RAW is here now! RAW features a growing compilation of over 55 years of musings on training and life by one of the Iron game's most respected and enigmatic figures, Marty Gallagher. Learn and utilize the same transformational techniques and tactics used to create world champion powerlifters including Ed Coan and Kirk Karwoski as well as prepare Tier 1 spec ops fighters for battle. Get a glimpse into powerlifting and bodybuilding history through the eyes of Marty Gallagher dating back to his first Olympic weightlifting competition in 1962 and journeying forward to present day.
 

In 1961 I commenced formal weight training with barbells and dumbbells at age 11. The accepted practice of the day was to weight train the entire body three times a week. Three times a week my training partners and I gathered to perform the clean and press, snatch, clean and jerk, bench press, squat, curls and weighted dips - all in a single session. In every session we'd augment the "core" menu of exercises with one of the following: row, power clean, power snatch or deadlift. Sessions took forever, two hours minimum, often more. But we didn't care; we had nowhere better to go and nothing better to do. In between sessions we purposefully took in lots of calories.

The thrice weekly training frequency was based on the flawed premise that "unless a muscle is trained every 36-hours, that muscle will degrade; lose muscle size and lose muscle strength." This completely moronic contention was considered Gospel up until the 1980s. Arnold, Franco, Robbie and Zane, all the super star bodybuilders of the Pumping Iron era would weight train six days a week, hitting each muscle three times a week. Using the infamous "double-split" routine, Arnold was performing 700 (!) sets per week and spending upwards of 25 hours per week lifting weights. Read on ... 

Those that trained under Hugh Cassidy were able to recognize one another by a signature squat technique. Once the squatter had positioned under the barbell, he inhaled and the instant he had a full breath and attained full and complete body tension, the Cassidy-trained lifter STOMPED! the dominant foot on the platform while simultaneously pushing upward. This "popped" the barbell out of the squat rack. Most lifters that try this technique make the mistake of stomping the foot then pushing upward. This technique is not one-two - the stomp and the push upward are one. It takes considerable time and practice to master this move but when it is mastered the weight seems to leap upward. I never had Karwoski learn this technique because he was left handed and left footed and it confused the hell out me and I in turn him. On the other hand, Cassidy was left handed so in retrospect I should have had Hugh teach Kirk. Read on ... 

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