Sublime

The most intelligent way to develop strength is to lift much heavier weights than most weekend warriors play with but to terminate your sets before your muscles fail.

The squat is literally the only exercise in the entire repertoire of weighted human movement that allows the direct training of the complex movement pattern known as hip drive – the active recruitment of the muscles of the posterior chain.

Operationally-minded trainees can customize Specificity to include ‘functional’ work such as grip, core, swings, and explosive/power- or Olympic lifts.

When performing the pistol, direct the compressed energy down your hip and leg all the way into the ground, where you generate a static stomp. When performing the one-arm pushup, send the energy along your oblique and ribs, into your armpit, and then along your arm into your hand.

you don’t have to train maximally to get strong. You just have to train optimally.

Load variation is critically important to strength success, but it must follow one rigid rule: concentrate on volume and do not abuse high intensity training!

For a minimalist approach like Operator, I generally favor substantial compound lifts like the back squat and bench press for the average trainee.