If you’ve been with us for a while you know that here at GMB, we love to talk about strength.
WHY?!?!
We’ve defined what strength means to us in terms of its practicality and applicability to our lives.
Just like the majority of you, we aren’t “elite level” athletes, but we do know the value of strength training and how it can help us to achieve our lifestyle goals.
You’ll also notice that there aren’t any pictures of barbells on the site.
What’s up with that?
Aren’t weights required for building strength? No, not necessarily required.
Pretty damn helpful, yes, but there are other ways to do it.
The GMB Way (is One Option of Many)
Our particular brand of strength training involves the use of gymnastic-type movements using the rings and parallettes - or just bodyweight exercise - in a series of progressive programs. These programs have been well received and we’ve gotten a lot of wonderful feedback about how pleased people are with their gains in strength and condition.
But that doesn’t mean we don’t like weight training.
That’d be silly.
Weight training has been a proven method for building strength and muscle ever since Milo decided he wanted to carry a calf around everyday until it became a bull. It works and works well.
Do You Even Lift?
Yes. Yes, we do.
In fact, Ryan is currently using barbell training to build up his legs and hips after several months of upper body focus in preparing and refining the Rings Two program.
The combination of heavy deadlifts and front squats will get him quickly back to his prior lower body strength (and likely beyond).
Jarlo squatting 295 x 2 and getting stronger
Personally I’ve also had an unhealthy obsession with barbell squats since I was a teenager.
There isn’t anything that will help you gain weight quicker than progressive heavy squats. After a ten year hiatus from the barbell, I’ve returned to it and am getting close to where I was in my twenties.
Who should lift weights?
Deciding whether or not to use weights in your training is like anything else you choose to do. Ask yourself: What’s my goal?
Depending on that goal, there are different ways to reach it:
- If you want to lose unwanted fat, you need to change your eating habits.
- If you want to be a handbalancer, you need to learn bodyweight control.
- If you are an underweight teenager, then (relatively) heavy weight lifting and eating everything in sight is a good plan.
And of course, if your goal is to improve body control while building strength across a wide variety of movement patterns, the GMB Curriculum is at your disposal.
So why don’t we teach weight lifting in our programs?
Well, like we’ve said before, we’ve got to be honest about what we can perform and teach well.
We’ve made the conscious decision to provide programs that have been effective for our clients and students. Programs that have been derived from our collective experiences in gymnastic training, martial arts instruction, and physical therapy.
GMB teaches what we know and what we excel at.
Anything else would be a disservice and dishonest.
Yes, we recognize the value of lifting weights and incorporate the training into our own workouts. But that doesn’t mean we should be teaching it.
Jarlo makes a mean fried chicken, but don’t hold your breath for a GMB cookbook.
I can also whip up a mean fried chicken, but that doesn’t qualify me as a three-star Michelin chef.
There are some incredible trainers and writers out there who know much more about the specifics of weight training and have gotten incredible, consistent results with the clients through many years of devoted work and research.
These are the people that should be teaching it.
Who can you trust?
A good trainer needs to demonstrate not just “knowing what to do,” but also show that they have helped people get where they want to go. Not just elite athletes, but people that have lifestyles and responsibilities similar to yours.
Here at GMB, we’ve worked hard to provide effective programs for people like us (with family and work responsibilities) that still want to be healthy and strong. This means we do what we do best, and anything other than that would diminish our reasons for starting all this.
Here’s a few people we admire who provide great information on weight-training programs:
Jim Wendler, Matt Perryman, JC Deen, Vic Magary, Dan John
All of these guys get great results for their clients using weights. They’re also entertaining to read and extremely generous with providing lots of free advice.
Do I have to lift weights?
Nope.
It’s one option of many, and it’s a great option for many people who are looking to gain weight or rapidly build overall strength in fundamental movements like squatting, lifting, and pressing. But it’s not the only way.
Our Level One programs offer another method for building serious strength and control.
Choose whichever one best fits your goals. Then, after a few months of training, when your goals change, reassess and try something different.
Let us know how we can help.
*You should know that we’re really good friends with JC Deen. Not only did Andy help him out a bit with getting his LGN365 program ready to release, but we also get a small commission on sales made through the link above. We would totally recommend it anyway, because JC is a stand-up dude and his clients get results.
Photos via memecreator.com and thebittenword.com
