This is the continuation of a story Arthur Jones, inventor of Nautilus machines, relayed on the subject of muscle gain, overtraining, and recovery in the February/March 1972 issue of Muscle Training Illustrated.
We left off with him deciding to reduce his previous training to two sets to failure of 12 basic exercises to “maintain” his gains. He made that change because he thought he had reached his genetic potential—but he quickly packed on an additional 10 pounds over his previous best.
He said he learned a lesson: previously he had been training too much, his training using up all of his recovery ability, and there was nothing left for growth. After a forced layoff due to business, he resumed his training—and this time he reduced it even more…
“I used only two sets of eight basic exercises—a total of only 16 sets in each of three weekly workouts, exactly a third as much training as I had used previously.
“This time around I gained 20 pounds in seven weeks, added exactly 2 1/2 inches to the measurement of my arms, now 16 1/2 inches “cold”—1 1/8 inches beyond my old sticking point and 5/8 of an inch beyond the temporary “best” that I had reached very briefly a year earlier just after reducing the amount of training.
“Another year went by with no training at all, and then I had the opportunity to start again; this time I exactly duplicated my fast gains of the previous year and then continued to gain far beyond my previous “best”—less than 10 weeks after I started training, my arms were 17 1/8 inches at a rock-solid bodyweight of 205 pounds.
If I had a bit of fat on me anywhere, it must’ve been between my ears—because there was none visible on my body; and, to be perfectly truthful, I certainly felt like I had some fat between my ears—since that was the only rational explanation I could find for my own previous stupidity, for having worked myself into the ground for nothing, for having worked so much that I literally made gains impossible beyond a certain size.
“Nor did it reduce my feeling of stupidity to realize—as I was forced to—that I had made the same mistake several times; but, stupid or not, I had finally discovered the “secret”—if only, as happened to be the case, literally by accident. And for the benefit of people who have been raised on a diet of lies about 20-inch arms, I will mention that the above measurements were accurate—my 17 1/8-inch arm would come out to at least 19 by today’s measurements; but in those days, we didn’t cut the first two inches off the end of the tape or pre-shrink it or include our neck in the measurement.”
Jones did not reveal his age as his training evolved; however, he has mentioned that he made his best muscle gains in his late 30s.
Again, each individual has a unique capacity for exercise. You may be able to tolerate more work and intensity or less. I’ve mentioned that a recent meta-analysis gave a loose prescription on volume for optimal muscle-growth stimulation…
According to Richard Winett, Ph.D., a recent joining together of experts from multiple countries looked at empirical studies and systematic reviews on muscle hypertrophy. Here is their conclusion on volume…
“A dose of approximately 10 sets per muscle per week would seem to be a general minimum prescription to optimize hypertrophy, although some individuals may demonstrate a substantial hypertrophic response on somewhat lower volumes.” (IUSCA)
No mention of whether those 10 sets, five per muscle twice a week, were all to muscular failure. And no mention of compound, or multi-joint exercises vs. isolation. Obviously, compound moves, as most of Jones were, would take a huge energy cost, a big reason he wasn’t recovering.
Another question: Would using the ideal exercises, which are more biomechanically precise at training each muscle optimally, allow you to reduce the set total, leaving more recovery ability to accelerate growth?
For example, during my muscular transformation last summer, I was emphasizing those ideal exercises, as prescribed by Mr. Universe and biomechanics expert Doug Brignole.
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
Recommended
No More Shoulder Pain!
Shoulder pain can affect your workouts forever. That’s not good!
That’s why we’re recommending advice from injury specialist Rick Kaselj, MS. His tips can help make your shoulders nearly bullet-proof.
Here are a few general tips from Rick (he goes into more detail in his program)…
Top 5 Tips To Bullet-Proof Your Shoulders
- Build Tension in Your Lats. When doing shoulder exercises, activate your lats and keep your shoulders happy.
- Prime Up Your Muscles. Most people do a warm-up that just lubricates the joint, but you need to activate and turn on all the muscles in your upper body.
- Technique, Technique, Technique. This is the number one reason why people injure their shoulders. You can’t go to the gym every day and work on your max lift.
- Watch Out for Fatigue. Cooking your smaller muscles in your shoulder complex, and that increases the risk of shoulder injury and pain.
- Work on Your Shoulder Blade Muscles. Many strength coaches will say you’re wasting your time on this, but if you want to have bullet-proof shoulders, you need to work on them.
Get all of Rick’s tips and tricks for pain-free workouts below: