Victor Martinez

ils sont énormes sur ces photos, et le rendu visuel de l'image est terrible je trouve

The True Victor
By Victor Martinez

My day is totally regimented. Here's how it usually breaks down:

10:30 p.m. 45 minutes cardio on the StepMill, treadmill or stationary bike

11:15 a.m. Bowl of oatmeal and MHP Probolic shake

2:30 p.m. 12 oz. steak and vegetables

5 p.m. 12 oz. chicken breast and medium baked potato

6 p.m. Pre-workout: Dark Rage by MHP

6:30-7:30 p.m. Weight train

7:45 p.m. 12 oz. tilapia, medium baked potato

10 p.m. 12 oz. steak and vegetables

11 p.m. 45 minutes of cardio

Midnight Probolic shake

Then sleep, wake up and do it all over again! I should note that in the off-season I do have a post-workout shake with carbs (Dark Matter by MHP), but we cut that out around 12 weeks out from the contest.

My name is Omar and I'm 32 years old. I also am Dominican and grew up in Washington Heights. I have always been in love with bodybuilding. I trained when I was a kid at Elmo's on 158th but I was always extremely overweight and had no luck. I moved to Jersey when I was 18 and the suburban living made it worse. Everything was a drive and I really became depressed and even thought of suicide. I tipped the scales at 460 pounds of pure fat and I would have to pop pain meds before I got home just so I could go up a flight of stairs! Just 16 steps and I would be in agony and out of breath. I tried everything: personal training, NutriSystem, Weight Watchers, Jenny Craig, you name it. I finally was told I would never make it to 30 if I didn't lose the weight so I had the gastric bypass surgery. I was told that if I ever made it down to 300 pounds, be appreciative and content. I was upset with that and really wanted to get down to 200. The weight came off super fast. I exercised daily and 16 months later I was 280 pounds. I should have been happy with that, but soon came my addiction. I ballooned to 320 and I became obsessed with bodybuilding. I stuck myself in a gym and read every article known to man and now I am down to 223 pounds. Still not happy, I am nowhere near as large and as hard as I would like. I train as hard as I can. I had my shoulder redone last year so I am a little cautious, but I am a machine in the gym. I wanted to know if there was anything you could do to help me or if I could just come in to your gym and watch you train. Please don't think I'm a crazy fan. I'm just hungry for knowledge and I would do anything to reach my goal. I also am going to try to get certified as a trainer since this is what I feel passionate about and I want to spend the rest of my life helping people like me attain their goals.

Omar, we must have missed each other at Elmo's. I practically lived in that place from 1989 until it shut down in '93. Anyway, I am happy to hear about all the progress you have made so far. To get down from the point where you were pushing 500 pounds to 223 is something to be proud of. When you say you aren't as big and lean as you would like to be, I really hope you're not comparing yourself to me or the other pros you see in MD like Kai and Dennis Wolf. Not that we don't all work hard, but we are genetic freaks who were meant to look this way. The average person just can't get this look no matter how long he trains or how badly he wants it. I don't say that to discourage you. I just want you to have more realistic expectations so you aren't always disappointed at your results.

You should start thinking in terms of setting short-term goals, like gaining a half-inch on your arms, losing an inch off your waist or increasing your squats by 10 pounds. Short-term goals are the best way to go after the bigger, long-term goals, because they all add on each other. As for coming to watch me train, sorry, man. That's like asking one of the quarterbacks playing in the Super Bowl to hang around his last couple practices before the big game. When I train, I am 100 percent focused because it's my job. The guys I am up against are the best bodybuilders on the planet, and they all want to beat me. Every workout of mine counts and could make the difference between edging them out, or them edging me out. If you want to see how I train and maybe pick up some tips, I have done three "In the Trenches" videos for MD where I trained back, shoulders and arms. Most of all Omar, know that you can keep improving your body if you just stick with it. Take every day one at a time and do the best with your workouts and your eating that you can. Don't worry about looking like me. Be the very best Omar you can be, and believe that you can always get just a little bit better thanks to the bodybuilding lifestyle.

Victor, in your opinion, what is the very best type of pressing movement for shoulders that will build mass the quickest? I have heard people say it's the military press, but when I do them I only feel them in my front delts. Is there any press that hits all three heads pretty good?

Because of the anatomy of the shoulders, it's impossible for all three heads of the shoulders to be activated completely by any pressing movement. The rear delts are only worked in pulling movements like any type of row or pulldown for the back, deadlifts and upright rows. Of course, you can hit rear delts directly with rear lateral raises using dumbbells, a machine (I like the one that's also a pec flye if you flip around and face forward) or cables. Military presses do work front delts the hardest because the bar is in front of your head. Behind-neck presses actually do a better job of involving both the front and side delts, but they can be murder on the rotator cuffs for a lot of guys.
If I had to pick the best shoulder pressing movement that works the anterior and medial heads almost equally (any press will always favor the front heads), I would go with dumbbell presses. Because the dumbbells are directly over the shoulder joint, the medial heads can participate in the movement pretty well. A lot of guys like to use the Smith machine for military presses because they can load up more weight, but those aren't as effective for adding mass to the shoulders. I think you would get more out of pressing a pair of 75-pound dumbbells overhead for a good set of 10 than you would doing 10 reps with two 45s, or 90 pounds, on each side of the Smith machine bar. For complete shoulder development, you should do dumbbell presses, side laterals and rear laterals.