It would not be an overstatement to say that even in the age of Internet, the majority of people are entirely oblivious when it comes to fitness or bodybuilding and how to improve their overall health. Some go so far as to ask ludicrous questions like : how to build a muscular body by using supplements only, without ever having to go to the gym and lift weights.
You’ve got the supplement industry to blame for that scale of misinformation obviously. Of course, not all people are that clueless, however, your average recreational lifter still thinks that the optimal methods to build muscle and lose fat are by doing the standard bodybuilding body part split routines, increasing time under tension and using food supplements.
It all comes down to the fact that modern people in this age of instant gratification aren’t used to doing hard work anymore and nobody is willing to put the effort if they aren’t seeing results in the quickest time possible.
The supplement industry made them believe in magic pills and powders and so-called fitness gurus shove all kinds of garbage on complex lifting techniques into their brain which would make even the most enthusiastic beginner frustrated.
As we previously said the fitness supplement industry isn’t making it any easier with the propagation of mentality of quick gratification, offering an easy way out, different shortcuts in the form of supplements, poor diet plans or ineffective video tutorials.
In order to build muscle mass, strength and overall power the natural way, the only effective way to do it is by using a full-body training regimen, hard and heavy exercise and consistency.
Many fitness magazines mislead beginners that they should follow the training regimens that professional bodybuilders use, which are essentially body splits where each training day is assigned a different muscle group, for example, Monday chest, Tuesday back, Thursday shoulders etc.
In fact, beginners should do the exact opposite and do full body workout routine, where every workout you’ll be stimulating every muscle group, which will induce more muscle growth.
So, instead of employing 6 different varieties of the same exercise while checking your Facebook between sets, you’ll be switching from deadlifts to bench press, from overhead press to squat, bringing your muscles to complete exhaustion and hammering your central nervous system. That way you’ll switch your mentality from chasing “the pump” to an effective training regimen that will save you time and be thrice as effective at building muscle.
Full-body training regimens were employed by every professional bodybuilder in the Golden Era when steroids weren’t as readily available as they are now, especially by the legend Steve Reeves, who was a great proponent of full-body training and he did it with a great intensity and discipline which gave him results that spoke for themselves.
The great Steve Reeves
Steve Reeves is regarded by the bodybuilding world as having had the ultimate classic, aesthetic physique. He won Mr. Universe and became a film icon of the 50s, owing a lot to his handsome look and perfect figure which had the perfect proportions, classic shape, a small waist with broad shoulders and chiseled muscles.
Reg Park himself admired Reeves for having the best looking body of all time, a combination of his godly genes, bodily proportions and physical aesthetics.
In his senior years, Reeves was one of the most vocal critics of the rampant steroid use in modern bodybuilding, criticizing modern bodybuilders for exchanging physical beauty for sheer size, which is the exact opposite of the goals of bodybuilding to create a well-proportioned, aesthetically pleasing body.
Any part of the body which has been overdeveloped in comparison to other parts will stand out and throw the whole body out of proportion, nullifying the aesthetic effect.
Like all the other old school bodybuilders, including Reg Park, John Grimek, Leroy Colbert and George Eiferman, Reeves denounced the new training trends and steroid usage among bodybuilder and proceeded to become a proponent of the effectiveness of doing full-body workout sessions in many of his publications.
The Steve Reeves All-time Classic Physique Training Regimen
Reeves’ favorite training routine was his ‘Classic Physique’ routine, first printed as an article for the May 1951 issue of magazine ‘Your Physique’ which was published by Joe Weider. In this article we present a variation of the same routine.
| Exercise | Sets | Reps |
| Incline bench dumbbell press | 4 | 10-12 (decrease the weight as you progress in sets) |
| Breathing front squat supersetted with the exercise below | 4 | 12 |
| Dumbbell lateral raises or flyes | 4 | 12 |
| Seated barbell biceps curls | 4 | 12 (slowly lowering the weight on the negative part) |
| Dumbbell forward raise(alternate hands) | 3 | 12 |
| Barbell bent-over rows | 3 | 12 |
| One arm dumbbell rows | 3 | 12 |
| Splits with barbell | 1 | As many reps as you can |
| Alternate raises (lying position) | 3 | 12 |
| Good mornings | 2 | 12 |
| Dumbbell french press | 4 | 12 |
| Calf raises (leg press machine) | 2 | 40-50 |
| Barbell Bench Press | 3 | 12 |
Important points to consider
Frequency of training
As is the case with most full-body workout variations, the workout above should not be done more than three times a week, so as to avoid overtraining and allow the body a lot of time for recovery and resting. One thing a lot of people nowadays would consider a con is that the workout would take you about two hours to finish.
However, that is exactly the point of a full-body routine, namely the workout sessions should be intense and hard, along with the rest intervals between sets, which will allow the muscles plenty of time in order to repair themselves and grow.
For optimal recovery, Steve advised resting at least a day and a half between workout sessions. For example, training Monday morning means that the next session will be on Wednesday evening and the one after that on Saturday morning.
Focus and concentration
Reeves’ dedication and training ethic were nothing short of amazing. When he was training for the Mr. Universe contest in 1950, another legendary bodybuilder John Grimek was reported as saying that Steve rarely sat around wasting time and he put everything he had in every workout session and concentrated on every rep execution, only going to rest after he had finished his workout and had a shower.
Always make sure that you have your game face on before entering the gym ready to smash the weights and leave the socializing for after you’ve finished the workout.
Execution tempo
Always make sure you execute the exercises with a proper form with a tempo consisting of 3 seconds for the concentric part of the exercise and 4 seconds for the eccentric part, putting a bigger emphasis on the latter.
Weight
All the sets listed above must be done to complete failure until you cannot do anymore.
Rest interval
Limit your rest interval to 40 to 60 seconds between sets of the same exercise and up to 2 minutes between each exercise.
Explanations on some of the exercises
Breathing squats
Breathing squats are slightly different from regular squats in that they require you to take a pause and a deep breath between each rep. In the 50s bodybuilders tended to put a great emphasis on developing their rib cages. The logic behind this was that they thought that expanding the ribcage by doing breathing squats and dumbbell pullovers will ultimately lead to your torso being able to support more muscle mass.
Seated barbell biceps curls
This was one of Steve Reeves’ favorite exercises. When performing this exercise, you should focus on performing the eccentric part of the movement as long as possible. John Grimek reported that Steve would usually kick the barbell with the knees and then gave all he had to resist as long as possible as he lowered it.
Splits with barbell
These are the same as lunged with the difference being holding the barbell on your back as if you were doing a squat.
Alternate raise (lying position)
The same as a standing dumbbell raise, only this time done lying down on a bench.
Conclusion
The Classic Physique routine is a proven full-body training regimen that will demand maximum effort on your part but will also give you exceptional results. This routine isn’t for those who are not willing to put in the work and it can be a real ball buster since it originates from a time when men were strong and bodybuilders crafted their bodies through hard work and sweat, rather than putting steroids in themselves, puffing like balloons and posting pictures on Instagram.
Despite the obvious benefits of allowing you to build an aesthetic and functional body, power and strength, this old training method will be beneficial to your overall health and mentality and will instill a greater self-confidence.
Train and rest hard, eat a lot of meat and see yourself become Hercules.
Related:
Bodybuilding Legend John Grimek’s Full Body Workout Routine
Arnold’s ‘Golden Six’ routine for strength and size
A 20-Minute Full Body Dumbbell Circuit Workout
