There has been a lot of talk in the HIIT community and HIT forums about abbreviated workouts; doing a training of one or two series. On hearing this for the first time, the layman who has not been trained in the HIT fashion would dismiss it as a ridiculous statement. I guarantee you that this type of training is nothing to write home about, if you understand the limited resources of the body and what it takes to stimulate strength and muscles.

In the past two days, I have had the pleasure of speaking with two people, one from my bodybuilding past, a close friend, and one I recently met through a friend of a friend, who reminded me of the days of yore. , when I started with bodybuilding.

Alex, who is a high energy presence in Nautilus Exercise Equipment and myself, was reminded of the old hard core gyms, where extremely strong men even by today’s standards, would do crazy things before a set, because their psyche was so into his series. Alex talked about a gym called the BG gym…BG stands for Blood and Guts…where there are still holes in the wall next to the squat rack where one of these extremely strong men, after scoring and smelling good an ammonia capsule , headbutted through the wall, hit a stud and with his head bleeding he proceeded to squat hundreds of pounds to exhaustion. How many sets like that do you think one could do? (without the bleed of course!)

I have memories of a picture floating around somewhere (perhaps still) in upstate New York of a guy named Bill, on an electrical rack, wearing a military helmet and no shirt, with a thousand pounds on his shoulders after doing half squats with him. . There were no 100-pound discs in the gym, so the spotters strapped 45-pound discs to the closed collars to bring them up to 1,000 pounds. The bar flexed around his shoulders. Crazy right… only one set could be performed, that’s all she wrote!

You can tell what I mean. After performing sets like this, how many more sets to failure do you think the body is capable of without using all the resources necessary to not only compensate but overcompensate for the exhausting effects of the training? Let me put it another way… how many 10 second exposures, one meter from the sun, can you take, before your body disintegrates? Remember that the exercise is only the stimulus; we grow muscle outside the gym!

As I was talking to my close friend Jimmy last night, who I grew up with, it was apparent that even today, many of those who train in gyms these days do not have a thorough understanding of how muscle gains are achieved. However, Jimmy and I do, and I’m going to share it!

JIMMY’S SUCCESS

Jimmy was an incredible athlete and still is. Years ago, when we were twenty years old, Jimmy and I trained together in the same dungeon. I call it a dungeon because that’s what it looked like. There was no flashy equipment unless you call a plate-loaded leg extension machine and a lateral pulley machine flashy. For us it was all about strength because we knew that strength was always followed by size. The stronger you get, the more muscular you will become.

Jimmy was 6’3″ and weighed 310-320 naturally, without drugs. Although what I’m about to tell you wasn’t his normal routine, he sometimes enjoyed the change up working up to 400 lbs for behind the neck press, 315 lbs for barbell curl , 500 or 600 pounds for shrugs. But this wasn’t his main training, it’s not how he got to his incredible size and strength.

THE MAIN ROUTINE

His main routine was the bench press, squat, row, and deadlift… just three exercises. He didn’t waste time on the little exercises that usually didn’t matter. At the time, we weren’t wearing wristbands either, we were using chalk! You know, hand chalk? Or you? It would always be, “Jimmy, pass the chalk!” before a heavy lift as it was all about grip strength and you are only as strong as your weakest ink!

As we talked last night, Jimmy shared a story. While he was deadlifting in his regular gym, another younger guy was deadlifting next to him, he was in his early twenties. Jimmy, the gentleman that is his, offered his chalk to this young man before doing his set of deadlifts. The young man replied…”What is that?”

In the days of wristbands and shiny equipment, elevator music in corporate gyms, and little noise or gym yelling or grunting before a set, I reflect a lot on what laid the foundation for our success. It was the basics! It was the desire and the mentality, that “no matter what” mentality! What we did worked. We trained with abbreviated routines, we trained for strength, and our physiques showed it. We ate well and were not bothered by a little fat in the stomach. Our motto was: “Don’t narrow the waist, broaden the shoulders.” Because it’s the illusion in bodybuilding that makes the difference, which is why a man with the right symmetry and body type looks heavier than he normally is. Remember Dorian, it is said that his waist was almost 40, but you would never know it!

MIKE MENTZER, THE THINKING MAN’S BODYBUILDER

Mike Mentzer, still my bodybuilding hero to this day, years later, validated what we already knew worked. Not because we thought of it the way Mike did, but because that’s the way Jimmy and I trained as bodybuilders in a powerlifting gym! It was all about strength. We never worked; right up to our “working set” we call it. We barely did anything but great exercises and we didn’t want to waste energy. When we still felt tired when our next workout was scheduled, we would go eat and not worry about it. We would come back stronger the next day.

Mike showed us why it worked so well. Mike established the true theory of High Intensity Training and with that theory he reasoned and experimented to the point where he had no doubt that a shortened routine is the most productive step towards reaching his muscular goals. I am very grateful for his work and his contribution to bodybuilding. I don’t think anyone so far has had such a profound effect on the bodybuilding community.

WHAT EXERCISES COUNT

The next question is which exercises are the best. Well, with strength in mind, Paul Anderson, who is my strength hero, knew and understood that strength really comes from the legs and back. So this is where the focus should be. The basics… squats, deadlifts, rows or high pull and to finish off, a pushing movement on the order of a press, bench or dip. Where is the arm, shoulder and calf work you ask? There is no need. Trust me if you do it right you don’t need any. Both Jimmy and I, without doing any direct arm or shoulder work for months, experienced huge arms even by today’s standards. Jimmy recorded over 20 inches and mine 18 ¾ inches. Without curling for months, he could do barbell curls for 225 or more reps! My calves responded similarly as did my shoulders with a 275 behind the neck press without doing them!

I am currently experimenting with such a program and once I perfect it in the gym I will post it on my website, but in the meantime stick with the basics for best results.

Jimmy, pass the chalk! And the ammonia capsules! 🙂