#246 – Eksklusivt interview med 90er Massemonster Jim Quinn

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Interview med Jim Quinn

I think we just trained intuitively a lot of the time.  With Billy Smith and Jimmy Pellechia another story.  Billy had always planned 4-6 week blocks (macro-cycles).  I had no idea what I was doing, i just followed his lead. Pellechia was a constant progression in his quest, and, again, I just shut up and tried to keep up with those guys. What I learned later was that one adaptation, say hypertrophy/strength endurance optimal at 8 rm, or 80% of rm, was contingent upon or potentiated by a lower intensity of 3-5 rm strength sets.  I call it progressive hypertrophic training and there is a direct correlation with this programming and growth as a bodybuilder. For example, straight bar curl with progression, strength gain potentiates dumbbell seated curls with heavier sets of 8 rm and “voila,” you grow!  My stagnant 55 lb. dumbbells did nothing until Pellechia got me to do straight bar curl with 275 x 3-4 subsequently leading me to seated dumbbell curls with 110’s and 4 inches added to my arms.  A direct correlation — no place for being “limited by load.”  Add in switching to day one of chest/biceps splitting am/pm vs. a pre-exhausted back then biceps (pull).  Sequencing and mega amounts of protein and 300 guest posing pounds was conceivable.

As a former D1AA running back/fullback, you would have thought I’d recall our dynamic and static  stretching/warmups — nope.  We rarely warmed up and never stretched whatsoever, let alone did anything dynamic before anaerobic attacks.  I would have read The Egoscue Method, continued to move multi-planar and addressed an inherent and compounded crap musculoskeletal system with many dissymmetry’s like a right leg one inch shorter than the left (leg length disparity) which led eventually to my hip replacement at 39 years of age and 16 or so more surgeries.  I would have tried to find out what was wrong and dealt with it in an alternative manner rather than allowing that much metal and unnecessary operations on my body.  I would have continued to eat 525 grams of protein daily, if not more, and would not have complained with having that aspect of my job being a nuisance.  I would have done anaerobic bursts instead of copious amounts of slow steady cardio, 12 hours per week is a lot.  As Ronnie Coleman said:  “I would have trained heavier” — it was how we valued ourselves back then.  I would have slept more and kept working through my pro career — idle time is the devil’s workplace.  I would have prioritized and perfected my posing, not procrastinated to the end.  Drugs…about the same. Yet I would have allowed myself to use mild diuretics again after initial near-death episode.   Wow, thinking back, more regret than praise yet that is the Irish Catholic, I was raised to be.

Billy Smith, my workout buddy, ran the show with us.  So, one leg day he decided we were going to do something different.  That was a total attack on the leg press – 5 x 15, 10 x 15, 15 (plates per side) x 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, and yes 20 plates per side, me sitting on sled and we both managed 2050 x 8-10 reps.  Then Billy states, he will rep out 11 per side, he was done at 35 reps, rigor, and I mean done and gutted out 15 more to finish with 50 reps.  Two hours later, after the 46th set, he proclaimed we were squatting again going 135, 225, 315 and somehow not failing with 405 for good deep reps.  Leg day scared the shit out of me. The only other event remotely close to this hell was Winter.  Conditioning (Workouts) @ UNH.

The 2,050 pd. leg press was cool.
Insquatted 495 x 21.
Shoulders were good by me. Seated dumbbell presses with 165 pd. dumbbells.
Unilateral dumbbell laterals.  Pellechia always did with 150 pd. dumbbells.
Dumbbell kickbacks with 150 pd. dumbbell with Pellechia.
Bent rows standing on a narrow bench with 495 x 6.
We trained heavy almost always.
Few seem to nowadays.  We were powerlifters who dieted for shows on occasion.

Jim siger han havde no business being a bodybuilder – jeg tillader mig at være voldsomt uenig.

I guess I am incentive for those not blessed with an aesthetic musculoskeletal system which was I in spades.  I figured I could overcome bad genetics with freakiness and size and I eventually did.  If I can make it, so can others who are not so blessed.  Yes, I too were not enamored by those born with DNA, yet never grew from their initial showing.  Sure, I had no business in that business, yet persevered and eeked out a living filling a niche.

I never counted calories offseason or contest prep. I obsessively focused on lean animal source protein intake, daily.  I would shoot for 525 grams every day using protein powder to get this ingested each day. At times I struggled with this intake and declined in the gym and mirror badly.  I would limit carbs six weeks out to 150 grams per day. Fat was minimized as much as possible. Vague . . . sure, but it worked for me. A basic template of macros to follow is 40/45/15 (protein/carb/fat) for a sustainable progression in the gym/mirror. Funny with keto, prehistoric, etc. diets, our industry figured this stuff out decades ago, we most likely were in a mild to moderate ketosis most of the time and yet don’t get credit for figuring out food support drugged or clean (natural).
In fitness and bodybuilding, carbs are looked at as “protein sparring” so if one ingests more, then they need less protein intake. Protein has a huge metabolic effect (way more calories burned to ingest it than carb and fat) and lends more satiety (sense of fullness) and again, is what most miss from a macronutrient standpoint. Double whammys like ice cream, french fries, pizza prevail in the sedentary, overweight public sector.   Protein is the limiting factor with general public’s body composition and any athlete’s or figure/ physique person’s success.

At present, I primarily train teenagers. Most of them are 12 – 15 years of age.  A massive mistake is doing too much sports specific and explosive/ballistic training early on.  Get them to a base strength. An initial plateau with compound, sports genetic strength (5 rm best) movements followed by strength endurance aka hypertrophic sets (8 rm best here).  We slowly mix method with a basic explosive movement like a kettlebell swing or a body row as a finisher. Just like bodybuilding, build the mountain first, then carve it.  Periodization is varied, movement variation is significant (so they don’t get bored and something metabolic like agility, acceleration or linear speed work finishes our sessions.  Their posture globally is awful. Our generation moved often and multi-planar. There is sedentary and limited.  Scapular retraction and hip flexor re-lengthening are a constant issue.  I use old school elevated high speed treadmill bursts and more current parachute and light sled towing on a slight decline for speed. Old and new!  My general public clients receives a balanced athletic performance and aesthetic (mirror) programming combo.

Jim træner sin søn i dips

I guess my CSCS and staying current every three years is the science for sports performance enhancement and my nutrition and significant postural  knowledge is the art.  Throw in reading Dale Carnegie at least seven times and Deepak Chopra and Goldsmith’s “What Got You Here Won’t Get You There” and a bit of anecdotal evidence and there is the differentiation.

Thank you.  Leaving a self-absorbed industry and learning to become a selfless husband to Deirdre and Dad to Brady.  I check myself daily.  Deirdre and I spoke yesterday before Brady’s High School orientation about us as a couple before he came into our lives and how amazed we are at where we are as a family.  I take all the good from my parents (there was a lot) and throw the rest out. As a bodybuilder, I had no intention of marrying or being a parent for that matter, nor did Deirdre.  Then, we woke up, and grew up. I am lucky to be alive and fortunate to have our three-player team.