3 Things I Learned From Frank Zane

#1 Training outlook

I would always make my way to Frank Zane’s stand when I went to the Arnold and Olympia each year, to support one of my idols in bodybuilding. In my opinion, he had the best physique in the Golden Era. Clearly Arnold dominated the scene, but he also was a much bigger athlete than me structure wise. Frank on the other hand was a more similar makeup, weighing in around 185 lbs. I always thought I had a shot to look like him one day, so I set out to achieve this.

I would go to his booth each year to buy any of his new things, even if it was just to support him as a figure because I knew that it would help me strive to attain my current physique. I used to chit chat with him a few times per year, and then one year I asked him: “Frank, how do you feel from the years of heavy training, all the competing, and what you have put your body through?” He answered, “I have so many friends that never trained or took care of themselves, plus their bodies hurt and feel terrible now. I also hurt from some of my injuries from years of training, but I feel and look pretty good for 70 years old. I came to the realization that you are going to hurt either way if you go out hard. So, I would say I would rather look good and hurt, then look bad and hurt ha.”

#2 Posing

Bodybuilding posing is an art form that Frank Zane, Ed Corney and Arnold himself took a lot of pride in for their stage presence. Frank always had flow to his posing routine that made himself appear as symmetrical as humanly possible. Frank showing off his conditioning is one of the primary reasons that I’m so drawn to it. Frank was from a generation where the waists were definitely small, and the conditioned guy could beat a large guy if he wasn’t in excellent shape.

I always kept in mind when I’m on stage posing, that I want to look as smooth, crisp and effortless as possible. If I could nail these aspects, it would result in an incomparable confidence on stage that would give me my best shot to win.

#3 Training

I did a 1 on 1 phone consultation with Frank years ago, and I asked him a few questions that I had thought about for years. One was about how he got his waist so small, excluding dieting. My question was more geared towards what waistline and oblique exercises he did to achieve his physique. He simply said, “I see guys doing all these side bends with weights, but this is actually training your waist to be thicker. Why on earth would you want to build muscle on your obliques?” He said, “I would do thousands of broomstick twists to make sure they go away. I want there to be next to nothing, so my waist looks extremely small.”

I did these for years because Frank did, and I’ll say I know my golf swing even got better ha. Either way, I left my obliques alone and never trained them heavy again. I started doing conditioning and diet, plus some stick twists to make sure I didn’t build them up.

The other thing that he shared with me when I asked him how he got such separation in his legs, was the top ¾ of the leg extension. He told me to do 6 sets of 10 reps, alternating back and forth with 1 leg at a time with no rest. I would then do what would be 3 sets of 6 rounds total. This is a ton of conditioning for the quad, so this will create the separation that bodybuilders crave.