It’s been a while since I did a top 10 articles post. I’ve had so much else I wanted to do rather than scour the internet looking for that elusive ninth or tenth article once I have eight or nine good ones in the bag…
However, when I was in the Alps for two weeks back in July, I took an MP3 player with me and listened to a whole batch of Iron Radio and Superhuman Radio podcasts. The epsiodes that stood out as the most enjoyable and informative had a common theme: Rob “Fortress” Fortney.
Fortress?
Not this kind of fortress – photo courtesy of Isawnyu
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So who is Rob “Fortress” Fortney?
Who is Rob Fortney? This is Rob Fortney:
The Fortress squatting 315lbs for 25 reps
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Enough already! Get to the articles
OK, here they are:
- Interview with Rob Fortney (parts one and two) – this has one of my all-time favourite Fortress lines: “…it’s important to understand that I want to be genuinely strong, not just post great numbers in a meet. For example, there are guys who post huge numbers on the squat, but are not what Fortress would call particularly strong. With an ultra-wide stance, questionable depth, use of a monolift, drugs, and excessive support gear, these folks “squat” several hundred pounds more. All things being equal, these powerlifters would be lucky to not be permanently buried under 400lbs.” Ouch.
- Four directions for a kick-ass back – Fortress knows bodybuilding, as he started out as an assistant editor for MuscleMag International. In this article, he starts by arguing that it’s the back that defines the great all-time bodybuilder. It’s a good start, and the article makes the point with a great picture of the man with the best ever back in bodybuilding, Dorian Yates. Anyway, it’s all about the four different pulling movements for building back size and strength: vertical pulling, horizontal pulling, shrugging and extending.
- Hell on wheels – Fortress explains how great physiques get built: an intimate and painful relationship to lower body training. For Fortress, this can only mean squats. All other lower body exercises are merely accessories. Fortress says: “You want to be 200-plus pounds of reasonably-hard sinew? Squat. You wanna be a super athlete? Squat.”
- Accidental muscle – this is a curious little grab-bag of points dropped together into an article. Fortress talks about a number of things, including the rate of development that people can expect when they start training, how to prepare mentally for workouts and competitions, and the importance of watching sci-fi/fantasy (I am not joking).
- Train like a man – Fortress pens another paean to squatting and tells the guys banging out forced reps on the leg extension that he doesn’t care how big their legs are.
- Credibility and contemporary powerlifting – Fortress explains why geared lifting is bad for the general perception of the sport. I have a lot of sympathy with what he says here.
- Killing on adrenaline – this is another brain-training article by the great man. Learn how to get psyched up properly.
- Noodle arms aren’t cool (and five moves for big triceps) – everyone wants big arms but everyone keeps doing teeny little triceps kickbacks with miniature dumbbells. Fortress explains why you need to be pressing a lot, a lot.
- Forced anabolism: how to overeat – Fortress teams up with fellow Iron-Radio pal Lonnie Lowery to explain the best way of gaining muscular bodyweight in a hurry,
- You have no idea what you are doing – technically this is an email posted on a forum and not an article but it’s a brilliant riposte to an amateur lifter’s enquiry about starting a steroid cycle.
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I can’t find much else by the great man so if you come across any other Fortress articles, please let me know.
