The half-body brigade….A true story

We’ve all seen the guys I refer to in the title right?

Throughout my years involved with Body building, the half-body brigade has grown in numbers quicker than the bubonic plague flourished in early-Britain.

Slowly and methodically the leaders of this “cult” recruit unaware members to their ranks, promising them wealth and harmony, when the reality is ridicule and behind-the-back mutterings.

Getting back to the serious nature of this article, the half-body brigade are of course the members of the gym-nation who insist on only training the upper half of their body.

The reasons for this strange choice can vary in their origin, though all of them resort back to the truth at the heart of their decision, which is quite simply…they cannot be bothered, it’s too hard.

The prime example of a member of the half body brigade inhabits the gym I use at present. The guy has advanced upper-body development, courtesy of better than average genetic capability, use of varying chemicals and upwards of 15 years training experience. However when he dons a pair of shorts, you have to laugh! The guy has the lower body development of a pre-pubescent teenager. His leg size must only be a few inches greater than his arm development, which must be bordering on the 19 inch mark. Needless to say the guy looks great with a vest on, yet it kind of all goes pear shaped when he wears his shorts. Needless to say, though he has spent years in the gym has the upper body capable of competition standard and talks a great game of Body building, the guy never has and never will step onto a Body building stage.

During a training session the other day I managed to over hear a conversation he was having with his training partner, on the subject of leg training. His training partner (an eager young beginner) asked why his legs were puny compared to his upper body. In between bouts of sniggering I composed myself and overheard one of the well-worn excuses regularly used by members of the half-body brigade. He answered “well I used to train my legs, but was finding it hard to find trousers to fit my legs, so decided I’d better stop training them or I’d never be able to wear clothes”

When I heard this, it reminded me of a few years ago, when I first began training with my present training partner (A good competitive lifetime natural Body builder)

When we discussed the topic of how we’d be training legs, he said “I haven’t trained legs for 2 years because they were growing too big, so I just ride the bike”

After picking my jaw off the floor, I began explaining the fundamentals of Body building training to him and how if he ever wanted to have a “physique” he’d better start training the half of his body that was going to turn his body into a “physique” rather than a “bar body”. You’ve seen the guys who wear the sprayed-on t-shirts in the bars. They will have decent upper body development, yet their drainpipe jeans will always be baggy around the legs and yearn to be filled out by at least some kind of glute and hamstring development round the backside.

Now, some 2 years after hooking up, he has transformed himself from a fat guy with no legs into a novice ANB Britain finalist with a serious chance of placing in the top three in Britain, maybe even winning the class. By paying attention to back squats, front squats, good mornings Romanian dead lifts and the occasional leg curl and leg extension, he has transformed his whole “physique” beyond all his expectations. Is he glad he started training legs? You bet he is.

The guy with half a body could use some of what my training partner has discovered, yet my bet is he’ll continue making excuses for avoiding confrontation with the squat rack, or even the leg press. And whilst he continues to rack up the excuses, deep down even the less-knowledgeable of us can see straight through his façade and conclude that leg training is just too damn hard for him and he cannot tolerate the small amount of pain one needs to endure in order to build a “physique”

So when you encounter a member of the “half body” clan, don’t be in awe over his well-developed chest and arms, instead check out if he has a physique under his over-sized baggies, chances are he’ll be sporting a pair of toothpicks, whilst you will already be well on the way to building a pair of steel pillars, capable of supporting any upper body.

Pay attention to your leg, glute and hip work and build a real physique…Good luck!

Catch me on Jason Rickaby’s natural training team discussion forum on uk-muscle.com.

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