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Muscle size is NOT correlated to muscle strength.

Fadi

...
Bodybuilders listen up!

You have been wrongly programmed to believe that to get bigger, you would need to get stronger. As a former weightlifter, I can tell you that the best way possible in remaining the same size you are now, is to train as Olympic weightlifters train: heavy weights with low repetitions, (and eat normal).

If your wish is to get mighty strong, with the numbers on the scales remaining the same or near the same, then repetitions in the vicinity of 3s should be your permanent domain. Weightlifters that put on muscle size do so due to the high volume and high frequency of their training and NOT due to the intensity or repetitions.

If you are still not convinced, then take a look at some weightlifters and see if the amount of training they do actually corresponds with the amount of muscles they have...NO WAY!

Check out Naim Suleymanoglu, at only 1.47 meters tall, he is known affectionately as the "Pocket Hercules". This man lifts a clean & jerk that is 10kg OVER TRIPLE bodyweight. He lifted 190kg at a bodyweight of 59.8kg back at the 1988 Olympic Games. Look at him closely. He looks like any black belt martial artist would look in the arms and shoulders area. Remember the late Bruce Lee? Bruce would’ve been bigger I would imagine.

So please don't get down or upset with yourself next time you see no improvement in your strength department; it's muscle size you're after.

In terms of frequency, there is really NO comparison between the way bodybuilders and weightlifters train. Here in Australia we were basing our training system on the Bulgarians and training 8 times a week, (double day training). Some nations have their weightlifters training 10 and 12 times per week. It has been established beyond any doubt, that to get mighty strong, frequency of training has to be employed. Of course, it goes without saying that ultra high frequency such as this, demands an ultra precise periodisation to go with it, (unfortunately something most bodybuilders haven't heard of). That is why bodybuilders are forever suffering from that dreaded disease called plateauing.


Eating? Well I was always different, consuming 13500 calories a day and sometimes more. I’ll put up this extraordinary diet for you soon on the forum to check out. But please remember, I was training 8 times a week whilst squatting 5 times with a metabolism that would make a Ferrari seem slow in comparison. So till next time, take care.



Fadi.
 
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I think its because a lot of people do slow repetitions, hence size comes from the increase in the small motor units that really govern fine control and not explosive strength as do the large motor units that only really get worked out by lifting heavy and fast.

I got this understanding from that Huge in a Hurry book
 
Bruce Lee also incorporated isometric training to try and put an infinite load on his muscles by trying to move in-movable objects.
 
Rambo, for God's sake mate, could you please put this in english for me:
I think its because a lot of people do slow repetitions, hence size comes from the increase in the small motor units that really govern fine control and not explosive strength as do the large motor units that only really get worked out by lifting heavy and fast.

I got this understanding from that Huge in a Hurry book

Thank God I don't have that book. Was that book written with the intention to help and clarify what is a complicated issue, or was it written to add to the confusion? I'd like to make what is complicated easy for all to understand, so have I in your opinion achieved that through my post or not? I'd like some feedback from you please Rambo.


Fadi.
 
Fadi, got a question for you.

Why did you give up olympic weightlifting with so much potential at just 19 years of age and take up bodybuilding?
Apologies if I have my facts wrong.
 
I was 18 and a half and it was after the world championship when I came back to Australia. I was consuming 13500 calories at the time whilst at the AIS. Weightlifters were allowed two meals where all other athletes just one. I used to eat my meal and about 3 or 4 from the other stunned weightlifters there.

One morning at 7am, I got up and walked over to the cafeteria area where we have our meals, and as usual asked for my 11 eggs etc. The hick up came when the head chef (listen up Kyle) refused to give me more potatoes. I tell you no lie (I don't lie anyway). So being young and extremely fiery, I grabbed the chairs at this place and began to throw them around. It was like: "how dare you deprive me of more food?!" Mind you I was eating more than anyone I know in the world except the most famous Russian superheavyweight weightlifter, the legend Vasily Alexiev. This man used to have 9 chickens a day amongst other food.

Anyway, my actions were reported to my coaches who called me in to explain. I took that as a further insult to my person and told them there and there that I was resigning from the team. To say they weren't happy with my young stupid and immature decision would be a real understatement indeed Adrian. I don't like to say that I regret anything in life because we are who we are because of our past which has a huge role to play in shaping our future. So I accept what happened, learnt from it and here I am doing my outmost best to give back to Australia what Australia has given me by way of helping people here on this my new wonderful forum.

I hope that I've answered your question Sir.



Fadi.
 
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soup-nazi.jpg

"No spud for you!"​

So muscle size wasn't correlated with smarts, either? :p

We were all 18 and crazy once :)
 
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Couldn't agree with you more Kyle. I mentioned your name because you're chef. You'll never know; you might come across someone who'll be as stupid as I was. Just giving you some heads up mate.


Fadi.
 
Fadi judging by your photo you look like one big unit. What are your stats?
 
Oh, I have come across worse than that.

Waitress, plonking a half-eaten meal back on the pass: "She didn't like it."
Me: "..."
Waitress: "What?"
Me: "What was wrong with it?"
Waitress: "Whaddaya mean?"
Me: "What do you want me to do?"
Waitress: "Huh?"
Me[/u]: "Was it too hot, too cold, too sweet, too sour, too salty, too bland, too cheesey, not cheesey enough... what was it that she disliked, what was wrong, if you tell me then I can fix it."
Waitress: "Oh. I'll ask." Walks away with food.
Me: "Don't take the food back to her, just go and excuse yourself and ask her politely."
Waitress: "Oh right."
(Two minutes later)
Waitress: "Nothing, she just didn't like it."
Me: *sigh*

or...

Me: "Okay, here is table 12's chicken breast with cream sauce."
(Ten minutes later, chicken is returned half-eaten)
Waitress: "She says it's pork, not chicken."
Other chef: "Stupid woman! I'll take out the tray of raw product!"
Me: "No mate, when you argue with a customer, whether you win or lose the argument, you always lose. Remember, we just want her and her friends' money, we don't get that by abusing and humiliating her. Waitress, tell her we're very sorry but we're out of chicken, would she like something else on the menu?"
She got something else and she was happy, and her friends thanked us for not embarrassing them over their friend who was a problem wherever they went.

None of this gets into the sort of crazy experiences I had in the army as a soldier.

A hungry weightlifter would be no problem at all, mate :)
 
Thanks for the explaination Fadi.
No need to call anybody Sir here either.
So much food you ate!!!

Did you have to be in the AIS to compete though?
Aren't you allowed to compete as an individual and train wherever you want to?
If you could train solo in your own gym and be the best in Australia, wouldn't Australia still want you to represent?

Did you ever think of competing again, maybe a year or 2 later?
 
Kyle, I'll have you know that I'm a big fan of anything to do with "Chef" and have many DVDs to prove it. I like Gordon and I like the English Master Chef.

I'm sure you're very proud of what you do and so you ought to be. Thank you for sharing some of your experience with us here. A drop in the ocean I'm sure.


Fadi.
 
1. Did you have to be in the AIS to compete though?
2. Aren't you allowed to compete as an individual and train wherever you want to?
3. If you could train solo in your own gym and be the best in Australia, wouldn't Australia still want you to represent?
4. Did you ever think of competing again, maybe a year or 2 later?

1. No
2. Yes
3. Yes
4. I can't remember. I was too heavily involved in getting huge as a bodybuilder.


Ok Adrian, here’s how it happened…

From the time I was 7 or 8, I was taken by my cousin who was the Lebanese gymnastic champion at the time and was put through a gymnastic training regimen. That lasted till the age of 10 when I was forced to leave Lebanon due to the civil war and move to Egypt for two years. From there I came to Australia in August of 1977 and joined a gymnastic club, (without knowing how to speak a word of English). That was tougher than the gymnastic any day. At the age of 15 whilst helping out as a gymnastic instructor in one of the Police Boys Clubs here in Sydney, I ventured into the gym area of that club. I saw bodybuilders with big arms and a Polish Olympic weightlifter. Being a naive and shy kid, I observed but did not touch any weight. On another occasion I ventured into the gym area, I was approached by an "old" gentleman who asked me to snatch an Olympic bar. This man was none other than the person who would go on to become my weightlifting coach and one of the best strength coaches in Australia. His name is Harry Wardle, an English man who was commissioned by the Australian sport body to come over down under and hunt down potential weightlifting champions. I must've been at the right place and right time. It was December 1980 at 15. That's when I started my weightlifting training. I forgot to mention that I also competed as a 100 and 200m sprinter at the NSW state level. I must've been built for explosiveness rather than endurance.

I weighed 60kg at the time. Within 3 months of training I competed and won the Australian schoolboy and youth (under 18) championships breaking all standing records. Harry was then allocated a position as assistant weightlifting coach and later as head coach at the AIS and offered me a scholarship; the opportunity to go with him and become a member of the Australian weightlifting squad. I asked my parents who objected that lifting weights over head at an elite level might stunt my growth. Harry came back with a classic," tell your parents I'll stretch you on the high bar." It worked (the answer not the stretching!). I moved to Canberra in 1982. Trained and competed plenty of times here and overseas, with the culminating point been the world junior championships in Italy back in 1984. I placed 7th in the world overall. Came back to the AIS, had a fight with a chef over the amount of food I was not given and decided to leave the AIS because of it. That's what happens when your parents are not there to give you guidance; you act like a kid making "kid's" decisions as I've stupidly done.

1984, at nearly 19 years of age, I came back home to Sydney and immediately joined a bodybuilding gym and began to train. I bought and read every bodybuilding magazine that was for sale. I had a training partner who lasted with me for about 2 years before he was killed in a head on car collision. Since then I trained by myself and I'm still training all these years later at the age of 44.

I’ve never competed in bodybuilding; coming from a highly objective sport to a highly subjective sport, I could not get myself to ever compete as a bodybuilder. I've gotten my bodyweight to a high 90kg at a height of 164cm as I've shown you in my 2006 shot. Now I'm at a weight of 80kg which I can take up very easily to 87 or so if I increase my food intake. I don’t get fat unless I work very hard at it. At my age now, I find that health takes precedence over size. If you're young and you want to put on the weight so you can compete or for whatever reason, that's fine. I have no intention of competing but instead derive my satisfaction by helping people. Now I train in my home’s garage.

Thank you Adrian for giving me the opportunity to share these few words with you and I hope I haven't anyone to sleep...

That's basically it.


Fadi.
 
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Fadi judging by your photo you look like one big unit. What are your stats?

Hello Fitnation,

The only parts of my body that I've measured before were:

1. Arms............18
2. Thighs......... 28
3. Waist...........32
4. BW..............90kg
5. Height......... 164cm (5.4")
6. Year.............2006
7. Age..............41

As of right now, I'm 80kg and have less hair on my head!


Fadi.
 
Thanks for the life story Fadi.
Very interesting indeed. I will never knock back a spud again. hahahah
 
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