Rating

★★★☆☆

Category

non-fiction

Read

2012-11-22

Pages

204

Not a lot of new stuff if you’ve read “Starting Strength”, but a fun read. The author has lots of entertaining opinions and isn’t afraid to express them.

On running: “Anything you can do for an uninterrupted 2 hours can’t be that hard, in terms of the amount of force required. It produces endurance adaptations at the cellular level, changes that are actually detrimental to strength. Long, slow distance destroys muscle mass, beats the hell out of your knees and hips, and takes way too long.” “If I had to choose between looking like a marathon runner or having a heart attack, I’d take the heart attack. How running 26.2 miles at one time ever got to be associated with a Good Thing just beats the absolute hell out of me.”

On mainstream gym: “If you’re trying to relax after a strenuous day in the cubicle, go ahead and do your yoga class, finish up with some seated alternate 3 lb. dumbbell presses on a balance ball, and have yourself a nice smoothie.”

Squats: “Anyone who says that full squats are “bad for the knees” has, with that statement, demonstrated conclusively that they are not entitled to an opinion about the matter.”

Deadlifts: “They affect the body in a systemic way, producing sufficient stress that a hormonal response is produced to facilitate recovery and adaptation. They are very hard. They produce psychological toughness when trained correctly. And absolutely no one has ever gotten as brutally, ungodly strong as they possibly can without doing them.”

“Strong people are harder to kill than weak people, and more useful in general.”