focus on basic exercises, abbreviated routines, hard work, and progressive
poundages.. Properly done, bodybuilding is one of the most rewarding activities around.
Changing your appearance for the better, in a substantial way, is bliss. And
bodybuilding can do this better than any other activity.. Use a rep count for a given exercise that best suits you, get as strong as you
can in exercises that suit you and which you can perform safely, keep your
bodyfat levels to below (or below if you want an appearance that is
stunning—assuming that you have some muscle), eat healthfully, perform
aerobic work two or three times per week, stretch every other day, and then
you have got the full bodybuilding package.Dedication vs. obsession
. Not only is tempered enthusiasm for training a healthier approach than an
obsessive enthusiasm, it actually ends up over the long term in being more
productive. I do not want you to avoid obsessive enthusiasm just because it
creates a seriously imbalanced life. I want you to avoid obsessive interest
because only then will you actually have the chance to achieve your natural phy-
sique and strength potential.. I know a lot about an obsessive interest in bodybuilding. I had one for seve-
ral years. Had I not had the character and discipline to resist the temptation
to take bodybuilding drugs, I may have destroyed myself. I never ruined my
health by drug abuse, but I certainly damaged my body as a result of doing
many things wrong in my training.. As a teenager I cut myself off from everything I thought would have a nega-
tive effect on my bodybuilding. I became a recluse. I enclosed myself in a
bodybuilding shell. I lost interest in my academic studies. I swallowed all
the training and dietary nonsense that abounded at that time (in the mid
seventies). I was very gullible and knew of no one who could keep me on
the training straight and narrow. I was at the mercy of whatever literature
I found, but could not distinguish between good and poor instruction. If it
was in print, I believed it.. I had no time for anyone who talked or wrote about realistic goals, over-
training, or the dangers of certain exercises and specific exercise techniques,
or the need to be prudent with intensity enhancers. I labeled those people