Why I Train Suboptimal (identity, consciousness & Heavy Lifting)
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Brendan@prime-strength.com
#bodybuilding #lifting #nutrition #powerbuilding #powerlifting #training #benchpress #training #hypertrophy #usapl #uspa #aesthetic #strength #science #mindset
As with most deeply philosophical videos sometimes my greater point can get lost in the finer details. Above all else my message in this video is to say: Humanness > Rationality The rational is meant to be a guiding force for the very essence of human. However we’ve replaced the enjoyment of food with the title of the restaurant. We’ve thrown the passion out for the PRs… I know… what a shock… even the quest for greater strength can lead us into the rationalistic overtly scientific headspace that sucks all the meaning out. I normally would say “be both”. But I dare you to just throw all optimally out for a while. Follow your program sure, do your analysis, but just dive head first into the art of it all. Express something for the sake of expression rather than the accumulation of “more”.
You are gradually moving to the realm of the spiritual through the art of powerlifting
I’m honestly extremely spiritual in my private life. More than you’d probably even imagine. I refrain from discussing it on this channel as the audience isn’t really coming for that but my next channel I’ll actually be talking to many people from so many different spiritual backgrounds, I’m very excited for it!
@@BrendanTietz I believe many people lifting heavy weights develop some kind of deep reflective relationship with their body and its spiritual and social meanings. I am excited to subscribe your other channel in the near future!
@@hyeongjinoh584I completely agree and it’s actually really cool to see. I’m noticing it all over the culture right now and I feel a big change is coming
It’s so refreshing to hear introspection in the gym
Awesome video, I really enjoyed this
Nice work! Keep it up. 💪💪
Love this!
This is part of the reason why I do beltless high-bar squats, less of an arch and a closer-grip bench press, and a beltless conventional deadlift strapless. I also look to develop strength in a holistic way as well.
It's a sick video. I enjoyed watching this.
I hear what you're saying and greatly appreciate your nuanced dialogue. I remember seeing Ido Portal for the first time and feeling a sudden burst of appreciation for my body and the art of movement. While I am currently working on hitting powerlifting goals and I enjoy it greatly, my mind and body craves eventually getting back into flowing movement. I take yoga classes sometimes and even those, way too often, seem rigid and uncreative. It takes some effort to seek out inspiring practitioners and teachers.
Thank you man! I’m glad it resonated. Love Ido! His movement is wild. Straight art. What I’d say is you could do both right now but only if it calls to you! That’s kind of my point, if the obsessive powerlifting life and optimally truly calls the soul then go deep. But if not then find exactly what does. Why not be a power flow bodybuilder yogi? 😂 or whatever the hell it is. Again though sometimes balance is imbalance. Just food for thought
Consistency over many years is indispensable to accomplishing meaningful goals in any endeavor. Nothing facilitates consistency quite like adopting an approach that is genuinely enjoyable and sustainable for both your body and mind.
Agreed however the real essence of what I’m getting at here is who cares about the destination. You don’t dance to get to the end of the song. Expression > result
@@BrendanTietz I think we can simultaneously prioritize expression and also enjoy an outcome the focus on expression facilitated. Focusing exclusively on a future outcome is not conducive to experiencing the fulfillment that being passionate about the act of practicing your craft provides. However, the focus on expression you describe allows us to experience that real fulfillment (which is most important) with the added secondary benefit of progressing towards an outcome that can still be positive even if it is not the focus.
Oh 100% agree. I just mean bias towards the expression of it all. Otherwise it’s completely useless. The end result often is what makes the expression but sometimes even then the path to a great outcome might be paradoxically walked without any intention to optimize.
refreshing video 🙏
Thank you so much for watching
Thank you for caring about us Brendan.
I’m equally thankful you guys care back ❤️
In regards to Clarence0, I think what's alluring is that he displays strength, but also nimbleness, flexibility, and pure explosive athleticism. It's definitely more impressive than a bloated, stiff powerlifter lifting more weight, but doing so barely past parallel in a super low bar position, whilst not being able to put his own socks on in the morning. To each their own, but I think most would agree with your premise. Our bodies are meant to stay nimble as it's a sign of vitality.
1000% this. It’s expressive of something greater other than an identity of powerlifter or even strength athlete and that’s what so cool. Besides the physical feat it really speaks to something deeper mentally as well
Beast!! Nice hat 🤟🏽🖤
A symbol of home 🧡
hello brendan, its cool to see someone more thoughtful in the iron game. i agree with you 100% that strength training should have a deeper meaning, at least for myself. it used to be this way in the old days: the original strongmen in the late 19th century were circus perfomers, wrestlers or gymansts and earned their living with their shows. strength training enabled them to live their life the wanted to live. i think making your lifting the defining part of your identity can be quite harmful. I have never been a powerlifter but I asked myself the question, who benefits from my strength training. I came to the conclusion that my lifitng was self serving and to please my ego. Since then I have joined the local volunteer fire brigade and this has helped me in my training, because now my strength training has a purpose, too. My training might not be optimal from a pure strength point of view, but I does make me more capable when it comes to functionality e.g. carrying awkward objects, strength endurance, work capacity. what made my training more fun, was exploring old time lifts e.g. the bent press, one arm snatches and deadlifts, zercher squats. ps: i'm not a native speaker, so this is a little bit incoherent ;) greetings from germany
uHh aKtUaLLy Overdue video, nicely spoken! Odd lifts aside, its a nice breather in the current meta being followed by many strength folks
I’m glad, thank you for the comment letting me know! There’s no rhyme or reason to do anything in life other than for the expression of something deeper inside.
18:50 so real. I think a lot of times we forget to live life as jacked dudes and focus too much on being jacked dudes if that makes sense.
Dude this is actually such a perfect way of succinctly explaining exactly what I was trying to say. The expression of a a greater psychological archetype and way of being into the world. Living life as a jacked dude rather than “being” a jacked dude. Precisely this!
Most needed video ever tbh. And I think we still have consciousness after dying ^^ Kinda got that experience once. It's also really fun to do strongman and bodybuilding exercises (I really need a leg curl machine and a yoke lol) and wow I just mentioned in my own last video that I hate any kind of belts and sleeves lol. At the same time I like overloading the squats with knee wraps or power briefs xD I just like a lot of styles at the same time or maybe I'm not? It's a journey without a finite conclusion tbh. Oh and I really love running, sprinting and trekking. There is too less magic in our rationalized form of reality which is also magic but a form which isn't full-filling. Eating and drinking is also magic to me. There is a biological effect but also such a psychologcal that it can really change things fundamentily even for regeneration. I also do long-paused front squats for no reason other than they feel so great and help me with my own journey. It's a game yes and even if we look only rational: doing these things keep up our motivation in the long run. And I think passion is a form of love and loves beats everything and can transport us so so far beyond our wildest imaginations :) I have to share this vid btw.
I absolutely agree with everything here especially passion = love. Love is transcendent. And funny you mention “magic” as that’s a word I use often when describing the essence of all these abstract feelings. Thanks for the comment!
My workouts have gotten better since I stopped really caring what I do. I'm a middle aged guy just trying to stay healthy and nobody cares how much I lift or whether I go to failure.
The IQ if a freezer box, LMAO. dope video bro
I think I get it.
I actually love that you said “think” which tells me you’re actually thinking. Often times we watch videos and leave a comment in complete resonance not realizing the goal is to further explore the idea at hand with deeper contemplation. Love to hear it resonated that
Sorry to keep spamming the comments, but there is so much here that I identify with. I was actually that ten year old analyzing stride length on the playground (literally running mile repeats AROUND the playground) because I was already caught up in that comparative value system you touch on in the context of powerlifting. It took me years to stop doing what I was good at and have to courage to pursue what I cared about
It’s kinda nuts how much bravery it takes huh? It’s so unspoken but we secretly care a lot about those identities even surmounting what we love. Glad this resonated!
@@BrendanTietz your stuff always does. I appreciate how you've let more of your intellectual/philosophical side into the channel
Suboptimal is the best
I actually gave up my soul trying to make weight for a powerlifting meet. Got to do a spiritual cut to drop that last seven ounces
Can you explain the logic behind doing a weighted pigeon vs bodyweight if you get the same stretch? Are you strengthening the pirfomis more?
Loaded movement trains ROM instead of exposing range of motion. We want active access not passive reach. However bodyweight is fine too and tbh with how tight I am rn I should have done bodyweight. Gained some weight the last months in my legs again from squatting coming back and need to regain access
❤❤
Whilst we have many differing views, I completely agree on this point. The push towards "optimal" is incredibly overrated. I have seen far too many friends burn out doing the same generic program that "modern" powerlifting has become. Too many of us forget why we got into training and why we enjoy it. I know raw guys doing conjugate and whilst many will say that isn't optimal, they all absolutely love that way of training and that's infinitely more important.
Now this we can definitely agree on and what’s funny is my training right now is loosely inspired with conjugate principles. Just feels good doing something maximal and a variant for every main lift on its specific day.
We used to have so much soul
We really did and while I don’t see much left, I can tell society is yearning for something more currently!
You know that we can see from the video timer how long the pause was, right? Anyways, beast, dude.
You can also see the weights but it is nice writing it so people don’t have to time it. Thanks man!
I can’t eight seconds. That shit is still amazing
100% it’s not restricted to lifting Yesterday I was at local guitar shop just trying a guitar out and this amp I was playing through was some old 1990 amp and it sounded cool to me so I tried reading about the model online and every post was just bashing how bad the “tone” is on this specific amp model lol. Unbelievable, everyone wants to be an expert for some unknown reason but all it’s doing is taking the joy away Technique or optimization, whatever we want to call it should be used to express emotion / personality, however these days it tends to hide it which i find boring. Regardless of the field, i think a lot of people have lost the plot completely
This is EXACTLY what I’m getting at. Couldn’t agree more and it’s ironic because sound is completely subjective. To rate an amp as “worse” is merely opinion and worse it’s an opinion that is literally just agreeing with some made up hierarchy of cultural conformity. Very happy to hear this resonates with you and agree completely on expression of the internal feeling states as well!
I’m a casual lifter at best. I’m not anywhere near the strongest, athletic, leanest or biggest guy anyone has ever seen. I’m just an average dude who loves to move weight around. There is nothing more to it than that. I’ve long since given up on “optimal” or “ideal” when it comes to lifting. There is one reason and one reason only I lift: because it’s difficult. That’s it. The side effects of being stronger, leaner and bigger than the average guy is just icing on the cake.
Some of us do understand what you are saying. I personally just don't comment that often :D
Your username speaks to this in another perspective of its essence! 🧘🏼♂️
I think what you say here was also said by clarence himself. If I remember correctly he said in a interview that squats without belt and sleeves and to that depth because he just thinks it looks cool and athletic
Yes he did! And that’s precisely why I used him as an example because he’s expressing something greater with his lifting that just an end result. It’s a literal art with him
@@BrendanTietz he is the reason for my main squat being highbar atg as well! It is just so pleasing to look at while at the same time expressing strength and flexibility
I feel that many people promoting this “optimal” training methodology are forgetting the simple fact that you’re gonna to take something you love doing much more seriously than you are some task that is devoid of any meaning to you. How that may add up with greater effort, better adherence to outside the gym variables, etc. isn’t something that I would imagine can be overlooked in good faith. In theory, sure, your “perfectly” engineered system may produce better results (already an incredibly arrogant assumption for a vast majority of people to think they have such knowledge), but so few people, whether they admit it or not, are gonna put themselves behind boring effort with robotic dedication and execution
Completely agree! And ironically I originally planned on including a rant about the arrogance of “optimal”. If you look closely at most of the top athletes, they rarely do precisely what their coach prescribes. Ironically I actually think the coaches who flow with this and work dynamically with it actually do best.
16:33 me doing drop sets on squats and doing calisthenics every day before bed
Drop sets on squats sounds like helllllll. I’m going to try that lol
Would you recommend sbd days ?
Only during preps specifically for powerlifting and in the right situation. I rarely utilize them these days tbh which is ironic because I helped popularize them long time ago. They have their place in very restrictive powerlifting programs but only for peaking
@@BrendanTietz thanks for the answer ! Yeah i saw a video about 2-3 years ago i think where you talked about doing all heavy stuff on one day and it worked for me fine Till now but i think right know seperating heavy squat on monday and Heavy deadlifts on wednesday is maybe a better Option ? 😅
Oh for squats and deads I do those on the same day often, very different than an SBD day. However I’d say 50% of the time I have them on their own day and when I’m pushing more specificity I bring them together
@@BrendanTietz okay thanks for all the info. would you say Monday Heavy bench and squat and wednesday heavy Deadlift is doable or wise ?
It unfortunately isn’t that simple, there aren’t any real rules tbh. Just do what makes sense for consuming the best volume in your situation. Tbh throw most rules out and just simply ask the body if it feels good and like you can get hella work done with this set up when you’re doing it. Try it out and see! Hell you could do 3 sbd days and make it work lol it’s all a matter of what makes sense in your individual situation.
Song at 0:33?
It’s a remix of “Sonne” by rammstein! Absolute banger! Rammstein in general is the best lifting music period. If anyone says otherwise just distance yourself from that negative energy 😂
I've seen many talented lifters getting burned out and give up on lifting altogether. Maybe it just wasn't for them but in talking to them they always seemed overly focused on the numbers and/or physique while never discovering what actually felt good for them in the gym.
100% that’s what it is. They identified with a label which enables a comparison based on results to others. Inevitably this leads to not doing what you love in small but many consistent ways which always burns you out!
I’d have hit failure just trying to count to ten, no weight necessary
LMAO 😂 the first time I had sex I never made it to ten 😢
damn, did my comment get deleted? :(
I don’t see another sadly but wasn’t me who deleted it!!
2+2=4 Objective Reality
Is this in reference to my usage of rationalism or what do you mean?
I am bringing out the fact that there is objective reality. In today's society the dangerous belief that there is no objective reality is being used to erode the fabric of society and to avoid responsibility for one's actions. If I see Brendan Tietz pull a high 700 deadlift (I apologize for not knowing the exact amount), then that is objective reality. If this were not objective reality then it would reason to say that Brendan can only pull seven pounds because that is someone's subjective reality. It becomes a slippery slope of what is accepted as reality. If a person is hungry because they have no food, that is not subjective. Anyone who thinks so, should go two day without drinking water and see if they are thirsty. The fact that they are thirsty and dying is objective reality. It is dangerous to deny objective reality. This aside I believe your spiritualistic and human approach to training is admirable and inspiring. I have been subscribed to your channel for some time and it has changed my views on training. @@BrendanTietz
Did my reply get censored by KZhead?@@BrendanTietz
Actually lol it might have because I saw it, loved it and replied. I basically said I agree but now I don’t see my reply either. I was confused on where we disagree.
Yeah I saw your comment and that disappeared as well. I am not sure you and I disagree. I do disagree with Hoffman's theory that you speak about between the 5:32 and 5:48 mark. I think the concept that there is no objective reality is a dangerous, slippery slope.@@BrendanTietz
That pause was actually only 8 seconds