When I look at modern bodybuilding today I ask myself Where is the love?
Nowadays you have champion bodybuilders who have compromised their health to such an extent they can no longer train either due to internal damage to their organs or damaged skeletal structure due to the unnatural weights their drug engorged muscles could hoist. It should be called bodybreaking rather than bodybuilding. On steroids they grow quickly and burnout and are unable to face the iron again. There is no love of training; simply a short lived quest for personal glory.
I have always been fascinated with Strength and Muscles and their acquisition. I read the typical Muscle & Fiction magazines but I particularly favoured Ironman which at the time was past the Peary Rader era but still had echoes of it’s glorious past. In these I first saw adverts for Brawn, and that led to me pursing real training for natural trainees. As the internet became readily available at home I would pursue Hard Training and HIT training information on the NaturalStrength.com and Cyberpump! websites.
As a young inexperienced trainee, I would, in my enthusiasm, tend to get carried away with beyond failure methods and train far too frequently. Looking back, I know I overworked and should not have overloaded the bar once I had hit my rep target.
These days I have reduced my workouts to once or twice a week and cleaned up my form, obtained smaller plates for micro loading and warm up much more than before. I do full body workouts and the best exercises to get the most ‘bang for my buck’, so a steady diet of Squats, Bench Presses, SLDL etc. I tend to use a mix of single progression and double progression, only increasing the weight once I have met the rep target on all the sets and that is where patience is both a virtue and a necessity.
While enjoying the training movements I know what I’m working towards. When you hit that rep target that you struggled with for a few weeks, you are a winner. I know that at any time I’m stronger and better than I would be without the training. I compete with myself and that brings to mind an old Hindu proverb which says:
“True nobility is being better than your previous self.”
Now if you want to continue training then health must take priority, you must look after your internal organs and joints. This is where modern bodybuilding differs from the real golden age where men were building rock solid internal health while strengthening their supporting structures through intelligent progressive weight training.
Another benefit which has grown more and more important is the natural high you experience after a workout. I love that feeling of elation, calmness and clarity: it’s amazing and a God given gift for working hard. God willing, I want to continue to experience that feeling as I get into my fifties, sixties, seventies - my whole life. This is the love of training I’m talking about. If you love training then train naturally for Health, Strength and Longevity.
“The trees that are slow to grow bear the best fruit.”
-Molière
Nowadays you have champion bodybuilders who have compromised their health to such an extent they can no longer train either due to internal damage to their organs or damaged skeletal structure due to the unnatural weights their drug engorged muscles could hoist. It should be called bodybreaking rather than bodybuilding. On steroids they grow quickly and burnout and are unable to face the iron again. There is no love of training; simply a short lived quest for personal glory.
I have always been fascinated with Strength and Muscles and their acquisition. I read the typical Muscle & Fiction magazines but I particularly favoured Ironman which at the time was past the Peary Rader era but still had echoes of it’s glorious past. In these I first saw adverts for Brawn, and that led to me pursing real training for natural trainees. As the internet became readily available at home I would pursue Hard Training and HIT training information on the NaturalStrength.com and Cyberpump! websites.
As a young inexperienced trainee, I would, in my enthusiasm, tend to get carried away with beyond failure methods and train far too frequently. Looking back, I know I overworked and should not have overloaded the bar once I had hit my rep target.
These days I have reduced my workouts to once or twice a week and cleaned up my form, obtained smaller plates for micro loading and warm up much more than before. I do full body workouts and the best exercises to get the most ‘bang for my buck’, so a steady diet of Squats, Bench Presses, SLDL etc. I tend to use a mix of single progression and double progression, only increasing the weight once I have met the rep target on all the sets and that is where patience is both a virtue and a necessity.
While enjoying the training movements I know what I’m working towards. When you hit that rep target that you struggled with for a few weeks, you are a winner. I know that at any time I’m stronger and better than I would be without the training. I compete with myself and that brings to mind an old Hindu proverb which says:
“True nobility is being better than your previous self.”
Now if you want to continue training then health must take priority, you must look after your internal organs and joints. This is where modern bodybuilding differs from the real golden age where men were building rock solid internal health while strengthening their supporting structures through intelligent progressive weight training.
Another benefit which has grown more and more important is the natural high you experience after a workout. I love that feeling of elation, calmness and clarity: it’s amazing and a God given gift for working hard. God willing, I want to continue to experience that feeling as I get into my fifties, sixties, seventies - my whole life. This is the love of training I’m talking about. If you love training then train naturally for Health, Strength and Longevity.
“The trees that are slow to grow bear the best fruit.”
-Molière
