100 SECRETS OF STRENGTH, POWER AND MUSCULAR DEVELOPMENT
By Brooks D. Kubik
1. Stop thinking in terms of "bodyparts." Train the entire body as a unit. Use exercises that require coordinated effort on the part of the entire body.
What exercises should you use? Try squats ... the clean and press with barbells or dumbbells ... the snatch ... the one hand snatch ... the one hand swing ... the one dumbbell clean and press ... the one dumbbell clean and jerk ... the barbell clean and jerk ... the farmer's walk .. the deadlift ... the high pull ... hill sprints with weights.
2. In his outstanding book, The Wrestling Physical Conditioning Encyclopedia, John Jesse explained the need for what he termed "all around strength and general power exercises." Jesse wrote:
2. In his outstanding book, The Wrestling Physical Conditioning Encyclopedia, John Jesse explained the need for what he termed "all around strength and general power exercises." Jesse wrote:
The foregoing explains the basis for total body exercises--the type of movements referred to in the previous section.
- Basic strength training is directed towards development of strength in specific muscle areas of the body. The wrestler climbs the rope to develop the flexor muscles localized of the arms, performs squats with weights to develop the extensor muscles of the legs and hips, etc.
- The athlete, in projecting his total body strength in competitive situations, must mold the strength of localized muscle areas into a total coordinated body effort. The best method to attain the objective is to use all-around strength exercises and general power exercises after he has developed strength in all the localized muscle areas of the body. [p. 155]
3. Never miss a scheduled workout. A missed workout is a lost opportunity to grow bigger, stronger, more muscular and more powerful. Once lost, it will never come again. Remember, there will come a time in your life when too many missed opportunities add up to ... FAILURE. Make the most of every training day. Go out and TRAIN!
4. Expand your menta1 horizons. Avoid the trap of conventional thinking. Train like everyone else and you will have muscles like everyone else--which nowadays means you'll be a skinny wimp with
a nicely defined six-pack. Train the way the oldtimers trained. Be receptive to new ideas ... sandbag and barrel lifting ... heavy one hand lifting ... heavy partials in the power rack ... thick bar training ... hill sprints .... Never dismiss a potentially valuable training tip because "no one else does it," "Mr. Everything doesn't do it," "they don't talk about it in the magazines" or "the other guys might laugh at
me.
5. Lifting heavy, awkward objects will build your tendon and ligament strength more surely than any other form of strength training.
6. Use thick bar deadlifts with an overhand grip to develop ferocious crushing power in the hands and fingers. Do one hand deadlifts with a thick handled bar. Lift a thick handled dumbbell and walk as far as possible with it. Lift a thick handled dumbbell and place it on a sturdy work bench ... lower it to the floor ... then repeat- 20 or 30 times or until you can't even budge the little monster. Thick bar work builds a TREMENDOUS grip!
7. Revise your concept of heavy poundages. Do you think a 50 pound dumbbell is heavy? What about a 100 pounder? The author can lift a 150 pound dumbbell from floor to overhead with one hand (in a dumbbell clean and jerk or a one hand swing). The old time champions handled much more in one hand lifting. The human body has limits far beyond what most men ever dream of lifting.
8. Training for "cuts" is a waste of time. Train for strength. Strength is a positive quality--something yon must BUILD. "Cuts" are nothing more than the end result of going on a starvation diet while doing enough exercise to burn calories. Young men and teenage boys often have tremendous "cuts" ... but little or no muscular size and virtually nothing significant in the way of muscular strength.
Obviously, it makes no sense to allow yourself to be soft and fat. .. but don't get hung up about "training for cuts." Eat a sensible diet, do dinosaur style strength training, do some cardia work several times a week, stay healthy and the "cuts" will take care of themselves.
4. Expand your menta1 horizons. Avoid the trap of conventional thinking. Train like everyone else and you will have muscles like everyone else--which nowadays means you'll be a skinny wimp with
a nicely defined six-pack. Train the way the oldtimers trained. Be receptive to new ideas ... sandbag and barrel lifting ... heavy one hand lifting ... heavy partials in the power rack ... thick bar training ... hill sprints .... Never dismiss a potentially valuable training tip because "no one else does it," "Mr. Everything doesn't do it," "they don't talk about it in the magazines" or "the other guys might laugh at
me.
5. Lifting heavy, awkward objects will build your tendon and ligament strength more surely than any other form of strength training.
6. Use thick bar deadlifts with an overhand grip to develop ferocious crushing power in the hands and fingers. Do one hand deadlifts with a thick handled bar. Lift a thick handled dumbbell and walk as far as possible with it. Lift a thick handled dumbbell and place it on a sturdy work bench ... lower it to the floor ... then repeat- 20 or 30 times or until you can't even budge the little monster. Thick bar work builds a TREMENDOUS grip!
7. Revise your concept of heavy poundages. Do you think a 50 pound dumbbell is heavy? What about a 100 pounder? The author can lift a 150 pound dumbbell from floor to overhead with one hand (in a dumbbell clean and jerk or a one hand swing). The old time champions handled much more in one hand lifting. The human body has limits far beyond what most men ever dream of lifting.
8. Training for "cuts" is a waste of time. Train for strength. Strength is a positive quality--something yon must BUILD. "Cuts" are nothing more than the end result of going on a starvation diet while doing enough exercise to burn calories. Young men and teenage boys often have tremendous "cuts" ... but little or no muscular size and virtually nothing significant in the way of muscular strength.
Obviously, it makes no sense to allow yourself to be soft and fat. .. but don't get hung up about "training for cuts." Eat a sensible diet, do dinosaur style strength training, do some cardia work several times a week, stay healthy and the "cuts" will take care of themselves.
9. Don't fall for the trap of training for a booby-builder style "wasp waist." A small waist is a sign of weakness. This is not to say you should allow yourself to become fat, but you should develop the
abdominal, oblique and lower back muscles to their maximum potential. The result will be a hard, muscular "squared" waist area ... not a waist that looks like it belongs on a teenage boy.
10. Heavy dumbbell lifting is a lost key to strength, power and muscular size.
11. One mark of a well conditioned athlete is the ability to train HARD and HEAVY several times a week, while maintaining a full and complete, well-rounded, vigorous and productive life outside of
the gym. Too many men think they can only gain if they don't have to work for a living--or more correctly, they PRETEND that the reason they cannot gain strength and muscular size is because they
have to work for a living, they have family responsibilities, they "don' t have time", etc.
Excuse me, but that's a CROCK!
Many of the biggest, strongest men in history have trained hard and heavy--and made incredible gains--while working for a living and paying full attention to family, social and civic obligations. The
greatest Olympic weight lifters in the history of the United States are examples of the type of men I am talking about: John Davis ... Norb Schernansky ... Tommy Kono ... Clyde Emrich ... Pete George ... and many others.
But what do most modern authorities tell the "I don't have time" crowd'? Do they tell them to GROW UP AND STOP WHINING?
Heck, no!
They cater to them. Baby them. Molly-coddle the poor little darlings.
Instead of telling them that ANYONE has time to fit in a couple of hard training sessions a week, the modern writers pretend that it's ok to train only once every week ... or once every two weeks ... or
even once a month ... for sessions as short as 10 or 15 minutes.
Watch it, men. The bunnies are everywhere!
12. Training cycles came into vogue along with steroids. Drug users train in cycles because they have to take it easy until their roids kick in. MEN don't need drugs ... and they don't need TRAINING CYCLES.
13. Specialize on your lower back. Build the lower back until your spinal erectors resemble twin boa constrictors, writhing their way upward.
14. Throw away the "rules." Peoples built world record strength by training the deadlift every single day ... and he maxed out every time he trained. Nothing in the Iron Game is written in stone. There are many roads to strength, power and muscle.
15. Steroids are for babies. Creatine is for babies. Andro is for babies.
16. People who don't know what they are talking about use big words and fancy phrases to describe relatively simple ideas. "Train hard," is good advice. "Systematically enhance the intensification
factors via progressive modalities," is goon-babble.
17. Strength training is not rocket science.
18. Looking for a cheap, inexpensive, good tasting protein supplement that won't upset your stomach? Try tuna fish. One or two six ounce cans a day will supply all the extra protein that anyone
could need.
19. Trying to gain weight? Try heavy leg and back work.
20. Keep an open mind. 99% of what you read about strength training is pure gibberish. When you read something, challenge the author to PROVE that it is true. I once read an article about a famous bodybuilder who supposedly built his "cannonball delts" by doing sets of six reps in the seated press with 90 pound dumbbells. Ten or fifteen vears later, another article bv the same author stated that the same bodybuilder had used 150 pouud dumbbells for sets of six reps in the seated dumbbell press. There's a moral to the story ...
21. Controlled aggression: the mental mindset for SERIOUS lifting.
2l. Never believe anything you read just because you like, respect or admire the man who wrote it. ("If you meet the Buddha on the road and he stands between you and the path to enlightenment, strike
him down.")
23. Here's a great grip exercise ... purchase a short length of HEAVY rope ... 1" to 2" thick (the kind used for tug of war competitions). Loop it over a chinning bar. Hang from the ends and do chin-ups. If you are not strong enough to do chin-ups, just hang from the ends until your fingers explode.
24. When a guy brags about his hody fat percentage instead of what he can lift. .. you KNOW he doesn't know very much about strength training.
25. Hammer curls with thick handled dumbbells are a terrific arm builder.
26. Don't neglect the situp. Bent legged situps are a terrific exercise. So ara leg raises with a weight attached to your feet. "Crunches" and ab machine work are for bunny-rabbits.
27. Train the sides with the "side press"--one of the very best of the old time exercises. Clean a dumbbell, hold it in the pressing position, and press it overhead while leaning forward and over to the
opposite side. Come back to the erect position to complete the 1ift. Use this as an exercise for the obliques, not as a shoulder excrctse. (Note: The side press is FAR more effective than side bends, and
INFINITELY superior to seated or standing twists with a broomstick on your shoulders!)
28. Weight training works, and it works WITHOUT food supplements. The modern muscle business is a money making machine fueled by supplement sales. It only works if trainees accept as gospel the BIG LIE that says that you cannot gain strength, power and muscles unless you take a certain pill or powder every day. If weight trainees honestly believed that lifting weights would build big muscles and super strength, they wouldn't waste their time and money on supplements.
29. It takes a man to say NO to anabolic steroids.
30. It is impossible to use anabolic steroids and become a champion at any sport. The most you can do is become a phoney with a first place medal or trophy.
31. The bent legged good morning exercise is a tremendous movement for the all important hips and lower back. Over time, a strong man can work up to tremendous poundages in this exercise.
32. Bob Hoffman once wrote an article about the best weight training exercises. The list included the squat, deadlift, power clean and press, snatch, power snatch, high pull and barbell tee-totem exercise (a stiff legged deadlift movement where you lower the weight to the side rather than straight down, alternating sides on each rep.) Why were these rated as the most effective movements? Because
they involved the entire body or nearly all of it ... allowed the lifter to use heavy poundages ... required lots of hard work and deep breathing ... were performed in a standing position ... and made you work up a good sweat when you trained on them. Aside from the squat and deadlift, these exercises are virtually unknown in modem gyms, and even the squat and deadlift are used by only a small percentage of those who train with weights. No wonder the typical trainee of the 1990's is a measly little mouse compared to the men who lifted weights in the old days!
33. Form follows function. Train with bunny rabbit poundages and you'll build bunny sized muscles. Train with grizzly hear poundages and you'll build a grizzly's body.
34. Knowledge is power. (Literaily.) Learn everything you can about the lost secrets of the old time strongmen. The more you know, the more you can include in your arsenal of training techniques.
35. Never use an exercise machine to replace a barbell or dumbbell movement. If barbells and dumbbells are an option, USE THEM!
36. Never think you know all there is to know about strength training. No matter how much you know, there is always more to learn.
37. There is no quick and easy road to strength, power and muscular development.
38. One exercise workouts can trigger tremendous gains in muscular size and strength.
39. Guys who lack the intestinal fortitude to train for the long haul are always looking for "the quick fix." These are the guys who fall prey to supplement scams, equipment breakthroughs and "the
latest" training systems.
40. How do you define a "weight training succcss?" If your definition is limited to someone who wins a major physique contest or lifting title, you've set a standard by which virtually everyone
who trains will be considered a failure.
My definition of a strength training success is this: "A man who has enhanced every aspect of his life through sane, sensible weight training ... a man who is four or five times stronger than when he
started ... fit as a fiddle ... full of energy ... vital and alive ... self-confident, self-reliant and determined ... able to laugh at life and at himself.. .and who looks and feels far younger than his years."
41. Look at it from a woman's point of view ... would you rather hang out with the biggest, buffest guy on the beach ... who cries like a baby when he goes off his roid cycle and starts to shrink back
down to little boy land ... or a natural athlete who is muscular, strong, fit and energetic every day of the year for his entire life?
42. Keep it simple. Most modern day training programs are totally hi-tech, super scientific, ultra-advanced and insanely overcomplicated ... and if they are not, no one bothers to try them. In point of fact, the best and most productive training programs are very basic and very simple.
43. Try one and two fmger lifting. IronMind Enterprises offers a finger ring that will hold more weight than anyone in the world would be able to handle. Finger lifting was a secret of the oldtimers'
phenomenal grip strength, and it will work just as well for modern athletes. But be warned: finger lifting is PAINFUL! (Go easy at first so you don't pull a tendon.)
44. Use a lever bar to develop the forearms and wrists to their ultimate levels of size and strength. (A sledge hammer works well, too.)
45. Have you tried barrel lifting or sandbag lifting yet? If not, what are you waiting for? Sandbag and barrel lifting will hit your muscles like NOTHING you have ever tried. It will build functional
strength and power in a way that weights alone cannot begin to approach. And guess what--it's FUN! Roughhousing a heavy sandbag or barrel allows you to unleash the primitive savage lurking inside the heart and soul of every dinosaur.
abdominal, oblique and lower back muscles to their maximum potential. The result will be a hard, muscular "squared" waist area ... not a waist that looks like it belongs on a teenage boy.
10. Heavy dumbbell lifting is a lost key to strength, power and muscular size.
11. One mark of a well conditioned athlete is the ability to train HARD and HEAVY several times a week, while maintaining a full and complete, well-rounded, vigorous and productive life outside of
the gym. Too many men think they can only gain if they don't have to work for a living--or more correctly, they PRETEND that the reason they cannot gain strength and muscular size is because they
have to work for a living, they have family responsibilities, they "don' t have time", etc.
Excuse me, but that's a CROCK!
Many of the biggest, strongest men in history have trained hard and heavy--and made incredible gains--while working for a living and paying full attention to family, social and civic obligations. The
greatest Olympic weight lifters in the history of the United States are examples of the type of men I am talking about: John Davis ... Norb Schernansky ... Tommy Kono ... Clyde Emrich ... Pete George ... and many others.
But what do most modern authorities tell the "I don't have time" crowd'? Do they tell them to GROW UP AND STOP WHINING?
Heck, no!
They cater to them. Baby them. Molly-coddle the poor little darlings.
Instead of telling them that ANYONE has time to fit in a couple of hard training sessions a week, the modern writers pretend that it's ok to train only once every week ... or once every two weeks ... or
even once a month ... for sessions as short as 10 or 15 minutes.
Watch it, men. The bunnies are everywhere!
12. Training cycles came into vogue along with steroids. Drug users train in cycles because they have to take it easy until their roids kick in. MEN don't need drugs ... and they don't need TRAINING CYCLES.
13. Specialize on your lower back. Build the lower back until your spinal erectors resemble twin boa constrictors, writhing their way upward.
14. Throw away the "rules." Peoples built world record strength by training the deadlift every single day ... and he maxed out every time he trained. Nothing in the Iron Game is written in stone. There are many roads to strength, power and muscle.
15. Steroids are for babies. Creatine is for babies. Andro is for babies.
16. People who don't know what they are talking about use big words and fancy phrases to describe relatively simple ideas. "Train hard," is good advice. "Systematically enhance the intensification
factors via progressive modalities," is goon-babble.
17. Strength training is not rocket science.
18. Looking for a cheap, inexpensive, good tasting protein supplement that won't upset your stomach? Try tuna fish. One or two six ounce cans a day will supply all the extra protein that anyone
could need.
19. Trying to gain weight? Try heavy leg and back work.
20. Keep an open mind. 99% of what you read about strength training is pure gibberish. When you read something, challenge the author to PROVE that it is true. I once read an article about a famous bodybuilder who supposedly built his "cannonball delts" by doing sets of six reps in the seated press with 90 pound dumbbells. Ten or fifteen vears later, another article bv the same author stated that the same bodybuilder had used 150 pouud dumbbells for sets of six reps in the seated dumbbell press. There's a moral to the story ...
21. Controlled aggression: the mental mindset for SERIOUS lifting.
2l. Never believe anything you read just because you like, respect or admire the man who wrote it. ("If you meet the Buddha on the road and he stands between you and the path to enlightenment, strike
him down.")
23. Here's a great grip exercise ... purchase a short length of HEAVY rope ... 1" to 2" thick (the kind used for tug of war competitions). Loop it over a chinning bar. Hang from the ends and do chin-ups. If you are not strong enough to do chin-ups, just hang from the ends until your fingers explode.
24. When a guy brags about his hody fat percentage instead of what he can lift. .. you KNOW he doesn't know very much about strength training.
25. Hammer curls with thick handled dumbbells are a terrific arm builder.
26. Don't neglect the situp. Bent legged situps are a terrific exercise. So ara leg raises with a weight attached to your feet. "Crunches" and ab machine work are for bunny-rabbits.
27. Train the sides with the "side press"--one of the very best of the old time exercises. Clean a dumbbell, hold it in the pressing position, and press it overhead while leaning forward and over to the
opposite side. Come back to the erect position to complete the 1ift. Use this as an exercise for the obliques, not as a shoulder excrctse. (Note: The side press is FAR more effective than side bends, and
INFINITELY superior to seated or standing twists with a broomstick on your shoulders!)
28. Weight training works, and it works WITHOUT food supplements. The modern muscle business is a money making machine fueled by supplement sales. It only works if trainees accept as gospel the BIG LIE that says that you cannot gain strength, power and muscles unless you take a certain pill or powder every day. If weight trainees honestly believed that lifting weights would build big muscles and super strength, they wouldn't waste their time and money on supplements.
29. It takes a man to say NO to anabolic steroids.
30. It is impossible to use anabolic steroids and become a champion at any sport. The most you can do is become a phoney with a first place medal or trophy.
31. The bent legged good morning exercise is a tremendous movement for the all important hips and lower back. Over time, a strong man can work up to tremendous poundages in this exercise.
32. Bob Hoffman once wrote an article about the best weight training exercises. The list included the squat, deadlift, power clean and press, snatch, power snatch, high pull and barbell tee-totem exercise (a stiff legged deadlift movement where you lower the weight to the side rather than straight down, alternating sides on each rep.) Why were these rated as the most effective movements? Because
they involved the entire body or nearly all of it ... allowed the lifter to use heavy poundages ... required lots of hard work and deep breathing ... were performed in a standing position ... and made you work up a good sweat when you trained on them. Aside from the squat and deadlift, these exercises are virtually unknown in modem gyms, and even the squat and deadlift are used by only a small percentage of those who train with weights. No wonder the typical trainee of the 1990's is a measly little mouse compared to the men who lifted weights in the old days!
33. Form follows function. Train with bunny rabbit poundages and you'll build bunny sized muscles. Train with grizzly hear poundages and you'll build a grizzly's body.
34. Knowledge is power. (Literaily.) Learn everything you can about the lost secrets of the old time strongmen. The more you know, the more you can include in your arsenal of training techniques.
35. Never use an exercise machine to replace a barbell or dumbbell movement. If barbells and dumbbells are an option, USE THEM!
36. Never think you know all there is to know about strength training. No matter how much you know, there is always more to learn.
37. There is no quick and easy road to strength, power and muscular development.
38. One exercise workouts can trigger tremendous gains in muscular size and strength.
39. Guys who lack the intestinal fortitude to train for the long haul are always looking for "the quick fix." These are the guys who fall prey to supplement scams, equipment breakthroughs and "the
latest" training systems.
40. How do you define a "weight training succcss?" If your definition is limited to someone who wins a major physique contest or lifting title, you've set a standard by which virtually everyone
who trains will be considered a failure.
My definition of a strength training success is this: "A man who has enhanced every aspect of his life through sane, sensible weight training ... a man who is four or five times stronger than when he
started ... fit as a fiddle ... full of energy ... vital and alive ... self-confident, self-reliant and determined ... able to laugh at life and at himself.. .and who looks and feels far younger than his years."
41. Look at it from a woman's point of view ... would you rather hang out with the biggest, buffest guy on the beach ... who cries like a baby when he goes off his roid cycle and starts to shrink back
down to little boy land ... or a natural athlete who is muscular, strong, fit and energetic every day of the year for his entire life?
42. Keep it simple. Most modern day training programs are totally hi-tech, super scientific, ultra-advanced and insanely overcomplicated ... and if they are not, no one bothers to try them. In point of fact, the best and most productive training programs are very basic and very simple.
43. Try one and two fmger lifting. IronMind Enterprises offers a finger ring that will hold more weight than anyone in the world would be able to handle. Finger lifting was a secret of the oldtimers'
phenomenal grip strength, and it will work just as well for modern athletes. But be warned: finger lifting is PAINFUL! (Go easy at first so you don't pull a tendon.)
44. Use a lever bar to develop the forearms and wrists to their ultimate levels of size and strength. (A sledge hammer works well, too.)
45. Have you tried barrel lifting or sandbag lifting yet? If not, what are you waiting for? Sandbag and barrel lifting will hit your muscles like NOTHING you have ever tried. It will build functional
strength and power in a way that weights alone cannot begin to approach. And guess what--it's FUN! Roughhousing a heavy sandbag or barrel allows you to unleash the primitive savage lurking inside the heart and soul of every dinosaur.
46. A plate-loading grip machine is one of the best ways to build the hands and fingers to unimaginable levels of strength and power. One great way to use them is to load the machine to a heavy weight, lift it with two hands ... then release one hand and fight the weight every inch of the way down with the other hand. (Heavy negatives.)
47. Do deadlifts with the middle fmgers only, or with the first two fingers of each hand. Use a reversed grip. Once you get used to the movement, you can handle a surprisingly heavy weight in this
fashion ... and it will help to build your gripping power to world class levels.
48. Arthur Saxon never took steroids, never took food supplements and never trained on anything approaching a modern miracle machine ... but he could lift 370 pounds overhead with one hand.
49. The legendary French-Canadian strongman, Louis Cyr, was considered the strongest man in the world in his era ... and some believe him to be the strongest man who ever lived. Cyr built his strength hy lifting huge rocks and boulders ... heavy, solid iron globe dumbbells (many with thick handles) ... and heavy kegs and barrels.
50. It is harder to lift a 165 pound barrel overhead than to lift a 225 pound olympic barbell. Harder is better. Give the barrel a try!
51. The true champions in the Iron Game are the garage gorillas and cellar dwellers--the men who train alone, with only the most basic of equipment. .. not for a contest or to win a trophy ... not for
fame and glory ... not for anyone else ... but for themselves, because they ENJOY weight training.
52. Quick! Name the runner up in the short man's class in the 1987 Mr. Olympia! Who won the Mr. Universe title in 1991? Who held the 181 pound record in the deadlift in 1973? Who won the state
championship in bodybuilding in your state five years ago? Who held the state record in the bench press in the heavyweight class three years ago? If winning a contest or setting a record that no one
remembers five or ten years later is what it's all about, then weight training is the biggest waste of time on the face of the earth ...
So why do YOU train? To win a trophy? To set a record? Or because you are doing something you LOVE, and something you intend to do for as long as you live?
52. Train for health. If you lose your health, nothing else matters.
53. If you are an athlete, train the center of your body especially hard. All athletic power comes from the center of the body.
54. Modern weight training neglects some of the most important parts of the body for a strength athlete: the lower back ... the sides...the neck ... the traps ... the grip ... the hips and hamstrings. These parts tend to be neglected in favor of the "showy" muscles on the front of the body, such as abs, pecs and biceps.
55. Run hills with weights in your hands. Run steps with weight in your hands. Run level surfaces with weights in your hands.
56. If given a choice between a standing exercise and a seated exercise, always choose the standing exercise.
57. Many massive mountains of muscle who got that way by swilling steroids are now middle aged guys with pot-bellies, scrawny arms and bald heads ... while men in their 40's or 50's who never
used drugs continue to grow bigger and stronger with every passing year.
58. If a man takes pride in being a weight training failure ... watch out!
59. Throw away the tape measure. If you are getting stronger, then you training the right way. If you are not getting stronger, change your program or work harder. Measurements mean nothing.
60. If women lied about their dress size the way bodybuilders lie about their measurements, the stores would stock nothing but size 3 dresses.
61. Don't use the same assortment of plates on the bar every time you do a particular lift. Mix them up. Never let your mind begin to think that a particular weight is "heavy." If your limit in a particular lift is 405 pounds, don't always load the bar with 45's ... try three 45's and some little plates once in awhile.
62. Loading the bar with a combination of rubber bumper plates and iron plates is a great way to fool the mind so that no particular weight ever "looks" heavy to you.
63. Order John Brookfield's tremendous book, Mastery of Hand Strength. (One of the all-time best books ever written about grip training in ALL of its various facets written by a man who owns one of the very strongest pairs of hands in the history of the world.)
64. Do standing bench presses ... a bench press movement while standing ... this one builds unusual shoulder strength.
65. If the guys who advocate slow motion training had the strength to lift BIG weights at normal speed, they wouldn't talk about slow motion training.
66. Harry Paschall had a saying: "Speed is power." Always include exercises that require speed in their performance ... thr olympic lifts ... power cleans ... power snatches ... one hand dumbbell swings ... the one hand snatch ... or the one hand clean and jerk. One of the biggest problems with 90's style weight training is its almost total neglect of FAST movements.
67. Lifting great Louis Abele was once asked the secret of his success. He said that he trained so hard his teeth hurt. Hard work was the secret in the old days, and it is STILL the secret.
68. Ask yourself: do most guys who train with weights REALLY want to become big and strong? Obviously not, or else they wouldn't train the way they do (pumping, shaping, toning, "power aerobics,'' slow motion training, chrome plated miracle machines, over-emphasis on pec and ab work, etc.). Then why should you train like the rest of the guys train, if YOU are one of the small number of guys who really does want to get bigger and stronger?!
69. "Pumping iron." One of the most unfortunate phrases in the history of the strength game.
70. "Go for the bum!" A way for guys to pretend they are training hard when all they are doing is avoiding the use of heavy weights in their training.
71. The more people there are who weight train, the fewer there are who TRAIN with weights.
72. The more people there are who weight train, the fewer there are who train with WEIGHTS.
73. The name of the game is WEIGHT training. It isn't "slow motion training," "high rep training," or "pump me up training." Unless your focus is on ADDING WEIGHT TO THE BAR, you are NOT "weight training."
74. When you start to get too scientific about your training, grab a pair of heavy dumbbells and walk around the block with them. Or grab a heavy sandbag in a bear-hug and take it for a quarter-mile walk. Walking with heavy dumbbells or a heavy sandbag is a great way to help remember that strenght training is SIMPLE STUFF .. .it all boils down to brutally hard work.
75. The more scientific our training becomes, the smaller and weaker become the average weight trainers.
76. Goals are critical to successfltl strength training.
77. Never settle for anything less than success ... and never listen to anyone who tries to tell you that you can't succeed.
78. The only piece of equipment you need to make terrific gains is a plate loading barbell. If squat stands and adjustable dumbbells are available, you have everything you could possibly need.
79. The titles of the best old time books reflected a cogent understanding of what was really important. When Mark Berry titled his book, Physical Training Simplified, he made an important
point. .. namely, that you don't need to be a rocket scientist in order to understand the basic principles of successful strength training.
80. When George Jowett titled his book, The Key to Might and Muscle, he was trying to tell his readers that there was a secret key that would unlock the door to their training success .. .if only they
would read and study and, above all, THINK about what the key might be. What was Jowett's secret "key" to strenght training mastery? It was the power of the human mind ....
81. Alan Calvert titled his book Super Strength. Why? Perhaps it was because he wanted readers to remember that training for STRENGTH is "the Royal Road" to achieving herculean muscular
development, perfect physical balance, superb good health and tremendous levels of overall fitness, energy and vitality.
82. Many so-called "hardgainers" are physically average men who have been taught to believe that they don't have "the genetic potential" it takes to grow big and strong. If these men had been taught to EXPECT success, they would have built themselves into muscular marvels.
68. Ask yourself: do most guys who train with weights REALLY want to become big and strong? Obviously not, or else they wouldn't train the way they do (pumping, shaping, toning, "power aerobics,'' slow motion training, chrome plated miracle machines, over-emphasis on pec and ab work, etc.). Then why should you train like the rest of the guys train, if YOU are one of the small number of guys who really does want to get bigger and stronger?!
69. "Pumping iron." One of the most unfortunate phrases in the history of the strength game.
70. "Go for the bum!" A way for guys to pretend they are training hard when all they are doing is avoiding the use of heavy weights in their training.
71. The more people there are who weight train, the fewer there are who TRAIN with weights.
72. The more people there are who weight train, the fewer there are who train with WEIGHTS.
73. The name of the game is WEIGHT training. It isn't "slow motion training," "high rep training," or "pump me up training." Unless your focus is on ADDING WEIGHT TO THE BAR, you are NOT "weight training."
74. When you start to get too scientific about your training, grab a pair of heavy dumbbells and walk around the block with them. Or grab a heavy sandbag in a bear-hug and take it for a quarter-mile walk. Walking with heavy dumbbells or a heavy sandbag is a great way to help remember that strenght training is SIMPLE STUFF .. .it all boils down to brutally hard work.
75. The more scientific our training becomes, the smaller and weaker become the average weight trainers.
76. Goals are critical to successfltl strength training.
77. Never settle for anything less than success ... and never listen to anyone who tries to tell you that you can't succeed.
78. The only piece of equipment you need to make terrific gains is a plate loading barbell. If squat stands and adjustable dumbbells are available, you have everything you could possibly need.
79. The titles of the best old time books reflected a cogent understanding of what was really important. When Mark Berry titled his book, Physical Training Simplified, he made an important
point. .. namely, that you don't need to be a rocket scientist in order to understand the basic principles of successful strength training.
80. When George Jowett titled his book, The Key to Might and Muscle, he was trying to tell his readers that there was a secret key that would unlock the door to their training success .. .if only they
would read and study and, above all, THINK about what the key might be. What was Jowett's secret "key" to strenght training mastery? It was the power of the human mind ....
81. Alan Calvert titled his book Super Strength. Why? Perhaps it was because he wanted readers to remember that training for STRENGTH is "the Royal Road" to achieving herculean muscular
development, perfect physical balance, superb good health and tremendous levels of overall fitness, energy and vitality.
82. Many so-called "hardgainers" are physically average men who have been taught to believe that they don't have "the genetic potential" it takes to grow big and strong. If these men had been taught to EXPECT success, they would have built themselves into muscular marvels.
83. Are you gaining? If the answer is "no," then you probably are not training your legs and back anywhere near as hard and heavy as possible. Anyone who trains his legs and back HARD and HEAVY will grow .. .it is IMPOSSIBLE to ATTACK your leg and back training and not grow!
84. Another finisher: place a 100 pound sandbag across your shoulders and upper back and do 100 squats.
85. Is no. 84 to easy? Take the 100 pound sandbag and do 100 clean and presses.
86. Prefer barrels to sandbags? Do 100 deadlifts with a 100 to 150 pound beer keg.
87. How many times have you read somrthing to the effect of successful bodybuilding is 90% diet and 10% exercise"? Surely this statement qualifies as one of the dumbest things the so-called "experts" have ever told us. If diet is responsible for 90% of your bodybuilding, then you could have achieved 90% of your current results simply by changing your diet and never training at all. Yeah,
right!
88. The things most trainees fear: heavy weights, hard work, sweat, and effort.
89. The one thing the average trainee never wants to hear: "HARD WORK IS THE KEY!"
90. Looking for a good finisher that will FRY your forearms and fingers? How about the farmer's walk with a pair of 25 to 50 pound sandbags? Carry those babies a quarter of a mile on the track and
your arms will be screaming for mercy!
91. A difficult proposition: try to distinguish an undernourished tennis player from a world class bodybuilder or lifter when the latter stops using steroids.
92. An easy way to answer no. 91: testicular atrophy.
93. A barbell finisher: clean and press a 100 to 135 pound barbell five to ten reps ... without putting the bar down do five to ten power snatches ... without putting the bar down do five to ten power pulls ... without putting the bar down do five to ten reps in the bentover row ... without putting the bar down do five to ten reps in the deadlift.
94. To make no. 93 even tougher, begin the sequence with ten to twenty-five reps in the squat.
95. Pressed for time? Do a one exercise workout: one set of six reps as a warmup, then 5/4/3/2/1, adding weight each set. .. or, if you prefer, do five sets of five reps, or five sets of six reps (add
weight each set and work up to your top poundage on the final set). Be sure to select a good, total body movement for your one exercise program: the squat, deadlift, clean and press, snatch, or high pull.
96. What does serious strength training have in common with the martial arts? Both activities teach you to use the incredible power of the human mind to drive the body to perform otherwise impossible
feats of strength and power.
97. It is easier to fail than to succeed. This is why failures out number successes 1000 to 1.
98. Looking for a new way to pulverize your gripping muscles? Try thick bar chins. Using a 2" bar for chin-ups is a BRUTAL exercisc ... but it will build ENORMOUS strenght and power into the
hands and forearms.
99. The AVERAGE results achieved by weight trainers throughout the world are in inverse proportion to the amount of available training literature. As more and more words are written about strength trammg, the AVERAGE trainee grows ever weaker and smaller. If all that was available in the way of training literature were the old York or Milo courses, average results would improve significantly.
l00. View no weight as impossible to lift. Set no artificial limits. Use cheating exercises, heavy partials and low rep work to gradually accustom your mind to the idea that NO POUNDAGE is beyond your ability. If yon learn to view " particular weight as "light," your hody will develop the strength and power so that the weight reallly does become light for you. (Note: this is the reason why
cheating movements and power rack training are so successful for so many trainees.)
84. Another finisher: place a 100 pound sandbag across your shoulders and upper back and do 100 squats.
85. Is no. 84 to easy? Take the 100 pound sandbag and do 100 clean and presses.
86. Prefer barrels to sandbags? Do 100 deadlifts with a 100 to 150 pound beer keg.
87. How many times have you read somrthing to the effect of successful bodybuilding is 90% diet and 10% exercise"? Surely this statement qualifies as one of the dumbest things the so-called "experts" have ever told us. If diet is responsible for 90% of your bodybuilding, then you could have achieved 90% of your current results simply by changing your diet and never training at all. Yeah,
right!
88. The things most trainees fear: heavy weights, hard work, sweat, and effort.
89. The one thing the average trainee never wants to hear: "HARD WORK IS THE KEY!"
90. Looking for a good finisher that will FRY your forearms and fingers? How about the farmer's walk with a pair of 25 to 50 pound sandbags? Carry those babies a quarter of a mile on the track and
your arms will be screaming for mercy!
91. A difficult proposition: try to distinguish an undernourished tennis player from a world class bodybuilder or lifter when the latter stops using steroids.
92. An easy way to answer no. 91: testicular atrophy.
93. A barbell finisher: clean and press a 100 to 135 pound barbell five to ten reps ... without putting the bar down do five to ten power snatches ... without putting the bar down do five to ten power pulls ... without putting the bar down do five to ten reps in the bentover row ... without putting the bar down do five to ten reps in the deadlift.
94. To make no. 93 even tougher, begin the sequence with ten to twenty-five reps in the squat.
95. Pressed for time? Do a one exercise workout: one set of six reps as a warmup, then 5/4/3/2/1, adding weight each set. .. or, if you prefer, do five sets of five reps, or five sets of six reps (add
weight each set and work up to your top poundage on the final set). Be sure to select a good, total body movement for your one exercise program: the squat, deadlift, clean and press, snatch, or high pull.
96. What does serious strength training have in common with the martial arts? Both activities teach you to use the incredible power of the human mind to drive the body to perform otherwise impossible
feats of strength and power.
97. It is easier to fail than to succeed. This is why failures out number successes 1000 to 1.
98. Looking for a new way to pulverize your gripping muscles? Try thick bar chins. Using a 2" bar for chin-ups is a BRUTAL exercisc ... but it will build ENORMOUS strenght and power into the
hands and forearms.
99. The AVERAGE results achieved by weight trainers throughout the world are in inverse proportion to the amount of available training literature. As more and more words are written about strength trammg, the AVERAGE trainee grows ever weaker and smaller. If all that was available in the way of training literature were the old York or Milo courses, average results would improve significantly.
l00. View no weight as impossible to lift. Set no artificial limits. Use cheating exercises, heavy partials and low rep work to gradually accustom your mind to the idea that NO POUNDAGE is beyond your ability. If yon learn to view " particular weight as "light," your hody will develop the strength and power so that the weight reallly does become light for you. (Note: this is the reason why
cheating movements and power rack training are so successful for so many trainees.)
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