Dave Draper's Actual Workouts of the 1960s
By Henrik "The House" Nielsen
Member of the Draper research team
There have been a lot of stories and speculation about how Dave Draper actually trained in the 60s. An example of this can be found in Canadian strength coach Charles Poliquin book "The Poliquin Principles": "Old-timers will remember articles about Dave Draper's workouts in Muscle Builder/Power. The Blond Bomber worked out practically every day and often performed 20 sets or more per bodypart. Draper's training methods were extreme and indisputably constituted a protocol that enabled him to become one of the best bodybuilders in his era."
The above description is not far from the truth, but the key words here are "articles in Muscle Builder/Power." We now know that the articles about Dave's workouts in magazines such as Muscle Builder/Power and Mr. America were the fabrications of staff writers and editors and they did not represent Dave's actual workouts. So how DID Dave train in the 60s?
In 1999 I went on a Bodybuilding Pilgrimage to California. As a part of that I trained for 2 weeks in Dave's World Gym in Santa Cruz. I asked Dave a lot of questions about his training methods and on top of that something happened that I hadn't even dreamt of. Dave showed me his actual training journals from 1964-65 when he was training in the Muscle Beach Gym in Santa Monica, also known as The Dungeon, preparing for his Mr. America win in 1965. This was the real deal - I could hardly believe it! I managed to get a zerox copy with me home. What a treasure!
The following is based on my talks with Dave and his training journals. I hope you find the information as interesting as I did. One word of caution though. Dave did some pretty severe workouts back then.
As Jeff Everson wrote: "Despite the plethora of energy enhancers and drugs available today, I'd venture to guess that most modern-day bodybuilders would overtrain on Draper's plan. Bodybuilders today don't eat enough fat for long-term energy, their calories are too low and they don't get enough rest and relaxation. By and large they lack patience too. Besides, the guys in the Dungeon would never have put up with someone who claimed to be overtrained. There was no such thing back then."
So these workouts should probably not be copied and they do not necessarily represent the training advice that Dave would give today. Read this column to learn more about that.
Dave Draper's actual workouts 1964-65: There's no doubt about it. Dave trained with a very high volume of sets and he rotated his bodyparts so that he trained everything 3 times per week. Training on a 2 day split, this meant that he trained at least 6 days per week. According to the journals he would sometimes train for 2-3 weeks with no rest days!
Dave had 3 different training partners during his years in the Dungeon (1963-67). His first training partner, Dick Sweet, was the one who introduced Dave to the "California" style of bodybuilding.
Before I describe the actual workouts (I've chosen 2 - one from 1964 and one from 1965) I'd like to present in bullet-points some facts about Dave's workouts:
He trained in the morning usually 6-9am. Each workout would last 2½ - 3 hours.
A typical pre-workout meal would be a cup of coffee maybe a can of tuna and a protein shake that tasted like dirt - yummy.
He would change his workouts every 4-6 weeks. Sometimes doing different exercises or sometimes changing the amount of sets and reps or training method.
He trained in a progressive manner, either increasing reps or weight every workout.
At this point he used mainly straight sets and compound supersets. Antagonistic supersets were added later (1966).
The last 6 weeks before competition he trained twice a day 4 days out of the week and once a day 2 days out of the week. One of the workouts on double split days could be just deadlifts.
The first group of workouts is from November 1964. At this point in time Dave had started using higher paced workouts, which means that the weights you see does not represent Dave's maximum weights in some of those exercises. For instance Dave's maximum bench press was around 450 lbs. Pretty amazing considering that Dave was only 22 years old at the time.
By December 4th 1964 Dave's chest-back-legs workout looked like this:
Chest (14 sets):
Benchpress: 6x305, 6x315, 6x325, 6x335
Incline benchpress: 6x225, 6x235, 6x245, 6x255, 6x270
Flat fly: 5 sets of 8x75
Back (15 sets):
Long pulley row: 6x160, 6x170, 6x180, 6x190, 6x200
One arm dumbbell rows: 5 sets of 6x90
Wide-grip pulldown: 5 sets of 6x225
Thighs (10 sets):
Hack squat: 5 sets of 15 reps (no weight specified)
Thigh curl: 5 sets of 12x60
Calves (10 sets):
Donkeys: 10 sets of 15 reps
One day after, December 5th 1964, Dave's delts-biceps-triceps-forearms workout looked like this:
Delts (18 sets):
Seated military press: 6x135, 6x145, 6x155, 6x165, 6x175
Press behind neck: 6x135, 6x145, 6x155, 6x165, 6x175
Superset:
Incline lateral raise to the front (face down): 4 sets of 6x25
Incline lateral raise to the rear (face down): 4 sets 6x25
Triceps (15 sets):
Seated French press:
8x115, 8x125, 8x135, 8x145, 8x135
One arm dumbbell extension: 8x40, 8x40, 7x40, 7x40, 7x40
Pulley pushdown: 5 sets of 12x75
Biceps (15 sets):
Standing dumbbell curl: 6x50, 6x55, 6x60, 6x65, 6x65
Flat bench curl: 5 sets of 6x45
Incline inners: 5 sets of 6x40
Forearms:
Reverse curl: 5 sets of 10x90
Wrist curl: 5 sets of 15x165
The second group of workouts is from February 1965. At this point the weights Dave used was also affected by the fact that he had seriously started to diet down to the Mr. America 1965 competition. By the night of the Mr. America September 18, 1965 that took place in The Brooklyn Academy of music, he weighed in at 230 lbs (his goal had been 228 lbs).
By February 14th 1965 Dave's chest-back-legs workout looked like this:
Chest (20 sets):
Superset:
Incline benchpress: 4 sets of 8x210
Incline fly: 4 sets of 8x55
Superset:
Benchpress: 4 sets of 8x245
Flat fly: 4 sets of 8x60
Straight sets:
Decline fly: 4 sets of 8x65
Back (20 sets):
Wide-grip pulldown: 5 sets of 8x225
Close-grip pulldown: 5 sets of 8x185
Long-pulley rows: 5 sets of 8x160
Barbell rows: 5 sets of 10x135
Thighs (15 sets):
Front squats: 10x205, 8x225, 7x245, 10x225, 12x205
Superset:
Sissy squat: 5 sets of (no reps or weight specified)
Thigh curl: 5 sets of 12x50
Calves (10 sets):
Donkeys: 10 sets of 15 reps
One day after, February 15th 1965, Dave's delts-biceps-triceps-forearms workout looked like this:
Delts (25 sets):
Sitting military press: 5 sets of 6x175
Press behind neck: 5 sets of 6x165
Superset:
Seated lateral raise: 5 sets of 8x30
Front lateral raise: 5 sets of 8x20
Incline lateral raise (face down): 5 sets of 8x20
Biceps (15 sets):
Sitting incline curl: 5 sets of 8x60
Flat bench curl: 5 sets of 8x45
Machine curl: 5 sets of 8x95
Triceps (15 sets):
Close-grip benchpress (reverse grip): 5 sets of 8x240
Seated French press, barbell: 5 sets of 8x115
Incline French press, 2 dumbbells: 5 sets of 8x45
Forearms (10 sets):
Zottmann curl: 5 sets of 8x45
Wrist curl: 5 sets of 12x155
So ends Henrik's workout report.
To which Bill Keyes responds:
Phenomenal stuff, Henrik, thanks for the effort. Especially in translating the handwriting. (Henrik brought these photocopies to Bash '01 and it is apparent that Dave wrote up his journal post-workout when arms and hands were pumped!)
<...December 5th 1964, Dave's forearms workout looked like this: Forearms: Reverse curl: 5 sets of 10x90 Wrist curl: 5 sets of 15x165>
Thus explains Dave's forearm development which was the envy of such folks as Arnold S. Bill2
And Guy chimes in with:
Henrik, thanks for taking the time to post Daves old routines. Those are the kind of workouts I was brought up with. Notice there are no pec-dec flyes in there or triceps kickbacks! Just basic heavy exercises then a faster intense cadence for contests.
It's my belief that a lot of people come into the gym wanting to look like Dave did for his contests but don't realize the heavy basic work that prepares you and builds the foundation. The excess calories and fat (good fat) that you need to ingest to lift heavy and build that foundation.
You gotta be a little bit nuts when you go into the gym... after you understand the exercise form and have some training time under your belt, don't ask anyone how many reps you should be doing, TELL YOURSELF HOW MANY YOU'RE GOING TO GET!! Tell yourself I want 8 reps then push, strain, muffle a scream and do it!
Back when I started there were no excuses, we didn't care how sore you were from your last workout........either stay with us and keep up or you were on your own. Over trained... ha! We ate more and rested more so we would be there at that next workout. No sympathy and no pampering. Cement floors, rusted plates and collars that didn't always work (that developed some coordination also). Wooden benches that were balanced with a peice of carpet or a 1 lb plate under a leg, pads made out of foam and towles to finacle a way to use the leg extension machine when the pads on the machine came up near your knees!
Basements with old windows where the wind howled thru in the winter causing you to where long sleeve sweats and workout as fast as possible to keep warm.
Guts and determination were built during that time, training partners fell by the wayside and the real McCoy's were the only ones left still standing. That's the cloth I'm cut from and I know Bill L, Bill K. and a few others are also cut from that cloth too.
I guess I'll end this ramble by saying that when you hear the old timers talk, listen up. The advice may not be filled with scientific jargen, or have published studies quoted but there's a thing called empirical evidence that they have lived through and seen through many years of experince that's probably more valid than any other information you'll read in some slick magazine article.
Guy
Steve likes that one:
Guy, GREAT post, and great illustration and personal testimony of what Nino was talking about, how we younger buffs (I'm 46) "stand on the shoulders" of our forefathers; those who have done the HARD work to pave the path for us... Thanks! Very inspiring...
-Stingo
Henrik follows up on the Q&A:
< I was wondering, Henrik, or whomever's in the know, how do you know when it's time to up the wieght without deviating from the rep range >
The rep progression Dave used was very systematic in some exercises (but not all exercises). A typical progression could be like this in an exercise of 5 sets:
(#1 = Workout number 1 and so forth)
#1. 6, 6, 6, 6, 6
#2. 7, 6, 6, 6, 6
#3. 7, 7, 6, 6, 6
#4. 7, 7, 7, 6, 6
#5. 7, 7, 7, 7, 6
#6. 7, 7, 7, 7, 7
#7. 8, 7, 7, 7, 7
#8. 8, 8, 7, 7, 7
#9. 8, 8, 8, 7, 7
#10. 8, 8, 8, 8, 7
#11. 8, 8, 8, 8, 8
At this point the weight would then be increased and the reps went back to 6. But as I said, not all exercises would progress this systematically. In some exercises the weight was increased faster than this.
By the way, if anyone is wondering where the chins for back are, this is what Dave's back workout looked like in all of November 1964:
Wide grip chins: 5 sets of 6-8 reps, 10 lbs added
Close grip chins: 5 sets of 8-10 reps, 10 lbs added
Dumbbell pullover: 5 sets of 12x95
Bill Luttrell kicks in with:
In a volume routine that also pyramids the weight up as the sets progress, I've always viewed the last set as my "target" set. Whatever the number of reps, if that number is static (i.e., as described by Henrik), the earlier sets obviously require less effort or intensity. However, the last set should take everything you've got.
Guy put it well when he said, "You gotta be a little bit nuts when you go into the gym...........after you understand the exercise form and have some training time under your belt, don't ask anyone how many reps you should be doing, TELL YOURSELF HOW MANY YOUR'E GOING TO GET!! Tell yourself I want 8 reps then push, strain ,muffle a scream and do it!"
With proper training, this number should always be going up. If not, I'm not doing it right (e.g., my training needs an adjustment). As an example, I had been stuck on a number for shoulder presses. Until today, my target was 6 reps with this weight, and I was struggling to get it. However, I was more highly motivated than usual (thanks, Stella), I "felt" not only strong, but that I could do far more than 6 with the weight. I broke through and got 10. This means, the target must now move. That's how I know when it's time to up the weight without deviating from the rep range. In my mind, I now know that anything less will be slacking. Next time I hit shoulders, the target will move up 20 lbs.
Bill L
And we'll let Stella wrap it up:
<The rep progression Dave used was very systematic in some exercises (but not all exercises). A typical progression could be like this in an exercise of 5 sets: >
Wow. This "system" was so simple typed out like that. Why, I think even *I* can remember the general pattern. I'm only now getting to the point in my training where I'm ready to be a little more systematic in the way I decide to add weight. I guess I've always hated counting sets and reps and finding patterns. For a long time a lot of this flew right over my head (perhaps I ducked on purpose).
Henrik, thank you *so* much for taking the time to sort through this material and type it out. I really enjoy reading about training in the golden years. Somehow, knowing that something besides the bright fluorescent lights and blaring sound of my fitness club once existed gives me some kind of comfort. I like having these kinds of stories in my brain too- keeps the whine box in check on those days I kind of don't feel like hittin' it but go anyway.
Stella
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