I'm now into Stage 3. I won't lie. I did NOT like stage 2. Too many weird things that required more balance than strength, it seemed. And the Cuban Snatches and now the YTWLs. Ugghs. They got me on lifting heavy and now I have to do all this 5# ****? Grrr.

Except. The YTWL's are only slightly different than the exercises my Physical Therapist had me do after a deranged patient effed up my rotator cuff. These things and the Cubans are shoring up the smaller stabilizing muscles. My injury, after imaging and all kinds of doctor involvement, ended up being similar to what MLB pitchers get. I used to remember the name, but I don't any more. But here's the thing, if pitchers get this and it ends careers, maybe these YTWL's are a good idea to prevent injury? I don't know too many elite pitchers (and in this "too many" is more than zero), however, I bet they work out a lot. I bet they lift weights. I bet they do curls and bench presses and all that other stuff you think of as lifting weights. The stuff I was missing when I was doing all the weird stuff in Stage 2. The authors are getting us to the point that we can do pull ups, I'm thinking about the monkey bars at the park. Wow did it surprise, and HURT when I tried and learned I could no longer do the monkey bars. I think the rotator cuff muscles being worked in the Cuban Snatches (and I hated them) and the YTWL's are really probably super important. And the fact that I've never seen things like this in other programs makes me even more thankful and trusting of the smartness that went into NROL4W.

Seems to me, in Stage 2 I was sore in strange places in my lower body too. I've never done PT for a knee or a hip, but I wonder if the weird lower body stuff (all that one legged stuff) was essentially the same as what I was talking about above for the Cubans and the YTWL's.

So its ironic that we spend so long in the intro of the book, and such a long stage 1 getting us to be all excited about big numbers in lifts, and then the next stage requires such drastically reduced weights, AND doesn't give us anything to brag about (no squats, no normal deadlifts, etc. I was SOO happy when I had more than my body weight on the bar and did my squats in stage 1. Hey everyone! I did 10# in Cuban snatches, just doens't work the same). But I think there's wisdom there.

So if Stage 2 gets boring or confusing or discouraging, try to change your thinking about it. Stage 3 seems like a better mix of the two (heavy lifting in compound movements and exercises for smaller stabilizing muscles).

And, I love that there's so much for my back in Stage 3.