Why did he rate the nautilus machines a zero…especially after making living off the coattails of jones
It’s a long story but I think it was how It dangerously effected the knees and put undue strain on the lower back etc . It’s funny how many people think it was the best machine Jones made and Hutchins thought it might be close to the worst , ha ha. I never had the chance to use one so I couldn’t say?
Scott
My best solution was to always make my own angles by stacking a few plates under one end of a flat bench. Sounds nutty until you knock out a a few reps and realize how different it actually feels.
S
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Well I guess now he can make a living off criticizing Jones and his machines. Just following the money, it seems to me.
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To put it in simplest terms,… if your nutrition and recovery are on point (optimal), you don’t need to worry about over training unless you either have the worst genetics in history or are following some ridiculous 4 hours every day of the week for a millions sets to failure type of routine.
I was training 15 years before I ever considered competing, but once I had to be on top of my nutrition game like never before, I saw how every single successful competitor was doing volume training, “bro-splits”, and that I had actually been holding myself back with all the concerns at the time in every magazine article about recovery and not doing too much.
I upped my volume, my frequency, everything people preaching HIT would likely have a freak out about, and I made my best progress at almost 40 years old with decades of time already under my belt.
Imo most basic intelligent routines, applied with consistent effort, will yield results if everything else is in place.
S
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But Jones was very conscious of the joints and lower back…not sure I would believe hutchins
Being that it seems there’s so little interest in Nautilus or Jones theses days I don’t think there’s a whole lot of money to be made off of it. I’m thinking it’s more about clearing the air than anything?
Scott
It’s hard to tell who to believe these days. You’d have to read the book and see what you believe. If you were sitting here I’d hand you the book to read but it’s unethical to copy a section of it to send you. There’s interesting stuff in the books.
Scott
I have read Dardens writings on Jones, I have read Viator on Jones, I have read the book by Arthur’s son and it was very informative…also a few others…i don’t need to read anymore on Jones…i just wish there was videos of Arthur training Viator and the west point study…i just believe with all those cameras around there were no recordings left…ashame
I never bought into all the talk about one set per body part once a week stuff or any of that type HIT stuff. I knew from seeing with my own eyes that 99% of the big bodybuilders and not so big ones did tons of volume and rarely touched a nautilus machine. I just figured As a tool a Nautilus machine was hard to beat. Now there’s a million knockoffs of it including some of X Force, it just has a different weight stack system.
Scott
Oh my god thank you.
So many folks need to concern themselves with UNDERtraining before they worry about overtraining.
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I always liked to do enough sets to feel a good pump. I felt I had my best progress with a reasonably moderate to high volume, but I should add that it was also aided by AAS’s. Overtraining was not a major concern for me. Under-eating was a bigger concern.
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Barbarian Brothers put it best “There is no overtraining: only undereating”
I think it had to do with both those things, but also the force being exerted down on your neck and traps when using heavier weight. Thats why they came out with the duo leg press, which was just the duo squat with a more upright seat. Personally I love my duo squat! I have been talking to Ken Hutchins and understand more where he’s coming from on some of his criticisms
Yep…
I fell into that trap years ago and got fat and deconditioned
Seriously, the fact that so many authors latched onto the concept of recovery as the be-all end-all that every failed lifter was missing was the worst thing for countless beginners looking to start a program for optimal gains.
S
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I hate doing 5 sets or more (unless it’s “dynamic effort” then its great), so hearing that 5 sets is too much work is news I want to hear 
I also started to see better results when I told myself that no matter how long it takes or how “done” I am, I am not leaving until I finished every last rep. I refuse to believe no one ever walked out of ab work (or bilateral leg work haha)
I could not agree with you more. I made my best progress – both size and strength wise – when I substantially increased the total amount of work I was doing. If my recovery had been dialed in better and if I’d had a non-stressful job, I’m convinced I could have upped the workload even more and seen better results. I just wish I hadn’t spent so much of my 20s worried I was going to overtrain.
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== Scott ==
Unfortunately I don’t think these 2 Hutchins books go into how often to workout and such. Mostly machine talk. If I recall Superslow had you only training once or twice a week. It’s like both Jones and Hutchins would have been better off separating the machines from the training side. Both machines were great but their advice to bodybuilders or strength guys was not what they wanted to hear.
Whether most want to acknowledge it or not, Arthur Jones and Nautilus are a major historical part of the widespread use of strength training both in the world of American sports and to the general populace. Some will say he came along at just the right time, but the fitness boom bus that came along in the 70’s was driven by Nautilus. Lifting weights became an acceptable thing for everybody to do after the the Nautilus era came along. Whether you loved or hated him and the machines, there’s no denying he had a major impact on people’s view of lifting weights as an acceptable and important part of exercise. Be honest, before that, bodybuilding and lifting weights was not a real popular thing to do. In fact, it was frowned upon by an enormous amount of people, sports coaches included. The initial success of Nautilus may have started with bodybuilding, but it’s real success came with it’s use in the world of sports and then it’s use by everyday people.
But today? Yes, Nautilus is pretty much dead. But it’s place in history is not.