Looking for an adrenaline shot of hypertrophy-based inspiration? NABBA National Champion and Mr. Universe competitor Buddy Dreimann tells what it was like to train under the notoriously sadistic trainer of champions (before there were really training gurus) Steve Michalik. Here is an excerpt from the story:
Dreimann knocked out twenty-two reps, which had his arms feeling ready to split open.
“He is standing there with two tens and said, ‘I’m slapping on some dimes. Let’s go.’ I couldn’t have even rested thirty seconds. I don’t even know how many reps I knocked out, but he immediately slapped on a pair of fives and then another pair of fives, and then another until we were at about 195 pounds. I was doing them almost like a reverse-grip cleans but my arms were blowing up like you wouldn’t believe. I was breathing like a fish on the deck of a boat.”
From there, Modzelewski directed him to the dumbbell rack for the up and down the rack technique made famous by Vince Gironda. “We started with the 20s and worked our way up to the 90s and then back down. I remember thinking I wanted to go into the bathroom and crawl out the window because this guy is nuts. My arms were so pumped I couldn’t straighten them.”
“Friends of mine knew that I trained really hard so they were in shock that I could barely handle this training but it REALLY worked. I could see a change in my body within a week. People would say when you train legs hard you throw up. The way this guy trained me on arms made we want to throw up. Legs? I was definitely in the back throwing up out the door. He would say, ‘You threw up? You got that over with? Let’s go.’” Outside of Mr. America’s there was a hose to allow vomit to be easily rinsed off of the sidewalk. The training here was not intensity or insanity; it was usually large doses of both.
For the full article, go to http://www.musclemag.com/article/surviving-mr-americas-gym