Tuesday, February 24, 2026

Include Compound Movements in Your Training - Achilles Kallos (1969)

 


With the advent of specialization many bodybuilders overlook the importance and effectiveness of compound exercises and they do only exercises that isolate the area they intend working. 

This is all very well and necessary, but all-around exercises are also very important and should be included in all bodybuilders' schedules. Being exercises which develop more than one muscle at a time, these movements are usually much harder than the isolated types.
 







For example, let's take the repetition clean and press. Usually you would do either the clean or  the press, but not as one complete movement. Now, if you try 10 consecutive clean & presses you will realize what a terrific exercise it is. Your lower back, trapezius, biceps, forearms and deltoids will come strongly into play when doing this exercise.    











Another good compound exercise is the lying pullover and press. Lie on a bench, pull a barbell from behind you to your chest, then press it, lower the weight to your chest and lower behind your head to the floor. Your pectorals, lats, deltoids and triceps come into play. 












Snatches, and clean & jerks are also compound exercises that develop most of the muscles in your body. Unless you have tried lifting before you will find them hard to master at first. The one hand lifts are, in my opinion, easier to master and even develop more muscle than the two  hand lifts. 

You need not use very heavy poundages to derive benefit from them either. The one hand barbell snatch is one of the finest exercises. All you need is a 50 or 70 pound barbell,. Make sure that you are close to the bar and grip it at the center. Your free hand can rest on your knee. Now pull the barbell close to your body, coming erect as you do so. As the barbell reaches chest level flip it overhead and drop into a full squat position. Hold the weight overhead and come erect before lowering the weight to the floor. 

It will take a while to get used to the exercise; 8-10 repetitions will make you breathless. Not only does your  upper body get a  workout, but so do your legs. 













The one arm barbell press & squat is another good exercise. As a matter of fact, it is easier to master than the snatch. Hold a barbell (50-80 pounds) at should level. Now press it, and as you do so lower into a squat position. Hold the weight overhead and raise up before lowering the barbell to your shoulder. Rest your heels on a block for better balance if needed. I am sure you will be surprised how your legs are affected, and even your waist, besides the rest of your upper body. 



There are many other compound exercises like power snatches, power cleans, and even squats can be regarded as compound exercises. 

You can select one or two of the exercises I have recommended and incorporate them in your normal training routines. 3-5 sets of 8-10 repetitions. Incidentally, if compound exercises are done with lighter weights in higher repetitions they will do much to reduce your bodyweight. So if you need more muscularity, try them. 

I have found compound exercises strenuous and therefore do them separately with a couple of minutes rest. What I have been doing with regard to PHA training is to include one sequence of five exercises first for the required number of sets. Then one hand snatch for 3 sets of 8 reps . . . after that another sequence . . . then once again a compound exercise like repetition clean & press. 

If you have a desire to get more out of your training, try compound movements. 




                                                                                                     2005, 680 pages                                                                                 

Directed by Peter Lorre
1951, 98 minutes




"Mad Love" - 1935, 70 minutes: Grand Guignol theater actress Yvonne Orlac is married to concert pianist Stephen and plans to take a break from acting to tour with him. 

However, Dr. Gogol, her biggest fan, won't let her go so easily. 

When Stephen's hands are destroyed in an accident, Dr. Gogol's obsession with Yvonne leads him to replace Stephen's hands with those of a knife-wielding murderer who was sentenced to death. 

Soon, Stephen's hands develop a mind of their own . . . 


                                            
Possible double bill with silent film "The Hands of Orlac" from 1924 . . . A world famous pianist loses both hands in an accident. When new hands are grafted on, he does not know they belonged to a murderer. 



"The Unfinished Time: Russia in the 90s"
A documentary in 10 parts. 



Enjoy Your Lifting!   































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Sunday, February 22, 2026

Why You Should Include PHA in Your Training - Robert Kennedy (1969)

 





An article by Robert Kennedy, published five years before he put out the first issue of Musclemag International.

Here's a couple more of his, prior to MMI:



There's plenty of explanatory material on PHA training available 
here and elsewhere. 

This article by Dennis Weis is a short read: 
"A Revisit With the PHA System"

He also put a book(let?) together, but I haven't had the opportunity to read it.

A downloadable compilation of scanned Bob Gajda PHA articles from the mags, 
I believe originally put together by Terry Strand: 

Robert Kennedy, right from the first issue of his magazine, tried to stress the aesthetic aspects of bodybuilding via his editorials and those of the writers he hired, in the main. It's easy to understand why he got along so well with Vince Gironda.





Why You Should Include PHA in Your Training
by Robert Kennedy

Many people find something vaguely unattractive about a body built entirely from flushing exercises with weights, whereby the exerciser utilizes set after set of the same exercise to congest a particular area before going on to the next bodypart.

Sometimes these pumpers so flush their muscles that they seem to almost blow up out of shape. And when this is done constantly over a period of time the muscle takes on a permanent swollen look which is very different indeed from the bodybuilder's original concept of frisky masculine beauty. 

Few can put their finger on what it is they don't like. All they know is that something seems wrong. The body is slightly puffy, a little bloated, perhaps. It lacks individual shape and seems to be blown out to a characterless mass of hypertrophy. Do you know what I mean? 

Actually, this method of using many sets of the same exercise is one of the quickest ways of gaining muscular bodyweight; but flushing the muscles this way does not give you body personality that other forms of training do. In fact, the multi-set system DETRACTS from the physique where individual body character is concerned, especially when one really starts packing on the muscle. 



It is an indisputable fact that the bigger one gets from using this kind of training, the less unique one appears aesthetically. Your body starts to lose its shape, individualism and character. Men who build up their muscles entirely from pumping (spinnin', flushin') are missing out on on of nature's greatest attributes: PERSONAL INDIVIDUALITY. 





Somehow multi-pumping sets continued over a long period of time have a uniforming effect. Sure, you get big. Sure, you have wide shoulders, big pecs and legs, a small waist etc., but if you train solely by using these pumping methods you will emerge, not from an individual mold as nature intended, but from a hypothetical factory conveyor belt where scores of one product are manufactured, almost identical. 


As I said earlier, the set system of continuous pump has a great deal to recommend it as a muscle-builder and I believe should  be utilized by every bodybuilder from time to time. But to maintain at least a modicum of ruggedness and individual character, I believe the bodybuilder should embark periodically on a system of "different" movements, or at least a different way  of performing them. 

More variety is needed, more attack from different angles. And what better way of going about this than undertaking to formulate a PHA schedule tailored to your  needs? 

So many seem to be under the impression that they should follow the PHA system because it is "good" for them. This is all very true, but an identical effect on the respiratory organs can be obtained by a 10-minute run. And for those of you who care to extend this time spent jogging, by an added 15 minutes, the benefits can be tripled, and a basic respiratory and circulatory fitness can be attained that NO amount of PHA could reproduce.

I myself have followed, and will at least periodically continue to follow the PHA system for one reason only: 
TO MAINTAIN PHYSIQUE INDIVIDUALITY AND PERSONALITY. 

We know that PHA tends to increase metabolism.
Fine! 
We know that PHA enables us to train in a nonstop fashion and thereby allows more exercise to be done in a shorter period of time. 
Again, fine! 

But few seem to recognize one of the greatest benefits of this system. It gives you the kind of body that exudes individuality. With PHA (combined with good health and nutritional habits) one gets bigger while retaining body character, as opposed to the pumping system where on inadvertently blows up the muscles until they lack any individual personality traits. They appear puffy and seldom inspire anyone except the out-and-out size enthusiast (who is usually very young and impressionable).    

Now that the top men in bodybuilding are able to build immense size, we are beginning to realize that in our effort to build bulk we are missing out on the real issue: "attractiveness." 

In my view, Frank Zane presented his all-time best physique 
at the '68 Mr. Universe. 


We have lost our perspective. 

Our ideals of building our bodies in God's image, our desire to "gild the lily" of an already amazing creation, to enhance and bring out the natural  muscular beauty of the male physique has been left for the birds. It seems we have become solely interested in breeding muscular phenomena instead of handsome, muscular male physiques (written in 1969). 



In my opinion it is time we stopped and took a long look at ourselves. 

It seems sad to me that words like "beautiful," "graceful" and "handsome" have disappeared from bodybuilding terminology. Are we frightened in a frisky way of being labeled "homosexuals" or "effeminates" if we use them? I just don't know! 

I am well aware that there must always be change, but I am against change unless it is for the better.  The modern tendency toward awesome, almost grotesque massiveness is so wrong that it appalls almost everyone.

As Earle Edmond Liederman says, "I have seen some of these muscle beach phenomenon even cause dogs to bark at them as they strut along the beach with their tensed muscles." Be big by all means fellas, but avoid blowing out your muscles to the point where you appear supernatural. 







Is it just me or does Tom Platz 
bear a facial resemblance? 

They're both cheeky guys, sure, but there's more there than that. 





Recently Achilles Kallos  wrote of his experiments in combining PHA with the pump system.

IronMan Vol 27 No. 5 - On Ebay now for around 40 bucks U.S. or best offer, with another 15 or 20 added for shipping. Two days left to bid. The article is titled "PHA Combined With Pump." Cover-man Chris Dickerson.

He wrote an article on including compound movements in your training that I'll be putting on here next. The article gives his method of incorporating compound exercises into PHA layouts . . . 

Here:


I believe this to be a very fine way to train. Ash (not the Bruce Campbell Ash) goes on to suggest that in his opinion certain muscle groups do not lend themselves to the PHA system. He cites squats and dead lifts saying that "I discovered that some exercises like squats, deadlifts were not worth doing with the PHA system because by the time I came back to the exercise after doing five other ones in between, my squats were difficult. What I mean is that some exercises like squats need: 

1) warming up
2) deep concentration
3) progressive poundages
4) high energy. 

Therefore I would rather do them separately.

Note: one approach to interspersing larger compound exercises within a PHA layout is to pyramid up over the first few set-cycles, basically including the warmup sets for the bigger exercises in there. Also, where they're placed in the "giant set" PHA layout can make a huge difference, as well as what exercises they're proceeded and followed by. 

I figure the bigger the lift in a PHA workout, the fewer "other" exercises you should include in each combination of movements. If you're using only higher-rep, isolation movements you will be able to get through more exercises in each set-rep exercise concoction. 

Being an innovator and a master of this form of training, Bob Gajda came up with advanced ways of placing the big lifts within PHA layouts, going down as low as triples with some of them. i am sure that the right kind of lifter could come up, over time and with more experience, with ways to use singles in PHA training. The number of set-cycles must necessarily increase when using lower rep structures, oh for fucksake, I sound like another science-douche here. Lower reps with a higher weight in the big moves will take more sets to warm up for, and really, pyramiding the one big lift in a set-cycle adds to the total volume of both the big and the smalls, movement wise. 

It might work for some to use a  12, 8, 5,4,3,2,1 rep setup on the big lift in a set-cycle of PHA-style stuff, performing as many higher-rep sets as you need on that day to get to the lowers. Of course you don't do this with the smaller exercises. 

Anyhow, have a look here, and you'll likely be able to personalize something along these lines . . . tailor it to your goals and current abilities. 



Anyone who has difficulty with his arms, for example, and many do, will have to resort to a lot of pumping sets to build size in this area. 

However, the point of this  article is to bid you continue with your multi-sets. Thrill to the enjoyment of added size, but never pump your muscle over a long period of time to the point where they become unwholesome to the eye; where they detract by their synthetic puffiness (of course this blubbery muscle consistency is even more apparent in the fellows who take anabolics, and is one of the telltale signs of the dreaded drug-taker, along with puffiness above the eyes and heavy jowls.). I looked up "jowls" in the dictionary and there was a photo of some guy named Platz. 

I am also advocating that any gains you make from the multi-set system, you consolidate by periodically training with the PHA system of training as rediscovered  by Mr. America, Bob Gajda, and publicized most by IronMan magazine (Bob Kennedy knows how to get published in the musclemags, even back then). The variety of exercise and the mode of attacking the muscles from a different angle every set will help give your body the character and personality that is your hereditament. (I'll bet this is the only time that word was or ever will be used in a lifting article or book . . . hereditament. Go Bob Kennedy!). 

Some of you, especially the younger readers, will fell that the phrase "body personality"  is a lot of phooey! Others will know what I am referring to straightaway. It is a hard thing to define, but like the character personality of the mind, it is very important. Basically, it is your true body shape. It is usually more apparent to the opposite sex and they have been known to respond rapidly in some rather aggressive expressions of the mating ritual.

Note: Orators will already realize the fragile and easily misinterpreted nature of the English language. "A lot of phooey!" Lacking the proper eloquence and experience can easily result in this phrase sounding to the listener as "A lot of hooey!" Or "A lotta phooey!" It's a very complex language, that's for damn sure. 

Varied sports or exercises will only enhance your physique personality, but unfortunately continuous pumping tends to detract from it. 


 Was re-reading some of this one the other day.
Some interesting things in it. 


Hundred bucks a year for a sub. No, 
you won't get streaming access to 
EVERY movie Criterion has in their catalog. 
It's a good deal, really. 



This one came out last week and I'm 
looking forward to reading it
come Wednesday. 




   "The Disappearance of Josef Mengele"
2025, 135 minutes. 

"Typically for this filmmaker, the movie has a sprawling, detractors might say structureless, narrative 
that juggles timelines and locations." 
Sounds wonderful to me. 

Films directed by Kirill Serebrennikov: 

Book:



Enjoy Your Lifting! 






















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Friday, February 20, 2026

Dietary Guidelines (2025)

 



"I was startin' to think that shirtless man in my apartment wasn't a Genie."

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Can You Bodybuild Your Way to Power? - Bill Seno, written by John Terlazzo (1967)

Bloody AMAZING!
Lifetime drug free


Vasilef, Seno, Oliva


An individual could be lifting for years and years and yet never find that "secret of training." The reason is because he usually talks to everyone in the gym about wanting to learn the real training routine that will help him gain weight and add more power to his muscles. 

But let's face it . . . Anyone who is an avid devotee of the sport must be interested in size or power or both!  

By now I know that what most of you are thinking: "How can I learn the essentials of the sport if I don't ask, read or listen to another's experience?"

This is true. Reading articles such as this and listening to the experience of others is helpful, if only to draw a comparison. Through this  medium we can all benefit and analyze ourselves better. If not, forget it fella, there just ain't any secret routines. 

The real  secret, however, lies hidden within each and every one of us, providing just as many training routines as there are people. But it's also a fact that there are similar body structures among all people. Nevertheless, our organism is a vast complex of mental, emotional and physical variances, all of which are very influential in helping us to seek muscle and strength. 

Some of us are physically and psychologically better prepared for Olympic lifting, while others are better suited for powerlifting. This idea constitutes the fact that we all react differently to various exercise activities. 

Conversely, there are ideologies which are strongly supported by prominent members of the sport which explains the physiological similarities for all people such as Bob Gajda's PHA system of training (plenty of info on that can be found on this blog and elsewhere, it's worth a look). This system actually incorporates the process of human physiology. In essence, it should work for anybody who has a body that is functioning properly. 

I'm sure that the PHA system is getting down to the basic science of bodybuilding, and in turn it must be knocking on that "secret door" if there is one. It surely worked for Mr. Gajda but I doubt that it would work for everybody, simply because the strength of the individual differs. 

Even if this system does work for you, you will find a degree of variation in your routine as compared to another successful routine. And unless you  do find this variation that will suit you precisely the way you want it, you will not develop your body to its utmost potential. Instead, stagnation, depression and confusion of the many training routines will result. 

Paul Anderson . . . 



Here's a great photo of Paul Anderson 
and later-to-be weightlifting coach extraordinaire Michael Cohen. 


Yes, Paul Anderson, considered one of the strongest men of all time, believes, I understand, in getting as much out of one routine as possible. Patient Paul . . . preacher, prodigious power-man, phenomenal fucking fantastic athlete! Phew. Then, when that  routine is depleted as noted by one's failure to make gains, he switches to another routine and works it until it exhausts its potential. 

Wouldn't it be something, if Mighty Paul Anderson, the Dixie Derrick, had noted his training in a pile of logbooks over the years! Very creative guy and it'd be a treat to see those if they ever existed. It would be great to see some of the not-known methods he tried that didn't work for him, along with some of the unknown knowns he implemented but didn't make public. 

 -- I imagine some training author could, by using all the info on Mr. Anderson, including  . . . 


. . . compile a book presented as an imagined training log of his. An imagined true work of fiction presented novel-style. Hell, use a fictitious name for Paul A, let's say "Derik Dixie" and have at 'er. Spend a few months on the thing and then present it to the teeming masses of people anxiously awaiting the publication and sale of your masterwork. I'd buy it and love you for doing it. In a platonic way, of course. Depending. 

Okay, okay, okay . . . 

I know that many other giants of power believe and follow this same principle. It seems logical enough, yet logic doesn't always work  with complex beings. Frankly, it doesn't work for me! I've tried all kinds of training routines in my eight years of lifting but I always  return to my old routine to help me make gains (the "z" was not in use back in '67. Well, only in certain circles and in a somewhat covert, closeted fashion) . . . gains, damnit, in strength AND bodybuilding.

This is the routine I find best for me and it's included here merely for comparison. But those who wish to try it are at liberty to do so. 

I train three times a week (duh, that's all?), and use the following exercises in the sequence given: 

Squat
Deadlift
Bench press
Press behind neck
Triceps pushdowns
Curls
Chins occasionally, and sit-ups at will.   

I warm up, then to the point of as strong as I feel. Then, I work down, running the gamut in sets and repetitions (full pyramid?). Again, the number of sets are controlled according to the way I feel that day. 

Usually, I will work about 5 to 8 sets after hitting the peak set of one rep. Continuing from there I work to achieve thorough congestion by using a set of 4 reps, then 8, then 10. By this time the muscle is thoroughly pumped up and I proceed to another exercise.   

Note: You can find more info on Mr. Seno's training methods and recommendations in his fine book, "Pushing for Power." Here, in five parts:

All of the exercises I listed are done in this way except the deadlift. High repetitions irritate my spine, so I do a number of single reps with about 2/3 of my limit and quit. 

In conclusion, if you must spend your time finding a suitable routine, don't waste it by using somebody else's. Instead, analyze yourself and your potentials. 

Know what works for you and you alone

then CAPITALIZE on it by working hard.

You should realize your goal in a much shorter time than you'll expect but only
if you work hard. 


I know how important diet is when it comes to weight training gains, absolutely. 
Here are three appropriate cookbooks set for release in the next month.
I did not know that males and females have different cookbooks! 
Something new learned every goddamned day . . . 
but only if you seek it out.  




                                                                        The macros are nicely laid out in this one and 
                             the recipes can easily be altered to suit your current physique and strength goals. 

On a related note, I've been attempting to alter my digestive capabilities as we near the impending collapse of society, that time when food sources and grocery stores will no longer exist. I find that, over time, the human body adapts to rotted food quite well, and the TP costs aren't really all that great. Carrion of all kinds, crow-style food, garbage, dead animals, house-pets, etc. 

So far, so good. 

Its tragic, the collapse of yet another society and/or civilization, but then, 
who really knows what evil twerks in the minds of men and 
other self-important mammals.

When it comes, and it will come, my main worry is availability of adult diapers.
My DIY Depends made of burlap and binder twine will just have to do, I suppose. 

Also and unrelated, a gangster film trilogy by Rainer Werner Fassbinder:

Love is Colder Than Death (1969)
Gods of the Plague (1970)
The Expendables 2 (2012)

Okay, that oughta do it.
Piss off and . . . 


Enjoy Your Lifting! 



































 
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