Written by Ron Harris
03 March 2020

 Old-school-meets-the-modern-age-slider

 

 

Old School Meets the Modern Age!

Training and Nutrition With Sergio Oliva Jr.

 

By Ron Harris

 

The New Myth – and a New Breed

           

I have a confession to make. I was, and still am, a huge fan of the late three-time Mr. Olympia, Sergio Oliva. I used to stare in wonder at black-and-white photos of the man they called The Myth, trying to process how a human being could be so massively muscular. Iconic black-and-white images taken by his onetime coach, Arthur Jones of Nautilus fame, showed him outside flexing arms that were larger than his head! Then, many years later, I learned his son was following in his footsteps and had begun competing in bodybuilding. Let’s just say I was underwhelmed at the scrawny kid. Sergio Oliva Jr. was 6 feet tall like his father had been, but a mere 176 pounds. Apparently, he was not the recipient of dad’s genetics. Even when he won the NPC Nationals in 2015, I was not impressed. Chest sucked, back sucked, hams were lagging too. Privately, I did not believe he would ever amount to jack as a pro. A year and a half later, my entire impression of Junior and his potential changed. When he took the stage at the 2017 New York Pro, Sergio was a completely different bodybuilder. Why? Unlike some bodybuilders who see only perfection when they gaze in the mirror, Oliva Jr. was his own worst critic. He harshly analyzed his physique, and resolved to work on his weak points and create a package that wasn’t merely a larger version of the same body, but a more balanced, complete edition. So yes, he most definitely got some favorable genetics from his legendary father. But I can assure you that over the many years I have been in this game, I’ve seen countless genetic wonders who never amounted to anything. Sergio was honest with himself, and constantly strove to discover new methods and techniques that would help him improve. Here, in his own words, is a body part by body part breakdown of Sergio’s physique, and how he optimized it to win his pro debut.

 

Back

 

Did it come easy?

“No way!”

 

What mistakes did you make?

“It lacked thickness for a long time because when I started training, I only focused on getting wider. It was so stupid. I literally only worked my medial delts, and pulldowns for wider lats. I never filled it in with various rows. Another major issue was that I had no mind-muscle connection with my back. I just went through the motions. I figured that if I started a back exercise with my arms straight and I bent them, I must be working my back. I was hitting mostly biceps.”

 

What did you learn was most effective for you?

“I learned how to actually use my back when I train it. I also stopped worrying about how much weight I was using. I use the same weight now as I did 10 years ago, but my back is twice the size. Another thing that made a world of difference was hitting back twice a week. Working it once every seven days wasn’t doing anything for it.”

 

Chest

 

Did it come easy?

“Chest was always my worst body part, and it still is today. I’ve had to fight to build my chest.”

 

What mistakes did you make?

“Just like with my back, I didn’t have a good connection with it. My triceps were so much bigger and stronger in relation to my pecs that they would do most of the work when I pressed. My chest definitely wasn’t being stressed properly.”

 

What did you learn was most effective for you?

“One sort of radical solution I found was to stop training my triceps for almost two years. I will do some rope extensions for them right before a show to bring out the detail, but that’s it. I used to be all about the heavy skull-crushers, and would spend a lot of time in general training my triceps. But the better they got, the more my chest fell behind. I only learned how to really squeeze and contract my pecs a few weeks before the 2017 New York Pro [which Sergio won], so you didn’t see the results there. When I competed at the 2018 Chicago Pro [where Sergio placed second], chest was my most improved body part.”

 

Shoulders

 

Did they come easy?

“Yes. Shoulders grow for me, they always have. I haven’t even done any direct training for my front delts in about four years now. That can be a problem on incline presses for chest, because I feel like they give out before my upper chest does.”

 

What mistakes did you make?

“I never really made any mistakes training my shoulders, but I did make a terrible decision years ago to play flag football with some of my old buddies from high school. I hurt my shoulder so badly that I thought my entire bodybuilding career was over. At the time I didn’t have medical insurance and couldn’t afford to see a doctor, so I just put the arm in a sling for a few months. It was so bad that I couldn’t even do a push-up off the wall. I lost over 50 pounds in a few months because I couldn’t train at all. It was miserable.”

 

What did you learn was most effective for you?

“Something positive has come out of every negative thing that’s ever happened to me, and this was no exception. Once I was able to start training again, I was too scared to push any heavy weights. So for the first time, I learned how to really use my delts and contract the muscle.”

 

Arms

 

Did they come easy?

“Yes, for sure. I started to do a little training for my biceps right after the New York Pro, and I hadn’t done anything for them for over a year prior to that. Now I’m doing hammer curls to try and bring out a peak. I’m stuck with my dad’s football-shaped long biceps that insert right at the inside of my elbow, but I think I can push the brachialis up and create a little bit of a peak. I feel like my arms can look smaller than they are in some poses because of my biceps shape as it is now.”

 

What mistakes did you make?

“Well, arms were pretty much all I did in the beginning. That threw my physique off balance, because it made building my chest and back that much more difficult later on.”

 

What did you learn was most effective for you?

“One thing I can say is that I stopped doing that supination movement on dumbbell curls. I keep my palms forward the whole time. I’ve had issues with pain in my right wrist for years, probably going back to high school football. Now I use Versa Gripps, and that takes care of the pain and the weaker grip with that hand. I put them on so tight that I can open up my hand and the bar still stays in place.”

 

Quads

 

Did they come easy?

“Yes. In the beginning, I was just arms and legs with a long, shallow torso in between.”

 

What mistakes did you make?

“I wouldn’t say I made mistakes. One thing that stands out is that I knew from the start that if I was gonna do this, I would need good legs. So many guys would tell me their legs just wouldn’t grow. At the time, to me that meant that some people could get good legs, and others just couldn’t. It didn’t occur to me that maybe they weren’t training their legs hard enough or using good form and a full range of motion. So I killed my legs twice a week, and they grew fast. Too fast, actually. I was bottom heavy most of my career. Then, in 2015, I went to Australia to guest pose, and shattered my heel jumping off the stage. I wasn’t able to train them for a few months, even up until I won the Nationals that year— and I still had the best legs up there! I never would have laid off my legs if I hadn’t injured myself. Eventually I would have been like Tom Platz, with these crazy huge legs that were far superior to my upper body.”

 

What did you learn was most effective for you?

“One thing I did learn was to open up my stance on squats to what’s almost a sumo squat. I’m 6 foot, and this is the proper form for me. It does get annoying whenever I post a video, and people comment that my stance is too wide. Even Shawn Rhoden told me that! But come on, look at my legs. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. So I tell everyone to find the stance that’s best for you, whether it’s more narrow or wider.”

 

Hams

 

Did they come easy?

“Hamstrings have always been a bitch for me. That’s why it was a proud accomplishment for me to win the New York Pro based on my glutes and hams. You always hear how shows are won from the back. That means from the neck down to the ankles.”

 

What mistakes did you make?

“I didn’t train my hamstrings much. Leg day was mostly about my quads. It’s a common mistake, and it’s why you don’t see many great hamstrings out there.”

 

What did you learn was most effective for you?

“First off, I made them a priority. I have four different leg days a week now. Two are for quads, one is for hams, and the fourth is mostly hams plus my left quadriceps, because it’s smaller than the right. I also learned that going a little lighter on hamstrings and using static holds, where I squeeze the muscle and fully stop the motion for a bit, are very effective for me.”

 

Calves

 

Did they come easy?

“Yes, and I have to admit that I rarely trained them until I turned pro. Most of my calf size comes from rollerblading when I was in high school. In my school, you needed a certain GPA to take driver’s ed and get your license. I wasn’t very good in school, so instead of getting my license and driving, I used to rollerblade all over Chicago. By the time I graduated, my inner calves could touch when I was standing up.”

 

What mistakes did you make?

“Like I said, I never trained them. Once I turned pro, I realized I had better get on them. There are a couple of great pros that stand out to me only because of their horrible calves. Dennis Wolf comes to mind. Listen, I love that guy’s physique and would be happy to have it, aside from his calves. It’s just so distracting. So now I train them. Well to be honest, I only train my left calf because that’s the one I put back in the rear double biceps and rear lat spread poses.”

 

What did you learn was most effective for you?

“Any type of calf training works very well for me. I got lucky that way.”

 

Training: Junior vs. Senior

“My dad used to train for about three and a half hours at a time. He never did any cardio until he competed at the 1985 Mr. Olympia at 44 years old. That means he won three Mr. Olympia titles without doing even 10 minutes of cardio. He used to train chest and back together. That’s something I couldn’t do. I would die! Even his rep style was wild. For pressing movements on chest, he would do five short reps in the top third of the range of motion, five in the middle, and five at the bottom. And he counted that as one rep! It was insanely high volume, and I say that as someone who trains with more volume than anyone else I know.”

 

Nutrition: Junior vs. Senior

“My father didn’t diet until 1985. He never ate fish, which is something many of us modern bodybuilders would envy. As far as going on lower carbs or carb cycling, he never did that. His carbs were always high. He was an accidental pioneer with insulin spiking, drinking soda and eating Twinkies every day. My coach Chris Aceto will have me eat muffins before workouts at times, but that’s the only sugar I really eat. And I don’t think anyone from my dad’s era was eating six meals a day. He would have three or four at most, but they would be larger meals.”

 

Contest History

2004 Southern USA

Second, Middleweight

 

2008 Southern USA

Second, Heavyweight

 

2009 Junior Nationals

Fifth, Heavyweight

 

2012 NPC Nationals

Did not place

 

2014 Junior Nationals

Third, Super Heavyweight

 

2015 USA Championships

Second, Super Heavyweight

 

2015 NPC Nationals

Super Heavyweight and Overall

 

2017 New York Pro

Winner

 

2018 Chicago Pro

Second Place

 

2018 Tampa Pro

Second Place

 

2018 Mr. Olympia

16th Place

 

Ron Harris got his start in the bodybuilding industry during the eight years he worked in Los Angeles as Associate Producer for ESPN’s “American Muscle Magazine” show in the 1990s. Since 1992 he has published nearly 5,000 articles in bodybuilding and fitness magazines, making him the most prolific bodybuilding writer ever. Ron has been training since the age of 14 and competing as a bodybuilder since 1989. He lives with his wife and two children in the Boston area. Facebook Instagram

 

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