Yesterday I got the opportunity to spend some time at Waxman’s Gym. I had heard about and read about Waxman’s place for many years and was thrilled to get the chance to lift there. Jason and I walked in and it immediately felt like home. Simple wooden platforms, stand alone steel squat racks, weights that had seen their fair share of usage and well-worn but smooth bearing bars. We felt like we just walked into a bigger version a Spoon Barbell.
As I was finishing up my workout took the opportunity to chat with Sean a little bit about his thoughts on the recent debate between flat-footed pulling and triple extension. Unbeknownst to me the most recent article that is getting an extreme amount of press he actually published five years ago. His response to my question was he doesn’t have time to debate and write blogs about styles of lifting anymore. He’s too busy trying to create good lifters.
He made a pretty profound statement that I think we could all benefit from listening to. He said, “if you create lifters that produce results who can argue with you?” This philosophy is how all of us should approach the sport of weightlifting. Produce good lifters and let the numbers speak for themselves. Nothing speaks louder than World Team members and Olympians.
I love that people care enough about weightlifting to debate the merit of specific styles BUT ultimately weightlifting is a game about numbers. Let the numbers speak for themselves and nobody can question you.