The kind of muscle density which the top physique men today possess is certainly different in appearance and texture when compared to the physique stars of a few years ago.
The muscles seem to be separated not only be the natural anatomical structures but also, the various sections and muscle fibers seem to be fully and individually developed. Such results are usually seen only on the sports drug addicts and a few others. In truth, most men DO resort to various drugs to give them this development, but this does not prove to me that such drug taking is either necessary or advisable. I believe that most of us have been brainwashed into thinking that anabolics are some kind of wonder drug that will catapult anybody into the champions' category with almost no work on his part.
But after personal experimentation I can say without a doubt that nothing could be further from the truth! You can use all the hormones and pharmaceutical aids you want; if you're not in the championship category they are not going to get you there on their own power. You may win a local contest, but believe me, you have to have everything going for you in today's physique or lifting scene to become a champion. Just popping pills will not do it for you. HARD ADVANCED TRAINING will do far more than any anabolic will ever do. Believe it. It's the truth.
If you have ever had the opportunity to watch any of the top men train, you should have noticed immediately how differently they train compared to you and me. It's not that they use different movements or a complex grouping of various exercises for the various body parts that constitutes the difference . . . it's in the INTENSITY of effort that they are extraordinary.
If you and I can ever concentrate as fully as they do, on a well balanced variety of movements and learn to work to your utmost on these movements, you will gain as you have never gained before. And this is without the use of hormones, amphetamines, thyroxin or any other drug which has become the household word of todays super stars.
The kind of muscle quality and density I have been talking about has been developed by Steve Sepaniak. He has truly developed his upper body completely on his own and without the use of bodybuilding drugs of any kind.
His training routing is brutally hard for anyone to follow and perhaps this is why he has progressed as far as he has.
His dietary habits will seem too rigid for some to follow, but perhaps this is why he looks the way he does. There is virtually no fat on this man. When in hard training, the individual muscle fibers of the pectorals, deltoids, latissimus, etc., stand out in bold relief for anyone to see. And Steve trains hard TWELVE months out of the year!
Some fellows believe that it is impossible to train HEAVY and at the same time maintain a well-muscled appearance. Not so for Steve. It seems that he has found what we have all been looking for: a proper balance between rest, hard work and correct dieting, which will enable the trainee to train with as heavy a weight as he can correctly handle all year round, without getting overly bulked or smooth,.
Steve never trains down. he feels it only robs you of muscle size gains and training time. To him it makes no sense to bulk up and then cut up. He does both at the same time. And without light pumping movements of any kind. All his movements are heavy and basic and he feels ALL can benefit from this type of routine. And after watching him train and get a good look at his physique for the last eight months I have to agree with him.
I know you have read many articles dealing with hard work on the basic exercises but how many such articles will take the time out to tell you WHY you should use such and such a movement and HOW such a movement should be performed to give you the best results in the shortest possible time. It is easy to list a certain number of movements and not go into detail about each one of them but this is not really telling the trainee ANYTHING!
Why is it that most powerlifters do not look as strong as they are and most bodybuilders look much stronger than they are? Aside from the behemoth super-heavies, the powerlifters in the lower weight classes do not look physically capable of the poundages they handle and for the most part, most physique champions do not come even close to the strength of these strongmen. This all has to do with training goals and training procedures. But it is really possible to until both training motivations into one complete unit which will guarantee you BOTH gains in size, strength and muscle definition. Steve Sepaniak has found one way to do this.
Let us use the bench press for example.
Most fellows feel this is the greatest all-around movement for the chest. And if performed correctly and with severe work and training energy, most will gain rapidly in the chest area from this movement alone.
But now we come to exercise technique and exercise training style. Here is how Steve uses this movement as the cornerstone of his upper body routine. He begins by using a medium grip so as to allow all the muscles a chance to feel and benefit from the weight. No excessive back arch, no hips off the bench, no wasting energy locking out the weight after taking it off the rack before the beginning the set. He fluidly takes the weight from the cradles and immediately lowers it to the chest to begin his first rep. All repetitions are performed rhythmically with an even speed up and down. All unnecessary movement is prohibited and with small regular weight jumps he reaches a weight of 400 or so and it is from here on up he begins to raise his hips to enable his muscles to become accustomed to heavier and heavier weights. After reaching a limit for that day, he decreases in poundages with an increase in repetitions and pauses at the chest are now utilized. With each set the weight gets lighter on the bar but the training intensity is still at an all time high. Every possible repetition is performed for each set and each set is worked to a complete burnout until you find him with a weight of around 300 and it looks just as hard as 430 did when he was at his heaviest a few sets ago.
You see, Steve not only gets the size and strength benefits of the heavy doubles and singles on the way up, but he also gets the muscle shaping/densifying benefits of the lighter weights and higher reps on the way down. This way, his last set is just as important as his first. This way he can gain both in size and shape at the same time.
From this he goes into flat bench flyes with 100-pound dumbbells and he is restricted in the amount of weight he can handle because we only have 100s in our YMCA. But Steve makes up for this by performing every rep possible for each chosen set.
The same goes for the parallel dip with weight. Once again he performs as many reps as possible for each set.
In short, this is the way he trains EVERY body part and this is the way he uses EACH MOVEMENT. He works every set completely, with no thought to the next one coming up.
This is the kind of training that will give you the size and shape you desire. I have seen its results and have experienced its results on myself but in a different degree.
Everyone knows that wrapping the knees with thick, heavy elastic bandages will help you increase your squatting poundage. Well, for the entire summer I performed upright complete full squats until I thought they would come out of my ears, and I used no wraps of any kind. Two months after this experiment I tried to power squat and about six weeks later I power squatted 575, a personal training record. Also, over the summer the stricter full squatting increased my leg development and overall strength markedly. This is similar to the quality, intensive training I am speaking to you about, only for you fellows it will be for bodybuilding purposes.
I myself can bench press 375, but I can get on terrific workout using much less if I perform the movement the way Steve does and the way you should for best results. Don't be misled into thinking a certain exercise poundage will automatically give you the physique development you desire. Both Terry Todd and Reg Park have pressed 305 behind the neck. Do they look similar? We have a 181-pound lifter who has only a 45-inch chest, yet can bench almost as much as I by using legal powerlifting techniques, yet his muscles are small because he relies upon technique instead of sheer muscle strength to raise the weight. This is why his muscles do not possess the size they should for the weight he can lift. He is actually cheating his muscles of their potential size and shape for the ability to excel in lifting competition. This may be alright for a lifting competitor but it makes no sense for a bodybuilder to fall into such a way of training.
And using too light a weight is even worse. This way, you can pump the muscles with blood and lactic acid and this pump will give the illusion of muscle size but such a condition is temporary and when training has to be cut down for any length of time, so does the size of the muscles diminish.
The way Steve trains does away with both these problems. He uses strict style up until he has to cheat some for muscle overload with EXTREMELY heavy weights and he also gets the muscle shaping and pumping on the way down from the heavy movements and this allows him to build SIZE and SHAPE and STRENGTH all at the same time, without losing any precious training time for any one goal.
In order to obtain all the benefits possible when training the way we are advising you to, it is necessary for you to rely heavily on dietary supplementation and correct dietary habits. Steve uses at least five ounces of liquid predigested protein per day along with three multivitamin tablets, four high potency B complex tablets, 800 milligrams of Vitamin E, Iron supplement, wheat germ oil. etc. In short, you can be sure he sees to it that from a supplementary standpoint, he is lacking in nothing which will aid him in furthering his training results.
Also, his everyday diet is strict, sound and at the same time plentiful. Two pounds of ground sirloin steak along with three pounds of creamed cottage cheese, various amounts of tuna fish and other sources of protein from various types of meat, eggs and fish make up the mainstay of his everyday diet. The only beverage he drinks is water. Naturally, he drinks quite a bit of it., In this way his diet will not ALLOW him to put on any excess weight and with the intensity of his workouts, you can see how everything works hand in hand for the best gains possible.
1) Perform each repetition of every set strictly and thereby place stress upon the muscles you want to build.
2) Do not cheat while performing repetitions until it is absolutely necessary.
3) After working up to a limit weight, work down for the same number of sets and perform as many reps as possible for each set.
4) Choose basic barbell movements as the mainstay of your routine, using heavy dumbbell movements as assistance movements only.
5) Flooding the muscles with light pumping movements is wasted effort.
6) Be sure to follow the dietary principles outlined here as closely as possible.
Steve trains his chest and shoulders on Mon/Thurs; his upper back on Tues/Fri; arms on Wed/Sat. He performs approximately 40 sets for his chest and shoulders, 25 sets for his upper arms and 20 sets for his back work. This is why he separates the various body parts the way he does. Such severe, hard training must be coupled with the right rest or you will SURELY overtrain.
There would be no point to go set for set throughout all this training for it is really not necessary. What is important are the main points which we have already gone over. The main thing to remember is how to work and in what way for best results.
One thing I can dwell on: his feeling about barbell vs. dumbbell work. He feels that for all-over strength and development the barbell has it all over the dumbbell. He uses mainly barbell movements in his training routine. He only uses a few assistance movements with dumbbells.
I have now outlined for you the way Steve trains and the training philosophy behind his methods. I realize that his way of doing things is not easy and it will take a lot of will power for anyone to try and follow in his footsteps, but it will be well worth the effort.
Finally, here is Steve's present routine for forging muscle density in the upper body . . .
MONDAY & THURSDAY
Chest and Shoulders
Bench Press: approximately 16 sets, working up to a maximum single and then down for sets of repetitions.
Flat Bench Flyes: 3 sets using 100-pound dumbbells for a maximum number of reps per set.
Olympic Clean and Press: 8 sets working up to a maximum double and then down for 3 sets of forced reps.
Seated Press Behind the Neck: 6 sets of between 5 and 7 repetitions using around 205 pounds.
Dips: 5 sets using 100-pound dumbbell and forcing maximum reps per set.
Lateral Raises: 6 sets using 50-pound dumbbells alternating between front laterals and side laterals.
TUESDAY & FRIDAY
Back Work
Weighted Chins Behind the Neck: 8 sets working up to a weight making 7 reps difficult to perform.
Bentover Rowing: using a barbell, 6 sets of approximately 8 reps, using the heaviest weight possible.
Dumbbell Rowing: 4 sets using 100s working one arm at a time and forcing all reps possible per set.
Straight Arm Pulldowns on Lat Machine: 6 sets using between 5 and 7 reps and forcing the poundage at all times.
WEDNESDAY & SATURDAY
Arm Work
On this bodypart Steve is truly innovative. He performs between 20 and 25 sets and uses whatever movements suit him at such a time. He keeps the weight heavy and the reps between 6 and 8 and he continually forces both reps and poundage.
Enjoy Your Lifting!
