Author Topic: For you Tom Platz fans  (Read 11269 times)

pellius

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For you Tom Platz fans
« on: January 21, 2014, 08:26:48 PM »
This is very long and far beyond the attention span of most getbiggers but for those who were fans of Tom Platz and the generation he was from where training and the mental and even spiritual aspects still played a very important role in their quest for greatness, may find this interesting and inspiring. Other than his quads I don't think Platz had great genetics for a top IFBB pros. He just wasn't put together nicely. But there were few as fiercely determined than he was and wring every ounce that he could out of mind body and spirit. When I saw the transformation he made in 1980, the biggest travesty ever in Olympia history and a true insult to Padilla and Platz, I became a fan and grew more as a fan the more I learned about him. I miss those days and the mind set of some of those bodybuilders.

Wednesday, October 31, 2012

Tom Platz Talks Leg Training - Lara McGlashan-Volz

How Tom Platz Built Those Legs


Just starting out, I trained with Olympic lifters who taught me a reverence for the squat. They taught me that this is where life and death passes before your eyes, that this is the altar of weight lifting. But when I first came to Gold's in Venice the squat rack was cluttered and shoved in the back, an nobody used it. Sure, Arnold and Ed Corney used it in Pumping Iron, but that was more for show. When I started squatting a lot, people said I shouldn't because it would throw off my balance and symmetry. I did it anyway.





Because it was so taxing, I squatted only twice a month. It was like you were attempting something superhuman. To prepare for it, I'd get up at 5 a.m. and mentally talk to myself as encouragement and that helped make it easy in my mind. It never turned out that way, of course. It was always brutal, to the point where I'd go, "I think I felt the muscle tear off the bone. I think we should stop, Tony (Martinez)." And he's say, "You'll be okay. Rub it a little bit and you'll be fine." But I was good at talking myself into the idea of squatting, even though I knew the reality."





I'd put on my lifting shoes - I wore Adidas weightlifting shoes with a higher heel that tapered down to a thin sole - and they were part of my experience, physically and psychologically. I mean, would you go ice-skating without blades? Lifting shoes were that for me: an important piece of the puzzle that made my workout the experience that it was.





So I'd put on my shoes, grab my gear and drive from Malibu to Venice in my 1960 Corvette. As I pulled out of the garage the throaty rumble of the powerful engine would blend into my psyche and become part of my preparation as I drove. I'd purposely drive by the ocean to watch the waves smash powerfully against the rocks. If I thought about the workout too much, I'd get sweaty palms on the way to the gym and couldn't grip the steering wheel. Watching the ocean helped distract, and prepare me.

I'd pull into Gold's in Venice. It wasn't busy like it is today. There were only a few of us there, especially that early. And, of course, Tony would be there waiting for me, ready for the workout.

We'd go to the squat rack and I remember always stretching in front of the rack. I'd take the hurdler's position on the floor - one leg bent, the other straight - then lower my nose to my knee. As I stretched out I'd try to ease my mind, convince myself I was there to have fun, to just do one or two sets and call it quits. Sometimes we'd even cover the mirror with newspaper because I didn't want to see myself squat. I just wanted to feel it and experience it within my own being.

Of course this pre-workout time wasn't only about the stretching; it was also about emotionally and physically preparing for what was about to come. I'd touch the weights, the rack, the bar, and I'd have this almost religious reverence for them. I liked to use an old battered bar, slightly bent just enough so that it didn't roll off my shoulders when I was standing erect. I'd marked it with a plate, banged the plate on the collar so that I could remember which one it was, and I always wrapped a towel around the bar before I started my sets.

Done stretching, I'd put on my lifting belt - a little loose so that I could breathe - and Tony and I would warm up real slow. A set at 135 for 10 easy reps. Add another plate, nice and easy. Then we'd listen to Motown and we'd start progressing with the weight. Now 315. I'd leave space between the plates on purpose so when I came up from the squat, a real quick rep, the plates would jingle. The sound was very important to me. The music, the Motown and the plates jingling against one another - big, thick, 45-pound iron plates. That sound helped me time the reps and my movement. I liked to come up quickly with such speed that the bar would bend over my shoulders and the plates would crash together, and I relished that sensation! I'd do a quick 20 reps with 315 with all my senses focused.

One more 45 per side and Tony would put the collars on, knowing the exact space to get that sound. Tony would count off my reps . . . 10 . . . 20 . . . 30 - let's see how far we can go! When I'd get to the point where I couldn't do any more reps, Tony would say something like, "You OWN this exercise!" or "Go after it and GET IT!" He would conjure up six, eight, 10, 20 more reps out of me. Then I'd literally fall into the squat rack and jing! The plates would rattle and I'd fall to the floor. I'd take the belt off and all of a sudden I was gasping for air and I couldn't breathe. It felt like someone was driving knives into my legs, and my heart rate went through the roof. I couldn't see, I was sweating profusely, but eventually I'd come back.



Sometimes it took me 20 minutes, but I always came back. When I could see properly again I'd go outside and breathe some fresh air, then come back in and say, "Okay, Tony, one more set!" And we'd go again.

On those days when I left the gym I was high. I thought, "I lived through this. I got through this. I can do anything in life." I'd keep my belt on loosely and walk to the car, thinking victory. I was one with my spirit and with God.

I trained legs every week, but the squats were so exhausting that I couldn't walk afterward and doing another exercise was simply out of the question. So I squatted twice a month and did other 'accessory' machine movements like leg extensions, leg curls, and hack squats on alternate weeks.


Leg Extensions

Back in the mid-80s this guy named Magic, who lived in a yellow school bus behind Gold's gym, made me a special lifting belt to strap myself into place onto the old leg extension at Gold's - the original one Joe Gold had made that Arnold, Draper, Zane, Corney and all of my mentor figures had used. I'd hurt my arm - I tore the biceps tendon off the bone - and although it had been repaired, hanging onto the leg extension machine put a lot of stress on my arm. The old machine was just a seat with no back and a bicycle chain attached to the weight stack. It was antiquated, even at that time, but I liked it because I felt Draper's fingerprints on it. A lot of people had no idea how to use the machine because it didn't have a back on it, but I knew. All I had to do was look at that machine and my legs grew.

I'd lock myself into the machine (using the belt Magic made), and hook my feet under the pad. I'd warm up with some light weight, like half a stack for a set of 10. Then I had this old, bent, beat-up pin that I'd put underneath the whole stack and hand a 100-pound plate off. Tony's job was to make sure that plate didn't fall of while I was doing my reps! Then I'd start: I'd pull this weight stack with the 100-pound plate as forcefully as I could up in the air, accelerating through the whole movement. Because the machine had to back, I'd lean forward, grab the back of the machine and at this point I was almost parallel to the floor! Then I'd lower the stack and plate back to the start, controlling its descent as I sat back up. A jackknife. Rep after rep, I'd feel the tension accumulating in my muscles. And when I dropped the weight at the bottom it'd bounce on the springs of the machine. I'd lift it again and my legs would light on fire. The intensity and the tension were indicative that growth was imminent. Separation, clarity, distinction, quality -- all the freaky stuff I lived for would be forthcoming.

I'd get 8-10 reps for the first 5 sets, then maybe 2-5 reps for the next 5. When I say 8-10 or 2-5,that's reps done on my own; I'm not counting the 15-20 forced reps -- baby reps, partial reps, negatives -- that Tony would assist me with. I'd raise the machine arm as high as I possibly could so that my quads were fully contracted. Then Tony would push down, in pulses almost, on the machine arm and I'd resist his pressure. He'd repeatedly push down,then let go, and I would bring it back up as high as I could. The weight would slowly get lower and lower because I was getting fatigued,and finally about 6 to 7 minutes later the set would be done. It was like a long, extended negative set with little pushes and pulls throughout. And that was just one set.

When the set was over I'd be in extreme pain, writhing around. And it was like an operation to get me out of that machine as a few guys unbuckled me and took the chains and straps off. Then I'd get up and hang onto the machine and gasp for air. But after a minute or two, Tony would look at me and say, "You ready? Let's go." And he'd lock me back into place again and I'd do 6-10 more sets.


Lying Leg Curls

I'd always do lying leg curls at the completion or our workout. We used the old Nautilus leg curl machine -- the one with a bicycle chain that made a ton of noise -- of course! Again, a very antiquated machine but the most effective one of all time, I believe. It's long gone but I still remember how it used to feel.

Because we did leg curls at the end of the workout, I was pretty tired and could only do like 1-4 sets, but I'd change it up to achieve failure. Sometimes I'd do 50 reps with moderate weight, or I'd use tons of weight for only 3 reps. The workouts depended on my mood and my level of exhaustion.

For the curls I'd do a number of reps on my own, then I'd have Tony grab my ankles and push down very, very slowly. I'd fight back the whole time and the negative part of the set might last a whole minute. Two sets like that and I was finished.


Hack Squats

Hack squats were very, very meaningful in terms of bringing out the sweep in my quads. Initially when I was developing my training protocol I tried to do hacks after my barbell squats. But because I could barely walk after squatting I had no strength to do them, so I did the hacks on alternate weeks, too.

In the machine, I was taught to put my heels together and point my toes out. That way you primarily squat on the lateral edge of your foot, putting tension on the vastus lateralis, which gives the thighs a sweep.

I'd do a warmup set with a few plates on each side to get my head on right -- of course leaving some space between the plates so they'd jingle and give me that sound I loved -- then I'd do hack squats until I couldn't do any more. Sometimes I'd have four 45-pound plates on each side for 8-10 reps. Other times I'd have a quarter or a dime on their for 50 reps. The weight didn't matter. I'd go for that mental connection to my body and my legs. I wanted to feel and grow that tension to the point where I knew it was going to be effective in the muscles becoming larger, more striated or more substantial.

I'd do several reps on my own, then I'd have Tony push down on the machine while I'd do partial reps. Or sometimes I'd have Tony sit on the machine, hang onto it and pull, and I'd do baby reps, partial reps, isometrics and negatives. Whatever it took to completely exhaust the muscles to the point of absolute failure -- then go beyond that into the red zone. We'd do a total of about 6-10 sets of hack squats.


Calf Raises

We would actually go to World Gym down the street to do calves. That's where Arnold and Frank and a lot of other guys were training at the time, and since our hard, focused work was through we could spare a little energy and joke around there. Plus they had better calf machines!

We'd change our routine a lot and sometimes we'd do standing calf raises. I'd have Tony and a couple of other guys hanging off the machine, and I'd be holding the weight as high as I could for as long as I could. Other times I'd do as many reps as I could for one set and call it a day. We also did seated calf raises. I'd have as many as 15 100-pound plates stacked on there. I'd do my reps then have Tony push slightly, pumping it with baby movements until I couldn't sustain the tension.

One time the seated calf machine actually broke! It shot me out of the machine like a bullet. Joe Gold was freaking out and yelling at everybody and I'm like, "What happened?" This was two weeks before the Olympia in 1981 and after a few moments my ankle started to swell up. I iced it and it was okay, but it was still a little swollen. If you look closely at the '81 Olympia photos you'll notice a difference in my ankles. One looks swollen. That's what it's from.


Intensity

I wasn't the most genetically gifted bodybuilder, but my attitude prevailed. I attribute my physical success to my dedication and my training. It really started in Michigan, the craziness. In college, we'd plan a yearly squat-off to see who could do the most reps. We'd plan it for a whole year and I dreaded it for a whole year. I remember when the day came I did 225 for 10 minutes without stopping at all. I don't remember how many reps it was, but I do remember vowing never to do that again! But I just went there. It was part of my mentality.

When I first moved to California I actually trained with Arnold for a while. I figured if his training system worked for him and Franco, it should work for me, too. But it didn't! I got smaller and fatter training with Arnold. He trained twice a day, six days a week, sometimes seven, and used lots of sets and decent weight. I got depressed because I was shrinking and took a few weeks off. When I came back I decided to train four days a week, and I grew. Arnold responded to high frequency and high volume; I responded better to less volume and frequency but much higher intensity and heavy weights. Later I realized I was doing a primitive form of periodization, working both types of muscle fibers. But back then all I knew is that I was growing!

I did, however, borrow the idea of extending my sets beyond the standard from Mike Mentzer. I'd watched him and his partner training on the leg extension machine one day: Mike would lift the weight to the top then his partner would push down slowly as Mike would resist. So I tried it and Oh My God! I felt like I'd never trained before! My quads were burning and my muscles were firing and I simply had to incorporate this concept into my training.

I discussed it with my training partner Tony and we came up with our own version of that kind of extended set. We incorporated their ideas with some of my powerlifting background where you'd do partial reps in a power rack. We came up with a set that included negatives, forced reps, partner-assisted reps, isometrics -- everything came into play in the course of one single set. We moved the weight until physically, absolutely, neither one of us could move it any more. The longer the set, the harder it became and the more I knew it would work. Of course, there was a huge benefit-to-risk ratio. I had to ask myself, "How far do I want to push a contraction before it becomes detrimental?" I was willing to toy around in that red zone.

Hypertrophy

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Re: For you Tom Platz fans
« Reply #1 on: January 21, 2014, 09:05:46 PM »
Nice find! Thx

Big Chiro Flex

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Re: For you Tom Platz fans
« Reply #2 on: January 21, 2014, 09:08:41 PM »
Awesome article

pellius

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Re: For you Tom Platz fans
« Reply #3 on: January 21, 2014, 09:24:16 PM »
Wow! You guys read it? The whole thing? Impressive.

davej1963

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Re: For you Tom Platz fans
« Reply #4 on: January 21, 2014, 09:27:21 PM »

The Tom Platz Wig.

Big J walked through the putrid streets of Chinatown, the nauseating stench of dead cats and chickens blended obscenely with the cheap perfume of slanty eyed transvestite hookers. And every few feet a choking cloud of carbon monoxide drenched cigarette smoke exhaled by the busted faces of oriental slaves who spent twenty hours a day slaving over the slop known as Chinese Food and the other four playing Mahjong and picking the lice out of their pubes. In the midst of all this colourful confusion, Big J saw it in a store front window. A man's blonde wig; medium length and parted to the side with a hint of sideburn. Big J entered the shop and was met by a toothless gook who looked about a hundred and ten years old. He wanted fifty bucks for the wig and Big J countered with ten. After some loud bickering the old man said twenty and the two men shook hands. Big J walked back out into the mean streets of Chinatown with a lilt in his step. Excitedly, he entered the Dragon's Chef Authentic Mandarin Cuisine restaurant and stole into the Men's Room. The rancid odor of decades old urine didn't bother him as clumsily pulled his new prize out of it's plain brown wrapping and placed it upon his head. He looked into the mirror and froze. Tom Platz was looking back.

Big J wasn't always so big. As a child Big J-or Jonathan, as he was then known- was neither here nor there. Neither bully nor victim. A nobody who slid through through cracks. Teachers forgot his name and girls didn't know he existed. When he was fourteen all that changed. He discovered a rusty old set of weights as he played at the town dump. He dragged it home to his basement and began instinctively pressing the barbell up and down over his head, and curling it like his dad's prison friends used to talk about. He saved his paper route money and soon purchased a copy of Joe Weider's Bodybuilding System from the local bookstore. He added more exercises to his repetoire of muscle pumping movements: barbell rows, bench presses, flyes, crunches, triceps extensions and Squats. While his buddies at school seemed to focus on bench pressing and curling, Jonathan found he responded quickly to the squats. His thighs bulged bigger with every leg workout, and soon his friends were having to lift the barbell and rest it on Jonathan's shoulders. His upper body development was mediocre at best, yet his legs, or "quads" as he was soon calling them were exceptional. Jonathan changed his name to Big J and devoted his life to bodybuilding. He did it all: the gyms, the muscle mags, the supplements; the eventual introduction to orals and the graduation to the needle. His legs blew up like tree trunks and stretched the limit of his pants.

Then he found himself in the city. It looked promising at first. But then plans fell apart like houses of cards in that unforgiving wind called Reality. First he bombed in a couple of contests. The plans to own a gym crumpled. The hopes of owning a supplement store were dashed. Big J found himself hustling a couple of quick bucks in men's rooms in the back of porn theaters. A setback he called it. Hard times became Big J's companions. He was 25 then 35 then 40 but swore he felt like18. It wasn't over. He needed an angle, he told himself. And he found it. That day. In Chinatown. He found it.

The Tom Platz Wig.

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Re: For you Tom Platz fans
« Reply #5 on: January 21, 2014, 09:31:11 PM »
This just inspire me I am going to do some hardcore squats next leg day

wild willie

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Re: For you Tom Platz fans
« Reply #6 on: January 21, 2014, 09:32:47 PM »
very nice....thanks!

Wiggs

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Re: For you Tom Platz fans
« Reply #7 on: January 21, 2014, 09:32:57 PM »
We want more Tom Platz Wig!
7

tommywishbone

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Re: For you Tom Platz fans
« Reply #8 on: January 21, 2014, 10:13:46 PM »
"Magic" is Magic Schwartz. Long time friend. Good dude. Hell raiser, a real one.
a

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Re: For you Tom Platz fans
« Reply #9 on: January 21, 2014, 10:17:29 PM »
The old machine was just a seat with no back and a bicycle chain attached to the weight stack. It was antiquated, even at that time, but I liked it because I felt Draper's fingerprints on it.

 :-X

Skylge

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Re: For you Tom Platz fans
« Reply #10 on: January 22, 2014, 07:51:07 AM »
Wow! You guys read it? The whole thing? Impressive.

I didn't read but I bet he somehow forgot to mention the GH he got his hands on in his days as professional....

James28

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Re: For you Tom Platz fans
« Reply #11 on: January 22, 2014, 07:59:46 AM »
He's a 2nd hand car salesman now. Hope this helps :/
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Re: For you Tom Platz fans
« Reply #12 on: January 22, 2014, 08:00:29 AM »
Wow! You guys read it? The whole thing? Impressive.

Huge Platz fan! No homo because I'm also a huge fan of the naked female body.

dustin

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Re: For you Tom Platz fans
« Reply #13 on: January 22, 2014, 08:38:09 AM »
Cool stuff. I've been training legs twice a week again and this really gives me a ton of motivation. 8)

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Re: For you Tom Platz fans
« Reply #14 on: January 22, 2014, 08:50:39 AM »
I train legs every day for a change.
one set of extension to failure followed by one set of hack squat to failure.

Decent quad mass added.
$

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Re: For you Tom Platz fans
« Reply #15 on: January 22, 2014, 09:42:43 AM »
"Magic" is Magic Schwartz. Long time friend. Good dude. Hell raiser, a real one.

Tom, do you still have contact? What became of all the footage he shot of Platz?

THE BEEF

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Re: For you Tom Platz fans
« Reply #16 on: January 22, 2014, 09:43:32 AM »
good read

njflex

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Re: For you Tom Platz fans
« Reply #17 on: January 22, 2014, 09:45:24 AM »
Cool stuff. I've been training legs twice a week again and this really gives me a ton of motivation. 8)
2X  DAMN,,seen your upper body'great'legs need 2x?i do them hard like platz lite in terms movements /volume ,if I did 2 wk they probably would look stupid relative to upper body.platz was freak no doubt.

dustin

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Re: For you Tom Platz fans
« Reply #18 on: January 22, 2014, 09:51:50 AM »
2X  DAMN,,seen your upper body'great'legs need 2x?i do them hard like platz lite in terms movements /volume ,if I did 2 wk they probably would look stupid relative to upper body.platz was freak no doubt.

Yeah, man. I've been doing lots of the stepper when I workout and it blows up the calves. Haven't trained them directly in years, really no need other than stepper and stretching. And getting the legs pumped twice a week feels great. Squat once, then just a light workout.

I'll admit, I still have trouble getting in the gym on leg day and getting amped up versus something like arm day. But once the blood is flowing it's easy to get sucked into the workout. Sounds like Platz got right into the fucking zone. It's been a long time since I've had workouts where I was in a trance like that lol

wes

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Re: For you Tom Platz fans
« Reply #19 on: January 22, 2014, 09:56:20 AM »
I`m ready to hit the gym again,and I just got back a couple of hours ago.

Inspiring stuff that psyches me up bigtime.

We still have an old Nautilus Leg Curl machine at our gym,but for some reason,my hamstrings are not Plastzesque!  :D

dustin

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Re: For you Tom Platz fans
« Reply #20 on: January 22, 2014, 10:05:14 AM »
I`m ready to hit the gym again,and I just got back a couple of hours ago.

Inspiring stuff that psyches me up bigtime.

We still have an old Nautilus Leg Curl machine at our gym,but for some reason,my hamstrings are not Plastzesque!  :D

If you ham curl on the Nautilus machine, they will come. 8)

njflex

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Re: For you Tom Platz fans
« Reply #21 on: January 22, 2014, 10:10:53 AM »
Yeah, man. I've been doing lots of the stepper when I workout and it blows up the calves. Haven't trained them directly in years, really no need other than stepper and stretching. And getting the legs pumped twice a week feels great. Squat once, then just a light workout.

I'll admit, I still have trouble getting in the gym on leg day and getting amped up versus something like arm day. But once the blood is flowing it's easy to get sucked into the workout. Sounds like Platz got right into the fucking zone. It's been a long time since I've had workouts where I was in a trance like that lol
I FIGURED U DID LIGHT/HEAVY DAY  8)

wes

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Re: For you Tom Platz fans
« Reply #22 on: January 22, 2014, 10:23:35 AM »
If you ham curl on the Nautilus machine, they will come. 8)
Thank you sir,I`m never gonna` quit in my quest for sexy ass hammies!!  :D

(no homo)  ???

:D

dustin

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Re: For you Tom Platz fans
« Reply #23 on: January 22, 2014, 10:28:26 AM »
Thank you sir,I`m never gonna` quit in my quest for sexy ass hammies!!  :D

(no homo)  ???

:D

You know these endeavors mean nothing without a full glute spread. 8)

NotMrAverage

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Re: For you Tom Platz fans
« Reply #24 on: January 22, 2014, 10:38:31 AM »
excellent thread!
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