This time my Hard News report is an article written by my long time friend, Wilfried Dubbels. It is titled “Training the natural way”.

I recently spent a week with Wilfried and his wife in Germany and during that period I recorded on video his latest gym workout, plus posing and also a short interview and his training report on how he maintains his great physique.

This article by Wilfried will serve as an introduction to his new DVD which will be edited around Xmas time, all being well. Wilfried is a regular contributor for the Pharmacy Trade magazines in Germany and was also featured recently in Albert Busek’s magazine which is the German version of M&F.

Please click here for details on Wilfried’s current DVD which is GMV-586DVD.

Training the natural way

by Wilfried Dubbels

As a beginner you just need one basic exercise per body part to stimulate your muscle growth. In one training session you can work out all muscle groups with 6-7 different exercises. The abs require no special work the first year at all. It’s no problem in training each muscle group 2-3 times a week. But as an advanced athlete you have to attack your muscles from different angles to make more progress. However the body needs more than one exercise per muscle group to look more complete once you reach an intermediate stage.         

For more than 20 years I used to exercise every second day. This allowed my body to regenerate fully and the muscles had more time to grow. I found by experience that more training released too much cortisol and sent me into a catabolic tailspin. Cortisol works in a catabolic way and is antagonistic to testosterone, which is the most important endogeneous muscle building hormone.

I prefer  training the opposite body parts (antagonistic muscles) in one training session like Arnold used to do. In this manner I can load the muscles more completely. Mostly I train heavy, doing 2-3 exercises per body part with 2-3 sets, 5-8reps each. Only when I have reached a plateau or for demonstrating, I include pumping sessions with light weights. My workouts never last more than 75 minutes, warming up included.             
When I feel the muscles have become used to the workout, I include occasional double sets, reduced sets or X-reps like Steve Holman and Jonathan Lawson used to do. The techniques will force the body to release more Growth Hormone.
To avoid overtraining I split my schedule into three separate workouts.
Chest and back on Monday, shoulders and arms on Wednesday and legs, leg biceps and calves on Friday. The abs are trained on the off days.

My sample workout schedule:

Monday

In my first workout of the week I train my chest and back. I always start with chest, as I made the experience that I can handle more weight in my back workout in this order. The other way round, starting with back, it doesn’t work the same or as well.
I always start with a basic exercise, presses in different angles and finish with isolation movements like flyings with dumbbells or cables.

For as long as I can remember, I start my back workout with wide grip chinning. I love this exercise, which stretches the back and will give me that wide look. But for thickening the back muscles I have to do rowing exercises, too. I change from barbell to dumbbells, or to get more variety, to cables or machines.  

Chest:
Incline barbell press or incline press at Smith Machine
Bench press with barbell
Flying with dumbbells or cable cross over

Back:
Chin ups and front pulley (double set)
Rowing with dumbbells lying face down on the incline bench
Bent over rowing with barbell or rowing machine

Wednesday

Training the shoulders I take care to warm up and then work on loading all three heads: front, side and especially the rear delts. I start with a basic movement again like military press, press behind the neck or dumbbell presses and continue with isolation exercises like front raises, lateral raises and bent over laterals.
I like presses behind neck and I have no problem with this exercise. If you feel this exercise uncomfortable and have some problems, do military front presses instead. Most people tend to hurt themselves doing pressing or pulling movements behind the neck as they are dangerous.

Without rest I switch over to train my arms. Sometimes I start with triceps, sometimes with biceps and sometimes I practice supersets or double sets. In this way I fool my muscles and force them to develop. The difference between supersets and double sets is as follows: when you immediately switch over from one exercise to another exercise of another body part without rest, you call it a superset; if it is the same body part, you call it double set. For example biceps/triceps is a superset, biceps/biceps is a double set.    

Shoulders:
Press behind neck or military front press
Side laterals with dumbbells ( going up and down with dumbbells to shoulder height only)
Bent over side laterals with dumbbells

Triceps:

French press with EZ bar or close grip bench press with barbell
Triceps push down
One arm triceps extension with cable

All three exercises are one triset
I do 2-3 trisets
Biceps:

Seated biceps curl with barbell
Standing EZ bar curl or standing cable curl
Hammer curl or one arm cable curl

All three exercises are one triset 
I do 2-3 trisets

Friday

I always exercise my complete legs including calves in one training session, as this works best for me. I don’t believe in extra calf training, if you load them heavy and train fast! To hit the soleus muscle and the gastrocnemius muscle I do standing and seated calf raises.

Legs:
Squats or leg press
Leg extension &leg biceps curl (3 supersets)

Calves:
Standing calf raises
Seated calf raises

“Off days”

Abs:
Sit ups or crunches
Leg raises

 I follow a well balanced diet including fruits, vegetables, fish and red meat. No special diet. Almost no sugars and not too much fat. I take care of getting enough unsaturated fatty acids, especially omega 3 fatty acids from plenty of salmon. I take supplements like whey protein, vitamins and minerals when I finish my workouts and in between my meals I use a more complex protein containing a large proportion of casein. Occasionally I take creatine, glutamine and BCAA’s.  

(This article was written in June, 2007 and is copyright Wilfried Dubbels.)