The Tight Tan Slacks of Dezso Ban: Basic Zuver's Gym Routine

Sunday, February 15, 2026

Basic Zuver's Gym Routine - Jamie Lewis

There's a great chapter on Zuver's in this book by Jamie Lewis.

Here's Ken Leistner's article on training at Zuver's:

https://ditillo2.blogspot.com/2016/07/how-we-trained-at-zuvers-ken-leistner.html

Monday

Bench Press -

5,5,3,3,2,2,2, (adding weight over the sets), then

3-8 singles

DB Bench Press (palms facing each other) -

4-8 x 3

Dips (vary hand spacing from set to set) -

4-8 x 3

Squat -

5,5,3,3,2,2,2 (adding weight over the sets), then

3-8 singles

"Once every three or four workouts, work would be done in the rack, shortening the range of motion to 3/4, 1/2, or 1/4 squats, depending on the weakness of the individual squatter (remember, we were doing pretty much full squats in competition in those days). These partials were done just as the full squats and the emphasis was on using a ton of weight (a half ton anyway. It wasn't that unusual to use 1100 to 1200 for the 1/4 squats)."

- Ken Leistner, photo below . . .