Big Muscles Forever

Letters to Joe Weider. One writer complained about Joe Weider complaining about Nautilus. Joe Weider explained to the writer to read Joe’s full series reviewing the Nautilus machines before making a judgement. Blogger note: Weider had to be driving Arthur Jones crazy with his negative reviews of Nautilus.

There was also a letter from a teenager requesting a routine for the new bodybuilder. Joe Weider said that a series of this nature was coming up.

There was also a letter referring to the absence of Sergio Oliva. Joe Weider explained that Sergio has gone his own way and is now the third best bodybuilder in Joe’s opinion.

There was also a column titled, Confusion in America by Ben Weider. The article complained about Bob Hoffman and the AAU. Hoffman did seem to complicate things for the amateur bodybuilder. A lot of space for a subject not many cared about at the time.

This was the usual report on the world wide weightlifting scene. Only the most hardcore old time fan would be interested in this report but I’ll mention some fine points. M. Nassiri from Iran was number one in the Flyweight class. David Rigert the Soviet Legend was number one as usual in the Middle-Heavyweight class. USA star Phil Grippaldi was rated 9th. Vasily Alexeev was the number one Super-Heavyweight but Rudolph Mang and Gerd Bonk had good showings. Fred Lowe the USA Middleweight had a 369.25 pound jerk at the Pan American Championships. M. Karchut was 1st in the Light-Heavyweight class for the Pan American Championship.

Blogger note; Only for the hardest of hard core fans.

Are Chemicals revolutionizing or ruining bodybuilding (subtitled) by Gene Mozee. This was an article directed at the newer bodybuilder as opposed to the pro. The professional bodybuilder is going to do what he wants to do. However, there might still be hope for the newbie as indicated by this article.

According to Gene Mozee, “Ninety percent of the individuals using steroids are only concerned with how much they need to take to produce gains in weight, muscle and strength. The adverse side effects concern them little, if at all.” One bad side effect could be arthritis. A study in England discovered that steroid use can result in premature aging of the arterial system.

A major problem is that bodybuilders are exceeding the dosages for steroids and getting multiple prescriptions from many doctors. They are playing physiological Russian roulette at the expense of their kidneys, liver and arterial system for the sake of a few trophies. Under ideal conditions steroids could be used with minimum damage. However, the article indicates that steroids are being used recklessly for the most part.

The article ends by stating these articles are not written for the superstars. This series of articles on steroids is aimed at the hundreds of thousands of bodybuilders at the stage where they are considering steroids for faster gains. Blogger note: This article did a good job of describing the dangers of steroid use.

Joe Weider interviews Arnold Schwarzenegger in the unique calf training article. Joe Weider said the calves have a mind of their own and have to be trained in unusual ways. The interview starts with Arnold stating that he works his calves six times a week in the morning. Arnold works the double-split and calves are worked at the end of the morning sessions for between ten and fifteen sets. Arnold works the calves for thirty to forty five minutes.

Arnold varies his routine and trains on instinct when it comes to the calves. A sample routine he listed was fifteen sets of donkey calf raises with thirty seconds of rest between sets. Another routine Arnold Schwarzenegger employed were the three following exercises: 1-leg rise on toes; regular calf machine raises with toes pointed in: and leg-press toe machine toe raises, 5 sets of each exercise with 15 to 30 seconds rest between sets. Sometimes Arnold will do 7 or 8 super-sets using the donkey calf raises super-setted with 1-leg rise on toes. Reps will vary from 15 to 20 up to 30 to 40. Frank Zane said the muscles don’t have a brain but according to Arnold Schwarzenegger the calves seem to.

Arnold stated that he used every Weider principle there is to train the calves. Forced-Reps is the number one principle used by Arnold for calf training. One way Arnold uses the forced-reps principle for calves is by having two 220 pound guys sitting on his back doing donkey calf raises. Arnold will rep out with the two, have one jump off, and continue to do the calf raises with one bodybuilder on his back.

Arnold uses the muscle peaking principle by using a full stretch. He’ll do 75% of his calf workout this way and do half-reps for the rest. Arnold uses a very high block while doing calf exercises for an extreme stretch.

Arnold used very heavy weights three or four times a month. Arnold would load up the calf machine with 600 pounds and have one or two heavy guys sit on it. Arnold will also walk around the gym on his tip toes and also poses and tenses the calves. This summed up Part-1 of Arnold’s tortuous calf routine.

Joe was right on target with his high praise for the three contests that took place at the Brooklyn Academy of Music on September 8th, 1973. First of all Lou Ferrigno won the Mr. America contest easily over the likes of Leon Brown in the short class and Bob Birdsong in the medium class. Lou also defeated long time competitor Bill Howard in the tall class. This was Lou’s introduction to the IFBB and weighed in at 260 pounds at six foot four. The article stated that Joe Weider Personally thought Lou Ferrigno was the heir apparent to Mr. Olympia Arnold Schwarzenegger.

The Mr. World Contest had a talented lineup but Ken Waller easily won over the likes of fellow tall competitors Dennis Tinerino (2nd) and Bill Grant (3rd). Johnny Maldonado won the short class and Ed Corney won the medium class. Ken Waller also won trophies for the best arms, best back and best poser. Dennis Tinerino won best legs while Bill Grant won most muscular and best abdominals.

In the Mr. Olympia, despite a previous leg injury, Arnold won again. Serge Nubret flew in from France to give Arnold some Te photos Nubret looked great but had some week points such as his calves. A super muscular Franco Columbu won in the short class. Franco looked great, more muscular than Arnold, but it was once again a tall man winning over a shorter man.

The contest was without Sergio Oliva who chose to compete in Dan Lurie’s contest across town. Joe Weider thought that Sergio Oliva chickened out.

All and all these were three great contest with some of the greatest bodybuilders of all time including Arnold Schwarzenegger, Lou Ferrigno, Ed Corney and Ken Waller.

Some interesting “stuff” in this month’s column. The Santa Monica “House of Pies” got some hungry post contest customers in the persons of Bill Howard, Franco Columbu and Arnold Schwarzenegger. The article also mentions how Vince Gironda got Jim Morris more cut up for his AAU Mr. America win.

The article also mentioned the profession of stuntman being the most dangerous profession in the world. Maybe some of you old timers remember Bob Tessier from the Longest Yard (Original edition). He was mentioned as one of the stuntmen in the article.

Franco Columbu helped Gina Lollobrigida promote a book. Others mentioned in this column were Steve McQueen for having a complete gym in a truck for his set locations, Charlton Heston who trains and snippets including Rick Giofu and Dale Adrian.

louferrigno.com is a nicely done site with lots of information. Since I just had a request for contact information on Big Lou, here it is: http://louferrigno.com. Saw his dad chewing the fat with Greg “Rocky” Deferro at one of the Columbus Ohio Mr. Olympia’s in the 1970’s. Unfortunately I never did see Lou compete but saw him in the audience at a Mr. Olympia contest. He was slimmed down.