Bodybuilding veteran Rich Gaspari amassed a ton of fitness knowledge from his years of competing in the sport. Although he no longer competes, he stays in top form and provides insight into the training methods of an elite bodybuilder. In a recent post made on Instagram, Gaspari broke down how to stimulate muscle growth by incorporating slow-mo reps.
Rich Gaspari first rose to prominence for his insane muscle mass, definition, and conditioning in the mid-1980s. He displayed a dry look and was the first athlete to showcase striations on his glutes. He proved to be one of the most disciplined Men’s Open competitors during his run with seven consistent top-10 finishes at the Mr. Olympia contests. While he did not win the Sandow trophy, he took three silver medals, falling short of eight-time champion Lee Haney on each occasion. He graced several magazine covers and was inducted into the IFBB Hall of Fame in 2004.
Since moving on from competition, Gaspari has been a vocal critic of the evolution of the Open class. He fired shots at modern competitors for depending too much on steroids instead of focusing on quality training earlier this year. He followed up with a motivational message asking his fans to push themselves in the training room a month later. Gaspari provided the keys to training with intensity using techniques such as supersets, drop sets, giant sets, and more.
Gaspari opened up on the difference in the gear bodybuilders from the 90s would take to now five months ago. While many compounds, such as Anavar, Winstrol, Testosterone, and Trenbolone, continue to prevail, he highlighted the issue of procuring these substances from the black market instead of getting a pharmaceutical-grade product.
The 60-year-old provided tips and techniques to maximize the gains on leg day workouts three months ago. He stressed the importance of training the lower body to failure to get it to grow and laid out some methods for achieving the same.
Rich Gaspari voiced his disapproval of the lack of artistic touch in the Open class weeks ago. He argued bodybuilding is an art form that cannot be treated like a sport and credited the Classic Physique competitors for keeping the art form alive.
Gaspari detailed a modified version of the sumo squats for a stronger lower body two months ago. He suggested using elevated feet to get an extra range of motion and add stress to the glutes.
Rich Gaspari shares tips on stimulating muscle growth with slow-mo reps
In a recent Instagram post, Rich Gaspari shared tips on utilizing slow-mo reps for enhancing muscle growth.
“A lot of you have seen videos of me doing drop sets to train a muscle to failure,” said Gaspari. “Works really well, we do supersets, drop sets. Going quickly sometimes the motion can be a little bit more free meaning they’re not prefect reps. Then there’s other type of training that I do, slow mo reps. Slow mo reps I do every once in a while just to have a different feel to my muscle to stimulate them. Slow mo rep is doing a rep five seconds on the extension and five seconds on the contraction. For example, doing a leg press, five seconds on the way down and five seconds on the way up. Normally on my leg training I like to do reps of 20 or 30. When you’re doing reps super slow and you’re controlling the weight the whole time, no momentum. What’s going to happen is you’re going to have to lighten the weight tremendously and in doing that you’re also going to feel the muscle fibers working, slow and fast twitch you’re going to really feel them working and you may only be able to do 10-15 reps. You can follow this principle and can bee only able to do maybe three exercises.”
Rich Gaspari extended his support for reigning four-time Classic Physique Olympia champion Chris Bumstead last month. He believes Bumstead has a stellar package and could hold his own against the freakiest mass monsters of the Open if he added 40 pounds of muscle to his frame and grew his arms. Then, he provided abs exercises for building strength along with a tip on training intensity for muscle growth earlier this month.
His latest offering will certainly help many fitness fans take their physiques to the next level with the intensity technique.