table of contents
Introduction
1
Phase One – Progressive Overload
10
Phase Two – Bodybuilding
21
Phase Three – Return to Powerlifting
29
Phase Four – Westside Barbell, the Mental Aspect
36
Phase Five – Westside Barbell, Technique
44
Phase Six – Westside Barbell, Physical Aspect
52
Phase 7 – Retirement and a New Journey
66
Phase 8 – Coaching
74
Phase 9 – The Mountain Dog
81
Reflection Part One
90
Reflection Part Two
97
Elite Wisdom
103
Table OfTContents
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Introduction
The Evolution of Dave Tate
Dave Tate of EliteFTS has accomplished pretty much
everything a man can do under the bar – and lived to
tell about it. He's an Elite status powerlifter, who despite
suffering injuries and setbacks that would cripple a mere
mortal, still pushes himself to be a better man than he was
yesterday, in and out of the gym.
He's a sought after consultant for all things forged by
iron, whether it's achieving superhuman strength or
building a superhero's physique. A lot of gurus have talent
and knowledge, with pristine resumes that sparkle with
untested potential; Tate's curriculum vitae is beat up and
covered in chalk, with each accomplishment a testament
to a life spent surviving – and thriving – under the bar.
Thirty Years of
Lifting
Recently at a seminar, some eager kid asked one of those
questions favored by young guys who spend too much
time online reading about strength training:
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"Given your 30 years in the sport, what do you feel is
going to be the next big training system?"
I wasn't sure if he was just breaking my balls about being
(or looking?) old, but I gave him an honest answer
anyway.
"Go dig up a few muscle magazines from the 80's. Find
any training system being discussed that hasn't been
recycled yet? There's your answer."
Sure, it was kind of a smart-ass
response I suppose, but it's true.
1
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Introduction
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Virtually every cutting edge, "Hot off the presses" training
system out there; whether it's high volume or low volume,
high frequency or low frequency, has been tried, tested,
even written about before, just under a different name
with different athletes grimacing in the cheesy pictures.
The reason I can say this is that, quite honestly, I've
done pretty much every non-retarded training system in
existence – and more than my fair share of retarded ones
as well.
I'm known mainly as a powerlifter and a strong proponent
of Louie Simmons' Westside method, but that's hardly
the only thing I've done in the past 30 years. I've done
"hit the muscle from all angles" bodybuilding routines,
even stepping onstage in a banana hammock on a few
occasions. I've also done bat-shit crazy powerlifting
routines that were so insane they should've killed me, or
at least left me trading in the monolift for a wheelchair.
As a result, I've also had to do functional training to regain
basic mobility that would bore your 80 year old grandma
to tears – how that didn't kill me is probably the most
surprising of all. Today, I follow a variety of different styles
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depending on what I want to accomplish during that
phase, whether it's get stronger, bigger, more jacked
(yeah I fucking said that), or just maintain whatever sanity
I have left.
That's the summary of my story and really, it's nothing
special. The way I see it is, I've been under the bar for
30 years, and if you're not pushing the envelope and
trying new things, you really aren't trying that hard. But
apparently there's some interest in how I trained during
certain periods of my career and more importantly, why I
decided to change from one style to the next.
I have to admit, the whole idea bored the living shit out of
me when TC first pitched it, although when I sat down and
wrote it all out I could see that there were some lessons to
be learned there.
So every month or so, I'm going to revisit a period of my
training career and break down a few things that worked
for me, things that could easily work for you today.
However, to kick things off, I need to first show you what
30 years of lifting actually looks like.
Introduction
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Ph19a8s2-e1o98n7e
Progressive Overload
Truth be told, I started lifting in 1981. My dad got me a
plastic weight set for Christmas and a Weider workout
book to go with it. I set it up in the garage and every day
after school, a neighbor and I would do every exercise in
the book. And I do mean EVERY exercise – it took about
three hours.
Building the
Foundation
Eventually my neighbor burned out and went in another
direction and my Dad, realizing how utterly clueless I
was, signed me up at a nearby barbell club. It was here
that I was put on my first real program, a basic, linear
progressive overload training program, and I followed that
through to my first meet.
There was nothing new or groundbreaking about that
program. Generally, we'd train in cycles, starting 12-16
weeks out from a meet. We'd start at 8 reps for a few
3
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weeks, then 5's for a few weeks, then 3's, then doubles
and singles leading up to the meet. After the meet I'd do
nothing for 4-6 weeks, although I was playing football and
wrestling throughout that time as well.
That was it really – simple progressive overload; adding
weight to the bar, and by the summer after high school
I had a 700-pound squat, a 685-pound deadlift, and a
500-pound bench, raw (the squat and dead were single
ply).
Granted, I had good genetics for the sport, but the
important thing is that I had great coaching. I only had
that one stupid year in my garage; there are guys in
commercial gyms that have had stupid careers. I have
many lessons to share from the era, lessons that would
later define me as both a lifter and as a man. I learned that
I loved strength, being challenged, being coached, and
adding weight to the bar.
But after high school, I took my first of many steps in a
new direction.
Introduction
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Ph 88-1991
19
Bodybuilding
After high school I was really big and really strong. But
like every other teenaged guy, I wanted to be jacked,
like the airbrushed guys in the magazines. Specifically, I
wanted to be as big as a bodybuilder but as strong as a
powerlifter. Hey, I was a teenager – who was going to tell
me it couldn't be done?
Getting Jacked for
Bodybuilding Shows
As I got more into muscle, I noticed that all the jacked
guys were training in these fancy gyms with tons of exotic
equipment. Keep in mind, I'd been training in a very
basic weight room with zero bells and whistles, so after
high school when I visited my first big commercial gym I
almost had a weight orgasm.
I was instantly hooked and within a short time competed
in my first bodybuilding contest. I came in at about 220,
about 20lbs heavier than I should've been, and had my
ass kicked by a guy who was about 145-pounds and
absolutely shredded.
The good thing was that I caught the attention of two
guys from Toledo who ran Hardbodies gym and coached
bodybuilders. They saw some potential in me and
offered to take me under their wing, so to speak. They
told me that although I was plenty thick from my years of
powerlifting, I lacked typical bodybuilding lines like lat and
shoulder width.
They taught me stuff like how to isolate muscles and how
to train to bring up weak points and create the bodybuilding
illusion. It was completely different from what I had been
used to and I can't say that I enjoyed it – especially all the
slow tempo shit – but it worked, and I grew like crazy.
4
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No System or Split
We Didn't Try
Training wise, we did it all. I mean, EVERYTHING. There
was no bodybuilding system or split that we didn't play
with. Usually we did 8 sets for smaller bodyparts and 16
sets for larger ones, training each bodypart twice a week
on average, which, incidentally, I think will be the next "big
thing" in the bodybuilding world.
I did a total of three shows during that phase and
increasingly improved my placing, even winning my
last one. But the thing was, I hated bodybuilding shows.
There was no adrenaline like a powerlifting meet, no
camaraderie. You had this 12 or 16-week build up and
then zip, nothing. Just a 60-second dance on stage. It
wasn't me.
Thing is, I loved the muscles and especially the dieting
and the discipline. I loved how it was a 24-7 commitment.
You have to do your homework with powerlifting too but
let's face it, it's nothing like the extreme attention to detail
bodybuilding requires. Still, my place was under the bar
and breaking PR's.
Lesson-wise, I learned how to address weak points
for purely aesthetic purposes and create the
bodybuilding illusion. I learned how to manipulate
training parameters for size as opposed to strength,
but most importantly, I learned how much I love
discipline. That lesson in particular may have
benefitted me more than any.
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1
Return to Powerlifting
AKA the "Fucking
Disaster Period."
This is where most of my injuries occurred and where I
had the most self-doubt. It was hell, plain and simple, and
I learned one of the most important lessons of all: at the
extreme end, building muscle and building strength are
very different things.
After bodybuilding, I rebounded back up to 260 pounds
with about 20 lbs. of new muscle that I gained from my
bodybuilding period. I thought this new beef would help
me kick some serious ass as a lifter and I couldn't wait for
my first meet.
The whole training cycle sucked. I was benching 455 for
8, but couldn't single 485. I could squat 650 for 10, but
couldn't single 720. I ended up doing the meet at 265
pounds and totaled less than I did after high school at
245. I was not happy.
By now I'm also in college and studying strength and
conditioning, talking to coaches about strength, and
reading everything I could get my hands on. It dawned
on that during my bodybuilding period, I didn't do a damn
thing for maximal strength or explosiveness. I had a lot to
work on.
I started using nonlinear programs, and played with
Bulgarian systems and some of the Spassov stuff. One of
my favorites was:
Week 1: 80%
Week 2: 83.5%
Week 3: 87%
Week 4: deload
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Then start over at week 1, but with the week 2 weight.
This was working well and I started to regain some of
my former strength, but I also started to accumulate
injuries, and in hindsight it was obvious why. I didn't take
the necessary time to get my joints and tendons back up
to handle maximal weights. Not to mention that not only
was my rep strength too high and max strength too low,
I'd created some muscle imbalances that were shortcircuiting my gains.
When it was all said and done, when I finally did a meet,
although I ended up totaling over 2000 lbs., I tore my pec
right off the bone.
Change My Ways, or Out of the Sport In a Year
At that point, I'd seen Louie Simmons around and
heard about him and his Westside Barbell club over in
Columbus. I admit, much of what I heard I thought was
total bullshit and didn't put much stock in some "magic"
training system. But when I tore my pec, I remember
Louie saying to me that if I didn't change what I was doing
that I'd be out of the sport in a year.
Really, I was already done. I'd graduated college and
was so beat up that I was ready to leave powerlifting for
some kind of real job. My wife though, wanted to move
to Columbus for work so I figured I'd give Westside – and
powerlifting – one last shot.
Introduction
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19
Westside Method
I arrived at Westside thinking Louie Simmons was
basically full of shit and to be honest, that opinion didn't
change my first year there. I saw what he was doing and it
was just too different from what I was used to, so I trained
in the afternoon when Louie was rarely there and did my
own thing.
I did a meet after a year or so of training and my total went
down, after which Louie, in his gentle style, suggested
that I either start doing what he tells me to do or find the
fucking door.
So now the line was drawn, and as a stubborn young guy it
really pissed me off. "You know what," I thought, "fuck you.
I'll do your bullshit system, and when I shit the bed again it'll
be your fucking fault." And with that, I changed schedules
and started to train in the morning with Louie's guys and
put about 100 pounds on my total in a matter of months.
From Critic to Advocate
At first I couldn't believe it. What we were doing
completely contradicted everything I'd learned in school
and in the books and journals I'd been reading. Maximum
effort? Dynamic effort? Speed? I started to read what
Louie was reading and pick his brain about what he was
doing, and before long went from being one of his biggest
critics to one of his staunchest advocates.
It's because I wasn't a Westside fanboy from day one
that I was the perfect person to help Louie compile his
thoughts and get his message across. One of the most
common objections I'd hear when I gave seminars on
the method was that Westside was just a great lifting
"environment" and that there was nothing special about
the system itself.
Bullshit. It's more than that. Every year we'd see kids from
little suburban Columbus show up totally average and
6
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leave world champions – it just can't be because of the
"magic environment." The guy's a genius plain and simple,
and I credit him for extending my career from 1993 to
2006 by teaching me all the ways to build strength.
Three Ways to
Build Strength
There are essentially three ways to get stronger:
physically – meaning by adding more size and strength,
lifting gear like shirts and suits, and technique.
Getting stronger physically is obviously the foundation
but it's slow, especially as you get more advanced. If
an advanced guy tells me that his lifts are going up 20
pounds a year, I'd say he's doing awesome. Hell, if an
advanced guy is even maintaining his best lifts that's
pretty good in my books.
Gear is the current hot thing and it's all many advanced
guys care about, but technique is massive. A slight
change in how you execute a lift can add 20 or 30 pounds
to your lift easy, and Louie is the freaking master. That's
why when you watch those Westside training videos, you
hear guys barking stuff like "Knees out!" or "Head up!"
over and over again.
They say it takes upwards of 10,000 repetitions to
reestablish a new motor pattern, which is a hell of a lot
more than most sane people will ever do. Add in that when
you do a set of 10, if the first 3 are good and the next 7 are
shit, 70% of your set just reinforced bad technique. So,
your shit bench is becoming a stronger shit bench – and
shit technique plus heavy weight is the recipe for injury.
So the biggest thing I learned from Louie other than the
ME/DE method is the importance of technique, which
literally saved my powerlifting career.
Introduction
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Mobility/Joint Heath Period
Louie told me once that when powerlifting stopped being
fun it was time to give it up. By 2005, a combination of
injuries, family, and business demands made me realize it
was no longer fun and it was time to retire for good – but
to what? There are no retirement homes for broken down
300-pound powerlifters.
Coincidentally, around the same time I was meeting with
Jim Wendler, Jason Ferruggia, Joe De Franco, and Alwyn
Cosgrove. We were heading to a restaurant and as I was
going down a flight of stairs Alwyn noticed that I took
each step one at a time, while most functional humans
tend to alternate steps.
I told Alwyn that's just what my body allows now and he
offered to give me an assessment on the spot. He had
something like 12 tests he wanted me to do, but by the
time we did 3 he stopped and said he could already tell
that I was a wreck.
Complete
Retraining of the
Body
So I spent the next year getting my mobility and flexibility
back. I started by eliminating all prime movers like squats,
deadlifts, and benches, and removed all short range of
motion movements like floor presses. The logic was, I had
to re-teach my body how to move through a full range of
motion again before I could start loading it – and I fucking
hated it.
For a guy who loves training heavy, rehab shit is the worst.
Heavy pressing and pulling became 40-pound dumbbell
rows, 80-pound lat pulldowns, and 20-pound curls. Just
shoot me. It was around this time that I started working
with Berardi to clean up my diet. I'd like to address a
popular misconception: that I ate like absolute shit my
entire life.
Diet Overhaul
Truth is, I ate a very "clean" diet for many years. I loved
typical bodybuilding meals like chicken and rice and
ate that way throughout my career; that is, until Louie
ordered me to pack on 70 pound of bodyweight. If you
can gain that kind of weight on low fat, low sugar foods,
then congratulations.
Although it wasn't a fun period of my life training wise,
it was an absolutely necessary one, and in hindsight,
something that I should've done much earlier.
7
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Ph2a00s6e-nsowix
Which brings us up to today. My goal now is to walk
around at a healthy bodyweight and in great shape;
decently strong and in good health, without cholesterol or
blood pressure meds, which is easier to accomplish at a
lower bodyweight.
Of course, that's the just the plan and if there's one thing
I've learned is that life often has other plans. This past
summer was ridiculous for me personally, culminating in
my father's passing and my wife having major surgery.
Throw kids into the mix, business, joint health, and other
stressors and it's a wonder I can even train at all.
So here's my situation: I love training hard and heavy, I love
discipline, and I love dieting. I guess if I can't be strong I
might as well get big and jacked. Except for my shoulder, I
have most of my mobility back and can still train pretty hard,
though I realize I'll never be as strong as I used to be. With
these goals and limitations in mind, I now train in phases.
Here's the thing: all this shit is just another training
parameter that you have to control. You can't let it win.
You can't let it control YOU. At the time it might seem
insurmountable, but if you account for it and prepare the
best you can, you can get by.
Finding What Works
For Me: Training in
Phases
I mentioned earlier that I've always done best when
someone else is controlling me. Left to my own devices, I
can't account for these parameters well. I couldn't adjust
my training right when I was 20 when I had fuck all to
worry about and I sure as shit can't do it now with my
health, family, and business all on the line.
I start with a strength phase. I know, I just said that I can't
train heavy any more but I still like the strain of heavy
triples, doubles, and singles. I just can't do it for very long.
I'll pick a lift like floor press or safety bar squat and push
as hard as I can, being mindful not to destroy myself in the
process.
After this phase is when I like to schedule a diet.
Considering one of my goals is to look like I work out, this
phase is essential, plus I just love the process: the dieting,
the discipline, the weekly tweaks; I have Justin Harris or
Shelby Starnes help me out and I try to get to about "four
weeks out" condition before I break the diet and enter my
rebound phase.
Ask any bodybuilder and they'll tell you that it's during the
rebound phase that you gain the most size – it's one of the
main reasons that I diet in the first place. So I make the most
gains, physique wise in the few months after I break the diet.
8
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Back when I was young I had coaches at the barbell club
controlling me. Then I had bodybuilding coaches. Then
Louie Simmons. Then Cosgrove and Berardi, and now
Shelby and John Meadows, who designs my programs.
He gave me a leg training workout that literally had me
seeing stars; I've never felt so nauseous in my life. He also
pulls me back when I get too wound up. He controls me,
and I prosper for it.
You see, I can train others flawlessly, and I mean,
flawlessly. I'm a fucking expert. But training myself, I'm
a retard. And I'm sorry, but we're not all the same. If we
were, we'd all have the same eye color, be the same
height, and could put an inch on our arms with just 10
sets of curls.
Obviously we're not, so we need to find what works for
each one of us as individuals. The more elite you get, the
more you realize how individual all this is.
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The Plazma Difference
I also put a lot more emphasis on nutrition and
supplementation now. I have Shelby doing my food, but a
few years back Tim Patterson called me and kept me on
the phone for hours, explaining this exciting supplement
protocol he's developing. To be honest, I didn't really
understand what the hell he was talking about nor did I
really care, as I've never been a huge supplement guy to
begin with.
Tim was emphatic though, so I agreed to make Plazma™,
Mag-10®, Surge® Workout Fuel, and Finibar™ available
to my lifters, and to try it myself.
The stuff works. Some of the strongest men in the world
are taking it, including Jeremy Frey, Brian Schwab, and
Brian Carrol, and while I'm not going to insult anyone's
intelligence and say that any supplement accounts
for 50% or 30% of their success, I will say it makes a
difference; otherwise, they wouldn't be taking it. Plain and
simple.
The catch is that no one uses the stuff just one way.
Some guys like the Surge® Workout Fuel before training,
others like the Finibar™, while some prefer both. Before
meets, I've found that if guys have once scoop of Surge®
Workout Fuel and one Finibar™ every few hours the day
before, they can show up the next day over 8 pounds
heavier, which can make a huge difference. Finibar™ the
day of a meet are essential as well.
With Supplementation, Consistency
is Key
The key to all this is to be consistent. It's like training: you
can't lift for two weeks and then stop, then complain that
this weight training shit doesn't work for you. Get a plan,
follow it, and be consistent. After you give it a fair go,
evaluate.
It may feel retarded at the time to be mixing up all these
drinks and pissing like a racehorse but here's the thing:
we're all retarded. If you're so passionate about training
heavy that you can barely roll out of bed in the morning,
guess what, you're retarded. If you weigh your food, count
your protein grams, and live out of fucking Tupperware,
you're retarded.
Hell, if you're the least bit interested in the training we're
going to discuss in this article series, yes, you too, are
retarded. Get over it. We all are.
But this is our world, where the lunatics run the asylum.
See you next month, retards.
As for myself, Tim wrote me out a precise protocol (his
word, not mine) and when I first saw it I thought he was
nuts. But I tried it out and have to say it works. I'm not
nearly as sore after training on the days that I use it,
even when I'm following Meadows programs, which are
certifiably insane to begin with.
For the most part, I take two scoops of Mag-10® and two
scoops of Plazma™ during the workout, with a scoop or
two of Surge® Workout Fuel before hand. depending
on how many carbs I'm allowed that day. That seems
to work well, although being the type of guy that I am, I
took Tim's protocol and doubled it for six weeks. I went
from 240 to 286 in six weeks and still had abs. Granted,
I'd just finished a diet and was rebounding, but that was
ridiculous. I've never gained weight like that in my life.
9
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Introduction
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Progressive Overload
Phase one
The Evolution of Dave Tate
||
G
eorge Santayana is famous for writing, "Those who
fail to learn from the mistakes of their predecessors
are destined to repeat them." Okay, so ol' George
wasn't referring to weight lifters. Still it applies, oh
does it apply, and few people are in better position to
see the philosopher's warning come true than Dave
Tate. Luckily, you, the reader, can thwart this dire
prophecy by reading about Dave's early mistakes in
the iron game.
Some Back Story
For a young kid just starting out, I sure was anal.
Back then I recorded everything – and I mean everything.
My workout log book not only had my sets, reps, and
poundages, but also how I felt that day, my last meal
before training, even my Biorhythm. (I'm not sure what
the point of that was except to let me know that I should
look forward to having a shitty day.)
–TC
Hopefully you were able to get through the introductory
article in this series without falling asleep on your
keyboard. This installment, Phase 1, will describe the
training that I did between 1982 and 1987.
As you might recall, this phase began with my dad signing
me up at a neighborhood barbell club. I consider this to
be the first "real" training I did after spending one stupid
year jerking around with some weights in the garage.
The training was basic linear periodization, and although
you'll see it was flawed as hell, I did make really good
gains off of it. This phase laid the foundation for the lifter
I'd eventually become.
I took this approach because I wanted to understand
everything about getting strong so I could eventually
tweak it and make it better. What's interesting is that
despite all my record keeping, things changed very little –
except for my poundages.
Basic linear periodization is essentially limited block
training (which has been around for years), but
with less exotic names. So instead of nasty Eastern
European sounding phases like "accumulation" and
"intensification" we have the user-friendlier hypertrophy
and strength.
Interestingly, those old school Eastern European names
are making a comeback as of late, but no matter how
many different ways you try to dress up this pig, it's still a
limited form of block training.
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Progressive Overload
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Basic Linear
Periodization By the Numbers
Setting Up This
System
Phase: Hypertrophy
You'd basically find a meet and count backwards in time.
The volume starts high and the intensity (as expressed
as percentage of one-rep max) was low. Every phase,
and every week, you upped the intensity and dropped the
volume.
(high volume - low intensity)
Duration (in weeks): 4-6
Intensity: 50-70% range
Reps: 8-20
Sets: 3-5
Rest: 2-4 minutes
Goals: conditioning, build muscle mass
Phase: Strength Phase
Duration (in weeks): 4-6
Intensity: 75-86% range
Reps: 4-6
Sets: 3-5
Rest: 2-4 minutes
Goals: strength
Phase: Power
Duration (in weeks): 3-4
Intensity: 86-93%
Reps: 3-5 reps
Sets: 3-5
Rest: 3-5 minutes
Goals: Power
Phase: Peak
Duration (in weeks): 2-4
Intensity: 93% plus
Reps: 1-3
Sets: 2-3
Rest: 4-7 minutes
Goals: PR's, meets
Phase: Transition (Active Rest)
Break after training
Duration (in weeks): approximately 4
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Set up is simple; which is also the system's greatest
drawback.
The trick to avoiding problems is to be as accurate as
possible when choosing your 1RM. If you guess that your
1RM in the squat is 540 but it's really more like 500, you'll
be okay for the first couple phases, but God help you
when it comes time for triples.
For accessory movement, there aren't percentages listed,
something that has messed up many overzealous novice
lifters. I received good advice early on that saved me a lot
of trouble, namely to train the accessories easy until they
needed to be hard.
In other words, in the first phase I'd do stiff-leg deadlifts
for 3 sets of 8 with a weight that I could've likely hit 3 sets
of 20. Leaving reps on the table here early on is key to
avoid overtraining down the road.
By the end of the hypertrophy phase I was usually as
heavy [bodyweight] as I was going to be, and my weight
would then start to drop with each successive phase. I
attributed this to the fact that all the hypertrophy work
was gradually phased out, and eventually even the
accessories were eliminated. If you're a young guy who
likes his guns and upper pecs, this sucks.
Intensity wise, you never come close to failure until
around week seven as the goal through each phase
is to never miss a lift. If it's week nine and you start
missing lifts, you definitely are concerned. "Is my
training program completely retarded?" becomes a
reoccurring anxiety.
After the meet, the idea was not to train at all for a good
four weeks to recover before starting up again with the
hypertrophy phase.
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Benefits of the
System
There are numerous benefits to training in this fashion:
è Ease of setup
As noted earlier, setting up a plan like this is a breeze,
even for beginners. Once a proper 1RM is established,
each week the intensity is raised and volume is lowered.
Weights are rounded up to the nearest 5 or 10 pounds
(no, no PlateMates)!
Beginners often have what's know as training ADHD,
where they want to blast up their bench while adding an
inch to their arms and improve their body composition.
This style teaches them to have their eyes on just one
prize at a time.
For example, during the hypertrophy phase the goal
is gaining size. The weight on the bar is not important.
During the strength phase on the other hand, poundage
is key while hypertrophy is no longer a concern.
Gear is not introduced until well into the program, usually
raw until the sets of 5. Then we add suits and go straps
down; at 3's we go straps up.
è
I always preferred to go without gear for as long as possible;
until I felt the percentages start to creep up on me.
Because the goals are clearly defined, you can have
athletes of differing strength levels train together and still
make progress. It's very convenient for the overworked/
underpaid college strength coach.
è
Gives time to get used to the heavy weight
è
The biggest mistake rookies make is going too heavy too
soon. The long buildup to heavy weights helps keep the
young guys reigned in.
è The specific goal per phase is good for
beginners.
It's good for training in groups
These cycles are as old as time.
Every powerlifter has done some program like this. If it
didn't at least sort of work, no one would have passed it
on to the next generation; unless the next generation was
a bunch of retards who didn't deserve to be strong.
The different blocks allow beginners to avoid distractions
and key in on one strength quality at a time.
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Here's a sample basic linear periodization program:
Week
Squat Day
Monday
Bench Day
Wednesday & Saturday
Deadlift Day
Thursday
Squat 55% for 3 sets 15
Good Morning 2 sets 15
Weighted Sit Ups 2 sets 20
Day 1 Heavy Day
Bench 50% 3 sets 12
Close Grip Bench 3 sets 10
Incline Bench 3 sets 10
One Arm DB Press 3 sets 10
Pushdowns 4 sets 15
Deadlift 50% 3 sets 12
Stiff Legs 3 sets 8
Barbell Rows 3 sets 10
Shrugs 3 sets 12
Abs 5 sets 20
1
Day 2 Light Day
Dumbbell Presses 3 sets 10
Side Raises 3 sets 10
Front Raises 3 sets 10
Barbell Extensions 3 sets 10
Squat 60% 2 sets 12
Good Morning 2 sets 15
Weighted Sit Ups 2 sets 20
2
Day 1 Heavy Day
Bench 60% 3 sets 10
Close Grip Bench 3 sets 10
Incline Bench 3 sets 10
One Arm DB Press 3 sets 10
Pushdowns 4 sets 15
Deadlift 55% 3 sets 10
Stiff Legs 3 sets 8
Barbell Rows 3 sets 10
Shrugs 3 sets 12
Abs 5 sets 20
Day 2 Light Day
Dumbbell Presses 3 sets 10
Side Raises 3 sets 10
Front Raises 3 sets 10
Barbell Extensions 3 sets 10
Squat 65% 3 sets 10
Good Morning 2 sets 15
Weighted Sit Ups 2 sets 20
3
Day 1 Heavy Day
Bench 65% for 3 sets 8
Close Grip Bench 3 sets 10
Incline Bench 3 sets 10
One Arm DB Press 3 sets 10
Pushdowns 4 sets 15
Deadlift 65% 2 sets 8
Stiff Legs 2 sets 8
Barbell Rows 3 sets 10
Shrugs 3 sets 10
Abs 5 sets 20
Day 2 Light Day
Dumbbell Presses 3 sets 10
Side Raises 3 sets 10
Front Raises 3 sets 10
Barbell Extensions 3 sets 10
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Week
Squat Day
Monday
Bench Day
Wednesday & Saturday
Deadlift Day
Thursday
Squat 70% 3 sets 8
Good Morning 2 sets 15
Weighted Sit Ups 2 sets 20
Day 1 Heavy Day
Bench 70% 3 sets 6
Close Grip Bench 3 sets 6
Incline Bench 3 sets 6
One Arm DB Press 3 sets 8-10
Pushdowns 3 sets 10-12
Deadlift 70% 3 sets 5
Stiff Legs 2 sets 5
Barbell Rows 3 sets 6
Shrugs 3 sets 6
Abs 3 sets 20
4
Day 2 Heavy Day
Dumbbell Presses 3 sets 8
Side Raises 3 sets 8
Front Raises 3 sets 8
Barbell Extensions 3 sets 8
Squat 74% 4 sets 6
Good Morning 2 sets 15
Weighted Sit Ups 2 sets 20
5
Day 1 Heavy Day
Bench 75% 3 sets 5
Close Grip Bench 3 sets 6
Incline Bench 3 sets 6
One Arm DB Press 3 sets 8-10
Pushdowns 3 sets 10-12
Deadlift 74% 3 sets 5
Stiff Legs 2 sets 5
Barbell Rows 3 sets 5
Shrugs 3 sets 5
Abs 3 sets 12
Day 2 Heavy Day
Dumbbell Presses 3 sets 8
Side Raises 3 sets 8
Front Raises 3 sets 8
Barbell Extensions 3 sets 8
Squat 78% 3 sets 5
Good Morning 2 sets 15
Weighted Sit Ups 2 sets 20
6
Day 1 Heavy Day
Bench 80% 3 sets 5
Close Grip Bench 3 sets 6
Incline Bench 3 sets 6
One Arm DB Press 3 sets 8-10
Pushdowns 3 sets 10-12
Deadlift 78% 3 sets 5
Stiff Legs 2 sets 5
Barbell Rows 3 sets 5
Shrugs 3 sets 5
Abs 3 sets 10
Day 2 Heavy Day
Dumbbell Presses 3 sets 8
Side Raises 3 sets 8
Front Raises 3 sets 8
Barbell Extensions 3 sets 8
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Week
Squat Day
Monday
Bench Day
Wednesday & Saturday
Deadlift Day
Thursday
Squat 82% 2 sets 5
Good Morning 2 sets 15
Weighted Sit Ups 2 sets 20
Day 1 Heavy Day
Bench 85% for 3 sets 5
Close Grip Bench 3 sets 6
Incline Bench 3 sets 6
One Arm DB Press 3 sets 8-10
Pushdowns 3 sets 10-12
Deadlift 84% 2 sets 5
Stiff Legs 2 sets 5
Barbell Rows 2 sets 5
Shrugs 3 sets 5
Abs 3 sets 10
7
Day 2 Heavy Day
Dumbbell Presses 3 sets 8
Side Raises 3 sets 8
Front Raises 3 sets 8
Barbell Extensions 3 sets 8
Squat 87% 3 sets 3
Good Morning 2 sets 15
Weighted Sit Ups 2 sets 20
8
Day 1 Heavy Day
Bench 88% for 3 sets 3
Close Grip Bench 2 sets 3
Incline Bench 2 sets 6
One Arm DB Press 2 sets 6
Pushdowns 2 sets 8
Deadlift 86% 2 sets 3
Stiff Legs 2 sets 3
Barbell Rows 2 sets 3
Shrugs 2 sets 3
Abs 2 sets 8
Day 2 Heavy Day
Dumbbell Presses 2 sets 6-8
Side Raises 3 sets 10
Front Raises 3 sets 10
Barbell Extensions 3 sets 10
Squat 90% 2 sets 3
Good Morning 2 sets 15
Weighted Sit Ups 2 sets 20
9
Day 1 Heavy Day
Bench 92% 2 sets 3
Close Grip Bench 2 sets 3
Incline Bench 2 sets 6
One Arm DB Press 2 sets 6
Pushdowns 2 sets 8
Deadlift 90% 2 sets 3
Stiff Legs 2 sets 3
Barbell Rows 2 sets 3
Shrugs 2 sets 3
Abs 3 sets 10
Day 2 Heavy Day
Dumbbell Presses 2 sets 6-8
Side Raises 3 sets 10
Front Raises 3 sets 10
Barbell Extensions 3 sets 10
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Week
Squat Day
Monday
Bench Day
Wednesday & Saturday
Deadlift Day
Thursday
Squat 93% for 3
Good Morning 2 sets 15
Weighted Sit Ups 2 sets 20
Day 1 Heavy Day
Bench 94% for 2 sets 1
Close Grip Bench 2 sets 3
Incline Bench 2 sets 6
Deadlift 93% 2 sets 1
Stiff Legs 2 sets 1
10
Day 2 Heavy Day
Side Raises 3 sets 10
Front Raises 3 sets 10
Barbell Extensions 3 sets 10
11
Squat 95% for 3
Good Morning 2 sets 15
Weighted Sit Ups 2 sets 20
Day 1 Heavy Day
Bench 96% for 2 sets 1
Close Grip Bench 2 sets 3
Deadlift 96% 2 sets 1
12
Squat 97%-100% for 1
Good Morning 2 sets 15
Weighted Sit Ups 2 sets 20
Day 1 Heavy Day
Bench 98%-100% for 2 sets 1
Deadlift 98%-100% 2 sets 1
Pitfalls
There are many pitfalls to training in this fashion. Since
this is familiar territory for many of you, I'll try to keep this
brief:
è Peaking can be tough
è Percentage based training is always skewed.
Always.
This system is geared towards peaking for one meet
per cycle. Most guys would usually shoot for three main
meets per year, with the odd bench or deadlift-only meet
thrown in along the way just to stay sharp.
Let's get one thing straight: a competition max is not the
same as a training max. Fact is, a good competition max
is often 10% higher than a training max. This is extremely
important because if you base all your numbers off an
inflated percentage, you'll be in for a world of hurt.
Thing is, what if you were like me and you compete a lot?
If you schedule two meets one week after the other it can
be done; basically, you set the first meet of the series at
98%, essentially turning that meet into another training
session, and peak as normal for the second meet.
Sure, at first you'll be fine, when that 70% is really an
80%, but wait until that 80% you're supposed to do 3 sets
of 5 with is really 88% and tell me how those sets feel.
But what if your meets are staggered four weeks apart?
What do you do then?
è The breaks are long.
The end result is that guys start taking sets off because it's
too difficult. Three sets becomes two or even one "HIT"
set, which only leads to more problems down the road.
16
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Some people just lose too much with the long active
rest period. It never affected me that much, and I'd even
schedule this active recovery period for when football
training camp started up. Once the actual playing season
started and practices became much less taxing, I'd start
powerlifting training again.
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Again, I was a young lifter and nowhere near my training
or strength limits. An experienced lifter closer to the top
of their game can't afford taking such a long period of
non-lifting without risking losing much of the previous
cycle's gains.
è Very little attention paid to technique.
The biggest thing I learned after moving to Westside was
the importance of technique, hands down. The fact that
basic linear periodization programs put so little emphasis
on it is a big negative in my opinion.
è Abilities aren't maintained from cycle to cycle.
In my experience, much of the size built during Phase
1 would be a distant memory by the Peak Phase, and
obviously, much of the single-rep performance attained in
the Peak Phase would be gone by the time Hypertrophy
started up again.
For example, take any multiple-rep set of deadlifts. It's
really only the first rep of a deadlift set that actually "works."
If you watch closely, the second rep is always better and
faster than the first rep, 100% of the time. It has to do with
the stretch reflex, and the fact that during the second rep
the hips are set higher and closer to the bar.
è The accessory work isn't well planned out.
Looking back, I can tell we didn't have a clue what we
were doing when it came to planning accessory work.
Everyone just followed what everyone else was doing.
Look at the deadlift day, for instance: I think the accessory
exercises were picked out of sheer laziness more than
anything else.
You just finished doing deadlifts, "Hey, let's do stiff legs
next. They help the deadlift, right, and we only have to
strip some weight off the bar. Then we'll do bent over
rows; shit, we don't even have to move!"
The fact that the accessories never changed throughout
the cycle was another big problem.
17
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If they do multiple reps with a traditional deadlifting bar, which
bends, the weights closest to the end of the bar will touch the
floor before the bar has even settled. If you look closely, many
times the weights closest to the lifters are still 3-4 inches off
the floor when the weights on the far end touch. It's like doing
a bench press and touching your chest on the first rep and
having someone slip in a one-board for the rest of the set.
If you're going to do deadlifting for reps, you need to use
a stiff bar. If you're looking for a real challenge try using a
squat or fat bar.
Anyway, that's not an indictment of linear periodization
per se, but an example of the type of technique that is
never mentioned in typical periodization circles. I can
think of dozens of examples just like this.
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Why I Moved Away
From This System
I had a number of reasons why I moved away from
this style of training, not the least of which being I had
started college and was training at a gym that had zero
powerlifters. So getting good training partners, even a
good spot was a tall order, so I found myself looking to try
something new.
Furthermore, I was young, in college, and wanted to be
jacked. You'll see how well that worked out in the next
installment.
How Would I Change
This System?
A better question would be, How HAVE I changed it?
Despite the previously mentioned pitfalls, I've used this
basic periodization model with some lifters, especially
intermediates (gym rats with decent lifting experience,
not raw newbies). I first take a good close look at the lifter
before deciding on this route.
How's the lifter's technique? How strong are they? How
well do they recover? What's their lifting schedule like?
What about their work/school schedule?
All of these factors play a deciding role in whether this
is the right road for them to go or not. Often, there are
better – and faster – ways to reach their desired goal.
But if someone is hell bent on doing it, these are the
modifications to make:
è Use compensatory acceleration on all warm-up
sets.
Since there is no dynamic work whatsoever, perform all
warm-up sets (between 40% and their first work set) as
explosive as possible. Actually, do all sets over 40% as
explosively as you can.
I would go so far as to add in 2-3 additional explosive
warm-up sets to get in even more dynamic work. Just
take small jumps as you work up.
18
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For example, let's say the program calls for 3 sets of 10
with 255. A traditional warm-up might be 135, 185, and
225.
In this case, I'd go with dynamic sets of 5 for 135, 165,
185, 205, 225, and then start work sets.
è Select accessories based on weak points and
cycle them.
Accessory work should still be meaningful and address
the lifter's needs. I suggest sticking with the same
accessories for three weeks before switching them up
for something similar (i.e., stiff leg deadlift for Romanian
deadlift). It's a good idea to try to hit a PR week three-rep
maximum (not a 1RM). You should always be working on
pushing your accessory work higher, either with heavier
weight or more reps.
è Keep the volume more consistent.
The program starts with way too high a workload and
comes down to an insufficient volume to maintain the
abilities previously derived from the earlier phases. A
more consistent, manageable volume throughout would
help avoid this. Don't misunderstand – the volume needs
to change and is a large part of programming, but the
drop from week one to the end of the cycle is not the
most efficient way to go about developing strength.
è Switch from a 12-week program to a 24-week
program.
In between every week of the 12 week program should
be a week of strictly dynamic work. This is a BIG change
and something that will be covered in a future article BUT
is one of the most critical changes I've seen to making this
work.
So if week one calls for 315 for 5 in the squat, week two
would be a dynamic workout, such as 8 sets of 3 with
40%.
è Use special movements at the front of the cycle.
I suggest only using "real" squats in the very last phase of
the cycle. Until then, use variations like band squats, box
squats, reverse band squats, etc.
This slightly changes up the squat recruitment pattern,
but also the different squat variations have different rep
maxes, so by changing the lift you cycle the workload.
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For example, let's say you can do 405 for 5 reps on back
squats; you might be able to do 315 for 5 on the box.
You're giving the same effort with each exercise, but
exposing the body to vastly different workloads (315 x
5 = 1575 lbs, 405 x 5 = 2025 lbs). This is another huge
– and very overlooked – lesson I learned from Louie
Simmons.
You can combine weekly squat variations in your program
with inserting dynamic work every other week:
Here's how I typically
ate back then:
Breakfast
Cereal and Ass-Flavored Protein Drink
Week 2 DE: Free Squat for Speed
This was back when all the shakes were not really shakes,
just a nasty powder of mystery proteins that ended up
floating on the top of the drink and looked like cottage
cheese.
Week 3 ME: Band Squat
Lunch
Week 4 DE: Speed Squat off Box
I bought lunch so I always bought two of them; typical
school cafeteria kind of stuff.
Week 1 ME: Reverse Band Squat
Week 5 ME: Squat with Chains
Note: ME stands for "Maximum Effort," which means
building to a 1RM or 3RM, while DE, which stands for
"Dynamic Effort," implies speed work, i.e. 8 sets of 3 at
55%1RM with 60s rest between sets.
You get the idea.
è For squats, percentages should be based off a
perceived max, not an actual squat max.
Snack
offee, Copenhagen, and corn nuts. I always had either
C
early release from school (work related) or I cut class
(long story for another day).
I would walk down to the local convenience store and buy
corn nuts and Copenhagen and then spend the rest of
the time sitting at McDonalds drinking coffee. After that I
would head back for the last 1-2 periods of the day. How's
that for wasted youth?
You never need to work up to a true 1RM. A perceived
maximum is sufficient, and working up to a 1RM just
isn't necessary and is often more trouble than it's worth
(see: working off a training max versus a competition
maximum).
Training Meal
è What you eat matters.
Whatever my Mom made. She made great meals and
we always ate as a family (table cloth, good dishes, etc.).
Typically it was some kind of meat with vegetables and
rice, potatoes, or yams. Thank God for this meal – it was
about the only nutrition I consumed all day.
Guys starting out now have it easy. Today you have
websites with real information, online stores to get the
best gear, and supplements that actually work. When I
look back at how I ate back then it depresses me. I feel
like Marlon Brando in On the Waterfront: I coulda been a
contender.
19
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This was always Mountain Dew and water.
Dinner
After dinner I'd eat whatever was in the house.
Fortunately, we never had much junk food around that I
could get into.
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Before bed
Another nasty ass shake.
Supplementation I can recall using those Weider Packs
for a long time. I remember this because I worked part
time to pay for them; had I put that money into a 401(k)
I'd be better off financially and likely just as strong.
While I might joke about how it was a waste of money,
the take away is that I used what I thought was the best at
the time. In one way or another, supplements have been
a part of my training since way back when – even when I
was eating like a hog to get over 300 pounds. (You guys
will love my supplement protocol when we get to that
phase.)
Conclusion
After taking a second look at this article, it does look
like I'm dumping all over linear periodization when that
really isn't my intention. Again, I made great gains off of
this system and if it weren't effective, coaches would've
abandoned it long before I ever showed up on the scene.
It's a good system – follow it with passion and
determination and you'll do well. Make the modifications I
suggested and it can be improved considerably.
I don't feel it's the best way to train, but it's not the worst
either. Trust me on that one.
Until next month.
You can get strong eating garbage, but you'll get there
faster – and look and feel a hell of a lot better in the
process – if you get in the habit of eating well. As for
supplements, I have guys like Ted Toalston doing great on
MAG-10® and Plazma™. They have no idea how good
they have it. Maybe I should find some of that old school
ass-flavored crap that would never mix and have them
take that for a couple phases.
20
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Bodybuilding
Phase TWO
In the last installment in this series, I outlined the
progressive overload approach that I followed during
my first successful training phase. This installment
will cover the next phase, namely my forgotten foray
into competitive bodybuilding.
Bodybuilders get a rough ride from everyone
else in the iron game. Powerlifters scoff at their
meager strength levels (at least compared to
them), while the functional training types snicker
at the woeful athleticism some off-season
bodybuilders display when asked to sprint up a
flight of stairs or move a sofa.
It seems like almost every coach, lifter, or trainer
thinks they have so much to teach, but very few try
to see if there's anything they can learn in return. If
you want to build muscle – and at some point, you all
should – you should shut your face and listen to the
bodybuilders. They just might have something you
can learn from them.
And nothing draws more criticism from the rest of
the iron world than the bizarre narcissism exhibited
by some of bodybuilding's real bad apples. Ever
notice that the businesses with the most mirrors
are hair salons, bridal dress shops, and hardcore
bodybuilding gyms? There's a reason for that.
But before you get carried away with the bodybuilder
bashing, consider another thing. The most muscular
motherfuckers on the planet are bodybuilders.
An elite-level powerlifter might squat 800-plus
and bench 600, but how many would have the
quad and biceps size to even make a dent at a pro
bodybuilding show?
No type of training will build muscle like
bodybuilding training. Bodybuilders are obsessed
with their craft, and if a modified powerlifting
program was the ticket to winning a show, then the
powerlifting dungeons would be overrun by shaved
dudes in string tank tops.
21
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picked last in gym class; the loser who got his ass kicked
after school. The labels meant that I didn't need to fit in
anywhere nor have any hope for the future.
Thanks to the labels, I'd resigned myself to thinking that
I was put on this earth for no other reason than to get in
the way, and that's what I thought when I joined a private
barbell club. I figured that I might as well be at a place
where I could get stronger and be left alone.
But those guys at the barbell club saw right through it.
Maybe they saw a bit of themselves in me, I don't know,
but they proceeded to beat the labels right off me.
They taught me that I had worth, that if I set goals and
focused I could accomplish anything I set my mind to.
They taught me dedication, hard work, consistency,
discipline, and an inner drive that I never knew I had. They
showed me how those four chalk-dusted walls could be a
sanctuary of strength, both mental and physical. It could
be a home. It could be my home.
We all have defining moments in our lives that shape who
we are and who we'll become and this was a huge one
for me. Those guys are the reason I do what I do today,
maybe even the reason I'm still breathing. They changed
my life. They saved my life. And for that, I'm grateful.
First, Some
Background Story
After (barely) graduating from high school and heading
off to college, I was forced to leave my powerlifting gym –
along with my mentors – behind. When I say these guys
were "mentors" I'm not using that word lightly. These
guys basically saved my life.
You see, all through grade school I battled many labels.
I was labeled "dyslexic" and "learning disabled" and
was forced to take special classes and have tutors.
Unfortunately, I accepted these labels, hid behind them,
and eventually embraced them by labeling myself as
"stupid."
The labels destroyed any sense of self esteem I had. They
made it "okay" for me to be the dumb kid that was always
22
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But now my time at the barbell club was done. I was
strong, but also young and on my own, and I decided I
wanted to be one thing, jacked.
I did my first bodybuilding show between high school and
college. I entered the teenaged division and prepared
for it all on my own...except for a pre-contest manual I'd
bought from Rich Gaspari.
I followed the manual to the letter and when I stood
onstage I was the biggest guy up there by 50 pounds. The
problem was, although I was in shape and had abs, I was
nowhere near shredded, and had my ass handed to me
by a 145-pounder who was cut to ribbons.
To add insult to injury, as I stood up there feeling like the
fat kid in gym class, the announcer kept repeating that the
guys who beat me were representing Hard Body's Gym.
Repeatedly, Hard Body's Gym, Hard Body's Gym. I knew
that somehow, I had to get there....
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Hard Body Mecca
Getting to Hard Body's proved to be more difficult than I'd
anticipated. My parents really wanted me to go to college
and I was applying everywhere, but after graduating high
school with a stellar GPA of 1.59, I wasn't exactly being
inundated with acceptance letters. Let's just say that Yale
wasn't calling; hell, nobody was calling.
I did finally get into a small business school called the
University of Tiffin, which pleased my parents but didn't
help me one bit. You see, Tiffin wasn't anywhere near
Hard Body's. The closest gym to the school was a YMCA
and it was about two miles away, and because I didn't
have a car I had to walk. I thought I was screwed.
So I set a new plan. I began focusing on getting my grades
up and started with a bunch of remedial courses that I
never took in high school like biology and algebra. I had to
take these before I could take any college level courses,
so I could transfer to a better school like Bowling Green –
so I could be closer to Hard Body's.
Just one semester later, I'd achieved what I'd set my mind
too. I was able to transfer. Hard Body's here I come!
Bowling Green is apparently a much nicer school than
Tiffin. I say "apparently" because I flunked out after just
one semester.
You see, now that I was at Hard Body's, it was difficult to
do things like go to class or God forbid, study, especially
when the double split routine I was following had me
training three hours a day.
Plus, factor in the time it takes to cook meals and drive
back and forth to the gym twice every day. (I'd saved
up enough money to get a car, not so I could get to
school quicker, but so I could drive to Hard Body's.)
Well, something had to give. And considering how hard
I worked to get there, it sure wasn't going to be Hard
Body's.
Wake The F Up
As you can see, while the guys at the barbell club taught
me to have self-esteem, I still had my head firmly lodged
up my own ass. Fortunately, throughout my life I've had
people call me on that when it really mattered.
23
|
Shortly after being kicked out of college, I ran into an old
coach that I used to train with from time to time. While
explaining to him all the knowledge I was acquiring
training twice a day at Hard Body's, he asked me how
college was going, to which I answered that school wasn't
working out and that I didn't think it was "for me."
In a polite but aggressive way, he let me know that I wasn't
stupid but just plain fucking lazy, and that I'd always have
to work twice as hard as everyone else to get the same
work done.
He told me my will, discipline, and ability to never quit in
the gym was all that I needed and I just had to wake the F
up. I'm sure in one way or another I'd heard those things
before, but on that day, from that person, I listened.
Education of a
Bodybuilder
Part of the reason I was training twice a day was so I could
meet up with one of the owners of Hard Body's named
Rick. Rick was a Mr. Ohio competitor and a hell of a
bodybuilder, and I knew that I needed to pick his brain if I
was going to reach my goals.
What many young guys raised on digital social networks
don't understand is, back in the day you didn't just talk to
guys like this. You had to pay your dues by showing up
and training at the same time as them to show them that
you're serious and then maybe, just maybe, you could
eventually ask to work in or maybe even train with them.
I never knew what time Rick was training so I hit the
gym twice a day until I could build rapport with him, and
eventually I did. The good news for me was that Rick
recognized me from my first show. The bad news was that
he thought I looked like shit and needed a ton of work.
In short order, my powerlifting
physique was:
è Too thick in the waist. All ab work was now out.
è Too narrow in the delts. They needed more width.
è Too narrow in the lats. I needed my lats to "flare."
è Lacking upper pec development.
è Lacking quad development.
è Lacking triceps shape.
è Diet needed to completely change. (More on that
later.)
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Rick said the first thing for me to do was to stop working
my body as a unit and start seeing it as separate parts.
We followed the following split:
Day 1
Chest and Delts
To illustrate, Rick had me bounce my pec, the calling card
of every young guy who's ever done a bench press. I did
so with ease, to which Rick said, "Now do the same thing
with your triceps."
Day 2
Legs
Day 3
Arms
Day 4
Back
Day 5
Repeat
Make your triceps bounce? I could flex my triceps, but
I couldn't exactly do a triceps dance like I could with my
pecs. Sure enough, Rick could do that, along with his
delts, traps, lats, and quads. Regardless, I didn't see the
point of any of it.
|
"You need to be able to learn to control every muscle if
you're going to make it grow the way you want it to,"
said Rick.
So for the next few months, along with lying in bed trying
to make my freaking rear delts bounce, I began training
Rick's way, which entailed cutting the weights I used by
up to 50% and focusing on feeling the muscle contract.
Whenever I pissed and moaned about seeing my
poundages plummet, Rick would remind me that the
muscle doesn't know if it's pushing or pulling 400 pounds
or 40 pounds; all it knew was if it was getting trained or
not.
At first I had a real hard time with this, but after a while it
was cool to see how I could absolutely destroy my chest
with 70-pound dumbbells when before I was blasting
away with the 150s. And I started to grow, big time.
Suddenly, I had biceps, triceps, hamstrings, and calves.
My chest started to get shape and I could finally feel my
lats working during chin-ups, pulldowns, and rows.
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24
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Days off were taken as needed. Sometimes this was once
every 8 days, sometimes once every 3 weeks. As I was
just following Rick around, my days off were taken as Rick
needed them.
The training was broken into two phases. After a four-day
rotation using the first phase, we'd go through with the
second.
Phase 1: Heavy
Volume: 20 sets for big bodyparts, 10 sets for small
Reps: 6-8
Exercises: Basic compounds
Techniques: Clusters, partials, pyramiding up to a
heavy weight
Rest: Longer rest intervals
Notes: Nothing to failure
Duration: 45 minutes
Phase 2: Light
Volume: 20 sets for big bodyparts, 10 sets for small
Reps: 10-15
Exercises: Isolation
Techniques: Pre-exhaustion, supersets, drop sets,
constant tension. Weak parts like upper pecs, quad
sweep, delt width, and back width were given extra
attention.
Rest: Short rest intervals
Notes: Past failure
Duration: 90 minutes
As contests drew closer, Phase 1 would be gradually
eliminated until training was strictly Phase 2. This was
done to burn more calories, thereby reducing the reliance
on cardio while helping prevent the injuries that can result
from heavy training in a depleted state.
Bodybuilding
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Diet
According to Rick, my diet needed to change completely
if I was to be a bodybuilder.
This is the diet I followed throughout my time at Hard
Body's:
Meal 1:
4-6 ounce bowl of oatmeal
8 slices of rye or whole-wheat toast
1 apple or grapefruit
8 ounces of juice or protein drink
Meal 4:
Repeat Meal 2
OR
Meal 6:
Same as Meals 2 & 4 (perhaps add a protein drink)
whole-wheat pancakes with honey (with toast, fruit,
3
and drink)
OR
-6 ounce bowl of grain cereal with skim milk (with
4
toast, fruit, and drink)
Meal 2:
Lean meat protein
Baked potato or pasta or brown rice
Salad with low fat dressing
Fruit
Meal 3:
Lean meat protein
Baked potato
Salad with low-fat dressing
25
|
Meal 5:
Repeat Meal 3
Eating this way was redundant, to say the least. (Even
today I can't eat a plain baked potato, and even eating a
chicken breast can be difficult for me on a bad day.) Offseason, I could eat more than this, but it was only allowed
after I ate everything off this menu first.
Pre-contest, the diet would change very little. Rick was of
the mind that there were certain foods that "worked" and
that to lose fat you should only change how much of them
you were eating.
Not surprisingly, with carbs so sky-high my biggest
problem at show time was getting into condition.
Even with a very long prep – diets were always a
minimum of 16 weeks – I could never achieve the kind
of conditioning that I could later in life with things like
carb cycling.
Bodybuilding
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My Exit
It was the competitive side of bodybuilding that eventually
did me in. As much as I liked the guys at Hard Body's and
loved the training, I just didn't get the reward at the end of
the long prep that I got from powerlifting competitions.
First of all, the entire last week is a freaking nightmare,
and anyone who says different is either a liar or has never
done it.
Second, and this really hit home for me while competing
in a warm-up show before the Mr. Ohio show, on contest
day, you're standing on stage posing and you realize: I'm
on a stage, in my underwear, painted up and oiled, posing
for an audience of 90% guys, most of which are dressed
in boat-neck sweatshirts with tank tops underneath. It just
wasn't me.
After that show, I went back to my apartment and
essentially ate myself into a coma. My training partner
Vinnie came by the next day and found me passed out in
a litter of pizza boxes, Oreo wrappers, and McDonald's
containers and said, "Shit Dave, I guess you really are
done with competing,"
I was. I loved the training, loved the
process, but the reward just wasn't
there.
What I Learned and
Liked
The older I get and the more my own training has evolved,
the more I find value in the time I spent bodybuilding. The
biggest things I've taken from this phase are:
è The value of hard, high volume training.
Powerlifting is hard. A max-effort deadlift or squat can
make you feel like your lungs are popping out your
ass. But there's something about a hard, high volume
bodybuilding workout that's another animal entirely. You
just get gassed; a full body, total exhaustion, can't-doanother-rep-if-you-paid-me kind of gassed. And those
pumps? I don't want to quote Arnold, but who doesn't
love a good pump?
26
|
è The value of isolating a muscle. Clearly, for a
powerlifter to be successful he or she has to learn how
to train movements, not muscles. But if some of those
individual muscles are out of balance, it's like the weak
link in the chain. Bodybuilding taught me how to target
and bring up weak points, which a powerlifter can apply
when selecting supplemental exercises.
è The 24-7 factor. Let's face it, powerlifting
is demanding as hell, but it's nowhere near as all
encompassing as bodybuilding is. If you're preparing for a
powerlifting meet, you can still eat pretty much whatever
you want and even have a social life. A bodybuilding
contest prep? Forget about it.
The thing is, I like that 24-7 challenge. I've always seen
things that are monotonous and tedious as paying your
dues, something which has benefitted me later in life as a
businessman. I see it as doing the things the average guy
can't do, or at least isn't willing to do. There's a lot to be
said for doing those kind of things.
è The scheduling demands. I was training a ton back
then, especially during double-splits or contest preps.
This required that at the beginning of the week, I had to
schedule my training sessions like they were must-attend
appointments, and pencil in everything else around that.
This is something I continue to do to this day – I schedule
my workouts into my week as if they are meetings so I
don't miss any. My only regret is not scheduling some of
my college classes the same way.
Looking Back at
Bodybuilding
In my training life I've always kind of fallen into extremes.
I could never just be "strong," I had to be "ridiculously
strong" and destroy my body in the process.
Same with bodybuilding. I couldn't just get big and
muscular and hit the bars with my 20-inch guns, I had to
train three hours a day, eat the same shit for years on end,
and compete in bodybuilding shows.
But that's just the way I am. The average person just
wants to be pretty big and fairly strong. And for these
normal people, a certain amount of pure bodybuilding
training could be just the thing.
Bodybuilding
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You will never, ever achieve the pec, arm, and quad
development of a bodybuilder if you don't train like
one, at least for a while. I don't care how big or strong
a powerlifter you are, you need at least some isolation
work to reach your hypertrophy potential, especially in
stubborn bodyparts.
Stubborn bodyparts need volume, usually from isolation
work, to grow. Some of you may debate this but I have 30
years of observations to back up my theory. Don't bother
trying to convince me that because your stubborn arms
finally grew when you started doing chin-ups that all you
need are chin-ups. Your biceps started to grow because
you were/are a fucking beginner. I'm not referring to
going from 14 to 15 inch biceps – try 19 to 21 inches.
So if your goal is to be an average guy with above average
levels of strength and muscle mass, you should cycle
bodybuilding into your own training. Even if your primary
goal is to be strong, a three-month block every year won't
hurt.
Perhaps true "dyed in the wool" powerlifters might not
benefit from such a different style of training, but that
doesn't mean even they can't apply some bodybuilding
principles to their assistance work. Most powerlifers I
know put very little thought into their accessory work, and
if they do it's just what movement to do, not how to cycle it.
Bodybuilding the
Right Way
Would I do this all again, and if I could, what would I do
differently?
è Training. The biggest change I'd make would pertain
to recovery. I wouldn't try to cram so much training into
8 days, and the double splits in particular would be out
the window. Pre-contest I'd just use more steady state
cardio to lose fat rather than cramming in double the gym
workouts.
I'd still try to follow the "each bodypart twice a week"
thing. This was huge in the 80's, and fell out of favor in
the 90's with everyone jumping on the "one body part a
day, once a week" bandwagon. I'm not sure why – maybe
bodybuilders are just lazy? Regardless, the frequency
definitely worked for me, and if I were to pick the next
big thing in bodybuilding training it would be an every
bodypart twice-a-week spilt.
è Diet. What wouldn't I change? The diet I was given
was terrible; too high in carbs, too low in protein and fat,
not enough variety and very little actual nutrition.
The first thing I'd do is hook up with Shelby Starnes and set
up a carb-cycling plan. Not necessarily a low carb plan – I
do well with carbs – but something where the macros are
adjusted throughout the week allowing me to ingest more
fat and in turn, burn more bodyfat. This is kind of funny to
write because it's something I'm currently doing today.
The next thing would be to add a peri-workout nutrition
system like the Plazma™ Super Stack. I keep a lot more
muscle when I take in the right nutrients before and after
training. We never had that back then, and it shows.
è Given it more years. If I could somehow repeat this
period in my life, I would've liked to have given it more
time. Knowing what I know now, I think that in a few years
I could have produced a quality physique.
Granted, the competitions were still a let down, but I think
if I could've taken that 20-year-old guy and applied what I
know today about training, nutrition and supplementation,
I might've been able to create something respectable.
I still play around with all those things today, but now it's
with a body that's been beaten up and with things torn off.
My physique can still make progress, but there are real
limitations that I can't overcome.
It's not something that I piss and moan about, but here's
the thing: I might be known as Dave Tate the powerlifter,
but to this day I still question whether my genetics were
best suited for powerlifting or for bodybuilding?
I made the decision to be a powerlifter and I have no
regrets, but I do think about that sometimes. I also wonder
what might've happened if I could apply what I know now
about strength training and restoration to my powerlifting
career from day one. This is something I wonder about
much more. But that's for later in the series
27
|
Bodybuilding
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Conclusion
Looking back at my brief foray into bodybuilding, I
realize that I made many mistakes – go figure – but
I also took steps towards becoming the powerlifter,
businessman, father, and yes, bodybuilder that I am
today.
Because when I showed up at Hard Body's, I was
like a NASCAR stock car; everything built to work
together as a unit to achieve optimum performance.
My bodybuilding mentors took that car apart,
cleaned and tested every last piece, and then
reassembled it so every piece individually operated
at peak performance.
It wasn't until I left that body behind that I realized
what a gift it was.
28
|
Bodybuilding
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Return to Powerlifting
e
e
r
t
e
s
a
Ph
In the last installment in this series, I outlined my brief
foray into competitive bodybuilding. In this article, I'll
describe my return to powerlifting – and how it nearly
drove me into an early retirement.
I remember pulling out the old rep conversion charts and
getting excited. If I could bench 405 for 10, then with the
gear I'd be able to max at 540 or 550, no problem. I could
do some serious damage. (Boy, was I right.)
I'd left bodybuilding disenchanted with the whole
competitive scene. To me, it was the ultimate let down.
You bust your ass for 16 weeks, have no social life, and
follow a diet that would drive a normal person insane, and
for what? A 60-second dance in your underwear in front
of a room full of mouth-breathing dudes? No thanks.
I found a meet about three months away and using the
conversion charts, set up a 12-week progressive overload
program.
But I loved the training. It was fun, there was variety, and I got
great results. I grew like a weed during my time at Hard Body's,
in all the areas I'd targeted. I now had quads, back width,
decent pecs, and a big set of guns. And the scale backed up
what I was seeing. I was 265 pounds, a full 20 pounds heavier
than when I started bodybuilding. Mission accomplished.
One reason I was so keen to return to powerlifting was that
I was also getting really strong. I was killing my bodybuilding
workouts and leaving my training partners in the dust,
benching 405 for 10 and 315 for 32; squatting 700 for 8
and 405 for sets of 20. I could deadlift 600 for 12, no sweat.
29
|
It was a disaster. I started missing everything almost from
day one and every rep was a grinder. The workout would
call for two sets of five and I'd barely gut out the first set, and
then give everything I had to eke out 3-4 reps on the second
set. Then I'd get pissed about missing the set, rest longer,
get super jacked up and push out another set of 3-4 reps.
I could've adjusted to spare myself down the road but instead
I stayed the course, telling myself that according to the
conversion chart, I should be stronger. I was also bigger so I
had to be stronger; all I had to do was ball up! Big mistake.
I went into the meet weighing 275 and totaled 200
pounds less than my previous total weighing 242. My
bench opened at 425 and I got stapled with 455.
Return to Powerlifting
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I was way bigger but weaker.
I couldn't believe what had happened. It must've just been
nerves I thought, so I de-loaded and repeated the whole
process. Same result.
Frustrated and confused, I started just doing meets,
expecting that eventually I'd get a different result. What's
the definition of insanity again? Someone should've just
had me committed, 'cause it would've saved me much
wear and tear.
Then I started getting hurt. Not injured; being injured
began early in the first cycle and never went away. I was
now getting hurt. This is worse because when you're
injured you can work through the issue, but when hurt
you have to find ways to work around it. Soon my back
was a disaster and my shoulders were shot and I couldn't
pull for shit. Something had to change.
Since I was in university, I pulled every journal I could find
related to strength and biomechanics: NSCA journals, the
Soviet Sports Review, and about a hundred others. I was
responsible for clear-cutting an entire rainforest with all
the photocopying I did. I was like a sponge.
I came across names and expressions that I'd never heard
before like Spassov and dynamic effort, and I began
playing with plyometrics, even joining a boxing gym so
I could do plyo push-ups to work on exploding off my
chest.
I started doing every – and I mean every – new program
that I happened upon, no matter how crazy they were.
Case in point, the Bulgarian program below.
30
|
Sample Bulgarian
program
WEEK 1
WEEK 2
70% x 3
70% x 3
80% x 3
80% x 3
90% x 1
90% x 2
80% x 3 sets 3
100% x 1 for 3 sets
70% x 10
90% x 2 for 3 sets
80% x 5 for 3 sets
WEEK 3
WEEK 4
70% x 3
70% x 2
80% x 3
80% x 1
90% x 2
85% x 1
100% x 1 for 3 sets
80% x 2
90% x 2 for 3 sets
70% x 2 for 3 sets
95% x 1
100% x 1 for 2 sets
85% x 3 for 2 sets
90% x 1
95% x 1
100% x 1 for 2 sets
Return to Powerlifting
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I'd repeat those four weeks three times, for a total of 12
weeks.
Holy shit, those were long workouts. Needless to say,
there was very little assistance work in there.
And intense? Look at week three, you work up to a 1RM,
then do doubles at 90% – and that's a real 90%, not an
estimated 90%. Then, you'd work up to a 1RM two more
times in a single workout!
So I'm gearing up and wrapping up, I'm snorting ammonia
caps and going bat shit crazy trying to crush these threehour workouts. My hips we're killing me, my back was a
mess. As for my total? It barely moved.
Frustrated and burned out, I switched (again) to a
nonlinear system, thinking that it would be a smoother
ride. It was a longer build up, with drops in intensity in the
middle phases. It would be easier on the body, right?
Sample Nonlinear
Week 1: 55% x 15 for 3 sets
Week 2: 58% x 10 for 3 sets
Week 3: 60% x 10 for 3 sets
Week 4: 62% x 7 for 3 sets
Week 5: 65% x 7 for 3 sets
Week 6: 50% x 10 for 2 sets
Week 7: 70% x 5 for 2 sets
Week 8: 73% x 5 for 3 sets
Week 9: 75% x 5 for 2 sets
Week 10: 78% x 5 for 1 set
Week 11: 80% x 5 for 2 sets
Week 12: 50% x 10 for 2 sets
Week 13: 83% x 5 for 1 set
Week 14: 85% x 3 for 2 sets
Week 15: 88% x 3 for 2 sets
Week 16: 90% x 3 for 1 set
Week 17: 92% x 2 for 1 set
Week 18: 95% x 2 for 1 set
Week 19: 98% x 1 for 1 or 2 sets
Week 20: pre meet
Week 21: meet
It destroyed me. Pec strains became a constant battle. My
knees started acting up and my once sore hips were now
shot.
Week 12 would always be when the wheels fell off. We'd
be up at 80%, and then drop back to 50% to give the
31
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body a "break." But that one week of light training was
enough to get my body "used" to light loads, so the return
to real poundages would pulverize me.
I sustained most of my injuries during this phase and
many of the injuries weren't even muscular but in the
joints and tendons. My back, in particular, was a mess.
The programs I kept coming up with were destroying me
and I wasn't getting stronger.
Go With The Flow
Gear Ho
I was out of control. With each new program I'd hop onto
I'd just get more disappointed and more injured.
I eventually hooked up with a new group of
hardcore powerlifters. These guys told me that I was
overcomplicating things and while I was test-driving all
these fancy programs, their approach was to work up to a
heavy weight, and if you felt good, go for a single – every
workout!
For example, we'd work up to a fairly "easy" set of five,
and if that felt good, work up to a triple. If you killed the
triple, well, then it was on – we'd work right up to a heavy
single. And if you hit the single? Make it a triple.
Every workout.
Adding to the craziness factor, these guys believed in
using full gear every time you got under the bar. This
was completely foreign to me, as I always saved my gear
for the last few weeks. Not these guys. With them, every
workout should be like your last workout.
I loved it. As crazy as it was, in hindsight it was my first
taste of "Maximum effort" training and it taught me to
adjust things if I felt like a bull one day or a lamb the next.
Despite the ridiculous programming (or lack thereof),
I actually got pretty strong, bringing my squat to 800
for 5, bench pressing 540 for 5, and 700 for 2 in the
deadlift.
Too bad it didn't transfer to the meet. I struggled – and I
mean struggled – to hit a 780-pound single in the squat
and realized that I left my best training back in the weight
room. The "balls to the wall" finally caught up to me and
again I wasn't much further ahead.
Return to Powerlifting
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1993
Here's the scene: my body is a complete mess, but I
decide out of desperation to do yet another meet. The
week before the meet, I'd tweaked my pec in training but
decide to compete anyway. It's not like I haven't done the
same thing many times before.
I open with 455 and it feels hard. Really hard, like the
hardest 1RM of my life. I keep going and for my second
attempt call for 500 on the bar. I know all I have to do is
pull back into myself, ball up, and do whatever it takes to
get the weight up.
I get the bar about 3/4 of the way up and my pec blows
right out from the humerus. There's no bruising, no blood,
but the whole pec has rolled up like a window blind under
my nipple.
I've torn muscles and tweaked pecs before but this is
different. It doesn't hurt, there's no discoloration, but I can
barely move my arm and there's a huge gap where my
pec used to be.
Sitting in the corner, I realize what my lousy training and
countless injuries had been trying to tell me all along.
That despite all that I read, I don't know shit. I question
if I've taken my body as far as it would go. I'm stronger
mentally than physically and regardless of what I've
done, my lifts are barely moving. I question if I've come
32
|
as far as my genetics will allow. Is this the end and if so,
what next?
A guy I've seen at the meets comes over. He looks at my
arm in a sling supporting my busted up pec, then looks
me dead in the eyes and says, "If you don't start changing
what you do you're going to be out of this sport in a year."
It's Louie Simmons.
One Door Closes...
The first thing I told Louie was that I thought I was already
done with powerlifting. I truly was at rock bottom and
ready to move onto the next chapter of my life, whatever
the hell that was. I told him how I'd tried everything to
move forward and failed. I told him the extensive list of
injuries I'd accumulated.
Louie would have none of it. "You have no idea what your
potential is," he said. "Come to Westside and let me show
you."
I was skeptical. And when I'd said I thought I was done, I
meant it. But my wife wanted to move to Columbus and
I certainly didn't have any other options, so I headed to
Westside.
Return to Powerlifting
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There was also something in Louie's words that never
left me. Unlike so many others in my life who'd provided
guidance or suggestions, I could tell Louie was serious
and meant every word. Very few people in my life have
ever really believed in me and there I was standing face to
face with someone who did.
and sets up long-term success as opposed to frustration
and failure.
Use real-time perceived maxes, not what some equation
tells you to lift.
The value of the maximum effort method.
That's the phase I'll talk about next time.
Lessons
They say that when life kicks you in the balls is when you
learn the most important lessons. For all the beating I
took those years, at least I learned a lot:
The value of a perceived max.
In the Bulgarian system for example, you're always going
balls to the wall, working off an actual max. That just
destroys you, especially if you have other commitments
outside of training.
A better way is to establish a perceived rep max. Work up
to a decent weight and then have a conversation with your
partner (or yourself) about how strong you really are, today.
Do you think you can hit 315? No? Maybe just 300?
Then bam, work off 90% of that 300. It spares the joints
33
|
The best gains I made out of all the programs was when
I trained with the two guys that just worked up and used
"how I feel versus how the weights feel" as the guide to
the number of reps to be done.
This influence carried over to how I used the max effort
method in later years.
Bodybuilding training and powerlifting
need to be mutually exclusive.
That is, at least to excel at either of them. A big mistake
I made was that I never really left bodybuilding training
behind. Despite being a "powerlifter," I was benching like
a bodybuilder: elbows flared, no leg drive, and wondering
why I couldn't bench for shit and blew a pec in the process.
Strength is a high-level skill. Like any skill, to get good at
it, you have to practice. That means performing the same
lifts, the same way, repeatedly until you develop some
degree of mastery.
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Ask any high-skill athlete and he'll agree, that kind of
repetition is a grind. It's beyond boring and it burns many
people out, but those who stick it out are rewarded at the
end.
If you're a competitive powerlifter you know what I mean.
The training essentially is doing the same things day in
and day out, week in and week out, for years. How many
times have you been cued, "head up," or "back, back,
back?" Thousands. Those who become successful learn
to love and embrace the boredom.
Bodybuilding is way less boring. There's variety; hell,
variety is encouraged, and once I got a taste of that I didn't
want to let it go.
So when I should've been squatting, deadlifting, and
benching I was throwing in meaningless stuff that had no
business being in my program, like leg presses and hack
squats. But I enjoyed them and they were fun – at least
until I started to get overtrained and injured.
Bigger muscles do not necessarily mean
stronger muscles.
When I returned to powerlifting I was way bigger – and
could do walking lunges with 315 on my back – but
couldn't squat 700!
Powerlifting is all about coordination, getting the entire
system to fire as a unit. Bodybuilding, once you reach a
certain level of development, requires the exact opposite.
You can either accept this and change your approach, or
just bulldog your way through it and destroy your body in
the process.
Conversion charts are bullshit.
Not only is every lifter different, but also bodybuilding
produces a much different type of strength than
powerlifting. Bodybuilding conditions you to perform
8 rep sets but does jack shit for your limit strength or
your explosiveness. You have to give yourself time to
relearn that type of training before jumping into what you
"should" be lifting. I never did, and I paid for it.
Jumping from program to program is a
mistake.
The more I read and the more I "learned," the more I
changed programs. As a result, rather than "fine tuning"
or "tweaking" my progress, I made no progress. In
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hindsight, I would've been better off just picking a decent
program and sticking with it until mastering it.
I see people making this mistake all the time, especially
the young guys coming up in the information era, where
every lifter and his mother have their log posted online.
These guys leap from program to program like frogs
leaping from lily pad to lily pad. They're following a solid
program until some other frog croaks about a new
Conjugate Eastern Bloc hybrid that they're making great
gains off of, so they ditch what they're doing and leap to
the next lily pad.
Jumping from lily pad to lily pad is okay until you miss.
When you do, you better know how to swim.
I tell guys that the smart frog ignores all the other frogs
and just swims underneath the lily pads to the other
side. Pick a good program and follow it to the letter until
you master it. So when you're on the other side of the
pond happily eating bugs, the rest of the frogs will still be
jumping from lily pad to lily pad.
Sure, some of the pad jumpers will make it over to eat
bugs beside you, but most will just keep missing, and all
you'll hear is the "ribbit ribbit ribbit" of a pond full of frogs
blaming everything but themselves for still being stuck on
the pads.
This guy had better gear, that guy had better drugs, that
federation had messed up rules, ribbit, ribbit, ribbit.
During my first phase of training I used the same
program for basically five years and it was tremendously
successful. When I finally got to Westside, I did that
program for 12 years – and learned it from a guy who was
using it for 20 years before I got there. That's an important
lesson, and it leads into my final point.
Strength training is a massive learning circle.
There's a massive learning curve to strength training, but
it's more like a "learning circle."
At the bottom, when you're new, you know nothing.
You're this giant idiot and you just do what bigger guys tell
you to do, and as long as those guys aren't retarded you'll
make gains and progress up the circle.
This wide middle part of the circle is where a lot of guys
are. They're kind of strong and they've got some scars,
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but the main thing they have is an education. They've
read everything. They have degrees. They have a stack
of journals on their desk and a dozen forums they help
moderate. They can talk the pros and cons of every
periodization modality and jaw about the old Soviet coach
they met at a conference. They think they're masters.
What they don't realize is that they're not all that. They're
not masters – in fact, they're still idiots, cause they haven't
done anything or lifted anything. But good luck telling
them that. After all, they've got degrees and certifications
and a lot of Facebook friends.
They need to be humbled before they can move on. They
need to have their asses handed to them, their pride
beaten like an unwanted dog. They need to wake up
one day and look in the mirror and realize that this craft
they've devoted their life to has gotten the best of them.
They have to realize that they really don't know shit.
It's when they're at rock bottom and ready to quit; that's
when they're ready to move up. That bottom is really the
beginning. That's when the real understanding begins to
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take shape – when you realize you know nothing is when
you begin to learn and move forward.
When I headed to Westside, it wasn't like I "graduated"
to that system. I didn't hit some amazing total and Louie
Simmons swept in and gave me a diploma. I was a
broken down mess with a torn pec and wrecked back and
was done with the whole frickin' sport. But that's what I
needed. My body had to be broken before my mind could
move on.
Jazz legend Charlie Parker said, "Master the instrument,
master the music. Then, forget all that shit and play."
You've read the books. Now learn the trade. It took me
years of training and journal reading to realize that I didn't
know a damn thing.
I said in the first part of this series that we're all a bunch
of retards. Now you can begin to see this is what cuts
through all the bullshit.
Until next month.
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Westside Barbell, the Mental Aspect
Phase FOUR
In the last installment in this series, I described my return
to powerlifting – and how it nearly drove me into an early
retirement. This article will begin the phase I'm most
famous for – the 12 years I spent training at Westside
Barbell in Columbus, Ohio.
Note: Over the years many things have
changed that will go far beyond the
scope of this article series. The
gym moved three times and it also
got smarter, more advanced, more
innovative, stronger, and better. Much
better.
Though the key principles remain unchanged, I know
things at Westside continue to evolve and improve. I'll only
present what I was there to see, learn, and be a part of.
I can't tell you what's going on at Westside today. There
are only a handful of people who can, and those people
train at Westside Barbell. Anyone else is bullshitting you.
What is the Mental
Aspect?
I often meet young lifters at seminars who are fascinated
by Westside Barbell. They've read the articles, watched
the videos, and have structured their training to best
match the principles Louie presents in his Westside
DVD's and certification course. "I'd give anything to train
at Westside," they gush.
I do my best to encourage them but I know most wouldn't
make it.
If Westside Barbell is anything like what I experienced,
90% of these lifters wouldn't last a week. They might be
able to withstand the physical pounding, but the mental
stress would chew them up and spit them out.
The "Other" Big Three
I've learned more from my time at Westside than any
other period in my training life. There's no way one
installment could do it justice. I also doubt anyone wants
to read an article of Dostoyevsky-type length, although
Crime and Punishment would be an appropriate subtitle.
To that end, the Westside period is going to be divided
into three parts, after the three areas that must be
accounted for in your training to avoid getting stuck: the
physical aspect (what most are familiar with, including
but not limited to the Repetition Method, the Dynamic
Method, and Max Effort Method), the technical aspect
(exercise technique, arguably the most important), and
the rarely talked about mental aspect.
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Here's a test I use.
Young lifter: "I'd love to train at Westside."
Me: "If it we're a perfect world and you could move to
Columbus and train at Westside for three months, do you
think you could put 50 pounds on your bench?"
Young lifter: "Absolutely!"
Me: "Then why don't you bench that now?"
That's the mental part. That's how I know they wouldn't
make it. All the info is out there, between the 'Net and
certification courses and videos. But they focus on what
they don't have, which is the ability to train within those
four walls. That's how I know they don't want it.
Dimel and took just the powerlifting essentials to a rat
hole in West Columbus.
To say this place was a dump is an understatement. There
were holes in the floor and the ceiling leaked. As I recall
there was even some dude living in the basement.
I was just a few days post-surgery and still in a sling. I was
stuck training on the machines at Matt's place and doing
physical therapy, so all I could do at Westside was spot.
That sucked. My weight tumbled from 270 to about 240
before I was finally cleared to lift at Westside.
The gym moved again a year or so later to a much better
place about twice the size; better organized, and with no
holes in the floor.
This would be my home for the next decade.
That's how I know Westside Barbell would crush them.
Humble Beginnings
One of the last times I spoke with Louie before packing
up and moving to Columbus was right after I tore my pec.
"You're going to be out of the sport within a year if you
don't change your ways," he said, and it stuck with me. I
was going nowhere anyway. What did I have to lose?
Yet it should be noted that I wasn't a Louie Simmons
disciple when I arrived at Westside Barbell.
The Louie Simmons
Skeptic
Louie's guys trained in the morning or in the afternoon, but
being a Louie Simmons skeptic I opted to train with a small
crew at around 1 P.M. I followed my progressive overload
program, did a meet, and put maybe five pounds on my
total. Progress, sure, but five pounds? I wasn't impressed.
I told Louie as much and he started busting my chops
again about not following his methods. He'd been after
I'd studied Exercise Physiology in
college and read countless journals. I
was strong, experienced, and not easily
fooled. Louie talked about speed and
dynamic lifting and none of it jived with
what I'd learned.
My earlier impression was that Louie
talked a good game but was basically
full of shit. I always thought there was
some secret method or routine that
Louie kept under wraps and all this
speed shit was just to distract the
competition. I wanted to find out what
that "thing" was.
When I showed up, Westside was in the
process of changing from a commercialtype gym to a private powerlifting club.
Louie had sold all the machines to Matt
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me to train his way with the morning crew since I'd arrived
but it didn't fit with my new job. And I certainly didn't see
his system as something I should turn my life upside
down for.
had several who bordered on insane. You had to bring
yourself up to another level or you'd get run over or run
out.
Responsibility
Louie was persistent until finally, I snapped. I told him that
I didn't think his methods would work for me, and just to
prove it I'd quit my job and start training his way – and
when I didn't do shit at my next meet it would be his fault.
When Louie told me after I tore my pec that I could be
better, it wasn't a vote of confidence he was giving me,
but responsibility. Responsibility to be better, and if I was
going to make it at Westside, I better get better.
Well, that's how I figured it.
I started training with the morning crew. I followed
everything he said. I did a meet and put over 200 pounds
on my total.
Louie made me expect more from myself than anyone
else. He made me believe that I should be the strongest
squatter in the gym, and when I wasn't the frustration
drove me deep into a part of myself that only elite athletes
can relate to.
That's when I realized that the last 15 years of my training
and education were bullshit. All the classes I took, the
seminars I attended, the coaches I spoke to, and my time
in the gym made me educated, but it didn't make me
the expert I thought I was. What it did do was put me in a
position to really learn my trade. My education was about
to begin.
Mecca Of Powerlifting
Guys online have almost mythologized Westside. People
call it the "Mecca of powerlifting" and "the place every
powerlifter should aspire to be."
I agree. It is the Mecca of Powerlifting, and what I consider
to be one of, if not THE strongest, gyms in the world –
but the place wasn't Muscle Beach. It was brutal, both
physically and mentally. This is part of what made it work
for me.
Guys training at Jerk Off Fitness might not understand
this, but when you train at a place like Westside Barbell
there's enormous pressure. The stress of the weights
is one thing; the stress of having the strongest guys
in the world expect you to keep up or surpass them is
overwhelming. If it's not overwhelming, you're definitely
not a good fit for Westside – you expect far too little of
yourself.
Becoming exceptional at anything requires commitment,
discipline, and sacrifice. At Westside, that gets you in the
front door – maybe. To survive at Westside, you need
to match the level of dedication and sacrifice of the rest
of the crew. This alone was a huge challenge. While
we did have some "normal" people in the gym, we also
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I was told that my potential didn't mean shit unless
I realized it, and making that happen was 100% my
responsibility. The word potential may sound positive, but
to a coach like Louie, potential meant, "What's holding
you back from being great?"
According to Louie, it was also my responsibility to
make everyone on the team better than me. With most
powerlifting clubs, there's usually one King Pooba. It's
everyone else's job to make sure Pooba has a good lift.
They carry his bag, wrap his knees, and load his weight –
it's seen as paying your dues.
Not at Westside. Our job was to make every other lifter
capable of beating you, even if it meant helping the new
guy who'd eventually erase your name off the board. It
didn't matter if you didn't like the guy– it was your job to
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make him stronger than you. Then after he beat you, it
was his job to make you better than him.
When one group would squat, no one else would do a
thing. Say you have 12 guys in the morning crew. Two or
three guys would be squatting, three others would spot,
and the remaining eight would coach, yelling cues like
"head up" and "knees out." Then we'd all spilt up and do
our accessories.
If you were lifting, all you had to do was lift. You didn't have
to change the box, Monolift height, look at the clock –
nothing. Your job was to squat and give all you have doing
it. There was no bullshit chatting – it was all about building
a better squat.
This created an environment where every time you hit a
sticking point, you'd have a dozen guys trying to come up
with solutions. Having other strong guys looking for ways
to make you strong is obviously better than just tinkering
on your own. It's also an ungodly amount of pressure,
cause now you're accountable to those guys to be better.
And you better get better.
For me, the issue was always abs strength. So after the
main lift, I'd have guys barking at me to go do abs with
them, and when one of those guys is someone with
ridiculous work capacity like Chuck Vogelpohl, you got
smashed. Or you got better.
That's why when one of us broke a world record it wasn't
just the guy under the bar that felt pride. We all did –
because we all worked for it.
Tension
There's obviously a huge downside to this kind of
pressure. If you let any stress get to you it could rip you
to shreds. Louie warned us to not let powerlifting be our
entire life, but for many of us it was.
At times the tension was ridiculous. You're crammed into
a small room full of huge guys, all on edge, a second away
from exploding. I've seen fist fights during speed bench
day, plates thrown around, and countless uncomfortable
heated arguments.
But the training never stopped. Ever. Guys would be at
each other's throats on Friday but be back on Monday.
Cause that's when we squatted.
Every gym has drama. We were conditioned not to give a
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fuck. I trained along side some people I'd never associate
with outside of the gym, but within those walls they were
the ones pushing you to get better and you the same. I
still have no idea what some of the guys I trained with did
for a living. Hell, some I only know by the nicknames we'd
given one another. In the gym we were all the same.
When someone wasn't holding their own, we let them
know. I'm not talking about the lazy slackers you see in
commercial gyms sitting on the leg extension reading the
paper. I'm talking about guys who didn't bring their balls
to the gym that day. The ones who weren't willing to push
past what they were truly capable of.
Discipline
You weren't allowed to be a pussy. That's where the real
mental brutality was.
Louie was the master of finding ways to motivate you.
Often he'd tell another lifter that I was going to do shit at
an upcoming meet, knowing that lifter would tell me.
I'd get pissed off, but what was I going to do? I could get
angry but the only way to shut him up would be to get
stronger. Looking back there were numerous times when
my forearms would cramp up driving home because I was
trying to rip the steering wheel off.
Louie would find ways to fuck with you, get under your
skin, or use other lifters to mess with your head. The
result? There was a meet where our top bencher forgot
his shirt. That would've knocked most lifters completely
off their game, but he just borrowed another shirt and
benched. No big deal.
Miss my opener? Big deal. Put on 40 pounds. I'll get it.
There was nothing that could happen at a meet that could
compare with what we dealt with at the gym. Guy blew
out his knee? Unwrap him and roll him out. It's my turn to
squat.
Guys grew to need this mental trauma. They thrived on
it. I remember one guy doing Max Effort bench work.
He'd worked up to his max and missed, but no one said
anything. This enraged him, so much so that he got up
and started ranting.
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"I just missed my lift and none of you guys said a thing!"
he yelled. "You guys don't even fucking care!?!"
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I knew what to say.
|
| "No one said anything because your bench is shit.
Because your triceps are shit. And until you get
some triceps and some balls, your bench will always be
shit, so we quit caring and we quit talking about it."
He was about to explode. "I train triceps all the time," he
screamed, to which the whole gym started laughing.
To the outsider looking in it would've looked like a scene
from an insane asylum – or a prison yard. We were just
giving him what he needed.
Brutality
Although I acquired most of my injuries before I arrived
at Westside, there was no room there for being hurt. We
created an environment of 100% balls out, all the time.
No deloads, no easy days, no quit. If it hurts, wrap it. If it's
heavy, fuck you, pull harder.
I can't blame Louie for this. I couldn't count the number
of times he told me to back it down, only to see me add
another 40 pounds and blow my nut sack off.
We never gave each other a free pass, especially on Max
Effort lower body day. We never knew what movement
we'd be doing, but always knew the goal – to strain.
We'd start at 8:30 A.M. If you were late and Louie still
allowed you to lift, you jumped in at whatever the weight
was. If 405 was too heavy to open with, fuck you. Next
time, don't be late.
didn't matter. If it was one of those days, you trained. And
you strained.
The Board
The ultimate goal of everyone at Westside was to get
on the board. It meant more to us than a world record.
It pushed you to do better, to join the Elite. But as it was
written in chalk, it could easily erased. There was a reason
for that. YOU could be erased. Getting up there only
meant that now the crosshairs were on you.
Today, the numbers on the board are ridiculous.
2700-pound totals. 1200-pound squats. Those who
visit see it as "an amazing record board," but to the guys
training it's their reason for lifting. No lifter at Westside
was better or more important than another, so every
lifter believed they could get up on the board – and knew
they'd help another lifter get up there.
Louie had many carrots like the board. Every Sunday
morning we'd meet for breakfast at TJ's before heading
out to a small garage gym to bench. The catch was, you
had to either have totaled Elite or benched 500 pounds
to get the invite, and the lifts had to have been performed
at Westside. My pre-Westside 500-pound bench was
irrelevant, so I wasn't allowed to join them.
Again, I was pissed. I deserved to be there and Louie
knew it. All it did was motivate me to train harder so I
could bench 500 again and eat and lift with the Sunday
guys. Before long, I got to where both I – and Louie –
knew I should be.
Louie's Mental Strength
For that reason we'd always get there early, arriving at
about 8 to eat McDonalds and drink coffee. During that
time, we'd ask one another what lift we wanted to train
that day. No one would agree on anything, until finally
someone would roll in limping and say something like, "I
don't care what the hell we do, as long as it's not low box
squats. That would kill me today."
There. It was decided. Today we'll do low box squats.
We were lifters first. We trained Monday, Wednesday,
Friday, and Sunday morning. Always. No exceptions.
If you had a meet on Saturday, you lifted Monday, just
maybe a bit lighter. Christmas, Easter or Thanksgiving
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The fact that Louie was right in there, lifting and straining
with us, was hugely motivating. When I first arrived at
Westside, Louie was retired. That is, until Kenny Patterson
said something during an argument like, "What do you
know old man? You'll never have 800 pounds on your
back again."
That was it. Suddenly, a then 50-something Louie
Simmons was right in the middle lifting with us. That
was motivating enough, but when that old guy starts
beating you, the respect level climbs another notch. Louie
Simmons possesses a level of mental strength that is
unmatched.
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What I'd Change Mentally
Final Thoughts on
Louie
As stated, Westside Barbell is constantly evolving and
improving. Since my time they've adapted and changed
for the better to keep churning out the strongest lifters
in the world, but I can only comment on what I'd change
during my time there.
Even though I'm long removed from Westside, every day
I'm reminded of Louie's brilliance. He didn't invent speed
training or the conjugate system – nor has be ever claimed
to have invented them – but he made sense of it all and
put together a cohesive system that delivered results.
I'd train smarter
The creator, not the recruiter. Westside Barbell has
a reputation for "recruiting already good lifters." This
completely diminishes Louie's abilities as a coach and
pisses me off. It's not entirely true.
I tore up my body primarily in my pre-Westside days,
but I still would've backed off a bit more while training
there. There was no room for being a pussy, ever, but that
mentality eventually catches up to you.
I think the current permutation of Westside has moved in
this direction. Again, it's purely speculation on my end, but
I just don't see the frequency and severity of injuries that I
did during my years there.
I'd keep Zippy out of the gym
"Zippy" was the name given to my competitive lifting alter
ego. I'd do a set of 455-pound squats that would feel
heavy. I'd flip a switch and "Zippy" would come out – I'd
kill 455 and demand more plates be put on.
All Zippy wanted to do was strain. My back would rupture,
my knees blow out before Zippy would accept missing a
lift.
Zippy was a fantastic tool but I should've saved him for
the meets. Louie frequently reminded us of the huge
difference between a "competitive state" and "training
state" but I rarely listened. Training in an environment like
Westside, every lift had the pressure of a meet. I let myself
become a hyper-aroused competitive lifter far too often,
when I should've just been a calm, focused (sane) lifter.
And I missed many lifts because of it.
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Louie was taking ordinary local high school kids and
developing them into Elite lifters, guys like Chuck
Vogelpohl and Kenny Patterson. Westside was the first
gym Chuck ever walked into. He remembers benching
135 pounds for the first time there. Westside Barbell had
produced forty or fifty Elite lifters before anyone from
outside Columbus moved to train there. I was the first,
perhaps the second lifter to do so.
Today, Louie has the luxury of having great lifters from
around the country, even the world, as they move to
Columbus to train under his tutelage. He's paid his dues,
and earned the right to take the truly great ones and
make them extraordinary.
But if anything, that only further validates how great Louie
is. Anyone whose worked with lifters knows it's much
harder to take an Elite lifter and make them pro than it
is to take a beginner and make them Elite. Still, despite
opening the doors to the world's best, many of Westside's
current top lifters are guys born and raised in Columbus.
The mad scientist. New ideas were constantly being
test driven. Some stayed, some were abandoned. In
my time at Westside, I witnessed the introduction of the
monolift, boards, chains, bands, floor presses, kettlebells,
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cambered bars, the lightened method, circa max method,
extra workouts, suspended movements, fat bars, sleds,
ankle weights, speed pulls, and something other than AC/
DC being played on the stereo.
I remember watching Louie drop a few hundred bucks
on stretching bands at a basketball seminar. Driving back
to the gym, I asked Louie if this meant he wanted us all to
stretch more.
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"No," he said. "We're going to attach them to the
platform and wrap the other end around the bar for
squats."
Greeeeat, I thought. And so it began...
The human calculator. Louie is like the powerlifting Rain
Man, and could rattle off the exact numbers you needed
to move a weight. Trying to squat 900 pounds? On your
Dynamic days you need 455-pounds and the double blue
bands.
He also knew your meet PR's and all your max effort
records. We didn't need to keep a log because Louie
knew your numbers.
Louie might've told me twice in 12 years that I was doing
a good job. But he never once told me I sucked or that I
was a failure.
The incredible coach. Take 300-pound pitbulls full of
anger and adrenaline, each with something to prove, and
cram them into a 600-square foot prison cell. Now create
not only an orderly environment, but also one where
every lifter believes that they're no better or worse than
any other lifter.
These were guys who, to a man, could've walked into any
commercial gym and assumed the TITLE of "Strongest
guy in the gym," but Louie had them all believing they
were just spokes in a bigger wheel. Think that's easy?
Hell, it's even tough to manage the egos on a girls' soccer
team.
The Answer
You might be wondering if you're cut out for Westside.
Maybe you're strong, really strong, and think you might
have what it takes to survive there.
But what about your mental strength?
The master of figuring out (and telling you) why
you're stalling. He could tell in a second what assistance
lifts you needed to squat, pull, or bench as well as the
other guys.
Getting back to young lifters who tell me they aspire to
train there, here's another test I use.
The ageless motherfucker. He's also just totaled Elite
again – at 62 years old! That certainly says something.
The guy has totaled Elite in five decades!
There's only one correct answer:
The expert motivator. Although his mind-fuck approach
pissed me off more than I care to remember (I know I
pissed him off almost as much, so I'm calling it even), I can
see now that I never would've accomplished what I did
with a more "tender" approach.
| "Why do you want to train at Westside?"
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Westside knows what it can do for you. What they'll want
to know is, what you can do for Westside?
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Be Better
I've always dealt with shit. Overcoming adversity is
nothing new for me. Louie reinforced that if I step up and
do the work, I can accomplish things. I can realize the
potential I have.
Louie gave me the mental strength to push my body
past my self-imposed limitations. He knew it from day
one and just had to inspire, show and lead me to it. I may
not become the best lifter in the world – but I'd certainly
become the best I could be.
More importantly, become better than anything I thought
I could ever be.
These are lessons in mental strength that have trickled
down from training into my business, my family, and how
I approach every day above ground. It's made my life so
much better, and I have Louie Simmons to thank for it. He
taught me that it's possible to be better than your best.
Until next time.
PS: The next two parts of this series
will deal with the technical and
physical aspects of my time training
at Westside Barbell. These areas
have been covered extensively in my
previous writings, such as the 8 Keys
series found here.
To avoid too much redundancy, please post in the Live
Spill any areas in particular you'd like to see covered or
expanded upon.
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Westside Barbell, Technique
Phase FIVE
In the last installment in this series, I described the mental
aspect of training at Westside Barbell in Columbus, Ohio.
I'm grateful for the mental toughness I acquired training
under Louie Simmons for 12 years as it defined me as a
lifter, a businessman, a father, and as a man.
In this article, I'll discuss an aspect of Westside training
that's even more important, and further establishes Louie
Simmons as the greatest powerlifting mind of all time: the
technical aspect, or technique.
Note: I can only discuss what was
going on at Westside when I was there.
I can't tell you what's going on
at Westside today; there are only a
handful of people who can, and those
people train at Westside Barbell.
Anyone else is bullshitting you.
and it's often a bitch for them to ever break through.
They're also usually the ones who disappear after their fist
bout with adversity (injury, criticism, or bomb outs).
For example, I've come across hundreds of guys who've
benched 400 pounds in high school but were still fighting
to break 455 ten years later, despite trying every program
available. What finally gets them busting through their
plateaus? Technique.
I was already a pretty successful powerlifter before I
showed up at Westside, but was also a complete mess
of injuries and basically ready to retire. Louie's technical
wizardry saved my powerlifting career, allowing me to set
new PR's for another 12 years. Not bad for a guy who was
told by dudes in labcoats the he'd never even lift heavy
again!
Since powerlifting is defined by the squat, the bench
press, and the deadlift, this article will focus on those lifts.
If you spend enough time on powerlifting message
boards you'll eventually come across posts saying that
technique isn't that important.
|
"Powerlifting isn't rocket science," they say. "They're
simple lifts, and if you can't learn near perfect
technique in just a few months of lifting then you're
probably not cut out for the sport. You're probably
just not meant to be strong."
I couldn't disagree more. Technique is a huge factor in
powerlifting success. I maintain overcoming a sticking
point is 10% mental, 20% physical, and 70% technical.
The problem is, everyone wants "physical" answers to
what are really "technical" issues.
Sure, some guys are naturally gifted, and can rack up
impressive numbers with just brute effort and minimal
coaching. But their performance usually plateaus quickly,
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I'll describe how I performed each lift pre-Westside, what
changes Louie made, and how I teach the lift today. The
goal is to help make you a smarter, better lifter than I ever
was. If you have the humility to learn, you just might get
there.
I can still remember the first day I squatted for Louie. As soon
as I walked onto the gym floor he told me that my quads
were way too big and that I walked like a duck, meaning my
toes flared out from having a weak ass and hamstrings.
Despite the initial barrage of insults (a duck?), Louie said
he wanted to see me squat anyway. I put the empty bar
on my back and did a few reps, to which Louie said, "You
have no fucking clue how to squat."
Did I mention I'd squatted 765 in competition? Louie
knew that, but it didn't change his opinion.
Louie slid a medium box behind me and had me put the
bar on my back again, this time loaded with 135.
"Grab it tight," he said. "The squat begins the second you
grab the bar."
"Now get big air and get your upper back tight. Tight!" he
yelled.
Then he turned his attention to my feet. "Get your feet
wider," he barked. "Wider."
"Wider!"
The Squat
My best squat pre-Westside was good; 765 pounds at
242. I'd missed 800 by a hair (depth) on more than a few
occasions.
From a technique perspective, my pre-Westside squat
couldn't be more different from today. Back then I
squatted with a medium-width modified Olympic lifter
stance.
I didn't care for the look of most Olympic weight lifting
shoes so I squatted in Timberland boots because they
looked cooler and still gave me a solid base and a bit of an
arch, making it easier to break parallel and get depth with
bigger weights. As a result of my stance and choice of
footwear I was very quad dominant.
Gear wise, I used very little. I was very much a raw lifter. All
I had was a single ply suit that I only wore in competitions.
This isn't to say I wouldn't have worn more gear had I
known about it – I wore what I knew was available at the
time. Double ply gear wasn't even advertised at the time.
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Louie must've said it 30 times. By the end it felt like I was
doing the splits.
My groin started to scream so I tried to turn my toes
out. Louie spotted that right away. "Keep your fucking
feet straight," he yelled. I found out later that turning the
toes out allowed my dominant quads to take over. Louie
wanted my feet facing front.
"Now sit back," he said. "Back, back, back!"
I felt like my groin was going to rip in half. I slowly sat back
for what felt like an eternity, drifting into dead space, waiting
to feel this stupid box that was nowhere to be found.
"Back!" Louie yelled.
I finally felt the top of the box and crashed down, stuck to
the box until the guys helped me back up. A 765-pound
squatter getting stapled by 135. I wasn't happy.
But I also knew I was onto something. Looking at the knee
angle of the box squat, I realized that this was a much
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healthier position for the knee. I'm not saying that regular
squats are bad for the knees, but mine always hurt and took
forever to warm up. And shit happens once you have max
poundages on your back, and knees aren't that forgiving.
I also saw how to get to regulation depth with this style –
the bar only had to travel about half the distance versus
my medium stance squats. From an efficiency end, it just
made sense to squat this way.
Next, Louie addressed my breathing. He said I was a
chest breather, and to prove it had me stand in front of
a mirror and take a deep breath to see if my shoulders
came up. This isn't the case with belly breathers, who
inflate their core instead.
Louie said that the core was everything, as it acted like a
transmission in the transfer of power from the floor to the
bar. When your core is expanded, you have a bigger base,
and a larger base is usually a stronger one. Louie said that
if I could expand my belly with air by four inches it would
increase my base of support by four inches as well.
Until then I'd been flexing my abs but didn't think much
about it. I just pulled the belt super tight and that was
about it. Now I was being told to set the belt one notch
looser and thenmake it tight by expanding and flexing.
Teaching the squat
Today I teach the squat one way: wide and on the box.
That's straight from Louie and it's how I teach everyone, and I
mean everyone. Why? Because it's the best. I've seen it work
thousands of times, and every time a lifter learns this method,
whether they're a rookie or advanced, their squat improves
dramatically, often by hundreds of pounds. If something
works every single time it has to be the best, right?
è The squat starts between the chalk box and the
bar. From that moment on you require 100% focus. If
someone approaches you during that brief time you have
every legal right to punch them in the neck.
è Chalk up.
è Get the bar even in the rack – adjust the bar as
necessary
è Grab the bar with the one hand (right or left, it doesn't
matter) in the position you'll squat in. Now it doesn't
move. Squeeze down. I don't mean just grab the bar. I'm
talking about squeezing the shit out of it.
è Grab the bar with the other hand and squeeze.
Louie's own core strength and control was ridiculous. I've
seen him hold a broomstick with his obliques and then
flick it across the gym floor simply by flexing his core. He
went to great lengths to develop this in all his lifters, even
having us hit each other in the core with a metal pole to
get used to contracting hard, much the same as a fighter
getting used to a punch.
Another way Louie taught me to engage my core was by
having me lie on the floor with a heavy hexagon dumbbell
propped onto my abs. He'd get me to suck it in my gut
and then expand out, as if trying to touch the ceiling with
the dumbbell, for multiple reps.
In my first meet after applying all this new technique, I
barely hit a 740 squat. I was a little disappointed, though
Louie put it best when he said that my strong points were
incredibly strong, but my weak points were like that of a
three-year-old child's. Bottom line was, it was going to
take some time. "Sometimes you have to take a few steps
backward in order to move forward," he said.
He was right, and I soon squatted 935 pounds.
46
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è Step forward half under bar, duck under, with the bar
on the back in a tight and uncomfortable position.
è Pull the blades together. Now it should downright hurt.
è Grab big air in the stomach and push down on your
belt.
è Arch back and lift the bar out of rack, and step back
into a wide stance.
è Position your toes slightly out, but not flared. Keep
your base of support rigid.
è Spread the floor apart with your feet (push against
the side of your shoe) as hard as possible. This is why flat
soled shoes like Chuck Taylors are ideal.
è Keep the lower back arched, abs flexed, upper back
tight.
è Knees flared out hard.
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That's the starting power position.
Now the descent.
Bench Press
è Start with the hips going back, not the knees.
è Focus on driving the hips back and the knees will
eventually bend. Trust me.
è Chest high, head up, and push your belly out hard
against the belt.
è Keep going back. Picture me yelling in your ear if it
helps. Back, back, back, back, back...
è Hit the box (PAUSE for a second) and then drive the
head and traps into the bar.
è Chest comes up first, then the hips. The hips must
always follow the chest or the chest will fall and the lift will
turn into a good morning.
è Stand up.
The key is for this to become automatic. Louie had me
do 1000 reps a week with a broomstick onto a couch
or chair until it was second nature. A light weight allows
you to think your way through the execution and follow a
mental checklist of steps, but a lot changes when there's
weight on the bar. Shit happens under heavy weight, and
it's rarely good shit. Ingraining good habits until they're as
automatic as breathing is crucial.
Although the description above is solid, it's nothing
compared to real life instruction. So we took care of that
for you. Just watch the following video. You kids starting
out today have no idea how good you have it.
I arrived at Westside with a history of pec problems.
I estimate that I'd strained or "tweaked" my pec
upwards of 50 times in my young career; it had
reached a point where it wasn't if I was going to strain
my pec during a cycle, but when. Despite this, I'd
reached a respectable 540-pound raw bench at the
time of my last pre-Westside meet, when I tore the left
pec right off the humerus.
Back then I never considered the bench a complex lift.
You unrack it, hold it, lower it to your nipples, pause, then
press it out. Simple.
I benched "elbows out," and over time brought my grip
in narrower and narrower to help take some strain off my
messed up pecs.
That was the first thing Louie had me change.
è Louie had me bench wider. He explained that the
pressure on the pec was determined by the degree
of shoulder rotation, and that with a wide grip there
was actually less shoulder rotation than my more "pec
friendly" close grip.
è Switch to thumb-less grip. Since my pecs were a
mess, Louie wanted to switch the stress off my pecs and
onto my triceps. That's why today I always laugh when
people ask how I came to have such big triceps. Easy, I
say. Just tear both pecs.
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è "Pull the bar apart" at the top of the movement. This
again activated the triceps.
è Pull yourself under the bar, shoulder blades off the
bench.
è Tuck the elbows, tuck the elbows, and tuck the
elbows. This spared my pec and shoulder and greatly
enhanced triceps recruitment.
è Press back against bench and pull your body up.
è Get my legs out in front of me. I had a habit of letting
my ass come off the bench by a half-inch or so. By putting
my legs out in front of me my knees were dropped lower
than the bench, making it difficult for my hips to flex off
the bench. This seemed to take some of the stress off my
pecs. I'm not entirely sure why but I felt a big difference.
è Get your feet tucked under the bench. If they're wide,
you won't be able to arch.
è Grab the bar with a wide grip.
è Pull the bar apart.
è Tuck the elbows.
My first meet after switching to Westside I hit 520 pounds,
25 pounds off my old PR but with a torn pec and a brand
new technique. A year later I hit 610.
è Keep the bar under the wrist at all times, whether
thumb-less or a full grip. Keeping the wrist in line with the
elbows is the most important point of all.
Keep in mind this progress was accomplished with the
same basic style of bench shirt. Years later I had a near
miss (hit the rack on the way up) with 700, although that
was with a super-gangster jacked shirt. In other words, my
progress is a testament to Louie's coaching, not improved
gear.
è Lower the bar down to the lats, not the pecs. Even if
you're trying to hit the pecs like a bodybuilder, doing a
high bar bench press is stupid. Use dumbbells to isolate
the pecs if that's your goal.
Teaching the Bench
Press
è Push the bar straight up or slightly towards the rack.
At the end of the day, even if you press straight vertical
there's going to be a slight pattern towards the rack
anyway.
è Lock out smooth and solid. Don't hyper-lock like a
douchebag but get in the habit of finishing your reps.
For those with pec strain issues, how you warm up is
critical.
Pre-Westside, I'd just find a bench with 135 and start
loading. At Westside we took a much slower approach.
We'd do five sets with just an empty bar, then five sets
with 95 pounds, then five with 135, then 185, etc.
The first thing you have to wrap your head around is when
you decide to bench, it's time to bench. No more texting,
blabbing with your buddies, or checking out the gym
receptionist's behind. It's on. No more fucking around.
Like the squat, rule number one for proper bench press
technique is tightness.
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If I was having pec issues, by 135 pounds the pain would
start to subside to a manageable level, and by 185 it
would basically be gone. (Of course, we'd still scale
back the heavy singles.) If warming-up this way wasn't
effective, we'd simply repeat the process with a different
exercise.
Dynamic days were also huge for technique
reinforcement. Pre-Westside I had no idea what dynamic
training even was; we'd just go balls out every bench
session and strain. Louie's system had the Maximum
Effort days for straining, but it was usually a variation of
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the bench press like the close grip incline or the floor
press, never the actual bench press. The dynamic days on
the other hand always used the bench press and were all
about speed and reinforcing technique.
This is a lot to take in, so check out this video I did with T
NATION a couple years ago. This is required viewing.
by then the damage was done. Cumulative injuries had
gotten the best of me.
But I disliked deadlifting since day one and that never
changed. Guys say all the time that it's the "king of
exercises." I disagree. Some lifters are just built to deadlift
and can pull a house simply due to favorable leverages.
Pre-Westside I pulled sumo or conventional, which as I
got heavier changed to exclusively conventional. I tried a
number of ways to get my deadlift stronger and nothing
really worked. Every ten pounds was a motherfucker, and
it only made me hate deadlifting that much more.
When I went to Westside, one of the first things Louie
said was that they didn't deadlift, except in competitions.
"Sweet," I thought, "I'm home!" Little did I know what I
was about to embark on was much harder.
The Deadlift
Let me begin by saying that I hate the deadlift.
I don't know why, it just was never fun for me, even when
I was young and healthy and putting up decent numbers.
As I got increasingly beat up over the years I found
deadlifting killed my pecs more than anything so my
dislike grew to outright hate.
As for today, well, I never do it. I'd rather do three or four
exercises that make up for the deadlift. That's right, I'd
rather do quadruple the volume than do a single deadlift.
How's that for hate?
The squat was my baby. It was a struggle at times, but I
just loved the feeling of the heavy bar on my back. When
you first walk out of the rack, all your senses seem to light
up and your focus intensifies like a laser. The world closes
in until it's just you and the weight. The pressure on your
shoulders is incredible, like at any second you're simply
going to crumple and get squashed, but then everything
just clicks. Your legs and hips load like a spring and you
blast the weight back up.
I loved the bench too, mainly because I was good at
it – I benched 500 in high school – but the injuries
I acquired from not really knowing how to bench
eventually wore me out. By my last year at Westside I'd
finally learned how to effectively train around them, but
49
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Louie explained that they used the Dynamic squat days
plus glute ham raises, pull throughs, good mornings, and
pin pulls to build the deadlift, plus plenty of heavy abs.
I liked what I was hearing but was also skeptical. To me it
sounded like a bunch of bullshit exercises cooked up by
fat guys who also hated deadlifting as much as I did.
Again, I was wrong, and within just a few months I pulled a
competition PR of 720 pounds. A few years later I pulled
740 and 775 to lockout only to lose my grip before the
down signal. I point this out because it's funny for me
to think back on. My deadlift always sucked and I hated
it. Then one day it came together and I almost pulled a
decent number but lost it at the last possible moment.
After the meet I expressed my frustration to Louie,
complaining that I'd never had a grip issue in my life and
why out of all the times to have one did it have to be now?
Without skipping a beat, Louie said my deadlift wasn't
strong enough to have a grip issue until I tried that
number.
Towards the end of my time at Westside we started doing
speed deadlifts on Dynamic day to reinforce technique,
usually 5-8 singles at 50%. I also know they do even more
deadlifting today at Westside, but Louie's overall system
remains the same – to build a competition max deadlift,
find a way to build the lift – not train it.
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Teaching the Deadlift
Before Westside I kept it real simple. I bent down and
grabbed the bar and picked it up. All I did was keep my
shins against the bar and make sure I scraped them as I
pulled up "through" my head. That was about it.
Do Things Different?
Rounding up this technical installment, you're probably
wondering what I might do differently if I had the chance
to repeat this phase?
The answer is absolutely nothing. Louie Simmons knows
powerlifting technique better than anyone else on the
planet, and his tips literally resurrected my career. And his
squat, the box squat, is the best squat, period.
This brings me back to the beginning, to the guys who
chirp that technique isn't that big a deal. They don't get it.
Technique is the catalyst behind all strength training,
and when it's dialed in can determine exactlywhere your
training emphasis should be.
When I teach deadlifting today, I find it most effective to
take a lifter's natural pull and modify it as little as possible.
è A deadlift is like a teeter totter, and the goal is to get
the weight moving backward, not upward, by getting your
body moving backward, which will pull the barbell with it.
The end product should look like a door hinge.
è If you're a conventional deadlifter, then you should
line the bar up with the top of your quads.
è As for sumo, a perfect sumo deadlift should look like
a leg press. The upper body shouldn't move very much.
Position the shins against the bar, push the knees out,
and drop the nutsack down against the bar. Get tight and
keep the back arched, stomach tight. Flex the abs and pull
up.
The key to sumo is to remember that the closer you keep
your center of gravity to the bar the stronger you'll be. It's
funny, people bitch about sumo saying that it's "cheating,"
but at the end of day, very few pull over 900 pounds
sumo, and many more pull over 900 conventional. So if
it's cheating, where's the advantage?
You probably need a video? Greedy bastards. Here you
go. This is easier to do in video anyhow.
If you go for physical therapy you always get an
assessment. In powerlifting, technique isyour
assessment. You squat and your knees come in, and you
know what you have to work on. Same thing if you bench
and your elbows move or your chest falls when you squat.
Every rep is essentially an assessment.
The beauty of training at Westside under Louie was that
we'd seen everything a thousand times before, there
was nothing new. So that bench with the elbows moving
would get diagnosed instantly. "Dude, you need face pulls
and band pull aparts." Six weeks later their elbows would
be rock solid.
That's the stuff you don't learn at meets. Meets are the
reward, the fun part of all this. Learning happens in the
gym, busting your ass in front of quality lifters and an
expert coach.
So I'd change nothing. Louie was, and is, that good.
Because for the most part, guys who rip their pecs off the
bone and undergo multiple shoulder surgeries don't end
up coming back and benching a 90-pound PR. It doesn't
happen. And if I'd stayed with my old pre-Westside
technique, it never would've happened.
So that's the technical aspect, and why I consider it to be
the most important component of powerlifting. Next up is
the physical aspect of training at Westside.
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Have any questions about technique? First, watch the
videos, you lazy bastards. Your question is probably
answered there. If not, hop on the LiveSpill. I'd be more
than willing to take a look at your technique if you have
videos you'd like to post up. I may not have the time to
check them all out but will do as many as I can.
I look forward to hearing from you.
Until next time.
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Westside Barbell, PhysicalTechnique
Phase SIX
In the last installment in this series, I described the
technical aspect of training the Westside way. As I stated,
I believe that technique is 70% of the powerlifting game,
so if you skipped over it to get to this section, I suggest
you review it.
Note: I can only discuss what was
going on at Westside when I was there.
I can't tell you what's going on
at Westside today. There are only a
handful of people who can, and those
people train at Westside Barbell.
Anyone else is bullshitting you.
So here it is, the vaunted Westside template – Maximum
Effort Method, Dynamic Effort, and the Repetition
Method. I've covered this material before, but nowhere
has it been covered better than in the 8 Keys article
published here.
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You'll notice that the 8 Keys article is very technical.
Today, the trend in strength is to make things simpler, and
that's a good thing.
However, once you reach an intermediate level of
expertise in strength, simple quits working. Progress
slows to a snail's pace. Gains that once came quickly
are suddenly painfully hard to come by. This is where
adversity, usually in the form of injuries, starts to set in.
Here's a sobering statistic: 90% of
powerlifters who take up the sport
don't last more than five years.
They have passion and make great progress out the
gate, but once simple stops delivering and the going gets
tough, they bail. Only a very small percentage of lifters
have the desire to do the necessary work to progress. The
8 Keys targeted that small percentage.
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The body requires change to continue adapting. The
simple approach quits working because it's too fixed, too
predictable. What most lifters do the first time they stall is
start program jumping like frogs on lily-pads.
However, program bouncing never works for long
because there's no magic training program. After a few
frustrating years of trial and error, these guys eventually
burn out or get injured, and quit.
Periodization Reloaded
Basic Western periodization is set up so that you're
working on specific strength qualities at different times.
For example, a typical periodization might look like this. I
did this for years before moving to Westside:
1) Conditioning: 4-6 weeks
The essence of Westside is that it's more than just a
program. It's a philosophy based on science and decades
of experience.
2) Max strength: 4-6 weeks
3) Peak strength: 4 weeks
Programs are fixed and don't take into account that each
lifter has different needs. Westside is designed to let you
detect what the lifter's needs may be and make changes
on the fly.
For example, if someone is using Westside and they
complain that their bench isn't going up, I can go through
a checklist:
è Is their technique good? Check.
è Are their supplemental exercises well selected?
Check.
4) Hypertrophy: 8 weeks
With Westside, you work on a number of strength
qualities simultaneously. And despite what you've read or
experienced about the dangers of trying to accomplish
too many goals at once, Westside works.
The System
Louie Simmons has been able to take absolute shit
lifters and using Westside, transform them into world
champions. I've seen it done many times over.
è Speed work? Check.
Suppose I get to the bottom of the list and see that their
Max Effort work isn't up to par. I immediately know where
to start targeting.
Program jumpers never get to that level of mastery.
Something goes wrong and they dump the whole frickin'
program.
We all know strength comes in spurts. When it does, it's
not because you magically put on some new muscle
or experienced a hormonal explosion. It's because you
rectified a weak point. This is the beauty of Westside – it's
a system designed to identify and rectify weak points in
the quickest way possible.
To be fair, his success has just as much to do with his
abilities as a coach as it does his system, but there's no
denying the Westside template is the most successful
strength building system in existence.
The key is taking the time to understand Westside. The
plug and play "just gimme the magic program" types
rarely have the same success, unless they're robots being
coached by a savant like Louie.
With Westside, in any given week you target strength,
conditioning, hypertrophy, and speed – all while targeting
your weak points, yet not at the expense of the big lifts.
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53
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Westside Barbell, PhysicalTechnique
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It took me years of self-study – NSCA journals, Russian
and Eastern bloc literature, Spassov, Zatsiorsky,
and hundreds others – to get to a level that I could
comfortably explain Westside to others.
To this day I marvel at how Louie was able to piece it
all together into a cohesive system that not only had
structure, yet was flexible enough to allow the lifter to
change things as necessary. I've said it before but it bears
repeating – Louie Simmons is a genius.
The Maximum Effort
Method
At the heart of Westside is the Maximum Effort Method
(ME). ME is lifting in the 90%+ of 1RM for 1-3 reps,
which science tells us is the superior way to develop
strength while teaching intra and inter-muscular
coordination. I like to say ME teaches you to strain.
ME is also a form of "chaos training." The variations of
the competitive lifts used teach your body how to recover
from worst-case scenarios.
For example, performing a ME good morning is a lot like
falling forward in a heavy squat. If you train your posterior
chain to handle heavy weights in that position, it might
save a squat gone bad in a meet.
54
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Before you start stacking on the plates, technique and
core strength must be developed and maintained before
taking a run at ME training.
It also never fails to surprise new lifters how much ab and
low back work we did at Westside. I would estimate that
50-60% of Monday and Friday's workout were abs and
low back.
Lifters often think they can skip or cut back on the
core work once they get strong. Big mistake. In my
opinion, it's more important to train abs and low back
in the Westside program than in a typical progressive
overload program.
In a Western periodization program, you typically squat
twice a week, which helps develop a strong core. Since
squats are rotated in and out in Westside, additional core
training is required.
And it's a priority. If we competed on Sunday, we may
not squat or deadlift heavy the following Monday. But we
would definitely train abs and low back.
ME Memories
I've many Max Effort memories, most of which revolve
around me getting the shit knocked out of me because I
was always so bad at ME work.
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One of the better memories was when we were
performing suspended good mornings with a cambered
bar. The bar is suspended by chains, and is set so if you
dropped your arms to the floor, your hands would be at
the same level as where the deadlift bar would be off the
floor.
I could barely speak, but mumbled my agreement.
It's an absolutely life-sucking exercise and I was miserable
at doing them. I think my PR was something shitty like
455. The other guys I lifted with would warm up with that
weight. One day I actually did hit 495, and here's how:
I was beyond done for the day, but by saying that, he
started a little war inside my head. On my right shoulder
was the angel, saying I was already a mess and 20 more
pounds would probably kill me – but on my left was the
devil, saying I should just go for it. In my case, the devil
usually won out.
There were six or seven of us doing them that day and I
was sitting next to Rob Fusner. I had gotten up to 405 and
it felt like crap. I was not having a good day.
After 405 pounds, I sat down and Rob said, "Man, that
looked like shit." I didn't argue because I knew it was true.
I just wanted to leave.
"So what's next Dave? 455?" asked Rob.
I gave him the best "go fuck yourself" look I could muster.
"Dude, 455 is my PR," I said. "You expect me to hit my PR
on a day where I feel like shit?"
"So, you're not even going to try?" asked Rob. "What are
you, a pussy?"
I could feel him getting into my head, but I was having
nothing to do with it.
"Maybe I'll try 425," I said cautiously.
Rob gave me a real condescending look and said, "Dave,
you've got 400 pounds on a bar and you're going to put a
couple of fucking dimes on there?"
"I think you got another 20 more pounds in you," said
Rob.
Motherfucker.
The next thing I knew they had 475 pounds loaded for me
on the bar. I figured since it's already loaded, I really didn't
have much choice in the matter.
After what must have been an hour of me straining to
even get the weight moving, I somehow managed to get it
up to lockout before collapsing into the chains.
I was a mess. My back was screaming, and there was
blood coming out of my nose. The whole gym looked out
of focus as I stumbled down next to Rob on the bench.
"Dude," Rob said, "that was really, really, fucking stupid. I
think you got 20 more."
That's max effort work. You have a close to PR set, a PR
set, a stupid set, and a really fucking stupid set.
Max Effort Notes
Beginners should rarely rotate ME lifts, if ever. They
need to master the lifts first. Intermediate guys should
rotate lifts every 2-3 weeks, and advanced guys should
rotate every week.
He got me.
"You're right," I said. I called for 455.
After four unsuccessful tries getting it started, it finally
moved, and after what seemed like an hour later, I finally
locked it out. When it was over I was seeing stars and my
ribs were killing me.
I stumbled down beside Rob and he said, "Dude, that was
really stupid."
55
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We used over 200 different lifts, as the goal of ME is to
build strength in the lifts that best carry over to the main
lifts. This can greatly vary between lifters, so you have to
stick with them long enough to spot the correlations.
For example, my two-board press was an awesome
indicator of my bench press progress. Every time my twoboard went up, I knew my bench was going up. Conversely,
my suspended good morning told me jack shit about my
squat or pull. All it did was teach me how to strain.
Westside Barbell, PhysicalTechnique
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The point is, it took me years to figure that out, but today
beginners will try something for a week or two and decide
that it's shit and does nothing for them. As a result, they
never figure out what works for them.
Weight jumps must be slow. With ME training, I suggest
you double your warm-up sets. This not only increases
muscle-building volume, but by approaching the heavy
weight slowly you can call an audible if necessary.
If it's one of those days and you just know that a PR isn't in
the cards, make the change and go for a 3, 4, or 5 rep PR.
Smart lifters know when to push it and when to fight
another day. Considering instances like my suspended
good morning fiasco happened more times than I can
count, I wasn't always a smart lifter. And I paid for it dearly.
The Dynamic Effort
Method
Before I explain the much-confused Dynamic Effort (DE),
I need to make a point about strong lifters versus fast
lifters.
Strong lifters move 800 pounds as fast as they move 315
pounds. They're like human cranes. Explosive lifters, on
the other hand, push the bar up like a rocket, but they
don't have the same limit-strength potential.
Most lifters are usually predominantly one or the other.
Very rarely is a lifter both strong and fast, especially
without spending considerable time training both
qualities directly.
If you're not training both qualities, you're either not
training your strength to its full potential or you're
avoiding training your weakness.
Most guys who shit on DE training are already very
explosive to begin with, so all training DE does is
maintain that quality. That's not a bad a thing either, as
explosiveness decreases with age.
However, a super-strong/non-explosive guy will reap
huge benefits from including a little DE work. Often it can
add hundreds of pounds to an otherwise "stuck" PR.
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I was very explosive, but not very strong. I sucked at ME
work, but I rocked at DE, and loved doing it.
I particularly loved the DE squat day. Those were my best
days training at Westside. Back then, that day called for
12 sets of 2 with 60 seconds rest, and I'd often use my
inherent explosiveness to try to crush whomever I was
training with.
On one occasion it was Chuck Vogelpohl. We were using
405, and I was big and fat and strong and Chuck – who
is normally not human – was just coming off of back
surgery and not at his best.
While in another gym this would be a time to take it easy
on a friend, I saw this as my opportunity to finally kick
Chuck's ass and pay him back for all the ass beatings he'd
given me.
I started pushing the pace. I'd hit my set as soon as the
bar was on my back, cutting the rest to under 45 seconds.
Chuck kept up.
10 sets turned to 12, and then 15. We kept going.
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Louie saw what was going on and said something like,
"Guys, is this really necessary?" but we ignored him. This
was all about saying fuck you, Chuck.
After 30 sets I was ready to die. I could tell Chuck was
fading. With his past few sets the bar speed got slower so
I figured he was getting worn out.
break down after 2-3 reps – so a mere 30% of the set
was working on the technical skill of the lift. So in this
3-set session there might 9 reps total that help develop
technical mastery.
Now if you were to do 10 sets of 3, 100% of the reps
would be working on technical mastery. Which do you
think reinforces technique better?
I did another set and felt the puke building up in my gut.
In short, skip DE at your own peril!
Chuck stumbled under the bar, unracked it and sat down
on the box. Then he looked back at me and said, "Alright
motherfucker, here you go."
With that, he rocketed off the box so fast, 405 left his
shoulders by about two inches.
è A beginner should use 70% of their 1RM, whereas a
more experienced (raw) lifter should go with 50 or 60%.
The reason is that most beginners simply don't know how
strong they really are, so percentages become almost
worthless. Use them more as a starting point.
I knew the game was over. Chuck won. And to rub it in, he
did five more sets like that last one.
è Intermediates should wave their DE percentages.
I would start at 60% of raw squat for one week, and
bookend that with weeks at 55% and 65%.
Dynamic Effort Notes
è The weight should pop. Watch the video below to
make sure you know what I'm talking about. DE is fast,
explosive work. The typical gym rat has probably never
I consider DE to be the most important element of
Westside training. I would skip ME work before DE any
day of the week, and not just because I happened to be
an explosive individual. I like DE because training this way
makes you a better lifter. It teaches you to drive into and
through a weight with everything you have.
trained this way, at least not with weights.
Let's face it, a max lift can be ugly. Really ugly. Technique
often flies out the window when you're hopped up on
ammonia with a grand on your back.
DE on the other hand, is all about reinforcing technique.
Doing many, many sets of two or three reps is the most
effective way to teach a skill, whether it's a squat, a snatch, or
throwing a shot put. What you're really doing by performing
8 sets of 2 or 3 is mentally rehearsing perfect form.
Look at it this way. Let's say you were to do 3 heavy
sets of 10. If the percent is high enough, your form will
57
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è Bands and chains are great additions, and in some
cases necessary, although this is an article in itself.
è Finally, don't discount the power of DE work. I took a
natural raw lifter from a 275-pound squat to 505 in just
three months by working on tapping his explosiveness
and reinforcing proper technique. For most of you, there's
a sea of untapped potential waiting.
Westside Barbell, PhysicalTechnique
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The Repetition Method
Research tells us that training a muscle with multiple
repetitions to failure is an effective hypertrophy protocol.
A modified repetition method should stop just short of
failure – usually one rep in the hole – although in my case
this line was blurred on many occasions.
This method was used on supplemental lifts only. Let's
review what these moves are intended to accomplish.
Supplemental exercises are exercises that build the ME
lifts. Remember, you can either train a lift or build a lift.
Bench pressing to increase the bench is training the lift.
Performing ME two-board presses to increase the bench
is building the lift.
Therefore, supplemental work is performing rolling
triceps extensions to build your two-board press, cause
you know when that lift goes up, your bench press goes
up.
See the correlation? Find what max effort movements
build the main lift and then select special exercises that
will make these movements better.
This is worth repeating: If all you had to do was bench
press to get a big bench, then everyone who benched
would have a big bench. You have to find movements that
correlate and carry over to the bench that can be tested
frequently to know if you're making progress. Once these
are discovered, your supplemental work needs to be
designed to make those movements stronger.
Repetition Method
Notes
The Rest: GPP,
Work Capacity, and
Conditioning
To get the most out of this kind of training you have to
be in shape. The fat powerlifter isn't on the verge of
extinction, but every fat guy will tell you they feel better
when they're in shape.
I used to do a variety of sled drags on my days off for
recovery. I'd drag forwards, backwards, and do ankledrags. I'd throw in some prone hyperextensions and be
done in half an hour.
This was something I'd skip when life got busy, but I
always performed and felt better when I made the time to
do it. I suggest you do the same.
What Would I Change
About My Training
at Westside?
The nature of Louie's system is that it's constantly
evolving, constantly adapting. That's why when I look
back at the things I'd change, most of them already have
changed!
I'd have put more thought into choosing the
supplemental lifts. Each week we usually did the same
thing, namely exercises we enjoyed doing. In hindsight,
I think putting a little more thought into what we did
would've been beneficial.
è I suggest experimenting and trying new lifts, but
always try to stick with the same ones for at least 3-4
weeks to look for correlations and to minimize guess
work.
Staying on the topic of supplemental lifts, I would've
played with the loading parameters more. Instead of just
doing straight sets and reps, I would've experimented with
things like clusters, supersets, pre-exhaustion, and sets to
failure. We did do some of this but nothing to its full potential.
è Avoid going to failure, and keep the reps on the high
side. Remember why you're doing the lifts to begin with
(building the ME lift).
I would've listened to Louie and backed off more.
Zippy might have been my best friend on ME day, but he
eventually caught up with me and wrecked my career.
è Include accessory work as well, such as rotator cuff
work, reverse hypers, and high-rep pressdowns for elbow
health. I used to always skip this stuff and I paid for it.
I caused the most damage by training through all the
injuries. It wasn't uncommon for me to tear a muscle and
never miss a workout. I'd find a way to dull the pain, wrap
58
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it up, tape it, etc. This would've been understandable 3-4
weeks out [from a meet] but not 4 months out.
But to me, 20 weeks out was the same as 4. Big mistake.
I would've done more shoulder rehab and pre-hab work,
and a lot more stretching. I wouldn't do 30 minutes of
bullshit dynamic warm-up that you see these Yodas doing
nowadays, but I would've done a few specific drills to get
me ready to lift safely. I'll be covering this in detail in the
next installment. Could rattle a few cages. Stay tuned.
I would've used less wraps and gear. You shouldn't look
like an extra from the cast of The Road Warrior in the gym.
I'm NOT saying I would've competed raw, although most
of our training was done raw – the only time we wore our
full gear was at meets.
What I'm talking about is wrapping my groin with knee
wraps because of a groin pull, duct taping my ribs
because of a torn intercostal, etc. Not smart.
Six weeks post meet, I wouldn't have done a thing
with a straight barbell in my hand or on my back.
That means I would've done things like yoke bar squats,
belt squats, and lots of dumbbell work at a lower intensity.
You can't make progress in the gym if you're lying? on a
physiotherapist's table. Lesson learned.
I would've eaten better. Actually no, I wouldn't have.
Much has been made about all the crap I used to eat, and
I'm not denying a thing. I did eat that way and it really was
that bad. I had and still have a junk food addiction.
But it was also determined that 308 pounds was the best
weight for me to be competitive. I had to eat a lot to get
and stay there. Chicken, yams, and broccoli would've
been smarter, but I needed 7000 calories a day to make
that weight. There's no way I'd get to 280, much less 310,
eating that way.
Possibly, I would've used Flameout™ for the blood lipid
benefits, and likely GPC Fast-Acting Shot on explosive training
days. After that it's a short list. I doubt I'd even have taken a
multivitamin cause even PopTarts are vitamin-fortified.
59
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I'd have been more consistent with my conditioning.
Sled dragging is simply unbeatable at improving work
capacity. My meets always sucked whenever I'd decided
that I didn't need or didn't have time to do it.
Ideally, I would've performed at least two conditioning
sessions a week and performed two additional ab/low
back work on days off. In hindsight, what I did in the gym
simply wasn't enough.
Putting it All
Together: A Sample 9
Week Westside Workout
For those of you who are dying to jump into this system,
I've put together a sample 9-week program.
Please, before you start snorting ammonia and tossing
chalk and slapping your buddy, please review the
previous two sections (mental and technical) carefully. If
you don't respect Westside, it'll crush you. Actually, it will
probably crush you regardless, but at least this way you
know what you were getting yourself into.
Week 1
Day 1 (max effort squat day)
EXERCISE
SETS
ERPS
A
Good Mornings *
B
Glute-Ham ** Raises **
3
10
C
Reverse Hypers ***
3
8
D
Pulldown Abs
5
10-15
E
Straight Leg Raises
5
15
* Warm up doing sets of three reps until you feel you can no longer
perform three reps.
** Stress the eccentric, try to get a four count on the way down.
*** Using the small strap.
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Week 2
Day 1 (max effort squat day)
Day 2 (max effort bench day)
EXERCISE
SETS
A
Board Press *
B
Lying Dumbbell
Triceps Extensions
6
C
Pushdowns
D
Pulldown Abs
ERPS
EXERCISE
SETS
ERPS
A
Good Mornings *
10 **
B
Glute-Ham Raises **
3
8
3
10
C
Reverse Hypers
3
8
3
15
D
Pulldown Abs
5
10-15
E
Straight Leg Raises
3
20
* Warm up doing sets of three reps until you feel you can no longer
perform three reps.
** With 30 seconds rest.
Day 3 (dynamic effort squat day)
* Warm up doing sets of three reps until you feel you can no longer
perform three reps. Your last set should exceed the weight you did last
week.
** Stress the eccentric, try to get a four count on the way down.
EXERCISE
SETS
ERPS
A
Box Squats *
10
2
B
Reverse Hypers **
3
8
C
One-Leg Squats
4
10 ***
D
Paused Dumbbell Rows
4
6****
E
Barbell Shrugs
5
15
Day 2 (max effort bench day)
EXERCISE
SETS
ERPS
A
Board Press *
B
Lying Dumbbell
Triceps Extensions
6
10 **
C
Pushdowns
3
10
D
Pulldown Abs
3
15
* With 50% of 1RM, 45 to 60 seconds rest between sets.
** Using a slow eccentric.
* Warm up doing sets of three reps until you feel you can no longer
perform three reps. At this point drop the reps to one and continue
working up to a one-rep max.
*** Each leg.
**** Pause each rep on the floor.
** With 30 seconds rest.
Day 4 (dynamic effort bench day)
Day 3 (dynamic effort squat day)
EXERCISE
SETS
ERPS
EXERCISE
SETS
ERPS
A
Box Squats *
10
2
A
Box Squats
10
2
B
Reverse Hypers *
3
8
B
Reverse Hypers
3
8
C
One-Leg Squats
4
10 ***
C
One-Leg Squats
4
10 ***
D
Paused Dumbbell **
4
6****
D
Paused Dumbbell
4
6****
E
Barbell Shrugs
5
15
E
Barbell Shrugs
5
15
* With 60% of 1RM, use three different grips, 45 to 60 seconds rest
between sets.
* With 54% of 1RM, 45 to 60 seconds rest between sets.
** Work up to 2 heavy sets of 6 reps.
*** Pause each rep on the floor.
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** Each leg.
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Day 4 (dynamic effort bench day)
Day 3 (dynamic effort squat day)
EXERCISE
SETS
ERPS
EXERCISE
SETS
ERPS
A
Box Squats *
10
2
A
Box Squats *
10
2
B
Reverse Hypers *
3
8
B
Reverse Hypers
3
8
C
One-Leg Squats
4
10 ***
C
One-Leg Squats
4
10
D
Paused Dumbbell **
4
6****
D
Paused Dumbbell
4
6
E
Barbell Shrugs
5
15
E
Barbell Shrugs
5
15
* With 60% of 1RM, use three different grips, 45 to 60 seconds rest
between sets.
* With 56% of 1RM, 45 to 60 seconds rest between sets.
** Work up to 2 heavy sets of 6 reps.
*** Pause each rep on the floor.
** Each leg.
Day 4 (dynamic effort bench day)
Week 3
Day 1 (max effort squat day)
EXERCISE
SETS
ERPS
EXERCISE
SETS
ERPS
A
Box Squats *
10
2
B
Reverse Hypers
3
8
A
Good Mornings
B
Glute-Ham Raises
3
8
C
One-Leg Squats
4
10
C
Reverse Hypers
3
8
D
Paused Dumbbell
4
6
D
Pulldown Abs
5
10-15
E
Barbell Shrugs
5
15
E
Straight Leg Raises
3
20
* With 60% of 1RM, use three different grips, 45 to 60 seconds rest
between sets.
* Warm up doing sets of three reps until you feel you can no longer
perform three reps. At this point drop the reps to one and continue
working up to a one-rep max.
Week 4
Day 2 (max effort bench day)
Day 1 (max effort squat day)
EXERCISE
SETS
A
Board Press *
B
Lying Dumbbell
Triceps Extensions
6
C
Pushdowns
D
One-Arm Press
ERPS
ERPS
Low Box Squat *
10
B
Glute-Ham Raises
5
5
3
10
C
Partial Deadlifts
3
20
3
15
D
Reverse Hypers
3
8
E
Pulldown Abs
3
10-15
** With 30 seconds rest.
|
SETS
A
* Warm up doing sets of three reps until you feel you can no longer
perform three reps. At this point drop the reps to one and continue
working up to a one-rep max.
61
EXERCISE
* Warm up doing sets of three reps until you feel you can no longer
perform three reps. At this point drop the reps to one and continue
working up to a one-rep max.
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Week 5
Day 1 (max effort squat day)
Day 2 (max effort bench day)
EXERCISE
SETS
A
Floor Press *
B
JM Press **
2
C
Incline Dumbbell Press
D
E
ERPS
EXERCISE
SETS
ERPS
A
Low Box Squat *
5
B
Glute-Ham Raises
5
5
2
10
C
Partial Deadlifts
3
20
Seated Dumbbell Cleans
4
8
D
Reverse Hypers
3
8
Straight Leg Raises
5
15
E
Pulldown Abs
5
10-15
* Warm up doing sets of three reps until you feel you can no longer
perform three reps. At this point drop the reps to one and continue
working up to a one-rep max.
* Warm up doing sets of three reps until you feel you can no longer
perform three reps. At this point drop the reps to one and continue
working up to a one-rep max.
** Work up to 2 sets of 5 reps.
** Using the small strap.
Day 3 (dynamic effort squat day)
Day 2 (max effort bench day)
EXERCISE
SETS
A
Box Squats *
10
B
Reverse Hypers
5
C
Chest Supported
D
E
ERPS
EXERCISE
SETS
ERPS
A
Floor Press *
5
B
JM Press **
2
3
4
20
C
Incline Dumbbell Press
2
10
Glute Ham Raises
3
8
D
Seated Dumbbell Cleans
4
8
Pulldown Abs
5
10-15
E
Straight Leg Raises
5
15
* With 60% of 1RM, 45 to 60 seconds rest between sets. Note: After
your sets of box squats, work up to a heavy double. This isn't a
maximum attempt so don't miss the lifts.
* Warm up doing sets of three reps until you feel you can no longer
perform three reps. At this point drop the reps to one and continue
working up to a one-rep max.
** Work up to 2 sets of 3 reps.
Day 4 (dynamic effort bench day)
Day 3 (dynamic effort squat day)
EXERCISE
SETS
ERPS
A
Bench Press
10
3
B
Close Grip Bench Press **
2
5
C
One Arm Dumbbell
Extensions
3
10
Front Plate Raises
3
D
10
* With 60% of 1RM, use three different grips, 45 to 60 seconds rest
between sets.
EXERCISE
SETS
ERPS
A
Box Squats *
10
2
B
Speed Deadlifts **
8
2
C
Reverse Hypers
5
8
D
Chest Supported Rows
4
8
E
Glute Ham Raises
3
6
F
Pulldown Abs
5
10
** Work up to 2 sets of 5 reps.
* With 50% of 1RM, 45 to 60 seconds rest between sets.
** With 50%.
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Day 4 (dynamic effort bench day)
Day 3 (dynamic effort squat day)
EXERCISE
SETS
ERPS
EXERCISE
SETS
ERPS
A
Bench Press *
10
3
A
Box Squats *
10
2
B
Close Grip Bench Press **
2
3
B
Speed Deadlifts **
8
2
C
Front Plate Raises
3
10
C
Reverse Hypers
5
8
D
Chest Supported Rows
4
8
* With 60% of 1RM, use three different grips, 45 to 60 seconds rest
between sets. Note: After your sets, work up to a heavy single. This isn't
a maximum attempt so don't miss the lift.
* With 52% of 1RM, 45 to 60 seconds rest between sets.
** With 55%.
** Work up to 2 sets of 3 reps.
Day 4 (dynamic effort bench day)
Week 6
EXERCISE
SETS
ERPS
A
Bench Press
10
3
B
Close Grip Bench Press **
2
3
Day 1 (max effort squat day)
EXERCISE
SETS
ERPS
A
Low Box Squat *
B
Glute-Ham Raises
5
5
C
One Arm Dumbbell
Extensions
3
10
C
Partial Deadlifts
3
20
D
Front Plate Raises
3
10
D
Reverse Hypers **
3
8
E
Pulldown Abs
5
10-15
* Warm up doing sets of three reps until you feel you can no longer
perform three reps. At this point drop the reps to one and continue
working up to a one-rep max.
** Using the small strap.
* With 60% of 1RM, use three different grips, 45 to 60 seconds rest
between sets.
** Work up to 2 sets of 3 reps.
Week 7
Day 1 (max effort squat day)
Day 2 (max effort bench day)
EXERCISE
EXERCISE
SETS
ERPS
SETS
ERPS
A
Good Mornings Squats *
B
Glute-Ham Raises
5
5
A
Floor Press *
B
Incline Dumbbell Press
2
10
C
Reverse Hypers **
3
8
C
Seated Dumbbell Cleans
4
8
D
Pulldown Abs
5
10-15
D
Straight Leg Raises
5
15
* Warm up doing sets of three reps until you feel you can no longer
perform three reps. At this point drop the reps to one and continue
working up to a one-rep max.
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* Warm up doing sets of three reps until you feel you can no longer
perform three reps. At this point drop the reps to one and continue
working up to a one-rep max.
** Using the small strap.
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Week 8
Day 1 (max effort squat day)
Day 2 (max effort bench day)
EXERCISE
SETS
ERPS
EXERCISE
SETS
ERPS
A
Flat Dumbbell Press
3
20 *
A
Good Mornings Squats *
B
Seated Dumbbell
Shoulder Press
5
10
B
Glute-Ham Raises
5
5
Face Pulls
5
15
C
Reverse Hypers **
3
8
C
D
Pulldown Abs
5
10-15
* Average rest period = 5 minutes.
* Warm up doing sets of three reps until you feel you can no longer
perform three reps. At this point drop the reps to one and continue
working up to a one-rep max.
Day 3 (dynamic effort squat day)
** Using the small strap.
EXERCISE
SETS
ERPS
A
Box Squats *
10
2
B
Reverse Hypers
4
8
C
Pulldowns
3
8
A
D
Glute Ham Raises
3
6
* With 54% of 1RM, 45 to 60 seconds rest between sets. Note: After
your sets, work up to a heavy double. Again, this isn't a maximum lift so
don't miss the attempts.
Day 4 (dynamic effort bench day)
Day 2 (max effort bench day)
EXERCISE
SETS
ERPS
Flat Dumbbell Press
3
20 *
B
Seated Dumbbell
Shoulder Press
5
10
C
Face Pulls
5
15
EXERCISE
SETS
ERPS
A
Box Squats *
10
2
B
Speed **
8
1
* Average rest period = 5 minutes.
Day 3 (dynamic effort squat day)
EXERCISE
SETS
ERPS
A
Bench Press *
10
3
B
Dumbbell Triceps
Extensions
4
6
C
Front/Side/Rear Delt
Combo Raise
2
60
C
Reverse Hypers
5
8
D
Pulldown Abs
5
10
D
Pulldowns
3
8
E
Glute Ham Raises
4
15
F
Pulldown Abs
5
10
* With 60% of 1RM, use three different grips, 45 to 60 seconds rest
between sets. Note: After your sets, work up to a heavy double. Again,
this isn't a maximum lift so don't miss the attempts.
** 20 each raise.
* With 62% of 1RM, 45 to 60 seconds rest between sets.
** With 60%.
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Day 4 (dynamic effort bench day)
EXERCISE
SETS
ERPS
A
Bench Press *
10
3
B
Dumbbell Triceps
Extensions
4
6
C
Reverse Grip Pushdowns
3
15
D
Front/Side/
Rear Delt Combo Raise
2
60
E
Pulldown Abs
5
10
* With 60% of 1RM, use three different grips, 45 to 60 seconds rest
between sets.
** 20 each raise.
Week 9
Max day near end of week
Box Squat: work up to a 1-rep max
Bench Press: work up to a 1-rep max
Deadlift: work up to a 1-rep max
Note: These maxes will be used as the
1RM for the next eight-week cycle.
The Westside Wrap-up
This article is already a bloated mess and I'm afraid it
barely scratches the surface of my training at Westside.
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If there's anything you'd like me to revisit, please post
your questions/requests in the LiveSpill and I'll expand on
it further after this series has wrapped up.
In the next installment, I'll discuss my retirement from
competitive powerlifting and the long road back to health.
The nutritional side of that phase has been covered
extensively, but what hasn't been covered is the hell I went
through in the gym just getting my "functionality" back.
This will be more exciting than it sounds, and dare I say
controversial. Pretty much everything I was told that
would work for joint health, mobility, and nutrition didn't
work.
There was a lot of stumbling around until things began to
get better and become more dialed in.
Editors' Note: As we tried to pull Dave's thoughts into
(hopefully) one cohesive article, we relied heavily on a
fantastic eBook Dave wrote called "The Vault".
"The Vault" is filled with great info and anecdotes, not to
mention everything you need to set up and troubleshoot
your own program.
If you're already a serious powerlifter or just interested in
getting stronger, "The Vault" will answer questions you
haven't even thought of yet.
Best of all, it's free.
To get your copy, just head to www.elitefts.com and sign
up for the Strength Club. Dave will send you a link to
download your free copy.
Westside Barbell, PhysicalTechnique
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www.t-nation.com
Elitefts.com Inc
www.elitefts.com
Retirement and a New Journey
n
e
v
e
s
e
s
Pha
In the last installment in this series, I wrapped up the time
I spent training at Westside Barbell under strength coach/
genius Louie Simmons. Although all good things must
end, I'm very proud of what I accomplished there both as
a lifter and as part of the Westside team.
2003
I speak so highly of Louie that people often ask why I
ever left Westside. They assume it's because I developed
something "better" or that I wanted to put my own
"stamp" on Louie's training.
It was 2003, and I'd been powerlifting for 20 straight
years. I was beat to hell. Although most of my injuries
occurred before I set foot in Westside, the writing was
already on the wall – and regularly putting 800 pounds on
my back certainly wasn't helping things.
Other stories include us having a massive argument
and Louie kicking me out of his gym, even a supposed
fistfight. I'm waiting for the version where we're duking
it out in a windy elevator shaft and he cuts my hand off
before telling me that he's my father.
I'm going to switch gears for a moment to call some of
you young guys out. I hear constantly from powerlifters
claiming their bodies are "trashed" or their backs are
"fucked" – and when I ask for more details, it's often stuff
that any lifter at Westside trains with every day.
The truth is, I left because I was done.
Some of you guys need a serious reality check. Here's
what I was like in 2003.
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è Groin: I injured my groin on both sides. It sucked, but
I just wrapped it up and dealt with it.
è Abdominals: I tore my lower abdominal muscles
while squatting. It was perhaps the most painful injury I'd
ever had. I also strained both intercostals, twice.
è Spine: The following discs are herniated: L4, L5, C4,
C5.
è Calves: Both torn. Huge indents in each. Looks
freaky though.
è Knees: Strained the right ACL at least three times,
probably more.
è Hamstrings: The right's a mess. Tore it so bad it
almost needed surgery.
è Quads: Pulled the right quad in the early 90's. It was
so bad it turned my entire leg black.
è Pecs: I've torn both sides at least 20 times, and each
tear caused the entire pec to turn black and blue. I also
tore the left pec at the tendon and needed surgery to fix it,
and tore the right pec in half but opted to skip the surgery.
è Shoulders: In the right shoulder I had a torn
supraspinatus, bone spurs, and now, arthritis. I had this
shoulder cleaned up with the AC shaved down to allow
more movement but to no avail. A total replacement is
the only option left and this was another big reason for my
retirement.
Working around or through the other injuries was a pain
in the ass, but at least it was doable. Total replacement of
my shoulder was certainly an option, but their longevity is
based on usage and time. Considering I was at Westside,
I knew I'd likely need a new one within 2-3 years – if it
lasted that long.
Granted, there were guys who were way more beat up
than me who were still lifting and going for it, but by '03 I'd
crossed "the line."
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The Want It Line
To be a successful powerlifter, you have to be fearless
andwant it more than anything else. You can never be
scared to lift a weight. One of three things will happen:
you get the lift, you miss the lift, or you get hurt. I'd
accepted that years ago and it served me well, but
obviously broke me down.
Suddenly other priorities, namely work and family, were
becoming more important. And I was beat to shit and
needed a new shoulder. It was draining the want out of me.
When I started asking the surgeons, "Do we really need
to do this now?" instead of, "How long will this take to get
back?" I knew for sure I was done.
Not "That" Guy
I also left Westside because I wasn't ready to start
coaching others. Not because I don't love coaching – I
do – and some questioned why I didn't stick around and
assume a mentoring role.
It was too soon for me. I was still a lifter, not a coach. Even
today, I'm still a lifter first – sure, I'll help others, but it has
to be on my terms. If they ask for a program, then they
better do what I write or I'm done with them. If they ask for
advice and then question it, I won't offer advice again.
(To this day I'm amazed how after being in this sport for
close to 30 years that someone with one year of "internet
research" will ask a question only to refute whatever
answer I give. If they knew better then why the fuck did
they ask? To waste my time?)
I was also starting a new business. Training with the
morning crew meant I wasn't showing up to work until 1
PM – meaning that I was a part-time employee at my own
business. My apologies to the 4 Hour Workweek crowd,
but anyone who's ever started up their own company
knows that it takes a hell of a lot more time than that.
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Still, the biggest reason was I didn't want to be "that
guy." Hanging around and offering wisdom and
encouragement and maybe jumping in for the odd
workout might've been fun, but it would've also reminded
the young guys of what they could become. I would've
been a liability, not an asset.
Remember, Westside Barbell isn't a "gym," but a team of
lifters striving to be the best of the best. When you're no
longer capable or don't have the will to be that anymore,
it's time to leave to make room for the next generation to
kick the shit out of your lifts and records.
It was my time and I have no regrets. My decision is
reaffirmed every time I see another Westside lifter break
a world record.
Training The
Jersey Shore Way
So now I'm training at my own gym at EliteFTS. It's
well equipped of course, and I'm doing what I can, but
everything still hurts. My shoulders are like a bad joke,
and now even my feet hurt. I have no idea why.
It was around that time that I'd arranged a meeting with
some popular strength coaches and facility owners to
discuss their equipment needs. The arrangement was
to meet in New Jersey, on the Jersey Shore, and on the
guest list was Joe DeFranco, Alwyn Cosgrove, Jason
Ferruggia, and Jim Wendler.
I'm not even sure where to begin with this one. I've been
to many beaches and beach houses so I assumed this
place would be no different. Man, was I wrong.
The first night we walked down the street to some club
and the place was packed full of Under Armor wearing
guys with gold chains, big arms, and ILS (imaginary lat
syndrome). And I'm not talking about just a few guys – it
was almost everyone.
After spending 40 minutes making our way to the back
porch of the club, I told the guys that we needed to get
the fuck out of there – but there was no way I was going
to fight that crowd again for another 40 minutes to get to
the front door.
We spotted a back way out and made our way over, until
some ILS Guido bouncer sporting the biggest gold chain
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I'd ever seen stopped us. It looked like something you'd
attach to a barbell and do pulls with.
He said we weren't allowed to walk down the seven steps
out to the beach that would take us back to the street.
Being a former bouncer, I tried to play this off polite and
cool and was even making progress until one of the guys
said he was going to back kick the fucker in the head.
At this point I figured we'd end up in a fight and get tossed
in jail, or at the very least I'd wind up pulling something or
screwing up my shoulder even worse.
We decided to walk back to the front door, only this time
it didn't take as long as we wound up getting an escort by
Gold Chain Guido the Bouncer. I still have no idea why
he didn't escort us out the short, seven-step back way. It
would've taken a fraction of the time.
After we got out, I suddenly realized that Wendler was
nowhere to be found. I know Jim well, too well, and there
was no way in hell he was still in there. If he was and we
weren't with him, there was likely going to be a way bigger
problem than just me pulling something. I called him on
the cellphone to see where he was.
"Dude," he said, "I looked in the front door, turned around,
got some ice cream and went back to the house. I'm lying
on the couch. What are you guys doing?" Ten minutes
later we were there with him.
The Braveheart
Assessment
After the next day's meeting, we left the condo to grab
dinner. Walking down the steps to the restaurant,
everybody zips by me while I do my usual stair routine:
Left foot to step. Right foot meets left. Left foot to next
step. Right foot meets left. I don't alternate steps like a
normal human because my body doesn't work that way
anymore.
Cosgrove sees me in action and can't believe it. "Dave,
what the hell is the matter with you?" he yells in that freakshow Braveheart accent of his.
Once Cosgrove realized that this wasn't an act, he quit
laughing. He then says he's going to put me through a
movement assessment as soon as we get back to the
condo.
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The first thing I was to do was put my arms over my head
and squat down into a full squat. Sure thing Alwyn, except
I can't even raise my arms over my head.
è T-spine mobility
Fail. Next test.
è Bird dogs
He then told me to lie on the floor and reach my arms
back. Well, when you're 290 pounds you don't just "lie"
on the floor – you have a couch or chair nearby, and you
ease yourself down into a half-kneel, then a full kneel,
then maybe you roll to the ground.
è Camel – cats
Fail. Next test.
è Static lunges
It was supposed to be a 12-test assessment and
Cosgrove tried to run another test or two but stopped
halfway. He'd seen all he needed to determine that I had
the worst mobility of anyone he'd ever seen.
è Lateral squats
è Ankle mobility
è Leg swings to the side
è Leg swings to the front/rear
è Wall slides
è Scap push-ups
Back to the Living
è YTWLs
There were about 10 other drills that I've since blocked
from my memory.
The whole thing took me about 25 minutes to complete
and I did it before my usual powerlifting workout of heavy
benches, safety bar squats, etc. I did this for close to six
months, fairly religiously.
It frickin' sucked.
First, it was boring as hell. If you enjoy doing YTWLs with
a four-pound dumbbell, then you've probably never felt
what benching 500 pounds is like.
After that humiliating experience, I knew that if I was to
ever lead a normal life again, much less train normally,
I would have to suck it up and take the steps to get my
mobility back.
Second, it drained all of my mental energy for the real
workout. After 20 minutes of flopping around like a retard
from band camp, I lost all my jam for getting under the
heavy bar and tearing shit up.
First, I consulted the writings of the mobility experts
like Cosgrove, Cressey, and Robertson. I made a few
calls, watched some DVDs, and asked for some sample
mobility routines.
Finally, as much as it "warmed up my stabilizers," I found
it gassed my smaller muscles more than anything. Doing
benches after a bunch of YTWLs are supposed to make
benches less painful, except for me. The pain was far
worse. Great.
In the end, I put together this monster. Each exercise I did
for 1 or 2 sets of 10-15 reps.
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So I scrapped it. In my usual blast and dust fashion, I
scrapped everything. I took a month off completely.
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The New Plan
The time away from lifting did me more good than any
mobility work. Not only because I needed the break – I
did – but the fact was, mobility training wasn't working. I
was getting progressively weaker. I was down below 70%
of what I once was.
Worse still, I was haunted by my old PRs. I was starting to
hear, "What's the point?" creep into my head, which is a
scary thought for a guy who just retired from anything.
I started to reflect on my training and when things last felt
really good, back before it all started to go off the rails.
I decided to go back to bodybuilding training – but with a
twist.
The New Rules of
Bodybuilding
As for my 20-minute dynamic warm-up? It was out the
window. My warm-up was now a few arm or leg swings
and onto the first exercise, except with a ton of warm up
sets.
I structured a four-day a week workout
that was painfully basic:
Monday: Chest, shoulders
Tuesday: Legs, abs
Thursday: Back
Saturday: Arms
The exercise choices were as follows:
Chest: Machine presses, machine flyes
Shoulders: Cable lateral raises (keep in mind I can't raise
my arms above my head), reverse pec deck
Back: Lat pulldowns, dumbbell rows, chest-supported
rows
Here's the deal. Powerlifting is about finding the shortest
range of motion possible.
Look at the bench press. If your setup and arch is sound,
it's a very short (albeit very safe) range of motion.
Bodybuilding, in the purest sense, is the opposite. The
most effective movements generally take the muscles
through the longest range of motion.
I realized that I hadn't done any full range of motion work
for years, and if I were to regain my "functional mobility"
this would be where to start.
I first established some rules:
è I would not use any movement that I'd performed
in the last 10 years. I wanted no frame of reference, no
reminder of what I was once capable of.
è I'd perform every repetition slow and controlled, both
eccentric and concentric.
è All exercises must take the muscle through the fullest
range of motion.
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Triceps: Rope extensions on incline bench, machine
extensions
Biceps: Cable curls, full range dumbbell curls, lying cable
curls
Abs: Ab mat, Swiss ball crunches
What Did I Learn?
I followed this setup for about a year, changing exercises
every three weeks but always to moves that were
completely new to me. That was crucial. It kept my ego
out of the equation and kept me focused on the task at
hand.
Hamstrings: Romanian deadlifts, glute ham raises
Quads: This was a toughie. Since I couldn't squat and it
was tough to find moves where I got a real stretch, I just
doubled the amount of hamstring work I did.
I selected movements based on what would work the
specific muscle through the greatest rang of motion.
In the case of my shoulders, I wanted to basically turn
them off when I was training chest. Hence, the onedimensional movements; it allowed total focus on the
target muscle.
I did two or three of the above per muscle group. Each
exercise was performed for 2-3 sets of 10-15 reps.
Weights were subordinate to my larger goal, which was
to nail the rep speed and range of motion and not pull
anything in the process. So it had to be light, yet still heavy
enough to allow me to stretch and flex very hard. Each of
these positions was held for a 1-2 count.
Since weight wasn't a priority, most of the weights I used
were very low. I remember getting my ass kicked by
40-pound dumbbell rows and 90-pound lat pulldowns.
As a bonus, over the course of that year I was able to say
something I'd never been able to say since my first day of
training: I never once suffered an injury.
If that fails to impress you, keep in mind the kind of lifter I
was (am). Refer to the above list of injuries. Now consider
this: Inever missed a meet due to injury. Ever.
If I blew something out I'd miss a workout, maybe two. I'd
never miss a whole week and I'd never, ever miss a meet.
That was just how I was back then. If I popped a disc on
Monday, I might hobble around and take it easy for a day
or two – but I found a way to squat Friday. It might mean
wearing two weight belts and wrapping a band around my
head, but I squatted.
I developed a reputation for getting guys into meets,
despite what their doctors said. No matter what the injury
was, I knew what they needed to do because I've been
through almost everything.
In hindsight, I was reckless, stupid, and likely did more
harm than good, but my track record stands. If you were
hurt but still wanted to lift, go talk to Dave.
So how did it work?
Within one month, I felt like a million bucks. Virtually
everything quit hurting, and my body took on a
completely different look. I looked more "jacked." My
vascularity had improved, and my muscles were much
rounder and fuller. Most importantly, except for the
shoulder that still needed replacement, all the other
issues weregone!
I was hooked.
I could write stories about how to perform with pec tears,
hamstring pulls, back issues, knee pain, and many other
injuries, but there will always be someone who will take
what I say as an endorsement and in two months the
sheriff shows up at my door with a court order. Some
things are better left in the gym and the warm-up room.
I always rushed recovery. I pushed the envelope so many
different ways it's a wonder I could even pull off that
fucked up walk Cosgrove was ribbing me about.
That isn't to boast or sound cool – it's really sad. If I had
done the opposite and extended my rests by even two
weeks here, two weeks there, I could still be powerlifting
competitively today.
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What Would I Change?
This is one of those rare occasions where I wouldn't
change a thing. This form of true "functional training"
completely saved me.
I would've perhaps kept some of the mobility drills, as I
do see value in them. I would just do maybe five minutes
worth, not 25 minutes like I had been doing.
Here's an analogy. An athlete is like a racecar. Every part
of the car has to be in working order to run properly.
If you run it hard for years and don't do the necessary
maintenance, it's eventually going to either break down
or perform sub-optimally.
Adopting this training style was like taking a racecar apart
and cleaning each piece one at a time, making sure they
worked independently. Only when I was satisfied with each
part's individual performance would it go back on the car.
As a big, tight, fucked up ball of muscle, rolling around on
the Swiss ball was a waste of time. I needed something
more aggressive to force my range of motion. A heavy
chest supported row that forced my lats through a full range
of motion did more than all the goofy drills combined.
But the biggest change I'd make, even going back to
my powerlifting days, would be tothrow in a couple sets
per body part of these slow tempo, full range of motion
exercises.
The power lifts shorten the functional range of motion,
and if steps aren't taken to reverse this, problems like I
had occur.
The key is to choose lifts where you don't know how
strong you are, so you don't rush it. The more banged up
or tight you are, the more lifts you should throw in.
Also, don't use lifts where you develop compensatory
acceleration. Remember, this is the opposite of
powerlifting – you want to isolate the target muscle as
much as possible.
The Recipe
For my chest, bench presses would never work as my
triceps immediately take over. For me to isolate and
stretch my pecs, the machine press was ideal. The fact
that there's no stabilizer activity was a benefit – I wanted
to focus on just my pecs firing. This is an instance of
machines being the right tool in the toolbox.
Warm up with a few basic mobility
drills.
Static stretching helps, and there are plenty of fat but
flexible powerlifters, but there's something about loaded
full ROM exercises that's much more effective.
So here's the recipe if you're a tight bastard and fairly
screwed up:
Arm circles, swings, pull-aparts, etc.
Spend less than 5 minutes on it – you don't want to prefatigue anything.
If you're just kind of tight:
Progressively warm up for your first key lift.
Perhaps it's because it's not just a passive movement
(a stretch) but also an active one (exercising under
resistance through a full range of motion). I can only
comment on what I experienced – a year of this saved
both my lifting and my mobility.
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Take 6, 7, even 10 sets to get to your work weight.
Charge up your nervous system and pump as much
blood into the muscle as possible.
The Recipe
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Bust your ass as normal.
Then, after your regular training:
Do 1-2 extreme range exercises per screwed up
bodypart.
Skip the initial regular lift. You're too far-gone. Just bite
the bullet and do more extreme full range work. You won't
regret it. The heavy weights will still be there in a month
or two.
Do 2-3 extreme range exercises per screwed up
bodypart.
è Start at 2-3 sets of 10-15 reps.
è Start at 2-3 sets of 10-15.
è Do the movement slow. Slow up, and slow down.
è Do the movement slow. Slow up, and slow down.
è Go for full, excessive stretches and peak contractions.
If you do this faithfully, the weight will be light. If you find
yourself piling on the plates, recheck your form. Don't
load these moves. You'll screw it up.
è Go for full, excessive stretches and peak contractions.
All the above shit.
After your workout: Do some specific mobility drills.
è Expect some weird soreness, even some discomfort.
High reps and slow tempos through ranges you're not
used to training isn't fun.
After your workout: Do some specific mobility drills
(external rotators, trap raises, etc.). The idea is to hit these
little muscles after your big work is done, not before. Why
fuck up the most important part of your workout by prefatiguing those muscles?
Wrap Up
This might sound as boring as hell – and at times it
was – but it also completely rejuvenated both my love
of lifting and my life. If you're finding just getting your
body to move like it once did a chore, you need to take a
serious look at your training and see how some intelligent
mobility work could benefit you.
If you're a real mess:
It brought me back from the brink. Why can't it help you?
Warm up with a few basic mobility drills.
Arm circles, swings, pull-aparts, etc.
Spend less than 5 minutes on it – you don't want to prefatigue anything.
In the next installment, I'll talk about what my fat
290-pound ass went through working with a friendly SOB
named John Berardi.
Questions or comments? Post them in the LiveSpill.
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The Recipe
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Coaching Cured My Fat Ass
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In the last installment in this series, I described the long,
painful process of getting my body moving properly after
20 years of powerlifting abuse.
This article will discuss an even more important
undertaking: going from a fat mess with horrendous
eating habits and blood work to match, to leaner,
muscular, and much healthier.
This installment is also about coaching. Throughout the
series I've noted the times when mentors have had a
tremendous effect on my development as an athlete and
as a man.
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Whether it was the guys at the old barbell club who took
me under their wing when I was 16 to my bodybuilding
mentors at Hard Bodies, to the greatest powerlifting
coach of all, Louie Simmons, I've been blessed to have
some brilliant minds steering me throughout my journey.
I've listened to them (maybe not at first), learned from
them, and through their guidance accomplished some
impressive things. And to pay it back, I've tried to help
others whenever I could, both on my own and through my
company, elitefts.com.
Coaching Cured My Fat Ass
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2006
In 2006, I was fat and bloated and couldn't move for shit.
But I was also a powerlifter – albeit a broken down one
– and it wasn't like people weren't taking what I had to
say seriously just because I didn't have a six-pack. The
thought of dieting to "see my abs" was about as appealing
as dumping benches and floor presses for cable moves
so I can "sculpt my chest."
My reality check came after my annual physical with my
friend and physician, Dr. Eric Serrano. My bloodwork was,
in his words, terrifying. Total cholesterol, HDL/LDL ratio,
and triglycerides were all shot to hell.
That in itself didn't phase me – I'd dealt with so many injuries
throughout my career, and had doctors tell me it was a
miracle I could still walk upright, that seeing some abnormal
numbers on a printout was nothing – until Serrano asked if I
wanted to see my kids graduate high school.
For that to happen, getting this shit in order was no longer
an option. It would have to become a priority.
Part of being a good coach is knowing your limits. As a
strength coach, I'm confident I can help just about anyone
get stronger under the bar or in their sport.
The whole body composition thing, on the other hand,
isn't my strong suit. Fact is, it bores the hell out of me. And
when something bores me, I generally suck at it and quit –
unless it's a priority, whereupon I'll hire a coach to help me.
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Dr. John Berardi
I'd heard of John Berardi through our mutual association
with T Nation and had seen him speak at a few seminars.
I knew he was smart and a good communicator, and
unlike a lot of the bodybuilding coaches, I knew had a very
strong academic background.
Don't get me wrong, in the trenches experience trumps
the theoretical every day of the week, but I also have
a background in nutritional biochemistry and exercise
physiology. I wanted someone with that type of
background to assist with a peculiar problem I'd been
experiencing.
Following my dressing down from Dr. Serrano, I started
making a sincere effort to "eat clean," which to me meant
egg whites, chicken, rice, the odd vegetable, and zero
junk food. In other words, '80s bodybuilding 101.
But every time I'd eat a "clean" meal, I'd wind up puking
my guts out an hour later. It didn't matter if I switched up
the proteins or tried different "clean" carbs – I'd eat, and
an hour later it was in the toilet.
The weird thing was, if I switched back to my junk or fast
food staples, no problems. Try to force down even one
clean-ish meal and I was back praying at the porcelain
throne.
When I reached out to my lifter friends about my issue
they just about pissed themselves laughing, but Berardi
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took my problem seriously. He knew that the most
important thing was teaching me what healthy eating
really was.
Considering how far I'd come and the changes I made, I
felt pretty good about myself and chalked it up as a goal
accomplished. That, as I'd learn, was a big mistake.
So he started from the ground up. It began with me
getting a wack load of blood work done, including a
glucose tolerance test. Berardi then sent me lists of
different foods to experiment with along with food prep
tips that I actually used.
Since I was "done," I stopped communicating regularly
with Berardi. I figured I'd just take a break before
switching to "maintenance," despite not even knowing
what that was!
To get past my hang-up that all healthy food tasted bad,
he had me trying out different recipes that were fast, easy,
and tasty. I'd never followed a recipe in my life, and now
I was making "Dr. John's Chili" and this peanut butter
Metabolic Drive shake that was better than something
you'd find at Dairy Queen.
This was huge for me. I was used to seeing food as either
"tasty" or "diet/clean," meaning food that I – and the rest
of the family – loves or hates. And as anyone who's done
this knows, when one person in the family diets, the whole
household kind of diets.
While my wife and kids were free to eat what they wanted,
it's much easier when everyone eats from a similar menu.
My kids liked some of this new clean food more than the
junk food, and I was able to keep it down.
You can read more about it here, but I worked with
Berardi for the better part of a year and all told lost about
50 pounds. My blood work also got a lot better and it
completely changed how I look at food. JB restored my
health.
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I realize now that after the goal has been reached is when
you need your coach the most – to transition you from
"diet mode" to a "lifestyle" mode that you can maintain for
life.
My maintenance turned out to be just shuffling back into
my old habits of junk food and haphazard eating, and
before I knew it I was up 30 pounds. Once again, I needed
help.
Justin Harris
In 2007 I brought bodybuilder Justin Harris into the
elitefts family as a sponsored athlete. He was also a
coach, and I was fascinated by his approach to dieting
down bodybuilders, and I constantly picked his brain for
advice.
Justin saw the progress I'd made with Berardi and was
disappointed that I let things slide after reaching what I
thought was my goal. "You missed out on the best part of
the whole process, the rebound."
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"Rebound?" I asked. "You mean where I slap on twenty
pounds of fat in a week? Don't worry, I experienced that."
"No," he said. "Where you gain ten pounds of muscle in a
month."
Ten pounds of muscle? Now I was curious.
Justin explained that once the body gets really lean
it wants to replenish itself and is highly sensitized to
nutrients. It's a magic "window" where if you give the body
what it needs – tons of calories and twice a day workouts
– it packs on muscle and glycogen at an incredible rate,
with negligible fat gain.
I wanted in.
There was a catch. I needed to get a lot leaner.
With JB I went from a fat mess to a lean-ish 8% or so, but
then I quit. Justin said I needed at least another month or
two of hard dieting to get to the zone where he felt the
best rebound for me could occur.
I told Justin that I'd be willing to do whatever it took to get
to where I was about three weeks out from a show. I knew
that in bodybuilding, like in powerlifting, nothing you do in
the last three weeks is ever good for your health or your
sanity. Justin said that by three weeks out I should be at
the rebound-ready place.
You can read more about Justin's approach here, but the
first thing he said was that I'd have to change what I was
doing.
Since I was a bigger guy, Justin said that I shouldn't diet
like a smaller bodybuilder. He had a number of theories to
support this but needed guinea pigs to test them out on.
Most of the guys that Justin worked with were competitive
bodybuilders and he couldn't afford to play mad scientist
with clients that had upcoming shows. Since I just wanted
to get lean enough to rebound, I signed on for whatever
he had in store for me.
The first thing Justin did was cycle my carbs. His setup
had low days at around 100 grams, moderate days at
200-300 grams, high days at 500 grams, the occasional
zero day, as well as some super high days, where I ate
1200 grams of carbs a day from stuff like Fruity Pebbles.
I sent Justin my pics every week and he adjusted the
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number of days according to my condition. The leaner
I got, the more high days I could have. There were
adjustments every week.
Training was also different. With Berardi, it was assumed
that I knew how to lift weights so John just worked on my
diet while adding in cardio as things progressed.
With Justin, training had to match the diet. That meant off
days were low or zero carb days, while lifting days were
moderate or high days. Super high days were usually set
on lower body lifting days. As for cardio, we started at zero
and peaked at 45 minutes a day, four days week.
It was a major pain in the ass. Each day required a
different set of meals and every week would have
different days, so you couldn't even get into some sort of
pattern where Monday is low day, Saturday is high day,
whatever. Everything depended on how I looked.
The low-carb days were easiest as there were less meals
to prep, whereas the high-carb days required that I pack
a stupid cooler to take with me wherever I went. As things
progressed I found myself simply not going anywhere
that was more than two hours away from my fridge. This
started to wear on my family and my sanity, but holy
sheep shit did it work.
I actually put on muscle while dieting and got into my all
time best condition – 235 and ripped and full. I loved how
it looked and got some great pics out of the deal.
But I was also ready for the rebound. I'd been counting
down the days until I could eat like a pig and train heavy
again. I was so stoked, I booked a 10-day vacation to
coincide with ending the diet.
Another big mistake. Although I trained as much as I
could and tried to eat as cleanly as possible, it was still a
vacation. I cheated often – more than often. I cheated all
day long.
I put on 50 pounds in 10 days. When I came back to
work my staff didn't recognize me. Wendler, in particular,
almost shit himself when I walked in. I went from 235 to
285, and the water bloat was unbelievable. It hurt to walk,
much less train, and my face looked like it was going to
explode. I missed how I felt dieting at 235!
I did get a nice rebound out of the deal but I looked
and felt like a total pig. The bloat slowly came off and
according to the calipers I did add about 10 pounds of
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lean mass – but calipers can be tricky when you're a
bloated pig.
Considering how I looked and my strength, I'd say it was
more like 3-4 pounds of muscle and a bloat load of water
and fat.
Don't get me wrong, the concept is still sound – I was just
a crappy student.
I decided to wait for the bloat to come off before I
contacted Justin again, but found myself getting busy, and
cheating more. Hey, I was busy and had a family and a
company to run. Besides, I already had the after pictures;
who cares if I put on a few pounds?
Big mistake, again.
2009 On My Own
2009 was a rough year. It was the recession and my
business needed the bulk of my attention, as did my
family. As such, my training was increasingly put on
autopilot, which for me meant basic strength training,
although I was still limited in what exercises I could do.
I found myself falling into a routine where I'd pick a
basic strength movement that didn't hurt me too much,
like a floor press or yoke bar squat and train it like I was
approaching a powerlifting meet. It was a fun change
after doing so much bodybuilding work, and getting to
strain again was like visiting an old friend.
I also fall back into old habits. And the more I trained like
a powerlifter the more I ate like crap. My weight crept up,
and the old injuries started to appear again.
By the end of 2009 I remerged a fat, beat up, former
powerlifter.
2010 Shelby Starnes
Justin Harris went back to school, was running his
business, working full time, raising a family, and working
with top bodybuilders. I really didn't want to add to his
workload. Berardi was busy with his company, Precision
Nutrition, so I needed to find a new coach. Shelby Starnes
had a log up at elitefts and a lot of guys I worked with were
using him for diet help.
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I doubted how well I'd fair. I didn't want to be stuck with
some Nazi who'd cardio the crap out of me while making
me eat chicken and rice three times a day, especially not
after being with Berardi and realizing that type of thing
wasn't necessary.
Shelby turned out to be anything but. He was like a balance
between Berardi's lifestyle approach and Justin's hardcore
bodybuilding mindset. We set up a carb cycling type of
framework, and I could pick foods from a pre-approved list
of choices as long as the quantities fit the parameters.
It was easy, relatively speaking, and within a few months I was
under 8% bodyfat. What was interesting was that usually at
8% my body starts to revolt; this time I sailed cleared through.
I think this was partly due to being at this level already with
Justin – my body had "learned" how to get there.
Shelby used a basic carb cycling setup: high, medium,
and low days. There were no super high or super low days
like Justin had, nor were there cheat meals, at least not for
a long time.
Shelby said cheat meals were counterproductive until you
were very lean, unless you had to have a mental break. He
also determined super-high carb days worked better for
me than cheat meals.
Shelby would watch my training log and when my
numbers started to plummet, he'd schedule in a highcarb day, usually on a lower body day. Shelby also wanted
pictures and bodyfat measurements weekly but used
how my training was going to make adjustments.
While the geek in me liked Justin's super technical approach
and the results were spectacular, Shelby was already
looking into the future. He could see where I'd screwed up
before and wisely started working me into maintenance
mode even while we were still in the depths of dieting.
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He'd let me eat foods that he knew I'd be eating in the offseason including some pre-approved fast food, provided
the macros added up.
This wasn't a concession he'd normally make with a
competitive bodybuilder, but it didn't make sense to get
me eating a certain way if there wasn't a hope in hell I'd
eat like that after the diet was done. He wisely developed
my plan based around my noncompetitive needs.
So while 8-ounces of chicken and brown rice might be
ideal, in a few months a triple chicken sub on flatbread
from Subway would be reality. Shelby programmed that
in now so I'd be better set come the offseason.
It should be noted that right when I started working
with Justin, Tim Patterson from Biotest contacted me
regarding some new workout nutrition products he was
developing. Even though neither product had a name or
even flavoring, he offered to set me up with his special
"protocol" so I could experience it for myself.
The stuff tasted like ass (did I mention it was unflavored?),
but considering the guy was sending it to me, I decided I'd
find a way to choke it down.
I was blown away. I felt the difference after just one week.
I was so impressed I had both Justin and Shelby build the
protocol into the diets they made for me.
The two powders are now called Plazma™ and MAG10®. Here's the exact protocol Tim put together for me.
Plamza™ – 2 scoops
MAG-10® – 2 Scoops
Surge® Workout Fuel – 1-3 scoops (based on carb
allowance)
Flameout™ – 6 caps a day
days with higher carb days, but we kept a balance between
bodybuilding pumping and strength work. Although I'll
never be a powerlifter again, I need some straining to
make me feel alive, especially as the calories drop.
I got in great shape with Shelby – most of the pics you
see on T Nation are from working with him – and I stayed
leaner, longer. This was partly due to his more sustainable
approach that kept my dieting foods as close as possible
to off-season foods. You can read more about it all here.
The other reason is that I finally figured out what every
fitness asshole has been preaching for 100 years – that
this shit is a lifestyle. I still haven't fully grasped that
concept, but I'm working on it.
What Would I Do
Different?
Right now every strong fat guy is wondering what I'd do
different so they don't make the same mistakes I made.
Which coach was the best? Who gave me the best
results?
I'd stick with just one coach.
Don't get me wrong, each coach was awesome. They all
did exactly what I asked them to do, and any failures I had
in keeping the weight off was my own.
This begs the question, if each guy was so good, then why
didn't I stick with just one?
Part of it was availability – some guys were busy when I
wanted to kick start the process again. The big thing was
my goals were different each time I tried this.
When I worked with Berardi, I was a ticking time bomb
who needed to get healthy and learn how to eat food that
wasn't from a drive thru window.
Curcumin – 6 caps a day
Surge® Workout Fuel was the most variable; I'd have
more or less depending on whether it was a high,
medium, or low carb day.
I also had two Metabolic Drive® Low Carb shakes a day
and used Rhodiola whenever I started to feel run down.
With Justin, I wanted the underground knowledge,
the stuff that only the pros know. There's a reason the
biggest, most conditioned guys in the world are where
they are and it's not all drugs and genetics.
Everybody on stage at the pro level has good genetics,
trains hard, and has access to the same "supplements."
The only variable left to push is diet.
Training wise, Shelby still matched the heavier training
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Coaching Cured My Fat Ass
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After Justin got too busy I needed a coach. I wanted someone
who could "marry" both the health and bodybuilding effects
into a cohesive approach that was effective yet easy to
understand and most importantly, sustainable. Shelby was
my choice here, and it worked out very well.
Yet one thing that sticks with me is this: suppose I was
able to stick with just Berardi for five or six years, or Justin,
or Shelby? What if I had just one coach through multiple
diets and off-seasons?
That coach would have years of data on me and would
know which foods worked, which didn't, which macros left
me exhausted, and which left me with the energy to train
and strain. That coach would be able to make the best
recommendations for me, backed by years of previous
experiences.
I realize now that – provided he or she is competent – the
best coach is the coach you stick with. Jumping from
coach to coach is no different from program hopping in
strength training. It's the same old "frogs on a lily pad"
syndrome.
How are you supposed to learn what works if you don't
stick with an approach long enough to build up a frame of
reference?
I'd sign up to extend past the diet
into the off-season.
Looking back, I always made the mistake of ditching my
coaches the day my diet was done. In hindsight, especially
considering some of my destructive habits, I should've
kept it up for at least six months past the original end date.
The off-season is the hardest part. You're no longer
"dieting" so suddenly there's less structure, less pressure,
more flexibility, and more freedom to "wing it." Some
flourish on this type of freedom and make excellent
choices, others – especially the type who do best with
structure or have food issues in the past – fall apart in the
presence of any type of flexibility.
This is when a good coach can set you up with the type of
habits that keep you lean for life. After all, anyone can be
in shape when they carry a cooler with them and never
have a piece of cake at their kid's birthday party. While
that sounds hardcore, it's easy. It's simple binary thinking
– yes or no, black or white.
However, when you work in things like being sociable and
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practicing a little moderation is where many fall off the
wagon. It's when I needed a coach more than ever.
Don't overestimate what they can do.
A good coach can help you eat better and see food as
a tool instead of an indulgence, but they won't cook for
you, or shop for you, or wash your dirty Tupperware. You
still need to do the work and most importantly, follow the
plan. The best diet in the world is useless if not followed,
just as how a strength training program is worthless if you
skip more workouts than you hit.
I think there's a tendency, especially amongst the coachhoppers, to give the coaches too much blame when
things don't go as planned. Before you blame your lack
of success on your diet or the person writing it, honestly
assess how well you followed it. I submit that if your
compliancy is less than 90%, then you have no business
blaming anyone but yourself.
We all need coaching.
Some might say that a diet coach is just for physique
athletes or pro bodybuilders, but I submit we all need
coaches in areas of our lives where we aren't proficient.
I know enough about strength that I won't hire a kid in an
NSCA polo shirt to write my training programs, but when I
don't have a set diet I fall apart. I know this, so I have a coach
doing my diet. It's an area where I'm weak, so why not pay
someone good to get my back? It only makes sense.
Wrap-Up
My injuries will never go away so my days of training like
an elite strength athlete are behind me. Sometimes I look
at myself and laugh at how I'm becoming what I used to
make fun of back in the day: a guy who looks jacked but
isn't strong for shit!
Bodybuilding and dieting is hardly my passion. I'll never
get giddy about a new diet protocol or talk endlessly
about how awesome my pump was after I carbed up on
sweet potatoes.
But if looking jacked is all I can do now, I'll run at it to the
best of my abilities – and when those abilities fall short, I'll
have a coach help me.
It was the best decision I ever made.
Coaching Cured My Fat Ass
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Putting Myself in John Meadows' Hands
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The last installment in this series was all about coaching,
specifically for the nutrition side of strength and physique
development.
Bodybuilding writers love to use percentages to describe
the importance of exercise and nutrition. They'll say
looking jacked is 50% training and 50% diet, or 60% and
40% one way or the other. Sometimes they'll even break
it up further and throw in points for mental strength.
I'd personally like to see a few percentages offered
to being disciplined, OCD, and a little bat-shit crazy,
but clearly the real gains happen when you give equal
attention to both diet and training.
I'd gone through periods where I put my trust in experts
like Louie Simmons to handle my training, and reached
levels of strength beyond my expectations. On the other
side, when I let experts like John Berardi, Justin Harris,
or Shelby Starnes handle my nutrition, I got into the best
condition of my life.
But what would happen if I let an expert cover everything
– my training, diet, supplementation, everything. What if
I just gave up control, handed him the keys and said, "Go
for it. Let's see what you can do."
I'm the type of guy who likes to call the shots, so giving up
that much control wasn't going to happen by choice. I'd
need a hell of a reason. And that's when life stepped in.
Unfortunately, that's something that I hadn't been able to
do up to this point.
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Putting Myself in John Meadows' Hands
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The Year from Hell
I've been through my share of shit – just read through
the previous eight installments for some examples – but
2010 was probably the worst year yet.
That year I lost my father. It was a terrible process that
started with him suffering a stroke and being rushed to
the hospital. While admitted, the doctors found he also
had cancer. My dad was eventually released and bounced
back and forth between long-term care facilities and the
hospital before eventually passing away a few months
later.
Not long after my dad died, my wife suffered a pulmonary
embolism and was also rushed to the hospital. Seconds
away from dying, the doctors had to perform emergency
open-heart surgery to save her.
Finally, on the business front, I had two monstrous legal
issues that were coming to a head. So add legal wrangling
and nonstop meetings on top of the normal day-to-day
bullshit every business owner has to deal with and I was at
my limit for stress.
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To combat this, I tried to do what I always did when life got
stressful – I trained.
Normal types might scoff at the notion of hitting the gym
with so much shit going on, but they aren't seeing the big
picture – or at least my big picture. I don't punish myself
with drop-sets and high-rep squats to build muscle. I do it
to kill my demons.
We all have demons inside of us. Some have more than
others, and some guys can deal with them better than the
next. That 40-something stressed-out businessman who
suddenly snaps and bludgeons the Walmart greeter with
a plunger is an example of someone who can't handle
his demons. I'm not saying I'm always inches away from
committing manslaughter, but I can be a real dick when I
let stress get the better of me.
So I smash my demons. I crush them under PR's. And
if I'm too fucked up to train heavy, I torch them with
extended sets, rip them apart with rest pauses and drop
sets, and then chase them away with whatever fucked up
finishing exercise I can think of. The demons always come
back, mind you, but as long as I have a key to my gym I
can stay one step ahead.
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But this year was different. Life was piling on the
problems faster than I could handle them. I started to feel
like I had no control, that nothing I did mattered anyway,
and as a result my usual coping strategy wasn't helping.
(and train hard), I can't function effectively, much less
deal with stress. Instead, I just eat comfort foods and blow
up into a fat unhealthy mess.
I still made it to the gym, but since I didn't give a shit, I'd
just do whatever – and whatever wasn't working. I felt
exactly the same leaving the gym as I did walking in.
To keep this from happening I needed someone to make
it easy. So we established a goal that was simply, "Keep
Dave under 250 pounds." Nothing fancy or more stressful
than that. From there, John started sending me workouts.
I reached a breaking point one Saturday morning when I
showed up at the compound to do legs. I couldn't think of
a single exercise to do, much less a routine. I was lost.
I absolutely loved the training. It was bodybuilding but still
relatively heavy, and very few movements were lifts that I was
too messed up to do. And the intensity was through the roof.
I decided to phone a friend. I pulled out my phone
and sent Shelby Starnes a text. "Hey man, I need a leg
workout."
I was making good progress in the mirror, too. I started
emailing John my pics every week, which we quickly
realized was redundant because we live in the same city.
A few seconds later, Shelby sent a response that was
perhaps befitting a guy in my position making such a
request. "Uh, are you fricken serious?"
So John offered to come out to Elitefts™ on a Saturday
to train with me. He said it was because he'd always
wanted to train at Elite, but I knew the main reason was
to see if I was working as hard as I claimed and to make
sure I was sticking to the diet. Sending pics once a week
is one thing, but seeing your coach in the flesh takes it to
another level of accountability. You can't hide shit.
"Yeah, I'm lost," I replied. "Can't think of a damn thing."
A few minutes went by before Shelby got back to me.
"Here's something from a guy I've been working with. I
think it's what you need."
What Shelby sent me was absolutely nuts. High reps,
high volume and enormous pumps, and multiple intensity
techniques – it was like the best of 1980's bodybuilding
on a 10-day meth binge. I hit it with gusto, and two hours
later was seeing stars in the middle of the gym floor.
I fumbled out my cell phone and sent Shelby another text.
"Dude, that was awesome. Just what I needed. Who the
hell wrote that?"
I saw John coming over to my gym as a challenge. I knew
his reputation as a hard trainer and I'd watched his videos
that accompanied his T Nation articles. The guy's a beast
no doubt, but I'm not exactly a slouch when it comes to
intensity, either. I've done my share of retarded workouts,
and was not about to let some bodybuilder walk into my
gym and try to show me how to train hard.
Our first workout together basically set the tone for what
would become some of the most demanding training of
my life. With John's training, it's not the exercises and the
volume that's so rough but the mental part, specifically the
icy fear that runs through your mind before you even start.
"It's from a guy named John Meadows."
All In
The next week I contacted John Meadows and told
him how his workout was exactly what I needed. I also
told him that I wanted more. Much more. I wanted the
whole package – diet, training, supplements – the whole
enchilada. I knew I had to delegate all of this off my plate.
I explained to John that I didn't have the headspace to
design an exercise program or micromanage a diet,
however, training is what gives me balance. If I don't train
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I had no idea what we were going to do, how many sets
or movements. It was like a nasty black hole. That first
day we had warm-up sets, semi warm-up sets, semi work
sets, work sets and finally "big" sets. This is all with the
same fucking exercise.
We did deadlifts with chains – for 45 minutes. This was
after one-arm barbell rows supersetted with t-bar rows,
wide grip partial pull downs, and at least 6 sets of Reeves
deadlifts. I thought we were done at least three times, but
that's when the chain deads came in.
I'm totally serious.
Putting Myself in John Meadows' Hands
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We still push each other. Check out the videos below:
To this day we try to kill each other. In fact, as I sit here
writing this, I just heard through a third party that John
was sick this week and needed IVs due to dehydration.
While I suppose a friend should be sympathetic, all day
long I've been thinking about how bad I plan to fuck him
up tomorrow.
I should note, he gets sick more often than normal
because he's missing parts of his digestive tract, and if he
was "really" sick I would definitely back it down.
Nah, I wouldn't. Besides, the last few times this has
happened, I ended up the one who got destroyed.
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To the lay person it might seem like a really fucked up
friendship, and in a way it is. We both just have the type of
personality that responds favorably to extreme pressure.
I've known a lot of successful people both inside and
outside the gym who share this quality. When life is
normal or doesn't ask much of them, their actions aren't
particularly note worthy. They just accomplish whatever's
required of them.
But when the pressure is on, they rise to the challenge
– the bigger the obstacle, the more they step up and get
shit done. I wouldn't want my entire life to feel like a John
Meadows workout, but if and when something heavy
comes up, I like knowing that I have what it takes to hang
in there, to never quit, that I'll eventually grab it by its ugly
blonde head and beat it.
After Six Months
Within six months I was 230 pounds and under 8%
bodyfat. And I felt great. Usually when I get to around
8% or so, life becomes hell. I can't think straight and the
cravings get overwhelming. But this was easy, and I was
only doing cardio four days a week for 45 minutes.
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I kept at it, and finally hit 5% bodyfat. I figured that was a
good time to wrap things up, but John had other plans.
"Let's keep things going," he said. "I'll bring up your
calories a bit and we'll reevaluate in two weeks."
Two more weeks of dieting? I wasn't thrilled but did what
he said.
Two weeks later, it was more of the same. "Let's
reevaluate in two weeks. Don't quit now, Dave."
Frick, another two weeks?
A few weeks stretched into a few months, but I eventually
reached my lifetime leanest condition – at 221 pounds –
before going back up to 250 again over the next six weeks.
When I didn't go much above 250, however, was when
things got weird. Whenever I'd dieted down in the past
I always ended back up around 280-290. Now 250
pounds seemed liked the new "set-point."
That's when it hit me – by making sure the diet was long
enough, that sneaky son of a bitch kept this excessive
rebound from happening again. Well, sorta!
Putting Myself in John Meadows' Hands
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The Heavy Stuff
What I love about John's routines is that they push all
the buttons that I want my training to push. I can go
(relatively) heavy and use real exercises to indulge the
powerlifter in me, but also get in enough volume and
pump for growth and satisfy my love of training.
But the big thing is, John's training might fuck me up but
it doesn't injure me. One way he accomplishes this is by
placing the big multi-joint lifts later in the routine.
In other words, a chest day might have reverse band
bench presses, but after dumbbell presses, decline
presses, and often even machine presses. So by the time
I get to the band presses, I'm gassed, and don't need to –
or can – go nearly as heavy as I'd normally be tempted to.
And it's hard to get injured with 50% of your old PR.
This was also good for me mentally. As a former
competitive powerlifter, I know what I could squat, bench,
and deadlift when I was fresh and in my prime. I'm often
haunted by this when I perform these lifts today since I'm
not nearly as strong as I once was. This can fuck with my
head or worse, get me calling for weights that I have no
business trying to handle.
But having to perform them third or fourth in the routine
– after my muscles are completely pumped – is incredibly
different. I have no previous bests to compare to, and as
such every workout feels like I'm challenging a new PR,
not trying to beat an old PR that's now unattainable.
That isn't to say that I'm not getting stronger doing John's
programs. He tends to program the same big lifts for
5-6 weeks at a time, so even though you're attacking a
big lift later in your routine, you still see it often and in a
progressive loading manner. This helps develop strength
(though not as a priority) while keeping you healthy.
when you repeat that over 6 or 7 exercises per workout, it
adds up.
With John I leave every workout feeling absolutely gassed,
but I like that. This may go against the grain, but I hate
leaving the gym feeling like I could've done a lot more.
For me a good workout means sitting in the parking lot for
45 minutes waiting for my head to clear so I can wheel my
tired ass home. Sure it's possible to do too much volume
– and a lot of bodybuilders in the 80's definitely did – but
today, I think a lot of guys don't do enough.
I'm no swami and I can't read tea leaves, but I know
training – and the pendulum is starting to swing back
towards higher volume, big pump training. And I'm
pleased to see it happen.
Here's why: In every meaningful
endeavor in life, whether it's school,
business, or sports, success requires
hard work and sacrifice. So you're
trying to tell me that training is
somehow different? That only 30
minutes, three times a week is all you
need to succeed?
Bullshit. Anyone who says that is either trying to sell you
something or looks like dog shit. Usually both.
Adapt or Die
The body is highly adaptable. That easy routine that
produces gains when you're a beginner just isn't enough
when you're an intermediate or advanced. You have to do
more – either more volume or more intensity, or both – to
cause an adaptation.
Pump Up The Volume
Look, if it were easy, everyone would be jacked. Every guy
who just hits chest and biceps three days a week would
have chest and biceps like Phil Heath. But that's obviously
not the case. You have to constantly up the ante.
John's approach to volume is also different. In a
traditional bodybuilding program, 5 x 8 usually means 5
progressively heavier sets, with the fifth set being the true
8RM.
I remember doing a seminar years ago with the late Dr.
Mel Siff. I was speaking on conjugate periodization and
he was talking about Olympic lifting, and over dinner the
subject of bodybuilding training came up.
With John, 5 x 8 means 2-3 warm-up sets that don't
count, followed by 5 sets with the heaviest weight you can
handle for 8 reps. It may seem like a small distinction, but
Siff said, "Bodybuilding training is relatively simple. You
just train a muscle, tear it down, feed it, and let it recover.
Then repeat."
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I remember thinking, "That's so frickin' easy," especially
compared to strength training where you had to worry
about so many factors peaking at the same time.
However, with bodybuilding there's one catch: you have to
vary things. And the more advanced you are, the more you
must program in variety or you just spin your wheels. You
also need to train hard enough to break the muscle down.
At Westside I learned that the stronger you are, the
more work you have to do to build work capacity, usually
by increasing the recovery work. Meadows applies an
escalating workload to his bodybuilding programs and it
makes sense, no matter what the "overtrain-a-phobes"
tell you.
Remember when you played football or ran track?
Remember how sore your calves were after the first
practice? According to popular bodybuilding wisdom,
you should've gone home, foam rolled, had an Epsom salt
bath, and hit practice again in about five days when you
were no longer sore.
This all makes me laugh, but I get it. We all – even broken
down old powerlifters – care about what we look like.
But I'll always consider myself a powerlifter first. No
insane shit I do with John will ever compare to feeling
900-pounds on my back. To understand that you have to
experience it yourself, but few men ever can. Maybe that's
part of the reason I love it so much.
But while some lifters talk shit about what separates
bodybuilding from powerlifting, I'm at the stage now that
I like to focus on what ties the two together: Hard work.
Dedication. Goals. Sacrifice. Camaraderie.
The iron.
Let Go
But what did you do? Sore as hell, you still hit it again the
next day. Eventually, the soreness went away.
Why? Because the body adapted. That soreness in your
calves likely didn't return all season, except for when you
did something different either in your training or in the
amount you exercised. To cause a further adaption, you
have to vary the stimulus.
Full Circle
It's fun for me to look back and see how I've come full
circle. When I was a younger, healthier, headstrong
powerlifter, I couldn't give a shit what I looked like as long
as I was pushing up ridiculous weight.
Looking through the past 30 years of my training career,
amidst all the painful injuries, crushing defeats, and
occasional blissful victory, there's a noticeable theme:
my progress always accelerated when I let someone else
take control.
But today, as a beat-up, retired powerlifter training to get
jacked, I catch John saying the type of stuff I used to make
fun of.
The irony is, in no instance did I ever want to give up
control. I never wanted to go to the old barbell club – my
dad had to drop me off there.
"The weight is just a tool, bro, to
get you looking jacked!"
When I first met Louie Simmons I thought he was a fraud
– but when I did everything he said, I became one of the
strongest men on the planet.
"Who cares how strong you are, just
get a pump!"
"It's not how much you can lift, but
what you look like."
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I thought I walked normally – until Alwyn Cosgrove pissed
himself laughing at seeing me trying to descend a flight
of stairs.
Putting Myself in John Meadows' Hands
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I thought I'd either be a jacked wanna be bodybuilder or a
fat off-season slug – until I let John Meadows take control.
When I was on my own and in full control of my destiny,
like after I first left Hard Bodies to go back to powerlifting,
or when I finally walked away from Westside, I nearly
destroyed myself. I really was my own worst enemy. Hell,
I still am.
You will always be your worst client. You might help
thousands of people, but don't trust yourself to be your
own coach. You'll either get injured or won't live up to your
potential. So swallow your pride.
You will be better if you let someone help you be better.
You're reading T Nation so you're already light years
ahead of the curve. Now ask yourself: Am I just reading
the articles and cherry-picking the odd tidbit of advice
that validates what I currently do, or am I truly all in?
Do you do every published program as written, or do you
follow your bullshit modified Frankenstein version?
Do you take the workout protocols as directed or do
you try to outthink Tim Patterson when it comes to
supplements?
Do you adjust the volume because you think you know
more about getting strong than Jim Wendler, or use your
own favorite exercises for getting big because you're
more up to speed on the subject than Thibaudeau or
Meadows?
If you do, your ego is what's holding you back. It's fucking
you over. These guys know more about this stuff than
you. It doesn't make you a bad person – it's just the facts.
Swallow your pride and let somebody better call the
shots. Go all in.
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If you suddenly needed a doctor to remove your
appendix, would you ask for the guy who reads a lot
online and loves to "experiment?" Or the licensed
surgeon who's done it a thousand times?
Listen to the real experts. Let go of control. And grow.
Life Is Competition
When I was a young I used to work so I could train and
compete in the sport of powerlifting. Now I train so I can
work and compete in business.
It's a much harder fight. In sport, everyone is out to win, no
doubt, but a true sportsman cares if they see a competitor
get hurt or carried off the platform.
In business, however, there's no sportsmanship of any
kind. There's no end of game handshakes, and you're
kidding yourself if you think for a second that your
competitors care if you can feed your kids or not.
While it may seem like I'm painting a grim picture, it's also
one of reality – and I love it!
I love it because I know how to deal with it. I've spent my
life failing under the bar – getting stapled, getting hurt,
being told I'd never compete again – but I've always
gotten back up, dusted myself off, and came back
stronger.
The gym has been the perfect classroom for me, because
business is just a slicker variation of the same adversity
I've faced since the first day I walked into a gym. And I
know what to do.
Prepare. Perform. Prevail.
Putting Myself in John Meadows' Hands
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The Perfect Strength
Supersoldier
If you've read through all the installments in this series
you're probably wondering what I think is the absolute
best training from my thirty years under the bar.
What would I do if I had access to a 13 year-old Dave Tate
who wanted to be the ultimate bad ass? How would I train
him to make him among the strongest men on the planet,
yet jacked and muscular, with outstanding health as well?
Next to Westside, what I'm doing now with Meadows is
the most productive training I've ever experienced. But
neither of these systems is appropriate for a novice.
Most raw novices are too weak for either method. Hell,
most are too weak for weight training period.
A raw novice's time would be better spent doing
bodyweight training. You should be able to perform 100
push-ups, minimum, before even approaching a bench
press. Add in pull-ups, lunges, and the other bodyweight
staples to complete the program.
Then, it's strength time. I'd do 12-16 weeks of Westside
training, ideally leading into a powerlifting meet if that
was the end goal. If not, the assistance work could shift
to address any aesthetic weak points that might benefit
from heavy, basic loading.
After this 12-16 week phase, I'd take 2-3 weeks to do
absolutely nothing before reassessing my physique and
identifying any weak points again. Then I'd start the whole
system over.
Would such a system create the absolute best powerlifter
or bodybuilder? No, some coveted muscle fullness would
be lost in the Westside phase, and some strength would
surely go during the long bodybuilding phases.
It would, however, create an athlete that's truly the best of
both worlds – muscular, strong, and well rounded.
And with that, my evolution is complete. I hope you've
enjoyed reading this series as much as I've enjoyed
revisiting it. It's brought back a lot of memories; some
painful, some cherished, but all a part of my evolution as
a man of iron. I know my training will continue to evolve,
and I look forward to sharing it with T Nation readers in
future articles.
After a decent base of bodyweight strength has been
developed, I'd next perform a sensible linear progression
routine until respectable strength levels are achieved.
5/3/1 by my friend Jim Wendler and Starting Strength by
Mark Rippetoe would fit the bill perfectly, with assistance
work programmed to target any emerging weak points in
size and strength.
However, after a certain threshold of development – say
a 1.5 x bodyweight bench press, a 2 x bodyweight squat,
and a 2.5 x bodyweight deadlift – it's time to step it up.
I'd follow a Meadows-type hypertrophy routine for
about 7 months of the year. If the primary goal was
bodybuilding, the programming would be designed to
bring up any lagging body parts (delts, biceps, etc.).
If powerlifting was the main goal, the programming would
try to stabilize any weak points such as the hamstrings
and lower back. I'd also perform more sets of 5 reps or
below.
After this 7 month phase was complete, I'd do 4-6 weeks
of transition work in which I'd slowly scale the reps down
while working in the traditional powerlifts.
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reflection
part one
The Iron Evolution series was wrapped. I thought.
We'd covered everything – from the first day I walked into
a weight room as a bullied, insecure 14 year-old, to my
10 years at Westside Barbell, to embarking on a new path
with John Meadows.
And to be perfectly honest, I felt nine installments about
me was enough.
But in the days that followed, I couldn't shake this feeling
that there was still more to say, something I'd left out. I
just couldn't figure out what it was.
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I went back to my office, to where "the pile" was still
waiting for me.
When I first started preparing to do this series for T
Nation, I'd dug up every old training journal and article I
could find and laid them on a table.
I felt a bit like Tony Montana at the end of Scarface,
standing in my dimly lit office, looking down at the pile in
front of me. Except I wasn't thinking, "The world is yours,"
but rather, "This is my world."
reflectio
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30 Years
I started training in 1982. It's now 2012, so 30 years of my
life.
Using an average of training four days per week (a low
average, as I've never trained less than four days a week)
at two hours per session, this adds up to over 12,000
hours spent in the gym.
Add in the eight years I worked as a trainer (at 50+ plus
hour per week) and that's another 20,000 hours.
3-7 Years
Over the years I've had many training partners, likely
hundreds between all the teams and groups I trained
with. When I think of how many of them are still hitting it
hard today, the numbers drop very fast.
Most that I've known never lasted more than 5 years, and
even fewer made it to 10 years. I'd say only 10% are still
doing any training at all.
And these were guys (and girls) who were very serious,
and made big sacrifices to be the best they could be.
Now factor in the volunteer coaching hours – helping my
high school, assisting at meets, speaking at seminars –
and add another 10,000 hours.
So that's over 40,000 hours, and I still haven't factored
in all the college course work, reading, research, phone
calls, private conversations, and seminars I've attended.
Long story short, I've spent more time in the gym than I've
spent working, maybe even sleeping. It would be close.
When you clock this many hours at anything, I'm pretty
sure you qualify as "serious." However, I disagree with the
popular statement made by Malcolm Gladwell in his book
Outliers that it takes 10,000 hours to be an expert.(1)
Shit to Great
The reason I disagree is the more I've learned about
training, the more I realize I don't know shit. There's so
much to learn and understand, and nobody has it all
figured out, regardless of what they say.
Once a lifter has been training seriously for 3-5 years,
they enter the most challenging period of their career.
Progress slows, injuries mount, and career and family
demands all take their toll.
When I hear someone say they have all the answers or
the secret code, what I really hear them saying is that
they've given up on getting better.
Missed lifts become plateaus, plateaus become slumps,
and slumps, once doubt starts to creep in, become ruts.
So there I was, alone in my office, confronted by
hundreds of booklets and notes and articles, each a small
reminder of the hours I spent immersed in the 30-year
study and practice of strength.
And I wondered, how many other legitimate "serious"
lifters are out there?
Not many. Fact is, I'd say that the average life cycle of a
committed, serious strength trainer is about 3-7 years.
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What makes it worse is that you remember, like it was
yesterday, how when you started training you grew like a
weed.
It falls back to my 4 stages of anything:
1. Shit
2. Suck
3. Good
4. Great
It doesn't take much to go from Shit to Suck – those are
your newbie gains. Moving from Suck to Good is a bit
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harder and takes some discipline and consistency.
Most lifters can expect to move from Shit to Good within
3-5 years. Granted, genetics plays a factor in how fast
one can progress, but even those with lousy genetics can
succeed.
Where it gets hard is going from Good to Great. Those
that can do it are among the top 10% of what they do –
often because it involves doing a few things most people
aren't willing to do.
I call this period the Dead Zone.
The Dead Zone
The Dead Zone changes everything because what used
to work no longer works, what used to be easy is now
hard, and frustration can boil over. You have to have
faith that your consistency will pay off, and most often it
doesn't.
However, if you make it through the Dead Zone, like the
character in the movie, you come out on the other side
with a type of wisdom, one that you wouldn't develop if
everything came easy to you. And it's this wisdom that
makes a serious lifter deserving of the "serious" title.
Settling is a Choice
Most long-term lifters have learned to "settle" and accept
where they are. There's nothing wrong with this, and I
totally understand why many do, though I'd like to note
that it's still a choice.
So if you've settled and just want to work out, more
power to you. If you're stuck in the Dead Zone but trying
everything in an effort to move forward, that's worthy too.
But if you're not moving forward and offer up a bunch of
excuses to anyone that will listen, that's where I take issue.
Just shut up. Nobody cares – not me, not the other lifters,
and definitely not the Dead Zone.
It sounds harsh, but no one said the Dead Zone is fair.
The Debt
The second thing the Dead Zone teaches you is that if
you make it through, you have an obligation to give back.
The first thing the Dead Zone teaches you is that strength
development is not linear.
Look at me – considering the amount of stupid shit
I've done, I shouldn't be training today. I doubt I should
even have a career in the strength and training industry.
And I sure as hell shouldn't be in a position where I'm a
potential role model for someone.
It would be awesome if we could just add 5 pounds a
week to our bench, but we can't – which is why we don't
have gyms full of ten-year trainees benching 1,000
pounds.
I don't deserve it. I was too bull headed, made too many
stupid choices, and told too many well-meaning doctors
and coaches to go fuck themselves to deserve this chalkdusted podium.
But emerging from the Dead Zone means that you
understand that while your poundages weren't improving,
as a lifter, you were still improving.
However, along the way I had many people who pushed
me forward, pulled me up, kicked me in the ass, and told
me the truth.
So that "miracle program" you discovered that finally put
50 pounds on your bench in 8 weeks? You understand
that it wasn't a miracle program at all – what you were
doing for two years before that program had just as much
to do with it, as it was laying the foundation for those gains
to occur.
There were also assholes who abused me, fucked me
over, took advantage, and did everything in their power to
beat me down so low that I wouldn't want to get back up.
Together all these experiences and others have made me
who I am.
And I owe them all.
There's no guarantee, unfortunately, that just by putting
in your time you'll get through the Dead Zone. Most longterm lifters don't – which is why there are thousands of
20-year lifters who look like they joined a gym a year ago.
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So the only way this could possibly make sense is that I
have a debt to repay, an obligation to help people. To dig
through this big, dusty pile of training logs and use my
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mistakes to help somebody else become stronger than
me, bigger than me.
You know you need to find a way to up your game, step
out of yourself, focus, and see what you're really made of.
Better than me.
Cause once the bar is loaded and your set comes around,
you find this place that I really can't explain. From the time
you approach the bar to the time the set is over, there's
nothing.
So that's where this series will go now. And to start, I'll
address a few questions I received since this project first
got under way.
The fight you had with your girlfriend that day? Gone.
You said training for you has never
been about getting stronger or bigger.
Can you elaborate?
Your finals? Gone.
Your work issues? Gone.
Your bills? Gone.
The asshole across the gym? Gone.
The bullies? Gone.
The hurt? Gone.
The mental pain is now replaced with physical pain, but
this is pain that you crave, because the load you've been
carrying all your life in now resting on your back – and you
have the power to smash it.
When I was a kid, the gym was the place I could go to get
away from feeling like I was worthless and a failure. I could
be in charge and decide whether I succeeded.
It was my place to build and grow, mentally and physically.
Much like other young kids who come from similar
situations, I built walls around me. My walls were built of
cast iron and steel.
It was also something I was good at. And as I grew and got
bigger and stronger, the abuse went away very fast. I went
from the kid that got "fucked with" to the kid you "don't
want to fuck with."
And I still see training that way today. The reason for
this – and the strong guys reading will be able to relate
– is there's something that happens during those very
intense sets.
It doesn't matter if it's a PR set, a Max Effort set, a strip set,
or a high-rep set, as long as it's one that you know going
in will be a challenge.
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I call this 'nothing' The Void, but it isn't really nothing – it's
everything!
When I look back over 30 years of training, my big take
away is that training is my therapy. This is why I do what I
do, both the positives and even the stupid shit. This is why
I'm so passionate about passing on what I know.
The Void is the only time that I am truly free – free from
the bullshit that other people and life has thrown at me.
It's all gone, just me and the weight. And that's where I
find my peace.
The Void has changed my life, and has become my life.
Maybe it could change yours?
So to answer the question, I don't give a rat's ass if I get
stronger or bigger. Well, I still care, but it's not why I do it.
Training is my therapy.
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It's fascinating how your training has
evolved. Has your passion for training
evolved along with it?
It wasn't the sport that attracted me as much as it was
their size, strength, and discipline. They were serious and
gave a shit about their training.
That ran its course; I stumbled back into powerlifting,
and eventually wound up at Westside, the most hardcore
strength training gym on the planet.
I'd known Louie Simmons since when I'd competed in
high school and remembered his willingness to answer
my questions and give advice. Years later, I had the
chance to train at his gym.
I basically train like a bodybuilder now, not because I want
to, but because I have to. I love strength but injuries have
forced my hand.
I continue to study strength methods voraciously
because of the strength athletes I work with. I must keep
expanding my arsenal so I can continue to help others –
but also because it's my true passion.
That's just me, though. A lot of guys first pick up a weight
to get big like Arnold or look good for the chicks – I just
wanted a place where I'd be left alone to get strong and
work off some aggression.
But the other thing was, as I mentioned earlier, I was good
at strength. And for a kid who wasn't good at anything,
that was huge, be cause it rewarded me right away.
So I stuck with it and eventually received really good
guidance from some older powerlifters, which fuelled my
passion for competitive powerlifting. It's taken me years
to understand why they did what they did and I'm forever
grateful. They saw something in me that I didn't see in
myself.
However, when I went off to college, finding serious guys
to train with was difficult. I was taught from an early age
that you couldn't learn anything training with someone
weaker or who didn't have the same desire to be their
very best.
I did discover some guys who were just as passionate
as me, so I latched onto them. Except they were
bodybuilders.
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So I moved to Columbus with nothing but a degree, a
weight belt, and a bag of squat suits and shirts. Louie, just
as those from my past, saw something in me I didn't see
in myself.
Finally, after over 20 years on the platform, I decided it
was time to move on. The injuries had taken their toll and
other things had become a priority.
I no longer wanted it as bad I as used to, and I wasn't good
enough to make progress without 100% dedication.
I knew it was over. It was one of the hardest decisions in
my life but no regrets.
After that I fumbled around somewhat, and while the
passion for training was there it was also frustrating as hell.
I was getting weaker, smaller, and the years of abuse
were killing my joints. The days I did feel good were
limited. The training sucked, it hurt, and I didn't like the
movements – but the pull kept pulling me in. Week after
week, month after month, and year after year.
In time I found a way to find relief from most of my
injuries, and many of the movements I'd been unable to
do slowly found their way back into my program. I was
growing again and my strength started to come back.
Throughout this, I knew that I had to just keep doing the
sessions, keep making it to the gym, and keep looking for
answers and solutions. I knew quitting wasn't an option
because what else would I do?
So while my training has certainly evolved, my passion
really hasn't. I have always trained hard – incredibly hard –
and I surround myself with people better than me so I can
better myself.
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I think that's the key, and I'll expand on this later. If you
have to be the Big Man you will never, ever reach your full
potential. I guarantee it.
You'll be The Man in your shitty big box gym with your
315-pound bench, getting high-five's from a bunch of
skinny kids in wife beaters that get stapled under 225.
But there's a catch: if you want to learn from the bigger
guys, you better get humble.
For six months I never said a word to the big guys in my
first powerlifting club – I wanted to show them I was
serious, not tell them I was.
At Hard Bodies, I turned my life upside down to train with
the top guys, and at Westside – once I finally bought into
Louie's ideas – I became his biggest fan. I gave everything
I had each set and made damn sure my teammates got
better.
As I wrote, it wasn't always easy. There were many times I
wanted to walk, where it would've been easy to walk, and
where I'm sure they wanted me to walk.
But I dealt with it, because nothing could compare to the
feeling I had every time I got under a heavy fucking bar!
So has my passion evolved? I don't think so. I just now
fully understand and accept everything that training
does for me, all the voids it fills – so if anything, the fire is
burning brighter than ever.
How important is progressive overload
for bodybuilding?
Powerlifting is all about your total, or what you push on
meet day. Progressive overload is obviously huge.
Bodybuilding requires a lot more reps and volume and
other qualities, such as the pump and hitting the muscle
from multiple angles. A 600-pound bench press does not
guarantee pecs like Arnold.
If anything, powerlifting can build a decidedly unbalanced
physique, since the focus is so squarely focused on load
and finding the absolute best leverages to move it.
So the question becomes, how strong is enough?
A college lineman needs a strong squat to play his
position. But if he can already squat 600 pounds, would
he better at his sport if he can squat 700? Or would his
time be better spent working on other demands of his
position, like footwork or blocking?
The same applies to bodybuilding. If you can dumbbell
press 120-pound dumbbells for 8-12 clean reps, getting
a good stretch at the bottom and contraction at the top,
would you build bigger pecs by straining through a few
reps with the 140's?
That's where progressive overload has its limits, 'cause
like football, the goal of bodybuilding isn't to see how
strong you are. In bodybuilding, progressive overload is
just one of many tools.
So for best results, a mix of progressive overload and
other techniques is best, especially as you get more
advanced and simple progressive overload quits working.
Beginners, however, should make progressive overload
number one. They should be slaves to their training logs
just like a powerlifter because it's still the most direct
route to increasing muscle size.
They'll still need some isolation work, though not to
"shape the muscle," but to learn how to contract a
particular muscle they're targeting.
This applies to aspiring powerlifters as well. They also
need to be able to flex a muscle in isolation, not to make
specific muscles bigger but to improve their core lifts.
This is a tough one. I have a good perspective on this as
I'm a strength guy first but have spent my recent years
basically bodybuilding.
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If their bench press stalls and they need more triceps
involvement, they need to be able to flex their triceps midrep. It's a lot easier to make this connection if you learned
this skill from day one.
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It's like learning a language. A kid can pick up languages
like a sponge, whereas an adult is lucky if he can learn
how to ask where the bathroom is in Spanish.
I long suspected that chains and bands could play a part
in hypertrophy-based training, but the missing link has
always been where and how often it should be used.
Learn the fundamentals when you're a blank slate.
Get strong, load the bar, and include some calculated
isolation work for when the time comes to migrate away
from progressive overload.
After working with John Meadows for over two years – a
serious bodybuilder who understands the science of
hypertrophy training – it's all finally coming together.
How important is explosiveness, and
how can a bodybuilder build it?
It's important for a powerlifter to have both strength and
explosiveness in their programming. Louie Simmons
theorized that all athletes fall somewhere on a scale
between extreme explosiveness and extreme strength.
I wasn't very strong but was very explosive; others in the
gym were very strong but slow as hell.
Thanks to Louie's Westside system, I was able to maintain
and build my strongest asset (explosiveness) with his
Dynamic Method while at the same time bringing up my
weakness (strength) with the Max Effort method.
We're tossing ideas around and experimenting like crazy
– he the volume-driven bodybuilder, me the hardcore
strength guy – and what we've come up with will push his
programming to a whole other level. And we're going to
share this with T Nation readers.
Here's a hint: what most bodybuilders are doing to add
dynamic work to their workouts is way off base. It's doing
little more than tearing up their joints.
There's a better way, one that will help you put on muscle
at an alarming rate. Stay tuned.
Now explosiveness has made its way into mainstream
training, as everyday gym rats are suddenly worrying
about adding an explosive element to their workouts.
For the most part I agree with this, as explosiveness can
also add a whole other dimension to hypertrophy-based
training, but you have to be careful. You can't just fire in a
bunch of explosive work, even innocent looking stuff like
med ball work. You'll quickly get overtrained or injured as
deceleration can be very hard on the joints.
However, using chains and bands can safely add
explosiveness to your barbell training. They both provide
more loading at the end ranges of the movement, which
greatly reduces the wear on the joints.
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reflection
part two
In part 1 of this article, Dave Tate talked about his passion
for lifting, the final word on what training does for him, the
importance of progressive overload, and explosiveness.
There's a lot more here in part 2.
What's the final word on preventing or
dealing with injuries?
Simple. Don't train.
Okay, that was a jerk answer but it's also the truth.
If you just want to look good for the beach and be
stronger than the average guy there's absolutely
no reason to get injured, unless you're a complete
moron.
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Learn good technique from day one, follow a decent
program, and stop every set 1-2 reps shy of failure. Let
your diet do the rest of the work and reap the rewards.
But if you want to be exceptional – like really freaking
strong or really big – you're going to have to step it up and
expose your body to greater risk of injury.
You can get far training safe but there's a limit. I don't care
what anyone says, you will not reach your full potential in
anything without pushing the envelope.
I'm not proud of the laundry list of injuries I've suffered,
but I don't regret the motivation behind why I suffered
them. I was trying to be the strongest motherfucker on
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the planet, not impress some clown at the gym or my own
ego.
Still, I'm reminded of the choices I made every day when I
can't reach my hand over my head.
So if you're an ordinary guy and don't want to end up like,
well, me, what should you do?
First, start putting your compound lifts last (unless you
are a competitive powerlifter, but that's a completely
different topic).
Your performance in the big lifts will suffer – though
likely not as much as you think – but you'll go a long way
towards preventing the typical barbell injuries. Besides, if
you're a bodybuilder, why are your big 3 so important to
you anyway?
Next, take your warm-up sets seriously. Most guys warmup sufficiently for the bench or squat, but they do the
following for smaller movements like curls:
Let's assume an 8RM of 50 pounds and the workout calls
for 3 sets of 8 reps.
However, if you're a beat-up former or current powerlifter,
I suggest trying what I did in this installment– doing
full range of motion exercises with slow tempos and
workable loads. It sucks and is boring as hell, but it worked
better for me than all the mobility drills put together.
Biggest mental lesson from Westside?
To rise above the bullshit. To be a team first and get shit
done. If you couldn't see past the drama or your own
reflection, you were in the wrong place and wouldn't last.
This explains why in the 10 years I trained at Westside
I saw very few people get kicked out, but did see many
people leave and never come back.
It boils down to keeping ego in check. A lot of gyms miss
out on being truly great strength places because ego gets
too much oxygen. When that's allowed to occur, someone
invariably thinks they're interests are bigger than the rest
of the club.
So they go off on their own and set up camp somewhere
else, usually a gym where they're the top lifter by a
country mile and have a bunch of ass-kissers around to
remind them of how strong they are.
30 pounds x a couple reps (warm-up)
40 pounds x 8
Sure, it's comfortable – they don't have other strong guys
constantly nipping at their heels or Louie in their face
telling them to get their act together.
45 pounds x 8
50 pounds x 8
A smarter way, one that I learned from John Meadows,
would be:
35 pounds x 8
45 pounds x 8
50 pounds x 8
50 pounds x 8
50 pounds x 8 (all sets with 50
pounds, stopping just shy of failure)
Of course, you might only get 8 reps with 50 pounds the
first work set, but that's still double the quality volume.
And in bodybuilding, volume with a meaningful load is
crucial.
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But when you're Grand Poobah, what do you learn lifting
with a bunch of people that are weaker than you? How
can you grow? You basically cut your progress off at the
knees, all because you wanted to be Mr. Big Shit. No
wonder Louie wouldn't have any of it.
The next lesson, and this is related to the first, is that to be
truly excellent, you have to make helping others become
better than you your number one goal.
A lot of guys, even some of the guys at Westside, never
truly bought into this. They'd pitch in and assist and give
spots or whatever, but they never really relished in seeing
someone else excel. And that should be goal number
one.
Today I realize that's what greatness is built upon. It's like a
circle – someone mentors you, you excel and mentor the
next guy to be better than you, and the whole team wins.
It always stings a bit to see your name wiped off the
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board, but what some don't get is that your time to be
number one may come again. If it doesn't, and you did
your job, while you may not see your name when you look
up at the board, you'll see all those you helped to get up
there. And there should be pride in this.
What's the biggest technique issues
you see among regular gym rats?
Squatting is an absolute train wreck. I don't want to get
into it. Just read this article. Watch the videos. Learn to
squat, and squat well.
Deadlifting is getting as bad squatting, unfortunately. My
biggest peeve is all these clowns posting pics of their
deadlift with bumper plates. I see these bars stacked right
to the collars and think wow, that's an 800-pound fucking
pull. Then I take a closer look and realize that it's stacked
with 10-pound bumper plates.
Please, to deadlift in a manner befitting a proper
deadlifting barbell, use steel plates. If you have to use
bumpers, then use the fucking 45's.
Incorporating powerlifting variations into a bodybuilding
program could be the most effective step a struggling
bodybuilder can take. It's also a huge can of worms, and
deserves at least its own article – or more – so stay tuned.
What's the biggest thing you learned
about nutrition through all this?
To put it simply, nutrition is way more important than I
ever gave it credit for.
I ate a lot of crap when I was younger, but since I was
trying to get as big and strong as possible, it never really
held me back. However, when I eventually had to pay the
piper and lose fat, my nutrition obviously had to improve.
Next, when I moved from just wanting to be healthy
to looking jacked, nutrition suddenly became hugely
important. And now, as I set out to live life looking like
a bodybuilder and being healthy, nutrition accounts for
about 80% of my efforts.
And stop posting pics of that shit and calling it Beast
Mode. It's more like Yeast Mode.
The biggest thing I've learned is that healthy food doesn't
have to taste bad or be boring as hell, nor do you have to
eat the same things every day (though I freely admit that
I still do).
Many powerlifting assistance movements should be in a
bodybuilder's repertoire. Any favorites?
The next thing is how much of a difference peri-workout
nutrition makes.
That's a good question, and my eyes have really been
opened to this since training with Meadows.
Back when I powerlifted competitively, we used to just eat
a ton and usually drank some type of sugar like Gatorade
around training. That seemed to "work" okay, though
it's impossible to say with the other 8,000 calories I was
cramming in every day.
Now John is a smart guy and is keen about changing
things up, but for shit sake man, there's more to triceps
than extensions and pressdown variations. Granted, John
also has 20-inch arms so he kind of knows what he's
doing, but my point stands.
The powerlifting variations are way more effective in
my opinion and far easier on the elbows than even
"light" skullcrushers. They also carry over to the
bench better.
For triceps, these are my favorite powerlifting
movements:
è Floor press
è Pin press
è JM press
è Close-grip push-up
è Band pushdown
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Once I quit powerlifting seriously, I dropped the Gatorade
and never really missed it, especially considering I don't
enjoy drinking much fluid while training anyway.
So when Tim Patterson first asked me about trying
his protocol I was extremely skeptical. I'm already not
a fan of workout drinks, and now you want me to suck
back a gallon of this stuff? (His original prototype was
unflavored, imagine that.)
But I took him at his word and gave it a shot, and was
completely blown away by the results. In fact, I contribute
much of my recent success to BIOTEST's Plazma™. The
stuff just flat out works. You get leaner almost daily while
adding weight and strength. It's nuts.
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If you don't believe me, ask Meadows. He's added 10
pounds of stage weight in one year and the only thing
he changed in his prep was adding Plazma™ during his
workouts. For someone at his level development, 10
pounds in one year is ridiculous.
The exact protocol that Tim sent me was 4 scoops of
Anaconda™ Muscle Loading Protocol™ before training, 2
scoops of Plazma™ during the workout, and 2 scoops of
Mag-10™ Protein Pulsing Protocol™ post workout. That's it.
It's still a lot of liquid, but I feel like it buys me considerable
leeway. I can basically screw up my diet everywhere else
and as long as I take in this protocol, I'll meet my body's
needs and grow.
That's a huge plus for me. I have enough to think about, so
the last thing I want is to be stressed about what I eat. It's
nice knowing that as long as I have these drinks around
my training sessions that I can basically cruise through the
rest of the day. So if anything, this peri-workout protocol
is a huge stress reliever.
Again, it's not post-workout nutrition. Post workout is only
part of the equation as you miss out on a huge opportunity
by not having carbs and amino acids present in your
bloodstream while lifting. That's when it really matters.
I especially like this protocol for guys who are either too
busy to eat or don't have a big appetite. I personally find it
very hard to eat even 4000 calories per day, and the truth
is I'd rather not. So gaining weight is and has always been
a struggle. So for me, peri–workout nutrition is a lifesaver.
What makes a good coach-client
relationship?
Like any relationship, the number one thing is respect, and
it has to go both ways. The coach has to be patient and
overlook your immediate flaws to see the bigger picture and
capable of figuring out what you need to excel long term.
The thing is, everyone is unique, and it may take even the
most astute coach a few months just to figure out how
your body works, what foods make you hold water, how
you respond to training and energy system work, and how
well you recover.
I made my best progress strength-wise when I spent 10
years under the tutelage of Louie Simmons. 10 years
is a long frickin' time, but I needed a year to buy into his
system, and then at least another year for Louie to identify
exactly what I needed to work on.
Sometimes I wonder just how strong I could've become
had I headed to Westside right after high school when I
was a 500-pound bencher but still relatively raw.
Physique-wise, I made great strides with John Berardi
and Shelby Starnes and Justin Harris, but I never enjoyed
the balance between health and body composition
like I do now with John Meadows, and it's not because
Meadows is any smarter than those other guys. He's
just had over two years of watching my physique and
tweaking my diet to figure out how my body works.
So find a competent coach who you enjoy working with,
preferably a decent guy who won't abandon you when he
gets busy. Then stick with him. Let him figure you out and
approach this thing as a team.
However, I still need to rant: most coaches suck!
Look at some of the programs being pushed today. It's
a travesty, and I honestly think it's gotten worse over the
past five years.
And of course, the trainee has to accept that the coach is
human and may not have all the right answers 100% of
the time. This is something I see increasingly happening,
especially in bodybuilding.
It seems like many new coaches and trainers have zero
interest in studying the science of training or in doing any
research whatsoever. They don't teach the lifts properly
– just watch some of their YouTube videos – nor do they
know how to program them.
Guys hire a coach to get ready for a show, they work
together for 12 or 16 weeks but things don't quite come
together in time. So the trainee is disappointed, fires the
coach, and hires someone else.
All they seem capable of doing is taking any successful
program they can find and copying it (sometimes
even selling it) without taking the time to even try to
understand it.
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I'll admit to being a bit of a technique whore, and I agree
that you won't always see the best technique during a
work set. And there's always the possibility of joint or
structural limitations that make the lift look bad.
But that's not what I'm talking about. I'm not busting
chops over coaches allowing partial reps, leaning forward
in the squat, or slightly hitched deadlifts. I'm talking about
things that would make anyone say what the fuck?!?
I'm not going to elaborate any further. There are still many
great strength coaches out there doing a fine job, but to
those who I am talking to – clean up your act and start
respecting your craft, or get the hell out. You know who
you are.
In bodybuilding, is it volume,
intensity, or variety?
Great question. I'd say it's all three.
First, let me define intensity as that's often a point of
confusion, especially for guys who have toes in both the
strength world and the bodybuilding world.
I define intensity from the classic strength context,
meaning as a percentage of 1RM, not simply as "working
really hard," which is how most bodybuilders define it. But
for our purposes, we'll use the bodybuilding definition.
For hypertrophy, you have to work hard and you have to
work with enough volume. The heavier sets build strength
and allow you to use bigger weights during the 6-12 rep
hypertrophy sets. And most recreational bodybuilders fail
on both fronts.
Intensity-wise, I like bodybuilders to work each set just
shy of failure – 1 rep in the hole is a good guideline.
There's no need to drag out sets until you blow your
scrotum off, although I've noticed that my "one rep in the
hole" is often another guy's balls-out killer set.
Expect more from yourself and raise the bar. If you're
capable of sending a legible text message between sets,
you probably aren't working hard enough.
Volume-wise, that's a little more individual. Some can
definitely handle more, but it's often excessive volume
that pushes recovery boundaries.
A good rule for hypertrophy is to train until you start to
lose your pump and then end the session. Leave the gym
feeling gassed, but not throwing up in the parking.
It boils down to common sense. Look at the bodybuilders
winning shows – whether they're pros or amateurs or
natural competitors – they all follow a basic template: 2-3
exercises per body part, 3-5 sets of 6-12 reps, each set
taken just shy of failure, and each body part trained every
3-7 days.
That's basically what most of them do,
so why reinvent the wheel?
What are the best intensity techniques, and how can you
program them to avoid overtraining?
As stated, I like sets to generally stop just shy of failure,
even if it's 4 or 5 sets. There's simply no physiological
need to extend the set deep into the pain zone to elicit
an adaptation. That's not just my opinion either, it's one
that's supported in the literature and shared by strength
coaches for decades.
However, I still do them on occasion. Meadows is a
ridiculously hard trainer, and every workout has at least
one strip-set or extended set that leaves me in a sweaty
heap.
Keep in mind, John and I have both been training for
nearly 30 years. There isn't much our muscles haven't
been subjected to, and even basic, hard work sometimes
isn't enough.
But for the younger trainee I wouldn't
bother. It isn't necessary, and you can get
everything you need by keeping the quality
of your sets very high (good form), working
reasonably hard (1 rep shy of failure), and
getting in enough volume (don't count your
warm-ups as work sets).
Another thing, most trainees don't rest
enough between sets. You should rest at
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least 90-120 seconds between work sets to allow for
maximum poundage to be used.
Sure, you can step it up somewhat between sets of curls
or pressdowns, but if there are plates on the barbell, then
give the set the proper respect it deserves. Rest as long as
you need and then rest a bit more, and then hit your set.
Take every single set seriously. Pretend training is your
job and substandard effort just won't be tolerated. Set
high standards for your partners, and if anyone tries to
hold you back, dump them.
And if you see you're holding yourself back, remember
how important this is to you. There are no do-overs or
mulligans in life. Get after it, today.
It might result in your workout exceeding 60 minutes, but
you won't suddenly evaporate if your session exceeds an
hour. Not to mention, the peri-workout nutrition buys you
some leeway, so take advantage of it.
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Elite Wisdom
Here's what you need to know...
è Stressed? Overwhelmed? Take it out on the iron.
and nonstop meetings on top of the normal day-to-day
bullshit every business owner has to deal with and I was at
my limit for stress.
è Set goals, but be very careful who you share them
with. Crush the naysayers with your success.
To combat this, I tried to do what I always did when life got
stressful – I trained.
è There's a special kind of "spiritual cleansing" that
occurs during intense sets. Seek it out.
Normal types might scoff at the notion of hitting the gym
with so much shit going on, but they aren't seeing the big
picture – or at least my big picture. I don't punish myself
with drop-sets and high-rep squats to build muscle. I do it
to kill my demons.
Crush Your Demons
I've been through my share of shit, but 2010 was probably
the worst year yet.
That year I lost my father. It was a terrible process that
started with him suffering a stroke and being rushed to
the hospital. While admitted, the doctors found he also
had cancer.
My dad was eventually released and bounced back and
forth between long-term care facilities and the hospital
before eventually passing away a few months later.
We all have demons inside of us. Some have more than others,
and some guys can deal with them better than the next. That
40-something stressed-out businessman who suddenly
snaps and bludgeons the Walmart greeter with a plunger is an
example of someone who can't handle his demons.
I'm not saying I'm always inches away from committing
manslaughter, but I can be a real dick when I let stress get
the better of me.
So I smash my demons. I crush them under PR's.
Not long after my dad died, my wife suffered a pulmonary
embolism and was also rushed to the hospital. Seconds
away from dying, the doctors had to perform emergency
open-heart surgery to save her.
And if I'm too fucked up to train heavy, I torch them with
extended sets, rip them apart with rest pauses and drop
sets, and then chase them away with whatever fucked-up
finishing exercise I can think of.
Finally, on the business front, I had two monstrous legal
issues that were coming to a head. So add legal wrangling
The demons always come back, mind you, but as long as I
have a key to my gym I can stay one step ahead.
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Set Your Goals High
and Keep 'em to Yourself
When setting goals, keep your goal specific to yourself
and a select few. Keep your goal general to all others.
In other words, if your goal is to bench 400 pounds, keep
that as a marker in your mind, but if others ask just tell
them, "I'm training for a bigger bench," or "I'm working
toward a new PR."
Your goal may be to get your body fat down to 6%, but all
the masses need to know is, "I'm dieting right now."
The reason for this is simple: 90% of everyone you meet
are negative pricks who will go out of their way to tell you
why you can't do something. Once they know your goal,
they'll try and tear you down. Just keep it vague, and all
they can do is wish you success.
Of course, they may still try to tear you down once you've
actually accomplished your goal, but who cares. You've
done the work and have the results to show for it. They
couldn't have done it. So fuck 'em.
I do feel it's important to put the goal out there to make
you accountable, but I'd only tell those who know you can
do it and will hold you accountable.
Take a good look at the people around you, and consider
yourself lucky if you know even a small handful of people
like this. But all you really need is one: you.
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Embrace the Void
When I was a kid, the gym was the place I could go to get
away from feeling like I was a worthless failure. I could be
in charge and decide whether or not I succeeded.
It was my place to build and grow, mentally and physically.
Much like other young kids who come from similar
situations, I built walls around me. My walls were built of
cast iron and steel.
It was also something I was good at. And as I grew and got
bigger and stronger, the abuse went away very fast. I went
from the kid that got "fucked with" to the kid you "don't
want to fuck with."
And I still see training that way today. The reason for this
– and the strong guys reading will be able to relate – is
there's something that happens during those very intense
sets.
It doesn't matter if it's a PR set, a Max Effort set, a strip set,
or a high-rep set, as long as it's one that you know will be
a challenge.
You know you need to find a way to up your game, step
out of yourself, focus, and see what you're really made
of. Because once the bar is loaded and your set comes
around, you find this place that I really can't explain. From
the time you approach the bar to the time the set is over,
there's nothing.
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The fight you had with your girlfriend that day? Gone.
Your finals? Gone. Your work issues? Gone. Your bills?
Gone. The asshole across the gym? Gone. The bullies?
Gone. The hurt? Gone.
The mental pain is now replaced with physical pain, but
this is pain that you crave, because the load you've been
carrying all your life is now resting on your back. And you
have the power to smash it.
I call this "nothing" The Void, but it isn't really nothing – it's
everything.
When I look back over 30 years of training, my big takeaway is that training is my therapy. This is why I do what I
do, both the positives and even the stupid shit. This is why
I'm so passionate about passing on what I know.
The Void is the only time that I'm truly free – free from the
bullshit that other people and life has thrown at me. It's all
gone, just me and the weight. And that's where I find my
peace.
The Void has changed my life. Maybe it could change
yours?
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Elite Wisdom
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