What the hell is this?

[BuggyWhips]

Reg Park's program circa 1950 (from an old Iron Man issue from around 1985)

Mon -Wed_Fri

Barbell Curl 4x6-8

Seated Behind Neck Press 4x6-8

Bench Press 5x5

Barbell Row 4x6-8

Barbell Squat 5x5

Deadlift 5x5

I would typically lop 1 or 2 sets off each of the above exerciseswhen I was into this program hot and heavy. It was brutal as the months rolled on, but man I've never gained on anything quite like Reg's program. At first it took a few workouts to get used to it, but within a week or two i was hooked.

after a workout, I was *beat*. I'd sit down and eat..and eat...and eat. I just had this ability all of a sudden to shovel down huge amounts of food and I also found I could hit the sack at night and instantly fall into a deep and restful slumber. The heavy leg and back work really makes this program work.

After less than a month on the program I had gym 'buddies' almost accusing me of lying when they asked what kind of 'juice' I was on, and I told them 'none'. These guys were doing typical 'advanced' programs and thought I had a screw loose to do 'back and legs in the same workout', not to mention everything else too. But I kept at it, and I kept on gaining.

I remember once back about 15 years ago someone I met loaned me a really old copy of a Joe weider mag called 'Your Physique'. It was from around 1953 or so. Man talk about basic programs! One thing I found was back then, all the bigger guys trained the same way as park did, ie, 3 times a week whole body training. They would vary the exercises (ie, DB incline presses one workout, bench barbell the next, etc), but it was always 3 times a week only, and only one major exersice per bodypart.

You have to figure, if those guys were as big and strong as park was in the early 1950's they had to know what they were doing. Heck, Park at that time was unreal: 20" arms, 245 lbs, bench was 500 (!) - the first bodybuilder to hit the 500 lb mark;, squatted with 600 and could deadlift 700;, behind the neck presses with 315 for reps, etc. Another thing i noticed (and copied as well),was their diet. Get this, here it was in a nutshell:

red meat
orange juice
milk
eggs

Thats it. that was their diet. No wonder those guys were big and strong. Parks attiutude was to keep it simple, and work hard. Period. To him, there was no sense in messing around with laterals and reverse dumbell this or that. He wanted sheer musclemass and strength, and he went about it in the most direct and effective way possible.

I'm certain if I started back on his prgram again, I would go from 255-260 to over 300 lbs. But then I'd have to back out and buy all new clothes... hehe



MaxPayne musclemag.com

 

[The Shadow]

Well - it works!!

I did a modified version of a thre day w/o last winter and got hella-strong from it.

The 3 per week allows the body to "catch-up" from possible overtraining.

My credo:

If you can squat 400 for reps, a 45 pound incline curls will be easy.

 

[frorider6]

Good post. I'd like to hear other opinions on this training method.

 

[frorider6]

Well - it works!!

I did a modified version of a thre day w/o last winter and got hella-strong from it.

The 3 per week allows the body to "catch-up" from possible overtraining.

My credo:

If you can squat 400 for reps, a 45 pound incline curls will be easy.

Hey Corn, what was your workout like? How long did you do it? Is it better than a 1 body part/week routine? Is it a better mass builder or cutting routine?

 

[The Shadow]

Hey Corn, what was your workout like? How long did you do it? Is it better than a 1 body part/week routine? Is it a better mass builder or cutting routine?

Mass builder.

You work the legs, back, chest/shoulder at each w/o.

I did:

Monday

Deadlifts 1 max set of 20.
Overhead Press - 5 sets of 5
Squats - 5 sets of 3

Wednesday

Barbell Rows - 5 sets of 5
Bench Press - 5 sets of 5
Deadlifts - 1 set of 20

Friday

Shrugs - 5 sets of 5
Barbell Curls - 5 sets of 5
Dips - 5 sets of 5
Squats - 5 sets of 5 with weight from Monday

Tried to add 5-10 pounds every Monday on Squats, deads.

5 pounds to everything else.

 

[frorider6]

Corn, what kind of results did you see? Did you gain weight? Aside from weight gain, do you feel it made your total body stronger. I think sometimes that I've paid too much attention to the large muscle groups and neglected my smaller supporting muscles.

 

[frorider6]

Also, why did you do 1 set of deadlifts for 20 reps instead of say 5 sets of 4-8 reps?

 

[HappyScrappy]

Also, why did you do 1 set of deadlifts for 20 reps instead of say 5 sets of 4-8 reps?

I assume the same reason you'd do a 20 rep set of breathing squats.

they are hard as fuck

 

[frorider6]

I thought I was fairly knowledgeable about weight training but, what the fuck are "breathing squats"? Are you telling me it's so UNcommon to breathe during squats that to do so requires a new name? How are breathing squats any different than a regular squat: breathe in going down, breathe out going up?

Not that I want to sidetrack this thread.

 

[The Shadow]

Corn, what kind of results did you see? Did you gain weight? Aside from weight gain, do you feel it made your total body stronger. I think sometimes that I've paid too much attention to the large muscle groups and neglected my smaller supporting muscles.

Believe it or not - On this routine I discovered that I was NOT in shape from a total-body standpoint. Workouts KILLED me for the first 3-4 weeks. I gained about 15 pounds in 10 weeks. Naturally.

I typically use this type program for part of the year as strength phase. Then I'll switch to a 4 day(split bodyparts) plan for maximum size(hypertrophy). Then I'll go to a one bodypart per day - 5 days per week plan with cardio to shed some fat.

Squats twice per week really wore me out. So I did higher reps on the deads using 20 as a goal. YOu can reverse them and do heavy deads twice per week and deadlift lite once.

Try the 20 rep(I call them 911's) program....