TRANSFORMATION AND REBIRTH

 

This is gonna be one of those posts where I start off with an idea and just see where my mind takes me, because I’ve always been a fan of the notion of transformation and rebirth.  I’m not alone in that of course: in fact, I imagine it’s the majority opinion.  It’s why the Rocky series is so popular: everyone loves a training montage where someone goes from zero to hero.  We love seeing people, cultures, entities, things transform and become reborn into something greater, to the point that many folks out there are walking around with a somewhat unrealistic expectation of just WHAT exactly entails in the process of radical physical transformation.  It unfortunately will take MUCH longer than a few weeks of intense training ala Rocky to transform from a tub of goo into a champion boxer, BUT, it’s also worth observing that every year various branches of the military are able to transform raw civilian recruits into effective soldiers in a rather brief timeline through basic training or boot camp (depending on your branch).  And that’s actually a pretty solid seque into where I want to go with this, in that the intensity of the transformation process is an indicator of the magnitude of the rebirth: harder process, better result.

Keep in mind part of this process involved spending months digging himself out of the temple...

 

Anyone who is at all familiar with me knows that I am quick to suggest 2 programs when asked for hypertrophy programs: Super Squats and Jon Andersen’s Deep Water program.  The reason for these suggestions are many fold.  The first being, of course, that they’re INCREDIBLY effective programs for achieving hypertrophy.  These programs make you grow, and primarily for the very reason I outlined earlier: they’re skull splittingly intense and FORCE adaptations to occur.  You can dork around on PHUL/PHAT/Starting Strength/Stronglifts/Juggernaut/5/3/1/Westside Barbell/DoggCrapp etc etc, through no fault of these programs, but Super Squats and Deep Water both have pre-programmed methodologies that result in some radical transformations.  The other reason I suggest these programs is I WISH I had known about them MUCH earlier in my own training.  Both of these programs had a completely and total transformative effect on me, physically AND otherwise, and had I had knowledge of them earlier in my own training, that transformation could have happened much earlier and, in turn, guided me along my own path for a much longer time.  I could have been “reborn” at a much earlier point in my own training timeline, meaning that training efforts applied after said rebirth would have had even more significant impacts.

 

Hey, wanna go full nerd here: this is like being able to force the evolution of your Pokemon with a stone.  If you have a buddy that’s further ahead in the game than you are, you can trade them your Pokemon, have them force evolve it for you, then trade it back to you and you can just start wrecking stuff SO much earlier in the game than if left to your own devices.  And then it self-perpetuates: you’re overpowered early in the game, which allows you to mudstomp everything you come across, which gets you easy experience and cash, which you can then re-invest into further growing your abilities.  Being transformed early self-perpetuates further transformations early, and allows power to accumulate faster and sooner.  It’s a complete and total no-brainer.

Ash is one of those "natty for life" that's REALLY hamstringing himself in the competition circuit...

 

Because it’s not just about how these programs transform you physically, though they WILL do just that, with Deep Water in particular having a seemingly major impact on my physique that has lasted long since I last ran the program, but they transform YOU.  Suddenly YOU’RE the person that completed Super Squats and/or Deep Water: you become separated from the herd and part of a far smaller and more “elite” group.  Going back to the military, everyone has graduated basic/boot in order to become a lifter, but you just endure special forces selection.  You’re different now: changed, evolved, transformed and reborn into something better, harder and stronger.  And being able to apply this transformed “you” to more mundane training will mean far better results compared to trying to employ a lesser “you”.  The thunderbolt from Riachu is FAR more powerful than the one from Pikachu.  Man I’m a nerd, but those of you that got the reference most likely appreciate it.

 

Think about what a guy that has completed the full Super Squats program can do to a DoggCrapp widowmaker compared to a trainee that’s never done a single set of 20 breathing squats.  BBB 5x10 squats are just HALF of a Deep Water workout.  The Grace WOD really doesn’t feel so bad when you hit 50 cleans during Deep Water advanced.  An 800lb yoke is ONLY on your back for about 30 seconds compared to the 5 minutes you had the bar there during Super Squats.  Etc etc.  Getting this transformation and rebirth accomplished early has SO many benefits to a trainee, and amazingly enough, BOTH of these specific programs have a long standing heritage OF being programs by/for newer trainees. 

This is who was running Deep Water at the beginning...you got this

 

I frequently get asked the question “is this appropriate for a novice trainee”, or, if the question isn’t asked, I get TOLD “these programs aren’t appropriate for a novice”, but if you actually go and READ the source material you’ll see that’s blatantly not true.  Yes: it should not be used by someone that has literally NEVER lifted a weight before: go run Starting Strength for 12 weeks and learn how to lift weights.  That’s fine.  Once we are past that point, we can start transforming.  The Super Squats book talks about trainees that ran the program using tree limbs braced against a shed to form squat stands and squatting with a massive 35 POUNDS to trigger the intended training effect.  Jon Andersen wrote about how he developed the core of his program as a fat high school freshman with zero athletic foundation whatsoever: he just kept digging as deep as he could to find as much pain as possible in order to grow. 

 

Don’t try to tell me that a power clean is complicated: high school freshmen manage to do them every year in preparation for football season.  I did my first ever power clean with a barbell IN a strongman competition and manage to get the weight from the floor to my chest: somehow you’ll manage I am sure.  Don’t try to tell me that behind the neck barbell presses will give you cancer: somehow it was literally the ONLY way we knew how to press decades ago.  These are just the terrified excuses a brain comes up with when it’s not READY to transform, but that’s kind of the point: if you wait until you’re ready, it’s too late.  Part of the rebirth process is facing these challenges BEFORE we’re ready for them such that we NEED to transform in order to succeed.  Hey, let’s go full nerd again as well: this is going Super Sayian.  Some sort of horrible emotional tragedy needs to occur such that we are pushed to a breaking point that forces us to become something significantly stronger in order to endure and overcome.  It can’t be because we want it, in fact, it has to be something we DON’T want.  Outside of being a masochist, if you’re wanting this sort of training, you’re simply not training hard enough.  I dreaded every single workout of Super Squats, and after I finished that 20^th rep, I’d rack the bar and, instead of feeling victory, just feel immediate dread that I’d have to do it all over again with 5 more pounds in 2 days.  During Deep Water, in between sets 6 and 7 of squats, during the 2 minutes I had to rest, while I was laying on my floor in my gym, I seriously, legitimately, contemplated quitting lifting all together and selling my entire home gym because I HATED the training so much, and once I racked the bar on the final rep of the final set I’d start a mental countdown timer for the next 13 days and 23 hours until I had to do it all over again. 

Yeah pretty much

 

THESE are the things necessary for intense rebirth: an intense transformation process.  And experiencing that rebirth early allows you to absolutely crush the future.  Seek these opportunities, embrace them, and be ready to be different when it is over.