Training Truths That Should Be Said - By Bradley J. Steiner

I'd just like to make some points that I hope will benefit some of the newer and less experienced visitors to your site. This is very basic, but it's also rarely emphasized today. Because it's true, it should be said:

• The turn off that bodybuilding took a few decades ago, when it went the "steroid/size/nut route" was truly tragic. Just look at how it has, literally, made the word "bodybuilding" an emotive one! Mention "bodybuilder" and the majority of those sane people under the age of 40 who hear it will conjure an image of a gender-challenged, overbloated, grotesque, drug-consuming freak, and they will likely be gripped with nausea. And who can blame them for having such a reaction? Gone is Grimek, Eifferman, Stanko, Park, Jowett, Sipes, Abele, etc. etc. and so forth. And the REAL Masters of the Iron Game (ie men like Rader, Hoffman, Paschall, and McCallum) have been replaced by goons.

It seems to me that one of the greatest services that can be rendered by those of us who love the healthy activity of bodybuilding — as it was in the 1920's, 30's, 40's, 50's, and throughout most of the 1960's — when the goal was genuine strength, vigorous good health, and physical efficiency and fitness, is to do what YOUR SITE (ie Bob Whelan's) is doing; so POWER TO YOU, BROTHER!

• If I may put in a recommendation (for which I do not receive compensation!) that is a sincere one, purely for the benefit of those who are looking for the real deal in training information: Check into Bill Hinbern's marvelous enterprise. Bill has reprinted many of the priceless classics of physical training, and anyone who wants to experience the kind of joy that we who were fortunate enough to get started RIGHT in this field knew, when we first picked up a barbell, should buy those old books and study them. Cancel the magazine subscriptions to those damn pharmaceutical catalogs and gay rights propaganda rags, and purchase the wisdom that once was "mainstream" — a long time ago, when this Country and the bodybuilding we love were both a helluva lot saner and healthier!

• Don't make training too complicated for yourself. Don't keep looking for miracle programs, special routines, super diet plans, or supplements and other gimmicks that are simply conning you, if you are a confused beginner. Just map out a good all round routine of six to ten exercises, and train hard on them, three times a week for between 40 and 90 minutes. The squat, press, rowing, dead lift, bench press, curl, simple calf work, shrugs, abdominal work, and perhaps some dabbling (judiciously!) on one or two other odd exercises from time to time as interest suggests, will do it for you. Honestly — that's all you need. Two or three sets is plenty.

• Be realistic. The late genius Arthur Jones always pointed out that those few who become "world class musclemen" are "genetic freaks". This is not an insult. It simply acknowledges how unusual it really is for a person to possess the genetics that is required to become world class in physical development. THAT'S NOTHING BAD! It's not cause for discouragement! Use the Greats as inspiration; and then become whatever YOUR genetic potential allows.

• Always come back to SOUND TRAINING PRINCIPLES, basic equipment and exercises, a good diet, rest and recreation, and a healthy attitude as the royal road to physica excellence. It isn't "secret", it isn't "mysterious", it isn't anything that YOU CAN'T HAVE FOR YOURSELF, AND FOLLOW AND BENEFIT TREMENDOUSLY FROM IN YOUR OWN LIFE.

• If for whatever reason you haven't yet settled into a serious program of training, do it now. There will never be a "right time" or a "better moment" to begin. Just get started. The biggest hurdles in this game are all mental, not physical. Heck, bodybuilding isn't even expensive to pursue; it's affordable by anyone.

If you ever "once trained" and are reproaching yourself and feeling regretful, just realize that everyone makes mistakes and has regrets. GET BACK INTO IT NOW. In three weeks you'll be congratulating yourself for your wisdom!


This Article Was Written By Bradley J. Steiner

Professor Steiner's American Combato Site




Physical Culture Books.com