dont take pros as rolemodels.
you know what american pros do when they blow out some tendon or joint, they simply carry on on pain meds.
you think thats smart?
accept the limit,dont become a cripple
Good advice.
Mr. "oh, I have my MA in literature, so I'm not only bigger and stronger than everyone reading this, I'm better-educated and smarter than most of you, too!" Tom Prince did just that. He trained super-heavy without any kind of respite for YEARS on end and, whoops! Developed severe joint problems, including his rotator cuffs.
I can relate to that to an extent -- I forsook my upper back training for a time at the expense of building even bigger pecs and pushing bigger weights, and my 'cuffs still hurt from it -- but at least I never:
*Adopted this insane mindset that missing even ONE of six weekly workouts was tantamount to cheating on your fucking wife and/or choking the first paraplegic you run across
and/or
*Decided to "train through the pain" and mask it with massive doses of opiates and ... what was that shit some of the pros liked to abuse? Ah, yes: Nubain.
Nah. I took time off, rehabilitated the neglected areas, then resumed training with a renewed focus on staying UNinjured by any means necessary, even if that meant curling a pair of 15's like they were 70's.
...
That said, generally speaking, yeah, the stronger you get, the bigger you'll get ... but in a specific context. Anyone can use some tricks to up their 1RM dramatically. I'm talking about getting consistently stronger in the 10-12 range. Apart from some of Ronnie's big feats of strength (deadlift, the squat suit), look at how he ordinarily trains. He got up to a pair of 200 lb. 'bells for 10-12 reps on the flat bench. He was doing seated presses with 315 for at least that many reps. And if memory serves, he was front-squatting a shitload of weight for a whole bunch of reps, too.
So, when we talk about getting a lot stronger to get bigger, we're talking about moving big weights for lots of reps. But, much as I hate the expression, there are still plenty of ways to skin this same cat/achieve similar ends. Anyone here looked into this Matrix Training stuff? Initially, I confess that I laughed at the concept; but if done correctly, I can easily envision some of that training resulting in a swift kick in the ass -- and all with ~50% 1RM loads, to boot!
