I first heard of Ellington
Darden in the late 1970s. Through the
muscle magazines, I was a big fan of Mike Mentzer (or at least his photos and
bylines), and he would periodically drop Dr. Darden’s name in his articles.
One day in a sporting goods
store I stumbled across this:
Which was nothing short of outstanding. Keep in mind, the late ‘70s, no internet, no cable, no ebooks, no Amazon, no fitness wing in a warehouse-sized book store; there was not a lot in print on exercise, much less strength training. The most accessible information was the muscle magazines, most of which were in the porn section of the newspaper stand. Bad enough you had to buy these things in public, then you actually tried to read them. Anything with Muscle in the title (Muscle Builder, Muscle Power, Muscle Builder/Power, Muscle Training Illustrated, Muscular Development, Muscle and Fitness, Muscle Ad Nauseum) was generally pretty cheesy reading, with the occasional Mentzer article making the cost of the whole magazine worth it. (I didn’t discover Ironman-Peary Rader, not John Balik or Tony Stark-until years later.)
But
as far away as Mentzer’s articles were from most of the muscle media, Darden’s
STP was superior to Mentzer’s stuff, for my purposes, at least. No shaved, nearly naked photos; STP used
athletes in the photos. No “me-me-me” rambling;
STP is 80 small pages, and 8 of those are title, publishing info, and
bibliography. Bullet points, numbered
paragraphs, diagrams. Concise, clear,
informative. Maybe this book didn’t grab
the bodybuilders or the “fitness revolution”’s attention, but as a guide for
credible, responsible exercise instruction, that you could use successfully
with just about every non-bodybuilder, it was perfect. As you can tell from the wear on the cover, I,
and probably everyone else who had a copy wore the sucker out.
The
next book of his that got my attention:
With a foreword by Mike Mentzer. What was I saying about bodybuilding, again? Whoops. Still, the content and presentation here far classier than the muscle magazines, with an extensive section of the Nautilus line at the time. And that time was very different than now. Nautilus would become mainstream a bit later in the ‘80s, where even non-exercise people knew what it meant, because every suburban racketball facility put a circuit in. But at this time, 1982, all we knew was sand-filled plastic weights at home, Universal in the high school gym, maybe O weights and benches in the few commercial gyms. Little leaked out in the magazines about this new exercise equipment. Here were photos of the entire line with explicit instructions on how to use the machines. Sign me up!
Many
more books from Dr. Darden followed, and while I bought and read them all,
these were the two that really connected with me, so much so that I’ve kept
them both all these years, as you can tell from their less-than-mint condition. (Ellington Darden's author page on Amazon for all his books.)
Skip
ahead a few decades. (Ow.) In 2003 I put together a manual called Moment Arm Exercise, which I somehow manage to get to Dr. Darden, who didn’t know
me at all, but he still went out of his way to send a complimentary email. Some time later, at Bo Railey’s first HIT
conference in Indianapolis, unsolicited, Dr. Darden gave up his lunch hour to
give me advice and encouragement on writing.
The same at an Association of Old-time Barbell and Strongmen dinner. 2005, Dr. Darden came out with The New
Bodybuilding for Old School Results, and among all the other profiles and
interviews, there I am.
I
was tempted to retire then. I couldn’t
think of a greater professional compliment than to have someone I respected
from a distance, whose own career I followed, without whom I might not have a
career, who showed me you could present and write professionally and still work
in the field, turn around and write “this guy is worth reading” (with apologies
for the paraphrasing; pick up a copy from his website for the exact passage).
But
I didn’t retire, neither has he, and in the last few years I noticed he was
getting more involved with revisiting the “negative” aspect of training. Not as in detrimental, but as in emphasizing
the release of the muscle contraction, through new tech (the X-Force equipment)
and new methods which he hinted at on his website.
I learned
that Roger Schwab had a line of X-Force in his Main Line Health & Fitness
in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, about an hour and a half from me, and so I invited
myself in to try them in December 2012.
And Roger graciously did not invite me out (thanks, Roger!). Now, during this time, Dr. D. was working on
his latest book and in touch with Roger, and so I was getting some small amount
of unpublished, behind the scenes hints as to what he was working on. A big
part of that was the 30-30-30 technique (lowering-lifting-lowering), as a low
tech counterpart to the X-Force machines.
Back in my studio, I played with the technique, and posted a few videos
to You Tube, which fortunately Dr. Darden liked. Then I backed off writing and posting about
it, to not undermine the eventual book that has recently come out (The Body
Fat Breakthrough).
And
now the book is out, so I put out another video.
Now,
as it happened, my own interests in exercise instruction have gone in a different
direction than Dr. Darden’s. I wouldn’t
be contributing much if all I did was parrot and reword Dr. Darden’s (or Jones’,
or Mentzer’s) work. No names, but there’s
enough of those guys out there already. My
particular obsession is in protecting your joints during exercise, in terms of
exercise selection and instructional details.
So what I did in this video is take Dr. Darden’s 30-30-30 set structure,
and use it with the exercises and ranges of motion that I consider friendliest
on the joints, as I explained at length in Congruent Exercise. The video, which is about 12 minutes, has
notes popping up every 30 seconds or so explaining a particular biomechanics or
joint issue relevant to the visual.
(Popping up, that is, unless you’re trying to watch on a mobile phone or
tablet. You Tube only makes the
annotations available via computer. So
if you watched on your phone and thought you were watching paint dry, sorry. I've included the notes below.)
Now,
the internet being what it is, I feel obligated to point out: me using different exercises and ranges than
Dr. Darden is not contentious, nor criticism, nor correction. I also warm up on a bike and an arm bike for
what Dr. Darden would probably consider an excessive time, and I stretch
afterwards. It’s what I do to keep me out of joint aches, based on my own
experience and research, and what I do with my clients, who tend to have
similar joint aches. And if you experience your own joint aches
that you think may come from your exercise, you might find something useful in
my work. I’d consider my contribution to
be refinements to the overall process.
To
my eye, as a general model for weight training, Dr. Darden’s work is unquestionably
the best place to start.
*Now, the “Evitagen Elixir” in
the title. There is no “Evitagen Elixir”...to drink, anyway. Just having some fun with a throwback to the
hype from the early muscle magazines. You’ll have to buy the book to figure out “evitagen”. I honestly do think Dr. Darden’s technique
for making the negative more fatiguing is a significant, substantial improvement
over conventional training. Consider
this. If releasing a contraction
requires less energy than creating one (and it does, true fact), then a
conventional set to failure, 10 reps and stall attempting 11, provides a built
in rest between reps. When you first
start training, getting to this point is challenging enough. But one of the frustrations advanced trainees
have with “one set to failure”, is that they intuitively feel that even though
they “fail” they could have pushed themselves further. And, especially if a mismatched cam effect
leads to failing because of a mechanical disadvantage, they’re right. And so
it leads them to additional sets, forced reps, pyramid sets, breakdown sets,
etc. getting away from “OSTF”, and to what ends up being a volume-based
approach. The issue was never one set
vs. volume; it has always been about losing that sense of effort/fatigue from
the one set. 30-30-30 and X-Force fix
this by making the negative more fatiguing each rep than conventional reps; X-Force
mechanically, 30-30-30 by spending dramatically more time on the negative. Now, that one set to failure is a challenge
again, and a significant bump up in intensity, effort, and fatigue. Will it make a difference? Will it give you a 20 inch arm instead of 16?
A 30 inch waist instead of 36? Obviously, hard to say. Will at some point in the future, you adapt
to this as well, and start looking for that next step? Probably.
But from my joint-friendly perspective,
it gives you a chance to control your posture, not just your limb speed, which
makes it easier on the joints. And since
it is so efficient, I find I’m less likely to do extra sets and advanced techniques, to
make up for the perceived lack of intensity, and that's also
easier on the joints. And less pain in the joints means more regular training, and a happier existence in general.
Now, as it happens, Dr. Darden and I will each be presenting this fall at Anthony Johnson's 21 Convention this fall (October 24-26, 2014) in Tampa, Florida. Here's a link to a trailer, ticket information, and the full list of 22 speakers: http://bit.ly/1hUltGR. Please feel free to check it out. The last time I presented for Anthony, about 4 years ago in Atlanta, I essentially presented the first five chapters of Congruent Exercise. This time will be a new presentation, similar to what I did at HIT Resurgence in Minnesota in March (Part 1 of my HIT Resurgence presentation; Part 2). See you there!
Notes from the video for mobile viewers. These notes pop up in my video mentioned above (The Congruent 30-30-30 Workout).
A demonstration of how I incorporate Dr. Darden’s 30-30-30
technique (from his book The Body Fat Breakthrough) with my own Congruent
Exercise material. Both books on Amazon. http://tinyurl.com/bfbreakthrough http://tinyurl.com/CEAmazon
Timer set for 15 seconds.
(wide chin) scapulae down and back. Slight lean away from machine. Trying to emphasize action of the lats, not
biceps. Greg Anderson chin machine. Old Darden book. Night of Champions 5/79 poster.
(incline db press)
trying to keep scapulae retracted.
Moment arms around shoulder not elbow.
I consider lowering below this point too extreme and a strain on the
front of the shoulder. Snap. Crackle.
Pop. In spite of my best efforts. One less bicep and triceps attachment= slight
instability. Trying to avoid zero moment
arm at top.
(incline side raise) slight
external rotation at top. Again, scap/traps
down and back. The drastic change in
moment arm seems to affect the sensation of effort much less with
30-30-30. Again trying to avoid zero
moment arm.
(leg press) as low as
possible to mimic hip angle during the squat.
Back curves match seat curves.
Try not to linger near lockout.
Push through whole foot, not just heels.
(hamstring deadlift) absolute priority is to maintain the
lumbar curve. To help with the posture:
chest up. Lats & traps tight. Try not to let hips drift back, to minimize
the moment arm around the hips and in turn the glutes’ contribution. Bend knees at bottom; otherwise the taut
hamstrings lock the pelvis, leading to reversing the curve of the lumbar spine
under load (risky move). Hamstrings
shorter at knee, stretched at pelvis. Be
especially careful at the end of the negative rep, not to round the spine.
(hanging knee up/negative leg raise) not 30-30-30. More load on the negative: straightening the legs creates a greater
moment arm.
(incline curls)
(db triceps extensions)
Move out of zero moment arm to start.
Watch your face. Path of the
forearms slightly away from the center as the elbows extend, to relieve binding
at the shoulders.
(pro stretch) to relieve various foot/ankle issues. 30 seconds each side, usually 3x each. Trying not to allow the ankle to cave in,
i.e. maintain the foot/ankle posture, then stretch and hold the gastroc
stretch.
Full disclosure: I
warm up with at least 20 minutes of movement, (e.g. yoga, bike/upper body
ergometer) prior to the weights, and finish with stretches. The warm up and stretching are not part of
Dr. Darden’s book, but I find that at my age and joint condition, if I go into
an intense weight workout cold, I don’t perform as well during the workout, and
end up aching.
Specifically with regard to joint concerns, I especially
like several aspects of 30-30-30. 1.
Finishing on the negative, on the yielding, rather than stalling and straining
on the lift. 2. Using time as a way of progression, rather
constantly trying to increase weight.
3. Moving limbs deliberately,
allowing you to consciously stabilize your joints.
