In our introductory column we noted that in some of the ‘muscle magazines’ there’s an unfortunate amount of fantasy, not fact, with articles promising “12 Pounds Of Muscle In 30 Days” or “Two Weeks To Rock Hard Six-Pack Abs” blare out from glossy covers. We also stressed that at Natural Champion we’re about fact not fiction. To start things off we mentioned that there are a number of components to successful training, among which are frequency, intensity, duration, volume, use of progressive overload and exact exercise selection – and gave the following overview::

*Frequency refers to how often you train, both in terms of total workouts and number of training session for specific muscle groups or skill sets. Like each of the variables, this is dependent to a degree on your level of experience. If you’re a beginner, it’s best to break in on a schedule whereby you train the whole body each workout, training three times a week, with at least one day’s rest between sessions. More advanced trainees can split their routines to work different body parts and/or skill sets on different days, but we recommend that most individuals have at least two ‘rest’ days per week.

*Duration refers to how long you train. The duration factor is more of a constant than some of the other factors as beginners, intermediate, and advanced trainees alike should generally follow the same time guidelines. If your goal is building lean mass, increased strength, and/or optimizing your ability to generate maximum explosive power, you should train approximately one hour to an hour and a half max per session. Over and above this time frame intensity and performance begin to degrade, certain unfavorable hormone changes start to occur, and you rapidly approach the border of overtraining.

Remember, when it comes to resistance training, you can train long or you can train hard, but you can’t do both. The idea is to train hard.

*Intensity is a measure of how hard you train. For sake of simplicity, we can measure intensity in terms of approaching momentary muscular and/or cardiovascular/cardiopulmonary failure. A rule of thumb for resistance training exercises is that the last rep of the last set should be the final rep you could do in passable form. We do not necessarily recommend going to complete muscular failure, at least not on a regular basis for trainees who do not fall into the advanced category, and we most definitely do not recommend going to complete cardiovascular failure. The legendary Lee Haney summed it up succinctly when he said, “Stimulate, don’t annihilate.” That principle worked for Lee – it’ll work for you.

*Volume is a measure to the total amount of work performed. Bear in mind that volume is correlated to the other variables, particularly intensity and duration. If you train with high intensity, your volume – and duration – will automatically be adjusted accordingly.

*Exercise selection: It is axiomatic that, all other things being equal, the harder an exercise is, the better it is for you. For maximum results, concentrate on the compound movements that involve more than one joint and muscle or muscle group at a time. Isolation movements do have value, but in general they should be relegated to second tier level. You’ll build twice the size, strength and functional power in half the time by doing such exercises as squats instead of leg extensions, dips instead of tricep pressdowns, and bench presses instead of pec deck flyes.

The secret to getting maximum results in minimum time from your training lies in finding the right combination of frequency, duration, volume, intensity and exercise selection and combining that combination with consistency.”

In our next two issues, June and July, 2006, we gave our readers a glimpse of master sports trainer Tony Villani and his X-Treme Performance Enhancement System (XPE). Tony and XPE have worked with such star athletes as Jamal Lewis, Hines Ward and a number of other top athletes in other sports.

From July through December we presented a five part series entitled “LAYING THE FOUNDATION FOR MUSCULAR SIZE, STRENGTH AND EXPLOSIVE POWER”, a step-by-step guideline, complete with samples of exact routines, on setting up proper training routines, starting at the beginner’s level and working up through intermediate to advanced levels. No matter what your level of training experience, our reader feedback tells us this series is worth reading – and rereading!

We started off the New Year by exploring the role of exercise in fat loss, complete with a primer on anaerobic and aerobic exercise and a comparison of the relative merits of each type of training for ridding the body of unwanted fat while maintaining lean mass.

In February, Cory Gregory, our August, 2006 cover model and Introducing… column feature, showed us how to develop mouth dropping abz…and he definitely has them!

In March of this year we shook up some male trainers by telling them that maybe they ought to copy the way some females train – in other words, pay attention to form first and weight second

Our April column, “It’s Still Not Rocket Science” we took a brief look at the dizzying array of ‘space age’ training techniques all touted as the ‘best’ way to train and boiled it all down to a few basic rules designed to help you wade through the techn0-babble about training and come up with a routine that works for you! In the process was quoted a couple of super achievers - Dave Draper, the famed Blond Bomber, Mr. America, Mr. Universe and the legendary Bruce Lee - on their philosophies of training.

The Blond Bomber summed it up this way in one of his weekly newsletters (January 10, 2007) at www.davedraper.com:

“Nothing cutting-edge has appeared in lifting since the pre-dawn introduction of barbells and dumbbells over a hundred years ago.

Once you've trod the straight path to the center of things, why wander circuitous routes in the name of advanced technology? We're dealing with the physics of gravity -- what comes down must go up; the mathematics of addition -- one rep plus one rep equals two reps; the science of nutrition -- garbage in, garbage out; the logic of persistence -- push that iron intensely; and the philosophy of mankind

only the strong shall survive. Thank God for straight lines, clear views and commonsense: obstacles that challenge, injuries that instruct, plans that stimulate, deeds that reward and goals that motivate -- blessings available to all of us, not just the elite.”

And the late Bruce Lee got right to the point quicker than one of his lightning strikes or punches with this quote: “Absorb what is useful, reject what is useless.”

Exactly!