Back on Track

Well I'm making progress again, and it's a good thing too. I was pretty concerned about what seemed like a plateau so early in the EPIC recomp/lean mass gain expedition that is " The Manhattan Project". I decided after a fair bit of research to switch up my routine. I was also able to see my Japanese heritage may play a role in the trouble I have always had - both gaining, and keeping weight.

One article I found helped spur a change in my workout routine that has me as sore today as I was on Day 2 of "The Manhattan Project". I'm still eating ALOT but I'm trying to clean it up. While my bodies natural proclivity is to burn and not store fat, I'm inclined to think that dynamic won't scale as a perfect 1:1 ratio with my increased caloric intake. Especially after examining the older members of my family from whom I derived my Ectomorphic physique.

Who's Tamio Kono ?

The Short answer is pure awesome.



The long answer is a Japanese American, Olympic weight lifter who won gold in 1952 and 1956 and silver in 1960.

"Kono is the only lifter to have set world records in four different weightlifting classes: lightweight (149 pounds or 67.5 kilograms), middleweight (165 lb or 75 kg), light-heavyweight (182 lb or 82.5 kg), and middle-heavyweight (198 lb or 90 kg). - wikipedia"

He was also Mr.Universe in 1955 and 1957

James Chan suggests that Kono may have used a post-exhaust compound sets along with diet of course to help sculpt the foundation of his phisique:


"The post-exhaust technique requires that you perform a heavy multi-joint movement for a body part followed by a lighter single-joint movement for that same body part. An example of this would be a bench press followed immediately by dumbbell flyes. The beauty of this technique is three-fold:

1. You develop the pure fast-twitch muscle fibers with a heavy compound movement and then hit the intermediate fast-twitch muscle fibers with the lighter movement.

2. The post-exhaust technique allows you to extend the volume of a set, without compromising intensity.

3. This technique also allows you to hit the body part from different angles with more than one exercise, without overextending the length of your workout. This way you can work on both bulk and symmetry.

Here’s a sample post-exhaust routine. Remember to use as much weight as you can on the first exercise of the compound set and move the weight as quickly as possible. This will activate the pure fast-twitch muscle fibers, which have the most growth potential. On the second exercise, use lighter weight with a more controlled tempo. Emphasize constant tension on this second exercise.


Day 1

Perform 5 compound sets for each body part, 5 reps for each exercise. Rest 2 minutes between each compound set.

Chest Compound Set:
1. 20-degree incline dumbbell press
2. 20-degree incline dumbbell flyes

Back Compound Set:
1. Pull-ups
2. Stiff-arm pulldowns

Shoulder Compound Set:
1. Barbell clean and press
2. Standing dumbbell laterals

Triceps Compound Set:
1. Dips
2. Lying triceps extensions

Biceps Compound Set:
1. Body drag curls
2. Lying dumbbell curls

Day 2

Perform 5 compound sets for each body part, 5 reps for each exercise. Rest 2 minutes between each compound set.

Quad Compound Set:
1. Front squats
2. Sissy squats

Hamstrings Compound Set:
1. Romanian deadlifts
2. Lying leg curls

Calves Compound Set:
1. Seated calf raises
2. Standing machine calf raises

Ab Compound Set:
1. Hanging leg raises
2. Planks"

- James Chan



I think I'll stick with this for a while on an every other day rotation.

Now to turn my attention towards cleaning up my diet and getting my macros in order.

Like Kono, my bone structure is fairly small though I'm 6'2" my wrist is only about 6 inches around. But if he could achieve the body he did in a pre PH/AAS era - I think there is still hope for me