Link Of The Day

This one's a double header, 'cause I think these are two great sites for amateur bodybuilders.

The first one is from Arnold's site. No, it's not an archive of articles about Arnold. It's not a bunch of Articles by Arnold either. It's a collection by lifters, for lifters. And it has a lot of solid, basic information. Quick reads, super valuable info. I use it a lot.

Schwarzenneger.com Fitness Archive

The second is Bodybuilding.com's Amateur page. I love this page. It's a great way to peek into the lives of other people who are learning to build their way to their goals, and if you don't learn anything academically from it you'll still walk away motivated. I use this page whenever I feel like I'm slipping behind or that my goals are unattainable. Other people in the lifting community are just as important as the iron or the kitchen. If you realize this you'll do much better. 

Bodybuilding.com Amateur Page

Great, but how does this help me?

Check out the links. I'll post more. Use the ones you like, ditch the ones you don't. It's pretty simple. 

Remembrance and Motivation

Today was another good leg day (I swear I work more than legs). I know the rule of thumb for rests in between sets is 30-45 seconds, but because I train a little differently I take a bit longer. Right before my last set of squats I happened to notice the 9/11 tribute playing on ESPN. I stopped to watch for a minute, and found that it was much better than anything on the news stations playing through other TV sets. It was a bit slower. More personal. More real.

It's been 12 years since what many people consider to be one of the biggest events of their lives. A lot has changed since then. A lot will continue to change. While the specific what of that date is important, I think the bigger what now is even more important. "Never forget" is a catchy slogan, but "remember" is a better one because it has wider applicability. There are many things to remember and many ways we can benefit from remembering. This is especially true in our training.

Great, but how does this help me?

Remember: patience is one of the best tools for growth. 

I have been very, very blessed over the years. I've had the privilege of training in 31 different gyms across 9 states and 4 countries. I've done crunches at hole-in-the-wall pits and I've run treadmills in sunlight multi-million dollar fitness studios. I've used brass ez-bar curl supports from the 60's at Vessells Fitness Complex in Rolla, MO (www.vessells.com). I swear, that place was more museum than gym- and I loved every single second spent there. I've done midnight deadlifts with German lifters at Geilenkirchen. More awesome memories.

I started 2005 at 6'1" 150lbs and ended 2009 at 6'1" and 216lbs. I've done four bodybuilding competitions to date. One day I'll get the much coveted sword. There have been ups and downs, highs and lows, gains and losses. But at the end of the day the biggest training partner you have is patience. That's exactly what I tell people: folks come up to me at the gym and ask how I got the way I did. I always tell them "patience, but balanced with a healthy dose of impatience". This might sound contradictory at first, but it's not. Too much patience makes you complacent. That's bad. Too much impatience brings mistakes. You need a balance, yes, but ours is a sport with a time span. Be able to make good strides but run the long race.

When I was starting out I took a three-stack supplement from Animal. I took liquid amino acids. I drank protein shakes like most people drink water. That was impatience. I didn't know what an amino acid was. I didn't know how protein worked. I certainly wasn't working hard enough for the supplements to have any effect. I saw big men advertising these things and thought that if I did them too I'd grow. I threw hundreds of dollars a month down the drain with absolutely no return. In the end I realized how stupid I was being. Lesson learned: don't be impatient.

Gains are what we want. As a hardgainer I know this more than anyone. You look in the mirror and see not what you are but rather what you're not. You're not wide enough. Your arms are too small. No calves. I get it. I've been there. But remember- be patient. Remember what works and what doesn't. Remember why you picked up your first weights. Remember the reason you walked into a gym for the first time. Never forget the reasons that drive you to get bigger and stronger and more confident and use them to patiently grow. I promise you- easy growth is easily lost. Hard won growth is there to stay. In the end, you'll be a better person for being patient. In the mean time lift heavy, eat well, and stay strong.

If you'd like to learn how to do the Big 3 (Deadlifts, Squats, Bench) from the best of 'em, check out

Reactive Training Systems

Got a question or want to talk about something specific? theironfilings@gmail.com

Training Day 04 Sept

Yesterday was perhaps the most polarizing training day for lifters...leg day. You either love it or you hate it. It either works or it doesn't. It's a day to remind yourself that there's more to a body than pecs, abs, and biceps. It's unfortunately also a day most people don't get the most out of. 

My coach had me do the following four lifts:

-squat

-romanian deadlifts (or stiff leg deadlifts)

-leg extensions

-leg curls 

Squats went well enough. I've been experimenting with varying my form (deep squats vs regular squats) and I've found that deeper squats seem to give me a better pump and I'm much more sore afterwards. Will the same work for you? Maybe, maybe not. There's an endless debate on what types of squats are the best (partial/parallel/deep). I'll get into why partial squats are generally a bad idea in a later post because today I want to talk about the four different ways to label a lift.

My training had me start at a warm up and work towards 10 reps for stiff leg deadlifts. I hit that fairly quickly and wanted to go a little farther. I hadn't done deads in a while and I was feeling pretty pumped up. Before I knew it I hit 305lbs for 5 reps. I felt amazing! ...and then I remembered that up next were the machine exercises. Ugh. 

I remember hearing once that "anyone who thinks extensions and curls is a complete leg day is stupid", and you know, that's pretty accurate. Don't get me wrong- machines are great. In fact, the guy in the background on the Tumblr site is Arthur Jones, inventor of the Nautilus Machine, good friend to Mike Mentzer, weight training pioneer, and all around genius. The problem is they're not good enough. To really make your legs grow you need to use free weights. 

While there are millions of different ways to work the body we only really have about four types of lifting movements. These can be labeled as restricted and unrestricted, linear and non-linear.

Think of a restricted movement as something that, well, restricts your movement. It's a lift that keeps you on one set path. There's no need to stabilize. These are your machines and cable stations. Unrestricted is the exact opposite- you're not stuck. These are your free weights. You can twist your wrist while you curl- you can move your shoulder while you do Arnold presses. These are exercises that don't restrict your movement. 

Linear and non-linear are just like they sound: they depend on a line. Pull ups? Linear. You move up and down. Bench press? Linear. Same idea. Bicep curls? Nope. You have angular movement around a joint, so it's not linear. Here are some examples of the four

Unrestricted Linear

-squat, bench, dead lift, barbell shoulder press, pull ups

Unrestricted Non-Linear

-dumbbell curls, tricep extensions with dumbbells, Arnold presses, lunges, pull overs with dubbells

Restricted Linear

-Machine presses, machine lat pull downs, cable pull downs, leg press, hack squat

Restricted Non-Linear

-Leg curls, leg extensions, nautilus curls, nautilus tricep extensions

By now you might be thinking "Great, but how does this help me?" Here's the answer: 

To maximize muscle growth, try to stay unrestricted and linear as possible. 

Unrestricted linear movements are what you'd label the big three (squat, deadlift, bench press) as. Remember how dense Franco Columbu was? He competed as a power lifter. Arnold would do dead lift competitions. Everyone who truly grew did true squats. Unrestricted linear lets your body grow strong while using stabilizers. Strength and size go hand in hand. 

While restricted linear and restricted non-linear exercises are important, and I'll talk about them in future posts, they don't allow you to use those little stabilizing muscles that unrestricted movements do. They also limit your weight, and are often ergonomically unique. I'm hard pressed to find two gyms in two cities with the exact same leg curl machine. And you know what- that makes it hard to keep track. We should all have lifting diaries, and if you squatted 135lbs for 10 reps last week you should be able to do that again this week. 120lbs on the leg curl on a Cybex machine might very well be different from 120lbs on the leg curl on a Hammer Strength station. 

I know it's hard to be motivated to do unrestricted linear movements, and that your progress might be slow, but trust me- the time and dedication are worth it. Try mixing in one or two old school lifts and you'll be surprised at what it can do for you.