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One of my favorite shows, America, is Criminal Minds.  I can always count on a great quote or saying at both the beginning and the end of the show.  Most don’t apply to this bodybuilding blog but I write em down anyway so that I can use them at the right time.  A few shows ago a great quote came at the end.  Even though I wrote it down I felt it wasn’t appropriate…until now.  The funny thing is, it’s not so much appropriate for the readership but rather for me and my partner Turk.  Y’see, prepping for this spring season is tougher on me than ever.  And Turk is getting ready to have his knee replacement redone because it didn’t’ take well, and he’ll also need two hip replacements.  That’s right…both his hips are shot – bone-on-bone.  If you’ve been reading this blog for any length of time then you know about my surgeries and physical limitations, but I’ve always been one to ‘make it do what it do’ until I absolutely, positively cannot do it anymore.  Now my right hip is giving me fits, and my left knee is still bothering me after almost 2 years post-surgery, so I’ve gotta go in and see what that’s all about.  Don’t get me wrong…I’m not saying I’m retiring – not by any stretch of the imagination ( or so I hope and pray…), but I’m starting to realize that one day ‘This Too Shall End’.  The quote, by Eric Frohm, goes, “If I am what I have, and I lose what I have, who then am I?”  Both Turk and I have bodybuilding.  Lemme rephrase…I’ve got bodybuilding whereas Turk HAD bodybuilding.  But now he’s into billiards, and he’s doing quite well at it. 

We were talking the other day when he came over (he could hardly walk, his hips and knee were so bad) and he asked me, “Dude, so what are you gonna do when you can’t compete anymore?”

“I don’t know…hadn’t really given it much thought.  I mean, I used to bowl as a youngster and teenager, and I’ve always been good at that, but I’d definitely need an outlet as I’ve got that competitive mindset, just like you.”  I then asked him, “Do you think you’ll ever step back onstage once you get everything fixed?”

“I can’t say I will, and here’s why.  I’ll always workout for the health benefits, but with three artificial joints, I think my competitive days might be over.  I can’t see me training at that intensity just to step onstage.  My thought is, I really don’t want to go through another series of surgeries for the second and possible third sets of joints, and I’m thinking that pushing at the level it takes to be competitive will simply speed up the process at which I’ll need new joints.  If I’ve gotta get a second and possible third set, I want to put it off as long as possible.”

“That’s the difference between you and me, dude.  I’m not worried about having a second or third surgery – if it happens it happens.  What if I stay competitive and I never need a second hip?  Or I quit training altogether and need another one?  I rehabbed one of my old clients who had her first set of hips when she was in her mid-40’s and she didn’t do anything like what we do and did.  She needed a second set after only 12 years.  I rehabbed her once again.  After a year she was off and running…literally!  Back to mountain climbing, biking…whatever she could do she did.  She didn’t let her hips slow her down, and she definitely wasn’t afraid of overdoing it to the point where she’d have to go back under the knife.  Last I talked to her she was golfing and thinking about taking skiing lessons.”

“Well I ain’t feeling two and three surgeries, so I ain’t gonna kill myself to get that look.  And I don’t know why you’re killin’ yourself now.  You just told me a few minutes ago about how you’re hurtin’…”

“Dude, I’m always hurting!  I live in pain.  Whether I lift or don’t lift, I hurt.  I’ve pushed this body of the past 35 years and it hurts!  My philosophy is simple – if I’m gonna hurt, I might as well hurt lookin’ good! Hahaha…

“Man…you crazy…”

We talked a bit more.  I never did tell him what my next ‘career’ would be, as I don’t have a clue myself.  I just know that one day I will no longer ‘have’ bodybuilding as I currently see it.  What SHALL I do?  Only time will tell…

Hey…I promised that I’d write each day on exposing Bodybuilding’s 30 Biggest Lies…well I guess I lied because I didn’t blog yesterday.  Sometimes, life gets in the way…N-E-Whoo…got a short but sweet one today…enjoy!

2. You don’t have to be strong to be big.  For a variety of reasons, people, even those with equal amounts of muscle mass, vary in strength enormously.  It might have something to do with fast-twitch/slow-twitch muscle fiber ratios, or it might have something to do with the efficiency of nerve pathways.  It could be more biomechanical, such as limb length and the resultant torque, or kinesiology, such as where the muscles originate and insert onto the bones.  Regardless, it is still a relative term.  To get bigger muscles, you have to lift heaver weight, or as Lee Haney once said, “To build big muscle you gotta lift big weight”.  You, not the guy or girl next door, have to become stronger – stronger than you were.  Increasing muscle strength in the natural athlete, except in a very few, rare instances, requires that the tension applied to muscle fibers be high.  The muscles also have to be under that tension for an appropriate period of time, known as time under tension.  If the tensions applied to muscle fibers are light, or lighter than what the muscle fibers need to promote synthesis, then maximal growth will not occur.  So what’s the best tension or weight to lift to promote growth?  The controversy still rages from the strength pundits who say you need to be in the 3-6 rep range to build maximum strength to John Parrillo and his 100 rep sets (although in all fairness John advocates picking a weight in which you gut out a hard 20-25 reps and then suffer through to 100, doing whatever it takes, short of bad form, to accomplish the task).  In general, there are three pathways in which strength can occur – the strength pathway, the power pathway, and the size pathway.  Power is simply strength divided by time – how long it takes to leverage a weight, whereas strength is just getting it up regardless of time.  Another general rule is that the stronger you get, the bigger you get, and the bigger you get, the stronger you get.  Remember, I said general…too many variables to cover to make sense of this statement in this blog. You’ll just have to take my word on it.  Generally, the endurance pathway is not conducive to maximal strength simply because they’re at opposite ends of the spectrum.  Endurance athletes are not strong (in general…) and strength athletes are not good at endurance activities (again, in general).  Since strength and size are concomitant you usually won’t see muscular, strong long distance runners just as you probably won’t see thin, emaciated sprinters. 

Ok…I’m done for tonight…gotta eat…holla at’cha boi, America! Peace…

The Dr.

David “Dr. Buff” Patterson

Personal Training Systems

“There Are No Shortcuts!”

 www.personaltrainingsystems.net 

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