Skip to main content

Old Time Mass Tactics: Power/Pump Training


     The debate we often see nowadays over whether you should do "power" workouts or "pump" workouts really wasn't much of a debate for the old-timers.  Most of the "classic bodybuilders" built their physiques through hard work on the basic exercises, using full-body workouts for 3 days each week.  As they reached advanced levels, they didn't give up their power training; they just learned to "supplement" the power work with pump training—or "flushing" as the old-timers often called it.  (I believe it was the term used by Larry Scott and Freddy Ortiz—whose physiques, as you can tell from above, obviously benefited from such training.)
     This kind of training is pretty simple.  First, just pick one basic exercise for whatever muscle group(s) you are going to train for the day.  After working up to some heavy sets of 5, or 3, or even less reps, rest a few minutes, then pick a couple of light, pumping exercises.
     Using the chest as an example, here's what a workout might look like:
Bench Presses: 6 sets of 10, 8, 6, 6, 4, and 4 reps.  Use an ascending set scheme.  Add weight and reduce repetitions with each set.  Take plenty of rest between each set; 2 to 3 minutes would probably be best.
Incline Flyes: 4 sets of 15 to 20 reps.  Use the same weight on these sets.  Take minimum rest between each set.
Wide-Grip Dips: 4 sets of 15 to 20 reps.
     A similar program can, obviously, be used for all of your other bodyparts.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Marvin Eder’s Mass-Building Methods

  The Many and Varied Mass-Building Methods of Power Bodybuilding’s G.O.A.T. Eder as he appeared in my article "Full Body Workouts" for IronMan  magazine.      In many ways, the essay you are now reading is the one that has had the “longest time coming.”  I have no clue why it has taken me this long to write an article specifically on Marvin Eder, especially considering the fact that I have long considered him the greatest bodybuilder cum strength athlete of all friggin’ time .  In fact, over 20 years ago, I wrote this in the pages of IronMan magazine: In my opinion, the greatest all-around bodybuilder, powerlifter and strength athlete ever to walk the planet, Eder had 19-inch arms at a bodyweight of 198. He could bench 510, squat 550 for 10 reps and do a barbell press with 365. He was reported to have achieved the amazing feat of cranking out 1,000 dips in only 17 minutes. Imagine doing a dip a second for 17 minutes. As Gene Mozee once put ...

More With Less

The Magic of High-Volume but Minimalistic Training      As I have pointed out more often than I can count, there are many ways and multiple paths to achieve your physical goals, whether it’s strength, power, more muscle mass, less bodyfat, or a combination of several of those goals all at once.  The key to achieving your goals, whatever they may be, lies in the proper balance of volume, frequency, and intensity, but some training plans are decidedly better than others, depending on your genetics, training history, and whatnot.  In my last essay on balance, I briefly mentioned that if I absolutely had to select one training methodology over anything else, it would be the “sub-maximal effort” method.  With strength and power roots in Eastern European countries, mostly countries from the former Soviet-bloc, this method basically involves doing multiple sets of low reps with weights that are not quite maximal—hence the name.  Almost completely ...

Integral Bodybuilding, Part One

  A.K.A: Kenji in the Twilight My dogs Kiko and Kenji (left to right).  The reason for their picture at the start of this essay will make sense shortly. Conversations on Integral Bodybuilding Part One: A Somewhat Rambling Introduction to Integral Hypertrophy Training      I was tired.  I had spent the last hour cutting grass, running my weed eater, planting Asian lilies, and watering my gardens.  I was hot and sweaty, too.  If I still drank, I would have popped open a cold beer—porters and stouts were always my favorite—but I haven’t touched a drop of alcohol in over a year.  I have a disease that robbed me of that particular joy, so I settled on a bottle of refrigerated mineral water.  It was refreshing, and what my body needed, anyway.      The sun was setting.  Twilight was upon the land.  The last vestiges of orange sunlight slipped through the canopy of trees at the edge of the rolling hi...