LegendaryLife Blog

Testosterone Nation (also known as T-Nation) is a hard core bodybuilding community that has some very interesting articles about improving your health and pushing your body beyond its natural limits. This past week, they interviewed Stan “The man” McQuay who is an up and comer leading a new generation of bodybuilding physiques. I hope the days of more muscle at any cost once again get replaced by aesthetics and symmetry of a by gone era.

Stans Background

According to Wikipedia, Stan was born in Japan from an Irish father and Japanese mother and spent most of his life in the San Fernando Valley as a youngster. After one of his friends was sentenced to 25 years in jail for killing a person and wounding another, he swore off gang related activities and got into college, this lead him into bodybulding. His height of 5 ft 7 is the average height of most bodybuilders and started competing on stage at the insistence of friends starting in 1998. He graduated from college as a personal trainer which is booming since he began to acquire cover shoots for various magazines around the world. He won his IFBB Pro Card in the Lightheavyweight division in the 2006 NPC Nationals at the age of 34 after 10 years of hard work and dedication in bodybuilding.

Interview Highlights

• isn’t looking to compete directly against the mass monsters @ up to 300 lbs
• stick to training methods that work for YOU and rotate them to induce maximum shock value, sometimes train to failure, other times doing pyramid sets
• when training to failure, use machines, not free weights unless you enjoy hospital visits
• leg extension require very good form for maximum effort (sames goes with all exercises to avoid injury)
• starts off days knowing what body parts need training in the gym
• hits abs directly 3x a week (abs are trained by other exercises as well)
• using too much weight with abs leads to too much bulk (for bodybuilding)
• diet is 75% of how you will look
• posing routines are exhausting because you must maintain muscle control and squeeze throughout your body for a few minutes while controlling your breathing and looking relaxed
• chest and back work symmetry takes lost of study to accomplish properly
• pull-ups isn’t an exercise performed often by bodybuilders but he believes they help in creating separation
• works delts (shoulders) directly but never performs forearms isolation exercises
• training myth he found to be false include high reps to burn away fat before a contest
• mass phase (off-season) is up to 210 while contest phase (in-season) is at 185
• uses BCAA, Metabolic Drive (protein) and Raspberry Surge drink after workouts
• taking a break from cover shoots to concentrate on personal training business (famous client includes Dr. Dre)

The Bottom Line

Bodybuilding is a very healthy and beneficial activity as long as it isn’t taken to extremes… it’s also great to see Asians beginning to make inroads into the sport as well!

References
http://www.t-nation.com/readTopic.do?id=1610650
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stan_McQuay