More Useful In General - Thanks

[knkavo]

This morning I woke up with really bad lower back pain. No idea what has caused it, my physiotherapist is coming to have a look later. I literally am stumbling around like an old Greek village woman with severe osteoporosis. I couldn't even climb into the car go to work.

As it happens, my house is undergoing some major refurbishment. The workmen had all just left, and my wife was closing up the house while I moaned and whined in bed and generally gave credence to women's' assertion that men are all pussies and can't handle a little pain. However, eventually she saw that she couldn't close the back door because the genius workmen had left four 50kg sacks of cement in front of it, which she couldn't move, so I had to get up.

So I hobbled to the door, got into a good deadlift position, set my back, and lifted them out the way one by one. And there was surprisingly little extra pain while I lifted. Walking back to bed hurt much much more. You might say that 50kg is a pathetic amount of weight, but a sack of cement is a difficult shape, and I was hurting.

So I guess I am making the rather obvious point that strength gains, and knowing how to move a heavy load, have "real world" applications, i.e. we don't deadlift only to get better at the deadlift.

You may think this is pretty dumb, but I just wanted to say thanks. Enjoying strength when I am feeling fit and healthy is one thing. Still being strong when I was hurting was a bit of a revelation. I probably would never really have truly understood this if I hadn't picked up Starting Strength.

And may a back ache be the worst physical thing that happens to me ;)

[Mark Rippetoe]

Yes. May you not be relegated to junk-bond status.

[knkavo]

May you not be relegated to junk-bond status.

As you sow so shall you reap. One of the few things the Bible got right.

We got what we asked for. Everyone is blaming the naughty politicians, but we are the idiots who continued to vote them into power and support their socialist programs which provided half the population with civil service jobs, which the State was incapable of paying for.

The other half who didn't get civil service jobs, or didn't want them, (people like me), are to blame too because we didn't exactly go out on the streets and hang the fuckers up by their toes like the Romanians did to Ceauşescu. To say our politicians weren't as bad as Nicolae only means that their lives could have been spared, after a good beating and exile to Somalia of course.

Take heed lest you all follow the same path...

(And to people who might say that the European and US banks who lent to Greece, and the countries who fund the IMF, are victims in all this, you're wrong. Any bank who felt it was clever to buy government bonds promising 7% from a piddly little country with no manufacturing base, a laughable services industry, out-dated tourism facilities, a gigantic state sector, a ludicrously high national defense budget, and politicians well known to be thieves, got what they were asking for too. If you want to blame anyone, blame Goldman Sachs, who helped Greece cook its books).

[Mark Rippetoe]

Very succinct. Escape when you can.

[TomF]

Very succinct. Escape when you can.I hear Somalia's nice this time of year.

[knkavo]

I hear Somalia's nice this time of year.

It would be even nicer if it was full of exiled Greek politicians. The Somalis could set up safari parks filled with the politicians and organise shooting holidays. This would boost their economy, and all their (and our) problems would be solved.

It would be like gulags but in the nice hot sun.

[Squatson]

I own the first flat screen (not flat panel) TV ever made...it weighs like 4 metric fucktons. I've moved it across town, upstairs, downstairs, sideways and it was always heavy as fuck, needed 3 guys to move it sometimes.

Anyways, me and my roommate picked it up last night, light as a feather. I probably could have held my end up for 3 hours before it felt as heavy as it did when I weighed 150 lbs.

[strengthstarter]

I own the first flat screen (not flat panel) TV ever made...it weighs like 4 metric fucktons.

Metric? So what, is that like 3 ounces?

[gordonrumble]

I hear Somalia's nice this time of year.

I saw that comic. It was hilarious, and makes you think a little.

[LeonidasfromSparta]

And may a back ache be the worst physical thing that happens to me ;)

Amen!

[Dastardly]

I have a similar "sack" story.

I occasionally receive delivery of 45kg sacks. In the past I was never able to lift them of the ground much at all. May be an inch, then shuffle across the floor a few feet before having to put it down again.

After barbell training, I can now fairly easily powerclean them onto my shoulders. I would also be able to walk for a mile with one on my back.

[OITW]

It's hard to follow Dastardly's post number 1,234, but I just wanted to say that getting rid of the bodies in the carpets is much easier after SS. The old days of getting an accomplice and doing all that dragging are done, much better for the evidence trail as well. No need to take them down to the butcher shop, either, just roll them up, duct tape the ends, a quick clean and we're off.

[knkavo]

It's hard to follow Dastardly's post number 1,234, but I just wanted to say that getting rid of the bodies in the carpets is much easier after SS. The old days of getting an accomplice and doing all that dragging are done, much better for the evidence trail as well. No need to take them down to the butcher shop, either, just roll them up, duct tape the ends, a quick clean and we're off.

Make sure the carpets are made from synthetic fibers or they decompose in no time and then the body floats up and ends up on the river bank which can be very embarrassing.

[ColoWayno]

Are we still talking about the Greeks?