Not to derail this thread too much, but… seriously? Being strong helps in the event of a terrorist attack? In what way does being strong help prevent getting shot, being bombed, being on an airplane that crashes into a building, being inside said building, etc etc etc. I don’t know what world you’re living in, but being strong won’t do a damn thing for you against active shooters or terrorists. Being fast, being lucky, or being trained in hand to hand combat or even better, being trained to de-escalate violent situations through negotiation, would be far more useful.
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Living in a world where things like this happen every day-- and being physically prepared is the first step. Can’t agree with Idaho enough on his post. I don’t know, perhaps you are looking at his post through a different lens. I assume he is someone whom has spent some time overseas.
In active shooter situations you have three scenarios: run, hide and/or fight. Not having to worry about being in good physical shape is a basic human state of preparedness that the majority of the population lack and will in fact help you achieve any or all three of those scenarios. Being able to run, sprint, climb, move heavy objects to blockade doors, fight, swing a weapon, restrain someone, etcetera will help you.
In a scenario where buildings or airplanes are demolished, you can absolutely be killed. But if you survive or are a bystander near by, someones strength and physical prowess will help them save themselves and rescue others.
Or, if you are on a plane like you mentioned, maybe you have a chance to physically take the hijackers with physical force? How fuckin scary would that be if you looked around the plane and it was a bunch of people that looked like the humans from Wall-E?
If you are not physically strong, you can’t really use your body for anything physically useful. At least I interpret the world “strong” as an overall description of general strength and conditioning. I don’t think Idaho is saying everyone needs to be an olympic athlete or powerlifter, he is talking about how many fat weak soft people there are walking around here.
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do you know who idaho is lol
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I’m confused, OP. You love going to the gym and are addicted to it but you don’t enjoy it anymore?
I also don’t understand that you seem to reject the notion “finding nothing worth while in the gym? than go find something else” You said nothing gives you enjoyment like the gym so just keep going to the gym.
As for you being only 25 and saying that you feel like you’ve peaked, you just need some new goals cause 25 is nothing. Stu Yellin on these forums got both of his natural pro cards after the age of 35. Age isnt a thing.
Ya, I would listen to Idaho on this one.
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Basically I really like the feeling of progress in the gym. I have been for a while. I am worried I can’t go on like this being where I am now and being who I am. That would leave a big hole. I don’t want to spin my wheels. Some guy said you could front squat high 400 and deadlift 700 and I dont see any reasons not to believe him. That suits me for now.
With your state of mind, you’re setting yourself up for a big letdown in the future.
May want to condition yourself if you’re not willing to explore other challenges/goals; otherwise you’re going to go through some serious depression.
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Flipcollar,
You are correct, physical strength alone will not save you in any of those situations you described. I probably did not explain myself correctly, but, based on my experience, being “strong or physically fit”, is the first step in training anyone for surviving a lethal encounter. I know its an old saying, but, I am a firm believer in a strong body is the foundation for a strong mind. From years of training foreign troops, it they don’t consider themselves “strong”, they are equally weak in combat. The mind is your greatest weapon, but, combat has the tendency to exhaust you quicker than anything, so, the body must be up to the challenge. As for the world I live in, currently its "stan, where i train units to kill the enemy.
I was trying to give the OP, IMHO, what I consider the primary reason to go to the gym, establishing the foundation to be able to defend yourself.
My apologies to the OP for the derail and if you or anyone else, wants to explore more thoughts on active shooters or lethal encounters, this is a good place to start:
https://forums.t-nation.com/t/active-shooter/212669/6
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I understand that but if those lifts are attainable then that shouldn’t be a problem for now.
this is the best post in the thread.
Dude, fix all that shit holding you back and you won’t be held back any more. Spend a few months (not weeks) really attacking all of your imbalances and nagging injuries.
That’s what’s putting the brakes on your progress.
In that thread I wrote ‘‘If my back alignement…’’. I had some problems in the past but right now everything is alright. I go see a chiropractor and a few osteopaths quite often, every time something is just a little bit off. I would rather spend for small things than let those small things lead to bigger injuries like in the past. There is no way I could have progressed without them. This hobby ends up costing alot.
I get what you guys are saying, but I’ll use myself as an example. I’m stronger than most people. I’m gonna go ahead say I’m stronger than AT LEAST 99% of humans walking the Earth. I think that’s a fair assessment. I can’t imagine a scenario where any of that strength is useful to me in any sort of attack. I think there’s probably a baseline somewhere around the 50% mark, where if you’re weaker than that, you’re REALLY useless in an attack. But as I mentioned before, there are so many things that are more important than being strong. If I don’t have any sort of self defense training, or any of the things I already mentioned, I’m as useless as anybody else in a ‘lethal’ situation. Evolv mentioned a host of abilities that would be useful, and I would say that my strength doesn’t help with really any of them. Maybe swinging a weapon, but being strong doesn’t help me run or sprint any faster than most weak people. I’m not particularly athletic. My bodyweight doesn’t serve me well for climbing. I can help blockade doors, but most people can do that. I can’t fucking fight. I can’t restrain someone unless I have a distinct tactical advantage. I just don’t see it guys. I just think it’s overly macho to believe otherwise. USMC, you have training that makes you far more useful in a terrorist attack, lethal situation, etc than I do. THAT has value. Strength on its own has minimal impact.
I think when Idaho expanded on his original statement, it made a bit more sense. And he seems to agree that you sort of just need to reach a baseline level that’s far below most strength athletes.
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I think, generally speaking, if an armed combatant enters a room with the intent to kill you then yes you’re very likely going to die whether you can deadlift 135 or 700. So in those situations, especially 1v1, your strength is neutralized and not an advantage.
However, the impression I’m getting from your posts is that you assume attackers are trained, at least to some degree, and that is not true. The Paris train attack is a prime example. The attacker couldn’t figure out how to cycle his weapon properly, which created a situation where unarmed heroes could overpower the attacker with brute force. Now, two of the three were military personnel and it was 3v1 so the example isn’t perfect, but the point is that if an attack occurs where hand to hand combat decides, in many cases, whether you live or die, your strength level will absolutely be an advantage.
I think you would be surprised at how much more you’d be capable of doing than someone of average strength in a life and death situation.
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interesting post, and one I definitely agree with. Being big and strong isn’t anywhere near as much use in a fight as guys in gyms like to think.
That said, @flipcollar you could think of it like this:
Now you are bigger and stronger than you used to be, don’t you think you could kick your own ass if you travelled back in time ten years?
I definitely could, and it wouldn’t even be close.
I’m not a skilled fighter at all, but I’ve had the chance to use my newly-developed strength as a bouncer. I was honestly surprised at how easy it is to move other humans and make them go where I want them to go - OUT THE DOOR and OFF THE PROPERTY!
I also know that I can pick up a 200 pound person who doesn’t want to be carried and carry them wherever I want them to go. Pretty easily, if need be.
I know that a moderately hard shove with a little bit of bodyweight behind it can send a small, drunk and violent little man reeling backwards.
I know that I can restrain a very violent, in-shape man who is very high on drugs, stop him from hurting other people and move that motherfucker right out the door and put him on the pavement.
I’m still not sure how hard I can hit, and I don’t really want to find out, not when I’m working the door anyway. I literally do not know my own strength and I don’t need any lawsuits or assault charges. Hard shoves, holds, carries and foul language have gotten the job done when violence is called for.
None of this means that I’m going to be able to stop a mass shooting or anything heroic like that. It just means that I’m much better equipped than I was to take action - whether it be defending myself, defending people around me or just getting the hell out of a bad situation.
When I was 330 pounds and totally out-of-shape, well, there’s not much you can do before you are out-of-breath and spent. There’s a whole lot of people out there who fit that bill.
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This is it in a nutshell.
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In a fair fight, yes. If the 20 year old me is the aggressor and has a weapon, along with at least a vague understanding of how to use it, probably not.
I’m in the same situation, only I’ve been doing it longer. Find a new challenge to get good at. If you’ve been doing powerlifting for years, learn the olympic lifts. Train hard, get the quick gains for a couple years and go compete.
If you have been training the powerlifts, but not competing, go compete. Conquer the challenge of weight classes and peeking.
Or go do bodybuilding and get lean and aesthetic. Take 3-6 months to just get lean and come back to normal training refreshed and looking awesome.
Or take up sprinting and see how fast of a 40 you can get to and focus your whole training toward that.
My advice is to pick a more specific goal (a competition, strongman, powerlifting, oly lifting, bodybuilding is great for this), train hard to get good, and cycle your goal when progress stops or it all just gets too stale.
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I agree with a lot of the advice in this thread, but add something else:
You’re always going to hit road blocks. I was stuck for 2 whole years trying to bench 300 way back in my early days. Nobody around to teach me, no dedicated training partners and most of the time no partner at all, nothing to do except keep learning on my own, keep struggling…or give up and say “i’m at my genetic potential”. Well that was a shitload of years ago and roughly 150 lb of bench press ago. Not to mention about 300 lbs of deadlift progress ago. Oh and about 60 lbs of body weight.
The key is to be a stubborn motherfucker. People who want to find reasons to give up eventually will, and the world is full of them. Attainable doesn’t mean easy. it was easy everyone would do it. As the great Jimmy Dugan said “It’s supposed to be hard. The hard is what makes it great!” True for jobs, careers and degrees too…Bill Gates worked for how many years out of his garage in anonymity? Same story different verse.
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If you don’t have internal motivation, then this isn’t for you