TO HARDGAINER
You are right.
The problems is so many people do talk bullshit.
Especially guys walk strut around the gym thinking they're
special just becasue they carry a little size.
There are several reasons as to why guys as big as you discribe
cannot do more than 80 lbs. for Dumbbell benching.
Poor genetics,
Lack of motivation.
Perhaps they have goals of only getting big and let's face it
some guys are lucky enough not to have to use heavy weights to
force their body to put on mass.
Fear and or they do not possess the requisite intelligence or
belief in themselves.
Personally, I have always perferred to have a high level of
functional strength, meaning high strength in relationsip to
bodyweight
Which is why I am not overly impressed with
Ronnie Coleman's strength level.
Sure he can lift massive weights whether is due to drug use or
not.... alll I have to say is, Ronnie never told me.
Yes many people think that Ronnie Coleman takes
steroids! If that is true, that would certainly increase the
likelihood that he was actually moving 200 lb dumbbells.
Personally, I don't like to focus too much one way or another
about that, because it really has nothing to do with yours or my
potential or what we can do.
But for the sake of our own personal education, let's look at
his perfomace with the 200 lb. dumbbells a total of 400 lbs.
He weighs 325 at 5ft. 9in.
Divide 325 into 400 = 1.23 output - 75lbs. more than his
bodyweight.
Now let's use me as an example. As you can see by videos, I am
old, injured and out of shape.
I also weigh 200 lbs. and carry a good deal of fat.
Now let's say I wanted to use 75lbs. more than my bodyweight...
that would mean I would have to lift a total of 275lbs. That
means I would have to use 137.5lbs. We don't have these at the
gym so I would have to use a pair of
140 lb. dumbbells.
280 divided by 200 = 1.4 - 80 lbs. Clearly the old fart
(drug-free me) is performing better (pound for pound).
I could post a video - of course there is a
potential problem if I do this and I will.
Problem one; Some people may accuse me of
lying about being drug free.
If I could prove to anyone satisfaction that I have never taken
drugs we have other doubts.
Problem two: What would convince people that I wasn't
using fake weights?
I could pull up witnesses, but then, there is the fact that
people will lie for their friends.
I could pull up sactioned meets, but again we are back to the
fact that many steroid users use all sorts of methods to mask
their steroid use.
A fact that use to piss me off when I entered drug-free lifing
meets.
I knew so many lifters that I knew for a fact were taking drugs,
yet they did things to pass the tests.
The very fact that your gym has a whole bunch of guys bigger
than Ronnie Coleman - yet cannot do more than 80 pounds is
sometimes a testiment why people should not take steroids.
Steroids have a major advantage and that is they
work and work well. The good news for a lot of lifters is that
they allow a lifter to train haphazardly and some steroids are
responsible for muscle growth without haviing to push the heavy
weights.
The bad news is that they are responsible for
muscle growth without haviing to push the heavy weights.
For guys like you and me, we cannot get big
easily with regular pump sets that the steroid-boys use. Guys
like and me, need to use heavy weight is a variety of rep ranges
and training velocites. Some lifters need to train with much
higher volume.
The downside for some lifters is that this
requries a lot more time and diligence. The upside for guys like
you and me is that it takes more time and diligence. A lot of
lifters have problems geting ahead on little volume but
eventually they take steroids when they hit a wall. They don't
realized that they need to increase their capacity for higher
training volumes - which increases their pushing their ceiling
potential. Eventually a lot of lifters hit a plateau and in
response many lifters start taking steroids to stay with the
high volume.
Care must be taken as to wha t path you choose
and when to change from one path to another. Most lifters fail
to change paths and other lifters changing paths go into the
wrong direction. Which of course cause a lot of lifters to take
steroids.
So the best thing to convince you that human
beings have superhuman performance and the best way for you to
understand this is for you to be the proof.
How to do that you may ask?
First you have to realize a few rules.
Don't succumb to jealosy or worry about what
other lifters can or cannot do.It is a waste of psychic and
emotional energy.
Don't disbelieve that the attainment of
enourmous strength or size is impossible for everyone who are
not genetic freaks or taking steroids. Entertaining such beliefs
robs you of your power. This is one of the main reasons why even
many steroid users are not that impressive insofar as their
functional performance. At their core most of them suffer from
crippling inferority, doubts or their ability, jealosy and often
hate and resentment of anyone that is performing at a higher
level.
Whenever I see people worry about what others
are doing.... I know that they are in danger of crippling their
potential.
I want to give two examples of why human beings
have more potential then they believe.
The first example: A one hundred pound woman
sees that her child has crawled under a car that had been up on
jacks. The Jack slides out and the car collapses on the
child - pinning the child underneath. The woman feels a rush of
adrenaline and she becomes possessed with single-minded intent
to lift the car off the child. She is not filled with doubt, nor
is she worried about how her perfomance compares to other
mothers in simular situations, nor she slowed down by thinking
that another mother may had unfairly used performance enhancing
drugs or tighter garter hose.
Now generally, people in such situations have
caused untold damage to their bodies by this task. But
essentially, that is what lifters train for... the ability to
perform with superhuman vigor with weights doing 1 rep up to
multiple reps and sets.
Lifters have to attack each set with the same
uninihibited intent that the mother lifting the car. It is a
person's ability to transcend thought after long periods of
intensive programming their minds to adopt the specific belief
system that they have unlimited potential without steroids. All
this is necessary to reach the level of diinhibition to lift the
poundages that I am saying that almost anyone can train
themselves to accomplish.
Now some people may laugh and they often do...
that my belief is silly and naive', yet, I will ask.... what is
the risk?
Another example: Loot at the Great Apes.
Particularly the Chimpanzees and Orangutans. They have enormous
strength.
No one would question whether of not if the 200
pounds that they would use was fake or if the apes were taking
steroids. The great apes are not really differnet. They have
certain skelotal diffences and a few other things that make them
strong, but essentially, their muscles are still muscles. If you
did not perform a DNA test on them, you would not know if the
biceps was human or Chimp
They are stronger than us for a few reaosn.
Unlike us... their survivor depends having the level of strength
and fitness that we do not need and civilization has allowed for
humans to be de-evolved. Another reaosn: Chimps do not have any
reservations as to what they can or cannot do. They don't get
caught up with mind-fucking themselves by programming self
doubt. or get into intellectualling devaluing what they and the
other Chimps can do.
In the final analysis your body will determine
what you can and cannot do; and it will do this whether you
train with utter abandon and surrender of not. My experience has
shown me that the people who scoff at what I am asserting here
have never performed at the levels that I or other lifters who
have adopted my belief of the importance of total acceptance and
committment to surrender to each and every set.
A final not: Lifters should do everything in
their power that what they see other do... then that means they
themselves have the potential to eventually reach those levels.
I hope this helps,
Sincerely - Vincent D. Faini
Bodybuilder's Hompage |