Normally I’m not the type of guy that will go out of his way to “call people out,” but today is a rare exception. I just learned this past weekend that the Olsen twins were asked by Hugh Hefner to pose for Playboy Magazine.
What tha……..what?!?! Shame on you Hugh! Yeah, you’re right, nothing in this world would be more sexy than to see two emaciated waifs naked. And by “sexy,” what I really mean is “make me want to throw up.” Why not just ask Paris Hilton to join them? Wait a second. You could totally stage a pillow fight between the three. Except instead of pillows, you can use a brick, a lead pipe, and an AK-47. Sign me up!
Needless to say, that news put me in a fowl mood and there just so happens to be another person I feel the urge to “call out.” Last week a reader of my blog (thanks for reading by the way) made a comment in regards to an old post I made on “5 Exercises You DO NOT Need To Be Doing.” Apparently he didn’t agree with me. I’ll just let him do the talking and post what he wrote word for word.
certified personal trainer…
heres a real life example where you use leg press…any time you jump in the air you idiot, eg a basketball player, aerobics class, etc…not only are your principles rediculous, but your assuming that there is only one way to “skin the cat” with training. Which you are completely wrong, the body adapts to many different types of stressors, if you stress it the same way every workout, your body becomes resistant to that type of exercise meaning you cant make any progress. Working at a college and a gym where bosu balls, leg presses, and arm curls are all implemented in many programs…i think i’ll stick with our training type and you can be a neanderthal in terms of training.
Dear “Random Gym Guy” from Bloomsburg University (in Pennsylvania),
Dude, come on! If you’re going to call me an idiot, at least have the common decency to practice proper grammar. Pssst, here’s a hint: chicks prefer guys who know how to differentiate between your/you’re. The sooner you learn that, the sooner they’ll actually want to hang out with you. You can thank me later.
To make things easier, lets break this down sentence by sentence:
“heres a real life example where you use leg press…any time you jump in the air you idiot, eg a basketball player, aerobics class, etc…not only are your principles rediculous, but your assuming that there is only one way to “skin the cat” with training.”
So this must be the reason why your men’s basketball program hasn’t won a conference title in over 25+ years; not enough leg pressing, right? I’m not even going to broach the topic of aerobic classes, because it’s clear that you’re about as intelligent as a ham sandwich.
“Which you are completely wrong, the body adapts to many different types of stressors, if you stress it the same way every workout, your body becomes resistant to that type of exercise meaning you cant make any progress.”
How many ways can you alter the leg press? What, change an individual’s foot position from a narrow stance to a wide stance? Wow, I really think you’re on to something. Never mind the fact that you’re completely ignoring basic functional anatomy and forcing one to lift a weight in a fixed plane of motion while at the same time placing tons of compressive and shear force on their lower back. I thought the main goal as fitness professionals was to keep people healthy?
Now lets look at the squat and all the various ways we can alter it so as not to, as you would say, “become resistant to it.”
Free Back Squats: using various bars (olympic bar, safety squat bar, cambered bar, etc).
Box Squats: again using various bars and now we can add varying box heights.
Front Squats: with varying bars and boxes.
Single Leg Squat variations: Split Squats, Bulgarian Split Squats, Pistols, etc.
We can also add chains, bands, etc which undoubtedly place a different stress on the movement. We can also change foot positions on certain forms of squats to “tweak” the stress. Not to mention I haven’t even discussed the plethora of different set/rep schemes we can use, or tempos for that matter. There are endless ways to train the squat compared to a leg press. An athlete could go all four years through college and never have the same squat variation programmed twice in a row. Leg presses will do nothing but make them great at pushing a weight up an incline and messing up their back. Point. Blank. Period.
“Working at a college and a gym where bosu balls, leg presses, and arm curls are all implemented in many programs…i think i’ll stick with our training type and you can be a neanderthal in terms of training.”
1. Wow, you actually work in a college gym? We all know that people who work at college gyms are highly trained (special note: I’m being sarcastic here). They get hired because they don’t have class at a particular time – and they spend their days wiping down equipment. Congrats.
2. Arm curls are great. It gives you and your frat boy friends an opportunity to cut the sleeves off all those shirts you bought at Baby Gap and show off those 14 inch guns.
3. Outside of rehabilitation, BOSU balls are useless. Unless of course you’re in the the business of producing inferior athletes.
Kind Personal Regards,
Tony
