Bill Pearl was born on October 31, 1930 in Prineville, Oregon USA and went on to make a permanent mark on the sport of bodybuilding. Bill got addicted to pumping iron at an early age and competed before 1953 but that was his first significant victory the Amateur Mr. Universe 1953.

Bill went on to publish the first exercise book called "Getting Stronger: Weight Training for Men and Women" that sold over 350 000 copies in the USA alone. He had a monthly newsletter in MuscleMag which he called "Wisdom of Pearl" and at the age of 39 became a vegetarian but still ate eggs and dairy products.

Standing 5'9" Bill competed at about 200 lbs but would get as heavy as 245 pounds in the off-season. It worked for him as he competed at least twice a year from winning Mr. America 1953 to 5 Mr. Universe titles that included Mr. USA, Mr. California, the bodybuilding world nicknamed him "World's Best-Built Man of the Century."

Bill's contribution was widely recognized as he received numerous awards from the IFBB hall of fame to the "Arnold Schwarzenegger Lifetime Achievement Award" just to mention two but there are countless other awards that Bill received for his enormous contribution to bodybuilding.

Bill Pearl Workout Routine


Bill planned his workout schedule with precision training chest, shoulders, arms and calves on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. He would train abs, back and legs with forearms on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays. Bill was disciplined and published his workout journal detailing all his workouts.

His split routine would be around 20 sets per body-part which were sets of 6 to 8 reps using maximum weight. However he would always do 15 reps when training calves and forearms and do sets of 50 to 100 reps when working his abs.

In 2003 Bill published his autobiography with Kim Shott as the coauthor. The book was called "Beyond the Universe: The Bill Pearl Story". It opened a lens into the life of a competitive bodybuilder, the rigid routine, the controlled and well thought out process of eating and preparing food, it covered everything as it was the first bodybuilding book published on the daily life of a competitive bodybuilder.

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