Written by
12 July 2006

I was at the Wildcard Showdown and I can’t tell you how impressed I was with your awesome conditioning. But I’m even more impressed with the improvements you’ve made since you turned pro less than three years ago. After reading your profile in MD, I’m very interested in the DoggCrap (DC) training style you use. I’m also wondering, if it’s worked so well for you, why haven’t more bodybuilders embraced it? Do you think it’s okay for everybody, or does it take a certain body or personality type to really blow up from it?

I’m a huge believer in the DC training because I have personally made such extreme improvements to my physique since I started using it. And no, it’s not for everybody. Beginners and intermediates shouldn’t even think about it. DC training should be reserved for those who have put in a solid three to four years of consistent training, minimum. That means you didn’t take summers off because your girlfriend broke up with you or you were too busy going to the beach.
DC training will wear you down, beat you up, and even overtrain you if you don’t pay enough attention to proper recovery, even though the actual training volume is fairly brief. But like I always say, you’re free to stop any time you want if you can’t handle it.
As for why more bodybuilders don’t train this way, actually, there are a large number out there now who do, as evidenced by the distinct sections on many Internet message boards devoted to DC training. Not all of them have the genetics to be high-level bodybuilding competitors, but they all want to build extreme levels of size and strength— which they’ve done and continue to do. You simply can’t argue with dramatic results, particularly in individuals who were stuck at a plateau for years until they switched to DC training. One reason it’s not yet as popular as it could be is that it’s tough for a lot of bodybuilders to wrap their minds around the concept of training on only the basic movements, because they’re conditioned to believe that complete development and muscle separation are only possible if you include plenty of isolation exercises like cable crossovers, leg extensions and lateral raises in their training.
I do no isolation exercises in my training. You’ll never find me wasting time doing sets of cable concentration curls to “bring out my peak.” Here’s a news flash— your muscle shape is what it is, so the term “shaping exercise” is quite misleading. As for my muscle separation, that’s based on posing and aggressive myofascial stretching, which we’ll get into at a later date in greater detail. And for those who fear concentrating on the basics is dangerous, I can tell you that I’m 100 percent injury-free. I should add that the length of time you’ve been training isn’t the only key factor on whether or not you’re compatible with DC training. It takes a certain amount of drive that the average bodybuilder doesn’t always have. You need to be just insane enough to say, “I can beat this logbook” week after week, in terms of either reps or weight, from the previous week’s workouts. If you’re the type who likes to live in the comfort zone and stay with the same weights forever, obviously you wouldn’t be able to do this without a serious adjustment of your attitude and looking at your training in a whole new way— not as something that’s “instinctive,” but very much regimented and quantifiable. If you fail to beat the reps from last time, or if you did less for whatever reason, you must be absolutely determined not to let it happen again. Everything is put on paper so you can’t deny it or make excuses. If you can summon the tenacity and guts to follow DC training, you’ll make progress that you never even believed you were capable of. I know I’ve piqued the interest of a lot of you, so check out DC training’s official website and message board, www.intensemuscle.com, to learn more.