Plague of Strength

Though it’s entirely possible you have never heard of this dude, in the early 1980’s everyone who knew anything about lifting knew who Scott Wilson was. He’s mentioned on the first page of the iconic Gold’s Gym Book of Bodybuilding, along with people like Arnold, Franco, and Rachel McLish- aka, the most elite of the elite at the time- and he was on more magazine covers than any bodybuilder not named Arnold in his competitive years. Trouble was, in the early 1980s, bodybuilding was about as awesome as it’s ever been, barring the early 90s- every weirdo who lived within 10 miles of a gym was crushing weights and steak and climbing up onstage to do battle. “Scientific” training consisted of going to biology class, then swallowing as much protein and d-bol as possible before benching four hundred for reps. These were not antiseptic gyms filled with sterile eunuchs fiddle-fucking around with foam rollers for 45 minutes before lifting paper weights per their expensive, shitbox coach’s program- these were old school, gritty, non-airconditioned gladiator pits filled with bad motherfuckers who were out to snap necks and cash checks. Well, not so much the latter, as there was no fucking money in it. Instead of the Gram, “getting official numbers,” and “being natty af” and not lifting shit, this was about stuff no one in the modern era seems to give a fuck about- pride, ego, and badassery.

Twice in history have there been such a spate of badasses in the sport of bodybuilding that people who had been born a decade earlier or later may well have been the face of the sport- the Arnold years and the Yates years. During those decades, so heavy was the competition that innovative lifters with sick physiques and cool personalities occasionally failed to reach prominence, because there were just so many crazy physiques at the time that the industry had to make some picks… and at the time Weider only picked athletes who endorsed their supplements. This is the tale of one of those men, a man with shoulders so fucking broad that until the recent glut of ridiculous synthol-infused shoulders, only Bruce Randall could block out more of the sun- Scott Wilson.

I recall reading about Scott Wilson early on in some bodybuilding books I purchased second hand, and my takeaways in reading about Scott Wilson is that no mere mortal could complete his workouts without an 8 ball of cocaine, a 20 oz t-bone for periworkout nutrition, and enough exogenous testosterone to drown a Brahma bull. His training schedule was so fucking ridiculous that it will probably make kids from Reddit vomit expletives and lengthy missives about steroid use and overtraining while they skip yet another workout to debate the latest useless Pubmed training study. We’re talking about a dude who said,

“If 15-18 hard sets per bodypart gave me the type of muscle mass and quality necessary to win one pro show, then 30-40 sets would certainly give me even more muscle mass and quality, and I’d win a bigger pro competition. If 4-5 workouts per week, two sessions for each major muscle group did the trick in Portland, then 6-7 days of training three times a week for each major muscle group would be better” (Weider 148).

Oh, it gets far, far more insane than that. As even a T-1000 would wear out parts and shred its human flesh doing 90 to 120 goddamned sets per bodypart, per week, Wilson burned himself right the fuck out trying to snatch the Mr. O crown off his competitors’ heads. Thus, he dropped all cardio and cut his sessions to exactly 60 minutes a day, training six to seven times a week with a full weekend off every two weeks. That’s right- he thought that he was damn near slacking when he started taking a total of four to five days off per month. Not the modern, faux-science-ordained week off once a month on top of three days off a week- exactly four to five non-training days per month was his idea of completely reasonable. Then, just to be safe, he decided to take a little break every three weeks and keep his abused, tenderized, and fried carcass on the couch for two weeks every three months (Weider 149).

Did I mention that he competed in Chet Yorton’s drug-tested federation for three years? Yeah, fuck that bullshit about natty bros not being able to recover from hard training.

Given that Wilson’s volume was likely triple or quintuple your own, you might be thinking he was weak as a kitten as a result. On the contrary, Wilson managed a near elite powerlifting total of 1760 with a 625 squat, 470 bench, and 665 deadlift (the AAU elite total was 1825) after doing a meet on a whim in his bodybuilding off-season (and I realize there are heavier totals attributed to Scott, but they were ridiculous poundages and utterly lacked citations). Thus, at 5’10”, 215lbs, and rocking 20″ arms and a 24″ unpumped shoulder width measurement, Scott Wilson was officially a bad motherfucker in any gym or bodybuilding competition he entered.

To say that Scott Wilson was more dedicated to the weights before or after him is an understatement- he sold the bicycle his mom won for him on a game show to buy a set of weights as a kid. – this motherfucker was dedicated from an early age. After entering and winning the Mr. San Diego contest on a dare from his friends, Wilson won the Mr. California, Mr. America, Mr. International, and the Portland Grand Prix. Though he never took the ultimate bodybuilding crown by winning the Olympia, the man had a physique that kept his competitive with the bodybuilding elite for over 25 years during a time when bodybuilding peaked not once but twice.

Scott Wilson’s Ridiculously Extensive Contest History

1973 Amateur Mr. San Diego- 1st
1974 AAU Mr. California 1st
1975 AAU Mr. America 6th
1975 AAU Mr. America 3rd (Pro Card)
1976 WBBG Pro Mr. America 1st
1978 NBA Natural Mr. America 5th (Professional)
1979 NBA Natural Mr. America 3rd (Professional)
1980 IFBB Mr. International 2nd (Heavyweight)
1981 IFBB Canada Pro Cup 7th
1981 IFBB Mr. International 1st (Heavyweight and Overall)
1983 IFBB Grand Prix Denver 6th
1983 IFBB Grand Prix Portland 1st
1983 IFBB World Pro Championships 5th
1984 IFBB Canada Pro Cup 6th
1984 IFBB World Grand Prix 6th
1984 IFBB World Pro Championships9th
1985 IFBB Night of Champions 14th
1986 IFBB Los Angeles Pro Championships 10th
1986 IFBB World Pro Championships 12th
1987 IFBB Night of Champions DNP
1988 IFBB Grand Prix US Pro 4th
1988 IFBB Niagara Falls Pro Invitational 8th
1988 IFBB World Pro Championships 6th
1994 IFBB Masters Mr. Olympia 11th
1999 IFBB Masters Mr. Olympia 10th
2000 IFBB Masters Mr. Olympia 8th

According to Mark Reifkind, Wilson’s training partner throughout the 1980s, Scott’s placings were never due to his conditioning or size, but rather due to the fact that he despised posing and refuse to practice it (and the fact he endorsed the supplements of a company not named Weider). Thus, if you’ve a mind to compete and think posing is just an afterthought, think again.

Scott Wilson’s Valhalla-Style Training Routine
(Because he was endlessly battling legendary figures)

Shoulders

• Seated Behind the Neck Press: 5 x 6-10
• Dumbbell Side Laterals: 5 x 6-10
• Dumbbell Bent Laterals: 5 x 6-10

I will agree that this program is extremely anti-climactic, after looking for it for a couple of years. I expected it to be four straight hours of ebola-style bleeding through the pores, with a pump so big your skin would rip halfways through and you could only complete it with liberal applications of super glue. One major takeaway here, though, is that the dudes with huge shoulders in the pre-synthol years relied extremely heavily on behind the neck presses.

Back

• Deadlift: 5 x 5 reps
• Bent Barbell Row: 5 x 6-8 reps
• T-Bar Row: 5 x 6-8 reps
• Pulldowns (Front or Back): 5 x 8 reps
• One Arm Dumbbell Row: 5 x 8 reps
• Barbell Shrug: 5 x 8 reps
• Upright Row: 5 x 8 reps

In Scott Wilson’s time, people actually used this mystical art called autoregulation. Instead of asking faceless, uncredentialed and generally uneducated strangers insipid training questions or hiring a “coach,” they figured it out themselves. It was a wild time. Wilson claimed his back was always a weak area, from the time he won the Mr. California in 1973 until about 14 years later, and that he had trouble isolating his lats. His solution? He started doing trisets of barbell bent rows, lat machine pulldowns to the front of his neck, and t-bar rows, which took his massive arms out of the equation and allowed him to bring up his back in a hurry… without ever asking a single person he didn’t know for their unqualified opinion on his approach (Weider 135).

Chest

• Incline Barbell Press: 4-5 x 6-8
• Barbell Bench Press: 4-5 x 6-8
• Incline Dumbbell Flyes: 4-5 x 8-10
• Pec Deck Flyes: 4-5 x 8-10

Legs

• Leg Extension (Warm up) 2-3 x 15-20
• Squats: 6 x 15-6 (adding weight each set, obviously)
• Machine Hack Squats: 4 x 10-15
• Leg Extensions: 4 x 10-15
• Sissy Squats: 2-3 x 10-15
• Lying Leg Curls: 3-4 x 8-10
• Standing Leg Curls: 3-4 x 8-10

Biceps

• Wide-Grip EZ Bar Preacher Curls: 4 x 6-10
• Close-Grip EZ Bar Preacher Curls: 4 x 6-10
• Standing Barbell Curls: 4 x 6-10
• Incline Dumbbell Curls: 4 x 6-10
• Seated Dumbbell Concentration Curls: 4 x 6-10

Triceps

• Lying Barbell Extensions: 5 x 6-10
• Close Grip Bench Press: 5 x 6-10
• Pulley Pushdowns: 5 x 6-10

Tragically, I couldn’t find anything on the man’s diet beyond a short quote about his competition diet, that he loved huffing his training partner’s post workout doughnuts, and that his cheat day feeding frenzies were on the order of the Saxons’ eating habits. (Reifkind). Given that everyone in that era bulked hard as hell and then cut on crazily low calorie bland food, I’d venture to guess that’s what he did as well. In his words, for a competition diet you should

“Start your diet early and keep on schedule. Once you get behind on your diet, you can never get back on schedule without sacrificing valuable muscle size. Generally speaking, the more bland your diet is, the more valuable it is when seeking peak contest muscularity” (Weider 467).

His supplementation regimen was even more old school. According to his son, he didn’t stay up on the trends after he quit bodybuilding, and according to his training partner, his endorsement of non-Weider supplements was what sunk his career.

“One day I had mentioned using pre-workout powders, and he said “What’s that?” I explained to him the common ingredients, their purpose, etc. and he said ‘Oh yeah, we had that. We called it coffee’” (Aaron).

In spite of the fact that he trained like he there was a kill team ready to execute his family if he slacked in the gym, he definitely maintained a sense of humor about it. Basically the Rodney Dangerfield of 1980s bodybuilding, Wilson was notorious for loving to hate lifting. When asked what his favorite exercises were, he said, “None. I hate them all equally.” He paused, considering, and then continued with, “on second thought, I guess I prefer the ones that allow me to lay down” (Aaron).

In a weird move, the universe snatched away both of the epic Scott Wilsons of the world this year (the Walking Dead/Way of the Gun actor died in October), and given the fact this man lived and died tragically overlooked due to the ridiculous competition he faced, I channeled my inner Buliwyf because “A man might be thought wealthy if someone were to draw the story of his deeds, that they may be remembered.” Given that this Scott Wilson would have insisted on having zombies in a fucking show about zombies if he had been involved, he deserves far more accolades than the other one does anyway. So when you next decide to have a drink, throw a toast up to Scott Wilson, one of the baddest bodybuilders of whom you’d likely never before heard before today, and from whom we can all definitely stand to learn a thing or two.

Sources:

Aaron, Scott. Personal correspondence. 18 Dec 2018.

Grymkowski, Peter, Edward Connors, Tim Kimber, and Bill Reynolds. The Gold’s Gym Training Encyclopedia. Chicago: Contemporary Books, Inc., 1984.

Ladon, Jacob. Veteran old school bodybuilder and powerlifter Scott Wilson passes away at age 67. Generation Iron. 7 May 2018. Web. 29 December 2018. https://generationiron.com/veteran-old-school-bodybuilder-and-powerlifter-scott-wilson-passes-away-at-age-67/

Reifkind, Mark. Scott WIlson from start to winish. Risfblog. 19 Dec 2006. Web. 2 Jan 2019. http://rifsblog.blogspot.com/2006/12/scott-wilson-from-start-to-finish.html

Sprague, Ken and Bill Reynolds. The Gold’s Gym Book of Bodybuilding. Chicago: Contemporary Books, Inc., 1983.

Weider, Joe and Bill Reynolds. Joe Weider’s Ultimate Bodybuilding. Chicago: Contemporary Books, Inc., 1989.

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