Gym bag: take these insider tips to your next workout

Flex, Oct, 2004 by Greg Merritt, Jim Stoppani

WEIGHTY MATTERS

"I like higher reps, sometimes more than 20 full reps and another 20 pulses [short partials], and I don't think too much about the weight. Your muscles don't know how much weight you have on the bar. They just know how hard you're working them. It doesn't matter how heavy you work; it matters how much stress you put on the muscle."

--Idrise Ward-El

HOW TO CHEAT

"From the very beginning, I heard if you want to be big, you have to get strong, so I always worked out heavy. I realize now, after 13 years of training, I was probably using sloppy form for some lifts, like barbell curls. At that time, cheating was good for packing on size, but now it's not the way I train to build muscle quality. I think you can do some limited cheating at the end of sets to eke out a few more reps, but for the most part, practice proper form, both to focus more stress on your muscles and avoid injuries."

--Tommi Thorvildsen

QUALITY VS. QUANTITY

"How many times have you seen a trainee struggling to handle a heavy weight on a squat rack or leg press? When you can't perform an exercise with strict form, other bodyparts have to handle most of the work. I went through that phase in my career, too, when quantity, not quality, was foremost in my mind. My legs started to grow only after I learned how to perform each exercise properly, slowly building up to heavier weights."

--Lenda Murray

BURN, BABY, BURN

"I love the burn. When there is a burn in my muscles, I just keep going and going and going. I don't stop mentally. I only stop when the muscle can't move anymore. When I work out, I am a machine. I block out all pain. If I feel pain, I welcome it. Bring it on. To me, pain today means growth tomorrow."

--Heiko Kallbach

CLASSIC TIP: THIGH MASTER

"The amazing thing to me is that most bodybuilders don't squat correctly. I watch guys squat, and 80% don't do the movement right. It's a very basic movement, but usually the feet are too far apart, the squat depth is too shallow, they're doing only bench squats, or they lean too far forward. The squat is a gigantic thigh movement, but it has to be done correctly. To begin with, the bar should be high on the shoulders, at the top of your traps. My feet are set about shoulder width, the toes pointed slightly outward. Now I'm experimenting with putting my heels very close together, which has had an excellent effect on my thigh shape. Your head should be kept up, which in turn keeps the back straight and upright.

"Take a deep breath and sink slowly all the way down, letting your knees travel out directly over your toes. Do not bounce at the bottom. Stay tight in the low position, which means keeping your back and torso muscles tensed. Come back up to the starting position, being careful not to lean forward, and repeat for the required number of reps. The squat--if performed correctly--is a tremendous exercise, and virtually everyone can benefit from doing it. Indeed, if I could do only one exercise for my whole body, it would be squats."

--Tom Platz

ARNIE'S ADVICE: NAKED CALVES

"I've always seen bodybuilding as a big psychological trip, so I cut off the legs of my training pants as a source of motivation. People would tell me then how bad my calves were in comparison to everything else, and I'd constantly see in the mirror how puny they were. This inspired me to train them, and when they started getting better, people also told me they were improving. The positive feedback inspired me to train even harder. To focus on your calves, you might either cut off the legs of your warm-up suit or wear shorts when you train."

--Arnold Schwarzenegger

EVERYDAY TRAINER

"A lot of guys don't train everything twice per week. I do. And Ronnie [Coleman] does. Even in the offseason, I go six or seven days per week. I do two-a-days [two workouts] six days per week in the offseason and sometimes seven [days]. It involves a lot of time and consistency. A lot of people say it's too much, but I've been doing it since I was 15. I'm 30 now, and I think I've done a pretty good job of growing."

--Art Atwood

FRANK McGRATH'S

ARM ROUTINE

EXERCISE             SETS  REPS

Barbell curls         3 *  6-12

  superset with       3 *  12-15
  Triceps pushdowns

Cambered-bar          3    8-12

  preacher curls      3    6-12
  superset with
  French presses

Dumbbell curls        3    10-12

  superset with       3    10-12
  Dips

NOTE: McGrath trains arms once per week. He no longer trains his
excellent forearms, although he did when he was younger.
* McGrath does two warm-up sets of the first biceps and triceps
exercises.

TOM PLATZ'S

CLASSIC THIGH ROUTINE

EXERCISE         SETS   REPS

Squats *         8-10   5-20
Hack squats       5    10-15
Leg extensions   5-8   10-15
Lying leg curls  6-10  10-15

NOTE: Platz did this routine prior to finishing third in the 1981 Mr.
Olympia.
* Squats were performed deep and strict and pyramided to more than 600
pounds.

D.J.'S

TOP MASS MAKERS

These are Dennis James' top mass-making lifts for each bodypart.

Quadriceps  Squats

Hamstrings  Lying leg curls

Calves      Standing calf raises

Chest       Incline presses

Back        Barbell bent rows

Shoulders   Military presses

Biceps      Barbell curls

Triceps     French presses with
               a cambered bar