| Nobody can rightfully lecture me about training | | | | professional bodybuilder Tom Platz took all of his sets |
| intensity. In the mid-1980s, I endured over thirty | | | | to failure and beyond. My thoughts were 'big deal - I |
| weeks of BUD/S Training; the basic regimen one | | | | do this all the time'. It seemed that without the aid of |
| goes through to enter the Navy SEAL Teams. I | | | | steroids and the genetic predisposition for |
| went through that training's Hell Week twice - start | | | | superhuman recovery, I was destined to build more |
| to finish. At a tender age, I learned how to push my | | | | character than muscle from high intensity practices. I |
| body well past the pain barrier of muscle fatigue and | | | | wanted an attention-getting body, yet all I was |
| bodily exhaustion that's a signal to most people that | | | | producing was attention-getting workouts. |
| it's time to quit and take a rest. I could, upon internal | | | | It's this frustration from which I want to save natural |
| command, become an endorphin-releasing, | | | | trainers. You will waste your time and effort by |
| pain-ignoring workout machine... unstoppable! | | | | taking the no-pain/no-gain mantra to its extreme. |
| Our dependability under pressure was augmented by | | | | Much like a member of BUD/S Training, you'll build |
| such a regimen, but not our physiques. In other | | | | plenty of character, but not a nicer body. |
| words, in BUD/S Training, we built more character | | | | You might be asking how I could make such a claim. |
| than muscle. | | | | Yet the answer is revealed when you really ask |
| Later on when I took up natural bodybuilding, I | | | | yourself how well you're doing with your muscle |
| carried my work ethic and proclivity for intensity | | | | building progress if you're a practitioner of forced |
| over to that endeavor. This resulted in | | | | reps or any other bodybuilding intensifying techniques. |
| experimentation with every conceivable bodybuilding | | | | Are you making steady and measureable gains? |
| workout intensifying technique in existence. I've used | | | | Some words of warning: a 'pump' at the conclusion of |
| drop sets, pre-exhaustion, up-and-down-the-rack, and | | | | your workout is not a sign of gains. The same is true |
| the ever ubiquitous forced reps. Name the intensifier | | | | for local muscle fatigue and soreness. As I often tell |
| - I've tried it. At one time, I even used a derivation | | | | people: "A successful workout might be physically |
| of forced reps that was borderline insane. Imagine | | | | taxing - but this doesn't mean any physically taxing |
| taking a bench pressing weight with which you can | | | | workout is successful." |
| eke out ten repetitions. Now imagine your spotter | | | | In order for a muscle building workout to be |
| standing behind the bench and pushing down on the | | | | successful, you must move a slightly higher volume |
| weight for the first few reps as you attempt to | | | | of weight than you did during your previous workout. |
| push it up. By the time you make it to the second | | | | This won't happen without adequate inter-workout |
| five reps, your spotter has shifted from trying to | | | | recuperation. And adequate recuperation is next to |
| make the weight heavier for you to trying to help | | | | impossible after muscles have been obliterated due |
| you bring it up on the positive. This effectively gives | | | | to the erroneous belief that this will somehow equate |
| every rep the intensity of a forced one and will have | | | | to more or better growth. |
| your spotter inadvertently getting a bent over | | | | If you're a natural trainer (or even if you're a steroid |
| rowing workout. I don't recommend that you try | | | | user who wants to make progress between cycles), |
| these. | | | | heed my advice. Don't waste time and effort |
| In fact, I'm here to dissuade you from engaging in | | | | discovering what took me years to figure out. Push |
| any of this nonsense. If workout intensifying | | | | your bodybuilding workouts with enough intensity to |
| techniques were the key to muscle growth, I would | | | | burst through your past volume records. Couple this |
| have been freaky huge by the time I was | | | | practice with enough rest and recuperation between |
| twenty-nine. Instead, I was chucking my weight belt | | | | workouts to allow a warm expansion and absence of |
| across the room in frustration as I arrived home | | | | soreness to permeate the tissue. |
| from the gym each day. I was mad at bodybuilding. | | | | When you do this, you'll be well on your way to |
| Thoughts of quitting plagued my mind. Nowhere was | | | | steady muscle growth. You can then leave the |
| there such a mismatch between effort and reward | | | | character building to those more devoid and desirous |
| than in this wacky endeavor or sport. | | | | of that than a great physique. |
| I remember reading an article that raved about how | | | | |