This guy is yoda to me. "We are still animals. Our physical existence is, in the final analysis, the only one that matters. The weak man is not as happy as that same man would be, if he were strong. This reality is offensive to some people who would like the intellectual or the spiritual to take precedence - it is instructive to see what happens to these very people as their squat strength goes up." So true.
That sounds nice, but a one-size-fits-all mentality seems to be expressed there: not everyone can do it due to physical injuries, birth defects or congenital problems. The mental drives the physical. Without a brain to guide the body, you have a rudderless ship, so to speak.
I didn't say that. However, not everyone can just squat and gain strength. Plus some people have bad or delicate joints or connective tissue that are unable to handle heavy squatting (not in my case, just making a point). I definitely think that regular training benefits people, and I also see that it is increasingly difficult to do so in a commercial gym or with weights when you have a number of other obligations: a job with overtime, training courses for that job, and a new baby (diaper, colic, teething, etc etc). Training with weights is great if you have the time to go to a gym or you can make time at home, but bodyweight training is something you can do anywhere, and right now it is stopping me from going nuts.
Yeah Buddy, I think the quote is really about any kind of decent training - you can probably take out the word squat out and replace it with handstand push ups or pistols to fit your preference. I just think he's talking about the way people will look for so many arcane and complicated (or pharmaceutical) ways to improve their lot and their mindset while sneering at the one that's most likely to work - good hard exercise, like their bodies evolved for. It so easy for us to feel like we're too smart for something so obvious & simple to help us, but it always does because the mind and body are so closely related.
