Don’t judge a look when it’s covered. Someone can appear fairly average in clothes, especially drug-free bodybuilders—lean and fit. But when the shirt comes off, they can look 20 pounds heavier and ripped.
Jonathan, who works with me on this newsletter, is a classic case. At 5’11”, he would rip up at 190-ish pounds. And around the Iron Man offices, he looked like most other employees, at least the fit ones…
Then when we trained in the warehouse gym, and he took off his shirt and hit a pose, I was stunned. Arnold-esque—and, of course, I took a lot of the credit since I designed our workouts…
Another classic case is Frank Zane, who won the Mr. Olympia weighing around 185 pounds at 5’9”.
In clothes, he looked fit—without clothes, holy shit! Check out the pics below. Looking fit in clothes, and then on the right how Frank shows up at your door to carve the Thanksgiving turkey.
Even today his physique is considered ideal by just about anyone who sees it—me included…
Something to strive for. Of course, I don’t have his genetic structure. Plus, I’m 62 years old. Delusional? Maybe, but it keeps me training…
If you have a burning desire, you may be able to sculpt something exceptional. Perhaps you can create a physique along the lines of Zane. Who knows?
Keep pushing. Even if you never get there, you’ll look and feel great. Plus, weight training is one of the best activities for staying healthy—if you do it right…
And if you want to be a gargoyle competing against other mass monsters, more power to you. Just keep in mind that it will take a lot of time, extreme discipline, super genetics, and, um, “special supplements.”
For me, “Built for Life” is now my mantra. I’m satisfied with good health, looking fit in clothes, and turning a few heads at the pool or beach…
So right now I invest 35 to 45 minutes to weight training three days a week—and I’m more than happy with my physique.
If you use my efficient ideal-exercise workouts, you can probably look as good as I do or even better, genetics willing—with minimal time in the gym. Remember, I made the above transformation in a bare-bones home gym with less than two hours of weight training a week (for workouts and details, see the new ebook)…
If you want to be bigger, you can add volume to my workouts. Up your sets to up your mass. As hypertrophy researcher Brad Schoenfeld, Ph.D., said…
A clear dose-response relationship was noted between volume and hypertrophy—that is, higher volumes correlate to greater hypertrophic adaptations, at least up to a point.
Chapter 8 in Old Man, Young Muscle is “Volumize to Pack on Muscle Size.” I explain how you can pump up the volume to get bigger—again, up to a point.
If you never get massive, don’t let it depress you or ruin your life. Heck, most people prefer sleeker, aesthetic builds—like my wife…
I showed her Zane’s pic with the sword. Her comment: “I’d let him carve my turkey.” Wait, what?
New: Get the ideal exercise for each muscle, the best add-on moves for ultimate mass, complete 35-minute workouts, exercise start/finish photos and details on building muscle fast and efficiently in Old Man, Young Muscle.
And you still get The Muscle-On, Belly-Gone “Diet” ebook FREE for a limited time when you add Old Man, Young Muscle to your mass-building library. Go HERE.
Till next time, train hard—and smart—for BIG results.
Steve Holman
Former Editor in Chief, Iron Man Magazine
www.X-Rep.com
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