Rich Gaspari on Building Bigger Legs: ‘Train Super Hard and Go to Failure’
Seasoned bodybuilding veteran Rich Gaspari has amassed a wealth of knowledge related to the sport following a decorated career. In a recent Instagram video, Gaspari shared tips for legs and techniques to utilize in lower-body training sessions.
During his days of competition, Rich Gaspari boasted a refined lower body and stellar conditioning as a Men’s Open competitor. He went up against the likes of eight-time Mr. Olympia Lee Haney and proved his consistency by scoring silver in three contests. After hanging up his posing trunks, Gaspari turned into a respected analyst who never shies away from the sport’s most sensitive topics.
Gaspari bashed reigning Mr. Olympia Hadi Choopan after his victory at the 2022 edition of the event last December. He criticized Choopan’s lack of conditioning by comparing his back to six-time winner Dorian Yates. Choopan did not take kindly to the comments and fired back, sharing that he found the comments disrespectful. Gaspari’s statements ignited a debate about the evolution of the Men’s Open division in the community.
Rich refused to back down from his stance. As time passed, he called on Choopan to elevate his conditioning levels and bring back a dryer look to the Mr. Olympia stage.
Gaspari also took a shot at Mamdouh ‘Big Ramy’ Elssbiay’s prep coach, Chad Nicholls, earlier this year. He partially blamed him for Ramy’s lackluster showing. Then the retired pro took aim at modern Open competitors for favoring gear over quality training. Looking at the landscape, he extended his support for standout Nick Walker to potentially win the coveted Sandow trophy at the 2023 Olympia.
The 59-year-old is a strong proponent of pushing your limits in the gym. He recommends turning up the intensity of a workout to build mental fortitude and optimize gains. Since hanging up his posing trunks, Gaspari uses TRT (testosterone replacement therapy). He opened up on his decade-long experience on TRT along with some crucial tips to minimize the risk of side effects.
Last month, Gaspari teamed up with renowned guru Milos Sarcev to highlight the adverse effects of extreme dehydration that can lead to several health concerns and even death. He argued against the use of harsh diuretics to enhance competitors’ dryness on stage.
Rich Gaspari shares techniques for growing legs
In a recent Instagram post, Rich Gaspari shared tips on growing leg muscles and offered some techniques on the matter.
“Let me talk about leg day,” said Gaspari. “Today, I had a brutal leg workout, still love training legs really super hard. You guys have to understand that all the body parts, legs are the one that you have to focus the most. That’s the body part that you need to go into the gym with pure grit that you’re going to train the muscle so hard you’re going to train it to failure or you’re not going to grow legs.
I had some good legs when I competed in bodybuilding. I believed in training legs super hard, going to failure. But also not just using heavyweights, using high reps and heavyweights, I was able to do reps of at least twenty but normally my rep range could go any from 20 to 50 reps and doing legs and drop sets you can do with legs as well with high reps of 20 dropping weights, leg extensions.
“I’ll go all the way up the rack and get to the last set where I use the stack. Then, from that stack to as many reps as I can. If I can do 15-20 then drop the weight again, twenty drop the weight again, twenty, drop the weight again, twenty holding away, and even doing negatives that would just begin my workout. Then going at the machines like leg press.”
Rich Gaspari enjoys educating his fans on leading a healthy lifestyle. He laid out the benefits of using peptides to slow down aging recently. Then, he stressed the importance of maintaining proper nutrition to add muscle. Longevity is important to Gaspari and he also revealed a unique anti-aging peptide stack he’s recently implemented.
Gaspari laid out some of his favorite exercises to build calf muscles last week. He recommended incorporating donkey calf raises and drop sets to lean out the area. His latest offering will surely help many lifters build up their lower body.
