Total Physique Online

Reprinted with kind permission from Laree and Dave Draper (thanks guys!)
From Dave Draper’s Post Column

All I Want for Christmas is Two Twenty-Inch Arms

The Christmas shopping countdown began seven weeks ago with Santa’s first Ho-ho TV jingle in late October… diamonds for her, plasma screen for him and iPods and videos games for the kids.
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Popularity: 27% [?]

Reprinted with kind permission from Laree and Dave Draper (thanks guys!)
From Dave Draper’s Post Column

Staying The Course

My very first job working for a gym was as the weekend manager for Vic Tanny’s on Journal Square in Jersey City, circa 1961. Friday they gave me a key and told me I started Saturday at 9am. Imagine, 19 years old and I’m already a gym manager… I’m on my way, I’m a cool guy. As I finished my workout that Friday evening I felt my lats and triceps assume a permanent flexed position – it sort of hurt, but it was the price one had to pay. Saturday morning I witnessed a miracle. I unlocked the prominent glass gym door at the top of the broad staircase and the gym was gone. Overnight. Where did it go? I did a series of 360′s with my mouth open and it still didn’t appear. Gone to the next county, no doubt. I didn’t need no stinkin’ gym job anyway.
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Popularity: 17% [?]

Reprinted with kind permission from Laree and Dave Draper (thanks guys!)
From Dave Draper’s Post Column

What’s the purpose of the newsletter, anyway?

Certainly, Laree presents links to entertaining and informative articles relative to your interests, and offers cogent commentaries. Very stimulating! I, on the other hand, in search of something qualified to say, pluck at my keyboard like a hungry rooster. I finally give up and head for the gym. This is done, of course, with a grand invitation amid my chicken-scratching for you to join me.
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Popularity: 16% [?]

Reprinted with kind permission from Laree and Dave Draper (thanks guys!)
From Dave Draper’s Post Column

A gym is any place an athlete and his training apparatus meet: chinning and dipping bars in the basement, the track and field at a local high school, stairs and hills in the neighborhood, a punching bag hanging in the garage or a bar and a heap of dinged plates in the corner of a bedroom.

I started with the chins and dips at the very tender age of eight and graduated without haste to the weights under the bed by my tenth year. As an authentic musclehead by the end of my teens, I pursued my master’s degree through research and study at various muscle institutes across the globe. There were numerous gymnasiums of prominence, from New York to Rhodesia, and they served me well.
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Popularity: 15% [?]

Editors Note: the articles that are reprinted here are not necessarily the views of this web site. These articles are for information only and are reprinted here with the authors permission. Always consult a physician before undertaking any strength training program.

Reprinted with kind permission from Laree and Dave Draper (thanks guys!)
From Dave Draper’s Post Column

I park a block from the gym and can hear the clanking of plates echoing down the street. Come to think of it, I hear the clanking of plates in my dreams, under anesthesia and under water.

The doctors say it’s an occupational hazard, like repetitive-use syndrome, battle fatigue or post-traumatic stress. I listen to the irregular, high-pitched concussions even when I don’t hear them. They are my built-in metronome, my internal clock, my heartbeat, my rhythm and rhyme, my song.

Time to get to work. First, I sit in the corner by the lifting platform, collect myself and check out the scene. The flight of stairs from the parking lot knocks me out. You laugh but my gym bag weighs as much as a Chevy short block. Got my stuff in there: food, drink, special gadgets, wraps, belt and things that crawl and go bump in the night. I also have WD-40, never again to be mistaken for underarm deodorant… Yow-za, Momma!
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Popularity: 18% [?]

Dave Draper – Musclebuilding and Spring Gliding

From Dave Draper’s Post Column

If you missed part one from February 22, 2007 — read this first.

April has a nice ring to it, a sweet sound, chimes in a faint breeze. Girls named April are automatically cute — cover girls, centerfolds and starlets. Warm showers from blue skies come to mind, songbirds and spring flowers, shorts and T-shirts, long days and a convertible with the top down.
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Popularity: 21% [?]

Reprinted with kind permission from Laree and Dave Draper (thanks guys!)
From Dave Draper’s Post Column

There comes a time in the physical development and training savvy of a dedicated lifter when he or she can enter the gym and proceed unencumbered by routine or forethought. Disciplined and ordered, practiced and attuned, he’s able to move from exercise to exercise and muscle to muscle according to urge, need and desire. What a rewarding and satisfying manner of training!

A limited number of lifters achieve this level of understanding, a handful believe they have, and fewer yet take advantage of the freestyle methodology. It requires daring, trust and willful execution.

It’s no secret that not all who enter the halls of iron and steel are distinguished for their boldness, confidence and security. You might say the development of these qualities is the primary motivator of their faithful training, and self-assurance an eventual byproduct. Training without a systematic program is like groping in the dark, shooting blind, crossing the hemispheres, territories and ranges without a guide, map or compass.

Where have they gone, the pioneers, the cowboys and adventurers?
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Popularity: 7% [?]

Reprinted with kind permission from Laree and Dave Draper (thanks guys!)
From Dave Draper’s Post Column

Yipes, Stripes! Another Draper newsletter in my email. Hmmm…do I have time to read it?… do I wanna read it?… should I? Maybe I’ll come back to it later. What will the subject matter be this time? Another monthly split routine, achieving winter muscle mass, losing bodyfat in preparation for the spring, overcoming yet another growth plateau… gag. Why can’t I just take a pill… have a treatment… hire somebody… or fugitabodit?

Yeah, yeah; I know where ya comin’ from, sports fans ‘n gym rats. It’s been a long day and a long climb and what we thought was a hill has become a mountain. We do have choices. We could quit, bag it, call it a day, pack it in, throw in the towel, see ya, outta here, finito, over, done, gone. Quite a few choices, come to think of it, but none of them will do as you well know. We’re in this like pigs in swill.
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Popularity: 6% [?]