Son Of Zeus, Brother Of Hercules
Training Lessons With Teddy Pantelis
You have no choice but to move on…
When you start getting injured or you start getting older and things start getting achy you have no choice but to move on from certain things, for example you might not be able to barbell squat, but you can go to another squat pattern. It doesn't have to be a barbell squat. You have to be able to adapt. You have to be able to play this for the long run. For some people, barbell squat is one of the worst things for leg development and for others, it's the best, so it depends and maybe for some they make a ton of progress on the hack squat instead of the barbell squat and vice versa. There's so many things that you can do. Dorian Yates barely squatted. I mean granted the guy could look at a barbell and grow but still, it just goes to show you that you have to adapt. Skull crushers destroy people’s elbows sometime, they used to be an absolute staple for me and I don't even touch them anymore and I think my arms are some of my best.
Don't get emotionally attached, even if you're not running into problems don't be afraid to cycle through exercises to figure out what's working, and when I say “working”, ask yourself: what feels good on my joints and my connective tissue? Don't be afraid to just go outside of what the tradition is i.e. performing exercises like you said, barbell squats or deadlifts from the floor, do it from a rack if that feels better on your spine… - KR
I love deadlifts, it's probably my favourite movement to perform, but like you said if it's beating you up, the risk reward is just not there. If it's going to take you out of the gym for weeks at a time why would you do it? You asked me before how did my physique change from when I was 28, so when I was at my peak in 2017 and I would say after 2015 I started becoming obsessed with deadlifts and it was the best thing that I ever did for my entire posterior chain i.e. my traps, rhomboids and just the density of my back, my spinal erectors, my glutes. Any kind of conventional deadlift for me just destroys my glutes (in a good way) and I love that. I don't do any direct glute training. Even Brett Freeman who is known for his glutes on stage doesn't do any direct glute training, not until as of recently i've seen him do some hip thrust but try to find a better posterior chain than Brett, maybe Ben Howard, maybe those two guys some of the best, but okay i'm not trying to compare i'm not even going to try to compare but dude both of these guys deadlift and they have incredible backs, You could say genetics but I think for natural bodybuilding there's a place for it and I think it has immense value.
