Those of us who started training in the late 1950s were never sure we knew how to make muscles grow. So it was a continuous journey to find out more.
We read the magazines from cover to cover. Out of nowhere came Larry Scott. He came up with absolutely brutal workouts. Must be good because he
was an ordinary guy with narrow shoulders but built some of the best arms ever seen. Just as Larry was crowned King two wannabes appeared to just
about spoil things for everyone who lifted weights. Sergio Oliva and Arnold. Both really huge guys. I mean, after seeing these guys why even bother
lifting weights? We were never going to be like those two.
Well, many of us did persist and what did we learn? I tried HIT, Scott burns and so many other methods. Nothing helped me get really big arms. Sure,
we all heard the rumors about steroids and most of us tried small doses that didn't get us anywhere near Sergio-Arnold. Should we have taken more
gear? Or perhaps we were at the maximum size we were ever going to develop? I never believed that most of us were anywhere near our maximum
muscular size.
Let me explain a factor that affected just about everyone who lifted weights back in the 1970s. Nautilus and Arthur Jones. The net effect of what
Arthur preached was not to do any more training than was necessary. Also, he stated that intensity was the main factor behind hypertrophy.
On the one hand there was Larry Scott's method advocating brutal painful workouts. Lots of rapid sets to failure. Compare that to HIT where you
tried to do the least amount of sets to stimulate growth. Train more intensely but also keep the workouts short. In fact, if you trained to absolute failure
several times in a workout it had to be brief. What I ended up doing was to apply Larry's idea about training for the maximum pump. I applied the Jones
principle of doing this is the fewest number of sets. Including warmup sets I needed about 7 sets to reach a maximum pump. So that is all I did. It was
always a pyramid and when I did a set with the maximum resistance there ended my workout. On some occasions I would reduce the resistance and do
one or two more sets. Did this protocol get my arms bigger? Nope, they stopped just short of 18 inches cold. I could pump them to 18 1/2 or slightly more.
When you run a gym you meet new guys who are bigger than you. That is a good time to watch what they do. One day this big South Sea Islander came
in for a workout. I trained back with him. We started lat pulldowns with 15 X 5 kg plates. A heavy resistance to start with! I did something like 15 reps. This huge
guy also matched what I did. On the second set I managed only 12 reps. The big guy did another set for 15 reps. On my third set I was down to about 8 reps.
He continued and did over 12 reps. Then he went to do seated rowing for lots of sets. Well, I was blown away since we didn't rest after the other guy did his set.
3 or 4 sets and I was done. He kept doing several additional sets with the same resistance. I was impressed. I also concluded what big muscles were good for.
Since I was just as strong as he was for a single I couldn't keep up with him for endurance. Big muscles were necessary to lift a heavy weight for 10 reps over
and over and over and over again for something like 8 to 10 sets. There I was always stopping at the maximum set. What I should have done was count that
final set as my first training set and continue to do another 5 or 6 sets with the same maximum resistance. Rest long enough to get your target number of reps.
I always started with something like 15 to 20 reps. What happens is that by the 3rd set you can't do as many reps. You try to keep every set over 10 reps to get
the best pump and avoid swinging or cheating to finish the sets. Therein is the secret I longed for since 1958. Warm up and keep adding weight until your training set.
Once at the maximum resistance keep doing set after set after set with the same resistance. The accumulated time under tension is what triggers more hypertrophy.
That is why Bill Pearl didn't have to go to failure. He knew that all he had to do was keep doing heaps of maximum sets. 5 or 6 should be enough. Well, imagine using
this protocol for squats! Would be damned hard. Not so bad for arms and calves.
