JOHN GRIMEK

[DK II]

I dont care if they took drugs, performed fellatio on each other, abused small furry animals, or walked around the house in tutus and high-heels.

Could you please leave Tomr out of this? 

[chris_mason]

what's your point?   What did Fair and Starr agree upon?

trends in the general population is different that what is being done by elite eindividuals.  Dianabol became widely available in the late 1950s.   The average guy at the gym would not have had access to testosterone esters or syringes.   But world class athletes would have.

Upon what evidence are your assertations based?

[Vince B]

I remember seeing Doug Hepburn at UBC about 1964 or 65. He wore a black suit and was so wide it was ridiculous. He claimed he could standing press 450 pounds from a rack. I recall then that many believed he used drugs. I got to know Doug in 1969 and he trained me for a couple of weeks on his training device that used concentric only resistance. He told me to do 20 sets for curls and 20 sets of French presses for triceps. All sets were for 5 hard reps. I gained 1/2 inch on my arms in 4 workouts over 2 weeks. Doug challenged others re his being the strongest man in the world and always claimed he was a natural. I can tell you I am inclined to appreciate his training protocols more today than I did in those days. I never followed the 20 maximum sets but feel that is closer to what is required for hypertrophy.

The truth is there is no way to determine who used drugs if people are not going to disclose things. Why should anyone confess to such usage? Like I said, it was considered unhealthy and cheating. In a way it cancelled any success that some got out of training. I do believe we should know the truth but at the moment do not know. Perhaps some people do know but many of the guys from those days are now gone and those who remain are saying nothing at all.

[brianX]

Doug Hepburn was definitely drug-free. He weighed near 300 lb when he became the first man to bench 500 in 1953. That's an incredible feat of strength, but hardly impossible for a natural.

[Richard2004]

Doug Hepburn was definitely drug-free. He weighed near 300 lb when he became the first man to bench 500 in 1953. That's an incredible feat of strength, but hardly impossible for a natural.

Doug Hepburn was truly amazing and in upper body strength was arguably the strongest man in the world in the early 1950's.  Doug was not naturally big and strong like his counterpart of that era, Paul Anderson. 

Doug began weight-training weighing an ordinary 140-odd pounds and built his bodyweight to approx. 300 lbs. through intelligent w-t and dieting w/o drugs.  At his best, he bench pressed nearly 600 lbs.(580), squatted with over 700 lbs., and held the world Olympic press record at 381 lbs. (until Paul Anderson finally exceeded this amount in 1955) at a time when no one else in the world could match these lifts. 

Doug was handicapped by having had polio as a child and thus had one leg that was relatively crippled and undeveloped.  However, this did not prevent him from winning the world Olympic weightlifting heavyweight class (now called the superheavyweight class) championship in Stockholm in 1953, beating perennial U.S. champion, John Davis, for the first time.

Doug's polio crippled leg severely hampered his Olympic weightlifting ability on the quick lifts, particularly when cleaning heavy weights. As a result, Doug could press with ridiculous ease anything he could clean to his shoulders. 

In 1954, Doug did a strict Olympic BB press from the squat rack (photographed and displayed in Iron Man Lifting News and done in front of creditable witnesses) with 440 lbs.!!  This was at a time when NO ONE ELSE IN THE WORLD, INCLUDING PAUL ANDERSON, could do a standing Olympic BB press with even 400 lbs.!!!

On the cover of an early issue of Randall Strossen's MILO mag., Doug is shown holding out at his side, at straight arm's length , a 100 lb. dumbbell!  Doug was definitely ALL-NATURAL when he was at the peak of his strength (early 1950's).