Health club strength

Is that what you have? Is that what you want?

Most people that work out want exactly that. Why? For the most part, because they don't know any better. They may have spent some time with a trainer that stuck them on a bunch of machines at some point, and told them they could have a great physique by doing this for twenty minutes two to three times a week. The message is visually reinforced at most health clubs on a daily basis. People build health club strength because they think that is what you are supposed to do. I recently had a friend ask me whether he should start doing some circuit training. I told him no. I told him that he should lift some weights. Overhead presses, bench presses, pullups, squats, and deadlifts. Master that stuff, and we can move on. I may be spending some time training him.

Well...what is health club strength? If you stick with it long enough, you'll look pretty good. You'll have some pecs and delts, biceps and triceps, some quads and lats. Most likely though, the support muscles throughout your back and trunk will be weak and under worked. You will have underdeveloped hamstrings, glutes, and hip extensors. Why? Because machines and health club exercises try to isolate muscles. Most of them are done in a sitting or reclining position. Your trunk is not used nor required to support the weight as you exercise. Your muscles are not taught to work together, and a large part of lifting involves the nervous system as well as the muscles and skeleton. I have learned a lot of this firsthand, and I've changed my methods accordingly.

My objective is to have real world strength. I want my body to be a machine that works as one. I want my muscles in proportion, each group doing what they were designed to do. I want to do cardio that occurs in the real world-running, sprinting, swimming, attacking hills, biking, working for speed under loads. I can guarantee that I'll look just as good as the average health club guy, but I will be able to outperform him by far. THAT...is the difference between training for performance and training for a mirror.

What do you want to do?