This is the bodybuilding Guru Vince Gironda's famous honest workout routine.

Monday/Thursdays

Fitness Program

1. Alternate Splits
2. Push-Ups
3. Running in Place
4. Shoulder Circling
5. High Kicks
6. Deep Knee Bends
7. Side Kicks
8. Twisting Sit-Ups
9. Waist Twisting
10. Leg Raises

Supplementary Training

Maurice Jones also known as the "Canadian Hercules" was an old-time, classic physique builder. Although he was not a physique contest competitor, he was regularly featured as an example of a well-rounded weight trainer in John McCallum’s writings.

"Train each body part twice a week, as hard and relentless as possible each time. Every second week, I'd dead-lift after my leg routine. My dead lift workout was 300 for five reps, 400 for five reps, 500 for five reps, 600 for two or three reps, 650 for one rep and 700 for one rep."

FRANCO COLUMBU'S 14-DAY TRAINING SPLIT

    MORNING                               AFTERNOON

 1  Chest, shoulders                      Arms

 2  Back                                            Legs

 3  Chest, shoulders

which exercise routine is best? Ronald Reagan's or Vladimir Putin's? Read them both below and decide.

Ronald Reagan

Ronald Reagan always had a great physique even as President of the United States of America when he was at an advanced age. Check out his workout below:

Click image above to see full size

In an article in Your Physique magazine (Sept 1950 issue), Alan talks about the general rules for a beginner to follow in putting together a muscle building program. He said:

"All you need to do is follow the right exercises, eat plenty of nourishing food and get as much rest and relaxation on your non training days as you possibly can." 

"Let's deal with the right exercises first. If you build a schedule around either the deep knee bend (squats) or the dead lift and take it from there, you are on the right track." 

"The fundamental movements such as the supine press (bench press) or any of its variants - bench presses of incline presses - , curls, rowing motions, squats, or dead lifts or leg presses combined with sets of bent arm pullovers, are the best." 

For the beginner - do 1 set of each exercise for the 1st month, 2 sets the second month, 3 sets the third month. Workout twice a week (e.g., Tue and Sat, or Mon and Fri). For the 1st workout, use light weights just to get used to the exercises. For the second workout, try to determine for each exercise the amount of weight you can handle to complete 8 reps (with good form) and no more. Then, at each successive workout, try to increase your reps by 1 or 2, until you reach the top of the rep range. At that point, add a little weight to the bar. Continue in this fashion for the course. Keep your focus on this process of increasing reps, then increasing poundage. This is how you use the principle of "progressive resistance." It is this process of gradually increasing your strength and poundage that will result in larger muscles!