Old-Time Bodybuilding Methods: Train Through the Soreness

Old-Time Bodybuilding Methods:

Train Through the Soreness

I know this method's going to be a bit controversial, given all the emphasis in muscle magazines the past few years on giving your muscles enough time to "recuperate" and "repair." But, let me explain, and maybe I'll have a few converts (especially once you put the method to proper use).

I think it's mistakenly believed that bodybuilders of the past trained so frequently (usually 3x weekly for each bodypart) because they simply didn't know any better. But, if you were to ask the great Bill Pearl if he would change the way he used to train considering all the new "knowledge" about recovery, he would flatly tell you, "no." The same goes for longtime Iron Man contributor George Turner. He's seen it all, and done it all, and still believes frequent, volume-oriented training is better.

One of the reasons bodybuilders who train each bodypart once-per-week get so sore is because, well, they train everything once-per-week. This never allows you to increase your rate of recovery, because the demands are never placed on your body to do so. Sure, if you start training everything two, or even three, times a week you're going to be sore, but after a couple of weeks the soreness will subside. Then, look out, because it's growth time.

Strength coach Bill Starr has trained a lot of lifters over the years, and he still believes three-times-a-week training is best for each bodypart. Even if his lifters could get the same strength gains from once-a-week training that they get from 3x training, he wouldn't let them do it. Why? With once-a-week training an athlete simply never gets in good condition. Old time bodybuilders knew this.

Now, I'm not suggesting you rush to the gym and start performing the same "heavy," all-out workout you've been doing once-a-week and increase it to twice-per-week. Start off by adding an extra "light" workout 72 hours after your "heavy" session (no matter how sore you are). After about a month, increase the frequency to three times-per-week, using a heavy/light/medium rotation. The longer you train this way, the harder you will be able to start training at each session. And remember, it does take years of training to reach up to the type of regimen Bill Pearl used.

Comments

Gain Mass Fast

I received a question the other day via email. It was succinct and to the point—and, when first received, I thought a bit generic. “What’s the easiest way to gain mass fast?” I get quite a bit of questions, and they are usually more in depth. Most of them, truth be told, are the opposite of this question. I find that a good many lifters have too many questions, usually because they overthink things too much or they are somehow searching for the “perfect” workout program (which doesn’t exist, by the way). In the case of this questioner, I responded with a small litany of “the usual” advice for someone in need of quick mass gains: full-body workouts, compound movements, high-frequency training, the “big 4,” plenty of calories, lots of protein… yada, yada, yada. Then last night, while I was watching one of those cozy little British murder mysteries on PBS and trying my absolute best to not...

Choose Your Own Mass-Building, Strength-Gaining Adventure (i.e. Workout Program)

Some Ready Made (yet Do-it-Yourself) Size and Strength Programs In the 5 th grade, way back in 1983, I was obsessed with “Choose Your Own Adventure” books. If you were a kid in the ‘80s, you may very well have experienced this obsession yourself. According to Wikipedia, between the years ‘79 and ‘98, the books sold 250 million+ copies, so apparently it was, in the words of Ron Burgundy, sort of a big deal. In fact, until I started reading muscle magazines voraciously starting around ’86, I’m pretty sure that the extent of my reading was comprised of Choose Your Own Adventure books, Conan the Barbarian novels, and various-assorted comic books. (My favorite comic book series at one point was “Adolescent Radioactive Black Belt Hamsters,” so take that TMNT.) Choose Your Own Adventure books, if you’re not familiar, were exactly what they sound like: books where you, the reader, decided what happened to the m...

Full-Body Blast

George Turner’s Old-School Full-Body Program for Gaining 90 Pounds—that’s right, 90!—of Pure Muscle George Turner was in his 60s in this picture! When it comes to old-school bodybuilders, George Turner remains one of my favorites. Probably because of the fact that he was more than just a competitive bodybuilder. He was a gym owner along with being a damn good writer of (damn good) training articles. He was also a bit—how should it be said?—curmudgeonly. But he was without a doubt curmudgeonly in the best possible way. He was, in many ways, similar to Vince Gironda in that regard, just without the disdain for squats. (That’s right, as much as I like Gironda, he wasn’t a fan of the barbell back squat.) Myself, I love back squats. As did Turner. Anyway, that paragraphic preamble is just a way of writing that, as I was thumbing through an old IronMan magazine this morning, looking ...

C.S. Sloan's Integral Strength

Search This Blog