Rich Gaspari – Complete Profile: Height, Workout And Diet

Rich Gaspari is an American former professional bodybuilder was inducted into the IFBB Hall of Fame in 2004. He is one of the most elite bodybuilders that competed in the 1980s and the 1990s era of bodybuilding. Although he never won the prestigious Mr. Olympia title, the New Jersey native achieved several podium finishes on the grandest stage of bodybuilding and won several other pro shows. This article explores his biography, professional accomplishments, training routine, workout and diet.

Rich Gaspari Statistics

Rich Gaspari Biography

Rich Gaspari was born on May 16, 1963 in New Burswick, New Jersey, USA. He has been involved in bodybuilding and the fitness industry since four decades. Throughout these years Rich has accomplished many things. He started dabbling in weight lifting at the age of 14 and excelled as a top professional bodybuilder from the mid 80’s through the 90’s.

Nicknamed the “Dragon Slayer”, Rich was both feared and admired by his peers for his groundbreaking conditioning and freakish muscularity. His success as a competitor, attributed to his scientific approach to diet and training and notoriously brutal work ethic, is a testament to a man who, though not as genetically gifted as many of his competitors, toppled nearly every giant of his day.

Some of Rich’s past titles include the Mr. America – known now as the NPC Nationals, Mr. Universe, Professional Mr. World, 1st Arnold Schwarzenegger Classic Champion, Three Time runner up for the biggest and most coveted title in professional bodybuilding, the “Mr. Olympia”, and many other professional bodybuilding competitions.

Career outside competitive bodybuilding

Rich Gaspari’s competitive achievements brought him popularity and notoriety worldwide. He has appeared countless times in and on the covers of various publications such as Muscle and Fitness, Flex, Iron Man, Muscular Development, Muscle Media 2000, Muscle Mag International and many others throughout the world. Rich has also appeared in television commercials and on various TV shows such as the Tonight Show, Geraldo Rivera, and Regis and Kathy Lee.

Rich also holds a certification with the National Academy of Sports Medicine. This has allowed him to help hundreds of people to achieve healthier lives by altering body composition and improving overall health and athletic performance through personal training and nutrition.

Over the past 9 years, Rich has developed his own line of supplements under his name Gaspari Nutrition into one of the most formidable and best loved in the world. His determination and love of the sport of bodybuilding has seen its’ successful transition evident in his unyielding passion for developing the most effective sports nutrition and diet products of our day.

Life after retirement

Over the last few years, Rich Gaspari has dedicated a lot of his time to create awareness about fitness and longevity. He has taken keen interest in educating people about anti-aging methods and creating awareness about the downsides of excess steroid uses in the bodybuilding industry.

Competition History

1983

• NPC Junior Nationals – Heavyweight and Overall Winner
• NPC National Championships – Heavyweight – 5th

1984

• NPC National Championships – Light Heavyweight – 1st
• IFBB Amteur Championships – Light heavyweight – 1st (Earned the IFBB Pro card)

1985

• IFBB Night of Champions – 2nd
• IFBB Mr. Olympia – 3rd

1986

• Los Angeles Pro Championships – 1st
• Mr. Olympia – 2nd
• World Pro Championships – 1st

1987

• Grand Prix France – 1st
• Grand Prix Germany – 2nd
• Mr. Olympia – 2nd
• Grand Prix Germany (2) – 1st

1988

• Grand Prix
  • England – 2nd
  • France – 1st
  • Germany – 1st
  • Greece – 2nd
  • Italy – 1st
  • Spain (2) – 2nd
  • Spain – 1st
• Mr. Olympia – 2nd

1989

• Arnold Classic – 1st
• Mr. Olympia – 4th

1990

• Mr. Olympia – 5th

1991

• Arnold Classic – 7th
• Mr. Olympia – 10th

1992

• Arnold Classic – 13th

1993

• No Competition

1994

• Chicago Pro Invitational – 16th
• Niagara Falls Pro Invitational – 15th
• Night of Champions – Did not place

1995

• Canada Pro Cup – 5th
• Night of Champions – 12th

1996

• Canada Pro Cup – 11th
• Florida Pro Invitational – 12th

Rich Gaspari Workout

When it comes to professional bodybuilding, the term ‘genetics’ gets thrown around as one of the factors behind a competitor’s massive physique. We often hear that athlete ‘x’ is a genetic freak while athlete ‘y’ is genetically cursed. Rich Gaspari is one of the individuals that did not have excellent genetics to begin with.

However, he built an impressive physique anyway with determination and hard work. At the peak of his bodybuilding career, Gaspari weighed 245 to 255 lbs with minimal body fat. Knowing the genetic disadvantage he had, Gaspari always aimed to train harder than his peers and formulated his training plan in such a way that it helped him put more work in than his rivals.

“I was told I didn’t have the genetic to beat others but with my persistence, dedication, and hard work I was able to defeat the best bodybuilders in the industry to be called ‘The Dragon Slayer’.”

Training routine

Gaspari trained five to six days per week during competition prep. He followed a little relaxed three days on, one day off workout split in the off-season. Gaspari’s training routine was fiercely intense. He trained every muscle group once a week. However, the training intensity was so high that it took the muscles one full week to recover completely.

Gaspari’s high intensity and high volume approach to training prompted him to adapt sufficient warm-up and cool-down drills before and after his workouts. Both drills are essential for the body to get ready to lift the heavy loads and then stretch them out at the end of training. Gaspari could keep the injuries at bay despite training with furious intensity, thanks to the warm-up and cool-down drills.

Rich Gaspari dedicated a day each for chest, back, shoulder and abs, legs and arms. A typical training week in his training routine looked like this:

Monday – Chest

Rich Gaspari did not include junk volume and mindless exercise variations in his chest training routine. A couple of compound pressing movements did the job to build muscle and push strength. Meanwhile, a flying movement helped build the upper body adduction strength. The training volume was high enough to get the maximum benefits.

Overall, the training session consisted of following exercises:

• Incline Barbell / Dumbbell Press – 4 sets of 12 to 15 reps
• Barbell / Dumbbell Bench Press – 3 sets of 12 to 15 reps
• Incline Dumbbell Flyes – 3 sets of 12 to 15 reps
• Parallel Bar Chest Dips – 4 sets of AMRAP (As many reps as possible in each set)

Tuesday – Back

Rich Gaspari’s wide and thick back was one of the more impressive aspects of his physique. It is hard to believe that he is one of the competitors that did not have the ‘genetics’ to become professional bodybuilders.

But his massive back was the result of an insanely good workout and relentless efforts. Gaspari approaches back training with extreme sincerity. He said:

“I believe that the back is a very big muscle. There’s different angles to train the back. You got your upper lats, lower lats, middle back, lower middle back, you know! Spinal erectors so there’s a ton of different parts to train. So you got to train at different angles.”

Gaspari carefully incorporates both horizontal and vertical pulling movements in his back training. Additionally, the veteran bodybuilder includes different variations of these movements in the training routine to build a wide, thick and detailed back in the gym.

Rich Gaspari’s back training routine looks like this: 

• Deadlifts – 3 sets of 10 to 12 reps
• Lat Pulldowns – 3 sets of 10 to 12 reps
• Reverse Grip Lat Pulldowns – 3 sets of 10 to 12 reps
• Barbell Rows – 4 sets of 10 to 12 reps
• Seated Cable Rows – 3 sets of 10 to 12 reps
• One Arm Bent Over Dumbbell Rows – 3 sets of 10 to 12 reps
• Hyperextensions – 3 sets of 10 to 12 reps

Wednesday – Legs

Rich Gaspari firmly believes that having a strong lower body is the key to overall fitness and performance longevity. His sculpted legs stand testimony to the amount of work he has put in them. Gaspari’s lower body training routine includes compound and isolation movements to target all the major muscles like quads, hamstrings, glutes and calves. He uses free weights as well as machines to train the legs and has tremendous faith in the benefits of squats for strength and muscle gain.

“Squats are the King for building Mass on your legs and high reps are what build size on your legs. My lower back, knees are all in great shape and love what I can still do pushing others decades younger!”

Being a bodybuilder that did not possess the genetic gift for bodybuilding, Rich Gaspari had to work consistently for bringing up his calves. It was not an easy task for him as he once revealed:

“I trained calves heavy and hard. It was an important muscle back in the 80’s And 90’s. I would train them 3 times a week with high reps of 15-20 and heavy. Calves can take a lot to grow.”

Gaspari’s high intensity leg workout is composed of following exercises:

• Leg Extensions – 4 sets of 12 to 15 reps
• Hack Squats – 4 sets of 12 to 15 reps
• 45-Degree Leg Press – 4 sets of 12 to 15 reps
• Barbell Squats – 4 sets of 12 to 15 reps
• Smith Machine Reverse Lunges – 3 sets of 12 to 15 reps
• Lying Leg Curls – 4 sets of 12 to 15 reps
• Stiff Leg Deadlifts – 3 sets of 12 to 15 reps
• Seated Calf Raises – 3 sets of 12 to 15 reps
• Standing Calf Raises – 3 sets of 12 to 15 reps

Thursday – Shoulder and Abs

Rich Gaspari clubbed his shoulder and abs training together. He targeted all three parts of the deltoid muscles – anterior, posterior and lateral deltoids and ensured complete overall development of shoulders. Gaspari’s shoulder and abs training routine included:

• Dumbbell Shoulder Press – 5 sets of 10 to 12 reps
• Dumbbell / Machine Lateral Raises – 4 sets of 10 to 12 reps
• Cable / Dumbbell Front Raises – 3 sets of 12 reps
• Dumbbell Reverse Flyes – 3 sets of 12 reps
• Barbell Wide Grip Upright Rows – 3 sets of 12 to 15 reps
• Barbell / Dumbbell Shrugs – 4 sets of 10 to 12 reps
• Hanging Leg Raises – 4 sets of 15 reps
• Cable Crunches – 4 sets of 12 to 15 reps

Friday – Arms

Rich Gaspari’s arms training routine is similar to most bodybuilders from the 1980s and the 1990s era. He includes several biceps and triceps movements that work the arm muscles from different angles and different positions. Gaspari either splits the workout in two parts dedicated to biceps and triceps or he performs alternate exercises for each muscle, working both muscles simultaneously.

He is a huge proponent of the 21s training and explained in one of his instructional videos:

“A great exercise to work biceps are 21’s with a cable or barbell. Basically you do 7 half reps from the top of the movement with 7 reps done at the bottom of the movement then finish with 7 full reps. This is a great finishing exercise you can do to really hit biceps.”

• Weighted Bench Dips – 3 sets of 12 reps
• Triceps Rope Pushdowns – 3 sets of 10 to 12 reps
• Overhead Cable Triceps Extensions – 3 sets of 12 reps
• EZ Bar Skullcrushers – 3 sets of 10 to 12 reps
• Incline Dumbbell Curls – 3 sets of 12 reps
• Dumbbell Preacher Curls – 3 sets of 10 to 12 reps
• Concentration Curls – 3 sets of 12 reps
• Dumbbell Reverse Preacher Curls – 3 sets of 10 to 12 reps

Rich Gaspari Diet

No matter how hard you train, how scientifically accurate your training sessions are or how good your genetics are, it is practically impossible to be successful in bodybuilding without proper nutrition.

Rich Gaspari subjected his body to a lot of healthy wear and tear with arduous training. However, he refueled it with a high-quality and nutritious diet. He refrained from eating anything that was detrimental for his growth and recovery.

Additionally, Gaspari’s diet was relatively high in terms of caloric values. But he always ensured that his body was metabolically in a good spot and burned all those calories. The veteran bodybuilder shared his thoughts on the importance of diet in a social media video. He said:

“Guys are always afraid of being fat, but you can speed up the metabolism. I always tell people, being successful in bodybuilding is 70, 80% diet. Think of it this way, if you’re building a house or you’re building, if you don’t have the cement, you can’t build the wall. Same thing with nutrition. If you don’t have the right macronutrients to grow, you’re not going to grow.”

During his competitive days, Rich Gaspari ate five to six small meals every day to meet the nutritional requirements of the body. He got most of the protein from lean protein sources like chicken, egg whites, and whey protein powder. Gaspari incorporated a lot of green vegetables and sources of complex carbohydrates like oatmeal, rice, sweet potatoes, yam in his diet.

It also consisted of fruits like watermelon, apples, and berries. Peanut butter was Gaspari’s go-to source of healthy fat. Even now. The veteran bodybuilder stays away from simple carbohydrates and gluten. 

A typical day of eating in Rich Gaspari’s diet looked like this:

Meal 1

• Whey Protein Shake
• 1 Cup Apple Juice
• ½ Cup Egg Whites
• 1 tbsp Peanut Butter

Meal 2

• Whey Protein Shake
• 1 Cup Oats
• ½ Cup Egg Whites
• 1 Banana

Meal 3

• 9 Ounces Chicken
• 1 Cup Brown Rice
• 1 Cup Broccoli

Meal 4

• 8 Ounces Chicken
• 1 Sweet Potato
• 1 Cup Asparagus

Meal 5

• 8 Ounces Chicken
• 1 Cup Brown Rice
• 1 Cup Broccoli

Meal 6 – Pre-workout Diet

• ½ Cup Egg Whites
• ½ Cup Apple Juice
• 1 tbsp Peanut Butter
• Whey Protein shake

Meal 7 – Post-workout Diet

• Whey Protein Shake
• 1 cup Yoghourt

Rich Gaspari’s dietary principles for muscle gain

Gaspari is not a fan of people that stay in extreme caloric deficit or limit their caloric intake just to stay lean. As a thumb rule, the veteran bodybuilder thinks that an average human being that weighs 185 lbs should be eating at least 3000 calories a day to pack some serious muscle mass.

However, he advises to increase the caloric intake at a slower pace for the body to adapt to the changes it is undergoing.

“If you’re on 1,900 calories, what you need to do is do three days of 1,900 calories, and then do a day of 2,400 calories. Do that for two weeks, then increase your caloric intake to the 2,400 calories for three days, and then go up to 2,800 calories and do that for two weeks,” Gaspari says.

A general rule for Rich Gaspari is to eat 1.5 times the body weight multiplied by 10 in terms of calories. So for example, if the body weight is 150 lbs, eat 150 x 1.5 X 10 = 2250 calories per day to start the muscle building journey. Then add 300 calories every two weeks. According to the legendary bodybuilder. These are the ideal macronutrient proportions for a bodybuilding diet:

• Protein – 35%
• Carbohydrates – 45%
• Fats – 20 %

To Conclude…

Rich Gaspari is a great example of someone that beat the scientific odds and became one of the best bodybuilders of his era. His impeccable physique and career achievements prove that willpower and strength of determination can achieve the goals that may seem impossible.

Rich Gaspari Gallery

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