[0:00] Kevin is one of my rivals. Could have
[0:02] been better than he was because many
[0:04] years he took like 6 [music] months off
[0:05] and played in a rock band and didn't
[0:06] even lift a weight and lost like 40-50
[0:09] lbs and he put it back all on again. So,
[0:10] if he didn't [music] do that, he
[0:11] potentially could have been better, but
[0:13] he chose to do what he did.
[0:14] >> Let's process this. He would finish
[0:17] [music] the Mr. Olympia, he would do the
[0:18] Mr. Olympia usually taking top four,
[0:20] which is crazy because his best
[0:22] competitive situation was in the
[0:23] mid-90s, which as you guys know is kind
[0:25] of one of the golden eras. Just legends,
[0:27] just stacks of legends and Kevin was
[0:29] well in the mix. [music] I mean, he beat
[0:30] a ton of those guys. Kevin Levrone
[0:32] probably has some of the best shoulders,
[0:35] chest, and triceps ever [music] in the
[0:38] history of the bodybuilding game.
[0:42] >> [music]
[0:45] >> Hey folks, Dr. Mike here for RP
[0:47] Strength. I've been a long-time
[0:49] professor of exercise and sport science
[0:51] and a long-time bodybuilder. And I have
[0:54] to admit that one of my top two
[0:57] inspirational [music]
[0:58] physiques of all time for me personally
[1:02] is our video of the day, a Mr. Kevin
[1:06] Levrone. I always pronounced it as
[1:08] Levrone because I spent a lot of time in
[1:11] Philadelphia.
[1:12] >> [music]
[1:12] >> And I would look at the last name and be
[1:14] like,
[1:15] from Levrone.
[1:18] But, with all due respect, it is Levrone
[1:20] as far as I can tell. Kevin Levrone
[1:23] has taken second at the Mr. Olympia, I
[1:25] believe off hand, four times.
[1:28] And um I was going to say it wasn't for
[1:30] lack of trying, but [music] we'll get to
[1:32] that in a bit because Mr. Kevin Levrone
[1:33] had a very interesting approach to
[1:35] lifestyle and training [music] and diet
[1:37] and being the man overall. Huge mega
[1:39] props and respect up front. Let's dig
[1:41] into some training and nutrition, Scott.
[1:44] >> Yeah, yeah.
[1:45] >> Yeah, do your job, Scott.
[1:48] >> Kevin is one of my rivals from the '90s.
[1:51] Could have been better than he was
[1:53] because many years he took like 6 months
[1:55] off and played in a rock band and didn't
[1:56] even lift a weight and lost like 40-50
[1:58] lb and then put it back all on again.
[2:00] So, if he didn't do that, he potentially
[2:02] could have been better, but he chose to
[2:03] do what he did.
[2:05] >> Let's process this. He would finish the
[2:08] Mr. Olympia, he would do the Mr. Olympia
[2:09] usually taking top four, which is crazy
[2:12] because his best competitive situation
[2:14] was in the mid-90s, which as you guys
[2:16] know is kind of one of the golden eras
[2:18] of competitive bodybuilding in the pros
[2:19] like Flex Wheeler, Ronnie Coleman,
[2:22] Dorian Yates, Nasser El Sonbaty, Chris
[2:25] Cormier. I mean like we just like
[2:27] legends, just legends, just stacks of
[2:29] legends and Kevin was well in the mix. I
[2:31] mean like he beat a ton of those guys.
[2:33] And then as soon as that was over in the
[2:35] fall, he stopped lifting weights.
[2:39] I know.
[2:40] And he stopped taking steroids. And he
[2:43] would go on tour with his rock band,
[2:47] which I know from memory was called Full
[2:49] Blown. You like that, Scott? Still know
[2:51] that.
[2:51] >> It's a double entendre.
[2:53] >> Maybe. Kevin would compete at about 245
[2:57] lb on stage, shredded. [music]
[2:59] He would come all the way down in many
[3:01] instances to what I believe is about 205
[3:05] soft [snorts] pounds.
[3:07] >> [music]
[3:07] >> And then what he would do, about 6
[3:09] months-ish before the next Olympia, is
[3:11] literally just click into place and
[3:14] begin to live the bodybuilding lifestyle
[3:18] full blown, no irony there. And that
[3:21] combination would balloon him back up
[3:23] and at the [music] same time shred him
[3:25] down to a roughly 40 lb heavier physique
[3:30] with something like, I don't know,
[3:32] [music] 15 lb less absolute amount of
[3:35] fat at the same time. So, here's what we
[3:37] can take away from Kevin's insight.
[3:39] >> [music]
[3:40] >> One
[3:41] is if you want to make your best gains
[3:43] overall, you can't take 6 months off
[3:47] every year. Not [music] going to happen.
[3:48] However,
[3:49] big insight here
[3:51] is that with just 6 months of getting
[3:54] back into training drugs and lifestyle,
[3:56] he was able to build back every single
[3:59] gram of muscle
[4:02] and burn off every single gram of fat
[4:04] that had switched their contexts over
[4:06] the past 6 months. Once you achieve a
[4:09] certain muscularity and a certain
[4:11] leanness,
[4:13] getting back to that muscularity and
[4:15] leanness is like
[4:18] an order of magnitude of factor of 10,
[4:21] 10 times
[4:23] easier than getting it for the first
[4:25] time. This is incredible, incredible
[4:29] news for all of us. You might have to go
[4:31] on a long trip.
[4:32] You might have to
[4:34] go and do some other stuff in your life.
[4:36] You might get hurt and have to take time
[4:38] off to heal. And the reality that
[4:40] presents us here today is
[4:43] >> [music]
[4:43] >> it takes months to get it back. By the
[4:46] way, this works both with drugs and
[4:48] without drugs. [music] Just a matter of
[4:49] getting your diet and training locked
[4:51] back in, you regain lost muscle so god
[4:54] damn fast and it's not hard, it just
[4:57] happens. The thing I'll tell you is
[4:59] watch out for one big mistake. Your
[5:02] muscles will grow stronger rapidly and
[5:05] bigger rapidly and thus also stronger
[5:07] again.
[5:08] Your nervous system will make your
[5:10] muscles be able to produce way more
[5:12] force, way faster
[5:14] than your tendons adapt. Resist the
[5:17] temptation to go heavy early. After 3 or
[5:19] 4 months, okay, yeah, then your tendons
[5:21] are strong again, you can sort of do
[5:22] normal stuff. It's a going to take that
[5:24] long. So, yes, you can pull off what
[5:26] Kevin Levrone did if you have to come
[5:28] back after a long layoff and it's
[5:30] amazing, amazing news, but don't you
[5:32] dare rush back because that's how you
[5:34] get snapped the fuck up.
[5:35] >> Is there a place in your mind where you
[5:37] think had I kept going all year round,
[5:40] maybe I would have been better?
[5:41] >> No. No.
[5:42] >> You know that for certain?
[5:43] >> Yeah, cuz when I did go, I went balls to
[5:45] the wall for 4 My body was hurting. My
[5:47] body was maxed out. There was times,
[5:49] man, where I didn't think I was going to
[5:51] make it, to be honest with you, because
[5:53] I realized that my body was a hyper
[5:55] responder, and I could gain muscle so
[5:57] quick in such a short period of time. I
[5:59] could go from 225 to 256. I was 256 at
[6:03] the Arnold one year.
[6:05] And I put on all that weight in 3
[6:07] months, [music] and it was muscle. I was
[6:08] like, "This is crazy." Look, man, there
[6:10] were times when my blood pressure was
[6:12] up. I knew it was up. My body was just
[6:14] transitioning so quick and so fast that
[6:16] it was too much. Sometimes I would have
[6:17] nosebleeds. I remember this. If I had
[6:19] [music] a stayed on that pace all year
[6:21] round, I wouldn't be here right now.
[6:22] Guaranteed. Guaranteed.
[6:27] >> Some folks do get banged up a lot of
[6:30] training, and staying gigantic and
[6:33] staying on tons of gear
[6:35] does absolutely reduce your literal
[6:37] lifespan and your bodybuilding lifespan.
[6:40] So,
[6:40] >> [music]
[6:41] >> with Kevin coming down or off of the
[6:43] gear entirely for 6 months every year,
[6:45] that definitely almost certainly
[6:47] extended his lifespan. I don't know if
[6:48] replacing it with the rocker lifestyle
[6:50] did a lot of favors there, but, you
[6:51] know, you got to have some fun. But,
[6:53] there is probably
[6:54] uh some kind of third option there,
[6:57] where training very smoothly and
[7:00] lowering gear substantially, but still
[7:02] training for maintenance,
[7:03] maybe not getting down to 205 lb, but
[7:06] getting down to 235 or something,
[7:09] could have seen him come back more
[7:11] slowly after that when you really crank
[7:13] the gear and the training,
[7:14] >> [music]
[7:14] >> but um some people psychologically, you
[7:17] know, they like the shit. They don't
[7:19] love the shit. And so, after about 6
[7:22] months of hardcore prepping, they're
[7:23] like, "Fuck this." And you got to
[7:25] respect [music] that. As a human
[7:26] individual, you know, technically
[7:28] speaking, anytime you see anyone have
[7:29] any kind of fun [music]
[7:31] that doesn't comport 100% with
[7:32] bodybuilding, you know, you could make
[7:34] the critique that they could have been
[7:35] better. And maybe that's a valid
[7:36] critique. But, a human's going to human.
[7:39] >> At 189 lb, I could bench press 405, you
[7:44] know, clean and naturally. 405 without a
[7:46] bench shirt.
[7:47] >> I believe it. Let me say something that
[7:49] I've said before, but it bears
[7:50] repeating.
[7:51] The spectrum of human genetics
[7:53] >> [music]
[7:53] >> is a lot wider than most people think.
[7:55] There's not only just genetics for being
[7:57] a baller early, but there's genetics for
[7:59] adaptability. Kevin just kept growing.
[8:01] [music] And the reason he was able to
[8:03] bench so much isn't because I think he
[8:04] had some kind of magical tendons or like
[8:07] a neural drive that was crazy. That's
[8:09] John Hack. You guys can look him up.
[8:11] Scott, can we link a John Hack video
[8:12] somewhere? That That just makes no god
[8:14] damn sense.
[8:15] >> [music]
[8:15] >> But Kevin Levrone probably has
[8:18] a combination of some of the best
[8:21] shoulders, chest, and triceps ever in
[8:24] the history of the bodybuilding game.
[8:26] >> [music]
[8:26] >> And so if those muscles are that big and
[8:28] that growth prone, of course you're
[8:29] going to bench a shit load. And he did.
[8:32] >> [music]
[8:32] >> Does that mean that you can make a natty
[8:35] goal for yourself
[8:37] of benching 405 at 190 lbs? No. When
[8:40] people look up to naturals
[8:43] versus look up to enhanced folks,
[8:45] sometimes they like to tell themselves,
[8:47] "I look up to natties because it's
[8:49] attainable. It's realistic."
[8:52] But the reality is that it is not
[8:54] necessarily
[8:55] >> [music]
[8:56] >> any more attainable to look up to
[8:57] natties because you're obviating
[8:59] genetics entirely. You're never going to
[9:02] look like anyone except the best version
[9:04] of yourself.
[9:04] >> [music]
[9:05] >> So Kevin's shit, benching 405 at 190 lbs
[9:08] drug free, inspirational.
[9:10] Not
[9:12] something you should aspire to do
[9:14] because you can only aspire to be a
[9:15] little bit better every [clears throat]
[9:16] other week than the version you are
[9:18] today.
[9:20] >> It was easy to like
[9:22] gain muscle and put on size and get
[9:25] strong. I remember when I first joined
[9:27] Powerhouse Gym
[9:29] and I was like 21, 22 years old,
[9:33] you know, my diet would consist of a
[9:35] chili cheese hot dog. Now I get two of
[9:38] those. My diet was just stop eating, you
[9:41] know, uh chili dogs with cheese on them.
[9:44] And uh just clean my diet up for 4 weeks
[9:46] and and I went and Mr. Maryland show.
[9:50] >> I hate him. Just kidding.
[9:52] >> Just [laughter] kidding. That's the
[9:53] jealousy talking.
[9:54] >> That's genetics right there. And there's
[9:56] an important lesson we can draw from
[9:58] that. When you see someone with an
[10:00] exceptional physique, especially when
[10:02] they're younger, it is not immediately
[10:04] apparent that they [music] know much. If
[10:06] you told Kevin Levrone right now, like,
[10:08] "Hey, so you were 21 years old like
[10:10] winning the Mr. Maryland, you knew a ton
[10:11] of shit." He'd be like, "No, I knew
[10:13] nothing." Look, we'll look at your
[10:14] physique, brother. Again, I'm just here
[10:17] on vibes. I have no idea how the hell
[10:18] this is happening. Why is this
[10:19] pertinent?
[10:20] >> [music]
[10:21] >> Because many people
[10:23] will look towards results, {quote}
[10:26] {unquote}, or the state of the athlete
[10:28] to see who they want to follow. The bros
[10:32] sometimes know shit, a lot of shit.
[10:35] Sometimes they don't know diddly dick.
[10:37] Sometimes the guys that aren't even
[10:39] remotely jacked know a ton. How do you
[10:41] disambiguate the two? You got to go on
[10:43] your own learning journey and know at
[10:46] least the basic facts.
[10:47] >> That's why I love Kevin cuz I think he
[10:48] says he got second at the Olympia before
[10:50] he started like trying to learn
[10:52] anything.
[10:52] >> Yeah.
[10:53] >> It was pure ambition.
[10:54] >> He just showed up.
[10:55] >> So, like, you know, what are you going
[10:57] to learn from that? You got to learn
[10:58] some reservation about uh guessing who
[11:00] knows things and who doesn't know
[11:01] things. Uh, 100-lb dumbbell curls. This
[11:04] is really impressive. So, I have been
[11:06] sent this video on social media in
[11:09] response to my not invention, but
[11:11] repopularization of the lying dumbbell
[11:13] curl, aka the clown curl,
[11:15] and was told that I would become much
[11:17] larger if I wasn't a {quote} insert
[11:20] expletive at the expense of homosexuals,
[11:23] and uh actually manned up and did some
[11:25] real weight. Now, uh two things I'd say
[11:28] [laughter] about that, three things. I I
[11:30] it right?
[11:31] Fact, I'm a little bitch. So, no no
[11:34] absolutely no debate there. The reality
[11:36] of why the 100-lb dumbbell curl is a
[11:39] thing that correlates to Kevin Levrone's
[11:41] arm size is because Kevin Levrone
[11:44] couldn't avoid big arms if he wanted to
[11:46] by simply showing up to the gym. And so,
[11:49] can you do one-arm dumbbell curls with
[11:51] as much weight as possible for sets of
[11:52] five? Yes. Is that needlessly risky?
[11:55] Yes. Would you get a better stimulus if
[11:57] you did something that actually
[11:59] stretched the bicep and put tension on
[12:01] them at the same time? Yes. Is it
[12:03] totally fine to do incline or totally
[12:05] fine to do standing dumbbell curls
[12:06] alternating if it's something that you
[12:08] feel is hitting your muscles well?
[12:09] Absolutely. But if you're doing it
[12:12] because IFBB pros from the '90s did it
[12:15] and they were jacked, you're
[12:16] misconstruing the confluence of
[12:18] genetics, drugs, and years of any kind
[12:21] of hard work for this exercise as the
[12:23] exercise to do. The 100-lb dumbbell
[12:25] curls are the most insane shit. Mega
[12:28] respect. This is actually Scott, this is
[12:29] really good technique.
[12:31] >> I was shocked.
[12:32] >> Yeah, 100%.
[12:32] >> He's lifting them. He's not just like
[12:34] >> Dems is real 22-in arms. But is there
[12:37] some kind of magic where if you try to
[12:39] do the one-arm dumbbell curl with as
[12:41] much weight as possible that your biceps
[12:43] will grow better than any other
[12:45] legitimately decent bicep exercise? No.
[12:48] No, there is not. Unless you want to
[12:51] extend that logic and say to yourself,
[12:53] "The way I'm going to become sized like
[12:55] Ronnie Coleman is I'm going to squat and
[12:57] deadlift 800 lbs for [music] a double."
[13:00] Um that's not a good way to train for
[13:02] bodybuilding. Do you guys know why
[13:04] Ronnie did it? Because he could.
[13:07] And God bless him. But if you think
[13:09] that's the path to your best physique,
[13:11] maybe you're right.
[13:12] >> [music]
[13:12] >> But you're probably wrong.
[13:14] >> You might do reps, but I'm not a rep
[13:15] guy. Reps doesn't do anything for me. It
[13:18] burns too many calories for me. I
[13:20] already have a super fast metabolism.
[13:23] >> Okay.
[13:24] >> So, for me I needed to do six to eight
[13:26] heavy movements, you know, compound.
[13:28] >> Squats, bench press.
[13:30] People who are incredibly responsive to
[13:32] growth, on average, have faster twitch
[13:35] muscle fiber composition. There are a
[13:37] few things going on in there.
[13:39] >> [music]
[13:40] >> One is, if you do happen to be fast
[13:42] twitch dominant, that is possibly true
[13:45] for you, though it might not even be
[13:46] true for you. So, you might like higher
[13:48] reps better.
[13:49] The other thing is this,
[13:50] someone huge like Kevin Levrone says 68
[13:53] reps are better. You may steer your
[13:55] animal the ship and say to yourself, you
[13:56] know what? I'm just going to do sets 68
[13:58] reps cuz good enough for Kevin, good
[13:59] enough for me, and that's bullshit.
[14:01] [music] Because you have to try every
[14:02] single rep range, do diligence, from
[14:05] sets of roughly five reps all the way to
[14:06] sets of roughly 30 reps, and do
[14:09] everything in between, and see per
[14:11] muscle where you get the best responses.
[14:14] The good news is, you don't have to just
[14:15] track your growth, though you can, you
[14:17] have to check out where you get your
[14:19] best pumps, where you get your best
[14:21] soreness, and that deep intramuscular
[14:23] fatigue, versus the fatigue of just
[14:26] being like,
[14:27] "I'm just done lifting. This sucks." So,
[14:30] if you do higher reps and your muscles
[14:31] feel kind of flat and tired, nah, that's
[14:33] not it. If you do lower reps and your
[14:35] joints hurt, but your muscles don't feel
[14:37] shit, that's not it. Somewhere between
[14:39] very high and very low reps, sometimes
[14:41] there's just only right answers, and
[14:43] sometimes only a particular rep range
[14:45] will be the best for a particular
[14:46] muscle. It's up to you to find out what
[14:48] that is. If you use the RPE hypertrophy
[14:50] app, you can program any reps and any
[14:52] sets and any muscles that you want, and
[14:54] really track the progressions like that.
[14:56] That correlates it with pumps and
[14:58] soreness for you, so you don't even have
[14:59] to do that work, and you'll notice like,
[15:01] "I'm typically getting really pumped
[15:02] from sets of 68 on leg press." Then that
[15:05] is at least the answer for a little
[15:06] [music] while. The other thing is, there
[15:08] are very many videos of Kevin Levrone
[15:10] doing um
[15:12] higher reps, cuz he'll do core work of
[15:14] 68 reps, but then he'll do drop sets of
[15:17] higher reps. So, sometimes what folks
[15:20] preferred the most isn't even the only
[15:22] thing that worked for them. And
[15:24] there were many bodybuilders of even
[15:26] that era that loved higher repetition
[15:30] training. Many, many, many Markus Ruhl
[15:32] loved higher repetition training, was
[15:33] bigger than Kevin Levrone. Nasser El
[15:35] Sonbaty loved higher reps for variety of
[15:37] exercise. One of my favorite
[15:38] bodybuilders of all time, a little bit
[15:39] late in that era, was a gentleman named
[15:41] Chris Dim, who if they had the 212 class
[15:44] back in the day would have almost
[15:45] certainly won the 212 Olympia. He's a
[15:47] Vietnamese-American bodybuilder,
[15:48] phenomenal, phenomenal bodybuilder and
[15:50] awesome human being as far as I could
[15:51] ever tell. He did higher reps, didn't
[15:54] call them that back in the day. Scott,
[15:56] he would do sets with mini breaks of
[15:59] like 100 reps on the leg press, right?
[16:02] And like Chris Dim was fucking enormous.
[16:04] And so before you say, "Yeah, man, on
[16:07] vibes only
[16:08] getting heavy weight, man, slag iron
[16:11] getting best way to train, brother, is
[16:14] you show up to the railroad track and
[16:15] just start eating railroad ties."
[16:18] Uh that always [clears throat] throws
[16:19] down the gauntlet. My uncle didn't even
[16:21] lift weights, man. He just drank
[16:22] excessively and beat the shit out of me
[16:24] and that's why he was jacked. That's
[16:26] hardcore.
[16:28] Kevin Levrone had huge muscles, but he
[16:32] also had a huge member. In our members
[16:35] section, you can see the longer extended
[16:37] version of this video where we may or
[16:39] may not show a little bit of extra
[16:42] something special about Kevin. That last
[16:44] part's joke, but member section is real
[16:46] and you can subscribe to it, pay a
[16:48] little money for a ton of value. All
[16:50] right. Click around, do that. Now back
[16:52] to video.
[16:56] 455 lbs. 455 pound lay ass pounds.
[17:10] Scott, how many times have you seen
[17:11] somebody do a full range of motion bench
[17:12] press 455? [music]
[17:15] >> Very rare.
[17:16] >> Yeah.
[17:17] Huge.
[17:17] >> If you warm up properly, this could be
[17:20] an [music] ultra-effective way of
[17:21] building muscle. Would I recommend it?
[17:23] No, I wouldn't. Here's why.
[17:25] >> [music]
[17:25] >> There's probably nothing you can't get
[17:27] out of sets of 10 to 12 reps, even sets
[17:29] of 10 to 15 reps with that same amazing
[17:32] technique Kevin is doing,
[17:33] that you would get out of sets of five
[17:35] or six [music] reps. But the probability
[17:37] of injury is way, way [music] lower with
[17:41] sets of 10 to 15 reps than sets of five
[17:43] reps because the mechanical load is just
[17:46] way lower, and the amount of load into
[17:48] your joints, and [music] tendons, and
[17:49] muscles is the number one causative
[17:52] factor of injury.
[18:00] >> [screaming]
[18:05] >> 500 for threes wild.
[18:07] Like [music]
[18:08] that is less of a cause of bigger pecs
[18:11] and more of evidence of bigger pecs. You
[18:13] have to have big pecs in order to do 500
[18:16] FOR THREE.
[18:18] OH, MAN, these are so good, man.
[18:20] >> And this is after the flat.
[18:22] >> Same [snorts] workout. Same workout. 455
[18:26] lbs on the incline, which like almost
[18:28] nobody could do. If you're wondering
[18:30] what kinds of weights
[18:32] build Kevin Levrone's pecs, shoulders,
[18:36] and triceps, here's your answer.
[18:54] Kevin Levrone, and I've probably said
[18:56] Levrone by accident about 10 times
[18:57] during this video, is a legend of the
[18:59] sport. We can learn
[19:02] from his technique. We can learn from
[19:04] his dedication.
[19:05] We can learn from his chill attitude. We
[19:07] can also learn that maybe bodybuilding's
[19:09] not not the end all be all all the time,
[19:11] and it's totally cool to take some time
[19:13] off and get right with life until you
[19:14] get back in Eugene Teo style. Kevin
[19:17] Levrone's physique to me is one [music]
[19:19] of the greatest of all time. I would say
[19:21] his side chest and his most muscular are
[19:25] like
[19:26] maybe unbeatable still. And because of
[19:29] that, he lives in the pantheon of the
[19:31] gods and deserves our endless respect.
[19:33] He is rated a
[19:35] monster god out of 500.
[19:40] And I'll see you guys next time.
[19:46] All right, that was fun. I personally am
[19:48] going to do two things. I'm going to go
[19:50] home, stare into the mirror at my
[19:52] pathetic triceps, realize I'm not Kevin
[19:54] Levrone,
[19:55] >> [music]
[19:55] >> and then cry. But then also, I'm going
[19:57] to click on this video right here to
[19:59] watch more content. [music] You want to
[20:00] do any of the combination of the two, be
[20:02] my guest. See you next time.