How Roy Callender Trains - Bill Reynolds

 

Great photo of Kono! 

Now, some b-building stuff . . . 

of a slightly extreme nature, some may say.

"I have a lot to learn," confessed Roy Callender, who only 12 hours before had won the IFBB Pro Mr. Universe title. "Every time I come to one of these contests, I learn something new and invariably come away with a better appreciation of how much I still don't know." 

I must confess that I was somewhat taken aback by this statement. Here's aa man 5'8" who packs on a rock-hard 220 pounds for each contest. After two years of training, he'd made short work of Mr. United Kingdom and Mr. Europe contestants. And after two years of comeback training, he'd already taken the Mr. Canada, Mr. International, Amateur Mr. Universe and Pro Mr. Universe titles. If this guy was serious about not knowing how to train, he must be one of the greatest natural bodybuilders the sport has ever seen! 

"I wouldn't say that I'm that gifted," answered Roy. "It's true that I've won international titles after two years of training and, incidentally, without ever hearing of steroids. Because of that, people call me gifted, but they don't eat with me and they don't train with me. They might come to the gym when I start, but when they're done training and at a bar somewhere having a beer, I'm still in the gym. If being able to work hard can be termed gifted, then I am gifted, but you can bet that hard work has put me where I am today.

Where Roy Callender is today is damn near the top of the pyramid of bodybuilders striving for Mr. Olympia gold. His incredible muscle fullness has been supplemented in the last year by a sane approach to balancing his proportions. By laying off 500-pound rep squats and using continuous tension movements, Roy has streamlined his formerly overly large and hammy thighs. This has given him a 25% overall improvement in his physique, but he's far from satisfied. 

"Like everyone, I have weak points. I train them longer and harder, and they come up, but they are still a bit down from what I'm looking for. Right now I'm sure to get in a solid hour of hard training for my calves every day."

This last statement gives some insight into Roy's training strategy. He doesn't just train, he bombs (The Barbados Bomber!) his muscles with massive weights for incredible numbers of sets. 

Sometimes he's in the gym as much as eight hours per day, all fast and heavy training. But we're moving too quickly. Let's let Roy tell how he trains in his own words. 

"To begin with, you must understand that I train instinctively. Over the years I've been able to learn what my body is telling me it needs, and then I am sure to train according to these subtle feelings. As a result of this, I train differently every day -- different body parts, different lengths of workouts. I may train som body parts daily, particularly those that are lagging.

"Since I live 25 miles from the gym where I train, I have a lot of time to think about my coming workout on the drive to the gym. According to how I feel, I plan out approximately what I will do for my workout that day. some days I feel like doing my whole body in one day, while others I can do much less. Either way, the plan I make while driving in will be subject to change according to how good I feel at various stages of the workout.

"Generally speaking, I train seven days a week until my body demands a rest. I don't know about weeks or months, just that when the sun rises I have to get up and go train, be it Sunday, Tuesday, bank holiday or Christmas. Finally, my body gets to a point where it tells me I have to rest, and only then do I take a day off. The most I've gone was 20 straight days, and the least was 12. 

"Once I get into the gym, I like to dress tropically. I hate to cover myself like an Eskimo, because I do come from Barbados originally, and it's in the tropics. In Montreal the weather gets cold at times, but it's not necessary to dress heavily at times. Some guys in the gym seem to feel it has to be cold, so they open all the windows in the winter. That disturbs me very much, and I really can't function to my fullest under these conditions. 

"In the gym I prefer to dress in track pants, a T-shirt and carpet slippers. I always train in those carpet silppers. I also always use sponges to protect my hands.        

Heaven only knows why I pick certain bodyparts to work on certain days. I just go by instinct, as to what to work. I just seem to know what needs some training and how much it needs. Over the years the instinct just developed. I can't explain it, but it happens. 

In Canada, you just have to warm up thoroughly, and I know I must warm up more than if I was training in California. 

I work light at first on every movement, doing two or three warmup sets, even if I'm already warm from another exercise. If I've been doing chest for an hour or two and switch over to shoulders, they'll be somewhat warm from the pec work, but I still do the two or three warmup sets for each delt exercise. With heavy training, this warmup is the only way I avoid injuries.

Actually, bodybuilding has been very therapeutic for my joints. I've had joint problems, but from pro wrestling, not from bodybuilding. I was what wrestlers call a flyer -- always in the air, and my back, knees, and elbows took a big pounding every time I landed on the mat. It all took its toll, so I couldn't squat or bench without warming up all day once I began fulltime bodybuilding. After two years, my joints now feel fine.  

My body requires both high intensity and high volume workouts to grow. 

Sometimes I train a bodypart two or three hours at a time with heavy weights and rest 30-45 seconds between sets on average. 

A few weeks ago I found myself doing a chest superset using a pair of 135 pound dumbbells for 8 on the incline dumbbell press and 100's for 8 on flyes. I've squatted 500 and benched 400 for a lot of reps. Very strictly, I can curl 200 pounds for 4 reps.

There is a conscious link between my mind and the muscles, and I don't reaally think about the weight I'm using. That's why I was so surprised to be using so much in the chest superset I just mentioned. The muscles simply grow to accommodate heavy weights.

Everyone asks me how many sets I do per bodypart, and putting a number on that would be unfair. I don't count sets and usually don't even count reps, so putting a number on it would be asking me to guess. I do feel I have to train long hours, which probably means a lot of sets. I certainly wouldn't train less than 3.5 hours per day, because it just wouldn't give me a good workout.

My really long workouts seem to happen about once every two weeks. I'm feeling good, and at such times I don't even know how long I've been in the gym. I'm enjoying the workout so much that it seems like I've been in the gym an hour, but it's been eight. I'll drink some liquids during the eight hours, but I never eat anything until I'm done training. 

I wish I could say that diet plays a great part in my success, but I simply don't know enough about it yet. I have been monitoring my diet, but it's in ignorance. You know, I didn't even know how to eat right in the last few days before a competition. I received a few hints and they helped enormously for the Pro Mr. Universe. I was more ripped, more vascular and less waterlogged than ever before. Nobody had told me how to eat and dehyrdrate before. 

I have so much to learn still that a trip to California for a few weeks is obligatory. Instead of just talking to the champions once aa month at the contests, I could talk with them every day. You know that it would help me a hell of a lot. 

I learn a lot from people like Robby, Mike Mentzer and you, Bill (Reynolds). My attitude changes toward the positive a little bit each time I talk with someone. I found out, for example, that it was possible to be goal-oriented and yet have no purpose along the way. Talking to you three has convinced me that having a purpose makes goals more obtainable. 

My general training philosophy is based on goals, but what's the use of having goals with no purpose. As a professional, I have to be goal oriented. There's also a touch of ego in it. I feel as though I let myself down if I don't go all-out to reach the goals I set. 

This year's goal is the Olympia and my purpose is not to let myself down. I've promised myself I'll win, and I don't ever want to go back on a promise to myself. Of course, I also promised my little daughter, which makes my purpose twofold.   

 

Enjoy Your Lifting!