Watching Bodybuilder Tony Emmott Train Chest

Even after nearly 18 years of active interest in our unique and exciting world of bodybuilding, I am still as enthusiastic as ever. Every single month I can't wait to get my hands on the latest muscle magazines. It's a real pity that there is so much political unrest in the sport, because the average bodybuilder, myself included couldn't care less about politics. All we want to do is train, eat, go to contests and of course, read our favorite muscle magazines! Which brings me to the subject of this article.

Although I have real countless articles on exactly how the top men train (even wrote a few myself), I often wonder at times whether a lot of these stories could be a figment of the writer's own imagination. Sometimes during an interview with a well-known bodybuilding personality things start to go wrong. The main problem I myself as a writer find, is that the star in question cannot relate to you the real secret of his own success. He knows what works for him and he stays with it. Recently I have been really surprised to learn that quite a lot of our top men are unfamiliar with the recent scientific finds related to exercise and diet. In effect, they couldn't care less, and as I said before, they know what works for them and they stay with it.

Because of these problems, I had been toying with the idea of actually watching a top bodybuilder train instead of doing an interview with him. I could think of no one better to try my idea on than Britain's greatest physique star -- Tony Emmott.

One Sunday during the middle of May (1979) I drove down to Tony's Health Club in Ilkley, Yorkshire and right away I can say I was tremendously impressed with the layout.

The main workout area is lavishly decorated in a very warm red color, which gives you the immediate urge to have a workout. A unique facility as far as Britains is concerned, is the health food restaurant extension recently built by Tony at a cost of 6,00 pounds. Where after a sauna and shower you can settle down to a fantastic meal of fish salad, cottage cheese, and steak salad, etc.

When Tony's training partner, Trevor (one of the nicest guys I've ever met), the pair departed into the changing room to prepare to train.

In a few minutes they came out with Tony wearing a brown track suit bottom, and brown tank-top. I had last seen Tony exactly four weeks earlier just before he set off for Australia for the I.F.B.B. Professional "Mr. Universe Contest" and I just couldn't believe how much bigger and muscular he was now looking.

"Christ, you look better now than when you entered the contest last month," I said excitedly.

"Yes, I really learned a few things when I was over in Australia. I was training alongside Roy Callender and Dave Draper" Tony casually replied.

"Yes, but you're so much bigger and cut up with it. I've never ever seen your arms look so big," I said.

"Yes, I've gained about an inch on my arms but the body part I'm really pleased with is my chest. I've been able to thicken the upper part quite a bit and I'm really happy with my progress because the "Olympia" is still a good five months away. Last year I had only six weeks preparation for the contest and I wasn't at my best", Tony replied.

"Are you gong to train your chest today?" I asked.

"Yes, we're training chest, shoulders and arms today, but we always start off with some gut work to warm up," he replied.

Tony then went over to the Roman chair apparatus and with his arms casually folded in front of his chest, he very quickly began to knock a hundred reps out of Roman chair situps. These were only partial reps because he didn't come right up and he didn't go right down. Immediately on completion of these he went over to the flat bench and did short-range leg raises with his knees bent. Tony completed a full three series of these two exercises and then declared, "Right, we'll now work the chest."

"What do you do first?" I said. "Well, at this particular stage in my training I'm trying to build as much into my muscles as I can and the only way this can be done is by handling very, heavy heavy weights in pretty good style. So we'll start out with four or five sets of heavy bench presses."

"What about the theory that the bench press is not a good chest exercise, Tony?"

"Well,,, I've been using the exercise for the past twenty years or so and it's done me no harm. It's always good to include benches in your routine when you're training for size, because you can use a lot of weight," he replied.

Tony used a grip on the bar that allowed his forearms to remain perpendicular throughout most of the movement. He used only about 150 pounds for his first set which he called his 'warm-up' set. On his second set with about 220 pounds I began noticing something about his exercise style that really brought home to me the difference between a super-star bodybuilder, and the ordinary 'run of the mill' muscle-head. That difference was simply that they (Tony) have the ability, through experience, to completely dominate the particular muscle being exercises, by the use of superior muscular concentration. As Tony performed his ultra-strict bench presses, I was reminded of a recent article on the delt workout of the great U.S.A. bodybuilder Pat Neve which read as follows: 'Never works out in a gym with over 200 members, and none have been able to comprehend the true secret. They all see him work-out as they try to copy what he does, and yet they never get the same results.'

I could see that Tony was completely involved in the movement to the point of actually having his mind inside his muscles! On everything I saw. Tony do that day he used a false grip (yes, even on his dumbbell work). His reps were very, very smooth, methodical and faster than average, with absolutely no pause at either the top or bottom of the exercise. Every pressing exercise was done without a lockout, and every set was followed by partial burn reps to failure. this is how Tony explains it, "I use a false grip on everything but curls, because I feel that when you consciously grip a bar or dumbbell you lose a lot of the tension into the forearms and upper arms. In bodybuilding you must create as much tension into the particular muscle as you can, so a false grip is a must for me. I've always used a fairly fast training style and non-lock exercises, because I do not want the muscle to rest at all throughout a particular set.

"It's much easier to follow a slower style of training combined with lockouts, but the muscle won't feel it as much."

"As far as partial reps or 'burns' are concerned, I think that these are one of the real 'secrets' of successful bodybuilding. When I cannot perform another full rep by myself I continue to perform as many half or quarter burn reps to total and absolute failure and if I can't feel a deep down burning feeling into the muscle at the conclusion of the set then I simply will not gain and that's a fact."

Tony's theories were put into practice during another three sets of bench presses using increasing weight each set. On his fifth and final set, using about 320 pounds, Tony fought like hell to perform a beautiful set of eight reps, and as his ninth rep looked like failure the ever helpful hands of Trevor gave a slight touch to the bar that enabled Tony to squeeze out another three forced reps.

As many burn reps as possible followed, and it was clear by the expression on his face that Tony Emmott was indeed in obvious gain.

AS Tony climbed off the bench he looked as though he had been inflated with air. The whole of his chest, shoulders and arms were a bright pink and swollen beyond belief.

"That's what the bench press can do for you," proclaimed Tony.

As soon as Trevor had completed his last set of bench presses they both set things up for their second exercise which was barbell incline presses done on a higher than usual angle of about 45 degrees.

Every time I have tried to do this particular exercise I have always ended up with sore front deltoids and absolutely no upper pectoral congestion whatsoever, so I was interested as to how he would perform the exercise.

Once again he used the false grip and smoothly pressed the bar to about three quarters of the way up. On the way down, however, he deliberately pulled his elbows back and gave his chest a terrific stretch. This must have been difficult to do because, remember, he was still using maximum weights and each of his four sets showed and increase in weight.

Tony's final chest exercise was an unusual combination of incline dumbbell flying , combined with incline dumbbell pressing using the same dumbbells.

He lay down o the 45-degree bench and held two dumbbells at arms length, with his palms facing towards the front as if he was holding a barbell. From this position the dumbbells were lowered outside and below shoulder level with slightly unlocked elbows. From this position the dumbbells were then squeezed together above his face and back to starting position. I have never seen anyone else perform this way but I've never seen cuts and striations pop up all over the place during the performance of the exercise, either!

When Tony couldn't do another rep in his usual immaculate style he began to press the dumbbells in a fast short rep style to further bombard his upper pecs. When it looked as though he was struggling through excessive upper chest congestion, Trevor quite cleverly applied pressure to Tony's elbows which enabled him to force out more reps and it was now obvious by the look on his face that Tony Emmott was now right inside the 'pain barrier'.

Tony's chest was swollen huge with veins and striations popping out everywhere. This concluded his chest workout.

Free Weights
Olympic Barbell Weight Sets

Olympic Weight Plates

Regular Barbell 160 Lbs.

Regular Weight Plates

Dumbbell Sets with Rack

Olympic Style Dumbbell Handle

Star Lock 1-inch

Threaded Dumbbell Handle

Spring Lock Collars

Shrug / Deadlift Olympic Bar

Pro-Grip Cable Attachments