DINOSAUR

ARM TRAINING
BROOKS D. KUBIK
AUTHOR OF DINOSAUR TRAINING: LOST SECRETS oF STRENGTH AND
DEVLEOPMENT
l
WWW.BROOKSKUBIK.COM
t
NTRODUCTION
Back in 1993, I wrote a short
course called BIG ARMS, which was
edited by Stuart McRobert and published
by CS Publishing,Ltd. As originally
written, it featured Mike and Mike's
Gym. Stuart thought readers would
confuse Mike with Mike Thompson,4
popular writer for his bi-monthly
Hardgainer magazine, so he asked me to
change the name. After kickirg aroun d a
dozen or so different names, we settled
on Flynn and Flynn's Gym.
The course was so well received
that I wrote a second one called BIG
BENCH -
also set in Flynn's Gym -
and
on occasion, in my Hardgainer articles, I
wrote a trainirg article set in Flynn's
Gym. But in my heart,I always knew I
was writing about Mike's Gym -
which
is about the best darn place in the world
to train, and a place that every serious
lifter should visit at least once in his or
her lifetime.
Three years after writing the BIG
ARMS course, I wrote and published
DINOSAURTRAINNG:
LOST
SECRETS OF STRENGTH AND
DEVELOPMENT,
and the rest, as they
s?y, is history. (And thathistory
included the original Dinosaur Files
monthly newsletter, which often
included training articles set in
-
you
guessed it -
a very Dino-style gym
called by it's true name -- Mike's Gym.)
Today, nearly 20 years after
writing that little course, I find myself
besieged by readers who ask for an
updated, revised, expanded course on
serious, no-nonsense afin training for
Dinosaurs -
and for an update on Mike's
Gym.
One day not very long 4go, after
receiving yet another email makittg this
request, I decided to clear the decks,
chain myself to the keyboardfor as long
as it took, and hammer the little monster
into existence. And that's how this
course came into being.
This brand new course does
several things:
1. It teaches sane, sensible, no-
nonsense ann training as part of a
complete, total body training program.
2.It gives you a complete three-
stage routine for building strong,
powerful,
large and muscular arms.
(Yeah, I know the title suggests that
we're only interested in building BIG
anns - but actually, we're interested in
building anns that are strong and
powerful. If your arrns are strong and
powerful,
they'll be plenty big.)
3. It teaches you which exercises
to avoid -
because they can injure your
shoulders or elbows.
4.It gives you an update on arrn
training methods thatMike and I have
developed over the past 20 years -
because it's almost 20 years since that
first little affn training course hit the
market and astonished the world.
5. It gives you ALL NEW
routines to build DNOSAUR ARMS -
meanirg afins that are big, thick, strong
andpowerful.
I've enjoyed the work I've done
on this course, and I've enjoyed bringing
back Mike, Mike's Gym and Mike's
world-famous canine companion, the
inimitable Sam. Pay close attention to
what they say. You'll learn a lot from
them. I certainly have.
Yours in strength,
Brooks Kubik
MIKE'S GYM
Mike's Gym is the perfect place
for dinosaurs to train. The dumbbells go
up to 200 pounds. The gym boasts eight
full-si zedpower racks, four platfonns
for deadlifting, and four more for
Olympic lifting. It holds something like
30 Olympic bars - power bars and black
iron plates for the powerlifters and for
rack training, andhigh quality
weightlifting bars and bumper plates for
the weightlifting platforrns. There are
four competition style bench press
benches, two sfurdy incline benches,
four flat benches, two chinning bars (one
with thick handles), four Gerard Trap
Bars, a standing calf machine, two
heavy-duty overhead pulleys for lat
work, a vaiety of grip blasters, thick
bars of various sizes and thicknesses,
sledge-hammers, free standing squat
stands to use on the lifting platfonns,
thick handled dumbbells, keffle-bells,
Indian clubs, climbing ropes, two sets of
gymnastics rings, two adjustable sit-up
boards, log bars, lifting blocks, & couple
of heavy duty head-straps for neck work,
bands and chains for the powerlifters, &
wrestling mat for bodyweight training,
and nothing else -
unless you include the
Pit in back of the gym and the special
oocardio
for strength athletes" stuff that
Mike uses to torture us.
I'11 tell you more about the cardio
stuff and Mike's patented cardio torture
routines some other time, but for now,
let me briefly mention the Pit. It's an
outside trainittg area that Mike uses
primarily for strongman stuff and for
conditioning work. You ought to see it!
Mike has filled the Pit with heavy tires,
sleds, sandbags, lifting logs, farmer's
walk implements, steel suitcases, granite
balls, ropes, wheel-barrows, enonnous
anchor chains, anvils, barrels and beer-
kegs. He also has a complete set of
outdoor climbing ropes, pull-up bars, 4
climbing wall and other fun equipment.
But other than the bars, the plates, the
rest of the iron and the strongman tools
in the Pit, that was it. You can look
around from side to side, top to bottoffi,
and even up on the roof, and you won't
find a single chrome-plated, whrz-bang
wonder machine. Nor will you find any
of the typical pieces of 'ostandard"
equipment you see at most bodybuilding
gyms or in the muscle magazines.
There's a rumor (and it may even be
true!) that Mike actually purchased a pec
dec once
-
and raffled tickets to give the
guys the chance to smack it to death with
sledgehammers. They say he sold the
thing for scrap after it was demolished.
The proceeds went to Sam's favorite
charity - the local dog pound. Sam is
Edward Aston
I
Mike's golden retriever, and every bit as
demented as his thickly muscled owner.
People often tell Mike that he
would attract more new members and
make oodles of loot if he put in some
"state of the art" training machines and a
big cardio theatre complete with a 2000
channel giant-screen television set -- or
even if he
just
put in a pec dec, leg
extension machine, leg curl unit, leg
press machine, and a few other "basic"
pieces of equipment. But Mike refuses to
do it. He has a theory about it. He says
that if you cram a gymwith non-
essential pieces of equipment all you do
is encourage people to avoid the result-
producing basic movements in favor of
lighter, easi er, far less productive
exercises.
"If I put a hack machine in here "
he said, "some poor misguided soul
would probably use it. Same with a leg
extension unit -
or a leg press machine.
And I bet he wouldn't even do squats.
Imagine what a travesty that would be. I
would feel so guilty."
A new guy heard him say that
once and objected to the dismissal of the
hack machine, saying that it worked
okay for George Hackenschmidt, the
old-time Russian strongman and
wrestling champion known as "the
Russian Lion." Mike told him to go find
a photo of Hack using a hack machine.
The guy came back a week later,
dumbfounded and embalrassed, and
admitted thathe couldn't find one.
'oThat's because he never used
one," said Mike. "In fact, he never
trained with any sort of modern-day idiot
machine. That's why he was so strong.
He used barbells and dumbbells.?'
"Then why do they call it the
Hack machine?" asked the highly
perplexed and confused gym member.
"Probably because all the other
names were taken," said Mike, and he
went into the gym office and poured
Sam an extra large bowl of puppy food.
The guy scratched his head for nearly
twenty minutes tryittg to figure it out,
finally gave up, and went over to the
power rack and started to do squats. (He
ended up gaining nearly 40 pounds of
muscle and becam e a state powerlifting
champion, but that's another story and I
don't have time to tell it now. Let me
just
say that George Hackenschmidt
would have been proud of him - and
proud of Mike, as well, for steering him
straight. The new guy, I mean - not
Hackenschmidt.)
It was another example
of Mike's sophisticated training and
coachirg methods, and how well he has
mastered the gentle art of combating the
modern-day brainwashing so many guys
seem to suffer from. Especially the guys
who spend too much time (Mike says
anything more than 30 seconds and a
chuckle is too much time) lookin g atthe
muscle comics each month.
Mike's training philosophy is
nowhere more evident than in the special
training courses he drops on beginners
who want to bomb and blitz a particular
body part to Herculean proportions.
Take the Mike's Gym ann routine, for
example.
THE ROOKIE
A year ago a scrawny kid came
into the gym, signed up for a one year
membership, and proceeded to try to curl
himself to death. He had one of those
space -dge, high tech training programs
that so appeal to teenagers. Where he
found it, no one ever knew. The routine
was endorsed by apopular bodybuilding
star, who at 5'8" and (an alleged) 293
pounds of "ripped to the bone, super-
shredded, maximum mass mega-muscle"
claimed to have built his arms to 27" in
record time. I think he also said he could
curl 450 pounds for 35 reps and do lying
triceps extensions for 20 x 20 with 600
pounds. His arrns were so massive he
couldn't eatby himself, so he had to hire
hot babes in very small bikini's to feed
him. There were photos of this in the
magazines and on the internet. I looked
at the photos once, and the girls were
definitely hot, but it still seemed like a
difficult way to meet girls. I mentioned
this to Mike, and he said not to wory
because it was all the work of some
publicist's fevered and over-active
imagination, urhich was good to know.
Eugene Sandow
Anyhow, the kid trained on one heck of
a crazy program. To begin with, even
though he was a rank beginner he trained
his arrns six days per week. He did
hundreds of sets for the biceps and
almost as many for the triceps. He did
every upper artn exercise ever invented,
and many that must have been invented
exclusively for his training program. I
had certainly never seen them before. Of
course, the only gym I go to is Mike's
Gy-, so I'm probably not up on the
latest training breakthroughs. Mike's not
into the modern sfuff.
The kid bombed, blasted and
blitzed religiously. He did tri-sets,
supersets, giarrt sets, pre-exhaustion,
compounds, breakdowns, running the
rack, forced reps, negatives, isometrics,
peak contraction, flushing, pumpitg,
muscle spinnitg, crampitg, isolation
exercises, slow motion reps, mental
contraction,'opower training" (that's
what he called it, but it really wasn't),
muscle posiflE, and voodoo. Well, okay,
not voodoo
-
but if the guy who wrote
his program had told him to stick pins
into a little doll to make his anns bigger,
he would have done it. Heck, he would
have sfuck pins into his anns if someone
told him thatwas the way to make them
bigger.
On the kid's first day atthe gym,
Mike asked the kid if he would like to
try a special workout for beginners.
'oIt's a good, time-tested program
that a man named Bob Hoffman put
together way back in the I930's," Mike
said. "He called it York Barbell Cornse
No. 1. "
"Why'd he call it that?" asked
the kid. 'o'Was he from New
York?"
'No, he owned the York Barbell
Compdrry," said Mike. "In York,
Pennsylvania."
'Never heard of it," said the kid.
'Never heard of this Hoffman guy,
either."
.
"'Well, it's
just
about the best
course ever written for beginners," said
Mike.
"Yeah, but I'm not a beginner,"
said the kid. "I trained for two weeks
over at Fitness World before coming
over here. So I'm ready for an advanced
program.t'
"Why'd you quit Fitness World?"
I asked.
"Conflict of interest," said the
kid.
Fred Rollon
"What do you mean?" asked Mike.
"I heard the owner bet another
guy ten bucks on who was gonna win the
Mr. Inter-Galactic Contest this year,"
said the kid. "That's one I'm planning to
win. It will be my first win in a major
contest, and that's how I'll get my
endorsement deals with the supplement
companies. So anyhow, when I heard
that,I figured the owner had a conflict of
interest and might not let me do enough
sets of curls if he knew it about it. ''
Mike nodded.
"Yeah, I can see how that would
have really tore him up," he said.
"Anyhow, that's why I'm here,"
said the kid. "Otherwise, I'd go some
place where they have all the equipment
I need. This place doesn't have much.
Just barbells and dumbbells and
stuff. "
Mike nodded again.
When Mike nods his head and
doesn't say anythirg, he's usually
countittg to ten silently. In this case,
maybe he was counting to 100.
"You should move out one of
those power racks and put in a pec dec,"
said the kid. "I heard they're pretty good
for def and sep."
"I hear that Deff and Sepp enjoy
training on them," I told him.
'oYeah, well def and sep are
pretty important," said the kid. "I don't
want to be one of those losers with
nothing but maximum muscle mass. I
gotta be shredded like wheat, man!"
Mike said nothing. He didn't
even nod.
The kid hit a quick double biceps
pose. Actually, it was too quick, because
I didn't see any biceps.
"Shredded Guns!" he
proclaimed.
"What's that?" I asked.
"That's what they're gonna call
me!" said the kid.
Silence from Mike. I don't think
he was very impressed with the kid's
plans. We have tons of gym members
with killer nicknames, but I don't think
Shredded Anything has ever been one of
them.
THE INCREDIBLE SHRINKING
LIFTER
So that was how the kid ended up
skipping York Training Course No. 1
and
jumping
into the crary program I
already told you about. If you forgot
what he was doing, go back and reread
it. It takes too long to write it out, and
just
thinking about it makes me tired.
After I typed it up, I had to go lie down
for 15 minutes because I was so tired.
I think it made the kid tired, too.
He started to get these great big bags
under his eyes. Pretty soon, the bags
under his eyes were the biggest part of
him. Nothing else was growing. In fact,
if anythirg, he seemed to be shrinking.
Especially his affns. They hadn't been
very big to begin with, but now they
looked
positively Lilliputian.
o'Is
it my imagination, or is the
new kid shrinkrng?" I asked Mike.
"He's shrinking," said Mike.
'oWhy is that?" I asked.
"Because he's following an atm
speciahzatton program straight out of the
muscle comics, and he's overtraining his
arrns, and he's undertraining the rest of
this body
-
and he's a beginner, andhas
no business on a speciahzation program
anyway -- and he probably lives on
goory supplements instead of real food --
and he doesn't do squats and presses and
deadlifts and stuff like that -- and he
trains for a pump instead of training for
strength -- and he trains with midget
weights -- and he tries to FEEL every
rep -- and he's been brainwashed, and -
did I mention thathe doesn't do squats
and presses and deadlifts and stuff?"
I nodded.
"Yeah, you covered that one," I
said.
"Well
,
it' s worth saying twice,"
said Mike. "Because that's preffy much
where the whole problem starts."
'oI thought maybe it was because
he wasn't taking enough Megabolic
Maxi-Mass Magic Muscle Mix," I told
him.
I said it real serious, but sort of
casual, and kept my face real serious,
just
to see the big guy's reaction.
In retrospect, that was abad
move. Mike ignored me, but Sam came
out of the gym office with his fangs
bared, growled menacingly, and began
walking towards me the way a
prehistoric cave-wolf walked toward a
nice looking dinner of meat on the hoof.
"Tell him you were
joking
and
give him a puppy biscuit," said Mike.
'oI was
jokiflEr"
I said.
Sam stopped.
"Here you gor" I added, and
tossed him a puppy biscuit.
Sam snatched it out of the air
and swallowed it in one gulp.
"He's not a fan of the Magic
Muscle Mix, is he?" I asked.
Mike nodded.
"Not at all," he replied. 'oYou
should have seen what happened the day
some guy came over trying to sell the
sfuff to our members."
Sam smiled and wagged his tail.
He obviously enjoyed the memory.
"Well, what arc we gonna do
about the kid?" I asked. "He needs
t
help."
"He's a hard case," said Mike.
'oHe needs another couple of weeks of
spinning his wheels."
"What happens then?"
"You'Il see," he said.
So I sat back and laid low for
almost a month, waiting to see what
rvould happen. I did notice that the bags
under the kid's eyes kept getting bigger
and darker. PreW soon he looked like he
was a taccooll.
George Hackenschmidt
TIME TO TRY SOMETHINGNEW!
One duy, the kid slogged through
another of his four-hour arm-bhtzing
sessions, and then sat on a gym bench
sipping something from a thermos. f
figured it was Magic Muscle Mix, but I
was afraid to ask.
Mike chose that moment to stop
by.
o'How's
it going, champ?" he
asked.
The kid took another sip of his
whatever-it-was-drink, swallowed
quickly so he wouldn't taste the stuff,
and looked np at Mike.
'Not so goo dr" he said. "The
program doesn't seem to be working
very well."
o'That's
too bad," said Mike.
'oEspecially with that big contest coming
up for you. The Mr.
-
what was it?"
The kid frowned.
"I guess maybe I'11 have to wait a
few more years before I enter it," he
said.
"Well
,
that's okay," said Mike.
"That gives you more time for serious
trainin g."
The kid nodded weakly.
'oYeah, I guessr" he said.
He almost sighed as he said it.
He looked so sad I started to feel sorry
for him. Even Sam felt sorry for him. He
came out and sat in front of the kid and
looked np at him with big brown puppy
eyes full of concenl.
"Maybe you should change
things up a brt," said Mike.
"What do you mean?" asked the
kid.
'oOh, you know- maybetry a
new program," said Mike.
The kid brightened.
"That's a good idea!" he said.
"Maybe I can switch from multi-angular
blast-master curls to power-pump retro-
gravity curls !"
"That's one option," said Mike.
"Supersetted with inverted low-
pulley triceps extensions!" the kid
added. "For 20 x20
-
with 20 seconds
rest between sets."
Sam and I both worked hard to mighty impressed.
keep q sftaight face. I have no idea how Mike seized his advantage.
Mike continued to talk to the kid without "I happen to have a copy of it
breaking into wild gales of laughter. right here," he said. "But I have to warn
Maybe it was because he felt sorry for you, this is a liule bit different than the
him. Or maybe he was thinking how program you've been following for the
much fun it would be to show the kid past couple of months. It uses some
how easy it was to build his arms - and really new and exotic training principles.
the rest of his body
-
with the kind of Special stuffthat no one else knows
old-fashioned, back to basics training about. Special exercises, too."
Mike loves so much. "Like what?" asked the kid.
Even so, he had to take a big "Like squats and presses and
swig of coffee to fortiff himself before deadlifts," said Mike.
he replied. In the meantime, I tried to
o'Never
heard of them," said the
picture what inverted low-pulley triceps kid.
extensions would look like. Try as I 'Trlot too many people have,"
might, I couldn't do it. said Mike.
Sam looked up expectantly. He "Special exercises," said the kid.
had seen this happen so many times I'm "I like that."
sure he lost count. You could almost see "Yeah, they work pretty well,"
the wheels tuming inside his cunning said Mike. "The guys here have had
canine cranium: "Here it comes!" great success with them."
Mike took a deep breath, "What about your special
exhaled, and tried to keep his voice as training principles?" asked the kid.
casual as possible. By now, he sounded downright
"How'd you like to try the eager to get started on the new program.
Mike's Gym arm routine?" he asked. "It's like the exercises," said
"It's a special program for building big Mike. "It's stuff you probably never
arms." heard of. They don't cover it in the
The kid's eyes opened wide in magazines you read."
surprise. "Like what?" asked the kid.
"You have a special program for 'ol-ike hard work and heavy
building
big arms?" he asked. weights - poundage progression -
basic,
Mike nodded. compound exercises
-
divided workouts
"Sure," he said. "But it's a secret - and abbreviated training," said Mike.
progrum - only for members of Mike's 'Don't forget concentration and
Gym." hard work," I added.
That caught the kid's attention "I said hard work," said Mike.
fast. The word
o'secret"
is near and dear "That was the first thing I said.
to the hearts of skinny guys around the "Well, yeah - but add
world as they desperately search for concentration, too."
THE PROGRAM that will transform Mike sighed.
their bodies from toothpicks to "Okay," he said.
redwoods. He turned back to the kid.
'o'Wow!" said the kid. And by the "Add concentration to ttre list,"
way he said it, you could tellhe was he said.
10
The kid nodded sagely.
"Concentration curls," he said.
"Got it.
Mike glared at me. So did Sam.
It was one of those "you're making this
difficult and I'm not happy glares" that
Mike and Sam send me every so often
(like once or twice a day).
George F. Jowett
I pretended to be counting the weights
on Bubba Johnson's squat bar. Bubba
had loaded the power bar until it started
to bend, so I figured counting the
weights would take long enough to get
me out of trouble.
'Not concentration curls
-
concentration! " said Mike.
"What's that?" asked the kid.
"'We'11 cover it Iater," said Mike.
I continued to count the plates on
the bar.
Mike pulled a piece of paper out
of his pocket, opened it up, and handed it
to the kid.
"Here's the program) 'o he said.
The kid took it eagerly, and
quickly read it from top to bottom. Then
he went back and read rt again.
"Where are the curls?" he asked.
"And where's the triceps work?"
Of course, Mike had anticipated
the question and had an answer all ready
packaged.
"This is the latest update on
Swedish somatotrophic hyperbole
training," he said. "It's based on the
scientific principle of neuro-bio-quadro-
optimization."
He paused and let the big words
sink in.
o'I'm
sure you've heard of itr" he
added. "I know you read a lot about this
stuff."
The kid nodded avidly.
'oYeah, they say it beats
everything else hands down!" he
squealed.
"Right," said Mike. "And the
way we do it here at Mike's Gym, it
really does."
"Wow!" said the kid.
He was mesmetized.
But then he looked at the
program again and frowned.
"But why don't I do any curls?"
he asked.
'oMolecular refraction," said
Mike.
o'Anyone
cando curls, but only a
true champion builds his anns
molecularly."
The kid nodded slowly.
"That makes sens er" he said.
Mike nodded.
'oYeah
,
it' s the little stuff that
counts," he said. "Squats, deadlifts,
presses and molecular refraction. They
all go together."
The kid nodded.
1l
{
"That makes sens ar" he said.
"So here's the deal," said Mike.
"Go take a shower, take a couple of days
off, and come back on MondaY for
Your
first workout. Kubik and I will coach
you through it. We'll show you exactly
what to do!"
"Including the special secret
exercises?"
Mike nodded.
oolncluding
the special secret
exercises," he said.
THE KID'S FIRST WORKOUT
The kid came back on MondaY,
ready to go. He looked real excited about
doing a special secret routine filled with
special secret exercises.
"Okay, so here's what
You
do,"
said Mike. "Start by grabbingthatbat
over there and doing 10 or 12 fliP
snatches."
'oWhat are those?" asked the kid.
"Let's have Kubik demonstrate,"
said Mike.
I walked over to the bar, stood in
front of it as if I was going to perform a
deadlift, crouched down, keePing mY
back flat, and grabbed the bar with a
wide grip. Not collar to collar, because I
have short artns, but pretty wide. I
pushed down with my legs, and slowlY
lifted the bar off the platforrn - and
snapped it up and overhead with a fast,
smooth movement. I held it overhead for
a second or two, lowered it back to the
platfo* and repeated the movement.
fou do those with a wide grip,"
said Mike.
The kid nodded.
"Don't try to
jerk
the bar off the
platformr" said Mike. "You start slow
and accelerate all the way. Make it
smooth."
The kid nodded again.
"The flip snatch is strictlY a
wafin-up exerciser" said Mike. 'oDo them
with a light weight and hit two sets of 12
reps. They'll make you puff and pant,
and get the blood moving through your
entire body. And since you use pretty
much every muscle in your bodY when
you do them, they get your
joints loose
and limber and ready for the serious
stuff."
The kid did two sets of 12 rePs
with a light weight. He started to do
some serious puffing and panting before
he was halfivay through the first set. But
he finished his sets and asked what was
next.
o'Indian
clubs," said Mike.
"What do those do?" asked the
kid.
"They help loosen your shoulders
and your upper back," said Mike. 'oMost
people are pretty tight there from all the
sitting they do
- and from being in front
of a computer so much."
o'What
about going to school and
sitting in class all day?" asked the kid.
"That, too," said Mike.
"Especially if you have a really boring
professor."
The kid sighed.
"All of my professors ate
borin
8,"
he said.
"What are you studYing?" I
asked.
"Communications," said the kid,
glumly.
I made a mental note to
Pass
on
any Communications Courses if I ever
went back to Central City Junior College
for a second degree.
Meanwhile, Mike showed the kid
some basic exercises with Indian clubs
and had him drill them for a couple of
minuttt.,
Ihat looks good," he said.
"How do you feel?'
L2
'oGood and loose," said the kid.
"'Warmed up and ready to go?"
asked Mike.
"Yeah!"
"Okay, then, let's get going.
Your first real exercise is the military
press. We do a lot of them here at
Mike' s Gym."
"I never heard of them," said the
kid. "What do they buil d?"
"They build the shoulders and
the triceps," said Mike. "And they make
you strong. Really strotrg."
He had me show the kid how to
do presses. I began by cleaning the bar,
and then pressed it for five strict reps.
No leg drive, no knee kick, no backbend
- just
five perfect reps, up and down, in
the military style that Mike always
requires.
'oI don't get it," said the kid.
'oHow can something like thatbuild your
triceps?"
"A lot of people think the
military press is the very best exercise
for the triceps," said Mike.
"Like who?"
"Well, like John McCallum, for
one."
'Never heard of him."
"Peary Rader, for another."
oNever
heard of him, either."
"Bradley J. Steiner."
"Nope."
'oJohn Grimek."
"That draws a blank, too."
Mike pointed to abrgphoto of
Grimek on the wall of the gym.
"That's Grimek," he said.
The kid walked over to look
-
and then stopped
-
and then walked
closer and stared at the photo for
something like half a minute. Maybe
longer. If I'd been thinking,I would
have timed him. But whatever it was, it
was a long time.
'oGeez" I never saw anyone like
that!" he said.
'No one has, unless they saw
Grimek in his prime," said Mike.
"And he said that those military
press things were good to do?"
Mike nodded.
"He always said they were the
very best exercise for the triceps. And he
was serious about doing them, too. He
set a couple of United States national
records in the military press -
and came
darn close to seffing a World record. He
could press close to 300 pounds at a
bodyweight of about 185 or so."
The kid nodded without
answering. He was still starin g at
Grimek's photo.
'oSo what do you think?" asked
Mike.
"I'll do them!" the kid almost
shouted, and he ran back to the platfonn
so fast that Sam and I had to
jump
out of
the way.
ooYou're
going to do 5 x 5 on
your presses," said Mike. 'oln fact,
you're going to do 5 x 5 on pretty much
everything you do."
"Why 5 x 5?" asked the kid. "Did
John Grimek do 5 x 5?"
'No, but Reg Park did," said
Mike.
"Reg who?"
Mike pointed to the gym wall
again.
"That
EUyr"
he said.
Once again we went through the
whole deal of the kid walking over to the
photo, taking a look, taking a second
look, staring in amazement, and then
standing like a stone statue for half a
minute or more.
'oThree time Mr. Universe," said
Mike. "Best built man of his generation.
Strong as heck, too. Pressed 300 pounds.
Bench pressed 500 pounds. In fact, he
13
I
was the second man in the world to
bench press 500 pounds. Doug Hepburn
was the first."
The kid nodded absent-mindedlY.
He didn't even bother to ask about Doug
Hepbrlrrl. He
just
stood and stared at the
photo of Reg Park.
And that's how Mike sold him on
doing 5 x 5.
There are lots of different waYS
to do 5 x 5. Mike had the kid do one
that's perfect for guys who are relatively
new to the lifting thing. He did two
progressively heavier warm-up sets,
followed by three "working sets." Since
this was the kid's first real workout (the
silly stuff he had been doing before
didn't count), Mike had him use light
weights, so it was fairly easy for him to
get five reps on all three of his work sets.
Later ofl, as he got stronger, he added
weight to the bar, and eventually he had
to work preff hard to get those five reps
on each set. Sometimes he didn't make
it. When that happened, Mike made him
stay at that weight until he got the five
reps. When he did, he added weight
again.
Mike explained that adding
weight to the bar was an important paft
of the program. Of course, the kid said
he'd never heard about that. Mike
explained by showing before and after
photos of Reg Park, who went from a
tall, skinny beginner who could barely
handle the empty bar to a massivelY
muscled235 lb. Mr. Universe winner
who played Hercules in the movies and
really looked the part- and who handled
heavier weights than
just
about any other
bodybuilder of his era
-
and who could
go head to head with most Heavyweight
weightlifters on squats, bench press,
dumbbell press, dumbbell incline press,
bent over rowing and similar
movements. That sold the kid on the
importance of adding weight to the bat.
The next exercise in the
Program
was one of the biggies
-
the squat. Now,
you may not believe it, but the kid
actually said he didn't want to do them!
He said thatleg training would tire him
out so much that he wouldn't be able to
do curls. I thought Mike would blow a
gasket, for sure, but the big guy took it
in stride. He explained that Grimek and
Park were both extremely strong
squatters, and that both men always said
that the squat was one of their favorite
(and most important) exercises. The kid
took another look at the
Photos
of
Grimek and Park, and once agarn, he
was sold.
Joe Nordquest
Mike started him very light, and
taught him to do full squats right from
the get go. Mike prefers full squats to
T4
t
parallel squats for anyone who can
perform them safely. Of course, the
powerlifters at the gym do parallel
squats because that's what they do in
competition, and the Olympic lifters
always do fulI squats because they need
to be able to drop into the low squat
position to catch the weight when they
do squat cleans and squat snatches.
Here's an important note. Doing
fuIl squats means you need to wear
Olympic lifting shoes with a high heel so
you can squat all the way down and keep
your back straight. If you do full squats
with a rounded back, you're asking for
trouble. Plus, you're not getting nearly
as much benefit from the exercise as you
would if you were doing them the right
way.
Older guys may find it difficult
or impossible to do full squats safely.
That's especially true for guys who have
done lots of heavy parallel squats. The
parallel squats will actually tighten your
leg and hip muscles so that it becomes
very hard for you to do a full squat. You
CAN make the switch, but it takes time
and patience and lots of stretching and
plenty of common sense training. And
even at that, for some guys it's
just
plain
impossible. So Mike treats each of his
members as a unique individual, and
helps him perfect the best squat form
that he can master
-
which is parallel for
some lifters and full for others.
After the squats, Mike had the
kid do a single set of 20 breathittg
pullovers with a pafu of light dumbbells.
These were purely for chest expansion,
and the stretch was the important thing,
so the weights were very light.
Next, the kid did the barbell
bench press. Again, he did 5 x 5. Mike
made him do the bench presses strict,
with a pause at the chest. Mike doesn't
allow dropping and bouncirg, raising the
hips or any other form of cheating bench
press. And he doesn't allow that "spotter
grabs the bar and deadlifts it while the
lifter pushes and then the lifter claim she
did it all on his own" nonsense you see
in so many other gyms. If you bench
heavy in Mike's Gym, believe me, YOU
bench heavy. (Of course, you either
bench in a rack with pins to catch the bar
if you miss, or you use a spotter for
safety in case you miss. Never try
benching heavy - or going for maximum
reps -- without a power rack or a
spotter.)
The kid didn't bother to
complain about doing the bench presses,
but Mike still told him that they were
excellent for building the triceps. He
also told him that the bench press was
one of Reg Park's favorite exercises.
(Grimek rarely did them
-
they were not
a big deal when he was lifting, and he
preferred the military press in any case.)
The kid followed the bench press
with the barbell bent-over row.
Amazingly, he didn't question what
must have been a very novel and
surprising movement for him. If he had,
Mike would have told him how Reg
Park and Marvin Eder trained together
on bent over rows and piled on weight
until the bar started to bend!
Mike taught the kid to perform
bent-over rowing with his knees slightly
bent and his back flat. He pulled the bar
up along his thighs, close to his center of
gravity, and finished with the bar
presse d against his lower abdomen.
Mike says thatyears 4go, many
instructors taught doing the bent-over
row by pulling the bar up to the chest
while the lifter was positioned with his
back at a 90 degree angle (i.e., his back
parallel to the floor). Mike says that's a
tenible way to do rowing. You place
tremendous strain on your lower back,
15
{
and you can't handle anywhere near
enough weight to build your lats and
other upper back muscles.
Mike made the kid do his rowing
with arm, shoulder and upper back
power alone
-
no bobbing, no
jerking,
and no heaving. Nice and strict all the
way.And Mike made him pause briefly
in the finish position, and then lower the
bar slowly back to the starting position.
'oDo them strict or don't bother to
do themr" said Mike. 'oIt' s not a bent
over power clean or an ugly looking sort
of high pull."
'oWhat are those?" asked the kid.
"Those are
-
heck, we'Il cover it
another time," said Mike. 'oJust do the
rowing nice and strict."
The kid nodded, and did five sets
of five reps.
That ended the barbell portion of
the workout. Mike had him finish with
two sets of bent-legged sit-ups on a
slight incline (on a sit-up board), doing
about ten reps per set, and curling his
body up into a ball nice and slow so that
he really worked his abs. Later, &s he got
stronger, Mike had him do the exercise
with abarbell plate pressed against his
forehead.
When the kid finished his
workout, he was covered with sweat
(and even with chalk, rvhich he had
never used before), and panting like a
race-horse after a fast quarter-mile with
an overweight hippo as the
jockey.
He
was so tired he didn't even bother to ask
when he was supposed to do his curls
and triceps pumpers.
Mike told him he had done good,
to hit the showers, to go home and get
some food, and to come back in 48 hours
for his next workout.
The kid nodded, wearily. He
looked so darn tired that I actually
wondered if he would come back.
'Not to woff!," said Mike.
o' He' 11
be back."
'oBecause he had a life-changing
experience by doing squats and presses
and stuff?" I asked.
Mike shook his head.
'No, because Sam swiped his i-
pod while he was trainittg. The kid will
come back looking for it."
I looked at Sam. He looked back
at me and grinned with satisfaction. The
i-pod lay next to his pillow.
THE KID'S SECOND WORKOUT
For his second workout, the kid
followed a similar program -
all 5 x 5
other than wann-ups and gut work
-
but
he used different exercises. Mike likes to
mix things up like that when he sets up a
program for someone. Almost all of his
programs involve two or three different
workouts: Workout A and Workout B,
or Workout A, Workout B and Workout
C. He calls it the "divided workout
system." I guess that's as good a name
for it as anything else. But whatever you
call it, rt works pretty darn well. Many
guys who never gained very much
strength and muscle doing the same total
body workout three times per week have
Otto Arco
T6
t
made gteat gains by switching to a
divided workout schedule. (I should
know - I'm one of them!)
In his second workout
-
Workout
B
-
the kid began with two sets of 12
reps in the clean and press. Once again,
this was strictly for wanning up, so he
used arcaIly light weight.
Mike had me demonstrate the
power clean for the kid. You probably
know how to do it: stand in front of the
bar like you're going to do a deadlift,
keep the bar over the toes, legs bent,
anns straight, flat back, tight arch, push
the legs through the floor to get the bar
started, move the knees back, keep the
bar close to the legs (and later, close to
the body), pop the hips forward as the
.
bar passes the knees - and make it a
combined l.g, back and hip movement
rather than a slow deadlift followed by a
cheat-style reverse curl the way so many
guys do it. Be sure to keep the bar close
to the body at the top. LIFT your elbows.
Do NOT reverse curl the bar
-
and never
let it swing out and away from the body.
You lose all your leverage and all your
power if the bar swings out and away
from you.
Many well-intentioned writers
have said thatthe power clean is a good
arrn builder.
'Well,
it's not. It's a lousy
ann exercise
-
and if you try to make it
an atm exercise, you're doing it wrong.
It's not a reverse grip cheat curl or a
reverse grip swinging curl or a reverse
grip anythirg, and it's not a deadlift
followed by an upright row. It's aleg,
back and hip movement, and that' s how
you need to do them. (Note: all of the
same points apply to high pulls. They are
a total body, all-out strength and power
exercise, NOT an afiTr exercise, as so
many effoneously believe !)
Of course, in this program you
do the power cleans only as a wafin-up
exercise -
but do them the right w&y,
regardless !
Next, the kid did more work with
the Indian Clubs. Some guys think
Indian Clubs are silly, but they're wrong.
It's really important to get those
shoulders nice and loose before you hit
the iron. Tight shoulders can mess up the
nerve impulses as they run down the
arrns and forearms -
and that can make it
difficult or impossible to pack strength
and muscle into your anns! (Remember
that sometimes a pinched nerve in the
neck or shoulders can cause the atm
muscles to atrophy. Tight shoulders do
the same thing, only in less dramatic
fashion.)
After his warrn-ups, the kid did
the standing alternate press with
dumbbells. Once again, Mike made me
demonstrate. You do this one by
cleaning the dumbbells to your
shoulders, standing tall and looking
straight ahe ad
-
and then pressing the
dumbbell in the right hand. As you lower
the dumbbell in your right hand back to
your shoulder, you begin to press the
dumbbell in your left hand. It's right
hand, left hand, right hand, left hand, etc.
Do five presses with each hand and then
lower the dumbbells back to the floor.
"What kind of grip should I
use?" asked the kid
-
which was one of
the better questions he has asked so far,
if you'rc paying attention to that sort of
thing.
ooThe
old-timers used to twist
their wrist so the palms of their hands
were facing each other. That positions
the dumbbells so the front of each bell is
to your front and the back of each bell is
to your rear. Your arrns and shoulders
are stronger in that position, and the
dumbbells balance better."
"So you can use more weight,
right?" asked the kid.
I 7
I
1, ,
t
Mike nodded.
"That's rightr" he said.
He shot me a quick glance. The
kid was catching on! (And after only one
workout.) This was beginning to look
promising.
o'More
weight is good, right?"
asked the kid.
"More weight is goo d," said
Mike.
"I thought it worked better to
pump up the muscles with light
weights," said the kid. "That's what
everyone always saYS. That's whatl
always read."
"That's what theY saY," said
Mike. "But it's a big
Pile
of horse
patties."
Dave Mayor
"What's that?" asked the kid.
Mike translated.
"Oh!" said the kid.
"Here's the way it reallY is," said
Mike. 'oYour muscles aren'tjust big
chinks of solid tissue. They're actually
composed of millions and millions of
muscle fibers. The muscle fibers form
little ropes all along the length of the
muscle. When
you
PumP Your
muscles
up, all you do is fill the atea in-between
the muscle fiber ropes with blood
- and
when your workout is over the blood
goes away, and you're right back where
you started. It's like a ballooll. You take
a balloon, and you blow it uP, and when
it's filled with ar rt gets maYbe 50 or
100 times bigger than when you started.
But when you let the air out, the balloon
goes right back to its original size.
Filling it full of hot air doesn't make the
balloon any bigger. It
just
stretches it for
a while. Pumping
Your
muscles with
blood doesn't make them any bigget
- it
just*'IT*l'ffi
".[3:??:ffi::1fi
;'
pump up your muscles?"
"Because that's what the muscle
magazines have been teaching
people for
the putt.:0 or 60 years," said Mike.
Why did they start doing 7t?"
"Because they were looking for
something new and different with a
catchy name. The factthat it was an
EASY way to train made it all the easier
to promote. Remember, there was a time
*h.tr pretty much everyone who trained
with weights did heavy weightlifting
and
strength training. They developed
great
physiques as a natural by-product of
their strength training. Latet on, more
people were interested
in bodybuilding
-
in how they looked
- than in
weightlifting,
so the magazines catered
to the':il|;l,ttr;*,nu,,,
Not many peoPle do. Most
people have been brainwashed,
andthey
never figure it out."
18
Well, I know what you're
thinking. You're wondering if Mike
just
kept talking or whether he let the kid
finish his workout. I won't keep you in
suspense. Mike let the kid finish his
workout. At Mike's Gym, lifters
ALWAYS finish their workout!
'oHow do people ever figure this
out?" asked the kid.
o'I
meufl, how do
they un-wash their brains?"
That was another good question.
I waited for the answer
-
but it never
came.
"Hold the thought for now," said
Mike. "You've got a workout to finish!"
"Oh - right!" said the kid.
He grabbed a pair of light
dumbbells and hammered out his first set
of alternate presses.
'oThat was good," said Mike.
The kid did a second warm-up
set with heavier dumbbells, and then hit
his first "work" set. On the third or
fourth rep he started to dip a bit to the
side on each rep. When he finished the
set, he put the dumbbells down and
looke d at Mike sheepishly.
"I did it wron5, didn't I?" he
asked.
'No, that's okay," said Mike. "In
fact, the old-timers used to call it the
see-saw press. You're allowed to rock a
bit from side to side to get the dumbbells
up. Just be sure to keep your legs
locked."
The kid brightened.
"Got it!" he said.
After he finished his alternate
dumbbell presses, he moved on to front
squats. Mike had me show him the
crossed hands way of doing them and
the regular w?y, where you keep your
hands under the bar and your elbows up
- just
like you were an Olympic lifter
performing a squat clean. Mike prefers
to have his guys use the weightlifter's
grip, but he knows that some trainees are
just
too stiff and too to do it. If that' s the
case, he has the guy work on his
flexibility, but let's him use the crossed
hands style so he can still do front
squats. (Or he has the guy do his wann-
up sets with the weightlifter grip and his
heavier sets with the bodybuilder grip
until the guy gets his flexibility where he
needs it to be.) Mike is a big fan of front
squats. He usually has most of his
beginners alternate them with back
squats. Back squats in Workout A and
front squats in Workout B.
To do front squats the right w&y,
you need to keep your torso in a straight
up and down position. If your back
rounds, you're doing them wrong.
Mike has everyone who does
front squats do them full squat style, not
parallel. That means all the way down to
the platfonn on every rep. If you were
doing them outside, it would be ass to
grass.
The only way to maintain an
upright posture when you go that deep is
to wear the kind of liftitrg shoes that
Olympic lifters wear (which is what
Mike prefers his lifters to do) or stand
with your heels on a 2 x 4 or a couple of
thick barbell plates (the poor man's
option).
Anyhow, I demonstrated the
front squats, and then the kid did his 5 x
5. He did apretty good job,
too. Of
courso, I deserve at least some credit for
that since I was demonstrating the
exercises for him.
After the front squats, Mike had
the kid do incline dumbbell presses.
Mike thinks that incline dumbbell
presses are one of the very best chest
exercises out there. They also work the
heck out of the shoulders and triceps.
Once again, the kid did 5 x 5.
For guys who train at home and
t 9
don't have an incline bench, the
dumbbell bench press (on a flat bench)
works pretfy well. And if a guy ever gets
so strong that he can't get the dumbbells
into the starting position, he should try
the one affin dumbbell incline press or
the one arrrn dumbbell bench press. That
allows you to use two hands to get the
dumbbell into position.
I once asked Mike if the
dumbbell floor press (or the one hand
dumbbell floor press) would be okay if a
guy traine d at home and didn't have a
bench. Mike said it would be fine, so
there's really no excuse not to include
this one in your program.
After the dumbbell incline
presses, Mike had the kid do five sets of
pull-ups. The kid had no ann strength to
speak of, but he was light and skinny, so
he managed to get 5 reps on each set in
reasonably good form.
Mike had the kid do the pull-ups
with his hands pronated, so his palms
were facing away from his chest. He
held the bar with his hands a little bit
wider than shoulder width apart. I asked
Mike why he preferred doing them that
way instead of with the palms facing the
chest (i.e., supinated grip, alWa the good,
old-fashioned "chin-up"). Mike said he
wants the exercise to be a total upper
body pulling movement thatprovides a
heavy load for the biceps, NOT a pure
biceps exercise. The chin-up is pretty
much pure biceps unless you're strong
enough and advanced enough to do it
with your back arched and your
shoulders back, pulling yourseHup until
your chest touches the bar. Mike knew
the kid wasn't strong enough to do that,
so he had him stick to pull-ups.
If he had not been able to do
pull-ups, Mike would have had the kid
do pull-downs to the chest using the
same grip as if he were doing pull-ups,
or pull-downs with a specralbar that let
him use a parallel grip with the hands a
little wider than shoulder width apart.
Pull-ups are a better exercise than pull-
downs, but if you can't do them,
substitute the pull-downs. They'll work
fine. For guys who train at home, the one
affn dumbbell row would be a good
substitute for pull-downs.
After the pull-ups, the kid did
another of Mike's favorite exercises: the
bent-legged Trap Bar deadlift. Mike is a
huge fan of the Trap Bar deadlift, and
has most of his beginners use the
exercise instead of the deadlift with a
straight bar. It's easier to learn the
proper positions and the corect
movement, it's easier on the knees, hips
and lower back, and it's an excellent
strength and mass builder. For many
guys, it's second only to the squat as a
strength and mass builder
-
and for some
Ivan Sanakov
20
t
men (often including older trainees or
very tall, 'olong and lanky" lifters), it's
actually more effective than the squat.
Mike had the kid finish the
workout with two sets of leg raises.
Fifteen reps per set. Mike told him that
as he got stronger he would start to do
them on the sit-up board (with his head
at the top of the board, of course), and
then he'd progress to doing them with
ankle weights or iron boots on his feet.
The eventual goal was to work up to
hanging leg raises on the chin-up bar
-
which is a heck of a tough movement,
and a very effective
*gut"
exercise.)
Once again, the kid finished the
workout covered with chalk and sweat
-
but he seemed to be enjoying himself.
Perhaps he was discovering thatreal
training is a heck of a lot more fun than
the pseudo-stuff he had been doing
before. Anyhow, he wiped the sweat off
his face with a towel, and asked what
was next. Mike told him to hit the
showers and come back in 48 hours.
Before leaving the gym, the kid
popped his head into Mike's office.
"What will we do next time?" he
asked.
"'We'11 go back to Workout A,"
said Mike. "You'll alternate back and
forth between the two of them for
awhile."
I was waiting for the kid to say,
"But what about my arrn exercises?"
But he surprised me.
"Cool!" he said.
And then he was gone.
"That was amaziflg," I said.
o'You're
right," said Mike. "He
didn't say a word about that missing i-
pod."
Eugene Sandow
EATINGFOR STRENGTHAND
MUSCLE
Before I for get,let me cover an
important topic very quickly. Diet and
nutrition for lifters. Don't worrlr, it
won't take long. It's not too
complicated.
Mike told the kid to drop all the
amino acid, mega-bolic, maxi-bolic
multi-bolic, nutri-bolic, super-bolic and
hyperbolic whatchyamacallit' s that he'd
been chuggirg, and focus on eating
some good old-fashioned food. And lots
of it. Mike knows that young guys can
gain like
qary
if they train the right way
and combine it with plenty of good,
healthy food. The emphasis should be on
high quality protein. Me at, eggS, fish,
chickon, and furkey. For those who can
2T
digest it, milk, cheese, cottage cheese,
and yogurt. Add lots of fresh green
veggies, some fresh fruit, sweet potatoes,
brown rice, whole grain bread, whole
grain pasta, and nuts, and you've pretty
well covered everything.
Older guys are different. Older
guys need to focus on protein and fresh
veggies
(and not much else). This allows
them to gain muscle without adding fat.
One of the big problems that guys have
is thinking they can eat like a teenager
even though they're 40 or 50 or older.
It's like they're in a time w&{P, where
they keep focusing on the two quarts of
milk, six-meal a day thing and trying to
gain 30 pounds of muscle in 30 days. It's
a classic example of how the stuff you
read in the muscle mags when
You'te
a
young guy stays with you for your entire
life.
Oh, and whatever
Your
?Ea, skiP
the
junk
food. You don't need that stuff.
That includes anything made with sugar
or high fructose corn syrup
-
anything
made with white flour
-
any "fast foods"
- and anything made with hydrogenated
fats (alkl a trans-fats).
I'11 cover diet and nutrition in
depth in the not too distant future, but
for right now, let me get back to arm
training. After all, that' s the focus of this
course.
Oh, and before I forget. Don't
even think about taking steroids. If Mike
hears about it, he'll send Sam after you.
THE MIKE' S GYM ARM ROUTINE:
LEVEL 1
When you put it all on
Paper
the
first part of the Mike's Gym ann routine
looks like this:
WORKOUTA
1. Warm-up with LIGHT flip snatches2
x 10
-
12, followed by Indian club drills
for five minutes
2. Mi l i t ar ypr ess5x5
3. Squat 5 x 5
4. Bench press 5 x 5
5. Barbell bent-over rowing 5 x 5
6. Bent-legged sit-ups 2 x 8
-I2
7.Hang from thick handled pull-up bat 1
x as long as possible
WORKOUTB
1. Warm-up with LIGHT
Power
clean
and press 2 x 10 - 12, followed bY
Indian club drills for five minutes
2. Alternate dumbbell
press 5 x 5 (5 reps
with each ann on each set)
3. Front squats 5 x 5
4.Incline dumbbell
press 5 x 5
5. Pul l - ups5x5
6. Trap Bar deadlift 5 x 5
T. Legr ai ses 2x 15
Remember, it's a three-daY-Per-
week schedule, NOT a four-ddY, five-
day or six-day per week split routine.
That day of rest between workouts is
important.In fact, it' s one of the reasons
why the program works so well.
Remember, your muscles don't grow
while you're training. TheY grow
afterwardsl If you don't give yourself
enough time for rest and recuperation
after each workout, you're pretty much
wasting your time.
THE RESULTS
Mike had the kid train on the
program three times a week for the next
12 weeks. He did onlY the exercises
listed. Nothing else. No curls, no triceps
pumpers
- not even any close grip bench
presses. And no dips. Mike's not a big
fan of them. He's seen too many lifters
hurt their shoulder doing dips. It seems
to happen to everyone who does them
22
t
with added weight, no matter how strong
they are, how much they enjoy doing
dips and how much the dip helps them.
Sooner or later it bites them
-
not in the
butt, but in the shoulder.
Amazingly, after the questions
on the very first duy, not once during the
entire l2-week program did the kid ask
about doing curls and triceps stuff. Mike
has been droppittg his affin training
routine on rookies for a long time now
-
like more than twenty years -
and the
guys usually cry and moan and fuss and
holler about not doing curls and triceps
exercises, and Mike has to tell them the
qaziest
things to get them to keep them
on the program. He told one kid they had
to 'ooptimize the metabolic flushing
factors" before they could do any direct
arin work. He told another kid they were
using the "blitz-pump system from
Florid a" to'.vasculartze the lobotomy"
before they added ann exercises to the
program. These were whoppers, of
course, but when you're fighting against
muscle mag brainwashing and
mainstream silliness, you have to take
strong measures.
But this time, all that was
necessary were Mike's initial references
to "Swedish somatotrophic hyperbole,"
"neuro -bi o - quadro - opti mizati on" and
[my
personal favorite] molecular
refraction training." After that,the kid
went along with the entire program
without any questions at aII. So maybe
times are changing
-
or maybe kids are
changing. I don't know. I
just
know the
kid came to the gym and trained like
clockwork
-
and added weight to the bar
whenever he could
-
and started to get
bigger and stronger and thicker so fast it
surprised all of us.
You can guess what happened.
At the end of 12 weeks, Mike weighed
the kid and took his measurements. He
had gaine d 23 pounds of muscle and put
2 /, inches on his upper arns.
"This is amazing!" said the kid.
"I gained 2
y2"
on my arrns without even
training them!"
Mike laughed.
"You've acfually been doing
plenty of work for your arrns," he said.
"Like what?"
'ol-ike all the pressing exercises,
the rowing and the pull-ups. The
pressing exercises work the heck out of
your triceps, and the rowing and the
pull-ups work the heck out of your
biceps, forearrns and grip."
"You mean I was training my
anns and I didn't even know it?"
Mike nodded.
otYep."
"I can't believe it!" said the kid.
"I mean -
I can't believe it worked!"
Mike laughed again.
'The Mike's Gym Arm Routine
always works!" he said.
READYFORMORE!
After he finished the first 12
weeks of the Mike's Gym arm routine,
the kid was ready for Level 2 of the
program.
"What do I do now?" he asked.
"Mike's got a program written up
for you," I said. "But I'm not sure where
he left it."
Herman Gorner
23
"fs it in his office?"
"I don't know. He
just
coPY a big
shipment of old time lifting magazines
-
Strength and Health back to the I930's
and I940's, Iron Man back to the 50's
and 50's, and some other good stuff.
Mike and I are indexing it all, and it's
scattered all over the place right llow.
The office is a mess. We actuallY lost
Sam for a couple of hours."
'oHow could you lose Sam? He's
the size of a small grizzly bear!"
o'I
don't know how we did it, but
we did it. He was buried under a pile of
paper and stuff."
"How'd you find him?"
"Mike ordered a double
pepperoni pizza and had it delivered to
the gym. Sam dug his way out as soon as
it arcived."
o'He
must like pizza."
"He does. And pepperoni is his
favorite."
The kid nodded. I knew it made
sense to him. It wouldn't make sense if
you didn't know about Sam and his
world-famous appetite
-
or about Mike
and his gym and the way he runs it. But
after you've been here awhile, it all
makes perfect sense. You get a ton of
old magazines, you pile them uP,
You
lose Sam, you order aprzza, and Sam
suddenly appears. What could be simpler
than that?
"Well, tomoffow is mY workout
day. Ask Mike if he can find that
program for me. Or maybe
just
write up
something ne'w."
"Will do!" I said, and I went
back to the
job
of cataloging and
indexing the old magazines. Meanwhile,
Sam lay next to an empty
Przzabox
at
the foot of the stuffe d grtzzly bear in the
back of the gym. Aside from the corner
of Mike's office by his food dish, it's
probably his favorite spot in the entire
gym.
Mike came in an hour later and I
asked him about the kid's next training
program.
"It's right here," said the big guy.
"Somewhere."
He looked around the office and
scratched his head.
"Maybe it's in the desk drawer."
I suggested.
o'Or
somewhere in the filing
cabinet."
'oIt's not in the filing cabinet. All
I keep there is extra food for Sam."
He looke d at the desk.
"But maybe it's in there."
He walked over and opened the
drawer, rummaged around, and
Pulled
out amanila folder full of papers with
various plans, specs and training
program scribbled onto them. He started
to flip through them rapidly.
"H.y, I forgot about this," he
said.
He pulled out a
Piece
of
PaPer
and set it to the side.
'oWhat is it?" I asked.
He handed it to me.
'oTake a look," he said.
It was a dragram of the gym with
alarge X marked on the back wall.
"What's that?" I asked. "Is that
where they buried Jimmy Hoffa?"
Mike ignored the
joke.
He was
operating in serious mode todaY.
"No, it's where I'm going to
Put
two chutes that drop into an alligator
pit."
"What do you want with an
alhgator pit?"
"It's for muscle
PumPers
and
steroid pushers."
'No kidding? That's a great
i dea!"
o'I
knew you'd like it," said Mike.
"But th;.1e's one
Problem."
What's that? Finding the
24
t
alligators?"
o'No,
that's easy. I can't decide
whether to add a third chute for the guys
who write the super programs for the
muscle mags. They're getting to be as
bad as anyone. In fact, they're probably
worse than the muscle pumpers."
I looked at the plans carefully.
'oI don't think there's enough
room for a third chute," I said. "Maybe
you should
just
use one shoot for the
muscle pumpers and the guys who write
the super programs."
Mike nodded.
'oYou may be right," he said.
"Thatwould make it easier on the
alligators. They won't have to watch as
many chutes."
As he spoke, Mike rifled through
the file, scaffering papers everywhere. It
looked like ablizzard. I wondered if
we'd lose Sam again But before that
happened, Mike stopped, held up a
single sheet of paper, and smiled.
"Here it is!" he exclaimed
triumphantly.
"What is it?" I asked.
"It' s the second part of the
Mike's Gym ann training routine!"
"Great!" I said. 'o'We'll be seeing
those shredded guns in no time!"
Mike stood up, walked over to
his filing cabinet, and grabbed a big pile
of old Strength and Health magazines.
He carried them over and set them down
on the desk where I was sitting.
ooHere
you gor" he said. "Read
two of these every four hours and if you
don't feel better, call me in the
morning."
THE MIKE' S GYM ARM ROUTINE:
LEVEL TWO
The kid showed up right on time
the next day. This time, Mike didn't
have to say anythittg to convince him to
train the Mike's Gym way. The kid
already knew that it worked.
Mike once again asked me to
demonstrate the exercises. It was easier
this time because the kid had a much
better idea of how to train, and because
many of the exercises were ones he had
used in the first 12 weeks of the
program. The main difference was a
change in the sets and reps.
Mike put the kid on another
three-day-per-week program. He uses
three-day-per-week programs with most
of his members, including the
powerlifters, the Olympic lifters and the
guys training for strongman comps. And
if three-times-per-week doesn't seem to
be working for someono, Mike usually
Andrew Passanant
25
has him try twice a week workouts. For
some guys (especially older guys)
,
that
works really well. It goes to show you
how important it is to get enough rest
and recovery in-between your workouts.
Mike has a simple formulathat
sums up his entire training philosophy in
just
four words:
"Traino rest, gfow, rePeat."
Pretty good, huh?
In this program, unlike the first
12 weeks, Mike actually had the kid do
some direct affn work. Not a lot of it, but
enough to give the biceps and triceps
some serious action. Basic sfuff, of
course. No exotic super-duper curls and
no crazy triceps exercises. I'll tell you
about it in a minute -- but first I want to
cover something very imPortant.
Mike once told me an imPortant
secret. I'm going to share it with you
now
- but remembet, rt' s a secret, so
keep it under your hat. Mike said you
could probably add a SMALL amount of
direct arrn training to Level 1 of the
Mike's Gym ann training
Program
and
do fine. Nothing too extreme
- just
three
or four sets of barbell curls in Workout
A and three or four sets of close grip
bench presses in Workout B. The reason
Mike saves the direct armwork for the
second stage of the program is to show
the guys that they can increase their arm
size ENORMOUSLY
(like a couPle of
inches) by training on nothing but basic
compound exercises like military
presses, rowiflg, bench presses and pull-
ups. It's an important lesson to learn,
and for most guYS, the only way to learn
the lesson is to try the program and see
what happens.
Another reason Mike saves the
direct ann work for the second part of
the program is that he wants to be sure
the guys devote I00% of their energy to
the really important exercises
(especially
the squats and deadlifts). If he tells a guy
it's okay to do a couple of sets of curls
and close grip bench presses, the next
thing you know, the guy takes it easy on
the big exercises so he eanhandle more
weight in the arm exercises
- or else the
workout suddenly includes 10 or 12 sets
of arm exercises
-
and then 15 ot 20 sets
-
and then 20 or 30 sets
-
and all of a
sudden the guy is back to doing nothing
but ann training.
Michael Salvane
And then there's reason No. 3 for
saving the armwork until later. A
beginner needs to get stronger FAST in
the major compound exercises. Too
many sets of biceps curls can affect a
rookie's rowing and pull-ups (because
your biceps will be too tired and sore for
maximum efforts), and too many triceps
pumpers can do the same thing to your
bench press and your military
press.
Now you know the secret. So if
you simply MUST do some direct arm
work during the first 12 weeks of the
progr am, you can do it. But keeP it
simple: barbell or dumbbell curls (one of
them, not both!), and close grip bench
presses (as described below). And as for
sets, and reps, try this: 3 ot 4 sets of 5
reps, starting light and adding weight on
each set so you do ONE set with
Your
top weight.
26
And now
-
back to the workout.
As I said, it was a three-day-per-week
program,just the same as before, but this
time there were three different workouts.
It looked like this:
WORKOUTA
1. Warm-up with light flip snatches 2 x
10
-
12,Indian Club drills for 5 mins,
and light clean and press for 2 x 10
-
12
2.lMilitary press 3 x 5 (progressively
heavier wann-up sets), followed by
5l4l3l2lI (adding weight as the reps are
lowered). (Note: if 5l4l3l2lI is too tiring,
try 5l3lI for your heavier sets.)
3. Squats 4 x 5 (progressively heavier
wann-up sets), followed by 2 x 5 with
your working weight
4. Bench press 4 x 5 (progressively
heavier wann-up sets), followed by 2 x 5
with your working weight
5. Pull-ups 5 x 5 (add a small amount of
weight after each set if you are able to
do so
-
otherwise, do 5 x 5 with
bodyweight) (Note: if you have access to
a thick handled pull-up bar and prefer to
use that, then do so
- just
be sure you
can manage five reps per set on the thick
handled bar.)
6. Bent-legged sit-ups on sit-up board 2
x 8
-
12 wrth extra weight resistance
7 . Crush-style grippers 3 x max reps
with each hand
WORKOUTB
1. Warm-up with light flip snatches 2 x
10
-
Iz,Indian Club drills for 5 mins,
and light clean and press for 2 x 10
-
12
2. Dumbbell incline press 6 x 5 (three
progressively heavier warm-up sets and
three sets with your top weight)
3. Pull-ups 6 x 5 (add a small amount of
weight after each set if you are able to
do so
-
otherwise, do 6 x 5 with
bodyweight) (Note: if you have access to
a thick handled pull-up bar and prefer to
use that, then do so
- just
be sure you
can manage five reps per set on the thick
handled bar.)
3. Close grip bench press 5 x 5 (two
progressively heavier waffn-up sets and
three sets with your working weight)
4. 4. Standing barbell curls 5 x 5 (two
progressively heavier warrn-up sets and
three sets with your working weight)
6. Hanging knees to chest 2 x 10 - 15
(Note: if you're strong enough to do
hanging leg raises, then do 2 x 5 - 10.)
7. Pinch grip lifting
-
5 progressively
heavier singles, working up to your top
pinch grip lift, then drop back to about
70% of your top weight and do a timed
hold for as long as possible
WORKOUT C
1. Warm-up with light flip snatches 2 x
10
-
I2,Indian Club drills for 5 mins,
and light clean and press for 2 x I0
-
12
2. Alternate dumbbell press 6 x 5 (four
progressively heavier waffn-up sets and
two sets with your working weight)
3. One ann dumbbell rowing6 x 5 (four
progressively heavier wann-up sets and
two sets with your working weight)
4. Trap Bar deadlifts 6 x 5 (four
Charles Poire
27
progressively heavier warm-up sets and
two sets with your working weigh|
5. Bent-legged sit-ups on sit-up board2
x 8
- 12 with extra weight resistance
6. Thick bar deadlifts with double
overhand
gnp 5 x 5 (start light and add
weight on each set) (Note: these are a
grip exercise
- you already hit your legs,
low back and hiPs with the TraP Bar
deadlifts.)
EXERCISE
PERFORMANCE
TIPS :
CURLS AND CLOSE GRIP BENCH
PRESSES
As I mentioned, the kid knew
how to do all of the exercises, and only
required coaching on the barbell curls,
the close gnp bench press' and the grip
work. On the curls, Mike taught him to
use STRICT form. No cheating. Mike
says that if there's one thing that 99% of
trainees do wrong
,
it's cheating in their
curls. And
YeS,
Mike knows all about
cheat curls, and he knows that
sometimes theY can be of benefit in a
training
program for an ADVANCED
man
- but he also knows thatthey're
not
nearly as productive as strict curls. Plus,
he knows that cheat curls ate a great way
to hurt your lower back. So rnrhy do
them?
'
I asked Mike how the whole
cheating curl thing started, and he told
me it gave the magazine writers
something
new and different to write
about. He also noted that cheat curls are
an easy sell to readers because they let
them use more weight than rnrhen they
are doing strict curls. So they can
pretend they're
getting stronger, when in
fact they're
just
doing the exercise in
bad form.
Mike remembers
a toP
bodybuilding
champ who supposedly
did
10 reps in the curl with 185
Pounds'
Now, by point of reference, the World
and Olympic Weightlifting
champion
in
the Hear-yweight class at the time was
John Davis
- anenonnously
powerful
man who held ALL of the American,
World and OlymPic records in the
Heaq4weight class
-
and who could
perform one-arrn chins while holding a
dumbbell in his other hand. (I know, I
know, hard to believe for a
Hear-ryweight.
But I know a maflwho
saw Davis do a one-arrn chin while
holdin
I
a 50-pound dumbbell in his
other hand!) Davis once did some heavy
curls at alifting show where he appeared
as a special guest |ifter, and cgrled 205
pounds in strict form. So the idea of a
bodybuilder who weighed far less than
Davis doing 10 reps in the curl with 185
pounds was
just
a little bit hard for
people to swallow.
In fact, one man was so upset bY
it all that he wrote a letter to Strength
and Health in which he challenged
the
bodybuilder to perform 10 curls with
185 pounds IN PUBLIC, with certified
lifting officials counting the reps. He
even bet the bodybuilder
a big chunk of
change that he couldn't do it.
In response, the bodYbuilder
admitted that he could NoT do 10 reps
in the curl with 185 pounds. Those 10
reps he was supposed to do were
CHEAT CURLS,
not strict curls.
Mike once said that cheat curls
are like kissing
your kid sister, except no
one brags about kissing their kid sister.
And no one should brag about doing
cheat curls, either.
The close griP bench
Press
requires li6le explanatioll.
Of course,
you do them strict, with no bounce.
Touch and go is okay, but don't bounce.
And don't arch,raise
your hips or do any
of that kind of stuff.
fhe really imPortantthing
is to
28
perfonn close gnp benches with your
hands
just
a little closer than shoulder
width apart.If you try to do the exercise
with your hands extremely close to each
other
-
or worse, touching each other
-
then you don't have any strength at all
and you'll be limited to a very light
weight. And worse than that, if your grip
is too close it trvists your elbows into an
unnafural position that can cause
extremely sore elbows
-
and possibly
even lead to tendonitis. Remember,
heavy ann training is impossible if your
develop elbow tendonitis
-
so ALWAYS
use a grrp that doesn't over-stress your
elbows! (Even on your warrn-up sets.
That wann-up weight is more than heavy
enough to do damage if you do it with an
excessively close grip !
)
PROTECTNG YOURJONTS
A11 of this brings me to another
importantpoint. Several of them,
actually. They all relate to one of the
most important
-
but neglected
-
aspects
of successful arm training. Protecting
your elbows. Something that should be
fundamental, but something that is rarely
if ever discussed in arm training courses
or in articles about affn specialization.
And that's crazy, because one of the
secrets of successful arm specialization
is training the armmuscles without
causing extreme muscular soreness, sore
elbows, "tennis elbow" or other forms of
tendonitis. Remember, sore elbows will
derail your arm training faster than you
can S&y, "Back to the drawing bo ard!"
But guys have a lot of questions that
bear directly on the whole issue of
avoiding elbow problems. First,
many guys ask if they can use anEZ curl
bar instead of a straight bar. They say
that the straight bar rrcitates their elbows.
But they're reluctant to use the EZ curl
bar because they think it's cheating, or
because they've read that straight bar
curls are more effective. (Arthur Jones,
the inventor of the Nautilus equipment,
used to note that your biceps are in a
fully supinated position when you
perform straight bar curls, but are only
partially supinated when you perforrn
EZ bar curls
-
so he argued that straight
bar curls are more effective.)
Mike has a different answer. He
says you should use whichever bar feels
more comfortable and allows you to
handle more weight. There's no reason
to torture yourself with straight bar curls
if they hurt your elbows. Even if straight
bar curls really ARE more effective (and
that' s debatable), they lose their
effectiveness if you develop inner elbow
tendonitis and can't train any more.
Second, guys ask if they can use
anEZ curl bar for close grip bench
presses. Onc e agarn, the answer is a
resounding YES ! Use whatever training
tools allow you to lift the most weight
without any muscle or
joint pain. For
some men, that means using a straight
bar for their close grip benches
-
for
others, it means using anEZ curl bar
-
and for some, it means using a Log Bar
with aparullel grip.
Mike often uses me as an
Bob Hoffman
29
example of the importance of finding the
right bar for each exercise. I used to be
able to use a straight bar for curls with
no problem, but as I got older, the
straight bar curls started to hurt my inner
elbows. so I tried using anEZ curl bar. I
tried two or three different EZ curl bars
and didn't like them at all. Then I found
an old, thick, verY heavy-duty EZ curl
bar thathad unusually sharp angles
where you held the bar. This bar worked
GREAT for me! With it, I was able to
work up to 185
Pounds
for five rePs in
the STRICT curl
- which is pretty darn
good. And it never hurt mY elbows.
On close griP bench
Presses,
I
was able to use an OlYmPic bar and
work up to 295 or 305 pounds for 5 reps
- but I preferred using the same sharply
angle dEZ curl bar, and did most of mY
close grip training with thatbar. I
worked up to 3 20
Pounds
for 5 rePs in
the close grip bench press with that bat.
And once agarn, othet EZ curl bars with
a different angle don't work nearly as
well for me. So everyone is different,
and everyone needs to find exactly the
right bars and other equipment for his or
her particular body. Your elbows will
thank you for it.
Third
,
train
Your
tricePs the
Mike's Gym way
- with close griP
bench presses, regular bench presses'
and military
presses. The French presses,
triceps extensions and skull-crushers
all
twist your artns into unnafural
positions,
and they all expose your elbow
joints to
the risk of severe injury or crippling
tendonitis.
(WhV do you think so many
guys who handle heavy weights in the
skull-crusher
exercise wear rubber wraps
on their elbows or wraP them with
powerlifter-style knee wraps? It's
because their elbows are either injured or
on the point of being injured every time
they train.)
Fourth, skiP the
Preacher
bench
curls. They're
just too hard on your inner
elbows. That bottom
position where your
arrn is extended against weight
resistance is an elbow killer. And they
will NOT 'olengthen"
your biceps' as
many believe. The only way to lengthen
your biceps would be to have surgery to
reafrach the muscle lower down
- and
that's not something
you ever want to
do.
Fifth, skiP the curling machines'
They're even worse than the preacher
bench curls. In fact, theY can cause
severe tendonitis
in
just a couple of
workouts
- I know because I did it once
when I was young and foolish.
(That was
back in my BMG Days
- Before Mike's
Gym.)
Sixth, skiP the wide grip curls
and the naffow
grip curls. They place
tremendous tension on
Your
inner
elbows and wrists.
(The wide
grip curl is
especially troublesome.)
Yes, I know
they look like fun, and I know that many
top champs swe at bY them
- but
seriously,
you onlY have one set of
elbows, and you don't want to abuse
them.
Seventh,
droP the reverse curls'
We used to do them a lot when we were
younger, but Mike's
PrettY
much
dropped them now. They end up causing
tennis elbow for too many guys. The
problem, on ce again, is the twisted
positioll. It
just torques the heck out of
your inner elbows.
Point 1lo. eight -- if barbell curls
hurt your elbows, use dumbbell
curls
instead. Find an angle and a tange of
motion that feels okay, and stick to it.
For some lifters
(especially older lifters),
the hammer curl with dumbbells
(i.e., a
30
t
dumbbell curl holding the dumbbells
with the thumbs-up, as if you were
holding a hammer) is the best way to go.
Indeed, for older lifters
,
it may be the
only curling exercise that doesn't cause
joint
pain.
Finally, if you want to do thick
bar curls, start slow and light and work
up carefully. Thick bar curls work the
heck out of your tendons and ligaments,
and you need to break into them very
carefully. (The same goes for any other
thick bar exercises. Thick bars are
terrific training tools, but you need to
use them wisely and intelligently. Train
with your brain, not your ego.) And if
you do try thick bar curls, try a 1 Yz" or
2" thick bar. Unless you have really
large hands
,
a thrcker bar is going to be
very difficult for heavy curls.
And since we'rc talking about
the importance of protecting your
joints,
let me note that two of the most popular
arrr' exercises will cause shoulder
problems for a very high percentage of
lifters. One of them is the parallel dip.
As I've already noted, it' s a very popular
exercise
-
and it works great for some
guys - but it leads to shoulder problems
for many guys. And the funny thing is, a
guy can train on dips with good results
for a long time, and then all of a sudden
WHAM! Something goes wrong, and
one bad rep causes problems that may
take weeks or months to heal. Or it may
cause problems that never go away.
The other exercise is the press
behind neck. It's a classic old-school
exercise, and many respected authorities
have taught it in their books, articles and
courses
-
but it can really hurt your
shoulders. Military presses and dumbbell
presses are much safer -- so skip the
behind the neck presses, and stick to the
safer (and
just
as effective) pressing
movements.
If you think about it, virtually all
of the arm specialization courses and
articles written over the past 100 years
have included too many different
exercises, performed for too many
different sets and reps, and they've also
included exercises that tend to cause
elbow problems. Most arm training
routines have several different types of
curls and several different triceps
exercises in them (presumably, to give
the trainee amaximum pump and to "hit
the muscles from all possible angles").
The problem is, if you do a number of
different ann exercises that someone
else has selected for you, the odds are
good that one or more of them is going
to be bad for your particular body
structure. As a direct result, many arrn
speciahzation programs do little more
than lead to sore shoulders and sore
elbows for the guys that follow them. In
fact, if you ever wrote a book on the
history of arm speciahzation routines,
you could call it: "A History of Elbow
and Shoulder Wrecking Programs."
It makes far more sense to build
your anns by training hard and heavy on
one or two exercises that you know from
experience work well for YOU
-
and on
exercises that do NOT cause you pain or
discomfort. Rather than try to work your
anns from all possible angles, you
should work your anns ONLY with
exercises that don't cause problems for
you.
Remember, it doesn't matter if
some massively muscled champion
-
or
a massively muscled guy who happens
to train at your gym -- says to use a
particular exercise. If it works for him,
fine. But if it HURTS YOU, DROP IT!
Find another exercise that doesn't hurt
when you do it.
Of course, no matter what
exercises you select, you can still hurt
32
yourself if you skip your wann-ups or if
you do too many sets and reps. Always
take the time to warm-up with
progressively heavier sets before
tackling heary curls or heavy close gnp
bench presses. And please note that the 5
x 5 system or a similar set/rep system
will allow you to train your muscles
without overworkittg your
joints.
That's
one of the reasons that Mike uses the 5 x
5 system (and similar set/rep schemes) in
his training programs.
And one other thing. Heavy
singles. They work gteat for many
exercises (for an advanced man who has
built up to them with sensible, low rep
training), but they're not as good for ann
training. For presses, they're fine (for an
advanced man). For curls and close grip
bench presses, not so good. So follow
the set/rep schemes in this course.
EXERCISE PERFORMANCE TIPS :
GRIP WORK
The kid's grip work was pretty
basic stuff, but Mike and I coached him
through the exercises to help him
squeeze every last drop of good results
from them. Grip work is one of the many
aspects of training where the liftle things
can be really important.
To begin with, you can use any
kind of crush style gripper you enjoy
using, &S long as it's strong enough that
you hit muscular failure in no more than
1 5 reps. If your gnpper isn't strong
enough, you have three options: (1) buy
a stronger gnpper (order from John
Wood at
www. functionalhandstrength. com), or
(2) begin the set by squeezing and
holding the gripper shut for 10
-
30
seconds, and then do your reps after you
have "pre-exhausted" your gripping
muscles, or (3) hold the gripper shut for
5
-
10 seconds on each rep.
If you have several different
grippers, you can do one set with the
easiest one, and then work your way up
to harder grippers for the second and
third sets.
You can do your pinch grip
lifting with a pinch grip block or with a
barbell plate. If you use a plate, use a
smooth exercise plate with no rim, not
an Olympic plate. Depending on your
equipment, you can work one hand at a
time or two hands at a time.
The thick bar double overhand
deadlifts work the heck out of your
fingers and thumbs. Many guys are
concerned because they can't use their
regular deadlift poundages in this
exercise. That's because it's a GRIP
exercise, not aleg, hip and lower back
movement. You train your legs, hips and
lower back with the Trap bar deadlifts
that come before this movement.
If you do your grip training right,
your hands and fingers will be fried
when you're finished. So always do your
grip work at the end of the workout.
By the w&y, Reg Park and John
Grimek both had massive foreanns and
incredibly powerful grips. These men are
clear proof that grip trainingplays an
important part in building Herculean
upper afins.
Edward Aston
33
John Grimek
THE KID'S RESULTS
The kid trained hard for the next
12 weeks, and always tried to add weight
to the bar on all of his different
exercises. And at the end of 12 weeks,
he had packed another 14 pounds of
muscle onto his frame, and added 1
y2,,
inches to each of his upper anns. That
made a total of 37 pounds of muscle and
4" to the kid's upper anns -
all of it in
just
24 short weeks. Not bad for six
month's of training.
Many beginners will gain just
as
fast. Some will gain even faster. That's
especially true for guys who are starting
out at the same time they hit their
"growirg
phase)) -
the one where
teenagers sleep so much, eat so much
and suddenly end up many inches taller
and many pounds of muscle heavier, all
as a result of their body havin g reached
the "GROW
STAGE" where they move
from boy to man and their glands and
hormones
are working overtime to keep
them in "grow
mode."
Older trainees and trainees who
have been lifting for awhile will gain
more slowly -
but everyone who works
through the fuIl l2-week cycle for Level
One and the l2-week cycle for Level
Two of the Mike's Gym armroutine
should be able to add l0 pounds
of
muscle and an inch on his upper arms.
It's a great program-
and if
yOU
work
the program
will WORK!
Now if you really want to go
whole hog on the big arrns thing, then do
this. Follow the program exactly as
written, going through both levels one
right after the other. After that,take 12
weeks and follow an all-around program
of your choice
fiust
be sure it's a Dino-
style programs, i.e., something thatMike
would let you do if you were training at
Mike's Gym)
- and then follow the atrr1
routine
(both levels) for two l2-week
cycles. After that,train
on all-around
programs
(Dino-style!) for most of the
year,but hit the level two program at
least once per year. And if you think
you're readY for rt, try the Level 3
Program for !2weeks every
year' (The
Level 3 Program is outlined
in the next
section of the course.) Aftef a few years,
your anns will be so thick and powerful
that you'll be able to get a
job doubling
as the gorilla atthe local zoo.
Now,
You
might wonder what the
kid decided to do next. Heck, if you've
been payin g attention,
you might even
wonder if he ever entered that Inter-
Galactic Mega-Muscle
contest he was
babbling about when he first showed up
at Mike's Gym. The answer is'No'" In
fact,he never even mentioned
the silly
thing. At least, I never heard him
mention it. But he did do some other
stuff thatwas
probably more impressive.
I'll tell you about it the next time Mike
asks me to write something
up about his
special training
programs and training
methods.
You also might be wondering
about the kid's i-pod, and whether Sam
ever gave it back. It turns out that the i-
pod had gotten broken, and the kid |eft it
-on
the floor in the locker room. That was
where Sam saw it. So Mike and I were
wrong. Sam didn't swipe it
- he found it.
When Mike learned the real story, he felt
bad for having suspected
his four-legged
buddy of cunning canine thievery
(even
if it was
- we thought
- for a good
cause). So he ordere d a double deluxe
pepperoni
Pvzafrom
Sam's favorite
priruplace.
A very cute pizza delivery
girt biought
it over, and she made a big
fuss about Sam and scratched
his ears
and said he was 'othe cutest
puppy dog
she had ever seen," and thatmade
it
extra special for him.
So on ce again, things are back to
nonn al atMike's Gym. Sam is enjoying
a double deluxe pepperoni
przza, the
guys are standing atthe window and
starin g atthe pizza delivery
girl as she
walks back to her car,Mike
is working
on revised plans for his alhgator
pit, and
I'm hitting the keybo ardto
put it all on
paper. And of course' we have
Yet
another member of the Gym who made
greatgains with the Mike's GYm arm
routine. That's been happening
for a
heck of a lot of years now. I guess you
could say that some things never change.
THE MIKE' S GYM ARM ROUTINE:
LEVEL THREE
Note bY Mike: Once agarn,
Kubik got most of it right. He onlY
misse d a couple of important
points'
Mainly, the entire Level Three of the
Mike's Gym Arm Routille. of course,
in
Kubik's defense, the kid hasn't done the
program yet. But rnrhen he does
- which
I imagine will be in about two years
-
he'll make even more great gains'
Level Three of the Mike's GYm
Arm Routine is ONLY for advanced
lifters who have been through at least
two complete cycles of Level One and
Level Two of the routine. It looks more
like a conventional
arm training
program
than Levels One and Two. But there are
some important differences.
You'll see
them wfren I outline the routine for you.
You follow another three-daY-
per-week routine. The second workout
of the week (Workout B) will be
Your
afin training day.
WORKOUTA
1. Warm-up with light flip snatches
2 x
35
10 - lz,Indian Club drills for 5 mins,
and light clean and press for 2 x I0 - 12
z.M7litary press 5 x 5 (progressively
heavier sets working up to one top set
for five reps), followed bY 1 x 3 and 1 x
1 (adding weight on each set)*
3. Back squat or front squat 5 x 5
(progressively heavier sets working up
to one top set for five reps), followed by
1 x 3 and 1 x 1 (adding weight on each
set)*
4. Bent-legged sit-ups on incline boardz
x 8 --I2
(with extra weight resistance)
5. Crush style grippers 3 x max reps (at
least five, but not more than 15 rePs)
*
Finish with a heavy single but NOT a
maximum single.
WORKOUTB
1. Warm-up with light flip snatches 2 x
10
- Iz,Indian Club drills for 5 mins,
and light clean and press for 2 x I0 - 12
2. Alternate dumbbell
press 6 x 5 (four
progressively heavier sets, followed by 2
x 5 with your top weight)
3. Barbell curls (progressively heavier
sets working up to one top set for five
reps), followedby 1 x 3 and 1 x 1
(adding weight on each set)*
4. Close grip bench press (progtessively
heavier sets working up to one top set
for five reps), followed bY 1 x 3 and 1 x
1 (adding weight on each set)*
5. Dumbbell hammer curl 5 x 5
(progressively heavier sets working up
to one top set for five rePs)
4. Pinch grip lifting 5
-
7 progressively
heavier singles
*
*
Finish with a heavy single but NOT a
maximum single.
WORKOUT C
1. Warm-up with light flip snatches 2 x
10
- lz,Indian Club drills for 5 mins,
and light clean and press for 2 x I0
- 12
2. Pull-ups 5 x 5 (with bodyweight in the
first set, then using extra weight
-
perfonn progressively heavier sets
working up to one top set for five reps)*
3. Bench press, incline barbell press,
dumbbell bench press or dumbbell
incline press (progressively heavier sets
working up to one top set for five reps),
followedby I x 3 and 1 x 1 (adding
weight on each set)*
*
4. Bent legged deadlifts or TraP Bar
deadlifts 5 x 5 (progressivelyheavier
sets working up to one top set for five
reps), followed bY 1 x 3 and 1 x 1
(adding weight on each set)*
5. Hanging leg raises 2x 8
- 15
*
Finish with a heavy single but NOT a
maximum single.
**
Use 5 x 5, 1 x 3 and 1 x 1 ifyou
perfofin bench presses or incline presses
with abarbell. If you use dumbbells,
perform 6 x 5 (4 progressively heavier
wann-up sets, followed bY 2 x 5 with
your top weight). If you use barbells and
finish with a single reP, finish with a
heavy weight but NOT a maximum
single.
THE WRAP-UP
That covers the Mike's GYm arcrr
training routine. If you like it, ordet a
pepperoni przza for Sam, and ask if
"Mandy" can deliver it to the gym. She's
the hottie that thinks Sam is so darn
cute!
Other than that,there's
nothing
left to say
- other than good luck, good
training, and keeP us
Posted
on
Your
results! You know how to reach me
-
it's info@broekskubik.cour
-- and if you
want to drop Mike anote
(or ask him a
question), send it to me and I'll pass it
along.
36