Probably the most beautiful male physique ever, and I include Steeve Reeves in that, and yes, I did say beautiful male physique. You can say that without a sexual context, just like saying an Arabian stallion is a beautiful beast. Back in the seventies I was always awed by the black and white training pictures of Serge taken by photographer Denie. Now Serge was very much into chemical bodybuilding, according to interviews I've heard with people like Steve Davis, but that doesn't take away the beauty of the man's physique and I've even read a quote from Steve Reeves who thought he was the best built of the modern era bodybuilders.
I found some of Serge's training videos posted on YouTube and think that they have relevance here. Of the bodybuilders past and present, he probably trained the most like Steve Reeves with partial movements, cramping and focus on the muscles.; using partials and light weights. I don't know how old he was in this series, but probably mid fifties or early sixties. Unlike a lot of bodybuilders Serge kept his physique almost up to his death.
Taking a nod from these videos I tried an old trick this morning, doing sets of free squats with a half rep and a full rep counted as one. I did this as part of a countdown with situps and leg raises and I got 156 of these or 312 total. It was tough and enhanced the leg workout.
I'll link one video and you find the others through it.
I agree Bob, genetics and drugs built Serge. There are some things us average folks can learn from this type of training. The cramping, tension and partial movements serve the purpose of saving the joints and in the context of bodyweight and self-resistance training could enhance what we do.
From the stuff I've read on him this article seems to sum up what he did.
https://skinnyfattransformation.com/serge-nubret-pump-training/
He did alot of volume training with lighter weights from what I read. The amount of volume he did would have to give you a pump with the amount of concentration on the muscle.
Great video, Greg. Thanks for posting. I do not know, but I think that without anabolic steroids any bodybuilding methods, including light weights and partial movements, are not sufficiently effective to get the great physique as Serge Nubret had.