2018 Arnold Classic Training Camp: Dexter Jackson

Staying Ripped and Lean, Building Big Triceps with the Blade

‘The Blade’ Is Never Out of Shape

Have you ever gotten a little out of shape in an off season and started to worry if you could lean out for a contest? This happens to me every year.

Never! Why do you think they call me “The Blade”? I’ve gotten up to 250 pounds a couple of times, but even at that weight I wasn’t fat. My abs were blurry as hell, but you could still see them. I compete around 230-235, and I was always able to get into condition in eight weeks, about half the time most pros need to diet. My metabolism is definitely much faster than the average guy’s, but even so; I eat pretty clean in the off-season. I will allow myself one cheat meal a day, whatever I want. I like Popeyes fried chicken and Taco Bell. I also snack on salt and vinegar chips and those gummy Life Savers. I know guys who will eat pure crap all day, every day in the off-season, and justify it because they’re “bulking.” OK, but what kind of bulk are you adding? If you add a ton of body fat and get way out of shape, dieting is going to be very rough and you’ll be lucky if you don’t lose muscle mass. Always keep an eye on the mirror, and if you’re one of those people who can somehow manage to think you’re still in good shape when you’re verging on obese, go ahead and have body fat tests done every couple of weeks so you will know if you’re putting on pure fat.

Train Smart for Big Triceps

Your triceps are some of the best the sport has ever seen. I saw a training article where it showed how you do machines and cables now for them. Is that because you’re older now? Did you used to do more of the basic free-weight moves like skull-crushers, overhead dumbbell extensions and close-grip bench presses for tri’s in your younger years when you were putting on all your arm size?

I built most of my triceps with good old EZ-bar skull-crushers and close-grip bench presses, heavy. I still do both of those, but not as heavy as I did back in the day. I’m 48 years old now and I have to take care of my joints. Longevity is the name of the game. I don’t need to build a lot of mass at this point in my career, so using more cables and machines is just smart training to preserve my tendons. I am proud to say I have never torn a muscle. How many other pros my age, or any bodybuilders my age, can say that? Charles Glass also deserves a lot of credit. I’ve been training with him out in Venice Beach for a few years now, and he has so many different angles and variations that we always manage to work the hell out of the target muscle in a way it’s never quite been hit before— and he keeps me safe from injury. I look at someone like Dorian Yates, who probably could have had a longer career in the sport if he hadn’t racked up all those injuries and muscle tears. You know how you hear that saying, “go heavy or go home”? That’s a really stupid attitude. Guys who ignore warning signs and keep training heavy always end up getting hurt. Guess what? Then they have to go home and stay home, because they’re too jacked up to train anymore! I’ve had little tweaks here and there over the years. When I do, I never try to train through the pain. Instead, I take a break and come back to the gym or back to that body part only when I feel the little issue is resolved. Train smart, and you’ll last a whole lot longer.

Getting Started in Bodybuilding

Hey Dexter, I am a huge fan. I was curious, how old were you when you first started to do bodybuilding and what got you started?

I was 20 years old and I had been lifting weights for a couple of years thanks to my older brother, but I had never given bodybuilding any thought. Then a few guys from my gym invited me to come with them and watch a local NPC show called the First Coast. The place was packed. To be honest, I wasn’t really paying a whole lot of attention to what the guys up on stage looked like. What I was noticing was how many hot girls were in the audience screaming their brains out for the dudes up there! I said, man … I want girls screaming for me like that. I decided I would do a show as soon as possible. A woman named Denise from my gym and a guy named Billy Frazier helped me with my diet, even though it was almost all tuna fish. I ate so much tuna over the next two months that it was 10 years before I could even look at a can of that stuff again. So I showed up at the 1991 NPC Jax Physique at 143 pounds, and won the bantamweight and overall. It was the only time a bantam had ever won an overall in the state of Florida. Right there I thought, if I can do this well and I’m this small, imagine if I put on some size? The rest is history. I compete at almost 100 pounds more than that now even though I’m the same height, 5’6”.

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