WATCH: Tom Platz’s Next Level Intensity

Thomas Platz is an American retired professional bodybuilder. His nicknames are “The Golden Eagle” and “The Quadfather”. He was legendary for his workout intensity. While weighing less than 230 pounds, he squatted eight reps with 635 pounds and 52 reps with 350 pounds. He finished 3rd in the 1981 MR.O, but no one since has matched Tom Platz’s combination of conscious-altering size and cross-striated definition.

“Legs are hard. The squat is a separate sport in my mind. It’s hard. It’s going to mess your nervous system up to a point to where you wonder why you wanted to go in the sport in the first place. It will ANNIHILATE you. It will show you that you’re nothing every second. But then you push through it, you survive and you deserve the legs you get from that. It’s hard to squat. Believe me, people think I used to like the squat. I like the feeling afterward, doing it, the accomplishment. So many times when I did 50 reps, at 25 I was done. At 35 I can’t believe I did 35. At 45 God was doing it for me. At 50 I was just in a different world. And that’s what you gotta do. Your breathing must get hard, you can’t talk, everything is hurting, you can’t breathe. You take the belt off and fall on the floor. That’s one set.” -Tom Platz