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Getbig Main Boards => Gossip & Opinions => Topic started by: slaveboy1980 on September 03, 2007, 07:12:05 AM
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A Day with Sergio Oliva
by Chris Lund (1982)
Without any doubt whatsoever the name Sergio Oliva is indeed an immortal one in the world of bodybuilding. Being blessed with the most amazing bone structure and muscular potential of any other human either living or dead, Sergio Oliva has built a physique that literally defies the imagination! Imagine a physique with thighs that are larger than its waist! Sergio's thighs measure 30 inches [76 cm] yet his waist is only 28 inches [71 cm]! Imagine a physique with arms that are larger than the head and then you can begin to appreciate the amazing specimen that Sergio Oliva really is!
While Arnold Schwarzenegger has been often labelled the King of the Bodybuilders he is the first to admit that, "Sergio Oliva when in shape is unbeatable!" When I was in California recently I showed some photos of Sergio to quite a few of the big names of current day bodybuilding and when such great physique men as, Mike Mentzer, Boyer Coe, Samir Bannout, Tony Emmott and Andreas Cahling all stand back in awe and total amazement at the sight of Sergio's physique, you can understand and appreciate the greatness of this man. Like Andreas Cahling said, "When I look at Sergio I feel like a beginner!"
When Sergio travelled to Paris, France recently to compete for the WABBA Mr World title against Britain's Bertil Fox I had the honour and good fortune to spend a day with him. This is what happened.
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"We'll never all get in!" I said anxiously to the great Serge Nubret. "No, no, no, it's ok I tell you!" he replied. "But I'm not sure, you might damage it you know. That's a helluva lotta weight in there!" I said. "Look, don't worry it'll be alright I tell you!" he countered sternly.
Trying to pack seven giant bodybuilders and a photographer in one Jaguar motor car seems crazy enough to me, but when you consider that one of these bodybuilders was the great Sergio Oliva himself, then that definitely qualifies you for being posted to the funny farm, immediately!
It was a couple of days before the great WABBA Mr World contest in Paris, France, and Nubret was in a dash to get to the television studios so that Sergio could do a TV publicity thing for the show.
"So how am I going to get in, there's no room!" I said, scrutinizing the inside of his Jag over and over again. No one answered this time. Serge sat impatiently at the wheel tapping his fingers and next to him was Sergio wedged against the top California bodybuilder John Brown. In the back was Eduardo Kawak who won the Amateur title plus three other 'big' 'big' bodybuilders I just couldn't put a name to.
I was about to give up in sheer desperation when the friendly words of a Mexican/Spanish type origin said, "Hey you givva me the tripoda and putta the camera onna these guys!" " OK Sergio, thanks very much mate!" I said, and in a second we were off.
If you've ever driven a car in Paris then I'm sure you will agree with me when I say that the French must be the worst drivers in the world! Serge Nubret was no exception and as we bumped our way down the tiny little narrow streets of Paris we just missed collision after collision, at almost every single road junction!
"You know your Bertil Fox he rings me every week and he says, 'Please Serge tell me ze contest will be fair!' and I tell heem 'Yes, yes, yes, ze contest it will be fair, but you betta come in good, because that Sergio he ees looking fantastik!'" Serge said as we drove along. "You betta believa that man!" cried Sergio with a great big grin all over his face.
If driving in Paris was frightening then parking was an absolute nightmare! As we approached the great big television studios there wasn't an inch of parking space available anywhere. In fact when these guys park they don't quite double park they quadruple park! One car on each side of the road and another car on the pavement either side of that! Suddenly one of the parked cars flashed his reversing lights and began to move out of the parking space. As if by magic the parking space became suddenly up for grabs as one car came out of the blue directly behind us and another straight in front of us. This wasn't going to bother Serge Nubret at all and he quickly put his plan into action which was to get his oversized Jag into a parking space that looked only big enough to hold a Mini! We went back. Then we went forward. Then we went back again. All the time to the accompaniment of the incessant and unmelodic tunes coming from the car in front and the one behind.
"You'll never make it Serge. The car's too bloody big!" I yelled as my neck twisted to the right and then to the left each time we moved. "You are in Parees now Chrees. Thees is how we do it!" said the great one.
By this time quite a large group of noisy gay Parisians (not the bent kind) had assembled to watch the proceedings. Amidst the by now almost deafening sound of the other two cars horns I began to slowly evaluate the situation. Was this great big car bulging to the seams with eight bodybuilders going to get into that tiny parking space without causing damage to any other vehicle on the road? Or were we all going to be arrested by the Gendarmes for overloading, dangerous driving and numerous other offences I didn't dare think about? Discretion being the greater part of valour I decided to get out of that car as quick as I could! I wasn't the only one thinking this because I was followed immediately by one of the other bodybuilders from California who had been sitting next to me in the back.
Joining the rest of the observers on the other side of the road I could now tell by the angry look on Nubret's face that he was getting a little fed up with the situation, and that he intended to put an end to it once and for all. Selecting reverse gear the Jag which now contained only 6 bodybuilders drove straight at the car behind him. "Oh, no I don't believe this. He's going to bloody-well ram the car!" I said closing my eyes in disbelief.
Crash! I looked up and right enough Serge had rammed the car behind him. The maroon coloured automatic Jag now moved into drive and yes you guessed it, rammed the other car in front, right up the jacksy! "Hey man you should have took a picture of that for the magazine" said the guy from California. "Yes, it's amazing isn't it?" I replied with my mouth still hanging open. I thought for a moment that Serge might have trouble with the two drivers of the cars but I guess one look at Nubret and Oliva would be enough to scare anyone off. Amazingly Serge did manage to get the car into the space, but with literally only a couple of inches to spare. "How's he going to get out?" I muttered to myself.
I had seen Sergio Oliva on two previous occasions. Once when he was very narrowly beaten by Bill Pearl at the 1971 London Mr Universe and again when he beat Tony Emmott at the very controversial 1977 WABBA Mr World contest. Although I felt that he had the most amazing and unique physique of any single living bodybuilder the world has ever known, I felt that he just couldn't get that little bit of extra polish needed to beat the top, amazingly muscular guys of today. So knowing too well that Sergio simply hates to diet I was putting my money on Fox!
After the TV thing Sergio declared "Hey man I wanna do-a-bit-of-the training now!" and pretty soon we pulled up outside of Nubret's International Club just as it began to snow.
Serge Nubret's gym is not a fancy chrome plated health club just waiting to take your money off you. No, his gym is a bodybuilders gym and it was truly unbelievable to see so many Serge Nubret look-a-likes, slowly and meticulously repping out set after set of bench presses with fairly light weights.
I've never ever seen anyone as wide as Sergio Oliva and the navy blue track suit he wore that day for his workout must have been custom made for him, in fact I got the impression from the many varied and different clothes he wore every time you saw him that he must surely have his own wardrobe and personal tailor here with him in France. As Bob Kennedy remarked later, "When Sergio changes into a different outfit he not only appears a completely different person he actually takes over that personality too!"
For instance when he arrived at Charles De Gaulle Airport he was wearing his navy Chicago City Police uniform and he actually assumed the role of a cop i.e. dead serious and aloof. Yet when I saw him the following day he wore the most unbelievable pure white fluffy woolly jacket backed up with the most gold jewellery I've seen on anyone since Sammy Davis! Indeed this particular rig out displayed the jolly care-free lover of life type, and sure enough Sergio played the part to a 'T' for he sure loves life does that Sergio!
Inside Nubret's gym Sergio got set to train. Being already in his track suit he only had to place his red white and blue sweat band over his now completely bald head and we were away!
First on the agenda was calf work. Using only the standing calf machine and the seated calf machine, Sergio did at least eight sets of both exercises for at least 20 reps a set. He raised his heels up as high as he could at the top of the movement, and then lowered them as far as he could at the bottom. At first I got the impression that he wasn't working too hard, and then I happened to glance over to the weight stack. He was using the entire weight stack making it look like child's play!
After calves Sergio said he just wanted to do a little bit of back work just to keep in shape for the contest on Saturday. Using the old fashioned pulldown behind the neck exercise Sergio took the widest grip I've ever seen used on this exercise and commenced his first set. As I said Sergio used an extremely wide grip on the bar and pulled it as low down his neck as he could. He did about six sets of about 20 to 25 reps a set and worked to about 80% of true muscular failure. Following this Sergio did another six sets of at least 20 reps on the close grip reverse pulldown to the chest. Sergio had to really put out on these and worked them much harder than the aforementioned pulldowns.
Resting only for a few minutes Sergio then said he wanted to pump his shoulders up a bit. "Great, pump mine up while you're about it!" I thought to myself. Indeed it's my own personal opinion that Sergio's greatest bodypart is his deltoids even though nearly everyone else would probably say his arms. When Sergio Oliva spreads himself out to do a double bicep pose to the front or the rear no one, repeat no one, can stand next to him. He is the biggest and widest bodybuilder the world has ever seen and maybe will ever see! When he assumes these two poses he lust literally takes over the whole stage!
For his deltoids all I saw him do that day was seated press behind neck and seated alternate dumbbell forward raise. Using very moderate weights for a man of his immense strength Sergio did rep after rep of these two exercises non stop for about 8 total compound sets. On the press behind neck he used a fairly wide grip on the bar and used deep concentration to thoroughly stimulate those amazing delts, I was really surprised to see him do so many reps for his shoulders because I'm sure he did at least 20 reps each set!
When he couldn't do another rep in good style on the press behind neck Sergio rested a couple of minutes before going into the next part of his compound set which was the seated alternate dumbbell forward raise. This exercise was performed in very strict style and once again he did at least 20 reps a set if not more.
Sergio finished off his workout with one of his favourite exercises, parallel bar dips. On this exercise he lowered himself fairly low between the bars and in no time at all had completed a rather fast six sets of 20 to 25 reps using only his bodyweight!
After the workout was over Sergio declared to Nubret "Hey man I wanna eat!", so Nubret arranged for a French/English interpreter to take us to a small bistro.
On the way there I asked Sergio how he felt about the fact that Arnold Schwarzenegger had been the one who had gained the most wealth, fame and popularity from bodybuilding when in fact it probably could have been him (Sergio). "Yes, I think about these things. Maybe the guy was smarter. But I sure don't hold any grudges against the guy. He's sure made a lotta monee outta this game. You'va gotta handa-it to-a him!" he told me.
At the bistro Sergio declared he wanted something to eat and fast! Unfortunately during certain times of the day if appears to be just about impossible to find any good hot food anywhere in Paris. Sergio tried repeatedly to get the young French interpreter to bring him some eggs.
"Eggs man. Ain't you heard about the egg?" said Sergio in total disbelief. "Eggs! Eggs! I do not understand what are you asking for. Eggs?" replied our interpreter looking totally confused. "Yeah Eggs! You-a-scramble them like this. (Sergio assumes the scrambled egg pose). I want 12 scrambled! You understand 12 scrambled eggs pronto!" orders the great one. "Er, scramble-eggs-twelve? What is scramble eggs?" repeated the Frenchman. "Look man cluck, cluck, cluck!" cried a now desperate Sergio Oliva as his arms jump up and down in a pathetic attempt to imitate a hen! "Cluck, cluck, cluck. Eggs man. Eggs!" clucked Sergio. "Ah, you want zer cheekin! Zer cheekin!" cried the Frenchman. Sergio did not share the young Frenchman's enthusiasm. "This is f?????? crazy man. Let me getta outta here" was Sergio's answer.
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Before he could get out of his chair, I said quickly, "Omelette!". "Ah, zer omelette! You would like zer omelette eh No?" replied our friend. "Eh Yes!" replied poor Sergio who looked now as though he was ready to eat a scabby horse! Pretty soon we were served two beautiful French omelettes and in no time at all Sergio devoured every last bite!
"Pan-a-caka! I wanna the Pan-a-caka!" was Sergio's next cry. "Er Pana-ca- I do not understand" said our poor frustrated friend. Oh no. Not again! I thought. "I wanna the pan-a-cak-a! Don't you know watta the Pan-a-cake is man?" replied the great man.
I could tell by the tone of Sergio's voice that his simmering nervous system was fast approaching boiling point again. "Look, Sergio has to eat plenty of sweet things today so that he can have the energy for the contest" I said weakly. "Sweet? Sweet." answered the Frenchman as though he was in an echo chamber. "Yes, yes, sweet. He has to keep his sugar level up" I countered. "Ah Sugar! Yes Sucre! You want zer sucre" chirped the Frenchman as though he had just won a million dollars!
He jumped up from the table excitedly and made his way over to what looked like a kitchen attached to the next room. "I reckon we've cracked it this time Sergio" I said proudly. "Huh! Ivva hada this-a-French-shite-man. I wanna go home and eat!" replied Sergio completely uninterested in any further conversation.
I couldn't believe my eyes when our young Frenchman came hurrying back holding a glass bowl as though it was the Olympic torch! "Sucre! Sucre!" he declared as he dropped the bowl full of sugar lumps right under Sergio's nose. "You want zer sugar. Here is zer sugar for you!" He said proudly.
I will never ever forget the look on Sergio Oliva's face as long as I live. Nor will I forget the look on our poor French friend's face as his great big proud smile slowly dropped into a look of confusion, and then into down-right pure shock! I really did think that Sergio was going to pick up the entire table including the Frenchman, myself and the bowl of sugar lumps, only to throw the lot out of the window. I obviously wasn't the only one thinking this because the entire room of Parisians had suddenly stopped what they were doing, and all eyes were now focussed on this huge monster in the navy blue tracksuit and the poor Frenchman whose complexion had now suddenly changed from fresh to white as a sheet!
Amazingly the great Cuban somehow regained his composure and said to our friend, "You comma witha me now. I'll givva you the sugar". As the two of them left the bistro I thought "Christ he's going to beat the living daylights out of the poor bugger. What should I do?" I thought. All my worries were completely unfounded though because after only a couple of minutes the two returned smiling and apparently the best of friends. The reason for the sudden friendship of course lay inside the huge white box held by the great Cuban.
Sergio impetuously pulled at the string which surrounded the box while the Frenchman and myself, plus the rest of the people in the bistro anxiously awaited the grand opening. "Ah! Ah!" said the great one smiling for the first time that day as the contents of the box were now revealed to one and all.
Inside the box were eight of the most delicious looking French cream cakes you could ever imagine. Holding a cake in each hand Sergio reminded me of a cement mixer as he delightedly stuffed them into his mouth. "Go on, Go on, you havva one. They are so good man." He said waving the lovely pastry right under my nose. "Er, well I don't know Sergio you've got to keep your strength up you know, we don't want Foxy to get the edge now do we?" I replied. "No, no, no! You will lika these my friend," he replied. And he was right. I did like the cream cake and it appeared that our French friend felt the same way too because he was sitting licking his lips just at the sight of the two of us scoffing them down.
"You like zer Pan-a-cak-a?" he enquired. Sergio and I were both suddenly stopped dead in our tracks by this remark. We just looked at each other and then couldn't help but burst out laughing!
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SLAVEBOY, I OWN THE MAGAZINE THIS IS FROM.
IT HAS MIKE MENTZER ON THE COVER ;) ;) ;) ;) IT IS VERY OLD.
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found this online: written by LATS
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i have been into bodybuilding forever...well, it seems like forever. i have been lucky to get a job in a industry i love and was very lucky atr a early age to have a father who told me pursue my hobbies and make money off them. so when i was younger i had obcession of wanting to see THE MYTH , sergio oliva before he retired. i got my chance to see him when chicago hosted a large amatuer show that i read about in my gym. i was 17 years old and now had to get a way up to chicago from where i lived which was 5 hours away. sergio would be handing out trophys at the event...time to sucker dad into taking a drive.
we made it to the show that weekend and i brought my lifting partner with me. my dad was not to enthused but, he went. i could have cared less for the competition and only wanted too see sergio. i had to take a monster piss half way through the short class (hey, it was the early 80's and aau was a dominate force in bodybuilding. they went by height classes). as i was walking through the hall to the restrooms there was sergio. i stopped and stared. you know, the stalker type stare that scares most people. he turned around after about a minute and saw me...he smiled and nodded...i shite a brick..and scampered off to the restroom. i made it back to my seat and immediately started my tirade of how i saw sergio. my dad was not impressed but, my buddy was pissed he missed it. later on sergio came out and handed out trophys. he was wearing his trademark huge gold necklece and rings. he was wearing white dress pants and a silk red dress shirt. the sleeves were also cut into a v at the ends so that he could get his arms through them. he looked like a pimp...a pimp on gear.
as the show ended sergio and his wife were making it out of the hall and toward the door...i was stalking them form about 25 feet away. my father says, "well, go talk to him" i said "yeah right..i aint doing anything like that " well, you have to know my dad. he was all of 5'2 and 115 pounds. he was from ireland. was shot at by british troops, moved to the states to avoid being killed, then signs up to fight in ww2. he was not exactly playing with a full deck sometimes and had very little if any fear. he used to say "there was a fine line between courage and stupidity and i crossed it many times" well, with that my father yells "hey sergio, my son wants to talk to you!" now i fully expected to see sergio keep walking but, he turned and looked at my father who then says "yeah, he gets his shorts in a bind everytime he sees your picture" sergio then says "well, where is he" in his thick cuban accent. i off course was hiding behind the available pillar like a schoolgirl. my dad yells for mr to come out and "stop being a sally"..his words not mine. i walked over to him and luckily my father did most of the talking. sergio gave me his autograph and told my father tha he was more than welcome to come train at his gym and watch him prepare for a guest posing spot he had. he gave my dad the address and the time the next day he would be there.
the next day i ran into the gym with my buddy and immediately had to take a piss. i headed straight for the bathroom and as i round the corner to the restroom, there was sergio. he was standing with his shirt off in front of a locker. i shite brick #2. he immediately saw me and sais hi and some other things that i do not recall because i had lapsed into a dream sequence. he put on a t shirt with no sleeves and baggy sweats. i took a piss and to this day i do not know if i ever made it to the urinal. as i walked out sergio was warming up. he was doing chest and back..he started by doing bench press supersetted with dips. he would do the benches in a very short range of motion. no more than 5-6 iches off his chest done in a very fast , rapid movement. he did 135 first and must have done 20-30 reps. he would wait about two minutes then head to the dip bars and do the dips in a similar fashion. he would sink all the way down and only come halfway up. he did about 20 in this fashion. that seemed to be a theme. benches for 15 to 20 reps..rest..then dips the same way. he went up to 365 on thebenches and still made 12 to 15 rapid reps..the rest ..then dips. this went on for about 8 sets. he rested for a few minutes and talked to his workout partner. he then went to the chin bar and started repping out on the chin bar. he did chins similar to the dips. he would go most of the way up but, not all the way down. there was still bend to his arms at the bottom. he did atleast 20 -25 reps. he rested then did dumbell pullovers with no more than 80 pounds. he did these in a silar fashion . he let the dumbell go back for a full stretch then only brought it over his forehead then back down. again, he did higher reps. he did this countless times. at least 6 to 8 sets.
next he did inclines on the smith machine. again, very short movement and he combined the inclines with t bar rows. i can not tell ya the weight since i do not know the smiths weight or remember the pplates on the t bar but, reps again were high and the arms never straightened all the way on the t bars. 4 sets a piece. he stopped and changed shirts in the gym since his were soaked. he said to his partner that he wanted to do more dips. he went back over and pumped out at least 5 more sets of dips. he followed these up with behind the neck pulldowns. each had 20 -25 reps on ost of the exercises. by the way. he never went to failure and looked as though he could have done at least two to three reps more on each exercise.
when he was done i finally was able to get the courage to talk to him and asked why he was so big going so light....i know, but it was all i could think of at the time. he stated that any heavier and he was working tendons. he said that you must make the muscle tired and higher reps where the answer. i asked if he was doing this because he was getting ready for a posing debut. he said no. his training never changes only his diet. i asked about the short reps since all i read back then was full range was best. he said that he could handle more weight for more reps that way and that made "me big". needless to say i came away from that session more confused. i think he saw my confusion and said "do not read so much, okay. do what makes you happy." with that he shook my dads hand and left the gym.
it kind makes you wonder....he never knew what he was doing was "wrong". it just felt right to him. he became the myth and arguably the best bodybuilder of his day. so was he wrong in his methods? i remember telling balik form ironman magazine about this. he laughed and said he witnessed sergio doing the same thing many years ago. he said sergio never wenty very heavy but, made up for it in volume. sergio felt that the pump was more important then weight..he used just enough to get the job done. in a era of no insulin, gh and many other tools he was supreme. arnold himself in a interview in muscle digest admitted that sergio was the better bodybuilder. he just did not know how to diet well....he loved hotdogs...ate many a day...bastard.
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INCREDIBLE MUSCLE MASS:
How Sergio Oliva & Victor Richards, bulkmasters of yesterday and today, built theirs.
By Jeff Everson
I suppose it all started the day Richard Gaspari was declared National Light-Heavyweight Champion. Yes, I remember the eventful day back in New Orleans in 1984, when the young dragonslayer, ripped to the proverbial eyeballs, took home the gold, ushering in the new era of physique definition.
Agreed, before Gaspari we had our striation kings. We had bodybuilders who worked as models for Gray's Anatomy charts back in the '60s and '70s. We used to call them the most muscular men in physique contests. In those days definition was synonymous with "most muscular." Physique judges then preferred a fuller (less defined) physique than is the rule today. The lean and hungry look of the yon Cassiuses of those days never won physique titles.
If you examine older physique pictures, those of Reg Park, Steve Reeves, Leroy Colbert, Dave Draper and even Arnold Schwarzenegger, bodybuilders were massive with outstanding shape, but certainly not ripped as they are today. But, so it goes. Progress is progress even if it does take a lot of the fun out of bodybuilding training. Indeed, in those days hard training and eating a lot of good food and being strong were what it was all about. Not so today. Now it's succinates, metabolic optimizers, medium-chained triglycerides, branched chain amino acids, carnitine, thryoid, almost-zero-fat diets, carefully balanced protein diets, calorimetry- measured energy expenditure to equalize energy input with output, cyclic training routines and bodybuilding lifestyle day in and day out.
Oh, to be sure, all of the above has pushed the standard of bodybuilding ever onward. Today's champions have taken muscularity to dizzy heights. Bodybuilders are TOTALLY refined and developed today. Funny thing, though, most kids, most beginning bodybuilders, don't really care about that. That look, the ultra-refined Gaspari-type muscularity, is best left for the competitive, singly focused bodybuilder who has little time, thought or energy to do anything else with his life except train, eat and sleep bodybuilding. Not that that's bad. I make no judgments on people's lives. To each his own.
What is ironic is that most young, beginning bodybuilders long for something other than the look it takes to win. That something is what I call ANIMALIA - pure, animal-type muscle mass. Size. Power. Thickness. Hugeness. It's what made Ferrigno, Park, Schwarzenegger, Oliva and now, the human house, Vic Richards, veritable legends in anyone's time.
Muscle mass. That's what basic bodybuilding is all about. That's why Bertil Fox remains the bodybuilder's bodybuilder today. You even see this at physique contests, where bodybuilding connoisseurs come presumably to appreciate the more refined, more ripped look, rather than ogling the bulk masters. However, it's the mass boys who garner the most applause, if not the paid airfares and qualifications to enter the Nationals or the pros. To a lesser and somewhat more unfortunate extent, the same thing applies to women's bodybuilding.
So be it. Bodybuilders still crave bigness and hard muscle mass more than anything else. Back in the mid '60s, Sergio Oliva was regarded as the biggest bodybuilder around. The most massive man who ever lived. Sergio won the Mr. Olympia in '67, '68 and '69. In '69 he beat Arnold to win the title.
Even though Oliva took a hiatus from the mid '70s until 1984, he remained foremost in everyone’s mind as the most massive bodybuilder of all time, even more so than the great Austrian Oak. Today, however, a man lurking around Southern California, when you see him in the flesh, in the gym working out (pictures don't do him, justice at all), is probably more muscle- massive than even Sergio at his peak. That man is Victor Richards.
What's the secret to this huge muscle mass? It can't be steroids. If it's a given that 90% of your most massive bodybuilders have used steroids, if steroids-were the cause, they'd all be as big as Vic and Sergio - but they aren't. The secret must lie elsewhere.
I know most of you smaller guys out there, especially those of you who think you've tried everything to get big and haven’t, will attribute Vic's and Sergio's mass to genetic proclivity. Well, having been around powerlifting, football, weightlifting, arm-wrestling, shot- putting and bodybuilding for nearly 25 years, I believe this to be too simplistic. Granted, to rise to the top of any sport, you must have genetic advantages, but human physiology doesn't vary much, and people can compensate for many genetic disadvantages.
Gaining muscle size is not governed much by genetic factors as we understand them in other sports. Leverage is not a concern. Muscle fiber type is not much of a concern (it really doesn't matter much since across the population there isn't much variability), speed and quickness aren’t factors. Most people have testosterone levels within the same range.
The fact of the matter is, I believe you could take nine out of 10 high school freshmen and train them to be massive bodybuilders - provided they had the desire and wanted to stick to the program long enough! Now maybe the nine you randomly picked wouldn't get as big as Sergio or Victor, but I guarantee that doing the right things, they could indeed get massive beyond their expectations. Yes, Sergio and Victor both speak fondly about how their brothers could have been bigger than them, but it's impossible to know how big anyone can be unless he actually tries to get big.
I'm sure most of you have read that the only thing important for mass is using heavy weights all the time. If this were true, wouldn't weightlifters who ONLY lift heavy weights be incredibly massive? Surprise - they aren't. So, it's obvious that the number of repetitions plays a part in overall size, in addition to poundage. So does the number of sets. If you do one set per exercise forget about getting MAXIMUM mass. This is not even a remote possibility! In effect, mass is produced by the type and frequency of your training and the types and amount of food or drink you consume.
Bodybuilding's most massive men do far more sets than average sized guys. Examination of Arnold's, Sergio's and Victor's training routines reveals that all three preferred a high-set approach when training their individual bodyparts.
Over the years, Chicago-based writer Norman Zale has on several occasions cataloged and described Sergio's training routines. I myself studied Sergio's methods in 1969 while he was pumping away in the old Duncan YMCA in Chicago. Sergio trained once a day following a full day of manual labor (before Sergio was one of Rogers Park's finest, he worked long hours as a butcher and loading and unloading trucks, sometimes working double shifts). His workouts were long, intense, but steady-state in nature. Sergio literally flowed from movement to movement (and still does today), getting a thorough congestion in whatever bodypart he was training.
The biggest animals seem to do nothing fancy either - they just whale away on basic movements, doing a lot of heavy sets with repetitions falling in the 10-12 range. A lot of times, they do half movements and partials. Indeed, this is a major reason Tom Platz was able to get his thighs so huge (that and an undeniable mental-physical capacity to push back discomfort barriers).
I remember watching Sergio train his chest in 1969. At the time, Zale had taped the 5'9' '235-pound Oliva at 56 inches for chest, 29 for waist and 21 for arms. Sergio supersetted bench presses with dips, doing 8-10 supersets with 225-275 pounds in the bench press and bodyweight in the dips. Curiously, he would do four three-quarter benches followed by a complete lockout rep and then another four partial movements followed by a full rep and so on for about 15-20 movements per set. In the dips he'd do the same, a series of partial reps followed by a full rep and so on for at least 20 reps. By the end of his supersets, Sergio's chest was like a zeppelin. The point being, Sergio got massive doing a lot of sets, partials, higher reps and concentration on thorough muscle congestion.
I'm sure a lot of you have heard the stories about Sergio's prodigious eating over the years. Some of his staples included banana pancakes, chocolate shakes, colas and platefuls of eggs. Sergio was fond of drinking copious quantities of protein-milk mixes toward the end of his workout and right afterward. Sergio was a big eater of steak, eggs, pancakes and more.
Too many youngsters who want to get big don't get enough calories and don't take in enough fat in their food. They also don't consume enough mixtures of carbohydrates, from simple sugars to intermediates to long-chained sugars.
Definition is different from mass. You can't have it both ways. You can eat year round as if you were preparing for a contest and gain size very slowly (if at all). Or you can do what most big bodybuilders have done to get big - eat a lot of all foods and train hard and heavy. Contest diets, the ones you read about in the magazine, are for ADVANCED bodybuilders.
Victor Richards could write volumes on big eating and mass training. Vic's legs are bigger and thicker right now than his upper body is, but he's bringing his upper body up fast. When Vic began training, he started working on "basic" mass-building exercises, the kinds of movements that utilize a lot of muscle groups In multiple joint movements. Exercises like bench presses, squats and leg presses. Vic didn't even do leg extensions or curls, two exercises that are universally considered separators, not mass-builders.
Vic didn't do flyes or concentration curls. Instead he did heavy dumbbell bench presses and heavy curls. He trained long and hard like a barbarian - in fact, he trained with the Barbarians, Peter and David Paul. Like Sergio, Victor worked on the basics. During his first organized, steady seven months of training, Vic's weight went from 215 to 260 pounds and he used to spend two hours on leg training - just on squats alone. (Paul Anderson used to do the same thing and, with 37-inch thighs, he's about the only guy who had legs bigger than Vic's).
Vic differs slightly from Sergio in that Vic likes to train heavier with lower reps. But then again, it should be pointed out that early in Sergio's career (before he met Bob Gujda in Chicago), Sergio had been a weightlifter and consequently did lower reps in his training. While he was a weightlifter, though, Sergio secretly practiced bodybuilding reps and sets, which is why he looked the way he did, in comparison to other weightlifters.
I guess both Vic and Sergio break conventional rules in the way they train for mass. Both use reasonably heavy weights, but neither seems to follow the conventional rest and recovery system or do the standard three sets of 6-8 reps for mass. Sergio should never have recovered from his long, arduous workouts on top of his manual labor but he did, the reason being that he replenished so well through his high-carbohydrate diet.
Both men now seem to prefer higher reps and multiple sets. In fact, Victor states: "I don't really count my sets at all. I just keep on going until I feel finished. I would guess I sometimes do 15-20 sets of some leg exercises."
Observing Sergio and Vic, we can establish that getting massive takes a lot of sets with reasonably heavy weights in the 8-15 rep range. But what about all of you who say you've tried this but dont get any bigger, you just overtrain?
I say look to your diets! The more energy stored through your food, the less likely that you will overtrain on your mass program of basics because you can expand that stored energy to meet your demands and thus build muscle. Secondly, don't try to use too much weight or always try to increase your training weights. Use reasonably heavy weights on basic exercises but do enough reps so you obtain a quality pump!
Big eaters, if they also work out hard, get massive muscles. Victor, like Sergio, is a regular Diamond Jim Brady at the dinner table. Here's what Vic says about eating for mass: "I eat as much as I can of brown rice, oatmeal, eggs and cassava. I like a lot of chicken breasts and eggs, sometimes 60 egg whites in a day, sometimes 10-15 chicken breasts."
It's obvious that both Sergio and Victor consume thousands of calories per day and convert that caloric juice into muscle through long, heavy, hard workouts with emphasis on a quality pump. To get really massive, here are the basic requirements:
1) A lot of good food. Many big men get their extra protein and extra calories through protein drinks. Chicken and egg whites are staples. You also have to eat enough carbs and fats for energy and excess calories.
2) Basic workouts consisting of major exercises (as opposed to isolation exercises) such as bench presses, dumbbell bench presses, dips, behind- the-neck presses, inclines, rows, squats, leg presses and curls.
3) Do between 5-10 sets of your basic exercises and vary the repetitions from 8-15, or perhaps a couple more with leg training. Work at a good pace for a thorough congestion of the muscles.
4) Listen to your body. While Sergio grew large training every day and Vic did much the same, neither man repeated muscle groups without significant rest in between them. Vic has proved you don't need to be a slave to any set system. You can come to the gym and just work the leg press or just work the dumbbell press, but make sure you do A LOT of sets while varying your reps. Make training challenging and fun, not the same old boring thing all the time.
5) There's no doubt that anabolic steroids will make you gain mass faster. However, mass that's earned the right way, naturally, through gobs of food and years of hard training, lasts and has better quality. Additionally, you won't have to worry about any possible health-damaging steroid side effects. You can take all the steroids in the world and if you don't work out hard and right and eat ample food, you won't get anywhere! Vic and Sergio are bigger with more animalia than the rest of us because they've done things the right way - for mass!
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flex magazine article:
ARMS
BY SERGIO OLIVA MR. OLYMPIA, 1967-1969
Where most bodybuilders' philosophies fall into one of three categories--heavy weight, high intensity or feeling--my own training relies primarily on moderately heavy poundages used in high-set pumping-style workouts. I do as many as 25 to 30 total sets, utilizing short rest intervals (usually no more than 30 to 40 seconds) between sets, a snappy exercise cadence and often loose form that allows for incomplete movements. The accent is always on pumping, pumping and more pumping. It's imperative that I still feel that pump the next day. If it's not there, I had a lousy workout.
Every set of every exercise is taken to failure, plus two more forced reps. Normally, cheating is kept to a minimum, except for compound free-weight movements. Those are used to jolt my muscles with more weight than they can contract on their own. My arms are thus forced up to the next mass level, in order to handle that sudden shock load. For years, I trained biceps and triceps together, three times a week, but I've discovered that my arms grow faster with two workouts a week, because of the more thorough recuperation.
The best biceps results I've experienced are from standing barbell curls, barbell preacher curls and dumbbell concentration curls. For triceps, I like weighted dips with four or five 45-pound plates on my belt, cable pushdowns (with any attachment) and heavy seated French curls. These are not the only exercises in my routines, but they're in almost every workout because I love the feeling they produce of blowing my arms so big and tight that they hurt.
SERGIO OLIVA
BICEPS WORKOUT
EXERCISE SETS REPS
Standing barbell curls 6-8 6-8
Wide-grip barbell preacher curls 6-8 8-10
Alternate dumbbell curls 4-5 6-8
Seated dumbbell concentration curls 4-5 8-10
TRICEPS WORKOUT
EXERCISE SETS REPS
Weighted dips 5 8
Cable pushdowns 5 8
Seated French curls 5 8
Reverse-grip cable pushdowns 5 10
Overhead cable extensions 5 10
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Your the man, Slaveboy1980 ! Keep them coming if you can ! :)
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A very interesting "Article" thanx for sharing 8)
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A very interesting "Article" thanx for sharing 8)
articles ;D........will post more if i can.
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Your the man, Slaveboy1980 ! Keep them coming if you can ! :)
sure thing will do if i can find more. 8)
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Thanks for the articles
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SLAVEBOY, actually i wrote the article.. he was one of the first pros i got to witness in person and it was a awesome experience.. still my hero.. ;D
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LATS! I immediately recognised your polished writing style ;D
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SLAVEBOY, actually i wrote the article.. he was one of the first pros i got to witness in person and it was a awesome experience.. still my hero.. ;D
you? lol internet can be a small place sometimes! ;D
so has sergio influenced your training alot? any more stories to tell? you lucky bastard!
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SLAVEBOY, actually i wrote the article.. he was one of the first pros i got to witness in person and it was a awesome experience.. still my hero.. ;D
Impressive..share more articles. ;)
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What's the secret to this huge muscle mass? It can't be steroids. If it's a given that 90% of your most massive bodybuilders have used steroids, if steroids-were the cause, they'd all be as big as Vic and Sergio - but they aren't. The secret must lie elsewhere.
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5) There's no doubt that anabolic steroids will make you gain mass faster. However, mass that's earned the right way, naturally, through gobs of food and years of hard training, lasts and has better quality. Additionally, you won't have to worry about any possible health-damaging steroid side effects. You can take all the steroids in the world and if you don't work out hard and right and eat ample food, you won't get anywhere! Vic and Sergio are bigger with more animalia than the rest of us because they've done things the right way - for mass!
::) ::) ::)
These jokers must piss themselves laughing when they write such garbage!