BODYBUILDING FOR THE DRUG-FREE AND GENETICALLY TYPICAL

Third Edition
Stuart McRobert
Copyright © 2007 by Stuart McRobert

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First edition copyrighted in 1991

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McRobert, Stuart.

Brawn : bodybuilding for the drug-free and

genetically typical / by Stuart McRobert. – 3rd ed.

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Includes index.

PRINT ISBN-13 978-9963-9163-1-3

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 1. Bodybuilding–Training. 2. Weight training. I. Title.

GV546.5.M37 1999 646.7’5

QBI99-900440
Contents
Preface to the third edition

Preface to the second edition

Preface to the first edition

Acknowledgements

1. The Need
A different approach
2. Genetic Variation
How we differ
3. Expectations
Size and strength goals
4. PPP
Progression, performance, persistence
5. Variations on a Theme
No single, universal approach
6. Effort and Dedication
Bedrock of success
7. Intensity Variation
Cycling training intensity
8. Rest and Recovery
Recuperation and training frequency
9. The Squat
The “growth” exercise, and productive variations
10. Routines
Training schedules
11. Getting it Right
Injury prevention
12. Specialization
Focusing on specific body parts
13. More Diversity
Enriching the training armory
14. Nutrition
Food and supplements
Index
Preface to the third edition
The third edition of BRAWN, published in 2007, saw the digitalization of the book. In addition, extensive revisions were made throughout the
book, to bring it up to date.
Preface to the second edition
The first edition of BRAWN, published in 1991, has undergone many changes over the years. Even its cover was changed—the first copies of
BRAWN had an illustration of the squat on the front.
Since writing BRAWN, I’ve modified my views on some aspects of training. The main contradictions that BRAWN had with THE INSIDER’S
TELL-ALL HANDBOOK ON WEIGHT-TRAINING TECHNIQUE, and BEYOND BRAWN, have been corrected in the second edition.
And many other revisions have been made.
BEYOND BRAWN is not a rewrite of BRAWN. It’s a sequel. There is overlap between the two books, but because BEYOND BRAWN has
over twice the number of pages, it has far more detail on program design, and many topics not even touched upon in BRAWN are covered in
extensive detail in the sequel. The two books are companion texts.
Since first writing BRAWN there are five major areas in which I’ve modified my views, as a result of additional personal experience, and from
studying the experiences of others.

1. I’m more conservative with exercise selection. For example, I no longer recommend the press behind neck, barbell or T-bar row, or any sort
of squat with heels elevated.

2. I’m even more insistent on the use of correct exercise form. Correct exercise technique is the bedrock of bodybuilding, or any type of
resistance training. Without good form, injury is inevitable—and sooner rather than later. I suffered serious injuries over the years following
publication of the early copies of the first edition of BRAWN, and I’ve learned the hard way of the paramount need to train with perfect form.
To reflect this, I even wrote a book devoted to exercise form—THE INSIDER’S TELL-ALL HANDBOOK ON WEIGHT-TRAINING
TECHNIQUE.

3. Safe exercise form is not just about the pathway a bar takes during a given exercise, as critical as that is. It’s also about speed of movement.
Explosive movements greatly increase the risk of injury. I now urge a controlled rep speed—about 2–3 seconds for the lifting phase, and
another 2–3 seconds or so for the lowering phase. Long stroke exercises take longer than short stroke exercises. I don’t, however,
recommend the counting of seconds. The focus needs to be on effort and poundage progression while maintaining perfect form. Just keep the
bar moving in a controlled manner—no explosive movements. The key word is smooth —no jerky or sudden movements.

4. The first edition included a few explosive lifts—from Olympic-style weightlifting—in some ultra abbreviated routines. Such exercises can’t be
performed with the controlled speed I now urge, because they are high-momentum lifts. Unless you wish to compete in Olympic-style
weightlifting, you’re better off sticking with other exercises, which are technically simpler. The Olympic-style lifts (snatch, and clean and jerk)
and assistance exercises (e.g., clean, pulls, and push press) provide no unique advantages for building size and strength, but are harder to learn
than other exercises, and demand expert hands-on coaching if they are to be learned correctly. Done incorrectly, they will injure you. This can
be said for any exercise, but especially applies to lifts that must be done explosively.

5. Training intensity can be structured as rigidly as described in Chapter 7, with good results. Good results can also be had from using cycles with
no predetermined end dates—ones lasting even over a year at a time—provided that they are properly structured. Consistent gains are the
greatest motivating factor. Properly designed and personalized programs can produce poundage gain on each major exercise every week or
two for very long periods.

The current state of affairs

I wrote BRAWN in 1990 and 1991. Mainstream training instruction is no better now than it was back then. But I’m concerned only with drug-free
genetically typical (and disadvantaged) trainees—i.e., the training masses. As far as the elite goes, it’s a better world today—more competitions,
more publicity, more money, more drugs, and more fame.
The need for the instruction given in BRAWN is even greater today than it was when the book was first published in 1991.
The same bodybuilding deception, bull, dishonesty and hype that caused me so much grief in my youth are producing exactly the same in millions of
other people. I’m now wise to what’s going on, and can distinguish the drivel from the good, but most trainees can’t. So they get misled in the
exact same way that I did, and millions of others too.
Right from 1989, when I started CS Publishing, I was on a mission to promote sensible drug-free training, and to let people know of the pivotal
role of genetics and drugs in elite bodybuilding and lifting.
The word “success” is often used incorrectly. To my mind, kidding the masses, making a fortune out of selling training misinformation, and leading
people astray, is not “success” no matter how many millions of items of “product” are sold, how many millions of dollars of profit are earned, or
how many tributes for business “excellence” are awarded.
Appropriate, practical and safe training instruction for typical trainees is what I’m into, and what should be the heart and soul of bodybuilding—
mainstream and otherwise.
Photographs sell training magazines and books, not articles and workout instruction. In most cases, the articles are just the padding needed to
provide the spaces for photographs. But for photographs to do the job of grabbing the masses who, to their cost, are into a publication’s
appearance before its content, they need to be arresting. This inevitably leads to the publication of the most awesome physiques. And today’s most
awesome physiques belong to the genetically gifted and drug-enhanced. Those physiques are light years away from what the genetically typical
drug-free person can achieve. This in itself wouldn’t be so bad if readers were alerted to the facts of the requisite genetics and drugs. Then at least
people would know the score.

But the drugs component is usually either understated or, more commonly, ignored—primarily for reasons of not downgrading the physiques and
reputations concerned, and to avoid law suits. The training methods used by the drug-fed genetic phenomena—which are often embellished with a
hefty dose of fiction—are promoted without any caveats of “. . . but remember, these routines only work if you have phenomenal genetics or drug
assistance, and preferably both, in spades. Sane and genetically typical people must train in a totally different way. We only provide this sort of
over-the-top instruction for entertainment and to attract buyers. For goodness sakes don’t actually try to use the instruction yourself. What worked
for Arnold and his ilk will not only not work for you, but will destroy your chances of achieving your genetically determined potential. And not only
that, but it will yield enormous frustration and exasperation from so much wasted time and effort being invested in achieving training failure, along
with accumulating injuries that could scar you for life.”

Bad almost beyond belief

I recently leafed through a series of books from a bodybuilding author. The content was bad almost beyond belief. It was one awful book after
another, preaching the same bull—training instruction totally inappropriate for the drug-free and genetically typical masses, decorated with genetic
phenomena bolstered with drugs to further enhance their already tremendous advantages.
The naive, gullible and ignorant masses—especially young men—are attracted by the photographs in these books, buy the books, and follow the
abysmal “instruction” that was used to fill the spaces between the photographs. And thus they get misled just like I did in years gone by, and
millions of other bodybuilders too.
Those books are not published to help the typical drug-free bodybuilder, or any other type of trainee. There’s another agenda.
Relative to 1973, when I started training, there’s now a substantially increased number of photograph albums that pose as instruction manuals. So
the distribution of lousy training instruction is worse today than it was when I started out.
It can even be argued, however, that training failure is actually the intention, so there’s a great well of dissatisfaction that food supplement
companies can draw upon in order to peddle their (usually dubious) wares.
Even worse, and I’m not saying that this is intentional, but promoting training routines which don’t work for 95-plus percent of trainees actually
encourages drug use. Without drug assistance, those training methods just don’t work.
No matter how awesome something looks, or is packaged, and no matter who says it or endorses it, never be persuaded that any workout
instruction used by drug-fed genetic phenomena—even the watered down version—has any relevance to you. Think things out for yourself, be true
to yourself, and only follow routines that are appropriate for you, practical, and personalized to your individual situation.

If you don’t do all of this you’ll follow the same route of training misery that millions already have, and further millions will as they apply themselves
to training methods that haven’t a chance of yielding success unless drugs are used to compensate for the lack of phenomenal genetics. And
trading your soul and health (by using drugs) for fleeting physical rewards, is no sane way to go. Don’t wait until you no longer have your health
before you appreciate the priceless value of good health.
Role models that mislead
In the pre-drug era, before I was born, the genetically super gifted, including the late John C. Grimek, were inspiring even though their
achievements were well out of reach for typical people. And their training routines, too, were out of line for “average” people, and needed to be
heavily pruned back. But the physique achievements of today’s drug-enhanced genetic freaks are light years away from what drug-free typical
people can expect from their training. Not only that, but the physique achievements of today’s drug-enhanced genetic freaks are even in a
different world to those of the super gifted of the pre-drug era .
Even Grimek in his prime wouldn’t have gained on what the modern crop of drug-fed mega achievers grow on. If a superman like Grimek couldn’t
gain on this stuff, what chance is there for typical bodybuilders?
The biggest champions of the training world are not the drug-enhanced genetically blessed competitive elite. The biggest champions are the unsung
heroes who applied years of dogged determination in order to build themselves up against the odds, without ever using drugs, without seeking or
finding publicity, and without divorcing themselves from the rigors and responsibilities of everyday working and family life. Genetically gifted, drug-
enhanced, super responsive mega achievers who have near-perfect training conditions and lifestyles can’t hold a candle to the real heroes of the
training world.
Some influential writers and coaches will never get it. They will never admit they have superior genetics, thinking that because they are not elite
competitive bodybuilders they must be genetically typical. And many of these influential people do not have typical family lives, but have almost
optimal training conditions, and often have a background in drugs. It’s no wonder that their training advice has little or no connection with practical
reality for typical drug-free people. So the training masses continue to be led astray!
Never forget that the phenomenal success enjoyed by so few bodybuilders is primarily due to their great genetic advantage compounded by drug
assistance. Anyone who tries to tell you otherwise is ignorant, or confused between fact and fiction. And all drug-assisted and drug-free genetic
phenomena don’t have a clue how to train drug-free genetically typical people. Keep that in mind when you hunt for help with your own training.
The imitating of inappropriate role models has been largely if not totally responsible for the poor bodybuilding progress had by most serious gym
members throughout the world.
Of course, lack of hard work and dedication are big factors in the lack of strength and physique success had by many people, but I’m writing for
serious trainees who are hard workers, and are dedicated.
Become your own expert personal trainer. Dedicate yourself to achieving your own potential. Knuckle down to years of consistent intelligent
training that has been personalized to suit you. And always keep your health as your first priority. Then you’ll achieve your own physical
excellence, enjoy the journey getting there, and be a credit to the Iron Game.

To your training success,

Stuart McRobert
Summer 1999
Warning . . . SAFETY
Every effort was made in this book to stress the importance of correct technique, and safety measures, when using exercise programs. Regardless
of your age, check with your physician to ensure that it’s appropriate for you to follow such programs. Proceed with caution, and at your own risk.

Warning . . . DISCLAIMER
The purpose of this book is to provide information on bodybuilding, strength training, fitness training, fat loss, and related topics. It’s sold with the
understanding that neither the publisher nor author are engaged in providing legal, medical, or other professional services.
Every effort has been made to make this book as thorough and accurate as possible. Despite this, all information on the subject matter has not
been included, and there may be mistakes in both content and typography.
CS Publishing, the author, and distributors of this book, shall have neither liability nor responsibility to any entity or person with respect to any
injury, loss, or damage caused, or alleged to be caused, directly or indirectly, by the material in this book.
If you do not wish to be bound by the above, you may return your copy to the publisher for a full refund.

Statement of intent
I am unequivocally against performance-enhancing drugs. I have no interest in drug-assisted training, but I’m not naive. I know much about the shambles of
performance-enhancing drugs and dishonesty in the fields of muscle and might in particular, and in a lot of the sporting world in general.

Because I’m only interested in drug-free training, and primarily concerned with satisfying the needs of typical trainees, some of the methods and
values promoted in this book are heretical relative to much of what’s common in gyms today. There’s no other approach to take if training
methods that are safe, practical, and helpful for drug-free, typical people are to be promoted.
Preface to the first edition
The extraordinarily genetically gifted—the potential championship winning material—usually compound their physical advantages by using anabolic
steroids. The combination of genetic advantage and drug use puts these bodybuilders in a class of their own. They are the antitheses of role models
for drug-free, genetically typical bodybuilders.
This book is dedicated to genetically typical bodybuilders who have the good sense and strength of character not to take anabolic steroids. In
other words, BRAWN is dedicated to the great mass of bodybuilders—dedicated to those who need advice that originates from drug-free and
genetically typical sources.
Training drug-free and genetically typical bodybuilders, to realize their genetic potentials, is far more difficult than training champions or potential
champions.
While this book doesn’t describe everything about training the drug-free and typical bodybuilder, it describes more than enough to take all who are
willing and dedicated—both male and female—a long way. It can take them to a level of development that will put them in a privileged bracket.
Such achievement will impress everyone except the few who have first-hand experience of fully developed, genetically gifted and drug-assisted
competitive bodybuilders.
Don’t think that the methods in this book will help only the genetically typical. The methods that pack size and strength onto typical bodybuilders
will pack even more size and strength onto genetically blessed bodybuilders, and do it in less time.
BRAWN is crammed with substance, providing—for the drug-free and genetically typical—an in-depth bodybuilding education.

Read - Understand - Apply - Persist - Achieve

Acknowledgments
Charles A. Smith, over the time I knew him before his death in January 1991, used to remind me that what we have today we owe to the past.
How right he was. As Chas used to put it, “It’s upon the pioneers’ shoulders that we have to stand in order to be as tall as they. We’re merely the
heirs of those who have gone before us.”
My biggest debt of gratitude is owed to Peary Rader. He taught me a lot of what I know about training, and published my early work thus enabling
me to get a foothold in the world of bodybuilding journalism.
My understanding of bodybuilding and strength training has accelerated over the years I’ve been publishing HARDGAINER magazine. Working
with readers and contributors has been invaluable in garnering the understanding needed to write this book.
Without the consistent publicity HARDGAINER has received through Iron Man and Musclemag UK , and the crucial initial contacts given by Dr.
Ken E. Leistner, there would neither be HARDGAINER nor this book. Particular appreciation for help with publicity over the last two years goes
to Iron Man for publishing my monthly column.
I want to thank individually the following for their feedback on draft chapters of this book. In alphabetical order, they are: Richard G. Abbott, Jan
Dellinger, Dr. R. Keith Hartman, Tony Rose, Randall J. Strossen, Ph.D., Mike Thompson and Stephen Wedan. Special appreciation goes to Dr.
Hartman for giving Chapter 11 a professional stamp of approval, and to Mike Thompson whose scrutiny of all the final draft chapters provided
suggestions that helped to hone the book into its final, more comprehensive form.
Dr. Strossen, with the rigorism of his academic background, and his expert knowledge of the training world, provided valuable comments on the
final draft chapters. His unwavering support and encouragement helped to get me through the final stage of this work.
Without the generosity and thoughtfulness of Paul O’Hara, my library of bodybuilding and strength training material would be much depleted.
Thank you, Paul.
The artistry on the front cover comes from Stephen Wedan. Thank you, Steve.
Years ago, when I changed my training frame of mind, the investigation of alternative training methods opened a
vast area of study. This book is a summary of much of this whole area of study.
As long as we maintain a mentality of, “That’s not how Arnold did it,” or, “That’s not how Ronnie Coleman
does it,” we’ll get nowhere but into a well of frustration and despair.
The imitating of inappropriate models has been responsible for so much of the futile training methods that are so
prevalent in gyms worldwide.
I. The Need
Bodybuilding literature is dominated by the achievements of those who are most suited to bodybuilding. These genetically gifted few make up a
very tiny minority relative to the great mass of bodybuilders.
The great mass of bodybuilders doesn’t share the genetic advantages and drug assistance of the few who reach the highest level of the modern
bodybuilding world. So, what practical use—for most gym members—are the achievements and methods used by the top-liners?
It can be argued that the achievements of top contestants inspire the rest of us. While this may be so for some people, it’s easier to argue that using
a gifted minority as role models for the genetically average majority is nothing but a recipe for frustration.
Unless we have the constitution, genetic propensity for the development of astounding muscular mass and strength, and almost unlimited time to
train and rest, what chance do we have of dedicating ourselves to the life of a professional bodybuilder? None! Furthermore, what chance do we
have of benefiting from such dedication? No chance!
Many of the top achievers (whether international, national or regional) are, simply put, drug-built. Not only do they not know about how to train
without drugs, they rarely if ever train seriously without pharmaceutical assistance. Right from the early months of their training they used drugs.
Together with being genetically gifted, the heavy drug use enabled them to win a big title within just a few years. When you read about a “great”
achiever who has taken the bodybuilding world by storm after just a few years of training—due to his dedication, hard work and good genetics—
add on your own postscript: “Of course, don’t forget that heavy, consistent use of steroids was the bedrock for the development of the ‘great’
physique.”
Typical bodybuilders don’t have the genetic advantages needed to build huge muscles, and shouldn’t be foolish enough to tamper with drugs.
We’re light years removed from those who dominate the bodybuilding press and so strongly influence the mass of bodybuilders.
The failure rate among aspiring bodybuilders is enormous. Attend a gym for a few months and watch the change in the clientele. A hard core
remains, but the others come and go. Of course, many people lack the application and resolve needed to do justice to a training program.
However, so many people are given inappropriate training routines and thus have no chance of obtaining satisfactory results, irrespective of their
degree of application. Of the hard core that maintains its gym membership, how many make progress from year to year? Very few.

Appropriate role models

As long as we maintain a mentality of, “That’s not how Arnold did it,” or, “That’s not how Ronnie Coleman does it,” we’ll get nowhere but into a
well of frustration and despair.
I know more than a bit about this well of frustration and despair. I stewed in it for years. I spent the second half of my teenage years, together with
some later years, consumed by bodybuilding. If following the dedication, resolve and training methods of the champions was the key to success,
I’d have competed with the best of them.
The use of the word “champion” is misleading. Many “champions,” despite their genetic advantages, wouldn’t even be close to where they are, or
were, without heavy steroid use. Such physiques are pseudo-champions. The real champions are those who built themselves up from runts—
without drugs, and without divorcing themselves from everyday life. Although not entering any contests, and not getting publicity in magazines,
these are the real champions.
The genetically gifted and drug-assisted (or drug-built) top achievers belong to a different species than do the rest of us. It took me years of
frustration and misery before I grasped this fundamental point, not to mention the thousands of hours spent poring over magazines and books
dominated by the top competitors.
Had I been an isolated example of the folly in following the advice and activities of an astonishingly gifted minority, my example would have no
value. But in every gym I’ve been to I’ve seen the great majority of members being either akin to me in physical potential, or, having even less
bodybuilding potential.
As editor of HARDGAlNER I received a constant flow of letters from readers who reported their failure when using popular training methods.
Only a resort to rational, appropriate and abbreviated methods yielded the gains they craved. What a shame abbreviated training is usually seen as
the last resort rather than the first resort.
Despite all of this, the achievements, opinions and training methods of the genetically blessed and drug-assisted (or drug-built) continue to dominate
the minds of the huge majority of bodybuilders.
The time has long since come for bodybuilders to adopt appropriate role models.
Let’s keep our own expectations down-to-earth, and then keep our training methods realistic. Only by keeping our training methods in the land of
reality will we actually derive substantial benefit from training. There’s no loss of potential achievement from adopting a realistic and appropriate
approach to bodybuilding. It’s all gain.
Bodybuilding results follow from the use of practical and appropriate training methods. Such methods follow on from a realistic set of expectations.
Such a set of expectations doesn’t come from imbibing the achievements and training lifestyle of the drug-using and genetically gifted top-title
contestants.
Realistic achievements don’t mean paltry achievements. Far from it. The achievements of a successful typical gym member—a successful hard
gainer—are extremely impressive. Although modest relative to the professional bodybuilders, they are fantastic relative to untrained people and
bodybuilding neophytes.
In fact, a successful hard gainer has climbed a bigger mountain than has a successful easy gainer. Although the latter develops greater size and
strength than the former, it’s the hard gainer who has far greater obstacles to surmount.
It’s easy, and, at least for beginners, understandable to conclude that bodybuilders with the biggest muscles know the most about training. It’s true
that they know a lot about training as it applies to those with extraordinary genetic potential, and especially when in combination with anabolic
steroids. But how much do they know about training someone who isn’t damaging his body (and integrity) with drugs, and who has an average or
less-than-average genetic potential?
It would be too generalized to say that all top physiques know nothing about training that could help the typical bodybuilder. It is accurate,
however, to say that not a single easy-gaining top physique can possibly put himself in the shoes of the genetically typical and drug-free
bodybuilder.
While the leading physiques may have insights that can help us, they have no personal experience of the gaining difficulties of the typical
bodybuilder. Without the nitty-gritty personal experience of actually struggling themselves to get even 15-inch arms and a 300-pound squat, they
are at a loss that can never be compensated for.
The top physiques have done things we all need to copy, especially building up to using big poundages in the big basic exercises. But the methods
they used to achieve these desirable things are usually in a different world to the methods our bodies will respond to. We need to take a radically
different route to get to the same objective.
The imitating of inappropriate models has been responsible for so much of the futile training methods that are so prevalent in gyms worldwide.
Young neophytes, beware of imitating your idols!

What works for a gifted few who have an astonishing natural ability to grow muscle is often almost the antithesis of what the rest of
us need.

What is a hard gainer?

A hard gainer is someone who finds making gains in size and strength hard to come by. It’s a broad category encompassing almost all
bodybuilders and lifters. Who doesn’t find gains difficult?
Although almost all of us lack the genetics needed to tolerate and respond to almost any training and nutritional regimen, and to build huge size
almost regardless of methods followed, we’re not all identical in severity of “hard-gainingness.”
Some hard gainers find gains more difficult than do others. Just how “hard” a hard gainer you are, only you can know. The harder you find gaining
to be, the more thought you need to give to the interpretations of training needed to get you to gain.
The opposite of a hard gainer is an easy gainer. Exist they do, although in small numbers. All gyms have one or a few of them, although very few
easy gainers realize their potential for growth and strength. I’ve seen people come into the gym with arms bigger than just about everyone else’s in
the gym despite never having formally trained their arms. These blessed few find gains so easy that they often attach little value to muscular
development, and don’t sustain hard training.
There have been, and continue to be, bodybuilders at the top of the world of competition who eat poorly, constantly dissipate themselves, have
been drug-addicts, have been alcohol-dependent, have private lives that are chaotic and stress riven, and yet are able to build astonishing
physiques. Their extraordinary genetic superiority and constitution, in combination with anabolic steroids, get them through all of this. The price
they will pay in the long-term, and even pay in the short-term, is often very heavy indeed. All of this is shunted to one side as their photographs and
achievements astound onlookers.
Compare this with the hard gainer who trains, eats, rests and sleeps with absolute dedication—for year after year—and yet, after ten years, still
hasn’t got 16-inch arms and a bench press close to 300 pounds.
Easy gainers who have reached, or almost reached the limit of their muscular size do have problems adding the final finishing touches. The slow
progress they may make at this stage of their development doesn’t qualify them to be hard gainers. That some of the supermen started out very thin
doesn’t qualify them as hard gainers either. In their skinny bodies they had far greater capacity for growth than do the rest of us. That it may take
them ten years to get 19-inch arms and the like isn’t hard gaining. Spending ten years and yet still having not developed 16-inch arms, or perhaps
not even 15-inch arms, despite dedication (although misdirected), is hard gaining.
The easy gainers get their size without problems. It’s usually the finishing off and contest preparation stage that presents the difficulties. How
fortunate they are to be able to get to the point where they have such problems of luxury. How many hard gainers get big enough to be able to
concern themselves with maintaining size while concentrating upon adding the finishing touches?
Of course, the top physiques have trained hard (at least some of the time) and with dedication. Such easy gainers have the comfort of knowing that
results are, simply, about putting in some effort in the gym and then, as sure as night follows day, the muscle will follow. Not so with hard gainers.
Effort in the gym is only part of the picture. It’s correctly applied effort in an integrated package of factors that’s the key.
The range of maneuver within the bracket of “productive effort” for the easy gainer is vast. Just about anything will deliver results. In fact, at least
during their building years, easy gainers may have experienced unlimited room for error. The muscle just piled on. Dreamland.
For the hard gainer, the range of maneuver within “productive effort” is drastically reduced. Hard gainers need to get the whole package of size-
and strength-related considerations in extremely good order—all things correctly in place. Correctly in place according to hard gainers’ standards,
not easy gainers’ standards. For hard gainers, a single thing not in good order—be it food, rest, sleep, training frequency, or number of exercises in
a routine—can ruin the productiveness of everything else that is in good order. Compare this with the easy gainer who can break many of the hard
gainers’ rules for productive bodybuilding and yet still packs on the muscle.

A typical hard gainer

I’ve spent years embroiled in completely dedicated but fruitless toil in the gym. Looking back, it’s incredible to think I could have maintained my
resolve despite such colossal frustration and failure. I discovered through painful experience that dedication, effort in the gym, and food
supplements are only a part of the picture. Only when they are put into an integrated, thoroughly comprehensive and appropriate whole can they
deliver the goods.
As an archetypal hard gainer I intimately know about the misery of achieving nothing while using traditional training programs—the very same
programs that dominate the bodybuilding literature today. I have dragged my protesting, barely receptive body from that of a runt to respectability
by normal gym standards.
I know what it’s like to be as dedicated—if not more so—than a Mr. Olympia contestant, but yet I had sticking points that lasted for years. I
diligently and conscientiously followed popular size-building routines only to lose size.
I’ve been so miserable at the sight of so little reward for so much effort and dedication that, in my early years of training, I’ve wept.
Hard gainers of average height who have battled through years of frustration, before clicking with what they need to do to gain, and who finally
made it to the 300-pound bench press, 400 squat and 500 deadlift bracket, or thereabouts, and shorter or taller bodybuilders who have made
comparable achievements, know what the score is. Ultra-extreme hard gainers who have achieved a lot less than the 300-400-500 example have
still made herculean achievements. They had more stacked against them both from the start and during their journey.
Although all such successful hard gainers don’t know everything, myself included, they do know a great deal about what does and doesn’t work
for fellow hard gainers. Just because these people haven’t won bodybuilding titles, and don’t have photographs of their physiques in magazines, is
no slight against their effectiveness as trainers.
That I made it to this 300-400-500 bracket (without drugs, wraps, lifting belt, or lifting suit), and added over 60 pounds of muscle to my thin (6-
3/4 inch wrists), 5-foot 9-inch frame, taught me much about what to recommend to other hard gainers. While what worked for me may not work
for you, we’re in the same locality.
Years ago, when I changed my training frame of mind, the investigation of alternative training methods opened a vast area of study. This book is
the summary of much of this whole area of study.

This is the book I wish had been available to me when I first started bodybuilding, the one I wish I could have made an integral part of
me.
It’s one thing to have a book available, and to buy and read it. It’s another thing to become one with the book and to put its advice into sustained,
practical use. Had I been able to do that with this book, when I was a teenager, within a few years I would have developed almost all the size and
strength that was realistically possible for me.
I would have done this without having become fanatical about training, without having marred my academic achievements, without having given up
a social life, without having spent huge sums of money on training literature and food supplements, without having given up sports, without having
sustained any lasting injuries, without having been miserable at having no gains for long periods, and without having wallowed in the frustration and
misery of not being able to emulate the top physiques.
I know intimately of the desperation and frustration of slaving away in the gym and living the dedicated bodybuilding lifestyle, and yet still make no
progress. I know of this through long personal experience—nothing abstract or theoretical about this understanding.
I’m a typical gym member—an archetypal hard gainer. I see lots of people like me—people who can’t grow unless on an unadulterated hard
gainer’s routine. I see very few people who can grow on the routines that the top contestants have used and recommend. That the top contestants
have never trained like a hard gainer needs to, is in no way a criticism of hard gainers’ training methods.
The easy gainers never get so desperate for gains that they need even to consider the radical methods the hard gainer must use. They never need to
turn to the last resort approach of very abbreviated training. But extreme hard gainers may never be able to respond to anything else. For them, the
last resort way is the only way. Other hard gainers, however, can work into less abbreviated training once they have developed the necessary
substantial foundation.
Had I been an easy gainer I wouldn’t have genuine sympathy with the plight of the hard gainer. Had I been an easy gainer, my recommendations
would be academic and hollow.
Successful hard gainers don’t have the physiques to convince those who need a mega-star’s physique to be impressed. However, it’s vital to judge
people on what they have developed relative to what they had to work with and relative to the obstacles they had to overcome.
On top of my personal and observational experiences in the gym, are my experiences publishing HARDGAINER for 15 years. This was a
magazine devoted to the promotion of training methods totally geared to meeting the needs of typical bodybuilders and lifters. I learned much from
readers and contributors.
The distillation of knowledge in this book provides you with a powerful tool. Seize the tool and put it to work.
Never, ever, forget that the overriding factor responsible for the phenomenal success enjoyed by so few
bodybuilders is genetic advantage compounded by drug assistance. Never let anyone kid you otherwise.
Even genetic superiors have genetic flaws. These flaws are but a drop in the ocean compared to the bodybuilding
limitations and difficulties imposed upon the majority of us by average genetic endowment.
Once you’re big enough and strong enough from having followed the advice in this book, then, and only then,
can you graduate to finishing routines and work to hone the mass into its final form.
2. Genetic Variation
Just what are the advantages that separate the great majority of us from the minuscule minority of bodybuilders who were born with the potential
for building phenomenal size and strength?

Do genetics really matter?

There’s a bodybuilding opinion that fosters the notion that the world’s top physiques are made, not born; that unfavorable genetics only slow down
muscle growth, while never actually preventing the development of huge muscles. This opinion urges the disregarding of genetics. So, with a lot of
commitment, Woody Allen could have matched Lee Haney on a posing platform, Stan Laurel could have held his own with Eugen Sandow, and
Bing Crosby could have kept pace with John Grimek. After all, genetics don’t matter.
Such opinion lives in domains that have no contact with truth. It’s the opinion that encourages bodybuilders, especially young neophytes, to live
their lives in the clouds of unrealistic expectations while following the training routines of the top physiques.
It’s the opinion that leads millions of bodybuilders down the road of utterly inappropriate and ineffective training programs.
It’s the opinion that encourages the excessive attention upon supplements and, ultimately, the dangerous use of anabolic steroids and other nocuous
substances.
It’s the opinion that causes so much heartache and frustration because it promises something it can’t deliver. It often leads the falsely guided to
extreme measures. However, even with drugs, the genetically typical can’t emulate the achievements of the genetically gifted.
This “genetics don’t matter” opinion believes that work and application build huge muscles, irrespective of genetic inheritance. (The importance of
drugs is casually forgotten.) Of course, how well you realize your potential is a reflection of your application, dedication, desire and type of
program used, but ultimate muscular size is determined by genetic endowment.
To state, or imply, that all serious and determined hard gainers didn’t develop spectacular size merely because they haven’t trained hard enough
and long enough, and because they didn’t have a sufficiently positive attitude, is a gross insult. I’m but one of the countless number of typical
bodybuilders who have applied themselves to bodybuilding with dedication and diligence enough to match any winner of a top title. Don’t tell us
that we didn’t try hard enough or seriously enough. My God, don’t tell us that!
We tried all right. We tried, tried and tried some more. And we tried with utter and complete—no, fanatical—dedication. We lived, slept, ate and
drank bodybuilding, with our self-esteem and goals way up in the clouds. We gave our ton of flesh. But we never looked like Arnold
Schwarzenegger, Sergio Oliva, Jay Cutler or any other elite bodybuilder.
What’s particularly galling, for typical bodybuilders, is to have a drug-using genetic superior lecturing about how, while genetic variation plays a
role, it’s a small role relative to application and know-how. Even more infuriating is when a prominent physique moans about how hard he found it
to bring up a lagging body part. He neglects to say that the lagging body part was already well ahead of even a successful hard gainer’s, and that
he built massive muscles throughout most of his physique before he was 30, 25 or even 20, and that he used (or uses) drugs. (There is, however, a
connection with reality when at least some top bodybuilders acknowledge the role of heredity in endowing them with the necessary talent for elite
achievement.)
As I’ve already said, the genetically gifted (although, of course, flawed in some way) simply can’t understand true hard gaining. No matter how
much they try, they can’t understand. If I had a magic wand I would put some writers and title winners in the shoes of a genetically typical hard
gainer weighed down with family, financial and employment concerns. After he’s struggled to build just a 230-pound bench press, and a 315
squat, after years of determined effort and many setbacks, then he may begin to understand what I mean. If I could then wish him into the shoes of
the ultra-hard gainer, he would, when feeling suicidal, finally get the full message that genetics matter one heck of a lot.
Having “perfect” genetics isn’t necessary to become a professional bodybuilder. All the genetic superiors have faults they try to correct or hide as
best they can. Some have high calves, some have flat biceps, and some have broad hips. But most have less noticeable blemishes.
These men made the best of their shortcomings. However, bear in mind that, because they had so much going for them outside of the
shortcomings, they could make a good job of coping with the weaknesses. They could make a far better job than can hard gainers with the same
shortcomings but in a genetically typical body. Plus, the championship-level bodybuilders use drugs. It’s just a different world for them. Let’s just
stop comparing drug-assisted and drug-built easy gainers with hard gainers. (Let’s also dismiss the training methods of hard gainers who have built
themselves up using drugs. While surrendering their integrity and self-esteem, and damaging their health, they have nothing to teach us about
training.)
The “imperfections” of the top competitors are but a drop in the ocean compared to the bodybuilding difficulties and limitations imposed upon the
majority of us by average genetics. Most typical bodybuilders would love to have to deal with the “imperfections” that the top bodybuilders have.
The latter were so generously blessed with advantages that their shortcomings could be overlooked.
Relative to the limitations that average genetics impose on our ultimate bodybuilding success, every single one of the top competitors doesn’t know
the meaning of genetic limitation.
All of us can transform ourselves, and develop physiques and strength levels that make us true super-beings relative to the untrained person.
However, we can never, ever, compete with the tiny minority that is extraordinarily genetically favored. This may not be a palatable truth, but it’s
the truth nevertheless.
Grasp this key point right from the beginning. Don’t devote yourself to becoming a professional bodybuilder.

Easy gainers and hard gainers, proportions of

What proportions of bodybuilders belong in each category? The genetic mega-superiors of the ilk of Schwarzenegger, Oliva, Haney, Coleman and
Cutler are extraordinarily rare. (In no way am I criticizing their natural talent for bodybuilding. I’ve spent years of my life wishing I had their same
freak genetic condition.) Let’s be generous and say 1% of a sample of bodybuilders have the potential to be super-achievers should they put in the
work and dedication, and take enough drugs.
I would say that over three quarters of a random sample of bodybuilders (not from an elite group or elite gym) are typical bodybuilders—hard
gainers—varying from extreme hard gainers to just “regular” hard gainers. All these get nowhere using the orthodox training methods. This leaves a
balance of bodybuilders who are neither typical hard gainers nor phenomenal easy gainers. They are, however, easy gainers to some degree. Some
of them are capable of developing very big muscles, although not in the fantastic category.
Bodybuilders in this group can make progress using the orthodox training methods that are so vigorously promoted in the bodybuilding literature.
While they could grow faster using more hard-gainer type routines, they make enough progress to demonstrate in gyms that progress can be made
using the popular routines. Although they aren’t genetic mega-superiors, they still have sufficient advantages relative to the majority of us for them
not to be fit role models for us.

The focus of this book

This book is aimed specifically at the majority of bodybuilders—typical hard gainers. My concern is with developing the substance needed before
you even think about concerning yourself with the detail and finishing off (advanced) work that so many trainers and writers concern themselves
with. My criticism of this latter aspect of bodybuilding is that it’s stressed in the literature way out of proportion to the percentage of bodybuilders
who are sufficiently advanced or genetically gifted to benefit from it.
I don’t doubt that this or that aspect of a muscle can be stressed, to provide “balance” and “finish.” As there’s so much emphasis upon this
finishing aspect of training, I don’t need to deal with it here. Once you’re big enough and strong enough from having diligently and conscientiously
followed the advice in this book, irrespective of genetic starting point, then, and only then, can you graduate (should you be interested) to the
finishing routines and try to hone the mass into its final form. Just don’t start to hone the mass into its final form before you have enough mass in the
first place.
Once you’re as big or bigger than the measurements given in the next chapter, then you can experiment, at least some of the time, with the other
routines to see if they can do some of what they claim they can do. (You may still find these methods unproductive even when you’re big by hard
gainers’ standards.) The rest of your time, devote yourself to more advanced hard-gainer type basic routines that use more volume, possibly more
frequency, and substantial use of the power rack. Continue with getting bigger and stronger, while throwing in periods of finishing type work to
keep the body in good proportion.
Few typical bodybuilders get to this stage, so this book’s focus is on getting you big enough to qualify for the advanced routines.
The fine-tuning of supplements and diet, the ins and outs of exercise selection, the training attire to be seen in, the gossip in the training world,
contest results, the political wrangles, and all the rest of it, are irrelevant to your progress in the gym. While it all has interest value to some people,
and it all helps to sell magazines, it has no value where it matters most—in the gym, and in satisfying the requirements of recuperation outside of the
gym.
What you read in this book, and in HARDGAINER, isn’t concocted just to fill pages. What you read here is the opinion in the bodybuilding world
that gets little mention in the mainstream literature. That it gets so little mention there, in no way detracts from its importance.
This book, and HARDGAINER, are devoted to the minority opinion because it was only this opinion that had the chance of building me—and
countless other typical bodybuilders—from runts to fair specimens. It was the only opinion that could deliver the goods. That it hasn’t delivered the
goods of spectacular development isn’t significant. What’s important is that it got us out of runt-land and into respectability-land for people not
favored by genetics.

Don’t let anyone deflect you from priorities: Substance, not detail. Basics, not the frills. Progressive poundages, not gym attendance
records. Effort and seriousness, not acting and frivolity. Determination to improve yourself, not the imitating of the gifted minority.
The sanity of cycling training intensity, not beating your body into stagnation. Experimenting with the radical, not sticking with the
conventional methods. Being open-minded, not being the mouthpiece of those who are so genetically superior that they can no longer
be called homo sapiens. The worship of rest and recovery, not the worship of the utterances of drug-using mega-achievers.

How we differ
Although we’re all physically similar in basic physical structure and metabolism, the characteristics that govern ultimate strength and muscular
development vary hugely.
No amount of genetic advantage matters unless it’s combined with effort, persistence and good coaching. But all the effort, persistence and good
coaching in the world can’t alter genetics.
Bodybuilding rests far more upon genetically determined physical factors than do predominantly skill and practice orientated activities such as
sailing and horse riding. The more an activity depends upon physical factors, the less that achievement there is affected by pure practice and
application.
There’s a lot to be said for selecting at an early age the activities most suited to an individual’s natural make-up. This is the starting ground for
ultimate high individual achievement.
We shouldn’t have to have our eyes set upon championship winning achievement to motivate us to take up an activity. Even modest achievements
(relative to the achievements of the extraordinarily genetically blessed) are astonishing achievements relative to the physical standard of what almost
the entire population ever achieves. Taking up an activity with the purpose to compete internationally isn’t a recipe for the life-long bodybuilding
activity that enhances life in all respects.
Woody Allen could have transformed his physique and strength levels, and produced an impressive physique. However, no matter what he could
have done for himself, he could never have gotten even close to any of the most genetically favored bodybuilders.
Now for a look at some of the genetically determined attributes that are responsible for the differences between genetically gifted and genetically
typical bodybuilders. (The outline of these attributes is based on Daniel P. Riley’s article on genetic factors in Strength Training by the Experts .)
While you read these attributes, keep in mind that it’s their total that matters. There are some astonishing physiques that have been less than
generously blessed in some areas, but sufficiently blessed in the other areas to be still left with an outstanding package.
For example, bone structure alone isn’t the be-all and end-all to indicate bodybuilding potential. It’s an important indicator for ultimate size and
strength, but some very big, powerful bodies have been built on medium to light frames.
And while muscle length counts a lot in influencing ultimate size, strength and power, it’s not omnipotent. Power, for example, depends, among
other things, upon coordination, muscle fiber type, bone length and nervous innervation.

1. Bodytype
Bodytype, or somatotype, depicts body structure. It refers largely to the bone structure and the amounts of muscle and fat that cover the body.
Regarding the bone structure, for adult males of average height, 6 to 7 inch wrists indicate a small bone structure, 7 to 8 inch wrists show a medium
bone structure and more than 8 inches belongs to a large bone structure. While wrist measurements usually correlate with ankle structure—the
latter typically being about 2 to 2-1/2 inches thicker—this isn’t always so. Some people have a heavier lower-body structure than upper—for
example, a wrist of 6-1/2 inches, and an ankle of 10 inches. Some have a heavier upper-body structure than lower—an ankle nearly the same size
as the wrist.
Although there are three basic categories of bodytype, many, if not most people, possess characteristics from more than one of the divisions. By
dietary and training measures it’s possible to change drastically the appearance of the body, and its apparent bodytype, but with the removal of the
training and dietary discipline, the body would revert to its natural type. (There are personality traits that can be generalized according to bodytype,
though there are plenty of exceptions.)
Whatever you have, make the most of it. Rest assured that you can transform yourself, no matter where you started from. The most important
body part is the mind. With the will and know-how, you can perform near miracles.
Here are the three elementary categories of bodytype, as described by the theories of Dr. William H. Sheldon:

a. The mesomorph is distinguished by a musculature that is naturally—without training—hard and visible, with little fat. The body is square and
rugged. Bones are large and muscle is thick. This is the bodytype most suited to building large and strong bodies. How aesthetic the
developed physique is, is another matter, but the potential for muscular size and strength is great. There are ectomorphic mesomorphs, and
endomorphic mesomorphs, so not all predominantly mesomorphic bodies have the potential for developing the largest lean physiques. They
all have a potential for size and strength far greater than have predominantly ectomorphic bodies. However, only a few of these mesomorphs
are the extreme easy gainers that have the potential to become internationally competitive bodybuilders.

b. The archetypal endomorph has a round and soft body, with a lot of fat. He usually shows very little potential for any type of physical activity.
Those endomorphs who want to transform their bodies usually have some non-endomorphic characteristics. Endomorphs are usually hard
“progressers” but not as hard-gaining as archetypal ectomorphs. In some ways, the endomorphic bodybuilder has a more difficult time
obtaining satisfaction with physique changes than has the ectomorphic bodybuilder. The former needs to get rid of a lot of fat and build
muscle and strength. Although the skinny ectomorph is what probably comes to mind when thinking of the struggling bodybuilder, there are
plenty of struggling endomorphic trainees. The fat-loss strategy for the endomorph is given in Chapter 14.

c. The ectomorph is characterized by a thin and long bone structure, apparent frailty, little fat and thin muscles. The extreme ectomorph is the
hardest of hard gainers. Archetypal ectomorphs, although not uncommon, don’t fill gyms. A greater number of ectomorphs found in gyms,
trying to transform themselves, have some non-ectomorph characteristics and so have a less difficult time putting on the mass than do the
archetypal ectomorphs.

2. Insertion points
A muscle produces movement by being connected to two bones. For example, the upper ends of the two heads of the biceps brachii are attached
to the outer edges of the shoulder blade, and the other ends are attached to the forearm. When the biceps contracts, it pulls the forearm to the
shoulder. Where the muscle is attached to the more moveable bone—a forearm bone in this case—is called the insertion point. The other
attachment end is called the origin of the muscle.
While the origins of muscles vary little, the points of insertion can vary from individual to individual. Following on with the biceps example, the
farther down the forearm the biceps has its insertion, the better the mechanical advantage. Only a small difference in insertion can make a big
difference in the mechanical efficiency that results.
Generally, typical people have insertion points near their joints. Genetically blessed athletes have insertion points farther from their joints. Assuming
same sized muscles and same length of bones, the athlete with the more distant insertion points will be able to lift more weight. No amount of effort
and application (other than surgical) can change your points of insertion.

3. Neuromuscular efficiency
This is the ability to employ muscle fibers through the signals that come from the nervous system. The greater the efficiency, the greater the number
of muscle fibers that can be called up to work. The more fibers you have laying dormant, the less force you can apply relative to the total muscle
mass. If the body could miraculously increase its neuromuscular efficiency, there would be a large increase in work output from the same level of
effort as before the miracle.
Although the size of muscles is a major factor determining strength and work output, it’s by no means the only one. Neuromuscular efficiency
determines just how well your body can call upon the muscle to do what it wants the muscle to do.

4. Muscle belly length

Skeletal muscles are attached to bones by tendons. Tendons are bundles of connective tissue—sinew—that fix the muscle on to the bones. Cut off
the entire tendons from the body of the muscle and you’re left with the muscle belly. The muscle belly is the meat part of the muscle, the part that
provides the rounded mass of the muscle.
While muscle cross-sectional area can be considerably increased, muscle length can’t be. The longer the muscle bellies, the greater the potential for
cross-sectional area and overall volume, other considerations being equal. If short muscle bellies have been inherited, then ultimate size is vastly
reduced relative to long bellies.
Those with huge muscles, or the potential for developing them, have short tendon attachments and long muscle bellies. Stocky people have long
muscle bellies and short tendons and so have thick arms, thighs and legs even if they don’t train.
The length of the belly of the calf muscle is a dramatic example of the importance of belly length. Some people have short calf bellies—the so-
called “high calves.” No matter what they do, their calves will always be behind the rest of their physiques. Larger calves they can develop, but the
ultimate size is proportionately much less than for the other muscles that have long bellies. Generally, whether or not you have longer than average
bellies is true throughout the body. However, there are many bodybuilders who are eloquent testimony to a variation throughout their physiques.
Some have upper arm bellies that are disproportionately large relative to the rest of their bodies. Their arms can become huge and rounded, while
other body parts remain much more flat, regardless of what is done for the latter.
Great generosity of genetically endowed muscle belly length throughout the body, together with a single example of an unusually short belly, is seen
quite often. Of the top bodybuilders over recent decades, Brian Buchanan and Roy Callender are examples of men extraordinarily blessed with
long muscle bellies and other advantages, everywhere except in their calves.

5. Muscle fiber type and number

Muscle isn’t made up of a single muscle type. The percentage of each type can vary from individual to individual. Some fibers are more suited to
size and strength development while others are more suited to endurance activities. If you’re endowed with an unusual generosity of the growth and
strength fibers, your muscles—if properly and appropriately trained—will have a greater ultimate size and strength potential than muscle that is
endowed with a greater percentage of endurance biased fibers. Some bodies are more suited to endurance activities while others are more suited
to strength activities.
Muscle grows by the myofibrils that comprise each muscle fiber increasing in size and number. The number of fibers each muscle contains is
generally thought to be genetically determined, although there’s a minority opinion that says some splitting of fibers may occur with some types of
training. If you have tricep muscles that were given to you with an average or below average number of muscle fibers in them, you’re at a huge
disadvantage relative to someone who inherited an above average number of fibers in the triceps.
The initial size of an untrained muscle isn’t an automatic indication of the number of fibers. A thinly muscled person, due to a very inactive life, may
have muscles before training that are of similar size to those of an active ectomorph. However, once both start to train with the weights, the
differences in fiber numbers will become apparent very soon. For the ectomorph, the muscles will fill out slowly. For the mesomorph with a
plentiful supply of fibers, the muscles will visibly swell with growth for month after month after month.

Assembling the genetically blessed

Put together these five contributions to genetically endowed variation and you quickly see why the typical hard gainer is in a different universe of
existence relative to the rampant easy gainer. It’s rather like considering that hard gainers have inherited small sized balloons with only a moderate
degree of elasticity. The muscles can be made to grow all right, but only so far. Enormous muscular size is simply out of the question. For the
genetically gifted, larger balloons with great elasticity were inherited. These balloons can be made to grow very large.
Imagine a full-blown mesomorph endowed with muscle insertions an unusual distance away from the joints, long muscle bellies throughout the
body, unusually profuse numbers of muscle fibers throughout the body, and great neuromuscular efficiency, and all of this in an aesthetic package.
Combine all of this with the will to achieve and you get a genetic mega-superior who can take the world of bodybuilding in his stride.
In practice, even the most superior of genetic superiors don’t fully satisfy the optimum for each of the five factors, but nevertheless they get quite
near. However, even having the five factors well satisfied (in an aesthetic package) is only part of the story—although, of course, for an aspiring
title-winner it’s the most important part. Contest preparation and contest presentation, together with influence developed through reputation, are
only three of the other factors that greatly influence contest success, irrespective of physical advantages.
Elite bodybuilders have gotten close to getting a full measure of the five genetic attributes. And when their genetic good fortune is given assistance
by the use of bodybuilding drugs, they are taken light years farther from the realm of role models for genetically typical and drug-free bodybuilders.
All of this doesn’t even consider the other advantages that the rampant easy gainers so often have—unusually strong constitutions and efficient
digestive systems, and extraordinary recovery capacities and tolerance of exercise.
As an additional bonus, the most extraordinarily favored can find sponsors to support a professional or semi-professional bodybuilding lifestyle.
Progress becomes even easier to make.
Take heart
Understanding that genetic variation is the biggest factor determining how far you can go in bodybuilding doesn’t mean, “I can’t get to the top so I
won’t bother training in the first place.” Neither does it mean, “I know I can’t go very far but I’ll go through the motions.” If you expect nothing
you’ll get nothing. A high self-esteem and a positive attitude are vital.
Expect a lot of yourself—“a lot” in terms of the goals of the next chapter, not “a lot” in terms of the mega-achievers.
No matter how limited your genetic potential may be for size and strength, with effort and determination you can transform yourself. That’s more
than enough incentive to train as if your life depended upon it. Who knows just how limiting your genetic potential is? You’ll never know unless you
train intelligently and consistently for many years. Even modest achievements relative to the most extraordinarily developed physiques are still
spectacular. Such achievements will have people ogling you when you’re in your trunks at the beach or swimming pool, and have beginners and
intermediate bodybuilders in the gym thinking you’re some sort of star.
Many hard gainers, while not having the genetically endowed factors that contribute to huge muscular size, do have aesthetic bodies and some are
exceptionally aesthetic. Bodies that have fine proportions, narrow hips and waists, small joints and natural leanness. These factors combine to
present a package that, if well developed throughout, will create a physique of extreme impressiveness though of small size relative to the top
professionals. This type of structure is, of course, a result of genetic good fortune. Getting huge is absolutely not necessary to achieve an impressive
physique.
Other hard gainers don’t have an aesthetic structure. Whatever you have, you have to live with. That’s the frank reality. You can only make the
best of what you have. However, the joy of bodybuilding is that no matter how unsuited your body may be for bodybuilding, you can still make
spectacular progress relative to where you are now. You only have one body. Make the most of it!
The important thing is to make progress for yourself, no matter how fast or slow. No matter where you are now, you can progress, and progress a
lot. Stop comparing yourself with others, especially with the drug-using genetically gifted. You can never be like them, even if you stuff yourself
with steroids. Stop fantasizing being one of them. It may hurt having to accept this reality, but this book is about reality.
Compare yourself with how you were a few months ago. Then look to comparing yourself now with how you’re going to be a few months from
now. Little by little you can achieve your own metamorphosis. That’s miles more interesting and relevant than being concerned with the
achievements of others.
Concern yourself with yourself.
All of this reality of the huge disparity between the “haves” and the “have nots”—as far as bodybuilding potential is concerned—isn’t given to
foster negativism and defeatism. It has been presented to instill a hefty understanding of the reality of the advantages we don’t have. All of this is of
paramount importance when establishing realistic goals and adopting practical training methods that are appropriate to typical people. Now you
can see why what works for the genetically gifted is nearly always irrelevant and inappropriate for the rest of us. The genetically gifted are different
creatures to us.
The genetically blessed rampant easy gainers (and probably drug-assisted too) simply can’t truly understand the lot of the rampant hard gainer.
(Most of them couldn’t care less about the struggling hard gainer anyway.) The more easily something comes to you, the harder you find putting
yourself in the shoes of someone who finds things the opposite way round. Generally speaking—easy gainers are the antitheses of the models that
hard-gaining bodybuilders need to depend upon in order to realize their modest potentials.
I’m not saying that all easy gainers have absolutely nothing of value to say to hard gainers. Many of the famous pre-steroids easy gainers had much
to say of value to hard gainers. While out of reach for the average person, their physiques are inspiring because they are real, not drug-built
achievements.
To avoid getting confused, ignore—once and for all—the training methods given by the drug-using genetically gifted. Instead, accept your genetic
normality and follow the recommendations of successful hard gainers. These are people who have been through the mire of frustration and failure
arising from following the methods used by those with extraordinary physical (and chemical) advantages, and can spare you undergoing the same
trauma. This book gives you a summary of many of the findings of successful hard gainers.
The biggest lie I ever swallowed is the one that says anyone can become a top physique provided he adheres to a certain training program, diet and combination of
supplements, and follows a specific person’s guidance.
If you realize something around the goals given in this chapter, you’ll have developed a physique that will stand
you apart in just about all company.
3. Expectations
Measurement claims
Before comparing ourselves with easy gainers, let’s take a look at some measurement claims of top contestants.
What about farcical claims of forearms taping 17–18 inches on bodies of 220 pounds or so? Such claims exist—comb through enough
bodybuilding magazines and you’ll find them. Consider that powerlifting-great Bill Kazmaier, at 340 pounds, had his forearms accurately measured
at 17-1/2 inches by David Willoughby (who was a stickler for accuracy). Willoughby didn’t measure with a slack tape and a dose of fiction.
Actual forearm girths of more than 13 inches, for hard gainers, are impressive. (Willoughby regarded a clenched forearm of slightly less than twice
the size of the wrist as outstanding, measuring the forearm with the arm straight and without bending at the wrist.) Dishonest claims, even from the
elite of the training world, that add inches to the real measurements serve to dishearten hard gainers who are unaware of the fiction involved. It also
makes a mockery of the claimants in the minds of those who know of the dishonesty in print.
What about claims of 21 inches and above for upper arm girth? Arthur Jones is a man renowned for his “telling it like it is” attitude. In his Bulletin
Number Two , he cites Sergio Oliva’s upper arm measuring 20-1/8 inches cold and Arnold Schwarzenegger’s slightly pumped arm filling the tape
to 19-7/8. Arnold and Sergio—two of the easiest of easy gainers bodybuilding has seen—were famous for their massive arm development. Their
development was visibly greater than that of many bodybuilders who claim larger measurements.
Jones also measured the arms of other genetic superiors in their best condition: Casey Viator at 19-5/16 inches, and both Mike Mentzer and Bill
Pearl at 18-5/8. The difference between an 18-inch arm and a 14-inch arm is enormous. An 18-inch arm is huge. Those who claim arms of 22
inches are, in effect, saying that the difference between theirs and Pearl’s and Mentzer’s is as clear as the difference between a 14-inch and an 18-
inch arm. Unless they are around 300 pounds of muscular bodyweight, who do they think they are kidding?
These illustrations are necessary to clear the way for honest measurements to be given as a guide for the sort of development that most resolute
and determined hard gainers can realize or at least get very near to. When comparing these down-to-earth measurements with the fiction
promulgated by many of the top contestants (or their ghost writers), the successful hard gainers’ measurements pale away. However, when these
measurements are compared to the actual measurements of the top physiques, they command respect, especially when the gaining difficulties of the
typical bodybuilder are borne in mind.
Urging realist expectations doesn’t mean accepting mediocrity. Far from it. If you realize something around the goals that follow, you’ll have
developed a physique that will stand you apart in just about all company. The only company you’ll feel normal in will be that of a crowd of
competitive and genetically superior and/or drug-using bodybuilders.
The development of the following standard of physique, and even a physique of a slightly lesser standard, is magnificent. The stuff of dreams for
most people, and the sort of development that would have won big competitions a couple of generations ago. How many people have such a
physique? Virtually none. That the physique is still a long way short of that of a professional bodybuilder doesn’t matter. We can all get good
physiques, but only a minuscule number can develop the staggering development of a top contestant.

Age
Your age is a tempering factor. If you’re starting training and are already middle-aged, reduce the following expectations. If you’ve been training
for a long time, and are in good condition, you may be able to realize the following sort of development although you’re no longer in your twenties
or thirties.
What follows is a guide—malleable, of course—aimed at healthy males between the ages of 18–35. All healthy males between these ages, even if
new to weight training, can realistically expect a spectacular metamorphosis following a few years of determined adherence to rational training
methods. Those of you in the 35–45 age group, and experienced with the weights, also can achieve along the same lines. Those of you in this 35–
45 age group who are new to training should, at least initially, moderate your expectations.
Those of you who are older than 45 can achieve a metamorphosis, but of a much more modest extent to that of the young man. However, relative
to the condition of the typical untrained 50-year-old, a hard training 50-year-old bodybuilder can achieve near miracles. Temper your goals,
priorities and activities according to your age. The older person shouldn’t adopt the heavy diet that the younger person can productively use. The
older person needs to give more attention to cardiorespiratory fitness than does the very young man—this will divert some energy away from pure
bodybuilding.
The older you get, the more careful you have to be to avoid injuries. What the very young person may be able to get away with, the older person
can’t. While everyone should pay attention to proper exercise performance and sufficient rest between workouts, it’s the older person who pays
the price more immediately and more severely if adequate care isn’t taken. Heed this warning!
An important point about older trainees is that age is by no means the limiting factor untrained people make it out to be. The limiting factor is in the
mind. There are enough genetically typical bodybuilders around, in their middle to late years who have astonishing physiques and strength levels.
Expect little from your body, and that’s what it will deliver. Expect a lot from it, and that’s what it will deliver. Not “a lot” compared to the later-in-
life incredible achievements of those who have phenomenal genetics, but huge achievements relative to the untrained person of later years.
Twenty reps with 220 pounds in the full squat may not impress a 20-year-old, but if it’s a 55-year-old who can do it, that’s impressive. If you’re a
life-long trainee and have carefully looked after yourself, 220x20 in the squat at 55 should present no problem. If you’re extremely determined,
and don’t let age curtail you, you could be squatting more than 220x20 at 55 or older.

John McCallum’s formula

One of the best formulae I’ve come across for providing a challenging yet realistic guide for hard gainers is that provided by John McCallum.
McCallum, in the 1960s and 1970s, wrote an arresting, instructive and entertaining series of articles for Strength & Health , a magazine then put
out by Bob Hoffman’s York Barbell Company.
McCallum’s formula is based on wrist measurement and has been given a new lease of life in the book Super Squats , written by Randall J.
Strossen, Ph.D. The formula (used with permission of IronMind ® Enterprises, Inc.) runs like this:

1. 6-1/2 times your wrist gives chest girth.

2. 85% of the chest girth produces the hips.
3. Take 70% of the chest girth for the waist.
4. 53% of the chest gives the thigh girth.
5. The neck size is 37% of the chest.
6. 36% of the chest produces arm girth.
7. The calves come out a little less at 34%.
8. The forearms get 29% of the chest measurement.

Everyone won’t neatly fall into the set of measurements produced by this formula as it assumes that wrist size directly correlates with bone size
throughout the body. With some people, this isn’t so. However, genetically typical and drug-free male bodybuilders will, generally speaking and
when at or very near the limit of their development, be remarkably close. Many people have a body part that responds better than the rest of the
body, producing a measurement an inch or so more than the projected one.
Some people have a lower-body that has a structure bigger than their upper-body—large ankle relative to the wrist. Some people are the other
way around. This means that some people find their lower bodies easier to develop than their upper, or vice versa. If the difference between
upper- and lower-body structure is striking, care has to be given to prevent the musculature differences from becoming too exaggerated and
putting the physique way out of proportion.
Using the McCallum formula, a 7-inch wrist will produce a chest of 45.5, hips of 38.7, waist of 31.9, thigh of 24.1, neck of 16.8, arm of 16.4, calf
of 15.5, and a forearm of 13.2. At a height of 5-9, this development will come out at around 190 pounds (solid but not ripped). Such a
development, for a typical bodybuilder, is some going. Forget the claims of 55-inch chest, 22-inch arms and 19-inch calves of some competitive
bodybuilders. Remember that their real measurements are more likely to be in the 50, 18-1/2 and 17-1/2 bracket respectively.
The appearance differences between the physiques of the successful hard gainer and the competitive easy gainer come about only partially as a
product of pure size. Hardness, definition and vascularity, together with skin color and photographic and lighting assistance are major contributing
factors.
A wrist measurement under 7 inches will produce smaller guide girths, and a wrist measurement above 7 will produce a larger set. McCallum
advised that the wrist be measured just above the protruding bone. If the wrist is measured below the protruding bone, it will likely be a little less
and so produce a slightly reduced set of muscular girths.

Another formula
This set of guidelines isn’t based on wrist measurement but on height, producing a range of measurements for each different height. The range
gives, as its minimum, goals for the typical male to shoot for that will produce a physique a little lighter than that given by the McCallum formula.
The upper end of the measurement range is for those with genetic endowment greater than that of the typical person but still below that of the
extraordinarily blessed.
Start with a height of 5-foot 2-inches, and arms, calves and neck of 14 inches, relaxed chest of 38, thighs of 21, and waist of 28. To produce the
minimum measurements, for every additional inch of height add 1/4 inch to the calf, arm and neck measurements, 3/4 to the chest, 1/3 to the thighs,
and no more than 1/2 to the waist.
Using this formula, the minimum measurements produced for a 59 male will be arms, calves and neck of 15-3/4 inches, chest of 43-1/4, thighs of
23-1/3, and waist of 31-1/2. To produce the upper range of the measurements, keeping the waist where it is, add 1 inch (or a little more) to the
calves, arms, neck and thighs, and add 2-3 to the chest.
The set of minimum measurements for a 5-9 male very nearly equals that of a 6-3/4 wrist using the McCallum formula.
Comparing the possible achievements of typical, good and great genetic potential the arm measurements would be 16, 17-1/2 and 19 respectively.
Of course, many hard gainers fall short of even the typical classification and may never be able to develop a hard 16-inch arm.

Beyond measurements
The single measurement of the waist makes a dramatic difference to the appearance a set of measurements provides. In the example set of girths
given using the McCallum formula, if the waist is 33.9 inches the physique will be dramatically different to if it’s 30.9, with all the other
measurements being the same.
Don’t pile on the weight just by adopting a long-term heavy eating program. You want to have a firm physique, not a soft one. 16.4-inch arms that
are hard—say accompanying a 30 waist at 5-9—are very impressive by normal standards, but 16.4 arms that go with a 34 waist are far less
impressive. Keep yourself on the lean side.
This doesn’t mean striving for the leanness of a competitive bodybuilder, but it does mean keeping a physique that’s firm and at least showing some
of the lines of the muscles. An unusual degree of definition can be sought, if it interests you, once you already have substantial muscular mass.
Calculate the measurements that both formulae (the McCallum and the minimum version of the other one) produce for your wrist size and height.
Write the two sets down. Pick one of them, or work out the average of the two, and regard it as the goal to aim for. If or when you attain the goal,
only then should you consider looking for bigger girths. Do remember, however, that a physique has its impact according to how it looks, not how
it measures. Of course, the two are related, but not so closely that you should concern yourself with measurements pure and simple.
You want balance in your body, from neck to calves. You want strength and development in parts of your body that don’t have dramatic effects
upon girths—lower back, trapezius and thickness throughout the back rather than just width. You want size to be muscular, not fat. Perhaps you
don’t want to get as large as the formulae compute for you, or maybe you wish to be larger still. Perhaps you’re more interested in strength than
size. Look deeply into what you want in relation to your age, genetic endowment, willingness to work in the gym, determination, and so on.
Decide what you realistically want, and then set out to get it. Be determined, make your plans, knock off short-term goals, knock off the medium-
term goals, and then you’ll get to the long-term goals.

Strength
Developing large muscles demands developing the ability to move some large poundages. Although the two aren’t 100% related—it is possible,
for example, to get a lot stronger without getting bigger—the relation between the two is strong. This is especially so for novice and intermediate
bodybuilders. As long as you concentrate on striving to keep upping the poundages moved, primarily for medium reps (and higher reps particularly
for the lower-body) while always using good form, your muscles will increase in size in correlation with the increase in poundages used. Low-rep
work, including singles, has its uses and can be very productive, but not for cycle after cycle.
Once in the advanced category of bodybuilding and lifting, strength and power increases can be made without increases in size. There are many
examples of competitive weightlifters and powerlifters who have been top-class lifters, even world champions, over many years within the same
bodyweight class. Since they maintained low levels of body fat over these years, and were highly skilled in lifting technique throughout, a major part
of their ability to lift more poundage each year is due to a learning effect within their nervous systems.
Nervous system control of the muscular contraction has a major effect on the tension created in the muscle and, therefore, the strength of the
muscle. This is the domain of the advanced lifter and of the strength-minded bodybuilder. Once you’re already big and strong, and then want to get
a lot stronger still, you can explore the methods needed to make you stronger while changing you little in size. The detail of how to do this is out of
the scope of this book.
What sort of poundages tally with the 5-9, 190-pound, 7-inch wrist typical and successful hard gainer given earlier? Only approximations can be
given because of the great variations there are among bodybuilders in the routines they use, leverages (limb and torso lengths) and other genetically
determined factors, rep speed, length of rest periods between sets, and other considerations.
There can be a great difference in what a bodybuilder with a 24-inch thigh can lift compared to another with the same measurement. Maybe one
has much longer thigh-bones than the other. Perhaps one always does high reps, the other low reps. Perhaps one concentrates more on power
work, while the other uses a much slower rep speed with reduced poundages.
Here’s a guide for those of you wanting an idea of the sort of poundages our typical 5-9, 7-inch wrist and 190-pound successful hard gainer will
be moving at that degree of development. The performances (given in pounds) consider that the lifter is using excellent exercise technique and a
controlled rep speed—no sloppy technique or explosive lifting.

Regular squat—a single with 375–400 pounds, 15–20 reps x 300

Regular deadlift—a single with 450–500, 15–20x350
Stiff-legged deadlift—10x275
Bench press—a single with 280–300, 6–8x250
Press—a single with 190, 6x150
Barbell curl—8x100
Close-grip (about 15 inches between thumbs) bench press—8x220
One-leg-at-a-time heel raise—20 with a 50-pound dumbbell

To construct goals to accommodate both the hard gainer who is less suited to bodybuilding than the typical hard gainer (or who is quite a bit
older), and the hard gainer who is better suited then the typical trainee, consider a 10% leeway either way. For the regular squat, this gives 10–15
reps with a range of 270–330 (10% either way of 300), stiff-legged deadlift for 10 reps with 250–300, bench pressing 6–8 reps with 225–275,
and so on. Aim for the lower end of the poundages first. Only once you’re there should you look to achieving even bigger poundages.
Hard gainers who build up to the lower end of the range have made wonderful accomplishments. Those of you who build up to the upper end of
the range have made astonishing accomplishments. Some of you will be able to go even further and qualify for advanced training. More on this is
given in Chapter 10.
These targets don’t consider variations in physical structure that can account for one or more movements that is/are especially weak or strong.
Your body structure—limb and torso length—may be well suited to deadlifting but poor for bench pressing. It’s possible you can do stiff-legged
deadlifts with more than you can squat, for the same repetitions. As long as you’re putting the same effort and seriousness into all your exercises,
you’ll soon discover whether you’re better suited to some exercises rather than others. More on this can be found under Something special , later
in this chapter.
To repeat myself, these are guide figures only, not a statement of what you need to lift. They assume no powerlifting paraphernalia. A belt may be
used when doing low-rep work in the squat and deadlift if you prefer. With correct use of the gamut of powerlifting paraphernalia the powerlifts
would be increased considerably.
If you train in an exaggeratedly slow fashion, you’ll probably be unable to ever handle the aforementioned poundages at only 190 pounds
bodyweight. You’ll likely need to have greater development. The poundages just listed assume the use of good, controlled technique—which is
about 2–3 seconds for each ascent and another 2–3 seconds for each descent. In the first edition of this book I didn’t recommend such controlled
movement. Although I now recommend use of controlled movements free of explosiveness, I’m not reducing the listed poundages. A 2–3/2–3
speed, or thereabouts, is not exaggeratedly slow. It’s a demonstration of the excellent control that, together with use of the proper bar pathways
(correct technique), produces safe form.
Different rep speeds have their uses, according to the needs of variety, physical condition of the trainee concerned, training purposes, and other
considerations. For trainees learning how to exercise and also possessing very weak bodies, a very slow rep speed may be the way to go.
Ellington Darden, Ph.D., has reported some impressive results when supervising trainees using a very slow rep speed. (While good supervision is
an advantage for any format of training, with very slow training it’s almost a necessity.) Of course, impressive results have been obtained with other
training methods.
If you’ve been training with medium or higher reps, and then decide to try a maximum single, you’re asking for trouble. Get conditioned for low rep
work first—with perfect controlled form, of course. Take at least a couple of months to gradually work towards handling your maximum poundage
for single reps. But the majority of trainees are better off avoiding singles and very low rep work, for reasons of safety.
Never forget that if you want to build considerable size, you must build up to using substantial poundages—“substantial” for hard gainers. If you’re
using roughly the same weights now as you were handling two months ago, a year ago, or three years ago—as most bodybuilders are—you can’t
expect to have grown much, if at all; unless, of course, you’re using the same poundages but at a considerably slower rep speed. Progressive
poundages in consistently good form, always remember, are at the core of bodybuilding .
Many of you will aspire as high as these lifts, while some of you will aspire much higher. Get as high as this list first, then look higher. Bite off a bit
at a time. Decide what you want, ensuring that it’s realistic, and then plan accordingly. Many of you may be content with poundages somewhat less
than those given. Fine. To be content with more modest achievements is no small thing—it’s a matter of individual desire, age and value judgement.

Something special
Many people, regardless of how hard-gaining they are, have a lift or two they can do much better than the other lifts. Their physical structure gives
them a bias towards a certain type of movement. Once you’re trained for a while you’ll likely notice this. Perhaps you can easily stiff-legged
deadlift more than you can squat. Perhaps you can bench press nearly as much as you can squat, despite working hard at the squat. Perhaps you
have a terrific grip and can comfortably hold anything you can deadlift. Perhaps your calves grow quite easily and you can’t understand what all the
fuss is about building calves.
Whatever individual strong movement you may have, if you want to take a single lift close to if not beyond what a genetically gifted bodybuilder of
comparable size can lift, then make sure you make the absolute best of that strong movement. While it means you’ll exaggerate the differences
between your strong lift and your other lifts, you’ll enjoy holding your own in a single lift. Don’t keep a strong lift intentionally behind your other lifts
if you really want to mark yourself out as outstanding in one area even among genetically superior and even drug-assisted (or drug-built) fellow
gym members.

Monitoring progress
Poundage progression should be a clear sign of progress. However, if you loosen your form as the weeks go by, and take ever-increasing rest
periods between reps and sets, you can increase your poundages (provided you don’t get injured from the loose form) without increasing your
actual strength. For poundage progression to be a true barometer of your progress, for any given exercise you must maintain consistently good
form, and only compare the poundages done for the same number of reps, same length of pauses between reps, and same rest periods between
sets.
Keep accurate records of your bodyweight and body girths. You can then objectively monitor your progress rather than just leave it up to your
eye. Now that you know where you’re going, you need to find out where you’re at now and then be able to watch your progress as you slowly
move towards your long-term goals.
Record your bodyweight weekly, and do it at the same time each week. For example, record it immediately before a workout.
Take your measurements at the same time of day each time you do it—say first thing in the morning. Don’t pump up first; take the measurements
cold. Avoid measuring yourself every few days. Let enough time pass so you can measure a difference. At the end of each training cycle is a good
point.
Record your neck, upper arms, forearms, shoulder girth, chest, waist, hips, upper thighs, and calves. Also, measure the thickness of a pinch of skin
and fat taken from the mid-point between your navel and hip bone. Make sure to dig as deep as you can each time you do this, and to dig at
exactly the same site.
Make a written note of the precise location you choose for each measurement. Measure at the same location each time you get the tape out. If you
don’t, you may—for example—raise the tape measure around your chest a little each time you measure, not replicating the first location. As
another example, if initially you measured your hips at the largest point with your buttocks contracted, don’t change later to a lower location and
relaxed buttocks. If you don’t write down exactly how you initially measured each site, you won’t be able to replicate the locations at subsequent
measurement times.
While waist measurement and the thickness of the waist pinch of skin and fat will show body fat changes, you can be more thorough by using
accurate skinfold calipers. You need to follow carefully the directions supplied with the calipers.
An optional method of monitoring progress is to use photographs. Have photographs taken periodically under the same conditions of lighting,
attire, setting, skin color and poses. Have the prints sized so the image size of you is always the same. Being the same height in the comparison
prints, you can compare yourself accurately.

How far can you go?

When you can’t gain more size and strength, it can have one of two explanations. You’ve either genuinely reached your limit of genetic potential,
or, far more likely, you’ve reached the limit of the productiveness of the training methods you’ve been using.
How many bodybuilders reach their absolute limit of genetic potential for muscular size and strength? I’ll answer with another question: Is there
anyone who couldn’t get just a few pounds stronger?
Few people are fortunate enough to come across the most effective training methods immediately upon starting training. Most people get buried
under the mountain of distractions and training nonsense. Those who manage to extricate themselves take years to get a thorough understanding of
the training methods needed to sustain progress for many years. If you take too long to get this understanding, you’ll no longer have age on your
side for realizing your absolute lifetime potential for muscular size and strength.
There are no tests you can undergo that can say, with full assurance, when you’re at the absolute limit of your size and strength potential. So how
can you know? You can’t.
Very few typical bodybuilders get close to realizing their potential. So, rather than underestimating your limits, err on the side of expecting more
from your efforts. However, don’t get so greedy that you fail to see the wonderful achievements you may have made already.
The price tag of impressive muscular development and strength is a high one—extraordinary commitment, desire, mental toughness, motivation, application and
intelligence. Dig deep, and start paying your dues.
No other consideration matters—be it coach, equipment, smart clothing, food, supplements, mental aid, or
literature—until you’ve absorbed into your being the priority of simple progression.
Search out for the smallest discs you can get—quarter kilogram or half pound. You can add these to your barbell
time after time, even once you’ve hit the full-bore stage of a cycle.
No matter how hard the going gets, keep at it. Life is no picnic and neither is bodybuilding. Persist!
4. PPP
The bedrock of success in the gym is the triumvirate of progression , performance and persistence .

Progression
Simple progression is so much the essence of successful bodybuilding that its importance shouldn’t need stressing. Today’s world of distracting
hype has placed simple progression on the sideline of training considerations. It’s usually added onto a training article as an appendage, as an
afterthought. Other factors tend to dominate the written and spoken word of bodybuilding.
The need for simple progression should be embossed upon the gym clothing of every bodybuilder, especially neophytes, and emblazoned in every
training facility and upon every training-related product.
Simple progression is about marching into new ground, going into areas you’ve not been in before, pushing yourself harder than you’ve been
pushed before, demanding more of yourself than ever before.
At its simplest it’s the “one more rep,” and the “one more pound” principles. Work on adding “one more rep” to a work set, and then add a little
iron once the rep goal has been achieved; or keep a fixed rep count and add a pound (or a fraction of a pound) every workout or few.
How often do you see the achievement of “one more rep” be the all-dominating force behind a workout? How often do you see someone push his
body beyond what was thought to be the last rep, to grind out yet one more rep, and then perhaps another?
That you don’t see much of this sort of application of simple progression is testimony to the paltry results that so many bodybuilders get. No other
consideration matters—be it a coach, equipment smart clothing, food, supplement, mental aid, literature or whatever else—until you’ve absorbed,
into your being, the absolute importance of simple progression.
The “one more rep” simplicity of simple progression, and the adding of some iron (as little as half a pound made up by a few large washers) to
each exercise every week or two or three, isn’t the only way to increase progressively the load upon your muscles. But for the hard gainer it’s by
far the most important means of progression. Grasp with life-long, irrevocable understanding that simple progression is the name of the game, and
that simple progression is about effort—unadulterated and belligerently determined effort.
It’s neither possible nor desirable to drive yourself to a new limit every workout on a permanent basis. The body of a drug-free, genetically typical
bodybuilder can’t take such a battering. (More on the need to cycle intensity of effort is given later on.)
In the initial stages of bodybuilding, the neophyte usually gets to grips with simple progression because, at that stage, progression is easy. There’s
no need to push yourself to failure to keep the progression coming along. This is the easy stage of training. But this assumes the use of a sensible
routine that’s neither too long nor too frequently done.
Things start to go wrong when the easy poundage progression of the initial months of training grinds to a halt. Now you have to earn the
progression by putting in extremely determined effort. But it’s now that training routines are too readily expanded, split routines adopted, and the
attractions of the distractions ruin progress. Effort gets spread thinly, recovery time is decreased, volume of work increased, and marginal concerns
of bodybuilding are treated as major concerns.

Tiny discs
When maintaining poundage progression, avoid the mistake of making the increments too big. When you’re in the stage of a cycle that has you
training nearly flat-out, and then flat-out, keep the poundage increments very small. Search out for the smallest plates you can get—get a pair of
quarter-kilogram plates. Hunt around for a specialist supplier of Olympic weightlifting gear. Using these you can add a mere 1.1 pounds to your
barbell. When the sets are hard to eke out, progressing 1.1 pounds is realistic, and the bar doesn’t feel any different. If five pounds is the minimum
you can add to your barbell, that can make the bar feel a lot heavier when you’re getting towards the end of a cycle. This will kill the gaining
momentum. Haste makes waste. Keep the momentum going for as long as you can.
Tiny discs can lengthen a cycle a surprising amount. Your body can adapt to 1.1 pound increases every week or two. Strength can easily be built
at that rate. (Perhaps you can get half-pound discs rather than quarter-kilogram discs.) You can add these discs to your bar time after time after
time without the bar feeling any heavier, even once you’ve hit the full-bore stage of a cycle. If you can’t get hold of quarter-kilogram or one-pound
discs, find any way of tying (or taping) a half-pound load to each side of the barbell. A metal-worker should be able to rig up something for you.
Get the discs (or substitutes), and use them!
When doing 20-rep squats, for example, suppose you just eked out the full 20 in Monday’s workout, and it demanded more than you’ve given to
an exercise before. Don’t put another 10 pounds on the bar for your next workout. Don’t even put five pounds on the bar. Put just one or two
pounds on or, perhaps better still, repeat the poundage and put on the additional pound or two at the following workout. Once the workouts are
very hard, keep increments small but maintain them for as long as you can. The quickest way to kill a training cycle is to pile poundage on too
rapidly. Don’t be impatient and ruin your progress.
To be able to sustain the principle of simple progression, there are three factors you must get in sound order:

1. Volume of work
The more work you do, the more work over which you have to spread your effort and energy. The briefer your workouts, the more concentrated
is your effort. Think it through. The more multiple-set work you do, and the more exercises you use, the more you conserve on your effort levels to
make it through the whole schedule. No one can train flat-out for long workouts. No amount of grimacing and noise making can convince to the
contrary.
There’s no single combination of numbers of exercises, sets and workout frequency that’s universally appropriate for all hard gainers. More on this
point later. The general rule is to do fewer exercises rather than more, do fewer sets rather than more, and do less frequent workouts rather than
more frequent ones.

2. Choice of exercises
As effort can only be applied at full force in small quantities, and as the recovery capacities of hard gainers are very limited, the volume of work
must also be very limited. It’s necessary to concentrate effort on the most basic and most demanding exercises. This causes the most growth
stimulation from as few exercises as possible. This means the priority selection of the major basic exercises, or variations of them. But there’s no
need to get locked into the same set of exercises all the time.
This means squats, not leg extensions; bench presses or dips, not flyes or crossovers; deadlifts, not hyperextensions; overhead presses, not lateral
raises, etc. The most productive exercises are the ones that “hurt” the most when done in good form. The more an exercise wipes you out, the
more growth it can stimulate. The comfortable exercises are the most unproductive ones. I must qualify this to say that isolation exercises done with
real effort wipe you out too, and certainly aren’t comfortable. But the discomfort from the latter is mostly local rather than local and throughout the
body as with the big multi-joint exercises such as squats, deadlifts, bench presses, dips, etc.
Hard gainers have much more limited recovery capabilities than do genetically superior easy gainers, especially if the latter are using drugs. This
exaggerates the stress we need to place upon the use of the major basic exercises. We need to get the absolute most out of as little exercise as
possible. The extreme interpretation of this produces routines of only one to three exercises. Absolute heresy it is, absolute growth stimulation it
can be. Never short-change abbreviated routines.
Look at what some powerlifters do to their bodies. Some powerlifters don’t do much, if anything, in the way of assistance exercises. They just
pour themselves into the three powerlifts, sometimes only training each lift hard once a week, but they grow all over. The overall physique balance
isn’t perfect, and the pure aesthetics are lacking (by advanced bodybuilding standards), but they have little or no interest in all of that. All they want
to do is to get stronger.
You can adopt similar principles and, once plenty of mass has been built, then the balance and finish can be worked on. While the heavy lifters
aren’t renowned for their definition, the under-200-pound lifters are usually hard and defined, although lacking the chiselled look of an advanced
bodybuilder. Don’t worry about the details of the finished look until you’re so big that the details become significant.

This brings us to one of the most striking differences between typical hard gainers, and genetically gifted and/or drug-using
bodybuilders. The latter can build mass and simultaneously work on detail. The former can only build mass if they focus on that for
several years. Once they have enough mass, then they may benefit from a scaled-down interpretation of the latter’s detail work.

Drug-free and genetically typical bodybuilders don’t have enough training energy and recovery ability to be able to recover and respond to what
the easy gainers can. It’s a different world. While the easy gainers can get to the targets in Chapter 3 very easily, the typical bodybuilder can’t. Just
to get to those goals is a major task, involving almost total focus upon those single goals.
Easy gainers have far fewer problems getting big than they have with getting all the detail, chiselling and fullness of development necessary to win
competitions. They have the luxury of being able to concern themselves with something the majority of us never can.
For hard gainers, getting even moderately big is such a mighty task that detail work is not only a distraction, but it’s an irrelevance. Even once at
the Chapter 3 targets—after having climbed the “Everest”—many typical bodybuilders still won’t have the ability to grow and work on the details.
Just what you can productively use, you’ll have to discover yourself once you’re already at the goals of Chapter 3.

The top bodybuilders, and even those not right at the top, couldn’t have developed their full, balanced and detailed physiques without a
variety of exercises, both multi-joint and single-joint. A single basic exercise cannot fully develop size and detail in a single muscle.

This doesn’t mean that you should rush out and start using a multitude of exercises to get the full and detailed development you want. What it does
mean is that you should set about getting the development in a way appropriate to a drug-free and genetically typical bodybuilder. Size and overall
strength first, even if it comes with physique imbalances and lack of detail.
You may be able to alter, at least in a small way and at the appropriate time, the apparent shape of a bodypart by focusing on a single aspect of it.
This doesn’t mean you can do anything about genetic shape limitations. You can only make the best of what you’ve got. Of course, that “best” is
always terrific relative to where you started from, and fantastic relative to the untrained person.
The most striking need, visible in all typical gyms, is the absence of enough muscular mass. The best way to get better shape is simply to get bigger
muscles. (More size with the same amount of body fat makes you appear more defined, too.) Focus on size and strength first. Build the foundation.
Work up to being advanced—by drug-free and genetically typical standards—and then pay attention to the detail, supposing you think you have
enough mass to do that. It may be that you still feel that your focus should be on mass for another year or few.
Even on an abbreviated routine, so long as your calves and neck get direct work, and you don’t pile on mass too quickly—mistaking fat for muscle
—everything else has to come along in size while maintaining satisfactory hardness. If you pour yourself into a short set of basic exercises such as
squats, stiff-legged deadlifts, a row, an overhead press, and dips or bench presses, together with calf and neck work, (not all done at every
workout) what major structure of the body isn’t going to respond? Apply yourself for a few years to these exercises, or variations, building up to
big poundages, and you’ll see what so little exercise can do.
Forget once and for all the myth that lots of exercises and lots of sets are needed to build size. A variety of exercises is important, but a variety of
the major exercises over time , not a variety of anything and everything at the same time.
For example, do barbell bench presses on a horizontal bench for a cycle. Next cycle, do bench presses on a low incline. Later, following another
cycle of regular bench presses, you could do dumbbell bench presses, or dips.
Variation is not only good for your body, to prevent it getting in a rut, it’s good for your mind too. It helps to keep motivation and interest high. Just
make sure that the variations are variations on the basic movements. For other ways of introducing variety while maintaining the focus on the big,
basic lifts, see Chapter 13.
This isn’t to say that all isolation exercises should be shoved aside, and that some interpretation of a split routine can’t be used effectively. It is to
say that isolation exercises should play, at most, a minor role for hard gainers struggling to reach their size potentials. It is possible to get big and
strong without ever using a small isolation exercise. For some hard gainers, it’s the only way to get big and strong.
If all isolation exercises were to disappear from the face of the earth, all bodybuilders other than competitive ones in the advanced finishing stage
would benefit. There would be more stress on the building exercises, and the great mass of bodybuilders would have a much greater chance of
getting what they need the most—substantially increased muscular mass and strength.
The traditional split routines are a waste of time for the vast majority of hard gainers. There are, however, interpretations of split routines—nothing
like what you usually read about, though—that can be very helpful.

3. Absolute progression versus relative progression

Linear progression can’t be sustained for year after year. Linear progression can be maintained for individual cycles. Don’t even try to increase
your absolute best rep and poundage achievements every workout. It can’t be done.
You must structure your cycles so that most workouts, or even every workout in each cycle, show progress relative to the previous workout, but
only the workouts in the final weeks of the cycle will show absolute progress—new personal bests of rep and poundage achievements. Detail on
cycling is given in Chapter 7.

Performance
The emphasis upon progression doesn’t mean a disregard for proper style of performance for each exercise. Every rep and poundage increase has
to be earned through effort and real strength and muscle increases. No mere loosening up of style to get out the extra reps—that’s dishonest
training that greatly increases the risk of injury.
You may be able to keep 10-pound a week increases going for a long time in the squat so long as you keep cutting the depth of the squat.
Eventually you’ll be doing next to no squatting, but there will be a heck of a lot of iron on the bar. Your actual strength and muscle mass won’t
have changed much though.
Proper style of performance matters a lot. What is correct style of performance? Controlled and smooth rep speed, no explosiveness, and use of
safe, correct bar pathways are the combination for long-term, injury-free training. I don’t recommend counting seconds during reps. Counting
seconds will distract you from what should be your focus—getting out as many reps as possible (on your work sets, that is). But every rep you do
must be performed strictly , without cheating. Reps can be counted without the counting becoming a distraction. Once you’re experienced in
training you can almost subconsciously count reps. Counting reps is a powerful aid for producing hard, productive training, so long as you have a
target to beat.
The first few reps of a set are easy to do—very low-rep work excluded—so you don’t give forth of full effort at this stage. If you do, you’ll be
throwing the bar, setting yourself up for injury. Once the reps become hard, use as much force as you can, without cheating, to get the bar up. The
bar is always lowered deliberately, with no dropping. Following the early reps of a set, you’ll try to move the bar rapidly but, in practice, the bar
will move slowly.
Between reps there’s a deliberate pause. It’s very short early in a set—perhaps one-second pauses. It will lengthen as the set progresses, to the
point of taking a breath or few between reps to set yourself up for the next rep. Rest-pause training exaggerates the rest between reps, but that’s
only for certain exercises at certain times.
At the end of a set of perfectly performed, strict, smooth reps, don’t loosen your form in order to get out an extra rep or two. The conservative
“absolutely no cheating” approach is the best way to go because it’s a much safer way to train . You must avoid injury!
To extend a set beyond the point where you have completed the maximum possible number of perfect reps, perform forced reps using one or (for
the big exercises) two assistants. But as noted elsewhere in this book, forced reps must be used with caution if at all . Harder work is not always
better; and often, increased intensity beyond what is already genuinely hard , is overkill, and will produce overtraining. Overtraining doesn’t
build bigger muscles. In fact, overtraining will wear you down, weaken you, and set you up for injury and/or sickness.
Rep speed variation can help keep variety in your training. Don’t get locked in one fixed pattern. At the same time, don’t go chopping and
changing so much that you never milk any single interpretation dry. Stick to one (rational) interpretation of exercises, rep speed, and set and rep
scheme for a whole cycle before passing judgement.
Productive bodybuilding is about a number of unified factors. Take one factor out of the whole, and the productivity of training will evaporate.
Stressing simple progression is an absolute must, but only in combination with sound exercise form and satisfaction of all the other factors of
bodybuilding.
When starting a new training cycle, the training intensity has been slackened off. Apply yourself to perfect exercise performance (see Chapter 11).
Do the exercises properly, and keep doing them properly as the intensity picks up over the course of the cycle. Always slow down the poundage
increments and lengthen the cycle. If you hurry the poundage increments you’ll slacken your exercise style, incur the chance of injury, and reduce
the effectiveness of the cycle.

Persistence
Putting the requirements of successful bodybuilding onto paper is straightforward. It’s the putting into practice that’s the difficult bit. Hard gainers
always need to adapt given routines to fit their own uniqueness. Some of us need to adapt things more than do others. Experimentation, and trial
and error, takes time. Some people find what works for them early on. Some take a long time to find what delivers the goods, even though they’ve
been moving within the range of sound, sensible and basic training. There are many interpretations.
Some bodybuilders get so distracted by the ineffective alternatives that dominate popular bodybuilding that they can take years before coming
around to finding what actually works. Some take so long that they never find what delivers substantial size and strength.
Even when training is going well, gains don’t flood in on a long-term basis. You’ll probably experience short periods of quick gains, but you’ll also
have long periods of little or no gains. Keep at it. Never give up. Every mistake is a lesson learned. So long as you don’t keep repeating mistakes,
mistakes are fine to make.
Keep a training diary, and record all your workouts. You need a written record of what you’ve done previously in order to determine what you
need to do later on. Be diligent and serious about your training. Huge success in the long-term is about little bits of success in the short-term. Chart
the success, and record the little bits of success by using a training diary.
A bite at a time, a step at a time, piece by piece. Think of some huge man-made structures. They were built by one little bit being placed on top of
another little bit. This is how it is in bodybuilding. Just work at adding the next pound to your barbell, then the next, then the next and on and on.
Just work at adding the next eighth of an inch to your arms, calves and everything else. Add up all the eighths of an inch, and add up all the bits of
iron; then you get many inches over your body and hundreds of pounds on the bar. Persist!
Frustrations, setbacks, disappointments, injuries (not necessarily caused by training) and unsuccessful experiments are all part of life. Come they
will. When they do, then you’ll be tested.
There will be times when you’ll have to content yourself with keeping regression to the minimum; progression is then but a dream. There will be
wonderful times when everything clicks for the good, and you can really forge ahead.
No matter how hard the going gets, keep at it. Life is no picnic, and neither is bodybuilding. Persist!
Life is a continuous challenge. Rise to it. See every setback as a challenge. Let nothing get you down. Ignore negative influences. Stay true to what
you know is the way to go. Persist!
“Stickability” is one of the biggest factors in bodybuilding. Successful hard gainers aren’t built overnight. They need time, sometimes lots of time.
Pound by pound on the bar, eighth of an inch by eighth of an inch on your muscles. Persist!
Workout after workout, week after week, month after month, year after year . . . persist!
Not only should you never give up, you should never even think of giving up, not ever. Relish the satisfaction of persistence and achievement. The only people who
don’t have the satisfaction of rising to challenges and overcoming setbacks are the ones in the coffins. Persist, persist and persist some more!
We can all gain insight and knowledge from others, but only you can train yourself. This book will give you
insight and knowledge, but it’s up to you to use all of this in the most appropriate way for you.
Misdirected enthusiasm is at the root of so much bodybuilding failure. What a shame so few people learn this
lesson. Of those who learn this lesson, they often take so long to learn it that they lose many of their most
productive years.
5. Variations on a Theme
There’s no single universally effective training program that will cater for all individual needs and purposes. There are, however, sound guidelines
that can and must be applied to all routines if hard gainers are to prosper on them.
Although we’re all basically the same, we’re all different. On top of the genetic variations described in Chapter 2 are a multitude of other factors
involved when designing effective training programs. Genetic variations influence both ultimate levels of achievement and the likelihood of
responding positively to a given routine. Other factors have a big say in the design of a training routine. These factors include capacity for work,
age, structural toughness, health, mental discipline, history of injuries, individual preferences, equipment available, dietary habits, economic
considerations, working hours and conditions, family obligations, time available for training, and quality and quantity of sleep.

Unalike identical twins

Suppose we have a pair of equally motivated and healthy identical male twins, aged 25. Both have identical genetic inheritance and so have no
variation in physical make-up. Suppose that one won a lot of money in a lottery and is single, with no employment concerns. He has access to a
gym with a first-class variety of quality equipment. He can eat perfectly, and can have restful days outside the gym and undisturbed nights of sleep.
The other twin works shifts at a job of manual labor, and lives on a very tight budget. He trains in a garage with an Olympic barbell, plenty of
plates, a bench, and a pair of safety racks and squat stands. He has two young children and barely any spare time to train, and no time for leisure
and rest. If he’s not at work, he’s at home fulfilling family obligations, working on the house or car, or training in the garage. He never gets an
undisturbed night of rest. His daily routine is regularly disturbed by his shift work. The children never leave him alone when he’s at home. Food
over the needs of an average person is difficult to fund, and supplements are out of the question. Life just seems to be struggle on top of more
struggle.
What the first twin can gain from will be very different to what the second twin can, despite sharing identical genetically endowed potentials,
limitations and advantages. The second twin can’t emulate even his genetically identical brother, let alone emulate a professional bodybuilder. The
second twin will be lucky if he can grow on half the exercises, sets and training frequency of his brother.
What you can productively use in the gym is greatly influenced by the quality of rest, nutrition and sleep that are available to you out of the gym.
You can’t battle away in the gym without any regard for out-of-the-gym but non-genetically determined factors.
Of course, even with the optimum equipment, routine, rest, sleep and dietary factors, there will be no progress in the gym if the individual hasn’t the
will to pay his dues in the gym. However, once this will to work is present, progress is all about how you let this enthusiasm manifest itself in the
gym, and how well you meet your recuperation needs when outside the gym.
To make a routine specific for you—tailor-made—the general sound advice has to be modified to fit your individual circumstances. Only you can
do this. Only you know how you react to a given routine. Only you know your lifestyle and its effect upon your bodybuilding progress.
This isn’t permission to experiment with anything and everything, in any manner you choose. That would be an undisciplined, lazy and frivolous
approach—useless. What is needed is experimentation and variation within a sound general framework, and the will to try some radical
approaches. The onus is upon you to refine and perfect what you select so it suits you fully, and maximizes your progress within the confines of
your genetic endowment and lifestyle constraints.
When experimenting, what matters is what works. If something works for you, stick with it. It’s when something doesn’t work, despite being used
diligently and conscientiously, that it needs changing. Perhaps some of what you do is only good in short spells. It’s the timing of different types of
training that can determine whether or not they are productive.
To satisfy the range of individual needs and lifestyle variations, while keeping within the confines of realistic training, there are several ways of
modifying programs., including:

1. Set and rep schemes and interpretations

2. Choice of exercises and equipment
3. Volume of work
4. Training frequency
 5. Intensity of effort

It’s by manipulating these variables that a variety of training programs can be designed, providing all typical bodybuilders with the tools for
progress. Out-of-the-gym variables—rest, sleep and nutrition—can often determine the effectiveness of a training program.
You’ll need to adjust the training variables according to changes in your everyday life. You can’t continue your usual bodybuilding program,
without modification, once you have children and you need to work longer hours and perhaps establish your own business.
For the typical person, individual adjustment of training should nearly always be on the side of less work and/or less frequent workouts.
Adjustments on the side of more work per workout, and more frequent workouts, will usually be unproductive, at least for average-type
bodybuilders. Such ineffective adjustments are the popular way to go. Such misdirected enthusiasm is at the root of much bodybuilding failure in
gyms throughout the world. What a shame so few people learn this lesson. Of those who do learn this lesson, they often take so long to learn it
that they lose many of their most productive years.

Example of modification according to circumstances

Suppose you productively used to follow a routine of warmups plus two or three hard sets of squats or deadlifts (alternating workouts), donkey
calf raises, bench presses, pulldowns, overhead presses, barbell curls, parallel bar dips, and neck work. You productively did this twice a week.
You’d train in cycles of ten weeks—a week’s layoff, two easy weeks, two medium weeks of training and then five weeks flat out. You did this for
the last eight months, adding 60 pounds to your deadlift, 50 to your squat, and 40 to your bench press. These gains accompanied a gain of 15
pounds of muscle.
In the following month you became a father of twins, and took on a part-time second job to make ends meet. You maintained your twice-per-
week training, but gains dried up immediately. Training became a drag, disturbed nights the rule, meals were skipped as the second job squeezed
out a few hours of most days.
So, you adjusted your training because of the changes in your life outside the gym. Reducing training frequency to three times every two weeks
improves things, but gains still don’t happen. More adjustment is required. Gaps provided by missed meals can be filled by using drinks from out of
a blender, enabling quality nutrition to be consumed quickly. Reps in the gym are reduced from the usual 10–12 to 7–10. Only one or two hard
sets are done per exercise, rather than the previous two or three. Workouts now use only two or three big exercises, plus calf and neck work.
Deadlifts are done only alternate weeks. Less work is done, done less often, and nutrition—care of the blender—is got back in good order. The
gains return.
If there’s a family crisis and you don’t feel in the mood for a planned workout, postpone it. Taking an extra day or two between workouts can be
beneficial. We must rid ourselves once and for all of the mentality of wanting to accumulate gym hours just for the sake of an addiction to the gym.
We want results, not gym attendance records.
Be 100% sure not to miss or delay workouts for the wrong reasons. There’s an enormous difference between intelligent delay of a workout and
the skipping of workouts due to lack of seriousness. Training must become a habit if it’s to be productive. The gym must have a very important
place in your life, something not to be treated lightly.
You’re your own guide and trainer. We can all gain insight and knowledge from others, but only you can train yourself. This book will give you
insight and knowledge, but it’s up to you to use all this in the most appropriate way for you.

To-failure versus almost-to-failure

Manipulation of the variables that make up sensible training can involve much trial and error. Perhaps you didn’t cut back enough, or, you’ve cut
back too much for a less-than-100% level of training effort. Perhaps you’ve cut out the most important exercises in favor of the little exercises.
Perhaps you aren’t consuming enough nutritious food to gain on any program. Perhaps the amount of work is fine, and so is the intensity of effort,
but the training frequency is still too much. Perhaps you simply aren’t, at present, capable of responding positively to single- or double-set to-
failure type training. However, perhaps you can gain on three to five sets of almost-to-failure training on each of only three or four exercises per
workout.
While you may find that some increase in training volume can compensate, at least partially and temporarily, for a drop in training intensity, don’t
overdo it. Effort and intensity of effort are the names of the game, but sometimes you can’t lift yourself to the heights needed to train flat-out. Some
people don’t have the will and tolerance of discomfort needed to train to absolute failure.
Alternating cycles of the one or two sets to-failure training with three to five sets of almost-to-failure work per exercise is something worth trying.
Each stresses the body differently—physically and psychologically—and alternating the two approaches may be beneficial. Alternating a pure
power-based cycle with the three to five sets of almost-to-failure work is also worth trying. The logic being that the change in approach and the
variety given is good, and the medium volume work (still keeping the number of exercises well cut back) can encourage the body to bring muscular
development up on a par with the new level of strength.
If you opt to experiment with almost-to-failure training, be wary of increasing the volume of exercises in your routine. Increasing to three to five
sets per exercise for only three or four exercises per workout is one thing. Increasing to three to five sets per exercise for ten exercises per
workout is another thing—the antithesis of what typical people need. Keep workouts short and simple, and don’t do them too often. Stay out of
the gym if you still feel beat from the previous workout.

Fine-tuning your exercise selection

Just because someone raves over a certain exercise, that doesn’t mean you should do that exercise if it doesn’t feel right for you. Perhaps I rave
over the bench press and gain size from it. Perhaps the exercise does little for you, but parallel bar dips pack on the beef. Perhaps you can benefit
from both exercises, choosing to alternate the two from cycle to cycle, or workout to workout.
Perhaps you can progress in the pullup, but I can’t. Some people gain from pronated-grip pulldowns and pullups while others do better on the
supinated-grip versions. Some people can’t get into pulley exercises. Some bodybuilders must do bent-over rows to train their lats and upper
back.

Preparing yourself for gaining

Some people need to structure their training so they have periods that make no attempt to increase size and strength. The periods are put together
so that the body actually gets softened up. This involves some loss of size and strength in order to make the body receptive to the growth
stimulating training to follow. For these people—more of them than you may think—training flat-out for long spells, or even in just part of every
cycle, is too much. High intensity training has to be used much more prudently.
A three-month training block could start with a week of rest followed by three weeks of moderate aerobic work plus calisthenics. Follow that with
three weeks on a basic program of four to six barbell exercises twice a week. Take it easy to begin with and build up so that the workouts become
almost hard at the end of the third week. This initial seven-week preparation period has you eating moderately, so as to maintain bodyweight or
lose a little fat, but not to gain.
Following the seven weeks of preparation come four to six weeks of high intensity work. Continue with the same basic routine but now drive
yourself to failure in each work set, and considerably increase your nutritional intake. You must ensure there’s no under-recovery and no shortage
of nutrients. Take however many days between workouts as you need—perhaps training the deadlift once a week and everything else three times
every two weeks. Use a brief, total-body routine, or a modified split routine schedule as suggested later in this book. Sleep and rest as much as
you can. Be fastidious about getting a generous and very nutritious diet. Let bodybuilding dominate you for these four to six weeks.
Do your best to time the stages of the three-month training block so your outside-of-the-gym stressful times fall away from the growth stage. This
is the gaining period that you have spent seven weeks preparing for. Make the absolute most of it—pour in everything you’ve got, and then find
even more effort. A ten-day layoff is then taken and another three-month block commenced. You must end the new block with higher poundages
than did the previous one, in order to have made progress.
This approach places great importance upon the timing of the very hard training. It comes in short doses, but only after you have been prepared for
it.
You’ve probably neither tried nor even read of this approach. If you feel that the regular ways of training aren’t delivering the goods for you, even
when using the cycling approaches described in Chapter 7, try this alternative type of training. It’s radical but may be what you need. The duration
of each stage isn’t written in stone. You may need to adjust the stages to suit you. Learn from experience, of course, refining things each time you
use this approach.

Comprehensive but not exhaustive

There are many interpretations of basic, brief abbreviated and down-to-earth training. Enough to accommodate all individual needs and
circumstances. This book comprehensively but not exhaustively covers these interpretations.
You’ll need to read the book more than once to understand the full message—there’s much content in this single book. Each time you read the
book you’ll see things you missed, understand things you previously didn’t, and likely have to reconsider things you previously took for granted.
The better your current understanding, the further you can take later understanding.
Understanding of the ins and outs of bodybuilding isn’t something you can exhaust. There’s always something else to learn, and something to
improve on.
Bodybuilding is a learning process. There are many potentially productive interpretations to try. The process can be time consuming, especially if
you don’t listen carefully enough to your body. Don’t battle through difficult times rather than adapt your training to suit changing circumstances.
It doesn’t matter if you make mistakes. Mistake making is desirable, so long as you learn from the mistakes. Someone who makes no mistakes is unlikely to
make anything. Keep at it. Persist, at all times.
You’ll benefit from this book in direct proportion to how seriously you study it, how thoroughly you understand
the contents, how well you make the understanding one with you, and how resolutely you apply it.
If you’re having trouble getting bigger and stronger using abbreviated routines of basic exercises, you’ll make a
difficult task into an impossible one if you change to longer and more frequent routines infested by lots of little
exercises. Focus on getting a full understanding of how to make the basic formula work. Don’t change
philosophies!
6. Effort and Dedication
To deliver progressive poundages performed in good exercise style, and persisted with for a long time, effort and dedication must be in abundance.
There’s no getting away from it, successful bodybuilding—the realization of genetic potential—demands very hard work, and extraordinary
dedication.
Be in no doubt that astonishing transformations have been achieved by bodybuilders of average genetic potential who have trained by themselves in
garages using just a bench, squat stands, and a barbell set. All of this together with ordinary food and no supplements, and done before the
razzmatazz and hype that’s so influential today. Never lose sight of priorities. Successful bodybuilding is basically very simple—darned hard work
on appropriate routines while cycling training intensity, in combination with sound rest and dietary habits. Effort and dedication, correctly applied,
rule the day.

The joy of effort

How true it is that we really appreciate something only once we no longer have it. The opportunity and ability to train hard, to be able to pour in
the effort to work your body to its limit, is a joy, a blessing and a privilege. Think it through. To have a body in sufficient condition for it to be able
to be pushed to its limit, time after time, and to keep coming back for more, is a wonder.
Make the most of it. Revel in it. It won’t last forever, though it can last a darned sight longer than many would have you believe. Don’t believe the
myth that getting old means the cessation of hard training. A modification of training, yes, but the continued putting in of effort and dedication until
you expire.
When studying about the why, wherefore and method of getting bigger and stronger, never forget the most coveted of all considerations. To be
able to train hard, lifelong, necessitates a sound body with a potential for robust health. How easily we forget this as we strive for more and more
gains. Inferior, average or superior genetic potential—it’s not the priority. Good health is way above in importance.
Health and a top title-winning physique aren’t synonymous. The conditions that these “winners” go through are antithetical to health—the extreme
diets, the drugs, the overtraining, the injuries. While they may tolerate this over the short-term, giving the semblance of health, the long-term
consideration is another matter. Real bodybuilders are into training for life, so robust health is a necessity for us.
Training should be a joy, even hard training. Discomforting, yes, but satisfying. It’s a privilege to be able to train hard and seriously as advocated in
this book. We must always remember that we train for our personal satisfaction. It’s a lifetime’s activity, not merely a young person’s narcissistic
fad. Maintain hard and dedicated training for the duration of your life, although you may never exceed 16-inch arms and a 300-pound bench press.
You’ll then go a long way to ensuring a long and healthy life. Of course, effort and dedication in the gym have to be married with perhaps the most
important exercise—the exercise of discretion at the dining table.
Temporary injuries and sickness are reminders of the importance of dynamic well-being. Only when we’re unable to train as we want to, do we
appreciate the value of sound health.
When we’re sick, be it merely a cold, everything becomes tiresome and we wish away the time until we’re our normal selves. Health comes first.
Only then does impressive brawn come into the picture. Look after yourselves. Avoid habits and environments that will reduce your potential to be
energetic and healthy beyond youth. While doing this you should try your utmost to realize whatever genetic potential you’ve been endowed with.
To discover just what potential you possess, you have to realize it. To do this necessitates training hard, intelligently and consistently for many
years. To be able to do this you need to be healthy and to enjoy the satisfaction that each workout brings. And do this even if you never get within
a thousand miles of greatness, or, even if you live by yourself with a set of weights on a desert island devoid of a mirror.

Pouring forth
The name of the game is EFFORT. It demands enormous dedication and determination to keep pushing yourself to the limit, time after time. No
supplement, no routine, no diet, no training partner, no training supervisor, no trainer, no course, no magazine, no drug, no book, no seminar, no
video, and no training camp exists to get you to drive yourself to the limit in the gym. The buck stops with you. Only you can push yourself through
the pain and discomfort—again and again.
The shortage of the will to work really hard is the single factor most responsible for the lack of gains that most trainees experience. Few
bodybuilders really train hard. Of the average bodybuilders that do train hard, few take enough rest between workouts to permit themselves to
grow. So, effort and recovery time is the combination to get in order—the effort must be correctly applied.
When aiming to train with 100% effort you must, while you’re in the gym, regard your training as the most important part of your life. Visualize the
effort you’re going to give forth. Pour everything you have into each rep of each maximum-effort set you do. Regard each of these sets as the last
one you’ll ever do. Give your all.
Each maximum-rep set is a step nearer to bigger muscles and more strength. Never, ever, waste one of these opportunities.

A cautionary note here—maximum-rep sets can’t be productively used for week after week and month after month, at least not for
drug-free typical bodybuilders. There has to be some cycling of training intensity—detail on this is given in the next chapter. Also,
some ultra-hard gainers may not respond well to absolute-effort training until they have already built initial size through almost-
maximum-rep training using only a handful of the best exercises.

The neophyte needs to train hard and seriously, but not in the style of, “I’ll finish this set when I collapse, not a rep before.” The
training till utter failure, nigh-on-collapse style has its uses so long as it’s not abused. If you do it too much, not only could you kill
your desire to train, and exhaust your recovery ability for a while, but you may make your body resistant to any training other than
that which is even more intense. Don’t neglect training variation and cycling of intensity.

As the reps become hard, take a few seconds rest between reps. Become aggressive. Heighten your resolve. Rise to the challenge. See your
muscles becoming larger. Visualize greater size with one more rep, then another and another. Become the set.
Use any idea to help you grind out more reps. Use promises of rewards and deprivations to ensure that you get the reps out.
Many people think they train hard when in fact they cut every set short. Grimaces and grunts alone aren’t enough. It’s grimaces and grunts through
utter muscular failure that mark out high intensity training.
When the correct degree of effort is delivered in the gym, the quantity and frequency are automatically curtailed. When training on long routines,
effort has to be diluted so as to spread it more thinly. Training frequency can become excessive if motivation is extraordinarily high. Don’t get back
into the gym until you know you’re fully recovered. Kidding yourself that you’re recovered, when in fact you aren’t, is the route to stagnation
through training too frequently for the intensity being given. See Chapter 8 for detail on training frequency.
Get obsessive about delivering true high intensity effort in the gym, then most gaining problems will be solved so long as enough food and rest
are had . It’s easy to get caught up in the fine and marginal details of workout and meal planning, while neglecting the pivotal factor of darned hard
work.
When you train, “become” your training. Forget about chit chat and socializing during a workout. Refuse to reply to anyone who talks while you’re
doing a set.
It’s not enough to think you can remember the important points for correct performance of every maximum effort set you do. You need a written
note of them. You need to review this check list prior to every hard set you do (unless you’re supervised in your training). Something like this is
needed for when in the full-bore stage of a training cycle:

1. Strict exercise style.

2. Mind-muscle link. Think BIG.
3. Make the most of every work set—each is another never-to-be-had-again chance to progress.
4. Annihilate your previous workout’s record.
5. The name of the game is EFFORT .

Contemplation of such a list before each full-bore effort set you do will help to fire you up with the motivation you need to make each set another
step forward. Make each set count.
As the mind quickly becomes familiar with the same visual appearance, keep changing the presentation of the list. Make several of the lists using
different designs, words, typefaces, letter sizes, etc. Use a different one each workout, rotating the set of versions.
Training supervision
It’s almost impossible to find an individual who’s able to push himself consistently to a 100% effort. Sure we can all get ourselves together to push
to the limit in two or three exercises in a single workout, especially the smaller exercises. But to do it in every exercise in every workout for the
duration of the hard stretch of a training cycle?
Very few people push themselves to the limit, especially in the most demanding exercises such as the squat and deadlift. Many people make a lot
of fuss in their workouts, suggesting that they are at their limit, but very few really are.
Those who train extremely hard are massively motivated and, often, supervised. A training supervisor is nearly always needed to ensure that
training is carried out as it should be.
It takes a supervisor to push, urge, implore, motivate and even bully you to do every rep possible of every work set, and to do every rep with
100% correct exercise technique. As very few of us have our own private training supervisor, we have to obtain the next best thing.
Keep a training log/diary, and always train with a partner if possible. Keep a record of every training session, so that you always know exactly
what you need to do to make your next workout a progressive one. Don’t leave your achievements to memory. “Did I bench press 5 reps with
292 pounds and had a helping hand on the last one, or did I make all 5 by myself? Did I squat 20 reps with 312 pounds, or was it 314?” Take all
the memory out of your training by keeping meticulous records.
Training with a serious partner is a wonderful thing. This person should be dedicated to ensuring that you get absolutely everything out of all your
planned maximum-rep sets. While it’s not imperative that you’re of similar strength, and are training on identical or very similar routines, it’s
preferred. Better that your partner is a little stronger than you. This will bring out the competitive streak in you, to your benefit. Ideally, both of you
should be training on the same type of cycle so you both train with the same intensity at each workout. Plan your workouts and cycles, and stick to
them. Don’t let your enthusiasm get the better of your reason—don’t short-circuit a cycle.
Whatever discomfort your training partner inflicts upon you, give it back when it’s your turn to supervise.
With a good training partner, and accurate records, you should know what intensity is about. You may be surprised just how comfortably you
were taking your workouts previously. You’ll then get an idea of what renowned gym “torturers” would put you through if you expressed
seriousness about training hard.
If you’re serious about making maximum gains, do your utmost to obtain the finest “torturer” you possibly can. Some of you may not be able to
find a training partner. This will probably reduce your progress somewhat, but of course won’t halt it.
While it’s possible to gain well without a training partner, a motivated and serious training partner can make an enormous difference. Get one if at
all possible.
After each workout, go through what you did, preferably with your training partner, and evaluate everything. Did you really go to the limit in the
squat? Wasn’t there another rep in you? What about the one-legged dumbbell calf raise. Couldn’t you have put up with the pain of growth
stimulation for another three reps?
I’m writing here of the full-bore stage of a training cycle. Of course, as drug-free and typical bodybuilders, you don’t drop straight into high
intensity training. You work up to it over the initial part of a cycle, to ensure you develop the gaining momentum and conditioning needed to benefit
from it. There are many ways of doing this—detail on intensity cycling is given in the next chapter.
Following the post-workout evaluation, resolve to make the following workout an even better one. Discover what could be improved, and then do
it.
This is a hard and unrelenting demand. Muscular size and strength don’t come easily to the hard gainer. They have to be earned. Few people are
willing to give this sort of effort. That’s why so many people get distracted and confused by the mountain of other considerations that are
ubiquitously promoted with great vigor and hype.

How many interpretations of basic training?

There are many interpretations of basic and simple training, using different interpretations of intensity cycling, routine structures, workout frequency,
and so on—enough of them to last you your entire training life and there will still be some you haven’t tried. Don’t ever think that basic and simple
training is only for training neophytes.
Only when you’ve exhausted all the interpretations you know (including advanced ones), having fine-tuned each of them and having satisfied all the
out-of-the-gym factors, can you consider that enough is enough. Then, while maintaining your achievements (or slowing down their diminishment as
you go beyond middle age) you can set other goals and then set about realizing them. Perhaps goals in the endurance and flexibility domains, or, in
an area of skill endeavor. If you’re starting bodybuilding while middle-aged, you can expect to increase your size and strength for more than a few
years before you experience age-induced diminishment of size and strength.

A reiteration
Success in the gym stems from correctly applied effort in combination with full satisfaction of all the other factors that contribute to gains. Effort
must be combined with the dedication not to have a single factor out of order—the dedication that combines absolute determination with the
individual fine-tuning a routine always needs, plus adequate nutrition and rest. No off-days, no exceptions.
One of the most troubling sights in the gym is a hard gainer using a routine utterly inappropriate for him. Failure is guaranteed. Alongside this sight is
perhaps an even more troubling one: The sight of the hard gainer giving his all to a generally sound training routine, but while not satisfying all the
other considerations. It’s not unusual to have skinny, rampant hard gainers trying to build physiques on diets barely adequate for non-athletic
people. Neither is it unusual to have a diligent bodybuilder inadequately disciplined in rest and sleep habits.
Dedicate yourself to getting the whole bodybuilding package in perfect order. Not tomorrow, and not later on. Now! Once you’ve got it in order, keep it there.
Always.
The steady and regular building back of the poundages in the early part of the cycle creates the impetus to go
beyond the previous best.
One of the biggest mistakes you can make in bodybuilding and strength training is to be impatient. Forget about
progressing for a while. Instead, work at creating the reserve and momentum needed for gaining.
Most people are in such a hurry to get to their top poundages that they never create much if any gaining
momentum. They slog away using the same poundages for year after year, and look the same for year after year.
Don’t imitate them!
7. Intensity Variation
The correct application of effort is the essence of intensity variation—the cycling of training intensity. Intensity cycling is at the root of long-term,
successful training.
Very hard training is an irreplaceable component for building greater size and strength, but not if it’s done every workout of every week of every
month of every year. It must be interspersed between periods of less stressful workouts. This is particularly so for drug-free and genetically typical
bodybuilders.
We can’t progress in absolute size and strength in a long-term linear fashion. We need to plan to take two steps back in order to take three steps
forward. Even the genetically gifted use intensity cycling to some degree. The difference between them and us is that we need to take longer steps
backward and, when we do take our forward steps, they are smaller than for the easy gainer.
Intensity cycling refers to the regular varying of training intensity through changes in poundages used and the effort level given forth, together with
variations in other aspects of the training program. It’s an amalgam—intentional or accidental—of the concepts of variation and Dr. Hans Selye’s
General Adaptation Syndrome. G.A.S. has three phases of alarm, resistance and exhaustion and is also called the “Stress Theory.” Training is
designed to prevent adaptation to a constant training load and to reduce and change the load to avoid the exhaustion phase of G.A.S.
Putting all this together means the removal of persistent sticking points. Other variables can be involved in cycling too—numbers of sets, super high
intensity techniques, training frequency, and selection of exercises. Some people vary the volume of the training load considerably. Although
moderate variation of the total training load may be useful, routines for the typical hard gainer should always be of low volume, or, at most (and
only sporadically) medium volume. High volume training is for other creatures—drug-using and genetically blessed creatures. Hard gainers who
have already built considerable size and strength may, however, want to experiment, sporadically, with high volume loads. For more on advanced
training, see Chapter 10.
The body of the typical hard gainer doesn’t respond well to consistent full-bore, maximum effort battering in the gym. Even drug-using genetic
mega-superiors can’t grow indefinitely on it. We simply can’t bully our bodies to grow big muscles. We have to firmly coax them. This is where
cycling comes in. Cycling has many interpretations.
The neophyte need not be concerned much if at all with intensity cycling. The novice can productively stick to a simple, basic and not-too-frequent
routine, training hard under his own steam—no forced reps, drop sets, negatives, etc. The novice can productively maintain this for a year or more.
All that’s needed is having a week off followed by a break-in week or two every 10–12 weeks, and perhaps making a couple of exercise changes
for variety’s sake. Once gains dry up, it’s time to start taking advantage of cycling.
The most impressive gains should occur in the initial stages of training, providing that all the contributing variables are in good order. However,
once you’re beyond the beginners’ stage this isn’t necessarily the end of very rapid gains. If you’ve been in the training doldrums for a long time; if
you’ve never seriously tried a size and strength abbreviated routine with a heavy and quality eating schedule; if you’ve never trained extremely
hard; if you’ve never been truly generous with rest between workouts; if you’ve never experienced the benefits of having a highly motivated training
partner; if you’ve never really gotten into your training with massive desire to improve; then rapid gains—almost all of it muscle—of 10–20 pounds
over a few months of training may be a possibility.
This very rapid rate of progress can’t be maintained, but it is possible if you get all the conditions right and you’re a long way from your maximum
size and strength. What others have done, you can do too, so long as you have the will and follow the appropriate program.
Training flat-out all the time always ends up in overtraining. Once you’re overtrained, you can’t bully your way out of it. Don’t waste years trying to
prove to the contrary.
As well as the body rebelling against consistent full-bore effort, so does the mind. To strive to do more reps and/or more poundage than you’ve
ever done before, every workout, and every week, becomes a tremendous mental burden. Always to have to do more, when you’re already at the
zenith of your current capacity, is too much. There have to be slack periods. There have to be workouts in which you purposely avoid pushing
yourself to the limit. This is very difficult to accept if you’ve been locked into the “hard all of the time” philosophy.
Beyond the initial gains of the properly trained neophyte, the near linear progress ceases. From this point on, progress is irregular—full of plateaus,
valleys and peaks. Cycling is an organized, planned effort to arrange the irregular progress into a regular progression of ups and downs, with each
new “up” or “down” being a little higher than the previous one. Cycling is about taking steps backward to prepare for enough forward steps to go
beyond previous best achievements.
Beyond the introduction period to weight training, think of seeing absolute progress every three months or so. Consider where you are now. Look
at 10–20 pounds on your bench press every three months, 15–30 to your squat and stiff-legged deadlift, and 3–5 pounds of muscle on your body.
Maintain this progress for a year and a half—six cycles of three months each—and what will you get? Assuming the minimum gain, that comes to
60 pounds on your bench, 90 on your squat and stiff-legged deadlift, and 18 pounds on your body. Then do it again over the next year and a half.
Hardly the sort of progress that someone who is genetically blessed can make if not yet at his full potential, but terrific progress for hard gainers.
Successful bodybuilding and strength training are long-term activities. Be patient.

A modified powerlifting cycle

Many powerlifters have been into cycling for a long time, accumulating steady gains every year. Cycles are fixed with contests in mind, and timed
so that the peak week is contest week. Cycling is much less popular among bodybuilders.
One type of powerlifting cycle lasts 12–15 weeks, with the goal of a 10–25 pounds increase on each powerlift. The first week starts with 80% or
less of the previous cycle’s maximum poundages for whatever reps you’re using. Successive weeks steadily build up the poundage. After 8–11
weeks, the previous best is once more achieved, with room for improvement. The final weeks of the cycle see personal best achievements in
successive workouts.
A modification of this type of cycle, for pure bodybuilding purposes, runs something akin to the following. Note that reps get no lower than five,
whereas in a pure powerlifting cycle they would go lower. Also, the more intense the stage of the cycle becomes, the less work that’s done. Both
volume of work, and its frequency, are reduced as the cycle progresses.
Taking the squat as an example, suppose that before reading this book you could just manage to squat 260 for six reps. To start this program,
select 200 (about 75%) and do two sets of ten reps (2x10) even though you could do a more reps without much struggle. Remember, cycling is
about taking it easy to begin with, building up the intensity over a few weeks, then going full-bore for a while, then having a layoff, and then
repeating the cycle though not necessarily the same interpretation. The initial training frequency, because the intensity isn’t high, is twice a week.
Later it reduces to three times every two weeks. If this frequency is too much for you (because you can’t recover between workouts) then start
with squatting three times every two weeks and reduce to once a week after week number six.

Week 1: Mon. 200 2x10 Fri. 205 2x10

Week 2: Mon. 210 2x10 Fri. 215 2x10
Week 3: Mon. 220 2x10 Fri. 225 2x10
Week 4: Mon. 230 2x10 Fri. 235 1x10 1x8
The sets are getting hard now .
Week 5: Mon. 240 1x10 Fri. 245 1x10
The second top set has been dropped.
Week 6: Mon. 250 1x10 Fri. 255 1x10
Frequency now reduced to three times every two weeks.
Week 7: Wed. 260 1x10
Week 8: Mon. 265 1x9 Fri. 270 1x9
Week 9: Wed. 275 1x9
Week 10: Mon. 280 1x8 Fri. 285 1x8
Week 11: Wed. 290 1x7
Frequency reduced to once a week.
Week 12: Wed. 295 1x6
Week 13: Wed. 300 1x6
Week 14: Wed. 305 1x5
End of the cycle, terrific progress.
Bear in mind what was written in Chapter 4 on the importance of making small poundage increments to avoid premature stagnation. The
increments above could be reduced to only two pounds a week after, say, week ten when the workouts are becoming very hard. It’s fine to have
bigger increments when the cycle is in its easy stage, so long as you don’t short-circuit the cycle.
Do some progressive warmup sets before the top work sets. Do two or three warmup sets for the squat. And, of course, use correct technique
and don’t cut the depth of squatting as the cycle progresses.
By backing off at the beginning of each cycle, and taking it easy for a few weeks, the body and mind are given a break from the battering of
constant flat-out training. The steady and regular building back of the poundages in the early part of the cycle creates the impetus to go beyond the
previous best. Had there been no cutting back of poundages and intensity, the same personal best achievements (perhaps less) would likely still be
being struggled with, together with all the frustration that accompany a persistent sticking point.

An off workout
If you have an off workout, no matter what interpretation of cycling you’re using, don’t force yourself through it using the scheduled poundages. If
you felt off before training, it would have been better to have delayed training a day or two. If you didn’t feel off until into your workout, reduce
your poundages by about a third, and rep out to a few reps short of the maximum number you could do. This will prevent you suffering any
physical injury and damage to confidence of failing with the scheduled poundages. Next workout, do what was scheduled for the off workout, and
resume the cycle. This will help ensure that the gaining momentum is sustained and the cycle isn’t killed.

Poundage miscalculation
If you misjudge the cycle’s starting poundage in one or more exercises, correct matters at the next workout. For example, the squat may feel heavy
relative to the other exercises. Cut back the squat poundage by 5–10% next time and get all exercises feeling heavy (or light) to the same degree.

The mini-cycle
Cycles need not be as long as the previous example. A short but successful mini-cycle lasts for 6–8 workouts and runs as follows:
A sticking point is the stimulus for a new cycle, accompanied by a few days longer than usual between workouts—say an extra four days or more.
Get yourself fully rested. Cut back all training poundages to 85% of what they were at the sticking point.
Warmup sets aside, the workouts will run as follows: The first two workouts—the 85% and 90% ones—will be comfortable. Do your usual
number of repetitions—don’t rep out to the limit with the reduced poundages. The next workout—the 95% one—will be demanding but a good
success. Then comes the 97-1/2% workout followed by the (100%) one that you ended your previous cycle on. This workout will be very testing
but, so long as you’ve eaten and rested adequately between workouts—that’s a big “so long as”—it will be successful and you’ll get your full
target of reps.
Next comes the 102.5% (or 101.25%) workout, the new personal best for whatever reps you’re doing. You must be successful (full completion
of rep targets) at this workout, or at the next, or else the cycle won’t be a gaining one. With 102.5% (or 101.25%) successfully done, try another
1.25 or 2.5% at the next workout, perhaps taking an extra day or two of rest between workouts. Be very wary of the danger of pushing yourself
too much and burning out. Be conservative so you can gain again next cycle. Being stuck at the same poundage and reps for two successive
workouts is enough.
As an example of a mini-cycle, say you’re stuck at 240 pounds for ten reps in the stiff-legged deadlift. Take ten days off training this exercise and
resume as follows, training the lift only once each week. Other exercises—bent-legged deadlift excluded—can benefit from a training frequency
more often than once a week, whether that be once every five days, four days, six days or three days. You have to decide what is optimum for
you.
Some body parts recover quicker than others. How quickly you recover will vary according to factors of age, the intensity you train with, how
much you do each session, the stresses and strains of life outside the gym, the quality and quantity of your sleep, quantity and quality of your food
intake, and other factors. More on this is given in the next chapter.

Workout #
 1 204x10 (85% of 240)
2 216x10 (90% of 240)
3 228x10 (95% of 240)
4 234x10 (97.5% of 240)
5 240x10 (100% of 240)
6 246x10 (102.5% of 240)
7 252x10 (105% of 240)
8 258x8 (107.5% of 240)

Round these poundages up or down a little depending on the plates you have.

For this example, warmup sets have been excluded. Only the final single heaviest set has been noted for each workout. Warm up thoroughly. One
set of five slow reps with 135, a few minutes later another five reps with 180 will be enough for most of you for the first three weeks. For the
fourth week onward, add a third warmup set of 220 for two reps. Of course, use correct exercise technique.
Eight weeks is a long time for a mini-cycle, but bear in mind that the once weekly training frequency for the stiff-legged deadlift extends the time
duration of the eight workouts. Had the example been for the barbell press, trained every fourth day, the duration of the mini-cycle’s 6–8 workouts
would be about four weeks.

Refinements and additional considerations

This variation of intensity cycling is subtle and effective. Some intensity “bullying” is recommended, but only in the second half of the cycle. There
must be periods in which you drive yourself to your limit, as the previous chapter made clear. Effort is the name of the game, but it must be
correctly applied effort.
It’s during the second half of a cycle—whether a mini-cycle, or a longer cycle—that prudent use of forced reps, negative reps, rest pause and
descending sets may be productive. Choose one of the ultra-intense techniques and use it in the final set for each exercise, once a week at most.
But over-using these techniques will kill a gaining cycle for sure. Be conservative.
Make sure you complete a set properly before adding a couple of forced reps or doing a drop set. Don’t add the ultra-intense technique onto a
poor set in the hope of making it into a good set.
These intensity heightening approaches are generally safe and recommended (if not abused), but they aren’t equally suited to all exercises. For
example, I wouldn’t recommend you do forced reps with squats unless you have very proficient spotters, and I would urge doing neither forced
nor negative reps in the deadlift. Rest pause reps and descending set style reps are safer and more controlled choices for squats and deadlifts.
The very advanced trainee who is very close to the limit of his potential may burn out if using the “bullying” techniques. This man may be better off
just concentrating on the balance between volume and regular effort within the context of cycling. If he gets too enthusiastic, and adds the beyond-
failure techniques, he may find he’s flattened at the next workout, and has killed the gaining progression.
The previous examples of cycles are theoretical. Each successive cycle of the same construction won’t be equally successful. After a few cycles of
the same type you’ll need to be more subtle and innovative to keep progressing. Don’t let your body get into a training rut.
Although the recommendation for the mini-cycle was to cut back to 85% at the start, this isn’t sacrosanct. For a longer build-up period, and a
probable longer period of gain, cut back a bit more.
As a general rule, the longer the build-up period, the longer the gain period. Invest more time and patience, and you should profit more.

Alternating-intensity cycle
A cycle need not show progression every workout. One cycling method follows a hard workout with a not-quite-hard workout. Each hard
workout is harder than the previous hard workout. Each not-quite-hard workout remains constant (80%x2x6 in the example below) and will feel
lighter as the cycle progresses. This provides built-in recuperation and variety as the cycle goes along.
An example of this comes from Professor Alexei Medvedev, a Soviet weightlifting coach. It’s an eighteen-workout cycle aimed to deliver a 5%
higher maximum single. (It was designed for elite and probably drug-assisted lifters, but with modification may be useful for typical hard gainers.)
While 5% may not sound much, 5% of say 280 pounds is 14 pounds—very good for a single cycle. A little at a time, remember.
If you follow this cycle three times a week (too much for drug-free, typical trainees), the cycle will last six weeks. If you follow it twice a week, the
cycle will last nine weeks. If you follow it three times every two weeks, the cycle will last twelve weeks. The frequency you choose will be
determined by factors stressed so much in this book. As the progressively harder workouts are alternated with less-than-hard workouts, you may
be able to recuperate well enough training twice each week, assuming you’re using brief workouts. If you need more rest between workouts, take
it and thus extend the cycle.
The cycle is based on percentages of a maximum single. 70x2 means two reps with 70% of what you could do for a single repetition immediately
before the cycle. 70x2x6 means 70% for six sets of two repetitions (constant poundage). As the cycle progresses, the hard workouts get
increasingly more demanding. The first two sets for each day are warmup sets. If you need more warmup work than suggested, do it. You’re the
judge. Do enough but don’t overdo it and tire yourself out. (I would recommend 90x2 as the third warmup set for workouts 16 and 18.) Rest just
enough between sets to be able to get out the prescribed repetitions. Don’t do more reps or sets than prescribed.
The cycle is designed for the powerlifts, overhead barbell pressing and the Olympic lifts, not for the small basic lifts such as barbell curls.

Workout #

1 70x2, 75x2, 80x2x6

2 70x2, 75x2, 80x3x6
3 70x2, 75x2, 80x2x6
4 70x2, 75x2, 80x4x6
5 70x2, 75x2, 80x2x6
6 0x2, 75x2, 80x5x6
7 70x2, 75x2, 80x2x6
8 70x2, 75x2, 80x6x6
9 70x2, 75x2, 80x2x6
10 70x2, 75x2, 85x5x5
11 70x2, 75x2, 80x2x6
12 70x2, 75x2, 90x4x4
13 70x2, 75x2, 80x2x6
14 70x2, 75x2, 95x3x3
15 70x2, 75x2, 80x2x6
16 70x2, 75x2, 100x2x2
17 70x2, 75x2, 80x2x6
18 70x2, 75x2, 105x1x2

For advanced men, a 5% gain may be unlikely—better to reduce workouts 16 and 18 to 97.5% and 102.5% respectively.
For anyone, if the increments listed are too big, reduce them and extend the cycle.

A variation of this approach is to have several weeks in which every workout shows progression and then have a week or two in which you drop
back to where you were a few weeks earlier. Return to progressive workouts for another few weeks before cutting back for another week or two
and then pick up the intensity for the final stretch.

Periodization
This is another interpretation of intensity cycling. A basic format is a twelve-week cycle divided into three four-week periods, each using a different
repetition target. Each four-week period starts light (relatively speaking) and builds up. In the final week of each four-week period a new personal
best is achieved in each exercise for that period’s repetition target. There could be twelve reps in the first period, for example. Then starts the
second period with lower repetitions, nine, and poundages that are comfortable for the new repetition target. They are built up over the first three
weeks so that in the final week of the second period new personal bests are achieved for the new repetition target. Then immediately comes the
final four-week period in which low repetitions (six or less) are used and again the poundage is built up so that in the final week personal bests are
achieved for the low repetition target.
The design of this method of cycling has you training flat-out only in the final week of each four-week period. So, over the whole twelve weeks
you only train full-bore for three weeks at the most. Progress hinges on what you do in the final week of each period.
As the twelve-week cycles go by, each period should start and finish with a few more pounds on the bar than in the previous twelve-week cycle.
Progress is slow, but steady. Having so few weeks to go full-bore in keeps your mind fresh, and avoids overtraining. This sets you up to make new
personal bests each final week of each period. It works, but needs patience and faith, and careful planning. All sound cycles need patience
because you must not train full-bore until the predetermined time. If you jump ahead, all you’ll likely get is stagnation—haste makes waste,
remember.

The l-o-n-g cycle

As mentioned earlier, the longer the build-up stage of a cycle, the longer the period of gain should be. If you use very small discs (or even a
collection of washers) to register your poundage increments, your body can adapt with strength increases time after time after time after time. How
about a cycle for a minimum of a year, without a break, in a single exercise? Try the following:
Let’s use the stiff-legged deadlift from knee height as the example. Assume that your current best is ten reps with 250 pounds. To create a long
cycle, cut the starting poundage back to 75%—187-1/2 pounds. Start with this poundage for ten reps, 2–3 sets with the same poundage. Every
workout, increase the poundage by five pounds until you’re up to 90% of your previous ten-rep best—225 pounds. Now, reduce the every-
workout increment to 2-1/2 pounds.
Because the intensity is low at present, train the deadlift three times every two weeks. At this frequency it will take you eight workouts or nearly six
weeks to get to 90% of your pre-cycle 250 poundage for ten reps. Now, switch to training once a week and only two top sets of the partial stiff-
legged deadlift. You’ll need ten more workouts to get you to your former best of 250 pounds for ten repetitions. As you’re doing two top sets,
you’ll have progressed in volume with the same poundage that you could previously only do one set of ten with.
Now that you’re at 250x10 for two sets, you’re in a very different position to when you were at that poundage before. You’ve built a good gaining
momentum because you built-up the poundage over about sixteen weeks. To make the most of this gaining momentum, reduce the poundage
increments to the smallest discs you’ve got, and only put on the increment every second or third deadlift workout.
Doing just one top set now, with such a slow poundage increment of an average of a mere one pound a week, you can keep this going for months.
This assumes you’re doing everything correctly as stressed throughout this book. Don’t ruin things by training too much on other exercises, by not
sleeping enough, by not eating enough, or by getting impatient. Stick with one pound a week average increment. Sixteen weeks to get to your
original working poundage has built the reserve for perhaps 40 weeks or more of gaining. Forty weeks means 40 pounds on the bar, 50 weeks
means 50 pounds, 60 weeks means 60 pounds. It has been done before. It can be done again. Do it!
One of the biggest mistakes you can make in bodybuilding and strength training is to be impatient. Forget about progressing for a while. Instead,
work at creating the reserve and momentum needed for gaining. Then you can progress for longer than you probably thought you could. Using this
l-o-n-g cycle as the example, can you train for sixteen weeks before reaching your previous best? Most people are in such a hurry to get to their
top poundages that they never create much if any gaining momentum. They slog away using the same poundages for year after year, and look the
same for year after year.

Fallibility of cycling
Cycling isn’t infallible. It depends on many variables. No method of cycling will work if you simply do too much work, train too frequently, and
rep-out to your maximum too early on in the cycle. Throughout your training life you’ll need to experiment. Trial and error is a vital part of the
activity. Learn from your mistakes.
Cycling is all about upping the poundages a little over the short and medium-term. In between, you’ll have regular cut-back periods in which you
give the impression of having gotten weaker. This is part and parcel of cycling. No longer can you continue to batter yourself with your top
poundages for week after week, and month after month.
You now know that cut-back periods, and comfortable weeks, provide the stepping stones to new personal best achievements within a few weeks
or few months. What others in the gym may think, seeing you having a run of less than full-bore workouts, isn’t important. You can’t be at your
best all the time. Don’t wear yourself out by persistently battling with a sticking point so as to show yourself constantly working with your top
poundages. This is stagnation.

Three big misuses of cycling:

a. Don’t overdo the easy workouts and neglect to push yourself very hard in the second half of each cycle.

b. Don’t reduce the number of easy workouts to get almost immediately back into the very hard sessions.
 c. Don’t rep out to the limit with the reduced poundages that commence each cycle, because if you do, where is the cycling of training
intensity?

Getting the balance right is where individual understanding, experimentation, fine-tuning and experience come in. A 50:50 split between
comfortable and hard workouts is a sound starting place. As with all instruction, you must apply it to yourself.
During the early workouts of a cycle, if you do rep-out—albeit with reduced poundages—you’ll be training flat-out right from the start. Where is
the building up of intensity and the development of a gaining momentum? Training full-bore too early is a big mistake when using intensity cycling.
Be watchful.

Preparing yourself for gaining

A different interpretation of cycling was outlined in Chapter 5, where an exaggerated softening-up period precedes the period of flat-out effort
using the big basic exercises. This is another potentially productive interpretation of cycling to add to your armory. Try it.

Dealing with sickness

When you get a minor sickness, such as a cold, you can keep your current cycle going by inserting a mini-cycle. Once back in the gym, following a
short layoff, use the 85-90-95-97.5-100% format of the mini-cycle described earlier in this chapter. Take the 100% workout as the one you were
at just before you got sick. It will take you three weeks or so to get back to where you were before you got sick. However, you’ll get back there
with momentum to spare, enabling you to forge ahead over the completion of the original cycle.
If you try to jump straight back into the original cycle, you’ll likely kill the gaining momentum and eventually be forced into starting the whole cycle
again. Much better to insert the mini-cycle. It can save you frustration and wasted workouts.
If you get a serious sickness, you’ll have to start with very light poundages following the layoff. Anticipate needing a progressive cycle of ten or
more weeks before getting back to where you were before the sickness—be patient. If you rush it, you’ll risk injuring yourself, getting overtrained,
exhausting your enthusiasm, and even getting sick again.

An oversupply of cycling methods?

The purpose of this book isn’t to give you a single “do it like this” approach to training. The purpose is to give you a thorough (but not exhaustive)
coverage of the variety of ways that typical bodybuilders can train productively. There are many ways.
While all these ways won’t suit all people all the time, many of them (with individual fine-tuning) will suit most of you for a lot of the time. A variety
of approaches to select from, as the years go by, is what you need to maintain your motivation and progress.
How you train in general, and how you cycle your workouts, will depend, among other considerations, on your goals, current development, time
available, enthusiasm, and current rest and sleep habits. Sometimes you’ll prefer to have short cycles, sometimes you’ll want to use longer cycles.
Several short cycles add up to a long cycle, and total gains from each approach, over the same period, may be similar. On the other hand, the
gains may not be similar. It depends on how you implement the different approaches, and how appropriate your selection is relative to your current
circumstances.
What worked for you in the summer of last year may not work in the winter of this year. What didn’t work for you earlier this year when you were
rundown may deliver great results when you fine-tune it and get out-of-the-gym factors in 100% good order. What worked for you when you
were single and 25 may not work for you when you’re 32, married, and with two young children.
Now that you understand what intensity cycling is, add it to the list of vital factors to consider when you’re devising, adopting or modifying training programs, and
take full advantage of it.
The appalling irony of modern bodybuilding is that the training methods appropriate to only a small minority of
bodybuilders are given massive promotion, while the training methods most appropriate to the masses are largely
hidden from the very people who need them the most.
Do everything you can to ensure you sleep generously. If in doubt, get more sleep. Arrange things so you always
wake of your own accord. Cut back on evening television, increase your sleep, and increase your gains.
8. Rest and Recovery
Popular bodybuilding programs have their adherents clocking up many hours in the gym each week. Three workouts a week is the minimum, with
programs of four, five or more workouts a week being the rule. Split routines of two days on and one day off, three days on and one day off, five
days on and two days off, six days on and one day off; twice-a-day workouts in some cases; and eight, ten, twelve, fifteen or more sets per body
part, and two, three or more exercises per body part.
This very frequent and high volume type of training is what the top bodybuilders use. That this genetically gifted and (probably) drug-using minority
has progressed on this type of approach, and can continue to do so, is irrelevant to us hard gainers. However, it’s important to remember that the
routines that built the initial size of top bodybuilders are usually shorter, less frequent, and a lot heavier than the routines done to refine their already
large physiques. But even these routines that are simpler and less frequent than those that get heavy publicity in today’s bodybuilding literature are
still inappropriate for typical hard gainers.

Promoting programs comprising as many as eight exercises done twice a week—a sound starting point for many hard gainers—is heresy for
bodybuilders used to reading the popular literature. To promote programs of five, four, three or even two exercises, to be sometimes done no
more than twice a week, may seem lunacy to the uninitiated.
Extreme abbreviated routines are often the only routines that extremely hard gainers will grow on. To end up spending less than three hours a week
total training time will strike most bodybuilders as a joke. The mass consumption approach to bodybuilding is to have workouts of ninety minutes
to two hours at least three or four times a week, making six hours a week a minimum in the minds of the many. Plus, such a minimum is seen as
only short-term for neophytes getting ready to jump into something “more serious.”
If the popular methods delivered the goods—for drug-free and genetically typical bodybuilders—there would be no need to discuss alternatives.
The sad reality is that the popular training methods have an appalling failure rate.
This is emphatically confirmed by personal training experience, observation, communication with countless other bodybuilders, and from publishing
HARDGAINER. The need for the promotion of simple and infrequent training routines is huge. No, it’s colossal. No, it’s enormously
astronomical.

The need for such simple workouts is not isolated to neophytes. Simple workouts are needed by the great mass of bodybuilders
throughout their training lives. Not the same interpretation of “simple” all the time, but simple and basic nevertheless. Very few
bodybuilders develop to the point where they can productively use finishing routines or even very advanced hard-gainer type routines.

For those of you new to the promotion of radical training approaches, please understand that training a hard gainer necessitates
strategies that may, at first impression, appear absurd.

No training and no dietary schedule will deliver substantial gains in muscle size unless there’s adequate rest and recovery. Even if
you train on an abbreviated routine, doing only two hard sets per exercise, you won’t grow if you train too frequently.

Three-times-a-week training
The recommendation of training the whole body three times a week is still common today. This training frequency is too much for archetypal hard
gainers if each workout is to be an all-out effort. This frequency—commonly the Monday-Wednesday-Friday training days—has been a standard
recommendation for decades. I swallowed it too, years ago, until I read articles in Peary Rader’s Iron Man that advised experimenting with less
frequent training. By getting away from the mind-set of training three times every week I was on the road to gains.
As I became more experienced, and developed the ability to train harder, even twice a week—when training hard—was too much, especially for
the deadlift and squat. For many hard gainers, not just me, training each exercise twice a week can be too frequent, even when using abbreviated
routines of four exercises or less. Some hard gainers can’t gain on anything more than four exercises, each done only once every five, six or even
seven days.
Rather than the twice-a-week training frequency (for the same exercises) becoming a norm for hard gainers, three times every two weeks may be
a better standard. For some hard gainers, training a major basic exercise only once a week can be more productive. You don’t read much about
this in the popular literature. I know of many bodybuilders who belong in this category. You may be one of them. Experiment with very infrequent
training if the regular routines aren’t working.

Making three-times-a-week training work

If pushing hard each workout—within the confines of intensity cycling—then training the whole body three times a week will usually be fruitless for
typical hard gainers. If the intensity of effort is varied over the three weekly training days, the strategy has a chance of working. If the three weekly
workouts (say, Monday, Wednesday and Friday) are heavy, light and medium, then only one workout per week is an all-out effort.
Words like “heavy,” “medium” and “light” are relative words and need to be defined. To illustrate why, suppose John can squat 380 pounds for
ten reps, and George can squat 250 for ten reps. For John, 300 pounds in the squat is no trouble and he will consider it light. For George, 300
pounds in the squat will be very heavy.
To define heavy, medium and light, take the heavy all-out day poundages as the 100% mark. If you squat 350 for six reps in Monday’s workout,
and you’re at or near to your limit (according to the stage of the cycle you’re in) then 350x6 is 100% for the squat. Wednesday’s light day uses
80% of Monday’s poundages for the same reps—280x6. Friday’s medium workout uses 90% of Monday’s poundages—315x6. (The 100-80-
90% schedule is modified by some to twice-a-week total-body training using a 100% main day and a 80-90% second day.)
Some people spread the all-out effort sets over the week, not having all the heavy sets on the same day. The whole body is still trained three days
a week but, each workout, something is pushed to the limit. This means your body is getting no days of “working rest” and may be more likely to
be overtrained than on the strict heavy, light and medium division of days.
Training three times a week can be very productive when you do a different workout each session and each lift is trained either once a week or
three times every two weeks. This is very different to training the whole body three times a week.
For the typical hard gainer who is pushed for time as well as for recovery ability, I don’t believe a three-times-a-week total-body routine is the
best way to go.

Personal example
As made clear in earlier chapters, although effort is vital, it must be applied appropriately. Cycling of intensity is part of this, as is appropriate
training frequency.
In my late teens and early twenties I was strongly influenced by the writings of Arthur Jones and Mike Mentzer. From what I read of their work
they believed that it’s impossible to train too hard. (I read a lot of their writings but, to be fair to them, I haven’t read all they wrote. Perhaps I
didn’t get the whole story.) Concerning training frequency, the popular recommendation was that rest between workouts shouldn’t exceed 96
hours, although Mentzer did advise a three-times-a-week split routine that worked each body part three times in a two week period. This was a
step in the right direction, at least for me.
During a two-year period, when I was around 20, I lived the belief that it’s impossible to train too hard. I made the belief my existence, and
crucified myself in the gym. Training the whole body each workout, I only used two sets at most, and of each of only eight exercises, twice a week;
but what workouts they were.
I wasn’t training hard in spurts, and neither was I cycling the training intensity. It was full-bore effort for months at a time, until a point where my
body rebelled. Sickness or injury would force me to rest a short while. I would then further study up on the need for brief high intensity workouts,
and then get back into the twice-a-week training with renewed vengeance. I did this for about two years. This was before I was married with
children—at a time when I had long and undisturbed nights of sleep, when recuperation needs could be met much more easily than at any time
since, and when I was very young.
I would take every non-warmup set to positive failure under my own effort—until I couldn’t get another rep out. I would then have my training
partner assist me in eking out three or four forced reps. To finish off the set—as if I hadn’t already done more than enough—I would then do a few
negative resistance reps. Helpers would lift the weights up and I would lower them as slowly as I could.
This style of training would exhaust me and render me sore after every session. This was training insanity. How I could keep it up for so long, I
don’t know, especially when I made no gains in size and strength the whole time. It was amazing that I could put in so much effort for so little
return. Despite being a long way from my full physical potential, I gained nothing from this battering. Getting sick or injured forced me to stop
training for a couple of weeks or so. I’d lose strength and then manage to build back to where I was before, but nothing further. This happened
again and again.
My explanation for the lack of results was always the same—I wasn’t training hard enough. I would resolve to train even harder. Madness.

Seeing the light

Rest and recovery are about having the most appropriate training schedule—not just workout frequency per se, but also the frequency of using
full-bore effort training. The latter was covered in detail in the previous chapter on cycling. Workout frequency is the main topic here.
Looking back on my training insanity days, here’s what I should have done: The workout outlined above should have been done just once every
third or fourth week, with the other workouts being taken to positive failure only. Intensity should have been cycled along the lines of the previous
chapter’s recommendations. Squats and deadlifts should have been trained once a week, on different days, and the other exercises trained once
every fourth or fifth day. Each workout should have had a maximum of six exercises and pre-set days of training shouldn’t have been adhered to.
Thus, I should have trained according to how well I had recovered, not according to an arbitrary training frequency determined by an author in a
magazine or book.
No matter how intense your gym sessions are, how well you eat or how well you sleep, if you visit the gym too often you aren’t going to progress
much if at all.
Optimum training frequency can’t be fixed for universal application. It varies according to individual physical capacity, tolerance of exercise, age,
lifestyle, training intensity, diet, quality of rest and sleep, among other factors. Discovering your ideal training frequency—for the moment—involves
experimentation and objective analysis.

Components of recovery
Muscles grow only if, first, they are stimulated to grow by adequate training intensity and, second, if sufficient time is provided between training
sessions to permit the body to recover and grow. There are two components of this recovery.
The first component is the recovery from systemic fatigue—the feeling of being wiped out that follows a demanding workout. The localized fatigue
of individual muscle groups is only a fraction of this overall fatigue. The emphasis upon the major exercises—squats, deadlifts, bench presses, etc.
—delivers a lot more systemic fatigue than an equal number of small movements such as leg extensions, hyper-extensions and cable crossovers.
After a workout, the body’s priority is to get over the systemic fatigue. Only after it has recovered from this fatigue will it be able to concern itself
with the second component of recovery—producing growth and strength increase, the overcompensation.
During my period of training insanity I was piling up massive systemic fatigue. Even before I was recovered from the systemic fatigue, I was back in
the gym. Not only had I not fully recovered from the immediate effects of training, my body never got close to being able to do anything about
growing even a scrap of extra muscle.
No wonder my body would eventually cave in with either sickness or injury. How else could it get me to keep out of the gym? How else could it
get around to getting fully recovered from the state of exhaustion I was in? My body wasn’t interested in building size and strength—it just wanted
to survive.
Few people drive themselves into a state of long-term systemic fatigue by training too hard. Most people do it by simply training too much, and too
often, albeit at a lower intensity. Long workouts and popular split routines will drive you to exhaustion. That you won’t have stimulated growth and
strength increase is irrelevant. You’ll never get over the systemic fatigue to be able to get around to any growing. This is the lot of the mass of
bodybuilders that fills gym membership rolls.
Never visit the gym unless you feel completely recovered and rested from the previous visit. Never pile on more fatigue when you already have a
stock of fatigue inside you. Get rested!
Just how many days you need between workouts is an individual matter. If you’re feeling very vigorous, are sleeping well, have a stress-free life
and are 20 years old, you may be able to fully recover from a very hard full-body workout (even including squats and deadlifts) every third or
fourth day, providing that the training volume is low.
On the other hand, if you’re a parent of young children, have regularly disturbed nights, are working at two jobs, dealing with stress from all sides
of life, and are over 30, don’t expect to be able to recover from a hard full-body workout every third or fourth day. Every sixth or seventh day
may be a more likely frequency for each exercise, with more time in between deadlift sessions. Or, the set of six exercises, for example, could be
divided into two sections and the two routines alternated at an appropriate frequency.
If rest and recovery are in poor order, and stress is piled high, then forget about training hard. Just concern yourself, temporarily, with hanging onto
as much size and strength as you can until circumstances pick up and you can train properly again.
Exceptional genetics and/or drug use greatly enhance the body’s tolerance of exercise, and its ease of growing muscle. Another set of instructions
can apply here. Although, of course, these easy gainers must still recover between workouts, they can train more frequently and with a greater
volume of exercise than we can, and still grow.
All this is written not to foster a negative attitude but to remind you to follow the advice of people who are very similar to you. Don’t imitate those
who have advantages and assistance you don’t.
There are hard gainers who train soundly in the gym—not too many exercise or sets, properly cycled intensity, and plenty of motivation and
planning. However, they visit the gym too often, therefore undoing all the good of having the other vital factors in sound order. As the cycle
progresses, fatigue slowly builds up, the gaining momentum doesn’t appear, training zest slips, and gains don’t happen. When can their bodies get
the chance to deliver some growth? Think this through. It’s at the very foundation of bodybuilding success.
If every bodybuilder in the world was to add an extra two days of rest between workouts, there would be a lot more muscle in the world within a
few weeks.

Split routines
Split routines reduce training time per workout, but increase the number of gym visits. Split routines encourage the adding of extra sets and
exercises because the individual workouts may appear too short. Increased gym visits mean more frequent demands upon the systemic system. If
the body is in a state of near constant systemic fatigue, how is it going to be able grow and get stronger?
This isn’t to say that even modified and hard-gainer-type split routines are ineffective. There are some interpretations that may be very helpful, but
they are nothing like traditional split routines. For example, some hard gainers successfully train three times a week, but only work each main
exercise once a week. A week’s work could run like this: squats and pulldowns on Monday; bench presses, curls and dips on Wednesday; and
deadlifts and presses on Friday. Calf, abdominal and neck work could be done on two of the three days.
Two less radical split routines, although perhaps effective if each workout is kept short and you’re resting, sleeping and eating extremely well, are
the three-days-a-week split routine and the alternate-day split routine.
Suppose you currently do ten exercises to cover the whole body, and do the workout twice a week except for deadlifts that are done once a
week. (Nine or ten exercises each workout is a lot of work for a typical bodybuilder—probably too much.) Supposing you think you can gain on
this amount, and can ensure adequate rest and nutrition, then divide your workout into two equally stressful parts. Don’t add exercises to the
shortened routines or else you’ll undo all the good of dividing your basic routine into two simpler parts.
Train the first routine on Monday, the second on Wednesday and the first on Friday. With the three-days-a-week split routine, the second routine
opens the next week, on Monday. With the alternate-day split routine, you train alternate days regardless of the day of the week, and alternate the
routine used at each workout. The second interpretation gets you in the gym more often, and so is more demanding. Over a four-week period, the
three-days-a-week split routine will have you in the gym 12 times. Over the same period, the alternate-day split routine will have you in the gym 14
times.
While training regularity is vital, don’t be so locked into pre-fixed training days that you ignore signs of inadequate recovery. Don’t drive yourself to
train before you’ve really recovered. Take an extra day of rest if you feel you need it. You’re the judge.
If you feel you can benefit from it, try the three-days-a-week split routine, but use only three to five exercises each workout.
With few exceptions, I don’t advise hard gainers to train more than three times a week, no matter how they divide the work. I don’t advise training
every exercise three times a week. (Short specialization periods for single body parts is another matter though.) You need more rest days than
training days.
Many of you will be better off sticking to twice-a-week training at the most, and even then not training every exercise at each session. Many of you
will need to modify the above split routines. Try the first routine one day, rest two days, second routine, rest two days, first routine again, rest two
days, and so on. This is training each exercise once every sixth day. More suggestions for split routines are given in Chapter 10.
If in doubt, train less often rather than more often.

Too much rest?

There are people who have gotten bigger and stronger by training each exercise—on a regular basis—only once a week, and even less frequently
on the deadlift. Don’t be dissuaded from experimenting with infrequent training by those who would have you believe that if you don’t train at least
once every 96 hours your muscles will atrophy. Avoid fixing yourself into pre-set schedules. Take whatever rest you need between workouts to
ensure that you’re fully ready for your next workout, be it 72 hours, 96, 120, 144, or even more. What matters is progress, not slotting into a fixed
schedule.
During the initial part of a training cycle—when intensity is being built up—you can train more frequently than when in the full-bore stage of the
cycle. An indicator to use when determining training frequency, in addition to systemic fatigue, is local muscular fatigue. If your back and/or thighs
are still sore, be it just a little, wait another day or two, or even more, before training either again, or even before training anything again. Have at
least one day clear of any soreness before training again. Soreness from the major basic movements will always accompany systemic fatigue. Can
you imagine having deep soreness in your thighs, buttocks and lower back—from the squat—and not being systemically very fatigued as well?
If you build up the intensity, over the course of the first stage of a training cycle, you should never experience debilitating soreness. Instead, you’ll
have regular soreness that usually clears within two to four days. If you’re conditioned to your training—you don’t just drop into full-bore training
with no break-in period—you can clear the local fatigue and yet still feel systemically fatigued. Don’t think that just because you feel no soreness
you’re guaranteed to be recovered and have the okay to train again. Recover both locally and systemically before training again. Otherwise, you’ll
be on the slippery slope of frustration and despair.

The speed of your progress is, at least in a big part, a reflection of how many growth producing workouts you can put in. If you can
train each body part every other day, and recover in between, you’ll quickly accumulate the many productive workouts needed to build
impressive muscular size. If you can train each body part hard only once every five to seven days (and perhaps less frequently for the
deadlift), it will take you longer to accumulate the same number of productive workouts. Be that as it is—you can’t hasten your
progress by getting in the gym before you’ve recovered from the previous workout.

The more less-than-100% intensity workouts you have in your training cycles, the less growth producing workouts you’ll get into a
single cycle. Be that as it is—you won’t hasten your progress by skipping on the necessary less-than-100% intensity workouts. You
must adhere strictly to avoiding overtraining and burning yourself out. Don’t try to do things that don’t help you in the cause of
adding more muscle. Follow your own body and its responses, not the bodies and responses of others.

Never again must you short-change yourself between workouts. Always avoid training unless you feel fully rested and raring to go. If in doubt, take
extra rest, not less.
Some people have taken this farther than you’ve probably ever heard of. (Don’t start being ridiculous and train just once every six months.) How
about rotating three exercises so that each is worked by itself once every five days? How about training each main lift once every eight to ten days?
How about deadlifting once every two to three weeks only? Such training frequency hasn’t been arrived at out of laziness, but out of necessity by
the practitioners because they couldn’t gain satisfactorily on more frequent schedules. You may not need to train this infrequently to gain well, but
the examples make the point that the standard training frequency recommendations leave a lot to be desired.

The power of sleep

The poorer the quality and quantity of sleep—relative to what your body needs—the more your training will suffer. While you may not think you’re
suffering by cutting out an hour or two of sleep most nights, you’ll feel it in the gym, eventually. If you get into an almost permanent sleep deficit,
you can forget about progressing in the gym.
If you ensure not being woken up by artificial means, or being woken by someone, and keep this going for week after week, and month after
month, the difference to your progress may amaze you. To have a fully rested body, each day, is a big step to having wonderful progress in the
gym. High intensity workouts can be maintained for longer stretches, cycles can be lengthened, and there’s far less waning of energy and effort
during a workout.
How much sleep you need is an individual matter. Err on the side of too much, if you want to grow a lot of muscle. While there are people who
need very little sleep, they are few and far between. The most striking example I know from this minority is Dr. Ken E. Leistner. In the 14th issue
of HARDGAINER, page 9, Dr. Leistner wrote, “I sleep on the average of five nights per week, and usually three hours per night. Everyone who
knows me thinks it’s unusual but, because it’s normal for me, it’s normal.” He’s been doing this since he was 16, including the years when he
gained over 60 pounds of muscle and a lot of strength.
Do everything you can to ensure you sleep generously. If in doubt, get more sleep. Go to bed early whenever possible, ideally being consistent
about it so your internal clock gets adjusted. Sleep late whenever possible. Avoid being woken up whenever possible. Arrange things so you wake
of your own accord. Cut back on evening television, increase your sleep and increase your gains.
I know all about having stressful working conditions, and having children that cause consistently disturbed nights, at least during the early stage of
their lives. There are times when it’s impossible to get sleeping habits in good order. Tolerate these times, and when things improve, as they will,
pile on the sleep. You’ll be rewarded with gains piling on a lot easier.
Becoming a great sleeper will go a long way to making you less of a hard gainer. This is especially so when in the second half of a training cycle.
When the intensity reaches its peak, do your utmost to get an extra hour of two hour of sleep each night.
Don’t train late. Don’t use stimulants. Take a warm bath before retiring. Investigate meditation and relaxation techniques to relax you. And—if you
take mineral supplements—take them before bedtime because they may help to relax you.

Abbreviated workouts
Abbreviated training cuts back training to the absolute basics, to the skeleton shorn of all secondary and superfluous work. It focuses on the most
basic and demanding exercises. Such routines go as low as four, three or even two exercises, and, in the extreme, just one exercise in a workout.
Take this seriously. This is the way to gains for many hard gainers who can’t gain on other routines for hard gainers.
Such an abbreviated training procedure is usually used as a last resort, after their users have unsuccessfully used other routines. Don’t see
abbreviated training as a last resort. It should be the first resort for hard gainers, especially extreme hard gainers.
Abbreviated routines can provide the quickest way to unabbreviated gains in size and strength, even for those of you who can gain on longer
routines. The less you train, the more you can gain is usually true in the case of the typical drug-free hard gainer. Try it for yourself, with
commitment and determination.
The abbreviated routine has two primary advantages. First, because the volume of exercise is so low, the intensity of effort can be very high
because there’s so little work over which to spread your effort and application. The second advantage is that the demands upon your recovery
ability are reduced relative to conventional routines. Demanding less from your recovery capacity means you’re far less likely to overtrain. Being
more likely to recover quicker between workouts, you’ll get in more productive workouts within a given period.
You’ll recover more quickly than usual, be less tired during your off days, and be more enthusiastic for your next workout. By being able to put
more effort into less work, and being able to tolerate more of such workouts, you will grow more. A magic formula.
Another big advantage of abbreviated routines is the spending of less time in the gym. This is important for those who have very congested
lifestyles. So, for drug-free and genetically typical bodybuilders, not only are abbreviated workouts convenient, they are far more effective than
long and excessively frequent workouts.
Spending a few cycles on abbreviated routines, or longer in some cases, gives you the foundation for responding to a moderately expanded routine
later on. Praise the abbreviated workout.
The abbreviated routine is the only way forward for the extreme hard gainer who has physically demanding employment. Even for some hard
gainers who have comfortable and non-tiring jobs, the abbreviated routine is the only way to pack on the mass, at least in the early part of their
training lives.

Confusion, but hope

Occasionally, in the mainstream bodybuilding literature and gym-lore, attempts are made to produce a basic, somewhat abbreviated routine, as a
“mass and power” routine. While the number and selection of exercises show hope and a big step in the right direction, the second step wasn’t
taken. It’s not just the number and selection of exercises that matters, but how those exercises are scheduled.
A routine of four to six “power” exercises may be recommended, to be trained full-bore three days a week . Which drug-free, typical
bodybuilders can squat, bench press and deadlift hard three days a week? Sometimes, a split routine of basic exercises is designed so that squats
are done twice a week and deadlifts are done on another two days a week. Pounding the lower back four days a week? Forget it.
This sort of interpretation gives basic, abbreviated training a bad name. If you abuse training in this confused way, then of course you’re going to
stagnate and get injured. Those who are so poorly guided then think that the squat and deadlift are dangerous exercises. Of course they are, if you
abuse them. Don’t abuse them! Follow the advice in this book, and reap the rewards of the most productive exercises.
Often, the actual list of exercises may be sound, but the way those exercises are scheduled is disastrous.

Do abbreviated routines neglect body parts?

Very abbreviated routines do lack something in terms of balance. Their purpose isn’t to attend to the finer points of balance and finishing.
Bodybuilders who are in the greatest need of abbreviated routines shouldn’t be concerned about aspects of balance.
Concern with complete balance and attention to the little details comes after you’ve developed considerable size in the first place. Trying to do
everything at the same time—substance and detail—is, at least for typical hard gainers, a recipe for stagnation and the development of neither
substance nor detail.
It’s the very fact that training has been cut back to its absolute skeleton that abbreviated routines can be so effective—there are no distractions, no
marginal concerns, no siphoning off of energy and effort, no excessive demands upon recovery capacity.
Abbreviated routines don’t provide specific arm and shoulder work. However, these areas get a good working over from the indirect work they
get from the very hard work you’re able to put into bench presses or dips, and the back work, alongside the other exercises. Don’t think that your
arm and shoulder muscles will atrophy because you won’t be doing specific isolation work for them.
The irony is that many hard gainers gain little or nothing on arm specialization work. However, on an abbreviated routine, effort is poured in and
you can add substantial poundage to the few exercises used. Then your arms will grow. Stick with an abbreviated routine for enough cycles to add
100 pounds to your squat and stiff-legged deadlift, for plenty of reps, and 75 pounds to your bench press. How then can your arms and shoulders
not grow?
This book, together with HARDGAINER, has a different message to promote than has the mainstream bodybuilding literature. The appalling irony
of modern bodybuilding is that the training methods appropriate to only the minority of bodybuilders are given massive promotion, while the training
methods appropriate to the masses are hidden from the very people who need them the most.
Believe in the message of this book and HARDGAINER, adjust it to your individual circumstances, “sweat blood” on it, and you’ll get results that
will make even the most doubting of doubting Gym Thomases sit up and take notice.

Body part specialization

Chapter 12 delves into this subject. Suffice for the moment to note that the interpretations of training frequency covered in this chapter refer to
training where progress is desired throughout the body. When specializing upon a single body part, short-term periods of interpretations of training
frequency different to those given in this chapter can be productively used. More on this later.

Recreational activities
Be careful with your recreational activities outside of bodybuilding. If you’re playing a lot of basketball, football or any other physically demanding
activity, you’ll be making major inroads into your recovery ability. If you’re having trouble gaining in the gym, the last thing you want is to have your
recovery ability largely used up by other activities. Cut back demanding activities—just concentrate on the skill aspects for a while. Or, consider
changing your recreational activities.

Coping with excessively demanding employment

Long hours of hard manual labor, especially in high temperatures, can take a heavy toll on the body’s capacity to respond normally to a typical
hard gainer’s routine. It usually makes a hard gainer into an extremely hard gainer. As with almost everything though, there are exceptions. One is
the 16-year-old Randall J. Strossen who, in the late 1960s, gained his “30 pounds of muscle in six weeks” on a 20-rep squat program during a hot
summer vacation from school and while working as a construction laborer. At the end of the program, Strossen reported, “I feel that I am in about
as hard a condition now as I was at the beginning of the program.” This was reported in the January 1969 issue of Iron Man . (Who knows, he
may have gained even better had he been lounging around at home between workouts.)
It’s not just manual labor that can be a hindrance. Anyone who works long and difficult hours, be those hours at a desk or in the home, may have
additional obstacles in the way of progress in the gym. Anyone who even has physically non-demanding employment can suddenly feel the
difference upon the arrival of offspring.
While there are times that circumstances are so temporarily trying that progress in the gym has to be forgotten for a while, a solution must be found
for dealing with long-term, regular difficult circumstances.
The solution is to reduce the demands upon the body from every source. Train less often, do less training at each workout, sleep more whenever
you can, rest whenever possible, and consume more calories to compensate for the increased energy output from all the work and late hours. Just
how you do this is up to you. Experiment. Whatever you need to do, do it. Never mind what anyone in less trying circumstances has to say about
your strategy.
If you’ve had a particularly tiring day or night, avoid training the same day or even the following day. You can’t adhere to a pre-set schedule of
training days. Try to pick your training days when you’re least tired. Do your best to ensure that the night before a workout you have a good
night’s sleep. One good day and night of rest can correct a run of deficit days and nights.
Sleep and rest as much as you can. Even if sound sleep is unattainable, rest in the best way you can. Avoid, whenever possible, all energy leaks.
To paraphrase Peary Rader—quoted in Super Squats , page 76—don’t run when you can walk, don’t walk when you can sit, don’t sit when you
can lie down, don’t merely lie down when you can sleep, and don’t get up when you can lie in.
All of this may seem excessive in the minds of people who have been spared the enormous demands of constant over-work, disturbed nights, and
lack of rest. For those of you who are familiar with the extreme situation I’m writing about, you’ll know that what I’m recommending is a method
of trying to cope with what would otherwise be an unbearable situation.
Try working at a full-time and tiring job followed by looking after young children for a couple of their pre-sleep difficult hours, followed by working
at a part-time job until midnight or later, followed by being woken up at 3.30 a.m., followed by getting up at 5 a.m., followed—in theory—by a
visit to the gym the following afternoon, followed by a similar chain of events for the days before the next workout.
Now try to follow the routine of a top title-winner. Don’t even try to follow the routine of a typical hard gainer. Forget it. Cut back, cut back, and
cut back again.
Another problem arising from working very long hours is that meal timing can be upset. Stick rigidly to your meals. If you skip some, you’ll reduce
your energy intake and further exacerbate the obstacles in the way of mere maintenance training, let alone progress-orientated training. If solid
meals are made impossible at times, rely more on liquid meals. Get more use out of milk concoctions and the use of a blender.
Even with all of this in mind it’s still possible to be side-tracked if you’re not thoroughly resolved to stay on the sane but radical course. Getting too
interested in the training of genetically superior and drug-using bodybuilders who can devote themselves to training, rest and eating—with few
distractions—will lead you astray. Avoid being seduced into having anything to do with the irrational.
Remember, do less training, not more—cut back, cut back and cut back again.
The criticism that the squat sometimes receives usually arises from two points. First, most gym members and
instructors don’t know how to squat. Second, of those who try to learn, most don’t invest enough time and
patience to learn to squat properly. They are then unable to maintain good technique when building up the
poundage.
While the technique of the regular squat and the bent-legged deadlift are different, they share similarities in their
effects and productiveness. Some people are better suited to squatting, others are better suited to deadlifting.
While neglecting neither, consider focusing more on the movement you’re better suited to.
9. The Squat
The regular squat—with bar held on the trapezius—is one of the most productive of exercises for all who can safely perform it . (The trapezius
is the large, flat muscle that covers much of the upper back region. It’s responsible for rotating the scapula and providing the natural padding for
the squat bar.)
Variations of the regular squat are given later in this chapter, some of them being excellent alternatives. It’s not a case of either regular squats or no
squats.
While great praise is rightly given to the classic 20-rep squat routine, the 20-rep deadlift routine is worth experimenting with. Although the focus of
this chapter is upon the squat, don’t belittle the value for some people of using the bent-legged deadlift—and perhaps especially the parallel-grip
bent-legged deadlift, using either a trap bar or a shrug bar—as the linchpin in some training cycles.
The squat, together with variations of the deadlift, are the most productive exercises that can be done to stimulate muscular growth and strength
gains. For so little but hard work, these two exercises can produce mounds of muscle and get the body into a more responsive condition for
bodybuilding. It’s because these exercises demand such hard work, and affect a large mass of muscle, that they are so effective.
Hard work on the squat and deadlift provides a mysterious growth effect by improving the metabolism and internal efficiency. This improved
metabolism makes you less of a hard gainer.

Testosterone production
Testosterone is the hormone with anabolic and androgenic effects. The former are related to the development of muscle tissue, and the latter are
related to the male sex characteristics. Anabolic steroids are synthetic forms of testosterone that provide their users with more of this hormone than
can naturally exist in their systems.
The body was designed to respond to very demanding work with the secretion of testosterone. While the unnaturally high levels that users of
steroids have can’t be imitated, we can temporarily raise our testosterone levels by triggering it with exercise. Which exercises trigger the most
testosterone production? The ones that use the biggest muscle mass and demand the most from you—the squat and the bent-legged deadlift.
Doing the squat and stiff-legged deadlift back-to-back may do just about all that can be done to trigger testosterone production. Merely doing
these exercises isn’t enough though. They have to be worked hard.

Becoming able to squat

Very few people have the structure of body needed to build up to the enormous poundages of competitive powerlifters. You can’t do anything
about your length of legs, femur and trunk construction, muscle size potential, and tendon attachment points.
Very few people can’t squat productively as long as they train themselves to squat properly . If your calves are inflexible, you’re not going to
be able to squat down without lifting your heels off the ground and toppling forwards. If your shoulders, hamstrings, hips and back are tight, you’re
not going to be able to squat well.
Construct a program that will slowly but progressively improve the flexibility of your calves, hamstrings, hips, back and shoulders. Diligently follow
this program at least every other day. Stretching after your bodybuilding workout may be the safest and quickest way to improve your flexibility.
Together with the seven stretching exercises given in Chapter 11 you need additional work for your shoulders and calves. Add the broomstick
circling exercise described under Positioning the bar in this chapter, and the calf stretching exercise described in Raising the heels , also in this
chapter.
While working on your flexibility, learn how to squat with an unloaded bar. Develop a good stance, posture and style. All of this takes time—be
patient. It takes years to get a body inflexible—don’t expect to correct things in just a couple of weeks. Only once you’re flexible—and the
squatting technique is sound, smooth and consistent—should you slowly add poundage while maintaining impeccable style. You’ll then be able to
squat well enough to benefit from squats. Once you’re flexible, keep doing the flexibility program to maintain your flexibility.
But don’t start piling on the poundage before you’ve stretched out your body, and before you’ve learned to squat with good style. If you’re too
impatient, you’re probably going to dislike the exercise, never be able to progress well with it, and maybe injure yourself.
Follow the technique guidelines for the squat given in this book and search out someone in your neighborhood to supervise your learning of
squatting technique. The body is designed by Nature to squat. It’s neglect of the body’s flexibility, and inappropriate training procedures, that
cause the problems.
When learning how to squat safely and productively you must start with very light weights, and s-l-o-w-l-y add poundage to the bar. Ignore those
who may deride the little weights you’re using. Keep making small increments and, a couple of years later, when you’re using big poundages and
have transformed your physique, you’ll have the last laugh.
No matter how difficult, at least initially, you may find it to squat, don’t automatically abandon the regular squat. Following getting your body
prepared for the squat, and then learning how to squat, you must continue to give great attention to technique. Combine this sound technique with
rational routines, intensity cycling, avoidance of excessive low rep work, common sense, balanced development, experimentation and a ton of
perseverance. Doing all of this can perform near miracles.
Some bodybuilders do have back or knee problems that prevent the use of the regular squat. These are usually incurred from contact sports,
accidents or unwise training procedures. However, these people belong to a small minority of bodybuilders. As long as you can squat, and almost
all of you can, squat on.

An inspiring example
Peary Rader, founder of Iron Man magazine in the 1930s, was one of the most forceful and consistent advocates of the squat. He spent decades
promoting the value of abbreviated routines and high-repetition squatting with maximum poundages. It was this approach that transformed his body
after having spent more than ten years fruitlessly trying other systems of exercise.
As described by Randall J. Strossen, Ph.D., (Super Squats , page 34), Rader finally got into the 20-rep squat routine and built his strength and
development against the odds. At only 128 pounds, and nearly 6’, he started the program very thin and weak. He started the squat using only 35
pounds for ten reps and progressed to using more than 300 pounds for 20 reps (Super Squats , page 46). Inspiring stuff. In a year, he gained
some 80 pounds. Another year later, he became a lifting champion. All this without modern dietary supplements.
His transformation wasn’t an isolated case and it drove him on to promote the same message to all who were interested. Even in the final issues of
Iron Man he continued to promote the undiluted message.

The knock-on effect

The squat not only directly affects the thigh, hip and lower back structure but has a knock-on effect throughout the body. The squat “anabolizes”
the metabolism, making the whole body more likely to grow and get stronger. The squat by itself isn’t going to pack inches of muscle onto your
arms. However, good progress in the squat will make it far easier to push up poundages substantially in rows and bench presses. That will pack
size onto your arms.
Without the squat and deadlift providing the “engine” for growth throughout the body, it becomes harder to get the rest of the body moving in size
and strength.
With the squat and deadlift (regular style, stiff-legged, or snatch grip) as the linchpins of a routine, the scene is set for big results. The drawback is
the cost. Squats, when done with as heavy poundage as possible for maximum reps, are brutally hard, as are deadlifts.

Cutting through the hype

Today’s age is one of sophistication and the belief that if something isn’t a new concoction—expensive and glamorized with a mountain of hype—it
can’t have much going for it. In the world of getting bigger and stronger, there’s little that’s new. Most of what is claimed as new either isn’t, or is
just a derivation of something that’s been around a long time. Watch out for misleading hype.
Squat hard and briefly—no more than twice a week. Combine this with only a handful of other exercises. Drink generously of milk if you need lots
of extra calories and can tolerate milk. Eat lots of quality food. Rest and sleep as much as you can—get lazy. Do all this and you may be unable to
stop growing for a while.
As old-fashioned and crude as this growth package may appear, it can pack on muscle today just as it did in decades gone by. Squats aren’t the
whole story, but they are a big part of it.
What about the other types of squat?
The squat stressed here is the traditional back squat, not its inferior substitutes such as the sissy squat and hack squat. The traditional back squat is
in a different league for building substantial size and strength. Not only that, but the sissy squat and hack squat are usually harmful to the knee even
when done “properly.” The back squat, done properly, is much safer.
The value of a weight-training exercise, for building size and strength, can be determined by its degree of discomfort when worked to the limit with
proper form. (Abusive exercise form will exaggerate the discomfort but this isn’t the type of discomfort that will make training more effective.)
Sure, leg extensions when worked hard are tiring, as are the other small exercises, and generate a big ache and pump. This localized fatigue is small
stuff compared to the enormous total body and localized fatigue that comes from a single set of properly done squats, especially high rep ones.
Sissy squats and hack squats can be very tough to do, but still come second to the devastating effects of high-rep regular squats.
The leg press can generate much discomfort, and can be very effective if a good machine is used. Nautilus and Hammer Strength produce excellent
leg press machines.
And the deadlift can successfully compete with the regular squat for the title of the most grueling exercise.
How many people really pay their dues in the squat rack? Not many. How many people are really big and impressive? Not many.
If the squat just stimulated growth in the thighs, all this praise would be hyperbole. The squat directly involves all the main muscular structures of the
body together with forcing heavy breathing and involving everything from the neck down to the toes. It’s this total impact (when combined with
adequate rest and food) that makes the squat a vital component in any program to stimulate big increases in size and strength.
Once you get the main muscular structures of the body growing, the rest of the body comes along far more easily. Once you can squat at least a
rep or two with 400 pounds—and deadlift with more than 400—your arms and shoulders will respond more receptively. Try to get big arms and
shoulders while only being able to squat with 200 pounds and you’ll be onto a loser.
Development of the thigh, hip and back structure is the base for growth throughout the body. By training hard on the squat—whether for low,
medium or high reps—you’ll automatically experience a knock-on effect elsewhere. As the squat improves, so does the potential for growth
everywhere else. If you want big arms and shoulders, your priority is to be sure that your hip, thigh and back structure is growing and becoming
powerful, closely followed by your upper-body pressing structure.

Developing the buttocks

Don’t be put off by the thought of developing your buttocks, or glutes to use gym jargon. You need to develop your buttocks just as you need to
develop your thighs, back and other body parts.
Flat and undeveloped buttocks look ridiculous on an otherwise well-developed body. If your thigh biceps (rear thighs) are flat and not developed
enough, then your buttocks will appear bigger than they should. Develop your thigh biceps and then the development of your buttocks and thighs
will be in proportion. If you keep your stiff-legged deadlift poundage near to your squatting poundage, your thigh biceps should be fine.

The snag
The drawback with the squat is that it’s brutally hard when worked to its absolute limit, especially for high reps. Knowing this, many bodybuilders
shirk the exercise, concocting many pretexts for not doing it. A popular one was the opinion that the exercise is dangerous for the knees. If the
exercise is done safely, not only will the squat not damage the knees, it will actually do much to prevent knee injury.
The discomfort from full-bore squatting is extreme. You’ve got to earn the benefits from squats by pushing yourself harder than you ever thought
possible.
There’s too much promotion today of comfortable methods of training and the supposed near miracle effects of combinations of food supplements.
While some food supplements may help a bit, there’s no combination that can substitute for what has to be done in the gym. If you want to grow
some substantial muscle, you’d better accept the need for some substantial discomfort and true gut-busting effort.

Sustaining motivation
Driving yourself to your limit week after week in the squat, or in any other exercise for that matter, will wear you out physically and mentally. Too
much, even of a good thing, can be detrimental. This is especially so of the key exercises.
Don’t drive yourself into the ground with the squat more than twice a week. Many people, not just hard gainers but genetic mega-superiors, find
that squatting hard just once a week is enough. If you work hard, and keep adding poundage, then you’re progressing. If you can do this while
squatting just once a week, it’s working.
As has already been made clear, cycle your training intensity. On top of this, have short periods each year in which you don’t use the regular squat.
Have a break.
Another approach is to squat in the regular manner one thigh workout, and then use a variation at alternate workouts. Some of the variations of the
regular squat are quality exercises.
Some of the squat variations come well behind in mimicking the bountiful benefits of hard work on the regular squat. At least for short periods,
however, they can serve to give the mind and thigh, back and hip structure a stimulating break from the brutal stuff. This can help prepare you to
make the most of the next cycle with the regular squat.
As an illustration, a year’s schedule of the squat and two of its quality substitutes could run like the following, training each just once a week.

1. Eighteen weeks of regular 20-rep squats.

2. Twelve weeks of bent-legged deadlift specialization—sumo or conventional style, whichever suits you best.
3. Ten weeks of rack squats from the bottom (8 reps).
4. Ten weeks of parallel-grip deadlifts using a Gerard trap bar, or a shrug bar (6 reps).
The parallel-grip deadlift is an excellent squat substitute, and may even suit many hard gainers more than the squat itself.

This totals fifty weeks. The outstanding two will be layoff weeks. To perform rack squats from the bottom , gently and briefly set the bar on the
pins/bars fixed at your bottom position. The pause for just one second at the bottom of each rep will add a new dimension to the squat.
Take it relatively easy for the first few weeks of each cycle. But each cycle must work into new poundage territory, for the focus exercise, in order
for you to make progress. While the deadlift is specialized upon in the second cycle, a deadlift can still be included in the other cycles. In the
second cycle, keep the squat low key —warmup sets only, just for form and flexibility—so that focus can be given to the deadlift.

Getting the most out of the squat

Some body structures are more suited to squatting than others. Some people find that their lower backs are the weak links that restrict their
progress. Performing the good morning exercise was suggested in the first edition of BRAWN as a way of strengthening the lower back so that it’s
better able to tolerate leaning over during the squat. I now consider the good morning a high risk exercise. I much prefer the deadlift and its
variations as the main exercises for strengthening the lower back, and the back extension as a supplementary movement.
If your lower back is taking a heavy beating during the squat, it’s likely that your squatting form needs improvement. With a wider stance, more toe
flare, never rounding your back, and perhaps a lower bar placement on your traps, your lower back may not have to take so much of the load.
Then it won’t get so heavily worked, and be the weak link. Very importantly, adjust to the new form over at least two months. Substantially cut
back your poundage to begin with.
If you avoid big jumps in poundage, your body will adapt to the increasing loads placed upon it, and withstand the stress without any weak link
showing up. With good form, and adding weight in small doses in line with the rate of strength your body can build, weak links are not so apparent
because the body can cope, and stress is evenly distributed. Strength is not built in ten-pound jumps.
Doing partial deadlifts is a good way to condition your lower back. With it you can load your back with weights bigger than you may be using in
the squat. Using a power rack, or resting the barbell on sturdy boxes, take the bar from knee height, pulling with your back only—not involving
your thighs. Keep your back flat and start within your limits. Build up to working hard, but not to failure.
If you’re conditioning yourself for low- and medium-rep squatting, work up to a top weight for about five reps in the partial deadlift no more than
once a week, after the regular full-range deadlift. This may be too severe once you’re working with your top poundages—then perhaps reduce the
partial deadlift to alternate deadlift workouts only. Build up the poundage over a cycle or two. Your back should then be better able to take the
stress when coming out of the bottom of a squat, and may no longer be the weak link. But overdo the additional training, and your back will be
fatigued and you’ll be weaker.
If you’re conditioning yourself for 20-rep squatting, you may want to try the partial deadlifting with a lighter weight and 20 reps, with pauses
between reps (taken in the upright position, but without any leaning back). Experiment.

Positioning the feet

You have to lean over when you perform the regular back squat with a barbell. Having your feet too close together, and toes pointed straight
forward, encourages excessive leaning over and the production of a modified “good morning” exercise rather than a squat. A wider spacing of the
feet, and toes pointed out, should improve squatting technique. The longer are your femurs (thighbones), the more you should experiment with
pointing your toes out. You also need flexible calves, hamstrings and shoulders, to adopt a good squatting position. Work on increasing your
flexibility if your squatting style is poor.
The starting placement, when learning to squat, is to have your heels 12–14 inches apart. If you’re tall, or have wide hips, then more like 16–18
inches may be better, and some people go over 20 inches. As you become more flexible, experiment more with your feet positioning, to establish
the most comfortable and efficient positioning for you.

Footwear
Don’t squat in shoes with spongy soles, or air in them—these aren’t designed for heavy lifting, and may cause you to lose your balance. Be sure
you’re stable in your footwear.

Positioning the bar

Do not position the bar on your neck. Position it on the trapezius muscle just above the center of the top ridge of your shoulder blades. This is a
lower position than what’s typically used by most trainees.
You may need to increase your shoulder flexibility before you can hold the bar in the correct position. To do this, hold a broomstick in front of
your thighs with a very wide grip, and keep your elbows straight. Grip the bar lightly with your thumbs and first fingers. Keeping your arms straight,
bring the bar over your head and then behind you as far as you can. Letting your palms face outward during the course of the exercise should
make it more comfortable. The wider the grip during these dislocates, the easier the exercise. To progress in flexibility, gradually decrease the
distance between your hands. Take your time with this exercise—don’t force the exercise and injure yourself.
You may want to use a little cushioning between the bar and your shoulders. Avoid using too much or else you’ll find that the bar becomes
unstable and likely to roll down your back. I’ve seen trainees use two cushions in addition to the quarter of an inch of thick compressed foam
already around the bar. The bar ends up tottering around on the lifters’ backs. All of this with little more than bodyweight on the bar. The
compressed foam alone should be adequate so long as you have the bar properly positioned. If you have the bar in the right position, and you
have some trapezius development, you’re better off without any padding around the bar.
Grip the bar six to eight inches or so wider than shoulder grip. An extremely narrow grip puts great stress on the elbows; a very wide grip can
leave you without much control of the bar. If you wrap your arms around the plates themselves, you can’t be squatting with any intensity, or with
any seriousness.
When you’re setting yourself up under the bar, in the rack or stands, be sure you have the bar centered on your trapezius, and be sure your hands
are evenly spaced. If you use padding on the bar, be sure it’s centered on the bar before you take it on your traps.
When you’ve got the bar on your trapezius, back away from the stands just enough so you won’t hit the stands as you squat. Don’t take so many
steps back that you tire yourself and mar the set to follow. But don’t wait so long with the bar on your back that you tire yourself.

Raising the heels

After you’ve tried different widths of stance, with your toes pointed outward (30 degrees or so, or more for some people), you may still have
trouble with balance. If you do, resist any temptation to put a board under your heels. Elevating the heels is a quick-fix but potentially harmful
solution to balance/flexibility problems. Elevating the heels while squatting increases the forward travel of the knees, and greatly increases knee
stress. This has damaged many knees. And it’s not just the knees that are put at risk by elevating the heels—the lower back is, too.
Instead, work at increasing the flexibility of your calves. Taking your bodyweight on a fully stretched calf (heel all the way down) will help. Rock
very gently in the bottom position. Do this several times for each calf three times a week. Over several weeks this should noticeably increase your
ankle flexibility. This will help you to squat without a board or anything else under your heels.
Trainees who have always used a board or plates under their heels need to get off the elevation. To do this they will need to work on their calf
flexibility, and improve their squatting technique. The improved technique usually means lowering the bar a little on the traps, widening the stance,
and turning out the toes more. The benefits of all this will be that the body mechanics will be in a more advantageous position. This will, with time
and adaptation, permit squatting with heavier weights in a safe and productive way.
Depth of squatting
Squat as deeply as is safe for you —which means maintaining a slightly hollow lower spine. Never round your back while squatting.
Ideally, go down to the point where the tops of your upper thighs are at or just below parallel with the ground. To go lower puts more stress on the
lower back muscles. This could cause squatting failure through back exhaustion rather than the combined exhaustion of thigh, hip and back
muscles. There are better ways of training the lower back muscles than very deep squatting. And if your back rounds, you greatly increase the
risk of back injury.
But if you can’t maintain a slightly hollow lower spine at that parallel-position depth, don’t squat so deeply. Find the depth at which you can
maintain a slightly hollow lower spine.
You need to be sure you’re squatting to the right depth for you. Using a very light weight, squat side-on to a mirror and get the feel of where you
need to be to still be able to maintain a slightly hollow lower spine. Then get yourself in a power rack, or between squat stands, and find a way of
assessing the depth of your squat without having to look at your lower back. A training partner can help.
Personally, I know I have to squat until the bar (a straight bar) is within one inch of touching the safety bars I squat between. A taller person may
need to descend until the bar is a couple of inches higher. If you use a cambered bar, the ends of the bar will descend to a lower position than they
would on a straight bar.

Knees
Keep your knees out as you descend, and keep them out as you rise. The kneecaps should line up on the same plane as the feet. Buckling in the
knees as you rise out of the squat is a common mistake, one that will limit your long-term progress, and risk damage to your knees.
Cut back the poundage—start a new cycle with moderate poundages—and focus on keeping your knees out. And increase the flexibility of your
thigh adductors. Never let a single rep have you buckling your knees in. If you start off moderately, and slowly build up the poundage, you’ll be
able to keep your knees where they belong. But you must have adequate flexibility, your stance wide enough, and your toes flared enough to lock
your knees out. You will need to experiment to find the best positioning for you.
If you increase the poundage too quickly you’ll drop back into your knees-in style. It takes time to correct this technique error.

Squatting technique
The squat is a complex exercise. Develop good technique before you start to work with the heaviest poundages you can handle. Unless your style
is well-learned and secure, it will collapse once you start to use as much poundage as you can.
The criticism that the squat sometimes receives is usually due to two reasons. First, most gym members and instructors don’t know how to squat
correctly. Second, of those who do implement good technique, most don’t invest enough time and patience to master the squat, and as a result
they are unable to maintain good technique when they build up the poundage and start to squat hard.
Sit into the squat while sticking your chest out and keeping your shoulders back. Concentrating on these points, during every rep, will help you to
avoid leaning forward excessively. Keep the stress of the weight travelling through the center and rear of your feet. If the stress travels through your
toes you’ll be in danger of toppling forward.
Take about three seconds to lower yourself until you reach the bottom position, then immediately begin your ascent.
The hip and thigh muscles are the prime movers for the upward movement. Keep your lower spine slightly hollow while driving up with your thighs.
Making a special effort to keep your chest stuck out will help to maintain the correct positioning.
As you rise out of the squat, your shoulders must not move slower than your hips. If your hips move faster than your shoulders, you’ll start to
topple forward, and severely overload your lower back. You may have the back strength to save the lift, but if you don’t you’ll lose the squat.
Either way, you’ll risk injury, perhaps serious injury.
As you come to the sticking point of the ascent, push up hard on the bar with your hands, and blast out the air from your lungs. This will help to get
you through the sticking point.
Avoid throwing your head back as you rise from the low position, although you must drive your shoulders up as you rise.
Looking up as you rise is the traditional advice, aimed at avoiding humping of the back and the squatter losing balance and falling forward. Having
your eyes looking up is one thing, vigorously throwing your head back is another. The drawback with not at least looking forward as you rise is
that there’s a tendency to shift the weight onto the front of the feet, causing the hips to rise too rapidly, and the squatter to lean forward
excessively, and perhaps even topple forward.
During the pause between reps, don’t shift or rock the bar; and don’t sway or rock at your hips. Don’t round your back during a rep, or between
reps. And during a set don’t try to reposition your hands, or try to reposition the bar on your trapezius. If the bar is out of position, put it back in
the rack or stands, rest for a few minutes, and then reposition it correctly before starting the set anew.
Never hold your breath as you squat. Inhale before or during the descent, and exhale during the ascent. Breathe deeply between reps.

Safety
Never squat without safety devices set just below the point at which the bar reaches at your bottom position—ready to catch the bar if you can’t
make a rep. The only exception is if you have two strong, alert spotters ready to take the weights off you, if necessary. It’s ideal to have safety
devices and spotters, to give you the confidence and encouragement to train hard.

Poundage progression
One of the central points coming out of this book is the need to add poundage slowly. If you add weight to the bar too quickly, you can do several
things—kill the gaining momentum of a training cycle, kill good form, kill training enthusiasm, and injure yourself.
It’s always better to be conservative and to add less weight, and to add it less often. This ensures more sustained gaining periods, fewer sticking
points, and better adaptation to training. Patience is a virtue in training, as it is in many other things.
I’ve been guilty in the past of piling weight on the bar too quickly in a cycle, and of advising others to do the same.
An example of this is the opinion, “Take a weight you can squat 10 reps with, and then force yourself to get 20.” If you do this, your squatting
cycle will end almost immediately. You’ll be finished off before you’ve barely started. It should be qualified to something like this: “In the second
half of your 20-rep squatting cycle it will appear to an onlooker that you’re finished at 10 reps of each work set, but you continue each set and
force out the full 20 reps.”
Start off light, being able to manage comfortably the full 20 repetitions. Add weight slowly, and condition your body to sustain a long productive
cycle. This is much more productive than killing yourself in the first few workouts of a cycle and then giving it up.
As an example, suppose that with a lot of encouragement you can eke out 20 rep with 220 pounds in the squat. If you start there you may get to
230 or 235, but that will probably be it. But you may not get beyond 225. Better to start with 170, train twice a week, and add five pounds a
workout until you get to 200 pounds. Then change to three times every two weeks, and add 2-1/2 pounds every workout. It will take you eight
workouts to get to 220x20.
Now, add just one pound each workout, perhaps training only once every 5–7 days. At this rate you should be able to get to 250 pounds, or even
more, before progress ends.

How many reps to squat?

Some of the bad press that the squat has received (and the deadlift) has been due to these exercises being thought of purely as powerlifts. They are
then associated with low reps. Exclusive low-rep work will deny you of much of the gains that medium- and high-rep work can yield. Excessive
low-rep work will likely leave you more open to injuries than does medium- and high-rep work. Of course, all rep ranges can be dangerous, if
exercise technique isn’t correct.
This isn’t to say that low-rep work should never be done. Low-rep work is a must for powerlifters, and useful for advanced bodybuilders.
Low-rep work, used prudently by those qualified to use it, adds variety to a year’s training, and will enable you to register your absolute maximum
single once or twice a year if that interests you. Chapter 13 has detail on how to benefit from single-rep (90–95% of maximum) training for a
cycle. Fastidious attention to correct technique and safety considerations are always paramount when squatting, and even more so during low reps.
If it’s strength and muscular size you’re interested in, stick to medium and high reps. You can obtain good results from several rep schemes if you
give forth of your full effort when it’s called for. Remember, how you do the reps is more important than the number of reps. Changing the rep
scheme used, from cycle to cycle, is one way of sustaining variety and motivation.

20-rep squatting modification

If you can’t get into 20-rep squats because your back fails before your thighs do, you need to compromise. But I’m assuming you’ve already tried
conditioning your back using a couple of cycles of the partial deadlifts mentioned earlier in this chapter. And you may also want to try a cycle or
two of front squats—see later in this chapter. The problem may not be so much with your back getting tired during the actual squatting, but during
the rest pause between reps. To do heavy, high-rep squats it’s necessary to pause for a few breaths between each pair of reps—the rest pause .
This enables you to ready yourself for the next rep.
For the first ten reps or so you can probably manage with two to four deep breaths between reps. For the final few reps of a 20-rep set you may
take six or more breaths between reps. It’s at this stage that you’ll know what really hard work is about. You’ll discover how much control you
have over pushing an exhausted and protesting body.
If you use a lighter weight, you can progress through the set while taking shorter pauses between reps. This compromise will probably reduce the
overall effectiveness of the movement because the poundage isn’t taxing enough.
A better compromise is to add poundage and settle for ten reps a set. You can get a highly productive effect from medium-rep squats if you’re
driving yourself (within the context of cycling) to handle as much poundage as possible for the reps. You only have nine rest pauses in this set, and
the duration of the set is shorter than in a 20-rep set, although of course you have more poundage on your back. This may enable you to get
through the set without your lower back becoming the single most limiting factor. To compensate for the drop of reps—relative to the 20-rep set—
rest a few minutes and then do a second full-bore set. Cut the poundage back by about 50 pounds for the second set.

Lifting belt
If you have a back condition that supposedly necessitates the use of a belt, you shouldn’t be squatting. Don’t squat with a back problem.
Let your body condition itself to squatting and you’ll develop your own lifting belt in the form of strong abdominal and lower back muscles. For
medium- and high-repetition squats, wearing a belt is uncomfortable. It inhibits breathing, digs into your middle, and doesn’t prevent back fatigue.
The modern gym has fostered the notion that you can’t squat (or curl, or bench press, or even do lateral raises) without wearing a belt.
Bodybuilders have become conditioned to believe they will hurt their backs if they don’t use a belt. They don’t realize that the belts they use, and
the way they use them, don’t provide much if any protection anyway. It’s all in their minds.
If you plan to compete in powerlifting contests, in addition to a lifting belt you’ll need to be familiar with the use of knee wraps, a bench press shirt.
and a squatting suit near to the date of the contest. Otherwise, you’ll be at a disadvantage.

Cambered squatting bar

Some people find that a cambered squatting bar makes the squat a great deal less uncomfortable. Probably everyone will find it an advantage to
some degree. The bend in the center of the bar allows the bar to drape over the shoulders with less discomfort, akin to the milkmaid’s yoke from
long ago.
While it makes sense to make the squat as least uncomfortable as possible, you can’t make muscle-building squats comfortable. If the squat ever
becomes easy, it becomes useless for producing size and strength gains.
A cambered squatting bar is a rarity today, although it was common before World War II. The cambered bar you may be visualizing is one that’s
like a regular bar except that in the middle area the bar has four near right angles in it. This is a bench press cambered bar, designed to permit a
very deep bench press. Such an exaggerated range of movement is dangerous—avoid it.
A cambered squatting bar is very different. The dimensions of such a bar are provided by Randall J. Strossen, Ph.D., on page 80 of his book,
Super Squats .

Chester O. Teegarden used to make the Rolls-Royce of cambered bars: He bent a 7-1/2 foot length of 1-3/4 inch
round steel bar in five places to produce a 4-inch arc. One foot on either end of the bar was turned down to 1-1/16
inch, to fit exercise plates; and the ends were bent up to keep the plates on a level bar without requiring collars. The bar
was balanced and weighed 50 pounds when finished.

Bench squats
If you squat over a bench or box, touching it or even sitting on it, you may damage your spine. Each time your buttocks touch the bench, your
spine compresses slightly. While a very light touch may not cause any problems, a deliberate pause on the bench is another matter. If you lose the
squat and actually hit the bench instead of lightly touching it, the shock to your spine may be severe.
If you sit on the bench for several seconds, to set yourself up for the next ascent, you may regret it. Better to do your squats in a power rack,
having first set the pins at the right height so that the bar rests on them at your bottom position. You can then start your ascent from a dead stop in
the power rack without having the potentially dangerous effects of compression when doing dead stop squats from a bench or a box.

If you can’t squat productively

Some people simply can’t squat in the regular fashion in a safe and productive manner. As long as this is the real situation—not a pretext to avoid
the discomfort of regular squatting—it’s wise to use modifications. With a history of orthopedic problems or unusually disadvantageous leverages
(e.g., very long femurs in proportion to the upper body), the traditional squat may be unproductive.
Knee or lower back injury can put the regular squat out of reach for some people. And very tall people may not be able to squat with the type of
poundage that their actual strength levels demand.
The following variations of squatting are given for two reasons:

1. To provide safe and productive alternatives for those who are physically unable to squat productively with a barbell over their shoulders.
This generally means alternative squatting movements that don’t have the weight bearing upon the upper back.

2. To provide variations for those who can do regular squats productively but who would like to use variations to avoid going stale on the
regular squat.

Deadlift
The bent-legged deadlift is an excellent movement that can substitute for the squat, especially for tall and thin neophytes. These bodybuilders often
have an easier time pulling a weight than squatting it. The bent-legged deadlift and squat work similar muscle masses. Some people will be better
off working hard (after a break-in period) on the bent-legged deadlift while still learning to squat. Spend months perfecting squatting technique and
getting yourself flexible enough, while simultaneously building up your deadlift poundage. You’ll then have laid the groundwork and development to
be able to benefit from hard work on the squat itself.
The bent-legged deadlift can be worked like the squat is in the 20-rep squat routine. Avoid using a close grip when doing high-rep deadlifts so as
to reduce the compression from the arms upon the rib cage as the poundage gets heavy. Work the deadlift in a rest-pause manner, working it hard
once a week. (You can work it more frequently at the start of the cycle when the intensity isn’t high.) If you’re an extreme hard gainer, either work
the squat hard and the deadlift lightly, or deadlift hard and squat lightly. Working hard on both may, temporarily, be too much if you’re having a
hard time gaining.

Hip belt squat

By using a hip belt you can squat without your lower back caving in, and without the breathing discomfort that accompanies high rep squats with a
bar over your traps. If you can’t make a rep on the hip belt squat, rest the plates on the floor and crawl away. As with other variations of the
squat, if you build up to respectable poundages, you’ll grow. But all things being equal, the hip belt squat is not a match for the barbell squat,
because it involves less musculature. Don’t elevate your heels while hip belt squatting. Perform this exercise inside a power rack, and hold the
uprights just sufficiently to maintain balance.

The Douglass Squat Circle

This device was invented by James E. Douglass and has been raved over by some of its users, including J. C. Hise, a pioneer in the use of intense
abbreviated programs headed by the heavy breathing squat. Douglass’ prototype (the Douglass Harness) consisted of a rectangular frame
supported by straps over the shoulders. Weights were loaded on the frame. His later model used a circular frame.
Peary Rader sold this design for many years, through Iron Man , under the name of the Magic Circle. The new name was an indication of how
highly Rader rated the invention. It made the squat more productive for those who couldn’t tolerate the pain of a bar digging into the upper back,
and the compression of the lower back. A more upright squatting position could be maintained and the back became less of a weak link. It also
altered the mechanics of the squat, making the exercise more efficient for those lacking good leverages.
Of course, the device itself is useless unless coupled with the effort and persistence needed to build up to using impressive poundages. Removing
the negative discomforting factors of squatting is desirable, but the discomfort from intense squats can’t be avoided if you want to gain from the
exercise. Savor this discomfort from effort. The more you can stand, the more you’re going to gain.

The Douglass Squat Circle has been given another lease of life (as have the cambered bar and hip belt) by IronMind ® Enterprises, Inc, P.O. Box
1228, Nevada City, CA 95959, USA. It’s being marketed under the name of the Douglass/SUPER SQUATS Circle.

The sections on the hip belt squat and the Douglass Squat Circle are based on information contained in Dr. Randall J. Strossen’s Super Squats and
in conversations with Dr. Strossen.

Leg press
This can be a good exercise, but the machine used and manner of execution are important. Many leg press machines are not safe. They provide
unacceptable shearing forces upon the patella tendon and/or unacceptable compressive forces on the lumbar spine area.
If you have access to well designed leg press machines such as those from Hammer Strength, and Nautilus, the damaging forces are reduced.
Providing the exercise is done through a sufficient range of movement, and with sufficient effort, it will be productive.

Gerard trap bar squat/deadlift

The trap bar is the brainchild of Al Gerard, designed to make deadlift movements safer and more comfortable when handling heavy weights. It has
a rhombus fixed to the plate-loading ends. The gripping sites on the trap bar are parallel to one another, and inside the rhombus. This can make
holding onto the bar less of a problem than when using a regular bar. (The trap bar can be mimicked by holding dumbbells at the sides of your
thighs, with hands parallel to each other.) The trap bar decreases the distance between the lifter and weight. This improves balance and leverage,
and makes deadlifting more efficient and less stressful on the knees and spine. The bar doesn’t tend to move forward as the bar is pulled, and it
doesn’t have to be dragged up the thighs.
Stand inside the bar while doing your deadlifts and shrugs. Your deadlifts will look like squats with the weight in your hands. To increase the range
of motion, and give the thighs more work, do the exercise while standing on a low platform, or a pair of side-by-side smooth-side-up non-slip
weight plates. But do this only if you can maintain a slightly hollow lower back at the bottom position.
When doing the deadlift, Gerard’s recommendation is not to pull on the handles but to focus on trying to push the feet through the floor.
The trap bar is a very useful piece of equipment for exercises other than the deadlift variations, particularly shrugging movements. Also, as pointed
out by Paul Kelso, unless you have very wide shoulders you can do overhead presses with it, but not bench presses.
The trap bar deadlift is one form of parallel-grip deadlifting. The shrug bar deadlift is another form of parallel-grip deadlifting. The shrug bar
design incorporates a hexagon, whereas the trap bar design incorporates a rhombus shape. The shrug bar may provide more leg room during the
deadlift than does the trap bar.

Front squat
This can be an awkward exercise because of the difficulty with controlling the bar on the chest or across the shoulders. There’s also the chance of
the bar falling out of position. For most people, the front squat produces more knee flexion than the conventional squat, and may exaggerate stress
on the knees. The combination of these factors makes the front squat an objectionable exercise for many people.
The front squat is well suited for squatting all the way down until the thighs fold over the calves. The knees are kept wide apart during the course of
the exercise. The maintenance of the bar at the front of the shoulders keeps the torso in a more upright position relative to having the bar pushing
down on the traps as in the regular squat.
The back must not be allowed to round. Only front squat to the depth at which you can maintain the required slightly hollow lower spine.
When learning to front squat, the key point is control—control of holding the bar in position, and control over the squatting movement. Start light,
and progress slowly and carefully.
There’s a tradition of performing the front squat with heels raised on a board, supposedly to place more stress on the lower thigh. What this
definitely does is place greater stress on the knee joints. Sooner rather than later this will result in knee problems for all but those with very robust
knees. Never elevate your heels while squatting in any form. If you can’t perform the front squat without elevating your heels, and assuming that
you are flexible enough, forget this exercise.
The elbows must be kept high, cushioning the bar on the front deltoids. Initially, the hands may be crossed over the bar. As the style becomes
consolidated, a slightly-wider-than-shoulder-width overhand grip can be used. As Dr. Strossen told me:
You don’t need a death-grip on the bar as the weight is supported by the shoulder girdle. In fact, many top Olympic
lifters front squat with the bar on the very tips of their fingers (to reduce wrist strain) and that’s what I recommend for
people who find it difficult to clench the bar tightly. Arm strength isn’t involved at all in achieving correct position,
although flexibility is.

The elbows must still be kept high. This necessitates flexible arms and a strong upper body holding structure. This strength and flexibility will come
as long as you’re patient and persistent, adding weight slowly, always holding perfect form.
Work up to maximum working poundages over months, not weeks, if you’re new to the exercise. While working into the front squat, do the
regular squat too. Once you’re near to your top working poundages in the front squat—squatting between safety devices of some sort—drop the
regular squat and focus on the front squat. After a cycle or two on this lift, work back into the regular squat (together with maintenance front
squatting) over a cycle, and you should end the cycle with more iron on your traps than ever before.
You absolutely must keep your elbows clear of your knees when you front squat. If you don’t, and should you have to dump the bar during the
exercise, you may hit an elbow on a knee and sustain a serious wrist injury. Develop good safe habits right from the start.

One-legged squat
Stand on your right foot on a stable bench or platform. Hold something fixed and secure with your left hand, to keep your balance. The left leg is
kept out in front or, if you’re on a high enough bench or platform, the non-exercising leg can hang vertically. Squat on your right foot, only using
your supporting hand for help at the end of the set. The procedure will be reversed when working the left side. Once you’re used to the exercise,
hold a dumbbell on the same side as the exercising thigh.
This exercise may be awkward to do initially. When you’ve built up to using a fair-sized dumbbell, you’ll find it a productive exercise. It’s a good
exercise if you don’t have access to a gym for a while and want to get a good thigh workout without formal equipment.

Other variations
If you need to experiment further to find something better suited to your individual structural limitations, try step-ups while holding dumbbells. But
avoid crashing your leading foot onto the ground.
Do not, however, squat in the Smith machine. This machine corrupts the squat because it forces you into an unnatural pathway, and adds shear
stress to your knees due to the reaction force from your feet pushing forward on the floor. It can also put your lower back at increased risk.
If you’re unable to do the regular squat, you must make every effort to find some movement that severely stimulates the thighs and hips. If you
don’t, your progress—not only in your thighs and hips—will be severely hampered.

Poundage comparisons across squat variations

To get an idea of the poundage comparisons for the regular squat, front squat, hip belt squat, cambered bar squat and the Douglass Squat Circle, I
consulted Dr. Strossen:
Here are some order of magnitude squat weight comparisons. Figure on 50% (or even less) of your barbell back squat
weight for hip belt squats, at least when starting off. I can tell you some funny stories about honest 400–500 pound
Olympic style back squatters who couldn’t do 200 on the hip belt squat to save their lives. Figure on about 110 or
115% of your back squat weight for the Douglass Squat Circle. Add a couple of percent or so of your back squat for
cambered bar squats, and cut your back squat weight about 10 or 15% for front squats. When I say “back squat,” I
mean an honest, high bar, no wraps, medium stance, below parallel squat. No Mickey Mouse powerlifting stuff.
Rib cage enlargement?
Squats, especially when done with maximum poundage for medium or high reps, produce extremely heavy breathing. There’s a strong tradition of
doing light, straight-arm pullovers immediately after each of these sets of squats. The traditional opinion is that rib cage size can be increased by this
work, and when the rib cage expands so does the future growth potential of the body. The rib cage, according to this traditional view, is one of the
growth stimulation areas. The rib cage is what the upper body sits on—with a bigger stage you get a bigger body to set on it.
The combining of pullovers with the squat, to increase the size of the thorax, is regarded as a myth by some people. This opinion argues that the
only way to increase overall chest measurement is by increasing bodyweight, as for every other body part.
This opinion argues that the full ventilation during pullovers following squats induces a feeling of fullness in the lungs and chest. Despite this feeling of
growth and expansion, no change occurs in the bones of the ribs, and the cartilage neither thickens nor lengthens to increase chest measurement.
The argument continues that there’s no documented or proven evidence that it was the pullovers that delivered increased bodyweight or chest
measurement. Whenever anyone trains hard on the squat, and gains a lot of weight, the chest will increase in size. The pullovers, the argument
continues, were coincidental, not causative.
As Paul Kelso has written, while it may not be academically proven that the rib cage can be enlarged by exercise, neither is it proven that it can’t
be. The anecdotal evidence in favor of rib cage enlargement is extensive.
My opinion is that the rib cage can be enlarged—I believe mine was when I did a lot of breathing pullovers as a teenager. Rib cage enlargement
increases back and chest width, and deepens the chest when viewed from the side. Don’t neglect working your rib cage, especially if you are in
your youth.
Doing the pullover in a safe manner can do you no harm, but it may do you good. To do the pullover safely, lie lengthwise on a bench—not
across it. Doing the pullover across a bench, with the hips low, puts damaging stress upon the abdominal wall. Keep your elbows slightly unlocked,
and the weight no more than 20 pounds. The stress is upon breathing and stretching, not moving a heavy poundage. Be sure to work your abs with
crunch-style exercises to keep those muscles strong.
The Rader chest pull is a famous chest-builder in the tradition of the pullover, building the chest from within—making the rib cage bigger. Many
bodybuilders believe it to be a more effective rib cage expander than the pullover.
Peary Rader, in The Rader Master Bodybuilding and Weight Gaining System advised grasping a solid object at slightly above the top of the head,
with hands no more than three inches apart. (You can experiment with a slightly lower position.) Stand back from the object. Take a deep breath
and, at the same time, pull down and in with the arms. Rader stressed the importance of not contracting the abdominal muscles. Keep them
relaxed. All this should raise your chest and produce a “pull” in the sternum.
Take it easy the first few workouts. Once you get to grips with it you can feel a tremendous stretching effect in your rib cage. It may take a while to
get the exercise right. Persist, even if to begin with it doesn’t feel right. This exercise can be done everyday, not just when you’re in the gym.
If anything is going to expand your rib cage, combining the Rader chest pull with heavy breathing squats (and deadlifts) will.
Whatever you do, squat on. Savor the discomfort of the squat. There are millions of people in hospital beds who would give almost anything to be able to “suffer”
with the squat. The squat is one of the greatest allies you have in your quest for muscle. Exploit it to the full!
That steroids are so widespread today—among all levels of bodybuilders—is testimony to the barrenness of
popular training methods for building up the genetically typical. Without steroids, those methods just don’t
work.
Split routines for hard gainers don’t spread a high volume of work over the week. They stagger a low to medium
volume of work over more workouts. Each multi-joint exercise may be worked only once a week.
When you’re already big and strong, you need other tools to take you to new levels of strength and development.
The power rack is one of them.
10. Routines
If you’ve turned to this chapter first, stop. Please turn to the first page of this book, and start at the beginning. You’ll get little out of this chapter
until you’ve made the rest of the book an integral part of you—especially the six chapters preceding this one.
The lists of exercises that follow count for nothing unless each is acted upon in the full understanding of everything else written in this book. If your
understanding of training has only been in the mainstream of bodybuilding thought, the routines in this chapter may appear too radical. Start at the
beginning of the book, and get the full story.
Everything written here has to be put into practice in the best way that suits you. It’s you who will finalize the precise interpretation of intensity
cycling, training frequency, and degree of abbreviation of the routine. I can’t fix these factors for you. You have to take what I provide as general
recommendations, and fine-tune them to fit your own individual circumstances.
A list of exercises, sets and reps is powerless. You must bring it to life. You must marry the routine—individually tailored—with all the persistence,
effort, dedication and intelligence promoted in this book.
The effectiveness of a routine is a result of a package of considerations. The actual list of exercises is but one consideration. What follows in this
chapter is but a sample of potentially productive routines. (Chapters 12 and 13 have more routines.) Once you understand what you’re doing,
you’ll begin to learn what suits you best. You can then go on to compose your own routines according to the circumstances of the time.

Lest you should forget

The message coming from this book is that typical bodybuilders must not imitate the training methods of a gifted minority .
Typical bodybuilders have great difficulty when they try to gain on the popular routines. This doesn’t, however, mean that easy gainers won’t
respond to training on simple, basic and infrequent routines. Of course they will, and respond dramatically. Some of the most gifted bodybuilders
are learning this lesson and have cut back on their volume and frequency of training.

Equipment
The routines in this chapter have been composed considering that readers have access to a free-loading barbell, lots of plates (including the tiny
ones), sturdy squat stands and safety devices (or power rack), a strong bench, parallel bars for dips, and an overhead pulley or pullup (chinning)
bar. The emphasis is upon strong, practical equipment. Don’t even think about using shoddy, flimsy gear.
Even with an absolute minimum of a barbell, a bench, stands and safety devices you can transform yourself. This is adequate for meeting the
primary needs to pull, push and squat. All the big basic lifts are either pulling, squatting (lower-body pushing), or upper-body pushing movements
—the fundamental exercise planes. As long as you’re working hard on these three basic movements, and keeping exercises to the minimum, you’re
on the right lines.
More equipment, if properly used, can be very helpful. A set of dumbbells, and Hammer Strength and Nautilus equipment (among some others),
can provide quality alternative movements. Feel free to make wise substitutions —not additions—in the following routines. However, never let
inviting equipment distract you from the progress you must make with the big basic barbell exercises . Often, the usefulness of a gym is
inversely proportional to the variety of equipment it has to titillate members with.

How to perform a routine

The easier and most common interpretation is to do warmup work followed by the work set(s) for each exercise, one exercise at a time. For
example, take the bench press: 135 pounds x 5 reps, two minutes rest, 200x5, three minutes rest, 250x5, three minutes rest, then 250x5 again.
(Some multiple-set schemes require more than two work sets.) Take a few minutes rest and then do the warmup set(s) and work sets for the next
exercise, and so on.
The length of rest between sets is influenced by the exercise you’re doing. You need more rest after a hard set of squats or deadlifts than you need
after a hard set of calf raises.
The “blood and guts” interpretation of these routines (and the quickest way to get through a routine) gets you warmed up for every exercise in one
go. (It also produces a demanding cardiorespiratory workout.) Do all your warmup work after your abdominal work. Rest ninety seconds or less
between sets and then quickly set up all the poundages for the exercises to follow. Then, do all your top-effort sets one after the other, almost
back-to-back.
If each set is taken to the limit, and you don’t rest between exercises any longer than it takes you to move to the next exercise, then little can match
this training interpretation for severity.
If sets are extended beyond regular failure, using techniques such as drop sets, forced reps and negatives, this is amongst the absolute hardest of
hard training. Being so very hard, it has to be used with prudence or else it will overtrain you very quickly. With the back-to-back style of training,
if you do any more than a single set to failure for an exercise, rest a maximum of one minute between those sets, perhaps reducing the poundage
for the repeat set.
If you’re new to training your top sets back-to-back, break into it gradually in order to develop the high degree of conditioning that’s needed. Start
by resting two minutes between sets, and cut the rest period by ten seconds each week. By the end of a ten-week cycle you’ll be training almost in
the back-to-back method. For your following cycle, train in the pure back-to-back style.
Both interpretations can deliver impressive results, with each having its merits and demerits. The longer the rest period between sets and exercises,
the bigger the poundages you can use. By training, for example, squats and stiff-legged deadlifts back-to-back the latter will suffer in terms of
poundage used. This can still build size though, if you use as much poundage as you can for the reps you’re doing.
Experiment with different ways of rationally interpreting routines, perhaps finally settling on a handful of constructions. Vary which one you use
from cycle to cycle, according to the conditions at present.
Suppose you know that over the next few months you’re going to be over-worked at your employment, together with having many family
commitments. Knowing that you’re not going to be at your best in the gym, select two or more minutes of rest between sets. This will enable you
to maintain high intensity sets although the pace of workout isn’t fast.
If you know the next few months are going to provide good recovery and rest, with no over-work outside of the gym, try the back-to-back
interpretation. At other times, perhaps train with just one minute between sets and exercises. If you’re on a strength peaking cycle you’ll rest as
much as five minutes between your heavy sets, and even longer sometimes.
Another way to perform a routine is using super slow protocol. This is described in Chapter 13.
Make your plans, and stick to them. If you settle on one minute rests for the next cycle, or training back-to-back, stick to it. If you decide to use
heavier poundages, fixing say three minutes between sets, be sure your rest periods are exactly that. If you decide to try super slow, resolve to
master the procedure and then give it a fair try.
Being orderly like this will enable you to do justice to your plans and enable you to evaluate, after the cycle is completed, the success or otherwise
of whatever you did. Give a single interpretation of training an adequate period before passing judgement. Don’t flit from one interpretation to
another, never doing justice to a single one of them.

Sets and reps

You determine exactly what to do. As a general recommendation, for your top effort sets, do 1-3 sets of 6-9 reps for each exercise for the upper-
body, and higher reps, 10-20, for each exercise for the lower-body. These ranges aren’t written in stone, although high reps for lower-body work
—especially the squat—belong to the great tradition of programs for stimulating overall growth.
If you want to do sets of 5-7 reps in a cycle for the upper body, or even for the lower body, go ahead. If you want to try sets of 12-14 for the
upper body, go ahead. All of this manoeuvre is part of the business of experimentation, and trial and error. Find what suits you, at least for the
moment. Using the same rep range, for cycle after cycle, will encourage staleness in most bodybuilders. Some variety, from one cycle to the next,
is a good idea.
If you’re really training flat out, I fail to see how you can do more than three (non-warmup) sets per exercise, with often only one or two of such
sets being all you can do. However, if you’re not doing all your work sets full-bore, you could do as many as five or six (non-warmup) sets for
some exercises so long as you’re doing very few exercises. There are times when you may respond to more sets than usual, but doing most of
them in not quite full-bore style.
To do the 5x5 format, do five sets of five reps with the same poundage (following warmup sets). When you can make all five sets of five (25 reps
total), increase the poundage by five pounds at the next workout. Once the initial weeks of the cycle are behind you, although the first and second
sets won’t be very demanding, the final sets will be. Following a weight increase, you probably won’t be able to get all five sets of five reps.
Perhaps you make 5-5-4-3-3. Next workout you may get 5-5-5-4-4, then 5-5-5-5-4, and then all 5x5. Another poundage increase follows at the
next workout. Progressively work up to the 5x5 goal again. Always remember, bodybuilding is progressive resistance trainin g. When you’re
really working hard to get out the 5x5, get your tiny discs out and just add one or two pounds to the bar each increment.
As the intensity increases further—following a few more poundage increments—you may find it impossible to build up to doing five reps in all five
sets, so drop the last set. After a few more increments, drop another set. Continue until you’re down to one set of five reps and one set of three
reps. This marks the end of the cycle. Take your time, start with comfortable poundages, and add weight in small increments. On this program you
can take up to four minutes between sets of squats and deadlifts once they become very hard to get out.
Another interpretation of the 5x5 format is to include the warmup sets in the 5x5 scheme. This reduces the number of work sets. This is less severe
and less time-consuming, so it may be the best introduction to 5x5 training.
These schemes involve many sets, and will only work for typical bodybuilders if very abbreviated routines are used. If you’re doing more than
three or four exercises a workout, the schemes are unlikely to work. Another proviso is that you’re already getting close to the goals of Chapter 3.
Unless you wait until this stage of development, you’ll be using an advanced method before you’ve earned the right to.
In Chapter 13 the subject of sets and reps is delved into further, as are other matters to be considered, including super slow training. The latter has
its own requirements as far as sets and reps go, different to the guidelines given above for training with a traditional rep speed. Of course, as with
all styles of training, once you’re familiar with procedures, and how your body responds, you can modify things to see if you can find a more
productive formula.

Neck, calf and grip work

While this training is not written into all the routines, you’re urged to include it.
Calf and grip work can be done at full-bore intensity for longer periods than can the bigger structures of the body that need the big basic exercises.
Calf and grip work isn’t systemically demanding like work on the main structures of the body is, and doesn’t have to fit tightly into the cycling
approach needed for the big exercises. Instead, take it easy the first couple of workouts of a new cycle, pick up the intensity, and then get training
full-bore in the third or fourth week of each cycle.
Neck work shouldn’t be done full-bore, but can be done hard for long periods.
Calf, grip and neck work can—and perhaps should be—dropped from in the final stage of the cycle, when new poundage territory is being gone
into in the big exercises. At this most severe stage of the cycle you need to pour everything into the big, most systemically demanding exercises.
Also, you need to spare your recovery machinery from having to cope with demands outside of the core exercises.
Total focus upon these few main movements will ensure that, for just a few weeks, there’s no siphoning off of training energy and recovery ability.
This application of focus can mean the difference between just reaching your previous best poundages, or forging ahead into new ground. Pour
everything into the big movements only. (Maintain your stretching routine, though, but drop everything else outside of the key big exercises.)
For extreme hard gainers, anything outside of two to four big basic movements may be counterproductive. No calf, grip, neck or cardiorespiratory
work, at least not for a few months or even a year or two. This is the sort of focus needed for very abbreviated routines to deliver gains for those
people who can progress on nothing else.

Neck work
A well-developed neck is physically impressive and helps prevent neck injuries from accidents. Neck work can be done in the gym after your
regular workout, or at home if you prefer. Traditional bridging exercises, as explained by Dr. Ken Leistner, may cause problems in the vertebrae of
the neck later in life. (Bridging used to give me problems with my neck in the days following doing the exercise.) The neck can be developed and
strengthened by safer exercises.
If you have access to a four-way neck machine (Nautilus and Hammer make quality units), make use of it. Head straps can be effective if they are
used safely and resistance is applied very slowly. Avoid low reps here.
Be very careful when you start doing neck work. The neck is a delicate structure, and is easily strained. Don’t work it to failure. Stick to hard sets
(once you’re conditioned for them, that is). The neck can’t, safely, be trained as intensively as other body parts usually can. And don’t do any
extremes of neck movement, especially to the sides.
Manual resistance is the recommended equipment-free method of training the neck. By yourself, with a short towel or your hands alone, apply
resistance against each side of the head, and fore and aft. Once you’re conditioned to neck work, apply enough resistance to all but the opening
few reps of each work set. If you have a competent training partner you can have the resistance applied by the partner. You must work in
synchrony to ensure that the resistance is in the right direction and of the right degree. Get it wrong and you could injure yourself.
Calf work
Calf development makes a big impression on overall development, and calf development receives less knock-on or indirect work from the big
exercises than do other small muscles such as the biceps, triceps and forearms. See the next chapter for exercise selection.

Grip work
Grip work can be done out of the gym. Get yourself a heavy duty gripper and work on it two or three times a week. Over time you’ll be able to
close the gripper more, and sustain more reps and time with the same extent of closure. This, with the regular work you do in the gym, will—in
time—greatly add to your gripping strength. Ending each workout with grip work is a great way to finish.
If you’re wiped out before getting to the forearm work at the end of the workout, take a breather until you feel ready. Hold plates by their edges
or by their hubs (if prominent enough). Pinch-grip smooth plates keeping your fingers as far down the plates as you can. Do partial deadlifts
without straps, taking the bar from a power rack or sturdy boxes so you only have to pull it up an inch. Use a thick bar if possible. Hold the bar
until it drops, timing yourself to monitor progress. Hold a barbell in your fingers ,or hang from an overhead bar by your fingers. Spend a few
minutes working on one or two grip exercises. If available, use purpose-built devices for training the grip.
Don’t forget what’s perhaps King of grip exercises—one-hand deadlifting, either with a regular bar cambered bar or a thick bar/handle. If you
could do only one grip exercise, do this one. Absolutely no use of straps though—don’t even think about them.
Do this exercise on your deadlift day at the end of your workout. Do full, from-the-floor one-hand deadlifts. Straddle the bar and grip it so you
have perfect balance when lifting. Find, and then mark with tape, the center of the bar, and note which of your fingers must be on top of the tape to
have the grip centered. Your free hand can balance the bar if it tips a little. You’ll need some time to perfect the exercise for your body structure.
Add weight whenever you can. On another day each week, do partial one-hand deadlifts from a rack or stands set up so you have only to lift the
bar an inch off the supports—exercise your grip while sparing your back. Set a time target for holding the bar—15, 20 or whatever seconds—
before upping the poundage next workout.
Make your own thick bar by sliding plumbers’ pipe over a barbell, using it like a sleeve. Have it cut the length between the inside of the collars,
and keep that bar just for thick bar work. Experiment with different widths of pipe. (Thick bars, as Dr. Ken Leistner has pointed out, can be used
with good effect for exercises other than direct grip work, exercises such as the overhead press, close-grip bench press, and barbell curl.
Experiment.)
Put together a gripping program—perhaps several of them—and rotate them. Include some finger-tip pushups. Transform your grip after a month
or two. After a year or two, few people will be able to touch you, grip-wise. Also, you’ll add size to your forearms and greatly add to your
presence when wearing a short-sleeved shirt.
If you compete in powerlifting, or plan to, you need to train yourself to hold as much weight as possible without any gripping aid. Not much point
using straps to be able to hang onto a double with 450 pounds in the deadlift if your grip can only hold one rep with 400.
If you’ve no intention of lifting competitively, you can use lifting straps without being worried that your thigh, hip and back strength is getting ahead
of your grip. However, if this strength imbalance bothers you, even you should be wary of using straps.
For many people the trouble with not using straps is that the grip packs up many reps short of what the body can pull. So, the back isn’t going to
improve any. Not using straps for medium to high rep deadlifts means your attention may be focused on whether or not the bar is going to fall out
of your grip, rather than on getting the reps out.
Be careful when using wrist straps during deadlifts and shrugs. If you’re using a reverse or mixed grip—palms facing in opposite directions—you
may cause torque that could injure you. (See Gripping the bar , in Chapter 11, for a possible solution.)
If you intend to compete competitively, or you simply want to deadlift your top poundages without straps, start your next deadlift cycle with a
moderate poundage and slowly add poundage, and don’t use straps even once. If the poundage is added s-l-o-w-l-y, your gripping strength may
be able to improve sufficiently to be able to keep pace. Jump the poundage too much and you’ll be forced to use straps again and your grip will
continue to lag.
Old-time bodybuilders and strength men didn’t neglect their grip. They built extraordinary gripping power and forearm development. They didn’t
do it with wrist curls, but with heavy grip work. This tradition needs to be revived. Although you probably won’t have inherited long muscle bellies,
and lots of muscle cells in your forearms, that doesn’t mean you can’t develop a very strong grip.
There’s a great deal of satisfaction to be gotten from working on and developing an outstanding grip.

Abdominal work
While an abdominal exercise isn’t included in each routine, always do one for a couple of hard sets say twice a week. Opening your routine with
one—as part of getting you ready for the more demanding work to follow—is a good idea. If you prefer to do it at home, fine. See the next
chapter for detail on abdominal work.

General warmup
This activity helps to reduce injury potential in the workout that follows. Physiologically, it increases muscle temperature, and increases blood
temperature and flow rate. It also reduces the chance of insufficient blood supply to the heart (cardiac ischemia), and makes the transition to
strenuous exercise a gradual one. All this is especially needed when you’re cold before starting your workout. In the summer, supposing you live
where it gets hot, you don’t have to be quite as particular. Avoid training during the hottest part of the day though.
While the physiological basis for a general warmup is convincing, tons of muscle have been built without it. It makes special sense for middle-aged
and older bodybuilders to be strict about a general warmup, but younger bodybuilders will manage all right with just specific warmup work for
each exercise.
Spend ten minutes doing some easy, general activity such as peddling a stationary bike, or doing some calisthenics. Your bodybuilding workout’s
abdominal exercise could be included towards the end of this ten-minute preliminary activity. Some gentle stretching could end the general
warmup. You could do your usual sequence of stretches here, but don’t push anything. After your workout, when your body has been “oiled,”
you’ll be much more able to get into your full stretches. You’ll need less time, and experience less discomfort, relative to stretching cold. (See
Chapter 11 for detail on flexibility work.)
Another possible time to stretch is during the rest periods between sets, if you’re not training back-to-back. Some people argue that stretching
between sets (stretching the muscles being trained) can help in the muscle-building process, but some people argue the opposite.

Specific warmups for individual exercises

Be sure that you’re adequately warmed up before doing an exercise. Either do all the warmup sets at the start of the workout, or do the warmup
set(s) for each exercise followed by the top set(s) for that same exercise. The lower the reps (and higher the poundages) you’re using for your top
effort sets, the more attention you need to give to specific warmup work.
For example, suppose you’re doing very heavy (for you) low-rep squats for a few weeks, in preparation for a maximum single. Your warmup
work could run like this: 135x8, 235x5, and 285x3 as a prelude to 335x5. Suppose you’re doing 20-rep squats with as heavy a poundage as
possible—say 250, at present. Your warmup work wouldn’t be extensive, say just 135x8 and 200x5.
Generally, the squat, deadlift and bench press need the most care when warming up. The other exercises are adequately provided for with one or
at most two progressive warmup sets. Avoid warming up so much—too many sets and too many reps—that you tire yourself out. If in doubt, do
the extra set of warmup work, but keep the reps low, as low as just one perfectly done rep.

Exercise performance
Although specific performance instructions for all exercises aren’t provided in this book, instructions are given for many of the key exercises. (See
Chapter 9 and Chapter 11.)
For the full story on exercise technique, in extensive detail and with hundreds of photographs, see one of BRAWN’s companion
books: BUILD MUSCLE, LOSE FAT, LOOK GREAT, where over 200 pages are devoted to correct exercise technique.

Heightening the intensity

Techniques such as forced reps, negatives, drop/breakdown sets, rest pause work, one-and-a-half reps, one-and-a-half rest pause reps, and other
methods, take intensity of effort beyond the regular to-failure level. Training to failure either means performing reps until another rep can’t be
performed under your own steam or, in the old (pure) school of training to failure, keep training until you can’t budge the bar.
Training isn’t done like this during the initial stages of a cycle, but only when you’re training full-bore. Training beyond regular failure can be result
producing only if it’s used prudently. Don’t pile on this degree of intensity every workout, or even more than once every week for a given exercise,
or else you’ll overtrain.
Be especially watchful that you don’t use these techniques to try to fix sets that haven’t been done properly. You can’t make a poor set into a
good one by adding a few pseudo forced reps or negatives. Get the basic to-regular-failure sets perfect first.
The squat
As described in Chapter 9, use variations of the squat as you think best fit your circumstances and training motivation.

Shrug movements
These movements haven’t been included in the following routines. If you don’t feel you’re doing too much already, and are already gaining on your
program, then add one shrug movement once or twice a week. There are some fine shrug movements, not just for the trapezius as in the popular
understanding of shrugs. There are even shrugs for the latissimus dorsi and pectorals.
A parallel-grip bar—trap bar, or shrug bar—is best for many shrugs. Dumbbells work well, too, because they permit a parallel grip. There are
some basic shrugs you can use for the trapezius area. There’s the wide- or snatch-grip shrug done upright, or bent forward or lying facedown on
an inclined bench. For the latter, pull the bar up vertically, and simultaneously pull your scapula in. The shrug can also be done with a shoulder-
width grip. In either case, do not rotate or roll your shoulders as you move the bar up. Just up and down is fine.
Between shrugs—when the arms and shoulders are being pulled down—avoid relaxing, especially at the end of a set. If you relax, the resistance
you’re using will wrench your arms and shoulders down, possibly causing damage. Keep yourself tight between reps. If you want a long rest pause
between reps, set the barbell down on stands.
For comprehensive tuition on the variety of shrugs, consult the writings of Paul Kelso.

Aerobic work
For the easy gainer, fitting in aerobic work without impeding the ability to recover from the bodybuilding workouts is no problem. For the hard
gainer, with less recovery ability to play with, fitting in aerobic work is less easy. For the teenager, or extreme hard-gaining bodybuilder in his early
twenties, forget about aerobics. Once you’re older than 30, it’s time to fit in aerobic work, but in a way that doesn’t mar your bodybuilding
progress by eating too much into recovery reserve.
Your body adapts best to a stimulus when it only has to adapt to a single stimulus. Give it two or more stimuli and its adaptive ability is spread
more thinly and so adaptation suffers. Better to focus attention on achieving a single objective. If you want to lift as big poundages as possible, you
should focus on that single objective. If you want to get an extraordinarily conditioned cardiorespiratory system, then focus on that. The black and
white opinion here says that you either become a Master of one thing, or a Jack of multiple things.
Cardiorespiratory fitness is very important for health reasons, especially once you’re older than 30, and increasingly important as you age beyond
there. Cardiorespiratory work needs to have its place.
So, a Jack of all trades is more balanced than the Master of one trade. For the competitive athlete, becoming a Master is the goal. For the typical
person who wants to have all-round size, strength, endurance, flexibility and cardiorespiratory efficiency, the Jack of all trades is the position to
take.
Also on this side of the argument, good cardiorespiratory conditioning can help you to progress with the weights because your body is fitter. If the
aerobic work is done shortly after your workout, in addition to stretching, it may aid recovery from the weights.
The problem is getting your cardiorespiratory system in good order without it hindering your progress elsewhere. By good cardiorespiratory fitness
I don’t mean the conditioning of a middle or long distance runner.
If you work up to 20–30 minutes two or three times a week at about 75% of your age-adjusted heart rate, you’ll be well conditioned. The fitter
you get, the more resistance you can handle (load on a bike, speed on a treadmill) to elicit the necessary heart rate.
Suppose you’re 30 years old. Deduct your age from 220 and you’ll get 190, and then 75% of 190 is 143—that means 143 heart beats per minute
during exercise. Monitor your heart rate during exercise, without stopping if possible. If you don’t have an automatic device, count your pulse over
15 seconds and then multiply by four.
Don’t jump immediately into 75% work. Start with 60% and gradually work up to 75%. But get your physician’s approval first. Be conservative
to begin with, and progress slowly. Start with no more than 10 minutes. Take a few weeks to work up to over 20 minutes at the 60% heart rate,
and only then increase your effort level gradually, over another few weeks, to take your working heart rate to the 75% mark.
If you train your cardiorespiratory system progressively, and without overly pushing it when training hard with the weights, your body should be
able to adjust without slowing or halting your progress with the weights. If you’re impatient and try to improve your cardiorespiratory fitness too
rapidly, your progress with the weights may suffer, and you may become overtrained. You may then lose interest and motivation in both types of
training.
As a bodybuilding or strength cycle gets into the full-bore stage, and if you start to feel tired, consider doing less aerobic work until the cycle is
finished. Do the aerobic work twice a week, and for 15–20 minutes rather than 30, and at the 70% mark. Then return to the 20–30 minutes at the
75% level once the current full-bore stage of your weight training has been completed.
By doing your aerobic work after your gym workouts, your non-gym days can be devoted to recovery. If you do your aerobic work on the days
you don’t train with the weights, you may be demanding too much of your recovery ability, always keeping you somewhat drained.
Low-intensity aerobic training specifically aimed at aiding loss of body fat is a different matter to the more demanding aerobic work just described.
For the use of low-intensity aerobic work, see Chapter 14.

The routines
20-rep squat routine

1. Crunch style abdominal exercise

2. 20-rep squat followed by the breathing pullover, or Rader chest pull
3. Single-leg calf raise holding a dumbbell
4. Partial stiff-legged deadlift (once a week only)
5. Bench press
6. Parallel grip pulldown
7. Seated press

An alternative 20-rep squat routine

1. Crunch style abdominal exercise

2. 20-rep squat followed by the breathing pullover, or Rader chest pull
3. Donkey calf raise
4. Partial stiff-legged deadlift (once a week only)
5. Parallel bar dip, a dumbbell around your hips
6. One-arm dumbbell row
7. Seated press

20-rep deadlift routine

1. Crunch style abdominal exercise

2. 20-rep bent-legged deadlift (once a week only) followed by the Rader chest pull
3. Machine standing calf raise
4. 10-rep squat
5. Slight-incline bench press
6. Parallel-grip pulldown or pullup (chin)
7. Seated press in front

A modification of the 20-rep deadlift routine is to use an 11–20 rep range. Start with 11 reps and aim to add three reps each weekly workout.
After three weeks you’ll strike the 20-rep target. Then add 20 pounds, drop back to 11 reps and work up in the same manner as before. Start
comfortably, say 40 pounds under your 11-rep best. It will take you a few weeks before you’re training really hard, after which you try your
utmost to keep the progression going for three months, reducing the poundage increment when necessary. This scheme can be used in the squat
too, but make the initial poundage jumps less, say 10–15 pounds.
If you find gains extremely hard to make, and are wanting to experiment with focusing on the deadlift, don’t go flat-out in the squat. Save your big
effort for the deadlift. Vice versa in the 20-rep squat workout if you find gains extremely difficult to make—work hard on the squat but keep
something back in the deadlift.
For some of you, even these routines are too much and you’ll need abbreviated versions. Here’s an example:

1. Crunch style abdominal exercise

2. Alternate these two exercises—one at one workout, the other the next, and so on:
a. 20-rep squat followed by the pullover or Rader chest pull
b. 15-rep partial stiff-legged deadlift followed by the pullover or Rader chest pull
3. Donkey calf raise
4. Bench press, or parallel bar dip
5. One-arm dumbbell row, or pulldown

Some of you won’t be able to gain any substantial amount of muscle unless you use abbreviated routines and ultra -abbreviated routines, and
keep using them for years. Some hard gainers complain that even two hard sets of each of five exercises is too much work for them. If so, cut
back. Abbreviated routines can pack on muscle for even the most extreme of hard gainers. However, they are less likely to wield their magic now
than in years gone by—gyms are now so crammed with non-essentials that all but those who know about real training are confused and misled.
Remember, some powerlifters with more favorable genetics than have typical bodybuilders, do nothing other than the three lifts—pure abbreviated
training. They develop lots of strength and muscle. You can do the same.
Abbreviated training will do wonders for you so long as you pour in the effort, don’t get in the gym too often, and eat and rest plenty. Especially if
you’re an extreme hard gainer, don’t waste years of your life trying to prove to the contrary.
Try this experiment if you’re in doubt as to the value of the abbreviated routine. Whatever is your usual routine, push yourself to your maximum
and record the top set for each exercise—poundage and reps for each. Take a week off and get back into the gym. This time, using the same
routine as a week before, do the routine in reverse order. Use the same inter-set rest periods as in the previous week, and the exact same
poundages. Record the reps for the top set of each exercise. Full-bore effort, of course.
Compare your records. You’ll almost certainly find that the second workout’s initial exercises were done for more reps than when those exercises
were done at the end of the first workout. The final exercises of the second workout would have been done for fewer reps than when they were
done first in the first workout.
The lesson? To do maximum justice to each exercise you do, don’t do many exercises at each workout. This is especially so if your employment
and family obligations are taking a lot out of you.

Other abbreviated routines

1. Squat or deadlift (alternating at successive workouts)

2. Bench press
3. Parallel-grip pulldown
4. Standing calf raise on the calf machine

1. Squat or deadlift (alternating at successive workouts)

2. One-arm dumbbell row
3. Parallel bar dip with resistance
4. Donkey calf raise

1. Bench press
2. Squat (20-rep style)
3. Rader chest pull
4. Bent-over row

This combination was promoted by Peary Rader for those bodybuilders who couldn’t gain from more exercises.
For another abbreviated program, alternate these two routines:
Routine A

1. Squat
2. Bench press
3. Pullup

Routine B

1. Seated press
2. Stiff-legged or regular deadlift
3. Parallel bar dip

Ultra-abbreviated routines

1. Squat
2. One-arm dumbbell row

1. Bent-legged deadlift
2. Parallel bar dip

1. Squat
2. Pullup

1. Squat
2. Parallel bar dip

1. Squat
2. Nothing else

1. Trap bar/parallel-grip deadlift

2. Nothing else

1. Trap bar/parallel-grip deadlift

2. Pullup

1. Trap bar/parallel-grip deadlift

2. Parallel bar dip

1. Squat
2. Press from stands

1. Squat
2. Stiff-legged deadlift
 1. Bent-legged deadlift
2. Bench press

1. Bent-legged deadlift
2. Press from stands

Further routines
The following routines (A and B) are to be alternated while training every third or fourth day. They are very demanding routines that use beyond
failure training, but only one all-out set per exercise. This maximum intensity interpretation shouldn’t be done every workout. Do it when you feel
ready for it, maybe once every two, three or four weeks. With the other workouts you (just!) train to regular failure, one or two all-out sets per
exercise.
Be warned, these routines are massively demanding, and too demanding for many of you, even within the context of cycling intensity. As soon as
you feel you’re close to becoming overtrained, back off. For some of you, they will be very productive so long as you get the full package of
training and training-related considerations in sound order.

Routine A

1. Full range leg press immediately followed by the squat

2. Dumbbell calf raise—1-1/3 reps, followed immediately by breakdowns
3. Bench press—to failure, forced reps, then floor pushups
4. Pulldown—to failure and immediately followed by negative pullups
5. Seated press—to failure and then continue with the incline press with the same poundage
6. Barbell curl—breakdowns
7. Shoulder-width bench press to failure followed by regular-grip bench press with forced reps

Routine B

1. Squat—maximum reps with a fixed poundage, increasing reps every time you use this routine
2. Donkey calf raise—to failure and then rest pause style
3. Partial stiff-legged deadlift—regular reps and sets
4. Parallel bar dips—breakdowns and negatives
5. Pullups—failure and negatives
6. Standing press—to failure and then either rest pause or forced reps
7. Barbell curl—to failure and then rest pause reps

Putting the stiff-legged deadlift immediately after the squat takes training to the outer limits of severity. This is a personal favorite combination of Dr.
Ken Leistner, one that has delivered extremely impressive results for himself and his charges.
Imagine, a set of squats done to absolute failure immediately followed by a set of stiff-legged deadlifts to one rep short of failure. You’ll have
already done your warmup work for both exercises before starting on your full-bore set of squats. The bar for the stiff-legged deadlift will be
already loaded and ready so that after the squat all you have to do is move over to it and get going.
Little or nothing can beat this twosome for wiping you out so quickly, and stimulating a lot of growth. You’ll never know how hard it is unless
you’ve been pushed by a training partner or supervisor to ensure that you really go ail-out. Try this combination once a week:

1. Squat—use a weight that makes you fail at no less than 12 reps; then immediately get to the next exercise.
2. Stiff-legged deadlift, with a weight that lets you get at least 12 reps.
 Enjoy a rest for 10 minutes and then finish off the rest of the routine.
3. Calf raise
4. Bench press
5. Pullup

This routine is short since the first two exercises will wipe you out. At your alternate workout—where you don’t deadlift—
you can do two more exercises if you wish.

Alternate the following two routines at successive workouts:

Routine A

1. Partial stiff-legged deadlift—1x15, rest and then 1x10 with the same poundage
2. Overhead press—1x10, 1x6
3. Pullup—1x12, 1x8
4. Parallel bar dip—1x10, 1x6
5. Calf raise—1x25, 1x20

Routine B

1. Squat—1x15, rest and then 1x10 with the same poundage

2. Bench press—1x12, 1x8
3. Shrug—1x15, 1x10
4. Seated dumbbell press—1x8
5. Parallel-grip pulldown—1x10, 1x6
6. Barbell curl—1x10, 1x6
7. Calf raise—1x30, 1x25

Whether you use the same poundage for each exercise’s work sets, or whether you increase the weight a little for the repeat sets, depends on how
long you rest between sets.

Alternate the next two routines, using a 5x5 scheme, training at the frequency to suit you. Perhaps you start training three times a week—each
routine being done three times every two weeks. Later, when the intensity is high, you can reduce to training each routine once a week.

Routine A

1. Squat
2. Bench press
3. Pullup

Routine B

1. Stiff-legged deadlift
2. Calf raise (sets of 10–15 reps here)
3. Press (from stands)
Not only are popular split routines unnecessary for gains, but they prohibit gains among typical bodybuilders. However, with a fundamental
overhaul, a split routine may be helpful.
Such split routines don’t spread a high volume of work over the week, but stagger a low to medium volume of work over more workouts. Each
multi-joint exercise may only be worked once a week. This further reduces the length of each workout, thus heightening intensity while keeping
inroads into recovery capacity on the low side. Here are some suggestions. Although there are more workouts per week, note carefully the
frequency of training each lift. You determine the sets and reps following a thorough reading of the earlier chapters.

Split routine #1
Sunday
Regular grip bench press
Seated press
Barbell curl
Close-grip (15-inch grip) bench press

Tuesday
Deadlift (regular style or partial stiff-legged)
Pulldown

Thursday—optional
Light bench press
Seated press
Barbell curl

Saturday
Squat

Split routine #2
Monday
Squat
Parallel bar dip

Thursday
Partial stiff-legged deadlift
Press
Saturday
Bench press
One-arm dumbbell row
A hard gainer’s powerlifting routine
This routine trains each powerlift once a week, with a little supplementary work each session. Each powerlift will be done on a different day.
Include calf, neck and grip work once a week each.

Monday
Bent-legged deadlift
Barbell curl
Crunch situps

Wednesday
Bench press
Close-grip (15 inches between thumbs) bench press
Pulldown, row or pullup

Friday
Squat
Press from stands
Crunch situps

Always remember, there’s no one way to train. There’s a multitude of practical and effective routines that can be composed according to the
principles expounded in this book. Different interpretations will be needed according to individual circumstances, experience, level of development,
and the needs of the moment.
If you pour commitment and resolve into the routines in this chapter, while getting the volume of work and exercise frequency right for you,
together with an adequate diet and plenty of rest and sleep, you will grow. You’ll grow easier than you ever thought you would while trapped in the
mire of frustration that goes hand-in-hand with following popular routines.

Sequence of routines
The sequence depends on your immediate needs, long-term needs, time available, season, needs for body part specialization, quantity and quality
of sleep, and motivation. These factors can vary over the year and influence both how you can train, and your response to training.
I suggest, after you’ve thoroughly studied all of this book, you work out a year of routines. Put them together thoughtfully, bearing in mind events to
happen outside the gym during the year.
For example, don’t plan to hit the final month of a 20-rep squat routine during a hot summer when you intend having an extra job in the evening
and will be short on sleep and energy. Or, don’t plan to peak out for singles in the powerlifts during a month when you’re going to be out of town
on vacation for two weeks.
When drawing up your plans for the year, consider the compatibility of successive routines. After a cycle of single or double set to-failure
workouts, your body and mind need a change, perhaps a big change. After an abbreviated, pure power cycle, you’ll probably need a contrast. A
cycle of more sets, and a few more exercises, done at a slightly reduced intensity may be just what you need to let your mass catch up with your
strength.
Set your goals, make your plans, and keep flexible while keeping to the blueprint. Allow for vacations and any periods when you can’t get to the
gym or can’t train properly. Then put the plan into action. When you know where you’re going, and know how to get there, you’re already well on
the way to getting there. Get organized for success.
To keep the faith of the training philosophy, be watchful of being seduced by the irrational, stay dear of negative people, reread this book, and
read HARDGAINER and other sources of practical information.

The power rack

This piece of equipment is so versatile and productive that it deserves a book devoted to it. With this apparatus you break the basic lifts into their
component parts: start, middle and finish—and other parts of—and train these specific parts.
Used properly, acclimatized to before packing on the poundages, not overused and abused, it is one of the great tools of the trade. Partial lifts
enable you to use poundages way above what your body is used to using for full-range movements. These big poundages must be worked up to
gradually, in weekly increments and in perfect form without holding your breath. If you jump into your maximum power rack poundages, using
more than you’re used to, albeit in partial movements, you’re asking for trouble—perhaps a lot of trouble.
I know of a very experienced and knowledgeable powerlifter who was in a hurry to return to former poundages. He gave himself a hernia while
doing partial deadlifts, and heard a loud crack as the tear occurred. Be patient. It’s always better to make progress slowly and surely rather than
be hasty and expose yourself to injury. This is so in all types of physical training.
If you’ve never used the power rack as a mainstay in your training, you’re unlikely to have realized your strength potential. It may help to take you
well beyond the strength goals given in Chapter 3.
You’re urged to get a power rack if you train at home, or to attend a gym that has one. The only condition is that you’re already strong and
physically impressive—at or close to the goals given in the Chapter 3. Unless you’re at this level of development I don’t feel you’ve got enough
from the other training methods. Milk these methods a lot more before applying yourself to the power rack. Then you’ll have the strength,
development of tissue, and tolerance to exercise that you need to get the most from the rack.
When you’re already big and strong you need other tools to take you to new levels of strength and development. The power rack is one of these
tools.
The injection of a new piece of equipment, after years of training, will open training options that will bolster your training zeal. You need this to fire
you onto levels of strength and size.
Of course, you can use the power rack before you’re already big and strong, and probably benefit from it. However, you would be using an
advanced tool before you’ve made the most of the other tools. There’s no need to jump to an advanced technique until you need that technique.
Don’t start to condition yourself to the power rack before you really need to use it. Save the rack till later. Once you’re big and strong, use the
rack as one of the tools to use to make you very big and very strong.
Using the power rack purely as a safety device, rather than as an advanced strength- and mass-building tool, is another matter. As a safety tool, it
can be used by novices. Even if you’re not advanced, still use a power rack, but keep its use appropriate to your development—safety initially,
safety and an advanced training tool later on.

The advanced hard gainer

For the advanced bodybuilder who has built considerable size—at least to the goals given in Chapter 3—are there other ways to train? Yes. Are
other training options realistic? Yes. Once you’re at the levels of Chapter 3, the options open to you include:

a. More of what has already worked, together with trying other interpretations of the same approach.

b. Experimentation with advanced mass- and strength-building programs. Once the body has considerable muscle mass, there’s the
opportunity to try higher volume and more frequent training routines, for some of the time. Routines will still be exclusively or predominantly
 the big basic exercises, but there will be more sets, with some exercises perhaps being worked more frequently. Very low rep work can be
done for long periods without overtraining. The power rack can become a mainstay in training programs. Basic roots won’t be forgotten,
though—20-rep squatting, for example, will be returned to regularly. If you feel you’ve exhausted the other training methods, and still want
to get bigger and stronger, you may need to explore adaptation to long-term, hard and heavy training. The change-over will be gradual and
progressive, and eventually involve more time commitment in the gym.

c. Use of finishing routines. If it’s pure bodybuilding in the sense of physique perfection—balance, symmetry, detail, fullness of individual
muscles, unusual definition—and possible competition, you’ll need to make changes in your routines. This won’t be for mass building,
though. If you want to get bigger and stronger, leave this finishing approach alone until you’re satisfied with your size. For finishing you’ll
probably need to use a lot of isolation exercises. You’ll need to do what can be done—short of surgery—to bring up lagging aspects of
body parts, emphasize certain parts of your physique to draw attention away from weak spots, and give attention to the other concerns of
competitive bodybuilders.

d. Mixture of (a) to (c), devoting different cycles to each.

There’s no shortage of instruction devoted to option (c), although most of it advises volume and frequency of training that are excessive for typical
drug-free bodybuilders. There’s very little devoted to options (a) and (b) as applied to drug-free and genetically typical bodybuilders. This book
deals comprehensively with option (a), and touches upon option (b).

Whichever single approach you take, or mixture of approaches, don’t think that once you’ve become big and strong (by drug-free,
genetically typical standards) you can rewrite all that has been written in this book. Far from it. While your capacity for work will
have increased in some areas, and the interpretations of training open to you will have been widened, you can still overtrain easily. All
that’s been written in this book must still be considered when putting together your routines. Otherwise you’ll stagnate indefinitely.

Another consideration for very advanced trainees is that focus may need to be almost totally on a single exercise, in order to get that exercise to
progress. When at just about the limits of your development and strength, you need this focus. At this stage, if you try simultaneously to bring up
the squat, bench press, deadlift and overhead press, you may be onto a loser. Focus on one at a time, bringing each up. After having brought all of
them up, spend a cycle aimed at getting all the exercises up to your best levels when you were applying yourself to each lift with focus. This
compilation cycle is not aimed at going into new poundage territory.

Motivation
To get much bigger and stronger, you really have to want it. Thinking you want it isn’t good enough. Wanting it next year when some issues in your
life have settled down, isn’t good enough. Wanting it once you start to attend a better gym, isn’t good enough. Wanting it when you have more
money, isn’t good enough.
You have to want it so much that you’re willing to do anything within the boundaries of reason and safety .
If you want it badly enough, you’re going to make good progress. You may, however, have to waste years of your life training on useless routines
before learning the lessons contained in this book. So long as you’re motivated enough, you’ll still be training even after extensive frustration and
failure.
Program your mind for achieving your (realistic) goals, visualize daily where you’re going, think positively, maintain your resolve, and don’t let
negative people have a detrimental influence upon you. Train your mind as well as your body. Get in control, and stay in control.
While muscular might is built over the long-term, you have to get the short-term in good order first. To get the short-term in order, you have to get
each day in order.
Your attitude matters a heck of a lot. Explore texts on how to program your mind for success and positive thought. Then unleash it on sound
training programs.
The best motivation is success. Once you’re training productively, your motivation and ability to train hard should increase. And your discipline
when out of the gym should intensify, too. But the more failure you have, the more your motivation can get worn away.
 Don’t exhaust your motivation by ignoring this book and trying to prove you’re an exception to the rules for typical bodybuilders. Of
course, you may be an exception, but the chances are that you aren’t.

Knuckle down in the gym to darned hard work on the big exercises. Knuckle down at home to substantial, nutritious eating. Knuckle
down at home to getting lots of sleep.

There’s still no other drug-free combination that will help you. The basic requirements for getting big and strong are simple enough.
It’s marrying productive interpretations with application , effort and discipline that’s tough to do. Make the commitment!

Keep your motivation up by progressing in the gym. Keep rereading this book, and similar material, for reinforcement. Keep on the training straight
and narrow.

Come on now!
It’s time to put aside the arguments, reasoning, whys and wherefores.

It’s time to put the routines into practice.

It’s time to adhere to the need for progressive poundages, no matter how gradual and slow the increments may be.

It’s time to be patient and persistent.

It’s time to grow !

Confirm with your own example what legions of others have already proven. Do this now, and put an end to the wasted years!
To paraphrase a martial art tenet: “It’s better to spend years searching for the right teacher than to spend years
studying under the wrong one.”
Now that you’ve found this source of teaching, make the most of it!
11. Getting it Right
To receive the great benefits from the exercises promoted in this book, you must perform them in a safe manner. You can’t sustain cycle after
cycle of progressive, productive training if you keep getting injured.
The training world is notorious for perpetuating potentially dangerous ways of performing exercises.

Combine study of this chapter with study of a book that has extensive detail on how to perform the different exercises, including
hundreds of photographs—in particular, see the 200-page chapter on technique in BUILD MUSCLE, LOSE FAT, LOOK GREAT.

Concerning injuries, and aches and pains in general, be wary of jumping to the conclusion that certain exercises, and perhaps even bodybuilding as
a whole, are not suited to you. If you’re abusing training, including using incorrect exercise style, you’re bound to get aches, pains and injuries. Iron
out all the flaws, and train correctly.
Ensure you’re flexible enough before using certain exercises. Warm up correctly, and be sure that you recuperate adequately between workouts.
Bodybuilding then becomes the pain-free activity it should be. While some people aren’t suited to one or more exercises, due to previous injury or
unusually unfavorable leverages, most bodybuilders can benefit from all the most productive exercises so long as they train correctly.
Reading Dr. Joseph Horrigan’s monthly column in Ironman has been very encouraging. He’s iterated some of what I’ve found to be true over my
many years of involvement in bodybuilding. Additionally, he’s provided background information that’s difficult to come by. By improving my
understanding of safe and effective weight training, he’s influenced some of what follows.

The abuse of training

Training too much, too often and with poor exercise style (crashing when squatting or dipping, squirming when benching, yanking when deadlifting
and rowing) not only fails to deliver size and strength gains, but reeks havoc on your body. Such abuse delivers aches, pains and even serious
injury, and all of this in amongst the frustration delivered by stagnation in the gym. The older you get, the more sensitive you’ll be to training abuse.
Take the opposite tack. Consider short, basic and not-too-frequent workouts, in cycles that vary the intensity of effort, using correct exercise
technique. All this not only delivers steady gains in the gym, but delivers them without injury. Once free of the “more is better” mentality, a huge
step towards long-term progress and longevity in bodybuilding has been taken.
Of course, soreness will be experienced following the scheduled high intensity workouts. Such soreness is good, so long as it’s not debilitating.
Soreness shouldn’t follow every workout—remember, you’re cycling the intensity of effort, not training flat-out all the time.
Plain overtraining, even if you’re using good exercise style, will wear you down and deliver injuries. The shoulders, lower back and knees are
prime examples of this.
The rotator cuff is a group of four small muscles (subscapularis, teres minor, infraspinatus and supraspinatus) that originate on the shoulder blade
(scapula) and insert into the arm bone (humerus). The rotator cuff’s function is to keep the head of the humerus stable in the shoulder joint. The
head of the humerus is pulled into the socket of the scapula. This permits free movement in the shoulder joint without the joint-destroying action of
the humerus striking the shoulder joint, and bone hitting bone.
These four small muscles come in for a pounding on any weight training routine, especially on conventional four or more days a week split routines.
The rotator cuff is stressed at or near its limit whenever you do chest, back and shoulder work. And it plays a large role when you do arm work
and deadlifts. Try designing a conventional split routine that gives the rotator cuff more off days than on days. All of this will be compounded if you
have inflexible shoulders and/or a history of shoulder injuries, even apparently minor ones.
The lower back receives its major stress from squats and deadlifts, but is substantially involved in some other exercises. (If, on top of the plain
overtraining, your squatting and deadlifting technique are incorrect, you’re ripe for injury, probably a major one.)
At the minimum, such overtraining leads to numerous muscular aches and pains mixed in with tendinitis and bursitis. Then develops a not
uncommon situation of bodybuilders (and powerlifters and any other strength athletes) having difficulty doing many everyday activities. Their mighty
bodies complain when getting out of bed first thing in the morning, when playing with their children, and when getting in and out of their cars. Aches
and pains are trained around, and pain is put up with and battled through, with pain-killers often being used. Training through injury is dangerous,
don’t do it.
Stop overtraining. Put your routines together in a balanced and intelligent way. Use correct exercise technique. Cycle your workout intensity.
Perform a routine of flexibility exercises every other day.
When training full-bore, the local and systemic discomfort has to be savored, but this is different to training through the pain of injury and physical
abuse. Don’t confuse the two.

Overtraining: detection and response

Overtraining means training more than your body can cope with. It may simply be that you’re training too much each workout for the training
frequency you’re using. Or, you’re training too frequently for the training load you’re using. Do less at each workout, rest more between workouts,
or, do less training and do it less often.
Overtraining can occur as a result of out-of-the-gym factors wearing you down and impairing your body’s ability to cope with what was previously
a productive training schedule. If your recovery machinery goes out of order due to employment, personal or domestic factors, don’t expect to
continue with your usual training program.
When you’re dragging your feet, and training zeal is flagging, you’re overtrained. Once you’re overtrained, forget about progress.
As well as seemingly constant systemic fatigue, together with excessive local soreness and diminished training zeal, there are other monitors of
overtraining. They include stagnant or diminishing poundages (although you may not be at your earlier best working poundages), unintended
bodyweight loss, sleeping difficulties, the feeling of being wiped out on your non-training days, and low resistance to colds and sickness in general.
At a more clinical level, your resting heart rate may be raised, as may your blood pressure.
While these symptoms are accurate for the typical non-competitive trainee, including those who are advanced, the very advanced and competitive
athlete may exhibit different symptoms of overtraining. The above list is not presented as an exhaustive study.
Local soreness and systemic fatigue are part and parcel of training. However, there’s a huge difference between post-workout systemic fatigue
that’s actually a high from training, and the fatigue that’s almost debilitating. To train hard, have a shower followed by a meal leaves a great sense
of achievement and a worked sensation that’s a joy. To beat yourself further into the ground once you’re already tired and dragging yourself
around, is misery and produces no post-workout high.
When starting a new cycle, after a short layoff, you must take it easy to begin with. If you start back training full-bore, even at lower poundages
than at the end of the previous cycle, you’ll immediately demand more from your body than it can comfortably deliver. You’ll throw yourself into
an overtrained state immediately. Local soreness and systemic fatigue will hold you back and mar your training zeal. Persist at this and you’ll have
to loosen your exercise form to keep adding weight. You’ll wear your body down, aches and pains will become the norm, and injury will be likely.
You’ll kill the gaining momentum before you’ve barely got into the cycle, and despite having yet to return to your previous best poundages.
Start each training cycle comfortably. Let your body adapt to the increasing training poundages gradually , without experiencing debilitating
systemic fatigue and local soreness. While avoiding overtraining, you’ll slowly build up the conditioning needed to enable you to forge into new
ground of poundages in the final stages of the cycle.
Some people stress the importance of training variety as a means to prevent overtraining. If they mean training variety within the confines of what
works for the drug-free genetically typical bodybuilder, fine. If they mean just changing the routine every so often despite the training volume and/or
intensity being beyond the ability of the trainee, that’s no good.
Appropriate routines and intensity cycling are needed, keeping each cycle going as long as results are being delivered, be that six weeks, or even
six months or more in the l-o-n-g cycle.

Chest work
Bench press
The bench press, when performed correctly, is one of the most productive exercises, primarily affecting the chest, shoulders and triceps.
Exaggerated interpretations of the bench press are usually at the root of problems caused by this exercise. Very wide grip bench pressing, and
bench pressing to the neck, are dangerous. Avoid them.
The wider the grip, the more the elbows and shoulders are opened out. The more open the shoulders are, the more vulnerable they are to injury.
The right grip spacing has your forearms parallel to each other when you have the bar on your chest immediately below your nipples—“below”
meaning towards your waist. Once your wrists are wider than your elbows when the bar is on your chest, you’re asking for trouble. Never mind
about getting a “good stretch” by lowering the bar to your clavicles or, worse, to your neck.

Parallel bar dip

The parallel bar dip, safely performed, is one of the best exercises. It’s a multi-joint exercise that involves a large mass of musculature.
Always warm up carefully, doing slow bodyweight dips starting with a partial dip and gradually working into the exaggeration-free, full-range dip.
Never drop or relax into the bottom position. Keep tight. When adding weight to a dumbbell strapped around your hips, or to a shoulder harness,
add it progressively, small increments at a time and, when at your limit poundage, don’t stay with it for month after month. Cycle the intensity,
remember.
The dip works the chest, triceps, shoulders and lats. Rather than distort the exercise to try to focus on one area more than another, dip without
unusual positioning. The style that’s most comfortable for you will enable you to use the most poundage in good style. That’s the bottom line for
getting bigger anyway, so build all the involved musculature simultaneously.

Shoulder work
The mainstays of basic, frills-free shoulder training are the press in front of the neck—usually called the press, or (when standing) the military or
standing press—and the dumbbell press.
If you do these movements seated, and with a not-quite-vertical bench against your back (i.e., you’re leaning back a little ), your lower back will
be kept out of the exercise, and the movement shouldn’t cause back problems.

Press behind neck

This is a high-risk exercise. Why take a risk with an exercise that has no unique advantages for building size and strength? The press in front of the
neck, and dumbbell press, are safer exercises that are very effective.
It’s not just in pressing that a behind-the-neck position is popular. Behind-the-neck pullups and chins, and pulldowns, are also popular. Behind-
the-neck work is popular largely because some prominent bodybuilders over the years have prospered on it. Of course, they would have
prospered on the recommended alternative exercises. Don’t use as role models people who have extraordinary robustness. What helped to build
them up can be very harmful for you. And consider how unnatural behind-the-neck work is. Go with what’s more natural and comfortable. You
can use more weight on the to-the-front variations, which is another indication of their superiority.

Upright row
The upright row is an exercise that’s often recommended. It always hurt my shoulders and, until recently, I used to think it was a problem unique to
me and just a few others. The more the elbows are encouraged to lead the bar, the more exaggerated is the discomfort from the exercise, at least
for some bodybuilders.
Dr. Horrigan is insistent that the upright row can be a dangerous exercise. He advises eliminating the exercise from training programs.

Lateral raise
The lateral raise doesn’t come into the category of the “substance” exercises that are multi-jointed, but it does provide valuable work for shoulder
muscles that can help to keep the shoulders healthy. As such, it can be used for two work sets once a week during some cycles, as an accessory
exercise.
Doing the lateral raise with the thumbs pointing down—the “pouring out of water” position—can cause shoulder discomfort. The lateral raise is
much safer when done with the hands parallel to the floor and the wrists not bent down. The exercise can be done standing, seated, face-down on
an inclined bench set at about 75 degrees, or side on to an inclined bench one arm at a time.
Partial press
To work the side head of the deltoids specifically, while using a big basic lift, use the top 3–4 inches of the overhead press—lockouts.
Set up a power rack—or Smith machine if there’s no power rack—so the bar rests 3–4 inches from your lockout position. Space your feet wider
than shoulder width and your hands about shoulder width. Dip at your knees and lock your arms. Keeping your knees locked, press the bar up
and down over these few inches, without resting in either the lockout or low position.
Slide the bar up the back two uprights of the power rack. (The exercise can be done seated as well.) Keep the bar moving until you can’t budge it.
As you go into the lockout position, your head should be well forward of the bar. Your shoulders must be flexible here. If they aren’t, leave this
exercise until they are. Work on the broomstick shoulder rotations.
This partial exercise can take a bigger poundage than the full-range press. Warm up well, take at least a few weeks before you’re training full-
bore, build up the poundage a lot, and your shoulders will grow. You should like the soreness the exercise produces in your delts.

Back work
Doing high intensity bent-legged or stiff-legged deadlifts no more than once a week is a big step towards making big gains from these movements,
and a big step to injury-free training. On top of training frequency and intensity cycling, the correct technique of deadlift movements must be
studied in depth if you’re to avoid back injuries .
The deadlift variations are some of the most productive exercises you can do, so long as they are treated almost all the time as exercises rather
than as strength demonstrations. With the deadlift being one of the competitive powerlifts, together with the squat and bench press, it’s too often
treated solely as a very low rep exercise.
To get the most from the deadlift, do it for medium or higher reps. Avoid very high reps though—20 is high enough, while 6–12 is more typical for
general use. Refer to How many reps to squat? in Chapter 9—the information there applies to the deadlift as well as the squat.

Stiff-legged deadlift
Work this exercise hard, but not to failure. Working to failure pushes the back structure too far, and could cause injury. Stop this exercise one rep
short of failure.
The stiff-legged deadlift described here is actually a partial deadlift done with stiff legs. It’s intentionally done with a reduced range of motion.
Some people may call it a Romanian deadlift.
In a power rack, find the pin setting that puts the bar at just below your kneecaps when your knees are slightly bent. That’s the bottom position.
Alternatively, set a loaded bar on boxes at the height so that the bar’s starting position is the same as in the rack set-up.
Stand with your feet under the bar, heels about hip-width apart, and feet parallel with each other, or flared a little. Take a shoulder-width or slightly
wider overhand grip. For just the first rep, bend your knees more than slightly, to help ensure correct back positioning. Hollow your lower back
slightly and, with straight elbows, shrug against the bar and pull your shoulders back, and push your chest up and out. The bar won’t move unless
the weight is light, but the shrug will lock your lower back into the required, hollowed position. Now, while looking forward or upward,
simultaneously pull with your back and straighten your knees, to move the bar.
During subsequent reps, bend your knees only slightly. Your knees should straighten as you complete the lift, and bend slightly once again during
the descent. Keep your head up at all times, shoulder blades retracted, and chest pushed up and out. During the descent, push your hips rearward,
to help keep your lower back in the correct hollowed position. The bar should brush your knees and thighs. Don’t lean back at the top. Stand
straight, pause for a second, keep your scapulae retracted and lower back hollowed (without exaggeration), then lower the bar to the pins through
bending your knees slightly and simultaneously leaning forward.
Don’t rest the bar on the pins or boxes at the bottom position. Instead, pause for a second just above the pins. Maintain a locked, hollowed lower
back, with your shoulders pulled back. Smoothly move into the next rep.
Exhale during the ascent, or at the top. Either inhale and make the descent, or inhale as you descend.
Lift and lower symmetrically, don’t turn your head, and don’t let your shoulders round. If your shoulders start to slump, and you can’t pull them
back, dump the bar instantly, with control.
The exercise can be done with a straight bar, or a parallel-grip bar such as a trap bar or a shrug bar. With a parallel-grip bar, the exercise has to
be done from boxes, because the bar isn’t long enough for use inside a power rack unless the bar has elongated ends.
Even with chalk on your hands, and a well-knurled, straight bar, you may eventually be forced to use a reverse grip. If so, alternate which way
around you have your hands from set to set.

The stiff-legged deadlift is most commonly done all the way to the floor, and it’s sometimes done on an elevated surface for an even greater range
of motion. Both produce back rounding, and severe loss of the required back set. For safety, both should be avoided.
The partial, stiff-legged deadlift described in this section is a safe, effective exercise if it’s performed correctly.
The further the torso leans forward, the more difficult it is to maintain the proper set position of the back, where the lower back is slightly hollowed.
The full-range, stiff-legged deadlift takes the forward lean to an extreme, where the lower back rounds. This massively increases the stress on the
various structures of the back, and greatly increases the risk of injury. Back rounding is important for working the spinal musculature, but it should
take place in back extensions, not in any form of the deadlift, whether with bent knees or straight knees.

Bent-legged deadlift
Properly done, the bent-legged deadlift is safe and very productive. Use poor form, abuse low reps, or try to pull a lift you don’t have the strength
to handle, and you’ll hurt yourself. Do the exercise properly, or not at all. Learn to deadlift properly before you concern yourself with poundage,
and add weight slowly while maintaining perfect technique. Here are some performance pointers:
Don’t wear shoes with an obvious heel or else you’ll be at a leverage disadvantage—the raised heels will cause you to tip forward a little. Wear
shoes with little or no heel, and with a non-slip surface.
Keep your heels a little closer than your toes—your toes should be pointed out a little. Your arms should hang in a straight, vertical line, and they
should remain so throughout the lift and not actively pull so they bend at the elbows. The arms just link your torso to the bar.
Stand neither too far from the bar, nor too close. If you pull the bar into your shins, or into your quadriceps, you’re too close to the bar. If you’re
too far from the bar, it will travel away from you and place exaggerated strain on your lower spine.
Before the pull from the floor, your knees should be well bent, with your hips much lower than your shoulders. The lift is done by the thighs and
back together.
Before each rep from the floor, hollow your lower back slightly and, with straight elbows, shrug against the bar and pull your shoulders back, and
push your chest up and out. The bar won’t move unless the weight is light, but the shrug will lock your lower back into the required, hollowed
position. Now, with your head up, and eyes looking forward or upward, simultaneously pull with your back and straighten your knees, to move the
bar.
Make it a smooth pull, even on the slow side for the first few inches. The strain of the exercise should be felt through the middle to rear of your
feet. You should be able to wiggle your toes. If the weight is felt to be on your toes, the bar is going to travel forward and, if not dropped, will
place exaggerated stress on your lower back.
During the ascent, your shoulders must not move slower than your hips. If your hips move faster than your shoulders, you’ll lean forward more,
and severely exaggerated stress on your lower back.
The bar needs to travel right close to your legs and thighs. If it drifts even an inch out of the groove you’ll exaggerate the strain on your lower back,
and risk injury.
Rounding your back in the deadlift is very dangerous. Don’t do it!
When you complete the deadlift, and are standing upright, don’t thrust your hips forward, or exaggerate pulling your shoulders back. Doing those
moves will cause hyperextension in your lower back and invite damage. Stand upright at the top of all deadlift movements. Upright does not mean
leaning back.
The bent-legged deadlift just described is the conventional style. There’s also the sumo style, commonly used by powerlifters, where a wider
stance is used, and a closer hand spacing—hands between the legs at the start of the lift. The sumo deadlift can also be used for general training
purposes, and is more suited to some people than the conventional deadlift.
While training very hard on the bent-legged deadlift, don’t train till failure. (And don’t do forced reps and negative reps either.) Train hard, but not
to failure.

Take care
The lower back takes a heavy pounding in squatting and deadlifting. Use of correct exercise technique is imperative , for safety.
If you squat and deadlift on different days each week, that means your lower back is getting two heavy workouts each week. Experiment with
squatting and deadlifting once a week on the same day. You will then get seven days of rest before heavily training the lower back again. You
could also experiment with training the deadlift less often than the squat—once every 10–14 days.
Don’t take any chances with your back. If you have any discomfort in your back, delay a squat or deadlift workout until your lower back is fully
recovered. Bear in mind that a day gardening or doing some other manual work can fatigue your back sufficiently so that you need an extra day or
few of rest before giving your back a hard workout in the gym. Time your manual work to fit in with your workouts, or vice versa.
If when training you feel a twinge in your lower back, stop the lower back work immediately. Rest, and come back with a 100% sound back a
week or so later. Even slight discomfort in the lower back can cause a slight change in deadlifting or squatting technique that could yield a serious
injury. If any discomfort is persistent, get it investigated professionally, without delay.
Strong abdominal muscles are important for keeping your body conditioned for squatting and deadlifting.

Gripping the bar

No matter which type of deadlift you’re doing, holding onto the bar can be a problem. The stress of the lifting is symmetrically distributed if you use
a pronated grip, which mean the palms face to the rear while you deadlift. The stronger mixed, reverse or alternating grip has one hand supinated
(palm to the front in this case) and the other hand pronated. The wrists should be directly over the bar. Check that this is the case before your first
pull. The reverse grip is often a necessity for deadlifts (and shrugs) in order to prevent premature grip failure.
Using a mixed grip results in torque imbalances. To balance these out, to reduce injury potential, alternate from workout to workout which way
round you have the mixed grip. Even if you find one way round gives you a stronger pull, still work it the other way round.
To offset the dangerous torque (from a mixed grip) that can turn your body to the side somewhat as you deadlift, pay attention to the spacing of
your hands. This is a suggestion of Roger Benjamin from Powerlifting USA magazine (reported in Raw Muscle by Robert Kennedy and Dennis B.
Weis). Experiment with having the supinated hand 1–2 inches nearer the center of the bar than is the pronated hand.

Straps and hooks

Other than wrist straps, there are other straps and hooks that reduce or even eliminate dependency upon the natural grip. They usually enable you
immediately to pull more poundage, but this hinders improvement in gripping strength, and may even lead to a decrease in gripping strength.
Furthermore, if, by using straps or hooks you immediately increase your pulldown poundage by 20 pounds, or your deadlift poundage by 30
pounds, for example, you may injure yourself because your shoulder and elbow connective tissue haven’t been conditioned to the poundage
increases.
Rather than use grip supports, be more patient and build your grip so that you can hold whatever you can lift.

Bent-over rowing
The traditional bent-over row with a barbell is a risky exercise because good technique is so difficult to implement. Make it safe by modifying it to
the prone row. Get a high bench, sufficiently high so that when you’re face down on it, holding a loaded bar with your elbows straight, the plates
just touch the floor. Arrange this by raising the bench or reducing the diameter of the plates used. Do the bent-over row while face down on the
bench, and your back will no longer be put at risk.
Alternatively, lay a padded bench across the support bars or poles in a power rack. Fix the height so that you can only just grip the bar when it
rests on the floor. Or, have the barbell set below your reach but have two spotters lift the bar into your hands.
For both of these prone rows, dumbbells permit the more natural wrist positioning that has your hands parallel to each other.
The T-bar row is also a risky exercise. To play safe with the bent-over row, avoid the free-style barbell version, and the T-bar row. Instead, stick
with one of the prone styles, or the one-arm dumbbell row with the non-exercising arm braced against a bench.

Pullups, chins and pulley work

When doing pullups (pronated grip) and chins (supinated grip), neither drop into the bottom position, nor relax and stretch while you’re hanging.
Keep your head vertical or your eyes looking up slightly, and your shoulders tight. The same comments apply in the pulldown. Keep your eyes
looking up, and your head tilted back. Don’t let your head fall forward, don’t let your shoulders and arms relax, and don’t let the weight stack
yank your arms and shoulders.
Incorrect performance of some pulley exercises for the back can be injurious for the shoulders. While a full-range exercise is generally
recommended, it’s only so when the joints are not put at risk.
For example, take the seated pulley row that has the cable running parallel to the ground. The absolute full-range movement has the arms and
shoulders relax, to permit a full stretch between reps. Doing this puts exaggerated stress upon the rotator cuff muscles, and sets up the risk of an
injury. And it also increases the risk of injury to the lower back. If you use this exercise, maintain a rigid vertical torso throughout each rep. Imagine
that your torso is supported, and can’t move. And use a shoulder-width parallel grip rather than the popular close-grip one.
Using a very wide grip in pullups, chins and pulldowns also increases the risk of injury. Avoid very wide grips. And also avoid pulling the bar
behind your neck. Instead, pull the bar to the front.

Calf work
Calf work should be straight-forward enough. How often do you hear of people injuring themselves doing calf work? It’s possible though, if you’re
doing calf raises with sloppy reps, and with more poundage than you can handle correctly. And you could injure your spine if you round your back
with a heavy weight on your shoulders. In all calf exercises, use a full-range of movement, and smooth reps. Big poundages in standing calf
machine work shouldn’t cause problems provided your back is strong, and you use good technique.
One-legged calf raises are recommended, as are donkey calf raises. Keep your knees locked or just slightly unlocked. Bent-legged calf work
should be reserved for seated calf raises, where the stress of the exercise is primarily on the soleus muscle, rather than the gastrocnemius. Both of
these muscles are worked when the knees are kept locked (in standing calf work).
Regarding seated calf work as against other calf work, my personal findings have been that seated calf work hasn’t contributed to my calf growth.
Nearly all, if not all my calf development has been due to one-legged calf raises holding a dumbbell on the same side as the working leg. The other
exercises that may have contributed have been donkey calf raises, and standing calf machine work.
If your calves are tight, then slowly and progressively work into deepening the stretching part of calf exercises. But don’t bounce.

Thigh work
“Real” thigh work rests in the squat and its variations. Hip belt squats, parallel-grip deadlifts, and other-device squats present fewer performance
troubles and dangers than does the regular back squat. When done with care and correct technique, the traditional squat is safe for all who have
neither extraordinarily poor leverages, nor history of serious injury. That means it’s safe for most of us.
For how to squat safely and effectively, see Chapter 9.

Abdominal work
Leg raises, straight and bent-legged situps, Roman-chair situps, hanging leg raises, and other “abdominal” exercises are still traditional in many
gyms. These exercises can either create a back problem, or exacerbate an existing one. (The modified hanging leg raise where the knees are kept
bent and pulled into the chest can be a terrific abdominal exercise if the focus is upon tilting the pelvis upward—the short-range motion of moving
the hips towards the chest.)
The problems that these exercises cause or exacerbate arise from the confusion between spinal flexion, and hip flexion. Spinal flexion is the curling
of the spine brought about by the rectus abdominis and the obliques—the abdominal muscles you see on a well-defined physique. They are fixed
from the sternum and ribs down to the pubic bone and sides of the pelvis. Strengthening these muscles keeps the curve of the lower back in healthy
order by reducing inward lumbar curvature.
Hip flexion is another matter. This occurs when the body is bent at the hips, and the knees are brought to the chest, or the chest is brought to the
knees. Hip flexion exercises include the leg raise, Roman-chair situp, hanging leg raise and standard situp variations. These movements involve the
abdominal muscles isometrically, giving the impression of their primary involvement. However, the actual action of these exercises is performed
mostly by the hip flexors.
The hip flexors are the iliopsoas—buried in the body and not visible unless you’re cut open—and the rectus femoris, part of the quadriceps (thigh).
Unusually developed hip flexors can lead to an exaggerated curve or arch of the lower back, and back pain. Very strong hip flexors are not visible
and provide no advantage for bodybuilders. Sports that do need them, such as gymnastics, may cause back problems as a result.
Not only do some of the most traditional abdominal exercises fail to train the abdominal muscles in the most effective way, they can actually cause
back problems. They do cause discomfort and ache in the abdominal region of the body. However, the ache and burn you feel is a result of the
combination of fatigue of the hip flexors plus the fatigue from the abdominal muscles that are isometrically contracted while the hip flexors are
working. This combined effect provides the illusion that the abdominal muscles are being thoroughly trained.
If you’re going to train the abdominal muscles, choose exercises that train the spinal flexors, not the hip flexors. Choose exercises that curl the
spine rather than have the upper or lower-body moving at the hips. Spare your back, and train your abdominal muscles.
Your abdominals are important in providing mid-section stability for squatting and deadlifting. When strong, they provide a natural training belt that
helps protect your spine. Train your abdominals hard and seriously. If you train them immediately before you squat or deadlift, you may reduce the
mid-section stability you need for those exercises. Better to have a pause long enough so your abdominal strength doesn’t suffer, or do the
abdominal work another time.

Twists
Twists—as in a bar or stick across the shoulders, legs astride a bench, and doing numerous twists to each side—are ineffective for reducing fat.
They are effective at providing unnecessary shearing force upon the fibrous covering of the lumbar discs. The spine isn’t well suited to rotation, but
to extension and flexion movements. While incubating lower back injuries, all the twists in the world won’t reduce a waist that has too much fat on
it. Fat reduction is achieved through other means. Forget the twists, and concentrate on useful exercises instead.

Crunch-style situp
The key is to curl your hips to your chest, or to curl your shoulders towards your hips. This takes some getting used to because so many
bodybuilders are used to banging out predominantly hip flexion exercises as their pseudo ab work.
For example, take the crunch-style situp. The old style situp has you moving at your hips and touching your elbows to your knees. The crunch-
style movement has no movement at the hips.
Lie on the floor with your knees bent at a right angle, with your calves resting on a bench. Simply curl your shoulders off the ground. You can’t get
your head very far off the ground without bending at your hips and making it into a hip flexion exercise. The crunch is a short-range exercise. The
lower half of your spine always retains contact with the ground—no more lifting it off the ground to touch your elbows to your knees. Really
crunch your abdominal muscles.

Overhead pulley crunch

The crunch using an overhead pulley can be a terrific movement. Keep your lower back fixed throughout the exercise. All that moves is your upper
trunk (and arms holding the pulley handle) so your head (and therefore your shoulders) are curled down. Use a curling or supinated grip rather than
an overhand grip, to reduce stress upon your elbows.
Try this exercise alongside a mirror and watch out for your whole upper-body moving at your hips. Avoid piling on the resistance so that you just
yank the cable while flexing at your hips and using your arm and upper back muscles. Do the exercise properly—no flexion at your hips. Just curl
yourself up and crunch —flex your spine .
This exercise can be dangerous if, after the crunch, you let the pulley’s resistance pull you up, causing hyperextension in your lower back. Do the
exercise smoothly and under control. Avoid sudden hyperextension, especially hyperextension under great pressure.

Machine ab work
If you use an abdominal machine for crunch-style situps, you use it correctly. The aim isn’t to pile on as much weight as possible and heave your
whole torso forward so as to get your chin near your knees. Instead, flex and extend your spine.

Neck work
Neck injury can occur in the course of exercising body parts other than the neck itself. If you’re near the end of a hard set of squats, for example,
and you turn your head to the side, you invite trouble. Keep the stress of an exercise symmetrically distributed. Keep your head facing forward.
If you’re holding onto something fixed, such as the sides of a leg press machine, and aren’t conditioned for it, a big effort for a final rep can cause a
tremendous isometric shrug which could injure you. Avoid surprising your neck with something it hasn’t been progressively trained to become
accustomed to.

Arm work
If you’re neither overtraining your arms nor using uncomfortable hand placements, but are using basic movements rather than isolation ones, and in
good technique, arm injuries are likely to be unusual.
Watch out for anything that doesn’t feel right. For example, take the close-grip bench press. If you do the exercise with a very close grip, it will
feel uncomfortable on your wrists and elbows. Use a shoulder-width grip instead of a very close grip.
Stick to basic arm exercises such as close-grip bench presses, parallel bar dips, and standard barbell and dumbbell curls—rather than lying tricep
extensions, and preacher curls, for example. You’ll then train the muscles safely and more productively, at least for the typical bodybuilder needing
size and strength.
Don’t join the masses who are blasting their 11–16 inch arms with pushdowns, lying tricep extensions, and concentration curls. Leave exercises
like those until you’re already big and strong from having paid your dues on the big basic movements.
Jerking, dropping and yanking the weights invite trouble, whether in specific arm work or in exercises that involve the arms as accessories, such as
pulldowns, deadlifts and rows. Always train with good form.

What about all the isolation exercises?

While mention has been made of a few isolation exercises, the emphasis has been upon the big basic lifts.
I could write much about the safe way to do cable cross-overs, dumbbell pec flyes, bent-over tricep kickbacks, pec dec flyes, cable laterals, leg
extensions, and many other detail exercises. I’ve wasted a great deal of time on these little isolation movements under the pretext of training each
muscle “from all angles for full and complete development.” While I don’t doubt that I trained my muscles from different angles, these isolation
exercises didn’t contribute a smidgen of size or strength.
All the most perfect leg extensions in the world won’t give you big, powerful thighs. All the A1-perfect one-arm cable cross-overs you can do
during the rest of your life won’t give you a big, powerful chest. Hours of tricep kickbacks won’t give you big, powerful triceps. Set after set of
one-arm preacher curls with a dumbbell won’t build big biceps.

When you have a job to do, choose appropriate tools. When you’re digging a deep hole in the garden, you don’t use a toothpick. When
you’re building your body, don’t use detail exercises.

Detail work, and physique chiseling, are different matters, but how many of you are so big that you can primarily concern yourself
with the finishing details?

Breathing
The common tendency, especially when training hard, is to hold the breath during the hardest stage of each repetition. This can cause blackouts—
very dangerous if you’re pressing or squatting, for example. Also, breath holding can increase blood pressure to potentially dangerous levels, at
least for some people. This increases the chance of a stroke, at least for older people not used to hard training.
Stop holding your breath when you’re driving through the sticking point of any exercise—exhale instead. Even when you’re not in the gym,
whenever you have to make a big effort, don’t hold your breath—exhale during the effort. To ensure this, always keep your lips at least slightly
apart when you exercise.
Start now, and develop a life-long habit of not holding your breath during a big exertion. It may add years to your life, literally.

General points of safety

Properly done, weight training is a safe activity. In relation to many contact sports, it’s very safe. Incorrectly done, it can be very dangerous.
Unwise and reckless performance has caused some terrible injuries, especially in combination with anabolic steroids as these can disturb the
strength balance between muscle and supporting structures.
Impatience and showing off are often responsible for the use of sloppy exercise form. Increases in strength and muscular size occur slowly . They
can’t be hurried by using poor exercise form. Cheating has no place to play in a responsible exercise program. The use of sloppy exercise form has
been the route to training ruin for millions of people. Furthermore, while greatly increasing the risk of injury that either prevents or inhibits training,
poor exercise form reduces or even prevents the proper stimulation needed in order to build bigger muscles .
If you train by yourself, use equipment that has sturdy safety bars or supports to catch the barbell if you can’t make the rep. If you train with
others, you may have reliable assistants to spot you, especially while you bench press and squat. However, even supposedly reliable spotters can
be caught off-guard. Ideally, have spotters and safety bars.
Keep a close eye on what others are doing about you. Respect your limitations. Always warm up adequately. Develop and maintain suppleness.
Don’t train when injured. Then welcome an enjoyable and injury-free training life— training longevity .

Especially for the teenager

The teenager is often rich in enthusiasm and energy, but deficient in effective instruction. Being so young, impressionable and gullible makes
teenagers perhaps the most easily exploited among bodybuilders.
Those teenagers who have read the popular training literature will likely find it impossible to believe that progress in the gym isn’t a result of long
and frequent workouts, wondrous sounding food supplements, use of machines, sophisticated restoration procedures, and dedication to the point
of fanaticism.
Regardless of whether or not the individual is gifted for bodybuilding, precautions must be taken in order to keep training safe.
Youngsters shouldn’t be rushed into weight training. Due to great variations in structural maturity, there can be no standard starting age. It’s
possible that normal growth may be disturbed if excessive loads are placed upon immature bones. Other than for especially immature individuals,
most teenagers of age 14 should be up to benefiting from a safely constructed bodybuilding program—but a program not like that of someone in
his or her late teens.
All interested youngsters will benefit from safe training, especially those involved in competitive sport. By strengthening muscles, joints and
ligaments, the youngsters will be provided with increased resistance against injury. Very young teenagers can’t pack on size and strength like older
teenagers can, but they can still benefit greatly.
Explosive lifting, and exercises that compress the spine and apply shearing forces, shouldn’t be used by youngsters. Once physically more mature
—16 and older, for many teenagers—some of these stressful exercises may be carefully employed. Potentially dangerous movements for the early
and mid-teenager include squats with a bar over the trapezius, vertical leg presses, deadlifts, and plyometrics. There are plenty of productive
alternative exercises.
The very early teenager—both pre-adolescent, and adolescent—can derive abundant benefit out of exercises that use the bodyweight as
resistance. Pushups, dips, chins, crunch situps, and back extensions. These exercises will thoroughly work the upper-body. High repetition step-
ups holding dumbbells, or high repetition parallel-grip deadlifts, together with regular running activities, can round out the program.
Low repetition work is out for a long while yet. Maximum singles don’t even come into consideration, and neither do forced reps, negatives and
the like. If competition is wanted, have it for high repetitions—e.g.,”Who can do 12 chins with the most weight?”
Once in the later teens—16 and older for most—comes the time for more serious training. As long as low repetitions are avoided, and exercise
execution is safe, exercises such as regular squats and deadlifts can be safe and productive. Olympic-style movements can be used too, even at
younger ages, provided that expert coaching is available, and poundages are kept moderate. But such coaching is very hard to find.
Rather than trying to determine physical maturity by chronological age, it’s better to determine it according to actual maturity as indicated by
secondary sexual characteristics. While some boys can grow a beard before they are 14, and some girls have large breasts and hips at 11 (and
have started menstruating), others have to wait a few years yet. The chronologically young but sexually mature can benefit from training procedures
suitable for adults, while older but less sexually mature teenagers can’t.
Consider the 15-year-old boy who still looks like a 10-year-old. Compare him with a classmate who is visibly as physically mature as a typical
man. Although the same age, one is a boy and one is a man. The “boy” can’t benefit from the hard and heavy training that the “man” can, but he
can damage himself by using adult training methods.
Unless the teenagers are unusually blessed genetically, are extraordinarily mature physically for their age, or are fooling around with steroids, they
can’t build substantial size and strength until in their late teens. Expectations have to be kept realistic.
The very skinny teenager who “eats like a horse” isn’t unusual. Adding a lot of size and strength demands determination and application at all times.
For the hard-gaining teenager, the usual formula needs to be followed, but followed with extraordinary conscientiousness. More (nutritious)
calories need to be consumed, an abbreviated routine followed, physically demanding activities outside the gym severely curtailed or (temporarily)
eliminated, late nights avoided, and a clean lifestyle followed.
For the best results, properly supervised workouts are essential for teenagers, to keep them on the given program, and prevent unsafe training.
Regular reassurance concerning the appropriateness of the program needs to be provided. The temptation to follow irrational and potentially
dangerous programs must be countered.
Whatever you do, you have to spill some hard earned sweat in the gym, and do so for a long, sustained period. The poundages you use must
slowly inch their way up. Progressive poundages in good strict form are the name of the game—never lose sight of this.

Flexibility
While it’s not necessary to become a contortionist, or to develop the flexibility of an Olympic gymnast, a moderate program of flexibility exercises,
performed regularly, will help prevent injuries and help you to train more safely and productively. In saying this, understand that getting into a
stretching program with excessive fervor will injure you. As with weight training, be careful.
As of 1991, the most troublesome injury I’d had from the gym was from doing pressups using raised bars whereby I could go 5–6 inches inches
farther down than in a floor pressup. I did the exercise slowly but didn’t work into it by going a little deeper each session over a few weeks. I hurt
my left shoulder and needed more than six months before I was free of discomfort. Be careful.
Rather than following a long routine of flexibility exercises, to be performed daily, adopt a moderate program of stretches to be done alternate
days, without fail. Such a plan is likely to have the best chance of being maintained. Maintained it must be, to reap the rewards.
Doing the program after you’ve trained with the weights is strongly recommended. By then you’re “oiled” from the weights and you’ll develop
more flexibility more quickly, and with less discomfort from stretching. Also, stretching after a workout helps to reduce soreness from the workout.
If you stretch before you train, get yourself warmed up first with 10 minutes on an exercise bike or the like. I recommend you don’t try to get into
your full stretches before your workout. Just go as far as you can without discomfort; save the full stretches until immediately after the workout.
If or when you stretch at home, do it in a warm room and later in the day rather than earlier. You’ll be more pliable then.
Hold each stretch for at least 10 seconds, relaxing as much as possible while holding the stretch. You should feel only slight discomfort in the areas
being stretched. Let the tension in the stretch go for 5–10 seconds and then repeat. Three holds for each stretch.
Don’t get into each stretch quickly. Take whatever time you need before reaching your fully stretched position. Then start the count of 10 or more
seconds. You’ll probably need a few progressive stretches, or holds, before you’re at your full flexibility for each move. When you’re at your full
position of stretch, then do your three holds before moving onto the next exercise.
Never bounce while stretching. Don’t place your joints in positions that are plain uncomfortable and may harm the integrity of your body.
Here’s a set of stretches that will give your body a good going over without taking a long time:

1. Rest your right foot on a bench or back of a chair, depending on your flexibility. Keep both knees straight. Without rounding your back to give
the illusion of flexibility, lean forward as much as you can. Hold. Repeat for the left side. Start with a low bench and add to the height as you
make progress. This stretches the hamstrings and lower back.

2. Keeping your torso erect and vertical, lunge forward with your right foot, keeping your left knee as straight as possible. While keeping your
torso vertical—not bending forward—sit so your left knee touches the floor, or at least moves towards it. Hold. Repeat with the other side.
This stretches the hip flexors. By increasing the distance between your feet, you increase the difficulty of the stretch.

3. Lie on your back and, with your right knee bent, pull it onto your chest and over to the left, using your arms. Hold. Repeat with the other side.
With both knees on your chest, roll backwards so your knees are touching your face. Eventually, with patience and a few weeks, you’ll be able
to place your knees on or very near to the floor at the sides of your head. Don’t rush though, or else you’ll hurt your neck. These stretches
work your buttocks and spine.
4. Stand, holding the back of a chair or desk with your right hand. Lift your left foot behind you, with a bent left knee. With your left hand, grab
your left ankle and pull straight up. Hold. Repeat on the other side. This stretches your quadriceps.

5. Stand, keeping your forearms flat against the sides of a doorway. Your palms face forward, your arm is kept parallel to the ground, and your
elbow is maintained at an obtuse angle. Very gently and slowly, lean forward, feeling the stretch in your shoulders and pectorals. Great care
here—don’t overstretch and hurt yourself. Don’t try to pull your shoulder forward. Rather, as your torso leans forward, your shoulders will be
pulled forward too. To progress in flexibility, step back a little from the doorway (maintaining the arm placement) so there’s more tension in the
shoulders when you lean forward. Do this very carefully, finding your way into the groove of the exercise. Don’t be in a hurry.

6. Sit on a chair. Keeping your feet planted on the ground, your torso upright, and your backside on the seat, rotate your torso and grab the back
of the chair with one or both hands. Turn as much as you comfortably can, and then hold. Now turn to the other side. This is a fine stretch for
the spine, back and neck muscles, and shoulders. Don’t attack the exercise though. Work into it slowly and carefully.

7. Rotate your ankles, wrists and then neck in a series of slow motions, back, forth and circular.

This set of stretches, three holds in the fully stretched position for each exercise, can be completed inside 20 minutes. Don’t see it as a burden on
your time. See it for what it is—an injury-proofing and enjoyable supplement to your training program. Done alternate days it makes little demands
upon your time, and it’s not physically stressful. Enjoy it.
Finish off your stretching routine with a favor for your eyes. Sit comfortably and move your eyes in a variety of directions. Up and down, side to
side, clockwise rotation, counterclockwise rotation. No forceful movements though. Do several repetitions of each movement, starting very
conservatively—your eyes will quickly get tired to begin with. Over a few weeks, slowly build up the repetitions and range of movement. This only
takes a few minutes, and will help to keep your eye muscles in good condition.

This stretching program should be considered as the minimum. You may want to do more, investigating the subject in depth. The first additional
movement I’d recommend is the broomstick circling exercise (dislocates) described in Chapter 9 under Positioning the bar . However, don’t get
so keen that you try to do too much and end up, after a few weeks, exhausting your enthusiasm for any flexibility work.
An additional component in flexibility, and gaining better control over your body, is learning muscle control. While popular much earlier in the
century, it’s fallen out of favor now. If you have the time, consider pursuing this art. It’s fun as well as beneficial.

Chiropractic
Get to know a chiropractor with a training background. Have the chiropractor be familiar with you before you get injured, then consult him if you
get injured. Ask for advice specific for you on how to use the RICE process (rest, ice, compression and elevation) to rehabilitate minor injuries
quickly, and the correct use of heat treatments and exercise.
Don’t treat yourself based on hearsay and myths. And don’t train through injuries. (However, when properly supervised by an expert ,
appropriate exercising for some types of injuries can hasten recovery.) Learn what caused the problem, make the necessary corrections when
you’re back in the gym, and learn the lessons well.
A chiropractor, or other practitioner specializing in structural injuries, who isn’t experienced in weight training is unlikely to be able to give you the
service and results you want. Choose the most appropriate professional you can find.
This is a very important chapter. Heed its advice. What you do in the gym will make a major contribution to how you feel in years to come. Don’t abuse your body
now and pay the price later.

The positive aspect of special care with exercise performance is that it’s not only a prerequisite for longevity in the gym and an injury-free training life—it’s a
necessity for the best training progress in the present. There’s no advantage, even in the short run, for unsafe exercise technique. Train safely!
To try to stimulate substantial increase in size in a single body part, without first having got the main structures
of the body in impressive condition, is to have turned bodybuilding upside down, inside out and back to front.
12. Specialization
One of the biggest mistakes that typical bodybuilders make is to use specialization routines before they have earned the right to use them.
It constantly amazes me just how many neophytes, near neophytes, and other insufficiently developed bodybuilders plunge into single body part
specialization programs. The most commonly chosen body part is the arm. For a typical bodybuilder who is miles away from squatting for 20 reps
with one and a half times bodyweight, an arm specialization program is utterly inappropriate, and useless. The development needed to squat well
over one and a half times bodyweight for 20 reps is better proof of having built the foundation needed to have a chance of productively using body
part specialization routines.
All gyms I’ve been in have teenaged boys blasting away on routines dominated by arm exercises without their physiques having even the faintest of
resemblance to those of bodybuilders. Thin arms, connected to narrow shoulders, fixed to shallow chests, joined to frail backs and skinny thighs
don’t need body part specialization programs. Let’s not have skewed priorities. Let’s not try to put icing on the cake before the cake has been
baked.

Priorities
To try to stimulate a substantial increase in size in a single body part, without first having the main structures of the body in impressive condition, is
to have turned bodybuilding upside down, inside out and back to front.
The typical bodybuilder simply isn’t going to develop much meat on his arms, calves, shoulders, pectorals and neck unless first a considerable
amount of muscle around the thighs, hips and back has been developed. It isn’t possible—for the drug-free typical bodybuilder, that is—to add
much if any size to the small areas unless the big areas are already becoming substantial.
There’s a knock-on effect from the effort to add substantial size to the thigh, hip and back structure (closely followed by the upper-body pushing
structure). The little areas come along in size (so long as you don’t totally neglect them) pretty much in proportion to the increase in size of the big
areas. It’s not a case of getting big and strong thighs, hips, back and upper-body pushing structure with everything else staying put. Far from it. As
the thigh, hip, back and upper-body pushing structure grows, so does everything else. Work hard on squats and deadlifts, in addition to bench
presses, an overhead press and some row or pulldown, and add a little isolation work—curls, calf raises and neck work, for example, but not all
of this at every workout.

The “driver”
The key point is that the engine that drives the gains in the small areas is the progress being made in the big areas. If you take it easy on thigh and
back work you will, generally speaking, have trouble making big gains in the other exercises, no matter how hard you work the latter.
All this isn’t to say just do squats, deadlifts, upper-back work, and some upper-body pressing. While such a limited program will deliver good
gains on these few exercises, with some knock-on effect throughout the body, it’s not a year-after-year program. Very abbreviated routines are
great for getting gains moving, and for building a foundation for moderately expanded routines. They are fine to keep returning to on a regular
basis. But the other training periods should include more than four exercises—not necessarily all in the same workout, but spread over the week.
This will maintain balance throughout the body, and capitalize upon the progress made in the thigh, hip and back structure.
Just remember that the thigh, hip and back structure comes first and is the driver (closely followed by the upper-body pushing structure) for the
other exercises. These other exercises, although important in their own right, are passengers relative to the driving team.

Big arms
To get big arms, get yourself on a basic program that focuses on the thigh, hip and back structure, but without neglecting your arms. As you
improve your squatting ability, for reps and by say 100 pounds, your curling poundage should readily come up by 30 pounds or so if you work
hard enough on your curls. This will add size to your biceps. While adding 100 pounds to your squat, you should be able to add 50-70 pounds to
your bench press, for reps. This assumes you’ve put together a sound program and have worked hard on the bench press. That will add size to
your triceps.
If you’re desperate to add two inches to your arms, you’ll need to add 30 pounds or more over your body, unless your arms are way behind the
rest of you. Don’t start thinking about 17-inch arms, or even 16-inch arms, so long as your bodyweight is 130, 140, 150, 160 or even 170
pounds. Few people can get big arms without having a big body. You’re unlikely to be one of the exceptions.
Fifteen sets of arm flexor exercises, and 15 sets of isolation tricep exercises—with a few squats, deadlifts and bench presses thrown in as an
afterthought—will give you a great pump and attack the arms from “all angles.” It won’t, however, make your arms grow much if at all unless
you’re already squatting and benching big poundages, or are drug-assisted or genetically gifted.
As your main structures come along in size and strength (thigh, hip and back structure, and the pressing structure), the directly involved smaller
body parts are brought along in size too. How can you bench press or dip impressive poundages without adding a lot of size to your triceps? How
can you deadlift the house and row big weights without having the arm flexors—not to mention shoulders and upper back—to go with those lifts?
How can you squat close to twice bodyweight, for plenty of reps, without having a lot of muscle all over your body?
The greater the development of the main muscular structures of the body, the greater the size and strength potential of the small areas of the body.
Suppose you can squat and deadlift with only 200 pounds, and your arms measure about 13 inches. You’re unlikely to add more than half an inch
on them no matter how much arm specialization you do.
However, put some real effort into the squat and deadlift, together with the bench press and a few other major basic movements. Build up the
poundages by 50% or more, to the point where you can squat 300 pounds for over 10 reps, and pack on 30 pounds of muscle. Then, unless you
have an unusual arm structure, you should be able to get your arms to around 16 inches. If you want 17-inch arms, reckon on having to squat more
than a few reps with around twice bodyweight, and on adding many more pounds of muscle throughout your body (unless you have a better-than-
average growth potential in your arms).
All of this arm development would have been achieved without a single concentration curl, without a single pushdown, and without a single
preacher curl. A lesson in priorities.

Proportions
Of course body proportions can become out of balance if you use unbalanced routines indefinitely. (Short and medium-term use of very abbreviate
routines is highly desirable though, and even a long-term necessity for some extremely hard gainers.) You’re not recommended to use unbalanced
routines for year after year. Pile most of your energy and determination into the basic exercises that stimulate the thigh, hip, back and upper-body
pushing structure. Put the remaining energy (at least in some cycles, although not necessarily all of them) into a few exercises to cover the small
areas. You’ll then grow pretty much in balance throughout the body.
The balance may not be perfect, but it’s good enough to last you until you’re really big and strong. Once you’re big and strong—by the standards
of successful typical bodybuilders, not the professionals—you’ll have the foundation to prudently use specialization programs to bring up any
lagging body parts.

Equal attention?
Why not just give every body part equal attention from day one in the gym, so no body part ever gets behind?

The amount of work you’d need to do, to do this, will exceed the recovery capabilities of the typical person. Also, the quantity of work involved
will necessitate training intensity being spread so thinly that little or no growth will be stimulated.
So, you’ll either get growth stimulation that can’t be responded to because you don’t have enough recovery capacity. Or, you’ll never be able to
stimulate growth in the first place.
If you’ve no intention in engaging in competitive bodybuilding—as indeed most bodybuilders don’t—why be concerned if the rear head of your
deltoid is 10% less developed than the other heads? Similarly, why be concerned if your serratus isn’t 100% up to scratch? Why be concerned if
the inner head of your triceps is a smidgen behind the lateral head? Glaring imbalances matter, of course, but not the small things that only judges of
top level contests will notice. Perspective!
Get everything growing, while avoiding glaring imbalances. Leave concern for whether or not every single aspect of every muscle area is 100% up
to scratch until after you’re so big that your main concern is refinement. You can then devote yourself to bringing up lagging areas and polishing
your physique, while forgetting about building more size. How many bodybuilders get to this stage?
Different variations of the same basic movement may emphasize one head or aspect of the involved musculature more than the others do. But this
small variation is of little importance compared to the total effect of the movements on the involved musculature.
It’s growth of the whole involved musculature that should concern you, not little bits of the area. Big gains in the squat mean big gains in the thighs.
Big gains in the deadlift—whether regular style, stiff-legged or wide-grip—mean big gains in the back musculature. Big gains in the bench press or
dip mean big gains in the chest, shoulder and triceps.
If you never do calf work, neck work and overhead presses, you’re going to develop some major lagging body parts. Don’t totally neglect
anything, just keep things in the right order of priority.
Generally speaking, I don’t recommend specialization programs other than those that focus on the thigh, hip and back structure while also working
hard on the upper-body pushing structure. In effect, nearly all of the routines in this book concentrate on the thigh, hip and back structures, with the
bench press or dip in close attendance. In this way, all the routines are specialization programs. This approach is the best way for the typical
bodybuilder to get big and strong throughout the body, including building the small, showy muscles into impressive condition.

Look of power
Suppose that you could get big arms, shoulders and pectorals without building up the main structures. What a sham of a body it would be. A body
with fully developed thighs, hips and back (especially the traps and lower back) has an aura and semblance of power and impressiveness that
make a mockery of size concentrated on the front of the body. This is what is meant by the look of power.
What about the notion that undeveloped buttocks are desirable so as to create the illusion that the rest of the body is larger than it really is? That
notion is as attractive to me as is the belief that an undeveloped neck and undeveloped trapezius are assets because they make the shoulders
appear wider than they are.
A well-developed pair of thighs, and a strong and impressive back, look out of place—ludicrous, even—if not accompanied by correspondingly
well-developed buttocks. Of course big buttocks with thin thighs and back look even more unattractive. You need to be big and strong throughout
your body. And a large neck not only looks very impressive but is desirable for doing your best to make your neck injury-proof.
If you’ve been conditioned to believe you should keep your buttocks as small as possible, you’ll have an aversion to the squat and deadlift. This
will make your body averse to developing mounds of muscle—not only in your thigh, hip and back structure—but throughout the rest of the body
as well. A loser from all points of view.

Specialization techniques
Let’s suppose you’ve developed enough of a foundation to benefit from a specialization program aimed at bringing up a lagging body part. How
should you go about it?

First off, be sure that you really do have a sufficient foundation. Squatting for 20 reps with 150% or so of your bodyweight is a
minimum. That means about 240 pounds if you’re 160 pounds bodyweight, about 270 if you’re 180, and so on; for 20 down-to-parallel
reps, with a few breaths between reps (not continuous reps). For bent-legged deadlifts, 10 reps with 175–200% bodyweight, again
with a few breaths between each pair of reps.

Perhaps you’ll benefit from a specialization program at this stage, but maybe it’s still premature. Only actual practice will let you know. Perhaps
you’re such a rule unto yourself that the conditions I have given don’t apply to you, or at least you don’t think they do.
Don’t think I’m anti-specialization. I’m for specialization, so long as it’s justified, but I want it to be effective. Hence the stress upon building a
foundation first.
A different reason for specializing on a single body part is training variety. Perhaps you feel the need for a few weeks of focusing on a single area
and giving heavy training on the most demanding exercises a rest. Perhaps you need something to slot into a period of only a few weeks prior to
being unable to get in the gym for a while. How well you respond to the specialization will be largely if not wholly a reflection of what I’ve written in
this chapter.
Precisely how you specialize can be the factor determining the effectiveness. If you do too much, and/or do it too often, you’ll still get nowhere
even if you have the required base of size and strength. When specializing, you need to find a productive volume and intensity of work. Merely
doubling, trebling or even quadrupling the volume of work for a given body part isn’t the line to take. While not building you up, this approach will
wear you down and make you ripe for illness.
Target area
Specialize on a single area—don’t try to specialize on two, three or even more body parts. Some bodybuilders’ specialization routines end up as
total body specialization routines. Take one body part only—arms, shoulders, calves, pectorals, upper back, or wherever else—and increase your
attention there while decreasing your attention elsewhere. If you increase the demands upon your body in one location, compensate by reducing
the demands elsewhere.

Length of specialization
A specialization program is a short-term thing. Milk it dry without it milking you dry. Get the most out of it but don’t battle on with it beyond how
long it can yield results for you. Just how long this is, will vary according to the individual, the program used, and how well the recovery factors are
satisfied.
Perhaps four weeks are all you’ll be able to gain for, perhaps six weeks, perhaps even eight weeks or more. As soon as you feel about to get
stale, stop. Take a week or so off and return to a non-specialization routine for a cycle. Return to another specialization routine if you feel the need.

Individual fine-tuning
As with all the routines given in this book, tailor each one to fit you. This isn’t a cop-out on my behalf, but an acknowledgement of the role
individual variation plays. Not just individual variation in genetically determined factors, but variations in lifestyle, quality of rest and sleep, training
facilities, and other factors.

Getting started
A good starting place is to train the chosen body part twice a week and the rest of the body once a week. The body parts not to be specialized
upon should be worked hard enough to prevent atrophy, but no more. After a warmup set or two, do two sets of hard work—hard as in not-
quite-to-failure. If you drive yourself into the deck in the non-specialization work, how can your body devote its attention to a single body part?
What an irony it would be if the area being specialized upon failed to grow while the low volume and “just” hard work for the rest of the body
actually delivered gains.
Here’s a specialization program for the arms:

Monday and Friday

1. Barbell curl
2. Parallel bar dip using a comfortable style which allows you to use the most resistance
3. Reverse barbell curl, using an EZ curling bar if a straight bar is uncomfortable
4. Close-grip bench press (15 inches between thumbs)

Wednesday

1. Crunch style abdominal exercise

2. Squat
3. One-legged dumbbell calf raise
4. Partial stiff-legged deadlift
5. Bench press
6. Press
Here, the specialization work is done on different days to that for the rest of the body. This is good in the sense that you’ve no distraction on your
specialization days. But you have to visit the gym three times a week, and your arms get worked three times a week, albeit indirectly on
Wednesdays. This may be too much work for your arms. It may be better to combine the work for the rest of the body with the arm specialization
work on either Monday or Friday, doing the arm work first.
The arm work could be followed by the work for the rest of the body on Monday. This gives you four days rest before an arms-only workout on
Friday. This gives five rest days and two training days each week, as against four and three respectively in the other interpretation. Such a
difference can make a big difference for typical bodybuilders.
Pursuing a different course, perhaps during a short period of specialization you could gain from training a single body part three times a week. For
this to have the chance of working, all other work must be at rock bottom and factors of recuperation in 100% good order. It’s something to
consider trying for a month or so.
How much and what type of work do you do for the body part to be specialized upon? Enough, but not too much. How much is enough and how
much is too much? The general recommendation is to choose less but do it harder, rather than to do more but do it easier. The only work you’ll be
doing that’s flat-out is for the area to be specialized upon. Therefore, you can do more sets than usual for a single area without lowering the
intensity of effort.
Keeping up full-bore effort for squats, bench presses, deadlifts, rows and overhead presses is a darned sight more difficult than keeping up full-
bore effort for four arm exercises, for example. If you really pour yourself into the arm exercises, doing 2-3 top sets for each exercise, you may
surprise yourself with how hard you can do the exercises and how much systemic fatigue you can generate.
Note that the specialization exercises chosen are basic building ones, not mere detail movements. This is vital if you’re to have a chance of
growing.

Raising the intensity

Ultra-intense training techniques may be productive during a specialization program, but if they are over done they will hinder progress. Here’s an
example of how prudent use of some of these techniques could modify the initial arm specialization program:

Monday
Perform a light and then a medium warmup set of curls and pushups, to get your arms ready for what follows.

1. Seated barbell curl—the seated position makes the movement a partial one, and enables you to rest the bar on your thighs to get out extra
reps rest-pause style.
2. Parallel bar dip
3. Barbell curl to failure
4. Close-grip bench press to failure Rest for ten minutes.
5. Squat
6. Donkey calf raise
7. Partial stiff-legged deadlift
8. Bench press
9. Press
10. Crunch style situp
Exercises 5–10 will suffer due to the arms having been trained first. This doesn’t matter if the arms are the priority. Generally
speaking though, arms are trained at the end of the workout.

Friday
Perform a light and then a medium warmup set of curls and pushups, to get your arms ready for what follows.

1. Seated barbell curl

2. Parallel bar dip
3. Reverse curl to failure, a 50% weight drop and more reps to failure again
4. Close-grip bench press to failure plus two forced reps
5. Parallel bar dip—super slow (see Chapter 13)
 6. Barbell curl—super slow

Other variables
Be consistent with rest periods between sets. Whatever you fix, stick with it. Be it no rest (when doing a single set of each exercise done back-to-
back), or be it one minute or 90 seconds, or whatever else if you’re doing multiple sets. How many sets per exercise? The harder you train, the
less you can do. The more sets you do, the more you will probably economize on intensity.
Try it different ways. Do one set to absolute, total and no-doubt-about-it failure plus (not every workout though) beyond-failure reps; or, do
multiple sets almost to failure. The latter reads as three or four sets done in a hard fashion but not the absolute intensity of the “blood and guts”
former interpretation.
But it doesn’t read as six, eight, twelve or more wishy-washy sets. You have to stimulate growth through effort. Effort doesn’t come through large
numbers of sets.
Don’t stick to one rep range all the time. Conversely, be wary of changing your target reps too often so that you don’t get into a good routine.
Perhaps use 6–8 reps for one cycle or program, 10–12 for another, and maybe something different for the next. Or, alternate two ranges from
workout to workout, adjusting the poundages accordingly. Always remember, how you do the reps is more important than the number of reps.
Avoid getting stuck in a rut with training days, exercises, reps or sets.
Use variations in rep speed too. If you’ve been conditioned to taking a breath or more between reps, do your reps in a non-stop fashion for the
specialization period. Or, alternate workouts of the different styles.
Keep in mind that what may work for a few weeks during a single body part specialization program can be a disaster if applied to the whole body.

“Softening-up” period
Suppose, in a total body equal-priority program, you’ve been training your biceps very hard, doing three sets of specific bicep work. Or, you’ve
really been pushing yourself hard on three sets of heel raises to utter failure. Now wouldn’t be the right time to specialize on either the biceps or
calves.
If you’ve hardened the muscles, you’ve not set up the best conditions for making the specialization period productive. Better to soften up the areas
to be specialized upon before the specialization period starts.
If you plan to specialize upon your biceps soon, drop specific work for your biceps for a couple of months. Let your back work suffice for bicep
work. If you plan to focus on your calves soon, stop direct calf work for a month or so first.
Softening up in this way will make your to-be-specialized-upon area more responsive. Break back into the hard work over a couple of weeks, and
then go full-bore for four weeks or more. You may then add half an inch or more to your previous best girth. If you hold your previous best size
and strength right up to the specialization period, you may not even add even an eighth of an inch.

Pre-exhaustion
As stated in Robert Kennedy’s Savage Sets , the pre-exhaust technique was invented and promoted by Robert Kennedy. The first article on it
was published in Iron Man , in 1968. Later, Arthur Jones and Mike Mentzer also promoted the technique.
Of the beyond-regular-failure techniques, you may find that pre-exhaustion (and super slow) can be used more continuously than can the others,
without burning you out. It can be a productive technique to use if you have problems getting into training a certain area. Used prudently, it may
help you when specializing.
Pre-exhaustion works by following a single-joint isolation exercise with a multi-joint compound exercise. For example, work the lateral raise to
failure and immediately follow it with the overhead press to failure. The lateral raise works the lateral head of the deltoid. Then, the rest of the
deltoid together with the triceps take your lateral head to a greater point of fatigue in the press. Your press poundage will suffer, but the effect on
your shoulders will be very intense.
You must have the weight set up for the compound exercise before you start on the isolation exercise. You must rush between the two exercises
so that the pause is but a few seconds. Have a spotter standing by, or a safety device of some sort, in case—due to fatigue—you lose control
while doing the compound movement.
Use pre-exhaustion in a specialization routine. Other common pre-exhaustion combinations are leg extensions and squats, curls and pullups or
pulldowns, pushdowns and dips.
One of the drawbacks with pre-exhaustion is that it’s difficult to do in a crowded gym. You need more than one piece of equipment available at
the same time. You don’t want someone to take the piece of equipment you’ve set up for the second exercise of the compound.

Consecutive days and twice-a-day training

A technique that will shock a single body part, and perhaps shock it into growth if used prudently, is training on consecutive days. Using the
example of the arm specialization routine given earlier, train it three consecutive days and then rest your arms for the rest of the week. You could
even do it four consecutive days and then take four or even five days off before training your arms again. This is a severe training method. With
your arms receiving such a battering, train the rest of your body just once a week, on one of the arm training days. In this way, all the non-arm
days are days of total rest.
Another suggestion applies to the day of the week when you train both your arms and the rest of your body. If it’s possible, do the arm work in the
morning and rest of the work in the afternoon. Then no thought—subconscious or conscious—need be given to exercises to be done immediately
after the arm work. Intensity while training the arms can be sustained at its highest because nothing needs to be saved for immediately afterwards.
Another very intense short-term approach is to train the area to be specialized upon twice each day rather than the normal one session per day.
So, for arms, you could train them twice daily for two or three days per week. The afternoon workout could use a different rep and set scheme to
the morning workout. Whether or not you repeat the same workout, the arms will get a big shock being trained twice a day for a few weeks. It
may just be the shock needed to put half an inch on your arms in a month. Ensure you do little work for the rest of your body, and really apply
yourself to getting plenty of rest and an adequate diet.

Back-to-back sets
Doing exercises back-to-back is a technique to experiment with during a single body part specialization period. Get your arms warmed up and
ready. Then set up the weights for all the arm exercises to follow, setting them up as near to one another as possible. Keep your rep target for each
exercise at about eight. Once the first exercise of the run of exercises is started, you get no rest until the final rep of the final exercise is done. The
poundages used for the exercises will suffer the deeper you get into the run of exercises. Consider this when you set up the poundages to begin
with. You’ll need a workout or two to get the poundages correctly determined.
Doing more than two sets back-to-back is more difficult in a crowded gym than pre-exhaustion. It’s almost impossible to do. If you plan to do
your sets in this manner, do it when the gym is quiet.

Putting it all together

There’s no single way to specialize on a lagging body part. There are many ways that can work so long as you don’t overtrain, and don’t under-
recover.
You must train hard, with progressive poundages, and fully apply yourself to satisfying all requirements for a successful program, both inside and
outside the gym. Remember, bodybuilding success comes from satisfying a package of requirements. Neglect of just one of the requirements can
negate all the good done by satisfying the other requirements.
Select one suggestion from this chapter, or a combination of more than one suggestion, and experiment for a month. If it goes well, you’ve learned
of an effective short-term specialization method for you. Try it again after a few months.
If the experiment isn’t successful, you’ve still learned something, so it wasn’t a wasted experience. Fathom out why it didn’t work, and learn from
your mistakes next time you want to specialize.

One-day specialization
Peary Rader, in The Rader Master Bodybuilding and Weight Gaining System , wrote about The One Day Program of Specialization . The
forerunner of this approach was specializing on his arms by training them every 90 minutes (six workouts a day) for seven days. Two sets each of
two exercises were used, one for the biceps, and one for the triceps. He used poundages less than usual, and didn’t work to his limit. He gained
three quarters of an inch from this week’s work.
Later, he developed a one-day program. Using the example of the arms, he recommended training every hour with two exercises—one for the
biceps, and one for the triceps. The exercises were worked harder than in the one-week program, but not to failure. Massaging the muscles after
each workout was recommended. A lighter workout on the half hour between the hourly workouts was recommended after having first
experimented with the hourly program.
While writing this book I tried an interpretation of this specialization method. It involves devoting a day to training. If you don’t want to stay in the
gym for 12 hours, train at home. I chose to experiment on my triceps because no weight-training equipment was necessary. Also, training just a
single muscle would be less demanding of time than training triceps and biceps. I wanted to be able to get some writing done between workouts.
From 9 a.m. until 9 p.m. I did three sets of a modified version of dips. Facing a sink I set my hands close on the rim, and planted my feet so my
legs, thighs and torso were in a straight line. Without moving my feet, I bent my elbows as far as I could, and then pushed back to the starting
position. I did three sets of almost-to-failure reps, resting only a minute between sets. The reps dropped with each set. The reps usually went
twelve or more the first set, ten the second, and seven the last. The nearer the feet are to the sink, the easier the exercise.
Every half hour I did three sets of floor pushups using a close hand spacing, keeping the stress of the exercise on my triceps. I did each set a rep or
two easier than the hourly workouts.
Over the 12 hours I did 13 hourly workouts and 12 half-hourly workouts. A week later I still had a gain of 3/16 of an inch, so it appeared to be a
permanent gain. It was worth the effort, although it yielded a smaller gain than Peary Rader achieved. Had I worked both triceps and biceps I may
have made nearer a half inch gain.
If you try this method, be sure your body is familiar with the chosen exercise(s). Don’t, for example, use the “sink” tricep exercise for the first time
on the actual day of specialization. You want to be sore after the day’s work, not crippled. Set aside a whole day when you can avoid
disturbances. Train, rest, consume nutritious drinks every hour or two, and think big.

Making it work
In the next chapter there’s further information on sets, reps and how to put routines together. No single training instruction chapter of this book can
be seen in isolation. The book must be studied in its entirety if you’re to obtain the full benefits it offers you. Read it, reread it, and reread it again.
Following the example of an arm specialization program, you can devise other specialization programs. Put together your program with great care
and seriousness. Learn from experience, listen to how your body responds, and make adjustments if they seem necessary. These adjustments
include choosing different exercises, a different set-rep scheme, a different rep speed, and a different workout frequency.
If, no matter how diligently and conscientiously you followed a soundly-constructed specialization routine it didn’t work, what do you do? Forget
specialization routines for a good while and focus upon getting the whole of your body growing as a unit. Focus on developing a 25% minimum
gain in the poundages in the key exercises—squat, deadlift, bench press (or parallel bar dip), and an overhead press. Then you’ll grow, without a
single little exercise. Priorities, remember.
Don’t be a slave to a routine on paper if it doesn’t suit you in practice. At the same time, don’t oscillate from one approach to another, never accurately being able to
assess the worth of a single interpretation.
It’s you who must unite your experience, your physical condition, your lifestyle limitations, your training
conditions, your mental state, your motivation, your current understanding, your interest, and your goals. Only
then can you design the training routine that seems most appropriate for you at present.
It doesn’t matter how much your training may seem out-of-step with what others do. Don’t be reluctant to be
radical in your experiments. What should matter is what works for you.
13. More Diversity
As has been stated elsewhere in this book, there’s more than one way to pack muscle on a typical bodybuilder. You’ve been taken through all the
factors (but not all the variations) that need to come together to produce a successful bodybuilding program, excluding nutrition. Now it’s time to
do some review work, and delve further into productive variations of the basic formula.
Some bodybuilders progress mainly through the “blood and guts” approach of one set to failure per exercise, while others mostly use three to five
hard sets per exercise. Some train the whole body twice a week at most, some train some exercises twice a week and the other exercises once a
week. Some people train everything once every fifth or sixth day. Others spread a whole-body workout over three or even four days per week,
training each exercise once a week.
Some bodybuilders use free-weights exclusively, some use machines exclusively, others use a mixture. Some use a slow rep speed and reduced
poundages, while others prefer a faster speed—but still with correct exercise technique—and much heavier poundages. Some people keep the bar
moving continuously throughout each set, while others prefer a short pause between reps.
Some bodybuilders prefer to rest well between sets, others prefer to rest a maximum of one minute between sets, and others prefer to do all non-
warmup sets back-to-back. Some (who rest well between sets) are in the gym for two hours at a stretch, others are in and out in under half an
hour. Some prefer to do reps above ten, others mostly do six to eight reps, while others rarely do above five. Some use only a handful of
exercises, while others use more.
Some bodybuilders use most of these variations at one time or another, but some prefer to stick to a single way of doing things.
Some bodybuilders use super-slow reps for long stretches, while others use them for some exercises every now and then. Some can’t get into
super slow training, and have never used it other than an initial trial. Some never even try super-slow reps, because they are content with the
progress they are making with other methods.
Some bodybuilders can squat and deadlift with nothing but gain. Others can’t perform regular squats and deadlifts because of a structural problem,
whether congenital or acquired. For some, the squat is the greatest overall mass builder, but for some others, the trap bar or shrug bar deadlift
(parallel-grip deadlift) is preferred to the squat.
Some bodybuilders get great results from the regular bench press, while others get better results from low-incline bench presses. Some people get
terrific results from the parallel bar dip, and prefer it to the bench press. Others get shoulder irritation from the dip, even when it’s done in good
technique.
Some bodybuilders can’t progress on the pullup, others love the exercise and can work up to impressive weights.
The fine-tuning of exercise selection is an individual matter.
Some bodybuilders can grow on only 2,500 calories and seven hours of sleep a night, while others need 4,500 calories and nine hours of sleep.
Some drink a lot of milk, some never touch it. Some trainees are heavy meat eaters, some don’t eat any meat. Some use supplements, some never
touch supplements and believe them to be useless.
What may appear to be the ideal has to be adjusted according to the realities of everyday life. You have to be accommodating enough to move
with changing circumstances, so that progress is sustained over the long-term.
This book presents variations upon a basic theme in order to provide you with sufficient alternatives so that you can find something that’s workable
for you.

A need for different rep ranges?

There’s an opinion in bodybuilding that believes it’s necessary to do some sets of six to eight reps, and some of 15 to 20, or reps around those
numbers, and do this diversity for each body part. The reasoning? The lower reps are needed to train fast-twitch fibers and the components of
muscle cells associated with strength. The higher reps, so the reasoning goes, are needed to work the slow twitch fibers and the components of the
muscle associated with endurance.
A counter opinion is emphatic in saying that the higher reps needed to train the slow-twitch fibers are much higher than a mere 15 to 20. And the
components of endurance-induced muscle size—capillarization, number of mitochondria and the storage of substances that the mitochondria use—
can be increased by only a small amount at best. In comparison with the size gains on a regular bodybuilding routine using reps mostly below 10,
the endurance-induced size gains are small. Better to focus, says this counter opinion, on gaining size through the most reliable way rather than
spending time and effort (likely contributing to overtraining) on a less important approach.
Far more important than which rep range is “best,” is the need for hard work, and progressive poundages. How you do the reps, and how you can
make your workouts progressive, is the substance of training. Concern with supposedly training all fiber types and all components of a muscle may
be just another distraction from hard work and progressive poundages. For someone at the level of finishing a physique, when the final details are
important, the secondary matters matter. But when building the substance of a physique, the primary matters are what matter.

Don’t spend inordinate amounts of time studying the maybes of training while neglecting to put in real effort in the gym. Some
bodybuilders are walking encyclopedias of information, but never drive themselves hard in the gym. Better that you’re ignorant of all
the maybes of training, but focus on delivering the real goods where they matter—in the gym. Priorities!

You can, however, benefit from different rep ranges as long as you train hard and progressively. Some trainees prefer higher reps. Some exercises,
at least for some people, are more suited to higher reps. If your calves grow from sets of 20 reps, fine. If they grow quicker from sets of 10 reps,
that’s fine as well. Your thighs will grow from both 20-rep squats, and sets of six to eight reps. Perhaps your bench press progresses well on sets
of six reps, but progress is much slower when you do 10-rep sets. Find your own way.

Single-rep work
Very-low-rep work—triples, doubles, and singles—is often criticized as being only necessary for demonstrating strength. Single-rep maximum
poundage lifting is necessary to demonstrate absolute strength, but single-rep training can be valuable in actually building strength, as can doubles
and triples. How many of the strongest powerlifters and Olympic weightlifters haven’t done a lot of very-low-rep training?
Very-low-rep work thickens tendons, ligaments and bone, and trains you to be able to recruit more muscle fibers. This makes you stronger
without necessarily making you bigger. It enables you to translate increased muscle size and strength gained from medium- and high-rep work into
the full demonstration of strength for singles. What’s wrong with that? Nothing, as long as you don’t abuse this type of training and injure yourself.
Caution is the key word.
When using single-rep work as a training tool—as against a means of pure strength demonstration—the poundages used are not actually 100%
efforts. They are 90 to 95% of your absolute limit weights—they aren’t real singles. The provisos are that you’re using the big basic exercises that
are best suited for singles, you’re not carrying any injuries, you can tolerate very-low-rep work, you’ve recently been training on reps no more than
five and have thus conditioned yourself to handling weights near to your limit, you’re not a teenager, and you’re already either at or very near the
goals given in Chapter 3. In other words, you’re advanced. If you are, how do you proceed?
Take 90% of your single best lift. If you don’t know what this is, estimate it based on your best five-rep set. Estimate it on the low side rather than
the high side. It’s always better to have a longer cycle than to short-circuit it by starting too heavy. Following your warmup work, do five singles.
Over a couple of workouts, build up to ten singles. Then add five pounds and do another ten singles at the next workout. You should be able to
keep this progression of five pounds every week going for a month if not a couple of months, so long as you’re not training too frequently, are
eating and sleeping well, and are doing everything else called for in this book.
As the poundages get near to your new best single lift, reduce the progression to 2-1/2 pounds per weekly increment, and take more rest between
each pair of singles. When you can no longer get all ten singles with a given weight, add the small increment each week but reduce the number of
singles to five. You may need to add an extra day or two of rest between workouts. Stick at it for as many workouts as possible. Use correct
technique, thorough warmups, very abbreviated workouts, and excellent recuperation.
This type of training is severe, so keep total training to a minimum. Focus on a single exercise for the singles, and for the rest of your training do
only a handful of exercises, in a regular set and rep scheme. You could use the single-rep training on more than one exercise but, for your first
attempt, use just one exercise. If you do everything correctly, you may be surprised at how much strength you can gain from this method.

Variety of exercises
Stress is given by many in the bodybuilding world to the supposed need to have a variety of exercises “to train the muscle from all angles.” There’s
something to this, but the usual recommendations take the focus away from the big basic lifts to the less productive (for building mass) small
isolation exercises. And the usual focus is upon getting the variety in the same workout, whereas it can be had from cycle to cycle.
Take advantage of a variety of exercises, but make sure the variety is primarily of the big basic lifts. Another way to add variety to a workout is to
keep the basic movements constant, but change where you do the exercises, and with what. For example, take the military press with a barbell.
Instead of perhaps getting bored with the same standing military press with a regular barbell for cycle after cycle, make changes. Press from
supports in the power rack. Press while seated on a slightly inclined bench. Press from a dead-stop at the bottom. Press using a thicker bar than
usual. Do partial presses. Press using a trap bar.
Much the same sort of comments and suggestions can be made for other exercises. There’s so much you can do with the big basic lifts that you
can get variety without even considering using the little exercises.
When you’re already big and strong, and your focus moves to detail and finish, then exercise selection doesn’t have to be focused on the big,
multi-joint exercises. Then you’re into advanced training. But before you qualify to do this, you must have built yourself big enough. Few drug-free
hard gainers are big enough.
An instant way to add variety to your training, even while keeping your routine the same, is to change gym. The change of environment can do
wonders to add zest to your motivation.

Super-high-intensity training, and alternatives

To work hard on medium- to high-rep squats followed immediately by stiff-legged deadlifts, is diligence, motivation and plain will of the highest
order. To add on a handful of basic movements, each worked right to the bone, and finish the entire series of exercises in under 30 minutes, is
probably as demanding as training can be. Anyone who doesn’t believe this can’t have trained as hard as I’ve just described.
Anyone who can train like this on a consistent basis—assuming some use of intensity cycling, adequate rest between workouts, and adequate
nutrition—is going to become big, strong, superbly conditioned in the heart and lungs, mentally resilient, and do all this within a few years rather
than decades. Darned effective is undoubtedly is. But training in this manner is incredibly difficult. Doing it for one workout isn’t enough. Do it
every workout for a couple of months—while satisfying all other important considerations—and then you should see substantial results.
Because this style of training is brutally hard, and so few people can do it on a regular basis, and because it involves supervision, extraordinary
individual motivation, and workout conditions that very few people can satisfy, it’s rarely done. If you can train in this style, do so. Ultra-high-
intensity training is the most time effective way to get bigger and stronger provided you recuperate properly between workouts.
If you can’t train like this, at least not regularly, what else can you do? Compromise (perhaps) upon your rate of gain and try to compensate for the
drop of intensity by moderately increasing the volume of training.
A twist in all of this is that I believe it is possible to train too hard. And if you’re not conditioned for it, not only is it not necessary to train to the
point of near collapse from a single set, it’s counterproductive.
High-intensity training is the direction to go in, but be prudent how you use the super-intensity training. It’s not just what you do in the gym, but also
the training frequency, the cycling of intensity, the number and quality of calories consumed, the amount of sleep, and other considerations.
Everything has to be in order.
What rational interpretation is there of training outside of super-intensity work? Do more sets of the same short list of basic exercises. The sets
must still be quality ones, taken close to your limit. Total sets must still be kept on the low side. Nothing is written in stone, so understand that there
is flexibility.

Here are illustrations of some of the alternatives, listing work sets only. Warmup sets are additional.

“Blood and guts” approach

All warmup work needs to be done to begin with, and all exercise weights set up in advance so the movements can be done back-to-back.

Monday

1. Squat: to failure, about 20 reps

2. Stiff-legged deadlift: to one rep short of failure, 15 reps
3. Calf raise: to failure, plus breakdowns, 20+ reps
4. Crunch-style situp: to failure, 15+ reps
Thursday or Friday

1. Parallel bar dip: to failure, about 8 reps, then negatives

2. One-arm dumbbell row: to failure, about 8 reps
3. Seated press: to failure, about 8 reps
4. Barbell curl: to failure, about 8 reps

“Failure” means continuing until the bar won’t budge despite full effort.

“Regular” hard training, twice a week

Each exercise is an entity in itself, with warmup and work sets done for each exercise before moving on to the next. Take two or more minutes rest
between sets. Each work set is taken to one rep short of failure. Only work sets are listed below. Warmups are additional.

1. Crunch-style situp
2. Squat: 3 sets (once a week or three times every two weeks if twice weekly is too much)
3. Calf raise: 4 sets
4. Bench press: 4 sets
5. Stiff-legged deadlift: 2 sets once a week
6. Seated dumbbell press: 3 sets
7. Pulldown: 3 sets
8. Dumbbell curl: 3 sets
9. Parallel bar dip: 2 sets

The sets for individual exercises can be done with a constant poundage and therefore fewer reps for each repeat set, or, with
a reduced poundage per repeat set, to maintain the same rep count.

“Regular” hard training using a three-day-a-week split

Divide the previous routine into two parts—upper-body exercises in one part, and lower-body exercises in the other part. Do the first part on
Monday, the second on Wednesday, the first on Friday, the second on Monday, etc. The training days can be adjusted according to
circumstances and recovery, as indeed they should be on any routine.

“Regular” hard training alternative

Sunday

1. Bench press: 3 sets

2. Barbell curl: 3 sets
3. Close-grip bench press: 2 sets
4. Calves: 4 sets

Tuesday

1. Deadlift: 2 sets
2. One-arm dumbbell row: 4 sets
3. Shrug: 2 sets
4. Neck and grip work
Friday

1. Squat: 3 sets
2. Calves: 2 sets
3. Seated press: 3 sets
4. Barbell curl: 3 sets
5. Parallel bar dip: 2 sets
6. Neck and grip work

Include warmup sets, of course. Use all reasonable rep ranges over time, not all at once in the same workout or even the same cycle. Choose 4–6,
6–8, 8–10, 10–12, and sometimes higher reps for lower-body work: 15–20 and 25–30, for example.
Variety is the spice of training life so long as it’s productive variety. Keep up your training enthusiasm by changing your rep schemes (and other
variables) from time to time.
No matter how beneficial a given rep range is supposed to be, it won’t do anything for you unless you combine it with sustained effort.

Rep speed
Reps can be done continuously, or with rest pauses in between. The rest pause is the break between reps. It can be short, or not-so-short. The
continuous style restricts the size of the poundages that can be used, but shortens the duration of the sets and may heighten the discomfort in the
muscle(s) being trained. Using a short pause between reps enables greater poundages to be used. Taken to its extreme of 30 or more seconds
between reps (this is usually reserved for pure strength training, and necessitates setting the bar down between reps), a single set becomes almost a
series of single-rep sets.
Some exercises are more suited to one style. Calf raises are suited to the continuous style. Squats and bent-legged deadlifts provide a strong desire
to use a rest-pause style, taking a few deep breaths between reps. Other exercises come in between: the first half of the reps in a near-continuous
manner, the other half in a rest-pause style. The three styles of rep performance each have their merits, and stress the body somewhat differently.
Each has its place.
This is another consideration when devising your routines. Again, you have a lot of training time ahead of you, so don’t try to use all the alternatives
at once. Spread them out over several training cycles. Learn what suits you, and what doesn’t suit you. Design your later programs based on your
findings.
Many people get themselves so concerned with what is the “best” rep speed (and rep range, pace of training, and many other matters) that they
forget that of first importance is hard work and progressive poundages. While no single right combination exists, let’s suppose it does. If you have
the right combination but don’t marry it with absolute will, determination, planning, and effort, you’ll never progressively build up your exercise
poundages. And if you don’t do that, you can forget about bodybuilding .

What matters is what works

It’s you who must unite your experience, your physical condition, your lifestyle limitations, your training conditions, your mental state, your
motivation, your current understanding, your interest, and your goals. Only then can you design the training routine that seems most appropriate for
you at present .
What appears to be the best for you now may not be in three months time, six months, or two years. Always stay in the basic pattern of short
routines dominated by the big basic exercise, using low to medium sets, varying rep ranges over time, not training overly frequently, varying the
format over cycles, and having generous rest and sound nutritional contributions. Then you’ll grow.
What matters is what works. Whatever productive formula you concoct, fine. It doesn’t matter how much it may seem out-of-step with what
others do. Don’t be reluctant to be radical in your experiments. If you stay in the groove of unproductive but conventional training, you’ll get
nowhere. Strike out and build a bigger and stronger physique than you may have realistically thought possible. Don’t be constrained by the training
habits of others. You’re training yourself, not others. What matters to you is what works for you.

Bone growth
There’s an opinion that bone growth can be altered, beneficially, especially in teenage bodybuilders and those in their twenties. This opinion
advises high-rep squats in combination with breathing pullovers (or Rader chest pulls), to enlarge the rib cage and shoulder girdle. This opinion also
believes that pulldowns, pullups, wide-grip shrugs, and the press behind neck may help enlarge the shoulder girdle. I don’t recommend the press
behind neck. Even if it helps your shoulder growth, it will be to no avail if it injures you in the process.
Incontrovertible evidence for exercise-induced bone growth is no simple task. I believe that all young bodybuilders should give the opinion the
benefit of doubt, and include the rib cage work. I believe I benefitted from it in my youth. High-rep squats, together with pullovers, pulldowns, and
pullups should appear in at least some programs of all able, serious bodybuilders. Shrugs, including those prone on an inclined bench, can also be
included in some cycles.

Super slow
This method of training has been written about in great detail by Ken Hutchins (The Ultimate Exercise Protocol: Super Slow ) and Ellington
Darden, Ph.D. (Big ). Performing reps slowly isn’t new, but the organization and rationale associated with super slow training is new. It’s another
technique to consider experimenting with.
It’s important to remember that all these ways are not similarly effective for everyone. What someone raves over, and has the results to back up his
enthusiasm, may yield nothing for someone else. What’s effective for some people is ineffective for others. Individual experimentation is essential—
but not with the ludicrous.
Although super slow has its own set and rep scheme and protocol, everything else written about in this book—training frequency, intensity cycling,
slow poundage increments, brief routines, etc.—also applies to super slow.
Super slow has its critics, critics who are as adamant that super slow isn’t the best way to train as its advocates are adamant that it’s one of if not
the best way to train. Investigate thoroughly, make a fair experiment, and then come to your own conclusions.

Procedure
Hutchins recommends 3–5 reps per set for advanced trainees, and 4–8 for other trainees. Stephen Wedan—an artist and bodybuilding journalist
who has written extensively on super slow—advises reps in the range of 4–5 or 6, and avoiding maximum contractions during the first 2–3 reps.
The positive (concentric) part of the rep (the pull or push part) takes 10 seconds and the negative (eccentric) contraction takes five seconds, with
speed of movement being steady, not erratic. Ease into each rep, with no thrust of movement.
The turnarounds at the top and bottom of the reps take additional seconds, and you don’t rest in the locked-out position of, for example, the squat
or, in the stretched position of, for example, the barbell curl. The turnaround is done just before the lockout of each rep, so that there’s no
conscious rest for the muscles, not even a fraction of a second. Of course, there is a stop, to be able to change direction, but you’re to imagine the
turnaround as being a constant but very slow movement—rather like going around a curve to change direction. (A total super slow rep will take
about 20 seconds.) The turnaround in the position that has the least resistance—the bottom of the curl, and the top of a squat, as examples—is
done quicker than the turnaround where the position has high resistance. The stress on the muscles is throughout the set—there are no breaks,
hence the agony of execution.
Continue each set, without holding your breath, until the bar stops moving. This will happen somewhere during the positive stage of a rep. Only
record completed reps in your training diary. The final partial rep doesn’t get in until it becomes a complete rep at a later workout.
When movement stops, that isn’t the end of the set. You must keep pushing or pulling into the movement for 15 seconds or more.

Supervision
Without proper supervision you’re likely to have trouble maintaining the timing throughout the set. You could count seconds, but then your
concentration may be removed from getting out the super slow reps. These reps are massively fatiguing. You’ll need a supervisor to prevent you
from speeding up to get out the final reps of a set. You may be able to count seconds during each rep without it affecting your concentration much
if at all. But don’t try to count seconds during each rep and count reps as well. Having two things to count will mar your focus on the exercise.
If you have no alternative to training by yourself, and you want to experiment with super slow training without having to count seconds, what can
you do? Do the exercise as slowly as you can on the positive part, without counting anything. Just push or pull enough to keep the bar from
stopping. On the negative part, let the bar move at twice the speed. No matter how uncomfortable the reps become, keep up this speed. No
cheating by quickening things up!
Practice at home with a broomstick in front of a clock. Do all the exercises you use in the gym, while watching the clock. Do this for a few reps
daily and you’ll soon get the mental feel for super slow reps, including the turnarounds. This will help you in the gym. Do revision broomstick work
as well.

Patience and perseverance.

If you’ve never tried this type of training, the thought of a single set of 4–5 reps for no more than six exercise may strike you as a joke of a way to
train. Once you’re experienced the humbling and painful experience of properly performed super slow reps, you’ll think differently.
Learning the method takes a while, so persevere and be patient. You’ll need to reduce by about 50% the weight you would normally use (for
about five reps), depending on how you normally do your reps.. Start with four perfect reps, but do more than four reps if you’ve cut the weight
back enough.
Your ego may be devastated with the initial small poundages you need to use to get out just four reps in regulation style. If you’re going to make a
fair experiment, forget about what others may think. Work up to 6–8 reps in perfect super slow form, and then add a few pounds and start again
at four reps.
You’ll build up the poundages greatly relative to where you started, and do it quicker than you may think you will when doing your first grueling
session with super slow reps.

Friction
If you use machines, there must be no friction in the apparatus. If there’s any friction and you feel the bar is getting stick, and movement isn’t
steady, change the exercise.

Experiment
For your first trial, use a maximum of six basic exercises, twice a week. For example, use the squat, stiff-legged deadlift (once a week only), bench
press, pulldown, overhead press, and heel raise. Specific arm work is optional. Don’t undermine the potential value of super slow by training too
frequently. While you’re learning the procedure, and are not actually training full-bore, you can train more frequently than later on when you’ll be
going flat out.
Be ready to take a few weeks (not just a workout or two) to get into super slow training, to pick up the poundages and then to start filling out your
muscles. Start light, and focus on performance rather than seeing how much discomfort you can endure. The agony can come after a few weeks.
You may need to experiment with your choice of exercises to ensure they are safe and best suited to super slow for you.
Other than ten minutes of general warmup work, and some abdominal work, get straight into the six exercises to be done in super slow fashion,
one work set of each, and taking just enough rest between exercises to set up the equipment for the next exercise.
You can be in and out of the gym within 30 minutes, and sooner if you do no pre-workout general warmup work. If you’re pushed for time, now
may be a good time to experiment with super slow.
If you’re experiencing some aches and pains, and feel the need for a change of pace, now may be the time to experiment with super slow.
Rehabilitate yourself while trying to build some muscle.
Unless you do something absurd, you’re not going to get injured with super slow. Be sure you have a spotter or racks to take the bar off you
because, remember, you don’t finish a set until you’ve been pushing or pulling against a static bar for more than 15 seconds after the final
movement in the final rep of a set. This means that you won’t be able to get the barbell back in the bench press or squat stands, for example. If you
don’t have safety bars for the squat and bench press, substitute the parallel-grip bent-legged deadlift, and parallel bar dip.
With super slow training demanding a drastic change in approach to what you’re doing now, you may find it best to start doing all your training in
this style. After two months, when you have the procedure down pat, you can probably mix super slow with another rep style. Or, alternate a
super slow workout with another style of workout. Either way, still keep your workouts brief.

Very skeptical?
If you’re really skeptical and want to try super slow in a limited way, try it on a single body part, and do the super slow work first in your workout.
I suggest a small body part. How about two exercises for the arms? While it isn’t the best way to experiment with super slow, it’s better than
nothing. Take measurements, start light, get the style right, build up the poundage over four months, and give it your all no more than three times a
week (just twice may be better). Then take your measurements again. Now, is it worth experimenting with some more?

A different perspective
There are many opinions about the best way to train for a given goal, even for hard-gaining typical bodybuilders. Often, the different arguments are
similarly convincing. Select what you think may best suit you, and give it a good try. Trial and error is a powerful teacher. Take advice from
appropriate sources, and experiment rationally. Learn what suits you best.
This book provides a different perspective on training relative to what you can find in the popular bodybuilding literature. By providing this different interpretation
you’ve been given a broadened choice of alternative ways of training to help you to realize your potential.
Nutrition matters a lot, but forget the notion that it’s 80% or even “just” 50% of bodybuilding success. Sitting
down and eating is the easy bit, relatively speaking. Knuckling down to hard work in the gym is the difficult bit.
Too many bodybuilders treat supplements as if they are panaceas. They get distracted from satisfying the
fundamentals of sound training and sound nutrition through ordinary food. Instead of looking in the gym and at
their training frequency for the primary explanation for their inadequate progress, they look at supplement
displays in magazines, gyms, and stores.
14. Nutrition
For many people, rigorous organization is needed in order to be able to consume, over time, progressively larger quantities of nutritious food.
Some of you may need to add over a thousand calories a day. To do this may require a fundamental restructuring of food intake. It doesn’t mean
adding just a sandwich and a glass of milk each day. These people—relative to being in “no gains land”—will need to greatly increase their food
intake. While this isn’t going to produce a diet for the long term, it will be needed for a good while in order to provide the sustenance required to
build big muscles.
If your nutrition isn’t in reasonable order, then no matter how sound your training program is, it won’t make you bigger and stronger. That being
said, forget the notion that nutrition is 80% or even 50% of bodybuilding success. Knuckling down in the gym to very intense work on squats,
deadlifts and a few other great exercises is the hard bit. That’s the over-50% bit. Rest and nutrition make up the balance.
Satisfying the nutritional requirements for progress in the gym—no matter how challenging that may be for you—is the easy part of getting big and
strong, relatively speaking.
There are many gym members who sleep well, have jobs that aren’t physically stressful, and who have diets generous in calories, protein,
carbohydrates, and micro-nutrients. Plus, they may take a lot of hyped non-nutritional bits and pieces. They fail to gain muscle simply because
they don’t train effectively.
Once your diet and rest habits are in good order, your bodybuilding progress is totally a reflection of what you’re doing in the gym. Get your diet in
good order, but without obsessing over it. If you find that getting your diet in good order is difficult, what are you going to think when you’re
grinding out the reps under a heavy squat bar and your body is protesting but your mind has to drive it on?
During the last couple few decades there has been a big increase in the attention given to diet, both inside and outside the bodybuilding world. But
there hasn’t been an astonishing increase in the number of typical bodybuilders realizing their strength and size potentials.

Making the most of milk

For the typical skinny and very young bodybuilder to develop a lot of muscle mass, a lot of food usually needs to be consumed. The easiest way to
add a lot of nutritious calories to a regular diet is to add potent drinks, or a lot of milk by itself. But don’t jump overnight into drinking a lot of milk.
Build up gradually, over a few weeks.
Milk is often the base for bodybuilding drinks, and a blender the tool for getting all the ingredients into a palatable concoction—hence the
traditional reliance upon milk in some quarters of the training world. As long as your digestive system can handle milk, you could make the most of
it over the short term.
Some people don’t digest milk well, and they quickly conclude that it’s not suitable for them. Before you think of substitutes for milk, try these
suggestions: Use low-fat or non-fat milk, don’t mix it with anything, don’t drink it until you feel hungry, and don’t gulp it down but sip it slowly.
If this doesn’t improve matters, buy a lactose enzyme product from a drugstore (chemist). Using these tablets may compensate for your body’s
possible inability to deal with the lactose in the milk.
You could also try lactose-reduced low-fat milk, which some supermarkets sell, at least in the USA.
Some people find that raw milk can be digested whereas pasteurized milk gives problems. If you have a good source of raw milk, then experiment
with that too.
If, after trying all the aforementioned, you still can’t handle milk, use alternatives. This assumes you need to get extra calories in your diet from
liquid food. If you don’t need to increase your caloric intake considerably, you’ll be able to manage by increasing your solid food intake a little.
If you need to increase your caloric intake greatly, without using milk, find liquid, high-calorie and nutritious ready-made non-milk products, or
make your own concoctions. Yogurt, milk substitutes, egg-based products, low-fat cottage cheese, and weight-gain supplements primarily derived
from grains can be experimented with (not all of them together) as the base for your concoctions.

I used to drink a lot of milk, but no longer. Especially due to how milk is produced today, it has shortcomings. Now, I prefer to
 recommend milk products—kefir, and cheese, for example—rather than liquid milk, and more solid food from other sources.

Food rotation
Some people have overt allergies to some foods and chemicals, and many of us have hidden allergies. Any food that gives you an immediate
reaction should be avoided. (Discomfort from food may not be due to an allergic reaction though.) Avoid foods and combinations that disagree
with you. Avoid as much as you can foods that have chemicals in them. If you live in a city, you probably can’t avoid them all, but you sure can cut
out a lot of the chemicals.
Rotating your foods somewhat, and eating a big variety of foods, helps to avoid your body being worn down by allergens. Don’t heavily eat or
drink a single food without at least having periodic breaks. For example, if you rely heavily on milk, have a rest from it during layoffs and even
during the first 2–3 weeks of a new training cycle.
Don’t have wheat for your breakfast cereal everyday. Have oats or barley. Rotate them. Don’t always have potatoes with your evening meal.
Have pasta, legumes, bread or some other starch. Don’t always drink orange juice. What about grapefruit, pineapple, mandarin and apple juice?
Get some variety into your diet. It’s not only good for your body but good for your taste buds and enjoyment of food.

Fat and cholesterol

There’s often concern over fat and cholesterol in the diet. (Cholesterol is not a fatty substance but a sterol, a waxy substance insoluble in water.)
A diet that has significant fat and cholesterol in it is not the bad thing some people make it out to be. A lot depends on other factors, including the
type of fat consumed. But this is not a license to start consuming 15 quarts of full-fat milk and 30 eggs a day.
If you consume generously of dairy products and eggs, but don’t smoke, aren’t fat, never have any junk food, never have fried food, never have
hydrogenated oils, consume lots of high-fibre foods, eat lots of fruit and greens, eat fish most days, eat a lot of raw food, consume olive oil most
days (I live in Cyprus, a Mediterranean country, and olive oil is revered here), have a spoonful of flax seed oil each day, exercise hard (including
target heart rate aerobic training), are young or youngish, take a daily broad spectrum vitamin and mineral supplement together with additional
vitamins C and E, don’t use drugs, aren’t a big worrier, drink little or no alcohol, and don’t have a genetic tendency towards unusually high blood
cholesterol levels, then how is a year or few on a moderately heavy diet going to do you any harm? Let’s keep things in perspective.
If you use low-fat or non-fat milk rather than full-fat milk, and low-fat cheeses rather than full-fat ones, fat intake can be sharply curtailed.
Compare the aforementioned scenario with a bodybuilder who downs, weekly, gallons of full-fat milk, dozens of eggs, and pounds of full-fat
cheese in amongst his generous consumption of junk food and a low-fibre, highly refined diet. The same bodybuilder who’s fat, sometimes takes
steroids, and perhaps even smokes. For such a person, the heavy use of eggs and dairy products may be harmful.
Have a periodic check of your blood cholesterol level. If it’s high, investigate your lifestyle and seek medical advice. If it’s low, you’re doing fine.
Even if it is a high reading, don’t automatically assume that it’s your intake of fat (or cholesterol) that’s the principal cause. There are many factors
at play, don’t just pick on popular scapegoats.
Substituting some land-animal fats with similar or even larger quantities of fats from olive oil, fish, nuts and seeds may reduce cholesterol levels
without reducing overall fat intake.
Even if your cholesterol level isn’t low, don’t think you’re an automatic candidate for a heart attack. There are many risk factors in heart disease—
as many as 25 or more, including smoking, genetic inheritance, hypertension, diabetes, and inactivity. A high cholesterol level is only one risk
factor. Pay attention to reducing all risk factors.

Medical report on dietary fat and heart disease

To provide some balance on this topic, not all reports condemn dietary fat. On the BBC World Service’s Science in Action program, February
1991, there was an interesting report. It opened by reminding listeners that over recent years we’ve been warned that consuming a lot of fat,
especially animal fat, is bad for our hearts. Heart disease is the most common cause of death in developed countries, killing more people than all
the kinds of cancers put together. Then came the report itself:
For the previous ten years, a team of the British Medical Research Council’s Epidemiology Unit had been monitoring 2,500 middle-aged men to
find out what aspects of their physiology, lifestyle and diet may indicate susceptibility to heart disease. While results showed that smoking increases
risk, and there’s evidence that exercise may decrease it, the controversial finding was that our beliefs about fat are open to question.
The Unit’s director, Dr. Peter Ellwood, commented:
 We find no convincing evidence of the relationship between fat intake and subsequent risk of heart disease, and our
study enables us to look at fat of animal origin. We find absolutely no evidence that men who ate more animal fat have
an increased subsequent risk of heart disease.

The interviewer asked if low-fat diets really are good for the heart, and if this report provided new findings. Dr. Ellwood continued:

There have been observational studies such as ours—there have been six or seven major studies throughout the world
and none of these have shown that people in the community who eat more fat have a higher risk. There have also been
six or seven major trials where fat intake of people has been reduced. Now, none of these give convincing evidence of
any benefit of survival in terms of reduced mortality.

Dr. Ellwood went on to say that while there has been a small decrease in deaths attributed to heart disease, due to a low-fat diet, there’s no
evidence of any reduction of total mortality, or of increasing survival. Those who were no longer dying of heart disease were not surviving any
longer because they were dying of something else instead.
The program then interviewed the medical director of the British Heart Foundation, an organization that has been vigorous in advising the eating of
less fat. The director was asked how strong the evidence for reducing fat really is:

It’s strong, but the situation is more complex than appears on the surface. Faulty eating habits of one kind may be
compensated for by habits of another kind and it may be, for example, that eating a lot of fruit and vegetables may
compensate, or more than compensate for what seems an adverse diet in other respects. All the dietary things together
make it difficult to pick out a single dietary component.

In studies so far, reduction in heart attacks (from reducing dietary fat) has been quite impressive but reducing the
number of deaths, as opposed to reducing heart attacks, is much smaller, so it’s difficult to prove statistically that there’s
a benefit.

All this isn’t license for you to ignore your fat intake. But it does indicate that singling out dietary fat as the big factor behind heart and circulatory
illness is misplaced. Fat intake is just one factor amongst many. Keep fat intake moderate at its upper limit if you’re young, and reduce it (and total
energy intake) as you get into middle age. And avoid unhealthy fats such as margarine, hydrogenated oil, fried foods, and refined vegetable oil.
An important reason for not consuming a lot of fat is that you need to eat a lot of healthy carbohydrates each day. You must have plenty of room in
your diet to accommodate the carbohydrates.

Life span
My opinion is that maximum potential life span is mostly determined by genetic factors—some people are simply programmed to live longer than
are others. How near you get to realizing your potential is a result of how well you look after yourself, and how fortunate you are to avoid death
through accident.
If someone has abused himself for most of his life and then, late in life he overhauls his diet, that’s rather late. Much serious damage has already
been done. What may appear to make a difference to the health of an abused body may have little or no relevance to the health of younger bodies,
or, indeed, of older bodies that have been well cared for throughout their lives.
There’s a lot more to looking after yourself than what’s written in this book. There’s the realm of the mind-body-spirit connection and esoteric
wisdom of the Orient, and other matters that are neither in the common psyche of the West nor in the scope of this book.

Monitoring intake
Get a calorie counter and keep a record of your daily caloric intake. Keep it steady for a few weeks and see what happens to your bodyweight. If
you gained nothing, try adding an extra three hundred nutritious calories a day, for a few weeks. Discover the difference it makes. All this assumes
that you’re in the intense part of your training cycle and that you’re using a productive routine and training frequency, and are resting well when out
of the gym.
Keep increasing caloric intake until you’re gaining at a steady rate without adding noticeable body fat. You may need to take more than 4,000
calories a day if you’re under 25. As you get older, you can gain without having to consume so many calories.
If you have to increase your caloric intake greatly—by a thousand or more—don’t try to do it in a single jump. Do it progressively, like with your
training. You progress from a 200-pound squat to a 300-pound one by making lots of small increments. Increase your food portions by small
amounts, and add drinks progressively. Let your body gradually adapt to the increased caloric intake over a month or two, or longer.
You should consume your highest caloric intake during the 4–6 or however many weeks of a cycle during which you’re training at your highest
intensity. During the initial easy part of a cycle, don’t consume so much because you don’t need so much then. Consume the most when you need
the most. The most intense part of a cycle is when you should time your rational use of food supplements (other than basic vitamin and mineral
supplements). This is the time for greatest impact.
Don’t go way overboard with weight gain and just pile on the weight no matter what comprises the weight. This is the mentality of the out-dated
bulking-up approach. It’s muscle we’re after, not fat. Keep a close eye on your waist girth and the pinch of fat and skin on your waist. If they
increase noticeably, cut back on your caloric intake and investigate whether your training is productive. Converting the extra calories into muscle
necessitates sound training and rest habits.

To transform into muscle even the highest quality food and supplements over your basic needs, you’ve got to train effectively.
Otherwise, all you’ll build is body fat.

Typical bodybuilders can’t build substantial size while maintaining a very low body fat level. As long as you’re lean, letting a little fat come along
with a lot of muscle is fine. Concentrate on getting big and strong—without becoming fat—and then concern yourself with definition.
If you don’t have an accurate idea of how many calories you’re eating each day, how can you know how many you need in order to pack on
muscle? You need nutritional targets just like you need training targets.
Have five or six moderate feeds each day rather than cram it all into two or three large feeds a day. This may seem unusual, but you’re a
bodybuilder and so have to direct your life in ways that are strange in the eyes of other people.
Just what balance between solid and liquid food you decide upon depends upon you, your preferences, time available to eat in, digestive efficiency,
and other things. At the time of originally writing this book, in 1990 and 1991, my preferred nutritional schedule was to have a large breakfast and
a large evening meal, then between the solid-food meals I worked through juice, fruit, milk, and drinks out of a blender, in quantities determined by
my needs at the time.
In 1990 and 1991 I didn’t have the time or interest to eat during the day. Milk and blender concoctions were convenient ways of getting potent
feeds with minimal time and preparation involved.
The typical undersized bodybuilder’s diet should be a pleasure to deal with. Make the most of it. Get stuck into all those dairy products
(sometimes low-fat), fish, eggs, whole-grain products (not just bread), fruit and vegetables, nuts, seeds and legumes. Start all your solid food meals
with something raw, be it just a carrot or a tomato. Devise a diet that’s practical for you—one that you can keep to over the long-term. Avoid one
that’s so strict and uncompromising that you can keep to it only for a week or few.
By eating like this, in sufficient quantities, “all” you have to do is train hard and rest generously, and you’ll grow. No fuss needs to be made over
diet.
If you compromise by getting more than just a few of your calories from less than quality food, or by quitting on the hard reps, or by regularly
missing a bit of sleep, don’t be surprised if your gains in the gym are compromised upon too. Remember, bodybuilding is all about a co-ordinated
package of factors.
What’s being dealt with here is a practical diet to permit gains in the gym. The fine-tuning of diet to try to optimize it for health and longevity is
another matter. There isn’t the space to go into that here.
Appetite
Your appetite is a useful indicator of how well your training is going. If you find, after your workouts, that your appetite seems to take off, you’re
doing something good. If you find your appetite flags, something is probably wrong in the gym and/or with your recovery.
I spent four years on a vegan diet—absolutely no animal products, only plant material. During this time, my ability to train hard evaporated, as did
my recovery ability. My appetite diminished. After four years of getting steadily smaller and weaker I added eggs to my diet. What a difference the
eggs made. I could train hard once more and my appetite took off.
From then on, the worth of my efforts in the gym could be determined by my appetite. When training was going well, I would be ravenous almost
immediately after training. The increase in appetite would continue for two days or so, and then would decrease. Then after training again, my
appetite would be boosted.
When my training wasn’t going well, there would be no boosting of my appetite. But if my recuperation machinery was out of kilter, that could
account for the flagging appetite.
When you want to gain, don’t allow yourself to get hungry. As soon as you feel hunger coming, sate it. If you go hungry, you’re going to start
feeding on yourself, and negate your efforts in the gym. When your training is going well, you’ll likely need to consume food very often to keep
hunger at bay. Better to eat smaller meals more often than big meals that need many hours in between to allow for digestion.
Don’t wait too long after a meal before training. Two hours after a meal of solid food should be enough. It may be better to train an hour or so
after a small milk-based drink or blender concoction—something that can be digested quicker than a meal of solid food. Once you’ve finished
training, say 15 minutes after, have a potent drink or blender concoction, to get in a substantial supply of protein and carbohydrates.

The fat hard gainer

While the typical hard gainer is a skinny guy struggling to build himself up, there are fat hard gainers who have an even more difficult problem.
While being concerned about their lack of muscle and strength, they are also concerned with getting rid of excess fat.
These bodybuilders have no problems getting enough calories to gain from. They don’t need to consume a lot of calories to increase their weight.
The tendency to get fat is a major problem here.
When you know that you don’t need to consume large amounts of food, you need to be careful to derive all your calories from low-fat sources in
order to get a generous supply of all the protein, carbohydrate, vitamins and minerals you need to grow muscle. A quality broad spectrum vitamin
and mineral supplement is recommended, to help prevent any nutritional deficiencies. The less you eat, the more chance you have of not getting
enough nutrients.
While drug-using and genetically superior bodybuilders can build substantial muscle while losing a lot of fat, few of the rest of us can do the same.
Rather than try to do such a difficult task, focus on losing the excess fat while holding onto whatever muscle you already have. You must keep up a
short, hard and basic gym routine. Once you’re lean enough, increase your caloric intake a little, focus on a gaining routine, and build yourself up s-
l-o-w-l-y. (Don’t try to get ripped until you have enough size to rip up. Ripped skeletons are unimpressive.)

Solution
The essence of losing body fat (and keeping it lost) is to design a program for life, not just for the short-term. Less food, more energy output,
quality eating, patience, and persistence. Focus primarily on foods that have a low-density of calories. Eat lots of bulk foods to fill you up without
filling you out—foods low in fat, low in sugar, and with little or no refining. To keep your muscle, you still need to have frequent (small) meals, each
with protein in it. Avoid having long periods between meals. You need to keep your energy levels from flagging, and prevent your body from
feeding on its own muscle.
You need to increase your energy output through activities you can do over the long-term. It’s not just a case of doing the activities to mobilize
your body’s fat stores in order to lose weight. You need to keep doing the activities once the fat is off, in order to keep the fat off . On top of
your weight training you need to do exercise that’s not going to make serious inroads into your recovery ability. Walking is a good first choice. At
about 100 calories a mile, you can use up a lot of calories without burning yourself out.

Not just caloric consumption

While the calories used up during exercise comprise an important part of a fat-loss program, that’s not the only contribution. The increase in
metabolism during exercise may continue after the period of exercise. This may allow you to burn calories at a higher rate than normal for a while
after the exercise.
Intense exercise builds muscle. Muscle tissue requires energy to maintain itself. By increasing your muscular mass you increase your resting
metabolic rate.
The higher your resting metabolic rate, the more calories (energy) you need to stay alive. The more calories you need as your minimum, the less
you have to cut back your dietary intake to get yourself in an energy deficit. Dietary measures don’t need to be severe, so successful dieting
becomes more practical and likely.

Burning body fat

The body burns fat when the cells oxidize it to release energy. If the exercise you do is sustained for long enough—more than 10 consecutive
minutes—your body begins to take a big part of its energy from body fat.
The cells that release the energy aren’t specifically from the area you’re exercising. The energy comes from the general breakdown of fat cells all
over the body. Except for surgery, you can’t spot reduce fat.
Refer to Chapter 10, under the section Aerobic work , for target heart rate work. You need to work at a level you can sustain for long enough.
You want to be doing 20 minutes a session minimum, without it exhausting you and killing your enthusiasm.
It’s better to work moderately, and do it three times every week for life, rather than drive yourself to exhaustion five times a week for a month and
then never do target heart rate work again.
I suggest you follow the guidelines given under Aerobic work , for 20 minutes three times a week. Additional to this you should walk daily, or at
least on the four days you’re not doing target heart rate work. Work up to 45–60 minutes of walking each time. You’ll then burn a lot of calories
from your fat stores.
Combine this with a diet 300–400 calories below your maintenance levels (avoid crash dieting extremes) and you should be able to lose about a
pound of body fat every week. That’s about 25 pounds in six months, and 50 in a year. Think long-term, remember.
If you find the weight loss slowing or stopping, increase your walking pace a little, or walk over hilly terrain. That will increase your energy output.
Then cut back your food intake a further 100 or 200 calories, be patient, and you’ll lose weight again.
Mix up your aerobic activities in the gym. Working on the exercise bike for month after month may exhaust even the most determined. Use the
bike, treadmill, climber, rower and whatever other equipment may be available that you like. Doing your aerobic work with company, making it
into a social event, helps many people to maintain their training enthusiasm.
Once you’re lean enough, cut back on your walking, increase your energy intake a little, and focus on a bodybuilding training program. Change
your mental outlook and slowly build up your muscle and strength. If you get hasty, the fat will find its way back.

Food combinations
I’ve followed both the pure interpretation of food combining, and a modified version. The pure interpretation has simple meals in which different
types of food are focused upon—fruit-only meals, concentrated protein meals, and concentrated starch meals. Green salads are eaten with either
of the latter two meals. Fruit isn’t mixed with other foods. Starch foods such as potatoes and breads are not mixed with protein rich foods such as
eggs and fish. Meals are well spread out through the day—4–5 hours between them, or even more.
From this basic description you’ll see why it’s nigh on impossible to eat a high calorie, protein-rich bodybuilding diet while keeping to strict food
combinations.
I followed a modified version for about 10 years. It improved my digestion relative to the regular mixed way of eating, and made me feel better.
While I’m not saying that everyone will benefit as much as I did, I believe that many people would benefit considerably from simpler meals. If you
find digestion heavy-going, and you’re not satisfied with how you feel, experiment with a modified version of food combinations to see if it makes a
difference.
Remember, it’s what we digest and assimilate that matters, not just what we eat.
When I was drinking milk, I never had it with meals. I either had it an hour before a meal, or at least two hours after a meal of solid food. I could
drink milk-based drinks every two hours and be ready for each—no digestive discomfort. I had concentrated proteins (eggs, cheese, fish) and
concentrated starch food (bread, grains, potatoes) at the same meal, but divided the meal into two courses, usually eating raw vegetables during
the break. I had the protein food first, and then had a break for 20 minutes or more, before having the starch foods. I found this division made my
digestion feel as efficient if not more efficient than if I had hours between the two courses.
I never mix fruit (or fruit juice) with other foods. The exception to this is the tomato. I treat tomatoes as if they are vegetables and salad items,
which is how they are commonly used anyway.
For the bodybuilder who is trying to gain size and strength, and needs to consume a lot of calories, strict adherence to food combining isn’t
practical. The modification I’ve just suggested worked well for me.

At about the same time I stopped drinking milk, I stopped having wheat products. Then I found that I could combine starch-rich foods with
protein-rich foods without digestive discomfort. But I continued to eat fruit at fruit-only meals. My typical daily fare became breakfast, lunch and
dinner, with two fruit-only snacks—one mid-morning, and one mid-afternoon.

Dietary fiber
A diet that provides generous amounts of dietary fiber is protective in many ways. This doesn’t mean getting the fiber from a bag of bran but,
rather, getting it from an abundance of unrefined, natural foods—grains, potatoes, legumes, nuts, seeds and fruit. A diet high in fiber automatically
gets a number of important factors in healthy order.
If you’ve been consuming a low fiber diet for a long time, don’t jump straight into a high fiber diet. As with so many other things, do it progressively
so you can adjust to it without negative side-effects.

Supplements
How so much is promised by the supplement manufacturers and their distributors, but how so little is delivered.
I have no axe to grind against rational, prudent use of food supplements. If your diet is lacking in diversity and balance, and especially if you don’t
need to consume a lot of food in order to gain, supplements can help to plug the gaps left by imbalances or shortages. You should, of course, do
your best to get your basic diet as sound and as balanced as possible. Never get sloppy about your diet with the reasoning that you can make up
for shortcomings by swallowing a collection of tablets.
Food first, remember, quality food—quality food in sufficient quantities to enable you to gain. Three thousand calories each day from perfect
sources, prepared in the optimum way, and supplemented in the most ideal way will do nothing for your gains in the gym if you need 3,500 or
more calories a day to gain on.
Many bodybuilders treat supplements as if they are panaceas. They get distracted from satisfying the fundamentals of sound training, and of sound
nutrition through ordinary food. Instead of looking in the gym and at their training frequency for the primary explanation for their inadequate
progress, they look at supplement displays in magazines, gyms and stores.
The advertising barrage to encourage us to use food supplements, is intense. There’s nothing new, however, about dietary supplements being
advertised in bodybuilding magazines.
The promotion of food supplements has got to such a pitch that a neophyte can be forgiven for believing it’s impossible to progress in the gym
without taking some combination of supplements.
We easily forget there was a different world not so long ago, a world where serious bodybuilders—with neither supplements nor steroids—could
gain 20, 30 or even more of muscle in less than a year. A world where hard and progressive training on the basics, lots of quality nourishment,
together with plenty of rest and sleep was the only “technology” needed for building impressive size and strength.
Human beings haven’t changed—they still respond to what they responded to decades ago.
Some food supplements are highly nutritious and useable items. No one is going to doubt this. Although there’s no doubt that such food
supplements are nutritious, what there is doubt about is whether they can do anything that regular food can’t.
Accompanying the obviously nutritious food supplements are the non-nutritious and non-essential items. Over recent years we’ve had octacosanol,
cytochrome C, creatine, beta-sitosterol, smilax officianalis, gamma oryzanol, dimethylglycine, inosine, yohimbe bark extract, cyclofenil,
dibencozide, ferulic acid, clenbuterol, GHB, diosgenin and many others. Some of the same items change their form, and new products push the old
names out of the way. Items formerly much publicized often quickly disappear from the market. Some of the products are soft drugs and become
unavailable without prescription.
Never allow yourself to get caught up in the hype that dominates food supplements, whether of the nutritional or non-nutritional kind.
Food supplements are just that, supplements . They have grown to become almost priority items in the eyes of many people—not just among
those who use weights. Ordinary food has almost become the secondary item. Let’s not get skewed priorities.

Double blind objective proof

It would cost food supplement companies large amounts of money to try to provide the double-blind, objective, scientific studies needed to prove
the efficacy of their products. We’re unlikely to see this sort of proof. We’re left with pseudo-proof from poorly designed studies. They are poorly
designed because they use small numbers of inappropriate subjects (perhaps nutritionally depleted children or old people, or not even humans) and
for short periods of time. Or, we’re left with anecdotal proof. While the latter can be interesting, and sometimes useful, it can lead to many
expensive dead ends.
Not only is the cost of providing irrefutable evidence likely to be prohibitive, the thought that the results could disprove the efficacy of the products
is enough to frighten off the companies from carrying out the necessary studies.

When to use supplements

Food supplements should never be seen as the means by which to try to make an unproductive training program into a productive one.
If you can’t make progress using the combination of training, rest and ordinary food, the cause of this lack of progress doesn’t rest in insufficient
use of supplements. The reason rests somewhere in the basic combination of training, rest and food. Get that sorted out and working before you
experiment with the fine tuning that may come from rational and prudent use of supplements. Maintain the right priorities.
Many genetically typical bodybuilders have made fantastic progress without ever taking food supplements other than a basic vitamin and mineral
product. This demonstrates that if we can’t make substantial progress without supplements, we must be doing something fundamentally wrong with
the basics of getting bigger and stronger.
The best time to experiment with supplements is during the part of your training cycle when you’re pushing yourself to the limit and need all the help
you can get. During these high intensity weeks, try some of the quality nutritious supplements (especially a good protein supplement), perhaps
together with one or two non-nutritious items. No need to use the supplements all the time though—keep them for special purposes, for short-term
impact.
The exception to this is the use of a broad spectrum vitamin and mineral product, with some additional vitamins C and E, and any other product
thought to influence health and longevity, such as flax seed oil, and cod liver oil. Take these year round.
The latter are especially recommended for those people who know they aren’t following a balanced diet. If you can’t or won’t eat a more
balanced diet, you’re better off with basic vitamin and mineral supplements than without. Of course, you’re best off with as balanced a diet as you
can get, with a wide variety of fresh and unrefined food. Vitamin and mineral supplements may then be wasted, but who can really say for 100%
sure?

What to use
While there is an abundance of charlatan food supplements on the market—with the non-nutritional items having more guilty items than the
nutritional supplements—there are some nutritious and quickly assimilated products available. Products free of refined sugar, and high in
carbohydrates and protein, may be quality foods. They may be digested easier than regular food, perhaps be assimilated more efficiently, and thus
may allow you to consume nutrient-dense calories without feeling bloated.
Some supplements provide a lot of concentrated calories without much fat. These may be especially helpful for ultra hard-gaining trainees,
especially if they can’t handle milk. (The disadvantage is that they may be expensive relative to obtaining the same nourishment through regular
food.) These supplements may, when used in the intense part of a training cycle, provide the nutritional boost needed to help keep the gaining
momentum going, and the gains coming.

To summarize
By all means experiment with rational use of food supplements. Perhaps they will help you. Mind you, perhaps they won’t make a blind bit of
difference if your meals are in good order. The only conditions are that you’re already on a productive training routine, you’re seeing the
supplements as a means to improve gains (rather that initiate them), and that you can afford them without cutting out something more important.
With the right perspective and set of priorities, the rational use of quality food supplements may help you to speed up progress from an already
productive program. With the wrong perspective and set of priorities, food supplements will only fuel frustration as more is spent for the same
deficiency of results.
Take your nutrition very seriously. It’s a major factor contributing to your health and well-being, and to your progress in the gym.
Stuart’s other publications
1. BUILD MUSCLE, LOSE FAT, LOOK GREAT
2. HARDGAINER magazine
3. BEYOND BRAWN
4. THE MUSCLE & MIGHT TRAINING TRACKER
5. FURTHER BRAWN

Each of these publications has unique value to complement what BRAWN teaches. Once you’ve studied BRAWN, you may want to read some of the
other publications, for additional instruction and information.

BUILD MUSCLE, LOSE FAT, LOOK GREAT

First published in 2006, this is Stuart’s latest, most complete book. At 640 pages, and with nearly 400 photographs, it has an extraordinary quality and
quantity of instruction and information.

It’s the definitive guide for men and women of all ages. And it’s for you if you’re a beginner or even if you have many years of training experience.

About 200 pages are devoted to exercise technique, to provide the most complete descriptions on the market. But that still leaves over 400 pages to
cover everything else related to training.

“Stuart’s authoritative book is crammed with responsible, safe, and highly effective instruction. It has my unreserved, professional endorsement.”

– Dr. Gregory Steiner, DC

Dallas Integrated Health Care, Texas, USA

“A brilliant book! Follow The Program developed by Stuart and you’ll reach your potential for strength, muscle mass, fitness, and health.”

– Richard Winett, Ph.D.

A professor at Virginia Tech, publisher of MASTER TRAINER , and award-winning health researcher

“Utterly complete, a book for men and women who want to ‘be in shape,’ or to compete at the highest level. All the required information is here.”

– Kathy Leistner, BA , MA , MS , exercise physiologist, past competitor at national and world powerlifting championships, and a former Ms. California

BUILD MUSCLE , LOSE FAT , LOOK GREAT costs $34.95 (or £22.95 in the UK).
HARDGAINER magazine

From July 1989 until its retirement in early 2004, there were 89 issues of HARDGAINER . It provided more result-producing advice for bodybuilders and
strength trainees than was available in any other magazine. It was free of mainstream hokum, but crammed with practical advice, and wisdom.

It spoke to the typical individual. But average potential doesn’t have to mean average achievements. In fact, an impressive physique and a terrific level
of strength are well within your reach. They key, though, is in the right approach. That’s what HARDGAINER was about. Fresh information, and the
expertise and experiences of a range of contributors can be found in each issue. And there’s plenty of grassroots material, to show you the ins and
outs of the practical reality of training.

The content of HARDGAINER doesn’t date. The back issues represent a wealth of experience and advice. HARDGAINER includes such features as:

• Inspirational pieces on developing the right training philosophy for you.

• Sample workouts for bodybuilders, powerlifters, and strength trainees.
• Advice for new, intermediate, and advanced trainees.
• Guidance on the psychology of training.
• Exercise equipment; and training in home gyms, and commercial gyms.
• “From the Grassroots” articles, success stories, and readers’ letters.
• Questions and answers on all aspects of training and related topics.
• Guidance and tips on nutrition, and recuperation in general.
• Biographies, and interviews.
• Guidance on the treatment and prevention of injuries.

And Stuart edited each issue, and contributed to every one, too.

While most of the first 44 issues are in photocopy format, all the others are in original format although some of them will be in that format for a limited
period only. All the back issues are available, however. The contents of each issue are listed at www.hardgainer.com.

Each magazine originally cost US $5.50 (or £3.50, in the UK), inclusive of postage and handling. Order six or more copies at a time, directly from
Cyprus, and get them for just US $3.00 each (or £1.75, in the UK).
BEYOND BRAWN

BEYOND BRAWN is 512 pages of information about every facet of bodybuilding, and weight training in general. Now in a second edition.

This book is not just for novices. It can save you years of wasted toil regardless of your level of training experience. It will propel you into the
detailed, practical know-how needed to turn you into an expertly informed bodybuilder or strength trainee. You can learn all of this from just a few
weeks of serious study. Then apply what you learn and you’ll develop a degree of muscle and might that will make a mockery of what you would have
achieved had you stayed with other training methods.

BEYOND BRAWN will take you right “inside” weight training, to study the practical reality of applying knowledge. It’s not a theoretical treatise, or a pack
of pseudo-scientific hokum.

“For bodybuilding instruction, BEYOND BRAWN is par excellence, featuring an unprecedented depth of practical, relevant and readily
applicable training information. Even more than that, the book is a training partner, companion, friend, and labor of love. A truly
exceptional book!”

– Jan Dellinger

York Barbell Company

“ BEYOND BRAWN is the most comprehensive, helpful and honest book on natural strength training today. With great care and in
extraordinary detail this book covers every training-related topic you can imagine, and without any hype.”

– Bob Whelan, MS , MS , CSCS .

President, Whelan Strength Training

“ BEYOND BRAWN is the bible of rational strength training . . . Page after page is jam-packed with practical, real-world training
information that you just cannot find anywhere else . . . This book has my highest endorsement—it’s without a doubt the very best
book on strength training I’ve ever read.”

– Kevin R. Fontaine, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor of Medicine

Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine

BEYOND BRAWN costs $29.95 (or £17.95, in the UK).

THE MUSCLE & MIGHT TRAINING TRACKER

This 136-page workbook contains everything you need to track your progress—day by day, week by week, month by month, year by year.

A training journal is indispensible for keeping you on track for training success. No matter where you are now—180-pound squat or 500, 13-inch arms
or 17, 135-pound bench press or 350—the systematic organization and focus upon achieving goals that a training journal enforces, will help you to
improve your physique steadily and consistently. While most trainees are aware of the potential value of a training log, few actually keep one; and
that’s one of the major reasons why they make minimal or no progress.

There are sample filled-out log pages, and then many detailed blank log pages. The log pages track not only the specifics of your weight training—
exercises, set-up details, sets and reps, poundages, and a comments area for each workout—but also nutrition, sleep, and body composition.

As simple as it is to use a training log, don’t underestimate the critical role it can play in helping you to maximize your training productivity.

One training log will track your progress for at least 24 months—that’s a cost of just $1.00 per month. And this log is built for the job it’s designed to
do. For example, its robust paper provides the strength to withstand heavy use, and the spiral binding enables the book to open flat for ease of use
when entering data. This is no ordinary training diary.

THE MUSCLE AND MIGHT TRAINING TRACKER costs $19.95 (or £11.95, in the UK).
FURTHER BRAWN

This 320-page book gives answers to over 230 questions on how to build muscle and might. The other books tried to give readers all the information
they need to achieve life-long bodybuilding success. But over time we found there were questions that had slipped through unanswered. This book
has answers to fill in the gaps, and provide further information and wisdom.

Here are just eight of the 230 questions answered in FURTHER BRAWN :

“I’ve read about a number of different ways to train in an abbreviated way, and I’m confused. How do I make sense of all the variation?”

“After heavy 20-rep squatting, my heart rate is very high. Does this have the same effect on my cardio system that hard aerobic work would?”

“How much protein can I assimilate at a given meal?”

“How can I increase hamstrings involvement in the stiff-legged deadlift ? ”

“Is muscular soreness a good indicator that I’ve had a good workout?”

“Which are the best supplements for fat loss?”

“I’ve heard reports of some people having heart attacks when engaged in intensive exercise, with a few of them dying. Is this for real?”

“Who influenced you most in the Iron Game, and how?”

FURTHER BRAWN costs $24.95 (or £15.95, in the UK).

Index
Abbreviated routines, 44 , 45 , 81 , 91–93 , 126 , 134–136

Abdominal work, 128 , 161–163

Abuse of training, 149–151

Advanced training, 67 , 73 , 75 , 143–144

Aerobic training, 131–133 , 212–213

Age, 30–31

Almost to-failure training, 54–55

Alternating-intensity cycle, 74–75

Appetite, 211–212

Arm work, 93 , 164 , 173 , 174–175 , 179–180 , 183 , 184 , 185–186

Back-to-back training, 122–123 , 184 , 194

Back work, 155–158

BBC World Service, 206

Belts:

hip ( see Hip belt)

lifting, 111

Bench press, 35 , 152–153

Benjamin, Roger, 159

Bent-over row, 159

Beyond measurements, 33–34

Body fat reduction, 211–213

Body part specialization, ( see Specialization)

Bodytype, 20–22

Bone growth, 197

Breathing, 165

British Heart Foundation, 207

Buttocks, 101–102 , 177

Calf work, 125–126 , 161–162

Calorie monitoring, 208–210

Cambered squat bar, 107 , 111–112

Cardiorespiratory conditioning, ( see Aerobic training)

Chest work, 152–153

Chins (and pullups), 160

Chiropractic, 171

Cholesterol, 205–206

Consecutive days training, 183–184

Cycling training intensity, 67–79 , 89

Darden, Ph.D., Ellington, 37 , 198

Deadlift, bent-legged/conventional, 97 , 113 , 114–115 , 157–158

Deadlift, partial, 104 , 155–156

Dedication, 59 , 65

Descending sets,

( see Ultra-intense techniques)

Digestion, 213–214

Dips, parallel bar, 153

Douglass, James E., 113

Douglass Squat Circle, 113–114

Driver, 174

Dumbbell squat, 116

Effort, 41 , 43 , 59–64 , 65

Ellwood, Dr. Peter, 206 , 207

Employment, demanding, 94–95

Equipment, 59 , 122

Exercises, selection, 43–46 , 55 , 192–193

Expectations, ( see Goals)

Experimentation, 52 , 55 , 85 , 94 , 123 , 124 , 143

Eye exercises, 170

Fast-twitch fibers, 190

Fat, dietary, 205–208

Fiber, dietary, 214

Finishing routines, 18 , 44 , 93 , 143

Five sets of five (5x5), 124

Flexibility, 98 , 168–170

Food combinations, 213–214

Food supplements, 215–218

Forced reps,

( see Ultra-intense techniques

Frequency of workouts,

( see Training frequency) Front squat, 115–116

Genetics, 15–27

Gerard, Al, 114–115

Goals:

size, 31–33 , 39

strength, 34–38 , 39

Grimek, John C., 1

Gripping the bar, 158–159

Grip work, 127–128

Hard gainer, description, 10–11

HARDGAINER , 8 , 13 , 19 , 36 , 82 , 90 , 93

Health, 59–60

High calves, 16 , 23

Hip belt, 112

Hise, J.C., 113

Hoffman, Bob, 31

Hooks, 159

Horrigan, Dr. Joseph, 150 , 154

Hutchins, Ken, 198

Individualizing a routine, 51–54 , 55 , 79 , 85 , 93 , 121 , 200

Injury prevention, 149–171

Insertion points, 22

Intensity cycling,

( see Cycling training intensity)

Iron Man , 82 , 94 , 99 , 113 , 183

IRONMAN , 149

IronMind ® Enterprises, Inc., 31 , 114

Isolation exercises, 43 , 46 , 164–165

Jones, Arthur, 29 , 84 , 183

Kelso, Paul, 115 , 118 , 131

Kennedy, Robert, 159 , 183

Leg press, 101 , 114

Leistner, Dr. Ken E., 90 , 126 , 127 , 138

Life span, 208

Look of power, 177

Magic Circle, 113

McCallum, John, 31–32

Measurements, 29–34 , 38–39

Medvedev, Professor Alexei, 74

Mentzer, Mike, 29 , 84 , 183

Metabolic rate, 212

Milk, 204

Mini-cycle, 71–73 , 78

Monitoring progress, 38–39

Motivation, 145

Muscle belly length, 23

Muscle control, 170

Muscle fiber type and number, 23–24

Myofibrils, 24

Neck work, 126 , 163–164

Negative reps,

( see Ultra-intense techniques)

Neuromuscular efficiency, 22–23 , 34

Nutrition, 203–218

Off workout, 71

One-day specialization, 185–186

One-hand deadlift, 127

One-legged squat, 116

Overtraining, 151–152

Parallel bar dip, 153

Parallel-grip bar, 103 , 114–115 , 131 , 156 , 190

Partial press, 154–155

Periodization, 75–76

Persistence, 48–49 , 57

Poundages, 34–38 , 117

Powerlifting cycle, 69–71

Powerlifting USA , 159

Power rack, 142–143

Pre-exhaustion, 183

Progression, 41–46

Proportions, 175–176

Pullovers, 117–119

Pullups (and chins), 160

Rader, Peary, 82 , 95 , 99 , 113 , 118 , 135 , 185 , 186

Rader chest pulls, 118 , 119 , 197

Raw Muscle , 159

Recovery, components of, 85–87

Rep speed, v, vi, 196–197 , 198

Reps, number of, 109–110 , 124–125 , 182 , 191–192 , 198

Rest and recovery, 31 , 81–95 , 151–152

Rest-pause reps, 47 , 196

Rib cage enlargement, 117–119

Riley, Daniel P., 20

Role models, 8–10

Rotation, food, 205

Rotator cuff, 150

Routines, 133–141 , 194–196

how to perform, 122–124

sequence, 141–142

Rowing, bent-over, 159

Savage Sets , 183

Selye, Dr. Hans, 67

Sets, number of, 124–125

Sheldon, Dr. William H., 21

Shoes, 105

Shoulder work, 153–155

Shrug bar ( see Parallel-grip bar)

Shrugging movements, 131

Sickness, dealing with, 78

Single-rep training, 191–192

Skinfold calipers, 39

Sleep, importance of, 90–91 , 94

Slow-twitch fibers, 190

Small increments, 42–43 , 76 , 77

Smith machine, 117 , 154

Softening up, 55 , 78 , 182–183

Somatotype, 20–22

Something special, 37–38

Soreness, 150

Specialization, 93–94 , 173–187

Split routines, 42 , 46 , 81 , 84 , 87–88 , 139–140

Spot reduction, 212

Spotters, 111

Squat, 35 , 43 , 45 , 70 , 97–117 , 174 , 178

bench squats, 112

depth, 106–107

form, 107–109

number of reps, 109–110

positioning the bar, 105

 positioning the feet, 104

raising the heels, 106 , 113

variations, 112–117

Stiff-legged deadlift, 35 , 45 , 55 , 72 , 76–77 , 155–156

Straps, 128 , 159

Strength & Health , 31

Strength goals, 34–38

Strength Training by the Experts , 20

Stretching, ( see Flexibility)

Strossen, Ph.D., Randall J., 31 , 94 , 99 , 111 , 114 , 116 , 117

Super slow training, 189 , 198–201

Super Squats , 31 , 95 , 99 , 111 , 114

Supervision, 62–64

Systemic fatigue, 85–86 , 89

Teegarden, Chester O., 111

Teenagers, 166–168

Testosterone production, 97–98

The Rader Master Bodybuilding and Weight Gaining System, 185

Thigh work, 35 , 161 , ( also see Squat)

Three-times-a-week training, 82–83 , 88

Training frequency, 54 , 61 , 62 , 70 , 72 , 74 , 76 , 81–95

Training log, 47 , 63

Trap bar ( see Parallel-grip bar)

Twenty-rep deadlifts, 97 , 133–134 Twenty-rep squats, 43 , 94 , 97 , 99 , 108–109 , 110 , 133

Twice-a-day training, 183–184

Ultra-intense techniques, 68 , 73 , 84–85 , 181 , 193–194

Unalike identical twins, 51–52

Variations on a theme, 51–57 , 65 , 79 , 189–190

Variety of exercises, 46 , 192–193

Vegan diet, 210

Volume of work, 43 ( see Sets)

Warming up, general, 129

Warming up, specific, 129–130

Wedan, Stephen, 198

Weis, Dennis, B., 159

Willoughby, David, 29

York Barbell Co., 31

visit us online at www.hardgainer.com
A Bodybuilding Revolution!
This is the fully updated, third edition of the classic book that created a bodybuilding revolution.

“Are you tired of all the look-alike bodybuilding books? Are you tired of buying little more than a collection of photographs of bodybuilding superstars and a pile of
routines that will never work for the average person? Here’s something different.

“If you thought Arnold Schwarzenegger put Graz, Austria on the bodybuilding map, how about Stuart McRobert and Nicosia, Cyprus? Imagine, one man, on a
Mediterranean island, who has the audacity to directly challenge most contemporary bodybuilding advice.

“Instead of being yet another me-too bodybuilding book, McRobert’s BRAWN is unique: Its tone is serious, its manner evangelical, but most important, its focus is
on things that actually work for the average trainee. ‘Forget about Mr. O-type training,’ says McRobert, in effect, ‘it just won’t work for most people. I’ll tell you
about things that do work.’

“BRAWN has most bodybuilding books beaten hands down in the depth department, but its biggest contribution just might be its breadth: BRAWN introduces you
to 90-some percent of the factors that will determine your ultimate success in the gym. This is a very useful book, which can help a lot of people make tremendous
bodybuilding progress.”

– Randall J. Strossen, Ph.D.

Publisher of MILO journal, California, USA

“When it comes to training books I’m the world’s harshest critic. So when I tell you that BRAWN is the first book I recommend to my clients, you will realize just how
highly I rate this excellent book. It definitively sets the foundation and the standard for sensible and productive strength training.”

– Bob Whelan, MS, MS, CSCS

President, Whelan Strength Training, Washington, DC, USA

About the author
Stuart has over 35 years of training experience, has had over 500 articles published, and is the author of five other books on exercise and physique
transformation: BEYOND BRAWN, FURTHER BRAWN, THE INSIDER’S TELL-ALL HANDBOOK ON WEIGHT-TRAINING TECHNIQUE, and BUILD MUSCLE,
LOSE FAT, LOOK GREAT. And he’s one of the co-authors of WEIGHT-LOSS SALVATION.