antihero
08-21-2005, 08:21 AM
Tom Platz (quotes on squatting):
"I really believe attitude monitors talent. You have to take what you
want. There has to be a certain amount of killer instinct present. You
can't take no-grow for an answer. This strategy can be applied in any
venture."
"Some people like to live without too much risk. They're satisfied
leading a safe existence. This attitude of caution infiltrates into
their goals. Every successful athlete - or businessperson - enjoys
taking calculated risks. You have to. Especially in the gym when you're
squatting 500 for reps and you can't get one more but grunt out ten.
Your nose starts bleeding, you fall into the rack and that's set one."
"I have thought about training sessions weeks in advance. For
instance, if a big squat workout is scheduled for the middle of next
month, I am aware of it as the days pass by. One-week prior I'll make
sure not to walk too much or engage in any unnecessary activity. I used
to plan my classes in college with minimum walking distance between
them."
"After being taught sets and reps and working at it for a length of
time you can't paint by numbers anymore. It must come from within. Any
artist has an emotional contact with their work. A true bodybuilder
doesn't just build muscle he creates muscle. You can't be a robot."
"The first thought that comes to mind when the sets become tough is
that I cannot lose. I refuse to lose and be a failure. It's much more
desirable to leave the gym saying, "I won!"
"It's not a competition between you and someone else. You may not
do your best and still win. But when you are competing with yourself
you have to beat your own record. When I was in my twenties I didn't
think about it much, but when I was in my mid-thirties I came to
realize my own mortality. Let me explain. In my twenties, after doing
more reps than I had planned on a set of squats, I'd fall to the floor
and cover my eyes. The light hurt them and it felt like there was
someone stabbing knives into my legs. There was always severe oxygen
debt, but I was confident I'd "come back". In my thirties I'd lie on
the floor sometimes and think, "God damn! What if I don't come back?"
"Looking back, I do believe my drive to achieve this over-the-top
intensity was, in a way, self-abusive. I wasn't out to kill myself. But
when you're training that hard there is a certain amount of self-abuse.
Normal people don't have to go through that. You don't drive a normal
car excessively hard. A funny car, however, is pushed for all its worth
to achieve every last bit of performance. But we learn a lot about our
everyday cars from the drag strip. In the same way, we gain knowledge
about the human body from pro athletes. Not everyone is psychologically
able to be a pro athlete."
"I wasn't the biggest bodybuilder. There's no denying that I had
some freaky bodyparts. But ultimately I think it was most important to
me to relay the energy I found in the gym to those in the audience.
Through my posing I wanted to change or add to the way people think
about the gym experience."
"Arnold used to enjoy my intensity. He'd comment on the amount of energy I'd conjure up. But I played off the other people, too"
"When you promise yourself something, make a commitment, you can't
give up. Because, when you're in the gym, you have to fulfill the
promise you made to yourself. The people who can self motivate - in any
field - are usually the ones who win. Regardless of talent."
"I used to like putting a little space between plates on the bar.
They'd jingle when I came up out of a squat, making a deep-throated
roar. The old 45s were the best. The sound would pass through my spine
and ears. It was like a car engine revving up. It would help me time my
movement. A cue to go down for the next rep."
"Six-hundred pounds (on squats) became a moderate-rep weight One month before the '84 Olympia I did 635 for 12 reps."
"In 1993, I was just playing around with heavy weights. What we'd
(him and Fred Hatfield) do is put over a grand on the bar, take it off
the rack and just hold it for a count of ten or twenty. It's a great
idea, but my spine couldn't handle it."
"In the process of training I'd find the exact moment of maximum
tension within the muscle group and exploit it. I did what I did
instinctually, and now scientific data backs it as a viable way to make
muscle hypertrophy."
"I was built to squat."
"I don't believe in luck. Luck comes to men of action."
"The only aspect of my (bodybuilding) career I would change if I
could would be to have calmed down a little in the offseason. I was
just so enthusiastic."
"Sometimes your strongest attribute becomes an obstacle. The fact
that you can focus and concentrate and nail something usually means you
become very good at doing one thing at a time. The problem I've
encountered is that I sometimes focus so much on one thing that I will
forget everything else."
"The psychological tools I've gained from bodybuilding will never atrophy."
"I really believe attitude monitors talent. You have to take what you
want. There has to be a certain amount of killer instinct present. You
can't take no-grow for an answer. This strategy can be applied in any
venture."
"Some people like to live without too much risk. They're satisfied
leading a safe existence. This attitude of caution infiltrates into
their goals. Every successful athlete - or businessperson - enjoys
taking calculated risks. You have to. Especially in the gym when you're
squatting 500 for reps and you can't get one more but grunt out ten.
Your nose starts bleeding, you fall into the rack and that's set one."
"I have thought about training sessions weeks in advance. For
instance, if a big squat workout is scheduled for the middle of next
month, I am aware of it as the days pass by. One-week prior I'll make
sure not to walk too much or engage in any unnecessary activity. I used
to plan my classes in college with minimum walking distance between
them."
"After being taught sets and reps and working at it for a length of
time you can't paint by numbers anymore. It must come from within. Any
artist has an emotional contact with their work. A true bodybuilder
doesn't just build muscle he creates muscle. You can't be a robot."
"The first thought that comes to mind when the sets become tough is
that I cannot lose. I refuse to lose and be a failure. It's much more
desirable to leave the gym saying, "I won!"
"It's not a competition between you and someone else. You may not
do your best and still win. But when you are competing with yourself
you have to beat your own record. When I was in my twenties I didn't
think about it much, but when I was in my mid-thirties I came to
realize my own mortality. Let me explain. In my twenties, after doing
more reps than I had planned on a set of squats, I'd fall to the floor
and cover my eyes. The light hurt them and it felt like there was
someone stabbing knives into my legs. There was always severe oxygen
debt, but I was confident I'd "come back". In my thirties I'd lie on
the floor sometimes and think, "God damn! What if I don't come back?"
"Looking back, I do believe my drive to achieve this over-the-top
intensity was, in a way, self-abusive. I wasn't out to kill myself. But
when you're training that hard there is a certain amount of self-abuse.
Normal people don't have to go through that. You don't drive a normal
car excessively hard. A funny car, however, is pushed for all its worth
to achieve every last bit of performance. But we learn a lot about our
everyday cars from the drag strip. In the same way, we gain knowledge
about the human body from pro athletes. Not everyone is psychologically
able to be a pro athlete."
"I wasn't the biggest bodybuilder. There's no denying that I had
some freaky bodyparts. But ultimately I think it was most important to
me to relay the energy I found in the gym to those in the audience.
Through my posing I wanted to change or add to the way people think
about the gym experience."
"Arnold used to enjoy my intensity. He'd comment on the amount of energy I'd conjure up. But I played off the other people, too"
"When you promise yourself something, make a commitment, you can't
give up. Because, when you're in the gym, you have to fulfill the
promise you made to yourself. The people who can self motivate - in any
field - are usually the ones who win. Regardless of talent."
"I used to like putting a little space between plates on the bar.
They'd jingle when I came up out of a squat, making a deep-throated
roar. The old 45s were the best. The sound would pass through my spine
and ears. It was like a car engine revving up. It would help me time my
movement. A cue to go down for the next rep."
"Six-hundred pounds (on squats) became a moderate-rep weight One month before the '84 Olympia I did 635 for 12 reps."
"In 1993, I was just playing around with heavy weights. What we'd
(him and Fred Hatfield) do is put over a grand on the bar, take it off
the rack and just hold it for a count of ten or twenty. It's a great
idea, but my spine couldn't handle it."
"In the process of training I'd find the exact moment of maximum
tension within the muscle group and exploit it. I did what I did
instinctually, and now scientific data backs it as a viable way to make
muscle hypertrophy."
"I was built to squat."
"I don't believe in luck. Luck comes to men of action."
"The only aspect of my (bodybuilding) career I would change if I
could would be to have calmed down a little in the offseason. I was
just so enthusiastic."
"Sometimes your strongest attribute becomes an obstacle. The fact
that you can focus and concentrate and nail something usually means you
become very good at doing one thing at a time. The problem I've
encountered is that I sometimes focus so much on one thing that I will
forget everything else."
"The psychological tools I've gained from bodybuilding will never atrophy."