Please note: This series of articles details the experiences of training one individual and is not meant to be used for your own training needs. Everyone's needs are different, so every training and nutritional program will vary from person to person. It's intended for informational and entertainment purposes only and we cannot be held responsible for any accident or injury that may result by following any part of this program.

January 1, 2007

The "Building a Beautiful Body" Series

Part Three: The Ten-Point Strategy for Success

The topics that I write about in this series of articles, and in others, have often raised some eyebrows. That’s most likely because what I write is quite different from what you read elsewhere, and it’s definitely different from what you hear from the average personal trainer, who will talk mostly about bodyweight, percentage of bodyfat, and not much else. The thinking there seems to be that if you weigh a certain amount and your bodyfat is at some percentage, you’ll look just fine. Hardly any people today talk about being unique and distinctive, training for shape, or creating a plan of attack with what I like to call a "Blueprint for Success" – these are all things that I wrote about in the first and second articles in this series, and which I think are crucial to building a truly outstanding physique.

Even though much of what I say seems unique, most of it was pioneered decades ago by the late, great physique trainer Vince Gironda, a man who realized that there’s more to building a great body than going to the gym and lifting weights, or running on a treadmill. But it wasn’t easy for Gironda, either. As a matter of fact, some people actually scoffed at Vince’s radical ideas, which is no real surprise given that there are still few people today who understand them. However, despite the ridicule, Gironda had one thing on his side: success. He not only created more great physiques than anyone in history, but he also built a remarkable physique himself, and in doing so he pioneered nutritional and training strategies that many now take for granted. He even earned the nickname "The Iron Guru."

However, as great as Gironda was, he wasn’t perfect. In fact, far from it. He wasn’t a great communicator and, as a result, he often had difficulty getting his point across. My friend Ron Kosloff, a nutritional expert who was also a friend of Vince’s and who appears in both Gironda-based videos I produced, often says, "Vince just wasn’t into detail." Not only that, he had no patience whatsoever. I met Gironda in the ‘80s and found him to have a wealth of knowledge that he didn’t mind sharing. But, if you looked like you were wasting his time, or if you didn’t get it, whether it was a concept he was talking about or an exercise he was demonstrating, he would simply walk away or, worse yet, yell at you and perhaps throw you out of his gym! It would be an understatement to say that he was a little high-strung.

But even though Gironda sometimes didn’t communicate his ideas well and he had a personality that made some want to choke him, he was the leading physique trainer who was able combine the training, nutritional, mental and presentation aspects of transforming a physique, and produce outstanding results in seemingly no time at all – sometimes within days or weeks – and it’s these concepts, as well as some others, that I’ve experimented with for years in order to find out what consistently works the best for most people. From that experience, I’ve also come up with what I call the "Ten-Point Strategy for Success" – these are concepts that I try to instill in the people I help before we talk the specifics of nutrition or weight training. After all, that stuff won’t matter one bit if you don’t have the right frame of mind. Here they are:

1. You must truly believe in something in order for it to work. This is one of the first things that Gironda taught me. In fact, Vince wrote it in his booklet called A Muscle has Four Sides. He stated, "Believe that the course I give will work, and it will. If you have doubts, and don’t put everything into it, you will find it won’t work." This is as true today as when Gironda wrote it more than 20 years ago.
   
   
2. Nutrition is critical. Decades ago, Gironda came up with the radical notion that nutrition is more important than weight training in terms of achieving results. In fact, he thought that it accounted for up to 85 percent of the battle! Since he first said it, many have debated that figure, and I’m not sure that even he knew whether he got it exactly right. However, I don’t doubt that he was correct in thinking that the majority of success comes from what you eat. Think about it, food fuels your workouts, governs your weight loss or gain, and provides your body with the nutrients to improve. Remember the old saying "You are what you eat"? There’s certainly quite a bit of truth to it.
   
   
3. Visualize your success. More than likely, it was some self-help guru who coined this phrase, but as corny as it sounds, it works, and Gironda knew it too. Quite simply, you must have a clear vision in your mind of what it is you want to achieve in order to get there. In fact, creating a "Blueprint for Success" that I describe in the second part of this series can help you do this. (Incidentally, Arnold Schwarzenegger is known for promoting the concept of visualizing in many of his books and lectures. Furthermore, an interesting bit of history to know is that when Arnold originally came over to America, one of the first trainers he went to for assistance was none other than, you guessed it, Vince Gironda!)
   
   
4. Consistency is key. Time and time again, I see people start on a program to help improve their body only to abandon it in days or weeks (or sometimes hours). Building a beautiful body doesn’t happen overnight – it’s a process that can take years of consistent, dedicated effort. Speaking of that…
   
   
5. Effort is everything. I once wrote an article called "The Effort it Takes" – something I recommend that you read after you finish this article. Frankly, I don’t think that the vast majority of people realize what it takes to create a body like that of Mindi OBrien, Natalie Waples, or Christy Wolfe. Most people want it to just happen overnight – but it doesn’t. It takes tremendous effort, and time, to get there, and you must understand that before you start.
   
   
6. Concentration on what you’re doing in the gym. Gironda once wrote an entire article about concentration after he observed certain champions train. He believed that what helped make these people champions was the ability to concentrate in a way that casual trainers could not. However, this concept is sorely lacking in gyms today – many people go to the gym for a social event, not really to work out. That’s fine, I guess, but just don’t expect to get results if that is what you do. When you’re in the gym you must focus on what you’re doing – concentrate – and remember the purpose for being there and use the time accordingly.
   
   
7. Use exercises that work, discard ones that don’t. Time and time again, I see people do exercises that either don’t work, aren’t being done right, or aren’t suitable for their goals. It’s important to understand what each exercise does and your purpose for using it. Admittedly, though, acquiring this knowledge takes time. However, there are a lot of good books and videos on the market. In fact, this is why I have personally produced three DVDs that are packed with detailed exercise information: The Vince Gironda Exercises: Vol. 1; The Vince Gironda Exercises (and More!): Vol. 2; and All About Mindi 1. These three DVDs are available through our "Shop" section and can teach you more in less time than any personal trainer I know. They probably cost less too.
   
   
8. Train less, not more. There’s a common misconception that in order to improve you must train for longer and longer periods. Surprisingly, the opposite is true. This, too, I learned from Gironda, who professed decades ago that as people gained more training knowledge, they would train for less time, not more. (Gironda was also the person who pioneered the concept that no workout should last longer than 45 minutes.). He’s right – with my own experiments with the people I’ve helped over the years, I’ve deliberately decreased the volume of work (and time) in the gym, but increased the intensity. In the end, I found they could do as few as three sets per bodypart, be done in less than 20 minutes, and still get great results. Therefore, those I help today train for far less time than they previously did, and for about half the length of time that the average person in the gym who doesn’t achieve near the same results. (I’ll talk about these training concepts in a future article, although some of the routines I use for this purpose are demonstrated very well in The Vince Gironda Exercises (and More!): Vol. 2.)
   
   
9. Monitor your progress. I see people laboring away in the gym, sometimes for years on end, making very little progress at all. What is more, some even get worse! In order to improve, you must consistently monitor your progress. I think that the best way is through photographs, videos, a training journal, or feedback from a trainer or friend. Natalie Waples, whom I train and whom we have featured in this series of articles, uses all the above, and we find that it certainly helps to gauge her progress. The key, though, is to know how often to monitor yourself. You shouldn’t try to gauge your progress every day – doing so will only lead to frustration, since you can’t see progress in such a short time. However, you can certainly see progress from month to month, which is the frequency I like use. And if after, say, four months you are showing no improvement whatsoever, it’s probably time to re-evaluate your plan of attack and perhaps change your program
   
   (Note: You probably noticed that I did not mention the scale or any sort of bodyfat measuring device, which are some of the most popular methods used today in the gyms. Frankly, I find them of little use, particularly the scale. While I could go on and on and tell you why, let me tell you what Gironda taught me. First, he pointed out that if you’re not happy with the way you look, it doesn’t matter what the scale says. Second, he wisely noted that many people have the exact same height, weight, and measurements, yet they look nothing alike. What do these objective measurements really tell you?)
   
   
10. Protect your health, and avoid injury at all costs. Finally, one of the last things I always tell people who come to me for help is to avoid all things that can injure you and cause a setback. This includes physical injuries from careless weight training or other types of exercise, and this extends to consuming dangerous drugs, or even some supplements, that can jeopardize your health. After all, any type of injury or health-related setback can wipe out months, or even years, of progress. I believe in a natural approach to nutrition, and I believe in training sensibly and carefully so that you can make progress for years to come.

Conclusion, and coming soon…

When someone creates a "Blueprint for Success" and combines it with the ten points that I outlined above, they’ve got a significant head start that will help ensure that the program they embark on works. Furthermore, understanding these ten points puts someone in the position where they can question things and ask, "Will what I’m doing help my progress, or will it hinder me?" This type of knowledge and decision-making ability is critical to making rapid gains and to avoid wasting precious time on your quest to creating a beautiful body.

In the next article, I’ll start to get into the nuts and bolts of training by outlining some of the exercises I enjoy using to achieve the right kind of results quickly. That article will be called "Striving for Superior Shape."

...Doug Schneider
das@seriousaboutfitness.com

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