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(Sniggel @ Jun. 18 2008,5:55)</div><div id="QUOTEHEAD">QUOTE</div><div id="QUOTE">Yes I was in the military. I became a "field chef", lol not what I wanted. I regret doing it. A waste of one year of my life
"since the body will eventually adopt the proportions suggested by the composition of the program itself"
Yes I believe this is so. If you go from squatting 100 kg to 150 kg, your legs will look bigger (and probably the rest of your body too).</div>
Even if increased strength, as in being able to squat more weight, does not necessarily mean bigger (if nutrition is inadequate), I believe there is far easier to get bigger when training (or being able to train due to increased strength) with higher loads. Supposing for example you've been training with squat loads under 100 kg for 2 years, how the heck would you be able to increase size of your legs then? More volume maybe, but it always gets to a point where you reach your limit of how much volume your body can withstand, and that is probably also the limit of growth within a given weight limit (0-100 kg in this case).
...........
This past night I really felt like RAMBO
00:00 I went out with my 20 kg rucksack and walked for 1:30 hrs. There was no point in marching this late an hour but I came home late and had to get it done to keep up with my planning. The marching I do isn't that tough at all really; the purpose is merely to get used to some load bearing. It is comparable to a long walk in the park, but with a slightly heavier poundage on the knees and back – nothing that can really compromise any strength training, at least not if done weekly. That is the finesse with it: since it's so light (comparable to a longer walk) it does not impair strength gains, but it does get the body familiar to walking with load.
Last Thursday I received the copy of 'Starting Strength' I had ordered. I have read the pages on the squat, bench, power clean and programming and yikes there are a lot of aspects I had never thought about earlier. Here is a list of stuff on the squat I learned:
*Hip drive: focus on driving the hip upwards rather than straightening out the legs;
*Hands should be vertical to unload wrists;
*Knee should be just slightly in front of toe;
And then there is also this about the upper versus lower bar positioning on the back. Rippetoe obviously recommends lower bar positioning for the purpose of building strength solely, but... my hips are still not flexible enough to for the upper body to adopt a 45° angle without rounding my lower back, as is required by the lower bar position. Thus the higher bar position suits me better for the time being since I won't have to lean forward as much. Even with the high bar position, my lower back rounds a little at the bottom. However I have realized that is not too serious a problem at this moment. I am doing the squat stretch for the hips so in a matter of days or weeks the problem will be solved.
I will progress with the marching every week, adding 10-15 mins. In little more than 30 weeks I will be in the military which in my case will mean LOTS OF marching with HEAVY weight. Now, there will of course be some progression with this marching while I'm in, i.e. I am not expected to be able to march for hours with 90 lbs when I arrive, but it's certainly better to be safe than sorry when it comes to risk of overload injuries...
