Lou Ferrigno’s Secrets for Competitive Bodybuilding

The Competitive Bodybuilder

Few people in bodybuilding ever have to ask: Should I compete? When you reach that advanced stage, you will know it. In fact, if you are as motivated as I was, nothing could prevent you from stepping into the ranks of the professional bodybuilder.

Competitive bodybuilders are the elite in the field and represent a small percentage of the people who engage in weight training for the purpose of health and fitness. They are men and women of special focus and dedication. If you are among them, you will already have worked your way through the previous chapters, discovered your strong and weak points, and set up your own unique program of balance and refinement.

At this point in your life, training becomes a personal thing. The small differences in bodies, how they react to food and respond to exercise, are extremely important to any bodybuilder going into competitive training. You must be totally in touch with your body, knowing when to change your diet, knowing if and when you should use such advanced training methods as supersets and giant sets (explained later in this chapter). This knowledge of your body and its idiosyncrasies will make the difference between success and failure when you stand before the judges’ table.

Timing

Your body cannot be pushed to the limit and maintain its peak for a long period of time. For most people, the ultimate 100 percent peak of condition is reached after three to five months of intense training and can be held at this level for no more than seven to ten days. Trial and error will tell you how long your body takes, what kind of training programs bring it to the peak in the least amount of time, and how you should maintain it. For these reasons, it makes sense to choose no more than two or three contests per year and give them all your energy. Remember that competing is a great experience, but winning is what you are after.

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Training Tips

Forced Reps

My favorite technique for pushing a muscle to its ultimate, once it has reached the point of failure, is forced reps. During off-season training, I use them only in the final set for each muscle group, but in precontest work, I employ the technique in every set except my warm-up set. The easiest example to give is the Bench Press. I like to work with over 400 pounds for 5 full reps and then have my training partner step in to assist me by lifting the equivalent of perhaps 20 pounds, allowing me to force out another 2 or 3 reps.

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Using Negatives

We have known for years that making use of negative resistance in a weight-training exercise can be as effective as making use of positive resistance, and that the negatives often develop parts of a muscle that are left untouched by just concentrating on the more conventional positive movements.

Really effective negative sets take special work—on your part and on the part of two partners. Once you are warmed up with one or two sets of conventional movements in which you have concentrated on taking advantage of the negative phase of the exercise, load your bar or machine with 50 percent more weight than you were just using in the positive/negative sets. Have your partners help you through the positive phase and then allow you to resist the downward movement of the bar or machine for 5 to 8 reps. Stop the set when you can no longer control the downward force of the weight.

Using the pure negative technique given above, perform no more than one workout per week for each body part.

Split Routines

During the precontest phase of my training, I train each major body part three times a week on a six-day split routine. I recommend that calves be trained every day and forearms at least five times a week. There are a number of ways to split your body parts for training. The following are two split routines that have worked for me:

1. Monday, Wednesday, Friday: chest, back, shoulders, calves, abs, forearms. Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday: thighs, biceps, triceps, calves, abs, forearms.
2. Monday, Wednesday, Friday: chest, shoulders, triceps, lower back, calves, abs, forearms. Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday: thighs, upper back, biceps, forearms, calves, abs.

Your own split routine will depend on a number of variables, including priority training and how your body responds best to a particular split. Remember that what works for me won’t necessarily work for you.

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Supersets

Many bodybuilders use the superset technique as part of regular advanced programs. For me, however, supersets were only really effective during the final two or three weeks before a contest. They helped me harden up, but if I used them over a longer period of time, I began to lose size.

A superset consists of two exercises done consecutively with only five to ten seconds rest between them and a rest of forty-five seconds to a minute before the next superset. Supersets can be done for opposing muscle groups (probably the most effective) or for the same muscle group.

Examples of opposing-group supersets:

• Biceps/Triceps: Barbell Curl, Triceps Press-down
• Chest/Back: Bench Press, Chins
• Quads/Hamstrings: Leg Extension, Leg Curl

Examples of same-group supersets:

• Biceps/Biceps: Preacher Curl, Barbell Curl
• Chest/Chest: Bench Press, Flyes
• Calves/Calves: Seated Calf Raise, Donkey Calf Raise

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Trisets and Giant Sets

These are extensions of the superset principle. Trisets consist of three exercises done consecutively with no rest between them; they can be done for three body parts or for different areas of the muscles in a single body part. Giant sets are the ultimate extension of supersetting, consisting of four or five exercises with minimal rest between them. These techniques are strictly for final hardening up and should be used for only two or three weeks prior to competition.

Posing

Posing is both an art and a science, involving almost as much mathematics as pure feeling. You become a dancer, an actor, a salesman. Again, the key is knowing your body and how best to present it—first to maximize your strong points and second to minimize your weak points.

Learning to pose and present your body in the best possible manner is one of the most important parts of successful professional bodybuilding. Long before you plan to enter your first competition, you should be formulating your posing routine and practicing it every day. Poses should be chosen depending on how they feel to you, how they look to you (always pose before a mirror), and how they look to other, more experienced professional bodybuilders.

Remember this: Posing should not be static. Each pose should flow gracefully into the next so that your routine becomes a kind of performance. There are a number of sources for poses—magazines, books, films, and actual contests. I suggest that you always remain open to new poses that will enhance your routine and that you can put in the place of less effective poses.

During the final four to six weeks before a contest, I work on my posing for an hour or two each day. I use this time not only to improve my routine but to help me achieve my contest finish. This period of flexing, which is based on what I call the iso-tension principle, actually makes my muscles harder and gives them more definition.

Music was difficult for me in the first few contests because I could not hear it that well. However, since I have been wearing improved hearing aids, I realize how much music adds to the overall character of a strong routine. You should choose your music with a number of things in mind—the way it fits your overall appearance (are you rugged or more refined?), how familiar it is to the audience, and how it works with the rhythm and movement of your own posing routine. My personal feeling is that music for posing should be both lyrical and powerful, that it should be full of rich highs and lows, and that it should give your routine a professional, tailored look.

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Precontest Grooming

A few weeks before a contest, you should start the cosmetic treatments that will prepare you for competing. Five or six weeks prior to a contest, I shave all my body hair and then keep it trimmed close with an electric shaver. A week before the contest, I get my hair cut and shaped. A big, bushy head of hair can take away from the size of your shoulders, arms, and chest. Unless you have maintained your tan over a long period of time, you should give yourself at least six weeks to build up good color. A short period every day is much better than risking a bad sunburn by being out too long.

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It’s Your Show

What I have said in these pages about competitive bodybuilding is only as good as the use you make of it. From this point on, it is up to you. Your confidence, diligence, talent, drive, desire, and vision will determine what kind of life you will have in this sport. I can only wish you the best and encourage you to accept every challenge and go into each competition with the true feeling of sportsmanship.

Source: Douglas Kent Hall and Lou Ferrigno, The Incredible Lou Ferrigno (1983).