Leg Day

Today was leg day.

Every now and again I travel back to my hometown of Seaside CA. I'll go back to my old gym, and all too often I see the same guys doing the same exercises, using the same weight, and looking the same as they did when I left 7 years ago. Doing the same thing and expecting a different result in training is one of the cardinal sins of building mass and increasing strength. They see me and they say hey, you been hanging out with Barry Bonds (balco) or hey man, what super supplements are you taking? They all infer that I've used chemical enhancement to achieve an improved physique. As a natural, that is probably the best compliment you can get- but I wish it were that easy as popping a pill or sticking a needle in my ass.

One reason that these guys aren't making progress is the unwillingness to train legs. As the squatting for big arms article put it, you cant be big without squatting. The reason people dont want to train legs? It's uncomfortable, it can feel unnatural, and it just plain hurts.

Being half Japanese I've been blessed with big legs and calves. After years of plyometrics (my first love being Hoop) and aspirations of dunking the basketball, I have above average leg development, but nothing could prepare me for what I'd encounter as a bodybuilder.

In bodybuilding Pain is your training partner. If Pain doesnt show up sometime during your session, you're not doing it right. You must learn to train with Pain as your greatest ally.

There is no exercise more feared than the squat. I can't think of any exercise where the threat of immense weight crushing you down on you accordion style is more great.

For me, Monday is squat day. On the Friday before squat day I'll put the final weight back on the rack and I immediately become tense/nervous, like I have an upcoming test or job interview- an event where I must perform big and there's a lot riding on it. In fact I'll spend all weekend thinking about Monday.

Every Monday is a test.

On Saturday I begin to envision How I'll get under that bar, and how the plates will rattle and rumble as I pull them off the rack. I always marvel as my body seems to forget exactly how heavy that damn weight feels- It's an amnesia that I must induce or I will not return the next week. Each time I get the 300+ lbs onto my shoulders, the immediate challenge is not me vs. the weights, but me vs. my own brain, the brain that says "Ryan, what in God's name are you doing to me?" Squatting is not natural. It goes against every fiber of my collective being.

Like all other sports- bodybuilding is 90% mental.

The brain is the source of pain, if you can turn off your brain, you can turn off the pain.

So for 2 minutes, no thought passes through my mind. I transform my body into a machine. The words ache, searing pain, wobble, fall, burn, tired, cry, fail, quit, stop- all fall away.

Up. Down. Up. Down. Up.- They are the words that reign supreme. As the brain and survival instincts slowly creep back i am told that I am done, my legs wobble and my back begins to give. That's when I know it's time for 3 or 4 more.

Winners do what losers dont want to do. Winners squat-hard. Plain and simple.


This is arnold and my friend Ed Corney putting it down during the Golden Age of Bodybuilding. Observe the intensity at which they complete this test. You see Ed fall at the end- You may think- "he must have failed." His collapse is a clear indication that he indeed has passed.