The Complete Keys to Progress eBook John McCallum
Download As PDF : The Complete Keys to Progress eBook John McCallum 
Want big arms? Need to bulk up or trim down? Want to combine lifting and running? It's all here in the complete anthology of John McCallum's classic series, 'Keys to Progress,' from Strength and Health magazine in the 1960s. Informative, entertaining, and invaluable--and packed with routines for training from head to toes.
The Complete Keys to Progress eBook John McCallum
This is one of those books that always popped up in my "Amazon recommends for you" feeds, but I never paid a lot of attention to it until I finished Dan John's excellent Never Let Go. In the bibliography at the end, Dan recommend this book with the notation "we are all just footnotes to McCallum"That struck me as a pretty bold statement, so I figured this was probably worth reading. And it turns out it is, up to a point.
The Complete Keys to Progress is a collection of articles by the same name, originally published in a magazine called Strength and Health in the 1960s. The articles cover a range of topics related to strength training, from basic bulking programs, to ways to specialize on particular body parts, to how to train for general health and fitness (and even one article for scuba divers, of all things). In reading it, I can see exactly what Dan John means. In these articles, you'll find things like the 20 Rep Squat program (Super Squats), the importance of a high protein, low-carb, grain-free diet (Atkins/Paleo), and a whole bunch of other "modern" ideas. There is enough information in here that someone could easily spend years just working on the ideas in this book, and probably make some very solid progress to boot. I have no doubt that some of the science is outdated, and certainly, some of the products mentioned probably no longer exist, but a lot of the basic ideas seem quite sound.
The articles do have a heavy bodybuilding bias, which is understandable, but may not suit everyone.
The writing is...interesting. McCallum doesn't write in a particularly direct way. Instead, he shares his information in the form of stories and dialogues. Throughout the articles, we are gradually introduced to a recurring cast of characters, including the lecherous but amazingly health Uncle Harry, the disappointment of a future son-in-law Marvin, an unnamed suffering gym owner who is plagued by foolish questions from foolish members, and more.
This is the kind of writing that most readers will probably really like, or really hate. I waffled, personally. Initially, I enjoyed it and found it rather endearing, but as the book wore on, I found myself getting as impatient with McCallum as some of the characters in his stories. Sometimes it felt less like he was using the story to really convey anything useful, and more like he was using it to pad out an article. Maybe he was, for all I know. In any case, I found myself alternating between irritation and enjoyment by pages.
But if you get past the writing, a lot of the information is good, probably just as good or better than you'll find in some modern training manuals.
If you are a strength and conditioning geek, this is worth reading if for no other reason than the historical understanding. Agree with him or not, McCallum clearly had a huge influence on the world that followed him. If you're a casual weightlifter (in the generic, not Olympic sense), this book could give you some great information and programs to work with, if you like the writing. There is definitely a strong bodybuilding bias to the book, so combat athletes or others looking for a sport-specific program probably won't find it here. It might not be the first thing I'd give to someone looking to start training, but it might be the second or third. There's a lot of good stuff in here.
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The Complete Keys to Progress eBook John McCallum Reviews
Loved reading these articles from my early days of training. I remember reading Strength and Health religiously. Amazing how fifty years old articles on the importance of hard work and especially low carb dieting sound like they were taken from last week's podcasts!
I came to this book quite skeptically, but have been really impressed with it. I put off getting it for a long time because I would rather have straightforward exposition than stories, and I figured that knowledge of effective lifting has changed a great deal since McCallum wrote. I don't think anyone will believe that most of these stories really happened, or at least happened the way they say, but they are fun stories nonetheless, and some truths are most effectively told through fiction. What has surprised me is that McCallum is a very good storyteller, and he has a tremendous sense of sly humor. That said, the stories are broken up with a lot of direct exposition, and I have found it instructive. The criticism that McCallum is writing advertisements for York is partly true but grossly overstated. Many of the entries don't mention York, York products, or even the magazine Strength & Health. I highly recommend this book as a fun and informative read.
Is it dated? One of the other reviewers has said that McCallum was ahead of his time, and I think it would be as appropriate to say that there has been very little progress in lifting theory since McCallum's time. Sure, we know a bit more about nutrition, and we know a bit more about safe and effective exercise technique, but the fundamentals--and I think most of the details--remain the same. What makes this book a gem is not, however, any proprietary insight that McCallum had, but his ability to push the fundamentals, to motivate, and to present things in perspective. Even if one knew all the facts, McCallum's writing would still be useful for tying them together in a meaningful and productive way.
I'm sorry that I put off getting this book for so long. Had this book been one of the first I had read, my training would have benefitted greatly.
Some may be quick to dismiss this book for more contemporary works, and I think that would be a big mistake. Yes, the information in the book was taken from a serious of articles that were printed in the mid to late 60’s, but it is such good information that you can see it being regurgitated today in slightly different reincarnations. (Plus, it was written before steroids were being used or they were just beginning to be experimented with.) The 5 rep set, high rep squats (breathing or otherwise), and progressive pulls are all in this book.
Any aspiring bodybuilder or physical culturist type would be well served to read this book. In fact, it should probably be close to required reading for anyone interested in weight training and fitness at all. (I absolutely loved the article on running progression.)
There are two reasons I deducted a star. The first reason is that most of the exercise programs were presented in story form (not a good description). The routines are presented in a chard or list format. Obviously, you should read the articles, but it would nice to have the recommended workout neatly displayed at the end of each article. The second reason (arguably more important) is that a lot of the workouts look like an awful lot of volume and time. I think one would have to be careful about overtraining and spending 2 hours in the gym. However, most people should be able to figure how to slightly modify the programs as necessary.
It's in nine point type and all information within is buried in dumb story dialogue, but that seems to do it for a lot of bodybuilders because this book frequently comes recommended. Personally, I don't have the attention span, impulse, nor time to pull information out of eighty different stories. And again the type is curiously small, and they still cut the margins to nothing to cram it in.
This is one of those books that always popped up in my " recommends for you" feeds, but I never paid a lot of attention to it until I finished Dan John's excellent Never Let Go. In the bibliography at the end, Dan recommend this book with the notation "we are all just footnotes to McCallum"
That struck me as a pretty bold statement, so I figured this was probably worth reading. And it turns out it is, up to a point.
The Complete Keys to Progress is a collection of articles by the same name, originally published in a magazine called Strength and Health in the 1960s. The articles cover a range of topics related to strength training, from basic bulking programs, to ways to specialize on particular body parts, to how to train for general health and fitness (and even one article for scuba divers, of all things). In reading it, I can see exactly what Dan John means. In these articles, you'll find things like the 20 Rep Squat program (Super Squats), the importance of a high protein, low-carb, grain-free diet (Atkins/Paleo), and a whole bunch of other "modern" ideas. There is enough information in here that someone could easily spend years just working on the ideas in this book, and probably make some very solid progress to boot. I have no doubt that some of the science is outdated, and certainly, some of the products mentioned probably no longer exist, but a lot of the basic ideas seem quite sound.
The articles do have a heavy bodybuilding bias, which is understandable, but may not suit everyone.
The writing is...interesting. McCallum doesn't write in a particularly direct way. Instead, he shares his information in the form of stories and dialogues. Throughout the articles, we are gradually introduced to a recurring cast of characters, including the lecherous but amazingly health Uncle Harry, the disappointment of a future son-in-law Marvin, an unnamed suffering gym owner who is plagued by foolish questions from foolish members, and more.
This is the kind of writing that most readers will probably really like, or really hate. I waffled, personally. Initially, I enjoyed it and found it rather endearing, but as the book wore on, I found myself getting as impatient with McCallum as some of the characters in his stories. Sometimes it felt less like he was using the story to really convey anything useful, and more like he was using it to pad out an article. Maybe he was, for all I know. In any case, I found myself alternating between irritation and enjoyment by pages.
But if you get past the writing, a lot of the information is good, probably just as good or better than you'll find in some modern training manuals.
If you are a strength and conditioning geek, this is worth reading if for no other reason than the historical understanding. Agree with him or not, McCallum clearly had a huge influence on the world that followed him. If you're a casual weightlifter (in the generic, not Olympic sense), this book could give you some great information and programs to work with, if you like the writing. There is definitely a strong bodybuilding bias to the book, so combat athletes or others looking for a sport-specific program probably won't find it here. It might not be the first thing I'd give to someone looking to start training, but it might be the second or third. There's a lot of good stuff in here.
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