AGGRESSIVE STRENGTH MAGAZINE

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ISSUE 64 - 5/05/2005

1. AGGRESSIVE STRENGTH QUOTE OF THE WEEK

"You can never learn less; you can only learn more. The reason I know so much is because I have made so many mistakes."
- Buckminister Fuller

One of the main reasons why people never take action is due to the fear of failure. They are so worried by what other people think and more often than not, people that they do not even know, that their fears paralyze them from moving forward. No doubt that you will make a lot of mistakes if you take a lot of action. However, if you learn from your mistakes, you will also acquire a lot of knowledge and inevitably achieve your goal. In addition, you will simply be an interesting person to be around with a lot of wisdom. You cannot just learn from other people's experiences. Sure that is valuable as well, but you have to have your own experiences as well.

This is one of the main reasons why I hate Television. It is far easier to live vicariously through the fake lives of other people on the "idiot box" than it is to live your own life and have your own interesting experiences. Any moron can turn on a TV and tune out for four hours (the average American watches four hours per day). Sure TV is not all bad and there are some good shows on. I like to watch "24" and the "The Shield" each week (and I miss the Shield often), but that is honestly all that I watch on TV. Nevertheless, can you really quantify how TV has had a positive impact on your life? Does it make you work harder? Does it help you sleep better/ Does it help you make more money? Does it help you get better workouts? If the answer is yes, then keep on watching. However, for most people, I bet the answer is no.

I own a TV to watch movies on, but I decided to get rid of cable over a year ago and cannot get any channels without it. What has happened during that time period? My attitude about life has improved dramatically as I am no longer bombarded with commercials, negative news, and idiotic programs. I get more work done (I work at home when I a not on the road), my personal life is much better and more rewarding, my workouts are better, and so far this year I have already earned more than I earned in the entire year of 2004 and 2004 was a good year for me! I am on track to more than double my income this year. Coincidence? I do not think so. As crazy as it may seem, television can be tremendous roadblock that prevents you from taking action and achieving your goals. I may be going on a limb here but, I think that it is safe to say that most Americans who are not happy with their lives and who do not take action to achieve their goals, probably comprise a good chunk if not the entire percentage of people that watch four or more hours per day. I already now that people that watch more TV are on average fatter than people that watch less. In addition, people that watch a lot of TV are probably the same people that claim that they do not have any time to get things done.

Since I have gotten rid of cable not only do I get more done, but I have plenty of free time to enjoy life, hang out with real people and enjoy the real world. People often ask me how I find the time to put out this newsletter each week. Easy, I only watch two hours total of TV per week. Want to achieve some goals in 2005? Cancel cable for one month and see what happens. You will be amazed by how much free time you have and you will likely have a desire to do something with that time. What if you like to watch TV to wind down in the evening? How about reading for an hour before going to sleep. reading actually engages your brain and like exercise for the body, reading is exercise for the mind and will help you sleep better (Of course this is assuming that you do not read some horror books or anything else that is stressful before you go to sleep). Sound like too simple a solution? Take the challenge then and turn the TV off for thirty days. If you have to limit yourself to one hour per day to start. However, that probably takes more discipline than just getting rid of cable entirely. Regardless, start cutting back today and watch what happens.

From Jack Canfield's excellent book "The Success Principles." I recommend that you order a copy today.

Live Life Aggressively!

Mike Mahler

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2. AGGRESSIVE STRENGTH TRAINING ARTICLE

How To Make "Heavy Duty Training" Work

Many years ago, a famous bodybuilder named Mike Mentzer came up with a training program called "Heavy Duty." Basically, Mike advocated doing one set to failure infrequently. For example, pick a weight that you can do on the bench press and do as many reps as possible. Do the set one time and then wait several days before doing the bench press again. On paper and in theory the "Heavy Duty" Program sounds great. Hit training hard and then rest up before doing another session. However, in practice the program did not work too well. Sure, many people had great results the first month that they tried HD (as you will with just about any program). However, after a month or so, the trainee adapts to the stimulus and progress desists.

One of the main reasons why the HD program did not work well for many trainees is not the fact that it called for training to failure (although that can be problematic), but the fact that the workouts were way too infrequent. Mentzer recommended that trainees take 7-14 days off between each exercise. In other words if you did the Military Press on November 1, you would wait until up to November 14 before doing it again. Imagine applying this concept to playing the piano or gymnastics. At best you would maintain your skill level. However, most likely your skill level would decline. The problem with the HD program is that it did not take into account the fact that lifting weights is a skill. The more often that you practice a skill without burning out, the better off you will be. Don't agree? Think that doing an exercise such as the Military Press is as simple as pressing a weight from your chest to the lockout position? Think again, the more you practice it, the more you refine your form and the more efficient you get. Translation? You get stronger.

As top Strength Coach Pavel Tsatsouline states, treat training as a practice rather than a workout. The more you practice the better you get. What Mentzer was correct about was the fact that maximum effort sessions should be infrequent. What he was wrong on was that training should be very infrequent. Thus, if we combine the concept of applying training as a practice frequently with the concept of doing maximum efforts infrequently, we have a superior version of HD that will work very well.

Lets use the Military Press as an example of how to combine these concepts. On Day 1 do a Military Press set in the three rep range in which you train to your limit. In other words, the third rep should be the last rep that you can complete with solid form. Do not do any forced reps or attempt a rep that you will most likely miss. Take Day 2 off and on Days 3-7, do two sets of three with 80% of your one rep max. Take Day 8 and Day 9 off and on Day 10,11, and 12, do two sets of three again with 80% off your three rep max. Take Day 13 off, and on Day 14 do another limit set. On some days, lift the weight as fast as possible while staying as tight as possible. On other days, pause at the bottom for two seconds and then press the weight overhead explosively, but with good form. Finally, on other days, lower the weight slowly to a four second count and then do the concentric phase as quickly as possible. What will happen? My guess is that you will be stronger on Day 14. Why? One you know what your starting point is. Thus, you know what you have to beat. If your max on day 1 is 200lbs, you should either be able to press 200lbs 4 times or 205 three times. You know what the target is which creates a focus for your workouts. Now instead of burning yourself out with maximum efforts frequently, you scale back and pick a lighter weigh that allows you to work on form, technique, and maximizing the CNS. Basically, you are doing what Pavel called GTG (greasing the groove). Now rather than just doing 80% of your three rep max indefinitely, you know that on Day 14, you have to test your max again. This keeps you focused and also helps deal with the potential boredom of lifting weights that are too easy. Training with 80% of your three rep max is not too challenging and that is exactly what we want. A weight that is a heavy enough to keep you in the ball park, but not too heavy to cause burnout. By the time you get to Day 14, you have practiced the Military Press many times and will have both confidence and better technique. A winning combination for lifting more weight. When you lift more weight on Day 14, adjust the practice training weights again. Thus, if you nailed 205 three times on the Military Press, use 165 on your practice days. If you did not improve, no problem. Stay at the same practice weight and keep working on form and technique. Come back to fight another day.

Choose three to four compound exercises such as: Presses, deadlifts, Squats, and Weighed Pull-ups and give this version of HD a shot. Let me know what happens. If you want a personalized program to make sure that you stay on track, click here for my rates.

For more information on Pavel, go to PowerByPavel.com.

For more information on Mike Mentzer, go to: MikeMentzer.com

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5. NEW AGGRESSIVE STRENGTH PRODUCT RECOMMENDATIONS

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7. KETTLEBELL TRAINING INFORMATION PAGE (NEW)

http://www.mikemahler.com/kettlebell_info.html

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8. AGGRESSIVE STRENGTH MAGAZINE ARCHIVES

http://www.mikemahler.com/newsletter

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9. AGGRESSIVE STRENGTH ARTICLES

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10. AGGRESSIVE STRENGTH TRAINING JOURNAL

http://www.mikemahler.com/journal.html

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11. RECOMMENDED READING LIST

http://www.mikemahler.com/reading.html

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Until next time.

Live Life Aggressively!

Feel free to email me with your comments and feedback at mahler25@yahoo.com

Mike Mahler

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