Friday, August 23, 2013

Beginning Weight Training - Setting Up the Program, (Part I) - By Jay Trigg

One of the most frequently asked questions in the gym, internet training Q&A’s, and magazine articles is: "How does one set up a training program if one has never lifted weights before? How can I ensure that I will utilize the correct exercises and intensity when I train?" While the question seems easy enough to answer, many great minds in the "weight training world" have pondered this question at great length, and have come up with many different answers to the question. There are as many different answers as there are styles of training. Depending on who one asks, the initial routine can take on many forms and functions. A beginning trainer working with Dr. Leistner would certainly train differently than one working with Brooks Kubik. And Bob Whelan might train a new person much differently in some respects than Steve Baldwin or Andrea Rippe. Yet, undoubtedly, all trainees would stand the same chance of success in making the desired physical and mental changes no matter which of the above trained them. All of the above have proven themselves to be effective trainers and are well educated in the field of exercise and its application. So, it isn’t a particular style of training that is necessarily more effective, but rather it is the construct and application of a training regimen that tends to prove successful over time.

Beginning trainees come in all sizes and shapes. From 17-year-old high school athletes needing some weight and strength to make the varsity squad, to guys and gals in their mid-20’s who want to "get buff". 40-year-old executives who want to lose that "executive spread", as well as improve their health and self-image, all the way to 50-year-old women who want to attack the aging process before it attacks them.

The first perspective is to address your (and my) attitude towards the trainee. Often we enter a relationship with a "newbie" somewhat prejudiced to their individual goals and desires. If my number one goal is to press a water filled keg overhead with one hand, while closing the Captains of Crush #4 gripper in the other hand, and my trainee wants to "look good on the beach this summer", my attitude can get in the way of his training. While his goal is not my goal (or at least my primary goal, now that I am married), his goal is not a bad one. What he is saying is "I want to have a body that is healthy, muscular, and fit". Sounds like my goal, as well. Only my priorities are different in achieving that goal. So if we assume that all trainees, or serious ones anyway, are looking to improve themselves physically we should be all right. We just have to understand that their goals and aspirations may be different from ours in the physical realm.

The second perspective is to look at the needs, limitations, and abilities of the trainee. Generic training advice is often the worst training advice. It fails to address specific needs that the trainee may have. With a new trainee, it is best to first evaluate the limitations they may have. It is not safe to assume that everyone can safely squat, especially on the first day. Nor is it safe to assume that anyone can do barbell curls, or even leg extensions. The better thing to do is to speak at length with the trainee about specific physical problems and concerns they may have. Obvious is questions about injuries and surgeries. Not so obvious may be discomfort in exercises done prone, exercises requiring a strong grip (rows, pulldowns) or exercises that require a rotation around a joint that is unusual for the trainee (grabbing the bar on squats for example). You don’t have to be a physiological whiz to figure these things out, either. Generally the client can inform you of specific problems they may have. You may also find out that with this knowledge you can easily adjust exercises, via positioning or performance, to safe and effective means.

It is also good to walk the client through every machine and exercise you have available to them. While this isn’t an "official workout", I treat it as one. I have the client warm up on a Schwinn Aerodyne for 10 minutes, do some light stretching, and we then use every machine and implement available. Utilizing light weights and low repetitions, we put each move through its full ROM, checking for constant feedback from the trainee. "Does this feel okay?" "Any pain or weird catches?" "How does that weight feel? Heavy, medium, or light? If I told you to do 15, could you do it easily or not at all?" By doing this we are insuring several things:

a. The trainee knows we are concerned for their safety and comfort. They can be told that proper exercise will often be uncomfortable and even somewhat painful at times, but as well should know it will never be unsafe or prone to injury, and that the exercise chosen will be appropriate for their physical abilities and limitations.

b. That we know the trainees state of mind. Women are often intimidated about entering a "man’s realm", especially if the other females they see present are fit and powerful. Men are often intimidated because they feel they are "less masculine" because they haven’t reached or maintained a state of physical fitness. Others, particularly young males, are more interested in doing a lot of bench presses soon, rather than developing a whole body. While some of these can be somewhat frustrating to deal with at times, it is our responsibility to educate and motivate the trainee. And this situation may be our first real look at how they view themselves, effort, and exercise.

c. That the trainee has some initial familiarity with the machine, implements, and exercises they will be using. Even if you never plan on using a leg extension with a trainee, knowing that they can use it and use it properly is insurance for the day they come in to train with a cast around an ankle. You also begin to get a look at some of the problems and technique issues you and the trainee will soon be facing in the weight room. Some clients move to fast, some let the weight stack fall too quickly banging the stack. Others can’t get the hang of breathing correctly, others are too cautious, and still others will get into orthopedicaly suicidal positions the moment you blink your eyes. It is better to find this out early and with minimally challenging weights, than to suddenly wake up to the fact that your trainee is inhaling as he comes up from the bottom of a heavy squat.

d. The initial questions get answered quickly and appropriately. For example, if you don’t allow trainees to use weight belts or straps, this is the time to address this and why you don’t recommend them. If your philosophy is "sets x reps" on free weights and "’go til ya’ puke" on machines, now is the time to explain why you make that distinction and how it applies to the trainee. If you like "push - pull", or "duo-poly-contractile" explain to the client why that is good, and how it works. Also, this is the best time to explain to and show what muscle groups each exercise is working. Explain how the delts and triceps get a workout in the overhead press (and show them THEIR delts and triceps, not yours). Explain how the row affects lats, rear delts, and biceps. Give them enough gross anatomy so that they can make sense of what the exercises are for, and why in the world a stiff leg deadlift is a hamstring exercise, not an arm exercise.

This is the conclusion of Part I of this series. Part II will address exercise selection, special needs, and individualizing a "cookie cutter" routine (after all, you only got so much equipment, right?)

Let Bob Whelan be Your Personal Coach
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IN SERVICE: PERVIS An Intense Summer of Strength Work Has Made Him a Gym-Dandy Player - Peter May

Boston Globe (Sports), Posted on NaturalStrength.com on January 18, 2000

November 25, 1997

There's a revealing sign above the entrance to Whelan Strength Training in Washington, D.C.: "If you train here,...you are not normal."

Call up the office and you hear an ominous message about commando-tough training, high-intensity stuff clearly not for the faint of heart or, for that matter, for the non-zealot.

Sounds like the perfect place for Pervis Ellison, huh? It was into this fanatical world that Ellison was thrust last summer, and things haven't quite been the same since. He is bigger, stronger, healthier, and actually playing regularly. The Celtics are reaping rewards after three years of on-again, off-again delays, malfunctions, and general chaos.

The Celtics sent Ellison to Whelan's with a simple instruction: it's time. If Ellison was ever going to be a Rick Pitino Celtic, he had to add weight, build muscle, and be ready to work as he never had worked before.

Bob Whelan oversees the shop that bears his name. He had heard all about Ellison and, as he put it yesterday, "I wasn't overly optimistic." His gym is for the maniacal and fanatical. Ellison didn't seem to be either.

But after nine weeks of brutally intensive workouts in which Ellison gained strength and 20 pounds, the results are starting to show.

Ellison is playing more confidently and, for the first time in years, he is pain free. His summer of hell under Whelan's whip and watch has turned into an autumn of emancipation and rebirth.

"It was a lot of hard work," Ellison said. "But I had tried so many different things that I thought this might help. And it has. For me, this is almost like starting over. I'm 30, but it's like for the last three or four years, I haven't really played basketball."

The reclamation of Ellison has been arguably Pitino's master coup. Any team in the league could have had him over the summer for nothing. Pitino wanted wall busters on his team. Ellison was not viewed as such.

In July, the Celtics' new strength and conditioning coach, Shaun Brown, brought Ellison over to Whelan's place, which sits across from MCI Arena in downtown Washington. Whelan, who grew up in Sherborn and is a diehard Celtics fan, was suspicious from the start.

"Pervis brought his agent along and I think he was a little nervous about the whole thing. I kind of babied him in that first meeting." Whelan said, "Then, after that, I hammered him. I absolutely killed him. I have this plastic bucket which almost everyone has used after one of my workouts. Pervis used it more than once."

Ellison had two one-hour sessions a week. Lest you think that is not a lot of work, Whelan says, think again.

"It takes most people who are in great shape three weeks even to adjust to my one-hour workout," he said. "You just go from machine to machine with time maybe to breathe and have a small cup of water. By the end of the hour, you've had enough.

"It's none of this toning, body-sculpting, shaping, male-estrogen, '90s, unisex crap." Whelan added, "It's an all-out, kick-ass workout. Blood and guts."

Whelan put Ellison on a diet, which included two cans of tuna fish a day. There were also two running sessions a week around the outdoor track at Catholic University, where Whelan was once the strength and conditioning coach. Those were drills designed by Brown. Inside the gym was Whelan's exclusive domain.

"Bob is crazy," Ellison laughed. "He's this military guy, and if you see any of those military movies like 'G.I. Jane,' those are the kinds of things he does. He had me walking around (in the summer DC heat) with a 150-pound bag of sand."

And that came AFTER the workout!!

"I have the bags all outside in an alley," Whelan said. "I call it Sandbag Alley. There are bags ranging from 50 pounds to 300 pounds. You have to carry them over a course that's about 250 feet long. And remember, this was outside in the Washington summer heat. It's brutal."
Whelan said Ellison was an excellent student. He hadn't had a name athlete come through his door before. But Brown had read about Whelan in a fitness magazine and the gym was near Ellison's summer home. Why not?

"I had heard and read that Pervis didn't work hard, but that was not the case with me," Whelan said. "Pervis worked his butt off. You have to. And we didn't cut him any slack with his knees, either. We told him to suck it up and then maybe he could be like Nolan Ryan and do some Advil commercials."

All of this would be immaterial, of course, if Ellison's basketball performance this season had been anything similar to the last few years. This is his fourth season with the Celtics and the first time he hasn't been hurt. There were the knees the first two years and then last year a shattered foot after a table fell on it. He played only six games.

There was a legion of skeptics, and Pitino was among them. During the summer, he said he looked Ellison in the eyes and said, "I just want to know if you want to play and are willing to pay the price. Because if you aren't, you can't play for me."

Now, Ellison has not only has paid the price, he has morphed from the poster boy for sloth and indifference into something approaching a folk hero last seen in the person of Marty Conlon. He doesn't mind throwing his new weight around. He is making good use of his fouls, which, alas, he still manages to accumulate with regularity. And he has made two huge blocks in each of the last two games that were result-determining plays.

How soon before we hear a Per-vis, Per-vis chant?

"When I start seeing some signs, then I'll know," Ellison said. "The fans want a winning team and they appreciate it when you put it on the line. They see you put the effort out and they appreciate that."

What we all know from the last four or five years is that Ellison has a well rounded, versatile game that can look utterly seamless when he's playing with confidence. There have been cameos in Boston, but mostly there have been too many DNPs, almost all because of injuries.

His main benefit now is defense and shot-blocking. His offense is basically stick-backs. Pitino is hoping to get 20-plus minutes a game, and the rest of the package, from Ellison.

"Before, when Pervis would get a pass, he would look all around for someone to pass to, including the coaches," Pitino said. "Now he's taking that shot. He's coming around. We thought he would and we are very excited about that progress because that's going to mean a lot for us."

Whelan thinks he has an explanation for the turnaround.

"He was drafted by Sacramento and they stunk. He came here [Washington] and they stunk. He went to Boston and they stunk. He had always been on bad teams," Whelan said. "It's different now. From what I can see, this is an organization committed to winning and keeping guys fit."

And for the first time in years, Ellison not only wants to be a part of something special, he actually can be a part of it. You wouldn't want all that abuse over the summer to have been for naught, now?

Let Bob Whelan be Your Personal Coach
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Video from Italy MWG 2013 Linda Jo: sets 10 MWG records and brings home the GOLD!!!!

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Let Bob Whelan be Your Personal Coach
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Stone Lifting Saved a Jerk - By Roger LaPointe

Originally posted on NaturalStrength.com on June 20, 1999 Roger owns Atomic Athletic

I am not talking about the jerk that started mowing his lawn at 6 AM, Saturday morning, but I would like to see a meeting between his mower and my 225-pound granite Atomic Ball. This article is really about positive mental attitude. Lets face it, lifting alone in a basement all winter can get you down. When I was at Michigan State, we tried any number of methods of curing cabin fever. However, nothing worked better than a genuine sunny day. This happened to me recently. I was training in the basement gym and the lifts were getting a bit stale. I was stuck on my 105 kg clean and jerks. Sure, I was making them, but they were sloppy. Unless I am in a contest, I refuse to add weight to sloppy full Olympic lifts. After all, perfect practice makes perfect.

Standard practice for an Olympic lifter hitting a barrier like that is to go down maybe 10 kilos, easily do that weight and then go back up to the heavier weight. This usually results in improved technique. Yet, that day was a beautiful Saturday morning. So instead of doing another 95 kilo clean, I went outside. I dont think it was more than 60 degrees, and the guy down the street had just finished mowing his lawn. I was still a bit irritated about that. Cutting through the malaise was a shining sun that steadily burnt the mist from our hills.

Out rolled my 225-pound Atomic Ball. I set it up in the grass and made my approach. The amazing thing about stone is our innate knowledge that it will be there long after you are gone. Stone is also referred to from an anthropomorphic perspective where we humans give it life like qualities. How many times have you read, The columns were cut from the living rock of the earth? We all know that the rock is not living, but somehow it seems to sit defiantly. It challenges and dares you to attempt your lift. While you are attempting, it is effortlessly sitting.

With appropriate respect, I got down and drove with my legs. I never even needed to readjust my grip. I had warmed up with my Olympic lifts and developed the proper speed and acceleration to elevate it to a height where I easily placed it on my oak whiskey barrel. It was very satisfying.

That was hardly the end of my workout. I still had to make my goal of a perfect 107.5 kilo clean and jerk. The emphasis is on perfect. I knew I could do it. If you are going to hit a personal record in an Olympic lift, your technique must be perfect in training. Otherwise, there is little chance of perfect technique with a weight you have never attempted. This is where I honed my positive mental attitude. I had just lifted a stone sphere of 100 kilos, or 220 pounds, to the same height as my clean. Why was my technique sloppy on a clean with a mere 11 pounds more? Mentally, I was not focused on my clean and jerk.

Stone lifting is so much harder than cleaning a beautiful Leoko barbell, it is hardly worth discussing. Using the same focus, I loaded the barbell, set my balanced position and made a perfect clean and jerk. It was easy. A mere 10 minutes before, I had trouble making 105 kilos. This is the power of putting things in perspective and creating a positive mental attitude.

Sometimes you just have place yourself in a slightly different situation to help create that proper psychological balance. For my lifting, I have found training with unusual objects, like the stones, is beneficial for my Olympic lifts, and vice versa. Sometimes, it is just nice to imagine how the stones would work on that other jerk and his lawn mower.

Physical Culture Books.com

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The Importance of Heavy Weights - By Ian McKown

"Progressive exercise is positively the only road to great strength."-Earl Leiderman Secrets of Strength 1925

Many, many of the "Old Time" lifters absolutely fascinate me with the amount of strength they were able to build and the ease with which they were able to demonstrate it. The Iron Game has taken several severe (if not fatal) blows in the past 40-50 years which have turned it from a respectable "Man's Right of Passage" to a trendy and bloated financial machine, conspiring to "tone", "pump" and "shape" the current crop of lifters. This, in my mind, has to change.

What is the one major problem with today's lifters? They utterly refuse to TRAIN HEAVY. How many times have you walked into a gym and seen Betty "Fluff body" frantically waving her neon colored "power bells" in an attempt to tighten her arms or tone her body? How many times have you seen Johnny "Buff body" strutting around the gym with his aqua blue spandex pants, his pre-torn lifting shirt and his designer lifting gloves lift nothing heavier than his water bottle through his entire "workout"? Granted, at least they're in the gym, but the real problem is that they feverently believe that they are doing it "right" and that people who grunt and slam the weight around are just macho iron-heads who haven't got a clue. Some things need to change, or the Iron Game- the TRUE Iron Game might just disappear forever.

Whew! Now that's out of the way, let's move on to the topic of the day- HEAVY WEIGHTS. You won't see those two words in most of today's current muscle-publications, but you should. Nothing will build more mass and strength than the liberal use of HEAVY WEIGHTS and HARD WORK. I'm not talking about a "Hard Set" of 135lbs on the supine press, I'm talking about 300 or more on that lift. I'm not talking about 315lbs for the deep-knee bend, I'm talking about 400+lbs. I'm talking about using a weight that is 2- 3 times heavier than the average gym bunny would even consider doing. Of course, many people can't use this kind of weight right off the bat, but that doesn't mean that they can't put as MUCH WEIGHT AS POSSIBLE on the bar and get as many reps in good form as they can. If you truly want to be strong, nothing less will suffice.

I occasionally visit internet sites which have a more "friendly" view about training than I do. I recently read a thread where one gentleman posed the question "My wife says dead lifts will ruin my back. What do you guys think?" Needless to say, the majority of the answers were in the vein of "She's right, you don't need them anyway". Basically the other guys were helping to keep the man in question from doing something they themselves are too afraid to do. A lift like a HEAVY dead lift is a true test of a man's mettle. To have to do something like a max dead lift, many of the current crop of lifters would run for cover. Hell, to tell you the truth, I wish there were an easier way of building "Super Strength", but there isn't. You need to work those hard lifts even HARDER to get any real gains.

Have you ever heard of the term "Poundage Progression?" No, I'm not talking about those numbers on the side of the nearest selectorized wonder machine, I'm talking about the adding of weight to the bar (plate-loading machine) whenever humanly possible. A lifter who wants to be big and brutally strong must see the adding of weight as the most important factor of his training. Sure diet is important. Rest? Of course! But none of that will matter if you aren't REALLY trying to add weight to the bar. Will you be able to add weight to the bar every time you train? If you don't have fractional plates, probably not. But you will be able to shoot for one more rep. You will shoot for carrying that sandbag for another 20 feet.

The point is that you can, if you really want to, make any workout a little HEAVIER. You don't have to be a bunny and make a million excuses why you "can't" lift heavy. You might be wondering what HEAVY weights can do for you that light weights cannot? Well, HEAVY weights can stimulate far more muscle fibers. They can stimulate the strengthening of the tendons and ligaments (something of utmost importance for someone wanting SUPER STRENGTH) and they can literally make a man out of a mouse. Why do you think the breathing squat programs are so successful? Why do you think some of the participants in those programs are able to pack on 30,50 even up to 100lbs of muscle? Because they strive to add weight to the bar. They strive to lift HEAVIER and HEAVIER weights. Some men, with a large amount of drive and determination, can literally add weight to the bar every time they train. They have the BALLS to push themselves. They have the BALLS to train like men and really, really give it an honest effort. Do you? I know I spent a large amount of my training career trying to get bigger or stronger by taking the easy route. I was always searching for the scientific diet and the miracle program. All of that is BULLSHIT! I finally started making gains when I stopped trying to find the easy road and just started adding weight to the bar. I must have gone up 30lbs in 6 months and I haven' t looked back since. I want to be STRONG. I want to be able to lift any weight that comes across my path. How can some people be content staring in the mirror, using the same poundage they've used for the last two years and not making one slightest bit of progress? Men lift HEAVY weights, that's what we do. We don't pump the weights. We don 't F-E-E-L the weights. We KILL THE WEIGHT. And when it's dead, we move on to the next HEAVIER battle. See you on the battlefield!

Physical Culture Books.com

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One Man's Road - By Jeff Pitts

Originally posted on NaturalStrength.com on February 4, 2000

I am lucky. Yes, I wasted my first four years of training due to ignorance. But then due to the brook "Brawn" I discovered how drug free individuals are supposed to train. I started lifting smart and abbreviated January 1, 1994. I've never looked back. I was 35.

Checking my log from 1994 I found that I struggled with 154lbs for 3 sets of 6 in the bench press. Squats were tough at 132 for 3 sets of 10, stiff leg deads were the same. 2 days per week about 1 1/2 hours per day was finally letting me recover and gain. I was ecstatic! While performing too many movements per workout, I was still making wonderful gains with 5-7 movements per session!

1995 found me squatting 264x20, stiff deads at 275x3x10, standard and close grip benches around 220x3x5. It was a great first year of abbreviated training! I made a lot of mistakes though, and the biggest was still doing too many movements per workout. I cut back to no more than 3 or 4 movements per workout that second year. That put me on the right track with gains coming quicker, but now another problem cropped up. I started becoming injured easily and frequently, and usually my low back. I had badly injured my low back back in high school and reinjured it many times working in the woods as a logger. It was time for some regrouping! I sat down and went over my log. I finally found what I thought might be the culprit. I usually injured my low back on the second or third set of either squats or deadlifts. Time for experimenting.

I had no idea how I would respond to limited sets but it was time to see what would happen with just one top set in both the squat and deadlift. I had no idea how I would respond to such limited work, but I found out fairly quickly! My strength exploded! By 1996 I was squatting 385x5, stiff deads were 330x10 and my bench and close grip were running around 220x10! During this time I also experimented with 3 days a week training. It quickly became evident that I couldn't just add an extra day of movements, I needed to split the already limited movement I was performing, between 3 days.

By 1997 I was stuck again. Mo matter what I just couldn't squat more than 385x5 or bench more than 220x10-12. Something needed to change in order to kickstart some gains again. Cycle after cycle were performed that just barely allowed me to attain my former highs. It was time for some more major experimentation!

Singles training had always facinated me. Why not try something both super-abbreviated and singles training along with it? So I gave it a try. Mondays I worked up to one top single in the bench press. Thursdays saw me performing one top single in the squat. I did heavy ab work both days, but that was it. I started out with 308 for a single squatting and 220x1 in the bench press. Did something this abbreviated work? Judge for yourself. In 14 weeks I squatted 440x1 and benched 286x1! I took a week off and started over again, this time at 363 in the squat and 242 in the bench press. I finished this cycle at 484 and 302 1/2. A little less than 18 months of this super abbreviated singles training saw me top out with a fairly easy 621 1/2lb squat and a 352lb bench! An easy week thrown in every so often just to keep from going stale would be something in the order of a 500x5 squat and a 297x3 bench. This would squeak an extra 4-8 weeks from a cycle.

Looking back I can see why this ended up working so well for me. The first reason would be that I just didn't know any better! No one was around to tell me it wouldn't work! So in retrospect, I conducted a well organized experiment with no external input. Second, I think I was just plain ready for singles training. To this day, nothing I have found even remotely compares to singles for strength gaining in the squat. Nothing! The bench has turned out a little different. Even with the success I had with singles training in the bench press, I have since found that a couple sets of 5 is much more beneficial for me at this time. I plan to try singles training again in the bench press, but that is a year or so down the line. When I feel I have laid a sufficient foundation for a march towards that magic 400lb bench!

In conclusion let me say this. At some point in their training life everyone should try singles. Not a max-out attempt, but a series of well thought out cycles of singles. Be sure that you have laid down a sufficient foundation first though. Then start out very light and work your way back up. You should be able to blow past former singles maximums. Form has to be perfected first, and you have to stay very tight. If you miss your top single, stop for that workout. Come back the next week and you will most likely be pleasantly surprised at how easy it is! Singles are safe. Form is unusually good with a single because of not being exhausted from the previous 9 of a set of 10. In my experience, that is when I have seen injuries crop up. When performing that top single you are very fresh as long as you used a smart warmup protocol. Use warmups, not wear-outs. So when you feel you are truly ready for something different, give singles a try!

Physical Culture Books.com

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LET'S GET BACK TO PHYSICAL CULTURE - By "Maximum" Bob Whelan

Originally posted on NaturalStrength.com on January 5, 2000, Reprinted with permission of The Iron Master.

If you take a close look at old Iron Game literature, you will find a common theme: health, strength, vigor, and longevity. Cosmetic results, although mentioned, were clearly secondary. They were believed to be the end result of "doing the right thing" and were a reward for effort, discipline, and a total lifestyle commitment. The names of the popular books and the titles of the magazines reflected these values. There were "Strength and Health," "Health and Strength," "Physical Culture," "Strength," "The Strong Man," and countless other titles. Compare this literature to the best-selling books and magazines of today; the difference is astounding! Things just haven't been the same since Physical Culture became commonly known as bodybuilding. Cosmetic muscular results have become the primary goal with the end justifying the means.

The pioneers of physical culture were not just body beautiful posers. They were strong! Eugene Sandow and others competed in various feats of strength. They had to make due with crude training facilities and equipment, but they made the most of what they had. They had to endure the wrath of society, as attaining health and strength was not the trendy thing to do in those days. This is how the term health nut got started (they were definitely not called buff!). Even though they had far less information available to them, they swore by the information they did have. Their lifestyles reflected courage and integrity. How many of us truly can say we are using the information we have? Jack LaLanne was so dedicated that he trained his mind to visualize disgusting images at the very thought of junk food. He was once so mad at himself after eating a cookie that he made himself throw up! Cosmetic results were seen as the reward for correct living and hard training.

Many of our Physical Culture forefathers went beyond physical health and were concerned with mental and spiritual health as well. Peary Rader frequently wrote articles about spiritual health; and Bob Hoffman and Bernarr MacFadden, in addition to writing about training, wrote about practically everything dealing with health and happiness, including moral issues. Although innocent at first, the change from physical culture to bodybuilding was like the onset of a silent cancer that changed the values of many of its participants.

In the 1990s the hearty souls who remained true to the convictions of physical culture resembled an endangered species. We are a truly special breed, crafted from the old school values of our Iron Game pioneers. We must do our part, however, and play an active role in keeping the old-time style of training and values alive; if we don't, we will continue to lose influence to the two mutant offshoot extremes. We have the shapers and toners, who are growing in number like rabbits, ad the drug-using subhumans who are even worse! Don't forget where the root of our values came from: Physical Culture. Do your part to keep it alive.

Take down the pictures of drug users from your gym walls. Replace them with pictures of the old timers (or anyone you could bet your life NEVER took drugs). Show no respect for any drug user. Burn your collection of steroid-infested, mega-hype muscle magazines. Support the few good magazines that reflect our values. Train at a high level of intensity and focus on strength, not just a pump (almost any exercise with light weight will give you a pump). Add thick bar training to your program; get rid of your chrome and lifting gloves or anything else "toneresque," which in my gym even includes mirrors. You should enjoy the feel of cold steel in your bare hands! Do grip work, do neck work, make a wrist roller, clean the weight from the floor once in a while when doing presses. Defend the basic exercises such as the squat and deadlift, which are commonly under assault and being described as dangerous. Join the Association of Oldetime Barbell and Strongmen. Physical Culture is not just something you do; it is a way of life. Make use of the information that you have and find your own personal weakest link. We all have one; find yours and work on it. Physical Culture is about self-improvement. Do you need to do more aerobic training? So you skip working your legs too often? Do you drink too much alcohol?

The neo-physical culture philosophy should be focused on maximizing your genetic/physical potential (naturally), while never allowing cosmetic results to be the ends-all primary goal. Total health (mental and spiritual as well as physical) should always be the primary unit of measurement for progress. Strive for total health and train for strength; don't waste time worrying about cosmetics. If you train your whole body in a high-intensity fashion to be as strong as it can naturally be, and consistently over the years, cosmetic muscle will be only one of your many just rewards.

Physical Culture Books.com

Vital Nutrition Store.com

GET MENTAL! - By Krista Brittan

Originally posted on NaturalStrength.com on March 10, 2001, (Editors note: This could have gone in the Mind Strength section, but since it is primarally directed toward women, I put it in the Hard Training Women section.)

Ladies! Its time to get mental! If you don't already know it, your mental state is KEY to the success of your training, lifting and progress.

There is a whirlwind of information out there about diet and training and most of it is crap. (Editors note: Especially the zero and very low carb diets!) You wont find squat (pardon the pun) about getting mentally prepared for your workouts in the mainstream training magazines. (Only in the good magazines like the ones in NaturalStrength resource section.) Your state of mind is everything! If you tell yourself you cant do something than guess what? You cant! I know you have heard it before, but dont just hear the words, actually listen to them, understand them and actively change the way you prepare for your lifts as a result.

It doesnt even start first thing in the morning when you get up. It starts while you are going to bed and thinking about the day you have ahead of you. If you know the next day you will be taking on a new, challenging exercise or attempting a weight you havent achieved before, use visualization.

See yourself walking into the gym (or where ever you train) with confidence, knowing you are going to have an incredible workout. Dont bring with you memories of a past poor workout or lagging negativity about missing a new PR your last workout. Feel the surroundings; look and listen for any possible distractions and be aware of them so you cant use them as an excuse. Go through the motions of your workout. Load the bar or pick up the dumbbells or grip the handles. Choose your weapon that you will use to destroy the mental blocks that you have set up for yourself in the past. Visualize yourself just kicking the shit out of that weight! Perfect form, perfect execution you nailed it and focus for a few minutes on how great that feels.

Visualization is only one ingredient in the recipe of mental preparation. You have to take that vision and make it a reality. Do exactly that when you enter whatever pain domain you call your gym.

Refuse to believe any misconception, myth, stereotype and down right CRAP that you ever grew up believing about women and lifting about women and anything for that matter. Get utterly infuriated inside when you hear a fellow sister say, "I dont want to bulk up", "Women dont dead lift", "Chin ups are for men", "I just want to get toned" or "I really dont need any more than 5 lb. weights". Get mental when you hear anything remotely similar to that and use that frustration to fuel your workouts. Use those comments as a challenge to prove them wrong. Women ARE supposed to dead lift and squat and bleed and sweat and swear and be damn good at it!

Remember when you were a kid or a teenager and anything and everything you couldnt do or werent allowed to do, you wanted to do even more! But, when you did you always ended up in trouble, right? Now is the opportunity to do all the things you stereotypically shouldnt. Plus, the added bonus is you wont be "grounded" if you do. You will become a conqueror, a heroine, a fighter, a role model, and a stronger person both mentally and physically.

Getting mental is all about confidence in your abilities. You need to understand and believe that there is no threshold on what you can do or what you can lift. Believe that there is no maximum. With that state of mind you will be able to accomplish tasks and feats you never ever thought possible. The human psyche creates its own ceiling. When you mentally tell yourself, "I bet I can bench 125", even though that is a positive thought, you just set yourself up for not being able to lift 130. It is great to have a goal of a certain poundage but dont stop there. Tell yourself "I will be able to squat 200 by fall, and 225 by winter" and so on and so forth. Dont put a cap on it. Invincibility is the mind-set you want to establish for lifting. Only then can you truly start to discover what you are capable of lifting.

Confident is not a four-letter word. Do not confuse confidence with conceit. When someone calls you cocky, simply say, "thank you". Take that as a compliment.

Eliminate the words cant, wont, couldnt, wouldnt, shouldnt, will not from your vocabulary please. That is an excellent place to start on the road to positive thinking. Out loud, right now, say "cant" and be aware of the inner feelings that occur as a result. Negations produce similar type feelings within. They make you feel crappy. Now, out loud say "can". Feel the difference? Your head is held a bit higher, your heart feels a bit lighter yet stronger, and your posture is more erect. Keep that in mind. Make an effort to go about your day without using negations in your sentences. You can say the same thing as a positive. Rather than "I cant go for a walk tonight", say, "I will go for a walk tomorrow morning". Try it!

I want you to picture the most mental guy or gal at your gym. The one who walks in to the gym with a purpose and gets right to work. They dont socialize or really speak to anyone. They hardly even smile. They are focused and it is very obvious that they are thinking very hard and seriously about what they are about to do. They may make a lot of noise or deep breathing or have little rituals. They may stretch in the same order and place, they may have a very systematic approach and have to do everything a certain way. Or, diversely they may approach the bar with amazingly little noise, breathing or preparation. Basically, they are in the right state of mind for ultimate results. Try to get inside their head and think what they may be thinking. Give yourself the task of developing your own system for getting mental.

If your training and diet are right on track, you get ample rest, dont over train, you have great genetics, but you still feel like you are just spinning your wheels then you may need to get mental. You may be lacking a key ingredient in the training recipe mental preparation and self-confidence in your lifting.

The only way to gain self-confidence in your strength and abilities as a lifter is to overcome your fears. If you are telling yourself you cant do dumbbell presses with 40 lbs., then DO IT! Maybe it is only one rep, but next time it will be three, then five and before you know it youve done a set of 6-8 at a weight four weeks ago you told yourself you could never handle.

Most of our female role models are those who have achieved things we never would have thought possible. They take a challenge and make it a reality. They make us proud that they are women and that they represent us. They acquire possibly the physical, mental or emotional attributes we personally are lacking. They have no fear of their fears and are not hindered by their weaknesses. Learn from them. That is why we have role models. To use them as a source of inspiration and motivation to be more like them. Dont just watch them as they succeed and dream of being like that. Be like that. Everyone has the ability to be a role model for others too. That is the ultimate reward to have your accomplishments recognized and mimicked by others. In order to do that, you have to have what it takes mentally. Get metal, and know you can do it; whatever "it" may be or mean to you.

Although, remember that you are responsible for your state of mind only. We can try to be role models for others but each individual is 100% responsible for how they chose to think and feel. Once you have discovered the power of your positive thinking you will not be able to understand why others are so hard on themselves and negative. You will want to try and make everyone feel the way you do. Focus on yourself first. Confidence is very contagious. You will influence others without even trying.

I would like to share with you my own personal experience, a recent one where I was letting mental barriers block my progress:

I have always been very jealous of those who could perform wide grip pull ups on their own, especially women. It was a primary goal of mine to be able to do one, just one on my own. I had only been properly training my back for a short period of time and figured that it would be a year before I would see my vision as a reality. You see I put a mental block on my progress I told myself it would be a year. Mistake. For months I was doing bent over rows, chins and assisted wide grip pull-ups religiously. I was very pleased with my progress in the rows. I had excelled from doing reps of 5 at 25 lbs. to over 80 lbs. But, I was still only doing sets of 8 pull-ups with a chair. One day I was in my gym showing a friend of mine how to perform wide grip pull-ups. Without even thinking about it, I put my hands on the chin bar and without a wiggle or struggle lifted myself up to the bar and back down. After a few seconds I realized it "I just did one on my own holy shit!" I started jumping up and down in the gym and hugging my friend. I was elated. And I did it in about 3 months of me establishing that as a goal. I kept saying "I thought it would at least 6 more months before I would be able to do that." That was my problem. I never tried! I kept putting the chair under me because it wasnt enough time in my mind anyway. It wasnt until I literally forgot about the chair that I discovered I was underestimating my abilities. That was just last week. So tomorrow when I am scheduled to do chins I will not tell myself how many I will be able to do, I will tell myself I there is no limit to the number I can do! Ladies you really, truly can do whatever you set your mind to do. But that is the key, you must first set your mind to do it. All the old cliches are fact. My mother used to tell me "Krista, you must think before you act!" Usually my Mom was saying that because once again I messed up. Now, I consider that one the eleventh lifting commandment. I make a conscious effort to do exactly that before every lift I perform and every challenge I am faced with.

It is not about merely getting psyched. It is about sheer self confidence, absolute conviction and utter determination. Get Mental! Great things willfollow.

Think - Act - Achieve!

Physical Culture Books.com

Vital Nutrition Store.com

Misconceptions Regarding Super-High Rep Training - By Jay Kiiha

Reprinted with permission of The Iron Master

A good deal of attention has been given as of late to 20 and higher rep schemes to increase muscular bodyweight and strength. Although what works for one individual does not always hold water with another, I have never had especially good luck with this type of routine.

I recall a few years ago, in an attempt to break one of my father's old records, I worked into a program of 50 rep bodyweight Olympic style squats.

At the time, my program consisted of an abbreviated routine of pressing and rowing movements followed by 3 sets of squats eventually leading into a "death set" of fifty. After six weeks, I had worked to the level where my final set of squats put me onto the floor for 11 hours and significantly elevated my pulse for the next hour after that.

Surely, I figured with that sort of extended effort, I would be able to "bump up" my single rep effort in the lift at least a few pounds. To my surprise, however, I had actually lost strength and bodyweight as a result of the high rep routine. It took the better part of five months of hard low rep efforts to return to where I was before I started the program. When I have used twenty rep approaches in the squat, I have met with similar but less dramatic results.

Is my contention, then, for all serious strength athletes to avoid high rep approaches to the squat and deadlift? Not by any means. I would like to make the suggestion, however, that when one devotes most of one's time to fatiguing oneself to a frazzle, one primarily increases one's threshold of pain for the endurance of high rep strength movements. For those who are interested in competing in strongman contests, where both might and endurance are tested, high rep programs are an excellent means to train for a test of power that may take several minutes to complete (i.e. truck pulling, stone carrying, etc.) On the other hand, trainees who are interested in strength first and endurance second would do best to avoid super-high rep (20 or more) training altogether. This is not to say that aerobic movements are worthless, just that total aerobic fitness is best achieved by training in an aerobic fashion; not by combining strength and aerobic movements. The same goes for strength. If you want to be strong, concentrate on building power - don't concentrate on endurance.

I realize to many in the nouveau strongman/strongman crowd this may come as anathema. Who could deny that there isn't something damned manly about vomiting into a rusty bucket following some kind of super-duper, high rep set? I also am aware that the sort of training first proposed by the Peary Rader, Mark Berry crowd has had its share of major success stories where individuals were transformed from weaklings into muscle men as a result of the breathing squat.

For the beginner, super-high rep programs are great at introducing the concept of intensity to the newbie who has never lifted a barbell and has no idea how to mentally push oneself to complete a limit single.

Unfortunately, for the intermediate or advanced trainee who isn't starting from scratch, super-high rep training fails to build much in the power department. When one looks to the training programs used by the champions of the past, one thing should stand out to the reader. Most, if not nearly all, past champs rely heavily upon near maximal low rep (1-5) sets to achieve strength success.

To back this statement up, let's take a look at two typical mid-50's training programs used by two exceptionally strong men: Norbert Schemansky and Doug Hepburn. In their prime, each of these men represented the "the flower of their sport." Both men were not only World Record holders, but both men also remained on the top for very long periods of time. In addition, because we are examining routines from the 1950's the usual (and too often relied upon excuse, in one man's opinion) bit about their training successes being the result of steroids and not hard work cannot be applied.

In 1952, Norb Schemansky was at the top of his game. Not only did he win the Gold in Helsinki in the 198 lb. class, but he did so in capital fashion establishing three world records in the process (C&J 3913; Snatch 3081; Total 980H). On October 14, 1954, Norb jerked the Apollon wheels three times in succession at 224 bwt. For those who are unfamiliar, the Apollon wheels were a detached set of locomotive wheels which were joined by a non-revolving 1.93 inch diameter bar. The entire apparatus weighed in at 366 pounds. John Davis and Norbert Schemansky were the last men to ever lift the wheels overhead.

While in his prime, especially when he was a heavyweight, Schemansky was the world's strongest Olympic lifter and certainly one of the strongest men to walk the face of the earth. To achieve this kind of strength, he typically relied upon a three rep training routine consisting only of presses, snatches and clean & jerks (Fig. 1). He also occasionally added squats and bench presses for variety. Note that during a typical workout Norbert did not attempt to hit the maximum lifts of which he was capable. Schemansky stated in the Vol. 9, October 1992, issue of The Iron Master that "Limit weights should be restricted to once every three or four weeks. One should not work any more than 80 to 90 percent of his limit in training."

If we are to examine Schemansky's program in detail, one first notices the low number of reps used, but second it becomes obvious that Schemansky did not rely heavily upon the usage of assistance exercises to reach his goals.

Modern trainees can take heed to Norbert's example by sticking to basic whole body movements, rather than wasting time by overspecializing on isolated muscle groups to improve strength.

Much like his contemporary, Paul Anderson, Doug Hepburn was less an Olympic lifter than a power athlete/modern strongman. Even though he won the 1953 World Championships, Doug's greatest accomplishments were in the power lifts. Not only did he break the 500 pound barrier in the bench, but Doug also pulled off such feats (while in training) as a 760 pound full squat with a five second pause and a crucifix with a pair of 105 pound dumbbells.

Doug Hepburn also relied upon a very low rep scheme to surpass the strongest of his day. While in the process of going where no man had gone before, Doug's bench press routine consisted of training the bench twice per week while using an ascending series of single reps which led to a maximum weight (See Fig.2). When Doug reached the point where he could pull off six singles with his maximum he would add ten pounds and begin the process again. Much like Schemansky, because he was performing a max lift six times in a row, he was using weights well beneath what he could use on a single one rep attempt; but just the same, he was using weights more than heavy enough to give him a very difficult workout.

Although everyone responds differently to how often they need to recover from a maximum attempt, it has been my experience that the best way to gain strength in a given exercise is to work up to a series of singles within 30-50 lbs. of one's target weight and supplement it with a series of low rep assistance exercises which build tendon and muscular power to augment whatever one is attempting to do. On a personal level, I have attempted to apply this strategy to my own training for the past year and have managed to gain twenty pounds of solid muscle along with increasing my previous bests in the deadlift and Olympic squat by thirty-five and fifteen pounds respectively

The only disadvantage to training with heavy singles is that because one is constantly hovering near one's maximums, greater attention must be paid to one's aches and pains to avoid injury. Because I don't possess the recovery times of a Norb Schemansky, it usually takes me at least 2-3 months before I am able to work back up to a maximum squat or deadlift after breaking a personal record without ending up on the floor with a super-fatigued lower back. As such, when training with singles, I have found it best to attempt only one thing at a time and to cut back when simple fatigue begins to cross the line into pain and injury. That is to say, when attempting to build up to a record in the deadlift, it is wise to reduce one's squats to a medium-heavy weight or even eliminate back squats altogether in favor of heavy front squats.

In conclusion, it is not my aim to discredit high-rep training. It would be dogmatic and irresponsible to deny the physical and psychological benefits many have reaped from milk, rest and all out sets of twenty, thirty or even fifty rep exercises. It is simply my contention that in an attempt to turn our eyes to the past and build upon the sage advice of our iron game elders, we have placed too much of a focus on the endurance-strength movements popularized by mid-century bodybuilders and physical culturists and have forgotten about the important lessons of the benefits of low and single rep training taught to us by men such as Anderson, Schemansky and Davis which helped to keep America on top of the lifting world for almost three decades. If you have yet to try single rep training, I urge you to give it a try - I think you'll be amazed by the results.

Physical Culture Books.com

Vital Nutrition Store.com

Calling All Women: Get Fit, Get Strong - By Andrea Rippe

Most women are out to look good and hey, so am I. But I also like to be strong. And being strong will help any woman who wants to change her body.

Most women go to the gym because they want to lose weight, reduce the size of their thighs and get a flat tummy. If you want to change your body, you've got to have some muscle. A body without muscle is a bag of bones and that doesn't have much shape. Don't just strive to be thin, strive to be fit and strong. If you want to be fit and strong, you are going to have to work.Here is a list of things that need to happen if you really want to change your body:

1) It's going to mean feeling "a bit uncomfortable"(HIGH INTENSITY) and doing your workouts when you don't really feel like it (CONSISTENCY).

2) It also means eating what you should eat, in the amount you should eat, not just what you want to eat or what you are craving (DISCIPLINE).

3) It means not believing that if you lift heavy weights you will become big and bulky or look like a steroid freak.

4) It means that you forget terms like toning, sculpting and muscle lengthening.

5) It means learning how to do exercises that will actually change your body (CORE EXERCISES) not small ineffective exercises.

6) It means doing cardiovascular exercise. If you want to get fit and in good condition, you will have to work hard, that means using 70% to 80% of your maximum heart rate as a target range.

7) It means getting enough sleep to allow for recovery and basic health.

8) It means resting adequately between weight training sessions so your muscles have enough of a chance to grow stronger (INFREQUENCY) and yet not atrophy.

9) It means always trying to get stronger.

10) It means following Bob Whelan's Ten Commandments.

The bottom line is that women need to train intensely and consistently-but not to frequently--using basic exercises.

Intensity is the most important variable of a cardiovascular or weight training program. Your success in changing your body, specifically your muscles, will be determined by whether or not you lift with high intensity. What is high intensity training? High intensity means working to momentary muscular failure. That means you cannot perform another rep, with proper form. You must give 100% to each set of each exercise, continuing at full intensity until you can no longer achieve another repetition.

If you always lift the same amount of weight for the same number of repetitions, your body can obviously handle the stress. Therefore, it will make no changes since it doesn't need to change. If you increase the demands placed on your body, it will respond in turn. As you increase the amount of weight, you force the muscles to develop strength and eventually some size.

As females, we don't have the same potential as men to develop huge muscles; but muscle is a good thing, and to develop some that are visible to the naked eye is okay. You are developing your body to your potential. All women have different genetic potentials. You cannot look at someone and say, "I want her thighs or her shoulders". You need to say, "I want to develop my shoulders, my body". Even better than that, decide you want to be able to do a pull-up, or five pull-ups, or even ten or more pull-ups. Set concrete goals for yourself.

Consistently training with a high intensity is the only way your body will adapt and therefore change. One hard workout once or twice a month is not enough to create change. It's also not enough to keep you from getting sore, really sore all the time. I tend to get sore after most workouts. The idea is not to incapacitate yourself, but to challenge the muscles, and sometimes that will make you sore. Too much soreness does not allow for regular hard training.

Infrequent training means taking at least a couple of days off between weight workouts. Working out two times per week is plenty if you train intensely. If you train too often, your body will not have a chance to grow stronger and repair your muscles. This will lead to over training, which is a backward step. The common three-day-on/one- day-off split workouts do not allow you to train intensely without over training. Even though you're working different body parts, your body is a system: when you stress one part of it, especially the lower body, the rest of the body is affected. For example, if you're working your back and biceps using the pull-up or the pulldown, you may not know it but you're also using your chest, triceps and shoulders as well.

Use Core Exercises in your routines. Basic multi-joint exercises are more efficient, safer and allow the use of heavy weights. Heavy weights will build muscle and bone density. The basic exercises that build muscle and strength are the squat, dead lift, leg press, pull-up, pull-down, pullover, row, bench press, dip and overhead press. Include at least a push and a pull and a major leg movement.

Discipline in eating regularly and nutritionally is the only way to get and stay lean and provide the building blocks for a healthy, strong body. Food is a major issue for most women. Not just anorexics and bulemics, but a large percentage of the female population have issues with food. Food needs to become a more neutral topic. Eat to live, not live to eat. Eat because you are hungry and your body needs fuel. We have to stop eating because we're bored or stressed or because the food is there. Eat to restore the glycogen stores in your muscles after you work out. Eat to provide the protein your body needs to repair your muscles and build your new muscles. Refer to Nancy Clark's books and articles for information.

A fit body is flexible, strong, cardiovascularly fit and has a reasonable percentage of body fat. All of these aspects of fitness are important and you can't get fit without working. You may just find yourself addicted to looking and feeling and strong and healthy.

Physical Culture Books.com

Vital Nutrition Store.com

JUST FOR STRENGTH! - By Lee Devaney

Muscle Mag Bull

If the sole focus of all the trainees in all the gyms in the whole world was strength gain, if progressive poundage's were the only and I mean only, concern of the training population what would we have? Answer: A hell of a lot more muscle!

Unfortunately strength gain is usually the last thing that the majority of the training population think of. No they are usually thinking of the more comfortable, easy and gimmicky way of training. Thought up by some con man waiting for you buy something of him. They are going for the pump, they are 'hitting various fibres and aspects of the muscle or they are taking a magical supplements that will pack 20 lbs on your body, guaranteed to rip you off. Why oh why can't these people apply some common sense: lift big weights get big muscles!

Or maybe the question should be why oh why are the on shelf mags filling their head with such rubbish that they are blinded to the obvious and simple answer ?(strength gain on Abbreviated routines) The muscle mags industry is only concerned with making money through selling their muscle comics or their bogus supplements. I believe that the individuals responsible for these magazines are solely responsible in one way or another for every trainee that has had little or no progress. If all of the trainees of the world concentrated on strength, can you see that the Iron Game would not be in the mess it is in today. Simply because the volume, pumping , detail focusing, supplement sipping sh#t would not be used, Why ? It does not produce any results either as strength gain and therefore muscle gain! Instead the great tradition of hard abreiviated progressive training would have been carried on from the strongmen of yesteryear such as Joesph Hise ,Henry Steinborn and Peary Rader to the majority of trainees rather to the minority such as us. As it is most people (The steriod bragade) laugh at my training and have only heard of people like Arnie and Ronnie Coleman, fools..

Progression

Let me say this now the only way to make muscles grow is to cotinually put them under more stress than they are used to and the only way to do this is to use progressive poundages . You do not grow by adding another set, using beyond failure tecniques or by changing your routine often. Actually these are usually the very things that inhibit growth. Leave these techniques until you are advanced, and be cearful with them then. What can you squat and / or deadlift now ? imagine 30to 50 lbs more on the bar in six months time and then another 30 to 40 lbs in another six months. Now imagine what you will look like at the end of that year . Can't you see that by getting stronger you will also get bigger ? Can't you see that getting stronger is the only way to get bigger?

Therefore why not concentrate only on your strength and nothing else. Not the number of sets, reps or intensity. If you are already training very hard (and I mean very Hard) and if you are gaining in strength your intensity is fine. If you are gaining strength then all of these are in good order. Nor should you get caught up in the details of training. If you are getting stronger and stronger they do not matter to you.

A while ago I watched a young man perform four sets of pulldowns, four sets of cable rows followed by four sets of hammer rows using the same weight that he had been using for months ! Now this man nows all there is to no about how to train unsuccesfully. He has tried all the methods that are out there, he could tell you what a particular bodybuilding star was eating on a wedensday morning for breakfast, but of course he had not gained any muscle or strength for as long as I have known him. I asked him 'what would you look like if you devoted your training to just two sets of pulldowns, two sets of an upper body press and one set of very hard squats while adding one or two poundes a week to the bar until you were squatting 300lbs for twenty reps and pulling and benching 250 for reps ?' It clicked. The answer ' A hell of a lot bigger' ! I am glad to report that he is now making great progress on an abreiviated schedual.

Persistance

How many times have you changed your routine in the past year? 6,7,8 times or more? Why did you change it ? Were you really not gaining strength from it? Did you need a mental change or pace after a long stretch on the same routine? That is a good reason to change it. But many people are just searching for the perfect routine and change their routine way too often. Give it at least 4 months to work.

I can tell you that there are only two types of routine, those that work and those that don't, those that you can gain strength from and those that you can not. If you are gaining strength on your routine on a continual basis then stick to it for at least four months and even longer if you don't feel the need to change. I have to admit that I have changed my routine too often in the past. I also have to admit that I have nowhere near the strength and size that I should have by now. I was not focused on strength. If you change your routine for no good reason, You will not stick to any exercisces for long enough to gain much strength from them. If your focus is on strength you will not change a fine routine that was producing significant strength gains for no good reason.

A Change of pace

So when should and when shouldn't you change your routine? Most Importantly you SHOULD change an exercise if, even after sensible modifications, it hurts you (actual sharp pain not muscular fatigue) for example recently I had to stop doing chins after a pain in my right bicep so I substituded with hammer rows .

DO change your routine if it is unproductive, and I mean really unproductive not just unproductive so as you can try a workout you just read in the latest issue of your favourite journal.

If you focus (and I mean really focus 100%) on the adding next 10lbs then the next then the next to the bar on each of your exercises you will become very strong and you will add many, many pounds of muscle to your body before you realise it.

This pure focus on strength will help you set clear and acheivable goals in the gym, you will strive for them, battle for them and achieve them. What a sense of satisfaction it is to realise these goals and revel in the satisfaction, enjoy it and then move on to your next goal . By doing this you will enjoy the journey to the end results of being big and strong.

Physical Culture Books.com

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NAUTILUS BULLETIN #2 - By Arthur Jones

Click Here for: NAUTILUS BULLETIN #2

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NAUTILUS BULLETIN #1 - By Arthur Jones

Click Here for: NAUTILUS BULLETIN #1

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MICHIGAN WRESTLING WORKOUT - By Jason Cole

Assistant Strength Coach University of Michigan
Originally posted on NaturalStrength.com on December 8, 1999

When I took over the University of Michigan Wrestling strength program I was shocked. I have been involved with sports ranging from football to gymnastics and I thought I had seen some of the toughest athletes the sporting world had to offer.

The intensity and dedication to the sport of college wrestling is another level. The practices these guys go through would crush the most hard core athletes. Not only is wrestling a grueling sport physically, it is one of the most mentally challenging sports I have ever been involved with.

The challenge I had was to try to come up with a strength program that would produce physical gains, as well as challenge the athletes psychologically. The thing that made it difficult is that wrestlers are some of the most overtrained athletes in the world. Constantly monitoring their weight, competing and training at a breakneck pace, and performing well in the classroom were all factors I had to take into consideration.

Lifting sessions were to take place at 6:30 AM after about 45 minutes of hard conditioning. As if it wasn't hard enough to get college kids motivated to train hard at 6:30 in the morning they were crushed from an intense running session!

I don't know how many of you reading this have been blessed with the opportunity to train a collegiate wrestler, but you will not find an athlete who is more in tune with their body. Most of these kids know what they have to do to be in peak physical condition. I decided to give them the opportunity to make some choices on their own instead of force feeding them exercises. Here is a typical day in the weight room with Michigan Wrestling:

Manual Neck - we always train our neck. If you have ever seen a wrestling match you know why this is a main point of emphasis.

Any Shrug - whether they choose dumbbells, barbells or machine shrugs, I don't care. Just train HARD.

Any Shoulder - pick any shoulder exercise you want. You MUST get 20 reps. I try to get them to pick a weight that they can get for 10 hard reps and try to get 20 unassisted reps. It may take 2 or 3 attempts to get to 20.

Chin ups - a set of 20 rep chin ups. Now if you have ever told an athlete to do a high rep set of an exercise the first thing that breaks down is form. NOT AT MICHIGAN! Every rep starts form a dead hang, no swinging of the legs, you must pause at the top for a full second in order for the rep to count. The athlete does as many perfect reps as possible, and continues until he gets 20 unassisted reps.

Hammer Flat Bench - Using a double progression you must get at least 8 reps. Once we get to 10 reps the weight goes up. One set, a few forced reps until momentary muscular failure is achieved.

Rope Climb - 4 sets. We have the benefit of having 2, 15 foot ropes hanging from the ceiling in our wrestling room. Climb until you touch the ceiling, that's 1. Some of our kids can climb using no feet, while our heavier guys need an extra pair of feet to get to the top. But they all GET IT DONE!

Hammer Incline - one set must get at least 8 reps. Once they get 10 weight gets jacked up.

Straight Bar Curls - by this time their grip is pretty fried. Wrestling comes down to grip.

Rope-a-Dope - we use a 40 foot tug of war rope. Standing in a good athletic position you must pull your partner the length of the rope, TWICE. If their grip wasn't fried before....I think I smell smoke. This is a great exercise for core strength.

Ground Base Push/Pull - again concentrating on core strength. We usually vary the reps but during the season we use higher reps with heavy weight to make the workout a little more metabolically challenging.

Dips - 20 rep set. Concentrate on perfect form, one second pause on the top and bottom of the movement. Do it the hard way!

Any Bicep - 20 reps, last upper body exercise.....finish strong!

We have now concluded the upper body portion of our program. Our leg routine is very brief and intense.

Hammer Leg Press - 30 reps. We don't do many forced reps, but concentrate on perfect form.

Wall Sit - I like this exercise because it is hell on the psyche. Upper thigh parallel to the floor, feet shoulder width apart. I like to get a little bit of inner thigh involved by having them touch their knees together. The key to wall sit is to get them IMMEDIATELY on the wall from the leg press.

Blocks - I have a nice collection of about a dozen pieces of 2 by 4s. They are cut into about 6 inch long blocks. I have the kids get on all fours similar to a bear crawl position. With their hands on the blocks they must push the blocks the length of the hallway. Down the hall and back is one, they must do 6.

Calves - we usually just do these on the Hammer leg press. 20 reps to finish off a nicely roasted pair of legs.

This workout takes about 30-40 minutes. Each athlete pairs up and one partner goes through the entire workout before his partner.

I could not ask for a better group of athletes to work with. Our kids are dedicated and highly motivated which makes my job easy.

GO BLUE!

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Become an Athlete; The Secret to Goal Achievement - By Krista Schaus

Women seem to always be looking for the secret to attaining their fitness or weight loss goals. Well, the secret is out. It is virtually fool proof and almost guaranteed to bring the results you want. Become an athlete.

If you were to take a journey back to the roots of athleticism, you would likely start at 776 BC, the time of the first Olympic Games in Ancient Greece (No not 1923 when Joe Weider was born). The concept of sport, athleticism and training are not at all new. The Ancient Olympic Games went on for over 1100 years and were considered of such utmost importance that people ceased all warfare once every 4 years for the Games. In those times and up until this century, people did not "work out" for recreational or cosmetic purposes. They either trained in a given event or sport, worked in manual labor or actively performed day to day duties; there was no "working out". The ancient Greeks were highly competitive and believed strongly in the concept of agon or "competition," "contest." The goal was to be the best.

At what point the picture of peak athleticism transformed from that of an Olympian to that of Joe Weiders Mr. Olympia is unknown. By the early 1900s bodybuilding, as it is known today, emerged where physical appearance is more important than physical strength. Gone were the days of the strong men and emerged was a form of conditioning that when coupled with drugs, produced physiques that were larger although weaker. An unfortunate change occurred. People started training for more cosmetic purposes. Oddly, the training became the sport.

As a result, today the majority of people who engage in "exercise" do so primarily for improved physical appearance and vain purposes. If the main goal is physical appearance, the more likely one is to use dangerous drugs, supplements or dietary practices in order to attain that goal. It is much easier to take a magic potion, lotion or pill than utilize patient and progressive training practices. If something other than physical appearance is worked into the ultimate goal or vision, the results will be long standing and the personal worth felt, far greater.

Take a look at today's Olympic Creed. It reads as follows: "The most important thing in the Olympic Games is not to win but to take part, just as the most important thing in life is not the triumph but the struggle. The essential thing is not to have conquered but to have fought well." "To have fought well" is NOT the use of steroids or growth hormones, diets pills and cellulite creams, "lose 10 lbs. in a week" diets or liposuction.

Let society go back to that of Ancient Greece. More specifically, you go back to that era where athleticism was the main focus of life and become an athlete. No matter what your goals, they can be attained and maintained if you adopt this mentality.

Do not conjure up images of todays professional athletes who get paid millions and have three trainers, a physiotherapist and a chef. Seemingly, when there is more money to be earned, there is greater abuse of unsafe supplements, substances and training practices. Steroid abuse is rampant in almost every sport. The higher the level of competition, the greater the odds of abuse and corruption. That is not what athleticism is all about. Think of the amateurs who don't get paid a cent. They train and compete simply for the love of the sport. They train hard, and they train clean. The only results or gains they want come directly from them, not a bottle or syringe. And unlike most lines of work, you will get out of your training 100% of what you put into it. There is no politics, nepotism, sexist, racism, double standards or special treatment.

To become an athlete you must train in an activity or event you enjoy, simply love and can get obsessed with and addicted to. Those who lift know exactly what that obsession is all about. The Iron Game is a sport and one that everyone can become an avid athlete in. With lifting in mind, there are a variety of events or activities within the sport: Olympic lifting, Power lifting, Strength Competing, Discus, Javelin, Shot put, Arm Wrestling, Ultimate Fitness Challenges, Obstacle Courses, Strong Man Competition... Or you can use the same guidelines for other sports like soccer, martial arts, track and field, and endurance events.

Motivation. Motivation is a key stipulation to becoming an athlete. Where does the motivation come from? How do you acquire the extreme drive and dedication required? To this there is no simple answer; no detailed, outlined step by step guide. You first have to have a goal or a vision. Then you have to somehow muster up the necessary energy to get your butt off the couch and into action.

For the majority, the initial motivation usually comes from hitting your version of rock bottom. Maybe you can't really play with your kids anymore because you are too winded after 2minutes of a game of tag, or your favorite pair of jeans won't go past your hips anymore, or you saw yourself on a home video and were shocked at your own image. Take that initial frustration, disgust or negativity and turn it into positive energy and get started. Rather than falling into depression, do something about it. Get mad. Get even! Show your body exactly what you are cable of doing with it. Write down a plan of action that coincides with your goals and do it day by day, week by week, month by month.

If you are already in pretty decent shape and just want to be in the best shape you can, think of a sport or event you used to excel in. Pick something that you maybe once competed in and still have the medals or trophies in the basement to prove it. Go get those momentos, dust them off and hold them, feel them, smell them. Remember what it felt like to train, compete and even at times win. Use those memories of the past to motivate your training. Apply that energy to propel your mind, soul and body into action and achieving your goals.

If you still don't get it...think of the U.S. Women's Soccer team at the time of the winning goal. Do you recall Brandi Chastain kicking the winning goal? Where she, in a blaze of utter manic glory, ripped off her jersey and exposed the impressive physical results of her hard training and dedication to her sport? That is what being an athlete is all about. How could you not be impressed with that? Everyone watching experienced exactly what it feels like to be an athlete, at that moment. If that isn't motivation enough, what is?

Even if your immediate goal is to lose 15 lbs. or get back into your "skinny clothes" or to look good for your cruise coming up, set that goal on the back burner and use your primary goal as being the best athlete you can. Find a local contest, competition or a charity event as your challenge. If you can't find one, challenge your workout partner or a friend to a serious, yet fun competition. Dont make it "who can lose or gain the most weight in 3 months". Better yet, make it "who can improve their bench press the most", a body weight squat challenge, a race, fun obstacle course, or a some other form of a strength or endurance competition. Without a goal you can see down the road and know you have to prepare for, it is too easy to give up or put it off. Make the goal challenging and fun.

News Flash: "Weight training" and "Aerobics" are not sports or events. They are training methods and that is ALL they are. It is quite humorous that members of the "fitness industry" are pushing to have aerobics as an Olympic Demonstration sport. That would be like having stationary cycling, treadmill?! Can you see it now! "John Smith wins gold in the treadmill and sets a new Olympic record by beating last years gold medal time of 6 minutes at a 30% incline and 5.0 miles per hour!!" You get the point. Use a variety of training methods; if you so desire, as a further means of excelling in your sport, but the training is NOT the sport.

That is the difference between the way training used to be and the way it is now. Now everyone is "lifting weights", but there are very few true lifters left. There is a significant difference between "lifting weights" and being a Lifter. Lifting weights is a training type and Lifting (Power, Olympic) is a sport. Please dont confuse the two.

There is no reason why women in general cannot, will not or should not get actively involved in the sport of Lifting. It is not just for men, it will not make you more manly or masculine, and it is totally possible for the average woman to excel at Lifting. Lifting will give you the added benefit of true functional strength, and unbelievable confidence and inner strength - something one cannot attain from traditional "toning", "body conditioning" or "resistance training". Simply stated, toning is like taking the scenic route to attaining you goals. Strength training is like taking the express lane; it gets you where you want to go in far less time and with far less frustration. Why do 3 easy sets of 20 reps with little weight when one maximum effort set of 6-8 reps at 20 lbs. would give you the results you are seeking!

Don't allow negativity or excuses to set up mental or physical roadblocks. Athletes understand the importance of visualization and the power of positive thinking. This is absolutely essential and one aspect of training that many are hindered by. Even by training hard and consistently and eating properly, progress will be greatly hindered if negativity is involved in the equation. Focus on your strengths and let them overcome your weaknesses. Start out every day thinking about what you can and will do and you will mentally set the stage for the rest of the day. Do this everyday and positive thinking will become an old habit.

Diet. This also is simple. Would an athlete eat garbage or drink beer on the weekends? No. Plain and simple. Eat as an athlete. Eat quality, wholesome, clean foods in order to fuel your workouts and to achieve optimum results. Don't cut back on calories to the point that you have no energy, and don't stuff yourself to the point of being lethargic and couch ridden. Drink plenty of water for hydration and purification. The purpose of eating is fuel. Food is not social. Food is not a means of gratification and reward. Food is not an anti-depressant or a warm sweet friend. Food is fuel and energy. See is as such and use it as such.

Rest. Would an athlete stay out until 2:00 in the morning, then get up and train? Or worse yet, would they stay out until 2:00 in the morning, then not get up and train because they are too tired or hung over? A serious athlete would not, and you are a serious athlete. Simple.

Training. Training does not have to be difficult. Yes, physically it will not be a walk in the park (literally and figuratively), but it does not have to be technical. The more simple a training or workout program is, the more effective and the more likely one is to stick with it. Basically, pick your sport, do it consistently and get progressively better at it. Train specifically according to your sport. Do not waste your precious time and energy on exercises that have no real benefit to your athletic goals or your sport. Progressively get quicker, stronger, better. If you consider yourself an athlete, you are more likely to avoid injury. A main goal of an athlete is the avoidance of injury. Athletes will ensure they do a proper warm up by first preparing the body for activity. The will increase the body's temperature and adequately stretch the muscles before, during and/or after. An athlete will consciously think about over-training and get adequate rest in between training sessions. An athlete will think first before getting involved in spontaneous bouts of activity or brief encounters of immaturity or stupidity. Basically, an athlete will not take unnecessary risks. They think before they act.

By becoming an athlete, the goals you set on the back burner will magically be achieved as an added bonus. You will excel as an athlete in your chosen sport AND you will be stronger, slimmer and leaner. Change the focus and the results will not only make you look better, but also the attainment of those goals will make you feel better. Go back to the roots of athleticism, sport and physical activity. Reprogram your brain and rid yourself of the current brainwashed stereotypes and beliefs about "working out" and attaining the perfect body.

Become an athlete.

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