Most of the trainers and strength trainers around the world use some strengthening exercises, the squat, the deadlift, the power clean for total body power. These are great strength builders, but how effective are they really? And do they promise all the hype of building real strength?

I’ll tell you there’s a better way to build overall body strength that will carry over to all athletic sports and everyday life. It is an exercise that our bodies are made for. You don’t need a lot of weight for a total body workout.

If you look and think about how the body has been used for centuries, you will see that some things that today’s trainers consider full body workouts to be detrimental to the body.

The squat is considered the “King of Exercises,” but how often do you really need to put 300 pounds on your shoulder in real life and stand up? The fact is that if you ever need to lift 300 pounds, you will most likely fail. Why? Because, in the real world, the 300 pounds you’re lifting would never be balanced, it would be awkward, and most guys who could squat 300 pounds would have a hard time standing up with 200 pounds on their shoulders.

Squatting is important in football, for example, a lineman always comes out of a squat. There are more pushes than anything else. The push will require overall body strength and a big part of it is the core and none of the 3 exercises I mentioned will strengthen the core to a point of true function.

The same goes for the deadlift, the 400 pound deadlift now take a 250 pound rock and lift it up. The rock is much lighter, but there’s no good bar to grab on to, your body needs to call on muscle memory to lift something compact, uncomfortable with a completely different body dynamic.

The power clean is another story, most people don’t do it well. Most people do it as an explosive reverse curl. Olympic-style weightlifters do this correctly, most others don’t.

The body doesn’t know if you’re lifting sandbags, logs, weights, digging trenches or moving furniture, it’s all weight.

But the only thing you can do to build a strong and functional body from head to toe is the simple method of shouldering and carrying an object unbalanced by time or distance uphill and downhill. I’m saying you’ll build strength from head to toe because loading will strengthen your entire body and core muscles which is required in all sports and anything else that will need full body and head strength which means strength is needed mind to carry a weight. time or a predetermined distance.

The good news is that a weight as small as 40 or 50 pounds will be enough for most men to attempt to carry a 50-pound bag of sand, rocks, or logs for ¼ mile or more shifting the object from one shoulder to the other. I like to use a heavy 70 or 100 lb bag for walking hills, climbing steps, and walking wooded trails. And if you want to build very muscular traps and shoulders, try loading and loading and let me know how those shoulders and traps feel.

Shouldering and carrying an awkward object should be an important part of any strength training program. Balanced items trick you into thinking you are stronger than you really are. Just like bodyweight exercises that require more muscle to do pushups than bench press.

Toughness Creates Winners