I first heard of the very unusual name Kalman Szkalak, pronounced SKULLAK after reading of his amazing Mr California win via the pages of the muscle magazine "Iron Man" during 1976. Amazing because up until that time it would appear that he was a virtual unknown.
As far as the story goes Kal made the move out to California from Delaware. Turning up outside of Gold's Gym with only five dollars in his possession, he is supposed to have invested that five dollars in his very first workout at that famous muscle building den. For the next eight months or so he slept each night in his trailer on different parking lots, collecting 90 parking tickets along the way. After this Mr California win Kal surprised everyone even more by wiping out all his other competitors by taking the AAU Mr America title at his very first attempt, and only his third contest! (Ed Note: Kal's first contest was winning Mr Delaware.)
Everyone wanted to know Szkalak now, and it was inevitable that he would soon join forces with renowned publisher and trainer of champions, Joe Welder. For those next few months Kal was literally plastered all over the walls of "Muscle Builder". Ironically the relationship didn't last too long and soon Kal went his own way. Soon after his Mr America victory Kal justifiably earned the right to compete in the 1977 IFBB World Championship held in Nimes, France.
Extreme speculation grew now as to the outcome because the great Szkalak would be facing hot favourite "Mr Heavy Duty" himself Mike Mentzer! At that time Mentzer and heavy duty were being heavily pushed in the pages of "Muscle Builder". But Kal didn't care and trained even harder because of this. He really believed that the best man would win anyway! Top physique star and gym owner Dan Howard even trained with Kal just so he could get in the best shape of his life. Kal is so strong and works out so intensely that it took a man of Howard's ability just to stay with him.
Going into the final posedown at the evening part of the show Mentzer was shown to be ahead points wise, and yet Kal Szkalak somehow pulled the cat right out of the bag, just in the nick of time! Somehow he was able to get most of the audience behind him and posing like a man possessed he narrowly took the title away from a very startled and confused looking Mike Mentzer who thought he had it!
Kal was really made now, and word was out that he could be the greatest physique in the world. His logical title step now would be to take the 1978 Olympia away from Frank Zane himself, after all he was still undefeated! It's history now that Kal Szkalak did not win the 1978 IFBB Mr Olympia. Coming in a very disappointing fifth, Kal immediately adopted the crucifix position when his placing was announced. He did this to show the world he had been "crucified by the bodybuilding hierarchy of the day".
A business upset followed by a million dollar law suit with Joe Weider, saw Kalman Szkalak closing the door on fame, glamour and money. Where do you go when you've just told the IFBB where to shove it?
Indeed Szkalak stayed away from all competitions right up until 1980. As everyone knows when you're not competing no one's interested in you. Szkalak was talked into donning his posing trunks once again by Serge Nubret and his organization WABBA. Training and dieting like never before Kal entered the WABBA show at Long Beach, California absolutely ripped! He looked sensational! After a very very controversial second place behind the incredible Sergio Oliva, Kal took the defeat badly, feeling that he should have won the contest outright.
After all there is no one top physique in the world today, and the door is wide open for Kal to prove he is the greatest.
Training
He found out long ago that in order to get the kind of muscular size he desired then he had to train heavy and very hard. Unlike most other top bodybuilders who prefer to train fairly fast, Szkakak trains a lot slower than most, in order to use such incredible training poundages. Reps with over four hundred pounds [182 kg] in the bench press are easy. It is interesting also that he likes to super set chest and back together. Interesting because the great Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sergio also have a passion for this system. For his massive arms Kal is once again a super-set advocate. Working biceps and triceps together for a total of 16 super sets his arms pump up to incredibly huge proportions. Kal does not super set his deltoid muscles because he feels they are too small, and in any case he would never super set two exercises for the same muscle group. He much prefers to alternate, as he does with Chest and Back, Bicep and Tricep, etc. On the subject of thigh training Kal found the need to adopt the front squat as the main core of his routine after sustaining a severe back injury from doing heavy squats while he was training for the 1977 World Championships. So that's our brief introduction to Kal Szkalak. The fantastic exercise shots used to accompany this article were shot while Kal was training for a WABBA show.
Kal prefers to train shoulders and arms together in one workout, legs the next and then chest with back in a third workout. This is a very popular three way, six day split routine used by a lot of top bodybuilders today. This means of course that each muscle group gets a hard workout twice a week, although when training for a contest Kal likes to hit each part three times a week employing the double split routine which means two workouts a day.
For his deltoids, and lets face it, Kal has just about the best set of delts in the business, he starts out with his favourite shoulder exercise, the heavy standing press, done with very heavy weights. Standing with his feet apart he holds the bar directly at neck level with a grip a bit wider than shoulder width. He then presses the bar up to just short of full elbow lockout in the strictest manner possible. He doesn't like to lock out because he likes to keep his delts under constant tension. Starting fairly light to make sure he's fully warmed up, Kal works up to about 230 pounds [105 kg] for 8 reps in four sets. When Kal is struggling to get his reps out, he will have his training partner touch the bar lightly so that he can just squeeze out a couple of forced reps with the heaviest weight possible. Kal used to like to do a lot of seated presses-behind-the-neck but he has since dropped it from his training routines because his shoulders would get too sore afterwards.
After his four sets of standing presses Kal picks up the EZ bar and does four sets of close grip upright rowing to the chin. He prefers higher reps on this exercise and does four sets of 12 to 15 reps in the strictest style possible. Unlike most other bodybuilders Kal does not believe in doing a certain exercise just because everyone else does it. He uses the EZ bar so that he can lean back when doing the exercise, something he couldn't do with a straight bar because he would lose his balance. Leaning back enables Kal to isolate the effect where he wants it.
Very heavy side dumbbell lateral raises seated are next, and Kal often works up to a hefty pair of 60 pounders [27 kg] on his last set. He does these by first holding both dumbbells in front of his body and with his upper body slightly bent forward he raises the bells out to just past parallel position.
Kal's fourth and final deltoid exercise is bent over dumbbell laterals for his rear deltoids. Sitting right at the end of a bench he bends over till his upper body is parallel to the floor and holding two dumbbells commences to do bent over laterals from this position. With both dumbbell plates touching beneath him, he slowly raises both of them as far as he can. When he reaches the top position he immediately holds, tenses and fully contracts his rear deltoid muscles. This exercise is truly more result producing when performed this way.
After these four exercises are completed Kal's delts look twice as big as before. Which is literally massive!
It's the opinion of this magazine that this shoulder routine used by Kal is a very well thought out result producer.
After a short break Kal prepares to hit his arms. He uses four bicep and four tricep exercises for 4 sets each which means he does 16 super sets in all. Although he uses and very much believes in using extremely heavy weights he is emphatic when it comes to warming up properly. The first thing he likes to do is to do a quick warmup set of each of the eight exercises (4 bicep plus 4 tricep).
Next he super sets barbell curls with tricep pulley pushdowns working up in weight each set. He does his barbell curls just the way Arnold used to do them. Elbows in close to the sides but hands out wide with a fairly wide grip. Kal has gone as high as 190 pounds [86 kg] for eight reps on this exercise and yet the style is immaculate. He does not let the bar relax at the top part of the movement. Pushdowns are done on a short slightly bent bar. He uses a close grip, and contracts the triceps very very hard at the bottom of the movement.
After his four super sets of these two exercises Kal moves onto another two first class arm builders. Scott curls supersetted with lying tricep extensions. Scott curls are done similar to the way the great Larry Scott himself did them. Grip shoulder width and elbows fairly narrow so that the biceps are under tension right from the start. Kal does not do complete reps on these and lowers the bar back again before it begins to loose its tension at the top. Amazingly he works up to 170 pounds [77 kg] for 8 reps. Using the EZ bar for his lying tricep extensions Kal lowers the bar down behind his neck to the bench behind him. Using only the strength of his triceps he smoothly pushes the bar back over head, but does not quite lock out his elbows.
Super set three comprises incline dumbbell curls and one arm tricep extensions with a dumbbell. The incline dumbbell curls are done super strict, but he doesn't curl the dumbbells right up to the top. He stops just as he approaches shoulder level so that the biceps are under tension all the time. Kal likes to work up to a nice pair of 80 pounders [36 kg] for his dumbbell incline curls! It's very hard to believe that anyone can use an 85 pound [39 kg] dumbbell for one arm dumbbell tricep extensions, but Kal does. Holding onto something for support with his free hand Kal lowers the dumbbeli right down behind his neck. He smoothly pushes it back up, but not quite to full lockout.
His last super set consists of dumbbell concentration curls and cable triceps extensions. Kal bends over at the waist and places his free arm on a bench. Using the heaviest dumbbell he can find he commences to do four sets of concentration curls supered with the cable tricep extensions. These are similar to the way Larry Scott did them but instead of kneeling on the floor with the elbows braced Kal prefers to bend over at the waist till his back is horizontal to the floor. Using a very close grip he brings the bar from behind his head to almost full lockout, but not quite.
And that's his arm workout over. Kal has unbelievable arms especially when you get the chance to view them close up in the gym right after he has trained them!
As mentioned Kal found he had to resort to the front squat exercise because of a severe back injury inflicted by the regular back squat exercise. The front squat is not too commonly used nowadays because of the uncomfortable position you are forced to be in during the course of the movement. Either the bar sticks into your neck or your arms tire from barbell holding. Kal has found the following method to suit him best. Let the bar rest along your front deltoid muscles, obviously if you have great development such as Kal has, then you're half way there. The muscles act as a cushion for the bar so that it doesn't catch your throat. Then instead of holding the bar as you would if you had just cleaned it, cross your arms over each other, and let them lie on top of each shoulder over the bar.
The front squat enables you to keep your back much flatter than when you do a regular back squat so your frontal thigh muscles really get it. He uses a two inch block under his heels and squats down to the parallel position.
After five sets of front squats Kal goes over to the leg extension machine and performs six sets of 20 reps working up in weight each set till he is using the whole stack. Like everything else the leg extensions are done very very strictly and smoothly, holding the legs out in the contracted position for a full two seconds.
Next are non-lock Hack machine squats with the heels held very close together for four sets of 20 reps. Kal easily gets a terrific burn in his thighs from these, and sheer guts and determination are needed to stick it out. Finally Kal does six sets of leg curls for the rear of his thighs.
Calf training is next, and it is well known that Kal has had a hard time with them. Always wanting the best out of everything that he does Kal sought the advice of Mr Calves himself Ken Waller. Ken suggested that Kal train his calves very hard and as heavy as possible every training day. He did a total of 15 sets made up of as many different calf exercises as he could think of, so that they would be hit from all angles. Kal also took the advice from the great Arnold by always training his calves without wearing gym shoes. Doing them barefooted lets you concentrate the effort on the ball of the foot which results in a far greater contraction of those stubborn calf muscles.
That concludes his leg workout and the following day Kal works his chest and back in the following manner. In order that he can work up to the most amount of weight possible Kal has found that he gains better from alternating a heavy chest exercise with a heavy back exercise. When you train to your maximum on a set of heavy bench presses for instance, it is extremely difficult to add more weight for your next set, and still get a reasonable amount of reps. Kal has found that he can go all out by doing a heavy set of bench presses followed by a set of wide grip chins. When he goes back to his next set of bench presses he can increase the weight substantially, and still get his required amount of reps out.
He likes to work up very heavy in the bench press, and he really works to his absolute limit. Another reason he likes to super set chest with back is so that he can keep the blood in these two very large areas for a much longer period of time. He feels his upper body can grow bigger and wider as a result of this.
Next on the agenda are heavy incline barbell presses on a 40 degree angle super-setted with seated cable rowing on the base pulley lat machine. The inclines are worked similar to the bench presses which means Kal increases the weight each set, and works to maximum effort each time. He lowers the bar to a very high position on his chest so that his upper pecs bear the brunt of the action. However when he presses the bar back up again he doesn't quite lock out his elbows.
As you may have guessed by now Kal is a firm believer in always keeping the muscle group in question under constant tension!
Kal really puts out on seated cable rows as you can see from the accompanying exercise shots. This is the best exercise for developing that very difficult area, the lower lats. Kal does them very much like Arnold used to. He leans forward so that his lats are fully stretched even before he starts the pull. He pulls the cable strongly right into his waist. He then contracts his lats as hard as he can, and subsequently allows the cable to return to starting position. After four super sets of between eight and ten reps on these two exercises his whole upper body takes on unbelievable proportions.
Kal's final super set comprises lying dumbbell flies alternated with wide grip lat machine pulldowns. Holding a pair of heavy dumbbells over his chest he allows them to smoothly lower right out to both sides. When bringing the dumbbells back again Kal squeezes them together as if doing a bear hug motion. The bells are not allowed to touch each other at the top. Kal prefers to stop the movement before this, so that his pecs remain under constant tension. Kal really works up to some real big dumbbells on this exercise and each set is alternated with wide grip behind neck pulldowns. These are done in the orthodox fashion except that Kal uses double the weight of anyone else!
To finish off the workout Kal does four or five sets of one arm dumbbell bent over rows. Bending over so that his back is parallel to the floor Kal rests his free arm on a bench, and then commences to pull the dumbbell up towards his arm pit. Kal uses a smooth see-saw motion on these endeavouring to get the best stretch he can each set.
Kal's last exercise of the day is shrugs on the universal bench pressing machine. Holding onto the handles of the unit Kal keeps his shoulders up as far as possible. He tenses his traps at the movement and then slowly lowers the weight again. Kal does four sets of 12 to 15 reps and his workout is over.
