 It's time for your favorite fitness and entertainment podcast. By the way, we just got ranked. This is true now, right? We did this survey here in the studio between me Adam and Justin. Mind Pump was number one in the world, according to us. So this is crazy. Again, backed by our own scientific studies. We only say things that are totally true. Anyway, today's giveaway is a full kettlebell workout for your body. It's called Kettlebell For Aesthetics. This is a lesser-known program that we have. It's very popular. And it's a full-body workout utilizing only kettlebells, okay? And you get that for free if you do the following and you win from doing the following. Leave a comment below in the first 24 hours that we drop this episode. Make it a good comment. Subscribe to this channel and turn on notifications. You have to do all those things. And if we pick your comment, we'll notify you and then you get free access to the Kettlebell For Aesthetics program. Also, before we get the show started, there's only four days left for the October special. So it's a huge time, a huge month with a huge special. Maps and a Ballot combined with the NoBS six-pack formula. Get them both right now for $59.99. Again, this promotion is over in four days. So if you're interested, you have to act right now. If you're interested, head over to mapsfitnessproducts.com. Just don't forget to use the code October, excuse me, don't forget to go to the link mapsoctober.com. So if you go to mapsoctober.com, you can sign up for that incredible promotion. All right, here comes the show. You know, when I was a kid growing up and I would look up like routines and exercises for, you know, in the bodybuilding magazines for particular body parts, it was always the bodybuilder with the corresponding body part that stood out. Of course. That was the person that I listened to. You know what I mean? Do you remember that? Yeah, that's like marketing 101. I think they did it that way too, right? It was always, they'd always feature that bodybuilder on the magazine cover and then you would know turn to the center and you get to work there as the biggest arms. Yeah, boom, right there. Now, the, the, I did that initially and then I learned about genetics and, you know, bodybuilders, pro bodybuilders, you steroids. And then I thought to myself, it doesn't matter what, you know, these people did for those body parts because they were born that way. But then I kind of came around full circle because when you learn about bodybuilders is yes, they may have genetic gifts, but that doesn't mean that they ignore those areas. In fact, if anything, especially in early bodybuilding or at least up until the 80s and 90s, they wanted to make body parts stand out. So they would be known for like Arnold was known for his chest or, you know, certain bodybuilders were known for their back or for their biceps. And one thing about these bodybuilders is that they, because these muscles were so developed on them, they had kind of a different connection and feel. I'll use myself as an example. If I think of the body parts on my body that respond well, I also know how to connect to them really well. And I also have really good, I think good advice on training them so long as I train them, right? Our good buddy, Ben Pekolsky, who is also a bodybuilder. That was one of the things that I remember when we first started hanging out that he would say a lot was that he believes that most anybody that has a lagging body part or a weak body part, it has everything to do with the poor connection. Yeah, just, they just lack a good connection there. And so even though they think they're training it enough or training it correctly because they're doing the exercises that are supposed to develop that, and we've seen this like even in general pop, right? We talk about this all the time. We had an episode just recently where we discussed building the butt. Yeah. And when I think back to the clients that, sure, there was a portion of them that had no idea what they are doing, but then there was a good portion of people that would come to me and be like, Adam, I'm doing this, this, this. And they hit all the right exercises that they should be doing, but they just had a very poor connection to the glutes. And then therefore it wasn't developing. Yeah, yeah, no, totally. So I think it would be fun if we go through bodybuilders and the body parts that they were known for and then what exercises for those body parts they really focused on. Well, I say, do the reverse. Let's go through body parts. And then you think of the bodybuilder that comes to mind that best represents that. Like, yeah. So right away, I mean, this wouldn't be a fair episode if we didn't open it with, I think, the chest and Arnold. Yeah, yeah, yeah, for sure. I think that's the staple of like, how much do you bench? I'm sure that Arnold had a big part to that. Well, so first off, he was definitely known for his chest. That was a body part that Arnold was like everybody. Biceps and chest, right? Those are the two body parts he was super known for. And there's these famous old photos of him when he would do a his side chest pose where his chest was so developed that they could put like a glass on top of his upper chest. They can really balance it on his upper chest while he was flexing. And then if you watch, you know, pumping iron, right? I think was shot in 1974 and you see him. There's, you know, videos of him working out, training his chest. There's one where he's doing cable crossovers. You know the one with the freaking surfer dude behind him? You got to watch that clip, by the way, in pumping iron. There's like this surfer dude behind him who's like, looks like he's totally stoned or whatever. Yeah, watching it and all, yeah. But his chest was just absolutely insane. And it was bench press. Bench press was Arnold's exercise. And barbell bench press, right? I thought I remember hearing him say like that. That was always in his routine. Like there was never a cycle of that being out of it. Well, so here's something special about or unique, I think, about Arnold was he trained for or competed for a very short period of time as a power lifter in Europe. In fact, this is how him and Franco Colombo got to know each other was through power lifting. Because Colombo was a power lifter also. Colombo was. And Arnold, for a long time in his routine, would throw in not only was he very consistent with the bench press, but then he would throw in power cycles of bench press where he would just focus on getting strong with his bench press in that in that era. Bench press was relatively common and popular. But Arnold made it so that everybody bench press because he was Mr. Olympia seven times, crazy develop chest. And if you look at every single bodybuilders, almost every single pro bodybuilders routine back then, it was bench press. And if it wasn't for Arnold, I don't think the bench press would have achieved the level of popularity that I got. Now, was Arnold one of the first to like really, because I know that like Ronnie Coleman is known for this, right? Like training for strength, even though you're a bodybuilder, right? Versus like focusing on the pump, which is more popular, I think, in the bodybuilding community, was Arnold one of the first like really focus on just overall strength for something like bench press? No, but he he was he was known more for his volume. I know that volume and double split routines and lots of angles, but he also valued the strength aspect and would throw in strength cycles. I mean, there was a there was a period of time when all you want to do is add an inch to his legs, which, you know, we could talk about because they were one of his most challenging areas were legs overall, and he would do just a cycle of strength with squats to add an inch to his legs and it was successful for him. So he did this. He saw the value in it, but his routines almost always started with bench press. And of course, he would do his inclines and his flies and all that stuff. Well, it was his it was his inclined barbell bench press in particular that I remember I have talked on the show before that I went on this kick for like a couple of years where I wanted to live. And I don't know if it was a video I watched or an article I read on him, but it was something that I came across related to Arnold and how strong his inclined bench was relative to his flat bench. And that was what kind of kicked it off for me because my there was huge discrepancy. Like I was that time. I think I was flat bench for pressing around 225 I'd work out with and I literally could, could barely do like 185 on the incline. And so that was like a big thing for me is like, can I catch my incline barbell press up? And I attribute that to some of the most development that I had or gains that ever happened for my chest with, especially like my upper chest. Another thing Arnold did was his range of motion. So if you watch him, he flies, he was big on the stretch in full range of motion with his, with his flies, but definitely what he was most known for with chest was bench press and his routine, his chest routine often started with five sets of bench press. That was almost always, if you see any routines written about Arnold, his routine would start with five sets of bench and then he would go on to other exercises. So really cool. Um, all right, let's talk about back, right? We got to go to back. Uh, his training partner, Franco, the original like latzilla, right? The original back monster. And wasn't he like one of the first bodybuilders to make like deadlifting popular? Oh yeah. Oh, he was big on that. Yeah. I actually remember him lifting cars and like kind of showing off and like moving them. And he was just like super strong at deadlifting. So I have a photo in like a, like a poster photo that I've had in the gyms that I've owned for probably, I probably had it for 20 years. It's a signed photo of him and it's the famous one where he's deadlifting. I think it's got like six or seven plates. On each side. And remember Franco was a small guy. He was like 190 pounds. He wasn't a tall dude and he's pulling it off the ground and then there's the great Dane sitting next to him. Have you seen this photo of him? I don't know if I've seen that one. If Doug, if you look up Franco Colombo deadlifting or great, it's a famous photo. I have it signed, right? Yeah. He was huge on the deadlift. In fact, uh, Arnold, there's a famous story where Arnold told Franco to impress Weeder with a 700 pound deadlift and he just pulled 700 pounds off the ground. Oh, super strong. He was also known for wide grip chin ups and Franco would grab a really wide grip and he would do these chin ups. And if you look at a photo of Franco Colombo's lat spread, people need to realize that nobody's back looked like that back then. Now bodybuilders now that's it right there. Oh, yeah. So that's the photo that that I that I have up on my I've had up on my wall forever. Yeah, I've seen that in your garage. Yeah, it's all tore up now. So but he did wide grip chin ups and deadlifts and deadlifts were not really thought of as a bodybuilder movement. They were a power lift. Well, it's still it's funny to me because that's one of the things that's in our space right now. It's more often than not, I see that these guys trying to make a case and are trying to say that deadlifting is not a back exercise and just think it's so funny. Here we are. I mean, you I none of that was talked about before and here you are picking Colombo's back as one of the best. And one of the things that he was most known for was his heavy deadlifts. Now, I want to mention another bodybuilder on when it comes to back actually two bodybuilders because there are two others that really stand out. So Franco definitely stood out and then Dorian Yates was on another level in the 90s. I mean, he busted out his. He when he won the Olympia, he came out and when he would turn around, it was lights out. That's why they called him the shadow that was his nickname because you like cast the shadow on people because his back was so wide. He was known for supinated grip barbell rows. You know what's funny about this, by the way, nobody did supinated grip barbell rows. That's strange because it seems like such a natural way to do it. You know, like just turn your grip and get in the underhand grip. But it actually even feels better to me personally. Hourses the elbows in, you get that squeeze and he did it kind of at a forty five degree angle. So he wasn't completely parallel to the ground. He also popularized hammer strength equipment. So remember hammer strength was just coming onto the scene. Yeah. And then they showed videos of, you know, Yates doing the, you know, ISO row. And that was really the first plate loaded kind of equipment became really popular. And then, of course, we have to mention Ronnie Coleman, which probably the best, most widely best developed back of all time. Also, big deadlifter. That's a famous video of him deadlifting eight hundred pounds. Yeah, like a week or two out from the show. That's that's crazy to me because, you know, when you're that when you're that far into a cut, like you're like so depleted, the last couple of weeks of training heading into a show is you're just going through the motions. You're just trying to survive. And I think this dude was pulling eight hundred pounds. Deadlifting is insane. I mean, it's it's ridiculous. Doesn't make any sense. And what you'll notice with these heavy deadlifters, by the way, is the thickness in the mid back. Like they all have wide backs. The columns, the columns, dude. Dorian. There's a photo of Dorian waiting to go on stage. And he's kind of like leaning forward and someone had a camera and took it from behind. And it looked like quads look like he had two quads on his back. It was just insane. And then, of course, Coleman. I mean, it was just didn't make any sense. Yeah, there's the photo of. Oh, well, he is way upright. Yeah. So he did kind of like this 45 degree angle. I see you do it all the time. And I think you're just being a wuss. That's what I thought. But you were actually trying to get Dorian Yates back. Well, he's he's really he's really upright. Yeah. Yeah. Wow. That's that's interesting how upright. Yeah. You really can you got to focus on squeezing the lats right there and pulling the shoulder and you will get a pretty crazy lat pump from doing it that way. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So it's pretty pretty pretty fun. So yeah, Coleman deadlifts Dorian Yates deadlifts Franco Colombo deadlifts. I think they all have something common. Yeah. Yeah. What's interesting about is you don't see a lot of body builders deadlifts anymore. So is it is it more that the judging has changed? No. Or is it that they just don't prefer it's coming back by the way. Yeah. Yeah. All you have what's this you brought up. What's his name? Seabomb. Right. Yeah. So he he's a big deadlifting guy which by and by the way one of the best bodies right now in bodybuilding. Yeah. And you're starting to see now. I don't remember his name. He just won the Arnold Classic new guy deadlifts all the time. Like like people they're rediscovering the power of the deadlift for back development. And I've said this a million times like nothing comes close. And I know people argue it all the time. But I swear I look this is from experience not just myself but training clients. It just develops back like nothing else. Well we went on this kick of you know the deadlift increases the size of your waist and then these you know guys wearing the core sets. And so that that was big and popular. And then there's this movement of oh that doesn't it's technically not a back exercise. So the combination of those two things I think is why it fell out of favor and with training with bodybuilders. But I agree I think it's making its way back and in my opinion it's very obvious when I see someone turn around and do a back pose. I feel like and tell right away like you know it's deadlifter or not which there's not a lot of exercises. Somebody could pose and I go oh he does that or he doesn't do that you could tell deadlifting is one of those things where I feel like if you're a major deadlifter and you turn around and see back it's like oh yeah he deadlifts or if they don't at all to me it's it's very obvious. My good buddy like and not to throw him on the bus but I think he's got an amazing physique. He just did a great he just had to show Johnny Sebastian he's been on here before and he just he won't deadlift in fear of putting on there but when he turns is to me that's the only reason why the dude doesn't win shows all the time is his back. He's got incredible physique from top to bottom and he turns around and he has a back that looks like it doesn't deadlift ever and I he's missing that thickness in the columns like it just and all out of fear of putting on you know it's interesting about that is that having a wider waist will probably make you better at squatting and deadlift so sometimes you see powerlifters and strength athletes really good at deadlifting and squatting and you think it's what gave them the thicker way they were it's that the thicker waist probably gives you better leverage but here's the irony of that so Ronnie Coleman Doreen Yates Franco Colombo look at all of their front and rear lat spreads. The difference between their lats and their waist is dramatic. Do they have these wide blocky waist in comparison now well that's the case I made back we talked about this a while back where because one of the fears I would get especially with crossfitting becomes so popular there's a lot of girls that are really good at deadlifting. They also have kind of a wider boxier waist but it's they had a wider boxier waist and it led the yeah it lent itself well to them deadlifting. It wasn't that they deadlifted a lot and then they got a boxy way you know what it's like it's like saying bench pressing heavy is going to give you short arms and a barrel. That's a good point or deadlifting well is going to make you tall and lanky like those body part like those body types like the best deadlifters typically have long kind of long towards average lends itself well for those lists. Yeah. Ventures really short arms right so that's absolutely what it is and developing a big waist from deadlifting. No don't worry about that and if you did gain by the way a quarter inch on your waist which is nothing you would it would be offset by the three inches that you get around your lats in your back that you got you know from the deadlifts. All right so shoulders talk about shoulders which in my opinion. I think shoulders are for both sexes. Aesthetically speaking probably one of the most important body parts. You agree. No I agree it's been it was one of the biggest difference makers for my physique. I've talked on the show before about the first critique I read out of a female bodybuilder when I was like twenty two I had her critique my physique and her exact words. Well you have weak shoulders. But it sent me on a mission after that was to develop them and you know it was crazy because at that time in my life I was coming out of you know being a teenage boy who trained his arms you know nine times a week and that's all it buys and tries like crazy because I wanted impressive arms. And the irony is that my I put I put so much focus on my shoulders the same kind of focus I was probably doing in my arms before that my arms shrank. So the circumference of my arms was much smaller but my delts changed and people would think I had bigger better arms. And it's like no I think just the shoulder really not only does it make the arm look amazing it also pulls. I mean it makes you get that view why yeah you get wide and it makes your waist look even more narrow women. It gives them the sculpted arm look. Yeah. Oftentimes they think oh your arms look amazing and what they're really talking about is their shoulders. Yeah that definition 100 percent. So one bodybuilder not as well known but he was so the original Arnold Schwarzenegger encyclopedia bodybuilding which I've referred to before. So the first kind of you know muscle building exercise book I ever had in there Arnold highlights Bertle Fox. He's a UK bodybuilder by the way went to jail for murdering someone. So let's just forget that for a second. Oh shit really. Yeah he did. I didn't know that in the 90s I think is why we don't idolize still in prison. I think so. Oh wow. He was now they called him Bertle brutal Fox. I guess he lived up to his nickname because of the way he trained. He trained like a madman heavy or whatever. But what he was known for was his dealt development and he was known for the behind the neck press. And he was strong. He worked up to 250 pounds 10 reps seated behind the neck press. Now I know more recently the behind the neck press is like a dirty word. Oh don't do that. It's bad for your shoulders or whatever. I want to say I do want to say this all exercises are appropriate so long as you could do them with good control and stability. So there is no bad exercise. There's just exercise that you may not be able to perform with good control and good stability. So that being said if you have good control and good stability the benefits of the behind the neck press really have to do with just the form and technique that's required for you to bring the barbell behind your head without having to jut your head forward and have this weird if you could do this with good posture it's almost like you're squeezing your doubt just hold that position and then you press. And if you can do them well the shoulder pump you get what do you think it is about that that attributes to the development of shoulders so much because when you think about a military press we're only talking about the difference of four maybe six inches you know from. Yes right you know I'm saying it's not like it like is it really is it really doing that much more or do you think it has something to do with the fact that you are having to engage and to get them back and hell yeah think about that like even now if you're just trying to hold them back in this position back and yeah isolating or is it possibly to that when you're at that angle the rear delt is taking a lot of the load versus when it's in front of you the upper chest the upper chest gives you so in a deep shoulder press all the way down your upper chest gets a lot of that gets a little bit of activation and we're versus if I'm like in this when I'm in a stretch position on the chest and the bars behind my head and it's all the way down I'm not really feeling much of my chest now I actually feel more of my delt my rear delt when I'm at the bottom there to get it up out of the out of the whole yeah this this was a very the behind the neck press was a staple in bodybuilding routines for a while Bertel Fox again was known for it but then in the nineties people like Kevin LeVron you know and in bodybuilding that's what they did in fact very few bodybuilders did military press military presses weren't in bodybuilding routines for a little while there it was all behind the neck it was it went from military press to behind the neck back to military press there's always this kind of like back and forth but there's value in both and if you can do them well they don't feel the same they don't feel the same as a standard they feel different and I want to caution the audience because you know I think at that time I was able to military press like 225 and I had to go all the way down to the bar yeah with behind the neck so now in just holding in position you probably got a crazy show that's why I think I think I enjoyed it right away because even though it was way lighter than what I could military press the first time I ever did it just controlling the reps slow and controlled for 10 to 15 reps with just the 45 pound bar gave me this massive pump in my shoulder and I thought oh wow this is if I'm at 45 pounds right now and I feel this and I did I just I kept working my way up like 10 pounds out of it at a time took me about a summer of focusing on that before I had really and of course a lot of work on the shoulder mobility to get there but yeah no I saw huge improvement and I think part of it too is when you're doing any kind of a press you want your elbow under your hand right so if it's in front of my body elbow in front of my hand but now when I move behind my neck I have to really bring my elbow back to stay in front excuse me underneath my hand otherwise it turns into this kind of a press and that's for shoulders problems start to happen yeah so holding everything back it's that contraction of squeezing back and holding that position I think is what changes the feel and I go light I don't go super heavy on behind the neck I just try to keep my elbows under my hands and squeeze the whole time and it's a different feel such a perfect primer to compliment that is our zone one test yes literally that like that was like my go to and I think maybe that's actually what made me do that was I was working on our zone one test because I had my forward head and full forward shoulder was the worst of all the tests that we took and I was like working on that so much I thought you know what I should do an exercise that promotes that in addition to working on my priming and so complimenting those together doing the zone one wall test and then going into that exercise is a perfect combo oh it's a it's a phenomenal exercise it's one of my favorites but again it's about form and technique and feel and it definitely feels different in fact you know who does a lot of behind the neck presses here's this is something funny it's this there's a certain strength athlete that is not a bodybuilder they don't present their physique for people to look at that performs behind the neck presses Olympic lifters Olympic lifters do now when you when you do a snatch they didn't push presses from behind the neck behind the neck if you've ever seen them they'll literally catch the barbell on their traps and press and people oh you shouldn't do it's bad for your shoulder Olympic lifters they have pretty healthy shoulders and typically if they hurt themselves it's not their shoulder that they end up injuring so if you have the control on the mobility it's not it's a great exercise well it's even to get their shoulders and set and position in a snatch and overhead position they have to have that ability to keep it stabilized in like that with their shoulders so to be able to kind of bring it down and back behind their neck is a natural thing to work on to stabilize that position with your shoulder well I think that's the take away from this right so if you're somebody who can't perform it comfortably it's a good goal and that's how it ended up in my routines I couldn't do it I couldn't do it with good form and it's something that I don't want to lose that ability to be able to press something like that it should be very natural for the body to do that so if you try this and you're and you're terrible at it don't just abandon it because you're not good or you're not strong it's only going to benefit you to work on the mobility to be able to behind the neck press and benefit not only your shoulders but just overall shoulder health yep yep absolutely alright let's go to the legs we'll start with the quads and I would say quads and hamstrings for this person but quads in particular now here's what's interesting about the guy that we're about to talk about if we ever bring up a bodybuilder from the 70s or 80s you typically have to judge their body or the body part in the context of that era because bodybuilders are so much bigger now right yeah yeah and it's largely due to the amount of drugs that they use the amount of steroids and growth hormone and stuff like that like Arnold I think competed at 220 today a guy his height would compete close to 300 pounds just give you an example of the difference in size right but this particular bodybuilder his legs then you put them on a pro bodybuilder stage today still bigger and you would still have incredibly impressive quad development Tom Plats Tom Plats if you look up his legs and his quads his quads even today would totally stand out and he's also known as one of the best barbell squatters of all time deep to his form was so good do you guys ever watch the video of him I think he was competing with Tom Hatfield you guys know Tom Hatfield was first man to squat over a thousand pounds and they did like a squat competition though I didn't know that to see you could squat I think it was 500 pounds more times and Tom Plats blew him out and then Tom Plats has done things like he would squat 135 for 30 minutes so he would just put 135 on just keep going crazy yeah 30 minutes of squats with 135 his form was impeccable and his routine oftentimes was all squats he would do squats with his wide stance close stance heels elevated like all different variations of squats develop look at his quads right there it's insane like it's just and his hamstrings too dude well let's get to the hamstrings we'll get to the hamstrings next but let's talk about his quads first he was again all about squats and if you watch videos of him squatting what you will see are the most perfect looking squats you've ever seen in your entire life I've never seen a squat better than Tom Plats now hamstrings he also had tremendous hamstring development and the keys with him with hamstrings were his range of motion was insane so Tom Plats could get into like a half split he could fold himself all the way in half he was one of the first bodybuilders to prove that having muscle was okay for flexibility and he did these stiff legged deadlifts with his spine staying neutral so it was like almost like a Romanian deadlift but he would stand on a bench so that the plates could go further than the bench and really what his thing was was range of motion stiff legged deadlifts and there's famous photos of him like bending over and showing his hamstrings and it's like it looks like an anatomy show wasn't he also the one who made Sissy Squats really popular? Yes, he was a very big Sissy Squats and that was something completely foreign to me until we met I remember the first time that you showed me a Sissy Squat and I thought it was ridiculous I was like this is the stupidest I really did I thought it was like the stupidest exercise ever I thought it was silly and part of that was I didn't know how to do it properly so I think the way that obviously form is always important but in an exercise like that I think it's even more important on understanding the cues that you should be doing and keeping your kind of your hips in that locked position when you go back but talk about an amazing quad pump that it's now forever been in my leg routine always When I did Sissy Squats I was like never touching leg extensions again Ever again, ever again, why? It's such a better movement for muscle hypertrophy and what it promotes for ankle mobility hip control and strength it promotes so many other good things and then the fact that if your main goal is just to develop your quads I take the Pepsi Challenge all day on it that it's better than your leg extension or any other exercise like that The only downside to Sissy Squats is they're way harder so I wouldn't be able to do that with a beginner or you have to have a decent amount of strength and stability to do it but you could put the leg extension on 30 pounds and most people could do it but if you can do them and you can do them well I mean, nothing comes close no isolation movement for the quads in my opinion comes close You could also though, I mean obviously like a beginner beginner probably not the greatest movement to probably teach them first but even somebody who's fairly new you can assist with the squat rack or with the, I've used the suspension trainer so there's a lot of ways to like assist yourself with that exercise so it's not like you're just doing your body weight not everybody can handle that right away but man, if that's not in your routine your leg routine, you're missing out on a great movement All right, let's get to the show muscle the one, you know what's funny about the bicep if somebody comes up to you and says show me your muscle you instinctively know it's the bicep you know what I mean? Why is that though? I don't know, it's the easiest one to flex Is that what it is? Yeah, is that necessarily true though? Is it really the easiest one for everyone to flex? Bro, it's the show muscle like you know how many bodybuilding poses involve the bicep you know what I mean, where you're showing the bicep I know but it's just so funny to me that that's I mean, why this is interesting to me too is like we literally, Max has just learned how to flex So we've taught him like, we say show us your muscles and he, you know, he does this little thing Yeah, it's almost like intuitive Yes, that's what I'm getting at it's like, it's not like I said son, flex your bicep and I showed him what that means is just show us your muscles and then it just intuitively it becomes the bicep part But if you're all, show me your muscle son and does a lats bicep Yeah, he squeezes his butt Cause obviously, I'm showing you my glutes dad So biceps are have all has been known for a long time as like the show muscle, right? Again, that's the one that people flex when they say show me your muscle Well, we know now bodybuilders especially pro bodybuilders have these really big arms but the first bodybuilder to ever have over 20 inch arms which is massive, that's massive like I've my arms have never I've never gotten my arms over 17 and a half inches relatively lean and you know, that's still pretty good It's not bad 18 inch arms are huge 20 inch arms are gigantic Some guns And the first bodybuilder ever to do this was Leroy Colbert and it was in the 19 I want to say maybe Doug, you can look him up I don't even know who that is 1950s or 60s What was he known for? He was known for his arms No, no, I mean like what exercise was he known for? Oh, he did so heavy barbell curls and he did it like a strength exercise so he goes six to eight reps with the barbell curl Interesting So really getting his bicep strong and then he was big on drag curls Oh, was he one of the first to do that? I don't know if he was one of the first but it was usually in his routines if you would read about his, there he is right there and I mean you can see like, especially for the era does it say what the era was Doug? Yeah, the 1950s Do you know how crazy that is? Natural guy right here Well, or like, you know, what would they take in the 50s, like, you know, five, 10 milligrams of D-ball which is So in the 50s they had D-ball going around? I didn't know that I thought D-ball didn't hit the scene until like Arnold days No, maybe Doug, you can look up Diana Ball I think it was the 50s or 60s Oh wow, it's been around that long I didn't know that Yeah, just a little side conversation The U.S. scientists developed it in response to the Soviet athletes obviously doing something so he created I also thought that was like in the 70s Wasn't that when? 1958 Oh wow Well, you're like even like Babe Ruth in that era like they had performance enhancing drugs Yeah, he was using greenies and stuff like that Right, yeah, yeah, yeah Is that what he was doing? Yeah, they were doing meth Oh, okay Not steroids Didn't help his appetite though I mean, he didn't look like a specimen That's for sure Yeah, but okay, so 1950s probably natural if he did take anabolic steroids what they had back then was like literally like creatine like they didn't have anything and here he is this guy with 21 inch arms which was insane Yeah Again, barbell curls and he did them for strength and drag curls Let's start with the barbell curl If you have a good connection to your biceps and you can train them relatively heavy I mean, it is the mass builder of the biceps for sure You guys ever do drag curls as part of your routine though? You know, I do and I have it in a long time though and just this episode is making me want to add that in the routine because it's been a while since I've done them It's a weird squeeze at the top It burns the crap So I like Is he leaning over a bench No, no, no Again, I don't even remember You're pulled back It's like you pull the shoulders back Why I like it and I actually used to teach it because one of the hardest things when you're teaching a client to do bicep curls one of the tendencies they have is to to rock and the shoulders roll forward and the anterior delt takes over a lot of the movement and I'm always trying to teach to get them to retract and squeeze So doing a drag curl promotes that because you retract and you pull back as you do kind of the curls so it's actually a great exercise for trainers that are watching this I like teaching drag curls to even newbies because it gets them in that shoulder retracted position that you want to try and keep them in when doing traditional curls anyway So think of it this way It's like you're starting a barbell curl but then the barbell stays it drags up your body as you curl So you're just pulling it up your hands You're curling but your elbows go back at the same time So it creates this interesting angle at the top where the bicep lengthens but also shortens at the bottom and it's very interesting I actually had Doug do them Didn't you do them the other day when I showed you? What did you think of them? I liked them It's exactly the reason you talked about just keeping the shoulders retracted and pulling up That's what I found more than anything was that doing it because it exaggerates that movement of pulling back like that it would get my clients to hold that position better and so it actually became like a pretty regular exercise that I put in for beginner clients that you wouldn't think of that because it's kind of a bodybuilder type of exercise but I really like it for that reason It's a hard to cheat exercise and it makes your biceps burn like it creates a pain in the biceps Great movement It's another exercise Alright, let's talk about the triceps One of my, as a kid one of my favorite bodybuilders of all time was Kevin LeVron Mine too You two? Yeah, yeah Ridiculous arms, shoulders, everything but his triceps were insane He was known for being strong as well as you know, looking aesthetic and one of his favorite exercises for triceps were heavy close grip bench presses One of the best ones that you could possibly do for triceps It was one of, you know I think it was muscle and fitness that used to do the center of it with their routine or whatever It was his arm routine it was that exercise that I started to do close grip before that it was never an exercise for me that I really did that on In fact, I actually thought it was just a variation for the chest and I never liked doing it until I saw it in his arm routine and I followed that arm routine and nothing blew my triceps up more than that exercise which I think is also funny because that's another one of those exercises like the deadlift one that people like to argue with us about this, not for the back I actually hear people try and make the argument that close grip bench press is terrible for your triceps which I think is fucking hilarious it's one of the best exercises you could do for your triceps Yeah, I would always think that the only way to really emphasize the triceps was to get add weight to heavy dips and get lower and it wasn't until I started doing the close grip bench press where I could load it substantially and yeah, because I was in that same boat I thought like well, maybe this is a variation of a chest press but it really did take my triceps to a different level I was just going to ask you, Justin because you're a big bencher and of the three of us I think you have the highest bench press I know you've hit four plates before and did the close grip bench press help with that? Oh yeah, that took my extension especially like which is where I would struggle the most because I would be able to get about halfway with the real heavy weight and then it was just that last bit I was such a grind and so once I really sort of focus on close grip that last bit of extension got a lot stronger Now here's a tip don't get too close this is the big mistake I made when I first did it and that'll mess up your wrist Line up your shoulder close grip is literally about shoulder width and you want that elbow flexion in line with your ribs yeah and extension I like a little bit wider better like you're saying than too narrow because too narrow naturally flares the elbows and you're going to get more of the triceps if you can get the triceps underneath the wrist so it looks more like that versus real close and then the elbows flares out and that'll mess up your wrist dude I hurt my wrist doing this and I couldn't do it for a little while and then a buddy of mine is like dude just grab a little wider now I don't remember if he was known for this but my personal spin on this was inclined yeah I've never seen that before except for you and it's great it just puts you in a I guess a better position it just feels more comfortable more comfortable more natural to do this exercise and I don't feel like I lose any of tricep activation by going on I feel like it's easier to have better form of it I do too I think that it's just the way it's lined up with your body it also rolls kind of the shoulders back because your back is on an incline so I almost always do them on an incline I find that even better alright let's go to calves now we already mentioned this bodybuilder we're gonna bring him up again because not necessarily because he had the best calves of all time although towards the end of his career he was known for having incredible calves but rather this is a rare case where he went from he was a pro bodybuilder or at least very competitive and he went from having terrible calves to having amazing calves like the difference in his calf development in that period of time was so impressive and it's Arnold Arnold was known for having terrible calves and then he was known for having amazing calves I love that you picked him because I'm sure you're gonna get a little pushback because there's bodybuilders that are more known for their calves that had bigger calves in him but what I think is so impressive is maybe people don't know this or not but Arnold used to take pictures standing in the water and stuff he's talked about this where he never wanted to hide his calves because his calves were underdeveloped compared to the rest of his body so it was an area that he was kind of insecure about and so the fact that he went from having really bad calves to having some of the most impressive calves I think that speaks even more volumes than the guy who just already had kind of massive calves totally and when you read about the story so the story goes that Arnold got criticized for having small calves now he's known for having incredible work ethic and all that stuff so what he did to get himself to psychologically dedicate himself to calf training was he cut all the bottom of his sweats off so he stopped walking around with his calves covered and would expose them all the time and then this would expose him to ridicule so he'd go to the gym and then bodybuilders would poke fun at his calves I do the same shit that's hella funny he was so motivated he wrote about this he went to go train with Reg Park I didn't know this yeah it's true this is what he wrote about so Reg Park was known for he was one of the biggest most well-developed bodybuilders of the 60s and Arnold in 50s I think and Arnold was like a big he was one of Arnold's heroes he went to go train with Reg Park and Reg Park was known for having nice calves and Reg Park said you want bigger calves you better train them more often volume really full range of motion and so Arnold just prioritized his calves like crazy and they grew like crazy and then one exercise in particular he was known for doing was the donkey calf race dude I love that you share this story because you're making me laugh right now I didn't know that and this is and I don't think I've ever shared with you guys this was a strategy for me especially when I first obviously got into competing I'm showing my physique right so I cared more than ever about this stuff and my calves have always been terrible and so I was like instead of hiding them in sweats I'm gonna wear shorts and what that did was I was so embarrassed of how small they were that it always made me lift them first so I wanted to have a pump in them at least I might walk around the gym for the next hour like I gotta get some air in these fucking things so they don't look so terrible so it was a great I'm serious and this worked for me because I couldn't hide them if I was in sweats maybe I'll hit them today maybe I won't if I was in shorts and I walked in the gym I'll get some air in these things as soon as I can and so it increased the frequency that I would train my calves because I would make myself wear shorts to the gym all the time even in the winter time so I've never heard that about him and I've never shared that on my pump before but that's the truth and it helped me it helped me to make sure that I would hit them they became an exercise that I always did first before anything else which we've talked about that before you say that all the time say one of the best ways to bring up a lagging body part you just order it as first first in anything else well that was one of the ways that I insured that that even if I wasn't in the mood I knew I'm walking in the gym with my shorts and they did not look good unless they were aired up so the difference between when you were training and when Arnold was training is now you have access to donkey calf raise machines which is one of my favorite back then they for all us non-bodybuilder enthusiasts it's the one where you push your butt up you're bent over you're back in two girls on his back you've seen that before where he's on a block of wood he's got two girls sitting on his back and he's leaning over that was for fun video and stuff but really it was his buddies so franco and bunch of bodybuilders it's true not as cool of a picture but that's a famous picture though right you've seen that before where there's two it's probably a photo show there's two pretty girls that are sitting on his back and he's doing the donkey calf raise that's pretty famous now donkey calf raises is it the stretch that puts him in that makes him why it works so good I mean nothing's look at that photo that's with is that franco the stretch you get in your gas rocks the meaty part of the calf you could stretch your calf on a standing calf raise and then try to bend at the hips because there's a part of your calf that stretches when you bend over as well if you're a femur you will get the most gnarly calf stretch you've ever had in your entire life with doing a donkey calf raise and for me personally I mean we don't have a donkey calf raise machine standing calf raises are fine nothing hits my calves like a donkey I love donkey calf raise it's one of my absolute favorites and he was definitely very known for him alright let's get to abs or the midsection now here's a funny thing about abs I was thinking what bodybuilder was kind of known for the midsection or for something different Frank Zane Frank Zane was known for his infamous vacuum pose this is with his hands behind his there it is right there look at that hands behind his head he would suck in his waist to the point where it looked like he had no organs like it literally was like thin and you would see a serratus interior and everything develop and it became this classic bodybuilder pose that bodybuilders don't even do today because I think they're guts and everything's so big now it's actually making its way back especially in classic bodybuilder so in the classic category the vacuum pose is now making its way back as one of the popular poses I like it for average people totally as advice to help them when they come to you say I want to flatten my stomach because a lot of times they just have such a weak core that everything's out and just by you training this exercise you tighten that in and even without technically losing a bunch of body fat you'll bring the mid section in like an inch or so just by strengthening those core muscles this was my secret exercise for new moms when they would come to me after having a baby and they're working out and obviously they're at the point now where they're training and they're like you know I'm lean and I'm exercising but I just can't my midsection just it kind of pooches out a little bit at the bottom and I'd be like we need to train your TVA and I'd have them do vacuum poses on their hands and knees with a little bit of resistance from gravity and I remember we when we would first start doing them it's like they couldn't even turn the muscle on but then as they were able to turn it on and suck their midsection in it would tighten their midsection and they would lose a half an inch around their waist without getting a leaner because they strengthen this particular muscle so it's a very functional exercise this is something that you want to teach your clients as a trainer too to be able to support your spine better and get that type of active support so you know the drawing in maneuver is something we used to call it but yeah for sure the vacuum pose great exercise to teach for all kinds of reasons absolutely and if you learn how to vacuum and you have that control and then you train your abs your obliques what you can do and this is more of an advanced technique as you're doing your crunch simultaneously do a little bit of that vacuum draw in and you'll feel everything turn on like you've never felt before so this is part of why I like the perfect sit up as one of my favorite exercises because I think you naturally do that because you have to roll up in order to do that slow and control you do have to vacuum a little bit you have to draw in that TVA before you start to roll up and that's why I think that's such a great exercise too it's not a lot of people do that and to Justin's point have other benefits than just the aesthetics right I mean there's a lot of value and to be know that control those muscles for overall health totally so there you have it look if you like our information head over to mindpumpfree.com and check out all of our free guides we wrote a lot of guides that can help you build bigger muscles or stronger body or burn more body fat or get better at squatting we even have guides for personal trainers you can also find all of us on Instagram so Justin is at mind pump Justin I'm at mind pump Sal and Adam is at mind pump Adam