bud jeffries - power points

Power Points For Super Size, Strength, Endurance & Health

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.

Power Points for Super Size, Strength, Endurance & Health All rights reserved. Copyright 2009 by Bud Jeffries

No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.

www.Strongerman.com www.SuperHumanTraining.com

Copyright 2009 Bud Jeffries www.Strongerman.com Pg. 1

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 Shouldnt 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 Doesnt 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 Cant 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


1 - Consistency

What kind of exercise produces the best gains?

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.


*What is meant here is to know that you can't substitute an inferior exercise simply because you like it and expect to make real progress with your training. You may like leg extensions better than squats, but you don't get any real benefit from them comparatively. The big compound exercises are what is necessary. Subbing in an idiot exercise does not get the job done. Even if you don't like an exercise you can teach yourself to like it and motivate yourself by realizing that, "Even if I don't like this particular thing, it is necessary to achieve my goals and the real fun and satisfaction is in achieving those goals."


2 - What Does It Take To Get It Done?

What does it really take to get big and strong and have lots of real world strength and endurance?

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.


3 - Barbells

Its tough to beat the basic barbell for its function and for actually being a tool that will accomplish its intended purpose. Even Arthur Jones, inventor of Nautilus and sort of the father of the modern weight training machine movement was clear about this. Most of his early training programs offered a significant amount of barbell work. In fact he said of his own machines that they were simply attempts to modernize and redesign the barbell, not replace it. The barbell and the functioning theory behind it had actually been around for thousands of years. Any heavy object that will allow you to lift it and to eventually progress in some way is fulfilling the same function as the barbell. The barbell simply makes it easy to use and balanced. In fact for training limit strength and building the utmost in pure power it's almost impossible to beat basic, heavy, compound barbell exercises. In fact I believe that most of the really productive exercises that we use the barbell for are simply an attempt to add progression to what was an already existing set of bodyweight or calisthenic type exercises. As well as to add a tool that would change the idea of applying strength for moving the body through the air to the idea of moving an object through the air with the force of the body.

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.


4 - Consistency II

If you can't tell by now you will certainly be able to by the end of this book that I'm big on the idea of being consistent in your workouts. In fact I'm going to hammer this idea home from a couple of different angles and a couple of different ways on just how far reaching the effects are in this area of your training.

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.


5 - Consistency III

Usually I don't try to beat a dead horse, but I don't think this horse is dead yet. The idea of consistency should flow over into the specific details of every part of your lifting life. What does this mean? In the first part of consistency we talked about showing up, actually physically getting out there and training on a regular basis and hinted at picking one major exercise per muscle structure and sticking with it for long periods of time. In the second part we talked about being consistent and specific in your goals and in the application of your training and in pushing toward those specific goals using the same types of protocols all the time. Now we're talking about pushing this down into the further details of your training.

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. Its the old adage, "Perfect practice, makes perfect."

As you can see I've outlined in this simple paragraph that its 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


thing that the details are specific to you and make just as much difference to the minute details that weightlifting does. Certainly you can get by with just eating regular food and what I'm talking about is not really a departure from this theory. What it really means is that you're consistent about how much of everything that you eat and that it is consistent with your all time goal. You always look at as a meal with its protein content as the first consideration. You always follow your regular eating pattern (within reason). It may sound like something you tell your kids, but you always eat your vegetables. You always sleep as much as you need within the context of your regular life. I'm not talking about the obsessive attention to detail and food weighing. That's the kind of crap that bodybuilders do. I'm more talking about always eating a regular food with significant protein content for your lunch rather than a bag of Doritos. I'm talking about consistently drinking enough water to stay hydrated rather than saying, "Well I drank plenty of water yesterday, I can get away with not doing it today, I'll just drink Coke."

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.


6 - Why Reps Really Shouldn't Be Reps

Watch a real experienced powerful lifter perform a set of five reps. Then watch a beginner to intermediate level lifter perform a similar set of five reps. What do you think the differences will be?

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. Dont 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 dont 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.


7 - How Learning To Focus Will Double Your Strength

Your body has a built-in ability to create ultimate, powerful, laser point sharp focus!

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


accurate to a point and is a partial explanation meaning you can't summon the strength of a gorilla simply because you have that powerful level of mental control. A gorilla has a much different physical system to work with, but you'll never get all of the power you could get out of your own system if you don't learn to use this technique.)

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.


8 - Visualization And Some Mental Tricks

I like the idea of visualizing the workout. The set, the rep, whatever it is that you wish to accomplish. I think it an excellent, intermediary technique on the road to true strength. I think however at some point you must get past it to some level. The intermediate guy needs to visualize because he is rehearsing his technique and it is a confidence and focus builder. The advanced man has the technique and confidence so ingrained that visualization is not really as effective a tool as the extreme focus recruitment that was discussed in the previous point.

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


enhancing your lift.

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."

In accomplishing endurance feats it may often be productive to apply numbers gains to dull the physical pain by a mental activity. For instance in attempting to do 1,000 hindu squats, I found it productive to keep my mind occupied at some level simply counting reps and not thinking about how badly my legs were burning. I might begin to count in sets of 30 to 50 reps and progressively decrease to shorter numbers so that accomplishing the mental task is progressively easier as your physical fatigue becomes greater.


9 - How To Create Blindness For Ultimate Concentration

The road to this level of concentration is different for every person. What I am referring to is a level of concentration where all conscious thought, even the conscious ability to see is over-ridden by total internal focus. It is difficult to explain. Maybe this will clarify it a little bit. When I squat, as soon as I have begun to take the lift, (if it's at competition it would be just after the squat signal. If it's in training it would be just as I begin to push the weight up in the bottom position start lift.), as soon as I actually begin the movement by eyes literally go black and I won't see anything until the movement is completed. When I'm really on I won't hear anything either. I guess you could call it being, "in the zone." Baseball players talk about it as if time slows down and there's nothing else in the world happening except your focus on the ball. The road there is an individual task, but the secret to greatness is finding that path and being able to duplicate that at will almost all of the time.

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.


One tip beyond what's already been laid out in the previous two points that may help is something that I learned from Matt Furey. What you basically do is assume a comfortable position and begin to deep breath, turn your focus and attention inward and begin to count down slowly from 100 to one. Here's the kicker, every time that any other thought enters your mind except for counting the numbers, you have to start over. As you progress you will eventually build your level of focus so you can complete this with no other thought or distraction entering your mind. Simply pushing yourself as hard as possible with your training on a regular basis will probably do the most for building this type of concentration. Why? Because intense physical effort will build intense mental focus like almost nothing else.


10 - It Doesn't Take A Rocket Scientist To Get What You Want Out of Lifting

Even though much of the physical information in the world is laid out with a ton of pseudo-science, high dollar words and mumbo-jumbo, lifting is not a complicated endeavor. Even though some of the mental aspects that I've gone into in the last few points are a bit esoteric and complicated, almost anyone can learn to do it. Don't let anyone tell you that you need the latest this, or the most super complicated, supremely researched, overblown and overdrawn pill, potion, technique or program to build size, strength and endurance. You need moderate knowledge, a workable program and an iron desire and will.

No program, no matter how beautifully laid out, mega-maniacally researched or overly, intricately, modernly complicated is worth the paper its written on without the effort put into it by the person following it. Simple programs followed with psychotic effort get the job done. Anybody who tells you different is going to have their hand in your pocket and on your wallet very quickly. (Not that I'm against selling things to people, I'm against lying to them to sell it and feeding them misinformation under the guise of science.)

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


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.


11 - Momentamum

(aka: Momentum. That's a joke, not a typo.)

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:

1. Just lift the freakin' weight. Stop arguing about it.

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.


Don't switch strategies every other week. If you decide to do partials or singles or whatever it is that you have picked as your training style, stay with it for long enough to make it work and achieve the gains you're after. Don't switch styles just because the wind blows. Make sure that you're conditioning and strength bases are solidly built and maintained. Especially conditioning. The better of shape that your body is in, the better your health is, the longer you can tolerate physical training that is intense enough to push you to new levels without over taxing yourself. Moderate your intensity. Learn to train with absolute mind numbing intensity, but with experience, learn when to push to that level and when not to. Listen to your body within the context of accomplishing your goals and never letting yourself off easy. For instance I can train with high reps to failure, but I also know that if I do this for too extended a period of time I burn out and exhaust my recuperative abilities. So I use this technique without breaking my body down and destroying my momentum so that I have to take an excessive amount of time off to heal and start over again. Manage your energy. Learn to control your emotions. Nobody stays totally controlled all of the time and that's not what I'm talking about. Be enough of a grown up not to go completely crazy over minor inconveniences of life. Follow your body's natural cycles. Part of the point of man-written cycling is to create a situation of positive training momentum. The body itself does run in cycles. Not every workout will be an absolute super PR producing maximum intensity session. However, every workout can have significant intensity up to 85-90% of your maximum ability. The problem with cyclic training is that going from 50-60% of your max up to 100+% in relatively short periods of time destroys the harmony of training momentum. You're peaking and then having to start over again and wasting time. Not only that you're body never fully gets used to the heavy training that way and you never stay with heavy training long enough to allow you body to get used to it and get past the aches and pains. You "peak" and then lose strength because you've literally accelerated the momentum of your training too fast for your body to adapt to. However, if you stay with heavy training while paying attention to the body, backing off when necessary, but only to a moderate degree, not to the massive fluctuations in poundage called for by traditional cycles, your body can and will adapt to producing high levels of strength all of the time without risk of excessive burn out, fatigue or of injury. Cycling, yes when the body calls for it, but not when it calls for excessive poundage fluctuation. Don't go overboard simply because a new training regimen looks cool. If you do switch directions in your training, take some time to prepare. Don't jump immediately from all high reps to all low reps and expect not to have some wavering. The opposite of this is true as well. Except for specific tests or for variety on moderated occasions, don't go overboard on frequency or volume. If you do try a routine that has excessive frequency or volume take significant time to work in with moderate training. As you get in to higher levels of strength and endurance, you will on one hand have the ability to at will, call up levels of strength and endurance that you couldn't dream of as a beginner. You will on the other hand also have the ability to push your body into a level of fatigue that you did not have the tenacity or physical ability to accomplish as a beginner. Learn to moderate these two facts to extend the momentum in your training.


12 - HIT vs. Olympic Lifting vs. Everybody Else

For the title of this point I picked HIT (High Intensity Training) and Olympic lifting to illustrate a point. I'm not going to jump off into anyone's dogmatic camp. The reason I picked these two is because they tend to be two of the most fanatical and argumentative of the training styles. Probably more time, effort and energy is spent worrying and fighting about the merits or drawbacks of these two styles of training than any of the other groups.

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:

Nobody has complete ownership of the only truth or productive methods of strength and endurance training. Almost everybody's system has some merit and some drawback. You will have to find what works for you. Everybody who writes books writes out of their own experience, therefore they have personal preferences, opinions and biases. At some point you have to just get out and train and not worry about classifying yourself and you have to think for yourself some. Don't blindly accept or deny anybody's opinion. The truth is there are strong well developed, fit and healthy people who come from every one of these training backgrounds and many people come from several. I think everyone should have some experience with almost all of these styles.

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.


Powerlifting is a valid training style. As a sport it has unfortunately become a mockery of real strength. In my opinion the support gear is a total joke and has created a travesty in what could be a tremendous strength sport. I also don't personally feel that the bench press is the end all, be all of upper-body strength. It's not a bad exercise, I just think that there are better ones. Powerlifting also does not make you slow.

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.


13 - Making A Popular System Work

Most of the modern hardcore training philosophies have enough merit and value in them to make them of benefit to most trainees. So why do systems work great for some people and not for others? The secret again is the details and in the intricate knowledge of the system. Most people attempt to apply the principles of any particular lifting system without fully understanding them. Therefore their application is skewed and their results are only part of what they were expecting or feel they were promised. Now we've already discussed two of the major causes of failure to gain. Not working hard enough and not sticking with a system long enough to make it work. What I'm addressing here is the fact that no matter how you put a system out on a piece of paper, because of the individual differences from one human to the next, you only get the absolute optimal gains when you have enough knowledge of how a system should work to logically modify it to fit the individuality of the person you're training. Hence the reason you can go and train with most intelligent, knowledgeable proprietors of different systems and they understand their system well enough to train you in such a way as to make it work. Many times when you attempt to apply someone else's system without total understanding on your own you only get partial gains. This is the reason that many of the top coaches advise that you at least train with a person to get a feel of how things are really supposed to be.

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.


High intensity training requires just that. Intensity. If you're only going to do one set to failure, you'd better make that one set count and summon up every ounce of energy you've got to put in it. You also have to be smart about your recovery and stick with basic hard exercises.

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.


14 - The Truth About Steroids & Quasi-Steroids

Well let's lay it out for you. I guess some of what I'll say will be partly opinion and some will be significant fact, but much of it is things you ought to know.

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.


What's unfortunate is that most people never fully realize what they're doing when the first begin to take these things. The youngsters who are sucked in by advertising who don't have access to the truthful sources for information about the realities of training. They never get what they want, never make the progress that they could be making or deserve, because they're never told the truth about what it takes to make it. They do God knows what damage to their bodies with questionable substances or they waste their money on things that are completely ineffective and are sold to them geared specifically to keep them from making or understanding that they can make progress on their own. When they don't make that progress they're told, "You must not be using enough of 'Super Champs Extra Engineered Rat Poison' to get buff." Or, "If you're spending that full hour doing the 38 sets of curls that we told you to do, you must not be taking enough Super Bicep Pumper Powder in the correct extrapolated dosage down to the millisecond of consumption time for optimal growth in your biceptitudinal muscular ranges."

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.


15 - The Truth About Size

Size is dictated by a couple of factors. Generally it's how much food you eat and how regularly and intensely you exercise. For most of the people it's not the exercise, its the food they eat. They simply are not willing to eat enough to put on the size they want. They are sold into the fact that they have to be six-pack lean with low body fat and gain size while simultaneously reducing body fat, because of the lies that they're sold hook, line and sinker by the bodybuilding, supplement and drug people. You can put on size without fat, but its going to be a little slower than just putting on size while accepting some body fat.

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,


coordinated, strong and enduring. In my opinion if there is a little fat with it, so what, but that can be tailored to your preference via diet and conditioning.

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


together so that when you do gain that size you gain it with efficiency and do not have to suffer through periods of adding efficiency to size that you've already gained, but does not have the function you desire.


16 - A Routine For Monster Size

This would be a routine geared for gaining size, but within the context discussed in point 16. Also, because of the way the programs I have talked about are structured, they almost always entail strength, endurance and athletic movement with heavy weight. They can be done by someone wishing to gain or lose or maintain and simply get greater strength and athletic aptitude. The big key in the gaining process there is stimulating it with the exercise and then eating for size. And I mean really eating, especially if you want to gain quickly or have trouble gaining weight. Wholesome, nutritious, balanced food and striking a balance between eating as much as you possibly can and not overstuffing yourself. Concentrate on eating what you can digest, not what you can possibly stuff in.

We'll talk more about food in another point.

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:

Press - (Pick any type of press you like)

Warm up with one set of 10 and 4 progressively heavier singles. Then on your 5th set single should be a max or at least 90% of max. Then if you have access to a power rack of some sort do 2 sets of partial presses, one heavy low-rep set and one heavy high-rep set. Then back down and do one set of 5 to 6 reps, one set of 10 to 12 reps and one set of 15-20 reps to finish.

Squat - (Pick whatever type of back squat you want)

Warm up with one set of 10 and 4 progressively heavier singles. Then on your 5th set single should be a max or at least 90% of max. Then if you have access to a power rack of some sort do 2 sets of partial squats, one heavy low-rep set and one heavy high-rep set. Then back down and do one set of 5 to 6 reps, one set of 10 to 12 reps and one set of 15-20 reps to finish.

Finish with 2 sets of weighted sit-ups. One low rep and one moderate to high rep-set.


Day 2:

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.

Deadlifts - Whichever style you like

Warm up with one set of 10 and 4 progressively heavier singles. Then on your 5th set single should be a max or at least 90% of max. Then if you have access to a power rack of some sort do 2 sets of partial deadlifts, one heavy low-rep set and one heavy high-rep set. Then back down and do one set of 5 to 6 reps, one set of 10 to 12 reps and one set of 15-20 reps to finish.

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


conditioning days between just for general health purposes. For instance a walk mixed with a few squats, push ups and abdominal raises just to keep the body in moving working order and the keep the blood flowing in an aerobic system. I'll mention this again to gain on the routine, you can put on massive muscle by you MUST EAT!!


17 - The Truth About Fitness

The entire fitness industry may burn me in effigy for saying what I am about to say.

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.

Hence we come to what I call the "Caveman Theory of Fitness."

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.


Then we have Grog. Grog is a large man. He has some body fat. You don't see all of his abs, but you definitely see his muscles. Grog has an abundance of strength and endurance gained from lifting large heavy things and moving his body in high repetitions and over long distances. Grog is not quite as pretty as Buff, but he is definitely in shape and athletic.

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.


18 - A Machine Can't Do It But You Can

I hope youre all fully realizing the deep blessings you have and expecting new ones to come.

You know weve come a long way with the technology and industry of the world. But in all that we still cant 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 havent 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 were 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 cant 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. Whats topping you from taking advantage of the incredible built in ability that you already have? You have to do the work to unleas

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