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majutsu
Well-known member
Here are some thoughts on training. I really wrote it for the great outlaw, so put it there first, but I know some elite brothers will like it too. It's kind of reflective, good for lighting one up and letting your mind stretch a little. I wrote it the other day (so don't repost without giving credit if you please) and thought one or two bros might find it interesting.
There are three lifting philosophies identifiable in the strength training world. I will give each philosophy below with the prototypical name connected with that philosophy and their rough appearance in bodybuilding history. Then I will give a brief description of that philosophy.
1)The pump (pre- 1980) - Arnold Schwarzenegger. At its simplest, this is the belief that the purpose of training is to produce a warm pump or swollen feeling in the target muscle. In practice this training tends to be high volume, light weight, and intuitive.
2)Failure (1980-2000)- Mike Mentzer. HIT and similar schools spread the idea that the essential ingredient in effective training was failure, that is to do a number of reps to the point of complete muscular failure and inability to do any more work. In practice this training tends to be low volume, heavy weight, and intuitive.
Notice already at this point that philosophies lead to training program differences. For example, both the pump or failure schools, since they focus on a material clear-cut experience, can do away with writing anything down.
3)Progression (post- 1990)- Lou Simmons. The modern school focus on the idea that hypertrophy exists in nature for the organism to handle a greater muscular workload in the future. These programs map out some meandering path to a greater future weight and number of reps, a greater workload. In practice this training tends to be variable or periodized in both volume and weight, and definitive mapped out and logged in full to guarantee the arrival at target destinations.
There is a new theory of consciousness and brain function that is very popular, neurolinguistics. The easiest way to sum up the whole endeavor is in metaphor.
Imagine that we have an animal brain right above the brainstem and a highly evolved human brain getting a piggy-back-ride on our animal brain. The animal brain controls sensation, movement, and primitive experience, like a reptile. The human brain deals with love and science and politics and god and all that. It turns out that modern brain studies indicate that we use our animal brain to calculate all kinds of higher human brain tasks in terms of locomotor metaphor.
For example, when we talk of love we imagine traveling in a vehicle with our partner together in every human language. We talk of going the same way, spinning our wheels, not going in the same direction, having bumps in the road, etc. When we think of time, we imagine standing with the future in front and the past in back and either us moving forward in time or time rushing toward us. (Which is the same thing with a figure-ground reversal, exactly what happens in bodybuilding . . . ) We speak of looking ahead to next week, remembering back then, dreading the coming holidays, the summer flying by, etc. All humans think in motor images. Early studies saying some Hopi cultures had no time images were flawed.
We use our animal brains to calculate these advanced concepts because they are reliable, have worked for animals for millions of years, and because as George Lakoff writes, “We have an enormously rich knowledge about motion in space that comes from our own movements and from the movements of others that we perceive.”
Of course, cause and effect is seen metaphorically too. This is very important. Change is often seen as movement of an agent from one place in space (a state) to another space (a future state). We see bodybuilding this way, as the movement of an individual from a place of weakling to a future glorious destination of buff. We do this to consolidate the myriad biochemical, mechanical, genetic and dietary factors that go into making muscle. That way we can think and reason about the process. We humans can’t think without metaphor, it seems.
The problem is taking metaphors too literally. Many philosophical and actual bloody battles have been started by taking metaphors literally. Especially in bodybuilding.
The metaphors of cause and effect that humans use have been mapped out by brain researchers. There are about ten of them. Three of them apply to bodybuilding. I will again list the three philosophies, and this time, the three technical terms from neurolinguistics for the metaphors that apply in particular to bodybuilding.
1)The pump (agent centered) - Actions are self-propelled movements. This is the view of bodybuilding as an individual’s growth by the adoption of certain exercises and eating habits in the now. The pump is described as being “about to pop out of the skin” by Arnold. The is a metaphor for the potential for growth, the idea being that you can actually feel it and seek it.
2)Failure (motion centered) - Changes are movements. To get from point A to point B, HIT reasons, you must cross the fences between them. This fence between the you now and the you then, HIT reasons, is failure. I admit this caveman reasoning is appealing, especially on a gram or two of test, and there is nothing untrue about it, like any metaphor. But it is very easy to get carried away taking this metaphor too literally.
3)Progression (destination centered) - Purposes are destinations. This is the new kid. To get from here to there, well, you got to get there. So pack your bags, get a map and a compass, and get there. You ever notice your vacations are never quite as much fun as planned. Planning sucks. And so does progression taken too literally, having a hundred spreadsheets while everyone passes you up at the gym.
A ---------------------> B
pump failure progression
action change destination
One process, one body, one art. Three names.
There are three lifting philosophies identifiable in the strength training world. I will give each philosophy below with the prototypical name connected with that philosophy and their rough appearance in bodybuilding history. Then I will give a brief description of that philosophy.
1)The pump (pre- 1980) - Arnold Schwarzenegger. At its simplest, this is the belief that the purpose of training is to produce a warm pump or swollen feeling in the target muscle. In practice this training tends to be high volume, light weight, and intuitive.
2)Failure (1980-2000)- Mike Mentzer. HIT and similar schools spread the idea that the essential ingredient in effective training was failure, that is to do a number of reps to the point of complete muscular failure and inability to do any more work. In practice this training tends to be low volume, heavy weight, and intuitive.
Notice already at this point that philosophies lead to training program differences. For example, both the pump or failure schools, since they focus on a material clear-cut experience, can do away with writing anything down.
3)Progression (post- 1990)- Lou Simmons. The modern school focus on the idea that hypertrophy exists in nature for the organism to handle a greater muscular workload in the future. These programs map out some meandering path to a greater future weight and number of reps, a greater workload. In practice this training tends to be variable or periodized in both volume and weight, and definitive mapped out and logged in full to guarantee the arrival at target destinations.
There is a new theory of consciousness and brain function that is very popular, neurolinguistics. The easiest way to sum up the whole endeavor is in metaphor.
Imagine that we have an animal brain right above the brainstem and a highly evolved human brain getting a piggy-back-ride on our animal brain. The animal brain controls sensation, movement, and primitive experience, like a reptile. The human brain deals with love and science and politics and god and all that. It turns out that modern brain studies indicate that we use our animal brain to calculate all kinds of higher human brain tasks in terms of locomotor metaphor.For example, when we talk of love we imagine traveling in a vehicle with our partner together in every human language. We talk of going the same way, spinning our wheels, not going in the same direction, having bumps in the road, etc. When we think of time, we imagine standing with the future in front and the past in back and either us moving forward in time or time rushing toward us. (Which is the same thing with a figure-ground reversal, exactly what happens in bodybuilding . . . ) We speak of looking ahead to next week, remembering back then, dreading the coming holidays, the summer flying by, etc. All humans think in motor images. Early studies saying some Hopi cultures had no time images were flawed.
We use our animal brains to calculate these advanced concepts because they are reliable, have worked for animals for millions of years, and because as George Lakoff writes, “We have an enormously rich knowledge about motion in space that comes from our own movements and from the movements of others that we perceive.”
Of course, cause and effect is seen metaphorically too. This is very important. Change is often seen as movement of an agent from one place in space (a state) to another space (a future state). We see bodybuilding this way, as the movement of an individual from a place of weakling to a future glorious destination of buff. We do this to consolidate the myriad biochemical, mechanical, genetic and dietary factors that go into making muscle. That way we can think and reason about the process. We humans can’t think without metaphor, it seems.
The problem is taking metaphors too literally. Many philosophical and actual bloody battles have been started by taking metaphors literally. Especially in bodybuilding.
The metaphors of cause and effect that humans use have been mapped out by brain researchers. There are about ten of them. Three of them apply to bodybuilding. I will again list the three philosophies, and this time, the three technical terms from neurolinguistics for the metaphors that apply in particular to bodybuilding.
1)The pump (agent centered) - Actions are self-propelled movements. This is the view of bodybuilding as an individual’s growth by the adoption of certain exercises and eating habits in the now. The pump is described as being “about to pop out of the skin” by Arnold. The is a metaphor for the potential for growth, the idea being that you can actually feel it and seek it.
2)Failure (motion centered) - Changes are movements. To get from point A to point B, HIT reasons, you must cross the fences between them. This fence between the you now and the you then, HIT reasons, is failure. I admit this caveman reasoning is appealing, especially on a gram or two of test, and there is nothing untrue about it, like any metaphor. But it is very easy to get carried away taking this metaphor too literally.
3)Progression (destination centered) - Purposes are destinations. This is the new kid. To get from here to there, well, you got to get there. So pack your bags, get a map and a compass, and get there. You ever notice your vacations are never quite as much fun as planned. Planning sucks. And so does progression taken too literally, having a hundred spreadsheets while everyone passes you up at the gym.
A ---------------------> B
pump failure progression
action change destination
One process, one body, one art. Three names.
Last edited:
zzzzz.....
