QUESTIONS STRONG PEOPLE DON'T ASK

Today’s topic idea comes by way of u/ZBGBs on reddit, a frequenter of r/gainit, r/weightroom and r/fitness among other subreddits, and a monstrously strong human who boast a 505lb bench press and 315lb strict press.  I’m going to admit my guilt in that he’s actually pitched me SEVERAL topic ideas over the years and I’ve been negligent on employing them as I typically discover them while I’m on my phone and then forget what they were by the time I sit down to write, but I really wanted to try for this one.  So, without further ado…

-“Will a strong back make me bench press more?”  This was the question that formed the catalyst of this topic, and its absence in the conversation of strong people speaks volumes.  Specifically in that, no strong person is going to decide to let something be weak simply because it may not directly contribute to a specific lift.  If one’s goal is to be big and strong, there’s ZERO benefit in letting a muscle be small and weak: even if it’s immediate benefit is not readily apparent.  I frequently see this question asked of neck work too: why do it?  Because a strong neck is better than a weak neck: duh!  Or the creatively lazy people that ask “why train abs directly when they get trained with compound lifts?”  To make the abs bigger and stronger: duh!  If your goal is to be big and strong, making your muscles bigger and stronger is a great way to get there.

While the rest of you were to busy asking "why?" Louie Simmons was over there asking "how?"

-“Will I look weird if I do X?”  This is two pronged.  The first comes from people who premise it by saying something absurd like “I’m 6’4 and my ankles are 7.364915286 inches in circumference: will I look weird if I make my quads bigger?” or “If I go to the gym and do ab wheel, am I going to look weird?”  In the instance of both, the answer remains the same: does it matter?  But also, let me ask: are you a human?  If you ARE one, use your powers of human judgment to determine if YOU would think this would look weird.  That’s the answer.  If you LACK the ability to determine what does and does not look weird, good news: you can stop caring, because you’re so completely unaware of basic social norms that you should be well beyond the point of needing to worry about them.  But specifically on the instance of “will I look weird if I build muscle” front, allow me to offer this advice: if, during the course of you gaining muscle, you start to notice that you’re looking weird: stop gaining it.  It’s just that simple.

-“Is this safe?”  I’ve rallied against this many times already, but I’ve flat out never heard a big or strong person ask that question.  The question they DO ask is “does that work?”  Based off THAT answer, THEN they decide ON THEIR OWN if something is safe or not.  And, specifically, what they REALLY decide is “is that worth the risk?”  Allow me to answer the question for those in doubt though: no, nothing is safe.  Everything has risks.  Now that we’ve established that, you need to decide how much the risk is worth it to you.  Here’s a good example on my front: if I have a competition coming up, axle continentals and yoke training are worth it.  If I don’t, they’re not.  Your mileage may vary.

-“Is it worth the money?”  Once again, never a question I’ve heard from a big or strong person.  For one, literally no one can answer that question for you, because everyone values their money differently.  For some people, the extra $1.46 to upgrade your nachos from “supreme” to “Bell Grande” at Taco Bell is entirely inconsequential: for others, that’s a decision between eating 2 days in a row or just one.  But along with that, when it comes to being bigger and stronger, everyone I know that has accomplished it has simply MADE it work when it comes to finances.  They never looked at something and asked “is that worth the money?”: they decided it was and then figured out how the hell they were going to come up with the funds to get it.  And don’t take this to be some sort of Randian-rally against those in a poor financial situation: people have gotten big and strong without a lot of fancy toys or cash.  But those on both sides of the financial situation didn’t hem and haw on price points when it came to achieving their goals: they figured out what they needed and then figured out how to get it.

-“Can someone review my program?”  Hey, just being honest here: never heard a big or strong person ask that question.  And no, don’t be stupid: I mean over the course of GETTING big and strong, so that you don’t pull that whole “well they don’t ask NOW, but bet they DID ask when they didn’t know any better”.  And also, let’s not be stupid by talking about coaching here, because I’m saying what I have never heard asked by a big or strong person.  I’m not a coach, so I’m not going to hear this question if it gets asked by a big and strong person to a coach.  And that’s the difference: these big and strong people are trusting their programming or program review to those that are WORTH TRUSTING.  They hire a coach and get coached.  Is hiring a coach worth the money?  Oh wait, sh*t…

In this case, it was not...

-“Can I do X?”  Never heard a big and strong guy crowdsource permission to train.

-“Does creatine REALLY cause hair loss?”  Never heard a big and strong person ask that question.  Or a smart person for that matter.

-“What muscle does that work?”  I’m not picking on people that don’t have an understanding of anatomy (I got Ds in my hard science courses): I’m picking on people that won’t just do it and figure it out.  And ALSO on people that ask this question when it comes to things that are blatantly full body exercises: cleans, snatches, stones, etc.  It works the EVERYTHING.  Not everything gets fit into a neat little category.

-“Am I just not built for X/do I have bad genetics?”  Again, yeah: you can argue this is reductionist and that big and strong people would never be compelled to ask these questions BECAUSE they have superior genetics and are built for everything: but perhaps it’s BECAUSE they never felt the need to ask these questions that they BECAME big and strong.  By all accounts, I have awful genetics, yet I never felt compelled to ask about them because I had seen enough training montages growing up that I KNEW that all you needed to do to get big and strong was train hard and drink raw eggs.  And also, I know I’m not built for high bar squats because I TRIED them and figured it out quick.  And since I practice what I preach: I quit.  Because I’ve known big and strong guys that allowed themselves to say “I tried that, it didn’t work for me” and let that be it, rather than beg OTHERS to tell them that something wasn’t going to work for them.

-“What’s the point of cardio?”  It keeps you from dying.  Big and strong people know that.  They also know when they’ve been neglecting it.  It’s one thing to know it’s something you SHOULD be doing and not be doing it: it’s another thing when you pretend like it’s unimportant because you don’t want to do it.  See also: conditioning.

-“What’s the point of vegetables?”  I want to take a moment now to explain that EVERY single question I am posting here is a question I have actually seen.  I have had accusations levied against me in the past that I make things up to get upset about just to have something to write.  Let me assure you: I am not that creative.  If I was, I’d write like Paul Kelso, because it’s FAR more enjoyable to read how he wrote than how I do.  So having said all of that, I have NEVER heard a big or strong person ask about the point of eating vegetables.  So I’ll let you imagine the kind of person that asks that question.

Maybe it's just the influences I grew up with... And yes, this is the end of the blogpost, but I wanted to use this picture