Bodybuilding IQ The Genius of Bill Pearl

What is bodybuilding IQ? It refers to the amount of intelligence a bodybuilder has in regard to productive training. Of course, a genetic wonder can build a lot of muscle without a high bodybuilding IQ, but I believe there are bodybuilders who have had enough training intelligence to build a lot of muscle without great genetics. These would be examples of bodybuilders with a high training IQ.

Bodybuilding IQ is not Academic Knowledge

Before I discuss anything further about bodybuilding IQ, let me explain what I do not mean by bodybuilding IQ. I don’t mean that a bodybuilder who can identify the name and precise function of each muscle has a high bodybuilding IQ. Such a person may have a high academic IQ when it comes to anatomy, but it may not translate into productive training. A bodybuilder may also have knowledge of a huge amount of exercises and types of routines, but this may not necessarily translate into effective training either. All of these things can help increase a person’s bodybuilding IQ, but only as it translates into effective training.

A bodybuilder with a high training IQ understands what they must do to get results for their own body at any given point in their training career. They may possess this knowledge in a clearly defined manner that they can explain, or they may understand it by feel and instinct. Either way, it translates into effective training.

Gaining muscle is generally easier in the beginning stages than it is for someone who has been training for several years. A beginner may gain muscle fairly easy from a variety of different types of training, but as they progress, it becomes harder and harder to keep gaining. The more advanced a bodybuilder becomes, the less room there will be for error in terms of productive training. In my opinion, no natural bodybuilder who refuses steroids or PED’s can keep gaining year after year unless they have a high bodybuilding IQ. Very few possess this quality. Some do and I will begin with a bodybuilder in this article who I think understood how to train for long term progress better than just about any other.

Bill Pearl: Top Pick for High Bodybuilding IQ

My top pick for a high bodybuilding IQ is Bill Pearl. Bill began bodybuilding in the late 1940’s and kept getting better without the use of steroids until his last competition in 1971. In fact, he still looked great for many years after competing and held his competition shape well into his fifties. I started lifting weights in the late 1970’s and had seen Bill in some muscle magazines. I had read some articles about him, but at the time, he had already been retired for several years and I just thought of him as another bodybuilder.

It wasn’t until the year 2000 with the help of the internet that I was shown a progression of pictures from the early 1950’s through the 1970’s. Bill had already been lifting for several years in his first photo. He had decent development, but was pretty skinny by modern standards of high level competition. In addition to the earliest photo, there were year by year photos of his improvement, but I couldn’t see any major improvements from year to year. Bill just made small improvements from year to year from the early 1950’s to 1971. Those small yearly improvements added up to huge improvements when you looked back at his first photo from the early 1950’s. Bill just kept getting better and better over the course of decades which is rare; especially without steroids. I don’t know of anyone who figured out how to train and gain for such a long time without drugs. At the same time, I don’t think Bill’s consistent long term progress was simply a product of being a genetic freak. If Bill were a genetic freak, he would have gained a lot more at the beginning of his career, but it took a long, long time to reach the level of development he finally attained. You can learn more about Bill’s competitive career in the following video.

Not only was Bill a great bodybuilder himself, but he was an excellent trainer who coached many outstanding bodybuilders. His most famous student was Chris Dickerson who was Mr. Olympia in 1982. Chris was another bodybuilder who was able to become better and better year after year into his 40’s.

Bill’s Training Philosophy

Bill was a high volume bodybuilder who did a lot of sets, usually 20 sets per body part. He also hit each body part three times per week which adds up to 60 sets per week for each body part. This may seem like a lot, but if he were to coach you, he would emphasize the need to gradually work up to this type of training volume or it won’t work. He was also very much against training to failure and believed that training to failure conditioned both your mind and your body to fail instead of to succeed. Bill believed in always stopping one to two reps short of failure and thought it was important to still have plenty of energy at the end of a workout. He also liked to do a huge variety of exercises with varying weights from set to set, and he would change his exercises every month.

If you want to know more about his training, he freely shares his training knowledge on his website. One of the features on his website is a 20 month program in which you work up to the type of high volume training that he did. You can find his website by clicking on the following link (click here to go to Bill Pearl’s website). Perhaps his most famous interview on training is with Dennis Weiss which you can find by going to the following link (Bill Pearl Interview).

There are other bodybuilders from both the past and present who I believe had very high bodybuilding IQ’s. I will discuss some of them in the next article. Best of training to you.

For more on Bill’s training philosophy, refer to the following video;