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Getbig Main Boards => Gossip & Opinions => Topic started by: Max_Rep on March 01, 2007, 02:48:39 PM
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Mike Francois
1995 Arnold Classic Winner
Toughest Workout :
World Gym; Worthington, Ohio; 1991
A lot of my early workouts were pretty insane, but one particular workout stands out. My trainer at that time was a national level competitor named Greg Greenzalis, and I was one of his first clients, which made me sort of is guinea pig. He was a good trainer – don’t get me wrong – but he always felt like he had to push people to the brink of failure.
In some ways, I looked forward to it; in other ways, I dreaded it, because I knew I was going to throw up, or at least come close, every time. Especially with legs which we were scheduled to train that day at 3:30 pm. When I arrived , Greg told me what he had in store : a giant set compromising of Front squats, leg press, Hack squats, leg extensions and sissy squats. He wanted me to do 20-50 of the first, followed immediately by 20-50 of the second, and so on until I completed one continuous set.
HE would let me rest for a minute or two – what a guy – then we would start the whole insane thing over again.
We never deviated from the poundage’s we used for the first giant set. For front squats it was 315. The leg press was 10 plates on each side, or about 900 pounds. Hack squats was 225. For leg extension Greg just stuck the pin at the bottom of the stack. I did sissy squats holding a 25 pound plate against my chest.
As the workout unfolded, my legs got warm, then pumped, then wobbly, like jelly. IN the middle of my third set in hack squats, I couldn’t feel them at all. I was ready to throw in the towel, and I looked up at Greg and asked, “cant we do 12 reps instead of 20?” “sure you can do that or you can just go home.” He said. That sums up his attitude.
Then your testosterone kicks in and you just go, go, go. Greg was the first person who had given me any real guidance in bodybuilding, so I looked up to him.(I still do). I didn’t want to fail.
Near the end of the fourth giant set, everything I was hearing and seeing started to blur together. IN retrospect, I think I was on the verge of loosing consciousness. No matter how sick I felt, though, I knew I had to keep going, to keep blasting through it. If I’d stopped to rest, the nausea would’ve set in. If I kept pushing though, I wouldn’t throw up until after id finished.
After I completed five of these 100 rep plus giant sets, I was just crawling on the ground. What was Greg trying to accomplish by putting me through this? It’s simple: he was trying to kill me. Actually, it ends up pushing you to a new level. That’s the thing – I made tremendous gains training with him. I didn’t know it at the time, but he was taking me where you have to go to become a champion.
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Did he shit in his pants when he was done?
Did you when you did your deadlift marathon?
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i would think you would tear a muscle before you got to the point of crawling around on the ground, blind, foaming from the mouth, etc...
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i would think you would tear a muscle before you got to the point of crawling around on the ground, blind, foaming from the mouth, etc...
Uh...no stupid. You only tear a muscle when you use a maximum weight without warming up properly, or your form is sloppy while using a real heavy weight.
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Uh...no stupid. You only tear a muscle when you use a maximum weight without warming up properly, or your form is sloppy while using a real heavy weight.
they must not have sports injury literature at the library of your school:
(http://www.student.virginia.edu/~lambda1/images/Qsu.jpg)
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Mike was an amazing bb with potential to beat anyone in his day. Never could nail the Olympia but when he was on he could beat anyone.
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Mike was an amazing bb with potential to beat anyone in his day. Never could nail the Olympia but when he was on he could beat anyone.
It would have been great if he could have competed against Ronnie for a few years after Dorian retired. The guy was a beast.
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they must not have sports injury literature at the library of your school:
(http://www.student.virginia.edu/~lambda1/images/Qsu.jpg)
lmfao, what an idiot. way to go sir william.
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It would have been great if he could have competed against Ronnie for a few years after Dorian retired. The guy was a beast.
No doubt. The guy was missing nothing on his physique. He would have been Mr. Olympia if he didn't get sick. Massive :o
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You can tell people really liked Mike by the fact that no one ever says "All drugs" in his threads.
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Great training story!
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Pretty cool.
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they must not have sports injury literature at the library of your school:
(http://www.student.virginia.edu/~lambda1/images/Qsu.jpg)
yeah, i got owned. so.
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You can tell people really liked Mike by the fact that no one ever says "All drugs" in his threads.
making fun of a man with that little tummy attachment is bad karma.
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i remember reading that article in the JULY 1998 ISSUE of muscle & fitness
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Temporary Insanity lol. Sounds like something striaght outta Flex Magazine!
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gay article...
tried to sound hardcore; sounded completely gay.
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Mike Francois
1995 Arnold Classic Winner
Toughest Workout :
World Gym; Worthington, Ohio; 1991
A lot of my early workouts were pretty insane, but one particular workout stands out. My trainer at that time was a national level competitor named Greg Greenzalis, and I was one of his first clients, which made me sort of is guinea pig. He was a good trainer – don’t get me wrong – but he always felt like he had to push people to the brink of failure.
In some ways, I looked forward to it; in other ways, I dreaded it, because I knew I was going to throw up, or at least come close, every time. Especially with legs which we were scheduled to train that day at 3:30 pm. When I arrived , Greg told me what he had in store : a giant set compromising of Front squats, leg press, Hack squats, leg extensions and sissy squats. He wanted me to do 20-50 of the first, followed immediately by 20-50 of the second, and so on until I completed one continuous set.
HE would let me rest for a minute or two – what a guy – then we would start the whole insane thing over again.
We never deviated from the poundage’s we used for the first giant set. For front squats it was 315. The leg press was 10 plates on each side, or about 900 pounds. Hack squats was 225. For leg extension Greg just stuck the pin at the bottom of the stack. I did sissy squats holding a 25 pound plate against my chest.
As the workout unfolded, my legs got warm, then pumped, then wobbly, like jelly. IN the middle of my third set in hack squats, I couldn’t feel them at all. I was ready to throw in the towel, and I looked up at Greg and asked, “cant we do 12 reps instead of 20?” “sure you can do that or you can just go home.” He said. That sums up his attitude.
Then your testosterone kicks in and you just go, go, go. Greg was the first person who had given me any real guidance in bodybuilding, so I looked up to him.(I still do). I didn’t want to fail.
Near the end of the fourth giant set, everything I was hearing and seeing started to blur together. IN retrospect, I think I was on the verge of loosing consciousness. No matter how sick I felt, though, I knew I had to keep going, to keep blasting through it. If I’d stopped to rest, the nausea would’ve set in. If I kept pushing though, I wouldn’t throw up until after id finished.
After I completed five of these 100 rep plus giant sets, I was just crawling on the ground. What was Greg trying to accomplish by putting me through this? It’s simple: he was trying to kill me. Actually, it ends up pushing you to a new level. That’s the thing – I made tremendous gains training with him. I didn’t know it at the time, but he was taking me where you have to go to become a champion.
Nice story but we know this isn't true. Just a made up article to impress teenagers and nothing more. A lot like Defendis 70 to 100 sets BS. All fake.
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Mike Francois
1995 Arnold Classic Winner
Toughest Workout :
World Gym; Worthington, Ohio; 1991
A lot of my early workouts were pretty insane, but one particular workout stands out. My trainer at that time was a national level competitor named Greg Greenzalis, and I was one of his first clients, which made me sort of is guinea pig. He was a good trainer – don’t get me wrong – but he always felt like he had to push people to the brink of failure.
In some ways, I looked forward to it; in other ways, I dreaded it, because I knew I was going to throw up, or at least come close, every time. Especially with legs which we were scheduled to train that day at 3:30 pm. When I arrived , Greg told me what he had in store : a giant set compromising of Front squats, leg press, Hack squats, leg extensions and sissy squats. He wanted me to do 20-50 of the first, followed immediately by 20-50 of the second, and so on until I completed one continuous set.
HE would let me rest for a minute or two – what a guy – then we would start the whole insane thing over again.
We never deviated from the poundage’s we used for the first giant set. For front squats it was 315. The leg press was 10 plates on each side, or about 900 pounds. Hack squats was 225. For leg extension Greg just stuck the pin at the bottom of the stack. I did sissy squats holding a 25 pound plate against my chest.
As the workout unfolded, my legs got warm, then pumped, then wobbly, like jelly. IN the middle of my third set in hack squats, I couldn’t feel them at all. I was ready to throw in the towel, and I looked up at Greg and asked, “cant we do 12 reps instead of 20?” “sure you can do that or you can just go home.” He said. That sums up his attitude.
Then your testosterone kicks in and you just go, go, go. Greg was the first person who had given me any real guidance in bodybuilding, so I looked up to him.(I still do). I didn’t want to fail.
Near the end of the fourth giant set, everything I was hearing and seeing started to blur together. IN retrospect, I think I was on the verge of loosing consciousness. No matter how sick I felt, though, I knew I had to keep going, to keep blasting through it. If I’d stopped to rest, the nausea would’ve set in. If I kept pushing though, I wouldn’t throw up until after id finished.
After I completed five of these 100 rep plus giant sets, I was just crawling on the ground. What was Greg trying to accomplish by putting me through this? It’s simple: he was trying to kill me. Actually, it ends up pushing you to a new level. That’s the thing – I made tremendous gains training with him. I didn’t know it at the time, but he was taking me where you have to go to become a champion.
Sounds like the kind of effort that would fuck up your heart fast. Your body can be destroyed just like you can run a car into the ground or overclock a computer chip to the point where it fails.
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Sounds like the kind of effort that would fuck up your heart fast. Your body can be destroyed just like you can run a car into the ground or overclock a computer chip to the point where it fails.
Exactly. No pro trains like this. It's all fiction.
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(http://)
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Mike was known for some insane workouts (not sure about that one).
The only BB allowed in the early Westside Gym, his intensity and strength was freakish.
A young Meadows used to witness him lift, said he was pretty insane.
John was another who could squat a ton, and was later allowed into Westside.
They werent high-rep cable/machine pumpers, thats for sure..
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;D sounds like steve m training principles.
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I would have told Gregory "no" and not done that stupid workout. ::)
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;D sounds like steve m training principles.
That's the system where the last rep of the very last set of all time involves blowing your own brains out in front of your estranged family, right..?
Hardcore indeed - up the dose!
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throwing up is caused by blood rushing away from the stomach because its needed quickly elsewhere in the body
throwing up while training has nothing to do with intensity
Its anerobic training too fast
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I enjoyed Max Rep's articles in the magazines. Rest in peace. He actually trained with the best back in the day like Danny Padilla and many others. He was in the gym watching other champs train and it was fantastic that he wrote about what they did. Max was a big proponent of training with volume and leaving some in the tank till the last set. I remember when he wrote Danny would do five sets per exercise generally using 12 reps according to Max. Danny used the same weight for all five sets. He said in effect the first set he could get say 20 reps if he went to failure but stopped at 12 reps. The second set after a short rest was again 12 reps but he could have maxed out at maybe 15. Short rest he did his third set. He again got 12 reps but could have got 13 and so on. His final set he fails at 8 reps trying to get to 12.
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Well said oldtimer1. That is how the pros trained back in the day exactly. Only most of them did it in a pyramid type set. (Adding weight each set) When I was a kid I was so confused about training. Weiders mags were the only source of info. I heard all this shit about going to failure, the pain zone, adding weight each time you hit ten etc. I thought you had to hit failure on each set. lol. I wish people would just get the truth. Like oldtimer1 said . Only hit failure on last set. I learned the truth after going to Venice and seeing the truth. I actually got to know some pros over the years. They do not train like what the mags say. Smh. They try to portray them as almost "super human" lmao. I tried to train like I THOUGHT they did . Over trained after a few weeks lol. After I figured out the right way that's when I started making good progress and was never drained and hurting so much. Volume ( up to a point) is in fact the key to progress and adding weight accordingly . The biggest joke were the Mentzer's . Them and Arthur Jones. Jones was smart, his machines are awesome and on paper what him and Mentzer's said sounds right and makes sense. Fry the muscle and it will grow. That is true but only up to a point.
All this crap about counting macros, weighing food, the "anabolic window" and other stuff is basically more attempts to sell people supplements and other things. Look at the guys in the 70's and 80's. Did they do any of that? NO. They trained hard ( but not too hard) and often and ate when they could. Some only once a day. Most just 3 or 4 times. And they look miles and miles better than these bloated slobs now days. So much crazy wrong information out there on something that is so basic. Train hard. eat and rest. Gain weight lift heavier( each muscle group 2 times a week) and eat more. Lose weight train a bit lighter ( and up to 6 times a week) do some fat burning exercise ( slow and longer periods NOT cardio!! That burns a lot of muscle) and cut out carbs and keep calories low.
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;D sounds like steve m training principles.
I love how he uses his steroided up physique for the cover of a book about not needing steroids. ::)
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I love how he uses his steroided up physique for the cover of a book about not needing steroids. ::)
And the book itself is nothing special, it isn't anything radical or you haven't heard before. Nothing in it about doing 100 sets a bodypart that Steve used to claim he did. Intensity or insanity my ass.
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I enjoyed Max Rep's articles in the magazines. Rest in peace. He actually trained with the best back in the day like Danny Padilla and many others. He was in the gym watching other champs train and it was fantastic that he wrote about what they did. Max was a big proponent of training with volume and leaving some in the tank till the last set. I remember when he wrote Danny would do five sets per exercise generally using 12 reps according to Max. Danny used the same weight for all five sets. He said in effect the first set he could get say 20 reps if he went to failure but stopped at 12 reps. The second set after a short rest was again 12 reps but he could have maxed out at maybe 15. Short rest he did his third set. He again got 12 reps but could have got 13 and so on. His final set he fails at 8 reps trying to get to 12.
Exactly how I train. 4 to 6 sets of an exercise with relatively short rest periods for 8 to 12 reps.
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Mike also ended up with a shit bag and thus ended his career
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Mike also ended up with a shit bag and thus ended his career
Hmm.. so he did... I wonder what the incidence of that sort of thing is in the general population? Because I'm thinking there was him, then John Meadows, and then more recently Justin Compton
Probably no link, but your post just made me wonder 🤔
Edit: if you respond, I bet it's along the lines of 'it was all the cawk they took!' ;D I enjoy the brutal scatology of a lot of your posts - not sure I've told you that before 8)
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And the book itself is nothing special, it isn't anything radical or you haven't heard before. Nothing in it about doing 100 sets a bodypart that Steve used to claim he did. Intensity or insanity my ass.
I know, I read it and was expecting some crazy training programs and was very disappointed. It was beginner level shit and nothing special at all.
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Well said oldtimer1. That is how the pros trained back in the day exactly. Only most of them did it in a pyramid type set. (Adding weight each set) When I was a kid I was so confused about training. Weiders mags were the only source of info. I heard all this shit about going to failure, the pain zone, adding weight each time you hit ten etc. I thought you had to hit failure on each set. lol. I wish people would just get the truth. Like oldtimer1 said . Only hit failure on last set. I learned the truth after going to Venice and seeing the truth. I actually got to know some pros over the years. They do not train like what the mags say. Smh. They try to portray them as almost "super human" lmao. I tried to train like I THOUGHT they did . Over trained after a few weeks lol. After I figured out the right way that's when I started making good progress and was never drained and hurting so much. Volume ( up to a point) is in fact the key to progress and adding weight accordingly . The biggest joke were the Mentzer's . Them and Arthur Jones. Jones was smart, his machines are awesome and on paper what him and Mentzer's said sounds right and makes sense. Fry the muscle and it will grow. That is true but only up to a point.
All this crap about counting macros, weighing food, the "anabolic window" and other stuff is basically more attempts to sell people supplements and other things. Look at the guys in the 70's and 80's. Did they do any of that? NO. They trained hard ( but not too hard) and often and ate when they could. Some only once a day. Most just 3 or 4 times. And they look miles and miles better than these bloated slobs now days. So much crazy wrong information out there on something that is so basic. Train hard. eat and rest. Gain weight lift heavier( each muscle group 2 times a week) and eat more. Lose weight train a bit lighter ( and up to 6 times a week) do some fat burning exercise ( slow and longer periods NOT cardio!! That burns a lot of muscle) and cut out carbs and keep calories low.
So true. 5 sets of 10 is how Arnold trained. This was confirmed by Frank Zane also. Arnold usually did 10 reps on each exercise. He would go up in weight on each set, the first set being the warm up and the last set the hardest. John Balik also trained with Arnold and said the same thing. Arnold would do a warm up set at 50 to 60 % of his top weight then go up in weight at 70% of top weight, the next set is at 80% of top weight, the next at 90% then the last set at 100% top weight. Trying to get 10 reps on each set. So the intensity gradually increases over 5 sets. That's how he did it and that's how most of the 70's era guys trained. Only the last set of an exercise is that hardest set. They did not go all out on every set of every exercise as some may have you believe. They trained hard but not that hard. This is how most should be training too. It works.
If you dont like pyramiding up in weight then use straight sets using the same weight across each set. Use a weight that you would fail at 15 reps then do the following
Set 1 10 reps could get 15 but stop at 10
Set 2 10 reps could get 13 or 14 reps but stop at 10
Set 3 10 reps could get 11 or 12 reps, fatigue is kicking in now
Set 4 just managed 10 reps close to failure
Set 5 as many reps as possible maybe 8, can finish off with a drop set if needed.
Rest should be 60 to 90 seconds between sets.