Modern bodybuilders VS jocks of the 90s. How did both of them gain weight?

The limit of natural bodybuilding

In bodybuilding, muscle mass and definition are important.

In the first year of training, you can grow 8-10 kilograms of muscle on your bones, in the second – 4-5 kg, in the third – 2 kg. You can read more about this in the article “The Limit of Muscle Growth”

Muscle definition is determined by the percentage of body fat. Competitive bodybuilders and marathon runners can lose up to 5% of their body fat mass. A healthy norm without chemicals can be considered 8-12%. More information about this is written in the article “Fat percentage in men”

"Wimp" Bill Davey

Bill dreamed of being a healthy guy and becoming an American football player. In the summer at school, everyone who wanted to play football took physical development tests. Strength exercises – bench press. Endurance – running a mile. Agility, squats, etc. Being thin and not very developed, Bill bench pressed 52 kg. The fiasco served as an incentive to train with iron and get on the team next year.

By the next qualifying tests, Bill bench pressed 97.5 kg and improved his performance in other disciplines. He was thin due to his body being too slender and weighed 70 kg.

History of Natural Bodybuilding

First bodybuilding competition

One day, a circus strongman, Evgeniy Sandov, decided to organize the first bodybuilding championship.

The year was 1898.

By that time, Sandow had already stopped performing in the circus arena and opened his own gym in London. Next door, Arthur Conan Doyle opened a medical office and, in his free time from practicing medicine, wrote stories about Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson.

When Arthur came to Evgeniy to pump up his muscles a little, the circus performer asked the writer:

– I want to organize a male beauty contest here. Would you, Mr. Doyle, want to be a judge for naked men on stage?

“Grit Idia,” the writer exclaimed and joyfully agreed to look at naked men from all over England, “just let’s invite another sculptor to our party who will sculpt prize figurines, otherwise he also needs hype.”

No sooner said than done. So Evgeniy Sandov began to travel all over England and offer strong men to show their muscles with the caveat that they all train according to his method. And for this, the father, the founder of bodybuilding, promised the most handsome man a prize of 1000 guineas and a statuette of himself - Evgeniy Sandov, made of pure gold, like, for a long and eternal memory.

Well, in short, provincial men fell for this topic and began to participate in regional male beauty contests with an eye to getting an invitation to London.

For three years, Evgeniy Sandov selected 80 strong men to show them to London bohemia in the Royal Albert Hall for 15 thousand spectators.

Posters hung all over London and all the people could not fit into the 15,000-seat hall.

September 14, 1901 was not a good day for a naked men's show. In England there was bad news from the Boer War, and even the US President was laid down somehow at the wrong time.

“Bullshit, we’ll break through,” said Evgeniy Sandov and announced that all the money from the collections would go to help the wounded British, and the US President would be observed with a minute of silence.

After a minute's silence, the circus began at the Royal Albert Hall. First, strongmen, wrestlers and acrobats performed, and then 80 provincial men in tights and leopard skins came out to show off their magnificent bodies.

The circus performer, the writer and the sculptor approached each man and examined them closely. Finally, they selected the three best and began to think about who to give the main Sandow statuette to.

“Well, I don’t know,” said the sculptor, “one is kind of clumsy, the other is too short; Let's give first place in this to flat feet.

“I don’t care,” said Sandow, “I can pour myself as many statues as I want,” and went to drink at the banquet.

No sooner said than done. The main statuette was given to Mr. Murray from Nottingham and everyone began to leave: some to go home, some to the banquet.

But Arthur Conan Doyle had to get up early because he had a routine. The writer went out into the street and saw Mr. Murray walking around London with a statue of a naked Sandow under his arm.

“Hey, mister,” the writer shouted, “why didn’t you call Uber?”

- Yes, there is no money. “I only have a ticket for the train,” answered the provincial.

– Yes, don’t worry so much; come on, I’ll take you to the hotel; I’ll feed you, give you something to drink, put you to bed; “I really like you,” the writer suggested.

Well, when else will a provincial be offered an overnight stay with a snack in a five-star hotel? We must agree. The guys called Uber and drove to five stars.

“Mr. Doyle,” the provincial writer asked, “this statue is probably worth money; You don’t know who can drive it normally in London.

– In London, of course, there are no fools, but in your province you can open a gym and display a statue for advertising and prestige.

Mr. Murray did so, and then went off to war. During the war he came under a chemical attack and was severely poisoned. He could no longer swing, but somehow he lived to be 75 years old.

Then Joe Weider cast his Sandow figurine, but with bigger muscles. Otherwise, the original figurine seemed too shabby without farm support. So historians began to look for the first Sandow figurine. And one day the historian Webster found it with Mr. Murray's nephew.

In 1898, Sandow promised that the figurine would be made of pure gold, but when Webster examined the original, he was amazed: the figurine turned out to be made of bronze with a thin layer of gilding.

“Oh, he’s a fag,” Webster thought, but said nothing, because he was a trained historian.

The nature of people is constant. Progress has not saddled nature. Don't be fooled by the gold plating on Titan - Follow the Size/Quarter .

Golden era of bodybuilding

One day, John Grimek's brother bought himself a barbell to pump up his muscles, but quickly lost interest in this stupid activity. But John liked the monotonous lifting of the barbell up.

For ten years, John stupidly lifted weights and became the US national champion. So the 26-year-old boy ended up on the team of Bob Hoffman, who was preparing American weightlifters for the Olympics in Berlin.

To the disappointment of all American fans, John took only ninth place at the Olympics.

Despite the failure of the American team, Bob continued to publish articles in his magazine “Strength and Health” about how to lift the barbell correctly.

A couple of years later, Hoffman’s editor received a letter that German weightlifters were injecting themselves with testosterone propionate and swallowing methyltestosterone; and clinical trials on humans have been going on all over the world for a long time. And in general, you need to keep up with the times, and not stupidly lift the barbell.

Bob thought about it.

“John,” Hoffman turned to Grimek, “there’s a topic here—pills for increasing strength.” Would you like to try? They say that the Germans beat us under them.

- Well, if the Germans accept it, then we should too. Why are we worse?

No sooner said than done.

So John Grimek gained 20 kilograms of muscle in a couple of years.

Bob looks at his fosterling and realizes that the muscles have grown, and he is not a weightlifting champion. I lost a lot in speed. And John himself understood this too.

“Bob,” the student turned to the teacher, “I was thinking, maybe I should compete in bodybuilding?”

- Yes, what the fuck are you?! - Hoffman seethed, - muscles are a by-product of strength training, and showing muscles and not lifting the barbell is an activity for fagots. Have you become a fagot?

“Well, Bob,” the bodybuilder looked pitifully at the publisher of the magazine “Strength and Health,” “well, let’s make our own bodybuilding tournament.” Well, come on, come on...

“I don’t like all this, but okay, maybe the circulation will increase due to the fagots,” agreed the fascist fan.

As expected, John only took third place in the lift, but when he came out to pose, everyone went nuts. No one had seen such muscle mass in 1940.

The rest of the competitive bodybuilders became despondent and said that they would never set foot in these tournaments again, because they, such crap people, were ashamed to stand next to Grimek.

Bob realized that he would lose profit and quickly found something to say:

– Gentlemen, I propose to call John Grimek the “King of Muscles” and ban him from competing in our tournament so that you do not lose motivation. And so that everyone can catch up with the “king” in muscle volume, write to me in a personal message, I know where to get it.

After the tournament, Bob hugged John and said:

– My boy, today the “Golden Era of Bodybuilding” has begun with unprecedented muscle hypertrophy, prostate hypotrophy and testicular atrophy.

Since then, the magazine “Strength and Health” with John Grimek on the cover began to be sold in pharmacies in the United States.

The “Golden Era” is coming across America. The testosterone injection won. People don’t know the measure of anything, they don’t want to read Size/quarter .

Natural bodybuilders of the 90s

No matter how hard Bob Hoffman tried to explain to the World that only fagots do bodybuilding, and real men do weightlifting, the Weider brothers’ magazines were more popular than Hoffman’s magazines. And Schwarzenegger, who hung out with the Vaders, was more popular than Grimek, who wrote for Hoffman.

Having proved nothing to anyone, the weightlifting fan died in 1985, and John Grimek did not want to alone prove to the World that the aesthetics of the Golden Era were better than the annual increase in muscle mass standards.

In 1986, Bob Hoffman's magazines were purchased by David Blackman to promote his company's TwinLab proteins.

But Bob Hoffman's magazines were not popular and there was no one to advertise proteins until the US Congress banned anabolic steroids in 1990 and equated their trafficking with drug trafficking.

The fact is that by 1990, bodybuilding had become so popular that 80% of US schoolchildren tried not only drugs to expand their consciousness, but also steroids to improve their appearance.

That year, Lee Haney became Mr. Olympia for the seventh time, showing the World 113 kilograms of lean muscle.

“Oh, he’s a chemist!” – said David Blackman and decided to show the world a natural champion in accordance with the new US law.

So a hundred-kilogram Skip La Cour appeared on the cover of Muscular Development magazine.

Skip La Cour instilled in the skinny guys, who had been lifting for ten years and weighed eighty kilograms, the belief that 100 kilograms of “natural” muscles was better than 113 kilograms of steroids.

For some time, under the sauce of natural bodybuilding, sales of TwinLab proteins increased, until eighty-kilogram pimps again doubted the naturalness of Skip La Cura’s hundred kilograms.

Drys drank proteins, changed a straight barbell to a curved one when pumping up biceps, but one hundred kilograms of “natural” muscles did not want to grow.

“Skip, what are we doing wrong?” – the pimples asked at the natural champion’s seminars. And Skip answered them:

“It's all about mindset and discipline. I just believe in myself more and am more disciplined. You should come to my seminars more often and become infected with my belief in perseverance and discipline.”

In short, the “natural” Skip said the same things as the regular bodybuilders in the Weider brothers’ magazines.

You can deceive one person for a long time or the whole world for a short time. But you cannot deceive the whole World for long. It turned out that steroid bodybuilding began to scare me, and natural bodybuilding became boring. Who's interested in looking at an 80-kilogram wimp?

Thus ended the “Golden Era of Bodybuilding”, and bodybuilders ceased to be rich and popular.

I ate the lean breasts of chickens, I lay on the bench under the barbell, And I didn’t become like La Cour, But I wrote Size/quarter .

Jock actors from the 90s

Today we’ll talk about people who, since time immemorial, many of us have associated with coolness and strength. Each of them became a legend in their time, despite the fact that almost all of them ended up playing the same role. And by today’s standards, it’s probably difficult to call them jocks now, although at that time they were the ideal physique for many and motivated them to play sports.

1. Nannies, aka Peter and David Paul

And no, the first to go will not be Chuck, but the twins Peter and David, who became famous after playing the main roles in the film “The Nannies.” This is because even if you watch their films now, it turns out that they are really good at bodybuilding and are in no way inferior to modern musclemen by today’s standards. Since childhood, they have been fond of training in the gym, they even opened their own gym. And they came to Hollywood already possessing enormous mass and strength. Unfortunately, “Nannies” remained their only serious film role. There were a few more minor roles, but nothing noteworthy.

Now they are already 60 years old, they have long moved away from bodybuilding and have found themselves in other areas. David turned out to be an excellent photographer, doing photo shoots for many modern fitness stars, and Peter worked as a TV presenter for many years.

Hercules Kevin Sorbo

It's Kevin Sorbo who comes to mind first (and I'm sure it's not just me) when someone says the word Hercules. Of course, if you look at him now, it’s hard to call Kevin a jock, rather fit, nothing more. But in the 90s, in the eyes of many boys, he was the most Hercules and replaced all the Marvel and DC super heroes combined. By the way, you can read about his training for this series in the article Training of Hercules.

Now he is 59, he has three children and still often works in various television projects. And although he had other films (I recommend “Soul Surfer”), for us he will forever be remembered in the role of the ancient hero.

Highlander Adrian Paul

For 6 seasons in the role of Duncan MacLeod, Adrian Paul showed not only martial arts skills, but also good physical shape. I can’t even explain why his image is persistently associated with a jock. Probably the same effect here as with Hercules - at that time we were not spoiled by fitness bodies everywhere, there was no Internet, social networks and nothing to compare with. However, his form when his body was shown on camera was really good and inspired many viewers to exercise. And this is already worth a lot.

Like Kevin, he is already 59 years old, but unfortunately, after Highlander, he never found himself in films. Pictures like Black Rose cannot be called successful roles in his filmography, but I think this will not spoil the good memory of Duncan MacLeod fans.

Chuck Norris as Texas Ranger

Chuck took on the role of his life, the famous Texas Ranger, at the age of 53, but was in such great shape that no one in the world doubted that no one could fight criminals better than him. He has years of martial arts training behind him (he is a seven-time world champion in karate), and has a real and honorable Texas Ranger star. And his image is so associated with coolness that, according to the Internet community, “it’s not Chuck who dodges bullets, but bullets that dodge him.”

It's hard to believe, but Chuck is 78 years old now, especially after his time in The Expendables, where he's still just as cool as we've come to expect.

5. Robin Shu aka Liu Kang from Mortal Kombat

At the time of casting for the film, which made all the actors who starred in it famous, Robin was already about to end his acting career. Although he had several works before this, almost none of them gained popularity. So his decision to play what he thought was his last role turned out to be fateful. The film Mortal Kombat, based on the game of the same name, not only turned out to be a pretty good action movie, but became a real hit for all the boys who instantly became fans of Liu Kang and Johnny Cage. An interesting fact is that Robin did not have understudies and he not only played all the fight scenes himself, but moreover, he staged them himself.

Just like most in our top, his acting career did not go any further. There were some good films (Beverly Hills Ninja, Death Race), but these were no longer leading roles, and the films did not become the kind of legend that Mortal Kombat remains to this day.

I hope this collection evoked positive emotions and memories for you!

Natural bodybuilding and motivation

In middle age, somewhere around forty years old, when high sugar and low testosterone make themselves felt, a man suddenly realizes that it’s time to stop drinking first.

But what to do when you don’t drink and you can’t eat because you have high sugar and low testosterone? Something comes to mind, such as sports.

Previously, as a child, you could go out into the yard with the boys to play football. And now the boys are busy with vodka, food, and TV. Only individual sports remain, of which the most popular is recreational running.

Health running is a useful activity, but boring without any claims to the wow effect. After forty years, you still want to look good, like a Hollywood star on the cover of a men's magazine.

Bodybuilding is best suited for this purpose. And the practice of bodybuilding is already rich, because this sport is already more than a hundred years old, and in Russia there are already more than one hundred thousand bodybuilding trainers. And you can contact any of the trainers on any social network.

And so a man who just quit drinking to become healthy and beautiful goes to the page of a bodybuilding trainer and reads: “Weight gain, fat burning, tests, pharmaceutical support”

It’s no longer a secret that the transformation of Hollywood stars and even Russian pop stars cannot be done without pharma. It’s no secret for those in the know – who knows where to get it. If a trainer writes “farm trim,” it means that he knows where to get it.

And such sentences are written even by champion beachgoers, whose muscles are only “height minus 100.”

So what do we get? Does a man stop drinking after forty years and start injecting? The rapper Seryoga says this about himself: “From a junkie to a jock.” This means that instead of drugs, anabolic steroids are drawn into the syringe.

Faced with such a problem, forty-year-old men begin to search the Internet for the phrase “natural bodybuilding” and realize that truly natural bodybuilders look smaller than rappers and boxers on hormones.

And in general, natural bodybuilders look good only at twenty years old, while they have their hormones and a lot of free time.

Socrates was once told that only assholes study philosophy. Socrates replied that philosophy was not to blame for this.

It’s the same with natural bodybuilding. Only street boys who lack the intelligence to understand the principles of long-term training of athletes do it. And forty-year-old men don’t have time to understand years of training.

Any man can get into beach body shape with “height minus one hundred” muscles in three years. But for this, a man at forty needs to understand that at 43 he will also need shape and health.

Progress in natural bodybuilding is about 10 times slower than with hormones. But it gives you 10 times more health.

If you understand that a quiet cart is always on the mountain, then the size/block is what you need.

A drunkard wants to become a jock, Like a men's magazine published, Is it boring to become a farm junkie? This means you need Size/quarter .

Kevin Levrone

According to bodybuilding fans, American from Baltimore Kevin Mark Levrone is the best athlete of our time. Born in 1964 into a large family of an Italian man and an African-American woman, at the age of ten the guy was left without a father, and at the age of 24 - without a mother. He devoted all his strength and energy to training in the gym, which was the beginning of his dizzying career as a bodybuilder. Having received professional status in 1991, Kevin Levrone participated in all prestigious competitions and won 21 medals.

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In 2002, Levron tried to leave big sport and devote himself to the career of a rock musician and actor, but already in 2003 he took third place at the “Pro Power Show”. In total, with some breaks, his competitive career spans approximately 27 years. The latest performances are dated 2016 (Mr. Olympia, 16th place) and 2022 (Arnold Classic Australia, 13th place).

The Limits of Natural Bodybuilding

Today, bodybuilders who have more than 70% muscle mass in their body often take part in competitive bodybuilding, even at the regional level. Doctors recognize men with muscle mass of about 50% as a healthy norm.

From the table you see that men with more than 44% muscle is the upper value of the medical norm. Achieving 50% muscle in your body without drugs is a very difficult task.

Also in competitive bodybuilding you can see athletes who have less than 4% subcutaneous fat. Doctors recognize men with a fat mass of about 8% as a healthy norm.

Modern medical equipment allows you to accurately determine the percentage of muscle and fat in the body. This body composition test can be done at many clinics or fitness clubs.

The upper limit of a natural bodybuilder can be called the norm: 50% muscle with 8% fat.

The Natural Bodybuilder's Journey

From the table of norms for muscle mass in the body, it can be seen that the minimum norm is 33% muscle. A sedentary lifestyle does not add muscle mass, so most people have about 33% muscle in their body.

To gain 50% of muscle you need to grow by about 17% from a sedentary lifestyle. This is the path of a natural bodybuilder with no training experience.

If a man can do 12 pull-ups, then he is not starting his natural bodybuilding journey from a sedentary lifestyle.

In the first year of strength training, muscles grow quickly and can grow by 10%. In the second year of training, growth rates slow down and muscles grow by about 5%. In the third year of strength training, the increase is only 2%.

Natural Bodybuilding Exercises

Muscle growth in natural bodybuilding is determined not by the equipment, but by the effort achieved in the strength exercise.

Optimal muscle growth is achieved under a load of 20 to 40 seconds.

Natural bodybuilders typically train at a tempo of 3 seconds per rep. This means that optimal muscle growth occurs in the 7-13 rep range.

But training is not a competition. During training, athletes train at an intensity of 60-90% of the competitive result.

For example, if you were able to do 10 pull-ups, then you should train with a load of 6-9 repetitions per set and do at least 5 such approaches during training.

To work in the 7-13 rep range during training, you need to choose exercises that you can do for a maximum of 12-14 reps. And whether it is exercises with a barbell or with your own weight does not matter for muscle growth.

Natural Bodybuilding Workout Plan

Men without strength training experience often cannot handle more than 15 sets of strength exercises in one workout.

Strength exercises for the purpose of muscle growth should be done no more than one approach every two minutes - 30 seconds of execution, 90 seconds of rest.

At this training pace: 2-3 minutes per approach, it can take 30-45 minutes to complete 15 approaches.

As the muscles grow, the duration of the workout can be increased to 25-30 approaches. However, this can be done gradually, according to the 10% principle.

To stimulate muscle growth, you need to allocate at least 10 minutes – 5 approaches – to one exercise.

Sample training plan for a beginner in natural bodybuilding.

Nutrition in Natural Bodybuilding

Nutrition in natural bodybuilding is subject to the principle of “feed the muscles, waste the fat.”

This means that, first of all, the calorie intake should be balanced in proteins and fats. This balance is determined by the proportion 25/25.

Typically, people do not eat enough protein, so the protein in the diet should be gradually increased as the volume of training increases and according to the 10% principle.

Protein needs to be increased so as not to increase fat. Fats in the diet should not exceed 25% of calories.

The caloric content of food is also not calculated, but selected according to the needs of the body.

If a person has more than 8% fat, then you need to choose a calorie content at which weight will decrease and strength indicators will increase during training. If, along with an increase in strength indicators, both muscle and fat mass grow, then this is no longer natural bodybuilding.

In order for calories to give and not take away strength, you need to consume foods rich in vitamins. The medical norm is 300 grams of fruits and 400 grams of vegetables per day.

If you consume cooked rather than raw vegetables, then the amount of vegetables should be doubled.

The strict adherence to nutritional rules is the main difference between bodybuilding and other types of strength training.

Overtraining in Natural Bodybuilding

To grow muscles you need 3-5 workouts per week. But these trainings should

Muscle growth is stimulated by training, but muscles grow during sleep. One hour of training requires an additional 2 hours of sleep.

Many people do not get enough sleep even in a sedentary lifestyle, so they especially do not have additional hours of sleep for training.

In order for muscles to grow from natural bodybuilding, you need to allocate at least an additional three hours of training and six hours of sleep per week in the first year.

Not having enough extra nine hours a week is the main reason beginners don't grow muscles from natural bodybuilding.

Chris Dickerson

Born in 1939, American actor and bodybuilder Chris Dickerson. He is unique in that his sports career spanned three decades. He won his most important title, Mr. Olympia, at the age of 43 in 1982. This triumph was preceded by 17 years of hard training and competition. Over the years of his athletic career, Dickerson won various competitions nine times. He rightfully received his place in the Hall of Fame of the International Bodybuilding Federation in 2000. Chris Dickerson now lives in Florida, training and conducting bodybuilding seminars.

Chris Dickerson
Chris Dickerson

Simple conclusions about natural bodybuilding:

1. If you decide to take up natural bodybuilding from a sedentary lifestyle, then you can count on a 17% muscle gain. 2. Allocate 3 hours of exercise and 6 additional hours of sleep per week. 3. Choose only those exercises in which you can do a maximum of 12-14 repetitions and train these exercises in the 7-13 repetition range. 4. Do at least 5 sets per workout of each exercise. 5. Do at least three and no more than five workouts per week. 6. Consume at least 25% protein of total calories and no more than 25% fat. 7. If you have more than 8% body fat, then the caloric intake should be adjusted so that your strength indicators increase and your weight decreases. 8. Consume at least 300 grams of fruits and 400 grams of vegetables per day.

learn the training and nutrition methods of a natural bodybuilder, like the people on the honor roll, in the Size/Quarter .

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