Power Points Volume 1

Power Points
For Super Size, Strength, Endurance & Health
by Bud Jeffries
Volume 1
#1-25
Disclaimer
The exercises and advice contained within this book may be too strenuous or
dangerous for some people, and the reader(s) should consult a physician
before engaging in them.
The author and publisher of this book are not responsible in any manner
whatsoever for any injury, which may occur through reading and following
the instructions herein.
Power Points for Super Size, Strength, Endurance & Health

All rights reserved.
Copyright © 2009 by Bud Jeffries
No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any

means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any
information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the
publisher.
www.Strongerman.com
www.SuperHumanTraining.com
Table of Contents
1- Consistency 2
2- What Does It Take To Get It Done? 4
3- Barbells 5
4- Consistency II 6
5- Consistency III 7
6- Why Reps Really Shouldn’t Be Reps 9
7- How Learning To Focus Will Double Your Strength 10
8- Visualization And Some Mental Tricks 12
9- How To Create Blindness For Ultimate Concentration 14
10 - It Doesn’t Take A Rocket Scientist 16
11 - Momentatum 18
12 - HIT vs. Olympic Lifting vs. Everybody Else 20
13 - Making A Popular System Work 22
14 - The Truth About Steroids & Quasi-Steroids 24
15 - The Truth About Size 26
16 - A Routine For Monster Size 29
17 - The Truth About Fitness 32
18 - A Machine Can’t Do It But You Can 34
19 - More On Cranking Up Your Endurance 35
20 - The Key To Big Dog Endurance For The Average Guy 36
21 - A Fast Workout 38
22 - A Workout To Frighten Beach Goers 40
23 - Am I A Genetic Freak? 42
24 - 1,000 Reps Up Your First Mountain 44
25 - Instant Seasoning 46
Copyright © 2009 Bud Jeffries www.Strongerman.com Pg. 1

1 - Consistency
What kind of exercise produces the best gains?
Well that's a huge shot-in-the-dark type question. You could literally argue for hundreds
of types of different exercises or plans depending on your goals. Most of them would
work, if you have the knowledge and motivation to apply them. Looking at things in the
larger sense, the best exercise that will produce the best gains for you is going to be what
you can and will do on a consistent basis. Boiling that down further, what you like to do.
Even if you don't exercise because you particularly like it, some form of exercise will be
more enjoyable to you than others and you will therefore be more likely to consistently do
that exercise. The truth is, except for the rare occasion, people will be the best at the
things that they practice the most consistently and because of the design of the human
body the more you do something (within certain guidelines) the better you'll get at it. The
better you get at it the better gains you make.
I think this idea of consistency needs to spill over into every area of your training and into
every positive area of your life. (There's no point in practicing consistency with
negativity.) For instance one of the big mistakes I think I made in my training was to not
be consistent enough about working a single exercise for particular areas of the body for a
long enough time. Most of your hardcore competitive lifters will agree that the king of leg
exercises is the squat. They probably will say the deadlift or a deadlifting type pulling
movement for the back. But for upper body development I don't think there is as clear cut
a winner. You could have at one time argued that it was the standing press. Now you
could argue for the bench press, but you could also make a great case for one and two
dumbbell presses, push ups, dips, jerks, etc. Because I like and enjoy most of these
movements I have tended to in my upper body training rotate them around according to
what I was particularly feeling like doing or enthused about at a particular time. Squats I
have done consistently using the back squat, basically every week for years. I believe if I
had picked just one exercise, upper body wise, and put the same consistent effort into it
over a number of years I would be further ahead than I am on my particular goals and
journey towards strength. It isn't that I have made bad progress or that using variety in
training isn't a good concept as well, but I do believe you should pick one movement for
each area of the body and always work it first and foremost in your training and add your
extra variety in from there.
Consistency should flow over into your diet and recuperation and into the discipline,
which you apply to your training. It's these little things that turn out to have the big
effects in your progress in the long term. Make no mistake about it, it takes long-term
training for the drug free athlete to get to a high level. Consistently eating and sleeping
cannot be short changed if you want to be your best. Discipline in your training, making
yourself stick to your training plan and goals; finding what you like to do and doing it
within the context of doing what you need to do* to achieve your goals is the only way to
stick with and progress from training in the long-term.

*What is meant here is to know that you can't substitute an inferior
exercise simply because you like it and expect to make real progress with
your training. You may like leg extensions better than squats, but you
don't get any real benefit from them comparatively. The big compound
exercises are what is necessary. Subbing in an idiot exercise does not get
the job done. Even if you don't like an exercise you can teach yourself to
like it and motivate yourself by realizing that, "Even if I don't like this
particular thing, it is necessary to achieve my goals and the real fun and
satisfaction is in achieving those goals."

2 - What Does It Take To Get It Done?
What does it really take to get big and strong and have lots of real world strength and
endurance?
Well I'll give you my answers. It takes lifting some heavy things that get progressively
heavier as you get stronger. It takes some activity, which requires repetitive endurance
from your heart, lungs and muscles and increasing that demand as you build more
endurance. It takes eating a solid balanced, consistent diet and getting adequate rest. If
you simplify and really bring things down to the requirements for accomplishing these
goals without getting into the specific protocols to use then those statements clearly define
what it takes. If you fulfill those requirements for long enough with enough motivation
and intensity you will be bigger and stronger and have tremendous endurance.
Notice that I didn't say it takes "x" type of equipment or "y" type of training or "z" brand
supplements. Why? Because nobody has a lock on building all of these things and
especially on putting them together. Everyone has their belief and preference on what
particular exercise or equipment or food or activity does this all best. I think that of the
currently active authors in the strength training world I have probably done the most as far
as trying to bring together attributes of high level strength and high level endurance at the
same time. Yet I am not even close to being and would never claim to be the end all be all
expert. I certainly believe and have clearly stated that I think a combination of barbells for
maximum strength, strongman exercises for strength endurance and bodyweight exercises
for endurance strength will do the most toward bringing you to the ultimate of strength
and endurance. However it has and will continue to be successfully done by many other
people in just as many ways. I don't prefer to use machines, but can they build strength?
Certainly. I don't specialize in Olympic lifting, but is it good for strength? Absolutely. I
don't particularly enjoy running, but will it build endurance? Absolutely. I don't
particularly like high volume, but have some people used it successfully? Of course.
Don't be afraid to take what you like from any author and build it into your personal
system and get the most benefit out of it. Some of this goes back to the topic we were
just discussing, doing what you like within the text of what you need. Everybody who is a
serious trainer has some valid point about strength or endurance, but we've unfortunately
broken ourselves into these dogmatic camps that think, live and train by these preset rules
and will allow no open minded discussion or even the possibilities of other systems having
some validity. No one should be that arrogant or foolish to believe that they have gained
all the knowledge that there is in this field or in any other for that matter.
In fact if someone tells you that they have every answer or that everything they say is right
and has no question and leaves no possibility for anyone else to have some useful
knowledge then grab your wallet and run away as fast as you can.

3 - Barbells
Its tough to beat the basic barbell for its function and for actually being a tool that will
accomplish its intended purpose. Even Arthur Jones, inventor of Nautilus and sort of the
father of the modern weight training machine movement was clear about this. Most of his
early training programs offered a significant amount of barbell work. In fact he said of his
own machines that they were simply attempts to modernize and redesign the barbell, not
replace it. The barbell and the functioning theory behind it had actually been around for
thousands of years. Any heavy object that will allow you to lift it and to eventually
progress in some way is fulfilling the same function as the barbell. The barbell simply
makes it easy to use and balanced. In fact for training limit strength and building the
utmost in pure power it's almost impossible to beat basic, heavy, compound barbell
exercises. In fact I believe that most of the really productive exercises that we use the
barbell for are simply an attempt to add progression to what was an already existing set of
bodyweight or calisthenic type exercises. As well as to add a tool that would change the
idea of applying strength for moving the body through the air to the idea of moving an
object through the air with the force of the body.
For instance the bodyweight squat and the barbell squat are opposite sides of the same
exercise coin. Certainly one was the forerunner of the other and both are basic, natural
body movements, which work a great deal of muscle and use slightly different context of
the same movement to do so. The same applies to the many types of pushups and they're
counter-parts, the many types of pressing movements done with barbells or dumbbells.
The chin up would be synonymous with the row or any type of bent arm pulling with a
barbell.

4 - Consistency II
If you can't tell by now you will certainly be able to by the end of this book that I'm big on
the idea of being consistent in your workouts. In fact I'm going to hammer this idea home
from a couple of different angles and a couple of different ways on just how far reaching
the effects are in this area of your training.
Let me say this, you certainly can get big and strong and never do the same workout
twice, yet it would be almost impossible to not at least do some of the same exercises
more than once. You can certainly get big and strong that way, but what you miss out on
is the proficiency in certain exercises that leads to big lifts. As long as you're covering all
the major strength basis (working the major muscle structures), the body will respond and
you will gain strength, but if you don't spend the time to really get good at the specific
exercises that you are doing you will never get near the level of strength you could be at.
Even if you use this haphazard style, which will probably severely limit your long-term
progress, but are consistent in applying work to all the muscle structures on a regular
basis, you will still gain strength. You will stimulate general adaptation of the body, but
not specific adaptation necessary to become a great lifter. The body, by its wondrous
design simply functions in this manner. You stimulate it, it will respond. However if you
don't give it consistent stimulation in the same manner on a regular basis you never allow
the body to adapt to a point where it can begin to truly progress.
Understand me here, I don't have anything against variety. I don't have anything against
experimentation, in fact I'm all for it. I don't have anything against using different
programs on occasion, but your training needs to be driven by a longer term goal if you
wish to really achieve an extremely high level lift or high level of power. For instance it is
not enough to simply say that my goal is to get big and strong. That may be the
generalization of your goal, but in practice it is nowhere near what is needed to get results.
Consider every project that you embark on in the context of your long-term goal and
make sure that it is consistent with achieving it. For me, my long-term goal has been to
squat 1,000lbs. A very specific goal. So every program that I undertake has that in some
point geared to make consistent progress toward that long term goal. You must set your
training up with goal orientation that is long term and specific and will force you to be
consistent in how you apply your exercises to achieve that goal. The other side goals or
generalizations will come as you achieve specific goal. For instance I have consistently
squatted for years with this goal in mind. I'm very close to achieving it. What are the
other side effects that I've gained in moving toward accomplishing this specific goal?
Have I gotten "big and strong?" Yes, I'm certainly larger and have more muscular
strength than when I started. There are multiple other benefits that I could list, but you
understand the point.
Be consistently specific in sticking to a long-term goal. It is okay to pick your own goal
out of whatever you choose. It is okay to pick several goals. I certainly have, but you
must be consistent in driving towards one point.

5 - Consistency III
Usually I don't try to beat a dead horse, but I don't think this horse is dead yet. The idea
of consistency should flow over into the specific details of every part of your lifting life.
What does this mean? In the first part of consistency we talked about showing up,
actually physically getting out there and training on a regular basis and hinted at picking
one major exercise per muscle structure and sticking with it for long periods of time. In
the second part we talked about being consistent and specific in your goals and in the
application of your training and in pushing toward those specific goals using the same
types of protocols all the time. Now we're talking about pushing this down into the
further details of your training.
Let me give it to you in a one-exercise analogy. Everybody squats for building big
strength, big body and big legs, but it is not enough to simply say, "Go squat." There is
certainly something to be said for simplicity implied there, but it is ignoring the details that
make a big difference. It doesn't say go squat at regular intervals with consistent intensity
using the same set and rep scheme for a long period of time. It doesn't say go and use that
same set and rep scheme and the same type of squat all the time and first in your routine
before you build in any other kind of variety. It doesn't say pick one major type of
progression and stick with it. It doesn't say perform those squats in the exact same
manner to the minute detail every time. It doesn't say carry the bar the same way on your
back, step out the same way, set up to the exact same stance, turn your feet exactly the
same way and begin to ascend in exactly the same way every time of every rep and every
set. It doesn't say use the same mental rehearsal, the same breathing pattern and even
wear the same shoes every time. It doesn't tell you that rehearsing this over and over and
over again is the real path to getting great at it. It’s the old adage, "Perfect practice,
makes perfect."
As you can see I've outlined in this simple paragraph that it’s the absolute detail that the
big lifters use that separates their performance from the lifters that never get to that level.
You may rarely see it and occasionally its necessary for a big lifter to modify a technique,
but 99% of the time, if you see a big lifter squat one time and then you see him squat again
five years later, other than the fact that there will probably be more weight on the bar and
he might have changed his T-shirt, everything else will be exactly identical down to the
finest detail. The width of the stance, the placement of the bar down to the millimeter on
the back, the outward rotation of toes to the exact degree, the same number of breaths
before attempting or completing the lift, the same psyching ritual, everything even down
to the same eye positioning. Why? Because the body gets more efficient the more it does
something. Because you get better at the things you practice. But to simply practice
squatting without practicing every minute detail in the exact same manner is not enough.
This of course applies to every other major exercise that you do.
It should spill over to every other detail of your workout. For instance, we tend to
simplify things down to saying, "Simply have good nutrition and you'll be okay." To a
large extent they are right. However, nutrition, just as weightlifting, should be a personal

thing that the details are specific to you and make just as much difference to the minute
details that weightlifting does. Certainly you can get by with just eating regular food and
what I'm talking about is not really a departure from this theory. What it really means is
that you're consistent about how much of everything that you eat and that it is consistent
with your all time goal. You always look at as a meal with its protein content as the first
consideration. You always follow your regular eating pattern (within reason). It may
sound like something you tell your kids, but you always eat your vegetables. You always
sleep as much as you need within the context of your regular life. I'm not talking about
the obsessive attention to detail and food weighing. That's the kind of crap that
bodybuilders do. I'm more talking about always eating a regular food with significant
protein content for your lunch rather than a bag of Doritos. I'm talking about consistently
drinking enough water to stay hydrated rather than saying, "Well I drank plenty of water
yesterday, I can get away with not doing it today, I'll just drink Coke."
It's about developing habits that are consistent to the minute detail in how you treat every
area of life. In fact all those details when listed out in the paragraph above about how you
squat, become so ingrained that you don't even consciously think about them anymore,
you simply apply them. This is the same for nutrition, rest, reps, sets, etc. The reason I
harp on this so much is because most people are so bad at it.
If you watch the average guy squat now and then watch him squat in five years you'll see
probably a completely different performance of the exercise. In fact if you watch most
people do a set of ten reps you'll see ten different styles of squats within that same set. If
you talk to them about how they ate or how they rested yesterday it might be great, but
today they had a donut and coffee for breakfast and they slept a total of two hours and
they wonder why they don't make consistent progress with their training. This is the real
reason, because they never get to a situation of true progression. They never get their
technique down enough and their workout consistent enough that the body really has to
add muscle and strength to keep up with the demand. So if you're going to hit the levels
that everybody's goals are set at, being a world class power stud, then you better take
these ideas into account and apply them to your training.
Working these details out is how you really get to know your own body. Once you've
established these things that's when you begin to leave the intermediate and beginner
stages and move to the advanced levels of strength. Only when you get these things down
do you get true progression and strength. In fact much of the gain in strength that
beginners get simply comes from efficiency that comes from learning these habits and
techniques. Once you've optimized the efficiency of the body then the body has to grow in
its own strength to get better. That's the stage you're trying to get to.

6 - Why Reps Really Shouldn't Be Reps
Watch a real experienced powerful lifter perform a set of five reps. Then watch a beginner
to intermediate level lifter perform a similar set of five reps. What do you think the
differences will be?
Most likely there will much more technical flaw in the beginner's. This should be obvious
and partly it's for obvious reasons such as the amount of time spent doing the exercises
and the amount of skill gained by the lifter. But there are even more subtle differences and
this is what I'm talking about. The advanced lifter really doesn't perform "reps," the way
and intermediate lifter does. What he performs is five single repetitions complete unto
themselves without putting the bar down. Why?
First of all he's learned that the level of concentration and technical skill that you apply to
your heaviest single attempts should apply to every rep of every set. Especially every
working non-warm up set. He thinks about each repetition as an individual entity and
attacks it that way. Not rushing, not letting effort or fatigue or pain become a factor in
pushing him to hurry through his set. Therefore each repetition has superior technical
merit when performed with this mindset. The beginner will do five reps, but generally his
focus is not strong enough to make them five perfect reps. This is simply part of the
difference gained in the mental and physical toughness that comes from years of heavy
work.
When the beginner does a set, after the first rep is a free-for-all, banging through the set
simply to get it over with as quickly as possible simply to stop the discomfort and effort.
However you must get past this stage if you expect to make big lifts. Don’t let your mind
wonder, think about each repetition as its own single. Stop, reset your position and go
again. Even in doing a set where the repetitions are relatively going quickly, the advanced
lifter is using this technique even though it may be difficult to discern with the eye. It is
especially evident in 20 rep squats, etc. If you don't learn to do it like that you'll never
learn to make 20 reps with an appropriate level of intensity and weight. For the guys who
really know how to train hard its evident even in low rep sets.
One of the things I was told as a beginning powerlifter is that a real five rep set is a weight
you can do three reps with and then do two more on guts. When you train with this kind
of mindset every rep has to be a single, focused, powerful, correct effort. This is part of
the reason I like to use single repetitions and feel many people will benefit from this
training technique. It teaches them to focus immediately and the weight is heavy enough
that if you don’t focus all of your attention and energy on that one rep you won't make it.
The advanced lifter carries this on even in single repetitions and knows that, that type of
focus is what gives him the extra weight on each repetition instead of the extra repetition
on each set.

7 - How Learning To Focus Will Double Your Strength
Your body has a built-in ability to create ultimate, powerful, laser point sharp focus!
However most people can only call up a small percentage of this ability at will. Even
fewer can call it up and apply it to a physical task at will.
Why is it you think that you hear stories about little mothers lifting cars off of their
children? Everybody talks about the adrenaline system and its effects and says that's what
makes it happen and it's true to some extent. However the part of this connection that is
never discussed is the fact that her mind controlled those chemical and physical responses.
If the mind has the ability to focus that sharply on a situation and create those chemical
and hormonal changes within the body during an emergency, then I believe that its
possible for the mind to create a large percentage of that same situation in a non-
emergency situation through purposeful, mental control. This also applies to what was
referred to in much old time literature as the "strength of a mad man," and it is literally
true.
Many mentally impaired people can display tremendous strength because they have no
realization of fear and they've broken a conscious link that separates their focus onto
multiple plains and chains it to one sharp point at a time. If they're fighting something
there is no other thought going on in their head. The same with the mother lifting the car.
In claring your mental processes you allow a deeper self to take hold. You allow the
expression of your internal self to come through physically and you allow the processes
that we keep in check through self-consciousness to turn on the animalistic physical
factors of the body. You can literally manipulate your mind into giving your body the
short-term physical power possessed by an animal through manipulation of your internal
chemicals and hormones.
You are in essence recruiting your own fight or flight response by your conscious will.
Some refer to it as part of the psyching up process, part of the focusing process, or
whatever you want to call it. It entails blocking every other conscious thought, getting to
a place where you're even past visualization, where technique is no longer a conscious
thought, it's an ingrained movement. It is complete attention to a level that recruits mind
and body into one unit focused on one task. It can be developed and it must be by great
lifters. It involves manipulating your own emotional responses to enhance your physical
outlay of energy. This is manifested differently in different people.
In competitions you see some people who are extremely outwardly demonstrative and
others who are extremely quiet, but both are achieving the same goal through different
routes. It simply shows in different ways. This is also part of the idea behind eastern
meditation and why an animal has such lightening response and power. It is to bridge the
gap created by the conscious mind between instinct and physical expression. The
consciousness of thought takes away some of the energy that would flow directly from
instinct through the body and delays and weakens some human reactions. (This is only

accurate to a point and is a partial explanation meaning you can't summon the strength of
a gorilla simply because you have that powerful level of mental control. A gorilla has a
much different physical system to work with, but you'll never get all of the power you
could get out of your own system if you don't learn to use this technique.)
This level of recruitment is not necessary or productive for every rep of every set, just the
big time stuff. Your mental focus, the exclusion of other thoughts, etc., is necessary for
every set of every rep, but extending into your own emotional and physical and chemical
manipulation is really necessary for the big lifts and not productive for the warm ups. In
fact once you learn to do this, you will learn to do it very quickly as this type of mental
harnessing burns a tremendous amount of physical energy and will burn you out if you
over do it.
If you don't believe this is true then try a light weight simply walking up, not clearing your
mind, not focusing at all and pick it up. Then do the same weight again with complete
focus and emotional recruitment. You will lift it at least twice as easily. There will be
much more power, speed and better form. This is how the body works. If you really want
it to be the strongest it can be, you have to master it.

8 - Visualization And Some Mental Tricks
I like the idea of visualizing the workout. The set, the rep, whatever it is that you wish to
accomplish. I think it an excellent, intermediary technique on the road to true strength. I
think however at some point you must get past it to some level. The intermediate guy
needs to visualize because he is rehearsing his technique and it is a confidence and focus
builder. The advanced man has the technique and confidence so ingrained that
visualization is not really as effective a tool as the extreme focus recruitment that was
discussed in the previous point.
Visualization is also easy to slip into daydreaming. To get to the advanced level, things
must be so rehearsed and your focus so powerful that the body lifts on its own without
conscious recruitment of thought focusing everything on the lift and on pushing, not on
technical points. You simply trust that they will be there and simply focus on moving the
weight.
Visualization should and does take on another aspect in your lifting career. What was
addressed in the previous paragraph was simply mental rehearsal of specific lifts. What I
mean now is building a pathway for the body to follow with the mind. To achieve super
strength you must have it in your mind before your body will get there. You must map the
course out and have absolute belief in your ability to accomplish it. You must go beyond
simple positive reinforcements and belief into action. You must put feat with your faith.
You can spend all day thinking about what you're going to do, but if you don't get out and
do it at some point, you've wasted some of you time on this planet in pure mental effort
with no physical follow-up. Dreaming an idea up and believing it into existence is
certainly the beginner part of accomplishment. Actually laying the physical effort out to
accomplish it is the achievement of that dream. So conceive what you want in your mind.
Believe that you can do it. But don't sit around wasting precious time that you could be
using to accomplish it with excess lackadaisical mental rehearsals.
Some other ideas that may act as a building block on your way to an advanced level of
super strength are some of the little mental tricks that people use to bolster their lifting.
Eventually you will get past these and all that will be there is you and the bar and complete
confidence. But they can be useful on the way to that place.
‫٭‬ Enhancing your physical arousal and defeating your level of fear by giving
whatever object it is to be lifted a non-threatening physical form. For instance
visualizing yourself as a large powerful bear and the bar as a small, about to be
eaten rabbit. This kicks on your emotional power response and takes away
from the threatened feeling you may have from a certain weight.
‫٭‬ Attaching an emotional significance to a weight. For instance, some kid that
picked on you as a child that you never had the chance to fight back against.
Calling up that emotional response and then unleashing it on the bar can be a
short-term way of productively dealing with stress (not long term), and

enhancing your lift.
‫٭‬ Giving the bar or the feat to be accomplished an imaginary humanity. Joseph
Greenstien, "The Mighty Atom," was said to have done this during his
strongman shows. Visualizing a piece of steel he would bend in a way that he
could he speak to it and assert his mental power over it. For instance, "I'm
going to beat you, I'm going to crush you, you don't stand a chance against
me."
‫٭‬ In accomplishing endurance feats it may often be productive to apply numbers

gains to dull the physical pain by a mental activity. For instance in attempting
to do 1,000 hindu squats, I found it productive to keep my mind occupied at
some level simply counting reps and not thinking about how badly my legs
were burning. I might begin to count in sets of 30 to 50 reps and progressively
decrease to shorter numbers so that accomplishing the mental task is
progressively easier as your physical fatigue becomes greater.

9 - How To Create Blindness For Ultimate Concentration
The road to this level of concentration is different for every person. What I am referring
to is a level of concentration where all conscious thought, even the conscious ability to see
is over-ridden by total internal focus. It is difficult to explain. Maybe this will clarify it a
little bit. When I squat, as soon as I have begun to take the lift, (if it's at competition it
would be just after the squat signal. If it's in training it would be just as I begin to push the
weight up in the bottom position start lift.), as soon as I actually begin the movement by
eyes literally go black and I won't see anything until the movement is completed. When
I'm really on I won't hear anything either. I guess you could call it being, "in the zone."
Baseball players talk about it as if time slows down and there's nothing else in the world
happening except your focus on the ball. The road there is an individual task, but the
secret to greatness is finding that path and being able to duplicate that at will almost all of
the time.
When you've hit this point you know that your concentration is on par. One of the people
that I train who had been training with me for two years, Michael Reeder, just recently
truly hit this level. At the time of this writing he had just turned 17 and had much better
concentration and tenacity than most. He had been in hard training for two years and had
gained 40 pounds of muscle and added 200 pounds to his raw squat. He has a habit of
tapping his head on the bar before he begins a lift. This particular day he was so intense
and so focused that when he tapped his head on the bar, he didn't even feel the fact that he
was literally banging his head hard enough to draw blood. (I'm not advocating that as a
phsyching technique, I'm simply giving an example of how far complete focus of the mind
can drive the human body.) The lift that he did this on was truly an all out effort and a 40
pound PR (personal record). I believe this is the first time that he truly achieved,
"Blindness." In discussing the lift with him afterward he stated exactly what I have said
here, "As soon as I began the lift I didn't see or hear a thing. There was only pushing the
weight."
You achieve this by simply putting in time and desire into lifting. Depending on where
you start, it may take you more or less time to get to the level where you've blocked out
every other thought or feeling. Many of the greater lifters are born closer to this level than
most people, but it can be achieved through constantly forcing yourself to think and work
as hard as possible in the gym. When I begin a lift, as soon as I have the bar in position to
start, my total focus switches away from anything else happening and on to movement and
pushing. I think this is the doorway to this level of concentration. Being able to turn your
focus from seeing outward to almost literally seeing inward to the movement that you're
trying to accomplish. It's almost like the idea of transcendental meditation where you go
outside yourself. Except it's probably the opposite. You turn everything else outside off,
even things going on inside emotionally or physically that could be a distraction and
essentially reenter yourself, focusing all that you have onto the movement that you're
accomplishing. As I said before, the pathway to building this type of concentration takes
different times, experiences and styles of focus, aggressive psych-ing and concentration for
everyone. I can tell you this, you'll know it when you do it.

One tip beyond what's already been laid out in the previous two points that may help is
something that I learned from Matt Furey. What you basically do is assume a comfortable
position and begin to deep breath, turn your focus and attention inward and begin to count
down slowly from 100 to one. Here's the kicker, every time that any other thought enters
your mind except for counting the numbers, you have to start over. As you progress you
will eventually build your level of focus so you can complete this with no other thought or
distraction entering your mind. Simply pushing yourself as hard as possible with your
training on a regular basis will probably do the most for building this type of
concentration. Why? Because intense physical effort will build intense mental focus like
almost nothing else.

10 - It Doesn't Take A Rocket Scientist
To Get What You Want Out of Lifting
Even though much of the physical information in the world is laid out with a ton of
pseudo-science, high dollar words and mumbo-jumbo, lifting is not a complicated
endeavor. Even though some of the mental aspects that I've gone into in the last few
points are a bit esoteric and complicated, almost anyone can learn to do it. Don't let
anyone tell you that you need the latest this, or the most super complicated, supremely
researched, overblown and overdrawn pill, potion, technique or program to build size,
strength and endurance. You need moderate knowledge, a workable program and an iron
desire and will.
No program, no matter how beautifully laid out, mega-maniacally researched or overly,

intricately, modernly complicated is worth the paper its written on without the effort put
into it by the person following it. Simple programs followed with psychotic effort get the
job done. Anybody who tells you different is going to have their hand in your pocket and
on your wallet very quickly. (Not that I'm against selling things to people, I'm against lying
to them to sell it and feeding them misinformation under the guise of science.)
So how do you modify a routine to get what you want out of it? The first thing you have
to do is clearly establish your goals. The clearer your goals are, the easier it is to push
your program into the direction that it needs to go. If you don't know what you want,
really and truly know it deep down, you'll never be truly satisfied with any program and
you'll never put out the effort to make it work. Here's the kicker, most sensibly related
programs will accomplish whatever goals you want it to depending on how you work it
and the other factors that you include in your life which affect your training. Let me give
a general explanation here to explain what I mean.
We have four prospective lifters. One wants to get big, two wants to get strong, three
wants to lose weight and four wants to build endurance. Each trains three times a week
on the same program. Starting each day with two big basic barbell lifts and then following
it off with conditioning. Can each of these four trainees accomplish their goals using this
exact same program? They absolutely can, it's all in how they approach the program and
how they eat to support it.
Lifter number one should be heavily focused on eating and adding weight to the bar every
workout and maintaining conditioning.
Lifter number two should be heavily focused on adding weight to the bar every workout
and eating enough to support his efforts and maintaining conditioning.
Lifter number three should be heavily focused on conditioning and eating in such a way as
to lower his body fat and still be trying to add weight to the bar every workout.
Lifter number four should be heavily focused on conditioning and eating enough to
support his efforts while still trying to add weight to the bar every workout.
The basic premise and the basic workout will work for everybody. It's all in what you
choose to emphasize and in finding out what you personally like to do and what works
best for you. Specific program adaptations are simply too broad a topic to address in this
book, because nearly ever human has different goals and different physiological and
psychological make-up which makes the most effective plan for you unique to yourself.

11 - Momentamum
(aka: Momentum. That's a joke, not a typo.)
No I'm not going to discuss rep speed. Well I may say one thing about it, but all that
slow-fast-balistic-non-balisitc discussion crap bores me to tears and annoys me to a nearly
homicidal level. Sufficed to say these two things:
1. Just lift the freakin' weight. Stop arguing about it.
2. To lift really big, heavy things you cannot successfully lift them slowly. You may
not move very fast when you're pushing a maximum rep, but the explosive effort
needed is exactly the same. If you can lift a weight very slowly it is too light for
regular training.
What I'm really talking about here is the idea of momentum as it pertains to your total
training and making progress in a particular lift or area. It is more difficult to move
something out of a dead stop than it is to increase how fast something is moving if it is
already moving. This is a basic law of physics and a law that applies to nearly every area
in life and very specifically in physical training. The better you know and understand
yourself, the easier it is to control your training situation in a way the produces consistent
gains over a long period of time. Momentum in training is just that. Consistent gains over
a long period of time. Gains that are made very rapidly unless they are a result of training
that has been pushing in that direction and simply breaks a plateau tends to not stay with
you. But gains that come over the long haul and are brought about by progressive
training, which consistently prepares you to go to a higher level are the kinds of permanent
physical adaptations that bring you to being an advanced strength athlete.
Once you tilt your system in the direction of consistently getting bigger and stronger or
more enduring and have built up your basic levels of strength and endurance it is easier for
you to continue to add to them than it is to start from scratch. The possible exception
here might be that you've been on a program that has created this momentum for such a
long period of time that you've maxed out your body's genetic and structural potentials.
However there are so few people who have done this that it is nearly not worth
mentioning. Coincidentally the people who have done this are probably household names
within the strength community.
So how do you create this momentum in training? Well much of this book has already
addressed that. Consistency in every part of your life, training, technique, eating, resting,
etc., will probably do the most in placing your body in a position to gain for long periods.
Conditioning your mind to focus and sometimes endure training is also a key. Here are
some other things that I think will add to most people's abilities to gain for long periods of
time:
‫٭‬ Make sure that your general health is good. You know, the whole regular check
up thing.

‫٭‬ Don't switch strategies every other week. If you decide to do partials or singles or
whatever it is that you have picked as your training style, stay with it for long enough to
make it work and achieve the gains you're after. Don't switch styles just because the wind
blows.
‫٭‬ Make sure that you're conditioning and strength bases are solidly built and
maintained. Especially conditioning. The better of shape that your body is in, the better
your health is, the longer you can tolerate physical training that is intense enough to push
you to new levels without over taxing yourself.
‫٭‬ Moderate your intensity. Learn to train with absolute mind numbing intensity, but
with experience, learn when to push to that level and when not to. Listen to your body
within the context of accomplishing your goals and never letting yourself off easy. For
instance I can train with high reps to failure, but I also know that if I do this for too
extended a period of time I burn out and exhaust my recuperative abilities. So I use this
technique without breaking my body down and destroying my momentum so that I have to
take an excessive amount of time off to heal and start over again.
‫٭‬ Manage your energy. Learn to control your emotions. Nobody stays totally
controlled all of the time and that's not what I'm talking about. Be enough of a grown up
not to go completely crazy over minor inconveniences of life.
‫٭‬ Follow your body's natural cycles. Part of the point of man-written cycling is to
create a situation of positive training momentum. The body itself does run in cycles. Not
every workout will be an absolute super PR producing maximum intensity session.
However, every workout can have significant intensity up to 85-90% of your maximum
ability. The problem with cyclic training is that going from 50-60% of your max up to
100+% in relatively short periods of time destroys the harmony of training momentum.
You're peaking and then having to start over again and wasting time. Not only that you're
body never fully gets used to the heavy training that way and you never stay with heavy
training long enough to allow you body to get used to it and get past the aches and pains.
You "peak" and then lose strength because you've literally accelerated the momentum of
your training too fast for your body to adapt to. However, if you stay with heavy training
while paying attention to the body, backing off when necessary, but only to a moderate
degree, not to the massive fluctuations in poundage called for by traditional cycles, your
body can and will adapt to producing high levels of strength all of the time without risk of
excessive burn out, fatigue or of injury. Cycling, yes when the body calls for it, but not
when it calls for excessive poundage fluctuation.
‫٭‬ Don't go overboard simply because a new training regimen looks cool. If you do
switch directions in your training, take some time to prepare. Don't jump immediately
from all high reps to all low reps and expect not to have some wavering. The opposite of
this is true as well. Except for specific tests or for variety on moderated occasions, don't
go overboard on frequency or volume. If you do try a routine that has excessive
frequency or volume take significant time to work in with moderate training.
‫٭‬ As you get in to higher levels of strength and endurance, you will on one hand
have the ability to at will, call up levels of strength and endurance that you couldn't dream
of as a beginner. You will on the other hand also have the ability to push your body into a
level of fatigue that you did not have the tenacity or physical ability to accomplish as a
beginner. Learn to moderate these two facts to extend the momentum in your training.

12 - HIT vs. Olympic Lifting vs. Everybody Else
For the title of this point I picked HIT (High Intensity Training) and Olympic lifting to
illustrate a point. I'm not going to jump off into anyone's dogmatic camp. The reason I
picked these two is because they tend to be two of the most fanatical and argumentative of
the training styles. Probably more time, effort and energy is spent worrying and fighting
about the merits or drawbacks of these two styles of training than any of the other groups.
Everybody else tends to get involved and dogmatic at least to some level. powerlifters,
strongmen, bodybuilders, strength coaches, free weight people, machine people, martial
artists, bodyweight exercise enthusiasts, etc., etc. Let me lay this out for you one time and
one time only. Okay, I'll probably say it more than one time, but you get the picture:
Nobody has complete ownership of the only truth or productive methods of

strength and endurance training. Almost everybody's system has some
merit and some drawback. You will have to find what works for you.
Everybody who writes books writes out of their own experience, therefore
they have personal preferences, opinions and biases. At some point you
have to just get out and train and not worry about classifying yourself and
you have to think for yourself some. Don't blindly accept or deny
anybody's opinion. The truth is there are strong well developed, fit and
healthy people who come from every one of these training backgrounds
and many people come from several. I think everyone should have some
experience with almost all of these styles.
Now I'm going to say some things that I believe that may or may not make some people
mad, but it's what I think. It's not meant to glorify or step on anybody's toes.
In no particular order…
Olympic lifting is a valid training style. It requires a tremendous amount of technique, but
there is also a significant strength component. So the old slander that olympic lifting is all
technique and no strength is a bunch of bull. The exercises, because of their level of
complication and not so much the momentum created do carry a slightly higher risk than
simpler movements. It won't kill you like many HIT people say. However, it won't make
you into Superman like many olympic lifters say either.
High intensity training is a valid training style. In fact, what we refer to as high intensity
training at this moment is very much some people's loudly spoken opinion and not so
much the original concept. There's much validity in the ideas espoused in high intensity
training. Learn to work hard before you work long. Training to failure won't kill you like
some people say and it is not absolutely necessary on every set of every exercise like other
people say. I don think it is important to learn to train to push yourself that hard, but it is
not necessary all of the time.

Powerlifting is a valid training style. As a sport it has unfortunately become a mockery of
real strength. In my opinion the support gear is a total joke and has created a travesty in
what could be a tremendous strength sport. I also don't personally feel that the bench
press is the end all, be all of upper-body strength. It's not a bad exercise, I just think that
there are better ones. Powerlifting also does not make you slow.
Bodybuilding, God help me for even mentioning it, as a modern sport with a possible
exception of some of the natural contests has done more to decay the honor and the reality
of the strength and fitness world than anything else. It has also done more to mainstream
and create acceptance for some of the strength world than anything else. The old style of
bodybuilding without the drugs and narcissism, which also entailed the ultimate being and
physical ability, was a very valid style and period of training. All forms of physical
training, especially resistance training that enhances the performance and therefore the
"build" of the body are true to the original ability of "bodybuilding." Applying exercise
sensibly to make the body and mind better is what it should be. Not using ridiculous
programs to enhance only the look of the body with no functional ability.

13 - Making A Popular System Work
Most of the modern hardcore training philosophies have enough merit and value in them
to make them of benefit to most trainees. So why do systems work great for some people
and not for others? The secret again is the details and in the intricate knowledge of the
system. Most people attempt to apply the principles of any particular lifting system
without fully understanding them. Therefore their application is skewed and their results
are only part of what they were expecting or feel they were promised. Now we've already
discussed two of the major causes of failure to gain. Not working hard enough and not
sticking with a system long enough to make it work. What I'm addressing here is the fact
that no matter how you put a system out on a piece of paper, because of the individual
differences from one human to the next, you only get the absolute optimal gains when you
have enough knowledge of how a system should work to logically modify it to fit the
individuality of the person you're training. Hence the reason you can go and train with
most intelligent, knowledgeable proprietors of different systems and they understand their
system well enough to train you in such a way as to make it work. Many times when you
attempt to apply someone else's system without total understanding on your own you only
get partial gains. This is the reason that many of the top coaches advise that you at least
train with a person to get a feel of how things are really supposed to be.
Does this mean that books and videos are worthless? Absolutely not. They are our only
way to mass communicate the ideas and principles that have come forth. This is the
reason you see people amazed when they actually go and train with a guru or someone
who's training system they espouse. For instance there are several articles written by
people about their experience of training personally with Dr. Ken Leistner. Most of them
say in conclusion a couple of basic things. That they learned from the on-hand application
of his style of training and that 1.) They were doing some of the lifts technically wrong, 2.)
They were applying the system slightly differently and 3.) They weren't working as hard as
they should have been.
So what have I said all of this to point out? That to make the major popular systems in
effect right now work the best that they can, you need some experience. While it's not
practical for most people, if you can go and train with the people whose ideas you're
trying to implement. Contact them in some way. Train with someone they've trained. Be
smart about how you apply your ideas and know your own body well enough to make
them applicable to yourself. No weight lifting rules are set in stone. So don't be afraid to
make things personal to you. Also, it's always a good idea for a beginner to get with an
experienced, competitive type lifter in the beginning stages of their training. Why?
Because at most gyms the only people whom have any idea about productive training,
proper form and any reasonable level of intensity are the guys who compete. You may
find some others, but it's rare.
Here are some hints for applying some of the popular systems right now and making them
work.

‫٭‬ High intensity training requires just that. Intensity. If you're only going to do
one set to failure, you'd better make that one set count and summon up every
ounce of energy you've got to put in it. You also have to be smart about your
recovery and stick with basic hard exercises.
‫٭‬ Olympic lifting requires not only a significantly high level of base strength, but
requires significant technical practice and flexibility. Hence the reason most
olympic lifting programs use multiple low repetition sets. They also take into
account the amount of nervous fatigue when attempting to do high repetitions
with a complex movement. They are impractical for a olympic weightlifting.
JV Askem describes the olympic lifts as athletic events, not simple training lifts.
Therefore they require skill practice just like any other athletic skill. Because
much of the programs that olympic lifters do only employ low reps and sub
sets they should be trained more often than simpler more muscularly fatiguing
lifts.
‫٭‬ Daily or volume training requires very careful attention to overtraining. It also
requires multiple, sub-maximal efforts, not pushing past a preset level of
fatigue. This usually requires an inexperienced person to follow a percentage
chart and an advanced man to know himself well enough to be able to work
hard, but still stay fresh. It can be very productive, but it requires more
attention to detail and a longer build up to most other types of training. Some
of it is really pushed by steroid users and you have to learn to separate what's
practical for the drug-free man and what's simply put down on paper to look
good and sell something by people who use drugs.

14 - The Truth About Steroids & Quasi-Steroids
Well let's lay it out for you. I guess some of what I'll say will be partly opinion and some
will be significant fact, but much of it is things you ought to know.
I'm lifetime drug-free. I always have been and always will be. In fact in some of my
literature I go so far as to state that if you don't believe I'm drug-free, then you pay for the
test and I'll take it. Why do I harp on that so much? Because I believe that I'm living
proof that you can get to a world class level of strength and you can accomplish whatever
your mind has the strength to push you to without drugs. I feel that it is a criminal offense
the way many people espouse to young innocent kids their programs, which are solely
based on the use of drugs. The truth is that there have been very, very few lifting
champions in the past 35 years who have been drug-free. Basically, no professional
bodybuilders who have been drug-free. I'm talking top-level guys here. The ones who get
the most publicity and exert the most influence over the lifting community and especially
over the new trainees.
The sad truth is that they could have accomplished much if not all of their strength
achievements without drugs if they had had the guts and mental strength to do it. You can
say what you want about this. You can say that its necessary to compete at a world class
level, that its not really a moral question, whatever. You're fooling yourself and allowing
yourself to be pulled into what is corrupting and dishonoring one of the greatest traditions
of mankind.
Steroids might make you physically stronger, but before you stick the first needle in or
take the first pill you have to deep down, admit that you're weak. You have to deep down
look yourself in the eye and say, "I don't have enough of the stuff that makes a man, a man
to get this job done." You can say that this isn't the way that it happens and it may not be
that much of a conscious choice, but you're kidding yourself if you don't think that this is
what you're admitting. If you go so far as to admit that to yourself, that weakness will
eventually show up. In fact if you look at the lives of many of the major drug users these
weaknesses have come out in their personal lives, medical problems, business dealings,
etc. A few more pounds on a lift that you could have achieved on your own had you had
the confidence are not worth the long-term problems and the weaknesses you're instilling
in yourself. I'm all for getting as strong as you can be, and I've tried many truly bizarre
things to get strong, but I will not swap my integrity for a short-term path to success.
This goes for much of the supplement industry as well. I'm not against supplementation as
long as it stays within the frame works of natural substances. Simple protein powders, the
basic vitamins and minerals. Maybe a few basic herbs, which are simply engineered food
items that have been handed down for thousands of years. They may help to ensure
proper nutrition in a diet that's not particularly high in nutrients. They aren't necessary,
but they aren't evil. What is, is the latest, super pro-hormone, extra, barely legal, not
really a steroid, but so close you couldn't tell the difference under a microscope, super
supplement. You're admitting the same weaknesses by succumbing to these.

What's unfortunate is that most people never fully realize what they're doing when the first
begin to take these things. The youngsters who are sucked in by advertising who don't
have access to the truthful sources for information about the realities of training. They
never get what they want, never make the progress that they could be making or deserve,
because they're never told the truth about what it takes to make it. They do God knows
what damage to their bodies with questionable substances or they waste their money on
things that are completely ineffective and are sold to them geared specifically to keep them
from making or understanding that they can make progress on their own. When they don't
make that progress they're told, "You must not be using enough of 'Super Champs Extra
Engineered Rat Poison' to get buff." Or, "If you're spending that full hour doing the 38
sets of curls that we told you to do, you must not be taking enough Super Bicep Pumper
Powder in the correct extrapolated dosage down to the millisecond of consumption time
for optimal growth in your biceptitudinal muscular ranges."
That's meant to be funny, but it's beyond sad into a level of deception that's beyond moral
boundaries. Many industries put you in jail for telling that kind of lie. The truth is you'll
never be everything you can be until you develop a mindset of complete belief in your
ability to gain and that you have all the tools that it takes to make it work. Any other way
and you're under minding your own confidence and damaging your long-term growth.

15 - The Truth About Size
Size is dictated by a couple of factors. Generally it's how much food you eat and how
regularly and intensely you exercise. For most of the people it's not the exercise, it’s the
food they eat. They simply are not willing to eat enough to put on the size they want.
They are sold into the fact that they have to be six-pack lean with low body fat and gain
size while simultaneously reducing body fat, because of the lies that they're sold hook, line
and sinker by the bodybuilding, supplement and drug people. You can put on size without
fat, but its going to be a little slower than just putting on size while accepting some body
fat.
Most people have to have, when putting on size with significant speed, large amounts of
protein along with significant carbohydrate and fat intake. Many of the people who have
trouble gaining weight also must have exercise as a muscular and hormonal stimulus for
their body to gain weight. We all know somebody whose 120 pounds that eats like a
football team, but never gains a pound. Generally those people with that metabolism have
to have an exercise stimulus regardless of the reason for their bodies to put on excess
weight. Generally there is more to the situation than that too. If you examine closely they
may eat a large amount of food, but its done irregularly and much of the time it's empty
calorie junk food. It must be wholesome, natural food eaten in large quantities on a
consistent basis. Along with reasonable and intense exercise for most of these people to
make significant gain.
The opposite is most of the time true for those wishing to drop weight. They can diet and
restrict all they want and they will lose a few pounds, but they won't consistently do it and
can't keep the weight off even if they do. Why? Because their body needs the same
stimulus that the skinny guy wanting to gain weight does. That's the solution for those
who can't take weight off when they want to. They're not combining food and exercise in
the correct way. Generally the same holds true here, there is more to the situation than is
noticeable at first glance. Generally they're food restricting in a way that's impractical and
not doable in a long-term manner.
That's the real key to all nutrition. Is it something you can deal with for a lifetime? It's the
same with exercise. Certainly there are periods of exercise that are so intense that you
wouldn't want to do them long-term, but you're general program needs to be based on
something that you enjoy and can do for a lifetime.
Size I don't believe is something you should chase simply for its own merit. Size should
be added within the context of adding strength. It should be the type of size that comes
with dense functional muscle. For most people it will be necessary to increase your
strength to increase your size. Some can do it pumping routines, but what they get is a
bloated ineffective muscular tissue that only has look and no performance and tends to not
stay with you if you stop that type of training. What we're after is size that has the
hardness and density gained by heavy lifting and the lasting effect that muscle gained by
natural methods has. At the same time it is larger, but it is muscularly efficient,

coordinated, strong and enduring. In my opinion if there is a little fat with it, so what, but
that can be tailored to your preference via diet and conditioning.
If we wish to gain this type of size that I have discussed in the above paragraph, it must be
gained within the context of all the factors we have laid out. What I'm saying is it's better
to gain size while continuing to do your conditioning at, at least a moderate level than to
stop conditioning for the sake of saving calories and to add size more quickly. This
maintains your endurance and efficiency while you're adding size and strength. Size, even
in the small muscles is best gained by using the large compound exercises. You've heard
other people say it, but it's the truth. Rows, done hard will make your biceps bigger than
curls will. Bench presses done hard will make your chest bigger than flies will. Presses
done hard will make your shoulders bigger than laterals. Also in working these large
movements you teach muscles to work together instead of isolating them. Some minimal
isolation might be all right, but generally then you begin to open the door for strength
imbalances. Real function in the real world requires all muscles to work together. Not a
singular muscle to do all the work. You may look pretty, but it gives you no function.
Truth be told, most of the size built by your really large people is built with the big basic
exercises. Anything else they do that's really an isolation movement is just a top off and its
not what built them up. As a matter of fact for beginners and intermediaries that are down
right detrimental because they waste energy that could be better spent on real exercises
and growing. If you're working the big exercises hard enough you really won't want to do
the little exercises. How big do you need to get anyway? My arms measure 23 inches and
they're built from presses and rows, almost never a curl or tricep extension. My thighs
measure 35 inches and they're built with almost strictly barbell squats and bodyweight
squats with a few vehicle pulls and weighted walks thrown in. Even at the level I'm at
(don't mean that as bragging), you just never get past the basics. That's all there really is,
everything else is icing on the cake at best and misguided wasted effort.
Some of those exercises can be okay. For instance, the basic barbell curl is a descent
exercise, I'm not knocking it. What I'm talking about is the concentration curl with pinkie
supination and a lemon twist done on cable crossovers with the newest handle guaranteed
to super-charge your gains. These are usually performed by guys with 11 inch arms who
couldn't pick a squat rack out of a line up. Be sensible. As one of the sayings goes,
"You've got to have a roast before you can carve one."
My general recommendations about size, are the same as those outlined in my other
books. I like a four basic exercise frame work. Some type of squat, some type of press,
some type of bent arm pull (rows, chins, etc.), and some type of straight arm pull
(deadlifts, etc.). I believe these four cover every major muscle in the human body and if
you only did them you could get to monster size. For reality and functional purposes I
like to work those exercises with low reps, throw in a few odd exercises (strongman type),
to create strength endurance and ability to move with weights and lift unbalanced things as
well as bodyweight exercises. Mostly hindu squats and pushups, abdominal raises and a
few other general calisthenic type movements to add muscular and aerobic endurance.
Working within this framework you have every type of strength and endurance working

together so that when you do gain that size you gain it with efficiency and do not have to
suffer through periods of adding efficiency to size that you've already gained, but does not
have the function you desire.

16 - A Routine For Monster Size
This would be a routine geared for gaining size, but within the context discussed in point
16. Also, because of the way the programs I have talked about are structured, they almost
always entail strength, endurance and athletic movement with heavy weight. They can be
done by someone wishing to gain or lose or maintain and simply get greater strength and
athletic aptitude. The big key in the gaining process there is stimulating it with the
exercise and then eating for size. And I mean really eating, especially if you want to gain
quickly or have trouble gaining weight. Wholesome, nutritious, balanced food and
striking a balance between eating as much as you possibly can and not overstuffing
yourself. Concentrate on eating what you can digest, not what you can possibly stuff in.
We'll talk more about food in another point.
Here's the routine. It will be simple and will take up only three hard days a week. Size
can be served by basically any rep scheme, but we're going to cover many bases in the
routine to try and get the ultimate in size:
Day 1:
Press - (Pick any type of press you like)
Warm up with one set of 10 and 4 progressively heavier singles. Then on

your 5th set single should be a max or at least 90% of max. Then if you
have access to a power rack of some sort do 2 sets of partial presses, one
heavy low-rep set and one heavy high-rep set. Then back down and do one
set of 5 to 6 reps, one set of 10 to 12 reps and one set of 15-20 reps to
finish.
Squat - (Pick whatever type of back squat you want)

have access to a power rack of some sort do 2 sets of partial squats, one
finish.
Finish with 2 sets of weighted sit-ups. One low rep and one moderate to high rep-
set.

Day 2:
Row or Chin up - (Pick whichever style you like, but pick one and stick with it.
If you wish to alternate rows and chin ups every other workout that's okay.)
Warm up with one set of 10 and do 3-4 sets of 2 up to a max set. Then do
a set of 5 to 6, a set of 10-12 and a set of 15-20.
Deadlifts - Whichever style you like

have access to a power rack of some sort do 2 sets of partial deadlifts, one
finish.
Finish with two sets of weighted calf raises. One heavy low-rep set and one heavy
high-rep set.
Day 3:
Pick one strong man movement. Do 2 to 3 hard, heavy sets of it. Rotate the
movement between each Day 3 workout or if you wish keep the same movement if you
feel you need to practice it or stay with it for a particular period of time. Pick out one
Combat Conditioning routine that gives you some hard conditioning. I suggest the "Deck
of Cards" routine. (Get a deck of playing cards, deal them out to yourself. The black
cards represent push ups, do the number on the card. The red cards represent bodyweight
squats. Do double the number on the card. There are many ways to do this and way to
assign different number values to the cards, just pick what you like and stay with it.) Then
bridge. Front bridge, back bridge, wall walk, whatever you like to do. If your strong man
movement for the day did not particularly tax your grip, add in a grip exercise here.
If you put the proper intensity into these routines they will be quite difficult to
finish, because on all of the post warm up sets of the barbell exercises you should be
working very hard and heavy. On the last set of 10 to 20 you should be working to
failure. Because this is a very intense routine, you may have to spread the days out or
rearrange the order.
For instance you could do Day 1 on Monday, Day 2 on Wednesday and Day 3 on
Friday or Day 1 on Monday, Day 2 on Thursday and Day 3 on the weekend. You could
also change the order for instance, Day 1 on Monday, Day 3 on Wednesday and Day 2 on
Friday, etc. Some of you may have better recovery waiting two or more days between
each of the workouts, spreading the entire series over 10 days or so. One thing I would
suggest especially if you spread it out over a 10 day period, is to add some light

conditioning days between just for general health purposes. For instance a walk mixed
with a few squats, push ups and abdominal raises just to keep the body in moving working
order and the keep the blood flowing in an aerobic system. I'll mention this again to gain
on the routine, you can put on massive muscle by you MUST EAT!!

17 - The Truth About Fitness
The entire fitness industry may burn me in effigy for saying what I am about to say.
I believe the predominant emphasis of the fitness industry is wrong. 99% of everything
that you're taught or see when it refers to fitness is either directly relating your fitness to
how you look or indirectly pushing the same value system. The truth is we're all created
differently and we're all going to look different. Most of the look that is pushed on the
public by the fitness industry is either completely unachievable or practically unachievable
or downright unhealthy. Most of the time it is pushed by pictures that are either
retouched, or specially posed with specific lighting or taken with people who are either
drug users or have eating disorders.
They are usually taken at these people's downright unhealthiest moments and for the ones
who are drug users are taken at a "peak" that is only maintainable for two to three days of
the year. Yet these things are sold to us as if, "If you only train the way we say to, or buy
the supplement we use, you can look like this all of the time and you'll be happy, healthy
and won't really have to work hard to get it." These are a huge load of bull. That's
putting a positive spin on it. At worst its downright lies and corruption fostered on the
unknowing. It's a huge contribution to our societal problems with body image and self
esteem. Especially as it relates to women and young girls, but the further we go down this
road the more even it extends to men and boys.
Now I'm not condoning being out of shape. What I'm saying is that its immoral to push
those unnatural looks on people and tell them that's the way they are supposed to be. I
believe that we should look at fitness in a different way. Fitness should be about function
and looks are a far secondary consideration. It is downright unfortunate that it requires
very little strength and fitness to survive in our present world and that is leading to a
significant portion of the physical downfall of the modern technological society.
Hence we come to what I call the "Caveman Theory of Fitness."
Now first let me say that I don't believe in Darwinist Evolution. In fact I believe that
Darwinist evolution is a crock and a scientific attempt to explain away moral
responsibility. I do believe that most organisms have some ability to adapt to their
environment. What I don't believe is the whole progression from single cell organism, to
fish, to ape, to sub-human (or caveman as we refer to them), to human. But for the
purposes of explaining this analogy and because it's kind of funny I picked that name.
Let's compare our two subjects and place them within the old caveman movies of '60's
context. First we have Buff. Buff is pretty. He has a very low body fat percentage. You
can see his six pack. He has moderately toned muscles, but not anything powerful and
minimal aerobic capacity given from riding his Bedrock aerodyne. He does well with the
ladies, because they've unfortunately been duped into thinking that he's manly because you
can see his abs. He has moderate fitness, but no extreme strength or endurance.

Then we have Grog. Grog is a large man. He has some body fat. You don't see all of his
abs, but you definitely see his muscles. Grog has an abundance of strength and endurance
gained from lifting large heavy things and moving his body in high repetitions and over
long distances. Grog is not quite as pretty as Buff, but he is definitely in shape and
athletic.
So, if we pair these two down into the traditional caveman battle which is Grog and Buff
both come out of the cave with clubs and the winner drags off the other's woman and
food. Who do you think is going to win? (Hint, if you said Buff, put this book down
immediately!)
What I'm trying to get at here is that a look is a specific side effect of specific training.
That does not particularly improve your performance as it relates to fitness. I want you to
look at fitness as a quantitative value, not as an objective quasi-ideal. The guy who is
stronger, faster and has more endurance and has all of these qualities developed in a way
that they can be applied to the real world is the more fit man. If your energy level is
higher and your health and ability to stave off disease and efficient function of your
internal organs is better, but you don't look prettier than a cover boy or fitness model,
guess what, you're still healthier, you just don't look the same as judged by an arbitrary
standard.
So when you judge your health, judge it by empirical standards not arbitrary, objective,
looks-based opinions. Your strength, your endurance , your cardiovascular conditioning,
your energy level, your ability to live your life the way you want to, your heart rate, your
blood pressure, your recovery, not whether you can see your abs or not.
Just remember, even if I have a little more body fat or am not quite as pretty as Buff, but I
can out work, out last, out lift, out endure and out perform him, then slap him around and
take his woman along with his cookies and milk, then I'm more fit than him. Period.

18 - A Machine Can't Do It But You Can
I hope you’re all fully realizing the deep blessings you have and expecting new ones to
come.
You know we’ve come a long way with the technology and industry of the world. But in
all that we still can’t equal the incredibility of the human body. We can build cars that
drive long distances, or cars that haul heavy things or cars that go ridiculously fast, but we
haven’t been able to put it all in one vehicle. Why? Because the machine is the invention of
man, an inanimate object limited to the mechanical power it can display. However YOU
are something different.
First you are designed by an omnipotent God and so incredible and complex is the design
that we’re still scratching the surface at figuring it out. Second you can build your body
into being a “machine,” that can cover long distances, haul heavy things and go extremely
fast. Your body has the ability to adapt to all of those things at the same time. Problem is,
very few people have ever unlocked all the secrets of getting all that response out of your
machine.
Third, your mind has infinite power over your body. A man-made machine can only
respond to the programmed controls that it has. Even our computers are really just playing
pre-programmed responses. However a machine cannot decide to change itself and then
exert the power of that decision to actually effect those changes. If you put the right
mental energy into making yourself any or all of those physical things, your body will
become it. Both by the work you put in, they physical adaptability of your body and the
power that your mind and spirit have over actually effecting changes in your body.
A Volkswagen can’t just decide to be a drag racer or a 4x4. Someone else has to make it
that. You however, can decide through will and training to make yourself into an efficient,
strong, and powerful machines, all physically, spiritually, emotionally and mentally. What’s
topping you from taking advantage of the incredible built in ability that you already have?
You have to do the work to unleash it. Decide what you want and start working. Because
the raw material for any goal that you want to accomplish is already there within you.

19 - More On Cranking Up Your Endurance
We talked last week about one of the secrets on building up your endurance to make it sky
rocket and apply to the real world. Today let’s talk about another simple, simple thing to
do that really makes a difference in the cardio output of an endurance routine.
Which is harder to do? 100 straight squats and 100 straight push ups, or 10 sets of 10 of
each alternated with each other? The answer depends on how you look at the question.
For pure muscular strength endurance it’s harder to do the reps straight. However for
cardiovascular and general endurance (inclusive of some muscular strength endurance with
higher heart and lung function). It’s harder to do the 10 sets of 10 alternated. Why?
Because the act of changing from one exercise to the other, changing direction and
momentum requires more cardiovascular endurance. Also you force the heart and lungs to
work harder by forcing them to pump blood and oxygen to different parts of the body
alternately creating greater over all circulation. You also take advantage of the fact that
from set to set, while your muscles are being worked they are still fresher and can move at
a faster pace with cleaner reps and more speed. This is why conditioning routines like
pyramids, circuits, intervals and things like the deck of cards routine are so effective in
building endurance.
Your breathing and cardio goes through the roof and over the course of the entire
workout, you’ve done enough volume to stimulate muscular endurance and hormonal and
chemical change in the body. As a wonderful side benefit, you don’t effect your max
strength as much as straight rep or long slow style conditioning workouts do. Because you
can use faster pacing and in effect bursts of muscular effort, you’re still teaching the body
to operate at a high level of strength, but now blended with endurance together.
Take this into account in your workouts. By all means, when you’re building a base of
muscular and cardio endurance it’s okay and appropriate to do straight rep sets.
Everybody should go though them at some point in their training career to build their
benefits and build that muscular memory into your strength and endurance, but most of the
time your endurance training should be on some type of an interval. The most bang for
your buck, and the most change in your life.

20 - Relaxation And Tension Endurance –
Key To Big Dog Endurance For The Average Guy
The question of athletic fitness and the way to really train it always draws more attention
than your average jihad. You want to start a fitness holy war? Then question someone’s
particular favorite style for strength endurance. You’ll end up being called out for pistols
at dawn.
I want to talk to you about why the average training system for endurance doesn’t get the
job done for most people and how you can use this tip like mainlining Viagra for your
endurance training. When you train any new system for physical gains there is a learning
curve. The learning curve is always more stressful than what an experienced trainer goes
through because the body is not used to that particular style of stress.
For instance if you do bodyweight exercises for the first time for ultra high reps, it seems
like some kind of fitness epiphany. You can’t believe the burning sensations from the high
reps or the soreness or the fact that even though you can squat 500 pounds, you can’t do
100 unbroken reps of bodyweight squats. However after a while you learn that the key to
high reps with any lightweight implement is alternating relaxation and tension.
This is a skill that lends itself to any type of endurance activity. If you bike or run for long
periods of time you develop the most efficient form that allows you to relax the most
while putting out the right level of tension to maintain your pace and stretch out the
endurance. The same applies to grappling or boxing. That’s the reason cyclists and runners
often die on hills, because a hill requires a radical increase in the amount of muscular
output or tension.
It’s one thing to maintain a paced level of any training exercise, but it’s another thing to
have to go from moderate to all out pace and back and forth during an endurance session.
Eventually all light training especially if attempting to do high straight reps succumbs to
greater efficiency. You learn how to relax the most and apply the least tension to still get
the job done. It’s necessary, but it diminishes the returns especially as it applies to sport.
So what’s the solution? Mix in a heavier or faster pace implement or interval into you
endurance training. If you’ve been training kettlebells or dumbbells or what ever the case
may be and you’re cranking up to 100 rep sets one way or the other you’re learning to
relax during those sets. So if you want to truly train your system to be able to go harder
and longer, amp up the workout by throwing in something truly difficult in the middle of
those reps. Could be heavy barbell work, strongman or simply heavier, faster work or a
light implement, or a sprint style pace or heavier, more difficult bodyweight exercise that
allows you to really lay it on the line in the midst of a conditioning session.
This way you can still keep your conditioning session short, but push the intensity up and
get massive gains. You can actually be prepared to take those gains from the gym to the
real world.
Remember just because a guy may be a world champion at a particular endurance feat or
sport doesn’t mean you should train like him. Many of the champion level professional
athletes are simply so gifted that they can play the sport with moderate to low intensity
work outs and still be unbelievable. However, for everyone else, if you really want to
make amazing progress either in your sport or in taking your training to the real world,
you have got to over prepare. You have to make it harder than the game or whatever real
world challenge you might be looking to conquer when you train in the gym.
That’s the key to mind blowing endurance.

21 - A Fast Workout
Many of you may know that we spent a week in Houston with Dennis Rogers working on
some upcoming projects. One of the things we did was to work on an exercise program
for a friend of his. The average guy working out at the average gym is laboring under the
assumption that he has to do three hours and hundreds of sets of everything available to
get real results. He’s been sold that by the average training magazine available in the US
right now. The programs of the bodybuilding stars. Built to look great on paper with
absolutely no value in the real world.
The fact is those things just aren’t true. It’s the effort that you put into the training that
you do. Much more so than the amount of training. So we gave him a quick program.
Three 15 minute workouts per week. This combined with proper effort, proper form on
the exercises, proper food, and progression will get you tons of results. Here’s a variation
of that routine.
Workout 1
Warm up
Then barbell squat 1 set of 20.
Followed by 1 x 20 breathing pullovers.
Followed quickly by stiff leg deadlifts of 1 x 15
Then 1 x 20 breathing pullovers.
Workout 2
Warm up
Then dumbbell row, dumbbell press and barbell curl 3 to 4 x 1, 1 x 10, 1 x 20 plus your
choice of what type of dumbbell press or row.
Start with one set of 10 very light on each of the exercises to warm up, then jump
immediately to progressively heavier sets of 1 up to a max for the day then back off, do
another set of 10, and then a set of really high reps.
Workout 3
Warm up
Hindu squat x 10
Push up x 10
Dumbbell or Kettlebell swing x 10
Repeat each of those non-stop dropping one rep per round (10 for all three exercises, 9 on
the second, 8 on the third, on down to one round).
Move as fast as you can, taking as little rest as possible and repeating as many times as
possible in 15 minutes.

There you have it. A quick routine that gives you a great template to work off of. Three
15 minute workouts that’ll make you pour sweat and build massive conditioned muscles
all at the same time.

22 - A Workout To Frighten Beach Goers
One of the things often lamented about the hard core lifting community is that it is
“frightening” to the average fitness person or lay person. Lots of talk about how to make
sports like Strongman and Powerlifting more acceptable to the general public by making
them less intimidating. Or make the participants more mainstream looking. Yet also within
this exists an odd dichotomy. To get more publicity the events need to be as freakishly
heavy and bizarre as possible, but to get more “acceptance,” the athletes need to look less
large and intimidating.
All hogwash!
I believe that we as strength athletes need to make a move for our own independence. To
do what we want to do and be how we want to be regardless of sport or the mainstream. I
never want to intentionally intimidate anyone who is in a gym environment or seeking
fitness for strength or whatever, however I refuse to water-down the manliness of the
challenges I put before myself to make it more acceptable to anyone’s idea of what is
mainstream. The mainstream should be looking to man-up and get strong and in shape and
not be so easily intimidated by any minor expression of physical intensity or passion.
You don’t get to be exceptional by caving to mass opinion. If you’re not finding your own
expression of strength, health and fitness regardless of what anyone else thinks you ought
to look or act like then you’re not being true to yourself. In fact I’m a little glad that the
average fitness person is intimidated by a hard workout. Not the idiocy that steroids has
brought or lame histrionics or people who are intentionally, personally intimidating to
other people in a gym setting. I’m talking about effort that bleeds though your skin.
Weights that bend bars, objects that people don’t think can be lifted and feats that people
don’t think are possible.
I want to do the thing that requires the effort that separates me from the mass of the
fitness world. If you refuse to be separated then you choose to have their results, which is
mostly pathetic and for show. Higher results require higher effort and that is what
separates us from them. Not some imaginary disquieting presence that they choose to
assume.
Intimidation for intimidation’s sake is idiocy. Just like being intimidated by someone’s
effort in the gym is idiocy. Most people don’t ever see themselves as having the ability to
produce that kind of strength and they realize what a person who can produce that kind of
effort is capable of. That’s why they’re intimidated. However most of the truly tough
people I’ve ever met are also quite nice and are generally the exact opposite of the
assumption of the mainstream. In fact they are an asset to the world because of their
strength instead of a detraction. They help to preserve the abilities of strength, effort and
heroism in a world that tries to water everything down and looks down on them for it. Be
one of these people and be your own man.

Now that we’ve fired our volley in defense of strength, personal choice and standing up
for yourself I’ll tell you a story about the title of this chapter.
We spent the last couple of days at the beach taking a little family time. Had a wonderful
time at a very nice little, secluded beach. I always enjoy the water and the time with my
family away from other distractions.
Caught a little workout while we were there. Nothing fancy, brought a kettlebell with me.
It’s just inspirational to have that type of setting. On the sand and surf, it’s one of those
places that drives you to enjoyable effort. So I did a couple of hundred swings, finished
the workout by doing sprints from the water up onto the beach, back to the kettlebell for
another set of swings. I did five sets. It’s a workout you should definitely try because the
water really adds to the effort. Believe me you’ll huff and puff like a steam engine.
Now I tend to be oblivious to other people when I’m doing something like that. I’m
wrapped up in my own little world of the workout and nobody else is really effecting it.
My wife was telling me later about watching people’s reactions when I came sprinting out
of the water. Everybody on the beach, particularly those in the water would suddenly jump
and start searching the water as if there were a shark. The really funny thing is they did it
every time I ran a sprint out of the water, not just the first time. As if there were a new
shark every time I ventured back into the water. My wife and son were there swimming
along with me. She said they kept looking back at her like, “Why is the big guy running
and the woman and the boy are staying in the water?!”
All in all except for the slight moments of shark-induced fear, I think everyone had a good
time watching the 350lb guy run out of the water and swing the cannonball with the
handle around. No one was intentionally intimidated, but I had a great time and improved
my fitness along the way. You should try this workout. Do things to make your workout
tougher to separate you from the weak and frightened masses.

23 - Am I A Genetic Freak?
One of the most frequently asked questions I receive is, “How did you get strong?”
“Were you born that way?”

“Did you take something?”
“Do you know some secret?”
Well, yes, I do know a secret. But it isn’t some secret training routine. Or some secret
food to eat or supplement to take, or drugs or anything like that. One of the other
criticisms that everybody who is strong and puts out information about how to train gets is
this: “Well anything would work for you. Your genetics are so good you couldn’t help but
get strong.”
Is that the truth? Could I have haphazardly done any ol’ program and gotten strong? No,
it’s not true and that question explains itself. You can’t haphazardly, randomly pick
exercises and suddenly find yourself with the key to strength or magically strong. No
matter where you start or how good of genetics you come from, it’s what you do after
that which counts. No one is born suddenly possessing the ability to lift 1,000 pounds or
do 1,000 pushups. Those things my friends take use of the secret.
So what is the secret?
Focused, progressive hard work on real result producing exercises. Effort. Effort means
more than genetics. All the potential in the world is nothing without applied effort. Effort
means more than drugs. It means more than supplements, more than the perfect training
routine or some “secret” exercise. Effort is the secret.
Where ever you are, if you’re not getting bigger, stronger, faster or more enduring then
complaining about it or blaming it on your genetics won’t get the job done. Comparing
yourself to others won’t help to get the job done. Genetics is something you cannot
control therefore it is a non-factor. You work with what you have, which is always more
than you give yourself credit for and become the best you can be.
Intelligent training applied with effort always beats genetics. There are tons of people out
there with starting blocks to build with genetically, but they’re too lazy or unfocused, or
unmotivated to do anything about it. Results beats potential. Second-guessing that is a
pure waste of time. “Oh if he only worked as hard as so-and-so… he has so much
potential.” So what!? Potential without the work is an un-measurable and unrealistic
concept. You can do what you’re mind believes you can do and what you actually put
forth the effort to accomplish. Everything else is hot air. No excuses, no worrying about
whether somebody else has great potential or whether you do or don’t. Put in the work
and you’ll get the results.
I already told you the secret, now you step up and apply it.

24 - 1,000 Reps Up Your First Mountain
I hope today finds you all deeply pursuing the blessings available to you from God, our
Father.
Most of the conditioning that I and many of the hardcore athletes now do has a very
quantitative nature. In fact I think that’s what attracted me to that type of conditioning
originally. There’s just something more substantial about saying, “I’m going to do “x”
number of reps in “y” amount of time.” Than saying, “I’m going for a run, or I’m going to
ride the bike.”
Nothing wrong with running or biking except for the fact that I believe that all hard
conditioning should have some type of interval built in. It’s the natural state of the body.
The deeper I got into the alternative conditioning methods that I now pursue the more
perspective I gained about them. Here are some of the things I found out.
Using muscular and aerobic conditioning together is the way to add endurance to your
strength without taking away from your top end. Fast pacing and moderate rep sets
alternating exercises is superior to one long super high rep movement. Single movement
super high rep workouts are fine, they’re great base builders, but shouldn’t be the absolute
cornerstone of your conditioning. All the alternative implements give similar results as
long as you give the right effort. Alternating implements is a great way to add variety to
your training, up your conditioning and stop over use injuries.
Reps of one type of exercise do not have a straight equal in another type of exercise. (100
bodyweight squats may equal 50 kettlebell snatches in the amount of power output and
conditioning they may require). Different people will have different exercises that they are
particularly suited for. Generally speaking however the mark of solid started conditioning
is a 500 rep workout. The next gateway and the beginning of super endurance is 1,000
reps.
Here’s a sample 1,000-rep workout that I did the other day, which you can have a little
twisted fun with:
20 reps band twists

20 push ups
20 bent over rows
20 bodyweight squats
Done with no rest between sets, repeating five times.
20 step ups
20 half sit ups
20 kettlebell swings
20 dumbbell arm movements

Done with no rest between sets, repeating five times.
50 band pull all ways

50 leg lifts
50 kettlebell high pulls
50 double dumbbell presses
There you have it. 1,000 reps. Working every part of the body at a fast pace building both
cardiovascular and muscular endurance. If you really want to spice it up, throw in a
strength exercise at the beginning, middle or end. I bent some nails at the end of this
workout even though it would have normally been quite easy, they were significantly more
challenging because of the total level of fatigue.
If you want to step up to a level of endurance that carries over to everything that you do
that really has a long term effect on your health and energy and makes your strength work
easier, at some point you have got to explore the upper echelon of what’s possible with
your endurance. You’ve got to build up to it and then go to places you didn’t think were
possible. Just add a few reps at a time. Keep going, getting one more rep, one more set of
10, whatever you have to get to get there.
Then you can sit on top of the mountain and know you’ve been somewhere and you can
see even higher peaks to climb.

25 - Instant Seasoning
INSTANT IN SEASON AND OUT OF SEASON
Life is busy, very busy. The pastor of our church became ill and through a series of minor
happenings I found out at about 4 o’clock in the afternoon that I might need to pinch hit
for him at the night service. Putting aside the ridiculousness that most people fear public
speaking more than death, those who wouldn’t rather commit suicide than stand up in
front of people might be freaking out about having to do it on short notice. Well I think
that as an adult you should be working toward losing any fear or lack of ability of handling
things on short notice. That includes your physical, spiritual and mental life.
Now it might be different if you asked me to preach a seven day, two service a day revival
with 10 minutes notice, but little challenges come up every day in every area of your life
and it shouldn’t take us a week’s prep to be able to handle those things. Number one, life
moves too fast for that. Number two think of all the opportunities you miss by stepping
away from a challenge, because you need more prep time.
Is your physical training leading you to be able to jump in at a moment’s notice? One of
the most profound things anyone in strength ever said to me was a guy named Mickey
Strickland and was one of the first guys I ever lifted weights with. We were discussing
suits, wraps and bench shirts and the state of preparation needed to perform a competitive
powerlift. He kind of laughed and said, “You know I train for my life. If something heavy
falls on my wife or kid I don’t want to have to run in the house and spend 20 minutes to
put on knee wraps, suit and a belt to pick it up off of them.” I was young at the time, but
the realization of the truth of that statement hit me like a ton of bricks. If your training
isn’t increasing your ability to live your life as well as use your physical strengths and
pursue whatever other goals you might have then something is wrong.
The same is true for your mental and spiritual life. It’s not enough to say you have a
positive or unconquerable attitude, you have to actually put it into practice on a regular
basis. It’s not enough to know a little about what you believe spiritually or your job or
whatever other mental challenge you might face. If you’re not learning it inside out and
developing confidence in your ability to express yourself in those areas something is
wrong.
So how do you solve this? Practice. The more prepped you are in any area the better
you’ll perform at jumping in at the last minute. That includes prayer and knowledge on
your spiritual beliefs, confidence and a clear well organized mind and physical traits of
useable strength and endurance. Guess what? You can build a lot of those traits all at the
same time with your physical strength. Confidence and clarity are built through hard
physical training. The greater your confidence, the greater your ability to apply yourself
mentally and physically. Are you heading in the right direction prepping to meet the
challenges of your life?

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Power Points

For Super Size, Strength, Endurance & Health

Power Points for Super Size, Strength, Endurance & Health

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‫٭‬ In accomplishing endurance feats it may often be productive to apply numbers

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No program, no matter how beautifully laid out, mega-maniacally researched or overly,

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1. Just lift the freakin' weight. Stop arguing about it.

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Nobody has complete ownership of the only truth or productive methods of

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We'll talk more about food in another point.

Press - (Pick any type of press you like)

Warm up with one set of 10 and 4 progressively heavier singles. Then on

Squat - (Pick whatever type of back squat you want)

Warm up with one set of 10 and 4 progressively heavier singles. Then on

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Deadlifts - Whichever style you like

Warm up with one set of 10 and 4 progressively heavier singles. Then on

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Hence we come to what I call the "Caveman Theory of Fitness."

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That’s the key to mind blowing endurance.

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“Were you born that way?”

So what is the secret?

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20 reps band twists

Done with no rest between sets, repeating five times.

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50 band pull all ways

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