For real

"You killed the only two people I ever loved. Why?"
--DareDevil (Worst Movie Ever)

The reason why I advocate barbell training to help fight obesity in youth has a few simple reasons. When someone applies stress to their body, the human bodies homeostasis gets disrupted. When it returns back to normal the stress applied to it has been adapted to. Then you grow.

When you squat with the technique taught by Mark Rippetoe. You squat using the most muscles over the longest distance. The more you squat, the stronger you get. Safely. This is not saying you need to squat 800 pounds and be a professional powerlifter. That is what those guys get paid to do. Everyone can benefit from adding 100 lbs to their squat. If they don't squat, they should.

I digress.

When you get stronger and eat and sleep your muscles will grow. Lean muscle will be built over a short period of time. The more lean muscle a person has the faster their metabolism is.



This is a picture of my friend Justin Lascek. I think he's got 435 on the bar. He is a coach in Wichita Falls.

The faster the metabolism the quicker you can burn off calories. It is crazy how that works huh?

Potential

"Who wants cream? Nobody? Okay, no cream."
--Farva

Change can happen in the youth if there are capable and competent trainers guiding them along their journey. I am not talking about the men and women who go to weekend certifications and sit there without having to lift a finger and magically become a personal trainer.

If you really think about it, would you really listen to anyone who believes that they can conquer the mysteries of the human body in a one weekend certification for two hundred dollars?


We all wanna be like these champs right?


This kind of knowledge requires specific and practical training. Obesity can be fought and can potentially be a thing of the past. This solution of barbell training does go against conventional wisdom, but it will work – for sure.

My Best Friend

“Hey, Blinkin!”
“Did you say "Abe Lincoln"?”
---Robin Hood: Men in Tights

Lifestyles that young adolescents have now are not influenced by athletics or physical activity. Kids are influenced by technology and demand instant results. This demand for instant results leads to little work ethic amongst that age group.

Doing something difficult can change a teenagers work ethic. “By overcoming hard obstacles on a consistent basis, we set ourselves up for success. Our thoughts formulate our feelings, our feelings compose our emotions, our emotions are exhibited through actions, and our actions define who we are. So you see, if we can structure our thoughts in a successful mindset, one that strives towards success regardless of the obstacle, then it makes us a better person. One of the best ways to train to do this is to do something that is really f***ing hard. And then do that on a regular basis.” (Do Hard Things, pg. 9).

That was a clip from an article written by my beeeeeeeest friend. He is a strength coach in Wichita Falls, Texas and has currently qualified for Nations in Olympic Lifting.

In life it is necessary to do hard things.

BMI

“Nice night for a walk.”
---The Terminator

The obesity problem is an issue because being over-weight leads to more chances of diabetes and also leads to heart risks. The obesity problem needs to be measured in the correct way though. BMI, Body-Mass Index, is a joke.
It is an easy way to get extremely inaccurate results fast. That’s how America works doesn’t it?

A BMI test just measures body-weight to height ratio. This test is an assumption that the extra mass per height is FAT. If this were true every player in the NFL would be on the way to the morgue due to his extreme obesity. You might be saying “Duh!” right now, but most people do not know this.




I have tested myself on a BMI calculator as well. According to it I have a BMI of 30.6, OBESE by that standard. There is a large margin of error in calculating obesity with some of these tests. Your average P.E. teacher does not understand these fallacies. If students were subjected to a Body-fat assessment the results would be more accurate. A better way to approach this would be to use a body fat caliper. It is more reliable that a BMI test by far. Some one with experience can easily help by using a caliper.


This might cause a younger person to lose some confidence and maybe start feeling upset. You have to be delicate with certain age groups in the way you talk to them about “fat”.

We Need More Blankets

"I've heard police work is dangerous."
"It is. That's why I carry a big gun."
---Frank Drebin

Most programs for any sort of activity need funding. Funding for programs would be simple and very effective. The only problem is the popularity of exercise or training, is lacking, unlike many other European and Asian countries. (Training is considered having a goal or an end result from lifting). A great example of this is Olympic weightlifting. The number of registered weightlifters in China alone is in the millions as in the U.S. it is only in the tens of thousands. Most of these lifters are teenagers, some children. There is a huge emphasis on exercising and weightlifting in China. (USA Today.)

In America there is no benefits from lifting weights. There are no scholarships for power-lifting and Olympic lifting. So it is no surprise that every other country besides America does great in that category of the Olympics.

Don’t try to disagree with that statement because Kenya beat out the Americans recently. That’s right. Kenya.

Funding is crucial to the popularity of many sports. The more funding means the more demand for that particular sport.

"Are you sneaking around in here, Charles?"

Most physical activity is thought of as something easy you can do in 5-8 minutes. Maybe get up off the couch and grab your shake-weight and wiggle it around for fifteen seconds and I am sure you will look like the super models on television – Syke. Sure these items will show results, but that’s only because the un-active become active. That is why having qualified coaches who know how to properly teach and design barbell programs is a necessity.

Young adults need someone to look up to and to motivate them. The P.E. teachers of today just aren’t doing the trick. Very few give the kids an opportunity to be involved in correct training.

Correct training is essential to the success of any sort of program that involves exercise. The gym teachers just stick their prospective students under a bar and tell them to squat. That is because they don't know how to teach and they just might not care.

Then the student gets a knee injury because an un-qualified coach taught them to squat incorrectly and barbell training gets a bad rap. Not the coach who has no idea about the mechanics of a correct lift (No one is happy at this point). This is a common misconception of barbell training. It is perfectly safe when taught correctly.

Unfortunately lots of people do not understand much of anything in regards to training now.

O The Youth

“Today is Evaluation Day. The key word being value. Do you have any? Not yet you don’t”

Young adolescents have hundreds of activities they can choose from now. Most of them not including any sort of physical labor.

There is not enough discussion in school about the importance of physical activity. Most "Coaches" just roll out the ole' ball and say shoot around some baskets, its good for you.

Some kids play around, while most sit in social circles and fart around. This does not induce an active behavior in the youth. If those coaches actually had some sort of training and experience in something besides high school (insert X sport here), then something might get done.

There needs to be qualified professionals in a position of authority in the physical education department.

This is rare.