The Old School 70′s Bodybuilding Routine
Frank Zane – The Ideal V Taper Body
The 1970′s produced the most impressive male physiques the world has ever seen. The bodybuilders of the 70′s made Zeus and Hercules look like pencil necks. In this article we will take a look at the 70′s bodybuilding workout routine – and how the 70′s bodybuilders achieved their near perfect physiques.
Current bodybuilders look like pregnant cows with zero bodyfat, in other words, they look absolutely ridiculous. The 70′s bodybuilders were the ideal physique of man – they had low bodyfat, but not so low they looked sick, they had small waists with abdominals clearly defined, big chests, wide lats, big shoulders, and big arms.
They had perfect V-tapers. A V-taper is when the male upper body has a “V” shape. Starting with wide shoulders, wide lats, and moving down in size to a tight waist – like a “V”.
In this article we will review the de-facto bodybuilding routine of bodybuilders like Arnold Schwarzenegger, Frank Zane, Franco Columbu, Lou Ferrigno, Boyer Coe, Bill Grant, Mike Mentzer, Serge Nubret and other bodybuilders from the golden era of bodybuilding.
The workout routine they used was a high-volume approach. In lay-mans terms ‘high volume’ means they did a whole lot of work to achieve their physiques. Both in the gym and in the “kitchen”.
Todays top bodybuilders follow a routine of working out one bodypart per week for one hour per workout session. For example they may work Chest on Monday, Back on Tuesday, rest on Wednesday, Legs on Thursday, Shoulders and Arms on Friday, and rest on Saturday and Sunday.
The 70′s era bodybuilders were in the gym 6 days per week doing lots of heavy work, resting very little, and spending a long time in the gym to achieve the look of perfection.
Their routine was not set in stone. A trainer must use his instinct to find what works for him. We will look at the bodypart splits (the days they worked each muscle groups) and the exercises they used. It is for the reader to determined his choice of exercises and rep scheme (the amount of reps you will do per set).
Bodybuilding in the 1970′s was about achieving perfection of the male body. 70′s bodybuilding was about building the most aesthetic, muscular and strong body attainable by man. Below we will look at how they accomplished this.
This is the de-facto bodypart split of the 1970′s era bodybuilders:
Monday: Chest and Back
Tuesday: Shoulders and Arms
Wednesday: Legs
Thursday: Chest and Back
Friday: Shoulders and Arms
Saturday: Legs
Sunday: Rest
Abdominals (Abs), Calves, Neck and Trapezius work was done 4-6 times per week or as needed.
The seventies bodybuilders would typically start their routine with abdominal or calf work (if needed).
After the abs and calves they would start with their hardest and heaviest exercise. The exercises they used were the most basic, multi-joint movement that build the most muscle. They would start with the hardest and heaviest and work towards the lightest exercises.
