Guys, I’m just writing this because I feel the need to thank publicaly to the T-Nation author that has had the most impact in my training life.
I’ve read everything, every guru and every underground strength coach, I’ve tried everything, and it all worked, but, like everything in life, it’s the simple things that matters the most.
I’m not the kind of guy who reads an article and follows it to the letter, I’m more like Bruce Lee, absorb what’s useful to me, and throw away the rest. And through the years I absorbed tips and concepts from all the good coaches here on Tnation, like Thibaudeau, Waterbury, Wendler, Poliquin, to name a few. But the thing is, nothing has had such a big impact for me not only in therms of size and strength, but the joy of training, than the concepts I learned from Dan John that I’m about to write.
#1: THROW AWAY THE SMALL PLATES: This one is great, I hate to stress over poundages and percentages, but I love to lift heavy shit for low and high reps. Now I just use 45’s or 25’s, like Dan seggests in a few of his articles, and keep adding reps to that weight until I can manage to put another 25 in each side of the bar, and I do this with every exercise, even hammer curls with dummbbells (I am using 20 kg dumbells, and will only go up once I can manage 30kg each hand). This is the only type of progressive overload I follow and it works great!
#2: ARMOUR BUILDING EXERCISES: We all do the benches and curls, but once I started with the Zercher Squats and Snatch Grip Deadlifts, man I feel so powerful and strong. My BJJ partners say I’m “harder”…
#3: DON’T WORRY TOO MUCH ABOUT REST PERIODS BETWEEN SETS: Rest until you are recovered for the next set, but not more. The rest that matters is at home, in the bed, sofa, baththub, etc…
Even though I follow the typical 5-day bodybuilder split, addopting these 3 concepts has made it the most functional program I’ve ever followed, and you get to look pretty good too. LOL
So guys, If you want to be big and strong, and feel that relaxing sensation of lifting with crazy intensity in a much more hollistic aproach, without worrying about training logs or percentages, listen to Dan John!
Thanks Dan!
Braccini