When Giants Roamed the Earth
Original Article by Jeff Everson
Excerpt from ‘Forgotten Secrets of The Culver City Westside Barbell Club’ by Dave Yarnell.
Before the last epoch of the Cenozoic era, some 65 million years ago, great beasts roamed the earth. These ponderous dinosaurs weighed as much as 100 tons and were over 120 feet long. Some had teeth the size of a child. Most had brains the size of an egg.
The dinosaurs died out and were replaced by a higher form of life. Likewise, at one point in time (the late 1950s, all of the ’60s and the start of the ’70s) giant bodybuilders ruled the earth. Then they abdicated, making way for a leaner, more refined and defined animal.
In the days when Freddy Ortiz sported 21-inch arms on a 5’5″ frame and Dave Draper was so big that when he went into the Pacific it was suddenly high tide, bodybuilding was concerned primarily with getting massive and strong. Cuts and the ultrarefined look (a la Gaspari) were called muscularity and judged as a separate division. Seldom, if ever, did the winner of the muscularity trophy go on to win the overall title. That went to the bulk- masters!
Bodybuilders thought they should be both big and strong. Reg Park used to do the behind-the-neck press for reps with 
300 pounds. Sergio Oliva – at a weight of 198 pounds – could clean and jerk 360 pounds before he even started bodybuilding.
Chuck Sipes bench pressed 570 pounds and could bend steel bars. With just lung power, Bill Pearl could blow up hot water bottles until they exploded. He also tore license plates in half. Before he trained back down to win the Mr. Universe, Bruce Randall bulked up to 401 pounds and did a good morning with 780!
When bodybuilders got together, they’d discuss Chuck Ahrens’ shoulders and how he could press a pair of 220-pound dumbbells.
They’d talk about the day Armand Tanny did a clean and jerk of 300 pounds with one hand or the time Steve Reeves cleaned 275 pounds while on his knees.
More than anything, though, bodybuilders in those days loved to train hard and heavy and then go eat!
Up to the early ’70s, bodybuilders only cared about size, and low-fat diets were disdained. Legend has it that John Grimek once ate 10 steaks at a sitting and then asked what was for dessert.
Today, the dinosaurs and the old thinking are gone – for better or worse. Now, you must be big (being strong is neither here nor there), but you must be cut and refined too, or you don’t win – or make it into the magazines?
Bodybuilders today use cycle training and the modern supplements that go with that training. Bodybuilders need to decide who they want to be, a Stegosaurus, (big and strong) or an up-to-date bodybuilder who still wants size but with the highest quality beef possible.
Question for You: WHO do YOU want to be? A Stegasaurus or a ________ (fill in the blank)? Drop a comment below, let us know your thoughts.
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WHY am I so committed? Because I wanna see MORE strong people roaming the earth. There are too many weak people roaming the earth these days, weak in mind AND body? The MORE we know the MORE we can help others.
EVERY MONTH I’ll be bringing you a NEW, Kick Ass Audio Interview with a Strength Coach or Underground Lifter, an Open Call in or Live Web Stream for QnA and an Exercise of the Month.
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Filed under Articles, Strength Building, muscle building, old school strength by on Sep 27th, 2011. Comment. 
Comments on When Giants Roamed the Earth
Definitely a Stegosaurus. Every time I hit the gym, the feats of strength that the MEN of the 60′s did fuels me. I’m sick and tired of all of the, boys yet-to-turn-men, seen in most of today’s gym.
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Dinosaur training for the win!
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Steg I’m looking to go for GODZILLA !!!! KING OF EM ALL
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Stegosaurus for sure….
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Dino-training hands down.brute strength over pretty, useless muscle any day. Back in the day my dad was a golden glove boxer, and I remember him training w/my uncles.lifting engine blocks & squating our pressing them, carrying 5 gal water bottles using finger tips. In high school we still had to chop firewood and my dad had us chop down treescut them into 4-5 ft sections and carry them back down the mesa on our backs, about a mile or so. At the end of high school was a beast. But now conforming to modern society, I am a WEAKLING. Going back to my roots, lift like an animal, screw the pretty $h*t, I want to be a F-ing man!!! Love piece & hair grease!
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Stego, Stego, Stego….GOOOO STEGOS! Cheesy? Yeah! Hahaa! But it’s the only way to go.
There is only one way to live, being built—mass n power two in one!
By the way, killer article, I like the references and etc. Good comparisons. Today’s modern bodybuilders are sad.
There was this really buff guy I met in College and we decided to train together, He stated I might be out of his league. HA! Granted, he was a bodybuilder…2x the size of me and definitely cut up. We trained together, he could not outlift me in any chosen exercise. I was shouldering kegs, clean n pressing thick bars, heck I even handed him a steel bar and he asked what we were going to do with it. I told him to bend it, he was like that’s impossible. Oh yeah..? I think you all know what happened after that. Men of Steel, represent.
This guy may have been twice the size of me n definitely cut up, but I had the strength and the size is slowly coming, but it will be size earned.
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I am not a plant eater. MEAT EATER AM I! But I get where your going with it.
I have been on a two year quest to right the wrongs of my past. Meaning I use to follow every pump up magazine and training from Mr. Whatever. Popping magic pills and expecting to get huge like the guy in the add.
I was BIG! But weak as a kitten. I decided I didn’t want to just look strong. I wanted to be strong.
Now I train to what makes me feel the best. Not physically because I am beat after training, but emotionally. It is primal training to envoke the warrior inside.
Nothing like looking out of the corner of your eye at your overweight-out of shape neighbor guys with a cocktail in there hands (3 years younger than me) and grab the 180# tree log and press it for three reps for the 32 set in 30 minutes. Smile, wave and move on to the 250# stone lift (max reps in 20 minutes).
Ya buddy!
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