Sucker Punch: Dan John

I enjoy reading T-Muscle. Overall, they have more good articles than most any other bodybuilding magazine or on-line bodybuilding site, but I have to say that the best thing about them is Dan John—if it wasn't for T-Muscle then I would never have been introduced to some of the best training articles (and honest advice) from the pen of Dan John. He ranks right up there with Bill Starr and George Turner. If you don't believe me, then be sure to read T-Muscle's latest interview with him. Just click on the link below:

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High-Set, Low-Rep Workout Variations for Size and Strength

Variations in Training with 8 to 10 Sets of 3 to 5 Reps I have written many times that I believe the best form of training—at least, when it comes to building boatloads of both massive size and serious strength—is high-set, low-rep training. If someone is starting out with this method of lifting, I generally advise 8 to 10 sets of 3 to 5 reps. The reps are low enough to build strength—if you want to be really strong and powerful, then it’s essential to do most of your training with 5 reps or lower. For instance, in my recent Go Heavy or Go Home essay, I discussed Pavel Tsatsouline’s 7 “Russian rules” of strength training. And rule #2 is “you must limit your reps to 5.” But to build muscle mass, you need (along with the low reps) a volume high enough to generate a hypertrophic response. That’s where the (relatively) high sets come in. To paraphrase Pavel again: “If you get a pump with heavy weights, you’ll get b...

Classic Bodybuilding: Serge Nubret's "Chase the Pump" Training

For those of you who are my age or older, you can probably remember well the first time you saw the amazing physique of Serge Nubret: It was in the pseudo-documentary we all now know and love as “Pumping Iron.” With the director and writers of Pumping Iron attempting to make out the film as a “David vs Goliath” with the young (but massive) Lou Ferrigno taking on the older “Goliath” in the form of Arnold Schwarzenegger, they had no idea that their whole half-true enterprise would crumble a bit with the entry of Serge Nubret. You took one look at Nubret and you knew there was no doubt that Ferrigno was out of his league with both Schwarzenegger and the Frenchmen. (Nubret was French.) Nubret - to this day - had one of the most classically beautiful physiques of all-time. Arnold, of course, won the whole thing, but Nubret easily came in 2nd. By the time I watched Pumping Iron sometime in the mid to late ‘80s, there was very little information that I could fin...

Marvin Eder’s Mass-Building Methods

The Many and Varied Mass-Building Methods of Power Bodybuilding’s G.O.A.T. Eder as he appeared in my article "Full Body Workouts" for IronMan magazine. In many ways, the essay you are now reading is the one that has had the “longest time coming.” I have no clue why it has taken me this long to write an article specifically on Marvin Eder, especially considering the fact that I have long considered him the greatest bodybuilder cum strength athlete of all friggin’ time . In fact, over 20 years ago, I wrote this in the pages of IronMan magazine: In my opinion, the greatest all-around bodybuilder, powerlifter and strength athlete ever to walk the planet, Eder had 19-inch arms at a bodyweight of 198. He could bench 510, squat 550 for 10 reps and do a barbell press with 365. He was reported to have achieved the amazing feat of cranking out 1,000 dips in only 17 minutes. Imagine doing a dip a second for 17 minutes. As Gene Mozee once put ...

C.S. Sloan's Integral Strength

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