The Once a Week blast!
By Patrick L. Deu Pree / lifetime bodybuilder

Once a week? Train once a week and make gains? Heresy! Absolute training heresy! Or maybe not. For those of you who have read my articles before you know I have used a bit of creative license in my advice about working out. For instance I suggested a rotating three days a week program where one could workout on a
split routine and still have more time to recover. It also worked well for married people with little time to train.

I’m going back a ways in time right now to 1975, thirty years ago as of this writing. I had a basic, back room gym, squat racks, Olympic barbell, heavy duty bench. I trained there three days a week and practiced martial arts on the other days. I also instructed my friends who were my “gym members.” My advice was, “workout three days a week at least and always concentrate on the basics first, bench press, squats, power cleans, deadlifts, etc.

I had this friend named Dave Kong. Dave was a student at San Francisco State College at the time and he had a pretty busy schedule. He was a bit out of shape, he did some push ups on the morning but he really didn’t look in shape. I would beg him to come by my back room gym to work out three days a week after school. He said he was pretty busy but I kept on him. Finally he relented but said he could only come by on Friday to workout. I said he was wasting his time but if that’s what he wanted to do then he could.

He began working out on Friday evenings. I continued on my regular schedule along with my other members but I decided to watch Dave closely to see what happened. I began to notice a change! He started growing, using more weight in his exercises, his chest grew, his arms grew, I couldn’t believe it.

I moved south from the bay area in 1978 and trained both at the Glendale YMCA and at Gold’s Gym with was at the time located in Santa Monica on Second Street. I was in my very early thirties and I trained three times a week, as usual. I started working at hard construction labor and I was so knocked out I found I had no energy to go to the gym after work. I remembered Dave. I decided at the time to go to the gym on Saturdays. The first Saturday I could hardly get through even three basic exercises. The second week I made it through the entire routine but barely. The third week I sailed through and the forth week I actually began seeing strength gains! Wow! It worked.

I eventually returned to the usual three day a week workout using the rotation two way split rotation program. I did high sets in those days and I began to notice that my joints, especially my elbows began to hurt. I was 35 years old now. Also, I noticed that I was not always able to do as much workout to workout like I had always been able to do in my 20s and earlier 30s. I began to re-read my IRONMAN MAGAZINES,
these were the older onespublished by Peary Rader. I read articles by Mike Mentzer, Bradley J. Steiner and a new writer named Stuart McRobert. I decided to change my training. I did a light whole body routine on Wednesday and a heavier whole body routine on Saturday mornings. I put on twenty extra pounds of muscle in no time at all. The pain in my elbows went away.

As I got into my 40s my schedule began to change, I got busier, took on more and more responsibilities and found that sometimes I could only get into the gym once a week so on that one day a week I really hit it hard. Brief but intense the way Mike Mentzer described in his articles, basic, the way Stuart McRobert and Bradley J. Steiner suggested. I kept all my muscle bulk.

In my late forties I continued to train the same way, either at Gold’s Gym North Hollywood or at World Gym, Venice where I would go and sometimes visit my good friend Chuck Pendleton, also known as Gordon Mitchell in the Hercules movies and spaghetti western fame.

I am now in my fifties, even more responsibilities, I am a supervisor at my job now, I also go to Glendale College, which I have done for the past twelve years. I workout mainly at home in my garage which is fully equipped with cast iron weights, a basic bench, lat machine and squat rack, all that’s really needed. Below is my present routine. It keeps me going. I also have added bicycling which I do about twice to three times a week, going back and forth to my job.

Bench Press 2×5
Dumbbell Incline Press 2×6-10
Squats 1×15
Stiff Legged Deadlift 1×12
Dumbbell Shrugs 1×20
Lat Pull to Chest 2×8-10
Standing Military Press2x5-8
Straight Bar Curls
Supersetted with
Tricep Pushdowns 2×8-12
Four Way Neck
Exercise with headstrap 20 each way
Forearm curls
Supersetted with
Reverse forearm curls 20 – 60 reps.

That’s about it, it takes about an hour to get through this routine, at times I work up in doubles and singles in the bench press and squats. I have made some adjustments, I can no longer do power cleans or behind the neck presses. I lead a busy life, balanced between work, exercise and relaxation. Try this routine if you are pressed for time, you might see some extra gains. Good luck.

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