Have you ever wondered what the top bodybuilders of the 1970s were using to achieve that classic mix of mass and lines we still admire today? Obviously, we know they had some of the same injectable testosterones and orals found today, but they didn’t have growth hormone, insulin, or any of the other new compounds which are allowing today’s athletes to be larger and stronger than ever before. Instead, athletes of this era relied upon smaller doses of the steady ‘earners’ to make their gains. But what did they use, specifically?
Now, naming names just isn’t cool. You never want to accuse a bodybuilder of running a particular cycle, or even of using drugs at all. However, we can discuss a cycle that was popular in this era which would have been used for the bodybuilder looking to peak once per year with a 5-month cycle, followed by a 6-week “bridging” cycle.
Compounds used
Dosing would take place in five one-month divisions. The bodybuilder would be running an injectable testosterone ester the entire period. Month 1 would entail 600 mg per week, and month 2 would move up to 800 mg per week. Months 3 and 4 would be locked at a full 1000 mg per week of testosterone, with month 5 wrapping things down with 600 mg per week again. Sixty mg of Dianabol per day would be taken for the entire duration of the cycle as well. Today’s athletes might back off the orals a bit sooner and not run them for a full 5 months, but we know more today than they knew in the 1970s about the long-term damage of oral drugs.
Cycle length
Since the compounds used by athletes back then were less intense than those used by today’s athletes, cycles were able to be run longer. Often, a bodybuilder would begin his pre-contest preparation a full 20 weeks out from the date of the actual show. Unlike today’s bodybuilders who would enter this phase holding a lot of off-season muscle, bodybuilders of this era shrunk down in the off-season. They would use no drugs, and train little to none during this period. Look at the athletes in the beginning of the movie Pumping Iron, as they signed up at the gym to start their contest preparation. Many of them had just spent 4 or 5 months without training. Their bodies were rested and prepared for such a long cycle.
Post-cycle therapy
Bodybuilders of the 70s didn’t have the same level of knowledge that they have today. Nor did they have the marketing efforts of companies offering post-cycle therapy (PCT) compounds for sale to be used to help cushion the return to producing testosterone naturally. Instead, athletes of this era used what is known as “bridging”. For this, they simply ran six weeks of minor compounds to keep their testosterone levels up while waiting for the bodies to restart production. A common 6-week cycle would be 200 mg per week of injectable Deca Durabolin, along with 30 mg per day Dianabol, consumed orally.
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