All Flights—Real, On Time and Non-Stop
February 5, 2003

Every rep has a purpose. A single rep connects the last rep to the next rep eventually completing a set, which when added to other sets over the days and years of your life, produce health and strength and longevity. If you fail to recognize this basic precept, your training will be dull and unfulfilling, a chore producing minimal effect, an object of resentment bearing a short lifespan. Your workouts will be difficult and pointless labor.

You putter about the gym and imitate exercise and your indifferent mind wanders. Exertion is intrusive and the slightest response to muscular contraction is misinterpreted as unacceptable pain and the thought of continuing this foolishness is absurd.

Sitting on a bench with your legs crossed, as if awaiting a delayed flight at the airport, you stare out the window. What a drag. Your health is important and you need to lose weight, and you wouldn’t object to having a strong and appealing body. Lately you seem to fatigue easily, too short on energy and endurance to commence or complete projects or contemplate recreational activities. Something’s got to be done. Digestion’s not so good, either, and the back is sore by the end of the day. Great. And now to fix the thing you’re thinking of adding exercise to your joy of living. Is this a curse, a dirty trick, a bad joke, a nightmare… am I having hallucinations? Is there a pill, a magic bullet, a hi-tech gismo, a secret, an exit?

You are just fine, my friend, a reflection of your neighbor, Mr. Jones, an average citizen on an ordinary day: overweight, bent-over, discolored, mildly hysterical and snacking compulsively while chattering on the cell-phone.

Every rep has a purpose. A repetition is the single thing at the moment of its execution that is responsible for your development. You control it from start to finish, in your mind, in your hand and in your heart. Is it sound, well attended, forceful? If it is weak, thoughtless or disagreeable, progress will be slow. If it is absent, progress ceases.

Every rep has purpose, every set is another step in the great climb and none is wasted, if you are present in its performance. Exercise after exercise is a well-placed building block when you are the builder and not a bystander. The effort exerted to grasp, lift, push and pull is invigorating, but only while you direct the movements deftly and with intensity.

Exert a little and little is experienced, little is accomplished, little is enjoyed.

Exert much and the load is lighter, a thrill to the bones. The rewards are astonishing.

A person can step into the gym and agree that weight-bearing exercise is helpful in regaining one’s stature. He or she can be instructed to perform the needed exercises in the smartest order with the surest form, and “drink plenty of water.” But, unless the applicant is meaningful, yeah, enthusiastic in his practice, the endeavor will be short lived and disappointing. Unless he is stirred, there will be no stimulation, integration, extenuation, perspiration or good, old-fashioned supercalifragilistic self-inspiration.

Here’s the mystery. In weight training, in your pursuit of muscle and might and all the good stuff that tags along, the harder you work at the task the more exhilarating the task becomes. That sounds like the harder you work the easier it becomes. Life’s full of puzzles. The dull chore of going through the sappy motions is exhausting, uninspiring, senseless and mind numbing. Determined execution of exercise, however, with an honest, pure and true resistance that gains your attention is encouraging.

Don’t start squirming. Do you want to be the type -- type U, for ugh! -- who sits around the gym with his feet crossed on the bench press waiting for an imaginary aircraft to fly him away, while muscle degenerates, strength diminishes and fat accumulates around the back of the arms?

Before you answer that and reveal the coward that lurks beneath the Nike Champion designer t-shirt sporting the logo “Just do it,” think of this: We’re listening.

Forget the commercial flights and join the Bombers. Don’t look for the easy way, which is the hard way and never gets off the ground; take the tough way, which is the only way and stays airborne forever.

Bomb Burst of the week -- a short routine designed to ignite your afterburners and satisfy a number of anxious davedraper.com newsletter subscribers who can’t untangle the big-arm mystery. There are no mysteries, only hard work, time and courage.

Routines, exercise combinations and training styles are as broad as the imagination. Again and again, intensity and passion in spirit, mind and body define the champion performer, not the routine. How the athlete thinks about, approaches and pursues his workouts -- who he is, really -- makes the big difference in where he is going with the iron.

Big arms, strong and lean arms or arms that function like backhoes -- your choice or your potential, whichever comes first. This is what I do once every five days, but not until the midsection is completed, which is preceded by a shot of Bomber Blend. I follow the burst with a double shot of Bomber Blend and a series of Farmer’s Walks. Ready? Here we go.

Forearms and grip are a must.

Wrist curls (4 or 5 x 12-15 reps)
…supersetted with…
Thumbs up or dumbbell reverse curls, performed together (4 or 5 x 6-8 reps)
… supersetted with…
Pulley pushdowns (4 or 5 x 12-15 reps)

5,6,8s (5 sets x 6 reps biceps, x 8 reps triceps)

Standing bent-barbell curl
…supersetted with…
Lying close-grip pullover and press

Seated dumbbell alternate curls (palm forward from start to finish, one DB at a time —full focus, slight rhythmic body assist, fully extended starting position
…supersetted with…
Dips or machine dips with focus on triceps

Do it all or do it in parts, just do it with passion and intensity.

THE ARNOLD CLASSIC MEETS
THE DRAPER TOP SQUAT

The Arnold Classic is less than a month away and I plan to be there with dumbbells on. If you’ve been to the Classic you know this is the most crowded (and confused) spot on the face of the earth on March 1st. People, some of which are very strange, lumber along shoulder to shoulder, some of which are very broad, and view the array of gear, equipment and paraphernalia closely or remotely associated with muscles and fitness.

You looking for bee pollen, ephedrine flakes and racehorse hoof blended in a topical solution or a hefty engraved riverbed stone that says Muscle Rocks? How about a software program that sells annual gym memberships complete with instant body analysis, a customized food supplement plan, a wristwatch body-composition assessor and -- wait, there’s more -- a free personal trainers certificate ready for hanging?

This stuff goes fast, as you can expect. Lou Ferigno is there passing out autographs; Arnold walks around shaking hands, Joe Weider periodically gives muscle-building updates over the PA system, Frank Zane is blasting on his harmonica at his Zane Blaster booth, Ms. Olympia look-alikes wander in herds and hard-working dudes committed to training integrity and body symmetry with synthol injected in various parts of their body display onstage the essence of “Real Deal” bodybuilding and why it is called an art form by many of today’s aficionados. Refreshing.

My main man, Odis Meredith, chief engineer of Torque Athletic, the stout gym equipment line popular in the Mid-west, has a cluster of four booths smack-dab in the middle of the Expo hall. There he and his impressive team of engineers will be observing and absorbing the energy and displaying their innovations to the vast audience of muscle builders. I will be among them demonstrating the Draper Top Squat and being a general nuisance. We will also be previewing the yet-to-be-completed Draper Dungeon, a home training station built for gorillas, rhinos and large creatures from outer space.

The Draper Top Squat is an interesting (AKA phenomenal, sensational, astonishing) apparatus that easily attaches to your favorite squat bar, allowing you to support the bar without reaching outwardly to your sides. I devised the gizmo to accommodate a shoulder and back impingement that prevented me from squatting in recent months. Forward extending handles provide comfort, safety and pain-free squatting without compromising true squat action. Believe it or not, the miraculous squatting apparatus is guaranteed to add inches of authentic muscle to your thighs overnight, if not sooner. However, I might add that I would not believe that, given the choice.

The DTS is in its final stages of completion and will be ready for your approval by the month’s end. I will give a more daring description of the startling innovation next week. I like it and so does my cat, Mugsy.

Now is the time to build yourself up and make yourself strong. Health, resistance, might, speed and cognizance are vitally important. Don’t miss out. Join the bombardiers today. We need you.

BOMBERS R US… The Drapes

God bless America and her friends

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