Note from Peary Rader:
In Iron Man over the past 40 years we have presented ideas on nearly every known method of training for muscle development and all of them worked well for someone. We have had the one-exercise programs, the one-repetition programs, the once-a-week programs and the every-day programs, among others.
Here is a program that worked well for one man who had trained on most of the others without the desired results. Perhaps it will be what you're looking for. Increasingly the trend is towards shorter but more intensive workouts and in many instances less frequent workouts. It will be very interesting to observe and experience further refinement of training procedures which will make bodybuilding quicker and more productive.
The article begins . . .
A very good friend of mine has spent many years battling barbells. And, while he has a fairly strong, muscular build, his bodybuilding rewards have been short of what he had in mind when he took up weight training.
Over the years, this friend -- we'll call him Jim -- has practiced just about all the regularly recommended workout schemes. The basic three-day-a-week plan, the split workout four-day-a-week plan, the grueling five-day-a-week number, the every-other-day trip, the two day a week hard-gainer squat like there's no tomorrow scheme, and of course, the lengthy layoff let's forget about hyphens and training plan.
And, while all these workout frequencies did something for our hero, they never quite did enough as far as big gains in size and strength.
Note: The recent John Little book on Mike Mentzer is proving to be great fun to read. Sections on the Weider/Arnold etc. sliminess are illuminating in an ugly way. Some folks sure do love that money/control deal!
You've heard of somebody being a "man's man," or a "football player's football player," right? Well, Jim turned out to be the "hard gainer's hard gainer."
A thought, published by Arthur Jones, rung a bell that changed all that. Jones pointed out that the 3-a-week training schedule, with two days rest on the weekend was a terrific method of causing muscular growth.
Why?
Because the body gets used to a certain rhythm. It gets accustomed to regularly applied workout procedures, and adapts to their frequency. So, when you work out on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, your body is ready to work out again on Sunday. But hold 'er Newt, she's goin' for the tulips . . . you don't. You wait till Monday, thereby NOT letting your system get into a rut, but rather catching it off guard, and stimulating it into even greater gains.
This train of thought got Jim to thinking. And, coupling this idea with the notion that hard gainers need few and intense and compact training sessions, he came up with a new course of action for himself. Instead of working out three days per week, with one rest day, and then two rest days on the weekend, he would ADD one rest day to each period between sessions. He would train, then rest for two days, train again, and rest for two more days, train again and then lay off for three days before hitting the weights again.
After one month of such a spaced out training schedule, my good friend's muscular measurements were greater than in all the years of wrestling with iron that had gone before! This is after at least a year of no gains whatsoever.
Since that time, Jim has changed his training frequency slightly. He now works up a barbell-dumbbell induced sweat every third or fourth day, depending on his energy and other commitments. And at the time of this writing, his gains are better than ever.
He finds it very gratifying to receive actual growth, and with less time spent with the weights. His training bouts are short and intense, using about eight very basic exercises for the whole body. (SDL, DL, Squat, Calf Raise, Bench, Row, Press, Curl, and ABS. Usually one set. Sometimes two. Never more nevermore. Each set is worked VERY hard.
Perhaps you can benefit from my, er, Jim's experience If your gains ain't anything to grin about, try changing your workout frequency. Proper recuperation between workouts allows substantial new tissue growth.
Not the most exciting ender line ever written, but point made and taken.
Enjoy Your Lifting!
GIVEIT,
ReplyDeleteHere's my contribution...
"While we may exist as self-aware mortals possessing at least limited free-will, the fact is, none if us can recall being even given the initial choice whether or not to exist inside this temporal cell we call sapience."
Come for the lifting content, stay for the existential musings. And then leave questioning my place in the universe. I'll need to get crushed under a few cleans just to feel something!
DeleteSuch lives we lead! I'm having fun too . . . and there's nothing like the beautiful forgetful feel of remembering nothing but getting a bar from Point A to Point B. I love it!
DeleteThe initial choice, Joe! Entering life, something of an absurd form of airport security when traveling over dimensions. "Papers, please. We need your Akashic documents, Sir. Ah-ha! Eight trillion years ago you signed a contract and here ya are. Security . . . we have a problem."
DeleteI started today. Getting to work on my "behavioral bucket list." All those things you used to want to NOT do when younger. I ain't doin' em! Lemme check that schedule for today . . . do this . . . check. do that . . . NOPE. The behavioral bucket list.
ReplyDeleteWhat is it that I see before me.
ReplyDeleteIs this "it" even close
to reality?
Bloat of belief creating
obese minds, fattened
like cattle and taken
to slaughter.
Crawling from abattoir to car,
driving off into society
on flaming roads
leading nowhere.
Duh.
We are broken by lies and cannot erase the scar.
Stitched, yet never whole.
Two hours of looking at it and I've decided "yet not whole" is not an improvement. When in doubt, go with the sounds.