Glenn received a copy of Mark Rippetoe’s updated new book Starting Strength, 3rd edition in the mail this week and I couldn’t resist thumbing through it. The new version is terrific with lots of pictures and details about how to perform basic barbell exercises. This updated edition seems a lot bigger and more detailed than the 2nd edition. The book takes the reader through the proper form for squats, deadlifts, presses and a number of other exercises. It would make a great gift for the weightlifter or exercise buff on your list.
As an aside, Rippetoe says that physical strength is the most important thing in life. “A weak man is not as happy as the same man would be if he were strong.” I used to disagree and think that intellect was more important. I’m not so sure anymore; on days that I feel good, my life seems perfect, when I feel ill, not so much.
Do you think physical strength is the most important thing in life or do you think intellect or spirituality take precedence?
Strength isn’t the important thing — health is, of both mind and body.
Exactly. Health is more than just strength.
“Do you think physical strength is the most important thing in life or do you think intellect or spirituality take precedence?”
None of the above. I’ll go with The Bealtes on this one: “Love is all there is.”
I’d like to complement that: God’s love is all there is.
Coupla girly men
No, self acceptance is the most important thing.
Not the self affirmation kind acceptance like “by golly, I AM a good person”, genuine self acceptance of your own strenghths and weaknesses.
The person who is comfortable with him or herself is the one everybody else will turn to for comfort and advice.
Then love will come of its own accord.
Good health is the most important thing in life – and some level of muscular strength, flexibility, cardio-vascular conditioning is certainly an element of good health ….
but a good set of pecs? – not so much.
Follower’s of Rippetoe’s training philosophy are actually known for their disdain for those who lift weights to look good. So what’s your point?
So you admit you know nothing about the actual teaching in the book. Rippetoe specifically says that you should kiss your abs goodbye when doing this program.
It has zero to do with looking good or having “a nice set of pecs”.
I think you are right, health is the most important thing.
The problem with your personal example, Dr. Helen, is that you have experienced variations in how you feel physically, but when’s the last time you were stupid? Never, I’d guess! How would you alter that variable? Heavy drinking, maybe staying up all night for a couple of nights? Now imagine how you feel when you are at the top of your game- when you write something truly satisfying, where every word fits and has meaning.
When the components of one’s life are clicking along just fine (intellectual, spiritual, socially, physical) they’re not missed. A deficiency in any area is going to be noticed, and sometimes a surplus of it might make one feel very good, indeed. You could take that quote of Rippetoe’s and put any desirable trait in it and it would be just as appropriate.
The simplest way is temporary oxygen deprivation,
of the sort experienced by trainee pilots in an
altitude chamber.
If you don’t have your health, nothing else matters.
Don’t believe me? Get seriously ill and then get back to me.
That said, I wouldn’t say “strong.” To me, that implies being a musclehead, and I don’t think that’s necessary at all. Being in shape, keeping a normal weight, and having generally good health is what matters.
The Jewish sages gave their answer to this question about 2,000 years ago. Note, to these men, ethics were the height of spirituality.
Ethics of the Fathers: Chapter Four (http://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/2032/jewish/Chapter-Four.htm)
1. Ben Zoma would say: Who is wise? One who learns from every man. As is stated (Psalms 119:99): “From all my teachers I have grown wise, for Your testimonials are my meditation.”
Who is strong? One who overpowers his inclinations. As is stated (Proverbs 16:32), “Better one who is slow to anger than one with might, one who rules his spirit than the captor of a city.”
Who is rich? One who is satisfied with his lot. As is stated (Psalms 128:2): “If you eat of toil of your hands, fortunate are you, and good is to you”; “fortunate are you” in this world, “and good is to you” in the World to Come.
Who is honorable? One who honors his fellows. As is stated (I Samuel 2:30): “For to those who honor me, I accord honor; those who scorn me shall be demeaned.”
Roger,
Easy to say as you are in great health!
Indeed, you’re right about that. (I hope.)
No matter how many squats, deadlifts or presses you do your body will one day stop working. If our existence has meaning beyond the functioning of our physical bodies then the most important thing in life is to find what that meaning is and then to move in that direction. And, yes, it is all about love.
But if our existence ends with our physical bodies then you might as well look good while you’re alive! More pushups, please!
You should probably read the book before making comments. It has nothing to do with looking good.
“A weak man is not as happy as the same man would be if he were strong.”
This proves that Rippetoe does not himself believe that strength is the most important thing in life: strength is only one of several means to happiness. Happiness is the most important thing.
the problem with strength training happens when you stop doing it
the muscle mass which gets built turns into fat
training with different tensioned “bungee” cords is a better alternative for most than “free weights”
a medicine ball will do wonders as well
the good old fashioned leather basketball one – 15 lbs
or a large variety of rubberized balls ranging in 15 lbs down to a couple lbs
which can bounce and can be used in tons of applications
given me a medicine ball and a good jump rope and im good to go
the only reason i exercise, nowadays, is the simple fact my life works better when i do versus the alternative
Could you please go into greater detail on the physiological process of muscle converting itself to fat? Also, how is training with bungee cords better than free weights? In what way and for who?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AZ03OKVjNE0
for example
Muscle is muscle, and will never turn into fat. This is basic physiology. If you get fat because you stop strength training, it is because you are not burning calories and building muscle any more.
Muscle turning to fat? That’s a myth. Kind of an old one, actually. I’m a little surprised to see it still being bandied about.
Can you provide a single citation that shows that muscle turns to fat?
Considering that you don’t understand even the most basic human physiology, why would anyone listen to a word you say?
Hey genius. Muscle tissue CANNOT tun into fat (adipose) tissue at any time, no more than hair can turn into bone tissue. They are completely different structures. If you actually think this is possible, you really need to go back to school. Or just ask, I don’t know, a Medical Doctor.
As for strength being less important than intellect – if you actually have any intellect, you’d realise the pursuit of physical strength/prowess is vitally important so as to place evolution in your favour. “The strongest shall survive”. The attainment of true physical strength is extremely demanding, and will enrich ALL of your other human capabilities immensely. Your capacity to tolerate the harshest life throws at you will increase several fold, and you will succumb far less to human disease than the average fat layabout. Attainment of strength = resilient health and a very tough constitution. You will not gain this from a stupid rubber Swiss ball and light “exercise”.
Bottom line, the strong are better than the weak. Physical strength brings mental strength the untrained will never know.
“Muscle turns to fat.” Impossible. Muscle fibers are muscle fibers and cannot change their structure anymore than your brain can become a bone. And fat is fat and cannot become muscle.
You add fat when your caloric intake exceeds your exercise level. Don’t do that.
I have lifted weights for 40 years. I have never had huge muscles. At 62, my body looks better than most 45 year-olds. My weight stays within a 5 pound range due to me paying attention and never letting it run away. As I age, it is easier to gain wieght, which requires attention.
I take a few vitamins, do quite a bit of walking and strenous hiking. I lift weights twice a week. I feel great, though my tendons seem to be my weak area, injuries to them require layoffs from the weights or reduced lifting from time to time.
Time is a rider that breaks us all. You can delay the breakdown.
I prefer to follow the Word of God on this:
1 Tim 4:8 For bodily exercise profiteth little: but godliness is profitable unto all things, having promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come.
Let God be true, and every man, a liar(Romans 3:4).
Much better to know Christ more and more, walk in Holiness with sins forgiven, die to self, service Christ with all my heart, soul, mind and strength, than to strive to keep up a body thats going to go back to dust anyway.
I agree. If a Christian, one is also to be a good steward of the earthly body.
With all the emphasis on this food and not that, and this method of training vs that, in hopes of qualitatively extending the human body’s life on earth for as long as possible, I sometimes wonder – what is considered acceptable (rather than avoidable) as a cause of death?
Conan has an opinion !
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6PQ6335puOc
Rippetoe is right about a lot of things, but I find that he ignores the cardio side of life. It’s weird that benching doesn’t automatically cross over to pushups.
I haven’t read his books but strenuous weight lifting has a high level of cardio. I remember reading that a hour of weight lifting has about the same, 80%, cardio benefit as an hour of cardio training.
I’ve trained women who spent years trying to lose weight with cardio. 2 months with me and they all surpassed their goals but also shaped their bodies (cardio doesn’t really do that).
“The best thing for being sad,” replied Merlin, beginning to puff and blow, “is to learn something. That’s the only thing that never fails. You may grow old and trembling in your anatomies, you may lie awake at night listening to the disorder of your veins, you may miss your only love, you may see the world about you devastated by evil lunatics, or know your honour trampled in the sewers of baser minds. There is only one thing for it then – to learn. Learn why the world wags and what wags it. That is the only thing which the mind can never exhaust, never alienate, never be tortured by, never fear or distrust, and never dream of regretting. Learning is the only thing for you. Look what a lot of things there are to learn.”
– T.H. White, The Once and Future King, Unknown
The most important thing in life is subject to change at any given moment.
Strength of spirit is more important than phsyical strength – most of the time. Survival is the most important thing in life – most of the time.
The fate of one’s soul is high on the list.
And all this time I thought it was “…to crush your enemies, see them driven before you, and to hear the lamentation of their women.”
Though that’s probably a lot easier to pull off if you’re physically strong.
Oh, wait, the most IMPORTANT thing in life, not the BEST. Sorry.
As the “American Beauty” character played by Kevin Spacey character said when asked about his workout regime (strength or flexibility?):
“I want to look good naked.”
Muscle cells cannot turn into fat cells.
Lifting weights is for sissy boy metrosexuals.
Men do real work and grow strong, and at the end of the day, have something to show for their labors other than flab and a long string of snarky comments.
“We previously were physically strong as a function of our continued existence in a simple physical world. We were adapted to this existence well, since we had no other choice. Those whose strength was adequate to the task of staying alive continued doing so. This shaped our basic physiology, and that of all our vertebrate associates on the bushy little tree of life. It remains with us today. The relatively recent innovation known as the Division of Labor is not so remote that our genetic composition has had time to adapt again. Since most of us now have been freed from the necessity of personally obtaining our subsistence, physical activity is regarded as optional. Indeed it is, from the standpoint of immediate necessity, but the reality of millions of years of adaptation to a ruggedly physical existence will not just go away because desks were invented.” -Mark Rippetoe
It would be nice if I could earn my salary through physical exertion, but the sad fact of it is that I need to sit on my arse for most of the day, and the physical tasks I have to accomplish are somewhat limited. The good news is that I can condense my physical training into 3-5 hours/week, scale the weights and take rest periods as appropriate, and not worry about having to maintain a certain productivity as my body continues to decline. But hey, you want to call me names, go right ahead.
If I’m not mistaken, this question was already answered by Conan:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6PQ6335puOc
—Tom Nally, New Orleans
Actually when you stop strength training your body still maintains some of the advantages gained from the training. See the advantages of steroid abuse for pro atheletes even after they stop using as a refrence.
The fat comes from maintaining the high caloric intake needed during the strength training while no longer expending the colories doing the exercising (currently experiencing this myself).
Strength is often associated with health and a sense of independence. Don’t underestimate the sense of freedom you lose when you lose the ability to get out of bed on your own.
For a man, physical competence — health, strength, energy, endurance — is the most foundational value.
Yes, love and spirituality (which are perhaps the same things) are at the apex. But without that physical presence, a man has trouble reaching those things.
Jesus, you’ll remember, was a carpenter, when that required raw muscle. People won’t take you seriously, if you don’t have physical competence. You won’t take yourself seriously.
Remember, our two greatest presidents were the two physically strongest: Washington and Lincoln. Teddy Roosevelt is up there, too.
I read a book last year titled “Younger Next Year”. The main point is that while we can’t avoid aging, we can avoid the decay that accompanies it. While I’m biologically 50 and my nutritionist says that physiologically I’m 42. I know that I feel better now than I did in my 30′s and 40′s. I attribute that to weight training combined with cycling and good nutrition.
Gee, and here I’ve been attributing that better feeling to finally getting the kids out of the house…
The best in life is to crush your enemies, see them driven before you, and to hear the lamentation of their women. – Conan the Barbarian
OK – seriously, many aspects of aging are better fought with strength training than with aerobic training. Bone density increases, muscle mass increases, and a long list of other benefits. Also, Rippetoe’s emphasis on the trunk, hips, and thighs (through squats) targets those muscles that cause the most problems when they weaken as we age. You don’t fall and break a hip because of small pecs.
Finally, from the comment earlier, muscle does NOT turn to fat. If anything, higher muscle mass fights weight gain by raising your basal metabolic rate.
David
I heard some damn dirty RINO say this is best in life:
To crush your enemies, see them driven before you, and to hear the lamentation of their women.
I spend enough of my life on the wheel of the professional rat race.
There is little appealing about doubling down as a gym rat.
In some ways, it’s hard to argue with him. Like the strength to pull yourself out of bed in the morning. To move your self to the toilet, to take care of the necessary procedures there, and then to lift your self back up. The strength to cut a piece of food, and lift it to your mouth. The strength to properly chew it, and then to swallow it. All are little feats of strength that many of us probably take for granted.
Then again, I would like to get an opinion from some one like Stephen Hawking. Someone who has had it, and lost it, yet still seems to accomplish quite a bit. Would he trade his intellect for the ability to care for himself?
Ahh could beat all you gurly men into a pulpy heap on da ground and den roar vitt da joy of da stronng mahn.
Yah.
Pump you up.
Vhat could mach me hoppier???
So many misconceptions, so little time.
1. “Strong” does not mean musclehead. It means that you can pick up heavy things and move them. And isn’t that a good thing? Doesn’t functional strength help you change a tire and put stuff on the top shelf in the storage room?
2. Muscle does not turn to fat. That is like saying wood turns to steel. Fat is fat. Muscle is muscle.
3. Strength correlates with health. There are data showing that people who are at advanced and elite levels of strength for their age and weight have lower all-cause mortality rates.
4. Weakness is bad. And dangerous. A healthy octogenarian who trips in the house and can’t get up due to lack of upper body strength.
5. To expand on #4, who do you want on your side in a fight? A 145 lb marathoner with no muscle mass or a 200 lb guy who can squat 300 lbs?
5. Powerlifters can be very flexible and agile athletes.
6. Why would elastic cords be better? I think they main thing they would do is …… make you better at stretching elastic cords.
7. And really, most people don’t do barbell training because it is really hard. RIght? But everyone should try it. It is great fun and makes you feel good. The sense of accomplishment when you beat personal records if very rewarding.
8. There is strong vein of libertarianism in powerlifting circles. We are a very independent, tough-minded people. And outspoken.
All that being said, I don’t agree with Rip on what is most important. I have a ton of respect for Rip. He has been very good to me (Conor is an alias), but I fear for his soul. He has been almost belligerent in his rejection of Christianity. I hope and pray that changes.
I lost contact with him over this issue, and don’t really know to reestablish a relationship with him.
Much of what Conor said is true, though there are some points to clarify:
* Studies repeatedly show increasing muscle mass will increase metabolism, 24/7. Thus muscle isn’t being turned into fat when lifting stops; muscle mass is decreasing and any gain in fat is due to the 24/7 metabolism slowing (along with the lack of caloric expenditure previously associated with the ceased actvity).
* As for a “fight”, it depends on whether either knows how to fight… and whether either is packing heat. God may have created man, but Sam Colt made them equal. Besides, the smartest among us know it’s best to avoid the fight altogether regardless of tools, training, or physical capability.
* Powerlifters *can* be very flexible and agile athletes… and the key word is “can”. In the circles I’ve exercised in, its much more common they’re not. YMMV, just calling it like I see it.
* Using elastic bands will yield drastically different results than weights… and unless one is an elastic band salesman, he would be hard pressed to say they’re “better”. Cheaper? Yes. More transportable? Yes. A substitute or better? Hardly.
* The reason most people don’t lift weights is NOT because it’s hard. Running can be hard. Plyometrics can be hard. Swimming can be hard. Med school, flight training, achieving various levels spirituality are all hard. Lots of stuff in life is hard, and people pursue those interests and goals because they foresee value in the end result. I’ll argue that the reason people don’t lift weights is because it seems stationary, tedious, boring… and goes against most contemporary exercise and medical dogma which emphasize cardio health. Clearly Rip’s book aims to refute both that perception and the biased orthodoxy.
I have a chronic medical condition that sometimes causes my blood pressure to mis-regulate which leaves me physically weak and/or significantly mentally impaired. Of the two conditions, the mental effects are the worst. Being physically restricted is okay as long as I can still think and work or at least entertain myself by reading, solving puzzles etc. Being unable to really do anything mental is so boring as to torturous.
However, worse than either is interference with my emotional control. Feeling suddenly happy, sad, angry etc with changes at random is so bad that I still have nightmares about some episodes. Emotion tell us how things are going and how we feel they will go in the future. They tell us how to choose. Having them go wonky and unreliable undermines our intellect and sense of being.
In the end however, there is no dichotomy between intellect/mind and bodily strength because there is no mind body dualism. The brain is an organ of the body that consumes around 25% of the bodies resources. If the body is not strong and healthy, the brain cannot function at its peak. People adapt to working while weak or ill but they’re never their best.
The old adage of the Rhodes scholars, strong minds in strong bodies is today on sound scientific footing. If you want your mind to be as sharp as possible, your body must be as fit as possible to support the functioning of the brain.
Tough to compare. I’ve been regarded as smart since before kindergarten.
I was pretty weak until I started to grow into my 6’2″ frame in college. Being weak in high school really sucks- but no one called me stupid.
Unless there is some real life Flowers for Algernon I really don’t think you can make a comparison.
I would heartily agree. Years ago I got a Bowflex, and it really did change the way I thought about physical strength versus being just in good cardiovascular shape from running. Doing arm work made my job – classical guitarist – just a TON easier, as getting through those four hour marathon gigs became more bearable.
Best thing is leg work, though. I’d had the Bowflex for a few years before I got the Leg Extension and Squat Attachment; boy, do you want those! My thighs are actually a bit oversized now – I can squat about 300 pounds (And I’m 53 years old) – and the WAY I WALK just gives people a whole different first impression of me (And I’ve been a distance runner since my teens). It’s really quite amazing: People treat you VERY differently when you appear very, obviously strong.
It’s about functional fitness and strength. Crossfit is a GREAT way to get fit across the 10 key fitness metrics using compound (i.e., multi-joint) movements, functional exercises, done at high intensity, and varied to avoid boredom and plateaus.
I went through a period of my life when I got into a cycle of emotionally rewarding exercise that made me quite strong in relative terms for a few years. For reasons related to testosterone levels (I suspect), it also made me a bit more aggressive than was optimal for me. Strength is a good thing, but it reaches diminishing returns at about the 98th percentile of the male population. Intelligence is also a good thing, and the returns don’t diminish until you hit the 99.9 percentile. And you can never have too much wisdom.
Let’s try this thought experiment: Suppose you had to choose between losing half your physical strength and half your mental capacity. Which would you choose?
I had a stroke about six years back, I still have a little trouble speaking. I spent about four days unable to think straight so I do know what it is to be stupid. I suspect that stroke took some of my IQ points away forever.
So I have been stupid, after a lifetime of 140+ IQ. It was flat frightening.
I’m also considerably weaker but then I suspect that is just because I’m an old fart now. I reckon I’m supposed to be weak. What I really miss is the way men of my age used to gather in the local park, back when I was a child. They were the hard old men, veterans of the Spanish American War, old cowboys and lawmen. The “young kids”, the vets of WW1 , were the ones who were sent for beer. Some of the best days of my childhood were sitting there, hearing the stories of the Moro uprising, the lawmen of the Indian Territory, and the Boxer Rebellion.
If those old men were not strong they would not have been old. The weak died young, especially before antibiotics. Still, these often profane old men had personal relationships with their God(s). Those men (and my parents) taught me that our lives are a three legged stool, physical, mental and spiritual.
Billy Crystal mocked Fernando Llamas for saying that it was better to look good than to feel good. Well over the years I’ve found that as you grow older, you’ll have a lot of days in which you won’t feel good but you’ll have to go out and function anyway. Ceremonies of appearance can help. Shower, shave, make sure your shoes are shined and etc. People will treat you different if you look good as opposed to you obviously looking like you feel bad. You’ll feel better if you know you look half way decent instead of like a stinky unmade bed.
Muscles let you stand more erect with less effort. It is easier to look better with a sound musculature. People will treat you better if you look half way decent and alert and that can make you feel a bit better, even though you feel like you been through a coyote’s digestive system and then hammered.
Do not distain the jocks, nor the nerds – learn from all, be a friend to all – while maintaining your sense of self and dignity (i.e. don’t stand for others denigrating those not in their group). It is great to be smart – it is even better to be smart and able to do 25(or 45?) pull ups and 100 push-ups without vomiting immediately afterward. And yes, you will look good naked.
Yes physical strength and physical tenacity are vital to a long and happy life….
Like Stephen Hawking? Charles Krauthammer? Itzhak Perlman?
Do not presume that health and strength are not hand in hand. Strong people can survive the tragedies of aging better than those that allow muscle mass to decrease the 10% per year that physiologists proclaim. Muscle keeps up the ‘ol metabolism, causes one to produce hormones, like testosterone and endorphins, and looks good too. (it attracts “love” as well).
It depends on the state of society: In a civilized, regulated society strength is not so important, in anarchy it is vital. I suspect we are currently on the cusp between the two.
At my next birthday I will have lifted weights for exercise for 40 years. Sometimes I haven’t done so very smartly and have ended up injuring myself, nonetheless, I could probably lick anyone my age in a fight and many that are decades younger. In fact, like Charles Atlas, getting beat up was why I started lifting. I started lifting in the gym where the ringleader of the guys who beat me up worked out. When I got to where I could bench 75-100 lbs more than he could, he quit showing up. I never said a word to him. One other reason I took it up was reading one of Jack Lalanne’s books, I still have it. I can’t do the diet thing, though. There’s just too much good food in this world to be enjoyed. Reading politics, economics, philosophy, devotionals and Bible keep me going, too. I think just having a balanced life makes all the difference, but I don’t quit lifting because, weak man that I am, I don’t want to know what it’s like not being strong, if I can help it.
Physical strength is more than a caricature you may have of some swollen up bodybuilder admiring himself in the mirror at a big, commercial gym. To those of you who’ve not yet discovered the truth of the adage that “When you have your health, you have everything. When you do not have your health, nothing else matters at all” AND the dramatic impact of acquiring strength on health, I recommend the article, Barbell Training is Big Medicine by Dr Jonathon Sullivan here: http://startingstrength.com/index.php/site/barbell_training_is_big_medicine
Outstanding article.
Don’t freakishly outsized genitals even get a place at the table?
the two things that make me the happiest are lifting weights and bicycling. good health and physical strength helps to keep the mind sharp.
Strength training is a great way to get good and injured. Pass.
Wrong. In my experience injuries during cardiovascular exercise, especially jogging, are generally more common. So long as you don’t overlift – sticking to a weight you can do at least 7-8 reps of per set – you should be fine.
No, strength training with improper form and inappropriate weight is a great way to get good and injured. Also, see “running a marathon without adequate preparation” and “Crossfit WOD without proper scaling” (plantar fasciitis/IT band syndrome and rhabdomyolysis, respectively).
You are all taking your mental health for granted. Even a person who is very physically ill can still relate to those around him. He can remain mentally and also spiritually healthy.
But if you are out of touch with reality, it is an entirely different problem, producing an agonizing isolation. Mental illness is far deeper and more serious than physical illness or weakness.
Naw– for guys, it’s penis length. For women, breast size.
The most important thing in life is the thing you don’t have.
My whole life, I’ve been interested in intellectual pursuits: writing, programming, reading, games, forensics. That was where I really enjoyed myself. Different sports might catch my interest now and then, but I mostly gave them up if I had to budget my time. I got way out of shape.
In August, a good friend had a heart attack. Non-fatal, but scary; and scary for me, too, because he was in much better shape than me.
So I decided to make a life change. I joined the YMCA, and I’ve been going three to six days a week. (I’m fortunate to have a schedule that allows that.) And with the help of a good trainer, I’m down 18 pounds net through a combination of weights, cardio, and nutrition. And that’s NET, because I can feel significant development of pecs and abs and biceps and quads. I can’t even see the tendons in my hands any more, because the hand muscles get a workout in pretty much every weight routine.
And you know what I discovered? I LIKE having pecs and biceps that feel like real muscle. When illness knocked me off my routine this month, I actually missed the feel of pushing those muscles just a little further every week.
The most important thing in life? I think that’s an exaggeration. But I think Mr. Rippetoe is onto something, and it’s something I wish I’d known years ago. This feels good; and honestly, I think it’s boosting my mental energy as well.
Sufficient strength is required to be able to move through life without regard to its travails. If you are unable to walk up a flight of stairs or do a single pull up, then strength training is important. Otherwise, it is more important to worry about improving your mind. Because while strength can only go so high, your mind has no limits. Learn Latin or Pushtu, the calculus or Niche, Cthulhu deep ones vs Superman DC. There is no limit to what can be thought, but all the while your body must be strong enough to support your mind. Hooah.
Balance is the best thing in life. Neither too little or too much of anything.
I’ve been spending a lot of time in nursing homes lately, and from my observations it is better to lose your wits than your ability to walk. Those who have lost their wits seem more content with their lot, while those who can’t walk are helpless and impotent. So I would have to say that strength is very important. You are more your own master if you are able to move around.
ALLOW ME TO DROP SOME KNOWLEDGE ON YOU
Mr. Rippetoe has made the mistake of determining physical strength’s value by judging our reliance on it.
Sure, we can imagine a life with Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, the disease Steven Hawking has.That would be about as close as you can get to having zero physical strength. Since next to no one is as smart as Hawking, good luck having anyone other than your family ever care about you. Most of what we consider “the human experience” is now totally unavailable to you. Given this, the idea that physical strength is the most important aspect of life can seem appealing.
We are, after all, very reliant on physical strength. What puts more people in nursing homes than anyone else? Heart Attack? Diabetes? No, it’s feebleness – it’s when grandma can’t stand up from the couch when she’s over for thanksgiving dinner.
But what’s so bad about judging value based on reliance? Well, it’s not always appropriate. Let’s say you have open heart surgery to save your life. That surgery is now, in terms of reliance, THE most important thing in your life. Does this mean you should pledge your life to your surgeon or pay him all the money you ever earn for the rest of your life? No, you pay the doctor for the work he does and you’re on your merry way.
I would argue that our capacity for reason is the most important thing in our lives. Now how smart you are, but just the bare fact that you’re capable of reason. That’s what makes you a human being. It’s the only reason you have a purpose that’s any different from the purpose of an ape (if an ape has any purpose at all). It’s the only reason you have any moral obligations and the only reason why you’re able to identify that any emotions or memories belong to you and your self-aware mind.
have to go with physical strength.
the unspoken platform of ‘growing stronger’ is way different than ‘being strong’.
in order to grow stronger, you have to have commitment, and a desire to challenge oneself. getting stronger involves so many aspects of life, and a ‘discipline’ in life.
for me there is a certain zen within the movements. not how much weight you move, so much as how perfect the movement is-the belief that any weight could be lifted by perfection. full range of motion is essential.
you also learn to accept the bad days, knowing that the next time you lift, you expect to be better. the measure is straightfoward, success or failure. you alone are the judge of your effort/actions.
every time you lift, you are facing yourself in a metaphorical mirror.
the slightest glimmer of confidence provides the basis for every subsequent stage to build on, and no one can take it from you, until the day you believe your age has taken your ability to be better than you were yesterday.
I see people in the 60′s, stronger than they have ever been, and not one believes that they have seen their peak.
one other point…
you can make yourself more educated, but you can’t make yourself more intelligent. this fabric of genetics is untinkerable.
strength is just the opposite. for arguments sake, let’s say that a person, on average, is capable of performing 25% of their true max.
one can quickly double that %, but my guess is that they peak out at 70%.
in theory, one should not be able to budge their iq.
I won’t say what the most important thing in life is. That’s above my pay grade.
This I will say, though.
You can’t think yourself into feeling good. You can’t feel yourself into it. You can’t love yourself into it.
However, you can bring yourself into a state of clearer thought, better emotions, and loving energy with a good half hour with kettlebells. Did that this morning.
Whatever the most important thing in life might be, physical strength and strength training make a hell of a good foundation to build upon.
Please y’all, go back and read the link that Beth included in her post (#43).
Sully makes a very strong and important argument for strength training throughout life’s continuum.
I serve on a board of a life care community and am able to see the effects of lack of muscle and strength in an elderly population. Immobility and physical incapacity brought on by lack of physical conditioning is just as debilitating emotionally as is mental decline/incapacity.
A person can control their physical well being more easily than their mental capabilities during the course of their life. I makes no sense to ignore or scoff at those who advocate taking care of their body.
Yes, we will all be dust eventually, but the idea that you can be robust and active up to the last few years should be attractive to most people.
Again, please give Sully’s paper a read…he says it better that I can.
Health is the most important thing in life, but physical strength is health and the only people that don’t agree are the ones that aren’t strong.
When you need it, nothing else will do.
A better way of phrasing it would be to ask yourself what one single thing you can do, right now, to make you rlife better; what one single thing would yield the biggest return on your time. For many people who aren’t regularly exercising that will be physical activity, including strength training. Such activity improves your brain function, improves your health, improves your mood, improves your sex life, makes you more attractive, etc.
Stephen Hawking accomplished great things with almost no physical strength. Since very few of us have Hawking’s intellect, we need more balance in our lives than he has. Without at least a minimum amount of physical strength EVERYTHING else is difficult.
I, as many others who have attained a certain number of years or miles, have had to deal from time to time with physical limitations, some temporary, some permanent. It is at those times that one realizes the importance of having physical strength. When physical recovery finally takes place we find that everything else, from the intellectual to the spiritual, gets easier.
Mens sana in corpore sano.
Being strong is a result of doing things(as opposed to being lazy), and when the machine that is your body is working at full capacity, your brain also works better.
Nothing will stop you from thinking as you exercise if your brain is minded to think, in fact, physical work often clears the mental fog and focuses the mind to produce great ideas and insights.
So, whilst some reedy, unfit geeks may be smart, if they become strong, fit geeks, they’ll get even smarter
Of course it’s not the most important thing, but it can be a GREAT thing.
Now, about Rippetoe’s program, Starting Strength… it’s simple, very effective, suitable for all levels of fitness and will make you oh-so-strong (and that feels great)!
I never was into lifting until I starting messing around with cross-fit in my early 30s. That whet my appetite for Olympic lifts and barbell workouts. More importantly, it also got me past the apprehension I had for those complicated looking movements. Nobody likes looking weak or being inept in the gym. Folks will stick to the machines because they are goof proof.
I was already in reasonable shape, but within about 4-5 weeks I was the strongest I’d ever been. His program is very simple and it really does work. I’d been “fit” most of my life, but feeling STRONG and fit is fantastic.
If you want to monkey around with situps or arm curls, look elsewhere. If you want to generate practical strength that applies to physical activities ranging from beer league kickball to brazilian jiu jitsu, try the program. Google it, there’s plenty of free info out there on the web. After a few weeks, you’ll want to buy the book and delve into it. Good luck!
Both. I have found neither to outweigh.
What’s with the Stephen Hawking adoration? y’all want to look like him or what? And to those of you who minimize the beneficial impact of strength :
How can someone be so strongly against physical strength? probably because some of you are physically weak and like to think that your big brain somehow compensate for that (it doesn’t).
that’s the straight up question in this matter…
would you rather be famous, intelligent, and paralyzed, or be a ‘commoner’ who is stronger than the average population?
It comes down to what one respects ‘most’…
for me, being stephen hawking is the equivalent of basking in one’s reflection at the gym.
two reasons people work out…
for themselves, or for the approval of others.
two reasons people would chose to be stephen hawking…
for themselves, or for the approval of others.
in both cases, the truest choice is always the former, but the overwhelming majority is motivated by the latter.
Balance in everything. You must find your own.
A few things:
1. If you want to lose weight then don’t bother with diet plans. Just use a smaller plate and eat slowly. Take 20 minutes to eat a plate of food and use a dessert plate instead of a dinner plate. If you’re still hungry after 20 minutes and one plate of food then go ahead and get another. This will eventually train you to eat slower, enjoy the food more and eat less.
You’ll also learn to eat better because taste instead of volume will be more important.
2. Most people have absolutely zero need to use weights. They’re simply not strong enough to make a difference and frankly will be more prone to hurt themselves.
Just pick up some basic calisthenics, set up a 30 minute workout routine and then do that routine 3x a week. That’s all anybody really needs.
3. If you do want to get into weight training for strength and body tone then by all means do so *after* you have done extensive calisthenics and built up a basic level of body strength. Going from weak to strong using weights is a very good way to get injured.
4. If you are going to go the weight training route then I highly recommend doing it via SuperSlow method training. SuperSlow is essentially resistance training using weights. Tension is maintained at all times, you never lock a joint, you don’t rest during an exercise or between exercises to maintain cardio and all exercises have a 20 second duration for each and every repetition.
Basically what this does is force you to maintain good form and avoid many of the issues that tend to dog exercisers when they try to do weight training. Most of which will eventually injure you or cause permanent harm. By doing each repetition slowly you also allow for time to drop the weight or act to avoid injury. And really injury avoidance is a major issue over the long haul.
5. Use machines whenever possible, avoid free weights. I used to love free weights but unless you are exceptionally careful and have an -attentive- spotter or partner at all times using free weights puts you on the probability path of eventually getting injured. Machines are much more forgiving in such situations and the worst case scenario involves simply letting go and writing a check to pay for any damages.
And that check amount will always be less than the cost of an orthopedic surgeon and recovery.
Basically, it’s safe for anyone reading to ignore everything above. Completely.
If physical strength were the most important thing in life, Samson would have been the greatest Jewish hero, instead of Moses, Solomon, David, or Daniel.
That said, I have been seriously ill several times, and I have learned that, when the medical doctor says you’re over it, you are a long way from being well. I’ve used my ability to do research to design programs to recover my strength and stamina several times.
Physical strength and stamina are gifts that most people can obtain and maintain, if they so choose. For me, it’s well worth it.
Hazak, hazak, ve-nit’hazek
Be strong, Be strong, Let us strengthen each other
II Samuel 10:12. See also Judges 1:18.
Note the H in Hazak is a Chet and is gutturalized.
One thing missing from this discussion :
Eat right, exercise = die anyway.
And the corollary from George Carlin : someday you are going to feel pretty stupid, lying on a hospital bed dying of… NOTHING !
I think physical strength includes health and perhaps even mental and spiritual health to a degree.
But I think you miss the point which is this – would you rather be a strong and fit person making $30,000 a year for life (forget aging for now) or fat, weak slob making $1,000,000 a year for life. I’d rather the former.
Yes, because if there’s anything we have learned since the Industrial Revolution, it’s that having more money than we need solves all of our problems.
In general, your strongest mind will be in your strongest body.
Neglect of either will exact a price.
Oh you say that I must make a choice,
I say only at death –
and as far as I can tell, a dead body has no mind.
Which is more important: the yolk, the shell, or the chicken embryo? The chicken, finally, is more important, but cannot hatch without the other two parts, and the time spent dependent.
muscle development washes muscles in muscle- growth factor, which is picked up by nerves touching the muscles, and transported up into one’s brain. they work together. were you to injure your brain, you’d need either a pregnancy, or a number of physical workouts, to even have the cellular components to repair any damage.
And, well, there is that character component. To get to that level of health, one has to have the inner resources to push oneself to discomfort, or not eat disastrous, easy food. It’s limiting, even if it’s not kosher limiting- it’s still limiting.
The simplest way to check on the health of your brain- is look at your face- is your skin in good condition? It’s of the same embryonic tissue, and seems to stay in sync. So following Mr Perricone’s advice for skin, even a little bit, will help your mind. I’ve found this to be anecdotally true. Fish oil, high doses of vit C, vit D, a prenatal multi- and my skin clears up, my thinking unfogs, my hands feel great, and I feel like springtime. which is, you know, good for muscles, too. It’s easier to move. marrena lindsberg covers this sort of thing in her book, from a different angle.
and yet–these are physical gifts, and will be taken away, suddenly or not. to be only blessed with good digestion and health, but not a strong soul, means when these are taken away, one is left a cranky, bitter, shallow person. And, then the shell breaks open- what flies out? I can’t prove to the satisfaction of an atheist that one has a soul- but I think we all have a notion of ourselves continuing on, as ourselves- and hopefully in a renewed and loving, caring form. Angels have “angelic” faces of compassion and care, not trivial, selfish faces. I think our hopes are that we will be shed of all our weaknesses and infirmities. what we can do now, too, is shed weakness and infirmity, as best we are able.
also, there was a terrible fracturing- strong people were considered weak-minded, this century. I don’t know why. I know my grandmother disparages weightlifters, my MIL looked down on her football player son. They both think me shallow for being so gleeful about my husband’s beauty. My sons appreciate it- they aspire. They are willing to do the work to transform from little boys to the Gods of High School sports. And, they expect to be brilliant in their studies. Why wouldn’t they be? I think the old women are envious of the men getting to be strong and glorious and free.
Actually, everybody’s wrong. Red wine is the most important thing in life.
Well . . .
Mr. Rippetoe’s treatise isn’t exactly sound. Reverse it. A strong man would feel better if he were a little smarter.
I have been thinking that physical strength may be a lot like money: you can say its not that important until you don’t have any of it.
Helen,
I think you need to define levels of strength and the related happiness. I agree that I’m less happy when I’m ill but regular exercise never really made me happy; it was a chore.
Like many things, though, I think most people would like to BE strong; they just aren’t too interested in becoming strong.
Why does it have to be either/or?
Physical strength leads to mental and spiritual strength for many. I personally was very weak for much of my life (physically, emotionally). I never went to a gym because the complicated routines in Men’s Health intimidated me, I had no clue how to do any of those isolation exercises. The idea of doing a circuit of 30 things I didn’t know in front of a bunch of lifetime exercise folks scared me.
Rippetoe’s program was simple enough for me to do. I got strong. I quit drinking. I felt great. I beat depression. I am not a musclehead or bodybuilder.
I’m a better father to my children, a more caring husband and a stronger member of the community overall. Why? Because a simple program showed me I could overcome my weaknesses and each gain fed the next.
http://www.ted.com/talks/daniel_wolpert_the_real_reason_for_brains.html
The above link is to a talk from a Neuroscientist about why we have brains. The short version is that based on our understanding right now it seems the reason we, and other animals have evolved brains is to facilitate physical movement. Based on this it is not a far stretch to say that being physically competent has a strong impact on our mental well being. Strength training is simply one avenue towards achieving that physical competency.
The Strong, the Competent and the Willing are partly to blame for this soft existence which allows the weakest members living among us to voice their opinions as if any of us should pay attention or care. The only reason I can surmise why any human being would be perfectly OK with the fact that they are weak, that they have treated their bodies with contempt and neglected to challenge themselves in the most human way possible is because competent individuals have come before them and paved the way for their meaningless existence to cadge upon.
Because we have defeated our enemies, conquered the wrath of nature, improved our means of transportation and devised ways to medicate, monitor and educate the weakest and least deserving of humans we share this earth with, apparently NOW it is perfectly acceptable for the weak, lazy and unwilling to act as if there is some redeemable aspect of their existence that I should want to model my life after? Much of our tradition is steeped in the Ancient Greek culture, where philosophers were ex-infantryman and warfare was halted so that wrestling matches could be conducted. Their idea of virtue was in harnessing and controlling the power one had at their disposal; in a society where men are no longer concerned with the ability to strengthen and shape their physical bodies, why should any concern be given to their virtuous ideals? Why go to the farthest reaches of space when we do not even master our own bodies? We have lost our way and this idea that the physical aspect of our existence is any less important, any less malleable or any less important than the spiritual or intellectual parts is certainly not something we inherited from those whose footsteps we follow.