Wait who is this Milo of Croton? Milo of Croton was an ancient Greek who wandered around in southern Italy and was the most succesful wrestler of his day. He won the wrestling contest in the ancient Olympic games not one time but as many as six times. He dominated the Pythian games 7 times, the Nemean games 9 times and Istmian games as much as 10 times! It is even described how Milo developed his Herculaneum strength.
Hang on...
One day a small calf was born near his home, Milo decided to lift the small calf up and carry it up the hill around on his shoulders. For the next four years Milo of Croton did the same thing. Lift the calf and carry it around. This until it was no longer a calf but a 4 year old bull. And so, the principles of our workouts are laid.
Legend of reality?
While we cannot know for certain what the complete training regime of Milo was or that the story was spiked for entertainment reasons but it is entirely feasible that Milo did lift a bull and walk around with it. Robert Edward of Tennessee followed into Milo his footsteps. He began lifting a 20kg calf and lifted it daily. One year later the animal weighed 250kg. Robert kept on training with the bull until it weighed as much as 400kg and Robert was able to walk 55 meters with the animal on his back.
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| Modern time Milo of Croton Robert Edward lifting a 400kg bull |
I'm not suggesting you should try lifting a calf, though you can if you really want to. No the principle are as following.
1. Take it easy (at first): the new born calf would have been no problem for a ancient greek wrestler to carry around. This same principle goes for strength training. Practice the motion with a light weight, allow the mucles and tendons to strengthen, memorize the motion so you can do it flawless when your weight increases later on. Training this way will minimize risk of injury.
2. Increase the weight slowly: Milo's calf would grow slowly, a kilo here and kilo there but it would not increase suddenly with 20kg's in one day to another. These little weight increases allows your body to adapt and become stronger. I often see people in the gym adding 20 kg plates and trying to make a new pr, yet this is the fastest way to injury. Slow and steady is the key to progress. If you would add each week 1 kg to your benchpress you would lift 52kg more in one year of time. I certainly do not know a lot of people who actually do that.
3. Don't skip workouts: Yes, we all have busy lives but if your goal is to become strong you need to get your workouts in. Milo wouldn't have succeeded if he lifted his calf once a month or even once a week. The calf would have grown to much and Milo his body would not be adapted to it. This is typical what you see with a lot of people working out. After New-Year they start with full motivation, after a while they skip a few workouts... They finally make it back to the gym after a while and try the weight they last lifted and feel demotivated... Don't do this! Start low with something that does not intimidate you and work your way up. And if you do don't make it too the gym it is better to stick to your weight or even lower and work your way back up.
Does this mean that you can infinitely add weight and become as strong as Herakles himself? No, definately not. Eventually you will reach a plateau when you only use the progressive overload training method and your progress will stall. Luckily we have many items at our disposal to help you overcome these plateaus. More about that later.
Looking for a training schedule based upon Milo of Croton? Contact us here or leave a message in the contact form below. Let us know about your strength in the comment section below.
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