Bulk vs Bunkum -- Frustrations of the Bodybuilder (1961)

 

Note:  Here is an article on "type training" from 1961. The author is listed as "The Chief Instructor of the International Federation of Physical Culture." Most officious. Seriously, I just like photos of people about to be hanged, but read the article if you like . . . here's the ad that accompanies the article: 

It was said of the man about to be hanged that the last word he uttered was "Help!" But why wait until all is lost and there is no hope on this side of Eternity before seeking help?

Many bodybuilders do, however, and struggle on until it is too late before seeking the help and guidance that would save them from finishing as frustrated, doomed failures. 

As many of my readers will be prepared to admit they have "listened" to so many people with theories and in their disillusionment have switched from one and then to another and another routine, only to finish almost where they started or to have reached a sticking point beyond which there appears to be no mistake. 

Another Man's Meat . . . 

Some set themselves an ideal -- a determination to be like so-and-so whose physiques have inspired them and whose "vital statistics" they would like to equal, only to find that what was one man's meat has proved another's poison and in their frustration they look to yet another idol whom they might emulate only to find that the idol of today has pushed the idol of yesterday out of recollection and will in turn be supplanted by his successor of tomorrow.  

How then can he step into line and perhaps one day himself be another's hero? What is he to believe, what can he do when so many "methods" and "systems" have failed to bring him near his ideal? 

Bunkum, bull and baloney have proved a poor diet and groan and grunt has no substitute. It is then that he needs help! 

When I first practiced bodybuilding forty years ago the percentage of successes amongst enthusiasts was extremely low. I have no accurate statistics at my disposal, but from my own observations, I should say that, at that time, not more than one man in four was a complete success. 

Today the position is reversed for three men out of four who take up bodybuilding now emerge as complete successes. 

And this is not merely conjecture based upon personal observations; it is an indisputable fact which emerges from studying the vital statistics of tens of thousands of individual cases! 

When only a hundred men who had previously made little or no progress became type-training successes it was excusable for disinterested observers to regard the whole subject as a new "cult" which was far from proven.   

Now that type-training has tens of thousands of fully authenticated successes to its credit and has so transformed the bodybuilding field that a large majority instead of a small minority is successful, it is surely not to be wondered at that it has completely out-moded all other training methods. The evidence that type-training really works -- often when everything else has failed -- is, today, absolutely overwhelming and only those without access to sufficiently comprehensive statistics now entertain any doubts or cling to the old "one method for all" training principle. 

Fundamental Desire

The fundamental desire of more than 80% of bodybuilders is a substantial increase in bodyweight -- and on this score alone type-training can show thousands upon thousands of results which would have been considered amazing a quarter of a century ago.

Even at middle age, selective training, according to Somatic type, can affect astonishing results as aa letter from a pupil in Leeds confirms: "I belong," he writes, "to the near-veteran class, having passed my 50th birthday a few weeks ago. I have been training since I was 20 with moderate success and a great deal of enjoyment. Six months ago I started to work on a type-training schedule and subsequently I have had a friend (who is an enthusiastic and knowledgeable type-trainer) work out a number of schedules for me. 

More Enjoyable

"To be honest with you, I haven't enjoyed any of my recent schedules half as much as my old ones. I like repetition Curls, Bench Presses and Squats. I am not so keen on the Swings, Snatches and other similar exercises that my friend set for me and it never seemed to me that I was doing enough work when the reps were only 3 or 4.

"Results are what matter, however, and I am very glad to tell you that I have gained 22 lb. in bodyweight and added 1.5" to my flexed upper arm.

"I am sure you will agree that this is a remarkable result . . ."

"A remarkable result" you will say! True, but age and type were the governing factors. The pupil was an Ectomorph who was in superlative physical condition but he had limited his training to schedules suitable only to the great "naturals" -- the Grimeks, Rosses and Parks -- and such routines were quite ineffective in a man of his skeletal structure. All that he has derived from them is enjoyment -- which is rather a poor reward in itself and which certainly isn't, as so many people suppose, a prerequisite for success in bodybuilding. 

Commonplace Gains

It is not (apart from the age factor) at all remarkable that, by reverting for five months to suitable training methods, he should increase his bodyweight by 22 lb. and add 1.5" to his upper arms. Such results are commonplace among Ectomorphs whose enthusiasm and addiction to hero worship has led them into wrong channels and who then, by good luck or common sense, investigate type-training. 

This pupil's improvements are not, in themselves, exceptional. He is only one of tens of thousands who, by type-training, have become "complete successes" without becoming champions or, indeed, causing any commotion at all in the competitive world. 

I realize that 80% of men who start bodybuilding do so fundamentally because they want to increase their bodyweight or to acquire better muscular definition, but I must be a very poor psychologist indeed if I am wrong in my belief that nothing gives the average bodybuilder so much satisfaction as a ten, twenty or thirty pound gain in his avoir-dupois. 

This kind of improvement is not at all remarkable in type-training -- especially with Ectomorphs who are fit but who have hindered their own progress by wrong methods, but with the right methods and the help of experienced advisors they will be able to say with Emerson: 

"One thing is forever good;

 That thins is success!" 

Enjoy Your Lifting!