Like Prometheus I stole fire from the Gods. In my case, I stole from the athletic Gods, in order to help normal people in their quest to physically transform themselves.
My role is that of fact gatherer and interpreter. I assemble data, I codify and identify ideas; I explain theories and philosophies. I sort through and restate profound methods, making them user-friendly. As a Purposeful Primitive my prime directive is to reveal the irreducible training and nutrition methods used by elite athletes to build muscle and reduce body fat. Implement these methods and you will create a stronger, leaner body. Stronger and leaner makes any athlete better at what they do, regardless of the discipline or sport.
I am an athlete, a lesser athlete, just as Prometheus was a lesser God. I have stood on the 1st place pedestal in a foreign country at a World Championship and heard the National Anthem played. Still, my athletic achievements are Lilliputian compared to the Gods I write about. My achievements were sufficient enough to allow me access to the realm of the elite. Still, I was always an athletic overachiever, in that my accomplishments vastly exceeded my limited genetic gifts. In one sense this was a blessing: as art critic David Gelertner once observed, “Some great artists (say Raphael, Degas, Rodin or Picasso) are born with great technique. Others like Cezanne are born with more will and insight than technical means. If you are an artist in the second category, your work gains in depth, integrity and power from your dogged technical struggles. Lack of fluency concentrates the mind.” I engaged in dogged technical struggles and my lack of athletic fluency concentrated my mind.
I was a physiological overachiever whose lack of genetic gifts caused me to overcompensate in ways that eventually resulted in a certain uniqueness that set me apart from my athletic contemporaries.
My limitations meant I had to train smarter, research deeper, learn and figure harder, riddle longer and ponder more on how to improve and further my own athletic quest. I continually searched to find ever-better methods and mentors. This book is the summation of the modes and methods I gleaned from the Masters with whom I came into contact. This book is my very own version of G.I. Gurdjieff’s Meetings with Remarkable Men. This book is an accumulation of ideas, a treatise on the commonalities and particularities that draw together and differentiate the true Masters.
The rationale, the raison d’etre for this book is profound: how best to stimulate, trigger, ignite or instigate tangible, irrefutable, undeniable physical progress? How do we transform the human body? The athletic elite know how to reconfigure the body. The average fitness acolyte who seeks physical renovation needs to access and incorporate these elite tactics.
Being an athlete interested in improving my own game, being in a position to quiz and grill top athletes about the training and eating protocols that got them there, I made the most of the opportunity. I talked long, often, and in great depth to hundreds of top athletes. My job was to write articles about the tactics they used to excel. My fate was to be a good, not great, competitor. As a journalist I knew enough to ask the right questions and then shut up and listen (in awe) as the great ones took the time to talk and share the training, nutrition or mental tactics that made them great.
I knew their language and I knew how to interpret often arcane abstractions into readable prose regular folks could understand and utilize. Too many interviewers make the mistake of trying to impress the interviewee instead of letting them tell their tale. As one curmudgeon said, “I never learned a damn thing listening to myself talk.” Like Prometheus, I stole fire from the Gods. I now pass along their accumulated wisdom for use in your own transformational quest. Be smart enough to use and apply their methods. Their ways are the proven ways and their ways will allow you to morph from what you are into what you want to be. And that, my friend, is truly incredible.
Physical transformation is made way too complicated. When people talk about “fitness” or “diet” they are really talking about physical transformation. They are dissatisfied with how they look and feel and they want to do something about it. In actuality what people seek, though they may not think of it in this way, is transformation. They want to morph their physique, change it, modify it, and improve upon its current state.
What constitutes a better body? The irreducible core definition of what people seek from fitness could be boiled down to two things: decreased body fat and more muscle. There are lots of other benefits they might seek from a diet or exercise plan, but at the root core, the reason all those diet books are sold and all those abdominal devices are purchased is that people want to lose body fat. The reason people belong to gyms and purchase exercise equipment is they want to build muscle.
Unfortunately in this day and age, the Information Age, we are awash in a sea of health and fitness confusion and contradiction. This approach contradicts that approach, this diet plan claims incredible results, yet is precisely the opposite of another diet plan, both of which present powerfully persuasive arguments and (pseudo) science to back up their claims. One school of exercise will champion one approach for sculpting the physique that stands in stark contrast to another school of exercise; both schools have compelling arguments and trot out radically transformed adherents that tell you how this particular system transformed their physiques in no time flat with a minimum amount of time, effort and expense. Everything related to fitness nowadays comes with a price tag. In order to lure you into purchasing one mode or method over another, be it diet-related or exercise-related, the manufacturer will claim that radical physical transformation can be yours and can be made both quick and easy—assuming you buy their magical product.
If radical physical transformation were truly quick and easy any outfit that produced such a product, system or method, one that truly delivered quick and easy results would rule the world. There is no such thing as quick and easy physical transformation. We’ll call this the 1st truism of the Purposefully Primitive Philosophy.
Human nature wants desperately to believe that a mode or method, a pill or potion exists that will magically shortcut the sweat, toil, tears, blood, time and teeth-grinding effort it takes to trigger tangible transformation. Human nature wants desperately to believe that a magical system exists—but you just haven’t found it yet. So you keep looking and you keep buying, you keep hoping and wishing, you keep purchasing books, DVDs, gym memberships, dietary food plans, exercise equipment, fat burning pills, nutritional supplements of every type and kind; anything that promises you what you want to hear. All in the hope of finding that magical method, mode or substance that will enable you to undergo a significant physical makeover with a minimum investment of time, money and especially effort. You want nothing less than to undergo a phantasmagoric metamorphosis, from ugly earth-bound caterpillar into a gorgeous celestial butterfly. So you buy and buy and you try and try—yet still you stay the same. Understand that true transformation is difficult, arduous, prolonged and intense. You need discipline, grit, tenacity, perseverance and patience. That’s the bad news. The good news is that certain systems, methods and modes can and will transform the human body. Certain disciplines, done diligently, radically reduce body fat and create new muscle tissue. My task is to share with you the battle-tested modes and methods of the true Masters.
The human body is subject to biological imperatives, cause and effect, i.e. do this and that will happen. Biological cause and effect is not about new, better, improved, revolutionary or double your money back if not satisfied within 14 days of purchase! True biological imperatives are about science.
Scientifically speaking, if a muscle, any muscle, is subjected to a specific resistance protocol of sufficient intensity, the target muscle must grow larger and stronger if that muscle is then fed and rested. That is science.
Another biological imperative informs us that if the human body operates in negative energy balance (NEB) for a protracted period, a resultant loss in bodyweight must occur. This is basic caloric thermodynamics. Furthermore, if the body operates in NEB for a protracted period, and if other specified procedures and protocols are enacted, the human body preferentially calls up its body fat reserves (stored energy) and uses body fat to fuel activity. Enact specific training and eating procedures and the human body must grow new muscle and must oxidize stored body fat.
Cause and effect is objective: enact certain procedures and certain predictable results occur. The body has no choice. There are certain resistance-training protocols that have been used for decades and have been proven to deliver real results. These training procedures were invented and refined by Master resistance trainers. There are certain forms of cardiovascular exercise that have been used for decades and have been proven to deliver amazing results. There are certain nutritional modes and methods that have been used for decades and accelerate the oxidation of stored body fat while promoting recovery, healing and muscle growth. These systems work because they are rooted in science and biology. They have proven track records and have been used by elite athletes for decades. All are battle-tested with irrefutable, empirical, earned-in-the-trenches pedigrees. These systems produce results: the human body is transformed when these methods and modes are methodically applied.
In this book I introduce you to the absolute Masters of four interrelated modes of transformation: resistance training, cardiovascular training, nutrition and psychology. This is the age of fitness confusion. What actually works? What is patently bogus? How is the average civilian to differentiate between the truly profound and the slick commercial product draped in sly, sultry seductive garb? What better way to introduce you to truly effective modes and methods than to introduce you to the absolute Masters of the four realms.
Every intelligent fitness regimen needs a progressive resistance element, a cardiovascular element and a nutritional element. I add a psychological element because mental recalibration is the most neglected aspect of the transformational process. If you want to get your facts straight about resistance training, learn from a resistance Master. If you want to get your facts straight about cardiovascular training, quiz a cardio genius. If you want to get your facts straight about nutrition, listen to those who have decades of experience in that arena. If you want to get your facts straight about recalibrating your brain to better aid the transformational effort, expose yourself to hardnosed psyche Masters.
I have selected fifteen Giants, men who’ve made indelible marks in their respective fields of expertise. You can see a hell of a lot further standing on the shoulders of Giants: the vista is not obscured by the fitness dwarfs and pygmies that clutter the view at ground level.
In this day and age everyone frantically seeks the next breakthrough, innovation or angle. I say unequivocally: Old School methodology is the modern solution for achieving true physical transformation. Be done with the jive seduction. Be done with the illusion that somewhere there exists an effortless way. Sink your teeth into something substantive. The transformational procedures of the true Masters lie between the two covers of this book.
In 1927 G.I. Gurdjieff wrote Meetings with Remarkable Men. In it he spoke of his encounters with various mystics: the Armenian Sarkis Pogossian, the Russian Prince Yuri Lubovedsky, Ekim Bey, Professors Karpenko and Skridlov, plus an odd assortment of seers and occultists. In describing these characters Gurdjieff wove their stories into his own story. He tells of his interactions with spiritual masters in Central Asia and calls this group “The Seekers of Truth.”
Since 1962 I too have been on my own journey. I too am a seeker of truth. I too have experienced my own version of Meetings with Remarkable Men. Instead of mystics and seers, I was introduced to a succession of remarkable men; Masters of resistance training, nutrition, cardiovascular training and performance-related psychology. My idea was to introduce readers of this book to the Masters, modes and methods that I have been exposed to over the past four and a half decades. My idea was to spotlight these men and their purposefully primitive systems. The modes, techniques and tactics taught and used by the various Masters are incredibly beneficial when used by regular individuals who are on their own quest for physical transformation. In addition to offering up brief resumes on these remarkable men, I also present their philosophies and offer my own interpretation on how best to utilize, incorporate and apply the methods of these Masters. I act as an interpreter and guide. I also present related essays, ideas and methods.
Each man I write about is, in their own way, a Purposeful Primitive. There is a discernable connection between all these men, a subtle link that binds them. Their individual methods share a commonality; a commonality that oddly links Krishnamurti to Bednarski, Pearl to Parrillo, Fantano to Schwartz—each man’s approach, within their particular area of expertise, is rooted in science and biology. Each man stresses diligent application and each offers a method to induce progress. By challenging the status quo, by offering radical alternatives to the existing orthodox protocols, each man contributed something completely unique to their specific arena.
In order to create something of true significance, the first allegiance must be to factual results. Within every discipline there exists a bedrock foundation. Each man selected is a foundational Master who has amplified and imbued the ultra-basics with his own tactical idiosyncrasies. As I became familiar with their distinct approaches, be it body or mind, I was struck by the fact that on an elemental level, each approach was deceptively simple. All used simplistic yet innovative methods powered by gut-busting physical or mental effort.
Tenacity, discipline and ferocity are politically incorrect concepts in an age where dazzling complexity and continual innovation are the name of the game. My contention is that just because a mode or method is new doesn’t mean it automatically trumps what came before it. To the contrary, Old School methods, doing fewer things better, consistently exceeds results delivered by modern fragmented fitness systems.
The human body is a remarkable machine and I am fascinated with the idea of improving it and making it better. William Burroughs labeled the human body “The Soft Machine” and I think that is the most amazing and appropriate description of the incredible human apparatus. In this book I relate the resistance training systems of ten legendary resistance Masters representing three separate and distinct iron disciplines. I spotlight two nutritional geniuses and two mind Masters. I introduce to the reader a cardiovascular grand maestro without peer. I intersperse the modes and methods of these giants with tales of my own. I relate the profundities of the Masters, designed to aid you in your own unique situation. I offer up Purposefully Primitive Masters, modes, methods, techniques and tactics that you can and should expropriate for use in your own transformational quest.