Classic Old-School Bodybuilding Exercises to Do Today

The classics are classics for a reason – they’re something special.

It doesn’t matter if we’re talking about movies, music, clothes, cars, or even physiques – the classics stand the test of time. Beloved by millions and even billions of people, anything and anyone granted classic status has an unbreakable grip on our emotions.

But, classics also come and go and are often linked to trends. For example, music tastes change from year to year, as do clothes and fashion. Yesterday’s classics are sometimes forgotten.

Still, the classics are always worth revisiting from time to time, and that includes exercises.

Old-school bodybuilders sculpted their physiques without fancy equipment or state-of-the-art gyms. Instead, they worked hard and long in dark, sweaty dungeons using nothing but rudimentary workout gear.

Some of the exercises used by old-school bodybuilders have fallen out of favor, often replaced by scientifically-designed machines, and that’s a shame!

In this article, we celebrate those classic exercises of yesteryear and reveal the best old-school bodybuilding exercises you can do today.

The Best Classic Old-School Bodybuilding Exercises

While some of these old-school exercises are still fairly common, many are not. Add some variety to your workouts with these classic old-school exercises!

1. Barbell hack squat

Most bodybuilders are familiar with the hack squat machine. But before this machine became a gym mainstay, it was actually a barbell exercise.

Invented by old-time strongman and wrestler George Hackenschmidt, the hack squat is an excellent quad-building exercise that’s surprisingly tough and effective. Best of all, you only need a barbell to do it, so it’s an ideal exercise for anyone who trains in a home or garage gym.

How to do it:

1. Place your barbell on the floor. Depending on the diameter of the plates being used, you may need to place the bar on blocks to be able to reach it.
2. With your back to the weight, stand with your feet about shoulder-width apart and the bar touching your calves.
3. Squat down and grab the bar with your hands facing backward. Use lifting straps if necessary.
4. Straighten your arms, make sure your back is slightly arched, pull your shoulders down and back, and brace your abs.
5. Drive your feet into the floor and stand up, pulling the bar up the back of your legs as you ascend.
6. Bend your legs and lower the weight back to the floor. Reset your core and grip and repeat.

2. Sissy squat

Leg exercises don’t come much more old-school than sissy squats! This unique movement hammers your quadriceps and is far harder than any bodyweight exercise has a right to be. It can be a little hard on your knees, but if your joints are in good shape, this exercise will set your quads on fire. Think of it as an equipment-free alternative to leg extensions.

How to do it:

1. Stand next to a wall, pillar, or squat rack with your feet together, toes pointing straight forward. Hold the support with one hand for balance. Brace your abs and look straight ahead.
2. Rising up onto your tiptoes, bend your knees and push them forward as you simultaneously lean backward.
3. Descend as deeply as you can – imagine you are trying to touch your knees to the floor.
4. Drive the balls of your feet into the floor, extend your knees, push your hips forward, and stand back up.
5. Make this exercise harder by holding a dumbbell down by your side, a weight plate across your chest, or wearing a weighted vest.

3. Good morning

While some classic exercises are just forgotten, others are purposely ignored because somebody once labeled them as dangerous. The barbell good morning used to be a staple glute, hamstring, and back exercise for old-school bodybuilders, but not many people do this movement anymore. That’s a shame because very few exercises work your posterior chain as well as this classic movement.

However, to prevent injury, you must avoid rounding your lower back when you do good mornings. A rounded back is an injury waiting to happen!

And where does the name come from? This exercise is so so-called because, when you do it, you look like you are bowing to politely great someone.

How to do it:

1. Rack and hold a barbell across your upper back. Pull the bar down into your traps to ensure it doesn’t move. Stand with your feet shoulder to hip-width apart. Lift your chest and brace your abs.
2. Push your hips back and hinge forward from your hips. Do not allow your lower back to round. Lean as far forward as your flexibility allows.
3. Drive your hips forward and stand back up.
4. Reset your core and repeat.

4. Zercher squat

Zercher squats were invented by St. Louis strongman Ed Zercher, a powerlifter and prominent strength athlete in the 1930s and 1940s. Zercher wanted to do squats but didn’t have access to a squat rack, so he developed an exercise he could do without one.

At the time, Zercher was one of the strongest men in America, and his namesake lift, the Zercher squat, was even used in weightlifting competitions. It’s no longer a competitive lift, but the Zercher squat is a great way to build lower body strength and muscle mass.

How to do it:

1. Hold a barbell in the crook of your elbows. Bend your arms and clasp your hands together in front of your chest. Stand with your feet shoulder to hip-width apart, toes turned slightly outward.
2. Push your hips back, bend your legs, and squat down until your thighs are roughly parallel to the floor.
3. Stand back up and repeat.
4. Heavy weights can hurt your arms, so use a squat bar pad or wrap the bar in a towel to take the pressure off your arms.

5. Tiptoe farmer’s walk

This classic old-school exercise will build your forearms and calves simultaneously. Or, if you really want to focus on your calves, rest and hold a barbell across your shoulders, which is an exercise called the goose step. Regardless, if you want to build your calves but don’t have access to a calf raise machine, this is one way to do it.

How to do it:

1. Hold a dumbbell or kettlebell in each hand, or rest and hold a barbell across your upper back.
2. Rise up onto your tiptoes.
3. Without lowering your heels, walk on your tiptoes as far as possible. Continue until your calves or forearms fail.

6. Donkey calf raise

While there is no denying that this exercise will raise a few eyebrows when you do it, donkey calf raises are probably why so many old-school bodybuilders had massive lower legs.

This highly unusual but super-effective exercise puts your calves in a deeply stretched position and delivers an intense peak contraction. Use it to turn your baby calves into fully-grown cows!

How to do it:

1. Place a low platform (4 to 6-inches) in front of an exercise bench. Stand with the balls of your feet on the edge of the platform, lean forward, and rest your hands on the bench. Your legs should be straight. Brace your abs.
2. Ask your partner to sit astride your hips. Note that they should NOT sit on your lower back.
3. Rise up onto your tiptoes and then lower your heels down toward the floor.
4. No partner? No problem! You can also do this exercise with a weighted chin/dip belt for resistance.

7. Floor press

While the barbell bench press is arguably the world’s favorite bodybuilding exercise, it’s actually a relatively recent invention. The bench press only became popular in the late 1930s.

Before that, dips and push-ups were the most common chest exercises. Anyone who wanted to do supine presses did so while lying on the floor – the floor press.

Floor presses are an excellent chest and triceps exercise that is also very shoulder-friendly. In fact, if bench presses hurt your shoulders, you’ll probably find floor presses much more comfortable.

How to do it:

1. Set up a squat rack so that the J-hooks are about knee height. Place a barbell on the hooks.
2. Lie down on the floor so that your eyes are directly beneath the bar. Bend your legs and place your feet on the floor or straighten your legs as preferred.
3. Grip the bar with an overhand, slightly wider than shoulder-width grip. Pull your shoulders back and down and press your upper back into the floor. This will increase shoulder stability.
4. Unrack the bar and hold the weight with your arms straight. Inhale, bend your arms, and lower the bar down until the back of your upper arms lightly touch the floor.
5. Without bouncing, forcefully extend your arms and push the weight back up to arms’ length. Continue until you have completed all the required reps. On completion, carefully re-rack the bar.

You can also do floor presses with dumbbells and/or your hips raised if doing glute bridges. This creates an angle not unlike decline bench presses.

8. Bradford press

If you have sore, tight shoulders, you should probably avoid this exercise. But, if you are looking for an unusual way to work your shoulders, the long-forgotten Bradford press is worth trying. Named after champion USA weightlifter Jim Bradford, this exercise is best done with light to medium weights for moderate to high reps and to really pump up your delts and triceps.

How to do it:

1. Hold a barbell in front of your neck with an overhand, slightly wider than shoulder-width grip. Your elbows should be directly beneath your shoulders.
2. Press the weight up and over your head, lowering it behind your head. The bar should only just clear the top of your noggin, and you should NOT lock out your elbows.
3. Immediately press the weight back over your head and return to your starting position. That’s one rep; keep going!
4. You can do this exercise seated or standing as preferred.

9. Side-lying lateral raise

Old-school bodybuilders were masters of training their muscles from multiple angles. Without access to machines, this invariably meant sitting or lying in unusual positions to hit their muscles in unique ways.

Side-lying lateral raises work your medial or side deltoids like regular lateral raises, but there is much more muscle tension at the start of each rep.

How to do it:

1. Lie on your side on a flat or shallow inclined exercise bench. Hold a dumbbell in your uppermost hand, with your elbow slightly bent but rigid.
2. Lift your arm up until it’s just below vertical.
3. Lower the weight back down to your legs or, if you want a larger range of motion, down toward the floor.
4. Do the same number of reps on both sides.

10. Standing concentration curl

This old-school exercise was one of Arnold Schwarzenegger’s favorite biceps builders. While there is nothing wrong with regular concentration curls, you can use this old-school variation to add even more variety to your workouts. Try it – you might like it!

How to do it:

1. Place a dumbbell on the floor between your shoulder-width feet. Bend your knees slightly and lean over to grab the dumbbell. Take care not to round your lower back.
2. With your upper arm perpendicular to the floor, bend your elbow and curl the weight up toward your opposite shoulder. Do not use your legs or back to raise the dumbbell.
3. Lower the weight so your arm is straight and repeat.
4. Do the same number of reps on each side.

11. Wide-grip pull-up

While pull-ups aren’t a forgotten exercise, most people tend to do them with a shoulder-width grip. In contrast, old-school bodybuilders usually did pull-ups with a much wider grip. They believed that a wide grip built a wide back.

While that may or may not be true, there is no denying that wide-grip pull-ups are far more challenging than the shoulder-width variation. And, when it comes to building muscle mass, harder is almost always better!

How to do it:

1. Hold a wide pull-up bar with an overhand grip that’s significantly wider than shoulder-width. Your arms should form a definite V-shape. Pull your shoulders down and back and hang with your arms straight and feet off the floor.
2. Without kicking or swinging, bend your arms and pull your chest up toward the bar. Pull your elbows down and back to maximize lat engagement.
3. Descend under control and repeat.
4. Make this exercise harder by using a weighted chin/dip belt or wearing a weighted vest.

12. Saxon side bend

This is probably the oldest old-school exercise on our classic exercise list! Arthur Saxon, nicknamed the Iron Master, was a strongman and circus performer in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

He was famous for his incredible feats of strength, not least his world record in the bent press of 168kg/370lbs that is still unbroken today. Saxon wrote several strength training books and courses, and this unique oblique exercise is named after him.

How to do it:

1. Press and hold two dumbbells overhead. Stand with your feet about shoulder-width apart. Bend your knees slightly for balance. Brace your abs.
2. Keeping your shoulders and hips square, lean over to the left and then to the right. Keep your arms extended throughout.
3. You can also do this exercise with a barbell or a medicine ball.

More Old-School Exercises and Workouts:

• Get Back to Old School Training Without the Tech
• Workout Nutrition: Old School Bodybuilding Diet
• Old School Muscle: The Frank Zane Growth Program
• Simple Old-School Methods To Grow Your Biceps
• 7 Best Old School Bodybuilding Methods That Still Apply
• A Simple Old-School Way To Grow Your Legs
• The 12 Best Forgotten Exercises
• Best Old-School Leg Workouts
• Best Old-School Calf Workouts & Exercises
• Best Old-School Triceps Workouts
• Best Old-School Bicep Workouts
• Best Old-School Back Workouts

Old-School Exercises – Wrapping Up

Exercises fall in and out of fashion. Some of the staples that old-school bodybuilders relied on are no longer popular, and many are hardly remembered. That’s a real shame because, despite losing their popularity, many of these classic exercises are still effective muscle builders.

So, the next time you need a new exercise for your workout, don’t seek out the latest workout innovation. Try an old-school classic instead. After all, they worked way back then and will probably work now, too!

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