Build Massive Arms with the Secrets of Classic Bodybuilders and Old-Time Strongmen
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| The most famous of all "classical bodybuilders," Arnold Schwarzenegger (sometime in early '70s.) |
I was perusing through my attic the other morning where I keep boxes and boxes (and boxes!) (much to my girlfriend's chagrin when she attempts to find something in our attic) of old bodybuilding magazines, various martial arts publications, and - the more rare - powerlifting and strength sports magazines. I have, for instance, a box made up almost entirely of old Milo magazines. And this is the box I was looking for when I came upon something entirely different: an article by Vince Gironda in a bodybuilding magazine from the '70s where he outlines his very unique 8x8 program. I don't want to give anything away just yet - we'll get to Gironda's ideas for this style of training shortly - but the whole thing did get me thinking. I wondered what other arm training - and just muscle-building and strength-developing in general - "secrets" of the "old-school" trainers and lifters might be of use to the modern bodybuilder? Hence, this article. I will present to you a few different methods used by not just classical bodybuilders but also old-school strongmen (and strongwomen too - Abbye Stockton, for instance) and strength athletes from the turn of the 20th century, some of them even before the turn of the century, in the late 1800s. Some of these I may have written about before, but this will be the first article - or at least my latest, for I have been writing for muscle magazines since the early '90s, after all, and have done similar articles to this in the past- that includes all of these workout ideas/tips/tricks in one place.
One word of note before we really get started here: I have chosen "arm training" in order to attempt to keep the article more concise. If I was to do it on overall mass-building, strength-generating methods then I'm afraid that it might just be too dang long, and I'm not attempting to write a magnum opus. It helps to keep the article a little more concise simply because you can't do all of the training systems and techniques the "old-timers" utilized, because not everything works for arms as it does with heavy overhead pressing, or with leg training, back training, etc. Also, arm training is sometimes the best "avenue" for someone new (to many of the styles of training presented here) to handle the increase in training volume and frequency. Lastly, and this might seem slightly odd, but the other reason I chose arm training is because most of your real old-timers (from around 100 years ago) didn't even discuss direct arm training, which means there is less material that I feel as if I must include compared to if this was a deadlift specialization article, for instance, where there would be an absolute plethora of material from each era of old-school lifters and 'builders. With that out of the way...
If you like old-school training, I hope you enjoy!
Early Strongman-Style Training
"Train for size, and shape will follow." ~old-time strongman Sigmund Klein
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| Sigmund Klein was a strongman and bodybuilder from the '20s and '30s who wrote regularly for Weider's and Hoffman's magazines. |
In the first few decades of the 20th century, strongmen performances - and the strongmen that performed them - were very popular in most parts of the world, especially Europe, Russia, and the Americas. In fact, strongman shows and competitions were more popular than they are today, despite the fact that it was much harder to get information 100 years ago compared with our easy-access internet age. For the strongmen, it was important that they devised the best training methods they could, because it wasn't a hobby, it was their livelihood. I point this out because I don't want you to think that they were "naive" about training methodology, or that they weren't as "advanced" as we are today. In fact, that couldn't be the furthest thing from the truth! They experimented with varying methods and programs until they found what worked, and they often made the same discoveries independent of one another, across continents where the readily exchange of information simply wasn't possible between athletes. I also point this out because now that 100 years has passed - give or take a decade or two depending on the strongman - many current strongmen, Crossfit athletes, and recreational lifters are using many of the old-time methods that were used back then, and many often think they have discovered a "new" way of training. But there really is nothing new under the lifting sun.
For this early era of strongmen, basically two different types of training were employed by almost all strength athletes. There was the "practice" style of lifting utilized most notably by Arthur Saxon and George Hackenschmidt. And there was the more "intense" style of volume-oriented training used by Herman Goerner and others. Within these two "camps", I would also add that there were some "sub-camps" of training methodology; this article isn't the place to go into that detail, other than a minor difference in the "practice" style among the strongmen, which we will get to shortly because it can be beneficial when it comes to arm training.
"If a man seriously proposes to lift heavy weights, he should make a point of practicing certain lifts every day... daily practice is essential to the achievement of any real success." ~Arthur Saxon
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| Arthur Saxon believed in treating weight training more as a "practice" session than a "hard" workout. |
The early strongmen trained very frequently. Saxon and the Estonian-born "Russian Lion" George Hackenschmidt - as mentioned - were the two most famous proponents of the "practice" form of training. If you have read any articles on "grease-the-groove" training - a style of training that I have often espoused, and that Eastern European lifters still use to great success today, then you have an idea of this training. For arms, you should use this method by training 5 to 6 days per week, taking only one or two days off, and those shouldn't necessarily be planned.
Practice is exactly what it sound like: you "practice" the lifts you are using for your arms on a daily, or near-daily, basis.
As mentioned, there were two primary "ways" that this practice form of training was utilized. The first way focused on just two to three exercises, and training those few exercises each and every day, for months and often years on end, knowing that those movements would translate to other lifts when the strength was needed. This is the reason today a lot of powerlifters have come to utilize it. It's an excellent way to build strength and power on just three lifts. For arms, you could do this one of two ways. You could do two to three lifts for the entirety of your upper arm, or, for the more advanced, you could do two to three lifts for your biceps and two to three for your triceps. Either way, your methodology will be the same. Pick two or three lifts. Train 5 to 6 days per week. For each exercise, perform multiple sets of low reps (my personal recommendation is no more than 5 reps, but some of you will do better with slightly more). Once you feel even a little "fatigued" or "slow," then, at that point, stop. This is a very intuitive way to train, sure, but it's still a great way for any beginner to train so long as one pays attention to his/her body with some degree of attention. It teaches the new lifter to recruit more muscle fibers in a much faster manner than more infrequent training regimens.
To give you an example of a beginning program, you would do the following workout 5 to 6 days per week:
- Barbell Curls: 5 to 7 sets of 3 to 5 reps
- Parallel Bar Dips: 5 to 7 sets of 3 to 5 reps
- Standing Dumbbell Curls: 5 to 7 sets of 3 to 5 reps
Before you start crying foul that there's no way in hell that is a beginning program, keep in mind: this is training as practice. No sets are anywhere close to failure. You don't worry about having a "hard" session. If you feel fatigued after 3 or 4 days of training, then that's when you should take a day off. When I use this method, I like to train Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday, taking off on Thursdays and Sundays. In other words, train 3 on, one off; then 2 on, one off; repeat.
If you want more work, then try the following workout where you use 2 exercises for biceps, and 2 for tris:
- Barbell Curls: 5 to 7 sets of 3 to 5 reps
- Barbell Lying Extensions ("Skull Crushers" or "Nose Busters"): 5 to 7 sets of 3 to 5 reps
- Preacher Curls: 5 to 7 sets of 3 to 5 reps
- Parallel Bar Dips: 5 to 7 sets of 3 to 5 reps
If you want even more work - and unlike a lot of modern lifters and trainers (especially trainers), I tend to think, on average, that more is better - then try the following:
- Barbell Curls: 5 to 7 sets of 3 to 5 reps
- Barbell Lying Extensions: 5 to 7 sets of 3 to 5 reps
- E-Z Bar Curls: 5 to 7 sets of 3 to 5 reps
- Parallel Bar Dips: 5 to 7 sets of 3 to 5 reps
- Alternate Dumbbell Curls: 5 to 7 sets of 3 to 5 reps (each arm)
- Close-grip Barbell Bench Presses: 5 to 7 sets of 3 to 5 reps
The second "way" that the practice form of training was utilized was by incorporating around 20 different exercises, rotating through them by picking a different exercise (or 2 to 3) every day, and never repeating the same workout for many days on end. (Keep in mind something else that I think needs mention: when I write about these two "ways," it's not as if they were seperate schools of lifting where the strongman only did one form of training depending on what school he belonged to. That's not the case. For many of them, they often seemed to use an amalgam of the two.)
In recent years, the modern strongman and strength-endurance athlete Steve Justa used just this technique himself to build world-record strength. Writing about this method, he said, "In this way, the strength from one lift flows into the other lifts a little at a time, and you never get bored because you are always doing something different... the professional lifter knows all he has to do is keep lifting consistently and the strength will come."
Arthur Saxon seemed to use both methods, but he also seemed to use this method more (as was the case, I believe, with the "Godfather of the Squat" Henry Milo Steinborn).
Here are my personal guidelines that I think are effective for this program. Note that I have limited the exercises down to 10 because this is just for arms:
1. Pick 10 exercises that are your favorite for training arms - 5 for bis, and 5 for tris. These are the only lifts you will do throughout the course of the program. Here's a suggested list: barbell curls, dumbbell curls, E-Z bar curls, preacher curls, concentration curls, and parallel bar dips, lying barbell extensions, lying triceps extensions, one-arm dumbbell extensions, and (finally the greatest triceps builder ever) the barbell pullover and press.
2. At every single workout, pick two to three of these exercises to train. For each exercise, you will only do a total of 10 reps. You can do 2 sets of 5, 5 sets of 2, 3 sets of 3 (yes, I realize it’s not 10 reps, but close enough), or 3 sets of 2, 3, and 5 reps.
3. Always train at least 2 days in a row before taking a day off. You can use the same split discussed previously. After a few weeks on the program, if you need 2 or 3 days off consecutively, then by all means, take the break.
4. Slowly increase the amount of weight you do at each workout. This should not be a “forced” thing.
Now let's discuss the heavier and more volume-oriented strongman training done by the likes of Herman Goerner. If you don't know, Goerner, in the 1920s, deadlifted 730 pounds with one hand! He also did an 840 pound "conventional" deadlift in an over/underhand style. (Keep in mind that this was 10 to 15 years before steroids or testosterone were synthesized.) There is also a picture of him around the same time doing a 600 lb deadlift using only two fingers on each hand, and he was photographed performing a 330 lb overhead press using a thick "axle" bar. To top it off, he could perform a one-handed snatch of 170 lbs with the same thick bar. Oh, and don't forget: no training gear such as knee wraps, elbow sleeves, lifting suits, or the associated ilk!
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| The Mighty Goerner (as he was known) shows off his massive arms built with old-school strongman workouts. |
So how could a man get so inhumanly strong a 100 years ago? Without all of our "state-of-the-art" nutrition, training, and "medical" advances?
Goerner was a favorite of what I, and others, refer to as "ramp" training. Ramp training is used a few different ways by different writers/trainers/coaches, but in this context it means to work up over progressively heavier sets using the same rep range. Until recently, the favorite way for most bodybuilders to progressively add weight has been through "pyramid" training, where you increase the weight and decrease the reps with each subsequent set. If you wanted to (and these numbers are purely an example) close-grip bench press 225 pounds for 3 reps you would do: 135 pounds for 12 reps, 175 pounds for 10 reps, 195 for 8 reps, 205 for 6 reps, 215 for 4 reps, and, finally, you would attempt 225 for 3. For many, many years this has been the way for bodybuilders to work up to a heavy triple, double, or single. Now, let me clarify something: I don't think you should never do pyramid training! I think it has its place at times, and I think it can be utilized even more by lifters with a certain muscle-fiber type. But it's NOT the primary form of set progression a lifter should use. No, ramps - and their offshoots - are what most of your set progression should look like. Pyramid training really tires out your muscles and your nervous system. Ramps heighten your nervous system.
And Goerner knew this.
From what I have found, Goerner seemed to use two different forms of ramps. He would either work up over progressively heavier 5s, followed by 3s, then (maybe) doubles or singles depending on his energy and strength levels. He would then repeat the ramps over again if he had plenty of energy, or repeat even part of the ramp. When he felt as if he had done enough, he stopped. His second method was what I call "double ramps". It's the way it sounds. You do two sets at each poundage before progressing in weights.
Here's how these set progression methods might work using the barbell curl as our example:
"Regular" ramps:
45 lbs for 5 reps
65 lbs for 5 reps
75 lbs for 5 reps (had to work hard for the 5th rep)
85 lbs for 4 reps
95 lbs for 4 reps (had to work hard for the 4th rep)
100 lbs for 3 reps
105 lbs for 3 reps (3rd rep really tough)
110 lbs for 1 rep
115 lbs for 1 rep (VERY hard to get 1 rep)
"Double" ramps:
45 lbs for 5 reps
45 lbs for 5 reps
65 lbs for 5 reps
65 lbs for 5 reps
75 lbs for 5 reps (had to work hard; don't think you can get the 5th rep for another set)
75 lbs for 4 reps
80 lbs for 4 reps
80 lbs for 4 reps
85 lbs for 4 reps
85 lbs for 4 reps
90 lbs for 4 reps (4th rep hard, but you know you can get another set)
90 lbs for 4 reps (4th rep was very tough)
95 lbs for 3 reps
95 lbs for 3 reps
100 lbs for 3 reps
100 lbs for 3 reps (hard; unsure whether you can get another or not)
105 lbs for 1 rep
105 lbs for 1 rep
110 lbs for 1 rep (beginning to struggle, but know you can do more)
110 lbs for 1 rep (very tough)
For each training day - and here you still want to train frequently but not as frequently compared to the "practice" training - perform one or two exercises total for your arms. Pick one exercise for biceps, and one for triceps. You won't need another. Train each muscle group two to three times per week. If you used our previous split of 3 on, 1 off; 2 on, 1 off; then two weeks of training would look something such as this:
Week One
Monday:(A) barbell curls and close-grip bench presses (using either method of ramps above)
Tuesday:(B) squats, overhead presses, and power cleans (train each exercise for only 3 to 5 sets of 3 to 5 reps - the last rep of the last set of each exercise can be "tough", but the others should all be relatively easy)
Wednesday: (A) workout repeated
Thursday: Off
Friday: (B) workout repeated
Saturday: (A) workout repeated
Sunday: Off
Week Two
Monday: (B) workout
Tuesday: (A) workout
Wednesday: (B) workout
Thursday: Off
Friday: (A) workout
Saturday: (B) workout
Sunday: Off
On the next week, of course, you would repeat the first week. Continue training in this manner for as long as you can handle it!
I hope this has been enough material on the "old-time" strongmen to whet your appetite for more, but I also think it's probably all of the training information you really need to make fantastic gains.
The "Silver" Era - Strongman and Bodybuilding Collide for Something Beautiful!
Even though you can't really give a hard rule as to when one era ends and another begins, its generally agreed that the era of our previous old-time strongmen ended in 1939. And 1940 ushered in what is now referred to as the "Silver Era" or "Silver Age" of physical development. It was a time when the boundary between bodybuilder, gymnast, Olympic lifter, powerlifter, strongman, and circus performer was completely blurred, and I mean that in the most complimentary way! For it was an era when bodybuilders and lifters were one and the same thing; an era when equal importance was given to strength, size, proportion, flexibility, health, endurance, cardiovascular conditioning, and general physical preparedness in a way not seen before or since. So let's delve into some of the more influential and innovative training methods of some of its biggest stars.
In some ways - and you may be able to tell based on my excitement of the subject - this is my favorite "era," so long as you realize that years do overlap, as there were still guys doing the stuff from pre-1939 in this era, and, conversely, there were some innovative trainers that started doing Golden Age-style training even before 1970. A case in point would be the aforementioned Vince Gironda, who was definitely the most influential during the '70s, but was already formulating his training and diet philosophy during this age, as early as the '50s. But I think Gironda has to be considered "Golden Age" simply because he was so incredibly outside of the box compared to any other silver era trainees, and it wasn't until the Golden Age that his ideas were readily accepted.
This is the time when - though never "mainstream" - bodybuilding and strength sports rapidly increased in popularity. Sure, for the average American, you would have seemed "odd" for wanting to be a top bodybuilder, but these physique athletes of the Silver Era were admired by the average Joe-Shmoe. Take the popularity of the Italian "sword and sandal" films starring the likes of Steve Reeves and Reg Park (who we will discuss shortly). My father - who was born in the '40s - still has fond memories of seeing these films at the local movie theater of his hometown in East Texas. He and other boys his age were enthralled with the muscle size and development of Reeves and Park.
The first bodybuilder of this era was arguably the greatest - and there are some who still think he's the greatest all-around bodybuilder to ever walk this planet. Not only was he built like few men before him, from a physical-development perspective, but he was strong as a Mack truck, and a highly agile and skilled "performer". I'm talking about the one and only - the original bodybuilding superstar - John Grimek. Grimek started training earlier than most bodybuilders of this era, and was crowned Mr. America in 1940. Interestingly enough - and here is where you can tell a clear difference between bodybuilders then and now - Grimek competed in weightlifting, representing the United States at the 1936 Olympics, where he placed 9th. During the entire decade of the '40s, Grimek was undefeated on the bodybuilding stage, winning his last contest in 1949, and retiring undefeated. He bested the likes of Steve Reeves, Clancy Ross, Armand Tanny, and George Eiferman during this decade.
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| The ORIGINAL bodybuilding superstar John Grimek, looking massive even while completely relaxed. |
Although he is not well-known enough among your average bodybuilder in this century, we still have a lot of information about all aspects of his training due to the fact that he wrote a monthly column all during the '80s and '90s for MuscleMag International. I wrote regularly for MuscleMag during the '90s, and as I had a regular subscription, I read his column monthly, and still have almost all of those issues to this day. So we still have Grimek's own words instead of the words of someone - such as myself - trying to tell you how he trained.
Grimek doled out plenty of good muscle-building information in his column, but one of the things that really stuck with me was his "congestive principle". Now, he never said that it was his principle, but I couldn't remember reading that particular term mentioned before, so I always called it "his".
A reader wrote to him asking about sets and reps, and how much total volume a bodybuilder needed to achieve maximum muscle growth. Grimek replied that the best way to train was to lift only until you achieved "total congestion of the muscle". Grimek then wrote that this "would simplify the set and rep scheme and will promote better muscle mass results in the long run." (You can also see how one era influences another, as this "congestive" training presages the "chasing the pump" training we'll see in the Golden Era.) Here's how Grimek said it would work:
"Dismiss the concept of reps, sets, and how many exercises you should do. Concentrate instead on working a particular muscle group until it becomes thoroughly pumped up and totally congested. Once this state of total congestion is achieved there is no need to continue working that area - unless you are overweight and want to reduce that area. That is the lone exception. In any overweight condition, one should work beyond congestion until the area is completely fatigued. For muscle and weight-gaining purposes, however, you can stop exercising each muscle section as soon as the congested condition is reached."
For Grimek, he personally did this by only performing one - or, at the most, two - exercises per bodypart. That way, he could focus on achieving a great pump, and he could simply stop the exercise as soon as complete and total congestion was achieved.
Grimek continued: "Some days, you might be able to complete this goal with only half the repetitions and exercises than on other days... The more you concentrate on your training and the more effort you put behind each exercise, the faster you will obtain congestion - and your training will, therefore, become more effective.
"Let's assume you have just finished your first set of 10-12 repetitions in the two-handed barbell curl. The remaining portion of the workout using the congestive principle might appear something like this:
- Add about 20 pounds and curl for eight reps.
- Add an additional 10 pounds and curl for 5 reps.
- Add five pounds and curl for reps or
- use your maximum weight and go for a single rep. (The single rep is optional and should only be employed when you feel that you want to step up your training and begin at a higher poundage.)
"The congestive principle involves deep-seated muscle-fiber action and this can't help but encourage greater density and induce greater strength as a result of the poundages handled and the reps performed."
Here is what a set of barbell curls might look like for a hypothetical bodybuilder who could curl 135 lbs for a single:
45 lbs for 12 reps, 65 lbs for 10 reps, 85 pounds for 5 reps, 105 pounds for 5 reps, and finish with 110 pounds for a maximum number of reps.
For the above scenario, move quickly between sets, not allowing your oxygen debt to completely recover. (If you are a regular reader, then you know I NEVER list rest times between sets. Rest time is very individualistic, and the only rule for achieving an intense "pump" is to not allow your oxygen debt to completely recover before continuing with another set. Conversely, if you are trying to build strong, powerful arms then you need to make sure your oxygen debt has completely recovered before continuing with your next set.) None of the sets here should be really difficult except for the last one for either max repetitions or a heavy, all-out single. This allows you to move quickly. I would also advise that you repeat the workout over until you achieve a thoroughly "congested" pump.
Grimek's one-exercise-per-bodypart method was influenced, I believe, by the "ramp" style of training used by the early strongmen we discussed in our previous section. He in turn influenced a lot of the bodybuilders that followed him, and one-exercise-per-muscle group training became the most popular method of training for this era.
Most bodybuilders of the Silver Era used this minimalist approach, at least when it came to exercise selection. (There was nothing "minimal" about their volume and workload!) When trying to put on mass, it was common to use no more than 2 exercises for biceps, and 2 for triceps, followed by an exercise for the forearms. Bodybuilders would then go to a multi-angular approach when it came time for contest preparation.
Bodybuilders after Grimek began to do something a little different than their predecessors. They started doing more "straight" sets, where they would do multiple sets of the same weight. Enter 5x5 training!
I have long extolled the benefits of the "5x5 system" of training, where you do "straight" sets of the same weight, and attempt 5 sets of 5 reps. (If you're familiar with my writing, then realize this is different than the 5x5 training utilized in my heavy, light, medium programs. Those are typically 5 progressively heavier sets of 5 reps.) This was made incredibly popular by Reg Park, and Park is still influencing lifters and bodybuilders, probably more than ever just because of the easy access the internet offers to his methods, assuming one just knows where to look.
It wasn't just bodybuilders who used this method of multiple "straight" sets of the same exercise. The champion weightlifter and strongman Doug Hepburn used a system during the '40s of multiple singles followed by 5 set of 5 reps. (I used his method of training at one point in my powerlifting career to squat well over 500 pounds in the 165 lb division, so I can attest that it builds strength and power.) But Hepburn's method didn't just build strength, it built muscle mass that was very functional!
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| Doug Hepburn, perhaps the most famous strongman of the Silver Era along with Paul Anderson, flexes his massive upper arm. I still believe that Hepburn's "multiple singles" method of training (see below) is the all-around best strength-building workout you can ever do! |
Although the bodybuilders and lifters of the '40s may not have understood the science of it - at least not as well as we do today; many of them did have theories that came very close - this was the time when "physical culturists" started building a large degree of both muscle size and strength in coordination with one another. In fact, I would argue the kind of training used by Hepburn and Park - although they were in different sports, their training was amazingly similar - is the best way to build both size and strength together. If you are solely after large arms but are not concerned about strength, or if you want strong, "wiry" arm muscles that can curl a small vehicle, you should use other methods. But for a size/strength combo, this style of training can't be beaten.
"If you get a pump while training with heavy weights, you will get big." ~Pavel Tsatsouline
This method "works" because in order to grow a sufficient amount of muscle mass AND strength you need to have both fatigue and tension present in your training regimen. But therein lies the problem. Fatigue best happens through a high volume of training - multiple sets of high reps, or very few sets of high repetition training taken to total momentary muscular failure are great ways to develop fatigue, and also an ideal way for some lifters to build plenty of muscle. But it sucks at building absolute strength. The converse is true, as well - A high amount of tension is necessary if one wants to be capable of moving massive weights, regardless of one's size. But with Park and Hepburn's style of training, you are able to achieve a high amount of both fatigue and tension.
Enough with the "science," here is what an arm workout might look like using this method:
Begin with barbell curls. Starting with the bar only, perform "ramps" of 5s, then 3s, then singles. Don't do as much volume as you would if the ramps were the workout. But here the ramps are the warm-ups (unlike the training of Goerner, for instance). You simply want to heighten your nervous system to prepare you for multiple sets of singles.
Once you have worked up to a heavy set of 1 rep, stick with this weight and attempt 8 singles. Stop whenever you can't do a single. You may only get 4 or 5, that's okay. Use that weight at your next workout, and stick with it until you can manage 8 singles. Once you can get 8 singles, add weight at next workout, and repeat.
After you have finished with the singles, drop down to the weight you used for your last set of 5 reps when performing the ramps, and attempt 5 sets of 5 reps. At first, you may only get 2 sets of 5, followed by a set of 4, then 2 sets of 3 reps. That's okay; as with the singles, stick with the weight at each subsequent workout until you manage to get 5 sets of 5 reps.
Once you have finished with the curls, it's time to do the same thing for your triceps. For triceps, I recommend you use either close-grip thick-bar bench presses or weighted parallel bar dips. (I have mentioned before that I think the best triceps exercise is the barbell pullover and press, but the problem with that exercise here is the stretch that your triceps get - I don't recommend doing singles with "stretched" exercises.) Use the same style of ramps for warm-ups as you did with the curls, followed by singles and 5s.
In addition to minimal exercises per bodypart, the Silver Era was most known for the shear amount of volume that many of the bodybuilders began to use. This carried over into the "Golden Age" in the '70s, and continued in many ways until the '90s and the rise of high-volume, high-intensity, but low frequency of training due to the success of Dorian Yates, and the re-emergence of (personally, my least favorite trainer/writer) Mike Mentzer, Yates's inspiration. (I will save my rants on Mentzer and H.I.T. training for other posts.)
To show you how much volume was often utilized, here is an excerpt from an article written by Park in the '50s, where he encourages the reader to work up to as many as 30 sets for both bis and tris!
Reg Park in his own words:
As your bodybuilding aims become higher, obviously you have to work harder, until, believe it or not, you are performing from 20-30 sets of both biceps and triceps three workouts per week. You can, if you wish, perform biceps and triceps at the same training session. Personally, I prefer to work back and biceps together in one workout, and shoulders and triceps together in another workout, but this is purely a matter of preference. If you are really ambitious, try the following biceps and triceps exercises three sessions a week.Biceps
1.) One dumbbell curl over bench – 10 sets of 8.
2.) Lying on back dumbbell curl – 6 sets of 8.
3.) Barbell curl – 5 sets of 5.
4.) Two dumbbell curl over bench – 6 sets of 8.
Triceps
1.) Triceps pressdown on lat machine – 6 sets of 8.
2.) Flat bench EZ triceps curl, head off bench – 6 sets of 8.
3.) Decline bench barbell triceps curl – 6 sets of 8.
4.) Standing one dumbbell one arm triceps curl – 6 sets of 8.
5.) Triceps dips – 6 sets of 8.
Keep your arms warm when exercising, with either a track suit top or long sleeve T-shirt, but make sure they are not too tight. If your gains are not as good as you expect, increase your bodyweight by eating more protein.
You may be scoffing in disbelief at the amount of volume Park recommended, but keep in mind that that was par for the course for just about anyone who stepped into a bodybuilding gym in the '40s, '50s, '60s, and '70s! You took your time to slowly develop the work capacity to handle this volume of training.
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| Reg Park performing barbell curls sometime in the '40s or '50s. |
Before we move on to our Golden Age - which is probably the "favorite" era among the average bodybuilder interested in "classical" training - we need to discuss what I just mentioned: work capacity. First, when it comes to arm training, keep in mind that a smaller muscle can often handle more work. This goes against the thought of the past thirty years or so in the bodybuilding community where it's generally recommended to do more work for larger muscle groups and less for the smaller ones. The thought here is that the smaller the muscle group, the less work it needs. But old-time bodybuilders didn't think that way - nor, by the way, do current bodybuilders from Eastern Europe. They believed that larger muscles, particularly those of the legs and back, took longer to recover because they are larger than other muscle groups, so it would make sense to do less volume for larger groups. However, they also believed that arms could handle more work because they were smaller. The smaller the muscle, the quicker the recovery time, so more volume should be utilized.
Enter the "Golden Age" of Bodybuilding
Of the three eras discussed in this essay, the Golden Age is easily the most well-known among lifters, bodybuilders, and strength athletes today - and probably the most popular. Part of this is because of the fact that many of the classical bodybuilders - Arnold Schwarzenegger comes to mind - of this era are still alive, or at least lived into the 21st century.
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| Arnold demonstrates his massive arms built with Golden Era training methods. |
The Golden Age, even more than the others, is a transition era where the bodybuilders looked much the way we think a bodybuilder should look, but many of them were still influenced - and got their start - in the Silver Era that preceded it. This means most of them still thought strength, health, and a philosophy of life were important for a bodybuilder - as those things rightly should be! I believe part of the reason there is a renewed interest in "classical" bodybuilding and bodybuilders is because hardcore gym-goers are once again interested in more than just muscle size. The bodybuilders from the '90s onward became one-pointed in their search for muscle mass over all else, and that simply isn't the goal that lifters and 'builders (and Crossfitters, to name just one other group of modern strength athletes) are interested in anymore.
Since there are so many Golden Age bodybuilders that we could use as examples here, I'm going to focus more on the different principles/techniques/tips/tricks and methods that many of the bodybuilders employed. (If you want material pertaining to a specific bodybuilder of this era, I have other "Classical Bodybuilding" pieces here on Integral Strength detailing such luminaries of the sport as Sergio Oliva, Serge Nubret, Bill Pearl, Don Howorth, Chuck Sipes, and many others.)
Chasing the Pump
Borrowing from their start in the Silver Era, many bodybuilders continued to use one-exercise-per-bodypart training, especially when it came to arms. But this was the age when they ditched much of the focus on building strength, and instead sought to "pump" their muscles as much as possible at every training session. Don't get me wrong, there was still an emphasis on strength, no doubt, especially when it comes to guys like Franco Columbu or Lou Ferrigno (who both competed against strongmen and powerlifters in the first "World's Strongest Man" competitions in the '70s). But most bodybuilders began to focus even more on the "feel" of the muscle rather than strict progressive overload, culminating, as we shall see, in Gironda's programs.
With the pump in the forefront, bodybuilders began to not just do multiple sets of the same exercises, but now they would do multiple sets of back-to-back exercises (supersets) or even three exercises for the same muscle goup (tri-sets).
To give you an idea of the lengths the classical bodybuilders went to for a pump, here is the typical arm workout of Serge Nubret (who, if you're not too familiar, was the French competitor that Arnold and Ferrigno faced off against in the movie Pumping Iron):
Barbell Curls supersetted with Tricep Pushdowns: 8 to 16 sets of 10-12 reps
Dumbbell Curls supersetted with Bench Dips: 8 to 16 sets of 10-12 reps
The "16 sets" is NOT a misprint. Nubret, and the others who trained similar to him in this era, were very intuitive. Nubret would allow such a wide range of sets because he didn't know how he was going to truly feel until he started training. Nowadays, lifters call it "auto-regulation," but back then they called it instinctive training (and some of us still do). Nubret, Arnold, Sergio Oliva, Frank Zane, and Dave Draper (to name a few) relied very much on instinctive training to determine the length of their workouts, the exercises needed for a muscle group on a particular training day, the number of exercises that should be used, the number of sets utilized for each exercise, the repetition range that should be used based on how the muscle group being trained feels on that day, and so on. For these vanguard bodybuilders, training was an art form, and an artist uses her creativity and instinct to sculpt and shape the perfect form.
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| Serge Nubret - who you may recall from the movie Pumping Iron - shows off the kind of physique built with "chase-the-pump" training. |
Another bodybuilder that epitomized this instinctive, "pump-first" training was the great Sergio Oliva. (This isn't the place for it here, but I maintain that the greatest bodybuilder of this era was Oliva, and he was utterly robbed by the racism of the time that allowed Arnold to beat him in Arnold's first couple Mr. Olympia contests. For a LOT of details into that, check out my previous article on Sergio.)
Here is what I had to say about him in a ’97 issue of IronMan magazine entitled “Monster Pump”:
Oliva’s favorite way to work out was with high sets and lots of reps. He often employed a form of rest/pause training, in which, for example, if he was working his chest, he’d do a set of bench presses for 6 to 8 reps, pause for a few breaths, perform another set, pause for a few more breaths, crank out another set and so on. That type of fast, localized training gave Oliva a tremendous pump and helped him build one of the most amazing physiques ever.
Segio wouldn’t finish any bodypart workout until he believed it was pumped to its absolute limit. Here, for instance, is what Greg Zulak had to say in an issue of MuscleMag International around the same time as my IronMan article:
After a particularly long and grueling workout that consisted of many sets of weighted dips, Sergio went to the change room to take off his sweat-soaked gym clothes and to take a shower. After someone helped him remove his sweatshirt (his arms were so pumped he could barely get them over his head), Sergio decided to do one more set of dips, so he headed back out to the gym floor to do them. After the set, he returned to the change room, removed his shoes and socks, and then went back out to the gym for one more set of dips. Then it was back to the change room. After removing his sweat pants, and wrapping a towel around his waist, he returned once again for one more set of dips. After this, he hit the showers, but a couple of times during the shower he put the towel back on and went back to the gym floor for more dips. After the shower, he dressed, but before leaving the gym to go home he performed yet another set of dips. Finally satisfied that his triceps and pecs were as pumped as they could be, only then did he go home.
From what Zulak had to say, it’s obvious that he was a fan of “instinctive” training. If he felt the necessity, then he did more, or less, than what he intended when planning his workout session.
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| Of all the Golden Age bodybuilders, I believe Sergio Oliva was the greatest. |
Okay, once we get seriously into the "pump" training of the Golden Age, it's time to discuss the master of the pump - and perhaps just bodybuilding training in all its variegated, multitudinous forms. I write, of course, about the one-and-only Vince Gironda. Gironda had some views that went against the grain even in the Golden Age, and all of the different eras, for that matter. He didn't allow anyone to do a back squat in his gym, for instance, believing that the exercise made the waist too big. I believe Gironda was flat-out wrong in this instance, but when it came to his methods for achieving a massive pump, and for being able to feel the muscles being trained, he was THE master training guru par excellence.
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| The REAL "Trainer of Champions" Vince Gironda |
Gironda was the first writer that I knew who really pushed one-exercise-per-bodypart training. The 10 sets of 10 Method, commonly known these days - rather erroneously - as German Volume Training. GVT was a term coined by Charles Poliquin when he wrote an article of the same name in Muscle Media 2000 in the mid '90s. The problem is that (1) the German weightlifting team didn't use that method, and (2) Poliquin made it sound as if he had "rediscovered" this "forgotten" method of training, which is simply a lie. And so nowadays you may read articles that say Poliquin "invented" this method, and that is absolute BS! Gironda had written about it and extolled the method going back to the '50s, and I had written articles on the method years before in the pages of IronMan and MuscleMag International before Poliquin wrote about it in MM2K!
But Gironda went even further when it came to the ultimate "pump" training. He also invented a method he called the "8x8 Program." But it's not what you are probably thinking - it wasn't just one exercise for 8 sets of 8 reps. His method involved picking 3 to 4 exercises and training each exercise for 8 sets of 8 reps. That's right - this program works out to 24 to 32 sets per bodypart! But here's the kicker: you only rest 15 to 30 seconds between sets. This means that your weight selected must be relatively light to move that fast between sets. I would recommend selecting a weight where you can get at least 20 reps if taken to the point of momentary muscular failure. Even though I have railed against prescribed rest periods, Vince's 8x8 program is different. Think of each exercise of 8 sets of 8 reps as ONE exercise. Think of it as almost one big "rest-pause" set of 64 reps.
Your arm workout might look something such as this:
Barbell Curls
Alternate Dumbbell Curls
Incline Curls
Concentration Curls (Make sure you do 8 sets of 8 for each arm)
Close-Grip Bench Presses
Bench Dips
Barbell Pullover and Press
This program is a size-building program, but it's not going to build strength and power. I simply want you to understand that. Because this kind of workout is NOT good for powerlifters or combat athletes. It's purpose is simply cosmetic, which is perfectly fine for the bodybuilder!
Closing Thoughts
Even though this has been a long article, I haven't even covered 1/10th of the programs of different old-timers from each era. (This could turn into a book with all of the various lifters/bodybuilders/strongmen and their methods.) But that's fine. I hope what I have covered has given you some unique perspectives on the arm-training and mass-building methods of many of the classical lifters.
As we end, here are a few thoughts I would like to take with you, even if you get nothing else from this essay:
1. Spend a few months of your training year - if you've never done this before - utilizing training techniques from the early strongmen. Treat your training as a practice session. Train each lift on a daily basis, and let the increase in workload build muscle and strength. Arms are great to start this kind of training on, simply because they can recover so fast.
2. Per my last sentence, try training your arms very frequently - at least 3 days per week - using some of the training techniques from the early strongmen and from the Silver Era. This will really increase your work capacity, even if you go back to a more "regular" bodybuilding split when you are finished.
3. After working out with high-frequency training for a little while, or if you have already been doing it before reading this article, try training your arms only twice per week, using either Vince Gironda's 8x8 Program or the "ramp training" of Goerner.
4. With all of these programs, make sure you are consuming enough calories, along with getting plenty of calories from protein, fat, and carbohydrates - this is exactly how old-time strongmen and bodybuilders often ate. And if you ever need to get ripped, simply drop your carbs - all of them. It may be difficult, but it is simple to get ripped. Simple just doesn't mean easy.
I hope you have enjoyed this brief trip down bodybuilding memory lane, and I hope it has provided you with some different insights into the training of the past.
Great info!
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