As I logged into my Facebook account on Thursday morning, I was literally in for quite a rude awakening. Some random woman called Laura Steffen whom I’ve never heard of had posted the following lines on my wall:
“No you don’t know how to squat. Your lack of physical assesment of any kind in your story about the guy who came to the gym. The poor guy you so “taught” how to squat may have really been hurt by you. Deep squatting takes the spine out of neutral and that is very dangerous. You are also telling people to continually load on each and every workout. This does not allow enough time for muscle growth, let alone ligament and tendon growth.
You claim you have done this for 35 years and have had thousand of success stories, and based on that you continue to practice deep loaded squatting. You ignore the science that is telling you that you are repeatedly loading the discs of the lower lumbar spine and will eventually cause failure, and that’s a scientific fact!!!”
Now at first I thougt this was some troll or fake account taking the piss out of me (you wouldn’t believe the amount of spam I get on my blog) but soon came to the conclusion that a real person had come to my page bashing me – I was left amused and bewildered at the same time.
It took me a moment to get my head straight and realize her ramblings were a response to a post I’d written a few weeks back and had to go through what she had written one more time to fully comprehend that she was basically telling me everything I thought I knew about squatting was wrong.
My answer to her:
“Laura, it’s comments like this that make me smile. Thanks for the info, I’ll take heed. BTW, the Bulgarian and Chinese Olympic lifters seem to do just fine squatting daily. You might also wanna check out John Broz and his trainees in the U.S. Your theory about daily deep loaded squatting “causing failure” or “not allowing enough time for muscle growth” goes outta window right there.
Your arrogance coming here and stirring bullshit when you haven’t bothered checking your facts is preposterous, bar none. There’s so much wrong in your statements that I’ll better leave it at that since I don’t really enjoy bashing people on Facebook – unlike you. Thanks for the comedic input tho, made my day. That’s all.”
Normally, I would have let the whole thing slide since what some irrelevant broad thinks of me is none of my business. In this case, however, the fact she had come to MY site and arrogantly accused me of not knowing my shit compelled me to write this following blog post in order to demonstrate why it’s generally not a very bright idea to openly go about denigrating people you don’t even know online.
First off, lemme unhesitatingly state that some of what I say on this blog may resonate with you and some of it won’t. There are times when I’m right and – despite my best efforts to double- or even triple-check my sources – sometimes I will be wrong. That’s life.
What I thought was the truth yesterday might be something else tomorrow. My theories and practices will evolve as a result of the accumulation and application of new knowledge combined with what information I’ve already gathered.
But rest assured, whatever content I put up on this site is truly what I BELIEVE to be correct at that point in time. Furthermore, I practice what I preach so you can bet your ass it’s what I do in my training too. Regardless of whether you agree with what I say or do, you can’t really ask for more sincerity or transparency, can you?
Let’s break down her arguments one at a time and finish her off for good, shall we?
“No you don’t know how to squat. Your lack of physical assesment of any kind in your story about the guy who came to the gym. The poor guy you so “taught” how to squat may have really been hurt by you.”
There’s clearly something seriously fucked up in your rationale, if you honestly believe an “average”, healthy client needs to go through a four hour assessment before he’s allowed to perform a squat. That right there is what’s so absurd about the mainstream fitness industry – people are being treated as if they’ll fall apart like the economy in Greece if they do anything remotely demanding prior to some fancy assessment.
Here are a few excerpts of Joe DeFranco’s take on assessments. And if you don’t know who DeFranco is then I don’t know what to say. The guy trains various athletes at his facility in New Jersey and has a reputation of coaching kids into the Major Leagues (NFL mainly).
“… I’ve been very open with the fact that I feel most “functional assessments” and “testing days” at training facilities are not necessary and WAY over-rated for 95% of the athletes that most trainers/coaches deal with.” (1)
“All athletes start TRAINING their very first day with us. We don’t waste anyone’s time or money! Every training session is valuable and brings an athlete one step closer to achieving their goals, so we get right to the point! BUT, during this first session, we use the warm-up and the exercises within the workout as our “assessment“. Something can be learned about an athlete from literally every single one of our warm-up exercises!”
“It is amazing how much you can learn about an athlete just by watching them perform a bodyweight squat! This is one of the main reasons I start my warm-up with this old-school exercise.”
As for the guy whom I gave a few coaching cues for fixing his squatting technique, the last time I checked he had added 20 kg to his squat max. Poor guy. Must be devastated.
“Deep squatting takes the spine out of neutral and that is very dangerous.”
Yes and no. I do agree that not everybody will be able to maintain a neutral spine when squatting below parallel (and sometimes not even at parallel), which I addressed here.
“Yes, there are instances where a client can’t squat down to 90 degrees or lower without rounding of the lower back which is most likely an indication of lack of hip mobility and/or hamstring flexibility, often caused by sitting hunched over a computer screen for hours on end day in, day out.
In these cases we address the issue at hand with mobility drills and stretching to improve range of motion while still continuing to learn proper squatting technique on a box… but we never cut squats short because of ego.”
While I do understand that we’re living in an ADD society where people jump to hasty conclusions in the blink of an eye, at least some reading comprehension would be beneficial before you shout out rushed remarks, don’t you think?
And if that doesn’t do the trick for you then here’s a citation from Rippetoe’s Starting Strength, one of the best (if not the best) resources related to barbell training out there.
“Olympic weightlifters provide a perfect illustration of the safety and benefits of the full squat. As of the 2004 Olympics 167 of the 192 countries in the world compete in Olympic Weightlifting. More than 10,000 individuals compete annually in IWF (International Weightlifting Federation) events alone, and the number of participants in total from the 167 countries would be staggering, likely on the order of 2 to 5 million (China alone boasts over 1 million lifters).
All over the world, weightlifters squat way below parallel safely, most often using some form of the exercise, either back squats or front squats, every day. That is correct: they squat way below parallel every training day, and most programs call for six days per week.
Isn’t it fascinating that they are both strong and not under the care of an orthopedic
surgeon?” (2)
“You are also telling people to continually load on each and every workout. This does not allow enough time for muscle growth, let alone ligament and tendon growth.”
With a claim like that, you do realize you’re about to make yourself the laughing stock of the strength world, don’t ya? As I already touched on this subject on Facebook, the Bulgarian and Chinese weightlifters are known for their high training frequency and the remarkable ability of producing GOLD winners at the Olympics.
In the USA, John Broz is an advocate of frequent squatting and is known for producing some very strong guys.
“John believes that everyone can and should train every day. He starts lifters off right away with daily heavy squatting and broomstick or empty barbell Olympic technique work.
Over the course of a year, lifters gradually work their way up to 13 training sessions per week – twice a day Monday through Saturday, and once on Sunday. Morning sessions last between 45 and 120 minutes; evening sessions between three and four hours for a total of approximately five hours of lifting per day.
The Broz Olympic Method involves only six exercises: the snatch, clean & jerk, power snatch, power clean, back squat, and front squat. Each of the 13 sessions includes heavy squatting, either back squats or front squats.“ (3)
In the face of all of this, do you HONESTLY still claim that squatting every day will be bad for you? Because these guys don’t really seem to be suffering from weak muscles, ligaments or tendons.
Now, before you state that my example of Olympic lifters does not pertain to the recreational trainee and make an even bigger ass of yourself, I suggest you check out the work of Pavel Tsatsouline and immerse yourself in “Grease the Groove”.
“You claim you have done this for 35 years and have had thousand of success stories, and based on that you continue to practice deep loaded squatting.“
Now this is where things get REALLY interesting.
Apparently, in the online world it’s completely acceptable to make up ridiculous accusations based on zero facts in the same vein as the writers of Spider-Man 3 wiped their asses on a keyboard and called what got printed out blockbuster action.
How the hell do you suppose I claim to have been doing this for 35 years when I’m not even in my 30′s yet? Mind-boggling. On that same note, nowhere have I claimed to have had a thousand success stories or anything of the kind.
“You ignore the science that is telling you that you are repeatedly loading the discs of the lower lumbar spine and will eventually cause failure, and that’s a scientific fact!!!”
Nobody knows for sure how loaded squatting continued over decades will affect your spine health since a comprehensive study on that subject has never been completed, as far as I’m aware. Please feel free to point me in the right direction if such a study exists.
Nevertheless, I do agree that squatting with a rounded lower back is potentially dangerous and nowhere have I encouraged performing squats in this way. I’ll give you that much.
*****
I can’t fathom this woman’s reasons for stirring up bullshit like that. After all, I’m not some rich and famous Hollywood celeb trainer hangin’ out at the Playboy Mansion who could serve as her shuttle to her 15 minutes of fame. Handsome? Obviously. But rich and famous? Gimme a break.
If you’re looking for exposure in the fit biz then gun for the top guys like Ferruggia, DeFranco or Rippetoe. A guy from Helsinki, Finland is about as close to stardom in this industry as a hobo from Buttfuck, Nebraska is to becoming the next Brad Pitt.
Also, if you think my blog posts are complete and utter rubbish as our British friends would put it, the red cross in the upper right hand corner of your browser will come in handy. A smart person would simply exit a site that is not up to their standards and never return – that’s called doing both of us a service. Which clearly she managed to overlook since she was too hell-bent on writing shit about me on FB.
As a sidenote to my readers… if you believe that my content lacks quality, feel free to drop me an e-mail at contact@fivehourfitness.com. I appreciate honest feedback, both positive and negative. I do my damnest to keep the stuff on this site fresh, enjoyable and informational but I don’t make a single penny out of it.
Oh, and in case you’re reading this Laura Steffen (and I know you are). The respectful way to let someone know you disagree with them online is writing a comment in a relevant post or sending them a private message. The last thing you do is go and mouth off in social media with the purpose of making the other guy look like a fool.
Newsflash – the way you did go about it makes YOU look like a vindictive, arrogant, bitter douche who doesn’t understand that talking shit will backfire on you. If you don’t have the balls and courtesy to say something straight to my face (or at the very least, in privacy), then don’t do it at all.
Haters gonna hate.
One last piece of advice, Laura.
Show some fucking class from now on, will ya?
References:
(1) http://www.defrancostraining.com/ask-joe-test/41-strength-training/202-assessment-for-dummies.html
(2) Rippetoe, Mark and Lon Kilgore: Starting Strength 2nd ed. p.12. The Aasgaard Company 2007
(3) http://www.t-nation.com/free_online_article/most_recent/max_out_on_squats_every_day
Facebook comments
Powered by Facebook Comments