Saturday, March 16, 2024

How I Gained 30 lbs. of Muscle in 6 Weeks - Randall Strossen (1969)

                                                                       https://www.ironmind.com/




Note: Mr. Strossen's name was misspelled as "Strosser" in this article, written when he was 18 or 19 . . . 


While visiting with Randy Strosser on the phone the other day he mentioned having gained 30 lbs. of bodyweight in 6 weeks and we asked him to describe his success for the benefit of other readers.

Here is what he told us: 

Previous to this program which gave me such remarkable results I had trained on low rep squatting but could never gain any muscle, only strength. I am very small boned with 6-5/8 wrists and 8-5/8 ankles and tho I had followed various other barbell programs I had never gained in muscular bodyweight previous to this. 

Information for this program had been obtained from back issues of Iron Man in which the high rep squats were emphasized for the gaining of muscular bodyweight fast. 

I decided to try it and so arranged the following program. 

Press Behind Neck, 3x12
Benover Row, 3x12
Bench Press, 3x12
Squat, 1x20
Straight Arm Pullovers, 1x30 (with light weight)
Stiff Legged Deadlift, 1x15. 

I worked hard on all exercises but concentrated most of my effort on the squat and as advised I added 5 lbs. to the bar every workout whether it seemed possible or not and I could always make it, I found. 

I worked so hard on the squats that I would sometimes become sick at my stomach. My primary effort on this exercise and by aim was to work it to the maximum. 

Deep breathing was done between each repetition of the squat, from 3 to 6 breaths or more. 

Squats are made to parallel position or lower but not clear to the bottom.

Concentration is very important during the squat for without it you will not be able to reach a full 20 repetitions with maximum poundage. 

I found that my gains depended on how hard I worked the squat rather than on how I did the other exercises. The other exercises acted as auxiliary exercises and probably one would would gain about as well with just the squat alone; however, I wanted to guide my development to an overall improvement.

I averaged a 5 pound gain per week and found that adequate nutrition was very important during this time. I don't know which is more important, the nutrition or the squat but feel that they go together as being absolutely necessary.

I was taking about 200to 250 grams of protein during this gaining period as well as vitamin supplements. I drank from 4 to 6 quarts of milk per day and usually used 1 to 2 cups of powdered milk as well. Of course I ate three good meals of nourishing food per day with plenty of meat, vegetables and other good standard foods. 

Another very unusual thing about my gains is that they were made during the hot summer time while I was on vacation from school and WORKING AS A CONSTRUCTION LABORER. Many people wonder if they can gain well during hot summer or while doing hard physical work. I did and I think others probably could with the right program and I think this is the right program. If you need other information it can be found in back issues of Iron Man over the past 30 years. 

I am now training on lower reps for power and I want to enter some lifting meets this year. I feel that I am now in about as hard a condition now as I was at the beginning of the program. 


Enjoy Your Lifting!   










































22 comments:

  1. Here's where you put, "That 30 pounds wasn't all muscle, Buster."

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  2. I, Joe L. Santus, F.d., undertook a daily hyper-high calorie, ate almost exclusively from a blender, bulk with 30-calories-per, and one-gram-o-'protein-per pound of TARGET bodyweight (which I'd set at 180 lbs) every single f**king day for ten months, during my fourth consecutive year of iron-juggling, when I was age 19.

    Used a split, four workouts per week, working each muscle group twice per week, lower volume, mostly compounds around a core of squats, rows, SLDs, OHPs, flat benches, and for sets of 5-7 reps.

    But, alas! Although I did get to 179 lbs, that was a mere fifteen pound gain in bodyweight in about 42 weeks.

    'Course, while i have the same 6 5/8" wrists, my ankles are merely 7 7/8". But I'm sure beyond any quantum scintilla of doubt that if my ankles were 8 5/8", quite obviously, I'd have gained, like, one-hundred and fifteen pounds of pure muscle in those 42 weeks. Then, I'd have written the book, "Super DUPER Squats: How I Gained 115 Pounds of Muscle Living On Canned Milk Blender Drinks In Forty-Two Weeks'".

    However...I DID set a record for number of sittings upon a toilet in forty-two weeks, Buster!!

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    1. The first time I went on a six week heavy breathing squat routine I '"advanced" more in this silly game than ever before . . . not counting that first six months of pristine, virgin bit of gains using Weider and York charts. My bodyweight went to 210 nice and lean on that first breathing squat routine and it worked great. You have for shit genetics, Buster!

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    2. I have yet to measure my wrists, ankles and all that crap.

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    3. Anyhow . . . if I make a slanderous comment about Randall Strosser . . . would that error in the publication itself free me of any legal encumberments? I am such a curious yet useless being, as we all are.

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  3. I do have shit genes, tis the freakin' truth. I'm pretty close to being the guy who Steve Reeves said should take up ping pong instead of iron juggling. More tendons than muscle bellies in my arms and legs especially.

    After a faithful full month on my first beginner program (it was an actually good full-body three-days-per-week dompounds program), I could manage one set of 8 reps of supine floor presses (I was waiting for a mail-order bench) with a total weight, bar included, of FORTY pounds; I was blissfully unaware then that was less than an empty Oly bar with the old spin-lock collars, lol.

    If I'd had half a brain, I'd have quit after the first three years, when I witnessed average guys casually make more gains as beginners in a year than I had after living, breathing, and pissing bodybuilding for three.

    Regrettably, I was and remain brainless.

    As long as you proclaim you identify as a trans-carrot or a purple hedgehog, anyone with an issue about anything you comment can be hung for hate speech for discriminating against you; sooooo, you can comment anything else you want about whoever you want with impunity!

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    1. I shoulda quit this thing ages ago. Hahaha, but I loves it! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tOCCvN8YDuc

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    2. Hey Joe, have you noticed that the PC brigade don't recognize ageism as a problem? I get treated like shite, just because I'm a little older and perhaps wiser about the so important goals younger fucktards seek. Fuck Em. Fuck Em ALL.

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    3. And it ain't simply the fact we're older, it's that we've experienced the consequences of seeking goals the way the younger crowd believes is The Answer.

      Heck, we've had more decades than we even like to think about to have witnessed those "progressive" ideas and those "New-Solutions" tried before under other labels and names, and observed or personally-experienced-the-hard-way, that they do not succeed, only create different and usually worse problems.

      No argument, not everything about traditional ways is perfect - - we're fucking flawed, limited human beaaannnnssss, so, inevitably, someone or something goes off the rails. And, maybe the best ways we can ever manage amounts to a lesser of the evils. But, they're the ways that've been used universally for recorded history because they work the best for most of us most of the time.

      Th' sad part is that most of the Woke-ites will likewise experience the consequences. Most of them will suddenly realizing around age 55 that they were brainfucked by their "I-don't-need-men" single mudders, who themselves had eagerly drank all the sparkly packaged koolaid sold by "follow-your-heart (reason or practicality be damned)!" Oprah, " "trivialize-life-problems-into-TV-drama" peddler Dr. Phil, "I-hate-that-I-was-born-a-woman" Gloria Steinman & the Feministas, the "we-infallibly-know-better-than-you" LibFascists, and the "sell-'em-what-they-think-they-want-to-hear" BossBabe PopMedia.

      Some of those Woke who wake up around age 55 might even remember us old bastards who tried to warn them years ago, then feel the sharp pang of "the old bastard was right!"...

      Excuse muh philosophical rantings...my poor wife learned years ago to politely nod while reading her book when I launch into my monologue orbits, lol

      As my joints continue their descent into hell and my genetically-tiny-even-at-my-prime muscles continue to wither, my slogan is the title of this song:

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FXOmVhOzfY0

      ( I like the duet version the producers electronically created of him with Patsy even better!)

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    4. I like his version of Welcome to My World still . . . but keep hearing Hell Comes to My World now. Yikes!

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  4. "Strosser's" program is a mere application of one program in the magnificent "The Rader Master Body Building and Weight Gaining System". His later book is a minor expansion of this early article.

    The original Rader program is better and Peary's book is far more detailed.

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    1. The Rader Book is still outstanding, and has a ton of info in it. Mr. Strossen was soooo young then!

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  5. "Many people wonder if they can gain well during hot summer or while doing hard physical work."

    Brings back memories of my first job ever: Landscaping!
    I was the new young guy and somewhat fit, so I had the honor of doing all the uncomfortable stuff, like carrying the rocks for artificial ponds, handling an old heavy chainsaw in weird positions (little bit overhead while being a little bit bent over, smokes ya back&delts), deficit SLDLing bins heavier than me filled with wet earth onto a truck bed, walking around for hours with a heavy as shit leaf blower on my back...
    Basically strongman lite, all day, every day.
    Worked for 12-14 hours each day, there was just no gas left for training after that.
    I lived on fast food, beer and cigarettes, not a single shake consumed.
    One month on that job packed more muscle on my frame than the year of lifting I've done before, while
    losing fat at the same time.
    I became an all delts/arms/back lean machine with veins visible on my abs.
    Behold the power of increased workload!

    PS I'm a lardass now IoI

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    1. Landscape work sure can get a person in shape, no matter their lifestyle. One of my daughters did it for a few seasons and the changes to her every year were fast. I bet there's a way to get people to PAY to do that work if you make it into a three month fitness "boot camp" of "functional" training for the low low price of . . . maybe offer a 4-Hour Hardgainer Camp for twice the price.

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    2. I guess the ethical way to pull that off would be to get paid by the people who need landscaping work done, and offer people who need to get in shape to work for you not for monies, but a physique.
      FREE boot camp, guaranteed results.

      We'll make hundreds!
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=egmUc0yfAro

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    3. I will most definitely "thank aboud it" and be rich soon. I believe William "D-Fens" Foster would make one helluva boot camp instructor . . . get this man on the blower tout de suite!

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  6. I want to use this opportunity I have to say a big thanks to Dr osaoji for getting back my ex husband. I'm Linda Gibson from USA, after 7 years of marriage my husband left me for another woman I did whatever I could to get him back but all I did was in vain I was sad, but I didn't lose hope of getting him back because I had faith in God. So I search online on how to get my husband back, and I came across a post of Dr osaoji of how he helped a lady to get back her ex, I contacted him and told him the pain I was going through, he told me what to do and I did it, then he casted a love spell for me 48 hours later my husband called me and told me he is sorry for what he did and that he misses me very much, later that day he came back home and beg for my forgiveness, since then our love grew stronger. For the marvelous things Dr osaoji has done for me it would be unfair for me not to let the whole world know that such a powerful spell caster do live. If you want to get back your ex fast email Dr osaoji drosaoji.herbs@gmail.comor add him up on WhatsApp +2349069064020 https://drosaojiherbs.wixsite.com/cure

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    Replies
    1. Thanks, Dr. Unpronounceable! And there's herbs too!

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    2. I just know that ol' Dr. Osaoji gives all the praise and credit for his marvelous power to following The Weider System!

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  7. This 48hr love spell by Dr Unpronounceable..

    * What's the rep/set scheme involved?
    * Is it a high intensity love deal?
    * Does he have a supplements line, ie pre-love
    workout, post-love workout 'protein' shake?

    Also, what was your husbands measurements before and after the 48hr love periodisation?

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