Killer quads: stalwart IFBB pro Milos Sarcev has a highly intense leg workout he swears will make you puke. Care to try?

Muscle & Fitness, May, 2004 by Lara McGlashan

THE COMEBACK TRAIL FOR an athlete is never easy, and it proves even more difficult in a sport in which the top-ranked guys tip the scales in excess of 300 pounds. Bodybuilders young and old must continually raise the bar--and their bodyweight--to keep pace with the current mass-monster trend.

But the dismaying odds of competing and winning don't faze IFBB pro Milos Sarcev. A veteran of the sport, Milos has competed in more than 70 pro competitions (which is a world record) and, according to the horse's mouth, he plans to compete in several more before retiring. In 2001, after a lengthy layoff, he stepped on the competitive comeback trail with purpose. Unfortunately, that trail has been replete with unforeseen obstacles.

"On Jan. 12, 2002, I had a devastating knee injury," recounts Milos. "I was doing a 950-pound hack squat, and my patellar tendon on my right knee literally exploded." Hours of surgery and several months of rehab later, the knee wasn't healing well. "They had reattached the kneecap incorrectly, so it wasn't tracking straight," he says, "I wasn't making progress in either rehab or in the gym and was in constant pain." So it was back to the operating table, this time for surgery on both knees. "The other knee had also been damaged, incurring a partial ligament tear," Milos states. "So I had the kneecap corrected and the other knee reconstructed and was pretty much at the mercy of my wife [Milamar Flores] for four weeks!"

Although virtually bed-ridden, Milos didn't take his situation lying down. In fact, he allowed himself only four weeks of rest before hauling himself back to the gym to begin his own form of physical therapy. "I did a lot of stretching and iso-tension exercises in which I would contract the muscle without using any weight," he explains. "After a few months of that, I started using the machines to get my range of motion back and build up a bit of strength."

Slowly but surely, Milos again set a determined foot on the comeback trail and began the painstaking process of rebuilding both himself and his image. "People had written me off," he notes. "They thought I would never come back from this injury." And he might not have, had it not been for a little help from his friends.

TRIPLE THREAT

"I teamed up with Shawn Ray and Flex Wheeler in January 2002," says Milos. "We met at one of Shawn's seminars for kids and started talking. Flex had five weeks to get in shape for the Arnold [Classic], and Shawn was coming off a 14-month layoff. And of course, I was still coming back from my surgery, so we were all on the same playing field physically." Flex's deadline for the Arnold proved the impetus for a high-octane machination, and the trio began to train together twice a day, six days a week to help him get back onstage.

It was a flat-out success. Flex triumphantly bulked up to a rock-solid 245 pounds for the Ironman two weeks before having to scratch from the Arnold, Shawn whipped himself into hard-as-nails condition, and Milos rebounded like nobody's business. "I had been planning to compete in the Dallas [GNC Pro] show in September [2003], but I got into shape really quickly," he reports. "So I put some pressure on myself and entered the Night of Champions in May instead."

The pressure paid off: Milos placed ninth out of 40-plus competitors, marking his return to the posing dais. "For some reason, people think the NOC was my last show," he adds, "But this is not the case--it was my last appearance at the NOC. I have competed in the NOC 10 times, and I told the announcer at the end that this was my last one. But some people took that to mean I was retiring from competition altogether. I want to make this very clear: I have not officially retired. So let's put that rumor aside."

MOVING FORWARD

Milos now has his sites set on the 2004 GNC Show of Strength, an invitationonly event that in its third year will be held before the Olympia instead of after, on Oct. 9, 2004. "If I get invited to the GNC show, I'll have a chance to qualify for the Olympia," says Milos. "And I still want to compete in the Arnold Classic at least one more time before I retire, so that will probably be in 2005."

Whether or not he receives an invite to the Show of Strength and the Arnold, Milos has proven once again to himself and to the world of bodybuilding that he's in it for the long haul. And we've got the Guinness people on speed-dial, ready to alter the record books in 2004.

RELATED ARTICLE: SNAPSHOT

BIRTHDATE: Jan. 17, 1964

BIRTHPLACE: Novi Sad, Yugoslavia

CURRENT RESIDENCE: Temecula, California

HEIGHT: 5'10 1/2"

WEIGHT: 250 pounds

CONTEST HISTORY: "I hold the world record for the most professional bodybuilding shows ever completed, having done 72 shows in the last 12 years. And the number is still climbing."

TO CONTACT: www.milossarcev.com, or PO Box 892242, Temecula, California 92589

RELATED ARTICLE: 5 PIECES OF QUALITY QUAD ADVICE

BY MILOS SARCEV

1 I always begin my workout with 10 minutes of cardio, then I move to leg extensions to further warm up my muscles, tendons and ligaments. I take three seconds to raise the weight, two seconds to hold it at the top, and three seconds to complete the negative. Although I don't advocate locking out your knees on squats, lunges and leg presses, I do recommend fully contracting your quads on leg extensions, and this requires a momentary locking-out of the knee joint.