When you think of Golden Era bodybuilders like Arnold Schwarzeneggar, Frank Zane, Dave Draper, Lee Haney and Franco Columbo, you can’t help but admire their Massive Upper bodies.

Their shredded abs and small waists grew up into a mountain range of muscle in their chest, shoulders, back and traps…

Their V-tapers were absolutely unparalleled, and everyone took notice.

What was their secret?

Well oftentimes these Golden Era muscle monsters would work opposing muscle groups together, which is also known as Agonist-Antagonist training.

For instance, to build a massive upper body, they would complete a workout with both pushing and pulling movements in order to structure their entire upper body in one day.

If we’re wise, we’ll learn from their success.

I have all of these workouts, plus the muscle building push/pull concept in my book, Bulk Up Fast, which you can grab for free here. I wrote the book to help you go from skinny to Golden Era status in the shortest amount of time.

Here’s a look at the massive upper body push/pull workout:

Push: Bench Press (4×8)

In order to build a massive upper body, you need to build a big chest.

No exercise gets more work out of your chest than a loaded barbell bench press because of any chest exercise, this is the one you’ll be able to perform with the most amount of weight.

How To:

1. Load the bar to an appropriate weight for your training.
2. Lay on the bench with your feet flat on the ground. Your back should be arched, and your shoulder blades retracted.
3. Take a medium, pronated grip covering the rings on the bar. Remove the bar from the rack, holding the weight above your chest with your arms extended. This will be your starting position.
4. Lower the bar just above the sternum by flexing the elbows. Maintain control and do not bounce the bar off of your chest. Your latissimus muscles should stay tight and elbows slightly drawn in.
5. After touching your torso with the bar, extend the elbows to return the bar to the starting position.

Pull: Barbell Row (4×8)

Just like the bench press, it’s hard to top an exercise involving a loaded bar when you’re looking to build a massive upper body.

Remember to choose a weight that you can perform with while keeping your back straight and while using your biceps and back to complete the movement. Throwing weight up to your chest just to prove something won’t trigger the response you need for optimal growth.

How To:

1. Holding a barbell with a pronated grip, bend your knees slightly and bring your torso forward, by bending at the waist, while keeping the back straight until it is almost parallel to the floor. Keep the head up. The barbell should hang directly in front of you as your arms hang perpendicular to the floor and your torso. This is your starting position.
2. While keeping the torso still, breathe out and lift the barbell to you. Keep the elbows close to the body and only use the forearms to hold the weight. At the top contracted position, squeeze the back muscles and hold for a brief pause.
3. Inhale and slowly lower the barbell back to the starting position.

Push: Incline Bench Press (3×8)

Again, we’re loading the barbell up so that you can really push your muscles to grow.

Incline bench press will give your upper chest some added size to make your pecs really stand out above the rest.

How To:

1. Load the bar to an appropriate weight for your training.
2. Lay on the bench with your feet flat on the ground. Your back should be arched, and your shoulder blades retracted.
3. Take a medium, pronated grip covering the rings on the bar. Remove the bar from the rack, holding the weight above your chest with your arms extended. This will be your starting position.
4. Lower the bar to just above the sternum by flexing the elbows. Maintain control and do not bounce the bar off of your chest. Your latissimus muscles should stay tight and elbows slightly drawn in.
5. After touching your torso with the bar, extend the elbows to return the bar to the starting position.

Pull: Chest Supported T-Bar Row (3×8)

Chest supported T-Bar rows are a variation of barbell rows, only with support for your chest.

Again, it allows you to load up a bar, but also provides you with additional support so that you can pull more weight than a standard barbell row.

How To:

1. Load up the T-bar Row Machine with the desired weight and adjust the leg height so that your upper chest is at the top of the pad.
2. Lay face down on the pad and grab the handles with your palms down or palms up, depending on what part of your back you want to emphasize.
3. Lift the bar off the rack and extend your arms in front of you. This will be your starting position.
4. As you exhale, slowly pull the weight up and squeeze your back at the top of the movement. Keep the upper arms as close to the torso as possible throughout the movement in order to better engage the back muscles. Also, do not lift your body off of the pad at any time and refrain from using the biceps to lift the weight.
5. After a second contraction at the top of the movement, as you inhale, slowly go back down to the starting position.

Push: Incline Dumbbell Fly (3-12)

Putting an emphasis on your upper chest is a major element of building a massive upper body, which is why you’ll add an additional incline chest movement here.

This exercise will actively broaden your upper body and serves as a great final push movement in this workout.

How To:

1. Hold a dumbbell in each hand and lie on an incline bench that is set to an incline angle of no more than 30 degrees.
2. Extend your arms above you with a slight bend at the elbows.
3. Now rotate the wrists so that the palms of your hands are facing you. This will be your starting position.
4. As you breathe in, start to slowly lower the arms to the side while keeping the arms extended and while rotating the wrists until the palms of the hand are facing each other. Tip: At the end of the movement the arms will be by your side with the palms facing the ceiling.
5. As you exhale, start to bring the dumbbells back up to the starting position by reversing the motion and rotating the hands so that the pinky fingers are next to each other again. Keep in mind that the movement will only happen at the shoulder joint and at the wrist. There is no motion that happens at the elbow joint.

Pull: Incline Rear Lateral Fly (3×12)

This exercise will help you to build a mountain range upper back.

The contraction itself will engage your traps and rear deltoids, so that you’ll have rippling muscle painted across a broad upper back.

How To:

1. To begin, lie down on an incline bench with the chest and stomach pressing against the incline. Have the dumbbells in each hand with the palms facing each other.
2. Extend the arms in front of you so that they are perpendicular to the angle of the bench. The legs should be stationary while applying pressure with the ball of your toes. This is the starting position.
3. Maintaining the slight bend of the elbows, move the weights out and away from each other (to the side) in an arc motion while exhaling. Tip: Try to squeeze your shoulder blades together to get the best results from this exercise.
4. The arms should be elevated until they are parallel to the floor.
5. Feel the contraction and slowly lower the weights back down to the starting position while inhaling.

Next Step

So there you have it, fellas…

The Golden Era bodybuilding workout to help you build a massive upper body.

For more workouts like this one, plus all of the training and nutrition “know how” to go from skinny to Golden Era type physique, check out my free book, Bulk Up Fast.

I already bought your copy for you.

Pick it up here.

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