Mind Pump: Raw Fitness Truth - 1672: The Best Exercises from the Best Bodybuilders

Episode Date: October 28, 2021

In this episode Sal, Adam & Justin discuss the favorite exercises of top bodybuilders. How certain bodybuilders are known for their particular body parts. (2:07) The Body Part Most Known from the Best Bodybuilders and the Best Exercises for that Body Part. (4:37) The chest and Arnold Schwarzenegger. (5:00) The back and Franco Columbu with special mentions for Dorian Yates and Ronnie Coleman. (9:16) The shoulders and Bertil Fox. (17:35) The quads/hamstrings and Tom Platz. (25:32) The biceps and Leroy Colbert. (30:23) The triceps and Kevin Levrone. (35:45) The calves and Arnold Schwarzenegger. (39:02) The abs and Frank Zane. (44:26) Related Links/Products Mentioned October Promotion: MAPS Anabolic and NO BS 6-Pack Formula – Get Both for $59.99!    Visit Paleo Valley for an exclusive offer for Mind Pump listeners! **Promo code “Mindpump15” at checkout for 15% discount** Mind Pump #1667: The Best Exercises You Can Do To Develop The Perfect Butt CHEST MASTER: HOW ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER BUILT THE BEST CHEST OF ALL TIME Franco Columbu's Deadlift Will Inspire You to Live Your Dreams Mind Pump #372: Johnny Sebastian On Eating Keto, Contest Prep And Competing On The Olympia Stage Bertil Fox - Wikipedia How To Behind The Neck Press Properly! (ADVANCED LIFTERS ONLY!) - Mind Pump TV The Wall Test | Mind Pump TV Tom Platz - Greatest Physiques Sissy Squat – The forgotten quad building exercise of the pros – Mind Pump TV Leroy Colbert - Greatest Physiques How To: Barbell Drag Curl (Increase Bicep Peaks!) Kevin Levrone - Greatest Physiques How To Incline Dumbbell Press - The Right Way! (GROW YOUR CHEST) - Mind Pump TV Oak Roots: How Schwarzenegger Turned His Weak Calves Into A Showcase Muscle Frank Zane - Complete Profile Shrink Your Waist with Stomach Vacuums | MIND PUMP TV Shrink Your Waist With The PERFECT Sit-UP (SIX PACK ABS!) - Mind Pup TV Mind Pump Podcast – YouTube Mind Pump Free Resources People Mentioned Ben Pakulski (@bpakfitness)  Instagram Arnold Schwarzenegger (@schwarzenegger)  Instagram Dorian Yates (@thedorianyates)  Instagram Ronnie Coleman (@ronniecoleman8)  Instagram IFBB PRO Johnny Sebastian (@johnnysebastian)  Instagram

If you want to pump your body and expand your mind, there's only one place to go. Mite, op, mite, op with your hosts. Salda Stefano, Adam Schaefer, and Justin Andrews. You just found the world's number one fitness health and entertainment podcast. This is Mind Pump. Alright, today's episode was a lot of fun. In today's episode, we talked about the best exercises for each body part from the best bodybuilders who had those particular body parts that really stood out, like think Arnold

and his chest, what exercises that he loved doing for his chest, right? So we did that with all the body parts and bodybuilders that were known for those body parts. So this was a fun episode for us to record. Now this episode is brought to you by our sponsor, Paleo Valley. Paleo Valley makes some of the best paleo-inspired supplements you'll find anywhere.

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super easy to digest, but they have lots of other products as well, like the organ complex. You wanna get the benefits of eating organ meats without the disgusting flavor, try the organ complex supplement. Go check them out. Head over to paleovali.com forward slash mind pump and use the code mind pump 15 for 15% off your first order. Also, we've only got four days left for the October special, right? So, Maps at Obolic was bundled with the NoBS Sixpack formula, and the price was reduced tremendously,

so you can get both programs right now for $59.99 for lifetime access. That's the savings of over $100, and there's only four days left, so you have to act quick if you want to take advantage of this. If you're interested, head over to mapsoctober.com. 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, of course, listen 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 body builder on the magazine cover and then you would know turn to the center and you get the work out. It has the biggest arms. Yes, boom right there. Now, I did that initially and then I learned about genetics and bodybuilders, pro bodybuilders,

you steroids. And then I thought to myself, it doesn't matter what 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 there would be known for, like Arnold was known for his chest, or certain bodybuilders would know for their back or for the 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 Pukolsky, who is also a body builder, 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. And when I think back to the clients that I, 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 bodybuilding that comes to mind that best represents that. Yeah. So in 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, I mean, I think that's the stable of like, how much do you bench? Sure, that Arnold had a big part to that. Well, you see, so first off, he was definitely known first chest. That was a body part that Arnold was like everybody, you know, 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 side chest pose, where his chest was so developed that they could put like a glass on top of his upper chest. They could 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 videos of him working out, training his chest. There's one where he's doing cable crossovers. You know the one with the frickin' surfer dude behind him?

You got to watch that clip by the way, and pumping iron. There's like this surfer dude behind him who's like's one where he's doing cable crossovers. You know the one with the freaking surf or dude behind him? You gotta watch that clip by the way, and pumping iron. There's like this surf or dude behind him who's like, looks like he's totally stoned or whatever. You gotta watch him, yeah. Yeah, yeah. But his chest was just absolutely insane,

and it was bench press. Bench press was Arnold's exercise. And barbell bench press. Barbell, right? I thought I remember hearing him say like that, that was always in his routine. There was never a cycle of without 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 pretty time as a powerlifter in Europe.

And in fact, this is how him and Franco Colombo got to know each other was through powerlifting because Colombo was a powerlifter all through Colombo was. And, 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 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 were team 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 it got.

Now was Arnold one of the first to like really trick, because I know that like Ron and Coleman's known for this, like training for strength, even though you're a bodybuilder, right? Versus the first to like really, because I know that like Ron and Coleman's known for this, 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 to like really focus on just overall strength for something like bench press?

Or were there? No, but he was like, he was known more for his volume, I know that. Yeah, volume and double split routines and lots of angles. But he also valued the strength aspect and with Rowan strength cycles. I mean, there was a period of time when all he wanted to do was add an inch to his legs, which we could talk about because they were one of his most challenging areas where 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 routine 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 incline barbell bench press in particular that I remember I've 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 incline bench was relative to his flat bench. And that was what kind of kicked it off from me because there was huge discrepancy. Like I was that time, I think I was flat bench, you're pressing around 225, I'd work out with and I literally 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, especially like my upper chest. Another thing Arnold did was his range of motion. So if you watch him, he flies deep. He was big on the stretch and full range of motion 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 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. Yeah, so really cool. Um, all right. Let's talk about back right we got to go to back 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 poster photo that I've had in the gyms that I've owned for probably, I've probably in the gyms that I've owned for probably, I've probably had it for 20 years. It's a signed photo of him,

and it's the famous one where he's deadlifting, and I think it's got like six or seven plates on each side. And remember, Fronkel was a small guy. He was like 190 pounds. He wasn't at all, dude. And he's pulling it off the ground, and then there's the great dain sitting next to him. Have you seen this photo?

I don't know if I've seen that one. If Doug, if you look up Fronkel Colombo then there's the great dain sitting next to him. Have you seen this photo? I don't know if I've seen that one. If Doug, if you look up Franco Colombo deadlifting, or great dain, it's a famous photo. I have it signed, right? Yeah, he was huge on the deadlift. In fact, there's a famous story where Arnold told Franco to impress Weeter with a 700 pound deadlift, and he just pulled 700 pounds off the ground.

Oh, wow. 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 lats spread, people need to realize that nobody's back look like that back then.

Now bodybuilders now, that's it right there. Oh yeah. So that's the photo that I have up on my wall forever. Yeah, I've seen that in your garage. Yeah, it's all torn out. So, but he did wide grip chin ups and dead lifts and dead lifts were not really thought of as a bodybuilder movement.

They were a power lift. Oh, it's funny to me, because that's one of the things that's in our space right now. And it's more often than not, I see that. These guys trying to make a case and they're trying to say that deadlifting is not a back exercise and it's just that it's so funny. Here we are. I mean, you know, none of that was talked about before and here you are picking Columbus back as one of the best and one of the things that he was most known for was his heavy deadlifting. 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 Doreen Yates was on another level in the 90s. I mean, he busted out his, when he won the Olympia, he came out, and when he would turn around, it was lights out. That's what they called him the shadow. That was his nickname, because he like cast the shadow

and people because his back was lights out. That's what they called them the shadow. That was his nickname because you like cast the shadow on people because his back was so wide He was known for Supernity grip barbell rose. You know, it's funny about this by the way Nobody did Supernity grip barbell rose It seems like such a natural way to do it, you know like just yeah Turn your grip and and getting that underhand grip It actually even feels better to me personally.

How do you say that? How do you say the elbows in? You get that squeeze and it's always out of it. And you did it kind of at a 45 degree angle, so he wasn't completely parallel to the ground. He also popularized hammer strength equipment. So remember, hammer strength was just coming on to the scene. Yeah.

And then they showed videos of yates doing the 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, you know, best developed back of all time. Also, big deadlifter. Big deadlifter.

Does that famous video of him deadlifting 800 pounds? Yeah, like a week or two out from the show. 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 800 pounds deadlifting is insane. I mean, it's ridiculous, doesn't make any sense. 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, 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. It looked 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, yeah.

Oh, wow, he is way upright. Yeah, so he did kind of like this 45 degree angle. I see you doing it all the time, and I think you're just being a whist. That's what I thought, but you were actually intentionally- I'm trying to get going, he's back. Yeah. Well, he's really upright. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

So, that's interesting how upright. Yeah, you really, you got to focus on squeezing the lats right there and pulling the shoulder. And you will get a pretty crazy lap pump from doing it that way. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, so it's pretty, pretty fun. So yeah, Coleman deadlifts, Doreen 8's deadlifts,

Franco, Colombo deadlifts, I think they all have something to call him in. Yeah, what's interesting about this, you don't see a lot of bodybuilders deadlift anymore. Is it more that the judging has changed? No. Or is it that they just don't prefer to be deadlift? It's coming back by the way.

Yeah. Oh, you have, what's this, you brought up, what's his name? C-bum, right? Yeah. So he's a big deadlifting guy, which 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, dead lifts all the time. Like, like people, they're rediscovering the power of the dead lift 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 the 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 corsets. And so that, that was big and popular. And then there's this movement of, oh, it 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 in 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 I can tell right away, like there are 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 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 very obvious. My good buddy, like, and not to throw him one of the bus, but I think he's got an amazing physique. He just did a great, he just had a 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, to me, that's the only reason that dude doesn't win shows all the time, is his back. He's got an incredible physique from top to bottom, and he turns around, and he has a back that looks like it doesn't deadlift ever. And he's missing that thickness and the columns, like it just, and all out of fear of putting on the thickness of the waist.

You know what's interesting about that, is that having a wider waist will probably make you better at squatting a deadlift. So sometimes you see power lifters and strength athletes, really good at deadlifting squatting, and you think it's would give them the thicker waist. Yeah, they would. 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 with because one of the fears I would get, especially with cross fitting, 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 they had a wider boxier waist.

And that made them, and it lent itself well to them deadlifting. It wasn't that they deadlifted a lot and then they got a boxy waist. You know what it's like? It's like saying bench pressing heavy is going to give you short arms and a barrel chest. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's a good point. Yeah, or deadlifting well is going to give you short arms and a barrel. That's a good point. Or dead lifting well is going to make you tall and lanky. Those body types, the best dead lifters typically have long, long torsileverage lends itself well for those lifts.

Yeah, benches, really short arms. That's absolutely what it is. Developing a big waist from dead lifting. No, don't worry about that. If you did gain by the way a quarter inch on your waste, which is nothing, it would be offset by the three inches that you gain around your lats in your back that you got from the deadlifts.

All right, so shoulders, talk about shoulders. But in my opinion, I think shoulders are, for both sexes, aesthetically speaking, probably one of the most important body parts, wouldn't you agree? No, I agree. It's been,, probably one of the most important body parts. Would 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. I had a female body builder when I was like 22. I had her critique my physique and her exact words. Well, you have weak shoulders. That's it. Fuck it. Oh no. But it. Oh. But it sent me on a mission after that was to develop them.

And it was crazy because at that time in my life I was coming out of being a teenage boy who trained his arms nine times a week and that's all it buys and tries like crazy because I wanted impressive arms. And the irony is that I put so much focus on my shoulders, the same kind of focus I was probably doing in my arms before that, my arm 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, makes you get that V and Y. Yeah, you get wide and it makes your waist look even more narrow. And 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%. So one body builder, not as well known, but he was, so the original Arnold Swarchen, Igor and Cyclopea bodybuilding, which I've referred to before. So the first kind of muscle building exercise book I ever had in there, Arnold highlights Bertel 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. Yeah, in the 90s, I think.

Is he still in prison? I think so. Oh, wow. Now I think. Is he? We don't idolize him. Still in prison? I think so. Oh, wow. Now they called him brutal, 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. Oh. And he was strong. He'd work 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. I 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 exercises 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 dealt just to hold that position and then you press.

And if you can do them well, the shoulder pump you get from a bit of presence. Yeah, what do you think it is about that that attributes to the development of shoulder so much? Because when you think about a military press, we're only talking about the difference of four, maybe six inches from, to really, right? You know what I'm saying? It's not 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 in hell of a position? Yeah, think about that. Like even now, if you're just trying to hold them back and just think of it as a shock and isolating. Or is it possibly too 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. The ball. So in a deep shoulder press, all the way down, your upper chest gets a lot of that. Get the little bit of that. And yeah, and 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 hole. Yeah, this was a very, behind the neck press was a staple in bodybuilding routines for a while.

Burdle Fox, again, was known for it, but then in the 90s, people like Kevin LeVron, you know, and bodybuilders, 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 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 on the press. No, 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 with behind the neck.

So in just holding in position, you probably got a crazy shot. Oh, 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. It was like, oh wow, this is, if I'm at 45 pounds right now and I feel this,

and I did, 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 improvements. Yeah, 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, or excuse me, underneath my hand. Otherwise, it turns into this kind of a press, and that's where shoulders, problems start to happen. 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. It's 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 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 are doing the zone one, wall test, and then going into that exercise is a perfect combo. Oh, 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. 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 do a snatch. They do 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 and the mobility, it's not, it's a great exercise.

Well, it's even to get their shoulders in set and position in a snatch and over a position. They have to have that ability to keep it stabilized 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 takeaway from this. 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 routine was 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. All right, 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. 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 Platz. Tom Platz, 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, too. 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. Oh, I didn't know that. So you could squat, I think it was 500 pounds more times. Wow. And Tom Platz blew him out. And then Tom Platz has done things like,

he would squat 135 for 30 minutes. So he would just put 135 on. That's just going crazy. Yeah, 30 minutes of So he would just put 135 on. And then he'd just keep going. Crazy. Yeah, 30 minutes of squats with 135. Okay. 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 squats right there. It's insane. Like it's just, now his, 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 don't, I've never seen a squat better than Tom Platt. Now hamstrings, he also had tremendous hamstring development, and the keys with him with hamstrings were his range of motion was insane. So Tom Platt 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-stained neutral, so it was 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 bending over and showing his hamstrings, and it looks like an anatomy. Wasn't he also the one who made Sissy Squat through a popular? Yes, he was a very big sister.

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 thought this was stupid. I really did. I thought it was like a 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 I just, it's now forever bit in my leg routine always.

When I did Cissy Squats, I was like, never touching leg extensions. Ever again, ever again, why? It's such a, it's such a, but it's such a better movement for muscle hypertrophy and what it promotes for ankle mobility, hip control and strength. Like it just, it promotes so many other good things. And then the fact that if your main goal is to just develop your quads, I take the Pepsi

challenge all day on it that it's better than your leg extension or any other exercise. The only downside to CCC 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 because you could put the leg extension on 30 of strength and stability to do it. Yeah. But, you know, cause you could put the leg extension on, you know, 30 pounds and most people could do it. But if you can do them and you can do them well, I mean, they don't come, 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 a, I've used that. That's how I do it. Yeah, or 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 you're not, 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?

It's not, why is that though? I don't know, it's the easiest one to flex. Is that what it, yeah, is that necessarily true though? Is it really the easiest one for everyone to flex? Is that what it is? It's the show muscle. You know how many bodybuilding poses involve the bicep? You know what I mean? Where you're showing the bicep? I know, but they're just so funny to me is that what it is? It's the show muscle. You know how many bodybuilding poses involve the bicep? You know what I mean?

Where you're showing the bicep? I know, but they're just so funny to me that that's, I mean, this is interesting to me too. Like, we literally, Max has just learned how to flex. Oh, yeah. 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.

That's why I'm getting at. It's like, it's not like I said, son, flex your bicep and I showed him what that means. It's just, you know, show us your muscles and then it just intuitively it becomes the bicep. But if you're all, show me your muscle son and his elapses.

Yeah, as you ask, he squeezes by. He squeezes by. So this is like, I should be my glue step. Yeah. So biceps have 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 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. And the first body builder ever to do this was Leroy Colbert. And it was in the 19, I wanna 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? He was known for his arms. No, no, I mean like what exercise was he? Oh, he did so heavy barbell curls and he did it like a strength exercise. So he'd go six to eight reps with the barbell curl Interesting. So really getting his biceps strong and then he was big on drag curls. Oh, yeah 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

Yeah, 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 dug? Yeah, the 1950s 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. 90, do you know how crazy that is? So a 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 was soon. Yeah, when 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 a Diana ball. I think it was the 50s or 60s. Oh, I wanna say 50s.

It was, oh wow, it's been around that long. Yeah, I didn't know that. Yeah, just a little side conversation. The US scientists developed it, developed it in response to the Soviet athletes, obviously doing something so we created. I also thought that was like in the 70s, wasn't that one? 1958.

Oh wow. Well, even like Babe Ruth in that era, like they had a performance in Hansen drug. Methamphetamines. Yeah, Methamphetamines. Yeah, he was using greenies and stuff like that, right? Right. That what he was doing?

Yeah, they were doing math. Oh, not steroids. Didn't help his appetite though. I mean, he didn't look like a specimen, that's for sure. Yeah. I didn't help his appetite though. I mean, he didn't look like a specimen this for sure. Yeah, but okay, so 1950s, probably natural, if you did take animal steroids, what they had back then was like, literally like creatine, like didn't have anything.

And here he is, this guy with 21 inch arms, which was insane. But 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? I do, and I haven't had 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 leaning over a bench. No, no, no.

These 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 rock and shoulders roll forward. And the anterior delt takes over a lot of movement. And I'm always trying to teach them to retract

and squeeze. So doing a drag curl promotes that. Because you retract and you pull back as you do the kind of the curl. So it's actually a great exercise for trainers that are watching this. I like teaching drag curls to even newbies. Because it's just, it gets them in that shoulder retracted

position that you wanna try and keep them in when doing traditional curls anyways. Yeah, 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. So you have the curling, but your elbows go back at the same time. So it creates this, it's this interesting angle at the top

or the bicep lengthens, but also shortens at the bottom and it's a very interesting, I actually had Doug do them. Didn't you do them the other day when I showed you? Would you think of them? I liked them. Yeah, 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 hard to achieve regular exercise that I put in for beginner clients that you wouldn't think of that because it's kind of a body builder type of exercise, but I really like it for that reason. It's hard to cheat exercise and it makes your biceps burn. Like it creates a pain in the biceps.

Great moves, another exercise. All right, let's talk about the triceps. One of my, as a kid, one of my favorite bodybuilders of all time was Kevin LeVron. Got to have you too. You too? Yeah, yeah. Ridiculous arms, shoulders, everything.

But his triceps were insane. He was known for being strong as well as 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, 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, it's

not for the back. I actually hear people try to 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. It wasn't until I started doing the close grip bench press where I could load it substantially.

And yeah, because I wasn't that same boat. I thought like, well, maybe this is a variation of a chest press, but it really did like take my triceps to different levels. I was just gonna ask you, Justin, because you're a big bencher 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. Which is where I would struggle the most because I would be able to get about half way with the real heavy weight. And then it was just that last bit I was such a grind. And so once I really started to focus on close grip, that last bit of extension, and lockout, got a lot stronger. Now here's a tip, don't go 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. Yeah, close grip is literally about shoulder width. And you want that elbow flexion in line with your ribs. Yeah, and extension tough. I like a little bit wider, better like you're saying, than two narrow, because two narrow naturally flares the elbows.

Yeah. And you're going to get more of the triceps if you get the triceps underneath the wrist. So it looks more like that versus real close and then the elbows flare up. Oh, 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's like, do you just grab a little wider? And I don't remember if he was known for this, but my personal spin on this was incline. Yeah, I've never seen that before except for you. And it's great. It just, it 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 an ankle. 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.

All right, let's go to calves. Now, we already mentioned this body builderer, and we're going to bring him up again because not necessarily because you had the best Cavs of all time, although towards the end of his career he was known for having incredible Cavs. 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 going to get a little pushback because there's bodybuilders that are more known for their calves that have bigger, had bigger calves than him. But what I think is so impressive is, like, me and me people don't know this or not, but Arnold used to take pictures

like it's standing in the water and stuff. He's talked about this where he never won. Yeah, 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.

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 a 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 cab.

I did the same shit that's hella funny. This would keep him 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, and 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 with more 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 raise. 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 going and competing I'm showing my physique right so I cared more than ever about this stuff and my calves were 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. Yeah. So I wanted to have a pump in them, at least. I'm like, my 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 into the gym, it's like, I got to 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 to make sure that I would hit him. 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 is simply just order it as 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, when Arnold was training is now you have access to Donkey Cafe's machine. Which is one of my favorites.

Yes. Back then, they did. So wait, okay, for all of us non-bodybuilder enthusiasts, so that's it. It's the one where you push your butt up you're bent over it's the one that he's famous for for stacking two girls on his back you've seen that before where he's on a block of wood yeah he's got two girls sitting on his back and he's leaning over that was you know it's funny for

it and then coming up that was for like fun video and stuff but really was his buddies so Franco and but your bodybuilder the studio, we sit on his back. Not as cool of a picture though. But that's a famous picture though, right? You've seen that before where there's two, there's two, you know, it's probably a photo show. There's two pretty girls that are like sitting on his back

and he's doing the Donkey calf raises. Yes, very famous. Now Donkey calf raises. Is it the stretch that puts him in that makes him white work so good? I mean, nothing stretch, there's that look at that photo. That's with, is that Franco? Oh, that's his friends on so good. I mean, nothing, there's that, look at that photo, that's with, is that Frank?

Oh, that's, that was friends on them. Yeah, it's Frank going somebody else. The stretch you get on in your gas rocks, the big part, the meaty part of the calf, you don't get, 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, because of where it attaches at the 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 machines, standing calf raises are fine.

Nothing hits my calves like a donkey. Yeah, I love donkey calf raises. One of my absolute favorites, and he was definitely very known for him. All right, let's get to abs or the midsection. Now, here's a funny thing about abs. A lot of the same exercises that bodybuilders did, and so, I was thinking, what bodybuilder was kind of known for their midsection or for something different?

Frank Zayn. Frank Zayn was known for his infamous vacuum pose. This is with his hands behind his head, 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 thin. And you would see a serratous interior and everything develop. And it became the kind of this classic bodybuilder pose

that bodybuilders don't even do today because I think their guts and everything's so big. It's actually making its way back, especially in classic bodybuilders. 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 just kind of hanging out. And just by you training this exercise, you tighten that in. The TVA.

Yeah. And even without technically losing a bunch of body fat, you'll bring the midsection 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 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. It was a little bit of resistance from gravity. And I remember 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 strengthened this particular muscle. So it's a very functional exercise. It helps you brace too. I mean, 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 drawn 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 setup as one of my favorite exercise, because I think you naturally do that, because you get the roll up and in order to do that slow and control. You do have to vacuum a little bit.

You got to vacuum and 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. But yeah, that's one of those movements that not a lot of people do, and to Justin's point, have other benefits than just the aesthetics, right? I mean, there's one of those movements that not a lot of people do that into 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 are 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. Again, it's MindPumpFree.com. You can also find all of us on Instagram. So Justin is at MindPump Justin. I'm at MindPump Sal and Adam is at MindPump Adam. Thank you for listening to MindPump. If your goal is to build and shape your body, dramatically improve your health and energy

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