Why I love the Hodge twins

As they were included (in passing) on my last post, I thought I might write a little bit about one of my favorite sources for exercise information, and entertainment. These fucks

Hodge twins, bitches

I love the Hodge twins. Lets get one thing straight: they are definitely NOT powerlifters. And, I don't personally agree with a shitload of what they say. However, I think these two are fucking great. Not only are they absolutely hilarious, but they do one thing that almost NO average gym rat does: they figured out what works FOR THEM. How many people do you see in the gym who are just following a cookie cutter program? The worst is when you see someone actually holding open a copy of "Muscle & Fitness," following one of those "Beach body in 8 weeks" programs. It's horse shit. But even people who are following a classic strength program - starting strength, 5 x 5, 5/3/1 - shouldn't ALWAYS follow it exactly. Jim Wendler would probably kill me and eat me for extra protein if he read that (he always says if you're not gonna follow the program exactly, don't bitch when it doesn't work), but even so, Jim strongly encourages you to feel out the program as well - don't push the last set every week, leave a few reps in the tank more often than not, pick the best assistance work FOR YOU. And most people don't seem to get that. They bounce from one program to another, following them to a T - and never making the gains that they could be making, if they put in the time and effort to find what works best for them. Even worse are the people who do the same thing, over and over, with shitty results, but they refuse to adapt their training.

A personal story about this: High rep  heavy deadlifts don't do SHIT for me. As I wrote in an earlier post, I did 5/3/1 about a year ago. My last month on the program, I banged out 250 for 8 solid reps... then, when I tested my 1 rep a week or two later, it was 265. What the fuck. My squat went up 50 lbs, and my dead only went up 20. I went through a period of three or four months when I was convinced I was just shit at deadlifting... Then I started doing speed deads. Two months later, pulled 305, for a 20 lb pr. Then, two months after that, I pulled an easy 335. 5/3/1 worked great for my squats and bench, but the high rep, heavy deads just didn't work. I had to experiment, and find what works for me.

On the flip side, I started training a friend this summer, who had zero training experience. His legs were pretty strong though - right off the bat he deadlifted 205. So, I started him on a starting-strength type program, where he did 3 sets of 5 deadlifts, adding 5lbs a week. 4 months later, he pulled 285. We went away to school, and he kept up with the same program, eventually changing it to 1 set of 5 deads per week. Over winter break, we maxed out together (when I pulled 335), and he pulled 365. Two 80 lb pound pr's in a row - 160lbs in 8 months. All from higher rep, heavy deads. That didn't do shit for me.

Jerome, after another few months of progressing at the same rate. 

ANYWAYS, the point is, a lot of people talk shit about the Hodge twins because they don't agree with a lot of the stuff the twins say - for example, they hate deadlifts, and never do them (heaven forfend). But the bottom line is, the twins have found what works for them. Clearly, because they're in pretty great shape. And when you watch them, you don't HAVE to take every word as gospel, just like you shouldn't take every word of any training program as gospel. Listen. Read. Learn. Get as much information as you can. Experiment with it all, and find what works for you. Do that till it doesn't work, then experiment some more.

Or, as the twins would say, do whatever the FUCK you wanna do.

Here's one of many gems. Check out their channel, it's fucking great.