Power Points Volume 1
Power Points Volume 1
Power Points Volume 1
by Bud Jeffries
Volume 1
#1-25
Disclaimer
The exercises and advice contained within this book may be too strenuous or
dangerous for some people, and the reader(s) should consult a physician
before engaging in them.
The author and publisher of this book are not responsible in any manner
whatsoever for any injury, which may occur through reading and following
the instructions herein.
www.Strongerman.com
www.SuperHumanTraining.com
Table of Contents
1- Consistency 2
2- What Does It Take To Get It Done? 4
3- Barbells 5
4- Consistency II 6
5- Consistency III 7
6- Why Reps Really Shouldn’t Be Reps 9
7- How Learning To Focus Will Double Your Strength 10
8- Visualization And Some Mental Tricks 12
9- How To Create Blindness For Ultimate Concentration 14
10 - It Doesn’t Take A Rocket Scientist 16
11 - Momentatum 18
12 - HIT vs. Olympic Lifting vs. Everybody Else 20
13 - Making A Popular System Work 22
14 - The Truth About Steroids & Quasi-Steroids 24
15 - The Truth About Size 26
16 - A Routine For Monster Size 29
17 - The Truth About Fitness 32
18 - A Machine Can’t Do It But You Can 34
19 - More On Cranking Up Your Endurance 35
20 - The Key To Big Dog Endurance For The Average Guy 36
21 - A Fast Workout 38
22 - A Workout To Frighten Beach Goers 40
23 - Am I A Genetic Freak? 42
24 - 1,000 Reps Up Your First Mountain 44
25 - Instant Seasoning 46
Well that's a huge shot-in-the-dark type question. You could literally argue for hundreds
of types of different exercises or plans depending on your goals. Most of them would
work, if you have the knowledge and motivation to apply them. Looking at things in the
larger sense, the best exercise that will produce the best gains for you is going to be what
you can and will do on a consistent basis. Boiling that down further, what you like to do.
Even if you don't exercise because you particularly like it, some form of exercise will be
more enjoyable to you than others and you will therefore be more likely to consistently do
that exercise. The truth is, except for the rare occasion, people will be the best at the
things that they practice the most consistently and because of the design of the human
body the more you do something (within certain guidelines) the better you'll get at it. The
better you get at it the better gains you make.
I think this idea of consistency needs to spill over into every area of your training and into
every positive area of your life. (There's no point in practicing consistency with
negativity.) For instance one of the big mistakes I think I made in my training was to not
be consistent enough about working a single exercise for particular areas of the body for a
long enough time. Most of your hardcore competitive lifters will agree that the king of leg
exercises is the squat. They probably will say the deadlift or a deadlifting type pulling
movement for the back. But for upper body development I don't think there is as clear cut
a winner. You could have at one time argued that it was the standing press. Now you
could argue for the bench press, but you could also make a great case for one and two
dumbbell presses, push ups, dips, jerks, etc. Because I like and enjoy most of these
movements I have tended to in my upper body training rotate them around according to
what I was particularly feeling like doing or enthused about at a particular time. Squats I
have done consistently using the back squat, basically every week for years. I believe if I
had picked just one exercise, upper body wise, and put the same consistent effort into it
over a number of years I would be further ahead than I am on my particular goals and
journey towards strength. It isn't that I have made bad progress or that using variety in
training isn't a good concept as well, but I do believe you should pick one movement for
each area of the body and always work it first and foremost in your training and add your
extra variety in from there.
Consistency should flow over into your diet and recuperation and into the discipline,
which you apply to your training. It's these little things that turn out to have the big
effects in your progress in the long term. Make no mistake about it, it takes long-term
training for the drug free athlete to get to a high level. Consistently eating and sleeping
cannot be short changed if you want to be your best. Discipline in your training, making
yourself stick to your training plan and goals; finding what you like to do and doing it
within the context of doing what you need to do* to achieve your goals is the only way to
stick with and progress from training in the long-term.
Well I'll give you my answers. It takes lifting some heavy things that get progressively
heavier as you get stronger. It takes some activity, which requires repetitive endurance
from your heart, lungs and muscles and increasing that demand as you build more
endurance. It takes eating a solid balanced, consistent diet and getting adequate rest. If
you simplify and really bring things down to the requirements for accomplishing these
goals without getting into the specific protocols to use then those statements clearly define
what it takes. If you fulfill those requirements for long enough with enough motivation
and intensity you will be bigger and stronger and have tremendous endurance.
Notice that I didn't say it takes "x" type of equipment or "y" type of training or "z" brand
supplements. Why? Because nobody has a lock on building all of these things and
especially on putting them together. Everyone has their belief and preference on what
particular exercise or equipment or food or activity does this all best. I think that of the
currently active authors in the strength training world I have probably done the most as far
as trying to bring together attributes of high level strength and high level endurance at the
same time. Yet I am not even close to being and would never claim to be the end all be all
expert. I certainly believe and have clearly stated that I think a combination of barbells for
maximum strength, strongman exercises for strength endurance and bodyweight exercises
for endurance strength will do the most toward bringing you to the ultimate of strength
and endurance. However it has and will continue to be successfully done by many other
people in just as many ways. I don't prefer to use machines, but can they build strength?
Certainly. I don't specialize in Olympic lifting, but is it good for strength? Absolutely. I
don't particularly enjoy running, but will it build endurance? Absolutely. I don't
particularly like high volume, but have some people used it successfully? Of course.
Don't be afraid to take what you like from any author and build it into your personal
system and get the most benefit out of it. Some of this goes back to the topic we were
just discussing, doing what you like within the text of what you need. Everybody who is a
serious trainer has some valid point about strength or endurance, but we've unfortunately
broken ourselves into these dogmatic camps that think, live and train by these preset rules
and will allow no open minded discussion or even the possibilities of other systems having
some validity. No one should be that arrogant or foolish to believe that they have gained
all the knowledge that there is in this field or in any other for that matter.
In fact if someone tells you that they have every answer or that everything they say is right
and has no question and leaves no possibility for anyone else to have some useful
knowledge then grab your wallet and run away as fast as you can.
For instance the bodyweight squat and the barbell squat are opposite sides of the same
exercise coin. Certainly one was the forerunner of the other and both are basic, natural
body movements, which work a great deal of muscle and use slightly different context of
the same movement to do so. The same applies to the many types of pushups and they're
counter-parts, the many types of pressing movements done with barbells or dumbbells.
The chin up would be synonymous with the row or any type of bent arm pulling with a
barbell.
Let me say this, you certainly can get big and strong and never do the same workout
twice, yet it would be almost impossible to not at least do some of the same exercises
more than once. You can certainly get big and strong that way, but what you miss out on
is the proficiency in certain exercises that leads to big lifts. As long as you're covering all
the major strength basis (working the major muscle structures), the body will respond and
you will gain strength, but if you don't spend the time to really get good at the specific
exercises that you are doing you will never get near the level of strength you could be at.
Even if you use this haphazard style, which will probably severely limit your long-term
progress, but are consistent in applying work to all the muscle structures on a regular
basis, you will still gain strength. You will stimulate general adaptation of the body, but
not specific adaptation necessary to become a great lifter. The body, by its wondrous
design simply functions in this manner. You stimulate it, it will respond. However if you
don't give it consistent stimulation in the same manner on a regular basis you never allow
the body to adapt to a point where it can begin to truly progress.
Understand me here, I don't have anything against variety. I don't have anything against
experimentation, in fact I'm all for it. I don't have anything against using different
programs on occasion, but your training needs to be driven by a longer term goal if you
wish to really achieve an extremely high level lift or high level of power. For instance it is
not enough to simply say that my goal is to get big and strong. That may be the
generalization of your goal, but in practice it is nowhere near what is needed to get results.
Consider every project that you embark on in the context of your long-term goal and
make sure that it is consistent with achieving it. For me, my long-term goal has been to
squat 1,000lbs. A very specific goal. So every program that I undertake has that in some
point geared to make consistent progress toward that long term goal. You must set your
training up with goal orientation that is long term and specific and will force you to be
consistent in how you apply your exercises to achieve that goal. The other side goals or
generalizations will come as you achieve specific goal. For instance I have consistently
squatted for years with this goal in mind. I'm very close to achieving it. What are the
other side effects that I've gained in moving toward accomplishing this specific goal?
Have I gotten "big and strong?" Yes, I'm certainly larger and have more muscular
strength than when I started. There are multiple other benefits that I could list, but you
understand the point.
Be consistently specific in sticking to a long-term goal. It is okay to pick your own goal
out of whatever you choose. It is okay to pick several goals. I certainly have, but you
must be consistent in driving towards one point.
Let me give it to you in a one-exercise analogy. Everybody squats for building big
strength, big body and big legs, but it is not enough to simply say, "Go squat." There is
certainly something to be said for simplicity implied there, but it is ignoring the details that
make a big difference. It doesn't say go squat at regular intervals with consistent intensity
using the same set and rep scheme for a long period of time. It doesn't say go and use that
same set and rep scheme and the same type of squat all the time and first in your routine
before you build in any other kind of variety. It doesn't say pick one major type of
progression and stick with it. It doesn't say perform those squats in the exact same
manner to the minute detail every time. It doesn't say carry the bar the same way on your
back, step out the same way, set up to the exact same stance, turn your feet exactly the
same way and begin to ascend in exactly the same way every time of every rep and every
set. It doesn't say use the same mental rehearsal, the same breathing pattern and even
wear the same shoes every time. It doesn't tell you that rehearsing this over and over and
over again is the real path to getting great at it. It’s the old adage, "Perfect practice,
makes perfect."
As you can see I've outlined in this simple paragraph that it’s the absolute detail that the
big lifters use that separates their performance from the lifters that never get to that level.
You may rarely see it and occasionally its necessary for a big lifter to modify a technique,
but 99% of the time, if you see a big lifter squat one time and then you see him squat again
five years later, other than the fact that there will probably be more weight on the bar and
he might have changed his T-shirt, everything else will be exactly identical down to the
finest detail. The width of the stance, the placement of the bar down to the millimeter on
the back, the outward rotation of toes to the exact degree, the same number of breaths
before attempting or completing the lift, the same psyching ritual, everything even down
to the same eye positioning. Why? Because the body gets more efficient the more it does
something. Because you get better at the things you practice. But to simply practice
squatting without practicing every minute detail in the exact same manner is not enough.
This of course applies to every other major exercise that you do.
It should spill over to every other detail of your workout. For instance, we tend to
simplify things down to saying, "Simply have good nutrition and you'll be okay." To a
large extent they are right. However, nutrition, just as weightlifting, should be a personal
It's about developing habits that are consistent to the minute detail in how you treat every
area of life. In fact all those details when listed out in the paragraph above about how you
squat, become so ingrained that you don't even consciously think about them anymore,
you simply apply them. This is the same for nutrition, rest, reps, sets, etc. The reason I
harp on this so much is because most people are so bad at it.
If you watch the average guy squat now and then watch him squat in five years you'll see
probably a completely different performance of the exercise. In fact if you watch most
people do a set of ten reps you'll see ten different styles of squats within that same set. If
you talk to them about how they ate or how they rested yesterday it might be great, but
today they had a donut and coffee for breakfast and they slept a total of two hours and
they wonder why they don't make consistent progress with their training. This is the real
reason, because they never get to a situation of true progression. They never get their
technique down enough and their workout consistent enough that the body really has to
add muscle and strength to keep up with the demand. So if you're going to hit the levels
that everybody's goals are set at, being a world class power stud, then you better take
these ideas into account and apply them to your training.
Working these details out is how you really get to know your own body. Once you've
established these things that's when you begin to leave the intermediate and beginner
stages and move to the advanced levels of strength. Only when you get these things down
do you get true progression and strength. In fact much of the gain in strength that
beginners get simply comes from efficiency that comes from learning these habits and
techniques. Once you've optimized the efficiency of the body then the body has to grow in
its own strength to get better. That's the stage you're trying to get to.
Most likely there will much more technical flaw in the beginner's. This should be obvious
and partly it's for obvious reasons such as the amount of time spent doing the exercises
and the amount of skill gained by the lifter. But there are even more subtle differences and
this is what I'm talking about. The advanced lifter really doesn't perform "reps," the way
and intermediate lifter does. What he performs is five single repetitions complete unto
themselves without putting the bar down. Why?
First of all he's learned that the level of concentration and technical skill that you apply to
your heaviest single attempts should apply to every rep of every set. Especially every
working non-warm up set. He thinks about each repetition as an individual entity and
attacks it that way. Not rushing, not letting effort or fatigue or pain become a factor in
pushing him to hurry through his set. Therefore each repetition has superior technical
merit when performed with this mindset. The beginner will do five reps, but generally his
focus is not strong enough to make them five perfect reps. This is simply part of the
difference gained in the mental and physical toughness that comes from years of heavy
work.
When the beginner does a set, after the first rep is a free-for-all, banging through the set
simply to get it over with as quickly as possible simply to stop the discomfort and effort.
However you must get past this stage if you expect to make big lifts. Don’t let your mind
wonder, think about each repetition as its own single. Stop, reset your position and go
again. Even in doing a set where the repetitions are relatively going quickly, the advanced
lifter is using this technique even though it may be difficult to discern with the eye. It is
especially evident in 20 rep squats, etc. If you don't learn to do it like that you'll never
learn to make 20 reps with an appropriate level of intensity and weight. For the guys who
really know how to train hard its evident even in low rep sets.
One of the things I was told as a beginning powerlifter is that a real five rep set is a weight
you can do three reps with and then do two more on guts. When you train with this kind
of mindset every rep has to be a single, focused, powerful, correct effort. This is part of
the reason I like to use single repetitions and feel many people will benefit from this
training technique. It teaches them to focus immediately and the weight is heavy enough
that if you don’t focus all of your attention and energy on that one rep you won't make it.
The advanced lifter carries this on even in single repetitions and knows that, that type of
focus is what gives him the extra weight on each repetition instead of the extra repetition
on each set.
However most people can only call up a small percentage of this ability at will. Even
fewer can call it up and apply it to a physical task at will.
Why is it you think that you hear stories about little mothers lifting cars off of their
children? Everybody talks about the adrenaline system and its effects and says that's what
makes it happen and it's true to some extent. However the part of this connection that is
never discussed is the fact that her mind controlled those chemical and physical responses.
If the mind has the ability to focus that sharply on a situation and create those chemical
and hormonal changes within the body during an emergency, then I believe that its
possible for the mind to create a large percentage of that same situation in a non-
emergency situation through purposeful, mental control. This also applies to what was
referred to in much old time literature as the "strength of a mad man," and it is literally
true.
Many mentally impaired people can display tremendous strength because they have no
realization of fear and they've broken a conscious link that separates their focus onto
multiple plains and chains it to one sharp point at a time. If they're fighting something
there is no other thought going on in their head. The same with the mother lifting the car.
In claring your mental processes you allow a deeper self to take hold. You allow the
expression of your internal self to come through physically and you allow the processes
that we keep in check through self-consciousness to turn on the animalistic physical
factors of the body. You can literally manipulate your mind into giving your body the
short-term physical power possessed by an animal through manipulation of your internal
chemicals and hormones.
You are in essence recruiting your own fight or flight response by your conscious will.
Some refer to it as part of the psyching up process, part of the focusing process, or
whatever you want to call it. It entails blocking every other conscious thought, getting to
a place where you're even past visualization, where technique is no longer a conscious
thought, it's an ingrained movement. It is complete attention to a level that recruits mind
and body into one unit focused on one task. It can be developed and it must be by great
lifters. It involves manipulating your own emotional responses to enhance your physical
outlay of energy. This is manifested differently in different people.
In competitions you see some people who are extremely outwardly demonstrative and
others who are extremely quiet, but both are achieving the same goal through different
routes. It simply shows in different ways. This is also part of the idea behind eastern
meditation and why an animal has such lightening response and power. It is to bridge the
gap created by the conscious mind between instinct and physical expression. The
consciousness of thought takes away some of the energy that would flow directly from
instinct through the body and delays and weakens some human reactions. (This is only
This level of recruitment is not necessary or productive for every rep of every set, just the
big time stuff. Your mental focus, the exclusion of other thoughts, etc., is necessary for
every set of every rep, but extending into your own emotional and physical and chemical
manipulation is really necessary for the big lifts and not productive for the warm ups. In
fact once you learn to do this, you will learn to do it very quickly as this type of mental
harnessing burns a tremendous amount of physical energy and will burn you out if you
over do it.
If you don't believe this is true then try a light weight simply walking up, not clearing your
mind, not focusing at all and pick it up. Then do the same weight again with complete
focus and emotional recruitment. You will lift it at least twice as easily. There will be
much more power, speed and better form. This is how the body works. If you really want
it to be the strongest it can be, you have to master it.
Visualization is also easy to slip into daydreaming. To get to the advanced level, things
must be so rehearsed and your focus so powerful that the body lifts on its own without
conscious recruitment of thought focusing everything on the lift and on pushing, not on
technical points. You simply trust that they will be there and simply focus on moving the
weight.
Visualization should and does take on another aspect in your lifting career. What was
addressed in the previous paragraph was simply mental rehearsal of specific lifts. What I
mean now is building a pathway for the body to follow with the mind. To achieve super
strength you must have it in your mind before your body will get there. You must map the
course out and have absolute belief in your ability to accomplish it. You must go beyond
simple positive reinforcements and belief into action. You must put feat with your faith.
You can spend all day thinking about what you're going to do, but if you don't get out and
do it at some point, you've wasted some of you time on this planet in pure mental effort
with no physical follow-up. Dreaming an idea up and believing it into existence is
certainly the beginner part of accomplishment. Actually laying the physical effort out to
accomplish it is the achievement of that dream. So conceive what you want in your mind.
Believe that you can do it. But don't sit around wasting precious time that you could be
using to accomplish it with excess lackadaisical mental rehearsals.
Some other ideas that may act as a building block on your way to an advanced level of
super strength are some of the little mental tricks that people use to bolster their lifting.
Eventually you will get past these and all that will be there is you and the bar and complete
confidence. But they can be useful on the way to that place.
٭ Enhancing your physical arousal and defeating your level of fear by giving
whatever object it is to be lifted a non-threatening physical form. For instance
visualizing yourself as a large powerful bear and the bar as a small, about to be
eaten rabbit. This kicks on your emotional power response and takes away
from the threatened feeling you may have from a certain weight.
٭ Attaching an emotional significance to a weight. For instance, some kid that
picked on you as a child that you never had the chance to fight back against.
Calling up that emotional response and then unleashing it on the bar can be a
short-term way of productively dealing with stress (not long term), and
٭ Giving the bar or the feat to be accomplished an imaginary humanity. Joseph
Greenstien, "The Mighty Atom," was said to have done this during his
strongman shows. Visualizing a piece of steel he would bend in a way that he
could he speak to it and assert his mental power over it. For instance, "I'm
going to beat you, I'm going to crush you, you don't stand a chance against
me."
When you've hit this point you know that your concentration is on par. One of the people
that I train who had been training with me for two years, Michael Reeder, just recently
truly hit this level. At the time of this writing he had just turned 17 and had much better
concentration and tenacity than most. He had been in hard training for two years and had
gained 40 pounds of muscle and added 200 pounds to his raw squat. He has a habit of
tapping his head on the bar before he begins a lift. This particular day he was so intense
and so focused that when he tapped his head on the bar, he didn't even feel the fact that he
was literally banging his head hard enough to draw blood. (I'm not advocating that as a
phsyching technique, I'm simply giving an example of how far complete focus of the mind
can drive the human body.) The lift that he did this on was truly an all out effort and a 40
pound PR (personal record). I believe this is the first time that he truly achieved,
"Blindness." In discussing the lift with him afterward he stated exactly what I have said
here, "As soon as I began the lift I didn't see or hear a thing. There was only pushing the
weight."
You achieve this by simply putting in time and desire into lifting. Depending on where
you start, it may take you more or less time to get to the level where you've blocked out
every other thought or feeling. Many of the greater lifters are born closer to this level than
most people, but it can be achieved through constantly forcing yourself to think and work
as hard as possible in the gym. When I begin a lift, as soon as I have the bar in position to
start, my total focus switches away from anything else happening and on to movement and
pushing. I think this is the doorway to this level of concentration. Being able to turn your
focus from seeing outward to almost literally seeing inward to the movement that you're
trying to accomplish. It's almost like the idea of transcendental meditation where you go
outside yourself. Except it's probably the opposite. You turn everything else outside off,
even things going on inside emotionally or physically that could be a distraction and
essentially reenter yourself, focusing all that you have onto the movement that you're
accomplishing. As I said before, the pathway to building this type of concentration takes
different times, experiences and styles of focus, aggressive psych-ing and concentration for
everyone. I can tell you this, you'll know it when you do it.
So how do you modify a routine to get what you want out of it? The first thing you have
to do is clearly establish your goals. The clearer your goals are, the easier it is to push
your program into the direction that it needs to go. If you don't know what you want,
really and truly know it deep down, you'll never be truly satisfied with any program and
you'll never put out the effort to make it work. Here's the kicker, most sensibly related
programs will accomplish whatever goals you want it to depending on how you work it
and the other factors that you include in your life which affect your training. Let me give
a general explanation here to explain what I mean.
We have four prospective lifters. One wants to get big, two wants to get strong, three
wants to lose weight and four wants to build endurance. Each trains three times a week
on the same program. Starting each day with two big basic barbell lifts and then following
it off with conditioning. Can each of these four trainees accomplish their goals using this
exact same program? They absolutely can, it's all in how they approach the program and
how they eat to support it.
Lifter number one should be heavily focused on eating and adding weight to the bar every
workout and maintaining conditioning.
Lifter number two should be heavily focused on adding weight to the bar every workout
and eating enough to support his efforts and maintaining conditioning.
Lifter number three should be heavily focused on conditioning and eating in such a way as
to lower his body fat and still be trying to add weight to the bar every workout.
Lifter number four should be heavily focused on conditioning and eating enough to
Copyright © 2009 Bud Jeffries www.Strongerman.com Pg. 16
support his efforts while still trying to add weight to the bar every workout.
The basic premise and the basic workout will work for everybody. It's all in what you
choose to emphasize and in finding out what you personally like to do and what works
best for you. Specific program adaptations are simply too broad a topic to address in this
book, because nearly ever human has different goals and different physiological and
psychological make-up which makes the most effective plan for you unique to yourself.
No I'm not going to discuss rep speed. Well I may say one thing about it, but all that
slow-fast-balistic-non-balisitc discussion crap bores me to tears and annoys me to a nearly
homicidal level. Sufficed to say these two things:
2. To lift really big, heavy things you cannot successfully lift them slowly. You may
not move very fast when you're pushing a maximum rep, but the explosive effort
needed is exactly the same. If you can lift a weight very slowly it is too light for
regular training.
What I'm really talking about here is the idea of momentum as it pertains to your total
training and making progress in a particular lift or area. It is more difficult to move
something out of a dead stop than it is to increase how fast something is moving if it is
already moving. This is a basic law of physics and a law that applies to nearly every area
in life and very specifically in physical training. The better you know and understand
yourself, the easier it is to control your training situation in a way the produces consistent
gains over a long period of time. Momentum in training is just that. Consistent gains over
a long period of time. Gains that are made very rapidly unless they are a result of training
that has been pushing in that direction and simply breaks a plateau tends to not stay with
you. But gains that come over the long haul and are brought about by progressive
training, which consistently prepares you to go to a higher level are the kinds of permanent
physical adaptations that bring you to being an advanced strength athlete.
Once you tilt your system in the direction of consistently getting bigger and stronger or
more enduring and have built up your basic levels of strength and endurance it is easier for
you to continue to add to them than it is to start from scratch. The possible exception
here might be that you've been on a program that has created this momentum for such a
long period of time that you've maxed out your body's genetic and structural potentials.
However there are so few people who have done this that it is nearly not worth
mentioning. Coincidentally the people who have done this are probably household names
within the strength community.
So how do you create this momentum in training? Well much of this book has already
addressed that. Consistency in every part of your life, training, technique, eating, resting,
etc., will probably do the most in placing your body in a position to gain for long periods.
Conditioning your mind to focus and sometimes endure training is also a key. Here are
some other things that I think will add to most people's abilities to gain for long periods of
time:
٭ Make sure that your general health is good. You know, the whole regular check
up thing.
Everybody else tends to get involved and dogmatic at least to some level. powerlifters,
strongmen, bodybuilders, strength coaches, free weight people, machine people, martial
artists, bodyweight exercise enthusiasts, etc., etc. Let me lay this out for you one time and
one time only. Okay, I'll probably say it more than one time, but you get the picture:
Now I'm going to say some things that I believe that may or may not make some people
mad, but it's what I think. It's not meant to glorify or step on anybody's toes.
In no particular order…
Olympic lifting is a valid training style. It requires a tremendous amount of technique, but
there is also a significant strength component. So the old slander that olympic lifting is all
technique and no strength is a bunch of bull. The exercises, because of their level of
complication and not so much the momentum created do carry a slightly higher risk than
simpler movements. It won't kill you like many HIT people say. However, it won't make
you into Superman like many olympic lifters say either.
High intensity training is a valid training style. In fact, what we refer to as high intensity
training at this moment is very much some people's loudly spoken opinion and not so
much the original concept. There's much validity in the ideas espoused in high intensity
training. Learn to work hard before you work long. Training to failure won't kill you like
some people say and it is not absolutely necessary on every set of every exercise like other
people say. I don think it is important to learn to train to push yourself that hard, but it is
not necessary all of the time.
Bodybuilding, God help me for even mentioning it, as a modern sport with a possible
exception of some of the natural contests has done more to decay the honor and the reality
of the strength and fitness world than anything else. It has also done more to mainstream
and create acceptance for some of the strength world than anything else. The old style of
bodybuilding without the drugs and narcissism, which also entailed the ultimate being and
physical ability, was a very valid style and period of training. All forms of physical
training, especially resistance training that enhances the performance and therefore the
"build" of the body are true to the original ability of "bodybuilding." Applying exercise
sensibly to make the body and mind better is what it should be. Not using ridiculous
programs to enhance only the look of the body with no functional ability.
Does this mean that books and videos are worthless? Absolutely not. They are our only
way to mass communicate the ideas and principles that have come forth. This is the
reason you see people amazed when they actually go and train with a guru or someone
who's training system they espouse. For instance there are several articles written by
people about their experience of training personally with Dr. Ken Leistner. Most of them
say in conclusion a couple of basic things. That they learned from the on-hand application
of his style of training and that 1.) They were doing some of the lifts technically wrong, 2.)
They were applying the system slightly differently and 3.) They weren't working as hard as
they should have been.
So what have I said all of this to point out? That to make the major popular systems in
effect right now work the best that they can, you need some experience. While it's not
practical for most people, if you can go and train with the people whose ideas you're
trying to implement. Contact them in some way. Train with someone they've trained. Be
smart about how you apply your ideas and know your own body well enough to make
them applicable to yourself. No weight lifting rules are set in stone. So don't be afraid to
make things personal to you. Also, it's always a good idea for a beginner to get with an
experienced, competitive type lifter in the beginning stages of their training. Why?
Because at most gyms the only people whom have any idea about productive training,
proper form and any reasonable level of intensity are the guys who compete. You may
find some others, but it's rare.
Here are some hints for applying some of the popular systems right now and making them
work.
٭ Olympic lifting requires not only a significantly high level of base strength, but
requires significant technical practice and flexibility. Hence the reason most
olympic lifting programs use multiple low repetition sets. They also take into
account the amount of nervous fatigue when attempting to do high repetitions
with a complex movement. They are impractical for a olympic weightlifting.
JV Askem describes the olympic lifts as athletic events, not simple training lifts.
Therefore they require skill practice just like any other athletic skill. Because
much of the programs that olympic lifters do only employ low reps and sub
sets they should be trained more often than simpler more muscularly fatiguing
lifts.
٭ Daily or volume training requires very careful attention to overtraining. It also
requires multiple, sub-maximal efforts, not pushing past a preset level of
fatigue. This usually requires an inexperienced person to follow a percentage
chart and an advanced man to know himself well enough to be able to work
hard, but still stay fresh. It can be very productive, but it requires more
attention to detail and a longer build up to most other types of training. Some
of it is really pushed by steroid users and you have to learn to separate what's
practical for the drug-free man and what's simply put down on paper to look
good and sell something by people who use drugs.
I'm lifetime drug-free. I always have been and always will be. In fact in some of my
literature I go so far as to state that if you don't believe I'm drug-free, then you pay for the
test and I'll take it. Why do I harp on that so much? Because I believe that I'm living
proof that you can get to a world class level of strength and you can accomplish whatever
your mind has the strength to push you to without drugs. I feel that it is a criminal offense
the way many people espouse to young innocent kids their programs, which are solely
based on the use of drugs. The truth is that there have been very, very few lifting
champions in the past 35 years who have been drug-free. Basically, no professional
bodybuilders who have been drug-free. I'm talking top-level guys here. The ones who get
the most publicity and exert the most influence over the lifting community and especially
over the new trainees.
The sad truth is that they could have accomplished much if not all of their strength
achievements without drugs if they had had the guts and mental strength to do it. You can
say what you want about this. You can say that its necessary to compete at a world class
level, that its not really a moral question, whatever. You're fooling yourself and allowing
yourself to be pulled into what is corrupting and dishonoring one of the greatest traditions
of mankind.
Steroids might make you physically stronger, but before you stick the first needle in or
take the first pill you have to deep down, admit that you're weak. You have to deep down
look yourself in the eye and say, "I don't have enough of the stuff that makes a man, a man
to get this job done." You can say that this isn't the way that it happens and it may not be
that much of a conscious choice, but you're kidding yourself if you don't think that this is
what you're admitting. If you go so far as to admit that to yourself, that weakness will
eventually show up. In fact if you look at the lives of many of the major drug users these
weaknesses have come out in their personal lives, medical problems, business dealings,
etc. A few more pounds on a lift that you could have achieved on your own had you had
the confidence are not worth the long-term problems and the weaknesses you're instilling
in yourself. I'm all for getting as strong as you can be, and I've tried many truly bizarre
things to get strong, but I will not swap my integrity for a short-term path to success.
This goes for much of the supplement industry as well. I'm not against supplementation as
long as it stays within the frame works of natural substances. Simple protein powders, the
basic vitamins and minerals. Maybe a few basic herbs, which are simply engineered food
items that have been handed down for thousands of years. They may help to ensure
proper nutrition in a diet that's not particularly high in nutrients. They aren't necessary,
but they aren't evil. What is, is the latest, super pro-hormone, extra, barely legal, not
really a steroid, but so close you couldn't tell the difference under a microscope, super
supplement. You're admitting the same weaknesses by succumbing to these.
That's meant to be funny, but it's beyond sad into a level of deception that's beyond moral
boundaries. Many industries put you in jail for telling that kind of lie. The truth is you'll
never be everything you can be until you develop a mindset of complete belief in your
ability to gain and that you have all the tools that it takes to make it work. Any other way
and you're under minding your own confidence and damaging your long-term growth.
Most people have to have, when putting on size with significant speed, large amounts of
protein along with significant carbohydrate and fat intake. Many of the people who have
trouble gaining weight also must have exercise as a muscular and hormonal stimulus for
their body to gain weight. We all know somebody whose 120 pounds that eats like a
football team, but never gains a pound. Generally those people with that metabolism have
to have an exercise stimulus regardless of the reason for their bodies to put on excess
weight. Generally there is more to the situation than that too. If you examine closely they
may eat a large amount of food, but its done irregularly and much of the time it's empty
calorie junk food. It must be wholesome, natural food eaten in large quantities on a
consistent basis. Along with reasonable and intense exercise for most of these people to
make significant gain.
The opposite is most of the time true for those wishing to drop weight. They can diet and
restrict all they want and they will lose a few pounds, but they won't consistently do it and
can't keep the weight off even if they do. Why? Because their body needs the same
stimulus that the skinny guy wanting to gain weight does. That's the solution for those
who can't take weight off when they want to. They're not combining food and exercise in
the correct way. Generally the same holds true here, there is more to the situation than is
noticeable at first glance. Generally they're food restricting in a way that's impractical and
not doable in a long-term manner.
That's the real key to all nutrition. Is it something you can deal with for a lifetime? It's the
same with exercise. Certainly there are periods of exercise that are so intense that you
wouldn't want to do them long-term, but you're general program needs to be based on
something that you enjoy and can do for a lifetime.
Size I don't believe is something you should chase simply for its own merit. Size should
be added within the context of adding strength. It should be the type of size that comes
with dense functional muscle. For most people it will be necessary to increase your
strength to increase your size. Some can do it pumping routines, but what they get is a
bloated ineffective muscular tissue that only has look and no performance and tends to not
stay with you if you stop that type of training. What we're after is size that has the
hardness and density gained by heavy lifting and the lasting effect that muscle gained by
natural methods has. At the same time it is larger, but it is muscularly efficient,
If we wish to gain this type of size that I have discussed in the above paragraph, it must be
gained within the context of all the factors we have laid out. What I'm saying is it's better
to gain size while continuing to do your conditioning at, at least a moderate level than to
stop conditioning for the sake of saving calories and to add size more quickly. This
maintains your endurance and efficiency while you're adding size and strength. Size, even
in the small muscles is best gained by using the large compound exercises. You've heard
other people say it, but it's the truth. Rows, done hard will make your biceps bigger than
curls will. Bench presses done hard will make your chest bigger than flies will. Presses
done hard will make your shoulders bigger than laterals. Also in working these large
movements you teach muscles to work together instead of isolating them. Some minimal
isolation might be all right, but generally then you begin to open the door for strength
imbalances. Real function in the real world requires all muscles to work together. Not a
singular muscle to do all the work. You may look pretty, but it gives you no function.
Truth be told, most of the size built by your really large people is built with the big basic
exercises. Anything else they do that's really an isolation movement is just a top off and its
not what built them up. As a matter of fact for beginners and intermediaries that are down
right detrimental because they waste energy that could be better spent on real exercises
and growing. If you're working the big exercises hard enough you really won't want to do
the little exercises. How big do you need to get anyway? My arms measure 23 inches and
they're built from presses and rows, almost never a curl or tricep extension. My thighs
measure 35 inches and they're built with almost strictly barbell squats and bodyweight
squats with a few vehicle pulls and weighted walks thrown in. Even at the level I'm at
(don't mean that as bragging), you just never get past the basics. That's all there really is,
everything else is icing on the cake at best and misguided wasted effort.
Some of those exercises can be okay. For instance, the basic barbell curl is a descent
exercise, I'm not knocking it. What I'm talking about is the concentration curl with pinkie
supination and a lemon twist done on cable crossovers with the newest handle guaranteed
to super-charge your gains. These are usually performed by guys with 11 inch arms who
couldn't pick a squat rack out of a line up. Be sensible. As one of the sayings goes,
"You've got to have a roast before you can carve one."
My general recommendations about size, are the same as those outlined in my other
books. I like a four basic exercise frame work. Some type of squat, some type of press,
some type of bent arm pull (rows, chins, etc.), and some type of straight arm pull
(deadlifts, etc.). I believe these four cover every major muscle in the human body and if
you only did them you could get to monster size. For reality and functional purposes I
like to work those exercises with low reps, throw in a few odd exercises (strongman type),
to create strength endurance and ability to move with weights and lift unbalanced things as
well as bodyweight exercises. Mostly hindu squats and pushups, abdominal raises and a
few other general calisthenic type movements to add muscular and aerobic endurance.
Working within this framework you have every type of strength and endurance working
Here's the routine. It will be simple and will take up only three hard days a week. Size
can be served by basically any rep scheme, but we're going to cover many bases in the
routine to try and get the ultimate in size:
Day 1:
Finish with 2 sets of weighted sit-ups. One low rep and one moderate to high rep-
set.
Row or Chin up - (Pick whichever style you like, but pick one and stick with it.
If you wish to alternate rows and chin ups every other workout that's okay.)
Warm up with one set of 10 and do 3-4 sets of 2 up to a max set. Then do
a set of 5 to 6, a set of 10-12 and a set of 15-20.
Finish with two sets of weighted calf raises. One heavy low-rep set and one heavy
high-rep set.
Day 3:
Pick one strong man movement. Do 2 to 3 hard, heavy sets of it. Rotate the
movement between each Day 3 workout or if you wish keep the same movement if you
feel you need to practice it or stay with it for a particular period of time. Pick out one
Combat Conditioning routine that gives you some hard conditioning. I suggest the "Deck
of Cards" routine. (Get a deck of playing cards, deal them out to yourself. The black
cards represent push ups, do the number on the card. The red cards represent bodyweight
squats. Do double the number on the card. There are many ways to do this and way to
assign different number values to the cards, just pick what you like and stay with it.) Then
bridge. Front bridge, back bridge, wall walk, whatever you like to do. If your strong man
movement for the day did not particularly tax your grip, add in a grip exercise here.
If you put the proper intensity into these routines they will be quite difficult to
finish, because on all of the post warm up sets of the barbell exercises you should be
working very hard and heavy. On the last set of 10 to 20 you should be working to
failure. Because this is a very intense routine, you may have to spread the days out or
rearrange the order.
For instance you could do Day 1 on Monday, Day 2 on Wednesday and Day 3 on
Friday or Day 1 on Monday, Day 2 on Thursday and Day 3 on the weekend. You could
also change the order for instance, Day 1 on Monday, Day 3 on Wednesday and Day 2 on
Friday, etc. Some of you may have better recovery waiting two or more days between
each of the workouts, spreading the entire series over 10 days or so. One thing I would
suggest especially if you spread it out over a 10 day period, is to add some light
I believe the predominant emphasis of the fitness industry is wrong. 99% of everything
that you're taught or see when it refers to fitness is either directly relating your fitness to
how you look or indirectly pushing the same value system. The truth is we're all created
differently and we're all going to look different. Most of the look that is pushed on the
public by the fitness industry is either completely unachievable or practically unachievable
or downright unhealthy. Most of the time it is pushed by pictures that are either
retouched, or specially posed with specific lighting or taken with people who are either
drug users or have eating disorders.
They are usually taken at these people's downright unhealthiest moments and for the ones
who are drug users are taken at a "peak" that is only maintainable for two to three days of
the year. Yet these things are sold to us as if, "If you only train the way we say to, or buy
the supplement we use, you can look like this all of the time and you'll be happy, healthy
and won't really have to work hard to get it." These are a huge load of bull. That's
putting a positive spin on it. At worst its downright lies and corruption fostered on the
unknowing. It's a huge contribution to our societal problems with body image and self
esteem. Especially as it relates to women and young girls, but the further we go down this
road the more even it extends to men and boys.
Now I'm not condoning being out of shape. What I'm saying is that its immoral to push
those unnatural looks on people and tell them that's the way they are supposed to be. I
believe that we should look at fitness in a different way. Fitness should be about function
and looks are a far secondary consideration. It is downright unfortunate that it requires
very little strength and fitness to survive in our present world and that is leading to a
significant portion of the physical downfall of the modern technological society.
Now first let me say that I don't believe in Darwinist Evolution. In fact I believe that
Darwinist evolution is a crock and a scientific attempt to explain away moral
responsibility. I do believe that most organisms have some ability to adapt to their
environment. What I don't believe is the whole progression from single cell organism, to
fish, to ape, to sub-human (or caveman as we refer to them), to human. But for the
purposes of explaining this analogy and because it's kind of funny I picked that name.
Let's compare our two subjects and place them within the old caveman movies of '60's
context. First we have Buff. Buff is pretty. He has a very low body fat percentage. You
can see his six pack. He has moderately toned muscles, but not anything powerful and
minimal aerobic capacity given from riding his Bedrock aerodyne. He does well with the
ladies, because they've unfortunately been duped into thinking that he's manly because you
can see his abs. He has moderate fitness, but no extreme strength or endurance.
So, if we pair these two down into the traditional caveman battle which is Grog and Buff
both come out of the cave with clubs and the winner drags off the other's woman and
food. Who do you think is going to win? (Hint, if you said Buff, put this book down
immediately!)
What I'm trying to get at here is that a look is a specific side effect of specific training.
That does not particularly improve your performance as it relates to fitness. I want you to
look at fitness as a quantitative value, not as an objective quasi-ideal. The guy who is
stronger, faster and has more endurance and has all of these qualities developed in a way
that they can be applied to the real world is the more fit man. If your energy level is
higher and your health and ability to stave off disease and efficient function of your
internal organs is better, but you don't look prettier than a cover boy or fitness model,
guess what, you're still healthier, you just don't look the same as judged by an arbitrary
standard.
So when you judge your health, judge it by empirical standards not arbitrary, objective,
looks-based opinions. Your strength, your endurance , your cardiovascular conditioning,
your energy level, your ability to live your life the way you want to, your heart rate, your
blood pressure, your recovery, not whether you can see your abs or not.
Just remember, even if I have a little more body fat or am not quite as pretty as Buff, but I
can out work, out last, out lift, out endure and out perform him, then slap him around and
take his woman along with his cookies and milk, then I'm more fit than him. Period.
You know we’ve come a long way with the technology and industry of the world. But in
all that we still can’t equal the incredibility of the human body. We can build cars that
drive long distances, or cars that haul heavy things or cars that go ridiculously fast, but we
haven’t been able to put it all in one vehicle. Why? Because the machine is the invention of
man, an inanimate object limited to the mechanical power it can display. However YOU
are something different.
First you are designed by an omnipotent God and so incredible and complex is the design
that we’re still scratching the surface at figuring it out. Second you can build your body
into being a “machine,” that can cover long distances, haul heavy things and go extremely
fast. Your body has the ability to adapt to all of those things at the same time. Problem is,
very few people have ever unlocked all the secrets of getting all that response out of your
machine.
Third, your mind has infinite power over your body. A man-made machine can only
respond to the programmed controls that it has. Even our computers are really just playing
pre-programmed responses. However a machine cannot decide to change itself and then
exert the power of that decision to actually effect those changes. If you put the right
mental energy into making yourself any or all of those physical things, your body will
become it. Both by the work you put in, they physical adaptability of your body and the
power that your mind and spirit have over actually effecting changes in your body.
A Volkswagen can’t just decide to be a drag racer or a 4x4. Someone else has to make it
that. You however, can decide through will and training to make yourself into an efficient,
strong, and powerful machines, all physically, spiritually, emotionally and mentally. What’s
topping you from taking advantage of the incredible built in ability that you already have?
You have to do the work to unleash it. Decide what you want and start working. Because
the raw material for any goal that you want to accomplish is already there within you.
Which is harder to do? 100 straight squats and 100 straight push ups, or 10 sets of 10 of
each alternated with each other? The answer depends on how you look at the question.
For pure muscular strength endurance it’s harder to do the reps straight. However for
cardiovascular and general endurance (inclusive of some muscular strength endurance with
higher heart and lung function). It’s harder to do the 10 sets of 10 alternated. Why?
Because the act of changing from one exercise to the other, changing direction and
momentum requires more cardiovascular endurance. Also you force the heart and lungs to
work harder by forcing them to pump blood and oxygen to different parts of the body
alternately creating greater over all circulation. You also take advantage of the fact that
from set to set, while your muscles are being worked they are still fresher and can move at
a faster pace with cleaner reps and more speed. This is why conditioning routines like
pyramids, circuits, intervals and things like the deck of cards routine are so effective in
building endurance.
Your breathing and cardio goes through the roof and over the course of the entire
workout, you’ve done enough volume to stimulate muscular endurance and hormonal and
chemical change in the body. As a wonderful side benefit, you don’t effect your max
strength as much as straight rep or long slow style conditioning workouts do. Because you
can use faster pacing and in effect bursts of muscular effort, you’re still teaching the body
to operate at a high level of strength, but now blended with endurance together.
Take this into account in your workouts. By all means, when you’re building a base of
muscular and cardio endurance it’s okay and appropriate to do straight rep sets.
Everybody should go though them at some point in their training career to build their
benefits and build that muscular memory into your strength and endurance, but most of the
time your endurance training should be on some type of an interval. The most bang for
your buck, and the most change in your life.
I want to talk to you about why the average training system for endurance doesn’t get the
job done for most people and how you can use this tip like mainlining Viagra for your
endurance training. When you train any new system for physical gains there is a learning
curve. The learning curve is always more stressful than what an experienced trainer goes
through because the body is not used to that particular style of stress.
For instance if you do bodyweight exercises for the first time for ultra high reps, it seems
like some kind of fitness epiphany. You can’t believe the burning sensations from the high
reps or the soreness or the fact that even though you can squat 500 pounds, you can’t do
100 unbroken reps of bodyweight squats. However after a while you learn that the key to
high reps with any lightweight implement is alternating relaxation and tension.
This is a skill that lends itself to any type of endurance activity. If you bike or run for long
periods of time you develop the most efficient form that allows you to relax the most
while putting out the right level of tension to maintain your pace and stretch out the
endurance. The same applies to grappling or boxing. That’s the reason cyclists and runners
often die on hills, because a hill requires a radical increase in the amount of muscular
output or tension.
It’s one thing to maintain a paced level of any training exercise, but it’s another thing to
have to go from moderate to all out pace and back and forth during an endurance session.
Eventually all light training especially if attempting to do high straight reps succumbs to
greater efficiency. You learn how to relax the most and apply the least tension to still get
the job done. It’s necessary, but it diminishes the returns especially as it applies to sport.
So what’s the solution? Mix in a heavier or faster pace implement or interval into you
endurance training. If you’ve been training kettlebells or dumbbells or what ever the case
may be and you’re cranking up to 100 rep sets one way or the other you’re learning to
relax during those sets. So if you want to truly train your system to be able to go harder
and longer, amp up the workout by throwing in something truly difficult in the middle of
those reps. Could be heavy barbell work, strongman or simply heavier, faster work or a
light implement, or a sprint style pace or heavier, more difficult bodyweight exercise that
allows you to really lay it on the line in the midst of a conditioning session.
This way you can still keep your conditioning session short, but push the intensity up and
get massive gains. You can actually be prepared to take those gains from the gym to the
real world.
Copyright © 2009 Bud Jeffries www.Strongerman.com Pg. 36
Remember just because a guy may be a world champion at a particular endurance feat or
sport doesn’t mean you should train like him. Many of the champion level professional
athletes are simply so gifted that they can play the sport with moderate to low intensity
work outs and still be unbelievable. However, for everyone else, if you really want to
make amazing progress either in your sport or in taking your training to the real world,
you have got to over prepare. You have to make it harder than the game or whatever real
world challenge you might be looking to conquer when you train in the gym.
The fact is those things just aren’t true. It’s the effort that you put into the training that
you do. Much more so than the amount of training. So we gave him a quick program.
Three 15 minute workouts per week. This combined with proper effort, proper form on
the exercises, proper food, and progression will get you tons of results. Here’s a variation
of that routine.
Workout 1
Warm up
Then barbell squat 1 set of 20.
Followed by 1 x 20 breathing pullovers.
Followed quickly by stiff leg deadlifts of 1 x 15
Then 1 x 20 breathing pullovers.
Workout 2
Warm up
Then dumbbell row, dumbbell press and barbell curl 3 to 4 x 1, 1 x 10, 1 x 20 plus your
choice of what type of dumbbell press or row.
Start with one set of 10 very light on each of the exercises to warm up, then jump
immediately to progressively heavier sets of 1 up to a max for the day then back off, do
another set of 10, and then a set of really high reps.
Workout 3
Warm up
Hindu squat x 10
Push up x 10
Dumbbell or Kettlebell swing x 10
Repeat each of those non-stop dropping one rep per round (10 for all three exercises, 9 on
the second, 8 on the third, on down to one round).
Move as fast as you can, taking as little rest as possible and repeating as many times as
possible in 15 minutes.
All hogwash!
I believe that we as strength athletes need to make a move for our own independence. To
do what we want to do and be how we want to be regardless of sport or the mainstream. I
never want to intentionally intimidate anyone who is in a gym environment or seeking
fitness for strength or whatever, however I refuse to water-down the manliness of the
challenges I put before myself to make it more acceptable to anyone’s idea of what is
mainstream. The mainstream should be looking to man-up and get strong and in shape and
not be so easily intimidated by any minor expression of physical intensity or passion.
You don’t get to be exceptional by caving to mass opinion. If you’re not finding your own
expression of strength, health and fitness regardless of what anyone else thinks you ought
to look or act like then you’re not being true to yourself. In fact I’m a little glad that the
average fitness person is intimidated by a hard workout. Not the idiocy that steroids has
brought or lame histrionics or people who are intentionally, personally intimidating to
other people in a gym setting. I’m talking about effort that bleeds though your skin.
Weights that bend bars, objects that people don’t think can be lifted and feats that people
don’t think are possible.
I want to do the thing that requires the effort that separates me from the mass of the
fitness world. If you refuse to be separated then you choose to have their results, which is
mostly pathetic and for show. Higher results require higher effort and that is what
separates us from them. Not some imaginary disquieting presence that they choose to
assume.
Intimidation for intimidation’s sake is idiocy. Just like being intimidated by someone’s
effort in the gym is idiocy. Most people don’t ever see themselves as having the ability to
produce that kind of strength and they realize what a person who can produce that kind of
effort is capable of. That’s why they’re intimidated. However most of the truly tough
people I’ve ever met are also quite nice and are generally the exact opposite of the
assumption of the mainstream. In fact they are an asset to the world because of their
strength instead of a detraction. They help to preserve the abilities of strength, effort and
heroism in a world that tries to water everything down and looks down on them for it. Be
one of these people and be your own man.
We spent the last couple of days at the beach taking a little family time. Had a wonderful
time at a very nice little, secluded beach. I always enjoy the water and the time with my
family away from other distractions.
Caught a little workout while we were there. Nothing fancy, brought a kettlebell with me.
It’s just inspirational to have that type of setting. On the sand and surf, it’s one of those
places that drives you to enjoyable effort. So I did a couple of hundred swings, finished
the workout by doing sprints from the water up onto the beach, back to the kettlebell for
another set of swings. I did five sets. It’s a workout you should definitely try because the
water really adds to the effort. Believe me you’ll huff and puff like a steam engine.
Now I tend to be oblivious to other people when I’m doing something like that. I’m
wrapped up in my own little world of the workout and nobody else is really effecting it.
My wife was telling me later about watching people’s reactions when I came sprinting out
of the water. Everybody on the beach, particularly those in the water would suddenly jump
and start searching the water as if there were a shark. The really funny thing is they did it
every time I ran a sprint out of the water, not just the first time. As if there were a new
shark every time I ventured back into the water. My wife and son were there swimming
along with me. She said they kept looking back at her like, “Why is the big guy running
and the woman and the boy are staying in the water?!”
All in all except for the slight moments of shark-induced fear, I think everyone had a good
time watching the 350lb guy run out of the water and swing the cannonball with the
handle around. No one was intentionally intimidated, but I had a great time and improved
my fitness along the way. You should try this workout. Do things to make your workout
tougher to separate you from the weak and frightened masses.
Well, yes, I do know a secret. But it isn’t some secret training routine. Or some secret
food to eat or supplement to take, or drugs or anything like that. One of the other
criticisms that everybody who is strong and puts out information about how to train gets is
this: “Well anything would work for you. Your genetics are so good you couldn’t help but
get strong.”
Is that the truth? Could I have haphazardly done any ol’ program and gotten strong? No,
it’s not true and that question explains itself. You can’t haphazardly, randomly pick
exercises and suddenly find yourself with the key to strength or magically strong. No
matter where you start or how good of genetics you come from, it’s what you do after
that which counts. No one is born suddenly possessing the ability to lift 1,000 pounds or
do 1,000 pushups. Those things my friends take use of the secret.
Focused, progressive hard work on real result producing exercises. Effort. Effort means
more than genetics. All the potential in the world is nothing without applied effort. Effort
means more than drugs. It means more than supplements, more than the perfect training
routine or some “secret” exercise. Effort is the secret.
Where ever you are, if you’re not getting bigger, stronger, faster or more enduring then
complaining about it or blaming it on your genetics won’t get the job done. Comparing
yourself to others won’t help to get the job done. Genetics is something you cannot
control therefore it is a non-factor. You work with what you have, which is always more
than you give yourself credit for and become the best you can be.
Intelligent training applied with effort always beats genetics. There are tons of people out
there with starting blocks to build with genetically, but they’re too lazy or unfocused, or
unmotivated to do anything about it. Results beats potential. Second-guessing that is a
pure waste of time. “Oh if he only worked as hard as so-and-so… he has so much
potential.” So what!? Potential without the work is an un-measurable and unrealistic
concept. You can do what you’re mind believes you can do and what you actually put
forth the effort to accomplish. Everything else is hot air. No excuses, no worrying about
whether somebody else has great potential or whether you do or don’t. Put in the work
and you’ll get the results.
I already told you the secret, now you step up and apply it.
Most of the conditioning that I and many of the hardcore athletes now do has a very
quantitative nature. In fact I think that’s what attracted me to that type of conditioning
originally. There’s just something more substantial about saying, “I’m going to do “x”
number of reps in “y” amount of time.” Than saying, “I’m going for a run, or I’m going to
ride the bike.”
Nothing wrong with running or biking except for the fact that I believe that all hard
conditioning should have some type of interval built in. It’s the natural state of the body.
The deeper I got into the alternative conditioning methods that I now pursue the more
perspective I gained about them. Here are some of the things I found out.
Using muscular and aerobic conditioning together is the way to add endurance to your
strength without taking away from your top end. Fast pacing and moderate rep sets
alternating exercises is superior to one long super high rep movement. Single movement
super high rep workouts are fine, they’re great base builders, but shouldn’t be the absolute
cornerstone of your conditioning. All the alternative implements give similar results as
long as you give the right effort. Alternating implements is a great way to add variety to
your training, up your conditioning and stop over use injuries.
Reps of one type of exercise do not have a straight equal in another type of exercise. (100
bodyweight squats may equal 50 kettlebell snatches in the amount of power output and
conditioning they may require). Different people will have different exercises that they are
particularly suited for. Generally speaking however the mark of solid started conditioning
is a 500 rep workout. The next gateway and the beginning of super endurance is 1,000
reps.
Here’s a sample 1,000-rep workout that I did the other day, which you can have a little
twisted fun with:
20 step ups
20 half sit ups
20 kettlebell swings
20 dumbbell arm movements
There you have it. 1,000 reps. Working every part of the body at a fast pace building both
cardiovascular and muscular endurance. If you really want to spice it up, throw in a
strength exercise at the beginning, middle or end. I bent some nails at the end of this
workout even though it would have normally been quite easy, they were significantly more
challenging because of the total level of fatigue.
If you want to step up to a level of endurance that carries over to everything that you do
that really has a long term effect on your health and energy and makes your strength work
easier, at some point you have got to explore the upper echelon of what’s possible with
your endurance. You’ve got to build up to it and then go to places you didn’t think were
possible. Just add a few reps at a time. Keep going, getting one more rep, one more set of
10, whatever you have to get to get there.
Then you can sit on top of the mountain and know you’ve been somewhere and you can
see even higher peaks to climb.
Life is busy, very busy. The pastor of our church became ill and through a series of minor
happenings I found out at about 4 o’clock in the afternoon that I might need to pinch hit
for him at the night service. Putting aside the ridiculousness that most people fear public
speaking more than death, those who wouldn’t rather commit suicide than stand up in
front of people might be freaking out about having to do it on short notice. Well I think
that as an adult you should be working toward losing any fear or lack of ability of handling
things on short notice. That includes your physical, spiritual and mental life.
Now it might be different if you asked me to preach a seven day, two service a day revival
with 10 minutes notice, but little challenges come up every day in every area of your life
and it shouldn’t take us a week’s prep to be able to handle those things. Number one, life
moves too fast for that. Number two think of all the opportunities you miss by stepping
away from a challenge, because you need more prep time.
Is your physical training leading you to be able to jump in at a moment’s notice? One of
the most profound things anyone in strength ever said to me was a guy named Mickey
Strickland and was one of the first guys I ever lifted weights with. We were discussing
suits, wraps and bench shirts and the state of preparation needed to perform a competitive
powerlift. He kind of laughed and said, “You know I train for my life. If something heavy
falls on my wife or kid I don’t want to have to run in the house and spend 20 minutes to
put on knee wraps, suit and a belt to pick it up off of them.” I was young at the time, but
the realization of the truth of that statement hit me like a ton of bricks. If your training
isn’t increasing your ability to live your life as well as use your physical strengths and
pursue whatever other goals you might have then something is wrong.
The same is true for your mental and spiritual life. It’s not enough to say you have a
positive or unconquerable attitude, you have to actually put it into practice on a regular
basis. It’s not enough to know a little about what you believe spiritually or your job or
whatever other mental challenge you might face. If you’re not learning it inside out and
developing confidence in your ability to express yourself in those areas something is
wrong.
So how do you solve this? Practice. The more prepped you are in any area the better
you’ll perform at jumping in at the last minute. That includes prayer and knowledge on
your spiritual beliefs, confidence and a clear well organized mind and physical traits of
useable strength and endurance. Guess what? You can build a lot of those traits all at the
same time with your physical strength. Confidence and clarity are built through hard
physical training. The greater your confidence, the greater your ability to apply yourself
mentally and physically. Are you heading in the right direction prepping to meet the
challenges of your life?