Golden Era Chest Training Secrets

In the Footsteps of Legends - Part 3: Chest Training

Old-School Training Secrets of the Golden Era for a Large, Sculpted, and Symmetrical Chest

     This is the 3rd part of my on-going series on the training methods of the “golden era” legends from (mainly) the ‘70s as well as the ‘80s.  If you haven’t done so, I would suggest reading the first two parts before this one just so you will comprehend some of the information that has already been discussed to give you a better understanding of what follows.

     Golden era bodybuilders, for the most part, used high-volume workouts to build not just their chests but all of their muscle groups.  For their chests, in particular, they were fond of a combination of compound movements for heavy weights and (relatively) low reps coupled with isolation exercises for higher reps.  In the ‘70s, many of the old-school legends were fond of barbell movements combined with cable exercises and some dumbbell movements.  In the ‘80s, that began to shift slightly, with dumbbell exercises often taking the front and center over their barbell counterparts, but this wasn’t a “hard and fast” rule for either decade.

     Old-school lifters used a wide range of different programs for building their large, sculpted physiques.  When you see a workout that they utilized for the chest in this or other articles online, realize that it is just one of the many routines that they used.  I once saw an interview with Arnold where he talked about the way that Serge Nubret and Sergio Oliva trained their chests.  He said that Serge would only do the barbell bench press for 20 sets of 20 reps whereas Oliva would do 5 sets of flat barbell bench presses, 5 sets of incline presses, 5 sets of dumbbell flyes and so on.  But I can remember reading bodybuilding magazines in the ‘80s (when I first began training) and ‘90s where Nubret did 5 or 6 exercises for his chest and Sergio only did bench presses or did a workout consisting entirely of supersets of benches and wide-grip dips.  Who is correct?  Well, both of them.  Because golden era ‘builders didn’t just do one workout for their whole careers.  They often made changes based on areas of their chests that needed improvement or because their muscle growth stalled out and, thus, change was needed.

     As with our 2nd part of this series on shoulder training, we will first look at some of the favorite movements for chest training of our golden age counterparts and then we’ll look at some of the various chest workouts that different old-school bodybuilders utilized.

Flat Barbell Bench Presses

     While the flat barbell bench press is still a favorite of many a trainee throughout most gyms in America (or the world for that matter, I suppose), modern pro bodybuilders tend to favor machine exercises and the dumbbell version for building their (admittedly) massive chests.  But in the ‘70s the barbell bench press was still the preferred movement to begin their chest workouts with.  Arnold, Nubret, Oliva, Franco, Ferrigno, and almost every single one of the golden era superstars loved this exercise.  And I don’t think they are wrong.

     The movement away from the barbell bench press is because many bodybuilders, correctly so, in more recent years discovered that the exercise built up their front delts and triceps more than it did their chest.  If not done with the correct form, that is most certainly a possibility.  Genetic structure has something to do with it, as well.

     I always got great chest development from flat bench presses, though I lifted with training partners who didn’t.  I have very long arms and am “torso dominant” as I always had a large chest and back but struggled to develop my arms.  I’m sure that has something to do with it, but if modern-day lifters would do this movement the way our old-school luminaries did it, this might not be so.

     Golden era icons did the exercise with a wide grip and did not, by and large, lockout the press at the top.  Although this shortens the range of motion, it places greater emphasis on widening the chest as well as maintains constant tension on it.  And constant tension, as I mentioned in Part 2, was a (no pun intended—well, I guess not) constant of old-school bodybuilders for building all of their bodyparts.

     The final way to make the flat barbell bench press a good chest exercise, and this is another component of old-school training, is to lower the bar high on your chest, at the very least to the middle of your chest.  Vince Gironda was fond of bench presses to the neck, though it can be hard on those with poor shoulder flexibility or painful rotator cuffs.  But he swore by them, as did many others.  Bottom line: don’t lower it to the bottom of your chest.  That’s for powerlifters who are simply trying to move the most weight but not for the bodybuilder looking for well-developed pectorals.

Incline Barbell Bench Presses

     Golden age legends loved the incline version about as much as the flat bench.  They used the same wide grip and non-lockout technique on these, too.  In addition, there are two keys to making this a superior chest exercise and will really allow you to develop your upper chest.  First, don’t use too steep of an incline.  Instead of a 60 to 70 degree incline, use a 25 to 35 degree incline instead.  In fact, Mohammed Makkawy used only a 20-degree incline and actually called the movement the “20 degree bench press.”  Second, old-school ‘builders lowered the bar to their neck.  This is a common mistake that inexperienced lifters make.  Because they can use more weight on it, a lot of modern trainees lower the bar to the mid or even lower chest, but this doesn’t build a superior chest.  This is usually done in an attempt to move more weight, but leave your ego at the gym door, lower the bar to your neck, or at least relatively high on your chest, and build superior upper pectorals.

Pullovers

     Another forgotten exercise is the pullover.  Golden era bodybuilders believed this exercise was a must.  They thought it expanded the rib cage and, therefore, allowed for more muscle to be built “on top” of it.

     Some bodybuilders, such as Arnold, preferred a “cross bench” dumbbell version.  Others—Serge Nubret is a prime example—liked the barbell version while lying along the bench in the “normal” fashion.  Another option, with the barbell, was to combine the pullover with the press.  Whatever option you select—I advise rotating between all of them—they are a great addition to your chest workouts.  Oh, and they will also really work your lats and your triceps, making them particularly good for total upper body training.

Wide-Grip Dips

     (Recently, I wrote an entire article dedicated to dips and push-ups.  Check it out for even more information.)  This was another favorite of old-school bodybuilders.  They liked to use a really wide grip on them, just as with the bench presses, and flare out the elbows to accentuate the outer and lower pecs.

     Dips would sometimes be done “Gironda-style” with the grip “reversed” so that the palms face out and the fingers towards one another.  Vince Gironda, in fact, claimed it was the absolute best pectoral exercise on the planet because of its ability to build wide, flaring chests.  Not everyone has the wrist flexibility to do Gironda dips.  You can do them with a “conventional” grip by using a wide-grip—as wide as you are comfortable with—and flaring your elbows out as much as possible.  Try to imagine that you are attempting to touch your elbows in front of your body and you’ll be on the right track.

Dumbbell Flyes

     Golden era bodybuilders believe that, in order to develop the biggest and fullest chest imaginable, you must not just use pressing movements but that it was necessary to stretch the pecs.  When they did dumbbell flyes—incline, flat, or decline; all were used—they got a really deep stretch, much deeper than you see in most gyms these days.

     Arnold called his version of using them “constant tension dumbbell flyes.”  He preferred the flat version, but whatever version you use, his technique is still a good idea to put into action.  He didn’t believe in touching the dumbbells together at the top of the movement.  Instead, he stopped at the top of the rep once the dumbbells were 12 to 15 inches apart from one another, as soon as he felt the pressure coming off of his outer pecs.  At this point, he would immediately lower the dumbbells as deep as possible for an intense stretch.  His version really does work the outer pecs, so if you need more outer chest development, it’s a good method.

     When I was a teenager in the ‘80s, ESPN had a morning block of fitness shows.  Yes, if you’re young, you read that correctly.  Lee Haney’s was called the “Championship Workout” and it featured a lot of the top pro bodybuilders of the day back in the late ‘80s and into the early ‘90s.  Anyway, I remember Haney talking about dumbbell flyes and the need to really squeeze the pecs at the top of the movement.  If you’re not going to do them the “Arnold way” then this is the key to bringing the ‘bells together at the top of the rep.  You have to really concentrate on squeezing your inner pecs hard so that you don’t lose the tension.  I personally prefer to do them the way that Arnold suggested, but as with all movements, find the form that works best for you.

Dumbbell Bench Presses

     Although barbell bench versions were the most popular in the ‘70s, by the mid ‘80s, dumbbells had become preferred for benching.  Almost all of the ‘80s legends used dumbbell benches in their workouts.  Often, if they did a flat barbell bench, they would follow it up with an incline dumbbell bench, or vice versa.

     One of the reasons that dumbbells were preferred, and might work better for you to this day, is because of the deeper stretch that can be achieved with the dumbbells and the fact that they work both sides of the pecs equally.  If you only use barbells for your chest (or other muscles), your left or right pectoral might begin to take over the other.  Dumbbells take care of that.

Cable Crossovers

     Sometimes called pulley crossovers, the cable crossover was another staple of the golden era.  Often, especially in the ‘70s, this was the one cable movement that they used for their chests.  Arnold said that there was no need for this movement until you’ve built a large enough chest that it is needed.  And he’s correct.  This is not a mass-building movement.  It’s used to “etch” details into an already well-built muscle.

     Golden era icons did this movement a number of different ways.  They would do them standing for the most part but some old-school ‘builders liked to do them on their knees so that they could really concentrate on their chests.  Samir Bannout, the ‘83 Mr. Olympia, would do them standing for a reason.  He started off the exercise by doing them controlled and relatively slow.  As the set got harder, he would start to use his body momentum to continue with the rep.  By the end of the set, he would (quite literally) jump into the air in order to be able to complete the rep at the bottom.

     Regardless of whether you do them kneeling or standing, get a deep stretch at the top of the movement and try your best to really squeeze your pecs at the bottom of the rep.  Some old-school bodybuilders liked to cross one hand over the other and some liked to actually clasp their hands together, fingers interlaced, at the bottom of the rep.

     Sergio Oliva did them a bit differently.  He would bring his hands together almost in front of his face and make it more of an upper chest movement.  When done in the more “traditional” way, it’s primarily an outer/lower/inner chest developer.

     Although mostly this exercise was performed with the pulleys at the top of the attachment, some of the old-school bodybuilders—in order to work their upper chests in the manner of Oliva—set the pulley at the bottom attachment.  Paul Jean-Guillaume would step out slightly in front of the machine, grab the low handles, and pull them from behind his body.  He then brought his hands up over his face and crossed them at the top to isolate the upper pecs and, more specifically, the upper-inner chest, a hard-to-develop part of the pecs for most bodybuilders.

Cable Flyes

     The final old-school movement we’ll discuss is a combination of both of our previous exercises.  You can do these, as with the dumbbell flyes, with a flat, incline, or decline bench.  Vince Gironda was fond of doing these with a 30-degree decline.  Whatever one they decided to use, golden era bodybuilders would position the bench slightly in front of the cable crossover machine to allow the deepest stretch possible at the bottom of the movement.  If you decide to use this one, just position the bench far enough away from the machine so that you feel some tension at the start (the bottom) of each repetition.  As with the crossovers, this one is only needed once you have a well-developed chest.

The Workout Routines

     In the mid ‘90s, one-exercise-per-bodypart routines started to make a bit of a comeback.  I’ve written about this recently in other essays, but I think this was largely due to Charles Poliquin’s “German Volume Training” article in Muscle Media 2000.  It was considered a “new” and “revolutionary” program.  The problem was (and is) that it wasn’t anything new.  I had already written about it in the pages of Ironman and I got my information from Vince Gironda (who had been pushing it for decades) and Greg Zulak in his many articles for MuscleMag International.

     Old-school bodybuilders going back to the ‘60s were fond of it for off-season training.  They thought it built better overall mass (and strength) than the multi-exercise approach.  They liked both 8x8 and 10x10 training.  If you’re after more mass, I think it’s still the best route.  Do it on either barbell bench presses (flat or incline), dumbbell benches (also flat or incline), or wide-grip dips.

     Sergio Oliva, when he was preparing to win his first Mr. Olympia in 1967, did nothing but the flat barbell bench press for his chest training.  He would start with 135 pounds for a set of 10 reps, then go to 225 for a set of 5, 315 for another set of 5, followed by 350 and 375 for triples, and then singles with 400 pounds.  Once he was done with his last single, he would then go back “down the plates” by dropping the weight by 20 pounds on each set and doing as many reps as he could on every set.  He would work his way all the way back down to 135.  By the time his chest workout was finished, his entire pectoral muscles were completely flushed and pumped.  He needed nothing else.

     The 2nd most popular old-school off-season program was to do 2 exercises per muscle group.  Often, the 1st movement would be with heavy weights and lower reps and the 2nd movement would be for higher reps with a lighter weight.  Sometimes, it would be 2 compound lifts and other times the 1st exercise would be a compound lift and the 2nd would be an isolation exercise.  Other times, they would superset both movements.  Oliva, after the ‘67 Olympia, was fond of supersetting barbell benches with wide-grip dips.  Serge Nubret would superset 20 reps of flat barbell presses with 20 reps of cable crossovers.

     By and large, however, by the ‘70s, most bodybuilders used multi-exercise routines.  What follows are several different programs from the legends of the ‘70s and ‘80s.

Bertil Fox’s Brutal Chest Builder

Flat barbell bench presses: 5x4-6

Flat dumbbell bench presses: 5x6-8

Incline barbell presses: 5x6-8

Superset:

   Wide-grip dips: 5x8-10

   Flat dumbbell flyes: 5x6-8

Samir Bannout’s High-Volume Chest Blaster

Flat barbell bench presses: 6x10-8 (progressively heavier sets)

Incline barbell presses: 6x12-8 (progressively heavier sets)

Flat dumbbell flyes: 4x8-15 (drop weights on successive sets)

Cross-bench dumbbell pullovers: 4x8-15

Wide-grip dips: 4x8-15

Franco Columbu’s Mass and Power Program

Flat barbell bench presses: 7x15,8,8,8,6,4,2 (progressively heavier sets)

Incline barbell presses: 6x8

Superset:

   Flat dumbbell flyes: 4x8

   Wide-grip dips: 4x8

Lee Haney’s Totalee-Awesome Chest Builder

Flat barbell bench presses: 5x12-5 (pyramid sets)

Incline dumbbell bench presses: 4x12-6 (pyramid sets)

Flat dumbbell flyes: 3x8-10

Cross-bench dumbbell pullovers: 3x10-12

Arnold’s Size and Symmetry Chest Workout

Incline barbell presses: 8x8-12

Flat barbell bench presses: 6x8-10

Flat dumbbell flyes: 6x8-10

Cross-bench dumbbell pullovers: 5x10-12

Cable crossovers: 5x12-15

Surge Nubret’s Chase-the-Pump Chest Sculpter

Flat barbell bench presses: 8x12

Flat dumbbell flyes: 6x12

Incline barbell presses: 6x12

Incline dumbbell flyes: 6x12

Barbell pullovers: 6x12

     As I wrote in our 2nd part of this series, keep in mind that the programs above are just examples.  The workouts listed for each of the above luminaries are just one of the workouts they would have used for their chests.  Also, just because it worked for them does NOT mean that it will work for you.  In order to use the amount of volume they used, you need to build up the work capacity to handle it, unless, of course, you’re on anabolics.

     If you want to try one of the above programs, start by using less sets on each of the exercises.  Begin by doing only 2 or 3 sets on each movement for a couple of weeks.  Once you’ve adapted, add another set or 2 for another couple of weeks.  At that point, after a month of steady training, you can try the complete program for another 4 weeks.  And at that point, the program will probably have “run its course.”  Go to a less voluminous and different program and start the whole process over again.

     Here are some suggestions for training splits no matter the program that you elect to utilize:

3-On, 1-Off

Day 1: chest, shoulders, triceps

Day 2: legs

Day 3: back and biceps

Day 4: off

4-On, 1-Off

Day 1: chest and shoulders

Day 2: back

Day 3: legs

Day 4: arms

Day 5: off

2-On, 1-Off, 1-On, 1-Off

Day 1: chest and back

Day 2: legs

Day 3: off

Day 4: shoulders and arms

Day 5: off

     Whatever training template you select, feel free to take an extra day off whenever you feel as if you need it.  On the flip side of that, you can always train an extra day if you feel good and you know that you’ve recovered enough for another session.  On the last split example above, for instance, you might find that, some weeks, you don’t need the 3rd day off.  In that case, just train again on day 3 and then take an off day.  Conversely, you might follow the 3-on, 1-off routine, and, when you feel particularly tired, take 2 days off after the 3rd workout.  In fact, some lifters do great on a consistent 3-on, 2-off regimen.

     Another option, and I admit to preferring this one for myself and lifters I work with, is to train more frequently but rotate between “heavy” and “light” sessions.  You should think of the light workouts more as “active recovery” sessions.  You could train with a push/legs/pull split but train 6-on, 1-off.  The 1st 3 days are your “heavy” workouts and the last 3 are your active recovery ones.

     Let’s say that you want to follow Bertil Fox’s workout, a program might work something such as this.  Train 6-on, 1-off, in the manner I just suggested.  For the 1st 2 weeks, do only 2 sets of each movement, even on the heavy day.  At the 2nd workout of the week, do 2 sets, as well, but drop the poundages you used from the heavy day by 50 to 60%.  So, if you did 2 sets of 4-6 reps on barbell benches with 225 pounds on your heavy day, you would only use 135 on the light day.  Don’t increase the sets or the reps on the active recovery day, either.  Just do the 2x4-6.  For the next 2 weeks, increase your sets to 3 on each movement and follow the same template.  For the final 4 weeks, do the program as written for your heavy days and your light days, but still drop the weights on your light days to the 50-60% range on every single exercise.  After 8 weeks, if you want to still train in the same manner, you can do so but just run a different program.

The Sum of It

     As I was working on this article, I received an email from a reader with a question that I have received before.  He read the first 2 parts of this series, and he was now unsure of how to train.  He said that he’d been following my more “typical” workout recommendations for strength and power that revolve around multiple sets of low reps.  But now it seems as if I’m recommending something completely different.  I am not.  As I wrote in the first part of this series, this kind of training is strictly for building muscle using golden era principles.  It’s not the only way to train, and it’s certainly not what I suggest for anyone seeking just strength and power.  I recommended that he still train with what he is currently doing and if, down the road, he has built enough strength and muscle mass, he could give some of the recommendations in this series a go.  This series is only meant for bodybuilders or for those who are looking for a break from strength and power training for a brief period.

     There are many different methods and programs that are fantastic for making great gains.  If you are looking for more mass or if you already have some muscle but need to add some shape and symmetry to your physique, don’t forget the wisdom of our golden era forefathers.  As long as you have built up the work capacity to handle it, their methods, workouts, routines, and techniques are still as good as ever.

     I hope you liked this essay.  If you did, and you would like to support my work, please consider purchasing one of my books.  You can find out more information about all of them at the My Books page of the blog.  If you really liked this essay, you will enjoy my upcoming book on old-school muscle-building methods from the golden and the silver eras.  I will have more information on it soon.

     Of course, and as always, if you have any comments or questions, please leave them in the “comments” section below.  You can also email me if you prefer more private correspondence.  I usually answer my emails within a couple days of you sending them.