There are many reasons to lift weights, and many ways to record progress. Maybe "serious lifters" do it to get to a certain high weight, but 99 percent of people do it to get stronger or other reasons.
The funny thing is serious lifters don’t do this. The people doing this are usually average Joes with very little actual strength or athletic ability. But they think they are so impressive. It’s absurd!
It is okay for people to "get into lifting" who aren't "serious lifters." Of course they will do thing (and measure things) differently.
As a runner, I measure "running streaks" and "total elevation in the year" and so on. My buddy who ran for Nike did neither of those things. He didn't care about streaks; his coach never let him train through a developing injury, for example. And he certainly didn't care about yearly feet of elevation gained. Yet somehow, we are both runners (and friends).
Just let other people be different than you. It is fine. Nobody even knew this was a thing until you mentioned it. Just ignore it.
The reason that lifters don't track 'tonnage', is that it isn't meaningful to them. For a lifter with a max of say 410 lbs, to lift 400 lbs once is much much more difficult than the tonnage equivalent of lifting 100 lbs 4 times. To maximize tonnage, one would lift a very light weight hundreds or thousands of times, which is not how they train.
A better running analogy would be to compare speed/intensity. It's like walking 4 x 16 minute miles, compared with one 4 minute mile.
In any case, it shouldn't bother a real lifter if some clown wants to evaluate tonnage for fun, just as a 4 minute miler isn't threatened by a recreational walker.
Not true. One of my close friends is a elite powerlifter. He has been top 3 in the world multiple times. He tracks his total weekly tonnage. For him, it's more of a metric to ensure he does not overtrain, and it is only one metric he tracks, but he tracks it nonetheless.
I’m so sick of people bragging about what they claim to be the total weight they’ve listed. If you’re not familiar with this inane trend, there are people that think if they do a weightlifting set of 10 reps of 100 pounds, that means they’ve listed a “total” of 1,000 pounds in that set. They continue to add to their cumulative imaginary total in this way and then brag on social media about hitting milestones like lifting a million pounds.
The funny thing is serious lifters don’t do this. The people doing this are usually average joes with very little actual strength or athletic ability. But they think they are so impressive. It’s absurd!
So, by your logic, when I do 20x400m, I did not do 20 400's?
The reason that lifters don't track 'tonnage', is that it isn't meaningful to them. For a lifter with a max of say 410 lbs, to lift 400 lbs once is much much more difficult than the tonnage equivalent of lifting 100 lbs 4 times. To maximize tonnage, one would lift a very light weight hundreds or thousands of times, which is not how they train.
A better running analogy would be to compare speed/intensity. It's like walking 4 x 16 minute miles, compared with one 4 minute mile.
In any case, it shouldn't bother a real lifter if some clown wants to evaluate tonnage for fun, just as a 4 minute miler isn't threatened by a recreational walker.
Not true. One of my close friends is a elite powerlifter. He has been top 3 in the world multiple times. He tracks his total weekly tonnage. For him, it's more of a metric to ensure he does not overtrain, and it is only one metric he tracks, but he tracks it nonetheless.
He might track it within a narrow context, but he's not going to maximize it with a massive number of light reps.
The funny thing is serious lifters don’t do this. The people doing this are usually average Joes with very little actual strength or athletic ability. But they think they are so impressive. It’s absurd!
It is okay for people to "get into lifting" who aren't "serious lifters." Of course they will do thing (and measure things) differently.
As a runner, I measure "running streaks" and "total elevation in the year" and so on. My buddy who ran for Nike did neither of those things. He didn't care about streaks; his coach never let him train through a developing injury, for example. And he certainly didn't care about yearly feet of elevation gained. Yet somehow, we are both runners (and friends).
Just let other people be different than you. It is fine. Nobody even knew this was a thing until you mentioned it. Just ignore it.
Good point. Tracking different things is fine. For me, the issue was those who brag about it online.
Good point. Tracking different things is fine. For me, the issue was those who brag about it online.
Sadly, I think bragging is nothing we are going to see the end of anytime soon. And this is certainly not the worst thing people can be bragging about. At least they are moving the weights!
Think of the other things people post on social media! Truly idiotic stuff...
Not true. One of my close friends is a elite powerlifter. He has been top 3 in the world multiple times. He tracks his total weekly tonnage. For him, it's more of a metric to ensure he does not overtrain, and it is only one metric he tracks, but he tracks it nonetheless.
He might track it within a narrow context, but he's not going to maximize it with a massive number of light reps.
Wrong again.
Okay half wrong. I've seen massively strong athletes, lifters, throwers, bodybuilders, whatever, finish their heavy working sets, load up a "light" weight and bang out a set or two of 15+ reps, all for volume's/tonnage's sake. Tom Platz loved 20 rep squats. I've even heard of him doing 50-100 rep sets.
But yes, the powerlifter in question may never do this, or he may only do this during certain phases of training.
He might track it within a narrow context, but he's not going to maximize it with a massive number of light reps.
Wrong again.
Okay half wrong. I've seen massively strong athletes, lifters, throwers, bodybuilders, whatever, finish their heavy working sets, load up a "light" weight and bang out a set or two of 15+ reps, all for volume's/tonnage's sake. Tom Platz loved 20 rep squats. I've even heard of him doing 50-100 rep sets.
But yes, the powerlifter in question may never do this, or he may only do this during certain phases of training.
Quite different. Even the combine BP of 2 plates to failure isn't anywhere in the realm of maximizing tonnage.
I’m so sick of people bragging about what they claim to be the total weight they’ve listed. If you’re not familiar with this inane trend, there are people that think if they do a weightlifting set of 10 reps of 100 pounds, that means they’ve listed a “total” of 1,000 pounds in that set. They continue to add to their cumulative imaginary total in this way and then brag on social media about hitting milestones like lifting a million pounds.
The funny thing is serious lifters don’t do this. The people doing this are usually average joes with very little actual strength or athletic ability. But they think they are so impressive. It’s absurd!
Outside of the powerlifting totals of the 3 max lifts what is the point of keeping track how much you lifted?
So, what if they do? Insecure people complain about people just trying to better themselves then they come on here and downvote me and upvote yourself for calling you out on it.
Your next move is to go on other devices and upvote yourself and downvote me several times. It is predictable.
Nobody successful would act this way. It's a loser's game.
Wrong. My next move after my last post was to go to bed. You’re just as bad at predicting the future as you are at debating.
I was a little off. You did that when you woke up. I didn't know we were debating. Is the debate whether you are an insecure loser?
Maybe a better way to respond is to take your body weight, multiply by the number of steps you took on a run, and claim you "lifted" that many pounds. If my math is correct, a 150lb person running 10 miles and averaging a meter per step lifts about 800,000 lbs. So, pretty easy to make a mockery of their gym results.
You could say you lifted one thousand, one million or a billion pounds of weights. The number doesn't matter, because most people will be impressed because since most people lift zero pounds. Social media is full of people making careers out of inducing FOMO in others.
Does it matter? I almost guarantee if you show me someone that cans say they lifted a million pounds over a period of time, they will be stronger or in better shape than the average person so if thats a goal and they mix it up with squats, bench etc then thats a lot of work.
Not everyone is a serious body builder but want to be strong and in better shape. Saying I lifted a million pounds over say 6 months sounds pretty freaking amazing.
What if we visualize it as 10 different 10 pound weights. If you move all 10 across the room one at a time then you’ve moved a hundred pounds. If you lift all ten one at a time haven’t you lifted 100 pounds? So now what if you just lift the same one over and over? I’ve done long runs on the track and I ran more than 400m even though it was the same 400m over and over.
What if we visualize it as 10 different 10 pound weights. If you move all 10 across the room one at a time then you’ve moved a hundred pounds. If you lift all ten one at a time haven’t you lifted 100 pounds? So now what if you just lift the same one over and over? I’ve done long runs on the track and I ran more than 400m even though it was the same 400m over and over.
If you're a mover you might say that you loaded 100 lbs, but at no time did you generate the force necessary to lift 100 lbs. This whole thing is fairly silly at this point.
I’m so sick of people bragging about what they claim to be the total weight they’ve listed. If you’re not familiar with this inane trend, there are people that think if they do a weightlifting set of 10 reps of 100 pounds, that means they’ve listed a “total” of 1,000 pounds in that set. They continue to add to their cumulative imaginary total in this way and then brag on social media about hitting milestones like lifting a million pounds.
The funny thing is serious lifters don’t do this. The people doing this are usually average joes with very little actual strength or athletic ability. But they think they are so impressive. It’s absurd!
Outside of the powerlifting totals of the 3 max lifts what is the point of keeping track how much you lifted?