An interview with bodybuilding legend Rich Gaspari. About training, training technique and nutrition that helped him build a professional body.
"I started training because the doctor advised my parents to do something about my underweight."
I still remember how Rich Gaspari Came into the bodybuilding scene in 1984.
Mike and Ray Mentzer stood for high intensity and they had heard something from a boy from New Jersey who literally "burst" with intensity in the studios. Even for the tough Mentzers, the intensity was from Tom place Unique at Gold’s Gym. And to speak of Gaspari in the same breath, he had to be special.
Rich Gaspari became one of the finest competitors in the 1980s, not only because of his massive mass, but also because of his whole new standards in constitution. He was the first athlete to show deeply striped buttocks on stage. That was at the Pro World Championship in 1986. The audience was ecstatic. The bar has been raised. The striped buttocks became the new standard in competitions - thanks to Gaspari.
But why is this interview important to you?
Because Rieh is like many of us. He started modestly underweight, sickly and weak. At 14, he didn't even seem to have the potential to be Mr. next door, let alone a world-class bodybuilder. He had narrow shoulders, thin arms, and stork legs.
But a fire burned in him - the irrepressible will to succeed. Together with a consistent and well-planned training, Rieh was able to clean up among his competitors. He defeated some of the most successful champions of his time and was nicknamed "Dragon Slayer" for it.
But let's get to his ideas for mass and strength gains. In the first five years of training, he put on more than 45 pounds of muscle mass.
QUESTION: You should have been really thin at the beginning. How old were you and what did you weigh then?
RICH GASPARI: I started lifting weights when I was about 14, but I didn't really start bodybuilding until I was 15. I was really extremely thin. I also started exercising because the doctor advised my parents to do something about my underweight. As a child I was always sick. I had glandular fever and continued to lose weight. At some point it was only 40 kilos.
QUESTION: How did your body react to this?
RICH: Within a year, I gained almost 50 pounds, but I was still growing too.
QUESTION: That is still a decent increase. What have you done?
RICH: I ate well and read all of the top bodybuilders' articles. I could identify with Larry Scott because he was so thin too. I tried working out someone who was having problems gaining weight. I made myself eat six meals a day, making sure to get around two grams of protein for every pound of body weight. I ate plenty of calories. I drank gallons of milk and ate a dozen eggs a day.
And I gained a lot of weight. I wanted to get as massive as possible. At 20, I made it up to 115 kilos - that was my highest body weight.
But then of course at the Nationals I had less: 85 kilos.
QUESTION: So from 40 kilos with 15 to 85 with 20 -45 kilos of muscles in five years?
RICH: Yes, but I overdid the diet. A year later, as a professional, I weighed 150 pounds on my first show. That's another eleven kilos of muscle - 56 kilos in total. But I was also very determined.
“I've done some crazy workouts. So I managed 356 kilos on the squat and 238 kilos on the bench. "
QUESTION: What made you train so intensely and with such determination?
RICH: I had read about Tom Platz and I knew I had to train hard to get any gains. I've done some crazy workouts. So I managed 356 pounds on the squats and 238 pounds on the bench. I used insanely heavy weights to grow, I guess I wanted to grow up. I never took part in Tom's training, but I wanted to measure myself against his intensity and was ready to give everything for it. I looked at his workouts and his weights and said to myself, “I can do that too!” I did crazy things: 50 squats at 145 pounds and 20 squats at 185 pounds.
“I trained with Lee Haney, and he made it even more important to feel the muscle. He said: stimulate, not destroy! "
At some point you get from “I want a little more muscles” to this insane intensity - where you just leave a bunch of junk in the studio.
Well, I read all of the magazines and I was fascinated by the looks of bodybuilders. I was just infected. Every time I'd put on a few pounds, I said to myself, "I need to get bigger, I need to get bigger!" Virtually the opposite of being an anorexic. I looked at myself and always found myself small. Small arms, a small chest - so I ate more and more.
RICH GASPARI TRAINING.
QUESTION: What was your training like?
I did heavy exercises in a strict form, six to eight repetitions. These were basic exercises, not detailing exercises.
For the chest, I did heavy incline bench press, bench press, flying and flexure, and for the back bent barbell row, dumbbell row, and deadlift. For the shoulders, there were barbell front presses, Arnold presses as well as heavy, strict lateral raises with dumbbells and rear lateral raises.
I was having trouble getting big, so I did a lot of lateral raises - but strict and heavy. Eventually, to force growth, I had to do reduction sets - not every workout, but about once a month. For the legs, I did very heavy squats, but thought I needed more repetitions. So I did heavy sets of six to nine, but also sets of twelve to 25 repetitions. I stayed with exercises like squats, leg presses, Hackenschmidt squats, and leg curls.
For the sleeves, I also preferred to do basic exercises: dumbbell and barbell curls for the biceps as well as tight bench presses, overlays and triceps presses for the triceps, but everything was very strict.
QUESTION: Coating and pressing, that's old school. This is what most of your workouts looked like?
RICH: Yeah, because when I was 14 or 15 a friend's dad gave me a pile of 1970s bodybuilding magazines. That's how I got into bodybuilding. As I said, I did basic exercises, trained for three days and took a day off.
Until the early 1980s, everyone either exercised four days a week, dividing the body into two workouts that they did twice a week, or exercising for six days with three different workouts.
QUESTION: You, Samir Bannout and a few others trained for three days and took a day off. So there was an additional day of rest.
RICH: Right. You need the day after three days of heavy training. You need rest to grow. I turned on
Tag 1: Brust und Arme
Tag 2: Schultern und Rücken
Tag 3: die Beine
As a professional, I then trained twice a day, even in the off-season. So I did on
Day 1 the chest in the morning and the arms in the evening
On day 2 it was the shoulders in the morning and the back in the evening
On Day 3 it was the quadriceps and hamstrings in the morning and the calves in the evening. Leg training was the hardest, I vomited a lot.
QUESTION: That sounds very brutal, but it must have worked.
RICH: Yeah. The three days of training with one day off were the key to growth for me. For the larger parts of the body, I did about 15 to 18 work sets, for the smaller ones twelve to 15.
QUESTION: You mentioned the weights that you used to train with when you were 15-20 years old. You must also have achieved enormous strength gains.
RICH: They were recognizable, but always in the range of six to eight repetitions. Once a month, I made it harder with 2-3 reps per set. As a teenager, I really wanted to get stronger. I always used strict technique and occasionally asked for help with a few forced repetitions. A good training partner is very important.
QUESTION: You mentioned strict technique a couple of times. How fast or slow does an exercise have to be to be productive?
RICH: When I was 15, I was fortunate to have a few experienced bodybuilders in the gym. At first I trained very quickly and carelessly. The guys taught me the correct execution - without strict form and slow movements there is no gain. I was lucky because they knew exactly what they were doing. I made sure to move slowly, steadily, and to feel the muscle. I later trained with them Lee Haney, and he made it even more important to feel the muscle. He said: "Stimulate, not destroy!" With that feeling and strict technique, he became very muscular. I was an amateur and he was already a pro, so I picked up his knowledge when I was 20. He was very strong! I overtook him in leg strength, but the weights he was able to do was enormous and with strict execution. And he taught me
feeling the weight, not just "throwing it in the air".
QUESTION: So you never cheated?
RICH: Occasionally I would cheat the last one on individual repetitions, but never on a whole set. For me it was important to really lift the weight, contract heavily on the top for a while, and then slowly lower it. That brings a lot more growth than an extremely heavy weight with poor technique.
QUESTION: What are the flaws in mass growth training programs?
RICH: The biggest mistake is probably overtraining and the overemphasis on certain exercises. Some bench press for 45 minutes instead of going into the next exercise after three or four sets. Twelve to 11 sets for large parts of the body, nothing more.
RICH GASPARI NUTRITION.
QUESTION: And nutritional errors?
RICH: The biggest mistake is bad eating, for growth you need high quality foods - complex carbohydrates like oatmeal, white and brown rice, baked potatoes and yams. I don't believe in low carb. You also need lean protein. I am convinced of the whole egg - for example ten egg whites with two yolks. Eat skinless chicken breasts for bulk but I also like steaks and fish. I always try a healthy variety and a good protein shake. If you have a fast metabolism, take a good weight gainer to gain weight.
QUESTION: Thank you for the detailed interview.
already read..?
PYRAMIDENTRAINING. TRAU DICH !!! > >
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