Battle royal: bodybuilding's greatest rivals—Jay Cutler and Ronnie Coleman—-battle once again

Flex, July, 2009 by Greg Merritt

Cutler versus Coleman.

It was the ultimate contest within the ultimate contests-a duel of flesh and fervor-and it was perpetual, fought over and over again, year after year, Olympia after Olympia, for most of this decade. Eight-time Mr. O Ronnie Coleman and two-time Mr. O Jay Cutler have competed mano a mano 15 times, including an incredible string of 11 consecutive one-two finishes spanning six years from 2000 to 2006-11 contests overflowing with enough drama to fuel debates about "what should've been" and "what could've been" for decades to come. On February 18, the enemies squared off once more, this time in a gym, talking smack, trading sets and shots even while sharing weights and laughs, still battling in bodybuilding's longest and greatest war.

"Let's go Coleman!"

Ronnie Coleman is late for the noon shoulder and biceps workout in Jay Cutler's "home office," the Las Vegas Gold's Gym on Sahara Avenue. However, because Eight has never been known for punctuality and he normally hits the bed at 6 AM and wakes at 1 PM, his tardiness was, at least, predictable. Among those awaiting his arrival are Phil Health and Hany Rambod, both in town to shoot Rambod's FST-7 DVD with Cutler. "I'm here as a fan," Heath effuses. "And to soak up all the knowledge I can from these legends. They have 10 Sandows, so it's an honor to experience this." Nearly an hour later than planned, the experience begins.

"Let's go, Coleman!" grinning Cutler shouts across the gym as Eight greets fans and friends. "Quit stalling. We've been waiting long enough."

After discussion, the eight-time Mr. O chooses the first exercise, and it's one the two-timer rarely performs: seated barbell presses. Warming up with 135, they set the barbell on the safety bar in front of their chests, as opposed to the pegs behind and above them, and doing so necessitates awkwardly low liftoffs.

"I want the bar in front when I do a front press," Cutler avers. "And I can't do a behind-the-neck press."

"Me either," Coleman concurs on the latter point. "I wouldn't even try."

They do a second warm-up set with 185. Wearing gloves, Coleman takes his typical thumbless grip. Both lower the bar to approximately chin level each rep and avoid locking out at the top. When Coleman utters a couple of "yups" and one "light weight" before repping out with 185, the clash of titans has officially commenced. "Yup-yup."

"That was heavy"

The quarters are removed and plates are slid on, bringing the total to 225. Cutler gets 14. "That was for you, Coleman!" he shouts and everyone laughs.

"Thank you," Coleman responds with a grin. "Now you wanna do mine, too?" More laughter. Eight gets 10, using a faster motion than Two-Timer.

"I'm trying to control everything a little more now," Cutler explains later, "and I'm working on really contracting the muscles. I'm trying to get away from the heavy, ballistic stuff, because it's starting to become a factor with age. My body feels great, but I don't want to risk getting an injury at this point in my career. I've been doing dumbbell presses pretty much every week, because I feel the iso-lateral is a good movement for my shoulders and is capping off my delts a little better. I did barbells [today], because Ronnie wanted to do barbells."

Quarters are slid on, raising the stakes to 275. Coleman: "Light weight." Cutler gets 11. Because the safety bar is so low, Heath and Cutler lift the barbell into the starting position for Coleman. He fires the bar up and overhead nine times rapidly.

Two-Timer: "That's heavy, right?"

Eight: "No, that's real heavy."

The Gift: "I'm glad someone thinks that's heavy, 'cause it sure looks heavy."

Two-Timer: "OK, one more set, Coleman."

Eight: "Ain't nothin' but a peanut."

Cutler gets 10. Eight: "It ain't gettin' no lighter, huh?"

Two-Timer: "Yeah, that was heavy."

Eight: "Yup. Light weight. Ain't nothin' but a peanut." Two-timer: "Come on, Big Ron." Coleman gets eight.

"Old man Shit"

They agree on dumbbell side laterals next, and even though Cutler has been doing them with one arm at a time recently, they each perform them with both sides simultaneously, each keeping their arms bent at nearly 90 degrees. What they can't concur on is their rep schemes. When Coleman tries to explain what he calls a "giant set," 35-year-old Cutler dismisses it with, "That's old man shit."

Smiling Coleman, who was 44 at the time of the workout and now 45, returns volley with: "If it's old man shit, why don't you try to do it?"

"You do it your way, Big Ron." As anyone who has trained with a partner knows, compromise can carry you only so far. While Coleman reps out his "old man shit," Cutler completes three sets of dumbbell laterals, starting with 60s before two sets with 70s.

A giant set is four or more different exercises performed in sequence, so what Coleman calls a "giant set" is actually an ascending set. He first does 25 reps of dumbbell laterals with the 25s, followed immediately by 15 reps with the 30s, then 10 reps with the 40s and eight reps with the 50s. After three minutes, he goes through the entire 58-rep sequence again, punctuating it with "yups" and "light weights."