Ep. 226 - How Strong Do You Need To Be, Really? (Feat Dr Pak)

Patroklos Androulakis-Korakakis, AKA “Dr. Pak”, is back! In this episode we caught up with Dr. Pak while he was visiting Omar’s home turf in Toronto! There they trained together, and after a crappy training session where they failed PR attempts, they decided to have a completely unrelated episode on why strength is overrated. No, but seriously folks, this is a great discussion of specificity and transfer of strength. We discuss research that suggests maybe going from a 300lbs to a 400 or 500lbs deadlift won’t actually improve performance in most sports, or certainly activities of daily living. This leads into a discussion of how gaining strength at a novice or intermediate level may require different efforts and strategies, and may also be due to somewhat different adaptations. Tune in, this isn’t one to miss! 00:00 Functional fitness and re-introducing Dr Pak 4:46 Powerlifting, specificity, and low back strength Androulakis-Korakakis 2021 Comparison of Isolated Lumbar Extension Strength in Competitive and Noncompetitive Powerlifters, and Recreationally Trained Men https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29979273/ Rossi 2018 Strength, body composition, and functional outcomes in the squat versus leg press exercises https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/27735888/  22:53 Exploring adaptations to training, and the relationship between hypertrophy and strength Fisher 2013 A randomized trial to consider the effect of Romanian deadlift exercise on the development of lumbar extension strength https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23867152/  Steele 2020 Does increasing an athletes’ strength improve sports performance? A critical review with suggestions to help answer this, and other, causal questions in sport science https://www.jstage.jst.go.jp/article/trainology/9/1/9_32/_article  Schoenfeld 2017 Strength and Hypertrophy Adaptations Between Low- vs. High-Load Resistance Training: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28834797/  37:52 Practical examples of hypertrophy/weight gain and increased strength Latella 2023 Longitudinal growth modelling of strength adaptations in powerlifting athletes across ages in males and females https://sportrxiv.org/index.php/server/preprint/view/218 Iron Culture Ep. 196- How Much Training Do Powerlifters Actually Need To Get Stronger (Ft. Dr. Pak) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2EJ0Qp6spGQ  58:48 Closing out with some links (and where to find Dr Pak) Raskol Apparel https://raskolapparel.com/ MASS Research Review https://massresearchreview.com/ Instagram @dr__pak https://www.instagram.com/dr__pak/?hl=en ResearchGate https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Patroklos-Androulakis-Korakakis

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Iron Culture was started by Eric Helms and Omar Isuf, now currently hosted by Eric Helms and Eric Trexler with Omar as a returning guest, as a means of exploring the world of physical culture and attempting to distill a unified philosophy of lifting and to help listeners find greater meaning from the iron. The lifting community has become fractured over the last ~70 years and this Podcast will attempt to explore the fundamental threads that unite these different tribes. The Podcast focuses on dispensing practical, useful information to the listener, bouncing from history, to philosophy, to contemporary lifting culture issues, to science. This can range from teaching the audience about lifting, programming, nutrition, supplements/PEDs and the history of lifting culture. The format includes casual conversations between the two hosts on a variety of topics, discussions with a panel of experts and interviews with authoritative figures in the lifting community.