Written by Ron Harris
15 January 2014

 Branch Warren: The Steel Wheels of Texas

Leg Training With Two-Time Arnold Classic Champion Branch Warren

 

 steelwheel-1Branch Warren won his second Arnold Classic title just over six months after his right quadriceps ripped completely off his kneecap— thanks to his blue-collar work ethic and his iron-willed devotion to rehabbing it.

 

Oh Snap! (That Was the Sound of the Tendon)

 

I don’t want to say I saw this coming, but it did strike me as a little odd that all of Branch Warren’s muscle tears up until August 2011 had been in his arms— a biceps and both triceps. The Texan has been known for years for his massive, elephantine thighs— many consider him the Tom Platz of our generation. Yet he intimated to me that despite 20 years of using bone-crushing tonnage on leg day, moving enough cold iron to forge a battleship, he’d never had so much a bit of knee soreness. But there is an inescapable reality about building extreme levels of muscle mass. The tendons that anchor those muscles to the bones have very little potential for growth. As the muscles grow ever larger and more powerful, they are tethered to the bones by the same size tendons as when they were far smaller and weaker. Is this why Branch’s right quadriceps tore completely off the patella when he slipped on a slick cement ramp on that rainy afternoon in 2011? Obviously no one knows for sure, but the circumstantial evidence is compelling.

 

Rehabbing the Worlds Best Right Quad

 

steelwheel-2Branch wasted no time attending to the injury. While still in the emergency room in Atlanta, he was on the phone with his surgeon to schedule an MRI the next morning in Dallas, and surgery to get the quad back where it belonged the day after that. “I knew it was torn,” he tells us. “I’ve had enough experience with muscle tears, for better or worse, to know exactly how they look and feel. And the sooner I could get it reattached, the sooner I could start healing.” There was no time to waste. The injury had dashed Warren’s plans to compete at the Mr. Olympia, so there was no way he was going to miss returning to Columbus in early March 2012 to defend his Arnold Classic title. If there was a silver lining to this dark cloud, it was the fact that quads have been a dominant body part on Branch since the time he first got his driver’s license. It’s safe to say that even if they were down a smidgen in size from their typical enormity, they would still be freaking huge. But Branch is not a man to “coast” by any means. He was determined to look better at the 2012 Arnold Classic than he did in 2011 when he won it the first time— from head to toe. To make that happen, he did his own rehab and was quite aggressive about it. Would you expect any different from this man? At six weeks post-surgery, he started training his right leg in its own light, pumping workout earlier in the week as well as (eventually) a bit heavier on leg day later in the week. It took an injury to make the first major changes to Branch’s leg workouts since the early ‘90s, but he came up with a very thorough strategy to get that right leg matching the uninjured leg in record time. Here’s how the Texas Titan rebuilt his famous lower body back to its freaky glory— to win the Arnold again in 2012.

 

Leg Extensions

 

steelwheel-3Branch has started his leg workouts with leg extensions for many years, usually doing 2 sets of 30-40 reps to get a light pump in the quads and blood flowing around the knees. At times he would even do sets of 50 or even 100 reps if the mood struck him. During his leg rehab, the leg extension played an even more vital role in warming up and pre-exhausting his quads, and as such he was on that sucker for quite a while. He did do 7 or 8 sets, but these were three-stage sets: 20 reps with the right leg, 20 reps with the left leg, followed immediately by 20 sets with both legs at once. If he did 8 sets, that’s almost 500 reps of leg extensions just to start things off! Considering that it plays a key role in the physical therapy process for anyone following a knee surgery, it makes a lot of sense that Branch was parked on it for close to 20 minutes.

 

Single Leg Press

 

Now it’s time to really get that right leg working hard, and the best way to do that is by literally forcing it to do all the work. Over the course of 5 sets, Branch would start with one plate a side and do 20 reps first with the right leg, then with the left. He did these with three, four, five and finally six plates on each side. Warren intentionally used the same weight for each leg even while his left leg was stronger than the right. “That’s the only way the right leg was going to catch up,” he notes.

 

Leg Press

 

steelwheel-4All the weights Branch needs to do leg presses with both legs are already loaded on the machine, and he proceeds to do 3 sets of 20 reps with it. At this point he has done plenty of dedicated work for the right leg, and he isn’t as concerned about favoring his left. “It’s funny because the amount of weight I used while rehabbing my leg would have been just a warm-up before the injury happened, and a couple of months later it was again. It kicks my ass pretty good.” Speaking of kicking ass, would you believe this guy was already squatting again not even three months after he tore his quad? Actually, those of you who know Branch probably aren’t the least bit surprised. There’s a reason “warrior” and “Warren” are so close together in the dictionary.

 

Safety Bar Squats

 

steelwheel-5Few men in bodybuilding have paid as many dues under a squat bar as Branch Warren. I would have said “under a squat rack,” but that’s not accurate in his case. All these years, Branch has been squatting after taking the bar off two big freestanding supports at Metroflex, the kind used in competitive powerlifting. He has squatted 500 pounds for sets of 15 deep reps on too many occasions to count, just to put it out there. Believe it or not, Branch is still squatting, though not as heavy of course, and not with a regular barbell. Instead he is currently using the “safety bar” as shown, which is really nothing more than a bar with a padded yoke type of harness welded on to make it easier to stay balanced. “That really helps take the back out of it,” comments Branch. “That way you can stay upright and concentrate on firing with the quads.” He had been using the safety bar occasionally for well over a year anyway, but now Warren is finding it invaluable. “For me not to squat at all would be just ridiculous,” he explains. “To me you’re not training legs if you’re not squatting. With the safety bar squats, I could go down slowly and really focus on making sure the right leg is working just as hard as the left.”

 

Standing Single Leg Curls

 

steelwheel-6Finally it’s time for hamstrings, though they have been getting plenty of ancillary work from the compound movements that preceded them: namely the squats, leg presses and lunges. But now it’s time to isolate each hamstring with the standing single-leg curl. Branch does 3 sets of 10 reps for each leg— taking his time on each rep to slowly squeeze the weight up and flex his hamstring for a full contraction before lowering for a controlled negative to let the muscle elongate.

 

Lying Leg Curls

 

Warren wraps up his leg workout with lying leg curls, doing first 2 sets of 15 and then going out with a killer pump thanks to a triple drop set. Hitting failure at 10 reps, he reduces the weight just enough to fail again at 10, and does this one last time for a grand total of 30 reps. His legs are toast.

 

There Is Only One Branch Warren

 

Branch Warren won his second Arnold Classic title just over six months after his right quadriceps ripped completely off his kneecap— thanks to his blue-collar work ethic and his fastidious devotion to rehabbing it. For those of you who have had your own leg injuries, by all means draw inspiration from Branch’s comeback and rehab, but please follow the instructions of your surgeon and physical therapist. Remember— there is only one Branch Warren, and then there’s the rest of us!

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CLICK TO PRINT

Injury & Rehab Timeline

 

August 20, 2011            Branch tears his right quad in Atlanta

August 22, 2011            Quadriceps is surgically reattached in Dallas

August 26, 2011            Branch goes down to one crutch

September 3, 2011        Branch walks without crutches

September 10, 2011      Branch removes splint and throws in a river in Nebraska

October 3, 2011            First light workout for right leg

March 2012                  Wins second Arnold Classic title.

 

Pro Record

 

2004 Night of Champions           Eighth Place

2004 GNC Show of Strength     Fourth Place

2005 Charlotte Pro                    Winner

2005 Europa Super Show          Winner

2005 Mr. Olympia                      Eighth Place

2006 Arnold Classic                   Second Place

2006 San Franciso Pro               Second Place

2006 Grand Prix Australia           Fifth Place

2006 Mr. Olympia                      Twelfth Place

2007 Arnold Classic                   Seventh Place

2007 New York Pro                   Winner

2007 Keystone Classic                Fourth Place

2007 Colorado Pro                     Seventh Place

2008 Arnold Classic                    Fourth Place

2009 Arnold Classic                    Third Place

2009 Mr. Olympia                       Second Place

2010 Arnold Classic                    Third Place

2010 Mr. Olympia                       Third Place

2011 Arnold Classic                    Winner

2011 British Grand Prix                Winner

2012 Arnold Classic                     Winner

2012 Grand Prix Austrailia           Winner

2012 Mr. Olympia                        Fifth Place

2013 Mr. Olympia                        Ninth Place

2013 EVL'S Prague Pro               Third Place

2014 Arnold Classic                     Sixth Place

2014 Australian Pro                      Fourth Place

2014 Europa Supershow              Winner

Branch's Perfect Off-season Nutrition For Leg Day

 

Before the Workout:

 

“You can’t beat a steak and a couple cups of rice. The steak gives you high-quality protein packed with creatine, iron and B vitamins, and the rice provides slow-burning fuel to power you through those sick squats, leg presses, lunges and all the other fun stuff. I also take a serving of SuperDrive by Gaspari Nutrition.”

 

 

The Minute the Workout is Over:

 

“I need fast-digesting protein and carbs and creatine, so I slam down a Isofusion shake and a Qualitine.”

 

Post-workout:

 

“You know I am a real Texan because an hour later, Trish fixes me up a nice 14-ounce steak. For my carbs, I have a whole bag of pasta and a can of sauce. It may sound like a lot of food, but at my size and with all the energy I put out during a leg workout, my body needs it.”

 

 

 

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