“Paying the Price for All the Heavy Lifting”: 3x Mr. Olympia Regrets Chasing Weights During His Bodybuilding Career; Revealed in 2008

Frank Zane, the three-time Olympia winner with just the right dimensions, was like a Greek God in his time. He, as a bodybuilder, set benchmarks for all others to come. In his time, bodybuilding was more about the aesthetics of a good physique and less about bulking. And without a doubt, Zane was able to achieve this. In fact, he was the standard for a good physique. It might be the reason why Zane’s name is still revered amongst the bodybuilding community, even though it has been a while since he was Mr. Olympia.

Frank Zane had to train and work really hard to get that body. While training will always be a part of bodybuilding, one has to factor in age as well. According to Zane, during his time, he trained every day and trained hard. However, he has since learned that it is better to train less frequently during old age. After all, lifting all that weight has to have some impact on your body.

What heavy weights did to Frank Zane

In an interview covered by Simply Shredded in 2008, Frank Zane was asked, “Was that early heavy lifting important for giving you a foundation on which you later built your physique?” And his answer was a little different from what you would expect it to be.

Zane said, “Well, it gave me mass, but I’ll tell you one thing if I had to do it all over again, I don’t think I would have done it. It just gets you injured. You’re just focusing on the weight and often ignoring the subtle signs your body is giving you and once you’ve hurt yourself, that’s it. It never really goes away. Now I’m paying the price for all of that heavy lifting.”

It makes sense for Zane to feel this way because bodybuilding injuries are destructive to the body. Most of the time full recovery is next to impossible. Zane also talked about how his shoulders have worn out due to all the heavy lifting he did for his upper body workouts.

Read more: “Nobody Has the Time to Do That”: Frank Zane Once Talked About a “Theoretical” One-Sided Workout That Might Produce Effective Results

However, Zane has learned to adapt with time and age and has tweaked his workout accordingly.

Zane’s Advice to Himself

When asked if there was anything he would change about his workout style in the past, Zane said, “So if I could do it over again I’d train with lighter weights, higher reps, no sets below 10 reps, with negatives slower than positives, and avoid injury.” It would mean less bulkiness, but his figure would still be defined, and he would not have to deal with as much pain in old age.

Now that Frank Zane is older, he has changed his workout style to suit his age. He works out less frequently with lighter weights and mostly relies on muscle memory to get him by. He has learned that working out in old age is a balancing act. One has to take care of old injuries while still being in shape.

Do you think bodybuilders should not lift the kind of weight they are lifting these days?

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