M.E FEATURE
BAD FORM WAS NOT TOLERATED
When you watch most of the old-school guys training you will see an almost
exaggerated range of motion. They used to move poundage, and I don’t just mean the
amount of weight moved, the distance it moved was definitely far greater than what
we see now. Today there’s so much ignorance with what proper training really is that it’s
the norm to see huge amounts of weight hardly being moved at all. Every gym has its
ego/weight-driven lifters who do 1/8th of the movement and call it a rep because the
machine is piled to the ceiling with plates. We need to look back and see what those
old-school guys and girls were doing and take a page out of their books. It was far more
effective and it seems they were a lot more focused on training their muscles than on
the amount of weight they used.
The secret to success does not lie
in sports technology, it lies in the
hard work and the hard dieting.
FOLLOWING FASHION
TRAINING
PROGRAMME
People used to plan
their workouts, they
would write their
training programmes down
and do very specific things to
achieve specific results. So often
I see guys just doing what they
feel like or whatever is available.
Thankfully I think we are seeing a
re-emergence of this, as people realise
that in order to gain an advantage over
the competition, you need to plan your
workouts and periodise your training -
match the training volume and intensity
to the time in the season you are in.
People were focused on their workouts,
whereas today it’s more common to see
people on their cell phones, or they are
socialising, and if you are focused
you are considered to be rude. I
say socialise outside of gym time
and give that time in the gym
everything you have to make the
most of it.
Today people have this idea that they
need to do certain stacks and cycles
because that’s what everyone does. Well,
they think that’s what everyone does.
Back in the old days everyone had their
own specific cycles that they worked out
via experimentation of what worked best
for them. These days everyone is doing
just about the same thing just
because it’s the “in thing” to do.
They don’t care
about the side
effects and
don’t know
how to counteract them. This is an aspect of
competing that is the most alarming for me
when watching the younger guys coming
up, where people have no idea what they
are putting into their bodies and they take
certain things because they heard someone
else was doing that stack. The secret to
success does not lie in sports technology, it
lies in the hard work and the hard dieting.
If sports technology is something you
choose to use, it is just the cherry on the top.
Nothing you take can give you results if your
nutrition and training are not where they
should be.
SUPERSETTING
WAS THE NORM
Today I hardly ever see people
supersetting or doing multiple
exercises in one “set”. I think this is
probably because people think you
can’t lift as much weight if you do this
so it wouldn’t be as effective for muscle
growth? Or maybe it’s just too painful?
Whatever people’s reasoning behind
this is, I think it needs to change. Back
in the day supersetting exercises was
the norm and I think we need to get
back to that. Bring on the pain!
PERIODISATION
I always hear - and I used to say this -
that training in the off-season should
be the same as pre-contest - whatever
built the muscle in the first place
will keep it when dieting, right? Well
I think that’s okay if you want to be
average. If you want to be exceptional
48
Muscle Evolution