Michael Dusa: I have been blessed to be friends with, and have as a mentor for nearly forty years, bodybuilding icon Mike Katz. Here are big Mike's words on what is going on in his busy life.
Q: Mike, back in your bodybuilding training days, what did bodybuilders do for cardio training?
A: Well, our training was so intense that we derived a cardio effect from the rapidity of the sets we performed. Before I ever went to California, a workout here in Connecticut would be plodding and methodical; it could take four hours for a workout to be done.
When I went to train with Arnold, the same workout would take ninety minutes. NO rest between sets - there was much more punishment training with him and the Gold's Gym crew.
For instance, we would do "the rack," as we called it. This was drop sets starting with standing dumbbell presses with 110 pounds in each hand drop to 85's, go to failure, to 55's, down to 40's, even 30-pounders. We'd do five sets going down the line, or, "The Rack." It was brutal.
From 'Encyclopedia of Modern Bodybuilding" first edition:
Arnold liked to train legs with me because he hated doing legs, and I loved to. My motivation pushed him to bring up his thighs, which early on were not on par with his upper body.
Q: You are known for one of the greatest chests in the history of bodybuilding. I'm sure folks would like to hear your thoughts on chest work.
A: Well, guys today strike the side chest pose with somewhat of a twist to their torso because most don't have a good ribcage development and many don't have lower biceps development. All Beckles, Larry Scott and Arnold all had these ingredients, so they could really hit this pose and hit it properly. Franco did not have much of a rib cage or great biceps so you know he always did the variation of the standard side chest pose. Franco's famous split in his chest is almost like an abnormality in his structure.
Myself, well, I've been born with a much higher xiphoid process than the average person. The tip of my sternum is high. My xiphoid is 8-9 inches higher from the navel than the average person, whose distance is maybe 3-4 inches. So, I had the capacity to build a much more volumetric rib cage. Another thing - many who even bother to do DB pullovers today don't do them correctly. A dumbbell should be used, fingers interlocked on the bar, elbows tucked in, laying across the bench with head hanging off, hips down, no spreading of the lats. Doing so isolates the ribcage. Or course there will be some lat stimulation, but with the elbows held close and hips down, if you really concentrate you'll target the rib cage.
Show that swingbell some love!
My favorite chest exercise is the dumbbell incline bench press. I feel that overall this is the best exercise for chest development. At the top the dumbbells should touch; you should, at this point, lift, tense the pecs, contract and squeeze the muscle at the top of the movement. Bring your elbows down to armpit level - this spares you from shoulder injury.
Barbell flat bench hurts the shoulders, largely because you don't have freedom of hand movement like you do with dumbbells. Your movements should always be controlled and you should think about why you are doing an exercise.
Squatting, for instance. I'd concentrate on the negative in the movement, go down slowly just below seated position, always pause, with no bounce.
The same for chest and every body part. I was never really injured lifting weights.
Q: What was your eating like back then?
A: I'd eat four pounds of meat per day. It came in one-pound packs that were specifically cut by my butcher, and after broiling there was ONLY blood left in the foil. I'd have pasta every third day; oatmeal for energy, a piece of fruit, always and only whole eggs - we'd use cholesterol as an energy source because of very intense workouts.
Of course I'd be given supplements by Joe Weider, but we were quite fond of Rheo Blair's products. [That might read: Even for free they were near-worthless]. I'd have a protein drink twice a day. Desiccated liver tabs were a big thing back then. Funny, some guys seemed to think they helped their liver, even though the science didn't make sense.
Of course, there were both Hoffman and Weider, and Protein of the Sea, which smelled worse than low tide in New Jersey. So then they'd load the product with sugar which defeated the purpose, but things tasted better.
Q: What first encouraged you to pick up a weight?
A: When I was 11 or 12 years old, I went to the theater and saw the first Hercules movie Steve Reeves ever made in 1957. It was akin to a kid seeing Arnold in Conan at the same age - I realized these guys couldn't act for shit and the sword-and-sandal films were crap - no, wait . . . it had a profound effect on me.
So of course I got the Weider courses in the mail. George Eiferman and Clancy Ross were featured . . .
two "early" versions of the Weider charts here:
I pasted the charts on my basement wall. I "borrowed" some milk crates (Go, young Mike, Go!) from the side of the road, built a primitive bench, and the guy across the street gave me some weights.
Soon I was training at the Meridian Gym with Joe LaPorte, who helped me immensely and was also a great area bodybuilder. He was one step below the great Joe Abbenda, who of course went on to win the Mr. America and Mr. Universe.
John Hansen interview with Joe Abbenda:
https://www.bodybuildinglegendsshow.com/podcast/season-7-episode-160-joe-abbenda-1962-aau-mr-america
My first bodybuilding contest was when I was 14, held in Waterbury, Connecticut. I didn't place. I competed for about three years before I even got a third-place trophy. I did finally win the Teenage Mr. Connecticut when I was 18 or 19, and by then I was also vying for honors in the Ct open division.
You must understand that I was a a three sport athlete in high school, competing in hockey, track and football. I also played football at Southern Connecticut State University. I was also with the NY Jets of the old AFL. So I always had a lot going on, but I still always trained. It took me four years to win the IFBB Mr. America, losing to Chuck Sipes, Frank Zane, and John Decola.
An interesting thing many don't know is that the America, World and Olympia would often be held the same night, and we had bodypart awards. But not for each show. A guy from the Mr. America may find himself competing with a guy from the Olympia onstage for best chest award. Arnold beat me early on fore best chest, but only once. I beat him and others for best chest several times after.
Q: Mike, how receptive was the football world to your training with weights back in the Sixties?
A: Well, Jess Dow, our coach at SCSU, didn't really understand the value of weight training. He'd hear me tossing the weights around and come running in from his office and holler, "Hell's Bells boy, what the hell are you doing? We have a game tomorrow!"
But he'd pretty much leave me be, because he knew come game day I'd run over anyone who got in my way. My roommate on the Jets was a 65-foot shot putter from Syracuse University. And we had a great inside linebacker, Jets fans will know of him - Al Atkinson. We three were the only ones on the Jets who lifted weights. I was among the faster linemen in the NFL in my time. I can tell you this, I may not have been faster than him, but I could keep up with NFL Hall of Famer Don Maynard, and boy was he fast.
In the end, I could have kept playing but there was much to consider. An injury, just getting married to my wife Nancy, I wanted to teach and win the Mr. America. It wasn't a hard decision to leave when I did.
Q: Please talk a bit about Pumping Iron.
A: Well, the writers of the book, Charles Gaines and George Butler, from White Mountain, Vermont, were not situated far from . . . This stuff is of little interest to me so I'll transition now to a Mike Katz chest training article instead . . .
Here:
MIKE KATZ'S CHEST TRAINING
By a lucky stroke of genetics I inherited a deep rib cage. Since you have to be an opportunist in bodybuilding, I tend to feature it in my contest posing. It has undoubtedly been a deciding factor in many of my victories.
The configuration of the natural chest is all apparent. From the side you see the high arc with the pectoral muscle itself thrusting forward at shoulder level. The front-to-back depth gives a broad expanse on which to hang the intercostal and serratus muscles. When you press that rib cage up in a side shot under the posing lights, you get a whole gallery of high-priced showpieces.
I also happened to be the lucky recipient of chest structure that gave me width. Facing front I look broad. If I take a deep breath, the whole chest structure elevates, and there's a muscle close out stretching from shoulder to shoulder that imparts the illusion of considerable width.
I can safely tout it now because I have it.
But it wasn't always like that. But for my bodybuilding efforts, I might have been just another tall guy with a lot of good-looking ribs. You can see those at any barbecue.
I believe in developing the chest from all angles. As mentioned, I can display a wide lateral area of my chest when I take a side pose of any sort. This means I've got to show a good lateral pectoral development along with the serratus and intercostals between the flared rib cage. Posteriorly, even the lats will show and become part of any side chest pose.
I believe in the balance between mass and definition. The heavy press movements and dips give me the mass that I can cut up and define with lighter leverage movements like flyes.
Here's my two chest routines:
Off Season
Mon/Thurs -
Bench press, 8x6-8
Incline barbell press, 5x6-8
Flyes -> SUPERSET with ->
Dips, both 5x8.
Pre-Contest
Mon/Thurs -
Bench press, 6x8-12
Incline DB press, 5x10-20
GIANT SET:
Flyes -> Dips -> Crossovers -> Pullovers, all 5x10-12.
Wed/Sat -
TRI-SET:
Flyes -> Dips -> Crossovers, all 5x10-12.
Of course these are not routines for beginners or intermediates. Here is some information on developing your own chest routine . . .
First, let me say something about the way I do all my exercises. I do my reps as strict as possible working with heavy poundages. By the time I reach the final rep or two I am forced to cheat, grinding them out while still attempting to maintain reasonable form. Each time this happens you make small demands on the muscle that eventually add up to compensations of added muscle. In this way each set represents a tiny surge forward in muscle development. Call them self-forced reps.
Not everyone has the good fortune of a naturally deep ribcage. It's tough when you realize you've been passed by when they were handing out ribcages. You can take heart, however, because there is a lot you can do to correct this violation of your inherent right as a prospective bodybuilder.
The chest can be divided into four basic regions: upper, lower, middle, and outer. All four must be trained, but depending on a bodybuilder's strong and weak points individual routines should be observed.
First of all, if you happen to have a flat chest structure and you want to get depth, you are going to have to do pullovers along with deep breathing. When you assess your problem, you can do something about it.
Take a typical chest-development problem: poor ribcage, average lower pec development, weak upper pecs and lack of muscularity. More likely than not you'll fall into that category if your chest problem is one of lack of depth. For this particular problem try the following routine, altering it according to your ability to recover, as if anyone but a complete idiot would need to be told anything as obvious as that. Fer fucksake, if you're getting enough sleep and food and are handling stress well but still not gaining for months, perhaps something in your lifting layout needs a-changin'? What kind of moron needs to be told that. And what annoying type of simpleton actually believes we are all created equal when it comes to this stuff? Those prone to lowest-common-denominator solutions lack the basic cosmic and individualistic intelligence to see that. You know who you fuckers are . . . now STOP IT!
Bench press, 8x6-10
DB incline bench press, 5x6-10
TRI-SET:
Incline flyes -> Dips -> Crossovers, all 5x8-10
SUPERSET:
Front chins (wide grip) -> DB pullovers (slightly bent arms), both 4x8-10.
If you do the exercises listed about, your chest will soon thicken and become more muscular (unless of course you're doing too little or too much for your individual makeup).
You'll note that you will be doing pullovers and chins using supersets. Your breathing rate will increase and so will the volume of air taken into the lungs with each breath. You will be lowering the weight backward with full lungs, and the increased internal pressure will force expansion of the ribcage.
