Spring is a time for rebirth and renewal of my muscles. Getting back in shape is its theme. As the days grow longer, more sunlight fuels my desire to train harder by stimulating my body’s light meter, the pineal gland. My metabolism becomes synchronized and the sun keeps my muscles and joints warm as I gradually begin to use heavier weights in my training. My goal is to get into good enough shape to be able to train really hard by summertime. I find myself wanting to eat less and exercise more. Be consistent in your workouts and I’m sure your progress will soar.

The passing of winter is always accompanied by an urge to train harder. True, I feel a need to train harder after Christmas and New Year holidays, but the real push to workout more doesn’t come for me until the weather starts getting warmer. Outdoors, the greening of Nature is occurring, plants are budding and growing and I feel the same happening in my body. It happens all by itself—purely a physiological instinct, kindled by the sun’s increasing amount of time spent above the horizon as each day grows longer and longer. This kind of training drive is more than the dissonance or deficiency one feels out of guilt after holiday inactivity and bingeing. Deficiency motivation is more of a mental recognition that we don’t like the way we look. Heliocentric or "sun driven" motivation is the result of nature at work, sparking our body chemistry, steering us into the gym. Ancient Egyptians worshipped the sun as the source of life and growth. Building the body relies on the sun too.

I remember it was during spring 1958, feeling the warmer days, that my serious training begun. Aside from my new dumbbell set, I also accumulated other equipment:: 20 pound solid railroad car wheels, flywheels from a junkyard, all fit on a 6 foot iron bar, wooden squat rack and flat bench I made with nails. On a typical day I’d do bench press 3 sets of 10, wide grip top deadlift from the bench widened my lats, pullover with a swingbell lying across a giant curved log stretched my ribcage and gave me foundation to develop great serratus. 3 sets of 10 around the world dumbbell exercise were a combination of flyes and pullover. Then a tri-set of dumbbell side raise, seated dumbbell curl and kickbacks all 3 sets of 10, I would, on good days, get a great pump in my upper body and then train legs, working up to 300 pounds in the squat. Then a few sets of stiff-legged deadlift for hamstrings and 3 sets of 15-donkey calf raises with my brother Adam sitting on my lower back who had great calves, like my mother, without doing anything special for them. Did some ab work at the end: situps, leg raise, seated twist, 100 reps on each I’d spend. That summer I kept training hard with the weights I took with me to Scout Camp where I worked as an archery instructor. Beginning my junior year stronger I went out for football and became the punter on my high school team. Spring training was my ritual from an early age it seems.

During those teenage bodybuilding years it felt so good to lie in the sun as soon as the cold Pennsylvania weather allowed, which was usually around May. I could feel something stirring inside my body and before long I was into serious workouts. Here in Southern California this break in the weather starts in March. Not that I sunbathe much anymore (except when I want to get a little color for an appearance or for TV) but just being outdoors in the sunlight seems to be the medicine I need to cure the Winter training blues. Effects of sunshine are related to hormones. Sunlight stimulates the body’s light meter, the pineal gland, which along with the hypothalamus, enhance the body’s metabolic processes. Melatonin is secreted by the pineal gland reaching its highest levels in sleep during the middle of the night. It controls hibernation is some animals and in humans effects a desire to eat more and exercise less.

So the more sunlight, more melatonin. But with aging, melatonin secretion slows down from age 5 on up, and after age 85 drops off significantly. That’s why it’s a good idea to take melatonin (between 1 to 9 milligrams) before bed. Elderly people often don’t sleep long enough at night and nod off during the day. Lack of sunlight can cause Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) which is related to low melatonin and serotonin levels. SAD is characterized by episodic bouts of depression (melatonin effects mood and subjective energy levels) combined with cravings for carbohydrate rich foods (serotonin regulates appetite for carbs).

Light that flickers at certain rates or frequencies can have various behavioral and emotional effects on the body. These rates of pulsation entrain or synchronize the body’s resonant systems: brainwave frequency, pulse, rate of breathing, nerve impulse transmission. These systems lock on to a common denominator frequency and a sense of full body coherence can be achieved. The rate of pulsation is expressed as "Hertz" or Hz, meaning vibrations per second. Light that flickers above 25 Hz begins to fuse and the pulses lose distinctness. Effects of different flicker frequencies are Beta Waves 14 to 30 Hz – attention and arousal; Alpha Waves 8 to 14 Hz – relaxed alertness, an optimized daytime state (when experienced with a light sound machine these frequencies are the most colorful); Theta Waves 4 to 8 Hz – drowsiness and imagery accompanied by a hypnotic state: Delta Waves – 0.5 to 4 Hz – are best experienced as a gradual descent, associated with deep sleep & HgH release by the pituitary gland. 

So it makes sense to get more sunlight (even indirect sunlight is good) and to supplement your diet with melatonin and serotonin precursors (like 5HTP). A good reference book about the effects of light on your life is "Light: Medicine of the future" by Jacob Liberman. He recommends supplementing sunlight with exposure to light from a "Ganzfeld" provided by goggles that are worn with the eyes open for short periods of time during day and night. Red, yellow, and green lenses fit into the glasses and seemed to be effective in improving mood and relaxation.

After listening to an audiocassette, watching the light show from the Mind Muscle™ Machine, a particular kind of learning takes place in the nervous system called stimulus generalization. The sounds on the tape become associated with the light show (you learn to see the sounds) so that when you listen to the tape through headphones without the Mind Muscle™ Machine with all other environmental conditions the same you still see the light show! This is a very useful tool for effective visualization, as the visual field created by the experience or remembered light show acts as a matrix to see internally. And what you see is what you get. Your behavior is shaped by what you picture in your mind.

Sound is a vibration that travels through air and more dense mediums, like floors, speaker cabinets, and your body itself. Actually the ear is not the only organ involved in hearing. The skin, bones, and muscles share responsibility for hearing sound too. A few years ago "60 Minutes" featured a deaf percussionist who heard sound vibrations through her body and learned to see the sounds. Vibration produces by sound is a powerful way to entrain the body’s resonant systems. One of the deepest forms of relaxation is to play cassettes or CDs through a "Somatron Sound Table" — a 4 inch thick mat filled with speakers which you lie on. You hear the sounds with your entire body and it is extremely relaxing (They sell for about $995). A less expensive and more portable way to experience entrainment by acoustic vibration is with a Pignose Amplifier, a small solid state 5 watt amp available at many music stores for $75, which runs on 6 AA batteries. I love this little amp.

You can develop your muscles without weights but it’s not easy. You can train your mind and mood just by meditating with no other apparatus, but it’s not easy. Learning the relaxation response and energy conservation using entrainment devices like the Mind Muscle™ Machine and vibratory acoustical devices simply make the process of meditation and visualization easier to learn and easier to continue to practice. The also make it easier to meditate without them, or to precede a visualization session with a short session on a light/sound machine. Don’t neglect the relaxation part of the bodybuilding equation.

Success in bodybuilding can be expressed as an equation: Progress toward your goal is the product of exercise (the quality of your workouts —Did you get a pump?), attitude (Are your thoughts, words, and actions leading you in the direction of your goal?), relaxation (Were you able to relax during the day? Did you get enough restful sleep?), and nutrition (Did you eat quality foods? Did you take your food supplements?). G = E x A x R x N is the Bodybuilding equation. G is your measure of success toward reaching your goal, and E, A, R, & N are the variables of the equation. Rate yourself from 0.1 to 1.0 on each variable every day by asking yourself "how good was my exercise, attitude, relaxation, and nutrition?" Then multiply the four numbers. Suppose your ratings were 0.9, 0.8, 0.7, & 0.9 respectively. Your score is 0.45 or 45%, meaning you are making less than half the total effort required to reach your goal. Maximum progress is a score of 100%.

How do you know you are making progress? Body fat composition testing? Measurements? Weigh yourself? No. All these methods are indirect measuring tools that give you a number, not an answer. What you need is to see your progress with a picture. So why not just look into the mirror? Because what you see is what you expect to see and there are parts of your body you can’t see, like your back side. My solution has always been to go directly to reality as demonstrated by photographs. When I was competing I took color slides every 2 weeks to see how I was shaping up. Visible changes in appearance increases motivation and you will find yourself training harder to look even better.

Here’s how to do it: Use a 35 mm camera with a good lens—a normal 50 mm lens, (I like an 85 mm portrait lens) but not a wide angle (usually 35 mm lens). Select and always use the same film. For color prints something like Kodak Gold 100 ASA (film speed), for color slides my favorite film is Fuji Velvia (ASA 50). Don’t do anything special for your first photos but don’t wear shoes and socks, choose a plain contrasting background, and don’t wear a bathing suit that covers too much of your body. Have your photographer get up close and take a light reading off your body (for this reason a manual camera is best). Take front, side, back relaxed shots, the 7 compulsory poses, and some upper body shots too. Wait one month until you take the next set of photos, have both sets developed at the same time, and then compare each pose. For more about physique photography see Fabulously Fit Forever chapter 12.

"I know that it’s true, it’s all up to you—what you see is what you get, you bet—what you see is what you get…..Your perception is made from thoughts, words, and deeds—what you say is what you get, you bet…..What you see and say lead to what you do—there’s nothin God can do for you unless you’re willing to do it too…..That’s right it’s true—when you begin and in the end it’s all up to you….What you see, say and do is what you get."

Singing this song to myself reminds me how important my mental images, words both spoken and thought, and deeds are in creating my body.

Your photos are how others see you, which is different from the way you see yourself. So when you look at your photographs study each part of your body and imagine with your eyes closed how you can change it to look like you want. This is what visualization is all about—before you can change anything you must first become aware of it. Do this on a regular basis and you will be amazed at the progress you’ll get. When I do phone consultations with people I like them to send photos so I can help them create the look they want.

Even if you train at a commercial gym, a home gym is great to have. I’ve had many home gyms ranging in elaboration from one adjustable dumbbell and a bench to my new private gym in San Diego where I do Zane Experience. Advantages of a home gym are many: you can train whenever you like, minimizing distractions, no waiting for equipment or driving time. To start with all you need is an adjustable bench which goes from flat with 30, 45, and 70 degree inclines (for low declines put a calf block under one end) and adjustable dumbbells. I like the "Power Blocks" or "Intellibells" that adjust from 5 to 45 pounds in 5-pound increments. Doing slow negative can make these dumbbells feel heavier and they have good balance. For heavier work get a 3 inch diameter flat piece of steel welded at one end of a 14 inch long, 15/16" diameter bar, a wrenchless collar, sleeve for your grip, and 6 seven and a half, 2 five, 2 two and a half, and 2 one and a quarter pound plates, gives you up to 70 pounds per dumbbell. With dumbbells you can work your entire upper body. The next logical addition to your gym is a lat machine with an adjustable pulley that can go from a few inches above the floor to mid-thigh height. Pulldown machines add a variety of back exercises, pressdowns and cable curls for arms. A 6-foot bar for T-bar rows and forearm work makes sense. The final piece for your minimum gym is a Leg Blaster with the Right Angle attachment enabling you to do all kinds of squats, calf raises, lunges, and for upper body: v-bar dips and reverse dips, wide and narrow grip chins, and knee ups. For ab work you need no other equipment than a flat bench (leg raise and crunches) and 4-foot pole for seated twist. For aerobics do fast walking outdoors and learn to skip rope indoors when it’s cold outside

The minimum gym might be all you need or want, especially if you are limited in space. Make your gym as nice as possible: mirror adjacent walls, put up posters & photos, have good lighting, keep temperature brisk but not too cold (you don’t want to train in gloves and overcoat). Keep the center of your gym open and place equipment around the perimeter. The next additions to your gym should be a good leg extension, leg curl and expanding your dumbbells into a graduated set on a rack. It’s important not to buy junk. This stuff should last a lifetime. Telephone consultations with me before you get equipment can save you $$$. Don’t hesitate to call on me if you are thinking about buying equipment. I also have access to custom manufacturing of the highest quality.

Analytical psychologist Carl Jung described the development of human life as having 4 seasons: 1. Birth and childhood 2. Teen and young adult 3. Mature adult 4. Old age or elderly. He called mid-life "life’s noon", comparing human development to times of day. His theme is even more apparent when compared to the earth’s 4 seasons: 1. Springtime is birth and childhood. 2. Summer is teen and young adult. 3. Autumn is mature adult. 4. Winter is old age. In the sense that your entire life is reflected in each season of the year, each season reflects the age or maturity of your training. The earth is a living organism and we are its cells. When we duplicate the theme of the season we are in touch with our greater body (the earth) to do what it naturally does during Spring time: GROW. Our bodies experience the most growth during childhood just as Nature goes from barrenness to foliage during rebirth of spring. Knowing you will grow is the right attitude of this season.

Coming into spring training I’m usually training on a 3 way split doing a 6 or 7-day cycle. Training every other day in this fashion makes me strong each workout and this year my bodyweight is heavier (190). So I want to gradually build up the weights I use in my training (being careful not to get injured) using slow negatives on everything and stretching always between sets. This kind of training will continue right through the spring into the summer. After all, in spring new growth is very rapid and as my exercise poundages continue to increase I expect to grow even more.

In order to use heavier weights each set it’s important to get enough rest between sets. At present I’m resting 2 to 3 minutes between sets and doing 2 sets for each exercise, occasionally doing 3 sets on some exercises. My rep pattern is 10 reps on the first set, stretch, increase weight, 8 reps on the second set, stretch. When I do a third set it is usually only 6 reps but with very slow negatives. When you go into each workout feeling stronger you can be sure you are growing. There is plenty of time to cut down on rest periods between sets summer training season when you want to increase definition.

Concentrating on 2 or 3 muscle groups each workout enables you to work down deep into the muscles. Training with a day’s rest between workouts on the 6-day cycle allows you to use heavier weights. Rest a little longer between sets (but not more than 3 minutes) and select weights that allow you 10 reps on the first set and 8 reps on the second set. When you come to the 5-day sequence rest a little less between sets (aim for 2 minutes rest between sets) with the same repetition scheme, being sure to do slow negative and stretch between sets. And it’s all on audiotapes you can choose to use for more focus and motivation. Listening to Get in Shape the Easy Way, and my 3 Train With Zane Audio Cassettes, I become your personal trainer.

Here is the Glycemic Index List of fruit, vegetables, and grains I used taken from my 1985 training diary: To facilitate body fat loss it is wise to avoid carbs with index much above 50: Fruit – raisins 64, bananas 62, grapes 45, oranges 40, apple 39, pear 34, peach 29, grapefruit 26, plum 25, cherries 23. Vegetables: baked russet potato 98, parsnips 97, carrots 92, whole potato 70, beets 64, peas 51, yams 51, sweet potato 48, chic peas and lima beans 36, black eyed peas 33, kidney beans and lentils 29, soybeans 15, peanuts 13 (this is no reason to load up on peanuts. On the other hand it is OK to eat a small amount of higher glycemic index food as long as you combine it with other food, preferably protein). Grains: whole wheat bread 72, shredded wheat cereal 67, brown rice 66, corn 59, oatmeal 49, whole wheat spaghetti 42, whole grain rye bread 42. When I was competing (after keep carbs below 100 grams per day all week)_I would ingest more carbs (200 grams) the day before competition, and up to 300 grams of carbs the day of the competition. I found out the best carbs for energy were those with index of around 50, so I ate small slices of baked yam every hour along with amino acids and got a great pump before I went on stage. Eating too much carbs at one time whether they are lower glycemic index or not can play havoc with your blood sugar levels and provoke excess insulin secretion.

Reading inspirational books is a good way to keep your train motivation up. Books about people’s lives, spiritual books —the word inspire means to "breathe in fresh air"—those books that fill you with fresh life sustaining ideas. I wrote Mind, Body, Spirit Training Diaries from this perspective. It is filled with life events inspiring to me, many different progressive workouts, training psychology, and nutrition: "Decided to take a day off from working out today and after an early morning half hour walk with my dog Tyler ate a light breakfast:: amino acids, an orange, liver extract, germ oil concentrate, multiple vitamin-minerals, a slice of whole grain toast with a teaspoon of dark sesame oil soaked in and a cup of peppermint tea. Good oils kill hunger and I don’t eat again until 11 am when I had 3 slices of low fat ham and a small baked yam and the same supplements as breakfast with a diet Snapple. Not hungry again until 5 PM when I ate a 3 egg spinach Swiss cheese omelet. Before bed had amino acids and a large Rome apple." I get in shape because I:

There’s a meditation technique called "mindfulness" in which you constantly examine the contents of your mind. Here’s a method I use to stay motivated called "Muscle Mindfulness" which involves remembering to ask yourself several times during the day, "what’s on my mind?" Then insert a positive statement such as those in "Mind, Body, Spirit", many of which are written in verse to help remember them. This book on CD is designed to replace negative self-talk and listening to it helps me get psyched-up for workouts and motivated to eat correctly and keep a positive attitude

Action follows thought. It makes sense that in order to get good workouts it’s helpful to get a little excited about it first. That means you have to think about it before you do it. I remember in the past when I was teaching school the last period of the day I would mentally rehearse everything I would be doing in my workout that would start in a few hours. Naturally I wasn’t teaching, just supervising, when I did this mental task. Years later I tried the same pre-workout strategy, visualized every exercise, rep, and set, and found that by the time I got to the gym it was almost like I had already worked out. So now that I am doing the 3,6,5 routine, which is convenient for me since I always have Thursday and Saturdays off to attend computer and guitar classes, I have specific days I’m going to train on. I know that I must complete my workout before noon or else I lose my enthusiasm for doing it, so I make sure to get into the gym not later than 11 am. My new audiotape "Positive Attitude" is great for listening to anytimeto psych yourself up.

Before my workout I think about the bodyparts I’m going to work. I also make a mental note of what areas need more attention and what my goals are for my workout. Currently, I am concerned about getting my waist smaller so I have upped my ab reps to 300 every workout and to keep it interesting I do 8 different exercises, 30 reps each: hanging knee ups, crunches, 1 arm cable crunch, seated twist, hi incline leg raise chair, situps over bench, low incline leg raise, torso track, hanging knee up, crunches. I usually do ab work first since it’s a priority. My other goal is to use heavier weights to grow so I do 10 reps, increase weight for 8 slow reps.

A routine answers the questions "should I train today and what should I train today". It’s automatic, you just go and do it. While I do have a specific routine in mind when I go into the gym, I feel free to make changes in it as I go along. It seems that I never do exactly the same routine twice this way. Also my intuition comes up with novel combinations for super sets. I like to go by what areas are pumping up as what exercise I will choose next. I also like a transition exercise from the body part I just worked to the next bodypart, e.g. if I just did calf work I begin my thigh work with leg curl which works calves since the roller presses on my ankles.

Before I do each set I am not thinking, "I’m feeling weak today, I’m not sure I can do 10 reps", or "I always fail on this exercise before I get a good pump". These are negative self-defeating statements that set up failure before you begin. Instead I think thoughts like "I know I will get a good pump from this set" and "I wouldn’t be surprised if this weight felt so light that I would have to do even slower negatives to make it feel heavy". It’s also a good idea to say these statements out loud. This strategy proved very successful for my Mr. Olympia training in 1982. I trained very heavy by myself with no spotters. Before I did a set I announced to the universe "I am doing one rep in the low incline bench press with a 10 second negative with 300 pounds" after working up in weights for several sets. My mind set was "when I say something I always do it.". I would write it down in my workout diary before I did it, so it became written law, even more powerful than words.

Not only do I not believe in not going to failure when doing a set, I also do not believe in setting up failure. Before we fail with a weight the though of failure always crosses our minds. As the saying goes "intention precedes movement". You might call this thought of failure "doubt". So if doubt crosses my mind on the 8th rep when I want to do 10 reps in a set, I don’t force out 10 reps. I deliberately do a slower negative making my 8 rep my last one, then rest 20 seconds and do 2 more reps I had intended to do with very, very slow negatives. The secret to developing personal power is always doing what you say you are going to do. "If a man speaks the truth long enough eventually his words become law." This is the principle of Mantric Speech.

  "When I look at the growing plants I see so clearly the true meaning of single mind and real mind. Plants are not disturbed by others. Always they are themselves single minded-they really fulfill what they want to do. Not violating or being violated is such a strong and gently characteristic...If a person is this single minded and concentrated on his own life, then the whole world harmonizes with that life as if welcoming it. Go on without hesitating, straight, advancing in a direct line with your feet stepping squarely on the earth...Since my old self is being destroyed moment by moment, I tear up this tendency to cling to this old self. Always I go the way of the single mind, the way of concentration…Cherry flowers open on the cherry tree, green willow buds come up out of the willow tree. For the cherry flowers and willow buds the whole world is the world of their opening under the heavens and on earth. How rich, impressive, and friendly they both are. What yearning forms they have. Listen carefully for the inner voice and sharpen your ear of inner hearing to catch the real mind speaking among so many other voices. We can’t help tasting our simple honesty in doing so."                    Akegarasu