Training Wisdom

In discussing this issue’s contents with IRON MAN Editor in Chief Steve Holman, I was struck by both the range of ideas and the range of voices the authors represented. Most of what we publish comes from individual authors who are self-directed. Yes, we make assignments, but they’re in the minority. I never know the specific contents of most of our features and departments until I read them as the issue is midway through production.

Such is the quality of the writers and the relationships—we trust our authors to deliver. IRON MAN is driven by individuals and their ideas. We keep the authors’ tone and style intact so readers get to feel a writer’s thoughts. The variety of voices is what gives IRON MAN its character.

That’s nothing new about this magazine. From its founding in 1936, Iron Man was an open forum for ideas—and so it remains. Peary and Mabel Rader started the publication to spread the word about the wonders of weight training correctly performed. We continue that tradition by honoring the wisdom of the past as well as exploring the research of the present.

For me, wisdom is defined as ideas that have stood the test of time. For example, beginning on page 60 in this issue, Charles Poliquin revisits Vince Gironda, the legendary Iron Guru, with truths Vince discovered 50 years ago and science validates today. Vince was then what Poliquin, Jerry Brainum, Steve Holman and Bill Starr are today: pragmatists always in search of a better way, a more productive way to train, eat and supplement. While those four authors represent more than 100 years of combined experience, their creativity is the foundation of their writing. Staying hungry for knowledge is the keystone of their progress—plus, of course, being obsessed in a constructive way with what they love to do.

So IRON MAN continues to facilitate connections between the writer and the reader—and IRON MAN readers are as much seekers of information as its authors are. I hope you’re as surprised and delighted as I am each month with the issue’s content. While I don’t completely agree with everything we publish—training protocols, diet or supplementation—I believe that presenting a diversity of ideas makes IRON MAN as vital and relevant as the authors who create them.

We bring individual voices together so that we can all learn from them and test their unique ideas in our own training. I’ve often cited my lifelong friend Bob Gajda’s belief that the gym is really a laboratory and that we are the subjects of our self-created experiments. The bodybuilding experience is just that: a self-directed voyage of discovery. Enjoy the odyssey. IM