still do the videos but as you can tell in the Video below, it angers me a bit. It destroys the flow of my training. It destroys the purity of JUST training.

You can't even play the music you want because YouTube punishes you for cranking your radio yet you see full movies on YouTube. It's pathetic.

The younger athletes and lifters of today will miss out on all the great books from the 80s, 70s and prior because instead of hunting for books in the local library or book stores having awesome books, most information is consumed through instagram or youtube.

A great book is like magic. I used to read all these old school bodybuilding books and they made you feel like you took a trip into a time machine. You felt like you were right there, in the gym with the bodybuilders and lifters.

I hope that one day you get to experience Squatting and Lifting in peace again.

Just training without cell phones.

Laughing with your training partners.

Great conversations at the juice bar over a protein shake.

A veteran lifter helping out a younger lifter and the younger lifter being open minded and HONORED to be helped instead of saying, "Well that's not what I saw on YouTube!"

I'd wish you luck but a STRONG Man MAKES his OWN luck.

Stay Dangerous.

Live The Code 365,

Z

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