Alpha Tribe-Ordinary into Extraordinary

Boys and men gather in basements, garages, barns and prisons, seeking self-improvement and camaraderie. Alpha Tribe 2023: pack leader on the right, wingman acolyte on the left.

Alpha boys refuse to be what they are. They have an inherent, instinctual, intuitive drive that seeks something quite profound: to engineer their very own radical physical transformation. Alphas seek out methodologies that will enable them to ignite their very own metamorphosis, to transform from zero into superhero. The young alpha, never content to be who or what he is, seeks to muscle up, to lean out, to vanquish all opponents. A true alpha always has opponents, and if they don’t they invent or create them. Alpha icons are war heroes and sport stars. Humans that manifest their greatness physically.

No form of exercise has a more profound effect on the human physiology than properly applied progressive resistance training. The job of weight training is to construct new muscle tissue, to grow muscle. When ball-busting weight training is underpinned with nutritional supercompensation (sanctioned gluttony) and augmented with lots of deep, restorative sleep, the “growth cycle” is completed. The growth cycle has its very own cliché, “train the muscle, feed the muscle, rest the muscle, grow (and strengthen) the muscle.”

If a young alpha male happens to be going through puberty when they commence intense resistance training, results occur with astonishing rapidity. A muscle-building perfect storm occurs when a teenage boy, a resistance training virgin, is suddenly subjected to a properly applied, uber-intense, resistance training regimen. Results are exponentially magnified if the bloodstream is now flooded with a naturally occurring performance enhancing drug: testosterone, and lots of it.

If such a boy, testosterone-drenched, trains with ferocity, then eats like a starving wolverine, if the same boy sleeps often, deep and long, muscles sprout like fertilized weeds and strength skyrockets. Gains obtained during this magical period last a lifetime. I know, I experienced it firsthand: from age 12 until age 18, I gained 75-pounds of muscle. I obtained my full height, 5-10, at age 12. At age 12, I weighed 120-pounds and could clean and press 120. At age 18, I weighed a ripped 195 and clean and overhead pressed 270 in competition.

When alpha boys discover that there exists a proven method of physical transformation (intense progressive resistance training + massive caloric intake + sleep) they perk up. They refuse to be what they are. Profound results occur with stunning regularity for those teen boys that happen onto a proper resistance training regimen, execute the lifting with the requisite tenacity and ferocity (easy for true wild boys,) underpin the training with tons of restorative calories, and sleep like hibernating bears.

The raging testosterone of an over-sexed teenage boy comes in handy when power training and seeking to morph from ordinary to extraordinary. It is a mighty combination that never fails to generate profound results. The other boys around such a boy undergoing such a transitory phase sit up and notice. When a lone alpha sets out on this transformative journey of self-discovery (directed at igniting a physiological metamorphosis) and then succeeds, dramatically altering his physique, the other alphas in his circle want to know how he managed to pull it off – what magic did he stumble across that enabled this visible, radical, irrefutable improvement?

There are those that (obviously) know what they are talking about when it comes to radical physical transformation because they themselves are muscle monsters. A man that has constructed massive muscles, someone that has developed tremendous brute power and inhuman strength, speaks with authority. They have street cred because they themselves have morphed from ordinary into extraordinary. A man’s physique is his credentials. A boy or man that succeeds in muscling-up becomes a magnet for other alphas in his vicinity.

Other alphas (and wanna-be alphas) want that transformative knowledge. Real alphas put the knowledge into motion, transforming thought into action. Acolytes seek to train with the uber-alpha. This is how training partners are created. The uber-alpha shows the acolyte alphas the ropes: what to do, how to do it, when to do it, how much, how often. True alphas always err on the side of too much, never too little. They overdo. Overdoing is how limits are exceeded and how capacities are increased. Crazed assaults on current limits are always the favored growth-inducing strategy of crazed youth.

Building the Tribe

Since the 1930s, boys and men have gathered in basements, unheated garages, barns, military bases, prisons, firehouses, et. al, to weight train in a communal fashion. Unlike commercial gyms where everyone goes their own way, does their own thing in their own way, these private gatherings stress men training together. Training partners, following the same script, using the same exercise menu. This creates a vibe, a momentum as men and boys exerts harder when training with those whose opinions they value.

Resistance training is the method and barbells and dumbbells are the tools. From 1962 until 1965, I trained alone in the basement of my father’s home. My rapid progress magnetized other athletes. Within two years, fifteen boy lifters gathered twice weekly to train together, five boys on three different lifting platforms. all using the same methodologies, all in pursuit of the same goal: to become inhumanly strong and insanely muscled-up.

Our junior high school and high school training menu was extensive, whole-body workouts. Three separate plywood platforms were used, 4-5 lifters per platform was ideal for rotation. Everyone worked through clean and press, snatch, clean and jerk, squat, bench press, deadlift, curls,  dips, barbell rowing…sessions would last for two hours and there was a lot of show-off lifting – which is good for gains.

No one loafed or half-assed it, quite the opposite, this was by invite only…the top football and wrestling team alphas. Training as a group upped everyone’s game: men always lift better when they lift in front of other men, men whose opinion they value. As Camille wonderfully notes, “A man must become…masculinity is elusive…only confirmed by other men.” Exactly. The group dynamic lifts all boats.

Fast forward to 2023 and I have recreated the same 1967 “basement vibe.” Only now, instead of a basement, the 2023 alpha tribe gathers in an unheated building outback of a country home at the foot of the Catoctin mountains. This past Sunday I counted 19 lifters, all working through the same training menu on three different lifting platforms. Every attendee started with overhead press before segueing into squats, bench press, deadlift, and arm work. Some added supplemental power cleans and heavy dumbbell work. The session lasts from 9 am to 11 pm. Ages ranged from 14 to 73.

I noted the same predictable communal tribal vibe. A roomful of grown men stopped their training to watch and exhort a skinny 105 pound, 14 year old, in his fifth ever deadlift workout rep 135 for five perfect conventional reps, setting a new personal best. Later that same session we watched his 63 year old father deadlift 485 for 5 reps. The physiques were uniformly lean and muscled. Fantastic techniques were the norm, squats were deep and upright. No deadlifts were dropped, bench presses were arched and precise.

If on a top set someone was a attempting a PR, a personal record, the entire gym stopped, watched, and exhorted. It puts the young lifters on cloud nine to be watched by (to them) muscle giants. It is gratifying to see that the alpha tribe vibe, the rabid pursuit of radical physical transformation, still resonates.

At this particular alpha male tribal gathering, all the participants were regular people living regular lives. No star athletes, no genetic marvels, no superstars. The facility had zero creature comforts and zero variety. Barebones tools and barebones methods: barbells, dumbbells, kettlebells, period. This setting exemplified the oldest of Old School. Results keep everyone coming back for more. The alpha tribe exists in 2023, reiterating that most basic of progressive resistance facts: there is no school like Old School.  

Check out some of our posts on old school training and my journey from alpha boy to alpha man. 

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