GAINcast Episode 276: Thoughts on strength

A recent interview on HMMR Media shared some of the weight room numbers of the hammer throw world champion. After hearing them, everyone asked: how can a champion be so weak? Strength is complex. Strength is contextual. On this week’s podcast we share some ideas about the role of strength in athletic performance, transfer of strength, training strength, and much more.

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The following links were referenced in the podcast or provide some additional reading material on the topic:

• The GAINcast is sponsored by GAIN and by HMMR Media. Join HMMR Media to get access to a vast library of online training resources, video, articles, podcasts, and more.
• We kicked off the episode by talking about Ethan Katzberg. We recently wrote about his strength levels and interviewed his coach on HMMR Podcast 308. Our world championships recap also summarized the magnitude of his success this summer.
• Vern has also written a lot about strength including a definition, some global considerations on strength, and a multi-part series on the evolution of his thoughts on the topic: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6 and Conclusions.

Key quotes and topics

• 0:00 – Introduction.
• 2:00 – Strength levels need for elite athletes: “Just because he can’t take a piece of metal from the floor and lift it over his head doesn’t mean he’s not strong. That’s just an arbitrary measure of strength.”
• 11:30 – Transfer and strength: “We wrongly assume you can only build strength in the weight room.”
• 16:45 – Evolution of Vern’s thoughts on strength: “My criteria is if you can’t do 20 body weight squats in 20 seconds breaking parallel, then you haven’t earned the right to add even any load.”
• 20:15 – Thoughts on strength for developing athletes: “They might not be the strongest in the weight room, but more important is that they know how to express force. They know how to use their body, they know how to use levers, they know how to use all these types of things.”
• 22:00 – Rethinking strength training.
• 26:00 – Strength and injuries.
• 29:00 – The many roads to Rome.

Complete transcript

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