The macho fraternity
. Some macho trainers promote the “no pain, no gain” mentality, bully stu-
dents and inculcate in many people a life-long hatred of exercise (if they are
school coaches, for example), consider anyone who does not battle through
pain to be a wimp, and have a “you must do them” attitude to some exercises.
ese coaches are doing untold damage in the exercise world. Sure they
have their training successes, but these coaches make the classic mistake of
assuming that what their star charges succeeded on should be used by every-
one. Just because an exercise is demonstrably productive for some people does not
mean that it is demonstrably productive for everyone.. Over the years countless people have given up weight training due to hav-
ing been hurt from following the prescriptions of the macho writers and
coaches. But you do not hear from these people. You only hear the success
stories of people who can break the rules and get away with it (at least over
the short term). But even these people are usually forced to tidy up their
acts eventually. If you live the macho “no pain, no gain” attitude now, you will
regret it, and sooner rather than later.. Many people promote an “if it does not hurt, it is safe” school of thought,
and do not count minor aches as pain. Minor aches are irrelevant, and must
be ignored, they say. “Be a man! You have to suffer to succeed.” So minor
aches are tolerated, and eventually they turn into a serious injury. Even “men”
get hurt.. Just because an exercise does not hurt you today, next week, or next month
does not mean that it will not hurt you later on. Some weight-training exer-
cises do not produce acute injury, but an accumulation of damage which,
over time, will cause serious injury. So the theory of “if it does not hurt, it
is safe” is no good. For example, I did squats for years with my heels raised,
with no apparent damage at the time. e damage came later on.. Easy gainers do not suffer as much from exercise abuse as do hard gain-
ers. But hardly anyone accepts that they are easy gainers. I am not talking
about super easy gainers of the caliber of Reg Park, Bill Pearl, Sergio Oliva,
Mike Mentzer, Lee Haney and Paul Dillett. I am talking about people who
are able, drug-free but following years of dedication and hard training, to
bench press + pounds and squat + pounds at under pounds or
so bodyweight. Anyone who can achieve these lifts has been blessed with a