Fitness means many different things for many different people. Some people prefer to get big and strong, while others prefer to have maximum endurance. Through all corners of the internet, fitness magazine culture, and written […]
John McCallum ‘Get Big Drink’
The quest for greater size has long plagued both the ‘hard gainer’ and the muscle bound hunk. At times it can seem that the need to ingest greater calories is almost as taxing as our workouts. A predicament that John McCallum, the focus of today’s article, was keen to address. As you’ll read below, McCallum devised a simple but highly effective weight gain drink for those seeking to put on weight in the shortest possible amount of time.
3 Sets x 10 Reps: The History, Logic and Reasoning
Earlier in the week I was fortunate enough to spend time with a friend of mine who has recently qualified as a physiotherapist. Discussing the relative merits of different exercises and training protocols, my friend lamented his profession’s reliance on cookie cutter protocols for rehabbing patients. In their view, many physiotherapists tended to prescribe 10 reps x 3 sets on exercises for patients regardless of their training experience, interest or age.
Now admittedly my friend has been strength training for the better part of a decade, which perhaps explains his enthusiasm for varying rep ranges across populations. Indeed in their training lifetime, they’ve used 5 x 5, 3 x 8, 1 x 20 and a host of other schemes. Hence they’ve experienced the effects that different protocols can produce. Ruminating however on their complaints, I realised that even outside the world of physiotherapy, people can adhere to rep ranges with a quasi-religious real. After all, when was the last time you heard someone promote 4 sets x 11 reps? Sacrilege….rep ranges must be divisible by 2 in the vast majority of cases!
Indeed, it’s not just the world of physiotherapy that has become enamoured with 3 sets x 10 reps. Many beginner and advanced programmes promote likewise. Certainly when I finished my first ‘real’ programme of 5 x 5, I was encouraged by older lifters to move to 10 x 3 for an introduction into bodybuilding. So with this in mind, today’s post examines the history of ’10 x 3′, a training protocol favoured it seems by gym goers and professional clinicians alike.
Guest Post: The Benefits of Physical Therapy Go Beyond Your Imagination
Photo by pixabay
Maintaining a good physical health is extremely important for you because it’s closely related to your mental health. However, even after knowing that a healthy body is really crucial, people often fail to take necessary steps towards improving their fitness levels.
In today’s world wherein you have to struggle with cut-throat competition 24/7, it becomes even more important for you to lead a healthy lifestyle. If you work in a corporate firm, then it’s natural for you to spend long hours in front of your PC, which plays a huge role in diminishing your health.
Doug Hepburn’s 1953 Training Cycle
An absolute goliath in the training world, Douglas Ivan Hepburn or Doug for short, was one of the most respected athletes of the mid-twentieth century. Winning gold medals at the 1953 World Weightlifting Championships, the 1954 British Empire Games and a series of other contests, Hepburn is perhaps best known for his incredible power. Indeed, the Canadian born strongman was the first individual to bench press 500 pounds and squat over 600 pounds with relative ease. A remarkable feat by anyone’s standards.
The following blogpost is based on Hepburn’s own interview with muscle writer Jim Murray in 1954 and details Hepburn’s training cycles in the lead up to his 1953 gold medal.
Bradley J. Steiner, For Rugged Strength And Muscle Size Try This Novel “Split Routine (1972 Article)
I remember hesitating abut using the title that appears on the top of this page.
I can hear the “oohs!” and “aahhs!” and I can see the looks of astonishment and disappointment on your faces: “Steiner – IRON MAN’S feature-writer, advocating, a split routine? Why, this guy’s flipped his wig. He’s been hollering so much about the importance of avoiding too much exercise, and the fact the three workouts a week are plenty for gains, that I’ve been afraid to even look at a a barbell more than three times a week – for fear of over-training – and now?? – what gives? – has Steiner gone the way of the Iron Game’s more unscrupulous money-grubbers? – is he too going to blabber about quadruple-zipping and double-popping, and marathon, three-hour schedules? – Oh man! What’s going on???
1903 and the birth of American Bodybuilding
After three years of pumping up, slimming down and posing, Britain, and the world was treated to the first ever bodybuilding competition in 1901. Hosted by the legendary Eugen Sandow, the ‘Great Competition’ as it was known claimed to have found the most perfect specimens alive. Unsurprisingly it wasn’t long before other nations, notably America, began to hold their own bodybuilding shows.
Within two years of Sandow’s ‘Great Competition’, the US was hosting its own bodybuilding show. Today we tell their story.
The History of the Foam Roller
What could be simpler? Just hop on a piece of foam and roll up and down… anyone could do that right? Yes, anyone can but few do. Why? Mainly because it hurts. It’s effective but my god is it sore.
Yes today we are talking about the foam roller, the cost-effective means of massaging aching muscles and forcing you to embrace pain during your rest days. Who invented the foam roller? What was its purpose and how did it end up in gyms across the world?
By the end of the article you’ll have the answers to these questions and perhaps have a new found appreciation for the $20 torture device.
Sandow and Stout: An Irish Story
The Irish alcohol industry has, at its core, always been particularly adept at marketing. From Whiskey to Guinness, sellers have used a variety of inventive advertisements to flog their wares to a thirsty public. Illustrating this is today’s post about a strange encounter between Eugen Sandow, a Prussian born strongman and Murphy’s Stout based in County Cork, Ireland.
The above image depicting Sandow lifting a horse overhead was one of many used by the brewing firm in the early years of the twentieth-century to promote their stout.
So how did Murphy’s come to secure the image rights of one of the world’s most popular figures? The answer seems to have come down to sheer serendipity.
Guest Post: Jon Pall Sigmarsson
You can’t talk about great strongmen without mentioning Jon Pall Sigmarsson. He was a complete strength athlete. From competing in strongman, Highland Games, Powerlifting, Olympic Weightlifting, and even Bodybuilding, Jon Pall embodied his Icelandic Viking heritage in all that he did. It was the combination of his physical ability and larger-than-life personality that have left a legacy in the world of strength.
