Metroflex is a total hellhole of a gym and has an atmosphere that any powerlifter would love. It's dirty, full of beat up rusty equipment, bent bars and broken metal…and that's just a part of what makes it so legendary. When I walked up the first day they had a hog cooking right in front of the building and apparently one of the members had just killed it the night before.
The gym is located in what appears to be an old industrial park. It has two large garage doors that open at the front of the building with two standard doors that serve as the main entrance sandwiched between them in the middle. When you walk in and begin to move past the front desk, you’ll see walls plastered with old bodybuilder photos and torn out magazines pictures.
There are plenty of free weights and dumbbells that are in excess of 200 pounds, although some of them are badly mangled and others’ have increments that seem to be missing. They even have a Forza bench and some good bars because they do have a fair amount of powerlifters that train there. This is in addition to the big name bodybuilders that train there.
There is one wall full of hand written motivational messages left by the members. Even the bathroom walls are covered in hardcore bodybuilding pictures displaying all of the sport’s biggest monsters like Ronnie, Jay, Markus Ruhl and Branch. It is a very unique place to say the least.
Chest and Back at Metroflex
Dumbbell Bench 70 x 10
100 x 10
150 x 10 – Drop Set
100 x 10
70 x 10
Dumbbell Inclines
100 x 17
100 x 13
Old School Pec Dec Machine
200 x 20 – Drop Set
150 x 20
100 x 20
200 x 20 – Drop Set
150 x 20
100 x 20
Lat Pulldowns
150 x 10
300 x 20
300 x 20
Pull Ups
Bodyweight x 20
Bodyweight x 20
Bodyweight x 20
This was filmed at Metroflex for MuscleTech and honestly I can't remember exactly what I did. It seems like there were a few more back exercises on this day, but I can't remember which ones. This training session I trained alone, and then afterward we did some posing shots and a few other things.
Being that my carbs are extremely low now, my energy levels were nil and I was feeling pretty crappy. Still, the shoot went well and this was just a warm-up for Tuesday's training session with Johnnie and Branch.
Back Training with Johnnie Jackson and Branch Warren
Lat Pulldowns
150 x 10
150 x 10
300 x 20
300 x 20
300 x 20 – Drop Set
250 x 15
200 x 10
Chest Supported Rows
3 plates x 10
4 plates x 10
6 plates x 10
6 plates x 10 – Drop Set
4 plates x 10
2 plates x 10
Dumbbell Rows
100x10
150x10
210x10
Old School T-bar Row Machine
3 plates x 10
4 plates x 10
5 plates x 10
5 plates x 10 – Drop Set
4 plates x 10
3 plates x 10
2 plates x 10
1 plate x 10
Cable rows
250 x 10
300 x 10
300 x 10
300 x 10 – Drop Set
150 x 10
200 x 10
Neutral Grip Lat Pulldowns
250 x 10
250 x 10
Deadlifts
135 x 10
225 x 10
315 x 15
This again is an approximation of what we did. I think I may be missing one exercise in there somewhere. We pretty much worked up to a heavy weight for 10 - 20 reps on each exercise and then did a drop set to finish. There were no rest periods between sets and the only time I had in between sets was when the other two guys were going. This was a ton more volume and a much faster pace than I am used to and I was worn the f#*k out. Especially since I’m less than four weeks out from my show and on a very limited carb intake. Johnnie is also doing the NYC Pro show on the same day I’m competing, and it was obvious that our energy levels were not in the same place as Branch's. However, we gutted it out and hung in there all the way. Today my back is sore as hell from top to bottom.
The bad part for me was that there was some confusion as to what body part we were going to train, so I ended up having to train back with these guys after just having done a back session the day before. Still, I was game and it was an intense-as-hell session with all three of us pushing each other. It should make for some very motivational footage and I'll post the link in my log when MuscleTech has all the video up in a couple of weeks.
Johnnie and Branch are both really cool guys and train hard as hell and are legitimately very strong guys in spite of being primarily bodybuilders. They go hard and heavy - day in day out - and could probably be world class powerlifters if they ever decided to go that route full-time. Obviously, Johnnie has hit some pretty sick numbers in powerlifting meets already and that's just doing it for a little bit on the side. His deadlift is especially strong and he pulled 815 raw at the Mr. Olympia show down with Ben White this past fall.
All in all, the shoot was a ton of fun and I enjoyed every minute of it even though I was dog ass tired by the time it was over.
Oh, and I almost forgot to mention that I ran into fellow Elite athlete Josh Bryant at Metroflex. He’s a really cool guy, in addition to being big and strong as hell. I wish I had more time to hang out and bullshit with him, but I guess that will have to wait until next time