KAZ chronicles unearthed…the lifter equivalent of finding The Dead Sea Scrolls?
1 September 2006If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!
Few modern strength athletes have captured the imagination of the power public in the way William, Bill, “Kaz” Kazmaier has. The Kaz was always larger than life; his physique was thick yet he had height: it was as if a stocky 5-8/230 pound bodybuilder had magically been stretched to 6-2. At his peak Bill was untouchable. He looked the part with his 20-inch waist/chest differential and assortment of jumbo yet shapely body parts; big legs, bigger arms…world record level in all three lifts, he set outright world records in the bench press and deadlift. Strength historian David Willoughby once measured Kaz’s straight forearm at 18 1/8th inches cold. Kaz possessed great genetic gifts: trim joints which made muscles swell…wide shoulders… (Relatively) narrow hips, an ample yet tight and proportional waist. He was athletic; he moved well, he was nimble and quick. Kaz was NOT the jolly fat strongman posing for photos with little children…he was ominous and hostile and ready to throw down anywhere anytime. He had a fast metabolism and able to stay athletic regardless how heavy how got. At a peak he had an optimal bodyweight range of between 315 to 330-pounds bodyweight. He had wanted to push his weight upward even more. He squatted (in training) 980, bench pressed 660 wearing a tee-shirt and deadlifted a then IPF world record of 887-pounds. He could dunk a basketball and played both college and pro football. He was way ahead of his time and many feel he was the strongest man of modern times. Kaz conquered powerlifting and then conquered embryonic strongman competitions. He fought epic battles with another contender for the title of greatest strongman ever, Jon Paul Sigmarson.
I was shuffling some boxes around in the attic when I happened to come across three nifty 14 to 20 page training manual/booklets put out by “Kaz Quest” circa 1980. My old friend Tony Fitton wrote these training manuals and did a tremendous job: he lays out precisely how “powerlifting Kaz” trained to get to the top and stay on top for as long as he cared to. There are two distinct phases of Kaz: pre-pec injury and post-pec injury. When powerlifter together socially a parlor game is often played in which serious speculation, roundtable fashion, is discussed – “How high could Kaz have pushed the world records had he not ripped his pec in the 1978 World’s Strongest Man competition?” (Show to millions on ABC’s Wide World of Sports) The torn pec eliminated the best weapon in the Kaz arsenal: his bench press. Had he NOT gotten injured (in a ridiculous bar-bending event) could anyone seriously argue that Kaz would not have benched 700 without a bench shirt? Can anyone seriously doubt that he would not have squatted 1,000? Or deadlifted 900 in official IPF competition? That would equate to a 2,600 pound total using the ridiculously ineffectual 1st generation Zangas supersuits and 2-meter knee wraps. The second phase of Kaz speculation is what could have done had he been magically time-transported forward and donned all the gear and incorporated all the advantages the modern Pro Powerlifter use: 1,000 pound bench press? 1,200 squat? 950 deadlift? 3,150 total? Is that not Fantasy Island stuff? At powerlifting social events, Kaz speculation grows more outrageous in direct proportion to amount of the bar tab. Kaz was at his physical peak when Tony wrote these booklets. Fitton exercised great care in getting across in exact detail how The Great One trained.
It is a bit of a revisionist revelation to read the three booklets, “The Bench Press,” “The Squat & Deadlift” and “Gaining Muscular Size & Bulk” in quick succession. In this day and age the strength acquisition trends seem to run towards using lots of assistance exercises and alternative modes. (bands, chains) This supplants the full frontal assault Old School power immortals like Kaz used to increase their lifts. Kaz trained the hell out of the three lifts and hit a lot of assistance work. He did so TWICE a week. I would label his approach high intensity/high volume “power bodybuilding.” He did a LOT of heavy training using a wide variety of exercises – in addition to blasting benches, squats and deadlifts each twice weekly he would follow up with a lot of assistance exercises. His workouts must have lasted for hours. Under “Program Details” in the “Bench Press” pamphlet Kaz outlines his weekly bench press and assistance exercise training schedule…
Day I Monday
Bench press, competition style and grip, warm up then – 4 sets of 6 reps; wide-grip bench press 3×10; narrow grip bench press 3×10; front delt raise 4×10; lateral raise 3×10, tennis backhand cable extension 3×10 – that’s a lot of work!
Day II Tuesday
Lying tricep push (a super-narrow grip bench press 6×10(!); prone tricep extensions 4×10; seated dumbbell hammer curl 4×10; standing curl 3×10; close grip chins 3xfailure; one arm dumbbell row 3×10; seated row 3×10; wide-grip pulldown 3×10
Day III Wednesday lighter, faster
Bench press, competition style and grip, warm up then – 4 sets of 10 reps (yes! Again!);
Wide-grip bench press 3×10; narrow-grip bench press 3×10; front delt raise 4×10; lateral raise 3×10; tennis backhand cable
Day IV Saturday
Lying tricep push (a super-narrow grip bench press 5×12; tricep pushdowns 4×10; seated dumbbell hammer curl 4×10; standing curl 3×10; close grip chins 3xfailure; one arm dumbbell row 3×10; seated row 3×10; wide-grip pulldown 3×10
….Now that’s one hell of a routine: those sessions must have been legendary. We know for sure that this stuff worked! His training template on paper resembles a powerlifting version of the old Venice Beach, early 70’s era bodybuilder training template. Guy’s like Robbie Robertson, Arnold, Zane, Franco, Sergio, Bill Pearl, Reg Park and a whole host of others, bodybuilding immortals, all used a high-volume/high-set/high-rep/moderate intensity approach. Kaz used a high volume/high intensity/heavy poundage approach and would hit a muscle in heavy/light fashion twice weekly. This flies in the face of everything we’ve come to accept as unimpeachable orthodoxy. No big man has exceeded his raw, no gear strength benchmarks. He trained big and ate big. It was reported that he drank milk by the gallon and could wipe out a buffet single-handily. Finding these obtuse, intelligent little training books was a treat. I’ll run some more experts down the road a bit…
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