DefMetalLifter
MuscleChemistry Registered Member
[h=1]Heavy and Light Back Days[/h][h=2]See How IFBB Pro Juan Morel Trains Back[/h]
Prior to Victor Martinez becoming a top IFBB Pro, the only sport most people knew athletes from the Dominican Republic kicked ass at was baseball. There are only 1.6 million Dominicans in the USA, more than half of whom live in the New York City metro area. Yet aside from Victor, who is an [COLOR=#6F0303 !important]Arnold Classic champion and a Mr. Olympia runner-up, Dominicanos have claimed both the Heavyweight title at the USA (Jonathan De La Rosa) as well as a future star in fourth-place Light-heavy Lenyn Nunez. The Overall winner of the 2011 USA was Steve Kuclo, but right behind him was [COLOR=#6F0303 !important]Juan Morel[/COLOR] from you guessed it, New York. It didn’t take any special gift of clairvoyance to predict that Juan would sweep the Supers and the Overall at the IFBB North American a few weeks later, which he did. With surprisingly small joints and hips for a man standing nearly six foot, Juan’s combination of mass, shape and condition had IFBB Pro written all over it.[/COLOR]
The Last Man Standing - Finally!
Those of you who compete and have ever taken second place know the uniquely bitter sting. I’ve been in that spot 14 times. You almost had it— but not quite. In the three contests leading up to Juan’s North American victory, it had come down to him and just one other man. At the 2010 North American, Lee Banks (himself no stranger to the runner-up spot) got the nod for the Heavyweight class and the Overall. That fall at the Nationals, it was Fred Smalls whom Morel had to graciously concede defeat to. And only weeks before getting his pro card, Juan shook Steve Kuclo’s hand when “Kingsnake” nabbed the Super Heavies and went on to become the Overall USA champion.
“That first time I was honored to even be runner-up at my first pro qualifier,” he begins. “The second time I was a bit down, but got over it quickly and started training for the USAs.” Even when it happened yet again in Las Vegas, Juan kept a positive attitude and gave props where it was deserved. “I had my eye set on the North Americans. Steve deserved the win at the USA. He did his homework and came in looking freaky. And I know we will meet again onstage sometime in the near future!” I confess that prior to this year, Juan Morel was hardly on my radar and I knew next to nothing about the guy. It’s time to find out a bit about who he is and how he got here.
A Bit of a Late Start, But it Didn't Matter
Juan Morel was born 29 years ago on Atlantic Avenue, between the NYC boroughs of Brooklyn and Queens. Unlike most of the men featured on the pages of MD, he was well out of his teens before he discovered bodybuilding. As a youth, Juan was actually one hell of a handball player and competed successfully in tournaments. Later he fell into boxing, something he did show talent for but which his family was not crazy about. “Even if you’re really good, you still end up getting punched hard in the head a couple hundred thousand times,” he notes.
Juan began weight training to augment his skills in the ring, and as often is the case, started to find himself drawn more to lifting than the sport it was originally meant to be an adjunct to. “My body started changing fast, and people kept commenting on it,” he tells us. This is also when his friends started calling him “Diesel,” in reference to both his newly expanding muscles and a vague reference to the actor Vin Diesel. By now he was flipping through magazines on the newsstand and captivated by the physiques of men like Flex Wheeler, Kevin Levrone, Shawn Ray, Ronnie Coleman and Chris Cormier. At the outset Juan thought all he really wanted was a big chest, but quickly he decided he wanted to look like a bodybuilder.
At 22, Juan realized he could not pursue both boxing and bodybuilding, and bid farewell to pugilism. In the three months after he channeled his focus toward bodybuilding, he grew from 170 to 200 pounds, much of it in his legs and arms. “It’s funny because now I am being told I need to bring up my legs, and in the first couple of years I was totally bottom-heavy,” Juan laughs. If anything, Morel’s strength gains actually outpaced his muscle growth. He tried powerlifting for a time, and posted top lifts of a 500-pound bench press and both squats and deadlifts with 750 pounds.
Eventually Juan’s rapid increases in power led to problems. “I was so strong and so eager to get to the heaviest weights that I never took time to warm up,” he admits. “My first set of [COLOR=#6F0303 !important]squats would be with 600 pounds.” One day in early 2007 he was maxing out for 1 rep with 800 pounds on the squat without wraps when he felt a strong pull in the back of his knee. He had torn ligaments, but did not seek surgical repair. “I didn’t have health insurance and I just couldn’t afford it,” he says. “I just sucked it up. I could barely walk for a little while, and I didn’t do anything for legs for three months.”[/COLOR]
[h=2]The Stage Calls--And Juan Answers[/h]
Juan finally had enough people telling him he would do well in competition by 2007 that he decided to do a contest. He targeted a local NPC event called the East Coast Championships. Though he was naturally lean, at four weeks out Juan came to the realization that he had no idea what he was doing, so he got a crash course in contest prep. At his first show, Juan weighed in at 198 pounds (a full 42 pounds less than he was at the USA four years later) and took second place in the Light-heavies. From there it’s been a steady progression from the local and regional level to the national level, where he did just one junior show (2009 Junior Nationals), placed fourth at the [COLOR=#6F0303 !important]2012 New York Pro and won that year’s Europa Battle of Champions.[/COLOR]
Juan’s physique is a meld of mass and shape, but one area that stands out is his mighty back. Over the last couple of years, he has seen notable improvements by hitting it twice a week with a heavy and a light day. That’s actually a bit deceptive, since he rarely goes higher than 10 reps even on the light day. The real distinction is that the heavy day is made up nearly entirely of free weight basics like deadlifts and rows, and the light day allows for more cables and machines— not unlike the system favored by MD’s own [COLOR=#6F0303 !important]eight-time Mr. Olympia Ronnie Coleman in his prime. Here are some of Juan’s favorite back exercises.[/COLOR]
[COLOR=#6F0303 !important]
[/COLOR]
Juan credits much of his back development to the most raw of all pulling movements, the deadlift. Ask him how many sets of deadlifts he does, though, and it’s tough to get a clear answer. That’s because he will “warm up” with singles and doubles until he arrives at whatever weight feels heavy enough that day to do 1 or 2 work sets of 8 reps with. It might take 4 sets to get there, or 6-7. At his heaviest off-season bodyweight of over 270 pounds, Morel can usually handle eight plates or 765 pounds for a double, though he would stick with a mere 675 for 8.
Dumbbell Rows
The one-arm dumbbell row is another staple in Juan’s heavy back workouts, and how heavy he goes all depends on where he is. His main training headquarters is Synergy Fitness on 4th Avenue in Manhattan, where the ‘bells go up to 150 pounds. But as most New York area bodybuilders do, Juan tries to catch workouts at Bev and Steve’s Powerhouse Gym in Syosset. It’s easily the best-equipped gym on the East Coast, and even the biggest of the big boys are usually more than satisfied with the dumbbell rack that goes up to pairs of 200. “I did a 220 one time at a gym that had one, but that was a little too heavy for me to really feel my back working,” Juan notes.
T-bar Rows
Each heavy day also features a couple of good sets of either barbell or T-bar rows. “T-bars are an awesome exercise, but I don’t care too much for that machine with the pad on your chest,” says Morel. “You don’t get the same sensation in the back as a real T-bar row, because you’re too limited in your range of motion with that pad.”
Lat Pulldowns
Lat pulldowns are the only exercise that Juan does on both of his distinct back training days, but he never does them the same way twice in one week. “I alternate between the regular wide grip, a wide underhand grip or the bar attachment that’s about shoulder width and has your hands facing toward each other,” he explains. “I do chins on my light day, but lat pulldowns let you get a lot more control over the contraction and the stretch.”
Seated Cable Rows
Morel feels the seated cable row is such a valuable movement for adding detail and helping beef up the mid-back that he does it first with both hands, then switches out the attachments so he can perform it one arm at a time for supreme concentration and isolation. “This is the row that I take the most time to stop the movement at the point of full contraction and squeeze the hell out of my lats,” he tells us.
[h=2]Contest Diet[/h]
Meal 1 - 80 grams [COLOR=#6F0303 !important]whey protein isolate, 50 grams carbs from oatmeal, 2 tbsp peanut butter
Meal 2 - 12 oz. top round steak, 2 whole eggs, 6 oz. sweet potato, 1 tbsp macadamia nut oil
Meal 3 - 8 oz. chicken breast, 2 whole eggs, 6 oz. sweet potato, 1 tbsp macadamia nut oil
Meal 4 - (post-workout) 10 oz. chicken breast, 1.5 cups white rice
Meal 5 - 8 oz. chicken breast, 2 whole eggs, 6 oz. sweet potato, 1 tbsp macadamia nut oil
Meal 6 - 12 oz. steak, 2 whole eggs, 8 oz. white potato or sweet potato
Meal 7 - 10 oz. chicken breast, 2 tbsp peanut butter
Meal 8 - 10 oz. chicken breast, 2 tbsp peanut butter, 1/3 cup almonds[/COLOR]
"Get Big Sundays"
Having a cheat meal every week in the off-season is commonplace, and most bodybuilders include one even during their diet phase. Juan Morel is the first man I know who can look this good even though every Sunday, all year long, is an orgy of gluttony.
“If I don’t have my cheat days on Sunday, I get really flat,” he says. “It’s the only way I can stay full when I diet.”
[COLOR=#6F0303 !important]Protein is not a priority as Juan stuffs himself from dawn to bedtime with cereal, up to two pizzas at a time, $20-30 worth of Baskin-Robbins ice cream at a sitting, and home-cooked meals made by mom. Morel loves her traditional Dominican dishes of rice and beans and platanos (fried plantains), but says her lasagna is his favorite. When I mentioned that lasagna didn’t sound very Latin, he agreed. “But my mom makes one hell of a lasagna anyway,” he informed me.[/COLOR]
Juan typically passes out around 9:00 p.m. in a near coma-like state, having consumed perhaps 150 grams of protein and 10 times that amount each of carbs and fats. And if you don’t already hate the guy, I should let you know that he ate McDonald’s burgers and fries every single day the last three weeks before both the USA and North Americans— to stay full, of course!
Morel has a very bright future ahead of him in bodybuilding— but if for any reason it doesn’t work out, I think he would do well in competitive eating!
Contest History
2007 NPC Eastern USA 16th, Light Heavyweight
2007 NPC East Coast Second, Light Heavyweight
2008 NPC Eastern USA Second, Heavyweight
2008 NPC Suburban Heavyweight and Overall
2009 NPC Northeast Grand Prix Heavyweight and Overall
2009 NPC Junior Nationals Seventh, Heavyweight
2010 IFBB North American Second, Heavyweight
2010 NPC Nationals Second, Heavyweights
2011 NPC USA Championships Second, Super Heavyweights
2011 IFBB North American Super Heavyweight and Overall
2012 Europa Battle of Champions First Place
2012 New York Pro Fourth Place
2013 New York Pro Third Place
2013 IFBB Tampa Pro Second Place
Special Thanks
Juan wanted to thank a few people, including his friends and family, his daughter, his workout partner and national-level Heavyweight Akim Williams, Evan, P.J. Braun, Victor, Jonathan and Jill Reville. “And I need to thank Jay Cutler for saying in MD that he thinks I will be one of the top pros in the sport in the next few years,” he added. “I was honored and pretty much in shock when I read that, coming from such a great champion.”
He’s got youth on his side as well as a structure and shape that has the potential to go all the way in this game, so it will be interesting to watch “Diesel” grow and mature now that he’s all done taking second places and has graduated to the major league.
The Last Man Standing - Finally!
“That first time I was honored to even be runner-up at my first pro qualifier,” he begins. “The second time I was a bit down, but got over it quickly and started training for the USAs.” Even when it happened yet again in Las Vegas, Juan kept a positive attitude and gave props where it was deserved. “I had my eye set on the North Americans. Steve deserved the win at the USA. He did his homework and came in looking freaky. And I know we will meet again onstage sometime in the near future!” I confess that prior to this year, Juan Morel was hardly on my radar and I knew next to nothing about the guy. It’s time to find out a bit about who he is and how he got here.
A Bit of a Late Start, But it Didn't Matter
Juan Morel was born 29 years ago on Atlantic Avenue, between the NYC boroughs of Brooklyn and Queens. Unlike most of the men featured on the pages of MD, he was well out of his teens before he discovered bodybuilding. As a youth, Juan was actually one hell of a handball player and competed successfully in tournaments. Later he fell into boxing, something he did show talent for but which his family was not crazy about. “Even if you’re really good, you still end up getting punched hard in the head a couple hundred thousand times,” he notes.
Juan’s physique is a meld of mass and shape, but one area that stands out is his mighty back.
Juan began weight training to augment his skills in the ring, and as often is the case, started to find himself drawn more to lifting than the sport it was originally meant to be an adjunct to. “My body started changing fast, and people kept commenting on it,” he tells us. This is also when his friends started calling him “Diesel,” in reference to both his newly expanding muscles and a vague reference to the actor Vin Diesel. By now he was flipping through magazines on the newsstand and captivated by the physiques of men like Flex Wheeler, Kevin Levrone, Shawn Ray, Ronnie Coleman and Chris Cormier. At the outset Juan thought all he really wanted was a big chest, but quickly he decided he wanted to look like a bodybuilder.
At 22, Juan realized he could not pursue both boxing and bodybuilding, and bid farewell to pugilism. In the three months after he channeled his focus toward bodybuilding, he grew from 170 to 200 pounds, much of it in his legs and arms. “It’s funny because now I am being told I need to bring up my legs, and in the first couple of years I was totally bottom-heavy,” Juan laughs. If anything, Morel’s strength gains actually outpaced his muscle growth. He tried powerlifting for a time, and posted top lifts of a 500-pound bench press and both squats and deadlifts with 750 pounds.
“I need to thank Jay Cutler for saying in MD that he thinks I will be one of the top pros in the sport in the next few years. I was honored and pretty much in shock when I read that, coming from such a great champion.” —Juan Morel
Eventually Juan’s rapid increases in power led to problems. “I was so strong and so eager to get to the heaviest weights that I never took time to warm up,” he admits. “My first set of [COLOR=#6F0303 !important]squats would be with 600 pounds.” One day in early 2007 he was maxing out for 1 rep with 800 pounds on the squat without wraps when he felt a strong pull in the back of his knee. He had torn ligaments, but did not seek surgical repair. “I didn’t have health insurance and I just couldn’t afford it,” he says. “I just sucked it up. I could barely walk for a little while, and I didn’t do anything for legs for three months.”[/COLOR]
[h=2]The Stage Calls--And Juan Answers[/h]
Juan finally had enough people telling him he would do well in competition by 2007 that he decided to do a contest. He targeted a local NPC event called the East Coast Championships. Though he was naturally lean, at four weeks out Juan came to the realization that he had no idea what he was doing, so he got a crash course in contest prep. At his first show, Juan weighed in at 198 pounds (a full 42 pounds less than he was at the USA four years later) and took second place in the Light-heavies. From there it’s been a steady progression from the local and regional level to the national level, where he did just one junior show (2009 Junior Nationals), placed fourth at the [COLOR=#6F0303 !important]2012 New York Pro and won that year’s Europa Battle of Champions.[/COLOR]
He’s got youth on his side as well as a structure and shape that has the potential to go all the way in this game, so it will be interesting to watch “Diesel” grow and mature now that he’s all done taking second places and has graduated to the major league.
Juan’s physique is a meld of mass and shape, but one area that stands out is his mighty back. Over the last couple of years, he has seen notable improvements by hitting it twice a week with a heavy and a light day. That’s actually a bit deceptive, since he rarely goes higher than 10 reps even on the light day. The real distinction is that the heavy day is made up nearly entirely of free weight basics like deadlifts and rows, and the light day allows for more cables and machines— not unlike the system favored by MD’s own [COLOR=#6F0303 !important]eight-time Mr. Olympia Ronnie Coleman in his prime. Here are some of Juan’s favorite back exercises.[/COLOR]
[COLOR=#6F0303 !important]
[COLOR=#6F0303 !important]Click to Print[/COLOR]
Deadlifts
Dumbbell Rows
T-bar Rows
Each heavy day also features a couple of good sets of either barbell or T-bar rows. “T-bars are an awesome exercise, but I don’t care too much for that machine with the pad on your chest,” says Morel. “You don’t get the same sensation in the back as a real T-bar row, because you’re too limited in your range of motion with that pad.”
Lat pulldowns are the only exercise that Juan does on both of his distinct back training days, but he never does them the same way twice in one week. “I alternate between the regular wide grip, a wide underhand grip or the bar attachment that’s about shoulder width and has your hands facing toward each other,” he explains. “I do chins on my light day, but lat pulldowns let you get a lot more control over the contraction and the stretch.”
Seated Cable Rows
[h=2]Contest Diet[/h]
Meal 1 - 80 grams [COLOR=#6F0303 !important]whey protein isolate, 50 grams carbs from oatmeal, 2 tbsp peanut butter
Meal 2 - 12 oz. top round steak, 2 whole eggs, 6 oz. sweet potato, 1 tbsp macadamia nut oil
Meal 3 - 8 oz. chicken breast, 2 whole eggs, 6 oz. sweet potato, 1 tbsp macadamia nut oil
Meal 4 - (post-workout) 10 oz. chicken breast, 1.5 cups white rice
Meal 5 - 8 oz. chicken breast, 2 whole eggs, 6 oz. sweet potato, 1 tbsp macadamia nut oil
Meal 6 - 12 oz. steak, 2 whole eggs, 8 oz. white potato or sweet potato
Meal 7 - 10 oz. chicken breast, 2 tbsp peanut butter
Meal 8 - 10 oz. chicken breast, 2 tbsp peanut butter, 1/3 cup almonds[/COLOR]
"Get Big Sundays"
Having a cheat meal every week in the off-season is commonplace, and most bodybuilders include one even during their diet phase. Juan Morel is the first man I know who can look this good even though every Sunday, all year long, is an orgy of gluttony.
“If I don’t have my cheat days on Sunday, I get really flat,” he says. “It’s the only way I can stay full when I diet.”
[COLOR=#6F0303 !important]Protein is not a priority as Juan stuffs himself from dawn to bedtime with cereal, up to two pizzas at a time, $20-30 worth of Baskin-Robbins ice cream at a sitting, and home-cooked meals made by mom. Morel loves her traditional Dominican dishes of rice and beans and platanos (fried plantains), but says her lasagna is his favorite. When I mentioned that lasagna didn’t sound very Latin, he agreed. “But my mom makes one hell of a lasagna anyway,” he informed me.[/COLOR]
Juan typically passes out around 9:00 p.m. in a near coma-like state, having consumed perhaps 150 grams of protein and 10 times that amount each of carbs and fats. And if you don’t already hate the guy, I should let you know that he ate McDonald’s burgers and fries every single day the last three weeks before both the USA and North Americans— to stay full, of course!
Morel has a very bright future ahead of him in bodybuilding— but if for any reason it doesn’t work out, I think he would do well in competitive eating!
Contest History
2007 NPC Eastern USA 16th, Light Heavyweight
2007 NPC East Coast Second, Light Heavyweight
2008 NPC Eastern USA Second, Heavyweight
2008 NPC Suburban Heavyweight and Overall
2009 NPC Northeast Grand Prix Heavyweight and Overall
2009 NPC Junior Nationals Seventh, Heavyweight
2010 IFBB North American Second, Heavyweight
2010 NPC Nationals Second, Heavyweights
2011 NPC USA Championships Second, Super Heavyweights
2011 IFBB North American Super Heavyweight and Overall
2012 Europa Battle of Champions First Place
2012 New York Pro Fourth Place
2013 New York Pro Third Place
2013 IFBB Tampa Pro Second Place
Special Thanks
Juan wanted to thank a few people, including his friends and family, his daughter, his workout partner and national-level Heavyweight Akim Williams, Evan, P.J. Braun, Victor, Jonathan and Jill Reville. “And I need to thank Jay Cutler for saying in MD that he thinks I will be one of the top pros in the sport in the next few years,” he added. “I was honored and pretty much in shock when I read that, coming from such a great champion.”
He’s got youth on his side as well as a structure and shape that has the potential to go all the way in this game, so it will be interesting to watch “Diesel” grow and mature now that he’s all done taking second places and has graduated to the major league.
