I thank God Almighty that I started working out in 1969 instead of today. In 1969, there was no Youtube workout videos, no Facebook workout posts, no social media saturation of the next-big-thing in fitness. I am blessed that I learned the basic fundamentals of lifting from a team of poor illiterate Italian immigrants starting with my father Antonio who were experts in true functional strength – manual labour/labor. Antonio and the team of poor illiterate Italian immigrants were the strongest humans I’ve ever met. Eight-plus hours a day of heavy lifting, forty-plus hours a week, no days off, no sick days, no mental health days, no stress leave. They knew the basics of lifting heavy objects without Youtube videos, without degrees, without the social media quagmire of how to pack on muscle at Google-speed. Here are some of the basic elements of building muscle and strength I learned from them:
- Heavy weight will not move on its own.
- In order to move a heavy object, you have to exert greater force than the weight of the force holding down the object.
- There is a natural movement to every lift. A natural movement will lift a heavy object off the ground, to the shoulders, and overhead. An unnatural movement will not move a heavy object.
- There is a track that the weight must follow in order to lift it and then carry it.
- Contrary to popular myth, doing the same thing repeatedly gives you different results. If you lift the exact same weight 8 hours a day, you will get different results – you will build greater physical and mental strength, greater stamina, and endurance while preventing diminishing strength. Doing the same thing over and over will build iron-will. You will learn how not to be a quitter.
- If you full body does not work in unison, it is impossible to lift a heavy object off the ground.
- Your mind will crack under the heavy pressure of lifting heavy weight for 8 hour shifts unless you train you mind to exceed limits each and every day.
- If you quit once during a shift, quitting a second time will get easier until you quit for good.
- Nothing replaces the basics for strength-building.
- Nothing prepares you to survive manual labour/labor lifting except replicating the basic lifts.
- Contrary to popular belief, not everyone is willing or capable of lifting heavy weight. You can’t do anything you dream of because the drop-out rate at every manual labour/labor I worked at proved that the majority who try will quit. They will look for something else, just like those who constantly search for new workout programs hoping and wishing that something will work out for them.
- The main element to winning in any field is out-working the rest. Dual meaning. Out-work your competition and out-work the temptation to take excessive time off.
There’s more. This is just a warm-up. The poor illiterate immigrant Italians taught me all the physiology and psychology of lifting that I needed. I have used the basics during my 46-year workout streak. I used the basics to design the X Fitness Workout Program to coach 40 years of football, a super-intense lifting & running program that very few can handle. Lesson #362 that I teach my team every year is this – the scoreboard proves what workout program works out. Constantly searching for another workout program is a sign that your mind is weak, that you lack the will and capacity to do what is right to build high-level strength, endurance, and stamina.
For lifting motivation, please download Blunt Talk Podcast episodes. Blunt Talk Podcast is sponsored by X Fitness. Free, permanently archived downloads are available at: www.BluntTalk.Libsyn.com
Blessings and all good things.
#peace
Gino Arcaro M.Ed., B.Sc., Level 3 NCCP (Nat’l Coaching Certification Program)
Head coach – Niagara X-men football
Owner – X Fitness Inc.
Host – BLUNT TALK PODCAST Â www.BluntTalk.Libsyn.com
Gino Arcaro is a widely published author. His website, blog, Youtube channel, and list of SWAT FOOTBALL Books are at: www.ginoarcaro.com
His books include:
4th & hell: seasons 1 and 2, Soul of a Lifter, SWAT Offense, SWAT Defense, SWAT Tackling Video & e-book, Â X Fitness Workout System, and a 3 business book series called Soul of an Entrepreneur
https://ginoarcaro.com/soulofanentrepreneur/#.U1Xmfmco_IU.
He also has written 20 editions of 6 law enforcement academic textbooks. A new 8-volume interrogation book series will be released in 2014. And just released, a new children’s book called “BE FIT – DON’T QUIT.†The first stage of his new Blunt Talk e-books is now for sale. His latest book on human potential called “Hashtag Peace†is at the editing stage. He is writing three other non-fiction novels book called The Mystery of Murder: Working with the dead, Midnight Shift From Hell, and Another Bar Fight.
His SWAT FOOTBALL BOOKS are at:
http://www.amazon.com/SWAT-Offense-Man-Gino-Arcaro/dp/0991685520
http://www.amazon.ca/SWAT-Defense-Football-System-ebook/dp/B00LAGPP08