A History in
Barbell Basics

It may come as a surprise to some, but neither Steve Reeves nor Arnold Schwarzenegger invented pumping iron. In fact, it is an ancient training concept with origins in southern Italy, about 500 B.C., by a man named Milo. People before him had exercised by lifting heavy objects, but historians credit Milo as the first to really figure out the progressive method of strength training.

Good old Milo. What he did was shoulder a small calf one day and carry it the length of the stadium at Olympia. The story goes that he continued carrying the animal regularly until it was full-grown. Thus Milo got progressively stronger as the animal got progressively heavier.

Once you understand the story of Milo, you understand the foundation of all progressive resistance training, a.k.a. weight training, pumping iron, and so forth.

In a beginners’ training protocol, novices are started off with straight-line resistance progression. It works like this: The beginner does an exercise with a comfortable weight for, say, 12 repetitions. At each subsequent workout, one repetition is added. When 15 repetitions are reached, a little more weight is added at the next workout, but the repetitions drop back to 12. Then one keeps repeating the sequence.

Of course straight-line progression cannot go on forever. But the idea is to continue that approach for as long as you can. When it gets tougher to keep adding weight or reps, you may now have to give your body more time to adjust to greater demand by staying with the same weight and reps for two or three consecutive workouts. Then you move up again in resistance or reps.

It’s a great concept. But eventually everyone reaches a time when adding either more weight or more reps seems next to impossible. Fitness trainers may call it a “sticking point” or reaching a “plateau.” Getting past sticking points or plateaus requires other tricks of the trade. Besides adding reps to a set or weight to a barbell, you may also . . .

• Add sets: If you have been doing, say, three sets of 12 reps, add another set and do four. Keep in mind, though, if too many sets are added, over-training is likely. Think it through: if you find you are not recovering (e.g. you’re still tired after a night’s sleep), you may be overdoing it. So ease up.
• Another method is to take shorter rests between sets: Suppose you are resting 90 seconds between sets. Cutting rest time in 10-second increments is also a form of progression.

Remember also that resistance progression is not exclusive to using free weights. The same principles can be applied when using exercise machines, resistance bands, or doing bodyweight calisthenics.

Stay Healthy. Stay Fit.

Logan

Senior Exercise Central

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Logan Franklin
The Gray Iron Fitness Newsletter
www.senior-exercise-central.com