Lift Big, Eat Big, Rest Big, Grow Big

An Old-School Powerbuilding Regimen from the Golden Age Powerlifter Hugh Cassidy

     The other day, a reader suggested that I write an article on Hugh Cassidy, a legendary powerlifter from the ‘70s.  It reminded me of something I had forgotten.  A few years ago, I had made some notes on Cassidy, with the intent of turning those notes into an article.  After reading the comment, I scoured through several notebooks filled with various ideas—I probably have a dozen or so notebooks crammed full of my thoughts for articles—until I found the page of scribblings I had made on Cassidy.  After reading over what I had written in ‘23, I have no idea why I didn’t write an essay on Cassidy back then.  Perhaps it was too similar to other articles I had written at that time. Usually, when I let something fall to the wayside, that’s a possible reason.  Sometimes, I simply lose interest in an article.  Oh, well.  After reading over my notes again a couple of times, it renewed my creative vigor to finally put pen to paper for what you are now reading.

     Hugh Cassidy was an incredibly interesting man.  He has unfortunately been largely forgotten by modern lifters, if they even know anything about him at all, or have ever heard of him to begin with.  The strength coach Marty Gallagher once quipped that he was a riddle wrapped in an enigma tucked inside of a paradox.  His actual words (but obviously borrowed from Churchill’s famous quote on Russia).  Cassidy was, in addition to being one-time world champion powerlifter, an artist and musician of the highest degree.  For the sake of brevity, we’ll stick with his power training here, but Gallagher wrote that Hugh was the most artistically creative athlete that he had ever met, so I encourage anyone interested in learning more about him to do some of your own research.

     Cassidy came to prominence worldwide by winning the first World Powerlifting Championships in ‘71, besting the likes of “Big” Jim Williams and the equally legendary (perhaps more so) John Kuc.  Due to a severe knee injury, he had to retire from competition the next year, though he went on to coach a number of high-profile powerlifters, Gallagher included.

Cassidy on the platform, between Williams and Kuc, at the World Championships.  Williams and Kuc would go on to become legends.  Cassidy has been mostly forgotten.

Minimal Movements, Maximum Intensity

     Cassidy’s training regimens were no-frills.  Big movements, minimal assistance exercises, minimal training days, and maximum intensity were their hallmarks.  His training was, essentially, indicative of the approach taken by the other powerlifters of his era, the aforementioned Kuc included.  Modern lifters could learn a thing or two, and if you are looking for a good method that is, nowadays, termed “powerbuilding,” Cassidy’s methods might be worth trying out for a training cycle or two of your own.

     First, I will outline Cassidy’s program, then I will explain some of the “methods behind the madness.”  After that, I will give you some options for how you might cater it to your particular needs and body type.

     Cassidy trained 2 days per week, Saturday and Tuesday.  Obviously, you can train on any 2 non-consecutive days that you want, Monday and Thursday for example.  I have a feeling that Cassidy selected Saturday because most of his lifters were hard-working men with regular 9 to 5 jobs.  Saturday was their most “free” day, then they could handle making it to the gym one other day during the week.  When training 2 days per week, I always liked Sundays and Wednesday.  On Sundays, the only other thing I did was go to Church, and then training on Wednesday in the middle of the work week gave me something to look forward to.  Whatever days you might select, here is the 2-days-per-week training program:

• Squats: 1st 4 weeks - work up to 1 all-out set of 8 reps; 3 back-off sets of 10 reps. 2nd 4 weeks - work up to 1 all-out set of 5 reps; 3 back-off sets of 10 reps. 3rd 4 weeks - work up to 1 all-out set of 3 reps; 3 back-off sets of 10 reps

• Bench presses: same as the squats

• Deadlifts: same as the squats and bench presses

• High pulls: 3 to 4 sets of 6-8 explosive reps

• Biceps work: 3 to 4 sets of 6-8 reps

• Triceps work: 3 to 4 sets of 6-8 reps

     This is, obviously, a 12-week cycle, starting 12 weeks before a meet.  On the last week, you would omit the Tuesday session, and go for a single-rep max on the Saturday meet day, which might be the main reason that Cassidy selected Saturday as the 1st training day of the week.

     Essentially, Cassidy was utilizing what we now call “ramps.”  On the 8-rep days, start with 8 reps on your 1st set and stick with that as you progress. For the 5-rep days, he would do one set of 8 reps to start the session, then 5s all the way up for the remainder of the sets.  On the 3-rep days, he would start with 1 set of 8 reps, followed by ramps of 5 reps.  Once the 5-rep sets got hard, but not once they were all-out, he would then switch over to the triples.  One of the beauties of this approach is that, as you train heavier, your total workload decreases simultaneously, allowing you to better recover from the sessions as meet day approaches.

     Cassidy called his manner of doing high pulls “heaves.”  He wanted his lifters to use a really heavy weight where they had to “heave” it as explosively as possible at the top, using as much momentum as needed.  The biceps and triceps work were, usually, barbell curls and triceps pushdowns, though you can use whatever exercises you wish.

Eat Your Way Past Your Sticking Points

     Cassidy was old-school in more than just his long, arduous, ultra-intense training sessions.  He believed in the same kind of old-school eating methods espoused by the lifters that came before him.  He ate sandwiches every couple of hours and drank around a gallon of milk (or more) every day.  One time, he showed up at a powerlifting meet as a spectator.  With him, he carried a dozen sandwiches and a gallon of milk.  He ate all of the sandwiches and drank the gallon of milk before the meet came to a close.  When home, he made his own homemade protein “get-big drink” consisting of a couple raw eggs, a packet of “instant breakfast,” 2 cups of powdered milk, and “regular” skim milk.  He’d sip on it throughout the day.

     When Gallagher trained under Cassidy and complained to his coach about how tired he was at a session, Hugh would tell him to “eat his way through sticking points!”  Gallagher explained it this way: “If the poundage was feeling heavy on Saturday weighing 216, push your bodyweight to 220 by Tuesday and make those weights seem light. This was a man-killer approach: train till you begin hallucinating, eat tons of food, drink four quarts or more of milk daily then rest until the 2nd weekly slaughter fest. This approach worked wonders for aggressive young men intent on becoming massively muscled competitive powerlifters.”

Adapting Cassidy’s Methods for You

     First off, Cassidy’s methods—or the possible alterations I will recommend—are not for outright beginners.  At the minimum, you should have 6 months of power training under your lifting belt before you attempt these workouts.  Also, those should be 6 good training months.  If you’ve been training for 6 months but have yet to make any noticeable, appreciable gains, then get on a full-body program using less movements and/or less total sets.  A good example program would be to train 2 days per week but do only 3 to 4 sets of squats, bench presses, and deadlifts, leaving a little bit “in the tank” at the end of a set instead of training in the all-out, Cassidy manner.

     Even if you are advanced enough, you might still want to do a “break in” workout before you start this program.  You could do the above workout but start off by omitting the back-off sets.  In fact, it might be a good idea to run the program for 12 weeks without the back-off sets, then run it another 12 weeks and add the back-off sets.

     You could also run the program but alternate between heavy and light workouts.  On the 1st training day of the week, do the program as written.  On the 2nd “light” day, work up to about 80% of the weights used on the heavy day.  On the back-off sets, use 80% of what you used on the heavy day, as well.

     Another option is to simply do a different workout on the 2nd training day.  You could select some “same but different” movements.  Do front squats instead of back squats, overhead presses in place of bench presses, and power cleans instead of deadlifts.

     A 3rd option is to do speed work on the 2nd training day.  Use 60-70% of your one-rep max on your lifts and do 6-10 sets of 2-3 reps, moving the bar as fast as possible.  If you need more information on “dynamic effort” training, click on THIS link for an article dedicated to the subject.

     Over 20 years ago, when I was a competitive powerlifter, I would have probably tried all of the above for a few training cycles.  I would have run the program “as is” but omit the back-off sets at the 1st 12-week cycle.  For the 2nd 12 weeks, I would have run it using the heavy-light method, back-off sets included, however.  In the 3rd 12-week cycle, I would have run it with the 2nd day a “speed” session.  While I didn’t have success with the “traditional” Westside barbell cycle—dynamic effort on one day, multiple max-effort movements on the 2nd—I had good success using a “modified Westside,” where one day was dynamic effort the same as Westside’s template, but the 2nd day was a more “standard” powerlifting workout, something similar to what Cassidy’s program looks like.  And, if I had success with those, I would have run another 12-week cycle, using a heavy-light system again, but in this cycle I would let the exercise selection itself dictate whether it was “heavy” or “light.”  In other words, if you did the workout the way it is written on the 1st day, and if, on the the 2nd session, you did front squats, military presses, and power cleans—but used the exact same sets and reps—the exercise selection would make the 2nd day “light” since your workload will naturally drop below 80% of what is utilized at the 1st session.  If you can bench press 225 pounds for 5 reps, for example, you would not be capable of overhead pressing that same weight in the 2nd workout.  If you’re counting, that would have been a year of solid workouts.  However, I probably would have thrown in a couple of “de-load” weeks in between each 12-week cycle, which means it would have ended up being 1 year and 6 weeks or so.  Overall, whether it’s Cassidy’s system or another one, that’s a good approach.  It’s an example of how you utilize a training template.  The “template” stays the same, but it has variety naturally built into it.  If there’s a master key to consistent gains, it’s exactly that approach.

     Yet another option—it may be one that you’ve already thought about—is to split the workout into 2 sessions and train 4 days per week.  You could do the squats and deadlifts (along with the high pulls) on the 1st day and the bench presses and arm work on the 2nd.  And, while I think this is perfectly viable, especially for strength, if your goal is to gain mass, I think doing it as one workout is better.  There is just something “anabolic” about training your entire body in one session.  I can guarantee you that Cassidy would have told you the same thing.  If Cassidy believed he and his lifters would have gotten better results by following a split program, then that’s exactly what they would have done.

     If you’re after mass and bulk, train like a madman 2 days per week, eat as much food as possible, and take it easy as you can on your off days.  Do that and you will get not only stronger, but much bigger.  This approach is as old-school as they come. But, as I’ve written before, old-school is still the best and always will be.

Sources

“Hugh Cassidy, Iron Master,” by Marty Gallagher, from functional-strength.org