With Friday comes another random thoughts of the week post, where I am going to cover what has gone on this past week in bodybuilding.

Enjoy!

Up first I want to go back to something I touched on before, Dennis Wolf at the just past Mr. Olympia.

Reason being, is that, there is a big thread on what happened to Dennis at the Olympia, on one of the more popular bodybuilding sites on the web.

A Lot of people are saying that he should dump Chad Nicholas and switch to someone else.

Personally, I was not aware of all the people Chad has trained, but after reading the posts, I agree, I think he should get rid of Chad and try Pit Trenz or Charles Glass.

But again this is just my opinion.

Another thing that was pointed out on the thread was words to the effect that since he placed so low he will have less pressure, I agree with this, he can go back home, get his head together and just train and grow.

However, one point that Dennis needs to deal with now is qualifying for the Mr. O, as last year he was already in based on him placing in the top ten.

This means he will have to do at least one show, but maybe more, to qualify for the O.

But, in fairness to Dennis, this could be EXACLTY what he needs, because if something happens at the first show he enters, say he comes in flat, he can learn for this mistake and try and fix it for his next show.

Which can help him come prep time for the O.

I touched on this before, but Dennis has, according to what I’ve read, an extremely fast metabolism, so this can be a factor in why he just can’t get is condition spot on.

Another factor with Dennis, could be that his metabolism while still fast, it has started to slow, and since it was always very fast, he did not know how to deal with this.

Dennis is still young, as noted in a prior post I believe he is still in his twenties or just thirty, so he has plenty of time.

With another year of solid training under his belt Dennis can come back next year and really surprise a lot of people.

HANEY OR CUTLER

I saw this poll question and wanted to comment on it.

They are asking who has the better physique, Lee Haney or Jay Cutler

For those who don’t know Lee started his run of eight consecutive Olympia’s in nineteen eighty four.

To me it is no contest, Lee Haney all the way.

Better shape, small waist, to me he just looks better.

I realize Jay Cutler is big than Lee, but to me, again Lee just looks better.

O.K.

That’s all for this week.

HOPE YOUR WEEKEND GOES GREAT.

Until Next Week

WORK SMART

A few interesting things happened at this years (2009) U.S. Open Tennis Championships.

First was Serena Williams (the younger of the two Williams Sisters) outburst over a foot fault call—which finished her tournament.

And Roger (the five time defending champion) Federer losing his cool over a late challenge being allowed.

Considering that both Serena Williams and Roger Federer were the defending champs—to me it brings up the issue of confidence, with then brings up the issue of mental toughness.

Wouldn’t you be confident if you were Mr. Federer—knowing that you basically OWN the court at the U.S. Open.

Same goes for Serena Williams—as she was the defending champion.

You might be asking yourself, how exactly this relates to bodybuilding.

To me it relates perfectly.

First, while I am all for switching routines, I think to many people get ants-in-their-pants syndrome and lose confidence in their current routine, so they keep switching routines in hopes of finding that magic one.

Second, it applies to supplements; people drop hundreds of dollars a month on the latest wonder supplement, only to drop serious coin the next month when the newest hot thing comes out.

They never give the first supplement a chance to work (not that it would as most supplements are hype).

AN EXAMPLE

I know a gentleman that committed to a business years ago, now the business was not flashy, but the way he related it to me was, once he committed to it, that was it, no wavering or changing plans—he did his research and he KNEW that what he was doing was solid.

Honestly, I know something about the business he went into and it is a high effort affair, hours and hours per day need to be spent working the business.

And you cannot really take any time off, because you need to do it daily.

However, he committed to it and now enjoys the rewards.

Same goes for the bodybuilder who commits to a course of action, say getting stronger on the basics—he did his research—found a solid routine—so he sticks with it—and over time builds an impressive level of strength.

Which, will, chances are, translate into more muscle when/if he switches back to a more traditional routine?

CONCLUSION

I know that the grass-is-always greener on the other side, but the next time you start a new routine—give it time to work.

Yes, it will be hard, but remember it is not where you start but where you finish.

Until Next Time

STAY FOCUSED

Every once-in-a-while it is fun to think back to the good-old-days—those days when we were young and had not a care-in-the-world.

Summer vacation would roll around and we would spend our days playing football, baseball—just about anything that involved running around.

Of course, a lot of my time was spent flipping through the latest copy of whatever muscle magazine I could get my hands on.

CRAZY TIMES

I remember reading about the one-hundreds system, if memory serves, you picked a weight and I did one hundred reps with it, taking a couple of short pauses along the way.

Well…

I couldn’t just do one-hundred reps, now could I, no I went crazy, for some reason at this point the barbell upright row was my exercise of choice, and did something like three hundred reps, non stop!

I was sore for three days!

I’ve talked about this one before but—it is so crazy that I will repeat it.

I had been reading about negative only work and how effective it was, and like any young man I was obsessed with building big arms.

So one day I decided I was going to do negative only curls, I just couldn’t figure out how to do it.

Finally, I had the answer—using an old chest expander and chair and one of those doorway chin-up bars, you know the kind you wedged in between the doorway, I managed to rig up a method of doing negative only curls.

I mean it was seriously stupid to be doing them that way, but what a pump I got in my biceps.

It was unreal.

SOME COMMENTS

Whenever I read Dave Draper’s articles that they publish in Ironman Magazine or read the emails he sends I cannot help but think that somewhere along the line, something was lost.

That with all of the fancy equipment and scientific advancements we may have forgotten the simple joys of lifting—I cannot describe it as well as Mr. Draper does—but that maybe we have put too much of an importance on knowing everything—instead of as we did and Mr. Draper did—and I am sure thousands of his contemporaries did—we just lifted and strained and sweated—

Maybe not knowing exactly what we were doing, but we grew and learned and had fun in challenging ourselves to do one rep better than we did yesterday.

Sure we were over trained—but who knew a word like that even existed back then—but it didn’t matter—

All we wanted was the challenge, that one final rep, feeling the pump grow with each passing set—and best of all—

Knowing we were free to do it all again tomorrow.

..The Memories.

Until Next Time

KEEP WORKING

Years ago when I curiously picked up a copy of Muscle And Fitness at my local grocery store (this was before the net) I would never have imagined that I’d still be bodybuilding decades later.

Through all the fits and starts (and injuries), something inside me stayed true to bodybuilding.

I can still remember walking or riding my bike up to that grocery store and eagerly scanning the magazine rack to see if they had the new copy of Muscle And Fitness.

Later when I started to read Muscle Mag International I was like the proverbial kid-in-a-candy store because I actually had two (yes two!) magazines to look for every month.

I am sure the store managers got sick of seeing this skinny kid coming into the store the same time every month and buy nothing but one or two magazines (if they were in) and alright I’ll be honest—my favorite chocolate bar.

Honestly all I wanted were those magazines and my candy bar and nothing else.

Then I would rush home as fast as I could and devour each and every page in both magazines and, of course, try out all of the new routines.

I knew nothing about bodybuilding, supplements, proper eating and the like, and that was O.K.

What I knew was that I wanted muscles like the bodybuilders in the magazines had and that was that.

So that was my beginning in the sport.

Of course, we all got/get started differently, for some it is an older brother that we looked up to and want to be like, yet for others it was a trip to the movies where they first laid eyes on an action hero with muscles.

How we got hooked on bodybuilding does not matter, the simple fact is this, we are more than hooked on bodybuilding and all it encompasses, somewhere, somehow bodybuilding—the iron and steel, the clang of the plates, the strain and sweat of getting just that one last rep, became part of us.

To those who do not know the joy of all those early wake up calls, just so we can test ourselves—to push past previous limits before the sun peeks itself out to start another day—that is O.K.—Because we know, and that is enough.