Bodybuilding: the Flushing Principle

In anything we do, there are lessons from history weand many others.
can learn and apply. Take bodybuilding and war. AAs soon as bodybuilders tried the flushing principle,
strange analogy, you might say, but think about it. Inthey loved it. And for good reason. Not only did it
World War II, the strategy of bombing and blitzing wascause their bodies to grow beyond anything they had
a significant factor in the Allied victory. Bombing andever experienced, but they also became
blitzing were simply a non stop, concentrated attack onpsychologically attuned to what their bodies were
a specific area.telling them. For the first time, they felt the muscle
Through trial and error, experimentation andpump and blow up as they became aware of the size
observation, we have also found the principle oftheir muscles could attain. It inspired them
bombing and blitzing to work especially well forpsychologically and helped them intensify their training.
bodybuilders. But, at first, applying this strategyThe same is true for you, You’ve got to pump,
wasn’t so easy. There was still another major warflush and make the muscle work for it to grow. Think
we had to win – the one in the gym.about something for a moment. When you say that
Back in the early days of the sport, bodybuilding as wetoday is your leg day, what does that mean? It means
know it today did not exist. There was onlythat you are going to go into the gym and thoroughly
weightlifting and the goal was to lift heavy weightswork, engorge and flush your leg muscles completely.
– period! The method of training was muchIt’s the same with any other body part. You use a
different, too. Most weightlifters trained their entirevariety of exercises, weights, sets, reps and rest to
body three times a week, usually with a Monday,bomb, blitz and flush and area completely so it will
Wednesday, Friday sequence. One week they wouldgrow and become stronger. This is the essence of the
do one set of nine repetitions per body part, then theBodybuilding Flushing Principle.
next week they would do one set of ten reps perThe Time Factor
body part and so on until they finally worked up to oneThink about another factor. How long does it take you
set of 12 reps per body part. Once they could do 12,to do an arm workout? If it takes you 45 minutes to
they went back down to nine reps and increased thetrain your arms completely, and 45 minutes to do each
weight by 5 – 10 pounds, depending upon theother body part, you’ll be in the gym for hours –
exercise.way too long. Even the most advanced champions
If you were tired on a Monday, you had to do thekeep their workouts to no longer than one hour. The
same routine. If you were full of energy and wanted tointensity level for growth after one and a half hours is
do more on a Wednesday, you couldn’t. At thatjust not there, not to mention the high probability of
time, you had to follow all the conventional rules ofexposing yourself to over training and possible injury.
weightlifting and stick to your workout, no matter howTo counteract these dangers, the split system of
strong or weak you were. The order in which you didtraining was developed with the flushing principle as its
your routines was also different. You might do a set offoundation. As you advance in your workouts, get
prone presses, then go to biceps curl and maybe a legstronger and increase your recuperative powers as
exercise after that. There was no logical order for theyour body adapts to training, you may decide to train
exercises in a workout.one body part in the morning and one in the afternoon,
Saturation Trainingor possibly another in the evening, or maybe work the
It was by observation and experimentation that weupper body one day and lower body the next, or any
found the only way you could really work a muscleother variation.
and make it grow was to do more than one set ofBy splitting your training, you’re able to work a
one exercise for it. You had to saturate an area andparticular muscle group more thoroughly. This is how
train it intensely to recruit more muscle fibers, exhaustyou grow, get stronger and continue to progress. The
it and bring more blood and nutrients into the area toflushing principle is a very intense way to work a
nourish it while removing the waste.muscle. To get the most out of it, you’ve got to
If we wanted to flush a certain area completely,know instinctively when you’ve pushed the muscle
we’d concentrate on doing all the particularto the limit. One of the biggest mistakes you can make
exercises for that area during the same workout. Foris over saturating a muscle area. You’ve got to
example, to flush the arms we’d work the forearm,listen to your body. No one can tell you how much you
the biceps, the triceps and the deltoids with supersetsshould lift or how many sets or reps you should do.
to bring blood into the muscle area and engorge it.Only you know when your muscles have reached that
Incredible results were achieved when we used thepoint. Instinctive use of the flushing principle brings about
push-pull superset. This is when we’d do aincredible results – results that can’t be
push-down movement for the triceps, then immediatelyexperienced without its use.
do a curl for the biceps. While one muscle was resting,Think of bodybuilding as a form of art with the canvas
another muscle in that same muscle group was beingbeing your body, the exercise and principles as the
bombed and blitzed, causing very intense musclepaint, and your imagination as your brush. Believe in
flushing and saturation. Because bombing and blitzingyourself and your bodybuilding goals. Use the Flushing
the muscle worked so well, the Flushing Principle wasPrinciple instinctively in your training and see what kind
born and from it evolved such principles as Compoundof masterpiece you can create.
Sets, Giant Sets, the Double and Triple Split system