Old School Bulking Diets - Tony Xhudo

 

Note: I have no idea anymore what "old school" means. The older I get, the newer the old school is. Who cares, give it a name . . . we're talking about 50's to 70's here I believe. Hell, I don't read a lot of this stuff till I typer the thing, so let's find out. 

On a humorous side note, I have witnessed people arguing online about what lifters ate in the past. A wee bit strange that . . . fighting about what a dead guy ate while living. Is it too late to exhume the remains and pump them wormy stomach cavities? Hey, it's in the name of science, eh, I ain't sick in the head. We needs da truth in order to continue our lives!  

Now, if you found that mildly funny, here's a film I just watched and ABSOLUTELY LOVED! IT'S SO DAMN BEAUTIFUL! The cinematography has insanely great textures, the locations are outlandishly well chosen, the cast are perfectly chosen and highly capable and the kills are exceptionally creative. Buddy, it's fun. Just beautiful! 

Years ago, gaining weight was never really a major problem with any bodybuilder, yet for today the old school method somehow got lost in the shuffle. It's actually too bad, because gaining weight or bulking up is far and away the easiest part of bodybuilding. 

If you want to make use of some old school bulking concepts, quit scratching around for something new and have a look at how some of the greats of old (old?) did it in their time. 

Back in the golden era of bodybuilding, 1960's to '70's bodybuilders basically ate everything in sight [lifters moving up in weight class too] . . . 

. . . when they needed to put on some extra size and mass. They DID NOT CARE about excess fat and calories, but welcomed it. 

Reg Park, for example, was one of the biggest bodybuilders of the era. His diet was something of a contradiction when it came to bulking up. He literally ate everything, anything that he felt like eating at the time. For Park, bulking up meant eating lots of anything that pleases you! 

Back in the 1940's and '50's there was no real set or accepted diet plan or rules. Whatever worked to put on flesh! Very few books on bodybuilding nutrition, unlike today [man, you could choke a trillion teams of pull-horses with all the stuff out there now and the money being made from it]. 

Reg Park was eating six meals a day, real meals, [and so were Hepburn and the  rest of 'em when they wanted more weight on their frames]. Park's main source of protein was full cream milk and he drank liters of it daily (full cream, not the modern day low fat variety). He would always state that milk was your cheapest source of protein and calories available. 

Reg was a huge eater and he ate anything that was calorie rich. A simple nutrition plan to bulk up: EAT A LOT! And WORK OUT HARD! He would eat a lot of foods that were good for HIM, for what his goal at the time was, but would adhere to quite a balanced diet with everything in proper proportions. His favorite food was steak, which he ate two times a day. He also liked salads, juices and wine. When he ate his steaks he made sure they were extra large and thick [not 6 oz. servings], with large amounts of vegetables, potatoes, soups, and salads. 

With dinner, his main meal, he would consume three large glasses of the full cream milk, a big dish of ice cream with cake for dessert. When he wanted to put on weight he would drink Guinness to finish off his meals. He would center his meals around steak and milk products for extra protein sources. 

Sounds simple enough! 

In the 1930's and '40's, John Grimek represented the beginning of modern day bodybuilding, as we know it today. He was an advocate of an eating protocol in which an athlete would bulk up in bodyweight and then train off the fat. At one point in his career, he beefed up to 250 pounds at a height of 5'8". [I don't know, but this may be at the time he was trained by or training with Mark Berry in the late 1920's? 250?]

His diet practice for bulking up would eventually become commonplace by the '50's and maintain a foothold. Grimek bulked up on whatever was put in front of him. He had an enormous appetite. Whenever he goes all out to be bulk up, he can never be filled, and his nickname began to be the "hog." 

His metabolism also allowed him to eat whatever he wanted and still remain muscular and trim. By the 1950's, Grimek's diet included Hershey chocolate bars and hi-protein tablets that were manufactured by Bob Hoffman, publisher of Strength & Health magazine, which provided a platform for Grimek along with the supplements that were coming out on the market.

Basically, some of the old methods of bodybuilding for bulking were lots of milk. eggs, dairy products, cottage cheese, cream, meats, with lots of vegetables and potatoes and plenty of squats when training. 

These guys gained weight, sometimes in a short period of time, by performing heavy squats and consuming lots of milk products. Gains of 20-30 pounds in a month were not uncommon. If you don't gain at least 10 pounds in a month you're doing something wrong. 

Note: "Pounds" . . . not all muscle. 

It wasn't uncommon for many of these men to consume a gallon of milk a day when bulking. That was their cheapest source of protein/calories back then, along with eggs . . . whole eggs and not just the whites. Note: Yolks on the back of the bus! We don't like your color or cholesteral! They did not waste the eggs by just consuming the whites, they believed in the whole nutritional value of the egg, the fatty acids and vitamins in the egg yolk. Today's bodybuilders throw the yolk out and rely on the whites for pure protein. The fat content in the egg yolk is needed for the proper assimilation of protein in the egg whites itself. Note: Hence all this 20 egg whites and one yolk stuff.

One bulking routine that was used in the old school days when training for bulk and mass was a simple routine of 5-6 exercises that they employed 3 days per week, an example of which is shown in the following: 

1) Heavy squats, 3 x 12-15

2) Bench press, 3 x 8-10

3) Pullovers, 2 x 20

4) Rowing, 3 x 8-10

5) Deadlift, 3 x 4-6

6) Overhead press, 3 x 8-10

Ain't that a nice straightforward git 'er done layout! All you gotta do is concentrate on putting out when lifting, no need to waste any energy on complexities, perceived rates of mental perdition, etc., etc., etc.

This type of routine was considered a basic standard back then [and they didn't split it up to conserve precious bodily fluids or spend time agonizing over supposed "overtraining" resulting from two hard workouts in a row]. Of course there were many variations of the routine described above in which some men would do something along the lines of 3-5 sets of 12-15 reps.

Back then, these men trained as hard as they ate. They did not worry about excess fat when it came down to gaining more muscle mass [the added body-weight from the extra "plate" weight allowed them to lift more bar weight, but wait!]. The general idea was to train as hard as you could to create a solid stimulus for growth. Then, feed the body more than it needs to adapt. They knew this would cover their three basic needs: recovery, repair, and the growth of muscle tissue. Eat enough to recover from the stress of training, eat enough to repair any damage caused, and eat even more to come back bigger and stronger. 

They knew that if they didn't eat the extra calories they would not be able to recover properly from their workouts AND build back . . . bigger and stronger, and with energy enough for their hard workouts. 

They kept it quite simple . . . eat several meals (5-6 per day), drink plenty of whole milk, eggs, steak, throw in some vegetables, some pie, cake, ice cream, and you would have consumed enough calories to feed a family of four. They did not worry about excess fat , they burned most of it off while working out [and pooping three times a day to boot . . . you do not want to get "irregular" when on a heavy bulking diet! It ain't fun.] 

There were no secret formulas or recipes like they claim to have today. Just simple old fashioned healthy meals that packed on the pounds and some good hard training sessions. 

They didn't have the luxury of modern supplements. Today, we make bodybuilding appear harder than it really is with all the mumbo-jumbo-minutia about secret training routines and complex by-the-gram eating, etc., etc., when in reality all one has to do is take a trip back in time to when things were relatively simple and plain to follow. 

Enjoy Your Lifting!