Years ago, a fool proof method of bulking up was discovered. And yet gaining weight is a major problem with bodybuilders today because the old method somehow got lost in the shuffle. It’s too bad, because gaining weight is really no problem. Bulking up is far and away the easiest part of bodybuilding.

 

If you want to make use of some old gold and really apply yourself, you can gain lots of weight. If you want to quit scratching around for something new for a couple of months, you can get as bulky as you want.

 

Let’s review the old method, and then we’ll outline a program for you. We can sum up the essentials very quickly. Squats and milk. That’s the gist of it. Heavy squats and lots of milk and never mind if the principle is years old. If you’re in doubt, let me tell you this. I get scores of letters from lifters around the country who’ve tried the squats and milk program. They all say the same thing. They gained more weight in a month on the squats and milk than they had in a year or more on other types of programs.Gains of twenty to thirty pounds in a month are not uncommon. If you don’t gain at least ten pounds a month you’re doing something wrong.

 

Lets take it piece by piece. We’ll start with the milk bit. The bodybuilders who don’t gain well on milk usually fail because they misunderstand the instructions to drink a lot of it. I’ve met a few men who thought a couple glasses was a lot. That’s not what I mean. When I say a lot of milk, I’m talking about a gallon or so a day. A gallon of milk a day may sound excessive, and perhaps it is, but it’s a sure guarantee of fast gains.

 

You can even soup up the milk a bit by adding a few items to it; like a day’s supply of protein supplement, some ice cream or maybe some skim milk powder. Either way, just make sure you drink a gallon a day. The other essential to the program is the squat. This, like the milk, is often badly misunderstood. Let’s outline a bulking up routine for you, and discuss the squat in it’s proper place in the program.

 

You should start your program with a brief warmup. Spend about five minutes bending and twisting, doing light repetition snatches or cleans, sit-ups, running in place, and so on. Don’t wear yourself out on the warmup. Just get your blood moving and a good feeling about the whole thing. Your first exercise is the press behind the neck. Do three sets of twelve reps. Don’t be frightened by the relatively high reps, and don’t be stampeded into using low rep stuff. The value of low reps has been greatly exaggerated. Moderately high reps, properly used, provide umpteen times the growth stimulation, and are so much better for your health that comparisons become ridiculous.

 

Do the presses in strict style with a medium width grip. Work hard on them and try to force the poundage way up. There’s no use kidding yourself on this or any other exercise. If you use baby sized weights, then you can expect baby sized muscles. It’s as simple as that and there’s no way out of it. If you want respectable deltoid, trapezius, and triceps development, then you’ve got to work up to about three-quarters of your body weight for the twelve reps. That means around 105 pounds for a 140 pound man, 120 pounds for a 160 pound man, 150 pounds for a 200 pound man, and so on. Nothing less will do. If you think it will, forget it.

 

The biggest fallacy in weight training is the foisted notion that you can build big powerful muscles without hard work on heavy weights. You can’t do it, brothers, and you’re wasting your time trying. If you’re not gaining like you should, give your training poundages a long hard look. The fault may be entirely yours. Take a short rest after the presses. The next exercise is the big one, the key to the whole thing, the squat. You’ll do one set of twenty reps, in puff and pant style, with all the weight you an handle.

 

Twenty rep squats are the solution to everybody’s weight gaining problems. They’ll stimulate growth beyond belief if you work hard enough on them. Warm up your knees with a few free squats and then start right in on the heavy stuff. Take three huge gulping breaths between each rep. Hold the last breath and squat. Blast the air out violently as you come erect. Hold your head up and keep your back as flat as possible. Don’t go below parallel position. You should use a weight so heavy that the last five reps are doubtful. I continually get letters from trainees complaining about their slow gains in bodyweight. Eventually I find out they’re using weights in the squat that an old lady with arthritis could lift. You’ve gotta force the poundage. 150% of your bodyweight for twenty reps is rock bottom minimum. That means 300 pounds for a 200 pound man. And remember, that’s a minimum figure. You should figure on going well above that.

 

As soon as you finish the squats, do twenty pullovers with a light weight. Twenty pounds or so is plenty. All you want to do is give your rib box a good stretch. The next exercise is the bench press. This exercise has been published enough so that you shouldn’t need any special instruction on it. Do three sets in a rather loose style. The next exercise is bent over rowing. Do three sets of fifteen in very strict style. Rest your forehead on a block or lean it against a post or something to make sure you don’t cheat. Use a medium width grip and pull the bar to your lower abdomen.

 

The next exercise is the stiff legged deadlift. One set of fifteen reps. Do the deadlifts standing on a bench or a high block so that you can go all the way down without the plates hitting the floor. Concentrate on a full extension and contraction of your lower back. Don’t set the weight down when you finish the fifteen reps. Stand erect and do shoulder shrugs until you grip gives out. You should be able to get at least a dozen shrugs out of it. Do another set of light pullovers, twenty reps, after the deadlifts and shrugs.

 

That completes the program, and it looks like this:

 

Work hard on all the exercises, and work to your limit on the squats. Drink milk as suggested earlier. Get lots of rest and sleep. Maintain a calm, tranquil mind and start saving your money. You’ll need it to buy bigger clothes. In other articles, John McCullum stressed the importance of forcing the poundage on the squat. He said to add five pounds every workout!

from “Strength & Health“, November 1968. By John McCallum

 

Recommended

 

Even before Stuart McRobert, there was physcial culture writer Anthony Ditillo, who was most known for his articles in Peary Rader’s original Ironman magazine from 1968 to 1985. More proof that there is nothing new under the sun is to be found in his sagely writings, things like the importance of high fat diets in cutting, the dangers of overtraining, using compound muti-joint exercises etc. Charles Poliquin, one of the world’s premier strength coaches, from testosterone claimed the book, ‘The Development of Physical Strength’, (a classic that was published in 1982) “I bought it from Iron Man magazine after reading several of his articles. I thought his approach was logical and full of common sense; and more importantly, it worked! It is the only book I have read more than once, and I actually bought a second copy after I misplaced my original one. I always tell my interns to get their own copy. It is a gem.” And this is coming from one of the greatest trainers around today!

Sadly, Anthony Ditillo passed away almost a decade ago, but his writings and routines live on. A few of them have been collected below.

 

 

Anthony Ditillo Training Routines

Routine #1
This full schedule should be repeated 2 times per week. However, if you want, you could increase it to three times per week, but this is up to your ability to handle work.

 

Routine No. 2.
This kind of training routine is more severe and that is why you only do 2 movements per training day. You will be working these 2 movements quite hard and this will cause you to gain.

 

Routine No. 3.
This would be he ordinary every other day schedule for the ambitious, underweight trainee.

 

Routine No. 4.
This type of routine would enable you to concentrate on one movement per workout for power and the other two for added muscular bulk. However, you will positively have to be sure to eat enough of the complete protein foods and get more than enough calories in order to grow.

 

Bulk And Power Routine No. 1
In this routine you will be performing the three basic power lifts. In it you use both low and high repetitions. This will allow you to gain in both muscular power and muscular size.

 

Bulk And Power Routine No.2
In this routine I have you working for bulk in the upper body while you are specializing on the lower body for power. The sets and reps are well suited to gaining in both and I have even broken down the workouts themselves into three distinct sections. I have you working the chest and shoulders on Monday and the back and arms on Wednesday (rowing and cleans work the arms quite hard!). Then on Friday I have you really work your thighs and hips and back.

 

Bulk And Power Routine No. 3
This routine has you training for power on the bench press and the seated press while your leg and back work aids in gaining size.
Monday:

 

Bulk And Power Routine No. 4

 

Bulk And Power Routine No. 5

 

Intermediate Mass Program
The intermediate mass program is NOT for the advanced man. He would never respond to the amount of work I’m going to advise herein. Being advanced necessitates diversity in performance and volume of work as well as tightening up the dietary schedule, since continued weight gain would NOT be desirable for the truly advanced man who has already gained sufficiently in basic bodyweight. For the majority of beginners and intermediates, three total body workouts per week seems to be just about right. You will have two heavy days and one medium day, for variety and recuperation. On you two heavy days the movements are heavy and basic. The repetitions are kept low to enable you to use truly heavy weights to ensure mass gains. The first and second sets should be warmup sets. Sets three, four and five are to be performed with all the weight possible for the required reps. Rest no longer than one minute between sets. When sets three, four and five can be done fairly easily, add ten pounds to your upper body movements and twenty pounds to the lower body movements. The entire schedule consists of between twenty-five and thirty sets. Surely this much work can be finished within ninety minutes.

 

 

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Before Stuart McRobert and ken Leistner, there were pioneers of physical culture like Peary Rader, John McCallum and Bradley J. Steiner. All of these men advocated basically the same ideas about correct training methods – weight training is not an endurance sport and should be brief and intense and full body workouts should be the mainstay of the majority of natural trainers. This is the beginning of the so-called “hardgainer” or abbreviated routines. These workouts were the sort of routines that the bodybuilders of the 1940s, 50s and 60s used to build their physiques, hitting the sort of full body routine below three times a week. I remember this book as a teenager, and at the time most guys I knew that worked out were doing this sort of program. For a teenager looking to pack on pounds quickly and build a solid base, this is still an excellent routine today nearly 40 years later for those interested in being strong, rather than looking strong.

 

Bradley J. Steiner’s Hardgainer Routine

 

excerpted from the early 1970s classic “The Hardgainers Bible” by Bradley J. Steiner (long out of print)

 

Recommended

 

I happen to believe that Reg Park is the best example and single representative of what proper training with weights can do for a man. He’s got everything: huge, almost superhuman muscles, the strength of the most powerful competitive lifter, and the perfect, well-balanced physique that one sees on Greek statues in museums. Whether or not you agree that Park is the Greatest — if you’ve seen him, then you’ve GOT to admit that he’s good, to say the very least. OK. so who cares about my opinion anyway, and what in heck does this have to do with how you can get the Herculean build you’re after?

The best physiques (and Park’s is one of ‘em), were all built by hard work on the basic, heavy duty exercises. There are NO exceptions to this statement. Even easy-gainers who (like Park) build up very easily, never get to the Hercules stage without the ultimate in effort. Park worked up to squats with 600 pounds, behind the neck presses with 300 pounds, and bench presses with 500 pounds! Hereditary advantages or not, Park sweated blood to earn the massive excellent physique that he has. And so did every other human Superman whose muscles aren’t merely bloated, pumped-up tissue. The problem of WHAT these basic exercisers are, and HOW HARD one must work on them for satisfactory, or even startling results, is one that every bodybuilder, at one time or another during his career, is confronted with. This month we’re going to solve the problem.

To begin, let’s sift through the thousands of possible exercises, and variations of exercises that confront every barbell man, and set down a principle by which the trainee can determine the BEST among them; those upon which he should be concentrating his best efforts. Here’s the principle: An exercise is worthwhile if it allows you to use very heavy weights — brings into play the BIG muscle groups — and causes lots of puffing and panting.

From the simple formula stated above, it is quite easy to see that fully eighty or ninety percent of the exercises followed by most barbell trainees do not come up to the standards required for maximum physical development. Concentration curls, Hack squats, lateral raises, thigh extensions, triceps “kickback” movements, etc., all followed slavishly by thousands of misinformed bodybuilders, are a waste of time. My very bitter apologies to the high-pressure ad-men, and the authors of all the super Space-age courses, but their stuff is strictly form hunger. If you’ve been sucked into following any such routines, drop ‘em! In all honesty, fellows, that garbage won’t do a thing for you, aside from bringing discouragement and disillusionment.

Save your time and money, and put your effort into THESE exercises:

In essence, those are the exercises that you ought to be killing yourself on. We’re concerned with the development of SIZE, POWER and SHAPELY BULK, so we’ve eliminated all supplementary abdominal and calf work. This you can do at your leisure, or you can omit it entirely, with no consequences to your overall development. The stuff we’ve enumerated above is what you need in order to turn yourself into a Human Hercules. And, lest you believe that this writer has a vested interest in this, let me say that he HAS. I derive personal, private, selfish satisfaction pushing the truth about sensible barbell training, and seeing those guys who are willing to work for their goals, achieving the builds they desire. The muscle heads, the “muscle-spinners,” the drug-takers, etc, are no concern of mine. They can go their own way; I’m concerned about the rest of you.

Honest muscles, like honest men, are rare. But they can be attained, and the only way to do it is through HARD, HARD work, and an honest approach to training programs. So if you’re willing, you can get the physique you’re after; if you train as I have discussed on the Basic Movements.

There are reasons why these basic exercises are best. Let’s talk about them.

It isn’t generally understood, but the easiest way to build the small muscle groups is by exercise on the big ones! For example, it’s impossible to build a broad, powerful back, and thick pectorals, along with terrific shoulders via the heavy cleaning, pressing, rowing and bench work that I advocate, without building enormous arm size and strength. You couldn’t do it if you wanted to! Yet, aside from weight-gaining, building big arms is a giant headache for most barbell men. How simple a matter it would become if only they would forget about the ridiculous pumping, cramping and spinning-type isolation exercises, and just train hard on the basics! The big arms would come naturally.

John Grimek once had arms that taped close to 19″. They were so big and powerful that they didn’t look real! Grimek at the time was an Olympic weight-lifting contender, and he had trained for a long period without doing a single curl or triceps “pumper.” His big arms got the way they did from the Heavy Lifting Training. You can do the same by working hard and heavy. And you don’t have to enter Olympic competition!

The trapezius and neck muscles are impressive and too often neglected by many weight-trainees. But your traps will grow like crazy if you push your cleans hard, and if you get your presses up to really impressive standards.

Ditto for your neck muscles. The huffing, puffing, and muscular work and exertion caused by ALL heavy work will make your neck muscles grow.

Forearms – “stubborn forearms” will respond like obedient, trained seals to heavy rowing, cleaning and pressing. And just try to keep your grip on a super heavy barbell while doing a set of stiff-leg deadlifts, without forcing the forearm muscles to ache and grow beyond belief!

Heavy squatting will build heavier calves. Sounds impossible? Well, just try working your squats like you’re supposed to, and you’ll see your calves begin to grow no matter how they’ve refused to respond to toe raises.

Power cleans are fine for the calf muscles too. Incredible as this statement may sound, it’s absolutely true. The coordinated effort of leg and back movement in heavy cleaning DOES work the calves! Try it for a few months and find out for yourself.

Nobody wants to be fat around the middle. Yet, unless you’re drastically overweight, you don’t need more than one set of one abdominal exercise (done in high reps, with resistance) to keep a rock-hard, muscular mid-section. The hard work on squatting, cleaning, and ALL heavy exercises will inevitably keep you trim and hard. And make no mistake about this: you are far, far better off with a thick, powerful waist than you are with a “wasp-waist pretty body.” A man should be BIG. He should be strong and powerful. And he can’t be if he tries to blow his biceps up to 20″ and keep his waist down to 30″. Use your head! If there are any real supermen around who have waistlines below 33″ or 34″, then they’ve got ‘em only because they’re SHORT, and, the small waist is proportionate tot he rest of their husky muscles.

Training on the big exercises builds HEALTH and LASTING muscle size. These two factors are very important. Today, men like John Grimek, Reg Park, Bill Pearl, and another lesser-known Hercules, Maurice Hones of Canada, all possess builds and physical power comparable to that which they had during their prime. The reason? They built REAL MUSCLE, Sig Klein must be around seventy, yet he’s got the build of a twenty-five year old athlete. The reason? He built REAL MUSCLE. The same holds for scores of others in the weight game who got their physical development by hard, hard work with heavy weights on the best exercises.

If you’re a young man now, then you’re probably more interested in what you can look like on a posing platform, and in how fast you can get piles of muscle – but don’t, no matter how great the temptation for an “easy way out” via pumping routines or muscle drugs, follow any system of training except the good, heavy, teeth-gritting type routines that build pure, strong, big muscles. I say this as a sincere warning against charlatans who would rob you of your money and your health – and do it gladly – to sell you on their own private “miracle systems’ or methods’. Keep clear of them, and remember, please, that you’ve got a long life ahead of you after any physique competitions you might enter or win within the next few years. You want health, well-being AND big muscles that will stay with you for the rest of your life. You will only get them if you train HARD and HEAVY!

Here’s a sample program that you can follow. It will give you every desirable physical quality. IF you work to your limit on it.

1) Warm up with one set of twenty prone hyperextensions.

2) Do two progressively heavier warm up sets in the squat, using five reps in each set. Then load on weight until the bar bends, and do three sets of five reps each with this limit poundage. Push! Fight! Drive! the SQUAT is THE builder of SUPERMEN!

3) Go to your flat bench and do two warm up sets, as you did for your squats, of five reps each in the bench press. Then do a final 3 sets with all the weight you can properly handle. In this, and in every other exercise in the program, REST WELL BETWEEN SETS!

4) Now do power cleans, stiff–legged dead lifts, or barbell bendovers. Same sets., same reps and the same forced poundage attempts as in the preceding exercises. Your lower back is a vital body area. Turn it into a SUPER POWER ZONE by intensive back work!

5) Do heavy, bent-over barbell rowing. Two warm up sets – then three limit sets – five reps in each set you do. Reg Park (I always seem to come back to mentioning him, don’t I!) used this exercise along with the power clean in order to build the unbelievable back that he possesses. He considers this bent-over rowing exercise the best single upper back movement a man can do.

6) Do some form of HEAVY pressing, If you read my stuff then you already know that I practically sneer at any shoulder exercise but the press behind the neck! But of course you can old military barbell presses, dumbbell presses, or any form of heavy seated pressing with excellent results sure to follow – IF YOU WORK HARD. Same set-rep scheme for your pressing as for the other exercises, and a tip: May guys have complained to me that I don’t understand (a-hem!) their difficulties when it comes to heavy pressing behind the neck. It seems that the effort of cleaning the bar up and behind their necks before each set tires their poor little bodies out. What to do? Do your presses right off the squat racks! Load the bar up. Get set comfortably under it. Get a good, solid grip on the bar and set your feet firmly. Now go to it. Press the weight right off the racks. Then, after each set, return the bar to the squat racks. Simple? you’ll get wonderful results this way – since you’ll be saving your energy and concentration exclusively for the pressing action, and all of the work will be thrown directly on your deltoids…so, better and bigger muscles!

End your workout with an abdominal exercise. Do any one that you happen to like. I prefer leg raises off the end of a flat bench, with iron boots on my feet, but it’s really only a personal preference, and you can work your midsection with any ‘ab” exercise that you happen to like. Just do one set, and run the reps at around twenty or thirty.

Here’s the routine written out:

 

Do that routine – or a similar one – as described in this article, and your muscles will bulge through your clothing after a year or so of training!
The watchwords are BASIC EXERCISES and HARD WORK. Remember them when you walk into the gym next time. You’ll be grateful for the rest of your life that you did,.

source: ‘Hard Work On Basic Exercises’
by Bradley J. Steiner- September, 1971 issue of Iron Man Magazine

 

Recommended

 

The most famous of all old school minimalist bulking routines by far is Randall J. Strossen’s “Super Squats” program with which, it is common to gain 30 pounds of bulk in as little as 6 weeks. The core of this training routine is one 20 rep set of squats,  just one set,supersetted with pullovers. Add to this two to three sets of some bench presses, rows and some overhead presses and the routine is complete. Using these full body compound movements will force your body to use all of its stabilizer muscles and burn calories as well as no other.

Quoting Strossen on diet: “In addition to the 20-rep squats, trainees are advised to eat a lot of wholesome food, drink at least two quarts of milk a day, and to get plenty of rest in between the twice- or thrice-weekly workouts. That’s it: one set of 20-rep squats, a couple of other basic exercises, plenty of good food, milk and rest. But, oh, those squats!”

The routine is performed monday, wednesday and fridays and should take no longer than 30-40 minutes. Start off with full ATG squats and hit a few warm up sets of 10 reps or so. On the one 20 rep squat set, you want to choose a weight that you could do comfortably for about 15 reps. The following five are to be done rest-pause style, doing the first 15 reps, then taking three or so breaths and then another rep, then three or so more breaths and another rep and so forth until all 20 reps are complete. After this, you grab a moderately heavy dumbbell and do one set of cross bench pullovers for 20 reps as well, using a weight that will allow you to complete all 20 reps in good form. Strive to add 5 – 10 pounds a week to the squats, and you will gain some seriousbodyweight. Again quoting Strossen about doing “only” one set of squats, ” Make no mistake about it, however, this one set of 20-rep squats is not your ordinary cup of iron tea: Whatever our recipe might lack in complexity of volume will be more than recouped in intensity. ” What follows is a reworking of the classic routine.

 

The Super Squat Routine – The Original:

 

The above routine is the ultimate ‘hard gainers’ routine and was done 2-3 times a week.

 

The Super Squat Routine – Reloaded:

 

The Diet:

 

Recommended

 

If I told you that it was not only possible for you to make great gains in strength and muscle mass by spending two hours a week in the gym you would probably think I am trying to sell you on the latest fad or gimmick, but in actual fact, that is all the growth stimulation you really need to become larger and stronger – provided it is set up properly and intense. The vast majority of people who wouldn’t believe this is possible have likely been led to believe that on has to be on one of those typical high volume, high frequency routines that we see in every issue of the most popular muscle magazine. The truth is, that the lion’s share of those routines would constitute overtraining for the average trainer with a fair metabolism. The volume and frequency are too much and there are typically too many single joint exercises in them as well. A drug free weight trainer (90%+) cannot cope with the volume laid out in the average routine laid out by pro, non-naturally trained bodybuilders. Consider Arnold Schwarzenegger’s split routine.

What his books and the magazines alike don’t mention is that he (and most other professional bodybuilders like him) were or are on 3-4 drugs at any given time and didn’t have full-time jobs. There is no way that even the average intermediate trainer can recover from this volume. The routine above is stereotypical of the same ones repeated ad nausem in the main “muscle magazines”: too much of everything, too often, too many needless isolation exercises. Most people we see in any gym trying to pack on muscle also have “real lives”. Daily work, activities around the house, other sports etc., all take their toll on the body’s recovery abilities. So does the emotional stresses that today’s working world produces. Most pro bodybuilders do little else other than eat, sleep and train. Add drugs to the mix and it is easy to see how following their advice is a sure-fire way to halt your progress and train yourself into the ground. Even some of the most knowledgeable trainers today spend most of their time working with athletes, and often recommend training regimens that are too much for the average trainer who’s nervous system cannot fully recover from them.

Weight training to achieve optimal growth stimulation for the average trainer must be a) relatively brief, b) intense, and c) infrequent. if you are looking to gain muscle while at the same time priming your metabolism, you must focus on compound multi-joint exercises. Strength training that uses these basic compound exercises is also key to burning body fat and providing the base for “functional strength” that spills over into any athletic activity you do on the side, whether its playing football on the weekends or martial arts. Weight training using heavy compound exercises like squats and deadlifts entails that you need to exercise less frequently because when you increase strength and size, your recovery ability (neurological adaptation) does not increase at quite the same rate, so one needs to keep in mind that proper recovery entails resting the nervous system fully more than it does resting the soft tissues. The maxim “less is more” applies to many things, especially weight training. it is a myth that you need more than one exercise per bodypart, if you are training heavy with enough intensity.

Focusing on progressing your strength on the basic exercises, using compound movements with proper form, eating a slight surplus of calories and protein while limiting ‘empty calories” and refined foods, finding time to rest properly, getting enough sleep, being consistent and believing in yourself, coupled with the routine below is all you need to grow and get stronger more than you ever thought possible. I firmly believe that besides the excellent “push/pull/legs” routine, this routine, is the most productive one I have ever used. It is also a perfect program for someone doing another activity on the side, be it cycling, climbing, MMA or whatever.

 

The 2 Day a Week Minimalist Power and Bulking Routine:

 

The Parameters:

• The routine is to be done with a minimum of 2 days off in between sessions, on a one on, two off rotation.
• 3 sets (so called “working sets”) of 5 reps are to be done, not counting warm-up sets!
• When it is possible to do a 7th rep on the last set, raise the weight
• Strive to raise the weight regularly
• Schedule a “deloading week” every 4th – 6th week, where the weight is dropped 20-25% on every exercise for that week
• Throw in 2 days a week of energy systems training and some GPP

What to Avoid:

• Adding exercises. Believe me, there is more than enough work here to build big arms!
• Adding extra sets and reps. Ditto. There is more than enough here with 3×5 on all the exercises.
• Not resting enough in between sessions. This routine will work best for most people done on a one on, two off rotation. Especially for us old guys!

The Benefits:

• You can expect increase in your basal metabolic rate
• You will loose bodyfat, getting leaner you gain muscle
• You will have more free time, literally gaining slabs of muscle as you play World of Warcraft!
• You will notice improved energy levels
• You will have more time on your off days to pursue other activities, like energy systems training, GPP, MMA, sports etc. Imagine the shape you would be in doing MMA or other martial arts/boxing 2-3 times a week and hitting the weights with this routine twice a week!

 

Recommended

 

Perhaps the most critically acclaimed and enduring book ever written on the subject of weight training is Bill Starr’s “The Strongest Shall Survive: Strength Training for Football” written in 1976. Seemingly endless variations of Starr’s original routine have sprouted up all over the Net and for good reason – it is possibly the most perfect routine ever devised. His routine focused on bench presses, squats and power cleans, done on a Monday – Wednesday – Friday rotation with heavy, medium and light days. Bill Starr is where the “5×5″ routine came from; each exercise was done following a protocol of five sets of five reps. Starr’s 5×5 routine uses the three exercises which Starr referred to as “the big three”, quoting Starr:

“These are 3 basic exercises used by weightlifters to increase their strength….the football player (and you can insert Martial Artist, Fighter, whatever there) must work for overall body strength as opposed to specific strengthening exercises….In other words the athlete should be building total leg strength rather than just stronger hamstrings. He should be seeking overall strength in his shoulder girdle rather than just stronger deltoids….the program is fast, simple and, most importantly, effective. It requires very little space and a minimum of equipment….”

 

 

Bill Starr’s 5X5 Routine In Its Original Form

 

The Bill Starr Power Routine

 

Bill Starr’s Beginner 5×5

 

The Bill Starr Strength Factor Routine

 

Bill Starr’s “Big 3″ Program

 

Beyond Bill Starr: Madcow and Mark Rippetoe

By far of all of the variations of coach Starr’s original routines, the two of them that are the most used and advanced in term of principles are those ones by “Madcow” and coach Mark Rippetoe. Madcow’ variation isn’t one routine, it features several based on the trainer’s needs and uses deloading phases, dual factor training, and hypertrophy phases.

 

Mark Rippetoe’s “Starting Strength” Novice 5×5 Routine:

All the sets shown (3×5) are all working or “live” sets, not counting warmups sets. Additional supplementary exercises can be added, but very sparingly. In the case of arms, the biceps/triceps already get enough growth stimulation from heavy presses, rows and chins. Abdominal work can be used as a cool-down. Grip work can be added to the end as needed too. Workouts A and B alternate on 3 non-consecutive days per week. Proof of concept that coach Rippetoe’s novice routine works isn’t only found by the five star rating that “Starting Strength” receives regularly on Amazon.com, but also in numerous threads like this one on the Net.

More proof that these variants work on the vast majority of the population can be found on the excellent “StrongLifts” website which features its own variant of Bill Starr’s 5×5. (note: the site also has a vibrant community found on their forums)

 

Mark Rippetoe’s Practical Programming Novice Program

 

Mark Rippetoe’s The Advanced Novice Program

 

Madcow Intermediate 5×5

 

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If there is one person who is most responsible for the resurgence of “abbreviated routines”, aimed primarily at those with fair metabolisms and genetics, it is Stuart McRobert. His books “Brawn” and “Beyond Brawn” are must-haves for your weight training library, as they comprise the clearest and most commonsensical knowledge and hype-free training advice ever written on the subject. His routines are designed for natural trainers who do not rely on temporary, self-cheating shortcuts like drugs. The major premise in most of his writing is that the vast majority of trainers simply do not have the recovery ability to train full-time, year round on the typical routines we see in muscle magazines (written by and for those with genetic advantages and taking drugs). Those routines, McRobert maintains, will either be ineffective or induce injury if one structures their training around them. He is also a promoter of: abbreviated training, progressive resistance, sleep and recovery, compound exercises, free weights.

 

Stuart McRobert’s Abbreviated Hardgainer Routines:

The following are templates suggested by McRobert which the individual can use as a base for structuring their training routines. Most of these routines are done 2-3 times a week and anyhwere from 2-4 working sets per exercise are to be done, not counting warmup sets.

 

Template 1 – Full-body-routine program

 

Template 2  – Twice-a-week divided program

 

Template 3 – Three-days-a-week divided program

 

Template 4 – Super-abbreviated program

 

Template 5 - Abbreviated Push Pull

Repeat workout one 3-4 days later.

 

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In modern bodybuilding, in my opinion the finest natural example of the perfect balance between aesthetic physique and phenomenal strength is the late Reg Park. Without Park, there would likely have been no Arnold Schwarzenegger. Reg Park was the inspiration for Arnold to pick up his first set of weights. Park won Mr. Britain in 1949 and although there were bodybuilders before him, his level of size and development raised the bar and would not be surpassed until Arnold himself appeared on the competitive scene in the late 1960s. he was 6′1″ and weighed over 250 pounds – standards which were enourmous for the time. Comparing the physique of Park to his predecessors would be like us comparing Ronnie Colman today to the bodybuilders of the 70s.

Reg Park’s Beginner’s routine below was the exact one used by Arnold in his late teens to get huge! Like Park, he trained at this routine 3 times a week and it comprised mainly of heavy compound movements done with the “5×5″ protocol. But unlike the more popular 5×5 we see in Bill Starr’s routine, Park (like Mark Rippetoe today!) advocated that sets 1 and 2 are to be warmups for sets 3,4 and 5. In other words once you hit your max weight for five reps after two warmups, then crank out 3 sets of 5. For example, say your bench press is a max of 225lbs for 5 reps (which is about 90% of 1RM), the first set would be at 60% – 135 lbs, then the next warmup set could be 80% – 185lbs.

 

Reg Park’s Beginner’s Routine

 

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Filed under featured, full body · Tagged with full body, hardgainer

Setting up a Practical Full Body Training Routine

Recently there has been a renaissance in the “full body” training routines, thanks in large part to people like Ken Leistner, Stuart McRobert, Ellington Darden as well as the rebirth of the classic Bill Starr 5×5 routine, thanks to Glen Pendlay, Mark Rippetoe and websites like Madcow’s and Stronglifts. These routines which are intense and use only compound exercises are about as old school as you can get. This is the way that the legends of the golden era of bodybuilding in the 1950s used to train. People like Reg Park, Steve Reeves, Armand Tanny, Vince Gironda and John Grimek all used these sorts of 3 day a week, full body routines to get huge. Any of these guys would likely be found to have more aesthetic physiques than the average growth hormone fuelled pro bodybuilders today by the vast majority of the general public. Add to that, they all had functional muscle and were athletic. How many bodybuilders today could handle a ground ball?

The fact that legenday football trainer Bill Starr’s “The Strong Shall Survive” and John McCallum’s “The Complete Keys to Progress” are still bestsellers today speaks for itself. These two books, for example contained routines that have been modified and reinterpreted somewhat by many, but the core ideas and structure behind them still prove to be true: full body workouts are the most efficient way to gain a lot of muscle really quick, full body workouts burn the most fuel and are best for getting that lean and athletic look, while gaining muscle. They are also the most natural way to train, as your body works as a whole, not in some sort of segmented kinetic isolation.

How to go about setting up a full body routine?

When setting up your full body routine, there are some things that you have to consider and your training recovery abilities are perhaps the most important. If you are a fairly new trainer, with less than a year or so under your belt, or are a young trainer – say under 25 years old, then your recovery ability and consequently the volume and frequency of your workouts can be higher than an older trainer (like me at 46) who has trained for 20 years. An older trainer say, over 40 might be able to use more resistance in their exercises, but this will necessitate larger amounts of time in between training sessions as greater resistance creates a greater aggregate stress on the body’s recovery ability. Think of your body is a well of energy, the same amount of energy used to power you through a workout is the same source of energy used to recover from the workout. If you run the well dry with too many training sessions with not enough rest in between them, then its a reasonable assertion that you are short changing yourself in terms of muscle gains. The key variables to consider in any training routine (split of full body) are 1) volume, 2) frequency and 3) intensity. The key variables in the supercompensation phase of muscle growth are 1) diet and 2) rest. Take stock of your age, the experience you have in training and the amount of stress in your life at any given time as well and adjust your training accordingly.

For younger trainers and beginners:

the following routine is to be done 3 days a week, one on, one off, weekends off: Monday/Wednesday/Friday:

1) Squats – 2×10-12
2) Pullovers – 2×10-12
3) Overhead Barbell Presses – 2×8
4) Chinups or Pullups – 2×8
5) Dips – 2×8
6) Barbell Curls – 2×8
7) Barbell or Dumbbell Shrugs – 2×8
8) Stiff-Legged Deadlifts – 2×12

 

For older trainers:
Since older trainers and more experienced trainers need more rest, the following full body routine is an “A/B split” comprised of 2 full body workouts to be done one on, two off: mon-thurs-sun-wed-sat-tues-fri, etc etc..There is also some overlap in the routine so some of the muscle groups still get hit twice a week too from different angles:

Day One
1.Deadlift (or variation) 3×5
2.Leg Press 3×8
3.Chin 3x fail
4.BB Overhead Press 3×5
5.Dips (weighted if possible) 3×5

 

Day Two
1.Squat 3×5
2.Bench Press 3×5
3.Rowing movement 3×5
4.Dumbbell Overhead Press 3×5
5.Curls 3×8

Both of these programs are as efficient as you can get to balanced, practical full body training.

 

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Filed under featured, full body · Tagged with Bill Starr, full body, John McCallum, Ken Leistner