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Trainer of Champions - June 2003 |
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Written by Charles Glass
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Thursday, 26 April 2007 |
You did a fantastic job turning Gunter's physique from an also-ran into a front-runner at last year's Olympia. What did you do and is there anything I can learn from Gunter's transformation that'd be helpful in my bodybuilding program?
Yes, there are always new concepts and ideas to learn in bodybuilding. About Gunter, we were just trying to see if we could get him in the top 10, and then we'll go from there. We spent numerous hours working on his body trying to get it to come up and every body part seemed to be responding pretty good. After a while, I said, gosh, I think he could probably break the top five, but that depends on the judges, because as we all know, judges sometimes don't judge the way they see it. Rather, they judge the way other judges are judging. So, we just wanted to do the best we could. When Gunter made the top five, it was great! If you look at some of the pictures, his condition was probably one of the best on stage. To understand what we did, I'll go over the background of the tasks and what we did to achieve them.
We only had five months to work with his physique before the Olympia. What I decided to do was ask the judges questions about Gunter's body, and find out what they thought his weaknesses were. I knew what they were in my mind, but since I'm not an IFBB pro judge, I had to go to Jim Manion, the head judge in the organization. I had a productive discussion with Jim when he came to town, as well as the other judges who I thought would be on the panel for the Olympia.
Once I got the feedback from the judges, I decided to work on what he needed to improve. The judges were almost unanimous in what Gunter's weaknesses were. He needed a little bit more upper back, overall back thickness, triceps and tighter abs. I said we'd do the best we can with most of the body parts. The muscles that are behind will get first priority over the body parts that aren't as weak. The approach was very systematic.
We started using stuff in the gym like incline power presses that a lot of the power lifters used to do that also brought up the pecs. What we did was push presses, which means we put the stoppers up on the rack so the barbell can only go so far upwards before it hits the stopper pins. We're also using an extreme incline so the movement hits more upper pecs with a little bit of the front delt. To isolate the upper pecs even more, Gunter had to lower the weight down to a complete stop on the pin, and then exert all the force to push it back up. From going heavy on an extreme incline press, and having to work within the confines of the stoppers, it's very hard to do because of the load, but the upper pec muscles absorbed all of the movement, which was our goal. This worked out really good because his chest started to come up very fast.
In fact, we're doing the same thing right now, and Gunter is improving more and more. We had his weight up to 328 pounds, but he had to travel on business. Every time he takes a business trip, he comes back five or 10 pounds lighter. At the moment, Gunter's on leave for 14 days, so when he comes back, I roughly figure his weight will be about 315 pounds. But, we've gotten him up to 333 pounds before, so I know we can get it back to that point soon.
To bring up Gunter's back, we used dumbbells exclusively. Most people tear muscles when they start using barbells, but you never hear about them tearing a muscle when they use a dumbbell. Even though the dumbbells are harder, they work much better. Dumbbells are probably about the best thing you can do for back. Most use barbells because it's impressive to use heavy weight on back movements, so they'll use a wide grip on the bar for movements like bent-over rows. But, if you ever try to do a bent-over row with dumbbells, you know instantly that it's really hard to get a good contraction because it's so heavy and each arm is pulling separate from the other.
Aside from the lat pull-down type machines, we used dumbbells for rows, deadlifts, upright rows, rear delts- anything requiring a pulling motion for the back. A bent-over dumbbell row is done the same as a barbell except the contraction is greater. Plus, you can even do one arm at a time for even more range of motion. You'd be surprised what the dumbbell deadlifts would do to build up the back and how we did them. I had Gunter almost do dumbbell bent-over rows, but when the arms are rowed up, he stands up and contracts the back. On the lowering portion of the deadlift repetition, the erectors are stretched. It seemed to work really good for Gunter, because the more we did, the better his back started to look. We worked on Gunter's back pretty much from day one all the way through, and we never backed off the heavy weights, knowing that heavy weights are going to do all the building we need for more muscle mass. He's never had a problem with conditioning, so getting him in shape wouldn't be an issue, especially with Chad Nicholls handling Gunter's diet.
Gunter's training program used some movements that are out of norm for most bodybuilders. Where they would go with barbells and machines, we stayed with free weights. Most guys will go from barbells down to machine work, because they run out of gas and it's a little easier to control and handle. I've always figured that the lighter you start to go, the more your muscle will deflate, especially when you're trying to diet down. I didn't want to give the muscles time to deflate at all. I wanted to keep them full, so we tried to stay on the heavy weight as long as possible.
Overall, we used more of a power lifting style. If you look at the average power lifter, their chests are humongous and they don't do a lot of reps. You get shredded when you start doing repetitions. I went along with that principle when we started doing some of the stuff power lifters used to do way back in the days, just by reading some of the articles from way back when and then bringing it forward into today's physiology. What I saw the power lifters doing was going as heavy as they could with minimal repetition. So, we at least try to do six to eight reps. A lot of times we may get five reps, but mind you, we're doing a 455-pound press for a triple. Gunter's not a power lifter; he's a bodybuilder, yet he's still strong. I believe that if you don't build up muscles the right way, you'll have no density to the muscles. So, we're trying to keep that dense look where Gunter's real thick and massive instead of soft and puffy on stage.
What we did to bring out Gunter's lower lats was the pull-down machine, but we used it a little different. We have a bar that's shaped like a V to keep the grip wide. We keep the elbows forward and we pull down low into the lower part of the lat instead of onto the upper lats. We found that the lower lats got a lot thicker for him with this movement.
About sets and reps, I didn't take Gunter's sets to failure except for the last set. The first set is always 15 reps, because he's still warming up. After that, we start to go a little bit heavier, where the reps are 12, 10, eight and then when I do a max set, we'll get out six reps. The amount of sets depend on how much endurance he has. We normally don't count the first warm-up set, so everything after that is mainly four sets per movement.
Gunter is great to work with because he's open to suggestions. He's not close-minded. Most of the guys I've worked with are a little leery about hurting themselves. Once an athlete's been hurt by another person, whomever it may be, when it comes to another trainer working with him down the road, he may become a little gun shy. From day one, I told Gunter, "Look, if you want me to help you, this is what I can do, but I gotta have your cooperation. You gotta go all the way and believe in what I can do for you. From that point on, we had no problems because he started believing in me. This guy puts total confidence in me.
Charles, can Gunter fair well against a new and improved Ronnie Coleman or a Jay Cutler at this year's Mr. Olympia contest? I'd like to see Gunter take home the gold. He is a true champion and role model.
You know what? I've been observing what their weaknesses are right now, and their weaknesses are Gunter's strong points. He won't go in there with a big stomach. We're going to make sure his stomach stays down because that's what the judges are looking for, to see what their abdomen is going to look like. I took control of Gunter's ab training, because I want to get his abs down and tight. Really, really tight. I had Gunter start to use controlled breathing while doing his legwork. Most people hold their breath when they're doing squats. That's the wrong thing to do, because when you hold your breath, you push your stomach out. That just makes your stomach get bigger and bigger. Gunter also did a lot more lower ab work. I got him breathing properly during his leg workout to control his stomach, and after that, we immediately start doing abs. We're doing knee raises in a way in which you don't extend all the way down and get your hip flexors involved. Then we did weighted knee raises, crunches, and general stuff like that gets a lot of middle abs, too. Gunter trained abs at least four times a week and the hard work made a difference for him. As far as how Gunter will place at the Olympia, we don't waste time worrying about it, because he's going to fare great against them. You have to understand, this man is going to be on stage ripped at 320 to 325 pounds. He's not going to be any lighter than that. With the proper amount of size, Gunter can deal with pretty much anybody on stage.
I saw you attending the Arnold Classic. With your expert eye, how did the competitors measure up?
I thought Chris was going to come in a lot bigger than he did. Normally, his upper body's a lot thicker than what it was. But I guess he just went for symmetry instead and he didn't worry about the mass that he normally carries. When Chris is big and full, and if he really focuses on his body, Chris can be hard to beat. It's just that he didn't put his all into the work, so he came up in second place. If I had been judging the show, I wouldn't have given him second only because I know how he can look. Chris sacrificed too much size. His legs looked phenomenal, but his upper body was dying.
Markus Ruhl was very, very thick. This guy had the thickest body I've probably ever seen on a guy that size. But the minute he turned around, he lost it all. He was missing his hamstrings and also his upper back detail and stuff. He was thick and round, but he had no detail. He didn't work on that and really needed it, especially in his upper back.
Jay tried to please the judges this time by coming down in size because they thought he was bigger at the Ironman. Jay had no problem winning, but then when he came back for the San Francisco, he was a little bit bigger again. But he was in between the two, which is perfect for him. I'm often asked if I think Jay can be Mr. Olympia one day, and by all means, he could be. If you look at Jay, the guy is in tremendous shape. He never fails to come in shape when he comes to a show. He is always in shape and he has a very, very good work ethic. So does Günter. He has the exact same work ethic. They train and work very hard. They approach bodybuilding as a profession and a job. They work very hard to do what they need to do to win. When you look at the Chris Cormiers, the Flex Wheelers, the Melvin Anthony's, these guys have tremendous symmetry. But they always seem to fall short on something. They either sacrifice muscularity or conditioning. Now, Chris, like I said, went way down in his size. Melvin should have been a little bit better in his conditioning and not worry about holding all the size. He would have been much better at the Ironman and also at the Arnold. If everyone else has the same beliefs Jay and Gunter have in themselves, they would be the same way- on top.
Do you have any advice for avoiding last minute mistakes in my cutting diet as I start to get closer to my target body weight and body fat level?
I think one of the biggest misconceptions about diet is that people always think you have to diet down to be in shape. No, you should already be in shape four weeks out so that you can eat your way back up into a decent shape. Yes, you get as heavy as you can, and you diet down to get in shape. But there's a point in time when your body has to start trying to go back up because if you keep going down, you only can go down from being down. It's hard to go back up. You've got to sort of stop mid-way so your body can stabilize and then start to go back up, so your body can get tighter and tighter, and you look full on stage and harder. If you stay too lean in the off-season, you have to almost get out of shape to get in shape. That's the key right there. If you're in shape all year long and you're lean, it's very hard to put on any more mass. But if you can get out of shape, and what I mean by that is put the pounds on that you need to put on, train with that weight to get hard and solid, then you are able to get tighter and tighter.
Charles, you're a great, respected trainer. What are your training philosophies and rules of thumb for other personal trainers and bodybuilders alike?
One of the greatest things we did is realize you can't always train everyone the exact same way. So you have to observe the person's body, see what they have, see what they need and then start using different angles and different pulls in their workout so it could benefit that person's body. You can't always go with what works for Jay and apply it to Ronnie Coleman's needs. As a trainer, you have to figure out what you can do to benefit his physique with this machine, or that exercise. If he is doing a seated row, do you have him sit down and do the conventional row where you lock your arms, lock your body, and pull in? No. You want to be able to lean your body forward and pull into the back at the contraction. Those are the type things that we try to do to create a different look for different bodies. Apply this to every aspect of your body, and experiment with different ideas. I'm a trainer by profession, but as a bodybuilder, I'm my own trainer, as are you. Keep that in mind.
What I normally do is try to take each person as an individual. They all have these differences, so what I do is figure out what they need and what they're missing, and go from there. Then I try to figure out the best angle for their body. I normally try it on myself to see if I can get the contraction I'm looking for, or I try it on one of my clients who doesn't know anything about bodybuilding. If they can get the contraction, then I know I can get the bodybuilder to.
I like to use all free weights, and you don't have to use heavy, heavy weights. It's just that the movement has to be slower. If you're going to go heavy weight you know good and well you can't do it slow. So you have to move it at a faster tempo. But you can't take long breaks. You can't wait until your body totally recovers and then jump back down and do a set because you're defeating the purpose of trying to build mass. The movement has to be quicker. I do not always use low reps. It just depends on the body part and the condition the person's in from the beginning. But if you're trying to put some mass on, you should take it a little slower and go with lower reps. Notice that most bodybuilders are overtraining. The routines of most professional bodybuilders are unrealistic. You have to understand the average guy doesn't have the supplementation that a pro guy has.
Lastly, look at your basic body types: Endomorph, ectomorph and mesomorph. You gotta figure out what your basic body type is and that should pretty much tell you the type of training you need. So whether you are working on your own training or coaching someone else, do the research, do your homework and practice, practice, practice.
What are your thoughts on Synthol and are bodybuilders neglecting proper biceps training because of the easy way out?
Genetics plays a big part. If you're meant to have big arms, you're going to have big arms. A lot of guys try to use Synthol and whatever else with the localized injections to get their arms to have the illusion of being big. That's not going to always work because now you can see where the spot injections are. In competition, judges have started to take points away if they think you have it. To put mass on the biceps, I use of proper movement, like the old-fashioned barbell curl- where you drag the barbell up the body and squeeze the biceps. Those type movements apply a lot more pressure on the biceps itself and it will start to grow. The old preacher curl uses a lot of delts, so instead of doing that, how about trying to meet your biceps a little bit? As you are coming up into the curl movement, instead of leaning back and using your delts, lean inward so you take your delt out of it, and all the pressure goes on your biceps.
We use little unique things like that all the time. They are very effective, no question. Here's another one. Instead of doing a dumbbell curl the regular way, we may do a part dumbbell curl that twists into a hammer curl all within the same repetition. Use proper form so the twist is translucent. Keep the pressure on the biceps. At the bottom of the rep, when you first start coming up, and you start to twist (supinate), instead of twisting, bring it up across your body and squeeze the biceps at the top. This should be a slow movement. It's not a swinging or throwing movement. It may take a count of 10 seconds to get the total contraction, which means the biceps is going to be screaming by the time it's back at the start position. You don't just drop on the lowering segment of the rep; take it slow, and you have to take it back down the same way you went up. Give these biceps exercise variations a try next time you consider stuff like Synthol.
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