(Note the five pound dumbbells)

This is Eugene Sandow. He is considered the father of bodybuilding. The trophy given to the winner of the Mr. Olympia bodybuilding title is called a “Sandow”. The most coveted award in the sport. Sandow commanded the bronze age of bodybuilding.

Unlike the steroid addled behemoths of today, he took no enhancements of any kind. He didn’t follow strict diet guidelines either. He did things in moderation and made sure that he got enough protein every day. He also drank and smoked.

But what I find incredible is that he trained with five pound dumbbells. (Note the picture on the right) This is how he trained his whole body. The women he trained used only three pound dumbbells. He trained every day and did very high repetitions, as high as 50-100 per body part.

He didn’t consider the weight as something to be lifted up and down, the weight merely assisted in the contraction of his muscles.

He wasn’t just hoisting the weight up, he was “thinking’ the weight up. When you drive attention to a body part you immediately become aware of it.

Try this: Sit in a chair with your right hand resting in your lap and your left had hanging by your side. Now close your eyes and bring your attention to your left pinky. Feel that slight tingle? Now keep doing it until that tingle is all you feel. This is what mind-muscle is all about.

The next time you do a bicep curl, use a very light weight, don’t use any momentum and imagine the peak of your bicep as an erupting volcano as you contract. Feel that?

You are commanding muscle growth.

If you contract your muscles slowly while thinking about it, you are driving energy into it and when you do enough reps to exhaust the muscle, growth will occur. Once the muscle tires, it doesn’t know if it’s five pounds or five hundred pounds.

So all the things we believe about heavy weight and long recuperation periods get left by the wayside thanks to Mr. Sandow.

I love this type of defined muscularity. I would rather look like an anatomy chart than a bouncer if you want my two cents.

So the next time you head to the gym to take your iron pills, you might want to “think” about what you’re going to put your body through.

Why weight? 🙂