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Trainer of Champions - July 2003 |
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Written by Charles Glass
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Thursday, 26 April 2007 |
I love your new column! I would love to read more about what you worked on with Gunter, specifically triceps, biceps, quads, hamstrings, and calves. Lastly, can you update us on Gunter's condition? I know I'm asking a lot and I appreciate your time. I wish we had trainers like you here in Miami!
No problem at all. That's what I'm here for. Whatever you need help on or are interested in, just e-mail me and I'll do my best.
Gunter's Triceps
Cable Pushdowns 4 sets x max out
Olympic Bar Skull Crushers 4 sets x max out
One of the main things I wanted Gunter to do is contract the muscles more. Normally, Gunter would train with guys who never pushed him to the limit. They'd just let Gunter do whatever he wanted to do, and they'd follow along.
When Gunter and I started training together, what I did was start making Gunter go a lot heavier with the weights, and not worry so much about doing 12 or 15 reps per set. Instead, I'd have him give me as many reps as he could with heavier weight, and he'd be squeezing and contracting throughout the whole exercise. He started to really push himself hard, and that's when we started seeing improvements.
For triceps, we did a cable pushdown, but with a special bar I had this guy make for us. The bar actually swiveled in our hands when pushing down, and that allowed us to push the wrist over more and go deeper into the triceps. A standard straight bar locks you into an upward stance and the triceps lose the contraction towards the bottom. I use variations like that all the time.
Gunter's second triceps movement was skull crushers (also known as French presses), but instead of an E-Z-curl bar, we used a full-size Olympic bar. The E-Z curl bar sometimes takes the pressure off the triceps and onto the chest because you're able to flare the elbows out. The Olympic bar forces you to keep the elbows in; it will kill your wrists if you start flaring out too far. So, when we do skull crushers, we try to keep the bar in front of us with elbows in, bring it down to the forehead and go straight back up, contracting the muscle more. Guys are sometimes fearful of using an Olympic bar on skull crushers because of hurting their wrists, but as long as your form is tight without your wrists turning backward, you won't have any problems.
Gunter's Biceps
Drag Barbell Curls
Straight Bar Curls
Hammer Curls
Preacher Curls
Total of 14 or 16 sets, 12-15 reps apiece.
Gunter's biceps program is purposely basic. His arms are very long, so we had to modify the equipment itself when we did movements that locked him in place, such as preacher curls. That's why we tried to go more with free barbells and dumbbells, which would allow him to get a more natural range of motion. Four sets per exercise is our motto for biceps, and the reps varied from workout to workout. We went heavy, so I had him give me as many reps as he could for four sets per exercise.
Gunter's Quads
45-Degree Leg Press
Vertical Leg Press
Reverse Hack Squat
Free Squats
Smith Machine Squats
Total 20 sets
Gunter can be a little thicker in the hips because of his genetics and squatting with a wide leg stance, which puts more pressure on the outside. The hips have to support you a lot more, so you tend to thicken up on the waist and hip areas. To put on more size onto his quads, we brought his feet in closer on each movement. He can put on so much more muscle this way without applying pressure on the hips.
We use so many different exercises when we do Gunter's quads that it's not possible to have a set routine for him. Every time it's something different. One routine may be leg press, hacks and squats, or we may come in and do squat press machine first, then vertical leg press machine, then reverse hacks. We try to vary it each time so the legs are not familiar with what we're doing. You can become complacent by doing the same thing over and over. I like to keep them guessing as to what we're gonna do so they can't be prepared for it.
On the 45-degree leg press, he normally goes up to 30 plates total and he's cranking out 10 or 12 good reps. The one-legged leg press will come in, but right now we're trying to build more size, so we're staying with the standard way of pressing with both legs. We use squats, but we pre-fatigued the quads by doing leg presses and reverse hacks first. Once you pre-exhaust, you don't have to worry about trying to put a lot of weight on your back, because your legs are dead already. It allows us to use correct form by moving your legs back in and not worrying about getting hurt. Your legs are just as taxed with a lighter weight as they'd be if you started your quad routine with max weights on the squat. Gunter's feet are always kept close together, and unless he breaks parallel, we don't count it as a rep. The Smith machine comes into play only when he's totally exhausted. Otherwise, we try to use the free weights.
As I mentioned, we're always changing up Gunter's quad training, including sets and reps, but a general rule of thumb is 20 reps at the beginning of the workout, working out way down to just 12. When we do squats, we start off with 12 reps and our heaviest one may be eight. We do four sets on each exercise, and we're always mixing it up.
Gunter's Calves
Standing Calf Raise
Seated Calf Raise
Donkey Calf Raise
Five sets each exercise
Gunter already had big calves, and can get away with doing pretty much anything to get them to grow. We do the straight up standing calf raises and seated raises but we try to change the feet position where they point out on one set, then straight ahead, and finally Gunter will point them inward. I like to work it that way. We choose up to three calf exercises and 20 reps, four sets apiece.
Gunter's Hamstrings
Lying Leg Curls
Seated Leg Curls
Stiff Leg Deadlifts
Four sets each exercise, 20 reps
We're really trying to bring out more size and detail in Gunter's hamstrings. Just like with quads, sets and reps will vary from workout to workout, but three to four sets per movement is usually a normal amount. Gunter first starts with a lying leg curl, but we do them differently. Instead of lying flat on the bench, we lift our torso up off the pad and rest on our elbows so we can squeeze the glutes tight before curling the legs. The angle puts all the pressure directly on the ham rather than the lower back and glutes. You can't go very heavy because the secondary muscle groups aren't in motion to assist in the movement.
From there we go to the seated leg curl machine, the one that locks your legs down with a padded lever over the top of the quads. But, we don't lock our legs. We let them stay free, and tie Gunter in so he doesn't move and just uses his own body weight to hold himself down and contract the hamstring that way. Variations like this one cause the muscle to be completely isolated and that results in better growth.
To finish up Gunter's hamstring workout, we'll have him do stiff-leg deadlifts. Gunter is very tall, but I still keep his legs straight. Stiff-leg deads are mainly for the separation in the hams, and we don't go with really heavy weights. If you're trying to build mass in the hams, this isn't the exercise you'll want to do. Moving along, Gunter will get maybe 20 reps or so, and three to four sets.
This concludes Gunter's workout program for triceps, biceps and legs. Exercises, sets and reps are always different because Gunter may be tired that day or we purposely mix things up to keep the muscle unaccustomed to the work we're doing.
Right now Gunter is about 332 pounds. When you see guys get up to that weight, you automatically think they're fat, but not Gunter. It's hard to say what his body fat is exactly, because some days he'll come into the gym looking hard as nails and other days a little softer. It's really hard to say, but he's not high up there, I'll tell you that. Gunter is a huge man. He's not the biggest I've seen in terms of sheer size (that would be Greg Kovacs), but for an athlete with shape, Gunter is the biggest. We expect Gunter to step on stage anywhere between 315 and 320 pounds, ripped and better than last year.
We've still got a ways to go, so we're not letting up on anything! Every day he comes in, we make sure his chest is full, and especially his back. Gunter's back has gotten immensely better. You won't believe it! It's so much thicker than it was last year already.
The excitement of the Mr. Olympia is already here, and I'm often asked if Gunter can defeat Ronnie Coleman at his best, considering Ronnie is more gifted genetically. I'll talk about this a little bit and how it fits into our plan of taking out the champ in Las Vegas for the Sandow.
When you say genetically gifted, you're implying he's flawless. Not even Flex Wheeler is flawless. Every single athlete out there has a body part that's not as strong as another. You can look at Ronnie's hamstrings, and see that they are totally shredded when he turns around. But there's no thickness or belly to them. I ask you, is that complete? No, it's not.
Does Ronnie's quads get shredded? No, not anymore. Since Ronnie gained all that weight, his quads have smoothed out and he hasn't been able to get them as shredded as they used to be. When his quads were small, they were very shredded and separated. This is an advantage Gunter has over Ronnie.
Ronnie is an athlete with long legs even though he's only about 5-foot-11 and his torso is short. Now, let me ask you, when you look at his midsection, what's he missing? He doesn't have a complete set of abs even when his stomach isn't protruding.
At the GNC show, Ronnie tried to turn around and do his signature thing by showing his shredded glutes. It didn't work this time, because Gunter has really good glutes, they're shredded, and his hamstrings are bigger.
Ronnie is an awesome bodybuilder, but he has some body parts that are missing that can cause him to lose the show. What we do with Gunter is work really hard to match Ronnie on his strengths, but try to murder him on his weaknesses. We have many weeks before the Olympia, and will use that time to make even more improvements. Gunter's going to be ready and will shock a lot of people.
Have any up-and-coming amateur bodybuilders at Gold's Gym caught your expert eye- guys who might be future stars?
Yes, two guys in particular. There's a guy named Chris Cook. He used to be Bob Cicherello's training partner, but is working with me now. Chris is gonna be amazing. He's got awesome legs, delts and arms. Then we also have Allen Grimes, who's coming back again this year after taking second place in the super heavies, and is going to be amazing, too. Both these guys are training very hard for the upcoming NPC Mr. USA, and I think we could have a one-two California punch at the show. Chris is big; Allen's big. There are certain body parts that Allen has over Chris, but Chris has some over Allen. It's gonna be amazing to see those two guys going at it on stage. You may have not heard of or seen Chris or Allen in the magazines much yet, but after the Mr. USA, I think you will start to see pictures of these guys more and more.
It appears every athlete you train has impressive delts. Flex Wheeler, Chris Cormier, Melvin Anthony, Gunter, the list goes on and on. Shoulders are a weakness of mine, so what recommendations or tips you can give me?
I'd say you're not hitting the three heads of the deltoid completely, and other muscles are coming into play. A slight variation or angle can make the entire difference between progress and stagnating, so I will outline my shoulder routine to give you a better idea.
I like barbell presses as the first exercise, but I believe in doing barbell presses behind the neck. You have to do them carefully. Just bring the barbell back down to the earlobes, then press back up. You're opening yourself up for injuries to the rotator cuff if you go too far. Behind-the-neck barbell presses are more effective than presses to the front. Guys have shied away from them for fear of injury, but if you do them right, they'll hit all heads of the deltoid.
When I used to compete, I considered myself to have really good delts. I always did behind-the-neck presses and I never had a rotator cuff problem. When I first started training, I used to have to cling the weight to my chest, throw it up over my head, sit down and do my press. I did that every day with about 225 pounds. And I didn't weigh that much, either, but my delts were strong and I never got an injury from it. You'd be surprised how useful this exercise is. Look at Kevin Levrone's delts. Behind-the-neck presses are Kevin's bread and butter. I do four sets, six to eight or eight to 10 reps per set. Sometimes I'll use the Smith machine or power rack while seated on a bench if I'm tired.
Again, when lowering, do not go too far or the fear about this exercise will come true. Technically, you're only inches a way from injury on every rep. Keep safety in mind. What I'd do is practice the movement without a barbell or weight. You can do it just sitting in a chair. For example, put your arms out like you're doing a military press. Raise them to the top, and lower. As you bring your arm down, think about where your earlobe is parallel to your hand. That's as far down as you should go. If you start going too low, you'll open yourself up to an injury. That's what happens to guys, especially when they bounce it off the back of the neck. Believe me, this is anything but safe.
I do side laterals, but I lift the dumbbell from my elbow, which is kept slightly bent. To give you a visual, my palm is facing to the back (knuckles in front) and my thumb is facing toward my legs at the starting position. I go up that way, and I lock my arms so they're slightly bent. I get more side play on the delts. The trick is not to jerk during the movement. Bend at the elbows, lock the arms into position, and practice this until you get the form down pat. Elbows make it all happen. You won't do as many reps because the weight gets heavy, really fast.
After that, I do front raises but with a unique angle, so I put all the pressure on my front delt. To do this front raise, picture yourself sitting down. Hands are each holding a dumbbell. Palms are facing your body. As you start to raise it, you bring your arms across your chest about as high as your chin. The dumbbells are almost touching at the end of the rep. Then you bring it back down. You can go pretty heavy on these.
For rear delts, I get myself in a bent-over row position like you normally would when doing bent-over laterals for rear delts, but I do them one arm at a time. When you have two arms working at the same time, you sometime lose focus on this exercise. This way, I know for sure it's working, and you can really feel it happening with each rep. Just bend over at the waist and let your arm hang all the way down with a dumbbell in hand. Lock your arm into position and bring it up, contracting the rear delt at the top. Avoid swinging or using momentum to bring the weight up. Notice how small the rear delt muscle is. It doesn't take a lot. At this angle, with only one arm, you won't be able to use a lot of weight. I do three sets, from 10 to 12 reps.
What Motivates You?
I'd like to close this month's column by answering one question I'm constantly being asked, and that is how do I stay motivated to train after being in the game so long?
You have to understand that I have a passion for this. In my earlier days, I competed now and then, and even placed well at the Masters Olympia, but I'm always training others and myself. I've been training clients seven days a week for over two years now, and I don't get burned out because they- the guys- always motivate me. Each person is a little different. Every time these guys come in means I get a little bit more out of them. That just really excites me because they are doing their very best, putting 100 percent into it, so I want to put 100 percent, too. It just keeps me going. It's a passion.
One of the biggest things you gotta do in order to motivate yourself is always try different things in the gym, which I try to teach you guys as much as possible in this column. If you do the same thing over and over during your workouts, you'll eventually get burnt out. But if you can try mixing it up a little bit, try some different angles and stuff like that, you'll never burn yourself out. You'll just keep going, and have that excitement, liking it more and more, from being able to try new things that can help you improve. I'll be writing this column every month for a long time ahead, and appreciate the opportunity to try to teach my training philosophies to you. My door is open to all MD readers.
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