Five-time Olympian champion and founder of the Gifted Nutrition brand, Phil Heath, is so busy that he travels non-stop for business around the world. "But for me, The Orsay is always number one." Heath said, "I want to break the record for the number of consecutive Olympiad wins, which is the record set by Lee Haney and Ronnie Kuhlman for eight consecutive Olympiad titles. ”
The most striking change in Heath's physique at last year's Olympiad was that the muscles in his legs were fuller. It turns out that the legs are heath's top priority at the moment, and he does leg training twice a week, while the rest of the areas are only practiced once a week. "To ensure the strongest competitiveness, you must strengthen your weaknesses." Heath said, "I don't think anyone can compete with me in the roundness of the arms and shoulder muscles, but not the legs." So, I have to look at stronger people in leg training. ”
Heath, do you practice your legs twice a week throughout the year?
Heath: I practice my legs twice a week whenever conditions permit. When preparing for the Olympiad, make sure your legs have as much training as possible. Off-season, with lots of business trips around the world, it's hard to always ensure leg training twice a week.
You've always preferred to do front-neck barbell squats over back-of-neck barbell squats, which is the opposite of the habits of most bodybuilders. Why?
Heath: I never wanted my hips to get bigger. The front barbell squat focuses on stimulating the quadriceps muscles and less on the gluteus major muscles. In addition, I also noticed that my movement specifications when I do the front barbell squat are much better than when I do the back of the neck barbell squat. When doing the back of the neck barbell squat, I usually encounter situations such as too tight lower back or lack of strength in the hips, which makes me unable to do it perfectly. And when I did the front barbell squat, I never had any problems.
However, you still haven't given up doing back-neck barbell squats. What is your maximum negative weight when doing a back-of-neck barbell squat?
Heath: I can add up to four 45-pound barbell pieces on each side of the barbell bar, which is 405 pounds. Of course, I'm perfectly capable of adding 5 45-pound barbell pieces on each side of the barbell bar, which is 495 pounds, and doing 8 to 10 squats per group, but I think that does more harm than good. Last year, I tried squats at 495 pounds, but I had a palpitation after each workout. So, I began to reflect, how much damage does this kind of training do to the waist and joints? My goal wasn't to squat up with a shocking weight. For me, it's very important to avoid injuries and, at the same time, to maintain a high training intensity. With 3 to 4 4 45-pound barbell pieces on each side of the barbell barpole, it was good for me to do 15 times per set.
Your approach reminds us of 8-time Olympian champion Ronnie Kuhlman. Since retiring in 2007, he has undergone seven surgeries, including one that lasted 11 hours in February. It was also his fourth back surgery (the other 3 surgeries were for the hip and neck). Kuhlman is now in a wheelchair at a hospital in Dallas and has to relearn to walk. "If you choose again, do you still want to be an 8-time Olympian champion?" When the doctor showed him the X-ray of Kuhlman's squeezed and deformed spine, he asked, "The price you paid was very painful." At his peak, Kuhlman was known for his super strength, with 4 barbell flakes on each side just warming up for his squats, and he used to do 2 squats with 800 pounds, and used more than 600 pounds of weight to do 10 squats per set of squats for many years.
Heath: I don't know if it's worth it. If it were me, the answer wouldn't be worth it. I think it's not worth the trade to use 800 pounds for hard pulls and squats. 6-time Olympiad champion Dorian Yates was also keen to train with big weights until he tore his biceps. It's very important for me to stay away from injuries. I want to stay healthy not only during my career, but also after I end my career. But that doesn't mean winning the Olympiad isn't important to me, I just don't think it's necessary to train with crazy heavy weights like Kuhlman did.
Why do you do two types of leg lifts?
Heath: Because my coach, Haney Raymond Bod, asked me to do that. Haha, just kidding! I think there is a big difference between the two types of leg lifts. The leg lift in the vertical direction is more challenging for me, but it feels better. On the leg lift at a 45-degree angle, I can choose to use one leg or two legs to do the leg lift, but on the leg lift in the vertical direction, I always use both legs at the same time and use very strict movement norms.
I heard you also combined two types of hack squats to do a supergroup, is that true?
Heath: Yes. The two types of hack squats have slightly different stimulation of my leg muscles. One is the traditional way of doing hacking with the shoulder against the instrument; the other is not using the shoulders, but holding the handle with both hands, which is more like doing a soft squat. In both of these movements, I like to keep my feet as close together as possible so that I can focus on stimulating the outside of my quadriceps muscles.
What other details of your leg training are worth paying attention to?
Heath: My first set of lunge walking training didn't bear weight, but the second group used 135 pound barbells. When doing straight leg hard pulls, I sometimes do it with barbells and sometimes with two dumbbells. I used the muscle fascia stretch-7 training mode to do the sitting leg bending movement, that is, 7 groups in a row, and only rested for 30 seconds between groups. Last year, I started doing a training exercise for the anterior tibial muscle group of the calf in order to increase the resolution of the anterior calf muscle group. Off-season, I usually do 8 to 10 times per group in quadriceps and biceps training.
Last year was exactly 10 years after you won the National Championship, how has your leg training changed in the past 10 years?
Heath: In 2006, I only practiced my legs once a week, but I still put my quadriceps and biceps together. The training moves I used didn't change much, but the number of repetitions varied from group to group. Previously, I had tried many kinds of repetitions per group in order to discover what worked best for me. I tried it a very low number of times, because I was very concerned about the size of the power, but in fact it was just to satisfy my own vanity. If someone does a hack with 405 pounds, I want to do a front neck squat with 405 pounds. At that time, I was not fearless, but brainless.
If you count calf training moves, you have to do 15 training moves per leg training session. Do you think most bodybuilders change their movements too little in leg training?
Heath: I just think most bodybuilders get too tired in squat training, they think it's enough to practice squats well, and I don't know what's enough, I'm in awe of my competitors, I'm going to imagine competitors training twice as much as I do. People are easily tired and slack, thinking they've done enough, but the legs are the largest muscle group in our body, half of the body, and there are many different muscle groups in the legs, and you need to use a variety of training movements to fully stimulate the different muscle groups. Don't be afraid to overtrain, as long as you make sure you get plenty of rest and adequate nutrient intake, it's okay. What you should be worried about is not training enough.
Will your leg training change this year?
Heath: It's going to be more painful, and I'm not saying it's going to be more fun that way. Every leg training session was like the next hell, and I had to do it. According to my current schedule, I only have 1 to 2 hours of training time a day, whereas before I had 5 to 6 hours of free time every day, so I had to race against the clock.