Despite the fact that modern, sophisticated methods of strength training, and state-of-art equipment in gyms offer a wide range of training opportunities to both professional athletes and amateur fitness enthusiasts, the influence of classical figures who used traditional, simple, low-tech bodyweight techniques in their training routines, is still strong in the world of muscular strength.
In fact, legendary figures such as Charles Atlas, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Lou Ferrigno, Bill Kazmaier and Magnus ver Magnusson, to mention just a few of the charismatic and iconic names who dominated bodybuilding and strongman events throughout the years, didn’t keep any training secrets at all.
The training routines of most of those athletes are, more or less, known to the public.
In fact, these body strength pioneers have even published books to reveal the “secrets of their strength” even more.
If they can be called “secrets”, most strongmen literally swear by three disciplines in their regular training schedule, and in their life overall: simplicity, repetition, and persistence.
How to build strength using your own body
Building body strength, contrary to common belief and the huge volume of relevant literature, is not rocket science.
The most accomplished strongmen achieved their power feats by keeping it simple.
On top of that, there is no need for complex and expensive equipment, because you have the perfect training instrument you can afford, for free: your own body.
If Charles Atlas managed to build his amazing physique without using any weights while training, apart from his own bodyweight, there is nothing holding you back from sticking to his approach.
How to build strength with circuit training
First of all, it should be explained what circuit training is.
While a percentage of athletes tend to focus on training a particular group of muscles, by using a single set of exercises, the principle of circuit training is based on the recurring application of sets of exercises, aimed at various muscle groups.
For example, based on a more traditional approach to strength training, you can choose to perform as many push-ups sets of 10 repetitions as you can, up to exhaustion, and this can be your only type of muscle training.
On the other hand, by using circuit training, you can alternate one set of push-ups with one set of squats, one set of pull-ups, one set of sit-ups, and so on.
In this way, you can benefit from the fact that exercise variation improves functional strength more than single exercises do.
Useful YouTube videos on strength training
The work of certified gym instructors cannot be underestimated by any means, as they have contributed a lot towards helping generations of body strength fans and professional athletes to achieve their fitness goals.
However, the Internet has proved its miraculous power, once more, and there are now available tons of great fitness instruction videos on websites like YouTube.
While traditional strongmen of the past struggled to find valuable information and had very limited access to strength training tips, usually through word of mouth, modern aspiring bodybuilders and strongmen are spoiled for choice when it comes to insightful strength training secrets that can be found by searching online.
They only need to possess the required level of stamina and persistence, in order to be able to fully develop their strength training potential.
This article was originally published by me on Read.Cash.
You can read it here.