Ronnie Coleman On Forced Reps, Putting On Mass & More

Putting on Mass

 Hi Ronnie. A friend of mine let me borrow a couple of your old training DVDs to motivate me, and now I really want to become a bodybuilder! I am 28 years old, 5’10”, and 160 pounds and would love to hit 200 pounds in a year or so. I’ve dabbled a little bit over the years with weights but have never been serious or consistent until now. Can you please give me some general guidelines for how you think I should train and eat to gain as much mass as possible? Thanks, you are the GOAT (Greatest Of All Time)!

 Thanks for the kind words. What I would do is keep everything real simple. Train every body part twice every seven to eight days with mostly basic movements. Probably the best way to do that is to split the body three ways and go three days in a row, then take a day off. Warm up for every exercise, and do three or four work sets where you pyramid up in weight as the reps come down.

 Here is a good routine to follow:

 Day 1

Chin-ups                      4 x 12

Barbell rows                3 x 15, 12, 10

Barbell curls                3 x 15, 12, 10

Day 2

Bench press                 4 x 15, 12, 10, 8

Incline barbell

Military press               3 x 15, 12, 10

Lateral raise                 3 x 15, 12, 10

Skull-crushers              3 x 15, 12, 10

Day 3

Leg press                   3 x 20, 15, 12

Lying leg curl              4 x 15, 12, 10, 10

Stiff-leg deadlift            3 x 12, 10, 8

Standing calf raises     3 x 20, 15, 12

As far as eating goes, I would try to eat six times every day. No more than two of those meals should be protein shakes. I used to have a protein shake with my grits or oatmeal in the morning, then another one right before I went to bed. For my others, I would have a protein like steak, chicken breast, or fish along with carbs like potatoes or rice. If you can have five solid meals a day and one shake, that would be perfect.

 Protein is what builds muscle, so make sure you have 2 grams per pound of bodyweight divided up between those six meals. So for a 160-pound guy like you (hopefully that number goes up soon), that's 320 grams divided by 6, or 53. I never really counted carbs, but about 4 grams per pound should work pretty good, or 640 grams. That would come out to a little more than 100 grams with each meal, assuming you have some carbs like a couple pieces of fruit or some tortilla chips with your shake, too. Just try to get a little bit stronger on all your lifts as the weeks go by, and adjust your grams of protein and carbs as you gain bodyweight. Forty pounds is a whole lot of weight to gain in a few months, but considering you are still pretty much a beginner, I think you can make it happen.

 Forced Reps Not a Good Idea

 What is your opinion on using forced reps? Do you think most sets should be taken to failure on your own, or do you think it’s better to have a training partner help you get a couple more reps in addition to those?

 I never believed in using a lot of forced reps. If you watch all my workout videos, you won’t see me doing those very often at all. My whole thing was, if you can’t get the reps on your own, they don’t count. You’ll see a lot of guys put 315 pounds on the bench press and maybe get one or two reps on their own, then their training partner or spotter helps them get a bunch more. Then the guy says he benched 315 for 10. No you didn’t! I don’t even think it’s a good idea if you do most of the reps on your own and then have the spotter help you get a couple more. It burns you out faster if you go beyond failure like that. You’re better off just doing another set all on your own power. Use the spotter to help you only if you can’t rack the weight— that’s it. If you can’t lift the weight on your own, use a little bit less weight.

 Nutrition: Don’t Talk About It, Just Do It

 Guys these days are meticulous about their nutrition, sometimes to the point of being ridiculous, in my opinion. They are constantly calculating “macros” down to the last gram, yet I just don’t see physiques being any better than they were in simpler times. Do you think a lot of guys tend to overthink their nutrition?

 I do think it’s a good thing to know how much of each macronutrient you’re eating. When I was competing, I kept track of how many grams of protein and carbs I ate. That way, I could make adjustments up or down, or if I was using a coach like Chad Nicholls, he would make the changes based on how I was looking. One thing I do notice is that a lot of guys now seem to spend most of their time talking about diets and always looking for something better, instead of following one diet long enough to know how well it really works for them. It’s just like training. Sometimes you just gotta go in there and do it instead of talking about it or thinking about it. But like you said, for all the new science and all the diet coaches we have now, you would think guys would be looking a whole lot better than they did 15 or 20 years ago. That tells me that nutrition probably isn’t as complicated as some people seem to think it is.

 The Importance of Massages

 In the years you competed, how often did you get chiropractic adjustments and deep-tissue massages? Did you do either or both of those more frequently once you started making much better money once you became Mr. Olympia? How valuable a role did you feel they played for you?

 I went as often as I could, and in the last half of my years winning the Mr. Olympia, I was up to three adjustments and three massages every week. I started getting chiropractic adjustments back when I was in college, but it wasn’t too often. Once I started competing years later, I found they were more necessary due to the way I trained. As I continued competing, there were a lot of little injuries, aches and pains, especially with my shoulders and back. Without getting those different therapies done on a regular basis, I honestly doubt I would have been able to keep going on and win eight Mr. Olympia titles. People would always tell me they wish they could be as big and strong as I was, but they don't understand what a toll it takes on your joints and your connective tissues. Nobody was really meant to be that big and strong. You’re pushing your body way past its limits. It’s almost like you’re driving a million-dollar racecar that goes 200 miles an hour for 500 laps. That car is gonna need way more maintenance than a little Honda someone just uses to drive to work and back every day!

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