Before we can actually get on to describing the exercises themselves it's necessary to lay down, very specifically, the exact method of using the light dumbbells that I think all these different Physical Culturists were recommending.

Most of the original texts from the 1880's - early 1900's are written in what sounds today like "quaint" Victorian English using phrases that are, at the very least, obscure and often confusing. This is all further complicated by the fact that today people already have very definite ideas about dumbbells and weight training. Back then, readers were coming to the subject of Physical Culture and dumbbell exercises with completely fresh eyes - it was all totally new to them and they will have had no pre conceptions whatsoever about what it was they should have been doing.

Even then - when the pupils were coming to the light dumbbell exercises with a totally open mind - people had difficulty understanding the very precise instructions and were sometimes doing the exercises wrong and thus missing out on the proper results.

Sandow mentions this in his second book - in fact he says it's what prompted him to develop his "spring grip dumbbells" - and the problem must have been sufficiently common for people to need help. Some Sandow enthusiasts actually wrote commentaries trying to make the system clearer and help those who couldn't quite "get the knack of it".

One of these texts was "The Science and art of Physical development - with hints on the Sandow System" written in 1902 by W.R Pope, a student of the Sandow method from London.

This little book is extremely interesting and I have used many of the "hints" Mr Pope provides later in the section on the exercises. The author says several interesting things under the heading "The Art Of Exercising":

And later:

This last point should tell us a lot - remember, at this time people who could afford it were signing up for expensive private tuition in the gyms of men like Attila and Sandow to be personally coached in the correct use of the light dumbbells. Think about that for a minute. If this system is really just what modern commentators have supposed it to be by looking at the pictures in the books and "recognising" a very simple beginner's dumbbell sequence, why on earth would anyone need detailed ongoing personal instruction in how to perform it correctly?

If you were just supposed to do curls, presses and raises with these little weights what on earth would these ongoing and very costly private lessons consist of - "lift weight, lower weight, lift weight, lower weight...OK have a shower?" no - the assistance and tuition of a competent instructor is recommended because exactly what it is you're being asked to achieve with the light dumbbells is not easy to do nor easy to get your head around just by looking at pictures of someone else doing it.

And here is the even bigger problem for those of us coming to this exercise method in the 21st Century - to us those instructional pictures look exactly like something else altogether. We are all vaguely familiar with those modern theories on weight training discussed in the first chapter - we know exactly what "weight training" involves and how it should be done so when we see the light dumbbell exercises we "see" only a beginner's dumbbell sequence with weights too light to do you any real good.

The first thing you have to realise is that THIS IS NOTHING TO DO WITH WEIGHT TRAINING. THE WEIGHTS THEMSELVES ARE ONLY INCIDENTAL - IT'S WHAT YOU YOURSELF ARE DOING WITH YOUR MUSCLES THAT IS IMPORTANT.

The second thing you have to realise is that the very word "exercising" - as in the previously mentioned Mr Pope's chapter on "The art of exercising" - was being used then in a different way to mean something totally different from what we think of as "exercising" today. For a start it was supposed to be a physical "art".

We tend to think of proper "exercise" as something difficult and physically taxing - the man who's just come back from a ten mile run, panting and bending over to get his breath back, his legs wobbling underneath him, has just finished his "exercise" - the person lying in a sweaty heap of exhaustion after one and a half hours hard cardio on the machines, static bike and cross trainers has just "exercised" etc... by this definition exercise is taxing on one's system and needs recovering from.

This is not what was understood by the word exercise at the time the light dumbbell protocol was popular - that would have been "hard training" maybe or "a session of thorough physical work". Exercise was supposed to be invigorating and enervating - to put something into your system rather than take something out of it, to build up rather than tear down.

If you take your dog out for a good walk and a bit of a run around the park you do it so he gets "exercise" but you don't expect him to be so exhausted afterwards that he needs a day off to recover. If you "exercise" a racehorse leading up to a big race, you take it out for a gentle canter so that it's muscles get warmed up and are kept in a state of high condition but you don't flog it to death for miles and miles until it's foaming with sweat - that would use up all it's energy and it would need recovery time and be no good for running a race the next day.

This is the use of the word "exercise" the old strongmen were familiar with. The light dumbbells were supposed to thoroughly invigorate and build up every muscle by working it through its full range and flushing it with healthy nutrient rich blood - to keep the muscles in peak condition but not to tear down muscle tissue and expend undue energy.

The idea was - if you mastered the art of doing this correctly - by daily "exercise" according to this definition you could bring your muscular system to the peak of development and condition. We are talking about a completely different training paradigm than the current - tear down muscle fibres, allow them to recover and grow and then repeat, model we all think of today.

When in "The Science and Art of Physical Development" Pope discusses all the various "systems of exercising" available in his day and then decides that, having sampled them all, the Sandow light dumbbell method is by far "the best and most efficient". It sounds at first a bit strange and unlikely to our modern ears.

He discusses; heavy weight training with progressive increases in weight (interestingly), cable exercisers and expanders, athletics and gymnastics and the light dumbbells and says they are all good but the last one (light dumbbells) is "superior". This would definitely raise eyebrows today because from our perspective all these modes of training "do different things" - respectively building strength and muscle mass, working muscles in extension but not necessarily through their full range, building endurance, explosiveness and plyometrics, working on whole body strength and co-ordination and maybe just, in terms of the light dumbbells, slightly toning the muscles...how the hell can the last one be "superior"?

Our current thinking on exercise obscures what it is he's really saying. What if you read it like this? :

There is this thing you can do to thoroughly "exercise" every muscle in your body systematically where you rhythmically and strongly contract them all consciously using your "intention" and keep this up for an extended period. We'll call this the "Art of Physical Development". Doing this increases your neurological control over those muscles as time goes on so that you constantly improve your ability to do it as you go.

This practice has the effect of flushing the tissues with blood and, over time, results in a particular type of body development were the muscles become very dense, defined, bigger and shapelier, perfectly proportioned and more responsive all the time.

This in turn facilitates greater strength, as you are able to consciously control, relax and contract the muscles better when using them for other things; it improves whole body co-ordination and therefore agility and athletic ability and is absolutely wonderful for the health of the whole body.

To get this effect there are several different approaches you can use - you can do exercises with progressively heavier weights, you can pull chest expanders or cable exercisers, run about on the track doing athletics, tumble around or swing on bars doing gymnastics - all the while rhythmically contracting the muscles for a prolonged period - and they will all work to some extent but the easiest, quickest and most reliable way to get this effect is the simple light dumbbell protocol.

This is what he's actually getting at. What's the best, the "superior" method, on a daily basis, in as little time and with as little hassle as possible, to thoroughly "exercise" all the body's muscles in this particular way, improving them and making them grow, look and work better? - The Light Dumbbell Exercises. As the man says:

Wouldn't we all want exactly that - a pocket edition of exercises that we could perform everyday that would get and keep us in great shape quickly and reliably? I believe this is exactly what all the Physical culturists of old tried to give us. Unfortunately "Physical Culture" splintered into body building, fitness training, sports science and functional strength training etc and from our modern perspective that perfect "pocket routine" seems an impossible dream or if anyone imagines it is a possibility - when they look at the Light Dumbbell protocol it's the last thing they can see it representing.

This is a terrible shame because if we could just shelve all our perfectly rational reservations and actually try this modality of exercising for a few weeks or months - and master the correct way to do it - we would see that the masters of old weren't messing around - it does everything they said it would. It works better and faster than any other method of exercise I've ever tried despite the fact that by all accounts it shouldn't work at all.

It seems to me that what we need is a new way of looking at this old way of working out. To avoid any confusion, and to make it absolutely clear what we are trying to achieve in doing these antiquated exercises we need a new and clear definition of this exercise protocol. We need to make it very clear what the light dumbbell routine is and what it is not.

The dumbbells are merely used - along with very specific physical postures - to help you properly "work" only the muscles targeted by each exercise and they should be heavy enough to do that job but not so heavy that you have to concentrate on moving the weight about instead of on easily and completely squeezing the muscle for a total contraction.

The weight should be well within your capacity to just move through the exercise with without particularly even feeling it if you weren't trying to generate a full muscular contraction at the same time.

For example, imagine I told you to stand with both arms out to the sides in a crucifix posture with a dumbbell in each hand and then had you to do a sort of alternating dumbbell curl motion. If you're reasonably strong you could probably attempt this with two fifteen or twenty pound dumbbells - if you are very strong with even more.

But what if I stipulated that the arms had to be held perfectly straight with elbows locked out and shoulders down, arms exactly parallel to the floor? What if I said the elbows should bend maximally when you curl the dumbbell to the shoulder but that the elbows shouldn't move in space at all - even a fraction of a millimetre? And what if I told you to only involve and rhythmically contract the deltoid, bicep and then the triceps? What if I told you to keep it up, alternating arms and turning the strong contractions on and off as you go but to keep the rest of the muscles - the chest, back etc relaxed? And what if I told you to keep going for 50 perfect reps at about 1 second or slightly more per rep?

There is absolutely no way you can do this properly with 15 or twenty pounds - ten pounds would be way too much for most normal humans - you could sort of do it i.e. you could fight your way to 50 reps with your face grimacing and everything shaking but you would be engaging all the muscles of your arms back and chest at once in an uncontrolled manner and your "form" would be all over the place.

Modern safe practice dictates that in this sort of position - when doing dumbbell fly's say - the arms should be slightly bent and the shoulders slightly shrugged rather than the exaggerated stiff-armed military posture I've just described. This is to safeguard the joints and becomes necessary if one is working with challenging weights - otherwise we would be stressing the tendonous connections in the elbows and the rotator cuffs. This is the whole point - even a ten-pound dumbbell becomes unsafe and too difficult to handle properly in these positions and defeats the point of the exercise.

With no weight in hand hold your arm out to the side, slightly bent at the elbow, and then try to maximally contract just the deltoid muscle. Then straighten the arm so it's locked out and make a fist and try to contract the deltoid strongly again - which position gave you a better and more complete contraction?

It's simply the case that the second position facilitates a better complete conscious contraction. If we are then going to take a dumbbell and use it to enhance that action and repeat this contraction rhythmically over and over again THE DUMBBELL HAS TO BE HEAVY ENOUGH TO HELP BUT NOT SO HEAVY AS TO COMPROMISE OUR ABILITY TO PROPERLY AND SAFELY PERFORM THE EXERCISE IN THAT POSITION.

To complete this exercise properly, most people - even already strong people - would benefit from a dumbbell of about 3 - 5 pounds. A particularly strong man might work up to using 7 or 8 pounds but beyond that the weight (although still VERY light by normal weight training standards) would interfere with your ability to get the right kind of effect going on in the muscles. Somebody else might only need 2 pounds to get the right feeling and effect over the required number of reps - for them even 4 or 5 pounds would be too much.

Remember it's NOT weight training - you're not trying to impress anyone - or indeed yourself - by how much weight you can do the exercises with. You're trying to bring about a certain effect in the muscles and you just want the perfect tool to help you do that and no more.

At the end of 20 or 30 minutes of this type of exercising, when you've worked every muscle in the body thoroughly, you should be very warm internally, slightly sweaty and feeling good. If you've used the right light weight you will be, your muscles will all be pleasantly pumped, defined and hard and you will feel full of energy. If you've tried to use too heavy a weight on the other hand, your muscle attachments in the elbows and rotator cuffs will be complaining, you'll be out of breath from straining and being unable to breathe normally and easily throughout the set as is required, and you'll probably be shaking from the effort. You'll feel like you need to sit down for a bit and recover and this is not what we want.

These exercises are specifically designed to be used with as light a weight as possible to get the desired result and not as heavy a weight as possible. Think about that - this is exactly the opposite of the normal modern weight training protocol. The desired result is not successfully broken down muscle tissue from hard exertion - it is maximally worked and enervated muscle tissue from alternate self generated contractions assisted by a slight increase in tension afforded by a small weight.

For convenience - so I don't have to keep defining what sort of exercise I'm talking about here and saying "remember we're talking about contracting the muscles in a self generated rhythmical way" etc - and to make it clear that this approach is not supposed to work by developing the body in the same way as the progressive resistance approach, I suggest giving this method a new name.

From here on in I'm going to refer to improving the musculature by means of the classic Light Dumbbell Exercises as The "W.A.T.C.H protocol" - this stands for:

• Weight
• Assisted
• Total
• Contraction
• Hypertrophy

In other words the improvements you can bring about in your muscular system - the particular type of development and hypertrophy you can achieve - come about entirely as a result of the repeated total muscular contractions you yourself generate and you just use a small weight and some specific postures to help you to do this.

So now when people tell you can't build big muscles with small weights you can say yeah that's true - not by ordinary resistance training protocols BUT you can significantly improve your musculature in terms of size strength and general appearance if you use some light dumbbells to do the W.A.T.C.H. protocol. This is what Attila called "the science of muscular education".

The W.A.T.C.H Protocol - Instructions:

1. Follow the instructions concerning the position of the body in each exercise to the letter and do not deviate from that position during the performance of the exercise.
2. Select a dumbbell that is just the right weight to challenge you slightly while performing the movements in strict form for the suggested number of repetitions - for most people this will be in the 2-5 pound range. As you get stronger it may increase to as much as 7 or 8 pounds but DO NOT be tempted to start with too heavy a dumbbell just to satisfy your ego. The rule should be to choose the Lightest weight with which you can effectively perform the exercise and generate the right feeling in the muscles.
3. Squeeze the dumbbell tightly and generate a deep and as complete a muscular contraction as possible in only the muscles stipulated in each particular movement. Try to relax the muscles not directly involved.
4. Most of the exercises are alternating movements - as soon as one movement finishes, completely relax the muscles you have just used as you begin contracting the opposite muscle. This sense of alternating contraction and relaxation is very important.
5. The exercises move through the body systematically - as you complete the exercises for each body part and move on to the next, completely relax the body part just worked - shake it out and feel it fill with blood.
6. Do not hold the breath at any time while performing the exercises - breathe fully, normally and easily throughout. Do not grit the teeth and screw up your face as you tense the muscles - this will cause you to involuntarily hold the breath. Try to cultivate the ability to maximally contract the muscles while breathing normally and keeping the face relaxed.
7. The cadence or rhythm/timing to be used in the exercises in extremely important. For most of the exercises you want to aim for slightly longer than one second per rep initially, (time it with the second hand of a clock at first until you get a feel for it) Sandow called it a "Waltz time" and I found this very useful. Keep strictly to this cadence and don't pause between individual movements - keep moving smoothly at the right rhythm exactly in the manner a ballet dancer trains at the bar. When you begin to experience muscle fatigue and try to keep going it's natural to either slow down or speed up - DON'T! - Keep going at the same cadence and you will get the ache and hit momentary failure sooner. The push-ups, sit-ups and squats will be done a little slower than this.
8. Above all - concentrate entirely on the working muscle or muscles, not on moving the dumbbell through space.
9. When you finish the sequence of exercises, run through the body contracting each muscle and group of muscles separately a few times and then relaxing them. Then tense the entire body all at once and then relax it completely - the old courses all recommend a series of "physique poses" here but if you would feel ridiculous adopting these typical "muscle man" positions it really doesn't matter any position will do - just practice control of the muscles by tensing and then relaxing them. Don't miss this bit out - it's very important.

If you've read the first part of the book concerning the history of the Light Dumbbell training - what were now calling the W.A.T.C.H protocol - you'll remember that lots of different Physical Culturists sold versions of essentially the same routine but with various differences in the order of the exercises and with some omissions and additions here and there but they all recommended essentially the same protocol.

When I originally started training in this method I used Sandow's sequence of exercises and later added in extra variations I liked the look of from Treloar, Strongfort and others. Some of them I liked and still use occasionally and some I didn't get on with and abandoned. Later I tried what we might call the original routine - the one presented by Professor Attila in the articles in his scrapbook and in his 1910 book.

It seems to me that this is the best arrangement of the exercises and that Sandow probably changed it around a bit just to give it his own stamp so to speak (as did all the others) but that in doing this he missed out a couple of really nice exercises for the back and over emphasised the wrists and forearms.

The exercises I'm presenting here are Professor Attila's but with the odd variation here and there as an optional, additional or alternative movement - when this happens a note is included to say where the exercise comes from.

When to exercise:

Entirely up to you - some writers recommended one session every morning, some a single session in the evening and some recommended splitting it into two sessions morning and evening. Personally I like to do it in the evening or late afternoon if I'm going out and won't be able to do it at the normal time. The important thing is to do it consistently.

Frequency:

Do the whole thing everyday. Attila said daily, Sandow said to have a day off when you need it; others recommend six days a week with one days rest. Personally I like to do it every day and then have a day's rest when my body feels like it. This way I tend to have a break every week or so - it might be seven days on, one day off, eight days on one day off or maybe ten days straight then one day off.

The main thing is don't apply the train/ rest/ train rest / three days a week model believing you need rest to grow and recuperate - it isn't that type of training. Your body will respond better if you do it on a daily basis. If you feel this is too much at first I suggest Monday to Friday with the weekend off but try and build up to every day - think of doing the routine as just part of your everyday body maintenance like brushing your teeth.

How long should it take me?

At first you should be able to bang through the whole thing in about fifteen minutes or so building up to twenty or twenty five. As you get better at doing the exercises and as you are able to do more of them it might start to take you a bit longer but even now after three years I only take about half an hour in the evening.

Where should I do the exercises?

It doesn't matter but try and do it somewhere quiet so you can be on your own and concentrate on the exercises to the exclusion of everything else. Don't put music on or God forbid do it in front of the television while chatting to your Wife/ Husband or significant other.

Those facilities they have in gyms now were you can plug headphones into a TV and watch the news or MTV while you "work out" lead to exactly the wrong type of exercising for our purposes. That type of approach would lead to just mechanically churning out the movements while your mind is off somewhere else entirely. We want your mind focused inwards and concentrated completely on contracting the muscle or muscles you're working in each exercise.

Exercising in front of a mirror helps a lot at first - both to check your posture is correct throughout and to see if the proper muscles are visibly contracting (and indeed to spot if other ones that are supposed to be relaxed are contracting involuntarily) this really helps in developing the ability to control your muscles.

Where the hell is the Brachialis?

Ok - the instructions that follow tell you to control and contract certain muscles. We all know were the bicep is and most people reading this will be familiar with the location of most of the major muscles but if you aren't this will be a problem. Many of the old books mentioned in the history section included very detailed sections on human anatomy with meticulous diagrams of all the muscles and their actions, attachments, origins and insertions etc

This was because the Physical Culturists of the day were asking their pupils to learn to master the action of every muscle so it was essential to have a grasp of where they were and what they did. It's still essential but we live in the age of the Internet and thankfully it's not necessary for me to attempt writing a comprehensive anatomy section. Instead, when you read a mention of a muscle you can simply Google it and see what it does.

There is a simple chart in the appendix of this book that shows the locations of all the main muscles and it will also help you to have a basic understanding of what they all do - but a broader understanding would definitely help. It's interesting to realise for example, for those of us that aren't anatomists, that the bicep is involved in turning the hand palm up or palm down and is attached to the shoulder blade, the trapezius doesn't just sit either side of the neck but is huge and runs right down and across the back and that part of the pectoral muscles are intimately involved in the action of the shoulder blades - who knew?

If you can't be bothered with all this extra reading - fair enough - but at least cross check the instructions with the anatomy chart in Appendix I.

The instructions for the exercises that follow are extremely detailed. It's vital that you understand every little detail about how to do them so that you can master the right way to perform them and so get the results you want.

Read through each explanation carefully until you're sure you "get it" and then attempt the exercise. For the first couple of weeks keep checking back to make sure you've grasped all the important points - there will probably be lots of little things that you missed first time around. If you can't "feel" a certain exercise or can't figure out how it's supposed to hit the target muscles go back to the description and read it through again.

I have tried to make the instructions as clear as possible but that means that at first each one might seem needlessly complicated - it will only seem like that initially until you get the hang of all of them. Once you have, you can just refer to the simple list of exercises at the end of the chapter. In a few weeks you will remember them all easily and be able to go through the whole routine systematically without referring to the list at all.

Stand up straight with feet close together, toes pointing slightly out and bend at the knees slightly. Make sure your weight is mostly forward in the balls of your feet - check yourself in the mirror to see if you're leaning forward without realising it. Pull the pelvis to a central position so the weight falls into your toes and you can feel it's your thigh muscles mostly holding you up. Relax the muscles in your buttocks or lower back.

Hold the dumbbells loosely in each hand and have them resting lightly on the front of your thighs with the palms rotated fully to the front (fig 1).

fig 1

Alternately raise and lower each arm as if you're trying to touch the dumbbell or palm of your hand to the front of your shoulder and then return it to the original position (fig 2). When you raise or "curl" a dumbbell to the top position keep the elbow on that side pinned to your ribs - don't allow it to lift up to the front or move anywhere at all. Squeeze the handle of the dumbbell tightly as you curl it and try to contract the bicep fully at the top of the movement.

fig 2

Keep the little finger side of your arm twisted up as much as possible throughout the movement - keeping the dumbbell level and parallel to the floor with the back of the hand pointing towards the floor. Doing this will help you get a good contraction - if you get too lazy and let the little finger dip down even slightly so the dumbbell goes at too much of an angle you won't get a proper maximal contraction with each rep. Don't flex or bend at the wrist - keep the back of the hand in line with the forearm.

At first just concentrate on the bicep - contract it as much as you can on the curl up and relax it again on the return as you are repeating the movement with the other arm and squeezing the bicep on that one. Go for a target of one hundred reps at the even cadence mentioned earlier (this would be fifty on each arm obviously). At first, depending on the weight you're using and how good you are at contracting the muscle you should really begin to feel it somewhere between thirty and fifty reps in and somewhere between sixty and one hundred reps you should get the deep "ache" and reach momentary failure. (These numbers are all just a rough guideline - you might hit the right feeling at twelve or fifteen even) Stop and shake out the arms for a few seconds.

(As Pope points out you shouldn't confuse an "ache" with merely getting a bit tired - if you are contracting your muscle correctly you will know exactly when to stop - you'll reach a point well before the hundred when you simply can't do any more. If on the other hand you seem to be able to pump out a hundred no problem and feel nothing it would be natural to assume the weight is too light - it's much more likely that you're not engaging the muscle sufficiently on each rep, especially if you're using the full five pounds.

Feel the muscle as it contracts with a finger of your other hand - compare it to the relaxed triceps on the back of the arm - the bicep should be rock hard and full of blood. If it just feels slightly firm you need to improve your neuro-muscular control over that muscle - don't worry, your ability to contract the muscle maximally will improve really quickly)

Once you can do this "beginning" version of the exercise really well - successfully alternately contracting the biceps over about a hundred evenly paced repetitions until they pump, and then "ache" causing you to stop - you can start including the triceps in this exercise too. This will entail contracting the triceps on the back of the arm strongly as you lower the dumbbell while relaxing the bicep on that side and simultaneously contracting the bicep and raising the dumbbell on the other side. Suddenly a very simple looking exercise becomes a complicated feat of syncopated muscle control.

It's best to spend the first couple of weeks at least just concentrating on the biceps in this first exercise even if you think it sounds like a doddle. Remember, you need to alternate between complete tension and complete relaxation in each part of the arm - not partial tension - and NOT simultaneous tension in the whole upper arm.

When you get really good at the muscle control you can play with using Eccentric contraction in the bicep on the lowering phase instead of engaging the triceps - in other words tense the bicep on the way up and then try and keep it maximally tense as it extends on the way down. This is really difficult - try maximally tensing your bicep now with your arm out straight instead of bent at the elbow while the triceps stays relatively relaxed. This will probably seem impossible at first but this is the level of voluntary control over your musculature that these exercises give over time.

When you complete the first exercise shake out the arm and rest for maybe thirty seconds before going on to exercise two. You want to build up to going straight from one exercise to another throughout the whole sequence but the first two always require a short break to let the blood back into the muscle.

Stand in the same beginning position as for the previous exercise except with the dumbbells resting on the front of the thighs with the backs of the hands pointing out. (fig 3)

fig 3

Keeping the elbows down and pinned to the sides as before, alternately curl the dumbbells up so that the backs of the hands almost touch the front of the shoulder. As before, keep the wrists straight and keep the dumbbells perfectly level - this time by keeping the little finger side of the hand twisted away as much as possible and the palm side of the hand facing the floor throughout. (fig 4)

fig 4

Now you are concentrating on contracting the bicep again - although in a different position - and also the brachialis muscle on the outside part of the upper arm. You will also feel this one in the muscles of the forearm.

As last time, at first concentrate on alternately contracting and relaxing the biceps and Brachialis principally and go for a target of one hundred reps. You should find you get the "ache" and are forced to stop at approximately half the number of reps you managed on the previous exercise - again if this doesn't seem to be the case you are not performing the exercise correctly. Keep trying and you will get it.

When you can do it with proper control over these muscles you can once again start involving the tensing of the triceps as you lower the arm while relaxing the biceps and brachialis - you will find you get a different and stronger contraction of the triceps with your hand in this position. Keep the same cadence/rhythm as last time.

Again when you've finished this one you will probably need to rest for thirty seconds or so of shaking out the engorged upper arm. Don't take lots of long rests between movements though as the routine is designed to have a knock on effect with each exercise building on the effects on the preceding one until each body part has been thoroughly worked, pumped up and then flushed with fresh blood. If you stop too long between exercises it will be counter productive.

Stand up straight as before with knees slightly bent, weight in the balls of the feet rather than the heels (although not so much that your knees pass over your toes), and relax the buttocks and lower back so that you feel your bodyweight in your thigh muscles. Extend both arms out to the sides palm up with a dumbbell in each hand. The arms should be straight out, elbows locked, shoulders down, head up and looking forward (fig 5)

fig 5

Alternately curl each dumbbell towards the shoulder - as you do this strongly contract the deltoid muscle, and the bicep on that side. Turn your head and look along the opposite straight arm. As you straighten the curled arm back out again turn your head to look down that arm as it straightens and curl the other arm towards the shoulder tensing the deltoid and bicep (fig 6).

fig 6

Sandow described this as principally an arm exercise concentrating on biceps and triceps with secondary involvement from the deltoid but Attila calls it a deltoid exercise first and foremost and I've found that I've had better results with it concentrating on the deltoid first.

AS you get better at performing the exercises and improve your muscle control, you can start to concentrate on contracting the triceps strongly in the straightening arm as you alternately contract the deltoid and bicep in the curling arm - don't worry too much about this at first as it will only encourage you to just tense everything at once. It's much more important to get a rhythmic powerful "on-off" contraction and relaxation cycle going in the deltoids and biceps (and then latterly the triceps too), while keeping everything else in the back and chest relaxed and the breathing normal than it is to just generate tension everywhere.

Aim ultimately for fifty reps in this (twenty five each side) but realise that as it follows on from other arm exercises and your arms are already full of blood and "worked" you should hit the point were you get the ache and stop at about twenty or so at first or maybe even earlier.

After a pause of only a few seconds go on to the next exercise.

Stand exactly as in the previous exercise (fig 5)

This time curl both dumbbells simultaneously towards the shoulders. Again concentrate at first on strongly tensing the deltoid muscles and the biceps - only this time on both arms at the same time. As you do this, tilt the head down so your chin comes closer to your chest. (fig 7)

fig 7

Then straighten both arms out to the sides again tensing the deltoids. This time tilt your head back so you're looking upwards (fig 8).

fig 8

Again just concentrate on the deltoids and biceps until you get the hang of it so that you can easily keep the correct position, tense the deltoids and biceps and relax the biceps on the way back. Once you have this down you can start to strongly contract the triceps on the straight arm phase of the exercise.

The changing head position will help you get a better contraction in the deltoids and as your muscle control improves will help you consciously involve the trapezius as well. Be careful of purposefully tensing this muscle at first in this position as it can cramp and be tremendously painful.

*Most of the light dumbbell movements are alternating movements and this is one of the few that works both arms at the same time - be especially careful to breathe normally and NOT HOLD THE BREATH in this one and also be careful to only tense the target muscles and NOT THE WHOLE UPPER BODY.

At the end of exercise four you have finished the section concentrating specifically on the arms (although the arms are still involved secondarily in most of the other exercises. Your arms should be filled with blood, pumped up and feel thoroughly "worked". Pause for thirty seconds or so and totally relax them, shaking them down and try to get the muscles to wobble and be loose again as opposed to being dense and solid to the touch.

Then move on to the shoulder exercises.

Stand erect with weight in towards balls of feet, knees slightly bent and thighs slightly engaged - buttocks and back as relaxed as possible as before. This time hold the dumbbells straight out in front of you with arms locked perfectly straight, shoulders down, head up looking forward. (fig 9)

fig 9

Breathe in and come up on the toes as you draw both dumbbells simultaneously out to the sides into a crucifix position but with palms facing forwards this time. Keep looking to the front. (fig 10)

fig 10

Strongly contract the gastrocnemius muscles of the calf and the deltoid muscles as you do this. Don't hold the breath at the end of this simultaneous contraction - just co-ordinate the movement with a complete in breath.

Then lower back down again as you exhale and bring your arms back to the original position relaxing the deltoids. At first just concentrate on the calves and the deltoids and on co-ordinating the movement with the breathing.

Once you have this down and you are getting a really good rhythmical contraction and relaxation cycle going in the calves and deltoids when you perform this exercise you can start to concentrate on the pectoral muscles in the second phase.

As you bring your straight arms back to the front and relax the deltoids, strongly contact the pectoral muscles. Feel like it's this action that squeezes the air out of your lungs like a bellows. This action is like a straight-armed version of the "pec deck" machine for those of you who are familiar with it.

As you get better at the exercises you can begin to take the arms back further than just out to the sides in the opening move. Attila talked about the arms meeting behind the back! Maybe he could really do this or maybe he was just providing an image to help the trainee get a fuller range of motion I don't know but be careful not to force the arms past your natural range and overstretch. Taking them slightly past the frontal/coronal plane facilitates a better contraction of the deltoids and lets you start consciously contracting the upper part of the latissimus dorsi as well.

Your deltoids should already be worked from the last two arm exercises so you will probably get congestion and "ache" in them somewhere between twelve and twenty reps.

Go straight into the next exercise

Stand in the same way as before with the dumbbells positioned over each shoulder in the same position as the end position of exercise four except with the muscles all relaxed (fig 11)

fig 11

For those who are familiar with dumbbell presses this will seem "wrong" as a start and default position from which to do presses but with the light dumbbells and the watch protocol it actually makes sense.

Press either dumbbell up at arms length and strongly contract the deltoid muscle of the working arm. Keep the rest of the body relaxed in the original position. (fig 12)

fig 12

Breathing normally, alternate the pressing action, raising one arm than the other for about twenty or thirty reps or until the deltoids tell you to stop.

Initially just concentrate on the deltoid of the pressing arm but once you have mastered a good rhythmical contraction and relaxation cycle in this exercise you can begin to contract the deltoid on the way down as it were - feeling as if you're actually pulling the weight back down towards you and tensing it strongly as the arm reaches the bent position.

If you master this you can get a rhythm going where you have a maximal contraction at the top of the press and another in the bent position with a momentary relaxation between in each arm and then have this going on simultaneously - so one deltoid is tensing at the top position and one is tensing in the bottom position continually for the duration of the exercise.

* Don't hold the breath and don't just tense all the muscles of the shoulder girdle simultaneously - this is exactly the opposite effect from the one we need.

Then go straight on to the next exercise

Stand as before in (fig 3) but with dumbbells resting on the thighs

Concentrating on generating a strong contraction in the deltoids, alternately raise each arm to the front with elbow locked and wrist straight. (fig 13)

fig 13

At first just concentrate on getting the contraction as you raise each arm and relax the muscle as you lower it and raise the other arm.

Once you can do this effectively, getting a strong maximal contraction as you lift the dumbbell, you can start to play with keeping the contraction on the way down too. In this more advanced performance of the exercise the cadence will go like this - tense on the raise/tense on the lower/immediately completely relax deltoid/ raise other arm tensing deltoid/ lower other arm tensing deltoid/ immediately fully relax deltoid/ raise original arm...etc the ability to switch the deltoid "on and off" completely and not involve any other muscles will enhance results here.

Let the dumbbells go all the way down so they lightly touch the thigh but don't completely rest them there, then on the raise lift the arm to either chin level or level with the top of the head - see which one gives you the better contraction. For me level with the top of the head works best.

Your deltoids should be screaming by now and twenty or thirty reps should be plenty in this one - aim to build up to fifty.

Try to go straight on to the next exercise but by now you might need to put the dumbbells down and rest for a bit - if you do shake the arms out but don't stop for more that thirty or forty seconds - you're nearly at the end of the shoulder section.

Stand in the crucifix position but with the dumbbells held palms down (fig 14)

fig 14

fig 14a

Keep the arms locked straight and rotate the arms at the shoulder from palms down to palms up repeatedly and quickly about thirty times. You should contract the deltoids but this will also strengthen and work the rotator cuffs.

Your deltoids should have been worked really thoroughly by now so they might give up after only ten or twelve reps. Aim to build up to thirty and then eventually fifty reps as you get stronger.

This exercise comes from Al Treloar's book and if I am in a hurry or just fancy a change I will use it in place of exercises 5&6

Stand erect with knees locked and dumbbells extended out to the front at 45 degrees. Hold the arms locked out straight, parallel to the ground, palms down. You will be able to angle the body forward slightly with the weight in the toes (fig 15)

fig 15

Tense the deltoids and then bring both straight arms together above the head with palms facing towards each other. Keep the arms perfectly straight and locked and allow yourself to come back to a vertical position (fig 16)

fig 16

Alternate between the two positions keeping the deltoids contracted strongly. Go for fifteen to twenty reps and breath in as you extend the dumbbells forwards and out as you raise them overhead.

Another exercise from Treloar's book. This one is very effective and again it's one I usually use if I'm in a hurry - I might just use this one and exercise 7 as my only shoulder movements.

Stand facing either a wall or a piece of furniture that is approximately the height of your waist. Bend forward and rest your forehead either on the wall or against the top of the piece of furniture (you might want to use a towel or something for padding) let the arms hang down towards the floor holding the dumbbells (fig 17)

fig 17

Relax as much as possible all the muscles not involved then raise the dumbbells up to the sides in a fly type motion with locked elbows while strongly contracting the deltoids. (fig 18)

fig 18

Relax the muscles as you lower back to the start position and repeat for between fifteen and twenty reps at first. You can eventually go higher but you probably wont hit fifty in this one - it hits the rear deltoids very strongly.

You've now finished the shoulder exercises - put the dumbbells down for a short rest and shake out the arms for maybe thirty seconds or a minute. The deltoids have had a lot of work now and they are still involved as secondary movers in pretty much all the exercises to come.

Attila tells us to place the thumb over one end of the dumbbell for this and the next exercise. I feel this is because we don't need to grip the dumbbell and add extra tension in these movements and because to attempt them - even with such a light weight - with the hands gripped tightly around the handles of the dumbbells is not good for the tendons in the wrists and elbows.

In fact, these two exercises - although they definitely strengthen the muscles of the forearm - may well have been included as much to stretch out these tissues as build them up as by this point in the routine you have already worked the grip and the forearms a lot by continually and alternately squeezing the dumbbells.

Stand in the by now familiar crucifix position with the dumbbells held palm down as in (fig 14) but with the thumb over one end of the dumbbell. Circle the dumbbell ten to twenty times keeping the arms straight and elbows locked.

Repeat the exercise above but circling the dumbbells in the opposite direction.

Pope recommends using lighter dumbbells for the wrist exercises than for the rest of the routine - 2 or 3 pounds if your using 5 pounds for the main exercises and this is good advice. You can even just do the circles making loose fists & without the dumbbells if you find it too much work for the elbow tendons at first. If you have ever had a past problem with elbow tendonitis be careful with these.

Put the dumbbells down and shake out the hands and wrists for a few seconds before starting the section of exercises concerned with the back.

Attila believed very strongly that the muscles of the back were the seat of power and all real strength and that these exercises where the most important ones in the whole sequence. At first it will be hard to believe some of them are in fact back exercises at all. We are accustomed to thinking of the back as needing heavy weights to stimulate it's musculature in movements like the bent row or the dead-lift and so effectively working these big muscles with tiny dumbbells seems impossible but actually these exercises are brilliant.

If you can get the hang of how to do them to really hit the large muscles of the back you will find they are all extremely effective. They are though, some of the most difficult to get the "knack" of but stick with them - they are worth it.

Stand with the weight resting mostly on the right foot with left foot pointing straight ahead and right foot pointing to the side at about forty-five degrees. Hold the dumbbells so the one in the right hand is held at shoulder height and the one in the left is resting on the left thigh. (fig 19)

fig 19

Then push strongly off the right leg and lunge forwards with the left leg "Punching" out simultaneously with the right arm at face height. Keep the non-punching arm straight and grip the dumbbell on that side tightly too. Finish in the position shown in (fig 20) then immediately go back to the start position. Repeat this action twelve or fifteen times at first and build up to twenty-five reps.

fig 20

It is quite difficult at first to see or feel this as a back exercise but try to get a full contraction in the latissimus dorsi muscle on the side of the punching arm both in the "punch" forwards and then in the "pull" back to the start position.

If it helps you can see this exercise as being analogous to a boxers wall pulley cable exercise alternated with a one arm cable rowing movement on the return (in other words imagine you're using one of those cable machines where you pull on a cable attached to the machine behind you which causes a weight to lift up on a rack, and alternate with a similar exercise where you pull on a cable attached to a machine in front of you as you would on a rowing machine) It's up to you to generate the proper tension and involvement of the back muscles using the dumbbell to help you. You need to generate tension in the lat in extension (as you punch out) and in contraction (as you pull the hand back).

Now repeat the exercise with the feet the other way around for the left arm/ left side of the back by pushing off the left leg and stepping forward with the right.

This is the exercise that the pupils are performing in the engraving of Hippolyte Triat's gymnasium shown earlier.

This exercise is all about fully flexing and extending the back. Stand erect with both dumbbells held straight up over the head with arms straight and extended. (fig 21)

fig 21

Slowly bend forward so that the dumbbells come level with the knees or shins - or if you are very flexible and can touch your toes easily without actively "stretching" allow them to touch the tops of the feet - just don't force it and don't "bounce" in the movement. (fig 22)

fig 22

Then straighten up again, keeping your arms in line with your ears throughout, and go back to the start position. Go for between twelve and fifteen reps and be careful - even though you are only using 2, 3 or 5 pound dumbbells that's actually 4, 6 or 10 pounds that your lower back is working with in extension and in a position where leverage will make it seem like much more.

Try to actively work the muscles of the lower back as you come up in this exercise. It will really help to keep the weight in the balls of the feet rather than the heels and grip the floor with your toes as you straighten up. This is one of the movements were light weights are essential - particularly at first. If you get the hang of this exercise you'll be surprised at the amount of tension it produces in the whole back but particularly the erector spinae and quadratus lumborum

Stand straight with dumbbells at the sides (fig 23) then raise the shoulders towards the ears (fig 24)

fig 23

fig 24

Alternately raise and then lower them again. Try to actively and strongly contract the trapezius muscles as the shoulders raise and relax them again as they fall. The deeper rhomboids are also involved.

It will really help here to check the chart and get a good sense of how extensive the trapezius muscle is. You need to gain the ability to consciously activate all of it as you raise the shoulders.

Only do ten or twenty reps of this and don't overdo the tension as you can actually induce a painful spasm in this muscle if you are not careful. Breathe normally and be sure not to tense the neck and jaw involuntarily.

Stand straight with the dumbbells held out to the sides at 45 degrees, palms down (fig 25)

fig 25

Keeping the arms straight and elbows locked, swing the arms forward so that the wrists cross over in front (fig 26) and then swing them forcefully back to the original position.

fig 26

Try to involve and strongly contract all the back muscles as you would if you were performing a cable crossover exercise (in other words an exercise where you hold the handles of two cables attached to a machine behind you and you pull both cables simultaneously and diagonally so the handles cross in front of you and a weight raises in the machine behind you). Strongly contract the back both as you swing the arms in front of you and again as you return them to the start position. Go for fifteen reps building to twenty-five reps.

This is another exercise in which it is quite difficult to generate the correct tension in the target muscles - particularly if you can't already consciously contract the latissimus dorsi muscles, the rhomboids and trapezius by an act of will. As you get the hang of it the exercise will become both easier to do and more productive.

Stand up straight with dumbbells held by the sides as in (fig 27)

fig 27

Bend from one side to the other so that the dumbbell on that side lowers towards the knee (fig 28)

fig 28

As you do this tense the external oblique muscles on the sides and the erector spinae and quadratus lumborum in the lower back on the side that is bending. Alternate sides for between twenty to fifty times.

Again, at first these muscles are difficult to actively contract but the position adopted and the weight of the light dumbbells will help you feel the muscle's action and then you will gradually be able to enhance it voluntarily and get a strong rhythmic contraction.

In Sandow's version as one dumbbell goes down towards the knee the other dumbbell is pulled up to the armpit on the opposite side of the body. You can do the exercise this way if you like but the simpler movement seems to work better for me and makes it easier for me to get alternating contraction in the obliques and lumbar muscles.

This exercise is especially difficult to get the hang of but is well worth the effort if you do - it's great for the muscles of the mid and upper back and also has a powerful affect on the triceps on the backs of the arms.

Stand up straight with the dumbbells held by the sides, arms locked straight and palms forward (fig 29)

fig 29

Then extend the stiff arms backwards rotating them forcefully so that the palms face behind you (fig 30)

fig 30

Hold this position for a second or so with the upper back in isometric tension and then return to the original position. Repeat about fifteen or twenty times, holding the rear position for a second or so each time and contracting the muscles in the mid and upper back and the muscles in the back of the arm.

Think of the position you would be in and the type of tension you would be generating at the end, raised position of a "dip" on parallel bars.

This is a variation of exercise 16 that Lionel Strongfort included in his course. He actually had the hands as in exercise sixteen - i.e. palms forward in the first position rotating to palms backwards in the final position - but personally I've found this to be problematic for the tendons in the elbows which tend to complain before the target muscles have had enough. I switched the hand position to a "hammer curl" type position, which is better for me, and now the exercise reminds me of the position of a ski jumper.

This variation seems to hit the triceps primarily and the upper back secondarily rather than the other way around so rather than using it as an alternative to exercise 16 I do it in addition and use it as the final back exercise. You can do this or just select the one you like best.

Stand inclined slightly forward from the ankles so the weight is in the toes and hold the dumbbells palms in with elbows bent (fig 31)

fig 31

Straighten the arms, extending them behind you, keeping the dumbbells in the same grip and lean forward slightly with straight locked legs. There should be a straight line between the heels and the back of the head. (fig 32)

fig 32

Hold the position for a second and contract the muscles of the triceps and upper back. Do between fifteen and twenty reps.

You've now finished the back exercises. Put the dumbbells down for a few seconds and relax the back muscles.

Move on to the leg exercises.

Stand with feet shoulder width and toes pointing forwards, dumbbells held by the sides and then raise up as high as possible on the toes. Strongly contract the calf muscles at the top of the movement (fig 33)

fig 33

When you come down allow the knees to bend slightly and contract the muscles in the front of the shin fig 34) This way when you raise back up you will tend to engage the large soleus muscles as well as the gastrocnemius and you will also target the tibialis anterior and the extensors in the shin.

fig 34

As you get better at this you can repeat the exercise for a further twenty reps with the toes turned out to the sides at forty five degrees to hit the outer portion of the calves and then again with the toes pointed inward for another twenty to hit the inner portion.

fig 34a

fig 34b

Stand straight and raise the toes so the weight is on the heels and you strongly engage all the muscles in the front of the calf and shin (fig 35)

fig 35

Keep the knees locked and repeat for twenty reps at first. As you increase the number of calf raises increase these as well so you do the same number.

The reason I refer to these as "deep knee bends" and not "squats" is partly because this is what they were referred to back at the time this routine was first popular and partly to differentiate this movement from the image we all have of the modern "squat" exercise.

Modern squats have us keeping the knees above the toes, leaning forward with a pronounced curve in the lower back and also only going low enough for the thighs to go parallel to the floor. This would involve the Gluteus Maximus (the buttocks) strongly and the traditional deep knee bend exercise hits the quadriceps of the thigh much more. It's also much harder when done correctly and generates a high level of involvement in the muscles of the thighs and calves, which you can then actively increase and enhance with self-generated tension.

Stand straight with the dumbbells held by the sides and the weight raised up on the toes (fig 36)

fig 36

Keeping the back straight and the pelvis in the neutral position, slowly lower yourself down so that your buttocks touch your raised heels (fig 37)

fig 37

Keep the calves contracted and sit on the heels for a moment before slowly straightening the legs back to the start position. On the way up, and particularly at the top when the legs lock out, contract the thighs strongly. Breathe out as you lower and in as you rise up. Repeat in a steady controlled fashion targeting the thigh muscles and calf muscles for initially fifteen or twenty reps and build up to forty or fifty reps over time. Don't rush your progress on this one - to do it correctly is actually quite difficult and you need to build up balance, co-ordination and range of movement in the hips and knees.

*Modern safe practice usually dictates that in squats the knees should never pass in front of the toes and people will quote this rule as a hard and fast one that should never be violated. The thing is it was formulated principally for squatting heavy weight which we are not doing here and think about it - every time you squat down on your toes to get something out of the fridge or to tie your kid's shoelaces you adopt this exact position. This is a perfectly normal position that the human body is designed to adopt easily. That said, be careful - if you are not personally used to adopting it and are unstable it may bother your knees. Go slowly and build up to it.

*If you have knee issues and feel unhappy about this one - miss it out and do the following variation instead.

Sandow included this heel down variation in his course with the slight difference that he held the dumbbells at the sides as in the previous exercise. I prefer to hold the dumbbells as shown - as if holding up a goblet and trying to keep it level and not spill the imaginary contents. This helps the alignment of the back, stops you leaning forward and helps the weight fall directly between the feet.

In this movement - even though you should still aim for a full deep squat - the knees do not pass over the toes. This move also hits the thighs strongly but will hit the gluteus muscles of the buttocks as well.

Stand with feet shoulder width apart, feet flat and pointing slightly out to the sides. Hold both dumbbells as shown (fig 38)

fig 38

Slowly squat down so that buttocks come close to heels. Look up and try to keep the back vertical and head straight (fig 39) - imagining the dumbbells are a goblet full of liquid you need to keep level will help with this. Breathe out as you lower and in as you rise up again.

fig 39

Do between fifteen and twenty reps at first and build up to forty or fifty reps over time.

If you can perform both versions do ten or fifteen of each and build up to twenty-five of each over time.

Even though you are squatting holding small weights most people would still regard these as body weight squats and therefore unable to build muscle or strength in your legs, however if they're done strictly with correct form and active contraction of the thighs at the top of each rep these are a LOT harder than you might think and will definitely build some size and strength in the legs.

This is actually very hard to do correctly. Build up to it over time. Some people can "just do it" and others can never do it no matter how hard they try - it's usually a matter of range of movement and technique rather than lack of strength for those that can't master it.

You can do it holding the dumbbells or without (actually, holding the dumbbells, although it technically makes the exercise slightly harder in terms of weight, helps you to balance and actually makes it easier in terms of performance)

Stand on one leg and extend the other leg to the front (fig 40)

fig 40

Slowly lower yourself down until you're sitting on your heel (fig 41) and then stand straight back up again, strongly contracting the thigh.

fig 41

You will only need to shoot for three or four reps on each leg. Professor Attila promised this exercise would add inches to your leg measurement.

To build up to this exercise there are several approaches - you can start by only going down as far as you are able and slowly getting deeper over time as you get stronger, you can do the exercise between two chairs holding onto them to support yourself, (fig 41a)

fig 41a

...or you can try a variation where you place one foot behind you on a chair and squat on the supporting leg so the knee of the bent leg touches the floor (fig 41b)

fig 41b

It really doesn't matter which variation you choose as we're just after the effect in the muscle - the extremely powerful contraction the movement produces which you will then learn to enhance consciously.

If you simply can't master the one legged squat, something else you can do to enhance the degree of tension your legs will feel in the two legged squatting exercises is to stress the action of one leg more than the other as you stand back up from the squat - in other words transfer your weight across more to one side so it's distributed between your feet say 70/30 and then stand up using the power of one leg more than the other and then alternate. Remember it's the feeling in the target muscles that's important not how we get that feeling - it doesn't matter how much weight you can hoist up in the dumbbell movements, just how much tension you can rhythmically generate in the target muscles and it doesn't really matter if you can do a perfect one legged squat - just that you generate as much tension in the thighs as necessary to cause the right amount of muscle fatigue and pump.

If you can do the one legged squat don't do it instead of the two legged variety - do it at the end in addition to really finish off the thigh muscles and leave them thoroughly worked.

You've now finished the leg exercises. Shake the legs out and relax the muscles in them.

Again, modern safe exercise practice has decreed that straight-legged sit-ups are dangerous as they place too much strain on the lower back. The thing is if they place any strain at all on your lower back you aren't performing them correctly. You should simply be adopting the same position as you would if you were touching your toes - you should be bending easily at the hip not rounding only at the lumbar spine.

Because people have misunderstood this movement and injured themselves performing it incorrectly (jerking up, hinging the body in the wrong place and relying on momentum and the muscles of the back to make up for an inability to use the target muscles) a brilliant abdominal exercise has been abandoned by almost the entire exercise industry. Done correctly these and the following two exercises are phenomenal for building a tight abdominal wall and super strong core.

Lie flat with your arms stretched out above your head (fig 42)

fig 42

Then slowly "peel" your upper body off the floor one vertebra at a time. As the head leaves the floor, tuck the chin into the chest, try to keep the arms in line with the ears and sit up reaching towards the toes (fig 43)

fig 43

The feet should not leave the floor and SHOULD NOT BE HELD DOWN. If when you try to sit up you can't get off the floor and your feet lift up, you are not using the correct muscles in the correct sequence, or the correct biomechanics. Just jamming your feet under a piece of furniture would seem to be the answer but it isn't - you would still be doing the movement wrong but now this incorrect movement will get you up because your feet are fastened down. Wrestling yourself up this way will cause you to engage the back muscles and bend your body in the wrong place.

Instead try to engage the deep muscles of the transverse abdominis by doing something they call "zipping and hollowing" in Pilates - engage and pull up the pelvic floor muscles and simultaneously pull the belly button in towards the spine. Pull the lower stomach in - the bit directly below the waistband of your trousers and power the sit up from there. This will stabilise your core and protect your lower back - it will also enable you to sit up using the correct muscles.

Don't worry about actually touching your toes as you reach forward unless you can touch them easily and without strain in a toe touching movement while standing. Just make sure you bend from the hips and end up sitting on the "sit bones". Breathe in on the way up and then as you exhale, lower yourself down to the start position slowly - unfurling one vertebra at a time until you're lying flat again.

Do this at first without the dumbbells until you can do twenty or twenty-five perfect reps and then try it with the dumbbells in hand and build back up to the same numbers. Adding the light dumbbells in your outstretched hands alters the leverage and makes it an even more challenging movement. Twenty or twenty five in a set is still plenty though - you won't need (or be able) to pump off hundreds.

Lie flat with your hands palm down on the floor next to your hips (fig 44)

fig 44

Engage the transverse abdominis as before, raising the head and tucking the chin, pull in the lower stomach and pull up the pelvic floor, stabilising your trunk internally and bracing your mid section before raising your legs all the way up and then over to try and touch the floor behind your head (fig 45)

fig 45

Slowly lower back to the start and repeat ten - twenty times.

You can help out at first by stabilising with your hands and pressing against the floor with the palms. Later when you master this move you can begin with your hands extended above the head holding the dumbbells and as you raise the legs, pull the dumbbells to your chest simultaneously. This advanced version is truly a whole body exercise and will give a tremendous contraction in all the abdominal muscles from the deep transverse abs to the more visible rectus abdominis.

That's it for the abdominals - only about thirty -forty movements. People are often surprised when they ask me about my "abdominal routine" and I tell them this is it. They are expecting to hear about hundreds of reps of different types of crunches and "abercizer" machines but I don't do those types of ab exercise and now just swear by these two simple moves.

It's been my experience that crunches tend to "bunch out" the abdominal muscles while these exercises seem to pull it in and give me a sense of a tight and solid core.

Honestly - if you put the time in to master these two exercises they are phenomenally effective but if you think these exercises are outdated and are still dubious about swapping your crunches for these antiquated moves don't - just replace exercise 21 and 22 with crunches or bent leg sit-ups or whatever abdominal exercise you prefer.

Lie on your stomach on the floor and place your hands in the small of your back (fig 46)

fig 46

Lift your chin away from the floor and raise your torso as high as possible by engaging all the muscles of the back line (fig 47) repeat ten to fifteen times

fig 47

Keep the toes on the floor throughout - raising the legs and head simultaneously tends to make you rely on the glutes and leg muscles in this one. Try to only use the leg muscles to stabilise you and rely on a powerful contraction of the lower back muscles to raise the trunk.

I have called this classic exercise a "push up" as opposed to a "press up", as it's more often referred to in the UK, because I want to avoid people thinking of it as a "pressing" movement and therefore similar to the movement involved in weightlifting's bench press.

Everyone is familiar with this exercise and will probably be surprised to see a detailed description on how to do it correctly that spans several pages. The thing is the way we do it today is radically different to how the Physical Culturists of the late nineteenth Century did it.

Sandow, Attila, Treloar, Strongfort and Moss all included this exercise in their courses as did many others but none of them called it the push up or press up. Mostly they didn't call it anything at all and just described the movement or if they did give it a name they referred to the exercise a "dipping" or "floor Dips".

Interestingly, Attila recommended ten reps, Treloar ten to twenty-five reps and Sandow said do as many as possible in his book but in his guidelines for numbers in the chart at the end he recommends starting at three! Furthermore all of them describe the exercise as being a movement designed to target the serratus muscles, the latissimus dorsi of the back and the triceps with the pectorals involved secondarily.

Today we routinely do press-ups in sets of thirty, fifty or one hundred and everyone will tell you they are predominantly a chest exercise with secondary involvement of the deltoids (mainly front deltoids) and triceps. These old fashioned guys are telling us press-ups are for the back, the sides and the triceps and we should only do three or ten or twenty?!!! Clearly they were all ridiculously weak and didn't know what they were talking about - OR WE'RE TALKING ABOUT A TOTALLY DIFFERENT EXERSCISE THAN THE ONE WE'RE FAMILIAR WITH TODAY.

Back in the 1890s - 1900s the bench press was not even a movement that had been popularised among weightlifters. Now it's so ubiquitous that we look at a press up as just an inferior bodyweight version of the bench press and an exercise that will target the same muscles - chest, shoulders, and arms.

The exercise described here, as a "Push up" is different. It will hit the muscles of the back, the side ribs and the triceps first and foremost and the chest secondarily. You will enhance the effect on the target muscles with self-generated muscular contraction and use slight adjustments of leverage and position to make the exercise harder. When done properly sets of between ten and thirty reps should be very challenging.

Support yourself on your palms with body held perfectly straight, core engaged in the same way as during the sit-ups and most importantly the shoulders back and down with the shoulder blades flat. Keep the head in line with the spine and the eyes looking down at the floor. Every muscle in the body should be alive and engaged (fig 48)

fig 48 CORRECT

Do not incline the head upwards, hollow the chest and round the back, pushing the shoulders forward out of position (fig 49)

fig 49 INCORRECT

Do not lock the arms and then allow the weight to "sit" in them passively winging out the scapula in the back. (fig 49a)

fig 49a INCORRECT

Slowly lower your perfectly straight body down towards the floor keeping the back flat. Strongly engage the muscles in the back and triceps and feel like you're pulling the floor towards you actively instead of passively dropping into the lower position. Hold for a split second at the bottom (fig 50)

fig 50

Push back to the top position strongly contracting the triceps, the serratus muscles over the ribs and the muscles of the back as you push the floor away from you. The pectoral muscles will of course be strongly involved but don't stress their action, as this will cause you to round the back and over extend the shoulders as in (fig 49) concentrate instead on the muscles of the back and triceps and on holding exactly the right posture. KEEP THE SCAPULAE IN THEIR NATURAL POSITION AND AVOID BOTH LATERAL ROTATION AND WINGING.

Make sure the weight is in the palms and only slightly in the toes - get as much of the body weight into the arms as possible by pushing forward slightly off the toes and as you get better at the exercise try taking your nose further forward with each rep.

To make the exercise harder still you can raise one leg and keep it raised and perfectly straight throughout the exercise.

Do the exercise at a slow and even cadence of about one and a half seconds down and one and a half seconds up, breathing out on the way down and in on the way up (as in the sit-ups the breathing pattern is counter intuitive and opposite to what many feel is normal today based on the action of exhaling as you press a heavy weight)

In the most advanced version you can lower yourself as normal then transfer 70 percent of your weight into one arm so that as you push up that arm does most of the work. Even out the weight again at the top and lower then shift most of the weight into the other arm and push up again with that arm taking most of the strain. Alternate at the same cadence for up to twenty reps or so. This is easier than a one armed press up but much more challenging than the normal version - it allows you to approach the level of tension and muscle involvement you might get from a one armed press up but you can do more and keep going for longer thus increasing the muscle's time under tension.

You have now finished all the exercises - stand up and shake out your muscles. Relax everything then run through the body alternately tensing and relaxing each body part, arms, shoulders, back, chest, legs etc...then tense the entire body and relax it a few times. Don't hold the breath while tensing and controlling the muscles - try to breath normally and don't hold these tensed positions for any protracted length of time, a few seconds for each contraction is fine.

Once you are familiar with all the exercises you should be able to do the whole routine in between fifteen and twenty minutes. When your repetitions are up to the required numbers, your strength has increased and you've memorised and understood all the instructions it should still be able to be completed in under half an hour.