George Eiferman was born on November 3, 1925 in Philadelphia. His name stands alongside such vivid representatives of the Golden Era of bodybuilding, as Steve Reeves, Reg Park, Bill Pearl and Larry Scott. Many believe that Eiferman could have competed with Larry on Olympia in 1965 and become his main rival.
George started training at 15, he weighed 60 kg. In 1942 during the Second World War at the age of 17, wishing to serve his country, Eiferman voluntarily entered the service in the US Navy. On this act, George was inspired by movie “March of Hitler”, where it was about world domination. However, George was very upset that he was not allowed to the front. During the year Eiferman served as a trumpeter in Bainbridge, Maryland. A year later, after receiving the military rank, he was appointed to serve on the destroyer “Alcor”. In the Navy, George was fanatically engaged in burdening and for 4 years he managed to increase almost 20 kg of muscle mass. In military operations, George did not participate, and returned home unharmed in 1946.
After the war, George Eiferman trained in Philadelphia in the gym “Fritshe GYM”. He progressed rather quickly and a year later, in 1947, won his first tournament, “Mr. Philadelphia.” After this victory, George spoke at the prestigious “Mister America” competition of 1947 under the auspices of AAU, where he took the honorable 5th place. Here Eiferman had to compete with Steve Reeves, with whom they later became good friends. In this tournament, Reeves took the first place, but as he himself recalled, “… it was not an easy walk, because the opponent was Eiferman”.
1948 brought George 2 wins: at the tournaments “Mr. California” and “Mr. America”. At the age of 23, George had 90 kg of natural mass.
In addition to bodybuilding, George had another passion – music, he played with wind instruments. After winning the tournament in 1947 Eiferman entered the Philadelphia Academy of Music.
Later, George Eiferman moved to California and became a regular at the famous Muscle Coast. There he had an affair with a girl named Jerry. It did not last long. Jerry was married. The result of this novel was the birth of Bob’s son. Jerry was hiding the truth from her son and George. After the death of her husband in 1992, she opened a secret to them. Eiferman was very happy and offered her a hand and heart, because it was the love of his youth. However, later he nevertheless returned to his first wife Bonita and lived with her until his death in 2002.
Eiferman managed to leave a mark in the cinema. In 1949, George starred in the film “Dream of the Devil”, and in 1953 – in the series “Release the place for daddy”, which continued to be removed until 1965. In the sixties there was also the cartoon “George of the Jungle”, the prototype of the image of the main character was George Eiferman.
Having prestigious awards and being famous, Eiferman traveled throughout the country with lectures on healthy lifestyle and strength training. At the same time, he continued to train and in 1962 won the title “Mr. Universe”. Some time after this tournament, George opened gyms in California and in Las Vegas. In the 80s, George had his own TV show about fitness. As a trainer and nutritionist, George Eiferman advised many stars, including Lou Ferrigno, Arnold Schwarzenegger. For advice on the diet, he was approached by the stars of the movie screen: Marilyn Monroe, Sylvester Stalone and even Elvis Presley in the 70s, when he had health problems due to weight.
George Eiferman had a chic (for his time) chest, massive deltas, well-formed biceps. George was not only a massive, but proportionally built athlete. He was engaged in a system of three training sessions a week all over the body, popular in the pre-steroid era. At each training, 12-15 exercises were performed. 2-3 weeks before the tournament, the number of trainings increased to five per week. George was instinctive, using the ups and downs of his energy capabilities. When I felt a surge of strength, I added a load. Eiferman never advised experimenting with the number of repetitions, until all the possibilities of training in 3 sets of 10-12 repetitions are exhausted. Rest between sets he recommended 2-3 minutes.
Then there was still no Vader system and the basic principles of training athletes borrowed from weightlifting, performing a heavy “base.” From the equipment in those days only a straight and inclined bench, squats, a bar, bars, collapsible bars and dumbbells were used. The upper and lower blocks became popular later.
The main development of Eiferman‘s breast was during the service in the Navy, he then performed deep push-ups between the two benches, placing his feet on the dais. This made it possible to perform the exercise in a very large amplitude. In the same period, without an inventory, George performed squats with a pistol (on one leg), the best result was 150 sit-ups.
Today George Eiferman’s strength training results do not strike, but serve as a good example.
