It was 1990, The Summer after freshman year and I was finishing up my days traveling to the Metuchen YMCA. At the time, the weight room was down stairs, a small dungeon filled with York Barbell Weights, a York Isometric rack and a small radio where the big guys allowed me to bring in my cassette tape to play hard rock music. I knew these were my last days at The Y as construction was in full swing and a new weight room was coming. The few who trained at The Y were big guys. It was a small … [Read more...]
How Hard To Train to Maximize Strength & Muscle Growth?
How hard is too hard when it comes to packing on size and strength? What is enough, what is too much and what is optimal? After decades of experience since 1989, I've seen some guys lean more towards one way over another. Other times, I've seen lifters change their intensity levels. Myself? I go completely by feel. More often than not, my intensity is high and aggressive. Why? It matches my personality. When I deny who I am and what I am, I do NOT feel good about what I'm doing. I LOVE hard … [Read more...]
How To Train When In Doubt
"Science and experience have taught us that any athlete, even in ultra-endurance sports, who has not built a foundation of strength will fail to reach his or her potential." ~ Pavel, Author of Easy Strength As I work on my book and dig deeper on my philosophy on training, in between text messages with Jason Ferruggia discussing life and lifting, I keep coming back to what got me where I am today, as well as every other strong mofo out there. And that "thing" is the fact that those strong … [Read more...]
Lessons From Golden Era Bodyweight Bodybuilding Workouts
This post was inspired from my time spent reading the old books of bodybuilding where the greats from the 50s, 60s and 70s spoke often about all the high rep bodyweight training they did. Hundreds of sit ups and crunches. 100 Pull Ups on back day / back workouts. 100 Push Ups for the warm up. These men from back in the day had physiques that were carved from stone. They had what many call today as "functional strength". Many of these men worked manual labor jobs by day so they trained at 5 … [Read more...]