5 Timeless Lessons

(or, All I Needed to Know About Training, I Learned 100

Years Ago)
by Chris Colucci | 07/29/16

Tags: 
 Bodybuilding

It's unfortunate that many lifters today might, at best, vaguely recognize

names like Saxon, Hackenschmidt, or Hoffman. Sandow, however, is one old
school name that should ring a bell with even the most casual bodybuilder,
even if it's just as "that Olympia statue dude."

These were all guys who built crazy-strong, impressively muscled physiques
at a time when plate-loaded barbells were cutting-edge technology and a
perfect post-workout meal was a big plate of mutton stew with a hearty lager.

It's a shame that these innovators go unnoticed when you consider that even
today's top coaches who deliver cutting-edge training advice have stood on
the shoulders of these legends of the lifting game.

Believe it or not, many of the theories and practices circulating today are

actually modern interpretations of classic training methods. They may be
backed up with new research or tweaked for greater efficiency but, on the
whole, it's downright surprising how many parallels there are between "new"
ideas and old school concepts.

Let's take a look at five of the biggest training practices that've been used for
years – some of them for over a century – and see if we can't figure out why
these ideas still haven't sunk into the minds of each new generation of lifters.
A quick heads-up, though: Reading some of this old-timey grammar might
give you flashbacks of trudging through Ethan Frome in Junior High. Just deal
with it and try to get the main idea. There won't be an essay afterwards.

Weak Points No More 1.

George Hackenschmidt in 1941: "Every human being has a certain part of his

body more developed by nature than other parts; say, for instance, that the
legs of one or the arms of another are naturally strong. Now, the former will be
able to perform the leg exercises with perfect ease and comfort, whereas, all
his arm exercises require more exertion.

It would be foolish if this particular individual were to devote more time and
attention to his leg exercises because they are easier to him, and neglect his
arm exercises, which to him are harder and more difficult. Nevertheless, this is
a bad habit into which many people fall during training."

Dr. Clay Hyght  in 2009: "... once you've reached a certain level of
development, it becomes a must to approach training – especially back
training – with a muscle-oriented approach. For most, it's the only way to build
a big back that's visually appealing and symmetrical from top to bottom and
from left to right.

Sure, some genetically gifted individuals can basically just lift heavy stuff and
develop a balanced, symmetrical back (those bastards!). But the vast majority
of us need a far more finely tuned approach – one that addresses each
individual region of the back, not just the back as a whole."

The Lesson: Whether we're talking about balanced development of all those

muscles of the back or basic overall symmetry, it's always important to keep
your growth and progress in perspective.
Now, I can't say for sure that Hackenschmidt was trying to tell Tom Platz to do
fewer squats and more triceps work, but he might as well have been. The
Golden Eagle is the prototypical example of overemphasizing your strongest
attribute to the detriment of your overall physique.

As truly epic as his quads were, there's no doubt they overshadowed the rest
of his body. Unfortunately for Platz, he wasn't competing as part of the
International Federation of Quad-Builders.

This strategy doesn't necessarily apply to beginners, who tend not to have any
overpowering strong points early in their lifting career, but it's still a good
mindset to adopt from the start. Like the saying goes, whatever exercise or
bodypart you hate training the most is probably the one you need to train the
most.

Keeping an eye on building as well-balanced a physique as possible will pay

off big time, creating aesthetic, impressive development as well as
maintaining long-term health. Don't think so? Just check out the shoulder
health of that dude who benches four hours a week and only does 15 minutes
of back work.

The Brain: Your Strongest Muscle 2.

Eugen Sandow in 1904: "You may go through the list of exercises with dumb-
bells [sic] a hundred times a day, but unless you fix your mind upon those
muscles to which the work is applied, such exercise will bring but little, if any,
benefit. If, upon the other hand, you concentrate your mind upon the muscles
in use, then immediately development begins."

Chad Waterbury  in 2007: "... the key to getting stronger, bigger, faster, or
any combination of the three depends on your understanding of how to recruit
more motor units. In fact, if I had to sum up the intent and purpose of any
effective size and strength training plan in one sentence, it would read like
this:

Recruit as many motor units as possible with each muscle contraction."

The Lesson: Sandow called it "concentrating the mind;" modern bodybuilders

call it the mind-muscle connection; Waterbury and numerous other coaches
call it an activated nervous system.

You can choose your terminology, but the take-home point is the same: When
you lift, you need to be 100% focused and do everything possible to get the
most of each individual repetition. Simply going through the motions is a
wasted session.

One example often suggested by elite powerlifters is to treat your lighter

warm-up sets exactly like you'd treat a max attempt, with serious intent and
technical precision, to make sure you're fully focused on the task at hand and
not losing an ounce of effort. It goes back to prioritizing quality (of
reps and effort) over quantity. Just because a weight isn't a near-max attempt
is no excuse to mindlessly pump out reps.

For bodybuilders, this could also mean incorporating activation techniques or

pre-exhaust work in order to better target certain muscles during their primary
workouts. Any strategy that improves your focus on the immediate exercise,
one rep at a time, will benefit both your long-term and short-term progress.

Mirror Muscles for Size and Strength 3.

Alan Calvert in 1924: "Here is one thing that you, who read this book, must get
firmly fixed in your mind; and that is, when a man is standing on his feet he
positively can not exert the full strength of his arms unless the strength of his
back and legs is in proportion to the strength of his arms.
I do not mean that the back must be just as strong as the arms, but that it
must be many times stronger."
Eric Cressey  in 2009: "I see around 70 athletes per day, many of them at the
elite level. And because of their weaknesses, even the ones who think they're
strong aren't gaining nearly as much muscle as they could.

"And if you hammer the muscles of the upper, middle and lower back, as well
as the glutes and hamstrings, you'll not only see muscle growth there, you'll
see it virtually everywhere in your body..."
The Lesson: Ask any 10 big men how to build major size in a short amount of
time, and odds are that at least eight of them will say, "Squats and milk," while
one will tell you to "Just grip and rip with some heavy deads," and the other
guy will say, "P90X!" Take a step away from that last dude and try to lift with
any of the others.

One of the main reasons that squats and deadlifts have always been
prioritized is that they let you work a bunch of muscles with a bunch of weight
in one shot, and that's always a recipe for fast results.

Any exercise that emphasizes the back and/or posterior chain (the glutes,
hamstrings, and low back) is also going to be an exercise that "accidentally"
stresses a ton of smaller muscles throughout the body. Can you think of a
single chest, shoulder, or arm exercise that stresses as many different
muscles with as heavy a load as most back or leg exercises allow? No, sir. No
you cannot.

Another thing to consider is that, if you're only as strong as your weakest link,
then you damn well better make sure that your weakest link isn't any of the
muscles that make up some of the largest real estate on your physique.

The Antique Gun Show 4.

Bob Hoffman in 1939: "Big arms are generally the result of all around training.
A moderate amount of specializing in arm development should be sufficient to
bring them to outstanding size, strength, and proportions.

You could not expect to use a Mack truck tire on a Ford or other light car.
Neither could you expect to build a 17-inch arm upon a 120-pound body. It's
essential that a bigger body be built, so that bigger arms may be obtained."
Charles Poliquin  in 2000: "A good rule of thumb is that for every inch you
want to gain on your arms, you need to gain roughly 15 pounds of equally
distributed body mass. In other words, to make significant improvements in
your arms, you have to gain mass all over your entire body.

The human body is a finely-tuned machine that will only allow for a certain
amount of asymmetry. Therefore, if you devote your training energies solely to
building big arms, you'd eventually reach a point of total stagnation because
you weren't training your legs."

The Lesson: First of all, if some part of you doesn't think it's awesome when a
cute girl hangs onto your muscular arm as you walk into a room together,
you're a low-down filthy liar. The trouble is that some guys want the arms
without "big, bulky thighs" or "wide lats that don't fit comfortably into Affliction
T-shirts."

I hate to break the news to you boy-men, but with big arms comes a big body.
Anything else will leave you looking like a shaved chimpanzee, with a likely
training-IQ to match.

Secondly, in the "incredibly unlikely" event that somebody thinks they just
read "don't train arms to get big arms," you can put your head down and take
a nap. The grown-ups are talking.

What I'm saying, and what Hoffman, Poliquin, and plenty of

other coaches  are saying, is that in order to get your arm size into the high
teens (or upwards of 45cm for my Euro brothers), you've got to be doing
specific biceps and triceps work in addition to putting plenty of time and
energy into squats, deadlifts, and other big exercises.
That might seem like common sense for more experienced lifters, but
common sense is a rare commodity in the 15-to-22 year old gym member
demographic. These are kids whose idea of lifting heavy involves quarter-rep
shrugs with 30 pounds less than their bodyweight, but they're exactly the guys
who need to be deadlifting, rowing, and pressing more often than they hit the
incline hammer curls and overhead one-arm cable extensions.
Hoffman couldn't have said it more plainly: You can't build a 17-inch arm on a
120-pound body. To build significantly bigger arms than you've got right now,
you need to build a larger complete body, and the fastest path there requires
a training plan that gives plenty of attention to the big lifts while also
giving someattention to direct arm work, not the other way around.
Train, Don't Strain 5.
Arthur Saxon in 1905: "To try to work like a machine, knowing that ever at
one's side stands the bugbear of training, ready to weaken one's resources
through over-work, and bring about a breakdown, is the height of folly.

Nature has given one an instinct which will make heard, with warning notes,
the danger signal when over-fatigue threatens, and this signal should never
be allowed to pass unnoticed."

Christian Thibaudeau  in 2009: "The goal of a workout isn't getting through a

specific number of exercises. It's not like having a list of chores that you must
go through and check off. Training is only about stimulating that physiological
response. To get there you need to auto-regulate and know what your body
needs and requires to grow and recover.

What we're trying to do is come up with processes built in the training

programs to teach them how to auto-regulate. Once they know how to do it
then they can apply it to every single program they do and make it work – as
long as it's not idiotic, of course."

The Lesson: There's something to be said for walking into the gym with a
pretty solid idea of what you're going to do for the next hour, but any
experienced lifter will tell you that you've got to actually listen to your body
throughout that workout if you really want to progress.

Elbow acting up? Guess you're not doing that next set of extensions even
though you were "supposed to." Feeling unstoppable after that set of leg
presses? Today just became a high volume day, even though you wanted to
try some new exercises later. There's a Scarlett Johansson look-alike
teaching cardio? I guess you're learning Zumba.

It's a combination of knowing what you want to get out of any given session,
or training plan, and also knowing how to interpret the inevitable detours that
 pop up along the way. It's a skill that not all lifters are born with, but the
longest-lasting ones and the ones that get the greatest results usually develop
it sooner, rather than later.

If you understand how, and why, you need to adapt a routine on-the-fly, you
can account for changes in energy levels, unexpected gym crowds, muscular
recovery, and even catch potential injuries before they have a chance to
cause any major damage and slow your progress down.

Wrap-up
It turns out that the newest info isn't always the best - the best is best - and
the best information is always going to find its way to the forefront to make
itself relevant and useful, time after time.

Here's a quick review of these points that have been floating around since
your great-granddaddy was trying to get to second base with Miss Abigail
LaRue behind the Ol' Saloon:

 If your physique has one bodypart that gets compliments four times a
day, you must also have a weak point. If you think you don't, you're wrong.
 Anytime you lift, train with a level of focus that makes the gym manager
think you dosed your workout shake with Ritalin.
 If you make your back and legs stronger, you'll see improvements in
pretty much every other lift.
 The quickest way to build bigger arms is to build a bigger total body. It's
a ridiculously simple idea, but too many young bucks still don't understand it.
 With every set, every workout, and every program you do, don't
underestimate your body's feedback and cues to guide you closer to your
goal.

References
1. Hackenschmidt, G. (1943) The Way to Live. Pp. 43.
2. Sandow, E. (1904) Body Building. Pp 21.
3. Calvert, A. (1924) Super Strength. Pp. 12.
4. Hoffman, B. (1939) Big Arms. Pp. 11.
5. Saxon, A. (1905) The Development of Physical Power. Pp. 54.