Time to give a review on Dan John's most recent book!
First, buy the book. Dan deserves your support.
As always, Dan is a practical guy. If you've followed Dan John for a while, nothing in this book will surprise you.
For a long time, his answer to hypertrophy was his book, "Mass Made Simple." A grueling 6 week program littered with heavy high rep squats, press variations, and barbell complexes. If you completed it, you, no doubt, achieved some functional mass. You also probably vowed never to put yourself through anything like that again.
Armor Bodybuilding is basically a higher volume approach to his Easy Strength programs. If you read the "Easy Strength Omnibook," you'll notice similar conversations and inspirations from Harry Paschal's (Bosco) programs, Reg Park, and even Arnold's base building (my phrase to describe it) program.
Dan offers a kettlebell program and several barbell programs in "Armor Bodybuilding."
When laying out the kettlebell plan (which I actually am quite intrigued by) he gives the basic instruction to, "do this, and then add whatever else you want."
"This" turns out to be lots of military presses and rounds of the armor building complex on alternate days, 3 days per week. Being a Vince Gironda and silver/golden era Bodybuilding influenced millennial, I immediately scoff at the lack of direct chest, back, arm, hamstring, and calf work. But, I'm saved from scoffing by his important note to "do whatever else" you want after those exercises are taken care of. I can work with that. And I will give this program, along with filling in gaps with lower volume for other exercises, a try after my current 90 day plan is finished.
I mention regularly that kettlebell coaches abuse hypertrophy training with sub-maximal sets. "Use a weight you can get 10 reps, but do lots of sets of 5." Or, "Use a weight you can get 10 reps, but do ladders 1-2-3-4-5." Sub-maximal sets, going nowhere near failure, are a waste of precious time if hypertrophy is the goal. It's effective for strength, but not mass. But, if using heavy weight, Dan's 2-3-5 ladder is a great way to get more volume in less time.
The barbell & dumbbell plans were interesting. I'm not a huge fan of full body programs – for myself – anymore, because they take a lot of energy and time. But I do think full body training is great for a lot of people.
I couldn't help but think some of the later programs he shared for the barbell section would be hard to complete with my busy schedule. This, may be a little contradictory to what he said on page 6, where he said, "keep the workouts short and focused."
The first couple barbell plans have just a few exercises, but they're an interesting assortment of exercises and certainly wouldn't take long. I imagine you could fill in the gaps, if you desired, with a small dose of a few exercises here and there and still be done in 45 minutes. Dan actually has a section where he describes how to combine the barbell Bodybuilding program with Easy Strength for a complete 4-5 day program, which I actually like A LOT as a long term programming option.
He brings back an old school barbell and dumbbell exercise (same exercise, 2 different pieces of equipment for 2 different programs) that is certainly an effective movement regardless of equipment (the kettlebell world still uses it frequently). I don't doubt that doing that exercise more frequently would pack on muscle all over the body for just about everybody.
All in all, it was a quick, enjoyable read. Dan includes LOTS of programs and even a bonus program. I think there are like 5 or 6 total programs in there.
He also takes a sensible approach to nutrition, recovery, and planning your year of training.
While it's nothing he hasn't preached for decades, it is cool to see a strength & conditioning guy tackle the hypertrophy problem from an old school, no nonsense strength & conditioning guy perspective.
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