The Golden Era of Bodybuilding: Then VS Now (22 photos)

At 75, Frank Zane still looks impressive and has plenty of original advice based on his life's experiences in the pursuit of excellence. Check out his latest ideas on how you can keep your body in shape for years to come.

Every sport has its legends, and Frank Zane represents the highest echelon of bodybuilding from the golden era. Many agree that he is the unique owner of the most beautiful body of all time. Unlike today's 100-150 kg bodybuilding champions, Zane never weighed more than 90 kilograms during his sports career. Despite this, he received three Mr. Olympia titles and is one of the few to defeat Arnold.

Much of Zayn's appeal stems from his physique. He developed the proportions of the Greek statue and even wrote a book on symmetry. Unlike modern bodybuilders like Heath, Coleman or Cutler, whose bodies are ludicrously huge, Zane epitomizes the common man who shifted the paradigm of bodybuilding away from an emphasis only on mass, turning it towards pure aesthetics.

With the recent emergence of a competitive lightweight bodybuilding category, it is clear that Zane was ahead of his time. He is also one of the nicest and most genuine people you will ever meet.

During a break from his coaching work, he decided to take a break and share with Train magazine some of the knowledge he has gained throughout his life. Here are some recommendations from Zane based on his own experience. Use his tips to make your body attractive for years to come.

And this will all happen later

The registry office on Shokalsky Street stands on a beautiful hill, opening to the east with five-meter glass doors. The sun shines dazzlingly on them, fancifully reflected in a three-letter word, which someone conscientiously executed with a glass cutter. The furrows are a centimeter deep, the letters are the height of a person. Phallic symbol in the sign system. Here - on the spot. This is a new world.

Pasha, a stuntman from Mosfilm, is a handsome man, his deltas lie in bulges, the word “bandit” sounds proudly, under the window there is an irresistible spot of light - a purple Ford. He stutters a little and thinks: “D-don’t drink at all? What are you talking about, here’s gin, for example, it smells like Christmas trees.” Disappeared, returned without the left delta - it was there and not: “I come out of the tavern, go up to the grindstone, and suddenly he, bitch, rises from the bushes with a double-barreled shotgun. I m-tell him: man, do you want the keys? So on... And as he s-suddened, he barely managed to remove his muzzle... Well, I grabbed his trunks with my other hand... W-why, he’s empty... I went to the b-hospital, just after they buried him...”

Guys from Chechnya with eyes rubbed by optics.

I bought a car - the ignition switch was restored clumsily, but everything is fine with the documents.

My friend Seryoga (arm - 44, bench - 160):

-Where are the hands?

- Which?

— The torn ones should hang on the steering wheel...

Maybe they were hanging, I don’t know...

Hall in Konkovo. Or rather, there are two gyms: one for those who bench press less than 150, and the other for adult boys. I’m too lazy to remove 50-kilogram weights from the barbell. Less than 120 kg it is not needed. But the damn thing is good, some people do abs with it on a Roman chair.

Swinging without farming - this is called “wanking dry” - is a painful and pointless activity. “I’m on course” is always the case. Everyone knows that they need to take breaks and clean themselves, but there is no time, and everything is fine.

There are syringes lying around the locker room. Shops - glass counter ten square meters: in two layers everything - from methane to gonads.

Gold Gym and 7 forgotten bodybuilders who are still admired today

Looking at bodybuilding today, you can see big and pumped-up athletes. However, many are still seduced by the concepts of aesthetics and proportions that arose during the golden era of bodybuilding. The concept of the golden era of bodybuilding is associated with certain events and athletes, and specifically with 7 forgotten bodybuilders who are still admired today.

It is generally accepted that this era lasted from the early 60s to the late 80s. Bodybuilding at that time had a different meaning and was not regarded purely as a way to make money.

Those athletes, like everyone else, had regular jobs, but instead of relaxing in bars, they worked in gyms. Their second home was the Gold Gym in California.

They are still considered the best in terms of proportions and aesthetics..

Larry Scott was born in 1938, and began performing at the very height of the golden era. He won the Olympic Games twice, but he is famous for his exercise machine, which is also called the “Righteous Bench.”
Scott Platz was born in 1955, and began performing at the end of the era. He became famous for his hardcore training, especially hard squats. I managed to be one of Arnold Schwarzenegger's students and drew the line of this era.
Franco Colombo was born in Italy in 1941. Schwarzenegger's friend and rival, in addition to bodybuilding, tried himself in powerlifting, boxing, medical practice and achieved success everywhere. His small height of 165 cm ensured his invincibility in the category up to 90 kg.
Frank Zane is an icon of all ectomorphs. He was born in 1942 and with a height of 176 cm had very little weight. He performed from the beginning to the end of the golden era. He was far from the most massive, but had close to ideal proportions and aesthetics, and in his early years he defeated Schwarzenegger.
Ed Corney is an outstanding athlete of the golden era. Despite his impressive shape and aesthetics, he became famous not for this, but for his ability to pose, in which he was superior to many of his colleagues in the audience.
Lou Ferigno became famous for several things. Firstly, he was the one who was called a real threat to Schwarzenegger. Secondly, he is the only one who was able to return to professional bodybuilding after a 20-year break. And thirdly, later, as a coach, he trained Michael Jackson, Mickey Rourke and Chuck Norris.
Rich Piana was not a member of the golden era. Outwardly he was large and to some extent monstrous. He became famous for his business skills, as he had a successful business.

All these people went down in the history of bodybuilding, and will forever remain in the memory of fans of this sport.

Army

On the facade of the gym of military unit 2139 in Vyborg, there is an improvised billboard on two floors: Arnold Schwarzenegger in fierce scarlet swimming trunks raised his arms in a double biceps pose in front. It stands on a pedestal of poetic lines:

To be so strong and brave, To reliably guard the borders of the country, Soldier, you must, remember, Create harmony of spirit and body!

And five hundred kilometers from this place, which is not far by the standards of Karelia, Dima Fedorov leads his company for drill to the song of the BG:

I want to become completely blind, To bargain with the dust at night; Let me not be subject to violence, And let me not be a stranger to vicious smoke.

Here comes the movie.

In the army - everything is as it should be. Well, or almost everything. We don’t know the word “slope”. If you go to college, well done, if not, if you go to the army, that’s also good. Probably... Sensitive Jewish mothers are already scurrying around military registration and enlistment offices with plastic bags from Beryozka, convincing the medical board of the poor health of their children. But we - we don’t have such mothers. Our mothers are like Vera Figner. This is steel. At the age of five - a story about how Spartan women escorted their men to war with the words “With a shield or on a shield.” A feisty little fox gnaws his entrails, but the boy, pale as death, still stands in line. Maybe a lot of it comes from here? After the medical examination, we, strong guys from the outskirts, have three types of troops: the Airborne Forces, the Border Guards and the Marines.

Hey, sprat, come here. How much do you bench? Wow. Normal... What, come to the rocking chair. Just don't get swollen! Remember, the first year the sprat is responsible for order, the second - for service... The commandant's company has its own barbell, a pair of weights. We bench press on stacked stools covered with an army blanket. For the training process you need at least three people - there are no racks, we carry the barbell on our hands. The 45 degree bench press is made from a broken chair.

The design is unstable, but the technology has been worked out: you start to fall backwards, throw the barbell forward, your comrades will dodge... By the summer, we will move to the storeroom at the utility block, weld dumbbells from tank tracks, and put a block on the crossbar. The rope was worn out, and someone was covered with a weight, but this is nothing. Hard sparring - every day. Different styles. Bloodsport with Van Damme is not yet known, but here it is already. But without misanthropy. The boxers beat everyone, the classics break them for themselves. There is a special section on the ears - everyone wears blue. Hazing surge?!

- Comrade Major, come in. Here.

- I allow it, but don’t hit them in the face!

The Golden Era of Bodybuilding - Frank Zane

Food

The truth is simple. Muscles are protein, and therefore milk, cottage cheese, eggs, meat. However, we sweep everything away. But we buy additional baby food. A toothless baby smiles from a cardboard box. Here's some luck - someone took a bag of soy isolate from the meat processing plant. A wave of calls. But the bastard is doing business: you come in at six o’clock with containers... There are a dozen applicants in the hallway with their pots. The terrible gray powder is generously poured into the enamel belly. Crumpled Soviet rubles fall on the table.

There are legends about advanced Soviet bodybuilders - older comrades who go shopping themselves. They hunt for fish and proper chicken, and buy shrimp. They sell some mysterious squares - chocolate and vanilla.

What is this whole article for?

This article is a cry of despair of my soul, it’s a pity for bodybuilding and for the fact that businessmen and athletes have made grief out of it. In pursuit of mass, they forgot about beauty! And I sincerely believe that sooner or later the golden era of bodybuilding will return, and we will once again admire athletes.

Young people, do not forget those who made history, those who can rightfully consider themselves bodybuilders with a capital B. Don’t chase mass, because you are tricked into chasing it by those who will sell you magic powders and pills to gain weight. Today bodybuilding is a business in its purest form, but we have the right to choose the path we wish. In each of you there lives an athlete from the golden era of bodybuilding, just don’t forget about it and every time you go to the gym, look at the photo of Arnold or Zane, imbued with the spirit of that golden era of bodybuilding and sculpt statues of Greek gods and goddesses from your bodies. Good luck to you.

What did it grow from?

Borka Safronov was a classic hooligan. It was he and his gang who used slingshots to collapse all the windows in the 14th police station in Tikhvinsky Lane. While riding on the roof of the elevator, Borka almost died - thanks, he only broke his leg. But even on crutches, he scored the most goals and was the best at throwing sharpened electrodes into the wooden door of a construction shed. Borka was afraid of one person in the world - Red.

The redhead was a redhead, she was 14, and she already had B breasts. In the morning she was an excellent student at school, during the day she sat at the district pioneer headquarters, and in the evening she reigned on the benches near the guitars with a blonde transfer on the decks: “Your Majesty, / Good in the forestry, / Except electricity / Everything in large quantities. They walk around the village, / As if in make-believe, / Ashy curls, / Drip-like legs.” This Redhead later saved me: she stood up for me when they tried to push me out of the pioneer active for being immoral... Redhead is now the head of the corporation, and Borka... Borka disappeared in the zones.

The kidneys are cracking so much that the ears are blocked. Moscow spring - the city is covered with pollen for three days. In the old house the window is wide open, on the windowsill is Efremov’s novel “Thais of Athens”. The strong Soviet binding fell apart - it was read. This is my world immediately, forever: “Metageitnion, the month is always hot in Attica, in the last year of the one hundred and tenth Olympiad it turned out to be especially sultry... The Spartans loved to carry their women on their shoulders...” My place is there. There! They bring a war horse off the trireme, and he drinks through his nostrils the terrible smells of new lands. A blow with a hoof - the Spartan flies into the water, but his abs are not broken, laughing, he flies back on board and brings the horse to his knees. Egesichora is a feminine name and means “song that sounds in the ranks.” The sea is not a sea, but a “thalassa”, where you can sail endlessly, from island to island, next to it. The body is beautiful and nakedness is not shameful.

School notebooks are covered with torsos, and underneath them are the first experiments in versification. How many of these green notebooks did my generation, still in love with book heroines and film stars, fill up?

The chiliastic empire rises unshakably at the tip of the iceberg. Everything in a person should be perfect. Yuri Vlasov, a student from the sixties, wearing intellectual glasses, throwing a pile of metal into the sky is still here. Being stupid is a shame. Olympic champions defend their dissertations; books are strewn in their sports bags.

What amino acids did Frank Zane take?

Back in the 1970s, I was already taking large amounts of amino acids such as tryptophan and arginine, which are only now becoming popular. This whole low-carb diet craze that is so popular today was something I was used to. One wish I had was to have more time to gain weight rather than wasting it on overly hard training when I was preparing for a competition. This strategy always left me with too many injuries that I still suffer from today. There are two kinds of heavyweights: those who want to get a lot and quickly and those who want to take it slow and long. The last choice is much smarter.

Breathable pullover

Despite the fact that chest expansion itself is a controversial issue, it is worth turning to the experience of athletes of the last century.

Looking at Frankie Zane, who performed pullovers from an early age, we can say that it really works. His signature feature is his wide chest and developed serratus anterior muscles, which are clearly visible in the vacuum belly pose. Arnold Schwarzenegger also did not neglect pullovers, and he knows what he is doing. You can trust a man with such epic breasts.

Frank Zane

You shouldn’t give up the idea of expanding your chest no matter what age you are. Despite the fact that over the years the flexibility of joints and muscles decreases, you can visually expand the chest by correcting your posture and increasing the muscle volume of the chest.

Breathing pullover is a non-strength exercise. The main goal is to stretch the muscles and breathe deeply. Light weight dumbbells - about 6-10 kg - are suitable as a projectile. This is primarily justified by reducing the risk of shoulder injuries. In this exercise, you should not fanatically progress the load. The breathing pullover is performed at the end of a workout or after heavy squats. Therefore, your main task is to stretch your muscles well, and not to chase weights.

Lie down on a horizontal bench. Place your legs up - this will remove the bridge and reduce excessive stretching of the peritoneum. Hold the projectile above your chest with your arms Slightly bent at the elbows. Begin to slowly lower it behind your head in a wide arc and at the same time fill your chest with air. Imagine as if the air is expanding everything inside, and your chest is swelling more and more, until it finally fills the entire volume of the gym in which you are training (Arnold used a similar visualization during his training).

The movement should be very slow. You can do the pullover with your eyes closed to make it easier to focus on stretching the muscles and chest. You should lower your arms until they are parallel to the floor or slightly lower. In any case, the depth of lowering should remain comfortable, at the same time you should feel a powerful stretch.

Breathing pullover technique

At the bottom point, take a short break. The lungs should simply burst from excess air. Then begin raising your arms to the starting position while exhaling all the air. Imagine that your chest has been pierced with a needle like a balloon, and the air is slowly coming out of it. The upward movement should be just as slow

Remember that what matters here is how you breathe, not how much weight you pull.

When performing pullovers, do not arch your back and neck. Curvature in the cervical spine under load (even a small one) with a one-time accidental jerk can pinch a nerve - but you don’t want it. Therefore, technology is extremely important here.

Don't try to keep the weight as low as possible. Athletes of long ago performed this exercise while lying on the floor and achieved remarkable results. Naturally, the amplitude there turns out to be limited - but more is not necessary.

Perform around 15 repetitions, concentrating on stretching and breathing. Determine a convenient option for yourself - a light barbell with a straight or curved bar, dumbbells or a weight plate, the main thing is a comfortable feeling in your elbows and hands when performing.

If you are serious about expanding your chest, perform breathing pullovers every day. Pullover is not a strength exercise and will not tire you out.

No one could have imagined that what happened at the Muscle Beach competition on Venice Beach, California in 1950 would revolutionize the world of bodybuilding. Decades later, this time would be called the golden era of bodybuilding.

At that time, nutritional supplements were not as common as they are today, bodybuilding had more soul... Less excuses, more training. Less idle chatter, more sweat. Photos of the greatest bodybuilders will take you back to that time and make you exclaim: “They have no equal!”

Steve Reeves

Bodybuilding magazine editor Bill Howard recalls: “I myself came to the Muscle Coast in 1963. Then I turned 14 years old. In search of adventure, I left my parents' home and headed straight to California. Bodybuilding, which I adored, called me there... I will never forget that very first day. Early in the morning I went to the beach and walked to the nearest playground. And then I saw... A bodybuilder. Even after all these years, I can’t help but capitalize this word. He was unusually broad in the shoulders, with powerful arms, as if carved from stone. Well, the face... When I looked at it, I was dumbfounded. It was Steve Reeves! On July 24, 1950, after good preparation, Steve Reeves won the Mr. Universe competition, defeating the future bodybuilding legend and idol of Arnold Schwarzenegger, Reg Park. After this victory, Steve decided to switch to cinema.

Reg Park

Reg was born on June 7, 1928 in the English city of Leeds. Having won the Mr. Britain title in 1949, he subsequently spent six months in the United States, where he met Joe Weider, who began to diligently promote the Englishman in his magazines. His main sporting achievements are considered to be victory at the NABBA “Mr. Universe” competition among amateurs and gold at this tournament, but already among professionals in 1958 and 1965. In 1952, Park moved to South Africa, where he opened a chain of fitness centers. Park devoted 6 long years of being in oblivion to the second love of his life, with which he was no less obsessed than with bodybuilding - cinema. In the 60s, he starred in four films as Hercules. In 1970, at Mr. Olympia, the great Arnie completely defeated his idol, whose films he had watched and whom he idolized. In 1973, at the Universe Pro, at the age of 45, Reg Park again took second place. This was the last time he took prizes. On November 22, 2007, at the age of 79, this great athlete died. He died of melanoma. Reg Park was admitted to hospital in early November. Doctors did everything possible to save his life, but everything was in vain.

Franco Colombo

"Sardinian strongman" His best achievements in powerlifting with a body weight of 85 kg were: bench press - 238.35 kg, deadlift - 340.5 kg, squat with a barbell - 297 kg. Columbo also achieves success in bodybuilding, he becomes Mr. Universe, and then takes second place (after Schwarzenegger) at the Mr. Olympia competition in 1975. After leaving the Schwarzenegger podium in 1976, Franco Colombo achieves his cherished goal and becomes Mr. Olympia. A day later, at the Strongest Man competition, Franco seriously injured his knee and left the sport for several years. However, he develops a special system of exercises to restore his knee after injury and begins to perform squats with light weights. Around the same time, he received his medical degree and began practicing medicine. In 1981, he returned to the podium and became Mr. Olympia for the second time. After this, he ends his bodybuilding career. Interesting facts: Once Columbo, his wife and two friends were attacked by a group of hooligans with chains. The short Colombo seemed an easy prey to the leader. He tried to hit Franco with the chain, but Columbo beat him to the punch with a lightning strike to the chin. The blow was of such monstrous force that the entire lower part of the attacker’s face literally crumbled in front of the hooligans, paralyzed with horror, who immediately fled. For a long time, Franco Colombo remained the unsurpassed champion in inflating hot water bottles. Colombo wrote several books on bodybuilding, one of which, Victorious Bodybuilding, went through many editions. In the film Last Action Hero, the opening credits of Jack Slater IV list its director as Franco Colombo. At the end of December 2020, Franco Colombo registered on the social network VKontakte

Pullover anatomy exercises

What muscles work during a pullover? The main work is done by the pectoralis major muscle and the latissimus. In addition, the triceps, rectus abdominis, serratus anterior, deltoid and small back muscles are loaded.

There are two types of this exercise in the training. One is for muscle hypertrophy, the second is respiratory, to increase the volume of the chest.

However, don’t flatter yourself too much. You won’t be able to pump up huge volumes of upper body muscles with pullovers alone, despite the large number of working muscle groups. The nature of the movement involves the use of small weights.

The effect of the exercise for the most part lies in the development of muscle flexibility, improving their functional motor skills, which of course will have a positive effect in the main heavy movements and the desired weight gain should be expected from them.

But the advantage of pullovers is that the load vector runs along the body (from bottom to top) - there are few such exercises, which means it is possible to fill the gaps in muscle adaptation. In any case, you will gain some mass and work out the relief of the muscles of the upper body, because... the load is not entirely trivial.

The fundamental difference in the two types of pullovers is that the muscle training pullover is performed with the arms bent at the elbows. Breathing pullover is an exercise with almost straight arms (they are only slightly bent at the elbows to avoid negative stress on the joint).

The King of Symmetry talks about proper symmetry

What most people talk about isn't symmetry - it's bodybuilder symmetry. There is no such thing as perfect symmetry between the lower and upper body. This is not symmetry, this is proportionality. Big guys appear proportional because they pose upright. If you divide their bodies vertically into two parts, you will see the difference between the right and left sides.

I've never done that, and I've avoided poses where the left and right sides look similar, although people often say that I'm very symmetrical. In fact, my left and right sides have never been the same, they definitely don't match symmetrically. But since everyone said I had this symmetry, I only showed my strengths and never posed sideways. I learned this from Bill Pearl.

Perfection is unattainable

You will always have problems if you try to assign a number to each part of your body. They don't even do this at competitions. Instead, I took photographs and studied them. All this nonsense about your neck, arms and calves having to be the same size is just ridiculous. You can write down some numbers if you want, but at the end of the day, all that matters is what people see. You must create the perfect illusion.

READ MORE: Creatine monohydrate: how to take it. benefits, harm, composition

Workout

Senior Lieutenant Bozykin suffered from an intervertebral hernia, but could not come to terms with it. He looked at his friend Pasha with envy and one day asked: “Pasha, why do you need such a hand? It’s inconvenient - you can’t put on a shirt...” - “Why, Lenya! Cover the cups at feasts!” Bozykin listened, came into the hall, lay down to press the empty bar and immediately gasped, turned pale and could not move. While the ambulance was driving, they put 400 kg on the bar, so that it bent almost to the floor, and everyone who came in was immediately told how Bozykin almost did the squeeze... Bozykin laughed with everyone, but then cried - it hurt him to laugh.

We train hard. We drive in volumes, count tons. In a week, a couple of railway cars easily fill up. The idea of working out for health would cause homeric laughter. From today - “I do a healthy lifestyle.” From this, we were engaged in a “KNIFE”, an unhealthy lifestyle. Victory or death. There is nothing more shameful than the nickname Fizkulturnik.

The idol is Tyson before his first knockout, another contemptuous word from our slang is “trumpeter”: this means “pipes” - thin hands - hanging from the sleeve. In the corner of “Electronics 302”: “Our cassette player has run out of film—wind it up!” “Depeche Mode”, “Aria”, “Judasprist”, Tsoi, “Black Coffee”, “Nautilus” and something more violent.

A pear filled with sand in the corner, on the floor are sweat-soaked, broken boxing gloves. And why should they? We fill the “kintus” and do push-ups with our fists. Your partner carefully places a couple of twenty-kilogram pancakes on your back. Mawashi-giri - educational program. My dream is to hit the spinner. “Systep, put it under the right one, the liver is not working!” Finish it off!!!

The weekly training plan includes a disco. We won't leave without a fight.

There are no coaches. There are older comrades and a book by the Slovak Jablonsky, “Bodybuilding for Health, Strength and Beauty,” but he is an actor, there, next to Gojko Mitic - the Big Snake. Books on kettlebell lifting, worn-out Flex magazines - read and translated with a dictionary.

Weightlifters and weightlifters are here. The connection with big sports is still the tightest - everyone has ranks. From swimming and fencing to boxing and alpine skiing. From weightlifters there is contempt: “You are bloated jocks.” But they have information from coaching notebooks. They let you see.

How Frank Zane trains now

Now I train twice a week. The first day I work on my upper body and the second day I work on my legs. I also do a lot of walking, archery and some coaching for my clients. And I don’t do all this anymore.

Memories of Arnold

During the 1980 Olympia, Arnold only showed one side of his body and ignored the judges' requests. In the end, they allowed him to show himself this way and he ended up being the winner. If you can make your own decisions, you deserve to win.

Meet Franco Colombo

On weekends there were a lot of people on the beach. Some people loved to demonstrate their strength, others the beauty and dexterity of their muscles. Mini strength competitions were held. A crowd of spectators gathered around the site. One participant went out onto the platform, pressed the barbell, and sat on the side. Everyone was watching to see who would break the athlete’s record. Among the spectators there was a guy who bench-pressed a barbell weighing 240 kg three times, without any warm-up. He himself weighed no more than 80 kg. Then he went to the powerlifters. He deadlifted 320 kg, which caused considerable delight among the audience and surprise among the strongmen. This guy was Franco Colombo. Bill met Franco a little later.

Construction crew Franco Colombo

When Franco moved to California, he was confused by the carefree lifestyle of bodybuilders. When someone got some money, everyone went out to eat. They tightened the belts even tighter if there was no money. Franco, a man with a rustic background, was not satisfied with such matters. He went looking for work. In bodybuilding, nutrition plays a huge role. He knew how to do brickwork. Having put together a team of bodybuilders, they went to work on a construction site. The team of pumped-up construction workers was a sight to behold. Many pretty girls were looking at them from the windows of neighboring houses.

After work, we did not feel tired from the weight of the stretcher with bricks. The work didn't seem hard to us. Succumbing to the persuasion of “easy” money, Arnold joined the brigade. The girls looked at us from the windows. And later through the construction fence, tightly clinging to it - says Bill.