Health & Wellness Weekly
Nietzsche was right: Go big or go home
Bennett Rawicki
Issue date: 3/31/09 Section: News
To gain strength the body needs to break down and rebuild. It's biology: the traumas done to the body are repaired stronger, and thus with every pain and soreness, the muscles get bigger, the bones become like rock, and the tendons heal as supply as Twizzlers. Kanye West rapped it perfectly in his thesis on the topic: "That, that, that, that don't kill me, only makes me stronger." So, athletes and muscle-men, the key to strength is pain.
The new workout strategy should mirror the pain principle, and so forget about the weakling rules about proper form, moderate weight and resting when injured; those are merely holding back the body's potential.
On the bench press, load as much weight as the bar can take without snapping. Next, shoot your arms up to push it off the supports so it lands right on the sternum and pectorals. Do not call for a spotter. If you can push the weight up it proves your strength. If you cannot move the weight, it serves as a good isometric workout (against an immovable object), while also severely damaging your whole chest, which according to West will only make you stronger.
When squatting, the bar should also be filled to its maximum, for the legs can support more than the arms. Do not waste energy on lowering the body slowly with the weight, let gravity help by dropping down as fast as you can under the weight, and then arch the back to snap the weight back up. If your back and knees give out, do not worry or turn to surgery; the pain may not subside, but the scar tissue that surrounds the tendons in the knee and the spine in your back will make you like Superman.
The principles of this workout are tried and true, although many of the gulag prison workers in Siberia never lived long enough to write about their strength successes. Next time you enter the Maher Athletic Center, skip the warm-up and the stretching; head for the hundred pound weights to strap on your back for a jog. No pain, no gain, and that applies to complaining, too.
The new workout strategy should mirror the pain principle, and so forget about the weakling rules about proper form, moderate weight and resting when injured; those are merely holding back the body's potential.
On the bench press, load as much weight as the bar can take without snapping. Next, shoot your arms up to push it off the supports so it lands right on the sternum and pectorals. Do not call for a spotter. If you can push the weight up it proves your strength. If you cannot move the weight, it serves as a good isometric workout (against an immovable object), while also severely damaging your whole chest, which according to West will only make you stronger.
When squatting, the bar should also be filled to its maximum, for the legs can support more than the arms. Do not waste energy on lowering the body slowly with the weight, let gravity help by dropping down as fast as you can under the weight, and then arch the back to snap the weight back up. If your back and knees give out, do not worry or turn to surgery; the pain may not subside, but the scar tissue that surrounds the tendons in the knee and the spine in your back will make you like Superman.
The principles of this workout are tried and true, although many of the gulag prison workers in Siberia never lived long enough to write about their strength successes. Next time you enter the Maher Athletic Center, skip the warm-up and the stretching; head for the hundred pound weights to strap on your back for a jog. No pain, no gain, and that applies to complaining, too.
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