You don't earn the title of Mr. Olympia without knowing how to dial up the intensity in the gym. To win eight of them? Only two men have ever accomplished that feat: Lee Haney and Ronnie Coleman.
Ronnie, even more than most professional bodybuilders in the history of the IFBB, is known for his unmatched intensity in the gym. Very few people are able to hang with Ronnie's intensity, and even fewer ever get the opportunity to try. In this video, Steve Goggins tells the story of the very first time he trained with Ronnie Coleman's crew—which included a number of other high-level bodybuilders such as Branch Warren—at Brain Dobson's Metroflex Gym in Arlington, Texas. Goggins was the only powerlifter in the group at the time, but he was with them because he knew they liked to train hard and push the limit. The very first time he showed up with the group, the plan was to squat — or at least that's what he thought. The group had another plan in mind for Steve. They were going to do everything they could to make the training session as difficult as possible for him.
They started with leg curls. What Steve expected to be a few sets as part of a warm-up turned into set after set curls in every position on many machines. Lying leg curls, seated leg curls, standing leg curls — they did them all. Steve's hamstrings were tired but he wasn't worried about it because he knew he'd still be able to squat. But instead of going to squat, the group started doing leg extensions. Just like the leg curls, they kept going and going and going, training leg extensions to failure. And then they leg pressed. By the time they were ready to squat, Steve could barely stand up. Once he got to three plates, he knew he was in trouble. He couldn't get any more than 315 on the bar that day, even though he was a proven 900-pound squatter.
Steve's takeaway from this experience: If you're a powerlifter, don't expect to be able to train with bodybuilders. If you train for powerlifting, you can't take one day to train with bodybuilders and expect to not get your ass kicked. You might be able to do a lot of assistance work after you squat, but you aren't prepared to handle the volume and the variety of movements performed before the squat.
Your video with you training with Ronnie Coleman for the first time had me busting a gut laughing. I could picture what you were going through. I am smiling again as I write this.
Steve, thanks for being you.
...Pete