Return of the King Snake | Training | Ep. 1
This video is the first episode of the “Return of the King Snake” season of our newest series “What it Takes to be a Pro Bodybuilder”.
This season provides a behind the scenes look into the life of Team ALLMAX athlete Steve Kuclo.
Steve took the past year off from competing on the bodybuilding stage.
But now he’s more focused than ever.
This episode gives us a glimpse into how the pro trains for competition.
Return of the King Snake | Ep. 1
The video begins with Steve preparing to do his morning cardio without shoes.
You read that right – without shoes.
Steve suffers from plantar fasciitis. And he finds that sometimes performing cardio for too long or even with shoes can make it flare up. So, going barefoot helps.
Besides, since he performs cardio in the comfort of his own home, he doesn’t have to worry about germs or sweat being on his machinery from other lifters.
Steve only does about 25 minutes of cardio each day. This is because his nutrition coach has helped by giving him just the right amount of calories to where he doesn’t have to perform cardio for hours on end to see results in his training and conditioning.
Weight Training
Steve grew up playing sports such as football and hockey. By the time he entered high school, the new football coach at the school implemented a great new weight training program. At that point, training became an addiction.
Last year, Steve teamed up with IFBB Pro Gina Davis to help him modify his training needs.
Steve’s current training split looks like this:
- Monday: Chest/Back/Shoulders
- Tuesday: Quads/Hams
- Wednesday: Arms/Calves/Abs
- Thursday: Chest/Shoulders
- Friday: Back/Calves
- Saturday: Arms/Abs
- Sunday: Rest
Steve performs 5 sets per exercise and only rests for 10 seconds after each set. This adds quite the conditioning factor to his workouts alone and increases the time under tension of the target muscle group ten-fold.
To execute on this kind of training, you have to track your rest periods. Steve does so by keeping a timer running on his phone.
Steve’s base was built on the heavy compound lifts: deadlift, squat, press. He relates his old training philosophy to powerlifting. And training in this fashion really helped Steve build his core attributes that he now manipulates with higher volume training to sculpt what you see on stage.
His philosophy now is to chase the pump, get all the blood and nutrients to fill the muscle, and then fuel recovery with nutrition and supplements.
With Steve’s training, he’s lifting at about 85% of what he could lift if he were taking longer rest periods of 3-4 minutes between sets.
His goal? To bring a more mature muscular look to the stage this year. And Steve believes he’s found the right combination of training, diet, recovery, and supplementation to do so.
Continue Watching: Return of the King Snake | Nutrition | Ep. 2