Arthur Jones' redpill on training equipment and exercise variety

[Mass_Bixo]

Arthur Jones sounds like a frustrated natural. Over decades, he  kept recommending shorter and shorter workouts. However, he kept getting smaller and smaller. All his research, and all his machines, and he kept getting smaller. Finally he says just spend $20 and do chin-ups and dips. If HIT was so great, why was Arthur the incredible shrinking man?

He was actually in good shape for a old dude... I agree HIT is BS, but I don't think he would have been bigger if he had trained more

[Grinch]

He was actually in good shape for a old dude... I agree HIT is BS, but I don't think he would have been bigger if he had trained more

Jones  hit his peak when he was fairly young, around 1954 (age 30).  According to Ellington Darden. http://www.drdarden.com/readTopic.do;jse...?id=433961

"Arthur, if you'd known then what you know now, what would you have done differently with your routine?"

"I would've trained less," he replied. "Instead of 12 exercises, I would've reduced the number to eight. Instead of two sets, I would've performed only one set. Instead of training three times per week, I would've trained twice a week. "

http://www.insideoutsidespa.com/the-why-...utside.php

Looking back, Arthur Jones, from his more than 65 years of strength training, learned the following:

• Two sets are better than four sets, and that one set is better than two.
• 8 exercises are better than 12.
• training two days per week is better than three.

I think the picture you show of Jones is from around 1970, age around 44. I am not disagreeing he would have grown more if he trained more, but I conclude he hit his natty limit around age 30, and HIT, which he adopted after age 30, did nothing to change that fact. Probably, he would not have lost as much muscle over time, if he had continued conventional training. Even in this picture, his arms and shoulders look good,  but nothing else.

[Mass_Bixo]

Jones  hit his peak when he was fairly young, around 1954 (age 30).  According to Ellington Darden. http://www.drdarden.com/readTopic.do;jse...?id=433961

"Arthur, if you'd known then what you know now, what would you have done differently with your routine?"

"I would've trained less," he replied. "Instead of 12 exercises, I would've reduced the number to eight. Instead of two sets, I would've performed only one set. Instead of training three times per week, I would've trained twice a week. "

http://www.insideoutsidespa.com/the-why-...utside.php

Looking back, Arthur Jones, from his more than 65 years of strength training, learned the following:

• Two sets are better than four sets, and that one set is better than two.
• 8 exercises are better than 12.
• training two days per week is better than three.

I think the picture you show of Jones is from around 1970, age around 44. I am not disagreeing he would have grown more if he trained more, but I conclude he hit his natty limit around age 30, and HIT, which he adopted after age 30, did nothing to change that fact. Probably, he would not have lost as much muscle over time, if he had continued conventional training. Even in this picture, his arms and shoulders look good,  but nothing else.

Didn't know he was still in his 40s in this pic, his face looks mid 50s, he surely didn't age well.

30 is not young for reaching ones muscle potential. Many people start to lift at 18-20, many even earlier, and after a decade of consistent not stupid training (training don't have to be "optimal", not being retarded is enough) one's muscles will be as big as they can gen naturally.
One thing tha skews our perception is guys who train for several years (and are at or close their natural potential), then start juicing, gradually up the dose over the years and hit their peak after 40. Then they claim some nonsense like "I really started getting results after many years of training when I discovered X training/diet method".

Anyway, Jones limitations had more to do with human natty physiology than with HIT. But because we see him in the context of professional BBing, we tend to forget that is how a average guy at his age who lifts hard and doesn't juice will look. Writing books on training or making millions from selling exercise machines don't change physiological limitations.

[Grinch]

How Jones trained and how he recommended people train could differ as well. He himself took part in the Colorado experiment, but he only trained upper body. He chain smoked unfiltered pall mall cigarettes. Then his super hot, forty year younger, fifth wife divorced him and cleaned him out, taking his Florida compound and large aircraft landing strip.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TeElGrLgAcI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=frFRTvJeWXs

I agree he just hit his natty limit.