Training with Tom Platz

And I Mean Literally

(Originally published in the February 2014 issue of Muscular Development)

 On June 12, 1985 Tom Platz was due to arrive in Birmingham, England, at 12 noon by way of London’s Heathrow, to undertake a tour of the UK. At that time Tom was at the height of his awesome fame. He toured the UK to sold-out audiences every year and he was the most popular bodybuilder on the planet. Nobody ever, ever, caused the fan reaction that Tom did: It was Beatlemania with muscles.

 However, flight delays meant he didn’t arrive at Birmingham airport until 5.15pm where he was met by tour promoter and English Federation of Bodybuilders (EFBB) President Ron Davies, myself and photographer Steve Belasco. I’d previously provisionally arranged that we would shoot a training session and cover of the Golden Eagle for Muscle & Co, the magazine I co-published. The shoot would be at Ron’s newly opened Muscle Machine Super Fitness Center. However it soon became clear that a jet lagged Tom, burdened with a cold, was not champing at the bit to do a photo shoot.

 Sensing my disappointment, he said he would have something to eat at Ron’s Muscle Machine Super Fitness Centre, catch some sleep and then come back to the gym and “….. Maybe train”.

 Steve and I had been in Birmingham since midday so we decided to sit and wait. Well I did not exactly sit after Tom had eaten: I decided to have a workout and try out Ron’s new gym. A decision I was later to regret. Due to the pressures of Muscle & Co my training of late had been sporadic so in typical McGough Kamikaze fashion I tried to cram one week’s training into one session. That made me one tuckered out little reporter (now is your cue to say, “Ahh!”) at the conclusion of the marathon workout.

 It was after 10.00pm when Tom strolled back into the gym. “I’m not really sure if I want to train,” he said, “I still feel bushed after 19 hours of travelling. Can you guys wait until tomorrow morning?”

 “I’ve got a photographic assignment tomorrow in Leicester with Larry Grayson”, replied Steve. He wasn’t joking. (UK readers will recognize Larry: for US readers, think Richard Simmons as a stand-up comedian.)

 “Is he a competitor?” asked Tom innocently.

 “Yes. We’ll be running a special feature on his wrist curl routine.” Well if you have to indulge in some leg pulling you might as well go for broke and pull a Platz leg.

 As 11o’clock approached Tom began to liven up and decided that he would after all train, “My body’s still in tune with LA time,” he smiled, “I know you guys are tired but for me it’s 3 o’clock in the afternoon.”

 THE GOLDEN EAGLE SPREADS HIS WINGS

 Changing into his workout togs, Tom asked, “Are you ready for some freaky California training.” Freaky is a word Tom used a lot back in those days and he explained that tonight’s session was to try out some freaky new ideas on lat training: “I’m after greater width so the exercises I’m doing tonight are to attack the upper part of the teres major. Here!” Tom gestured to me to put my hand under his armpit, “Feel that?” I nodded as I grasped the solid muscle that was packed under there. “When I’ve finished it should be pumped up to twice that size.”

 “Okay shall we begin?” urged Tom as he began some stretching exercises. The plurality of that last “we” statement did not hit me for another few minutes.

 The gym was now closed and Ron was training with his son Carl as Tom after a few minutes of thorough stretching began to rub resin on his hands. “The first exercise is chins, real freaky chins you know?” gleamed Tom as he took a pair of grip support straps from his training bag. He then hung from the chinning bar and did a few reps, “just to warm up and feel the movement.”

 After a pause Tom asked, ‘Can you give me a hand for some freaky type training?”

 Confidently expecting to be involved in assisting on a few forced reps or so, and still dressed in my civvies, I replied, ‘Of course.” (A veritable lamb to the slaughter).

 Tom then explained that I was to hold his feet by the instep with the soles of his shoes resting against my hip bones. He would then push off from my hips and when he started to tire I was to push him upwards. “I’m going to rep out as fast as possible. It’s all speed, and Wham, Wham! Freaky you know.” He began the first ‘set’ and went for countless reps unassisted. All these chins were done to the front. As I felt his bodyweight begin to sag Tom barked out, “Now Push! Let’s go.” Screaming in effort at each rep Tom got heavier as his energy depleted but still he shouted, “Higher, higher….push, push…Wham! Wham!” Every rep was done in explosive style as fast as possible with no adherence to continuous tension. It was just “Wham, wham…Faster, faster!” as Tom blitzed his lats.

 He was just hanging as I pushed him through to complete failure. On the last few reps Tom did chins to the back of the neck before signaling that the set was at an end.

 He untied himself from the bar and panting and sweating he bent over trying to catch his breath. As Ron looked on, not without a little amusement at my exertion, I asked Tom, “How many sets are you doing?”

 “I don’t do chins in terms of sets,” he gasped. “I do maybe 20 to 25 minutes of chins.” Ron put his hand over my mouth to stifle a laugh, as he saw the “Which way to the exit?” look on my face.

 The chins duly went on for the decided period. Tom’s lats got tired quicker on each set. My already worked biceps were aching; as with these forced reps I was virtually doing bicep curls with Tom Platz! I was literally training, not with weights, but with Tom Platz.

 Between one of the breaks Ron asked Tom, ”What’s your current bodyweight?” “About 235 pounds,” gulped the almost out of breath Golden Eagle, “It’s the heaviest I’ve been for some time”.

 “I bet Peter knows that!” said Ron with a slight wink in my direction.

 “You ready for some more?” Tom asked me, as he saw me drying the sweat from my face. I nodded in affirmative acknowledgement with the type of unbridled enthusiasm Joe Frazier’s sparring partners must have displayed. If I threw the towel in our photo session and cover opportunity would perhaps come to an end and an exclusive would go out the window like a stoolie in a Godfather movie.

 After 20 minutes or so of “Wham, Wham …Higher, higher!” Tom decided that enough chins had been done.

 THE LATZ PLATZ SHOW

 Freaky lat pulldowns are next,” he informed me. “On these I take a wide grip and lean back as far as possible pulling the bar to my chest. At the beginning I’ll do these unassisted and then I want you (there I was a little innocent thinking my task for this late evening was over) to push the bar down to my chest as I tire. Then right at the end of each set,” he continued, “I’ll sit upright and finish off with a few reps to the front with you still pushing down. This movement is great for adding width to the upper lats,” he said gleefully. He then did a few reps to warm up and feel the movement before attaching the wrist straps to the bar. The weight used was the whole stack- about 250lbs – as the first “set” began.

 Tom – his upper body almost parallel with the floor – did probably 20 or so reps with maximum speed before calling out the by now familiar cry, ‘Let’s go, Wham! Wham!” I pushed the bar to his chest maybe another 20 reps before he without interrupting the set changed to an upright position and eked out the last few reps. Between sets as Tom caught his breath, as I was rubbing the backs of my arms Ron asked me cheekily, “Haven’t you done triceps pushdowns with 250lbs before?”

 Again with this exercise Tom was not counting sets or reps, and after about 15 minutes he decided that the lat machine and moi had been brutalized enough.

 “Now this next exercise is really freaky!” He promised. Stifling the impulse to look up for the phone number of the local Samaritans I smiled weakly at his exclamation. Thankfully this exercise did not involve me, but it was pretty freaky anyway.

 In observing this movement it seemed very similar in execution to side laterals, but it was the upper lats that were being placed under stress. Taking two dumbbells, Tom raised them to shoulder level, with his palms facing outwards in front of him, and his elbows bent. In this position he tensed his lats and by slowly flexing them forwards and backwards achieved, “A really great burn.” Try it and you’ll see what Tom means.

 POWER WRACKED

 Then man renowned as one of the most intense trainers moved on to the power rack and set the weights up to do a form of press behind the neck. Again he asked for my assistance. Instead of assuming the normal press behind the neck position, Tom placed his shoulders well in front of the bar. I supported his elbows as he pumped out a few unassisted reps. Then as the strain began to tell I pushed his elbows through the full movement. Before total exhaustion set in Tom did some half reps, then quarter reps: “Baby pumps,” he called them. Then at the culmination of each set he pressed the bar to maximum height, before then moving his body forward as far as possible, similar to a lunge position. At this point he again tensed his lats before signaling that the set was at an end.

 “What I’m doing here is not a shoulder exercise,” he said. “Doing the reps with the body forward I am placing a lot of stress on the lats. And throughout this exercise I am tensing and flexing the lats.”

 A word of warning here from Tom, “Don’t attempt this exercise without a partner supporting your elbows. Leaning forward without support could lead to serious injury.”

 But why all this “freaky” training was the obvious question? What was wrong with the conventional exercises for adding width and thickness to the lats?

 Tom grinned. “What I’m trying to do is shock my lats into further growth by attacking them from different angles. I’ve tried all the orthodox methods, so now it’s time to shake the lats up with some unorthodox methods, and it is working,” he said flaring his lats out; There was no doubt of that, as the Platz lats had certainly thickened during that period.

 Tom’s final lat exercise was the more conventional cross bench dumbbell pullover (if you call a 150 pound dumbbell conventional). He explained, “This finishes off the lats by stretching them.” With this Tom’s workout was over and he went to shower, his lats fully pumped. He re-appeared and at just after 1.00am Steve shot the Muscle & Co cover shown in this feature.

 Me? I’ve never worked so hard for a story and cover: It was…well, “Wham! Wham! Freaky, Man!” But when I say I trained with Tom Platz I speak da truth.

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WHEN TOM PLATZ MET ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER - READ THE STORY HERE