Alan Calvert: “The reader should be very careful not to confuse ‘weight-lifting’ and heavy dumbbell exercises. Weight-lifting proper is the lifting of heavy dumbbells in the standard feats ... Heavy dumbbell exercises are practiced with moderately heavy dumbbells, or bar-bells, and are intended to prepare the muscles for the more arduous work of weight-lifting.
“... The best amateur weight-lifter I ever knew never took any light exercise or any heavy dumbbell exercise. Three or four times a week he would practice the standard lifts and the ‘bent press’, and after a year or two of this kind of work he developed a wonderful figure and tremendous strength ...
“On the other hand, I have known many athletes who got very good results by practicing heavy dumbbell exercises two or three times a week, and practicing weight-lifting once or twice a week...” (4)
You: Okay, I got it. But that leads us into the next issue, which is always the subject of a heated debate. It involves how much actual lifting should be done. By that I mean, how often should you train, and for how long? There are those who say only once or twice a week is best; on the other hand, some get excellent results training as often as every day. In fact, there was an exceptional article written on this very subject by a real swell guy; it was called ‘In Defense of Frequent Training’. I wish I had it to show you!
Alan Calvert: “The average weight-lifter trains from 15 to 30 minutes every day ...
“Most professional lifters train only for a short time every day. Some lifters only train three or four times a week. A total of two hours’ time each week is enough to keep a man in the highest possible condition, and it is also enough to develop a novice from a totally undeveloped condition into a perfect Hercules.” (4)
“Experience has taught us that the best results from heavy bar-bell exercise is obtained by the pupil exercising every other day; that is, seven times in two weeks.” (5)
W.A. Pullum: “Relative to the question of how often a man should practise, there is no hard and fast rule, some finding a regular daily programme produce the best results, others discovering they do better by missing a practice now and then. Generally speaking, a rest from training once a week invigorates a man. And later, as the work becomes more exacting, it may pay to observe this rest interval even more frequently.” (7)
Edgar Mueller: “The number of training sessions per week varied during Goerner’s career. Between the years 1905 and 1913 he trained usually five times per week, with two days of complete rest ... During this same period (1905 to 1913) there were also periods when Hermann trained daily. After the end of World War I, from 1919 to 1921, Goerner trained on an average four times per week ...
“During Hermann Goerner’s professional career -- from 1921 onwards -- he practiced daily with the weights. After the age of 40, when not professionally engaged, he trained three times weekly ... usually Tuesdays and Fridays in the evening and on Sunday mornings.
“Each training session averaged two hours when performed [inside the gym], and when training in the open air it would vary between three and four hours -- sometimes even longer.” (8)
George Hackenschmidt: “As a principal rule I should stipulate for regularity of training ... Hence it is advisable to exercise as nearly as possible at the same hour every day...
“The exercises should not exceed one quarter of an hour at the commencement, and should only be increased by five minutes in a few months. Afterwards, about thirty minutes are fully sufficient to the acquisition and preservation of strength and endurance.
“... I recommend my readers to map out a certain plan, according to which they exercise all the muscle groups twice on three or four days every week, or on six days if time allows.
“... If it is intended to further increase [strength], one should begin to train once or twice per week ... with heavier weights ... [A]nd on such days avoid part, if not all, ordinary exercises.” (3)
Arthur Saxon: “It is really impossible for me to prescribe special exercises with fixed time limits for same, and fixed days for each individual ... as we are all possessed of different constitutions and staminal power, but roughly speaking it will be found correct in most instances to practice twice per week ...
“On the days when you do not practise with heavy weights you might try a few movements with a heavy pair of dumb-bells from 10 to 30lbs. in weight, according to your strength and development. Add to this your favourite sports, such as cycling, wrestling, swimming, or what not, and the weight-lifting practices, and you should be doing quite sufficient work to not only keep you fit but to bring you to the top of the tree ...
“The advanced lifter would make his two practices per week suffice, he need not do even the heavy dumb-bell exercises I have referred to.” (1)
“If a man seriously proposes to go in for lifting heavy weights, he should make a point of practising certain lifts every day. This daily practice is absolutely essential to the achievement of any real success.” (2)
Henry Higgins: “Daily practice in lifting dumbbells and weights is all that is necessary in order to become a very great strong man ...
“The secret of great strength, then, is seen to be a matter of daily training with heavy weights and dumbbells ...
“These exercises are to be taken each day without fail. The importance of regularity must be realized at the out-set, for it is one of the most valuable features of training. Two minutes exercise taken each day with the greatest regularity is far better than an hour a day taken twice a week ...
“Unless you are sick or weakened and fatigued by your daily work, it is a good plan never to fail to at least do a little practice each day ... Try not to have any gaps in your training.
“The best pupils I ever had worked some part of every day, some of them even including Sundays and holidays. In regard to Sunday, however, I have always felt that a rest and lay-off was good for everybody.
“It will in fact be found advisable to thus divide the training time each day into two distinct spells. Fifteen or twenty minutes in the morning and the same amount of time in the evening, if the pupil finds it convenient, is an excellent division of time.” (6)
You (smiling): Yeah, that’s pretty much what the article said you would say. Now for the last subject. In the time I come from, we have developed a great many different -and frequently very unusual -dietary strategies. Some of these diets involve eating several times a day, as often as every two hours; some go to the other extreme and suggest only one meal a day. There is also a lot of hype surrounding what we call ‘supplements’; in other words, protein powders and amino acid pills, so-called metabolic optimizers, performance enhancers, weight gainer drinks, things of that nature. For a lot of lifters and athletes, these ‘supplements’ comprise a large part of their food and nutrient intake. Any comments on any of these issues of diet and nutrition?
Edgar Mueller: “Goerner is firmly convinced that a mixed diet is the best for a strong man, with emphasis laid on eating good meals with the accent on meat! He is particularly partial to pork and beef and also wurst -German sausage meat. Vegetables also, together with potatoes, but not overdoing the latter. He is very fond of nuts -particularly walnuts -and all fruits: apples especially, which he thinks every strong man should eat, as well as oranges and other citrus fruits. Cheese and eggs also figure in his diet, but he does not care for rich pastries nor does he drink milk in any quantity. As regards drinking, he drinks beer, but only moderately -- seldom touches spirits...” (8)
Arthur Saxon: “Compared with his less fortunate brothers who box and run, the lifter has no restrictions as to diet. The man who boxes requires good wind and staying power, he therefore has to ... exercise great care in his selection of food stuffs, avoiding pastry, all starchy and sugary foods which would be dangerous to his wind. The weight-lifter can eat and drink almost anything, but, of course, if a little care be exercised in selecting the articles of diet it should be possible to replace the broken down tissue with less strain on the digestive organs ... provided you get the right food stuffs, then you need not eat so much as if badly selected ... Milk is a perfect food, and a splendid drink after practising, is an egg beaten up in milk, or a glass of hot milk. As a rule, the claims of patent or concentrated foods for the would-be strong should be taken cum grano salis ... Oatmeal and milk, too, is splendid for building up the muscular system, as well as cheese, beans and peas of all kinds, which contain the necessary elements for renewing tissue. I am not a vegetarian, and therefore advise the use of beef, mutton, etc., etc. ... With regard to alcoholic liquors ... I am aware of the dangers of drinking to excess, and would strongly urge on everyone the importance of moderation in drinking. Spirits I have proved to be disadvantageous to the would-be athlete, and my favourite drink is lager beer...” (1)
Alan Calvert: “Very few lifters whom I know, pay any attention to diet. They eat what they like and when they like. I do not know any ‘strong men’ who are vegetarians. Meat seems to be an essential part of the diet; beef and pork being the favorite meats. Any man who performs feats of strength needs the kind of food that will produce a great deal of energy and the lifter seems naturally to incline to meat, eggs, cheese, etc.” (4)
“A pupil who is ordinarily healthy can build up on the ordinary diet...” (5)
George Hackenschmidt: “I believe I am right in asserting that our Creator has provided food and nutriment for every being for its own advantage. Man is born without frying-pan or stewpot. The purest natural food for human beings would, therefore, be fresh, uncooked food and nuts ... My experience has taught me, that foodstuffs are of secondary importance. There are very strong people who are strict vegetarians, whilst others eat a good deal of meat. A fare which consists of three-quarters of vegetable food and one-quarter meat would appear to be the most satisfactory...
“I would shun altogether all highly seasoned and sour dishes. Much has been said lately in praise of sugar as food, but as artificial sugar is an acid-forming substance, I should not recommend it. Natural sugar, such as is contained in dates, figs, and other fruit, is certainly preferable...
“I maintain that it is absolutely a mistake to eat a great deal...
“The disadvantages of meat foods are ...that nowadays it is most difficult to obtain meat from absolutely healthy animals (I count those artificially fed in stables and pens among the unhealthy ones), and ... that far too much flesh food is taken.
“In the case of pure vegetable food, excess is less dangerous ... [P]ure vegetables ... certainly form the ideal human food ...” (3)
You: Wow! Well, I think that ought to do it. I can’t thank you, gentlemen, enough for taking the time to talk with me. You have really given me a lot of very valuable information, and I just hope the people in the future are smart enough to recognize the significance of it and heed it.
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Kurt J. Wilkens is the owner of Integrated Conditioning, Inc., a company that specializes in combining Old-Time Physical Culture with Modern Sports Science for the optimal development of Functionality and Wellness. Through the ISSA (International Sports Sciences Association), Kurt is a Certified Fitness Trainer and a Specialist in Martial Arts Conditioning; he is also a Russian Kettlebell Challenge Certified Instructor. Integrated Conditioning, Inc. offers health and fitness consultations and personalized training programs -- presently available online only, but soon in person at a new South Florida facility. Kurt can be reached via his website.
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