Victor Martinez & Juan Morel's Chest Workout
Victor Martinez & Juan Morel's Chest Workout
Training Tips and Exercises to Blast Pecs
Victor Martinez and Juan Morel share a Dominican Republic heritage and a close friendship. Here they discuss how they first met up and thoughts on chest training.
RH: Question for both of you. Victor, when you first met Juan years ago, did you ever think he would one day be at your level and pushing you onstage?
VM: I never had a doubt. He had so much sheer dedication in the gym, for one thing. Some guys slack or even take time off because they aren’t really that motivated, but this kid was consistently in there every day busting his ass with heavy weights. That immediately separated him in my mind from all the other guys who tell me they’re gonna be Mr. Olympia or whatever and then the next thing you know, they quit or disappear for a month or two. Juan would ask me tons of questions, and he would put anything I told him into practice right away. We all hate when we spend our time trying to help people and they don’t do what we told them!
RH: And Juan, same question. Did you ever imagine back then that one day you would have a physique very comparable to Victor’s, one that’s as good in the minds of many of your fans? When did you meet Victor, anyway?
JM: It was in October of 2007 at Synergy Fitness, and I was just getting into bodybuilding. I was a huge fan of Victor’s, so to meet him and be able to talk to him was so cool. He told me I had great potential. It was my goal then to turn pro someday, but I honestly never imagined I would be good enough to stand next to him onstage. He had just won the Arnold that year and almost won the Mr. Olympia a few weeks before! But yeah, a lot has changed over the years. The more I’ve filled out, the more you can see there are similarities with our physiques, mainly the round muscle bellies and the small joints. Per Bernal said the same thing at this photo shoot. The funny thing is, Steve Weinberger was telling me how much my physique was going to look like Victor’s at least five years years ago and that I would be right up there with him. I took that as a huge compliment even though I didn’t really believe it back then. Steve has a real eye for this kind of thing, I guess.
RH: I’ll say he does! Victor, what’s it been like watching Juan grow and improve over these last few years?
VM: I’ve been so proud of him. At every show he has ever done, he has looked better than the last. He gets bigger, his condition gets better, and he improves areas that need to come up. Juan has never just randomly jumped into a contest, either. He’s always had a plan to do a specific show when the time is right, and that’s something you don’t see all the time either. He’s very analytical and strategic in all aspects of bodybuilding.
RH: Juan, does it bother you that the one thing you seem to be most famous, or infamous, for, is eating McDonald’s during your contest diet? And are you aware that some fans think you literally eat Mickey D’s for every meal, kind of like Morgan Spurlock in the movie “Super Size Me”?
JM: It’s crazy how people think that, because I don’t eat McDonald’s every day at all, at least not in the off-season. In the off-season, I eat clean Monday through Saturday and then eat whatever I want on Sundays, which will usually include some burgers. As I get further into my prep, my metabolism gets faster and faster and I need an outrageous amount of calories to stay full or else I start losing size. I’m talking 10,000 calories a day, or more. The last week before the contest, I need at least 1,000 grams of carbs a day or else I flatten out. People talk crap because they wish they could eat like I do, but it’s a blessing and a curse. If I ever miss meals, I drop weight just like that. My body does not want to hold weight, ever. Eating is a job for me.
RH: Victor, do you ever get envious of the fact that Juan is able to eat fast food when he diets, while you’re probably choking down tilapia and broccoli?
VM: No, I don’t get jealous at all. That’s what he needs to do. If he ate super clean for 16 weeks, he would shrink down like crazy. Juan has a metabolism like a furnace. He eats plenty of clean food, but he knows when he needs to add in the fast food at times. He doesn’t do that because he wants to. Plus, he never once rubs it in anyone’s face that he can eat that crap and they can’t!
RH: It’s time to talk about chest training. Victor, you have been training chest a long time, going way back to late-night push-ups as a kid in your apartment’s kitchen when your family was asleep. How would you say your chest training has changed and evolved over the years?
VM: I definitely can’t go as heavy now. I’m probably using around 70-80 percent of my usual weights and just slowing the reps down and squeezing more. Like for example, on the incline dumbbell press I would go to 150s in the past. Now I stay around 100s. The weight doesn’t matter. I had to be careful. Another thing is that I have to use mostly dumbbells now instead of barbells for pressing, or else I overcompensate for the weaker arm that was broken.
RH: Juan, when you first started bodybuilding, building a massive chest was your priority. You were also a very strong kid who bench-pressed 500 in competition when you were much smaller than you are now. So two-part question: are you happy with your chest development today, and do you still handle ridiculous amounts of weight on chest day?
JM: I did that 500-pound bench press when I was 24 and around 195 pounds. I’m very happy with my chest, especially because I see some guys who have a really hard time building theirs. As for the crazy heavy weights, I focus more on reps, like 8-10. You’ll never see me doing one or two reps, ever. I like to finish off the flat bench with 405 for 8-10 good reps, squeezing the pecs. I’m not even sure how much longer I will be doing the flat bench, because there is a risk of injury with it and I want to have longevity as a pro. I only do one flat pressing movement anyway, everything else is inclines. I do barbell bench press every other week.
RH: It’s not like you really need it at this point, Diesel— your chest is all set.
JM: Yeah, like I said it’s not worth the risk after a certain point in your career.
RH: What are some mistakes you made with your own chest training over the years, and what are some common mistakes you still see guys making every day in the gym?
VM: Going too heavy on the flat bench is something we’ve all done. It’s a staple exercise and I do feel you need to get pretty strong on it to build your chest, but it’s not the safest movement to go heavy on in the long term. I used to do bench press meets years ago and it seemed like all the older guys in their 30s and beyond were complaining about rotator cuff pain and injuries. It’s an unnatural movement. I was bench-pressing 405 when I had a partial pec tear in 2005. Thank God I had great therapy from Dr. John Pena and was also willing to give acupuncture a try, because that worked wonders. But in general, I see guys going too heavy, not using a full range of motion, and not really making any attempt to feel the pecs contract and stretch when they press. They just want to blast up a lot of weight.
JM: I can’t say I made any mistakes. Some people knock my range of motion because I press up three-quarters of the way and don’t lock out. I do that because I have tendinitis in my elbows that gets really bad if I lock out. Not locking out works for me. Ronnie never locked out on presses either, and he had a great chest.
RH: It also seems to work well for Branch, who has one of the best chests in the sport. But back to other guys in the gym— where do you see them going wrong a lot?
JM: I see guys relying on spotters to use way more weight than they can really handle. One guy is doing a bench press and the other one is doing a deadlift. They’re setting themselves up to get hurt, or at the very least they’re not gonna get their chest to grow. They need to use a weight they can contract the pecs with, but too many guys won’t do that because of their ego.
RH: Juan, you do a pretty unique superset of dumbbell flyes and close-grip dumbbell presses called “chest busters.” Where did you get that from, and what area of the chest do you feel it hitting in particular?
JM: I saw someone doing it one time and thought it looked interesting. I feel those in the inner pecs, and it’s the only time you’ll ever see me locking out on a press. Anybody that wants to fill in that area should give it a try.
RH: You also did push-ups with weights on your back for this shoot. Is that something you do in your actual workouts?
JM: I don’t do weighted push-ups, but I do like to finish off my chest workout with a couple sets of push-ups to failure to chase the pump and get as much blood in there as possible.
RH: Vic, training with Victor Munoz and also having worked a little bit with Charles Glass, I’m sure there are some unique exercises you’ve done for chest too. Are there any you like enough to do on a regular basis?
VM: Not really unique movements, but I do a lot of things like drop sets and supersets to work the chest down to the deep fibers. I like to superset dumbbell flyes with either the bench press or weighted dips. Another thing I have done was very wide-grip barbell bench presses, something I saw Lee Haney do. That hits the chest way out where it ties into the delts. And who had a better chest than him?
Victor’s Training Split: 3 on, 1 off*
Day 1: Chest and biceps
Day 2: Quads and calves
Day 3: Shoulders and triceps
Day 4: OFF
Day 5: Back and hams
Day 6: Chest and biceps
Day 7: Quads and hams
*The order of body parts trained remains the same, but because there are four different “training days,” the rest day constantly shifts in terms of where it falls in the rotation.
Juan’s Training split
Day 1: a.m. – Chest p.m. – Biceps and Triceps
Day 2: a.m. – Shoulders p.m. – Back (heavy)
Day 3: a.m. – Quads p.m. – Hamstrings
Day 4: a.m. – Chest p.m. – Biceps and Triceps
Day 5: a.m. – Back (light) p.m. – Shoulders
Day 6: a.m. – Quads p.m. – Hamstrings
Day 7: OFF
Juan’s Chest Routine
Flat Barbell Bench Press 4 x 8-10
Incline Dumbbell Press 4 x 8-10
Hammer Strength Incline Press 4 x 8-10
“Chest Busters”* 3 supersets
*A superset consisting of 20-rep dumbbell flyes followed immediately by close-grip dumbbell presses, using the same set of dumbbells but held together, for 10 reps.