The Man Who Out-Muscled Arnold in 1966
In 1966, the world’s most famous bodybuilder (Arnold Schwartzeneggar) enter the Mr. Universe Amateur competition (talll division).
He took 2nd place.
The man who beat him? Chet Yorton.
Here’s some incredible details about the man who defeated the Austrian oak the and unusual training program he followed:
Chet didn’t have the perfect starting point for bodybuilding. In fact, he started with slashed up left eyeball, gashed up forearm, dislocated hips and shattered leg bones!
You see, Chet was in a serious car accident after high school. While he was recovering the hospital, he spotted a pair of dumbbells in the corner and went to work. He’s never done any weight training
before and 7 months later he was 55lbs heavier.
Almost more incredible than that is the training program he used outside of the hospital.
It’s not the most glamorous routine you’ve ever seen. In fact, it looks quite boring. But the results speak for themselves.
Here’s Chet Yorton’s boring but big training program:
Perform just two sets of each exercise listed below. Complete both sets before moving on to the next exercise.
Here’s the kicker: You will do 22 reps per set. Yes, 22.
Here are the exercises:
Squat
Overhead Press
Deadlift
Bench Press
To really appreciate just how strong this man was, consider this: Chet Yorton did 22 reps with 225lbs for his first set of bench presses and 22 reps with 325lbs for the second set.
Switching to a high rep program is a great way to pack on incredible amounts of muscle size and volume in a very short time. Plus, it can work wonders for your conditioning and endurance.
If you decide to give this program a go, just use it for 4 weeks and then switch back to a more traditional strength program.
{ 13 comments… read them below or add one }
I’m surprised there are no row variations in his routine…
As far as overall effectiveness for building size and strength, rows are vastly inferior to hard and heavy deadlifts.
Starting squats and milk program tomoro. The old ones are the best!!!!!!
What about about nutrition? How did Chet feed himself and how often? And also, what supplements did he take?
Dan, I doubt Chet took more than liver in terms of supplements. Feed yourself quality proteins and follow Matt’s basic diet guidelines. Chet’s success was due to his strenuous routine and proper food intake. Just like the success that can be seen from any well thought out routine.
There’s not a whole lot of information available on the particulars of Chet’s diet. But he was very much anti-steroids and campaigned for years to get more steroid testing done in bodybuilding.
So we can assume he stuck with natural supplements and foods and not steroids.
Cool! I read there were only 3 people to ever beat Arnold. Frank Zane being one, I guess Chet Yorton the other. Do you know the third? Just curious! Good post.
Sergio “The Myth” Oliva.
Are there any warm up sets supposed to be done before each exercise?
Warm-ups are an individual thing and each person should do whatever they need to do to warm-up and avoid injury. So even if Chet didn’t do any warm-ups at all (which I doubt, I’m just proving a point) that doesn’t mean that everyone else should follow suit.
Typically, whenever listing a program I will only list the actual work sets and not warm-up sets. This does NOT mean that warm-up sets shouldn’t be done. It’s just that everyone needs to warm-up in their own way so it’s pointless to list warm-up sets. The 40 year old guy squatting 500 pounds for reps will have a very different warm-up strategy than the 18-year old squatting 135 pounds.
“…But he was very much anti-steroids and campaigned for years to get more steroid testing done in bodybuilding.
So we can assume he stuck with natural supplements and foods and not steroids.”
I think that’s a fairly safe assumption. Yorton proclaimed vehemently to be drug-free all his career. In fact, he was one of the first promoters of drug-tested bodybuilding events in the world. He also started the first “natural” bodybuilding federation. So either he was “clean”, or the biggest hypocrite in the history of bodybuilding.
A couple of questions:
How many days per week?
Do you know if he used rest/pause?
Thanks
I would assume it’s all out efforts in the spirit of 20-rep squat/rest-pause. Pretty lame if it’s not.
I would also expect that it was probably quite often, 3 days per week / every second day? Or it would once again be pretty lame.
One 20 rep squat = fear.
Two = crap (though first one seem to have been more of a warmup.)
20 rep squat + deadlift = horror
Though I guess it’s mostly mentality.
Can’t say I would had wanted to do 20 rep squat + deadlift more than two times per week though, at most :D, preferably never ;D