BOOK REVIEW: JOSH BRYANT'S "THE SAGA OF THE TIJUANA BARBELL CLUB"

 

Like a bad relationship, I keep coming back to Josh Bryant books.  Metroflex Gym’s Powerbuilding 101 book was so solid that I think it allowed me to forgive many of the transgressions from Tactical Strongman and Jailhouse Strong.  With that, I purchased “The Saga of the Tijuana Barbell Club” and read it over the course of a few hours.  The description had me thinking it would be done in a similar style to Paul Kelso’s “Powerlifitng Basics Texas Style”, which it was…which also meant it had the unenviable situation of now directly competing with my favorite book on lifting.  It, of course, failed to meet that mark, BUT, I will say it was far more enjoyable than Jailhouse Strong and Tactical Strongman.  I, once again, took notes as I read, and will leave those for you below with a summary/recommendation to follow.

 

Between this and "Texas Style", there's a LOT of Mexican influence to go around

 

 

* I am always going to compare Josh to Paul Kelso’s “Powerlifting Basics Texas Style”, which is most likely very unfair to Josh, as Kelso was a professional writer that lifted/coached, while Josh is a professional lifter/coach that writes.  That said, where Josh always comes up short in these stories is his inability to portray actual humanity in his characters.  The protagonists are PURE heroes, the NPCs are incredibly flawed, etc etc.  It becomes cringe* inducing when you see how positively Josh will speak of himself as a teenager instead of being willing to acknowledge that he was, most likely, just as much a knucklehead as the rest of us.

 

* So far though (page 26 of 114), I’m enjoying the characters in this story far more than the ones from “Tactical Strongman”.  They’re overly heroic, but not to the point of absurdity. 

 

* The bit on cluster sets is pretty awesome and, for once, NOT percentage based.  Suits me so much better.

 

* The bit on somatypes is probably going to upset a lot of people, but my dirty secret is I still believe in them.  And fast metabolisms.  And the post workout nutrition window.  And eating more frequent meals speeding up metabolism.  I’m a total bro-scientist…but it’s worked for me.

Pretty obvious: elves are ecto, dwarves are endo, half-orcs are meso, other races are too boring to play

 

* On the above, Josh’s recommendations for hard gainers goes TOTALLY in the face of the likes of Stuart McRobert/Perry Radar.  Whereas those dudes pushed training very infrequently with low volume and stupid high effort (early HIT stuff right there), Josh is pushing more frequent training with MORE volume for the ecto/hardgainer, operating under the premise that they won’t train hard enough to need as much recovery time as a trainee better suited for lifting.  That…makes a LOT of sense.  My wide endomorph hips made it so I could load up heavy on the lower body compounds early in my training, whereas I was friends with a dude with a legit 24” waist that would most likely fold in half with a barbell on their back, despite the fact that none of their muscles really endured any work. 

 

* He proposes low carb diets for endomorphs.  I was a fat kid growing up: I dig low carb diets.  Jon Andersen was a fat kid: he digs low carb diets.  Might be something here.

 

* What he proposes for mesomorphs is exactly what McCallum, Radar, McRobert and the like would have recommended for the hard gainer.  Up is down, left is right, dogs and cats living together.  But again, this is kinda making sense to me.  Assuming Arthur Jones told the truth (HUGE stretch), he trained the Metzger brothers and Casey Viator with HIT, and they were most likely “mesomorophs” based on outcome. Many who attempt to employ HIT otherwise end up failing, and are always told the same answer: they didn’t train hard enough, so the method didn’t work.  Or maybe what we’re learning from this process is that, once one learns how to actually push themselves, amount of volume will need to drop as will frequency because they’ll dig far deeper when they train.  Paul Carter was big on advocating this style of training, and again, he had enough experience to really push himself, while the beginner trainee RX tends to be much higher volume and frequency.  This can also explain “transformative genetics” where, the longer one trains, the better their genetics apparently become…

 

* Oh Jesus Christ: Chapter 3 is “Gas Station Ready Interval Training”.  Have I just not been filling up at the right gas station?  The closest I had to an incident the other day was losing my cool waiting in line for someone that was buying scratcher tickets, winning, and then using their winnings to buy more tickets, creating an infinite loop.  All I wanted was a Rockstar…

Perhaps if I went with a Reign...and was 400lbs at 6'9

 

* The cringey terms are back.  “A kick and stab bar in Ciudad Juarez”.  I know this this is double jeopardy, as I’ve already written about how goofy this is in my review of Tactical Strongman…but really…

 

* This chapter is looking like the same chapter on fighting from Jailhouse Strong (I still need to write my review of that).  You’re not gonna learn to fight from a book, let alone a CHAPTER of a book on lifting weights. 

 

* All of THAT being said, the workout itself is nice.  It’s got a built in progression to it, and should provide a decent challenge, so long as one appreciates that it’s a conditioning drill and not a self defense builder.

 

* At chapter 4 and, once again, Josh and his merry band of teenage friends are not at all endearing in how amazing and perfect they are.  Some flaws would go a long way in making them relatable to the reader.

 

* I appreciate this rest pause chapter employing different percentages for different goals (size, strength or endurance).  I prefer the initial entry talking about taking a weight you can use for 6-10 reps vs a fixed percentage, but if you’re interested in employing this variety, you could always just use it with 5/3/1 percentages.

 

* Ok, now some of the characters are actually serving a purpose and I dig it: Josh is talking about why it was that certain individuals employed certain methods as a result of their background coming into lifting.  Anyone can appreciate a good story.

Even if that good story is told in the craziest way possible...or maybe even ESPECIALLY so

 

* The workouts in the rest pause section talk about using your 10rm/8rm/whatever weight vs percentages, and for some reason I just respond so much better to that.

 

* I’m sorry, but “maximum intensity face pulls” is just f**king stupid.

 

* Within the chapter on rest pause is full on rest pause training program that was clearly written OUTSIDE of the original document, as it goes about re* explaining what rest pause is and how to do it.  These little things annoy me in these sorts of books: just shows a lack of editing.  That said, the information in this section IS solid especially for a new trainee.

 

* I like the above mentioned program’s structure, but once again, the lack of editing shines through.  It tells the trainee to pick supplemental/auxiliary exercises from the list below….and there is no such list included.  I’m sure whatever original article this was sniped form had it, but they forgot to include it here.

 

* Halfway through the book and this is the second time Josh wrote how he offered “an incoherent adolescent response” to a question asked of him.  That’s just sloppy writing dude.  Come on: make SOME dialogue if you’re going to make a story.

A good dungeon master knows that names are the most difficult part about creating characters, but come ON man...

 

* It just dawned on me that “Chato” the old wise mentor of the young boys in the story, operates in a very similar manner as “Lope Delk” from Powerlifting Basics Texas Style.  The latter even allegedly spent some time south of the border.  Would be an interesting premise to tell the story as though they were one in the same: just in different timelines.

 

* The shock workout for triceps talks about using a weight that is 10% more than your heaviest skull crusher.  Who the hell knows their 1rm on skull crushers?

 

* It’s tiresome how much this book wants to denigrate people that lift to look good vs people that lift to be strong.  I get appealing to your audience, but it’s stupidly transparent.  I’ll always dig Paul Kelso having the courage to say we should all just get along and appreciate that we’re all lifting weights and getting some exercise.

 

* I am pretty upset that the “shock workout” chapter had programs for frickin’ calves and forearms and NOTHING for the back.  What the hell?

 

* The shock training chapter actually takes up the vast majority of the book too, so if that sort of thing is unappealing to you, beware. 

 

 

SHOULD YOU BUY IT?

 

In this case, I’m gonna say yes, but ONLY as a $10 kindle book.  I think that’s the right value for it.  The book introduces some very helpful training concepts for intensity modifiers, which are especially relevant in the COVID era (god I hope that when people read this several years from now this is just a blip in our history), as it means making lighter weight go further.  I walked away with some ideas I could use in my own training, which is always a plus. The combat conditioning workout is a solid approach to getting in some conditioning with limited equipment, and there’s a lot to scalp otherwise.  That said, this won’t occupy the “Powerlifting Basics” area of my brain, where I’ll be compelled to re-read the stories just for pure entertainment for years to come.  The characters here are far more palatable than the ones from Tactical Strongman, but it’s still really hamfisted and lacking in nuance.  It got me thinking though, and that’s always something.