PNBA athlete Chad Martin talks about his past natural bodybuilding competitions and training philosophy in an interview.
Professional Natural Bodybuilding Association (PNBA) athlete Chad Martin was recently on the Longevity Muscle Podcast. He discussed many topics, including improving workout efficiency, his transition to the International Natural Bodybuilding Association (INBA)/PNBA league, past natural bodybuilding competition memories, and his training.
Chad Martin is a 3x USA champion and 7x World Heavyweight champion, and he was inducted into the PNBA Hall of Fame in 2012.
Natural Bodybuilding Background
Chad Martin says that growing up on a farm was the best thing ever for him because it made him fall in love with working out. He was throwing around 100-pound hay bales all summer and fall. Also, playing baseball and football and his coach got him into weightlifting.
Chad Martin started off competing and winning bodybuilding shows in 1999. But he saw year after year that the guys were getting a little bigger and a little thicker via doping. That’s when he dug around and found the INBA PNBA to compete in a reputable natural bodybuilding organization.
Martin will be competing in his 19th straight Natural Olympia this year. He says he’s only missed 3 Natural Olympias (‘03, ‘06, and ‘09 in Australia and New Zealand) since joining the league in 2001. Martin also competed with the first-ever Natural Olympia champion, John Hansen.
Martin is approaching 51 and says part of his youthfulness and longevity in the sport has been from living a clean lifestyle–cutting alcohol, no drugs, eating clean, and exercising.
“Tetris Ten” and Workout Efficiency
The Longevity Muscle Podcast uploaded a clip of their interview with Martin on their page. In the clip, Martin discussed how people waste time in the gym scrolling through their phones. Martin voiced,
“The better efficiency you have with your time and not wasting time either it be if you’re getting up in the morning doing cardio, how you’re you know meal prepping, whatever, you plan your meal, you know, and then you’re training, and when you’re in the gym. You know.
As we know, many of us get frustrated when people are sitting on their phones on a piece of equipment. And you’re just like, come on, dude, you know. It’s like. So I think if people were more efficient with their day and their workouts. They could probably get more done.”
You can see this clip of Martin’s interview with the Longevity Muscle Podcast below.
He coins the term “Tetris ten” from the common knowledge that 10 reps are the best rep range for building muscle, and he wants to work out as efficiently as possible. So Martin will perform his first set with a challenging weight, then add weight to his second set and aim for 10 reps again. He says the weight should be heavy enough that he cannot get 10 reps–until failure.
However, he then quickly strips off the weight and completes the remainder of the reps with the lighter weight–the weight he used in his first set– to reach ten reps. Martin then increases the weight again on the third set. And aims to failer with the goal of 10 reps in mind. Then he’ll drop the weight to the second set to rep until failure. Lastly, he’ll drop the weight back down to his first set weight to finish off the set of 10 reps.
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