William Boone's 1937 Training Program

by Brooks Kubik
William Boone, training in his back yard with nothing more than a rusty weight set

William Boone was a tremendously powerful lifter in the 30's and 40's. He first achieved fame when reports were published of his astonishing gains on a program of heavy, high rep s!uats, which he was inspired to follow after reading about what a similar schedule did for his Herculean contemporary, "oseph #urtis Hise. $f memory serves correctly, Boone gained something li%e &0 '00 pounds on the s!uat program. Boone eventually built up to a bent press of close to 300

pounds ... a deadlift of (00 or so ... a partial dead lift of )00 pounds ... and a *er% from the rac% of 4+0 pounds, which certainly ran%s him as one of the strongest men in the history of the world. $ believe that he made these lifts in the mid to late 40's, or the

very early ,0's. -hese achievements are all the more remar%able because Boone wor%ed a very hard, hot, heavy *ob digging water wells in .ouisiana and -e/as. 0ccording to Boone, one *ob digging wells on a ranch in -e/as was so hot that the men had to drin% 4 gallons of water per day *ust to %eep from overheating under the scorching southwestern sun1 ...0nd yet, Boone often would wor% all day and -H23 do his training1 Where did Boone train4 $n his bac%yard1 He didn't even have a garage or basement in which to train. He lifted huge weights standing on the grass or on a dirt surface. 5o don't let anyone tell you that you need to !uit your *ob and lay around all day in order to ma%e good gains ...and don't let anyone tell you that you need to train at some sort of super duper training center *ammed with all of the latest miracle machines. Boone's training was very uni!ue. He always followed what $ refer to as 6abbreviated training programs.6 0 ')3( issue of 7ar% Berry's little maga8ine, 69hysical -raining 3otes,6 contains a letter from Boone to Berry with the following update on Boone's training. -he following information is from a period when Boone was building up to the really big lifts mentioned above:

"I have been doing only three ...exercises, namely the Two Arm Press, Two Arm url, and the !ee" #nee Bend..." "$ere is my last workout. I work only once a week on "ressing and twice a week on s%uatting. &onday and 'riday (( !.#.B.)s *i.e., s%uats+, Wednesday (( "ressing. &y workouts average about an hour in length ..."

"Wednesday- "ress (( ./0 1ive times, ./0 seven times, .20 1our times, .30 three times, .40 twice, .42 once, then reduce the weight to ./0 1or 1our re"etitions and again with two more "resses, .5. "ounds six times and then 1our times, 56. six and then 1our times. Then reverse curl twelve times with 573 "ounds and regular curl 530 ten re"etitions and then again twice." "&y arms measure better than 56 inches now and I have ho"es o1 "ressing .20 "ounds ten times and 700 "ounds once." "$ere is my last workout on the s%uat, which is also my bestonce each with /02, /72, and /40, three times with 252, short rest, sixteen times with /00, short rest, eight times with /00. 8n 8ctober .5st I did my best, or rather highest, !.#.B. (( 2.2 "ounds."