Old Dawg School

well said ! amen !

You started an EXCELLENT thread here, Bro!


What’s the old saying; “the truth is probably somewhere in between?”. I really think that that is the case here, because I don’t think that there is as much disagreement with the “opposing” views as it may appear on the surface.


Yes…there are MANY guys out there who over think and over analyze what they are going to do with their diet and workouts to the point that they get nowhere. There is probably an EQUAL number that take a haphazard, hit-or-miss, “eat big/lift big/damn them percentages” approach and often just end up those “gym fat boys” wearing wife beaters, “HammerTime” pants, and giving everybody bad advice.


I think we need to at least THINK about our programs, and even plan them closely…but eventually we have to “Just Do IT!!!”…get in the gym and give it all we’ve got…hit it…hit it HARD…go home!.. is my motto.


So…plan? Yes Over-analyze? No. Just DO IT? YES!

Even these guys had a system, albeit a rather extreme one. Nonetheless, random training they did not do. Blind adherance to their program without regard to signs of fatigue, mental or physical depression, falling energy levels, or even atrophy, would be as mindless and self-destructive as driving your car nonstop through an Arizona desert in the summertime without regard to the temperature of your engine. There is absolutely nothing wrong with analyzing and recording any and all information you can or want; I mean this to an absolute and infinite degree: some feel the need to do so more than others, and it does not matter. The one who does the recording has an advantage over the one who does not in a time of trouble in the same way one who writes down all his long division during the high school exam has over the one who does the problem in his head: he has more information to work with directly when he must backtrack to determine why the outcome of his efforts has not reached the desired goal (or answer). The cornerstone of every conquest, whether it be bodybuilding, scriptwriting, spiritual exploration, or otherwise, will never reside in the medium itself, but rather in the individual. Without the origin of all our efforts (ourselves) as the securely-fastened starting point from which we operate, all our means would become a meaningless shell of dogma and science unused and unreachable. Mick asked, in his post, “With all the diet advice, supplements, volume this and T-Dawg that, I’ve never seen gains like these guys made. With or without steroids. What’s up?” I will tell you what I think: these guys simply wanted it bad enough. They would constantly expand upon their limits and discard anything that was of no use; they were not interested in hiding behind anything that could become a limiting factor. They did not do the bare minimum. Patience and determination; they worked as hard as they could without “burning themselves out,” and in turn pushed forward that threshold to a staggering degree. Yes, this is romantic disposition speaking; no, I am not asking you to agree with me: these guys practically “WILLED their muscles to grow.”

“Even these guys had a system, albeit a rather extreme one. Nonetheless, random training they did not do”.


Excellent point…excellent post, Dan! I really missed the core point; THESE GUYS DID HAVE A SYSTEM.(And as you pointed out…wanted to reach some end point VERY badly).


I think some may have read Mick’s post as some type of advocating of random, haphazard training…but it wasn’t…


Again…outstanding post!

Thanks Mufasa! I’m glad you responded to it!

Very interesting post Dan. You know, over the last 18yrs. I have tried many many different types of training programs. I’ve done high volume workouts six days a week, Menzter style HIT training, 5x5 workouts, olymic lifts (for football), Allesi’s (sp?) meltdown training and most recently Haycock’s HST. ( These are only the ones I can think of now) The one thing in common between all these different programs is they all gave me good and sometimes great results. I believe it has little to do with the actual program and everything to do with the consistency of my effort, and calorie consumption. It really is that simple. Pick a workout program, give it total maxium intensity of effort and eat big. Having said all that, I’m really digging HST right now.

Very interesting thread. Analysis paralysis kills training progress. did you every really notice that scientists are usually the skinniest dudes around? I’d love to have the luxury of a cage, a cushioned floor, 1000 lbs of weight, a bench and a place to do chins, along with a limitless fridge. Or maybe the ker really is to do double preexhausion sets, time rest to the nanosecond, and stick to pulldowns, scapular rows, kickbacks, lateral raises, knee extensions, knee curls and flyes???