You live this life for the raw challenge. The pursuit. The never-ending battle, against yourself, against the weights, against the voice in your head that says enough is enough. This is entirely your own bizarre quest, and you’re on the road alone. Even though it never fails to baffle others, you want more. You demand more. But considering how far you’ve come, is it really possible to take it up a notch, to go that extra mile? Mutherfuckin right it is.
To get really big, you need to concentrate on the little things. The details. The stuff that often gets brushed aside or shrugged off as unimportant. The Animal must be a stickler for the minutiae, because in his heart he knows that is where he can find that elusive next rep. The next five pounds are concealed in the fine print, the shit the next guy ain’t willing to read.
Nutrition & Supplementation
1. Add a Shake.
2. Be Meticulous About Supplementation.
3. Prepare Your Meals.
Training
1. The Big Three.
Try to structure your workouts around the basics: squats, deads and bench presses. These need to be at the heart of every real mass assault. Make the machine movements and isolation work the icing on your physique cake. The real shit, the grimy free weight basics, are the tools you used to get so damn big in the first place. It is time to return to your roots Animal. Get back to the basics and focus on getting stupid strong on these powerlifting favorites and just watch your physique explode with new growth. Yeah they’re hard. Yeah they suck. And that is why they work so fucking well.
2. Train Everything
You are not a partial bodybuilder. Your whole physique needs to be freaky and huge from head to toe. That’s why you need to do the detail work. Train your forearms after bis and tris. Hit your neck and traps after delts. Murder your calves when you finish quads and hammies. And don’t forget to train those abs. Neglect nothing. Strive to be complete. Do that detail work and watch how much the rest of you physique improves.
3. Stretch
Stretching is another bodybuilding fundamental that’s often cast aside as pointless. Stretching is vital to new growth and muscle health. The addition of stretching can tear down muscle fascia and deep muscle fibers, allowing for new growth and a further influx of post workout nutrients. None of us in this iron game are half as limber as we need to be, and that can be a serious obstacle in the road to progress, not to mention how important an element of injury prevention regular stretching can be. Try stretching between sets and incorporate some deep, high intensity stretching after you train a body part and see what a difference it can make in your overall physique.
Now you’ve got it. You are now armed with new weapons, new tools to allow you to ascend to the next level. Go that extra mile. The fact that you are a thinking man’s bodybuilder, that you are constantly examining and observing and striving for that edge, will be what makes all the difference in the long run. Remember: the freak inside your physique is hiding in the details. It’s time to let him out.
