Cult?

A lot of you ladies and gentlemen know that I spend a lot of my time on Rosstraining's forum. While Ross is one of the top go-to guys for BW-based strength training information, he's hardly a BW-only guy. He gets a lot of deserved respect and praise for not shutting the door on any tool for strength training. He also comes down harshly on the Matt Furey school of BW-only training (Okay, he never directly said it but we know what he's getting at with his statements), accusing them of a cult-like dedication to Bodyweight. Ross is hardly the only one out there accusing some of running or being a part of Bodyweight Cults.

I jokingly referred to myself on the board as a high priest of the BW-only cult and I've been admonished for my BW-only insistence in the past. I have some really nice weights that I got as a Christmas present a few years ago but I've barely used them. I've occasionally used tires and rocks for training but never with any regularity. I've become very BW-monogamous.

There is a very good reason for my marriage to BW exercise: I travel all of the time for work. It's just not practical to rely on anything else other than BW for my strength training needs. So, the BW hegemony in my training regimen is firmly based on practicality.


um....

I do have other reasons too. First and foremost, I genuinely love training the way that I do. I look forward to my workouts and my days feel incomplete without doing them. Even when I used weights and machines, I've always loved chin-ups and pull-ups. I'm a degenerate handstand push-up freak. I'm sure that I don't need to tell you that enjoying what you goes a huge way in sticking to it. What can I say? It just works for me.

I do have shallow reasons too. I remember years ago, my wife had a personal trainer that told me that it was impossible to gain muscle mass with bodyweight alone. Apparently, this kind of training was only good for endurance. I'll never forget the look on her face when she heard that i wanted to bulk up with BW: disbelief. condescending. She looked at me like I was the biggest idiot on Earth. I took it like a challenge. As it turns out, that was far from the last time that I'd hear such a thing. So, I was driven by pride to prove her and others wrong. I wanted to see if I could really do this without touching weights. I found out it was entire possible.

I don't really see myself as taking a cult-like approach to strength training. I wanted to test out how good BW was for strength training on its own. Frankly, I didn't have much of a choice. I'm not close-minded to the notion of using weights. I don't admonish those who do use them. I've learned a lot from studying weight training in relation to BW. It's just not pragmatic for me to base my training on adding weight that I don't have.