# 5 Essential Bodybuilding Training Tips for Tall Guys



## Big-John (Apr 23, 2013)

5 Essential Bodybuilding Training Tips for Tall Guys
Iron Man Magazine / Posted 04.22.2012
How best to put on size if you’re over 6’ tall?

All right, tall dudes, let’s face it: We can dunk a basketball, throw a football and baseball pretty far and usually line up first in school if they’re going by height, but in bodybuilding, damn, it takes forever to gain size and shed the skinny look we so passionately hate (I am 6’4’, by the way).

Why? It’s our body type. Of the three types—mesomorph, thick and athletic; endomorph, round and thick-necked; and ectomorph, tall and thin—we have the one that’s most difficult to put size on.

The good news, though, like Arnold once said: “A good big man will beat a good small man every time!”

So how best to put on size if you’re over 6’ tall? Here are five must moves for tall guys who hate skinny.

1) Fall in love with the leg press. Why? Legs form the foundation of every good physique, and you must begin training them hard from day one. That said, since we are tall, my number-one must-do move is the leg press.

The longer the lever, the stronger the weapon. We have long legs, and even though I also squat and deadlift, I have always used the leg press as a must-do staple. The reason? The amount of weight you can pile on and move under control. It’s the quickest way possible to put on size.

I am now up to almost 1,000 pounds on leg presses, doing them nice and slowly and under control—that’s 10 45-pound plates on each side of the machine.

Blast away on the leg press every five to seven days, and you’ll begin to reap the rewards of training heavy, which is an overall growth spurt because of the growth hormone release you’ll get.

[Are you looking for health, muscle and the amazing anti-aging benefits of resistance training? Get the new e-book by Steve and Becky Holman, Old School, New Body. Read the Iron Man magazine review here.]

2) Build a big back. Repeat after me, “Big back equals big body!” Have you ever seen a person with a huge back who was small? No, it can’t happen. Another strong motivator for training back hard is that every Mr. Olympia—other than Frank Zane—had a huge back: Arnold, Sergio, Samir, Dorian, Coleman, Cutler and now Phil “the Gift” Heath.

When you have a big back, everything else gets bigger too. What moves work best? I love any and all type of chins, but since we are so frickin’ tall, they are very hard to do properly. I do deadlifts off of the floor until I get to 225 to 275 pounds, and then I begin to pull off of the pins on the Smith machine. So the number-two must-do move is full deadlifts and then deads off the pins.

3) Train chest with incline work only. Most guys who start to work out with weights will ask you, “What do you bench?” It’s like a badge of courage. For us tall guys, though, since we have to move the bar so much farther, we typically have poor bench numbers. I can now do inclines with 245 for reps, very slowly and under control.

Incline work helps us have “rounder” pec mass and avoid the droopy chest that the many flat benchers have—those who love to push up a huge number on Monday night in the gym, make a lot of unnecessary noise and see if any pretty girls are watching.

With two more important moves to go, let me remind you that 80 percent of the muscle earned by bodybuilders comes in the major muscle groups—legs, back and chest.

4) Limit cardio. Why? Any additional training that you do other than the big three listed above will only take away from your true growth potential. If you need to do cardio for some unknown sadistic reason (most people hate cardio anyway), go ahead and add a 20-minute session of HIIT three times a week at the most. That’s the only other training you should do.

5) Get proper nutrition. Jack LaLanne once said, “Exercise is king, and nutrition is queen—together you’ve got a kingdom.” You need to feed the beast to grow—period: six meals a day or three food meals and three protein shakes.

In my first book, Fit Happens at Any Age, I discussed TNT—training, nutrition and time. All are important. As a natural-for-life athlete, I’ve been trying on and off for about 25 years to get to 250 pounds at 5 percent bodyfat. The journey continues, and I’m a lot closer than I’ve ever been at 270 with abs—at age 48.

Eat, sleep, lift heavy and intensely, and limit cardio. There you have it. See you at my next show, where I’ll be 6’4”, 235 pounds and 5 percent bodyfat—drug-free!

—Mike Pierron


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## chicken_hawk (Apr 23, 2013)

I am not a tall guy, but have tall friends who ask me for advice and this article was a good education. 

Thanks,
Hawk


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## FordFan (Apr 24, 2013)

Great read


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## srd1 (Apr 24, 2013)

Im 6'2" thanks for posting this.


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## tmac1515 (Apr 30, 2013)

I'm 6'4 here also Big John, interesting article, I have always read that the leg press should really be used as a "secondary" so to speak exercise because it wasn't anywhere near the quaility of the squat or deadlift. I've always done it after squats to just finish the homicide on my legs and the next day I always feel it.
thanks for the article.


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## vent_noir (Apr 30, 2013)

Hey man, im 6`5 and I start my PCT tomorrow. The thing is though i acquired a bit of fat during my cycle which i would like to see gone. I never do strenuous cardio and my heart rate rarely gets above 150. 

I want to double check with you and people on anasci about my plans. My *goal is to keep and much of my gains possible* from my Test E 500/w 12 w cycle. Can i lose a bit of fat and keep my gains?

Diet is still great. Nice big prework out meal, and steady amounts of food during the day very high protein. Im training just as hard if not harder when i was on cycle as well.


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## chicken_hawk (Apr 30, 2013)

This 5'11" dude is feeling short! LOL

Hawk


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## vent_noir (May 1, 2013)

Shameful self bump on myself cuz i need my question answered


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## Sylva (May 1, 2013)

ehhh...don't know how much I agree with all that. I'm 6ft plus, love squats, full deads, train chest from a variety of angels etc. 

In reality, it's different for everyone. what he says has worked for him is great but by no means is going to work for every "tall" guy.


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## tmac1515 (May 1, 2013)

Sylva said:


> ehhh...don't know how much I agree with all that. I'm 6ft plus, love squats, full deads, train chest from a variety of angels etc.
> 
> In reality, it's different for everyone. what he says has worked for him is great but by no means is going to work for every "tall" guy.



I have to agree, it is most definately different person to person, i used to think my knees hurt on squats because I was "too tall" but I learned it was just awful form. Dropped the weights down and rebuilt my squat, not at the same weight i used to "push"( was fucking awful form) but now I can actually say I am about as close to ATG as possible and i'm not saying that as one of the people who drop that and then skip squat day every week. One thing though about being so damn tall is there are days when a shorter guy is doing near the same weight as me on any given lift and he's the guy who comes in once and week and the word "diet" is like ancient roman language to him. He can move close to the same weight but only like 1/4 of the god damn distance. Oh and its harder to look "big" when your our height.

Got my rant out, thanks for listening


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## chicken_hawk (May 1, 2013)

vent_noir said:


> Hey man, im 6`5 and I start my PCT tomorrow. The thing is though i acquired a bit of fat during my cycle which i would like to see gone. I never do strenuous cardio and my heart rate rarely gets above 150.
> 
> I want to double check with you and people on anasci about my plans. My *goal is to keep and much of my gains possible* from my Test E 500/w 12 w cycle. Can i lose a bit of fat and keep my gains?
> 
> Diet is still great. Nice big prework out meal, and steady amounts of food during the day very high protein. Im training just as hard if not harder when i was on cycle as well.



You rarely keep all your cycle gains with PCT. GH will help and lean eating will prevent you from gaining too much fat. But you DO NOT want to cut calories until your boys are doing their job. Otherwise you are just adding to the catabolism.

I would wait till your done with PCT and then lean out slowly with a carb cycle or something similar.

Hope that helps,
Hawk


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