I was Iron Man magazine’s editor in chief for 27 years, and for 20 of those I worked out with our advertising coordinator Jonathan Lawson, who was about 15 years my junior.
But youth wasn’t the only thing he had over me from a bodybuilding perspective. He was also much more genetically gifted, definitely in the mesomorph camp. I was a stringy ectomorph with a toe in the meso pool—the little toe.
We trained together in the well-equipped warehouse gym, dubbed the Iron Man Training & Research Center. No one else was ever in there—we had a lot of lazy employees—so we had the run of the place.
That made it easy to experiment, and Jonathan was a willing guinea pig who never complained about any of my training ideas—although I think I detected an eye-roll or two. Still, he never complained…
It was great fun, despite the pain of going to failure on every set (not recommended) and injuries from trying to go too heavy on crappy exercises (it’s best to emphasize the ideal ones in Old Man, Young Muscle instead)…
Still, it was quite a learning experience. The major difficulty was creating workouts that worked well for both of us. While I responded to higher reps, he preferred lower reps.
Each of our dominant fiber types had a lot to do with that. Some studies verify the dominant-fiber-type theory, others say it doesn’t matter. What I do know is…
He had loads of fast-twitch fibers, so he could throw around some impressive weights. My distance-runner genes had me grinding with only moderate poundages, although I was an excellent squatter due to good leverage factors and strong glutes.
Jonathan’s back and arms were his best body parts. He could hit a back shot that rivaled Arnold’s, even though his ripped bodyweight was around 200 at 5’11”. Check out this back double-biceps pose—no drugs (he’s lifetime drug-free), no photo manipulation…
The main thing I observed training with him, other than I have relatives who were human dental floss, was that while bodybuilders need a variety of rep ranges, it appears that your dominant type should guide your dominant rep range at most of your workouts….
For example, toward the end of our tenure at IM, when we were using an early version of the STX method in Old Man, Young Muscle, his reps would be 20-9-8-6. And on most exercises he added weight on each set, even with shorter rests.
For me, I made my best progress with 20-15-10-8. And I usually didn’t add weight. The limiting factor for me seemed to be my reduced amount of fast-twitch fibers.
Again, studies are mixed on this conclusion—maybe Jonathan is just a wuss and can’t handle the pain of higher reps so he didn’t try as hard. Kidding, although there may be a psychological component affecting the ability to continue to engage the target muscle in different rep ranges…
Also, as I mentioned, we used lots of inefficient exercises, not the biomechanically correct “ideal” ones recommended by 2019 Drug-Free Mr. Universe Doug Brignole, the ones emphasized in the OMYM workouts…
It would’ve been very cool to have known what I know now and relied on those back then. I’m convinced our size would’ve surged ahead much faster.
But on the bright side, it’s making it much easier to stay in good shape as I age—without any joint pain—using my OMYM 35-minute workouts three days a week to keep a muscular physique. Here’s a recent photo taken a few weeks ago…
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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