SWOLE

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UPDATE: I forgot it was PR Friday — post training records and updates to the comments. Chime in if you don’t have any; it’s good to hear from you guys. And if you’ve never posted before, don’t be scared. Nobody will bite you…hard.

Dmitry Klokov is my favorite weightlifter. Is it because he is my Facebook friend? Is it because he is my Russian speedo bro? Is it because in his reply to my message he put a smiley face emoticon? No, it’s because he’s intense as fuck AND is jacked. I’ve always had a fascination with strength and musculature, and I appreciate when both are represented seamlessly. This is why Doug Young and Anatoly Pisranko are the co-captains of 70’s Big instead of Paul Anderson.

Enter “SWOLE“, an e-book by my friend Johnny Pain. This book has been out for at least a month, but I wanted to give it my full attention before I reviewed it as I anticipated how much it would help 70’s Big readers. And it doesn’t disappoint.



The theme of this e-book is gaining lean, hard (earmuffs) mass without putting on unnecessary levels of fat (which JP refers to as “getting fat-fucked”). While an excess of calories is needed in order to increase lean body mass, this doesn’t mean it’s necessary to eat pizza and ice cream to do it. It’s never been my intention to get fat nor has it been my recommendation that anyone get fat, yet the early stages of this website put a premium on junk food as a method of accumulating calories to grow (with the secondary message implying that if you get fat, you should modify your diet). Yes, that’s certainly one way of doing it; the easy way. However, it’s possible to steadily but surely increase both strength and musculature without excessive body fat gains to achieve maximum jackage, but it’s the hard way.

“The most common reason that people are unhappy with their body composition, whether in the context of trying to add mass, lose body fat, or attempting to do both at the same time, is that they often lack the kind of accountability for their diet that is necessary to make the changes that they are after. If you want your body to change for the better, you need to be keeping score.”

JP spends the obligatory amount of time explaining how getting bigger without ending up like a doughy mess is not only possible, but regularly done in the bodybuilding world. Did you cringe at the end of that last sentence? It’s because fat guys who lift weights and the functional fitness community would lead you to believe the bodybuilding community is narcissistic, gay, stupid, weird, and so on (failing to point out that any community that is large enough is going to include these types of people). In any case, JP does what I do — applies information from other sources into his method of implementation and programming.

The first few chapters discuss the general concepts of the discipline needed to have a good physique developed from a proper diet with quality food (I particularly like the concept of “single-ingredient food choices” AKA real food). In order to gain muscle without looking like a pile of shit, there needs to be a baseline amount of macronutrients that account for the energy your body will normally consume plus some additional amounts to induce growth. Then, when mass gain slows, you add on predetermined “layers” of calories to garner progress.

“It’s time to get some good information on nutrition and how to build up the body the right way. Be accountable, take responsibility and above all educate yourself about safe sex, because you will be having a lot more of it.”

Then the book shifts into implementation by defining what those layers are and how they can be added or removed. I won’t divulge what constitutes the layers (you’ll have to buy the damn thing), but the real genius in JP’s method is creating a really fucking simple way to gauge amounts of food instead of counting grams and measuring out amounts. Then, each additional layer is an equally simple method of increasing the caloric content…by a small amount.

“If you haven’t gathered by now, the idea of adding things in small increments is one of the most vitally important principles to adding mass without significant body fat accumulation.”

And therein lies the “magic”. Instead of “eat more to recover, pussy,” there is a carefully created system that will allow a trainee to titrate his food up or down based on his results. It really is an impressive way to eradicate all of the problems associated with eating properly when trying to get swole.

Lastly, JP discusses some very basic ways to gauge progress over time; instead of waiting until there’s a giant belly button and love handles, trainees will collect some simple data points to see if the diet is too much, too little, or just right. The easiest and most profound method is to use regular photos of the body to gauge fat increase — the pics don’t lie.

You’ll notice I’ve used words like “basic”, “simple”, and “easy” throughout this review; JP simplifies the concepts to a manageable diet that even the laziest of guys can implement seamlessly. As with most things that are worth a fuck, the concept is very simple, yet having the discipline to do it is hard. I’ve never met anyone that said, “I want to be really strong and a fat piece of shit!” If you’re worried about the latter, then purchase the book and take control of your body weight.

JP is also always available for contact on the forums at StrengthVillain.com.

Having a Herculean physique (or Apollonian for you bodybuilding history terminology nerds) is something that the overwhelming majority of the earth’s population will never experience. It is truly an extraordinary accomplishment, and therefore requires extraordinary measures. If sucking it up and drinking a gallon of milk a day was all that was nutritionally required in order to add loads of muscle, don’t you think there would be a lot more god-like physiques out there walking around?

64 thoughts on “SWOLE”

  1. Eat a whole bunch of protein and clean food (like a bodybuilder). Lift heavy but add in more volume. Earth shattering information. Never heard this before.
    I know, I’m being a dick.

    You got abz, bro?

    –Justin

  2. I bought Swole and read the whole thing as soon as the download finished. It’s definitely something everyone on this should consider getting. The nutrition thread over on Strength Villain answers a lot of questions from the book as well, so if you get a copy and are confused by anything, chances are it has already been answered by JP in the thread.

    Also, Ivan Stoitsov is right up there with Dmitry Klokov in terms of overall ‘jackedness’.

  5. Great review, Justin. I’ve already got SWOLE, and, like you say, it is very simple and JP does a great job of explaining everything. Absolutely worth the price of admission.

    In addition, klokov is indeed a G. I fell in bro-love with him a year or two ago, watching the worlds. Oh, to have half that intensity!

  6. Reading Swole is like flashing back to the 80s and reading the bodybuilding books written by Kennedy and Weiss and published by MuscleMagInternational.

    The diet stuff can be found there. The powerbuilding stuff can be found there, in fact, there are an astonishing array of methods for set intensification that that many nexgen lifters have never seen because they’ve been struggling with adding large washers to their 5×5 squats for weeks to get that microloaded linear progression.

    My mind is boggled when JP says “Hey bro, do lateral raises THEN your presses” and the horde of moderated Strength Villians gaze up on him with awe and say “YOU ARE A FUCKING GENIUS!”

    LULZ moments for sure.

    The pendulum swings back and forth.

    Overall, I felt Swole was a decent book.

    Further reading for the powerbuilding bi-curious:

    Raw Muscle, by Kennedy and Weis
    Sliced by Reynolds and Jayde
    Rock Hard by Kennedy
    Cuts by Kennedy

    can all be had for under $20+ shipping (yeah, 4 hardcopy books, used) and can be mined for ideas by any intrepid nexgen lifter.

    Just because it was published in 1986 doesn’t mean it still doesn’t work.

    This is a good point. It just fits really well with the ‘online strength training community that has been told eating more calories will solve their problems’.

    Thanks for the book recs.

    –Justin

  7. Has JP announced (and/or paid the $1000/$500/$250 prizes to) the winners of the Strength Villain challenge yet? It ended a month ago, and I haven’t read anything about it yet.

  14. Hey Justin, just to switch up my training a little bit, I decided to start doing pull-ups every training session (Mon, Wed, Fri). I started with 25 reps using however many sets it takes (25 took 4 sets) and will add one rep every session until I get to 50 reps. I’m just doing body weight (190lbs) and doing them on rings to spare my elbows. I’m curious to track my progress and see how my body reacts to it. I had gotten lazy with pull-ups and usually ended up doing them only once or twice a week. Let me know if you think this is a terrible, asinine, idiotic idea

  17. PR: squat 270×5,5,10 not bad considering 3 months ago 275 was my 1RM.
    press 125×5,5,9

    Both rotator cuffs torn in the past, so anything overhead has never been easy for me.

  18. DL: 550# for a single EZ PZ

    BP: close grip 205# 3×10 F my slap tear and my life

    Going to Nationals next weekend to take advantage of Matt’s trouble squatting, hopefully I can come within 150kg of his total.

  21. DL: 345×5

    Experiencing severe pain in my left bicep, anterior forearm, and anterior deltoid region after squatting. Wednesday it didn’t include the forearm but spread there today. It’s so bad it’s not only negatively affecting the bench and press afterwords, it’s even making it difficult just to load and unload the bar. Without a video I know it’s hard to judge, but does anyone know what might be causing this?

    Your grip is fucked up. It needs modified to take care of the original issue. You probably also need to do mobility work on your anterior shoulder girdle and internal rotation.

    –Justin

  23. What’s the deal with all the other guys in that Dancing With The Stars video being shrimps? According to Wikipedia, Klokov is only 6’2″.

  25. pulled 225 for 10 on Wednesday, which is pretty bad but I think I was deadlifting correctly for the first time in my life. wasn’t to failure.

    hoping for good squats later today. Monday’s sucked.

  26. I’ve been sick for 2 weeks, and haven’t lifted in 1.5 weeks, but still:
    SQ 365×3 (PR)
    BP 300×1 (PR)
    DL 460×1 (PR)
    Call me old-fashioned, but I have a hard time paying 30 some bucks for a book I can’t put on a shelf.

  28. PR for fucking awesomeness. After 11 months of weightlifting, I finally learned how to snatch. This happened on Saturday. It was magical. I am now officially unstoppable.

    PR for having awesome lifters. One of my 69 kg girls who has been lifting with my club for a month hit a 70 kg clean and jerk on Tuesday and then crushed her 72 kg clean and lost the jerk on the recovery. She only hit a 60 kg clean jerk at her meet two weeks ago.

    PR for finding a new person that I hate almost as much as Tracy Anderson: David Kirsch. “In 25 years of training, I have worked with countless women who were striving to get sleek, toned arms. Without exception, I have found that working with light to medium weights, higher repetitions have always yielded the most positive, appealing results. The models, actresses and even new moms that I work with would most heartedly concur.”

    I disagreed with him and told him that I look fucking amazing: http://i.imgur.com/5h3ya.jpg.

    Ummm, I don’t think I had any lifting PRs, but I am going to Wichita Falls on Thursday and will be spending three days at an Olympic weightlifting seminar with Rip and Jim Moser. Pretty happy about that.

  29. Squat: 345×5*PR
    Dead: 395×5*PR

    Easy again. I wont say I am running texas method. But 3×5 volume squats going up in weight each set with regular intensity day, sprinkled in with a ton of back and arm work, and then using bench ladders 3 days a week has me excited about training again.

  30. Deadlift PR: 157.5kg (346.5lbs) x 5
    It’s OK.

    Random question, can you talk about behind the neck presses sometime? People loved them, then hated them. 70sBig guys did them. I sometimes see modern Oly lifters doing them. I never hear of body-builders doing them. Stuff about injuries and external rotation… What’s the Lascek opinion?

    I’ll go ahead and say I’m not real concerned with them. So many people have issues with internally rotating on press and bench that doing a movement that inherently has them internally rotate would create problems. When you see guys of 70s lore doing them, they are probably big and jacked anyway. Most people on this site are not big and jacked (except for my delts) and have more of an issue of doing things correctly. I will also point out that the best pressers didn’t have issues with internally rotating because in order to get good at the press, they had to learn (whether through experience or coaching) that they couldn’t lift as much with internal rotation.

    As for behind the neck snatch pressing, it resonates with a similar concept. Do you have very good strength or musculature in the shoulders? Then use the more simple concepts to improve those before worrying about extraneous exercises. Besides, the typical issues with racking a snatch don’t really have to do with the overhead strength, but the technical aspects of how the bar is getting there.

    –Justin

  31. 1st post after following site for around a year

    Bodyweight PR: 207 lbs

    Commitment PR: Committing to the Greyskull LP. Want to get lifts up and improvw conditioning. Going with the greyskull linebacker approach

    Current PRs:
    Bench 245 x 1
    Squat 405 x 1
    DL 355 x 1 320 x 5
    Press 130 x 5
    PC 200 x 3

    Burpees – Work in progress

  32. Haven’t posted in a while.

    PR’s this week

    Squat
    1 X 500

    !0 Minutes later…

    DL
    1 X 550.
    Missed 575, 585, but I’ll get it next week. None of it means shit as it’s not in competition, but it’s not a bad benchmark.

    C&J 137, barely missed 140.

    I am still pro-whole organic milk, even after reading SWOLE. When I return from my desert excursion, it is my goal to purchase a cow and only drink raw milk.

    I assume the CJ was in kilos. If so these are pretty cool numbers, especially the sq/DL in the same day.

    –Justin

  33. First post i think. can’t remember

    PR’s this week

    Snatch: pretty easy single 1×85 (bw)
    Jerk: 1×100 (yes my jerk is shit)
    Power Snatch: 2×75

  34. Seated shoulder press got 2×245 then fucked the dog when I went for 265. Did weighted chin-ups today and fucked the dog at bw+175 because I felt shitty and stiff but I still got one with 160.

    I’ve never heard “fucked the dog” before.

    –Justin

  36. Dental PR. Made my return to a dental chair after God knows when. Only 2 cavities. First cavities ever. Filled. Teeth and gums scraped and lasered. Can’t feel left side of my face. Go in on the 18th for the right side. Will start flossing.

    This is a good update.

    –Justin

  38. Oh, possible PR. 25 lb weighted chin at a bodyweight of 160.5 lbs. I haven’t done a weighted chin in over 6 months, and I wasn’t this fat then, and I’m not sure how much it was at that point.

  40. Whelp, after laying off most of the past month after a serious back fuck up I’m finally back on the wagon. First week of serious training, working back up from some major layoff with GSLP. Good to ease into going heavy again, and nice to set rep PRs.

    Squat: 235×20 PR
    Bench: 145×14 (meh)
    Press: 100×13(meh)
    Deadlift: 315×12 PR

    I don’t have the ebook since money’s been tight (moving will do that), but I’ve been following 5,5,max and adding some arm and trap accessory work every session. Since my reps were so high and I reset significantly, I’ve been going up 5 lbs on upper lifts, 10 on squat, and 15 on deads.

    Appetite PR: I completely lost interest in eating during my training layoff, I’m down 14 pounds, but eating with a vengeance again.

  41. man, i’ve been doing lots of gymnastics shit on the rings with you know who lately and it’s really been cutting into my training. my back (lumbar, thoracic, AND cervical), chest, abs, and arms are always 100% fatigued when i hit the gym. my numbers haven’t gone down, but they haven’t gone up. i hit 210 on the squat the other day (215 is PR) and 81 on the press (83PR) and i’ve been hitting the same old god damn fucking numbers on the snatch and clean&jerk each training day. whatever. i guess my only PR this week is that i’ve officially lost a few pounds (it’s been a couple weeks and i’ve accounted for changes in water due to carbs and/or dehydration) and my waist-to-hip ratio is slightly sexier or appealing or whatever. that’s kinda neat.

  42. First post PR.

    Bought Swole and I think it’s pretty good, I like JP’s points about “getting congruent” and the stupidity of the overtly anti-aesthetic approach of some in the functional fitness community. That said, I think it’s a bit overpriced, it’s not like it’s a 200-page treatise laying out all the physiology for you or anything.

    Deadlift 320×7 PR
    Bench press 137.5x3x5 PR
    Press 87.5x3x5 PR (and already getting heavy, goddammit)
    Squat 220×8 PR

  43. Making good progress again after a serious rut. Doing GSLP (5, 5, max). This week:
    Bench: 105×6
    Press: 75×7
    DL: 195×5
    The DL was also an awesomeness PR: felt too tired to do it, so I recruited two 70s Big dudes to stand on either side and yell Ronnie Coleman-isms at me.
    Squats have been sucking for about two months due to a recurring hip issue that I can’t quite figure out. Mobbing the shit out of it is helping, but progress is slow and I’m frustrated. PR is 225×2; will get there again.
    Also started snatching this week, and it felt pretty fucking awesome.

  44. PRs
    squat & deadlift 460 beltless
    Press 207.5x1x10
    Left arm press 100
    Right arm press 95
    Curl 160×5
    USAWA Cheat Curl 195×1
    Bench 307.5x1x3,306x1x5
    Pullup +162.5

  45. I think I’ve PR’d on the most number of missed workouts to sickness.. First, gastro, and then a nasty cold/throat infection. Urgh. I’ll be as weak as a kitten when I get back into it, and will have to work by butt off to get back to where I was! Good thing I love training!

  46. @ralston I haven’t brushed my teeth or flossed in over 9 months. It’s true. I eat 3-4# of meat a day and my mouth just stays clean and my teeth are healthy. Diet’s key.

  49. Haven’t posted any good PRs in a while.
    Pretty much lost June to a month-long drinking binge.

    Recent highlights:

    Squat: 385×5 (easy and deep)

    DL: 470×5 (again pretty easy–1RM PR of 555 in last TSC)

    Press: tried cluster sets for first time–215×5 for three sets with 10-15 seconds rest between reps (re-rack weight)– Tough.

    Not doing anything by way of program after hitting 5/3/1 for seven months and seeing some good gains. Just been getting into the gym for the last six weeks 3-4 times per week.

    I’ll either start back up with 5/3/1 in September or look at another program.

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