February 02, 2001
Issue #32

HARDCORE TRAINING FOR THE MASSES
by Jason Meuller

From many years spent working night jobs, mostly working in bars, protecting drunk patrons from each other while working my way through college, I’ve conditioned myself to stay up until the wee hours of the morning.  As such, I’ve had the misfortune of watching more than my fair share of infomercials, many of which deal with the latest get fit quick scheme.  I’ve noticed over the years that the time it takes to get in fantastic shape has steadily decreased, and we are rapidly approaching an era where 30 second workouts three times a week is all it takes to maintain a fitness models body.  I can’t help but laugh as I watch these commercials because it reminds me of the exchange between Ted and the hitchhiker in the movie Something About Mary.

Hitchhiker: You remember this thing, the Eight Minute Abs?

Ted: Yeah sure, Eight Minute Abs, the exercise video.

Hitchhiker: Yeah, well this is going to blow that right out of the water.  Listen to this……Seven….Minute…..Abs.

Ted: Right….Yes……Ok, I see where you’re going.

Hitchhiker: Think about it.  You walk into a video store, you see Eight Minute Abs sitting there, there’s Seven Minute Abs right beside it, which one are you gonna pick man? 

Ted:  Uh, I’d go for the Seven…uh

Hitchhiker: Bingo man, bingo.  Seven Minute Abs.  And we guarantee just as good a workout as the Eight Minute folk.

Ted: You guarantee it? How do you do that?

Hitchhiker: If you’re not happy with the first seven minutes, we’re gonna send you the extra minute…free!  See that’s it, that’s our motto, that’s where we’re comin’ from, that’s from A to B.

Ted: That’s…right.  That’s good, that’s good.  Unless of course someone comes up with Six Minute Abs, then you’re in trouble huh?

Hitchhiker:………………………………………No!  No not six, I said seven.  Nobody’s coming up with Six, who works out in six minutes? You won’t even get your heart goin, not even a mouse on a wheel. 

Ted: Good point…yeah.

Hitchhiker: Sevens the key number here, think about it.  Seven sevens, seven dwarves..think about it man, that’s the number.  Seven chipmunks twirlin’ on a branch, eatin’ lots of sunflowers on my uncle’s ranch..you know that old….childrens’…..tale from the sea.  It’s like you’re dreamin’ about gorgonzola cheese when it’s clearly brie time, baby.  Step into my office.

Ted: Why?

Hitchhiker: Cause you’re fuckin’ fired!

As much as John Q. Public would like to believe that he can get the perfect body in less time than it takes for a really good bowel movement, we know the truth.  Extreme physical development requires total commitment.  Our ideal physique is not gained in three 10-minute workouts per week, it’s the fruit of years of blood, sweat, and tears in the gym.  That’s the reality we face every day, and it’s the knowledge of that reality that pushes us day after day, month after month to toil and labor with the heavy iron.   

To that end, I created the Hardcore Training series.  Not only as a way to instruct the advanced bodybuilder on some new techniques to improve gains in the gym, but to serve as a primer and inspirational series to those with less experience in this game of bodybuilding. It certainly has fulfilled those roles, perhaps too well.  The biggest lament I hear from AE readers is that Hardcore Training does not apply to their particular situation.  And let’s face it, not everyone who reads AE is a behemoth with years of training under his belt.  So, I thought it time to bring Hardcore Training to the Masses, by outlining some of the defining principals behind this training philosophy, principals that can be applied by anyone, regardless of their level of development or maturity in the sport.

What is Hardcore Training anyway?  I liken Hardcore Training to climbing a steep mountain.  At the top of the mountain is our goal, the inducement of maximum muscular hypertrophy.  Immediately beyond that goal there is a huge precipice, known as overtraining.  The goal of Hardcore Training is to achieve that goal in a minimum of time, without taking the few additional steps that will send you over the edge into overtraining.  Overtraining is one of the biggest problems all of you will experience at some point on your bodybuilding journey, and the biggest set back to progress.  HT seeks to make overtraining a thing of the past. 

Change.  Life is always in a constant state of flux, and the survivability of any species is in direct correlation to its ability to adapt to any given set of stresses.  We, as human beings, are the most adaptable creatures on the planet, not only in terms of how we react consciously to change, but also in terms of the physiological changes that take place in our bodies in response to various stresses.  Not only are we able to accommodate a wide variety of stresses and environmental factors, the adaptation to these factors begins almost immediately and is complete in a very short period of time.  Applying this truth to bodybuilding, it amazes me to see athletes following the same stale program for months on end, getting nowhere, and lamenting the fact that no matter how hard they train, they can’t seem to break through their latest plateau. 

Remember the first time you ever set foot in the gym?  Do you remember how awkward the weights felt, how each and every movement was a learning experience?  And I’m sure the progress you made during those first few months was INCREDIBLE, something you’d like to recapture time and time again.  Unfortunately, that’s not possible, since your body quickly adapted to resistance training by thickening all of your muscle fibers to accommodate for this new stress.  At that point, ANY kind of resistance training, no matter how foreign or extreme, isn’t going to produce the kinds of results we saw during those first few initial months.  However, with the knowledge that those wonderful days of seemingly unchecked growth lasted but a few short months before your body adapted, why would you think that your body won’t adapt to any specific method of training even faster? 

The most important principal in Hardcore Training is that change is required to see continued growth.  And by change, I don’t mean that you lift using the same exercise and rep schemes week after week but continually try to add weights over time.  Yes, this may work for very short periods, but the bottom line is, we do not get stronger and stronger week after week, month after month.  And do you really think that your body cares if you are benching 5 lbs more each week if it’s done in the same standard 4 set 8-10 rep scheme for months on end?  In my own training program, and those that consult with me, I usually change workouts about every 4 weeks.   I not only advocate change, but radical change.  It’s not enough that I add two more sets of chest if I feel like my pecs aren’t responding to my current routine.  I seek to change workouts in a drastic enough fashion that we approach the awkwardness of those first few days we were ever in the gym. 

When do you know it’s time for change?  About the time you really start feeling comfortable with your new workout system.  Because the one thing that feeling of comfort is telling me is that the body has adapted to the new level of stress, which is why we now feel “comfortable.”  Case in point, if I take a bodybuilder who has never experienced an advanced workout technique like rest-pause training and suddenly start him on such a program, he’s going to feel very awkward.  So awkward in fact that he may think to himself, this just doesn’t feel right, this isn’t for me.  I knew 10 minutes into my first rest-pause workout that I was going to be in a world of hurt the next day.  Every movement was a challenge, nothing felt smooth, and I was getting my ass kicked on every set.  And because of this, I instinctively knew I had found a great new way to train.  Because this system was so challenging to me, I knew it would force my body to adapt by growing muscle. 

So, rule number one in the HT philosophy would be to vary your workouts often and from one extreme to another.  For example, if I am following a rest-pause system for a month, I may follow that up with 4 weeks of extremely heavy lifting, low sets with low reps. I may follow that up with a Time Under Tension routine, and follow that up with Volume Training.  HT isn’t about utilizing one specific workout system, anyone who claims that their workout system is superior to all others usually has something to sell you.  Rather, HT is simply a philosophy to follow in the gym, a philosophy that incorporates a variety of effective workout techniques to maximize muscle growth.

On many levels, bodybuilding is often reduced to a juvenile dick-measuring contest.  Nothing is more so than the bullshit claims made by trainer after trainer.  “I train harder than anyone in the gym”, “No one can hang with me”, “My workout system beats all the others hands down.” Look, we all know what it’s like to train hard.  And yes, I’ve trained with bodybuilders that I thought were madmen, guys that were able to take it much further in the gym than I ever thought possible.  However, it’s important that you always remember that your body can only handle so much trauma before you override its ability to recover.  All of us have the ability to push ourselves, and our bodies, past the point of recovery.  That was the most disappointing lesson I learned after my first few years in the sport, that I had the ability to train harder than my body could withstand.  For the longest time, I felt like a failure because my body couldn’t keep up with my burning desire to train with maximum intensity day after day.  If you haven’t yet learned that lesson, take a deep breath and resign yourself to the fact that you’re human and not different from any of the rest of us.  I used to adhere to the adage that there is no such thing as overtraining, there is only undersleeping and undereating.  Well, once I reached the point where I was eating over 6000 calories per day and sleeping about 12 hours a day and still getting ill because I was constantly overtraining, I knew it was time to adhere to a new adage.  This was while I was in college, where it was possible to totally and utterly devote myself to bodybuilding.  Most of us don’t have that luxury, and must be even more cognizant of the signs of overtraining.

I’ve written some great articles on HT, outlining workouts that represent some of the finer moments of my bodybuilding career.  However, I should now add a caveat to those articles, in that not every day in the gym is that intense.  Quite frankly, it would be beyond the limits of human endurance and recovery to train in that fashion each and every day.  And if you’re reading this and have no idea what I’m talking about, please check the back issues and read some of the articles in the HT series.

TUNE IN NEXT WEEK WHEN I FINISH MY DISCUSSION OF THE UNDERLYING PRINCIPALS OF THE HARDCORE TRAINING PHILOSOPHY.  AFTER READING BOTH PARTS IN THIS SERIES, YOU’LL BE ABLE TO APPLY HARDCORE TRAINING INTO YOUR OWN BODYBUILDING ROUTINE, REGARDLESS OF YOUR EXPERIENCE OR LEVEL OF DEVELOPMENT.  GET READY TO GROW!

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