Dinosaur Training PDF

DINOSAUR TRAINING
LOST SECRETS OF STRENGTH AND

DEVELOPMENT
Brooks D. Kubik
Dinosaur Training – Brooks Kubik
TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION................................................................................................................
2
PREFACE TO THE FIRST
EDITION...............................................................................
3
PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION
.......................................................................... 6
CHAPTER ONE: THE DINOSAUR
ALTERNATIVE......................................................... 7
CHAPTER TWO: PRODUCTIVE
TRAINING.................................................................. 13
CHAPTER THREE: AN OUTLINE OF DINOSAUR
TRAINING .................................... 17
CHAPTER FOUR: HARD WORK
.................................................................................... 26
CHAPTER FIVE: DINOSAUR EXERCISES
.................................................................... 33
CHAPTER SIX: ABBREVIATED
TRAINING.................................................................. 39
CHAPTER SEVEN: HEAVY WEIGHTS
.......................................................................... 43
CHAPTER EIGHT: POUNDAGE
PROGRESSION.......................................................... 50
CHAPTER NINE: DEATH SETS
...................................................................................... 56
CHAPTER TEN: MULTIPLE SETS OF LOW REPS
........................................................ 59
CHAPTER ELEVEN: SINGLES
....................................................................................... 63
CHAPTER TWELVE: THICK BARS
............................................................................... 67
CHAPTER THIRTEEN: GRIP WORK, PART ONE
........................................................ 70
CHAPTER FOURTEEN: GRIP WORK, PART
TWO....................................................... 76
CHAPTER FIFTEEN: LOGS, BARRELS AND
HEAVY BAGS ...................................... 84
CHAPTER SIXTEEN: POWER RACK TRAINING
......................................................... 91
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN: A BASIC STRENGTH
TRAINING PROGRAM .................... 99
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN: KEEP IT SIMPLE!

.................................................................. 106
CHAPTER NINETEEN: CONCENTRATE!
................................................................... 115
CHAPTER TWENTY: MORE ON THE MENTAL
ASPECTS OF TRAINING .............. 122
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE: DO IT FOR
YOURSELF................................................... 132
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO:
PERSISTENCE................................................................
135
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE: THE IRON WILL TO
SUCCEED ................................ 139
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR: FADS, FALLACIES

AND PITFALLS ........................... 145
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE: JUST DO IT!
.................................................................... 149
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX: NO EXCUSES
.................................................................... 152
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN: EXCEED YOUR
EXPECTATIONS ............................. 156
1
INTRODUCTION
-- by William F. Hinbern, World Famous Weight
Training Authority, author, collector and seller of
Strongman memorabilia, books, courses, etc.
Here is the long-awaited strength training manual by
Brooks Kubik – National Bench Press Champion and
popular magazine writer for the blue bloods of the
strength training world.
Written for those of us who are interested in
STRENGTH rather than the APPEARANCE of
strength, here for the first time, he details in one
volume many of the most result producing methods for
not only packing on the beef but for developing truly
useful slabs of muscle in the grand tradition of the
oldtime strongmen. If you are looking for an alternative
style of training for real honest-to-goodness strength,
then this is the ticket!
Somehow in our quest for size and strength we in the
Iron Game have lost direction. We float aimlessly like
balloons, caught and carried by any vagrant breeze or
“new” training system, always changing direction,
always moving and never getting anywhere. The
author grabs us by the ankles, pulls us back to earth,
slaps us across the face like a cold shower, and gives
us a refreshing insight, a redefined approach to
training for massive, brute strength. He doesn't claim
to have invented anything new; rather, he has
rediscovered and unearthed the training methods of
the old masters, our
forefathers in methodical, progressive resistance
training.
Educational, inspirational, practical, this training
manual is destined to be a classic strength training
textbook and will find a hallowed place in the archives
of every serious strength athlete.
If you are serious like me, you will order two copies.
One to set on your strength library book shelf and one
to use constantly as a source of inspiration till it's dog
eared!
After digesting this huge iron pill, I now await my
second dose. Volume two.
~William F. Hinbern
2
PREFACE TO THE FIRST
EDITION
Think like a man of action, act like a man of thought.
~Henri Bergson
The purpose of this preface is threefold. First, I want
to introduce myself and tell you a little bit about my
credentials for writing this book. I do so not to “blow
my own horn,” but to offer evidence that I am not yet
another of the detested and despicable race of
armchair theoreticians who plague the weight training
world and who multiply like the maggots they
resemble. (You'll hear more about armchair “experts”
throughout this book.) Second, I want to tell you why I
wrote this book. Third, I want to publicly acknowledge
and thank certain people who made this book a
reality.
WHO I AM
I am a 38 year old weight lifter. I have been training for
over 25 years. I LOVE weight training and the best
that it represents, and I have always loved it. I have
studied the art of weight training for most of my life. By
the way, as a brief aside, that's exactly what
productive weight training truly is: an ART...not a
science. If anyone ever tries to sell you a book, course
or exercise machine based on “scientific” weight
training principles, hit him hard and quick and run like
hell.
I stand 5'9” and weigh around 225 pounds. I am a
former high school wrestler, and won numerous
wrestling championships and awards. I lived in Illinois
and Ohio when I wrestled. I placed third in the Ohio
state collegiate style wrestling championships and
won the Illinois state Greco-Roman style wrestling
championships. I was a good wrestler in part because
I trained hard with the weights. I would have been a
much better wrestler if I had known then what I know
now. The information in this book is of tremendous
value to wrestlers, football players or anyone else who
competes in combat sports. The book is about the
development of FUNCTIONAL strength. If you are
looking for a book for narcissistic pump artists and
mirror athletes, look elsewhere.
After high school I went to college, then to law school. I
now work as an attorney at a large Midwestern law
firm. I'm like most of the guys who will read this book:
someone keenly interested in weight training, but not
someone who makes his living from the field. From
age 33 to age 36 I competed in drug free powerlifting
and bench press competition. I lifted in two different
organizations. In one, I won three national
championships in the bench press, set three
American records in the bench press and also set
several national meet records, competing in the 198
and 220 pound classes. I also won many stale and
regional titles and set numerous state and regional
records. In the other organization. I won two national
championships in the bench press, set over half a
dozen American or national meet records, and set
three world records in the 220 pound class. My best
official lift was the one that won my fifth national
championship: 407 pounds. Not too shabby for a
middle-aged lawyer.
I also spent quite a bit of time working as an official at
powerlifting and bench press meets for one
organization, and was honored by being selected
runner-up for “male referee of the year” on one
occasion.
After winning five national championships in the
bench press I decided to take a break from
competition and turn to other matters—such as this
hook and other writing.
Although 1 do not compete in powerlifting or bench
press meets at present, I continue to train regularly
and am stronger today than I was when I competed.
Some of my current lifts are detailed later on: I won't
bore you by repealing those numbers here. Suffice it
to say that your author really does train, really does lift
heavy weights on a regular basis, has written many
articles covering various facets of strength training, is
NOT an armchair theorizer. has demonstrated on the
lifting platform that his ideas work and has proven—at
the highest levels of drug free competition – that he
can hold his own with the best in the world. Your
author is not a pencil neck, he is not a professional
ghost writer who knows nothing about physical 3
training and he most assuredly is not an academic
babbler with no hands-on training experience.
WHY I WROTE THIS BOOK
I wrote this book because I love strength training. I
wrote this book because I hale what has happened to
the Iron Game over the past thirty or forty years. Most
importantly. I wrote this book because there is a
wealth of training information that is almost
impossible to find on the written page. The majority of
weight training hooks are for bodybuilders or pseudo-
bodybuilders, not men who are interested in the
development of sheer, raw power and tremendous
functional strength. This book is an effort to even the
score in that respect.
In addition, this book is an effort to make weight
training interesting once again. I am tired of seeing
the same old boring ideas presented in one look-
alike weight training book after another. The Iron
Game has been inundated with self-styled experts
who really have nothing to offer when it comes to
hardcore strength training. Many of the most valuable
aspects of strength training have literally been lost—
buried in the sands of time, forgotten, neglected and
unused. Curiously, those hidden secrets are also the
very things that make weight training enjoyable—the
things that change it from an activity to an adventure.
This book will liven up your training. Think of it as the
strength training equivalent of the KAMA SUTRA.
The purpose of this book is to give YOU—and every
serious weight training enthusiast who purchases it -
a gold mine of LOST IDEAS that really work.
Whoever you are, and however much you know about
training, this book will include some new information
and new ideas for you. And for those of you who have
not been involved in the Iron Game for very long, or
who have not studied anything other than “modern”
training methods, this book will be a revelation.
This book is mental dynamite. It will blow your current
training ideas to dust. It will expand your horizons in
ways you cannot now even imagine. Have you ever
lifted heavy barrels?
What about heavy sandbags? Ever use thick bars for
your upper body training? Do you do heavy singles?
What about rack work? How about bottom position
squats and bench presses?
Heavy grip work? Pinch grip lifting? Round back
lifting? The farmer's walk? Death sets?
Two finger deadlifts? Lifting an anvil? Vertical bar
lifts? Lever bars? Sledgehammers? This book covers
all of those topics and more - much more.
PEOPLE WHO MADE THIS BOOK POSSIBLE
There are a number of people who made this book
possible. The first is my wife of 16 years, Ginnie, who
never (well, almost never) complained that I loved the
keyboard more than I loved her. Thanks, darling.
The second is Bill Hinbern, a TRUE gentleman, and a
man who embodies all of the best the Iron Game has
to offer. Bill gave me many valuable tips about the
practical aspects of publishing and marketing a
weight training book. He also proofed and edited the
manuscript, supplied much useful information,
provided the photo used for the cover drawing and
wrote the introduction. Thanks, Bill.
The third is my good friend, Mike Thompson, who has
urged me for several years to tackle this project and
who always provided encouragement and support.
Mike is one of the finest writers in the field, one of the
strongest men I have ever met, and has a keener eye
for training technique than anyone I know. Thanks,
Mike.
The fourth is Bob Whelan. Like Mike, Bob urged me
to roll up my sleeves and knock out a book, and like
Mike, he was always there when I needed a word of
encouragement. Bob is one of the outstanding
strength coaches in the world today. Thanks, Bob.
The fifth is Greg Pickett, one of the strongest cellar
dwellers in the world, a terrific fan of the Iron Game,
and one of the most gracious lifters I ever saw on a
powerlifting platform. Greg was the third member of
my “writer's support group” as I labored to finish this
project, and like the others, he kept me focused and
motivated. Thanks, Greg.
The sixth is Kim Wood, Cincinnati Bengal's Strength
Coach, with whom I have had many conversations
about serious strength training, and who offered
numerous ideas that I have 4
incorporated into these pages. If you give heavy bags
and barrels a try and are sore as the devil the next
day, don't blame me, blame Kim. It was his idea.
Thanks, Kim.
The seventh is Osmo Kiiha, who has supported my
efforts by running excerpts from this book as articles
in THE IRON MASTER and who has allowed me to
advertise the book in THE
IRON MASTER. Osmo is a lifter's lifter, a collector's
collector and one of the most knowledgeable men in
the field. Thanks, Osmo.
The eighth is Dr. Ken Leistner. For my money Dr.
Leistner is one of the very best writers of all time in
the Iron Game, and one of the men who has played a
major role in promoting sane, sensible and productive
training. Dr. Leistner gave me permission to include
excerpts from his terrific newsletter, THE STEEL TIP,
which ran from January, 1985 through December,
1987, and which is one of the best reference sources
available on serious strength training. Dr.
Leistner has inspired all of us over the years with his
terrific articles in POWERLIFTING
USA, MUSCULARDEVELOPMENT, IRONMAN,
H.I.T. NEWSLETTER, MILO and other magazines.
Thanks, Dr. Leistner.
The ninth is Dr. Randall J. Strossen, the author of
SUPER SQUATS and IRONMIND®:
STRONGERMINDS, STRONGERBODIES, the editor
and publisher of John McCallum's KEYS TO
PROGRESS, the editor and publisher of John
Brookfield's terrific book, MASTERY OF HAND
STRENGTH, the editor and publisher of MILO and the
owner of IRONMIND® ENTERPRISES, INC.
(hereinafter “IRONMIND® ENTERPRISES”) which
sells some of the best and most unique training
equipment available today. Dr. Strossen has been
very supportive and has given me much valuable
advice in connection with this project. Thanks, Dr.
Strossen.
The final person I need to thank is YOU. Thanks for
having the desire to improve your knowledge of
strength training, thanks for having the confidence in
me to purchase this book sight unseen through the
mail, and thanks for having the courage,
determination, tenacity and strength of mind that it will
take to implement the training ideas that I have
detailed. Thanks, and best wishes for your training
success!
LETS GET TO WORK!
That's a long enough preface for any book. Let's get
to work! Turn to chapter one!
I never worry about action, but only about inaction.
~Sir Winston Churchill
5
PREFACE TO THE SECOND
EDITION
Society is always taken by surprise by any example
of common sense.
-Ralph Waldo Emerson
I initially planned to make DINOSAUR TRAINING a
short (60 to 80 page) manual. I figured I would
photocopy the little monster, spiral bind it and give it
to friends or sell it to the 20 or 30 people in the world
who might be interested in the thing. Then I realized
my typewritten manuscript was already over 300
pages or so, and decided I would have to turn it into
an honest to goodness book.
That idea almost fell by the wayside when no book
printer would quote the job at anything less than 2,000
copies - a number of copies I thought I would never
sell in a lifetime of trying.
After all, how many people are truly interested in
things as old fashioned as heavy iron, hard work, drug
free strength training, thick bars, grip work, bags,
barrels, and all the rest of what lies between these
covers?
Bill Hinbern, Bob Whelan, Greg Pickett and Kim
Wood finally convinced me to go ahead with the
project, and after a year of writing, proofing and
rewriting, DINOSAUR TRAINING
was offered to an unsuspecting world.
What happened then was truly astonishing. The first
edition of 3,300 copies sold out in about 18 months.
The book was reviewed in MILO, THE IRON
MASTER, HARD TRAINING, IRONMAN and other
magazines, featured on the CYBERPUMP website,
and was highly rated by some of the most
knowledgeable men in the Game. IRONMIND
ENTERPRISES
and IRON MAN began retailing it. College and NFL
strength coaches read it. The language of
DINOSAUR TRAINING began to crop up everywhere
you looked; references to
“bunnies,” “maggots,” and “chrome and fern land”
became almost commonplace. Those who sold thick
bars experienced off the chart sales, and if anyone
had had the foresight to sell bags or barrels, he would
have made a killing.
All of this was very gratifying, of course, but what has
meant the most have been the letters from readers.
The notes I treasure most - and I save them all - are
often scribbled on the backs of envelopes or other
unlikely pieces of stationary. They come from Europe,
Asia, Australia, Canada, Mexico and the United
States. They share one common theme; they all say, if
I may paraphrase, “Thanks for helping me recapture
the CHALLENGE, EXCITEMENT and FUN
of serious strength training!”
Those letters prompted two related ventures. The first
is this second edition of DINOSAUR
TRAINING, in revised and expanded form, offering
what a number of readers requested in their letters:
more training programs.
The second venture is a monthly newsletter called
THE DINOSAUR FILES. I started THE
FILES in August, 1997, and reader response has
been tremendous. If you enjoy DINOSAUR
TRAINING, you owe it to yourself to give THE FILES a
try. (Order information is in the Appendix to this
edition, together with other hard to find sources of
valuable training information.)
Many readers have written to tell me that they made
some of their best gains ever after reading
DINOSAUR TRAINING and incorporating some of its
ideas into their workouts.
Believe me, guys, this stuff is more than ink on paper.
It really works. Give it a try. The results will surprise
you.
That's more than enough for one preface. Strap in and
hang on for the ride of your life!
A teacher affects eternity; he can never tell where his
influence stops.
~Henry Adams
6
CHAPTER ONE: THE
DINOSAUR ALTERNATIVE
The past is but the beginning of a beginning.
~H.G. Wells
If fifty million people say a foolish thing, it
is still a foolish thing.
~Anatole France
Weight training is a very simple activity. However,
commercial interests, armchair theoreticians and
well-intentioned but misguided “experts” have
complicated things to the point where virtually no one
knows how to train productively anymore. Instead of
gyms filled with people taking productive, result-
producing workouts, we see gyms throughout the
world filled with members whose wild gyrations and
frenzied flailing will not build an ounce of muscle or
develop any greater level of strength than would be
built by a slow game of checkers on a lazy summer
day.
WHY DOESN'T ANYONE TRAIN HARD
ANYMORE?
Consider the following. Properly performed barbell
squats are one of the most productive exercises that
anyone can do. But how many gyms are there where
more than a small handful of members regularly squat
hard and heavy?
Trap bar deadlifts are one of the very best exercises
you can do. The trap bar - which runs less than $ 150 -
permits you to train deadlifts harder, safer and much
more productively than does an ordinary bar. But how
many gyms have a trap bar? How many trainees even
know what a trap bar is? How many who lift weights
are more concerned about purchasing the latest
accessories - brand name shoes, designer label
shirts and shorts, “sharp” looking workout gloves and
a color coordinated sweatband or baseball cap - than
they are about purchasing a trap bar?
If you are interested in building world class strength
and power, exercise machines are almost always a
total and complete waste of time. But how many gyms
are jam-packed with “the latest” high tech training
gizmos and chrome plated wonder machines? How
many trainees devote virtually all of their energy (I
can’t say “effort”) to pushing or pulling against the
padded handles of the aforementioned miracle
machines?
To develop the ultimate in rugged power and brutal,
ferocious strength, you need to include plenty of thick
handled barbell training - upper body exercises with a
bar that measures 2” to 3” in diameter. But how many
gyms offer such bars? How many modern trainees
have ever even seen one? Thick handled barbells
used to be one of the standard tools of the trade for
any strongman worthy of the name. Nowadays virtually
no one who lifts weights has ever even considered the
possibility of using a thick handled barbell.
Maximum muscular size and strength throughout the
entire body can only be developed if you devote tons
of effort and gallons of sweat to specialized grip
movements - primarily those that involve lifting,
carrying and holding enormous poundages with
various types of grips and using handles of different
shapes and thicknesses. Who do you know who
trains that way?
How many readers can name even a single member
of their gym who regularly practices pinch grip lifting,
the farmer's walk, thick bar deadlifting or reverse curls
with a 3” diameter bar?
Single rep training is one of the most effective ways to
develop an outstanding degree of muscular size and
strength. But how many people regularly do singles?
How many use a program that consists of NOTHING
BUT single reps – including warm ups?
Real results require real effort. You need to work so
hard you almost pass out when you do a heavy set.
You need to drive yourself to the point where, many
times, you literally collapse after the set is over. You
must train so hard that one heavy set can make you
sore for days.
You need to yell and shout and sweat and hurt when
you train. But how many people train this way? How
many people do you know who take a set of barbell
curls and work the set until the bar literally drops out of
their hands? How many people do you know who
work a 7
set of squats or deadlifts to the point where they go
down and stay down - sometimes for 10
or even 20 minutes? Compare the number of people
who train THAT hard to the number of people who
regularly spend two hours in the gym without breaking
a sweat.
Let's get even more basic. To get bigger, stronger
and better conditioned, you need to add weight to the
bar whenever you can. Progressive poundages are
the name of the game. If you are not adding weight to
the bar on a regular basis, you are kidding yourself.
But how many people actually try to increase their
training poundages? How many members of your
gym are content to waltz their way through the same
workout, with the same exercises, sets. reps and
poundages, year after year after year? I once
belonged to a gym where one guy used the same
poundages for 12 years. He got married and divorced
at least three times during that period.
He changed wives more often than he changed
exercise poundages. Any of you who go to
commercial gyms can doubtless identify half a dozen
members who suffer from the same sort of
passionate devotion to their exercise poundages.
THE AMAZING ANTICS OF MODERN
TRAINEES
The reason why most modern training is non-
productive is simple: most people who train with
weights nowadays are not interested in serious
results. Most people who lift weights do so for
reasons that have nothing to do with developing
ferocious muscular strength and raw, terrifying power.
These are the type of members the modern gyms go
out of their way to attract. In fact, they are really the
only type of members the modern gyms are interested
in having.
Most gyms want members who will be content to play
around with aerobic exercises, machine movements
and light, light poundages. They cater to members
who use the gym for socializing or as a pick-up bar.
The LAST thing they want is someone who is
interested in serious training.
The typical gym is crammed with non-essential
machines, most of which are less than half as
functional as if they were designed by a baboon and
assembled by an orangutan. The purpose of the
machines is to entice members of the public into
shelling out their cash to join the establishment and
reap the “benefits” of training on what the instructors
(who are nothing more than glorified sales-people) tell
them are the “latest” and “most scientific and high
tech” machines on the market. Ninety percent of the
equipment in the average gym could be melted down
or sold for scrap without diminishing the value of the
place one iota.
What else takes up space in the typical gym? The
typical instructor—a mindless goofball who doesn't
have the faintest beginning of a glimmer of a shadow
of a clue about what productive training is all about.
My golden retrievers, Sam and Spenser, could do a
better job of training gym members than does the
average instructor, manager, or gym owner.
Ask the average instructor or gym owner to
demonstrate the one arm deadlift. Ask him about
breathing squats. See what he knows about Olympic
lifting. Check out his form in the one arm snatch.
Watch him try to clean and press bodyweight. Ask
him about round back lifting, Joe Hise, the 5x5
system, rack work, Herman Goerner, heavy singles,
Clyde Emrich, Indian clubs, the farmer's walk, the
Roman column, hip belt squats, barrel lifting, or Arthur
Saxon.
You'd be amazed at what the guy DOESN'T know. As
a group, modern weight training instructors and gym
owners are clear proof that some people use the air
hoses at gas stations to inflate their heads every day.
Then you have the typical gym member - who is
usually young, spoiled, pampered and far more
interested in looking pretty than in training hard. In
fact, the average gym member would run in terror if
you tried to make him train HARD on even a single
set of a single exercise. A set of breathing squats
would kill him. In fact, a hard set of curls or presses
would be more than he could handle. Even
WATCHING hard work would make him sick. He'd
toss his cookies if he saw a dinosaur train!
Put them all together and you have an institution that
promotes mass insanity instead of rational weight
training. The idiot machines are designed to let
people PRETEND they are lifting weights. The
instructors prepare workout programs that let
members PRETEND they are training. And the
members are perfectly content to go right along with
the whole scam.
8
Weight training today is NOT about getting bigger
and stronger. Its entire emphasis is on developing a
certain “vogue” look: people train for the sole and
exclusive purpose of looking “buff”, “pumped”,
“sculpted”, “toned” and “cut”. Everything they do is
designed to gain peer approval. Nothing is designed
to build the things that really count - the tendons, the
ligaments, the skeletal structure, and the all-important
but non-showy muscle groups that are the true keys to
strength and power (such as the spinal erectors).
Appearance is everything, function is nothing.
Modern day trainees base their training almost
exclusively on public opinion. They forget that in
weight training, as in everything else, public opinion is
never to be trusted. Sir Robert Peel said it best:
“Public opinion is a compound of folly, weakness,
prejudice, wrong feeling, right feeling, obstinacy and
newspaper paragraphs.” Those words describe
perfectly the training information available to modern
trainees.
THE DINOSAUR ALTERNATIVE
Fortunately, there IS an alternative to the mixed up
mess of modern weight training. I call it
“the dinosaur alternative.” I chose that name after a
friend, whose training ideas parallel my own, referred
to the two of us as “dinosaurs.” He was right - that's
exactly what we are. To the modern denizens of the
chrome and fern pleasure palaces - to the little boys
with the “buff and “sculpted” sun-tanned bodies that
lack the power to squat with bodyweight for even one
rep - to the arm-chair theorizers with their “modern”
training systems - we are doubtless so old fashioned
as to be objects of scorn and derision.
THE DINOSAUR CHALLENGE
That's perfectly fine. When all of the “modern” trainees
can lie down on a flat bench and push a 400 pound
barbell with a three inch bar from chest to arms length
- and do it without a bench shirt, wrist wraps or drugs -
then I'll worry about being old fashioned. When
everyone in the chrome and fern crowd can do a strict
curl with 160 pounds with that same three inch bar,
then I'll think about going to chrome and fern land.
When the buffers, pumpers, shapers, sculptors and
toners can handle 250 pounds in the seated press
with a three inch bar, 300
pounds in the two finger deadlift with a 2 1/2” bar and
500 pounds in the parallel squat (starting from the
bottom, with the thighs parallel to the floor, with no
super suit and no wraps), then I'll look into this
“modern” training stuff. When the arm-chair brigade
can walk 200 feet holding two 180 pound “steel
suitcases” (one in each hand), clean and press a 220
pound sandbag or lift a 270 pound barrel to the
shoulder, then I'll stop reading courses, books and
magazines from the 20's, 30's, 40's and 50's, and
check out the latest “modern” ideas. But until then, I'm
happy to be a living fossil.
MANY WAYS TO BE A DINOSAUR
The rest of this book will detail the ins and outs of
dinosaur training. However, let me make one thing
perfectly clear. Dinosaur training is shorthand for the
type of training I prefer to do in my basement gym. It is
NOT a special system of training, the latest
breakthrough, or the only way to train hard, heavy,
seriously and productively. Anyone who trains hard
and heavy on a regular basis is doing dinosaur
training as I use the term.
Suppose you choose to do heavy, high rep squats to
failure followed by heavy high rep stiff legged
deadlifts, followed by heavy-medium rep bench
presses, followed by heavy medium rep pulldowns
followed by heavy high rep shrugs - a typical program
for a devotee of “high intensity training.” Are you
training like a dinosaur? Sure!
Suppose you do heavy power cleans for multiple sets
of low reps. Are you training like a dinosaur? Sure!
Suppose you follow one of Bradley J. Steiner's basic
three day a week total body training programs. Are
you training like a dinosaur? Sure!
Suppose you follow the breathing squat program
outlined by Dr. Strossen in SUPER
SQUATS. Are you training like a dinosaur? Sure!
9
I use the term dinosaur training primarily to distinguish
the way SERIOUS guys train from the nonsense that
passes for training at most gyms and weight rooms
around the world. There is no “one way” to train
productively. There is no “one way” to train hard.
There is no “one way” to be a dinosaur.
The way I look at it, there are dinosaurs and there is
the rest of the world. If one dinosaur does heavy
singles in his training and another does high rep sets
with heavy poundages, that's fine.
The two men have far more in common with one
another than either has in common with the nattily
attired, Evian water sipping yuppies at the local “spa.”
The common denominator for all guys who are
serious about their training is very simple: THEY
TRAIN HARD! They may use different equipment, do
different exercises, use different set/rep schemes and
so on, but the bottom line is always the same: HARD
WORK!
If you need to fit dinosaur training into a simple
formula, do this: label it as “GOOD OLD
FASHIONED HARD WORK.” Period.
BACK TO OUR ROOTS
Dinosaur training is basic training the way it used to
be done before steroids, arm-chair theorizers and
commercial interests got things off track- It is like
General Patton's philosophy of war: “simple, direct
and brutal.” It is rugged, it is tough, and it is
demanding. It also is incredibly result-producing.
Dinosaur training will be very familiar to some
readers, particularly those who are well versed in Iron
Game history. It is not “modern” and it is not new.
However, there are many aspects of dinosaur training
that run the risk of being lost forever in the face of all
the glitz and glamour systems publicized and followed
by modern lifters. Some aspects of dinosaur training
already have been lost or nearly lost, and that makes
the job of pulling things back together enormously
difficult. As Goethe said. “Everything has been
thought of before, but the problem is to think of it
again.” Dinosaur training involves several inter-related
principles. Fundamentally, it is a system of strength
training. STRENGTH IS EVERYTHING IN DINOSAUR
TRAINING. To be a dinosaur, you must literally
become obsessed with the idea of adding more and
more weight to the bar in every exercise you do. You
must revel in the battle against heavier and heavier
poundages. You must view the acquisition of raw,
pulverizing power and brutal strength as your most
important physical goal.
Dinosaurs believe that strength is developed by
working with barbells, dumbbells, bags, beams and
barrels. Forget about all of the pretty chrome plated
machines at the local spa.
They weren't necessary 50 years ago and they are not
necessary today. More importantly, they are
counterproductive.
Dinosaurs train incredibly hard. Many follow the “high
intensity” training approach espoused by Dr. Ken
Leistner and others. Some follow the time-tested and
time-honored breathing squat program popularized
by Hise, Berry, Rader, McCallum and more recently
by Dr. Strossen in SUPER SQUATS. Others use
multiple sets of low reps with heavy, heavy
poundages. What all dinosaurs have in common is
this: they squeeze every last drop of effort out of their
bodies on every heavy set they do. They work so hard
that to work harder would be impossible. They drive
themselves far beyond the outer limits of mere effort.
Their training sessions are barbaric, brutal, and
homeric.
Some dinosaurs train so heavy that they use single
reps in their training. That's right - they regularly and
consistently, week after week, without any
“conditioning” programs, “peaking” cycles or
“periodization” use weights so heavy they can only do
one rep. Hardly anyone trains that way anymore
because the research scientists have “conclusively
established,” that single reps do not build size or
strength. Besides, none of the modern-day
“champions” do singles!
But wail a minute. Forget about the pencil neck with
the slide rule, the pie-charts and the eight week study
of half a dozen college freshmen. Forget about the
“champion” who owes his size to a pill bottle and a
hypodermic needle. Go back to our roots. Look at
how guys did it before the days of steroids, science
and bull crap. They did singles! There was a time -
and it wasn't all that long ago, and it was well
documented by contemporaneous accounts - when
the biggest and strongest men in the world did lots
and lots of heavy singles in their training.
10
How can the trainee of the 90's discount a training
system that - a mere 50 or 60 years ago -
produced scores of drug free supermen?
Dinosaurs train without wrist wraps, elbow wraps,
knee wraps, super suits or bench shirts.
Why? Because this type of “support gear” is intended
to REMOVE stress from the joints and muscles you
are trying to exercise. Our goal as dinosaurs is to
impose as much stress as possible on our bodies.
The body responds to stress by growing bigger and
stronger. Why sabotage your training efforts by using
artificial aids that make your training EASIER when
your goal should be to make your training HARDER?
Dinosaurs make their exercises more difficult - and
more productive - by training with thick handled
barbells and dumbbells. A dinosaur will do all of his
presses, curls, bench presses and grip/wrist/forearm
work with thick handled barbells or dumbbells. He will
use bars that are at least two full inches in diameter,
and include even thicker bars for many movements—
2 1/2” or even 3” diameter bars. An advanced
dinosaur will develop the ability to do CURLS with a
thick handled bar that most men could not even lift off
the ground.
Dinosaurs believe in plenty of specialized work for the
forearms, wrist and grip. And I'm not talking about a
few high rep sets of wrist curls with a weight so light
my grandmother would sneer at the bar! I'm not talking
about rolling a piece of newspaper into a ball and
squeezing it for ten seconds (an “exercise” touted in a
recent publication for toners). I'm talking about
RUGGED stuff - pinch gripping, two finger deadlifts,
two finger chins, one linger lifts, thick bar deadlifts,
thick bar power cleans, thick bar curls, thick bar
reverse curls, vertical bar lifts, one arm deadlifts. bag
and barrel lifting, sledge hammer stunts, nail bending
and the farmer's walk. You can recognize a dinosaur
by his forearms, wrists and hands - they are thick and
hard. The hands of a dinosaur bear no resemblance
whatsoever to the baby-soil hands of a
“toner,” a “shaper” or a “pumper.”
Dinosaurs use the power rack to train their squats
and bench presses from the bottom position.
Normally, you start a squat or bench press from the
top position and lower the bar to the bottom position.
A much more demanding way to perform these
movements is to begin from the bottom. In the bench
press, a dinosaur begins with the bar resting on pins
set so it brushes against the lifter's chest. From this
position, the dinosaur drives the bar up and back to
arm's length overhead. In the squat, a dinosaur
carefully wedges himself under the bar (which rests on
pins set at parallel or slightly above) and then drives
up to the standing position. It is much, much more
difficult to do your squats and benches in this fashion -
which is precisely why dinosaurs do them this way.
Dinosaurs like to lift heavy, awkward objects – logs,
barrels and heavy sand bags. Anvils are also great.
Any big slab of stone - any enormous log - any heavy
steel barrel - any heavy bag of sand or lead shot will
be a dinosaur's delight. Why? Because lifting heavy,
awkward objects builds muscle in ways that barbells
cannot duplicate. If you don't believe this. take the
strongest guy you know and see how he does at
cleaning and pressing a 150 pound water filled barrel,
or a 200 pound bag of sand. Ask him to shoulder a
200 pound barrel or a 250
pound bag of sand. Both of you will be astonished at
how quickly and thoroughly a heavy bag or barrel can
humble even a strong man.
Dinosaurs are very aggressive when they train. They
battle the weights. They don't merely lift the bar. they
murder it inch by inch. They view training as personal
combat. “Me against the bar. No quarter asked, and
none given.” The rest of the world can combine their
exercising with socializing, political debate, idle
gossip, chit-chat, shooting the breeze, and trying to
score with members of the opposite sex. Thai doesn't
bother a dinosaur. Dinosaurs intuitively understand
that the gym is the place for one thing and one thing
only: ferocious, brutal, back-breaking, mind-numbing
savage training.
Most dinosaurs train in home gyms. They are “cellar-
dwellers” (or “garage gorillas”) and proud of it. The
idiocy of the modern gym scene is sheer torture for
them. The modern mess causes them deep and
unrelenting torment. They MUST stay away from the
nonsense and the silliness or it will destroy them. They
have to retreat to their subterranean hideaways and
escape the madness of the modern muscle scene.
But don't let any of that fool you. Contrary to what the
gym chains would have you believe, the strongest
people who train with weights are the ones who train
in basic, almost primitive home training quarters. The
average results 11
of the cellar-dwellers arc so far ahead of the average
results of the chrome and fern denizens that a
comparison would be laughable. Don't think a
dinosaur is a weakling because he trains at home –
he might very well surprise you.
Dinosaurs don't follow the crowd. Period. Little boys
need peer approval. Little boys need a constant
barrage of ego pumping from Madison Avenue. Little
boys need constant reassurance that they are “doing
it right.” Modern trainees cannot do anything unless
they do it with the rest of the crowd.
Dinosaurs do it with iron, sweat, blood, toil, and grim
determination. It takes character, conviction, courage
and strength of mind to lift heavy weights on a regular,
sustained basis over a period of years. It takes the
same qualities to turn your back on the type of training
that everyone else does and train like a dinosaur.
Dinosaurs don't NEED peer approval. If they seek any
sort of approval, it is the approval they would receive
from the MASTERS of the Iron Game if they were
present at the dinosaur's training session: Harold
Ansorge, Thomas Inch, Apollon, Arthur Saxon, John Y.
Smith, Herman Goerner, Louis Cyr, Doug Hepburn,
Bob Peoples, William Boone, George
Hackenschmidt, Peary Rader, Joe Hise, John
McCallum, John Davis, Norb Schemansky and
dozens of others too numerous to mention.
Dinosaurs compete with the greats of the past. A
dinosaur can tell you exactly how HIS squat compares
to that of Milo Steinborn, exactly how HIS bench press
compares to that of John Davis and exactly how HIS
one arm deadlift compares to that of Thomas Inch.
In short, dinosaurs have the courage - and it DOES
take courage - to say “no” to all of the modern bull
crap that passes for training advice in today's
computerized, televised, homogenized and
lobotomized society.
DARE TO JOIN US
Dinosaurs do not fit into the world of modern weight
training. We are fossils - relics from a bygone era.
The glitz and glitter of the modern muscle scene is not
for us. The politics (on stage and off stage, board
room and bed room) that control bodybuilding
contests hold no interest whatsoever for us. Drug
bloated “champions” do nothing for us. We turn our
backs on the modern mess. We go back to an earlier
era - and a better one - an age when men had honest
muscles, honestly developed. We leave the rest of the
world to continue its insanity.
We realize that our numbers are few, that our
numbers will always be few, that very few kindred
spirits will ever join us and that we can never be more
than an island of sanity in a sea of nonsense. We are
the dinosaurs. Dare to join our ranks.
There is one thing stronger than all the armies in the
world: and that is an idea whose time has come.
~Victor Hugo
Difficulties mastered are opportunities won.
12
CHAPTER TWO:
PRODUCTIVE TRAINING
The knowledge of one's strength entails a real
mastery over oneself; it breeds energy and courage,
helps one over the most difficult tasks of life, and
procures contentment and true enjoyment of living.
~George Hackenschmidt
Every person who engages in serious weight training
should produce substantial increases in muscular size
and strength. Weight training WORKS. It works for
everyone. It works for me, it works for my training
partners, it works for athletes seeking an edge in their
chosen sport, it works for this year's Mr. Everything, it
works for the latest powerlifting superstar and it will
work for YOU.
If you lift weights in a serious manner you should
EXPECT to get bigger and stronger. You should
expect to achieve noticeable results quickly. You may
not build 18” upper arms or develop the ability to
squat 500 pounds and bench press 400 pounds
overnight, but you should expect to be markedly
bigger and stronger after your first year of serious
training.
The problem is, most people produce little or nothing
in the way of results from their training.
Think about it for a second. How many people do you
know who STARTED a weight training program but
GAVE UP in a matter of weeks or months? How
many people do you know who have trained for years
without showing much in the way of results? How
many people do you know who ever get beyond
intermediate status? How many people who have
trained for years are still hovering at a one rep max of
200 or 225 pounds in the bench press, the same
poundage in the squat and only a little bit more in the
deadlift (IF they squat and deadlift, which few people
dare to do)?
Since the majority of people who lift weights achieve
little or nothing in the way of results, people have
come to believe that weight training does not work.
As a variation of this theme, many people believe that
weight training only works for a small percentage of
“genetically gifted” individuals. Others believe that
weight training only works for those who take anabolic
steroids.
Anyone who tells you that weight training does not
work - or that it only works for genetic supermen - or
that it only works for those who take steroids - is
WRONG.
WEIGHT TRAINING WORKS! IT WORKS FOR ANY
ABLE-BODIED PERSON. You do not need to be
some sort of genetic freak to produce results from
weight training. Nor do you have to guzzle one
anabolic concoction after another or pepper your butt
with needle marks to assure a constant stream of
chemicals coursing through your blood stream.
All you have to do is train PROPERLY. And that, my
friend, brings us to the critical question of the day:
WHAT IS PROPER TRAINING?
I wish I could give you a training program and a
simple set of guidelines and tell you that you had
everything you needed to know to train properly. But I
cannot. There is no single “best” way to train. There is
no “best” program. There is no “best” set of training
principles. There is no simple answer to the question
of what constitutes proper training.
There are many variations of sensible, productive
weight training. ALL of them build muscle and
strength. ALL of them produce results. No one system
of training is better than all of the other systems.
However, proper training always involves common
elements. These are hard work, abbreviated training
programs, progression, good form, and motivation.
These five elements are critical to the success of any
training program you ever undertake.
Let me give a real life example of how different
training philosophies can produce good results as
long as the five critical elements are part of the
program. Dr. Ken Leistner owns and operates THE
IRON ISLAND GYM in New York City. This is one of
the finest gyms in the world—possibly THE finest gym
in the world. Dr. Leistner is one of the best known,
most highly regarded coaches in the business. He
has been VERY influential in the growth of 13
powerlifting, working as a judge and administrator for
several of the governing bodies in the sport. He is a
regular contributor to POWERLIFTING USA, MILO,
and many other publications. He wrote and published
THE STEEL TIP for three years in the mid 80's - and
many who know the Iron Game inside-out believe that
THE STEEL TIP was one of the very best training
publications of all time. His knowledge of the Iron
Game and his insights into productive weight training
literally dwarf those of other so-called “experts.” And
Dr. Leistner produces RESULTS - real results in the
men and women he coaches.
Results like state, regional and national
championships in powerlifting...state, regional,
national and world records in powerlifting...team
championships...men who bench 400
pounds for REPS...men who squat and deadlift 500
pounds for REPS ... athletes who win all-state, all-
conference, and all-American honors.
Now here's the interesting part. There are some
areas where Dr. Leistner and I are in complete
agreement with regard to our respective training
philosophies. We both believe in hard work.
We both believe in short, brief training sessions. We
both believe that food supplements are vastly over-
rated. We both believe you can make excellent gains
without steroids. We both believe that mental
toughness is critical to a lifter's success. We both
believe that thick handled barbells and dumbbells are
an important aspect of a serious training program…
that heavy grip work is mandatory for all serious
lifters… and that you can build incredible levels of
strength and development by combining weight
training exercises with the lifting of heavy, awkward,
hard-to-manage objects such as beams, barrels,
logs, sandbags or anvils.
But our respective approaches to heavy training also
differ in some respects. For many exercises, Dr.
Leistner prefers doing one incredibly hard set to
absolute muscular exhaustion with as much weight as
possible on the bar. Thus, his lifters may do one or
two warm-up sets in the squat and then grind out a
twenty rep “death set” with 400 pounds on the bar.
The squats may be followed immediately by a set of
high rep stiff legged deadlifts - say 15 or 20
reps with 330 to 350 pounds. The rest of the workout
may consist of something like a single set apiece of
bench presses, pulldowns, presses, shrugs, standing
curls with a thick handled barbell, and a couple of
heavy sets of grip work. A well-conditioned and highly
motivated athlete may be able to finish the entire
program in 20 to 30 minutes - after which he will lie on
the floor in a pool of sweat for many, many minutes.
And the lifter may very well lose his lunch halfway
through the training session. (Dr. Leistner stocks his
gym with strategically located “puke buckets.”)
I prefer to do two or three exercises (other than grip or
ab work) in any particular session, and I train each
exercise for several sets of low reps. I usually do
singles on all of my exercises -
even the warm-ups. I start light and add weight on
each set, working up to my top poundage for the day. I
train very hard, but I don't train as hard as the guys at
THE IRON ISLAND
GYM. I sometimes hit the ground after a heavy set, but
I usually stay down only a couple of minutes - and
although keeping lunch down is sometimes a
problem, I haven't had to invest in a bucket.
Does my approach work? It sure does. Lifting in the
Submasters division (ages 33-40), I have won five
national championships in the bench press in drug
free powerlifting organizations, have set state,
regional, national and American records in the bench
press, and in one organization, set several world
records in the bench press.
My training partners, Bruce Bullock and Ted Solinger,
have gained enormously from heavy poundage, low
rep work, and heavy singles. Bruce went from 195 to
265 in three years and Ted went from 145 to 195 in
about two and a half years. Before they started
training under my guidance, they were barely able to
handle 95 pounds in the squat for five reps and one
rep in the bench press! Ted is approaching a 300
pound bench press and a 400 pound squat -
weights three or four times what he used to be able to
handle. Bruce has moved his squat to over 450
pounds and his 3” bar bench press (starting from the
chest) is up to 325. He also has moved his deadlift
from 15 timid, tentative reps with 55 pounds to a
single with 585 pounds.
He can shoulder a 270 pound barrel - an object
THREE times as heavy as his former poundage in the
squat or deadlift.
So whose training philosophy is better? Who knows?
Who cares? My approach works very well for me, and
Dr. Leistner's approach works very well for him. Both
approaches work 14
because they emphasize the essential elements of
productive weight training: hard work, abbreviated
training, progression, good form and motivation.
OTHER PRODUCTIVE SYSTEMS
Many other productive training systems have been
implemented, taught and coached over the years.
Peary Rader, the founder of IRON MAN magazine
and its editor and publisher for 50
years, taught a remarkably productive training system
based primarily on one exercise: the heavy, twenty-
rep squat. John McCallum, who many regard as the
best author ever in the Iron Game, advocated a
similar approach for anyone who needed to pile on
some serious muscle as quickly as possible. Dr.
Randall J. Strossen, the editor and publisher of MILO,
continues their tradition in his terrific book, SUPER
SQUATS. Many who have tried the high rep squat
have made incredible gains in a short period of time.
The “breathing squat” system is different from my
training approach, and different from Dr. Leistner's
approach, but nevertheless remarkably effective.
One of the leading authors in the Iron Game for the
last 30 years, Bradley J. Steiner, advocates a training
approach quite similar to mine. In fact, I grew up
devouring Steiner's books and articles, and in many
ways regard him as the most important and influential
instructor I ever had. Nevertheless, my current training
ideas are not exactly the same as Steiner's ideas.
And Steiner's ideas are in some respects different
from those of Dr. Leistner, different from those of
Rader, different from those of McCallum and different
from those of Dr. Strossen. Nevertheless, Steiner's
ideas WORK. This goes to show that no one system
of training is the ONLY way to do it.
WHY DID I WRITE THIS BOOK?
If that's the case, then why did I write this book?
I wrote this book because the percentage of weight
trainers who know how to get real results from their
training is still - despite the efforts of Leistner, Rader,
McCallum, Strossen, Steiner and others - ridiculously,
pitifully and absurdly small. It is an uphill fight - a never
ending battle - to spread the word about productive
training. If this book helps only one man in the entire
world to learn what productive training is all about,
then writing it will have been a worthwhile endeavor.
I also wrote this book because the training system
that I have developed over the years is in some
respects unique and different from much of what you
have seen or read about elsewhere. There are many
things in this book that will be new and exciting to you
- whoever you are, and however long you have been
training.
I have presented my training ideas as a unified
system. This is because I approach training as an
integrated whole - everything fits in with everything
else. Exercise selection, style of performance, form,
technique, sets, reps, training pace, intensity,
poundages, progression, exercise schedules, rest,
recuperation - they all tie together. If I altered any of
the elements of my training system, the results would
be reduced significantly.
ONE MORE TIME
I do not mean to imply that my approach to training is
the ONLY way to train, the BEST way to train, or that it
is BETTER than other training systems. What I am
offering you is ONE
VARIATION OF PRODUCTIVE TRAINING - a very
productive, very unique approach to sensible training,
but NOT something that is packaged as “the last
word,” “the final solution,” or “the only way to train.”
What if you disagree with one of the basic elements
of my training philosophy? What if, for example, you
prefer to do one hard, heavy set of high rep squats
instead of the multiple sets of low reps that I prefer?
NO PROBLEM!
TAKE THE ELEMENTS OF MY TRAINING SYSTEM
THAT APPEAL TO YOU AND
INTEGRATE THEM INTO YOUR OWN TRAINING.
Take sandbags, for examples, I LOVE to lift heavy
sandbags, I find that sandbag lifting builds a type of
rugged, total body strength that is impossible to
duplicate with other equipment. Your training
approach may be 15
radically different from mine in many ways, but if you
give the sandbags a try, adapting their use to your
own set/rep preferences, you may find that you too
love the things! If you do, then you will have gained at
least one thing of value from this book - regardless of
whether you disagree with 90% of the rest of its
contents.
Remember, there are no secret systems, no magic
answers and no one way of doing things.
Strength training is an art, not a science. We are not
dealing with mathematical formulas or chemical
equations. We are dealing with human beings, flesh
and blood, passion and prejudice, pride and emotion.
What you have in this book is a tremendously
productive training system. It is NOT the only way to
train. No one can offer you “the only way to train.”
Read, absorb, think, try, experience, evaluate and
DRAW YOUR OWN CONCLUSIONS.
Good luck, and good reading!
One cannot leap a chasm in two jumps.
16
CHAPTER THREE: AN OUTLINE OF DINOSAUR
TRAINING
.... nobody wants to grow.
~Johann W. von Goethe
It isn't that they can't see the solution.
It is that they can't see the problem.
~G.K. Chesterton
There are many different ways to become
exceptionally strong. This book details the type of
strength training that I enjoy the most and that has
proven, over time, to be the most productive way for
me to train. I call this system “dinosaur training.” A
friend, whose training ideas parallel my own, once
referred to the two of us as “dinosaurs.” He called us
dinosaurs because our training contains many
elements taken from the training programs of old time
lifters and turn of the century strongmen. Neither of us
has any interest in the latest fads or modern miracle
systems. We prefer the old fashioned approach.
Dinosaur training is an integrated, unified system of
physical training that incorporates twelve core
elements. Those twelve elements are not unique to
dinosaur training. However, the particular way in
which they are linked together in dinosaur training has
not been presented in any articles, courses or books
with which I am familiar - and believe me, over the
past 30
years or so, I have seen most of what has been
written about the Iron Game.
This chapter will summarize, in an abbreviated format,
the twelve core elements of dinosaur training.
Subsequent chapters will examine each of the twelve
core elements in greater detail.
ELEMENT NO. ONE: HARD WORK
The first and most important element of dinosaur
training is HARD WORK. Nothing you read in this or
any other book is going to do you a bit of good unless
you have the courage, determination and tenacity to
train HARD. You can go to the very best gym in the
world, use the best equipment available, have the
most enthusiastic and supportive of training partners,
hire the world's foremost training authority as your
personal trainer, follow the most perfect diet ever
designed, take all of the leading supplements, and
use the best training program ever devised - and it
won't do anything for you unless you train HARD.
Conversely, you can train in your basement or garage
- or train outside - with nothing more than a couple of
heavy sandbags or a heavy barrel to lift, and make
enormous progress - IF YOU TRAIN HARD.
Lei me give you an example of what I mean by hard
work. We'll take the example from a real-life training
session, on September 2S. 1995. My training
partners and I did four progressively heavier singles in
the bench press, using a three inch bar to make the
exercise more demanding. We did all of the bench
presses for singles. We did each lift in the power
rack, starting with the bar resting on pins set so that
the bar brushed our chests as we got into position.
Why did we do the exercise in this fashion? Because
starting from the bottom makes the movement much
harder! I worked up to 400 pounds for my final lift.
Next, we did bench press lockouts in the power rack,
again using the three inch bar. We each did five
singles with a top poundage. I used 475. We had just
started to work the lockouts into our program, so we
were building up the weight. I had used 465 the
previous week, and planned to work up to 500 or
more pounds in short order. (I topped out at 565 six
weeks later.)
Were any of these lifts easy? No. Was the 400 pound
full range movement easy? No. Were the lockouts
with 475 easy? No. Each required deep, focused
concentration, grit and grim determination. Even
though we were not “training to failure,” as one would
do with a set of multiple reps, we were working very,
very hard. Each time we got under the bar it was a
challenge. Each rep we made was a battle. Every
time our arms reached the fully extended position with
that enormous three inch bar balanced precariously
across our palms, it was a victory.
But the bench work was nothing compared to what
followed.
17
My training partners had purchased a great new toy
for me to celebrate a recent birthday a 15
1/2 gallon beer keg! No, it wasn't full of beer. It was
empty. We filled it with water. Used some bathroom
scales to check the weight. Got it up to around 165
pounds.
To finish our workout, we took the barrel to the garage
driveway in back of my house and tried some clean
and presses. Now, I know what you're thinking - that a
measly little 165
pound barrel wouldn’t be much of a challenge to a
man who just benched 400 pounds with a three inch
bar. But you're forgetting that the barrel was not
completely filled. The water MOVES as you try to lift it.
The barrel actually rotates in your hands as the water
shifts and churns. This is NOT the same as lifting a
165 pound barbell. It is more like lifting a 165
pound mountain lion.
I started by cleaning the barrel - or rather, I TRIED to
clean the thing. It came up nice and smooth, but hit my
chest and bounced off and forward at the top of the
movement. I caught it on my knees, paused, took a
deep breath and tried again. Same result. I tried
again. This time I caught the thing long enough to
wrestle it onto my right shoulder.
GREAT! Now the little monster was firmly balanced
on my right deltoid. How was I going to press it? I tried
to swing it back to the front - no luck. I tried again - no
luck. So I heaved it up and back and rolled it across
my shoulders and upper back. The water sloshed
violently, pitching me forward. I almost went down to
one knee, and just barely managed to avoid falling flat
on my face. I stood up and tried to catch my breath.
By this time, I had been battling the barrel for at least
60 seconds. I was getting pretty tired.
I tried to press the thing off of my shoulders. It moved
up, then rolled as the water shifted.
The barrel came crashing down across my neck. I
tried again. Same result. Another try - with every
ounce of power I possessed. The barrel went up – up
– then stalled with my arms at three quarters of the
lockout position - I pushed as hard as possible - my
face was bright red as I drove with every bit of power I
possessed – the barrel would not move - I kept on
pushing
- it didn't budge - and suddenly the barrel rolled yet
again, came crashing down and slammed into my
chest.
I caught it on my upper thighs and tried to hold it up
and off the ground so I could attempt to bring it to my
shoulders for another try at the pressing portion of the
lift - but the barrel shifted again, my exhausted fingers
lost their meager hold and the barrel plummeted to
the grass.
I dropped to one knee, totally spent, unable to stand,
unable to bend over, unable to move. My head was
swimming. The entire world danced in dizzying
circles. My training partners were talking, but their
voices sounded muffled and indistinct, as though they
were speaking to me from the bottom of a deep, dark
well.
“Nice set,” said Bruce.
Each of us attacked the barrel as hard and intensely
as possible for four separate tries. Each attempt
became a series of lifts - of interlocking battles, as we
wrestled the barrel as high as possible and fought
ferociously to try to drive it to arms' length overhead.
The barrel won each and every time. It was too “live”
to press. It was like lifting a blob of mercury.
On my final attempt I battled as hard as I could, and
after a titanic struggle drove the barrel to a point just
short of lockout - and then it rolled again and dropped
from my hands onto the grass. Everything became a
blur at that point. I remember turning towards Ted and
trying to grab his shoulder to keep from falling down -
but I missed and fell flat on my face on the edge of the
driveway. I realized I was lying halfway into the street. I
tried to crawl out of the street, but I couldn't move. I
finally rolled over two or three times until I lay on the
grass next to the driveway. I lay on my back, gasping
for air. I still couldn't get up. I couldn't move. My entire
upper body was numb. My golden retrievers, Sam
and Spenser, watched the proceedings with
tremendous interest. The dogs think my training
partners and I lift weights solely to amuse them.
“Are you dead?” Bruce asked.
Well, I wasn't. But I WAS thoroughly exhausted. It was
several minutes before I made it to an upright position
and a couple of more minutes before I could stand
and walk around. That was the end of the workout.
Doing anything else at that point would have been
impossible.
18
Were my training partners concerned? No, not at all.
Why? Because that's how hard we train each and
every time we train. It doesn't matter what we are
doing - squats, deadlifts, barrel lifting, curls, grip work,
presses or sandbag lifting - at least one of us always
ends up in a crumpled heap on the basement floor.
Usually it is all three of us. We drive our bodies to the
point where further effort is impossible. Many would
call it insanity. Dinosaurs call it HARD
WORK. As an aside, let me note that there is a trick
to pressing a water-filled barrel. We didn't know it at
the time of the above-described workout. To press a
water-filled barrel, tip it to one side so that one end of
the barrel is several inches higher than the other.
Keep it tipped as you press it. The water will shift to
the lower end and stay there rather than sloshing
about.
I literally PLAY with the 165 pound barrel now that I
know how to hold it.
ELEMENT NO. TWO: COMPOUND, BASIC
EXERCISES
The second critical element of dinosaur training is the
use of basic, compound (i.e., “multi-joint”) exercises.
Examples of such movements would be squats,
bench presses, deadlifts, power cleans, chins and
dips, all of which are time-tested, time-proven
movements that have developed tons of muscle over
the years, and all of which exercise large masses of
muscle in an integrated fashion.
In contrast to basic, compound exercises there are
many “isolation” exercises that are intended to work a
single muscle group or a single joint. Examples
include lateral raises, front raises, bent-over laterals,
leg extensions, leg curls, hack squats, sissy squats,
hyperextensions, pec dec work, cable cross-overs,
concentration curls, and triceps extensions (or triceps
kickbacks, pushdowns or french presses).
You may have noticed that my September 28,1995
training session only involved three exercises - the
bench press, heavy bench press lockouts, and the
clean and press with a water-filled barrel. That sort of
program is typical of dinosaur training. You will never
see a dinosaur wasting his time on isolation
exercises. Dinosaurs train on basic, compound
movements because those are the movements that
build real strength. The isolation exercises are
window-dressing. You can drop them out of your
exercise programs and never regret it for a minute.
To put the matter in bold perspective, consider the
advanced dinosaur who bench presses 400
pounds in the power rack, starting from the chest and
pushing a three inch thick bar to arm's length. Can you
imagine the upper body power and size that the
dinosaur will possess?
Compare that sort of size and power to the
“development” displayed by the typical gym member
who pumps his chest with five sets of high rep incline
presses, five sets of cable cross-overs, five sets of
flat bench flies, five sets of decline cable flies, and five
sets on the pec dec machine. The latter may get a
good pump during his training sessions, but which of
the two is bigger? Which of the two is stronger? Do
you think the muscle pumper could push even 200
pounds from chest to arm's length with a three inch
bar? Which of the two would you rather have on your
side in a football game, a tag team wrestling match,
or a friendly neighborhood street fight?
Consider another point. Go back to our earlier
discussion of hard work. How HARD is it to grind out
a high rep set of cable crossovers with ten or fifteen
pounds of resistance? How HARD is it to pump your
pecs with some high rep flies - using 35 pound
dumbbells? Who works HARDER - the guy who
spends all afternoon pumping his pecs or the man
who drives 400 pounds from chest to arm's length
through an explosive combination of effort, desire,
determination, will-power and ferocious muscular
strength?
Dinosaurs train on basic, compound movements
because training on the basics is the only way to train
HARD. Isolation movements might give you a good
pump or a good burn, but they are not going to hit you
over the head and knock you to the floor the way a
heavy set of squats or deadlifts will do. For those who
have the courage and determination to train HARD
- as opposed to those who merely TALK about hard
training - compound exercises are the only way to go.
19
ELEMENT NO. THREE: ABBREVIATED
TRAINING
The third critical element of dinosaur training is the
use of short, infrequent abbreviated training
programs. What is an abbreviated program? Go back
and review the account of my training session with the
bench presses and the barrel lifting. How many
exercises did I do?
Three. How many sets of each exercise did I do?
Four for the first movement, five for the second
movement and four for the final exercise. That's a total
of thirteen sets. Some of my training sessions are a
little bit longer, and some are a little bit shorter. The
“range” would be eight to twenty sets, with at least half
of those being warm-up sets.
How often do I train? It varies. Sometimes I train every
other day. Sometimes I train three times a week.
Sometimes I only train two times a week. It depends
on the exercises I do and the demands of my job, as
well as the school and work schedules of my training
partners, and my wife's work schedule. We don't get
too hung up about it. We don't worry about falling to
pieces if we miss a training session - if you are
building REAL muscle, an extra day of rest will not
harm you. We just find a day when we can get
together and kill some iron, and go down into the
basement and do it. We rest a day or two, then get
together and do it again.
We vary the exercises we do from one session to the
next, never doing the same movements in two
successive workouts. Again, we don't get hung up
about doing particular exercises in a particular
sequence or pattern. We have a total of about ten
“core” exercises that we try to train at least once every
ten or twelve days. and we have a variety of grip
exercises that we work in by doing whatever grip
exercises we feel like doing. We fit some of our off-
the-wall stuff (sandbag or barrel lifting) into the
sequence whenever time and energy permits. Over
any ten or fourteen day period we manage to hammer
every muscle in our bodies HARD, while still allowing
plenty of time for rest and recovery.
In contrast, most people who lift weights are locked
into pre-determined training schedules and usually go
to the gym four to six days a week. The average gym
member probably trains two or three times as often
as we train, and probably does five times as many
different exercises and ten times the total amount of
work. But who trains heavier? Who trains harder?
Who drives his body to the point of momentary
exhaustion? Who ends up lying on the floor in a pool
of sweat at the end of a workout?
Face the facts. You can train HARD or you can train
LONG, but you cannot do BOTH.
Working out HARD and working out for long, frequent
training sessions are mutually exclusive. And since
dinosaurs know that it is hard work that builds size
and strength, they do whatever is necessary to allow
them to train truly hard - and that means, the use of
sensible, abbreviated training programs.
ELEMENT NO. FOUR: HEAVY POUNDAGES
The fourth essential element of dinosaur training is the
use of heavy weights. By “heavy” I mean a poundage
that makes you work HARD to hit your targeted
number of reps. “Heavy” is a relative term. What it
really means in the context of serious training is “as
heavy as you can manage in good form.” What is
heavy to one man may be light to another. For a
beginner, a heavy poundage in the bench press may
be 95 pounds. For an advanced man, a heavy
poundage in the bench press may be 350 or even
400 pounds. Both men are still satisfying the core
element of dinosaur training because they are using
what is, for each of them, a heavy poundage.
In time, however, the beginner will move his bench
press from 95 to 300 pounds or more. He MUST work
up to a weight that is heavy in anybody's book if he
wishes to build much in the way of muscular size and
strength. You do not become seriously big and strong
by playing around with light weights. You can START
with light poundages, but you had better plan to
increase them enormously over your training career. If
you sell yourself short on your poundage goals, you
will achieve little or nothing from your training.
ANY average man has within himself the potential to
work up to 300 pounds or more in the bench press,
400 pounds or more in the squat and 500 pounds or
more in the deadlift. MANY
can vastly exceed those numbers on one of the lifts,
depending on body structure and inherent potential for
the three lifts, and SOME can vastly exceed those
numbers on each of the three 20
lifts. As Reg Park once noted. “Don't set any
poundage as a target - don't think of any weight as
being heavy - the sky is the limit.”
NEVER SELL YOURSELF SHORT! If you train
HARD you can build more size and strength than you
can possibly imagine. Don't for a minute think that
“heavy” weights are something for other fellows to
shoot for. They are not. They are within YOUR grasp.
All it takes is time, patience, persistence, hard work
and GALLONS OF SWEAT.
ELEMENT NO. FIVE: PROGRESSION
The fifth essential element of dinosaur training is
PROGRESSION. What do I mean by progression? I
am speaking primarily of poundage progression
(although there are other aspects of progression, as
well). I simply mean that it is IMPERATIVE to add
weight to the bar whenever you are able to hit your
repetition “target.” Once you can do five reps in the
squat with 200 pounds, it does no good to continue to
do five reps with that poundage.
Instead, you must try to do more than you have done
before - five reps with 205 pounds, for example. And
after you manage five reps with 205, you must try five
reps with even more weight. If your poundages fail to
grow. you too will fail to grow. If your poundages
stagnate, so will your progress. To get big and strong
- I mean SERIOUSLY big and strong - you MUST add
weight to the bar whenever you can do so.
Poundage progression is all about challenging your
muscles every time you train. For a dinosaur, every
workout is a challenge. Every workout is a chance to
better your past performance: to lift more weight, to
do more reps, to use better form, to train with greater
focus and deeper concentration. If you are not
improving you are either sliding backwards or
standing still. A dinosaur strives for constant
improvement. He is never satisfied to remain where
he is.
ELEMENT NO. SIX: THE PROPER SET/REP
SCHEME
The sixth critical element of dinosaur training is the
proper set/rep scheme for any particular individual.
No one set/rep scheme works best for every person
who trains with weights. Some men do best on
multiple sets of low reps (for example, five sets of five
reps). Others do best on heavy singles. Still others do
best on one all-out set of as many reps as possible.
What works for me may or may not work for you. And
what works for you may or may not work for your
training buddies. When it comes to sets and reps,
there is no universal answer that applies to everyone
under the sun. Period.
Too many lifters blindly follow the dictates of someone
else when it comes to sets and reps.
Some do one set of 8 to 12 reps because they read a
book or article that advocated such an approach.
Others do sets of five reps because that's what their
coach wants them to do. Still others do heavy doubles
or triples because they train at a gym with a
powerlifting champion and that's what he happens to
do. Others do heavy singles because their training
partner likes to do heavy singles.
All of the lifters in the foregoing examples are making
the same mistake: they are following a set/rep
scheme that works for someone else but may or may
not work for them. When it comes to sets and reps,
you need to determine what works best for YOU, not
what works best for someone else whom you happen
to respect or whose opinions seem to make sense to
you.
Be a MAN. Men think for themselves. Men make their
own independent decisions. Use a set/rep scheme
that WORKS FOR YOU - and have the courage to say
“NO THANKS!” to any and all other proposed training
schedules.
ELEMENT NO. SEVEN: THICK HANDLED
BARBELLS
The seventh essential element of dinosaur training is
the regular, almost exclusive use of thick handled
barbells for virtually all of your upper body and grip
exercises. Why use thick handled barbells? There are
several reasons, but the primary reason relates to
element number one of the dinosaur system: HARD
WORK. Dinosaurs use thick handled barbells
because a thick handled barbell makes any exercise
you do enormously more difficult. No matter how 21
hard you train, you can train HARDER - and thus,
more productively - by using thick handled barbells for
all of your upper body exercises.
The turn-of-the-century strongmen regularly used thick
handled barbells in their training and exhibitions. They
developed staggering levels of strength. Consider the
370 pound bent press (a one arm overhead lift) of
Arthur Saxon. Consider Hackenschmidt's one arm
snatch with 197.5 pounds. Consider Herman
Goerner’s one arm deadlift with 727 pounds. What
about Saxon's ability to lift a THREE HUNDRED
pound sack of flour from the floor to overhead?
How about Louis Cyr's ability to shoulder a four
hundred pound barrel with ONE ARM? All of these
men regularly used thick handled barbells and
dumbbells, and all of them developed ferocious,
mind-numbing body power. Maybe, just maybe,
modern athletes have something to learn from the
grand old dinosaurs of the past. And perhaps one of
the things we can learn from the oldtimers is the
importance of thick bar training.
ELEMENT NO. EIGHT: GRIP WORK
The eighth critical element of dinosaur training is its
emphasis on lots and lots of serious, no nonsense
heavy duty grip work. This is another area where the
oldtimers reigned supreme.
Heavy grip work used to be a regular part of any
strongman's training program. Today, virtually no one
does serious grip work. This is a tremendous
mistake. When it comes to building FUNCTIONAL
strength, grip work is absolutely essential.
Most guys don't even bother to train their forearms
nowadays(!), and those that do usually do nothing
more significant than a couple of high rep sets of wrist
curls or reverse curls with little more than an empty
barbell. Dinosaur style grip work is entirely different
from the muscle pumper nonsense. It is based on
lifting, holding and carrying heavy, awkwardly shaped
objects - thick handled barbells and dumbbells –
barrels – sandbags –logs - anvils, and similar items. It
is high poundage, high intensity training. It is aimed at
developing much more than a set of muscular
forearms. It's goal is to develop the strength and
power of the hands and fingers to their absolute
maximum. The goal is to develop a grip that makes a
vise seem weak by comparison!
ELEMENT NO. NINE: HEAVY, AWKWARD
OBJECTS
The ninth critical element of dinosaur training is the
regular use of heavy, awkward objects in your training.
Dinosaurs do not limit themselves to barbells – not
even the thick handled variety. They broaden their
horizons. They expand the scope of their efforts. They
tackle heavy, awkward, impossible to manage
objects that can challenge their muscles in ways that a
mere barbell cannot even begin to approach.
Once again we are indebted to the oldtimers for a
long-forgotten but exceptionally effective method of
training. Back in the old days, barbells and dumbbells
were far more difficult to come by than they are today.
Did that stop the oldtime lifters? Not for a second!
The oldtimers learned how to train with ordinary
objects that were much easier to find than a barbell or
dumbbell. Barrels and kegs of all weights and sizes
were a popular training tool. So were bags of sand or
bags of grain. Anvils were also popular. Heavy logs
were a challenge.
Even heavy rocks were used to build size and
strength when weights were not available.
Curiously, the oldtimers developed greater strength
by using barrels, kegs, sandbags, and similar objects
than all but the very strongest of today's lifters are able
to develop even with all the latest training equipment
and modern “know-how.” Think I' m kidding? Well, try
this sometime: make yourself a 200 pound sandbag,
then pick it up and lift the thing over your head. Go
ahead - try it. Don't just sit there arguing with me and
muttering about how old fashioned I am. Get off your
butt, buy an old army surplus duffel bag, buy four 50
pound sandbags, make a 200 pound sandbag and try
to lift the thing over your head.
After you have convinced yourself that it is physically
impossible to lift a 200 pound bag of sand overhead,
read the following account from Earle Liederman's
classic text, SECRETS OF
STRENGTH, published in 1925:
22
Power ... is not the exclusive prerogative of big men.
No man proved that more conclusively than the
veteran athlete, John Y. Smith, of Boston. Smith ...
never weighed more than 168
pounds, yet he could do anything in the line of
strength and power which could be accomplished by
the natural giants. Although a dumbbell lifter by
preference, he was one of those men who could lift
or carry ANYTHING. It is told that once he passed
some porters who were loading a truck with 200-
pound bags of cement.
Smith ... stopped, and joked the men about the fuss
they made over handling “little bags like those.”
Whereupon the men grew indignant and informed
him that “it takes a man to handle these HEAVY
bags” and invited him to take off his coat and see for
himself if it was as easy as he thought. Without
taking off his coat. Smith seized one of the bags,
swung it to his shoulder, and then slowly pushed it to
arms-length over his head. Having thus surprised
the others, he then proceeded to amaze them by
taking the bags, two at a time, one in each hand, and
THROWING them into the truck, [pp. 48- 49].
How did the 168 pound Smith manage these amazing
feats? I believe it is because he trained his entire life
with heavy, cast-iron dumbbells, barrels, kegs,
sandbags, bags of grain and other equally awkward
and unwieldy objects. In doing so, he developed a
degree of total body strength that would leave all but
the strongest of modern champions languishing in the
dust.
Dinosaurs train on heavy, awkward objects because
they know - as Smith knew - that nothing else can
develop the human body to the absolute zenith of
lifting efficiency.
ELEMENT NO. TEN: RACK WORK
The tenth critical element of dinosaur training is
regular use of the power rack, particularly for squats
and bench presses. Dinosaurs LIVE in the rack. A
dinosaur can get a complete, result producing
workout - indeed a body-numbing torture session -
with nothing more exotic than a power rack, a barbell
and enough heavy plates to make things interesting.
Dinosaurs use the power rack in many different ways.
Two of the most common and most beneficial are the
rack variations I used in my previously described
workout on September 28, 1995: (1) bottom position
work, and (2) top position “lock-outs.” Many lifters are
familiar with “lockouts” but very few have any personal
experience with bottom position rack work. Bottom
position work involves starting each exercise from the
“bottom” position of the movement rather than using
the conventional starting position. For example,
bottom position bench presses begin with the bar
resting on pins placed so that the bar brushes the
lifter's chest when he gets underneath it. Bottom
position squats begin with the bar placed so that the
lifter has to wedge himself underneath it to begin the
exercise from the low position of the lift. As you might
imagine, these are tremendously difficult ways of
doing bench presses and squats - enormously harder
than the regular style of performance. Of course, that
is precisely why dinosaurs do their benches and
squats in this fashion: bottom position work makes
the exercises HARDER!
Dinosaurs also do lock-outs and top position work in
the power rack – usually concentrating on squats,
benches, military presses and deadlifts. Top position
work with heavy poundages can build enormous
strength into the tendons and ligaments. The
increased tendon and ligament strength has a
tremendous “carryover” effect that helps the lifter
handle much heavier poundages in the regular, full
range movement or in any athletic endeavor that
tickles his fancy.
Bottom position work is a relatively new concept, but
top position work (lock-outs and heavy supports) has
been around for a long time. This is another training
idea we can borrow from the oldtimers. The oldtimers
did not have power racks, but they did do lots of
heavy support work and limited range movements
with enormous poundages. One of their most popular
exercises was the harness lift, in which the exerciser
straddled a huge barbell attached to his body by
heavy chains and extra strong shoulder webbing. The
athlete started the lift with his legs almost completely
locked out, and positioned himself so that he could lift
the weight off the floor by doing no more than
straightening his legs an inch or so. The lift literally
involved a one inch range of movement - with weights
in the neighborhood of 1000 to 2000 pounds!
23
Another popular support feat featured in almost all of
the old time strength exhibitions was the “Tomb of
Hercules.” In this feat, the lifter would assume a crab-
like position, balancing himself with the front of the
body facing up and all of his weight on his hands and
feet. A huge plank would be placed on his thighs and
a heavy load placed on the plank. The object was not
to lift the plank or move in any fashion, but rather, to
support the plank and its load.
The typical load was a group of men from the
audience - say 12 to20 of them, for a total weight of
2,000 pounds or more. Now you know why they called
the stunt 'The Tomb of Hercules!”
Dinosaurs know that the oldtimers were onto
something with their short range, limited motion lifts
and their supporting feats. What were they doing?
They were developing enormous levels of strength in
their tendons and ligaments – literally building their
bodies from the inside out. This is why so many of the
oldtimers were able to lift such tremendous
poundages even though their muscular size was
LESS than that of typical modern-day champions. The
oldtimers had developed REAL strength: tendon and
ligament strength. A dinosaur uses partial movements
in the power rack to develop precisely the same
attribute.
ELEMENT NO. ELEVEN: CONCENTRATION
The eleventh essential element of dinosaur training is
the regular use of deep, almost hypnotic focus when
training. A dinosaur knows that his single greatest
asset is the power of his mind.
and he also knows that the power of the mind can only
be channeled when a lifter trains in a state of total
concentration.
To the uninitiated, a dinosaur involved in serious
training is a terrifying sight. The dinosaur will train with
total, complete, absolute focus. He will not know you
are in the room when he is training. He will be
oblivious to anything that is going on. His entire
universe will be wrapped up in whatever exercise he
is performing. Nothing else will exist for him. The only
thing that exists for the dinosaur is the rep that he is
doing.
Dinosaurs consciously cultivate their powers of
concentration. They understand that the ability to
concentrate is an acquired skill. You develop the
ability over time. And you can always improve your
powers of concentration. For a dinosaur, developing
the ability to concentrate is fully as important - or
MORE SO - as any other aspect of successful
training.
ELEMENT NO. TWELVE: MENTAL TOUGHNESS
The twelfth essential element of dinosaur training is
mental toughness. This element encompasses many
critical attributes: desire, determination,
perseverance, grit, courage and tenacity. These
characteristics are sadly lacking among modern day
exercisers, and they are virtually never cultivated as
part of a training system. Dinosaur training
consciously challenges a lifter's mental toughness. It
does more than merely develop a strong body. It
develops a strong PERSON.
Take the simple element of courage - the courage to
be different from the rest of the world.
How many weight training books teach you how to be
“one of the crowd”? They all do, don't they? They ALL
teach you to go to the gym and do exactly what
everyone else is doing in exactly the same fashion for
exactly the same number of sets and reps using
exactly the same pieces of equipment. How many
books challenge you to do something as radically
different as thick bar bench presses...sandbag
lifting...or barrel lifting? Why do you think that is? One
reason is very simple: the authors and their publishers
know darn well that a book that promotes “different”
methods of training is not going to be anywhere near
as popular as one that promotes a “do what everyone
else is doing” system.
How many people have the COURAGE to do
something that makes them stand out in a crowd - like
train with heavy sandbags or heavy barrels? Not too
many. But dinosaurs are interested in RESULTS, and
if bags and barrels produce good results, then a
dinosaur will use them no matter how many smirks or
smiles light the banal faces of the rest of the gym
crowd.
A dinosaur has the courage to be different.
I could offer other examples of what I mean by mental
toughness, but this will suffice for now. As you
continue through this book you will see that mental
toughness is a constant 24
theme that impacts all aspects of dinosaur training. It
is the golden thread of truth. If you learn nothing else
from this book, learn that lesson and learn it well.
Humankind cannot bear very much reality.
~T.S. Eliot
There is only one answer to defeat and that is
victory.
25
CHAPTER FOUR: HARD
WORK
Each morning puts a man on trial
and each evening passes judgment.
-Roy L. Smith
Dinosaurs build muscle and strength the old
fashioned way. They EARN it.
Dinosaurs work HARD when they train. It is this
characteristic, more than any other, that unites
dinosaurs who otherwise disagree about various and
sundry points of training. Hard work is also the one
characteristic that, more than any other, distinguishes
a dinosaur from the average guy who trains with
weights. It is an undeniable fact that very few people
actually train HARD when they lift weights. Most
people who train put forth less effort than if they were
pulling weeds in the hack yard. In marked contrast, a
dinosaur works so hard when he trains that the sight
literally scares the average gym member.
WHY HARD WORK IS NECESSARY
Dinosaurs train hard because hard work is the only
way to substantially increase your muscular size and
strength. Nothing less than tremendously hard work
will build muscle.
Period. There is no “easy” way to build muscle and
strength. There is no miracle system that builds big
biceps and mind-boggling physical power without
tons of effort and gallons of sweat. Nor will such a
system ever be found. The only way to build the
human body is, always has been. and always will be.
through HARD WORK.
Why does hard work build muscle and strength? The
answer lies in a scientific term called
“over-compensation.” In simple terms, here is how
over-compensation causes your body to get bigger
and stronger as a result of hard training.
Start from the premise that your body must maintain a
certain degree of muscular size and strength solely in
order to allow you to perform the everyday tasks
necessary for survival: things like walking, standing,
holding a glass of water, eating, pounding the keys on
a personal computer, turning the ignition key in your
car, channel surfing with the television remote control,
popping a beer lab, using an American Express Gold
Card. and so on. These activities are vital to modern
life but are hardly difficult or demanding. If you think
about it, the average person can get through an entire
day with very little in the way of hard physical effort.
The body recognizes this, and being lazy by nature,
grows only big enough and strong enough to safely
make it from one day to the next. For a man of
average height and small to medium bone structure,
the amount of muscle necessary for day to day
survival in the modern world will be minuscule. The
average man will weigh in at all of 150 or 160 pounds,
and his maximum in the squat, bench press and
deadlift will be 100 to 150 pounds on each lift.
Now let's try an experiment. Let's take the average
urban male, age 20 to 25, and send him to a lumber
camp in the North Woods. We'll make it a particularly
old-fashioned sort of lumber camp - one where they
don't use trucks. chain saws or any sort of diesel or
gasoline powered engines. Everything they do will be
with simple, old fashioned tools—axes, saws. and
peavey hooks. We'll also assume that our urban
animal is forced to work outside with me biggest and
strongest of the lumberjacks and that he is told he will
be shot if he tries to quit or give up. He also is told he
will be shot unless he stays at the camp for one full
year.
What happens?
Our urbanite almost dies after the first ten or fifteen
minutes of hard work at the lumber camp.
By the end of me first hour he is convinced that he
WILL die before the day is over.
However, he somehow manages to make it through
the entire workday. He is so tired he can barely stand.
He almost crawls into his bunk bed.
The next morning he is so stiff and sore he can hardly
move. The only thing that gets him up and out the door
is the thought of the mean looking foreman with the
extremely large hunting knife and the equally
menacing sidearm. The thought of death is a
tremendous motivator.
26
He goes out and takes up where he left off the day
before- He chops, saws, lifts, pulls, pushes and digs.
And he does this day after day. The weeks stretch
into months. The months stretch into the entire year of
his contract.
At that point, stand our man on the scales. What will
you find? He will be anywhere from 20
to 40 pounds heavier than when he came to the
lumber camp—all of it good, hard, solid muscle. His
measurements will have increased enormously. He
will have grown into and out of a couple of clothing
sizes. And his strength will have increased by four to
five times over what it was when he arrived in the
North Woods.
What happened?
What happened is simple. The man's body
responded to the incredible demands of his
lumberjack work by growing larger and stronger as
quickly as possible. The body did NOT
like the way our hero felt after the end of his first hour
of work- And it HATED the way he fell the next
morning. It went into a panic. It realized that there
were two choices available to it: (1) grow larger and
stronger immediately, or (2) die.
That's when the survival instinct came into play. As I
said, the thought of death is a tremendous motivator.
The man's body had no choice other than to grow big
and strong as quickly as possible. So it did. THAT'S
an example of over-compensation.
You can achieve the same sort of transformation
without going to the North Woods. You do it by
working HARD when you train. You work so hard that
your body perceives the situation as nothing less than
a matter of life or death. You work so hard that you
FOOL the body into believing that it MUST grow
bigger and stronger or else it will die.
If you can curl 60 pounds for ten reps and that is ALL
you ever try to do, you will not trigger the “alarm bell”
that causes the body to grow bigger and stronger.
Doing something you already can do is not enough to
trigger growth. You must attempt the impossible.
Shoot for TWELVE reps with 60 pounds. Or go for ten
reps with 65 pounds. Do SOMETHING that is more
difficult—more challenging and more demanding -
than what you did the last time you did curls. Instead
of settling for a comfortable set of ten reps with 60
pounds, do a set that comes close to killing you. Push
the set until the bar literally falls out of your hands.
Your goal is to grab the body's growth mechanism by
the throat and shake it up and down. Do whatever is
necessary to trigger the survival mechanism.
Apply the same principle to each and every exercise
you do. Never rest on your laurels. Never be content
with what you already have done. Push the limits of
your performance. Surpass yourself. Constantly strive
to improve your performance. Why? Because by
doing so, you will insure that you are working hard -
hard enough to trigger the internal alarm mechanism
that causes growth.
WHAT HARD WORK REALLY IS
Ok, so I've convinced you that it is important to work
hard when you train. That leads us to a fundamental
question: what IS hard work in training?
Let me answer this question by giving some
examples of what hard work is NOT.
Hard work is NOT doing lots of sets, lots of exercises
and lots of reps.
Hard work is NOT using the latest computerized
miracle machine that comes down the road.
Hard work is NOT doing an enormous amount of
work, training for a long time in each session or
training frequently.
Hard work is NOT going for a huge pump, a deep
burn or any other similar sensation.
Hard work is NOT standing in front of a mirror and
emitting high pitched squeals of pseudo-intensity
while you handle a light poundage for less than half
the number of reps you could do if you were serious
about it.
Hard work is using the heaviest possible weight for
the number of reps you set as your target, and then
DOING those reps—every single one of them - in
good form.
Let me repeat that. Hard work involves the use of the
heaviest possible weight that you can handle for the
number of reps you set as your target … and actually
DOING those reps ... and doing the reps in GOOD
FORM.
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AN EXAMPLE OF HARD WORK
Suppose you are doing the seated press. Let's say
that at your present strength level you are able to do
120 pounds for one set of six reps. Begin by putting
80 pounds on the bar and do one set of six reps for a
warm-up. This should be a fairly easy set, one that will
not tire you out, but rather, will force a little bit of blood
into the area, warm up the shoulder and elbow joints
and generally “get you ready” for the heavier work that
is to come.
Add 20 pounds to the bar (making a total of 100
pounds) and do a second set of six reps. This will be
harder than the set with 80 pounds, of course, but it
still will not be extremely fatiguing.
Now load the bar to 120 pounds. Shoot for six reps.
Push the bar up as hard and forcefully as you can -
lower the bar under control and at a moderate speed.
Whatever you do, do not bounce the bar or cheat in
any fashion to try to get your reps. Do NOT count the
number of seconds required to raise or lower the bar.
Counting is a distraction. Concentrate on moving the
bar and forget about anything else.
When you do your set with 120 pounds, the first one
or two reps will feel pretty light. The third and fourth
reps will feel a little bit heavier, but still will not cause
undue strain. The fifth rep will feel heavy. The sixth rep
will feel VERY heavy. It may take several seconds to
push the bar up over your head for the sixth rep - you
may find yourself at the sticking point, with your arms
halfway extended, and the elbows wobbling a little bit
and your face turning bright red as you push the bar. If
it requires a good. strong effort to get through the sixth
rep, end the set at that point. On the other hand, if you
are feeling particularly strong and if the sixth rep does
not cause as much difficulty as it did in prior workouts,
take a deep breath and then try for a seventh or even
an eighth rep. Your goal is to work until the last rep is
EXTREMELY
hard to do, but nevertheless, possible, (BARELY
possible!) Take a four or five minute break, load the
bar to 130 pounds, and try a final set of four or five
reps. On this set, the bar will feel increasingly heavy
on each of the reps, and you will have to use plenty of
concentration and focus to complete the set. Again,
your goal is to make the final rep - whether it is
number four, number five or number six - a very, very
difficult effort.
Having done the foregoing, you have completed four
sets that perfectly illustrate what I mean when I refer to
“hard work.” You have taken a good, basic and result-
producing exercise - the seated press - and over a
period of 10 or 15 minutes you have done a total of
four sets that pushed your shoulder, upper back and
tricep muscles very close to a state of momentary
exhaustion. You may not have gone to absolute
failure, but you have worked much harder than 90% of
the guys in your gym would even dream of working.
You definitely have worked hard enough to break
down your muscle fibers and trigger the “alarm”
response referred to earlier. In short, you have
triggered muscular growth.
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ANOTHER EXAMPLE OF HARD WORK
Many who read this text will prefer to do one set to
momentary muscular failure on any exercise they do.
There's nothing at all wrong with that approach, of
course - just as there is nothing wrong with the
multiple set, low rep approach detailed in the previous
example.
Which approach you prefer is more a matter of
individual temperament than anything else.
Remember, there are many ways to develop muscular
size and strength. No one training system has a
monopoly on “BIG AND STRONG.”
For those who prefer to do one set to failure, here is
an example of hard work when using that sort of
approach.
Take the example of a lifter who is going to try 15
reps with 400 pounds in the trap bar deadlift. He may
take 135 for five reps for a quick warm-up, followed
by 225 for three reps and 315 for one rep. Why so few
reps? Because our man is focusing his entire effort
on one brutally hard set with 400 pounds. His warm-
up sets are limited to the minimum number of reps
required to prepare him - physically and mentally - for
that one all-out effort with 400
pounds on the bar.
Our man loads the bar to 400 pounds. He chalks his
hands, lightens his lifting bell and focuses,
concentrating deeply on the upcoming battle. His
eyes are closed. His breathing slows and deepens.
His entire body starts to expand perceptibly as the
muscles begin to gear up for the impending task. A
slight sheen of sweat appears on his brow.
He opens his eyes, steps forward, positions himself
and takes several deep breaths.
Then he squats down, grasps the bar and PULLS.
The first rep moves up quickly. He lowers the bar until
it barely brushes the floor, and without pausing drives
up for a second rep.
The process is repeated for one rep after another.
The bar begins to slow down after the first four or five
reps. By the seventh rep it is starting to move slowly.
The lifter is gasping for air.
His face is tomato red. The veins stand out like cords
across his entire upper body. Sweat pours down his
body. He lowers the bar all the way to the floor before
beginning the eighth rep, stands erect, breaths deeply
three times, then squats down, grabs the handles and
drives the bar up for the ninth rep. He slows almost to
a halt as the bar begins to pass his knees -
grunts in pain - and drives upward to a finish.
He lowers the bar, barely brushes the floor and starts
back up without pausing. His arms, shoulders and
upper back look like they were carved from granite as
the steel-cord muscles stand out in stark relief,
writhing furiously as he strains against the bar. He
pulls – pulls -
pulls and the rep is completed. He stands erect,
holding the bar at arm's length, gasping for oxygen -
then lowers the bar to the floor, stands all the way up
and takes several enormous, gasping breaths.
Ten reps down - five more to go!
He squats down, grasps the handles and drives as
hard as possible. Every muscle fiber in his body is
pitted in an agonizing effort against the weight of the
bar. He screams in pain as he pulls against a bar that
simply won't move above his knees - screams and
pulls - and suddenly the bar is above his knees, then
to his lower thighs and finally he stands in the finish
position.
Eleven down - four more to go.
He lowers the bar, touches the floor and pulls – pulls -
and grinds out yet another agonizing rep. His chest
feels like an anvil is pressing down on it, his lungs feel
like they are filled with cotton candy, his head is
swimming, his legs, back-hips, traps and forearms
are on fire, and his stomach is churning.
He lowers the bar, starts up again and grinds to a halt
several inches above the floor. He pulls
- and nothing happens. The bar goes nowhere.
He drops the bar to the floor, and bends over in utter
agony, hands on his knees, choking back the nausea
and trying to control the pain that racks his entire
body.
Twenty seconds later he pulls again - and somehow,
utilizing strength from who knows where
- makes the rep.
The bar hits the floor and the lifter goes down to one
knee. He gasps in agony. Another rep is obviously
impossible.
29
Thirty seconds later he makes another rep.
The bar rests on the floor. The lifter stands above it,
swaying weakly. His face is pale and ashen. His shirt
is drenched with sweat. You can tell he is finished.
But don't tell it to him.
Thirty-one seconds after completing the fourteenth
rep, the lifter squats down, grabs the bar and pulls for
number fifteen. The bar seems to be welded to the
floor - and then, slowly, inch by inch, it begins to rise.
The lifter's face has turned from pale to purple. The
veins stand out like fire hoses. He screams in pain.
The bar continues to move - but, oh, how very slowly!
He pulls – pulls – pulls - and stands erect with the bar,
shaking and quivering as he holds the massive
poundage at arm's length. He lowers the bar to the
floor, stumbles forward and falls flat on his face.
Five minutes pass before he finds the strength to roll
over onto his back.
Ten more minutes pass before he can push himself to
his hands and knees.
Two more minutes pass before he can stand and
hobble slowly towards the drinking fountain.
He has just completed a HARD set. What we have
witnessed is yet another example of HARD WORK.
ONE MORE EXAMPLE OF HARD WORK
Remember what I said about different ways to skin a
cat. Many serious lifters train on very heavy sets of
low, low reps - sometimes as low as one rep per set.
Are they working hard?
You better believe it. Consider the following example.
Our lifter is training his arms. He plans to do five sets
in the barbell curl, using a three inch thick bar to make
the exercise harder and more demanding. He will do
one rep per set, starting with a light poundage and
adding weight on each set.
He sets the bar on pins positioned a little above knee
height in the power rack. This allows him to reach
down and take the bar in exactly the proper starting
position for each rep.
He begins with 95 pounds - a very light poundage.
Even though the weight is light and easy to manage,
he concentrates deeply and intensely, carefully
positions himself for the rep and maintains letter
perfect form all the way up and all the way down.
He places the bar back on the pins, loads it to 115,
rests a minute or two, chalks up and approaches the
bar. Once again, he focuses all of his energy and
attention on the task at hand, concentrating
ferociously even though he is handling a warm-up
poundage. Locked in an almost trance-like state, he
performs another perfect rep.
The third set calls for 135 - an impressive poundage
for a man using a three inch bar. Try it sometime.
Our lifter chalks up, tightens his lifting belt,
approaches the bar, sets himself, flares his lats, locks
his elbows into his sides, breathes deeply, grabs the
bar as if he was trying to squeeze it in two, lifts it off of
the pins, pauses briefly and curls it in perfect form.
The same mental intensity and all-encompassing
focus marks the lift. It is as though he were lifting in a
different dimension. Only the bulging muscles and
exploding veins in his upper body give a clue of how
heavy the poundage really is.
Was it a maximum effort? No. Was it easy? No. The
lifter is a bit winded after the effort, and a definite
sheen of sweat is coating his torso, arms and face.
His upper arms and forearms are beginning to swell
with a deep-down, worked to the bone sort of
thickening. It is not the typical pump that you see in a
bodybuilder, but something much more subtle - and
much more impressive.
He loads the bar to 155, goes off a little way and
thinks about the upcoming set. He pictures the set
over and over in his mind, watching as he approaches
the bar, sets his feet, positions his body, flares his
lats. digs in his elbows, breathes deeply, grasps the
bar and begins the rep.
He watches himself pull as hard as possible as the
bar inches its way through the sticking point. He
watches himself as his face turns purple and the veins
stand out in bold relief across his arms and his entire
upper body. He watches the bar inch on towards the
finishing position
- watches himself fight to maintain proper position -
watches the sweat pour down his torso.
30
Listens to his grunt of effort and pain as he completes
the rep. Feels the pain. Feels the effort.
Relishes the victory as he conquers the weight.
Then he walks over to the bar and does exactly what
he has visualized - a hard but perfect rep with 155.
Our man next loads the bar to 165 pounds. He rests a
few minutes, then repeats the same sequence that he
used before tackling the 155 pound effort.
Concentration, visualization, rehearsal, arousal,
approach to the bar - positioning, breathing, lat flare,
grip - and then the set begins.
It is like grabbing a Cape Buffalo by the horns. The
second he has the bar in his hands he can tell that he
is in for an intense and brutal effort. The bar fights him
every inch of the way. It is almost as though the bar
grabs back the second he grasps it.
Maintaining perfect form, he curls the bar upward -
hits the sticking point - slows down to a barely
perceptible movement – fights – fights - grinds to a
halt - hangs motionless for five full seconds, pulling as
hard as possible - and suddenly, somehow, begins to
move the bar upward again.
Suddenly the rep is completed. The bar hovers
motionless in the finish position. The lifter lowers it to
the pins, steps out of the rack and almost drops to the
ground. He is totally drained. It will be several minutes
before he could even consider doing anything else.
His arms are numb from shoulder to fingertips. The
deep-based swelling that began to develop during the
warm-up sets is more pronounced than ever. It is as
though his tendons and ligaments are pulsating with
effort.
He won't do any additional arm work today. He
doesn't need to. When you train hard, a little bit of
work goes a long way.
PSEUDO-INTENSITY
Over the years, many writers have emphasized the
importance of HARD WORK in your training. And
most people accept - on an intellectual level - the
premise that hard work is necessary to develop larger
and stronger muscles. On the physical level, however,
the vast majority of people just can't deliver what it
takes to train HARD.
Go to any gym anywhere in the world and ask anyone
you see if he believes in hard training.
You KNOW what his answer will be: “Of course I do”.
Ask him if he trains hard. What will the inevitable
response be: “Damn right I do!” Then watch one of his
training sessions.
What will you see?
Unless you have encountered a very unusual
individual, the self-proclaimed apostle of effort will
handle 40 or 50 pounds less than his true maximum
on any exercise he does, for only half the number of
reps he could do if he was truly training hard. He'll
stop when the weight starts to feel heavy. He'll quit
when his muscles begin to burn. He won't push
through the pain and discomfort. He'll play it safe.
If he sees that you are watching he may try a couple of
patented tricks to make it appear (to the uninitiated)
that he is training hard. The fake grunts and groans
will come first. Then he will mimic hitting the sticking
point, flexing mightily against an unmoving bar while
supposedly giving it everything he has. He'll cheat his
way through the hard reps to take the tension off of the
muscles he is trying to work. He'll probably scream
near the end of the set (particularly if he sees a good
looking girl come by and he wants to impress her).
All of his theatrics will LOOK and SOUND impressive.
But they no more amount to hard work than does a
game of tiddley-winks.
You can train hard for real or you can pretend to train
hard. Most people PRETEND to train hard. They
always make it look good in case anyone is watching,
but when it comes to the real thing - serious hard work
- they get out of Dodge City as fast as they can.
There is an easy way to tell who is training hard and
who is playing games. The hard trainer gets bigger
and stronger from one session to the next. He puts
more weight on the bar on a regular basis. He has to
do so because he is increasing his strength, and the
exercise will be too easy for him unless he increases
the weight, the reps or both.
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The pseudo trainer never gets any stronger.
Consequently, he stays at the same weight, same
reps and same level of development forever. He
CAN'T add weight or reps because he never gets any
stronger.
If you see someone who looks like he is training at a
superhuman level of intensity, watch and see what
happens to his training poundages over a month or
two. If the weights remain constant, the odds are very
good that what you are observing is an exhibition of
pseudo intensity.
WHY PEOPLE FAIL
People who fail to get results from weight training
usually have one thing in common: they don't train
hard. Taking it easy is the single most common cause
of failure in weight training.
As Dr. Ken Leistner once stated (THE STEEL TIP,
Volume 1, Number 10, October, 1985): Experience
has taught me that the majority of trainees won't ever
make the progress they envision for themselves
because:
1. They will not train as hard as possible.
2. They do not believe that a program can be effective
if it appears limited in the number of exercises.
4. They lack confidence in their ability to gain
muscular strength and size.
DON'T LET THIS HAPPEN TO YOU! Train hard!
Train for results! Dare to grow bigger and stronger!
BE A MAN WHEN YOU GO TO THE GYM!
HOW TO WORK HARD
The way to really work hard when you train is to
constantly challenge yourself. Challenge yourself to do
more weight, more reps or to use better form and
more focused concentration.
Set goals - high goals. Work diligently toward their
achievement.
Each of the foregoing examples of hard work
illustrates this point. What was each lifter doing when
he trained? He was trying to achieve a particular goal.
The first lifter was shooting for certain poundages for
a specified number of reps in the press. The second
lifter was shooting for 15 reps in the trap bar deadlift
with 400 pounds. The third lifter was shooting for a
single rep with 170 pounds in the standing curl with a
3” bar. Each lifter had a predetermined goal and each
lifter worked like the devil to achieve the goal.
ONE MORE TIME
Let me close this chapter by getting up on the soap
box and saying YET AGAIN that hard work is the
single most critical element of any truly productive
training program. It doesn't matter if you use high reps
or low reps...single sets or multiple sets...barbells or
sandbags...Olympic lifts or power lifts... - If you are not
training HARD then you are wasting your time.
No training system has a monopoly on good results.
There are many ways to achieve outstanding results
from weight training. But all of those ways involve
HARD WORK. If you are unable or unwilling to work
as hard as you possibly can then your results are
going to be far, far less than what you desire. Weight
training WORKS - but only if YOU work!
New opinions are always suspected,
and usually opposed without any other reason,
but because they are not already common.
~John Locke
32
CHAPTER FIVE: DINOSAUR
EXERCISES
There is one cardinal rule: “Never Despair.”
That word is forbidden.
... do every act of your life as if it
were the last.
~Marcus Aurelius
Dinosaurs do basic exercises. The basic exercises
are squats, standing presses, power cleans, power
snatches, high pulls, dumbbell cleans, standing
dumbbell presses, push presses, jerks, one arm
cleans, one arm snatches, barbell bent-over rowing,
bent-legged deadlifts, bench presses in the power
rack (starting at the bottom, with the bar resting on
pins so it brushes your chest in the starting position),
barbell curls, shrugs, bent-legged situps, leg raises,
neck work, side bends and calf raises.
Dinosaurs also do lots of work for the forearms, grip
and wrists. There are many good exercises for the
forearms, grip and wrists. I'll cover a number of the
better ones in detail in Chapters 13 and 14.
Dinosaurs also do special exercises for all around
strength and power, such as log or barrel lifting,
exercises with heavy sandbags, anvil lifting, etc.
These are not conventional exercises, but I consider
them to be basic movements because they work the
entire body in an integrated fashion.
That's pretty much all a dinosaur will ever do or ever
think about doing. As I said before, dinosaurs stick to
the basics.
HOW MUSCLES GROW
Dinosaurs train on the basics because the basic
exercises are the most productive. To understand why
some exercises are more productive than others, you
need to understand how muscles become bigger and
stronger. Now don't run away – I am not about to start
sounding like the latest textbook on exercise
physiology. As a matter of fact, I have yet to read a
“scientific” article or treatise that provides much in the
way of useful information about the manner in which
our bodies increase muscular size and strength. The
most useful explanation, and the one upon which I will
base this section, is taken from Bradley J. Steiner's
wonderful book, A COMPLETE GUIDE TO
EFFECTIVE BARBELL TRAINING, which was
published nearly 20 years ago and which is still one of
the best books ever written about sensible physical
training.
In a nutshell, your muscles grow bigger and stronger
when you systematically force them to do difficult
tasks, such as knocking off six reps in a basic
exercise with a weight you could only handle for five
reps the week before. Working this hard causes your
muscles to “break down.” Then you rest a day or two,
get lots of good nutrition, and give your muscles a
chance to grow bigger and stronger than before.
Your muscles are made up of fibers - something that
varies from person to person, but which remains
constant for any one individual throughout his lifetime.
To increase your size and strength, you need to
increase the thickness of the individual fibers that
make up your muscles. To do so, you must work the
muscles with a weight heavy enough to make the last
rep of any set almost impossible to do even when you
are pushing or pulling as hard as you can.
Working your muscles this hard causes the body to
send out a sort of internal warning: “Red light, red
light! This guy is trying to kill us! What should we do?”
Answer: “We'll grow a little bit bigger, and therefore
stronger, so we can handle this insanity the next time
he makes us go to the gym.”
33
In very simple terms, your muscles grow bigger and
stronger when you force them to work hard and heavy
on basic exercise movements. You do NOT need to
do lots of sets and reps.
What you DO need to do, however, is push your
muscles EXTREMELY HARD - all the way up to the
point where you could work no harder. This will trigger
the little “alarm bell” that tells the body to take steps to
become a bit bigger and stronger so that the next
time you go to the gym it won't be quite as hard. This
is what I call the “break down, build back up” system
of muscle building,
In short, remember these two points. First, your
muscles grow bigger and stronger by being exposed
to a heavy stress during your workouts; and second,
“heavy stress” does not mean doing LOTS of
exercise, but rather, doing a couple of good, HARD
sets on heavy, basic movements that allow you to use
the most weight that you are capable of handling to
exercise any particular muscle group.
“PUMPING” EXERCISES
Hundreds of thousands, if indeed not millions, of
words have been written about how to increase the
size of your upper arms by “pumping” the muscles
with blood through a rapid sequence of many sets of
curling and triceps movements. The authors of the
articles, courses and books advocating such an
approach would have you believe that the size and
strength of your upper arms is increased solely by the
amount of blood that you force into the arms on a
temporary basis during the course of a workout. This
is simply not true, and it is the result of a basic
misconception about how muscles increase in size
and strength.
“Pump” is an artificial condition that merely mimics
increased size - it has nothing to do with the
development of muscular size and strength.
The “pumping” system of exercise does virtually
nothing to build real muscle. This is why you see many
devotees of the pumping style of training who look
fairly impressive but who do not have the strength to
back up their appearance. I have seen men who look
terrific who can barely knock out six reps in the
parallel dip - with no extra weight resistance! If their
strength matched their appearance, these guys would
have handled around 200 pounds extra weight for six
to eight reps in the dip. They COULD have had it all -
a body that not only looked strong, but was strong –
but they ended up with bodies that merely looked
good.
Wouldn't you rather be big AND strong?
The problem with the pumping system is that it does
not impose any actual stress on the muscles. Rather
than pump away for set after set with light weights to
achieve a congested feeling in the muscle you are
exercising, you should train to break down your
muscle fibers.
Muscle-pumpers may eventually end up with fairly big
arms, pecs and lats, but they never really look
impressive. As Dr. Ken Leistner noted in the March,
1987 issue of The Steel Tip (Volume 3, Number 3),
they lack “the look of power.” Dr. Leistner stated:
“When you see an individual who has built his or her
muscle tissue mass to an advanced degree, and
has done it with basic, heavy exercises, they have a
certain look about them. It is hard to describe in
words, yet everyone knows it when they see it.
Extremely developed bodybuilders often lack this
“look,” having a high level of muscle tissue, and
perhaps having very large muscular measurements.
Still, they look, as my younger brother once noted,
“like bodybuilders, like a bunch of body parts.” One
who has predominantly utilized “the basics,” and is
capable of using relatively heavy weights for
moderately high repetitions, looks powerful and
strong. Again, it is an almost indefinable, yet
undeniable truth. ” One final point. Exercises have
both “direct” and “indirect” effects. This means that
when an exercise triggers muscular growth in one
body part (direct effect) it also triggers muscular
growth, albeit to a less degree, throughout the entire
body (indirect effect). Squats and deadlifts have
TREMENDOUS indirect effect. If you do squats and
deadlifts, you will not merely trigger growth in your
legs and lower back, you will literally grow all over.
Curls and presses, in contrast, have little or no
indirect effect. “Pumping” movements like lateral
raises, leg extensions, hack squats, flies and pec dec
work, have virtually no indirect effect. This is one of
many reasons why it is CRITICAL to include squats
and deadlifts in your training programs, and why
isolation movements are a waste of time.
34
THE ESSENTIAL EXERCISES
Every endeavor has what are called “the tools of the
trade.” For people who are trying to grow bigger and
stronger, heavy exercises are the “tool of the trade.”
As in many other activities, there are an almost infinite
number of different “tools” (i.e., exercises) that you
might wish to try. If you are wise, however, you will
limit the exercises you use to no more than a handful
of basic movements - and this applies not only to
beginners, but to the most advanced trainees. When
you get right down to it, there are (1) only 20 or 30
useful exercises, (2) a number of other exercises that
are useful for specialized grip training, rehabilitation
work or in other special circumstances, and (3) an
almost infinite number of “second rate” exercises,
dangerous exercises or exercises that are totally
unproductive. Developing a rational training program
means that you restrict your efforts to only those
exercises that are worth performing.
I refer to the important exercises as “the essential
exercises,” a phrase I borrowed from Bradley J.
Steiner. He wrote a four part series for Iron Man
magazine almost 30 years ago, in which he listed
what he considered to be the “essential” exercises.
Strange as it may seem to those who believe in the
wonders of modern technology (or who believe that
anyone over the age of 20 was born in the dark ages),
Steiner's list of “essential” exercises is virtually
identical to my own list, compiled almost 30 years
later. The “essential” exercises are the basic
exercises - the ones that have been around for a long,
long time and that have proven themselves to be
superior developers of muscular mass and strength.
BUILDING DINOSAUR THIGHS
Dinosaurs do not do the sort of silly isolation
exercises that dominate the training routines of
virtually everyone else in today's sad and sorry world.
You won't catch a dinosaur doing leg extensions, leg
curls, hack machine squats, smith machine squats,
lunges or sissy squats.
Dinosaurs do squats. They sneer at almost any other
“exercises” for the thighs. If dinosaurs ran the gyms,
the leg extension machines and similar junk would be
melted down and cast into plates, heavy dumbbells,
steel beams, barrels or something else that built size
and strength when you lifted it.
BUILDING A DINOSAUR'S CHEST
Dinosaurs don't “bomb” and “blitz” their chest with
every exercise under the sun. They don't do flat bench
flies, incline flies, decline flies, cable crossovers, pec
deck, or some chrome-plated chest machine.
Dinosaurs do heavy benches. Dinosaurs do their
benches in the toughest and most difficult manner - by
starting at the bottom, with the bar set on pins
positioned so that the bar grazes the lifter's chest
when he gets into position and prepares to press. In
addition, dinosaurs do all or almost all of their bench
pressing with a thick bar.
Heavy benching is all a dinosaur ever needs to do for
his chest. Why? Because using a thick bar makes
benching far, far more difficult than using an ordinary
1 1/16” bar. Why should a dinosaur who has built his
upper body to the point where he can handle 400
pounds or more in a thick bar bench press - starting
from the bottom position - want to “pump up” with flies
or crossovers? The heavy bench press hits the entire
torso - and hits it so well that any other chest exercise
would be superfluous. On the other hand, the scrawny
wannabe pumping away on the pec deck and cable
crossovers can do those movements from now until
Doomsday and he'll never build the strength and
power to match the dinosaur's 400 pound thick bar
bench press – nor will he ever match the dinosaur's
massive torso development.
Some dinosaurs enjoy heavy dumbbell bench
presses or heavy incline presses. If you like these
exercises, feel free to work them into your program.
Your only problems in doing heavy dumbbell work will
be (1) getting the weights into position, and (2) finding
bells heavy enough if you train at a commercial gym.
(If you train at home, you can buy the BIG BOY
DUMBBELL BARS™ sold by IRONMIND®
ENTERPRISES and load them to any poundage you
want.) Talk to the gym owner about the latter problem.
As far as the former goes, there is no answer other
than two husky training partners to “spot” you on the
dumbbell work.
35
Some dinosaurs like to do heavy dips with extra
weight strapped around their bodies. Others avoid
this exercise because it hurts their shoulders. If you
like the exercise and it doesn't hurt you, feel free to
work it hard and heavy.
BUILDING DINOSAUR DELTS
Dinosaurs train their shoulders with heavy presses.
They do them seated or standing. They use heavy
dumbbells or barbells. Some dinosaurs use thick
handled barbells for almost all of their pressing
movements. In addition, dinosaurs do presses with
logs, barrels and heavy bags filled with sand or lead
shot.
You'll never see a dinosaur doing any form of lateral
raises, Arnold Presses, or using the latest chrome-
plated delt machine to hit the market. Why should a
dinosaur bother with such sissy movements when he
can do a seated press with 250 pounds, on a 3” bar?
What are lateral raises with 20 pound dumbbells
going to do for a man who presses 250? And as for
development, the 250 pound presser will have delts
like cannon balls, and the wannabe who waves the
little dumbbells up and down will have delts the size of
number 11 lead shot.
BUILDING DINOSAUR ARMS
Dinosaurs build their triceps with heavy bench and
overhead presses, and their biceps with heavy curls.
They use a thick bar for most of their upper body
work, including their curls.
Dinosaurs can build 18” upper arms on as little as
four or five SINGLES each WEEK. That's 18” of solid,
functional, power-packed muscle, too, not 18” of drug
inflated, “pumped up” cotton candy.
Dinosaurs train heavy on all movements, including the
arms. I have handled over 400 pounds in the close
grip bench press on a 3” bar (starting from the chest),
over 170 pounds in the barbell curl with a 3” bar, over
180 pounds in the barbell curl with a 2 1/2” bar, and
185 for five reps in the barbell curl with a heavy duty
“easy curl” bar.
Compare those numbers to the guys who do five or
six sets of a dozen different arm exercises two or
three times a week. Dinosaurs may not be modern,
and they may not be scientific or high tech, but they
are STRONG!
BUILDING A DINOSAUR BACK
Most guys who go to gyms never train their backs, or
if they do, limit their efforts to pulldowns and cable
rowing for the lats, and perhaps a set or two of
hyperextensions or a set on some sort of low back
machine. Dinosaurs work their entire backs, and work
them HARD. If a dinosaur emphasizes any aspect of
the back, it is the lower back.
Sure, he hits the lats and the traps, but his special
emphasis is on those all-important columns of steel
running up the spine.
For back work, dinosaurs do barbell bent-over
rowing, power cleans, power snatches, high pulls, one
arm cleans, one arm snatches, bent-legged deadlifts
and stiff-legged deadlifts.
In addition, dinosaurs train their backs with barrel
lifting, heavy sand bag lifting, and similar activities.
(See Chapter 15.) Some dinosaurs even finish a
heavy back session by going out and doing top
position partial deadlifts with their car!
WHY DINOSAURS TRAIN ON THE BASICS
Dinosaurs train on the basics because the basics are
the only exercises that build muscle and strength. If
lateral raises built muscle and strength, dinosaurs
would do them. However, they don't build anything, so
dinosaurs ignore them. The same goes for cable
crossovers, flies, concentration curls, leg extensions
and every other isolation exercise ever invented.
Heck, if playing the harmonica while standing on your
head in a bucket of jello would build muscle,
dinosaurs would do it. But if an exercise doesn't do
the job, it doesn't exist as far as dinosaurs are
concerned.
Dinosaur training is hard, brutal and demanding. A
dinosaur can train so hard and heavy that 4 or 5
progressively heavier singles in ANY exercise are
more than enough in any workout.
36
Take the most common and basic of all exercises: the
good old barbell curl. Curls are easy, right? Too basic
to build muscle, right? Too easy for an “advanced”
man, right?
Yeah, right! A recent curling session saw me use a 3”
bar for a total of only five singles, using 95, 115, 135,
155 and 175. The last one almost killed me. I nearly
blacked out. My training partners thought 1 was a
goner and were ready to let my golden retrievers,
Sam and Spenser, drag me into the back yard and
bury me. There was no way I could have done
anything else for my upper arms in that workout – and
no reason on earth why 1 would have wanted to do
so. What would a couple of sets of concentration curls
with a 35 pound dumbbell have done for me that the
heavy curls had not already done better, faster and
more thoroughly?
The isolation exercises used by so many trainees
won't build an ounce of muscle or increase your
strength by one iota. All they do is cut into your
recovery ability, making it more difficult, and, in most
cases, downright impossible, to recuperate from your
heavy training sessions. They do nothing to promote
the growth of muscular size and strength and
everything to prevent it. So why do them?
AN EXPERIMENT FOR DOUBTERS
Some of you are probably wondering why I did not
include your “pet” exercise or why 1
omitted the “favorite” arm exercise of this year's Mr.
Everything, The reason is simple. It is my intention to
give you straight-from-the-shoulder, honest advice. I
am not interested in making myself appear smart by
recommending several hundred different exercises. I
recommend the basic exercises because they are the
only ones worth doing. I have not mentioned the lateral
raises, hack squats, tricep extensions, tricep
pushdowns, leg curls, leg extensions, flies, and pec
dec work so commonly seen in the workouts of most
modern trainees because those exercises are
potentially dangerous, thoroughly second rate. and
virtually non-productive when compared to basic
movements like squats, deadlifts, and bench presses.
If you don't believe me, then train for three months on
a program that consists of nothing but leg extensions,
leg curls, pec dec movements, concentration curls,
and tricep kickbacks. Do as many sets of each
movement as you wish, and train as often as you like.
After that period of time, train for three months on a
program where you do nothing but bench presses,
squats, and pull downs on Monday and nothing but
presses, deadlifts and curls on Thursday. Train just
two days per week. Do each exercise for five sets of
five reps - two progressively heavier warmup sets,
and three sets with all the weight you can handle for
five reps. Add weight whenever possible.
At the end of the second three month period you will
be enormously bigger and stronger than when you
started the program. The first program will be a waste
of time while the second program will be very
productive, solely because you have focused your
attention on the important exercises. Think about it.
LATERALS, LEG EXTENSIONS AND
LEMMINGS
I realize that “everyone” does lateral raises, leg
extensions, leg curls, triceps extensions, cable
crossovers and all the rest of the exercises I have
condemned as utterly worthless. So what? If 10,000
lemmings jump into the ocean and drown, and you are
lemming number 10,001, does it make your actions
any less absurd if you say “everyone else is doing it”?
I don't care what the rest of the world does. I am
interested in results, not what is fashionable.
Dinosaurs know that their training is radically different
from what is the norm in almost all commercial gyms.
They don't care that the way they do things is totally
contrary to conventional wisdom. They are not
concerned that they don't do all of the isolation
exercises that most people think are an integral
component of productive training. Dinosaurs just want
to build muscle and strength, and they have realized
that the basics are the way to achieve that goal. If you
want to be a dinosaur, leave the isolation movements
to the bunnies, the “toners,” the yups, and the
wannabes. Dinosaurs stick to the basics!
37
The greatest revolution of our generation is the
discovery that human beings, by changing the inner
aspects of their minds, can change the outer
aspects of their lives.
~William James
Our future is in our hands. Our lives are
what we choose to make them.
Raise your mental horizons — use the power of your
mind to push you to handle poundages you once
only dreamt about.
~Reg Park
38
CHAPTER SIX:
ABBREVIATED TRAINING
It is a well-known fact that the majority of men today
are relatively weak....
Dinosaur training sessions are short, hard and
infrequent. A typical session will consist of no more
than twenty sets, with at least half of those sets being
progressively heavier warm-ups.
The average number of sets per workout would be
between eight and fifteen. Some sessions will consist
of only four or five sets. A typical week will see the
dinosaur training only two or three times. That means
the dinosaur trains his entire body with well under fifty
sets PER
WEEK. It also means the dinosaur will spend no more
than three hours per week on his training. I refer to this
type of training as “abbreviated training.”
TWO TYPES OF ABBREVIATED TRAINING
There are two basic ways to implement abbreviated
training. One way is to work the entire body in each
workout. For example, you might train on Monday and
Thursday. On Monday you would do squats, benches,
pulldowns and seated military presses. On Thursday
you would do HAMMER STRENGTH® leg presses,
stiff legged deadlifts, chins, dips and standing curls
with a 2” bar. Thus, you are doing a total body workout
every time you train, but you are doing different
movements in each session and only working each
particular exercise one time per week.
The second way to implement abbreviated training is
to train each basic exercise only one time per week.
and do only two or three basic exercises per session.
For example, you might do squats and benches on
Monday, followed by presses, pulldowns and dips on
Wednesday, followed by deadlifts or cleans, shrugs
and barrel lifting on Friday.
In either approach, the sets, reps and exercises are
up to the discretion and personal preference of the
lifter. Either system allows you to do high rep death
marches with a heavy poundage ...
to do five sets of five reps ... to do heavy singles ... to
do rack work … or anything else that strikes your
fancy.
If you prefer to get more rest between training
sessions, schedule your program over a ten day or
two week period. For example, take two workouts
over a ten day period instead of two workouts over a
seven day period. Or train three times in two weeks
rather than three times in one week. The variations
are endless.
TRAINING PROGRAMS OVER THE YEARS
If you think about it, abbreviated training programs are
really very similar to the types of training programs
you read about in the muscle magazines of the 40's,
50's and early 60's.
They are the types of programs that top Olympic lifters
used to follow - the type of programs that turned men
like Davis, Schemansky, Kono, and Emrich into
supermen. Check out their programs as detailed in
MILO and THE IRON MASTER (two of my favorite,
and two of the best magazines ever published). There
is nothing NEW about abbreviated training. It is the
way guys USED to train. And it is the ways guys
SHOULD train.
Up until the early or mid 1960s, most people trained
on fairly sensible routines. They usually lifted three
times a week. Even the supermen would rarely hit the
weights more often than four times a week. And the
routines were simple. Guys did squats, benches,
deadlifts or stiff legged deadlifts, Olympic lifting,
presses, rowing, curls and not much else. The biggest
and strongest men in the world would limit their
routines to a handful of basic exercises. And no one
did set after set of any exercise. Three to five sets
was plenty for most men - and anyone who did more
was a lifter doing low rep strength and power training.
The guys who trained for “muscles” usually did two or
three sets of any particular movement with medium
reps. If you did a supremely difficult exercise for high
reps (for example, a set of 20 rep breathing squats
with a heavy poundage) you only did one set!
39
Anabolic steroids changed all that. Steroids make it
possible to train longer and more frequently. Thus,
guys who use steroids can train longer and more
frequently than guys who don't use steroids. The
problem is, the guys who do not use drugs have been
brainwashed into thinking that they cannot make good
progress unless they follow the type of long, complex
and frequent programs followed by the druggers.
Actually, the reverse is true. A drug free athlete will
find it virtually impossible to make progress if he
emulates the druggers. Drug free training MUST be
carefully limited in duration and frequency if it is to be
productive.
Dinosaurs don't do drugs, but they are VERY
interested in making gains.
Consequently, a dinosaur will use an abbreviated
training program - the same sort of program that the
biggest and strongest men in the world would use
back in the days before bodybuilding and lifting
became “chemical warfare.”
ABBREVIATED TRAINING AND HARD WORK
Dinosaurs follow abbreviated training programs for
one reason and one reason alone: dinosaurs train
HARD. If you train hard, you cannot follow long and
complex training programs, nor can you train very
often. If you train HARD, you MUST reduce the
number of exercises you do to the bare minimum. If
you train HARD. you MUST reduce the number of sets
you do to the lowest possible number. If you train
HARD, you MUST limit the number of days per week
that you train. In short, TRULY HARD TRAINING
MAKES
ABBREVIATED TRAINING A NECESSITY.
AN EXPERIMENT
Think I'm kidding? Think I'm overstating the case?
Think 1 don't know what I'm talking about? Think I'm
talking about training principles applicable only to
bunny rabbits? Think that YOU are the man who is
going to prove me wrong?
Fine - think what you like. You are perfectly free to
believe that you can train hard and do lots of different
exercises and do lots of sets of each exercise and go
to the gym six days a week.
There's no law against believing that.
But let's try an experiment before you conclude I don't
know what I am talking about. Go to the gym. warm up
thoroughly, and do a couple of progressively heavier
warmup sets in the parallel squat. Then load the squat
bar to the weight you normally handle for ten reps. Be
sure the bar is in the power rack so you are protected
if you get snick at the bottom, Don't actually DO any
squats - just load the bar for now. The squats will
come later.
Next, load another barbell to your regular ten rep
weight in the stiff legged deadlift. If you don't do stiff
legged deadlifts, load the bar to twenty pounds over
your ten rep poundage for bent-over rows. If you don't
do bent-over rows, load the bar to fifty pounds under
your squat poundage.
After that, go to the bench press and load the bar to
twenty or thirty pounds UNDER your best poundage
for ten reps in the bench press. Ask a friend to be
ready to spot you on the benches.
Now you are ready to do the experiment. Take the
squat bar - the one that you have loaded to your ten
rep poundage - and do THIRTY REPS. I don't care if
you have to stop and catch your breath ... I don't care
if you finish the set in rest pause fashion, grinding
them out one rep at a time ... I don't care if you
collapse during the set ... I don't care if you can't get
up from the bottom position and have to crawl out,
strip the weights and re-position and re-load the bar. I
don't care if it takes you ten minutes to finish the set. I
don't care if you vomit half way through the set. Just
do the set. Thirty reps. Not fifteen, not twenty, not
twenty-five, but THIRTY. Not one rep less. And each
rep must be a complete movement - none of this sissy
quarter squat or partial movement nonsense. Go
down until the tops of the thighs are parallel to the
floor on each and every rep - and if you don't go low
enough, the rep doesn't count and you have to do it all
over again.
When you finish the squats, stagger over to the
deadlift bar. If you have to stop and puke, do it, but
don't waste time. Grab the deadlift bar and knock off
twenty reps in the stiff legged deadlift. Control the bar
all the way up and all the way down. No halfway
movements and no 40
bouncing the bar off of the floor. Once again, stop if
you need to stop, but do whatever it takes to get all 20
reps.
After the deadlifts, go to the bench and grind out ten
reps in the bench press. (Be sure you have a spotter')
Do the reps consecutively if possible. If your partner
has to strip some weight off of the bar, that's fine. Just
don't spend all day unloading the bar. If you have to
stop to catch your breath, do so. But don't get off the
bench until you do all ten reps.
Next, jump onto the chinning bar and do fifteen perfect
chins. Do as many reps as possible in consecutive
fashion and then grind the rest of the reps out in rest
pause fashion.
To finish things up, grab a 150 pound sandbag and
walk around the block with it. Hold it in a bearhug for
the entire distance. If you have to stop and put it down
to catch your breath, that's fine - but remember, every
time you put the bag down makes one more time you
have to lift it up again. If you don't have a sandbag,
two 60 pound or 70 pound dumbbells will do nicely -
just hold one in each hand and go for a walk with
them.
After the sandbag or dumbbell walk, you are finished
with the DINOSAUR portion of your training routine
and are free to do any other exercises you think are
necessary for a “well rounded” or “balanced” training
program. You also are free to do as many sets of the
other exercises as you wish. Heck, do two hundred
exercises for ten sets each if you want.
Of course, if you have puked your guts up after the
squats and passed out cold after the deadlifts, puked
again after the benches and hit the ground for twenty
minutes after the sandbag walk, you may not feel like
doing any extra exercises. That's ok. Remember, we
are doing an experiment. You are learning a very
valuable training principle. You are learning exactly
how little work you need to do if you are training
HARD.
You may decide you don't want to do any more
exercises. That's fine. Feel free to lie on the floor until
the world stops spinning.
It may take thirty or forty minutes before you feel like
getting up, going to the locker room and taking a
shower. You may be so exhausted that you fall asleep
under the shower jets. You may have difficulty driving
or walking home. When you get home, you may feel
like doing nothing other than lying down for a couple
of hours. In short, you will feel like you have been run
over by a Mack truck. That's fine. Remember, this is
all part of the experiment.
When you wake up the next day you will feel incredibly
sore. You may even have difficulty getting out of bed.
That's fine. This is all part of the experiment.
Decide early whether you want to go to the gym the
day after your first “experimental” workout. I would
suggest that you stay away from the gym for a day or
two, but I'm just an old fashioned know-nothing, so
don't pay any attention to me. The latest issue of
HUGELY
HUMONGOUS (“the magazine for SERIOUS
trainers!”) says you should train six days a week at a
bare minimum. So don't listen to me. Go to the gym -
IF YOU WISH. It's your decision. However, in a spirit
of fairness I should advise you that the rules of the
experiment are very simple: you can do anything you
want to do at the gym, PROVIDED that you begin
every session with the five exercises you did on the
previous day, performed for exactly the same reps, in
exactly the same manner - except you will add five
pounds to the bar on each exercise you do. So if you
want to go to the gym and “pump those biceps,” feel
free to do so -
AFTER you hit the squats, stiff legged deadlifts,
bench presses, chins and sandbag carry.
If you think it might be a better idea to wait a day or
two before your next workout, that's fine.
You do whatever seems best under the
circumstances. Remember, this is an experiment.
Follow the program outlined above every time you go
to the gym. Make it the first thing you do. Go to the
gym as often as you wish. Train two or three times a
day if you think that doing so is necessary for “real”
results. Do whatever seems to make sense.
But remember, do that same savage squat-dead lift-
bench press-chin-sandbag combo every time you
train. And add weight to the bar every time you do the
combo – five pounds to each exercise every single
time you train.
Do the experiment for a total of six weeks.
What will happen? What will happen is simple. You
will learn IMMEDIATELY that HARD
training necessities infrequent training sessions. You
also will learn – IMMEDIATELY - that four or five
HARD exercises are really all you want to handle -
and all you CAN handle - in 41
any training session. You will learn that one hard set of
a basic, heavy exercise (such as the squat) will drive
you into the ground.
Most importantly, you will learn that dinosaurs train on
abbreviated training programs because HARD
WORK makes any other type of training schedule a
physical impossibility.
HARD WORK VS. BUNNY TRAINING
Some people think dinosaurs train on abbreviated
training programs because they are lazy.
Nothing could be further from the truth. The guys who
are lazy are the ones who spend hour after hour, day
after day, in the gym but never even begin to
approach anything resembling HARD WORK!
If you want to take it easy, go to the gym and spend
thirty minutes pumping your biceps with high rep, slow
motion curling movements with baby weights. Then
sculpt your pecs for an hour with flies, cross overs and
chrome plated pec dec units. As long as you use puny
poundages and carefully avoid pushing to your max.
you can hang out all afternoon, get a great pump,
impress all the gym babes, guzzle lots of Evian water
and generally confirm your Madison Avenue
masculinity.
In contrast, you can do one heavy set of squats or
deadlifts and DRIVE YOURSELF INTO
THE FLOOR. Which will it be? Will you take the “long
and easy” route? Or will you try something as radically
different as training like a MAN?
LET'S START A REVOLUTION
We need to teach weight trainers to work HARD. Not
the pseudo stuff. Not the artificial grimaces, grunts
and groans, but what my friend Mike Thompson calls
'THE REAL THING.” Once lifters learn what hard work
is really all about, and what it can do for a man, they
will drop the all day idiot routines and the marathon
training schedules like they were last week's garbage
on a hot day in August. They will become dinosaurs:
savage denizens of dungeon gyms who live for that
extra rep, that extra pound of iron, and the feral thrill of
bloody combat with an iron bar.
Do your own part to aid the revolution. Train hard.
Train ferociously hard. Train as though your life
depended on squeezing every last bit of effort from
your body. Train so hard that a couple of hard
exercises will knock you into next Tuesday. Train so
hard that the mere idea of going to the gym on less
than 48 or 72 hours rest is an absurdity. Train so hard
that the four hour a day, six day a week crowd will barf
in their water bottles when they see you in action.
Strike a blow for dinosaurs. Strike a blow for men.
Have the courage to train HARD. Have the courage to
use an abbreviated program. Be a DINOSAUR!
My guess is that well over 80 percent of the human
race goes through life without having a single
original thought.
~H.L. Mencken
Let us finish the job in style. We can do it if we want,
and it is well worth doing.
42
CHAPTER SEVEN: HEAVY
WEIGHTS
My center is giving way, my right is pushed back,
situation excellent. I am attacking.
~Ferdinand Foch
Dinosaurs train heavy. They train heavy because they
are interested in strength. To build strength, you
MUST lift heavy weights. If you don't intend to train
heavy, you will NEVER
build an appreciable level of muscular strength. If you
train with bunny poundages, you will have a bunny's
body. Period.
Everything I just wrote would have made perfect
sense to a turn-of-the-century strength athlete. George
Hackenschmidt would have nodded his head in
approval.
Milo Steinborn would have agreed immediately.
Arthur Saxon would have said. “Yes, that's exactly
right.” Thomas Inch would have said. “Spot on the
money, lad.” If that's the case, why do so many
modern trainees try to build strength with puny
poundages?
Why do so many modern training systems emphasize
slow, time controlled movements, the virtual
elimination of momentum, and “feeling” the movement
all the way up and all the way down - training methods
that make it impossible to use anything more than a
pygmy poundage? Why do so many modern lifters
think they are “HOT STUFF” because they can bench
press 135 or handle 200 pounds on the leg press
machine?
THE NAME OF THE GAME
The answer is simple. Modern lifters have forgotten
that the name of the game is WEIGHT
training. They have forgotten that the whole purpose of
what they are doing is to elevate heavy poundages.
They have confused “training for a pump” or “going for
a burn” with serious weight training. And they have
completely forgotten the inherent potential of the
human body for muscular strength and power.
As with most of what is wrong in the Iron Game, the
popular muscle media is to blame. The muscle media
has systematically promoted and glorified
bodybuilding for years. Strength training has been
relegated to a back seat in almost every publication.
The youngsters who were interested in weight training
were taught to idolize certain “champions” because of
the way they looked. Strength became an attribute of
limited importance. A peaked bicep was worth its
weight in gold. A six hundred pound squat was non-
news. Forget that the beach boy with the peaked
biceps couldn't lift his way out of a paper bag. It didn't
matter. What mattered was the way he looked.
There was a time when a man was as strong as he
looked - or stronger. Take Arthur Saxon, for example.
The man only weighed 210 pounds. His chest
measured about 46.5 inches. His upper arms were
around 16.5 inches. Yet Saxon could lift a 300 pound
sack of flour from the floor to overhead. If that doesn't
sound like much, go to a hardware or garden supply
store and buy six 50 pound bags of sand. Put the
bags of sand into an old duffel bag - you can buy one
for $15 or so at an Army-Navy surplus store. Then lift
the thing over your head. If you can lift the 300 pound
sandbag overhead, stop reading right now. You don't
need this book, because you are one of the strongest
men on the face of the earth, and there is nothing I can
possibly teach you. But if you CANNOT lift the 300
pound sandbag, sit down for a minute and ask
yourself how Arthur Saxon could manage the feat -
with 16.5 inch upper arms?
Saxon could lift the 300 pound sandbag because he
ALWAYS trained heavy. The regular use of heavy
poundages for a period of many, many years
developed incredible strength in Saxon's tendons and
ligaments. It also built solid, high tensile muscle
tissue. Saxon was no pumped up amalgamation of
pretty body parts, the way so many “champions” are
today. He was a piece of moving steel, forged in the
fires of effort and determination, tempered with
oceans of sweat, until he was as hard or harder than
the iron he lifted. He was so far removed from the
modern day mirror athlete that any comparison would
be ludicrous.
43
DINOSAURS TRAIN HEAVY
Dinosaurs train like Arthur Saxon. They train heavy.
You will never catch a dinosaur pumping out reps with
a puny poundage. You will never see a dinosaur
waving light dumbbells around as if he was trying to
fly. When a dinosaur trains, he uses the heaviest
poundages he can handle. And he constantly tries to
increase the weight on the bar.
HOW HEAVY IS HEAVY?
Dinosaurs know and understand the sort of
poundages the human body can lift if it is properly
trained. They are students of history. They can
compare their efforts to those of the strongest and
most powerful DRUG FREE athletes of all time. And
they do so. A dinosaur doesn't compare himself to the
efforts of those who take anabolic steroids. He
KNOWS that a drug free lifter cannot compete with a
drugger. What does he do instead? He compares
himself to the Kings of Strength who flourished
BEFORE steroids.
JOHN DAVIS: A BENCHMARK FOR
DINOSAURS
For example, take John Davis. In his prime, Davis
was arguably the strongest man in the world. In
addition to being a 12 time United Stales Champion,
six time World Champion and two time Olympic
Champion in Olympic lifting, Davis was a tremendous
all around strongman. His best training lifts were as
follows (as reported in the April 1993 issue of THE
IRON MASTER):
Clean and press - 375
Squat - 550 x 3, 525 x 8, 500 x 10
Deadlift - 705
Bench press - 425
One Hand Snatch - 215
Strict Curl - 215
Two Dumbbell Clean and Press - 284 (142 per hand)
Bent Press - 275
One Arm Strict Curl with Dumbbell - 103
Davis competed from 1937 through 1956, starting in
the 181 pound class (at age 15) and growing into a
full fledged heavyweight almost immediately. In his
prime, he weighed 233 -
the weight he was at when he broke the 400 pound
barrier in the clean and jerk at the United States
Senior Nationals on June 16 1951. (Davis lifted 402.2
pounds to become the first man in history to clean and
jerk 400 or more pounds as an amateur in sanctioned
competition.
Charles Rigoulet had clean and jerked 400 pounds
earlier, but did so as a professional, using a specially
made, extra long globe barbell.)
Much of Davis' career predated anabolic steroids.
According to THE IRON MASTER, Davis later
reported that steroids were available and in use by
other lifters before he left the platform, but he never
used them because he was concerned about
possible side effects. His career and lifting records
bear this out - unlike many modern liners who go on
the juice and register overnight wonder gains, Davis'
ability remained remarkably consistent over his entire
career. His 402 pound clean and jerk in 1950 was the
highest clean and jerk he ever made. To accuse him
of using steroids, one would have to assume that he
made the 402 pound lift while on the juice (since it
was his highest effort ever), which in turn means that
he was using drugs in 1950 or earlier - which is highly
unlikely. Dianabol did not come into common use
among American lifters until 1962 or 1963 (and then it
spread like wild fire). Thus, unlike so many later lifters,
we can look at Davis' records with a large degree of
assurance that they were legitimate, natural efforts by
a drug free champion.
MEASURING YOUR BENCH PRESS
All of the foregoing points make John Davis an
excellent benchmark for determining high but realistic
strength goals for a natural athlete. Take the bench
press, for example. If Davis weighed 233 when he
benched 425, then he was handling 1.82 times his
bodyweight in the 44
bench press. Equivalent weights for a 160, 180, 200
and 220 pound lifter would be 291, 328, 364 and 401
pounds respectively.
If you are of average height and average or above
average bone structure, you should shoot to push your
muscular bodyweight to between 180 and 220
pounds. If you weighed 180, the equivalent bench
press compared to Davis' 425 pound effort at a 233
pound bodyweight would be 328. At 190, the Davis
equivalency for the bench press would be 346. At
200, the equivalency would be 364. At 210, it would
be 382. At 220, it would be 401.
These numbers can tell you how close you are to a
world class bench press at any given bodyweight.
Let's say you weigh 190 pounds and can bench press
305. Using the Davis equivalency, a world class lift
would be 346. That puts you at 88% of a world class
effort -
not bad, but there's still plenty of room for
improvement. At the very least, you ought to shoot to
get within the 90% mark - a 311 pound lift.
Some of you may think that a 425 pound bench press
at a bodyweight of 233 pounds is nothing special. Let
me suggest that you are ignoring several critical
points. First, Davis was an all around athlete and
strong man, NOT a bench press specialist. He had
ENORMOUS leg and hip development. Unlike many
bench press enthusiasts, he was not a top heavy
athlete wobbling around on a pair of bird legs. Many
bench press specialists are a good 20 or 30
pounds under their top bodyweight if they trained their
legs and hips as hard as they trained their upper
body. Heck, I know of guys who can bench 350 and
barely squat 225. A man with that sort of strength and
size imbalance is obviously going to register a higher
bench press on a pound for pound basis than an all
around strong man who does lots of heavy leg
exercises.
Second, Davis lifted without a bench shirt. A bench
shirt adds 20 to 40 pounds to a lifter's top effort. A
man who benches 425 without a shirt is going to hit
445 to 465 if he puts on a shirt.
Thus, if you compare your efforts to those of John
Davis, do it without a bench shirt. If you compare your
best lift with a bench shirt to Davis' best effort, you'd
have to add at least 20
pounds to Davis' 425 pound lift to make all things
equal. That puts Davis at 445—which even today is
one heck of a bench press for any drug free athlete,
including a guy who does nothing but benches and
other upper body exercises.
Third, Davis trained on a bench that lacked uprights.
He would deadlift the bar, sit down, lie back, rock the
bar to his chest, push it up to arms' length, do his set,
then roll the bar to his legs, sit up, stand up and lower
the bar to the floor. He doubtless would have benched
more if he had used a bench with uprights.
MEASURING YOUR SQUAT
Let's look at the squat. Davis did 550 for 3, 525 for 8
and 500 for 10. That looks like a 570 to 600 pound
single. Let's be VERY conservative. Call it 570. (By
the way, photos show Davis using a high bar, heels
elevated “Olympic” squatting style, and he probably
could have handled much more in a “power squat.”)
These lifts were done on different occasions between
1938 and 1941, and Davis' heaviest bodyweight at a
lifting competition during that period was 220 pounds,
so we'll use that weight for the equivalency instead of
233. A 570 squat at a bodyweight of 220 is 2.59
times the lifter's bodyweight. Equivalent lifts for men of
different bodyweights would be as follows:
160 pound lifter—414 pound squat
Using these numbers, you can determine how YOU
compare to a world class strength athlete.
Suppose you weigh 195 and can squat 415 pounds
without a squat suit or knee wraps (we need to
exclude wraps and a squat suit because Davis did
not use them). If you multiply your bodyweight by
Davis' squat to bodyweight ratio of 2.59, you get 195
x 2,59 = 505. Your 415
pound effort is 82% of the Davis standard adjusted for
bodyweight. That means you are doing 45
WELL, but that there is still plenty of room for
improvement. At the least, you would want to shoot for
90% of the 505 pound figure - 455 pounds.
MEASURING YOUR DEADLIFT
Now turn to the deadlift, where Davis handled a hefty
705 pounds (entirely as a result of his Olympic lifting,
as he never specialized on the lift and in fact rarely
used it in his training).
Assuming a bodyweight of 233 pounds, the 705
pound lift is 3,03 times bodyweight.
Equivalent performances at various bodyweights
would be as follows: 160 pound lifter—484 pound
deadlift
180 pound lifter—545 pound deadlift
These marks may seem pretty high for those of you
who are not long armed, short torsoed deadlifting
machines. Yes, these marks ARE high. But Davis had
absolutely titanic back power from his many years of
power cleans, power pulls and snatches. The marks
are high because they are based on an athlete who
specialized in Olympic lifting - and NOTHING a man
does can build the type of back power that can be
built through serious Olympic lifting.
MEASURING YOUR OVERHEAD STRENGTH
Getting back to John Davis and his best lifts, consider
his clean and press of 375 pounds (a lift he
performed in training). At an assumed bodyweight of
233 pounds, this is 1.61 times bodyweight - a
PHENOMENAL feat of strength. (The immensity of
the lift is demonstrated by the fact that Davis never
achieved so high a mark in competition. His best
clean and press in competition was 342, performed
at a bodyweight of 221, for a rating of 1.55 times
bodyweight.)
The equivalent clean and press for lifters at various
bodyweights using both the 375 pound training lift and
the 342 competition lift are as follows: 160 pound lifter
—258 pound press/248 pound press
180 pound lifter—290 pound press/279 pound press
These will seem like “out of this world” marks to many
of you. particularly to those who have done more
bench and incline pressing than military pressing.
Once again, you need to remember that Davis was an
Olympic lifter, so he specialized on the clean and
press.
However, the marks do confirm that many modern
lifters sell themselves far short on their overhead
lifting.
This is due, of course, to the predominance of the
bench press compared to overhead lifting.
The bench press is essentially a post World War II lift.
Many old timers never did it, or used it only rarely. The
immortal John Grimek NEVER did bench presses.
Up until about the beginning of the 1970's, men
worked as hard on their overhead pressing as on
their bench pressing. Many gym heroes of the era had
huge shoulders from years of heavy pressing and
behind the neck pressing. No matter what you could
bench press, you were not considered
“strong” unless you handled 225 or more on your
overhead presses - for reps!
Then guys stopped working the overhead lifts as
much or as hard and started to specialize on the
bench press. As a result, there are many guys who
can bench press the world but make only a modest
showing on their overhead lifts. Compare most
modern bench pressers to Davis' 425 pound bench
press and 375 pound clean and press. The clean and
press is 88% of the bench press. That means that a
guy who benches 200 pounds should be able to clean
and press 88% of that poundage, or 176 pounds. A
guy who benches 300 pounds should be able to clean
and press 264 pounds.
46
Other equivalent performances are as follows:
350 pound bench press—308 pound clean and press
I understand that Davis specialized on the clean and
press and that most modern guys do the reverse -
they specialize on the bench press. I understand that
Davis was skilled in the clean portion of the lift and
that no one other than a competitive Olympic lifter
could be expected to demonstrate the same level of
skill in the clean. Nevertheless, these numbers are far,
far different than the ratios of clean and press to
bench press that would be exhibited by most modern
lifters. Even if you omit the clean and allow the
modern lifter to take the bar off of the rack or a set of
squat stands, he still will not come anywhere near the
88% figure that Davis achieved. Is that because
Davis was a “technician” who knew how to Olympic
press a heavy poundage that exceeded what he could
military press? Perhaps. But let's allow the modern
guy to do a push press or even an outright jerk press.
He still won't demonstrate anywhere near the level of
overhead strength compared to bench press strength
that Davis achieved.
Face the facts. Perhaps more than in any other area
(grip strength might be an exception), the modern
weight trainee lags behind the oldtimers in overhead
strength. Even strong modern athletes fall far short of
the overhead ability of the strong oldtimers.
However, don't let this fact discourage you. If you
bench press 350 pounds and can barely lift 225
overhead, don't despair. What you have done is
identify AN UNTAPPED GROWTH
AREA. If you are strong enough to bench press 350
pound, then you already know a good deal about the
type of training that works best for you body. All you
have to do is apply that knowledge to heavy overhead
lifting. Did you use heavy bench press lockouts to
develop benching power? Then why not try heavy
lockouts in the military press to build your pressing
power? Did bottom position rack work help your
bench press? Why not do seated presses on a steep
incline bench – set at an 80 degree angle - with the
bench in the power rack and the bar positioned so
you begin the press at the bottom (from the chest)?
Did heavy dumbbell benches help your regular bench
press? Why not try heavy dumbbell presses to aid
your pressing strength?
If you already bench press a heavy poundage, there
may be a limit to how much further you can go on that
particular movement. But that doesn't mean that you
cannot add quite a bit of weight to other movements
that you have not fully exploited!
MEASURING YOUR CURLING STRENGTH
Let's look at John Davis' curling strength - which was
truly world class. Osmo Kiiha has reported (in THE
IRON MASTER) that Davis lifted 215 in the standing
barbell curl at a bodyweight of only 193, which ranks
as one of the all time best performances in the strict
curl performed on a straight bar. The lift was 1.11
times Davis' bodyweight - a staggering feat.
Equivalent performances at various bodyweights - for
the STRICT curl, performed with a STRAIGHT bar—
would be as follows:
160 pound lifter—178 pound curl
220 pound litter—244 pound curl
47
MEASURING YOUR ALL-AROUND STRENGTH
Let's focus for a minute on all around strength
measured in a number of different ways. To do so, we
will combine Davis' best efforts in the three powerlifts,
the clean and press (using his best competition effort)
and the barbell curl. The total for the five lifts is 2.257
pounds (consisting of a 425 pound bench press, 570
pound squat, 705 pound deadlift, 342 pound clean
and press and 215 pound curl). We know that some
of these lifts were performed at a lighter bodyweight
than 233 pounds, but to keep things simple we will
use the 233 pound figure to compute the tonnage to
bodyweight ratio for the five lifts. When we do the
math, we find that Davis' total on the five lifts was 9.69
times his bodyweight.
Now let's compare a hypothetical modern day trainee
who weighs 195 and can manage the following lifts:
335 pound bench press, 420 pound squat, 515 pound
deadlift, 235 pound clean and press, and 175 pound
curl. His total for the five lifts will be 1.681, or 8.62
times bodyweight. That's pretty good. Our
hypothetical lifter can demonstrate 89% of Davis' all
around strength and power after making adjustments
for body weight.
Let's look at another hypothetical lifter - a bench press
specialist. Let's assume the man weighs 245 and
benches 435. He squats 450, deadlifts 505, clean
and presses 159 and curls 185. His total on the five
lifts is 1.825 pounds, or 7.45 times his bodyweight.
That's not nearly as good as the first hypothetical lifter.
It works out to being 77% of John Davis' overall
strength and power after making the necessary
adjustments for bodyweight.
Let's take a third hypothetical lifter - a modern muscle
pumper who trains in chrome and fern land and
impresses all of the gym bunnies with his poster-boy
good looks, his sparkling smile, his golden tan and
his shapely buffness. The young Adonis weighs 173,
benches 185, squats 195, deadlifts 275, clean and
presses 135 and curls 110. His total on the five lifts is
900
pounds, or a miserable 5.20 times his bodyweight.
On a comparative basis (making allowances for the
difference in bodyweights) the pretty boy is only 54%
as strong as John Davis.
The pretty boy is a perfect example of the modern
trainee - the type who doesn't train for strength,
doesn't care about total body power, and is only
interested in looking buff, sculpted, sleek and
pumped. He might know all about supersets, trisets,
pre-exhaustion, pumping, the latest supplements, the
hottest bodybuilding gossip and EVERYTHING there
is to know about male grooming products and
designer gym apparel, but he hasn't the faintest idea
of what real weight training is all about.
NEVER SELL YOURSELF SHORT
Even men who are far, FAR more serious about their
training than the pretty boy sell themselves far short
when it comes to poundage goals in their training.
Too many men believe that 225 pounds is a good
weight in the bench press. Too many men believe that
315
pounds is a good weight in the squat. Too many men
believe that 350 pounds is a good mark in the
deadlift. Too many men believe that pressing 120 or
curling 105 is good.
The modern trainee has no idea of the phenomenal
strength that can be developed by proper training. He
has no clue of the latent potential that lies within the
human body. He sells himself far short. He is content
to gain a little strength and power because he has no
idea of how much he could achieve if he put his heart
and soul into the effort.
THE REALM OF THE DINOSAURS
Dinosaurs dwell in a far different world from that of
most modern trainees. They live in a world where
heavy poundages ARE EXPECTED of all lifters.
Dinosaurs measure their strength against men like
John Davis and other Iron Game Immortals.
They are well aware that heavy weights are well within
the realm of possibility for any average man, and that
enormously heavy weights are well within the grasp of
many men.
Dinosaurs train heavy. Dinosaurs think heavy.
Dinosaurs remember what almost everyone else in
the modern world seems to have forgotten: that what
we are doing is WEIGHT
training!
48
Take a look at your own training poundages. Re-
evaluate where you stand and where you are going.
Measure yourself against John Davis. Measure
yourself against other great dinosaurs from the past.
Be aggressive. Add weight to the bar. Don't be
content with puny poundages merely because they
are 50 pounds more than you could lift when you
began training. Aim high. Work to handle weights so
heavy they bend the bar on any exercise you do.
TRAIN
HEAVY! If you are a beginner or an intermediate, train
with the heaviest poundages you can handle and
make unceasing efforts to add weight to the bar. If you
are an advanced man, then pile on the plates. Never
train light. Never emphasize slow motion, time
controlled repetitions with puny poundages. Never
use chrome plated wonder machines loaded with
absurdly light poundages. Never waste your time with
isolation exercises that limit you to chrome and fern
class poundages.
Train heavy. If you don't train heavy, you might as well
give it up.
Go on. Make a commitment. Promise yourself that
you WILL achieve tremendous strength.
Determine once and for all that you will never settle for
poundages any less than 90% of what John Davis
could handle (adjusted for bodyweight). Now go out
and train!
The masses feel that it is easy to flee from reality,
when it is the most difficult thing in the world.
~Jose Ortega y Gassett
You will never get to the end of the journey if you
stop to shy a stone at every dog that barks.
49
CHAPTER EIGHT:
POUNDAGE PROGRESSION
You will have to do some real fighting at time
~Peary Rader
Dinosaurs understand that POUNDAGE
PROGRESSION is the key to success in weight
training. Absent poundage progression, nothing else
matters. Even hard work fails to mean very much if
you do not progressively add weight to the bar. Why?
Because if you TRULY
work HARD, you will grow stronger. And if you grow
stronger, you need to add weight to the bar. If you
don't add weight, your workout will start to become
too EASY.
When you see it spelled out the way it appears in the
preceding paragraph, it looks as simple as ABC. But
guess what - the vast majority of people who train with
weights never achieve much of anything because they
fail to add weight to the bar whenever it is possible to
do so.
GO TO ANY GYM . . .
Go to any gym, anywhere in the world, and take
detailed notes of the sets, reps, exercises and
exercise poundages that each of the regular
members uses in each of his weekly workouts. Go
back to the same gym one year later. What will you
see? Almost without exception you will see the regular
members using the same exercises, sets, reps and
poundages that they were using the year before.
NOTHING will have changed.
DINOSAURS ARE DIFFERENT
Dinosaurs are different. Dinosaurs see every workout
as a challenge. Every time a dinosaur trains it is a
new opportunity to surpass his previous best. Every
time a dinosaur trains he goes to battle, and every
time he goes to battle, he fights to WIN! The way to
win when you train is to surpass your former best, and
to do so over and over and over.
A dinosaur is NEVER satisfied with his existing level
of strength and development. A dinosaur never
decides that he is “big enough” or “strong enough” or
that he can ease up and take things easy for awhile. A
dinosaur is focused on forward progress. He always
aims to surpass his previous efforts. He never rests
on his laurels. He keeps going forward. He keeps
adding weight to the bar. He is OBSESSED with
adding weight to the bar.
Of course, an advanced dinosaur is not going to be
able to add five or ten pounds to the bar every time he
trains a particular lift. It just doesn't happen that way.
You can progress rapidly and steadily when you are a
beginner, but eventually, as you approach the level of
an advanced man, the rate of progress slows down.
This happens to everyone, so don't worry when it
happens to you.
SHORT AND LONG TERM GOALS
Poundage progression is both a short term and a
long term proposition. In my own case, I can
remember reading about 400 pound bench presses
when I was just a scrawny kid who wasn't even
shaving. I determined at that time to develop the
ability to bench press 400 pounds. That was a long
term goal. At the time. I was barely capable of
benching 65 pounds. My immediate short term goal
was to get my bench up to the 100 pound mark.
All successful lifters can share similar stories - they
set their sights on certain long term goals and then
they broke the long term goals into a series of short
term goals. Every time they went to the gym they were
taking one more step on the road to training success.
Every time they trained they were that much closer to
their long term goals. And every time they trained they
worked like heck to achieve their short term goals.
When you get right down to it, the secret to working
HARD when you train is to fight like the devil to try to
achieve a short term goal.
Confused?
Let me give you an example.
50
AN EXAMPLE
Let's assume your long term goal is to develop the
largest pair of upper arms you could ever attain. How
do you build those guns? Well, Arthur Jones had a
helpful hint in NAUTILUS
TRAINING BULLETIN NO. ONE. He wrote: “When you
can curl 200 pounds for ten reps in perfect form, your
upper arms will be as large as they need to be for any
purpose associated with any sport just short of
wrestling bears.” Great!
Now you have a poundage goal - ten reps in the
barbell curl with 200 pounds (in good form).
This becomes your long range goal.
What about your short term goal?
Well, what are you curling right now?
Let's say you can curl 120 pounds for ten reps in
perfect form. Great! Your short term goal will be 135
pounds for ten reps in the curl in perfect form.
Why did I pick 135 pounds?
Because the number lies into the plates on an
Olympic barbell - 135 pounds means you are using a
45 pound Olympic bar with a 45 pound Olympic plate
on each end. If you have a kilo bar and kilo plates, set
a short term goal of 132 pounds - a 20 kilo bar
(weighing 44 pounds) and a 20 kilo plate on each
side.
What do you do when you go to the gym if your short
term goal is 135 pounds for ten reps?
Well, there are lots of things you can do. You can load
the bar to 121 or 122 and try for ten reps. If you get
them, add another pound or two the following week.
If you don't get ten reps, stay at the weight you are at
until you make ten reps, then add weight the following
week. However, very small poundage increases - one
or two pounds - may allow you to get ten reps almost
every time you train - week after week, all the way up
to your short term goal of 135 pounds.
Alternatively, you could load the bar to 125 or even
130 pounds. At 125 pounds, you probably will only
manage seven or eight reps. At 130 pounds, you
probably will hit the wall after five or six reps. That's
fine. Stay at the weight you have selected and come
back the following week and go for ONE MORE REP.
And GET that extra rep. Even if it almost kills you,
GET THE EXTRA REP! This is where it all boils down
to mental toughness. This is where you put it all on the
line. This is where you become a man.
Sooner or later you will get to the point where you are
doing 130 pounds for ten reps in perfect form. Then
jump to 135 pounds and work your way up to ten reps.
Or work your way up in one or two pound jumps - it
doesn't matter. Eventually, you will make 135 pounds
for ten perfect reps. You will have achieved your short
term goal!
What do you do then?
Set a NEW short term goal - 150 pounds. Why 150?
Because it is not too far down the road -
only 15 pounds over your current maximum – and
because it is a nice round number - and because it
lies in nicely with your long term goal of 200 pound
(since 150 pounds is exactly 75% of 200 pounds).
This is the way to grow. This is the way to work your
way up, slowly and surely, to the achievement of a
long term goal.
TWO APPROACHES TO POUNDAGE
PROGRESSION
Which is better - the “slow cooking” system where you
add only half a pound or a pound to the bar, or the
more aggressive “throw on another nickel or another
dime” approach?
From a physiological point of view, it probably doesn't
matter. Like so many other aspects of productive
training, it boils down to individual preferences and to
the lifter's personality. It is an individual thing.
I own two sets of small plates - plates that run from 1/4
pound apiece to 2.2 pounds. I bought one set from
MAV-RIK, and received the other set as a gift from
John Szymanski, the owner of PIEDMONT DESIGN
ASSOCIATES, who is one of the nicest guys in the
business. Do 1
use them? Sure. Do I use them religiously? No. Do I
use them to help me increase the poundage in some
sort of systematic, predetermined manner? Heck no. I
use them when I got 400 the week before but know in
my heart that 405 is NOT going to go. In a situation
like 51
that, I might very well toss an extra pound or two onto
the bar - just to make sure that I have to work as hard
as possible to get my reps (or to make the lift, if I am
doing singles). I use the small plates to prevent
loafing. I use them to keep me on my toes. I use them
to add the razor's edge of difficulty to any set I do.
Other guys use small plates in a very systematic,
controlled fashion. They go from 400
pounds to 401, then 402, then 403 and so on. I can't
do that. I get bored when try to be so precise. I have to
introduce an element of risk – more of a gamble - in
order to keep my enthusiasm high, I have to work
against weights so heavy that there is a real question
of my ability to do the lift or to complete the required
number of reps. I need the pressure of possible
failure. Other guys do better if they take the pressure
off by keeping their weight increases to one pound at
a time. They like to approach the set with a very
confident feelings “I got 200
pounds last week for five reps, and this is only one
pound more, so I KNOW I can get five reps this
week.” You doubtless will find that one of these two
approaches works better for you. Remember,
everyone is different. Everyone is a unique individual.
One of the cardinal rules in training, as in life, is
KNOW YOURSELF.
BEGINNERS AND INTERMEDIATES
For beginners and intermediates, poundage
progression is a fairly simple thing. You simply work
like heck and add weight as often as possible - which
for most guys who are really busting their butts will be
very often. Peary Rader often wrote about the
poundage jumps he made when he started the
breathing squat program that added nearly 100
pounds to his frame in about two years - he put ten
pounds on the squat bar every week for weeks at a
time. That's what can happen when a beginner with
the right attitude goes to the gym and TRAINS.
ADVANCED MEN
Eventually, though, you reach the point where it is
impossible to add weight to the bar on a regular
basis, What do you do then?
You train at your top poundages for long, long periods
of time, always working as hard as possible, and
eventually, over time, the sheer regularity of your
training efforts will make you stronger.
Let me repeat that - in slightly different terms. This is a
CRITICAL point for advanced men.
A 220 pound man who can bench press 405 pounds
dinosaur style - with a 3” bar, in the rack, starting with
the bar on the chest - is not going to be able to add
weight to the bar on a regular, pre-planned basis no
matter what he does, how hard he works, how
determined he is or what supplements he uses. He is
simply too close to being as strong as possible to be
able to make dramatic and rapid gains. He needs to
take things slowly. He needs to train hard and heavy
on a regular basis. By so doing, he will eventually -
over a period of years - go well beyond his 400 pound
limit.
WHAT AN ADVANCED MAN MIGHT DO
Let's say our advanced man trains with heavy singles.
His bench press program might consist of the
following: 135 x 1, 225 x 1, 325 x 1 and 405 x l. He
can't jump to 410 in the next workout - he probably
can't even jump to 406. Or if he does, he won't be
able to maintain the pace more than a couple of
sessions. What does he do?
He might decide to hit the same workout - topping out
at 405 pounds – every week for the next three months.
And he might augment his full range benches with
power rack lockouts.
On the lockouts, he might start with a 2” range of
motion, work up in weight ten pounds per week for
five or six weeks, and then increase the range of
motion by 1/2” or so by putting some plywood or
strong boards under the legs of his bench. After 3
months or so, he will have increased the range of
motion on his lockouts by 1 1/2” to 2 1/2” - a
substantial gain in tendon and ligament strength. As
for the full range movement, the 405 will be FLYING
from the bottom position to arm's length.
What does the lifter do then?
52
He goes up to 410 for his top set in the full range
movement. And he continues the lockouts.
The point is, he takes things very, very slowly. But look
at the results by the end of the year, he may be
handling 425 instead of 405 in the full range
movement - a very significant increase for an
advanced man. Two years of such work may see him
handling 440 or so for the full range movement - and
that sort of weight, on a 3” bar, starting from the chest,
with no shirt and no wraps, is mind-boggling.
Exactly the same points apply to the squat, the
deadlift and all other lifts a man might do.
A SECRET OF ADVANCED GAINS
Remember, once you get strong - really strong - you
CANNOT add weight to the bar on a regular basis or
progress in any sort of predetermined linear pattern.
You MUST knuckle down to a long. long period of
consistent, regular, heavy training.
Forget about the period ration or cycling programs.
An advanced man needs to hit the iron HARD, using
heavy poundages, on a regular basis-week after
week. Back-cycling to 60% or 70% of your max and
building back up is a waste of time. You are going
nowhere. Most of your time is spent with poundages
too light to test your abilities. You are taking it easy.
You are babying yourself.
I like the idea of training cycles for novices and
intermediates because their bodies are not used to
training, they have tremendous untapped growth
potential, and if they TRY, they CAN add weight to the
bar on a regular basis. Cycling programs teach
novices and intermediates to add weight whenever
possible and to work HARD to be able to do so.
Cycling programs keep novices and intermediates
from falling into the deadly trap of long-term
relationships with their training poundages. Most
importantly, cycling programs build confidence in
beginners and intermediates.
For advanced men, however, things are entirely
different. Once you are advanced, you can kiss
cycling programs goodbye forever. Settle into some
regular, hard, heavy training, give yourself a couple of
years, and you won't believe the results.
TYPICAL, NON-PRODUCTIVE TRAINING
CYCLES
Here's a related point. Many advanced men compete
in powerlifting, Olympic lifting, bench press or odd lift
competitions. That's fine - competition is great. It's a
terrific way to maintain your motivation. But too many
men get tied into competition based training cycles,
and actually reduce their overall results as a direct
consequence.
Let me give you an example of what 1 mean. Take a
25 year old powerlifter who competes at 198 and
benches 365, squats 525 and deadlifts 555. Not bad
numbers, but there is plenty of room for improvement
over the years. The lifter competes about four times
per year and does a twelve week cycle between
contests. After each contest, he takes two weeks off,
then goes back to the gym to begin the third week of
his training cycle by hitting 50% of his one rep max for
three sets of ten reps on each lift. That's three sets of
ten reps with 187.5 in the bench, 262.5 in the squat
and 277.5 in the deadlift. Not exactly a heavy training
session - and remember, our man took a two week
lay-off after the last contest, so he hasn't trained heavy
for three weeks now.
The lifter has his next contest in nine weeks. In the
fourth week of his cycle, he handles 55%
of his one rep max for three sets of ten reps. Again,
this is hardly a heavy session - making a total of four
easy weeks for our lifter.
The following week sees him at two sets of eight reps
with 60% of his one rep max.
The next week he does two sets of eight reps with
65% of his one rep max.
In the following week (week number seven), he
handles 70% of his one rep max for two sets of six
reps. That's 255.5 on the bench, 367.5 on the squat
and 388.5 on the deadlift. Still not heavy weights for
our man - not even for two sets of six reps. However,
he knows he is on course, after all, he is following
exactly the type of program that gets written up in
issue after issue of the various magazines. In
addition, he now can start wearing his powerlifting
gear -
the magazine articles say to do so at this stage of the
game - so he wears his old squat suit with the straps
down and tells people the squat suit is mandatory for
“heavy” training.
53
In week eight, our man does 75% of his one rep max
for two sets of six reps. He adds an old set of knee
wraps for his squats and uses a loose bench shirt for
his benches. He also wraps his wrists for the
benches.
In week nine, our man does 80% of his one rep max
for two sets of four reps. In the bench, he uses 292
pounds. He uses 420 in the squat and 444 in the
deadlift. He lifts the straps on his squat suit at this
point, switches to a tighter bench shirt, uses a
stronger pair of knee wraps and changes to a tougher
and tighter set of wrist wraps.
In week ten, the lifter does one set of four reps with
85% of his one rep max. He uses 310 in the bench
press - the first time in the entire cycle that he has
handled over 300 pounds in the bench. He struggles
mightily to get the weight, doing touch and go reps
that would never pass in competition and actually
bounces the last rep off his chest. He handles 446 in
the squat, using a new and much tighter squat suit,
and cuts each rep short an inch or two above parallel.
He does 472 in the deadlift, using the new squat suit,
and bounces the bar off the floor to get his reps. He
also uses wrist straps to hold on to the bar - one of the
really big guys at the gym swears by wrist straps, and
our man wants to be sure to do everything right. After
all, the state meet is coming up in three weeks.
Week number eleven sees our man using 90% of his
one rep max for one set of two reps. He uses a brand
new set of support gear for each lift - the strongest
and tightest he can buy. It takes three other guys to
get him into his squat suit and two guys to squeeze
him into his bench shirt. What weights does he
handle? Try 328.5 in the bench, 472.5 in the squat
and 499.5 in the deadlift. His form is lousy, the reps
are ragged, his first reps are questionable and none
of his second reps would be passed in competition.
He has to lift his butt two inches off the bench to get
the second rep of his bench presses. He wonders if
he needs to buy a new bench shirt.
In week twelve - the final week before the state meet -
our man tries 95% of his one rep max on each lift,
wearing full armor, including a set of squat briefs. His
goal is to do one rep with 95%. In the bench, he tries
347 and makes it after a hard struggle - but he has to
lift his butt off the bench to get the rep. In the squat, he
handles 499 but stops four inches above parallel.
In the deadlift, he tries 527 but misses the lift. He
blames it on an uneven lifting platform.
What will our man do at the meet?
What does it matter?
For the past twelve weeks, our lifter has been fooling
himself. He has been following the standard sort of
program that you see in all of the magazines all of the
time, but he has been doing NOTHING to increase his
strength and power. Changing from “straps down” to
“straps up” or from a loose fitting bench shirt to a
tighter one is NOT the way to increase your functional
strength. It looks good on paper, and it makes a good
magazine article, but it does nothing to build strength.
Dr. Ken Leistner made the point succinctly but
emphatically in the April, 1987 issue of THE
STEEL TIP (Volume 3, Number 4): “The entire cycling
phenomenon has been very destructive, causing
lifters to spend large portions of the training season
undertraining, and then bringing them up to or beyond
the brink of injury immediately prior to contest time.”
AN ALTERNATIVE TO THE TRADITIONAL
“CYCLE”
Now let's observe a second lifter who does things
differently. Suppose that our lifter had decided to
compete only once per year, and had taken a one
week lay-off after his last contest and then tried
something like the following. In the bench press, he
used the power rack and a 3” bar to make the
movement as tough as possible, and worked up to
90% of his one rep max (328.5 pounds). Let's
assume he lifted that weight with no shirt and no
wraps. Let's also assume that our man did bottom
position squats in the power rack, with no knee wraps
and no squat suit, and worked up to 420 pounds -
80% of his one rep max in the regular style of
performance. Also assume that our man hit 90% of
his top weight in the deadlift (499.5
pounds, rounded off to an even 500 pounds) for a
single, with no suit and no wraps.
Now assume that our lifter uses those weights week
after week for a long, long time, adding five pounds to
the bar whenever possible (perhaps every four to
eight weeks), staying 54
completely away from wraps or support gear of any
sort (other than a lifting belt), and augmenting his
program with lots of heavy grip work, heavy overhead
pressing, weighted chins, heavy crunches, neck work
with a headstrap, barrel and sandbag lifting.
Assume our lifter also does the regular competition
style bench press and squat - without support gear -
for three or four singles with 85% to 90% of his one
rep max every couple of weeks, just to stay in the
groove and maintain his technique.
Now assume the two lifters meet in competition after
one year of training.
Which of the two will win?
Which of the two will be stronger?
Which of the two will set new personal records on
every lift?
Which of the two has used the past twelve months
PRODUCTIVELY?
Which of the two has been wasting his time?
TIME. PATIENCE AND UNDERSTANDING
Dinosaurs know that training time is extremely
valuable. No training session can be wasted by a man
who is determined to succeed. To get to the top, you
need to make every set - every rep - count. You
cannot afford to cycle up and cycle down and go in a
circle and get nowhere.
You must keep your eye on the mark. You must train
HEAVY on a regular and consistent basis.
Strength develops over time. It is an accumulative
process. One hard set is not going to turn you into
Hercules. One good session won't cut it. It isn't
enough to train like hell ONCE IN A WHILE. You must
do it on a regular basis.
There is one thing that all dinosaurs know and love:
the joy of adding weight to the bar. A dinosaur lives
for that extra pound or those extra five pounds of iron.
To be a dinosaur you must focus constantly and
continually on adding weight to the bar. You must
never be content with your current poundages. Three
hundred pounds is good, but 305 is better. Heavier is
always better - and for a dinosaur, it is always
possible.
Watching a man working out properly is almost

frightening -
and it is enlightening to some people....
~Arthur Jones
55
CHAPTER NINE: DEATH
SETS
March or die!
~Title of famous film about
the French Foreign Legion
In my own training I do best on low reps - usually
single reps for most exercises. But many dinosaurs
do best on higher reps, particularly for leg and lower
back work. Doing a high rep set of squats or deadlifts
with a heavy poundage is one of the toughest, most
demanding, most painful and most brutal things you
can do. It is a training principle that has built tons of
muscle and it is a training principle that has been
endorsed by many of the most knowledgeable and
influential writers who ever graced the Game. Dr. Ken
Leistner, Peary Rader, Dr. Randall J. Strossen, John
McCallum, Mark Berry, Joe Hise, Arthur Jones, and
Bradley J. Steiner all have written at length about the
almost uncanny ability of heavy, high rep leg and back
work to transform a bag of bones into a human gorilla.
Some of these writers (Rader, Berry, Hise, McCallum,
Strossen, and Steiner) emphasize the use of deep
breathing in conjunction with heavy leg and back work
- coining the term, “the breathing squat.” Others
(Leistner and Jones) simply urge you to bust your butt
and let your breathing take care of itself, working on
the assumption that you will be breathing like a steam
engine after the first four or five reps in any event,
provided, of course, that you are using a heavy
poundage.
All of these writers emphasize HARD WORK when
you do high reps in leg and back movements.
And that brings us to the most critical point of this
chapter. Listen up. Pay attention.
HARD WORK IS THE KEY
There is an overwhelming amount of documented
evidence extending from the present all the way back
to the 1930's that clearly establishes the fact that one
or two heavy sets of high rep squats or deadlifts can
transform an average man into a superman with
virtually no additional exercise. It has happened so
many times that one would be a fool to dispute the
issue. Heavy, high rep squats and deadlifts WORK.
They build enormous levels of strength and can add
many, many pounds of muscle to your body.
But - and this is a BIG but - the heavy, high rep work
only works if you give it your all. A half way effort won't
cut it. Going “hard” won't do the trick. Not even a 90%
or a 95% effort will get the job done. To make heavy,
high rep squats and deadlifts work for you, you have
to attack the bar as if your very life depended on it.
Nothing less will do.
DOERS AND DREAMERS
There are many men who have tried high rep squats
or deadlifts and made remarkable gains.
There are just as many (or more) who tried the system
and didn't get a thing out of it.
What is the difference between the two groups?
The answer is simple. The guys who got results from
the program were the guys who worked HARD. The
guys who didn't get results were the guys who were
content to give something less than a maximum effort.
LETTERS OF COMPLAINT
I sometimes receive letters from men who have read
my articles, who complain that they tried a “twenty rep
squat routine” but didn't gain much muscle and only
got fat. All of them blame the program. Each of them
tells me - in his own way, but always with the same
sort of perverse pride in having failed - that the twenty
rep squat program simply does not work.
Some of them have it all figured out - the exact
biological, physical and mechanical reasons for the
program's failure. Others hint that the program only
works for “the genetically gifted”, 56
“easy gainers” or “those who use steroids.” Some
claim the twenty rep squat injured them.
They say the program is dangerous. Others claim it is
simply “too old fashioned.” Then they mention the
weight they were using: 120 pounds ... or 135 pounds
... possibly 150
pounds ... or even 185 pounds for a couple of the
bigger guys.
And that tells the whole story right there.
Men, a single set of high rep squats or deadlifts done
once or twice a week is DEFINITELY
going to make you grow bigger and stronger - but
ONLY if it is a HARD set with a HEAVY
poundage.
One hundred twenty pounds is not a heavy poundage.
One hundred thirty-five pounds is not a heavy
poundage. Don't kid yourself. This is a beginner's
weight. I used to train a 115 pound female powerlifter
who would warmup with 135 in the squat.
One hundred fifty pounds is not a heavy weight. I don't
care if it sounds impressive to the guys and gals at
chrome and fern land. Advanced dinosaurs CURL this
weight. Some men can curl 150 pounds on a 3” bar.
Others can REVERSE CURL the poundage.
Even 185 pounds is a light poundage in the squat -
even if you are doing a 20 rep “death march.”
THE SECRET: HARD. HARD WORK
To get results from heavy, high rep work, you need to
train HARD. You can only train hard if you use heavy
poundages and if you constantly try to add weight to
the bar.
You MUST go over 300 pounds for 20 reps before
you can expect to see very much in the way of results.
Shoot for 20 reps with 350 or more. Once you get up
to that kind of poundage, the high rep squat WILL
have transformed you.
DON'T KID YOURSELF
Anyone who claims to be working hard on the squat
but who is handling 120, 135, 150 or 185
for 20 reps is only kidding himself. Sure, that may be
the type of weight you use when you start the
program, but you need to add weight to the bar
regularly and frequently. You need to push yourself
over 200 pounds as quickly as possible. You need to
move into dinosaur territory.
Don't blame the program if you don't get results.
That's like getting mad at the messenger when he
delivers bad news. Remember the famous line from
JULIUS CAESAR: “The fault ...
lies not in our stars, but in ourselves...”. If heavy high
rep squats have not worked for you - or if heavy high
rep deadlifts have failed to produce results - you
probably were not working them at maximum
intensity. When you train these moves HARD, you
WILL grow. Nothing else is even possible.
TRAIN WITH AGGRESSION
Heavy, high rep squats or deadlifts are murder. You
need to approach these movements as aggressively
as possible. You cannot be timid. You cannot be
quiet. You cannot intellectualize the set. You have to
stop being a civilized man and become a wild animal
for the duration of the set. You have to attack the set
the way a ravenous lion attacks its prey -
with total unrestrained ferocity and with absolute
focus.
GROW OR DIE
Heavy, high rep sets work because they trigger the
GROW OR DIE mechanism. Remember the story
about the college kid who goes to the lumber camp in
the North Woods. He had two choices: (1) grow, or (2)
die. When you do heavy, high rep squats or deadlifts,
you have to work so hard that your body is faced with
the same two choices.
This is why heavy, high rep work is so difficult. Do you
think your body is going to make it easy for you to
work it to the point where it must either grow larger
and stronger or die?
Heck, no! The body always wants you to maintain a
little bit of reserve - a cushion, if you will. It never wants
you to push to the point of complete collapse. So it
sends all kinds of signals intended to make you stop
before you truly work to your limit: pain, fatigue,
nausea, 57
dizziness, bursting lungs, lactic acid, burning muscles,
loss of motor control. Your body would be perfectly
happy to let you puke your guts out or fall flat on the
floor in a faint if only you would stop your set of heavy
squats short of a maximum effort. YOUR BODY
WANTS YOU TO GIVE IN BEFORE YOU GO ALL
OUT! YOUR BODY WANTS YOU
TO STOP BEFORE YOU HIT 100%! And it will do
almost anything to you to make you quit.
Heavy, high rep training becomes a battle of wills
between YOU and your BODY. To get any benefit
from heavy, high rep training, you must grasp this
critical point. Moreover, you must resolve - right now! -
that you will never give in to the desire to terminate a
set of heavy squats or deadlifts short of true muscular
failure.
In every high rep set performed with a heavy
poundage there can be only one winner. Resolve
NOW that that winner will be YOU!
The same is true of every set you perform to failure if
you do multiple reps and go to failure on every set.
Going “almost” to failure just won't do the trick. You
have to work each set so hard your eyeballs are ready
to pop out of your head. You cannot let up for even a
single rep.
You need to go all the way up to the wall and then go
THROUGH it or OVER it. This is the type of effort that
makes heavy, high rep training work. This is the type
of effort that builds men. This is the type of effort that
builds DINOSAURS.
WHY IT WORKS FOR A DINOSAUR
Dr. Ken Leistner has promoted this sort of heavy, high
intensity workout for many years with terrific results.
Arthur Jones has promoted similar types of heavy,
hard sessions since 1969 or 1970. and many who
followed his guidance obtained great results. The
heavy, high rep breathing squat has been working
wonders ever since the 1930's, when Mark Berry,
Joseph Hise and Peary Rader popularized it. It was
still working wonders when John McCallum wrote
about it in the I960's and early 1970's, and it is
working wonders TODAY for anyone who purchases
Dr. Strossen's wonderful book, SUPER SQUATS,
and has the courage, determination and guts to give
the program an honest try. Why do these programs
work?
They work because the dinosaurs who tried the
programs were MEN. They worked HARD.
They gave the programs their ALL. They squatted until
another rep was impossible. They deadlifted until the
bar fell out of their hands. They pushed to total failure
and then beyond.
If you have never tried heavy, high rep work you need
to do so. It can make you enormously bigger and
stronger than you are today. But remember, it will only
work if YOU work. Be a man. Be a dinosaur. Train
hard. Train tough. Hang in there when it gels difficult.
Fight against the signals your body sends in a
desperate attempt to make you stop. Kick the heck
out of your muscles, then get out of the gym, rest, eat,
sleep and GROW.
The strongest of all warriors are these two:
Time and Patience.
~Leo Tolstoy
58
CHAPTER TEN: MULTIPLE SETS OF LOW REPS
Men can do all things if they will.
~Leon Battista Alberti
Many dinosaurs use multiple sets of low reps, and
quite a few train on heavy singles (as discussed in
Chapter 11). They do so because low reps allow a
lifter to train as heavy as possible. Dinosaurs are
interested in building strength. The best way to build
strength is to use heavy weights. Training with heavy
weights works the muscles, ligaments and tendons,
all of which must be maximally developed if you wish
to be truly strong. It is not enough to build muscular
strength. Building the strength of the ligaments and
tendons is just as important for a serious power
seeker. This is where most modern training goes
wrong, and it is where the old-timers reigned
supreme.
THE NEGLECTED ELEMENT IN MODERN
TRAINING
Modern weight training programs pay almost no
attention to the development of the tendons and
ligaments. Their only emphasis is on working the
muscles. If you train hard on a program that works the
muscles but ignores the tendons and ligaments, you
may grow bigger and stronger, but you will not grow
anywhere near as big and strong as you would if you
trained the muscles, tendons and ligaments as a unit.
The old-timers trained with low reps and heavy
singles and as a result, developed enormously strong
tendons and ligaments. I am speaking of men like
Goerner, Cyr, Steinborn, Hackenschmidt, Saxon,
John Y. Smith, and Thomas Inch. These men were not
as large or as massively developed as today's top
bodybuilders or lifters. The modern guys admittedly
have larger muscles (although not as much larger as
many would have you believe). But even with smaller
muscles and less massive bodies, the old-timers
could do things that would defy the efforts of almost
any modern “strong-man.” Check out some of the
feats of the old-time, pre-steroid monsters. Do you
know of any modern “champion” who can handle the
kind of poundages the old-timers regularly lifted with
ease?
THEN AND NOW: THE CHAMPIONS
Herman Goerner deadlifted 727 pounds with ONE
HAND. What do you think this year's top bodybuilder
could handle?
Louis Cyr could shoulder a 400 pound wooden barrel
with ONE ARM. Can ANY CURRENT
powerlifting sensation match that?
Thomas inch had an “unliftable” dumbbell - one that
had a very narrow but 2 1/2” thick handle and weighed
172 pounds. For 50 years, Inch challenged all comers
to lift the unliftable dumbbell. Thousands tried. None
succeeded. Inch could lift the dumbbell OVERHEAD
with one hand, and did so regularly well into his 60's.
Show me a modern champion who could even
deadlift the “unliftable” dumbbell.
Arthur Saxon could bent press 370 pounds, a record
that has stood for nearly a century. Show me any
modern day champion in any iron sport who can
match that – or even come close. The 210 pound
Saxon also could lift a 300 pound sack of flour
overhead. Show me ANY modern day “superstar” who
can top that.
George Hackenschmidt could snatch 197,5 pounds
with one arm. Try it sometime, then tell me how many
modern guys can top that lift. Ask this year's Mr.
Everything to give it a try. He probably couldn't handle
HALF of Hackenschmidt's best.
Milo Steinborn could place a 550 pound barbell on his
shoulders UNASSISTED and then squat five reps
with the weight. After the squats, he would return the
bar to the platform -
UNASSISTED!
What's the matter with the current crop of champions?
If they are bigger than Saxon, Goerner, Inch and
company, they ought to be capable of lifting far, far
more.
59
But in fact, they lift far less. The reason is simple. The
old-timers trained their tendons and ligaments as well
as their muscles. The modern guys devote their
attention exclusively to their muscles.
THEN AND NOW: AVERAGE RESULTS
The comparison between the old and the new way of
training is even more extreme when one looks at the
AVERAGE lifter and his results. There was a time
when quite a few men who lifted weights could lift 200
pounds over head any day of the week. Smaller men
could at least clean and jerk the weight, while larger
men would snatch or press the poundage. Many men
could bent press the poundage. It was sort of an
accepted “mark of manhood” to be able to lift 200
pounds over your head. If you couldn't manage that
little feat, then brother, you were NOT a barbell man!
Now let's look at the average lifter in the 1990's. How
many men do you know who can lift 200 pounds
overhead? Think about it for a second. How many
guys do you know who can clean and press - or clean
and jerk - 200 pounds? What's the percentage of
guys at your gym who can put 200 pounds overhead
in any fashion?
Unless you train at a really special gym, the answer is
going to be “I only know a couple of guys who can do
that.” and percentage-wise, you're talking about well
under one percent.
If a large percentage of trainees could put 200
pounds overhead 50 years ago, and one percent or
less of modern trainees can match that feat, then
something is decidedly wrong. After having 50 years
to improve our equipment and training methods, we
ought to have a much HIGHER percentage of men
who are capable of lifting 200 pounds overhead.
Instead, the percentage is LOWER than in the past.
What's wrong?
THE IMPORTANCE OF HEAVY WEIGHTS
What is wrong is the entire package of “modern”
training. All we have done for the past 50
years is forget how to train effectively. We have
forgotten the critical importance of training the
tendons and ligaments. We have forgotten the
beneficial effect of HEAVY poundages.
We have created “modern” and “scientific” training
systems that let people “exercise” with light
poundages. We have lost our roots. We have lost
what made men like Goerner, Saxon and Inch
supremely strong.
HEAVY weights are the name of the game. Never
forget that. You need to train with heavy weights
because doing so is the only way to build the strength
of your tendons and ligaments along with your
muscles. The old-timers knew this, trained heavy and
became enormously powerful. The modern guys are
totally clueless.
Dinosaurs train with heavy weights because they
understand that it is necessary to use heavy
poundages to build your tendons and ligaments.
Unless you are a very rare, very gifted, very
determined, highly motivated and well-coached
individual, heavy weights cannot he lifted for high
reps. Consequently, most dinosaurs train with low
reps - in many cases, as low as one rep per set. Most
dinosaurs will rarely do more than five reps in any set.
GEORGE HACKENSCHMIDT'S ADVICE
What I am saying in this chapter may sound “new” but
it is not. In fact, it is horribly old-fashioned. I am hardly
the only man who ever wrote or talked about the
importance of heavy weights. Far from if. The critical
importance of heavy poundages used to be
commonly recognized. The really strong and well-
developed oldtimers all agreed on this point. For
example, at page 71 of his autobiography and
training manual, THE WAY TO LIVE, the Russian
Lion, George Hackenschmidt. noted:
“Some trainers recommend … the training of all
muscle groups with one and the same (light) weight
and believe they are able to obtain the same effect
by frequent repetitions.
My experience has taught me that this is wrong, for
the muscles of men or animals who are
distinguished for certain feats of endurance are by
no means over-developed. A long-distance runner
or long-distance cyclist always has comparatively
thin legs, as have a racehorse, stag, 60
and greyhound. Nature does not act without aim and
purpose. Hence there is a great difference between
feats of endurance and feats of strength. ” Continuing
this line of thought. “Hack” added: !
“One must consider that, although it is quite possible

to enlarge muscles by certain light, prolonged
exercise, at the same time the development of the
sinews may be neglected, and it is the sinews which
transport the action of the muscles to the bone
frame. The sinews can only be exercised and
strengthened by correspondingly heavy muscle
work. ” Hackenschmidt was absolutely correct. His
observation was 100% valid. It is astonishing -
and troubling - that so obvious a point has become
lost in less than seventy years. How could we have
gone from a world where the importance of heavy
weights in one's training was universally recognized -
a world fit for dinosaurs – to a world where the
“experts” tell us to use light poundages, move as
slowly as possible and “feel” the weight all the way up
and all the way down - a world for bunnies; how could
we have done this?
HOFFMAN'S COMMENTS ON SAXON
Bob Hoffman mentioned the importance of heavy
weights in his famous book about the oldtimers,
MIGHTY MEN OF OLD. Referring to Arthur Saxon's
incredible feats of strength at a bodyweight of only
210 pounds. Hoffman wrote the following words -
words which everyone who trains with weights should
MEMORIZE:
“To many of the giants of the past Saxon's incredible
power and strength were a mystery.
How could this man, slightly over 200 pounds in
bodyweight, lift seemingly beyond the capabilities of
the human body? Was he like a thoroughbred race
horse whose muscles are of a finer quality? Did he
have some secret, something not known to his fellow
men? Hardly; what made Saxon was his training
method and it was no secret Saxon spent a lot of
time strengthening his tendons. He knew his public
performances required a lot of energy and his theory
was that light exercises were only tiring and made
him no stronger. Consequently he practiced stunts
which threw heavy work on the full length of the
muscles and the tendons. He would do each stunt
only a few times and alternate with brief periods of
rest so as to prevent himself from tiring. As a result,
Saxon was never what you would call a beautifully
developed man, but his rugged and sinewy
physique reflected his terrific strength, strength the
like of which the world has never seen since. ”
SAXON ON SAXON
If you want to hear it straight from the horse's mouth,
so to speak, consider what Arthur Saxon said about
the development of tendon and ligament strength. In
an advertisement for barbells and training courses by
the Saxon brothers (a terrific collector's item I
received from Osmo Kiiha, the publisher and editor of
THE IRON MASTER – thanks, Osmo), there appears
a section titled “BONE AND SINEW - The Real
Secret of Developing Muscle and Strength.” This
section reads as follows:
“No matter how large a muscle may be, if it lacks the

coordinating power of sinew the muscle is useless. It
is like cutting a ship adrift from its anchor. It is the
power of the sinews to sustain the pull caused by
muscle contraction that really makes great strength
possible. Every man of great strength possesses
thick, cordy sinews. ” The text continues by comparing
Saxon's incredible strength to that of other, much
larger men
- the same point noted by Hoffman:
“There are other men much bigger than Saxon, but

in physical strength they cannot compare with him.
His sinews and ligaments especially at the wrist,
elbow and knee are heavy cables of surprising
thickness. This condition is noticeable on all men
who have acquired their great power the Saxon way.
The bones become more capable of supporting
tremendous loads - the muscle and sinew adhesion
to the bone is extremely pronounced.. ” .
This section of the Saxon advertisement concludes by
stating - and these words are as true today as they
were then: “It is vitally important to know that the
system under which you train will not only build
muscle and power, but will thicken the bones and
ligaments and give greater sinew adhesion space
onto the bones.”
61
WARMUPS
When you train hard and heavy with low reps. you can
and should do several warmup sets.
Use low reps on your warm-ups as well as on your
“working” sets. If you “rep out” on the warmup sets.
you will make it impossible to work as heavy as
possible on your working sets.
On any set, including your warm-ups, do no more than
five reps. On many exercises, you can warm up with
progressively heavier single reps. In my own case, I
usually do three or four progressively heavier singles
before hitting my top poundages on all of my lifts.
Single reps may not sound like enough to “warm you
up,” but they work fine for me.
THE 5X5 SYSTEM
The “5 x 5” system is one of the classic methods of
training for muscular size and strength. It was used by
Reg Park, and has been promoted by McCallum and
Steiner. Let's use a set of squats to illustrate the “5x5”
system. Let's assume you can handle 300 pounds for
five reps in the squat. Do a warmup with 200 pounds
for five reps. Rest a few minutes, load the bar to 250
and do a second warmup set of five reps.
Rest a few more minutes and load the bar to 300
pounds for your first “working” set. Do five reps. Even
if you can do MORE than five, stop when you have
done five reps. Then rest a few minutes.
Now do another set of five reps with 300. Again, stop
at five reps even if you could do more.
Rest awhile, then tackle your third and final working
set. Again, go for five reps. Again, stop at five if you
are able to get all five reps,
If you get five reps on all three of your working sets,
add weight the next time you do your squats. Try 305
or 310 for the working sets. However, if you did NOT
get five reps on all three working sets, stay at 300
pounds until you are able to do so. If you cannot get a
total of at least 12 reps on the three working sets, the
weight is too heavy and you should drop twenty
pounds or so from the bar.
As you get bigger and stronger, you may find that you
cannot recover from three working sets. In that case,
try three progressively heavier warmup sets and only
two working sets.
Once you are really strong, you probably will find that
you do best on three or four progressively heavier
warmup sets and only ONE working set.
Some of you will do better on fewer reps. Some of
you should try five sets of three reps or five sets of two
reps. Many of you will do best on heavy singles -
which are discussed in detail in the following chapter.
The only way to determine what works best for you is
by trial and error.
Whatever you do, though, don't get locked into the
modern mind-set that believes that muscle-pumping,
time controlled reps, supersets, “going for the burn” or
using exotic machinery is the most important aspect
of one's training program. The single most important
thing to do is to train as heavy as possible and
constantly strive to add more and more weight to the
bar. Unless you become obsessed with putting weight
on the bar, you are spinning your wheels in the sands
of time.
To train like a dinosaur, use the 5 x 5 system or any
other rational training system that permits you to train
with heavy weights. If you feel you are tough enough,
use Dr. Ken Leistner's approach - one set to failure
with medium to high reps and HEAVY poundage.
Leave the high rep, BABY weight nonsense to the
chrome and fern crowd.
Leave the pumping, supersetting, and pre-exhaustion
systems to the pretty boys, the buffers, the toners and
the shapers. Train heavy. Train VERY heavy. Do
several progressively heavier warmup sets and one to
three working sets on any exercise you do. Go back
to our roots.
Train the way they did when MEN trained with
weights.
Let us train our minds to desire what the situation
demands.
~Seneca
The farther backward you can look, the farther

forward you can see.
62
CHAPTER ELEVEN:
SINGLES
Great spirits have always found violent
opposition from mediocrities.
~Albert Einstein
This chapter is a continuation of the previous chapter.
It addresses a topic that will drive some of you wild
with rage and indignation. Some of you will laugh.
Others will toss the book in the nearest waste-basket.
Some of you will be intrigued. Some of you will nod
your heads and say “Yep - that's right!”
Once again, as in the previous chapter, I am offering
something from the past – a training system that used
to be used by quite a few exceptionally strong and
muscular men, but one that has fallen into almost total
disrepute. To some of you this chapter will run counter
to every thing you believe in. That's perfectly fine. One
of the purposes of this book is to help you stretch the
limits of your imagination. Remember, what seems
like outright insanity to one generation may appear to
be self-evident truth to another.
As I noted in Chapter 2, there are many readers who
prefer to train on the one set to failure system. To
those readers, this chapter will offer a training
concept – heavy singles - that goes against
everything they have learned and everything they
believe. That's fine. If you have no interest in heavy
singles, skip this chapter. There are plenty of other
elements of dinosaur training that you can adopt and
put to good use in your own training. For example, did
you ever try a set of military presses to failure with a
120 or 150 pound sandbag or a 100 pound barrel? If
not, take a look at Chapter 15.
For those of you who are ready to boo, jeer or simply
consider the idea of single rep training, read on!
ONE REP AT A TIME
Many dinosaurs do heavy singles. Why? Because
they have discovered that for many men, singles build
more muscle and strength than sets of multiple
repetitions. Yeah, I KNOW that singles are contrary to
modern wisdom and conventional training protocols. I
KNOW that all of the modern experts say that single
reps are dangerous and non-productive, I KNOW that
all the modern “champs” say to train with light weights
and concentrate on “feeling” the movement. I KNOW
that no one at the House of Chrome and Ferns ever
does a single rep in anything. And I KNOW that we
have all kinds of wonderful “scientific” training
systems that regard heavy singles as worthless,
dangerous, insane and ridiculously old fashioned.
1 also know that heavy singles made me bigger and
stronger than any other combination of sets and reps I
ever tried. I know that they have worked extremely well
for my training partners. I know that they allowed my
good friend, Greg Pickett, to push his upper arms to
18” of rock-hard muscle at a height of 5'6”. All of the
experts who can give you a dozen scientific reasons
why singles do not build muscle or strength will have
to explain why they work so well for me, my training
partners and Greg.
THE WAY MEN USED TO TRAIN
The “experts'“ are WRONG when they say singles
don't work. For many men, singles build muscle and
strength like you wouldn't believe. Forty or fifty years
ago - BEFORE the steroid era - quite a number of
folks did singles and they got really big and strong on
them.
In those days, the biggest and strongest men in the
world were Olympic weight lifters. Top lifters like
Tommy Kono, John Davis, Steve Stanko and
Mahmoud Namdjou could win world titles in lifting
AND enter bodybuilding competition and do
terrifically well - Kono won the Mr. World title. Davis
placed third in the Mr. America and won '“Best Back.”
Stanko won the Mr. Universe title and Namdjou won
his height class in the Mr. Universe contest. And the
heavyweight lifters (men like Norb Schemansky, Jim
Bradford and John Davis) were so much bigger and
stronger than any bodybuilders (with the notable
exception of Reg Park, who 63
himself trained like a lifter) that it wasn't even funny. If
singles are so terrible, why did the lifters thrive on
them?
I CAN'T SELL SINGLES
If you still are not convinced, consider this: singles are
not something that I or anyone else can sell to you. It
won't make any difference to me whether you do
singles or sets of ten reps or sets of 100 reps. My
bank balance stays the same no matter how many
reps you choose to do. So why am I so “bullish” on
singles? Why am I pushing them when it would be
twenty times easier to go along with conventional
wisdom and tell you to do one set of 8 to 12 reps, or 3
sets of 6 to 8 reps, or 5 sets of 10 reps?
I am urging you to try singles because they WORK for
many men. Period. There is no other reason beyond
my simple, selfish desire to help you grow as big and
strong as you can get.
Lifting weights is my hobby, not my vocation. I work as
a lawyer. I'm not trying to make a name for myself by
preaching the gospel of singles - or any other gospel
of sets and reps. I am not involved in academic
debate or the world of research journals, and I am not
trying to attack, defend, or justify any research
studies. I am simply trying to tell you what works best
for me and why I believe it may work best for you.
WHY SINGLES WORK
Why do singles work so well? I think there are several
reasons. First, you are using a HEAVY
weight. I believe that there is some sort of connection
between the amount of weight on the bar and the
overall effects of any particular exercise. Somehow, a
heavy weight does more than merely trigger growth in
the target area that you are trying to develop with
whatever exercise you are doing.
A heavy weight stimulates increases in muscular size
and strength throughout the body. This may be
because you are overloading the tendons and
ligaments whenever you use a really heavy poundage,
or it may be because the heavy poundage forces
more involvement by the nervous system (i.e., the
nervous system has to recruit more muscle fibers to
lift the heavy weight). I don't know exactly what
happens physiologically. I DO know that singles work
better for me than any other training system I have
ever tried - and believe me, I have tried them all.
Singles require good form and white hot
concentration. You can screw around a little bit and
get away with it when you are doing reps, but with a
heavy weight on the bar, you either use perfect form
and intense concentration, or you miss the lift. It's as
simple as that. Thus, singles reinforce two VERY
important elements of a serious training program:
good form and intense concentration on the task at
hand.
HOW TO IMPLEMENT SINGLES
I like to train each lift I do with four or five
progressively heavier singles. In the rack squat for
example, I set the bar so I am at the bottom position
of a parallel squat when I squeeze under the bar, and
then I drive the bar up to complete each lift. I typically
do 135 x 1, 225 x 1, 315 x 1, 405 x 1 and 500 x 1. The
last two singles are tough; the final one is downright
brutal.
Those five singles are all I do. At that point, I move to
another exercise.
Some lifters prefer a different approach. Some men
will use the same sequence of progressively heavier
warmup sets, but do five singles with their top weight.
For example, a lifter might do parallel squats with
135x1, 225 x 1, 315 x 1, 405 x 1 and 460 x five
singles, with two to five minutes rest between each lift.
Some men use a lighter weight and do even more
singles - ten or even twenty on occasion. I use this
system once in awhile, but most of the time I stick to
only one heavy single on any given lift. I tend to go
stale if I do multiple singles with a heavy poundage.
I know just what you're going to say, “Do you mean to
tell me you do FIVE singles in a workout and then
stop! How can a short little workout like that build any
muscle?” Well, I'm glad you asked. The answer is
simple; I work those five little sets so hard that they
damn near kill me. My last single in any given
exercise on any given day is always brutally hard. I'm
not 64
talking about “difficult.” I'm not talking about
“uncomfortable.” I'm talking about something far
harder than merely “very tough.” I'm talking about
ALMOST IMPOSSIBLE. It takes a TREMENDOUS
effort to make the lift. The final single is so intense
and demanding that it would be impossible to repeat
the exercise with any sort of appreciable weight.
A WORD OF CAUTION
Singles may sound easy to the uninitiated, but let me
assure you. they are SAVAGE. The pencil necks, the
armchair academics, the theorizers, the slide rule
honchos, the guys who always wear padded gloves at
the gym, the guys who wouldn't be caught dead
without a fancy sports watch or a pair of $200 Cross-
Trainers, the wannabes, the drug babies, the shapers,
the toners, the body sculptors and the rest of the gang
at the House of Chrome and Ferns would die if you
made them do heavy singles.
Singles are so tough that you need to work into them
carefully and gradually. Start by switching from your
current set/rep scheme to the 5 x 5 system. The 5x5
system calls for two progressively heavier sets of 5
reps, followed by three sets of five reps with your
“working” weight. For example, let's say you can
bench press 250 or so for five reps. To use the 5 x 5
system, you would do five reps with 160 pounds for
your first (warmup) set. Then do your second set of
five reps with 200 pounds, followed by three sets of
five reps with 240 pounds.
When you can handle your working weight (240
pounds in this example) for three sets of five reps,
add five pounds to each set and build up to three sets
of five reps with the new working weight. Using the
previous example, you could move up to 165 x 5, 205
x 5 and then shoot for three sets of five reps with 245.
If you cannot get three sets of five with 245, that’s ok -
just slay at that poundage until you can get five reps
on each of the three working sets.
After three to six months on the 5 x 5 system, change
10 the 5/4/3/2/1 system. This calls for two or three
progressively heavier warmup sets (doing five reps
per set), followed by one set of five reps for your first
working set. Then add a little bit of weight (five or ten
pounds) and try for four reps. Add a bit more and try
for three reps. Add more and try for two reps. Add
more and do a single. It might look like this: 160 x 5,
200 x 5 (these are warmup sets), 240 x 5
(the first “working” set), 250 x 4, 260 x 3, 270 x 2 and
280 x 1. Stay on the 5/4/3/2/1 system for three to six
months, then try an actual single rep system.
The reason you do the “break-in” work with the 5 x 5
and 5/4/3/2/1 systems is to gradually adapt to the
heavy stress imposed by low rep, heavy poundage
training. If you have been doing medium to high reps,
you need this break-in period to avoid hurting
yourself. No matter how well conditioned you THINK
you are, your body just isn't ready for the extreme
stress of single rep training. You must give your
muscles, tendons and ligaments a fair chance to
adapt to single rep work. THIS IS CRITICAL!
Whatever you do, do NOT skip the 5x5 and 5/4/3/2/1
phases and jump directly into single reps. You are
asking for trouble if you do.
Let me repeal that warning. And pay attention! DO
NOT think you can “condition” yourself for heavy
singles by doing high or medium rep sets. You must
reduce the number of reps slowly and gradually, in a
systematic, controlled fashion, or you are almost
certain to hurt yourself. Remember, singles work not
only the muscle fibers, but the tendons and ligaments
as well, and it takes time to condition the tendons and
ligaments to handle really heavy poundages. Time
after time I see guys who train hard, but with high or
medium reps, foolishly try to jump into heavy singles
without having the proper foundation. In every case,
they injure themselves. DON'T LET THIS HAPPEN
TO YOU!
Go back and re-read the previous paragraph.
Memorize it. Sear it into your brain cells. And follow
my advice, guys! You only have one body in this
lifetime. Don't injure it by being foolish.
SENSIBLE SINGLES
When you are ready to do the single rep program, do
three or four progressively heavier warmup sets of
one to five reps each, followed by one single with
70% of your one rep max, one single with 80% of your
one rep max, and one single with 90% of your one rep
max.
65
Then stop! Do no more than three singles to begin
with: one at 70%, one at 80% and one at 90%.
Try to add 1 to 2 pounds per week and gradually work
your way up to the point where you are approaching
your former one rep max. At that point, settle into a
long series of training sessions where you hit your top
weight or something very close to it every time you
train any particular exercise. Plan to do this for
several months at a bare minimum. It takes a long
period of steady, consistent training to realize the full
benefits of single rep work. This is because the
singles are building not only your muscles, but your
tendons and ligaments as well, and tendons and
ligaments don't grow as quickly as muscles do.
As I stated, plan to train with heavy weights week after
week for a long, long time. Forget about
“periodization” programs, conditioning phases or
anything similar. Forget about programs where you
take ten or twelve weeks to work up to a single rep
effort, then drop down and take another ten or twelve
weeks to get back to another single rep effort. Get to
the point where you are training hard and heavy on a
consistent basis for a long, long time, and then watch
what happens to your body. You won't believe the
results. A couple of years of heavy singles will
TRANSFORM your body.
Man is a rope connecting animal and superman - a

rope over a precipice ... What is great in man is that
he is a bridge and not a goal.
~Friedrich Nietzsche
What is the use of living, if it be not to strive for noble
causes and to make this muddled world a better
place to live in after we are gone?
66
CHAPTER TWELVE: THICK
BARS
Anyone who has begun to think,
places some portion of the world in jeopardy,
~John Dewey
Advanced dinosaurs train with thick handled barbells
and dumbbells. A regular barbell or dumbbell is l” or l
1/16” in diameter. Dinosaurs use barbells and
dumbbells that are 2”, 2 1/2” or even 3” in diameter.
Why? Because using a thick handled bar is one of the
very best things you can do to develop maximum
muscular size and strength. The turn of the century
strongmen - many of whom were enormously stronger
than the vast majority of our modern
“champions” - were well acquainted with the
incredible effect of thick bar work. They thrived on it.
The thick bar work allowed them to develop levels of
upper body power virtually incomprehensible to those
who train only with regular bars.
WHY THICK BARS WORK
Thick bars develop levels of muscular size and
strength that cannot be duplicated with any other
equipment. Thick bars are very difficult to control.
Compared to an Olympic barbell, a bar with a 2” or 3”
diameter seems like a log. Can you imagine bench
pressing, pressing, or curling a telephone pole?
That's what it feels like when you use a thick handled
barbell. You cannot rely on style, form, riming, or
technique to complete the lift. You have to do it with
sheer strength. To paraphrase Dr. Ken Leistner, “all
you can do is lie back and push” when you bench with
a thick handled bar. That's one reason why thick bar
work is so effective. It imposes a tremendous burden
on the muscles, tendons and ligaments - a far, far
greater burden than a regular barbell imposes.
THE MIND-MUSCLE CONNECTION
A second reason why thick bar work is so beneficial
is that the bar forces you to involve your forearms,
hands, wrists and fingers to a far greater degree than
does a conventional bar. This in turn causes a
stronger mind-muscle link, which inevitably leads to
greater gains in muscular size and strength. Have I
lost you? Stay with me, I will explain everything.
What do I mean when I talk about a “mind-muscle
link?” 1 mean the connection between your brain and
your nervous system. Whenever you lift a weight, the
lift begins with the brain consciously directing the
muscles to push or pull in a particular direction. The
message from the brain is carried to the muscles via
the nervous system. When the muscles receive the
message, they respond by pushing or pulling in the
manner directed by the brain. That's the mind-muscle
link; the connection between the brain, the nervous
system and the muscles.
Messages from the brain to the muscles are
transmitted by nerve impulses. The strength of each
individual nerve impulse, the total number of nerve
impulses, and the frequency with which nerve
impulses are transmitted from brain to muscle is one
of the most critical factors in the amount of force you
can exert in any given lift. I have no research studies
to cite and no way to “prove” that my opinion is
correct, but I firmly believe that using thick bars in your
training causes an increase in the strength of
individual nerve impulses, the total number of nerve
impulses and the frequency of transmission of nerve
impulses.
As I noted above, thick bars are terribly awkward and
extremely difficult to handle. You have to adjust the
bar's path constantly as you lift it or else you will get
hopelessly out of the groove almost immediately.
There has to be constant feedback between the brain
and the muscles. I believe that the necessity of
constant feedback causes a stronger mind-muscle
link.
and I believe that this is one very important reason
why thick bar work is so incredibly productive.
67
THE FEAR FACTOR
Another reason why thick bar work may trigger
heightened involvement of the nervous system is that
the bars look so imposing and formidable that you
automatically push or pull much harder than you could
do with a normal bar. This sounds crazy, but think
about it for a minute. Many years ago, the Harvard
psychologist, William James, noted that a man will
squeeze harder on a dynometer device if a red light is
flashing as he squeezes. Other colors did not produce
the same effect, and some colors caused test
subjects to squeeze LESS hard on the dynometer no
matter how hard they tried. James theorized that this
was because red is a color associated with danger
(after all, red is the color of fire, blood and war).
Compared to blue, while, green or brown, red is a
“hot” color. If a colored light can cause a man to exert
more muscular force in a given movement, surely a
bar two or three times thicker than normal can cause
a similar reaction.
Remember, fear is a great motivator. The great
heavyweight boxing champion, Jack Dempsey, fought
like a caged animal and literally destroyed his
opponent whenever he faced a substantially larger
adversary - but often fought like a mere mortal when
confronted with an opponent his own size. Dempsey
demolished the hulking Jess Willard, who was much
taller and close to 100 pounds heavier than Dempsey.
However, Dempsey had a terrible time with Edward
Carpentier, a man smaller than he, and lost twice - his
only defeats - to Gene Tunney.
who was roughly his own size. Some believe that
Dempsey was at his savage best when motivated by
the fear of facing a much larger opponent. I believe
that to be the case, and I also believe that the mere
sight of a steel bar that looks like a telephone pole will
trigger an extra bit of adrenaline in any lifter. In other
words, using a thick bar is a little like having your own
personal coach shouting at you to “PUSH” harder on
each rep you do.
GREAT FOR THE GRIP
Thick bars are terrific for strengthening the forearms,
wrists, thumbs and fingers. An exercise you do with a
thick bar automatically becomes a test of hand and
finger strength. Pulling movements are almost
impossible with a thick bar, curling movements are
incredibly rugged, and even pressing exercises are
downright nasty when you do them with a thick bar. As
a dinosaur, you will be doing plenty of specialized grip
work, but be aware that you will work your grip
savagely by simply using a thick bar instead of a
regular bar for your upper body movements.
THICK BARS AND SPINELESS WIMPS
There is yet another important thing about thick bars.
Wimps, yups and wannabe's won't go near them.
Muscle pumpers and drug babies wouldn't touch a
thick bar on a bet. The chrome and fern crowd would
rather give up their Evian water and celery sticks than
try to lift a thick handled bar. You may think I'm
kidding, but I'm deadly serious about this. Before I
started training in the sanity of my basement gym, I
took my 3” bar to the gym where I trained, and I was
always amused by the reaction.
Some guys literally ran away whenever they saw the
thing. They were very obviously intimidated by the
large, thick mass of iron. They always went over and
found solace in the chrome plated dumbbells the gym
owner had purchased from a women's spa that went
out of business. The only guys whoever wanted to use
the thing were Ted Solinger and Bruce Bullock, who
later became my training partners in my home gym. In
other words, the thick handled bar was a great way to
tell who was serious about training and who was
content to
“sculpt” and “shape” and do meaningless movements
with chrome plated baby weights.
If I ever open a gym, I will stock it with thick handled
barbells and dumbbells. Doing so would be a great
way to discourage the wimps and yups and talkers
from joining the gym.
One look at the thick handled bars and the twinkle
crowd would run for cover. So would the muscle
pumpers - they would immediately realize that lifting a
bar like that required STRENGTH, and pumpers as a
group are about as strong as undernourished kittens.
The only guys who would go to a gym that featured
lots and lots of thick bars would be the kind of 68
guys who were interested in strength, power and
physical challenges. Come to think of it, the gym
would cater to dinosaurs and nobody else. Not a bad
idea!
HOW TO USE THICK BARS
Use thick bars for all of your upper body exercises.
Always use a power rack for thick bar bench presses,
and set the bottom pins to catch the weight in case
the bar slips. NEVER do thick bar benches outside
the power rack!
Use your head when you begin to incorporate thick
bar work. Drop the poundages at first.
You will NOT be able to handle your regular
poundages when you first begin thick bar movements.
The first time I tried thick bar benches, all I could
handle was 365 pounds - and it almost killed me. With
a regular bar, I was handling 405-410 at the time.
A three inch bar is too thick for some lifters to curl. If
the bar is too thick for you, your elbows will let you
know! Be alert to this, and do not hesitate to drop
from a 3” to a 2” bar if your elbows protest.
HOW TO OBTAIN A THICK BAR
IRONMIND® ENTERPRISES sells a beautiful 2” bar
sized for Olympic plates. It is called APOLLON'S
AXLE™, after the great oldtime strongman, Apollon,
who regularly lifted a 2” railroad axle as part of his
strength show.
You also can make your own thick bar. Let's assume
you have an old 7' Olympic bar. Simply wrap heavy
tape around the inside of the bar, then slide a 5'
length of heavy steel pipe over the bar, leaving room
for the plates on each rotating sleeve. Of course, once
you convert the bar, you won't be able to change it
back.
Another option is to buy several sizes of steel pipe
and hire a welder to weld them together for you.
This all may sound like lots of work and unnecessary
expense, but it's not. Buying or making a thick bar - or
several of them - is one of the very best investments
you can make. Thick bars are one of the KEYS to
strength and power. Buy or make one, use it, and
learn for yourself one of the true secrets of strength
and power.
Any man more right than his neighbors
constitutes a majority of one.
~Henry David Thoreau
Nourish your hopes, but do not overlook realities.

69
CHAPTER THIRTEEN: GRIP WORK, PART ONE
It requires a very unusual mind
to make an analysis of the obvious.
~Alfred North Whitehead
Dinosaurs do grip work - lots and lots of serious, old
fashioned, heavy grip work. I’m not talking about sissy
stuff like pumping out a high rep set of wrist curls or
reverse curls with a weight as light as a medium sized
bag of potato chips. I'm talking about brutal, rugged,
incredibly painful, high stress, heavy poundage grip
work. Things like heavy one arm deadlifts ... deadlifts
with 2” and 3” barbells and dumbbells … single rep
wrist curls with a 3” bar and an enormous poundage
... single rep reverse curls with a 2” or 3” bar and as
much weight as you can handle ... pinch gripping with
heavy poundages … or the farmer's walk with an
enormous pair of dumbbells. Stuff that separates the
men from the boys. Stuff that would make the twinkle
crowd puke in a corner. Stuff that makes anything they
do in chrome and fern land look like a slow motion
game of tiddley-winks.
WHY DO GRIP WORK?
Why do dinosaurs do heavy grip work? There are
several reasons. First, dinosaurs thrive on thick bar
work, but you can't use thick bars for heavy weights in
your upper body exercises unless you have one heck
of a grip. We all know that lots of guys have weak
wrists, and benching 150 or 200 pounds with an
ordinary bar almost kills them - even when they are
using wrist wraps for extra support and protection. A
guy with wrists like that wouldn't be able to do
anything with a thick bar. His wrists would snap like
match-sticks if he tried to bench even 100 pounds
with a 3” bar. But some advanced dinosaurs can
handle 400 pounds or more in the thick bar bench
press or do bench press lockouts with nearly 600
pounds on a 3” bar. Imagine doing a thick bar bench
press with 400 pounds - and no wrist wraps - and
you'll understand how strong a dinosaur's wrists,
thumbs and fingers have to be just to allow him to
survive a workout. Then imagine doing thick bar
bench press lockouts with 550 to 600
pounds - and no wrist wraps. Get the picture? For
dinosaurs, serious, heavy duty grip work is a
necessity.
THE FEEL OF IRON
Dinosaurs also do heavy grip work because it is
ferocious, primitive and barbaric. There is some kind
of primal instinct that responds in a special way to
holding a thick piece of heavy iron in your hands. I call
it the “warrior instinct.” I believe that serious lifters
share a primal link with long dead ancestors who
spent their days battling with swords, axes, spears
and daggers. To a primitive warrior, the feel of an iron
weapon MUST HAVE BEEN very special: it must
have made him feel supremely powerful and almost
invincible. The iron must have had an almost magic,
mystical sensation.
Something of that same feeling still remains,
imbedded as a deep-rooted tribal heritage in serious
lifters - what Carl Jung would call an archetypal
memory. You tap into that heritage when you do
specialized grip work with heavy iron. By the way, this
is one reason why dinosaurs don't like chrome: we
instinctively prefer iron and steel. A guy who likes the
look and feel of unpolished iron and steel is a good
candidate for dinosaur training. A guy who thinks
chrome looks and feels better is never going to be a
dinosaur.
Think I'm overdoing things? Think I'm romanticizing?
Well, do this. Get yourself a copy of the July, 1995
issue of MILO (Volume 3. No. 2) and read Dr. Ken
Leistner's article at page 45: “The Really Big Wheels,”
where Dr. Leistner tells about his friend, Hugh
Cassidy (the first World's Superheavy weight
Powerlifting Champion), turning an old set of
enormous iron railcar wheels into a 1,474 pound
barbell. Near the beginning of the article Dr. Leistner
notes:
“Both Fitz [Hugh] and I have a love of metal, and in
truth, that is one of the great attractions of lifting
weights. If they were made of wood, it might not be as
much fun for either of us.” 70
By the way, Hugh Cassidy trained in his garage, on
the most basic of programs, using the most basic of
equipment, when he won the World Championship.
Never underestimate what a dinosaur can accomplish
in a home gym.
FORM OVER SUBSTANCE
Dinosaurs also train the grip because grip work is the
epitome of “substance over form.” Most weight
trainers ignore the grip because a world class grip
doesn't look as impressive as big biceps, bulging
pecs or huge, striated thighs. Face it - no matter how
much grip work you do, you will never develop hands,
fingers, and wrists so large that they will make you
stand out in a crowd. You can build fingers like steel
claws and the average person would never know it to
look at you. Since looks are all that are important to
most modern trainees (and what an indictment of
modern training THAT is!), it is little wonder that they
ignore the grip.
ENHANCING THE MIND-MUSCLE LINK
Another reason why dinosaurs do heavy grip work is
that grip work enhances the mind-muscle link. The link
between the brain and the hands is far greater than
the link between the brain and almost any other part of
the body. (You get ONE guess about the other part of
the body that has a super strong link to the brain, and
if you can't guess, think dirty FOR A SECOND AND
THE ANSWER WILL COME TO YOU!) Anatomy and
physiology books often include drawings of the human
body with the various body parts portrayed as having
a size relative to the number of nerve endings in them,
and on these charts, the hands are shown as dwarfing
the rest of the body.
Think of all the things the human hand can do: play the
piano, scramble an egg, hold a barbell, rock a baby,
write a letter or break a brick with a karate chop.
Think of all the different ways you can move your
hands and fingers. Look at all the joints in the hands.
How many joints do you have in your legs? How many
different ways can you move your legs?
Compare that to the things you can do with the hands
and fingers.
When you train your hands, you are training the body
part that is best connected to the brain. I cannot prove
this, but I believe that when you train your hands you
increase the link between the mind and the grip
muscles, and I also believe that this increase “carries
over” in some unknown way to heighten the link
between the brain and all other body parts and
muscle groups. In other words, by training your grip
you get stronger and better coordinated throughout
the entire body because you automatically increase
the link between the brain and the entire body.
Dr. Ken Leistner has noted this point in connection
with a discussion of grip strength, powerlifting and,
specifically, the use of lifting straps to help a man hold
onto a heavy barbell.
(THE STEEL TIP, Volume 1, Number 2, February,
19S5.) In Dr. Leistner's opinion, the lifting straps were
COUNTER-PRODUCTIVE because they caused a
diminished mind-muscle link as a result of taking the
hands out of the movement. He wrote:
“When I reached the point where I was using 350

pounds for 15 reps in the stiff legged deadlift while
standing on an elevated surface, I used straps,
rationalizing their use by telling myself that I wanted
to give my low back and hamstrings a good workout
without being limited by a lack of hand strength.
When I made the decision to forego the use of
straps and persevere until I could handle heavy
weights without them, I surpassed previous bests. In
fact, the entire exercise became much more intense
and my overall gains in strength and muscular size
were quite unexpected. Perhaps my level of
concentration was higher because I was so intent on
maintaining my grip on the barbell. As
neuroanatomists know, the area of the brain that
exerts control over the hand muscles has a much
higher representation relative to actual muscle size
than other muscle groups. Although it is strictly
conjecture, perhaps intense forearm/hand work
heightens neural stimulation for all muscles worked
during a particular movement. My experience has
shown that taking the time and energy to directly
stimulate the forearm musculature leads to
increased ability to handle heavy weights in many
exercises. ” 71
FOOTBALL, WRESTLING AND OTHER FORMS
OF COMBAT
Dinosaurs who play contact sports or who are
interested in self defense do grip work because a
powerful grip and thick, strong hands and fingers are
a tremendous asset in physical combat.
Imagine the advantage that a CRUSHING grip will
give to a wrestler or a football player.
Train your grip the right way and you can develop so
much power that you will literally terrify an opponent
when you grab him. And if you ever have a need to
defend yourself, remember this: you can hit much
harder and with far greater force if you have thick,
heavy hands. Making your hands and fingers hard,
heavy and solid lets you deliver one heck of a blow.
HOW TO DO IT
So how do you go about developing your grip? You
do it by training the forearms and grip progressively,
beginning with some of the less demanding grip
movements and gradually - as your muscles, tendons
and ligaments grow tougher - working up to the more
advanced movements. Plan on taking about one year
to build up to the advanced exercises.
Basic movements for serious grip training include: (1)
thick bar deadlifts with an overhand grip, for reps or
singles, (2) thick bar curls and reverse curls, for reps
or singles, (3) thick bar reverse curls, for reps or
singles, (4) “power holds” with a thick bar, (5) pinch
grip work - for singles and holds, (6) serious work
squeezing a rubber ball, (6) using a heavy duty plate
loading grip machine for reps, singles or holds, (7)
hammer curls with thick handled dumbbells (for reps
or singles), (8) timed hangs from a chinning bar - or,
better yet, from a 2” or 2 1/2” chinning bar, (9) using a
CAPTAINS OF CRUSH gripper, and (10) using a
TITAN'S TELEGRAPH KEY™.
THICK BAR DEADLIFTS
Thick bar deadlifts with an OVERHAND grip (NOT a
reversed grip!) are a very simple but enormously
effective exercise for the forearms and grip. David P.
Willoughby. who wrote for IRONMAN for decades and
who made an in-depth study of the upper limits of
human strength, once noted that the simple act of
doing deadlifts and curls with a bar that measured at
least 2” in diameter was the very best exercise a man
could do for his forearms and grip. I think Willoughby
may very well have been correct about this. Give thick
bar deadlifts a try and you'll see why.
A 2” or 2 1/2” bar will be about right for most guys,
although a man with extremely large hands might be
able to use a 3” bar. If you can handle 250 pounds for
one rep with a 2 1/2” diameter bar, you are not doing
badly. If you can handle 300 pounds on that bar, you
are developing a darn good grip and will have
forearm development to match. On a 3” bar, work up
to 250 pounds for a single rep and you'll be the proud
possessor of one of the strongest grips in town - no
matter where you live!
IRONMIND® ENTERPRISES sells ROLLING
THUNDER™, a revolving handle for one arm thick bar
deadlifts. This is a great training tool. The one arm
movement is a bit different from the two arm version
and usually allows you to use more weight on a
proportionate basis than does the two arm lift. Work
up to 200 pounds with the 2 1/2” handle and you'll
have a dam good grip.
CURLS AND REVERSE CURLS
Thick bar curls and reverse curls are easy to visualize.
After all, everyone knows how to do curls and reverse
curls. However, you will find that doing these
exercises with a thick bar is a
“whole new ball game” compared to the standard
movement with the traditional l” or l 1/16” bar.
Thick bar curls and reverse curls are great for the
biceps, but in addition, they build incredibly rugged
forearms and wrists. As noted above, Willoughby
thought the regular barbell curl with a thick handled
bar was one of the very best grip exercises a man
could do. (By the way, I understand that Willoughby
could reverse curl close to bodyweight in his prime as
a national champion in Olympic style lifting. A man
with that sort of power deserves a little respect, 72
even if he did lift before the days of metabolic
optimizers, herbal concoctions and branch chain
amino acids!)
Another oldtimer who felt the same way was Alan
Calvert, one of the “fathers” of modern weight training.
He particularly liked thick bar reverse curls. In his
classic text published in 1924, SUPER-STRENGTH,
Calvert wrote:
“One of the greatest tests of forearm strength is to
curl a thick bar with the over-grip. Once I bought a
round steel bar, about 3 1/2 feet long, and 2 ѕ
inches thick, which weighed 65 lbs ... Lots of lifters
who could do a back-hand curl easily with a thin-
handled 100-lb.
barbell utterly failed to do the same thing with the
thick 65 lb. bar. In order to curl the bar successfully,
it was necessary to have tremendous gripping power
in the hands and great strength in the muscles on
the outside of the forearm ... ” Shoot for poundages
like 150 in the curl (with either a 2” or 3” bar) and 100
to 120 pounds in the reverse curl with either a 2” or 3”
bar. To show you how tough these are, consider this: I
have done 185 pounds for five reps in good form in
the standing barbell curl with a heavy duty Eleiko easy
curl bar, but my top weight in the standing barbell curl
for only ONE rep is around 160 pounds when I use a
3” bar and 170 pounds with a 2 1/2” bar. Similarly, I
can reverse curl 150 or more with a regular Olympic
bar, but 90 or 100 will slop me with a thick bar.
POWER HOLDS
Power holds are simple to do. Use a power rack and
position your thick bar so it is an inch or two above
the knees, then deadlift it, stand up with the weight
and HOLD it for as long as you can. Of course, you
use an overhand grip on this - a reverse grip with one
hand facing forward and the other hand facing
backwards (the way a powerlifter typically holds a bar
for a maximum deadlift) would be way too easy. Be
sure to hold the bar rather than leaning back and
resting the weight on your upper thighs.
And don't use a grip that lets you jam your thumbs
against the thighs to keep you from letting go - keep
the hands on the outside of the thighs and use the
strength of your hands and fingers alone to hold the
bar. Try to work up to 200 pounds for one minute or
more, using a 2 1/2” bar.
PINCH GRIPPING
Pinch gripping is a great exercise for the forearms
and grip. The best way to do pinch gripping is with a
homemade pinch grip board. You can make one very
simply by using a 2 x 8 board that is between 3' and 5'
long. Hang a barbell from the board with chains or
rope, then pick it up with an overhand pinch grip.
using both hands at the same time. Do singles or
timed holds: both are very effective. Try to build up to
where you can do 180 or 200 pounds for one rep, or
hold 120 pounds for one minute.
You also can do these one arm at a time.
IRONMIND® ENTERPRISES sells a very nice one
hand pinch grip handle. Check it out.
SQUEEZING A RUBBER BALL
Serious work with a rubber ball can be a crippler. I
like to do the 10-60 system. Take a rubber ball and
squeeze it as hard as possible for 10 seconds, then
repeat with the other hand. Rest 30
seconds, then repeat the process with each hand, but
hold for 20 seconds this time. Rest 30
seconds, then repeat - but this time, squeeze the ball
for 30 seconds with each hand. Continue in that
fashion for a 40 second hold, a 50 second hold and a
60 second hold with each hand.
PLATE LOADING GRIP MACHINES
A plate loading grip machine is a great tool for grip
training. It can be used for reps, singles or timed
holds. One can work up to BIG poundages on a heavy
duty two-handled version. Kim Wood has told me
about visiting a gym in Chicago and seeing a grip
machine loaded several feet high with 25 pound
plates. Kim was told that Joe James, a former NCAA
heavyweight 73
wrestling champion, had been using the machine.
Imagine wrestling a man with a grip like that! Ouch!
HAMMER CURLS
Hammer curls with thick handled dumbbells will put
the finishing touches on the forearms and wrists. They
work the forearms from a different angle than most
other basic movements.
Try using 2” or 2 1/2” dumbbell handles - you can
make these yourself out of heavy steel pipe, cut to fit
over your regular set of 1” dumbbell rods. If you want a
treat, order your thick handled dumbbells from
IRONMIND® ENTERPRISES. They make two models
of thick handled dumbbells. One is for regular plates
and the other for Olympic plates. Work up to 60
or 70 pound dumbbells for 5 reps in good form in the
hammer curl, and your forearms will ache beyond
belief.
You also can try hammer curls with a Olympic barbell.
Or do a hammer curl and one arm press. The
leverage imposed by curling a 7' bar makes the
exercise a real killer. Kim Wood told me about this
exercise, so if you like it, drop Kim a note.
CAPTAINS OF CRUSH™ GRIPPERS
I never had any use for steel spring grippers until 1
encountered my first pair of CAPTAINS
OF CRUSH™ GRIPPERS sold by IRONMINU®
ENTERPRISES. There are five models to choose
from. The first is the Trainer model. It requires 95
pounds of pressure to close.
The No. 1 model defies the efforts of most strong men
who try to close it-It takes 140 pounds of pressure to
close the No. 1 gripper.
The No. 2 is even tougher - it requires a whopping
195 pounds pressure to close. This is a bear. Even a
man with a STRONG grip will have trouble with this
baby.
The No. 3 is a monster. It requires 280 pounds
pressure to close. To date, less than half a dozen men
have closed the No. 3 gripper under certified
conditions.
The No. 4 model was made as a sort of joke. It
requires 365 pounds pressure to close.
However at least one super strong grip-master, John
Brookfield, has managed to close the beast with his
strongest hand, while holding the gripper steady with
his other hand. (By the way, John has authored a
terrific book, MASTERY OF HAND STRENGTH,
which is available through IRONMIND®
ENTERPRISES. Do yourself a big favor and order a
copy TODAY!)
These little babies are inexpensive, well-built, and
loads of fun. If you are new to grip work, start with the
trainer and work your way up the ladder. Eventually
you will want to own and use at least the Trainer and
the No. 1 model - and for most dinosaurs, the No. 2
model is within reach if you are willing to work hard.
Once you can close the No. 2. you will want to buy the
No. 3 just to give it a try. However, the No. 4 is another
story, I'm not saying skip it, but I am saying that only a
Tyrannosaurus Rex is going to be able to do much
with it.
The nice thing about these grippers is that they are
STRONG. You can build STRENGTH
with them by doing low reps, just as if you were doing
low reps with a heavyweight in any standard barbell
exercise. These grippers are totally different from the
lightweight grippers that you can close 50 times or
more in succession. Give them a try.
The CAPTAINS OF CRUSH grippers are so tough
that you need to be extra careful when you use them,
especially if you work up to the No. 2 or No. 3. They
really work your hands and you will get painfully sore if
you overdo things. Equally important, you will LOSE
strength if you try to use them too often. These
grippers are not made to be used every day in casual
fashion. Treat them with the same sort of respect
commonly reserved for squats and deadlifts. Once or
twice a week - for a couple of sets of low reps - is
plenty!
TITAN'S TELEGRAPH KEY™
This is another unique piece of equipment sold by
IRONMIND® ENTERPRISES, and it is a beauty. This
is one of Greg Pickett's favorite pieces of equipment,
and I recently purchased one at Greg's urging. Boy,
am I glad I did it! TITAN'S TELEGRAPH KEY is just
the ticket for building dinosaur power into the thumb
and fingers.
74
TITAN'S TELEGRAPH KEY™ is a plate loading lever
machine. It looks like a very small, desk-size see-saw.
You put it on a desk or table, load one end with 20 or
30 pounds, and push down on the other end. You can
use one hand or two hands. You can work each finger
by itself or work any combination of fingers. You can
squeeze the unit “pinch grip” style, work the fingers in
a scissoring motion, or simply press down with one or
two fingers to elevate the weight. You can do reps,
singles or timed holds. The little monster has endless
possibilities.
One thing is certain, however – it builds
TREMENDOUS finger strength.
This is an excellent tool and comes with my highest
recommendation.
A BEGINNING PROGRAM FOR FUTURE GRIP-
MASTERS
When you start training your forearms and grip, pick
three or four of the basic movements and do one of
them in each of your exercise sessions. For example,
you might choose to do thick bar deadlifts for singles
one day, hammer curls another day, thick bar curls a
third day, and pinch grip holds the next time you train.
It's a good idea to mix up the type of movements you
do, working different parts of the forearms and hands,
using different pieces of equipment, and using
different rep schemes. But always be sure that the
sequence includes at least one heavy movement (like
the thick bar deadlift) that you do for singles. The
heavy singles will thicken your tendons and ligaments
like nothing else.
GLOVES, PADS. STRAPS AND HOOKS
It probably goes without saying, but I'll mention it
anyway: dinosaurs do NOT wear those goofy little
fingerless gloves when they train, nor do they pad
their bars with sponges or use straps or hooks to hold
onto the bar. Dinosaurs don't worry about developing
rough, calloused hands. If it is a major life goal to have
hands as soft as a baby's behind, forget about
dinosaur training.
One of my training partners, Ted Solinger, was
looking for a job recently, and because he has a
degree in a relatively narrow field, he was having a
tough time. So he visited an executive placement
agency here in Louisville. During his first interview
with the career counselors, he shook hands with one
of them and she was horrified by his calluses. “You'll
have to do something immediately to soften those
hands and make them feel smooth and gentle,” she
told him. “No one will ever hire you if they think you
have done manual labor, and that's exactly how your
hands feel!” Needless to say, Ted let THAT piece of
“good advice” sail in one ear and right out the other.
What a world we live in! What have we come to when
having thick, hard muscled, heavy hands is some sort
of liability?
But that's enough of a digression. In the next chapter,
I'll tell you more about dinosaur training for the
forearms and grip.
75
CHAPTER FOURTEEN: GRIP WORK, PART TWO
Is not life a hundred times too short
for us to bore ourselves?
ADVANCED GRIP EXERCISES
Advanced training for the forearms and grip involves
(1) additional work on the basic grip movements, (2)
increasing use of single rep training, (3) lever bar
movements for the forearms and wrists, (4) one and
two finger lifts to develop maximum power in the
fingers, (5) training the farmer's walk with heavy,
heavy dumbbells, (6) vertical bar lifts, (7) one arm
deadlifts, (8) wrist curls with thick handled barbells, (9)
the regular use of barrels, beams, kegs, rocks, logs,
heavy bags and other awkward, unwieldy objects in
your training routines, and (10) working the forearms
and grip with two to four different exercises in every
training session. One of the goals of advanced grip
training is to develop the hands, fingers, forearms and
wrists from all possible angles.
The basic exercises for the forearms and grip are an
important stepping stone to the advanced
movements. Several advanced movements are so
difficult that you would probably do nothing but hurt
yourself if you jumped right into them with no
preliminary training. One and two finger deadlifts are
a good example. Once you have toughened your
hands, fingers and forearms with plenty of thick bar
deadlifts and similar movements, you can try tackling
one and two finger deadlifts, and as long as you use a
reasonable degree of caution, the new movement will
work wonders for you. If you were to run out and try the
one or two finger deadlift without first devoting regular
attention to the basic grip movements, you probably
would do nothing but pull the tendons in your fingers.
The same is true of the thick bar wrist curl or lever lifts
- you need to train on the basics for a reasonable
period of time and work your way up to these ultra-
demanding movements.
CONTINUED USE OF BASIC GRIP EXERCISES
Let's review each of the foregoing points, starting with
the continued use of the basic movements. Even as
an advanced “grip master” you need to work hard on
the basic exercises for the forearms and grip. Why?
Because the basics help you build - and continue to
build -
the underlying base of strength and power which you
then can hone to a razor's edge with various
specialized movements (such as one or two finger
deadlifts, lever bar work, etc.). If you stopped doing
the basic grip movements, you would have a hard
time continuing to build significant levels of size and
strength into the fingers, forearms and wrists. Keep
doing the basics, but as you become advanced, start
to augment them with the more specialized
movements.
SINGLES FOR GRIP WORK
Why use single reps for advanced grip work?
Because singles (1) let you use the heaviest possible
weight on the bar, and (2) have the greatest possible
effect on your tendons and ligaments. Grip strength is
to a large degree connected to the strength of the
tendons and ligaments. If you want to develop hands
like iron claws, you need to train much more than your
muscles - you need to train your tendons and
ligaments. Singles are the way to train the tendons
and ligaments. They also place enormous demands
on your muscles, so rest assured that you will develop
PLENTY of muscle with single reps.
In my own case, the regular use of single rep grip
training has increased the size of my wrists from 7
1/2” to over 8” in a period of about 1 1/2 years. And
this was done at the ripe old age of 37, long past the
time when one would expect to see a significant
increase in the skeletal structure, particularly for a
man who could bench press over 400 pounds
BEFORE becoming a “grip fanatic.”
76
What caused the increase in wrist size? Most of it
was due to an increase in the size of the tendons and
ligaments that pass over the wrist. I also increased
the size of my forearms substantially during this
period, as a result of virtually nothing but heavy
singles. Yet there are hundreds of self proclaimed
“experts” who would be quick to tell you that the only
way to increase the size of the forearms is to pump
them up with many, many sets of high reps performed
with light poundages!
LEVER BAR MOVEMENTS
Lever bar movements are an essential part of
advanced grip training because they hit your wrists
harder than anything else you can do. To understand
the concept, think of a heavy sledge-hammer. Imagine
that you laid the hammer on the floor, then grabbed it
as far down on the handle as possible (i.e., as far
away from the iron hammer head as possible) - with
only one hand - and tried to raise it overhead with your
arm held as straight as possible and the hammer held
in line with the forearm. Can you imagine how difficult
that would be? The leverage would turn the 8 pound
hammer head into an enormous poundage. Indeed,
most people would not be able to budge the hammer
if they tried to lift it in the manner I have described.
You can use an actual sledge-hammer if you wish, or
you can make a lever bar out of any strong bar or
pipe. Try one that is about two feet long - and if
possible, use a thick handled bar. My training
partners and I use a lever bar with a 2” handle, and it
is sheer bloody torture to handle - even with only ten
pounds of plates at the end. (To “load” your lever bar,
you use heavy-duty collars to attach a five or ten
pound plate to one end of the bar.) Once you have
your lever bar put together the possibilities for its use
are endless. You can do the type of one arm leverage
lift I described earlier, or you can curl the bar and then
press it out to an “arms extended” position. You can
swing it overhead, then lower it slowly to an arms
extended position. You can do reps or singles. You
can try holding the bar in the extended position for as
long as possible. You can lift the bar with the palms
up, down or anywhere in-between. You can hold the
bar out and bend the wrist so you lever the bar back
to your shoulder, then lever it out to the extended
position again (bending only at the wrist, not at the
elbow - a hard movement with any amount of weight
on the bar). You can do wrist curls to all points of the
compass. You can rotate the bar in circles clockwise
or counterclockwise. Use your imagination - find
something you enjoy that makes your forearms burn
like the fires of Hell and your wrists feel like they are
about to snap.
ONE AND TWO FINGER LIFTS
One and two finger lifts are critical tools in the
development of maximum possible crushing power in
the hands. There are two excellent ways to train one
and two finger movements. The first is to do deadlifts
where you use a reversed grip - one hand facing
away from the body and the other facing toward the
body and use only the first finger on each hand, the
second finger on each hand, or the first two fingers on
each hand. You can do these with a regular, 2” or 2
1/2” bar. If you have enormous hands and very strong
fingers, you can try a 3” bar, but only a huge handed
Hercules could handle much weight in that fashion.
One and two finger deadlifts are a very brutal
exercise. They HURT! All of the stress is concentrated
on a couple of fingers, and the pain is really intense.
This is why you need to train the basic grip
movements before tackling this exercise. Also, the
one and two finger deadlifts are tremendously taxing
– so much so, that you should do them no more often
than every ten or fourteen days. If you overwork these
babies, you may pull a tendon in one of your fingers
for sure, and that sort of injury will set your grip training
back by at least a couple of months.
Once you get used to the movement, you will find you
can handle a pretty substantial poundage in one and
two fingered deadlifts. 1 like to do two fingered
deadlifts using the first two fingers of each hand with a
2 1/2” bar, and I have worked up to 300 pounds in this
fashion, as has my training partner, Bruce Bullock,
who has huge hands and enormously long and strong
fingers.
77
The one and two finger deadlifts are an important
exercise because they activate certain deeplying
tendons and muscles in the forearm - areas that
cannot be trained very well with more conventional
movements. You will notice that a session of one or
two finger deadlifts leaves you with a deep, “worked
to the bone” feeling in the center of the forearm. This
is because you have hit an area that you are not able
to train with other movements.
I said that there were two ways to train one and two
finger lifts. The most common method is what I have
just described – one and two finger deadlifts. But
there is another way, and 1
heartily recommend it to any and all dinosaurs.
IRONMIND® ENTERPRISES sells a terrific little
goodie called EAGLE LOOPS™. These are heavy
duty straps made out of nylon webbing. The straps
attach to the bar, leaving four “loops” - one for each
finger - to use to lift the bar. You can train all four
fingers together or you can train three fingers, two
fingers or one finger at a time. I like to train two finger
deadlifts with the EAGLE LOOPS™, using the first
two fingers of each hand. This is an incredibly painful
movement, but one that will turn your fingers into steel
claws in short order. You can handle BIG weights in
this movement –
Bruce Bullock and I both do two finger deadlifts with
450 pounds with the EAGLE
LOOPS™.
Another fun thing to do with the EAGLE LOOPS™ is
any sort of chinning exercise you happen to favor.
Hanging by your fingers while you are chinning is a
great exercise and will turn your hands into iron
hooks. Again, you can train all four fingers at a time,
or any combination of fingers. The EAGLE LOOPS™
are a GREAT tool for developing barbaric finger
strength. They belong in any dinosaur's basement
gym.
THE FARMER'S WALK
The farmer's walk is a terrific movement for advanced
men - and if your grip is strong enough to handle a
heavy poundage, the exercise will become an
excellent total body movement. It really works you from
head to toe when you use heavy weights. How do you
do the exercise?
It's simple. You just pick up two HEAVY dumbbells,
one in each hand, and WALK with them. Go as far or
as long as possible. Some men have developed the
ability to handle 100
pound dumbbells and walk for several hundred yards
with them - or walk for up to four minutes if they time
the movement instead of going for distance.
My training partners and I use a pair of 180 pound
steel I-beams with heavy iron handles welded onto
them - a pair of “toys” designed by Dr. Ken Leistner
and given by him to Kim Wood, who later gave them
to me. Walking with these monsters is no easy task!
Here is a contemporaneous account of the first time
we decided to “go for broke” with the “steel
suitcases.”
******
February 26,1995
Hail to the Dinosaurs:
We had a great workout yesterday. Ted had been to a
wild bachelor's party the night before -
there were 40 guys, two hookers, a fistfight that sent
one guy to the hospital and untold quantities of booze
... Ted drank only 1/4 as much as the rest of the guys
and still threw up four times ... he got to train his grip
by pulling one drunk guy off of another one ... they had
gotten into a fight (probably over the hookers) and the
big one had the little one locked into some kind of
death grip strangle hold, and Ted saved the little guy's
life by loosening the death grip finger by finger ... all in
all, one wild party ... God, I am glad I am too OLD for
that sort of “fun”!
Anyhow. Ted was hung over and hurting and got 375
in the trap bar dead lift, then missed 406 miserably –
as in, couldn't even budge the bar. He looked pretty
blue. Sam and Spenser (my golden retrievers)
watched carefully for signs of his demise. We have a
standing deal that they get to bury anyone who dies in
THE DUNGEON ....
“Do you want to do anything else?” I asked.
“Yeah—ok—maybe something for the grip,” said Ted.
78
I turned to Bruce and whispered “How would you like
to take the steel suitcases for a walk?”
“Cool,” he answered.
Ted saw us pick up the steel suitcases (one each)
and start up the stairs with them.
“Where are you going?” he asked. He looked really
pale.
“Outside. Come on.”
We lugged the monstrous 180 pound I-beams up the
stairs, across the yard and through the back gate,
then put them down. They stood defiantly on our west
sidewalk.
“Now what?” asked Ted.
“We pick them up and carry them for as far as
possible. Both at the same time, of course. You go
first.”
Ted turned blue. He knew he was in for it. Bruce
calmly chalked his hands, waiting patiently for HIS
turn, Sam and Spenser sat by the gate, grinning in
anticipation.
Ted deadlifted the things and took a staggering step
forward - then another - then his eyes bulged out of his
head, his lips curled in a scream of pain that stuck in
his throat, and he lurched forward one – two – three –
five - ten more steps until the suitcases crashed to the
ground and he stood there gasping and wheezing, his
fingers clenched and immobile like the granite claws
of a grinning gargoyle. He had managed 15 or 20
feet.
“What a workout.” he gasped.
Sam and Spenser grinned and cheered. The sounds
of pain, torture and agony are music to their ears.
Spenser was already digging a hole to bury Ted.
Bruce walked over, set himself, picked the monsters
up (the suitcases, not Sam and Spenser) and took off
down the sidewalk.
He strode purposefully but deliberately until he
reached the north end of our property, carefully turned,
reversed direction, and made it back to where Ted
had deposited the suitcases. He lowered them to the
ground and crashed to his knees.
“That's incredible,” he gasped.
“Fun, isn't it?” I asked.
“It's – so - incredible ... when you finally put them down
- it's like this huge weight is suddenly taken off of your
back ... you feel like you could fly....” The poor guy was
hallucinating, which was hardly surprising. After all, he
had carried the things 90 or 100 feet.
Ted lay moaning in the grass. Bruce was still down on
one knee. Sam and Spenser licked their chops. The
neighbors hid inside their houses and drew the blinds.
I chalked up, tightened my belt, got set and pulled the
monsters off the ground - then walked off with them.
The load was incredible - pressing down like a ton –
my arms were screaming, my traps and upper back
were in agony, my heart was going a mile a minute,
my fingers were numb, my thumbs felt like they were
being flayed, my hips arid low back were shouting in
protest and my legs and feet were operating entirely
on their own, with no conscious link to my brain.
Somehow I made it to the far property line to the south
- about 100 feet. I was ready to die.
I put the suitcases down. Instantly there was a “lighter
than air” feeling - the same rush that Bruce had
gaspingly described.
“Dig a hole for dad,” said Sam.
Spenser started digging.
“I'm gonna be sick,” moaned Ted.
“Do your next set first,” I told him.
He picked them up and stumbled down the sidewalk.
Twenty – thirty – forty - he probably made fifty feet this
time, then collapsed in a heap.
Bruce went next. He made 120 or 130 feet.
Then I went again. I managed the whole length of the
property line. How far? Who knows.
We paced it off later - it was around 150 feet.
Sam and Spenser continued to grin.
All told, we each lugged the things as far as possible
5 times. I managed the entire property line on each of
my last four carries, Bruce managed just a bit less
and Ted managed 50 feet or so each of his final four
tries.
When it was over. we were DEAD. As in totally fried.
79
“What do those work?” asked Ted.
“Everything,” I answered.
“They trigger the GROW OR DIE response.” said
Brace. “You either grow bigger and stronger or you
die, one or the other. The suitcases don't care which it
is.”
******
A month or two later we did something even crazier.
We took the steel suitcases for a half mile walk. Ted
took them first, and carried the monsters as far as
possible. Then Bruce took them as far as he could go.
Then I followed suit. We alternated back and fourth
until we had carried the things back and fourth along
the sidewalk on the side of my house - a distance we
had paced and computed to equal at least 880 yards
(half a mile) if we walked it 20 times. By the time we
were done, Bruce and Ted had cut their hands to
ribbons and mine were about one lift away from
breaking open. We were covered in sweat and had
trouble even standing up. It took around an hour
before any of us felt like moving. Our workouts for the
next week or so were slow and sluggish - but then we
all made BIG jumps on various movements. The
incredible training session worked us so hard that it
took around 10 days to fully recover, but once we did,
we came back stronger than ever.
NOW A WORD OF CAUTION! (Pay attention).
Walking with steel suitcases is DANGEROUS. So is
walking with heavy dumbbells. A much safer
alternative - and one that works just as well - is to
make two heavy sandbags, attach heavy rope or
heavy straps for
“handles” and use those for the farmer's walk. If you
drop a 200 pound dumbbell or a 180
pound steel suitcase on your foot, you are in
SERIOUS trouble. Drop a 200 pound sandbag on
your foot and you'll be sore, but you won't be maimed.
Sore is part of life, maimed is a problem. Give the
sandbags serious consideration.
VERTICAL BAR LIFTS
Vertical bar lifts are a great exercise for the grip, the
fingers, the wrists and the forearms.
They are simple to do. You need to use a bar that has
a heavy duty collar attached to one end (or a collar or
cross piece welded on). You can use a regular size
bar or a thick handled bar. I use a 2” bar for this
movement. Simply load the bar in a vertical position,
then stand over it with your feet to the sides and well
out of the way, and do a one arm “deadlift” with the
bar.
Brace the non-lifting arm against the thigh or knee to
avoid twisting your lower back.
You'll find that this one really works you hard, because
the bar has a tendency to rotate as you lift it. You need
a very strong wrist to counter the rotation as you lift the
bar. Do either timed holds or singles. Bruce and I
have handled 200 pounds in this movement with a 2”
bar.
ONE ARM DEADLIFTS
One arm deadlifts are another terrific movement for
the grip. Like the farmer's walk, they become a total
body movement once you get up to a substantial
poundage. Three hundred pounds will work the entire
body quite thoroughly. In fact, your traps and lats will
get more work from this movement than from almost
anything else you can do. (The traps and lats act as
stabilizers on the one arm deadlift. If you think
handling a 150 pound dumbbell in the one arm row is
tough, you won't believe what 300 or 400 pounds
feels like when you hold it in one hand and the lats
have to work like the devil to “lock” the upper back
and hold everything in the proper position.)
I like to do one arm deadlifts with a cambered bar. A
straight bar is extremely hard to balance.
You can handle quite a bit more weight with a
cambered bar, and thus, get a much better workout.
You also can make a special short bar (3' or 4' long)
with a kettle-bell handle attached in the center. This is
inexpensive and very effective. If you prefer a
cambered bar, try one of the BUFFALO BARS™ sold
by IRONM1ND® ENTERPRISES. These are terrific
bars.
To perform the one arm deadlift, straddle the bar.
Assume a deadlift position and brace the non-lifting
hand on the knee. Grab the bar in the center - you'll
probably have to measure and 80
mark the exact center - and get “tight.” You have to be
very careful to avoid wrenching the lower back when
you do one arm lifts, and if you don't stay “tight”
through the entire movement, you are inviting an injury.
To complete the lift, simply drive up as though you
were doing a deadlift, raising the bar until it is just
above your knees. Pause for a second, then lower the
bar.
Only raise the bar to a height just above your knees! If
you go higher, you completely straighten the non-lifting
hand and it no longer braces against the knee -
thereby exposing your lower back to injury.
Only do singles on the one arm deadlift. Balance and
positioning are so critical to this movement that you
have to do singles. If you tried to do multiple reps you
would not be able to find the correct starting position
after the first rep and you would probably twist your
back and hurt yourself.
As I noted in the previous chapter, you also can do
one arm deadlifts with special handles.
IRONMIND® ENTERPRISES has a beauty of a
deadlift handle called ROLLING
THUNDER™. It is much easier to do one arm
deadlifts with a handle than with a barbell, because
you don't have to worry about balance. Also, with a
deadlift handle you can get into thick handled
movements. The ROLLING THUNDER handle will
give your grip a real workout. However, you won't
work the lats and upper back as hard as with the
barbell version. The best bet is to include BOTH
variations in your arsenal of exercises.
How high you go on the one arm deadlift is up to you.
If you have a strong grip, lots of motivation and plenty
of good old fashioned courage, you can go pretty
high. With a barbell, three hundred pounds is just the
starting point for a strong man. Four hundred is
definitely within reach if you work hard, particularly if
you use the kettlebell handle.
Another variation of the one arm deadlift is to use a
barbell and do the exercise standing to the side of the
bar (as if you were lifting a suitcase). This is TOUGH!
Balance is extremely tricky. I learned about this
exercise from Osmo Kiiha, who said that anyone who
could handle 200 pounds in this movement on a
regular Olympic bar was doing pretty well. Osmo says
that Edward Aston, a tremendously strong English
lifter at the turn of the century, once lifted a 250 pound
bar in each hand in this fashion and then WALKED
around a large pool table with the weights. What a
tremendous feat! (By the way, Bill Hinbern is
preparing a reprint of an old grip course by Aston, as
well as old grip courses by George F. Jowett and
Thomas Inch -
all of which sound like long lost treasure to THIS
dinosaur.)
THICK BAR WRIST CURLS
Wrist curls with a thick handled bar are a good
movement for advanced men. I absolutely loathe the
high rep, baby weight nonsense most guys do when
they train wrist curls. Heavy, thick bar singles in the
wrist curl are an entirely different story. They are a
devastating movement for the wrists and forearms. In
fact, they hit the wrist so hard that you need to treat
them with EXTREME caution. I list them as an
advanced movement so that you can build a good
base with other grip exercises before giving them a
try. Once you get into them, though, you can start
working up to some significant poundages.
SOME SPECIAL GOODIES
Advanced grip work for dinosaurs involves plenty of
heavy, awkwardly shaped objects, such as beams,
heavy bags, barrels and logs. No matter how hard you
train your grip, you need to add some heavy bags,
barrels, logs or what have you to your workouts. It
doesn't really matter what you use, what it weighs or
what you do with it. Anything you do with a heavy bag,
barrel, or log is going to work your grip in ways that
nothing else can even approach.
In his classic course, MOLDING A MIGHTY GRIP,
George F. Jowett stated, “As I have remarked in this
book, barrel lifting was very popular with the old-time
strength athletes.” He added: “For developing the
fingers, hands, wrists and arms, there is nothing any
better.”
“Apart from this,” Jowett added “barrel lifting is great
for general body building.” Jowett concluded his
discussion of barrel lifting with the following words: 81
“In conclusion, let me say. do not neglect any of

these exercises or omit them from your training
schedule. They will repay you more quickly than any
other form of grip exercise, with the exception of
block weight and kettle bell juggling, which is nothing
more or less than a contributory variation of what I
have explained here. Barrel stunting is beyond a
doubt the supreme test of your grip strength. It will
build it for you to a marvelous degree. The power of
your fingers, the forcep power of the thumb, the
strength of the hands, wrists and forearms will
increase almost from your first practice period. You
will indeed get that grip of steel which we all so much
admire and desire. Practice on these exercises will
develop the forearm muscles which would not
respond to any other form of exercise. From
shoulder to finger tips you will be the proud owner of
a mighty arm and will have in each hand the vice-
like crushing grip of a steel bear-trap. It is not
impossible. It is simply up to you - now you have
been shown how... ”
So get yourself an old 15.5 gallon barrel or a beer
keg. Fill it with water, sand, lead shot or anything you
like. A 15.5 gallon barrel or beer keg will weigh
around 165 pounds when filled with water, 210
pounds when filled with sand, and 270 pounds when
you fill it first with sand and then add as much water
as possible. Start with 120-160 pounds. Be
conservative - this is going to be MUCH more
challenging than you imagine. Then lift the thing.
Clean it if you can. Press it if you are able. Deadlift it.
Walk with it. Curl it. Wrestle it. Bearhug the monster.
Do singles or do reps. Anything you do with that big
animal is going to work the devil out of your fingers,
wrists and forearms. And you don't need to go real
heavy either. Handling a 100
pound barrel or keg is no easy task. A 150-pounder is
murder.
A man who can bench press 400 pounds or more is
going to find it EXTREMELY difficult to clean and
press a 150 pound barrel. I speak from personal
experience in this regard. The first time I ever lifted a
barrel was at Dick Connors' great gym in Evansville,
Indiana - THE PIT. I had finished a bench press
session where I worked up to 435 pounds from the
chest for a single rep (using a bench shirt - something
I used to use but no longer use or recommend).
Then I tackled the 150 pound barrel, and, at Dick's
urging, tried three reps in the clean and press, doing
the reps consecutively (i.e., without lowering the barrel
to the floor between reps), I managed two and a half,
missing the clean on rep number three, and I was
gasping for air like I had completed a ten mile run with
a large anvil strapped on my back. The barrel was
less than half of what I had bench pressed a few
minutes earlier, but it almost killed me.
Barrel lifting is brutal!
Sandbags are as bad as barrels. Again, you don't
need a huge poundage. 100 pounds will work the
heck out of even a strong dinosaur, and 150 pounds
will humble almost anyone. If you can lift a 200 pound
sandbag overhead, you are pretty good. If you can lift
a 250 pound bag to your shoulder, you are pretty
strong. Do whatever seems to be the thing to do. With
a lighter bag, try some upright rowing, high pulls,
cleans, snatches or curls. With a heavier bag, wrestle
the thing to your shoulders and push it over head, or
just bearhug it and walk as far as you can before you
drop. Bearhugging a heavy bag is a very unique
exercise - you have to crush the bag against your
chest (using the biceps and the chest muscles in a
way you never duplicate with regular equipment) - and
you have to fight the downward pull of the weight with
your shoulders and back - and your grip is working
overtime just to hold onto the thing.
Another “fun” thing to do is to pick up a heavy bag and
carry it with the arms hanging straight down (as
though you were in the completed position of a
deadlift). With 100 or 150 pounds, this becomes a
very difficult movement almost immediately, and after
50 feet or so your fingers and forearms will be
screaming for mercy.
For grip work, sandbag curls reign supreme. If you
think you have strong arms, try curling a 100 to 130
pound sandbag. You won't believe the difference
between curling a 130 pound barbell and a 130
pound bag of sand.
You also can do a static “hold” in the top position or
mid-point of a “curl” with a sandbag, a log, a barrel or
any similar object. In the August, 1986 issue of THE
STEEL TIP (Volume 2, Number 8) Dr. Ken Leistner
described a terrific biceps and forearm blaster using
a 90 pound anvil:
“To really give that finishing touch to the flexors of

the forearms, we use our ninety pound anvil and
bring it to a half or three quarter curl position. The
trainee then holds that 82
contraction for thirty seconds, trying to squeeze the

anvil higher and higher as his strength wanes and
gravity threatens to bring the anvil onto his feet.
Three “sets” of this are done, although each
subsequent hold is done at a lower position than the
preceding one, an unavoidable consequence of
fatigue. ”
My training partners and I use sandbags, barrels or
one of our 180 pound I-beams to do this exercise,
and believe me, it is a tremendously tough movement
- one that would make being drawn and quartered
seem like an act of charity by comparison. Don't
blame me if this one almost kills you, blame Dr.
Leistner.
INCREASING THE NUMBER OF GRIP
MOVEMENTS
The final way in which advanced grip work differs from
basic grip work is that you do two, three or even four
grip movements in every training session you do.
When you are starting on grip work, this amount of
training would be way too much. For an advanced
grip man, however, it is mandatory. Why? Because
you are training so many different facets of the
fingers, hands, wrists and forearms. The specialized
movements that an advanced man needs to do - such
as one and two finger deadlifts - have to be done
together with the basic movements that work more of
the total forearm - such as deadlifting with a thick bar
or doing thick bar power holds.
In practice, you will do one type of deadlifting
movement, one specialized movement for the wrists
or fingers, a curling movement (regular curls, reverse
curls or hammer curls) and one other movement of
your choice. You can do different movements every
time you train. The idea is to develop maximum
possible strength in every single finger, in your
thumbs, in your wrists, and throughout your forearms -
so that you are ferociously strong at crushing and
gripping movements, at curling movements, at timed
holds, at leverage bar movements and at every other
exercise you would ever do for the forearms, wrists
and grip.
Think of all the different ways you can move your
fingers – up, down, left, right, clockwise,
counterclockwise. Now do the same for your wrists -
they too move up, down, left, right, clockwise and
counterclockwise. Next, consider your thumb. How
does your thumb move? It moves up, down, left, right,
clockwise and counterclockwise. What about
forearms? How many different ways can you hold your
forearms when you do curls - supinated, pronated,
gooseneck, thumbs up. How many different sized
handles can you use when you train your gripping
muscles? You can do pinch grip work with weights
attached to a silver dollar or you can use a handle 3”
thick, and you can work the entire range in-between.
You can do singles, reps or timed holds on virtually
any grip exercise. There is an almost infinite variety of
exercises you can do for your forearms, wrists, hands
and fingers. Including three or four of them in each
training session is NOT going to overdo it.
Arthur Jones once noted (and I am paraphrasing him,
but this is pretty close): “If all of the muscles of the
hands, fingers and forearms were developed to their
maximum potential, the strength of the hands and
fingers would literally defy belief.” For dinosaurs, that
idea is a motto to train by. Your goal as a dinosaur is
very simple: train your hands, forearms, wrists and
grip incredibly hard for a number of years – develop
all of the muscle groups to their absolute maximum -
and build a grip that will literally stun anyone you meet.
Turn your hands into steel pincers. Develop a grip like
a vise. Build the strength of your hands, fingers,
forearms and wrists to the point where they defy the
imagination.
I invent nothing. I rediscover.
~August Rodin
There is no purpose in living when there is nothing
to do.
83
CHAPTER FIFTEEN: LOGS, BARRELS AND
HEAVY BAGS
That which does not destroy me makes me stronger.
Dinosaurs know that heavy barbells, effective as they
are, are only the starting point when it comes to
serious, heavy duty training equipment. To become a
true dinosaur you must do more than lift a nicely
balanced Olympic barbell. You even have to go further
than handling a non-revolving thick handled bar. You
have to expand your training to include logs, barrels
and heavy bags. (Especially heavy barrels and bags.)
Wait a minute - don't run away.
You read it correctly. I DID say you need to train with
logs, barrels and heavy bags. And you DO! Nothing
else will give you the type of deep down strength and
power that you will develop by lifting large, bulky, odd
shaped, awkward and difficult to manage heavy
objects.
A barbell cannot approach a heavy barrel or a heavy
sandbag when it comes to developing the type of
rugged power that is required in any form of physical
combat or contact sport. It is too easy to control a
barbell. You need to supplement your barbell work
with heavy objects that cannot be controlled no matter
how you try - objects that by their very nature never fall
into any sort of lifting groove. Objects you have to
manhandle by sheer power. Things you have to
wrestle off the ground and up to your shoulders.
HOW TO BUILD REAL STRENGTH
No one can doubt that barbells build tremendous
strength and power. Nevertheless, there is an extra
edge to be gained from lifting heavy, awkward
objects. Doing so builds all around strength and
power, and as Hackenschmidt once noted, “real
strength is all around strength.” An excellent analysis
of this point appears in a letter to the editor published
in the “Reader's Round-Up” of the April-May, 1955
issue of IRON MAN (Vol. 14. No. 6). The author was
famous strongman John Wooten, who described his
training program in detail and then commented on the
tremendous strength of arm wrestling champion and
strongman, Mac Batchelor. Study this letter well: it
contains the essence of dinosaur training:
“... I started out on a strength routine, really piling on

the poundage in the following exercises: (1) Two
hands deadlift, favorite exercise of Goerner; (2) Walk
with weight, favorite exercise of Milo of Crotona; (3)
Carry bar in dead lift position, favorite exercise of
Arthur Giroux; (4) Bent Presses, favorite exercise of
Saxon; (5) Reverse Continental and jerk from
behind neck, favorite exercise of Saxon. I usually
did several sets of bench presses before my routine.
I believe that these and similar exercises build
REAL strength, and not just the ability to lift barbells
…”
“You wrote in the last IRON MAN about whether Mac
could put down the arms of the “old timers.” Well,
Mac is an old timer himself, only living today, and
that's why he can handle the modern weightlifters.
You just don't build real hand and forearm power
doing the three lifts or bodybuilding. Mac lifts
barrels, bends, twists things and does all the old
time feats which are not popular today. ”
A similar philosophy is espoused in a terrific little
course on barrel lifting authored by Steve Justa and
sold by Ironmind. It’s a dandy.
In his course, Justa asks “what is the hardest kind of
weight to lift?” His answer is “an awkward bulk weight
is hardest.” Why? Because “it places extreme stress
on the muscles from the severest angles which criss-
cross the frame and automatically ties in all the big
powerful muscles the fastest and stimulates all the
small stabilizer muscles at the same time.” That
simple statement is worth its weight in gold. It gives
you something priceless: a forgotten key to strength
and power.
If you still think I'm nuts, go back to chapter 14 and re-
read George F. Jowett's opinion about the value of
barrel lifting. Then consider Dr. Leistner's opinion: 84
“It would be very beneficial for any competitive

athlete to obtain an anvil, or a keg that could be
filled to various levels with scrap iron, nuts, bolts, or
anything else you want to fill it with.
Lifting it in various positions will greatly add to one's
upper and lower body strength. … Mr.
Steve Justa ... sells a barrel lifting course ... that is
absolutely fantastic. It isn't fancy, but it provides the
reader with an organized routine for lifting barrels or
kegs in a way that will build tremendous bodily
power. His is the stuff that real strength training is
about, the type of truly hard, “bust butt” regimen that
could boost the power of any lifter or athlete, I highly
recommend it ...” [THE STEEL TIP, Vol. l, No. 12,
December, 1985.]
AN EXPERIMENT
There is an easy way to prove to yourself the special
benefits of lifting heavy, awkward, bulky objects. Do
this. Train extra hard for a couple of months with
barbells and dumbbells.
Get into really good shape. Whip yourself into top-
notch condition. When you think you are ready, go out
and buy two Army surplus duffel bags. They ought to
run around $15.00 each, so don't try to weasel out of
things by saying the experiment is too expensive.
Most guys pay that much every week for a worthless
can of metabolic optimizer or a bottle of idiot herbs.
Then buy six 50 pound bags of sand. The total for the
sand will be around $20.00. Once again, cost is not
going to be used as an excuse - right?!
Empty three of the bags of sand into one of the duffel
bags, so you end up with a 150 pound sandbag.
Empty two of the bags in the other duffel bag. Save
the third bag of sand for the next part of the
experiment. Do some stretching and light
calisthenics, then clean and press the 100
pound sandbag. Just do it once. Rest awhile, then
clean and press the 150 pound bag. If you can't lift it,
go back to the 100 pound bag. Do a total of five
singles in the clean and press with either the 150 or
the 100 pound bag. If 100 pounds is too light, but 150
is too heavy, toss a 25
pound plate into the 100 pound bag and try 125
pounds. (Be sure you bury it in the center of the sand
so it won't slide as you lift the bag.)
Then bear hug the 150 pound bag and walk as far as
you can with it. Keep going until it literally falls out of
your hands. And work HARD! I want you to keep
moving until the bag falls out of your hands or you fall
face forward on the sidewalk, whichever occurs first.
Rest a few minutes, and then repeat the exercise. Do
this a total of five times.
Go back to your 100 pound sandbag and deadlift it off
the ground, then, holding the bag by the sides with the
thumbs up, do a “hammer” curl. If you can do reps, do
as many reps as possible. If you cannot do reps, do
five singles.
Now load the 100 pound sandbag to 150 pounds.
Pick up BOTH of the 150 pound sandbags as though
they were suitcases and walk with them - one in each
hand. (Army surplus duffel bags usually come with
thick canvas handles; if yours do not, use rope to
make “handles”).
Don't drag them. CARRY THEM! Walk as far as
possible with your 150 pound “suitcases.” If 150 is too
much for you, try 100 pounds in each bag.
Alternatively, hold one bag in the finish position of the
deadlift and walk as far as possible with it. Repeat
this for a total of five times. And go a good distance
each time - no wimping out on me, ok?
Next, try deadlifting one of the 150 pound sandbags
for one set of as many reps as possible.
Do the reps continuously for as long as you can, then
put the bag down and use a brief pause between reps
to force out more and more reps. Try to do a total of at
least 50 reps. Be sure to use good lifting form and
bend the legs, keeping the hips low and the back flat.
You don't want to hurt yourself on these babies, and
believe me, it's easy to do if you neglect good lifting
mechanics.
To finish your workout, lift the 150 pound sandbag and
walk as far as possible with the bag on your right
shoulder. Rest a minute or two, then lift it onto the left
shoulder and make the return trip. And make each
effort a long, hard hike - this is your last exercise, so
MAKE IT
COUNT!
The foregoing workout may well take over two hours
to complete, particularly if you train with a partner or
two and you “compete” to see who can go the furthest
or do the most reps.
Don't try to rush through the session - make it a
strength session, not a conditioning session.
You'll get plenty of conditioning in any event, but train
at a reasonable pace so you can make 85
a hard, serious, intense effort strength-wise on each
and every set you do. We want to work your muscles,
ligaments and tendons as hard as possible.
By the way, don't make the mistake of eating a heavy
meal before the sandbag workout. In fact, don't eat
anything for a couple of hours before the session. This
is a TOUGH schedule.
Try it on anything approaching a full stomach and
you'll be tossing your cookies after only one or two
tries at “bear hug and walk.”
Think I'm kidding? Guys, very few men will be able to
make it through the entire schedule I listed above.
Most guys will be wiped out before they are halfway
through. That's fine - it's part of the educational
process. Remember, this is an experiment. We're
trying to teach you something.
THE NEXT DAY
Regardless of whether you make it all the way through
the scheduled workout or only part of the way, the
results the next morning will astonish you. Remember
how you thought you were
“in shape?” Remember how you thought you were in
rugged, well-honed condition? Then how can one
hard session with the sandbags make you so horribly
sore that you have trouble getting out of bed? Why are
your arms and traps aching as though you had spent
the entire day doing cleans, curls and upright rows?
Why are your lats as sore and swollen as though you
had done five dozen sets of chins? Why do your
fingers refuse to function normally?
Why is your stomach so sore? Your lower back? Your
hips? Your legs? Why do you feel like you've been
flattened by a steam-roller? Why are you stiff and sore
in all kinds of places that
“never” got stiff and sore from your regular training
sessions?
STABILIZERS: THE KEY TO TOTAL STRENGTH
Congratulations. You have demonstrated the
remarkable benefits of training with heavy bags or any
similar objects. You feel as sore as you do because
the bags worked your body in ways you could not
approach with a barbell alone. You got into muscle
areas you normally don't work. You worked the heck
out of the “stabilizers.”
What are stabilizers? They are small muscle groups
that work isometrically to hold your body in a certain
position while other muscle groups are causing
movement to occur. The upper and lower back, the
waist and the hips are tied together by intricate
patterns of interlocking stabilizers. You can't work
these muscle groups to their maximum with ordinary
exercises -
you need to activate them by training with heavy,
awkward objects.
To understand what stabilizers are, picture the
following. Imagine that you are standing underneath a
goalpost on a football field. Suspended from the
goalpost is a thick rope, and attached to the rope is a
heavy sandbag that weighs 200 pounds. Put your
hands on the bag and slowly move forward so that the
rope is extended taut, at an angle, and the bag is at
chest height. Lean into the bag a little and do a
standing incline press with it. You will find that the
movement is incredibly difficult. Why? Because you
not only have to lift the bag, but in addition, you have
to use your body to create the incline bench! You have
to brace yourself as solidly and tightly as possible in
order to approximate the type of support the bench
would provide. If you relax for just a fraction of a
second, or if you get just a fraction of an inch out of
position, the sandbag will knock you flat on your butt.
What muscles provide the support and “bracing” for
this movement? The stabilizers.
The stabilizers are extremely important for athletes
and those who are involved in hand-to-hand combat,
A wrestling opponent or an opposing lineman doesn't
stand still and let you loss him around like you toss a
barbell around. He works against you. He makes you
move from awkward angles and unbalanced
positions. He makes you push or pull with your arms
extended at different lengths. He makes you twist and
pull instead of simply pulling. He makes you drop and
push up instead of pushing forward. He makes you
drive from an uneven stance, rise with a rounded back
and work simultaneously in multiple planes of motion.
And everything you push or pull against will be
unbalanced and uneven, fluid and dynamic.
A barbell won't approximate a football or wrestling
opponent. A 150 pound sandbag comes much closer.
What's a 150 pound barbell press? Nothing, right? A
warmup weight - one you 86
could do with your eyes closed and repeat all night or
until boredom got the better of you.
Heck, many dinosaurs can do strict curls with 150
pounds! But take that same 150 pounds and package
it as a loosely packed bag of sand or a barrel 2/3 full
of water and things are entirely different. You cannot
merely “lift” the bag of sand. You have to press it
together to keep it from shifting. And even then, the
thing still won't balance worth a darn. The bag of sand
is almost as uncooperative as a human opponent.
Compared to a bag of sand, a barbell virtually lifts
itself. And the barrel is even worse, A partially filled
barrel is almost impossible to balance. It moves like
quicksilver. Compared to a barbell, a partially filled
barrel is ALIVE.
Sandbags, barrels and similar objects - large, heavy,
awkward, unbalanced objects - are terrific for the grip,
forearms, wrists and fingers. They give your hands a
tremendous workout just from trying to hold onto them.
If all you ever did for your grip was lift heavy barrels or
heavy sandbags once or twice a week, you would
develop ferocious crushing power in no time at all.
Together with the grip movements detailed in
chapters 13 and 14, lifting heavy objects will help you
develop a grip that is literally herculean. (Remember
what George F.
Jowett said about barrel lifting!)
ROUND BACK LIFTING
One of the reasons why lifting bags and barrels is so
productive is that you lift these objects with a round
back. Why is that important? Because round back
lifting is one of the lost secrets of total strength.
One of the very few modern writers to even mention
round back lifting is John P. Jesse. On page 82 of his
classic text, WRESTLING PHYSICAL
CONDITIONING ENCYCLOPEDIA, Jesse discusses
various forms of progressive resistance exercise
used by old time Indian wrestlers: the use of heavy
sandbags, circular stone dumbbells, heavy stone balls
to lift to the shoulders and stone ''wheels” to hang from
the neck while the exerciser ran, climbed stairs or did
deep knee bends. Jesse noted:
“The important point for the reader to note is that all

these forms of strength training were done with a
round back with emphasis … placed on
development of great strength in the lower back and
side muscles. None of them were carried out with the
straight back lifting philosophy of today which
assumes that round back lifting will bring on back
problems. How often does anyone observe a
wrestler in competition lift or turn an opponent over
with a straight back? [pp, 82-83]”
On pages 203-04 of the same text, Jesse added the
following commentary:
“Sandbags, rice bales, sacks loaded with hemp or

copra; heavy stones and war clubs were used for the
development of strength by wrestlers of many
nations for several hundred years, long before the
invention of the iron barbell. The heavier sandbags,
rice bales, stones and sacks of hemp or copra
weighing 80 to over 200 pounds were used to
develop strength in the lower back, hip and leg
muscles.
The use of heavy sandbags and their large
circumference forces the lifter to do his lifting with a
round back instead of the traditional straight
backlifting with a barbell. It is this type of lifting that
truly develops a strong back... ” Jesse's insight is a
keen one. To prove its validity, all you have to do is
spend a couple of months using heavy sandbags and
heavy barrels as a regular part of your heavy training.
You will find that the bags and barrels substantially
increase your back strength, with a resulting carry-
over to all conventional barbell movements and all
athletic endeavors.
If you are an athlete - particularly a wrestler or football
player - round back lifting will build your back in
exactly the manner it needs to be developed to battle
a human opponent on the mat or on the playing field.
PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER
Working with bags, barrels, logs, beams and similar
objects builds an incredible ruggedness throughout
the entire physique. Your entire body becomes more
athletic, better balanced, more coordinated, and far,
far stronger. Your back and grip in particular will
receive extreme benefit. Your body will be totally
different from that of a narcissistic pump artist or sun-
87
bronzed toner. Your body will become fully functional
from head to toe. You will be a lifting machine in the
purest, most all-encompassing sense.
Don't pass up the opportunity to create a body that is
radically different from the type of body that you can
develop with barbells alone. Don't skip the bags,
barrels, logs and beams just because using them in
your training seems radically different from
conventional training.
Don't worry about anything others might say or think.
Leave the rest of the world to go on its own merry way
– it always does in any event. Training with bags,
barrels, logs and beams can help you add the
finishing touches to the powerful, superbly muscled
physique that you will develop from dinosaur training.
It will make you STRONG in ways that those who
merely
“lift weights” will never comprehend.
HOW TO USE BAGS, BEAMS AND BARRELS
How do you incorporate bags, barrels, beams and
logs into your training program? The easiest way is to
go out and buy the Army surplus duffel bags and the
sand that I described earlier, and finish one or two
training sessions each week with some sort of
sandbag lifting.
You can use sandbags in innumerable ways. Do the
farmer's walk with two heavy sandbags, one in each
hand. Bear-hug a big bag of sand and carry it as far
as possible. Deadlift and carry it at arms length for as
long as possible. Use one bag at a time and carry it
as far as possible using only one hand. Fix up a heavy
step and do step-ups while holding a bag of sand. Do
curls with a sandbag. Do deadlifts. Do cleans and
presses. Lift the bag up to your shoulder.
Walk or run with a bag on your shoulders. Do high
pulls. Try to shoulder a 100 or 150 pound sandbag
with one arm. Throw them for height. Throw them for
distance. Lift them. Carry them. Everything you do
with them is valuable.
One of the best exercises with a heavy sandbag is the
“clean” and press. The reason I emphasize the word
“clean” is because you can get a good workout by
cleaning the sandbag and then pressing it, and you
can get just as good a workout by “wrestling” the bag
to your shoulders and then pressing it.
By the way, there is a bit of “technique” to cleaning a
sandbag. To clean a heavy sandbag, you need to pull
it as high as possible. The center of the bag at the
widest point (right where the bottom runs into the
sides) has to reach chin height. When it does, snap
the wrists hard and let go of the bag - then catch the
bottom of the bag and push IN and UP at the same
time.
If you don't push IN, the bag will flop to the sides and
you will have a horrible time getting it into position for
the press.
Pressing a heavy sandbag can be a very effective
total body exercise. On one occasion, Bruce Bullock
finished a session by doing as many presses as
possible with a 100 pound sandbag.
After five or six reps his entire body was shaking from
the strain, and the shaking increased from rep to rep
until it looked like he was a top heavy palm tree in the
middle of a hurricane.
His face was bright red and he was gasping in agony
- he couldn't breathe - his hands were turning white -
and we figured he was a goner. But Bruce kept at it
and knocked off a total of ten reps before he
collapsed. The next time he tried it he got FIFTEEN
REPS. Several days later, he put ten pounds on his all
time best in the bench press.
Another very effective movement is the sandbag curl.
Just grab a heavy sandbag by the sides and curl it in
the best form you can manage. The leverage in the
sandbag curl is much greater than in a barbell curl or
a dumbbell curl. A man who can curl 150 or 160
pounds with a thick handled barbell will find that a 100
pound sandbag is tough to handle, and a 120 or 125
pound bag is about his limit. To make the movement
tougher, hold the bag lower. The lower your hands
are, the tougher the leverage at the top of the
movement. Also, “digging in” to get a good grip
becomes extra difficult when you grab the bag at the
bottom where it is tightly packed with no loose
material.
When you do sandbag lifting, be careful to use good
biomechanics. It is very easy to pull the bag up the
stronger side of the body or twist to the stronger side
when you are lifting a heavy bag, and this can lead to
a pulled muscle. The lower back, the sides and the
abs are particularly vulnerable to strain if you use poor
lifting form to handle a sandbag.
88
Similar points apply to lifting barrels or anything else
that tickles your fancy. Just play around with a barrel
and productive exercises will more or less come to
you automatically. Deadlifts.
Curls. Cleans. Presses. Squats with a barrel pressed
overhead. Bear-hug and walk. The list is endless. One
of my favorite barrel exercises is lifting a barrel to the
shoulder. Another is running with a barrel on the
shoulders. Give barrel lifting a try, and you'll soon
develop your own favorite exercise.
BAGS OR BARRELS?
Heavy bags are probably the most practical way of
getting into this type of training. They are cheaper
than almost anything else you can find, and far, far
safer. Barrels, beams, logs and anvils pose a real risk
of serious injury to your toes and feet. If you drop a
heavy barrel on your foot, you are in a heap of hurting.
If you drop a heavy sandbag, all you will injure is your
pride.
Much as I enjoy lifting barrels and beams in my own
training, I have to admit that sandbags are far safer. I
suggest that any dinosaur give the sandbags a try.
Whether you go on to barrels and other more
dangerous training tools is up to you. However, if you
are a gym owner or if you coach an athletic team, it
might be wise to stick to sandbags, due to the safety
factor alone.
But whatever you choose to do, and whatever you
choose to use, you will get bigger and stronger than
you ever dreamed possible by training regularly with
heavy, hard to manage objects. Nothing else will
qualify you for true dinosaur status. And besides - the
guys and gals at chrome and fern land would run for
cover if they saw you manhandling a 150 pound barrel
or a 200 pound bag of sand. Anything that gets THAT
kind of reaction from the toners, shapers, pumpers
and other pseudo weight trainers has GOT to be
good!
OTHER TOTAL BODY BLASTERS
If you don't have access to bags or barrels but you
want to try some special work to build enormous all-
around total body strength, consider the following
“finisher” used by Dr. Ken Leistner and reported in the
December, 1985 issue of THE STEEL TIP:
“After completing my set of squat starts, I would

immediately return to the squat rack. I would take
whatever poundage I had used for my initial set of
twenty repetitions in the full squat, and support the
barbell across my upper back and trapezius. I would
then go for a stroll, walking sideways out of the
garage or loft entrance due to the length of the bar. I
would walk up and down the street (my neighbors
had become accustomed to seeing me push cars,
lift strange implements, and walk with a loaded
barbell in my quest to become strong), or around the
top floor of the family iron shop. I would walk until
fatigued, being very careful not to stumble. I would
then return the bar to the squat racks and pick up a
heavy dumbbell in each hand. Most often, I would
use the casted York 100 or 105 pounders that I had -
huge things that resembled cannonballs. I would
then walk up and down a flight of stairs, 23 steps and
one landing each way, repeating this until I could not
walk comfortably, if at all, or until I could not hold the
dumbbells.
I can remember the feeling that my spine was being
compressed as I walked around with the loaded bar
on my shoulders, only to believe that my arms would
be torn from the sockets as I trudged up and down
the stairs, thighs trembling beneath me, buttock
muscles cramping with every step. I would remain
sore for days at a time, and found that the second
workout of the week, usually done three days after
the first, would serve to alleviate the persistent
aching in my thighs, hips, and low back. ”
Or try another little “goodie” reported in THE STEEL
TIP (Vol. 1, No. 2, February, 1985).
This one involves no special equipment and can be
done at home, so you have no excuse not to give it a
try:
“I used to entertain my neighbors twice a week when

preparing for a major lifting meet or the opening of
football practice. After the completion of my weight
training routine, I would have someone steer the
family car, while I pushed it around the block a few
times. Two or three trips was more than enough,
especially if my driver increased the resistance by
riding the 89
brake a bit. I would keep my body low, get a good

forward lean and drive with the hips and thighs. I
honestly believe that this adjunctive work added
many pounds to my squatting ability and to my leg
drive. I used this little “secret” for many years, and
everyone who did it with me noted marked
improvement in lower body strength. I do know that
my time in the 40
improved appreciably once I started my car pushing
bouts, and that my squat demonstrated a lot more
power out of the bottom position. Don't overdo it at
first ... you'll be surprised at the soreness you'll
encounter... ”
MEET THE CHALLENGE
Barbells and dumbbells are great. To a dinosaur, they
are worth their weight in gold. But you can augment
and enhance these basic tools by lifting, carrying,
pushing, or walking with heavy, awkward objects.
Bags, barrels, kegs, beams, logs, anvils, and yes,
even the family car, can make you incredibly strong.
Don't get locked into conventional exercises and
conventional equipment. Be a dinosaur. Expand your
horizons!
It requires ages to destroy a popular opinion.
~Voltaire
We have not journeyed across the centuries, across
the oceans, across the mountains, across the
prairies because we are made of sugar candy.
90
CHAPTER SIXTEEN:
POWER RACK TRAINING
This is a system that was much used by the old
timers but has been neglected in recent years by
modern lifters...
It is very valuable and not to be minimized as to its
importance.
~Peary Rader
Dinosaurs live in the power rack. Aside from the
barbell, the most important training tool in a
dinosaur's bag of tricks is the power rack. A power
rack (1) permits a dinosaur to train alone in perfect
safety, (2) permits a dinosaur to overload his muscles
and train far heavier than would otherwise be
possible, (3) allows a dinosaur to inject variety and a
change of pace into his routine while still using basic
exercises such as the squat, bench press and
deadlift, (4) allows a dinosaur to do “bottom position”
squats and bench presses, two of the most result-
producing movements a man can do, and (5) doubles
as a great place to hang laundry in the wintertime.
(You married guys will understand the importance of
number five; the single guys will just have to wait until
they are married to learn how domesticated a
dinosaur can become.)
Seriously - if a dinosaur was limited to a barbell and
ONE other piece of training equipment he would
choose the power rack without even thinking twice
about it. The power rack is simply essential to the
development of maximum muscular strength and
power. You can build superhuman strength without a
lot of things, but you cannot do it without a power rack.
The rack is a necessity for any man who is interested
in reaching his physical potential.
THE SAFETY FACTOR
For anyone who trains alone, the rack can be a
lifesaver. Training alone without a rack is like driving a
car with old, piebald tires that you know can blow on
you at any minute ... down a rock strewn, pot-holed
highway covered with oil and sprinkled with bits of
broken glass and large nails ... in the mountains ... in
the fog ... with worn-out brakes. Think I'm
exaggerating?
Ask the fellows who DIED as the result of getting
stuck under a heavy bench press bar while training
alone, it happens to two or three guys every year -
some of them advanced lifters who certainly should
have known better. And it's not a pretty way to die.
Think about it for a second - being strangled to death
slowly by a heavy barbell. Hanging would be easier
and quicker.
BASIC BENEFITS OF RACK WORK
Aside from the safely factor, there are two basic
benefits of power rack work. First, power rack training
allows you to overload your muscles by handling
enormous poundages in the extended or “close to
lock out” position of a lift. This training principle was
used extensively by the oldtimers, and it was one of
the secrets of their incredible strength and power.
They used the principle without having the rack
available. Modern-day dinosaurs have it much easier
because we can use the power rack when we utilize
the overload principle. Being alive in the modern
world is not ALL bad!
The second basic benefit of rack work is that it allows
you to do bottom position squats and benches. In
other words, it allows you to start your squats from the
bottom position, with the bar set on pins positioned in
such a way that you have to wedge yourself under the
bar to get into position. At the start of the lift your
thighs will be parallel to the floor or an inch or two
above parallel. It requires MAN-SIZED effort to start a
heavy squat from this position.
Training heavy squats from the bottom position will
give you new insights into the meaning of HARD
WORK, CONCENTRATION, INTENSITY, MENTAL
TOUGHNESS, DETERMINATION and EFFORT. It
also will build your back, hips and thighs like nothing
you ever imagined.
In the May, 1985 issue of THE STEEL TIP (Vol. 1, No.
5), Dr. Ken Leistner reported “a very interesting
conversation ... with Professor Don Corrigan of
Purdue University ... the former 91
head coach of The Boilermaker wrestling team, and
... a scholar/expert in exercise physiology.” Professor
Corrigan stated “I’d really like to see them start the
squat from the bottom position, not the top. Then we'd
see who the really strong squatters were....” Think
about it!
You also can train bench presses from the bottom
position. Simply set the pins so the bar is positioned
at a height where it grazes or barely grazes your chest
and start each rep from a dead stop at that position.
Talk about HARD work! The bottom position start
turns the ordinary bench press into pure,
unadulterated torture. The first time you try it you will
feel like your chest and shoulders are being torn apart
by wild horses. Stay with it, however, and you will
develop incredible thickness and power throughout
the entire torso.
ROME WASN'T BUILT IN A DAY
Power rack training is so demanding and severe that
even an advanced lifter who has loads of heavy lifting
under his belt should break into rack work in an
organized, sensible manner.
Don't just run down to your basement, load the squat
bar to 400 or 500 pounds and try some bottom
position rack squats. Use your head. You have an
entire lifetime in which to build power and strength.
Don't be foolish. Don't rush things.
LOW REPS
I believe that rack work is best performed for low reps
or singles. I never suggest going over five reps on
rack exercises. That means that you need to be used
to doing low reps before you should even consider a
rack program. In other words, before you even
ATTEMPT to train on the rack, you need to take your
regular out-of-the-rack exercises and train them with
low reps for awhile. In essence, you are PREPARING
your body for the ultra-heavy demands that will be
imposed by the rack.
REDUCE REPS SLOWLY AND INTELLIGENTLY
Reduce your reps slowly and systematically. If you
have been using higher reps, start to reduce them
gradually, and eventually get down to no more than
five reps per set. If you have been training for most of
your career with more than five reps per set, take at
least three months to gradually work your way into five
rep sets and the heavier poundages that the low
number of reps will allow you to handle. Don't try to
speed things up by cutting the process short - it won't
work that way. You need to strengthen your tendons
and ligaments and that requires time. Keep things
slow and steady.
After a few months of five rep sets, try dropping the
reps again. Use the 5/4/3/2/1 system -
several progressively heavier warmup sets of five
reps, then one set of five with your top weight for five
reps. Rest a couple of minutes, add ten pounds to the
bar, and do a set of four reps. Rest a few minutes,
add ten pounds to the bar, and do a set of three reps.
Repeat the process for a double and then for a single.
Stay on the 5/4/3/2/1 system for at least three months.
Again, don't try to rush things. You cannot shorten the
process. It requires TIME to build the type of tendon
and ligament strength that successful rack work
requires.
If you already have developed the ability to do heavy
poundage, low rep training on a regular basis, you
don't need any special work before giving the rack a
try.
BREAK-IN TRAINING IS A MUST
Regardless of what type of training you have been
doing in the past, and regardless of how strong,
experienced or motivated you are, start fairly light and
break in gradually when you begin your rack work. If
you go too heavy too fast you run the risk of a serious
injury. You also are inviting muscular soreness so
extreme that it may literally incapacitate you for days.
HOW TO START A RACK PROGRAM
The best way to start a rack program is to use the
rack for bottom position squats and benches, and do
those exercises AFTER you have completed a
regular, heavy session of the same exercise
performed in the normal fashion. This will allow you to
train fairly light on the rack 92
movements while not causing any loss in size or
strength during the initial “break in” period.
It also allows you to maintain proper form for the
regular style of performance. (If you do not do squats
and benches in the normal style, any rack work you do
will make you STRONGER
but you may not be able to demonstrate the additional
strength in the regular movement because you will be
awkward and “out of the groove” on heavy attempts.
Of course, you can regain your form in short order, but
it is much easier to combine the regular movement
with the rack movement if you wish to retain the ability
to squat and bench with heavy poundages in the
normal style of the movement.)
A SAMPLE SCHEDULE
If you do both the regular style of exercise and the
bottom position movement in the rack, you will be
training quite heavily. Be sure to control the total
amount of work you do. Keep the sets and reps to a
minimum and be sure to follow an abbreviated
routine. Don't overdo things.
Too much exercise at this stage of the game will be a
disaster. A good schedule would be something like
the following:
MONDAY
1. Parallel squat (regular style) - 5 x 5 (four
progressively heavier warmup sets and one heavy
set).
2. Bottom position squats in the rack - five
progressively heavier singles, working up to a heavy
but not maximum poundage.
3. Barbell curls with a 2” bar - same sets/reps as
squats.
4. Grip work - two exercises, two to three sets per
exercise.
5. Bent legged situps with heavy dumbbell on chest -
one set, 15 to 25 reps.
THURSDAY
1. Deadlifts, trap bar deadlifts, dumbbell deadlifts,
power cleans or power pulls (normal style)
- same sets/reps as squats.
2. Bench press (regular style) - same sets/reps as
squats.
3. Bottom position bench press in rack - preferably
with a 3” diameter bar – five progressively heavier
singles, working up to a heavy but not maximum
poundage.
4. Chins, pulldowns, barbell or one arm dumbbell
rowing - four progressively heavier sets of five reps,
working up to a top poundage for five reps.
5. Grip work - two or three exercises, two or three
sets each.
6. Leg raises with weight attached to feet - one set of
15 to 25 reps.
Alternatively, you could do squats on Monday,
benches on Wednesday and deadlifts or another
back exercise on Friday, working the other exercises
in as time and energy dictate.
This is the approach I prefer, but many other guys do
better on two sessions per week. Give both a try and
decide which works best for you. An example of a
three day per week program would be as follows:
MONDAY
1. Parallel Squat (regular style) - Three progressively
heavier warmup sets (five reps per set), followed by
5/4/3/2/1 (as described in text in this chapter).
2. Bottom position rack squats - five progressively
heavier sets of three reps, working up to a tough but
not maximum poundage.
3. Standing barbell curls - using a 2” or 3” bar - five
poundage.
4. Grip work - one exercise, three to four sets.
5. Bent legged situps - as described in preceding two
day per week program.
WEDNESDAY
1. Bench press (regular style) - same as squats on
Monday.
93
2. Rack bench press - preferably using a 3” diameter
bar - 5/4/3/2/1, working up to a heavy but not
maximum poundage.
3. Pulldowns or chins - four progressively heavier sets
of five reps.
4. Carry heavy sandbag as far as possible - four
times, with three to five minutes between carries (if
possible, work with a training partner and compete
against each other).
FRIDAY
1. Deadlift, trap bar deadlift, power cleans, power
pulls or dumbbell deadlift (normal style) -
five progressively heavier singles, working up to a
heavy but not maximum poundage.
2. Clean and press heavy barrel - five single rep
attempts, resting two to three minutes between
attempts. If a barrel is not available, use a heavy
sandbag.
3. The farmer's walk with heavy dumbbells, beams,
logs, sandbags or barrels - four times, for as far as
possible on each effort (compete against your training
partner if possible).
MORE ADVANCED RACK PROGRAMS
After three to six months on the initial rack program,
reverse the order of the rack work and the regular
movement on the squat and the bench press. In
addition, add partial deadlifts to the program to be
sure that you are working your pulling muscles as
heavily as the thighs and the torso. Drop the regular
movement when you add the partial deadlift - having
two types of heavy pulling movements in the program
would be too much, particularly since you hit the low
back and hips quite hard with the squat and bottom
position squat. Use the power rack or heavy blocks to
position the bar (or the trap bar) at knee height. Start
with modest poundages, then begin to add weight as
you get used to the movement. Once the poundages
start to get up there, the partial movement will do for
the pulling muscles what the bottom position squats
and benches are doing for the rest of the body.
A three day per week sample program would be as
follows: MONDAY
1. Bottom position rack squat - five progressively
heavier singles, working up to a heavy but not
maximum poundage.
2. Parallel squat (regular style) - five progressively
heavier triples, working up to a heavy but not
maximum poundage for three reps.
3. Grip work - three exercises, four progressively
heavier sets on each.
one set of 15 to 25 reps.
WEDNESDAY
1. Bottom position bench press in power rack -
preferably with a 3” diameter bar - same as bottom
position power rack squats on Monday of this
program.
2. Bench press - regular style - same as parallel
squats (regular style) on Monday of this program.
3. Chins or pulldowns - four progressively heavier sets
of five reps.
4. Grip work - two exercises - four progressively
heavier sets each.
FRIDAY
1. Deadlift from the knees (using a regular or trap bar)
- five progressively heavier singles, working up to a
2. Standing barbell press - five progressively heavier
sets of three to five reps.
3. Sandbag curl - four sets of five reps - same weight
for each set.
4. Farmer's Walk - four times, for as long as possible.
5. Bearhug and walk with heavy sandbag or barrel as
far as possible - two times.
An alternative three day per week rack program at
this stage of the game would put the squat on one
day, the bench press and deadlift on another day, and
leave one day for sandbag and barrel lifting
exclusively; this is a VERY rugged program, but one
that is very good for athletes, particularly football
players and wrestlers: 94
MONDAY
1. Bottom position rack squat - five progressively
heavier singles, working up to a heavy but not
maximum poundage.
2. Parallel squat (regular style) - four progressively
heavier sets of five reps, working up to a top
poundage for five reps.
3. Neck exercises with headstrap - four sets.
4. Grip work - two exercises, doing four progressively
heavier sets on each movement.
WEDNESDAY
1. Clean and press with heavy sandbag - five singles -
same weight for each lift or use progressively heavier
poundages.
2. Lift heavy barrel to the shoulder - alternate
shoulders - do four lifts to the left shoulder and four
lifts to the right shoulder ... treat these as singles, i.e.,
one lift to right shoulder is one single, rest, then lift the
barrel to left shoulder, rest, etc.
3. Sandbag curls - two sets of five reps with maximum
weight for five reps.
4. Lift heavy sandbag or barrel to shoulder and run or
walk with it for as far as possible - two times per
shoulder. Go up a hill or up steps if possible.
5. Bearhug heavy sandbag or heavy barrel and walk
as far as possible with it - two times.
6. Lift heavy sandbag, hold it at arm's length, and walk
as far as possible – two times.
7. Lift heavy barrel by the chines and hold for as long
as possible - two times.
FRIDAY
1. Deadlift from knees (use regular or trap bar) - five
but not maximum poundage.
2. Power rack bench press - preferably with a 3” bar -
five progressively heavier singles, working up to a
3. Bench press (regular style) - four progressively
heavier sets of five reps, working up to a maximum
poundage for five reps.
4. Leg raises - one set of 15 to 25 reps with extra
weight attached to feet.
5. Grip work - two exercises, each done for four
progressively heavier sets.
EVEN MORE ADVANCED RACK PROGRAMS
After you have trained on one of the preceding
programs for three months or so, expand your rack
work by combining regular bench presses, bottom
position benches and heavy bench press lockouts. On
the squat, combine regular, bottom position and
heavy 1/4 squats. For deadlifts, combine the full range
movement, deadlifts from the knees and heavy top
position deadlifts (i.e., a “top position” or “lockout”
movement where you move the bar no more than two
or three inches to complete the movement).
“Wait a minute!” you say. “I'll burn out in two weeks if I
try to do all that work! No one can possibly do that
many heavy movements and do anything other than
overtrain!” Whoa!
Wait a minute.
Hold your horses.
Cool the jets. Call in the dogs. Uncircle the wagons.
Lower the guns.
Give me a minute to explain what I want you to do.
Try this: train six times every two weeks, and train
different movements every time you train.
That permits you to include a reasonable number of
different movements without the risk of overdoing
things.
For example, you might try the following program:
MONDAY
1. Bottom position rack squats - five progressively
heavier singles.
2. 1/4 squats - five progressively heavier singles.
3. Standing curls with 2” bar - four progressively
heavier singles.
95
4. Grip work - one exercise - five progressively
heavier sets.
WEDNESDAY
1. Bottom position bench presses - four progressively
heavier singles.
2. Bench press lockouts - four progressively heavier
singles.
3. Barbell rowing, pulldowns or chins - four
progressively heavier sets of five reps.
FRIDAY
1. Deadlift or trap bar deadlift - regular style only - four
progressively heavier warmup sets of five reps, then
two sets of five reps with top weight for five reps.
2. Bearhug heavy barrel or sandbag and walk as far
as possible with it – four times.
(Alternatively, find a set course of about 1/2 mile and
do the course no matter how long it takes or how
many times you have to stop and rest.)
MONDAY—WEEK TWO
1. Parallel squat - regular style - five progressively
heavier sets of five reps.
2. Grip work - two exercises, four progressively
heavier sets each.
3. Leg raises with extra weight attached to feet - one
set of 15 to 25 reps.
WEDNESDAY—WEEK TWO
1. Standing or seated press - use barbells or
dumbbells for the seated version - use barbells,
dumbbells, sandbags or barrels for the standing
version - five progressively heavier singles OR four
progressively heavier sets of five reps.
2. Deadlifts from the knees - using trap or regular bar
- five progressively heavier singles.
3. Heavy deadlift lockouts - using trap or regular bar –
five progressively heavier singles.
4. Hold heavy barrel by chines for as long as possible,
or, hold heavy sandbag off the ground at arm's length
for as long as possible - four times. Alternatively, do
the farmer's walk with heavy dumbbells - four times for
as far as possible.
FRIDAY—WEEK TWO
1. Bench press (regular style) - five progressively
heavier sets of five reps, three reps or singles.
2.Chins or pulldowns - four progressively heavier sets
of five reps.
3. Headstrap exercises for the neck - four sets.
5. Grip work - two exercises, four progressively
heavier sets.
After three months or so on this routine, where do you
go (other than to the clothing store to buy new clothes,
since you will have grown out of everything your own)?
There are several possibilities. The rack has an
infinite number of uses. The variations are endless.
WORK ON YOUR OVERHEAD STRENGTH
I would suggest that the lifter who reaches this stage
start to do heavy overhead press lockouts in the rack.
The overhead press lockout was one of the favorite
movements of many oldtimers. William Boone, Paul
Anderson and John Grimek all used it with great
success.
Peary Rader raved about the movement in old issues
of IRON MAN, and Harry Paschall praised it to the
high heavens in his BOSCO hooks. Grimek grew so
powerful on this movement that he was able to handle
800 to 1000 pounds.
Think about that for a second. Here's a guy who
flourished decades before dianabol, Nautilus
machines, food supplements or computerized
biomechanics, and he is lifting FOUR TIMES
HIS BODYWEIGHT in the lockout position of the
military press. What a powerhouse! How many
modern trainees - even the serious guys- could do a
quarter squat with 1.000 pounds?
Not too darn many. How many could do a bench
press lockout with 1,000 pounds? Not too 96
many. But here's John Grimek, lifting in the 1930s,
doing overhead press lockouts with 800 to 1,000
pounds.
Far too many modern trainees are thoroughly second
rate when it comes to overhead work.
Don't be one of the guys who can bench press a ton
but handles nothing more than marshmallow
poundages on your overhead work. Use the power
rack to build enormous overhead strength into your
shoulder girdle.
SLOW COOKING, POWER RACK STYLE
Another thing you should try once you are well
grounded in rack work is an old trick of William Boone
and Paul Anderson. This works great on the deadlift,
the squat, the overhead press or the bench press, and
is one of the best systems of rack work ever devised.
To illustrate the system, we will use the bench press.
Let's say you are doing bottom position benches,
regular benches and lockouts on a two week training
cycle (as detailed in the last exercise schedule). All
you have to do is concentrate on your lockouts a little
bit more. Do them once a week, and do five singles
with your top poundage. Start with a less than
maximum poundage - perhaps 50 pounds under your
estimated max for five singles. Add ten pounds to the
bar every week for five or six weeks.
When you have increased the weight by 50 or 60
pounds and are still able to get five singles, slip a 5/8”
board under the legs of your bench – thereby
increasing the range of motion by 5/8”. Drop the
poundage to whatever you can handle for five singles,
and stay at that height for five or six weeks, adding
weight to the bar whenever possible. The idea is to
end the second five week phase of the program using
at least as heavy a weight as you were using at the
end of the first phase of the program.
At that point, put another 5/8” piece of wood under the
bench and increase the range of motion by another
5/8”. Once again, reduce the weight if you must in
order to get five singles.
As before, add weight whenever possible for a period
of five to six weeks. Try to end the third five week
phase of the program using the same poundage you
were using at the end of the first five weeks.
What do you do then?
You guessed it - you slip another 5/8” board under
your bench and increase the range of motion while
trying to continue to use as heavy a weight as
possible. Build the poundages up as high as possible
at the new height, then use another 5/8” piece of
wood to increase the range of movement yet another
time.
Continue in this fashion until you are between two
inches and four inches above the chest. At that point,
you will be ENORMOUSLY stronger when benching
from the chest.
What do you do then? Why not repeat the entire
process? This is NOT a short term miracle program.
This can become a major part of your regular training
for the rest of your life.
Imagine how strong you would become if you were to
use the aforementioned system on the squat, the
bench press, the deadlift and the overhead press - all
at the same time - for a period of four or five years.
Up and down, up and down - over and over -
constantly pushing the tendons and ligaments to ever
increasing levels of strength - hitting the muscles as
hard as possible at all ranges of motion on each lift. A
man who trained in this fashion would become a
Hercules.
How would you set up a training program that
incorporated this principle? Try the following two
week schedule:
MONDAY
1. Parallel squat - five progressively heavier sets of
five reps.
2. 1/4 squat - 3 to 4 progressively heavier singles,
then five singles with top poundage.
(Increase range of motion every 5-6 weeks.)
3. Military press lockouts - five progressively heavier
singles. (Increase height every 5-6
weeks.)
4. Farmer's walk - four times, as far as possible.
97
WEDNESDAY
1. Bottom position power rack bench press - five
progressively heavier singles.
2. Pulldowns, chins or barbell row - four progressively
heavier sets of five reps.
3. Grip work - 3 or 4 exercises, three or four sets
each.
4. Bent legged situps - one set of 15 to 25 crunches
with heavy dumbbell on chest.
FRIDAY
1. Top position deadlift or trap bar deadlift, five
progressively heavier singles - increase height every
five-six weeks.
2. Barrel lift to the shoulder - four or five times to each
shoulder.
3. Bearhug heavy sandbag, barrel or anvil and walk
as far as possible with it – four times.
MONDAY
1. Bottom position squat - five progressively heavier
singles.
2.1/4 squat - five progressively heavier singles.
(Increase range of motion every 5-6 weeks).
3. Standing barbell curl with 2” or 3” bar - four
progressively heavier sets of five reps; alternatively,
four or five progressively heavier singles.
4. Shoulder heavy sandbag or barrel and walk or run
as far as possible with it. Repeat for a total of four
times, or simply go for a set distance - 1/4 to 1/2 mile.
If doing a set distance, alternate shoulders so you do
roughly the same amount of work with the barrel on
the left shoulder as on the right.
THURSDAY
1. Regular bench press - five progressively heavier
sets of five reps.
2. Bench press lockouts - five singles with your top
poundage (increase range of motion every 5-6
weeks).
3. Top position deadlift or trap bar deadlift - same as
in Friday of week one.
4. Grip work - two exercises, four sets each.
5. Bent legged situps - one set of 15 to 25 reps with
heavy dumbbell on chest.
Few people are capable of expressing with
equanimity opinions which differ from the prejudices
of their social environment.
~Albert Einstein
We live in an age of great events and little men.
98
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN: A
BASIC STRENGTH
TRAINING
PROGRAM
The era of procrastination, of half-measures, of
soothing and baffling expedients, of delays is
coming to its close.
This chapter details an effective, result-producing
program for any man who wishes to increase his total
body strength enormously. The program combines
many of the most result producing methods of
developing enormous strength: bottom position rack
work, heavy lockouts, heavy dumbbell work, heavy
grip work, sandbag and barrel lifting, heavy singles,
and the 5 x 5 system.
These are training secrets of the old-timers. These
methods have built tons of muscle for generations of
strength athletes. They have built more world records
than all the steroids ever bottled. These methods
work. And if YOU work, then they will work for YOU!
Make no mistake about it. This program will build
tremendous strength from head to toe for any
advanced man who gives it an honest effort. It will
allow him to turn every inch of his body into moving
steel: to transform himself from a strong man to a
super strongman. Don't be satisfied with anything
less. In 1924, a man named Alan Calvert published
one of the very best books ever written on the subject
of sensible training.
Its title: SUPER STRENGTH! THAT was the goal of
those who trained in the'20s. That should be YOUR
goal!
Getting there won't be easy. Developing super
strength is a hard, hard task. It is no job for the weak-
kneed or the faint-hearted. It requires courage,
determination, tenacity, perseverance, drive and
motivation. In a word, it takes guts! Advanced strength
training will be the hardest work you ever do in your
life. It also can be the most enjoyable - and the most
rewarding.
The program calls for four different training schedules.
Train two times per week and complete the four
schedule course over a two week period. Each
program is hard and heavy, so you will need the extra
rest days that are possible with two time per week
training.
The first training day of each week concentrates on
the legs, hips and lower back; the second focuses on
the upper body. Train your grip and trunk on each day.
SESSION NO. 1
Begin with a light, brief aerobic warmup. Do
something relatively easy and undemanding: stair-
stepping, rope skipping or stationary cycling. Try two
to five minutes. Don't overdo things - save your energy
for the weight work to follow.
After the warmup, do one set of eight to ten reps in
the clean and press, using a light to medium
poundage and a 2” bar. Power cleans with a 2” bar
are a tough exercise. Using them at the beginning of
the schedule lets you combine a good all-around
warmup with a bit of extra grip work - and grip work is
CRITICAL for any man seeking to develop super
strength.
BOTTOM POSITION SQUATS:
Now go to the power rack. Set the pins so the bar is
low enough that when you get under it, the tops of your
thighs will be parallel to the floor or 2” above parallel.
Do five progressively heavier singles in the bottom
position squat. Start light and work up in big jumps,
finishing with a weight that is around 90% or 95% of
your one rep max. Don't get hung up on the exact
percentages - just start light and work up to a weight
that makes you bust your butt. For example, if your
max is 400 pounds, you might do 135 x 1, 225 x 1,
315 x 1, 350 x 1 and 385
x 1. Don't use knee wraps or a squat suit - they make
the exercise easier. “Easier” is something you
definitely do not want. To achieve super strength, you
need to make your exercises HARDER. Use a belt if
you wish, but leave the knee wraps and power-suits to
the other guys.
99
The bottom position squat dates back to a German
Hercules named Henry “Milo” Steinborn.
In the 20s, Steinborn was one of the best built and
strongest men in the world, a champion athlete and a
record holder in many lifts. He could clean and jerk
375 pounds at a bodyweight of around 200 pounds.
He one arm snatched close to 200 pounds. He was
Alan Calvert's favorite lifter. He was a colossus of
power.
Steinborn is directly responsible for introducing the
heavy, flat-footed squat to the weight training world.
Prior to Steinborn, men did light squats on their toes.
That worked the thighs fairly well, but never really
taxed the all-important hips and lower back. Steinborn
changed things.
Steinborn did HEAVY squats. He did them without a
squat rack. He lifted 550 pounds by up-ending the
bar, squatting beneath it, letting the bar roll onto his
shoulders, then standing erect with the weight. In other
words, he started the squat from the bottom position.
As I said, he was the first man in recorded history to
do bottom position squats. And he became an Iron
Game Immortal.
QUARTER SQUATS
After the bottom position squats, do three sets of
three reps in the 1/4 squat. Start with a weight at least
100 pounds under your max for 3 reps, and add
weight on each ensuing set.
For example, if you can handle 600 pounds for three
reps, you might do 500 x 3, 550 x 3 and 600 x 3.
Heavy quarter squats are a great power builder. Paul
Anderson did them in the 1950s. He won an Olympic
gold medal in weightlifting, and may have been the
strongest man who ever lived. Give them a try.
DUMBBELL DEADLIFTS
Next, do dumbbell deadlifts for five sets of five reps. If
you don't have heavy dumbbells, do barbell deadlifts
or trap bar deadlifts. Do five sets of five reps. The first
four sets are progressively heavier warm-ups. The
final set should be a maximum effort. For example, if
you can handle 200 pound bells for five reps, you
might do 100 x 5, 125 x 5, 150 x 5, 175 x 5
and 200 x 5.
Deadlifts are, always have been, and always will be
one of the best strength and power builders there is.
Work them HARD!
THE SANDBAG CARRY
Next, take a 100 to 150 pound sandbag and carry it
for 1/4 to 1/2 a mile. Carry it any way you want - in a
bear-hug, on one shoulder, across the upper back
(like a squat bar). It doesn't matter which way you
choose - the weight of the bag will catch up to you
sooner or later!
Afterwards, though, you'll be able to enjoy the sense
of satisfaction that accompanies the achievement of a
difficult and challenging goal. You'll also enjoy
knowing that you are one of the very few weight
trainers left in the world who has the courage to train
HARD!
Make no mistake about it - the sandbag carry is one
of the most demanding exercises a man can do. It is
a cruel and merciless movement. The sandbag carry
will develop tremendous muscular endurance,
metabolic conditioning, and mental toughness. It also
will give you one heck of a cardiovascular workout.
Old-time strong men used to be able to carry heavy
loads for long distances. Why? Because they had
FUNCTIONAL STRENGTH. The sandbag carry is a
terrific way to develop muscles that can do more than
merely look good. For an athlete, it's one of the best
strength builders ever invented.
GRIP WORK
After the sandbag walk, train your grip. Start with the
pliers lift. Get two STRONG pieces of webbing about
12” long. They should be 1” wide. Loop the webbing
under a deadlift bar, with each piece of webbing
positioned where you would grip the bar. Take two
strong pliers and use one in each hand to hold onto
the webbing. Then deadlift the bar. Your fingers and
hands will get a tremendous workout because you will
have to exert maximum pressure to 100
keep the pliers closed as you do the lift. When you hit
the top position, hold the bar for a count of ten, then
return the weight to the floor and repeat the
movement. Do one set of 15 to 20 reps.
After the pliers lift, do three sets of reverse curls with a
2”or 3” bar. Use strict form. Use a weight that makes
it impossible to do more than 8 or 10 reps, and do as
many as possible on each set.
Arthur Dandurand, a legendary French-Canadian
powerhouse, could reverse curl weights that came
close to body weight. His forearms had to be seen to
be believed.
For the final grip exercise, do pinch grip work. Take a
25 to 50 pound smooth-sided plate with no rim or a
small rim, and hold it with one hand in a pinch grip for
as long as possible. If you can't find smooth-sided
rimless plates, use two 25 pound Olympic plates,
turned so they are facing one another with the smooth
side out. Have someone time you so you really make
a strong effort on this movement. Repeat the exercise
with the other hand.
Pinch gripping is one of the few exercises that works
the thumbs. The thumb is CRITICAL
for overall grip strength. If you only train your fingers,
you only train half your grip. Some of the old-timers -
Herman Goerner and Arthur Saxon, for example - had
TREMENDOUS pinch grip strength.
BENT LEGGED SITUPS
Finish the day with bent legged sit-ups, holding a
barbell plate behind your head. Do one set of 15 to 25
reps. Yes, I DID say sit-ups. I know that crunches are
the “in” thing nowadays, but for REAL ab strength, you
need to do bent-legged sit-ups and leg raises with
weight attached to your feet.
Alan Calvert explained the secret of abdominal
development in SUPER STRENGTH. At page 42 he
noted that it is quite possible to build the abdominal
muscles through isolation exercises - i.e. crunches.
But Calvert cautioned against the isolation approach.
He wrote:
“It is possible to develop the abdominal muscles in

a certain way without bringing out much
development on the front of the thigh. In my opinion,
that is a foolish way to develop any set of muscles.
Muscles are not just for appearance, but for use; and
if your front-thighs and abdominal muscles are
exercised in concert, they will be much better
developed and very much stronger than if you
attempt to develop the abdominal muscles alone.
Occasionally you see a man who, by the so-called
“muscle-spinning” process, has acquired quite fine
development of many individual muscles; but it is
very rarely that such men have anything more than
the average strength ... Muscles developed in this
way have some size and some shape, but practically
no power and absolutely no coordination. The
Germans used to have a complicated word
describing this condition. When translated, it meant
“A-man-who-is-like-a-shop-keeper-who-has-all-his-
goods-in-the-window-and-nothing-on-the-shelves-in-
his-store.”“
SESSION NO. 2
Start the day with the same sort of light aerobic
warmup you used in the first session, followed by 8 to
10 reps in the clean and press with a 2” bar.
THE DUMBBELL CLEAN AND PRESS
Load up a pair of heavy dumbbells and clean them,
then do five reps in the simultaneous dumbbell press.
Do NOT do the reps in alternate arm fashion. That's
the EASY way of doing the exercise. Push both bells
up overhead at the same time.
Do a total of five sets. Make the first two sets
progressively heavier warm-ups. For the final three
sets, use as much weight as possible. Modern
trainees usually lag far behind the oldtimers when it
comes to overhead strength, and dumbbell pressing
can cure that situation in a hurry. Heavy dumbbell
work is a terrific training tool for an advanced man
looking to inject a bit of variety into his training
sessions. The dumbbells are far more awkward and
difficult to control than is a barbell, and with a heavy
poundage, you will get an extremely intense workout.
101
A famous picture shows John Davis, the first amateur
Olympic lifter to clean and jerk 400
pounds, holding two 140-pound dumbbells in the
“press” position after cleaning them to his shoulders.
Davis is casually looking over at the photographer as
if he were holding a ham sandwich in one hand and a
Miller Lite in the other!
Do the dumbbell presses while standing instead of
seated in order to develop the trunk. The
“stabilizers” in the trunk and torso area have to work
extremely hard when you handle heavy weights while
doing any form of overhead lifting. A strong trunk is
one of the keys to total body strength, and heavy
overhead presses done while standing provide
excellent stimulation for the trunk muscles.
Yeah, I know that most “modern authorities” say to do
your presses while seated in order to avoid back
strain. But I don't buy it. The way to avoid back strain
is to TRAIN YOUR
LOWER BACK, NOT PAMPER IT. Be a man when
you train. Stand on your feet. Do standing presses.
Leave the seated stuff for the bunny rabbits, the
geeksters, the pencil-necks and the wannabes.
THE BARBELL BENT-OVER ROW
After the presses do barbell bent-over rowing. Four
sets of six reps. Start light and work up in weight. Do
these with the legs bent a little and the back flat. Pull
the bar close to the thighs and up to the lower
abdomen, NOT to the chest. Performed in this
fashion, the barbell bent-over row is the BEST
exercise for the upper back.
FLOOR PRESS LOCKOUTS
Next, do floor presses in the power rack, setting the
pins so you move the bar approximately four inches
on each rep. Essentially, you will be doing heavy
bench press lockouts. Use a 3” bar for these. The
thick handled bar makes the exercise harder and
more intense, and helps to develop the forearm,
hands, thumbs and wrists while you are working the
upper torso with the lockouts. You may wonder how a
pushing movement can work the hands and thumbs,
but give the thick bar a try with a heavy poundage and
you'll understand exactly what I am describing.
On the floor presses, do four progressively heavier
singles and a total of three singles with your top
weight. For example, you might do 315 x 1, 405 x 1,
455 x 1, 475 x 1 and 495 x 3
singles.
That's right, do SINGLES. The old-timers did lots of
heavy singles. For strength building, single reps are
tremendously effective.
THE ONE ARM CURL AND PRESS
For your next exercise, blast the entire arm from
shoulder to fingertips with the one arm barbell curl and
press. This is a new exercise. I learned it from Kim
Wood. Here's how to do it. Imagine you did a one arm
hammer curl and at the conclusion of the curl, pressed
the weight overhead with one arm. No sweat, right?
But now imagine you do the same exercise with a five
foot exercise bar with ten or fifteen pounds on each
end.
Think about it for a minute. Compared to a 12” or 18”
dumbbell, the torque created by the five foot bar will
be enormous. As you perform the curl you will have
three and a half feet of iron working against your
muscles from two different directions. Balancing the
little monster is next to impossible - let alone lifting it.
Find a weight that practically kills you after five or six
reps - then do two sets per arm for as many reps as
possible.
THE SANDBAG CLEAN AND PRESS
After the curl and press combo, clean a heavy
sandbag and press it overhead as many times as
possible. Lifting a heavy sandbag is far more difficult
than handling the same amount of weight on a barbell.
Compared to a barbell, a sandbag seems like a
wildcat. Pressing a 120 to 150 pound sandbag for ten
or fifteen reps will “cook” your entire upper body!
Many of the old-timers were world beaters when it
came to lifting heavy bags of sand, flour or cement.
102
THE TURKISH GET-UP
Next, use the sandbag to work your trunk muscles. Lie
on your back, roll the sandbag onto your chest, then
press it to arm's length over your chest (as though you
were doing a bench press) and then STAND UP
WITH THE SANDBAG without letting it touch the
ground!
How do you do this? Well, you transfer the bag
(carefully!) to one arm, turn to the side, brace the free
hand against the ground, draw up your knees and
push with the free hand. The oldtimers referred to this
exercise as the Turkish get-up. Some of them - Otto
Arco, for example -
could do the Turkish get-up with a barbell or dumbbell
heavier than their own body weight.
Alternatively, lower the bag to the upper thighs, sit up,
curl (or roll) the bag to the shoulders, get your legs
underneath you and stand up with it. Other ways may
occur to you as you try the exercise. The point is, any
way you do it, moving from your back to your feet with
a heavy sandbag in your hands is going to work the
trunk muscles hard and heavy.
How many times do you do the sandbag exercise? It
depends on the weight of the bag. With a light or
medium heavy bag, do reps - perhaps shooting for a
certain number of reps in a specified period of time,
such as one or two minutes. With a heavier bag, you
might stick to a couple of single rep efforts.
GRIP WORK
After the sandbag exercise, do some grip work. Start
by looping a two inch thick rope over your chinning
bar. (If you can't find 2” thick rope, use a large, extra
strong bath towel rolled up into a rope, and covered
with heavy duct tape.) Hold the ends in each hand and
do as many chins as possible. When you cannot do
any more chins, hang. Hang until you fall off. (Try to
land on your feet when you hit the floor.) Do one set.
Next, loop your pieces of webbing over the chin bar,
hold the webbing with the pliers and hang from the
chin bar by the pliers. Do chins from that position if
possible - if not, just hang until you fall off. Do one set.
For the third grip exercise of the day, use a lever bar
or heavy sledge hammer. You want something with a
handle of 24” to 30”, with five to eight pounds at the
end. Lay the bar or hammer on the floor, kneel down
and try to lift it off the floor and up to a position where
it is extended at arm's length, parallel to the floor. Use
one hand, holding the handle as far away from the
weighted end as possible.
Do singles at first (assuming you can even lift the bar
in this fashion - if you cannot, use a lighter or shorter
leverage bar and work up), then do reps as you get
stronger. Alternatively, use two hands and hold the bar
at the end, like a baseball or cricket bat, and do the
exercise that way. This works the heck out of the
forearms and wrists.
SESSION NO. 3
PARTIAL DEADLIFTS
Use the same warmup sequence used on the other
days, then do six progressively heavier sets of three
reps in the partial deadlift. Pull the bar from roughly
knee height. Use blocks or a power rack to position
the bar if you train with a straight bar. If you use a trap
bar, position the bar on sturdy blocks to raise it to the
correct height. Do four progressively heavier warmup
sets and two sets with your top poundage. For
example, you might do 135 x 3, 225 x 3, 315 x 3, 405
x 3 and 495 x 2 x 3.
Work your deadlifts very, very hard. The deadlifts
develop rugged total body strength, including, above
all, the hips and lower back. The hips and lower back
are critical areas for a dinosaur. Harry Paschall used
to hammer on this point in his writing. In his
outstanding book, THE DEVELOPMENT OF
STRENGTH (now available in a reprinted edition
through Bill Hinbern), Paschall wrote:
“The training of a man who is seeking strength will

be considerably different from that of a man who is
merely molding a shapely physique. In the latter
case, a great deal of attention is paid to individual
muscles and to the front of the body (possibly
because the front is the 103
portion you can see readily in the mirror). The
strength athlete is more concerned with the back of
his body, because this is where power originates” [p.
54; emphasis in original].
“Unless a man has a strong lower back,” Paschall
added, “he may as well give up all notion of being a
strong man.” (THE DEVELOPMENT OF STRENGTH,
p. 54.) “All the power that is used by a runner, a
jumper, a boxer or a football player is delivered with
his lower back and loins ....” (Id.). “I cannot stress too
strongly the importance of directing a great deal of
your exercise toward the lower back.” (Id,). Paschall
concluded with the following words - words that make
a mockery of modern “sit on your butt, lie on your
back, never stand on your feet, never train your lower
back” training systems:
“Simply as a stimulant to vibrant health and vigor,
exercise for the lower back is the most essential and
rewarding labor any man can undertake, but for the
strong man it is imperative that he consciously
cultivate development of this region to the Nth
power.” [THE
DEVELOPMENT OF STRENGTH, p.56.]
THE PARALLEL SQUAT
After the deadlifts, do five sets of five reps in the
parallel squat, performed in the normal style rather
than the bottom position movement used in the first
session. Do four progressively heavier warmup sets
and one set of five reps with your top poundage. Work
hard. The squat is a builder of supermen.
Why do squats first and deadlifts second in session
one, and the reverse in session three? To work the
two exercises equally. The second movement will
always take a bit of a back seat to the first. If you
always did deadlifts first, your squat would suffer and
vice-versa.
Also, notice that in session one you train the squat in
the rack, including a heavy partial movement, and the
deadlift gets full range work - while the reverse is true
in session three.
This adds balance and variety to your program.
THE FARMER'S WALK
To finish the day, do the farmer's walk with a pair of
heavy dumbbells. Do five sets of 100 to 200 feet if
you use heavy bells. With medium heavy bells, try to
do 1/4 of a mile, resting only when it is absolutely
necessary to do so and for as short a period as
possible. This one will work your entire body,
including the grip, and if you do the exercise the right
way, you won't have anything left for any other
exercises.
SESSION NO. 4
Use the same aerobic warmup used on the other
days, followed by one set of power cleans and
presses with a 2” bar.
DUMBBELL BENCH PRESSES
Start your weight work with five sets of dumbbell
bench presses or incline dumbbell presses.
Do two progressively heavier warmup sets and three
sets with your top weight. Do five or six reps per set.
THICK BAR CHINS
Next, do five sets of as many chins as possible,
hanging from a two inch rope looped over the chin
bar. If you can do more than ten reps in the first set,
add a bit of weight. These will provide a great deal of
exercise from the lats, while also working the biceps,
forearms and grip extremely hard.
Alternatively, do your chins from a two inch bar. Thick
bar chins are sheer, bloody torture.
STANDING PRESSES FROM FOREHEAD TO
LOCKOUT
For the third exercise of the day, do standing presses
in the rack, starting with the bar at the top of the head
and pushing to a lockout position. Notice what we are
doing. In session two, you did a full range pressing
movement with dumbbells, and later in the workout
did a partial 104
bench pressing movement with a barbell. In session
four, you start the day with a full range bench press
movement with dumbbells and later in the session do
a partial pressing movement with a barbell. This
approach incorporates the best of several different
tools and results in much better overall balance in the
muscular structures of the shoulder girdle.
THE GET UP (AGAIN)
After the partial presses, practice the “get up” with a
heavy sandbag - the same movement used in session
three. Follow this with two sets of hanging leg raises -
doing as many reps as possible per set - one set (per
side) of side-bends - and one set of bent knee sit-ups
holding a barbell plate behind your head.
GRIP WORK
Finish the day with pinch gripping, following the
protocol detailed in session one. However, do three
timed holds per arm. Work as hard as possible on
each timed hold - actually try to better your
performance from one set to the next. You probably
won't be able to do so, but TRY! The pinch grip work
is all the grip work needed on this day, as the chins
with the 2” rope (or 2” bar) will hit your grip extremely
hard.
THE WRAP-UP
You now have at your disposal an excellent, highly
varied, well balanced training routine that can bring
amazing strength gains. Try this program, and you will
discover an entire new world of endeavor. You also
will build an exceptionally strong body, layered with
functional, steel-hard muscle from head to toe - a
body that can push, pull, shift or move things - a body
trained to destroy an opponent in a football, rugby or
wrestling match - a body that is as strong as it looks
(or stronger) - and a body that leaves the pumpers,
buffers, toners, sculptors and “scientific” trainees
gasping in amazement. In short, you will build a
dinosaur's body.
Few men grow to manhood without at some time
during their early life passing through a period where
their
greatest desire is to be a strong man...
Bob Hoffman
105
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN: KEEP IT SIMPLE!
Sport, like art, advances in various spheres to a
point where technique replaces imagination and
natural instinct. When that happens there has to be
a return to basic principle.
Alan Rose (quoted by Reg Park in “Strength &
Bulk Training/or Weight Lifters & Bodybuilders”)
Strength training is a very simple activity. There are
several different ways to do it; here's the approach
that I prefer. My approach is not the only way to train,
but it is a GOOD way to train. It is simple, basic,
uncomplicated, easy to learn, and it doesn't require
fancy equipment, training partners, or a coach. You
can use it at a commercial gym or at home. It's not
foolproof, but for most guys. it is very, very effective.
Train very hard on a small number of basic exercises
and add weight to the bar whenever it is possible to
do so. Train two or three days per week. Do squats,
deadlifts, power cleans, power pulls, power snatches,
barbell bent-over rowing, bench presses, standing
presses, push presses, grip work and a modest
amount of auxiliary work for the abs, neck, biceps and
(if you wish) the calves. Include some “lugging and
loading” sessions where you lift and carry heavy
awkward objects (sandbags, anvils, beams, barrels,
logs, etc.) Walk with a heavy barbell on your shoulders
or a pair of heavy dumbbells in your hands. Stand on
your feet as much as possible when you train.
Do three or four exercises per session and mix them
up from session to session. Do five sets of five reps
on each basic exercise and one or two sets of 8 to 20
reps on the auxiliary movements. Do higher reps on
squats if you prefer to do so; one set of 20 with all the
weight you can handle is a time-tested builder of
MEN! If you prefer, do heavy singles on virtually
everything, as many serious lifters, myself included,
like to do. Try singles, reps and timed holds on the
grip work.
Get lots of rest and sleep. Eat plenty of good,
nutritious food and take a high quality multi-vitamin
mineral tablet with breakfast.
When you train, be aggressive - ATTACK the barbell.
Work real hard. Concentrate when you lift. Be
confident. Believe that you will succeed and you will.
The previous paragraphs distill most of what is
important in weight training. They summarize the type
of strength training programs detailed in Bob
Hoffman's numerous books, the wonderful Milo and
York training courses, Alan Calvert's SUPER
STRENGTH, George F.
Jowett's THE KEY TO MIGHT AND MUSCLE, Mark
Berry's PHYSICAL TRAINING
SIMPLIFIED, Dr. Randall J. Strossen's SUPER
SQUATS, Bradley J. Steiner's A COMPLETE GUIDE
TO EFFECTIVE BARBELL TRAINING, John
McCallum's KEY'S
TO PROGRESS, Harry Paschall's “BOSCO” books,
Peary Rader's MASTER
BODYBUILDING AND WEIGHT GAINING SYSTEM,
Paul Kelso's POWERLIFTING
BASICS, TEXAS STYLE, Jim Witt's ABC'S OF
POWERLIFTING, Doug Hepburn's training courses,
Reg Park's STRENGTH AND BULK TRAINING
course, and just about every other decent book,
course or article ever printed on the topic of strength
and power training.
IT'S NOT THAT COMPLICATED!
Now think about it for a second. If I can take the best
books, articles, and courses ever written and
summarize their basic message in a couple of brief
paragraphs, then this strength training stuff can't be
too darn complicated.
And it isn't. Sure, you can go out of your way to make
strength training sound like a complicated activity,
and there are plenty of guys who do so - including
most of the guys who write about the topic. But in
reality, strength training is not a complex endeavor.
As Kim Wood has told me many times, “Strength
training isn't rocket science.” And he's right!
Strength training is a simple, uncomplicated activity.
It's hard to do, of course, but it's not hard to learn
WHAT to do. If you were to read any one of the books
listed above, you'd have 106
a darn good understanding of the basic requirements
for building muscular strength. In fact, you'd know
more about the topic of productive strength training
than 99,9% of all the people who train with weights the
world over.
Which brings us to the following question: IF
STRENGTH TRAINING IS SO SIMPLE, WHY DO SO
MANY PEOPLE FAIL TO GET RESULTS?
Good question, eh?
Here's the answer: PRODUCTIVE TRAINING
SEEMS TOO SIMPLE TO WORK, SO
PEOPLE IGNORE THE PRODUCTIVE SYSTEMS
AND LOOK FOR COMPLEX
SYSTEMS THAT DON'T DELIVER.
I wish 1 had a nickel for every article ever published
that featured some sort of high-tech, insanely
complicated training system that promises to turn you
into Hercules in a matter of weeks - usually without
sweating, almost always without heavy training and
INVARIABLY
without hard work. These are the articles that appeal
to the muddled masses of myopic mullets that keep
the exercise industry alive and well. These are the
articles that attract the pseudo-trainers, the talkers
and the wannabes.
MEN AND MULLETS
A training article is a mirror that reflects a man's soul.
If a MAN sees an article that promises to transform
the human body WITH NO EFFORT in six short
weeks, he tosses the article into the nearest waste
basket. If a MULLET reads the article, he figures he is
onto something really good, follows the article to the
letter and never gains an ounce.
MEN read training articles that are basic, direct and
uncomplicated. Mullets read articles that detail
training programs so Byzantine that Wood's rocket
scientist couldn't begin to understand them.
MEN read articles that emphasize the importance of
heavy weights, hard work, concentration, progression
and intensity. The rest of the world doesn't like these
articles. Face it. The majority of those who lift weights
prefer the fluff stuff: articles that allow the reader to
pretend he can grow bigger and stronger without
heavy training, hard work or sweat.
Most guys really don't want to get bigger and stronger.
Gelling bigger and stronger is hard work. It requires
effort. It's so much easier to READ about training than
it is to TRAIN! And just look at the type of nonsense
the armchair brigade loves to read: the endless, look
alike articles about tri-sets, super sets, compound
sets, pre-exhaustion, marathon
pumping/blasting/blitzing routines, the two time per
day split routine, the three time per day split, the
“three days on, one day off” split routine, the four day
per week split, the six day per week split, exotic
isolation movements, sophisticated “space age”
training equipment, bio-rhythms, computers, slow
motion reps, time controlled reps, “sculpting,”
“shaping,” “toning,” body resistance training,
plyometrics, secret training systems from Eastern
Europe, periodization, and insanely complicated
training cycles, all of it packaged with pretty pictures
of pretty “champions” and all of it presented with a
staggering array of numbers, charts, graphs, and a
vocabulary that seemingly includes every seven
syllable word ever invented and a number of similar
monstrosities coined especially for use in the article
at hand.
The guys who read about “enhancing the metabolic
bio-enervation factors,” “preliminary and post-
exertional non-specific nutritional fortification of
resistive developmental reprogramming. or “coaxing
systemic growth through non-specific applied intensity
factors” are not truly interested in building size and
strength. And the guys who write that sort of drivel
have no idea what real training is all about.
If YOU enjoy that sort of claptrap, stop reading now.
This book is NOT for you. On the other hand. if you
would like to drop a heavy dumbbell on the head of
any clown who generates that sort of neurotic idiocy,
keep reading. You're my kind of reader.
Do you want to get bigger and stronger? I mean,
REALLY big and REALLY strong?
Then do this: stop trying to make your training
complicated. Forget about this theory and that theory.
Don't over-analyze the situation. Quit wasting time on
arid intellectual debates. Leave the theorizing for the
rest of the world.
107
THE PROGRAM
Go to the gym and train.
Follow this program. It's about as basic as it comes.
You might not understand everything about the
program, and it might be at odds with some of the pet
theories you have been reading about - in fact, it
probably is. The point is, however, that the program
will trigger BIG
GAINS in any lifter who gives it a try.
Train two days per week. Allow three to four days
between training sessions. Monday and Thursday is
good, Tuesday and Friday is fine. Wednesday and
Saturday is also fine. If you wish, forget about the
calendar week and simply train every third or fourth
day.
You will use two different training programs, one on
day one and the other on day two. The two sessions
allow you to divide your exercises so each session is
fairly brief and you can apply maximum focus,
intensity and effort to each exercise you do.
Start the program with medium heavy weights on
each exercise and take a couple of weeks to work up
to the top weight you can handle on each movement
for the required number of reps.
At that point, try to add weight to the bar whenever it is
possible to do so. Constantly strive to increase your
training poundages. Remember, we are doing
something called “weight training.” WEIGHT is
important. In fact, it is critical. You MUST add weight
to the bar over and over and over. To become a
weight training success, you need to push your
training poundages to VERY high levels.
CONCEIVE. BELIEVE. ACHIEVE!
How heavy? Heavier than you ever imagined! Never
sell yourself short when it comes to training
poundages.
Last year I lifted 300 pounds with the first two fingers
of my right hand, using a finger ring purchased from
IRONMIND ENTERPRISES. A week before that I
lifted 200 pounds with the middle finger of the right
hand. The other day I did a 700-pound hand and thigh
lift using only the first two fingers of each hand. How
did I do it? I did it because I refused to set limits on
what I could lift. I never DOUBTED what I could do. I
BELIEVED I could train my fingers to handle big
weights, and as a result, I did.
If you BELIEVE in yourself you can accomplish
incredible things. All it takes is belief. Give yourself a
chance. Don't give up before you get started. I've
probably been training for longer than many readers
have been alive, and I speak from YEARS of
experience when I say that you CAN and WILL
achieve your training goals. I KNOW you can do it. Let
my belief become your belief. See your ultimate
success as a foregone conclusion. Believe you can -
and you will!
HARRY PASCHALL'S OPINION
One of the all-time greatest writers in the history of the
Iron Game, Harry Paschall, nailed this point to the
wall. He wrote:
“Just to dream you can lift 300 pounds is no sign
you can do it. You must build the necessary cords
and sinews and muscle fibers to handle such a
weight, or you may be in for a rude awakening.
However, the weight trainer who consistently dreams
a dream and works and exercises to achieve it, is
quite apt to accomplish just about as much as he
sets his subconscious mind to do.
It is, therefore, important to the seeker-of-strength
that he lift the horizon of his dreams to make sure
they are high enough. If you are content to dream of
a 200-pound lift, then quite likely that is as far as
your inner urge will carry you. If you dream 300
pounds, then that, too, is a very real possibility. If
you lift your sights and dream of 400 pounds, you
have a very good chance of making it.
Let us have bigger and better dreams, for they will
lead us to bigger and better men. ” [THE
DEVELOPMENT OF STRENGTH, p. 69,]
Having said THAT, here's the training program:
simple, basic and uncomplicated. Nothing fancy. The
sort of stuff the other guys would never DREAM of
doing because it doesn’t seem to be sufficiently
scientific. The sort of stuff the arm-chair experts never
tell you about. The 108
sort of stuff MEN do. The sort of stuff the old-timers
used to do. Stuff that involves basic equipment, basic
exercises and good old fashioned hard work. The sort
of stuff that builds strength, power and muscular size.
DAY ONE
Start your training session with several minutes of
light calisthenics, rope skipping, jogging in place or
similar cardiovascular work. This is to get you
warmed up and ready for the heavy stuff that is to
follow.
PARALLEL SQUATS
Your first exercise will he the most important of the
entire week: the barbell squat. Do four sets of five
reps. Start light and add weight on each set, working
up to your top weight for five reps. The idea is to do
three progressively heavier warm up sets followed by
one set that almost kills you. Of course, the final set is
the one that is going to trigger gains in muscular
strength and size.
Why do the warmup sets? Why not jump straight into
the heavy set and go for broke? There are several
reasons. First, the warmup sets help to reduce the
risk of injury. Second, the warmup sets help you
develop and maintain good exercise form. Third, the
warmup sets allow you to practice concentration,
visualization and all of the other mental skills so
fundamental to training success.
Fourth, and perhaps most important, the warm-ups
teach you the success habit. What do I mean? Think
about it. It is much easier to tackle an all-out set with a
goal of five reps AFTER
you already have done several sets of five reps with
lighter poundages. Why is it easier?
Because you have developed a pattern of successful
five rep sets. The final set is merely part of the pattern.
Another way of looking at the final set of five reps is
by comparing the weight to the poundage handled on
the third set. Let's say I am doing squats and I decide
to do five reps with 405 pounds. Mentally, that sounds
like a daunting task. “FIVE (!) reps with FOUR
HUNDRED AND FIVE (!) pounds ... wow, that sounds
heavy!” But if I already have done 135 for five reps,
225 for five reps, and 315 for five reps, then all I am
doing is taking the same standard weight jump of 90
pounds per set and doing my final set of five reps.
Phrased in those terms, the set sounds challenging
but not impossible. Thus, the lighter sets serve an
important purpose: they allow me to approach the
final set with the CONFIDENCE that is required to
move a heavy poundage.
GO HARD AND HEAVY ON YOUR SQUATS! The
squat is greatest builder of men in the history of the
Iron Game. Squats are the single best exercise you
can do. Squats will literally TRANSFORM your body.
Attack your squats like a CHARGING GRIZZLY. Work
them hard ... EXCRUCIATINGLY HARD. Give them
everything you have - then give them some more. You
won't believe the results.
STANDING BARBELL PRESSES
After the squats, do four sets of five reps in the
standing barbell press. Use the same progression as
on the squats: three progressively heavier sets of five
reps followed by one all-out set of five reps with every
ounce of weight you can handle.
The standing barbell press is a tremendous exercise,
and one that has fallen into neglect over the past 20
years. That's a shame, because me standing press is
one of the best exercises a man can do. The beauty
of the standing press is that you must keep the entire
body hard, tight and controlled as you press the
weight. You don't simply flop down on a bench, but
rather, you BECOME the bench. This works me heck
out of the all important stabilizers throughout the upper
and lower back, the sides, and the waist. In addition,
of course, you work your shoulders, traps and triceps
into the ground. Treat the standing press as a very
important, very critical exercise. It will pay enormous
dividends in muscular size and strength.
109
BARBELL BENT-OVER ROWING
Next, do barbell bent-over rowing. Same sets and
reps, same poundage progression. Kill yourself on
the final set of five reps. The barbell bent-over row has
gotten lots of bad press in recent years, and as a
result, many now believe it is a dangerous exercise. I
disagree. I think the barbell bent-over row is one of
the very best upper body exercises a man can do,
and I'm not alone in that belief. Peary Rader, Bradley
J. Steiner, Dr. Randall J. Strossen, John McCallum
and Reg Park have said the same thing. Sure, the
exercise is TOUGH – but that's one reason why it is
so effective. Seated cable rows may be more
comfortable than heavy barbell rowing, but they are
virtually ineffective when compared to the real thing.
Push your barbell rowing (if I can say that about a
PULLING moment!), and push it hard.
Of course, you need to do the exercise the right way.
Pull the bar to your lower abdomen, not to your chest.
Slide it right up your legs. Keep the knees bent and
the back flat. And if your back is too weak to do the
exercise without rounding, then TRAIN YOUR LOWER
BACK!
The “soft and gentle” crowd claims the bent over row
can hurt your lower back. They also urge you to avoid
Olympic lifting. Terrific combination! If you can't do
bent-over rowing because of a weak lower back, the
BEST thing you can do is a couple of months of
serious back building with Olympic-style pulling
movements. Once you can clean, pull and snatch big
weights, you'll darn well be able to handle similar
poundages in rowing. And you never would have had
the problem in the first place if you had included
Olympic movements in your training from Day One.
Back to the program!
THE FARMER'S WALK
For your fourth exercise, do the farmer's walk with a
pair of heavy dumbbells. Do one set.
Walk for time or for distance. Go as far or as long as
possible. Keep going until the bells fall out of your
exhausted fingers. This is a terrific movement for grip
strength, and when you handle heavy weights, it
becomes a terrific exercise for the entire body as well
as a tremendous conditioner. Dr. Ken Leistner (owner
of the Iron Island Gym) and Dick Conner (owner of
The Pit) both love this exercise, and between the two
of them, they have developed THOUSANDS of weight
training successes. Give the movement a try, work it
hard, stick with it for awhile, and you will see why the
Farmer's Walk ranks as one of the best all-around
movements there is.
THE WRAP-UP
After the Farmer's Walk, do two sets of 8-15 reps in
the bent legged situp. Hold a plate behind your head.
Strong abs are of VITAL importance for any would-be
powerhouse, and the bent legged situp is one of the
best ways to strengthen the mid-section. Work them
hard and serious.
Finish the day with one or two sets of any auxiliary
movements you wish to employ: barbell or dumbbell
curls, neck work with a head strap, or calf raises. If
you feel like skipping the auxiliary moves, that's fine.
Be careful not to overdo the auxiliary stuff - a total of
one to three auxiliary exercises for no more than two
or three sets each is ALL you should do. You don't
want the secondary stuff to detract from your efforts on
the big movements.
DAY TWO
Begin with the same overall warmup you used in day
one.
HEAVY BACK WORK
Next, do a heavy pulling movement - i.e., a heavy
back movement. Do regular deadlifts or stiff legged
deadlifts, using an Olympic barbell, a Trap Bar or
heavy dumbbells. If you prefer, do power cleans,
power pulls or power snatches instead of the
deadlifts. For my money, the cleans, pulls or snatches
are the best back builders a man can do. Give them a
try and see for yourself.
110
For the deadlifts, do four sets of five reps - same as
on day one. For the cleans, pulls or snatches, do four
sets of five reps if you like, or, if you prefer lower reps
due to the more technical nature of the lifts, use triples
or doubles and add an extra warmup set. For
example, you might try five progressively heavier sets
of three reps in the power clean, power pull or power
snatch, with the final set being the “go for broke” set.
Heavy pulling movements are CRITICAL for anyone
interested in developing the maximum in total body
power. Your lower back is a vital zone. Turn it into a
POWER zone. Develop a lower back that looks like a
pair of boa constrictors are crawling up your spine.
Far too many lifters ignore their lower back. This is
ALWAYS a mistake. The lower back may not show up
like a nicely pumped biceps when you throw a pose in
front of the mirror or flex the old body to impress the
pretty girls at the beach, but it is far and away the
most important area of a man's physique. Make up
your mind – NOW - to get very, very strong on your
pulling movements.
Far too many modern trainees focus almost
exclusively on the upper lats and virtually ignore the
lower back in their training. This is a SERIOUS
mistake. It also is one that misguided trainees have
been making for many years. In 1924, Alan Calvert
noted (at p. 57 of SUPER
STRENGTH):
“It is easier to build muscles across the upper back
than on almost any other part of the body.
So most men who take up exercise show results
there more quickly than in their arms and much
sooner than in their legs. Again, upper-back
exercises are so easy, and cause such little fatigue,
that the beginner is tempted to spend all his time at
such exercises. Many a man has had a reputation
as a “Strong Man” because he shows up well when
he has his picture taken in this pose; whereas, if he
had a full-length back view taken, it would reveal that
the lower part of his back, his haunches and his legs,
showed no more development than that of the
average 16-year-old boy. Understand me, upper-
back development is important, but not nearly as
important as development in the lower part of the
back. ” [Emphasis in original].
BENCH PRESSES
After the back work, do bench presses. Use barbells
or dumbbells. If you wish, use the power rack and
position the bar so that you begin each set from a
dead stop at the chest (with the bar resting on pins
set so it grazes the chest at the start of each rep).
Four sets of five reps - you know the drill.
Bench presses are one of the most productive
movements a man can do. WORK THEM
HARD! Trying to develop maximum muscular size
and strength without bench pressing is almost
impossible. Bench hard, bench heavy and GROW
STRONG!
If you'd like a little change of pace, try floor presses.
What are floor presses? Floor presses are bench
presses the way the old-timers used to do them - lying
on the floor. Do them in a power rack, with the pins
set so you can slide under the bar, lift it, set it back
down and wiggle out from underneath.
The floor press is a BRUTAL exercise. It is totally
strict - no bounce, no arch, no cheat. You also don't
get the benefit of a lat thrust the way you do in regular
benches. I rate it as about ten percent tougher than
bench presses. And TOUGHER is BETTER in my
book!
THE SANDBAG CARRY
Follow the bench press (or floor press) with the
sandbag carry. Make yourself a sturdy sandbag of
100 to 150 pounds, grab it in a bear-hug and WALK
with the monster as far as possible. Set a course and
follow the course - a quarter mile on a track, around a
football field, around a parking lot, around the block,
down the street for two blocks and then back ...
anything that forces you to work as hard as possible
and brings you to total collapse by the end of the
course.
I have a good friend, Bob Whelan, who is a strength
coach in Washington, D.C. You may have read Bob
Whelan's articles about the sandbag carry. Bob loves
this exercise. He loves it so much that he lets his
clients call to cuss me out for suggesting he have
them do it. Problem is, he makes them call after they
do the exercise, and by that point, they are so
thoroughly destroyed that all they can do is gasp and
sputter. I get an average of one such call per month.
111
It's better than a personal 900 number service. Try the
sandbag walk - I mean, REALLY try it
- and you'll understand what I am talking about.
If the weather is lousy, substitute a little goodie I
learned from Kim Wood. Stay inside with your
sandbag. Pick it up and place it on a sturdy platform
that's about 4' or 5' high. (The back of a pick-up truck
works well, as does a loading dock; or build a solid
platform out of 2 x 4's.) Lower the monster to the
ground.
Repeat 100 times.
Collapse.
ABS AND EXTRAS
After the sandbag walk, do two sets (per side) of
heavy side-bends. Remember, the center of the body
is the center of a man's power - and that includes the
sides just as much as the lower back and the abs.
Don't treat your side-bends as a waist-reducing,
shaping or cosmetizing movement. Treat them as a
SERIOUS, no-nonsense, dinosaur-style strength
builder. And remember this: the old-timers had
tremendously strong waists, including the sides. If you
don't believe me, try doing a side press or bent press
with 150 or 200 pounds. The average guy who tries
this will crumple like jelly - and his sides will crumple
first. But men like John Y. Smith, Thomas Inch and
Edward Aston could bent press up to 300 pounds,
and Arthur Saxon could handle close to 400 pounds in
the bent press. Maybe, just maybe, modern lifters
have something to learn from these Iron Game
Immortals.
After the side-bends, do any auxiliary exercises that
appeal to you—or skip them. You may very well want
to skip them. The sandbag walk is a FINISHER. You
won't have much gas in your tank after you finish this
one, and the side bends might take everything you
have left after the sandbag walk.
That's the entire program.
THE SCHEDULE
When you schedule it out, it looks like this:
DAY ONE
1. Squat 4x5
2. Standing Press 4x5
3. Bent-over Barbell Row 4x5
4. Farmer's Walk (one time)
5. Bent-legged situps 2x8-15
6. Auxiliary work for neck, biceps or calves (optional)
DAY TWO
1. Bent-legged Deadlift, Stiff-legged Deadlift, Power
Clean, Power Pull, or Power Snatch 4 x 5 (or 5 x 3 for
cleans, pulls or snatches)
2. Bench Press (barbell or dumbbell) (or floor press)
4x5
3. Sandbag Walk (one time)
4. Side-bends 2x8-15
5. Auxiliary work as on Day One (optional)
Sounds simple, doesn't it? That's because it IS
simple.
Hard? Just try it.
WILL IT WORK?
Is this program TOO SIMPLE to work? Wouldn't a
more complicated, “scientific” program produce
better results?
Well, consider this. Let's assume we have a guy who
trains on this program for ten or twelve weeks, takes a
one week lay-off, then trains it again for ten or twelve
weeks, rests for a week, 112
then repeats the process a couple of more times. All
in all, he trains on the program (with a couple of one
week lay-offs every three or four months) for two or
three full years. He works hard, always tries to add
weight to the bar, gets plenty of rest and sleep, and
shovels down plenty of good, solid food - steaks,
chops, potatoes, rice, pasta, ground beef, turkey,
chicken, fish (especially tuna fish), fresh green
vegetables, fresh fruits and fruit juices, bread, cheese
and milk.
Our hypothetical trainee might weigh 145 pounds at
5'9” when he begins the program, and he might
handle weights as light as 50 or 60 pounds in the
squat, bench press and deadlift. He might not be able
to lift a 100 pound sandbag, let alone walk with it.
What results would I expect after two or three years of
training on this program? I'd expect our 145 pound
trainee to weigh at least 185 pounds, all of it solid
muscle, and I would expect him to be handling close
to 300 pounds for five reps in the bench press, about
350 pounds for five reps in the squat and something
like 400 pounds for five reps in the deadlift. He’ll also
be a very well-rounded strength athlete if he includes
some Olympic pulling movements, works extra hard
on his overhead presses and trains his grip like a
fanatic. Not too many gyms have guys who are well
rounded enough to post good numbers in the bench,
squat, and deadlift, and ALSO be able to do things
like heavy overhead presses, power cleans and
power snatches with impressive weights, bag and
barrel lifting and unusual feats of grip strength. That
sort of overall “balance” is well worth aiming for - and
this program will help you obtain it.
GENETICS: THE MODERN ALIBI
Some of you may think that results like this are only
possible for the genetic elite of the training world.
You're wrong. You've been brainwashed. You've been
reading too much modern day nonsense from the
gentle blasters, the soft and gentle crowd and the
crybaby brigade.
Far too much has been written in recent years about
“genetic limitations.” Some writers seem to LOVE to
tell you that you are doomed to a life of muscleless
mediocrity. “Measure your wrists,” they say. “If your
wrists are less than seven and one-half inches, you'll
be a midget no matter how hard you try! But that's OK
- there' s nothing wrong with being a midget!” BULL!
Guys, the worst mistake you can ever make is
listening to any arm-chair academic who tries to tell
you that you'll never be big and strong because you
don't have “the right genetics.” Far too many men
have built ENORMOUS levels of muscular size and
strength EVEN though they had small bones or were
otherwise prime candidates for the genetic junk pile.
The guys who whine and moan about “poor genetics”
are simply looking for an excuse. And the writers who
cater to them are simply telling them what they want to
hear.
If you want to make REAL progress you need to make
a conscious effort to avoid negative people. Start by
avoiding the “genetics are everything” crowd. Leave
them to wallow in the meatless broth of their
vegetable-based, bunny rabbit, self-pity. Be a
dinosaur. Cultivate a MAN'S approach. Be TOUGH.
Expect to succeed. You will!
GIVE IT A TRY!
There are other training programs that can deliver
similar results, but you can only train on one program
at a time, so why not give THIS program a try? Test it
for three or four months.
Make it an honest test. Give your all to every top
poundage set you do. Let intensity, aggression, focus
and determination become your watchwords. Try to
make each training session better than the one
before. After a couple of months, take a look at your
training poundages and your physique. You won't
believe how well you have gained.
Remember, the best programs are the time-tested,
basic programs that stress HARD WORK
on a limited number of the most productive exercises.
Productive training is simple. The more complex your
training programs become, the less likely they are to
deliver what counts: RESULTS!
Now, GO OUT AND TRAIN!
113
Perserverance, patience and determination will be
repaid in untold wealth, health, strength, self-reliance
and fortitude.
George F. Jowett
Act well at the moment, and you have performed a
good action to all eternity.
~Johann Kasper Lavater
114
CHAPTER NINETEEN: CONCENTRATE!
Ideas shape the course of history.
~John Maynard Keyes
Dinosaurs know that the mental aspects of training
are what ultimately determine how successful you are.
Of all of the mental aspects of training, the art of
concentration is perhaps the most important. As
George Hackenschmidt noted many years ago,
“Without concentration of thought, you are courting
failure.” I was reminded of this one day when I was still
training at a commercial gym. The story is true; the
names have been changed to protect the guilty.
THE BUNNY TRAINERS
At the gym one day, I saw Joe Wannabe breezing a
“heavy” workout. He and his training partners were
working chest and back. I was finishing up with 30
minutes on the stationary bicycle, so I was able to
watch and listen to the whole thing.
They began their workout with bench presses. While
they were loading the bar for their first set they got into
some kind of political debate. I couldn't quite follow it,
except someone was saying the President ought to
be impeached. Joe got on the bench, took the bar
and knocked off a quick ten reps. He continued to
argue the impeachment issue during his set.
Joe's training partners each did a set, and then
added 20 pounds to the bar for a total poundage of
155. Joe said he needed to “psyche up” for this set.
He sat on the bench, scowling ferociously and sucking
in huge breaths of air.
Kim Hotbody, the resident gym bunny that year,
wiggled past him. She looks terrific in workout gear,
but I always wondered why she wears high heels to
the gym. I also wondered how long it takes to put on
her makeup before each training session. Joe
paused for a second, following her fulsome form with
longing eyes.
Still staring in her direction, he lay back on the bench,
took the bar and ground out a ragged set of seven
reps.
“Damn,” he said, as he sat up. “That sure felt heavy – I
was hoping to get 10 or 12.” His eyes anxiously
scanned the room, located Kim, and settled into a
continuing gaze of ardent admiration.
“How many did you get last time?” asked one of his
training partners.
“Huh?” Joe responded. “I dunno. Maybe 9 or 10. But I
think we were using 150. I don't have time to keep
track of things like that.”
Each of the training partners grunted out a set of five
or six reps. They loaded the bar to 175
for their final set. “I'm not getting much of a pump.” Joe
complained.
“Maybe we should have supersetted with flyes or
cable-crossovers.”
“Let's do a tri-set of dips, incline flyes and pec dec
work.”
“Maybe we ought to do our bench presses with a wide
grip, lowering the bar to the neck,” suggested the
other training partner, “I heard that's how they do it out
on the west coast.”
“Let's do some triple-drop agony sets on the pec
blaster machine.” said Joe. “We can even do
negative resistance on the last set'“
The trio ambled over to the pec blaster unit,
conveniently located next to a glute-buster that Kim
was using (high heels and all).
“Do you think the President should be impeached?”
Joe asked Kim as he began his first agony set.
THE MORAL OF THE STORY
Just in case you were wondering, Joe and his
buddies are NOT being offered as examples of the
proper way to train. Their shenanigans, however, offer
a perfect illustration of one of the most common
problems of trainees the world over: lack of
concentration during one's training sessions. Joe and
his buddies are wasting every second that they spend
in the gym. Why?
Because they are not concentrating on the task at
hand.
115
When you go to the gym, you go there to TRAIN. You
don't go there to socialize. You don't go there to ogle
the gym bunnies. You don't go there to talk politics.
You don't go there to show everyone how hot you look
in $200 worth of designer gym apparel.
When you perform any set of any exercise you are
doing something that has a very specific, particular
purpose. If you are doing a warmup set then the
purpose of your exertions is to prepare yourself,
mentally and physically, for the heavier set or sets that
are to follow. You also are priming the motor
pathways of the nervous system to allow your body to
work in perfect form once you begin to pile weight on
the bar. If you are doing a heavy set, your goal is to
meet or exceed the number of reps that you have
targeted to achieve with that particular poundage in
that particular training session.
You are NOT merely performing four sets of eight or
five sets of five simply because that is what is
scheduled in your training program. Every set has a
definite purpose and when you perform a set the
achievement of its purpose should be the sole focus
of your attention.
Each rep also has its own unique purpose.
Remember, if set is nothing but a series of reps. In
any set of multiple reps, the initial reps - the relatively
easy ones – must be completed in perfect form to
help you maintain that all-critical form during the final
rep or reps of the set -
the ones where the bar feels like it is going to drive
you through the floor and it takes every bit of
determination that you possess to meet the targeted
number of reps while maintaining proper form. The
final reps - the incredibly hard ones - serve a different
purpose: that of triggering increases in muscular size
and strength.
Whenever you go to the gym you must go with a
sense of purpose. You must know exactly what you
plan to do. The exercises, weights, sets and reps - all
must be selected in advance.
Everything you do must be pre-determined. The
purpose of going to the gym is to perform the
exercises, sets and reps that you are scheduled to
do.
Dr. Ken Leistner hit the nail on the head in an article
titled “Purposeful Training” (THE
STEEL TIP, Vol. I.No,6.June. 1985). He wrote:
“Training has to be purposeful to be effective. Every
rep and every set has to count for something ...
Training must lead to the attainment of a goal.
... Each movement in the program should serve to
get you closer to the goal you have set before you.
All of this requires concentration. If there is any sort
of training “secret” that I can offer you.
it is this: the secret of concentration. Developing the
ability to concentrate when you go to the gym is one
of the keys to success for a serious lifter. If you
develop this ability, you are guaranteed to succeed.
If you fail to develop this ability, then your results will
be far, far less than you desire. ”
And don't think this is some sort of mumbo-jumbo or
the brainchild of an arm-chair theorizer.
In my own case, the ability to train or compete in a
state of deep, focused, almost hypnotic intensity – a
state of total concentration - has led me to five
National Championships and over a dozen National,
American or World records in the Submasters
Division in drug-free powerlifting competition. This
stuff really works - more than anything else I know.
Parts of what follows may seem a little strange or
esoteric, but the system WORKS.
Fortunately, the ability to concentrate is not an innate
gift. Anyone who is able to read this book can
develop the ability to concentrate during his training
sessions. All it requires is desire, concentrated effort
and the implementation of a systematic approach to
concentration.
The system I use and teach involves the ten elements
detailed below. If you study these elements and work
hard to implement them in your training then you will
develop the ability to concentrate like a master within
15 to 20 workouts. This may sound like a lot of work
with little in the way of tangible rewards, but let me
assure you that developing the ability to concentrate
will do more for your progress than anything money
could buy, and that includes all the designer
supplements, the gimmicky new training devices, the
latest exercise machines and all the super-duper
training programs ever invented .
116
GOALS
The ability to concentrate begins with the formation of
clearly defined training goals. You MUST determine
exactly what it is that you wish to achieve from your
training. Your goals should be stated as clearly and
specifically as possible. Do not merely decide, “I want
to get stronger.” Those are general goals, not specific
goals. Instead of deciding you want to “get stronger,”
decide that you want to develop the ability to bench
300 pounds, squat 400 pounds and deadlift 500
pounds, all for one rep in good form with no training
aids other than a lifting belt.
The goals detailed in the previous paragraph are long
term goals. Long term goals are critically important to
your training success. Equally important, however, are
short term goals. An example of a short term goal is
the desire to add 20 pounds to your maximum bench
press over the next three months.
Goals are an aid to concentration because they focus
your attention on what you are trying to achieve. It is
much easier to develop the ability to concentrate on
your training if you go to the gym with a definite idea
of your short term and long term goals. If you go to the
gym with nothing more than a general idea that you
want to get bigger or stronger, there is a much greater
tendency for the mind to wander. Your mind is like a
locomotive engine. It needs a track to run upon or else
it will roam helter-skelter across the countryside. Your
long term and short term goals are the track upon
which your mental engine must run.
YOUR TRAINING JOURNAL
One of Joe Wannabe's many mistakes was failing to
keep attaining journal, (Did you notice how he could
not remember what weight he used for his bench
presses or how many reps he performed in his
previous workout?) Joe needs to keep a training
journal, and so do YOU. I mean each and every one of
you. Developing the ability to concentrate during your
training sessions without keeping a training journal is
a little like cooking bacon and eggs without having
any eggs.
Your training journal ties in to your short term goals.
Before you go to the gym, you need to review exactly
what you did during your previous training session.
This tells you what you are capable of doing the next
time you visit the gym. Your short term goal will be to
exceed what you accomplished in the previous
training session. If you handled 200 pounds for three
sets of five reps in the bench press when you trained
your chest last Monday, your goal will be to add five
pounds to the bar and still perform three sets of five
reps. If you only get four reps on your final set, then the
goal in your next training session will be to stay at that
weight but get five reps in all three sets. So it goes for
each and every exercise you do.
Your training diary also allows you to compete with
yourself from year to year. Here is an example. I do
power rack bench presses from all sorts of different
heights. I also do them with two different grips: my
regular (medium) grip and a narrow grip. Obviously, I
cannot do all heights and all grips during the course of
any one workout. What I typically do is work one style
for awhile and then switch to another style. This
means, for example, that it may be six months or
more between training sessions when I do “close grip
bench presses beginning with the bar at chest height.”
Given the passage of so much time, I have no way of
remembering what weights I used the last time I did
the exercise in that fashion or how my progress went.
Using the training journal allows me to compete with
myself by attempting to match my previous efforts rep
for rep and pound for pound. Without a training diary
to guide me, I would have no way of remembering my
previous best in this style of performance and no clear
idea what weights and reps to shoot for.
PRE-TRAINING FOCUS
To be most effective, your concentration needs to
begin at least 20 to 30 minutes before you even set
foot in the gym. If you decide to concentrate on your
workout only after you reach the gym, you are selling
yourself short. The better approach is to start thinking
about your workout long before you arrive at the gym.
Take your training diary, review it, and write out the
exercises, reps and sets that you are scheduled to
perform during the coming training 117
session. Think about your workout. If you drive to the
gym, turn off your car radio or change to a music
channel - you don't need to be distracted by some
moronic talk show or babbling newscaster. If you can,
drive over by yourself. No need to be impolite, but
conversation at this stage of the game is against
doctor's orders.
As you travel to the gym mentally review the
exercises, poundages, sets and reps that you will
perform during your training session. Pretend you
have a movie projector running in the center of your
imagination. The feature is your upcoming workout.
Picture the gym, the equipment, the loaded bars, and,
as the star of the film, your very own self. Watch
yourself perform the sets and reps scheduled for this
training session. Focus on the little things - the details.
Imagine the way the bar feels when you grip it in your
hands. Smell the sweat, stale air and liniment,
imagine the way your abs push against your training
belt as you tighten it for that heavy set of squats. Feel
the sweat trickling down your face as you grind your
way through a heavy set of deadlifts.
By the time you get to the gym, you will have
experienced your training session several times. You
will know exactly what to do and how to do it. There
will be no questions in your mind because you will
have reviewed a video history of what is about to
transpire. You will feel an enormous sense of
confidence. You won't wonder whether you will be
able to hit three sets of five with 300 pounds in the
squat - you've already seen yourself manage the feat
several times.
For those of you who train at home, the principle is
exactly the same. All you need is 20 or 30
minutes without distraction in order to mentally
rehearse your training session. If family or friends are
too distracting at your house, walk around the block
and do your visualization that way. This also serves as
a mild aerobic warmup. If it is the middle of winter and
there is a foot of snow on the ground, go to your
training quarters and do 20 or 30 minutes of light
aerobic work or stretching before you hit the weights.
Use this time primarily as an opportunity to mentally
rehearse the upcoming battle with the iron.
WARMUP SETS
By now, you know that in my own training I favor
training systems that involve several progressively
heavier warmup sets prior to the performance of the
one or two heavy sets of any particular exercise. For
example, I recommend the 5x5 training system, where
you do two progressively heavier warmup sets of five
reps and then do three sets of five with your top
weight. One of the reasons I favor this training system
is that it allows you to develop the ability to
concentrate to the maximum degree. You do this by
practicing the art of concentration during your warmup
sets.
Using a maximum weight for a given number of reps
in any set is incredibly taxing. It is painful work. The
sheer weight of the bar alone can be a distraction. So
can the pain. If you tend to forget about concentration
during your warmup sets and then try to concentrate
“out of the blue” when the weight is at its heaviest and
distraction is greatest, you are doing yourself a grave
disservice.
A far better approach is to use intense, focused
concentration on each rep of every set that you
perform, including the warmup sets. Remember,
concentration and proper exercise form go hand in
hand. You need to concentrate on what you are doing
in order to maintain proper form. If you perform your
warmup sets in letter perfect form, it is much easier to
maintain your form when there is a maximum weight
on the bar. The same is true of the art of
concentration. If you concentrate as you perform your
warmup sets, maintaining your concentration and
focus during a heavy set is much, much easier.
My mentor, Bradley J. Steiner, often wrote about the
importance of concentration in training.
He sometimes said you need to “think into your
muscles” as you perform a particular exercise. Other
times he said you need to “become the muscle” that
you are exercising. This concept is difficult to
describe, but you really need to give it a try. Trial and
error will teach you what we mean. But you need to do
this on every set that you perform. You can develop
the ability to “become your biceps” much more easily
when you are doing a warmup set with 80 pounds
than when you are gutting out five reps with 120
pounds. As in most other 118
endeavors, the principle of repetition is critical to your
success. The more often you concentrate the better
you will become at it. Any set performed without
maximum focus and intense mental concentration is a
wasted opportunity to further develop your powers of
concentration. In contrast, any set that you perform
with maximum focus, even if it is a warmup set, will be
a significant step on the road to training success.
THE NO TALKING RULE
Those of you with a training partner need to impose
the “no talking rule.” This rule applies to anybody who
is beginning to concentrate or focus upon an
upcoming set. The rule is simply this: any lifter who is
beginning to focus on an upcoming set needs to be
given the opportunity to do so in complete silence. If
the training partners know from experience that a
word or two of encouragement is beneficial, then
words of encouragement are permitted.
Other than this, the training partners are not allowed to
talk to the lifter, and in NO
circumstances are the training partners allowed to
stand around “shooting the breeze.” Talking about
politics, girls, movies, or any other idle topic of
childish chatter is strictly forbidden. The gym is a
serious place. It does not have to be a silent place,
but it needs to be treated as “sacred ground.” The
chitchat belongs in other venues.
Any training partner who ever talks to you during the
middle of a set, even a warmup set, has ruined an
opportunity for you to advance a step on the road to
self-actualization. Tell him, directly, plainly and bluntly,
not to do it again. If he persists, find another training
partner. I'm sorry if this seems unsociable, but weight
training is not a social endeavor, it is a serious
endeavor, and you need to surround yourself with
serious people. So-called “friends” who can't keep
quiet during a training session will poison your
progress and bring a halt to any hope of impressive
gains.
MORE MENTAL REHEARSAL
We have addressed the need for mental rehearsal
immediately before your workout. You also should use
an abbreviated form of this technique immediately
before each set that you perform. Take at least 30
seconds before you begin your set (including warm-
ups!) and go off by yourself - close your eyes -
breathe deeply and rhythmically - shut out all sounds
and all distractions - and visualize the performance of
the coming set.
Begin with a mental image of yourself as you
approach the bar. Watch yourself get into position.
Experience the feelings, smells, noises and
sensations as you perform the set.
Always perform the same number of reps that you will
perform in real life. Pause between reps, just as you
would in real life. Make the sequence as authentic
and realistic as possible.
As you become better and better at this technique you
can fine tune it to increase your ability to concentrate,
One way to do this is to employ what I call the “tunnel
vision” technique.
Begin your mental movie by watching yourself stand
at one end of a long, narrow corridor.
The barbell is at the other end of the corridor. Nothing
else exists in the entire universe. There is only you,
the corridor and the barbell. As you walk toward the
barbell the walls of the corridor narrow, mimicking the
focus with which you will bring your concentration to a
level of pinpoint intensity. As you grasp the bar, the
walls of the tunnel close in, fold into themselves and
disappear. There is nothing left but you and the bar.
Now begin the set.
Strange as it seems, this technique will work wonders
for your ability to eliminate distractions and
concentrate entirely, exclusively and totally on
whatever exercise you are doing when it is actually
time to begin your set. This is particularly true if you
do your mental rehearsal 10 or 20 feet away from the
bar, so that the second the movie goes off you can
begin walking towards the bar - mimicking the movie
sequence where you are walking down the isolated
corridor.
PRE-SET ACTIVATORS: “SWITCHING IT ON”
Another little trick that sounds strange but works
wonders is what I refer to as a “pre-set activator.”
Imagine that your powers of concentration can be
switched on or off exactly the same as you switch on a
light when you enter a room. Your pre-set activator is
the mental 119
equivalent of flipping the switch to the “on” position. It
can be any sort of physical or verbal command that
you wish to use. You can say (either silently or out
loud) “go” or “on.” You can clap your hands. You can
do something a little more ritualistic if you wish: slap
your left shoulder, slap your right shoulder, clap your
hands, and say “go.” You can cross yourself if you are
religious. I like to tap my forehead with my right hand -
always three times. Don't ask me why I do this. I just
do. It has no purpose at all other than serving as my
personal means of
“switching on” the power of concentration. Once the
switch goes on, you could fire a gun in the air and I
wouldn't hear it.
For best results, combine the “switching it on”
technique with your pre-set visualization.
Include whatever it is you do as a pre-set activator in
the beginning sequence of your mental movie. This
sounds a little crazy, but it is a terrific way of
enhancing the remarkable benefits of both of these
subtle performance enhancers.
FOCUSED CONCENTRATION DURING THE SET
Immediately alter your pre-set activator, begin to
move towards the bar. Look directly at the bar. It is
critical that your gaze be focused directly on the bar to
the total exclusion of anything and everything else in
the world. The entire universe should boil down to a
single point of reference: the barbell. Visually, things
should be exactly the same as if you were indeed in a
long, narrow corridor with bare walls, striding
purposefully toward the barbell.
When you reach the bar, close your eyes, summon all
of your determination, focus and mental energy, take
a deep breath, assume the correct position for
whatever exercise it is that you are doing, and then
begin your set. At this point, it doesn't matter if your
eyes are open or shut. In either case, you really should
not be able to see anything at all. If you are looking in
a mirror, it should be as though you are not actually
watching yourself, but rather, as though you are
standing outside of your body watching it go through
the motions of the particular exercise you are doing. If
you do not use a mirror, you should be blind to your
surroundings.
Your entire focus should be on the performance of the
exercise. Pay attention to your body's feedback. Your
muscles constantly send signals to you. Are you on
target as you perform each rep? Are you “in the
groove”? Your body knows, even if you do not. Listen
to your body!
You should count reps, but should do so almost
automatically, without diverting your attention from the
performance of the reps. As you approach the end of
the set and the reps get harder and harder, your brain
should be flashing an urgent signal over and over:
PUSH, PUSH. PUSH. PUSH! It is exactly the same
as if there was a physical link between your
determination to complete the required number of
reps in a set and the muscles that are moving the bar.
You want the link between your determination and
your muscles to be crowded with messages telling the
muscles to give it all that they have. As you reach the
sticking point of the final rep of the set your mind
should literally bombard the muscles with repealed
messages urging the bar upward.
TAKING IT REP BY REP
If you are doing multiple reps in a set, break each one
down and make it stand entirely on its own as far as
your concentration goes. Don't worry about
performing the next rep. The next rep will always take
care of itself. Focus entirely on the rep that you are
actually performing.
As I mentioned earlier, try to “become” your muscles.
Tie yourself to the rep so tight and close that there is
nothing in the world but you and the rep. As my friend
Bob Whelan puts it,
“Be here now!”
Far too many people rush their reps in order to
complete a set as quickly as possible. This is exactly
the opposite of what you should do. You should make
each rep as productive as possible. For all practical
purposes, each rep becomes an entire workout unto
itself. This doesn't mean that you raise and lower at
some artificially predetermined rate of speed. It does
mean that you give each rep your absolute, undivided
attention. Remember, no matter what you do you
never will have an opportunity to again perform that
repetition. You only have 120
one opportunity to do it right. Take advantage of that
opportunity. Make the most of it.
Perform each rep as though it were the last that you
would ever perform.
THE SUCCESS HABIT
Earlier in this chapter I discussed the importance of
performing all of your sets, including your warmup
sets, with the same focused concentration with which
you would approach your hardest, heaviest set of the
day. This is an example of what I refer to as the
proper use of the
“success habit.” If you are able to successfully
concentrate on the performance of the lighter, warmup
sets, then you dramatically increase your ability to
concentrate properly during the performance of your
heaviest, hardest set.
For some lifters, cycling programs enhance this
process. During the first portion of a training cycle, a
lifter usually uses weights that are well within his
existing capabilities. Over time, he gradually builds up
to weights that require a maximum effort. During the
building up process the lifter is always able to meet
the number of reps targeted for any particular
exercise in any particular training session. He also
should be able to give each set the concentration and
focus that I have described throughout this chapter. All
of this will develop a significant sense of self-
confidence. When he gets to the more difficult stage
of his training cycle, the lifter will approach each heavy
set with a firm belief in his ability to meet or exceed
the targeted number of reps for that particular
exercise on that particular day. He also will have full
confidence in his ability to give undivided focus to
each rep.
If you use cycles, make the most of your next training
cycle. Work at developing not only your physical
abilities throughout the course of the cycle but, in
addition, your mental abilities. In the final analysis, it is
the latter that will determine your training success.
Don't accuse nature, she has fulfilled her task;
you must fulfill yours.
~John Milton (a favorite
quotation of George Hackenschmidt)
Remember the story of the Spanish prisoner. For
many years he was confined in a dungeon... One
day it occurred to him to push to door of his cell. It
was open; and it had never been locked.
121
CHAPTER TWENTY: MORE ON THE MENTAL
ASPECTS OF
TRAINING
It is never too late to give up your prejudices.
~Henry David Thoreau
The material in this chapter and the previous chapter,
is among the most important in this book. Pay careful
attention to these chapters. Those of you who do will
reap far greater benefits from dinosaur training than
your less patient brethren who ignore or skim this
chapter and concentrate only on the sections detailing
exercises or methods of training.
Most people think that strength training is a purely
physical endeavor. Nothing could be further from the
truth. Training to develop maximum size and strength
depends as much on the mind and spirit as on the
body. In fact, of the two - the mind or the body - the
mind is by far the most important. Bradley J. Steiner
was absolutely correct when he noted: “The biggest
fool on earth is the man who scoffs at the invincible
power of the human spirit.” If you don't believe this,
consider something as simple as going to the gym for
your regularly scheduled training sessions. Believe it
or not, many people who train with weights don't make
it to the gym on a regular basis.
Face it, guys, hard physical training is incredibly
demanding. It is, in every sense of the word, a true
“grind.” The vast majority of people who start weight
training programs soon quit.
They give up. They can't take it. They lack the tenacity,
guts, determination and desire that are the
trademarks of a champion.
You will be unusual indeed if you do not find that there
are occasions when going out with your friends,
keeping a date with your girlfriend, or just staying at
home and being lazy seem far more desirable than
going to the gym for yet one more battle with the iron.
It is at times like these that the proper mental attitude
is the only thing that will see you through. If you do not
have a burning desire to succeed, a clear picture of
the goals you wish to achieve, and an unshaken belief
that you WILL achieve those goals, you probably will
go out drinking beer with your friends instead of going
to the gym. As Steiner noted: “You can make it to the
top without a lot of things - but there never yet was a
man who made it without the RESOLVE to do so”
Steiner also said “Persistence is the watch word. No
matter what, keep at your training.” These two
sentences are among the most important ever written
about productive training. Go back and read them
again. Write them on a piece of paper and carry it
with you. Read it once a day. BURN THOSE WORDS
INTO YOUR BEING.
Every champion in every sport has had moments
when he really didn't want to do any more training. The
ones who go to the gym under those circumstances
are the ones who end up being champions. The ones
who give in to the temptation to skip a scheduled
training session are the ones who either fall by the
wayside completely or live their lives in the middle
ranks of the mediocre. Which group you will fall into
depends entirely on the strength of your mind and the
power of your spirit. As IRON MAN and MILO author,
Anthony Ditillo, once noted:
“It takes more than just picture gazing in magazines...”
BURNING DESIRE
Experience is not what happens to a man;
it is what a man does with what happens to him.
~Aldous Huxley
Unless you are one of the lucky few who is naturally
gifted for rapid development of muscular size and
strength, building a truly strong and muscular body will
take years of steady effort. Take my own case, for
example. It took me more than twenty years of training
before I hit my lifetime goal of 400 pounds in the
bench press. (Part of the reason it took so long was
that I started training at such a young age - ten or
eleven years old - far too young to 122
build very much in the way of muscular size or
strength. But even if I had started training in my 20's it
would have taken quite a number of years to reach
that 400 pound lift.) The only way I achieved my goal
was by developing, cultivating, and nurturing a burning
desire to bench press 400 pounds.
It is not enough to merely “want” to be big and strong,
just the way you “want” to have a new car or you “want”
the latest CD or tape released by your favorite
recording artist. What I'm talking about is wanting
something with all of your heart and soul. I am talking
about a burning desire to achieve your goals, a desire
strong enough to carry you through any adversity, no
matter how great or how prolonged.
What I am talking about is a burning desire to
succeed that is so strong and intense you will NEVER
miss a workout simply because it might be more fun
to go out with your friends or stay home and watch TV.
I am talking about a burning desire that will see you
giving your maximum effort on EVERY scheduled
workout day that calls for such intensity. I am talking
about a burning desire that will keep you going to the
gym week after week, month after month, and YEAR
after YEAR until you achieve your goals.
I am talking about a vision of future success and a
burning desire to make that vision a reality.
Read the biographies of great men and you will see
what I am talking about. I am talking about
approaching your training goals with the same type of
drive, intensity and sense of purpose that motivated
men like Sir Winston Churchill, Abraham Lincoln,
Theodore Roosevelt, George Washington, Thomas
Jefferson, Ullyses S. Grant, Dwight D, Eisenhower
and General George S. Patton. These are men who
never gave up no matter what stood in their way. Each
had a vision - a dream - a goal. Nothing could keep
them from that goal. You see the same thing over and
over in me lives of men who have “made a
difference.” Bradley J. Steiner, who guided my
training for years via his books and his wonderful
articles in IRON MAN, MUSCULAR DEVELOPMENT
and STRENGTH AND HEALTH, constantly
emphasized the importance of the mental aspects of
physical training. In his 1974
treatise, A COMPLETE GUIDE TO EFFECTIVE
BARBELL TRAINING, Steiner described the one
attribute shared by all self-made strong men
throughout history:
“INDOMITABLE IRON WILL and an almost terrifying
burning DETERMINATION to build himself up. A
drive from within to be better and better, and still
better. A drive to face and crash through any barriers
that may appear.”
I was 17 when I purchased Steiner's wonderful book
and read those inspiring words. They have guided my
training ever since. Read them, absorb them, and
make them a part of your very being,
Before moving to the next section let's talk about one
related point. Your burning desire for success must be
related to an ACHIEVABLE goal. All the desire in the
world will do nothing but bring you frustration and
heartbreak if you have set your heart and soul on
achieving something that is, for you, physically
impossible. Hence the importance of realistic training
goals. If your goal in life is to bench press 400
pounds, and your frame is simply not sturdy enough
and your natural potential not great enough to allow
you to make such a lift, then you are not approaching
things from a very rational perspective.
If you are in your 20's or younger and have not done
much serious training, you may find it difficult to
assess your ultimate potential for strength and power.
In that case, shoot to achieve a 300 pound bench
press, 400 pound squat, and 500 pound deadlift.
These are goals that ANY
average fellow who gets an early start in his training
and who works HARD and INTELLIGENTLY can
eventually achieve. Only when you achieve those
goals should you turn your sights toward higher
numbers.
One final point and then I'll move on. This is directed
particularly at you younger guys. While a burning
desire for success is crucial to the achievement of
your training goals, it must not be allowed to interfere
with other worthwhile aspects of your life: school, for
instance. I am NOT suggesting that you give up
everything else and devote your entire life to weight
training. That would be foolish and idiotic.
Anyone who thinks that lifting weights is more
important than going to school, nurturing meaningful
social and family relationships, and working as hard
as possible at one's job or career is crazy. The guys
who devote their lives to nothing but training are the
guys who wake 123
up some time in their 30's or 40's and find that they
have completely missed out on everything else in life.
They are bums - self-made derelicts. Whatever you
do, do NOT become so totally absorbed in your lifting
that you give up on everything else in life.
SELF-CONFIDENCE
Concentrate your mind upon the idea
of acquiring health and strength.
The next mental attribute that you need to develop and
cultivate is self-confidence. You need to believe that
you WILL succeed and that you WILL reach your
training goals, whatever they may be. This is
particularly important if you are starting with a poor
foundation, if you have never trained before or if you
are an intermediate or advanced lifter who has been
at a plateau or slicking point for a number of years.
No matter who you are, no matter what shape you are
in at present, no matter what good or bad things may
have happened to you in the past in connection with
your training endeavors, remember this: you have in
your hands a comprehensive, detailed guide to an
excellent training system. I have worked long and hard
to make this book as complete and beneficial to you
as possible. It integrates my own twenty-five years of
personal experiences with training advice from the
best writers, coaches and teachers who ever graced
the physical culture world: men like Kim Wood,
Bradley J. Steiner, Dr. Ken Leistner, William F.
Hinbern, Charles Smith, David P. Willoughby, Harry
Paschall, Dr. Randall J. Strossen, Dick Conner,
Osmo Kiiha, Earle E. Liederman, George
Hackenschmidt, Anthony Ditillo, Charles Ross, Alan
Calvert, Mark Berry, Joseph C. Hise, George F.
Jowett, Doug Hepburn, John Grimek, Bob Hoffman,
Dennis Weiss, Vic Boff, Charles Teegarden, David
Horne, John Brookfield, Thomas Inch, Reg Park,
Roger Eells, Mike Thompson, Matt Furey and John
McCallum. I have trained with, competed against,
judged and exchanged training ideas with many,
many top competitors and coaches, including national
and world bench press and powerlifting champions.
This book combines all of the BEST from everyone
who ever taught me anything.
This is NOT a cheap training course that will work for
some guys but not for most.
All that is required is that YOU give forth an honest
effort on the training programs that I have outlined. I
have provided the information and know- how. YOU
need to provide the hard work. If you do, you may rest
assured that you WILL achieve your training goals.
Believe in yourself. Believe that you, like many others
before you, will build your muscular size and strength
to levels most men can not even imagine. Don't look
at your training as a temporary experiment –
something you are trying just to “see if it works.” Think
of your training as something that is absolutely,
without fail, going to produce the results that you
desire.
There may be many people you know who will ridicule
your training efforts and scoff at the idea that you will
ever develop much muscular size and strength. (This
may be particularly true for teenagers, but it really
applies to trainees of all ages.) The same sort of thing
even applies to advanced and intermediate trainers -
a fellow who has reached an advanced level of
training may have a personal goal of setting a state,
regional or even national record in lifting.
If he does, the odds are pretty good that the other
fellows in the gym will tell him that he is
“just dreaming.” Don't listen to negative influences like
that. Disregard the doubters and doom-savers. Ignore
the “wannabe's” who don't believe they really CAN be.
As long as your training goals are realistic, you WILL
achieve them. Others have done so, and there is no
reason - NO REASON ON EARTH - why you will not
be able to do the very same thing.
I would not have gone to the time and effort of putting
this book together if I thought that most fellows who
read it were going to end up by being disappointed. I
don't expect you to fail in your training program, so
why should YOU carry a burden of anticipated failure?
If you think that you will fail, you will. Ruthlessly
eliminate any and all thoughts of failure from your
mind. Tell yourself that you WILL succeed. Tell
yourself that you WILL achieve the 124
strength and size that you desire. Tell yourself that you
WILL achieve your training goals.
Approach your training with this type of attitude, and
your success is guaranteed.
POWER TALKING AND AUTO SUGGESTION
Keep progressing and growing and striving,
After all, that's what life is all about.
~Bradley J. Steiner
I can hear you now. “Burning desire,” you say. “Self-
confidence. That's easy for HIM to say -
he already benches over 400 pounds. I can only
bench 150 pounds. A mere 180 would bury me! What
good is self-confidence if you don't HAVE any
confidence!?” Whoa! Cool it, guys. There IS an
answer: power talking and autosuggestion.
Psychologists are well aware that if you hear
something enough times you eventually come to
believe it. This is the basic secret of all types of
propaganda – no matter how wild or crazy, if
something is said often enough the people who hear
it tend to believe it. As a political tool, propaganda
has a well-deserved bad name. But the same basic
principle is one that you can and should use in your
own training, and one that can bring you exceptional
results. It is not a complicated process and does not
require a degree in psychology. All you have to do is
learn to talk to yourself.
I know this sounds crazy, but I literally mean what I just
said: you need to learn to talk to yourself. Here's how
to do it. On your way to the gym, review the
approaching workout.
Think about the weights, sets, and reps that you plan
to use in each of your exercises.
Rehearse the entire workout in your mind. Convince
yourself that you will handle the scheduled weights for
the scheduled number of sets and reps.
Your mental dialogue might go something like this (if
you are an advanced lifter preparing for bench
presses): “135 x 5, warmup. Easy weight. No sweat.
225, five reps. No sweat. Easy weight. Baby weight.
Lightweight, 275. Five reps. No sweat. Easy. 315.
Working weight.
Three reps. Easy. Easy. You can do it. You KNOW
you can do it. Second set. 315. Three reps. You can
do it. You've done it before. You KNOW you can do it.
Third set. 315. Three reps. This is the one. This is it.
Get this one. You want this one. You need this one.
Do it, man, DO IT”
When you get to the gym and start to go through your
workout, keep up the same pattern (silently, please!)
before each set. Tell yourself you are going to make
the required number of reps. Tell yourself the bar will
feel light. Tell yourself the weight is easy for you to
handle.
Get mad at the bar. Tell yourself you are going to
destroy it - drive it through the ceiling - kill it inch by
inch - murder it pound by pound - whatever it takes to
get your juices flowing.
I have seen plenty of terrific lifters use variations of
this technique over the years. As a judge at state,
regional and national powerlifting and bench press
competitions, I have seen “power talking” taken to
such an advanced level that it almost resembles an
art form. The number of top lifters who “talk to the bar”
as they approach the platform and set themselves for
position is astonishing. Curiously, the best lifters
require and receive little in the way of shouted
encouragement from the sidelines. They do it all
themselves. Novices are the ones who need and
receive encouragement from their buddies - largely
because they haven't learned to supply it themselves.
If this technique works for state, regional and national
champions and record holders, it can work for YOU!
In strength training, as in other areas of life, mere are
plenty of guys who do nothing but talk.
Words without deeds are one thing. But remember
this - deeds without words, words spoken to yourself,
are difficult to accomplish. Give “power talking” a try.
You will find it is one of the most effective training
tools that you have ever tried.
125
VISUALIZATION
Constantly see yourself in your mind's eye doing
MORE than you currently do.
~Bradley J. Steiner
Closely related to power talking is a technique called
visualization. Visualization is a mental rehearsal
system where you create a “home movie” that you
silently play inside your head on your way over to the
gym, while you are changing in the locker room, and
immediately before each and every set. Don't be
modest - make yourself the star of the movie. The
movie should begin by showing a lifter approaching
the bar. The lifter is YOU! You should approach the
bar carefully - set yourself up exactly as if you were
preparing to try a maximum weight in an important
competition. Pay attention to the details, they always
matter.
A pre-bench press “movie” illustrates these points.
Watch yourself take the bar off the racks.
See yourself lower it slowly and under control. Watch,
as you pause at the chest, pause, pause, pause - wait
for the “press” command - there it is! – now
EXPLODE the weight upward. See yourself drive the
bar “through the ceiling” as hard and fast as you can.
With practice, you will develop the ability to create a
very vivid mental image of each exercise that you are
about to do. When you have developed this ability you
will have yet another highly useful weapon in your
arsenal of training tools - one you should use in each
and every workout you take, and one that can help
propel you to greater heights than you ever believed
possible.
POSITIVE REINFORCEMENT
Never flinch, never weary, never despair.

Power talking and visualization are techniques that
can be used both at the gym and at home.
Supplement these techniques with yet another means
of positive feedback. Buy some 3 x 5
note cards. Pick out some inspiring slogans and
mottos - ones that really appeal to you. Stuff like:
— A WINNER NEVER QUITS AND A QUITTER
NEVER WINS!
— GO FOR THE GOLD!
— NO RETREAT. NO SURRENDER!
— YOU CAN DO IT!
— YOU CAN IF YOU THINK YOU CAN!
— POWER, POWER, POWER!
— 400 POUNDS!
If you don't like any of these, get a couple of books on
positive mental altitude, autosuggestion or power-
talking. They are usually full of good, inspiring
slogans. Write your favorite slogans on the cards -
one per card - and post the cards where you are
bound to see them every day - on the mirror where
you shave in the morning, on the refrigerator door, on
your desk at work, or on the dashboard of your car.
Do the same with your training goals. Let's say your
goal at the present time is to hit 300
pounds in the bench press. Get out the 3 x 5 cards,
write 300 in big numbers on a couple of cards and
post the cards in the same places mentioned above.
Every time you see one of the cards, tell yourself that
you CAN and WILL achieve your goal. By so doing,
you will maintain a constant barrage of positive
imagery that will DESTROY any feelings of
uncertainly, doubt, fear, or failure. You will continually
be telling yourself that you CAN and you WILL achieve
the goal you so ardently desire.
You often see a variation of this technique at
powerlifting meets, where a lifter will use chalk or a
magic marker to write on his shin, lifting suit, wrist
wraps or forearms the amount of a particular
poundage that he is planning to lift at the meet. The
guys who do this are not merely expressing a goal,
but rather, are documenting something that has - in
their mind's eye 126
- already happened. They are not HOPING to lift the
weight that is written on their shin or on their wrist
bands - they feel as if they have already done so.
These techniques, like some of the others, may seem
childish or trivial at first. Or these may seem too
simple to do much good. Buy give them a try and in a
very short period of time you will learn - possibly to
your surprise - that they DO WORK. And remember
this. These suggestions are not merely my ideas.
They are training tools that men like Bradley J. Steiner
and John McCallum have recommended for years.
Why do those of us who write about sensible and
rational physical training continue to promote these
ideas? We do so because they work. We do so
because they are one of the critical elements of an
effective training program.
Remember, the odds are good that we will never
meet in person. Unless you drop me a note and let
me know about your progress, I will have no idea how
well you do by following the training principles
detailed in this book. For all intents and purposes it
will not affect my life in any way if you choose to follow
these menial training techniques or if you disregard
them.
I am not selling you hypnotherapy tapes and I do not
stand to gain or lose a penny by recommending that
you try these principles. So why am I doing it? Why
am I so insistent on the mental aspects of training?
The answer is this: I WANT YOU TO SUCCEED. And
to help you succeed, I am giving you every possible
training tool of which I am aware.
Now it's up to you. Don't disregard these training
suggestions. Use them. Modify them to suit your own
personality and your own way of approaching things.
But integrate them into your training program and you
may rest assured that you will reap tremendous
benefits.
THE TRAINING DIARY
It is better to have an ambitious plan than none at
all.
In an earlier section I described how you should
mentally review your coming workout as you are
traveling to the gym. This presupposes that you know
what exercises, weights, sets, and reps are
scheduled for any particular day, which in turn naturally
leads to keeping a training diary.
Keeping a training diary is one of the most
IMPORTANT things that you can do. Its primary
importance is related to the mental aspects of
training. Write down the sets, reps, and weights that
you want to hit at your training session BEFORE you
go to the gym. Look back at what you accomplished
the week before and what you accomplished the
week before that. PLAN
what you want to do before you go to the gym to do it.
Go to the gym with a clear, detailed and vivid picture
of what you intend to accomplish that day. This simple
procedure, all by itself, will starts to get you “psyched
up” for a great workout.
In addition, keeping a training diary provides an
invaluable way of monitoring your progress from
month-to-month and year-to-year. It allows you to go
back and determine exactly what principles and
programs have worked best for you over the years.
Were you to try to reconstruct this information by
memory alone, there would be no way of doing it.
So start keeping a training diary. Record each and
every workout that you do. Save your diaries after all
the pages are filled. Go back and look at them from
time to time. Doubtless, you will learn much valuable
information by reviewing what programs have worked
best for you over the years. Remember, training
success requires self-knowledge, and self-knowledge
depends upon maintaining a careful record of each
and every training session. A training diary is one of
the most important tools for getting the most from your
training. If you haven't done so before, start keeping
one, and start TODAY.
127
CONCENTRATION
If you must train at a commercial gym,
let no one interfere with your routine.
If you have to, go into a corner by yourself...
Once you begin to train,
let nothing interfere with your concentration.
~Anthony Ditillo
When you are actually performing an exercise it is
imperative that you concentrate on the exercise
movement to the total exclusion of everything else in
the world. (Go back and reread that sentence.) As
Steiner aptly noted: “Distraction is as great a cause of
failure to a serious physical culturist as it would be to
a surgeon in the operating room'“ But how many guys
CONCENTRATE when they train? Gyms are full of
guys who try to talk to their buddies while they are in
the middle of a set of squats, bench presses or curls.
These are the same guys who have 11” arms or can
only bench 130 after five years of “training.” (They also
are the guys who seem to know everything there is to
know about the drug-bloated
“stars” of the Iron Game. Guys who can tell you Mr.
Galactic's shoe size but don't have a clue about how
to train themselves productively. In a word.
“wannabes.”) If you watch a dinosaur working out the
one thing that will stand out in your mind is the way he
shuts out the world when he is doing a set. It is almost
as though there is a transformation to another plane of
existence. The dinosaur's entire being focuses down
to one thing: the proper completion of each rep in the
set. There are no artificial facial contortions, no grunts
or curses as the going gets tough, and no other signs
of “pseudo-intensity” of the sort so commonly seen
nowadays in training facilities around the world. THE
DINOSAUR'S
ENTIRE LIFE IS BOUND UP IN THE PROPER
COMPLETION OF THE NUMBER OF
REPETITIONS SCHEDULED FOR HIS SET,
EVERYTHING ELSE IS IRRELEVANT.
NOTHING ELSE MATTERS.
The difference between the 150 pound wannabes and
the 220 pound dinosaur is this: the dinosaur has
learned the art of concentration. When he trains, he
trains with a mental focus that doubles or even triples
the benefit he receives from each and every rep he
performs. If you want to become an advanced
dinosaur, you MUST learn to concentrate during your
workouts. In Steiner's words: “For the duration of a
workout you absolutely must focus exclusively on your
training.”
As detailed in Chapter 19, concentration is an
acquired skill. At the beginning, you may need to
practice exercises at home in order to learn how to
concentrate. No, these are not weight training
exercises, they are concentration exercises. These
exercises require you to stand, sit or lie in a
comfortable position, in a quiet place where you will
not be disturbed and where there are no external
distractions. A quiet, dark room or one with low
lighting is ideal. Once there, you will need something
on which to focus your attention - something on which
to concentrate. If you are in a dark room, a light or
candle can be used. A piece of paper with a large dot
in the center will work. Virtually anything that allows
you to look at it to the total exclusion of anything else
will do the trick.
Set a clock or timer for a 10 minute period and
devote 10 minutes to concentrating on nothing but the
“focal point” that you have selected. Simply look at it.
At first, you will find that your gaze wavers and that you
move your eyes to other things. Don't fight this, and
don't feel bad about it. It is perfectly natural. When it
happens, gently but firmly bring your gaze back to the
selected object.
Focus your mind, as you focus your eyes, on the
object. Let it absorb your being. Let it exclude all other
thoughts. If another thought intrudes, gently take it and
toss it out of your mind.
As you do these things, breathe slowly and regularly
through the nose. You will feel a sensation of
relaxation throughout your entire body. It will seem as
though all of your bodily processes, including your
breathing, have slowed to a marked degree. You will
not be able to 128
help noticing this, but don't let it become a distraction.
Continue to concentrate on the selected object.
As you develop your ability to concentrate, combine it
with visualization. Instead of focusing on a candle or a
dot on the wall, focus on a mental image (visually
projected onto the wall) that shows you achieving the
success that you desire. Concentrate on this picture
and on nothing else.
After practicing this exercise 10 minutes a day for
several weeks, integrate your concentration into your
workouts. Do this by using the loaded bar as the focal
point of your concentration.
Before you approach the bar to begin your set,
concentrate on the bar, and block everything else in
the universe out of your mind. The only thing that will
exist for you is the bar. Nothing else.
Continue this focused concentration as you approach
the bar and as you place your body into position to
begin the lift. By so doing, you will start each and
every set in a deeply focused state that has
eliminated from your mind everything other than the
need to push or pull the bar for the required number of
repetitions. Maintain that focus until the set is
completely over and you have placed the bar back on
the rack or the floor.
It may take 10 or 20 workouts, but eventually you will
develop the ability to block everything out of your mind
other than the paramount need of completing the
scheduled number of reps in your set. When you
reach this level of focus and concentration, you will
have taken an ENORMOUS step toward the
achievement of your training goals.
PSYCHING UP
The key to hard work... is concentration. Make up
your mind, NOW, to go after your goal of a fine
physique and physical power with burning, and with
unswerving
DETERMINATION!
~Bradley J. Steiner
After you have mastered the preceding skills, the
icing on the cake will be the ability to
“psyche up” immediately before a heavy set. Psyching
up is something that should be reserved only for truly
hard sets with your top poundages - sets where you
are pushing yourself to the maximum. For anything
else, it is a case of over-kill. Something like shooting
pigeons with a cannon.
“Psyching up” is easy if you have mastered the
techniques described in the preceding sections. The
powertalking, autosuggestion, visualization, and
concentration techniques discussed in the preceding
sections will bring you very close to a “psyched up”
condition. The only thing you need to add is a shot of
adrenaline triggered by treating the set as a life or
death confrontation between you and the bar.
I have a simple but very effective psyching technique
that I use on my heavy sets. It works both at the gym
and in competition. I'm going to describe it for you, but
remember: this is BIG MEDICINE. Save it for truly
heavy lifting. Over-use the technique and you'll go
stale almost immediately. “Psyching up” can wear you
out just as much as the physical aspects of heavy
training. Be warned.
Let's take the bench press as an example. As I
approach the bar I begin to concentrate on the bar
and the bar alone. As discussed in the preceding
section on concentration, I focus my entire self – body,
mind, spirit and being - on the bar. Nothing else in the
universe exists for me at that moment. There is ONLY
the bar.
At that point, I begin to slow my breathing. Then I take
a long breath, and mentally prepare to go to war. Life
and death. No prisoners. Storm the beaches. I usually
growl at the bar. That's right. I GROWL. I get mad at
the bar. I create a situation where it's a battle of
strength and will between myself and the bar. It's like
the classic scene in the westerns where the two
gunfighters face each other - in that final, long-awaited
confrontation - for several agonizing seconds, that
seem like hours - and then they draw. It's like two
prize fighters staring each 129
other in the eye immediately before they come to
blows. And I tell the bar - sometimes silently and
sometimes out loud - which one of us is going to win.
Then I take a deep breath, summon all my power, and
ATTACK the bar.
Sounds crazy, doesn't it?' But believe me, it works. It
is effective. It is absolutely vital to unleashing a burst
of maximum strength. It is the type of thing that every
champion lifter throughout the world does as a matter
of course in competition. As a wise old powerlifter
once told me. “GRAB THE BAR LIKE YOU REALLY
MEAN IT AND SHOW IT WHO'S
THE BOSS!”
Everybody psyches up a little bit differently. Some are
loud and some are quiet. Learning what works best
for you will require some trial and error. Have
patience. Keep at it. Whatever else you do, you need
to find a way to unleash your inner strength. When you
learn to do this, you will develop a level of explosive
power that is frightening to the uninitiated.
One final point about psyching up. Some people are
afraid that if they psyche up they somehow will lose
touch with their surroundings and actually HURT their
performance rather than HELP it. Nothing could be
further from the truth. It is hard to explain, but I know
from experience that it is very possible to maintain
both an extreme level of arousal through a
“psyche up” system and at the same time maintain full
awareness of your surroundings. You will find that you
can reach a state where you are extremely psyched
up, step back into the ordinary world for a second,
and step right back into your psyched up slate with no
difficulty.
I often had to do this in bench press contests, I would
approach the bar in a state of extreme arousal and
then have to stop for a second and explain to the lift-
off man exactly how I want the bar handed to me. If I
tried to give my instructions while I was in a totally
psyched up slate I ended up growling
incomprehensible gibberish, I found I was able to
approach the bench in an extremely psyched state,
tell the lift-off man how I wanted the bar handed to me,
and immediately go back into a stale of extreme
arousal. Similarly, you may find that without losing
your psyche you are able to check the plates on the
bar to be sure that they are loaded correctly or check
the bar to see if it is loaded correctly.
CHARACTER
No matter how intense your desire is for muscles...
you can easily devote four or five hours a week to
the hardest training imaginable, and still live a full,
normal life with regard to marriage, intellectual
pursuits, friends and a career. See that you do this.
~Bradley J. Steiner
There is still one critical, as yet undiscussed mental
attribute of a dinosaur. This is that rarest of trails -
character. There are plenty of guys who run around
their gyms and lift huge weights or flex enormous
arms, but who do not deserve a shred of respect. You
know the type of guys I mean. The druggers. The
muscle-blasters. The prima donnas. The sweat-hogs.
The narcissistic but insecure bullies, living under the
mistaken belief that the entire universe revolves
around them 24 hours a day. They are self-centered
children, not men, and certainly not dinosaurs.
As Anthony Ditillo noted many years ago:
“There are too many lifters and bodybuilders today
who have nothing to offer anyone but the ability to
either lift up a heavy weight or flex a large arm
muscle. These men are only half alive; they live in
only a physical world. They have neglected the
intellectual sides of the lives. They have neglected
to feed their spiritual appetites. They are a very sad
breed of men.” Dr. Ken Leistner made a similar point
in THE STEEL TIP (Vol. 3, No. 3, March, 1987):
“[O]ne is better off working hard and briefly, leaving
time not only for proper recuperation, but for family
interaction and other pursuits. If one were to attend a
powerlifting contest or a convention of university and
professional level strength coaches, they would
immediately be struck by the fact that everyone in
attendance is obsessed with training or knows
nothing else.
Life is meant to be full and enjoyable and the
attainment of strength and a well conditioned 130
and developed physique can and should be an
integral part of one's life. However, it is neither
desireable nor necessary to give up a family or
social life in order to do so, nor ignore literature,
music, art, or any of the other things that one feels
enjoyment and fulfillment from. ”
A dinosaur understands what Steiner, Ditillo and
Leistner are talking about. He demonstrates that
understanding in his life and in his lifting.
A dinosaur is a man with character. He makes a point
of giving back to the Game more than he has
received from it. He has time for others. He listens
and responds - enthusiastically and in detail - to the
training questions from the novices and
intermediates. He helps other people whenever he
can. He supports sensible, drug-free training in as
many ways as possible.
I know from personal experience that the top
competitors in drug-free powerlifting exemplify the
personality characteristics that we are describing in
this section. These men are fierce competitors on the
lifting platform but the best of friends when off it. They
are not the kind of guys who come up with “excuses” if
their performance falls below their expectations. They
do not “bad mouth” the competition. They don't yell at
judges or referees, they don't curse officials, and they
don't concoct lurid tales of political gamesmanship if
things don't go their way. They are the most
supportive bunch of competitors that could be
imagined in any field of endeavor.
One interesting thing about the top lifters is they
always seem to be the guys who voluntarily help out at
powerlifting and bench press competitions. These are
the guys who not only lift but also serve as judges,
spotters or loaders. They are the guys who step in
and help back spot when someone is trying a 700
pound squat and three spotters are not enough. I
recall the 1993
NASA National Masters and Submasters Powerlifting
and Bench Press Championships, where the lifters
who judged, spotted and loaded, had they been
entered as a team, would have walked away with the
team trophy without even breaking a sweat. The same
is true at many major competitions, and it is
something to which beginners and intermediates
should pay particular attention. If you think about it,
you will soon come to realize why the best lifters in
competition are the most helpful and why they are the
ones who tend to “give back” to the sport. When you
realize why that is the case, you will have learned an
important lesson
- one of the most important that I have to offer.
Go ahead - right now - take a minute and think about
what you just read. What am I trying to say? I have
given you an extremely important piece of information.
USE IT!
Here's a related point. You don't have to be a lifting
champion to be a man with character. If you develop
the characteristics of a champion then it doesn't
matter if your top bench press is 200, 300, or 400
pounds. A true champion is a man who has time for
others. A true champion is a man who helps the Iron
Game. A true champion is a man who makes a
difference in the lives of others - not someone who
has no concern for anyone else in the world.
I'll get off of the soapbox now. If what I have said
strikes a responsive chord, then you don't need to
hear any more. Just remember, words without deeds
are useless. All the good intentions in the world don't
amount to a hill of beans unless you carry through on
them. As Blake wrote, “The road to Hell is paved with
good intentions.” It is not enough to merely wish to be
an inspiration to others and to serve as an
ambassador of sensible physical training - you
actually have to live the role. Give yourself five minutes
of self-analysis (go on, do it right now!) and see
whether or not you have met that challenge. It's a
challenge that I am making to everyone who reads
this book, and it's the one single test I am most
interested in seeing each and every one of you pass
with flying colors.
Aim to be all that you can be. Carry the hard lessons
of self-conquest and discipline that you learn in your
training into every facet of your life.
~Bradley J. Steiner
It is one thing to see the forward path and another to
be able to take it.
131
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE:
DO IT FOR YOURSELF
It is the duty of the free man to live for
his own self and not for others.
~Friedrich Neitzche
John Davis is one of my favorite dinosaurs from the
past. The man was one of the greatest strength
athletes of all time. He won the United States National
Championship in Olympic lifting an incredible twelve
times, won the World Championship six times, and
was Olympic champion in two Olympics - and this
was in a career interrupted by World War II. Absent
the war, Davis doubtless would have won THREE
Olympic gold medals.
Davis was the first man in history to clean and jerk
400 pounds in official competition, breaking that
awesome barrier with a 402.2 pound lift on June
16.1951, in Los Angeles, California. He was
undefeated in international competition from October
23, 1938 to August 30, 1953, when the Canadian
giant, Doug Hepburn, dethroned him as world
champion in Stockholm, Sweden.
Davis was one of only three or four men in the history
of the world (historians dispute the number) to lift the
enormous Apollon Wheels overhead, accomplishing
the amazing feat on September 13, 1949. The
Apollon Wheels were a huge set of railcar wheels.
They weighed 366 pounds and were connected with
an axle 1.93 inches in diameter. The wheels and axle
were frozen, rusty and bent - nothing revolved. For all
practical purposes, the wheel were a solid iron barbell
with a 2” handle. On September 13, 1949, Davis
CLEAN AND JERKED
the wheels! Most strong men would be lucky to
deadlift them! I've seen the tape of that lift and it's one
of the most inspiring feats of strength you can
imagine. What Davis did on that day in post-war
France, nearly 50 years ago, ranks as one of the all-
time greatest feats of strength in history.
HOW AND WHERE DAVIS TRAINED
Now check this out: Davis trained in the most
primitive of training quarters - ALL BY
HIMSELF - even during the years when he was World
and Olympic Champion and a legitimate claimant to
the title of “World's Strongest Man.” In the April, 1993
issue of THE
IRON MASTER, Osmo Kiiha notes (on page 11): “For
many years Davis trained alone in the basement of
a neighborhood church, on an old exercise set. Of
course, he also made the rounds to the local clubs
to train but the bulk of his training was done alone in
the basement.” Can you imagine the sight of the
greatest lifter and arguably the strongest man of his
generation, hitting the iron like clockwork, cleaning,
pressing, squatting, and benching weights that only a
handful of other men could even approach, and doing
all of it alone in the basement of a neighborhood
church, using an old exercise bar instead of an
Olympic barbell?
Davis had no spotters, no coaches, no supporters, no
fans. no training partners. He had only the most basic
of equipment. For all practical purposes, he trained in
a dungeon.
Davis' training program was as basic as his
equipment. He did cleans, snatches, presses, squats,
bench presses and virtually nothing else. He trained
four times per week. His workouts lasted 90 minutes
to two hours. He trained his cleans, snatches and
presses with a series of progressively heavier
warmup sets (dropping the reps in a 6/6/3/3/1/1
pattern, followed by eight sets of two reps with his
working poundage. He did five sets of three reps on
the bench press and five sets of five reps on the
squat. Pretty basic stuff.
THE QUESTION
So here's the question: how did Davis build the
strongest body of his generation by training five
exercises on an abbreviated program with an old
exercise bar in a corner of the basement in a
neighborhood church, working all by himself, alone
with the iron, without any coaching, guidance or
assistance of any sort?
132
THE ANSWER
Here's the answer. Davis was a MAN. He had guts,
courage, pride, tenacity, willpower and a burning
desire to excel at his chosen sport. He didn't need
mirrors to pump his ego as he pumped his body. He
didn't need gym bunnies wiggling up to tell him how
“buff” he was looking. He didn't need an entourage to
support his efforts. He was able to do everything he
needed to do entirely on his own, using only the
strength of spirit that came from within.
Nowadays, guys are into making excuses, “I can't get
big because I have lousy leverages.” “I can't squat
because I have bad knees.” “I can't deadlift because I
have a bad back.” “I don't train heavy because I don't
want to hurt myself - and besides, I just want to look
good.” “I can't get a good workout because my gym
doesn't have the latest equipment,” “I don't use drugs,
so of course all I can do is pump and tone.” “I can't
afford the supplements I need.” “I haven't been eating
too well,” “It's too cold.” “I couldn't get all the sleep I
needed last night.”
“I had to study for finals.” “My shoulders are sore.” “ My
stomach hurts.” “My wife is mad at me,” “My boss
yelled at me,” “Work was extra tough.” “My knee
wraps are too tight,” “My squat suit is too loose,” “The
bar is bent.” “The floor is uneven,” “Capricorn is in
Virgo.” “I cut myself shaving.” “I had a rough day at
work - I can't concentrate today.” “I had a fight with my
girlfriend - I can't train today.” Do any of those sound
familiar? How many times have you heard one or
more variations of these time-honored chestnuts?
JOHN DAVIS DIDN'T MAKE EXCUSES. HE WAS A
MAN. MEN DON'T MAKE
EXCUSES!
The great thing about John Davis is that he was into
training for himself, not for other people.
He trained because he WANTED to train. He trained
because it was his passion. He trained because he
had a deep, burning need to elevate more and even
more weight in his chosen sport of Olympic lifting. He
wasn't training for the glory. He wasn't chasing medals
or trophies, and he certainly wasn't in it for the money.
He did it because there was a part of him that HAD to
do it.
Davis never came up with excuses to skip workouts
or have a lackluster training session.
What he did with a barbell was far too important for
excuses. Davis simply went out and DID
WHAT HAD TO BE DONE.
Most guys who lift weights nowadays have absolutely
no idea of the type of drive and determination that
kept John Davis hitting the iron day after day, week
after week, in that lonely corner of the church
basement. Most guys would last about one workout if
they had to train by themselves. Most guys would give
up after two weeks if they were forced to stick to five
exercises performed on an old exercise bar. Most
guys would never be able to train without a constant
barrage of ego-pumping from friends and fellow gym
mates.
If you want to be a dinosaur, you need to be able to do
what John Davis was able to do. You need to use your
inner strength to keep you motivated. YOU NEED TO
MAKE YOUR
TRAINING AN INTERNAL THING 1NSTEAD OF AN
EXTERNAL THING -
SOMETHING YOU DO FOR YOURSELF IN STEAD
OF SOMETHING YOU DO FOR
OTHERS. If you can't do it for yourself, you eventually
will not do it at all - and what you do when you go to
the gym will be a far cry from the type of effort you
would give if you were doing it for yourself.
A TROUBLING ASPECT OF MODERN TRAINING
One of the most troubling facets of modern training is
that it is almost entirely directed at training for others
rather than training for yourself. Why do most guys
train nowadays? They train to LOOK better. They
don't train to be strong, they train to look “buff.” They
want to shape – tone – cut – rip – sculpt - and define.
Why? Not because they have a burning desire to be
shaped, toned, cut, ripped, sculpted or defined, but
because they want to look a certain way in order to
gain temporary admiration from others. They simply
want to attract favorable attention. The only reason
they train is so that other people will compliment them
on the way they look.
If you think about it, training in order to look pleasing
to others is an essentially feminine endeavor, it
certainly is not a masculine undertaking. How do
women attract a man? Through 133
their appearance. How does a man attract a woman?
Historically, men attracted women not by the way they
looked but by the things they did. A prime example
would be a Neanderthal warrior who could kill and
skin a cave-bear. He may not have been much to look
at, but a woman would have wanted HIM for a mate,
not some pretty boy who would run and hide if he saw
his own shadow.
Weight trainers today are far too caught up in their
personal appearance. It was different fifty or sixty
years ago. Back then, guys tended to train simply to
get stronger. Sure, they got bigger, and they always
looked better as a result of their training, but the gains
in appearance were viewed as a natural by-product of
training for strength. You trained for strength and you
ended up looking better as a byproduct of your
strength training. You didn't train to look better. What's
more, people who looked strong but couldn't back it
up were viewed as sissies by the rest of the Iron
Slingers. If you weren't strong, you weren't much of
anything, no matter how pretty you looked in posing
trunks.
WHAT WE NEED
The Iron Game desperately needs to regain its former
emphasis on training for strength rather than training
for appearance. Weight trainers need to internalize
what they are doing. They need to train because they
are doing it to satisfy a deep-sealed hunger in their
hearts, not because they want the rest of the crowd to
tell them how “cut” their legs are or how “buff” their
chests are becoming. We need more men like John
Davis - men who nailed themselves to their goals with
grim determination and who trained with brutal
intensity because they knew that nothing less would
do the job.
If you wan to be a dinosaur, keep the example of John
Davis in the forefront of your imagination. Train as if
you were John's workout partner. Pretend you have
one occasion -
one supreme opportunity - to train with John on that
old exercise bar in the corner of that humble
neighborhood church. Make every training session
one that John Davis would have been proud to join
you in. Carry that attitude to every session. Be a man.
Be a dinosaur. Be like John Davis.
Self trust is the essence of heroism,
~Ralph Waldo Emerson
It is not necessary to hope in order to undertake, nor

to succeed to persevere.
~Charles the Bold
Ah, but a man's reach should exceed his grasp - or
what's a heaven for?
~Robert Browning
134
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO:
PERSISTENCE
To live means to have something definite to do -
a mission to fulfill...
Human life, by its very nature,
has to be dedicated to something.
~Jose Ortega y Gassett
A dinosaur's most essential attribute is a grim
determination to succeed. Dinosaurs have patience.
They have tenacity. They never quit. They never yield.
They never give in. They always keep on going. It
doesn't matter how long it takes to achieve any
particular goal - a dinosaur will stay at it until he
reaches the goal. It doesn't matter how many
stumbling blocks lay in his path. A dinosaur
understands that aches and pains, frustration,
discouragement and periods of stagnation are
common to all who train with weights. He doesn't
enjoy them any more than does the next fellow, but he
doesn't let them beat him.
YEARS OF EFFORT
What's the difference between (l) a dinosaur who
squats 500 pounds and benches 400 pounds with a
3” bar, and (2) a scrawny wannabe who never handles
over 150 pounds on any exercise and couldn't ROLL
a 400 pound barbell if his life depended on it? In
many cases, the real difference between the two men
is at least ten years of hard work. That's right - TEN
YEARS of hard, sweaty, agonizing, regular, consistent
effort.
STUNNED SILENCE
Many people who see an advanced dinosaur are
literally shocked into stunned silence. They can't
comprehend how a man can build his body to the
point where he squats 500 or more pounds, benches
400 with a 3” bar, curls 170 with a 2 1/2” bar or does
a seated military press with 250 on the 3” bar. They
don't understand how a man can build a 50” chest or
18” arms.
They immediately start to look for a “simple”
explanation for the dinosaur's power.
JUMPING TO THE WRONG EXPLANATION
One “explanation” always leaps to mind: drugs. At
least half the guys who see an advanced dinosaur
immediately decide the dinosaur is using steroids.
“He benches 400 pounds! He has 18” arms! He
MUST be doing drugs. You can't bench 400 without
drugs - it's impossible. I know a guy who uses roids all
the time, and even he only handles 320! I could never
do 400
pounds without drugs. No one could! You can't get big
without drugs. No one can do it. It's impossible!”
Then there is the “genetics” explanation. Many men
who see an advanced dinosaur will say to themselves
“He has it so easy! He's an EASY GAINER! The guy
just has to look at a barbell and he gets bigger and
stronger. Anyone could be as strong as him if they just
had the right parents. He doesn't know anything about
training. His program would never work for ME! I have
bad genetics. I could never be like him!”
Then what happens? The wannabe sits back on his
chrome plated wonder machine and grinds out a
“hard” set of chest flyes with 40 pounds resistance.
He doesn't bother to give the dinosaur's program a
try. Why should he? He KNOWS it wouldn't work for
him, because (1) he doesn't take steroids, and (2) he
has lousy genetics. Listen to him talking to himself:
“Gotta face facts, man. You're the human equivalent of
a gazelle. He's a lion. You need to train for elegant
symmetry and graceful proportions. Forget about the
strength thing! Size is for grizzly bears! You better
pump it and shape it!”
The wannabe has fallen into an all-too-common trap:
he has sold himself short because he has failed to
identify the one factor that is the major difference
between his own scrawny physique and that of the
advanced dinosaur: TIME! Advanced dinosaurs are
not big and strong because of drugs. They are not big
and strong because they are genetic marvels. They
135
are big and strong because they have trained hard
and heavy, and CONSISTENTLY, for MANY, MANY
YEARS. The wannabe missed this important point
because all he saw was the end result of many years
of sensible, heavy training. He conveniently ignored
the long years of blood, toil, tears and sweat that lay
behind the end result.
There is an oft told story about a famous artist who
drew a hasty sketch on a paper napkin at a restaurant
and sold it for ten thousand dollars. Someone asked
him how he could justify charging thousands of dollars
for a work that took only minutes to complete, and the
artist responded: “Behind that picture lay twenty years
of daily effort to bring my skills to where they are
today. Isn't $10.000 a fair price for twenty years of
effort?” Advanced dinosaurs are like the famous old
artist. Their strength, size and power are the result of
many years of regular, consistent, brutally hard work.
And that brings us to a very important point: the need
to persevere in your training for as long as it may take
to develop the size and strength that will label you as
an advanced dinosaur.
PERSEVERANCE
Plenty of guys start out with a “gung ho” attitude when
they begin to train with weights. They are burning with
desire and bubbling over with enthusiasm. They go to
the gym five or six days a week and train for two or
three hours at a time. They do every exercise under
the sun.
They train as though their lives depended on it. They
are totally, absolutely and unreservedly dedicated to
their training.
Two weeks later they quit.
That's right, they QUIT. They give up. They wimp out.
They trade in their barbells for a big screen TV and
spend the rest of their lives watching MTV or the 24
hour a day sports channel. And if anyone ever asks,
they are the first to say, “Yeah, I tried the weight lifting
stuff, but it just doesn't work unless you take lots of
drugs and have the right genetics.” Do you have any
idea what the percentage of weight training drop-outs
is? Try something like 90% or more. That's right - by
conservative estimate, 90% of the people who take
up weight training GIVE IT UP in short order. That
means that nine out of ten people who start a weight
training program this month are going to have given it
up by this time next year.
If you think about it, that's an appalling statistic.
Properly performed, weight training can be of
enormous benefit to almost anyone. There is no
physical activity that can do so much for a man.
Nothing else even approaches the results one can
achieve through proper weight training. And yet, nine
out of ten people who give weight training a try give it
up in a mere matter of months.
Part of the blame for the 90% drop-out rate lies with
the idiot programs touted by today's
“experts.” The modern-day toner/shaper/pumper
brigade have made it almost impossible for
beginners to obtain sensible, productive training
advice. As a result, most people who train with
weights do it WRONG! They hurt themselves, they
overtrain, they get zero in the way of results and they
naturally decide that weight training just doesn't work.
So they quit.
But another reason for the high drop-out rate is a
simple lack of perseverance on the part of almost
everyone who trains with weights. People quit training
because they lack the tenacity to nail themselves to
the Iron Game on a long term basis. They want
immediate results -
instant success - overnight gains. If it doesn't happen
immediately, they are not interested.
They don't want to think of training as a long term
proposition, they want to think of it as a short term fix.
If you have a short term attitude, you will never achieve
long term success.
One of the strongest men of all time, George
Hackenschmidt, was right on the mark when he noted:
“There are only two principal means of acquiring
strength - exercise and perseverance.”
Dinosaurs see training as a LIFE LONG commitment.
Forget about the overnight transformations. Forget
about the 30 day wonder programs. We're talking
about years.
Decades. Lifetimes. And that means we are talking
about a training approach that will only work for men
who have a supreme degree of tenacity and
perseverance: men who will not give up when the
going gets tough, and who will not be turned aside no
matter what.
136
HOW TO DEVELOP PERSEVERANCE AND
TENACITY
How do you develop the degree of perseverance it
takes to stick to your training year in and year out for
the rest of your life? Well, if you have made it this far
through this book, you obviously have a pretty intense
interest in serious training. That's good. If you lacked
a deep-rooted interest in developing superhuman
strength and barbaric power, you would never last
very long on dinosaur training.
SHORT TERM GOALS
The next thing you need to do is focus on the journey
rather than the destination. Do this in two ways. First
of all, take all of your long term goals and break them
down into a series of short term goals. For example, if
your long term goal is to bench press 400 pounds,
and you currently are handling 135 pounds, set 150
pounds as your immediate short term goal. After you
reach 150 pounds, shoot for 185 pounds. When you
reach 185 pounds, set a new short term goal: 200
pounds. Then go to 225 pounds … 250 pounds ...
275 pounds ... 300 pounds
… 315 pounds ... and so on.
Tie your goals to the plates you use: on an Olympic
barbell that uses pounds instead of kilos, the big
plates are 45 pounds each, and the bar is 45 pounds,
so your initial dance with the big plates will see you
using 135 pounds. Adding a 25 pound plate to each
side is roughly halfway to a second 45 pound plate on
each side - hence, the goal of 185 pounds. The next
major goal is 225 pounds - the bar plus TWO 45
pound plates on each side. And so on.
ENJOY YOUR TRAINING
The second way to develop perseverance is to enjoy
your training- I'm deadly serious about that. If you
approach your training as some sort of hated chore
that you have to force yourself to complete, you are
never going to be able to stick to it long enough to
develop a really significant level of size and strength.
You have to learn to love the hard work, the effort, the
pain, the sweat, the forced breathing, the pounding in
your temples, the churning sensation in the pit of your
stomach, and the aching, burning flames of agony in
your muscles. If you don't learn to love the feel of a
hard, heavy workout, you will never make it to the level
of an advanced dinosaur.
Most people focus solely on the end result of their
training. That's a mistake. The journey is much more
important than the destination. You have to enjoy the
journey. If you don't enjoy your training - really enjoy it -
then you will never be able to stick with it.
For a dinosaur, it is perfectly natural to enjoy your
training. The harder and more demanding a session
is, the more enjoyable it is - at least, if you are a
dinosaur. Dinosaurs have a deep-rooted, almost
primordial NEED to test their strength against heavy
weights and to do so regularly. A dinosaur's training
session is the high point of his day. It is the time when
he feels most alive. The training session allows him to
express his true self - the self he has to cover up in
order to live in the everyday world and its myriad of
castes, codes and conformity.
During a workout the dinosaur is free to be as
physical and animalistic as he wishes. He can be
barbaric – brutal – primitive - atavistic. He can
challenge the iron, grapple with it, do battle, and either
live or die. The part of him that never finds expression
in the ordinary course of an everyday existence may
be unleashed in full force when he attacks the iron.
Those of you who know what I am talking about will
recognize immediately the joy of being supremely
alive when you battle with a heavy barbell. The feeling
cannot be explained to those who have not
experienced it. If what I am describing strikes any sort
of responsive cord, then you are one of us - one of the
dinosaurs. If it seems like meaningless mumbo-
jumbo, go to the gym, train hard, train consistently,
and try to sense what the dinosaurs feel. Once you
realize what heavy training can add to your life, you
will be one with the iron for the rest of your days. The
very idea of EVER giving up on your training will be
absurd - on a par with the idea of giving up on
breathing. When you feel THAT way about your
training, consistency, perseverance and tenacity
become second nature ... and at that point, your
ultimate success is a foregone conclusion.
137
Time and I against any other two.
~Beltazar Gracian
Any clever person can make plans for winning a war
if he has no responsibility for carrying them out.
138
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE: THE IRON WILL TO
SUCCEED
Beware the fury of a patient man.
~John Dryden
Dinosaurs come in all shapes and sizes, from all sorts
of backgrounds, from many different countries, and
from many different walks of life. However, they all
share one inflexible trait: THE IRON WILL TO
SUCCEED. If you lack this one essential ingredient,
you will NEVER
be a dinosaur. Nor will you achieve much in the way of
muscular size and strength, no matter how
outstanding your genetics, how good your coaching or
how advanced your training facilities. Absent an iron
will to succeed, nothing else amounts to anything.
With it, you can transform yourself.
Reg Park stated the issue perfectly in an old training
course: “To continually strive to handle heavier
poundages year after year requires a lot of patience
and driving force.” This is why you MUST develop an
IRON WILL TO SUCCEED.
TIME AND TENACITY
Substantial increases in muscular size and strength
do not happen overnight. They take time -
in most cases, a great deal of time. Don't think you
are going to train for a year and be able to bench
press 400 pounds or show your 18” arms to the world.
It just doesn't happen that way.
It takes TIME!
Most men do not have the ability to stick to any
particular goal for even a short period of time. Look at
how many people start a diet or exercise program
and give it up almost immediately. If Joe Average
lacks the intestinal fortitude to stick to a diet long
enough to lose ten pounds, how do you think he is
ever going to manage to last the ten or more years of
heavy training it might take to reach the 400 pound
mark in the bench press or develop those 18” guns?
Dinosaurs are different. Dinosaurs have the ability to
nail themselves to their goals. They set their sights on
what they want to achieve, then gear up and buckle
down for an extended battle. They don't expect to
achieve overnight miracles. They don't believe in 14
day transformations. They can separate the real from
the fantastic. They expect to have to work -
long and hard - to achieve their goals.
MISSING THE MOST ESSENTIAL INGREDIENT
Any scrawny runt with an ego problem and a jealous
streak a mile long can point to an advanced dinosaur
and say “It was easy for him - he has great genetics –
he probably takes drugs, too! I could be just like him if
I had his genetics and his pharmacy bill!” (Of course,
the scrawny runt who mouths these words is precisely
the same guy who can't stick to a training program for
more than a week or two, who studiously avoids
squats and deadlifts, and who prefers to pump and
“tone” because it seems to be more scientific, and
besides,
“everyone else does it that way.”)
But where does the truth really lie? Is the advanced
dinosaur a genetically gifted superman? Is he a
druggie? To what does he really owe his size and
strength?
Well, if you have been paying attention, you already
know that dinosaurs HATE drugs. So don't credit
dianabol or its endless progeny. It isn't anabolic
steroids that account for the dinosaur's size and
strength. Not by a long shot.
Is it genetics? To some degree. Anyone who benches
400 pounds is almost always going to have a medium
or heavy boned “mesomorphic” body structure. But
you don't need “one in a million” genetics to become
an advanced dinosaur. There are plenty of men who
have the genetic foundation to build truly enormous
degrees of muscular size and strength, and almost all
men have the ability to develop levels of size and
strength that would shock the average, untrained man.
139
PUTTING GENETICS INTO PROPER
PERSPECTIVE
The role of genetics has been horribly distorted by the
muscle media. For many years, genetics were hardly
mentioned at all. One of the only people who even
mentioned the subject was Peary Rader, who
frequently warned readers of IRON MAN not to copy a
champion's training program because it would be too
severe and taxing for the average man.
Rader often noted (in words or substance) “The
superman has natural advantages which you do not
have!”
But hardly anyone else paid much attention to the
impact of genetics until Arthur Jones began writing
about genetics in his articles and books published in
the early 1970's. As in so much of his writing. Jones
simply stated the obvious: that genetic factors play a
substantial role in one's ultimate levels of size or
strength.
The response from the muscle media and
commercial interests was overwhelmingly negative.
Why? Because if genetics were partly responsible for
Mr. Everything's development, then how could you sell
courses, equipment or supplements that supposedly
could turn Joe Average and Peter Puny into godlike
title winners regardless of any genetic factors? In
other words, telling the truth about the role of genetics
was bad for business. So the initial response was to
pretend that Jones didn't exist and the phrase
“genetic potential” had never seen the light of day.
But after five or ten years, we saw a new and more
cunning response to Jones' discussion of genetic
factors. The magazines began to freely acknowledge
the role of genetics, but did so in a way that helped to
further deify the title winners. Whereas the mighty
moguls of the muscle media once raved about so-
and-so's “awe-inspiring biceps,” they now raved
about his
“unparalleled genetics.” Genetics soon became little
more than another tool in the arsenal of the publicists.
You probably realize by now that I don't deify
bodybuilding champions. (In fact, I don't like them,
don't respect them and have no interest in them
whatsoever.) I certainly don't think they are
“supermen” because they have good genetics for
bodybuilding. Why? There are two reasons. First, no
one is responsible for his genetics, so giving credit
for “good” genetics is silly. You might as well give
credit to someone for being a natural blonde.
Second, many bodybuilding champions have
genetics that are not too much different than those of
quite a number of relatively “average” men. The
difference lies in the title-winner's drug bill. This has
been established repeatedly over the past 20 years
by instances of bodybuilding champions who went off
their drugs for one reason or another and who lost
their heavy development almost overnight. Without his
drugs, the guy with the “super genetics” often isn't very
much at all.
The same is true of lifters and other strength athletes.
Many powerhouse lifters lose strength and power at
an enormous rate when they go off the drugs. My
good friend, Bob Whelan, recalls a former lifting
buddy who went on the juice and had his bench press
go up by 80 or 90 pounds in a matter of months - from
310-320 to 400 pounds. Then the guy started to have
some side effects, got scared, went off the drugs, and
lost an average of TEN POUNDS on his bench in
every subsequent workout. Think about it: the 400
pound bencher hits 400 on Monday, 390 on Thursday,
380 the following Monday, 370 the Thursday after that,
360 the next Monday, 350 the following Thursday,
then 340, 330, 320, and 310. Sort of like a snowman
in the summertime.
Mike Thompson has seen the same thing - lifters on
juice who squat 600 or 700 pounds, stop taking the
drugs, and lose 100 to 300 pounds (or more) off the
squat in a matter of weeks.
Sure speaks well for their “super genetics,” doesn't it?
WAS IT REALLY GENETICS?
Anyhow, let's go back to the topic of advanced
dinosaurs and genetics. Is it really genetics that lets
an advanced dinosaur bench press 400 pounds with
a 3” diameter bar, squat 500
pounds or heave a 250 pound sandbag up onto his
shoulder? Maybe it is if the guy can do that sort of
thing after the end of his first year of training. But what
about the guy who takes TEN
years – or LONGER - to build up to that sort of
performance?
140
GENETICS OR PERSEVERANCE?
I have a friend who can squat 500 pounds, wearing no
support gear other than a lifting belt.
And he doesn't just dip his knees or do a partial
movement. He does a solid, top of the thighs below
parallel, squat - one that would pass easily in any
powerlifting meet anywhere in the world. He does it
with a regular YORK Olympic bar and he does it with
a cambered bar purchased from IRONMIND®
ENTERPRISES (the well-named BUFFALO BAR).
How long did it take him to get there? Was it genetics
or perseverance? Read Greg Pickett's story -
told in his own words - and YOU decide:
“Let's face it; there are no shades of gray with the
squat. You either like the lift or you don't.
Those of you who don't like to squat and consider it
dangerous are probably the same people who prefer
“squat substitutes”, counting the seconds of the
movement, and shaping and toning. If that's the
case, you probably are not reading this book. For
those few on planet Earth still interested in heavy
lifting (drug-free) for the pure joy of it, please allow
me to share my recent training experiences with the
squat.
First, some background is in order. I never used
steroids and I never will. I competed in PL
meets from 1984-1985, and from 1987-1993. One of
the major reasons 1 stopped competing was the
ridiculous allowance of support gear. My best
competition squat was 633 lbs.
However, I realize that the 633 squat did not
demonstrate “my” strength because of the stress
absorption effect of support gear, i.e., suit and wraps.
After many telephone conversations with Brooks
Kubik (I must have gotten on his nerves, but he was
patient with me!) I decided to squat with only a lifting
belt as support gear. Brooks also influenced me with
single-rep training. Singles, I reasoned, would allow
me to use heavier weights in the squat with decent,
reproducible form.
My squat form is very simple; feet wider than
shoulder width, toes turned out, head up, chest out.
The bar rests in a very natural groove on the traps.
On the descent, I sit back, reaching a depth where
the top of the thigh at the hip joint is below the top of
the knee (below parallel).
On the ascent, I keep my knees apart as pulling the
knees in on the ascent is dangerous. It is far better to
keep the knees apart as the stress remains on the
larger hip and thigh muscle groups and increases
your poundage potential. I admit to forward lean on
the ascent.
Videotape review reveals, however, that my back is
flat on the upward drive. The ascent is accomplished
by driving back on the bar (tough with a BUFFALO
BAR - more on that later) and moving the hips
forward.
The following is a chronology of some of the training
sessions in the push to my goal of a working weight
of 500 x 1. Please note: I did not cycle or use any
Eastern European periodization program. The key
ingredients in the success achieved were guts,
persistence, and time. No food supplements were
used during this time, just good solid food. I train
alone in my basement gym at very odd hours (6:00
A.M.) sometimes. A lifting belt was the only support
gear used.
March 19, 1994—Squat— 135x3, 135x3, 235x1,
325x1, 405x10x1.
April 20, 1994— Squat—-135x3, 135x3, 235x1,
325x1, 375x1,430x8x1.
May 15, 1994—Squat—Top sets of 436x5x1.
September 16, 1994—Squat—Top sets of 440x5x1.
November 21, 1994—Squat - 440x8x1.
December 11, 1994—Squat - 450x5xl.
December 22, 1994—Tried to squat. Back severely
strained from overzealous stretching.
At this point. I obtained a BUFFALO BAR™ from
IRONMIND® ENTERPRISES. This bar is thicker
than a regular power bar. The thickness greatly
reduces the “whip” of the bar. The bar is almost
“dead” when driving out of the hole. This is a positive
as it forces the lifter to push harder.
January 26, 1995—Squat - Top sets of 460x4x1.
Used BUFFALO BAR™. As you can see, I added
weight when I felt strong. I did not follow a preplanned
program of weight increases.
March 21, 1995—Had flu virus. Fell horrible.
Trained anyway. Top sets of 410x3x1.
April 18, 1995—Top sets of 410x18x1. I wanted to
do this as I read that Louis Abele squatted 400x18
consecutive reps. The 18 singles took 73 minutes to
complete.
141
May 29. 1995—Squat - Top sets of 425x12x1.
I then began to reduce the number of top sets, with
the goal of heavier and heavier poundage on the
squat bar. The name of the game is sheer
poundage in decent form, not how many reps you
can pump out (even single reps).
June 30, 1995 — Squat — 140x3, 140x2, 250x1,
320x1, 390x1, 461x3x1. Used BUFFALO
BAR'. The 461x3x1 was constant on squat day until
August 23, 1995.
August 23, 1995— Squat— 140x1, 250x1, 340x 1,
400x1, 465x2x1.
October 6, 1995—Squat - Lifted at a gym in
Clearwater, Florida while on vacation (TOO
much chrome!). 145x1, 235x1, 345x1, 415x1,
465x1, 475x1. Personal record with no suit or wraps.
I had been hungry for 500x1 for some time. I fell
ready for this poundage as it had been
“bothering” me.
October 30, 1995—Squat—Used a regular power
bar. 135x1, 235x1, 325x1, 415x1, 500x1.
November 9, 1995—Squat—Used the BUFFALO
BAR™. The 500x1 with the BUFFALO
BAR™ was tougher than the same lift with a regular
power bar. This is due to the
“deadness” of the BUFFALO BAR™.
Five hundred pounds is now a working poundage
that I will hit in many workouts in a row.
When the body is ready for more poundage, I will
add it to the bar. It's as simple as that.
Please allow me to blow a few weight training “truths”
out of the water.
“Singles don't build strength. They merely test it.” My
squat training consisted entirely of single reps, first
multiple single reps, then later progressively heavier
single reps to a top single rep set. At 248 lbs., the
500x1 is a personal record that I never would have
achieved with multiple rep sets.
“You need to train in cycles, reaching a top, pre-
planned weight. Then, take a week off, reduce the
poundage, and rebuild again to an even higher
single.” NO! The only time I took off from lifting was
when I had the flu and the December, 1994 back
injury. I trained as heavy as possible all the time.
Cycles do not work for me.
“You are a short man; therefore, the squat should be
an easy lift for you.” Please note that my first workout
without suit and wraps was on March 19, 1994,
405x10x1. It took a little over 19 months for me to
reach 500x1, with a lifting bell as the only support
gear. If the squat is “easy” for me, then why did it take
19 months to achieve 500x1? Time and persistence
are ALWAYS necessary to achieve any major goal
on any lift!
“You need to have a specific day of the week for
each lift.” While consistency is important, the best
recovery occurred for me when I allowed 10 days
between squat sessions, I trained other lifts between
squat days. However, the sheer poundage
necessitated more recovery from the squat
sessions.
“You need to do leg extensions, leg curls, and calf
work in order to stabilize the knee, and strengthen
the ligaments and tendons.” BULL! The only lower
body moves I do are squats and deadlifts (regular
and straight-leg). If progressively heavier squat
singles, without knee wraps, don't strengthen
ligaments and tendons - I don't know what will!
A word about aches and pains. YOU ARE GOING
TO HAVE THEM IF YOU LIFT
HEAVILY! ACCEPT THAT FACT! Use ice, mild
stretching, and aspirin and MOVE ON! To quote
Brad Steiner, “When pulled muscles, sore, tired, and
aching body areas scream at you to quit, you must
simply put the discomfort out of your mind. Success
comes to the lifter who PUSHES and KNOWS HOW
to push.” (Steiner: Your Guide to Success in
Powerlifting: The Bench Press.) That's more than
enough about that subject.
Do I expect you to do things as I've done them on
the squat? No. My only purpose in writing this is to
share training experiences. I want you to persevere
in your training and reach goals that seem
impossible now. If an average trainee like myself
can back out of the rack and squat below parallel
with 500 lbs., then YOU can reach your goals as
well.
BE A THICK, POWERFUL, SON-OF-A-GUN! ”
142
PEARY RADER: MR. INSPIRATION
Peary Rader, founder, editor and publisher of IRON
MAN magazine for fifty years, is one of the best
examples ever of a man with iron determination and
an unshakable will to achieve his dream of power and
muscular size. Peary was an absolute bean-pole
when he began his training. He stood around 6' tall
and weighed all of 120 pounds soaking wet. His
knees were bigger than his thighs, his elbows bigger
than his biceps, and his head bigger than his torso. A
picture of Peary the way he once looked appears in
one of the very first issues of IRON MAN
- I don't have a copy, but I have seen it - and it shows
a bag-of-bones with what appears to be the worst
potential of all time for building muscular size and
strength. His early results bear this out 100% - after
his first ten years of training, Peary had not gained
even a pound of muscle.
But there was one thing about Peary Rader that WAS
big - his heart. Peary never gave up. He didn't quit. He
kept on going. After ten years of unsuccessful efforts,
Peary read about a new exercise system based on
plenty of heavy, high rep squats with lots of deep
breathing between reps - an exercise system
promoted by Mark H. Berry. The squat program was
raising eye-brows throughout the world of weights
because of the startling transformations it brought to
such men as Joseph C. Hise and William Boone.
After going nowhere for ten years, Peary gave the
squat program a try. And it worked. Did it ever work!
Peary gained ten pounds in his first month on the
program and almost 100 pounds in the next two
years. Moreover, the weight gain was solid muscle.
Peary became a regional champion and record
holder in Olympic lifting and developed enough power
and strength to do honest-to-goodness “Strong Man”
exhibitions.
When Peary began his squat program he could barely
manage 20 reps with an empty bar. Two years later
he was handling 350 pounds for 20 reps. In other
words, he increased his squatting strength by over
300 pounds. He ended up SEVEN TIMES
STRONGER THAN WHEN HE
STARTED!
My own training got on the right track at a relatively
early age through the advice in Iron Man magazine. I
probably would never have achieved much of anything
in weight training or sports if it had not been for IRON
MAN. Peary's unshakable IRON WILL changed not
only his physique, and indeed, his entire life, but my
own as well - and the physiques, and lives of tens of
thousands of other young men for half a century.
Peary Rader is directly or indirectly responsible for
the acquisition of untold TONS of muscle. And it all
resulted from his unwavering determination - his iron
will to succeed.
BRADLEY J. STEINER'S OPINION
The men who really know what they are talking about
when it comes to serious strength training have
ALWAYS emphasized THE IRON WILL TO
SUCCEED. In 1974, Bradley J.
Steiner wrote the following words on pages 28-29 of
his terrific book, A COMPLETE
GUIDE TO EFFECTIVE BARBELL TRAINING. Read
his words, read them again, and continue to read
them until they are SEARED into your brain: IF YOU
ARE RESOLUTELY DETERMINED TO BUILD
YOUR BODY, TO OVERCOME
THE OBSTACLES OF POOR POTENTIAL, OR
EVEN THE RAVAGES OF POOR HEALTH, THEN
NOTHING CAN OR WILL STOP YOU!
When once you come fully to grips with the above fact
- when you realize that YOU are truly in command of
YOU, then you will have unlocked the door leading to
the success you desire
... You can make it to the top without a lot of things -
but there never yet was a man who made it to the top
without the RESOLVE to do so.
Half a century before Steiner penned those inspiring
words, other giants of the Iron Game expressed the
same idea in similar words.
Consider the words of the famous wrestler and
strongman, George Hackenschmidt, 'The Russian
Lion” - a man who could one arm snatch 197.5
pounds and who set a record in the bridge and press
that lasted for over FIFTY years, making it one of the
longest lived records in all of sport – a man who held
the Heavy weight Championship of the World in
professional wrestling back in the days when
wrestling was a real sport.
143
In his grand old book, THE WAY TO LIVE. “Hack”
wrote:
DO YOU WISH TO BECOME STRONG?

“Certainly, you will answer, that is my intention, that
is my wish; to which I should reply that a simple
wishing will not do it. You must want to – in other
words, you must act.
You have no idea how much stress I lay on that first
condition! The will I should call that incessant inward
impulse which spurs one on to the goal. The
beginning is difficult, and many a man gets no
further than the initial stages. He is not unlike the
would-be piano virtuoso, who, after a few lessons,
comes to the point when the exercises become
more difficult and tedious, when he throws them up
altogether. Others, again, put exercises off from day
to day by taking firm mental resolutions to begin in
earnest, and to make up for lost time, on the morrow
- which seldom comes. ”
*****
Believe me, excuses which a man may advance
such as, “I am too old,” “I have not sufficient time,”
“My position or my business does not permit,” etc.,
are all mere subterfuges to cover a weak will-power.
You Britons have a splendid proverb, “Where there's
a will there's a way,” and I am a staunch believer in it.
*****
The determination to become strong is
indispensable for success, ... All prominent strong
men have fostered their strength by the aid of a
strong will-power; they wanted to become strong and
consequently succeeded.
*****
Again, I have come across many young men, who

by nature seemed very weak, but who, in
consequence of physical exercises and strong will-
power, became pre-eminently strong.
You must have faith in your ability to make yourself
strong.
*****
Banish, therefore all your said or miserable
thoughts, and keep on with your physical training,
without ever thinking for one moment that you might
not succeed.
Think about it. What am I trying to tell you? What was
Steiner trying to convey? What was Hackenschmidt
trying to teach? Why am I devoting so much ink to this
topic? Why do I devote several separate chapters of
this book to different aspects of the mental elements
of training? Answer these questions, and you will have
uncovered the true secret of success in the Iron
Game.
Character is destiny.
~Heraclitus
Out of intense complexities, intense simplicities
emerge.
-Sir Winston Churchill
144
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR: FADS, FALLACIES
AND
PITFALLS
Facts do not cease to exist because they are
ignored.
~Aldous Huxley
Advanced dinosaurs do a pretty good job of avoiding
fads, fallacies and pitfalls. Beginners and
intermediates often have a more difficult time. Here
are some basic rules to follow to help avoid wasting
years of training by following bad advice, bad thinking
and bad examples.
WHERE TO TRAIN
First of all, understand that you are far better off
training at home then training anywhere else.
If you train at a commercial gym you will be
surrounded by people who give you bad advice.
This applies to almost any gym in the world. The
exceptions are so few that they barely matter: Dick
Connor's PIT in Evansville, Indiana, Dr. Ken Leistner's
IRON ISLAND GYM in New York City and a couple of
other places. For the most part, commercial gyms are
cesspools of mindless nonsense.
If you go to a commercial gym and someone tells you
to do something - or to do something a certain way -
you are virtually guaranteed that what they are telling
you is (1) wrong, (2) dangerous, and (3) non-
productive. Thoreau once claimed that he never
learned anything important from anyone over the age
of 30 (a comment that somehow seemed infinitely
more insightful when I was the ripe old age of 17 than
today, more than 20 years later). You probably could
paraphrase Thoreau and say, without exaggeration, “I
never learned anything about correct training in a
commercial gym.”
If you MUST train at a commercial gym, pay no
attention whatsoever to anything anyone ever tells
you. Ninety-nine percent of it will be absurd,
dangerous and foolish. Only one percent of it might
actually be good advice. Rather than sort the wheat
from the chaff, just ignore all of it. That may bruise
some egos and hurt some feelings, but it's really the
only rational way to deal with the problem.
LEARNING NOT TO LISTEN
The second thing you need to do is learn not to listen
to people just because they have an impressive build
or can push or pull more iron than you. Being big and
strong is no guarantee that a man knows anything at
all about how anyone else can get there safely and
efficiently.
In most cases, big and strong guys in today's idiotic
world got that way by doing drugs - and a drug baby
has absolutely nothing to offer to a dinosaur. If you are
new to the Iron Game it is critically important for you to
learn - and learn quickly - that the guy with the biggest
arms is almost always NOT a source of useful training
advice.
BEWARE THE ARMCHAIR EXPERT
The third point is the flip side of the second point. On
the one hand, you would be a fool to listen to some
drug-bloated pretty boy just because he happens to
have a big arm or can lift three times more than you
can handle. But on the other hand, you would be a fool
to listen to some self-appointed “expert” who doesn't
have enough muscles to pour into a thimble.
BEWARE the armchair expert!
Armchair theorizers are all too common in the Iron
Game. They multiply like maggots. You can hardly
avoid them. Walk into the “exercise” section of any
bookstore and you will see one book after another
authored by some scrawny pencil-neck who has no
idea in the world what real training is all about. Or
worse – much worse - he doesn't even care.
145
SOME BOOKS DESERVE BURNING
A related point involves “celebrity” exercise books. It
should go without saying that a current matinee idol,
rock star or television personality is NOT going to
have anything worthwhile to say about weight training.
A dinosaur would sooner eat old automobile tires
cooked in kerosene than read a celebrity exercise
book.
CONFUSING ART AND SCIENCE
One of the biggest mistakes that trainees make is
confusing art and science. Strength training is an art,
not a science. This is why there is no one way to train
and no one training system that everyone should
follow. Many men get off track because they look for a
“scientific” training system, because they are
converted to the totalitarian dictates of the latest
“scientific” training system or because they decide
that their training program is so “scientific” that they
don't need to bother with good old fashioned hard
work!
Dr. Ken Leistner addressed this problem in an
excellent article (“Strength Training: Science or Art”)
that appears in the September, 1985 issue of THE
STEEL TIP (Vol. 1. No. 9). Dr.
Leistner wrote:
“If you took the time to read the numerous books

related to physical fitness, exercise, and nutrition,
you would realize that there are as many
“scientifically backed” theories as there are authors.
You might also come away with the notion that you
needed a stopwatch, pulse counter, blood pressure
cuff, calorie and nutrition almanac, $79.95 running
shoes, and a complete blood profile in order to
achieve a state of fitness. A perusal of the muscle
building literature would assault you with a variety of
periodization programs, mini-cycles, plyometrics,
muscle fiber type specialization movements, and
exercises that a contortionist would have difficulty
with. Magazine authors propose a new and earth
shattering training theory almost monthly, often
spurred on by the opportunity to profit from a new
product that coincidentally augments their latest and
greatest training theorem.
Significantly, the true requisites for increasing
strength and cardiovascular fitness have been lost.
The common sense approach to the attainment of
strength and health has become a thing of the past,
overshadowed by the new, the “hip,” the “scientific.” I
do not believe that the development of strength
tends itself to a scientific explanation. True,
legitimate research has given us useful insights, but
generally speaking, strength training has marched
steadily backward for the past decade as the
masses have genuflected to Eastern Bloc verbiage
and the “latest” from the California crowd. The
dependence upon hard work and the application of
dedicated effort have been replaced by quick hitting
anabolic drugs and a vast array of useless
equipment. Perseverance and insistence upon
progressive overload utilizing basic exercises that
call upon the major muscular structures of the body
are seen as a comical cliché, yet, the average
results of training, the gains made by the vast
majority of trainees, is no better now than it was
fifteen or twenty years ago, especially if the drug
users are culled out of the population sample. ”
MAKE NO MISTAKE ABOUT IT
You really do need to be cynical when it comes to
weight training advice. The amount of bad information
on the market is staggering. We need to re-institute
meaningful deterrents to criminal behavior - drawing
and quartering, the rack and the thumb screw, for
example — and reserve them for those who publish
worthless information about weight training. The
situation really is that bad.
FIFTY OR SIXTY YEARS AGO
Ask yourself how people learned to train fifty or sixty
years ago. There were virtually no books or courses
available back then - there was no television – there
were almost no magazines - but somehow, most
people who trained with weights managed to get real
strong real quick. How did they do it?
In many cases, they did it by hands on trial and error -
which is still one of the best ways to learn to do
anything. They also did it by following the handful of
good sources of training 146
information available in those days - books and
courses by Calvert, Saxon, Pullum, Inch, Aston,
Hackenschmidt, Jowett and Liederman. They read
Alan Calvert's STRENGTH, Peary Rader's IRON
MAN, Roger Eells' VIM and Bob Hoffman's
STRENGTH AND HEALTH. It was actually EASIER to
find decent training advice in those days. Why?
Because there was not much information on the
market, but what WAS available was all pretty good.
Nowadays, the real problem is figuring out what is
good - it lends to get lost in the shuffle with all of the
bad stuff. And the bad stuff outnumbers the good by
about 100 to one.
THEN AND NOW
One very important difference between THEN and
NOW was that people who lifted weights fifty or sixty
years ago were interested in STRENGTH, not in
looking “cut” or “sleek” or
“buff.” Thai provided a very easy way to test the
validity of any training advice you received.
If you gave it a try and you got stronger, it was good
advice. If you gave it a try and you either stagnated or
LOST strength, you knew almost immediately that it
was bad advice!
The same was true if you thought of something new
and gave your idea a try (and back then, so much was
“new” that many guys developed their best training
ideas entirely as the result of trial and error and a
helpful burst of intuition). If you got stronger, your idea
was good: if you did not get stronger, it was a bad
idea. The proof was in the pudding. You tested
everything.
You kept what worked and you discarded the rest.
Today, most people train for appearance rather than
strength, and as a result, they cannot effectively gauge
the results of any given suggestion or idea. Take the
idea of super-sets, for example. Guys will say they got
“good results” by doing two exercises for the biceps
back to back with no rest between exercises. “Good
results?” By what standard? Do they mean they got
STRONGER by training that way? Not likely! What
they mean is that they got “a good bum” or “a good
pump” and therefore it “felt” like the supersets were
working. Or else they did them for a couple of
workouts and someone said their arms looked “buff”
and they attributed their new-found buffness to the
supersets. But pump, burn and buffness don't add up
to strength.
The old-timers never would have fallen for such
nonsense as supersets, slow motion training,
pumping or “going for the bum.” I'd love to hear
Herman Goerner's response to the suggestion that he
stop doing one arm deadlifts with 600 or 700 pounds
and “train for a pump.”
I'd love to hear Arthur Saxon's response to the idea
that he should count to ten while lifting a light weight
instead of heaving a 300 pound sack of flour
overhead at whatever speed he could manage.
I'd love to hear Doug Hepburn's response to someone
who told him to super-set presses and lateral raises
instead of building his enormous deltoids by military
pressing world record poundages as hard and fast as
possible.
I'd love to hear Bob Peoples' response to anyone who
told him to stop doing deadlifts because they were
too “basic” and to switch to a hyperextension/leg curl
super-set instead.
I'd love to hear John Davis' response to someone who
told him that Olympic lifting didn't build size or strength
because you used “momentum” to lift the weight.
I'd love to hear Norb Schemansky's response to
someone who told him to stop squatting, pulling and
pressing world class poundages, “isolate” his
muscles, move very slowly and learn to “feel” the
weight all the way up and all the way down.
Men like Goerner, Saxon, Hepburn, Peoples, Davis,
and Schemansky didn't have to read books or glossy
magazines to figure out what it takes to grow big and
strong. Neither do you.
Neither does anyone. More important than what you
read is what you DON'T read. Knowing what works is
largely a matter of knowing what doesn't. More
important than what you know is what you know
enough not to try. Be a dinosaur. Stick to your guns.
Train like a dinosaur.
Don't get sucked into every passing fad or fancy.
Keep things simple. Retain your cynicism.
Don't get sidetracked. Dinosaur training is the Royal
Road to muscular size and strength. You deserve no
less than to follow the Royal Road. Leave the bunny
path to the bunnies.
147
Often do the spirits of great events stride on before
the events/
and in today already walks tomorrow.
~Samuel Taylor Coleridge
In critical and baffling situations, it is always best to
return to first principle and simple action.
148
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE: JUST DO IT!
The great end of life is not knowledge but action.
~Thomas Henry Huxley
You are almost at the end of this book. You now have
to make an important decision. You have to decide
whether to train like a dinosaur.
IT'S YOUR DECISION
No one can make you train in any particular way. You
are the master of your fate when it comes to mapping
out an exercise schedule. If you want to do leg
extensions and lunges instead of squats, there is
nothing I can do to stop you. If you want to wear
padded gloves and avoid grip work like the plague for
fear of developing calluses, I can't do a thing to make
you change your mind. If you decide to do time
controlled reps - ten seconds up and five seconds
down with a puny poundage - a training style that I do
NOT recommend and that any dinosaur would
LAUGH at - then that's your business. If you decide
you can't wait to do it naturally and you “must” use
steroids to build your body, then that too is YOUR
decision and YOUR decision alone.
In the final analysis, there is only one person who can
take responsibility for your training and the results of
your training, and that person is you.
No one else can decide that you should train like a
dinosaur - or a rabbit. The choice is yours and yours
alone. No one else can take credit for your decision
and no one else can change your mind. The choice -
dinosaur or rabbit - is in your hands.
NO ONE ELSE CAN DO IT FOR YOU
Similarly, you and you alone are responsible for the
degree of EFFORT you put into your training. I can tell
you that you need to work hard. Mike Thompson can
say it, Dr. Ken Leistner can say it, Bradley J. Steiner
can say it, Greg Pickett can say it, Peary Rader can
say it, Dr. Randall J. Strossen can say it, Bob Whelan
can say it, Osmo Kiiha can say it, and John McCallum
can say it - but what you do when you get to the gym is
entirely up to you.
It isn't enough to decide to train like a dinosaur. That's
the easy part. Now you have to go out and do it. You
not only have to do it today, you have to do it
tomorrow and the next day and every day thereafter.
SURPASS YOURSELF
Every day you train you must surpass yourself. I don't
mean you must lift more weight or do more reps than
you did before - you can't better your best efforts
every time you train. Your body grows at its own pace
- you have good days and bad days - growing spells
and spells where you are laying the groundwork for
future growth but are not actually growing.
What I mean when I say you must surpass yourself is
this: you must bring out the best within you every time
you train. Your best is the ability to focus on the task at
hand, to train with while hot determination, to ignore
aches and pains and fatigue, to banish commonplace
cares and the inevitable problems and frustrations of
day-to-day existence, to act with courage, to be
decisive, to be positive, to be optimistic, to be
aggressive and to carry yourself in all ways such that if
one of the great dinosaurs from the past – Saxon,
Goerner, Hepburn, Peoples, Boone, Inch or Steinborn
- were to walk into your training quarters, he'd see
immediately that you and he were brothers.
BE A HERO
Remember, you do not need to be able to bench
press 400 pounds or do other outstanding feats of
strength to be a dinosaur. A dinosaur is an ordinary
man who chooses to train in an 149
extraordinary way. HE IS A HERO. He is a hero
regardless of his present level of strength and
development and regardless of his inherent potential
for strength and development.
He is a hero because he has made a conscious
decision to choose what is hard, difficult and
demanding.
He is a hero because he has the courage to turn away
from drugs, hypocrisy, cant, superstition and all of the
popular delusions that shape the world of modern
training.
He is a hero because he accepts the fact that what he
wants to achieve will take time, effort, and
determination.
He is a hero because he has made the decision to be
in it for the long haul.
Emerson said, “A hero is no braver than an ordinary
man, but he is brave five minutes longer.” He was
describing a dinosaur.
Albert Schweitzer said. “The tragedy of life is what
dies inside a man while he lives.” He was NOT
describing a dinosaur.
GIVING UP BEFORE YOU EVEN GET STARTED
Most men who read this book will put it down and
think about being a dinosaur for a few minutes or a
few days, and then decide they need to “pump” their
biceps with some extra sets of concentration curls or
add a few specialized movements that I somehow
forgot to mention when I listed the exercises you
should do. They will consider the idea of gelling a
thick bar, a power rack, or some sandbags, resolve to
“do it next week,” and later - when next week has
come and gone - decide I probably don't know what I
am talking about, conclude that dinosaur training is
too radical in any event, start to browse through the
latest glitz and glamour magazine, and then decide to
try the new arm blasting program recommended by
Joe Superstar ... and if anyone ever asks, they'll say
they gave dinosaur training an honest try but found it
was not for them.
CONFORMING TO MEDIOCRITY
Face it. Most men are afraid to do anything that is
different from what the rest of the world is doing. Most
men condemn themselves to lives of hopeless
mediocrity because they cannot envision doing
anything that would separate them from the mediocre.
Most men would rather walk into the gym stark naked
than walk into the gym with a thick handled barbell, a
trap bar or a 150 pound bag of sand. Most men would
rather stay small and weak than do something
radically different from what everyone else at the gym
is doing. Most men would give up their left testicle
before they would do heavy singles or high rep
breathing squats with a heavy poundage, the farmers'
walk, sandbag curls, bottom position rack work or
anything else that would make them stand out and be
different from the rest of the group.
DARE TO BE DIFFERENT
Andrew Jackson said, “One man with courage makes
a majority.” Finding that one man is almost
impossible in today's times. You could travel from
gym to gym across the world and be darn lucky if you
found even one man who was willing to stop the silly
nonsense that everyone else is doing and give
something as radical as dinosaur training a try.
You have to accept the fact that dinosaur training will
make you unique and different - an object of
amusement to many, of scorn and derision to many
more, and even an object of outright hostility to a
surprisingly large number of people. Why? Because
people HATE
anything that is new and different, Aldous Huxley once
noted - and his words are directly applicable to
dinosaur training and those who train like dinosaurs:
“The vast majority of human beings dislike and even
actually dread all notions with which they are not
familiar. ...
Hence it comes about that at their first appearance
innovators have ... always been derided as fools and
madmen,”
On the other hand. never forget what you will lose if
you bow to the false god of Conformity.
Schopenhauer said, “We forfeit three-fourths of
ourselves in order to be like other people.” In the
physical sense, he was literally correct. If you train like
a dinosaur you can gain fifty or sixty pounds of muscle
- or more - over the course of your training career. You
can push your 150
bench press to well over 300 pounds, your squat to
well over 400 pounds and your deadlift to 500 pounds
or more. If you are afraid to be different - afraid to do
something radically unique
- afraid to chance the smirks and scorn of your peers -
then you will not attain one quarter of the success you
could have attained by training like a dinosaur instead
of a bunny rabbit.
THE COURAGE OF YOUR CONVICTIONS
You must have the courage of your convictions to train
like a dinosaur. It is not enough to read this book and
be caught up in the momentary exuberance of reading
about some thing new and different and exciting. That
sort of response will sustain your training for only a
couple of weeks. You need to resolve - deeply, firmly
and with the utmost conviction - to adopt dinosaur
training and a dinosaur's philosophy as YOUR way of
doing things for the rest of your life. You have to turn
your back on all of the popular follies and mass-
marketed delusions that have shaped you to the
present. You have to begin to create a new person - a
new self - a new YOU!
On the physical level, dinosaur training can and will
transform you. But its effects on the mental and
emotional levels are even greater. Dinosaur training
will remake your mental attitudes. You will reshape
your being. You will become a different person.
This is a heavy burden to carry. Self-actualization in
any form is the most difficult of tasks. It also is the
most rewarding.
What is your choice? Which door will you open? Will
you rise to the challenge of the dinosaurs - or will you
succumb to the siren song of the bunny rabbits? The
decision is yours.
I shall tell you a great secret my friend. Do not wait
for the last judgment, it takes place every day.
~Albert Camus
151
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX: NO
EXCUSES
There is no failure except in no longer trying.
~Elbert Hubbard
Dinosaurs don't make excuses. Everyone else seems
to be more interested in making excuses for their
failures than about earning their successes. If you
want to get big and strong, get under the bar and lift.
Don't bore me with ten thousand reasons why you
cannot do something, just do it. As I always tell
anyone who starts to concoct excuses, “Shut up and
lift!”
NO MORE EXCUSES
Let's discuss the excuses that 99% of those who train
will offer to avoid the pain, torture and agony of
dinosaur training. Why run through the list of excuses?
Because I want YOU to be left, at the conclusion of
this chapter, with NO excuses for not training hard,
heavy and seriously on a sensible, abbreviated
program similar to those detailed in this book. You
can CHOOSE not to train hard, heavy and serious,
but I want you and everyone else who reads this to
know that your excuses are nothing more than an
admission that you prefer to train like a bunny rabbit
instead of a man.
“TOO OLD”
What's me first common excuse guys use to avoid
hard training? “I'm too old.” Oops – sorry, guys, it just
won't work. How old do you think I am? I'm 38 years
old at the time of this writing. That's two years shy of
40. That's old enough to be the father of the majority
of guys who lift weights, and almost old enough to be
the grandfather of many of them. I guess I'm
“too old” to train heavy, eh? Then why am I benching
400, squatting 500 and tossing heavy bags and
barrels around like they were paper? Maybe the
barbells, bags and barbells don't know they're dealing
with an old man.
Guys, there is no such thing as being “too old” for hard
training. Obviously, if you have not trained since you
were a teenager, you need to get a physical exam
and your doctor's approval before starting in on any
sort of exercise program. You need to break into
things slow and easy. You need to use caution and
common sense. But you don't need to sit on the curb
and watch the parade pass you by. You can still
march in the parade. You can even ride the elephant if
you wish.
If you have trained consistently from your youth, you
can continue to train for your entire life.
History is full of examples of serious weight trainers
who kept going well into their fifties or sixties. Jan
Dellinger told me about watching John Grimek
casually clean and press a pair of 100 pound
dumbbells during a workout at the York gym when
Grimek was around 65 years old. Grimek cleaned the
bells like they were paper and pressed them five
times as if they weighed nothing at all.
This was done as part of a three-times-per-week
schedule of circuit training, not as a maximum effort or
any sort of big deal. Grimek also did partial squats
with 800 pounds or so
- with no spotter, with only a thin leather lifting belt, and
using a set of “stair” squat stands instead of a power
rack. Hackenschmidt retained the ability to lift 150
pounds overhead with one arm well into his sixties.
Henry “Milo” Steinborn lifted an 800 pound
ELEPHANT when he was 57 years old, and was
doing 400 pound squats when he was 70. John Y.
Smith won a prestigious, hotly contested contest to
determine “The Strongest Man in New England” when
he was in his 60's. Doug Hepburn still handles
ENORMOUS poundages - and the man is
approaching 70! Father Bernard Lange of Notre
Dame University, a “Milo man” who got his start with a
Milo barbell and a course authored by Alan Calvert,
was able to deadlift well over 500 pounds when in his
60s. The list goes on and on.
152
“NO TIME”
What's another common excuse for not training? “I
have a busy job – I don't have time to train.” Sorry, pal,
that's another excuse that won't hold water. What do
you think I do for a living? I'm a lawyer, I work at a
large law firm. It emphasizes commercial litigation,
discrimination suits and employment law. My practice
keeps me extremely busy. I'm also a freelance writer,
I'm married, I have the same demands and time
constraints that anyone has when he lives with another
person. But guess what - I still make time to train. If I
can do it, you can do it. Anyone can do it. It's just a
matter of self-discipline and determination.
Most people are geniuses at wasting time. Most
people who lift weights are absolute geniuses at
never having enough time to fit some squats or heavy
back work into their schedules. Don't follow their
example. Time is too valuable to waste. Devote
yourself to your job and to your family, do what you
need to do, and make the time to train. If you WANT
to train, you will FIND the time to train.
Consider the example of Greg Pickett. Greg is
married, has three small children and works a
demanding, time-consuming job as an auditor. Greg
will drag himself out of bed at 4:00 in the morning,
crawl down to his basement gym and do heavy
singles in the squat with over 480 to 500 pounds,
heavy deadlifts with over 500 pounds and dumbbell
deadlifts with 200 pound dumbbells or more. He
doesn't make excuses and he doesn't whine and cry
about not having the time to train. He MAKES time to
train.
“BAD GENETICS”
What's another common excuse? How about “I have
bad genetics for lifting weights. I can't do squats or
benches or deadlifts because I have bad leverages
for those lifts. I know I can never be very strong or
muscular, so I don't see why I should train as hard as
guys like Kubik, Pickett, Whelan or Thompson.”
Sorry. That's yet another excuse that just won't wash.
Weight training has developed - or is developing - a
cult of mediocrity. The genesis for the cult of
mediocrity is the realization that genetic factors play a
substantial role in one's rate of progress and in the
ultimate level of muscular size and strength that one
can achieve through weight training. I have nothing at
all against pointing out the importance of genetic
factors.
People need to know that Joe Superstar is the
champion of the hour in large part because of his
genetic potential for bodybuilding or powerlifting (and
his drug bill!) rather than any special training secrets,
supplements or other commercial razzle-dazzle.
There's nothing wrong with pointing out the role that
genetics plays in Iron Game success.
There is, however, something wrong with patting
yourself on the back because you are “the world's
hardest gaining bodybuilder” or any similar self-
appointed title. There is something wrong with those
who take perverse pride in dwelling on their failures.
There is something wrong with those who claim to
have special insights to offer solely because they
have trained for years and can only bench press 200
pounds. There is something wrong with those who
dwell on training injuries, sticking points, genetic
limitations and failure.
When John Stuart Mill stated that “[T]he general
tendency of things throughout the world is to render
mediocrity the ascendant power among mankind,” he
wasn't speaking of weight trainers, but he certainly
could have been.
Men, there is nothing wrong with having average or
even less than average genetic potential for building
muscular size and strength. There also is no glory in it.
It is absurd to pat yourself on the back because you
have difficulty gaining size or strength, and it is equally
absurd to forego serious training because you feel
you are only “average.” The great value of weight
training is that it can take even an average man and
turn him into a superhuman powerhouse of strength
and might. He may not look like Joe Superstar when
all is said and done, and he might not set any world
records, but he will be four or five times stronger than
he was when he started. He will be healthier, happier,
more fit, better conditioned, a better worker, a better
husband, a better father - in all aspects of his life, he
will improve himself ENORMOUSLY through serious,
heavy weight training. And what is equally important,
he wilt have fun doing it!
153
Don't talk to me about “poor genetics” or
“disadvantages.” I don't want to hear that kind of
negative talking. I don't care who you are or how poor
your potential. I KNOW that if you knuckle down to
some serious, heavy training, you WILL begin to see
results. You may not end up by being the champion of
the world, but you can go far - much, much further than
you presently realize.
A PERSONAL EXAMPLE
Let me offer a personal insight into “genetics.” As a
young man, I read enough to realize that genetic
potential played an important role in one's ultimate
level of muscular size and strength. I had trained hard
for a number of years and had made what I felt was
good progress. I weighed 175 or 180 pounds,
benched 350 pounds for one touch and go rep,
squatted 315 for five reps, and figured I had pretty
much gone as far as I could realistically hope to go.
Then I learned how to train the right way – HARD and
heavy, on ABBREVIATED routines.
That's when things started to happen. One day I
stepped on the scales and found I weighed 193. And I
was closing in on a 400 pound bench press. I
continued to train and my weight jumped to 198 ...
then 200 ... 205 … 210 … and now I weigh 225. My
personal record in the bench press is up to 415
pounds, starting from the chest and using a 3” bar.
When I weighed 175, I doubt if I could have managed
250 in that fashion.
If I had decided that my “genetics” did not allow me to
go any further than a bodyweight of 175 pounds, I
would still weigh 175 pounds. In fact, that IS what I
thought for many years, and for many years my size
and strength went nowhere. It was not until I began to
re-evaluate what might be possible that I started to
discover new levels of muscular size and strength.
Genetic potential is undeniably of tremendous
importance to any serious weight lifter. But you can't
do anything to alter your potential. All you can do is try
to actualize it. Even if all you have is only “average”
potential - if you make the most of it, you will leave the
rest of the world gasping in amazement at what you
can do. Remember, even “average” potential - if fully
actualized - will make you incredibly strong.
Don't get overly concerned about your genetic
potential. Whatever it is. you can achieve tremendous
results. Never sell yourself short.
David Webster has authored a great book, SONS OF
SAMSON, which profiles over 500
professional strongmen entertainers. It is limited to
men who made a living by doing strength shows, and
thus, does not include many other enormously
powerful men: Olympic lifters, wrestlers, highland
games competitors, field athletes, football players,
certain pre-steroid bodybuilders (e.g., Park, Grimek
and Ross) and powerlifters. Many of the athletes
featured in the book did shows during the 1890-1920
period (the “Golden Age” of strength shows), and
some lived earlier; thus, they lacked any of the
“benefits” of modern equipment, modern supplements
or modern training information, let alone modern
pharmacology. Nevertheless, Webster identifies over
500 men so powerful they could earn a living by doing
strength shows. Are we to believe that all of these
men were genetic freaks? Or were the majority of
them men with average or above average genetics
who trained like grizzly bears to develop as much
power as possible?
The worst thing that can happen to a man is to give up
on his training because he feels he doesn't have the
potential for great gains. “The deepest personal
defeat suffered by human beings,” said Ashley
Montague, “is constituted by the difference between
what one was capable of becoming and what one has
in fact become,”
Don't give in to defeat without even putting up a fight.
Gird your loins and enter the fray.
Don't use poor potential as an excuse. Be a dinosaur.
Make the most of what you have. Be everything you
CAN be before you worry about what you CANNOT
be.
THE ULTIMATE EFFORT-SAVING DEVICE
When you come right down to it, excuses are a way of
avoiding effort. Most men live their entire lives without
ever making a serious, determined effort to achieve
anything. In the incomparable prose of William
James, it was expressed like this: 154
Compared to what we ought to be, we are only half
awake. We are making use of only a small part of our
physical and mental resources. Stating the thing
broadly, the human individual thus lives far within his
limits. He possesses power of various sorts which he
habitually fails to use.
Don't make excuses today and wake up tomorrow
kicking yourself over what might have been, what
could have been or what should have been. Seize the
moment. Act today. Act now. Step confidently and
resolutely toward the goals and achievements you
desire. If you don't run, you can't win. If you make
excuses and don't enter the race, you forfeit all
opportunity of ever accomplishing anything. A person
who is constantly making excuses is nothing more
than the earliest of quitters. Determine today that YOU
will not become an encyclopedia of excuses.
Determine today that YOU will become the one man
in a thousand who dares to bring his dreams to life.
The fear of life is the favorite disease of the twentieth
century.
~William Lyon Phelps
You must never make a promise which you do not
fulfill.
155
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN:
EXCEED YOUR
EXPECTATIONS
One very useful trick which the weightlifter should
adopt is a wisely moderated contempt of his weight.
~Arthur Saxon
We are now at the final chapter of this book. If you
have been paying attention, you have learned many
long lost secrets of productive training. You have
learned about thick bars, grip work, rack work,
singles, hard work, the 5 x 5 system, the importance
of heavy weights, and many aspects of the all
important mental elements of training. You have
learned from one book what took me over twenty-five
years of trial and error to understand. You have had
an excellent education.
The only thing that remains is for you to take the
principles detailed in this book and put them to use in
your training. Ideas are wonderful things, but it is
action that moves the world.
Merely learning how to train productively and
effectively is not enough. You must actually go out and
apply your knowledge. You must train.
The one thing that might stop you is a nagging doubt
about whether you really CAN achieve the training
success that you desire.
Don't let that stop you. That nagging doubt has
stopped too many lifters for too many years. It has
prevented too many from daring to do their best. It has
ended spectacular careers before they even started.
We need to do something about that nagging doubt.
We need to hunt it down and kill it.
I want to share a story with you. It is a personal story,
told in the first person, but for that I offer no apologies.
It is important that you understand that what I am
about to relate really happened.
I want to share with you certain words of
encouragement that a weight training author penned
in a hot apartment in New York City in the early
1970s. And I want to share how I carried those words
with me, and still carry them today. I want to tell you
how I responded to those words.
Bradley J. Steiner’s COMPLETE GUIDE TO
EFFECTIVE BARBELL TRAINING was printed and
published by IRON MAN INDUSTRIES in 1974. I
bought a copy as soon as it hit the market. I was 17 at
the time, a senior in high school, and weighed all of
145 pounds at my present height of 5'9”.
Steiner's book was a masterpiece. It provided one of
the best and most comprehensive overviews of
sensible training ever written. It was particularly good
with regard to the mental elements of training -
something that most authors in the field totally neglect
or address only in passing.
The final chapter was titled “The Windup.” In it, Steiner
wrote, “We have come a long way together, you and
I.” He stated, “Only time will ultimately tell how far you
go in the wonderful Iron Game.” He then added, “it is
my true and sincere wish that you will strive to go as
far as your potential permits - and that you will
succeed beyond any dreams of accomplishment you
may now have.”
At that time, my best bench press (touch and go style)
was 225 pounds, my best squat was 250 and my best
deadlift was 320. I wore a size 14 or 15 shirt and
would have killed for a pair of arms that stretched the
tape to 15 inches. I was a good athlete and a
champion at wrestling, but hardly a model of Iron
Game success.
On the last page of the book, Steiner wrote. “If you win
the Mr. America title someday, I'll jump almost as high
as you do! But whatever your goals, I want you to
make it.” He closed with six short words: “God Bless
You, and GOOD LUCK!”
Well, I never won the Mr. America title – never even
competed in a bodybuilding contest.
Never wanted to. But I did do something that I view as
a significant accomplishment. I did it more than 16
years after I first read Steiner's inspiring words. And
when I accomplished my 156
goal, I felt that I was repaying a long overdue debt to
an outstanding author and to a man who has helped
me and many others learn what it takes to achieve our
goals.
Fast forward to May, 1991. We are in St. Louis,
Missouri. I am backstage at the 1991 NASA National
Masters and Submasters Powerlifting and Bench
Press Championships. I weigh 193
pounds and am entered in the Submasters division of
the bench press competition - in the 198
pound weight class. This is an all natural competition -
drug-tested to assure that the competitors are natural
athletes.
The smell of stale sweat mingles with the harsh
authority of every type of liniment under the sun. That's
one thing that immediately tells you that you are at a
masters and submasters powerlifting meet - the
liniment. Everyone uses the stuff. All of us. Every
competitor.
Including me, a veritable rookie in only my second
official bench press competition. The first had been a
Kentucky State Championship that I won the week
before with a lift of 374
pounds. I missed 396 twice at the state meet. I had no
real idea what I would be able to handle at a national
meet, with stricter judging and lifts being red-lighted
for even the slightest of infractions.
I was competing on the second day of the meet. The
first day had included all of the women and all of the
men up to 181 pounds. Day two included the 198s,
the 220s, the 242s, the 275s and the super heavies.
There were several hundred competitors, coaches
and handlers backstage on Day Two. At 198, I was
one of the little guys. Some of the biggest men I had
ever seen in my life were roaming like grizzly bears
through the warm-up area. These guys were BIG. I
mean, gigantic. They looked strong enough to juggle
200 pound dumbbells. And there were not just one or
two of these guys. There was an entire room full of
them.
Somewhere in that group of monsters stalked my
competition. I had no idea who would be in my weight
class. I had no idea how much they could handle. I had
no idea how I would do. I hoped I wouldn't make a fool
out of myself. It would be a long drive back to
Louisville if I got blown away.
The competition started with the squats, and all of the
lifters in all of the classes went through their three
attempts in that lift. The only guys who didn't squat
were the guys like me who were entered in the bench
press only part of the competition. We were the
“lucky” ones. We got to sit around and get nervous
and worry. I still had no idea how I would stack up in a
national championship against the best lifters from
across the entire country.
It seemed to take forever before we got to the bench
pressing.
Finally, it was time to warm up for the benches. I did
five reps with 135, then a single with 225. It felt heavy,
I was tired and stiff. My stomach was in knots. My
throat was dry as the Sahara. I had a bottle of
mouthwash in my gym bag. I kept using a little every
five or ten minutes.
I was really worried about feeling so tight and weak. It
was around 11:00 in the morning. I always lift in the
late afternoon or evening. I can hardly move until after
lunch time. I wished I had competed at 181 the day
before - I would have been in the last class of the day
instead of the first. However, I had seen one of the
181 pounders the night before at dinner and he
looked like he could bench press a truck. Maybe it
was better to lift at 198. Unless the 198
pounders all ended up being able to bench press
TWO trucks!
It was hot back stage. I was sweating so much I
figured the bar would fall right out of my hands. I kept
an extra towel around to dry them off. I used it every
couple of minutes. It didn't do much good.
I had planned to open at 374 pounds. I really fell weak.
I went out and found the scoring table. Thankfully, they
let me drop my opener to 365.
My final warmup was 335. It was TOUGH - ragged
and uneven. I was NOT happy. This was getting
serious.
Finally, it was time for the benching to begin. I waited
anxiously for my name to be called. I figured the
announcer would mispronounce it. I lost track of where
I was in the group of lifters in the first flight. I was
afraid they had lost my score card and skipped over
me. I went up and double-checked. It was ok. They
hadn't reached me yet.
Then they called my name. I was “in the hole.” That
meant I was the third man in order, with number one
being the lifter on the platform at that time.
157
I chalked my hands and waited. I figured I should wait
until the man before me (number two) was on the
platform to tighten my lifting belt and my wrist wraps.
(Knee and wrist wraps are used in powerlifting
competition. Although I don't use them for training,
they are a must for competition.)
Then they called the lifting order. I was “on deck.” That
meant I would go right after the guy in front of me
finished his lift. I tightened my belt, wrapped my wrists
and chalked up. I focused on getting the lift. It wasn't
hard to focus on the lift - I had been thinking about
virtually nothing else for months. As I lifted, as I ran, as
I drove to work in the morning and home in the
evening, I had thought about this very moment -
stepping onto the platform at the national
championships and getting under the bench press
bar.
I needed a little extra level of psyche. I slapped myself
hard across the right cheek. WHAM! I repeated the
process on the other side of my face. WHAM!
I turned to the bench.
They called my name.
I walked onto the platform.
I was focused. I was intense. I was hot. I was flying. I
was ready for battle. I was ready to lift.
I was ready to do it.
I got into position, focused, nodded to my hand-off
man, took the bar, lowered it smoothly, paused at the
chest until the referee said “Press!” and then drove
me bar up and back to arms'
length. I held the bar until the “Rack!” command, then
put it back in the saddles.
I looked at the electronic scoreboard. Three while
lights! I had made my first lift!
I walked over to the score table and gave them my
next attempt, I would try 385.
I had to wait 20 minutes or more until they cycled
through the flight and it was my turn to lift again. I had
stayed psyched the whole time. I was almost
bouncing off the wall. The intensity oozed out of me
like electricity. I fell like I was on fire.
I nailed the 385. Three white lights!
I asked for 396 on my third attempt. This was the one I
had missed two times at the stale meet just two
weeks earlier. Neither attempt had even been close.
I had lost track of my competition. I had no idea where
I stood or what I needed to do. I Just figured I would
give that 396 the best shot I could manage.
Another 20 or 30 minutes passed before I was called
for my third and final attempt. During the whole period,
I kept telling myself to stay on top of things, to be
strong, to push hard, to hold it together for one more
effort. I was drenched with sweat, I had to sit on a
towel because the backs of my legs were so sweaty.
My hands were dripping. I had to keep running them
through a towel. I chalked up every couple of minutes.
I wondered how I was doing in the competition, told
myself it didn't matter, and tried to focus on going out
and doing my very best.
I wondered what in me world I was doing in a national
championship. I promised myself that if I could only
make it through this meet, I'd never do anything as
crazy as this ever again.
I wondered if the last lift would be the one that won or
lost the competition for me. What if I missed it?
“Don't think about it. Just think about your lifting,” I said
to myself.
They called my name.
I was in the hole.
Then I was on deck.
Then I was on me platform. There was only me and
the bar. Three hundred ninety-six pounds.
One hundred eighty kilos. It was a contest between
the two of us. Nothing else mattered.
Nothing else existed. The entire universe faded away,
leaving only me and the bar. One of us would win, one
of us would lose. Two weeks ago, the bar had won.
Today it was my turn.
I growled at the bar, turned, planted my feet, flexed my
back muscles, and lowered myself into position on the
bench. I breathed deeply, held my breath, nodded to
the hand-off man and took the bar at arms' length.
Three hundred ninety six pounds. One hundred eighty
kilos.
I lowered the bar to my chest.
158
“PRESS !”
I drove the bar up and back. It hit the sticking point
and almost slowed to a grinding halt. I drove as hard
as I could - pushed with everything I had. The bar
continued to move … slowly.
I pushed and pushed. The bar inched its way upward.
The bar faltered and almost stopped. It was GOING to
stop. The weight was too heavy.
I couldn't believe I would miss the lift after coming this
close. It wasn't fair. I had worked so hard for this
moment! A lifetime of effort was reduced to the
almost imperceptible movement of the bar. I drove
frantically to finish the lift.
Suddenly my arms exploded to the lock-out position.
“RACK IT”
I sat up and looked at the scoreboard.
Three white lights.
It was a good lift. I had defeated the weight. I had won.
It was me against the bar, and I won.
“Congratulations.” someone told me. “That was the
heaviest bench of your flight.” I almost fell to the floor. It
was like popping a balloon. I felt as though all of the
strength and power and psyche had been sucked out
of my body. I tried to piece things together.
If I had made the heaviest bench of my flight, that
meant I had out-lifted everyone else in my weight
class.
I was a national champion.
I was the champion of the entire United States - all fifty
states - everywhere. In high school wrestling I was a
state champion in Greco-Roman style wrestling. But
this was different. That had been one state. This was
the entire United States.
I felt so weak that the slightest breeze would have
knocked me over.
I couldn't believe it. All the years of sweat and effort
had been justified. All the years of studying the Iron
Game. All the lonely hours lifting by myself because
no one else trained the way I trained. All the years
where my only training partners were Bradley Steiner,
Peary Rader, and John McCallum.
It had worked, I really had succeeded beyond my
wildest dreams. The skinny kid who read Steiner's
books and articles over and over had never dreamed
he would one day win a national championship.
Steiner had said he would jump as high as I did if I
ever won the Mr. America contest. Well, this wasn't
the Mr. America contest, but it was pretty good.
“National champion.”
“NATIONAL CHAMPION!”
I looked over at the trophies on the awards table. One
of them was mine.
I smiled and wished that Steiner had been there. Then
I realized that he had.
“Thanks, Brad.” I said.
*****
That was the first of five national championships in the
bench press. I also set a number of national meet and
American records in the bench press, and in one
organization, set a couple of world records. My last
meet was in 1993, and like my first, took place at the
NASA National Masters and Submasters Power-
lifting and Bench Press Championships. I won the
220 pound class in the submasters division and set
an American and national meet record with 407
pounds. After that, I turned all of my attention to writing
and to the sort of “down in your basement” training
detailed in this book.
There are several points to the preceding account that
I want to discuss. First, I want to emphasize that all of
the information in this book really works. It is not the
arid intellectualization of an armchair theoretician.
This is real world stuff, from a guy who proved that it
works by challenging and defeating some of the best
drug free lifters in the world.
Second, I want you to understand that my story is one
that YOU can duplicate. You may never win a national
championship or set powerlifting records, but that's
not what matters.
What MATTERS is that YOU can do what Steiner told
ME I could do. He said I could exceed my
expectations. So can you. And I want you to do so. I
am in your corner, fighting 159
alongside of you every inch of the way. I have total and
complete confidence in your ability to achieve things
that far surpass anything you could presently imagine.
Someone had faith in Steiner once. Steiner had faith
in me. I have faith in you. That's the way of the world.
The real beauty of the Iron Game is that it is a living
tradition. It has no past, no present and no end. When
I train in my basement gym I train with John Davis,
Harold Ansorge, Kim Wood, Jan Dellinger, William H.
Hinbern, Reg Park, Clyde Enrich, Tommy Kono,
Arthur Saxon, George F. Jowett, Bruno Sammartino,
Mike Thompson, Bob Whelan, John Brookfield, Greg
Pickett, Hugh Cassidy, Paul Young, Dr. Randall J.
Strossen, Maurice Jones, Thomas Inch, Sig Klein,
John Grimek, Steve Stanko, Norb Schemansky, Bob
Peoples, Apollon, Louis Cyr, Joseph C. Hise, Louis
Abele, Doug Hepburn, Fred Howell, William Boone,
Peary Rader, Henry “Milo” Steinborn, Harry Paschall,
John McCallum, George Hackenschmidt, Dennis
Weis, David Horne, Vic Boff, Dr. Ken Leistner, Clevio
Massimo, Earle E. Liederman, Alan Calvert, Edward
Aston, Bob Hoffman, Bradley J. Steiner and others
too numerous to mention.
The tradition has been passed from one generation to
another, and will be passed on to future generations. I
now pass that tradition on to each and every one of
you.
With the tradition, I pass on to you my fervent desire
that you achieve great and glorious things in the Iron
Game. I have absolute and unshakable confidence in
you. I KNOW what you can do. I KNOW what you can
achieve.
Over the years, as you train, you will have good times
and bad times. You will encounter victory and defeat.
You will be plagued with aches and pains, accidents
and injuries (none serious. I hope!), and there will be
times when you are tempted to throw in the towel.
Don't ever do that. Never give up.
All of us, all of the dinosaurs of the past, all of the
dinosaurs of the present, are there beside you,
pushing and pulling and bleeding and sweating.
Steiner was there with me when I won my first national
championship. I will be there with you on YOUR day of
victory.
EXPECT to succeed - because YOU WILL!
I wish the very best of luck, health, strength and power
to each and every one of you. I am enormously proud
of each and every one of you. You are the heirs to a
rich and wonderful tradition. Use it wisely and well.
God Bless You. and good luck!
Success cannot be guaranteed. There are no safe

battles.
In the battle of life if is not the critic who counts; not
the man who points out how the strong man
stumbled, or where the doer of a deed could have
done better. The credit belongs to the man who is
actually in the arena. Whose face is marred by dust
and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs
and comes short again and again, because there is
not effort without error and shortcoming; who does
actually strive to do the deeds; who knows the great
enthusiasms, the great devotions, spends himself in
a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the
triumph of high achievement; and who, at the worst, if
he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his
place shall never be with those cold and timid souls
who have tasted neither victory nor defeat.
160

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DINOSAUR TRAINING

LOST SECRETS OF STRENGTH AND

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN: KEEP IT SIMPLE!

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR: FADS, FALLACIES

Watching a man working out properly is almost

“One must consider that, although it is quite possible

“No matter how large a muscle may be, if it lacks the

“There are other men much bigger than Saxon, but

The farther backward you can look, the farther

Man is a rope connecting animal and superman - a

Nourish your hopes, but do not overlook realities.

“When I reached the point where I was using 350

“In conclusion, let me say. do not neglect any of

“To really give that finishing touch to the flexors of

contraction for thirty seconds, trying to squeeze the

“... I started out on a strength routine, really piling on

“It would be very beneficial for any competitive

“The important point for the reader to note is that all

“Sandbags, rice bales, sacks loaded with hemp or

“After completing my set of squat starts, I would

“I used to entertain my neighbors twice a week when

brake a bit. I would keep my body low, get a good

“It is possible to develop the abdominal muscles in

“The training of a man who is seeking strength will

Never flinch, never weary, never despair.

It is not necessary to hope in order to undertake, nor

DO YOU WISH TO BECOME STRONG?

Again, I have come across many young men, who

“If you took the time to read the numerous books

Success cannot be guaranteed. There are no safe

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