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!
No comments:
Post a Comment