Survival in the land of giants has never been a battle for 5'6' Ronny Rockel. It has been an inspiring challenge, not to meet their standard but to coerce them, by unbending principle, to meet his. 'Bodybuilding, to Rockel, is the Platonic ideal of muscle exemplified in himself. It transcends mere mass, and it's obvious from the stoic set of his Saxon jaw that he will not quail from the competitive stage until his vision of the perfect physique prevails, which, at this point, means against all odds.
In 2006, Rockel was rewarded with the Australia Pro Grand Prix championship, for his unisonous symmetry, impeccable proportions and surgical detail, only to be ignored in higher-profile contests featuring freaks and media darlings. No matter, his inner mantra keeps reciting, 'Don't let the bastards beat you down.'
Fat chance. When Rockel looks in the mirror, he does not see dominant size or a hallmark bodypart. He's looking for the harmonious organization of individual parts with each other and with the whole, and he's looking for ways to continually change them, improve them, perfect them.
'Discovering a detail that can be improved excites me, inspires me,' he states, after describing how he even found ways to improve his deltoids, already regarded by many in the bodybuilding world as the benchmark of shoulder development. Neither too big nor too small, hard, swollen, free from spherical aberrations, and proportionate with his arms, forearms, traps and chest, Rockel's delts, though consonant with the rest of his body, make the bold statement that he had never considered them an 'afterthought' bodypart. They bore evidence of his incipient inspiration from seeing Arnold Schwarzenegger in Conan, the Barbarian and his emulation of the legend's liberal use of barbells, dumbbells, supersets, and high-poundage, high-volume workouts.
Born and raised behind the Iron Curtain, in the German Democratic Republic, 'modern' training to Rockel meant lifting axles and gear wheels off the floor and throwing them around in mid-air, so when the Berlin Wall fell and opened a path to gyms of the western world, a cornucopia beckoned that he couldn't resist, and still can't.
Obsessed with his sublimated moral of aesthetic bodybuilding, Rockel insists that his modern training is now moderated in all regards, and he naively asserts, 'I avoid extremely heavy weight, extremely low reps and explosive movements, especially for deltoids. They are isolated muscles with many heads and attachments, so they demand extreme discipline and concentration, if you expect to fatigue them properly. Power reps and excess weight miss the head of the muscle, or worse, overtrain it, and that's true for shoulders more than for any other bodypart.'
If so, then someone should tell Rockel that the workout he does for his is hardly a frolic in the asphodel, even for someone with his pitiless Iron Curtain pedigree. Still, Rockel thinks it is, and that's all that matters, as long as his mind is in total control of the muscle he's trying to push to the point where, 'It says it has given its all with every fiber, all the way from one insertion to the others.'
REAR DELTS (TUESDAY) At least on one level, Rockel shows some mercy on his delts: he trains their rear heads alone, two days before the rest of his shoulder complex, albeit with three different exercises of nine total sets.
Reverse pec decks The best isolation for the rear head, he feels, is a reverse position in the pec-deck machine; but for even more bull's-eye targeting, he performs these with two different hand positions. The palms-facing-in position concentrates the stress in the upperrear delt and rhomboid tie-ins, and with palms facing out, the stress is on the middle-rear delt and lower rhomboid tie-ins.
In either position, burn reps won't do; only total exhaustion will suffice. The first two sets of each are in the 15-to 20-rep range, but the last set is six reps to failure, followed by two drop sets of six reps each.
Standing reverse cable flyes With no relief of intensity, Rockel goes right into three sets of reverse cable flyes: 65 pounds for 25 reps, 80 pounds for 20 reps and 90 pounds for 15 reps.
SHOULDERS (THURSDAY) With another brutal session for shoulders, it's understandable that abdominals are the only other bodypart Rockel trains on this day. His shoulder exercises make no accommodation for the onerous volume. All the movements are heavy basics.
Standing military presses In a redux of his best-growth days, Rockel starts with this most difficult shoulder exercise of all time, for maximum mass production, but he chooses not the comfortably compromised seated position; rather, he stands, unbraced and on his own. After a 30-rep warm-up, he pyramids through four working sets, the last of which is heavy enough to induce failure at six reps, plus two nonstop drop sets to failure at six reps each.
'As difficult as these are to control at such low reps, I nonetheless keep the movement fairly slow,' he says. 'It's heavy, but I do not drop the bar and use momentum to throw it back to the top. I want to feel as much tension in my deltoid caps when the bar is six inches from the top as when it's six inches from the bottom. The bar also moves at the same speed at any point in the range of motion.'
Seated dumbbell presses Before the burn is allowed to subside, Rockel continues with three sets of seated dumbbell presses, no warm-up, somehow managing to get 20 reps with 65-pounders, 15 reps with 80-pounders and 10-reps with 90-pounders, using a slow, consistent pace with continuous tension.
Machine lateral raises For all of his talk about isolation, strict movements and lighter weights, Rockel cannot resist going as heavy as possible--witness this one. By using a machine, he can employ more full-body stability and full-body muscularity to apply more strength for his lateral raises, and each progressive set seems to fuel his intensity for the next. Still, the pace remains slow, steady and with continuous tension, through four pyramided sets of 20 reps for the first, to a final set of six to failure, followed, again, by two drop sets of six reps each.
One-arm cable laterals These put a final burn on top of his fatigued lateral heads, with three high-intensity sets of 20 reps at 45 pounds, 15 reps of 55 pounds; then, a big jump for the last set of 10 reps at 110 pounds.
Front barbell raises And you thought he was finished? Hardly. For his front delt heads, Rockel again chooses the most primitive (and best) movement, reasoning that, 'The barbell forces both arms to lift through a fixed plane with more isolation than if they moved individually. Dumbbells are all right, but there's too much temptation to bring the lats into the lift, or to bias your balance just enough to make the lift easier. The barbell keeps you honest.' This is not your usual cosmetic touch-up finisher but, rather, a bona fide mass builder, for four working sets of 30 reps at 110 pounds, 20 reps at 110, 15 reps at 80 and, for the last, six reps to failure at 90, followed by two no-rest drop sets of six reps starting at 65 pounds.
DELT LONGEVITY After 17 years of bodybuilding, Rockel continues to enjoy unabated progress and has never suffered an injury, in spite of a training style that these days is considered destructive excess, but he attributes this apparent paradox specifically to his training style. His explanation is simple:'My hard, intense, drop-set, failure training continues to build and strengthen my muscles, thereby providing more protection, and my slow, continuous-tension movements virtually assure the avoidance of injury.'
Consistency--training five days in a row--is also a preventive, in that repetitive movement keeps the muscles supple, and their 'memory' of the previous overload freshly prepares them for the next shocking set.
All of which culminate in Rockel as one of the sport's premier textbook bodybuilders, taking the best from the past and shouldering it ahead through the new millennium. FLEX
Rockel pushes his muscles to the point they have 'given [their] all with every fiber, from one insertion to the others.'
ROCKEL'S TRAINING SPLIT MONDAY Morning Chest, calves and cardio Afternoon Biceps, forearms and cardio TUESDAY Morning Back, abdominals and cardio Afternoon Rear delts, triceps and cardio WEDNESDAY Morning Quads and abdominals Afternoon Hamstrings, calves, and cardio THURSDAY Shoulders and abdominals FRIDAY Abdominals and cardio ROCKEL'S SHOULDER PROGRAM EXERCISE SETS REPS TUESDAY Reverse pec decks (palms in) 1 * 30 2 15-20 1+2 [dagger] 6 Reverse pec decks (palms out) 2 15-20 1+2[dagger] 6 Standing reverse cable flyes 3 25-15 THURSDAY Standing military presses 1 * 30 3 20-10 1+2 [dagger] 6 Seated dumbbell presses 3 20-10 Machine lateral raises 3 20-10 1+2 [dagger] 6 One-arm cable laterals 3 20-10 Front barbell raises 1 * 30 3 30-15 1+2 [dagger] 6 * Warm-up set [dagger] One maximum set of six reps to failure, followed by two drop sets to failure of six reps each
BY JULIAN SCHMIDT
SENIOR WRITER
