Equally, isn’t it fair to say most of them are juiced up to high heaven? I have no issue with that, by the way, but if it has as dramatic an impact upon physiology as the experts tell us then it may not be a fair way of determining the worth of the article, particularly as the author’s target audience is generally the average Joe type.
If that was his intention, using Rez to prove the point is a little silly, no?
Have you heard the phrase “grown man strength” before? Wouldn’t that apply to lifting weights as well?
Alright Colucci, calm down. It was a joke inserted after I said they were trash. I do believe most the articles posted here recently are terrible, but have no care what they are promoting. So don’t get statitistical about it. It’s all good.
The advice in the article would seem reasonable if Lee were specifically advising an individual who just wanted to be healthy and strong. If the goal is health, then it might be prudent to pursue (like he says in the article) goals other than just maximal strength (for example, it might be a good idea to drop bodyfat and improve conditioning even if doing so would decrease one’s deadlift 1RM by 5%).
However, as Pwnisher pointed out, the article should not apply to a particular set of lifters - specifically those that are competing. I think that if Lee focused the article completely on folks who just wanted to be healthy and strong instead of on every “older” lifter, then his arguments would have more support. Referencing strongman, powerlifting, and olympic lifting to prove his points doesn’t really make sense to me because those are sports. The goal of those sports is to be competitive and to prepare for specific events so that the athlete can win. It just seems like he is applying his recommendations to a too-large set of people.
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I was thinking about the recovery side of it more than the weight being lifted to be honest.
I haven’t read an article outside of this one in a long time. I find the articles have an audience that they are incredibly useful for, and that is folks in their first 5 years of lifting. I read every article on this site for years. I stopped when I had read so much, nothing was really new to me anymore. There is a point when you’ve read pretty much everything out there. There are always spins on things, but at the end of the day, I felt like there came a point when I’d read enough, and the forums made more sense to me.
I wish more beginners started on articles, and just avoided the forums for the first few years of lifting. It frustrates me to see beginners asking questions they should be learning simply by reading training articles. There are instances when asking a question on a forum DOES make sense for a beginner, but that’s mostly not what we see. Beginners should be absorbing info, not debating. Not giving advice, that’s for damn sure. Just reading, thinking, applying. What’s worse is seeing a handful of 15 year old kids (we all know who they are) posting OUTSIDE of the beginners section. And criticizing others.
Anyway. End rant. This has really gotten under my skin recently, particularly when the commentary coming from these kids is negative.
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If you haven’t read them in nearly a decade, you have zero grounds to judge their quality. If you’d like to cite specifics, go ahead.
Your joke pretty clearly refers to Jmaier with a comment about quitting lifting, since you literally tagged him in it. Sure doesn’t look like the “trash” comment was joking.
Fixed.
It’s really not. Let’s say you work at a restaurant. I post on Yelp that I haven’t eaten there in 8 years but I know the place serves shitty vegan food. You reply that there’s been brand new staff for the last 5 years, including Michelin-rated chefs. Also, you remind everyone that it’s a steakhouse, not vegan.
Same idea here. You can understand my irritation.
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I don’t think it was “a lot” of fabrication, it was an example used in a sentence or two. But I do get why it caught your attention.
excellent points Chris. I feels you.
Back to the article itself, outside of the things pwnisher and I didn’t appreciate (which was a pretty small part of the article anyway), I liked a lot of the content. And Boyce stuff in general, when applied in the appropriate context. Boyce is a strong dude, and I think he does what he does very well. I think he’s a good coach/trainer/athlete. I saw some people suggest his content is hit or miss… well guess what? Everyone is. CT would readily admit he’s missed the boat plenty of times with content he’s produced. That’s how it goes. He’s still a hell of a coach, and has also produced some of the best lifting content I’ve read from anyone. The only article I’ve read from Boyce that I truly thought was bad was the aforementioned deadlift one. And even that had some value to the right audience.
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One thing that I think many experienced lifters and/or forum veterans would agree on is that there is no single “right” answer in this game. With that in mind, I like reading things from a bunch of different people, even those with wildly different training philosophies, if for no other reason than to see how people do things and what they perceive as the benefits and pitfalls of different approaches. I have never done a Thib program. Hell, I’ve never really done ANY program to the letter. But I’ve enjoyed reading things from Thib, Wendler, Louie, Tate, Alwyn Cosgrove, Dan John, and others over the years.
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True; but an incorrect one, based off at best hasty generalizations, if not outright deceit.
EDIT: To clarify, when I say a lot of fabrication, I’m not referring to the volume of fabrication but the degree. For me to say that the sun revolves around the earth is but 1 lie, true, but it’s also a LOT of fabrication for me to say so, because that one lie contradicts many many truths.
A few people are referencing “grown man strength”. If you’re waiting to magically get strong with age, you’re in for a rude awakening. This term has been around for many decades. It originates from older generations, where many men had more physical jobs. Yes, if you take a man who’s been turning wrenches and pipes for decades, he’s going to have some badass hand and forearm strength. You take a farmer who’s labored over the decades… he knows how to do physical work, how to position his body, he knows the technique to throw a bale of hay, etc.
Now, you compare that to an uncoordinated youth… who’s also physically small as shit. Remember, the abundance of calories weren’t as readily available when the term “old man strength” was coined…kids didn’t eat fucking garbage all day, and they played constantly. Kids were active and scrawny little shits… so comparing themselves to a more hardened older male, with decades of labor, and who’s much heavier… yeah he’s going to seem pretty damn strong. (200+ lb males weren’t as prevalent many years ago).
Old man strength is a myth. You earn it, and are comparatively strong to slackass youths… which isn’t overly impressive. Old man strength is shit compared to a college football player, and his speed sucks too (yes, there are outliers… diamonds in the rough)
Great memory was a friend of mine, long term lifter, asking me “I keep waiting for this old man strength to hit… when the fuck is it coming?”
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Yeah, I don’t mind beginners “asking questions” in the forums so much as I mind them “arguing back at veteran lifters that give them sound advice” and even worse “trying to give advice to others when they are equally clueless and only able to parrot whatever they’ve read anyway, since they have no meaningful experience in getting big / strong / lean themselves.”
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One big thing that was not considered at all in the article are the huge leaps being made in medicine (stem cells anyone?) & artificial intelligence… AI is going to drive everything before long, life & health span extension included.
If you’re 40 now, being 60 years old in 2038 is not going to be like any other 60 year old in history.
We’ll probably not be constrained by biology by then or not long after (and I don’t mean epic levels of juicing haha )
With regard to the 30 year thing, it is a bit arbitrary but surely any age would be?
At 32 nearly 33 I am as fast as I was as a teen/early 20 something, more explosive and stronger. But I also have aches and pains from old injuries that have never really gone away. And if I hammer myself in the gym like I could nearly constantly at a young age I feel beaten up within a few weeks.
Obviously I can only talk personal experience but i do hear Boyce on the training smarter point.
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He didn’t peddle the Biotest supps! You can like him for that reason. This is also why I posted my love for him in the flame free thread - - - I wanted to announce it to the world!.. And not get into a debate lol
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Truer words have never been written.
I can’t help but smile when I hear young guys talk about their plans for lifting when they’re in their 50s (me), 60s, etc. Trust me on this one–you’re not going to lift in the manner of your choosing; rather, you’re going to lift in the manner your body will allow.
Now, where did I put those pink dumbbells…
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I’m not holding my breath waiting for medical improvements. They might eventually be good, but I will probably be long dead before they are readily available to the non incredibly wealthy.