resistance is resistance, its all gravity folks

Resistance is resistance folks

Many of you may not have heard this or have thought of it but it really doesnt matter what you lift or how much. if a big 500lb man can struggle through and squat 1200lbs but you barely push through for a 1 rep max at 200lbs it doesn't matter, maximum effort, for you, that was all your output against the mass under gravity.

The whole reason why training and exercise works is because we're eliciting a growth response to handle abnormal loads under the weight of gravity, no gravity, no load, no muscle. this is why astronauts muscles and bone atrophy and waste away in space after long periods, we THRIVE on gravity and the "good stress" it provides.

Humans are naturally lazy, im not insulting the human race, its just that we're hard wired to take the path of least resistance (all you parkour people see what i did there?) the only reason why we're all so much fatter, sicker, and deconditioned while still taking the path of least resistance is..... drum roll please.... LIFE IS EASIER, you dont have to sprint to get away from a tiger, you dont have to lift a heavy rock out of a cave entrance to acquire shelter, climb trees for your food, or in most cases plant your own freakin crops. life is easier therefor the "stress" is lighter and the growth and strength response is less.

If you cant do a pushup on your toes, you probably dont have a high bench press, if you can do a lot of pushups you can probably bust out a lot of reps with the bench press at a certain weight, if you can do a few pushups with a heavy person laying on your back you probably have a decent 1 rep max on bench press. now, not all things correlate this easily but for the demonstrative purposes im using the bench press. The fact of the matter is, resistance is resistance, and causes a growth and strength response (if training methodologies are correct) which makes your body stronger and because of this gravity is your best friend, because thanks to gravity you can do progressive calisthenics, you can do weight lifting, kettlebells, gymnastics, parkour, what ever you want, and you can receive benefits from these activities because they provide a "good stress" response on your body because, repeat it after me, RESISTANCE IS RESISTANCE. so stop focusing on one discipline and cross train, quit sacrificing your form to put up more weight on say.... THE BENCH PRESS and try other modalities, try pushups, try ring pushups, try planche pushups, try weighted ring dips with a resistance band pulling you down too, get creative and quit focusing on weights and even exercises, if you receive a gain in strength, size, what ever your goal is, DO IT (as long as it doesn't harm you). The whole point is, do what serves your ends to make you reach your goals in a safe manner.

and dont forget to train hard.

A thought for the wild man

So i had some thoughts bouncing in my head

a pound of muscle is 100g of protein and mostly water.. a quote from Mark Rippetoe: "strength is expensive, and your body doesn't throw away expensive things lightly." and a combination of bush craft and survival videos leading me to an internal conversation about how much do we really need to eat to be and stay strong.

if you eat along the primal blueprint or paleo, fat becomes the main energy source and your body becomes adapted to burning fat easier i.e. from food or your storage, and protein is used for what protein is used for, natural processes and muscle synthesis. now if we're not trying to get super huge then you dont need to eat more, and as Mark Rippetoe says in an article of his: "conditioning is a scam" strength athletes trying to gain only strength need to eat only to meet their natural and exercise energy expenditures, but those also or primarily wanting to gain mass need to eat more to maintain and increase mass. so by this  and some other knowledge i've picked up, you can be super strong, not quite as large, and support your size on a very minimalist diet, i.e. (wild man survivalist, intermittent fasting, etc.) and still get stronger, because never in the history of our world (to our knowledge *insert x-files music here*) has any civilization had access to as much food as we've had so they had to make due with much less and many were uncommonly strong especially among the general populace of today in comparison and all on modest diets.

so enough beating around the bush, all of this was sort of a way to talk myself into reaching a conclusion, and mostly pertinent only to my own personal goals, some of which others may relate to:

• get strong
• get dense
• THRIVE with a LOT less food

and in my current experience, the results kept coming even when i ate VERY minimally, so a human surviving in the wilds on very little food (depending on the catch of the day) could do very well in the strength department even with a minimalist diet as long as they're eating animals and not being a picky vegetarian in the midst of an apocalypse or something.

if you missed a general point for this article dont stress it, this is just my brain puking out information and trying to write it down before i forget.

Big but Useful

"Be strong to be useful."

All that follows is not cited from any sources its just information from my experiences and a bunch of my opinions.

Natural movement

One of the most useful things a human can master is to move naturally, like an animal. gibbons in trees, cheetahs on the plains, goats on the mountains, fish in the sea, run, climb, jump, swim, moving in these fashions builds skills that have real world application coupled with the fight or flight response or in other words as the Parkour community and i refer to it: "Zombie Apocalypse training". 

The sad reality we live in in America is that most Americans are sedentary, work out very little, rarely enough and of those usually wrong and or with terrible form. Natural movement has an easier level of entry, and in just about all cases, it's free. reliant on body weight exercise that provides mastery over ones body weight through progressive calisthenics that are also relatively free to perform especially if ingenuity is present. Natural movement is also fun, making you feel like a kid again, playful i mean, how can you NOT smile as you climb to the top of a tree?

Look how happy she is, damn thats a happy monkey

Where Parkour comes in

I have been involved in the parkour community for nearly 2 years now and found it filled with many wonderful, supportive, encouraging as well as talented people and would reccomend anyone looking for a fun way back into fitness that is also free (relatively, gas might be required). Once you get involved in Parkour and natural movement not all the flipping in stuff, remember i said Zombie Apocalypse Training? you dont back flip to get away from zombies unless you're Milla Jovovich:

i don't care, she can back flip if she wants

So as i was saying, once you get involved and you grow to love the supportive aspect of the community it will become easier to keep coming and and soon your life starts centering around the natural movements. As you start taking an active interest in a physical discipline you will start (if you're smart) doing more conditioning and training on the side to support your passion for natural movement. Now all that i just said is a generalization, it doesn't apply to everyone just the majority that i've witnessed in and entering the Parkour community.

Big But Useful

Now to my main point, my personal goal is to maintain my skills in natural movement and continueing to progress further whilest getting stronger in my ability to lift massive ammounts of weight namely deadlifting and squats to further strengthen my ability to jump for Parkour and natural movement. but i also desire more size, not THIS:

but a larger and very cut physique so as im finding out at 6'6" and 210lbs is that im not hindered in the least in fact its actually made my movement skills better, sure i have to work harder to deal with impacts and landings because of my weight but with more leg muscle and strength, the better my ability for my leg muscles to contract and absorb the force of my impact and save my knees as well as my whole kinetic chain from injury and damage. 

Summary

In summary, you can be Big as well as functional it just depends on the style of workout you perform, calisthenics with weights for leg power? body building? power lifting? etc.