Mat DuVall
4/6/02
Month 1: Shock, Anxiety... PAIN.
There are type's of pain that warrant anxiety when thinking about it. I am not talking about the brief pain experienced when one stubs a toe; no, I am talking about the pain felt when lactic acid has reached maximum levels in a muscle. The pain felt when muscle fibers are tearing apart at a rate that you do not have time to even catch your breath, much less, start to feel better. This pain is what builds champions in the gym. This is the pain I asked Trevor to bring to my world in my pursuit of the Mr USA title. My reason for moving to Vegas was to have the opportunity to step into hell everytime I trained with Trevor; to know I was leaving no stone unturned in my journey. Each month I will give you, the reader's a chance to experience in word the pain and torture that I ask for. You will have a front row seat as Trevor unmercifully breaks my body down in the gym. I will not hold back in my description of the pain I feel; please know this is being done not to discourage you, but rather to encourage you to go beyond the thresh hold of pain in your own training. Beyond Failure Training is not just some fly by night training system that will be forgotten in a month or two. It is a training system that when done right can yield gains like one has never experienced! It is a system that the trainer or trainee is encouraged to make subtle changes.. rep speed, range of motion, the possibilities are endless, yet all lead to the same place.. Shock as to the gains you will make, Anxiety when you are waiting to do your next set, and the constant Pain you will feel.
I arrived in Las Vegas on February 27th, a month late! Why was I upset? In being late, I missed the opportunity to go through a cycle of BFT with Trevor. He was on the last week of his training cycle, and I was coming off a 10 week lay off. My second reason for being upset?, I was as mentioned feeling untrained and flat, while Trevor greeted me at a bodyweight of 370 pounds! Trust me when I say, I have never witnessed any pro or amateur bodybuilder at this weight, while maintaining a beyond respectable level of conditioning! Damn! I needed to get my ass in gear and be ready for the next training cycle. To be honest, it was best that I was not on track with Trevor when I arrived. Why?, as it was put to me, " You would have died, you are not ready..." I felt like a bald little kid, only answering to the name, " Grasshopper", but in truth Trevor wanted to have the chance to guide me through some training while he was off BFT so that I could be ready for the Hell that lay ahead. The first week was tough. I knew that Trevor was taking it easy on me a bit, he knew that I needed time to re-adjust to training in this style. That week's workout that best describe's the pain felt by BFT is the leg training done on friday the 1st of March.
We had gone through the other bodyparts and only had legs left to finish the week. I was hurting, alot, from the prior 3 workouts and as I sat waiting for Trevor, a horrible feeling of anxiety consumed me. Had I timed my arrival with Trevor, it may have been better, but I was early that day, and left to think about the pain that lay only minutes ahead. Moments later I saw Lucifer, (Trevor), pass through the door. As he passed by me, he did not stop, or greet me with a "good morning". I believe the words were, " I feel like shit, let's go..." It was decided that due to his body's state, on that day I would be the center of attention. Trevor was there only to bring the pain. How nice of him you say? to come in for me, even though he was off? Understand that his presence was to, yes, help, but in doing so to make me feel every set that I had missed in the 6 weeks prior! With each hint of regret I felt for being there, I reminded myself that this was what I needed, what I wanted and what was going to bring me to July 26th looking like a mutant! Leg extensions, 1 warmup, and 2 worksets... I hear your thoughts, "that's all, just 2 worksets?" What I felt in the next 10 minutes is only comparable to having my thighs pounded by sledge hammers. The weight seemed easy enough, only the stack to start, a slight 300 pounds, big deal, right? I was then introduced to true no momentum reps. Explain you say?, TRUE no momentum reps, are slow, squeezing every fiber possible reps, then holding it at the top of the movement for a full 5 seconds. After the 5 second hold, it is a slow, excruciating negative that should take no less than 3-4 seconds, and you are not to rest on the bottom. The rep is stopped for a count of 3 just before the muscle fiber's of the legs can relax, thus keeping them in the contracted position. That was one rep; 4 seconds up, 5 seconds at the top, another 4 on the way down and a hold of 3 on the bottom. Sixteen seconds of pain and it was just one rep! I went on in that fashion to about 8 on my own,it was then that I had to do 3 barely assisted reps. I say barely to illustrate that the assistance given is just enough to complete the rep. At no time is the weight taken from me and finished by Trevor. After the 8 on my own and the 3 assisted, my legs were screaming! I actually heard myself wimper! Me, wimper! I know there will be some that say, only 11 and you were wimpering!? Hah! "what a pussy!" Those 11 reps took close to 3 minutes to do!!, and now came the first drop! now I had 210 pounds on the stack, and I could not perform one rep on my own. I opened my eyes just long enough to see Trevor glaring at me, reading his thoughts I heard, " I am not supposed to be training today, suck it up pussy!" Hearing his actual words he told me to keep squeezing, even though the weight was not moving. I did 3 assisted reps, another 40 seconds of pure, evil, pain. In all honesty at this point my motor skills were failing. My quads were not firing and I felt breakfast bubbling from deep within me.... Drop #2! Yes, from 210 to 140 pounds. I was numb, remember this was the first set! Numb to the point that my ears were popping, I heard little other than Trevor's encouragment to keep squeezing. In making sure that I was squeezing, he would give my leg a slap. A slap from a 370 pound freak, not a little punk! A fraction of me wanted to jump up and plant a 45 pound plate right between his eyes! "Why?" you ask, "Is it becasue I was in so much pain?", no, it was becasue I knew this was nothing compared to the 18 weeks that lay ahead. The 140 pounds on the stack felt like a car coming down on my legs. I gathered enough stength to complete one on my own, but for some resaon the 2nd rep was not moving. Again, I opened my eyes and saw Trevor leaning on the pad that my feet were under! He was adding another maybe 100 pounds of pressure to the 140 that I was barely moving! Remember, it is called, Beyond Failure Training, not Go to failure training! I managed to get through another two reps, thus making it to the 3rd drop, 90 pounds..... I should be able to move 90 pounds like a pillow!?, then why are tears forming in my eyes as I strain to complete just one rep?!, Oh!, again, Mr Smith is leaning on the pad, as if it was not hard enough. Doing 3 reps with the 90, reminded me of the opening scene to the Incredible Hulk, you know, when David Banner was trying to lift the car off his wife... That was a car, this is 90 pounds! Why am I grimmacing?, and why are my eyes tearing up? I was roughly 4 1/2 minutes into my first set, yes the first set, and there was no longer a mind to muscle conection. My mind had told my muscle to get ****ed a long time ago! this was now instinct and the desire to prove I was worthy of the title I wanted to earn. The 3 reps performed with 90 pounds were more Trevor than I, yes, I was squeezing, trying to squeeze for all I was worth, but at that point I was worth little to nothing. As I came down on the 3rd rep, a feeling of relief started to come over me, I was done?, right? I mean 5 1/2 minutes for one set is enough right?, What is enough? Does enough excist? Not today, Trevor dropped the weight again to 50 pounds! That's right 50 pounds. Had you been there to hear the wimpering done on my part, you may have believed I was pushing up 500 pounds, but it was not. With only 50 pounds I struggled through maybe another 5 reps of agony until I was allowed to stop. As I looked up and realized that close to 8 minutes of my life had passed, all I could do was look at the floor and ask, how bad do I want this?, how much work am I willing to do to achieve my goal? One set? Two sets?, by the way, on this day there was no second set of leg extensions. My quads were gorged with blood, and shaking to the point where another set was on that day, pointless. Realize that in one set of leg extensions I did more work than any idiot who loads the squat bar up with 500 pounds and bounces out 4-6 half reps! This was work, real work, and as much as I was in pain, I knew that my body would not deny me the gains I needed
