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Have you heard that Homer is hard at work on a redo of Good Will Hunting?
It has been my privilege during the past quarter of a century to have trained several hundred thousand men and women in every part of the globe. Anyone with such an extraordinary experience of that kind behind them is worthy to be recognized as an authority - and international authority. Of course, there are very few men who have had such an unusual experience.
My followers, wherever they are, know that when I make statements they can be depended on. My teachings bring RESULTS, so they can be followed with absolute confidence. Anyone who has been following my various courses, books, writings, lectures and radio broadcasts must agree that I have always strived to be fair . . . in so far as I have never stressed ONE PARTICULAR METHOD to the exclusion of all others.
I know, and have continuously urged that ALL NATURAL LAWS be followed and observed. It is because I stress the APPLICATION OF ALL NATURAL LAWS that my followers are able to secure what often seems like "miraculous results" when all other methods have failed.
The author, on the lower right
I want you to grasp these facts, because by understanding them they will mean much more to you. Here is an illustration of what I mean. Hundreds of skinny, underweight fellows have bought barbells in the hope and expectation that they would quickly increase their weight around fifteen to thirty or so pounds. For some unknown reason to them, they do not make the expected gains and become discouraged, quit using the barbells and give up the idea of trying to gain in disgust.
But hundreds of these fellows have written to me for advice and help - asking just what they can do to add the desired muscle. Well, I'm not condemning the use of barbells. It is simply that there are OTHER FACTORS which must be taken into consideration, and when these other measures are used, results are soon forthcoming.
Therefore, I say - if you are not getting results, don't quit. Try to find out exactly where the trouble lies, and overcome it; or, that advantage of additional methods.
Before giving any exercises or foods as a means of helping you to gain weight I want you to give these facts your full attention.
In the first place, look yourself over critically in a full length mirror and see what needs attention and correcting. Decide how much you WANT to gain. Then, make up your mind you are GOING to gain. Allow yourself a reasonable period in which to make the desired gains.
Remember, it is intelligently ORGANIZED efforts and a well-balanced plan you must have to secure the real benefits. Haphazard methods or spasmodic efforts or an indifferent attitude or half-hearted attempts won't do. And there is where so many fail, and blame the barbells or other equipment.
I believe, throughout the years, I have stressed the importance of MENTAL ATTITUDE in training far more than any other instructor. The champion strong men, the top notchers, the contest winners will all assure you and confirm what I have said, that the made up their minds to win. They put their whole heart and soul into their training. They gave it everything they've got. They had a definite aim - one supreme objective - as unflinching determination to be a success at their appointed task. You can have what you want if you really want it intensively enough - assuming it is within the realm of probability for you. Plenty of upper case I omitted in that last bit.
The "kernel of the nuts" - the "secret of success" in gaining weight (or achieving anything else) is in the above paragraph. So restudy it often - and BURN the facts into your mind. Put that spirit of thoroughness into all your efforts.
Instead of doubting, fearing and wondering whether or not you will gain BELIEVE and KNOW that you WILL (good hunting). This inner conviction, this positive BELIEF, plus the intensified efforts persistently observed are the big factors in helping you secure RESULTS.
I have never failed to stress vital facts among my thousands upon thousands of students and followers.
When you unlock this force within you, you realize the giant power within. When this force is used constructively it is really limitless in power, it is the god power within. Think that over.
When you realize this tremendous force it automatically influences and commands all your body to do your bidding. They respond to your thought. So again I repeat - think the thoughts you WANT - intensively, powerfully, earnestly, enthusiastically (did I miss any?), ah yes, believingly.
This type of thinking will help force cell-growth. All great achievers throughout the ages have used this power, all the way from Homer to Matt Damon but not Ben Affleck. No one ever attained greatness without it.
Never mind what present appearances are, keep telling yourself these facts. Do so particularly every night just before going to sleep, and the instant you awaken in the morning - because at these special times your subconscious mind picks up that thought and influences the body cells to respond to that thought. Do it, now and persist with it. Prove it to yourself that it works.
This is of course the first step. Like everything else, before it can be brought into PHYSICAL manifestation, it must first exist in someone's mind. Every ocean greyhound, every modern streamline train, airplane, etc. first existed in someone's MIND. It is the architects plan. Okay then! All aboard the dream train.
Give this phase your special attention. Assuming you've now got the idea, we can progress.
To gain weight you don't want to acquire mere bulk - what you need is healthy, muscular, stay-there flesh. To add 10-15 pounds of this muscular tissue isn't coming out of thin air. You've got to eat the right kinds of foods to put it there. Then you exercise like blazes to mold it to an attractive pleasing shape ("like blazes" would be around RPE 7 to 9).
Here again your MIND comes into action. You use INTELLIGENCE in the types of foods you will eat and exercise POWER OF WILL in sticking to those particular foods - and avoid the stuff that isn't any good - the stuff you likely have been eating. It isn't helping you any, or you wouldn't be underweight - then WHY continue eating it? Be willing and eager to help yourself. Change your eating habits.
I'm going to deal with the subject of FOOD first, for this obvious reason. If you do not eat ENOUGH and the RIGHT foods you are not supplying your muscle cells with that they need to make them GROW. The wrong foods build weakness, and to keep on exercising under those conditions merely tears down tissue faster than it can be rebuilt. Indeed, it doesn't get a chance to be rebuilt, and so you remain skinny and soon lack the energy and inclination to exercise, giving up the whole thing in disgust.
If you are suffering with any particular illness - it may be a cold, catarrh, stomach ulcers, missing limbs, utter lack of hope or meaning, severe depression and a desire to stop fucking eating, shitting and bloody well breathing already - NEVER MIND ABOUT YOUR WEIGHT - for the time being. Get back to NORMAL health first - for practical help regarding your condition, write me - now assuming you are in otherwise fair-to-middling shape except that you want to gain more weight be willing to eat some different foods.
You may have to shop around quite a bit before you find stores that carry some of the foods I'll mention, but that's all right. Anything you can't get - some of you fellows located in small communities - order it from me, and I'll get it for you. I'll help you, so there is no excuse for saying you can't get certain items (the "health food" industry sure has changed). That barrier is removed. Just remember, I'm as near as your mailbox.
NATURAL foods help build NORMAL bodies. This means cut out the devitalized stuff (the "junk food" industry sure has changed), and the mucous-forming foods, and fat-forming foods.
Natural foods mean fresh fruits, unsweetened juices, unsalted vegetable juices, raw salads, cooked greens, fresh lean meats, fresh fish and seafood, whole meal, rye, or soybean products, honey, egg yolks, raw unsalted nuts, herbs, fresh vegetables and soups and broths, dried fruits and the various approved food supplements (the "supplement industry" sure has changed.).
White rolls and coffee, or a piece of white toast, or some pancakes, or some corn flakes for breakfast; a sandwich and pie and coffee or a coke at noon; with delicatessen meats, smashed potato, a few overcooked greens, with jelly, pie or sponge cake or doughnuts for supper are definitely NOT GOING TO HELP YOU GAIN.
But in millions of homes such type meals are typical, with little variation each day. Hang on . . .
was the "TV tray" preceded by some form of "radio tray" and before that a "book tray" and possibly earlier a small table set in front of a traveling minstrel? "Enjoy the wonder of cave paintings while you eat!" Were there restaurants back in the good old Neanderthal days? No matter! They all ate as we should back then and I ain't over-romanticizing being a hunter-gatherer who survived on rotted small animals, insects, red clay and the occasional roots of a bitter-tasting plant not yet named.
But in millions of homes such type meals are typical, with little variation each day. No wonder we have a sick humanity!
Did he say "sick humanity" or
"slick humanity" there?
And the trash we have served in the average restaurant all over North America is atrocious!
Doc Tilney, I presume?
Fat Tony wants to see you in the back.
Okay, okay . . . happily, we do have many good eating places serving excellent nutritious meals.
Start eating more of the natural foods. Eat slowly, don't bolt your food down, avoid eating in a rush and tip your waitress. Chew your food completely. Instead of eating only two or three meals, eat four of five a day; Fat Tony agrees.
By eating smaller amounts and more often it usually helps.
And sit up straight at the table, Soldier, both feet planted firmly on the floor. Relax a while after your meal instead of rushing off to work.
LEARN TO LOOK AFTER YOURSELF, give yourself some needed attention.
Get a good substantial breakfast of foods which will help fortify you for the whole morning. You've got to EAT! You're not feeding a canary. There's no nourishment in a roll and coffee . . . but that's all millions have for their breakfast.
Eat some dates, unsulfured black mission figs, raisins, shredded coconut, pecans, walnuts or almonds in a little mile or orange juice, or separate and all well-chewed.
If that isn't enough get some lean bacon, well-done crisp and drained and have with an egg (discarding the white) with some fresh pumpernickel or rye bread sliced thin and buttered. Half an hour before breakfast have a glass of fresh-squeezed orange juice with an egg yolk and teaspoon of honey stirred in, sipped slowly.
Cold mornings . . . the night before, soak some whole wheat kernel from a feed or seed store (buy in 100-pound lots) and have with raisins and honey in a little hot milk. Chew it well. Cut up some dates or figs and add those too. Now you really have a meal.
Or your wife or mother may wish to make some tasty whole wheat muffins (ya can't make yer own?) with nice fat raisins and chunks of nuts in them. Buttered, these are very tasty and satisfying . My "Cook Book" furnished hundreds of delicious, nourishing, health-building meals, menus and recipes and food formulas. It ran in six editions.
Noon time - get a good hearty soup. If you enjoy it, get another. It's a big help in helping to gain weight. My vegetable puree concentrate and also 1/2 teaspoon of Vegex added to the soup not only improves the flavor, enriches it, but adds greatly to its nutritional value. They this, you'll like it. Then enjoy a substantial raw salad - celery hearts, lettuce, cucumber, watercress, chopped parsley, raw peas, raw washed spinach leaves, shredded carrot with raisins. Slice pineapple with cream cheese; or dates and figs stuffed with cream cheese. Whole wheat, Bohemian rye or pumpernickel bread, sliced thin, buttered. An apple, pear or grapes for desert.
Supper - citrus juice or vegetable juice or tomato juice. If you wish, on chilly days, a big bowl of homemade soup with my vegetable puree and 1/2 teaspoon of Vegex added. Your choice of any lean fresh meat - steak, roast beef, roast leg of lamb, roast chicken, duck or turkey. Liver, lean chops, stew, ground chuck, fish, seafood, oysters, clams, canned salmon (avoid spiced, cured, smoked, pickled, salted meat and delicatessen meat mixtures - keep to the fresh lean meats. Your choice of greens, raw or cooked. Fresh fruit, berries, or piece of melon of your choice, and as in season for desert.
More here:
If you are OVERweight you can safely eat these meals too, only in smaller portions. There is nothing in these meals to build puffy, abnormal fat. These meals re non-mucus-forming and they will help you avoid colds, coughs, catarrh, bronchitis, pneumonia, pleurisy, asthma and hay fever. Remember that. But such victims should avoid the bread and butter for a while.
Those who are eager to gain; and have a good digestive system, and who are also indulging in heavy, intensive exercise can have another meal, such as a baked split potato with peanut oil and chopped parsley and watercress added. Its wonderful.
To help gain weight I would take a capsule of food iodin and iron and food potassium and a goat milk capsule (obtainable from me) with each such type meal. The glands controlling the regulation of weight need food iodin. Food potassium is the element to help muscle growth, and you will note I have advocated lots of raw salad greens. These are rich in food potassium too. Food iron helps give strength, builds rich, red blood. Try taking at least two tablespoons of pure peanut oil daily. Don't confuse this with ordinary peanut butter, which is acid-forming. Peanut oil is tasteless, nourishing, excellent for the nerves and brain and beneficial all around.
You do not have to "stuff." So many fellows have written me saying "I eat like a horse, and still I can't gain." It is not altogether HOW MUCH you eat, but WHAT KINDS of food.
Now, you will observe I haven't advocated any pies, pastries, a mass of baked good, starches (other than some whole wheat or rye bread). I have not advocated the drinking of a lot of cows' milk, as many do. This is usually mucus-forming or constipating. A very small amount as with fruits in the morning is enough.
Try to get plenty of good chicken, roasted. And lots of homemade chicken soup. Then, before toing to sleep, if you want a late snack have some slices of cold chicken with some raw salad greens, slices of tomato. But no bread.
These foods help build a normal, healthy, happy, better YOU. In the grocery stores you'll see for sale scores upon scores of products which are not in my list of nourishing foods here. It is economical to secure the nourishing foods I've mentioned and avoid other corruption . . . the devitalized, junk foodless foods. Why pay out money to buy a mass of trash which creates sickness, builds a condition of disease - then have to pay out more money on doctor, dentist and hospital bills. That's senseless. Learn to be GOOD to YOURSELF.
Apparently Tilney boasted about his role in designing the Charles Atlas Course to anyone within earshot.
The white bread that made a patient out of Mac.
Or as the indigenous types say,
To Each His Own, No One Way.
TIHO NO-way.
The really tough times are yet to come, so prepare for them now while you can. The weakest go to the wall. Those with the resistance (meaning those who are well fortified with the food minerals, and have vigorous healthy cells throughout their entire bodies and are well nourished) will be able to withstand the epidemics and other distresses which a great war involves. We advanced thinkers can see what's ahead and coming during the next few years. A timely word to the wise is sufficient.
Now let us take up a few exercises. To gain weight quickly concentrate on the big-muscle areas of the body. These are the chest, shoulders, thighs, and arms.
You are going to need some type of apparatus, so right a the start equip yourself with the best barbells, dumbbells and cables. Get all three, plus any others you can afford. It's an investment in a huskier, stronger, better looking, more efficient YOU.
The exercises are simple and by following the easy instructions there is no chance of harm, strain or injury. After exercise periods you should feel a thrill and warm glow of aliveness which you'll agree is gratifying. So to to it. Lose no time in rushing in your order for all the apparatus you can, and start right away on a new, exciting adventure - molding your muscles to magnificent shapeliness, and week by week watch them bulge with beauty and power.
As a word of warning: Do not get too enthusiastic at the start. Set yourself a definite goal to cover a 90-day period. You must make yourself form NEW habit patterns, doing the right things each and every day which will help you and not neutralize the benefits of your intensive exercise program. It would be silly to train like a beaver to build them then in other respects throughout the day do things which tear you down and ruin health. So give full attention to ALL your new correct daily living habits.
There are, of course, dozens and dozens of different and wonderfully effective exercises which you can do with cables, dumbbells and barbells.
Here he mentions the shortage article space and how he'll deal more with the exercise portion in a later issue.
Stop frittering away those precious leisure hours. ORGANIZE your time and your efforts. Make your life count. Quit stalling and dilly-dallying. Don't go on being a human apology - that's bad advertising for yourself. Why advertise and tell the world you lack the gumption to make a real he-man of yourself - strong, fine, splendid, stalwart, husky, well-poised, able to leap tall buildings in a single bound, more powerful than a loco motive formed earlier.
Fire your soul with this new ambition and plunge into determined, enthusiastic ACTION AT ONCE.
Enjoy Your Lifting!
Why is it so enjoyable when we burn things and
break what's been built?
Hey, I love doing it in all my relationships!
