Cuban muscle: build abs like these in three easy moves, courtesy of cuban bodybuilder Jorge Betancourt

Muscle & Fitness, April, 2006 by Bill Geiger

THINK CUBA AND CERTAIN THINGS spring to mind. Baseball. Bearded dictators. Cigars. Bearded dictators smoking cigars watching baseball. Bodybuilding doesn't make the cut, but maybe it should. After all, three-time Mr. Olympia Sergio Oliva (1967-69) is Cuban, as is Lee Labrada, a perennial Olympia contender in the 1980s and early' 90s. Add amateur bodybuilder Jorge Betancourt to that elite list, albeit with an asterisk to reflect potential awaiting fulfillment. In fact, Jorge models his life after Lee's. They're both 5'6" and best known for symmetry over sheer muscle size. Lee launched a successful line of nutritional supplements in his post-competitive bodybuilding career; Jorge, too, has become an entrepreneur of sorts with his own line of products.

"I'm trying to replicate what Lee Labrada has done--building a reputable, honest company," says Jorge, 34, from his Coral Gables, Florida, home. "This is my dream, to have a supplement business. I'm in this for the long haul."

EVERYTHING'S GROWIN'

Jorge has come a long way from his days as an impoverished youth growing up in Puerto Rico (his parents fled Cuba when Fidel Castro gained power). He started lifting in school with his buddies, just arms. He later added chest workouts; he says his pecs responded nicely to twice-a-day training. Once he started training his entire body, his Cuban genes responded well enough that Jorge won his first local bodybuilding contest by the age of 16.

"I didn't really think I wanted to be a bodybuilder at the time, but people at the gym encouraged me to compete. I dieted for that show for only two weeks, but I still won. After that, I won the 1990 NPC Teen Nationals. By then, my self-confidence had gone through the roof. I was still in high school and I was already a national champion."

For some, those kinds of early successes result in more than just swollen muscles. "My head just blew up," recalls Jorge. "I was cocky, arrogant. I won the Teen Nationals, and a week after I remember thinking, I didn't even get a call from Joe Weider. I'm not sure what I expected. But it didn't seem there was much more to winning than self-pride. There certainly was no money. And I had set a deadline that if I wasn't making any money in the sport, I'd get out." And so he did.

STARTING OVER

"I didn't have anything to fall back on after I quit," Jorge admits. "When you're on top, everyone wants to be your friend. But when that's over, you lose that, and it was hard for me to deal with. When I got out of bodybuilding, I was lost; I didn't know who I was."

He spent the next few years doing the things he missed out on earlier, like partying and meeting women. "But I discovered that lifestyle wasn't for me," Jorge explains. "With a small amount of money, I opened a gym in Coral Gables, which took off right away. I spent eight years running it, but my dream was to have my own supplement company."

Jorge founded Betancourt Nutrition in 2002 with his wife Charlene. They initially offered only one product, a fat-burner he later had to take off the market because it contained ephedra, which is now banned. It sold well enough for him to sell his gym and dive into the supplement industry.

Today his product line includes weight-gainers, protein powders, a creatine/glutamine mix and fat-burners, and is sold in gyms and health-food stores throughout the southeastern United States. Jorge is currently trying to expand to national retailers.

About his new job, Jorge says: "I love everything; it just doesn't feel like work. I also got back into bodybuilding, not just because I love the sport but also to win the USAs and to promote my company and its products. I'm not the same man anymore, either. I'm much humbler, and I've learned some hard lessons along the way."

He notes that among the Cubans living in southern Florida, many are pulling for him to do well. "A lot of people here want to see a Cuban make it, and that helps push me. I'm proud of that; I want to make it in the sport, to have a successful business. That certainly drives me to succeed."

SNAPSHOT

BIRTHDATE

Nov. 12, 1971

BIRTHPLACE

Isla Verde, Puerto Rico

CURRENT RESIDENCE

Coral Gables, Florida

HEIGHT

5'6"

WEIGHT

200 pounds off-season; 174 pounds contest

MARITAL STATUS

Wife Charlene

RECENT HIGHLIGHTS

2005 NPC USA Championships, middleweight, 5th. 2004 NPC USA Championships, middleweight, 4th

TO CONTACT

betancourtnutrition.com

 THE ROUTINE EXERCISE


    

    

    
    
       SETS  REPS Double Crunch               3    10-20 Vertical-Bench Knee Raise   3    10-20 Decline                     3    10-20 Crunch--on--Decline Oblique Crunch 

 TRAINING SPLIT DAY  BODYPARTS TRAINED  1   Chest, shoulders, calves  2   Hamstrings, triceps, abs  3   Quads, glutes  4   Hamstrings (light), calves, traps, abs  5   Back, biceps 6-7  Rest 

RELATED ARTICLE: DOUBLE CRUNCH

TARGETS: upper and lower abs

START: Lie faceup on a flat bench with your hands behind your head, hips bent 90 degrees and your feet several inches off the bench.

EXECUTION: Contract your abs to bring your shoulder blades off the bench, raising your upper torso as high as possible, while bringing your knees toward your chest, lifting your feet into the air and rolling your lower glutes off the bench.