"HOW DID THEY TRAIN?"
By John Wood
Here's a question from Teddy, who emailed it in yesterday:
Hi John,
You have a fantastic site. I know you know a lot about old time
strength training. What about getting a little insight in how the
oldtime strongmen trained?
In
Dinosaur Training and other books it claims that they trained
2-3 times a week with FEW and HEAVY sometimes to FAILURE
Sets, very abbreviated. But in Power to the people Pavel explains
that they trained 3-4 days and a lot higher volume and nowhere near
failure.
Maybe Ellington Darden
in his
new book has another opinion?
What's your opinion on this and is there any proof of anything other
than when some people say this and others that?
Thanks,
Teddy from Denmark
Hi Teddy, that's a great question, thank you for sending it in. I'm
going to point out a few things that I think are important and then
answer it in a way you've probably never heard before.
As far as how some of the oldtime strongmen trained, well for
anyone to say they "all" trained this way or they "all" trained that
way would be a mistake - all of them had their own unique styles.
George Jowett, for example, generally recommended about a dozen
basic exercises done a couple times a week with a focus on heavy
leg work or supports.
Alan Calvert suggested much the same although after many years of
heavy weightlifting switched to a
bodyweight only style of training.
Sig Klein, was equally impressive in many different areas of strength,
Whether physique star, bodyweight feats,
muscle control, hand
balancing or classical weighlifting, he could do it all - yet Sig's
philosophy was "train for shape, and the rest will follow"
I could go on and on about all the different ways that the oldtime
Strongmen trained, obviously they are many different examples.
However, it must be clearly understood that despite the fact that
their methods differed (greatly, in some cases) the fact of the
matter is that every single one of them was based on a few simple
principles - the same ones that make my, your and everyone else's
training "work."
The same principles that "worked" a century ago, the same ones
that "worked" in the 1970s and the same ones that "work" just
as well today.
Whatever and however the Oldtime Strongmen trained, it had to fall within a certain
set of parameters otherwise it wouldn't have worked at all.
Fortunately you can read exactly how many of the oldtimers trained
through the classic reprints and other books you'll
find on my site.
... and its a lot of fun doing so. By and large, their workouts are
very reasonable and can be performed by pretty much anyone
with only some basic equipment.
If you wanted do, say,
the hip lift or
back lift, for example, you
would need specialized equipment but you'll notice that the vast
majority of the recommended exercises in any oldtime course
are very simple, the overhead press, the standing curl etc.
It wasn't so much the exercises themselves but how they were
done which makes the difference.
And on that note, on to your question:
|
Sig Klein
|
Lets forget everything about training for a minute and focus on
you... your goals... your available equipment... your motivation
levels... your training time... your willingness to "stick with it,
-- all that kind of thing.
What you "should" do depends on these factors, not how
someone tells you you must train, and from that, the type
of workout that is necessary should become quite clear.
Once a week, every day, to failure, not to failure, basic,
complex, weights, bodyweight, kettlebells, sandbags -
whichever you choose, there's going to be the correct way
to do it for the results you want, and the not-correct way
to do it, which will be a waste of time.
(Ya know that skinny kid at your gym that does 2-hours of
curls and doesn't seem to get any bigger? - yeah, he's not
doing it right... )
But again, just like the training examples of the oldtime
strongmen I mentioned above, of all you could do, it must
fall in line with a few basic physiological principles
otherwise nothing will happen - no improvement, no
muscle growth - nothing.
Some styles of training are quite clearly "better" - but the
real question is "better how?" Some take more time, some
less, some use equipment, some don't. Again, it comes down
to you, and your goals.
Your results will ultimately come down to how well you
fulfill the requirements of the types of results you
want.
Once you understand those, the rest is pretty straightforward.
Choose wisely... then get to work.
Train hard,
John Wood
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