Complicated
By
Justin Harris
This article originally appeared as an EliteFTS.com Q&A
here
Recently on the Q&A, someone asked me about my thoughts on tweaking the DC
training program. He was having some difficulties getting his numbers up but was
worried about not following the program to the letter. While I answer questions
like this all the time, this one got me thinking about how unnecessarily
complicated people make training out to be. And ironically, it was this exact
same thing that started a miscommunication between my and the originator of DC
training. We’re good friends now, but we started off on the wrong foot because
of a misunderstanding. I'll tell the story and hopefully answer the question in
the process.
Around 2001, DC training was first being written about online. Dante (the
originator) never intended to release a training “program.” He replied on a
training forum about why people don’t grow at the rate they want to, and the
thread eventually grew to over 1000 pages.
Early on, when DC training was starting to grow in popularity, someone asked a
bunch of really tedious, insignificant questions about little things like “where
do you place your elbows when doing triceps press downs if the bar is two inches
wider than the one you usually use?” My response was something along the lines
of “Jeezus, it’s just weight lifting! Why does everyone have to make it so
ridiculously complicated? It’s not rocket science. You lift hard, get stronger,
eat more, and then grow. That’s all there is to it!”
Dante took it as a knock against his routine. That was all wrong. I was
praising his routine because it isn’t rocket science. At its core, his
routine is train harder, get stronger, eat more. The only response to that is
for your muscles to get bigger.
I've trained with many top people over the years. I’ve literally trained with
the strongest people on earth. I’ve trained with and competed with the best
bodybuilders on earth. I’ve had discussions about their training, diet, and
supplements. I have the actual printouts of all the “secret” supplement
protocols that the top bodybuilders use. I know all the “secret” cycles that the
strongest people in the world do before a meet. In all the time I’ve spent with
those people, I don’t think I’ve ever talked about minute training details.
The one thing they all have in common is they don’t focus on the little
details. They focus on going to the gym and lifting as heavy and hard as they
can. They take pride in losing training partners on a weekly basis. They take
pride in making sure “the new guy” doesn’t make it through his first squat
session.
I’ve trained with Dante himself on multiple occasions. We even have some videos
of it on YouTube. He’s a big dude. He’s always near 300 lbs and he isn’t fat by
any means. Want to know how planned out our training sessions are? We decide
what exercise to do about two minutes before we do it. Then whatever exercise we
use, we make sure we do whatever it takes to get better, whether it be an extra
rep on the first set of the rest pause, adding an extra 5-lb plate, holding the
last rep’s negative a few seconds longer, or anything else that allows us to go
to the log book and write down a new personal record next to that particular
exercise.
Hard work is what pays off. The only thing you should ever really worry about is
if you’re working hard enough. I’ve talked about this with many people over the
years, but there is a very definite contrast in conversation between the “top
guys” and the “local competitors.” Whenever I’ve spoken with a group of up and
comers—the local guys just starting to do competitions—the conversation always
revolves around the “secret” cycles, the exotic compounds, the rare products,
the combination of supplements that only the “top guys” must know about. That’s
always what the conversation turns to.
Whenever I’ve talked to the “top guys” in bodybuilding or powerlifting, the
discussion is never about rare compounds or exotic products. It’s
always about eating—how much, how often, what to eat, when, the time they
spent $120 on breakfast at Bob Evans. That’s the difference. When I talk to Matt
Kroc, we talk about food. After we talk about what to eat to get bigger, we talk
about what training partner threw up after squats or deadlifts.
When a I meet a local guy at a show or at the gym, they never ask about food.
It’s always about some exotic compound. The funny thing is nine times out of 10,
I’ve never ever heard about the “magic” compound they’re talking about. I’m sure
most of the top guys in the sport haven’t either probably because they were
either in the process of chewing a big chunk of steak or their ears were ringing
from the set of deadlifts they just finished.
As owner of Troponin Nutrition and the reigning Jr. USA Super Heavyweight
bodybuilding champion, Justin Harris has helped hundreds of athletes with
individualized, sport specific diet and nutrition planning. His writing on
nutrition and performance has been spotlighted in publications including
Muscular Development and Ironman magazine and he has been featured on the cover
of numerous others.
