Marty Gallagher has been in the iron game for over 55 years as an athlete, coach and writer. As a young lifter he met and watched some of the greatest lifters in the world. He learned strength strategies from these men that would serve him for the next 50 years. This strength and power tradecraft came from master lifters whose only allegiance was to progress. These ultra-basic strength strategies serve as the foundation for the strength strategies he champions and represents to this day.
My boys: powerlifting Gods Ed Coan (Michael Jordon) and Kirk Karwoski (Dennis Rodman) backstage.The way to improve strength or sprint speed is to exert 102% when 100% rested; anything less dilutes results.As of late, the conundrum that most occupies my…
Cassidy-style 1st generation Smith Machine: straight up and down, unadorned, not overbuilt. This guy couldn’t deep squat the 300 loaded on the bar if he had two friends helping.If I arrive at my local YMCA, a lovely facility, at 6:30…
“Never let a good crisis go to waste.”This past week one of my training partners remarked on my recent (purposeful) weight loss. Over the past 60 days I dropped 18 pounds, from 205 to 187. One of them said, “How…
The Goblet Squat “done right” – Maximum Leg Stimulation, Minimum PoundageA picture is worth a thousand words: excellent depth, positioning, and uprightness – note how he has not “pinched” stance width. Over time, I would attempt to pull his forward…
The advantages of not squatting 800lbs anymore!Ah – the joys of weakness! At age 72, it takes me next to no time to train. On average, my weight training sessions last 15-20 minutes per session, three resistance sessions per week.…
Young Alpha flexes his guns in between getting into trouble!Oscar Wilde was once asked, what is the purpose of life? He had a two-word answer, “self-improvement.” Self-improvement can occur at age 12 or age 72. Since the beginning of time, humans…
All Purposefully Primitive resistance trainers use periodization, pre-planning, in order to morph from current physical condition into vastly improved physical condition. The use of a timeline allows us to convert small weekly gains into huge cumulative gains. Monthly mesocycles are…
A Muscle ParableJames wasn’t getting any training traction and couldn’t figure out why. It was easy for me to see why. He trained at the same time I did at the local steel house and any old timer who casually…
Years ago I watched the TV show The Ultimate Fighter. In one season the training methodology of Master John Hackleman was spotlighted. “The Hack” was the mentor of Chuck “The Ice Man” Liddell, The most dominant UFC fighter at that…
