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When did Reg Park win his first mr universe (year)?:
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Topic Summary

Posted by: Sergio
« on: October 08, 2019, 11:30:01 PM »

Muclemag 1975 Reg Park Shoulders
"Before sitting down to write an instructive article of this nature, it is necessary to call upon ones own experiences and if possible, the experiences of others with whom one may have been associated or come into contact with through one's career in bodybuilding.
Reflecting on my own beginning,I recall clearly having always been interested in physical exercise and sports. At high school, I was the 100 yards, 220 yards, and 440 yards champion, played soccer for the first four years and even made the second x1 cricket team. In gym periods, punishment was to do pushups whilst the rest of the class went on with their tasks, This to me was not punishment, but an outlet of my physical energies. In gym incidentally, I loved to rope climb or to do beam work.
By the time I was 17, I was 6' 1" and weighed about 160 Ibs. I was a slim muscular lad; very lean and angular looking. It was at this time that I met a fellowvnamed Dave Cohen who at 5' 8" weighed 185 Ibs and had a great physique with
about a 48" chest, 16 1/2" - 17" arm, which in those days (1947) was really something. He introduced me to my first barbell workout.
I can recall performing straight arm barbell pullover on floor, barbell press on back on floor, (we did not know about bench press or pullover on a bench in those 'old days'), barbell press, barbell curl, barbell tirceps pushaways, The exercises were performed 3 sets of 10 reps and as you can see the first 3 exercises all worked the shoulders to a marked degree, An interesting point is that I hated the press mainly
because I was not strong in it, but, I enjoyed the other two exercises. It has been my observation since being in the gym business that all tall slim lads are poor on the standing press.
From the age of 18-20, my training was interupted. During that period, I served as a physical training instructor for the Malaya army in Singapore, and whilst I got plenty of exercise, I had virtually no access to barbells. However, during this time my weight wernt up to 200 Ibs. Upon being 'demobbed' or discharged from the army, perhaps the most significant experience in my short life to that date,
happened. Just two weeks later, I was amongst the audience of the 1948 Mr. Universe where I saw Grimek and Reeves, both of whom inspired me to emulate their achievements in the field of bodybuilding.
From then onwards, I started training in earnest in an excellent equipped home made gym on the lawn of my parents home. I had an electric cable lead from my
bedroom to the chimney and trained at night - summer and winter. In the winter 1 had to put a tarpauline cover over the wieghts and benches to keep the snow off.
Training had changed cosiderably in the two years I had been in the army. Flat Bench and Incline Bench had been introduced and as a result, my training took on an entirely different slant. It was as follows.
1. Incline bench press with dumbells 5x5
2. Flat bench press with dumbells 5x5
3. Pushups, feet raised with a partner pushing down on the back 5x10
4. Barbell standing press 5x5
5. Press behind neck 5x5
6. Standing two dumbell press 5x5
7. Chins and then on to back and the remainder of the body.
I worked up to some pretty heavy poundages on the above exercises from 1948 to 1950 using 2x185 Ibs dumbells on the first two exercises, 200 Ibs on numbers 4 and 5 and 2x100 Ibs dumbells on number 6.
I would say the area that improved more than any other was without doubt, my deltoids, and, from actually hating pressing movements, I grew to like them. I suppose it is not surprising that as my deltoids improved I worked them more and more. I would like to stress that the chest exercises that I performed gave me such an outstanding front deltoid development, that when I did a back deltoid arm pose, they were much higher than other bodybuilders of that time who had relied more on lateral movements and lighter movements.
Early in 1960, I was asked to appear in a series of Hercules films in Italy. I had heard rumours that Steve Reeves had not had much opportunity to train whilst fiming there, so, one of the first matters I took up with the producer and director
was the question of being able to keep in shape. Our talks reulted in a 330 Ibs Olympic barbell set arriving on the set next day. Since I could not find anyone to pass me the bar for barbell bench press, my exercise routine followed the one I
had done in 1948 which was:
Stadning Barbell Press 5x5
Standing Press Behind Neck 5x5
After a time however, I introduced handstand press ups against the wall using boxes about 10" high on which to support my hands to allow me to go low between the boxes for maximum benefit.
I have continued to train regularly since 1948 and my present shoulder exercises are as follows:
1. Barbell press on an upright bench 5 sets of 5 to 10 repetitions.
2. Press behind neck on the same bench same sets and reps.
3. Two Dumbell press lalso same bench same sets and reps.
4. Either standing 2 dumbell laterals or lying face downwards 2 dumbell raise backwards for the rear deltoids.
I use the bench so as to avoid strain to the lower back and to avoid the stomach muscles being pushed out, and, their is no standing balance problem all of which enables me to give maximum effort and concentration to wat I am trying to
achieve and that is 'DEVELOPING MY DELTOIDS'."