Email from a 35 yo Heavyhander to a 14 yo beginner

[Guest guest]

I wish I had started heavyhands at 14! My experience with 3 years of heavyhanding is that it defintely does build upperbody muscle. I found relatively immediate results, and continue to find progress. And of course the pictures of Dr. Schwartz in his books proves that muscle building occurs through heavyhands! Is the building of muscle slower than through standard weight training? Sure it is, but it is still there, and for me, continuous progress satisfies.

And although I am well-educated and a pretty smart guy, I find the concept of weight training just too complicated! You have to learn so much about types of exercisizes, sets, reps, muscles and muscle groups, etc. Also, with standard weight training, since it generally cannot be a daily activity, and tends to clash with cardiovascular/aerobic training, you have to adopt a certain diet to feed the muscle but at the same time not get fat (though with the fast metabolism of a 14 year old, you wouldn't really have that problem.) As I said, standard weight training requires real knowledge of muscles and specific exercises: without that knowledge you can develop some muscles and neglect others, and so end up with abnormal-looking development. My experience is that heavyhands builds upperbody muscles in a balanced, attractive way without having to think about balancing strategy, or knowing anything about musculature.

Four tips: -- start SLOWLY in terms of building up weights. I heavyhanded with 2 pounders for the first month or two, and then went to 4 pounders for a good number of months after that. After 3 solid years of heavyhanding, I have only recently been comfortably able to heavyhand for up to an hour with 15 pound weights, and still use the 12 pounders alot. I had been using 12 pounders as my standard weight for about 10 months or so.

-- Dr. Schwartz's books: he is in many ways a good writer, with a nice attitude and real humor, BUT also I found that his books can be dauntingly complex. Just start with simple pump-and- walk, add some lateral flings, double-ski-poling, and knuckles-up pumps when you are ready and I don't think you need really any other moves. He himself says in his books the same thing, that you don't need all the moves and strategies he writes about, just start with a few and add what you want over time.

-- My experience is that I enjoy heavyhanding alot more and can do it comfortably for longer stretches of time when I actually go outside and walk with the weights rather than do it in place indoors (say in front of the TV). Find a place outdoors to do it! Quiet streets, nature paths, empty running tracks, are all good places.

-- As Dr. Schwartz tells us in his books, the key to avoiding injury is remembering from the start not to neglect the back- swing -- when pump-and-walking, swing each arm back almost fully extended each time. I have done this from the start and have suffered no injuries. (Interestingly, I find that other people I see out walking with hand weights who have clearly not read about heavyhands never do this: their weights don't move very much, and they always remain out in front of them: in fact, their upper arms don't seem to move much at all - don't be a "carryhander"!)