• Serge Nubret Workout Template For Lifting Muscle
• Serge Nubret Workout Template For Lifting Weights
• Serge Nubret Workout Plan
• Serge Nubret Workout Template For Lifting Legs
• Serge Nubret Workout Template For Lifting Leg
• Serge Nubret Workout Template For Lifting

Serge Nubret is one of the all-time greats, nicknamed both ‘The Black Panther’, and ‘The Nubret Lion’ for the same reason: he was fearsome. During his peak, no-one wanted to go toe-to-toe with Nubret, he was the biggest and most cut bodybuilder of his generation.

He didn't spread this intake around 5-6 meals, either. Nubret only ate 2 or 3 massive meals per day. Once during his peak of training in the 1970s and after training 5 hours and not eating all day, he reputedly ate 14 pounds of food in one sitting. High-Frequency Training. Nubret would work each muscle twice per week. When you were competing, what were your weight training routines like? Answer: I have been training with 30/40/50 sets per body part (16 sets for arms) twice a week. Sets of 12-20 reps with 30 seconds rest in between sets. So it is impossible to train with very heavy weights. I used to do 225 kg max on bench press and I trained with only 70/100kg.

As the only bodybuilder to hold 6 world titles in 4 different federations – Serge Nubret will always be remembered for having one of the greatest physiques of all time.

But his journey to the top wasn’t without its setbacks. From his humble beginnings in the small French isle of Guadeloupe to being honored, then outcast from the IFBB, and finally founding and spearheading a new movement in the sport by creating the World Amateur Bodybuilding Association (WABBA) – Serge Nubret is one of the most influential bodybuilder of all time.

In our exclusive profile, we look deeply into his life, training, nutrition and philosophy to learn more about his greatness and we can use his example to achieve our own goals.

This is Serge Nubret’s story:

“To be a good bodybuilder, you must be a good observer.”

Athlete Statistics

“A bodybuilder is a sculptor that carries with him his own material.”

Notable Achievements

Serge Nubret Workout Template For Lifting Muscle

• 1958: Mr. Guadeloupe
• 1960: IFBB World Most Muscular Man
• 1963: NABBA Pro Mr. Universe (2nd)
• 1964: NABBA Pro Mr. Universe (2nd)
• 1969: NABBA Pro Mr. Universe (3rd)
• 1969: IFBB Mr. World (Tall) (2nd)
• 1970: IFBB Mr. Europe (Tall)
• 1972: IFBB Mr. Olympia (3rd)
• 1973: IFBB Mr. Olympia (3rd)
• 1975: IFBB Mr. Olympia (Heavy Weight, 2nd)
• 1976: NABBA Pro Mr. Universe
• 1976: WBBG Mr. Olympus (2nd)
• 1977: NABBA Pro Mr. Universe (2nd)
• 1977: WBBG Mr. Olympus
• 1977: WBBG Pro Mr. World
• 1978: NABBA Pro. Mr. Universe (2nd)
• 1981: Pro WABBA World Championships
• 1983: Pro WABBA World Championships

“Bodybuilding is not just about physical training with weight to change how you look. It’s about mind, body and spirit together in union so that everything grows, not just your muscles.”

Biography

Early Years & the ‘raison d’être’

For the first few years of his life, Serge grew up in Guadeloupe, a small French island in the Caribbean. In 1950, however, at the age of 12, Serge and his family moved to France to further the future bodybuilder’s education and development.

This is where it all started falling into place.

During his adolescence, Nubret discovered his talents for athletics, dominating in school sports and realized he had a future as an athlete.

In 1958, at the age of 20, Serge finished his studies and moved back to Guadeloupe with one goal in mind: to become a world champion bodybuilder. That very same year, he won his first Bodybuilder” competition ‘Mr. Guadeloupe’, but he had much more in mind.

During his time in France, Nubret had developed a passion for the sport, and believed it to be his “raison d’être” or in other words, his reason to live.

A young Serge Nubret.

World Champion & The IFBB

From 1960 onward, things started to happen fast for Nubret. He had 2 years of training, an incredible physique, and limitless ambition – it was time to take things to the next level.

That year he was accepted into the International Federation of Bodybuilders (IFBB) and declared World’s Most Muscular Man within just months of membership, and his success just seemed to snowball – including many acting roles in several feature films.

By 1970, Serge was not only a dedicated member of the IFBB, but the head of the French and European arm of the federation – that was until 1975 where Nubret decided he didn’t like the way the federation was headed.

The 1975 Olympia Controversy

The 1975 Olympia was to be Arnold Schwarzenegger’s last competition, and Serge Nubret was the biggest threat. He was believed to bigger, stronger and more cut than anyone else in the industry at the time – and that worried the judges. For Arnold’s last show, the rumor was they were willing to do anything to let him win.

Nubret was banned from entering the competition 2 weeks before it started. The reason the judges gave was due to his appearance in an erotic film that the federation didn’t approve of. Crushed from the news, Nubret stopped training almost immediately, to stop the intense strain he was putting his body to be in that condition.

That was until the night before the contest, when the Federation reopened his application and allowed him to compete again – at which point Serge had already lost 14lbs of muscle.

This gave Arnold a clear advantage and secured his victory in the contest – with Serge still managing to come 2nd, beating Arnold’s prime competitor Lou Ferrigno.

Serge’s Side of ‘Pumping Iron’

In the classic bodybuilding film ‘Pumping Iron’, Nubret is described as a ‘last minute contestant’, but in an interview with bodybuilding.com, Nubret tells a different story:

“In Pumping Iron at the Mr. Olympia when they announced “The last minute contestant Serge Nubret,” everybody knew for a very long time before that day that I was going to South Africa to compete and what happened when I got there. The camera crew came to Paris to film me 4 weeks before and offered me $200 to be in the movie. I did not agree to be filmed for $200; it is why I am not in the movie that much; only in the competition part.”

It definitely puts the events into a different light.

Life after the IFBB and the Formation of WABBA

Disenchanted with the IFBB, Serge gave up is position and went on to head up another Bodybuilding organization – the World Amateur Bodybuilding Association, or WABBA – with the intention of making sure competing athletes were continually given the support they need.

Nubret boycotted the IFBB for the rest of his career and went on to win multiple world championships in both the NABBA and the WABBA bodybuilding federations.

He remained active on these circuits all the way up to 1985 – that’s 25 years on the stage. After finishing up his competitive career, Serge owned and managed his own gym in Paris and released his autobiography several years later in 2006.

He is still, to this day, has been the only bodybuilder in the world to hold six world titles with four different bodybuilding federations.

Up until his passing, Serge was still very active in bodybuilding forums. He was always available for diet and training tips, offering advice to his fans in 3 different languages over 15 different websites.

“My training was based on concentration, and it’s impossible to cheat when you are concentrated.”

Training

Serge was renown for his intensive, and unique training style. There was one method, and one method only: Reps. Lots and lots of reps.

Despite his enormous, thick build, Nubret didn’t lift heavy – he found his body responded the best to light weights over a long duration of reps and sets.

In interviews, Nubret has claimed to train with 30, 40 or even 50 sets for some body parts (with the exception of only 16 sets for arms) that each consisted of 12 – 20 reps per set, with only 30 seconds rest between each. Workouts went on as long as they had to, with sessions lasting up to 5 hours at a time!

He was also famous for having one of the smallest waists in the business – Nubret claims the secret is one-straight hour of ab work every day: Starting with one long set of 2000 sit ups every morning.

It’s not the food which give you a general lean and vascular appearance, but the training or a combine of both.

Serge Nubret Workout Template For Lifting Weights

Nutrition

Serge Nubret Workout Plan

During competitions, Serge was an animal when it came to eating.

He claims to have ate a lot of red meat, rice and beans – when training for a competition Serge could eat up to 6lbs of red meat a day.

When it came to supplements – Nubret lived on a small island off the French Caribbean, he’d never heard of them. The same goes for anabolic performance enhancers.

When he first started training, Nubret lived off Caribbean food up until his first international competition in Montreal.

“Bodybuilding is not only a sport, but first an art.”

Idols and Influences

Serge always claimed his biggest inspiration in the was actor/bodybuilder Steve Reeves.

He was the reason Nubret started bodybuilding in the first place after seeing several of the actor’s movies and realized that was how he wanted to look.

“Perfect form is the most important thing to have a perfect body, it’s impossible to make a painting with a big brush.”

What we can learn from Serge Nubret

Arguably, Serge lived the bodybuilder lifestyle harder than anyone else.

He was a big believer in never going heavy, but pushing yourself as hard as you can. Instead of focusing on the weight, you should focus on yourself.

Don’t be intimidated or pressured into achieving the heaviest lift in the gym, instead, think about your form. Are you engaging with the muscle as well as you possibly can?

And this doesn’t just apply to training – but also to how you live your life.

Whatever Serge did, he didn’t care about the size of the achievement, but that it was done right. Winning (and running) the IFBB was a huge and heavy task, but as soon as comprises were being made and the federation’s ‘form’ started to falter, Serge started from scratch and founded WABBA – making sure it every step was executed to pure perfection.

No matter how big or small, Serge taught us a task should always be done to the best of your ability. If you feel that standards are starting to slip, and you can’t give it your all – take a step back until you can.

Bodybuilding historians often refer to the 1960’s and 1970’s as bodybuilding’s “Golden Age,” an homage to the then popularity of the sport and the iconic physiques that represented it.

While the bodybuilders winning contests today are certainly bigger leaner, and dryer, few would argue that they actually “look” better, at least from a purely aesthetic point of view.

Modern day bodybuilding has in some ways become a quest for extremes: jaw-dropping mass, razor-hard conditioning, or freak show bodyparts, all in an attempt to stand out from the other two dozen or so behemoths crowding the stage.

But back in the day, bodybuilders each had a certain “look” that eventually became their calling card: Frank Zane’s lean aesthetics, Franco Columbu’s compact mass, and Robbie Robinson’s legendary symmetry. To achieve their specific look, bodybuilders would train differently, eat differently, and even pose differently.

It was an idealistic, painstaking approach that created physiques as unique as the men that forged them, and none was more impressive or had a greater effect on me than the great Serge Nubret.

You might remember Serge Nubret as the imposing black bodybuilder with the incredible pecs in Pumping Iron that comes within a whisker of “taking” the title from then-five time Mr. Olympia, Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Five Hour Training Day

Known for his incredible ab development and near-flawless conditioning, Serge never once counted calories, watched his macros, or dieted in any fashion. In interviews, he stated that he always ate simply what he felt he needed and that was it.

Even before competitions, Serge didn’t believe in special dieting. He said he’d just train harder, sometimes up to five hours a day, six days a week. This also allowed him to stay near his competition weight year round, something very rare in today’s bodybuilding world.

Nevertheless, ‘overtrainaphobes’ will wonder how he could train so much? How was it possible?

Was it simply due to pharmaceutical help? Not likely – Serge said he’d never even heard of performance enhancing drugs until he’d already built his winning physique. (He started training in 1958 and lived on a small island.)

Was it genetics? Work ethic? Luck? Black magic?

I argue that the secret to Nubret’s success lies in some of his training philosophies. The good news is, while you can’t steal his DNA, many of these philosophies are applicable to natural trainees today.

Serge’s training was unique, from the split he followed down to the rest periods he used and weight lifted. His goal was always to get as much of a pump in the target muscle as possible using an extended time under tension and low rest.

For example, Serge always did 6 or more sets of 12 reps, using a weight for the first set he could likely lift for 20 reps. He also never went to true failure on any set and focused on keeping the pump throughout the workout. Using such a high volume combined with low rest periods meant he never went very heavy, something many bodybuilders’ egos won’t allow.

Furthermore, in terms of recovery, it meant his training didn’t put nearly as much stress on his central nervous system as doing even just a few sets to failure. This shortened his overall recovery time, allowing him to train more often.

I’ve used Serge’s program in the past and made exceptional gains. I put on five pounds of muscle in just four weeks while dropping my waist half an inch, from 28.5 inches to 28 inches.

Best of all, my joints felt great, I never felt as if I was overtraining, and I always had plenty of energy. Since continuing with his light weight, low-rest philosophy my waist is down to 27.5 inches at near 200 pounds.

However, as stated, the legends in bodybuilding all trained differently and got great results, so what worked for Serge and me may not work for you. You’ll just have to try it out and see.

Fortunately, jumping into training five hours a day as Serge did later in his career isn’t necessary (not to mention borderline crazy).

Here’s a basic layout Serge himself often recommended to young bodybuilders right before he died. This is what I started with and since adapted as I got more accustomed to it.

Serge’s Basic Routine

Day 1 – A
Day 2 – B
Day 3 – C
Day 4 – A
Day 5 – B
Day 6 – C
Day 7 – Rest

Workout A: Quadriceps and Chest

Exercise Sets Reps
A Squats 8 12
B Leg Press 8 12
C Leg Extension 6 12
Wait at least 15 minutes and move onto chest. If possible do them later in the day.

Exercise Sets Reps
A Barbell Bench Press* 8 12
B Flat Dumbbell Fly 6 12
C Incline Bench Press 8 12
D Incline Dumbbell Fly 6 12
* always performed extremely wide

Workout B: Back and Hamstrings

Exercise Sets Reps
A Chin-Up 6 12
B Behind the Neck Lat Pulldown 8 12
C Front Lat Pulldown 6 12
D Bent Over Row 6 12
Wait at least 15 minutes and move onto hamstrings. If possible do them later in the day.

Exercise Sets Reps
A Lying Leg Curl 8 12
B Standing Leg Curl 8 12
Workout C: Arms and Shoulders

Exercise Sets Reps
A Behind the Neck Press 6 12
B Alternate Front Raise 6 12
C Upright Row 6 12
D Lateral Raise 6 12
Wait at least 15 minutes and move onto arms. If possible do them later in the day.

Exercise Sets Reps
A1 Cable Biceps Curl 8 12
A2 Triceps Pushdown 8 12
B1 Barbell Curl 8 12
B2 Triceps Dip 8 12
Perform both pairings above as a superset (no rest interval).

Calves

Serge trained his calves with workouts B and C using both seated and standing calf raises. One day he’d use light weights, the other day he’d go heavier.

Forearms and Traps

Serge never trained either directly – apparently his shoulder training hit his traps hard enough, and his forearms grew from using high volume and gripping the weights tightly.

Serge Nubret Workout Template For Lifting Legs

Abdominals

Serge trained his abs once a day, every day. Immediately after waking, he would perform 2000 – yes Dr. McGill, two thousand – sit-ups. The sheer volume of the sit-ups is also the only form of “cardio” he ever performed.

Lifters wishing to follow his path should take note that Serge recommended starting with as many sit ups as you could perform in one set and then stopping for the day.

So if you can only do 30 reps, stop there instead of doing 5 sets of 30. Just get that one set in and improve every day. According to Serge, it took around a year for him to reach 2000 a day.

Serge Nubret Workout Template For Lifting Leg

Applying His Techniques In Your Training

Serge rested between 30 seconds to one minute between upper body exercises and between one to two minutes on lower body exercises. Occasionally, he would start paring down rest periods by 15 seconds every two weeks to get more work in during a shorter amount of time.

Furthermore, if you can’t handle training six days a week, try the routine with 3 days on and one off. Many of my clients and friends still achieved great results this way. It looks like this:

Day 1 – A
Day 2 – B
Day 3 – C
Day 4 – Rest
Day 5 – A
Day 6 – B
Day 7 – C
Day 8 – Rest

Final Thoughts

Even if this type of training isn’t something that you’d do personally, consider this article a dedication to a true legend of the sport of bodybuilding.

Although Mr. Nubret left us on April 19th, 2011, his legend and knowledge will live forever in those who were lucky enough to meet him or learn how he trained.

Serge Nubret Workout Template For Lifting

Source: http://www.t-nation.com/readArticle.do?id=5360878