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Tom Platz

Tom Platz, aka “The Golden Eagle,” was a very popular bodybuilder in the 1980s. He was a top ten Mr. Olympia several times, finishing as high as 3rd in 1981 (Franco Columbu finished first, Chris Dickerson finished second).

Best known for his outlandish leg development, Platz was legendary when it came to training legs – he could squat 500+ pounds for over 20 reps.

Watch how easy he makes it look here:

You can read more about Platz here and here.

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Vince Gironda Was A Legend In His Own Time

In the annals of bodybuilding trainers, Vince Gironda has gone down as one of the most innovative pioneers the sport has ever known. He has trained numerous professional bodybuilders, Arnold, Frank Zane, and Mohammed Makkawi, who made his greatest gains under Gironda (whose moniker was “The Iron Guru”).

Among many of the controversial, yet effective, training methods Gironda used were the following:

• He thought bodybuilding was 85 percent nutrition.
• He thought too many bodybuilders placed too great an emphasis on heavy back squats, making their hips and butts too wide.
• He thought the bench press was overrated, preferring instead that his pupils do dips with a V-bar.

He co-wrote a book back in the 80s called “Unleashing the Wild Physique” which, to this day, is still one of the best books on how to train right in bodybuilding. Surely, supplementation has come a long way in the 20 or so years since the book was published, but he was spot on the money for suggesting that you eat in the same way you train: For specific effect.

He often put his pupils on “weird” diets, where they might eat dozens of fertile eggs, raw milk, and dessicated liver tablets in a day. These were “anabolic” diets intended to force the body to grow. He said that these diets were as effective as steroids in adding mass and in helping the body to recover from hard training.

He also had a lot of ideas that differed from the mainstream bodybuilding community with respect to exercise, and the way exercises ought to be performed. Take a look at Vince Gironda's site and you'll see what I mean.

As an example, while he thought bench presses were good (though not as good as dips), he trained his students to bring the bar down to the neck rather than to the nipple line. Try these! They're very difficult if you're used to regular bench presses, but they're highly effective!

He was truly innovative and rarely thought “inside the box.” For more information about this man who transformed bodybuilding training, take a look at the Wiki on Vince Gironda.

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Tim Belknap

Tim Belknap took the world by storm in the early '80s by taking first place in the AAU Mr America contest in 1981. A diabetic, taking insulin shots, he was an inspiration to a lot of folks.

Tim was truly huge! He was made from the same mold as Tom Platz: Huge, vascular, cut, gigantic thighs.

He had this phenomenal ability to bulk up his 5′ 5″ frame all the way up to over 220 pounds, then cut down to 185 or so. I always thought having precise control over his blood sugar and insulin levels had something to do with it, but I never got any “proof” of this. No doubt, however, Belknap trained HARD.

He overcame what most would consider a debilitating disability for a bodybuilder. It's hard enough building muscle with a fully-functional system; having to deal with a messed up blood-sugar control system makes the nearly impossible even more so.

Tim didn't stay in the bodybuilding scene for too long. He turned pro in 1983 or so and never really made it. I don't know why. Then, he sort of fell off the map. Only recently has somebody been able to get in touch with him, and now he has a web site (TimBelknap.com).

But he remains largely a mystery.

I will never forget his entrance onto the bodybuilding scene! He was a phenom. Simply incredible.