Strength & Health, Page 28, August 1962

Indiana schoolboy is all-around athlete and America's top rated teen-age bodybuilder

Introducing HAROLD POOLE

By Loren Comstock

EVERY FEW YEARS, there appears on the bodybuilding scene a personality with exceptional development; these individuals possess not only large muscular girths but have amazing definition and fine shape. In the last few years I can think of several bodybuilders who fell into this category: Bruce Randall, Ray Schaeffer and George Orlando to name only a few. At the time of this writing, I believe a new physique star of the aforementioned proportions stands on the brink of physique greatness. The individual of whom I speak so highly is Harold Poole, an eighteen-year-old high school senior from Indianapolis, Indiana.

Harold is a fine all-round athlete at Shortridge High School in Indianapolis. He excels at track and wrestling. In fact, it was while in his freshman year at Shortridge that Harold became interested in working out with the weights. Prior to Harold's high school career, we find that he was born in Louisville, Kentucky, on Christmas Day eighteen years ago, and as if the date were to be symbolic, the boy seemed to be endowed with physical greatness from the start. When Harold was thirteen, his family moved to Indianapolis. It was there he became interested in athletics, particularly the sports of football, wrestling, boxing and track. As a freshman at Shortridge, his track coach, Roy Aberson, long an advocate of weight training for athletes, recommended weight training to him as a supplement to his regular exercises. In the following four years, Harold was to put on forty pounds of hard muscle and to better his athletic performances in all sports.

As a freshman, Harold ran a 54-second quarter mile and was a member of the school's championship mile relay team. During his junior year in school, he placed second in the Indiana High School wrestling tournament as a 175 pounder. During the current year, he went undefeated during the regular season, campaigning this time as a heavyweight. Now I'm sure many of you readers are saying, "Well, this is certainly an enviable record for anyone to have"; however, this record ranks as only second best to this amazing youth's prowess as an unparalled physique contestant.

Harold was winning physique contests at the age of sixteen, when most neophyte bodybuilders are barely beginning to take an interest in the covers of physical culture magazines. I know of no other young man in the history of the physique game who can boast of a record which compares with this. The following are contests which Harold has won or placed high in during the last two years:

1960 (All at the age of sixteen)

Junior Mr. Indianapolis, Junior Mr. Indiana, 2nd Place Most Muscular, Mr. Middle States, and 16th Place Mr. America.

1961 (All at the age of seventeen)

Mr. Indianapolis, Mr. Indiana and Most Muscular Man, Mr. Middle States, Mr. Ohio Valley and Most Muscular Man, Junior Mr. America and Most Muscular Man (Central Section) and 4th Place Mr. America.

1962 (At the age of eighteen)

Mr. Hercules and Most Muscular Man, Mr. Northern Indiana and Most Muscular Man.

Now this is also an enviable record; however, the amazing part about this achievement is that Harold has not yet reached his maturity, physically speaking, and therefore has not as yet even scratched the surface of his physical potential. I predict that with an additional three years training Harold will take his place among the best built men of all time.

Harold has followed the York System for four years with the result that he has built the outstanding physique you see pictured in this article. There have been no secret exercises, no complex formulas--just the basic training which Bob Hoffman and the York people have been advocating for years. For you readers who are interested, Harold does the following exercises in the following order:

3 Sets Barbell Press Behind Neck
6 Sets of Barbell Bench Press, Wide Grip
3 Sets of Barbell Rowing
3 Sets of Chins Behind Neck
3 Sets of Cheating Barbell Curl
5 Sets of Tricep Kickbacks
3 Sets of Front Squats
6 Sets of Donkey Calf Raises
1 Set of Sit-ups

Harold performs all of his exercises with no more than six repetitions per set, with the exception of calves and abdominals, with which he handles about thirty per set. He feels that this type program is best suited to him at this time, because separation has never been a problem for him. These exercises are followed twice a week during a season of competition, thrice a week out of season and four times a week prior to a contest. As for diet, Harold has always been particular as to what he eats. For the last year the following supplements have been included in his regular intake: large amounts of protein, dessicated liver and wheat germ oil.

As for the future, Harold hopes to enroll at the University of Oklahoma next fall and to pursue a course in biology and history which will prepare him as a teacher upon graduation. Several schools have expressed an interest in his abilities as a wrestler. The school at Norman, Oklahoma, is one. Harold has always been a mature young man, not only in physique but in his sense of responsibility as well. For the past four years he has been the partial support of his widowed mother and younger brother and has constantly worked during his high school career.

We in Indiana are certainly proud of this fine young man whom we feel will take his place alongside the greats in a great sport.

PHOTO CAPTIONS

- One of the finest athletes ever developed at Shortridge High School in Indianapolis, Harold Poole puts the high school short more than 50 feet, is a member of a championship mile relay team, and is one of the finest wrestlers in the Hoosier state. Jim Ellis, former Big Ten wrestling champ, spars with Poole in bottom photo.

- Poole's outstanding muscularity has won him numerous awards in physique competition. Last year he placed fourth in the Mr. America contest, the highest rating ever achieved by a 17-year-old. His workout routine is based on the old standby York courses. He hopes to attend the University of Oklahoma this fall.

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