‘Everybody wants to be a bodybuilder, but nobody wants to lift no heavy ass weights’ — You’ve probably heard Ronnie Coleman say that line at one point. His intense approach to training was validated at the highest level, and today, hypertrophy coach Joe Bennett examined these practices so you can improve your workouts.
No one in bodybuilding will ever be quite like Coleman. He was known for lifting unbelievably heavy weights, which resulted in one of the biggest and most conditioned physiques the world has ever seen. From 800-pound squats and deadlifts to pushing 2,300 pounds on the leg press machine, Coleman took progressive overload to an unprecedented level. And although ‘The King’ retired years ago, we can still extract value from his training techniques.
Joe Bennett Analyzes Ronnie Coleman Using Range of Motion and Progressive Overload to Win 8 Mr. Olympias
‘Hypertrophy Coach’ Joe Bennett recently highlighted two training techniques Coleman used to dominate the Men’s Open division. The first — progressive overload — involves lifting more weight over time to build muscle, which sounds simple enough.
“Two simple lessons we can learn from Ronnie’s lifts here. One, you can’t out-nerd the necessity of progressive overload. If you watch Ronnie’s training videos over a course of a decade, you see he keeps a lot of the movements in for a long period of time.
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And, surprise, surprise, he gets significantly larger as he gets significantly stronger. So, it’s absolutely fine the lifts that work best for you but don’t get stuck finding them forever.”
The second lesson we can glean from Coleman’s training practices is utilizing your own range of motion.
“Number two, within your own available range of motion, make sure you train with the exercise the hardest, and the hardest from a physics standpoint, not from your own personal opinion. So both for incline presses here, peak shoulder joint twerk, occurs when the upper arm is roughly parallel to the ground.
And bonus points for working a little bit deeper where your range of motion and the exercise allows. This is why so many people with pressing movements don’t go all the way down,” says Joe Bennett.
It’s also important to note that tempo or training cadence could factor into muscle growth. For the best results in training, control the eccentric, then pause between the eccentric and the concentric.
“Lastly, training cadence is an individual thing, and while Ronnie’s tempo appears to be a bit faster here, in my opinion, it’s well under control. If you’re unsure what the best tempo is for you, I say keep it simple and check two boxes: one, control the eccentric, two, pause between the eccentric and the concentric.”
In retirement, Ronnie Coleman remains dedicated to training. Even though he no longer lifts the same amount of weight, he doesn’t miss a workout. Struggling to walk following a life full of athletics, Coleman continues to receive stem cell therapy treatments. He hopes in time, these measures will allow him to walk unassisted again.
As an all-time great and former eight-time Mr. Olympia, Coleman’s reputation in the gym is legendary. Best of all, we know for a fact that his training methods produced results under the bright lights of the IFBB Pro League.
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