The greatest bodybuilders for me were those of the 80's.

Not too big, almost healthy looking.

Can anyone remind me how they trained, how they ate and their "supplement" intake?

I'd be really interested to see if I could achieve a body from the 80's by training and eating the way they did almost 20 years ago.

I found my very first copy of Flex Magazine from 1988 which has Gaspari, Bob Paris, Lee Haney et al. And this got me thinking.

J

Jimbo,

They used less sophisticated drugs than todays pro's, but still used the same basics as today. The training methods varied per bodybuilder as they do today.
You had Mentzer, who did the heavy duty low rep/set workouts, which I believe Dorian based his workouts on, and the opposite extreme was Arnold with his two hour marathon hi set training sessions, a bit like Lee Priest does. So not a great deal has changed re the basics. The refining techniques to getting harder condition, being bigger and fuller, are down to big guys with great genetics taking more refined drugs and using more scientifically designed supplementation.

No real secrets.

Bob Paris was my favourite physique, be he gay or not he sure was put together really well. Great balance and lines. Never got ripped enough to take top honours, but I agree with you in so much as it looked better, more healthy than todays extremes. I saw him pose to a Tracy Chapman track, "Sorry", at the Nottingham Grand Prix many years ago, which Gaspari won, and it was just brilliant, I think its on one of the old Olympia video's too.

That is the way to present a physique, with class and style, he certainly had the audience eating out of his hands that night. He was the audience favourite for sure.

Gaspari looked amazing in the flesh, even more so than in pics, he was shredded, full and given his genetic limitations bloody amazing.

If memory serves I think Berry DeMay was second. Not a huge guy, tall, balanced and asthetically pleasing.

So much for the trip down memory lane !!! lol

Reaper  

Reaper,

As soon as I read "Berry DeMay" I have a flashback to when I first started training and flicking through my monthly copy of Flex as a kid.

Gaspari had a fantastic physique, he was probably the reason I started training after seeing him on the front of Flex.

Scott Wilson and John Hnatyschak were always regular favourite, but I never really took to Haney's physique.

I'm guessing that they more or less used d'bol and test as their main cycle.

Jimbo,

Primo, parabolan, decca, sust, d/bol, winstrol etc were all around then, so really, as I said, the basics still apply.

Scott Wilson, one wide mother !! John Hynatishoo! lovely shape, again not a big fella.

There were so many, I agree on Haney though, never really took to his physique.

Reaper

yeah berry de may was awesome, i remember him guest posing in nottingham in the 80's and i though he was godlike when i met him lol, i seem to remember him posing to "the final countdown" by europe ages before it was released