Summer Training - Bill Starr (1969)

 Strength & Health October 1969

Last evening while I was deeply engrossed in Valentine Michael Smith and his exploit’s in Heinlein’s Stranger in a Strange Land, the telephone interrupted my journey.  Christi Lou, my answering secretary, said “It’s Jack.”

Jack King and I get together about once a month via the phone to share gossip and to talk training. He had sustained a dandy of a leg injury last fall and through sheer determination and sensible weight training  had moved his lifts back up past their former best.

“How’s the program coming along”, begging his favorite subject.

“That’s why I called. I’m really stuck. Everything is going bad. No zip in the pulls, the squats are hard. Nothing seems to be responding.”

“When is your next meet?” I asked and sent Kimie for some Kool-Aid as I figured I was in for a long conversation.

“I’m not sure, probably some time in October.”

“How long have you been on this program?”

“Since December.”

Often the obvious is evident to everyone but the person involved. Jack was so obviously stale. He needed a change. I remember reading where Gary Cleveland changed his program every six weeks to avoid staleness. I suggested that he switch his program completely – in fact, radically. The following is a summation of our hour-long conversation. The readers can feel fortunate, they get the advice for 50 cents, Jack’s phone bill would keep me Bachtell’s best for month.

Summer training should be fun. During the lifting season the athlete has to be gearing his workouts towards an almost immediate, pressing goal of competing in a contest. When spring hits, the meets invariably stack up with state, district, National Y, Junior National, and Senior National contests all coming within two or three months of each other. Layoffs are impossible at this time. In fact, any let down on a serious training program for the Olympic lifts will have negative consequences at this point in the season.

After the spring flood there generally aren’t any major meets for some four or five months. This allows a time for the athlete to evaluate his schedule and to develop some of his weaker points. A casual visitor in the  York Gym is often confused in July to see the fellows doing chins, one-hand dumbbell snatches, lat machine push-downs, and other seemingly non-related exercises. While the off-season training program should be an enjoyable time, a time where there is virtually no pressure to a make a lift, it is a most essential time in relationship to the lifter’s total yearly plan.

The primary objective in a summer training routine should be conditioning. I should insert here that the same rules hold true for the powerlifters except that they lay back from the heavy poundages in the fall after their national competition. Likewise, those Olympic lifters who made international teams this summer and trained for high level performance right through the summer months will pull back in the fall and begin preparation for the next season.

The modern-day weightlifter actually needs to set up a yearly plan of training, leaving it flexible enough for alterations along the way. A year’s program could be broken down  into various segments, but the one I prefer is 1) conditioning cycle 2) power training 3) Olympic lift training. The summertime, for most, is the ideal time to work the conditioning cycle. It is the months when one can build a strong fitness base for the next nine months.

Again, the primary objective of the summer program is to condition the body, especially the cardiovascular system. The advice I conveyed to Jack is certainly not new, but so often the obvious is easily overlooked, In setting up an off season program, keep two objectives in mind: 1) work the weaker points and 2) strive towards physical fitness. The first can be accomplished with a little common sense. Let us assume that your press is the lagging lift. Then load up on shoulder work for 2-3 months. Include a wide variety of exercises and hammer the weaker muscle groups until they respond. In season this is impossible. Off-season it fits in perfectly. Experiment. Find out if bench presses can help your press. For some they do, while for others they are a waste of time. Work dips, behind-the-neck presses, dumbbell presses, rack presses, all sorts of include presses until you discover what works for your particular body. The same rule applies for the pulling muscles. If the snatch has been your nemesis, be creative and see what might influence a change. Try bent-over rows, flip snatches, one-hand snatches, snatch dead lifts until a formula clicks.

The other objective, to increase total fitness, can also be accomplished. I suggested to Jack that he increase the reps on all of his exercises, doing no less than five on any movement and ten on some. For conditioning, one can work out more often (twice a day if time permits) and move through the exercises more rapidly. One of the best total conditioning exercises is the squat performed in high reps and done as rapidly as possible. Here’s how it works. You will be doing five sets of 10, counting warm-ups, in as short a period of time as possible. Start light for a warm-up (135) and do 10. Now as soon as you can change weights step back in the rack and do the second set with an increased poundage (205). Reload and take a 20-30 second break and do the third set with around 255. Two more sets done as soon as you are able and your pulse rate will be close to 200 and your legs will scream for mercy. Record your time and your top poundage. Next time you do these attempt to increase the top poundage and decrease the time. Twice a week is plenty for this one. Tommy Suggs and I insanely did this one summer and before calling it quits we were up to 360 for 10 for our top weight in less than 7 minutes for 5 sets. We had no trouble keeping up with the York College soccer team that fall. The cardio vascular work is fantastic.

As I mentioned earlier, do some experimenting in the off-season. Try some exercises that may have carryover value that you have always wanted to do. Dr. John Gourgott had a lot of faith in wide-grip chins  with weight to help his pull. Few have used this, but the summer he was in York over half of the team  was draped from the chinning bar. How about one-hand snatches? Not much time for them with a meet a month away, but the summer is great for such things. No guarantee that they will add one pound to your snatch, but there are some European lifters that do quite a few.

It is important to make summer training enjoyable. Choose exercises that you do enjoy (without completely avoiding your weaker points) and train for fun. If you plan to lift for 8 or 10 years, you simply cannot pound your body with the heavy exercises for 12 months out of the year, year in and year out. Don’t pressure yourself for heavier and heavier poundages on any of the lifts you select. Take the gains as they come. Chances are they will come easier by taking the pressure off.

Train as rapidly as possible. Give the heart and lungs a thorough workout. You can get so much done in 45 minutes if you don’t make the training time a social hour. If one were to watch Rick Holbrook go through 4-5 complete exercises in 45 minutes he would certainly realize that Rick is building a superb physical state as well as becoming stronger. Get that pulse rate up over 120 (it’s easy enough to check) and keep it there until you finish.

Include at least one day of running in your off-season program. Two is preferable. One day of running and one day of participation in another sport is better yet. Don Reed and I go to the YMCA at least once a week to chase a paddleball or volleyball. Some like to swim once a week. All well and good. Regardless of your choice, the eye-hand, hand-foot coordination aspects of other sports has its carry over value to weightlifting.

“In summary” I related to my North Carolina water brother “the summer should be used to work the weaker points, to build a solid fitness base, a time of experimentation, and an enjoyable training season.”

Jack, agreeable as always, assured me that he would follow the advice. The theory behind the program is sound and when the big contests come flooding in next spring, the lifters that have taken the time to build a solid foundation in the Summer or Fall will be just a step ahead of their competitors. And I guess that’s really what it’s all about, being a step ahead.

My deed done for the evening I settled back to the adventures of Valentine Michael. Perhaps he would reveal how he put on muscle by just “thinking about it” and save me a heck of a lot of time in the gym this summer. 

Behind the Cuban Curtain - Tommy Kono (1967)

 Strength & Health February 1967

In 1958, Cuba had but 80 active weightlifters. Today they have 13,000 registered active weightlifters with a growing enrollment all the time. This is a tremendous amount of lifters when you consider the fact that Cuba has a population of less than 7 million people in an area slightly larger than South Carolina.

In the recent Central American Games held in San Juan, Puerto Rico in June of 1966, Cuba won the weightlifting team title by amassing 30 points, one point more than the favored home-town Puerto Rican squad. The well conditioned Cuban team won the team crown despite the fact that their ace heavyweight lifter Verona who had officially totaled over 1,100 was left behind in Cuba for disciplinary action (character building.)

I was especially interested in the training system used by the Cubans so when the chance came to have a brief chat with them prior to judging the middleweight class, I cornered their weightlifting coach Marcelino Del Frade and inquired about their present program for grooming top notch athletes. The story he related and later elaborated on by the delegate and President of the Cuban Weightlifting Federation David Mye at their room in the Olympic village was most enlightening and interesting. I gathered the following story from Del Frade and Moye and pass it on to the readers of Strength and Health magazine.

Cuba is methodically recruiting and developing more weightlifters with an eye toward dominating the sport in future Central American Games. Their long range program is to be able to match strength with the U.S. team and then aim higher for world and Olympic titles.

The campaign to recruit more lifters started in 1958 under the Castro regime. To discourage the immense interest in bodybuilding which did not help to improve the standard of weightlifting and was not developing any new lifters from its ranks, the government under Castro purchased all the gyms one way or another and retained the former owners to instruct ONLY weightlifting.

Between 1961 and 1962 Russia sent to Cuba a total of 250 Olympic sets as a good-will gift and to help encourage the sport. These sets were dispersed all over the island and competition in some type of lifts were held.

In the beginning lifts requiring very little skill were employed in these contests. Lifts such as Squat and Press, or Dead Lift and Jerks were used to interest young adults and teenagers. Gradually the supplementary lifts such as the Squat and Dead Lift were eliminated from the competitions and contests only on the three Olympic lifts were held.

In the meantime thousands of pamphlets on the Olympic lifts and about the sport of weightlifting were printed and distributed among the general public so all the people of Cuba would understand the sport. A “Big Push” was on to educate the Cuban public on the facts of weightlifting and to make it one of the national sports.

To stimulate more interest in the development of the sport and weightlifters the former Russian world’s heavyweight champion Alexi Medvedev spent a period of 3 months in Cuba in 1961 giving clinics and coaching budding future champs. Olympic and world champion Yuri Vlasov was especially flown in to Cuba from Moscow to give demonstrations and exhibitions in various parts of the island.

With the facilities available and the interest created the next step of the Master Plan was a very important one for the development of a powerful weightlifting team. The one important ingredient missing at this point was the availability of good, qualified instructors to groom the vast amount of lifters who were eager to learn the finer points of weightlifting.

The Cuban government, working within a strict budget, employed only a handful of weightlifting instructors and the remaining coaching staff was made up of volunteer instructors. Five of the more talented and knowledgeable men who were better informed about weightlifting techniques were sent to Russia to study under such former world champions and world record holders like Medvedev, Dr. Arcady Vorobiev, chief coach of the Soviet team, and Dr. Roman of the Russian Institute of Physical Education.

After 13 months of intensified schooling in the science of weightlifting in Tbilisi, a “hot bed” for the sport in the Soviet Union, the 5 Cubans of which one was Marcelino Del Frade returned to their native country to disseminate all the knowledge they had acquired to the other coaches and trainers in Cuba.

Through all this work the Cubans now boast of over 100 weightlifting gyms and have over 50 well qualified, full-time, paid weightlifting instructors… and, of course, 13,000 lifters. Because of the great demand and interest in the sport the gyms are also open 24 hours a day!

Despite the fact that weightlifting is enjoying great popularity in Cuba the number one sport is still baseball. But in general sports participation in this Caribbean island is fantastic. The athletic programs take part in municipal meets, then to one of the six regionals and finally to the national championships. The Cuban program for promoting sports run closely parallel to the Russian method in this respect.

In Cuba, as in Russia, there is no such thing as professional athletes. According to the Cuban track and field delegate Ricardo Perez their athletes are never hounded by scouts or tempted with big financial offers to turn professional therefore the athletes can concentrate on developing their potential to the fullest. They compete not for financial gains but because of the love for competition and sport.

One of the phases of their work program was finished with the success of winning the team title in weightlifting at the Central American Games. The next phase might very well be the team title in weightlifting at the Pan American Games in Winnipeg, Canada, next year.

With an army of 13,000 lifters to choose from and with some of the lifters on the Cuban team at the Central American Games only 20 years of age Cuba has a very solid foundation to build a strong weightlifting team which may threaten the solidarity which the U.S. now enjoys at the Pan American Games. Cuba has already begun planning to dominate the weightlifting event in the 1970 Central American Games which will be held in Panama.

One of the future plans which they mentioned to me was that of inviting some of the best weightlifters from the various countries in the Caribbean area to take part in a contest held on their island to give additional experience to their team. They also hope to have Leonard Zhabotinsky in Cuba for some weightlifting exhibitions.

If Cuba continues to support its weightlifting program they will eventually be a strong contender for some world titles and world records. They may eventually dominate the weightlifting scene on the western hemisphere. All this by an island with a populate of less than 7 million people.

Related to the Cuban system, this podcast with Arthur Chidlovski and Weightlifting House several years ago has a very nice breakdown of how the Soviet system worked for low and mid-level athletes.  Stuff like increased food allowance, etc... kind of set the table for incentives for the Communist bloc athletes. 

https://www.spreaker.com/episode/arthur-chidlovski-weightlifting-was-made-for-communists--43895154

Also, visit Arthur's site as it's a treasure trove of classic weightlifting information.

http://www.chidlovski.net/liftup/

Training System of the Japanese Lifters - Kenji Onuma (1968)

Strength & Health November 1968 

They didn't mention this as part of their training, but the forearm muscles on the author have to be huge.  3500 words to just say hard work - sheesh.  Still a nice snapshot in time for the lifting happening in Japan in the mid-late 60's. 

Recent issues of Strength & Health have featured a series of very well written articles on the training systems of the Polish, Hungarian, and Soviet lifters. The readier will notice that the current training methods in these countries are entirely positive in their approach to training. They now train five to six days a week, some of them even twice a day, whereas not a long time ago, such a system was regarded as suicidal not only by ambitious lifters but also by even the most aggressive coaches. Their idea is that if a lifter can train six days a week and recuperate from the effects of the hard training, he will improve faster than when he is training less frequently. They try to build endurance and to “rest positively” by participating in other sports. I believe this positive approach has been responsible for the tremendous improvement the Poles, Hungarians, and Russians have made during the past few years. It makes sense, too, because it is evident that if w had unlimited recuperating power, we would no doubt improve faster by training harder. In fact, the main reason why we try to control the among of training is because we know we would simply burn out if we trained too much. Therefore, what matters most is how to build recuperating power through scientific methods.

But it makes me feel glad and a little proud to know that they are using this positive method of training, for it is just what most of the Japanese lifters, more specifically university and high school students, have been using for quite a long time. No doubt the reader will recall the steady rise the Japanese have made during the past few years, the highlight of which being the 1964 Olympic Games. As of February 1968, they hold five world records as well as many junior world records, and I am sure they will set many more in the future. What is responsible for this remarkable rise of the little fellows from the land of the Rising Sun? (I say remarkable because the Japanese have no state support such as the one we find in some countries.) Is there any secret, one of those mysterious things said to be found in the Orient? No, there is no secret. They have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears, and sweat. Perhaps the only secret behind their methods is the rigorous program under which they have been training for many years. This program is backed with a burning, self-motivated desire to improve. Let me remind the reader here, however, that a lifter must have trained systematically for at least one year before he can condition himself for this kind of hard training, and it may hinder, rather than promote, his progress if he takes up a training system of this sort without proper preparation. With this kind of training, planning becomes very important. Each workout is carefully controlled so that the lifter can get the maximum results and yet not overtrain. Well, the Japanese were using this system at a time when everybody took it for granted that a lifter should not train more than three times a week.

I think I’d better point out here that almost all of the registered lifters in Japan are students or young graduates. In fact, it is not an overstatement to say that the university students support amateur sports in Japan. At any rate, the students are in a particularly favorable position to work out under the program I have described above. Even so, they are distinguished in that they do not waste time. The students know they must improve really fast in order to become an international-caliber lifter within the limited number of years they are at school. As a matter of fact, this was one of the motives that prompted the adoption of the hard training program. Incidentally, I am of the opinion that the United States, with all her tremendous wealth and advanced social conditions, is the only country capable of producing lifters who can compete against those state-subsidized athletes without yielding an inch. The U.S.’s reserve of robust young men is colossal. I have seen so many well-built men in the U.S. of whom I was envious from the lifter’s point of view. There are so many men apparently capable of becoming future world champions. So far as the physique is concerned, the U.S. is the most gifted nation. But let me put it frankly by way of constructive advice. I do not feel this reserve is fully exploited. I do not feel most of the American lifters are training hard enough, or perhaps I should say often enough. As a result, they do not accomplish the maximum they are capable of. Needless to say, “training” does not necessarily mean lifting weights alone. It also includes exercises for flexibility, speed, endurance and so on. The standard of lifting is so high today that it is no longer possible to become a world champion with a take-it-easy training program.

Hiroshi Fukuda at 1964 Olympics

Now then, I will try to give the reader a brief account of how the Japanese lifters train and what the basic ideas of their system are, so that the reader will get some hints on training which may benefit him.

When Bob Hoffman came to Japan back in 1961, he spent one day at our Intercollegiate Meet that was being held in Tokyo. As usual, he sat there for ten hours and enjoyed watching the lifting. What impressed him most was the vast number of lifters competing on the particular day. More than sixty lifters were competing in each of the two classes being held on that day. As a matter of fact, one of the classes, the lightweight, had a little more than eighty entries. He was very much impressed and said to me with a sigh, “Kenji, I wish we had as many lifters in a class back in the States!” The reason why I quote this episode here is to impress the reader just how severe the competition to become a champion in Japan. Let me remind you that this was seven years ago. Now we have more member institutions and naturally more lifters, especially after the 1964 Olympic Games.  The Collegiate Weightlifting Federation has had, therefore, to adopt qualifying totals in order to limit the number of lifters competing in a class. For those who fail to make qualifying totals, we have novice meets which permit any registered lifter to compete in. Anyway, I think competition is one of the most important factors in our system.

Anybody who visits a typical weight-room of a Japanese university will be amazed at the pace training is going on there. The bars have literally no time to gather dust. The lifters form a queue on the platform and wait their turns to lift the bar. As soon as a man returns the bar on the platform, the next man steps out while two other men adjust the weights on the bar. And the waiting men shout to encourage the lifter while the lift is made. There is always a strong sense of common cause. On the floor, others wait in front of the incline-bench or squat racks. They do not waste time. Many college weightlifting clubs have a membership of a hundred or more, and under such circumstance, one cannot afford to fool around or indulge in lengthy conversation between lifts, because one may be skipped over easily and it is quite a long time before the next turn comes around. I hope the reader will not assume we have good gyms over here in Japan. Some of the schools do not have a weight room, and the lifters have to train outdoors summer and winter, rain or shine.

Another thing worthy of special mention is that there is no offseason in Japan so far as weightlifting is concerned. Under the present situation, a young, ambitious lifter is not to lay off completely for, say, a couple of months and then start all over again. He simply cannot afford to do so. Instead, he will train all the year round with continued enthusiasm, although he avoids falling into monotony and staleness. Generally speaking, he prefers taking “positive rest” to laying off completely. Needless, to say, the emphasis at a particular time of the year may be somewhat different from that at another. The intensity of training is controlled according to a year-long schedule. For example, the students train more or less shorter but with heavier weights during the weeks they have annual exams. Also, it so happens that national and collegiate competitions are scattered throughout the year and keep the lifters, particularly the students, busy all the time. Therefore, the students are always prepared for intensive training or competition even though they may take a couple of weeks rest after a big meet. They have to. We in Japan encourage young lifters to enter sufficient number of competitions every year for maximum development and improvement. Under normal conditions, the college lifters, for instance, enter an average of ten competitions in a year, with perhaps three important “peak” competitions. A typical annual schedule will be as follows:

February or March – Record tryout*

May or June – Intercollegiate Meet*

June or July – National Championships

August – World Championships tryout. National Industrial Championships (for working men, exclusive of students)

September – World Championships

October – National Athletic Meet

November – Collegiate Championships*

December – Collegiate Novice Meet*

(* Denotes events sponsored by the National Collegiate Federation.)

Besides all such competitions, a few schools have inter-school tournaments with others. Most of the students will also lift in local competitions, often to qualify for nationals or national athletic meet. Moreover, they must train even harder during the pre-Olympic and Olympic years for, like in other countries, they must not only lift well in most of the major competitions during these years (in order to remain on the list of favorites), but also qualify at the final tryout.

I feel I must point out one more thing in connection with college lifters. Most universities provide the athletes, particularly those in team sports, with special dorms where they can stay so long as they hold membership in the varsity athletic clubs. Lifters are no exception. Some of such dorms are exclusively for lifters and even have a weight room within the building. Moreover, the dorms in most cases provide food at low prices. To say the least, the dorms are a privilege and advantage because, besides many other things, they provide the lifters with an ideal opportunity to live weightlifting. According to Bob Hoffman, to live weightlifting is indispensable if you want to lift really well. Outside of the communist bloc, the Japanese college lifters are, it seems to me, the only group of lifters who want and can afford to live weightlifting. Especially the younger men benefit greatly from living with more experiences international lifters. To live with topflight lifters enables the younger ones to absorb training ideas, to learn about the psychological aspect of competition or about preparations for a big competition. It would be much harder, if not impossible to learn these things if they did not live under the same roof.

By now the reader may have come to the conclusion that we in Japan have access to every desirable thing. On the contrary, we do have shortcomings and disadvantages. For example, none of the universities has a paid, full-time coach. Traditionally, a graduate who in most cases is or was a lifter looks after the students as coach on a voluntary basis. And this of course means a large sacrifice on the part of the graduate who has a job to support his family. It is therefore quire natural that he cannot come to the weight-room frequently during the normal training hours, usually from two through six p.m. Even so, one must take advantage of a disadvantage. With the advice of coaches and fellow lifters, the college lifters learn the techniques that befit them best and the proper quantity of training faster than when they are under constant supervision of their coaches. In other words, they are independent lifters when they succeed in making national team and can take care of themselves to a large extent, if not perfectly. Another example is the lack of well equipped gyms such as those we can find all over the United States. As I said before, some schools do not even have a weight room and the lifters have to train in the open air. Others have old, bent bars and worn out platforms. Some have to share the floor with other sports clubs which are not necessarily quiet. This reminds me of a scene at the basement weight room of Meiji University where Tony Garcy and Isaac Berger had a workout during their stay in Tokyo for the 1963 little Olympics. When we arrived there, the gym was being shared by the lifters and Kendo-ka’s or fencers in martial fencing. Fencers raised such a tremendous chorus of kiai (shouts) as they practiced that we could not hear each other. Tony and Isaac were amazed and even Bob shook his head, but the Meiji lifters kept on training undisturbed because they had been accustomed to the environment. Men like Ichinoseki, Myake and Ouchi, three of our current or former world record holders, trained in the open air during their college days, and Meiji has produced many international lifters from its noisy basement weight room. Let me give the reader an idea of how hard the Japanese college lifters train despite such handicaps. At Hosei University’s Weightlifting Club – whose proud products include the Myake brothers, Ichinoseke, and Ouchi – the lifters train outdoors simply because there is no indoor weight room. There they tackle the barbells one after another until the onlooker gets sick of the flying mass of steel. I have seen them practice cleans one day. When one of them failed to clean a weight, others encouraged him to try again and again. After a few futile tries, the senior students had him perform ten deadlifts with the weight. They called, ten, but he ended with 25 reps of grueling deadlifts. I do not mean to say that I accept this method as ideal or scientific. On the contrary, I feel such a method may prove dangerous to some people. What I want to stress here is the burning desire and energy which the Japanese college lifters train.

At Meiji, Bob Hoffman was deeply impressed by the way the fencers and karate men trained down in the basement gym. In both instances, I noticed the coaches and the seniors handled the pupils strictly and in some cases even roughly. But, when they train, they feel this is the most effective way in martial arts for they would learn faster and deeper so to speak because of this serious atmosphere. After all they feel sports is no play, and if someone cannot stand such hardships, he might not be able to stand hard training of any sort, to say nothing of life’s hardships. Similar philosophy underlies the coaching and training methods of some varsity weightlifting clubs. This is another factor I feel I must point out when I give the reader an account of the training methods and approach to lifting of the Japanese lifters. Evan kiai is not mere desperate cries. It is an occasional outburst of the athlete’s controlled mental energy which prepares him for the task he is determined to achieve. More often than not a lifter can reach the stage where he can control his mind almost as an enlightened Zen priest. This is a strong support of Japanese sports, and it is especially characteristic  of weightlifting. Because of this serious approach to training, nobody can afford to fool around while training if he wants to be anybody. Nobody talks while training, but concentrates on his lifting. Often the lifters walk around between lifts so that they can keep moving. Walking not only keeps them warm but also helps deepen the concentration. Of course most of the lifters are ordinary young men even though they are dedicated lifters, and it is quite natural that they joke or fool around in other phases of life. But not while training.

Speaking of young lifters, I want to explain further about the regular training camps organized for them every year. In Japan there are two major vacations at the end of spring and winter terms, each lasting for about two months. During each vacation, every school or university weightlifting club organizes a training camp for its lifters. Such a training camp usually runs for anywhere from ten days to two weeks, during which the lifters literally live weightlifting. Sometimes it may be moved out of the campus for a suitable campsite. This is especially true of summer camp, for most cities are just terrible because of heat and humidity. Regardless of whether they train in the city or in the suburbs, the lifters usually return to the campus in great shape. Besides these vacation camps, the varsity clubs may organize a couple more before important competitions such as intercollegiate meet. Then they usually train after attending class but live together. The only disadvantage of this seemingly wonderful system is that the students have to pay camp expenses, while a part is borne by the varsity clubs. Often the club members work part-time in order to save up enough camp funds.

When the lifters are invited to training camp – normally two weeks long – sponsored by the Japanese Weightlifting Association in preparation for the Olympic Games or world championships, or just to give incentive to younger lifters, they do not have to pay because the expenses are borne by the association. This is another incentive to young lifters. They feel it is not only a pleasure but also an honor and a privilege to be selected among those who are invited to the camp. I believe the Japanese lifters benefit greatly from the various kinds of training camps that are thus made available to them frequently. Training camp provides the young lifters with excellent opportunities to watch top-flight lifters in action and to get firsthand experience on their training methods. In this sense, I want to congratulate the AAU Weightlifting Committee for having insight to launch the Olympic Weightlifting training camp program recently. Although it may take some time, I am sure this effort will bear fruit in plenty in not too distant future.

The last but not the lease important factor in the Japanese system is international experience. Whenever possible, we try to provide our young lifters with opportunities to get international experience by sending them to World Championships and other international competitions. Needless to say, we send our best lifters to world competitions, but we don’t forget to give incentive to younger, rising lifters either. Taking advantage of every opportunity available, we try to have two teams participate in two or more different international competitions. In such a case, one team comprises our best lifters and another is usually made up of young promising lifters. Sometimes we include a couple of young hopefuls in our national team along with top lifters. I can say without hesitation that the high standard of lifting in Japan today is an important direct outcome of our participation in international competitions during the past decade. As the reader will recall, Japan sent only one lifter to the Helsinki Olympics for the first time. Then a team of five lifters was sent to Melbourne in 1956. But it had taken four years before Japan next participated in world competition. However, those who participated in the 1956 Olympic Games made such improvement during these four years as to justify the value of international experience. It was realized that they had not only benefited from their experience at the Games but also given a favorable incentive to other ambitious lifters. Ever since 1960, therefore, we have been sending a 7-man team to world competitions every year, and this effort has paid off well. Without reliable heavier lifters, we can now place among top three or four nations in team standing at world competitions. And the Japanese hold five world records. The rise of the Japanese in  international standing, in the final analysis, is thus attributable at the very least to a great degree to the hard training of the Japanese, the training camp program, and the international competition program Japan has adopted.

Masashi Ouchi at 1964 Olympics

The Last Two Reps Are the Easiest - Abe Goldberg (1953)

"WH-A-A-AT did the man say? The LAST two reps are the EASIEST? Nay, nay sir! Alas, poor Goldberg, he fought those swingin' doors till the last! Has the poor boy dreamed up some new crazy exercise system?" 

A new system . . . yes. But crazy? No, not really, for the title is very true, the working technique is simple, and the results are amazingly gratifying. You may demand, as did the late Will Rogers, "Show me a 'show-me'". So without prefacing my homily, here, gentle reader is how we here at my gym are practicing a new system of counting our repetitions, the psychology of which has enabled us to do not only our scheduled reps, but permits us to force out some valuable extra ones as well. 

This is how it all began . . . 

Once upon a time (three months ago, to be exact), I was observing one of my pupils perform the bench press. Jerry had been stuck with 225 pounds for two weeks, and in addition, was losing reps each exercise day. I was puzzled because no one in my classes was a harder worker, or had more endurance than Jerry. 

Having ascertained that he had nothing organically wrong with him, that he had been living a good, clean and fairly righteous life, and that he otherwise was in the (you should excuse the expression) pink, I concluded his trouble must be mental. 

"What were you thinking about while doing that last set, Jerry?" I asked. 

"Abe," he replied disgustedly, "I'm honestly trying to get out those 10 reps, but somewhere . . . as I count the reps, along about 8 or 9 I'm sure I'll never get the 10th."

Since he had confirmed my suspicion that it was a mental problem, I thought perhaps if I could conjure up something to spur him on, that might do the trick. Perhaps a prize . . . but now, as I visualized my stock of prizes, I realized I had very few to give. There was an old broken-down iron shoe . . . a cast-off, forlorn, and unloved pair of gym trunks tossed aside by a calloused client . . . or maybe that cruddy old head strap . . . no, this was just wishful thinking. Not even if I offered Jerry one of Goldberg's specials (milk, chocolate, bananas, honey, and high protein food, 45 cents please) would it budge him out of his mental state. 

What in the world could I do for him? 

There there flashed through my head a trick I had used the previous week in just such a situation . . . perhaps it would work on Jerry. Here's what happened. 

I had set a goal for myself. I wanted to do 50 leg presses with 500 pounds. I had lain under the machine, and summoning all my strength and endurance I was batting them out, when suddenly I became conscious of the fact that I was getting so fatigued from thinking about the high reps, and the actual counting of them, that I was unable to concentrate on the exercise itself, and consequently I was getting nothing from it. 

I stopped the exercise, took five minutes rest, and decided to change my way of counting. I got back under the machine, determined to do a full 50 reps this time . . . 

So, instead of counting UP to 50, the very thought of which is tiring, I counted downward thusly: 

Twenty-five-AND, twenty-four-AND, etc., downward until I reached two-AND, one-AND. I did one complete press on "twenty-five," and a complete press on "AND," etc. 

By thinking of counting downward, beginning with the highest NUMERICAL count, and continuing until the lowest NUMERICAL count had been reached, the battle was progressively easier. 

I then suggested that Jerry try it on his bench press. He reluctantly agreed, and I sent him out for a drink of water, and a brief rest. While he was gone from the room, I quietly placed 10 more pounds on the bar, and when Jerry returned, I handed him the weight, counting thusly for him: SIX - AND - FIVE - AND - FOUR - AND - THREE - AND - TWO - AND - ONE - AND. 

Jerry had pressed 10 pounds more than his limit, and in addition had gotten 12 reps, which as L'il Abner says, "Enny fool kin plainly see." 

Needles to say, Jerry felt that he had conquered the world when I told him of the little trick I had played on him. That it was a trick is true. We had simply played a trick on his mind, but it worked. So, now I tell my pupils, "Don't count up to 10, count DOWN to ONE. Certainly, if you can make your mind believe that you are doing the NUMERICALLY highest rep first, and the NUMERICALLY lowest rep last, truly then, the last two reps were the easiest. 

And so it must have happened to you many times. No doubt, you have often said, when a training period went badly, "Oh, well! It's just one of my off days." The chances are that your body was rarin' to go, and your mind was off on some tangent far removed from bodybuilding and you were fatigued even before you did the exercise. Consequently, the whole workout was fruitless.

If you can make your mind not necessarily "work FOR you," but instead teach it to play WITH you, you can accomplish miracles in bodybuilding. The mind and the body should be partners, not boss and slave. Think of your exercises as being not "half as difficult," but rather that they are "twice as easy." One is positive, the other slightly negative, although the essential meaning is the same. That's one of the great secrets of successful bodybuilding. "Think positively, and optimistically." 

Once you have gotten the hang of counting "downhill" instead of "uphill," you can apply it to any and all exercises. 

It is particularly effective when doing supersets. One of the best groups of these supersets is for the chest. I consider it the greatest group of exercises I have ever employed for blowing up the chest. It consists of three parts, each of 12 reps. Some of my students were unable to tackle it until I showed them this new system of counting. For to count 36 repetitions with an adequate weight is too formidable for some people. There are stages in development, when everyone needs supersets and this new system is just made to order for those occasions. 

Here is the chest with the supersets [tri-sets]. It's rugged, but man what a blown-up feeling it gives. Try it on your next chest training day. It consists of the following: 

Dumbbell Incline Bench Press, bench at 30 degree angle)

Stiff-Arm Lateral Raise, flat bench

Bent-Arm Lateral Raise, bench at 30 degree angle. 

Do one set of DB incline bench presses for 12 reps . . . rest only 30 seconds, and do one set of stiff-arm lateral raises . . . rest only 30 seconds more, and do one set of bent-arm lateral raises on the incline bench. 

Now take only a one minute rest before the next tri-set.

One the second, third and fourth tri-sets, decrease the weight of the dumbbell by 10 pounds each set, but keep the starting weight for the stiff-arm, and bent-arm lateral raises. Rest only 30 seconds between parts of the tri-sets, and only one minute between the tri-sets themselves. 

For an advanced man a good starting weight in the incline press would be 80 pounds for the first set, decreasing to 70, 60, and 50 for the remaining sets. A good starting weight in the stiff-arm lateral raise would be 30 pounds, and in the bent-arm lateral raise, 55 pounds. 

Have all the bells ready and waiting. 

The stiff-arm and bent-arm lateral raises should be performed with this slight variation . . . instead of lowering the weights slowly, let them swing down until you feel a terrific pull at the sternum. Heave them up with a great concentrative surge. Feel the snap-pull at the bottom, and the crushing effect coming up. 

Note: Don't. 

In counting your reps of the tri-sets, count SIX-AND, FIVE-AND, etc.,, downward. Do a complete press and lowering on SIX, and another on AND, until you have completed the set. 

If you doubt this counting system, here's a simple armchair test you can make on yourself. As you sit, count forcefully up to 10, as follows: ONE - TWO - THREE - FOUR - FIVE - SIX - SEVEN - EIGHT - NINE - TEN. 

Now count the 10 reps in this manner: FIVE-AND, FOUR-AND, THREE-AND, TWO-AND, ONE-AND. You will have discovered that is seemingly took less time to count downward than upward . . . even though 10 words were spoken in either instance. 

Try doing some sit-ups. What's you usual number? 30, perhaps? Try doing 45 reps by counting as follows, doing a complete sit-up and return on each WORD: Fifteen-And-Uh, Fourteen-And-Uh, Thirteen-And-Uh, and so on down to One-And-Uh. You will be amazed at the ease with which these 45 sit-ups were accomplished. Those 45 will appear easier than the 30 you had been doing. 

Note: This is the earliest and one of the few articles I've seen on variations of the standard counting approach. Ages ago I used several that were similar to those above, especially when doing heavy breathing squats. One-Ee-And-Uh up to Five-Ee-And-Uh for 20 reps. A little while after that, I chose to just lift a finger the tiniest bit after each rep. Start with your right hand little finger after rep one, lift your right hand ring finger after rep two, etc., all the way to going through the fingers and thumbs of both hands twice for a total of 20 reps. But sure, I use all sorts of counting methods, including ones similar to those presented in this earliest article I've seen on rep-count variations from the past. Because I was a musician in the past I used similar versions of rep-counting. One-And, Two-And (double count); One-Trip-Let, Two-Trip-Let (triple count); One-Eee-And-Uh, Two-Eee-And-Uh (groups of fours), etc. It's all about the games we can play with our minds that lead us to believe a counting variation is "easier" than the standard method. If you're doing multiple sets, saving the different method for a last hard set comes in handy at times as well, and you don't have to use any method of counting reps only. Whatever works. 

When counting even numbers of reps such as sets of 8 or 10, count Four-And, or Five-And, downward counting. Such counting has another beneficial effect. Since the mind is relieved of the fatiguing count, it can more ably concentrate on the exercise at hand. 

I do hope that you will give these counting variations a good try. Use them in any exercise and they will serve you well. 

Enjoy Your Lifting! 

Freestyle Arm Training - Dave Draper

 

From this issue

Paul Graham, Dave Draper,

many others as well. 

Nothing seems to excite a bodybuilder as much as the prospect of growing a larger pair of arms. And everywhere I've gone to give posing exhibitions and training seminars, I'm always asked how I train my arms. The same sort of questions were asked me in Sydney at the fine seminar and Pro Mr. Universe competition promoted by Paul Graham. So as a result of all this interest, I've decided to reveal one of my favorite arm workouts. 

To begin with, you should know something about my training philosophy. For many years I was a slave to set routines. You know what I mean . . . 

the same body part the same days every week with the same exercises, same poundages, same sets and same reps. All of this same-same-same finally got to me, because I'm not a "same" person. 

Everyone is a unique individual. 

I am.

You are. 

We are all unique. 

Yes I am.

Yes I am.

While a few individuals might thrive on the regimentation of such set workouts, I don't think most of us can remain sane very long on such routines. We need freedom, the chance to play in our environment. And when most of us are subjected to such a regimented routine -- to me it's almost like being in a prison -- we begin to rebel by missing workouts. 

As a result of missed workouts, we don't make gains, and not making gains causes a lot of potentially good bodybuilders to drop out of the sport. I almost came to this point in my own life several years ago, and it scared me. All of my best friends had come from the sport and I didn't want to lose them. I had to come up with some good solution to keep me training. 

My solution to this problem was what I call a "free-style routine." 

Very simply put, I began to train for enjoyment, doing whatever I felt like each workout. It was like being suddenly set free to play in the forest! 

I immediately began enjoying training. 

In a short time I discovered that I was hitting bodyparts about the same number of times per week as before, and I was doing about as much work. 

But when a bodypart had been overworked or a joint was hurting, I'd work around it for that day. A couple of days later my body would tell me to work it again. 

I was working hard, ENJOYING IT, and making some VERY good gains. The freestyle routine even gave me the freedom to train with someone else for a day or two if I felt the urge, and without any guilt about letting something of my own slide. In Sydney, as a result, I put in some very challenging morning workouts with Paul Graham. 

This never could have happened if I'd still been a slave to my old set type of routine. 

Because I'm on a freestyle routine, my workouts for certain bodyparts may or may not be the same from day to day or week to week. The leg routine may be different every time, chest the same for two weeks, delts changing every couple of workouts. Arms haven't changed much at all for the last few weeks before my trip to Sydney, nor while I was training there, simply because I was on to a great workout for them.

Now . . . 

I'm going to give you the routine I was using for my stay in Sydney. It's typical of how I train, but do bear in mind that I am constantly changing the routines to suit my needs and mood. This one is done about three times a week and takes something in the neighborhood of 45 minutes to complete.

I keep moving as fast as I can, and on all sets I go to about 95% of failure. In essence, I go as close to failure as possible and still keep my sanity. And I usually do arms by themselves as the evening part of my double split. 

My arm workouts start with a superset of Barbell Curls and Lying Triceps Extensions, both using an Olympic bar. I do a warmup set or two and then 5 sets of 12 down to 8 reps on curls, and six sets of 15-20 on the extensions. I usually go up in weight on each set. 

Next I move to a tri-set of Incline Curls, Single DB Triceps Extensions and Cable Triceps Extensions. I do five trips through this tri-set, 12-8 reps on the curls and 12-15 on the triceps movements. The curls are done with the dumbbells traveling out at a 45-degree angle from the body, and the cable for extensions comes from behind my back.

The final superset I do in this particular workout is for my forearms. It's five trips through a superset of Zottman Curls (10-12 reps) and Wrist Curls (15-20 reps). Wrist curls are done palms-up with a narrow grip and my forearms running along an exercise bench. Zottmans are done alternately, the palm on each hand facing up as that hand goes up and then rotated down as the hand travels back down. 

Here:

https://ditillo2.blogspot.com/2009/05/george-zottman-mac-batchelor.html

This is a fairly stiff workout, suited for top men only. You may need to scale down the number of sets on each exercise to suit your own abilities, but it is a good routine. I hope you make great gains on it! 

Enjoy Your Lifting!