Victory Is Mine!
A Date With Destiny For The Dominican Dominator

Can He Knock Out The Champ?


Improving With The Help Of A Winning Team
The name of the game in this sport is improvement, whether you are competing in a local show or the Mr. O. Victor is not the same man who turned pro almost six years ago as a raw 220-pounder with just a few contests under his belt. Both the man and his physique have grown and matured considerably. On the training front, Martinez sticks with the man who has been kicking his ass in the gym since 1998, Victor Muñoz. “He’s the best, plain and simple,” Victor proclaims. “He shows me no mercy and pushes me far past what I could do on my own, but he also knows when enough is enough and when to stop so you can recover and grow.” Another man who helps out in the gym with motivation is Venezuelan pro Heinz Senior, now living in Miami. He makes the trip up to New York twice a month to hit the weights hard with Victor. Vic’s goal this year has been mainly to improve his already dramatic X-frame by focusing on his shoulders and quads. “I do 10 sets of shoulder presses and 10 sets of deep squats every time I train them,” he says. “And I do see a difference.” The other side of the equation is nutrition and that’s handled by MD’s own guru and the man Ronnie has been using for almost 10 years, Chad Nicholls. “Chad and I make a good team,” Martinez notes. “He never tells me just to do something or make a change without explaining why. That’s important. It gives me a lot more confidence in what I’m doing when I understand the reasons behind it. And he lets me eat a lot of food on the diet, which is perfect.” Larger portions of food have definitely contributed to a thicker, fuller look for Victor over the past couple seasons, and he has been able to add an appreciable amount of muscle mass, too. Another thing Chad has tweaked over the past couple shows has been the carb-up process over the final week. “I used to carb up too much, too soon,” he explains. “I would start on Tuesday and go full out, right up to the show, which sometimes didn’t work out too well. Now I carb up on Wednesday and Thursday and back off Friday to let my body absorb and utilize the carbs. It never gets a chance to do that if you just keep pounding the carbs like crazy.”

The Keys To Condition
As we all know, being in peak condition on contest day has been something Victor has struggled with at times. Of course, the extreme standard we hold these guys to is pretty ridiculous, when you stop to think about it. A man can have sunken cheeks and eyes, cross-striations all over his body, yet if his glutes aren’t totally dry and grainy with grooves in them deep enough to slide a credit card through, he’s “off.” He’s smooth, then he missed his peak. No wonder these guys get so frustrated at times. And people don’t believe me when I say I really wouldn’t want to be a pro bodybuilder! Victor has seemingly mastered this final element in his competitive package. Part of it is due to staying leaner in the first place, as any of you who have had a chance to see him since the Arnold can attest to. He used to get pretty bulky in the off-season, but no longer. When I saw him at the New York Pro, I was quite impressed with the condition he was maintaining. And a crowd at Peter Potter’s Southern States event were recently treated to him guest posing 11 weeks out from the Olympia at a very tight 265 pounds, which is within striking distance of his anticipated stage weight of 250 at the O. The diet started 13 weeks out at 280, but this was a much leaner 280 than Martinez has ever been before. “I found out that I could stay pretty hard and still put on quality muscle,” he says. “And it’s actually easier to get ready for a show this way— I don’t have to suffer so much and I can eat more.” Cardio also plays a key role. Right now, he is doing 30 minutes a day, first thing in the morning (first thing for him, anyway; he goes to bed very late and wakes up late). That will probably be increased to two daily sessions of 45-60 minutes as the contest date draws near. He is currently using the treadmill, but soon the machine he loves to hate will be back in the picture: the StepMill. If you haven’t tried this contraption, you don’t know what you’re missing…namely, pain and fatigue. “I don’t like that machine— period— but it’s much worse when I’m at my heaviest weight,” he notes. “I’m waiting to drop a few more pounds before I get up on that bastard.”

Is Victor The Next Mr. Olympia?
When the interview was coming to an end, I asked one last question of Victor; why are you going to win the Mr. Olympia this year? “I never said I was,” he immediately replied. His attitude is that he is training and dieting to look his absolute best and whatever happens, happens. Of course he wants to win, but realistically, he knows it is anything but a foregone conclusion. Several other very formidable and very hungry opponents block his path, and he may or may not be able to beat them this time. But next year may very well be a different story. “I’m thinking about maybe doing just the Olympia next year,” he announces. “That, and cutting back on all the guest posing. Instead of every weekend, I’ll limit it to twice a month. The money is great, but it takes a toll on your physique traveling so much.” That could all add up to a version of Victor that’s flat-out unbeatable. But for now, he has this Olympia to get ready for. With a 2-month-old daughter at home and making appearances for MHP, Vic certainly has his hands full right now. But who knows? This could be his year.

Over the past three Mr. Olympia dynasties of Haney, Yates and Coleman, we have all become aware of a somewhat unjust trend. All three men held on to their titles at times when they probably shouldn’t have, since they came into the Olympia off their best conditions. This kept more than a few men who probably should have picked up at least one Sandow in their careers— like Lee Labrada, Shawn Ray, Kevin Levrone and Flex Wheeler— from ever tasting our sport’s ultimate glory. Even Jay Cutler himself knows firsthand how close to impossible it is to beat the reigning Mr. Olympia, since he essentially did it back in 2001, yet left Las Vegas with second place. Victor doesn’t let any of this get to him, even when I suggested that it’s possible he could become the “New Jay,” taking runner-up several times before finally winning. “I’m gonna work just as hard whether I get first or second, even if I get second more than once,” he comments. And when he does win, he wants it to be by a knockout. “That’s the best way to do it,” he says. “You don’t want it to be questionable and then hear about how you won because of favoritism or something stupid. When I win, I want to leave everyone in the dust far behind me so it’s decisive.”

The Mr. Olympia is just a few weeks away now, and this one is going to be a real nail-biter. Ronnie has been toppled from his throne at last and the long-suffering Jay Cutler now wears the crown as king of our sport. But as Shakespeare wrote in Henry IV, “Heavy is the head that wears the crown.” A furious Ronnie is coming back with vengeance on his mind to get his title back. And then there’s Victor Martinez. For several years, big Vic was always talked about in terms of potential and how great he could be once he eliminated various distractions in his personal life and dedicated himself to being the best bodybuilder he is capable of. Conditioning was often his Achilles heel, as well. But those days are in the past. Last fall, Martinez displayed a killer package of size, shape and definition and stormed all the way to third place behind Jay and Ronnie. More than a few people commented that had Victor’s more aesthetically pleasing physique trumped them both, few would have argued the decision. This spring, he nabbed the Arnold Classic title by defeating defending two-time champ Dexter Jackson. Clearly Victor is in a very nice place right now heading into his fourth Mr. O contest.