#376 – The Whole Picture of Health (BLOC Party 2021 Presentation)

We have to consider and balance all facets of health. Sometimes and for some people, that means chasing PRs. But for lots of people, that does not mean chasing PRs.

It doesn’t mean we don’t value strength or barbell training–we do–but we understand we need to improve quality of life. Most people would probably rather not get fat and get sleep apnea just to drive their squat and deadlift up.

A useful value can be asking yourself why five times, as this can help you identify your values. You might not know, but it can help you identify why you want to lift, why you want to gain or lose weight, why you’re pursuing certain things. Why have you set the goals you’ve set.

Strength training gives us the most bang for our buck compared to training other physical attributes. We haven’t abandoned this. We know, however, that if we add 100 pounds to a client’s deadlift but that client can’t meet his Army physical requirements, doesn’t have time to pursue other hobbies, or health depreciates we have not helped that client meet his goals.

We understand that health has many different aspects. We have to ensure we tend to mental health, financial health, social/relational health, and physical health. Barbell training is an important tool to improve our health, often across multiple domains of health and fitness, but we cannot and do not advocate strength improvements and chasing PRs regardless of the costs.