Ikke akkurat en revolusjonerende oppdagelse av Dr. Squat og Andreas, men like fullt greit å ha i bakhodet i "system-jungelen"
"In Bodybuilding Everything Works
For those of you who have spent sleepless nights in mental anguish trying to sort out all the contradicting information about workout methods flying around in the bodybuilding jungle, I have good news, IN BODYBUILDING AND WEIGHT TRAINING ALL TRAINING METHODS WORKS. Maybe this is the reason why so many theories and methods exist, each having their followers swearing by the good results they are getting. This, however is not to say that a particular method or system will work as well as another method for a particular individual. Many successful bodybuilders avoid getting stuck in a particular dogma and choose to incorporate from a wide variety of techniques and methods. Some methods, techniques and tools have a track record of producing better results in more individuals than others, no doubt about it.
To illustrate the above I like to tell you a story developed and inspired from a verbal story Dr. Fred Hatfield, also known as Dr. Squat, told me while I was training at The Craft Center operated by him in Los Angeles in 1987. Dr. Hatfield set power lifting world records and won power lifting world championships in multiple weight classes.
Once upon a time, in a town called Ironville, there was a gym called The One Philosophy Gym. The owner was Joe Barbell. He was nicknamed "Joe I know it all” by some of the gym members. He had distinct ideas about how to train with weights. There was only one way to train according to Joe. The gym itself was very well equipped with lots and lots of free weights. There were many fixed weight barbells and dumbbells ranging in weight from very light to very heavy. To Joes dismay many of the members left barbells and dumbbells on the floor instead of putting them back in their proper place in the weight racks. One day Joe hired a skinny but somewhat athletic looking young man called George to work in the gym. George had no interest in lifting weights or train in any way but did a good job at the front counter in servicing the members. Since Joe spent all his time at the gym, training members in the one method he firmly believed in, he could see that George never trained even though Joe had offered him to do so as an employee benefit.
After a few months Joe observed that George had gained some visible muscle and could not figure out why. He asked George if he had been training in his spare time somewhere else, which George assured him he had not. Time went by and skinny George was not so skinny anymore. His arms were much bigger and his whole upper body had taken on new proportions.
As George kept growing Joe thought George might be lying about not training at all. George once again assured Joe that he was definitely not training. Since Joe was in the firm belief that only training with weights following certain exact rules could produce significant muscle growth he remained mystified and at a loss to understand what was happening right in front of his eyes.
So how was all this possible? Well, after the gym closed in the evenings George would pick up all the dumbbells and barbells left on the floor by the members and put them back in their racks.
While Georges's "method" for building muscle might produce some results it is obviously not the preferred approach. However, there are lots of people in the gyms exercising in ways not likely to produce much better results than if they were just randomly picking up weights off the floor, or worse, even causing injuries. Keeping an open mind and learning from multiple sources with long term experience, while listening to and observing our own bodies will go a long way towards creating a personal weight training program which suits our own needs.
Andreas Cahling"
