Weightlifting Exercises for Bodybuilders - Charles A. Smith

 

Center: Tommy Kono

Thanks to Eagle Eye John for this one! 

The easiest thing in the world is to start an argument between a number of weight trainers on the relative merits of bodybuilder, weightlifting and their adherent physical qualities. Personally, I refuse to recognize these two divisions within our favorite sport. 

To me, all men who use weights are "LIFTERS" and I have never been able to understand why members of these groups make, and continue to make disparaging remarks about each other. 

Now, I did intend to start this article with a wise crack -- you know -- something to take the sting out of what I was going to say, and give the impression that the "coolness" between the muscle men and the "Olympic Boys" was a fit subject for the pages of the Sunday funnies. But, thinking it over, I don't feel that it is a joking matter, not even something over which you can preach a sermon and wag an admonishing finger in print -- I think it is high time that we all recognized the respective merits to be obtained from bodybuilding AND Olympic lifting; how you, the lifter, can use bodybuilding exercises to improve your specialized form of strength athletics, and how you, the bodybuilder can use the various assistance and enabling exercises of the competition man to improve your physique and add more power to your "tout ensemble." 

I think it is a sorry situation when two famous weightlifting clubs refuse to allow (a) bodybuilders, or (b) Olympic lifters, within their premises. One organization calls all bodybuilders nuisances and the other names weightlifters as hazards to life and limb. Both these contentions are of course out of line. The sooner we realize that the only difference between a Physique man and an Olympic man is that they are using the same means to get to different points, then the sooner will we produce men to take the place of Davis, George and Stanczyk, and Theriault, Reeves and Ross. A plane pilot might be dragging freight or passengers, but it doesn't alter the fact that he is a pilot. He uses the same medium for different objects -- HE GETS TO WHERE HE IS GOING JUST THE SAME. 

If we sit down and admit to ourselves that no matter how hard we try none of us can be perfect, and if we recognize that we ALL have our little faults and peculiar ways, then we will have gone a long way towards regaining our supremacy in the strength world and making our sport that much more preeminent in the domain of athletics. If we also recognize that there are benefits to be obtained from a broadminded acceptance of the claims we make for our respective branches of weight training, then our future victories are assured. 

Let's examine the essential differences in development and power between the muscle boys and the quick lift artists. The Olympic man is accustomed to using his strength in swift bursts of power -- he, except in the Press, moves rapidly with heavy weights. Speed is a necessary factor to his lifting success. Coordination of his legs, back and arms into one savage effort is what he strives for. Basic bodily power is what he seeks to develop. Looking at his physical makeup, one can see in it, the results of this specialization. The development of the trapezius is heavy, the vastus internus and externus pronounced, the upper and lower back outstanding and the deltoids objects of remark. His muscular make-up seems so much thicker than the bodybuilder's. 

But the physique man tops his Olympic lifting brother by better pectoral development, by more thoroughly developed lats and abdominals. In one instance only, is the Olympic man better in the midsection and that is in pronounced obliques. He gets this from the use of the one hand snatch and clean & jerk. 

The bodybuilder has better all round thigh development and his calves are more proportionate. The lifter has, however, that bulkiness combined with definition which is at the same time the delight and the despair of a heck of a lot of physique men. They all want it, but they don't get it. The bodybuilder, however, has what a lot of lifters covet -- Strength plus Endurance. 

So here is where I help you to get that bulk and definition, where I also show you how to develop that sustaining strength and the basic bodily power, which will help you hold your own when you either decide to enter Olympic competition or show the lifter what YOU can do. 

It is a pity that present day competitions are devoted entirely to the two hands press, snatch, and clean & jerk, for those lifts do not give the bodybuilder a chance to shine. Except in physical excellence contests, the muscle man has no opportunity of exhibiting his prowess. Looking at this problem from a purely commonsense viewpoint, it is as it should be. Only be speculation can our strength athletes hope to be victorious. 

In the exercises which follow, the bodybuilder can back up his claims to extraordinary power, improve his physique AND all around strength by the inclusion in his routine of exercises which themselves parallel the Olympic Three, and which are themselves used as enabling or assistance exercises by the weightlifters. 

It is very important to recognize the FACT that ALL successful routines are ones which offer a great deal of variety -- that quality which we are told is the spice of life. It is IMPORTANT to recognize the FACT that one of the principle causes of staleness or failure to make progress is BOREDOM. I know I will be forgiven for repeating myself when I tell you that exercise is meant to be ENJOYED not endured. 

If you approach your workout with a pleasurable anticipation, then you are BOUND to succeed. If, however, you perform them as a DUTY,  then you are wasting your time. 

May I make myself more clear. Barton Horvath, Abe Goldberg and I usually take an hour or so during the day to work out. Barton has been a weight trainer, more years than some of you have lived. Abe Goldberg is an athlete of such experience that it is hard to believe he could improve -- as for myself, well, I will admit under extreme pressure that I am not so bad. 

Now, we all simultaneously hit a sticking point. None of us seemed to be able to make any headway, and we ground away at the same routine, hoping to eventually snap out of the slump. I suggested that we try some of the POWER exercises which I have been writing about, and for the last three months we have been engaged in a routine closely resembling the one which I am going to give you to follow. We worked harder than ever before, and that extra work was more than justified. 

In three months my bench press increased by 45 pounds, my dead lifts from reps with 400 to reps AND sets with 495. Abe is looking more muscular than ever before. He has never been as bulky and as muscularly defined as he is at the present moment. His power in the squat, bench press and dead lift is prodigious. 

But the most improvement was made by Barton, who at 40 years of age is in such terrific shape that you are shortly going to see him on the magazine cover. He has never looked better and he is still improving.

I am not crediting my power exercises for the advances which we have made, but I do credit the change in routine PLUS the power exercises, plus the force of reps. The three of us might have kept to our regular schedule for months with little or no success. By a change in our exercises, we all greatly increased our physiques and strength and are still improving. Both Barton and Abe gained remarkably in bulk without sacrificing any of their definition. 

So now to the real business. Here you must begin to think in terms of HARD WORK and extra reps. Start off with a certain number of reps as a minimum, but don't restrict yourself as much to the number you should perform in each exercise. Do as many as humanly possible with each set of each exercise. WORK HARD and with every ounce of energy. 

The first exercise was a favorite of the old time Viennese strongmen. It is used to some extent today in the training routines of the Olympic lifters, for it encourages them to handle heavier poundages in the press. Karl Swoboda has raised the heaviest poundage in this lift -- THE TWO HAND CONTINENTAL PRESS, with a lift of 359 pounds odd. It is unexcelled in developing the fronts of the thighs, the lower back and the shoulders. It coordinates these groups to an extremely fine degree where all pressing feats are concerned. 

1) The Two Hands Continental Press. 

Start off with a weight which you can handle for AT LEAST 5 reps. A standard to set is to take a poundage 15-20 pounds below you best press, Olympic style. Clean the weight into your shoulders, then, with a slight bend FORWARD, come back to upright position and start to press with all you have, at the same time dropping back into as deep an arch as is comfortable for you. Wait until the barbell is overhead at FULL arms' length, and then try to deepen the arch of the back before returning the body to the upright position and repeating the press. 

Use up to 3 sets with this exercise and no more than 10 reps each set -- force out all the reps you can, STOPPING AT THE TENTH. My reason for this advice is that the exercise is an extremely strenuous one and back strain can easily take place if your enthusiasm runs to 20 or more reps. The important point in this exercise is to make every effort to keep the press going once it has left the shoulders by back arching. Increase the weight by 10 pounds when 3 sets of 10 reps are possible. 

The second exercise is one which is finding increasing popularity in my "Foundations of Power" articles published in Your Physique. It is in my humble opinion one of the most valuable single exercises in the whole book of weight training. I firmly believe that when its full possibilities are exploited, we are going to see more record snatches and cleans & jerks, and more outstanding physiques than ever before. In combination with other body-building exercises it influences the muscles to a remarkable degree. It is the HIGH DEAD LIFT. It has been used by every champion weightlifter from Davis down. In a recent article in a British magazine, Charles Coster, contributor to Weider Publications, mentions the fact that both Davis and Stanko had remarked how much it increased their second pull and how light their limit snatches and cleans appeared. 

Note: Search here for more on Power Training by Charles Coster. 

    

 2) High Dead Lifts. 

Take two boxes around 15 to 20 inches in height -- of sufficient height that the bar will be just a little above the knee when a LOADED bar rests on the boxes. The bar should be loaded up to your BEST dead lift in the regular style. Use a reverse grip when taking hold of the bar and keep the back as flat as possible, taking care to distribute the effort equally between the back and thighs. Start off my making 5 reps, take a good rest and then perform 2 more sets. Increase the reps by one each workout period and ALWAYS, if you feel it is within you, force out another one or two reps. 

Work up to 3 sets of 15 reps and then increase the weight by 15-20 pounds. 

As the body reaches upright position make every effort to clean the weight. Of course you will be utterly unable to do this and the clean is more "token" than anything else, but nevertheless, make this effort. Pull up with all you have. As your strength increases, this lift or exercise can be made all the more interesting and result-producing by gradually placing more and more pads or boards under the feet so that a regular dead lift position is more closely approached. 

You will experience quite a bit of stiffness in the trapezius, deltoids, lower part of the triceps and the erector spinae after your first session with this exercise. Some self-massage and a hot bath should take away the stiffness. 

The third exercise is another excellent power and muscle developer. Some of our foremost physique and strength athletes have used it to bring out their pulling power and upper back development to its highest peak. I well remember reading a letter from Tony Terlazzo to my pal, Harold Laurence in the early 1930's. Tony mentioned a lifter by the name of Joe Miller and his words conveyed the opinion that if Miller had the technique, he would be snatching 300 pounds, so high did he pull the bar. Joe's favorite exercise at that time was the two hands clean -- but with that little touch which makes all the difference between success and failure -- between POWER and average strength.  

Joe would deliberately clean the weight without ANY split and with as little dip at the knees as he could manage. Another devotee of this exercise was the sensational Keevil Daly.    

Standing, right. 

Smiling, right. 

https://www.legacy.com/ca/obituaries/thestar/name/keevil-daly-obituary?id=40393630

https://plagueofstrength.com/lifter-snapshot-keevil-davis-and-the-most-bizarre-way-to-build-the-best-shoulders-on-earth/

I have seen Keevil clean well above 300 using this method. His back was one of the most muscular I have ever seen. It is interesting to note that Joe Miller, after an intensive training period on the stiff legged clean found that not only had his snatch and pulling power improved considerably, but his press had also skyrocketed. 

3) The Stiff Legged Clean. 

Commence with a weight 5-10 pounds BELOW your best snatch. If you have never performed the snatch, then the standard method is to determine the weight which will allow you to make 5 comfortable repetitions. Take a grip a little wider than shoulder width and clean the bar to the shoulders, and put ever ounce of power into pulling the bar as HIGH as you can. A good standard is to take each clean to EYE height before dropping the weight across the clavicles (collar bones). Place weight on the ground and repeat. 3 sets of reps are very effective, working up from 5 reps per set to 12 or 15, an d increasing each set by one per workout.

The fourth exercise, the "bendover," was a popular one some years ago in the Mark Berry era. Wally Zagurski, champion strongman, and the Good Brothers used the movement to increase the strength of the lower abdomen and back. The loins too are very much activated by this excellent strength and muscle builder. 

It is possible to work up to some extremely heavy poundages with correspondingly greater benefits. Take the poundage which you can press from the shoulders with one hand for 5-8 reps. Hold it a single arms length overhead, and keeping your eyes on the weight all the time, bend over to the side opposite to which you are holding the weight -- if the dumbbell is held in the right hand, then bend over to the LEFT. 

DO NOT bend the knees, but allow movement only at the waist. Touch the right toe with the left hand and return to upright position and repeat. Some practice will be necessary before you are able to keep your balance. This exercise, most closely approaches the movement which takes place when an Olympic man does a one hand snatch or a jerk. It very much affects the obliques and the erector spinae INDIVIDUALLY. 

Start off with 3 x 8 reps and work to 3 x 12-15 before adding weight. 

Note: The eras when so, SO many lifts were contested, the one handers and all the others, the odd lifts and the lot of 'em . . . the various implements and objects . . . those are MUCH MORE INTERESTING to me than the 2-lift current Oly setup and the 3-lift powerlift deal. As always, when a more or less "cult" endeavor becomes excessively popular and it loses that status of being the involvement of a small minority it invariably becomes a watered down, saleable form of its earlier more exciting origins. It's quite the bizness now, ain't it all just. Big money to be made whoring out ideas you didn't originate to people too damned lazy to figure shit out for themselves blah blah blah who cares . . . Fortunately, we are NEVER LIMITED to what lifts and exercises we CHOOSE to perform and ENJOY, and all the do-right know-better fucks with their comments and "advice" don't know what they're missing. What, there's "egoless" lifting? What, Me Worry? Fuck that noise. Hit the dislike button, don't follow, unsubscribe, PLEASE! I don't need or want anyone's support, advice, shitty supps or chemical knowledge. Use the money you save by reading this stuff for free to help some poor bugger down on his luck out there . . . there, just us here now. 

The 5th exercise for power and development is one of the very finest in the world. It can, for developmental purposes, be classed with the high dead lifts. It not only induces coordination and speed, but it is unapproached as a deltoid developer and entire back strengthener. 

The one hand swing has long been in use and some of the most outstanding strength athletes perfected their power and technique by a liberal use of same. Some of the outstanding performances were made by Ronald Walker and Hermann Goerner. Walker made a right hand swing of well over 200 pounds, and the titanic Goerner (Titanic Teuton?) performed 48 consecutive right hand swings from between the legs to FULL ARM'S LENGTH overhead with a 110 pound dumbbell. 

        

5) The One Hand Swing. 

The dumbbell which you use for your bend-overs can be taken for this exercise. The initial swing is between the legs to gain a little momentum and from there to arm's length overhead. Allow the dumbbell to drop down between the legs and take it to arm's length again with no pause. As the weight reaches shoulder level it will be found necessary to bend the back a little, and then at once straighten it out again as the dumbbell is taken above the shoulder level. 

Your first workout with this exercise will cause you to feel a little stiff in the deltoids and lower back, but a rest of a day or so will suffice to recuperate the area. 

A high number of repetitions can be used with as high as 3 sets of 20. However, for normal purposes, 3 sets of 15 is best. Beginners should stick to 3 x 12-15, while the more advanced can use the higher number of reps.

Commence with either the right or left hand, it isn't important and the non-exercising arm is usually rested against the knee. 

The final exercise in this program has been evolved from a movement which is usually impossible to perform in the ordinary gymnasium. I refer to supporting chains from which you can hold a considerable weight overhead at arms' length. 

Not so long ago, John Grimek told us how he had held 800 pounds overhead with the barbell supported by these chains, and the late Ronald Walker also practiced this movement in almost every workout. It builds tremendous sustaining strength and deltoid and triceps power. The serratus magnus and teres major are also greatly affected. 

I know of only two gymnasiums that have these chains . . . 

Note: A couple years or something ago I searched mags, books and this oh-so-effing-important computer toy for photos of old gyms with chains available for support work. Of course, what with the popularity of chains being used to create differing resistances at different points in the range of motion, well, that's what you'll find 99.9999999999% of the time when you seek such photos out. There's one good one here on the blog, somewhere, a photo of a Vic Tanny's maybe, but I want to wrap this article up instead of finding it. 

. . . and so we have had to find another medium which retains all the benefits of the above exercise. 

Note: Here's where I thought Mr. Smith would go with this very simple yet effective setup . . . 

But he didn't! 

 

Some time ago, one of the world's foremost researchers in strength athletics Joseph Curtis Hise, discovered that by holding a heavy weight across the shoulders -- as in the commencement of the deep knee bend -- and shrugging the shoulders while the weight was across them, trainees gained greatly in bulk and power. Not only could advanced men gain, but the absolute novice could commence his career with this exercise and make gains from the very first week of training. Furthermore, it had a valuable psychological advantage in that beginners thought nothing of using normal exercise weights after they had 300 to 500 pounds supported across their shoulders. Hise used this exercise by advising 3 to 5 DEEP breaths between each shrug. Gene Jantzen used the exercise on beginners at his studio and all gained remarkably in bulk -- three weeks was the period mentioned as the most in which it took pupils to register gains. 

  

Gene Jantzen with Wife and star pupil, er, Son. 

6) Heavy Shoulder Shrugs [Hise Shrugs]

Note: The accompanying photo shows the bar for these being held front squat style . . . but I'm sure you've all seen photos of a Hise Shrug before. I tried, some years ago, doing Hise shrugs in the front rack position and it wasn't so better. Bar across the back. Or not . . . it's always your own individual call. 

You need a pair of adjustable squat racks for this exercise. Load up the bar to your BEST regular dead lift -- that's right, you heard me! YOUR BEST regular dead lift poundage. Take the bar across the shoulders, and LOOK STRAIGHT AHEAD throughout the exercise. Make every effort to perform an orthodox shoulder shrug, pulling the shoulders as high as you can -- try and make them touch your ears. 

As they raise, squeeze the shoulder blades together and press UP on the bar with your hands. Relax, take two to three DEEP breaths, and repeat. Take it easy at first, commencing with 8-10 reps and working to 15-20 reps for 3 sets. 

When you increase the weight make it AT LEAST a 20-pound increase. A good performance on this exercise is at least 600 pounds for 30 reps -- AND THIS IS IN NO WAY REMARKABLE. 

Note: Is this what's called ego lifting? By who? Some silly hairdo kid with a pile of equally clueless childish followers? God almighty, I am bloody old now! Hahaha, I love it!  

I have heard of up to 950 pounds used for 20 reps. I am aware that this exercise is somewhat unorthodox, but you can only prove its effectiveness by TRYING IT. I CAN GUARANTEE YOU RESULTS. GOOD results and outstanding ones. 

Let me end this article with a word of advice -- perhaps the most valuable that that can be given to any Lifter . . . WORK HARD. You will find that schedules DO NOT WORK UNLESS YOU DO. 

Enjoy Your Lifting!

And to hell with anyone who can't understand what you're up to.