Easy Strength by Pavel Tsatsouline

Author:Pavel Tsatsouline
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Dragon Door Publications
Published: 2011-11-14T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 5

Armor Building, or the “Elephant in the Room”

* * *

“Quick guys get tired. Big guys don’t shrink.”

—Marv Harshman, University of Washington basketball coach, explaining why he favors size over speed

* * *

Pardon me, but we seem to have an elephant in the room. Perhaps we can call it by its other name: the 800-pound gorilla in the room.

If you are not up on your delightful English idioms, both expressions are used to identify an obvious problem that no one wants to address. But if you want to be a strength coach, you had better come to grips with this issue.

The issue? Bodybuilding. Body culture. Muscle spinning. Pumping the guns. Pumping iron. Blasting, blitzing, and bombing your pecs.

Something nefarious has been happening in strength coaching for a long time, and it has taken on many guises and disguises. Honestly, have a group of young athletes do any serious movement that involves peak concentration, perfection of technique, well-maintained equipment, and developed skills, and one of these fine young people will ask, “What muscle does it build?” Shake your head, shake your hand to the sky in rage and wrath, or come to grips with all of this stuff.

For the record, we have two standard answers to “What muscle does it build?” when the athlete is snatching, cleaning, or swinging:

1. “You know when you leap up in the end zone and snag the ball between two defenders and win the state championship? Yes? Well, it’s THAT muscle.”

2. “Let’s just keep doing snatches for another hour, and we’ll ask you tomorrow as a pop quiz.”

Both answers are excellent, but the second one is really more fun for the coach.

The role of hypertrophy remains the boogeyman in the field of strength and conditioning. Most strength coaches are tormented by the image of the Grim Reaper standing in the hallway outside every weight room—dressed in a black Speedo and a “doo rag”—screaming “It’s all you, Bro” and demanding supersets of skull crushers. It would be hard to find a strength coach or a sport coach who hasn’t had to deal with an athlete arguing that “Mr. Greater Galaxy does this, so I should, too!”

In the past 50 years, bodybuilding has gone from being an underground activity, to literally defining the barbell sports, to its odd role today as the starting point for most people’s understanding of how to train with weights. Hypertrophy—or simply, gaining muscle mass—is doubtless an important part of training for many athletes. The key is discerning how much and how often in the training mix. Moreover, the role of hypertrophy training changes as the athlete moves through life and is a key to the longevity of the active or retired competitor.

Bodybuilding focuses on two qualities: hypertrophy and fat loss. The artistic elements of symmetry and stage performance that are the keys to superior placing in a bodybuilding contest are beyond the scope of this work. And it is important to take a moment to note that excellent lighting, intelligent use of tanning and coloring, AND selective altering of photos on a computer can do wonders for a subject’s body.

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