THE 400 LB PRESS! HOW DOUG HEPBURN TRAINED THE OVERHEAD PRESS!

In this video we look at how Doug Hepburn trained to reach an overhead press of 385 lb. He would later smash that record, pressing 440 lb off squat racks! Enjoy!
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Doug Hepburn: • Doug Hepburn

[@rockyescape8989]

I’ve been doing Doug Hepburn method for 6 years now. The first two years of my lifting time was mostly basic hypertrophy. My best bench is 160kg and when I started I initially trembled pressing an empty bar. I owe it all to Doug. Embrace the grind!

[@Boolaboy]

That’s awesome. What routine did you follow? 8x2-8x3, 4x1-4x10 or 4x3-4x10?

[@KeeFish391]

How are you doing now?

[@LiftingwithGrandpaCharlie]

Many will scoff at doing these hard and heavy lifts only once a week but if your natty it does work. There's just enough carry over from the Overhead Press to the Deadlift and then to the Squat. And there's enough Heal and Rest time for it to bring amazing results and to keep overtraining away. Great Golden Era, Old School upload as always !

[@GoldenEraBookworm]

You're welcome...this is ideal for Olympic lifting

[@nickjonson6996]

100%. This was my experience.

[@lelmaahn5131]

Different for everyone. I'm natty but I've gotten the best results from 6x a week.

[@extrasmack]

These types of videos are pure gold. So much quality packed into so little time. Thanks GEB!

[@GoldenEraBookworm]

You're welcome...can understand why the views don't reflect the quality

[@RobinMuirhead]

An incredible lifter and able to perform hand stand presses amazing for such a huge frame, I believe he also had a club foot which meant being agile was harder for Doug an astounding athlete in any era!

[@icixie]

He did have a club foot indeed.

[@AnthonyCap76]

That is amazing he trained press only once a week. I'm doing all 3 lifts now twice a week using his A routine for singles but I may try this. Thanks this is gold. Look forward to more.

[@GoldenEraBookworm]

He would train each major exercise once a week...worked wonders for him

[@ThePitPony]

@@markvegas7152 Doug had optimal leverages that allowed him continue to improve without him becoming stale or needing to rotate lifts . You'll find that after a certain point,you'll probably have a relatively weak muscle group in each lift that inhibits progress,such as triceps on the press for example,that will necessitate the need for a greater selection of special exercises to overcome it. Minimalist routines only work for people that are ideally suited biomechanically to the lift at hand .

[@ThePitPony]

@@markvegas7152 You probably do need them but you're not conscious of where your weaknesses are on any given lift . Everybody has relative weak areas otherwise you'd never fail a max effort lift . Using routines that genetically gifted,one-in-100-million-super-freaks like Doug Hepburn use is a misguided step into staleness unless you're suitability gifted too. Have a nice day 💪😉👍

[@jasonnowakowski393]

Yr over training my freind Yr trying to rush it

[@bobz4968]

I think it’s becoming pretty common to hit a lift hard once a week. Once a week might even be too much when advanced strength- like the deadlift Think about it: do professional strongmen do deadlifts, heavy, 52 times a year I always overtrained until recently. Bill Pearl advised to leave the gym feeling like you could have done more. It’s a weird feeling for me to feel like I can go back to repeat a workout but don’t. Seems like my improvement is beyond what I’m used to experiencing Hope this is encouraging

[@Rymie1]

Had the pleasure of seeing Doug Hepburn train even though he was past his prime. This was in 1979 at Western Gym in Vancouver BC . I see this older fellow who I did not know who it was. Just that from no warm up he Curls 145 lbs. (Olympic bar & 2 x 45lb). From there 5 Shoulder Press of 145 x 5reps and then 235 lbs 3 reps. I was blown away!. I asked the owner who it was. Doug Hepburn .

[@lordfellhand1695]

@5:31 For any who might not be familiar with what this photo portrays, it's a feat Hepburn was famous for-holding a 20 kilo plate at arm's length by just his pinky finger hooked under the rim!

[@paulnikeqt]

wish there was more info about oldschool OHP methods

[@paulsullivan823]

Doug was a LEGENDARY Champion

[@seanking6184]

Hepburn was an expert in handstand push-ups, being able to do 15 freestanding reps at 245lb bodyweight He attributed this to a lot of his pressing strength, most old school lifters and the Chinese Olympic team love this movement

[@kentborges5114]

AS I HAVE AGED I REALIZE THAT LESS SOMETIMES MEANS MORE !

[@bobz4968]

From what I’ve read about Hepburn, he was freakishly strong, especially for his size. Like Paul Anderson, he must have had amazing recruitment of muscles. There is a term for this explaining how the CNS can fully engage. This explains how average people have done feats like lifting a car off a loved one. Lifters with this ability may be the ones with the worst joint damage- like Paul Anderson and Ronnie Coleman. Just guessing

[@WavvyFitness]

This is awesome

[@DrLeroyArch]

The press shown was at the 1954 Commonwealth Games in Vancouver. There were no Olympics in 1954 and Doug never lifted in one anyway. Since all Olympics occur in the leap years, that should also have been a hint. Also, the weights were registered in pounds, which no Olympics ever did.

[@stevegeorge6880]

Someone probably did the conversion and made a text overlay with an eye towards making it look similar to what would go over footage at that time.

[@Dmoriarty1993]

Love your passion. Thanks so much for going all out with this research!

[@kingojugo]

just purchased these books from your website excellent knowlege

[@Paulkersey5921]

I like Squat and deadlift and bench pressing 2 near Max every week years of it. I want to try some of Doug routines. Thanks for the upload

[@robertjr555]

holding out a 20kg plate with one hand, amazing

[@Andy-fr6nj]

Nice.

[@jussaramariaminasdossantos1173]

in his book he demonstrates a similar microcycle , linear periodization approach

[@chucknoris7648]

Matt wenning really has interesting take on training he used conjugate methods. Would be cool if you did a podcast with him

[@heisensperg9264]

Will athletes like Bruno Sammartino, Hulk Hogan, Ric Flair, Bill Kazmaier, Doug young, Don reinhoudt, Mel hennessy, Pat Casey, Ken patera, etc be covered in this series?

[@Muniswarannn]

Appreciate your work man .thank You

[@GraysonAugustine]

I got to a 275 strict press by doing amraps at 70% increasing 10% a week

[@wolfganghasenmaier8350]

I saw a video of him doing a 373 superstrict press like an empty bar. Looked as if he could do 450 or more. Comparable to 600 today.

[@soberpowerliftingprking.1268]

Awesome video awesome channel

[@GoldenEraBookworm]

Thanks Alan...much more to come. You could call this Dougs initial training under Charles A Smith...not nearly advanced as his later routines. Rather rudimentary as later his training evolved and became much more complex.

[@Gutterfighting]

I have 4 of his course booklets signed by him, think I got it through Ironmind like 25 years ago, think they are on the bench, squat, dead lift and military press.

[@gharm9129]

Golden Era Bookwork, Doug had a series of videos out, Twiceborn knew him and had more info plus the book the Hepburn's Law has his training info. In the videos, book and Twiceborn's info Doug trained twice a week the said muscle groups. They all say the same as Hepburn's Law which he wrote as how he trained during the 54 common wealth games. Namely, he said to train 4 times per week, upper/ lower split: Upper, lower, rest, upper, lower, rest, rest. I don't know where you got the info in the vid but everything I know he has written and said are very different from what you're saying.

[@Sa-Jan]

Super great upload. Thanks a ton. Do you got any videos about Eugen Sandow. Best greetings.

[@REPSDirect]

I think training frequency depends on recovery time. Heavy poundages with low reps like Westside Barbell, is traumatic to the body so one body part a week is realistic.

[@ClickClack_Bam]

Paul Anderson was also a beast of a man with CRAZY lifts.

[@thanasismusic]

you can read a lot of articles by tommy suggs, bill starr and rippetoe on the starting strength site about the press (technique, training etc), very good information.

[@philiphaigh8349]

Fantastic 👍🎄

[@GoldenEraBookworm]

Thanks

[@MDDeardorff]

Very interesting video just when you think you know it all

[@valdviking292]

Hepburn was such a beast! I tried one of his programs for bench a few summers ago and lost strength believe it or not. Went up and then sharply went down. Did better with Chuck Sipes tonnage system, needed more limit poundages.. Just goes to show different strokes for different folks :)

[@GoldenEraBookworm]

Absolutely

[@christopherseat9871]

3 days a week is PERFECT for Building POWER

[@Feraille]

I am currently following a Hepburn's style progression on four lifts, the OHP, the power clean, the front squat and the bench press, starting from 6 sets of 2 reps and building up to 6 six sets of 3 reps. I follow the "power sets" with 3 x 6/8 reps for "pump" as Doug used to call them, progressively increasing a rep at the time also. I am only at the beginning of the progression but I must say I enjoy it a lot. It is my second try on a Hepburn's style program, the first time I started too heavy and burned out before the end of the second 7 weeks cycle. You must humble yourself and start easy enough if you want to carry it on a long term progression, the way it is designed to be. Thank you for posting about this remarquable lifter Doug Hepburn was.

[@timpipe2594]

Very good.

[@zach3409]

I thought he trained the big compound movements twice a week using an upper/lower split....

[@Fifthmiracle]

He did. Doug varied his programs a lot once he started to compete seriously. You'll find different training cycles even for specific competitions he had coming up. He held the strict curl record, but only really trained the curl when he was going for a record for instance.

[@anthonini66]

MOTHER OF GOD! 5:37

[@dontreadmyname4396]

3:08 6 sets was the whole workout? only 1 exercise per day?

[@GoldenEraBookworm]

Initially...later he would train one or two exercises per workout

[@kevfreeman5482]

And the obvious question - gear? Anyone know?

[@DrLeroyArch]

It was the pre-steroid era and Hepburn, training in Vancouver in the 40s and early 50s was not exactly in the loop as far as knowledge of that went. On this side of the water steroids did not make their appearance until 1958 and later, and then only to a few.

[@kevfreeman5482]

@@DrLeroyArch Amazing! Puts his achievements on a whole other level!!

[@savage3114]

Food was so much more natural without all the garbage in food today. Their natural Testosterone and growth hormone levels was probably twice of what mans is today. All the chemicals in food and water is killing mens natural Test levels.

[@PeteMKringIV]

Read Doug’s book. This video is not right

[@calvincooley1074]

Those lifts are still relevant but now persons can do them with better form. Bonus.

[@tommyh3332]

Looks like chopper

[@tomg5405]

His diet was vegetarian

[@paulsullivan823]

His diet includes plenty of milk

[@heisensperg9264]

@@paulsullivan823 vegetarians can consume dairy products vegans can't

[@jeremys3418]

Lots of eggs and meat at least in His early years of training

[@idx1941]

He was in his later years, but not during his prime.