What I Learned at the Arnold Classic

Last Friday, a group of friends and I piled in the car and drove nearly 600 miles due West to Columbus, Ohio, for the 25th annual Arnold Sports Festival. Founded by none other than Arnold Schwarzenegger, the event is the world’s biggest fitness expo and is the site of one of the world’s biggest bodybuilding competitions, lovingly called the Arnold Classic.

This was the second year in a row that I’ve attended since my old roommate and lifting partner works at the event. It’s the Superbowl of health and fitness with a little bit of everything for everyone, including powerlifting, strongman, gymnastics, Olympic lifting, bikini – even fencing.

I saw some incredible lifting and met some really cool people. I shared a power handshake with 8-time Mr. Olympia Ronnie Coleman. I witnessed several single-ply powerliftings record get broken. I even got to talk deadlifting with the freakishly strong Mike Tuscherer of Reactive Training Systems.

The 10-hour car ride home gave me plenty of time to reflect on the valuable lessons I learned from brushing elbows with some of the strongest athletes in the world.

YOU DON’T TRAIN THAT HARD

You think you know what it means to train hard? I thought I did too. But seeing all these amazing strength and physique athletes made me realize how much harder I could be training.

I’m not just talking about training to failure and beyond until I puke or give myself a hernia. I’m talking about getting the most out of every single set and rep, working to perfect my technique, and building the legendary amount of mind-muscle connection that professional body builders have.

When I got back in the gym, I approached each set with a question: “How would a pro do this set?” Just getting in that frame of mind instantly increased the quality of my training.

YOU’RE NOT THAT DISCIPLINED

As we walked among the crowds of hulking meatheads, my friend Dan and I wondered aloud about what separated us from the best of the best, the biggest of the big. Besides the obvious (and weak) excuse that we don’t use steroids, we concluded that the two biggest factors that separate the elite from the rest of us are time and discipline.

These two factors really meld into one, because the biggest, strongest people in the world are the ones who can sustain tenacious levels of discipline for a very, very long time. They don’t miss training sessions, they don’t cheat on their diets, and they don’t compromise recovery for anything. They live and breathe this stuff, day in and day out for decades.

We couldn’t help but notice that the majority of the 200,000-plus people at the Arnold flocked to the pizza and burger stands for lunch and sucked down vanilla lattes, carelessly abandoning their concern for health and fitness when it was inconvenient to be disciplined. The biggest, strongest, most-ripped people, however, could be consistently found chowing down on chicken and broccoli in Tupperware tubs, refusing to give in to the greasy temptations of convenience.

So while popular nutrition movements like the Paleo diet or Carb Backloading are giving people excuses to subsist on nothing but bacon and apple turnovers, the truth is that the people in the 99th percentile don’t look for dietary loopholes or justify taking shortcuts. They plan ahead, stay the course and prevail. No excuses.

BE REALISTIC

This plays off the first two points. It’s easy to get a big ego when you’re always the top dog at your gym, but it’s also easy to get discouraged when you’re dwarfed by everyone around you. The Arnold brings together thousands of the meatiest of meatheads, so even if you’re the biggest fish in your small pond back home, you’re probably a lowly guppy at the Arnold.

But keep in mind that many of these people, especially our bodybuilding heroes, are:

• Genetically gifted
• On steroids
• Surrounded by a support staff of trainers, dietitians and doctors

This doesn’t negate the fact that they also:

• Work their asses off for years – not weeks or months
• Dedicate their lives to their sport.

Don’t expect to match the fitness levels of elite lifters and bodybuilders without steroids, amazing genetics or quitting your job so you can do nothing but train, eat and sleep. But don’t expect to be better than the average bench-and-curl-bro without dedicating a large portion of your life to health and fitness.

SUPPLEMENT COMPANIES LIE

The Arnold reaffirms that supplement companies run the fitness world, period. The sheer number of booths pimping the latest, greatest magic pills and powders was staggering. People lined up by the thousands to grab free samples of protein, creatine, fat burners, test boosters and all other kinds of questionable products.

The truth is that most people have no idea what’s in these supplements or how they work. Supplement companies prey upon the ignorance of consumers and in turn get away with making ridiculous claims about their products.

I literally laughed out loud when I read the names of some of the proprietary blends (a secret weapon used to disguise useless and/or under-dosed ingredients) and hysterical claims espoused on the packaging in huge fonts. One of my favorites was a pre-workout drink that “PROMOTES ALL-NATURAL, NUTRIENT BASED RESYNTHESIS OF ATP!” In orther words, it has fucking sugar in it.

Do yourself a favor and learn how to read research. I’m usually the last person to say “but it’s not proven by science,” but in the case of bogus supplements, knowledge is power.  Pick up a scientific journal and actually read studies about supplements and their ingredients. Flip through a middle-school biology or chemistry textbook and you’ll automatically be more informed than 99 percent of all people who spend $50 on a tub NOXplode but “can’t afford” organic groceries.

“YOKED” IS THE NEW “JACKED”

Everyone who was anyone at the Arnold – be they body builder, powerlifter or strongman – shared a common trait: they have absolutely massive upper backs.

Regardless of your goal, the centerpiece of an impressive physique will always be the Yoke, which is the combination of huge traps, rhomboids, rear delts and lats.

A big Yoke makes your waist look tiny, which is great for a bodybuilder. It helps pull big deadlifts, yank snatches and catch cleans – all great for powerlifters and Olympic lifters. It’ll even help you knock out more kipping pull-ups if you’re into the Crossfit thing.

It’s really hard to appreciate the shear Yoke girth of someone like Stan Efferding, Dan Green or Johnnie Jackson until you see them in person. It’s no coincidence that they all boast insane strength to go with their mountainous upper backs.

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The bottom line is if your Yoke isn’t up to par, you need to do something about it. Deadlifts, rows and pull-ups with various grips, snatches, cleans, shrugs, face pulls, rear delt flyes, band pull-aparts, farmer’s walks – use them all.

TRAINING ENVIRONMENT IS SEVERELY UNDERRATED

We always focus on the “what” and “how” of training. But we often forget about the “who” and “where”. I’ve said it before, but training environment can make you or break you. I’d rather use a mediocre program and train in an awesome environment with amazing lifters than use the perfect program in a terrible environment like an LA Fitness or Equinox.

The Animal Cage was a prime example of this. In the midst of all the fake tans, fake breasts and fake supplements, the Cage stood out like an oasis for those of us who were thirsty for rust, iron and blood. Universal Nutrition brought together some of the strongest people on the planet and threw them into a WWE-style cage decked out with squat racks, a monolift and thousands of pounds of weight.

We got to witness unreal feats of strength like Eric Lilliebridge squat 906 raw, Chad Wesley Smith squat 700 for 10(!!!) reps, Scott Cartwright squat 1,250 pounds in multiply for a double, and Jesse Norris deadlift 775 raw at a body weight of 198 pounds. If you ever need motivation to train like a beast, take a trip to Ohio and head to the Cage.

So that night, we headed to my old training partner‘s house and proceeded to deadlift like, well… animals. He converted his basement into a weight room, decked out with old, rusty plates and PA speakers blasting Every Time I Die at ear-shattering volumes.

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I pulled 465 for an easy double followed by 405×5 for multiple sets, and wrapped it up by squatting 315 for a set of 20, which was easily a rep PR and I’m not so sure I could have pushed through the last few reps had I not been in such a crazy environment  My buddy, seven months removed from serious surgery and a 50 pound weight loss, pulled 500 pounds again. Pretty inspiring. As impressive as the dudes in the Cage were, it’s hard to top a comeback like that.

I’LL BE BACK

I left Ohio with a rejuvenated desire to train as hard as possible. The past week of lifting ranks among the best I’ve ever done thanks to all the inspiring athletes at the Arnold. I highly recommend that anyone who’s serious about health and fitness go to next year’s event. I know I’ll be there.