Saturday Workout Videos Review: Ronnie Coleman - The Unbelievable

As you may have noticed from my previous post about Pumping Iron, I don't watch bodybuilding videos for the sake of dissecting the everyday lives of bodybuilders. I usually don't even care about the filler shots. I am intent on seeking those little things that most people miss when they watch these videos. There is something in the way that these pros do their exercises that make them so massive. For this Saturday, I have chosen one of the most massive bodybuilders to ever walk the earth and his famous video, Ronnie Coleman: The Unbelievable.

The Exercises

I wouldn't go full length here, as I have found a very detailed description of Ronnie's exact workout, weights, reps and sets in bodybuildingpro.com's review of this same DVD (click here). I'll try to criticize the exercise in terms of safety and their usefulness to us regular folk to apply in our regular workouts.

Shoulder workout:

Overhead Presses: I have never really like doing these seated. In the video, Ronnie pressed 315 lbs seated, to which in my opinion a dangerous move for anyone, steroid user or not. The lower back is not designed to handle this kind of pressure. Ironically, doing cleans and presses (where you can clean before every press) seems to be a safer alternative, as well as a bigger fat burning exercise, because it involves the entire body, from head to toe. Notice here how Coleman seems to do the same limited range of motion on all movements, presses and raises-wise, focusing on the pump and burn as well as force overload on his muscles.

He uses so much crazy heavy weights, such as 200 lbs dumbbell shrugs. How in the living hell can he do this stuff without tearing anything off his body this close to a contest??

Back:

802 lbs for 2 reps Deadlift: This has got to be the craziest thing that any bodybuilder, in any era has done during their pre-contest prep. Not only that, he did heavy ass T-bar and barbell rows. When most bodybuilders whine and complain how weak they feel during their workouts when in a shredded condition, Coleman seems to be getting stronger. Maybe, we should change the title to The Unstoppable.

One noticeable thing is that they didn't cover Coleman's lat workout. This is probably because he does mid- and lower back on a separate day from his lats. I think he did cover this with other videos.

Quadriceps:

He didn't show us how he trained hamstrings in this video, folks. But he did show us how he trained his legendary quads. One thing I didn't like though is the way he did front squats. The bouncing at the bottom is too dangerous for the majority of the people and should never be attempted by anyone, especially under a heavy barbell.

In General:

Coleman focuses on building high tension and pump in the muscle. He also relies primarily on heavy basic exercises done for high repetitions, to which how he accomplishes this is beyond me. Learn from the selection of exercises he uses, and try the pump approach, but use your common sense. Use lighter weights first and develop a feel for the moves. Feel free to experiment to get the most out of every workout. Also, remember not to go all out all the time; learn to cycle your weights and effort for better gains.