CABLES OR BARBELLS & DUMBELLS

Many years ago I read an article written by Ivan Dunbar who was a top NABBA official from Ireland. Ivan would always try his best to bring over the current, hottest physique sensations in the world so that his fellow countrymen could see them up close for themselves. He did this for many years and sometimes he would write about the experience in Health & Strength magazine. On this particular occasion he had pulled off a real winner. He had brought over Larry Scott, the first man to win the Mr Olympia. (Larry won it twice in 1965 and 1966 and then retired from bodybuilding.) During the early part of the 1960s, Larry Scott was the undisputed king of bodybuilders and you were dazzled and truly inspired by the fantastic photographs and training articles about him in Joe Weider’s Muscle Builder. Larry trained at Vince Gironda’s gym in California using all kinds of specialised training equipment that we had never seen before. He even used a special biceps bench which was nicknamed after him, because he used it exclusively to build those amazing, fully rounded biceps (which we had also never seen before). This bench was called the Scott bench at first, but over the years it became known as the preacher bench.

Ivan wrote that he was surprised that on first sight, while fully dressed, Larry appeared smaller than he had anticipated. But he wasn’t quite prepared for his next surprise. When he proudly showed Larry his gym, the two-time Mr Olympia from California just stared in unimpressed silence. Eventually he asked, “But where are all the pulleys, and cables? I train using at least 12 different cable machines!” “Ah,” replied Ivan, “we are just a simple hardcore gym. Maybe a spot of hard work on the basic stuff will do you good!” Mr Scott was not amused, and Ivan wrote that he would never forget that look of disappointment on the face of the latest, greatest bodybuilder in the world. To Larry Scott’s credit, Ivan Dunbar concluded his article by saying that he was absolutely astounded when Scott posed that night on stage. “Larry Scott,” he wrote, “was the best we had ever seen!” While it’s perfectly true that Larry Scott did use many different types of cable machines, it’s also true that he trained more intensely than any other bodybuilding champion during his era apart from Sergio Oliva, who used lots of heavy basic moves.

The cable movements, as well as the specialised training apparatus such as the Smith machine, wide-grip dipping bar and hack squat machine, were the influence of the infamous Vince Gironda, who would not allow regular squats to be done in his gym. In his opinion, “squats widen the hips, and if I see anyone in the gym doing them, I will kick them out!” During the period that Larry Scott reigned as the greatest bodybuilder in the world, specialised training exercises began to evolve and gain popularity. Why kill yourself with regular squats, when you could have fun on the hack squat, leg press and thigh extension machines? Why do regular barbell curls when you could do cable curls and preacher curls? [Editor’s note: Larry Scott’s biceps routine consisted of dumbbell preacher curls supersetted with barbell preacher curls, nonstop, six sets of six reps. He then finished off with six sets of reverse-grip preacher curls using an EZ curl bar. Larry’s training was not exactly heavy duty, but he did lots of compound sets and trisets until he couldn’t do another rep. He would then do half reps and burns to true muscular failure.] Why do demanding sets of parallel dips and lying EZ triceps extensions when you could do pressdowns, one-arm pushdowns and leaning forward pulley triceps extensions (Scott’s favourite triceps exercise)? Why do heavy bentover rows and chins when you’ve got all those lat machines? Why bother with bench presses and dips when you could do Gironda-inspired, lightweight wide-grip bench presses to the neck as well as wide-grip parallel dips with your elbows kept out to the sides? Heavy military presses and dumbbell presses were replaced with the Smith machine press, cable lateral raises and a unique two-dumbbell shoulder press that Larry Scott also became famous for. Indian Bodybuilders like Murali Kumar and Sangram Chougule also use more pulley and cables in their workout routine as compared to barbell and dumbbells.
Instead of pushing the dumbbells straight up from your shoulders, you pushed them inwards until they were a few inches from the top of your head. Your arms remained bent throughout the entire movement, which meant that you eliminated the weaker triceps involvement. In other words, you failed because your deltoids gave out, not because your triceps did. This exercise became known as the Scott dumbbell press and later the Arnold dumbbell press. So we dropped the heavy squats and replaced them with the hack machine and leg extension. We cut out the heavy bench presses and incline dumbbell presses, and did wide-grip bench press to the neck and cable crossovers. We dropped regular military presses and dumbbell presses and replaced them with the Scott dumbbell press and one-arm cable side laterals. We didn’t do regular parallel dips and lying triceps extensions any more. Instead we did every form of cable triceps exercise we could think of. Heavy pyramid-style barbell and dumbbell curls were replaced by preacher curls and cable curls. Finally we even dumped bentover barbell rows and chins and replaced them with pulldowns and low lat pulley work. The result was not as we expected. Muscles began to shrink on a weekly basis. And strength? That went down the pan as well. When we eventually went back to basic barbell and dumbbell exercises, we ached for a week but with time, our strength and muscular size came back!