Women’s workout fashion has gone through major transformations over the years, and it has come a long way. Today, it’s even grown to become everyday leisure wear, and instead of being worn solely to the gym, workout wear is often the main part of an everyday outfit. Whether it’s for running errands or going to break a sweat, sportswear has found its way to our hearts and is here to stay and become part of every outfit.
“Wrap a band around your bicep until it begins to go numb, then pump out 30 reps with a light weight… Trust me, the pump is worth it.”
These are not the words of an enlightened man but rather my first experience of Kaatsu or Blood Restriction Training. Brought to my attention by a training partner whose grasp of science is not always the strongest, Kaatsu training has grown in popularity over the last decade. While my friend’s description may seem appropriate at first glance, there is quite a lot more to this training system than first meets the eye.
With this in mind today’s post seeks to answer three simple questions: what is Kaatsu training? How was it created? And, perhaps most importantly, should you try it?
Image Source
It was one of those rare moments where I thought I was dreaming. In fact, that would be putting it mildly! It was one of those rare moments in my 18 years when I was so blown away by what I was experiencing that I can barely describe it to you. It was 1978, the event, the Southern Cup Bodybuilding Championships in Tampa, Florida.
I had just witnessed top Mr. Olympia contender and poser extraordinaire Ed Corney, along with a young buck called The Golden Eagle, guest pose before the sell-out crowd (of which I was a part). After the winners had been announced, Sirs Ed and Tom Platz, surrounded by a sea of rabid fans, moved gingerly towards the front of the hall. The auditorium was almost clear when suddenly; I spotted the biggest bodybuilder I had ever seen. “Ohmygod! Is that Mike Katz?” I more than mumbled out loud. Mike Katz was one of the stars of M&F and Pumping Iron and there he was! Mike’s mind- blowing 60-inch expanded chest was so immense, he could balance a full glass of water on it without spilling a drop, and now, there he was! Just 2 weeks earlier, I watched Mike in Pumping Iron, and he was in the flesh in front of me, a super-hero, descending from Mount Olympus to walk amongst us mortals.
Published by the mid-century Bodybuilder Alan Stephens, the following article from Your Physique magazine details some time honoured means of bulking up in the easiest and most efficient way possible. Though much of Stephens’ advice will seem like old hat to those a few years in the Iron Game, his writings were geared toward the beginner and those seeking to change things up.
What’s more. It was never overly complicated. Indeed according to the man himself
All you need to do is follow the right exercises, eat plenty of nourishing food and get as much rest and relaxation on your non training days as you possibly can.
With that in mind though, we’ll dig a little deeper.
Fitness tracking is an integral part of training but it’s frequently ignored. There are two things you should know in order to see results: where you are at right now (in terms of fitness goals) and what you have to do to get to where you wish to be.
Once you start training, your body will slowly start to change as you eat properly and exercise. The body keeps the muscles it already has and builds them further, while the fat gets burned away. However, with a lot of cardio and crash dieting, you risk shedding both muscle and fat, eventually looking slim, but weak. In that case, something hasn’t been done right.
When you first start out exercising, the results are almost immediate. This usually gives people a good amount of drive to continue. But. over time, you will start to notice a drop in the results that you’re getting. Things will start to slow down and get a little bit boring. Or, you may have never been happy with your results from the beginning. Unfortunately, there are loads of aspects of fitness that people miss. And, you need to be thinking about all of them if you’re to reach your goals. To help you out, this post will be going through some of the common mistakes that people make when they’re trying to get bigger or smaller.
Something that we can all agree on is that to be as physically fit as possible, you need to put a lot of work in. If you get to the right point with it psychologically, then all the work can actually be quite enjoyable, and not feel like work at all. But it is definitely true that if you want to be as fit as you can be, then you need to spend a lot of time and effort on getting to that point. If you are a regular reader of this website, then you will know that there are plenty of workout techniques and so on which can help you with that goal. But you also need to think about your whole life, your daily routines and how you treat your body. Are you doing everything you can to hasten your journey to fitness? Let’s take a look at some of the things you should be doing, if you aren’t already.
In December of 1955, Joe Weider published the first issue of Junior Mr. America magazine. Aimed at teenagers and young men between the ages of 12 to 21, Junior Mr. America highlighted the importance of the younger community for bodybuilding entrepreneurs. Packed with training, dating and general life advice, the magazine was viewed by many teenagers as a godsend.
For Weider, the magazine was a chance to market his products to the highly enthusiastic and highly gullible. Something he did with gusto. Pictured above is the magazine’s first cover, featuring Clement Desjardins, the Jr. Mr. Canada of 1955. Aged just 18 years old, Desjardin had only taken up training two years previously at the behest of his friends. Beginning at just 125 lbs., Desjardin weighed 170 by the time he turned 18. Something which Weider attributed to Desjardin’s faithful following of the Weider training principals.
Now as part of the first issue (Dec 1955), Joe wrote an article that kicked off what he called a “Giant Weight Gaining Contest.” This contest would not take place within the confines of an arena but rather within Joe’s new publication.
Interesting the term ‘hard gainer’ appears less and less in everyday gym use these days. Whereas previously whole bodybuilding industries were built on the term, the modern gym goer sees it as just one more phrase amongst several.
Nonetheless, the fascination that previous physical culturists had with ‘hard gainers’ provides us with a wealth of training programmes and worthwhile advice. This is especially the case regarding today’s programme from Bradley J. Steiner.
For the unaware, Steiner was one of the foremost training writers of the 1970s and 1980s in America. Detailing everything from bodybuilding to basic maintenance, Steiner was revered for his common sense, sage wisdom and general good demeanour. In a world dominated by ‘mass monsters‘, Steiner stressed overall development from his trainees. Both physical and mental.
The programme given below is dedicated towards the ‘worst-case’ hardgainer. The trainee for whom many routines have come and gone. As simple as it is effective, the routine will certainly be of interest to beginners and advanced trainees alike.
Popularised by turn of the century strongman Siegmund Klein, the ‘Barbell Turn’ is unlikely to be an exercise you see everyday on the gym floor. Difficult in the extreme, the exercise is an excellent finisher for chest and shoulder days as it hits the triceps, pectorals and deltoids all in one.
Additionally given the mechanics of the exercise, it is nigh on impossible to use heavy weights. This makes it a deceptively safe but nevertheless effective move. So how does one perform the exercise and why hasn’t it caught the public imagination?
