“Do not worry about how you look, focus on how you play.”

Training for appearance is vain and narcissistic, and I find it distasteful”

“The only thing you need to focus on is performance”

“Who cares how much you bench press if you look like fat slob?”

“I only want functional muscle, I don’t want to get all puffed up”

“Function over form, the way it should be”

 

SO…I found these above quotes on forums (peeled 5 of them, found each of these on all 5), in books, magazines on the newsstand, and in blogs. No surprise to me, most of these quotes come from the same sources and merely repeated by the sheeple who follow them. I can’t really verify people believe that shit, but by posting it I have to think it means something to them…

The questions for this piece will be as follows:

• Do I have to pick between looking better or playing better? Do I have to choose?
• Is it possible to make progress in both arenas at the same time?
• Is there a connection between appearance and performance?
• What do I have to do in order to make better progress in either/both arenas?

 

Two tattooed vets walk in to a bar…

…and everyone notices.

It’s pretty hard to miss Williams and I when were are out and about.

Will Williams and I met in May of 2009 at the RKC II. At the time I was bloated and stuffed from my super quality diet of chow hall food, fast food, and office food with my awesome 60+ hour a week schedule. Will was sporting the distinctive grey skin tone so common to vegans. We both had the shitty restricted gait from thousands of hours of high tension training common to kettlebell trainers and stiff shuffling movements from back pain from all kinds of fun life injures. I do believe Will’s injury history is far worse than mine considering he has exited a moving vehicle against his free will on several occasions. We both share a common experience of exiting a helicopter faster than planned and hitting the ground in a less than desirable fashion.

We hit it off pretty well from the get go. I fucked with him about his aversion to meat, he scowled back at my total disdain for all things green and leafy. We both agreed kettlebells were awesome, and more tension = more strength. To this end were on an unofficial race to the bottom to see who could get the most tension in our training. I believe Will beat me with more tension in life. Take a look at the photos, rather than simply marvel at the awesome I want you to study our skin. Our stress & worry lines. Notice the leanness, size, and our posture.

 

Will and I teamed up again in September 2009. I think we both looked shitty. I am pretty sure I came back with more muscle mass, but I was also heavier so who knows. I was not smart enough then to track simple useful metrics such as measurements, BF%, and other items. Why? I was just getting the outline of my current training system back then. But that is not most important.

Because I was certain training for appearance was dumb. Will concurred with me on this point. We shared a belief that body building was dumb. That focusing on how big an arm or how thin a waist was could only result in a weak body. We frowned upon all who were too ignorant to know the true power of kettlebell presses, pull ups, and pistols. We were so stuck on this simple idea that the mention of looking to improve appearance indicated you were jumping ship to become a vain body builder.

 

I did jump ship, off the deep end for certain. Not to body building, but to a pursuit of a very different place from our strange home in the “hardcore kettlebell training system”

When the results came, I called Will.

When the results got better, I called Will again.

I didn’t know if Will was ever going to try it out, but I was certain I would rub the progress in his face every chance possible until he tried it for himself.

 

“Each time you see me I should look and move better. If I don’t it’s your job to call my ass out about it”

- Frankie Faires

This was something Frankie and I spoke about the first time in 2009. The idea that if a person is truly getting better in the gym, they would be getting better looking too.

In 2009 this was purely theory to me.

In 2011 this is now an observable law.

I know who is full of shit, and I know who walks the walk.

Let me tell you a bit more about Will.

 

 

In July 2010 Will came back out to Minneapolis for The Movement Biomechanics and Physique Transformation Certification Course.

Where to start with Will? At this point he had been testing his movements for several months. His day to day pain had taken a drop, and he was regaining more and more movement. More interesting (in my opinion) was that Will began testing food after I bugged him 20 times to test a steak. He found his body was moving him towards the exact things he had ideologically swore off- primarily delicious meats and dairy.

 

In Oct 2010 Will again returned to Minneapolis with Mary Ann Garvin, Pilate’s rock star of Silverton CO. By this point, Will was moving exceptionally better. His diet variety had tripled from the last time he was out. He was able to lift a barbell overhead. He was able to press with one hand. Most of the patterns he quit doing were returning to him with both speed and load.

I had my beard at the time, which inspired millions (or so I believe) to do the same.  I believe we were both up several pounds of lean mass, and definitely leaner.

 

March 2011 Will comes back for Biomech II & III. He came in at a body weight of 239, training a shit load of movements, and could do a majority of movements pain free. I was at my leanest body fat percentage in three years, and probably highest lean muscle mass ever. Our discussions of training were centered on what to try next, what has been working well now. No need to discuss the subtle tricks of exercise form or secret technique. Our training does not include that shit any more. No need to look over or discuss form of anything. Diet talks were centered on finding all the shit one can get away with while getting leaner, not more “Shoulds and should nots.”

 

May 2011: Grip Decathlon. Ten events, several hours of lifting. I win advanced class, set an Elite total, and break records in every event. Will wins open class, hits a +50 lbs PR on his deadlift (pulled without any pain or movement modification) and goes all ten events without missing any lifts from pain. Will came out at 235 lbs, body fat at 10%, and was decidedly the most muscular since I have known him.

 

Details and such

In the last 18 months, I have lost 60% of the body fat I had in 2009. I was at least at 24%, maybe 26%. Now I am between 11-13% in a given month and can drop to 10% in 3 weeks. I have increased my fat free mass from 179 to 191 during this same time. This includes adding 2.5 inches to my arms, 4″ to my shoulders, 3″ to my chest, 2″ to my legs, and 1″ to my forearm.

On the performance side, I have done….a lot of shit. I honestly can’t even think of a starting point to describe how much progress I have made in my training. Maybe a good one is total volume? So in 2009 in a given month I would lift upwards to 230,000. That is with an average day being between 17,000 lbs to 23,000. I believe my total volume for 2009 was under 3.5 million.

In 2010 my total volume lifted was over 7 million. My average monthly volume moved to over 550,000 lbs a month. An average workout was between 38,000 upwards to 80,000 lbs.

Here in 2011, I move 875,000 lbs to 1.2 million pounds a month. My average workout is 53-75,000 with highs now over 120,000 lbs moved in under two hours.

I have closed a gripper more times in the last 60 days (April/May)  then I did in the last 6 years. The last ten days  (19-29 May 2011) I closed a fucking gripper over 2,700 times. That is with a difficulty that 99% of you who read this can not close once.

Do I look better? Do I perform better?

 

I can’t fully break down Will’s numbers and such, but I can say it is a fact that he can do no less than 10 times more work right now then he could do 2 years ago. I recall speaking to Will during stretches where he was hurting so bad he was unable to train anything. Now he is doing something daily. I can say based on the various trips to out here- he looks better each time we meet. He has posted a ton of updates on his website, so check it out.

Does Will look better now? Does he perform better now?

 

Having to choose: The Myth

99% of the people who currently exercise do not need to choose between looking better or playing better. They may believe they have to. They may do things which hinder their develop in one of these two realms. They maybe convinced there is no way for them to get better in both directions.

That is the first myth- getting better and looking better is two different directions.

No they are not. Stupid ass fitness experts may tell you they are, but those assholes are as is typical, incorrect.

Adding more muscle tissue increases performance. I will define performance in a simple way of movement quantities. For a  normal, healthy, non-steroid abusing human being it is useful to have more muscle mass. In a normal, healthy person adding some lean tissue makes a person look better.

Fat tissue is non-contractile in nature. You can not flex fat. You can not “turn fat in to muscle” as most high school coaches tell their athletes. There is a certain amount of body fat required for health, additional fat from that point reduces your performance. While there are a few sports where extra weight may help, for the highest percentage of people extra fat is not helping them. Most Americans are too fucking fat. Healthy ranges for body fat in males has been listed by the department of health and human services as a range of 7-15%. For a women the range is listed from 18-25%.

With 60% of this country over-weight, and 33% being obese, It certainly will not hurt to lose some fat.

Increasing any of the motor quantities for a healthy, normal person is beneficial. I have not met a single person whose life and health would be wrecked if they could run a mile faster, do 10 more sit ups, jump higher, or stand on one leg.

 

How does a person train to look better?

General statement- improve their diet, by selecting better quality and quantity of foods. Improve their movement by increase the number of movements they are doing to include the quantity, frequency, duration of those movements.

 

How does a person train to play better?

General statement- improve their diet, by selecting better quality and quantity of foods. Improve their movement by increase the number of movements they are doing to include the quantity, frequency, duration of those movements.

No, that is not a typo.

The add on for appearance is targeting certain parts of the body to greater influence specific hypertrophy .

The add on for performance is specific movement practice relative to the goal.

 

So tell me again, why do you think you can’t look better and play better?

 

A challenge to you

Time to measure up.

I want you to examine your body, your training log, and your goals.

Are you moving forward on your appearance? How much have you changed your body in the last 12 months?

Are you moving forward on your performance goals? How much better at your sport are you? How many PR’s are you breaking per month?

Are you getting better each year?

Each Month?

Each Week?

Each day?

 

Would you like to be?

 

I do not know what you will do…

I will tell you what I will be doing. I can assure you what Will Williams will be doing.

We PR Everyday.

We look  better.

We play better.

We ARE better.

 

What say you?

 

 

 

Breaking: Read this article Will wrote in response to this article. Weightlifting Truisms