Historic Museum of Muscle Contest Winners and Classic Bodybuilders.

The golden age of bodybuilding started in Venice, California where all the very top professional bodybuilders would meet. The greats like Arnold, Franco, Frank Zane, Serge Nubret, Lou Ferrigno, Mike Mentzer and many others were bodybuilders who presented the perfect V shape with broad shoulders, thick lats and a narrow waist.

Unlike the pregnant cows with zero body-fat we see onstage today, the physical perfection shown by bodybuilders of the 1960's and 1970's was something that was a lot more appealing than what we see now which is why it got the name of the golden age of bodybuilding.

Golden age bodybuilders range from the aesthetic perfection of muscle symmetry shown by Frank Zane to the impressive muscular size of Dave Draper who was nicknamed the Blond Bomber plus master poses like Ed Corney.

In the good old days at Gold's Gym Venice beach there was no music blaring, no lycra, no cell phones, etc. It was 2000 square feet of hard core benches, power racks and pulleys with tons of weight neatly stacked for easy access.

It was a hive of bodybuilding activity. The top bodybuilding names trained there doing 2 to 3 hour workouts with loads of volume and little rest between sets. It was a time for serious training and anybody who just came to pose would soon leave when they saw the huge weights lifted by the average person training there.

Golden Age Bodybuilders


Arnold Schwarzenegger A 7 times Mr. Olympia, Arnold changed the face of bodybuilding permanently.

Franco Columbu Standing at only 5'5" tall he could bench-press with 525lbs, squat with 655lbs and deadlift with 750lbs.

Mike Mentzer Developed his HIT theory by perfecting the methods he learned from Arthur Jones of Nautilus fame.

Frank Zane His three consecutive Mr. Olympia wins from 1977 to 1979 had a huge impact on bodybuilding as it moved from mass to aesthetics.

Sergio Oliva One of the very few bodybuilders that can say he beat Arnold Schwarzenegger and won three Mr. Olympia titles in a row.

Steve Reeves He won the AAU Mr. America in 1947 and the Mr. Universe in 1950.

Reg Park Standing 6'1" tall and weighing 225 pounds, he was a mountain of muscle the world had not seen before.

John Grimek Mr. America, Mr. Universe and Mr. USA, also was on the USA weightlifting at the 1936 Olympic Games.

Bill Pearl The bodybuilding world nicknamed him "World's Best-Built Man of the Century."

Old School Bodybuilding Articles


Old School Muscle Building Secrets It's time we got back to the muscle building old-school basics.


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