Curiosity doesn't always kill the cat; sometimes it just REALLY pisses him off.
Like many of you, I enjoy checking out hardcore warehouse gyms and independent physique-centric nutrition stores. On this occasion, I wish I hadn't made a hopeful detour into one particular store since it only served to aggravate me for most of the day. We had some time to kill so I had my girlfriend pull her car into the lot of a nutrition store we drove past so I could check it out.
As I walk in, the annoying cat lady running the place accosts me within three steps of entering. She must have gotten out of her seat before I even opened the car door. With her hair pulled back tight and a number-two Sharpie behind her ear, she gives me a fake, gum-displaying smile and brusquely asks what I want. Her demeanor makes it obvious that she wants a fast sale so that she can be once again left to her web surfing. I resist the urge to grab the pencil and jam it into her eye. "Just looking," I say, reflecting her curtness back at her.
The outer wall of the dingy little shop displayed a variety of protein bars, dated workout clothes and three refrigerated coolers filled with protein shakes and stim drinks. The sole shelving unit in the center of the store had a smattering of dusty popular products. Nothing high-end was to be found: No Beverly. No Species. No Champion. No ALRI. Just the low-end teenager bargain stuff, and even that didn't look like it was moving. The bottom two shelves contained poorly packaged, blurry-labeled bags of what I could tell were an in-house line. In addition to the drinks and bars, it was obvious to me the in-house powdered compost was what paid the rent.
As I crouched down to one knee to get a closer look, the infomercial begins. I clench my jaw as she begins to "educate" me on the unique protein matrix of her product. Apparently whey protein isolate is not as good as her multi-species synergistic blend. My girlfriend sees me begin to display a mixture of grimace and smile and gets nervous. The cat lady continues...
"Pharmaceutical grade... blah, blah... nitrogen matrix... blah, blah...growth stimulating amino... blah, blah. All the pro bodybuilders use my supplements."
"Oh, do they really?" I ask. At this point, my girlfriend decides that it might be more comfortable to wait in the car.
"So you do a lot of mail order?" I continue. "Because only a few pros even live in Ohio..."
"Well, I do some..."
"And I know a few pros and have never seen your stuff in their kitchens. In fact, I've got at least a dozen pros' numbers in my cell and I'm guessing not a one of them has even heard of you."
At this point, the conversation devolved into a debate about her products, with her desperately trying to assert their merits and me repeatedly smacking her ad-speak into the gutter. She is so appreciative of my input that she invites me to enjoy the fresh air of the parking lot.
Still, I walk out of the place smiling. While an exchange like this might be awkward for most people, few things tick me off more than someone spreading disinformation about nutrition products for the express purpose of ripping people off (particularly teenage kids), with crappy, overpriced supplements.
Hopefully, more people, when encountering such ridiculous brazen deception will not just accept it as "just how things are in the industry" and call people for their horseshit. I hope if you see something like this (either online, in print or in a retail outlet), you call the salesperson on it and let them know pulling info out of their ass and trying to dazzle people with pseudo-scientific babble is not acceptable.
The sport of bodybuilding has something for every fan. With over seven decades of organized competition, 
as well as contests from the local level on up to international and professional competitions occurring nearly every weekend, you don't have to try too hard to find a physique role model. Like everyone, I admire mass freaks like Marcus Rühl and Kai Greene, or past monsters like Dorian Yates and Vic Richards. But I'd rather look like a 1976 Robbie Robinson or Frank Zane. These champions have a combination of size, balance and shape that we refer to as a classic physique. Rather than indiscriminately slapped on muscle, these classic physique emphasize lines and aesthetics over bulk.
Young IFBB pro Steve Namat fits into that classical tradition. Positioned to make an impact in the aggressively fought (and instant fan favorite) under-202 class, he takes the classic look of some of bodybuilding's all-time greats and adds improved conditioning and thickness. The result is a physique that is a contender in any pro 202 contest while still appealing to those new to (or outside of) the sport.
Having just turned twenty-six years of age, Steve Namat has lots of muscle growth and contest victories in his future. Take a glance at his spectacular contest history:
2002 (Age 19)
2003 (Age 20)
2004 (Age 21)
2006 (Age 23)
2007
2008 (Age 24)
2009 (Age 25)
Steve Namat grew up in the small Hungarian town of Kecel (Hungary). Like many people the idea of bodybuilding was introduced to him by action hero movies. Seeing the Rambo movies, he was initially impressed by Stallone's portrayal of the strong-willed, principled loner. But when he saw Schwarzenegger in Commando, John Matrix's camo-paint smudged cannons overshadowed John Rambo's smaller caliber biceps. It wasn't long before the young Namat discovered that bodybuilding was the secret ingredient to producing this type of physique, and his mother was supportive enough to pick up the bodybuilding mags of the day to fuel his interest.
At 5'7" in height and an off-season 235 pounds, it is hard to imagine the 127-pound body that first walked into the basic garage gym in his hometown. Namat entered ready and determined to reach his goals. "Before I start exercising I read several books and magazines on bodybuilding and arrived to my first session with a complete workout program," Namat recalls. "I did not have any professional guidance, didn't even have an experienced training partner since almost nobody in my whole town lifted weights. Even before my very first session I had taken pictures of myself, recorded my measurements and my level of strength, and from then on I wrote down everything in my journal - training sessions, meals, measurements, and I even charted my bodyweight."
His initial progress was encouraging enough that he began to consider competing. "In 1999 I went to see my first bodybuilding show, and I instantly fell in love with the competition part of the sport." This initial love has lead to his current position in which he is embarking on a very promising pro career.
Namat has recently moved with his beautiful fitness competitor wife Linda five thousand miles to Florida. He is waiting on a work visa and hopes to build a secure financial background. Any supplement company 
looking for a well spoken, thoroughly professional and marketable athlete to help take their products to a broad audience should consider Steve and Linda Namat. They are a walking testimonial of what can be accomplished through hard training, good eating and use of quality nutrition products. If you want someone that enjoys interacting with fans and shares an infectious positive attitude about the sport, contact him through www.stevenamat.com.
In bodybuilding, Namat's goal is to gradually climb the ranks of the IFBB each year, and being young he has time on his side. He is excited about the new 202-class shows since they allow quality physiques that might not have gotten noticed amongst the mass monsters to come to prominence. "My short-term goal is to compete on the stage of the Mr. Olympia. This is my personal dream and it would also mean that I would be the first Hungarian born athlete to achieve this."
Living in the US a big step towards making these things possible. "I recognized that the United States is really the land of opportunities. The place where, if you have a goal and a good plan and if you work really hard, then anything is possible." Part of his goals involves giving back to those that have supported his efforts. "My real dream is that I want to help my parents as much as I can, and after all those years of hardship I could finally make their retirement years happy, and I could repay the tremendous help they gave me through the years."
Keep an eye on Steve Namat. He is looking to bring back the classic look to the IFBB stages. (Next month out Steve shares the routines that built his classic legs.)
Whenever I get a chance to talk to anyone in the thousand-pound squat club, I invariably ask them exactly what it feels like to step out of the rack with a barb ending poundage like that balanced across your traps. About seven years ago, I sat down with bench press phenom and three-lift powerhouse Gene Rychlak shortly after he deep-knee bent a grand and got his perspective on things:
"What does a half-ton feel like on your back? "Heavy! Extremely heavy! It feels like your head is going to pop off when you are at the bottom. It feels like your eyes are going to be forced out of your skull and your head is going to pop off. The next day you have totally bloodshot eyes. My face is completely covered with broken blood vessels that makes me look like I have a really bad sunburn."
"I work both sides of my spinal cord heavily with plenty of good mornings, reverse hypers and, even though it may not look like it, I do tons of ab work. I'm not looking to get six-pack abs but I do tons of power ab work just to keep the muscles tight. I really don't feel any spinal compression, even with a thousand pounds."
¾ Gene Rychlak, Jr.
When I became a part of the Rx Community, it was nice to see a familiar face (other than Dave) in the 
personage of the master of the quadsweep, Cincinnati-area bodybuilding fixture Jeff Storch. Jeff and I have known one another for nine or ten years, traveling (as if often the case on the bodybuilding community) in many of the same circles.
Jeff is a lifetime bodybuilder, winning the overall at the 1994 Cincinnati (the longest running local contest in the country), the 1996 Indianapolis, his class twice in the NPC Ohio (light-heavies in 1996, heavies in 2000), a fifth-place in the 2001 Junior USA and his class in the 2001 Mid-Atlantic States.
He lives bodybuilding 24/7. I don't know if he would know how to get away from it if he tried. His longtime girlfriend is 2000 Masters Nationals overall and 2009 over-55 Masters Nationals champ Rita Kaya. His sister, Tammy Storch has competed successfully in both bodybuilding and figure. (Tammy has even trained
with Louie Simmons at Westside, which makes her extra cool in my book). Jeff is a Midwest trainer of champs, helping numerous bodybuilders and fitness/figure competitors with contest prep, serving on judge's panels, and sharing his knowledge here on the Rx Muscle forums.
So when I came across some stage and gym photos I had taken of Jeff for a supplement company I was working for at the time (back around 2001), I had forgotten how impressive his shoulder development was. Jeff changes up his program each week but here is a good representation of what he might do.
First off, delts are trained alone on Saturday, allowing his to devote his full attention to the bodypart. Here's the full split:
Sunday: Legs
Monday: off
Tuesday: Chest
Wednesday: Abs and Calves
Thursday: Back
Friday: Arms
Saturday: Delts
1) Hammer Shoulder Press
90x12
90x12
180x12
180x12
275x8
360x6-8
360x6-8
2) Side Lateral
40x8
50x8
60x8
60x8
60x8
3) Larry Scott Front Raise: Jeff Pays homage to the legendary Mr. O1 with this side deltoid exercise. "Picture a typical front raise," Jeff says, "...but instead of your arms being straight they are bent at about 35 degrees and your wrist hangs down so at the top of the movement your arms are in about the same position as a Dumbbell Lateral with the bar six to eight inches form your face." Give this one a try.
95x10
95x10
95x10
4) Cable Rear Lateral
25x12
30x12
30x12
30x12
To really devastate his delts, Jeff makes use of techniques to extend his sets, including the popular down-the-rack dropsets for Dumbbell Lateral Raises. "I start with fifty-pounders and drop by five-pound increments, doing eight reps each, all the way down to five-pounders," Jeff says. "It lights them on fire!" It also seems to do one hell of a job adding that much-desired cappiness to the shoulders.
He also will sometimes incorporate one-and-a-halves on his pressing movements. Both techniques increase time under tension, allowing him to torture the muscles making a moderately-heavy weight seem like a heavy one; while keeping stress on the target muscle and not the joints.
Speaking of which, I asked Jeff how his training has changed as he has gotten older. He laughed and said, "Everything is lighter and slower and more controlled. With all the heavy training over 30 years now I am torn up." He uses an intelligent approach so he can sustain his hard training. He quotes Jack Palance when he says, "Getting old is not for sissies!"
His years in the game make him a valued source of info. I consult him when I have a question and the people at LG Sciences also seem to value his expertise since he is one of their sponsored athletes. Keep hitting it hard, Jeff!
NABBA USA Champion Buddy Dreimann is one of the bodybuilding deepest thinkers, and I'm glad to say 
one of the genuine friends I have met in the sport. A physique historian, my favorite tales of his tend to spring from his early training sessions, many of which took place amongst the East Coast champions training at one of the true hardcore landmarks. He sent me a copy of this post off his Facebook blog. I thought it was worth sharing:
If time travel were possible, I would suggest going back to 1978 to Steve Michaliks "Mr America's BodyShoppe" in New York. There you would see without exception, people (men) walking around with no more than seven to eight percent bodyfat, and many had three to four percent bodyfat. (Sorry girls, there were no females allowed at that point in time. This was for hardcore maniacs and at that time there were no girls who lifted weights).
The average arm was 18-inches and covered with veins due to the low bodyfat levels. If you looked around you would see one lone exercise bike (a Tunturi) in the corner with dirty rags hanging on it, used to clean the mirrors. That was the extent of its use. No one ever got on that thing. No treadmills, no Stairmasters, yet bodyfat levels that were amazingly low.
You would also see puddles of sweat, and extremely hard work being done, in an almost non-stop, "the world is ending tomorrow" type of speed. A garden-hose was installed right outside the front door to wash away the "lost lunches" from the sidewalk that commonly occured from mega-hard training. A common sight: twenty sets of strict barbell curls with 135 pounds, sets of ten to fifteen reps ─ COMPLETED in twenty-five minutes... or Don Modzelewski doing non-step reps on the Bench Press with 405, feet up and ankles crossed.
"Aerobics" were introduced into gyms in the mid 1980's by "armchair quarterbacks" for people who refused to exercise that way...
We will have a more in-depth talk with Buddy in a future column. In addition to great stories of the athletes he has trained alongside, his personal story is interesting as well as some of his views on goalsetting and maximum performance.
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