Lee Priest interview...very good

[nautic]

Here's a Lee Priest interview i was reading, taken from flex magazine.
This is why Lee Priest is one of my fav's, he doesnt talk bs like cutler and just does what he has to do and loves it.

Btw one of my pt friends, an aussie natural bb champion, had dinner with Lee Priest a few weeks ago, and was amazed at just how down to earth he was and how honest/open how was about his whole bb lifestyle, including drugs.




"When teenage Clark Kent grew into adult Superman, he left rural Smallville for urban Metropolis. Similarly, when teenage Superman superfan Lee Priest swelled into a pro-caliber bodybuilder, he left his native Australia for America. Journey with us now through a tale of yesteryear as Lee Priest explains how he expanded from an undersized Aussie to a world-beater. Faster than other speeding motorists, more powerful than most powerlifters, able to leap a KFC bucket in a single bound: Look! Up on the stage! It's a comic-book drawing in the flesh! It's SuperPriest!

FLEX: Were you always a Superman fan?

LEE PRIEST: Pretty much. Every year, my mother would make me a new suit and a cape for the dog, and I always had Superman stuff. I wasn't so much into the comic books, but I remember getting up at 5 AM before school to watch the old black-and-white George Reeves TV show.

I was always interested in strength. When I was 10 or 11, before I even started bodybuilding, I'd have my sister sit in the car in the driveway and take the brake off, and I'd push it one way and then the other. We used to go to this place where the river emptied out into the beach and I'd put her in a raft and tie a rope to her and I'd run against the current, pulling her back and forth.

What were you like before you started weight training?

I was a normal skinny twerp. I had lean muscle, but because I started so young [at age 13], as I got older and the hormones kicked in, I always progressed. At 13, I weighed about 120, and when I moved to California at age 20, I was over 200 pounds. I was about 186 in my first pro contest [1993 Niagara Pro Invitational], so I gained more than 70 pounds of muscle in my teenage years.

What was your training like as a teenager?

Pretty much the way it is now. The only difference was I did lifts like bench presses and presses-behind-the-neck that I later decided didn't work for my body. I believe in the old Arnold style of high-volume basic exercises and heavy weights with six to eight reps. I did at least 20 sets per bodypart, sometimes 30 or more, and that's not counting warm-ups. I go by how I feel. I've always been a very instinctive trainer. I never had a set routine in mind before I started a workout. I always make it up as I go, depending on how I feel and what equipment is available.

What kind of training split were you using?

I never really stuck to one split. Most often, I'd go four-on and one-off, but sometimes I'd train for two weeks straight if I felt strong and wasn't tired. I'm still that way. Sometimes I'll train biceps and triceps on one day. Other times, I'll do bis one day and tris on another. I mix and match as I go along. Sometimes it might be a chest day, but if I don't feel like training chest, I'll do shoulders.

Which intensity techniques did you use?

I liked forced reps. I've always had a training partner and that person would help me with the last one or two reps, just enough to keep the weight moving. I did supersets or giant sets occasionally, just when I got a silly idea to try something different. I often did them when I didn't feel like going heavy, but I usually ended up going heavy anyway. It seems I just can't escape going heavy, damn it. That's the only way I know how to train.

Did you push most sets to failure?

Yep, every set. If I don't get to failure when I get to eight reps, then I don't count that set. I'll increase the weight and do the set again.

How did you settle on six to eight reps?

I tried more, but I never really liked it. I'd rather increase the weight than the reps. Say I was doing dumbbell presses and I was using 140-pounders and I got to 10 pretty easily, I'd think it was a wasted set and I should've grabbed the 150- or 160-pound dumbbells. I just prefer to use the heavier weights all the way through.

What sort of equipment did you use?

In Australia then, we just had free weights and the basic machines, things like the leg-curl and lat-pulldown. We didn't have any of the fancier machines like Hammer Strength, because it was too expensive to import them down there. I've always felt the basic movements are best anyway. These days, guys depend too much on machines. You see a lot of good physiques, but they lack that dense muscle that the guys had in earlier days.

If you have a choice between barbell rows or a row machine where you just have to change the pin, people go for the easier one, but you can't make it easy on your muscles if you want to grow. You can get a good workout with machines, but it's not the same because you're not using stabilizing muscles. When you squat, for example, you're putting your whole body into the movement to balance the bar and that brings out a muscle quality you just can't get from machines.

What would you recommend to an average bodybuilder who wants to gain size?

Stick to the basics. You can use machines to warm up or finish off a muscle, but the free-weight basics should form the core of your program. Use trial and error. Some exercises might not work as well for you. Sometimes it takes a long time to figure out the training and diet that works best for you. Everybody is different.

You also need to focus on your whole lifestyle. Bodybuilding isn't just 90 minutes in the gym; it's a way of life. I know a lot of guys who train hard, but their eating isn't good or they go out and party and drink until four in the morning. Then I hear them say they might be training too much. No, they're just not getting enough sleep and good food. Both are crucial if you want to build muscle.

Do you advocate high-volume training?

It works for me, but it doesn't work only for me; it's always worked for my training partners. I think a lot of people don't train enough. I don't know if they're lazy or they just don't want to spend as much time in the gym, but they do 45 minutes and they're gone. I guess it's just the way society is today. You can buy premade meals, stir them and go. Everything is done so quickly; I guess people want bodybuilding to be the same.

You're notorious for gaining a lot of weight in off seasons. Do you recommend high-volume eating, as well?

If you're going to gain size, you have to gain some bodyfat. When I was trying to gain size, I'd drink a liter of full-cream milk and eat a whole chicken and half a loaf of bread for a meal. I was eating pretty much like they did back in Arnold's day. To this day, I stick to the basics--steak, potatoes, chicken, pasta, dairy products--stuff like that and occasional junk food. I do the old bulk-up and diet phases, more calories to gain mass, less calories to lose fat and, of course, cardio when I'm dieting. I've never made this bodybuilding thing very scientific. The more scientific you make it, the greater the chance for screwing up. If you stick to the basics, you can't go wrong.

You train mostly at home now. Is there any special advice you have for our readers who train at home?

I have a gym in a shed outside my house. It's probably 116 degrees in there today, and my training partners are on their way over now to hit back. I have a lot of free weights, but I have machines, too. I'm sure my gym is better equipped than the average home gym and even some commercial gyms, but people can get a great workout with just free weights.

My main advice would be to train safely. Be very careful going heavy without a spotter. If your gym is away from the house, like mine, make sure someone always knows you're training so they can at least be listening for your cries of help if you get stuck. When you're training in a gym alone, don't go to failure for any lift like a bench press or squat where you could get squashed.

Do you have any specific advice for younger trainers?

It's crazy that when I was 17, people used to say, "You need more thickness here and there," and I'd say, "Hey, I'm only 17." It takes time to grow into the physique you were meant to have. Guys go into the gym these days and they want to be huge right away. When it doesn't happen, they resort to drugs and whatever they can to get there. They don't understand that it takes years to grow a lot of muscle. Just take it slow and don't get crazy with it and the size will come.

When did you decide you wanted to be a pro?

It snuck up on me. Even when I moved here, it wasn't my goal to be a pro bodybuilder. The first day I arrived and dropped my bags off at the hotel and went to Gold's Gym [in Venice, California], people said I should be a pro, but that wasn't my ambition. I just liked training. I hear all these guys today saying, "I'm going to do this and I'm going to be a pro," and most of them don't even have the potential to be a pro nose picker.

Whether it's Superman stuff or car racing or bodybuilding, I just do things I enjoy doing. With bodybuilding, I've managed to make it a living, but if I hadn't, I still would have had a good time training. That's always been my attitude. I train and diet for shows and come in the best I can, and if that's not good enough, so be it. I don't get caught up in all the B.S. criticism and the sort of negative stuff you read on the [Internet] boards. Bodybuilding is meant to be fun. When it's not fun anymore, I'll quit and get a real job.

[nautic]

PRIEST'S FIRST MASS PROGRAM

BODYPART EXERCISE SETS REPS

DAY 1
Quadriceps Leg extensions 5 8-10
Squats 5 6-8
Leg presses 5 6-8
Lunqes 5 6-8
Hamstrinqs Leg curls 5 6-8
Stiff-leg deadlifts 5 6-8
DAY 2
Back Chinups 5 6-8
Barbell rows 5 6-8
Dumbbell rows 5 6-8
Seated cable rows 5 6-8
Pulldowns 5 6-8
DAY 3
Shoulders Military presses 5 6-8
Dumbbell side laterals 5 6-8
Dumbbell front raises 5 6-8
Bent rear laterals 5 6-8
Biceps Barbell curls 5 6-8
Dumbbell curls 5 6-8
Preacher curls 5 6-8
Cable curls 5 6-8
DAY 4
Chest Bench presses 5 6-8
Incline dumbbell presses 5 6-8
Dumbbell flyes 5 6-8
Incline flyes 5 6-8
Triceps Pushdowns 5 6-8
Dumbbell extensions 5 6-8
Dips between benches 5 6-8
French presses 5 6-8

Notes: Calves were trained every day with one exercise done for four or
five sets of 50-100 reps. Abdominals were trained occasionally with
leg raises and trunk twists.
PRIEST'S SERMON

Even as a teenager, Lee Priest utilized high-volume workouts. Performing 20 or more high-intensity sets per bodypart may lead to overtraining, but even if his First Mass Program (see chart) isn't right for you, here's how you can follow the Priestly path.

* Instinctive Training Priest monitors his physique before and during each workout and uses only those exercises and techniques that work best for him on that particular day.

* Variety Priest regularly alters his exercises, the order of exercises and his training sprit.

* Heavy Basics The one constant in Priest's training has been his dependence on free-weight basic lifts and the fact that virtually every set is heavy (six to eight reps).

* Helping Hands Priest has always benefited from training partners to assist with forced reps and encouragement.

* Keep it Simple From his home gym, to his meat-and-potatoes diet, to the fact that his world-class teenage muscle was built naturally, Priest proves you don't need the latest equipment, "prep guru" or chemical to reach your true potential.

PRIEST'S IDOL WORSHIP

"I didn't really have one idol, but I liked Tom Platz for his legs, Dorian Yates for his back and Eddie Robinson for his arms. A few years ago, I trained with Tom Platz for a while, and they were some of the best workouts I ever had. He'd always get mad because I'd never give up. Tom believes in doing forced reps and then negatives and then partial reps. I'd just keep going. He'd joke about having to crawl out of the gym, but I'd still be walking. We got along very well, and I always liked his honesty, as opposed to a lot of guys today who just whine or profess their Christianity and then live a life only the devil would approve of."

[Lintford]

Priest the beast, tells it how it is, he did 20 sets plus as a child, look at him, you think he "over-trained"?

[HulkRage2006]

awesome interview thanks. I wish more pros would come out and open themselves to the fans a little so we can see where they came from and who they really are.

[belaglazov]

we don't know if that's what he really did. We can't take these interviews seriously

[Bob_Ross42]

some good reading, didnt read all of it but will later, looking at his routine, if i were to post that routine in the exercise section, everyone would prolly laugh at me and say overtraining. what do you guys think about that? it obviously worked for him, but do you think most people could do that amount of work in 1 workout, and get good results?

[Psychoholic]

I dunno, I think that if Lee says that is what he does - then there is a damned good chance that is what he does. Those who balk at it, if they don't have the physique to take Lee in contest form, then they have no room to talk smack.

I think the point of it was that he listens to his body and trains it how it feels, some times that is probably some sick volume, and other days it's probably heavier.

[Gino30]

He's honest and open...can't knock the guy for that...

[tek.]

always seems like a good bloke

[Oz_Rider]

some good reading, didnt read all of it but will later, looking at his routine, if i were to post that routine in the exercise section, everyone would prolly laugh at me and say overtraining. what do you guys think about that? it obviously worked for him, but do you think most people could do that amount of work in 1 workout, and get good results?

sure u can, if u have the right "recovery aids"

[felthamboy]

some good reading, didnt read all of it but will later, looking at his routine, if i were to post that routine in the exercise section, everyone would prolly laugh at me and say overtraining. what do you guys think about that? it obviously worked for him, but do you think most people could do that amount of work in 1 workout, and get good results?

thats why i have never posted my routine eveyone would freak out i go by how i fell sometimes doing 30+ sets but it works for me low volume never did everyone is differnet you just got to work out what works for you i think to many people worry to much about overtraining lee has been training this way for 20+ year without a problem or any major injurys i think hes a top guy and i never dout hes tell the truth

[never2late]

Great interview and enjoyable to read on a Sunday morning. I really do like his instinctive approach -- if he didn't "feel" like training chest on chest day, he'd move on to something else and come back to chest some other day. Another instinctive trainer from back in the "old days" was Dave Draper (and still is today). Obviously Lee is very much in touch with his body at all levels and listens to the messages that it sends. It takes years to get to this level. He seems to have it all together, and is very down-to-earth when telling about his relationship to the weights and the sport. Well-spoken and obviously a very highly-polished professional in every sense. I like this guy more and more as time goes on.

[-Moores Gym-]

Lee is the man!

[AdamJames]

About Lee gaining alot of weight on the off season. There was this picture going around here with someone eating buffalo wings looks like in a kitchen,the dude was somewhat overweight. Was that really lee?

[-Moores Gym-]

About Lee gaining alot of weight on the off season. There was this picture going around here with someone eating buffalo wings looks like in a kitchen,the dude was somewhat overweight. Was that really lee?

Yeahhh that's a very famous picture

[nitrous]

it says that he utilized high volume training but then if you read the interview he says that if he goes for high weight and only 6-8 reps..

[Ripped Italian]

it says that he utilized high volume training but then if you read the interview he says that if he goes for high weight and only 6-8 reps..

Lee does a lot of sets during each workout in the 6-8 rep range. By "volume" he was refering to the amount of sets he does in a workout, not the amount of repititions

[nitrous]

Lee does a lot of sets during each workout in the 6-8 rep range. By "volume" he was refering to the amount of sets he does in a workout, not the amount of repititions

ahh gotchya

[Dolemite07]

I like to rip on Lee a lot, but that was a really good interview. I really liked how hardcore he came across in regards to his training. Thumbs-up.

[garraeth]

Lee just confirmed his PDI contract: http://www.boom7.com/index.php?topic...sg9584#msg9584

[garraeth]

Oh, sorry...here's his explination as to why he made the switch: http://www.boom7.com/index.php?topic...sg9585#msg9585

[garraeth]

Vinny Galanti just posted on Boom7 as well (he's another PDI pro): http://www.boom7.com/index.php?topic...sg9589#msg9589

[Jesseboi87]

Lee says he does 5 sets 6-8 reps, so is that all working sets. Also he apparently doesn’t do straight sets, so he does pyramid sets, how’s does he say he goes to failure on every set, and stays in that small rep range. How does he go to failure while pyramiding up every set, seems like you would end up not hitting the rep range. Just makes now sense to me, seems like you need to leave a rep or 2 in the tank untill the final set or so.

[bobbyrfletcher]

I respect Lee Priest. He is a great athlete. But as I have noticed, it is not always that what bodybuilding icons tell about their workouts and nutrition is true. I often watch their videos just to find new exercises to diversify my workouts.