50 Training Secrets of the Mr. Olympia Champions! Part 6 - Lee Haney

The Mr. Olympia title represents the pinnacle of achievement in the sport of bodybuilding. Beginning in 1965, one man was chosen to represent the absolute best in muscular development in the entire world. It’s only natural that bodybuilders around the world, seeking to improve their own physiques and aspiring to greatness, would look to these men as role models on how to sculpt their own bodies and bring them closer and closer to perfection. With the 2017 Mr. Olympia just around the corner, we pay tribute to the event and its legendary champions. We’ve gathered 50 excellent training tips from six Mr. Olympia champions. Take their combined wisdom and use it to forge your own destiny in iron and muscle!

Lee Haney

Mr. Olympia 1984-1991

Basic chest exercises deliver gains. “The best mass exercises for chest will always be the same whether you’re an ectomorph, a mesomorph like me or an endomorph. You should do a flat press with either a barbell or dumbbells, an incline press with a barbell or dumbbells for the upper pecs, and dips for the lower pecs. That’s it! If you focus on just those three foundation movements and work hard for four work sets of eight reps, you can’t go wrong. Once you have some good mass in your chest, you can start adding in a shaping movement like flyes or a cable crossover. But generally speaking, where most guys go wrong is getting too fancy with their chest workouts by doing a lot of cables and machines, when they should be applying their energy to the handful of basic movements that are guaranteed to deliver gains.”

Great abs with quality gains, not quantity gains. “I believe the key to having great abs is consistency in training them, and keeping body fat under control at all times. If your goal is to add mass, always be mindful of quality gains instead of quantity gains. Keep my famous piece of advice in mind at all times: ‘If you can’t flex it, don’t carry it!’ If you gain 10 pounds and your abs are still there, that’s great. If your gain five pounds and can’t see abs, you’ve picked up too much body fat. That means it’s time to incorporate the treadmill, elliptical or speed walking to lower body fat. There’s a right way to put on mass without losing your abs.”

Don’t train a muscle group just once a week. “I don’t agree with training a muscle group just once a week. Prior to the 1990s, that was unheard of in bodybuilding as champions like Steve Reeves, Bill Pearl, Larry Scott, Arnold and Sergio Oliva worked everything two or even three times a week. I still believe in working muscle groups twice a week, but will less overall volume than what most guys today will devote to a given body part, due to the fact that they won’t touch it again for seven days. Something like this would work very well for most bodybuilders:

                        a.m.      p.m.

Day 1   Chest    Shoulders and triceps

Day 2   Back     Biceps and calves

Day 3   Quads  Hams

Day 4   Rest

I realize that not everyone can get to the gym twice a day, so in that case the two workouts can be combined.”

Do behind-the-neck presses. “The military press to the front was always my main foundation movement for shoulders. Behind-the-neck presses are a more awkward movement, but for complete shoulder development they are extremely valuable. Pressing to the front doesn’t activate as much of the medial delts as behind-the-neck presses. But because they are a less natural movement and they put your shoulders into a position of external rotation, I never went too heavy on them and they were always my second pressing exercise. You don’t want to do them when you’re fresh, and capable of handling maximum resistance.”

Start with a “bread-and-butter” movement. “It doesn’t take much training to stimulate growth, if you are specific in your exercise selections and make the most out of each set. For whatever body part you are training, you should always include a fundamental basic movement, what I like to call ‘bread-and-butter’ exercises. You start with that while your energy is fresh because it’s the most important part of that workout. After that, you add on your shaping movements.”

Cut back on your sets and reps. “I admit that I really only fine-tuned my training toward the very end of my competitive career. In 1991, while I was training for my last Mr. Olympia win, I cut back on the number of sets and reps I was doing overall. As a result, new life came back to muscles and I looked better than I ever had. Previously, my belief had been that the more training I did, the better I would look. I found that shorter, more intense and focused workouts were better.”

Remember the mind-muscle link. “The mind-muscle link is not the same thing as the ‘mind-muscle connection’ that we talk about in bodybuilding, which is related to isolating target muscles and feeling them work during a set of a given exercise. That’s important, but not nearly as significant as the mind-muscle link. One way of understanding it, if you’re a fan of the ‘Star Wars’ films, is to think about it like ‘the Force.’ In the very first episode, Obi-Wan Kenobi, the Jedi Knight, tells his pupil Luke Skywalker to ‘let go and feel the Force.’ Using the Force was really nothing more than focusing and harnessing the energy all around and inside you. In terms of what we do in the gym, the mind-muscle link consists of visualizing a successful set, locking in completely on the task at hand, and following through with full belief that you will succeed. Another way to think about it is what actors call ‘being in the moment.’ When it’s time for your set, nothing else exists in your universe.”

Bodybuilding is a 24/7, 365 endeavor. “We bodybuilders often use the phrase ‘off-season,’ but I feel that title is a bit misleading. ‘Off’ infers that we are resting or taking it easy, as many athletes in seasonal sports do. Bodybuilding is a 24/7, 365 endeavor. When we say ‘off-season,’ what we’re talking about is a shift in our style of training and the goals we are pursuing. This is when you should be decreasing the overall volume of your training, focusing on purely the basic, fundamental mass-building exercises, and taking more rest days to recover and grow.”

DISCUSS THIS ARTICLE ON THE MD FORUM

READ MORE ARTICLES LIKE THIS IN THE OLYMPIA SECTION

FOLLOW MUSCULAR DEVELOPMENT ON:

FACEBOOK: MuscularDevelopment Magazine

TWITTER: @MuscularDevelop

INSTAGRAM: @MuscularDevelopment

YOUTUBE: http://bit.ly/2fvHgnZ