From: wohlenbe@inter-tel.com (Greg Wohlenberg)
Subject: Re: Bodybuilding: Is three days enough?
Keywords: mass, weights
Reply-To: wohlenbe@inter-tel.com
Organization: Inter-tel, Inc.
Date: Fri, 11 Dec 1992 19:55:09 GMT

     I  just  want  to  say  up  front  that I'm a believer in the hardgainer
philosophy.  I've personally followed it for the last couple years and it has
been the best balance for me in  terms  of  time  versus results.  It doesn't
tend to give you the  same  degree  of  refinement  that  a  more traditional
program does but the cost for that last 10% of progress can be pretty high.

>For starters, I would say you have three problems with your workout schedule:

<1 and 2 deleted>

>3)  If you're already lean and trying to gain muscle mass, forget the aerobics.
>    Believe me, if you add squats, you'll need all the rest you can get between
>    workouts.  If you find yourself putting on some fat,  add some aerobics
>    back to your schedule, but sparingly.

     I think aerobics are pretty important to a complete fitness program.  If
all you do is weights, you're  going  to  have  to  eat  a  very disciplined,
nutrient-dense diet  to  avoid  gaining  bodyfat.   This type of diet is more
difficult  than  most  people can handle.  Aerobics are a great way to offset
small diet problems and maintain reasonable  cardio  health.   Yes, you might
sacrifice _some_ of your mass but most people (particularly  hardgainers) are
deceiving themselves about their mass potential  anyway.  I think that giving
up small amounts of mass are well worth the  improvement  in overall fitness.
Leave the mass-at-all-costs philosophy to the pros.

>If you really want to try something that works, do the "20-rep Squat Routine"
>which was described recently in Ironman: <workout deleted>

>Do this twice a week for 6 weeks and add weight to *every* exercise on *every*
>workout.  Add ten pounds each workout to the squat, and five pounds to the
>others.  Keep the squat at 20 reps for every workout.

     This just doesn't sound  like  someone  who  has  actually  executed the
program for a sustained amount of time.  It is  not  possible  to continually
add 10 pounds every week in a 20-rep squat program.  I  have  found  that the
body gets used to a particular movement very quickly--somewhere between 4 and
10 weeks.  If you just keep pressing the weight up you will make progress for
a while and then stagnate.  Adding weight at that  point just leads to lesser
quality in your reps and possibly injury.

     I  think  it  is far more important to just look at 20-rep squats as one
small weapon in your arsenal  of  leg  attacks.   Cycle  them  in  along with
low-rep squats, high-rep leg presses,  low-rep  deadlifts,  power  rack work,
whatever.  They can all be very productive for brief periods  of  time.  When
you switch to a movement, stick with it as long  as  it  is  productive.  You
should be able to press  the  weight  some  small  amount  every  week.  Keep
good records so that you know how long you have been  doing  a given movement
and whether it is still working for you.

>If you're not sure that the high intesity/low volume approach
>is correct, just ask Dorian Yates, the new Mr. Olympia.

     I can't believe a true hardgainer would  say  anything  like  this.  Who
cares what Yates  does?   He  has  such  incredible  genetics  that  he could
probably dominate using a variety of different programs.

Greg Wohlenberg
wohlenbe@inter-tel.com
Newsgroups: misc.fitness