Hello All,
This will be the first post in regards to strength training for the beginners. Whether you are interested in the health benefits, or just want to smash heavy lifts, this will be the blog for you. We will be covering everything you could possibly need on your strength journey in the most lay terms possible. I have studied extensively on strength training as a former high-level football player, and strength enthusiast, and wish to share my knowledge with you. So throw on a pair of your favourite Chuck Taylor's, chalk those hands and lets embark on your strength journey!
We begin where strength training began, thousands of years ago in Ancient China. You see, strength training, for millennia has been linked hand and hand with military combat. In 3600 BC, the emperors of China mandated weight training for all of their soldiers to ensure their physical fitness for war. The Zhou Dynasty in China shows the first documented strength test to enter a military body. Soldiers had to be able to perform certain feats of strength to enter the military. Just through these two examples. we're seeing that humans have always been looking to better their strength for an extrinsic goal.
Fast forward a couple hundred years, now the Greeks, Egyptians, Indians and Romans are all documenting strength training. Most notably, the Greeks were hosting weightlifting competitions in the 6th Century, BC. Men would compete to lift these heavy stones, to earn the moniker of strongest. From this era, we saw the first specification of training in fast (weightless) and violent (weighted) exercises to benefit strength. Although many believe the Dark Ages lacked documents, oral history tells tales of Viking and Germanic strength "training" to better them for war. Most notably, a Viking in the 10th Century walked with a mast on his back (3000 Pounds) as a feat of strength (A record recently broken by Halfthor Bjornnson). After this period however. the documentation of training went dark.
In 16th century saw the birth of high school and universities thanks to the Society of Jesus, a sect of priests apart of the Catholic Church. These universities, especially in France and Germany, were bringing back the study of weight training and fitness. More and more books were being published on the topic, but there was no real science of practice behind the theories, then thankfully a "circus act" led to the birth of modern weightlifting.
The 19th Century gave birth to travelling strongmen who would share their "god-like physique" with paying customers all over Europe. However, thanks to these strongmen being well-read and educated, many documented their training techniques from their travels. These men would travel all across Europe and discover other gyms and how they would train their strongmen. One of the most notable published strongmen was Eugen Sandow. He wrote multiple books on physical fitness, but namely the link between muscular training and physical fitness, a link that would not be studied until the 1950's. These strongmen created a craze of physical training all throughout the world, but namely Europe. and especially Russia. Russian scientist Vladislav Krayevsky took the foundations of these strongmen, and applied something new, scientific research. Krayevsky was trying to link the benefits of physical training to overall health of a population. A lot of the research recommendations in regards to repetitions and sets, progressive loading, breathing and many more topics hold true today. Krayevsky laid the framework for the scientific study of maximizing strength.
After both of the World Wars, the Iron Curtain went up, and the West and East split in their physical fitness journey. The West focused primarily on cardiovascular fitness and put their athletes into sports, while the East focused on the growth of physical strength. This split led to many advancements due to the Russian drive to dominate the Olympics (during Cold War). This time period (1950-1980's) led to many advancements in weight training that are still used to this very day. The concepts of periodisation, hypertrophy vs strength optimization, rest intervals and much more were developed and studied closely in this day and age.
Here in 2018, we have entered an age where anyone can access to websites to download a program without recognizing their own needs. This blog will be designed to help you better understand strength training as a whole. One of the principles for success from the USSR was the Principle of Knowledge, which is where the athlete must know everything about the process needed to reach their goal. From a physiological level to a overall understanding of programming.
In this blog, I will try my best to translate my knowledge from my education and additional readings to simplistic terms to help you understand what is needed for your fitness goals. We here at Valhalla Performance are dedicated to helping everyone obtain their dreams in athletics and physical fitness, so if you have any questions, want a personally designed program, or just want to chat, do not hesitate to contact our team at Valhallaperformancecenter@gmail.com.
Happy Lifting!
-Marshal
This will be the first post in regards to strength training for the beginners. Whether you are interested in the health benefits, or just want to smash heavy lifts, this will be the blog for you. We will be covering everything you could possibly need on your strength journey in the most lay terms possible. I have studied extensively on strength training as a former high-level football player, and strength enthusiast, and wish to share my knowledge with you. So throw on a pair of your favourite Chuck Taylor's, chalk those hands and lets embark on your strength journey!
We begin where strength training began, thousands of years ago in Ancient China. You see, strength training, for millennia has been linked hand and hand with military combat. In 3600 BC, the emperors of China mandated weight training for all of their soldiers to ensure their physical fitness for war. The Zhou Dynasty in China shows the first documented strength test to enter a military body. Soldiers had to be able to perform certain feats of strength to enter the military. Just through these two examples. we're seeing that humans have always been looking to better their strength for an extrinsic goal.
Fast forward a couple hundred years, now the Greeks, Egyptians, Indians and Romans are all documenting strength training. Most notably, the Greeks were hosting weightlifting competitions in the 6th Century, BC. Men would compete to lift these heavy stones, to earn the moniker of strongest. From this era, we saw the first specification of training in fast (weightless) and violent (weighted) exercises to benefit strength. Although many believe the Dark Ages lacked documents, oral history tells tales of Viking and Germanic strength "training" to better them for war. Most notably, a Viking in the 10th Century walked with a mast on his back (3000 Pounds) as a feat of strength (A record recently broken by Halfthor Bjornnson). After this period however. the documentation of training went dark.
In 16th century saw the birth of high school and universities thanks to the Society of Jesus, a sect of priests apart of the Catholic Church. These universities, especially in France and Germany, were bringing back the study of weight training and fitness. More and more books were being published on the topic, but there was no real science of practice behind the theories, then thankfully a "circus act" led to the birth of modern weightlifting.
The 19th Century gave birth to travelling strongmen who would share their "god-like physique" with paying customers all over Europe. However, thanks to these strongmen being well-read and educated, many documented their training techniques from their travels. These men would travel all across Europe and discover other gyms and how they would train their strongmen. One of the most notable published strongmen was Eugen Sandow. He wrote multiple books on physical fitness, but namely the link between muscular training and physical fitness, a link that would not be studied until the 1950's. These strongmen created a craze of physical training all throughout the world, but namely Europe. and especially Russia. Russian scientist Vladislav Krayevsky took the foundations of these strongmen, and applied something new, scientific research. Krayevsky was trying to link the benefits of physical training to overall health of a population. A lot of the research recommendations in regards to repetitions and sets, progressive loading, breathing and many more topics hold true today. Krayevsky laid the framework for the scientific study of maximizing strength.
After both of the World Wars, the Iron Curtain went up, and the West and East split in their physical fitness journey. The West focused primarily on cardiovascular fitness and put their athletes into sports, while the East focused on the growth of physical strength. This split led to many advancements due to the Russian drive to dominate the Olympics (during Cold War). This time period (1950-1980's) led to many advancements in weight training that are still used to this very day. The concepts of periodisation, hypertrophy vs strength optimization, rest intervals and much more were developed and studied closely in this day and age.
Here in 2018, we have entered an age where anyone can access to websites to download a program without recognizing their own needs. This blog will be designed to help you better understand strength training as a whole. One of the principles for success from the USSR was the Principle of Knowledge, which is where the athlete must know everything about the process needed to reach their goal. From a physiological level to a overall understanding of programming.
In this blog, I will try my best to translate my knowledge from my education and additional readings to simplistic terms to help you understand what is needed for your fitness goals. We here at Valhalla Performance are dedicated to helping everyone obtain their dreams in athletics and physical fitness, so if you have any questions, want a personally designed program, or just want to chat, do not hesitate to contact our team at Valhallaperformancecenter@gmail.com.
Happy Lifting!
-Marshal
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