Since muscle growth is the body's adaptation to unaccustomed resistance, gains slow or stop when the muscles get used to a routine.
As you advance, your routines become more involved and complicated. After a while, the program includes a large variety of exercises with plenty of sets. Eventually, a plateau is reached where progress comes to a standstill.
At this point I will often advise the bodybuilder to return to a program of BASIC EXERCISES to once again work the muscle groups in mass, eliminating the specialized "specific movements."
This does not mean back-cycling to a beginner's program. On the contrary, the program to be described involves only basic exercises, yet it is advanced enough to challenge the most experienced bodybuilder.
This program is done three days a week and will take approximately three hours to complete. The day of total rest between workouts will enable your muscles to fully recuperate and GROW! You will be entirely energized and ready to attack the next workout. To exercise the red and white muscle fibers, move fast on the positive and slow on the negative movements.
Note: Nice two-part deal here from one of Don Ross' books, aimed at building a basic foundation . . .
Try to keep your rest periods between sets to a minimum. 60 seconds should be plenty for most body parts, though the thighs, being large muscles, will require more recovery time at first. Read each exercise description carefully for exact information on rest times and form.
1) Stiff-Legged Deadlift
The lower back should always be well warmed up. Begin with a light weight and do a set of 20 reps. Add weight and do 15 reps. Continue to add weight for each of the remaining 3 sets of 10. The last set should be difficult to complete. Rest around a minute between sets. If you are using an Olympic bar with large plates, stand on a firm box so you can go down further. Your back should be parallel with the floor at the start of the movement.
2) Bench Press
Take a medium wide grip, where the forearms are at 90-degree angles to the upper arm when the upper arm is parallel with the floor. Bring the bar down to the center chest, halfway between nipples and clavicles. Do a light warmup set, then add weight where you can do 10 reps, struggling on the last rep. Take a few deep breaths and do a second set of as many as possible. Keep removing weights from the bar and blast through 6 sets. Now, remove some more weight and do 4 more sets bringing the bar down just below the neck. This time use a wider grip on the bar.
3) Overhead Press
Hold the bar beyond shoulder width. Keeping your back straight, press it from your front deltoids completely overhead. Do 5 sets of 6-10 reps, adding weight on each set. Now pyramid down, step bombing, reducing weight with each of the final 5 sets. Rest only a few seconds between the last 5 sets.
Note: more on "step bombing" from another of his articles -
Each set is a maximum effort. Use a lighter weight for each of the sets so that you can keep your reps about the same with a maximum effort on each set. You will finish with a comparatively light weight but it will feel like aa tone and have the same effect on the muscle as a heavy weight. Do each set until no more reps can be performed. Then try to force out an extra rep. Rest as little as possible between sets. Also, lower the weights at a controlled speed to take advantage of negative resistance.
4) Upright Row
Grip the bar with your hands 12 inches apart. Pull the bar to your upper chest, bringing your elbows high. Choose a weight that you can use for 8 reps. Try to force out an extra rep when no more can be performed. Do 10 shoulder shrugs with the bar. Don't roll your shoulders back, just raise them as high as possible, then slowly down. Do 5 sets and work down in weight resting as little as possible between sets.
5) Bentover Row
Take a shoulder-width grip on the bar. Bend over so that your upper body is parallel with the floor. Keep your knees slightly bent to take excess pressure off the lower back. Pull the bar to your body. Your elbows should come close to your sides with this variation. Do 5 sets in this manner working from heavy to light. Minimum rest periods. Follow this with 5 sets using a wider grip. Bring the bar higher (to the chest), bringing your elbows out away from your body [for another variation, and there's plenty of 'em, no one "bestest" one, contrary to what newbs and science idiots and their little pics with red markings on the "muscles most activated blah blah blah may lead you to believe. It's a row. What do you want to do with it, what do you want from it . . .].
6) Barbell Curl
Keep your body straight. Avoid swinging or back-bending. Add weight with each of the first 5 sets. Do the last 5 sets with decreasing weight, resting only seconds.
7) Reverse Grip Curl
Done in the same manner as the last 5 sets of barbell curls, but with palms down. Use moderate weight, doing between 12-15 reps.
8) Standing Triceps Press
Take a close grip (palms up) on a barbell or curling bar, elbows pointed to the ceiling. Bring the bar all the way down behind the head. Keep your elbows in for the first 5 sets, working up in weight. Do the last five sets with elbows a littler further out, step-bombing down in weight.
9) Squats
Do 10 sets of strict squats, keeping your back as straight as possible. Work up in weight for the first 5 sets and down for the last 5. Have a bench and a light barbell within a few steps of the squat rack so you can alternate the squats with:
10) Straight Arm Pullovers
Take a shoulder-width grip on the bar while you lay on a flat bench. Take a HUGE breath as you lower the weight over your head. Try to force your lungs against the inside of your rib cage with these breaths. USE A VERY LIGHT WEIGHT [and breathe HEAVY ba dump bum]. If you feel your muscles working to hard to pull it over, you're using too much weight. The stretch, and the deep breaths. Do 20 reps per set. This [contrary to the newbs and science-boys mentioned earlier] will expand your rib cage as it also allows you to recover your wind for the next set of squats.
11) Heel Raises
On a standing calf machine, start with a weight that you can 15-20 reps with. Rest only seconds and go down in weight as you complete 10 sets [ouch]. Do 3 with toes in, 3 with toes out, and 4 with toes forward. Do full movements.
12) Situps
On a slanted abdominal board, keep your knees bent and hold a weight behind your head. Sit up, rolling your upper body forward and exhaling hard, touching elbows to knees. Do 5 x 10-15 reps.
Follow this program for at least six weeks.
Enjoy Your Lifting!
Don Ross was the living embodiment of the Southern California Bodybuilding lifestyle as portrayed by the bodybuilding magazines. Everything about his life spun off that. When I was editor of MD, I had a nice working relationship with him, and I was sad when I heard that he passed on. I also recall that Lonnie Teper had a really intense dislike of Don...for no good reason I could ever comprehend.
ReplyDeleteJAN,
DeleteAspart of my private study on the "when did usage begin among iron trainees" issue (I conclude, not until at least 1951), I've tried for about twenty years to get copies of Grimek's 1943 correspondence with Jeffs regarding methyltestosterone. I even emailed Fair about them in July/August, 2021, who replied he did have typewritten copies he'd made from the originals he'd found among Ziegler's papers, but he declined to photocopy them for me and intends to eventually donate his copies to the Stark Center.
Would you have any suggestions where I might inquire to obtain copies (I'd pay for time and expense) of that 1943 corresponence?
Hello Joe, I'd thought that steroid use began in 1958 with Dianabol. But there was a John Davis interview somewhere where he mentioned his coach asking him to take "something" in the late 1940s, and he said he refused. It might be this article compiled by Osmo Kiiha, which isn't an actual interview but a conglomeration of pieces from other articles and interviews: http://www.chidlovski.net/liftup/a_john_davis.asp You'll find here that Davis supposedly states steroid use started around 1950, and that he refused to take them. Anyway it's close to your mention of 1951.
DeleteIs there a way to head to the future and see when steroid use stops? Lemme guess, when something better comes along!
DeleteEric,
DeleteTHANKS for that link and the Davis info. Added to my link collection.
Testosterone (which many don't realize is an anabolic steroid, or more technically as they're all classed, an "androgenic-anabolic steroid", AAS) was first synthesized in 1935, and available in oral (methyltestosterone, in a few brands) and injectable (usually relatively short half-life prioponate; the cypionate, enanathate, and other longer half-life esters and other carriers were developed later) forms almost immediately after 1935.
All the other AAS, each the result of research to create chemical derivatives and relatives of testosterone with more anabolic effect than testosterone itself, including Nilevar, Dianabol, Durabolin, DecaDurabolin, and Primobolan, were not synthesized until after 1953, so didn't exist until after 1953.
Meaning, obviously, that AAS were available before 1958 (Dianabol was sythesized in 1955 by CIBA pharmaceutical, patented in 1957, then marketed in 1958; Ziegler was involved with CIBA so had immediate access when it was formally available on the medical market), were available before 1953 (Nilevar, used by Bill Pearl, was first synthesized by Searle pharmaceutical in 1953 then marketed in 1955), were even available before 1950, true. However, the one and only AAS available before 1950 were the initial oral and injectable forms of synthetic testosterone.
As with most every chemical discovery, not everything about the effects of testosterone were known for a while. Originally, according to what earliest researchers knew until about 1950, exogenous testosterone was effective only as a restorative/replacement drug for medically treating critical burns and injuries, hypogonadal men, and middle-aged men experiencing loss of natural testosterone production (meaning, what we know today as TRT).
Not until the Soviet Union began experimenting after 1950 did it become understood that if healthy young men took it in long-enough cycles of doses at least three times the therapeutic TRT dosage (the prescribed TRT dose is about 100 mg/week), significant muscle and strength gains occurred.
Ziegler's trial-and-error experimentation with testosterone in the US began after he learned about that talking to Soviets at the 1954 Olympic Games. Ziegler eventually dismissed testosterone but later introduced the much-more anabolic Dianabol to Olympic lifters at York, PA.
One problem I've encountered in my thirty years of researching every nook and cranny about AAS history available to me is that individuals are often unsure and unreliable regarding dating of when things long ago occurred.
That's an understandable problem, since, often in life an event isn't significant enough in the moment for us to recall exactly when it happened; and, our memories are liable to glitch, blur, and conflate, often mis-dating events by a few years (as my wife often corrects me when I recount past events, lol); hell, at age 68, I realize I've forgotten significant details of events I was absolutely sure I'd never forget (a recent example being the songs on a set list my three cousins and I performed as the band at a birthday event in 1982; two of them recall us playing a couple songs I sincerely don't recall doing although I was rhythm guitarist and vocalist!)
"It happened around 19sometime" is a common memory ambiguity describing what might have happened several years on either side of "sometime"; as well an example of the common way we humans often generalize datings for events in which we weren't directly participating so we're lacking in more-detailed information.
Anyway, nevertheless...yeah...that is interesting, that Davis stated "around 1950".
My interest in the Grimek correspondence is, not that Grimek inquired about oral methyltestosterone (which is unremarkable, since, during the 1940s, "the male hormone" was a topic of not only medical but also popular, public interest), but, in what Dr.Jeffs replied to him, in light of what I've learned was the research understanding on the use and effectiveness of exogenous testosterone up to that time.
Delete