Real Bodybuilding: Old-School Antagonistic Chest and Back Training

      Before we get started here, I want to apologize for the delay in posts.  I have been working on, and formatting, my e-books so that I can start selling paperback versions of the same books.  Be on the lookout for those in the next week or two.  With that out of the way...

     I have a semi-regular, semi-ongoing series which I have titled “Real Bodybuilding.”  The first installment—which I never, by the way, planned on being the first in a series of training articles—was some scribblings and thoughts on how old-school, real bodybuilders actually trained before the advent of large doses of various anabolic steroids in bodybuilding (which changed everything).  And after writing that one, there was enough interest in the topics discussed that I thought some follow-up articles and essays were in order.

     Before we go any further, here are the links to the past installments.  Reading them isn’t required in order to understand this particular training article, but they may still be of interest to you:

Real Bodybuilding the Old-School Way

Old-School Arm Specialization

Squat Specialization for Quick Mass Gains

     The gist of the first article is that old-school bodybuilders—and this is mostly true of bodybuilders from the ‘40s to the ‘70s—essentially all followed roughly the same “system” of training.  First, they spent several years doing 3-days-per-week, full-body workouts.  Over the first few years of their training, they slowly did more and more work—more exercises, more sets per exercise, just more training in general.  Once they reached a point where they had built a lot of muscle mass—and could handle a heaping amount of work at each training session—they moved to the 2^nd phase of their training.  In this phase, they began to do split workouts but ones that focused on specialization.  A 2-way training split was usually employed, with one day focusing on whatever muscle group, or groups, that needed specialization, and the other day was spent training the rest of the body.  If your weak points were arms and calves, then you might train biceps, triceps, and calves on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, and then train chest, shoulders, back, abdominal muscles, and thighs on Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday.  In this second phase, a bodybuilder might spend several years focusing on different specialization workouts until he was satisfied that he had a fairly balanced but large and “well-muscled” physique.  At this point, he would switch over to an “advanced” 2-way split, where he would train one half of his physique on one day and the other half on the 2^nd, still training each bodypart thrice weekly.  This phase of training often included intense cardio and/or fast-moving workouts.  The advanced old-school bodybuilder was no longer concerned with muscle size—he had plenty of that—but with refining his physique to the nth degree until he had built the perfect physique.

     Let me add that this wasn’t always done in a specifically linear fashion.  An advanced bodybuilder might return to the first phase of training in order to “get back to the basics” or to simply add more mass.  He might decide to return to some different specialization programs if he found one or more of his muscle groups was beginning to outshine others.  In fact, it might be best to view this system as circular.  Once you reach an intermediate or advanced level, spend a few months doing full-body workouts with an eye toward mass and strength.  After that, spend a few months doing different specialization workouts.  After that, spend a couple of training cycles doing “advanced” training, almost as if you’re doing a pre-contest training regimen.  Once you’ve spent two or three months—two 6-week training programs in this “advanced” stage might be ideal—return to full-body workouts and repeat the process all over again.

     The articles in this series, so far, deal with the 2^nd phase of training, specialization.  If it’s full-body workouts that you need, I have a veritable plethora of articles and essays that you can find on the blog dealing with that subject.  And, concerning the advanced 3^rd stage of training, the fact is that most lifters aren’t at that phase yet, though I will, perhaps, write a few posts about advanced training further down the road.

     Once a bodybuilder has focused on building mass over a couple of years, utilizing full-body workouts, he will inevitably have a weak point at the end of that time.  This can’t really be helped.  We all have bodyparts that respond better than others.  Many will find that their legs are their weak points.  Others will find it’s their arms.  And still others find that their legs and arms developed well enough using full-body sessions, but their chest and back muscles are lagging behind.  If you’re the kind of lifter who builds large shoulders and triceps from the standard barbell bench press, then this is you.  Almost every bodybuilder who easily develops large shoulders and arms has this issue and needs to spend at least some time specializing on their chest and back muscles.

     One of the favorite methods that old-school bodybuilders employed for developing their chest and back muscles was antagonistic training, where they trained their chest and backs together at the same session, often moving back and forth between each muscle with either antagonistic supersets or “alternates.”  Supersets and alternates are similar.  With supersets, you move quickly, or little at all, between a set for your chest and a set for your back.  With alternates, you rest for a period of time between each movement.

     What follows are two different chest/back specialization program.  The first one uses alternates for developing mass, strength, and power.  If size is what you most need in your pecs and lats, then that one’s for you.  The second one is a superset program for adding mass but also shape and definition.

 

Program #1: Alternates for Size and Strength

     For this program, on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, you will train your chest and back.  Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday will be for leg training and light shoulders, biceps, and triceps work.

 

Monday – Wednesday – Friday:

Flat Barbell Bench Presses: 8 sets of 5 reps.  For these, take a fairly wide grip.  You don’t want to bench press the way a powerlifter would bench press—elbows tucked in; bar lowered to the very bottom of the chest—but, rather, keep your elbows out wide and bring the bar down to the middle of your pecs.  After two or three light warmup sets, load the bar with a weight that would be difficult for one set of 10 reps.  Use that weight for all 8 sets.

     Alternated with:

Wide-grip chins: 8 sets of 5 reps.  If you aren’t strong enough to do 8 to 10 chins for one all-out set, replace this movement with lat pulldowns.  If you can easily do more than 10 chins for one set, then add weight for these.  Make sure you get a deep stretch at the bottom of the movement, then pull yourself up until the chinning bar touches your upper chest, keeping your elbows flared out throughout the set.  Once again, utilize the same weight for all 8 sets, same as the bench presses.

     When doing these two movements as alternates, rest around one to two minutes between sets—some lifters prefer more rest, some less.  Do a set of bench presses, rest a minute or two, then do a set of chins, rest a minute or two before returning to the bench presses.  Continue in this manner throughout all 8 sets of both movements.

 

Incline Dumbbell Bench Presses: 4 sets of 8 reps.  After warmups, select a weight where 12 reps would be hard for one all-out set.  Use this weight for all 4 sets.  If you manage 8 reps on all sets, add weight at the next session.

     Alternated with:

Barbell rows: 4 sets of 8 reps.  For this movement, use whatever grip you prefer, whether it’s a close, reverse grip or whether it’s a wide-grip.  Get a deep stretch at the bottom of the rep and a contraction at the top.  When selecting a weight, make sure that it’s a weight where you could get 12 reps for one set with strict form.

     As with the first two exercises, rest around 1 to 2 minutes between each set.

 

     A few notes on the M-W-F sessions:

·         Remember that this program is meant for lifters who have been following a full-body program for months, or even years, beforehand and have built up the work capacity to handle three days of chest and back training each week.  If you have been training each bodypart only once per week and then see this program and decide to give it a go, it will likely be too much for you.  So, if that’s you, you have been warned!

·         Even if you had been doing a full-body workout before starting this program, you may want to ease into it by making the Wednesday session a light workout for a couple of weeks.  On Wednesday, use about 2/3 of the weight utilized on the Monday and Friday sessions.

·         Some lifters will do well by making the Wednesday session light throughout the entire run of the program.

 

Tuesday – Thursday – Saturday

     The only hard exercise on the T-Th-S workouts will be squats.  Everything else should be light and easy.  With the exception of the squats, treat all the other movements here as active recovery exercises.

Squats: 8 sets of 5 reps.  Use the same format here as used on the bench presses and chins from the first workout.  Make sure that you do full, deep squats.  Partial squats or even half squats won’t cut it.  And the harder you work squats, the more will your chest and back grow from the prior workout.

Standing calf raises: 1 set of 20-30 reps.  Do one set, not all-out.

Incline sit-ups: 1 set of 30 to 50 reps.  Stop when the set gets relatively hard.

Dumbbell side laterals: 1 set of 15 to 20 reps.  Select a weight where around 30 reps would be really tough for one all-out set.  Don’t select a weight that is too heavy or make the set too hard.  Remember, this should be treated as active recovery.

Barbell curls: 1 set of 15-20 reps. Use the same technique as the side laterals.

Cable pushdowns: 1 set of 15-20 reps.  Same technique as the laterals and curls.

 

 

Program #2: A Superset Program for Size, Shape, Symmetry, and Definition

     This program is good for you if you have already built an appreciable amount of size and strength, but you are now in need of “refining” your chest and back muscles.  This form of training was loved by the one and only Arnold Schwarzenegger, who said it was one of his favorite methods of training later in his competitive career.  The program below is largely mirrored after his own training plan.

     Regarding this methodology, Arnold said, “Supersetting these two areas has major benefits.  You get a tremendous pump in the chest and the back at the same time, and you maintain that pump throughout the entire workout.  You can train faster, thereby saving training time.  While one muscle group rests, the other is working.  Thus you can use heavier weights.  By training faster you can get a cardiovascular benefit so that fat burning is enhanced.  Put it all together—using heavier weights, training faster, getting a massive pump in both muscle groups, and burning more fat—and you can understand why supersetting chest and back helps to build quality muscle tissue.  Also, it ties bodyparts together for improved shape and symmetry.  Better flow from one muscle group to another makes your body more aesthetically pleasing.”[1]

     This program will follow the same template as the first program, with chest and back on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, and the rest of your body on Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday.  I have only listed the M-W-F workout because you want to do the same thing on T-Th-S as Program #1.  Remember that this is a specialization program for your chest and back to bring out more size, shape, and detail.  Don’t try to do that same kind of thing on the T-Th-S session or it will be too much.

 

Monday – Wednesday – Friday:

Superset:

Flat Barbell Bench Presses: 4 sets of 8-10 reps

Wide-grip Chins or Lat Pulldowns: 4 sets of 8-10 reps

Superset:

Incline Bench Presses: 3 sets of 8-10 reps

T-bar Rows: 3 sets of 8-10 reps

Superset:

Incline Dumbbell Flyes: 3 sets of 10-12 reps

Seated Cable Rows: 3 sets of 10-12 reps

Superset:

Parallel Bar Dips: 3 sets of 10-12 reps

V-bar Lat Pulldowns: 3 sets of 10-12 reps

Superset:

Cable Crossovers: 3 sets of 16-20 reps

Bent-over Lateral Raises: 3 sets of 16-20 reps

 

     A few notes:

·         Stop each set two or three reps shy of momentary muscular failure.

·         Move quickly between sets, resting only as much as you need.

·         Even though you are moving fast between sets, do each of the sets with control and concentration.  As Arnold said, “Don’t rush the exercises themselves or you lose the mind-to-muscle connection and fail to work the muscles properly.”[2]

·         If you need some time to condition your body to this workload, you can always stop after the first 3 supersets for the first week or two of training.  After that, add the 4^th superset for another week or two of training.  Then, go to all 5 movements.

 

     Hopefully, this article has given you some new ideas or insights into training your chest and back.  Or, perhaps, it has simply reminded you of an old-school method that isn’t used much these days.  Either way, maybe it’s time to head to the gym and put these ideas to use.

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[1] “How I Built my Ultra-Wide Championship Back” by Arnold Schwarzenegger from the magazine MuscleMag’s Shwarzenegger, Special Collector’s Issue, released in June 1997

[2] ibid