Vince, I found a torn page of an article by you in an old magazine entitled Muscle Builder/Power.

The magazine had Dave draper, Frank Zane, Larry Scott, Bill McArdle and Don Howorth in it.

I couldn’t make out what you were writing but I recall seeing the word “overtonis”.

I can’t find any reference to this term anywhere in magazines, books or even medical dictionaries. Can you enlighten me about overtonis Vince?

Is this some kind of conspiracy or what? Overtonis is my word for a condition caused by too many sets, too many exercise combinations, in short, overwork.

This causes tissue loss, hormone depletion, weakness and general lassitude, inability to produce a pumping effect and a smoothed out, stringy appearance.

My use of the word overtonis has caused people to criticize me for years. Just as my negative views on situps, squats, bench presses and running have…if you overtrain then the body causes the central nervous system to cease pumping blood into the capillaries. Overtonis causes pump loss.

When you overtrain you just can’t drum up a pump.

I suggest that bodybuilders keep their training hard but brief. A workout should not take longer than 45 minutes. It must be intense with only brief rests between sets. I thought I had put the term overtonis to bed!