I have a cure, or a palliative at least, for having to sit in municipal court:
Deadlifts.
I'm serious. This evening I was left unsupervised and I did a few squats -- my first ever ass-to-the-grass squats the way Olympic weightlifters do. All the way down, strict form, steady, no belt. Felt great.
Good session with the bench press, too. Haven't done anything like this for a while, due to the ongoing tennis elbow pain. But said pain is almost entirely gone lately, so I figured a shot at a decent bench session was worth the risk. It was.
And then the deadlift. The reason the barbell was invented, if you ask me. I don't know what else happened in 1910, but David Calvert invented the Milo adjustable barbell that year, and that was a good thing for the human condition.
Conventional style or sumo style: which is better? I don't know and in one sense I don't care: I am not a competitive powerlifter, and I probably won't ever be one; for me, the powerlifting events are the core of my bodybuilding program, not events in which I ever intend to compete. Sumo emphasizes the thighs and glutes, conventional shifts the emphasis to the lower back; so in a real sense, they are two different lifts.
So I do both. I do both during a workout not because I'm awesome (I'm not), nor because I'm inadequate (I'm not), but because it is so damn satisfying to get it done. And it's the one lift that can claim to be a whole-body workout. It damn near is. You can incorporate some of what Olympic weightlifters do, and add a calf-raise thing at the high point of the deadlift; or you can incorporate an idea or two from Kelso's Shrug Book, a fantastic resource. Both would be great ideas, and would add variety to your workouts, but you don't have to do either one.
You do the deadlift, and the deadlift does the rest for you.
You'll need some sleep, too -- but you'll have earned it. As I have. Good night, John Boy.
Posted by Craig Ceely at September 1, 2004 11:00 PM