IT CAME FROM BEYOND THE BARBELL

 

The Power/Mass Methods of the “Silver Era” Bodybuilders from the ‘40s, ‘50s, and ‘60s!

     Years ago, I wrote an article for IronMan magazine entitled “Attack of the Old-Time Strength and Power Routines” which included several programs that were, at least somewhat, based on the training programs of many of the bodybuilders from the ‘40s, ‘50s, and ‘60s.  The title, of course, was an homage to the B monster and sci-fi movies of the ‘40s and the ‘50s.  This article’s title is, as you may have already surmised, also an homage to that era of awesome B movies that I loved as a kid, and pretty much still love to this day.  So - assuming you read the “Attack” article, as well - you can look at this as the second presentation in our double-feature from the Silver Era of bodybuilding.

     We’ll look at a couple of programs that were used by the old-school lifters of this era, and ways that these training routines can work for you.  The first program is a “basic” program - but don’t let the term basic fool you - and the second one is most decidedly a more “advanced” regimen.

Marvin Eder’s Power/Mass Methods

     I’m not sure exactly why I haven’t done a full “Classical Bodybuilding” piece on the one-and-only Eder, especially considering the fact that I have often extolled him - both in print and online - as the single greatest bodybuilder cum strength athlete ever.  That’s right.  In my mind, he’s the greatest.

     This is what I wrote about Eder in an article entitled “Retro Mass” in a 2002 issue of IronMan magazine: 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 press 510, squat 550 for 10 reps and do a standing barbell press with 365. He was reported to have achieved the amazing feat of cranking out 1,000 dips in only 17 minutes. [60 x 17 = 1020 seconds/1,000 dips = averaging out to about one a second.]  As IronMan contributor Gene Mozee put it, "Modern day bodybuilders couldn't carry his gym bag."

     And how exactly did Eder train?  Here is the program that he gave to Mozee in the ‘60s (based on his training from the ‘40s and ‘50s), and which Mozee later wrote about in IronMan:

Eder told me that his secret to building record-breaking power and incredible muscularity was power-mass training. The following routine is one he used, and it is the one he recommended to me. It not only helped me gain many pounds of muscle, but it pushed my bench press and overhead pressing strength to new heights.

1) Squats – Keep the feet fairly close together. Squat slightly below parallel, keeping your knees pointing forward. Exhale strongly at the hard spot on the way up.

2) Bench Presses – Use a medium-wide grip, with your hands about 26 to 32 inches apart. Lower the bar slowly to the highest point on your chest and immediately ram it back to the top as you exhale.

3) Heavy Bent Over Barbell Rows – Use the same as for the bench press. Bend forward with your back parallel to the floor and pull the bar up until it touches the rib cage. Lower the bar slowly close to your body, but don’t let it touch the floor. Use some cheat on the last few reps.

4) Standing Barbell Presses – Use a slightly wider-than-shoulder-width grip. Take the barbell off a squat rack rather than cleaning it, and preserve all your energy for pressing. Keep your entire body tight and exhale as you press the weight up. Do the reps rapidly without pausing at the top or bottom.

5) Lat Machine Pulldowns – Using a fairly wide grip with your hands six to eight inches wider than shoulder-width, pull the bar down to just below your collar bones until it touches your upper chest. You can also substitute some form of chins for this exercise, or alternate each workout.

6) Heavy Dumbbell Curls – Do this exercise while seated on a sturdy bench. Use a slight cheating motion as you inhale, curling the bells upward until they touch your delts. Exhale as you lower them all the way to straight arms.

7) Cool Down – 100 leg raises or other light abdominal work.

Train three times a week on alternate days.

Perform each exercise for 3 sets of 8 reps the first two weeks.

After two weeks increase to 4 sets of 6 to 8 reps.

Take a light week.

Increase to 5 sets of 5 to 7 reps on each exercise for a month.

Take a light week.

Increase to 3 sets of 3 to 5 reps, and 3 sets of 6 to 8 reps on each exercise for a month.

Relax and rest between each set until you have fully recuperated enough to go on. Schedule your workout so that you will have enough time to go through it without rushing. Don’t add any other exercises. Warm up before each exercise.*

     This program looks basic - which it is - but the “devil is in the details,” as the saying goes.  The most interesting thing about it to me is the way that Eder progresses over the course of, roughly, four months.  After a month of doing 3 sets of 8 (for two weeks), and then 4 sets of 6-8 (for another two weeks), he recommends a “light week.”  Then another month of heavier training and 5 sets of 5 to 7 reps, followed by another light week, then, lastly, a month of 6 sets of 3 to 5 reps and 6 to 8 reps, followed by another light week.

     I think it’s always a good idea to take a down week after 3 to 4 weeks of training.  In fact, you might not want to wait a month before utilizing a week of active recovery.  For most lifters, I find that, after three weeks of hard training, they could use a break.

     When utilizing a light week, make sure it’s what I called it: an active recovery week of training.  If you simply drop your poundages, but utilize much higher reps, this won’t be “light.”  In fact, you may find that it’s just as hard to recover from because your workload will end up being even higher than before!  No, use the same set/rep ranges that you were using, but drop the weights by about 25% (or even 50% if you feel “beat up”).

     If you wanted, you could really use a program like this for most of your training life.  After doing the above program for the 15 to 16 weeks that it requires, switch over to some new exercises, and start the program all over again, beginning, once again, with simply using 3 sets of 8 on your new movements, and progressing in the same manner over another 15 weeks.  This allows you to give your body the break it needs by not constantly trying to do more and more work each week, which will, of course, eventually come back around to bite you in the rear.  So, that is one way to move forward, but I know that you will probably - at least, at some point - want to switch to another program, so let’s look at some more advanced regimens.

Reg Park’s Advanced Mass-Building Program

     You may find the program below to be, well, a bit insane.  Most bodybuilders these days simply scoff at such a program as this, reasoning that there’s no way in hell that any man - even one of Park’s exceptional genetics - could possibly do such a program as this and survive, much less gain heaping amounts of muscular mass while doing it.  I think such a view is misguided and ill-informed.  Sure, it takes years to build up to the work capacity to do such a program, but that doesn’t mean that it’s only for the “genetically gifted.”  The truth is that some men thrive on such hard work, and, for many, a lot of work is required.

     Before we get around to the program - and then to some adjustments I would definitely make - let’s look at how George Turner (he wrote what follows in the mid ‘90s) described some of the training methods of the Silver-era bodybuilders:

     "Consider Roy Ledas and Buddy Pryor doing endless seated presses with 125-pound dumbbells when neither one of them weighed more than 170, or Doug Strahl and George Sheffield working out for 5 hours a day, 6 days a week.  I remember the New Yorkers Lou Degni, Marvin Eder, and my buddy Dominic Juliani training Monday through Friday in the gym and on Sunday doing chins and dips on the beach for endless sets of up to 50 reps (that's right, 50 reps) and Chuck Ahrens training arms and shoulders for 4 hours, 3 times a week, and doing standing triceps French presses for 5 or 6 reps with a 315-pound Olympic bar.

     "At the time, I trained everything from the abs down for 54 sets on one day and my entire upper body for 90 sets the following day, often working out 10 or 11 days in a row before instinctively taking a day off.  It was nothing out of the ordinary.  I was training at about the same level as every other real bodybuilder.  We were used to it, as we worked up to it for years.  We didn't have to take something to make us want to train.  We loved it!  Now, I hear about people hitting one bodypart per day, taking a week to work the entire body.  What kind of bullshit is that?  Get in condition for crying out loud; don't get everything out of a syringe."

     Intense, huh?  And just what does a program actually look like using such “insanity”?  Here is the program that Park said he used to get ready - and eventually win - the ‘51 Mr. Universe competition:

Incline D.B. Press – 5x5 with 140 lb. dumbbells

Flat Bench D.B. Press – 5x5 with 140 lb. dumbbells

Pushups

Press Behind Neck – 5x5 with 210 lbs.

Press – 5x5 with 210 lbs.

Two D.B. Press – 5x5 working up to 100 lb. dumbbells

Dumbbell Lateral – 5x8 with 50-60 lb. dumbells

Chins – 5x8

Bent Barbell Row – 5x8 with 250-300 lbs.

One Arm D.B. Row – 5x8 with 100-120 lb. dumbbell

Lat Pulldown – 5x8

Central Loading Curl – 5x8 with 140 lbs.

Incline D.B. Curl – 5x8 with 70 lb. dumbbells

Barbell Curl – 5x8

Lying On Back Two Dumbbell Curl – 5x8 with 50-60 lb. dumbbells

One D.B. Two Arm French Press – 5x8

Lying B.B. Triceps Extension – 5x8

Triceps Dips or Parallel Bar Dips – 5x8

Triceps On Lat Machine – 5x8

Donkey Calf On Machine – 10x20

Squat – 3x20 with 320 lbs.

D.B. Pullover – 3x10**

     Looking it over, you can see that Park basically trained each muscle group with 3 to 4 exercises (typically 4) for 5 sets each.  He also, obviously, didn’t believe that an advanced bodybuilder would need to split his training sessions even when doing 20 sets per muscle, however, it must be noted that most lifters - even of that era - did split their body parts.  Once they had worked up to this kind of work capacity, they would train upper body on one day, and lower body on the next - just as Turner said he did in the above quote.

     Now, I would, quite obviously, make some changes to this program if you were to use it yourself, but I do think something similar would be beneficial.  For instance, the first aspect of Park’s program that I would utilize is using multiple exercises-per-bodypart while sticking with a full-body regimen.  The truth is, most lifters switch over to a “split” program too quickly.  Let’s say you spent a few months doing the Eder-style program, and now you want to add some additional movements for each muscle group.  Try a program where you do two exercises-per-muscle group.  In other words, your initial program would be half of what Park recommended above.

     After a few months of training 2-movements-per-muscle, switch to 3, and utilize it for another few months.  This, by the way, is exactly the kind of program that another great from the Silver Era, Steve Reeves, used.  Reeves would do 3-exercises-per-muscle group for 3 sets each, and train his entire body 3x weekly.  That might be a more sane, sensible, and effective approach for you.

*From the article “Power/Mass Training” in IronMan Magazine.

**From the article “How I Trained to Win Mr. Universe” by Reg Park, in a 1967 issue of Health and Strength magazine.