Explosive Stamina
Warm Up
3 Rounds
5 Deadlift
5 Hang Power Clean
5 Front Squat
* start with open bar and add a little weight each round.
5 Minutes of “Clean” technique
* Work up to weight for workout
* 85-90 % of 1RM
Workout
For 20 straight minutes
*1 Full Clean on the minute for 20 minutes
Short rest followed by …..
35-25-15
KB Swings(1.5, 1.0 pood)
Goblet Squats
Survival of the Fittest, by John Main
If our version of fitness feels like survival—if you struggle to endure these workouts—that is a good thing.
Unfortunately, fitness is not universally defined. In fact, outside of CrossFit, it is not defined at all. One look inside a commercial health club—a “Globo Gym”—like the one we came from tells you at least that much, if it does not also expose some of the sillier activities that have managed to qualify for exercise over the years. Isolation training, bodybuilding, aerobics classes, stability balls, Nautilus machines, Pilates and long, slow “cardio” do not improve fitness or any sensible definition thereof. Some of those activities are barely passable in a rehabilitation environment, no less one in which health and wellness are the goals. There is nothing natural or prehistoric of any sort in the mainstream fitness industry—nothing that plays to the strengths of human biology, psychology, biochemistry or biomechanics. What is more, proponents of this aesthetically minded, functionally devoid culture have come to excuse states of poor fitness and nutritional habits—advice, even—with insufficient genetics and a litany of other “medical” justifications.
In response to observations and opinions such as these, I am often told that to accomplish any exercise or change in nutrition is better than to do nothing. I unapologetically disagree. That standard is simply too low, and it removes the burden of providing good information and even better coaching from the sources that have espoused aforementioned garbage to begin with. The conventional exercise and food industries, not to mention factions of the scientific and medical communities, should be, at the very least, publicly reprimanded for distributing data and recommendations that have absolutely contributed to the infirmities and deaths of thousands, if not millions of poorly informed people. Further, the above retort is analogous to peddling the claim that in terms of organ health, heroin is better for the user than crack cocaine, and so one should choose the latter if addiction is unavoidable. While there is truth in that statement, I hardly hear it advertised with any frequency, no less the frequency with which I am exposed to the “something is better than nothing” argument. I suspect that few would be willing to publicly make such a claim for its inherent ridiculousness, so I will not accept another, equally incongruous one.
Awesome article. An eye-opener: “strategizing leads to pacing, which leads to not pushing, which leads to diminished power, which leads to low long-term success. We must attack workouts and manage pain as it arises. If there is a concern about strategy, it is likely for the wrong reasons. Time and score are never the target. The aim instead should be to simply RULE the workout.” This will change the way I workout from this point forward! Thanks for sharing!
“Unwilling” must never be mistaken for “unable.”
What a quotation, that should be on a t-shirt…
Great post. Thanks for putting this up here.