Flex Australia – June-July 2017

98 FLEX | JUNE – JULY 2017

He competes in the IFBB’s 212

division — more accurately, he

dominates the division as the Mr

Olympia 212 champion five years

running—andhe’srightupagainst

the upper limit come contest day.

Amiscalculationbyhimorhis

trainer,famedY3TcreatorNeilHill,

whichcausesLewistoaddsome

extramuscle,andhecouldsmash

that212-pound[96kg]ceiling.

Problemis,hislegsgrow

veryeasily,sohisbalancingact

requires him to train hard enough

to continue etching detail into his

already shredded quads, glutes,

and hamstrings, while not training

them so hard as to build new

muscle.Andhowexactlydoeshe

dothis?Simple—bykeepinga

close eye on the weight scale and

tweaking his diet accordingly.

“Alotofbodybuilderswill

focusonputtingonasmuch

weight as possible in the off-

season,butIreallyhavetopay

attentiontothescale,”says

Lewis. “Because if I’m having very

productive training sessions, my

diet’s on point, and maybe I’m not

travelling for a couple of weeks,

my weight goes up, and it goes up

fast.Ifthescaleisstartingtogo

over235pounds[106kg],Ihave

to really drop back my calories.”

Earlierinhiscareer,onHill’s

advice, Lewis took the extreme

measure of not training his legs at

allforoverayear—yes,youread

that correctly, no leg training — to

lethisupperbodycatchupwith

thebottomhalf.Thestrategy

worked,butLewishasno

desire to ditch legs again.

“Even though I’m governed

closely by the weight restriction,

my training never, ever gets

affected,”hesays.“Ialwaystrain

intense,Ialwaystrainwithfocus

andIalwaystrainasifI’mtraining

formyfirst-everMrOlympia.

Right now, I’m specifically working

ondepthandquality—justgetting

those crazy cuts in my legs — and

improving the outer quad sweep.”

Apreciseexampleofwhat

Lewis’ leg-training sessions entail

canbefoundonthefollowing

pages. The workout was

designedbyHill,downtoevery

JAMES “FLEX” LEWIS

HAS A UNIQUE

DILEMMA

CONFRONTING

HIM ON LEG DAYS.

EXERCISE SETS REPS

Leg extension 5* 15-20

Leg press 4** 15-20

Smith

machine

squat

215-20

Hack squat 2 15-20

Walking lunge 2 15-20

Lying leg curl 5 15 -20

Seated calf

raise

6* 15-20

*Not including three to four

warm-upsetsof15-20reps.

**Notincludingtwotothree

warm-upsetsof15-20reps.

FLEX LEWIS’

LEG WORKOUT

LEG EXTENSION

last detail — sets, reps, rest,

tempo, technique. As a five-time

reigning Olympia champion, Hill

isn’t trying to reinvent Lewis’

wheels, but make no mistake,

this is no maintenance program.

“If it ain’t broke, I don’t want to

try to fix it,” says Lewis. “It’s really

Groundhog Day, yet we don’t

follow a paper diet. It’s pretty

much the same food, but Neil

adjusts my diet daily. There’s

a method to this madness, and

that’s to pay attention to the

scale and train for improvements

every year. Because if I wasn’t

training to make improvements,

it would be a pointless journey.”