By John Cardillo
Article featured in Iron Man Magazine
At the age of 15 I was bitten by the iron bug. Within a few months of touching a barbell I knew my life would totally center on bodybuilding. My enthusiasm was overwhelming and my energies were totally directed towards my daily workout. Most of my friends could not understand why I would quit playing football and hockey, sports which I excelled in, just to lift weights. It seemed absurd my high school football coach who could not understand why I would trade the glory associated with high school athletics for weight training. None the less my mind was set and I was determined that I would transform my 140 pound body into a physique that would make even the biggest and strongest football player stop in awe, and take notice.
My appetite for bodybuilding became even greater when I began buying bodybuilding magazines. The pictures of champion bodybuilders were very inspirational. I took every bit of advice each champion had to offer in the hope that I too would follow in their footsteps. With no other coaching other than the magazines I formulated my own training routines.
Within six months of having touched a barbell I was training 2½ hours each day 6 days per week, doing as many as 25 sets per body part. I figured that if the champions in the magazines grew training in this fashion I would too.
I remember the great enthusiasm with which approached my new training program. I would perform as many as 125 to 150 sets of 6-10 repetitions various exercises several bodyparts on a dally basis. During the last few workouts of the week 1 unable to finish my whole routine as I was over tired. I recall many times after a workout being unable to do my homework because my hands would tremble uncontrollably. After months of enduring this training regimen I began asking myself, “Is it worth it?” I had little to show in the way of gains for my excruciating efforts. I began having doubts about my bodybuilding potential and considered quitting. Being in a state of confusion and depression, I began searching for some new magical information to help me overcome my dilemna.
It was at this time that I happened to find out about a private gym located in my town. I visited the gym and met the owner immediately, a man in his 70s. The equipment in the gym was very unique. I explained my training history to the gentleman received rude awakening. I felt he would have some compassion for me, and lead me towards the right direction. Instead, he accused me of being a typical case in that I’d been brainwashed by all the hog wash that was written in the magazines. He further added that training all those hours was a waste of time and foolish. “My gym is only open 3 days per week-Monday, Wednesday and Friday and the 20 fellows that come here only do one set of 10 exercises listed on that wall.” He further added that if I wanted to train there I had to train his way only.
At first I thought this man to be somewhat ludicrous. I wondered how anyone could develop a good physique only training three times per week and only doing ten sets per workout. Having nothing to lose, I decided to allow him to put me through a workout. I was bound and determined to show him that I was by far more advanced than any of his trainees and could go through his workout without even a sweat. Was I ever in for a surprise.
The workout started with full squats. He believed in the old method of breathing squats — at least 20 reps with as much weight as possible. He suggested I use only 75 percent of my normal squatting weight. Which at the time was 195 pounds, 50 pounds more than my bodyweight. With each deep breath I would complete one repetition. Before this set I had never gone beyond ten repetitions on squats.
As I approached the twelveth repetition I could feel my lungs and rib cage starting to hurt from the heavy breathing. By the 15th repetition I started getting light headed and my thighs began to ache from the Lactic Acid buildup, I was ready to quit. Gasping for an extra breath, I proceeded to complete another agonizing repetition. Barely completing the 17th rep, I conceded to the excruciating pain.
Barely capable of returning the bar to the squat racks I was told go to a bench to perform Breathing Pullovers for ribcage expansion. Lying across the bench and holding a 20 pound barbell at arms’ length, I was instructed to perform pullovers, inhaling as deeply as possible on each repetition. I could feel an incredible expansion in my chest cavity as my gorged lungs stretched my ribeage to its capacity.
This ordeal left me breathing hard. With little rest I was next on a bench press bench doing shoulder width Bench Presses. Again, the heavy breathing and the weight coming down on my chest was enough to make me reassess my desire to be a bodybuilder.
After completing the set of bench presses I began feeling nauseous and light headed. My heart beat became so rapid that the gym owner suggested I rest a while before continuing. As I laid down on a bench all sorts of negative thoughts entered my mind. If I had to train this hard, I thought, it just would not be worth it. The magazines I read never said to train this hard. As long as I followed the routine that champions used I, too, would become like them. In the midst of all these scattered thoughts I decided I had had enough and quickly snuck out the door before the gym owner had a chance to see me.
On my way home I began to feel disheartened by my workout performance. Maybe I did not have the ambition it took to become a bodybuilder. But the more I thought about the whole episode, the more I began to realize that maybe that workout was my first real workout and possibly I had stumbled on something that would greatly help me in my quest to become a bodybuilder.
Two days later I revisited the gym and joined. I was so eager to learn as much as possible that the old gym owner nicknamed me “Eager Beaver.” I listened to his every word of wisdom. He taught me the importance of sticking to basics and training as hard as possible. He also introduced me to Iron Man magazine and suggested I get a subscription and read no other magazine on the subject.