Gustavo Badell (1972-2023) was an IFBB Pro bodybuilder from Puerto Rico. He primarily competed in the 1990s and the 2000s era of bodybuilding. Badell was always known for his excellent musculature, massive legs, and thick arms. He won several prestigious pro shows like Ironman Pro during his bodybuilding career and achieved top finishes on the Olympia stage, including back-to-back third-place finishes in 2004 and 2005. This is his complete biography, competition history, workout routine, diet as well as statistics.
Gustavo Badell (Bodybuilder)
Born: November 3, 1972
Died: July 12, 2023
Birthplace: Maracaibo, VENEZUELA
Last Residence: Las Vegas, Nevada, USA
Nickname: The Freakin’ Rican
Height: 5′ 8″ (173 cm)
Off Season Weight: 260-265 lbs (120 kg)
Competition Weight: 240 lbs (109 kg)
Arms: 21.5″ (55 cm)
Gustavo Badell Biography
Gustavo Badell aka the Freakin’ Rican, (November 3, 1972 – July 12, 2023) was an IFBB professional bodybuilder. He was born in Venezuela, but his family moved to Puerto Rico when he was five years old. He began lifting weights at the age of fifteen to increase his size for boxing. Gustavo gained muscle amazingly quickly, and when he was 19 entered and won his first bodybuilding competition; the 1991 Junior Caribbean Bodybuilding Championships.
After only six years of weight training, he was able to turn pro by winning the 1997 Caribbean Championships. His first IFBB appearance was in 1998 when he competed in the IFBB Grand Prix of Germany.
He first competed in the IFBB Night of Champions (now called The New York Pro) in 1999, where he placed 14th. His first Ironman Pro Invitational came in 2000, where he placed 18th. His first Mr. Olympia appearance was in 2002, where he placed 24th. His first Arnold Classic was in 2004, where he placed 7th. His pro placings were lackluster until 2003 when he started placing higher, in part because of help from fellow pro bodybuilder Milos Sarcev.
Gustavo was featured in many fitness and magazine articles as well as appearing on the cover of FLEX magazine, and was featured in numerous advertisements for MuscleTech, normally for Nitrotech Hardcore protein powder and Masstech weight-gain powder.
His large family was composed of his wife Jessica, sons Gustavo Jr., Michael Gustavo, and Cristian Carlo, and daughters Barbie Ann, and Nicole Marie. In 2011 Gustavo became president of the amateur federation in Puerto Rico, the Federacion de Fisicoculturismo y Fitness de Puerto Rico (FFFPR), part of the IFBB.
Badell retired from competition after the 2012 season. He died on July 12, 2023, at the age of 50, following a stroke.
Competition History
Gustavo Badell Workout
As a teenager growing up, Gustavo Badell had a passion for boxing and hoped to turn into a professional boxer after growing up. As a result, all the training he did was focused on improving the attributes and body composition necessary for boxing. He primarily performed exercises like push-ups, dips, chin-ups squat jumps, etc. for strength gain. His coach believed that weight training can make a person stiff and slow. Therefore he deliberately kept Badell away from the weights room.
However, he started weight training when the coach felt that Badell had to move up a weight class for the best performance. He slowly eliminated boxing training from his routine and focused completely on bodybuilding in the years that followed.
During his active bodybuilding days, Gustavo Badell trained six days every week and worked every muscle group at least once during the week. He followed the same training split all year round but changed the rep range, weights, and number of sets according to specific phases of training like off-season or competition prep. Typically, he performed four sets of every exercise and maintained a 12 to 15-rep range.
Training Split
Chest and Biceps
Gustavo Badell clubbed the antagonistic muscles for his workout split and performed chest and biceps on the same day. During most upper body workouts, Badell performed abs exercises to have a perfectly narrow and tight mid-section.
For the chest, he included several variations of presses and flyes to work the pectoral muscles and to add detail and definition to them. Badell was gifted with genetically massive arms that had a naturally great shape and roundedness to them.
Slowly but surely, his arms became one of the biggest talking points about his physique. For the uninitiated, Badell’s arms measured a huge 22.5 inches during the off-season and they were still a massive 21.5 inches when he shredded down for competition.
Typically, Badell’s chest and biceps routine looked like this:
- Incline Dumbbell Press – 4 sets of 12 to 15 reps
- Bench Press – 4 sets of 12 to 15 reps
- Machine Vertical Press – 4 sets of 12 to 15 reps
- Cable Chest Flyes – 4 sets of 12 to 15 reps
- Seated Dumbbell Curls – 4 sets of 12 to 15 reps
- Standing Barbell Curls – 4 sets of 12 to 15 reps
- Preacher Curls – 4 sets of 12 to 15 reps
- One-Arm Cable Curls – 4 sets of 12 to 15 reps
- Reverse Barbell Curls – 4 sets of 12 to 15 reps
- Wrist Curls – 4 sets of 12 to 15 reps
- Various Abs Exercises
Back and Triceps
Badell clubbed back and triceps in his training split. He utilized several vertical and horizontal pulling movements to work the back muscles. Even after reaching the advanced stage of bodybuilding, the veteran bodybuilder included bodyweight exercises like pull-ups and dips to build strength and muscle.
He included a large variety of back movements to work the muscles from various angles and bring about overall development.
For triceps, he included three exercises to work all the triceps heads.
Overall, Badell’s back and triceps workout looked like this:
- Pull-Ups (Warm-up) – 4 sets of 8 to 12 reps
- Behind the Neck Lat Pulldown – 4 sets of 12 to 15 reps
- Weighted Pull-Ups – 4 sets of 12 to 15 reps
- Bent Over Barbell Rows – 4 sets of 10 to 12 reps
- T-Bar Rows – 4 sets of 12 to 15 reps
- Hammer Strength Machine High Rows – 4 sets of 12 to 15 reps
- Lat-Pulley Rows – 4 sets of 12 to 15 reps
- Deadlifts – 4 sets of 12 to 15 reps
- Back Hyperextensions – 4 sets of 12 to 15 reps
- Triceps Dips – 4 sets of 12 to 15 reps
- Cable Triceps Pushdowns – 4 sets of 12 to 15 reps
- Skull Crushers – 4 sets of 12 to 15 reps
- Various Abs Exercises
Shoulders
Badell added thickness to his shoulders with some basic shoulder exercises. The good ol’ dumbbell shoulder press was the primary exercise in his shoulder routine and most of the workout revolved around it.
He coupled it with other effective compound and isolation exercises to work all three shoulder heads – anterior, posterior, and lateral deltoids. Additionally, Badell employed a barbell shoulder press or the machine overhead press to add more size to his anterior deltoids.
The veteran bodybuilder paid special attention to the posterior and lateral deltoids, which are often at risk of being underdeveloped compared to the anterior deltoids. Bodybuilders strive for the perfect v-taper where the upper body perfectly narrows down into a tiny waist.
Having fully developed shoulders is essential for creating this effect and Gustavo Badell’s shoulder training routine struck a perfect balance in that regard.
Typically, his shoulder workout included:
- Dumbbell Shoulder Press – 4 sets of 12 to 15 reps
- Machine Overhead Press – 4 sets of 12 to 15 reps
- Dumbbell Lateral Raises – 4 sets of 12 to 15 reps
- Barbell Upright Rows – 4 sets of 12 to 15 reps
- Reverse Pec Deck Flyes – 4 sets of 12 to 15 reps
- Dumbbell Bent Over Lateral Raises – 4 sets of 12 to 15 reps
- Dumbbell Shrugs – 4 sets of 12 to 15 reps
- Various Abs Exercises – 4 sets of 12 to 15 reps
Legs
Gustavo Badell’s legs were one of the most impressive parts of his physique during the peak of his bodybuilding career. The secret to his massive legs was moderate weights and high volume with each set performed to complete failure. Badell’s training volume was extremely high and he adopted the high-volume training methods from Milos Sarcev.
While most people at the time were busy figuring out the magical secret of building tree-trunk legs, Badell had figured out the very basic formula – go through grueling workouts weeks after weeks and years after years.
The veteran bodybuilder always stressed that he was a bodybuilder and not a powerlifter. Therefore moving heavy weights from point A to point B by any means necessary was never the goal of his workouts.
Badell focused on moderate intensity, high training volume, and training to failure while maintaining a perfect form to bring about muscle hypertrophy. These criteria are popular among bodybuilding circuits now but Badell was following them back in the 1990s and 2000s.
Gustavo Bedell’s leg workout consisted of the following exercises:
- Front Squats – 4 sets of 12 to 15 reps
- Back Squats – 4 sets of 12 to 15 reps
- Hack Squats – 4 sets of 12 to 15 reps
- Leg Press – 4 sets of 12 to 15 reps
- Weighted Lunges – 4 sets of 12 to 15 reps
- Leg Extensions – 4 sets of 12 to 15 reps
- Leg Curls – 4 sets of 12 to 15 reps
- Deadlifts – 4 sets of 8 to 10 reps
Calves
Badell also had a separate day dedicated to calf training. He performed variations of seated and standing calf raises to grow the gastrocnemius and soleus muscles in the calves.
- Smith Machine Standing Calf Raises – 4 sets of 12 to 15 reps
- Standing Calf Raises – 4 sets of 12 to 15 reps
- Seated Calf Raises – 4 sets of 12 to 15 reps
Gustavo Badell Diet
Gustavo Badell was known for bringing a ripped and well-conditioned physique to the bodybuilding stage. However, that was not always the case as Badell’s nutrition was not on point during the early stage of his bodybuilding career. He did not possess the nutrition knowledge and often ate the wrong types of food during competition prep. As a result, he could not get the desired cut or muscle definition before competitions.
However, that changed with time. Badell had gathered great people around him which helped him acquire nutrition knowledge and refine his diet to a point where it did complete justice to his physique.
During the off-season, Gustavo Badell ate a lot of complex carbohydrates and included red meats along with lean sources of protein in his diet. But contest preps were often a different story as he severely restricted the carbohydrates and focused on eating more lean protein sources like chicken, fish, and egg whites. Badell’s diet was low in fats all year round.
Typically, his competition prep diet looked like this:
Meal 1
- 2 Cups Oatmeal
- 15 Egg Whites
Meal 2
- 2 Chicken Breasts
- Steam Broccoli
Meal 3
- White Fish
- Baked Potato
- Green Salad
Meal 4
- 2 Chicken Breasts
- Steamed Asparagus
Meal 5
- Steak
- Baked Potato
- Green Vegetables
Meal 6
- Whey Protein Shake
- White Fish
- Steamed Broccoli
Meal 7
- 15 Egg Whites
To Conclude…
Gustavo Badell was the embodiment of constant learning and understanding yourself. The veteran bodybuilder was not one of the athletes who were guided in the right direction all along. Instead, he had to pivot his way, learn new things about his craft as well as himself, and reach his maximum potential. He passed away in July 2023 at the age of 50, but his example still proves that as long as you are observing and learning things, there is no need to worry about the outcome.
Gustavo Badell Gallery
Why do no articles post Gustavo Badell’s CHEST measurements?