Strength Training or Bodybuilding

by Atomic Athletic on Friday, April 27, 2012 at 4:33pm ·

Can of worms anyone?

I'm going to open one here.  The “strength athletes” of the world, generally, don't want to think of themselves as bodybuilders, but most of us can learn a thing or two from that crowd.  So guys, if you are not doing a little bodybuilding, then you better start.

Start right at the top, with your neck.  The bodybuilders out there might just look in that other direction as well.  If you don't know who Bill St. John is, then you might want to do a little research on the internet.  He was 2nd in the 1971 Mr. USA contest and placed in the top ten in many contests around that time period.  

One of Bill's favorite exercises was the “Dead Hang Snatch”.  He did them for sets of 10 with 315 pounds.  While that movement does many positive things for the lifter, he did it for the neck work.  Like many bodybuilders of his time, he did some Olympic lifting moves, but was not really an Olympic weightlifter.  I know Bill from my time working at the York Barbell company.   

In fact, Bill had an interesting approach to bodybuilding, by the time he was just about finished with his bodybuilding career.  He basically worked his body around his neck training.  Essentially, he did everything he could to increase his neck strength.  You can really see it both in the Strength & Health cover from Feb. 1969.  You can also see it in one of the most incredible feats of neck strength I have ever seen.  Bill is supported only by his heels and his head, between two chairs, while his training partner, Val Vasilef, is doing a hand stand on his chest.

Here are some of the other tools Bill used for his neck work: standard leather head harness and manual resistance.  I believe that if more Olympic weightlifters did bodybuilding for their necks and bodybuilders did more Olympic weightlifting they would each benefit.  Bill St. John certainly did.

Leather Head Harness

http://www.atomicathletic.com/store/ProductInfo.aspx?productid=BSMA307V 

Band Resistance Head Harness

http://www.atomicathletic.com/store/ProductInfo.aspx?productid=N01 

Neck Machine

http://www.atomicathletic.com/store/ProductInfo.aspx?productid=SIS121 

USAWA Nationals

http://www.atomicathletic.com/store/ProductInfo.aspx?productid=VID004 

Live strong,

Roger LaPointe