La solución a la congestión del tráfico:

There is no failure except in no longer trying.

~Elbert Hubbard

Dinosaurs don't make excuses. Everyone else seems to be more interested in making excuses for their failures than about earning their successes. If you want to get big and strong, get under the bar and lift. Don't bore me with ten thousand reasons why you cannot do something, just do it. As I always tell anyone who starts to concoct excuses, “Shut up and lift!”

NO MORE EXCUSES

Let's discuss the excuses that 99% of those who train will offer to avoid the pain, torture and agony of dinosaur training. Why run through the list of excuses? Because I want YOU to be left, at the conclusion of this chapter, with NO excuses for not training hard, heavy and seriously on a sensible, abbreviated program similar to those detailed in this book. You can CHOOSE not to train hard, heavy and serious, but I want you and everyone else who reads this to know that your excuses are nothing more than an admission that you prefer to train like a bunny rabbit instead of a man.

“TOO OLD”

What's me first common excuse guys use to avoid hard training? “I'm too old.” Oops – sorry, guys, it just won't work. How old do you think I am? I'm 38 years old at the time of this writing. That's two years shy of 40. That's old enough to be the father of the majority of guys who lift weights, and almost old enough to be the grandfather of many of them. I guess I'm “too old” to train heavy, eh? Then why am I benching 400, squatting 500 and tossing heavy bags and barrels around like they were paper? Maybe the barbells, bags and barbells don't know they're dealing with an old man.

Guys, there is no such thing as being “too old” for hard training. Obviously, if you have not trained since you were a teenager, you need to get a physical exam and your doctor's approval before starting in on any sort of exercise program. You need to break into things slow and easy. You need to use caution and common sense. But you don't need to sit on the curb and watch the parade pass you by. You can still march in the parade. You can even ride the elephant if you wish.

If you have trained consistently from your youth, you can continue to train for your entire life. History is full of examples of serious weight trainers who kept going well into their fifties or sixties. Jan Dellinger told me about watching John Grimek casually clean and press a pair of 100 pound dumbbells during a workout at the York gym when Grimek was around 65 years old. Grimek cleaned the bells like they were paper and pressed them five times as if they weighed nothing at all.

This was done as part of a three-times-per-week schedule of circuit training, not as a maximum effort or any sort of big deal. Grimek also did partial squats with 800 pounds or so - with no spotter, with only a thin leather lifting belt, and using a set of “stair” squat stands instead of a power rack. Hackenschmidt retained the ability to lift 150 pounds overhead with one arm well into his sixties. Henry “Milo” Steinborn lifted an 800 pound ELEPHANT when he was 57 years old, and was doing 400 pound squats when he was 70. John Y. Smith won a prestigious, hotly contested contest to determine “The Strongest Man in New England” when he was in his 60's. Doug Hepburn still handles ENORMOUS poundages - and the man is approaching 70! Father Bernard Lange of Notre Dame University, a “Milo man” who got his start with a Milo barbell and a course authored by Alan Calvert, was able to deadlift well over 500 pounds when in his 60s. The list goes on and on.

“NO TIME”

What's another common excuse for not training? “I have a busy job – I don't have time to train.” Sorry, pal, that's another excuse that won't hold water. What do you think I do for a living? I'm a lawyer, I work at a large law firm. It emphasizes commercial litigation, discrimination suits and employment law. My practice keeps me extremely busy. I'm also a freelance writer, I'm married, I have the same demands and time constraints that anyone has when he lives with another person. But guess what - I still make time to train. If I can do it, you can do it. Anyone can do it. It's just a matter of self-discipline and determination.

Most people are geniuses at wasting time. Most people who lift weights are absolute geniuses at never having enough time to fit some squats or heavy back work into their schedules. Don't follow their example. Time is too valuable to waste. Devote yourself to your job and to your family, do what you need to do, and make the time to train. If you WANT to train, you will FIND the time to train.

Consider the example of Greg Pickett. Greg is married, has three small children and works a demanding, time-consuming job as an auditor. Greg will drag himself out of bed at 4:00 in the morning, crawl down to his basement gym and do heavy singles in the squat with over 480 to 500 pounds, heavy deadlifts with over 500 pounds and dumbbell deadlifts with 200 pound dumbbells or more. He doesn't make excuses and he doesn't whine and cry about not having the time to train. He MAKES time to train.

“BAD GENETICS”

What's another common excuse? How about “I have bad genetics for lifting weights. I can't do squats or benches or deadlifts because I have bad leverages for those lifts. I know I can never be very strong or muscular, so I don't see why I should train as hard as guys like Kubik, Pickett, Whelan or Thompson.”

Sorry. That's yet another excuse that just won't wash.

Weight training has developed - or is developing - a cult of mediocrity. The genesis for the cult of mediocrity is the realization that genetic factors play a substantial role in one's rate of progress and in the ultimate level of muscular size and strength that one can achieve through weight training. I have nothing at all against pointing out the importance of genetic factors. People need to know that Joe Superstar is the champion of the hour in large part because of his genetic potential for bodybuilding or powerlifting (and his drug bill!) rather than any special training secrets, supplements or other commercial razzle-dazzle. There's nothing wrong with pointing out the role that genetics plays in Iron Game success.

There is, however, something wrong with patting yourself on the back because you are “the world's hardest gaining bodybuilder” or any similar self-appointed title. There is something wrong with those who take perverse pride in dwelling on their failures. There is something wrong with those who claim to have special insights to offer solely because they have trained for years and can only bench press 200 pounds. There is something wrong with those who dwell on training injuries, sticking points, genetic limitations and failure.

When John Stuart Mill stated that “[T]he general tendency of things throughout the world is to render mediocrity the ascendant power among mankind,” he wasn't speaking of weight trainers, but he certainly could have been.

Men, there is nothing wrong with having average or even less than average genetic potential for building muscular size and strength. There also is no glory in it. It is absurd to pat yourself on the back because you have difficulty gaining size or strength, and it is equally absurd to forego serious training because you feel you are only “average.”

The great value of weight training is that it can take even an average man and turn him into a superhuman powerhouse of strength and might. He may not look like Joe Superstar when all is said and done, and he might not set any world records, but he will be four or five times stronger than he was when he started. He will be healthier, happier, more fit, better conditioned, a better worker, a better husband, a better father - in all aspects of his life, he will improve himself ENORMOUSLY through serious, heavy weight training. And what is equally important, he wilt have fun doing it!

Don't talk to me about “poor genetics” or “disadvantages.” I don't want to hear that kind of negative talking. I don't care who you are or how poor your potential. I KNOW that if you knuckle down to some serious, heavy training, you WILL begin to see results. You may not end up by being the champion of the world, but you can go far - much, much further than you presently realize.

A PERSONAL EXAMPLE

Let me offer a personal insight into “genetics.” As a young man, I read enough to realize that genetic potential played an important role in one's ultimate level of muscular size and strength. I had trained hard for a number of years and had made what I felt was good progress. I weighed 175 or 180 pounds, benched 350 pounds for one touch and go rep, squatted 315 for five reps, and figured I had pretty much gone as far as I could realistically hope to go.

Then I learned how to train the right way – HARD and heavy, on ABBREVIATED routines. That's when things started to happen. One day I stepped on the scales and found I weighed 193. And I was closing in on a 400 pound bench press. I continued to train and my weight jumped to 198 ... then 200 ... 205 … 210 … and now I weigh 225. My personal record in the bench press is up to 415 pounds, starting from the chest and using a 3” bar. When I weighed 175, I doubt if I could have managed 250 in that fashion.

If I had decided that my “genetics” did not allow me to go any further than a bodyweight of 175 pounds, I would still weigh 175 pounds. In fact, that IS what I thought for many years, and for many years my size and strength went nowhere. It was not until I began to re-evaluate what might be possible that I started to discover new levels of muscular size and strength. Genetic potential is undeniably of tremendous importance to any serious weight lifter. But you can't do anything to alter your potential. All you can do is try to actualize it. Even if all you have is only “average” potential - if you make the most of it, you will leave the rest of the world gasping in amazement at what you can do. Remember, even “average” potential - if fully actualized - will make you incredibly strong.

Don't get overly concerned about your genetic potential. Whatever it is. you can achieve tremendous results. Never sell yourself short.

David Webster has authored a great book, SONS OF SAMSON, which profiles over 500 professional strongmen entertainers. It is limited to men who made a living by doing strength shows, and thus, does not include many other enormously powerful men: Olympic lifters, wrestlers, highland games competitors, field athletes, football players, certain pre-steroid bodybuilders (e.g., Park, Grimek and Ross) and powerlifters. Many of the athletes featured in the book did shows during the 1890-1920 period (the “Golden Age” of strength shows), and some lived earlier; thus, they lacked any of the “benefits” of modern equipment, modern supplements or modern training information, let alone modern pharmacology. Nevertheless, Webster identifies over 500 men so powerful they could earn a living by doing strength shows. Are we to believe that all of these men were genetic freaks? Or were the majority of them men with average or above average genetics who trained like grizzly bears to develop as much power as possible?

The worst thing that can happen to a man is to give up on his training because he feels he doesn't have the potential for great gains. “The deepest personal defeat suffered by human beings,” said Ashley Montague, “is constituted by the difference between what one was capable of becoming and what one has in fact become,”

Don't give in to defeat without even putting up a fight. Gird your loins and enter the fray. Don't use poor potential as an excuse. Be a dinosaur. Make the most of what you have. Be everything you CAN be before you worry about what you CANNOT be.

THE ULTIMATE EFFORT-SAVING DEVICE

When you come right down to it, excuses are a way of avoiding effort. Most men live their entire lives without ever making a serious, determined effort to achieve anything. In the incomparable prose of William James, it was expressed like this:

Compared to what we ought to be, we are only half awake. We are making use of only a small part of our physical and mental resources. Stating the thing broadly, the human individual thus lives far within his limits. He possesses power of various sorts which he habitually fails to use.

Don't make excuses today and wake up tomorrow kicking yourself over what might have been, what could have been or what should have been. Seize the moment. Act today. Act now. Step confidently and resolutely toward the goals and achievements you desire. If you don't run, you can't win. If you make excuses and don't enter the race, you forfeit all opportunity of ever accomplishing anything. A person who is constantly making excuses is nothing more than the earliest of quitters. Determine today that YOU will not become an encyclopedia of excuses. Determine today that YOU will become the one man in a thousand who dares to bring his dreams to life.

The fear of life is the favorite disease of the twentieth century.

~William Lyon Phelps

You must never make a promise which you do not fulfill.