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Legends of
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He was nicknamed 'The Myth'. He beat Arnold at his first attempt at the Mr.Olympia. He was so much ahead of his time that in at least one competition the other guys did not even bother to turn up! Said by some to have the best genetics to ever grace the bodybuilding stage this edition of our legends series focuses on the awesome Sergio Oliva! Man, one of the wonders of bodybuilding has to be Sergio! Remember those lats? The shoulder to waist ratio? What about those 20 1/2 inch (cold) arms that looked bigger than his head when he posed at just 205 lb of bodyweight! (puts pay to that theory that you need 10lb per inch of new arm muscle!) Sergio is probably the best bodybuilder in pure genetic terms ever. Small joints, long full muscle insertions and nothing seemed to be weak or unsymmetrical! Sergio was born in Havana, Cuba on the 14th of July 1941. He escaped from Cuba (where he originally was a weightlifter in the national Olympic team) to America in search of a better life. He arrived in Florida and then decided to concentrate on bodybuilding. His first competition in the USA was the YMCA Illinois Bodybuilding Champion ship. He stuck to speaking Spanish and let his body do the talking. his posing was more like a dance that left one judge saying " What the hell was that?" but what all of them could see was that Sergio, strange posing and all, was the winner. In fact some of the other competitors went home when they first saw him a trend that was repeated in other shows. He didn't win that show, probably because of his poor posing (a problem that he would continue to have) but the legend was born for Sergio on and off stage was to be different.
Eventually he got his posing to a point but still retained some of his 'Dance' style and was never as fluid as it could have been. He made some shots his own such as the overhead forearm and lat shot. Even Arnold avoided a direct lat spread poses when he beat Sergio in the 1970 Olympia. In fact it could have been said that three things meant that Sergio failed to beat Arnold for a second time. All controversial but hey we like controversial!
Like many of the 'ahead of their time' bodybuilders Sergio trained like a beast. Eye popping workouts made others feel pumped just by looking at him. When training his arms he would often train them, go to the locker room and then come back for some more, go to the locker room and then do some more. He would do this perhaps twenty times or more! Amazingly though he apparently did not 'go all out!'. In other words he did not burn out each and every day but trained for the pump and so the above story is probably reserved for his 'all out' days. Sergio Oliva most awesome body part was his triceps. So lets take a look at one routine he did to mass out those mighty muscles! Right in line with the recommendations I give in my book Sergio's favourite way to train his triceps was to do a Varity of single arm exercises using pulleys. He would do this before the compound movements (wow just like I say in my book- okay I'll shut up plugging the thing now- by the way did I tell you I have a book out - ahem! okay I won't mention it again, www.area9.net/products.htm whoops who typed that there?) Such as one arm triceps extensions (like with a dumbbell but
with a pulley) followed by He trained six days a week year in year out. A typical Sergio Split was: Monday and Friday Thighs, Calves, Abdominals Tuesday and Thursday Chest, upper back, shoulders Wednesday and Saturday triceps, biceps, forearms With variations of course. Check out the Sergio Oliva workout routine PDF in your downloads section. Competition Record
As I have said he beat Arnold in the 1969 Mr.Olympia. Arnold said that he was defeated before he stepped on stage when he saw the mighty mass of Sergio backstage. A lesser man would have given up like those before him but Arnold stuck with it and got a predictable 2nd to the 'Myth'. He made a brief come back to the Olympia stage in 1984 and 1985 but even though he was still awesome he only made 8th on both occasions which many say were again down to politics, with Sergio being overlooked by 'sponsored' up and coming stars.
Sergio is certainly one of the legends of bodybuilding. He is of an era that is justifiably seen as the golden age. He had personality and charisma sadly missing from today's champs. The Golden age when the bodybuilders did it for the glory of winning not just the money. Where hard work and innovation reigned as opposed to simply taking more and more drugs and training as little as possible once the mass is gained. Where personality shone through the posing on and off stage. Like all those in the 60s and 70s Sergio was everything that bodybuilding should be. Last I heard Sergio was doing the beat as a Chicago Police
officer and he still turns up to shows in his
flamboyant dress sense and covered in jewellery!
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Can't wait for more awesome articles read Manifesto of Mass 4 and get growing like never before! For more articles like these visit www.area9.net
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