5. Cindy Landolt
WW Magazine Who is Who 2014 has chosen Cindy Landolt to be one of the most influential person in Zurich. Cindy Landolt is the most famous bodybuilder of Switzerland.
Workout: Monday sees me training my upper body vertical pressing structure. Notice that I don’t specifically break down my workouts into details about different triceps heads or delts, just work on the exercises that increase the strength in the overhead press.
For me that involves seated dumbbell presses 2-3 sets in a rep range of 8-5 reps descending using the maximum weight that I can safely control through a full range of motion, followed by a type of standing side lateral raise, but here I use cables so that the resistance remains the same throughout the entire range of motion, just 1 set here, that’s enough to stimulate development if the weight and form are perfect.
From there I move to a triceps dip machine that isolates my triceps in a pressing motion, allowing me to use my maximum force and developing strength in my arms, the aim is to remove shoulder and chest involvement ensuring that my upper arm pressing muscles are receiving all of the load. I then finish the session, with 3 sets of weighted abdominal crunches in an old Nautilus abs machine.
Tuesday
I train my back and posterior chain basically from the balls of my feet to the back of my neck. I start with some hyperextensions to warm up my spinal erectors, this is very important as injury prevention is key when lifting heavy weights, followed by my first weighted exercise, 2 sets of 13-8 in the seated cable row with a narrow vertical grip, I perform these through a full range of motion, always at the same speed, no jerking or explosive movements, a smooth and steady cadence, keeping the involved muscles under tension for the duration of the rep and set is key here.
Next I switch the close grip handles for a wide overhand grip and complete the same sets and reps but with a lighter weight. From there I perform strict overhand chin ups, these are a great exercise for your back and arms, as well as your abdominal structure, 2 sets without weight to failure. Next I move to the deadlift platform, and do 2 sets of heavy stiff legged dead lift, again perfect form is paramount, I want to feel the weight distributed evenly throughout my body, an evenly spread load from my feet to my neck and down through my arms.
This exercise when performed properly is exceptionally demanding but it provides an enormous return for the trainee, these alongside the Squat are real body changing exercises.
When I have completed them I move over to the dumbbell rack and perform 2 sets of shrugs.
Thursday is chest, arm flexion and abdominals. First exercise is the flat bench press, I perform 2-3 sets in the 8-5 rep range again always with a weight that is the maximum that can be handled safely in perfect form, after that I move to the dip bars and again perform 2-3 sets, but my reps are normally higher around 13-8. Moving to arm flexion, (many people just say biceps, but that isn’t the entire area that I train) I use an old nautilus curl machine for 2 sets in the 8-5 rep range and follow it with 2 sets of thumbs up rope curls on the cable machine. It may not seem a lot compared to the masses who train 10 sets of 10 to build their arms, but my experience with my own arms and those of my trainees has shown me that hitting them hard and briefly for 4-5 sets under maximum load is enough!
After that I repeat the abdominal training from Monday.
Friday is legs day. I start with the king of all leg development exercises, the deep squat. Proper instruction here is essential not just for safety but also for maximizing results!
I see many trainees in gyms around the World performing the squat with sloppy form and shallow reps, worse still, using a weight that they can’t properly control! Ego has no place in proper training and when you are stuck under a 150kg bar in the squat rack you will quickly discover the need to become more humble in the next set, best case? You look foolish, worst case? You suffer an injury that can limit yourself for life!
So seek proper instruction, and train yourself to being able to handle some large weight in the lift whilst ALWAYS squatting low enough so that you femur goes below horizontal. I perform 2 sets with the same weight for 21 then 13 reps.
This is the very cornerstone of my leg development, if not my entire body development. After I have shuffled away from the squat rack I perform 2 sets of leg extensions (no jerking or ‘kicking out’ at the top, mind those knees, you need them) followed by 2 sets of lying leg curls, rep range for both is 13-8 again. After that I move to the calf raise machine and perform 2 sets of 21-13 reps.
That’s it! 8 sets total, but if you can even consider carrying on, then you weren’t trying hard enough in the Squat, that first exercise when performed correctly is an entire session in itself!
Diet: I’m very reactive when it comes to diet, meaning that I like to experiment with different foods and nutritional supplements to really find out what does and doesn’t work for me, I think this is extremely important and something that I work closely with my clients to achieve.
When I discuss a diet plan with them, I first need to know what they like to eat, they often react asking “well what should I eat?” this is the wrong approach altogether, I could write a calorie perfect diet with the absolute optimized ratio of carbohydrate, protein and fat balance, along with optimized meal timing and spacing relative to my prescribed workout routine, but do you know how many people would truly be able to integrate that to their lifestyle and then maintain it?… VERY few, so it’s important to create a diet plan that works WITH my trainees and doesn’t become a chore. Now that’s not to say that they can eat everything that they want, there are some foodstuffs and choices that are just NOT in line with the type of training results that they want to achieve.
I personally, ensure that I eat 5-6 meals spaced evenly throughout the day and biased so that the majority of my carbohydrates are consumed early in the day, total calorie intake is relative to the amount of energy I need to complete that days tasks, so I will eat more if I need to and less if I have an easier day, this is important, as many people eat the same amount regardless of the amount of energy it will take them to get through their day.
Remember that it’s all just energy, so if you are looking to lose weight then you need to ensure that you have a slight caloric deficit throughout your day and you need to go to sleep with only protein in your system, don’t carry carbs to bed with you, this is really counter productive. I’m also a fan of keeping your metabolic rate high throughout the day with the use of thermogenic fat burners and CLA, as well as supplementing my protein intake with shakes to ensure my muscles repair sufficiently. When used with a caloric deficit in your diet and some specific fat loss cardio the results from these supplements are astounding!
Conversely if your diet is intended to build muscle then, you need to have a caloric excess throughout your day to ensure you have sufficient surplus calories to build muscle, bare in mind that these calories should be heavily biased towards protein, you need to ensure that the weight gained is actually muscle! So eat just enough carbohydrates to fuel your workouts and complete your day, but eat an excess of protein through shakes to grow new muscle tissue. From there it’s just a function of time and discipline.
Check out her complete interview on: Cindy Landolt
Disclaimer
The Content is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified health provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition.
