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Get Big Quick

       If you have been involved in the iron game for even a little while, you probably know most of the “get big advice.”   Stuff such as “eat a lot of protein and calories,” “train heavy on the big lifts,” “get plenty of rest and recovery,” and other such “basic” advice can be found in any number of articles, YouTube videos, or Facebook posts.   And most of it is pretty good and fairly sound—I’ve written plenty of such articles covering similar material here on the blog and I will continue to do so.   But in this essay, I want to do something just a little bit different.   Here, I want to look at some various tips, training ideas, and nutritional hacks that are not your run-of-the-mill suggestions.   Most of these are not to be used long-term, but they can be quite useful when utilized over a short period of time, such as one training cycle or even over the course of only a few weeks.      Before we get starte...
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Basic Lifting, Instinctive Training

                     While doing research for my last article, I was re-reading Bradley Steiner’s original “Rugged Size and Strength” essay (from 1972) and came across this bit of advice: “Do not attempt to set up a pre-planned schedule of either sets or reps.”  That may not seem like much—it’s the kind of “basic” advice that’s easily overlooked—but there is wisdom in it, minimal as it may seem at first glance.      Depending on the workout program and the lifting population it’s aiming for, that quote could be either good or bad.  It’s not good advice for a beginner’s program, any beginner’s program.  It’s not good advice for intermediate or advanced lifters, either, who are attempting a new workout program or a new “style” of lifting that they haven’t utilized before.  For instance, if you’ve been training for the past decade on a bodybuilding workout consi...

Bradley Steiner’s Rugged Size and Strength Split Routine – Easy Strength Version

  Bradley J. Steiner, author of the original "Rugged Size and Strength Split Routine"      In the ‘70s, ‘80s, and ‘90s, Bradley J. Steiner was the voice of (what he called) “sane, sensible” barbell training.   His workouts were full-body programs done 3 times per week, utilizing a limited number of big “bang-for-your-buck” movements such as squats, deadlifts, barbell rows, bench presses, overhead presses, barbell curls and the like.   They were intended for the average, drug-free lifter who didn’t have the luxury of living at Muscle Beach in Venice, California and training all day, but worked a full-time job, had a wife and kids—you know, a “regular” life—but still wanted to build a strong, impressive physique that could move some heavy iron and turn heads at the local swimming hole.      He wrote prolifically for (primarily) IronMan magazine up until the early years of this century.   When I started writing for IronMan i...

Get Big, Strong, and Ripped—One Goal at a Time

       Stop trying to do so many things at one time.   Really.   Just stop.   If you want to achieve a goal— any goal, but we’ll stick with size and strength here—then you need to focus on that one goal.   Duh, right?   Pretty obvious.   But, as I’ve written in other essays, the obvious sure does seem to get overlooked by the vast majority of our lifting population.   So, obvious though it may be, let me repeat. Focus on one goal at a time .      I started thinking about all this, and the cognitive wheels began turning in my mind to write an essay on it, when I read these words from Dan John in an article of his on the same topic.   He wrote: One of the most overlooked aspects of muscle-building programs is a four-letter word: STOP. Stop playing basketball. Stop jogging. Stop doing cardio. I swear, if I get one more email like this, I will do something rash: “Hey, Dan: I’m interested in doing High...

The Rule of 3

     It’s important to program your workouts.   For many lifters, this can seem daunting—though it shouldn’t be—because they’re accustomed to just “working out.”   Programming your workouts, however, doesn’t have to be complicated.   In fact, it can be quite simple.      I like to recommend easy-to-follow routines where the title of the program pretty much explains the workouts contained within.   My 30-Rep Program is an example.   With it, you do 30 reps total for the entire session.   Sure, you must still understand the program’s parameters—as you ought to with all good routines—but once you do, it’s easy to follow and easy to program.      Another good example is the 3-to-5 workout .   The title of program basically gives away the whole thing.   You train 3 to 5 days each week.   You utilize 3 to 5 exercises at each session.   You do 3 to 5 sets of 3 to 5 reps on eac...