In the last newsletter, I discussed Doug’s training back in the early 2000s, specifically his use of antagonist supersets—alternating sets between opposing muscles, like biceps and triceps or chest and back…
That saved time; however, it does tax the nervous system going from one muscle to another immediately and then back…
And at that point, he was using five to seven sets on one exercise per muscle. So it was back and forth for at least five rounds…
His rep range was quite unconventional at that point as well. Here’s a quote from my interview with him that appears in the ebook The Ultimate Power-Density Mass Workout 2.0 ebook in 2008.
For each exercise I do five sets: 50 reps, 40 reps, 30 reps, 20 reps—and on the final set I start with 10 reps and follow that with two or three drop sets.
Doug was in his early 50s, but that’s still a lot of work. I dubbed his “system” Super TORQ—Tension Overload Repetition Quantity.
In other words, lots of tension time via high reps. Also, he said he would go to failure on only one or two sets in the sequence…
If you remember from the previous newsletter, Doug had not shit-canned barbell squats at this time—he was doing them every third quad workout…
So I had to ask him if he did that grueling rep progression on that exercise (as puke danced in my throat just thinking about it)…
[For quads] I do either squats or leg presses or leg extensions—only one of those in a workout. And, yes, I do squats and leg presses the same way: 50, 40, 30, 20 10. Killer! But no supersets.
Whew, at least he didn’t try to alternate squats with leg curls between those crazy sets. By the way, I have no idea if he was on steroids or anything else at this time.
Doug was very dedicated—almost obsessive—which had him pushing through this torturous training almost daily. But…
Years later when he and I connected, things had changed. And our back-and-forth discussions had him tweak things even more…
Stay tuned for Doug’s training evolution at age 60 in the next newsletter.
Note: To find out more about Doug’s Brig20 ideal exercises, go here: https://www.smarttraining365.com/brig20
Till next time, train hard—and smart—for BIG results.
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