Integrity in strength training

Do you have integrity? Do you understand what that word means? Integrity is telling the truth, doing the right things, and doing them for the right reasons.

Integrity in training is a problem everywhere you look. People short changing themselves left and right. The first element of integrity in training is doing what you say you will do. If your running on a treadmill, and you say you will run 10 miles, than you run at least 10 miles. Not 3 miles and cut it short. A person with no integrity will tell me a million reasons why they can justify cutting the run short, but at the end of the day they are all EXCUSES. The maximum effective range of an excuse is zero meters.

The next part is doing things right. Here are some examples of how things get done these days—Squats, people do quarter squats and think they are doing it. A quarter squat and a squat are two different exercises. Nothing wrong with Quarter squats, but if your going to do them than do them right. Stop doing quarter squats with 405 and acting like that’s a big deal- Bud Jeffery’s quarter squats 1,800lbs for reps. Who knows what Ed Coan or Capt Kirk could ¼ squat-maybe over 2,100? The bench press is the most cheated lift in human history. Stop bouncing reps off the chest, stop having your lifting partner doing shrugs, all BS. In the realm of strongman, holy smokes there are so many people full of crap out here. People are popping phone books, fanning cards, wrapping steel in several layers of padding, making false weights, copying other people’s acts. The list goes on and on. Do things the right way, every time.

That pours in to doing things for the right reason. If you cheat on your exercises, you’re cheating yourself. You’re tricking yourself. You think that’s a good plan? Let me sell it to you this way—Exercise takes a lot of effort and a lot of time. If you’re going to spend that amount of effort and time, why not get everything out of it that you deserve?

So spread the word—do things the right way, for the right reasons. This goes back in to the things I wrote yesterday. If your not making the progress you think you should be, evaluate if your doing things the right way.