Back in 1989, I ditched martial arts for almost a year and jumped headfirst into a Weider bodybuilding program. I started with the beginner workouts, moved up to intermediate, and quickly realized I had walked into a volume nightmare. Many hours in the gym weekly. Exhaustion. Pain. Aspirins just to push through.
Did I get results? Sure. But not the results I wanted. I didn’t look like a bodybuilder poster boy with hulking muscles. Something was wrong.
Years later, the truth hit me: most bodybuilders and athletes aren’t just working hard—they’re juiced up on steroids. Their insane volume works because their bodies recover unnaturally fast. For those of us training naturally, high volume is a trap.
Enter the real teachers: Mike Mentzer’s Heavy Duty and Arthur Jones, the founder of Nautilus. Their philosophy? Forget spending hours in the gym. Focus on high-intensity training. Hit it hard, then rest. Recover. Let your body do the work. Natural bodybuilding courses confirmed the same thing: intensity, not volume, is the key.
Fast forward, and the lesson hit me in martial arts too. Bruce Lee said training is like sculpting—chiseling away, not piling on. Michelangelo probably would’ve agreed. Less is more. Simple. Focused. Intense. Rested. Repeated.
Now? I get a killer martial arts workout in 2-3 sessions of 45 minutes a week and I cover many of my techniques. No burnout. Just results.
Want to see exactly how I do it? Check out my new book: Silent Steel, Still Mind: The Way of the Spiritual Warrior. Learn the method that makes intensity and simplicity far more powerful than endless hours of sweat.
