The best way to look
strong and fit, is to
BE STRONG and FIT

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Who is Crusty Ninja for?

Crusty Ninja is for the older crowd who not only want to look good, but feel good and perform like an athlete - a ninja if you will - okay, maybe an older ninja.

Crusty Ninja is for you if you not only want to look good, but want to throw a football or get down on the floor and play with your grandchildren. If you want to be able to climb a tree. Don't need to climb a tree? What about climb a ladder or climb onto a roof?

Crusty Ninja is for adults who want to live their life to their fullest physical potential.

That doesn't mean you can't look fantastic and be freaky strong. Using these methods, I built a foundation that allowed me to easily transition into bodybuilding and earn a Pro Card in Masters Natural Bodybuilding and also win a world title in masters powerlifting and several national titles while breaking many records in the process. All the while I was participating in Parkour and obstacle course running. If you are strong, lean, and athletic, it's easy to excel in other sports, whether those sports are biking, golf, tennis, basketball, or pickleball. And yes, you can even perform well in natural bodybuilding and powerlifting.

Crusty Ninja emphasizes not only strength, but also body movement and incorporates gymnastics and Parkour. The goal is to climb ropes, do cartwheels, body rolls, and even some break dance moves. "But Crusty, I can't do a cartwheel! I have weak inflexible shoulders." You probably also can't run a marathon, but with proper training you could. I've encountered very few people who couldn't do a cartwheel with the right training. Are your shoulders weak and inflexible? We'll work on fixing that. Be aware, this is not a quick fix, instant gratification thing. It may take you a year or even more to get there, but most people can get there if they stick with it. Where are you going to be in a year otherwise?

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What is Crusty Ninja Training Like?

Crusty Ninja training is a combination of Fitness, Agility, and Strength Training (FAST). The goal is to not only get strong and fit, but functional. To develop the ability to run, jump, climb, and move large unwieldy objects.

The irony is many people say they want to look strong and fit, but nobody wants do what it takes to get strong and fit. They just want to "look" strong and fit. Well, here's some news for you: "It's easier to look strong and fit if you are strong and fit".

And you are never going to get either strong or fit by going to the gym and doing an hour of every variation deltoid exercises. Sure, if you're in the final stages of prep for your Mr. Olympia appearance then pump your already massive delts. If you want to build massive delts so that you have something worth pumping up, then do overhead presses. You can't put icing on a cake you haven't baked yet. Bake your cake first - then add the icing.

Crusty Ninja is based on the principles learned by the ancient Greeks training for the Olympic sport Pankration (a submission sport that is a combination of wrestling and marital arts). While this doesn't focus on the fighting skills needed for Pankration, it relies heavily on their methods of strength and conditioning. It has been modified to suit the needs of older athletes and make use of modern equipment, but still follows the basic principles.

Why this style? Because it works.

Ancient civilizations were masters of trial and error. They would try something; if it worked, they kept doing it. If it didn't, they'd try something else. By this process of trial and error, they learned what worked and eliminated what didn't. If you do this for hundreds, even thousands of years, then you develop methods that produce the best results. And while the equipment we have available has changed over the centuries, the human body hasn't changed much. The ancient Greeks trained mostly with rocks, sandbags, and body weight. So now, instead of a room full of variously weighted sandbags and rocks, we now have loadable barbells and dumbbells. But, the underlying principles of building strength and athleticism that worked a thousand years still work today. What has changed is the introduction of muscle-building drugs. Crusty Ninja style training is intended for older drug-free trainees and is built on principles that work best for drug-free trainees. If you're not on steroids, then you shouldn't train like you are.

A typical week of training:

  • Sunday: Stretching, easy bodyweight exercises
  • Monday: Strength training
  • Tuesday: Stretching, mobility, balance, moderate cardio
  • Wednesday: Skills, intervals, more difficult mobility drills
  • Thursday: Stretching, easy bodyweight exercises
  • Friday: Strength training with emphasis on explosiveness
  • Saturday: Stretching, mobility, balance, moderate cardio

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Full Body vs. Split Routine

Crusty Ninja training incorporates at most two full body strength training sessions per week (Other days are used for balance, fitness, mobility, etc.). A typical Crusty Ninja strength session will have 4-5 main exercises with about 3 working sets per exercise. This is enough to trigger muscle growth across the whole body. Numerous studies have shown that you get maximal muscle growth by training a muscle twice a week. So if this is enough to trigger maximal muscle growth for most people, why do most pro bodybuilders do split routines?
Mr. Pro Bodybuilder has been training for years and has a lot more muscle than you or I. If you're 260+ pounds of muscle, at some point, it becomes necessary to split up the muscle groups simply because it's too much muscle to train in one session. Very few people ever reach that point, but yet they train like they have. It's not the most efficient way to train, but at some point it becomes necessary. And again, very few people ever reach this point. Also, as mentioned in the steroid section, people on steroids with more muscle than their joints can handle have to incorporate low intensity/high volume training in order to stimulate muscle growth without risking injury. Trying to do this amount of volume for every muscle group on a 260+ pound bodybuilder in a single session is just untenable. A split routine makes more sense for them. But, if me who is only a fairly solid 180 pounds tells you what I do and a pro bodybuilder who is 260+ pounds ripped tells you what he does, who are you going to listen to? Most people are going to listen to the pro bodybuilder and follow his routine. I get it. That's why the gym is full of newbies who can't even bench their own body weight doing split routines when they would get better results doing full body training 2-3 times a week. They're doing a type of training that is not appropriate for the level of training they're at. Also, what they don't consider is that Mr. Pro Bodybuilder is leaving out the critical ingredient of his training style. It would be like someone giving you their cake recipe, but leaving out flour as one of the ingredients. Your cake will not end up like theirs.
On a historical note, before steroids came on the scene, almost no bodybuilder/strongman did split routines. Most trained full body 2-3 times a week. Even Arnold used a full body routine 3 x week early in his career as did many other such as Mike Mentzer. Eventually, they reached a point where they needed a split routine. Again, very few people ever reach that point. Honestly, ask yourself, "have you reached that point?" If not, why are you training like you have? This is what worked best before steroids came on the scene and changed the way the pros train. Full body training is how the ancient Greeks trained because through many years of trial and error they found that this worked the best. If they had found that split training worked better, they would have done that.

But Crusty, it takes me 2 hours to train a single body part. It would take all day to train every body part in the same session.

A full body workout is not doing a dozen different isolation exercises. It's typically a warm up followed by 4-5 main exercises with about 3 working sets per exercise and can be done in about an hour. Here's two typical full body training sessions:

Routine A

  • Warm up
  • Trap bar deadlifts (back, traps, hamstrings, quads, glutes)
  • Dips (pecs, shoulders, triceps)
  • Hammer style pullups (upper back, lats, biceps, forearms, grip)
  • Hanging leg raises - (abs)

Routine B

  • Warm up
  • Deep goblet Squats (hamstrings, quads, glutes)
  • Incline press (chest, shoulders, triceps)
  • Bent over rows  (back, shoulders, biceps, grip, forearms)
  • Ab wheel (abs, shoulders, low back)

Each of the above routines work just about every muscle in your body. If needed, you can an accessory exercise.

It has been long established that the sweet spot for building strength is working a muscle twice a week. In fact, most split routines are based on hitting the muscle groups twice a week. This accomplishes that in only two training sessions.

Note: When I was younger, I used to train full body 3 x week, but as I got older, it was too much for me to recover from and I have dropped to 2 x week. Now in my 60s, I'm considering dropping to once a week. Time is cruel master.

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WHAT! Only TWO DAYS of Strength Training!

Crusty Ninja training involves at most two days a week of strength training with the days in between devoted to fitness, balance, coordination, mobility, and flexibility.

Yes, only two days a week of strength training. I know you don't believe me (no one ever does - until they try it), but most people will make faster gains by strength training twice a week as opposed to four to five times a week. I know this for a fact. I have trained many older gym rats. Many came to me because their training had stalled and they hadn't made gains in years. They were typically doing at least four days a week of weight training; some as much as seven. I would cut them back to two days a week of strength training and one day a week of mobility, balance, etc., with rest and general fitness on the other days. Without exception, everyone of them began making gains again. Sometimes, quite dramatically. These people were just simply overtraining. They were not allowing enough recovery time for their muscles to grow. Also, if you don't get enough rest and recovery between strength training sessions, you won't be able to put in the intensity of effort needed to stimulate new growth in a natural athlete. Now, I'm not talking about newbies. Newbies get decent results almost no matter what they do and most can't train hard enough to overtrain even if they wanted to. I'm talking about people who had been training for years and were long past their newbie gains and were stuck in a rut.

One of the first things you'll notice when you switch to the Crusty Ninja style of training is that your joints start to feel better and you have more energy for training.

What? You mean not beating up my joints four to five times a week will make them less achy? IKR, sounds crazy but it's true. And imagine if you spent the days in between doing joint health and healing exercises? What would your joints feel like then?

Overtraining is one of the biggest detriments for typical drug-free gym goers. They almost all do it. That's because that's what the pros do. But remember, the pros are genetic outliers and taking substances that allow them to train more than the average drug-free trainee can. Copying what they do does not work well for most people. Your training should be more like what people did before steroids came on the scene and changed the way the pros trained.

One of the things overtraining does is decrease your testosterone production leading to poor training results. Don't forget, your pros and influencers are getting their testosterone externally. When you do steroids, your natural testosterone production drops to almost zero. So someone on steroids doesn't have to worry about training in a way that lowers or increases their natural testosterone production - because they couldn't get it any lower or higher if they tried. There testosterone levels are dictated by how much they inject. Their body has shut down its own production. As a natural trainee, you have to train in a way that maximizes your natural testosterone production. I don't mean to harp on steroid use, but it is critical to understand the difference between training naturally and training on steroids. Crusty Ninja training is based on how people trained before steroids existed.

Advantages of Heavy Training Only 2 x Week

  • Decreased Joint Issues

    With only two strength days, this allows more time for joints to recover and allows for training sessions on the other days that focus on improving overall joint health.

  • More Energy for Your Training

    With only two strength days, those days are going to feel like killer days. I train heavy on Monday. Tuesday: I know I'm not ready to train again. Wednesday: I could train again, but I know I'm not 100%. Thursday: I really feel like I'm ready to train, but I don't. Friday: Heavy day again, my energy is through the roof, and I kill it. I have enough energy to train with the intensity needed to actually work the muscles hard enough to make gains.

  • Less Time in the Gym

    With only two strength days, your life isn't spent in the gym. Most of the other day's training can be done at home.
    Note: Some people would see this a bad thing, as going to the is their escape. Some people go to bars and clubs to relax and unwind, others go to gym. Ironically, this can be one of the hardest parts of Crusty Ninja style training - staying out of the gym. I'm subject to this as well. Some days I'll go to the gym just to do stretching and mobility work, even though I could easily do these at home. I like and enjoy the atmosphere at the gym.

  • Weight Loss

    Strength training is an important part of a weight loss program, but burning calories and getting fitter are critical to fat loss and keeping it off long term. With only two sessions a week devoted to strength training this leaves a lot more training time that can be spent burning fat and getting fitter.

    But Crusty, doesn't weight training burn just as many calories as cardio?

    Yes and no. If you are doing circuit-style weight training with very short rest periods between sets, then yes you can burn just as many calories as running on a treadmill. In fact, circuit training is a very good way to do weight loss/cardio sessions. But, this style of training won't build much muscle (except for newbies) and generally shouldn't be considered strength training.

  • So Crusty, why do so many weight loss gurus shun doing cardio and say it is not helpful for weight loss?

    There's some truth to that. Most people aren't fit enough (or willing to push hard enough) to burn a significant amount of calories during an hour of cardio. Most people, especially out of shape people, can only burn 200-300 calories during an hour of cardio. A fairly fit person can burn 1,000 or more calories per hour. Four cardio sessions at 250 calories per session equals 1,000 calories, or less than a 1/3 pound of fat (3,500 calories in a pound of fat). Four 1,000 calorie cardio session equals 4,000 calories burned or a little more than a pound of fat. This is why getting fit is so important to maintaining weight loss. It's a lot easier for a fit person to lose and keep the weight off. And this why many people say cardio isn't that important for weight loss. If you don't get fit enough to burn significant calories, then yes, doing cardio isn't going to help that much. The Crusty Ninja training is designed to make you fit enough so that you can burn 1,000 calories or more per cardio session. If you want to look strong and fit, get strong and fit.

    Real life example:

    A new gym member had just finished a treadmill session and called me over to tell me he had been going the gym every day for a month trying to lose weight but had gained 4 pounds. I looked at his treadmill and there was a coffee cup in the cup holder. I asked what he was drinking and he said it was some "double mocha with cream", etc. that he needed for energy to do his treadmill session. We looked it up and there were almost 700 calories in his drink. I then looked at the summary for his treadmill session and he had only burned 177 calories. So we did the math: 700 - 177 is a little more than 500 calories *GAINED* every session. Multiply that by 30 days and you have 15,000 calories gained during his cardio sessions. Divide that by 3,500 (calories in a pound of body fat) equals 4.2 pounds. He was pretty much right on track for the expected weight gain, the numbers don't lie. But, this is common. People will do cardio and then reward theirself with a treat that has more calories than their cardio session burned.

  • Muscle Gains

    As hard as it is to convince people of this (until they try it), they will make faster muscle gains with only two hard sessions a week than doing a 4-5 day bro split.

Here's a typical case study of switching to 2 x week:

Older male in his early 50s comes to me because he hasn't made any strength gains in over two years. He was training 6-7 days a week 2-3 hours a session. I cut him back to my traditional 1-hour sessions of 2 x week strength plus 1 x week mobility/functional. In about a month (it typically takes about a month to recover from overtraining) he started making gains again. This went on for several months of steady gains until he stalled again. He was showing definite signs of overtraining, but he swore he was resting on his off days. This didn't make any sense until one day I was talking to a friend of his who told me about the "killer workouts" the two of them had been doing at another gym on his off days. They had started these sessions just a few weeks before he stalled - what a coincidence. I convinced him to stop the extra sessions and lo and behold, he started making gains again. If you are drug free and not genetically gifted, then you can only train so much before it becomes counter productive.

I wish I could say this was a one-time occurrence, but this is an ongoing problem with Crusty Ninja style of training. Stopping people from doing more than is prescribed. I can't even count the number of times people have sabotaged their training by adding in extra gym days. One of the problems is that if you train just the amount needed and no more than that you start feeling good. Your muscles are rested, your joints feel good, and you just start itching to go the gym. I know, because I fight this myself. I'm obsessive and compete at a very high level (former World Champion) and am semi-retired and have lots of free time on my hands. If I thought I could get better results training seven days a week for four hours a day, I'd do it. But, through trial and error (much like the ancient Greeks), I have found the max that I can do before I start going backwards is 2 x week strength training with cardio, mobility, balance, etc. on the days between. That is what gets me the best results. That is what gets most natural older athletes the best results. That is the optimal training. And that is what Crusty Ninja is based on.

What I call the elevator theory.

Take the example of using an elevator. You go in and press the button for the floor you want. If you keep pressing the button, will the elevator get there any faster? No, all you're doing is wearing out the button. The human body is the same. Do enough strength training to "push the button" to stimulate muscle growth and then wait for it to happen. Doing more than this is just wearing you out. And to stretch this analogy a little further, what if you go into the elevator and push ALL the buttons? Now, it's going to take even longer for the elevator to reach its destination. Same with your body. At some point "pushing all the buttons" by extreme overtraining will actually slow down your gains.
Once you have done enough to stimulate growth, STOP. You can only stimulate so much growth per session. Additional training will not stimulate more growth. You've pushed the button. Doing more is at best just wasting time. At worst, you're actually impeding your gains.

I have the hardest time convincing people that this style of training will work for them. They see me at 61 years old doing cartwheels and gymnastics-style bar exercises while maintaining a decent lean muscle mass and moving fairly large weights around and ask what my training is like. When I tell them, they always say they would never be able to make gains on only 2 x week full body strength training. They are convinced that they must do a 4-5 day bro split. The handful that I get to try it and stick with it soon become believers (until they get bored and start missing the gym - and start adding in those counterproductive extra sessions).

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Stretching and Yoga

The Crusty Ninja program includes stretching. The value of basic stretching is hard to overstate. You don't need to become a yoga master, but you do need basic flexibility. Along with reducing injuries, basic stretching also helps strengthen tendons and ligaments and speed up recovery. Luckily, you don't need much. Ten minutes 3-4 times a week is plenty. When doing static stretches, as mostly used here, holding the stretch for 30 seconds is all that is needed to get most of the benefit that you are going to get from the stretch. If your goal is to improve flexibility, then after that the law of diminishing returns applies. Repeating the stretch in the same session will only marginally increase its benefit. Sort of like high intensity strength training. You get most of the benefit from the first working set, not as much benefit from the second working set, and only a little bit more from the third.

If each stretch is held for only 30 seconds, then in 10 minutes you should be able to get about 10-15 different stretches in (add in time for transitioning, catching your breath, etc.). You can easily cover stretching your whole body with this.

"But Crusty, if I only need 10 minutes of stretching per session, then why are most yoga/stretching classes an hour or more?"

Several reasons. Most yoga/stretching classes include other things along with them, such as strength, meditation, and breathing. These can add significantly to the overall time of the class. Also, there is an unwritten rule that gym classes, especially ones you pay for, must be at least an hour long. Are you going to pay $8 or more for a 10-minute class? So, instructors will lengthen the class by repeating stretches, even though this adds little benefit.

If you enjoy doing longer yoga/stretching classes, then by all means do so. There's generally little harm, but it won't improve your results much. And if it includes mediation, breathing, and relaxation, these can have benefits on their own.

Warning! Only do the basics. You only need to do beginner's stretching. For many people, doing the advanced stretching poses more risk than benefit. Some people are naturally flexible and willing to spend the time needed to master advanced stretching. These people become yoga instructors. The average person will only hurt their self trying to copy them. I think a lot of yoga instructors suffer the same problem that old rock musicians suffer. They've been playing their hits from the 1970s for years and are sick and tired of them. So we go to their concert hoping to hear our favorites and the first thing they say when they get to the stage is the dreaded phrase, "Tonight, we're going to be playing our new stuff". I get it, you've been playing the same songs for over 40 years and you're sick of it. But, I didn't pay for an overpriced concert ticket to hear your new stuff (rant, rant, rant). Anyway, yoga instructors have the same problem. They've been doing, cat, dog, camel, triangle, etc. for years and they're are bored doing them. So they have people trying to stick their head between their legs while standing on one foot. Impressive to watch them do it, but you'll most likely just get hurt.

  • Don't do any pose that feels wrong for you
  • Don't stand on your head or put pressure on your neck
  • Don't put you leg behind your head
  • Don't try to balance on one hand
  • Don't do anything beyond beginner's level

For someone who just wants to feel good and move well, there's no need for anything beyond beginner's stretching/yoga.

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Protect Your Joints

You'll notice that some of the descriptions of how to do various exercises are different from what you might have seen elsewhere. That's because the focus of Crusty Ninja training is developing long-term strength and fitness while protecting your joints from damage. The exercise form that allows you to lift the biggest weight or get the most reps may not be the best for your joints. Most exercise descriptions, especially from your gym bros, are based on what allows them to lift the biggest weight and impress the other gym rats. But, this is where you have to check your ego at the door.

A good example is the bench press. Many people, especially beginners, can bench more weight with their elbows flared out from the sides as opposed to elbows nearer the sides of their body. If you've ever done narrow grip bench press, you know exactly what I mean. The problem with benching with elbows flared is that it puts the shoulders and rotator cuffs in a vulnerable position for injury. This is one of the reasons that the bench press gets such a bad reputation as a shoulder wrecker and why so many bench pressers have shoulder issues.

But Crusty, won't my muscles grow faster if I lift the biggest weight that I can handle?

This is a misunderstanding and one of the basic principles of strength training. Yes, in general the bigger the load you place on your muscles the faster they will grow. But, the biggest weight and the biggest load are not always the same thing. That deserves repeating: "the biggest weight and the biggest load are not always the same thing". With all else being equal, yes the bigger weight will create a bigger load, but if you place a muscle in a mechanical disadvantage you can create the same load forcing the muscle to work just as hard with a smaller weight. It's all about leverages. In the case of the bench press, moving the elbows closer to the body puts the muscles at a mechanical disadvantage, thus even with a smaller weight they are under the same load and working just as hard. The advantage of course is that now your shoulders are in a better protected position making it less likely to injure them or do long-term damage to them. So, there'll be more damage to your ego, but less damage to your shoulders. And your muscles will grow just as fast because they are working just as hard.

That being said, as a former world champion powerlifter my competition bench press style is very different from my day-to-day training style. In a competition, my goal is to bench the biggest weight that I can. Outside of competition, my goal is to make my muscles as strong as possible without doing damage to my joints. Two very different goals and they need very different lifting styles. Grinding your shoulders a couple of times a year for competitions is not going to do much lasting damage, but doing it all year long will. As I often say, my success in powerlifting is based more on longevity than being all that great. I compete full raw. Most people by the time they reach my age either have bad shoulders and can't bench, or bad knees and can't squat, or a bad back and can't deadlift. Powerlifting is based on your total for these three lifts and most people my age have at least one lift they can't do well due to joint damage. So while I'm not great at any of these, I don't suck at any of them either, so my total is generally good enough to win.

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I Have Bad Knees and Can't Squat

Almost all my older lifters when they start will tell me that they can't squat because they have bad knees, hips, back, etc. They ALL eventually squat - and squat significant weights and ironically those issues that they complained about lessen as they get better at squatting. Classic example: Had a guy in late 50s who worked standing all day and when he got home would ice his knees because they hurt so much. Just like everyone else, when we started training he said he couldn't squat because he had bad knees and was bone on bone. Two separate doctors had told him the only cure for his knee pain was knee replacement surgery. We squatted… and squatted… One day he tells me he hasn't iced his knees in over a month. He hadn't stopped on purpose, but his knees just weren't hurting anymore. So what happened? His knees were still bad, the cartilage was still worn, this hadn't changed. What did change was his legs were stronger. Think about this. When you stand, it's your leg muscles that are supposed to support you. If your leg muscles are too weak to support you, then it's your bones that have to support you. Instead of your muscles holding you up, it's now bone grinding on bone. Do this all day and your knees are going to hurt - even if you have good knees. I've noticed that most people's knee issues go away (or at least are greatly reduced) when they can squat a bar loaded with their body weight. This makes sense if you think about it. When you squat a bar loaded with your bodyweight, your legs are actually supporting almost twice your bodyweight (the bar + your own weight), which means each leg is supporting close to your own bodyweight. Likewise, when you're walking and raise a foot the other leg and knee are supporting close to your bodyweight. If your muscles are not strong enough to do this, then it's up to your bones to support you. Do this all day and you will have knee and probably hip pain. Even if you have good knees and hips. If you have bad knees and hips, it's going to be that much worse. To make matters worse, when someone's legs are too weak to support them, they will drive their knees together for support. You see this in very overweight people when they are standing. This will definitely cause knee pain over time.
If you can't squat a bar loaded with your body weight, then you will be forced to grind your knee bones together when you walk. And you are going to have knee pain - even if you have good knees.

They problem with squatting, is very few people do it correctly. I see this in the gym all the time, especially among beginners. The most gawd awful squats you've ever seen. They are generally doing more harm than good. If they do this long enough, then they will eventually injure themself. This is how squats get a bad name. Learn how to squat correctly and learn how to squat deep. My rule of thumb is to start with sets of 10 reps goblet squats with no more then 5 pounds going just as deep as you are comfortable with. If you need to, squat to a good sturdy bench so that you don't fall. Keep getting deeper with them until you can get 10 Ass-to-Grass reps. When you can do 10 Ass-to-Grass reps, go up to 10 pounds. Keep progressing this way in 5-pound increments until you can do half your bodyweight. DO NOT sacrifice depth for weight. If you can't do Ass-to-Grass, keep working with that weight until you can.

When you can do 10 Ass-to-Grass reps with half your bodyweight, start doing low bar box squats where you actually sit back on the box (imagine sitting on a toilet). When you can do 10 reps with a bar loaded to your bodyweight, then you are ready for actually squatting.

Why all this? Because goblet squats force you to engage your abs to keep your chest up. If you don't you will fall forward. This will protect your spine. Many beginner squatters lean forward curving their lower back doing what almost looks like a weird variation of a good morning. Very dangerous for the spine. Goblet squats will cure you of this.

Going ass-to-grass forces you to engage your hamstrings (back of the legs) and glutes. Many beginner squatters use primarily the quads (the front of the legs) for the squat. When you are ass-to-grass, the quads are fully stretched and can't contribute as much to the squat forcing you to use your glutes and hamstrings. The hamstrings help stabilize the knee. If you have weak hamstrings, you will likely have knee pain, especially on the inner side of the kneecap. When I was bike racing, a lot of racers would develop knee pain. Road cycling tends to develop the quads more than the hamstrings. When they get out of balance, the quads overpower the hamstrings and knees gets pulled out of alignment. This will cause pain. Having the bikers do hamstring exercises, such as ass-to-grass squats, almost always fixed the problem.

A good rule of thumb: Almost anytime the muscles around a joint are out of balance with each other, joint pain will follow. This is part of why so many gym rats have elbow issues. Really strong upper arms and weak forearms. Nobody skips bi and tri day. But, who does forearm day?

Box squats teach you to drive backwards (imagine sitting on a toilet), forcing you to engage hamstrings and glutes and reducing the load on the knee.

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The Elephant in the Room - Steroids

The Crusty Ninja style of training is NOT appropriate for people on steroids.

I don't like to harp on anabolic steroids, and I only bring it up because it's important to understand the difference between training on steroids vs. training as an older natural athlete. If the training was the same, then I wouldn't even mention steroids, because it would be irrelevant. But, the training is not the same. If you are not on steroids, then you have to understand that what works best for someone on steroids is not what what will work best for you. I have the hardest time convincing people of this basic fact. This is not a moral position. I personally don't care if someone uses steroids. I don't even think it should be illegal. I have friends that use steroids and I support them in their training. That is their choice. It's just not my choice. As an adult, you can drink, smoke, overeat, all things that can potentially harm your health. It's your choice.

So what is the difference between training on steroids vs. training as a natural older athlete?

  • Anabolic steroids improve recovery.

    Anabolic steroids improve recovery, so training can be higher volume with fewer rest days. If a natural tries to do the same volume of training that someone on steroids can do, their body will simply break down and they will get minimal gains. It is during recovery that you actually build muscle. And unless you are genetically gifted (there are a few rare people that are) then your recovery time has to be longer than someone on steroids.
    This reminds me of the story of a Russian Olympic gymnastics coach from long ago. He was only interested in training athletes that could compete and win at the Olympics. His style of coaching required his athletes do many hours of skills training to develop the level of skill needed. This was much more training than the average person could handle before their body would simply break down. He didn't want to waste time with trainees that would not be able to handle his style of training. So, when a new trainee would start he would put them through a few months of heavy volume training. The vast majority of people couldn't handle this much training and their bodies would break down and he would eliminate them from his program. But, every so often someone would come through it okay. He then knew this person could handle the volume of training it would take to become a star gymnast. There are a few people who are genetically gifted with seemingly endless recovery and can train extremely high volume to no ill effect. But, they are as rare as world class gymnasts. And as we get older and crustier, our ability to recover diminishes - sad but true.
    The Crusty Ninja training is relatively low volume training designed to be within the limits of most older people's abilty to recover.

  • Steroids allow you to build more muscle than your joints can handle.

    Everyone has a biological limit on how much muscle they can build naturally. This is dictated by things such as genetics, age, health, lifestyle, and joint size. One of the biggest factors on how much muscle you can build is joint size. That's because your body won't naturally build more muscle than your joints and tendons were designed to handle. This is nature's way of preventing you from getting strong enough to rip yourself apart. Anabolic steroids do away with these limits and allow you build more muscle than your body was built for. This is why so many people on steroids tear their tendons and muscles loose.
    Most people on steroids are aware of this danger. They know that if they were to train with the biggest weights they could lift, they would destroy their body over time. So to prevent injury, they train with lighter weights than their muscles can handle. To compensate for the lower intensity training, they must increase the volume, generally to a level a natural couldn't handle.
    Here's a good question? If you can get big muscles with lighter weights and higher volume, then why even train with heavy weights? Because high intensity training builds more muscle faster than lower intensity training for most people. This should be obvious. You don't build big legs by running marathons. Marathon running is epitome of low intensity/high volume training. But, if you can't do the high intensity training that is most effective (because you're on steroids and you've built so much muscle mass that your joints can't handle it), then lower intensity/higher volume training is your next best choice.
    High intensity training works best for most naturals. When you use sub-maximal intensity, then you must compensate by increasing the volume. And most naturals simply can't handle the extra volume without their body breaking down. This is why copying the routines of the best pros rarely works well for most individuals. They simply don't have the ability to recover from that much training.

  • Steroids suppress your natural testosterone production.

    Everyone's body has a set level on how much testosterone it will allow. If you artificially add testosterone, then your body will simply produce less testosterone to compensate so that eventually you end up back at the same level. This was discovered in the early days after testosterone was first used experimentally. The recipient's testosterone levels would rise in the beginning and they would feel great at first, but eventually their body would reduce its own production to compensate so that they ended up back at their original level even with the injections. Because of this, it was falsely assumed that injecting testosterone wouldn't be effective. It wasn't until they realized that they had to inject a large enough amount that even when the body wasn't producing any of its own testosterone, their levels were still higher than normal. This is when the steroid era began. Before that, most strength training involved exercises that would convince your body that it needed more testosterone and thus would raise your testosterone level naturally. But, while you're on steroids, your body is not going to produce testosterone no matter what you do - period - so these old-school training techniques have been dropped; simply no point in doing them as it is impossible for them to have their intended effect.
    Strongmen and bodybuilders of the pre-steroid era also avoided training styles that reduced their natural testosterone, such as high volume overtraining as is typically practiced by most gym rats today. Think about it: If your natural testosterone production is already at zero, there's no way to produce less, so you don't have to be concerned about reducing it further.

  • Steroids increase your max muscle potential (MMP).

    This is an incredibly important point to understand. Everyone one has a MMP that is primarily determined by your genetics, age, health, and lifestyle. The farther you are from your MMP, the easier it to make gains. For example, if you have a MMP that would allow you with proper training to bench 300 pounds and you currently only bench 80 pounds, then you will make gains in your bench press almost no matter what you do. High reps, low reps, split routine, full body, once a week, 5 times a week, it almost doesn't matter - you will make gains. This is why newbies make progress pretty much no matter what they do - they are a long ways from their MMP. On contrast, look at the seasoned lifter who also has MMP bench of 300 pounds and is currently benching 280 pounds. He will struggle to make gains and his training has to be on point to add weight to his bench press.
    Anabolic steroids raise your MMP. That guy with a natural MMP bench press of 300 pounds may now has a steroid-induced MMP bench of 450 pounds. For all intents and purposes, he is a newbie again from the perspective of how far he is from his MMP. And just like a newbie, he will make progress almost no matter what he does. But if you remember from above, if he starts training with weights above his natural MMP, he risks serious injury to his joints and tendons. Joint and tendon size are one of the factors that limit your natural MMP to prevent you from getting strong enough to tear yourself apart. So, by necessity he has to train with weights lighter than his anabolic MMP would allow to prevent injury. To compensate for this reduction in intensity, he has to add volume. This type of training rarely works for anyone near their MMP, but his MMP has been artificially raised and he is no longer anywhere near his new MMP.
    If you are near your MMP, then high intensity training is what is required to trigger new muscle growth. If you are near your MMP, then you will not make good progress training with the high volume training like those who have a much higher steroid-created MMP as do most of today's top bodybuilders. And if you are natural and your intensity is high enough to induce muscle growth, then you must limit the volume of your training to allow recovery. This is why the training of most modern bodybuilders does not work well for naturals. Especially older naturals. It will work well for newbies - at least for a while.

DISCLAIMER OF LIABILITY. Injuries of all types can occur when participating in exercise, physical fitness and training programs, hence Crusty Ninja strongly encourages all members to obtain a comprehensive physical examination by a licensed physician PRIOR to undertaking any exercise or training demonstrated on this website, and/or any of videos, MP4s, MP3s and training manuals offered on this website, you fully assume the risk of any resulting injury. Such injuries include but are not limited to: Bruising, cuts and general soreness Muscle and tendon injuries Ligament and skeletal injuries Fractured or broken bones Concussions Heart attack