NAked Warrior - ZANDERBILT

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T H E P U R P O S E F U L P R I M I T I V E
can be replicated in resistance training by lifting with like-minded, highly motivated individuals
regularly and repeatedly. A training partner, or better yet, a group of training partners,
accelerates gains way past your wildest imaginings.
If the chemistry is right, if the person or persons pushes you and demands the best from
you, if they do so without being reckless or hurtful, if they inspire you to do more than you
would on your own, and do so without veering into injurious training practices—you are
in for the most productive physical training period of your entire life. It is a predictable phenomenon
and for this reason the athletic elite cluster together to train. It’s only natural for
the strong and capable to seek each other out.
The elite know that loafing or giving less than 100% effort is less likely when training in
front of individuals who are your athletic equal or preferably better than you. If possible or
given a choice, seek to train with individuals stronger and more knowledgeable than you as
they will drag your game upward. When it comes to stimulating your own physical
progress, it is far better to be the small fish in the Big Pond than the Big Fish in the small
pond. Nothing seems to make that insurmountable 400 pound squat barrier (your personal
best) seem slight and insignificant as when training with people who squat double that
poundage for reps.
At first glance it might appear intimidating but once you swallow your ego, training with
better athletes is a real advantage. If you live in a tiny pond where everyone is in awe of you
because you squat 400, it is a lot harder psychologically to view 400 as just a step and not
an ultimate destination. Ever wonder why so many times the youngest brother in a large
family becomes the best athlete? This is an example of the benefits of playing with athletes
bigger and better than you. It forces the little ones to “up their game” in order to hang. In
the end that is a good thing, athletically speaking.
When you have a larger frame of physiological and psychological reference, you come to
understand that by striving, by continually and unrelentingly pushing yourself in order to
keep apace with your betters, you improve—or you break down, physically or psychologically.
A good training partner has a responsibility to himself and to his partners. You are
required to show up on time at the designated training venue, ready, willing and able to
blast the living dog-shit out of some muscle, lift or body part.
Muscle growth and additional strength lies in those reps barely
made, the stuff you’d be crazy to try on your own.
Practicing primitive free weight barbell and dumbbell exercises collectively, each in turn
stepping into the spotlight to lift as the others watch, critiquing each other immediately
after the set, is an intimidating, daunting and exhilarating experience. Your ego is flattened
when more experienced training partners tear you to shreds with blistering critique before
rebuilding you with constructive criticism prior to the next set. To have someone “spot
For complete information on Marty Gallagher’s The Purposeful Primitive, or to
purchase the physical book, visit http://www.dragondoor.com/b37.html now