Chet Yorton Routine

[BendtheBar]

I read this and not sure if it's true.

Offseason:
Six workouts per month, so one about every 5 days.
3 sets per exercise. 3 exercises per bodypart.

Getting Ready:
4 times a week
4 ex. per bodypart
5sets per exercise to failure

That's 20 sets per bodypart. I also think I recall reading somewhere that those sets to failure were REALLY to failure. Typically more than 20 reps.

From an article by Bill Starr in muscle mag a few years ago:

Over in Santa Monica at the Muscle Beach gym where I normally worked

out was a bodybuilder who was not part of the Weider clan, someone who

I would contend was one of the strongest bodybuilders ever, Chet

Yorton.
He had a most unusual routine in which he did 2 sets of 22 reps on

just four exercises: the squat, overhead press, deadlift and bench

press. This routine didn't seem like much until you watched him go

through it. The first set was never light, and the second set was

extremely heavy. I don't recall what he used on the three lifts other

than the bench press. I remember quite well the numbers on the bench

because he always asked me to handoff and spot him. He did 22 reps

with 225 pounds, followed by 22 reps with 325. I was amazed.

[Trevor Ross]

Talk about balls to the wall intensity and a little Dianabol never hurt either.

[BendtheBar]

Yeah this is one of my favorite workouts, simply because it goes against the grain.

[glwanabe]

Chet Yorton was an advocate of natural bodybuilding, and organized the first natural bodybuilding organization.

Natural Bodybuilding Hall of Fame

He is one of only a few men to ever beat Arnold in competition for the overall title.

YouTube - Chet Yorton 2009 Venice Muscle Beach Bodybuilding Hall of Fame

YouTube - Chet Yorton 2009 Venice Muscle Beach Bodybuilding Hall of Fame

[BendtheBar]

Regarding Yorton, the most prestigious modern natural bodybuilding contest is called the Yorton Cup.

I haven't read about his drug use, or lack thereof, but I just wanted to mention this piece of trivia...

[Trevor Ross]

I also never said Dianabol was bad either (it was made for the US Olympic Weightlifting team back in 1956, and the German army was experimenting with Testosterone in the Second World War, (the Weightlifters thought it was just another vitamin), I don't use the stuff personally, a lot of lifters from that era did use AAS (Park, Reeves, Grimek, Scott, and Pearl are rumored users) it was legal also. I am also aware of his contributions to drug free Bodybuilding. To beat a phenom like Arnold (yes he did them too he's admitted to it on countless occasions) a "natural" just couldn't do it. I respect all of the old timers they trained hard and heavy, strength was just as important as size to those guys, but it's easy to look at them through rose glasses, but they're no different from us. They exploited every avenue to improve their performance (Paul Anderson drank blood for Pete's sake! Guys taking 100 liver tablets a day etc.). Plus if you have everything in order and you want to take things one step further (providing you've earned the right to take them), there's nothing wrong with steroids providing you get them from a legit source (good luck with that).


Now you teenage kids reading this have no business even going near them!! You have enough natural testosterone to do just fine, and you are still developing too. What you have to learn first is how to train, how to eat, how to sleep, how to use supplements, how your body responds to training, years of consistent training, and once you have that MASTERED you can maybe consider using them if you have someone who knows how to use them to show you the way, but remember the people you get them off of are no better then the average drug dealer (they'll try to screw you and sell you fake stuff, and maybe water it down with dangerous substances). Resist the temptation, good things come to he who waits.

[xKyle10]

Originally Posted by Trevor Ross

I also never said Dianabol was bad either (it was made for the US Olympic Weightlifting team back in 1956, and the German army was experimenting with Testosterone in the Second World War, (the Weightlifters thought it was just another vitamin), I don't use the stuff personally, a lot of lifters from that era did use AAS (Park, Reeves, Grimek, Scott, and Pearl are rumored users) it was legal also. I am also aware of his contributions to drug free Bodybuilding. To beat a phenom like Arnold (yes he did them too he's admitted to it on countless occasions) a "natural" just couldn't do it. I respect all of the old timers they trained hard and heavy, strength was just as important as size to those guys, but it's easy to look at them through rose glasses, but they're no different from us. They exploited every avenue to improve their performance (Paul Anderson drank blood for Pete's sake! Guys taking 100 liver tablets a day etc.). Plus if you have everything in order and you want to take things one step further (providing you've earned the right to take them), there's nothing wrong with steroids providing you get them from a legit source (good luck with that).


Now you teenage kids reading this have no business even going near them!! You have enough natural testosterone to do just fine, and you are still developing too. What you have to learn first is how to train, how to eat, how to sleep, how to use supplements, how your body responds to training, years of consistent training, and once you have that MASTERED you can maybe consider using them if you have someone who knows how to use them to show you the way, but remember the people you get them off of are no better then the average drug dealer (they'll try to screw you and sell you fake stuff, and maybe water it down with dangerous substances). Resist the temptation, good things come to he who waits.

Casey Butt actually went into some detail regarding Chet on his forum a while back, read my posts on this page: Arnold Schwarzenegger Admits Fathering a Child with Household Staffer *breaking news* - Page 5 - Bodybuilding.com Forums

Regarding Reeves/Park and the others, read my posts in this thread, most of what I say is just spitting out Casey, but he covers the Reeves/Park thing in great detail:

http://forum.bodybuilding.com/showth...4065821&page=2



Not his surgery and the operation: Dude basically had iron legs and that was factored into his stage weight as well, so needs to be taken into account with regards to Casey's calculator.



I do not think that the routine that Steve posted was Chet's routine. More than likely it was FBR in the offseason, 3x a week, but his prep routine looks plausible, 4-5 day split was pretty likely during prep back then.

There is no 100% way to be sure if Chet was a lifetime natural, but if you read into his cause/bio, IMO, it's fairly safe to assume he was.

[BendtheBar]

Originally Posted by xKylex

I do not think that the routine that Steve posted was Chet's routine.

Here is more information:

The Boring But Big Training Program From The Man Who Out-Muscled Arnold - Muscle and Brawn Bodybuilding, Powerlifting and Muscle Building.

Matt Marshall is a pretty reliable source. I know Casey respects him. This is what Matt had to say:

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:

It appears Chet did use this program during at least one period of his life. How long he used it, I am not sure. It does appear that this was an off-season program - at least I assumed from the tone of Matt's article. I have no sources or knowledge beyond Matt's article, so I am flying blind.

[xKyle10]

Originally Posted by BendtheBar

Here is more information:

The Boring But Big Training Program From The Man Who Out-Muscled Arnold - Muscle and Brawn Bodybuilding, Powerlifting and Muscle Building.

Matt Marshall is a pretty reliable source. I know Casey respects him. This is what Matt had to say:



It appears Chet did use this program during at least one period of his life. How long he used it, I am not sure. It does appear that this was an off-season program - at least I assumed from the tone of Matt's article. I have no sources or knowledge beyond Matt's article, so I am flying blind.

That's pretty interesting but not entirely unheard of. I know of one other guy with a very good physique that supposedly trains in a similar manner: Chad Shaw, I think you MAY have interviewed him, not 100% sure.

Originally Posted by Chad Shaw

My training philosophy is that in order to experience continuous progress in bodybuilding, as you become stronger and lift progressively heavier weights, that this increase in stress to the body will progressive cut a deeper and deeper inroad into the muscles recovery ability and must be compensated for by decreasing both the volume and frequency of your workouts in order for overcompensation or muscle growth to occur. I guess you could say my training style is somewhat of a cross between the Dorian Yates and the Mike Mentzer high intensity style.

Bodybuilding.com - thenaturalone's BodySpace




I think he is a competitor but not sure, seems to be a lifetime natural but don't have too much info, he claims to lift around every 3-5 days or something like that, I forgot


Regardless if the results would lead to physiques such as these I don't think I could only go to the gym 6-8x a month lol

[SaxonViolence]

Originally Posted by Trevor Ross

I also never said Dianabol was bad either (it was made for the US Olympic Weightlifting team back in 1956, and the German army was experimenting with Testosterone in the Second World War, (the Weightlifters thought it was just another vitamin), I don't use the stuff personally, a lot of lifters from that era did use AAS (Park, Reeves, Grimek, Scott, and Pearl are rumored users) it was legal also. I am also aware of his contributions to drug free Bodybuilding. To beat a phenom like Arnold (yes he did them too he's admitted to it on countless occasions) a "natural" just couldn't do it. I respect all of the old timers they trained hard and heavy, strength was just as important as size to those guys, but it's easy to look at them through rose glasses, but they're no different from us. They exploited every avenue to improve their performance (Paul Anderson drank blood for Pete's sake! Guys taking 100 liver tablets a day etc.). Plus if you have everything in order and you want to take things one step further (providing you've earned the right to take them), there's nothing wrong with steroids providing you get them from a legit source (good luck with that).

Anderson drank Blood for his Physique?

Source?

I really enjoy Bull's Blood.

Please give me an Excuse!

{I thought that you had to keep it an occasional treat or risk Hemochromatosis...}


Saxon Violence