Building Strength
By Sean Wells
For all of those who follow me on Instagram – you see pretty much only books that I read. I have read a few books that detail the training in the 1950’s,1960’s, and early 1970’s. Training in the 50’s, 60’s, 70’s especially before the explosion of “fitness equipment” was focused on getting strong and building strength. Here is an example.
Finding an experienced strength coach was a priority for people. Consistently putting in time lifting weights kept people in better shape.
This video, which has made its rounds on the social media accounts, detailing a PE program in the 1960’s really details building a strong body. The clip is for a documentary, and yes, there are some things that might need to be changed now but what you see is people being able to move their body through space – demonstrating strength – and/or building strength.
Somewhere, and at sometime in America, there was a switch to “conditioning” moving away from building strength.
An individual doesn’t need as much coaching and you need less space; a perceived lower chance of injury perhaps. The lack of coaching allows someone to throw pretty much any exercises together and “make it difficult” and sweat inducing. Amidst the shift away from building strength and towards conditioning, Americans also got caught up thinking that sweating means you got a good workout. The thought process was that if you aren’t laying on the floor, sweaty and exhausted that the workout wasn’t hard enough.
My favorite saying in regards to physical fitness is that building strength and training isn’t like school work:
– You can’t cram for it. If you have been lifting weights for years an experienced eye can tell and if you haven’t, it’s likely even more visible. Lifting weights allows you the prerequisite strength necessary to be able to get into good metabolic shape faster and more efficiently with less chances of injuring yourself (as fatigue sets in, your body’s strength and musculature continues to keep you healthier and safer).
Interested in learning how to get strong? Interested in building strength and establishing a solid foundation of fitness?
We would love to help on your journey. The journey doesn’t mean you will get bulky, the journey to building strength doesn’t mean you gain weight. However, building strength will keep you injury free. They physical strength gives you the opportunity to develop self confidence and be strong for a lifetime.
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