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Testimonial dinner honoring Bob Hoffman, 1938
given by Sig Klein's Gym. Attendees named.
Hoffman and Klein look so young!
Part One is here:
Me: Steve, you discussed some of the exercises you did. Can you be more explicit on how you performed those exercises?
Steve: Absolutely! I believe that proper execution is everything. First of all, I did all of my exercises from a complete extension to a complete contraction and would hold for a few seconds always with perfect form.
On incline presses, for example, I would keep my elbows out wide, push the dumbbells up and back towards my head. I would contract my pecs throughout the movement. At the top, I would push the bells together keeping my palms forward and squeeze.
I normally did these on a 45-degree angle. Sometimes I would go to a 60-degree incline to hit more upper pec.
Always kept the elbows out, not in. That works more triceps. I wanted pectoral development.
Me: Did you ever do regular bench presses at all?
Steve: Aside from formal training, I only did a variation with a very wide grip and lowered the barbell to my neck.
Note: So many similarities here. Yarick's Gym, the professional version, started in the late 1930s; Vince's was not until 1948. Reeves was using a lot of this stuff when he was still very young. So many similarities. I'm sure you see where this paragraph could go from here.
I normally did 10 reps a set, sometimes going as high as 12-15 using as heavy a weight as I could.
Sometimes I would use a barbell and do these collar-to-collar grip on incline presses.
In my early days, after working chest, I would do breathing squats super-setted with high rep pullovers to expand my thorax. A technique espoused by Mark Berry. I later abandoned this feeling that a big rib box make you look fat in clothes and in a suit.
The thorax (ribcage) is cartilage and can be expanded very easily. Once expanded though, it never goes back down.
Me: And how about legs?
Steve: I would do front squats, cleaning the bar to my shoulders, going down slowly and leaning back. This takes the pressure off the hips. Regular squats expand the waist and hips. I did these on a 2x4 block of wood.
My next favorite thigh exercise was hack squats using a barbell. I actually had a special belt made for this movement. The type of hack squat I did was like a sissy squat, leaning forward with the barbell behind my back on the belt. I did these with a 2x4 block as well.
When the hack squat machine became available, I used that, switching back and forth from the barbell to the machine using the same motion on both.
Sometimes I would finish my thighs off with leg presses super-setted with calf presses and leg curls. This would start my calf routine.
When I did the calf presses on the leg press machine, I would skip donkey calf raises and do reverse calf presses on the leg press instead. I would alternate between the donkey raises with a partner and calf presses on the leg press.
When using a partner, I would have him stay on me at the end of the set. Then I would walk around the gym raising on my toes one leg at a time. One of the reasons that calves are hard to build for so many is that they are dense from walking all day long. By using the technique of walking with a partner and one leg at a time, you overload the calf muscles.
Also, when working calves, I made a conscious effort to place most of the weight on my big toe. Go all the way up and contract. Come all the way down and stretch. Full range of motion. No half or partial reps.
In between sets I would stretch and flex my calves, contracting them. I visualized my calves becoming bigger and bigger with the shape I desired.
Me: What order in your workouts did you train your bodyparts?
Steve: Initially, I started off with chest, then breathing squats and pullovers which I later abandoned, then thighs, calves, back, shoulders, and arms. As I progressed, I saw my thighs, lats and chest developing rapidly in proportion to my other bodyparts so I began working deltoids first, then arms when I had the most energy, then to give my arms a break before working chest I would work calves, then back, and chest and thighs last.
At this point I was very concerned about symmetry and proportion. I also now became more aware of aesthetics, creating a quality, classic physique so I began dropping certain exercises like bench presses, squats, front presses and curls.
I also came up with some revolutionary ideas about training. Just as breathing squats and pullovers worked so well after chest work, I reasoned that lat work after shoulder work could make my shoulders wider. And it worked. So, for a while I would do lat pulldowns behind the neck or chins behind the neck after working delts. My shoulders got broader.
Now mind you, I was in my teens at this point, so my bones were not set. And I had good genetics with wide clavicles which actually became even wider. So, I grew very rapidly. However, I continued doing this even when well past twenty-one and still made gains in shoulder width.
Something else I did. I created an exercise called the Reeves Deadlift . . . this was a deadlift using a very wide grip. I actually grabbed the outside of the plates on a 7-foot Olympic bar. I would deadlift the weight this way and then do shrugs. With this wide of a grip, a lot of the work went to the side delts and less to the traps, and worked them in such a way that could not be affected by any other exercise.
My already naturally wide clavicles became wider and my side delts grew amazingly well.
One exercise I worked really hard on was pullovers, especially on a decline bench.
Since one of my pet poses was the hands behind the neck vacuum, this exercise was very beneficial in developing the lats and serratus. The serratus at that time was one of the most overlooked bodyparts. I especially liked doing these on a high decline bench.
This put a more constant tension on the lats, serratus and pecs. Much better than a flat bench. My set/rep scheme was 4 x 10-15.
Another variation I would use from time to time was to do pullovers on an incline bench set at a 45-degree angle using the lat machine. In this case, the incline bench would face away from the lat machine. I'd use a close grip and pull the bar down to the waist. This worked muscles untouched by any other exercise. Same set/rep scheme.
Me: Steve, you had one of the most incredible backs of anyone. Especially wide. Great V-shape with thickness and balance. What did you do for your back?
Steve: Early in my career, I worked for the V-shape. This was unusual at that time as most of the top bodybuilders were blocky. One of the greatest bodybuilders to show a V-shape and really wide lats was Al Stephan. Prior to Al, Clancy Ross had nice lats but was not as wide as Alan.
From my earliest days of training, I noticed my lats growing just from basic moves like chinups, bent rows, one-arm rows. When the lat machine became available, I really made some gains. My back and shoulders both became much broader and the V-shape became more pronounced.
I set a goal to become as broad as possible. So, I really focused on behind the neck pulldowns and chins behind the neck. I did these first in my workouts.
On pulldowns, I would do these slowly and bring the bar all the way down to the back of my head, touching my neck. I would then rotate my shoulders and let my elbows flare out and slowly raise the bar back to the top. Then I would isolate my scapulae, letting my lats flare out and then pull down again. Great exercise. And I made great gains from it. Same set/rep scheme.
The chin behind neck looks like exactly the same more, but for some reason it works differently and feels different. I was pretty strong on this exercise so I'd do the pulldowns first. Sometimes I would do the chins between sets of pulldowns doing both almost as a superset with a rest/pause in between.
As I became even stronger I would use a belt and attach added weight. On both pulldowns and chins behind the neck I used a wide grip.
Me: There are some trainers and self-professed experts around today who espouse using a closer grip to work the muscles through a greater range of motion and pass off the wide grip as common mythology.
Steve: That is how I did it and my gains were no myth. I believe the wide grip works the outer last and I agree a closer grip works the whole muscle through a greater range of motion.
And as I mentioned earlier, I also believe these exercises contributed to my shoulder width, stretching the bone structure while I was still young and growing. The Reeves deadlift pulled on the bone structure and added thickness to the side delts.
Width alone is not enough. You also need thickness. For that I initially did a variety of rowing movements. Later when I trained at Ed Yarick's, I began using pulleys, doing seated rows from two positions.
The 45-degree angle pulley row works the lower lats and adds thickness. Great exercise. Sometimes called the long pulley row.
Me: Now I would like to ask you what you did for those amazing shoulders.
Steve: I started off doing presses like everyone else. Later started doing side laterals, DB presses, and created my own version of the dumbbell press as noted before. It's now referred to as the "arnold press". ED YARICK showed this to me. I used it and loved it.
I also did press behind the neck. As mentioned earlier, after my training had advanced, looking to get my shoulders bigger and wider, I came up with the idea of working shoulders first and then following that with wide grip chins, chins behind the neck and pulldowns behind the neck. Once I started doing this, my shoulders blew up in size and width.
When I began doing the press behind neck, my shoulders really grew. The key to this is to keep the elbows back, the bar behind your head, and push straight up and back.
My final shoulder exercise was upright rowing. I would use a medium-wide grip to work more delts, bringing my elbows up and out. My goal was to keep the focus on the delts and not employ much traps. I wanted to keep my traps as small as possible. The upright row also brings out definition in the delts. So, I did these leading up to a competition. Same set/rep scheme.
Continued in Part Three.
Enjoy Your Lifting!
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