The BEST Form of BODYBUILDING
by Bob Hoffman
It was interesting to note at the National Senior A.A.U. championships that the weight lifting winners were men with considerable success in physique contests. Chuck Vinci, winner of the 123-pound division, was winner of the small class in physique competition. Yas Kuzuhara, the 132-pound champion, has had great success in physique competition. He won Mr. Middle Atlantic, Mr. Pennsylvania (A.A.U. and Y.M.C.A), Mr. National Capital, Mr. Atlantic Coast and the national Mr. U.S.A.-Y.M.C.A. contest against top-flight compeition including much larger men than his 5'3". Yas also finished a close second in the Eastern Jr. Mr. America contest and has won many awards for best developed arms, back, legs and Most Muscular Man. Yas won all these contests this year while he was amassing a great collection of lifting titles and was doing nothing in the training line but lifting!
Joe Pitman is the only 1954 lifting champion who has never entered a physique contest, but the skinny, 85-pound body he started with has developed into an impressive appearing, powerfully constructed, symmetrical 150 pounds. Bert Elliott, winner of the middleweight title, was a recent (April, 1954) Strength and Health cover man and won the title Mr. Iron Man as well as many other awards in the physique contests. Tommy Kono, the 181-pound class winner, has won Mr. Sacramento and Mr. Northern California, finishing well up in many other best-developed-man contests. In the 198-pound class, winner Dave Sheppard has won trophies in physique competition.
Even the heavyweight winner, Norbert Schemansky, with no physique contest aspirations, has won awards for his excellent development, proving that "excess beef" is not essential to excell in the unlimited division. Note that four of the seven 1954 champions have appeared on the cover of Strength and Health ; Elliot, Kuzuhara, Sheppard and Schemansky have had that honor.
Although most winners of Mr. America titles have been bodybuilding specialists, almost without exception they have been good lifters who have won local championships at least. Had it not been for the physique contests, and had these men concentrated on lifting as is done in Russia, Egypt and most other countries, they would have been numbered among the national weight-lifting champions.
But we must remember that John Grimek, the greatest of them all, Mr. America of 1940 and 1941, Mr. U.S.A. (In which contest he outscored some of the best Mr. America winners, notably Clarence Ross, Steve Reeves and George Eiferman) and Mr. Universe winner, was a U.S. lifting champion, a member of the U.S. Olympic team (made the highest total of any American at the Berlin Olympics), a member of the world championship team and set national records. When the wonderful three-color photo of Grimek (still a popular Strength and Health one-year subscription premium) was taken, he had never done bodybuilding as it is practiced today, only lifting and standard exercises. He had never used incline benches, overhead pulleys or other gadgets now apparently considered "indispensable" by young men seeking muscular development.
The Mr. America of 1944, Steve Stanko, who became the first Mr. Universe in 1947, was first known as the world's strongest man when he won national heavyweight titles in 1938, 1939 and 1940, and became the first man to total 1,000 pounds on the three lifts in 1941. Steve could exceed world records as training exercises, as he did one day in the York Barbell Club gym when he performed 10 really easy single cleans and jerks with 381 pounds.
Roy Hilligenn, the Mr. America of 1951, has perhaps won more weight-lifting championships than physique contest, including the national Jr. A.A.U. 181-pound title in 1952. While the above three, Grimek, Stanko and Hilligenn, are the only great lifting champions among the official Mr. Americas, others have given good accounts of themselves in lifting and other sports competition. Alan Stephan and Jim Park lifted well and won medals in A.A.U. contests. Bill Pearl won fame as a navy wrestling champion and placed second in the Pacific Northwest A.A.U. Olympic team tryouts in 1952, the year before he won the Mr. America and Mr. Universe contests.
George Eiferman, John Farbotnik and Jules Bacon, all of whom were originally from the Middle Atlantic district and trained at York, were good lifters and could have gained fame in three-lift competition with more specialization. Malcom Brenner, winner of special awards at several Mr. America contests (Best Back in 1954), placed third in the heavyweight lifting competition that year.
It is too bad that so many of these men, especially really powerful fellows like Stephan and Park, were lost to American lifting through the physique contets or we would have less trouble in international competition. Stephan officially pressed 260 ten years ago, before entering any "Mr." contests. Park can still press 250 and clean 300, weighting only a few pounds over the lightheavyweight limit, even though he is a bodybuilding specialist.
A great many lesser lights, famous in their own districts, are lifting champions as well as physique contest winners. It pleases me greatly to see men enter both the lifting and physique contests. When they enter physique contests alone they are missing a great deal, for the combination of lifting and bodybuilding exercises builds the best physiques and develops champion lifters.
Lifting specialists in other countries were frequently of slender physique in lighter classes. Some of the famous-Egyptians were in this category. This was true in Great Britain, but the British lifters have reached new heights since practicing bodybuilding movements (assistance exercises) as well as actual lifting. French lifters have greatly improved in physique since they got away from the unlimited number of single attempts they ordinarily made and now use the American system of low repetitions plus assistance exercises.
It is not a happy accident that so many lfters have scored so well in physique contests and that so many bodybuilding specialists have done well in lifting. The lifting of Gene Bohaty at Norfolk (Colonna's picnic) was a good example of this. He had won Mr. North America and the western Jr. Mr. America title, finishing second in the Mr. America contest. At Norfolk he won the Mr. Health contest, of course, but surprised everyone by also winning the 198-pound lifting championship. He travelled with me to the contest and I noted that he was elated with his lifting success, especially with having made a lifetime snatch record of 235.
Every man I have mentioned as a lifting champion and physique contest winner started as a York man. With the York system they laid the foundation for their great physiques and lifting ability. As most readers know, the York system was the first which contained a well balanced assortment of bodybuilding exercises with barbells and dumbells, and lifting motion exercises with actual lifting practice. Of the famous four York courses, which have built more champions than all other systems in the world combined, courses No. 1 and No. 2 each consist of 11 barbell exercises and seven dumbell exercises; course No. 3 consists of lifting exercises, repetitions of regular lifts, and assistance exercises; course No. 4 is the practice of the five international lifts (one hand snatch, one hand clean and jerk, two hands press, two hands snatch, and two hands clean and jerk).
Courses No. 1 and No. 2 are designed to build the muscles in groups, working every muscle in the body thoroughly. Courses No. 3 and No. 4 cause these muscular groups to coordinate or work in unison, building speed, timing, balance, nervous energy, endurance, and judgment of space and distance - all qualities which make it possible for a man to succeed as an athlete. The four York courses build wonderful physiques and great athletes; they build strong and healthy men.
In future issues we will continue this discussion of the value of mixing lifting and bodybuilding, showing how lifters are the best developed bodybuilders and that lifters who practice bodybuilding are the strongest men.