How Heavy is "Heavy?" - Bradley Steiner

 

10.5%, 500 ml bottles.

2023. 123 minutes. 

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Train heavy. 

I say it all the time. 

So do a hundred other bodybuilding and lifting teachers, and often we forget that "heavy" needs to be defined! 

I do not mean that readers lack an understanding of the dictionary definition of the word "heavy," per se, but rather that almost everyone involved in the iron game has a misconception of what constitutes "heavy training." 

Note: here's a quick definition from another Bradley Steiner article, here:

https://ditillo2.blogspot.com/2019/10/bulking-schedule-bradley-steiner-1971.html

"I mean the maximum weight for YOU as an individual, in accordance with your PRESENT level of your development, weights that you can use in correct lifting style for the required number of sets and reps."

Too many people engaged in the training effort fail to appreciate that poundages are "heavy" or "light" only on a relative basis. There is really no objective standard that can be employed in determining these extremes of resistance. (When "world" records are set by weightlifters they are set because of the poundages that have been found to be "heavy" for prior entrants. Some future supermen might find these poundages rather "light." 

You must learn to evaluate your progress subjectively, measure your strength gains not by what others lift or train with, but by your previous lift or training poundages. 

Anyone can go nuts by reading about the world class iron men! If we judge our own progress by their standards, we would be better off going out for an ice cream soda and leaving the weights for later! Seriously, one day there will be a tiny percentage of up and coming bodybuilders and lifters who will surpass what we read about as being today's "best." Reason, however, should tell the rest of us that world class records are world class because they are odd, incredible, unusual -- the exception, never the rule. Anyone who tells you that you must become Mr. Universe or else sulk in a closet is a fool. Let him go into a deep depression because he can't be someone he isn't; don't you do it! Work with what you've got, and become the best that YOU can be. You'll have every right to be proud of yourself. 

Heavy training is heavy because it is heavy for you. Having 100 pounds on the bar when you do curls will not produce special development unless you find it heavy and it is just what makes you work out to your maximum in a good set of reps. Then 100 pounds will produce terrific gains. The trick is not to train with some arbitrary poundage goal in mind, but rather with the idea of taxing the muscles directly.

One thing few beginners realize is that advanced lifters and bodybuilders train with a concept of the poundage they will train with when they enter the gym, not with a fixed idea. This is crucial to understand. They want to get a good workout. They realize that their muscles hardly "know" or care about the numerical poundage or weight on the bar! 

Some days you will be blessed with a great deal of energy. Other days will find you beat. Genuine fatigue must be respected, and smart trainees do not try to push Mother Nature around. When they are at less than their best, they do not push for a maximum effort. When they are full of strength [a.k.a. piss and vinegar in scientific circles, with a "jerk" attached to that circle], they press for a new record. 

The standards that I employ with my students for heavy weights are based upon the trainee's bodyweight, never upon standards set by others. I am never interested in what "the record" is for any particular lift or exercise; I only care about what my student is capable of doing. 

Let me suggest a sane and useful table of poundage standards that can help you achieve perspective and set realistic goals for your own ultimate development. 

Initially my concern is exercise poundage goals. These goals are not for single lift attempts; they are for sets and reps, as I shall indicate: 

BARBELL CURLS 

General bodybuilding: 
3 sets of 8-10 reps with 50% of your bodyweight. 

Maximum power:

4 sets of 5-6 reps with 70-75% of your bodyweight. 

Note: Remember that as your bodyweight increases with development and size you will need to adjust your goals. 

MILITARY PRESS

General bodybuilding:

3 x 8-10 with 60% of bodyweight. 

Note: For presses behind the neck the standards should be the same. 

SQUAT

General bodybuilding:

3 x 12-15 with bodyweight. 

Maximum power:

4-5 sets of 5-6 with 150% of bodyweight. 

BENCH PRESS

General bodybuilding:

3 x 10-12 with 70% of bodyweight. 

Maximum power:

5 x 3 with 110% of bodyweight. 

BENTOVER ROWING

General bodybuilding:

3 x 12-15 with 70% of bodyweight. 

Maximum power:

5 x 5 with 110-110% of bodyweight. 

DEADLIFTS

General bodybuilding:

3 x 12 with 125% of bodyweight. 

Maximum power:

5 x 5 with 180-200% of bodyweight. 

Again, I want to stress that I am not addressing "naturals" or supermen. I am speaking to the majority of bodybuilders who are looking for some general guidance which they can use effectively and realistically. So, please don't flood the mails with protest about how much so-and-so can do this-or-that much more than I've indicated as a guide. 

Any average trainee who hits the iron pills for a few years and who reaches the general goals I've indicated will have achieved a lot. He won't be world-class, but he will be close to reaching his own potential, and that's what really matters. 

It is important to distinguish between lifts and exercise poundages. Some trainees are not clear on the difference. The poundages, and exercises, sets and reps that I have listed as guidelines are of course not at all related to limit lifts. So don't feel discouraged if, when you come close to attaining the poundages set forth, you hear someone say that he happens to be able to lift way more than you, so what's the big deal? 

The big deal is that when you run through sets and reps with a weight in good style, you have done many times what someone else has done merely by lifting the barbell once through a full repetition. 

If you are really after great development (speaking of course in terms of what would be "great" for you as an individual), then you must push for good exercise style while simultaneously striving to press on poundage-wise and increasing the resistance that you are working out with. 

HOW TO TELL WHAT'S HEAVY ENOUGH

You can't really tell if any given poundage is heavy enough simply by knowing the numerical poundage. That's silly. But you can tell by how you fell and by what you are able to do while training with any particular poundage. 

Let's look at the military press, for instance. Let's say you're doing a set of 8 reps. If you find that by rep 6 you need to fight (not cheat, just fight) for the next 2 reps, you're on the money! Rep 7 should be hard, and rep 8 should just (and only just) enable you to press through to completion. 

That's hard work. 

That's heavy work. 

How heavy? 

Heavy enough . . . if you're fighting for the last 2 reps, as I've indicated. 

What is "heavy enough" will and must vary from exercise period to exercise period. How could it be otherwise? The body and mind are in a constant state of flux, and because of this there will be a varying energy/strength level each day. 

When we aim to make progress in strength and muscular development, therefore, we need to do do by looking at our goals as something to be attained over the long haul, after a necessary period of advances, setbacks and frustratingly long plateaus. Target your goals by all means, but expect that it will be a while before you reach them. 

Note: We can become very prone to being preyed on by douchebag money-grubbers in the "fitness" world who choose to lie and say they can "design" a program and oh-so-perfect diet in which there will be no plateaus or weak days. Right. Buy this . . . get that. Not. They lie, you pay, then move on to the next miracle of lifting non-reality. It's been like this for so long and only the names have been changed to protect the falsehood recurring.    

Many trainees feel upset when, after a good run of several intense workouts, they experience a diminution of drive and strength. They enter the gym and . . . yech! The poundages that went up smoothly only last week now feel impossible. This is the most natural thing in the world, and you can save yourself an awful lot of grief by accepting and expecting it.

No one gains in an endlessly steady fashion, commencing with his first workout, and going on for decades. If we could do that then the world would have been populated by mammoth strongmen of frighteningly large proportions long ago. 

What happens is . . . advance . . . plateau . . . advance . . . setback . . . advance etc. Some advances continue for several days, some for weeks. Rarely can anyone, except a complete beginner, expect to advance continually for longer than a month to six weeks at a time. 

It is normal, natural and quite to be expected that when training is going terrifically, a block in progress is near at hand. Why? Because that's the way it is and things are not going to change! Possibly in several millennia humans will possess a different biophysical structure, and as a result our bodies will grow, develop and respond to physical training in a different way. But I wouldn't hold my breath . . . 'cause 

that's a long time. 

Just accept reality and enjoy natural human progress.

There is something that you ought to remind yourself of, however, when you do hit a block in training. That is, by going ahead and working out with lesser poundages, you will be obtaining maximum benefits! If, on the other hand, you pigheadedly refuse to accept yourself as you presently are (i.e. with a lower strength-energy level) and try to push ahead anyway, burnout and staleness await you. Grim. So be smart, be sensible and be realistic in your training style. 

Let your body, and not some arbitrary numerical standard, determine what is heavy enough for you.

LIFTS

Weightlifters are of two types. I am not referring to power and Olympic, er, Power and Olympic, but rather to competitive and recreational. I realize that competition lifters must be concerned about numerical lifts, otherwise they'd never win a contest. 

Still, the same principle of sensible self-acceptance applies in their training programs. No one who lacks strength will ever find himself concerned over entering a major lifting event. So, it is an assumption I'll make that anyone involved in competitive lifting at a serious level who strives to win meets can realistically hope to achieve a record lift of lifts. 

The way to do it, i.e., to train for it, is by varying workouts, hitting the body harder when energy is at a peak, and by easing off when strength is low. Workouts that demand the lifter to do what he clearly is not going to benefit from are idiotic. Let's hope all lifters know this. And coaches better learn it too. 

A quick moment of humor . . . 

    

Recreational lifters are in an enviable position. Lifters, like bodybuilders who train simply for themselves, have no need to worry about anything but breaking their own records! If a recreational lifter can squat with 100 pounds on Friday, when he could manage only 95 on Monday is fantastic! And forget about any "records" or "official lifts." Such an individual may never win -- or even enter -- a contest, but he should recognize himself as a winner.

So, what would be a recommended set of lifting goals for the recreational lifter? Simple. Something heavier than what he was previously able to lift, with no minimum and no maximum indicated. 

Both Powerlifting and Olympic lifting are incredibly wonderful forms of physical training that almost anyone can derive immense satisfaction and benefit from. It's also true that many people who would like to participate in lifting never get started because they are intimidated by the admittedly Herculean feats of the "names" in the field. 

By simply making "a little heavier than before" as the only goal that one needs to concern oneself with, a person can enjoy lifting for what it is: a great activity with rewards for anyone who trains. 

Top lifters are to be admired. I have nothing but respect for every one of the top lifters, Power and Olympic, and I can't imagine anyone unable to appreciate their achievements. Don't avoid lifting because you can't measure up to greatness. So what? Use the top men as an inspiration and as an example; then go ahead and do your best in your own way, and attain whatever development and power your potential and structure will allow. 

KEEP LIFTING NOTES 

I urge lifters to keep poundage records but in a manner that is the reverse of their normal record-keeping approach (or should I say, the reverse of the customary approach.). 

Most lifters write out their schedules and give themselves "X" amount to lift for so many reps and for so many sets. The better approach, in my opinion, is to enter the gym, place your notebook and pen aside, and get into the workout. Warm up well. Now go for your lifting. 

After you do the lift, then record what you were able to do. Go for a heavy lift, or go for a new personal record, if appropriate that day, but don't have a written preconception about what it will be. 

There is a tendency to either reduce one's effort (and lift less, simply because one wasn't "scheduled" to lift less), or to get furiously discouraged because, due only to natural and inevitable causes, one was not able to lift what one "was scheduled" to lift. Do your best. Then make a record of what you did.

Bodybuilders might also keep records of this type, but since they are not really after single record attempts, there's no real need for it. Rather, a chart hung on the wall noting ultimate exercise poundage goals should suffice. A periodic progress check will reveal how close one is coming to one's objective. 

This is of course only a suggestion, and a bodybuilder who enjoys keeping workout-by-workout records should certainly go ahead and do so.

In summary, personal progress and satisfaction, and one's own, unique individual achievement should be the bottom line in bodybuilding and lifting. 

Evaluate poundages and strive for weight increases accordingly. 

Finally . . . 

realize that the only thing you're trying to measure up to is your own potential.  

Enjoy Your Lifting! 

 

Massive Arms and Shoulders, the Fast Way - Roger Eells (1945)

 

Did it ever occur to you that an injured muscle could be a blessing in disguise? 

Most people look on illness and injury as a major catastrophe, but in my case I have found that in every instance of illness or injury I have come out, not the loser, but the winner. 

I have learned something from each experience that can be acquired in no other way. You can read books dealing with the experience of others but the warmth, the satisfaction, the knowledge of an existing infinite something that can be controlled by you is never known until you have really approached death and returned. It is an experience that all men should be willing to pay for rather than seek means of avoiding . . . it is that interesting, that valuable, believe me. Tolerance of your fellow men, patience, the love and fear of god is just out of reach of many of you who have so far gone through life without pain and suffering, mentally and physically. 

On two separate occasions I have experienced excruciating pain in the face of death. Once when caught without water in the desert outside El Paso, Texas, in 1926, and on another time when I became entangled with an airplane propeller in 1930.

I believed in both cases that I would die and knew extreme happiness when I didn't. The experience changed me in many ways, all for the better, I'm sure. My experience with a far, far advanced case of tuberculosis was not one of pain but of extreme weakness. The eighteen long months spent in bed following the usual cure to no avail gave me plenty of time to think, and . . . while I wouldn't want to go through the experience again, I'm sure that I wouldn't sell that which I have as a result of that experience for a million dollars or meaning-based straws clutched at.

Pain, injury, illness, suffering can be a blessing, be sure of that. 

There is some good to be derived from every one of them. 

Until a few weeks ago I felt that dumbbells were auxiliary instruments to be incorporated in barbell training. Their merits were manifold in my opinion when used in conjunction with a regular barbell routine, but I was shortly to learn that they are entitled to a much better rating than that. They have a place in the sun for themselves, and I am going to break down and say that I have gotten results from the use of dumbbells the last while that barbells have not given me. 

If you have been using dumbbells that come with your set get them out now and lay yourself out an arm-and-shoulder specialization program. If you don't have them, beg, borrow or buy a set immediately. The important thing is: don't put it off as long as i did . . . get started now, today! 

It was an injured muscle that called the true value of dumbbells to my attention. [Harry] Paschall and I had been training quite regularly all summer in the back yard and we were in quite good condition, but as is the way with all bone and muscle under too great a strain, they will let go eventually. And that is what happened to my right deltoid while performing a two-hand snatch. 

A fest of two weeks found it just as sore and stiff and the day it was injured. The following two weeks I trained with barbells in an attempt to work out the injury. My press, which had been 205 pounds, dropped to 150. At the end of two weeks it was back to 170 and at a standstill. The shoulder was slightly stronger but every bit as sore. 

To begin with I couldn't muscle out a 30-lb. dumbbell with my right hand. It was necessary for several days to just press a dumbbell overhead and then let it ride down with no attempt being made to stop it at the shoulder height. Within the week I was doing 10 reps in the lateral movement for the deltoid. The other position had not bothered me so much.

Harry . . .

who has the finest deltoid development of any man in the country and has been in that deplorable condition for the past 25 years, had a sprain in the anterior deltoid to work out. The soreness is not yet completely gone but it is much improved. 

To begin with we had a pair of 30, 40 and 50 pound dumbbells. As we gained in strength, we have added a pair of 65, 85 and 100 pound bells; the 85 and 100 pounders have 1-3/8 inch handles which gives the gripping muscles of the hand and forearm a good workout every time they are cleaned to the shoulders. 

The 100-lb. bells are quite a pull-in to the shoulders and if you don't think so make yourself up a pair and try it some time. Manger, the German and Olympic champion . . . 

 

 . . . failed to clean a pair of 100's at Klein's Gym when the German team were over here to contest the U.S boys. Failed not once but five times. He cleaned them on the sixth attempt and then pressed them easily six repetitions. Johnny Terpak cleaned them on the first attempt and pressed them twice. The latter's lift is by far the greater feat when one takes into consideration the lifters, bodyweights, and their respective abilities on the military press. 

Manger cleaned the bells on the sixth attempt. Terpak on the first. Manger pressed six repetitions a weight that was 119 pounds less than his record in an overhead press. Terpak pressed twice a weight that was but 50 pounds less than his record in an overhead press. Reduce the total weight of the dumbbells to 130 pounds and Klein could have closed up the gym, returned the next morning, and Johnny would have still been going strong. Kidding aside, Johnny would surely have no trouble pressing such light weights at least 20 to 25 times. (65 pounds in each hand is a comparable weight to Manger's 100 pounders). 

Of course, you are interested in what you can get out of this specialization on a dumbbell routine, and I can tell you now that if you are willing to really extend yourself that you are in for just as great a surprise as I was. 

A new man began exercising last week under my instructions in my private gym and was anxious to know how little he would have to work out in order to gain about 30 lbs. and an inch in height. There is no doubt that he can gain 30 lbs. and every chance that his height will increase an inch, but he isn't going to get results like that by wishing for them. His one chance is willing that he reach the goal he has set for himself and then there can be no doubt, but he will succeed. His great desire developed through willing his mind and body to cooperate to that end will result in his interest increasing in scope until he is working with sufficient intensity to realize his goal.

Admittedly or not, this is the secret of every real successful body builder and weightlifter in the world today. They have first wished they had the attributes of a weightlifter, or the beautiful body of a culturist interested in development. They have consciously or unconsciously fanned a spark of a wish into the flame of desire. Their imagination, their daydreaming, or whatever you care to call it, has intensified the desire until they have willed and they will develop a body and the strength that they have formed in their imagination. 

When they begin to exercise the scene is already set for success. Each tiny gain in strength, each new swelling muscle acts as a bellows on the flame of desire. There is no satisfying our "future great" now; he begins to visualize success. He knows just what he wants, how much strength he expects to build, how large his muscles, and the deeds he expects to accomplish. The result? A Terlazzo, a Deutsch, a Terpak, a Sansone or a Stanko. Certainly no one who knows Terlazzo, positively the greatest lifter the world has ever seen, can believe anything else than that he is a dreamer . . . a man of tremendous imagination. He dreams of future conquests and then will that his dreams shall become realities. Hard work and intensive concentration are his tools of success. He knows that he will win and does. 

 

Before reading on I suggest that you think back over what you have just read and reflect for a few moments on the lives of the successful bodybuilders you have known. If you have not had the opportunity to meet and know some of these men, then take any successful acquaintance and attempt to build up an argument that he became a success in whatever he was doing without hard work. It's like that with barbells and dumbbells: success equals hard work. 

Bearing this in mind, let us turn to the exercises for building big arms and shoulders, the best apparatus to be used in acquiring the strength and development, and the weight and repetitions to be practiced. 

The best exercises for developing the deltoids and associated muscular groups are the leverage movements, wherein the elbows are locked throughout the range of movement. There are a number of well-known exercises such as to raise a pair of dumbbells from below to a point directly overhead in the lateral raise, the lifting of a pair of dumbbells out to the side while leaning over in the rowing motion position, and the front lateral raise with dumbbells. These three exercises reach the anterior, lateral, and posterior positions of the deltoids. 

Then there are the alternate movements of the same exercise that affect the muscles in a different manner, the practice of the pull-over, especially when the weight is lifted from the thighs to overhead and back to straight-arm position behind the head, is a capital deltoid movement. The flying movement while supine on a bench is splendid for the anterior, lateral and posterior deltoids although it is generally thought of as a pectoral exercise. 

The pressing of dumbbells overhead, together and alternately, can be depended upon to rapidly strengthen and develop the deltoids as well as triceps and biceps of the upper arm. 

Direct biceps and forearm work can be obtained by practicing the various curls from all positions, and especially the Zottman exercise should be practiced two or three times during the workout. 

Practice the bent press movement with fairly light weight, even if you are quite strong, a 65-lb. dumbbell should prove heavy enough if the exercise is performed correctly. The important part of the movement for this purpose is to be sure that the weight is lowered directly to the side and the dumbbell held out from the shoulder, flexing the latissimus strongly each time the weight is lowered. 

By following such a program for three days a week, and on two days a week practicing leg work, you can be assured of rapid shoulder and arm growth. It may interest you to know that such a routine has increased the breadth of my shoulders 1-1/2 inches. 

No mention as to the number of exercises to be used has been pointed out for the reason that some of you have longer experience than others, some have greater endurance or strength. You follow the advice given on desire, ambition, imagination, suggested earlier in the article and you will neither do too much nor too little. 

Enjoy Your Lifting!