Training

Develop the ideal body using the same principles used by the pioneer of bodybuilding. This 12-week training program inspired by Steve Reeves will help you build muscle.

While the world has changed in many different ways over the years, there has been a common thread over the course of the last half century. Many people wanted to look like the leading man in Hollywood and spend a lot of time studying the methods of these epic stars.

Today, the most popular actor in this regard is undoubtedly Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson. His clips on Instagram are liked and shared by millions of his fans.

Our parents and others from the previous generation looked up to Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone. Terminator and Rocky movies showed how much their bodies were ahead of their time. But even though Arnold and Sly played a crucial role in the fitness movement, they weren't the first.

There was a man who was active before them and competed as a bodybuilder before he became one of the most popular men in Hollywood and that man was the great Steve Reeves.

Who was Steve Reeves?

Steve Reeves (1926-2000) was of Italian descent, but was born in Montana. After the death of his father, Reeves and his mother moved to California when he was 10 years old. His interest in training and building muscle was born in high school and he began training at Yarick's Gym in Oakland.

His bodybuilding endeavors were interrupted when he joined the Army and served in the Philippines during World War II.

After the war, he returned to the U.S. and immediately began preparing for the 1947 AAU Mr. America competition. After winning this title, he began to pursue an acting career.

His acting career was off to a great start after he was selected for the lead role in "Samson and Delilah" in 1948, but he ended up turning down the offer. The reason? Reeves would have had to lose 15 pounds for the role and he felt it would hurt his rankings in bodybuilding competitions.

This decision may have seemed foolish at the time, but Reeves was on the verge of winning the Mr. Universe competition and eventually did so in 1950. Since the Mr. Olympia competition had only been around since 1965, this meant that at the time, Reeves was considered the No. 1 bodybuilder in the world.

Reeves received global acclaim for his roles in Italian films including "Hercules" in 1957 and "Hercules Unchained" in 1959. His full-time acting career continued until he suffered a shoulder injury while filming a stunt that forced him to retire in the late sixties.

Steve Reeves' body

One of the reasons - if not the main reason - for his success was his body. As we examine how he trained and ate, keep in mind that much of the training and nutrition information we have today was not known or readily available in the 1940s and 50s.

Although we might question his strategies today, Reeves was considered ahead of his time back when fitness was still a subculture that wasn't nearly as popular as it is today.

Steve Reeves training principles

Reeves was never shy when it came to sharing his experience and knowledge with anyone who cared to listen. There were three principles that he always practiced and preached when asked how to improve his body.

1. Steve Reeve's attention to recovery

While training is what most people pay most of their attention to, Reeves always emphasized that recovery - both between sets and between workouts - is what allows you to perform at your best when you train. His recovery times were as follows:

• 45-60 seconds rest between sets
• 2 minutes rest between the different exercises of a training session
• 1 day break between training sessions. Reeves never advocated training two days in a row

2. Steve Reeves trained his legs closer to the end of his training sessions

As you'll see in the workouts later in this article, Reeves followed a full-body program. He always trained his legs in the middle or closer to the end of his workouts because the thighs contain the largest muscles in the body - the quadriceps, the hamstrings and the gluteus.

He felt that training these areas at the beginning of his workouts would exhaust him to the point where he could no longer maximize his upper body training. Reeves also believed that focusing on the lower body after the upper body workout would help his endurance and conditioning. Normally his training sessions ended with arm training.

3 Steve Reeves set himself a goal for each training session

Reeves believed that in order to achieve your long-term goals, you need smaller goals to continuously improve. He therefore set different goals including time limits, weight used and repetitions performed to maximize his training.

He always kept a low profile in the gym and rarely spoke to others because he felt that distractions would affect his results and training.

The workouts inspired by Steve Reeves

The following training program is Reeves' most popular program and was created by him in 1951. Obviously, he did not perform the same program every time he trained, but this was considered his favorite program.

He believed that training the entire body during a training session on a day's rest afterwards maximized recovery. You'll also notice that the only equipment he used included barbells, dumbbells and his own body weight. Machines were rare in those days and few weight rooms had what we would call rudimentary machines. Machines only became more popular from the late sixties onwards.

Steve Reeves Monday training session

Steve Reeves Wednesday training session

Steve Reeves Friday training session

Steve Reeves' thoughts on cardio

You might be wondering what kind of cardio or aerobic training Reeves did. Well, he didn't do anything like that. According to his book Building the Classic Physique - the Natural Way, he simply reduced the time between sets and trained harder when he felt he needed to get leaner.

Steve Reeves diet and nutrition

Reeves knew the importance of nutrition and how it would improve his body development and performance. He believed in using 20% protein, 20% fat and 60% carbohydrates as he felt that he had more training energy when he ate more carbohydrates.

He also followed his plan by eating only 3 meals a day, which is very different from many of the 5 to 6 meal a day diet plans we see today.

Supplements that Steve Reeves used

Remember what I said about training machines? Well, supplements fall into the same category. Back then, there weren't many supplements available aside from vitamins and protein powder.

Reeves relied on real food and protein powder to meet his needs. As for steroids, Reeves has always spoken out against their use, claiming that he never used steroids when he was still competing.

Steve Reeves' body

What did all this mean for Reeves in terms of his results? What did his body look like? Reeves was 185 cm tall and weighed 98 kilos.

He always wanted to make sure that his body was not only muscular and bulky, but also pleasing to the eye in terms of shape. He believed that there were specific standards for what the body should look like.

For example, Reeves believed that your thighs should be half the size of your chest, your waist should be twice the circumference of your neck and that your neck, upper arms and calves should all be the same circumference. As for Reeves' body, he came close to his standards and his waist was even narrower than he advertised.

Speaking of his body measurements...these were his stats:

• Weight: 98 kilos
• Upper arm, calves, neck - 47 centimeters each
• Thigh - 68.5 centimeters
• Chest - 137 centimeters
• Waist - 76 centimeters

Conclusion

While many of Reevee's philosophies may seem archaic today, there is no doubt that his body was ahead of its time and would be considered impressive even today.

Reevee's work inspired many of the people who have inspired us years later. There is no doubt that he left his mark and influenced the fitness world in many ways that are still visible today.

Source: https://www.muscleandstrength.com/workouts/steve-reeves-inspired-workout

In this four-part article series, I will cover everything a natural trainer should know about building muscle without using banned performance-enhancing substances. Part two will cover recovery between training sessions.

There are three types of people in the gym:

First, there are those who train exceptionally hard and believe that their ability to recover is infinite. They live their lives with reckless abandon and it seems (at least to themselves) that only their minds define their limits.

Conclusion: Even if their attitude is admirable, there are physiological limits and training must therefore be followed by sufficient regeneration and recovery. You can only train as hard as you can recover and these individuals need to focus much more on the time (both mentally and physically) that they are not training.

On the other hand, you have certain individuals who need to constantly show off their workouts all over social media. These are the guys who are constantly fighting with the weights and posting selfies of it on Instagram.

Bottom line: I have nothing against you using social media to support your lifestyle. But if you're spending so much time posting selfies during your workout, there's a good chance you didn't really accomplish much during your workout. You might want to learn how to train really hard first.

Lastly, there are the individuals who understand the demands of training and choose to change their lifestyle to support their goals. These people don't rely on social media to justify their training decisions - they follow a logically planned progression and don't need external validation.

Conclusion: Interestingly, these are usually the same people who make moderate and sustained progress towards their body development and strength goals. They understand the need for adequate recovery because they have experienced the difficulties of hard training themselves. This article will only scratch the surface for these people, but they will probably already be following the recommendations given here anyway. Regardless of which category you fall into, here are a few simple strategies that everyone can benefit from:

1. a good night's sleep to all

When it comes to recovery, nothing is more important than sleep. There is no single supplement, dietary protocol, soft tissue massage program or prescription medication that can ever match consistent, good sleep.

Of course, this is not groundbreaking in any way - most people understand how important sleep is - and yet many are not getting enough good, restorative sleep. Don't assume that you don't fall into this category - just because you're sleeping through the night doesn't mean you're getting quality sleep.

Here are a few simple questions to ask yourself the next time you think about the quality of your sleep:

• Can you wake up (at least roughly) at the same time every day without having to set an alarm clock?
• Do you dream regularly?
• Do you wake up more than once a night to go to the toilet?
• Do you need caffeine first thing in the morning to function?
• Do you drool or snore when you sleep?
• Do you wake up with a dry mouth or have trouble breathing through your nose after waking up?
• Do you typically feel an incessant urge to take a nap between 1 and 4 pm every day?

If you answered "no" to questions 1 and 2 and "yes" to questions 3 to 7, then you have some work to do. You'll never be able to train as hard as you want or build muscle and lose fat until you get your sleep issues under control.

Don't believe me? Here's the result of a study on the subject:

"Sleep deprivation reduced fat loss by 55% and increased the amount of lean body mass lost by 60%. This was accompanied by markers of increased neuroendocrine adaptation to caloric restriction, increased hunger, and a shift in relative substrate utilization toward reduced oxidation of fat." (1)

Subjects who slept only 5.5 hours per night lost 60% MORE muscle mass and 55% less fat during a period of caloric restriction compared to subjects who slept 8.5 hours per night. But not only that - their ability to regulate hunger and burn fat was also impaired.

Do you still believe that training is the most important part of the equation when it comes to body composition changes? If so, you should think again.

2. close the window and open the door

The hierarchy of regeneration is as follows:

1. Total calorie intake
2. Macronutrient composition(protein, fat, carbohydrates)
3. Nutrient timing
4. Food composition
5. Supplements

You'll find different versions of this hierarchy on the internet, but the real message is always the same: as long as you don't get your calorie intake right, none of the other factors matter. So the whole discussion must revolve around the above hierarchy.

Your recovery ability will not magically double just because you focus on proper nutrient timing. So take care of the basics first (calorie intake) before considering the following supplements.

PRE-workout nutrition (before training)

• Consume 25 to 35 grams of protein from a high quality source (meat, dairy, eggs, etc.) 1 to 3 hours before your workout.
• Add 30 to 60 grams of easily digestible complex carbohydrates (rice, potatoes, fruit, pasta, oatmeal, etc.) to increase blood sugar levels.
• Avoid high-fat foods during the pre- and post-workout window, as these slow down the rate of digestion and absorption of nutrients.

INTRA-workout nutrition (during training)

• Consider consuming liquid carbohydrates (30 to 60 grams per hour, depending on the intensity of your workout. People with a higher training volume can start at the higher end of this range).
• Supplement with 5 grams of creatine monohydrate to improve cellular hydration status.
• If you have not consumed a pre-workout meal in the 1 to 3 hours prior to your workout, consider consuming a liquid whey protein source (20 to 25 grams) during your workout.
• Pro tip: BCAAs are worthless compared to whey protein when it comes to stimulating muscle protein synthesis.

POST-workout nutrition (after training)

• If possible, you should ensure a high predominance (50 to 60%) of carbohydrates around your training window in order to increase the uptake into muscle tissue via GLUT4.
• If you have eaten your pre-workout meal within the last 1 to 2 hours before your workout or if you have consumed a liquid protein source during your workout, then you can safely wait 60 to 120 minutes after your workout to eat - let your hunger be your guide. There is no post-workout anabolic window during which nutrients need to be consumed - they should be consumed during the entire training window (before, during and after training).
• Salt pre- and post-workout meals generously and consume potassium-rich foods to ensure replenishment of electrolyte reserves.

3. friends, family and food

This may sound slightly esoteric, but the concept is inherently simple - we as humans want to be part of a community. We want to belong, we want to be accepted and we want to be part of something bigger.

We need others to survive and we need to meet our own basic needs - food, water, a roof over our heads, etc. But we also have psychological needs that we meet through relationships - the need for love, for encouragement, for respect and for support.

"People want to feel something - anything. They want to connect with the world and other people. They want to stand out from the crowd. They want to connect with others through shared effort and pain." - Dr. Ben House That's the beauty of social media. It allows us to connect with others who share a common interest or hobby with us. It provides us with a platform that allows us to spread education or ideas and communicate.

Not surprisingly, the use of social media platforms has exploded among millennials and Generation Z (born between 1995 and 2012), who spend more than 10 hours a day on screens, much of which is dedicated to social media.

However, social media is a double-edged sword - it promotes the idea of connection without physical interaction. It seems as though communication has been limited to a 280 character limit with interspersed likes, tags and endless scrolling.

"Constructed emotions form neural networks around personal past experiences AND shared social constructs. For hundreds of thousands of years, we were primarily influenced only by those we came into direct contact with and were primarily surrounded by tribes of family and close friends.

The technological revolution has changed the way we generate emotions, categorize experiences and with WHOM we share them. We are now more frequently inundated with more virtual (and less experience-based) information, while at the same time losing connection with the real people around us. We often unconsciously generate substantial emotional constructs based on our biased projections." - Kyle Dobbs

Get to know people, spend less time on social media and spend time outside with the people you love. You'll be surprised how much better you'll feel.

Simplicity may be boring, but it works

Remember the Pareto Principle I mentioned in the first part of this article series?

Pareto Principle (i.e. the "80/20 rule") - for many events, roughly 80% of the effects come from 20% of the causes.

You may notice that this article did not discuss the influence of infrared compression bandages, beet juice or transcranial magnetic stimulation (tDCS). All the recommendations were seemingly rudimentary in nature.

And that is exactly the point. Most people will never achieve their goals simply because they are always chasing the latest industry trends and overlooking the obvious:

• Move well
• Move often
• Go outside
• Eat like an adult
• Listen to your body
• Go to sleep before 11pm
• Wake up with the sun.

Repeat this for 10 to 12 weeks and see what happens. Don't just take my word for it, try it out and see for yourself.

References

1. Insufficient sleep undermines dietary efforts to reduce adiposity

Source: https://www.muscleandstrength.com/articles/natty-lifters-guide-to-recovery

Think less and train more. These are words to live by if you are the type of exerciser who thrives on details but never makes progress. I can't tell you how many pointless Facebook discussions I've witnessed between coaches and exercisers discussing minimal details that will make maybe a 1 to 2% difference when it comes to body composition and strength.

Sure, 1 to 2% can make a noticeable difference when you're competing against the best in the world. However, chances are you're not competing in Mr. Olympia, you're just a recreational athlete who wants to look good naked and impress a few people with your strength performances.

At the end of the day, remember one thing - it's not about doing fancy and fashionable things, it's about relentlessly applying the basics until you become a master of the mundane.

If you struggle with chronic over-analysis, then you should read on. It's time to change things up and stop treading water once and for all.

1. program design

Have you ever met one of those guys who are literally married to their program? These guys can literally tell you exactly what percentage they will be moving on squats three weeks from today.

Now don't misunderstand what I'm saying - program design and periodization are both very important to ensure long-term progression. But what are you going to do if you feel absolutely knackered or bad and your program includes a session of deadlifts at max effort?

Let me guess - 3 scoops of pre-workout booster and Metallica on max volume? That might work once or twice, but you'll quickly find out that this kind of strategy is anything but sustainable in the long run.

If you want to make gains for the rest of your training career, you need to learn to interpret your body's signals correctly and respond to them appropriately.

Despite what most motivational images will tell you, your body isn't lying to you and it's not always about punishing it even harder. On the contrary, I think you should be more concerned about your recovery than your training if you want to ensure the best possible growth.

2. technique

I am a technician by nature, which means that this trait is ingrained in my personality in some way, but I also try to combine the right technique with an adequate level of intensity to ensure that my priorities remain balanced.

Technique will always have its place and justification, but it should be reserved primarily for sub-maximal training. Once you get into the 90%+ range, then you need to remember one thing (in the case of deadlifts): "Pull more and think less."

Of course, you should work to continuously improve your biomechanics through a variety of internal and external cues, but you need to choose your words carefully as these cues are very individual in nature. Many cues can be misinterpreted and overused, as I will explain in more detail below.

3. personal inclinations and preferences

No, your muscle group split is not superior to any other training style, regardless of how many PubMed links you provide. Science is great, but you shouldn't try to force a square peg into a round hole just because a study says one method is better than another.

One of the most important aspects of program design is how much fun you have exercising and how well a program can be maintained over time. However, most people don't realize that these components are inextricably linked. In other words, you will be able to stick with a program longer if you enjoy what you are doing.

There will always be scientific research to support one side or the other, but when push comes to shove, if you don't enjoy what you're doing, you won't be motivated enough to make exercise a habitual part of your life.

4. supplements

Here's an earth-shattering thought: what if you actually listened to your body and got more sleep instead of abusing tons of pre-workout boosters to get you through another mediocre training session?

Not to mention, if you need a pre-workout booster to get you motivated to train, it might be time to rethink your goals or maybe even your attitude towards the gym.

I hate to break this news to you, but supplements are only responsible for roughly 5% of your body composition changes. You can't compensate for a poor lifestyle, inadequate recovery or miserable biomechanics with supplements.

5. intensity

You're probably lazier than you think. Let me clarify something - laziness is largely a societal result of mechanization combined with our ingrained tendencies to produce as little effort as possible.

Your body is a master of homeostasis, which is why it won't expend excess energy when survival is the primary goal. But not only that - we also tend to overestimate our efforts during exercise and underestimate our calorie intake (1, 2, 3).

In other words, there's a good chance you're eating more than you think and that you don't know your physical limits because you've never tested them.

As I mentioned above, program design needs to be based on having fun while training, but at the end of the day, it's not just about what a person wants, it's also about what they need to do to get there.

6. basics before supplements

So you've learned how to count macronutrients, read a few studies in the Journal of International Society of Sport Nutrition (JISSN) and competed in your first bodybuilding competition. That's great. But it certainly doesn't mean you know the full scope of nutrition, nor does it make you an experienced trainer.

The basics are pretty simple - calorie balance, food quality, satiety and portion control are all pretty easy to understand and teach. Yet most want to jump right into supplements, meal timing or nutritional biochemistry.

I've got news for you - if your life revolves around counting macronutrients, swolfies on Twitter and logging your workouts, then you're not even close to mastering the fitness lifestyle. Fitness should enrich your life outside of the gym, not distract you from it.

7th Frequency

I know you're a member of the #keinetrainingfreedays team and you remind everyone of this with your daily Instagram posts. However, you should know that giving yourself a workout-free day won't kill you. Not to mention, you might even start to get stronger if you make rest and recovery a priority.

However, I'm not talking about just sitting around watching Netflix either. Do some low-intensity exercise (e.g. a solid dynamic warm-up), get your diet in shape and make sure you get enough sleep.

8. training environment

No one makes progress at Planet Fitness...no one. Okay, I lied, I know a few people who train hard there despite the lack of squat racks and the terrible playlist.

What I'm really getting at is that you need to find a training environment that is conducive to your physical and mental growth. However, keep in mind that growth comes from discomfort and that your body is a master of homeostasis.

For example, I routinely drive an easy 45 minutes to train at a performance center across town. The equipment there, combined with the general atmosphere and coaches there, makes me want to come back despite the long drive.

Most won't find this type of environment at a commercial gym, which is why it's important to find like-minded people who are willing to push you.

9. training duration

As it turns out, the cortisol bogeyman is complete nonsense. You've probably seen a million articles describing the devastating effects of workouts that last longer than an hour, and to stick with the truth, this could actually be a problem in certain populations.

However, the vast majority of gym-goers posting on Facebook while working out probably need to train harder and worry less about a supposed "hormonal cascade" from excessive workout duration.

10. science

You too, science? It seems like everyone is an evidence-based professional these days. Cool, more power to you. However, we need to be careful that we don't get to the point where we can't see the forest for the trees when it comes to interpreting data and prioritizing specific variables.

For example, when discussing digestion and mixed macronutrient meals and their impact on nitrogen balance, it is often recommended that meals be consumed 3 to 4 hours apart due to the recalcitrant nature of protein synthesis (4, 5).

Let's consider this scenario for a moment - if someone is awake for around 16 hours, this would amount to a maximum of 5 meals if that person follows the lower end of the suggested meal frequency guidelines.

But what is this person to do if they need to eat 5,000 kcal on a daily basis and can't manage 5 meals of 1000 kcal each? Obviously, more frequent meals are needed to spread the calories throughout the day and ensure that this person achieves their performance goals.

Strength coach Dan John once said "The goal is to maintain the goal as the goal." Don't get caught up in the details of the science and overlook the larger principles of basic physiology and thermodynamics.

The anonymous on the spot kicker

The internet is both a curse and a blessing. You have access to extraordinary information, but often it can be quite confusing due to the conflicting studies and opinions of experts.

Again, I would like to quote weight training coach Dan John who once said "Repetition is the mother of putting it into practice." With all this information overload, it's time to take a step back and master the basics. Learn to love simplicity, as complexity risks a lack of long-term adherence to a program.

The vast majority of all exercisers will make the best improvements to their body development and strength by focusing on the basics - adequate caloric intake, multi-joint exercises, quality nutrition, sufficient sleep and improved lifestyle factors.

It's not about where you start, it's about where you end up and the path that gets you there. Don't make it any harder than it has to be.

References:

1. Difference Between Self-Reported and Accelerometer Measured Moderate-to-Vigorous Physical Activity in Youth
2. Discrepancy Between Self-Reported and Actual Caloric Intake and Exercise in Obese Subjects
3. Individuals Underestimate Moderate and Vigorous Intensity Physical Activity
4. Protein timing and its effects on muscular hypertrophy and strength in individuals engaged in weight-training
5. Nutrient timing revisited: is there a post-exercise anabolic window?

Source: https://www.muscleandstrength.com/articles/reasons-youre-not-making-gains