Apologia for 'Physical Standards and Theory'

Bigger Stronger Leaner Competitive Bodybuilding
1

Warning ! I have ALOT of shit to say so if you don’t have 15 min. or so, or thought my mentors ‘Physical Standards’ are the Holy Grail/Ark of the Covenant/Dolemite-True-School/Cosmic Lemniscate/Golden Fleece/Ultimate-Best-Magick-Slavonian-Superman-System-of-Total-Bruce-Leedom, then do not read on.

You only have yourself to blame if you read on and think this shit is too long or something.

My mentor/uncle over the 20 years in Russia, developed personal Theory and Standards
for Weight Trainees.

These ‘Physical Standards and Theories’ had changed over the decades, enfolding new
concepts or movements here or there, but in spirit remaining the same.

His methods were ultimately about ‘Relatively Heavy Weight Moved Forcefully in
Relatively High Volume and Frequency In as little ( gym ) Time as possible.’

Relative means Heavy for YOU AT THE TIME, and high for YOU AT THE TIME. This would
all change latter, as needed.

That’s the best synopsis I can come up with. This spirit never really changed though
he did add this or that to his ‘Physical Standards and Theory’ over time.

He made no excuses and provisions for the sedentary youth, and or adult. It was
assumed you were not doing Playstation Curls, all of your life, and you got outside,
and already knew what a fucking push up and pull up were and could most likely do
more than ten of both before you hit puberty.

Quite frankly the sedentary and ( self ) doubting were left out in the cold by him.

You could doubt him, but NOT YOURSELF.

Everything ( for what we call a beginner ), started with these ‘Standards’, I speak
of and they are all based on moving your BW or so many times that, for so many Total
Reps.

Set schemes didn’t matter to him. Rest periods did not matter. You could change that
latter, just get so many Total Reps, with your BW or so much Times that, depending on
the movement.

He taught me that Total Reps AND the chosen Movement were the ‘King and Queen’ of
Parameters. Everything else was dictated by Total Rep Goals and your chosen
Movement.

After you hit your Total Rep Goal for say 2x BW DL, at 10 x 3, and say that took you
1.5 hours, you could Progress any way you fucking liked, except by adding weight
oddly enough.

Progression was through ‘Performing the same Volume with the same weight in less over
all time, and or more Volume with the same weight in the same amount of time.’

Ideally you would progress both ways. That is more Volume at the same weight in less
overall time.

After one was moving said weight, for high reps and low sets, one would add weight.

That is do 10 x 3 2x BW DL, in 1 hour and you Progressed, do 10 x 3 in 45 min. you
did even better. Do 6 x 6 in 1.5 hours you Progressed ( 6 more total reps at the
same weight, in the same amount of time is still more work overall ).

Again Rest between Sets could change from set to set. It was all up to me to just
‘know’ how long I needed.

A trainee was to give it all they had though, from Set one.

Most of my Work Days looked like this; 1 x 13, 2 x 9, 1 x 7, 1 x 6, 3 x 4, and so
on…

The rest between Sets looked like this; Sets 1-3, 3 min. Set 4, 5 min., set 5, 6
min., and so on…

After a while I would go from say 15 x 2 to 2 x 15. Then added weight.

There would be alot of Set/Rep variations between those two ends of the Set/Rep spectrum however.

Now about adding weight, that was done not in ‘little bits’, as he put it, but in
‘true loads’. After a LONG while with your BW, you would add shit loads to the bar
really.

He was all about ‘Physical Intuition’ or instinctive training. That was all he knew,
and all he ever practiced. I do the same.

He had me do many odd things I have never heard of before, though I am sure someone
somewhere is doing them. But that is another story.

I added some stuff that is not exactly what he taught me, but you know he was all about ‘Physical Intuition.’ My PERSONAL instincts were never to be ignored.

For those seeking a short cut there is none. My mentors ways are still basically what
you have heard, or already know ( see Intuition ). This is not the magic bullet, but
is an interesting and effective ‘school’ that is not identical to any other I have
found.

Sorry but there is still more to it than that.

Questions comments concerns? Complaints?

2

You mentioned that once you got to 2x15 (i know it’s just an example) you’d add weight. Is there any actual set points where you’d add weight or only when you’d be able to reach the intended total number of reps in about 2 or so sets?

3

confused? From what i understand you rep your bodyweight for reps in a given amount of time. When the reps increase and the time decreases you add weight substantially.(2xbodyweight?) Clarification is needed as to when you make the decision to add weight. Also what about exercises that of which you cannot handle bodyweight such as curls? Is this program/method only for bodyweight exercises or can it be applied to all training exercises and areas?

4

My Uncle/Mentors ‘Physical Standards’ ( in no particular order ) as I they were when he started me out at age 12:

2 x BW DL A 35 reps ( CDL,Sumo,CGDL… )

1.5 x BW DL B 60 reps ( RDL, Hacks… )

1.5 x BW Squat A 60 reps ( Back Squat, Summo… )

0.5 x BW Squat B 100 reps ( Front Squat )

1 x BW Pull Up 100 reps

1 x BW Dip 100 reps

1 x BW Standing BB/DB Press A 60 reps ( ‘Russian’ or Push Press )

1 x BW Standing BB/DB Press B 60 reps ( ‘Strict’)

1 x BW BB Floor Press 60 reps***

1 x BW Neck Press/Incline Press 60 reps**

0.5 x BW PO + Press 20 reps*

1 x BW Full Clean 35 reps

1 x BW BB Row A 60 reps ( row to chest or neck )

1 x BW BB Row B 60 reps ( row to waist or gut )

0.5 x BW 1 arm DB Row 60 ( each arm )

1 x BW PC 35 reps

1 x BW Split Jerk 25 reps

1 x BW Snatch 25 reps

1 x Clean and Press 25 reps

0.5 x BW BB TGU 5 reps

0.5 x BW BB Curl 60 reps

0.5 x BW BB Reverse Curl 6o reps

2 x BW SBB Calf Raise 300 reps

1 x 300 sit up

1 x 300 push up

** This was added after the bench came out in the 50’s from what I can tell from his notes

  • This is done on a bench not from the floor ( but he Trained from the floor BEFORE the bench ) and it has 3 stages, so 20 reps really hits the muscles 60 times.

*** This he still liked, after the bench came out.

5

[quote]AnabolicPower wrote:
confused? From what i understand you rep your bodyweight for reps in a given amount of time. When the reps increase and the time decreases you add weight substantially.(2xbodyweight?) Clarification is needed as to when you make the decision to add weight. Also what about exercises that of which you cannot handle bodyweight such as curls? Is this program/method only for bodyweight exercises or can it be applied to all training exercises and areas?[/quote]

There you see the ‘Physical Standards’ as they when I was introduced to them.

You see 90 % of that is not ‘BW’ stuff, like Dips.

The goal is say 60 Total Reps, for BB Curl at 0.5 x BW. Say I am 200#.

So I would start curling 100#s. 10 x 6, for 60 Total Reps. To progress, I would need to decrease # of Sets and increase # of Reps per set.

So I could go from 10 x 6, to 6 x 12, then from that to 4 x 15, and when I thought it was time to add weight, I would add enough to reverse my position on the Set/Rep spectrum.

Say 25#. Now I curl 125#, at 10 x 6 and so the cycle continues.

BW is the STARTING POINT, it all gets much more instinctive after that.

6

Increasing density. Nothing so absurd, or out there, as to need an apologia, really.

7

I am going to guess, or suggest that it might be used this way, that this was or could be from the standpoint of advising a younger person one cared about and didn’t want to see injured, who didn’t need to achieve his absolute best for powerlifting or a bb’ing contest but whom the trainer wanted to see become strong and stay healthy.

And maybe also from the standpoint of not necessarily having a fully equipped gym available (not that that limitation would be necessary, but it would be another reason.)

It would seem a very sound approach from that angle.

You have to be quite seriously strong to do 35 double-bodyweight DL’s in say 10 minutes – I pick that figure because on reaching that point I’d certainly recommend going up in weight rather than try to compress the time yet shorter. For example that would be nearly 12 sets of three, with about 45 seconds rest between. Or seven sets of 5, with maybe 1:15 or so between sets.

Or quite possibly the time frame might be looked at as instead being 15 minutes… either way, double bodyweight for that many reps in that time frame is a serious strength accomplishment.

So rather than having the young person thinking he needs to be pulling ever more and ever more weight, sure he could progress this way.

The fact that the load never changes – or not for considerable lengths of time – is I think not the optimum approach for either bb’ing or PL’ing.

But for mentoring a younger person where peaking at either of those things is not the point but building a truly solid foundation safely is, the plan sounds reasonable.

8

[quote]Bill Roberts wrote:
I am going to guess, or suggest that it might be used this way, that this was or could be from the standpoint of advising a younger person one cared about and didn’t want to see injured, who didn’t need to achieve his absolute best for powerlifting or a bb’ing contest but whom the trainer wanted to see become strong and stay healthy.

And maybe also from the standpoint of not necessarily having a fully equipped gym available (not that that limitation would be necessary, but it would be another reason.)

It would seem a very sound approach from that angle.

You have to be quite seriously strong to do 35 double-bodyweight DL’s in say 10 minutes – I pick that figure because on reaching that point I’d certainly recommend going up in weight rather than try to compress the time yet shorter. For example that would be nearly 12 sets of three, with about 45 seconds rest between. Or seven sets of 5, with maybe 1:15 or so between sets.

Or quite possibly the time frame might be looked at as instead being 15 minutes… either way, double bodyweight for that many reps in that time frame is a serious strength accomplishment.

So rather than having the young person thinking he needs to be pulling ever more and ever more weight, sure he could progress this way.

The fact that the load never changes – or not for considerable lengths of time – is I think not the optimum approach for either bb’ing or PL’ing.

But for mentoring a younger person where peaking at either of those things is not the point but building a truly solid foundation safely is, the plan sounds reasonable.
[/quote]

His roots were Old Time Strongman, and Old Time O-Lifting.

BB’ing and Powerlifting were born in the 50’s when he was past middle age.

He was born in December of 1915.

Knowing that you can see why it ‘needs to be played with’ for todays Bodybuilder or Powerlifter. I certainly changed things some for this reason.

He expected a ‘certain level of performance’, he really liked BB’ing, and PL’ing even the later generations, but was more selective in which New-Age, and or Golden-Age, Bodybuilders/Powerlifters, he liked more than in other Sports.

He liked guys like Ronnie, alot, because he can DL 800, 2-3 weeks out of comp. He thought ALL Bodybuilders should be like that.

He watched the Olympics, and Strongman shit, with more interest.

He thought 100% of all machines were pointless, to O-Lifters, Powerlifters, and Strongmen.

Only about 50% of all machines ( he thought cable stations were ‘machines’ and they were his favourite ) were useful to BB’ers. Actually very useful, he felt.

The whole thing really leans more towards Strongman psychology, though it is sublimated I feel.