OddHat

My name is Bob, and I'm a fat man. (Hi, Bob).

Right now, a 243 pound fat man. I just need to lose one more pound to get to one of my goals, the 242 pound weight class. 22 more pounds will take me to the 220 pound weight class, and to my Japan weight. At this rate, if I'm lucky, I may hit it in five months or a bit less.

Soon it will be an entire year I've been working on repairing the damage I've done to myself. Progress is slow, and it may be another six months to a year before I'm where I really want to be. This has been and continues to be a major project.

Which brings me to another discussion of Strength. For Hero fans, it might be interesting.

Just finished reading The Purposeful Primitive; you can find my review on Amazon, and in the Nonfiction books thread. It's a book by Marty Gallagher, fitness writer, coach, and ex-champion power lifter. He lays out a very traditional weight training and fitness program in the book, and touches on a few ideas in interesting ways. For me, the discussion of Short Strength versus Long Strength was especially interesting; I've read and thought about the issue, but I've rarely seen it explained so well.

"Short Strength", for the purpose of this discussion, is the ability to exert maximal strength for a very short period of time. It's the quality Power Lifters and Olympic Lifters work towards, that ability to move the heaviest weights possible for (in competition) a single repetition.

"Long Strength" is the ability to exert significant strength for an extended period of time. Strongman and Kettle-bell competitors, and grapplers rely on this sort of strength.

The two forms of strength are related, but (as with so many strength qualities) require different approaches to fully train. It's often said, with some truth, that Long Strength counts more than Short Strength when it comes to performing most real world labor.

But, when you do need it, Short Strength still counts.

Which is better, being able to lift 450 pounds once or 45 pounds 100 times? For all-around strength, you should strive for both.

My Short Strength has always been pretty good. Time to work on Long Strength.