This is from Musclemag July 1996
IS ZULAK LYING?
I just read Greg Zulak;s article about Greg Kovacs. He claims that Kovacs is the strongest bodybuilder of all time and regularly uses six 45-pound plates on each side of the bar on incline presses on the Smith machine for 6 reps during his chest workouts.
The bar and apparatus on a Smith machine usually weighs about 65 pounds. Twelve 45-pound Olympic plates weigh 540 pounds. That means Zulak claims Kovacs is incline pressing 605 pounds for 6 reps. Come on! Is that a misprint or a typo? Nobody can be that strong. Pat Casey , Paul Anderson and Doug Hepburn - some of the strongest men of all time - could only bench press a little over 600 pounds. Bill Kazmaier's best official bench press in competition was 666 pounds. Big Jim Williams could only bench press an official 675 pounds. At a recent bench shootout in Texas only two men out of 30 were able to bench more than 700 pounds.
Please clarify this point for me . I am very skeptical about this absurd claim. Zulak is either flat out Lying or grossly mistaken.
Jeff Peters
JacksonVille, Florida.
Editor: Yes. Greg Kovacs does use six plates a side on the Smith machine for 6 reps as a regular training poundage for his chest workout- and that's after many other heavy preceding sets. Actually, in a way, Zulak did make a mistake on how much weight Kovacs uses on the Smith- machine incline press. Just last week ( at the time of this writing, the third week of February ). Kovacs did seven plates a side on Smith-machine incline presses for 6 reps. That's more than 675 pounds for 6 reps. It's probably closer to 700 pounds because , as you have pointed out, the weight of the bar and apparatus of a Smith-machine is heavier than a regular 45-pound Olympia bar.
Greg does sets of 12 reps in the seated behind-the-neck presses with 405 pounds regularly and does 2 sets of 6 to 8 reps with 455 pounds. He recently did a 495-pound seated behind-the-neck press for 3 reps on the Smith machine. and that was after the preceding sets : 155 x 20 reps , 245 x20 reps , 335 x15 reps, 425 x 12 reps , 455 x 8 reps , 455 x6 reps , before finishing with 495 x 3 reps ..Just imagine what Kovacs could do if he went for a max attempt without first exhausting his triceps and shoulders with so many other high-rep heavy sets!
All of these lifts were preformed in front of dozens of witnesses in a busy gym. Is Greg Kovacs the strongest bodybuilder of all time? Without a doubt.
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