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Serious Growth routine - Leo Costa

Mike Singletary

Mike Singletary

Member
Sep 8, 2010
92
29
I was just wondering who here used the Leo Costa Serious Growth routine. It was back in the early 90's. I know that when I tried it I made great gains even though everyone said it would not work. I have long since given up bb for plifting, but thought some of you might have tried it. Did you get any results?
 
Mike Singletary

Mike Singletary

Member
Sep 8, 2010
92
29
Here's the Product Description.

If you want enormous strength, rock hard, tightly defined muscles, a massive chest, slender waist, powerful arms and legs, and the capacity to outperform all of your peer by a tremendous margin, "Big Beyond Belief" is a must see! This book is the most effective muscle producing program ever developed. Three or four months on the Serious Growth Training program will have anyone pulling 20%, 30%, even up to 70% more weight with no more effort than today. Stated more powerfully -- if you're benching 250 pounds today -- we can show you how to get that up to 400 or better using Serious Growth methods!
 
SurfSanClem

SurfSanClem

Member
Nov 9, 2010
18
0
This is not a link. Were there a link tough I would click it, read it, and maybe consider it.
 
JR Ewing

JR Ewing

MuscleHead
Nov 9, 2012
1,329
420
I bought it in the early 90's when I was in my early 20s after I'd been training several years. He later admitted that he made all that "Bulgarian" nonsense up. He was very good (if dishonest on some things) at marketing, and he obviously figured that saying he stole this top secret training system from the world's greatest weightlifters and adapted it to bodybuilding would give him some credibility, since he was an unknown. He always had the hardcore photos and hype in his ads, and he also claimed to be drug free, which was an obvious lie. He also claimed to have trained Kevin Costner and many other people, which I don't know to be true or not. And I'm pretty sure he took some serious liberties with "expert reviews" and client testimonials. He later brought Platz onboard, which no doubt gave him even more credibility with us meatheads.

I was a drug-free college student and was also working more or less fulltime back then, so there was no way I could do the double and triple splits he recommended for more advanced trainers. And I knew the more novice routine where he advocated one workout a day, doing several bodyparts for just a few sets in each workout would not work for me - I need to work each bodypart with more volume and less frequency for my workouts to be truly productive.

There was one thing I got from the system that made it worth the $50 or so I paid for it. That was his belief that training routines should be modified every 2-4 weeks to keep the body growing. I think that's an important thing for those of us who don't have the great genetics to grow from just about anything. I still modify my training every couple of weeks. The changes are not radical, only subtle - slightly higher or lower reps and loads, slight changes in rest periods here and there, changing the order of exercises a bit, alternating a couple of exercises for a bodypart every other workout, etc.
 
IronSoul

IronSoul

TID Board Of Directors
Apr 2, 2013
6,274
2,007
Glad to hear that JR, I was beginning to think i was the only one. It's really hard to explain your routine to people when they ask because it's always different. It's really helped me bust through plateaus in the past
 
BrotherIron

BrotherIron

VIP Member
Mar 6, 2011
10,717
2,808
WSBB and The Russian Conjugate Method switch lifts routinely. I do the same with my training (every 4 weeks).

Never heard of OP's routine he's talking about.
 
L

LieAndDie

New Member
Feb 13, 2022
1
0
I am 50 now, but started using the Serious Growth strategies in my early 20s. The results spoke for themselves, and I even won a bet with some local gym owners that I could get better results than the guys they sold steroids to. (People were still asking me 20 years later about my steroid use... which never happened!!!) Right now I am trying to find a copy of the 1st edition, anybody know where I can find one? I am going to start applying the 3rd edition, but it seems more focused on selling supplements than anything else.
 
bigrobbie

bigrobbie

TID OG Member
Sep 19, 2010
861
406
5X5 training always made me grow fast
 
R

rawdeal

TID Board Of Directors
Nov 29, 2013
4,313
3,475
This is not a link. Were there a link tough I would click it, read it, and maybe consider it.

Some of these ancient born-again threads get interesting, in spite of shit like the above.

Been seeing "5 x 5" mentioned for years, asked once on another board and got "blah"replies ... what is the meaning of "5 x 5"?

Is it 5 sets of 5 reps at weights progressing from light warmup to a max or near-max on the 5th set, or is it using as heavy a weight as you can that permits 5 reps on all 5 sets with the same weight? Not looking for training advice here so much as I'm wondering what most people mean when they say "5 x 5"?
 
bigrobbie

bigrobbie

TID OG Member
Sep 19, 2010
861
406
Some of these ancient born-again threads get interesting, in spite of shit like the above.

Been seeing "5 x 5" mentioned for years, asked once on another board and got "blah"replies ... what is the meaning of "5 x 5"?

Is it 5 sets of 5 reps at weights progressing from light warmup to a max or near-max on the 5th set, or is it using as heavy a weight as you can that permits 5 reps on all 5 sets with the same weight? Not looking for training advice here so much as I'm wondering what most people mean when they say "5 x 5"?
For the most part. This article explains it pretty well:

 
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