- I swallowed about isolation exercises for the thighs, back, chest and shoul-
ders, pre-exhaustion, pumping, volume training, conventional split routines,
beyond-failure training, etc. All of it was useless for me, and almost certainly
for the masses of typical trainees too. It cost me years of my youth.. I was a walking encyclopedia of information about Larry Scott, Arnold
Schwarzenegger, Franco Columbu, Casey Viator, Frank Zane, Mike Men-
tzer, et al (the top bodybuilders during my teens and early twenties). I knew
so much about that which I did not need, but I knew so little about that which I
needed. And therein lies the plight of most bodybuilding junkies.. If I had been cut off from the training media I would have been ignorant of
what was going on in the bodybuilding and lifting worlds, and of all the dis-
coveries that were supposedly being made in weight training and nutrition.
But I would have been blissfully satisfied in steadily, safely and surely getting
stronger and stronger, and bigger and bigger.. My life should have been geared around poundage gain on each exercise, but
while maintaining excellent exercise form. Initially it would have revolved
around adding to each exercise. Later on I would have focused on gain-
ing the next , and then the next, and the next, etc. is is crude, primitive
and basic; but this is what was needed.Rate of progress
. When I first started weight training, age , I used about pounds in the
squat and bench press. (In my ignorance I never deadlifted regularly until
many years later.) Moving to close to pounds in the squat and bench
press was straight-forward and linear, but then it started getting difficult.. With pounds reached in the squat and bench press—and more in the
deadlift, which I ought to have included—I should have focused on adding
the next (i.e., pounds). Once I got to pounds, I should have lived
for the next gain. When there I should have focused on the next
gain, and so on. Once I got to pounds for reps in the squat I should have
switched from targeting the next gain, to the next .. Going from × in the bench press, × in the squat and ×
in the deadlift (with the other members of the mighty fivesome progressing
in proportion) to × , × and × respectively (moving there
in shots) would have made a big difference to my physique. Spending