Magnus

Tragic news. Why does life treat some of the world's finest people so badly? I think the only place fair exists is as a word in a dictionary.

Larry Scott is probably the finest example of a life-long bodybuilder (aside from Bill Pearl) there has ever been. And unlike Bill, Larry's genetics placed him nowhere near the front of the queue for contest honours, yet he was the first to win Mr America, Mr Universe and Mr Olympia. Even as ardent a Sergio fan as Rick Wayne was completely dazzled by Larry's Olympia performances, and his articles for Muscle Builder magazine are the finest endorsement of Larry's charismatic appearance.

Larry's knowledge of training for bodybuilding was kick started by Vince Gironda and Larry ultimately went even further than Vince with ways of performing exercises and equipment built specifically for bodybuilders rather than strength trainers and lifters in general.

Tragedy has followed Larry around before, 2 of his children died and yet he kept his faith in God and has always been an all-around optimistic and inspirational type of guy. And now this...... nature cannot seem to catch up to Larry and tear his body down, so it's gone for his mind instead. What can any of us say except thanks to Larry for his contributions to bbuilding and life, and hope the scientists finally succeed with developing a cure for insidious disease.

Magnus

Superb article Admin, thanks for posting it!

Hi guys, I have put a picture of Bob in the gallery.
Ray, he was American - your question got me interested in knowing more about Bob so I did a search and found an interview with him on Dave Drapers website. He backs up what I said about his 690lbs partial press, but says his best full press was in the 1980s so I was a little out on that.
Here's the link to the interview:

http://davedraper.co...31/bob-simpson/

No doubt in my mind at all that Paul could do this. Have you heard of Bob Simpson? He trained mainly with heavy partial lifts and isometrics and, although smaller than Paul (Bob was around 5feet 7 inches tall, heaviest bodyweight 234lbs as compared to Paul at 5feet 9 inches and 375lbs at his peak) Bob made some mind-boggling lifts in training. These lifts were witnessed by others and included barbell Hack squat with 705lbs, Bent over barbell rows up to 540lbs in loose style and believe it or not an olympic style overhead press with 534lbs!
Where Bob really excelled though was in partial lifts - get this a quarter front squat with more than 1,300lbs! And his favourite exercise was the partial overhead press where he would take a weight above his limit and drive it from his shoulders as high as he could get it. He became so strong at this that on one occasion he pressed a bar higher than his head nearly 3/4 of the way to lockout that weighed 690lbs!
So if Bob could do that it shows that Paul's lifts were not impossible as he was not the only one who could do them (back in the 1950s he was the only one, Bob Simpson did his best pressing in the 1970s)

Magnus

Hi Steadfast,

thanks for your enthusiasm it's just what the site needs to wake up us old guys and start contributing again! Anyway, here are a couple of the legendary John C Grimek's training routines.

Grimek's original goal was simply to become stronger and more agile, in fact he never deliberately planned to compete in bodybuilding instead he enjoyed Olympic weightlifting, odd lifts and strength feats such as bar bending and one-arm dumbbell swings with more than 200lbs! It is amazing how he became so powerful when you realise he grew up during the great depression in the 1930s and often lived on coffee and bread having no money for protein foods. I will stop myself there as no doubt Brooks Kubik's course will have a biography on John in there and Steadfast wants training routines, so here we go: Early on John learned about squats from Mark Berry and also followed the Milo course which came with his elder brother's weight set. The Milo course suggested one set of 20 reps per exercise increasing 2 reps every third workout until 40 rep sets were reached, then add 10lbs and start again at 20 reps - this was known as double progression. John soon got bored and invented his own routine which was a favourite throughout his life. Now on his squats he would start around 200lb and do 30 reps or more, add weight and hit 20 reps, more weight again for 12 to 15 reps, again for 8 to 10 reps, again for 5 or 6 reps and finally max weight for 1 to 3 reps. When the heaviest set began to feel easier he would increase all sets by 5 or 10lbs; due to the extra form of progression (pyramiding up the weight) he called it the Triple-Progressive routine and also used it for upper body work but with fewer reps per set. I should mention he used very light pullovers between sets to stretch his ribcage and get his breath back quicker.

John also corresponded with George F Jowett who suggested heavy supports for strength. So for example John suspended a barbell from the joists in his attic by chains at a height where he could grab it with straight arms and hold it overhead by pushing it up with his legs until he was locked out - the weight was too heavy to move with his arms as he went over 1,000 lbs with this! John also performed straddle lifts lifting the bar an inch off the floor using heavy leather belts to hold the bar but gave up eventually as the belts left heavy bruises on his body and finally the belts snapped when trying to lift nearly 6,000lbs YES Six thousand pounds I kid you not!

John also loved dumbbell training after meeting Sig Klein but I will stop now, better leave it to Brooks I don't want to spoil his course by spilling all the beans before it comes out BUT I might add a bit more to this if anyone requests it.

Magnus