(Back in the day) I personally spent a bit of time with Arthur Jones of Nautilus. I found Arthur to be (quite!) smart on many, many topics. But he also loved to occasionally say outrageous things. Maybe to challenge you or maybe just to see who was paying attention.
At lunch one day, we were deep-in-the-weeds discussing the “Rule of 80-20” and how it seemed to hold true in so many things in life…
How 80% of the results of most anything in life seem to come from only 20% of the effort…Note: The “Important” 20%, not the rest of the fluff. Example: How 80% of any national level company’s sales, come from only 20% of their top salespeople.
Arthur then said something interesting. He said that the Rule of 80-20 definitely applied to weight training in general and more specifically to building muscle. He said, “I can take the typical untrained healthy male, age 18-30, and if he will just keep his mouth closed and his mind open and DO what I tell him, I can put 80% of all the (actual) muscle he will ever gain onto his body in just 20 weeks!” Then he added, “And yes, this person will perhaps be able to add a bit more to their frame over time. But it will take them months and even years of training to get the muscle gain (muscle, not fat!) that I could do in a week!”
Dr. D. – You were around Arthur more than anyone else. Did you ever hear him say something like this? And a follow-up question. With your decades of experience, do you think that you could duplicate similar results?
I personally think that he was onto something here. (Untrained) muscles react quite quickly in the first few weeks of proper stimulation. Then progress slows down and then WAY down as a person reasonably quickly approaches their individual genetic potential. And (without drugs) you just can’t outrun your individual genetic potential.
One more quick AJ story…I was asked how he and I met.
I was attending a Nautilus/Medex seminar that Arthur was conducting. Mostly Dr’s and rehab people. Nearing the lunch break, he said something to the entire audience that (as I learned later that he loved to do) would be considered QUITE insulting.
So when he finished, I approached him at the podium and said, “You are certainly not an idiot. But you just said something quite idiotic!”
He looked up at me (over those intimidating thick-rimmed reading glasses of his)…And as we made eye contact, I felt the life drain out of me. And truthfully, I quickly prepared to have my head punched clean off of my shoulders.
But instead, he said, “Hum…What are you doing for lunch?”
I am still amazed at how little training is needed to cause an increment increase in strength and mass.
Paul Brodeur may have been correct….ditto negative-only!
Please keep the stories coming!
I enjoyed these stories
I gave a private, inward sigh of relief. I had survived a near certain early death. “What am I doing for lunch? Nothing much, we only have an hour.” To which he replied, “Well I know a diner nearby. Meet me in the parking lot, I’ve got someone that I want you to meet.”
I get to the parking lot and he quickly introduces me to his hulking companion as, “Jim Flannigan. He handles sales for me”. Classic Arthur. Short and curt. But little did Arthur know, I had already met Jim years ago at the old Nautilus headquarters in Lake Helen where Jim was V.P. of Sales.
But I mostly knew Jim as “Big Jim”, his (well deserved) nickname. 6’4" tall, probably 250-260lbs. Solid as a rock. The kind of guy who, for example, if you were picking guys to “have your back in a bar fight”, you would choose him first. Super nice guy, but he had the look of someone who would make a MUCH better friend than enemy. We quickly shook hands (I felt kind of like a little kid, shaking hands with a catcher’s mitt…Ever had that feeling? His hands were enormous!) And Jim explained to Arthur that I was actually there at the seminar as his guest.
So off to the diner we went. On the drive, I told Arthur that although this was our first in-person meeting, he and I had spoken by phone once before, at least 20 years earlier. This seemed to spark his curiosity a bit. He said, “I’ve got a decent memory about certain things, so tell me more.” To which I replied, “I’d love to. Over lunch. As long as YOU buy!”
More on that later, if anyone wants. Otherwise I’ll just end this particular thread.
@Jeff60 When I first read his comment, I thought “Sure would like to see THAT program”. Quite an ambitious undertaking; 80% genetic potential development in 20 weeks. Pretty sure that would sell.
Just to add a little background for those who are not familiar with the 80/20 Rule:
It is also known as the Pareto Principle. In 1906, Vilfredo Pareto noticed that 80% of Italy’s land was owned by 20% of the population. In 1941 an American engineer, Joseph Juran, applied the Pareto Principle to quality issues saying that 80% of an issue is caused by 20% of the causes to a quality problem. It is one of many tools that can be used in the Analysis Phase of DMAIC process improvement .
The Pareto Principle is a quality tool based on the thought that the 80/20 Rule is a universal reality in many real world situations. From OP’s description of the method Arthur Jones used the 80/20 Rule, it was not as a universal observation of how things are, but more as a goal that an optimal weight training program could achieve. I don’t find a big problem with his “misapplication” of the 80/20 Rule in his conversation. It is a thought provoking idea.
Lunch with AJ proved to be at a out of the way little diner. The type of place that the locals know. It seemed like the waitress knew him. As she pointed “over there”, to what it appeared to be his usual spot. Big Jim quickly ordered a burger, then left the table to return some business phone calls.
Which left me sitting face to face in front of someone who most of the fitness world knew as intimidating, poker faced (and sharp as hell!). What, oh what, was I going to talk about? And our 30+ year age difference didn’t seem to help either.
But Arthur broke the silence. “So, tell me more about this first phone call.” To which I replied, “OK, but I’m not sure that I want to. It seemed to tick you off a bit at the time”. He quickly hit back with, “That seems consistent, given what you said to me earlier at the podium.” Gulp! But I kept going.
"From what I remember, it was a Saturday morning, probably 1971-72.
I was in High School at the time and I was in my parent’s basement with a close friend, lifting weights. Between sets, we were complaining how slow our progress with training had become. I mentioned to my friend that I had been reading an article in Iron Man magazine written by this guy in Florida named Arthur Jones. And that he seemed to make some sense. Then glancing again at the article, we noticed something unusual. At the bottom of the article, there was a phone number listed. My friend quickly put up a teen-age challenge. “Well, if you think this guy makes so much sense, I dare you to pick up the phone and call him!”