If you know me, you know I am into antique store shopping and finding classic stuff.
Last year I found a national fitness program that was created in 1962 or 1963 through JFK's council on exercise.
This year, I found a nice stack of classic magazines of Mr America, Muscle Builder, and Strength & Health magazines.
Today's showcase is the Royal Colditz Plan from an April 1964 issue of Mr. America magazine, published by Joe Weider of the famously historic Weider Publishing.
Royal was an 18 year old chiseled rock of a young man, who 'blitzed' his way to his physique by following a pretty serious daily routine.
To make a long article short, he had supposedly 1500 pounds of weights plus barbells and dumbbells in his basement and trained with his friends to sculpt his physique.
The young man is pretty cut and lean with the work he put in.
Here is a breakdown of his daily routine:
Seated Alternate Curl: 3 x 8 with 65# DB's
Incline Curls: 3 x 8 with 65# DB's
Lying Tricep Extensions: 3 x 8, 105# barbell
Close Grip Bench Press: 3 x 8, 160#
Seated Press Behind Neck: 3 sets of diminishing weights (not noted)
Front Squats: 3 x 6, 195#
Half Squat: 3 x 8, 320#
Heel Raises, with barbell on top of thighs, 3 sets to max reps (failure)
Bench Press: 3 x 8, 250#
Flyes: 3 x 8 with 55# DB's
Bent Arm Pullovers: 3 x 8 at heaviest weight (not given)
Twisting Sit-Up: 3 sets, as many reps as possible (AMRAP)
Knee Pull-Ins: 3 sets, AMRAP
Bent Over DB Rows: 3 x 8 with 85# DB's
Close Grip Bent Over Rows: 3 x 8 with a 'heavy barbell', no weight given
It is suggested not to go straight into a 7 day routine on this, but rather the following:
4x/week for first week
5x/week for 2nd week
6x/week for 3rd week
Daily in the 4th week
Of course, using the weights given wouldn't work for everyone and their strength levels, but I think the general take away is that the program is essentially a 3 sets of 8 routine for most exercises, so finding a good 10 rep max to use (70% of a 1 rep max, approximately) would leave a few reps in the tank to finish out all the reps for the exercise.
Given the look and structure of this routine, a good bench and set of dumbbells would allow you to do the routine at home fairly easily. Amp up the ab exercises with a stability ball with basic ab crunches and knee tucks, and you have a fully modern twist on this classic routine. If you had a strong enough stability ball, the bench press and chest exercises could be done with dumbbells.
The front squats and half squats could be subbed with dumbbells if you don't have a barbell or a stand to use for squats.
For a complete newbie, you could try to do 1 set of 8-10 for each exercise given, then try 2 sets of 8 as your next phase of training.
I would re-work this program as a daily routine by progressing over a 6 week period with increased sets at first, then increased days.
1 set of 8 per exercise (except ab work) for first week, 4 days a week
2 sets of 8 per exercise for 2nd week, 4 days/week
3 sets of 8 for 3rd week, 4 days/week
3 sets of 8 for 4th week, 5 days/week
3 x 8 for 5th week, 6 days/week
3 x 8 for 6th week, 7 days/week
I have never done this, but part of me wonders how long this would end up. I'm guessing 4-5 minutes per exercise with rest between sets and switching exercises, so perhaps 60-75 minutes in the grand total?
Part of me wants to give this a shot for a time, just to see if I can get through the entire workout as a challenge.
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On my own personal workouts, I did 200 KB cleans last night in sets of 20, doing 10 per side and resting about 1 minute between sets. 20 reps took almost 1 minute to do, so I rested until the 2 minute mark came and performed another round of 20, all the way up to 200 in under 20 minutes.
It was a nice work/rest ratio of 1:1 and allowed me to get some good quality reps in and to 'practice' the lift and execution of it.
This morning I did another 10 minute HWR routine, keeping up with my Sun-Tues-Thurs HWR day pattern.
I hope you enjoyed the Throwback Thursday workout from years gone by. I know I really enjoy looking back in the pages of history to see what was done years ago, and seeing how some things are almost better from the past in comparison to the stuff put out today.
Success Starts Here!
Coach Rick Karboviak
Home Workouts Plus!
http://asapworkouts.com
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