Tom Platz Still Squatting at 62!

[thethinker48]

some guys have titanium knees...




some guys have glass knees..


I have glass knees

Glass buns*

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[Jaythomas]

AWESOME

The man is inspiring! Tough SOB!

 

[hanquin]

some guys have titanium knees...




some guys have glass knees..


I have glass knees

i got the bee's knees.

 

[MikeS]

Just amazing at 62yo, so deep and jesus...30reps? True legend!

 

[trainlikeaboss]

Beast..

I always wondered how he kept his feet so close together and kept balance.

Now I see that he spreads his knees wayyyy out when he goes down.

Going to give that a shot. At this point I'm squatting 435x10 really deep but wider stance. I want to preserve my knees aas much as I can so if I drop weight and do it like him maybe that will help

The key is actually his ankle mobility. The knees out helps but even then most people cannot squat with their knees extended so far over their feet because limited mobility in the ankles will cause the feel to roll forwards or to the side and possibly cause injury.

Notice as well how quick his decent is. There is no doubt this allows him to perform more reps as he is not expending much energy on the negative portion of the movement.

 

[Equalizer]

Mr. Platz busting Sergio Jr's balls:

[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tikCIsbC6RY"]Tom Platz Destroys Sergio Oliva Jr.’s Quads! - YouTube[/ame]

 

[Getnbiggger]

Best quads in competitive bodybuilding of all time.. No one had quads like his. Paul deMayo came close and sadly he never made it past 40 years old.

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[alfresco]

it’s always 5 more . . .

Yes, Tom, best quads (and probably calves) in competitive bodybuilding of all time.

Also, best leg training video I have seen. Tom is very motivational. Scratching head
. . . . makes me wonder what he could do for Sergio if he trained him full time.

As I have mentioned before I had the privilege of meeting Tom and watching
him train upper body when he was at his best pre Olympia 1981. Sadly, never
saw him squat. He did say that his best condition was achieved by not upping
AAS usage, but by paying more attention to his diet, mostly but upping his
calories. People will poo-hoo this but that is what he told me. Never saw
anybody train harder though Arthur Jones was a tough task master when it
came to Casey with folks wondering who to contribute his condition to . . .
him or Arthur. Never saw Arthur train Casey but I have watched Casey train
several times; a picture of Casey with I (me looking emancipated after a summer
working on a game preserve in Africa) is somewhere on this site. I also
have a foto of Casey working out on a duo-squat machine and one of him
‘out of shape’ (Ha!) doing a demonstration on a force plate and a foto of a
prototype duo leg curl machine. All were shot by me, stolen from me and are on
the net somewhere, as are other fotos that Arthur gave me. Of course there
is no foto credit given.

Off track . . . back to Tom and Sergio. Sergio’s remark that now he knows
why nobody does old school workouts. Very telling. God could never have
created a better body than Tom’s for squatting. Perfect biomechanics. Like
piston in cylinder. Don’t know if anybody else noticed, but Sergio did have
2 ½ plates under his heals when squatting. I know it sure helps me. Also
noticed . . . after all these years . . . interesting the leg extension and leg
curl machines that Sergio and Tom used were old, chain driven Nautilus
machines. Durability or functionality, you be the judge. I have my own
opinions.

Tom sure has knack for getting the most out of the person he is training.
Very motivational. He is what they say ‘a true believer.’ Very few people
are willing to work that hard and I think it shows. If these genetically gifted
giants we now have parading around on stage would work harder, I am
willing to bet they could and would drop there ‘drug’ usage by a factor of
at least 50%. While genetics will always reign supreme, clearly there is no
substitute for hard, progressive training.

I know Arthur had a hard time getting Sergio senior to work hard enough.
It must be a ‘thing’ about the genetically gifted, be it bodybuilding, base-
ball, football, any sport actually. But, to Arthur’s and Sergio Seniors credit
he did achieve his all-time best, by his own admission, under Arthur and
his very difficult ‘abbreviated’ routines. But sadly he went back to his old
familiar ways (more is better), perhaps his training was just too difficult,
which is often the case the genetically gifted. They really do lose perspective,
are surrounded by ‘yes’ people and the contestant praise (much like Hollywood
which I am more than familiar with) really messes with your head.

Case in point . . .

My Dad played semi-pro baseball and coached locally for many many
years and had an opportunity to see many gifted athletes (many went on
to play professionally) and it always irked him that those with the most
potential never worked out very hard, relied on their genetic ‘gifts’ the
most. They were not 100%er’s. What they had was always good enough
for them. Why work out harder if I am better than everybody else just the
way I am? That, by and large, was their way of thinking. And I’m sure that
translates into other sport and intellectual pursuits. That is what initially
and always surprised me when I first met and watched the pros train,
that is how hard they did not train. Perhaps they knew exactly how hard
to work out to produce the desired results . . . I don’t know but I will
tell you that they did not ‘appear’ to work out as hard as I thought, was
led to believe (magazines). I though here I am, literally busting my ass
for each iota of progress, and they are just going through the motions.
Clearly I picked the wrong direction to excel. If I wanted to look like
‘them’ I had better have had a different Mom and Dad. And my Dad, bless
his sole, had it right at the start . . . pick another physical endeavor
which you are suited for or lower you expectations. Just look around
at your family, your genetics, that is all you need to do. I know ‘drugs’
were a part of the game, a game changer in may regards and obviously
still are, but I knew very little about them (still do) and pre-internet,
the info and availability was just not there. I was in a small town and
even If I wanted to ‘dabble’ in PED’s, who would I go to? Thank God
I remained ignorant and isolated, because at that age, with my over-
whelming desire to ‘get big’ I surely would partaken in them in them
and knowing myself as I do now, would have abused them with the
more is better mentality I was born with.

I am rambling again, sorry . . .

Finally . . . I don’t recall ever seeing a video of Tom working his calves. If
anybody knows of one, I sure would like to see it.

 

[thethinker48]

Yes, Tom, best quads (and probably calves) in competitive bodybuilding of all time.

Also, best leg training video I have seen. Tom is very motivational. Scratching head
. . . . makes me wonder what he could do for Sergio if he trained him full time.

As I have mentioned before I had the privilege of meeting Tom and watching
him train upper body when he was at his best pre Olympia 1981. Sadly, never
saw him squat. He did say that his best condition was achieved by not upping
AAS usage, but by paying more attention to his diet, mostly but upping his
calories. People will poo-hoo this but that is what he told me. Never saw
anybody train harder though Arthur Jones was a tough task master when it
came to Casey with folks wondering who to contribute his condition to . . .
him or Arthur. Never saw Arthur train Casey but I have watched Casey train
several times; a picture of Casey with I (me looking emancipated after a summer
working on a game preserve in Africa) is somewhere on this site. I also
have a foto of Casey working out on a duo-squat machine and one of him
‘out of shape’ (Ha!) doing a demonstration on a force plate and a foto of a
prototype duo leg curl machine. All were shot by me, stolen from me and are on
the net somewhere, as are other fotos that Arthur gave me. Of course there
is no foto credit given.

Off track . . . back to Tom and Sergio. Sergio’s remark that now he knows
why nobody does old school workouts. Very telling. God could never have
created a better body than Tom’s for squatting. Perfect biomechanics. Like
piston in cylinder. Don’t know if anybody else noticed, but Sergio did have
2 ½ plates under his heals when squatting. I know it sure helps me. Also
noticed . . . after all these years . . . interesting the leg extension and leg
curl machines that Sergio and Tom used were old, chain driven Nautilus
machines. Durability or functionality, you be the judge. I have my own
opinions.

Tom sure has knack for getting the most out of the person he is training.
Very motivational. He is what they say ‘a true believer.’ Very few people
are willing to work that hard and I think it shows. If these genetically gifted
giants we now have parading around on stage would work harder, I am
willing to bet they could and would drop there ‘drug’ usage by a factor of
at least 50%. While genetics will always reign supreme, clearly there is no
substitute for hard, progressive training.

I know Arthur had a hard time getting Sergio senior to work hard enough.
It must be a ‘thing’ about the genetically gifted, be it bodybuilding, base-
ball, football, any sport actually. But, to Arthur’s and Sergio Seniors credit
he did achieve his all-time best, by his own admission, under Arthur and
his very difficult ‘abbreviated’ routines. But sadly he went back to his old
familiar ways (more is better), perhaps his training was just too difficult,
which is often the case the genetically gifted. They really do lose perspective,
are surrounded by ‘yes’ people and the contestant praise (much like Hollywood
which I am more than familiar with) really messes with your head.

Case in point . . .

My Dad played semi-pro baseball and coached locally for many many
years and had an opportunity to see many gifted athletes (many went on
to play professionally) and it always irked him that those with the most
potential never worked out very hard, relied on their genetic ‘gifts’ the
most. They were not 100%er’s. What they had was always good enough
for them. Why work out harder if I am better than everybody else just the
way I am? That, by and large, was their way of thinking. And I’m sure that
translates into other sport and intellectual pursuits. That is what initially
and always surprised me when I first met and watched the pros train,
that is how hard they did not train. Perhaps they knew exactly how hard
to work out to produce the desired results . . . I don’t know but I will
tell you that they did not ‘appear’ to work out as hard as I thought, was
led to believe (magazines). I though here I am, literally busting my ass
for each iota of progress, and they are just going through the motions.
Clearly I picked the wrong direction to excel. If I wanted to look like
‘them’ I had better have had a different Mom and Dad. And my Dad, bless
his sole, had it right at the start . . . pick another physical endeavor
which you are suited for or lower you expectations. Just look around
at your family, your genetics, that is all you need to do. I know ‘drugs’
were a part of the game, a game changer in may regards and obviously
still are, but I knew very little about them (still do) and pre-internet,
the info and availability was just not there. I was in a small town and
even If I wanted to ‘dabble’ in PED’s, who would I go to? Thank God
I remained ignorant and isolated, because at that age, with my over-
whelming desire to ‘get big’ I surely would partaken in them in them
and knowing myself as I do now, would have abused them with the
more is better mentality I was born with.

I am rambling again, sorry . . .

Finally . . . I don’t recall ever seeing a video of Tom working his calves. If
anybody knows of one, I sure would like to see it.

Alfrescos posts make me light up with joy. It's like staring at history through a particular lens. A rare privilege for young ones like me.

John Meadows did a podcast with Ben Pakulski about training with Tom platz.

Some of Tom's best lifts:

225x 10 minutes (Yes tom squatted 225 for 10 minutes, never took the bar off).

315x 50, 1 min rest, then again 315x50

525x23 with Bill Kazmier spotting him on video

What an insane human being; just the sheer lung pain from those high rep squats would kill most men.

I like to believe tom still had good genetics; but nowhere close to his competitors. He blatantly admits how guys back east where he came from trained way harder than any of the pros in Cali.

Alfrescos 100% spot on about Casey Viator; according to Tom, Casey was considered a mad man when he trained and people stayed away from him during his workouts. It also showed in his dense physique.

I don't think it's mentally possible for most guys (including a vast majority of pros) to train the way Tom did. There's certain barriers in place for sanitys sake in human beings that need to be tore down to reach that level of intensity; and very very few people can ever reach that level (it's by no means healthy either, then again what is at a high level?)



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[Capin]

Most people don't know this but TP attributes his freakish leg development to hack squats with toes back. The great Roy Callendar taught TP that method

 

[maldorf]

Platz training calves

First video is when he was much older:

[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t8XKpbiNXKQ"]Holy Intensity! Calf Training With BodyBuilders Lee Priest and Tom Platz - YouTube[/ame]

Such short range of motion. I have done that before too, but usually not until the end of the set when I hit failure for full ROM. It must have worked for him though. LOL, the look of pain on his face after he gets up and walks around once the set is done!

Looks younger here:

[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KR4TbqXSITU"]Tom platz calves training 1 - YouTube[/ame]

Dang, got the workout partner hanging off the machine for extra weight! Intense workout.