Evolutional Training
Back to Where it all Began

By Gary Edwards

If the readers of BodyFitness enjoyed a genetic make-up similar to that of the top bodybuilders, there’d be no need for them to rack their brains for new ways to “abuse” the muscles and try them out, and I’d not write a single article for the magazines. The muscles of anyone to ever pick up a weight would come along nicely, free of complications.
But that’s not how it is. It’s far from that, which is why so many people are copying the workout routines of the stars…and flopping.
When nothing appears to be working or yielding any results for you, it’s time to have a little think and go back to where it all started: back to basics, in other words.

Muscular development is a highly complex process which depends on a number of factors, though the main one is the balance between exercise (the stimulation of the muscles) and the recovery from that exercise. The first stage is to work the muscle fibres with heavy weights; the second is to allow the body to come back from the stress it has endured and the weariness induced; and the third is the actual development once the second stage is complete.
Obviously, gene power can be assumed to play a significant role in this, but whereas there’s no way of changing what Mother Nature and our forefathers have passed on to us, we can influence all the other factors. The adaptation of our routine to our capabilities is therefore the way to go, not the adoption of a routine for bodybuilders with far superior gene power.
Too many people fall into the trap of incorporating the principles, exercises and routines of the giants of muscle into their own bodybuilding, convinced that if it’s working well for these guys then it’ll do the business for them as well. But the truth is the titleholders are equipped with an immense gene power which allows them to withstand a huge volume of exercise, recover from it all and develop a bloodcurdling amount of muscle. Such traits are not at all common, which is why hulks like that are few and far between.