Lift with Violent Intent, Squeeze with Surgical Focus
by: Josh Bryant
When I was in high school, I worked at a hardcore gym—a breeding ground for iron legends, local lunatics, and the occasional life coaching lesson buried under 45s. My best friend Adam and I trained there every day, side by side, soaking up wisdom from old heads and some of the most intense characters due west of a straightjacket!
There was a huge 1980s pro wrestler look alike—tan, jacked, mullet flowing in the breeze. He hit on anything with a pulse and attacked every lift like he was main-eventing WrestleMania. “Tight! Explode! You gotta get it! Everything is fast—light or heavy—be nasty!” he’d bark between sets. He started lifting as a kid and was still smashing PRs in his 50s.
He was a classic—definitely not a guy you’d model your life after, but when it came to explosive, aggressive technique under the bar, the dude had gold. Not the voice of reason, but a masterclass in barbell violence.
Then you had the local legend known only as “Alumni Games.” Straight outta some Oildale trailer park, apparently made millions during the tech boom, but you couldn’t take the trailer outta him. He trained for one thing: an alumni football game where he swore speed squats, Sustanon, and some other S-word stood for glory. Dude rode the pine in high school, but he made 26 tackles in that alumni game. I saw the tape. Guy was unhinged, strong as hell, and every isolation lift ended with him screaming, “Kill it if you don’t feel it!” For the big compound lifts? Speed, always speed. Total whack job—but the man knew his way around a weight room.
Then there was James “Fed” Carrol, the bouncer from the local burlesque club and part-time philosopher. He talked about a dude named Red—prison lifer with a chest like a truck hood and “back arms” that belonged in a Marvel movie. Red built that by doing 500 push-ups before chow every morning, focusing on slow negatives and deep contractions. No science, just results.
And I’ll never forget Frank—a ripped 62-year-old former bodyguard for “the Godfather of soul” , James Brown. Wore a durag, strutted in the gym like he owned it, and said, “Any man my size and my age? I’ll whip they ass.” Frank saw something in me. He coached me on power cleans with laser focus and taught me that explosiveness doesn’t mean sloppy. “Be fast—but never at the expense of technique.” I learned a lot from Frank. He was a class act inside the gym and a productive, solid man outside of it.
Even the sleazy-but-shredded firefighter who ran a landscaping hustle had wisdom. Between flexing his bedroom physique and charming half the cardio room, he swore by squeezing light weights until they felt like a car.
So what do all these misfits and monsters have in common? One thing: movement intention. They didn’t train to look cool—they trained with purpose. That’s where this all leads.
So, what should you remember when it comes to executing different lifts correctly?
Here’s your cheat sheet—quick, dirty, and effective.
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Squat/Bench Press/Deadlift Execution (Core Lifts)
If you want to move big weights, you need to move the barbell as fast as possible on these exercises. This is called Compensatory Acceleration Training (CAT)—the brainchild of my late mentor, Fred Hatfield (RIP)—and it’s all about movement intention. The idea is to move lighter weights fast to maximize force production (Force = Mass × Acceleration). Over time, your body adapts to the intent signaled by your central nervous system (CNS), and you maximize both limit strength and explosive strength adaptations.
Bottom line: Even if the weight is heavy and the bar moves slow, you’ll still build explosive strength (along with limit strength) if your intent is to move it fast. When the weight is submaximal and you apply maximal force, you become more explosive and stronger. Great technique, staying tight, and maximal effort are how you maximize strength, power, and hypertrophy.
Supplementary Movements
These are compound, multi-joint exercises excluding the core lifts. Examples include dead benches, dead squats, strongman movements, and other core lift variations. The focus here should be technical execution and moving the weight as fast as possible—without sacrificing form or tightness.
Assistance Movements
These are your single-joint exercises—hammer curls, triceps extensions, lateral raises, dumbbell flyes, etc. The goal here isn’t how much weight you lift; it’s how well you target the muscle. THINK MUSCLE INTENTION!
Below is a piece written by Dr. Fred Hatfield , my mentor, RIP on the mathematics of CAT
AN EXAMPLE OF THE MATHEMATICS BEHIND
COMPENSATORY ACCELERATION
Let’s assume that you’re going to do 5 sets of 5 reps in the squat using the conventional method of moving the weight. That is, push hard out of the hole, and ease up as your leverage improves throughout the upward movement.
First Set: The bottom of the last rep in the first set is tough enough to be considered adequate overload to force an adaptive response. The preliminary four squats were not sufficiently intense to force an adaptive response.
Second Set: Ditto the First Set.
Third Set: The bottom half of the last two reps are now tough enough.
Fourth Set: The bottom half of the last three reps are now tough enough to force an adaptive response. You’re getting fatigued.
Fifth Set: Ditto the Fourth Set.
The Mathematics: You’ve achieved overload stress sufficient to force an adaptive response in only ten halves of the 25 squats performed, an efficiency rating of only 20 percent.
Now let’s assume that you’re going to push as hard as you can against the bottom of the bar every inch of the way upwards out of the hole to a nearly erect position (stopping the acceleration sufficiently before lockout so as to avoid ballistically throwing the bar off your shoulders.
The Mathematics: You’ve succeeded in achieving overload stress sufficient to force an adaptive response in every single squat yuou performed, every inch of the way. Your efficiency rating is now nearly 100 percent.
You will now accomplish in 1 year what used to take five
years to accomplish.
…in 1 month what used to take five months…
…in 1 workout what used to take five workouts..
…in 1 set what it used to take five sets.
This Texas-Sized Strength Arsenal 💪🇨🇱 is a no-compromise collection of six elite-level programs built for athletes, powerlifters, and serious lifters who want more than just muscle—they want purpose-driven performance.
