TRAINING STYLES

Click on thumbnail for an enlarged view of us looking on while Frank Zane practices posing.

Here you are reading my point of view - some clean advice but by no means the last and only word. I encourage full range of motion with full extension and full contraction. I prefer moderate to heavy poundages with higher reps - 12-15 to maximize the involvement of the entire body. With moderate weight and higher reps I'm able to set a groove and incorporate a solid body thrust technique that brings more muscle groups into play and creates a rhythm in the repetitions. Though I practice single set training, I accent my workouts with supersets and trisets.

Through all this I want you to remember we all have our own training style and yours is developing now as you read this and other training books, sites and magazines, observe others in action and experiment on your own.

I trained with Arnold for 3-4 years in the past and we shared similar training methods which enhanced us both. Yet in our arm training we went our own separate ways - Arnold gains massive and proportionate biceps and triceps through muscle isolation, pumping and burning. I prefer heavier weight with a full range of motion to involve the body more entirely.

Frank Zane and I met at the gym every morning at sunrise to train our mid-section and either chest, back or shoulders. Yet our arm and leg workouts didn't match - I have more difficulty and require more work in these areas than Frank.

Franco Columbu and I co-trained successfully though his strength in pressing far exceeded mine and we differed in pace. Tom Platz trains hard, often to the extreme. In his radical performance he often trains to complete failure, sometimes doing a bodypart workout consisting of a single set of 50 or perhaps 100 excruciating reps.

Dave Johns and I trained in Europe for several weeks and I experienced his awesome power in the bench and squat. As he worked slow and heavy, I often did 3 sets while he prepared to do one massive set, moving a mountain to my foothills.

When I met Sergio Oliva in New York City 30 years ago he was practicing Olympic lifting to thicken and shape his entire body. Ken Waller does reps with 400 in the bench, 500 in the squat, yet for shoulders and arms I've known him to use light weight, angular movements and isolation. Very patient Lee Labrada has similar highly specialized concentrated techniques to gain fine muscle detail.

I've known Leroy Colbert to do literally a hundred sets of curls and watched Zabo and friends spend both morning and afternoon doing as many sets of full squats. At the other end of the spectrum, we saw Mike Mentzer grow and grow on his intense single set Heavy Duty System.

I could go on and on with great fun describing the variety of training styles I've shared with my partners and peers over the years and in vastly different training venues - from a converted pigeon coop in Sydney, Australia to Serge Nubrets' sub-terranean cubicles in Paris, I've sorted my way through a maze of crazy workouts. They all seem to work if your heart is in there, so suit yourself as the champions do and by the Grace of God you'll become one.