On Strength (a sneak peek)
I love and appreciate all of the inquiries about when I will release a new manual on strength. And new it is. This ceased being a revision 2-years into the process of a rewrite and turned into a complete deconstruction of what I believe strength training is for. It is now a new thought, an innovative way of seeing and applying strength from the most basic necessities to the most advanced forms. I don’t have a release date, but I do want to share this first chapter with those that are looking forward to it, and let you know that it is on the way. I hope you will remain patient because my hope is that this work will not need a revision.
What I wrote on strength five years ago still stands but also, much has changed — not in the laws of physics or biology, but in how I apply them. I felt compelled to add to this manual what is reflected in my practice.
I originally hypothesized that the language of strength could get us closer to understanding our relationship with resistance, in the physical sense but also the ephemeral—the ineffable. I posited that to express strength is to hold, and this has never been truer. Still, where I progressed with my language I had stagnated in my implementation, using a traditional model of strength expression — squatting, deadlifting, and pressing in familiar paths with common rep and set schemes — as “the way” to strength development. I had yet to comprehend a system to separate the internal initiation of force from the external pressure of resistance. Further, I stopped short of the biggest behavioral and psychological correlates that strength training develops.
In attempting to revise my methods I found that the entire foundation was based on a false premise, that the traditional training methods that we have inherited and trusted in, start from a very different intention than the one we claim to seek. Not only were the tools and exercises a misdirection, but the warning of these limitations are as old as the model itself.
What are we seeking through strength training?
Why do you want to get strong? It seems strange to ask a reader because a reason seems less important than merely having the motivation to become strong. It’s assumed that getting stronger is a net benefit, like getting rich or falling love, in fact, I’ve never heard a convincing alternative argument. But attaining strength is not free from risk, and many who attempt to do so will be broken and weaker from their effort, so it is worth considering what — precisely — we are trying to attain.
To describe strength as “the goal of moving a heavy barbell” is like describing the benefit of falling in love as a way to make it easier to pay the utility bills. Few of us, if any, consider the real objective with attaining strength. Like love, it is more of a feeling than a measurement. And also like love, many of us will find ourselves trapped within a relationship to it, duty bound to go through the motions, but feeling anything but strong.
If we can’t describe what we want, can we find what we seek by describing what we want to avoid?
What behavior does a weak person exhibit? My mind’s eye conjures up a frail, thin skinned man with a heavy curvature in his upper spine. But his physical appearance is not just a clue about the difficulty he finds standing up or walking up hill, but more so a consequence of his actions, which do not align with his words — a liar — not only to others, but himself. Weakness is a mismatch of intention, a folding under pressure, and inability to hold up our ideals in the face of great resistance. “Spineless” describes the physical stature, but more so the behavior we despise in others.
Strength then, is a way to hold true to what we think we should do, and the action associated with . Strength training is about exploring our relationship with force. We not only want to be able to express this in the most dire circumstances but to be able to do it for as long as we are alive. What most of us seek in strength and strength training is a behavior trait. Lifting the weight is merely the practice for dealing with burdens.
