A Mini Strength Training Program - Bradley Steiner

 

What do you do when you have very little time for lifting? 

How can you incorporate a weight training program into an extremely busy schedule? 

It's rather easy, in fact. 

If you can set aside two 20-30 minute periods a week, you can still 

continue to improve during a hectic time in your life. 

Here . . . 

1) Standard standing press:

1x10, warmup

1x8 (medium-heavy weight)

1x5 (as heavy as possible without doing the limbo)

2) Squat: 

1x20 (light-medium warmup)

1x6 (heavy)

1x3-4 (maximum)

3) Supinated-grip Chins: 

1) One set of as many correct, strict chins as you are capable of, until you can do 20, then add weight.

Take two days of rest (or as close as you can get to it during this busier time in your life) between workouts - at least.

Think this workout's too short? 

Not convinced that it "covers enough?"

DON'T KNOCK IT TILL YOU'VE TRIED IT. 

Give it a sincere and persistent effort, striving to increase the poundages and effort output steadily. 

After 6-8 weeks take a week off and rest. Then, either resume the routine as-is, or, if your time for training has opened up a little more, implement a longer layout accordingly. 

And remember . . . you don't need two and three hour workouts to achieve all-round strength and conditioning. 

Of course, make sure you come as close as possible at this time to getting 

enough sleep and rest, and follow a good, balanced diet. 

All right, here's a treat from Mr. Steiner as he looks back on his early youth and schooling . . . 

How well we remember the child abusers who were passed off as "teachers" when I was a boy in elementary school. Rotten old hags - Miss Monahan, Miss La Porte, Miss Crowley, Mister Lazary, and other sh*ts who never ought to have been permitted to be near zoo animals, save as live food, were turned loose on kids to howl, rant, bellyache, scream, and behave like the sewage they were, free of all concern about being stopped or called to account for their evils, simply because they were authority figures and we, the youngsters, were an incarcerated audience, held captive under their supervision, by law.

Anyone who is in a position of power or authority, whether cop, office manager, commanding officer or what have you, and who pushes those around him under or who abuses them in the slightest manner should be fed to sharks. 

I like this guy even more now. And, on a lighter note, the poetic term for an ass-kicking could be "boots on the brown." 

Enjoy Your Lifting! 

Richard Kuklinski.

J.C. Hise may have missed some aspects of

the "big ear" types. 

"I used to tie two cats' tails together and

toss 'em over a clothesline.

They'd tear each other up.

It didn't take long to get going,

not long at all."

Welcome to Earth, Richard! 

The home of humans,

lies, illusion and 

excuses. 

But geez,

them EARS! 

The Trouble with Waiting for Perfect - Michael Matthews (2018)

 

I usually hate books like this.  

They either make me laugh or puke uncontrollably.

I liked some of this chapter! 

You might too, you may as well.

This is a partial chapter excerpt from the book above.

There's some parts, the "big name" success stories and approaches they used, that I have no time for. Napoleon, Musk, some hedge fund cunt, Jordan Peedhisself, etc. Let's just skip all that and let's say you can get the book if you want more. 

Okay then . . . 

My point here is . . . 

no matter what you'd like to change in your life, it's easy to compile 

Oh fer fucksake. Enough lies, pauses and BS-seeking. 

If you wanna do it, do it already.

Stop looking for help from outside.

All you need is in you already.

And read some fucking real literature and not this 

chicken-scratch drivel and drool in verbal form 

passed off as useful . . . 

Man up and do what you have to 

to get whatever worthless temporal shite you desire.

Damn 'em all to hell, I hate this crap. 

Anyhow . . . 

here, ya feckin' halfwit bore-fests: 

Stop whining, looking for a savior outside yourself in the guise of a self-help type and finally

decide if what you desire is worth what it takes to get it. 

Self-help shite makes me ill no end. 

Jordan Peterson. 

Oh, fucking kill me now

you primordial, ooze-dwelling, too lazy to crawl out of it asshats. 

And, if you're "happy" I don't want you here. 

Speaking of which . . . there's nothing here in this film,

nothing of positive worth in the viewing of this short-on-promotion film.

Promotion! 

It's what separates the greats from the also-rans

in the whore world, no matter the endeavor. 

Anyhow, go fuck yourself

but first, make it a point to see this film.

John Cassavetes, meet Raging Bull in a movie made in 2024 . . . 

brutally beautiful in its truth: 

https://movieweb.com/the-featherweight-review/

Get Creative with Your Training! 

And hey, maybe if you got punched in the face

every time you missed a lift,

you wouldn't miss as many lifts. 

Check out how many fights this guy did in that one year.

How he came back from that plane crash, and

how many fights he had so soon after. 

Hardgainer?

Low motivation? 

Spare me your excuses. 

And spare yourself a lotta regrets in the future. 

Get to it and stop stalling! 

Such a motivator, ain't I just.

 

Enjoy Your Lifting! 

 

 

What Does Training to Failure Really Mean? - Bradley Steiner (2010)

Masahiko Kimura

Just What “Does Training to Failure”

Really Mean in Weight Training?

The late Arthur Jones is the brilliant innovator who developed the Nautilus exercise machines. These machines, in our opinion, represent the only significant advance in progressive resistance training since the development of the plate loading barbell.

In Jones’ early writings he introduced the concept of “training to failure”. This approach to training is key to understanding how Nautilus machines are to be correctly utilized. Additionally, it is key to understanding how resistance training in ANY form, using plate-loaded barbells and dumbbells, cables, pulley devices, etc., ought to ideally be employed.

We have noted often that this idea of training to failure is incorrectly understood.

Many believe that training to failure means training to the point of actual exhaustion, strain, or collapse. Or, that it simply means working out until you have done so much exercise for each body part that further training is simply impossible.

None of that is true.

“Training to failure” is hardly the overburdening, endlessly time-consuming, grueling, all day affair in the gym that some have assumed it to be. To the contrary, training to failure (or, put in terms that had been used before that one came into use, by men like Peary Rader, simply means: “Training very hard on a normal exercise program, but working each exercise sufficiently to achieve proper overloading of the working muscle.”)

Here’s an example of how it works:

Let’s take the two-hands barbell curl, merely as an example. Select a weight that you feel will enable you to do a strict (but effortful) set of 8 repetitions. Now try to do 10 reps with that weight. Perhaps you’ll find yourself almost able to complete the 9^th rep; or possibly the 10^th.

Try.   Continue your effort – strict and correct as you possibly can, performance -wise – until you find yourself genuinely unable to move the bar. The weight simply falls back to the starting position, and that is it.

You’ve just worked to “failure.” Do no more of that exercise today. You’ve done plenty IF you truly pushed it to a genuinely unpassable limit of repetitions.

Not really “straining” at all. Just hard work.

Really, the same kind of work that long before Arthur Jones invented the Nautilus machines, men like Peary Rader emphasized in their courses.

Now, if you’ve endeavored to train like that on a program of 15 exercises, doing between 4 and 6 sets per exercise, that would not only be impossible – it would indeed be straining and overworking to an inordinate degree.

Is a single set really enough? Yes, IF you do it as described. Personally, we do not always or even usually train that hard. We modify it. We push, but we require two or three sets in our workouts (of between six and 10 exercises, only) that we push hard, but not always to failure. When we do go to failure we do it on the last set (which, we admit probably results in our over-training).

Is training to failure dangerous? No, absolutely not, if done as we described – which is how we understand Jones and those who have followed his training advocates teach. It isn’t dangerous because you do only that which you are capable of doing, and then, after trying hard to do a little more, you simply stop when the muscles being worked tell you that presently they have done all they are able to do.

Training to failure is really the most efficient and reliable way to employ the proven overload method of training, which is the heart and soul of ALL progressive resistance exercise, and always has been.

Will this enable me to build a magazine-cover physique? Only if you have the proper genetics for such a physique. Otherwise, you are in the same category as 99.5% of the world is in, you’ll simply be able to attain your own genetic limit (drugs) in strength (response to drugs) and muscular development (ability to tolerate drugs). Magazine cover, right?

Not a bad deal, eh. Over the years we have found that, for building up, and assuming an attitude that is sufficiently amenable to training to failure, that is indeed the best approach. It saves tons of time, requires relatively few exercises, and produces the greatest all-round benefits.

You DO NOT need Nautilus machines to train this way. Nautilus simply provides the most efficient approach to employing this method with several conventional exercises that – juxtaposed to the Nautilus machines that duplicate their basic action – are not quite as effective in working the muscles being trained.

Once you are advanced and have built up, we personally favor a three day per week lifetime program in which a LIGHT, MEDIUM, and HEAVY training day each week is undertaken. On days when you are not up to a heavy day do another medium day.

The real and healthy activity of bodybuilding as it was practiced during the 1920s, 30s, 40s, 50s and 60s has vanished. It has, sadly, gone underground. The mainstream activity that passes itself off as “bodybuilding” today is so unhealthy, ridiculous, and immersed in perversion and nonsense that it sickens anyone who truly loves that which we used to refer to as the Iron Game.

But real bodybuilding is nonetheless alive and well, if not in the mainstream. We remain ardently in support of that wonderful activity, and we hope that by explaining relevant aspects of it to those who read our material we can contribute to their appreciation of what it offers, and to their benefit in following on the path that it provides.

If you dislike the term “training to failure” then substitute “training hard” – for in essence it really means the same thing, when the terms are properly understood.

Have no reluctance to train hard,
hard muscles will be the result.

Enjoy Your Lifting!

Rep Speed - John Christy (1999)

 

Here’s my description of a properly performed rep.

The bar should be lowered under control then either completely stopped at the bottom position or performed with a controlled “turnaround” or “tap,” then the bar should be driven up as hard and as fast as is necessary to complete the rep.

Yes, that’s what I said . . . “as fast as is necessary to complete the rep.”

Now don’t misinterpret this. The explosive contractions must be controlled, not thrown! And you must decelerate at lockout.

Another thing – don’t be explosive with warm-ups, or if you’re inexperienced and still learning proper biomechanics.

Also, don’t “explode” the bar up during the early reps of a high-rep set (reps above 8). Once the set starts to become challenging, start pushing and pulling as hard and as fast as you can! On sets of more than 8 reps the weight will be such that you could move the bar fast enough to throw it – but don’t! That would be an abuse of what I’m talking about.

I can virtually guarantee you that on a limit set of 5 reps or less you’ll not be able to move the weight fast enough even though you’re trying to. But you must try because this guarantees that you’re putting out maximum effort, and it also helps to recruit the fast twitch fibers of the muscle which have the greatest potential for strength development and hypertrophy.

In my professional opinion it’s not the speed that gets most trainees hurt; it’s poor biomechanics, an unrealistic progression scheme, or muscular imbalances. If you’re attempt to accelerate the bar takes you out of good biomechanics, then you have no right training in this fashion. I want you to understand that, in my book, the safety of trainees is number one, because if you’re constantly getting hurt you can’t train consistently, and if you can’t train consistently you aren’t going anywhere with the weights. My trainees have an extremely low injury incident rate that I would stack up against any training facility in the world. The reason for this is our heavy emphasis on great biomechanics, a progression scheme that the body can adapt to, and the correction of strength imbalances between agonists and antagonists.

Speed and Injuries

I want you to understand that in my professional opinion, just because you’re performing reps in a slow cadence doesn’t necessarily mean you’re using good form.

Let’s talk about “good form” for a moment.

To me, good form means getting in a good biomechanical position (one that optimizes leverage and safety for each individual trainee’s genetic makeup), and maintaining this position for the duration of the set. It has absolutely nothing to do with speed.

I’ve witnessed slow reps performed with terrible form (causing injuries) and explosive reps performed in complete safety. I’ve also seen the opposite of this.

It seems that there’s so much talk these days that if you go slow you won’t get hurt, and that’s just not the case. It seems as though numerous examples are given on how someone was doing his reps too fast and he got hurt, when more than likely it was poor form resulting from the lack of control that hurt the trainee. No one ever says anything about the trainee who got hurt moving slowly. Well, let me tell you that one of the worst injuries I’ve ever witnessed personally was by an experienced, very strong trainee. I’ve known this man for over 25 years. He severely tore his right pec with a sub-maximum weight – a weight he could comfortably perform 5 reps with when performed in his normal “not counting seconds style” – because he decided to start lowering the bar slower than his normal speed.

This occurred on the very first rep of the set. He was lowering the bar in a three-second cadence.

Was the injury the result of moving slower?

In my opinion, no. But it could have easily been blamed on that. If the injury had occurred while he was moving the bar explosively, like he normally does, it would most assuredly be blamed on speed.

The point I am making here is that speed (whether slow or explosive) isn’t necessarily the culprit. What caused this injury, by the way, wasn’t him going slow, it was an improper jump from a last warmup set of 225 to a “live” weight of 315 pounds. The trainee should have performed a last warmup set with 275.

Reaching Your Genetic Potential – Safely

I assure you that no one can refute the fact that power is the product of mass times acceleration. This is a proven fact of physics that’s incontrovertible. In my opinion, in order to develop the human body to its maximum strength and size potential you must lift the heaviest weights possible for a given number of reps for a long period of time. For the body to do this it must create the maximum amount of force it can generate. This can only be accomplished by trying to move the bar as fast as possible with as much weight as possible.

Now let’s not get stupid here. I’m very aware that physics on paper is one thing, and training the human body is another. The philosophy I presented above is the one I practice and teach, but with the proviso that the trainee generate as much force as possible in the safest way possible.

The human body is meant to move fast – it’s natural – you just have to do it in a way that’s safe. But what’s safe?

Safe is control. That’s why I don’t have inexperienced beginners train with maximum force – because they haven’t learned to control their bodies or the bar yet.

Watch world-class sprinters. Are they moving as fast as possible? You bet. But they are under total control of their bodies, their biomechanics are perfect, and this makes them more efficient. This control – this efficiency – helps prevent injuries while allowing the athlete (or trainee) to use maximum force, which in my opinion is the only way to reach one’s strength potential.

I know you’re thinking that sprinters pull muscles all the time – but so do distance runners, and they are moving much slower. (By the way, check out the size of sprinter’s legs.) Once again, what I feel causes the injuries is either poor biomechanics, training at a rate that the body can’t adapt to (too much weight, too much frequency, i.e., over-training), or muscular imbalances – not speed! Speed is the culprit if it makes you use poor form.

I just realized that I better clear up something because I can see your minds working right now.

"So,” you say, “John, if speed doesn’t matter then why don’t we just drop the bar on the eccentric phase of the movement? You know, bounced benches, rebound squats and curls.”

Guys, let’s not get ridiculous. When I’m talking about using speed safely, I’m talking about going through the concentric (positive) phase of the lift, because this can be easily controlled. Letting gravity completely “free fall” a weight is completely out of control. I would never advocate this.

Other Concerns

What I’m getting concerned with is the fact that so many trainees are getting so afraid of getting hurt in the weight room that their training is based on avoiding getting hurt instead of training to make progress – safely. Don’t think of your body as some frail or weak thing. Your body is tough. Your muscles, tendons and ligaments can withstand a tremendous amount of force as long as the body has been conditioned to handle it and the body is placed in the proper position to handle it. This is one of the reasons to train in the first place – so that you’re strong and resistant to injury from forces that would hurt someone who doesn’t train.

I’m not saying to throw caution to the wind. You must train safely! But don’t become so afraid to get hurt that you don’t put out maximum effort. I promise you that if you follow the rules of sound progression, learn and use good form, and correct muscular imbalances – it’s very unlikely that you’ll get hurt, period.

To Summarize

In my opinion, to reach your genetic potential you must move as much weight as possible for a prescribed number of reps. To do this you must generate as much force as possible. To do this you must try to move a heavy weight (or, on a high rep set, the tough reps) as fast as possible. You must do this as safely as possible. Safety comes from good biomechanics and control of the weight. Good biomechanics and control come from great concentration and experience. If, by all means, you have to count seconds to maintain control of the weight, then do so. Professionally speaking, I just don’t feel it’s necessary.

I can't resist reading it.

Enjoy Your Lifting! 

Three Exercises for Fantastic Bulk and Power - Anthony Ditillo

 

Three movements:

The full squat,
The chin-up with weight, and
The weighted dip

are all you need to build great massiveness and size simply, easily and quickly. Forget those curls, forget the lateral raises and all the rest FOR THREE MONTHS and more than likely make the best gains of your life.

Pretty strong words, aren’t they?

Yes, I know, you’ve heard such remarks before. It seems as though everybody knows how to make quick gains. At least, most of our magazine authors tell us this. Usually a routine is given in such mags which consists of working out six days a week, 2-3 hours per day, using 3-4 movements per body part and 3-5 sets of 6-8 repetitions per movement. And all I can say is that such a program is NOT for the beginner or intermediate and anyone who says it is is either a fool or a liar.

All this

about 20 sets of this and 20 sets of that is just a lot of hogwash as far as fellows like you and I are concerned. Sure, if you weigh 200 or so and are of average height and have been training for 5-7 years, then such a routine will help you lose that bulk and shape up for a contest just fine.

How can such people writing this trash expect the average trainee who is underweight to make gains on such a schedule? The answer is, they don’t! They expect him, however, to keep reading such stuff in his search for muscles and more power and this is why they continue to print such nonsense.

Fellows, if your muscles are too small for your liking and your body too light to look impressive then you should get yourself set for some pretty heavy, though not highly involved workouts.

And I mean for a year or three, in some cases at the very least. You MUST build the proper foundation first. You MUST use muscle GROUP movements exclusively, the fewer and the heavier the better. And you MUST follow the proper diet.

What is the sense of working your arms for an hour and a half when your legs are not much bigger than such arms? Listen . . .

get that bench press up to one-and-a-half times bodyweight and the squat and deadlift up to twice bodyweight and then and only then will you begin to scratch the surface of such bodily proportions and strength if you desire.

It will not be hard to keep a close check on your shape to determine just when to halt such bulk training. It just depends on your ultimate goals. If you wish to emulate Pearl, Park, Neville “Nuts” Pistachio and all the other greats, then naturally when the weight begins to really pile on your frame you would then stop power training and copy more of a definition routine for a while, until the muscles are hard and cut up again, then after coasting along on shape work for a while, you may decide to bulk once again. This will enable your frame to carry even more weight.

If, on the other hand you enjoy heavy training exclusively, and are a power man at heart, then let your bodyweight from such power training take care of itself. As long as you are not downright fat, why care how much you weigh? If you are happy with your size and strength then why bother to starve yourself?

The great Olympic weightlifter . . .

Reding of Belgium is a fine example of this. I only wish I looked as good and had such strength! Mel Hennessy is another; at 5’3” and 215 pounds you can imagine just how massive he looks.

So you see, no matter what your aims are, power and bulk training is necessary for great gains.

In this program I have chosen two very misconstrued movements and put them in such a program for a definite reason.

Number one is the parallel dip. If you use enough weight for resistance, perform enough sets in a correct, slow, grinding manner, the parallel dip is then superb in developing the triceps, pectorals, deltoids and even the back. If you only use such a movement at the end of a workout without concentrative planning, it then becomes little more than a waste of time.

It’s not always what you do but HOW you do it that counts.

The chin-up is another tremendous developer for the forearms biceps, deltoids, trapezius and latissimus dorsi muscles. But again, you must use heavy resistance, high sets and low reps to achieve great gains and you must perform the movement slowly and steadily.

I have used these two movements because they are easy to perform, require no spotters and the trainee does not have to use weights of high poundage for some time. So often when I put a man on bench presses, rows, etc., I find him STRAINING not training. You see, this article is geared for intermediate trainees who, after a few months of such work will be ready to tackle those heavy prones. I also advise anyone most eagerly to substitute bench press and rowing movements for these two exercises after three or so months on the program I am stipulating here. By then you will be ready. By then you will be making gains.

The third movement in this schedule is the squat and I don’t care what form you use, only be sure to do a lot of them! I don’t mean that you should perform the movement like a clueless douchebag, no I do not mean that at all. you halfwitted dripping pissflap. I mean that if you prefer full-squats to half-squats, then by all means substitute. But remember . . . once again . . . you must use heavy weights and concentrative drive to make those gains.

The rep scheme for squatting can be slightly high; in fact many men go as high as 20 reps. If you use a heavy enough weight, then perform only one set. If, on the other hand, you decide to use the same rep scheme on all three movements, then the following is the complete routine I advise:

Use 10 sets of each of the three movements.

Use enough weight so that you can only manage to squeeze out 4-6 repetitions per set.

If you find, on the 3^rd or 4^th set that you are tiring, then drop the poundage accordingly, but keep the reps between 4 and 6 for best results.

Perform this program two times per week. If you desire to train three times per week, then merely drop the sets on all three movements from 10 to seven.

I advise you to begin each workout with the squat, since the most weight will be used here. And if you prefer pulldowns to pullups then by all means substitute.

If you perform the workout just as I have outlined it for you, you will make gains . . . so long as your diet is adequate and you sleep deep and long. Once you get into some heavier poundages your bodyweight will really pile on.

Stick to the following foods: meat, eggs, milk, shoelaces, cheese, fruit, dog-dandruff, potatoes, thick soups, toilet fill, rice, ice cream, lice, etc., and eat large quantities consistently.

Try to keep a tranquil mind in daily business and social affairs.

None of it matters at all in the end, contrary to popular belief.

Aw poop.

Enjoy Your Lifting!

 

Massive Arms and Shoulders, The Fast Way - Roger Eells

 

More from Roger Eells, clickable: 

Deadlift for Power 

I Was Given Three Months to Live 

So You Can't Gain Weight 

The Value of a Tranquil Mind 

The Breathing Squat is Foolproof, But . . . 

The True Story of Roger Eells 

Developing the Chest

Did it ever occur to you that an injured muscle 

could be a blessing in disguise?

Most people look on illness 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 . . . 

The guy got hacked up by an airplane prop. Read the article linked 

"I was given three lifetimes to live" or something along those lines up there. 

You know the drill with inspiration from someone who came back from a horrific injury, I'm sure you know it already. Let's get to the training end of it . . . 

But first

 

Sever facial trauma from a run-in with an aircraft propellor blade. 

Odd how that tongue looks sexy, ain't it. 

Well, ain't it just! 

Actually, it's the face of a 21-year old fellow

who gave himself 100 I.U. of growth every day for a few months. 

His physique is incredible. 

   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, he writes a lot like S. McRobert, 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 now and say that I have gotten results from the use of dumbbells the last few weeks that barbells have not given me over a period of years. 

   If you have not been using the dumbbells get them out now, and lay yourself out an arm and shoulder specialization routine (hence the article?). If you don't have them, beg, borrow, beseech, plead, grovel, grab, steal, pinch, pilfer or bloody well just buy a set immediately. The important thing is: don't get your leg sawn half off by an airplane, er, the important thing is don't put it off, get started now . . . today! 

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

  A rest of two weeks found it just as sore and stiff as 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, had dropped to 150. At the end of two weeks it was back to 170 but at a standstill. The shoulder was slightly stronger but every bit as sore. 

To begin with I couldn't muscle out a 30-pound 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 (Paschall), who has the finest deltoid of any man in the country and has been in that deplorable condition for the past twenty-five 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 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's and 100's have 1-3/8" handles which gives the gripping muscles of the hand and forearm a good workout every time that are cleaned to the shoulders. 

The 100-pound 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 Olympic champion, failed to clean a pair of them at Klein's Gym, when the German team were in the U.S. Not once, but five times. He cleaned them on the sixth attempt and then pressed them easily for six repetitions. 

Johnny Terpak cleaned them the first attempt and pressed them twice while waving a small American flag tied on to his right foot. 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 best in an overhead press with a barbell. 

Reduce the total weight of the dumbbells 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 (65 pounds in either hand . . . a comparable weight to Manger's 100-pounders) at least 20 to 25 times.

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 pounds and an inch in height. There is no doubt that he can gain 30 pounds and every chance that his height will increase but he isn't going to get results like that by wishing for them. His one chance is willing that he will 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 success of every really successful body builder and weight lifter in the world today. They have first wished they had the attributes of a weight lifter 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 day dreaming, or whatever you care to call it, has intensified the desire until they have willed they develop a body and 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 muscles 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, a Stanko or any number of non-American lifters elsewhere and extraordinaire. Certainly no one who knows Terlazzo, positively the greatest lifter the world has ever seen and on and on here with the usual achieve anything, think positive, work hard deal we've all heard a million times too often.

Let us finally turn to the exercises for building big arms and shoulders, the best apparatus to be used in acquiring 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; the lateral raise; the lifting of a pair of dumbbells out to the sides while leaning over in the rowing motion position. 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 pullover, 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 

I like the way they used the word "practicing" back then. Seeing yourself as practicing, every rep (including warmups), all sets . . . try it if you like . . . it has a definite impact on your workouts. 

especially the Zottman exercise should be practiced two or three times during the workout. Note: this was written before multiple consecutive sets had become the standard way to train. Practice the bent press movement with fairly light weight, even if you are quite strong a 65-pound dumbbell should prove heavy enough if the exercise is performed correctly. The important part of the movement is to be sure that the weight is lowered with the elbow 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 this article and you will neither do too much nor too little. 

That's a different way of giving set recommendations, isn't it. 

Enjoy Your Lifting!