Part One: Arnold’s “Golden 6” Workout for Bulk-Building (Plus a Bulk-Building “Extra”) I often wonder what my teenage life would be like if I was a teenager right now in this generation of text messaging, smart phones, Wikipedia (and therefore information at your fingertips), along with blogs, YouTube videos, and Instagram stories filled with an absolute plethora of mass-building, strength-gaining information. But, the thing is, I’m glad that I was a teenager in the 1980s. I think it’s the reason I have a vast, encyclopedic, almost kaleidoscopical knowledge of hypertrophy training and strength-building. And I’m really not bragging about my bodybuilding “expertise.” You see, I don’t think I’m different from anyone else. Because anyone who read every single bodybuilding magazine that hit the newsstand month-after-month, year-after-year from cover-to-cover many times—and did so from the mid ‘80s all the way up to at least the start of this century—would have the same amount
The Importance of Proper Programming The title of this essay comes from a well-known utterance of the real “trainer of champions” Vince Gironda. I’ve quoted it more times than just about any other quote from a coach, bodybuilder, or strength athlete. (Although I have oft-used Zatsiorsky’s quote “to train as often as possible while being as fresh as possible.”) Gironda’s saying is an important quote that a lifter or bodybuilder needs to always keep in his mind, because too many trainees still just go to the gym and “work out” without any real plan. I mentioned this briefly in another recent post—and I’ve mentioned it at various times in different articles and essays throughout my career—but the main reason that people still just “work out” is because they don’t understand what actually constitutes a “good” training session. Most people let the means (the workouts themselves) justify the ends (the results that are achieved from said workouts). In other words, a