Now how can the body “learn” to do these things if it isn’t trained in specific fashions which prime it to do so? How many of you have heard the many old stories of how a little guy lifted a not so heavy, or maybe heavy but awkward, object that the larger individual could not?

Okay now how many of you have actually witnessed this yourself? I know I have. Now what do we make of this and zero in on here?  The smaller person had more usable workable “functional strength”.  The term “functional strength” is a big buzz word now days amongst sports, but few still actually really know the depths of it.

I have trained many athletes.  For example; an NFL prospect and a BIG strong man who asked me to train him so I accepted the honor. The first thing I asked him was, “Why are you still bench pressing?”  He said, “What do you mean?  I am doing 500-pounds.” Okay I said now you will be a part of a little experiment.

I asked him to follow me and took him over to the dumbbell rack and told him to repeat after me. I started doing one arm over head presses with one dumbbell and my feet together. I started light to give him incentive but I knew what the outcome would be. Take into consideration this was a 6 foot man that weighed 280 pounds with little fat and huge proportions.

I pressed the 60-pound dumbbell up 3 times and then said to him “repeat”. He did and said “that’s easy!” I was glad he felt that way now.  I went over to the 80 and did 5 reps and said “repeat”.   He did it and said “wow that was heavy”.  I went over to the 100 and did 2 reps and then he said to me “you cheated you used your legs”.  I said “then you cheat to and do exactly the same as I did.  He couldn’t even do 1 rep.  I then went over to the 130 dumbbell and did 1 rep and turned to him and said “did I cheat just because I used my legs?”

He couldn’t answer me nor could he figure anything out at that point because he was in a daze. “I hope my point has been proven” I said.  You can bench all that weight but you can’t put a 100 pound dumbbell weight over your head, with one hand, while standing on your two feet.  So now can I ask you why are you still benching?

You should be sprinting with a load on your body or pushing a car down the street.  Is this not how a football lineman stands anyway?

The whole point here is to go back, and recapture something that was lost and that is “sound intuition” with what works and what doesn’t. Old timers knew quickly what was effective and what wasn’t so they abandoned things that didn’t work. Today however, many fitness movements have become a “fashion” made to look and feel okay but what are you really getting out of it?

One of the best ways to build a functionally strong body is to put a load on it and go for a stroll either walking down the street or better yet up and down stairs. Look at how simple this sounds but have you tried it? Better yet even shoulder something and run up and down a hill or stairs!

I try to teach people what real “functionality” means by testing them first on one arm lifts which is a humbling experience. If your car doesn’t come out of first or second gear then how functional is it? Yesterday building the body for outmost functional strength was an intuitive but simple art.  Today it has been overtaken by muscle magazines and many fads that are advertised for cosmetic enhancement and even sports development.

Think about this for a minute, how you train will ultimately dictate how strong you will get and what type of strength you will acquire. I am afraid that our technological enhancements have not improved our training methods at all, but rather advanced the drug scene tremendously, and have actually gone quite backward in the training department.

Overall, few people know how to train for the purposes of acquiring true functionality and health for sports.  This is what needs to be recaptured once known as “physical culture”.  Not long ago, the word “bodybuilding” meant to build the body for “strength” not for looks.  It wasn’t until the 1940’s and beyond that the esthetical move started to gain momentum. In the beginning even the first bodybuilders still trained for strength. Our clouded perception of what real strength is has changed dramatically over the last 40-50 years.

Nowadays a heavy bicep curl or bench means you’re “strong” maybe, but in what way and how useful is that strength and in comparison to what? Consider that most strongmen of old could put almost as much weight overhead with one arm as with two arms.  How inconceivable is this today? One arm lifts are gone for good so is true physical culture.  I feel that it won’t be making a comeback either, but you and I can recapture it while we are here and make it work for us.

Lets face it, if you are training in a commercial gym just to be “buff” that’s cool I wont pass judgment on you.  However if you’re an athlete in need of more “horsepower” then get the hell out of the gym and into some real training that will enhance your performance.  Power lifting, Olympic lifting, and strongman lifts are all very good even though most of these lifts are modern. If you are doing one or more of these exercises then you are on the right track

Find a trainer who really knows what they are doing (HONESTLY FEW DO) or if you’re in the Toronto area give me a call or email me for some real productive personal training; I can get you on the right track to real results FAST.
Fluff is for “FLUFFS”.   Real core and functional training is for “Realists” who truly desire to be better at their sport regardless of cosmetics. Best of luck to you on your journey to better Health and Strength

Important points to be taken here

YES THIS IS FOR WEMEN ALSO WHO TRULLY DESIRE TO BE STRONG FROM THE INSIDE OUT I HAVE TRAINED SEVERAL WEMEN TO WELL EXCEED THE STRENGTH LEVELS OF THE AVERAGE “MODERN MAN”

IF YOU CANT COMPREHEND ALL THIS VERY WELL BUT ARE DEAD SET ON TRYING IT, FIND A TRAINER WHO KNOWS ABOUT THIS STUFF, DON’T LOOK AT HIS OR HER CERTIFICATE/S IT MEANS NOTHING IT’S LIKE SAYING BECAUSE WE ALL OWN DRIVERS LICENCES WE ARE ALL EQUALLY GOOD DRIVERS, THIS IS NONSESE, ITS VERY DIFFICULT TO FIND SOMEONE WHO KNOWS THESE THINGS WELL BUT I URGE YOU TO DO YOUR RESEARCH

Yours in Health “Your Body Prophet”

John Hadzi