Philosophy of Training – by Paul Carter
No frills and no bullshit methodologies on how get big and strong
Philosophy of Training for Mass – Big15
1
Philosophy of Training – by Paul Carter
No frills and no bullshit methodologies on how get big and strong
Philosophy of Training - 3
The Mentality of hard, heavy training – 4
Buy in - 4
Eating for Maximum Size – 5
Training for maximum size - 10
I need bigger arms syndrome - 12
Hard Training, Perceived Intensity, and Intensity - 13
Training Economy and Recovery - 14
Session Range/Grading – 80% +10% -10% - 15
Frequency – 18
Doc Brown the Lifter – 19
Train Movement Patterns, not Muscle Groups for overall mass – 20
Intensity Techniques - 21
PI vs Volume – 22
The meat and potatoes of my training – 5-4-3-2-1-back off 23
Deloads - 24
How to make this program work for you – 25
Conditioning – 26
The Routines – 27
Keys to making all of this shit work and Q&A – 30
Final Word – 31
Special Thanks - 32
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Philosophy of Training – by Paul Carter
No frills and no bullshit methodologies on how get big and strong
Philosophy of Training I will tell you up front I offer no promises that you are going to get gigantic or enormous
in 30 days. This is not a manual on how to "get swole" through some secret Hungarian
methods or some stupid shit like that. This book is about my philosophy of training
toward building muscle mass. It's a philosophy that comes from a self made guy that
started out at 14 and 110 pounds. I was not deadlifting 600 by the time I was 16, nor
did I have 18" arms after a year of training. I was not and am not a naturally big or
strong guy. So I had to search under every rock and corner and figure out all of the
things that worked best for guys who were willing to work hard, but didn't have a lot of
natural gifts. I hope that anyone that read my training philosophy benefits from my
years of failing and succeeding, and put my own experiences to work for them.
I am going to cover most all of the areas that my training philosophy encompasses in
this manual. As I made note of in an article, trying to find "routines" in comparison to
finding a training philosophy is like comparing a bottle of water to a well. The bottled
water may quench your thirst in the short term, but with the well you can always come
back to drink. If you rely on “routines” to constantly be your source, you will not
be fulfilled in your training on a constant basis, and you will always search for answers.
With that said, I will still supply routines here that I have used to gain muscle mass to at
least show how these philosophies are put into action. These are routines I have used
that work for getting bigger and stronger.
What is not in this book is exercise descriptions and such. It’s my philosophy about
training, how to get bigger, and get stronger. I often find writing about how to perform
exercises boring, and I think most guys do it as filler in their books and manuals to say
they have X number of pages. I prefer quality over quantity.
It’s possible in this e-book you will find neither. Ok that’s a joke, and I hope that’s not
true. I hope my failures can become your successes and that you can take away
something from all my years of trial and error under the bar.
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Philosophy of Training – by Paul Carter
No frills and no bullshit methodologies on how get big and strong
The Mentality of hard, heavy training –
Lifting is as much a mental chore as a physical one. This becomes more evident as you
get stronger, and can put more plates on the bar. Every PR attempt challenges you,
and every session becomes more mentally daunting when you start moving heavier and
heavier weights. It’s not that difficult to talk yourself into your first heavy set of 15,20,30
rep squats. It becomes increasingly difficult to do after that first really tough one though.
Especially when you start doing it with 300-400+ pounds.
Everyone has their own “way” to deal with these things. How to “get up” for brutal
training sessions over and over again. Some guys scream and yell and act like Gorillas
on crystal meth. Some guys are quiet, and build an internal intensity. Whatever your
method, you need to find a way to push through these barriers, deal with the fear of the
weight on the bar and the effort required to get you to a new level. This is a must.
Buy In –
The single most important factor in a program working for you is your buy in. If you
believe in the program and the philosophy, you will almost surely make gains. If you
think a program will suck, then it will. End of discussion. You’re the master of your own
mental training domain.
There is nothing wrong with a healthy dose of skepticism in anything you do, however in
order for you to succeed using a program, you must believe in it. Your “buy in” to a
program or philosophy will possibly be the greatest factor in it working or failing for you.
When enough time passes, you will develop enough of a bullshit radar to know when a
training methodology is exactly filled with that, and you won’t even bother. Until then,
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Philosophy of Training – by Paul Carter
No frills and no bullshit methodologies on how get big and strong
you’ll have to try some things out, make some mistakes, and learn from them. Or, learn
from others instead. All up to you.
Eating for Maximum Size –
Let me preface all of this with this very simple statement.
If you aren’t lean, don’t go into a mass building phase. I don’t know how much clearer I
can be about that. This is not a “get fat” program.
Lean to me is 10% bodyfat or less. In order words you should look athletically lean.
Athletically lean does not mean “I can see the top abs first thing in the morning when I
wake up and I’m incredibly dehydrated from that meth binge” either. Athletically lean
means you can see most all of your abs, veins in your arms, legs, and chest and feel
“tight”. If you don’t think you fit this, you’re probably not lean enough. If you’re above
12% then you will most likely just gain a lot of fat, and feel like shit later for getting even
fatter. So do some conditioning, push away from the table for 5-6 weeks and get leaner
for a while.
When you are lean and start eating for mass, your body does a better job of utilizing
those nutrients for growth and mass building. When you are fat, it means you’ve
already had a calorie surplus, and your body just does a better job at storing those extra
calories for later. So you just get fatter. When I talk about gaining mass, I talk about
gaining quality mass. For really skinny guys this means one thing, and for guys with a
foundation of mass already in place that are wanting to get bigger, it means something
else.
I have ticked a lot of people off with some of my “diet” plans for eating to get big. My
guess is that these pissed off people aren’t very big and don’t know what it takes to get
big, or are anal retentive. Because virtually every impressively built guy I have ever met
has gone through what I call his “rite of passage” for eating big. I’m here to tell you that
if you are a skinny little guy, eating chicken breasts and baked potatoes are not an
efficient method for getting big. If some guy tries to sell you on that shit, walk away.
He’s selling snake oil, isn’t very big, or he’s not being honest.
Getting big, if you are a REALLY skinny guy, requires a shit load of calories. You are
not going to get a shit ton of calories from grilled chicken and rice unless you’re eating a
whole chicken farm a day and a whole warehouse of rice. For really skinny guys, you
will need to ingest just about anything and everything under the sun. Yes I do believe in
making sure that you cover yourself in terms of protein intake, usually to the tune of 1.5
grams per pound of bodyweight. But so long as that is taken care of, eat everything
else you can get your hands on. Just make sure you do that every 3 hours or so. Even
if it hurts. And if you’re eating enough, it will.
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Philosophy of Training – by Paul Carter
No frills and no bullshit methodologies on how get big and strong
“Don’t listen to this asshat. Just eat clean and add in some olive oil. That will take care
of the calorie issue.”
If some guy tells you to just add olive oil and eat a bunch of good fats, he’s full of it too.
Mass gains are driven more by carbohydrate consumption than anything else. At a
simplistic level, mass building is really repairing. You should be training hard enough to
cause damage and micro trauma to the muscle fibers. These fibers are then made
thicker and stronger through repair. This repair process requires energy. That energy
source needs to be a quick energy source, and the best energy source for the body is
glycogen. And that comes from carbohydrates.
The building blocks of muscle are protein. But the engine that gets the building blocks
in place, are carbohydrates.
So make sure if your diet is high protein, high carbohydrate, and whatever you’re getting
in in terms of fats.
The mass diet I used over the summer when I was 17 looked like this…
Breakfast –
8 whole scrambled eggs
2 cups of oatmeal with raisins
Orange Juice
Banana
Training for 2 hours
Post-Training – 2 Carb Drinks for 200 grams of carbs
Once at home I would put on two packs of Ramen noodles, 4 chicken breasts, and 2
cups of rice.
When the Ramen noodles were done, I would eat them. Then when the chicken
breasts were done, I would eat the two chicken breasts and half of the rice. This was
considered my “post training meal”.
Lunch –
Usually a large rib eye steak with a large baked potato and a salad.
2-3 Hours Post Lunch – Shake
Consisting of 2 cups of whole milk, 2 cups of ice cream or ice milk, malted milk powder,
chocolate syrup, 1 TBS of peanut butter, 2 TBS Karo lite corn syrup, 1 banana.
This shake comes out to be somewhere in the neighborhood of 1200 calories or so. I
would drink this in a sitting.
2-3 hours later – Usually 2 Subs from Subway. Meatball was my usual.
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Philosophy of Training – by Paul Carter
No frills and no bullshit methodologies on how get big and strong
2-3 hours later – Dinner. Whatever mom cooked, as much of it as I could eat.
2-3 hours later – Another shake if I could tolerate it.
This “diet” took me from 170 to 205-210 over the course of about two and a half months.
I was training 5-6 days a week at the time, got in bed by 9-9:30 every night, and was up
and training by 6.
I remember Dante of Doggcrapp fame talking about how he had to shovel down a shit
ton of McDonald’s hamburgers while he was working a physical job outside in order to
gain mass at a decent clip. Of course, he caught shit for this too, but it doesn’t matter
because Dante has built himself a lot of muscle mass to backup his argument. If you
want to get big, get the calories in. And sometimes that requires getting dirty.
The point is, these guys that try to tell you to eat clean in order to get big, generally
aren’t big or they are genetically blessed to do that, or don’t know shit. The MAJORITY
of impressively big guys I know had to do some big, ugly ass eating at some point in
order to get there. If you want to go the route of 57 chicken breasts a day to do that,
more power to you.
I’m at the point now, where I don’t need a lot of extra calories in order to gain weight, or
get fatter. So yes, I have to be smart with my eating now. But as a young guy, needing
a lot of muscle on my frame, I had to do a lot of big nasty eating for stretches at a time.
It’s up to you whether or not you want to go there.
But regardless of your decision you will in fact have to have a calorie surplus to grow.
This is an undeniable fact of training.
If you are one of the guys I talked about earlier that has a good foundation of mass
already, then good clean eating is probably more beneficial for you, and shooting for a
few quality pounds here and there is a more realistic expectation.
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Philosophy of Training – by Paul Carter
No frills and no bullshit methodologies on how get big and strong
One of the diets I put on my website was from diet guru Chris Aceto, and it was
centered around clean eating for mass. Here it is….
CLEAN EATING MASS GAIN DIET –
Breakfast
* 4-6 egg whites with 2 whole eggs
* 1 serving Cream of Wheat cereal
* 1 banana
525 calories, 38 g protein, 59 g carbs, 15 g fat
Lunch
* 6-9 oz. extra-lean ground beef
* 2 cups pasta
* 3/4 cup broccoll
700 calories, 60 g protein, 83 g carbs, 13 g fat
PRETRAINING SNACK (One hour before training)
* 1 cup fat-free cottage cheese
* 4 slices rye toast with 2 Tbsp. grape jam
532 calories, 35 g protein, 89 g carbs, 4 g fat
POST-TRAINING SNACK
* Whey-protein shake (two scoops mixed with water)
* 1 cup rlce with 4 Tbsp. raisins
549 calories, 45 g protein, 91 g carbs, 2 g fat
Dinner
* 1 chicken breast (7-9 oz.)
* 1 yam
* 1 cup peas, corn and carrots
603 calories, 69 g protein, 61 g carbs, 7 g fa
Snack
Turkey sandwich with:
* 2 slices whole-grain bread
* 2-3 slices fat-free cheese
* 3-4 slices deli turkey breast
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Philosophy of Training – by Paul Carter
No frills and no bullshit methodologies on how get big and strong
* Mustard and fat-free mayo
316 calories, 36 g protein, 34 g carbs, 4 g fat
This is good quality eating for a guy that is lean, needs energy to train and energy to
grow. If he wanted to up the calories a little bit simply upping some portion sizes here
and there would do that. For example, have two turkey sandwiches instead of one,
have two yams at dinner and two chicken breasts, add in more egg whites and another
banana at breakfast. That will take this up a few more hundred calories rather easily.
Either way, this is a quality diet for gaining mass using clean eating. Could a smaller
guy use this to gain mass as well? Sure, but he’d have to really up the portions and be
very consistent in his eating. However the super skinny just-got-out-of-POW-camp
looking guy is much better off eating like I did as described above.
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Philosophy of Training – by Paul Carter
No frills and no bullshit methodologies on how get big and strong
Training for maximum size -
Training for maximum size is quite different than training for a 1 rep max increase. The
two do have some carryover to each other; however each one has a standard that suits
it far better than the other. And if anything, training for size with heavy medium reps can
and will translate to a higher 1RM. Training for a higher 1RM as the primary goal won't
always increase your size. I'm being intentionally simplistic here yes, but that's the
point.
Training for maximum size is also different than improving “bodyparts”. We are talking
about building as big a slab of granite as possible. Not chiseling out the fine detail or
making calves or biceps bigger.
Generally speaking, medium-high reps translate best to the greatest amount of muscle
size and gain. This has been proven for decades now by bodybuilders and in fact by
powerlifters, as well. Whenever powerlifters talk about needing to gain size they talk
about doing bodybuilding. And bodybuilders have based their routines around medium
to high rep ranges for decades now.
So let me narrow this down really easy in one sentence.
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Philosophy of Training – by Paul Carter
No frills and no bullshit methodologies on how get big and strong
Building mass requires you to get STRONGER IN A SPECIFIC REP RANGE.
Namely, medium to high reps. Moving a shit ton of weight in the medium to high rep
range is the fastest possibly route to more muscle mass. End of discussion.
We aren’t talking about using light weights for high reps for a pump. I'm talking about
moving as much fucking weight as you can handle for medium to high reps. This is the
kind of shit that, combined with a high level of food intake, will turn you into a bull. Or as
much of one as you can become. Bull diesel jacked swoleness levelness will be
different for everyone.
So to give an example here, you could go from squatting 400 to 450 for a single rep
max without getting any bigger if you were using singles to do it. So if you used a
program of singles (like I will outline in my strong-15 program) you could increase your 1
rep max, but you might LOOK and weigh exactly the same as when you were a 400
squatter.
You could also go from squatting 400 to 450 as a max and look dramatically different, if
you used reps to do it. The added benefit to doing it this way is that all of that extra
mass also raises your overall ceiling for strength. A bigger you = a potentially stronger
you. Where if you train for the big 1 rep max only, there will be a point where you hit
your ceiling for your size. So if you have been stuck for a long while at a certain 1RM, it
may be time to increase your size, to increase your strength ceiling.
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Philosophy of Training – by Paul Carter
No frills and no bullshit methodologies on how get big and strong
“I need bigger arms” syndrome –
Often times, guys will ask how to get a specific muscle group larger. If a guy already
has a good foundation of mass, 225+ pounds in decent shape, then he can genuinely
start to worry about that. However the foundation has to be there first. If someone has
spend years slaving away at pressing, pulling, and squatting and have built a nice
foundation but have a lagging bodypart they would like to bring up, then a split that
focuses more on bodypart specialization can certainly be used, and if used properly will
fix the weakness.
But there is hardly a need to worry about your arm size when you’re 165 pounds. This
is an area that I can almost never get through skinny guys heads. You have to build a
BIGGER YOU, not bigger arms. Gain weight OVERALL, and worry about building the
largest piece of rock you can build. When it comes time to break out the chisel, then
you can sweat the “bigger arms” syndrome. But get as big overall as possible FIRST.
And by the way, you should be sweating bigger traps, not bigger arms. Big traps get
women, make you money, improve your looks, make your car faster, lowers your
mortgage, and lets you lift big weights. Seems like a better choice.
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Philosophy of Training – by Paul Carter
No frills and no bullshit methodologies on how get big and strong
Hard Training, Perceived Intensity, and Intensity Hard training doesn't mean you have to squat until you can't stand. Although that
certainly can be considered hard work, and there are times when you’re going to need
to go a little nuts and do that kind of shit. And when you’re training for mass, the fact is,
sometimes you are going to have to get that kind of crazy.
Btu generally, when I talk about going all out, it means going until you feel you have
maybe a rep left in the tank. For bench press, standing press, incline, etc you can go
until you can't move the weight (use a spotter dummy) because the inroads to your
recovery aren't as big with pressing. But for squatting and deadlifting and the big leg
and back movements, leave a rep in there unless its machine based.
If its machine or a dumbbell based movement, then you better go until your eyes pop
out of your head.
What I am talking about here is Perceived Intensity (PI).
There is a difference in Perceived Intensity (PI) and intensity. PI is how hard you feel
you worked or how hard a set or session was. Intensity is a percentage of your 1 rep
max. They are both useful for building strength and/or more muscular mass from a
programming standpoint. PI is nothing more than a grading scale of low (warm ups),
medium (just getting the prescribed reps in), and high (busting ass on a set).
If I had to break down high perceived intensity for movement patters/exercises it would
go like this Squats and Deadlifts and squat and deadlift variations with a bar - High Level PI would
be leaving a rep or two in the tank.
Barbell Pressing - High Level PI would be going to failure, where you don't make the
rep, or where you know you could not get 1 more rep and racking the weight then.
Dumbbell and Machine Movements - High Level PI would be going to complete failure,
followed by an intensity technique (as described later).
Let me also state that there is going to be times where you will have to throw these
guidelines out the window, and go balls out on the squats and deads and other big lifts,
and try to maim yourself with them. Throwing up, not walking right for days on end, and
bleeding from the ears are all things that guys that got big and strong went through at
some point. You will have to push the envelope at some point in order to make your
body do something it does not want to do. The body does not want to grow muscle
mass so sometimes you have to tell it what the fuck to do, instead of asking it.
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Philosophy of Training – by Paul Carter
No frills and no bullshit methodologies on how get big and strong
Training Economy and Recovery I believe in training economy. Doing the least to deliver the most. If some guy wants to
spend 5-7 days a week in the gym and loves doing that, good for him. However, I have
never found training more than 3-4 times a week to be productive for me, or the majority
of people I have trained. I think that recovery is a valuable tool that gets overlooked and
I don't believe in the mantra that "there is no such thing as overtraining, there is only
undereating" and other such macho bullshit. When you are training incredibly hard,
there is damage done to the fibers and repair has to take place before growth can
happen. This doesn't mean you can't train when you're sore. Don't confuse localized
recovery with systematic recovery, although they are somewhat entwined.
I believe that recovery is more of a systematic issue, and I believe this from anecdotal
evidence and more than two decades in being involved in this shit.
For example, when I tore my bicep I tried to run hill sprints less than a week after
surgery. I was in great shape going into that surgery, yet when I came out I couldn't run
2 hill sprints without feeling like I was going to die. My body was trying to recovery from
surgery, and repair my arm. This effected me systematically. My legs were weak, my
lungs burned, and I was completely fatigued. Yet a week earlier I had ran 15 hill sprints
as hard as possible with little rest other than the walk back down.
Understanding recovery can be one of the biggest factors in making progress to a new
level. So the notion that if training 3X per week is awesome, that 6X per week must be
well, super awesome. It isn't so. In fact, often 2X a week of lifting for me with
conditioning thrown in on 2-3 other days, works great. It all depends on my goals and
how I am feeling. However whenever I am in a mass building mode, I will train 3X a
week and cut down a bit on the conditioning to maybe twice a week. You cannot serve
two masters.
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Philosophy of Training – by Paul Carter
No frills and no bullshit methodologies on how get big and strong
Session Range/Grading – 80% +10% -10% -
One motto I live by is (and I believe that Dan John wrote this) that 80% of the training
sessions we have, are just going to be run of the mill, getting the work in type of
session. These should still be defined as GOOD or even REALLY good sessions.
They could also be “meh, just ok” as well. They are neither bad, nor ass-kicking
awesome type sessions. 10% are going to just suck ass. Warm ups will feel heavy,
you will feel like shit and the workout will suck major balls. The other 10% are where
you hit PR’s, the 45’s feel like they have been replaced by paper plates and you feel like
you could whip the shit out of a silverback on meth.
A real easy way to define a session is just assign the range.
80% - everything from “meh just ok” to “a very good session” You probably didn’t break
any PR’s but you felt solid or ok, maybe even pretty darn good. But you weren’t setting
shit on fire either.
+10% - This is a STI (strike the iron!) session. Where you felt stronger than ever, hit
PR’s and generally kicked ass overall.
-10% - This session sucked more than words can describe. Warm ups felt heavy, your
mind wandered the whole time, and that Britney Spears playing over the gym speakers
isn’t bothering you as much as it usually does.
There are caveats to both the +10% and -10% sessions. Namely that neither are “real”.
You’re not really as strong as your +10% and you’re not as weak as your -10%. Former
NFL head coach Dick Vermiel said once after blowing a team out “well we’re really not
that good, and they are really not that bad”. This same logic can be applied to these
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Philosophy of Training – by Paul Carter
No frills and no bullshit methodologies on how get big and strong
10% sessions. You’re not really as good as your best day, and you’re not as bad as
your worst. The key is to string together as many of the 80% days as possibly, with
more +10’s thrown in, than -10’s. Assigning a Session Range or grade to that workout,
will help you identify how things are going, and see how your consistency is over the
long haul. Just consider it another form of progression.
If you have a +10% session, make notes of what you did the day before, and the day of
the workout that seem to have played a factor.
Did you get extra sleep?
Eat a food outside of your normal diet?
Take those last few ephedrine in that Ripped Fuel bottle you bought in 96?
Do the same when you have a -10% session.
Was it a lack of sleep?
Starting to get sick?
Take those last few ephedrine in that Ripped Fuel bottle you bought in 96?
For the 80% session, the key here is just to keep on trucking. Putting together as many
of these as you can is a major key in progression and goal achieving. Again, solid
sessions over the course of your lifting life is the epitome of consistency, and that is
what gets you to the top of the mountain.
Again, don’t over think this. If you feel AWESOME and kicked nuts at the gym, hit some
PR’s and got that hot aerobic chics number you been eyeing for some time, this is a
+10% session. If you went in and shit your pants during warm ups because 135 was a
strain, that’s a -10%. If it was a solid session, anywhere from meh to pretty good, that’s
an 80%er. Just grade the overall session and not individual parts.
The reason why this is important is because a lot of times we become frustrated in our
progress. The scale hasn’t moved in a long while, you haven’t hit any rep PR’s and
things don’t seem to be going that well in terms of meaningful progress. This doesn’t
always mean progress isn’t happening, however.
Generally through the years this is what I have found that happens, and was especially
true in my younger years.
I would eat and eat and eat, and train my ass off. But I didn’t gain weight, and I didn’t
get past certain weights or weights for X number of reps. The workouts themselves
were good or even fantastic feeling. I was busting ass and felt good during the workout.
But I couldn’t show on paper progress via the way of more weight moved or weight
gained.
Then one day I would step on the scale and BAM! 5-7 pounds. This happened more
times than I can remember. I would be elated, and shocked at the same time. But as I
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Philosophy of Training – by Paul Carter
No frills and no bullshit methodologies on how get big and strong
got older, it made more sense. Strength and weight gain don’t happen completely
linearly. The body sometimes takes its sweet time in rewarding you for your hard work
and effort. What you just need to make sure of is, you are actually putting that hard
work and effort in. If your eating is dialed in, and your training is hard enough to
stimulate gains, they will come. The time frame they come in will vary from individual to
individual. But it will happen.
This is why it is important to just use session grading as an overall barometer. The
weight gain may not be there yet, and the strength gains may not be there yet, but its
coming. You know this because you have had months of 80% sessions, with a few
+10%’s thrown in and almost no -10%’s. This is how you know when things are dialed
in. You are training hard, but recovering, and your enthusiasm is still high. If you keep
plowing the road good things are around the corner.
I don’t think I really need to say if you’re mixing in a lot of -10%’s, and I mean TRULY
suck ass sessions, in with just a few 80%ers that something is badly wrong, right?
Good. Because if that’s the case then stop drinking Nyquil to get drunk, stop inhaling
ether in your spare time and start eating again, getting plenty of sleep, and training
hard.
Solid eating + lots of rest + hard ass training = lots of 80% and +10% = Lots of gains
I can’t repeat that formula enough.
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Philosophy of Training – by Paul Carter
No frills and no bullshit methodologies on how get big and strong
Frequency –
Depending on the school of thought speaking some people will tell you that you have to
train movements/bodyparts often in order to progress, like muscle groups twice a week
or a movement pattern up to 3-4 times a week. And others adhere to the old “once a
week” school of thought.
My stance is, they are both right…to a degree.
At various times in your lifting life, you will need more, and other times you will need
less. There is no reason to be dogmatic about these things. When you are, you may
lose out on the opportunity to make progress because of lack of vision in what you are
doing.
I have trained the squat three times a week and made progress, and I’ve trained it every
two weeks and made progress. I have trained pressing three and four times a week
and made progress, and I’ve trained it twice a month and made progress.
Injuries, stresses of life, age, recovery time, and all sorts of things play a factor in what
optimum frequency is for you at various times. Sometimes you don’t realize until after a
few weeks that you need more training, and sometimes you realize you need less.
If you’re plugging in your session range and you have a lot of -10%’s in there,
something is not working. Your training sessions should be mostly 80%’s and +10%’s
with very few -10%’s.
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Philosophy of Training – by Paul Carter
No frills and no bullshit methodologies on how get big and strong
Doc Brown the Lifter –
Doc Brown was the scientist who invented time travel in Back to the Future in case you
didn’t know.
A good lifter is also a good scientist. And a good scientist knows that it’s possible that a
different formula may be required to find the answer to solve an equation. This means
as a lifter, you need to learn how to think for yourself at times, and be willing to ask for
forgiveness rather than permission. However, this does not mean that it’s all well and
good to bastardize a program, have it ultimately fail, and then say it sucks.
Lots of Q & A’s are filled with “is it ok if I do X?”
Sure. Why not? Try it. See if it works. Just don’t try X for 1 workout and proclaim it
does or doesn’t.
“I did this routine for 2 weeks and my bench didn’t move at all. So it sucks.”
I see this kind of horseshit as well. This is not being Doc Brown. Anything in lifting that
gets your own seal of approval or disapproval needs time to be properly evaluated.
How much time? Well that’s different for everyone. But generally if someone tells me
they did someone’s program and did it for a month, well, that just doesn’t seem long
enough to me. There is going to be a fine line of giving it a fair shake, and then trying to
define insane. And insanity is trying the same thing over and over again and expecting
a different result.
Being Doc Brown means writing down things that worked, and things that didn’t. It
means keeping a good training log. It means using a template or routine exactly as
designed long enough to say you gave it a fair shake and can give an honest opinion.
Doc Brown doesn’t bastardize routines.
As I noted before, the best lifters in my opinion, are the ones that were born champions
that also were good Doc Brown’s. They instinctively found what worked from them early
on, and never deviate from it.
Not all of us are that fortunate. Most of us, myself obviously included, had to perform a
lot of trial and error to figure out what will work, how long it will work, and what to do
when things fail or don’t work. If you don’t learn from these lessons, you are not Doc
Brown. And when you’re not Doc Brown you get killed by terrorists instead of being
smart enough to read the letter, and wear the bullet proof vest.
19
Philosophy of Training – by Paul Carter
No frills and no bullshit methodologies on how get big and strong
Train Movement Patterns, not Muscle Groups for overall mass –
Even though this is about building mass I still base all of my training around movement
patterns. This falls in line with my training economy philosophy. It gives you the best of
both worlds in that you get as big as possible while getting as strong as possible on the
big movements. So look the part, and be the part. Look strong and be strong.
One quote that I have been fond of over the years came from Ken Leistner. It pretty
much sums up my thoughts about training movements rather than muscle groups.
"I am fond of telling doubting trainees that it's just a matter of always adding weight to the bar, adding another
repetition, "If you could get to the point where you're squatting 400lbs for 20 reps, stiff-legged deadlifting 400
lbs for 15 reps, curling 200 for 10 reps, pressing 200 for 10 resp, doing 10 dips with 300 lbs around your waist, and
chinning with 100 pounds, don't you think you would be big - I mean awfully big? And strong?" Obviously!"
Jim Wendler and I took this to a new level with my "What Constitutes Strong"
standards.
Squat and Deadlift - 500x20
Dip - 200x10
Chin - 100x10
Overhead Press - 315x1 (strict, push presses suck)
Bench - 315x20
Curl - 185x10
20
Philosophy of Training – by Paul Carter
No frills and no bullshit methodologies on how get big and strong
If you could perform all of these, you would be as developed as you are ever going to
be. Top to bottom, head to toe. This is what training economy does. If you were lean,
everyone would think you were a bodybuilder. No one would know you didn't do cable
crossovers or 1-armed cable side laterals. They would just scream "holy shit, who
shaved that gorilla?"
More food + more weight on the bar + more reps + consistency = Beastdom
It's really THAT simple.
Intensity Techniques There are a lot of perceived intensity techniques (PIT) I have used over the
years. Some have worked good, some great, and some not at all.
Rest/Pause - This technique works great for building mass because essentially it
extends the set further than what you would normally do. Again, this falls back in line
with the medium-high rep range philosophy for mass. Basically, you do a set to failure,
then put the weight down and take 15 very deep breaths, and go to failure
again. Repeat one more time so that you end up doing 3 mini-sets as 1 big set.
50% sets - Similar to rest/pause but it actually has a goal built into it. Go to failure, then
rest 1 minute and pick the weight back up and try to equal half the number of reps you
got the first time around. So if you got 12 on the first set, you're shooting for at least 6
on the second one.
Forced Reps - Was never a big fan, and everyone fucks these up anyone. So I could
never figure out if it was the forced reps that didn't work that well, or the shitty spotter.
Controlled negatives - Some might say this isn't a technique at all but I disagree. I
disagree because most guys show no control over the negative portion of the
movement at all. Slow and controlled negatives with an explosive positive are fantastic
for building mass. There is more damage done to the fibers from the negative portion of
the rep than the positive. Thus, there is a greater potential for growth. People often
miss this fact and then lower the negative at warp speed, missing out on the best
portion of the rep for mass gain. When you are training for mass exclusively, make sure
your negatives are slow and controlled. Think of it like this, get the weight back to the
top just so you can lower it slow again.
Strip/Drop Sets - This is where you go to failure, put the weight down and grab a lighter
weight and continue. Or you have someone take weight off of the bar. This again is
another method of increasing the time/reps of the set and is a good method for
growth. I personally find it slightly inferior to rest/pause or 50% sets because while the
set is extended, the load is reduced. But it's still a decent PIT.
21
Philosophy of Training – by Paul Carter
No frills and no bullshit methodologies on how get big and strong
PI vs Volume –
Another great debate in the intarweb wars goes to PI vs volume. Training low volume
with lots of PIT’s or higher volume. These also are two dogmatic camps. Both ignoring
or dismissing the fact that there are been lots of big strong guys that adhered to both
schools of thought.
My take on that is this. Champions are born, not made. However I have a theory that is
completely unproven with no factual basis. And it is that most of the champions also
figure out, and have a certain instinct for what works for them, and don’t deviate from it
very much. So for some guys, they will find that they love volume training, and it will
work for them. And some guys will find that they love going all out, reaching for new
PR’s all the time. Even if you’re not champion material you will eventually find one that
you love more than the other. However I will say that both PI training and higher
volume training have merits, and any good Doc Brown will figure out what merits it
provides for him/her.
This is why the argument that “so-n-so trains high volume and he’s bigger/stronger than
lifter X” is not valid. There are too many variables in genetics and lifting to say that a
guy that was born with fantastic gifts for lifting has discovered the holy grail of lifting
methodologies.
Over the years my training has mainly centered around PI and going all out. However
the past many years I have toned down the PI a bit, and tried to coax gains in a slow
and steady fashion, and this has worked very well for me too. So you’re going to find
that at various stages in your training life cycle, you are going to like one method a little
better than the other.
22
Philosophy of Training – by Paul Carter
No frills and no bullshit methodologies on how get big and strong
The meat and potatoes of my training – 5-4-3-2-1-back off
Through the years of training I often found that back off sets were the most productive
things I ever did. Working up to a max and walking away always left me feeling as
though I had not done enough. Even working up to a top set seemed to be less
productive than if I took some weight off, then worked back down the warm up ladder. It
was actually Dorian Yates early training methods that turned me on to this the
most. Dorian in his early years liked to do two "working" sets once he got warmed
up. The first set to failure, then the second set using around 10% less than the
first. What found in copying this idea, was that the second set "felt" better than the first
set.
So I would often fall back into this on other programs as well. After all, a back off set
never hurt a whole program right? In fact it didn't, and what I found was, the back off
sets often made a good program great for me. So I always included them.
Eventually I settled on this as one of the mainstays as my training and built most of my
routines around it. Working up to a top single, double, or triple, then using the back offs
as the "assistance" or growth work. Injuries would sometimes curtail me from doing
this, but more times than not, it was built into my programs.
When I decided I would put this on paper I wanted to put together the percentages in a
way that I knew is how I would do it, walking into the gym. In other words, I knew if I
was going to work up to 605 on squats that day, I would do a back off with 500 or
455. If I benched 405 I would do a back off with 335 or 315. Generally, the back off
was something in the range of 50 to 150 pounds. If it's 150+ pounds I am looking to
really get some reps in. If it's 50 pounds it might be 5-8. I didn't know. That's the best
thing about it. On a bad day, you could back off and just do a nice set of 10 with a light
weight, and it's still a productive session. If you're having a Strike The Iron day (STI),
then I would go for a rep PR with a heavier weight. Something like only 50 or 90
pounds less.
Either way, you always want to be aware of your weight and rep PR's because as
noted, more weight and more reps with lots of food becomes a bigger you. This is fact
and cemented in decades of guys who hoisted iron and ate big. It's a fact. So always
strive to break your rep PR's when striving for more mass. This program should force
you to do that.
23
Philosophy of Training – by Paul Carter
No frills and no bullshit methodologies on how get big and strong
Deloads –
Anyone who has read my shitty articles knows I am not a believer in "deloads". I know
it’s popular and all the rage to go into the gym and do virtually nothing after 3 weeks of
training, however I just find that to be a complete waste of planning.
Either be training hard, or just take a few days or a week off. I am not in the gym to lift
light weights as a recovery tool. This is my own personal philosophy and one that has
served me well in terms of being consistent. The longer you can string together bad ass
workouts, the faster you are going to get big and strong. Period. To me, a planned
deload doesn't make a lot of sense because what if your body was primed that week for
some STI workouts? Now you missed out, and you could easily have a week of shitty
sessions the very next week. So either be training hard, or just rest and recover. I do
believe that doing some light steady state cardio for 15 minutes or so every other day
during the week off is a good idea. This is something I do personally and highly
recommend.
Again, this is my own personal philosophy. I have used deloads before and every time I
did, I lost momentum. Some people will say “well that’s mental, you didn’t get weaker”.
But the mental aspect of lifting is just as real as the physical one. Often times, after
weeks of hitting PR’s, you take a break and lose that drive. Your body revs down a bit,
and now you have to try and seize momentum all over again. This is why I don’t believe
in taking time off, until you start to see regression, stagnation, or are just flat out burnt.
Burnt meaning, you don’t look forward to lifting anymore.
I think overtraining and its symptoms have been over defined. If you have a zest for
being in the gym and moving big weights, shit is probably going damn good. If you feel
like shit all the time, and mentally dread loading the bar, then training is probably going
to suck. If you feel this way more days than not, take a break until you MENTALLY feel
recharged. You should WANT to be in the gym and under the bar. If not, why the fuck
are you there? Take a day or three off. A week if you need it. Then start light, feel
good, and get a flying start at some more PR’s. This is smart, consistent work. The
more weeks you can string together great workouts, the faster progress comes.
Generally the faster progress comes, the better you feel physically and mentally.
24
Philosophy of Training – by Paul Carter
No frills and no bullshit methodologies on how get big and strong
How to make this program work for you –
Obviously you're going to have to plug in a “max” to start. I personally don't care what
you plug in here because people are always going to ask shit questions about what they
should plug in. If you want to plug a grand, do it. Then go into the gym and get
crushed. Awesome.
I don't tolerate that kind of stupidity very well to be honest. If you have never benched
500, then plugging in 500 is stupid. This program is about breaking REP PR's and
using the 5-4-3-2-1 warm ups as the primer for doing that. It is NOT about hitting a
great 1 rep max. The strong-15 template is for that, and even then you never “max out”
in the gym with a top single. If you decide you want to use this template to hit a big 1
rep max, that's fine. But that is NOT what this program is supposed to be about. We're
talking mass here, and getting stronger in the medium and high rep ranges. I have
however, included a prorated max column for the big 3 because most guys want an idea
of what their max is, and because it does define progress based on a scale. It’s a good
little piece of feedback, but the real measure of this should be the increase in the
number of plates on the bar and reps you can do with that, not your 1 rep max.
So what should you program in? Your REAL estimated max, or anything below
it. There. It's that simple. So when you go to ask the question of "what should I
program in for my max?" there is your answer.
Now, as you may notice, you use the same back off weights for two weeks in a row,
before you get to move up. Why? Very simple. Progression. Why put more weight on
the bar when you haven’t demonstrated you are actually any stronger? I always felt like
more weight on the bar was something that was earned.
This is why you actually don’t move on to the next set of weights until progress is
shown.
PLEASE DON’T MAKE THIS MORE COMPLICATED THAN IT IS!
It’s NOT complicated, so try not to make it that way.
Each 6 week block is broken into 2 week blocks. The back off set stays the same for
those two weeks, however the 5-4-3-2-1 ramp up will increase. You need to beat the
reps from the first week in the second week. If you do, move on to the next two weeks.
If not repeat the second week until you beat those reps.
I will repeat……
DO NOT MOVE ON TO THE THIRD WEEK UNTIL YOU CAN BEAT THE FIRST
WEEKS BACK OFF SET IN REPS.
25
Philosophy of Training – by Paul Carter
No frills and no bullshit methodologies on how get big and strong
If that takes you 3 weeks, then so be it. The point is moving more reps, adding weight,
rinse and repeat. This is a tried and true formula for building mass. It’s not snake oil or
bullshit. It’s really that simple.
If you have to run the second week for multiple weeks in a row that’s fine. Keep busting
your nuts and it will eventually happen.
But don’t exceed 6 weeks for the program without looking at your session grading and
determining if you need to keep going, or if you need to take a break.
If you don’t like simple progression and you need something more “high brow” with all
sorts of fancy bullshit, go do that. It’s a free country. I would rather concentrate on
getting stronger either via breaking rep PR’s or hitting a new max.
How many reps should you hit on the back off set from week 1? If I had to guess I’d say
ballpark 12-15 reps. So the second week you should be thinking 13-16. Duh.
See how simple that is?
“So what you’re saying is Paul, I could do 6 weeks and never get out of the first two
week mini-cycle?”
That’s right. That also means you did a lousy job of programming and programmed too
high more than likely.
If you’re beating reps easily it could also mean you are being a pussy in the first week of
the first two weeks of each mini-cycle. That’s fine. Just don’t blame the program.
Blame yourself for lack of testicular fortitude. You should be busting ass every week for
the entire 6 weeks.
Conditioning –
When your primary focus is to get as big as possible, it’s not the time to worry about
increasing hard conditioning. This also doesn’t give you permission to not do anything
in the way of conditioning either. My recommendation when in mass building mode, is
to do 30-45 minutes of steady state work 3 times a week. This will aid in recovery, keep
fat burning up a bit, and keep you from turning into a slug. This will also make the
transition back to “getting into shape” mode much easier since you will just turn walking
into some sprinting now and then.
26
Philosophy of Training – by Paul Carter
No frills and no bullshit methodologies on how get big and strong
The Routines –
The routines I lay out go hand in hand with the spreadsheet and they are routines I have
used, and the spreadsheet is a pretty close barometer of the way my poundages have
flowed during the times I was training for mass and was keeping my reps high.
Since the programming is built around a 5-4-3-2-1-back off method and progression
over two week/six week mini-cycles. I want to explain that the meat and potatoes of
size training here is the back-off set. The 5-4-3-2-1 is the primer. The back-off set is
really where the magic happens. This is what you need to pour your energy and effort
into.
I call it the "over-warm up" at times because I just do a warm up well over the top of the
weight I am going to be using for my "work sets". This has been my meat and potatoes
over the years and honestly I feel like one of the single best ways you can train for mass
and strength.
One routine is based around more frequency of hitting movements, and the other
around recovery. Again, as noted before, be Doc Brown and figure out which one
would work best for you at the present time.
Training at Angles –
The subject of training at angles has been debated for a while, and I used to think it had
merit, and then I thought it was stupid, and now I realize I had it right the first time.
There is merit in training at different angles for increasing mass. When you do an
incline press there is a different percentage of work distributed over the
chest/shoulders/triceps than when you bench press or dip or do overhead press. So
getting stronger in rep maxes over 3 or 4 pressing angles offers more mass building
benefits than relying on just one. The same for lower body. Leg pressing, squats,
hacks, and fronts should all be used over the course of trying to get as big as possible.
The stronger you get across the big basics, the bigger you’re going to get overall.
There are also other benefits. Like not having overuse issues from doing the same
movement pattern too often, and from a mental standpoint. Walking in day in and day
out and doing a squat, bench, and deadlift can wear on your nerves. Sometimes you
just gotta do some tricep kickbacks! Ok so seriously, you don’t, but you may want to do
some block deadlifts, or incline dumbbell presses or something else to break up the
monotony. Motivation and excitement play a big part of keeping your “buy in” to
training.
27
Philosophy of Training – by Paul Carter
No frills and no bullshit methodologies on how get big and strong
4 way split 3X per week – Higher Frequency Training
This is a 4 way split that I used over 3 days. So I would train 3X per week and the 4th
workout would fall on the next week.
I arranged this split after I quit doing DoggCrapp exclusively, but brought in some of the
aspects that I liked about it. This split allows for some variation; however there should
be some staples in it, like the squat, deadlift, bench press, and standing press. This is
almost always going to be the case.
Some of the PITs you see used here are just my own choice. I also mix in some
volume for some movements like chins and shrugs, and use old staples like top set of
5. I have reasons of my own that I set things up this way. It is up to you to experiment
a bit with some of these things, however remember the main course are the big
movements using the back off sets and increasing the weight and reps over time on
those.
Day 1 - Squat primary/Deadlift Variation
Calf Press - 2x20 to failure
Squat - cycle
Stiff Legged or Romanian Deadlift – 2x5 – Two progressively heavier sets after warm
ups
Db Shrugs – 5x20
Day 2 - Pressing - Bench primary/Pulling
Bench – cycle
Db/T-bar Rows (alternate) - 6x10 to a top set of 10 for t-bars or 1x20-30 for Db Rows
Incline Db Press - 1x15-20 50% set or rest/pause or 5x10
Db or Barbell Curls – 1x10-15 50% set
Day 3 - Squat Variation/Deadlift primary
Calf Raises – 2x20 to failure
Deadlift – cycle
Barbell Shrugs – 5x20
Leg Press/Hack Squat – rotate these, 1x20+ minimum going all out until you bleed from
the ears.
Day 4 - Pressing - Overhead Primary/Pulling
Standing Clean and Press or Incline Press – cycle
Chins - 5x5/5x7/5-4-3-2-1 weighted Cycle through these
Dips – 1x10-12 weighted
Curls – 5x10
You will notice some PI and some volume in here. This is a personal preference sort of
thing, but I also think it’s important to work both sides of that issue. Get some volume
28
Philosophy of Training – by Paul Carter
No frills and no bullshit methodologies on how get big and strong
in, with short rest between sets (60 seconds or less) and on some other ones, bust ass
until your eyeballs pop out of your head.
3 way split – Enhanced Recovery
Day 1 – Squat and Pull
Calf Raises/Calf Press (rotate) – 2x20
Squat – cycle
Deadlift – cycle
Rotate each of the three per workout Leg Press – 1x30-50 / Front Squats – 1x5, 1x10 – Hack Squats – 1x20
Day 2 – Chest/Shoulder/Triceps
Bench/Incline (rotate) – cycle
Incline Db Press/Flat Db Press (rotate) – 1x20-30 rest/pause
Side Laterals/Upright Rows (rotate) – 5x10
Pushdowns/Overhead Extensions (rotate) – 5x10
Day 3 – Back/Biceps
T-bar Rows – 6 x 15 Keep the reps at 15 and add weight each set until you fail at 15 or
less
Chins – cycle (yes cycle the chins weighted and do the BACK OFF with bodyweight
only)
Pullovers – 1x30-40 rest/pause
Ez Bar Curls/Preacher Curls – 1x20-30 rest/pause
This split allows for more recovery but is slightly more PI based. So it works well for
guys who want to go in, bust ass hard and get out.
29
Philosophy of Training – by Paul Carter
No frills and no bullshit methodologies on how get big and strong
Keys to making all of this shit work and Q&A –
You have to buy in – You need to know and believe this program will work. It will. I
have used it to get bigger and stronger; I have used it to get other people bigger and
stronger. It’s based in sound principles that have stood the test of time.
Hard Work – This is cornerstone of any program.
Consistency – You need to string together hard workouts for weeks, months, and years
on end to reach your potential. You can’t do that jumping from ship to ship. Get on a
horse and plan on riding it for a while. If you are stuck or plateau out, sometimes very
simple changes can get you past that, without selling out to a whole new philosophy.
Eating – You can’t get bigger unless you’re eating big. Not much else to say there.
Patience – Rome wasn’t built in a day, and neither is muscle mass. See the above note
about “consistency”.
Progression – It’s really as simple as adding more weight and reps to the bar. Not
special bars, or special splits, or bands or toys or anything.
Recovery – When is your body going to repair/get bigger if you don’t ever allow it to
recovery?
“What if I stop gaining weight?”
Well, eat more unless you are fat. If you are fat, focus on conditioning until you are not
fat anymore.
“What if I stop making strength gains?”
Well no matter what, that’s going to happen eventually. But I am guessing you mean
when you hit a plateau and don’t progress at all for a few weeks.



Take a week off no matter where you at. Drop the conditioning to 3X a
week @ 15 minutes a pop
Restart the program with a low max and don’t do any high PI work. Just
straight sets stopping short of failure. Run that for the first two weeks then
get back to full bore eye bleeds.
Up your cold water intake, get to bed 1 hour earlier each night, and pop
some aspirin each morning.
“What about supplements?”
The only supplements I can endorse is a solid protein powder, creatine, and Scivation’s
BCAA powder. That shit REALLY works. When I use it I can FEEL the difference. It’s
30
Philosophy of Training – by Paul Carter
No frills and no bullshit methodologies on how get big and strong
not placebo, I know what the fuck placebo feels like, and placebo feels like placebo.
The BCAA from Scivation is an awesome supplement and I almost always use it.
Outside of that, a good pro-hormone if you are over 21 will work too. However let me
say up front, OTC PH’s are the REAL DEAL. Don’t let anyone tell you they are not. I
have a good friend that has used every oral steroid on the planet tell me that M-Drol
(now discontinued) is the best oral he ever used in his life. That includes d-bol, anadrol,
and winstrol. Think about that before you make the decision to use PH’s.
Final Word –
This e-book isn’t long and my philosophy is not difficult to grasp.
Consistent hard work with big eating over a good length of time will get you massive.
This has been proven true over and over again. I am not selling snake oil with this
book, or using complicated programming in a way to confuse you. It’s the way that I
found that worked very well over 2 decades of trying to get bigger and stronger week in
and week out.
It doesn’t mean it’s the best way for everyone, or the only way, or that other programs or
philosophies don’t have merit because plenty do. It’s just one of many ways, and there
are many paths to training enlightenment……or some shit like that.
31
Philosophy of Training – by Paul Carter
No frills and no bullshit methodologies on how get big and strong
Special Thanks –
God
My partner in crime, my best friend and most beloved, my wife Tiffany
The three most awesome daughters in the world
My Parents for actually bringing me into this world
Long time friend and fellow lifter Chuck Miller
Jim Wendler, for all the cactus pics
Anyone and everyone who subscribes or reads my shitty blog and bought this thing
Thank you!
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