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