The Deep Knee Bend - Bob Hoffman (1948)

Squatting With Grace, such a pun. 

Bob Hoffman, Deep Knee Bend on Toes

Steve Reeves and the Ghost of Lee Priest's Childhood

Lost in Time Come Undone

Note: There is, I believe, only one of the three parts of this Bob Hoffman series on the blog so far. Well, now there are two, I suppose this is true but may be completely wrong. 

Okay then: 

Strength & Health | Feb 1948 | The Deep Knee Bend, Part I - Jules Bacon

Strength & Health | March 1948 | The Deep Knee Bend, Part II - Jules Bacon

Strength & Health | April 1948 | The Deep Knee Bend, Part III - Bob Hoffman

This is becoming too much head work to bother with . . . here's the one that got put up earlier: 

https://ditillo2.blogspot.com/2009/04/deep-knee-bend-bob-hoffman.html

Okay now: 

This is the third of a series of articles concerning the antiquity and the value of a very result producing exercise practiced the world over, the Deep Knee Bend. 

Last month we offered 10 variations of deep knee bending with flat feet. This month we will offer somewhat different methods of performing this great exercise. 

There are 20 different methods of performing this excellent strength and muscle building exercise. Yet most body builders rarely if ever deep knee bend in any manner except the deep knee bend flat footed with the feet a comfortable distance apart, usually about shoulder width, and its opposite, the deep knee bend on toes. 

While the former permits the aspiring strength and muscle seeker to work up to really substantial poundages, in the latter, the deep knee bend on toes, very rarely is more than bodyweight employed. 

To practice the deep knee bend on toes, the barbell is pulled up and over usually in one continuous motion, for most body builders can easily pull up the moderate amount of weight they will employ in the deep knee bend on toes. 

With the bar resting low on the shoulders, the heels are placed together, the toes turned out at least to an angle of 45 degrees, raise on toes, and keeping the back as upright as possible, and the knees turned out wide, lower the body into the full squat position. 

Continue this movement in a regular cadence, up down, up down, until the muscles are somewhat tired, usually 15 repetitions will do this, but some use up to 20 counts. 

The deep knee bend on toes exercises and develops the muscles from a somewhat different angle than the common, flat foot, deep knee bend. Its persistent practice will impart a pleasing roundness to the outside of the thighs. It is seldom wise to employ as much weight as the legs are capable of as balance is more difficult and there is too good a chance that slight over-balancing will result in a twisted knee. 

So go slowly in this exercise, learn to perform it perfectly. Be satisfied with bodyweight or less than bodyweight until you are assured that you can safely handle a greater poundage. 

And now comes No. 3, my own favorite exercise, the Deep Knee Bend and Press Behind Neck. This compound exercise creates a considerable variety of favorable results. 

While the two hands repetition snatch has been voted the best exercise by weight lifters, the continuous pull-up ranks first in the opinion of many and others the continuous pull-up and press a large segment of the body-builders of America will state that they prefer the flat foot deep knee bend. These are all excellent exercises, it is wise to include them all in every body building program, but more and more each day, the writer becomes more firmly convinced that the deep knee bend and press behind neck deserves rank as "the world's best exercise." 

While it won't be most result producing for the competitive weight lifters, they are vastly in the minority, those who regularly take part in weight lifting competition numbering only about one thousand, one to a thousand of the thousand thousand, the million, men who seek strength, health and development the barbell way in this country. 

The weight lifter needs the strength building and the stimulating effects of the two hands snatch, the high pull-up and the all round benefit of the continuous pull-up and press, particularly this latter movement will develop nearly all the muscles which are required to build greater ability in the practice of the three Olympic lifts; the two hands snatch, the two hands press and the two hands clean and jerk. 

The man who seeks the limit in strength, muscle and bodyweight needs the flat foot deep knee bend with all the weight he can handle. But there is no good reason why the deep knee bend and press behind neck cannot be made a part of the training program of the competitive weight lifter, and the man who seeks the "Mr. America" type of physique or to win the most muscular man in physique contests. 

With these men who lift the heaviest possible weights it is a most excellent movement to be used with a moderate weight as a warm-up, or in the middle of the program with all the weight which can be properly handled, to build the many physical characteristics of which this very excellent movement is capable.

But this one movement is the very best or all for the much larger body of the population who seek perfect health and more than average strength. If people of all ages and both sexes can be persuaded to practice this movement, more than any other one thing it will rapidly advance the barbell movement. It will provide a degree of strength and muscle building exercise, of internal organic stimulation which will build a new race of Americans. 

Yikes! 

First of all we must recognize the fact that the press behind neck limits the amount of weight which can be handled in this movement. The legs will become so strong that they can deep knee bend with twice as much weight as can be pressed behind neck. 

For instance, the man who learns to press 100 pounds behind neck can usually deep knee bend with 200. A man who can learn to press 150 behind neck can usually deep knee bend with more than 300, and the stars of strength and development, the champions of weight lifting, who spend hours practicing the press, men like Stanczyk, Terpak, Spellman can press more than 200 pounds behind neck and deep knee bend with more than 400.

John Davis, the world's heavyweight lifting champion, the world's strongest man can deep knee bend with more than 500 and one thing sure, although I have not seen him press behind neck for a long time, he could exercise with 250 pounds in this manner.  

Why then, you may wonder, when we admit that the press behind neck limits the poundage to about half of what the legs are capable do we consider this to be the best all around exercise? 

Because it is an exercise which perhaps more than any other brings all of the major muscles of the body into action, it teaches the body balance, control, it straightens the back, squares the shoulders, broadens the shoulders, slenderizes the waist, strengthens the arms, provides a more than fair workout for the legs, does the dishes, takes out the garbage and most important of all perhaps more than any other, it at first gently stimulates the internal organs and glands, and then provides them with a great measure of healthful stimulation.  

The latter result if the chief benefit of weight training, for all favorable physical results have their beginning in the stimulation of the internal organs and glands. First this movement which places all the muscles into fairly vigorous action will speed up the circulation and the respiration. These are the two most noticeable effects. 

After a few bends you will find yourself breathing deeply and the longer you continue the movement the more fully you will find it necessary to breathe. To obtain the best results from any exercise it should be carried to the point of enforced breathing for this means greatly amplified circulation too. 

The heart and lungs are so synchronized in their action that from the moment of your birth to the second of your death they work together as partners. When you are breathing forcefully, just as sure as death and taxes your heart has been sped up in its action, and the blood is pulsing through your body with a much increased tempo. It goes faster, and farther, it carries many times more oxygen to the working muscles, and the cells which are a part of them, and it serves much more ably to remove the waste of all the cells. 

What we have written here in a few words is the most important statement we could make concerning the supreme value of stimulating exercise. While muscles can be built by exercising one particular group alone, superior results are obtained in health building, only when the entire internal works of the body are stimulated. 

While the body is in an inactive, quiet state, most of the blood is contained within the organs, there is very limited general circulation, only 1/6 as much blood at any time goes below the ankles as courses through the body above, one one-thirtieth as much oxygen as the blood is capable of carrying is being transported to the cells of the body, only a part of the waste of each cell is being removed. 

And every tiny cell should receive its load of oxygen and the necessary materials to help it function and to provide the body in general with all it requires for maintenance, building and repair. How many cells are there, it is almost frightening to contemplate. It is estimated that there are 720 muscles in the body, 4 thousand millions or four billion muscular fibers, and each of these is made up of a great number of cells. 

The body dies when too few of the cells of the body are provided with the materials they need, when the waste from these cells is not removed. More than any other one thing, super health is built due to this greatly increased blood circulation throughout the body.

Isn't there any other way to do this, except with the deep knee bend and press behind neck, you may be wondering. Surely there are other ways, but in the opinion of the writer, no other way is as good. 

Running will speed up the breathing, but as it is nature's way to provide the working muscles with the materials they require there will be no general benefit as only a few of the muscles of the lower extremity are in vigorous action. 

Swimming will help some, many of the muscles of the body are in action, notably the arms and legs, and if continued at high speed for a considerable distance exceptional benefit will be received. But few people can swim rapidly for fairly long distances and swimming does not develop the balance, the deep chest, the broad shoulders, the powerful back, the strong legs, the all around arm development, which the deep knee bend and press behind neck will produce. There is no exercise out of weight training which will produce the all around effort that some of the weight exercises will produce and, of course, equally splendid results cannot be obtained. 

What we are writing about is not a new theory, something we have apparently just discovered in the last months or years, but it is a true fact that we have been cognizant of and have utilized for the score of years during which we have put forth great effort in developing the world's champion York barbell club team, and during the 16 years that we have published this magazine, the 19 years which the four famous York courses in their present form have been offered to the health, strength and muscle seeking public. Here are a couple dozen clearly scanned "old" courses to view: 

http://vintagemusclemags.com/table.php?t=Miscellaneous 

And here are the two York advanced barbell courses: 

http://ditillo2.blogspot.com/2022/04/york-courses-three-and-four.html

http://ditillo2.blogspot.com/2022/04/york-courses-three-and-four-part-two.html 

I haven't heard Mr. Hoffman go on about any other exercise aside from the continuous high pull-up like this . . . 

In arranging the exercises of the York courses, first there were the warm-up exercises. which started the blood circulating through the entire body, then specialized movements such as the curl and press, and as the body was warmed up the deep knee bend, then the pullover when the exerciser was breathless and superior results in bodybuilding would be received, then more heavy exercises. 

When the Simplified barbell course which bears my name, Bob Hoffman's Simplified System of Barbell Training, first offered in 1940, 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ofpP00ka3Y   

the same principles were included in it. There are 10 exercises in each of the two courses which make up this system of training and 6 of these are so designed that practically all of the muscles of the body are placed in action simultaneously. 

The continuous pull-up and press, the repetition snatch, the high pull-up, the deep knee bend flat footed and on toes, the deep knee bend and press behind neck, are the best of these. They are designed to speed up the circulation, the respiration and the elimination, to cause the strength and health seeker to puff, pant and perspire, for these are the outward manifestations that you are stimulating, strengthening and improving the internal works of the body. 

This was no new theory for our entire success has been built around this little known principle when we started to place a major effort back of helping out country to include millions more of strong, healthy people. Many people still believe that the best article I ever wrote is one of the chapters of the book "How to Be Strong, Healthy and Happy," chapter 24, to be more specific titled, Building Internal or Organic Strength Through Exercise. The chapter which precedes is Exercise Revitalizes the Body, ranks high among the proven theories we have ever advanced. 

It was this book . . . [can't believe I still haven't read this one! But I should be able to find something to put up when I get a copy come Wednesday]

. . . more than any other one thing, which brought the writer exceptional recognition from the medical and teaching world. It was this book more than any other one thing which made the writer known at leading universities throughout the land. And it was this book, which coupled with lectures and personal conversations and the York courses which gave the final proof, that changed the medical world from thinking only of tying up wounds and rest in bed, so that early ambulation, early activity after childbirth, the superior effects of sun in healing wounds, and the general, all around effect of progressive weight training which brought about such favorable physical effects. 

One of the famous doctors in the nation was with the Surgeon General's Office during the war. Finally he sent for me. I was surprised that he even knew me, but his secretary looked at me with great interest and said, "Dr. Blank tells me that you were the strongest man in the world and that you are still a very good men.' I was treated like a king. The doctor went on to state that they had been experimenting with the advice I had offered in my books and courses and they were about to try a great experiment. 

Their preliminary experiments had proven the value of exercise in the treatment of wounds and it seemed that our form of exercise would speed the recovery of the wounded or injured men by such a great rate that as little as 1/4 of the time would be required for convalescence. 

He asked me if they could use my Simplified System of Training in their manuals which were being sent out to all service doctors. The famous doctor said, "We can't use your name, but nearly everyone will know it is your course, your development and it will benefit your work much in the future." 

Of course, I was not only willing but anxious to place our form of progressive physical training at the disposal of the Surgeon General's office. And it was after this late start, for it was late in the war that the quartermaster corps finally purchased over a hundred thousand sets of York weights, thousands of York health boots, cables, springs nd other accessories. 

There it was proven that stimulating exercise was the best doctor of all. It was a great step forward for weight training. 

This article is becoming almost a book. We should write a book on this subject alone, for progressive weight training, even the single exercise about which we are enthusing, would be the greatest single life extensor and health builder in the world today. If the people of our country, and those of the rest of the world who are interested would practice this one exercise, what a wonderful world it would be. 

We are not theorizing, but are offering you the results of our long experience. For you the results of our long experience. For long periods of time, this one exercise, the deep knee bend and press behind neck, has been the only exercise I have fitted into a very busy life. I have had the opportunity to see the magnificent work it can do in making a person feel well and look well. 

As this is written I weigh 256 pounds and it is in the right places too. Old suits that I wore when I weighed 20 pounds less fit loosely around the waist, and a belt with which I used to measure my waistline still is very comfortable in the very last notch. 

Sometimes I practice the movement as little as one, 15 repetitions with 100 pounds. Usually I try to perform three series (sets) of 15. 

When I employ more weight I often perform 10 x 90, then 15 x 100. By this time I have had a pretty good workout, I can perform this exercise with my regular business attire, I can do the first series, then lather my face, then the second series [shades of Bruce Lee], then shave, then the third series and have not used up more than 5 minutes of my busy life. 

Note: You just knew with Bob Hoffman this was coming . . . 

(continued next month)

Enjoy Your Lifting!