Several fitness pioneers, such as Jack LaLanne, Joe Weider, and Arnold Schwarzenegger, have become household names. Another is Arthur Jones, the founder and creator of Nautilus machines and the godfather of High-Intensity Training (or Hi-Intensity Training, as Jones preferred). 

Many bodybuilding champions traveled far to learn the benefits of Nautilus and HIT first-hand from Jones. Canadian high school football player and bodybuilder John Robert Cardillo traveled 26 hours for such an opportunity. His miles were rewarded with two workouts. 

Cardillo told BarBend that his training partner, Dan O’Brien, “was so excited about meeting Jones that he drove from Niagara Falls to Deland, Florida, in 26 hours straight without a break.” 

Images provided by John Robert Cardillo.

Cardillo and O’Brien met Jones at Nautilus headquarters in Deland, FL. Jones rewarded him with an intense leg workout that pushed Cardillo to his limits. Jones invited Cardillo to return three days later for an upper body session. 

Before that session, the duo shared a unique warm-up — unloading a truck of machines because one of Jones’s employees did not show up that day. They spent five hours unloading, which Cardillo saw as an opportunity. 

It allowed me to show Jones I was not afraid of hard work. 

Once the task was completed, it was time to train. The session began with what many consider the most famous piece of Nautilus equipment, the Pullover machine. Unlike the dumbbell pullover, this machine provided 270 degrees of movement. Jones told Cardillo why Jones was so fond of it while showing Cardillo how it worked. 

“This is the best upper body exercise you will ever do,” said Jones. “I call it the upper body squat because it works every muscle in the upper body, similarly to how squats work the complete lower body.” 

Cardillo secured himself into the seat and began his second training session that week. He thought he reached failure at 12 reps, but Jones screamed for more. After three assisted reps, it was on to the second exercise, a lat pulldown connected to the same machine.

Images provided by John Robert Cardillo.

“When I reached failure, Jones pulled my arms out of the machine’s pads, grabbed my wrists, and made me reach up to grab a bar overhead, in front of me, and instructed me to start doing front pulldowns to my chest,” remembered Cardillo.

As Cardillo’s lats fatigued and burned, he learned another of Jones’s principles first-hand. “That is pre-exhaustion,” Jones said. Cardillo reported completing 15 reps, 10 on his own and five with Jones’s encouragement and spotting. 

How Pre-Exhaustion Works 

When Cardillo performed the pullover, his lats worked without assistance from his arms. His grip wasn’t needed, his biceps minimally involved. This isolation movement “pre-exhausted” the lats before transitioning to the pulldowns, a multi-joint movement where the grip and arms are more involved. They supported the lats to handle more volume during the second exercise. 

As hard as those two movements were, Cardillo’s back workout was far from finished. He still had two versions of behind-the-neck pulldowns to complete. One involved Cardillo’s arms pushing down on rollers to minimize grip. 

I performed the reps by driving my elbows to my sides, I felt my whole back contract.

This was followed by another version with a bar. Again, the two movements were connected on the same machine. Jones assisted Cardillo beyond failure. 

“After performing eight or nine reps, Jones helped me do a few more positive reps while forcing me to slow down the release of the bar from the base of my neck to a count of 10, doing negative repetitions. After five negative reps, my back had nothing left.” 

This same philosophy applied to all other upper body movements, most performed on dual-purpose Nautilus machines. The isolation exercise was first followed by the multi-joint movement. The chest station included a flye with hands-free pads and a decline chest press.

Images provided by John Robert Cardillo.

“I could feel my chest screaming in pain,” shared Cardillo. “My triceps were still fresh; therefore, I could push out the reps while my chest muscles directly experienced total annihilation.” 

As with the leg workout he had previously completed, Cardillo’s only rest was transitioning from one exercise or station to the next. Following the chest work, it was onto the shoulders.

“We started with rear deltoids on the Nautilus Rear Deltoid Rowing machine. Once I reached failure, Jones rushed me to the Nautilus Double Shoulder machine, which had two exercises: a side lateral followed immediately by a shoulder press attachment,” recounted Cardillo.

Arm training consisted of one biceps exercise followed by two triceps exercises. The Nautilus Curl machine movement was like doing a Scott Curl with the upper arm braced against pads. Only one set with Jones assisting forced reps was needed to exhaust Cardillo’s biceps thoroughly.

I couldn’t believe one set of curls from this machine could do that to my biceps.”

The last portion was a triceps superset, starting with an extension machine that allowed Cardillo to contract the triceps without a grip. Once he found his limit, Jones rushed him to the Nautilus Dip machine to perform dips to failure. He managed six reps, and Jones was satisfied with the effort. 

“He said that was as close to a perfect workout as I could possibly have performed with the strength and endurance level that I had,” shared Cardillo. “More exercise beyond this for those body parts would be counterproductive.” 

Jones instructed Cardillo to rest and ensure he recovered to the best of his ability because recuperation was the key to making strength and muscular gains. 

John Robert Cardillo’s Workout by Arthur Jones

The summary of Cardillo’s upper body pre-exhaustion session is below. The reps listed were what Cardillo performed before reaching failure, including negatives, with assistance from Jones:

Pullover Machine – 15 total reps 

Wide-Grip Lat Pulldown – 15 total reps 

Hands-Free Behind-the-Neck Pulldown – 13 total reps 

Wide-Grip Lat Pulldown – 15 total reps 

Chest Flye – 14 total reps 

Decline Chest Press Machine – 11 total reps 

Rear Deltoid Row Machine – 15 total reps 

Lateral Raise Machine – 12 total reps 

Shoulder Press Machine – 11 total reps 

Biceps Curl Machine –15 total reps 

Triceps Extension Machine – 15 total reps 

Nautilus Dip Machine – Six total reps 

Cardillo credited the Nautilus machines and Jones’s methods for the intensity and effectiveness of the workouts. Machines of that type are not seen in gyms nowadays, and many companies have since shifted to single-movement versions.

“Mr. High Intensity” believes machines like the Nautilus versions he trained with would benefit fitness-minded people. 

“It was obvious to me that the key to Nautilus machines involved the full movement and the perfect muscle contraction they provided,” said Cardillo. “The dual compound machines created a true pre-exhaustion method of working a muscle to the max.” 

Cardillo has since created his own approach and style of HIT, which he used to help train many people in his gyms throughout Canada and via his coaching services.

Featured images provided by John Robert Cardillo.

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