The Silver Era of Bodybuilding seems so far distant and yet so inspiring for all the magnificient athletes and training methods that were born and featured at the time. One of them was how they would use instinct and science at the time to create ‘training drink’ to help them support and fuel their workouts, muscle growth and recovery.
It’s not uncommon or weird to suggest to athletes to drink water while they train. Indeed, training is a relatively costly and stressful activity for our bodies, damaging it, draining it and dehydrating it. So drinking water is something that is said and repeated on a constant basis. But what about bodybuilders ? Often, you see gym bros walking around with fluo green bottles, mixing water and many different supplements. And that’s when they actually got something with them, I also have seen so many guys carry a tiny bottle or count onf water fountains in the gyms for their needs.
That isn’t something silver era bodybuilding would do, and it isn’t something you necesseraly should sought; both for your digestive and financial healths.
Endurance Athletes gets Training Drinks
We better take example on modern endurance athletes about training drinks, since they are the closest to what silver era bodybuilding did about it. First, water. Yes, it’s important, but not alone. They also add in very fast carbs to digest and electrolytes, to replenish our stocks and avoid common dehydratation issues: muscle spasms, cramping, fatigue,… They will also sneak in some vitamins B, heavily needed for proper metabolism, from glucose use to “cell respiration”. So is that it ? Should we just buy their running/biking powders and drinks ? Not so fast.
Steve Reeves, Silver Era Bodybuilding Genius
Mid 40’s, a handsome and godly physique owner named Steve Reeves shocked the world, and inspired generations to come with his short but very influencial bodybuilding career, but not only that, he actually was a thinking athlete, and a good one at that. Under Ed Yarick guidances, he tweaked and invented exercises to better suit his training style, goals and needs, but also diet wise. His own mother was a nutritionnist, and he both learned and benefitted a lot from her. He is one of the first silver era bodybuilding legends to speak about a special “power drink”, or more precisely a training drink he would consume during his gruesome full body sessions to support his body.
If Silver Era Bodybuilding was someone, it would be him
The Original Silver Era Bodybuilding Training Drink
Steve would mix in his bottle lemon juice with honey, that he would then dissolve with water. Not only it is pretty tasty, it is extremely effective. Most likely unknowingly, Steve created a homemade electrolyte and sport drink, working out the quantities by sheer instinct and feel. In his own book “Building the Classic Physique : the Natural Way” he describes and detail everything :
Half a gallon of water (it isn’t specified if it’s a US or Imperial Gallon, so it’s between 1.8L and 2.3L)
Half a cup of pressed lemon juice (about 15cl)
3 Tablespoons of honey (about 45gr)
He wasn’t the only one though to have this logic, as we can also talk about another legend of the sport, named Reg Park, who was extremely adamant about drinking a highly rich training drink and about consuming honey :
Excerpt of “How I Trained to Win Mr. Universe 1951” in Health and Strength Mag, 1967, by Reg Park himself :
Three weeks before the 1949 Mr. Britain final I trained at Henry Atkins’ gym in Walthamstow, London, during which time I worked calves and thighs (3 sets of 20 reps) superset with pullovers on the Yoga bench, three mornings a week, and trained upper body in the evenings. I ate and drank great quantities of food and liquid, and my bodyweight by the time of the contest was 226 lbs. I drank two pints of diluted concentrated orange juice with glucose and honey mixed in it at every workout.
And we also are blessed to have this excerpt from the man himself again, “Basic Principles for Gaining Definition” 1951 article :
In addition to plenty of salads and fresh fruits, step up your protein intake. Soft boiled eggs, cheese . . . LEAN BEEF, veal, liver, and all kinds of shellfish are good. Don’t use any white sugar but confine your ‘candy’ consumption to a few spoonfuls of honey each day.
Reg Park, Mr Universe from the 50’s and training drink enjoyer
The Science behind this Training Drink
Why does it work so well ?
Simple: first, plenty of water for pretty long training sessions; you have to remember the context of the time where body part splits, push/pull/leg and other new methods didn’t exist; you would train your whole body in a single session, or split it in half, alike upper/lower splits. This increases your need for hydratation, hence the pretty high water content.
Second, lemon juice. Often dubbed as a healthy food, it actually isn’t a scam and do give back plenty: it is filled with antioxydants and many compounds helping with the “detox” of the liver, while being a very good source of calcium, potassium and vitamin C. It’s effect on digestive health have also been proved quite a lot.
Third, honey. If there was to be a mother nature gift to us, that would be it. Natural multi vitamins, and overall good source of micronutrients, honey is also extremely healthy for our digestive health, as it’s antioxydant, antifongic and antimicrobial. If that wasn’t enough, it is a prime source of simple carbs, glucose and fructose in pretty even manner, which helps both feed muscle and energy demands on your overall body, but also your liver, notably with his own glycogen storage.
Since glucose is very easy and fast to digest, entering the blood stream quite rapidly, while fructose first need to bypass the liver, the insulin response from honey is lesser that of plain sugar or other complex carb easily broken down in the guts (like maltodextrin); the result is a very good energy boost without risk for hypoglycemic response after a while or a sensation of “crash” while or after training. Sweet.
Fueled by Honey Training Drink
My Tweak on the Silver Era Bodybuilding Training Drink
I have been using this type of drink for years now, about at the same time I swaped from Golden Era Split to Full Body mid/end 2016. I have nothing but good things to say about it, but I added a little something to make it even better : salt.
Indeed, one of the only ‘missing’ or not really properly dosed ingredient in that training drink that is extremely key for a strength athlete and even more a bodybuilder, is sodium. Key part of the muscle contraction aspect and the overall sodium/potassium balance, while also being involved in blood vessels dilatation/constriction, it is a prime ally for better pump and better hydratation, especially if your training sessions are long. I only had a little pinch of salt, as it is more than enough for most.
As for the salt itself, plain table salt is more than enough, as we are more interested in the sodium than other minerals, but let’s talk swiftly about others salts.
Himalayan pink salt has had its fifteen minutes of glory a while back, but the hype doesn’t live up to it; simply put, the unprocessed aspect of said salt is more of a health hazard than a quality marker : indeed, it has much more room for heavy metal and undesirable compounds than common salt. As such, except if you are extremely sure of the quality and location from where it comes from, don’t buy it. You will not miss much, but certainly avoid lead, aluminium, mercury and other heavy metal exposure that can wreck havoc on your body especially if you are already quite stressed.
What we know so far doesn’t seem encouraging for most
Another salt that can be interesting is celtic salt or grey salt. Extremely loaded both in sodium and magnesium, it is a quite good salt to possess, but costly, and not available for everyone as it’s only harvested in celtic countries where sea water makes it possible, like France and England. Alike Hymalayan salt, it has different mineral distributions, but is almost always more loaded in sodium than common salt, making it a costly alternative without real found benefits. If you have access to it and like it, by all mean, enjoy, but do not go the extra mile for it, as in first world countries, common table salt is already quite high quality wise and iodine enriched.
My Own Silver Era Bodybuilding Inspired Training Drink
Now that it’s all said and laid out, here is what I personally do and recommend to my trainees :
For my Upper Body/Short/Light Training days, I use 2L of water, 20-30gr of honey (a good tea spoon of creamy honey, 2 if it’s a more liquid honey), and 10cl of lemon juice.
For my Lower Body/Full Body days, I use 2L of water, 40-60gr of honey and 20cl of lemon juice (double everything from the example above).
You can copy it as it is, or try to tweak in the quantities to find what works best for you, your metabolism, blood sugar levels, feeling etc. Remember that it can also be a great bulk ally as it’s easy and cheap calories to get in !
Conclusion
Try it, let me know how it goes and make sure to check out my services if you need help with something, thanks for reading, keep it classic, happy bodybuilding.
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