Why Ask Someone Who Doesn’t Know

"Who in the hell told you to train like that? He should be shot."

That was my reply when a friend of mine told me his current routine. It's always a bit of a shock finding out what people actually "do" when they train.

Of course, a while back I told him exactly what to do, and exactly how to do it, although it evidently wasnt what he wanted to hear so he started asking around until he got the answers he wanted and started training on some mess of a program.

The answer, of course, was "some guy" on the internet - obviously "some guy" without much of a clue and the advice in question was obviously not something with any basis in reality.

And although he may have meant well the training advice which he gave was just plain wrong wrong, wrong (not to mention stupid.)

These days where there’s one "expert" there’s probably a thousand more.

Interesting enough, this exact situation was happens to fit pretty well into an interesting book I was reading yesterday: "The Cult of The Amateur" by Andrew Keen.

The book boils down to how the fate of “knowledge” on Web 2.0 will from now on be corrupted as a result of the fact that anyone can say pretty much anything. – especially people who, quite frankly, do not know a damn thing.

I couldn't agree more.

You wouldn’t ask your car mechanic what to do if your dog was sick, nor would you ask your landscaper for legal advice – and I hope you wouldnt ask someone who doesnt even train how to lift weights.

Now, the reason people look to me for advice is that I am an expert and I know what Im talking about. Any information or equipment that I put in front of you is done so because it has been "battle tested."

The things I talk about and the products I promote are here for one reason only and thats because I believe in them 100% - And I know they work because I use them myself, and I actually train, which seems to differentiate me from many of the so-called experts out there. (And I wouldnt recommend anyone who did otherwise.)

If you are going to put the effort into training, you owe it to yourself to do it right.

Heres a few recommended sources from guys who really know training:

It was just about a decade ago when Brooks Kubik first wrote Dinosaur Training and we are still feeling the impact today. Brooks pulls no punches when it comes to what constitutes serious training.

In addition to teaching you how to build super strength with traditional barbells and dumbbells, Brooks also teaches you how to get stronger with sandbags, barrels, anvils, sledge hammers or other unusual implements, you need this book in your training library:

Dinosaur Training by Brooks Kubik

Ellington Darden is a guy who has damn near seen it all and lived to write about it. And boy did he ever write about it, with over 50 books and counting, he is the very best strength writer of all time and his latest book does not disappoint.

Flip through the pages and take a journey back through strength history and use any one of the 20+ different workouts to skyrocket your training:

The New Bodybuilding for Old School Results by Ellington Darden
Thats enough to get you started on the right path – or keep you there if you're already on it.

Train hard,
John Wood

Secrets of Building 43

Most everybody knows that the headquarters for Google, the most well-known search engine on the 'net is located in Mountain View, California.

What you may not know is that there is a secret area of the Google compound known as Building 43, where behind closed doors an army of techies are constantly tweaking and refining the Search Engine algorithm for Google.com.

Each day hundreds of Google engineers are hard at work trying to "balance the equation" to make sure people actually find what they are looking for...

But like something right out of The Matrix, thousands of Search Engine Optimization experts around the world are working just as hard to "unbalance the equation" and to "beat Google" in order to get their pages ranked higher.

Here's the interesting thing:

No matter how complex Google makes their algorithm, the majority of how it works will still be based on a few simple concepts... and if you understand those concepts and apply then in your website, you'll get the high rankings or be infinitely "findable" without a whole lot of effort.

Of course, you still have to know what those things "are" and how to apply them -- and then do so. I was fortunate enough to find someone who was willing to teach these things to me.

Thing is, once I learned what to do, I was quite surprised, the "secrets" of Google are very simple, anyone can get high rankings -- it doensn't take as much trouble as people would have you believe -- and what needs to be done should, quite frankly, be so obvious that everyone could use it to their advantage.

But like most "secrets" it often gets ignored by just about everyone.

How am I so sure that I know what I'm talking about? -- Take a look at the last six months of search engine searches per-day for my two most recent websites:

Daily Stats for www.bodyweightbasics.com - Live Since March 2007

Daily Stats for www.oldtimestrongman.com - Live since October 2006
Amazing isn't it? -- And it's no accident either. Needless to say, everyone with a website woulkd benefit greatly from this info. -- perhaps I'll go into that at a later date.

Now, the reason I bring this up is that essentially the same concepts that allow me to control Google are the same concepts that make my training (or anyone's training) work -- just a different application.

-- a few simple things, (that most people downplay or ignore) done correctly over time.

A graph of my training progress would look remarkably similar to the diagrams pictured above. – the graph just keeps going up.

The "Secret" to Success in anything is right there -- far more obvious that most people realize.

Sun Tzu understood it, so did Miyamoto Musashi, so did George S. Patton, so did Bear Bryant -- and all of the other great strategic minds in history... And it's wide open for you too if you open your eyes to what should be obvious.

Training-wise, here's some nudges in the right direction:

Dinosaur Training by Brooks Kubik

The New Bodybuilding for Old-School Results by Ellington Darden, Ph.D.

Combat Conditioning by Matt Furey

Train Hard,

John Wood

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Why I Still Read Muscle Magazines

I was in a bookstore recently and thought I would mosey on over to check out the latest muscle mags. The cover of one of them claimed that by following the workout on page 72 I could "put 2 inches of muscle on my arms overnight!"

"Wow, overnight!" How sweet is that?

So I turned my brain off and flipped through it for a laugh. Among 500 pages of supplement ads and bikini babes, I found my article which recommended over a hundred sets per workout with multiple workouts per day.

It might even be funny if they were kidding - but they weren't.

Somewhere out there are many people turning to that magazine for advice on how to get stronger. They believe what it says and, attempting to actually do the suggested workout, end up with nothing in the way of meaningful results.

Why? – because no one could do that workout, its a figment of some writers imagination.

But, believe it or not, I still read muscle magazines because it's my job to know the kinds of information people are getting, both good and bad.(mostly bad)

The truth is, everyone can get substantially stronger than they are right now. Yes, some have more potential for size and strength than othersbut again EVERYONE, can improve (and a lot more than they think)

Instead, let's look at the facts:

1. You have about an hour of productive training time per day (maybe less)This is defined by your other time commitments, your ability to focus on your training without becoming bored and the level of stress of everyday life

2. You can (and should) train every day, just not the same way every day

3. Proper nutrition (and not supplements) is all that is necessary. That's right, actual good food.

4. You must allow proper recovery to take place. The physiological adaptations of training (ie muscle growth etc) can only happen outside of the weightroom as your entire system recovers.

5. Strength training will undoubtedly enable you to become a better athlete but keep in mind that strength is only developed in the weight room. That strength must then be applied correctly on the field through proper practice.

6. With all other factors taken into account – progressive resistance training, in all its forms, manifestations and techniques, is what makes workouts work.

7. Passion and enthusiasm are as much a part of training success as sets and reps.

8. If you do end up quitting, it will be the result of two things: boredom or injury. You have control over both of these factors

9. Some training techniques, pieces of equipment and workout styles are better than others. What makes them better is that they accomplish the job either more efficiently or more effectively (sometimes both)

10. You will not start to see real results unless you stick with it and improve over a sustained amount of time.

11. Theres a difference between "getting stronger" and building strength.

12. The possibilities of intense, proper training, are greater than most people can even dream about.

13. Training will work amd it will work well, but there are definite rules as to how to do it right.

Like it or not, these are the realities of your training.

Whew! Good thing I know all this stuff, a week from now I wouldn't have wanted to follow that program and had to shell out the dough for a new wardrobe to fit my 27" arms.

Anyhow, if you are interested in getting strong, and I mean really strong, here are a few books that you need to read:

1. Dinosaur Training

2. The New Bodybuilding for Old-School Results by Ellington Darden

3. Super Strength by Alan Calvert

4. The Key to Might and Muscle by George Jowett

5. Combat Conditioning by Matt Furey

Train hard,
John Wood