I am going to take that as he was a pretty strong and ferocious trainer.
Strong yes. Bent rows 405 times 8-10 etc.
Ferocious... like a lion. No really yes but often needed to be pushed to that level.
max rep, what training style did samir use?
Volume training.
Samir he was still following a variation of a routine that was given to him by George Turner. Samir had lived in George's city for a period of time before turning Pro and before moving to L.A. and had made a great deal of gains on this routine, so did I.
George wrote an article about it back in 1978-79 in one of the Weider magazines. It was the first three on one off routine anyone ever wrote about. Day 1 Chest and Back, Day two Legs, Day three Shoulders and Arms, Day 4 rest, Repeat then 2 days off, Repeat then One Day off. Three exercises on a bodypart with 11 working sets total per bodypart.
Vary the choice of movements each workout. Example Chest Start with Incline Barbell Press 4 sets then Flat Bench 4 sets then Cable fly's 3 sets. Reps went the typical 12-6 reps. Samir was VERY strong. He did Reps in Bent over rows with 405 and one time when we were squatting he had 315 for his first work set but when he finished the set of squats he proceeded to 8 reps of behind the neck standing presses (with a leg "kick") to our amazement.
Cadence was actually fairly fast 1/0/2. Basic exercises for the most part but he always had a favorite variation or two that would be difficult to show here, nothing earth-shatering in terms of "some secret movement" though.
Personally I like more sets but this worked well at the time.