Serge Nubret – Complete Profile: Height, Workout And Diet

Serge Nubret was a French bodybuilder, actor, and bodybuilding coach. He competed for 25 long years and competed in several notable bodybuilding federations like the IFBB, NABBA, and WABBA. This article explores his complete profile, biography, workout routine, diet, and statistics.

Serge Nubret (Bodybuilder)

Born: October 6, 1938
Died: April 19, 2011
Birthplace: Anse-Bertrand, GUADELOUPE
Residence: Paris, FRANCE
Nickname: The Black Panther
Height: 5′ 10″ (180 cm)
Off-Season Weight: 220 lbs (100 kg)
Competition Weight: 211 lbs (96 kg)
Arms: 21,5″ (55 cm)
Chest: 57″ (145 cm)
Waist: 27.5″ (70 cm)
Thighs: 27″ (68 cm)
Calves: 19″ (48 cm)

Serge Nubret Biography

Early Life

Surge Nubret was born on October 6, 1938, in Guadeloupe. The relatively unknown region is an archipelago and an overseas department and region of France in the West Indies or the Caribbean.

Nubret spent the first 12 years of his life in Guadeloupe and his family shifted to France for him to have access to better education and career opportunities. The move proved fruitful as young Serge was exposed to a variety of sports and athletic activities in school.

Serge Nubret excelled in sports and soon, he realized that he could become a distinguished athlete if he pursued it as a career. He developed a keen interest in bodybuilding and set a goal of becoming a bodybuilder.

However, the clouds were gathering for the Algerian war. Nubret, who had decided to make a career in bodybuilding, moved back to Guadeloupe to avoid the draft for the Algerian war. 

Early Bodybuilding Career

After returning to the Caribbean, Nubret was free to focus on his passion for bodybuilding and he made his competitive bodybuilding debut the same year, winning the Mr. Guadeloupe competition.

The win was solid proof that he had the potential to become one of the best in the business and Nubret never looked back after that. As he later wrote in his biography, bodybuilding had become his ‘reason to live’.

Over the next two years, Nubret worked extensively on improving his physique, and by 1962, he was ready to launch the campaign to pursue a world championship. The French bodybuilder was inducted into the IFBB that year and he started grabbing a lot of headlines in the months that followed.

Tenure with the IFBB and subsequent fallout

Nubret was recognized by the IFBB as the ‘Most Muscular Man’ and he bagged several movie roles and business deals. In an acting career that lasted nearly 24 years, Serge Nubret appeared in a total of 17 movies and TV shows.

Starting from 1970, Serge Nubret started leading IFBB Pro League’s European and French arm. However, his relationship with the federation started turning sour in the following years.

Nubret was not happy with the way the IFBB Pro League was functioning. The 1975 Mr. Olympia controversy was the last straw that broke the camel’s back. Arnold Schwarzenegger was the five-time Mr. Olympia before competing in the 1975 edition of the show.

He was going to retire after the 1975 Mr. Olympia and the league wanted him to retire off the sixth win. However, Serge Nubret was a major hurdle in Arnold’s way of securing a victory as he was bigger, stronger, had more muscle definition, and better conditioning.

It is said that the league was willing to adopt any means possible so that Arnold could win the show. Two weeks before the competition, Serge Nubret was disqualified from competing at the show due to his appearance in an erotic film. The judges argued that his association with the film would not reflect well on the league if he were to compete.

It is said that Nubret was disheartened by the untimely disqualification and immediately stopped training. However, the IFBB allowed him to compete a day before the competition started.

The damage was already done as Nubret’s lack of preparation significantly raised Arnold’s chances of victory. However, he gave a tough fight to Schwarzenegger and managed to get a runner-up finish.

Bodybuilding career outside IFBB

Serge Nubret spearheaded the World Amateur Bodybuilding Association (WABBA) after parting ways with the IFBB. He never competed in the IFBB again and participated in several bodybuilding competitions in WABBA and NABBA until the year 1985.

Life after Retirement and Death

After retiring from competitive bodybuilding, Serge Nubret opened a gym in Paris. He remained active outside the competitive sphere of bodybuilding up until his death. Nubret was associated with several bodybuilding outfits and offered training and diet advice to clients.

In March 2009, Serge Nubret was found unconscious in his home by the firemen. He was then transferred to the Lariboursiere hospital where he was being treated. It was concluded that Serge Nubret had fallen into a coma. The veteran bodybuilder never recovered from the coma and was declared dead two years later, in April 2011.

Competition History

• 1958 Mr. Guadeloupe
• 1960 Ifbb World Most Muscular Man
• 1970 Ifbb Mr. Europe (Tall)
• 1975 IFBB Mr. Olympia, 2nd place
• 1976 Nabba Pro Mr. Universe
• 1977 Wbbg Mr. Olympus
• 1977 Wbbg Pro Mr. World
• 1981 Pro Wabba World Championships
• 1983 Pro Wabba World Championships

Serge Nubret Workout

At 6 feet tall, Surge Nubret was on the taller side for professional bodybuilding. It must be noted that his legs and back were slightly underdeveloped compared to the upper anterior part of his physique.

Nubret’s physique was revolutionary in the sense that it was more similar to the Classic Physique bodybuilders of today. He had the perfect balance of aesthetics, musculature, proportions, and conditioning.

While most bodybuilders in his era believed in training with heavier weights and furious intensity, Nubret’s approach was diagonally opposite. He often performed high volume and low intensity ‘pump workouts’. Looking at the results, it is obvious that this method of training yielded great results and helped him forge a world-class physique.

Nubret’s training routine focused on getting as much blood into the muscles as possible. He worked with moderate weights and maintained a 12 to 12 rep range for the majority of exercises.

Training intensity and cardio

Keeping the rest periods to a bare minimum was also an important aspect of this form of training. Nubret only maintained 30 to 60-second rest periods which increased the aerobic intensity of the training sessions.

We’ll never know if Nubret’s training methods would yield better results with machines or free weights as he never had access to the sophisticated machines that are available today. But for the most part, he adhered to basic free-weight exercises.

Since muscle hypertrophy was the primary goal of his training, Nubret didn’t train to failure and focused on getting the pump. His training routine had no separate slot for cardio. But since he worked with minimal rest periods and did a high-intensity abs workout every morning, Nubret’s cardiovascular system got the similar kind of stimulus that a typical cardio session would give.

According to online sources, Serge Nubret started every day with 2000 continuous sit-ups. While it is not recommended to do so many reps of ab exercises for anyone, the volume undeniably worked well for Nubret.

Nubret trained relentlessly and dedicated six days every week to training. Sundays were usually off or dedicated to abs workouts.

A typical training week in Serge Nubret’s routine looked like this:

Monday: Chest, Quads and Abs

Quads

• Squats – 8 sets of 12 reps
• Leg Press – 6 sets of 12 reps
• Leg Extension – 6 sets of 12 reps

Chest

• Bench Press – 8 sets of 12 reps
• Flat Bench Flye’s – 6 sets of 12 reps
• Incline Bench Press – 6 sets of 12 reps
• Incline Flye’s – 6 sets of 12 reps
• Dumbbell Pullovers – 6 sets of 12 reps

Tuesday: Back, Hamstrings and Abs

Back

• Chin-ups – 6 sets of 12 reps
• Behind the Neck Lat Pulldowns – 8 sets of 12 reps
• Lat Pulldowns to the Front – 6 sets of 12 reps
• Barbell Bent-over Rows – 6 sets of 12 reps

Hamstrings

• Lying Leg Curl – 8 sets of 15 reps
• Standing Leg Curl – 8 sets of 15 reps

Wednesday: Shoulders, Arms, Calves and Abs

Shoulders

• Behind the Neck Barbell Press – 6 sets of 12 reps
• Alternate Dumbbell Front Raise – 6 sets of 12 reps
• Barbell Upright Row – 6 sets of 12 reps
• Cable Lateral Raise – 6 sets of 12 reps

Arms

• Barbell Curl superset with Triceps Pushdowns – 8 sets of 12 reps
• Dumbbell Curl superset with Triceps Dips – 8 sets of 12 reps

Calves

• Standing Calf Raises – 8 sets of 12 reps
• Seated Calf Raises – 8 sets of 12 reps

Thursday: Chest, Quads and Abs

Quads

• Squats – 8 sets of 12 reps
• Leg Press – 6 sets of 12 reps
• Leg Extension – 6 sets of 12 reps

Chest

• Bench Press – 8 sets of 12 reps
• Flat Bench Flye’s – 6 sets of 12 reps
• Incline Bench Press – 6 sets of 12 reps
• Incline Flye’s – 6 sets of 12 reps
• Dumbbell Pullovers – 6 sets of 12 reps

Friday: Back, Hamstrings and Abs

Back

• Chin-ups – 6 sets of 12 reps
• Behind the Neck Lat Pulldowns – 8 sets of 12 reps
• Lat Pulldowns to the Front – 6 sets of 12 reps
• Barbell Bent-over Rows – 6 sets of 12 reps

Hamstrings

• Lying Leg Curl – 8 sets of 15 reps
• Standing Leg Curl – 8 sets of 15 reps

Saturday: Shoulders, Arms, Calves and Abs

Shoulders

• Behind the Neck Barbell Press – 6 sets of 12 reps
• Alternate Dumbbell Front Raise – 6 sets of 12 reps
• Barbell Upright Row – 6 sets of 12 reps
• Cable Lateral Raise – 6 sets of 12 reps

Arms

• Barbell Curl superset with Triceps Pushdowns – 8 sets of 12 reps
• Dumbbell Curl superset with Triceps Dips – 8 sets of 12 reps

Calves

• Standing Calf Raises – 8 sets of 12 reps
• Seated Calf Raises – 8 sets of 12 reps

Serge Nubret Diet

Like most bodybuilders in every era, Serge Nubret followed a diet that was high in protein. Nubret took the game to a whole new level as he ate as high as 400 to 600 grams of protein every day. Red meat was the primary source of protein in his diet and Nubret mostly preferred eating horse meat.

At times, he consumed as much as 6 pounds of horse meat in a day. Nubret believed that only protein can build muscle. He claimed that even if you consume more protein than the body requires, the excess would be used as fuel.

Like his training, Nubret’s dietary practices also differed greatly from the conventional methods. Instead of eating six meals spaced throughout the day like most bodybuilders, Nubret used to eat two to three large meals.

‍Meal 1

• 8 eggs
• 4 pieces of toast
• Milk

‍Meal 2

• 3-4 pounds of meat
• Rice
• Milk

Meal 3

• 3-4 pounds meat
• Spaghetti
• Milk

Personal Life

Serge Nubret married twice in his lifetime and had a long-term relationship as well. He had four children, three daughters and one son. Nubret continued to live a healthy and fit life until he went into a coma in 2009. There were wild speculations that he was poisoned to slip into a coma. None of the claims were substantiated with evidence but it became a huge story at the time.

To Conclude…

Serge Nubret’s training and dietary practices may not be deal for most people to follow due to their extreme nature, at least in some aspects. However, he was able to sculpt one of the greatest physiques in the golden era of bodybuilding by employing them.

It goes on to show that one size does not fit all and even the most weird-sounding methods can help you get results. But it is essential to listen to the body and ensure that you are on the right track that is helping you reach the destination without beating the body down.

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