Plague of Strength

Donnie Yen is indisputably the toughest dude in Hollywood- if you want to argue to the contrary, you can do it against , , & , because all say Yen is that guy.

Now 62, is ~1.73m (5'8") tall & typically keeps his weight between 66-75kg (145-165lbs) depending on the role, but it's possible you think think he's skinny because he dropped to ~55kg (120lbs) to play Ip Man in the 1st 2 films in that series.

Yen got into bodybuilding because of Arnold & Sly, but looks & performs better than they did at the same age because because his obsessive dedication to fitness extended well beyond simply looking good.

He worked out for hours per day on a near-daily basis, using a mashup of Bruce Lee's training, Arnold's Encyclopedia, Franco Columbu's "Training Rocky" book, & old school Shaolin techniques.

Yen began training at his mom's Wudang Tai Chi school at age 4. At 9, he added Wushu & Taekwondo, & by the time he was a teenager, he was training martial arts around the clock, doing stuff 10k Side Kick Challenges, training at a boxing gym, & lifting.

“I was training to be in action movies before I even knew it was a possibility

I would be out on the street wearing boots & my winter coat, kicking signs & lamp posts.

I would do a jump kick, then drop down to a full split, on ice, just to test how well my body was able to control the motion. It wasn’t just about all the kind of movements I could do- it was also about what kind of conditions I could do them under.”

In the evenings, he enjoyed testing out his skills in the street, & spent so much time in Boston's red light district known as the "Combat Zone" that Yen's parents sent him to China to join the Beijing Wushu Team.

Yen was cast in his 1st film 2 years later, & spent the next 43 years quietly being the most capable fighter of all living actors & 1 of the best built lead actors in martial arts history.

Bang this link & grab Plague of Strength's Lifting Method to discover why you should master Tai Chi like Bolo Yeung & Donnie Yen, & incorporate as much weird stuff as you can into your daily routine! Plus, it's got over a dozen different training routines!

Norma Fox was one of the most jacked women on Earth in the 1950s & died at age 100, the longest-lived trapeze artist of all time.

Longevity isn't something most aerialists of the pre-safety net get to enjoy- the most famous trapeze artist of that era, Lillian Leitzel, fell to her death while performing at age 39.

Fox was born in the Netherlands & was training for the ballet when she was recruited for circus at age 14. After 2 years of brutal training, she began performing in 1942 & continued until 1974, retiring at age 48 to care for her paralyzed son.

Performing without a net at heights ranging from 12 to 16m (40-60ft), Fox was the center stage act for (which was the biggest circus on Earth at the time) from 1949-1951.

Most circuses' touring season lasted 7 months in that era, & Fox performed 2-3x per day, 7 days per week. It didn't matter if she was sick or injured- the show had to go on, so she was out there performing nearly impossible, death-defying stunts with a smile on her face throughout each performance. Fox explained:

“It doesn’t matter how you feel, you just have to perform.”

Off-season training was nearly as intense, because she & her husband had to stay in peak shape for the next season. Fox trained outside, using rings & rigging she created mostly by herself, & used the same homemade rigging to train dozens of trapeze artists in her backyard after she retired.

In between performing, creating some of her own unbelievably ornate & heavily bedazzled costumes, & swingling from the trees in her Florida backyard like Tarzan, Fox was also the stunt double for Betty Hutton in The Greatest Show on Earth in 1952- Hutton one of the hottest actresses of the era & the movie won an Oscar.

Given the fact that she was still energetic at 100, it's unlikely her Michael Phelps-esque training & performance schedule didn't have a negative impact on her longevity or physical strength, so you might want to consider training more than you do.

Trying to get in amazing shape without dropping dead before the age of 40, like the bodybuilders who died this year? Bang that link in my profile & grab Plague of Strength's Lifting Method to find out how!

Amotti won Physical: 100 & Physical: Asia by training 650+ times per year for the last few years, so it might be time for you to reconsider whether you're currently training enough to achieve your goals.

is 1.83m & 86kg (6' 190lbs) of - & -trained muscle who won Season 2 of & is the only person who's won 2 seasons of that series after winning Physical Asia with Team Korea.

Now 33-years-old, Amotti was a competitive CrossFitter from 2015 to 2021, but quit that for Hyrox & fitness survival TV shows after a car accident smashed his ankle & derailed his CrossFit aspirations.

That accident also derailed the beginning of his Physical career, as he was supposed to appear on Iron Squad prior to Physical 100.

Iron Squad is the prequel to the Physical shows & features many of the athletes who later appeared in P:100 & P:Asia, like & fighter (who won P:Asia), & (who was badly injured at the end of P:100 & took 2nd to Amotti, then was a course tester for P:Asia).

Amotti trained so hard he turned that setback into a launching board for his influencer career- he's now sponsored by & is a cast member of P:100-related & P:100-esque shows on .asia like Muscle Famers (which also features from P:100) & the Synchro Game.

He doesn't just train daily- he trains at least 2x per day every day but Thursdays, when he only does a 15k (9.3mi) run, & sticks to that routine so rigidly that he lifted in the afternoon after winning P:100 in the morning. Amotti lifted later that day to prepare for a bodybuilding competition, which he also won.

Training from 9-11AM & 12-2PM, Amotti mostly trains with CrossFit- & Hyrox-style workouts, but he mixes up his training constantly to ensure he's ready for any athletic challenge.

He needs a lot of calories to fuel that training, but Amotti he doesn't eat fried or sugary foods- the mainstay of his diet is Beef Bone Soup.

Trying to get in the best shape of your life but not sure where to start? Bang that link in my profile & grab Plague of Strength's Lifting Method to get everything you need to follow Amotti's lead!

Side Bends are an exercise everyone should do if they want a badass Adonis Belt, but this exercise is tragically omitted from practically every workout on the planet, & even I slept on them until this year because the fitness industry has been telling us for years this exercise is worthless.

Regardless of the form they take, Side Bends are hardly useless, & the people who claim they are:
1) haven't used them for any significant period of time
2) refuse because it will thicken their waist (which only happens with massive weights), or
3) genuinely have no idea what they're talking about

The guy in the photo is Denny Gable, a collegiate gymnast who bulked up from 1.8m & 82kg (5'11" 181lbs) to 95kg (210lbs) as Arnold's training partner from 1973-1975 & then Robby Robinson's in 1975.

Gable was being groomed to be Arnold's successor as Mr Olympia, but he quit bodybuilding in 1975 due to nonpayment by the Weiders & the writer/director of Pumping Iron.

The exercise Gable is doing Overhead Side Bends with a broomstick, & it's a phenomenal way to stretch your abs, pull your pecs up off your ribcage (into that old school high-pec look), & draw out definition in the armpits, abs, lower back, & hips.

You might have noticed that most modern bodybuilders look terrible when they hold their arms directly outstretched- they can't fully extend their arms as a result of doing soft lockouts on every exercise, bent-arm laterals, benching like powerlifters, & avoiding "pointless" stuff like Twists, Side Bends, & anything that fully stretches a muscle.

Broomstick Twists & Side Bends should be a part of your daily AM routine (alongside stretching, push-ups, & a jog) for a few great reasons. They:

1) Wake You Up- spinning & twisting motions boost brain function
2) Calm You Down- rotational movements are cornerstone of Tai Chi & are used in therapy
3) Stretch You Out- use a mix of bent-over, standing, & overhead twists, wide & close stance, & multiple hand spacings for best results
4) Make You Hot- defines the midsection

Bang that link in my profile & grab Cold War Core for the most hardcore ab routines from bodybuilders of Gable's era, & the beginner workout to get you there!

Jang Eun-sil is a Freestyle & Ssireum wrestler who's become one of Korea's most famous athletes by beating elite male & female competitors from every imaginable sport on Physical: Asia, Physical: 100, & other sports competition shows, & those victories have caused a lot of 30-40-year old virgins to crash out on the internet & make fanciful claims about their ability to out-perform her.

“The funny thing about the guys in my comments saying they could take me in a fight because I’m a weak female woman don’t realize that:
a) there are 2 kinds of fights: sport & survival
b) neither of those is typically decided by strength

In a sport fight, speed, technique, & endurance are way more important than physical strength. And there are rules for a reason. In a survival fight, I’m going to kick you as hard as I can in the balls and claw your eyes out with my perfectly manicured nails.”

is a 35-year-old, 1.72m (5'8") former freestyle wrestler who made it to the Quarterfinals of the Asian Games at 63kg (139bs), then started competing in Korean belt wrestling (Ssireum) & won Nationals at

Michael Phelps didn't take a day off of training from 1999 to 2005 or 2006, & by training 365 days a year for 6-7 years, he built himself into an unstoppable winning machine & won 65 gold, 14 silver, & 3 bronze medals at the Olympics, World Champs, & Pan Pacific Champs.

Phelps' competition physique was 1.93m & 88kg (6'4" 195lbs) of hyper-aesthetic, fat-free muscle built by ~10 pool workouts & 3-4 weight workout every week for years.

3 days per week, he'd do 2x 2hr pool sessions, & on the other 4 days did a pool session with a 1.5hr gym session usually replacing the 2nd pool workout. If he wasn't in the pool, he was doing recovery work or in some other way trying to improve himself so the next time he hit the water he'd be even faster than the day before.

Occasionally for a "break" they'd go to the Olympic Training Center for 3 weeks at a time & train even harder.

At the OTC they did nothing but eat, sleep, swim, & lift, with 4 daily sessions, 7 days per week- they had 3 pool sessions a day (5-7AM, 9-11AM, 3-5PM) with a weight session afterward to finish them off.

Most of his gym time was devoted to plyometrics, weighted bodyweight work, & shoulder mobility & strengthening exercises- heavy weights had very little to do with packing weight onto his frame.

Training that much, recovery & nutrition become critical. Phelps always got 7-9 hours sleep every night, plus a 2-3hr nap in the afternoon every day & if he wasn't sleeping or exercising, he was eating 3 massive, well-balanced but not terribly strict meals a day totaling 8-12000 calories per day.

After retiring, Phelps packed on 10-15kg (22-33lbs) of fat as he learned to adopt more reasonable & balanced eating & training habits. In order to ensure he's still able to fit into the clothes he wore while he was the reigning GOAT, he adopted a training routine that's mostly comprised of high intensity intervals & eats a much lower calorie, plant based diet

Bang that link in my profile & grab Plague of Strength's Lifting Method- you'll learn stuff like: the reason old school bodybuilders were obsessed with pullovers was because they wanted the high pecs & huge ribcages of swimmers like Phelps!

Joshua Clottey built some of the most impressive shoulders of all time without lifting weights- it might seem impossible looking at his lead-dense physique, but this Ghanian gladiator will tell anyone who will listen:

“No, no, no, I never do that. I don’t like it, doing that weight-lifting, no.”

Instead, running comprises the basis of Clottey's conditioning work- the former 67kg (147lb) IBF World Champ regularly ran 19km (12mi) each way to & from the gym for training when in camp- New York City gave him natural intervals, so rather than run at a steady pace he would sprint a block & then walk one.

Clottey was 1.73m & ~77kg (5'8" 170lbs) for most of his career (1995-2019) & primarily fought at 67kg (148lbs), but he also had some fights at 64, & 70kg (141 & 154lbs), all of which required brutal weight cuts, but that's not why he did it- it's because it made him feel good.

“My jogging is the best thing in my life. Wake up in the morning & jog.

Come to the gym & train my ass off.

Be fit, make myself fit. Feel like a man.”

Clottey's training involves tons of high-speed, high-volume pad work, sparring, & calisthenics, & he trained so hard that even his post-sparring cool-down would constitute a workout for most people- he jumps rope for 10mins, then does his full warm-up routine of different runs, hops & side-skips around the ring before leaving.

He tries to pack every second he's in the gym with training, & you'd never find Clottey goofing off or standing around. If he's not punching something or someone (he loves ultra-intense pad work), he's generally stretching or doing core work.

The only secret to his physique is a love of exercise & a clean lifestyle: "the key to that is I always love training. I love to. And I never drink before, no alcohol in my life, no smoke, nothing. I love training."

Bang that link in my profile & grab Juicy Delts 2 to get a diet & program specifically designed to shrink your waist & broaden your shoulders while making you more fit! The core-centric training will make you more fit, tapered, & athletic, while the Meat & Potatoes Diet uses a historically-based nutrition scheme to help you get that lean-&-mean old school look!

Arman Tsarukyan is the most shredded fighter in the , ranked #2 at 70kg (155lbs) & #3 in the MMA pound-for-pound rankings, speaks 3 languages, & has been wiping the mat with people in submission & freestyle wrestling while he waits for a title shot in the UFC.

is 29 years old, 1.7m tall, & currently weighs 84kg (185lbs) for grappling & wrestling, though he's pictured at 79kg (174lbs), which is his typical walk-around weight for MMA.

Tsarukyan's undefeated in professional Submission & Freestyle wrestling, with a combined record of 7W-1L & has an MMA record of 23W-3L (9 KOs, 6 Submissions).

The Armenian Batman fights out of Yerevan, Armenia (one of the world's oldest continually inhabited cities) &:

- is an ethnic Armenian who was born in Georgia, raised in Siberia, & represented Russia on the national level in Freestyle Wrestling & Ice Hockey
- speaks Armenian, English, & Russian fluently
- has trained for fights in Dagestan (which he says is the best place to train); Thailand (where he learned rugby strength & conditioning methods from ), & the US (which he prefers for the convenient access to food & gyms)

Tsarukyan's current form is the result of training for a few years with Sam Calavitta, who's also the conditioning coach for & a slew of other UFC champs. Calvitta's Treigning Lab is apparently the closest you will get to training in Dagestan without losing access to modern conveniences.

It was in Dagestan where Tsarukyan learned exactly how hard he was capable of training - for 3.5 weeks he trained for up to 13 hours a day in the mountains with an old school Soviet-era freestyle wrestling coach. Tsarukyan now trains in the US using the the most brutal new school methods because "the new generation cannot handle that [old school] training."

Want to achieve your ultimate form but not sure how to do it? Bang that link in my profile & grab Plague of Strength's Lifting Method to get a comprehensive explanation for why modern bodybuilding methods are not giving you the physique you've always wanted, & why you need to train like a modern athlete &/or an old school bodybuilder for the look you want!

Alex Puccio can do a strict 1-arm pull-up holding a 7kg (15lbs) in her free hand, is the US's all-time female bouldering GOAT, & had one of the greatest physiques in pro sports for at least 5 years, which makes her one of the greatest combinations of strength, athleticism, & aesthetics of all time.

is 1.57m (5'2") tall & pictured at ~53kg (117lbs), her competitive weight from 2014-2018,when she won her 2nd Bouldering World Cup,

She weighed ~59kg (129lbs) between 2006 & 2014 & won her 1st World Cup using a hardcore, indoor-only training routine, but after Puccio took 2nd in the 2014 World Champs her coaches told her she needed to go outside & touch grass because her bodybuilder-style mindset was no longer working.

Puccio started running daily & only trained outdoors for months, which caused her to lose 6kg (13lbs) in 45 days entirely by accident & without dieting.

"Just by going out climbing & hiking & that cardio, I naturally lost weight. I’m still eating, like, cake every night, a massive bag of trail mix a day, plus other food."

Her routine at that time was hyper-intense. Puccio's warmup & cooldown were a 1-2 hour hike-slash-trail run carrying a 10kg (22lb) backpack &/or a crash mat of similar weight. Once she arrived her chosen destination would climb for 4-8 hours, then hike back down with her gear.

Puccio soon added weighted pull-ups, box jumps, & jump rope to her hours of outdoor climbing training, & the combination enabled her to reach her aesthetic & performance peak even after tearing her ACL & MCL in 2015 & getting a spinal fusion in 2016.

Her hyper-intensive training paid off- Puccio:

- can do weighted 1-Arm Max Hangs for 5-7 seconds with 20kg (44 lbs) on her Left Arm & 16kg (35lbs) on her Right
- does weighted pullups with 45kg (100lbs)
- is ranked #11 on the all-time list for Strongest Female Boulderers
- won the Bouldering World Cup 2x
- won Rock Masters 3x

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Artur Beterbiev looks like he was genetically engineered to be the perfect fighter, but this light heavyweight legend gives Rocky rather than Ivan Drago vibes & is easy to root for despite what appear to be significant physical advantages over his opponents.

is 1.82m (5'11.5") tall, has a walk-around weight of at or under 86kg (190lbs), & was the 1st person to hold the undisputed light heavyweight title since
in 2002.

Beterbiev has a pro record of 21W-1L (20KOs), with his loss & win via decision coming at the hands of the same fighter- current undisputed champ . The real tale of Beterbiev's badassery comes from his amateur record, which feels much more like that of an early 20th century fighter than a 21st century one- his official record is 102W-13L, & he's unofficially got 295 wins in 300+ fights.

He holds dual Russian-Canadian citizenship & is still shredded & in his prime at 41, due in part to the fact that he's ethnically Chechen, a devout Muslim, & doesn't drink or party.

Instead of partying, Beterbiev goes to bed at 10PM every night & up at 6AM every day to train, using a combination of super old school Dagestani methods, Soviet-era boxing conditioning, & modern strength & onditioning stuff.

To build his bone-crushing KO power, Beterbiev uses massive amounts of technique training as well as Iron Wrist training that's found in traditional martial arts (Pic 4)- there's a strong correlation between wrist strength & punching power, & Iron Wrist is 1 of the oldest & most effective methods for building it.

His training also includes:

- kettlebell work, focusing heavily on twisting motions (rotational strength also plays a huge role in punching power)
- traditional calisthenics circuits
- sledgehammer stuff
- endless pad drills & bag work
- some conventional barbell work

Bang that link in my profile & grab Plague of strength's Lifting Method to get 12+ workouts that range from fighter-focused to building a massive, conversation stopping yoke, as well as all the info you need to understand why training like a modern bodybuilder or powerlifter will only lead to joint pain, breathing problems, & ugly physiques!