Beckles was born in Barbados, 1930. There he started Olympic Weightlifting as a teenager. He had considerable success before he badly injured his back. At the age of 21 he emigrated to London, England to live, and recommenced weight training with the emphasis on bodybuilding to ease his back. After years of training he entered his first physique contest and won! In the mid-1960s, he won several British regional titles before winning the 1969 and 1970 NABBA Mr. Britain titles.
In England he worked as an accountant for 18 years in the British Government. For the first four years at his job, he trained about two hours per workout. Then for seven years he had to give up bodybuilding because of his studies.
He found that he could not handle the training and studying together because his best training times were late at night or early in the morning.
After retiring from his job as an accountant Albert has devoted full time to his professional bodybuilding career.
A lot of bodybuilders with bunch of time and no restriction would become lazy but this is not so with Albert. His discipline and determination is uncanny.
During this period he trained seven days a week. In the off season he will train twice a day for five and only once on the weekends. Just before a contest he will train seven days twice a day without exception.
Here’s Albert Beckless’ torture training routine
| Monday Morning Chest | Sets | Reps |
| Incline dumbbell bench press | 4-5 | 12-15 |
| Parallel dips | 4-5 | 12-15 |
| Barbell bench press | 4-5 | 12-15 |
| Heavy incline dumbbell flyes | 4-5 | 12-15 |
| Close grip barbell bench press | 4-5 | 12-15 |
| Pec Deck crunches | 4-5 | 12-15 |
| Monday Evening Thighs | Sets | Reps |
| Barbell partial back squats (Albert has his own special way to perform squat) | 4-5 | 12-15 |
| Machine hack squats | 4-5 | 12-15 |
| Leg extensions | 4-5 | 12-15 |
| Calves | 4-5 | 12-15 |
| Standing heel raises | 4-5 | 12-15 |
| Seated calf raises | 4-5 | 12-15 |
| Tuesday Morning Shoulder | Sets | Reps |
| Seated barbell press | 4-5 | 12-15 |
| Dumbbell side laterals and seated Smith machine press – supersetted | 4-5 | 12-15 |
| Upright barbell rowing | 4-5 | 12-15 |
| Cable side laterals | 4-5 | 12-15 |
| Barbell shoulder shrugs | 4-5 | 12-15 |
| Tuesday Evening Thighs | Sets | Reps |
| Barbell partial back squats | 4-5 | 12-15 |
| Thigh extensions | 4-5 | 12-15 |
| Leg curls | 4-5 | 12-15 |
| Calves | ||
| Standing heel raises | 4-5 | 12-15 |
| Donkey calf raises | 4-5 | 12-15 |
| Seated heel raises | 4-5 | 12-15 |
| Wednesday Morning Back | Sets | Reps |
| Wide grip chins | 4-5 | 12-15 |
| Seated wide grip cable rowing | 4-5 | 12-15 |
| Close grip cable pulldowns | 4-5 | 12-15 |
| T-bar rowing | 4-5 | 12-15 |
| Barbell rowing | 4-5 | 12-15 |
| Barbell pullovers | 4-5 | 12-15 |
| Wednesday Evening Thighs (Same as Monday) | Sets | Reps |
| Barbell partial back squats | 4-5 | 12-15 |
| Machine hack squats | 4-5 | 12-15 |
| Leg extensions | 4-5 | 12-15 |
| Calves | 4-5 | 12-15 |
| Standing heel raises | 4-5 | 12-15 |
| Seated calf raises | 4-5 | 12-15 |
Thursday: Same as Monday except some of the chest work is done in the decline position to hit the lower pec area.
Friday: Repeat Tuesday Workout
Saturday: Repeat Wednesday Workout
Each workout day is repeated in this day-to-day sequence where each workout day is alternated for seven days a week.
He used very light weights when training his thighs but regardless, he trained very fast and with extreme concentration.
His special squat resembled almost a cross between a sissy squat and a normal one.
Diet
Every morning he used to wake up at 5 o’clock and eat a bowl of oatmeal or cream to begin his workout. The cereal would provide necessary carbs to fuel him for his 2 1/2 to 3 hour workout. At 10 a.m. he returns from training and eats 8 to 10 eggs with two slices of whole wheat toast, and a cup of tea.
At mid day he will have a large salad made of lettuce and tomato along with 6 e ozs. of tuna.
Around 4 in the afternoon he will eat another light salad and then hit the gym for another workout which will only finish around 9 at night.
Albert’s final meal is in the evening after he arrives home from his final workout where he eats a high protein meal consisting of fish or chicken.
Albert’s training philosophy and secrets
According to Albert no one should neglect their education or job with the idea of becoming a full time bodybuilders. There are only a selected few who have made it and to give up everything without anything to fall back on is financial suicide.If you want to train, then get up earlier and make the gym before going to school or work. You must make sacrifices if you want to be a champion but education and a job should always be first.
In his seminar he discussed his training ideas and theories as to why he has maintained his astounding physique and why he has been able to continue improving his physique over the years. One important point which was brought up regarding Albert’s training system, is that he employs high reps using fairly light weights.
He feels that a system made up extremly heavy weights and lower sets such as Bertil Fox might follow, very often leads most bodybuilders to injury. In his system where light to moderate poundages are used with the utmost concentration, injuries are rare.
With the heavy system you will eventually hurt yourself severely, ending a career before it even gets started.
Lou Ferrigno
Mr. Beckles loved training hard year in and year out he was always in god shape. He used to give exhibition throughout Europe. After the Geneva Mr. Universe, Lou Ferrigno came up to Beckles to ask him what he did to develop such a fantastic, cut up back. Beckles’ replay was “power cleans with a medium to light weight plus the usual back exercises”