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A Journey through Bodybuilding, Strength Training, Holistic Fitness, Martial Arts, and Contemplative Spirituality

C.S. Sloan's Integral Strength

Monday, June 2, 2014

Old School Arm Training Secrets: John McWilliams's Arm Training

Routine

Old-School Arm Training Secrets: John McWilliams’s Arm Routine

My most popular posts here at Integral Strength typically fall into two

categories: old-school bodybuilding programs or serious strength and

power routines.

With that in mind, I thought I would do a ser ies of articles on various

old-school lifters and bodybuilders (the two overlapped once-upon-a-

time), and on various old-school methods for training different bodyparts

or lifts. Thus, this first entry is on old-school arm training, but others will

be on old-school chest, shoulders, back, legs, squats, bench pr esses,

overhead presses, power cleans, etc. And for this first entry, I decided

upon an old-school bodybuilder cum powerlifter that many of you may

never have heard of: John McWilliams.

When I first came across an article about McWilliams (written by Gene

Mozee) in the early ‘90s, I had certainly never heard of him, despite the

fact that I already had immersed myself in the programs of many other

old-time bodybuilders. In the 1950’s, McWilliams built arms that

stretched the tape at over 20 inches. That’s absolutely massive when

you consider the decade his muscles were built—before the advent of

rampant steroid use, and when most of the biggest arms on the planet

were around 17 inches.

When “the Myth” Sergio Oliva saw John McWilliams’s physique, he

remarked that his arms were “too big”, and that’s saying something when

you consider the fact that Oliva had some of the biggest and best arms in

the history of bodybuilding. Here’s what Mozee had to say about McWilliams and his massive pair

of “guns”:

In 1951, when I first began bodybuilding, I used to go to Muscle Beach

in Santa Monica, California, every day during summer vacation and on

McWilliams's back double-biceps pose. He was impressive even in his 40s.

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I am a freelancewriter, contributingeditor for Iron Manmagazine and PlanetMuscle Magazine,strength athlete,martial artist, andconvert to OrthodoxChristianity. I hopeyou will enjoy myblogs, whether your interest is seriousstrength training or the uniquecontemplativespirituality of theOrthodox Church

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weekends during the rest of the year. The superstars of that era – Steve

Reeves, Armand Tanny, John Farbotnik, Marvin Eder, George Eiferman,

Malcomb Brenner, Joe Sanceri, Clark Coffee, Ed Fury, Joe Gold and

Zabo Koszewski, among others – were always there, and you could

watch them train at the beach or at Vic Tanny’s famous gym, which was

just a couple of blocks away.

Today’s stars are practically unapproachable, but the atmosphere was

totally different in those days. The champs and Muscle Beach regularswere accessible and easy to get to know. Once they understood that you

were sincere and that you weren’t a flake who was wasting their time,

they would freely give helpful training advice. My brother George and I

got a lot of workout ideas and routines that way.

There will never be another era like that in bodybuilding. From 1950 to

1980 I met almost every great bodybuilder in the world. I had the

opportunity to interview them and discuss their training and nutrition

secrets, and I even had the opportunity to train with several of those

great superstars. It helped me to build 20-inch arms at a bodyweight of

220 pounds and bench press 455 in strict form.

In 1956, I bought the Pasadena Gym from Farbotnik, who held the

titles of Mr. America, Mr. World and Mr. Universe. That’s when I began to

use all of the great training techniques and exercise routines that I

learned from Reeves, Eiferman, Jan Dellinger, Clancy Ross, Vince

Gironda, Bill Pearl, Farbotnik, Sanceri and many others on my clients.

We produced dozens of pro football players, track and field record

holders, baseball and basketball stars and weightlifting, powerlifting and

bodybuilding champions.

One of the greatest physique athletes of the pre-steroid era was JohnMcWilliams. It’s believed that McWilliams and Bud Counts were the first

bodybuilders to have arms that measured more than 20 inches cold.

John was also one of the first men in the world to bench press 500

pounds. I met him at a powerlifting meet in San Diego. At the moment he

was working as the training director of George and Beverly Crowie’s gym

in the San Diego area. He had most of the top stars of the Chargers

football team under his guidance, including All-Pros Jack Kemp, Keith

Lincoln and Ron Mix.

McWilliams was more than 40 years old at the time, and he’d trimmed

down to a bodyweight of 186 pounds. Bill Pearl’s mentor, the immortal

Leo Stern, measured John’s arm at 19 ¼ inches cold, his chest at 52 ½

inches and his waist at 31 inches. These are phenomenal numbers for

someone who weighs 186 pounds, and he got them without steroids or

the benefit of today’s nutritional supplements.

John and I became friends, and he described one of his favorite

routines for building more massive upper arms. Not only did I use this

workout myself, but I put 37 members of my gym on it. The average gain

was 1¼ inches in six weeks.

So, what were McWilliams’s secrets for building such massive armmuscles in such an era? Read on.

Train for the Pump

One of the more popular ways of training that most old-school

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bodybuilders followed was something often referred to as “chasing the

pump.” The workouts were frequently performed with minimum rest

periods between sets and plenty of volume to boot. This, obviously,

results in a large pump in the arm muscles.

The better the pump—or so it was believed—the better chances that

the workout would result in muscle growth.

In order to keep rest periods between sets to a minimum, McWilliams

liked to employ giant sets, where he would perform a minimum of 4different exercises consecutively—working both his triceps and his biceps

—until his entire arms were engorged to the maximum. Here is

McWilliams’s favorite arm routine:

Giant set

Barbell pullovers 2 x 12

Close-grip bench presses 2 x 12

Barbell pullovers 2 x 6

Close-grip bench presses 2 x 6

Giant set

Barbell curls 3 x 12

Triceps presses 3 x 12

Dumbbell curls 3 x 10

Dumbbell triceps presses 3 x 10

Lying barbell triceps extensions 3 x 12

Close-grip bench presses 3x10*

One-arm kickbacks 2 x 20**

*Go right into the next exercise without taking any rest **Per arm

Train Antagonistic Muscle Groups Together

Notice something else about McWilliams’ program? He liked to train

his entire arm in a single workout. But he wasn’t alone. Most old-school

bodybuilders—Arnold Schwarzenegger among them—believed that the

most muscle growth occurred when blood (the pump) could be localized

among antagonizing muscle groups. And arms respond particularly well

to this technique.

Arnold's arms w eren't to o shab by, eithe r.

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Train the Triceps!

Ask the average lifter or gym rat what he does for his arm routine, and

he’ll probably spit out the usual about barbell curls, dumbbell curls,

concentration curls, etc. The problem is that the bicep muscle only

makes up about 1/3 of your total arm mass (or should!)—the rest is all

triceps.

McWilliams’s triceps were massive (I was going to say somethingclichéd about them even needing their own zip code, but I’ll refrain). In

fact, as big as his biceps were, it was his massive tris that accounted for

his 20-inch arms. (Of course, not all old-timers trained in quite as

intelligent of a manner—even Arnold’s triceps were a little small

compared to his peaked, almost otherworldly biceps.)

If you’ve been neglecting your triceps, and would like a pair of “guns”

that stretch your shirt-sleeves, then try the below arm routine. I used one

similar to this to much success when I was younger, and it meets all of

the criteria that McWilliams—and the rest of the old-school arm trainers—

would have adhered to.

Barbell Curls: 5 sets of 12, 10, 8, 6, and 4 reps. Take several

minutes between sets so that you can push each set close to

your “limit”—only leave about one rep “in the tank”, so to speak.

Add weight with each subsequent set.

Close-Grip Bench Presses: 5 sets of 12, 10, 8, 6, and 4 reps.

Use the same technique as the barbell curls.

Tri-Set:Dips: 3 x 10

Standing Dumbbell Curls: 3 x 10

Skullcrushers: 3 x 10

Tri-Set:

Bench Dips: 3 x 20

Concentration Curls: 3 x 15

Kickbacks: 3 x 20

Last But Not Least: Feed the Biceps (and Triceps) Beast!

John McWilliams had three fundamentals that he lived—and trained—

by:

1) consistent hard training

2) proper nutrition, including supplements

3) sufficient rest, relaxation and growth promoting sleep.

I can’t stress the importance of all three of these enough, but if I had

to pick one that is most important when trying to add muscle mass, I

would pick #2. You can’t grow big and strong without eating enough

quality, muscle-building nutrients. Consume at least 12x your

bodyweight in calories each, and every, day, and make sure you

consume—at the minimum—one gram of protein per pound of

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Posted by C.S. Sloan at 8:15 PM

Labels: arm training, biceps workout, eating for mass, Gene Mozee, John McWilliams arm routine,

John McWilliams arm training, massive arms, old school workouts, old-school arm training, old-time

bodybuilders

bodyweight.

For every 10 pounds of muscle that you gain, you can expect 1 to 1

and ½ inches to your arm girth! So get gaining, and get growing those

biceps and triceps muscles.

4 comments:

Фёдор Удутый September 26, 2014 at 11:58 AM

Hi!

Is it mistake in a routine bellow about Barbell Pullovers? Probably it was meant Barbell

curls?

>>> Here is McWilliams’s favorite arm routine:

>>> Giant set

>>> Barbell pullovers 2 x 12

>>> Close-grip bench presses 2 x 12

>>> Barbell pullovers 2 x 6

>>> Close-grip bench presses 2 x 6

Reply

C.S. Sloan September 26, 2014 at 12:47 PM

Nope, it means barbell pullovers. For many old-timers, pullovers were decidedly NOT a back

exercise. They were used to expand the rib cage - whether this can actually occur, of

course, has always been up for debate - and, thus, they were regularly a part of chest

routines, arm routines, squat routines; you name it.

In this case, they were meant to work the triceps - which is the reason this is one "giant set"

of 4 back-to-back triceps exercises.

If you haven't used them lately, pullovers are great triceps builders - although, if it was me, I

would substitute barbell pullovers and presses - perhaps the ultimate triceps exercise.

Reply

Фёдор Удутый October 19, 2014 at 9:04 AM

Thanks for an answer. That's definitely some interesting information.

Could you please also clarify how often that routines were used back then? Once a week,

twice a week or may be even more often?

Also was the arms training c ombined with some other ex ercises? I heard that one of the old-

time methodics was training arms after high rep squats (3x20 for example).

Reply

C.S. Sloan November 4, 2014 at 4:21 PM

At least 2x per week, although most "old-timers" (at least of McWilliams 's era) would have

trained each muscle group about 3x weekly. Usually, the body was split two-ways, training

one half of the body one day, and then repeating the next day with the remainder of the

body, and (typically) only one day off during the week.

Arms were c ombined with whatever other bodyparts were trained that day, and, yes, training

arms after high-rep squats would have been a frequent tactic.

Reply

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