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Written by Ron Harris
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Monday, 04 November 2002 |
Some bodybuilders have big legs, and others have wheels so outrageous they almost seem wasted on a mere human being. Guys like Dave Palumbo, Branch Warren and Paco Bautista have thighs so huge and powerful looking that they’d be more appropriate seen sprouting from the torso of some Jurassic era carnivore like Allosaurus or T-Rex, supporting 10 tons of reptilian terror as it bares down on a fleeing pack of squealing herbivores. Dave “Jumbo” Palumbo has been known for his quads and hams for years, but more so for his overall size and conditioning. At 5-feet-10-1/2 tall, he has weighed as much as 319 pounds in the off-season. Most guys in our sport have a double chin and jelly rolls around their waists at anything over three bills, but Dave is virtually incapable of carrying any fat. He attributes this to his years as a 145-pound distance runner in college, a time in which he sincerely believes his body was permanently programmed to stay lean. This has rightfully earned Dave his reputation as a freak. I have seen the man dozens of times at contests, expo and guest posings, and he is always hard and vascular. He gets a bigger crowd reaction when guest posing than any pro I can remember seeing— and why not? It’s not every day you see someone walking around with so much beef on their bones. As widely popular as he is both as an athlete and a writer, a pro card has eluded Palumbo despite many efforts.
The New, Streamlined Palumbo Not since Dave’s 1995 Heavyweight and Overall Junior Nationals victory has he held a first-place trophy in his hands. He has competed many times in the three pro qualifiers available to U.S. citizens— the USA, the Nationals and the IFBB North American (assuming it was held that year, of course; this show comes and goes). His placings have ranged from fourth to seventh, even though he has never failed to step onstage in anything less than shredded condition, this consistency a rarity, not only among bodybuilders in general, but especially for such a big man. I asked him how he was able to nail his contest prep every time with such precision. “All you really have control over in a contest is your conditioning,” he told me. “You have no control over what the judges will think of you, and your muscle mass is what it is by that point. The one variable you always have absolute control over is your condition, so I never want to give that up.” With no weak body parts, why have the judges failed to reward him time after time? To put it bluntly, his large stomach was what has been detracting from his physique, taking away from what should have been a dramatic V-taper, given the width of his shoulders and mighty back. After hearing this several times from respected sources, Dave finally decided to do something about it. “Six months before the USA, I stopped squatting to see if that would help bring my waist down,” he notes. “I was apprehensive because I thought if I didn’t squat, I would lose a lot of the size and shape in my legs. Luckily, my legs were good enough that I had the luxury of engaging in this experiment.” It should be noted that Dave has squatted as much as 675 pounds for six reps, and until earlier this year was still using up to 600 pounds at every workout. Another tactic Dave employed for the 2002 USA was to stay far away from the scale. “I went completely by what I saw in the mirror and focused on that alone,” he says. A final factor he manipulated was his contest diet. “In the past, I had always dieted very strictly, and many times this resulted in my looking pretty flat and stringy by the time I stepped onstage,” he explains. “This time, I only dieted for four weeks, since I’m so lean year-round anyway, and I had a cheat meal every day. I actually ate at McDonald’s and had one of those little apple pies!” The gamble paid off, appropriately enough, in Las Vegas. His legs didn’t lose anything by not squatting, but his waist did diminish in size. “I never measured it or anything, but my abs and lower back lost some thickness, which had to bring down the overall circumference,” he says. At the weigh-in, Dave was also shocked to see that he was a svelte 260 pounds rather than his customary 270-275. “But, I looked full and dry, exactly the way I had wanted to. I haven’t competed this light since 1995, but I definitely have more muscle and in different places at this weight than I did seven years ago. A lot of guys, when they drop this much weight, get loose skin, but mine stayed tight. I think I might finally be getting it right after 12 years.” The judges thought so, too, and awarded him his highest national-level placing to date, third place.
This is the squat-free leg workout Dave followed in the six months leading up the USA. Before you just check out the pictures and move on to the girlie pictures or sex advice, you should know that Dave’s training has far more thought and analysis put into it than that of nearly any of the top bodybuilders I speak to on a daily basis. Everything he does is done for a reason. Though his leg training has been tailored to his individual needs, I would still pay close attention to see what you can pick up from the world’s most muscular intellectual. Dave Palumbo is not a bodybuilder who merely copies what everyone else in the gym is doing and accepts it; he actually questions everything and bucks tradition in several ways in the gym.
Leg ExtensionDave gets at least five minutes on a stationary bike before the workout begins to start the blood pumping through those monster wheels. Leg extensions are then down for two or three sets of 12-15 reps, pyramiding the weight. It’s enough to warm up the quads, but it doesn’t take away any of their power for the pressing movements to come.
Smith Machine SquatsYou may chuckle with smug superiority after reading what Dave does for this exercise, but you’d be missing the point of why he goes so relatively light. He does three sets of 10-12 reps, progressing from one, to two, and finally three plates on each side. Unlike during the years of heavy squatting, Dave’s quads and hamstrings are now doing all the work. “My form is as strict as you could possibly imagine,” he explains. “I push up entirely with the strength of the quads. As soon as I feel the glutes, lower back, or abs pushing, I stop the set. A lot of guys who squat really heavy have no idea just how much these other muscle groups contribute to the movement, and don’t even make a connection between their thick abs and lower back and their squatting style.” Another unique variation Dave utilizes is a wider foot placement, which brings the adductor muscles of the inner thigh into play. “A lot of bodybuilders go too narrow and only hit the front of their quads,” he says. “The adductors can potentially Make Up 50 percent of your thigh mass, which is why I focus on involving them. Anyone who wishes their legs to be as large as possible should also do this.” His toes are pointing straight ahead, which he feels is safer on the knees and hip joints than the toes-out “duck” stance often witnessed in squatters. No half-reps for him either, as every rep is down to parallel with a split-second pause at the bottom to remove any momentum. Dave also emphasizes that he pushes from the heels, not the balls of his feet. “Your heels are where the driving power really comes from.”
Leg PressAfter his three strict sets of squats on the Smith machine, Dave will proceed to either the leg press or hack squat. He alternates these on consecutive workouts for variety. “I would never do both in the same workout on top of the squats; nobody needs that many pressing exercises,” he says. He’s already warmed up, so there’s no need for any further prep sets. If he feels he needs one set to get the feel of the movement before going all out, he will do one. Otherwise, it’s two balls to the wall sets. For hack squats he generally uses four or five plates a side for 10-12 reps. The leg press weights vary depending on which machine he chooses. His two favorite models are a 45-degree sled and a seated horizontal press. He notes that as big and powerful as his legs are, he always uses a weight he can control and with which he can feel the muscle working. “I’m not one of those guys who goes around slapping 30 plates on a leg press to pump up my ego, even though I’m sure I could if I didn’t care about developing the muscle,” he states. “I’m determined at all times to feel the muscle work throughout the full range of motion, as anyone who has seen me in the gym knows. If I can’t get that feeling I’m after, I will always cut the weight until I do. I find it amusing when people want to know how much I lift. My answer, is: ‘How much does it look like I lift?’ I would rather look like I can lift a ton by having the extreme size, than waste my time using too much weight in bad form and be much smaller. That’s probably the one factor keeping most guys from ever growing to their true muscular potential right there, and probably always will be. Pride and ego are powerful forces.”
Single Leg CurlWhen Dave told me all he does for hams is one set of single-leg curls, I thought he was joking. If you’ve seen pictures of Dave from the side, you know he has some of the thickest hamstrings in all of bodybuilding. And a quick look at his training split tells you legs are only hit once every eight days. It just didn’t add up until he clarified his reasoning for this. “Most people don’t realize how overtrained their hamstrings are, and I honestly believe it’s what holds back this muscle group’s growth in most cases,” he says. “The hams are involved every time you squat or do a leg press. They don’t need much more work than that to grow. “I’ve had so many people come up to me and complain that their hamstrings won’t respond, and they’re doing 15 sets once or twice a week,” he notes. “I ask them— out of all the exercises they do, which one do they feel the hams working the most on? Usually they will say it’s the single-leg curl. I ask them, just for a month, to try it my way and see what happens. Every single person has come back and thanked me, because at last their hams were growing again. I have good hams, and if I trained them like everyone else does, I know they would not be this big. Recovery is so often overlooked in the muscle-building process, but it’s more important than most people can imagine.”What about stiff-leg deadlifts?, I asked. It’s routinely accepted as gospel truth that one has to perform both leg curls and stiff-legs for maximal hamstring growth. Dave is an admitted heretic on this issue. “I never felt anything in my hams from that exercise but a stretch,” he says. “If I want to stretch, I can do that without holding onto a heavy barbell. You don’t feel the hams contracting during that exercise, so what makes you think it’s doing anything for them? I think that exercise is more for the lumbar spine and has no business in a leg workout.” Dave prefers the kneeling version of single-leg curls, and gets a concentrated 12 reps for each leg. Roughly 45 minutes after his leg workout began, it’s over— short and sweet. What it’s All AboutDave is planning to repeat his lighter appearance at the NPC Nationals, where he could finally earn his pro card. For anyone who thinks he doesn’t stand a chance of ever mixing it up onstage with Ronnie, Flex, Jay and the rest, I’ve got one name for you– Bob Cicherillo. Personally, I think this thinking man’s bodybuilder would be an excellent representative of the sport, and more of us could stand to give his training style of reduced volume and frequency a fair trial. If a behemoth like Palumbo doesn’t need to train every day for two hours, what makes you think you do? Think about it and apply some of his ideas to your own leg training. I doubt you’ll wind up with dino-sized thighs like Jumbo has, but I bet you will see improvements. That’s what it’s all about. Dave Palumbo can be reached by e-mail at
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. SIDEBARDave Palumbo’s Training Split:Day 1: BackDay 2: LegsDay 3: Biceps and ForearmsDay 4: OFFDay 5: Triceps and CalvesDay 6: ChestDay 7: OFFDay 8: ShouldersREPEAT
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