Bodybuilding great Rich Gaspari mastered nutrition, training, and posing to become one of the most iconic bodybuilders of the 1980s. In the latest Lee Labrada Show shared on August 6, 2024, Gaspari discussed his analytical approach to dieting for conditioning, carb-depleting strategies, and how training has changed after 60.
Having secured three runner-up spots on the prestigious Mr. Olympia stage (1986,1987,1988), Rich Gaspari gave eight-time winner Lee Haney all he could handle on stage. Known for his extreme conditioning levels and striated glutes, Gaspari was a pioneer of the Men’s Open division. He holds the honor of being the inaugural Arnold Classic winner, an accomplishment he earned in 1989.
From an induction into the IFBB Hall of Fame to receiving the Arnold Classic Lifetime Achievement Award in 2013, Gaspari is lauded by his peers who haven’t forgotten the lengths he went to en route to solidifying his legacy. Joining his friend Lee Labrada in a special appearance, Gaspari broke down the dieting strategies that led to a one-of-a-kind career. He also explained how he’s modified workouts at 61 years old.
Rich Gaspari Breaks Down Dieting Approach for Condition and How Training Has Changed from a Teenager to 61 Years Old
As a teenager, Gasapri could behind the neck press 365 pounds for reps, squat 700 pounds, and bench press over 550 pounds. Eventually, he was offered the chance to train alongside Lee Haney before ultimately competing against him at the Mr. Olympia.
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“Lee, I was really strong back then. I was behind the neck pressing 365 for reps, squatting over 700 pounds, benching over 550, so he saw this kid lifting heavy weights, yeah, I could push him [Lee Haney]. And I did, he asked me to train with him and it was such an honor because this was a top Pro,” shared Rich Gaspari.
During his prime, Gaspari thought he could eventually dethrone Haney. However, looking at the match-up today as a retired Pro, he doesn’t think he or Lee Labrada could take him out unless Haney came in off to a contest.
“We tried to knock him off. We talked about this. He was an anomaly because if I look at him today and now, as a retired bodybuilder, looking at that, and looking at him and looking at me, I don’t think I could have beaten him. Unless he was off, that’s the only way you and I could beat that guy.”
Aside from dieting measures, Gaspari underlined that posing practice played a role in developing hard muscle density.
“It was by accident that I noticed that my glutes were striated,” said Gaspari. “Posing was a big integral part of my preparation. I would spend hours just going through mandatories over and over and over. I felt the reason I was able to get so conditioned is that I posed and holding those poses got the muscle to get even harder.”
Dieting choices made a world of difference for Gaspari, who studied macronutrients in-detail as a pre-med student.
“My mom was a great cook and when I started what I needed to do for bodybuilding, of course, it’s like plain chicken, rice, sweet potatoes, egg whites, and my mother would be like come on, you look too skinny, have some of this food.
So I can’t eat this and there’d be times where like you said, I knew I had to look a certain way, and eating that was not going to get me to look like that. You asked me how did I know how to get into that condition. As a pre-med student, I took everything analytical. What I did is I kept logs and journals so I really studied my macronutrients,” explains Gaspari.
To achieve his signature conditioning levels, Gaspari utilized carb-depleting methods.
“Before a show [guys] would start carb-depleting. They’d eat high protein, low carbs, I tried it at the beginning when I competed and came in really flat. I found I needed a combination of cycling my carbs in my diet so that I could fill up my muscle. Deplete, deplete, but then fill my muscles with carbs, deplete, deplete, then fill my muscles with carbs and get tighter and tighter.”
Specifically, he ate higher protein and eliminated sugars as well as white flour, advocating for a natural diet.
“Higher protein, I try to stay away from sugars completely. White flour, white sugar, those are the ultimate poisons in your body. We talked about earlier like if you see corn syrup solids, stay away from those. Eat natural.”
While heavy lifting always made up part of Gaspari’s training routine, he had to make effectual changes as he aged.
“I love lifting heavy but the thing is, I’ve had some setbacks where I guess god has just prevented me from lifting heavy. When I herniated the disc and I told you a couple of years ago I had surgery, they put an artificial disc in my neck. My nerve in my right side is still weaker so I used to pick up 150-pound dumbbells on presses, now I can do like 40-pound dumbbells.”
“I’m not unable to lift those heavy weights, but now I look at it, I’m like okay, I’m going to lift lighter,” said Gaspari. “For me, it’s like shit, I see kids in the gym lifting heavy dumbbells, they’re doing 100s and I’m doing my 30s and 40s for flyes and stuff, pre-exhaustion,” said Rich Gaspari.
Instead of focusing on the amount of weight lifted, Gaspari’s focus shifted to the ‘feeling of the pump’ and training to failure using lighter weights.
“The way I look at it now is I try to really feel the weight where you can still get that great feeling of the pump and you can still can get that training the muscle to failure using a lighter weight or doing more slow-mo reps.
Whatever I got to do to prevent myself from using heavy weights. I get a little stupid sometimes and you may see me doing heavy leg press.”
Even though he wasn’t able to lay claim to the Mr. Olympia title, Rich Gaspari broke boundaries as an athlete, triumphing over not just his rivals but his lack of genetics. Bodybuilders today can take a lesson or two from the practices that turned Gaspari into a mainstay of the Open class.
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