IGX

When I get back to the gym I'm thinking of switching from 531 to Easy Strength. I've only given it a quick peruse so I'm not sure yet.

I did not like how this book was written. It is disorganized and much of the conversational style is useless fluff. Half a page for a Virgil quote that has no real purpose is, while typical for DD, stupid and wasteful. That said, the content is really quite good and I am a fan of this book. The quadrants are a useful model for a figuring an athlete's strength training needs, and perhaps even better, for once strength coaches clearly present what they have to offer and then get the f@#k out of the way. I've been a grappler for a long time, and most strength training approaches I have seen basically make the weight room the reason, not the means...this will leave an athlete exhausted and unprepared for his actual sport. DD and PT actually manage to present a way an athlete can build strength without spending much time or energy on weights, and that alone is a great achievement, the essence of which is distilled on pg. 86:

Easy Strength Training for Athletes: 10 Rules of Thumb

1. Use a limited number of “big bang” exercises—for example, the deadlift and the floor press
from Power to the People!
2. Lift two to three times a week.
3. Keep the reps in the 1 to 5 range, emphasizing doubles and triples.
4. Keep the volume around 10 reps per lift or 6 when using only singles—for example, 5 x 2,
2 x 5, 532, 3 x 3, 343, 424, 1234, 4321, 12321, 6 x 1, and so on. You may stay with the same
weight or vary the weights from set to set.
5. Rest approximately 5 minutes between sets. Practice Fast & Loose relaxation drills in
between.
6. Train in the 80% to 95% 1 RM intensity zone. Always leave at least 1 or 2 reps in the bank.
7. Go for a PR, single or rep, when you are feeling exceptionally strong, but stop short of an
all-out max. Set a “sort of max.” Always back off after a PR for at least two weeks.
8. Vary the intensity every workout, either through Power to the People! style cycling or
through less structured advances and retreats.
9. Don’t stop strength training in season but reduce the volume by two-thirds to one-half.
For example, do 3 x 2 instead of 5 x 2 or 3 x 2 instead of 3 x 3. You may switch from three
to two strength workouts a week.
10. Finish your workout feeling stronger than when you started. Stop the workout if your performance
is less than perfect, and come back another day.

Good review. Thanks for taking the time to share that Fatty.

Wonder why they don`t have the paper coy on Amazon?

Fat Cat wrote:I did not like how this book was written. It is disorganized and much of the conversational style is useless fluff. Half a page for a Virgil quote that has no real purpose is, while typical for DD, stupid and wasteful. That said, the content is really quite good and I am a fan of this book.

I'm also a fan of this book and while I'm not sure if it's me adapting to reading from a Kindle or not, but I think I'd much rather have this book in hard copy to thumb through as it is disorganized and definitely full of fluff. The one point of Fatty's assessment that I disagree with is I think the conversational style is unique and I could see a trainer or couch enjoying ongoing benefit from reading the perspectives on the topics addressed in that fashion. But again, less words/fluff would have been better.

I'm glad I own it and I'm glad I finally got to pay back Dan John in some very small way for his countless gratis contributions to the interwebz training community, but in ranking the Pavel books, "Beyond Bodybuilding" is still at the top of my list.

My quibbles over the form of the book should not obscure the quality of the content. Frankly, the 10 rules which I excerpted alone are worth $100 and represent a lifetime of lifting for athletic achievement.

FWIW, I liked this book. And, FWIW, I am difficult to please with a fitness book.

I just started "Never Let Go."

That is a good book.When not sure what to read I can always find something interesting when flipping throu "Never let go".

Have any of you seen Dan's 'Intervention' dvd set? It looks like a great investment, but I just wanted to ask if anyone has it, and what they thought of it?

Fat Cat wrote:I did not like how this book was written. It is disorganized and much of the conversational style is useless fluff. Half a page for a Virgil quote that has no real purpose is, while typical for DD, stupid and wasteful. That said, the content is really quite good and I am a fan of this book. The quadrants are a useful model for a figuring an athlete's strength training needs, and perhaps even better, for once strength coaches clearly present what they have to offer and then get the f@#k out of the way. I've been a grappler for a long time, and most strength training approaches I have seen basically make the weight room the reason, not the means...this will leave an athlete exhausted and unprepared for his actual sport. DD and PT actually manage to present a way an athlete can build strength without spending much time or energy on weights, and that alone is a great achievement, the essence of which is distilled on pg. 86:

Easy Strength Training for Athletes: 10 Rules of Thumb

1. Use a limited number of “big bang” exercises—for example, the deadlift and the floor press
from Power to the People!
2. Lift two to three times a week.
3. Keep the reps in the 1 to 5 range, emphasizing doubles and triples.
4. Keep the volume around 10 reps per lift or 6 when using only singles—for example, 5 x 2,
2 x 5, 532, 3 x 3, 343, 424, 1234, 4321, 12321, 6 x 1, and so on. You may stay with the same
weight or vary the weights from set to set.
5. Rest approximately 5 minutes between sets. Practice Fast & Loose relaxation drills in
between.
6. Train in the 80% to 95% 1 RM intensity zone. Always leave at least 1 or 2 reps in the bank.
7. Go for a PR, single or rep, when you are feeling exceptionally strong, but stop short of an
all-out max. Set a “sort of max.” Always back off after a PR for at least two weeks.
8. Vary the intensity every workout, either through Power to the People! style cycling or
through less structured advances and retreats.
9. Don’t stop strength training in season but reduce the volume by two-thirds to one-half.
For example, do 3 x 2 instead of 5 x 2 or 3 x 2 instead of 3 x 3. You may switch from three
to two strength workouts a week.
10. Finish your workout feeling stronger than when you started. Stop the workout if your performance
is less than perfect, and come back another day.

That review and summary just saved me $40. (I'll probably eventually buy the book anyway because I like DJ.)

It's worth the buy. The Quadrants thing is very interesting.

definitely worth buying. Good stuff.

The train for your sport/lifestyle not to be a MMA fighter advice is also one of the best things in the book.

If you get a chance to listen to Dan speak it's well worth the money.

Ed Zachary wrote:The train for your sport/lifestyle not to be a MMA fighter advice is also one of the best things in the book.

If you get a chance to listen to Dan speak it's well worth the money.

One the only people I wont "steal" from. Happy to pay him over and over.

Danny wrote:Have any of you seen Dan's 'Intervention' dvd set? It looks like a great investment, but I just wanted to ask if anyone has it, and what they thought of it?

I have it and its very good. A little pricey, but Dan John is one of the few people I would spend that kind of money on for a product.

Anyone know if Dragondoor uses paypal?

Order it from Amazon.com.

The obvious yet subtle digs DJ and Pavel take at the @F mentality in the book are very well-done.

What a duck says wrote:The obvious yet subtle digs DJ and Pavel take at the @F mentality in the book are very well-done.

Meh. Fuck Crossfit and the dingbats that love it but I hate passive aggressiveness. I live in Minnesota but was not born or raised here and Minnesotans wrote the book on PA behavior. My review of "Live Life Aggressively" is coming soon so stand-by for more talk on PA writings.

Haha, it can't be easy to be a NYC battlecat in the land of the mild-mannered Minnesotan.

Fat Cat wrote:Haha, it can't be easy to be a NYC battlecat in the land of the mild-mannered Minnesotan.

Yes and I freak people the fuck out roughly 3x per day.

Dr. Nappy is definitely scary but I think of him fondly when I rub one out.

The Rambo 3 Co star can have a soft side on the phone and with Starbucks cards.. but don't tell anyone. He wants the world to view him as a Bourbon swilling bad ass.