Samir Bannout on John Defendis

[Ronnie Rep]

He was every bit the bodybuilder as either Rory or Newman... Mendenhall on the other hand; was from another planet...

Not.

[milone79]

reminds me of Jay Cutler but with real arms and a smaller waist.

[Pet shop boys]

reminds me of Jay Cutler but with real arms and a smaller waist.

X2.


Wooossshhhhhhhhhhh

[Howard]

Samir needs to get his eyes checked.

When I saw " Samir on John" in the thread title I was pumped.
THEN , I opened the thread and was disappointed with the total lack of any man ON another's rump.
No HOMO ( of course

[Rmj11]

I think he looked fantastic - great shape, not super huge. Don't know about his workouts... probably intense but  more of a myth.
Pretty much a great blend of genetics, drugs and hard, consistent training.

Always thought all that 50 to 70 sets a bodypart was all BS. Who actually trains like that? Especially if all sets are taken to failure and with dropsets and forced reps included, if that was to be believed. I saw one of his routines and he was doing the standard 20 to 25 sets high volume used by bodybuilders such as Arnold and Paddilla. Intensity or Insanity sounded more like it was made up in the magazines to give Defendis some recognition  it's all BS.

[oldschoolfan]

Samir needs to get his eyes checked.

Agree

[Gym-Rat]

Always thought all that 50 to 70 sets a bodypart was all BS. Who actually trains like that? Especially if all sets are taken to failure and with dropsets and forced reps included, if that was to be believed. I saw one of his routines and he was doing the standard 20 to 25 sets high volume used by bodybuilders such as Arnold and Paddilla. Intensity or Insanity sounded more like it was made up in the magazines to give Defendis some recognition  it's all BS.

Or he was extremely coked up/amphetamined off his gourd.

Nubret used to train for 6 fucking hours all yakked up on speed...

[vascsurgeon]

The training routines are true, 30, 40 even 50 sets a body part. One way to accomplish this is to set up 5 exercises and go station to station 10 times. Drop sets, giant sets, super sets are another.
These methods were used regularly. Nobody trained harder. I think what Samir was implying is that John didn't compete often and on occasion lacked self confidence.
He had superior genetics and work ethic. Rory was good, but, too narrow, Matt couldn't get in shape. Newman wasn't as good as John from the back.
Just my opinion.

[pamith]

The guy was great..no doubt but multiple me. O.? He supposedly trained like an animal...marathon workouts going heavy. I read that he would do 50 sets for delts

He overtrained

[pamith]

It sounded like he applied himself plenty. Every time I've see his name it's been on a list for hardest training bodybuilders of all time.

The irony is that training extremely hard is actually counterproductive

[karasan]

Hi volume works, if you have naturally high aerobic capacity and improved it to marathon levels with years of hard work.
Some people can run a marathon without much training, it is similar to that, genetics play a role.
A medical doctor friend of mine said it is perfectly normal to defecate 3 times a day
Or once in 3 days
This means there is 9 times difference among two healthy individuals.
Same goes for natural energy levels and tolerance to training.
Arnold was blessed with high energy, read the article.
He worked like a maniac and outside the gym he was so active, chasing pussy, pursuing business deals, being social animal he is.
Tolerance to frequent training is a gift, if you have it, you "should" train frequently.
If you have normal energy levels, you just can't emulate high volume no matter how driven you are.

[20inch calves]

Defendis was an awesome bber but I'm sure he pushed his body about as far as it would go

[Rmj11]

Hi volume works, if you have naturally high aerobic capacity and improved it to marathon levels with years of hard work.
Some people can run a marathon without much training, it is similar to that, genetics play a role.
A medical doctor friend of mine said it is perfectly normal to defecate 3 times a day
Or once in 3 days
This means there is 9 times difference among two healthy individuals.
Same goes for natural energy levels and tolerance to training.
Arnold was blessed with high energy, read the article.
He worked like a maniac and outside the gym he was so active, chasing pussy, pursuing business deals, being social animal he is.
Tolerance to frequent training is a gift, if you have it, you "should" train frequently.
If you have normal energy levels, you just can't emulate high volume no matter how driven you are.

Not true. You have to build up to high volume. Its like running. You don't simply go out and run 6 miles if you can only do 3. But you can build up to it eventually. Same with bodybuilding. You may do only 10 sets then eventually work up to 20 sets. You have to increase the work capacity.

Ron Harris would've looked better if he had done more volume too. That guy is a lazy bum.

[Rmj11]

Or he was extremely coked up/amphetamined off his gourd.

Nubret used to train for 6 fucking hours all yakked up on speed...

Serge used straight sets and used light moderate weights. Defendis supposedly did heavy weights and lots of forced reps, drop sets, giant sets etc. 2 different ways of training.

[Gym Rat]

Serge used straight sets and used light moderate weights. Defendis supposedly did heavy weights and lots of forced reps, drop sets, giant sets etc. 2 different ways of training.

Very true..

[Rmj11]

The training routines are true, 30, 40 even 50 sets a body part. One way to accomplish this is to set up 5 exercises and go station to station 10 times. Drop sets, giant sets, super sets are another.
These methods were used regularly. Nobody trained harder. I think what Samir was implying is that John didn't compete often and on occasion lacked self confidence.
He had superior genetics and work ethic. Rory was good, but, too narrow, Matt couldn't get in shape. Newman wasn't as good as John from the back.
Just my opinion.

No. Defendis supposedly did all this training yet he was no bigger than the top bodybuilders. The guys who swallowed this intensity or insanity tripe and trained in this fashion looked like string beans. Here's a video of Defendis's mentor Steve Michalik talking through a workout. Hardly 50 sets or even that intense. Just standard pyramid training with some supersets. Nothing radical at all.