Good article. It was definitely a blast from the past reading that.

As for all those people who are whining saying it’s a waste of time IF there are no squats in the program—I got news for you. You do NOT need squats to make an effective strength building routine. Once again, Joe said there he only had the barbell, the plates, and the very ground he was standing on.

Lesson number 1) Since the beginning of time..man and women has bent down to lift an object off the ground. Period. I defy you to tell me when was the LAST time you ever had a heavy object on your back/shoulders and you had to squat down for whatever reason? Hmm? Oh, in the gym? Sure! Anywhere else, no! If the weight is on your shoulders/back…most likely you are carrying the weight. Now that is a much more effective strength building exercise than squatting. Why? Because we do it on an everyday basis. Carrying and dragging weights, deadlifting weights are so much more realistic and practical than squatting. I am not ranting because I can’t squat…I do squat. But I am telling you, it’s not necessary. You want to squat, do bodyweight squats, zercher squats, or pick a weight light enough for you to muscle the weight onto your back and do high rep squats (that is unless you’re going to whine and say that high rep squats are pointless.) Let me say this–a REAL man…should be able to do both high rep squats or heavy n low squats if necessary, that is if you’re one of those obsessive squatters. Question..IF you say high rep squats are pointless and do nothing. Let’s say you squat 500, which is impressive. You certainly shouldn’t have any problem squattign 135 or 225 for 50-100 reps? Oh, you can’t? Hmm, embarrasing, Guess your endurance strength is crap. It’s good to know you can produce a 1 time max effort squat of 500, but unfortunately you’re not reliable. You gas out quickly. You’re like one of those ‘one-shot’ guns.

What Joe pointed out is enough for anybody to start off with. If you have no rack or bench set—then deadlifts, zercher squats, bodyweight squats, power cleans are more than enough. You add that with push-ups/floor presses…pull-ups/rows…curls/chin-ups…shrugs. Really, dudes. What more do you need? Oh the pretty fancy machines? Right….right…I forgot about that. Jeez.

Joe, you’re doing the right thing. Sometimes I realize it takes a man to ignore stupid comments. I should be doing that too. But I also realize if we just sit back and let them talk, they’re never going to learn. It’s a very conflicting situation, haha.

Serious Sixes is a term I wrote about in my conditioning manual. It refers to 6 exercises for 6 reps for 6 sets.

We commonly use: Hang clean x 6, military press x 6, bent over row x 6, RDL x 6, back squat x 6, good morning x 6 with low to moderate weight. Rest 2-3 minutes and repeat for 6 sets.

Sorry for the delay in response, I hope that helps!

Joe

Get a copy of Dinosaur Training, Grey Hair/Black Iron or anything else from Dinosaur Training and you will have all the info you need (not affiliated in any way)

Also, on a more serious note, while you may or may not want to bother talking to your doctors before you take these things up, whatever you do remember to be careful and to listen to your body. Through a combination of overly vigorous exercise and I-know-not-what-exactly, I managed to injure the wrist tendons in my right hand. It crippled me for a long time, and even though it is mostly healed now, it still is not back to full health, and it still causes me small amounts of pain when I work out, leading to an unwillingness to work at full intensity. So please, fellow men: it is much better to avoid injuries in the first place, so if you feel the “wrong” kind of pain, then take an extra day or two off before your next work out, soak whatever hurts in hot water, and give it a massage. And if it still hurts after the next workout, for God’s sake, see a doctor about it, instead of waiting a month and a half to do something about it. And try if you can to avoid tendon injuries. They are the absolute worst to heal.