Anthony Ditillo, ‘Various Strength Specialization Routines’, THE DEVELOPMENT OF PHYSICAL STRENGTH

What we shall endeavor to do here in this section of Chapter 5 is to outline for you a few choice specialization programs which can be utilized by you in the training year, for whatever particular training goal you may endeavor to fulfill. These routines are not mere figments of my creative imagination, for they have been used and presently are being used throughout the lifting world by lifters of all calibers and all probable situations in which they can offer some help. By adhering to the types of programs outlined here for you, you can rest assured that the information will be well founded and most helpful, provided the lifter or trainee makes no effort to abort the basic principles outlined for him just the way they have been reported. There is a reason for this requirement of strict adherence to these principles and the way in which they are outlined for you.

What we have tried to do here is to take the guess work out of your training while you are in this period of deep specialization. This way, your psyche will be at rest with your routine and this will allow you to concentrate on simply following the routine the way it is listed for you with no subconscious contradiction as to the worthiness or validity of the work predetermined for you in advance. It makes quite a difference as to the amount of wasted nervous energy if you firmly believe in the routine and the training principles of t he routine in question, when assessing the value of the work and the possible outcomes of the work if performed as suggested for any length of time. By nor having to concentrate on the “yes” or “no” of the work to be followed, your unconscious will be at rest and fully recuperated to handle the work to come, with no fear on your part as to whether you are doing too much or too little for best results.

This is one time when you cannot rest on your ability to make pertinent decisions for yourself as far as training load or volume is concerned. When undertaking a period of such intense specialization, it is best if you follow a preordained schedule by someone who has been there before you and therefore knows what to expect from the desired work and all it encompasses.

By following the leadings of a man more advanced than you, you will have a better chance of succeeding to the maximum of your capabilities, with little chance of failure due to wrong choices make on your part.

We should mention at this time, that whenever any period of intense physical exertion is undertaken, it will be of the utmost necessity that the dietary habits of the person involved are most completely formulated with no chance of any vitamin or mineral lacking in both quantity or quality. During this period of such intense specialization you are actually asking your body adjust to a greatly accelerated workload, with the intensity and volume making jumps by leaps and bounds past the amount and kind of work previously performed by the interested trainee. This workload increase and intensity acceleration will become an all-encompassing physical and emotional drain on the nervous system and the psychological state of the involved trainee and in order to make such a strenuous situation more easily acceptable to follow, we shall endeavor to outline for you the correct dietary and nutritional regime for you to follow, depending upon whether you are seeking increased muscle size with very little weight gain, or overall bodyweight and size gains along with an increase of lifting proficiency.

For the fellow who wishes to sharpen up his muscularity and density along with a certain amount of increased muscle size, but not with any increased bodyweight to speak of, I would recommend a diet which is low in calories, almost completely devoid of sugar and white flour products and high in protein and protein supplements. This way there is very little in the way of fattening foodstuffs incorporated in this fellow’s eating patterns and in this way, he will gain very little in the way of excess bodyweight and excess bodyweight. For the fellow who wishes to gain in size and strength but not gain to any great degree in bodyweight, carbohydrates, especially sugar, are his worst enemy. Sugar and sugar by-products will pry excess weight on you faster and more insidiously than any other type of foodstuff and the pitiful thing is that for most of us raised in this country, this means that many of our favorite foods and eating pastimes will have to be done without.

While the fellow seeking pure muscle and strength gains with mo excess bodyfat accumulation must indeed be sure that only good, wholesome, nutritional foods fall into his daily caloric intake, hr must see to it that a minimum amount of natural carbohydrates are included into his diet for the sake of his training and overall energy requirements and also, for the health of his liver and kidney functioning. Even when in the process of losing bodyweight, we must keep a certain balance in the nutrients we ingest to insure proper internal functioning of the body, with mo particular organ undergoing any unnatural stress due to dietary insufficiency of necessary foodstuffs. One small serving of fresh fruit and leafy green vegetables per day, along with your strict diet of primarily protein foods will more than suffice in keeping your internal organs functioning at the proper rate, with the consumption of such a large amount of protein allowing the greatest rate possible of muscle hypertrophy (growth).

For the truly underweight trainee, the amount of carbohydrates consumed in his daily dietary schedule is not as important as the all- around amount of usable calories consumed while undertaking such intensified work. This means that he will have a much larger variety to choose from when deciding on what to eat each day and how much of each food group to include in his daily diet. What this will mean is that the dietary schedule for the really underweight trainee will be most plentiful and well rounded, with much in the way of tasty dishes and beverages and special drinks being included in the daily dietary chore.

I hope I am not giving the impression that the underweight man can forget about attempting to eat the most nutritious food that he can afford to get a hold of, for this simply would not be the truth. What I mean to say here is that since is not merely interested in muscle gains but also in the acquisition of additional bodyweight, he can afford to be a bit more lackadaisical when it comes to the bartering out of the particular groups of foodstuffs and the desserts which will tickle the tastebuds and bring about the additional weight gain this man is interested obtaining. For this man it would be to his benefit to include a liberal amount of milk and milk products to round out the basic diet of lean meats, fresh fruits and fresh vegetables. By including the milk and milk products you will be greatly adding to the amount of calories consumed and at the same time, you will also be adding greatly to the amount of protein consumed and this protein will be of a very first class nature, which will aid you greatly in developing size and strength.

I feel at this time, it will be to your advantage if I were to outline a few dietary concoctions for both the muscle seeker and the bodyweight seeker to utilize in their dietary schedules while on these routines of intense physical specialization. For the man who seeds primarily additional muscle growth and response, the following drinks and snacks will aid you greatly in maintaining positive nitrogen balance in the bloodstream, which will in turn aid you in building additional amounts of useful, solid muscle.

(A) Hi Protein Drink Three tablespoons of liver powder

Three tablespoons of beef hi-protein Three tablespoons of soya powder Four tablespoons of peanut butter Sweeten to taste with honey

Mix in blender using tomato or orange juice for liquid (B) Super Hi Protein Drink

Two raw eggs
Four tablespoons of peanut butter
Two packets of gelatin, unflavored
Half pint of ice cream
Sweeten to taste with honey
Mix in blender using skim milk for liquid

(C) Hi Protein, Low Carbohydrate Snack Four ounces of boiled ham

Four ounces of chicken loaf
Four ounces of American cheese
Four ounces of Swiss cheese

Dice the various meats and cheeses into small bite-sized pieces and season to taste, This is a very nutritious snack to be eaten anytime the urge for something substantial makes itself felt.

ArnoldWith these two types of hi protein drinks you gave a good source of additional protein with very little in the way of carbohydrates. The same for the meat and cheese.

For the man who truly needs to gain a large amount of additional bodyweight the following dishes and drinks should prove to be most beneficial, when coupled with the type of specialization routine we are about to outline for in this section of Chapter 5. You will be able to enjoy these dietary suggestions since you will not be limited to the kinds of foods you can choose from, due to your not having to follow a low calorie, low sugar type of diet. Of course, this is not to say that you should go overboard on the sugars and the sweet things which most of us have been raised on eating before we have taken up this sport of weight training. While it will be to his benefit to choose primarily from the natural types of foodstuffs with little choices as to how much sweets and fattening foods to be eaten, this man will not have to worry about gaining excess bodyfat! Since his metabolism is too high to begin with (this is why he is already underweight), he will not have too much worry about concerning how many calories and from what sources of foods these meals and menus come from, providing they are primarily sound nutritionally and well-rounded vitamin and mineral wise.

(A) Hi Protein and Weight Gaining Beverage One pint of heavy cream

One pint of ice cream
One cup of whole milk
Three raw eggs
Three ounces of milk and egg protein Sweeten with honey or chocolate syrup

(B) Hi Protein and High Energy Drink

One ounce of liver powder
One ounce of milk and egg protein One ounce of beef hi-protein
One ounce of soy powder
One raw egg
One ripe banana
One pint of ice cream
One pint of whole milk

(C) Hi Calorie Hi Protein Soup

One cup of tomato juice One cup of tomato sauce One can of corn niblets One can of sweet peas One diced carrot

One can of pork and beans
One half pound of sliced, precooked sausages Three preboiled, prediced potatoes. Season to taste

(D) Hi Calorie and Hi Protein Breakfast

Four scrambled eggs, cooked with butter
Eight ounces of fried Virginia ham or bacon
One pound of cooked chopped beef
Season to taste, mix together in a frying pan and simmer until warm.

What these types of of beverages and drinks will do for the would-be bulk fanatic is that they will stimulate his entire metabolic make-up to work at a more favorable pitch, thus making his training endeavors all the more easily obtained. These dietary suggestions are both high in calories and high in protein so that the basis of these foods will be more nutritious and aid in delivering the kind of results you are looking for. Coupled with the right amount and the right kind of training, these dietary schedules will aid you in developing the kind of muscles you are seeking with little in the way of excess bodyweight being brought into the picture. Although this man is not primarily interested in maintaining the same bodyweight and seeks to add greatly to his ultimate size and strength, he is not interested in gaining excess fat, since this will not make him appear any more impressive, only sloppy and unathletic.

Since it is already an accepted fact that most of you trainees will gave different goals and aims, while using weight training as a medium to obtain these goals and the answer to your training difficulties must therefore become a specialized method in order for you to obtain the avenues of success you indeed feel are important. So we shall, therefore, outline for you now in this section of Chapter 5, various special routines which can be utilized by you depending upon your personal goals and their ultimate possibilities as to the level of achievement.

Some of you men will be seeking the three lift proficiency along with the acquisition of additional bodyweight, while others will seek to maintain basic body size, with the gains in the routine coming only from additional strength gain. Since these are two distinct goals and therefore require different avenues of work, it is only natural to assume that the kind of training necessary to achieve these goals will for the most part be somewhat different for each individual case. This means that the trainee who is not seeking additional bodyweight will not only be following a different dietary schedule, but also he will be utilizing a different set and repetition schedule, as compared to the truly underweight trainee who is seeking additional pounds as well as additional strength potential.

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For the trainee who is not interested in gaining any more bodyweight but who is interested in gaining in strength, the two following routines will be more than adequate for the average trainee to follow in his seeking of greater lifting proficiency and muscular development. The first routine will be a short, intense, three day per week routine which will develop body strength without muscular growth, or rather, a gain of bodyweight.

Monday

Bench Press: one set of ten for a warm-op and then work with three sets of five reps using all the weight possible. Finish up with three sets of eight, done lighter. Power Squat: one set of ten, one set of eight, one set of six, and three sets of three reps using all the weight possible. Finish up with three sets of eight, done lighter. Bentover Rowing: seven sets of five reps, with the last three sets done with heavy weight.

Wednesday

Incline Press: one set of ten reps for a warm-up, then jump to three sets of four to six reps. Half Squat: one set of ten, one set of eight, one set of six, then three sets of four. To be safe, you should do these in a power rack. Barbell Curl: four to six sets of six to eight reps using all the weight possible. Lying Triceps Extension: four to six sets of six to eight reps using al weight possible.

Friday

Close Grip Bench: one set of ten for a warm-up, then work up to three sets of five, heavy. Deadlift From Below Knee: one or two sets of triples for a warm-up, then work up to three heavy doubles using all the weight possible. Do these in a power rack. Bentover Rows: four to six sets of five to seven repetitions using all the weight possible.

For the fellow who is able to train four days per week, and who also is not interested in gaining much in the way of additional bodyweight as well as strength, I advise the following four day a week training routine:

Monday and Thursday

Bench Press, Incline Press, Dips, and Power Squat. Each of these movements on these two training days should be performed for a total of eight sets each, with the reps ranging from between four and six. Take two or three warm-up sets, then work with the heaviest weight possible for three sets of four to six reps, finishing up with two or so sets of eight reps with a somewhat reduced weight.

Tuesday and Friday

Bent Legged Deadlift, Bentover Rowing, Cambered Bar Curls, Lying Triceps Extension. Each of these movements, except for the deadlift, should be worked for four to six reps per set with a total of six to eight sets, three of each being heavy. On the deadlifts do six sets of triples.

For the fellow who is interested in also putting on some additional bodyweight along with his increase in lifting strength, I would heartily recommend the following training routines which have been especially planned out for the trainee with these types of goals on his mind. I am sure that if you work according to the workout listed for you here and follow the suggested dietary principles lusted earlier in this chapter, you will most assuredly gain additional bodyweight and the brunt of this gained weight will be for the most part, useful functional strength.

The first routine is a three day routine with its main point of concentration being placed on the development of additional muscle growth as well as an increase in overall lifting proficiency and power.

Monday

Bench Press: one set of ten, one set of six, one set of six, and five sets of between four and six repetitions using all the weight possible. Press Behind Neck: one set of ten and then four sets of six reps using all the weight possible. Bentover Row: one set of ten and then five sets of five to seven reps using heavy weight. Shoulder Shrug: five to seven sets of six to eight reps using all weight possible. Breathing Squat: one set of ten for a warm- up, then jump to all weight possible for one set of twenty forced repetitions.

Wednesday

Incline Press: five to seven sets of four to six reps using all weight possible. Flat Bench Flyes: four to six sets of six to eight reps using medium heavy weight. Barbell Curl four to six sets of eight to ten reps using all weight possible. Lying Triceps Extension: four to six sets of eight to ten reps using heaviest weight possible.

Friday

Close Grip Bench: five to seven sets of five to seven repetitions using heaviest weight possible. Power Cleans: five to seven sets of four to six reps using medium heavy resistance. Power Squat: one set of ten, one set of eight, one set of six, and finally, four sets of triples using heaviest weight possible.

For the underweight trainee who is interested in training four days per week and also in gaining additional bodyweight, the following routine will work quite well for you, should you follow the suggested eating schedules which have appeared earlier on in this section. We must remember that in order for your bodyweight to climb while you are gaining in size and strength, the proper diet will have to be followed so that the gains will be functional and regular in their development. We must keep in mind that the main difference between these routines for gaining weight and the ones regulated for sheer strength with no appreciable increase in size and bulk lies in the dietary principles and suggestions which are to be followed while training on the particular routine of your choice and desire.

To follow one type of routine without adequate nutritional habits to aid you in gaining the aims of your chosen routine, you will be fighting only half a battle, with the outcome both being not as effective, and also taking longer and longer to obtain. You will have to follow the suggested dietary menus listed here, along with these routines, if you wish to gain at the maximum rate possible for you.

Here then is your four day per week training routine for size and strength: Monday and Thursday

Bench Press, Flat Bench Flyes, Press Behind Neck, Bentover Rowing, and Lat Machine Pulldowns. These movements are to be performed from between sex and eight sets of sex and eight repetitions, with the first two sets acting as a warm-up and the following four sets being performed with maximum poundages and finishing up with two or so sets with lighter weights.

Tuesday and Friday

Power Squat, Half Squat, Scott Bench Curl, Lying Triceps Extension. These movements should be performed for five to seven sets of five to eight reps using the heaviest weight possible for sets three, four, five, and six. Finish up with lighter weights for the last set or two.

Both the routines for the seeker of additional bodyweight and the routines for the fellow seeking only an increase in strength will result in both a degree of strength increase, hitherto deemed impossible and also, whatever weight is gained will be functional and useful, resulting in greater lifting proficiency and increased muscle size.

It is my deepest wish that you try to adhere to both the routines and the dietary schedules, because both will work hand in hand in aiding you in gaining at the fastest rate possible for you in your present state of conditioning and development.

One Lift Specialization Programs

With this final section of Chapter 5, we are going to get into the utmost effective specialization programs of which there have been many records kept. For the most part, these methods of acute specialization will work the muscles and the lifting movements to a peak of development and proficiency which beforehand would have been felt were completely impossible or out of the question of being attained by the average trainee. What we are going to be doing in this section of Chapter 5, is outline for you in the most intense situation of physical endeavors. This means that you will be narrowing in on your training goals and aspirations in order to “milk” from your body all the utmost potential as far as development and physical lifting abilities you are capable of. These techniques are by no means completely new or untried by other men before you; on the contrary, most men who are the champions of today and yesterday have tried these training methods at some prior time of their lifting life. These routines must cause an increase in size and strength, due to their severity and their specificity of nature.

When you work only one or two movements per workout and those workouts are both voluminous and intense, with the brunt of the work strictly and thoroughly performed, you must gain in one way or another, due to the very nature of such an undertaking and the way in which the average person’s body will adjust to an overload of stress. This is especially true for the man with a very low energy level, who has trouble in formulating a routine which he can recuperate from, throughout the many years of his lifting career. For the man who is constantly complaining of being overtrained, these types of routines will do wonders for both his physical development and his all-over lifting potential. This does

not mean that these routines will not also benefit us more toughened-up trainees, for we all can reap great amounts of benefit from this type of workout if we have the self-belief and the self-control to give these short, intense routines a chance to show us exactly what they can do. Therefore, it would be to all or our benefit to look over these suggested routines, no matter haw short and simple they may seem to us at first, for in the long run they will work only if we will work.

This first specialized routine will be for the man who wishes to experiment with training for only one hour per day and using one exercise movement per training session. This will mean that each movement will gave to be an all-around muscle group movement to stimulate the most available fibers of the largest muscle groups of the body. In this way, such short training will be most complete and result producing and in the long run, will develop the most muscle for the amount of work and time put into the training period of any type of training that I know of.

By training five days per week and using only one movement per day, we must make sure that such choices will not cause muscle overlap and therefore become physically redundant, thereby leaving out certain muscle groups which would produce a lopsided physique and d decrease in all-around lifting power.

Therefore, before undertaking this type of routine, be sure to know how to set up your schedule beforehand as to what to do and what not to include so that the entire body becomes stimulated to greater developmental heights during the course of a lifting week. This will allow rot adequate recuperation although you will be training almost daily and also, it will develop for you an increase in all-around listing power. This will develop the capability of going just about as far as your particular potential will take you in the way of lifting proficiency. To stimulate additional muscle growth, it will be necessary to include in the future additional work for the aforementioned muscles in order to fully work them and reshape them, as it were, to greater development and shapeliness. But for the fellow who is primarily interested in all-around lifting proficiency and a well- developed rugged physique, this is the routine to follow.

Here then is your five day per week training routine:

Monday – Bench Presses
Tuesday – Squats
Wednesday – Deadlift or Bentover Rowing Thursday – Power Clean and Push Press Friday – Jerk From Rack

With the choice of these movements we have given the entire body quite a workout by the end of the week. For each of these movements I would suggest you choose one of the following set and repetition schedules. The reason I am giving you somewhat of a choice as to the number of sets and repetitions you will be using, is due to the complexity of the choices of exercise movements and the importance of your being able to choose the right schedule which will work best for your personal preferences as to how many sets and how many repetitions will work best for you. With such a short, daily exercise program to work with, it is important to choose the right balance of work.

I would advise either that you perform each exercise for around ten sets of five to seven repetitions, with the first three or so sets as progressive warm-ups and the brunt of the

work taking place from set four to set nine, and the final set or two being flushing sets with somewhat lighter weights. Another suggestion would be the following tried and proved effective repetition and set scheme: one set of ten, one set of eight, one set of six, and five sets of three reps using all weight possible. Finish up with two or three sets of five or so reps with somewhat lighter weight for complete flush.

Finally, when feeling particularly energetic and strong, you could take a set or two fo9r a warm-up and then progressively add to the weight of the bar until you are at close to 90% of your limit and try for three to five single attempts with this heavy weight, finishing up with a few sets of lighter poundages with higher reps.

All three of these suggestions will work for you on such an intense, short routine. In fact, one week you could use one schedule and the following week the other, and so on. It really is up to you in the final estimation as to how many sets and how many reps you choose to follow when working on such a course. They all have merit, if followed using intelligence and patience.

You fellows who are always complaining about how little time you have to spend on your training will find that these schedules take very little time as compared to other routines that the majority of us trainees follow in our attempts at getting bigger and stronger. With such short workouts you should be able to recuperate quite easily and the result will be an increase in your training enthusiasm, less missed workouts, and a general increase in both lifting proficiency and in muscular development.

The next type of specialization routine will be somewhat more complicated than the first example I used to demonstrate such training and the effects of such types of work. With this following routine, we will be training four or five days per week, with the average routine consisting of two movements per day. This way, you will be able to perform a more diversified amount of work each workout and in the long run, the all- around effects will be more predominant in muscle building and strength level increases. This is because of the coupling of two such movements each day. By coupling two movements daily, or almost daily, it is not necessary to train each and every day; in fact, it will be possible to cut down the number of training days each week to four. Also, with the coupling of two movements daily, you will be training a bit longer each day, but the total amount of work done weekly will remain approximately the same. This may mean the difference between success or failure depending upon the rate of recovery your body can acclimate itself to. Some men will find that two movements per day is just about right for best results. Others will prefer less training days per week but will prefer maybe three movements done on each of these days. Others, in the extreme other end of training energy levels, may find that one movement per day is just right to insure continued gains. So you see, in this section of this chapter, we will be discussing each of these types of personalized specialization routines, so as to give all of you a chance to try whatever kind of routine you may feel will be right for you. There is only one way to find out: you must experiment and see what will work and what will not work.

This following routine is for the man who wishes to specialize on the pressing muscles of the upper body, but at the same time, wants to be sure that he is including enough work for the additional parts of the body so as to not lose anything previously developed in the past. In order to insure this not happening, you will have included on an almost daily basis, enough work for the additional muscle groups which will keep them in proper state

of tone as the brunt of your workouts will be geared to developing additional size and strength in the pressing muscles of the body.

What I would advise you to do in this case, is to work one pressing movement each training session, with one squatting movement on one day and one pulling or arm movement on the following training day. This way, the rest of the body is adequately stimulated.

Here then is your two movement per day training routine:

Monday – Bench Press and Power Squat
Tuesday – Incline Press and Bentover Rowing Wednesday – Press Behind Neck and Arm Work Thursday – Take the day off
Friday – Close Grip Bench Press and Front Squat Saturday – Standing Press and Bent Legged Deadlift Sunday – Take the day off

With this routine I would advise you to perform the following set and repetition schedule: for the majority of movements except the Bent Legged Deadlift, warm up for two or so sets and then move up to weight which you can handle for between three and five sets of four to six repetitions. After this, cool down with two or so sets of eight or so repetitions, with a somewhat lighter weight. For the deadlift, I recommend sets of three repetitions, working up to a maximum triple. This should develop more than enough power for the limit deadlifting. For the rest of the body, there is more than enough work to stimulate increases in muscle size and power. With continued application of this kind of training, you will realize a great increase in your pressing power from all angles and the rest of the body will not suffer in development or power because of the inclusion of additional work for these areas. This type of training can become most meaningful and enjoyable for you and many men enjoy this kind of training so much that they stay on these kinds of programs for the entire training year.

For the man who has a greater ability to recuperate after strenuous training there are further methods of training which will stimulate even further rates of growth and development, due to the extent of their severity and complicated nature. With these types of workouts you would do all your pressing on one day, the whole amount of squatting on the following day, and finally, on the third training day you would follow a most complete routine to fully work the pulling muscles of the body. In this way, although you would be training six days per week, you will only be working each muscle group twice weekly, so that the entire workload would be evenly distributed throughout the entire body, with adequate rest between workouts.

The severity of this routine will make it necessary that you do not try to stay on this routine for more than a month or so, unless you are one of those rare individuals who can thrive, or seem to do so, on such a great quantity of hard work. If such is the case, then by all means stay on this type of routine as long as you wish to. But for the majority of the rest of us, a month and a half of so would be long enough to stimulate correct training responses. As soon as one begins to feel somewhat drug out and less proficient at one’s workouts, it is then time to switch to a less severe amount of work until full recuperation is realized.

Here then is your six day per week specialization routine:
Monday – Bench Press, Incline Press and Flat Bench Flying
Tuesday – Power Squat and Leg Presses
Wednesday – Deadlifts, Bentover Rowing and Lat Machine Pulldowns Thursday – Take the day off

Friday – The same as Monday Saturday – The same as Tuesday Sunday – The same as Wednesday

If you cannot train on Sunday, then train from Monday through Saturday and take Sunday off.

With this type of routine, there is a tremendous amount of stress placed on the physical and emotional parts of the mind and body, so be sure to realize this and take steps to deter physiological staleness, which may step in and force an unwanted layoff. A good idea would be to take a few extra naps throughout the day so as to make this excessive work more acceptable to the body and more easily recuperated from. Just as we must learn to creep before we can walk, so must we find our way through this kind of workout, slowly and with great hesitancy to overwork, since this would work against us, not for us. Rest assured, if enough care is taken to see to it that the correct kind of diet is followed throughout this entire training affair, the result we are seeking will make itself felt. All that is necessary is to barter our energy and see to it that we are properly fed and adequately rested.

Another avenue of experimentation which has been proven most successful to the few men who have proved to be innovative enough to attempt such a unique incorporation of training schedules and exercise frequency would be where you will be working the entire body each and every workout. Then, after working extremely hard on the entire body, you rest until you feel that you have completed the amount of rest and then, and only then, do you take another workout. This means that some weeks you may be training three times per week and other weeks you will be training only two times per week. But in both cases, you will be sure to work more than enough to stimulate sufficient gains without the chance of under-recuperation or overtraining becoming a problem. This way, there are very little wasted training programs when on this type of routine. By limiting the amount of training periods each week, you can greatly magnify the amount of work done on each chosen exercise period. Also, you will be able to rest assured that sufficient rest takes between each workout bout. For the man with limited training time and limited training energy, this type of routine may be just what the doctor ordered.
In this situation, we would naturally place the most important movements first in our routine, in order that most of the energy can be spent on the movements which are the most important to us, with our particular training goals and endeavors. This does not mean that there will not be enough work for the rest of the body, for this is the beauty of such a scheduling of exercise periods. When you know that you will be training the entire body only two or three times per week, it is only natural that you wish to work very hard and completely an each and every exercise chosen for each and every exercise period. When you know that the workout of the day will be the only chance you will have to get to work the body for a few days, you will really try to get psyched up for the workout and this will help you to get the most out of each and every training routine. Some men cannot seem to keep up this amount of psyche for any length of time. For these men it would be wiser to work out more frequently but less intensely. But for the man who can gear up this extra emotionalism two or so times per week, this is the way to go. On the days you are not training, be sure to rest adequately and as completely as possible for this how you will be able to gear up for the next workout. Try to get in an occasional nap every so often to enable you to save necessary training energy. For let no one tell you differently: with this program you will have to work!

This then, would be your whole body, twice per week specialization routine. Monday

Bench Press, Press Behind Neck, Bentover Barbell Rowing, Scott Curls Lying Triceps Extension, and Power Squat.

With this workout you should perform the following set and repetition schedule for the majority of movements, except perhaps with your arm work, in which higher repetitions should be included. For the rest of the body, try to warm-up sufficiently with two of three sets of medium repetitions and then jump to a poundage you can handle for between six and ten repetitions and work with this weight for three to five sets. Cool down with two or so sets of somewhat lighter weights and somewhat higher repetitions. For the upper arms, I would recommend that the set scheme be somewhat reduced while the repetition scheme be increased so that you are handling weights for each set for between eight and twelve repetitions.

After a two or three day rest, try to get in the following routine. This will be somewhat different from the first routine since you will be trying to work the muscles from a somewhat different angle. However, both routines will work the muscles most fully, completely, and adequately.

Friday

Standing Press, Parallel Bar Dips, Lat Machine Pulldowns, Shoulder Shrugs, Cheating Barbell Curls, and Olympic Back Squat.

For this workout, I would recommend a similar set and repetition schedule. Warm-up for the first two or so sets an then work into a weight you can handle for five to seven repetitions. Use this for four sets and then cool down with two sets of eight reps.

The secret of properly working the body through these periods of super specialization lies within the mind and the integrity of the trainee. He must see to it that his diet is adequate and complete for the increase of workloads he will be undertaking. Also, in order for him to stimulate additional muscle growth, it will be necessary for him to face the fact that only through a great deal of self confidence and a strict adherence to the dietary principles discussed beforehand, will he succeed to the limit of his potential and physical capabilities.

What I have tried to do in this chapter is to give you a selection of the most potent tools or weapons you will ever have at your disposal in the hopes that through the proper utilization of these techniques, you too will move one step closer to the goals of which your dreams are made.

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