Da Bullpen By George “Da Bull” Peterson III - Train Smart to Avoid Injuries

Written by George Peterson the III

14 November 2020

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Da Bullpen

By George “Da Bull” Peterson III

Train Smart to Avoid Injuries

Q: I heard you say that you have never had any serious training injuries. That makes me wonder, do you train super heavy, or are you more of a pumping guy?

A: I’m smart about my training, and my coach Justin Miller is big on staying safe in the gym. We still go as heavy as I can. My personal rule is that I won’t do any fewer than eight reps. If I can’t get that many with good form, I will absolutely not go any heavier. I want to make sure I’m stimulating the muscle. A lot of times when we go ridiculously heavy, you can’t even feel the muscle anymore. You’re just struggling to lift that heavy-ass weight! Still, I understand that very heavy weight contributes to that thick, dense look, so I’m always looking to challenge myself. Let’s use squats as an example. The heaviest I will go is 545, and that’s in the off-season. I’m not interested in throwing seven plates on there and doing two reps. That would do nothing for my leg development, but it would put me at a tremendous risk for something like a herniated disk or a quad tear. When I’m in the later stages of my contest prep, you won’t see me doing 545 pounds. At that point, I’m low on carbs and doing a lot more cardio, so the smart thing to do in that situation is to back off a little bit on the weight. You’re not growing any new muscle at that stage anyway, you’re just doing your best to maintain it while you get as lean as humanly possible. I know a lot of guys pride themselves on being super strong and still going as heavy as possible all the way until the end, but to me that’s being reckless.

Dangers of Lifting Too Heavy

Q: Have you ever been pressured by a photographer into lifting super heavy for a photo shoot the day after a contest? I know some of them are infamous for that.

A: I think most of us remember those gruesome photos of Jean-Pierre Fux tearing both his quads while going crazy heavy on squats right after a show. It’s so dangerous to do that, because we dehydrate to get that crisp look, and it usually takes at least a couple days for our bodies to go back to normal. You’re at a much higher risk of tearing a muscle when you’re dehydrated. I can say no one I have ever shot with tried to pressure me to go heavier so it would look more “hardcore” or whatever. I have been pressured in a sense to go heavier than I planned to at times when I’ve trained with someone for the first time. They want to show me they are stronger than me, and it’s tough to not let your ego and sense of pride go along with it and try to beat them. We’re all guilty of it, because as bodybuilders we are already very competitive people by nature.

Quarantine Training: Back to Basics

Q: Quarantine training sucked for pretty much everybody, but were there any upsides of it for you?

A: There were. I got my training done at my coach’s house, and I also had a friend with a small private gym who let me work out there. That really made me realize how spoiled I have been training at Bev and Steve’s Powerhouse Gym, a place with more equipment than you can imagine. I had to go back to the basics, because that’s all that was available at the two places I trained for those months. For legs, I had access to a squat rack, a leg press, a leg extension, and a lying leg curl. For chest, it was just barbells and dumbbells. That’s it, so I had to make it work. My body responded very well. I’ve always been an advocate of the basics anyway, because I feel nothing beats them. It’s great to have all these cool machines that hit the muscles from every angle, but nothing will ever beat the free-weight basics. That’s why I say you should always do both, unless you have some injury that truly prevents you from doing something like bench presses or squats.

Goal Is to Qualify for Olympia

Q: You kicked so much ass in Tampa! Why didn’t you do more 212 shows, like New York Pro and Chicago? I bet you could have picked up a couple more wins.

A: Maybe so, but it would have backfired on me. The goal was to qualify for the Olympia and then spend what time I had left making improvements so I will have the best possible chance of winning that. If I had kept dieting and competing, there is no way I would be able to accomplish that. Just to give you an idea, four weeks after my Tampa win, I was up 30 pounds with very little loss in condition. My coach has a strategy, and just jumping into shows for more wins isn’t part of it.

The Right Time to Move Into 212

Q: Why didn’t you move into the 212 division sooner?

A: It wasn’t time yet. If I’d tried to go into the 212 in 2017 or 2018, I honestly don’t think I would have been ready. I feel those years as a Classic Physique competitor groomed me for a successful career in the 212. The natural progression is to go from Classic, to 212, and then Open. How can you expect to continually progress if you always have to come down to the same weight? If you’re putting on more muscle, the scale is going to move. Eventually, I feel a lot of the Classic Physique pros are going to move to 212, or maybe Open, depending on how tall and heavy they are.

IG: georgep_dabull

Redcon1 Stack

Upon Waking

Double Tap powder, 1 scoop

With Breakfast

GI Juice, 1 scoop

Pre-Workout

Total War, Big Noise and MOAB all together, 1 scoop each

Post-Workout

Breach, 2 scoops

Middle of the Day

Double Tap caps, 3 capsules