I interviewed Mr. America Doug Brignole for Iron Man magazine back in the early 2000s. The interview and his workout at that time was reprinted in the The Ultimate Power-Density Mass Workout 2.0 ebook in 2008. He was 53 at that time (Michael Neveux photo)…
Doug had not figured out all of the “ideal” exercises yet, but he was using only one exercise per muscle, trying to zero in on the ideals…
In the interview, he mentions that he looks for exercises “in which the resistance increases as the muscle elongates and diminishes as it contracts.”
That stretch loaded (harder), contracted unloaded (easier) is one of the key factors of each ideal exercise (I have the top 5 factors related to optimal muscle activation in Old Man Young Muscle and OMYM2).
For example, he was using the ideal chest exercise decline dumbbell presses as his only pec move even then. Another was one-arm cable laterals for the medial-delt head with the pulley set at hip height for the proper resistance curve.
He had NOT abandoned barbell squats yet, but he was only doing them once every third quad workout. Leg extensions and leg presses were the other two in his rotation…
He was also using his opposing-muscle superset protocol for many body parts as well. For example, he would do a set of dumbbell decline presses and alternate with a T-bar row for back. Note the T-bar row is not ideal…
He refined and used that superset method for many muscle groups up until his death at age 62 (more on that in a future newsletter)…
He said the opposing-muscle supersets provided enough rest for each muscle to recoup for the next set—more than 2 minutes of rest…
I have some problems with that—namely nervous system fatigue and set-up inconvenience—but it worked well for Doug.
So how many sets was he doing for each muscle at that time, and what was his rep sequence? This is where it gets even more interesting…
Stay tuned for for the answers in the next training newsletter.
Till next time, train hard—and smart—for BIG results.
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