Dinosaur Arm Training

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DINOSAUR ARM TRAINING

BROOKSD. KUBIK

AUTHOR OF DINOSAURTRAINING: LOST SECRETS F STRENGTHANDDEVLEOPMENT

WWW.BROOKSKUBIK.COM



t

NTRODUCTION

Back in 1993, wrote a shortcoursecalledBIG ARMS, which was

editedby StuartMcRobert andpublishedby CS Publishing,Ltd.As originallywritten, it featuredMike andMike'sGym. Stuart hought readerswouldconfuseMike with Mike Thompson,4popularwriter for his bi-monthlyHardgainer magazine,so he askedme tochange he name.After kickirg around adozenor so different names,we settledon Flynn andFlynn's Gym.

The coursewas so well received

that wrotea secondonecalledBIGBENCH - alsoset n Flynn's Gym - andon occasion,n my Hardgainer articles,wrote a trainirg articleset n Flynn'sGym. But in my heart,I alwaysknew Iwas writing aboutMike's Gym - whichis about he bestdarn place n the worldto train, and a place hat every seriouslifter shouldvisit at leastonce n his orher ifetime.

Threeyearsafterwriting the BIG

ARMS course, wrote andpublishedDINOSAURTRAINNG: LOSTSECRETSOF STRENGTH ANDDEVELOPMENT, and he rest,as heys?y, s history. (And thathistoryincluded he originalDinosaurFilesmonthly newsletter,which oftenincluded raining articlesset n - youguessedt - a very Dino-stylegymcalledby it's truename - Mike's Gym.)

Today, nearly20 yearsafter

writing that little course, find myselfbesieged y readerswho ask for anupdated, evised,expanded ourseonserious,no-nonsense fin training forDinosaurs and for an updateon Mike'sGym.

One daynot very long 4go,afterreceivingyet anotheremailmakittgthis

request, decided o clear he decks,chainmyself to the keyboardfor as ongas t took, and hammer he little monsterinto existence.And that'show thiscoursecame nto being.

This brandnew coursedoesseveral hings:

1. t teaches ane, ensible, o-nonsenseann training as partof acomplete, otal body training program.

2.It givesyou a complete hree-stage outine for building strong,powerful, largeand musculararms.(Yeah, know the title suggestshatwe're only interestedn building BIGanns- but actually,we're interestedn

building anns that are strongandpowerful. If your arrns arestrongandpowerful,they'll be plentybig.)

3. It teaches ou which exercisesto avoid- becausehey can njure yourshouldersor elbows.

4.It givesyou an updateon arrntraining methodsthatMike and I havedevelopedover the past20 yearsbecauset's almost20 yearssince hatfirst little affn training coursehit the

marketand astonishedhe world.5. It givesyou ALL NEW

routines o build DNOSAUR ARMS -meanirg afins that arebig, thick, strongandpowerful.

I've enjoyed he work I've doneon this course,and 've enjoyedbringingbackMike, Mike's Gym andMike'sworld-famouscaninecompanion, heinimitable Sam.Pay closeattention owhat they say.You'll learna lot from

them.I certainlyhave.

Yours in strength,

BrooksKubik



MIKE'S GYM

Mike's Gym is the perfect place

for dinosaurs o train. The dumbbellsgo

up to 200pounds.The gym boastseight

full-si zedpowerracks, our platfonnsfor deadlifting, and our more for

Olympic lifting. It holds something ike

30 Olympic bars powerbarsand black

iron plates or the powerlifters and for

rack training, andhigh quality

weightlifting bars andbumperplatesfor

the weightlifting platforrns.There are

four competitionstylebenchpress

benches,wo sfurdy ncline benches,

four flat benches,wo chinning bars (one

with thick handles), our GerardTrapBars,a standingcalf machine, wo

heavy-dutyoverheadpulleys for lat

work, a vaiety of grip blasters, hick

barsof varioussizesand hicknesses,

sledge-hammers,ree standingsquat

stands o useon the lifting platfonns,

thick handleddumbbells,keffle-bells,

Indian clubs,climbing ropes, wo setsofgymnastics ings,two adjustable it-up

boards, og bars, ifting blocks, & couple

of heavy duty head-strapsor neck work,bandsand chains or the powerlifters, &

wrestling mat for bodyweight training,

and nothing else unlessyou includethe

Pit in back of the gym and he specialoocardiofor strengthathletes"stuff that

Mike uses o tortureus.

I'11 ell you more about he cardio

stuff and Mike's patentedcardio orture

routinessome other time, but for now,

let me briefly mentionthe Pit. It's an

outside rainittg area hat Mike usesprimarily for strongman stuff and for

conditioningwork. You ought o see t!

Mike has illed the Pit with heavy ires,

sleds,sandbags,ifting logs, armer's

walk implements,steel suitcases, ranite

balls,ropes,wheel-barrows, nonnous

anchorchains,anvils, barrelsand beer-

kegs.He alsohasa completeset of

outdoor climbing ropes,pull-up bars, 4

climbing wall and other fun equipment.

But other than the bars, he plates, he

rest of the iron and the strongman ools

in the Pit, thatwas it. You can ook

around rom sideto side, op to bottoffi,

and evenup on the roof, andyou won't

find a single chrome-plated,whrz-bang

wonder machine.Nor will you find any

of the typicalpiecesof 'ostandard"

equipmentyou seeat most bodybuilding

gyms or in the muscle magazines.

There'sa rumor (and t may evenbetrue!) that Mike actuallypurchased pec

dec once andraffled tickets o give the

guysthe chance o smack t to deathwith

sledgehammers.hey sayhe sold the

thing for scrapafter it was demolished.

The proceedswent to Sam's avorite

charity- the local dogpound.Sam s

Edward Aston



I

Mike's golden etriever,andeverybit asdementedas his thickly muscledowner.

Peopleoftentell Mike thathewould attractmore new membersandmakeoodlesof loot if he put

in some"stateof the art" training machinesand abig cardio heatrecompletewith a 2000channelgiant-screenelevisionset-- oreven f he ust put in a pecdec, egextensionmachine, eg curl unit, legpressmachine,anda few other"basic"piecesof equipment.But Mike refuses odo it. He has a theory about t. He saysthat if you cram a gymwith non-essential iecesof equipmentall you do

is encourage eople o avoid the result-producingbasicmovementsn favor oflighter, easier, far lessproductive

exercises.

"If I put a hack machine n here "he said, somepoor misguidedsoulwould probablyuse t. Samewith a legextensionunit - or a leg pressmachine.And I bet he wouldn't evendo squats.Imaginewhat a travesty hatwould be. I

would feel so guilty."A new guy heardhim say that

onceand objected o the dismissalof thehack machine,saying that t workedokay for GeorgeHackenschmidt, heold-time Russianstrongmanandwrestling championknown as "theRussianLion." Mike told him to go finda photo of Hack using a hackmachine.The guy cameback a week later,dumbfoundedand embalrassed, ndadmitted hathe couldn't find one.

'oThat'sbecause e neverusedone," said Mike. "In fact,he nevertrainedwith any sort of modern-day diotmachine.That's why he was so strong.He usedbarbellsanddumbbells.?'

"Then why do they call it theHack machine?"asked he highlyperplexedandconfusedgym member.

"Probablybecause ll the other

nameswere taken," saidMike, andhewent into the gym office andpouredSaman extra argebowl of puppy food.The guy scratchedhis head or nearly

twenty minutes tryittg to figure it out,finally gaveup, and went over to thepower rack and started o do squats. Heendedup gainingnearly40 poundsofmuscleand becam a statepowerliftingchampion,but that's anotherstory and Idon't have ime to tell it now. Let mejust say thatGeorgeHackenschmidtwould havebeenproud of him - andproud of Mike, aswell, for steeringhimstraight.The new guy, I mean- notHackenschmidt.)t wasanotherexampleof Mike's sophisticatedraining andcoachirg methods,andhow well he hasmastered he gentleart of combating hemodern-daybrainwashingso many guysseem o suffer from. Especially he guyswho spend oo much time (Mike saysanythingmore than 30 secondsandachuckle s too much time) looking atthemusclecomicseachmonth.

Mike's training philosophy snowheremore evidentthan in the specialtraining courseshe dropson beginnerswho want to bomb and blitz a particularbody part o Herculeanproportions.Take the Mike's Gym ann routine, forexample.

THE ROOKIE

A year ago a scrawnykidcameinto the gym, signedup for a one year

membership,andproceededo try to curlhimself to death.He had oneof thosespace dge,high tech training programsthatso appeal o teenagers.Wherehefound it, no one everknew. The routinewas endorsed y apopularbodybuildingstar,who at 5'8" and(an alleged)293poundsof "ripped to thebone,super-shredded,maximum massmega-muscle"



claimed o have built his arms o 27" in

record ime. I think he alsosaid he could

curl 450poundsfor 35 reps and do lying

triceps extensionsor 20 x 20 with 600

pounds.His arrnswere so

massivehe

couldn't eatby himself, sohe had to hire

hot babes n very small bikini's to feed

him. There werephotosof this in the

magazinesand on the internet.I looked

at the photosonce, andthe girls were

definitely hot, but it still seemedike a

difficult way to meetgirls. I mentioned

this to Mike, andhe saidnot to wory

becauset was all the work of some

publicist's feveredand over-active

imagination, urhich was good to know.

EugeneSandow

Anyhow, the kid trainedon one heck of

a crazyprogram.To beginwith, even

thoughhe was a rank beginnerhe trained

his arrnssix daysper week.He did

hundredsof sets or the bicepsandalmostas many for the triceps.He did

everyupper artn exerciseever nvented,

and many that must have been nvented

exclusively for his training program.I

had certainlyneverseen hembefore. Of

course,he only gym I go to is Mike's

Gy-, so I'm probablynot up on the

latest raining breakthroughs.Mike's not

into the modern sfuff.

The kid bombed,blastedand

blitzed religiously.He did tri-sets,

supersets,giarrtsets,pre-exhaustion,

compounds,breakdowns, unning the

rack, forcedreps,negatives,sometrics,

peak contraction, lushing, pumpitg,

muscle spinnitg, crampitg, isolation

exercises, low motion reps,mental

contraction,'opowerraining" (that's

what he called t, but it really wasn't),

muscleposiflE,and voodoo.Well, okay,

not voodoo- but if the guy who wrote

his programhad told him to stick pins

into a little doll to makehis anns bigger,

he would have done t. Heck, he would

have sfuckpins into his anns if someone

told him thatwas the way to make thembigger.

On thekid's first day atthe gym,

Mike asked he kid if he would like to

try a specialworkout for beginners.

'oIt'sa good, ime-testedprogram

that a man namedBob Hoffman put

togetherway back n the I930's," Mike

said."He called t York Barbell Cornse

No. 1."

"Why'd he call it that?" askedthe kid. 'o'Was e from New

York?"

'No, he owned he York Barbell

Compdrry,"saidMike. "In York,

Pennsylvania."

'Never heardof it," said he kid.

'Never heardof this Hoffman guy,

either."

. "'Well, t's just about hebest

courseeverwritten for beginners,"said

Mike.

"Yeah, but I'm not a beginner,"

said the kid. "I trained or two weeks

over at FitnessWorld beforecoming

overhere.So I'm readyfor an advanced

program.t'

"Why'd you quit FitnessWorld?"

I asked.

"Conflict of interest,"said he

kid.



Fred Rollon

"What do you mean?"askedMike.

"I heard he owner bet anotherguy ten bucks on who was gonnawin the

Mr. Inter-GalacticContest his year,"

said he kid. "That'sone 'm planningto

win. It will be my first win in a major

contest,and that's how I'll get my

endorsementdealswith the supplementcompanies.So anyhow,when I heard

that,I figured the owner had a conflict of

interestand might not let me do enoughsetsof curls if he knew it about t. ''

Mike nodded.

"Yeah,I can seehow that wouldhave eally tore him up," he said.

"Anyhow, that'swhy I'm here,"

said he kid. "Otherwise, 'd go some

placewhere they haveall the equipmentI need.This placedoesn'thavemuch.

Justbarbellsand dumbbellsand

stuff."

Mike noddedagain.

When Mike nods his headand

doesn'tsay anythirg, he'susually

countittg o ten silently. In this case,

maybehe wascounting o 100.

"You shouldmove out one ofthosepower racksand put in a pec dec,"

said he kid. "I heard hey're pretty good

for def andsep."

"I hear that Deff and Sepp enjoy

training on them," I told him.

'oYeah,well def andsep arepretty important,"said he kid. "I don't

want to be one of those oserswithnothingbut maximum musclemass.

gottabe shreddedike wheat,man!"

Mike saidnothing. He didn't

evennod.

The kid hit a quick double bicepspose.Actually, it was too quick,because

I didn't seeanybiceps.



"ShreddedGuns!"he

proclaimed.

"What's that?" I asked.

"That's what they're gonnacall

me!" said he kid.

Silence rom Mike. I don't think

he was very impressedwith the kid's

plans.We have ons of gym members

with killer nicknames,but I don't think

ShreddedAnything haseverbeen one of

them.

THE INCREDIBLE SHRINKING

LIFTER

So that was how the kid endedupskipping York Training CourseNo. 1

and umping into the crary program I

already old you about. f you forgot

what he was doing, go back and reread

it. It takes oo long to write it out, andjust thinking about t makes me tired.

After I typed it up, I had to go lie down

for 15 minutesbecause was sotired.

I think it made he kid tired, too.

He started o get thesegreatbig bagsunderhis eyes.Pretty soon, he bags

under his eyeswere the biggestpart of

him. Nothing else was growing. In fact,

if anythirg, he seemed o be shrinking.

Especiallyhis affns.They hadn'tbeen

very big to begin with, but now they

lookedpositively Lilliputian.o'Isit my imagination,or is the

new kid shrinkrng?" I askedMike.

"He's shrinking," said Mike.

'oWhy s that?" I asked.

"Becausehe's following an atm

speciahzatton rogram straight out of the

musclecomics, and he's overtraininghis

arrns,and he's undertraining he restof

this body- andhe's a beginner,andhas

no businesson a speciahzationprogram

anyway-- andhe probably ives on

goory supplementsnsteadof real food --

and he doesn'tdo squatsand presses nd

deadliftsand stuff like that -- and he

trains for a pump instead of training for

strength-- and he trains with midget

weights -- andhe tries to FEEL every

rep -- and he's beenbrainwashed,and

did I mention thathe doesn't do squats

andpressesand deadlifts and stuff?"

I nodded.

"Yeah, you covered hat one," I

said.

"Well , it' s worth saying twice,"

said Mike. "Because hat's preffy much

where the whole problem starts."

'oI hought maybe t was because

he wasn't taking enoughMegabolic

Maxi-Mass Magic Muscle Mix," I toldhim.

I said t real serious,but sortof

casual,and kept my facereal serious,just to see he big guy's reaction.

In retrospect, hatwas abad

move. Mike ignored me,but Samcame

out of the gym office with his fangs

bared,growledmenacingly,and began

walking towards me the way a

prehistoriccave-wolf walked toward anice looking dinner of meaton thehoof.

"Tell him you were oking and

give him a puppy biscuit," saidMike.

'oIwas okiflEr" I said.

Samstopped.

"Here you gor"I added,and

tossedhim a puppy biscuit.

Samsnatchedt out of the air

and swallowed it in onegulp.

"He's not a fan of the Magic

MuscleMix, is he?" I asked.

Mike nodded.

"Not at all," he replied. oYou

should haveseenwhat happened he day

someguy came over trying to sell the

sfuff to our members."

Samsmiled and waggedhis tail.

He obviously enjoyed he memory.

"Well, what arcwe gonnado

about he kid?" I asked. He needs



t

help."

"He's a hardcase,"saidMike.

'oHeneedsanothercouple of weeks of

spinninghis wheels."

"What happenshen?""You'Il see,"he said.

So I satback and aid low for

almosta month, waiting to seewhat

rvould happen. did notice that the bags

under he kid's eyeskept gettingbigger

and darker.PreW soonhe looked ike he

was a taccooll.

GeorgeHackenschmidt

TIME TO TRY SOMETHINGNEW!

One duy, he kid slogged hrough

anotherof his four-hour arm-bhtzing

sessions, nd then sat on a gym bench

sippingsomething rom a thermos.

figured it was Magic Muscle Mix, but I

was afraid to ask.

Mike chose hat moment to stop

by.o'How'sit going,champ?"he

asked.The kid took anothersip of his

whatever-it-was-drink,swallowedquickly so he wouldn't taste he stuff,

and ookednp at Mike.

'Not so goodr" he said."The

programdoesn'tseem o be workingvery well."

o'That'stoo bad," saidMike.'oEspeciallywith that big contestcoming

up for you. The Mr. - what was it?"

The kid frowned."I guessmaybe '11have o wait a

few more yearsbeforeI enter t," he

said.

"Well , that's okay," saidMike.

"That givesyou more time for serious

training."

The kid noddedweakly.'oYeah, guessr"he said.

He almostsighedashe said t.

He looked so sad started o feel sorryfor him. Even Sam elt sorry for him. He

cameout and sat n front of the kid and

looked np at him with big brown puppy

eyes ull of concenl.

"Maybe you should change

thingsup a brt," saidMike.

"What do you mean?"asked hekid.

'oOh, ou know- maybetry anew program," saidMike.

The kid brightened."That's a good dea!"he said.

"Maybe I can switch from multi-angular

blast-mastercurls to power-pumpretro-gravity curls "

"That's oneoption," saidMike.

"Supersettedwith inverted ow-pulley tricepsextensions!"he kid

added. For 20 x20 - with 20 seconds

restbetweensets."



Samand both workedhard o mighty mpressed.keepq sftaight ace. haveno deahow Mike seized is advantage.Mike continuedo talk to the kid without "I happen o have a copyof itbreaking nto wild galesof laughter. right here," he said."But I have o warnMaybe t was because e felt sorry for you, this is a liule bit differentthan hehim. Or maybehe was hinkinghow programyou've been ollowing for themuch un it would be o show he kid pastcoupleof months. t uses omehow easyt was o build his arms and really new andexotic rainingprinciples.

the restof hisbody with thekind of Special tuffthatno oneelseknowsold-fashioned,ack o basics raining about.Special xercises,oo."Mike lovessomuch. "Like what?"askedhekid.

Evenso,he had o takea big "Like squats ndpressesndswig of coffee o fortiff himselfbefore deadlifts,"saidMike.he replied. n the meantime, tried to o'Neverheardof them," said hepicturewhat nverted ow-pulley triceps kid.

extensions ould ook like. Try as 'Trlot oo manypeoplehave,"might, couldn'tdo t. saidMike.

Sam ookedup expectantly. e "Specialexercises,"aid hekid.had seen his happen o many imes 'm "I like that."surehe ost count.You couldalmostsee "Yeah, hey workprettywell,"the wheels uming insidehis cunning saidMike. "The guysherehavehadcanine ranium: Here t comes!" greatsuccess ith them."

Mike took a deepbreath, "Whataboutyourspecialexhaled, nd ried to keephisvoice as trainingprinciples?" skedhe kid.casual spossible. By now, he sounded ownright

"How'd you ike to try the eager o getstarted n the newprogram.Mike's Gym arm outine?"he asked. "It's like the exercises,"aid"It's a special rogramor buildingbig Mike. "It's stuffyou probablyneverarms." heardof. They don't cover t in the

The kid's eyesopenedwide n magazinesouread."surprise. "Like what?"askedhe kid.

"You have a specialprogram or 'ol-ikehard work andheavy

buildingbig arms?"heasked. weights poundagerogression basic,Mike nodded. compound xercises dividedworkouts"Sure,"he said. But it's a secret - andabbreviatedraining,"saidMike.

progrum only for members f Mike's 'Don't forgetconcentrationnd

Gym." hardwork," I added.That caughthekid's attention "I saidhardwork," saidMike.

fast.The wordo'secret"is nearanddear "Thatwas he irst thing said.to the heartsof skinnyguysaround he "Well, yeah but addworld as hey desperatelyearchor concentration,oo."THE PROGRAM hat will transform Mike sighed.their bodies romtoothpickso "Okay,"hesaid.redwoods. He turnedback o thekid.

'o'Wow!" aid he kid. And by the "Add concentrationo ttre ist,"way hesaid t, you could ellhe was hesaid.

10



The kid noddedsagely."Concentrationcurls," he said.

"Got it.

Mike glaredat me. So did Sam.It was one of those"you're making thisdifficult and I'm not happyglares" thatMike and Sam sendme everyso often(like onceor twice a day).

GeorgeF. Jowett

I pretendedo be counting he weightson BubbaJohnson'ssquatbar. Bubba

had loaded he power bar until it startedto bend,so I figured counting heweightswould take long enough o getme out of trouble.

'Not concentration urls-

concentration! saidMike."What's that?"asked he kid."'We'11 over t Iater,"saidMike.I continued o counttheplateson

the bar.

Mike pulled a pieceof paperout

of his pocket,opened t up, and handed tto the kid.

"Here's theprogram)ohe said.The kid took it eagerly,and

quicklyread t from top to bottom. Thenhe went back and readrt again.

"Where are he curls?"he asked."And where'sthe tricepswork?"

Of course,Mike hadanticipatedthe questionand had an answerall readypackaged.

"This is the latestupdateonSwedishsomatotrophic yperboletraining,"he said. It's basedon thescientific principle of neuro-bio-quadro-

optimization."He pausedand et the big words

sink in.o'I'm

sureyou've heardof itr" headded. I know you reada lot about hisstuff."

The kid noddedavidly.'oYeah,hey say t beats

everythingelsehandsdown!" hesquealed.

"Right," saidMike. "And theway we do it hereat Mike's Gym, itreallydoes."

"Wow!" said he kid.He wasmesmetized.

But then he looked at theprogram againand frowned.

"But why don't I do any curls?"he asked.

'oMolecularefraction,"saidMike. o'Anyone

cando curls,but only atrue championbuilds his annsmolecularly."

The kid noddedslowly."That makessens r" he said.

Mike nodded.

'oYeah it' s the little stuff thatcounts,"he said. Squats,deadlifts,presses ndmolecular efraction.Theyal l go together."

The kid nodded.

1l



{

"That makessens r"he said.

"So here's he deal,"saidMike.

"Go take a shower, ake a coupleof days

off, and comeback on MondaYfor Your

first workout. Kubik and I will coachyou through t. We'll showyou exactly

what to do!"

"Including the specialsecret

exercises?"

Mike nodded.oolncludingthe specialsecret

exercises," e said.

THE KID'S FIRST WORKOUT

The kid cameback on MondaY,

ready o go. He lookedreal excitedabout

doing a specialsecret outine filled with

specialsecretexercises.

"Okay, sohere'swhat Youdo,"

saidMike. "Start by grabbingthatbat

over thereanddoing 10 or 12 fliP

snatches."

'oWhatare hose?"asked he kid.

"Let's haveKubik demonstrate,"

saidMike.I walked over to the bar, stood n

front of it as f I was going to perform a

deadlift, croucheddown, keePingmY

back flat, and grabbed he bar with a

wide grip.Not collar to collar,because

have shortartns,but pretty wide. I

pushed down with my legs,and slowlY

lifted the bar off the platforrn - and

snappedt up andoverheadwith a fast,

smoothmovement. heldit overhead or

a secondor two, lowered t back to the

platfo* andrepeatedhe movement.

fou do thosewith a wide grip,"

saidMike.

The kid nodded.

"Don't try to jerk the bar off the

platformr" saidMike. "You startslow

and accelerate ll the way. Make it

smooth."

The kid noddedagain.

"The flip snatch s strictlY a

wafin-up exerciser"saidMike. 'oDo hem

with a light weight and hit two setsof 12

reps.They'll makeyou puff and pant,

andget the blood moving throughyour

entirebody. And sinceyou use pretty

much everymuscle n your bodYwhen

you do them,they get your oints loose

and imber andready for the serious

stuff."

The kid did two setsof 12rePs

with a light weight. He started o do

someseriouspuffing andpanting before

he washalfivay throughthe first set.But

he finished his setsand askedwhat was

next.o'Indianclubs," saidMike.

"What do thosedo?" asked he

kid.

"They help loosenyour shoulders

and your upperback," saidMike. 'oMost

peoplearepretty tight there from all the

sitting they do - and from being in front

of a computerso much."o'Whataboutgoing to schooland

sitting in classall day?"asked he kid."That, too," saidMike.

"Especially f you havea reallyboring

professor."

The kid sighed.

"All of my professorsate

borin8," he said.

"What areyou studYing?"

asked.

"Communications,"said he kid,

glumly.

I madea mentalnoteto Passon

any CommunicationsCoursesf I ever

went back to CentralCity Junior College

for a seconddegree.

Meanwhile, Mike showed he kid

somebasicexerciseswith Indian clubs

andhad him drill them for a coupleof

minuttt.,

Ihat looks good," he said.

"How do you feel?'

L2



'oGood nd oose,"said he kid.

"'Warmedup and readyto go?"

askedMike.

"Yeah!"

"Okay, then, et's get going.

Your first real exercise s the military

press.We do a lot of them hereatMike's Gym."

"I neverheardof them," said hekid. "What do they build?"

"They build the shouldersand

the triceps,"said Mike. "And they makeyou strong. Really strotrg."

He had me show the kid how to

do presses. beganby cleaning hebar,

and henpressedt for five strict reps.No leg drive, no knee kick, no backbend- just five perfectreps,up and down, in

the military style that Mike alwaysrequires.

'oIdon't get it," said he kid.'oHowcan something ike thatbuild your

triceps?"

"A lot of people hink the

military press s the very best exercise

for the triceps," said Mike."Like who?"

"Well, like JohnMcCallum, for

one."

'Never heardof him."

"PearyRader, or another."oNeverheardof him, either."

"BradleyJ. Steiner.""Nope."

'oJohnGrimek.""That drawsa blank, too."

Mike pointedto 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

closerand staredat the photo for

something ike half a minute. Maybe

longer. f I'd been hinking,I would

have imed him. But whatever t was, t

wasa long time.

'oGeez" never saw anyone ike

that!" he said.

'No one has,unless hey saw

Grimek in his prime," saidMike.

"And he saidthat those

militarypress hingswere goodto do?"

Mike nodded.

"He always said they were the

very bestexercise or the triceps.And he

was seriousaboutdoing them, too. He

set a coupleof United Statesnational

records n the military press and came

darnclose o seffinga World record. He

couldpressclose o 300poundsat a

bodyweightof about 185 or so."

The kid noddedwithoutanswering.He was still staring at

Grimek'sphoto.

'oSowhat do you think?" askedMike.

"I'll do them!" thekid almost

shouted,and he ran back to the platfonn

so fast that Sam and I had to jump out of

the way.ooYou'regoingto do 5 x 5 on

your presses," aidMike. 'olnfact,you're going to do 5 x 5 on pretty much

everythingyou do."

"Why 5 x 5?" asked hekid. "Did

JohnGrimek do 5 x 5?"

'No, but Reg Park did," said

Mike.

"Reg who?"

Mike pointed to the gym wall

again.

"That EUyr" e 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 ike a stone statue or half a

minute or more.

'oThreeime Mr. Universe," said

Mike. "Best built man of his generation.

Strongasheck, oo. Pressed 00 pounds.

Benchpressed 00 pounds. n fact,he

13



I

was the secondman in the world to

benchpress500 pounds.Doug Hepburn

was the first."

The kid noddedabsent-mindedlY.

He didn't evenbother o askaboutDougHepbrlrrl.He just stoodand staredat the

photo of Reg Park.

And that'show Mike soldhim on

doing 5 x 5.

There are ots of different waYS

to do 5 x 5. Mike had the kid do one

that'sperfect for guyswho arerelatively

new to the lifting thing. He did two

progressivelyheavierwarm-up sets,

followed by three"working sets."Since

this was the kid's first real workout (the

silly stuff he hadbeendoingbefore

didn't count),Mike hadhim use ight

weights, so t was fairly easy or him to

get five repson all threeof his work sets.

Later ofl, ashe got stronger,he added

weight to the bar, and eventuallyhe had

to work preff hard to get those ive reps

on eachset. Sometimes e didn't make

it. When that happened,Mike madehim

stay at thatweight until he got the fivereps. When he did, he addedweight

again.

Mike explained hat adding

weight to the bar was an important paft

of the program. Of course, he kid said

he'd neverheardabout hat.Mike

explainedby showingbefore and after

photosof Reg Park,who went from a

tall, skinny beginnerwho could barely

handlethe empty barto a massivelY

muscled235 lb. Mr. Universewinner

who played Hercules n the moviesand

really looked the part- and who handled

heavierweights than ust aboutany other

bodybuilderof his era and who could

go head o headwith mostHeavyweight

weightlifterson squats, enchpress,

dumbbellpress,dumbbell ncline press,

bent over rowing and similar

movements.That soldthekid on the

importanceof addingweight to the bat.

The next exercisen the Programwas one of thebiggies- the squat.Now,

you may not believe it, but the kid

actuallysaidhe didn't want to do them!

He said thatleg training would tire him

out somuch that he wouldn't be ableto

do curls. I thought Mike would blow a

gasket, or sure,but the big guy took it

in stride.He explainedthatGrimek and

Park were both extremelystrong

squatters,and that both men alwayssaid

that the squatwas one of their favorite

(andmost important)exercises. he kid

took another ook at the Photosof

Grimek and Park, and once agarn,hewas sold.

JoeNordquest

Mike startedhim very light, and

taughthim to do full squats ight from

the get go. Mike prefers ull squatso

T4



t

parallel squats or anyonewho can

perform them safely.Of course, he

powerlifters at the gym do parallel

squatsbecause hat's what they do in

competition,and he Olympic lifters

alwaysdo fulI squatsbecause hey need

to be able to drop into the low squatposition to catch he weight when they

do squat cleansand squat snatches.

Here'san mportantnote.Doing

fuIl squatsmeansyou need o wear

Olympic lifting shoeswith a high heel so

you cansquat all the way down and keep

your back straight. f you do full squats

with a roundedback,you're asking for

trouble.Plus,you're not gettingnearlyasmuchbenefit from the exerciseasyou

would if you were doing them the right

way.

Older guysmay find it difficult

or impossible o do full squatssafely.

That's especially rue for guyswho have

done ots of heavyparallel squats.The

parallel squatswill actually tighten your

leg and hip musclesso that t becomes

very hard for you to do a full squat.YouCAN make the switch, but it takes ime

and patienceand ots of stretchingand

plenty of common sense raining. And

evenat that, or someguys t's just plain

impossible.So Mike treatseachof his

membersasa unique individual, and

helpshim perfect the best squat orm

that he can master which is parallel for

some ifters and full for others.

After the squats,Mike had the

kid do a single set of 20 breathittg

pulloverswith a pafuof light dumbbells.

Thesewerepurely for chestexpansion,

and the stretchwas the important thing,

so the weights were very light.

Next, the kid did the barbell

benchpress.Again, he did 5 x 5. Mike

madehim do the benchpresses trict,

with a pauseat the chest.Mike doesn't

allow dropping and bouncirg, raising the

hips or any other form of cheatingbenchpress.And he doesn'tallow that "spotter

grabs he bar and deadlifts t while thelifter pushesand hen the lifter claim she

did it all on hisown"

nonsense ouseein so many othergyms. If you bench

heavy n Mike's Gym, believe me, YOU

benchheavy. (Of course,you either

bench n a rack with pins to catch he barif you miss,or you use a spotter or

safety n caseyou miss.Never try

benchingheavy- or going for maximum

reps-- without a power rack or a

spotter.)

The kid didn't bother o

complainaboutdoing the benchpresses,but Mike still told him that they wereexcellent or building the triceps.He

also old him that he benchpresswasoneof RegPark's favorite exercises.(Grimek rarely did them- they were not

a big dealwhen he was lifting, and hepreferred he military press n any case.)

The kid followed the benchpress

with the barbell bent-over row.

Amazingly,he didn't questionwhatmust havebeena very novel andsurprisingmovement or him. If he had,

Mike would have old him how Reg

Park and Marvin Eder trained ogether

on bent over rows andpiled on weight

until the bar started o bend!

Mike taught the kid to perform

bent-overrowing with his kneesslightly

bent and his back flat. He pulled the bar

up along his thighs, close o his centerof

gravity, and finished with the barpresse against is lower abdomen.

Mike says hatyears 4go,manyinstructors aught doing the bent-over

row by pulling the bar up to the chest

while the lifter was positionedwith his

backat a 90 degreeangle i.e.,his backparallel o the floor). Mike says hat's a

tenible way to do rowing. You place

tremendousstrainon your lower back,

15



{

and you can'thandleanywherenear

enoughweight to build your lats and

other upperback muscles.

Mike made he kid do his rowing

with arm, shoulderand upper back

power alone no bobbing,no erking,

and no heaving. Nice and strict all the

way.And Mike madehim pausebriefly

in the finish position, and then lower the

bar slowly back to the startingposition.

'oDo hem strict or don't bother o

do themr" saidMike. 'oIt's not a bent

over power clean or an ugly looking sort

of high pull."

'oWhatare hose?"asked he kid.

"Thoseare heck, we'Il cover tanother ime," said Mike. 'oJust o the

rowing nice and strict."

The kid nodded,and did five sets

of five reps.

That ended he barbell portion of

the workout. Mike had him finish with

two setsof bent-legged it-upson a

slight incline (on a sit-up board),doing

about en repsper set,and curling his

body up into a ball nice and slow sothathe really worked his abs.Later, &she got

stronger,Mike had him do the exercise

with abarbell plate pressedagainsthis

forehead.

When the kid finished his

workout, he was coveredwith sweat

(and evenwith chalk, rvhich he had

neverusedbefore), andpanting ike a

race-horseafter a fast quarter-milewith

an overweighthippo as he ockey. He

was so tired he didn't evenbother o ask

when he was supposed o do his curls

and ricepspumpers.

Mike told him he had donegood,

to hit the showers, o go home and get

some ood, and o come back n 48 hours

for his next workout.

The kid nodded,wearily. He

looked so darn tired that I actually

wondered f he would comeback.

'Not to woff!," saidMike.o'He'11be back."

'oBecausee had a life-changing

experience y doing squatsandpresses

and stuff?" I asked.

Mike shookhis head.

'No, becauseSamswipedhis i-

pod while he was trainittg. The kid will

come back ooking for it."

I looked at Sam.He looked back

at me and grinnedwith satisfaction.The

i-pod lay next to his pillow.

THE KID'S SECONDWORKOUT

For his secondworkout, 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 setsup a

program or someone.Almost all of hisprograms nvolve two or three different

workouts: Workout A and Workout B,

or Workout A, Workout B and Workout

C. He calls t the "divided workout

system." guess hat's asgood a name

for it as anything else.But whateveryou

call it, rt works pretty darnwell. Many

guyswho nevergainedvery much

strengthand muscle doing the same otal

body workout three times per week have

OttoArco

T6



t

made gteat gainsby switching to a

dividedworkout schedule. I should

know - I'm oneof them!)

In his secondworkout - Workout

B - the kid beganwithtwo setsof 12reps n the cleanand press.Once again,

this was strictly for wanning up, sohe

used arcaIly light weight.

Mike had me demonstratehepower cleanfor the kid. You probably

know how to do it: stand n front of the

bar like you're going to do a deadlift,

keep he bar over the toes, egsbent,

anns straight, flat back, tight arch,push

the legs throughthe floor to get the bar

started,move the kneesback, keepthebar close o the legs (and ater, close o

the body), pop the hips forward as he

. bar passeshe knees and make t a

combined .g, back and hip movement

ratherthan a slow deadlift followed by a

cheat-style eversecurl the way so many

guysdo it. Be sure o keep he bar close

to thebody at the top. LIFT your elbows.

Do NOT reversecurl the bar - and never

let it swing out and away from the body.You loseall your leverageand all your

power if the bar swings out and away

from you.

Many well-intentioned writers

havesaid thatthe power clean s a good

arrnbuilder.Well,

it's not. It's a lousy

ann exercise and f you try to make it

an atmexercise, ou're doing it wrong.

It's not a reversegrip cheatcurl or a

reversegrip swinging curl or a reverse

grip anythirg, and t's not a deadlift

followed by an upright row. It's aleg,

back and hip movement,and that' s how

you need o do them.(Note: all of the

samepoints apply to high pulls. They are

a total body, all-out strengthand power

exercise,NOT an afiTr xercise,as so

many effoneouslybelieve )

Of course, n this programyou

do the power cleansonly asa wafin-up

exercise but do them theright w&y,

regardless

Next, the kid did more work with

the Indian Clubs. Someguys think

Indian Clubs aresilly, but they're wrong.It's really important o get those

shoulders ice and oosebeforeyou hit

the iron. Tight shoulderscan messup the

nerve mpulsesas hey run down the

arrnsand forearms- and that can make it

difficult or impossible o pack strength

and muscle nto your anns! (Remember

that sometimesa pinchednerve n the

neck or shoulderscan cause he atm

muscles o atrophy.Tight shouldersdo

the same hing, only in lessdramaticfashion.)

After his warrn-ups, he kid did

the standingalternatepresswith

dumbbells.Once again,Mike made me

demonstrate.You do this one by

cleaning he dumbbells o your

shoulders,standing all and looking

straightahe d- and thenpressing he

dumbbell in the right hand. As you lower

the dumbbell in your right handback toyour shoulder,you begin to press he

dumbbell n your left hand. t's right

hand, eft hand, right hand, eft hand, etc.

Do five presseswith eachhandand hen

lower the dumbbellsback to the floor.

"What kind of grip shouldI

use?"asked he kid - which was one of

the betterquestionshe has askedso far,

if you'rc paying attention o that sort of

thing.ooTheold-timers used o twist

their wrist so the palms of their hands

were facing eachother.That positions

the dumbbellsso the front of eachbell is

to your front and he back of eachbell is

to your rear.Your arrns and shoulders

are stronger n that position, and the

dumbbellsbalancebetter."

"So you can usemore weight,

right?" asked he kid.

I7



t

Mike nodded.

"That's rightr" he said.

He shotme a quick glance.The

kid was catchingon! (And after only one

workout.) This was beginning to lookpromising.

o'Moreweight is good, right?"

asked he kid.

"More weight is good," said

Mike."I thought it worked better to

pump up the muscleswith light

weights," said he kid. "That's what

everyonealwayssaYS. hat'swhatl

alwaysread.""That's what theYsaY,"said

Mike. "But it's a big Pile of horse

patties."

Dave Mayor

"What's that?" asked he kid.

Mike translated.

"Oh!" said he kid.

"Here's the way it reallY s," said

Mike. 'oYourmusclesaren'tjust big

chinksof solid tissue.They're actually

composedof millions andmillions of

muscle fibers. The musclefibers formlittle ropesall alongthe length of the

muscle.When you PumPYourmuscles

up, all you do is fill the atea n-between

the muscle iber ropeswith blood - and

when your workout is over the blood

goesaway, and you're right back where

you started. t's like a ballooll. You take

a balloon, and you blow it uP, and when

it's filled with ar rt getsmaYbe50 or

100 imesbigger thanwhenyou started.

But when you let the air out, the balloon

goes ight backto its original size.

Filling it full of hot air doesn'tmake he

balloon anybigger. It just stretchest for

a while. PumpingYourmuscleswith

blood doesn'tmake hem anybigget - it

just*'IT*l'ffi".[3:??:ffi::1f'pump up your muscles?"

"Because hat's what the muscle

magazines ave been eachingpeople fortheputt.:0 or 60 years,"saidMike.

Why did they start doing 7t?"

"Because hey were ooking for

somethingnew and different with a

catchyname.The factthat it was an

EASY way to train made t all the easier

to promote.Remember,herewas a time

*h.tr pretty much everyonewho trained

with weights did heavyweightlifting and

strength raining.They developedgreat

physiquesasa naturalby-product of

their strength raining. Latet on, more

peoplewere nterestedn bodybuilding-

in how they looked - than in

weightlifting, so the magazines atered

tohe':il|;l,ttr;*,nu,,,

Not manypeoPledo. Most

peoplehavebeenbrainwashed,andthey

never figure it out."

18



Well, I know what you're

thinking. You're wondering if Mike just

kept talking or whetherhe let the kid

finish his workout. I won't keepyou in

suspense.Mike let the kid finish his

workout. At Mike's Gym, lifters

ALWAYS finish their workout!

'oHowdo peopleeverfigure this

out?" asked he kid. o'Imeufl,how do

they un-washtheir brains?"

That was anothergood 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 he kid.He grabbeda pair of light

dumbbellsand hammeredout his first set

of alternatepresses.

'oThatwas good," saidMike.

The kid did a secondwarm-up

setwith heavier dumbbells,and then hit

his first "work" set. On the third or

fourth rep he started o dip a bit to the

side on each ep. When he finished he

set,he put the dumbbells down andlooked at Mike sheepishly.

"I did it wron5, didn't I?" he

asked.

'No, that's okay," saidMike. "In

fact, the old-timersused o call it the

see-saw ress.You're allowed o rock a

bit from side o side o get the dumbbells

up. Justbe sure o keepyour legs

locked."

The kid brightened.

"Got it!" he said.

After he finished his alternate

dumbbellpresses, e moved on to front

squats.Mike had me showhim the

crossedhandsway of doing them and

the regular w?y, where you keepyour

handsunder the bar andyour elbows up

- just like you were an Olympic lifter

performing a squat clean. Mike prefers

to have his guysuse he weightlifter's

grip, but he knows that some raineesarejust too stiff and too to do it. If that' s the

case,he has he guy work on his

flexibility, but let's him use he crossed

handsstyle sohe can still do front

squats. Or he hasthe guy do his wann-

up setswith the weightlifter grip andhis

heaviersetswith the bodybuilder grip

until the guy getshis flexibility wherehe

needs t to be.) Mike is a big fan of front

squats.He usuallyhas most of his

beginnersalternate hem with back

squats.Back squats n Workout A and

front squats n Workout B.

To do front squats heright w&y,

you need o keepyour torso in a straightup anddown position.If your back

rounds,you're doing themwrong.

Mike has everyonewho does

front squatsdo them full squatstyle,not

parallel. That meansall the way down to

the platfonn on every rep. If you were

doing them outside, t would be ass o

grass.

The only way to maintain an

upright posturewhen you go that deep sto wear the kind of liftitrg shoes hat

Olympic lifters wear (which is what

Mike prefershis lifters to do) or stand

with your heelson a 2 x 4 or a coupleof

thick barbellplates(the poor man's

option).

Anyhow, I demonstratedhe

front squats,and then the kid did his 5 x

5. He did aprettygood ob, too. Of

courso, deserveat least somecredit for

that since was demonstrating he

exercisesor him.

After the front squats,Mike had

the kid do incline dumbbellpresses.

Mike thinks that ncline dumbbell

presses re one of the very best chest

exercises ut there.They alsowork the

heck out of the shouldersand triceps.

Once again, he kid did 5 x 5.

For guyswho train at home and

t9



don't have an incline bench, he

dumbbell benchpress on a flat bench)

works pretfy well. And if a guy evergets

so strong hat he can't get the dumbbells

into the startingposition, he should try

the one affindumbbell incline pressor

the one arrrn umbbell benchpress.That

allowsyou to use wo hands o get the

dumbbell nto position.

I once askedMike if the

dumbbellfloor press or the onehand

dumbbellfloor press)would be okay if a

guy trained at home and didn't have a

bench.Mike said t would be fine, so

there's really no excusenot to include

this one n your program.After the dumbbell incline

presses,Mike had the kid do five setsof

pull-ups. The kid had no ann strength o

speakof, but he was light and skinny, so

he managed o get 5 reps on eachset n

reasonablygood form.

Mike had the kid do the pull-ups

with his handspronated,so his palms

were facing away from his chest.He

held the bar with his handsa little bitwider than shoulderwidth apart. asked

Mike why he preferreddoing them that

way insteadof with the palms facing the

chest i.e.,supinated rip, alWa he good,

old-fashioned chin-up"). Mike saidhe

wants the exercise o be a total upper

body pulling movement hatprovidesa

heavy oad for the biceps,NOT a pure

bicepsexercise.The chin-up s pretty

muchpurebicepsunlessyou're strong

enoughand advancedenough o do it

with your back arched andyour

shoulders ack,pulling yourseHupuntil

your chest ouches he bar.Mike knew

the kid wasn't strong enough o do that,

sohe hadhim stick to pull-ups.

If he had not beenable o do

pull-ups,Mike would havehad the kid

do pull-downsto the chestusing the

samegrip as f he were doingpull-ups,

or pull-downswith a specralbar hat let

him usea parallelgrip with the hands a

little wider than shoulderwidth apart.

Pull-upsare a betterexercise hanpull-

downs,but if you can't do them,

substitute he pull-downs. They'll work

fine. For guyswho train at home, the one

affn dumbbell row would be a good

substitute or pull-downs.

After the pull-ups, he kid did

anotherof Mike's favoriteexercises:he

bent-leggedTrap Bar deadlift.Mike is ahuge fan of the Trap Bar deadlift, and

hasmost of his beginners se he

exercisensteadof the deadliftwith a

straightbar. It's easier o learn he

proper positionsand he corect

movement, t's easieron theknees,hips

and ower back, and t's an excellent

strengthandmassbuilder.For many

guys, t's secondonly to the squatas a

strengthandmassbuilder - andfor some

Ivan Sanakov

20



t

men (often including older traineesor

very tall, 'olongand anky" lifters), it's

actually more effective than the squat.

Mike had the kid finish the

workout with two setsof leg raises.

Fifteenrepsper set.Mike told him that

as he got strongerhe would start o do

them on the sit-up board (with his head

at the top of the board,of course),and

thenhe'd progress o doing them with

ankle weightsor iron bootson his feet.

The eventualgoal was to work up to

hanging eg raiseson the chin-up bar -

which is a heck of a tough movement,

and a very effective*gut" exercise.)

Once again, he kid finished theworkout coveredwith chalk and sweat-

but he seemedo be enjoying himself.

Perhapshe was discovering hatreal

training is a heck of a lot more fun than

the pseudo-stuffhe had been doing

before.Anyhow, he wiped the sweat off

his facewith a towel, and askedwhat

was next. Mike told him to hit the

showersand comeback in 48 hours.

Before leavingthe gym, the kidpoppedhis head nto Mike's office.

"What will we do next time?" he

asked.

"'We'11 o back to Workout A,"

said Mike. "You'll alternateback andforth between he two of them for

awhile."

I was waiting for the kid to say,"But what about my arrn exercises?"

But he surprisedme.

"Cool!" he said.

And then he was gone.

"That was amaziflg," I said.o'You'reright," saidMike. "He

didn't saya word about hat missing -pod."

EugeneSandow

EATINGFOR STRENGTHAND

MUSCLE

Before I for get,let me coveranimportant topic very quickly. Diet and

nutrition for lifters. Don't worrlr, it

won't take ong. It's not too

complicated.

Mike told the kid to drop all the

aminoacid, mega-bolic,maxi-bolic

multi-bolic, nutri-bolic, super-bolicand

hyperbolicwhatchyamacallit' that he'd

beenchuggirg, and focus on eating

somegoodold-fashioned ood. And lots

of it. Mike knows that young guys can

gain like qary if they train the right way

andcombine t with plenty of good,

healthyfood. The emphasis hould be on

high quality protein.Me at, eggS,ish,

chickon,and furkey. For those who can

2T



digest t, milk, cheese, ottagecheese,

and yogurt. Add lots of freshgreen

veggies,some reshfruit, sweetpotatoes,

brown rice, whole grain bread,whole

grain pasta,andnuts, and you've prettywell coveredeverything.

Older guys aredifferent. Older

guysneed o focus on protein and fresh

veggies and not much else).This allows

them to gain musclewithout adding fat.

One of the big problemsthat guyshave

is thinking they can eat ike a teenager

even hough hey're40 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-meala day hing and trying to

gain 30 poundsof muscle n 30 days. t's

a classicexampleof how the stuff you

read n the musclemagswhenYou'te a

young guy stayswith you for your entire

life.

Oh, andwhateverYour?Ea,skiP

the unk food. You don't need hat stuff.

That includes anything madewith sugar

or high fructose corn syrup - anything

madewith white flour - any "fast foods"- and anythingmadewith hydrogenated

fats (alkla trans-fats).

I'11coverdiet andnutrition 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, andbefore forget.Don't

even hink about aking steroids. f Mike

hearsabout t, he'll sendSamafteryou.

THE MIKE' S GYM ARM ROUTINE:

LEVEL 1

When you put it all on Paper he

first part of the Mike's Gym ann routine

looks ike this:

WORKOUTA

1. Warm-up with LIGHT flip snatches2

x 10- 12, ollowed by Indian club drills

for five minutes

2.Mi l i tarypress5x5

3. Squat5 x 5

4. Benchpress5 x 55. Barbell bent-over owing 5 x 5

6. Bent-legged it-ups2 x 8 -I2

7.Hang from thick handledpull-up bat 1

x as ong aspossible

WORKOUTB

1.Warm-upwith LIGHT Powerclean

andpress2 x 10- 12, ollowed bY

Indian club drills for five minutes

2. Alternatedumbbellpress5 x 5 (5 reps

with eachann on eachset)

3. Front squats5 x 5

4.Incline dumbbellpress5 x 5

5.Pul l -ups5x5

6. Trap Bar deadlift 5 x 5

T.Legraises x 15

Remember, t's a three-daY-Per-

week schedule,NOT a four-ddY, ive-

day or six-dayper week split routine.

That dayof restbetweenworkouts isimportant.In fact, it' s one of the reasons

why the programworks sowell.

Remember, our musclesdon't grow

while you're training. TheYgrow

afterwardsl f you don't give yourself

enough ime for rest andrecuperation

after eachworkout, you're pretty much

wastingyour time.

THE RESULTS

Mike had the kid train on the

program threetimes a week for the next

12 weeks.He did onlY he exercises

listed.Nothing else.No curls,no triceps

pumpers not evenany closegrip bench

presses. nd no dips.Mike's not a big

fan of them.He's seen oo many lifters

hurt their shoulderdoing dips. It seems

to happen o everyonewho does hem

22



t

with addedweight, no matter how strong

they are,how much they enjoy doing

dips and how much the dip helpsthem.

Sooneror later it bitesthem- 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 andtriceps stuff. Mike

hasbeen droppittg his affin raining

routine on rookies for a long time now -

like more than twenty years- and the

guysusually cry and moan and fuss and

holler aboutnot doing curls and triceps

exercises, nd Mike has o tell them the

qaziest things to get them to keepthemon the program.He told onekid they had

to 'ooptimize he metabolic flushing

factors" before they could do any direct

arin work. He told anotherkid they were

using the "blitz-pump system from

Florida" to'.vasculartze he lobotomy"

before hey addedann exercises o theprogram.Thesewere whoppers,of

course,but when you're fighting against

muscle mag brainwashingandmainstreamsilliness,you have o take

strongmeasures.

But this time, all that was

necessary ereMike's initial references

to "Swedishsomatotrophic yperbole,""neuro-bi o quadro opti mization" and

[my personal avorite] molecular

refraction raining." After that,thekid

went along with the entire program

without any questionsat aII.Somaybe

times arechanging- or maybe kids arechanging. don't know. I just know the

kid came o the gym and trained ike

clockwork - and addedweight to the bar

whenever he could - and started o get

bigger and strongerand thicker so fast it

surprised ll of us.

You can guesswhat happened.

At the end of 12 weeks,Mike weighed

the kid and ook his measurements. e

had gaine 23 poundsof muscleandput

2 /, incheson his upper arns.

"This is amazing!" said he kid."I gained2 y2" on my arrns without even

training them!"

Mike laughed.

"You've acfually been doingplenty of work for your arrns,"he said.

"Like what?"'ol-ikeall thepressingexercises,

the rowing and the pull-ups. Thepressingexerciseswork the heck out of

your triceps,and the rowing and thepull-ups work the heck out of your

biceps, orearrnsandgrip."

"You mean I was training myannsand I didn't evenknow it?"

Mike nodded.otYep."

"I can'tbelieve t! " said he kid.

"I mean I can't believe t worked!"

Mike laughedagain.

'The Mike's Gym Arm Routine

alwaysworks!" he said.

READYFORMORE!

After he finishedthe first 12

weeksof 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 programwritten up

for you," I said."But I'm not surewhere

he left it."

Herman Gorner

23



"fs it in his office?"

"I don't know. He ust coPYa big

shipmentof old time lifting magazines

Strengthand Health back to the I930's

and I940's, Iron Man back o the 50'sand 50's, and someothergood stuff.

Mike andI are ndexing it all, and t's

scatteredall over the place right llow.

The office is a mess.We actuallY ost

Sam or a coupleof hours."

'oHowcouldyou loseSam?He's

the sizeof a small grizzly bear!"o'Idon't know how we did it, but

we did it. He wasburiedundera pile of

paperand stuff."

"How'd you find him?"

"Mike ordereda double

pepperonipizza and had it delivered o

the gym. Samdug his way out as soonas

it arcived."o'Hemust ike pizza."

"He does.And pepperonis his

favorite."

The kid nodded. knew it made

senseo him. It wouldn't makesensef

you didn't know aboutSamandhisworld-famous appetite or aboutMike

andhis gym and the way he runs it. But

afteryou've beenhereawhile, t all

makesperfect sense.You get a ton of

old magazines, ou pile themuP, Youlose Sam,you orderaprzza,andSam

suddenly appears.What could be simpler

than that?

"Well, tomoffow is mY workout

day.Ask Mike if he can find that

programfor me. Or maybe ust write up

somethingne'w."

"Will do!" I said,and went

backto the ob of catalogingand

indexingthe old magazines.Meanwhile,

Sam ay next to an empty Przzaboxat

the foot of the stuffed grtzzly bear n the

back of the gym. Aside from the corner

of Mike's office by his food dish, t's

probably his favorite spot n the entire

gym.

Mike came n anhour later and I

askedhim about he kid's next training

program.

"It'sright here," said he big guy.

"Somewhere."

He looked around he office and

scratched is head.

"Maybe it's in the deskdrawer."

I suggested.'Orsomewheren the filing

cabinet."'oIt'snot in the filing cabinet.All

I keep here s extrafood for Sam."

He looked at the desk.

"But maybe t's in there."

He walked over and opened hedrawer,rummagedaround,andPulledout amanila folder full of paperswith

variousplans, specsand raining

program scribbledonto them.He started

to flip through them rapidly.

"H.y, I forgot about his," he

said.

He pulled out a Pieceof PaPerand set t to the side.

'oWhat s it?" I asked.He handed t to me.

'oTake look," he said.

It was a dragramof the gym with

alargeX markedon thebackwall.

"What's that?" I asked. Is that

where they buried Jimmy Hoffa?"

Mike ignored he oke. He was

operating n seriousmode odaY.

"No, it's where 'm going to Puttwo chutes hat drop into an alligator

pit."

"What do you want with an

alhgatorpit?"

"It's for musclePumPersand

steroidpushers."

'No kidding? That's a great

idea!"o'Iknew you'd like it," saidMike.

"But th;.1e's neProblem."What's hat?Finding the

24



t

alligators?"o'No,

that'seasy. can't decide

whether to add a third chute for the guys

who write the superprogramsfor the

musclemags.They're gettingto be as

bad as anyone. n fact, they're probably

worse han the musclepumpers."

I lookedat the planscarefully.

'oIdon't think there's enough

room for a third chute," I said."Maybe

you should ust use one shoot or the

musclepumpersand the guyswho write

the superprograms."

Mike nodded.

'oYoumay be right," he said.

"Thatwould make t easieron the

alligators.They won't have to watch as

many chutes."

As he spoke,Mike rifled through

the file, scafferingpaperseverywhere. tlooked like ablizzard. I wondered fwe'd lose Sam again But before hathappened,Mike stopped,held up asinglesheetof paper,andsmiled.

"Here it is!" he exclaimed

triumphantly.

"What is it?" I asked.

"It' s the secondpart of theMike's Gym ann training routine!"

"Great!" I said. o'We'll e seeingthoseshredded uns n no time!"

Mike stoodup, walked over tohis filing cabinet,andgrabbeda big pile

of old Strengthand Health magazines.

He carried hem over and set hem downon the deskwhere I was sitting.

ooHereyou gor"he said."Read

two of theseevery four hoursand f youdon't feel better,call me in themorning."

THE MIKE' S GYM ARM ROUTINE:LEVEL TWO

The kid showedup right on timethe next day. This time, Mike didn'thaveto sayanythittgto convincehim totrain the Mike's Gym way. The kidalreadyknew that t worked.

Mike once againaskedme todemonstratehe exercises.t was easierthis time becausehe kid had a muchbetter deaof how to train, and because

many of the exerciseswere oneshe hadused n the first 12 weeksof theprogram.The main differencewas achange n the setsand reps.

Mike put the kid on anotherthree-day-per-weekrogram.He usesthree-day-per-weekrogramswith mostof his members,ncluding thepowerlifters, the Olympic lifters and theguys training for strongmancomps.And

if three-times-per-weekoesn'tseem obe working for someono,Mike usually

Andrew Passanant

25



hashim try twice a week workouts.For

someguys(especiallyolder guys) that

works really well. It goes o showyou

how important t is to get enough est

andrecovery in-betweenyour workouts.Mike hasa simple formulathat

sumsup his entiretraining philosophy in

just four words:

"Traino est,gfow, rePeat."

Pretty good, huh?

In this program,unlike the first

12 weeks,Mike actuallyhad the kid do

somedirect affn work. Not a lot of it, but

enough o give thebicepsand riceps

someseriousaction.Basic sfuff, of

course.No exotic super-duper urls and

no crazy tricepsexercises.'ll tell you

about it in a minute -- but first I want to

cover somethingvery imPortant.

Mike once old me an imPortant

secret. 'm going to share t with you

now - but remembet, t' s a secret,so

keep t underyour hat. Mike saidyou

could probably add a SMALL amountof

direct arrntraining to Level 1 of the

Mike's Gym ann training Programanddo fine. Nothing too extreme just three

or four setsof barbell curls in Workout

A andthreeor four setsof closegrip

benchpressesn Workout B. The reason

Mike saves he direct armwork for the

secondstageof theprogram s to show

the guys that they can ncrease heir arm

sizeENORMOUSLY (like a couPleof

inches)by training on nothing but basic

compoundexercisesikemilitary

presses,owiflg, benchpresses ndpull-

ups.It's an mportant esson o learn,

and for most guYS,he only way to learn

the lesson s to try the programand see

what happens.

Another reasonMike saves he

direct ann work for the secondpart of

the programis that he wantsto be sure

the guys devote I00% of their energy o

the really importantexercisesespecially

the squatsand deadlifts). f he tells a guy

it's okay to do a coupleof setsof curls

andclosegrip benchpresses,he next

thing you know, the guy takes t easyon

the big exercises ohe eanhandlemore

weight in the arm exercises or else he

workout suddenly ncludes10 or 12 sets

of arm exercises and hen 15 ot 20 sets

- and hen 20 or 30 sets andall of a

sudden he guy is back to doing nothing

but ann training.

Michael Salvane

And then here's easonNo. 3 for

saving he armwork until later.A

beginnerneeds o get strongerFAST in

the major compoundexercises. oo

many setsof bicepscurls can affect a

rookie's rowing and pull-ups (because

your bicepswill be too tired andsore or

maximum efforts), and too many triceps

pumperscan do the same hing to your

benchpressand your military press.

Now you know the secret.So fyou simply MUST do somedirect arm

work during the first 12 weeksof the

program,you can do it. But keeP t

simple:barbellor dumbbellcurls (one of

them,not both!), and closegrip bench

pressesasdescribed elow).And as or

sets,andreps, ry this: 3 ot 4 setsof 5

reps,starting ight and addingweight on

eachset soyou do ONE setwith Your

top weight.

26



And now - back to the workout.

As I said, t was a three-day-per-week

program,just the sameas before,but this

time therewere threedifferent workouts.

It looked ike this:

WORKOUTA

1. Warm-up with light flip snatches x

10- 12,IndianClub drills for 5 mins,

and ight cleanandpress or 2 x 10- 12

2.lMilitary press3 x 5 (progressively

heavierwann-up sets), ollowed by

5l4l3l2lI (addingweight as he reps are

lowered). Note: f 5l4l3l2lI is too tiring,

try 5l3lI for your heaviersets.)

3. Squats4 x 5 (progressivelyheavierwann-up sets), ollowed by 2 x 5 with

your working weight

4. Benchpress4 x 5 (progressively

heavierwann-up sets), ollowed by 2 x 5

with your working weight

5. Pull-ups5 x 5 (adda small amount of

weight after each set f you are able to

do so- otherwise,do 5 x 5 with

bodyweight) (Note: if you have access o

a thick handledpull-up bar andprefer touse that, hen do so- just be sureyou

canmanage ive repsper seton the thick

handledbar.)

6. Bent-leggedsit-upson sit-up board2

x 8 - 12 wrth extra weight resistance

7 Crush-stylegrippers3 x max reps

with eachhand

WORKOUTB

1. Warm-upwith light flip snatches x

10- Iz,Indian Club drills for 5 mins,

and ight cleanandpress or 2 x 10- 12

2. Dumbbell incline press6 x 5 (three

progressivelyheavierwarm-up setsand

three setswith your top weight)

3. Pull-ups6 x 5 (adda small amount of

weight after eachset f you areable o

do so- otherwise, do 6 x 5 with

bodyweight) (Note: if you have accesso

a thick handledpull-up bar andprefer to

use that, then do so- just be sureyou

can manage ive repsper seton the thick

handledbar.)

3. Closegrip benchpress5 x 5 (two

progressivelyheavierwaffn-up setsand

three setswith your working weight)

4. 4. Standingbarbell curls 5 x 5 (two

progressivelyheavierwarrn-upsetsand

three setswith your working weight)

6. Hangingknees o chest2 x 10 15

(Note: if you're strongenough o do

hanging eg raises,hendo 2 x 5 - 10.)

7. Pinch grip lifting - 5 progressively

heaviersingles,working up to your top

pinch grip lift, then drop back to about

70% of your top weight anddo a timedhold for as ong aspossible

WORKOUT C1. Warm-up with light flip snatches x

10 I2,Indian Club drills for 5 mins,

and ight cleanandpress or 2 x I0 - 12

2. Alternatedumbbellpress6 x 5 (four

progressivelyheavierwaffn-up setsand

two setswith your working weight)

3. Oneann dumbbell owing6 x 5 (four

progressivelyheavierwann-up setsand

two setswith your working weight)

4. Trap Bar deadlifts6 x 5 (four

CharlesPoire

27



progressivelyheavierwarm-up setsand

two setswith your working weigh|

5. Bent-legged it-upson sit-upboard2

x 8 - 12 with extraweight resistance

6. Thick bar deadliftswith doubleoverhandgnp 5 x 5 (start ight and add

weight on eachset) (Note: theseare a

grip exercise you alreadyhit your legs,

low back and hiPswith the TraPBar

deadlifts.)

EXERCISE PERFORMANCE TIPS

CURLS AND CLOSE GRIP BENCH

PRESSES

As I mentioned, he kid knew

how to do all of the exercises, nd only

requiredcoachingon the barbell curls,

the closegnp benchpress'and the grip

work. On the curls,Mike taughthim to

useSTRICT form. No cheating.Mike

says hat if there's one thing that 99% of

traineesdo wrong it's cheating n their

curls. And YeS,Mike knows all about

cheatcurls, andhe knows that

sometimesheYcanbe of benefit in a

training program for an ADVANCED

man - but he alsoknows thatthey're not

nearly asproductiveasstrict curls.Plus,

he knows that cheatcurls atea greatway

to hurt your lower back. So rnrhydo

them?'

I askedMike how the whole

cheatingcurl thing started,andhe told

me it gavethe magazinewriters

somethingnew and different to writeabout.He alsonoted thatcheatcurls are

an easysell to readersbecausehey let

them usemore weight than rnrhenhey

aredoing strict curls. So they can

pretend hey're getting stronger,when in

fact they're ust doing the exercise n

bad form.

Mike remembersa toP

bodybuilding champwho supposedlydid

10repsn the curl with 185

Pounds'

Now, by point of reference,he World

and Olympic Weightlifting champion n

the Hear-yweightclassat the time was

JohnDavis - anenonnouslypowerful

man who held ALL of the American,World and OlymPic records n the

Heaq4weightclass and who could

perform one-arrnchinswhile holding a

dumbbell in his otherhand.(I know, I

know, hard to believe for a

Hear-ryweight. ut I know a maflwho

saw Davis do a one-arrnchin while

holdin a 50-pounddumbbell in his

otherhand!)Davis oncedid someheavy

curls at alifting showwherehe appeared

as a specialguest ifter, and cgrled205

pounds n strict form. So the idea of a

bodybuilder who weighed far less han

Davis doing 10reps n the curl with 185

poundswas ust a little bit hard for

people o swallow.

In fact, one man was so upsetbY

it all that he wrote a letter to Strength

and Health in which he challenged he

bodybuilder to perform 10 curls with

185pounds N PUBLIC, with certifiedlifting officials countingthe reps.He

evenbet the bodybuilder a big chunk of

change hat he couldn't do it.

In response,he bodYbuilder

admitted hathe couldNoT do 10reps

in the curl with 185pounds.Those10

repshe was supposedo do were

CHEAT CURLS, not strict curls.

Mike oncesaid hat cheatcurls

are ike kissingyour kidsister,exceptno

onebragsaboutkissingtheir kid sister.

And no one shouldbrag aboutdoing

cheatcurls,either.

The closegriP benchPress

requires i6le explanatioll.Of course,

you do them strict, with no bounce.

Touch and go is okay,but don't bounce.

And don't arch,raiseyour hips or do any

of that kind of stuff.

fhe really imPortantthing s to

28



perfonn closegnp bencheswith your

handsust a little closer han shoulder

width apart.If you try to do the exercise

with your handsextremelyclose o each

other- or worse, touching eachother-

then you don't have any strengthat all

and you'll be limited to a very light

weight. And worse than that, f your grip

is too close t trvistsyour elbows nto an

unnafuralposition that can cause

extremelysoreelbows- andpossibly

even ead to tendonitis.Remember,

heavyann training is impossible f your

developelbow tendonitis so ALWAYS

use a grrp hat doesn'tover-stress our

elbows! (Evenon your warrn-upsets.That wann-up weight is more than heavy

enough o do damage f you do it with an

excessively losegrip

PROTECTNG YOURJONTS

A11of this brings me to another

importantpoint. Severalof them,

actually.They all relate o one of the

most mportant- but neglected aspects

of successful rm training.Protecting

your elbows.Something hatshouldbe

fundamental,but something hat is rarely

if ever discussedn arm training courses

or in articlesaboutaffn specialization.

And that's crazy, because ne of the

secretsof successfularm specialization

is training the armmuscleswithout

causingextrememuscular soreness, ore

elbows,"tennis elbow" or other forms of

tendonitis.Remember,soreelbows will

derail your arm raining faster han you

can S&y, Back to the drawing board!"

But guyshave a lot of questions hat

beardirectly on the whole issueof

avoidingelbowproblems. First,

many guysask f they can useanEZ curl

bar insteadof a straightbar. They say

that the straight bar rrcitatesheir elbows.

But they're reluctantto usethe EZ curl

bar becausehey think it's cheating,or

becausehey've read hat straightbarcurls are more effective. (Arthur Jones,

the inventor of the Nautilus equipment,

used o note thatyour biceps are n a

fully supinated ositionwhen you

perform straight bar curls, but are only

partially supinatedwhen you perforrn

EZ bar curls - sohe argued hat straight

bar curls aremore effective.)

Mike has a different answer.He

saysyou shoulduse whicheverbar feelsmore comfortableand allows you to

handlemoreweight.There'sno reason

to torture yourself with straightbar curls

if they hurt your elbows. Even if straight

bar curls really ARE more effective (and

that's debatable),hey lose heir

effectivenessf you develop nner elbow

tendonitisand can't train anymore.

Second,guysask f they canuse

anEZ curl bar for closegrip bench

presses.Once agarn,he answer s a

resoundingYES Use whatever raining

tools allow you to lift the most weight

without any muscle or oint pain.For

somemen, thatmeansusing a straight

bar for their closegrip benches for

others, t meansusing anEZ curl bar -

and or some, t meansusing a Log Bar

with aparullelgrip.

Mike oftenusesme as an

Bob Hoffman

29



exampleof the importanceof finding the

right bar for eachexercise. used o be

ableto use a straightbar for curls with

no problem,but as got older, he

straightbar curls started o hurt my innerelbows.so I triedusinganEZ curl bar. I

tried two or threedifferent EZ curl bars

and didn't like them at all. Then I found

an old, thick, verYheavy-dutyEZ curl

bar thathad unusually sharpangles

whereyou held the bar. This bar worked

GREAT for me! With it, I was ableto

work up to 185Pounds or five rePs n

the STRICT curl - which is pretty darn

good.And it neverhurt mYelbows.

On closegriPbenchPresses,

was ableto use an OlYmPicbar and

work up to 295 or 305pounds or 5 reps

- but I preferredusing the samesharply

angle EZ curl bar, and did most of mY

closegrip training with thatbar. I

worked up to 320 Pounds or 5 rePs n

the closegrip benchpresswith that bat.

And once agarn,othet EZ curl barswith

a different angledon't work nearly as

well for me. So everyone s different,

and everyoneneeds o find exactly the

right barsand other equipment or his or

her particularbody. Your elbowswill

thank you for it.

Third, train YourtricePs he

Mike's Gym way - with closegriP

benchpresses,egularbenchpresses'

andmilitary presses. he Frenchpresses,

tricepsextensionsand skull-crushersall

twist your artns nto unnafuralpositions,and hey all exposeyour elbow oints to

the risk of severe njury or crippling

tendonitis. (WhV do you think so many

guys who handleheavyweights in the

skull-crusherexercisewear rubberwraps

on their elbowsor wraPthem with

powerlifter-stylekneewraps? t's

becauseheir elbows areeither njured or

on the point of being injured every time

they train.)

Fourth, skiP he Preacherbench

curls.They're ust too hard on your inner

elbows.That bottom position whereyour

arrn is extended againstweight

resistances an elbow killer. And theywill NOT 'olengthen" our biceps'as

many believe.The only way to lengthen

your bicepswould be to have surgery o

reafrachhe muscle ower down - and

that'snot somethingyou everwant to

do.

Fifth, skiPthe curling machines'

They're evenworse hanthe preacher

benchcurls. n fact, theYcancause

severe endonitis n just a coupleof

workouts - I know because did it once

when I was young and foolish. (That was

back n my BMG Days- BeforeMike's

Gym.)Sixth, skiP he wide grip curls

and the naffow grip curls. They place

tremendousensionon Your nner

elbowsandwrists. (The wide grip curl is

especiallyroublesome.) es, I know

they look like fun, and I know that many

top champssweat bY them - butseriously,you onlYhaveone setof

elbows,andyou don't want to abuse

them.

Seventh,droP he reversecurls'

We used o do them a lot when we were

younger,but Mike's PrettYmuch

dropped hem now. They end up causing

tenniselbow for too many guys.The

problem,once again,s the twisted

positioll. Itjust

torqueshe heck out of

your inner elbows.

Point 1lo.eight -- if barbell curls

hurt your elbows,use dumbbell curls

instead.Find an angleand a tangeof

motion that feelsokay,and stick to it.

For some ifters (especiallyolder ifters),

the hammercurl with dumbbells i.e., a

30



t

dumbbell curl holding the dumbbells

with the thumbs-up,as f you were

holding a hammer) s the bestway to go.

Indeed, or older lifters it may be the

only curling exercise hat doesn'tcausejoint pain.

Finally, if you want to do thick

bar curls, startslow and ight and work

up carefully. Thick bar curls work the

heck out of your tendonsand igaments,

and you need o break into them very

carefully. (The samegoes or anyother

thick bar exercises. hick bars are

terrific training tools,but you need o

use them wisely and ntelligently. Train

with your brain, not your ego.)And ifyou do try thick bar curls, try a 1 Yz"or

2" thick bar.Unlessyou have really

largehands a thrckerbar is going to be

very difficult for heavy curls.

And since we'rc talking about

the importanceof protectingyour oints,

let me note that two of the mostpopular

arrr'exerciseswill causeshoulder

problemsfor a very high percentageof

lifters. One of them is the paralleldip.As I've alreadynoted, t' s a very popular

exercise and t works great or some

guys- but it leads o shoulderproblems

for many guys.And the funny thing is, a

guy can train on dips with goodresults

for a long time, andthen all of a sudden

WHAM! Somethinggoeswrong, and

one badrep causes roblems hat may

take weeksor monthsto heal.Or it may

causeproblems hat nevergo away.

The other exercise s thepress

behindneck. t's a classicold-school

exercise,andmany respected uthorities

havetaught it in their books, articlesand

courses but it can really hurt your

shoulders.Military presses nd dumbbell

presses remuch safer - so skip the

behind he neckpresses, nd stick to the

safer and ust as effective)pressing

movements.

If you think about t, virtually all

of the arm specializationcoursesand

articleswritten over the past 100years

have ncluded too many different

exercises, erformed or too many

different setsand reps,and hey've also

includedexercises hat end to cause

elbowproblems.Most arm raining

routineshave severaldifferent types of

curls and severaldifferent triceps

exercisesn them (presumably,o give

the trainee amaximum pump and to "hit

the muscles rom all possibleangles").

The problemis, if you do anumberof

different ann exercises hat someone

elsehas selectedor you, the odds aregoodthat one or more of them is going

to be bad for your particular body

structure.As a direct result, many arrn

speciahzationprogramsdo little more

than leadto sore shouldersand sore

elbows for the guys that follow them. In

fact, f you ever wrote a book on the

history of arm speciahzation outines,

you could call it: "A History of Elbow

and ShoulderWrecking Programs."It makes ar more senseo build

your anns by training hard andheavy on

one or two exercises hat you know from

experiencework well for YOU - and on

exerciseshat do NOT cause ou pain or

discomfort.Rather han try to work your

anns from all possibleangles, ou

should work your anns ONLY with

exerciseshat don't causeproblems or

you.

Remember, t doesn'tmatter f

somemassivelymuscledchampion or

a massivelymuscledguy who happens

to train at your gym -- says o use a

particularexercise. f it works for him,

fine. But if it HURTS YOU, DROP IT!

Find anotherexercise hatdoesn'thurt

when you do it.

Of course,no matter what

exercises ou select,you can still hurt

32



yourself if you skip your wann-ups or ifyou do too many setsand reps.Always

take the time to warm-up with

progressivelyheaviersetsbefore

tackling heary curls or heavy closegnp

benchpresses.And pleasenote that he 5

x 5 system or a similar set/repsystem

will allow you to train your muscles

without overworkittg your joints. That's

one of the reasons hat Mike uses he 5 x

5 system and similar set/repschemes)n

his training programs.

And one other thing. Heavy

singles.They work gteat or many

exercises for an advancedman who has

built up to them with sensible, ow reptraining), but they're not asgood for ann

training. For presses,hey're fine (for an

advancedman). For curls and closegrip

benchpresses, ot so good.So follow

the set/repschemesn this course.

EXERCISE PERFORMANCE TIPS

GRIP WORK

The kid's grip work waspretty

basic stuff, but Mike and I coachedhim

throughthe exerciseso help him

squeezeevery ast drop of goodresults

from them. Grip work is one of the many

aspectsof 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 ong as t's strong enough hat

you hit muscular failure in no more than

15 reps. f your gnpper isn't strong

enough,you have hree options:(1) buy

a strongergnpper (order from John

Wood at

www. functionalhandstrength.om), or

(2) begin the setby squeezing nd

holding the grippershutfor 10- 30

seconds,and then do your repsafter you

have "pre-exhausted"your gripping

muscles,or (3) hold the grippershutfor

5 - 10 seconds n each ep.

If you have severaldifferentgrippers,you can do one setwith the

easiestone,and thenwork your way up

to hardergrippersfor the secondandthird sets.

You can do your pinch grip

lifting with a pinch grip block or with a

barbellplate. f you use a plate,use a

smooth exerciseplatewith no rim, not

an Olympic plate.Depending on your

equipment,you can work onehand at a

time or two hands at a time.

The thick bar double overhand

deadliftswork the heck out of yourfingers and thumbs.Many guys are

concerned ecausehey can't use heir

regular deadlift poundagesn this

exercise.That'sbecauset's a GRIP

exercise,not aleg, hip and ower back

movement.You train your legs, hips and

lower back with the Trap bar deadlifts

that comebefore his movement.

If you do your grip training right,

your handsand fingerswill be fried

when you're finished. So alwaysdo yourgrip work at the end of the workout.

By the w&y,Reg Park and John

Grimek both had massive oreanns and

incredibly powerful grips.Thesemen are

clearproof thatgrip trainingplays an

important part in building Herculean

upper afins.

Edward Aston

33



JohnGrimek

THE KID'S RESULTS

The kid trainedhard for the next12 weeks,andalways ried to add weightto the bar on all of his differentexercises. nd at the endof 12 weeks,he had packedanother14poundsofmuscleonto his frame,and added1 y2,,

inches o eachof his upperanns.Thatmadea total of 37 poundsof muscleand4" to the kid's upperanns all of it injust 24 shortweeks.Not bad for six

month'sof training.Many beginnerswill gain ust as

fast.Somewill gain even aster.That'sespecially rue for guyswho arestartingout at the same ime they hit their"growirg phase)) the one whereteenagers leepso much, eatso muchandsuddenlyend up many inches allerandmanypoundsof muscleheavier,all

asa resultof their body having reachedthe "GROW STAGE" where

hey movefrom boy to man and heir glandsandhormonesareworking overtime o keepthem n "grow mode."

Older traineesand raineeswhohavebeen ifting for awhile will gainmore slowly - but everyonewho worksthrough the fuIl l2-week cycle for LevelOne and he l2-week cycle for LevelTwo of the Mike's Gym armroutineshouldbe able o add l0 poundsof

muscleandan nch on his upperarms.It's a greatprogram- and f yOU worktheprogramwill WORK!

Now if you really want to gowhole hog on the big arrns hing, thendothis.Follow the programexactlyaswritten, going throughboth levelsoneright after the other.After that,take 12weeksand follow an all-aroundprogramof your choicefiust be sure t's a Dino-

styleprograms, .e., something hatMike



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

leastonceper year.And if you think

you're readY or rt, ry the Level 3

Program or !2weeks everyyear'(The

Level 3 Program s outlined in the next

sectionof the course.)Aftef a few years,

your annswill be sothick andpowerful

that you'll be able o get a ob doubling

as he gorilla atthe ocal zoo.

Now, You might wonder what thekid decided o do next.Heck, f you've

beenpaying attention,you might even

wonder if he everentered hat Inter-

GalacticMega-Musclecontesthe was

babbling aboutwhen he first showedup

at Mike's Gym. The answers'No'" In

fact,he never evenmentioned he silly

thing. At least, neverheardhim

mention it. But he did do someother

stuff thatwasprobably more impressive.

I'll tell you about t the next time Mike

asksme to write somethingup abouthis

special raining programsand training

methods.You alsomight be wondering

about he kid's i-pod, and whetherSam

ever gave t back. It turns out that the i-

pod had gottenbroken, and the kid |eft it-on

the floor in the locker room. That was

where Sam saw t. SoMike and were

wrong. Samdidn't swipe t - he found it.

When Mike learned he real story,he felt

bad for having suspected is four-legged

buddy of cunning canine hievery (even

if it was - we thought- for a good

cause).So he ordere a doubledeluxe

pepperoniPvzafrom Sam's avorite

priruplace. A very cutepizzadelivery

girt biought it over, and shemadea big

fussaboutSamand scratched is ears

and saidhe was othecutestpuppy dog

shehad ever seen,"and thatmade it

extraspecial or him.

So once again, hings areback to

nonnal atMike's Gym. Sam s enjoyinga doubledeluxepepperoniprzza, he

guys arestandingatthe window and

staring atthe pizza delivery girl asshe

walks back to her car,Mike is working

on revisedplansfor his alhgatorpit, and

I'm hitting the keyboardto put it all on

paper. And of course'we haveYet

anothermemberof the Gym who made

greatgainswith the Mike's GYm arm

routine.That's beenhappeningor a

heck of a lot of yearsnow. I guessyou

could say hat some hingsneverchange.

THE MIKE' S GYM ARM ROUTINE:

LEVEL THREE

Note bY Mike: Once agarn,

Kubik got most of it right. He onlY

misse a coupleof importantpoints'

Mainly, the entireLevel Threeof the

Mike's Gym Arm Routille. of course, n

Kubik's defense,he kid hasn't done he

programyet. But rnrhen e does which

I imaginewill be in about wo years-

he'll makeevenmore greatgains'

Level Threeof the Mike's GYm

Arm Routine is ONLY for advanced

lifters who havebeen hroughat least

two completecyclesof Level One and

Level Two of theroutine.It looks more

like a conventional arm raining programthan Levels One and Two. But there are

some mportantdifferences.You'll see

them wfren I outline the routine for you.

You follow another hree-daY-

per-week outine.The secondworkout

of the week (Workout B) will be Your

afin training day.

WORKOUTA

1. Warm-upwith light flip snatches2 x

35



10 lz,Indian Club drills for 5 mins,

and ight cleanand press or 2 x I0 - 12

z.M7litary press5 x 5 (progressively

heaviersetsworking up to one top set

for five reps), ollowed bY 1 x 3 and 1 x1 (addingweight on eachset)*

3. Back squator front squat5 x 5

(progressivelyheavier setsworking up

to one top set or five reps), ollowed by

1 x 3 and 1 x 1 (adding weight on each

set)*

4. Bent-legged it-upson inclineboardz

x 8 --I2 (with extraweight resistance)

5. Crush style grippers 3 x max reps(at

least ive, but not morethan 15rePs)* Finish with a heavy singlebut NOT a

maximum single.

WORKOUTB


10 Iz,Indian Club drills for 5 mins,


2. Alternatedumbbell press6 x 5 (four

progressivelyheaviersets, ollowed by 2

x 5 with your top weight)

3. Barbell curls (progressivelyheavier

setsworking up to one top set for five

reps), ollowedby 1 x 3 and 1 x 1

(addingweight on eachset)*

4. Closegrip benchpress progtessively

heaviersetsworking up to one top set

for five reps), ollowed bY 1 x 3 and 1 x

1 (adding weight on eachset)*

5. Dumbbell hammercurl 5 x 5

(progressivelyheaviersetsworking up

to one top set for five rePs)4. Pinch grip lifting 5 - 7 progressively

heaviersingles*

* Finish with a heavy singlebut NOT a

maximum single.

WORKOUT C


10- lz,Indian Club drills for 5 mins,


first set, hen using extraweight -

perfonn progressivelyheaviersets

working up to one top set for five reps)*

3. Benchpress,nclinebarbellpress,

dumbbell benchpress or dumbbellincline press progressivelyheaviersets

working up to one top set for five reps),

followedby I x 3 and 1 x 1 (adding

weight on eachset)*

4. Bent leggeddeadliftsor TraPBar

deadlifts5 x 5 (progressivelyheavier

setsworking up to one top set for five

reps), ollowed bY 1 x 3 and 1 x 1

(adding weight on eachset)*

5.Hanging egraises x 8 - 15

* Finish with a heavy singlebut NOT a

maximum single.** Use5 x 5, 1 x 3 and1 x 1 fyou

perfofin benchpresses r incline presses

with abarbell. f you usedumbbells,

perform 6 x 5 (4 progressivelyheavier

wann-up sets, ollowed bY 2 x 5 with

your top weight). If you usebarbellsand

finish with a singlereP,finish with a

heavy weight but NOT a maximum

single.

THE WRAP-UP

That covers he Mike's GYm arcrr

training routine. If you like it, ordet a

pepperoniprzza or Sam,and ask f

"Mandy" candeliver it to the gym. She's

the hottie that thinks Sam s so darn

cute!

Other than that,there's nothingleft to say other han good uck, good

training, andkeePus Postedon Your

results!You know how to reachme -

it's [email protected] - and f you

want to dropMike anote (or askhim a

question), end t to me and 'l l pass t

along.

Documents

Dinosaur Arm Training