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This article first ran in the April 2009 issue of Ironman Magazine.
IRONMAN MAGAZINE'S OFFICIAL WEBSITE
Lessons From Doug Hepburn (Part 2 of 2)
By Sean Katterle
Last fall I got seriously injured and had to take 9 months off from any form of rigorous exercise. It was a non-weight lifting related situation but it was serious and I spent 90 days in the hospital and then for 24 weeks I was restricted to walking on a treadmill. When I returned to the gym I was reminded of a sad fact of life in a commercial gym; most of the people in there only make minor progress, if any, in regards to getting stronger. The same guys who were benching in the 200s were still benching in the 200s. The same people who were curling 45 pound dumbbells and avoiding squats were still curling 45s and avoiding squats. I’ve been back in the weight room for 90 days now and, thank God , I’m already back to lifting about 70% of my previous max and I’m adding weight to the bar every week.
This brings three points to mind; improper training and recovery usually doesn’t produce much in the way of strength gains, injuries set a person back but, if they allow themselves time to heal properly, then muscle memory will come to their rescue and the strength will return and a factor in becoming a champion is being able to train and rest properly for an extended period of time.
For a shining couple of years, Douglas Ivan Hepburn was on top of the iron mountain. For roughly 6 straight years he devoted the majority of his free time to training with intelligent intensity and to maximizing his recovery. At 27 years of age, he became the first man to officially benchpress 500 pounds (this was before the invention of the ridiculous super shirts) and in 1953 he became the only Canadian to ever win a weightlifting world championship.
In an ideal world, a strength athlete would begin his weight training in his mid teens. Year in and year out he or she would train diligently, never missing a workout, and every day they’d take in 3 - 4 healthy, well balanced meals, lots of sensible nutritional supplements and they’d get 8-10 hours of quality sleep per night. As the years went by they’d avoid any serious injuries and their technique in the competition lifts would improve to a level of powerlifting mastery. But this scenario rarely plays itself out because life so often gets in the way. Girlfriends (or boyfriends) come and go, people take on part time jobs while in college and lose most of their free time, job promotions mean putting in a lot of overtime at work, injuries do happen in and out of the gym and most people simply don’t have the discipline to stick with a strict diet and to make themselves sleep at least 8 hours a night (too many temptations in the evening hours.)
But, looking again at our ideal world, how would a person’s strength gains chart out over the years? At what age are most people at their strongest and best potential? In the sport of powerlifting, one of the best lifts to track is the deadlift. The deadlift involves roughly 80% of all the muscles in the body. It’s also the lift where the rules of performance are almost identical in any powerlifting competition so you can compare lifters from various organizations and it’s the powerlift that’s the least affected by the techno powerlifting outfits (squat suits and benchpress shirts can artificially add a ton of weight to a person’s lifting “ability” but a deadlift suits maybe only gives a person another 5-10% at best.)
^^^ Gus Rethwisch on the Cover of Powerlifting USA's April 1978 Issue ^^^
The World Association of Benchers and Deadlifters (WABDL) has been around, in one form or another, for almost 30 years thanks to the efforts of it’s president, Gus Rethwisch . If you don’t recognize the name, Gus played the chainsaw wielding, motorcycle riding psychopath in Arnold Schwarzenegger’s futuristic game show of death film, The Running Man. Gus was also the barbarian who got hit in the forehead with a throwing star in the opening 2 minutes of The Scorpion King. In the world of lifting, Gus is still the 17th best superheavyweight deadlifter of all time with his 1986 competition pull of 865 pounds at 343 pounds body weight. He also competed and landed in the middle of the pack at the 1978 World’s Strongest Man television show (the 2nd one of its kind.) The WABDL benchpress and deadlift world championships is a marathon of muscle sport with over 700 entries and lifting for six grueling ten hour days of competition. If you become an open class deadlift champion at the WABDL Worlds, then you can hold your head high in your claim to be one of the best deadlifters around.
The United States Powerlifting Federation (USPF) is the second oldest powerlifting organization still in existence (second only to the AAU, who used to sanction all amateur sports in the USA.) A who’s who list of the icons of the sport have stepped on to its stages to prove their might. Though it’s membership has dropped over the years by roughly 80% (due to there now being over 20 different powerlifting federations in this country instead of just two) it’s still running regular competitions and the caliber of competitor is still sky high. Many of today’s USPF promoters and officials were the national level competitors of the 1970s and 80s.
So, if we take the teen, junior, open and masters deadlift records from both of these esteemed organizations and average them out, we get an accurate picture of the peak potential for a person’s overall body strength as the years go by. For collecting this empirical evidence, I used the 198 pound weight class because a 200 pound man is a good average body weight for our sport.
USPF National/ WABDL World Merged 198 Pound Class Deadlift Records
16-17 Year Old Age Division = 612.5 pounds
18-19 Years Old = 671.5 pounds
20-23 Years Old = 708 pounds
Open Division (the most competitive division) = 816 pounds
40-44 Years Old = 742 pounds
45-49 Years Old = 774.5 pounds
50-54 Years Old = 730 pounds
55-60 Years Old = 685 pounds
60-68 Years Old = 650 pounds
69-74 Years Old = 469 pounds
So, in theory, if someone spent their whole life training in a perfect world, and if they started their training in junior high school, their overall strength levels would steadily increase all the way through their mid-late 30s, then dip slightly in their 40s and the steadily decline over the years following their 50th birthday. That doesn’t mean a person has to face becoming weak, because a 469 pound deadlift at 198 pound body weight is nothing to sneeze at (especially at 69 years of age ) It just means that, when talking about limit strength, our test lifter would peak out in his mid to late 30s in the powerlifting game. Now, if someone gets a late start in their lifting life they may very well hit personal records in their 40s, 50s or later but that doesn’t come into consideration in our mapped out competition life above. But, to summarize, a competitor training under ideal conditions should have developed a good strength base by the time they complete high school and then their strength levels should gradually rise over the next twenty years and then taper off very slowly over the remainder of their active lifting career (hopefully, keeping ahead or abreast of their fellow masters lifters.)
Doug Hepburn is a terrific example of what a weight lifter can accomplish if they really focus in for a solid six or seven years. By age 22, Doug has built a solid base and was clean and pressing 230 pounds. A year later he’d broken the 300 barrier in that lift and the following year he’d overhead pressed 341 pounds above his head. In the era that Hepburn was in his 20s, no one had even benchpressed an official 500 pounds. So, Doug set his site on becoming the first man to do so and he benched 456 pounds at age 25 and then 502 pound two years later. When Douglas hit his lifting peak at ages 27 and 28, he was clean and pressing 381 pounds, squatting 665 pounds for a single and 550 pounds for sets of six (and we’re talking deep Olympic style squats) and he could benchpress his previous max of 456 pounds for a triple
So how did Doug do it? Well, in part one of this two part article we discussed Hepburn’s nutritional program (basically, grocery sacks full of eggs, milk, bananas and protein powder) and we established that the odds were very, very good that he never took a prescription strength anabolic. If you’d like to read about the recovery side of his program you should pick up part one of this focus by ordering that specific back issue of Iron Man from the Home Gym Warehouse’s online store. Doug also slept 8-10 hours a day so he was really making good strides in his recovery efforts. But he was also very organized in his training and his program was simple, straight forward and remarkably effective in producing strength gains for specific lifts.
Besides the diet and rest factors, the most important keys to a Hepburn-esque powerlifting program is to perform the lifts properly (no cheating techniques or cutting corners), to not miss training sessions and to put forth a good deal of effort when applying yourself in the gym. Let’s briefly go over what the three powerlifts should be because many people’s perceptions (maybe yours?) of a squat, benchpress or deadlift is not what passes on the platform and under the scrutiny of three officials.
A squat is performed with a barbell and either inside a power rack or using a pair of squat jacks. The lifter takes the bar out of the rack/uprights by themselves and then walks out the weight, which is backing up away from the hooks where the bar was resting. Once the weight is walked out the lifter then squats down until they break parallel. Breaking parallel means that the hip joint goes lower than the point of the leg where the lower quad meets the knee cap. If you were watching a lifter break parallel and you were standing to the lifter’s side, then you’d see that the plane of their upper leg is such that they’re below parallel with the ground (their hip joint is closer to the ground than the top of their knee.) Olympic lifters and old school powerlifters are the best examples of how to properly squat to depth. A good number of the techno squat suit powerlifters tend to cut their squats high, especially those that use a monolift and don’t have to walk their squats out. The majority of bodybuilders and almost everyone in the fitness crowd also fails to get close to breaking parallel and, as a result, fail to get the full benefits of squat training (a lot of this is due to the fact that most personal trainers don’t come from a classic powerlifting or Olympic lifting background and they’re ignorant of how to properly perform the lift and they pass their ignorance on to their clients.) Going back to the equipment used in a squat, a smith machine squat doesn’t count and neither does a hack squat machine or any other squat simulating type of device. In addition, squats with dumbbells in your hands, squats off a stability ball and any other variation of squatting with the legs don’t count unless it’s a good old fashioned barbell squat as outlined above. The only adjustments you can make to the lift in this program is whether or not you prefer to squat with a wide, medium or narrow stance and you can have the bar running across the top of your traps (high bar Olympic position squats) or low across the back of your delts (low bar powerlifting style squats.)
A benchpress is again performed with a barbell and on a regular bench press. The bar can be handed off by a spotter but then the spotter should not be helping you to lift the weight in any way. The spotter can stay close to the bar if you feel more secure having them do so but the spotter’s hands shouldn’t be in contact with the bar at any time, not even ghosting the bar as you’re lifting. Your butt and shoulders should be in contact with the bench pad throughout the entire lift and your feet (or at least the balls of your feet) should be planted firmly on the ground. You then lower the bar to your lower chest, bring it to a complete stop and a split second pause and then you press the bar back up to a full lockout (or 98% to lockout if you’re performing reps.) Just like with the squats, machine benches, dumbbells benches, partner assisted benches, partial movements (like only bringing the bar halfway down) and any other variation of a benchpress won’t work well with this particular program. The only personal alteration you can choose in regards to this lift is where you place your hands (i.e. I’m 6' tall with medium length arms so I either put my middle or ring finger on the bar’s guide lines.)
The deadlift is pretty straight forward. The loaded barbell starts on the floor and you simply pick it up until you’re standing fully upright with the bar resting on your thighs. You can choose to employ a regular stance or a sumo stance. There’s a lot of technique involved with deadlifting and we’ll cover that in a future article. As per the squats and benches, stick to classic barbell deadlifts. And as for what accessories you can utilize during these core lifts, wrist wraps, knee wraps, lifting belts and chalk are all acceptable. Benchpress super shirts, powerlifting suits, lifting straps, elbow wraps or any other lifting aide are not.
Doug Hepburn’s program focuses on a “strength then pump” idea. Each training day consists of 1-2 different lifts. The first lift is always the primary powerlift (squat, bench or deadlift) and then the power building “pump” sets are either more of the same or a close variation of the competition lift you just trained. For the squats, your “A” lift will always be squats and then your “B” lift (the higher rep sets) can be more squats, front squats, narrow/wide stance squats, squats with chains, squats with flex bands or machine hack squats. For your benchpress training days, your “A” lifts will always be regular benchpressing and then your “B” lifts can be more benchpressing, close grip benchpressing, decline/incline benching, benching with boards or benching with chains. For deadlifts, your “A” lifts will be regular deadlifts (sumo or conventional) and then your “B” lifts can be more deadlifts, stiff leg deadlifts, deadlifts with chains, deadlifts with bands, deadlifts with flex bands or deadlifts standing on blocks/plates.
There’s two AB training templates in Hepburn’s program. I suggest using Template # 1 for 9 full training cycles and then switching over to Template # 2 for 1-3 training cycles and then repeating the whole process all over again (but with heavier weights.) For the first template, your “A” sets are with a weight that you can properly perform 8 repetitions but not 9 (the ninth rep would require help from your spotter.) Your starting weight for your “B” sets is 20% lighter weight that what you’re using for your “A” sets or, if you’re performing a different lift than the standard squat, bench or deadlift, what you can perform for 10-12 repetitions on your own. Initially your starting “A” sets are 8 sets of 2 reps and your staring “B” sets are 3 sets of 6 sets (so, each set is less reps that you could perform in an all out effort set.) Then, each subsequent training session for that particular lift you’ll be adding 1 rep to your total number of reps until you get to 8 sets of “A” set triples and 3 sets of 8 with your “B” sets. The pattern of training days is bench day, squat day, cardio day, cardio day, bench day, deadlift day, cardio day, cardio day and then repeat. So, over an 8 day training cycle you’ll be benchpressing twice (with 72 hours between bench sessions) and you’ll be squatting once and deadlifting once (with 72 hours between your squat session and your deadlift session and vice versa.)
So, let’s assume that a person can currently squat 275 pounds for 8 reps, benchpress 225 pounds for 8 reps and deadlift 315 pounds for 8 reps. Here’s how your program would lay out if you just stuck to contest style squats, benches and deadlifts for both your “A” and “B” training lifts.
Day 1
“A” Benchpress 225 pounds for 8 sets of 3 reps (3 minutes rest between sets)
“B” Benchpress 180 pounds for 3 sets of 6 reps (3 minutes rest between sets)
Day 2
“A” Squats 275 pounds for 8 sets of 3 reps (3 minutes rest between sets)
“B” Squats 220 pounds for 3 sets of 6 reps (3 minutes rest between sets)
Day 3
30-60 minutes of moderate cardio training
Day 4
30-60 minutes of moderate cardio training
Day 5
“A” Benchpress 225 pounds for 7 sets of 3 reps and then 1 set of 4 reps (3 minute rest between sets)
“B” Benchpress 220 pounds for 2 sets of 6 reps and then 1 set of 3 reps (3 minute rest between sets)
Day 6
“A” Deadlifts 315 pounds for 8 sets of 3 reps
“B” Deadlifts 250 pounds for 3 sets of 6 reps (3 minutes rest between sets)
Day 7
30-60 minutes of moderate cardio training
Day 8
30-60 minutes of moderate cardio training
Then repeat cycle and add 1 rep to each “A” and “B” workout (except for the B portions of your 7th, 8th and 9th workouts) for each lift. By the ninth day of each lift you’ll be performing 8 sets of 4 reps for your “A” lifts and 3 sets of 8 reps for your “B” lifts. After your 9th lift specific training day you’ll return to your original sets and reps scheme, which is 8 sets of triples and 3 sets of 6 only you’ll be using 10 more pounds than you put on the bar for the first 9 squat, bench and deadlift training days and then the process repeats itself all over again.
Since you’re benchpressing twice as often as you’re squatting and deadlifting, you can choose to only increase your reps every other workout if you want to. That way, your weight increases on the bench will match that of your squats and deadlifts. Once you’ve gone through 9 sessions of 9 training days you will have added 90 pounds to each of your core lifts. So, our example lifter who was originally benching 225, squatting 275 and deadlifting 315 for 8 sets of triples will now be benching 315, squatting 365 and deadlifting 405 for eight sets of triples
At that point in time, after 81 training days on each lift, you can perform 1-3 full cycles with Hepburn’s more intense lifting template. Template # 2 is focused on training singles. Working max singles requires total concentration on lifting form and each rep of each set will feel heavy and be more taxing on your central nervous system. Doug Hepburn’s singles template can cause over training if followed for too long, hence my suggestion of only following it for 1-3 cycles of 4 training days. With template # 2 your “A” sets will be with a weight that you could lift for three reps on your own (but need help with getting a fourth rep completed) and your “B” sets will be with a weight that you’d get eight times if you were maxing out. For your “A” sets you’ll hit five sets of singles and for your “B” sets you’ll hit six sets of triples. Then, on each subsequent training day you’ll add a single rep set to your “A” sets and you’ll add a rep to one of your “B” sets. So, over the course of four squat, bench or deadlift days you’ll go from working 5 singles to 8 singles and your pump sets will go from six sets of triples to six sets of 4 reps. Then, just like the first template, you’ll add 10 pounds to each lift and repeat the training cycle. Your calendar days will stay the same; bench, squat, cardio, cardio, bench, deadlift, cardio, cardio, repeat.
To summarize:
Program 1
1) Power Sets (your “A” sets)
Pick a weight that you can lift eight but not nine times in a row and do the following routine as indicated, making sure to take a three minute rest between sets.
8 x 2 (first workout)
7 x 2 and 1 x 3 (2nd workout)
6 x 2 and 2 x 3 (3rd workout)
5 x 2 and 3 x 3 (4th workout)
4 x 2 and 4 x 3 (5th workout)
3 x 2 and 5 x 3 (6th workout)
2 x 2 and 6 x 3 (7th workout)
1 x 2 and 7 x 3 (8th workout)
8 x 3 (9th workout)
(Increase the weight ten pounds and start again with the first workout’s sets n’ reps.)
2) Pump Sets (your “B” sets which immediately follow your “A” sets)
Reduce the weight from your “A” sets by 20% and perform the following, making sure to take a three minute rest between sets.
3 x 6 (first workout)
2 x 6 and then 1 x 7 (2nd workout)
1 x 6 and 2 x 7 (3rd workout)
3 x 7 (4th workout)
2 x 7 and then 1 x 8 (5th workout)
1 x 7 and 2 x 8 (6th workout)
3 x 8 (7th workout)
3 x 8 (8th workout)
3 x 8 (9th workout)
(Recalculate the weight so it’s 20% of your new “A” sets working weight and then repeat.)
Program 2
1) Power Sets (your “A” sets)
Pick a weight that you can lift three but not four times in a row and do the following routine as indicated, making sure to take a three minute rest between sets.
5 x 1 (1st workout)
6 x 1 (2nd workout)
7 x 1 (3rd workout)
8 x 1 (4th workout)
(Increase the weight ten pounds and start again with the first workout’s sets n’ reps.)
2) Pump Sets (your “B” sets which follow your “A” sets after a ten minute rest period)
Reduce the weight from your “A” sets to a weight that you can perform for eight but not nine repetitions and then perform the following routine, making sure to take a 3 minute rest between sets.)
6 x 3 (1st workout)
5 x 3 and 1 x 4 (2nd workout)
4 x 3 and 2 x 4 (3rd workout)
3 x 3 and 3 x 4 (4th workout)
2 x 3 and 4 x 4 (5th workout)
1 x 3 and 5 x 4 (6th workout)
6 x 4 (7th workout)
Increase the weight by ten pounds and repeat the cycle again starting with the 1st workout’s sets n’ reps scheme.
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1) The “A” sets and “B” sets don’t match up in the sense that in the first program you’re repeating your “B” sets n’ reps on the seventh, eighth and ninth workouts so your “B” weight jumps match your “A” weight jumps (every 10th training session you add weight.)
2) The “A” and “B” sets don’t match up at all in the 2nd training template because you’re making weight jumps every 5th training day in regards to your “A” sets and you’re making weight jumps every “8th” training day in your “B” sets. So, if you want to, you can add weight to your “B” sets every 5th training day as well just so long as you’re sticking to 6 total “B” working sets of 3-4 reps per set.
3) If your “B” sets are lifts other than competition style squats, benches and deadlifts, you’ll obviously want to recalculate the weight so it’s weight that you can lift for the required number of reps with good form i.e. you won’t be able to incline bench as much weight as you can flat bench so you’ll be using less weight on the bar than if your B sets were also performed on the flat bench and you’ll be able to board press more weight than you can flat bench so your bar weight will increase if you’re training board presses as your B lifts.
4) Do not add any other lifts or exercises to your eight day training cycle Resist the urge to get creative with your program or to target smaller muscle groups with isolation exercises. If you absolutely must add in some type of additional bodybuilding exercise, you can add some biceps and calf training at the end of your benchpress days, but that’s it All the other muscle groups are already being trained sufficiently by the squat, benches and deadlifts (even your core and definitely all of your stabilizers.)
5) Don’t add extra sets and don’t add extra reps.
6) Don’t change the order of lifting and cardio days.
7) Don’t deviate from the lifts you’re supposed to be choosing from in this program.
8) You must be getting 8-10 hours of sleep every 24 hours.
9) You must be eating three well balanced, high protein meals every 24 hours.
9) In addition to the three healthy meals (you can follow the Hepburn diet from Part 1 of this article if you want to), I suggest adding the following supplements to your daily program:
Before every workout you'll consume a serving of MHP's Trac Extreme-NO. This will flood your muscles with an instantaneous rocket like fusion of Nitric Oxide, Creatine, ATP precursors and energy substrates.
After every workout you'll consume a serving of MHP's Dark Matter. This top notch recovery
supplement will spike your insulin, flood your muscles with glycogen, supply your body with
creatine and glycerol and also gives you the amino acids you need to recover faster from your
intense weight training.
Three times a day you drink an additional protein shake consisting of a 16oz.
glass of skim milk mixed with a serving MHP's Probolic-SR (time released) protein powder.
You do not need to be using any form of anabolic steroids to have success with this program. If you are on a steroid program, and that’s your personal business, then you should still stick to the sets n’ reps outlined in Hepburn’s program and you should resist the urge to add exercises, sets and/or reps to your workout. Doug Hepburn’s program will not work forever because, if it did, there would be lifters out there who have been on it for ten plus years and who are now raw lifting 1,400 pound squats, 800 pound benchpresses and 1,700 pound deadlifts But, Hepburn’s approach to training will work for many, many months and you need to stick with it for at least a full year and avoid the temptation to jump ship and try a different routine. If you remember my opening story, think about all the people in my gym who, after my 9 month recovery period, were still lifting the same poundage when I returned. Those are the people who change routines every time they hear about a new one and they never make any real measurable progress in terms of strength gains.
It’s been my observation, that just about any lifter between the ages of 19 and 39 (and who doesn’t have any medical conditions barring his or her progress) can full squat 405 pounds, benchpress 315 pounds and deadlift 405 pounds (and more if they’re a large framed individual.) If you’re not yet at that strength level and you’ve given other training routines a try, why not open your mind and go retro with the Doug Hepburn powerlifting program? In an era where steroids were almost non-existent (and almost unheard of) and where nutrition was limited to natural whole foods, a multi-vitamin and some low grade protein powder (thankfully, the supplements have made a quantum leap forward) Hepburn was able to become the first man to ever officially benchpress 500 pounds and the first and only Canadian to ever win a weight lifting superheavyweight world championship. And Doug was a stocky guy but he never weighed more than 315 pounds (with a power gut) and he had to overcome a club foot and a botched surgery to repair his club foot, which left him with a permanently atrophied calf muscle. Keep that in mind the next time your brain starts looking for excuse as to why your build keeps you from lifting big iron So, get your sleep, eat your protein and stay the course with your training and soon you’ll be lifting like a national level raw powerlifter
To learn more about the lifting, life and times of Doug Hepburn, purchase Strongman; The Doug Hepburn Story by Tom Thurston (available at Amazon.com)
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This article first ran in the March 2009 issue of Ironman Magazine.
IRONMAN MAGAZINE'S OFFICIAL WEBSITE
Lessons From Doug Hepburn (Part 1 of 2)
By Sean Katterle
1953 was a golden time to be young and alive in America. On the radio, the smooth voices of Dean Martin , Nat King Cole and a young Tony Bennett could be heard crooning. Movie theatre goers were being treated to the premier of Peter Pan and to the amazing technology of the 3-D film. Book lovers were cracking open the very first James Bond novel and Ray Bradbury published the sci-fi classic Fahrenheit 451. In the world of periodicals, Ironman Magazine was featuring some of the greatest kings Muscle Beach has ever seen. Guys like Bill Pearl , George Eiferman and Clarence Ross . And, if you were into the beach bunnies hanging onto the arms of those muscle men, you'll be happy to know that 1953 was the year Playboy magazine first became published.
In the summer of 1953, while training to become the first weightlifting world champion from Canada , Doug Hepburn cemented his name in the iron sports history books by being the first person to ever officially benchpress 500 pounds! Hepburn pressed this ponderous poundage at the Western Sports Centre in Vancouver, B.C. and in front of a host of witnesses and members of the British Columbia Weightlifting Association. In addition to the sentimental value of this accomplishment, what should really grab your attention is that the odds are, Hepburn accomplished this feat without ever taking a single dose of steroids.
How can I prove that? Well, I can't completely, but here's history as I see it. Steroids were first invented in the 1930s and they were used to treat the chronically weak and the elderly in
some hospitals. In the late 1930s and early 1940s the German Nazis experimented with them in underground labs in the attempt to create a stronger soldier and a superior Aryan athlete. Since much of the Nazi's experiments were undoubtedly performed in eastern Europe, the Russian scientists quickly learned of them and by the late 1940s, were having all of their communist super lifters on large doses of these newly discovered drugs. But, communication between the
soviets and the western world was very limited and the secret of steroids was a closely guarded one. Doug Hepburn didn't compete or travel overseas until he won the world weightlifting
championship in Sweden in the fall of 1953. So, it's 99% certain that he hadn't had any interactions with the German or Russian strength scientists.
Dr. Ziegler , the inventor of Dianabol , didn't start working with York Barbell until the early 1950s. Ziegler teamed up with a 40 something year old John Grimek who didn't personally try steroids until 1954. It was CIBA , an Swiss, German and American affiliated pharmaceutical
company, who first supplied Grimek with steroids. CIBA went on to send Grimek cases of the drugs to give to York Barbell athletes and they also teamed up with Ziegler to invent Dbol in their efforts to compete and beat out the Russians at the Olympics . But this CIBA , Ziegler and Grimek connection didn't take place until the mid-1950s and Doug Hepburn's famous meeting with his idol( Grimek ) took place in 1951 which was three years prior to the anabolic wave that crashed onto the gym scene.
^^^ Doug Hepburn and John Grimek ^^^
Doug Hepburn's benching heyday was from 1951-1953 where he went from breaking the world record with a 420 pound bench in 1951 to shattering the 500 pound barrier in the summer of 1953. So, Hepburn was pushing 420 pounds off his chest with success before he ever came in contact with the York Gang . But, just to argue the other side of the coin, Hepburn did meet Grimek in 1951 and he did add over a hundred pounds to his bench from that time of meeting until 1953 ( Hepburn went as high as 550-580 pounds in the gym but he injured himself trying to break the 600 pound barrier.)
So, it's ever so slightly possible that Grimek had started up his steroid use a few years earlier and that he'd shared his secret with Doug upon his visit, but I doubt it. Why do I doubt it? Because York Barbell housed the American Olympic lifting team and Doug Hepburn represented Canada and Hepburn was a serious threat to the American's chances of winning another medal. It's very, very unlikely that Grimek would give a Canadian Olympic lifting champion a secret super vitamin that could add so much to his lifting capabilities.
So, if you want to be a cynic and think that Doug Hepburn did have access to steroids, then you'd have to assume that he either got connected when he lifted in New York or when he visited York Barbell (both visits were in 1951.) Going off of that assumption, a person could say that Doug built his benchpress up to 420 pounds completely drug free and then he went from 420-500+ using the steroids of the day. From 1951-1953 though, the only steroids that were really available were crappy derivatives of testosterone and corticosteroids (which definately DON'T make a person any stronger.) The anabolic steroids of the early 1950s were garbage in comparison to today's versions and they came with lots of side effects as they were far more toxic than most of today's brands. Until the late 1950s and beyond, there wasn't any Dbol , Anadrol 50 , Fina , Test Enanthate , Deca , etc.
Why am I rambling on about whether or not Hepburn was on the juice? My point is that it's very likely that Doug Hepburn figured out how to build his benchpress up to five hundred pounds using nutrition, rest and intense training and without the aide of drugs. From the late 1950s on, it's a safe assumption that pretty much every bodybuilding, weightlifting and powerlifting world champion was jacked to the gills. Am I anti-steroids? Personally, no. If you're an adult and at least 21 years of age I believe that it's your individual freedom to use steroids provided you're not competing in a drug tested sporting event. But I also think that there are tens of thousands of weight lifters out there who have never used steroids and who don't plan on using them and
this article is for those steroid free masses. This article is about Doug Hepburn inspired training and recovery for building a lot of brawn, bulk and a huge benchpress!
Now, most people are hardcore about their muscle building when they're in the gym when in fact their main focus should be on their diet and recovery plan of action. I can't tell you how many
times I've seen teen and collegiate lifters push and pull in the weight room until they're red in the face and totally exhausted and then go on to eat fast food protein sources, drink beer and
only get six hours of sleep that night. And, if they do eat intelligently, then don't eat nearly enough. After his high school years (he wasn't much of a student) Doug was hired to work on a
poultry farm at age 18 and his compensation was $3 a day and all the eggs he could eat. By this time he was already heavily into lifting weights and he weighed 200+ solid pounds at 5'8 ½ in height. Doug also had a second job but that position only paid an additional $1.50 so with $4.50 in his pocket every day and all the eggs he could eat he set up the following mass building diet plan: For breakfast, lunch and dinner he would eat 18 eggs, a bunch of bananas and he'd drink a
½ a gallon of whole milk! That's 54 eggs and a gallon and a half of whole milk every 24 hours!
If you add up the nutritional values, you'll find that every day Doug Hepburn took in about 540 grams of protein at a body weight of 200-220 pounds, or about 2.25-2.7 grams of protein per pound of body weight per day. Bananas have a bit of protein in them too but not enough to deal with in this article. The downside of Hepburn's diet was that he was also taking in a lot of fat, cholesterol and probably more simple carbs than he needed (he admitted to being addicted to chocolate cake.) Hepburn later used protein shakes but the quality of protein powder and cans of protein shakes we nowhere near as good as useable and digestible as what's available nowadays.
So, here's a version of the Doug Hepburn collegiate lifter diet plan for the modern age.
Meals 1, 2 and 3 = 6 whole eggs + 12 egg whites prepared however you'd like to cook them, a 16oz. glass of skim milk mixed with MHP's Probolic-SR (time released) protein powder and 3-4 bananas. These three meals will give you the nutrients of 54 egg whites, 48oz. of skim milk (if you mix your protein powder in milk) and 120 additional grams of top shelf protein from MHP's Probolic-SR . By switching from whole milk to water and/or skim milk you've eliminated a lot of the dairy fat from the Hepburn diet. By taking the yolks out of 2/3 of the eggs you eat you've removed a lot of the cholesterol and you've made it easier to consume the number of eggs you'll need to consume in this program (eating 36 egg whites and 18 whole eggs is much easier than eating 54 whole eggs!)
In addition to the three high protein meals above, you'll include the following in your daily
intake:
1) You'll eat at least one garden salad every day. If you can afford it I highly recommend making this salad yourself and getting your veggies from a health food store that sells organic farm products.
2) You'll also eat three other pieces of fruit on top of the 9-12 bananas you eat with your regular meals (you don’t really have to eat that many bananas every day but I’m trying to stay true to the original program.) The more variety of fruit you take in the better. I'm a big fan of apples, strawberries and citrus fruits but it's up to you what you pick out from your produce vendor.
3) Before every workout you'll consume a serving of MHP's Trac Extreme-NO . This will flood your muscles with an instantaneous rocket like fusion of Nitric Oxide, Creatine, ATP precursors and
energy substrates.
4) After every workout you'll consume a serving of MHP's Dark Matter . This top notch recovery supplement will spike your insulin, flood your muscles with glycogen, supply your body with
creatine and glycerol and also gives you the amino acids you need to recover faster from your intense weight training.
I can't stress enough the importance of making the above program your DAILY program. This means that you don't follow this program for one day and then eat something different the next. It doesn't mean that you follow this program on your workout days and then eat "whatever" on the days you don't workout. It means that you chow and chug the above list of foods every single days for at least three months straight! If you're really hardcore, you'll stick with it. Otherwise, get yourself that weekend warrior patch for your gym bag and settle for whatever gains you're able to get doing something else. But are you raw benching 420+ pounds with a pause? Do you want to? Do you want to join the 500 pound bench club? Then get serious and get with the Doug Hepburn tried and tested program!
The other aspect of recovery is sleep. Doug Hepburn wasn't the worlds best worker and he spent most of his life at the bottom of the western world's economic food chain. But the positive side to that story is that he had plenty of time away from working and he took advantage of that and he slept ten hours a day every day. You may not be able to set ten hours aside every day for sleep but you should do everything you can to get at least eight hours in even if you have to steal a nap in the middle of the afternoon when no one's watching.
In Part 2 we'll get into the details of Doug's training program. But while you wait for that segment to come out next month, you can start the modern Hepburn diet right now. You can purchase MHP's products at your local supplement shop and you can also order them from MHP directly ( www.GetMHP.com ), from Bodybuilding.com and from Ironman Magazine's Home Gym Warehouse by calling 1.800.447.0008 . I'm not trying to sell you on taking bucket loads of various supplements. For this program, just stick to the three products I listed; MHP's Probolic-SR , MHP's Trac Extreme-NO and MHP's Dark Matter .
I'm going to cover Doug's power training in detail in the next issue of Ironman but if you don't want to wait and you want to learn more about him now then I recommend the following reading materials; the book Strongman, The Doug Hepburn Story by Tom Thurston ( which you can order from Amazon.com )and Milo strength journal April 1994 and March 1997 ( both back issues are still available from IronMind.com ) If you plow through that book and those two magazines you'll be a near expert on the life and times of Douglas Ivan Hepburn , the first man to ever officially benchpress 500 pounds. If you want to wait 30 days, I'll gladly tell you how he lifted to get there in the next issue of Ironman .
Stay Strong,
Sean Katterle
Hardcore Powerlifting.com
House of Pain's Dumbbell Berserker T-Shirt
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( 2 / 1 )Vic's Power House Strength Extravaganza
June 27th and 28th
26 Strength Athletes will compete in the squat, benchpress, deadlift, log press, tire flip, farmer's walk and/or truck push.
Vicki said that she's been getting quite a few phone calls over the last three days so she's gonna go ahead and let people sign up right up till the morning of the contest (weigh ins are from 7am to 8am that Saturday.)
So give her office a ring asap if you want to come out and lift at the meet and we'll see ya there next Saturday !
The events will take place at The Newport Hallmark Beach Resort
http://www.hallmarkinns.com/index.asp?p ... ;rec_id=38
After the lifting, you can party at The Rogue Brewery and Distillery!
http://www.rogue.com/
They're based out of Newport and you can chug their brews and slam their whiskey, rum and gin at their Newport Public Ale House, Brewery on the Bay Bar and their Rogue House of Spirits.
So, take the trip out to the Oregon Coast in 10 days and we'll see ya at the party!
http://discovernewport.com/
This strength sports weekend is sponsored by:
House Of Pain.com
Hardcore Powerlifting.com
Hallmark Inns and Resorts
Hallmark Resort Reservation Line: 1 ( 888 ) 448 - 4449
Rogue Nation
Vic's Power House
The Muscle Studio
Village Nautilus
Big Bear's Gym
Les Schwab Tires
Hallmark Resort Reservation Line: 1 ( 888 ) 448 - 4449
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( 2.7 / 26 )^^^ Konstantin Konstantinovs Raw Gym Deadlifting 837 x 4 at 277 Pounds Body Weight ^^^
^^^ Konstantin Konstantinovs Raw Gym Close Grip Benching 485 x 3 at 277 Pounds Body Weight ^^^
^^^ Super Heavyweights Randall Harris Competition Suit Squatting 904 Pounds and Brian Siders Competition Suit Squatting 1,014 Pounds ^^^
^^^ Johnny Wahlqvist Competition Suit Deadlifting 650 Pounds at The Göteborg Cup in Sweden ^^^
^^^ Mike Tuchscherer Gym Deadlifting 735 x 3 at 275 Pounds Body Weight ^^^
^^^ Thomas Snellings Competition Raw Deadlifts 595 Pounds at 242 Pounds Body Weight ^^^
^^^ Eric Talmant Competition Raw Deadlifting 622 Pounds at 165 Pounds Body Weight ^^^
^^^ Super Heavyweight Robert Wilkerson Raw Gym Benches 545 x 3 ^^^
^^^ Super Heavyweight Robert Wilkerson Incline Benches 505 x 2 ^^^
^^^ Ryan Celli Raw Gym Benches 500 Pounds at 198 Pounds Body Weight ^^^
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