From this issue. March 1969.
Written by Armand Tanny?
Anyhow, a straightforward (aside from all the "principles of Weider" BS) article on power training, one of the ways it was done, from the late Sixties era . . .
Note: More on "power" training in this style from slightly earlier.
Published 1956.
There's some stuff there on doing one lift a day, pretty much all day, with very long rests between sets. You might call this an "Anderson" approach if you are something of a newb to it all; others with more experience knowing this same approach had been used by many others long before the Paul. Blinded on the road to Damascus, realization, change of ways and in this one strongman's mind the bloated sense of being able to fix all mankind's woes and misfortunes via one book . . . it's insane really, and I respect this view enormously for its madness no matter the number of saved in the snake pit. Apocrypha . . . worth a look if you lean that strange crazy way when it comes to "meaning" in your life.
If you have followed our "Organizing Your Routine" discussions here each month you should now be quite knowledgeable about the various Weider principles and how to apply them for your specific needs. They are bodybuilding "blueprints" and each has a particular function in helping you build the finest muscular body possible.
You have learned from them not only what to do, but what not to do. For instance, if you have a 15-inch arm you would not attempt to enlarge it with the concentration curl. It would be inefficient for this purpose. Your 15-inch arm indicates a need for greater size, and so the rule is, if you want to beef up, you must power up at the same time.
Now this doesn't mean that you must set your sights at once on a 600-pound bench press. But a substantial increase in your power will automatically and simultaneously produce a substantial increase in muscular massiveness. One really does not exist without the other. Gain power, and muscle size increases in the process.
It's a physiologically elementary as that. Your twin goals, therefore, should be roughly equal. Decide on the degree of muscular massiveness you want, and arrange your training program to bear on those principles which essentially build power. You must do two fundamental things (warning, late Sixties musclemag language ahead): understand the construction of muscles, and
Bomb Those Underlying Fibers
Each principle muscle group (biceps, pectorals, thighs, deltoids, lats) is comprised of thousands of tiny muscle fibers. Deep lying, many extending right down to the bone, they are unlike the cellular structure of blood, bone, or vital organs. They do not multiply with growth. Either they enlarge (thicken from vigorous and heavy exercise, or they weaken and atrophy and become an amorphous mass from the lack of use. Thus, the heavier you bomb the underlying fibers, the thicker they grow and, ultimately they become fantastically developed as an outward and visible muscle group.
The difference in a champeen's build and that of a superficial bodybuilder is one of approach. The champ is knowledgeable and thinks of his biceps (or deltoids or thighs) as a union of individual muscle fibers, and trains with this picture constantly in mind. The dilettante [sounds a lot like Armand Tanny to me and the use of the comma is in keeping with his style, as is the use of italics and not UPPER CASE for stressed points] thinks only in terms of the glory of the visible biceps (or deltoids or thighs), and how to make it attractive and pleasing. The champeen is wholly committed . . . he is dedicated. The also-ran is merely vain. The champeen trains . . . the dilettante preens.
Power Training is a Progressive Continuum
A bodybuilder cannot suddenly switch from a modest training program to some champeen's power routine. Some elementary basis of power must first be established . . . a working basis on which the greater power and size will be securely structured. This is a progressive continuum and may be approached from either or two fronts:
a) The Powerlifting System, or
b) The Modified System.
The Powerlifting System
For some time powerlifting has been a recognized AAU sport. It [currently] covers three lifts: bench press, squat, and deadlift. This system is of special interest to bodybuilders who seek greater power and muscular massiveness. Why?
Because through the very rigorous discipline of the competitive lifts the muscles grow in size and power, made possible because, swaying, thrusting, bending or "assisting" with other muscle groups are not permitted. Either the weight goes up strictly on the power-drive of the lifter, or it does not go up at all.
This differs greatly from regular Weightlifting in which the various lifts can be made with a degree of "sleight of hand" . . . which is to say they are often accomplished with excessive speed or momentum, or with some cheating, or looser style. A Powerlift bench press is a more "honest" lift. Power alone sends the heavy weight aloft; sleight-of-hand will avail you nothing.
Thus, in orienting your training program along powerlift lines, you discard your present workout pattern. Forget it for the time being and concentrate on just three workout exercises: Bench press, Squat, and Deadlift, which will work the three major muscle groups strongly. As a unit they are the heart of . . . drum roll . . . wait for it . . . The Weider Power Principle.
Because of this the muscles grow in size and power, and an exciting massiveness is quickly apparent. Certainly you need not fear that specialization on this trilogy of exercises will cause your biceps, triceps, or deltoids to lose whatever distinction they now possess. They will acquire a Herculean majesty that will awe you! [and nothing less!]
Because a power program requires an augmented diet of either bulking or energizing foods, you will need Weider blah-blah and yeah, yeah supplements. If this supplemented diet seems to cause a patina of smoothness to blur your treasured abdominals, prevent this by adding a session of 5 sets of 50-100 reps of Frog Situps at the conclusion of your powerlifting workout, or at some other time during the day.
Why frog situps? Because the regular situp is a power-depleter. In this old-fashioned situp the back bears the brunt of the rise, thus draining it of energy needed for the heavier back work of the program. Frog situps work all four layers of abdominals, while regular situps work only the upper two.
Note: this was the belief for a time, this "upper and lower ab exercise deal, coupled with the idea that high-rep, endurance-style work for the abs would be a bright way to keep your waist trim while you eat beyond maintenance levels. Okay. Sure, buddy. The self-shattering logic behind inclusion of situps in a powerlift routine: "I don't get enough ab work doing heavy squats and deads, eh."
Thus, a session of frog situps is a time saver, and brings the most intense squeeze-burn-pump [patented ab work description pending], and, no matter how you bulk up your abdominals will stay brilliantly sharp and clear, and with an armor plated Herculean contour that will astound you! At the conclusion of this article I shall describe frog situps and tell you how they are performed. [Keep guzzling Crash Weight Gain by the galloon and use froggy went-a courtin' situps for brilliant abs. Okay.]
It is possible that because your power-lifting workout not only increases the size of your thighs, but calves, as a byproduct, you will want to "insure your diamonds." You may, therefore, add some sets of individual calf work at the end of your squat program.
Don't use a heavy weight or weight resistance, as you do when performing heel raises on the leg press, or donkey heel raises, or whatever. Work one calf at a time, on a high block and try for the most exaggerated "ups and downs" of the heels. This will create calf definition and will not additionally bulk the calves. Thus you have three heavy basics and two "definers."
Now let me show you how to put this power lifting workout pattern together.
Squats First
The British system of doing the three powerlift exercises is, I believe, the best. Your thighs are the largest single muscle mass and require the greatest output of energy. Therefore, the squat should be the first exercise. Moreover, the heavy deep breathing caused by squats makes for overall stimulation of the body.
The best rep scheme for powerlifting workouts in from 3 to 5 reps per set. Aim for 3 rather than 5, and work up to your limit poundage often. Study this sample routine?
Warmup: 1 x 8-10, light weight. This is important.
Working up: 3 x 3-5 reps, working close to your maximum poundage.
Maximum: 1 x 3 reps, as much weight as possible; then 1 single (yes, only one rep) with an even greater increase, a heavier weight than you ever thought you could handle (easy now, Buster). Try for a full rep. If you can't make it this time you'll do it next time!
Working down: 3 x 3-5 with the heaviest weight you can handle for this number of reps.
Final set: 1 x 8-10, moderate weight (not too light) for a final pump.
After this squat routine, do the bench press, and do it in the very same sequence, the same number of reps, and with the greatest poundage you can handle for the number of reps indicated. Simply follow the pattern of sets and reps as you did in the squat. It is just as important to warm up for this as it was in the squat. You are working with poundages greater than the norm, you are attacking those deep-lying muscle fibers which have lain dormant since your birth(!) and they will overreact at this onslaught of bombing if you do not warm them up first.
Finally, complete the trilogy of powerlift exercises with the deadlift. Again, warm up as you did in the previous two exercises, but in this exercise only, you should concentrate on making reps. Instead of working up to a maximum of 3 reps in set, shoot for 5 reps. Also, OMIT that one set of one rep (the single) with maximum weight.
A word about the warmup for the deadlift. Never do that archaic exercise called the "good morning." Your morning will be anything but good if you do it. In the good morning exercise the small of the back is made a fulcrum for the levering of heavy weight, and the kinesiology or muscle structure in this area is such that chronic strain will prevent you doing deadlifts with any weight! The area will quickly become warm and flexible, and you may proceed with heavy deadlifts without any trouble.
After the three exercises have been completed you may do your frog situps and/or your individual heel raises.
You have now completed a Weider Power Principle workout and you should rest a day before repeating it.
Use this routine on three nonconsecutive days, just three workouts per week. On your rest days there is no reason why you can't do some lighter work on preacher curls or throw in some sets of frog situps. These will not deplete your energy reservoir for tomorrow's next power lift workout.
You may, however, prefer . . .
The Modified System
This system makes use of the basic power theory of gaining muscular weight, but does so with a power program for six muscle groups instead of the program of just three exercises for the major muscle groups just described.
Here are some suggestions for effective exercises to be used in the modified system . . .
Select just ONE exercise in each category:
Thighs: squat, half squat, leg press.
Pectorals: bench press, incline press, dumbbell incline press.
Back: heavy rowing, weighted chins.
Deltoids: behind the neck press, standing press.
Biceps; cheat curl, barbell curl, preacher curl.
Triceps: triceps press, pressdown, close grip bench press.
The Exercise Pattern
Having selected just one exercise from each group, proceed as follows:
a) Follow the system of sets and reps in the powerlift system
OR
b) Follow a basic system of 8 to 10 sets per exercise, with from 2 to 5 reps per set.
Apply a Split Routine if You Like
You may either work out three times a week with a complete program of six exercises -- allowing a complete day of rest between workouts.
Or, you may apply a split routine and do thighs/deltoids/biceps one day, and pectorals/back/triceps the next, continuing in this alternating manner for six days, giving three complete workouts for each body part.
Note: be aware that this form of a split will have you pressing six days a week.
In this modified system insert frog situps and/or individual heel raises, doing them at the completion of the workout, or at some other time of the day.
Be sure that you begin your workout with thigh work on "thigh days" . . . and with pectoral work on "pec days," these being the larger muscle groups exercised in each routine.
At all times in both approaches, you use maximum weight for the non-warmup sets at all times.
Do all your exercises with good form, for this is not a layout where forced reps or cheating should be employed.
About Your Powerlift Diet
As I have said earlier, you must augment your diet with the necessary bulking foods if you do not now have the actual weight-bulk required. This means that in addition to a high protein, high calorie table diet, you should gulp at least two bathtubs of Crash Weight Gaining Formula #7 each day, until your plumbing reaches the point you desire, er, you have gained the amount of weight you desire.
Once you reach the desired weight you may omit or use less of this near-useless supplement containing maltodextrin, dried milk solids, soya protein, and minute amounts of added vitamins and minerals.
Every powerlifter trainer, whether of adequate bulk or not, must ingest extra protein [away we go] in addition to the protein of milk, meat and eggs of the table diet. This is easily done with Weider Super-Protein 101, of which at least two troughs or a half-slough should be consumed at various intervals during the day.
Moreover, every power lifter needs a greater reserve of energy. Heavy lifts cannot be made without high energy. Thus, the table diet ["table diet" as separate from supplement purchase and intake, how thoroughly modern] should be altered to include honey at breakfast, fresh fruits at breakfast, lunch and dinner, and in addition your breakfast should include Instant Nature Breakfast okay
Okay OKAY ENOUGH ALREADY!
And now, here is how Frog Situps are effectively done:
Lie flat on your back.
Draw heels up under hips, wide and out to sides.
Clasp a barbell plate behind your head with both hands.
Now "curl" the body forward to the point where only the small of the back remains on the floor. In other words, the upper body does not move as far forward as in a regular situp. It's simply something of a crunch with legs in this "frog" position. Constant tension, etc.
After breaking in and then spending six consistent weeks on this program, temporarily discard it and go back to your regular program, or a specialization affair. You will be astounded how quickly your muscles respond to your regular program now that you have added more power to your body.
Enjoy Your Lifting!
I have a book-treat waiting outside my door for when I get home:
And in a few days this'll be outside my door, waiting patiently to help me with pressing and stuff as I get older and rot out even more, most naturally and as intended . . .
Book, awaiting . . .
Here's an excerpt . . .
The author's in full flow, do not worry, much of the rest of the book is more controlled and tight, this is just one of those fun ramble-rants we know and love, describing what it was like near the bottom of the worst parts of his alcoholism.
The point he makes in the book is that our great alcoholic writers wrote despite their drinking, not because of it and our great mistake is to glamorize and glorify their disease.
"I was now almost two hundred and fifty pounds, red-faced, losing my hair, given to cankers and bleeding gums, pissing so often I'd use the kitchen sink instead of the toilet, finding my teeth and nails loosening, a victim of boils, my eyes were pink, tired, dry and scratchy and the lids stuck together with mucal infection when I slept, my ears rang and were super sensitive to any scrape or screech, I gave off a staleness no soap could reach, my crotch and privates were forever raw and cracked, I was losing hair off my shins and pubis, my bellybutton stank and I shaved my armpits to no avail, my nose enlarged and capillaries split, the inside of my ears were raw from flaking, my tastebuds wore smooth at the rear and grew apart upfront so that I oversalted everything and could awaken before breakfast only with a tablespoon of salty redhot pepper sauce, my skin eroded in the creases and rubbed off in balls, I had a relentless belch for years from an ulcer, a liver that was trying to get out of me and die somewhere, shitty shorts and wine gas that ate holes in them, breath that even I couldn't stand, sweaty cold soles and shoes I hid under the bed or in a closet if I had a girl overnight, I gasped during any type of work and could not get a full breath even while typing, I began to wake up nightly on the floor having convulsed out of my bed, wine trots were common and many hours spent near tears trying to wring out my bowels on the toilet, my pulse seemed to clog and dribble, I had false angina in my upper left chest regularly, someone was going to shoot me in my rocker so I moved it away from the window, but I had a waking dream for ten years of my brain exploding on impact, I would lie unable to wake up but not sleep while strange men moved about in my kitchen and living room (they weren't there), I could not sit comfortably in any position, I smelled of stale semen between my weekly or biweekly baths, my gut bubbled day and night and I'd try to overfeed it to sleep, I had a two-year sinus cold and special flu attacks that laid me out near death, I was hoarse and kept grenadine and lime syrups and pastilles for my hack, my memory self-destructed on the phone and I'd hang up wondering whom I'd talked with or what arrangements we'd made, I often cried out "I'm coming!" when no one had knocked and I answered or heard the phone ring when it was long gone for nonpayment, I felt fungoid and sexually impotent for two years, I slept poorly and kept a pot by my bed in case I couldn't make the sink, I heard people laughing while I was trying to read and metallic sounds that echoed, my over-swollen brain rolled liquidly in my skull, I got dizzy rising from chairs or picking up handful of spilled coins, must I mention headaches and hangovers, my bloody morning shaves with safety razors, the mental fog that had me leaning on the table trying to remember my middle name, my age, or where I had just laid down my glasses, my rage over a dropped spoon or lost paper lying before me on my desk or the endless drinking glasses snapping to pieces in the sink, my poor handling of kitchen knives, and the strange yellow bruises that wandered up and down my arms and biceps, my harsh nerves and weird fugue states on paralysingly gruesome images of loved people, the living dead people standing around my bed for hours on end (they're worth two mentions), and just normal things everybody had like wanting to sob all the time, especially over the sunset beaches and bathers in vodka ads, divorced wife and kid, any lost piece of cake or life or unearned joy as a pretext for just letting go with thirty-minute screamer on the couch, and such clinical loneliness that my cat talked to me."
