The Arthur Jones Paradigm
A Second Look
Grease The Groove
A Better Balance
Human Nature
My Current Regimen
Wrap Up
The Arthur Jones Paradigm
There’s a fitness pioneer and inventor of the nautilus machine by the name of Arthur Jones. He’s also the one to develop the training philosophy of High-Intensity Training(HIT) which is a form of bodybuilding that requires 20 to 30 minutes of a grueling/one set to failure workout followed by 3 to 4 days(sometimes more) of rest. This system was passed on to Mike Mentzer, Dorian Yates, and a few others.
The story goes that Arthur Jones while walking around a zoo, saw an orangutan pull himself up a tree using only one arm. From this point and few other observations, he determined that training should be
Brief
Infrequent
And Intense
This observation birthed HIT training. There are many people who still use this form of training today and those who follow it to T are receiving its benefits.
A Second Look
However, what I believe was missed by this observation was the intensity a monkey undergoes by pulling himself up with one arm. For us, a one-arm pull-up, requires a great deal of coordination and intensity of contraction in the working muscles. But for a monkey….
Any type of ape over time learns to climb and swing through the forest with ease. As they grow and eat, they gain more strength and muscle. Watch any ape documentary you’ll see them climbing day after day. What was seen as
Brief
Infrequent
And Intense
Was more like
Constant
And Moderate to Intense
Therefore, another way to train will be to do something a little every day. The intensity can’t be too high to where you’ll need to take two days off, but just reaching the edge.
The intensity can’t be too low either, to where your body never adapts with strength, coordination, or muscle.
Grease The Groove
This is a training concept where you treat strength as a skill. If you can only crank out five pull-ups, you practice two to three reps spaced throughout the day so that you stay fresh and are not exhausted. You then add up the total number completed that day and try to do that same number throughout the rest of the days in the week.
Over time you add a rep here and there so that five reps in one set are easy. You repeat this process throughout the weeks and months until you reach your goal. This is a great way to gain strength in a quick manner. However, it has its drawbacks.
One is the warm-up. Especially if you’re new to working out. The warm-up doesn’t have to be long either. An easier variation/weight of the movement you are about to execute or some overcoming isometrics to wake up your nervous system. But each time you do this there will be some small warm-up required.
Another is dedicated time. At least for me, setting aside 20 to 35 minutes in a day is easier than establishing multiple smaller sessions throughout. If you have all the time in the world this will work but for myself and others, a single/dedicated time will work better.
A Better Balance
This past few weeks due to situations I’ve been putting myself through I’ve been making my workouts
Shorter
Consistent
And lower in intensity
What it looks like is that I do one set of certain movements on one day and one set of different movements on the next. If you do it right there will be minimal soreness the next day. Rep ranges are anywhere from 7 to 12 for the upper body and 15 to 20+ for the lower body. I tend to not grow as quickly if my leg volume isn’t high so that's why my rep ranges can be upwards of 20.
Soreness, or Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness (DOMS) is an indication that damage has occurred therefore recovery needs to be properly nurtured. If you’re sore to the point that you can barely move and you push yourself through another intense session you will be disrupting the recovery process. The more you disrupt the recovery process the less you will progress.
Training in this fashion every day will not disrupt the recovery process to a high degree. Similar to the grease-the-groove method, you are practicing strength as a skill. So expect your strengths gains to be noticeable. But given that the rep ranges will be higher expect this to keep you slim as well.
Human Nature
If I could describe in one phrase about what this brand is about or what motivates me its, “Showing others the benefits of living within our human nature.” Training in an intense fashion to the point that you need days to recover does have its benefits. However, the human body, like any other animal is designed to perform work every day. Sometimes this work can be at a higher intensity as well.
It's periods of greasing the groove with something super intense like a large hunt or a major battle, then it's back to greasing the groove. The human body can thrive and improve without bringing yourself to the point of death.
Or to put it another way…
“It is necessary to say that any exercises performed, or any exertion made with a view to increasing the Physical Power, must not be carried far enough to induce excessive fatigue. This fact has been apparently overlooked by most teachers, whose summary advice is ”to work until the muscles are incapable of doing anything further or the time being”, or words to that effect. They also give to their unfortunate pupils to understand that, ”the more work done, the more benefit gained”, etc.” (Maxick and Saldo)
Think of the above quote what you will. But there is a benefit in training in a way that’s non-exhausting but stimulating to your muscles and nervous system. That doesn’t take much out, but increases what is already there.
My Current Regimen
This form of training is slightly more intense than grease the groove but not by a large margin. The slightly higher intensity is just to pack on some mass or stay lean. I can tell people the benefits of Progressive Calisthenics all day but if I don’t look the part then that affects the sales process. I’m not trying to return to my calisthenics mass monster days after college(20 pounds heavier than I am now) but I am trying to get some of my groove back as I lost a lot/almost too much weight over the past few months.
And plus I started working at a gym as a personal trainer again so it helps to look good.
“Hey wait a minute why are you talking so much about minimalist training and working out at home but you’re working at a gym? Somethings wrong. You’re….YOU’RE!!!!!”
This economy sucks, the job market sucks, and the tools I thought I had to successfully build an online blog/business so far seems out of reach. But I’m not giving up. The methods being used to crush the middle/entrepreneur class are far-reaching from what I can tell. I’ll probably do a rant article in the future on what it’s like being a millennial who
Was raised by great parents
Graduated from a prestigious military college
With a good work ethic
Yes, there are Millennials and Gen Z that suck but a lot of it I believe is the effect of disillusionment. The roots of this go far beyond the last few years.
“Jonathan you’re getting off-topic!!!”
Oh sorry…
Here is what my example workout will look like for me.
For each individual based on your conditioning, it will look different. Instead of one-legged squats, you might be doing deep lunges. Instead of elevated one-arm push-ups, you might be doing diamond push-ups or elevated push-ups.
I’ll probably do a progressive calisthenics video course after I finish up with the overcoming isometric one.
But the key is this,
Pick a calisthenics movement that challenges you in the 7 to 20-rep range
Save a few reps in the tank/don’t go to failure
Pick major movements for most of the body each day (Push, Pull, Legs, or Core)
And if you feel sore the next day add in some stability or pure grease the groove work
Rest on the weekends (add Friday if you want). Go for a walk, ground a little more in the park to heal from non-native EMF, etc.
In addition to this, I perform Overcoming Isometrics on most mornings.
Wrap Up
Training in this fashion every day will help you to get stronger and keep you lean.
Don’t destroy the muscles…nourish it.
As you become more advanced you will notice that you will be more limber throughout the day and can even shorten your warm-up times.
Thank you for making it to the end and let me know your thoughts below.
Until next time…
Monday is one-legged squat day. Sounds like a good way to get over a "case of the mondays."
not off-topic, environment affects mental state, mind-body.
love nautilus equipment, went to a gym in the late 1970’s / early 1980’s that had nautilus equipment that was proportioned to women’s smaller framed bodies. they had a circuit set up to isolate all the major muscle groups. this was my first experience with weight training. there was a wide ranging age of membership (including senior citizens) & fitness levels. it was a very popular gym.