- Lid sinds
- 5 dec 2004
- Berichten
- 4.914
- Waardering
- 434
CAST OF CHARACTERS
* Ronnie Coleman Eight-time Mr. Olympia
* Brian Dobson Owner of MetroFlex Gym, bodybuilder, trainer, wild-boar hunter
* Kevin Horton Globe-trekking FLEX photographer
* Robert Lee Bodybuilder (2005 NPC National third-place lightweight), hairdresser, Coleman's close friend and workout assistant
* Beard Man Fan wearing scruffy beard, sandals and sunglasses propped on his baseball cap
* Greg Merritt FLEX senior writer
There are a few ways to get started. There's the oblique opening: "Robert Lee--the hairdresser, not the general--swats dust and cobwebs off each 190-pound dumbbell before kicking them toward your feet." There's sensory overload: "It's 93 degrees with 93% humidity and DMX is rapping about bitches when Mr. O parks his $180,000 Bentley and saunters through the graffiti-coated doorway."
Fine choices both, but this is Ronnie Coleman, one month before winning his eighth Mr. Olympia, training in MetroFlex, and thus: "There's an elegant ease about the way Coleman trains--Astaire on a dance floor, Bonds at bat, Armstrong pedaling--confident, reserved, pressing dumbbells as big as fire hydrants because that's his job and he has work to do."
SETTING | This is where I attempt to capture in mere words the ambiance of MetroFlex Gym in Arlington, Texas, and you--clean, cool and comfortable on your couch--think it can't be that damn hot or dusty or loud or brutally hardcore. Get off your ass, doubting Thomas, and we'll try to approximate the MetroFlex experience.
Back your cars out of the garage and move in a couple tons of iron, a few benches and any old equipment you can find. Use space heaters and humidifiers to raise both the temperature and humidity to near triple digits. Scatter a bucket of dirt. That leaf blower in the corner will come in handy for stirring things up.
Post a handwritten sign that reads, in part, "Feel free to yell, scream, throw weights around, etc."; consider this a commandment. Break a few things (the more the better). Write inspirational graffiti on the walls. Crank up a boom box as high as it'll go, shouting DMX's "It's All Good," 50 Cent's "Wanksta" and similar bass-thumping profanity-laden raps. If the sound system can't go loud enough to jar your teeth, throw it against the wall (the harder the better).
Pile as much weight on a bar as you can lift for only six reps and go for 10. Never give up. Sweat, scream, spit, curse, sweat, throw weights, break stuff, gasp for air, sweat. Oh, and get the current Mr. Olympia to come over and rep out 500-pound rows and 2,000-pound leg presses and 190-pound dumbbell bench presses. There, that's something like MetroFlex. Love it.
AMUSING ANECDOTE 1 | For Coleman's fourth and final set of dumbbell bench presses, he points to a monstrous pair of dumbbells, blanketed with dust, rust and cobwebs, resting long-undisturbed on the far side of the rack. Lee drops one to the floor and swats detritus from it.
"Nobody uses these," Lee notes. He swats at a second monster.
"Knock that stuff off," Coleman says, noticing the cloud of dust. "I don't want it falling in my face."
Lee whacks at the dumbbells again and kicks them to Coleman's feet. Lee and Brian Dobson, the owner of MetroFlex, then hoist the dumbbells onto Mr. Olympia's colossal quads. While the dumbbells rest on their ends, steadied by his gloved hands, Coleman chews gum, gazes at nothing in particular and bobs his head lightly to the thundering beat.
"Light weight!" he says before falling back onto the bench and, as everyone in the gym watches with rapt attention, he begins pressing the monsters. One, two, three, four, five ... suddenly the behemoths crash to the matted floor. One narrowly misses photographer Kevin Horton, furiously snapping photos.
"That ain't them," Coleman drawls, sitting up again. "Those are the 190s. I want the 160s." Everyone laughs at the confounding strength of a man who pressed 60 pounds more than he intended to and yet was still repping out.
SYNOPSIS | This is what happened. At 2:15 PM on September 16, 2005, 300-pound Ronnie Coleman arrived at MetroFlex in his Bentley Continental GT. After a small amount of small talk, he did 12 sets of dumbbell chest presses (flat, incline and decline), using progressively heavier weights for each exercise and going up to 190-pound dumbbells (inadvertently) for the flat presses and 160-pound dumbbells for the incline and decline presses. (The same exercises--flat, incline and decline presses--were performed with a barbell during his other weekly chest workout.)
For triceps, he did seated two-arm behind-the-head dumbbell extensions (using 100-150 pounds), reverse-grip pushdowns (using 80-100 pounds) and mechanical dips on a primitive machine (using 180-230 pounds). For abs, it was three circuits of crunches, leg raises and twists, and he added weighted isometric crunches (with 45 pounds).
THE MEANING OF BODYBUILDING | (Those of you who want only to glean whatever tips you can from Coleman's workout, skip to the next section.) Just six miles away and on the same weekend FLEX watched Ronnie Coleman train in MetroFlex, Branch Warren won the Europa Super Show. We were there for the Europa, but we also made time to witness Coleman squatting 585 for 10, sparking a nose bleed (see "Top-Dog Thighs," January FLEX) and his pumping out triceps extensions for 11 reps with a 150-pound dumbbell. Warren, of all people, understands perfectly well, for he also did most of his growing in MetroFlex.
Just as painting isn't a portrait and writing isn't a book, bodybuilding isn't a pose. Those are merely the end results. Bodybuilding is unique from other sports, and much closer to art, in that the practice (training and dieting) is not duplicated at the event.
In fact, bodybuilding happens about as far away as one can get from the bright lights, faux tan and oil.
Bodybuilding happens in a gym where an individual pits his strength and will against resistance to literally create a bigger and/or better version of his physical self.
That's pretty damn cool, and it's much more dramatic than a front double bi. That's why FLEX goes to the gyms where the competitors actually train to observe their actual workouts. To put a finer shine on it, Ronnie Coleman didn't win his eighth Mr. Olympia on a stage in Las Vegas, Nevada. He won it days, months and years earlier in a sweltering, dusty, gloriously spartan gym in Arlington, Texas. This is bodybuilding.
BREAKDOWN | The current Mr. Olympia generally uses progressively heavier weights each set, and he keeps reps in the 10-15 range. Here's what you should know about the manner in which he performs chest and triceps exercises.
* Dumbbell chest presses Controlled moderate pace, stops three inches short of lowest and highest positions.
* Two-arm dumbbell extensions Sits forward and leans upper back against chair back so his body is angled, elbows pointed outward, nearly a full stretch, but stops short of lockout.
* Pushdowns Stands three feet from overhead cable and leans forward at his waist, utilizes underhand grip on this day (will use overhand grip next time).
* Machine dips Sits perfectly upright, full stretch at top of each rep and just short of lockout at contraction.
AMUSING ANECDOTE 2 | After his first set of incline presses, Coleman asks for elbow sleeves. Lee searches the gym and comes back with neoprene bands. Coleman is tugging them onto his ham-sized arms when Dobson strides over from the front desk holding the desired protective wear.
"Those are for knees," Dobson says, motioning to the sleeve Coleman is fitting his right arm into. Mr. Olympia does opt for the arm-wear Dobson offers up, but not before everyone marvels that he could've worn sleeves on his arms that were made for mortal legs.
ABSOLUTION | For most of this decade, even as he carried home his annual Sandow, Coleman was criticized for the girth of his belly and the murkiness of his abs. In 2005, he made a vividly slimmer waist and sharper abdominals his foremost objectives, and--surprising most observers--he did indeed achieve both goals.
He ate clean year-round and consumed smaller meals, and he trained abs at least three times weekly with nonstop circuits of crunches, knee or leg raises and twists or side crunches.
Frequently, he ended an ab workout with a peculiar exercise of his own invention. Lying on a flat bench with his head off the end (and even with his body), he held a 45-pound plate against his bald scalp, keeping his abs flexed as the weight tugged at his abdominal wall. When I asked if he had a name for it, he answered, "Nope. It's just something I made up." Let's call them weighted isometric crunches.
CONCLUSIONS | Robert Lee--the hairdresser, not the general--does not own a new Bentley. In order to keep constant tension on his targeted muscles, Coleman doesn't lock out exercises. He succeeded in streamlining his waist last year in part because he trains abs frequently and with high volume. If you're going to ask him how big his arms are, please don't do so in his workplace while he's working. Damn, those really are some big arms he's got and, damn, he's strong. If you want to know the meaning of bodybuilding and the main reason why Ronnie Coleman has won eight straight Sandows, look no further than the sweat on the dusty floor in a gym deep in the heart of Texas. RONNIE COLEMAN'S CHEST ROUTINE EXERCISE SETS REPS Dumbbell bench presses 4 10-15 Incline dumbbell bench presses 4 10-12 Decline dumbbell bench presses 4 10-12 NOTE: Coleman trains chest twice per week. On the other day, he does flat, incline and decline presses with a barbell. RONNIE COLEMAN'S TRICEPS ROUTINE EXERCISE SETS REPS Two-arm dumbbell extensions 3 10-12 Pushdowns * 3 10-15 Machine dips 3 12-15 * Coleman alternates between underhand and overhand grip each workout. RONNIE COLEMAN'S AB ROUTINE EXERCISE REPS Twisting crunches (left side) 20-30 Twisting crunches (right side) 20-30 Crunches (forward)
20-30 Seated knee raises 20-30 Standing broomstick twists 20-30 NOTES: Coleman performs these exercises in sequence with no rest as a giant set. He performs three such giant sets. Afterward, he does weighted isometric crunches.
Lee: "That thing finally stopped on me."
Coleman: "What did?"
Lee: "My car. I don't know what's wrong with it."
Coleman: "I do."
Lee: "What?"
Coleman: "It's old."
RELATED ARTICLE: BETWEEN SETS 2
Greg Merritt, FLEX senior writer: "So all you do for chest is barbell presses one day and dumbbell presses the other day? What about things like flyes and crossovers?"
Coleman: "I don't do 'em."
Merritt: "Why not?"
Coleman: "I don't have to (laughs). This is what works for me. I've done all those other things, but this is all I've done for chest for some time."
A semantic analysis of the popular Coleman workout vernacular.
"Ain't nothin' but a peanut!" | A prelift reverse psychology expression meant to impart that a heavy weight is, in fact, easy to lift.
"Light weight!" | A more popular variant of "Ain't nothin' but a peanut!" This too is used ironically before lifting a weight that's anything but light.
"Yeah, buddy!" | This exclamation typically precedes "Ain't nothin' but a peanut!" or "Light weight!" It means, in essence, "Let's do it!"
Beard Man: "Damn, you're strong."
Coleman (smiles): "Yeah."
Beard Man: "Damn, those are some big arms you got."
Coleman smiles.
Beard Man: "What are your arms now?"
Coleman: "Huh?"
Beard Man: "How big are your arms?"
Coleman (smiles at Merritt and Horton): "Man, I don't measure my arms."
Beard Man: "What do you think, though, like 24 or 25?"
Coleman (laughing): "Whatever."
* Ronnie Coleman Eight-time Mr. Olympia
* Brian Dobson Owner of MetroFlex Gym, bodybuilder, trainer, wild-boar hunter
* Kevin Horton Globe-trekking FLEX photographer
* Robert Lee Bodybuilder (2005 NPC National third-place lightweight), hairdresser, Coleman's close friend and workout assistant
* Beard Man Fan wearing scruffy beard, sandals and sunglasses propped on his baseball cap
* Greg Merritt FLEX senior writer
There are a few ways to get started. There's the oblique opening: "Robert Lee--the hairdresser, not the general--swats dust and cobwebs off each 190-pound dumbbell before kicking them toward your feet." There's sensory overload: "It's 93 degrees with 93% humidity and DMX is rapping about bitches when Mr. O parks his $180,000 Bentley and saunters through the graffiti-coated doorway."
Fine choices both, but this is Ronnie Coleman, one month before winning his eighth Mr. Olympia, training in MetroFlex, and thus: "There's an elegant ease about the way Coleman trains--Astaire on a dance floor, Bonds at bat, Armstrong pedaling--confident, reserved, pressing dumbbells as big as fire hydrants because that's his job and he has work to do."
SETTING | This is where I attempt to capture in mere words the ambiance of MetroFlex Gym in Arlington, Texas, and you--clean, cool and comfortable on your couch--think it can't be that damn hot or dusty or loud or brutally hardcore. Get off your ass, doubting Thomas, and we'll try to approximate the MetroFlex experience.
Back your cars out of the garage and move in a couple tons of iron, a few benches and any old equipment you can find. Use space heaters and humidifiers to raise both the temperature and humidity to near triple digits. Scatter a bucket of dirt. That leaf blower in the corner will come in handy for stirring things up.
Post a handwritten sign that reads, in part, "Feel free to yell, scream, throw weights around, etc."; consider this a commandment. Break a few things (the more the better). Write inspirational graffiti on the walls. Crank up a boom box as high as it'll go, shouting DMX's "It's All Good," 50 Cent's "Wanksta" and similar bass-thumping profanity-laden raps. If the sound system can't go loud enough to jar your teeth, throw it against the wall (the harder the better).
Pile as much weight on a bar as you can lift for only six reps and go for 10. Never give up. Sweat, scream, spit, curse, sweat, throw weights, break stuff, gasp for air, sweat. Oh, and get the current Mr. Olympia to come over and rep out 500-pound rows and 2,000-pound leg presses and 190-pound dumbbell bench presses. There, that's something like MetroFlex. Love it.
AMUSING ANECDOTE 1 | For Coleman's fourth and final set of dumbbell bench presses, he points to a monstrous pair of dumbbells, blanketed with dust, rust and cobwebs, resting long-undisturbed on the far side of the rack. Lee drops one to the floor and swats detritus from it.
"Nobody uses these," Lee notes. He swats at a second monster.
"Knock that stuff off," Coleman says, noticing the cloud of dust. "I don't want it falling in my face."
Lee whacks at the dumbbells again and kicks them to Coleman's feet. Lee and Brian Dobson, the owner of MetroFlex, then hoist the dumbbells onto Mr. Olympia's colossal quads. While the dumbbells rest on their ends, steadied by his gloved hands, Coleman chews gum, gazes at nothing in particular and bobs his head lightly to the thundering beat.
"Light weight!" he says before falling back onto the bench and, as everyone in the gym watches with rapt attention, he begins pressing the monsters. One, two, three, four, five ... suddenly the behemoths crash to the matted floor. One narrowly misses photographer Kevin Horton, furiously snapping photos.
"That ain't them," Coleman drawls, sitting up again. "Those are the 190s. I want the 160s." Everyone laughs at the confounding strength of a man who pressed 60 pounds more than he intended to and yet was still repping out.
SYNOPSIS | This is what happened. At 2:15 PM on September 16, 2005, 300-pound Ronnie Coleman arrived at MetroFlex in his Bentley Continental GT. After a small amount of small talk, he did 12 sets of dumbbell chest presses (flat, incline and decline), using progressively heavier weights for each exercise and going up to 190-pound dumbbells (inadvertently) for the flat presses and 160-pound dumbbells for the incline and decline presses. (The same exercises--flat, incline and decline presses--were performed with a barbell during his other weekly chest workout.)
For triceps, he did seated two-arm behind-the-head dumbbell extensions (using 100-150 pounds), reverse-grip pushdowns (using 80-100 pounds) and mechanical dips on a primitive machine (using 180-230 pounds). For abs, it was three circuits of crunches, leg raises and twists, and he added weighted isometric crunches (with 45 pounds).
THE MEANING OF BODYBUILDING | (Those of you who want only to glean whatever tips you can from Coleman's workout, skip to the next section.) Just six miles away and on the same weekend FLEX watched Ronnie Coleman train in MetroFlex, Branch Warren won the Europa Super Show. We were there for the Europa, but we also made time to witness Coleman squatting 585 for 10, sparking a nose bleed (see "Top-Dog Thighs," January FLEX) and his pumping out triceps extensions for 11 reps with a 150-pound dumbbell. Warren, of all people, understands perfectly well, for he also did most of his growing in MetroFlex.
Just as painting isn't a portrait and writing isn't a book, bodybuilding isn't a pose. Those are merely the end results. Bodybuilding is unique from other sports, and much closer to art, in that the practice (training and dieting) is not duplicated at the event.
In fact, bodybuilding happens about as far away as one can get from the bright lights, faux tan and oil.
Bodybuilding happens in a gym where an individual pits his strength and will against resistance to literally create a bigger and/or better version of his physical self.
That's pretty damn cool, and it's much more dramatic than a front double bi. That's why FLEX goes to the gyms where the competitors actually train to observe their actual workouts. To put a finer shine on it, Ronnie Coleman didn't win his eighth Mr. Olympia on a stage in Las Vegas, Nevada. He won it days, months and years earlier in a sweltering, dusty, gloriously spartan gym in Arlington, Texas. This is bodybuilding.
BREAKDOWN | The current Mr. Olympia generally uses progressively heavier weights each set, and he keeps reps in the 10-15 range. Here's what you should know about the manner in which he performs chest and triceps exercises.
* Dumbbell chest presses Controlled moderate pace, stops three inches short of lowest and highest positions.
* Two-arm dumbbell extensions Sits forward and leans upper back against chair back so his body is angled, elbows pointed outward, nearly a full stretch, but stops short of lockout.
* Pushdowns Stands three feet from overhead cable and leans forward at his waist, utilizes underhand grip on this day (will use overhand grip next time).
* Machine dips Sits perfectly upright, full stretch at top of each rep and just short of lockout at contraction.
AMUSING ANECDOTE 2 | After his first set of incline presses, Coleman asks for elbow sleeves. Lee searches the gym and comes back with neoprene bands. Coleman is tugging them onto his ham-sized arms when Dobson strides over from the front desk holding the desired protective wear.
"Those are for knees," Dobson says, motioning to the sleeve Coleman is fitting his right arm into. Mr. Olympia does opt for the arm-wear Dobson offers up, but not before everyone marvels that he could've worn sleeves on his arms that were made for mortal legs.
ABSOLUTION | For most of this decade, even as he carried home his annual Sandow, Coleman was criticized for the girth of his belly and the murkiness of his abs. In 2005, he made a vividly slimmer waist and sharper abdominals his foremost objectives, and--surprising most observers--he did indeed achieve both goals.
He ate clean year-round and consumed smaller meals, and he trained abs at least three times weekly with nonstop circuits of crunches, knee or leg raises and twists or side crunches.
Frequently, he ended an ab workout with a peculiar exercise of his own invention. Lying on a flat bench with his head off the end (and even with his body), he held a 45-pound plate against his bald scalp, keeping his abs flexed as the weight tugged at his abdominal wall. When I asked if he had a name for it, he answered, "Nope. It's just something I made up." Let's call them weighted isometric crunches.
CONCLUSIONS | Robert Lee--the hairdresser, not the general--does not own a new Bentley. In order to keep constant tension on his targeted muscles, Coleman doesn't lock out exercises. He succeeded in streamlining his waist last year in part because he trains abs frequently and with high volume. If you're going to ask him how big his arms are, please don't do so in his workplace while he's working. Damn, those really are some big arms he's got and, damn, he's strong. If you want to know the meaning of bodybuilding and the main reason why Ronnie Coleman has won eight straight Sandows, look no further than the sweat on the dusty floor in a gym deep in the heart of Texas. RONNIE COLEMAN'S CHEST ROUTINE EXERCISE SETS REPS Dumbbell bench presses 4 10-15 Incline dumbbell bench presses 4 10-12 Decline dumbbell bench presses 4 10-12 NOTE: Coleman trains chest twice per week. On the other day, he does flat, incline and decline presses with a barbell. RONNIE COLEMAN'S TRICEPS ROUTINE EXERCISE SETS REPS Two-arm dumbbell extensions 3 10-12 Pushdowns * 3 10-15 Machine dips 3 12-15 * Coleman alternates between underhand and overhand grip each workout. RONNIE COLEMAN'S AB ROUTINE EXERCISE REPS Twisting crunches (left side) 20-30 Twisting crunches (right side) 20-30 Crunches (forward)
20-30 Seated knee raises 20-30 Standing broomstick twists 20-30 NOTES: Coleman performs these exercises in sequence with no rest as a giant set. He performs three such giant sets. Afterward, he does weighted isometric crunches.
Lee: "That thing finally stopped on me."
Coleman: "What did?"
Lee: "My car. I don't know what's wrong with it."
Coleman: "I do."
Lee: "What?"
Coleman: "It's old."
RELATED ARTICLE: BETWEEN SETS 2
Greg Merritt, FLEX senior writer: "So all you do for chest is barbell presses one day and dumbbell presses the other day? What about things like flyes and crossovers?"
Coleman: "I don't do 'em."
Merritt: "Why not?"
Coleman: "I don't have to (laughs). This is what works for me. I've done all those other things, but this is all I've done for chest for some time."
A semantic analysis of the popular Coleman workout vernacular.
"Ain't nothin' but a peanut!" | A prelift reverse psychology expression meant to impart that a heavy weight is, in fact, easy to lift.
"Light weight!" | A more popular variant of "Ain't nothin' but a peanut!" This too is used ironically before lifting a weight that's anything but light.
"Yeah, buddy!" | This exclamation typically precedes "Ain't nothin' but a peanut!" or "Light weight!" It means, in essence, "Let's do it!"
Beard Man: "Damn, you're strong."
Coleman (smiles): "Yeah."
Beard Man: "Damn, those are some big arms you got."
Coleman smiles.
Beard Man: "What are your arms now?"
Coleman: "Huh?"
Beard Man: "How big are your arms?"
Coleman (smiles at Merritt and Horton): "Man, I don't measure my arms."
Beard Man: "What do you think, though, like 24 or 25?"
Coleman (laughing): "Whatever."
