Golden Era Wisdom IV

A final instalment of wisdom from the greatest era of bodybuilding

Back in 2021, I wrote a series of email blasts for a friend of mine who had started a fitness company. The emails were called “Golden Era Motivation,” and they were basically intended to provide some… well, motivation using stories, examples and wisdom from the Golden Era of bodybuilding. I wrote ten in all. I thought it would be a good to get these up here lest they disappear forever. I’ve also had a lot of requests for more classic bodybuilding content.

Here are the final two emails I sent, the first on the subject of strength vs aesthetics and the second on specificity.

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Big or Strong? – You Can and Should Be Both!

Classic poses from the legend Reg Park

Which do you want to be: big or strong? Do you choose big steaming muscles (for show), or strength (and settle for a big belly and hamburger face)?

Heaven knows, we’ve seen and heard variations of this dichotomy so many times. In fact, if we were given a dollar for every time somebody told us you have to choose between being muscular and aesthetic on the one hand, or being strong and looking like a sack of potatoes – we’d certainly have a lot more spare change in our pockets than we do at present.

While it is obviously true that the strongest men in the world don’t have the most aesthetic physiques – the last Mr Olympia winner to take part in a World’s Strongest Man competition, if memory serves, was Franco Columbo – it’s absolutely not the case that you have to choose between one or the other.

You can be massively strong – certainly by comparison with the average man, or even the average trained man – and have a beautiful physique as well, and this is exemplified perfectly by the bodybuilders of the Golden Era.

Look at Reg Park, for instance. As well as being bodybuilding’s first real crossover superstar, a man who would play Hercules on the silver screen and fill out the mythical hero’s loincloth and lion costume admirably, he was also famous for his feats of strength. Most notably, he was the second man ever to bench press 500lbs, after the Canadian weightlifter Doug Hepburn, with whom Park actually trained briefly on a visit to North America.

Consider some of Reg’s other PRs: a 600lb back squat, a 405lb front squat, a 200lb strict curl and a 258lb one-arm dumbbell press. Not bad, eh?

Or Chuck Sipes. For some time, like Reg Park this absolutely shredded Mr America winner was the second strongest bench presser in the world, having pressed 600lbs. Only the powerlifter Pat Casey, who was considerably larger than Sipes, was a better presser.

The examples could be multiplied almost indefinitely. What about Marvin Eder, who could do a weighted dip with an extra 400lbs attached to his body? I’ve already mentioned Franco Columbo’s tilt in the World’s Strongest Man, and people may not be aware that his best friend and training partner Arnold held a number of weightlifting records in Europe in the early days of his career.

How did they do this? The answer is simple: these greats knew that strength was the best foundation for an aesthetic physique. Rather than beginning with routines built around an ever-changing repertoire of exotic isolation exercises – what we might dub, in its worst form, the ‘infinity WOD’ method – they focused on getting good at the ‘big’ compound lifts (bench press, squat, deadlift, overhead press, clean and jerk); and by ‘getting good’ at them, I mean getting stronger. That means increasing the weight week-in, week-out.

Reg Park followed the 5x5 (five sets of five reps) method that had probably been taught to him by Doug Hepburn. Reg credited this for increasing his strength massively and also for adding a kind of size and density to his physique that he had not otherwise have been able to obtain when he was training just for aesthetics rather than strength.

To Every Thing There Is a Season

Vince Gironda

To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heavens:

A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted;

A time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up;

A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance;

A time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;

A time to get, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away;

A time to rend, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;

A time to love, and a time to hate; a time of war, and a time of peace.

These famous verses from the Bible extol something Vince Gironda knew plenty about: the importance of specificity.

Many people think that building muscle is just a case of eat chicken and rice + chug protein shakes + lift weights. In fact, I can think of fewer paths less likely to lead you to success than this bland formula.

I’ve seen so many people, on the internet and in real life, fail because they think that this formula is foolproof, when in fact, only fools are the ones doing it.

In my home town, for instance, there’s a guy who regularly posts his progress on his Instagram. To tell the truth, ‘regularly’ doesn’t accurately convey the number of times he posts gym-related material each day. Oh look here’s another food prep post and – what a surprise! – it’s chicken and rice again this week! Oh a new piece of gear he doesn’t need! What’s this I see, another 40 set workout? Eight exercises for chest, including a final mega drop set? Of course!

And yet, after two or more years of this nonsense, which is totally unsuited to his purposes and the fact that he is clearly a non-enhanced lifter, he’s still going, despite making no visible progress whatsoever. In every post, he still looks like he’s stepping into the gym for the first time. No amount of branded gear, straps, lifting belts and other accessories can disguise the fact that he is neither appreciably bigger nor appreciably stronger than he was when he started. So take out your airpods and listen to me. Want to know your problem, bro?

Lack of specificity.

Vince Gironda knew that there was no single formula for success in the gym. Maybe, if pushed, he would have said that the right mindset is the one thing everybody needs, but even that doesn’t guarantee success. The chap in my home town seems to be motivated: he practically lives at the gym. So what should he do?

We all need to know what we’re doing and why we’re doing it. Specificity: what is it you want to achieve? How are you going to achieve it? Do you even know? I’d wager many don’t, not in the depth that’s required.

Vince had bulk diets, cutting diets, mass gain workout programmes, definition workout programmes, cutting programmes, programmes to break through plateaus – a programme and diet to every purpose under the heavens.

Do you want to pack on mass fast? Well, you need the 36-eggs-a-day diet and a workout like the 6x6 (six sets of six reps). Looking to burn in some real definition? Try a programme of 8x8. Getting ready for that first competition? Get in the best shape of your life with the steak-and-eggs diet. Stuck at a plateau? Try the 10-8-6-15 workout and blast through it!

Vince knew, and so should you, that there’s no point sticking with a programme that doesn’t meet your purposes and needs. That’s why he never advocated any of his diets or programmes to last forever. No, you shouldn’t stay on the 36-eggs-a-day diet once you’ve gained the mass you need, and sticking to the steak-and-eggs diet for too long might see you lose too much weight. Do something else, you idiot, or get out of my gym! Vince did not suffer fools gladly.

So take a leaf out of Vince Gironda’s book: pay attention to the specifics. Know what you want to achieve and how you’re going to achieve it. That realisation will be the first step on the road to true success. It certainly was for Vince and for the many champions, film stars and celebrities he trained over nearly half a century in the business.