I’m at the gym here in Vegas, Gold’s Gym on Flamingo and Sandhill, the last hardcore gym in Vegas. I just finished blasting arms and completing my mindless hour of cardio…
Kai, Oscar and the cameraman walk in and Kai and Oscar head to the locker room. I walk up to the cameraman and let him know the information is being well received on the boards and that Kai has many supporters cheering him on to make history. I ask the cameraman what body part they are working on and he responds, “legs.” I told him I’d stick around for that. After a couple more minutes of chit-chat Kai and Oscar emerge and we greet each other and proceed to leg extensions. Kai begins stretching as Oscar decides which of the many leg extension machines to use. Oscar chooses one and sets the weight for Kai and Kai completes 16-18 reps for two sets warming up the quads. Kai is wearing a black Gold’s Gym Hoodie, baby blue stretch pants and black sneakers. As Kai is completing his leg extensions, you can see the separation in his quads and some veins though the pants. Next, he hops on the lying leg curl machines and completes two sets for 18 reps. You can already see the striations in his hamstrings.
Kai hops up and takes a drink of water and proceeds to the squat rack. 1st set, 145 ass-to-ankles, 20 reps, 2nd set 225 ass-to-ankles 16 reps, 3rd set 315 ass-to-ankles 12 reps. At this point I’m amazed at the strict manner in which he performs the exercise. This is no half ass effort folks. He goes Tom Platz low on squats and uses his quads to perform the exercise. He takes a break and it clear that his quads are pumped and they resemble thoroughbred’s legs. They are huge, well shaped and separated. They are on the same level or better as Cutlers back in 2001. Here is the kicker, he has calves. Being a brother myself, I don’t see that too often and though not Dorian or Fankhouser like, they are something to be proud of.
Oscar loads up the bar with 405 and Kai hops up and knocks it out with relative ease, ass-to-ankles for 14. He has kind of a wide stance with his toes pointing out. Next, 495 while mentally preparing himself Kai is rocking back and forth in a self soothing motion. Now drenched in sweat and Oscar is giving him a prep talk. Kai locks himself under the bar and Oscar sets up ready to spot him and once again Kai goes for 8….that’s right, ass-to ankles. At this point I’m thinking, is this guy going to wear a belt? Holy shit…Oscar loads the bar up with 585….
Kai is getting mentally prepared and I’m just staring at the weight, thinking how lucky I am to witness a top Olympian and his trainer go through the grind of Olympia preparation up close. Kai gets up to prepare for the 585…He get under the bar and unracks the weight and is yelling to pump himself up…He reracks the weight and he whispers something to Oscar. Oscar approaches me and asks, “Do you have a belt?” I tell him yes it’s in my car. He asks, “Is it good?” I tell him yes and I rush away to retrieve the belt. I remember it’s in my locker with my bag and grab it and return.
I hand it to Oscar and Kai looks over and tells me thanks. Oscar helps Kai put the belt on and it goes to the second to last hole I created because I recently lost a lot of weight….OVER his hoodie. He gets under the iron and unracks the weight and is yelling to pump himself up again yells, “Let me quit playin’ with this shit” and starts going ass to ankles with 585 for 6 reps…Very, very impressive. For his last set he drops down to 405 and goes for 14 in the same manner. He takes off the belt and comes up to me and says, “thank you, thank you very much sir.” I tell him no problem at all. Next, he proceeds to the leg press machine and goes up to 8 plates on each side total. You might not think that is a lot of weight but the manner in which he completed the exercise was his legs were far apart and when the weight was down his knees almost touched his shoulders making it much more difficult than the traditional legs going to the chest version many do. In addition, Kai would do about 12-14 reps, lock his legs and Oscar would count and Kai would complete 8-10 more reps and then do it once more. Finally, Kai completed 3 sets of hack squats ass to ankles to finish his workout…I was tired just watching him. This was something for the books folks.
