official zest power gym thread

[Eddie Torres]

Newspaper articles on the recent Asian comp:


Highlighting our 2 teenagers at the start of the article:
http://www.manilatimes.net/index.php...medals-in-kobe


Another article:
http://www.mb.com.ph/articles/344987...hine-kobe-tilt

[Eddie Torres]

There are 2 interviews tonight with PH team members that competed in the recent Asian championships:

1. NBN/PTV 4 - starts at 6-7PM tonight. Usually a 15-minute interview. This will be a live interview.

2. GMA7 - Probably a 2-minute preview on "24 Oras", anytime during the show but usually towards the end (sports news). This was taped in Zest yesterday. A full version of the interview will come out on Jan 8.

A total of 6 PH lifters (5 from Zest) will be part of the interviews.

[EliasBuboy]

Sir Eddie,

Pwede mag inquire about your training programs?

I want to learn how to do olympic lifts correctly and more importantly increase my deadlift and squat.


Will 3 times a week be enough to have noticeable gain?
How long would each workout last?
Whats the ideal training schedule?

Your gym is out of the way for me thats I have to schedule it properly.

[Eddie Torres]

Sir Eddie,

Pwede mag inquire about your training programs?

I want to learn how to do olympic lifts correctly and more importantly increase my deadlift and squat.


Will 3 times a week be enough to have noticeable gain?
How long would each workout last?
Whats the ideal training schedule?

Your gym is out of the way for me thats I have to schedule it properly.

Sorry I wasn’t able to respond to your PM right away.

I can help you increase your squat & DL. For oly lifts, i will refer you to my partner in Zest, Mon Debuque, since it is more his expertise being a veteran national WL team member. He knows a lot more about WL than me.

We do not have formal WL classes but you could join in the WL sessions they have in Zest. But you’ll need to adjust to their schedule.

For SQ/DL, I can make your program. If I am not in Zest, our gym instructor can assist you in doing my programs. If I am there when you train, I will guide you too.

3 times a week is ok if you are only after SQ/DL/WL. Don’t you want to improve your bench press too? The main work-out will last about an hour, excluding warm-up.

[Eddie Torres]

A 17 year-old High School Zest lifter benched 140kg (308 pounds) in the recent national championships last weekend. He is the 3rd Zest teen to bench at least 300. A 4th Zest teen, weighing just a little less than 160 pounds, is also getting there, benching 132.5kg (292 pounds) and should hit 300 within the year.

In addition, 3 more Zest teen trainees have also broken the 400 pound barrier in the squat and DL in the same competition.

[jcinme09]

Hi, i'm planning na dito na lang mag gym, Super lapit lang pala sa place namin. May mga nag te-train din po ba dito for the newbie?

[Eddie Torres]

Hi, i'm planning na dito na lang mag gym, Super lapit lang pala sa place namin. May mga nag te-train din po ba dito for the newbie?

Yup. We have a gym instructor who will teach you the exercises.

You'll just need to keep an open mind because we do many things differently from what others teach in Pex.

[jcinme09]

Question po ulit, how many times a week po ba dapat mag gym?

[Eddie Torres]

Question po ulit, how many times a week po ba dapat mag gym?

Beginner's training in Zest is 3-4 times a week

[Eddie Torres]

http://sports.inquirer.net/34969/psa...ant-youngsters

[Zoho]

i'm planning to enroll here.

when's the best time and day to go here to inquire?

at paano mag commute papunta dito kung galing ka ng makati/mandaluyong?

[Zoho]

Erle Frayne D. Argonza


Magandang araw sa kapamilyang global! Good day to global community fellows!

This year 2011 will mark the 21st year that this analyst (sociologist, economist, political analyst) and self-development guru has been practicing powerlifting as a regular physical regimen. Being a former competitive athlete in national powerlifting Class A (equivalent to ‘professional’) in Ph, I will dedicate this note to the Zest Fitness Gym, the topgun powerlifing gym that made me into a national athlete and consistent gym weight burner.

This is the narrative of my physical history, fellows. I’ve been doing gym weight training for 21 years now, with no signs that I’d be dropping off powerlifting as my regular physical regimen. I owe it to the Zest gym this love for weight training and the scientific rigor that goes with that training.

I used to jog and swim for eight (8) years prior to my plunge into weight training in 1990. In 1982 I almost lost my life, neglectful as I was then for two (2) straight years of living an active professional and civil life but without a physical program. I contracted falciparum malaria along the way and almost died of it, and so the decision came to me never again to be remiss in my physical fitness programming.

Within a week I would jog for a day or two, and then in between jogging I would swim for at least a day or two in a week. I would jog for around 30-45 minutes, and swam 20 laps in the Olympic pool. My exercises were largely survival training types or non-competitive. I began to pump some weights in ‘86 through ‘89 to give some firmer shapes to my muscles while I continued with the jog & swim regimen.

Then in 1990 I decided to go straight gym or indoor workouts. I simply scorned the days when I couldn’t jog or swim due to heavy rains or inclement weather as the rains restrained me from getting exposed to the elements. So in 1990 I decided to go regular gym workouts, since I can do the workouts even if the stormy day is already whistling Signal No. 2 typhoon beacons.

I was then residing in Cubao, Quezon City, and from there I took a ride to University of the Philippines (Diliman) to do workouts at the PRO Gym. Barely just six (6) months in weight training then, I stumbled into the Zest gym just near my residential area. I was surprised that there was one gym there where topgun powerlifters trained, and it was just around 12 minutes walk from my home.

The gym got me curious about powerlifting, as I was then doing the typical body-building program. An orientation chat with Ramon ‘Mon’ Dabuque, owner and chief trainor of Zest, convinced me sufficiently to try out with the program. Powerlifting builds mass, power and agility, and that was enough to make me try it and linger on with it till now.

Sports science provided the core ‘best practices’ to the Zest weight training, a fact that fascinated me a lot. Being a former weightlifter at the University of the Philippines and a national athlete, Mon Dabuque was very meticulous in doing research and testing the applications of certain programmed practices. Even our diet regimen had to pass the rigors of R & D tested regimen for athletes.

It was through Zest, with its bounty of sports science magazines and literature, that informed me highly about the combinations of macrobiotics (65% carbo, 20% protein, 15% fats), sufficient microbiotic supplements (vitamins, minerals), and catalytic boosters. That knowledge was to be added to my arsenal of knowledge packages about health & wellness, at a time when I was already an advocate of alternative health paradigms.

The program for us athletes then was a combination of the Bulgarian program, Hawaiian program, regular (generic) powerlifting basics, and Mon Dabuque’s innovative experimental program. Scientific and very rigorous, couples of weakling types dropped out of the regimen, while couples of others, myself included, proceeded to take the challenge of winning head on via the rigorous and disciplined regimen.

The beauty with scientific programming is that even if the trainee doesn’t possess ‘muscular genetics’ (low muscular intelligence), the trainee can still be transformed into a topgun powerlifting athlete. Sports science is the cutting edge, and I am witness to the power of scientific training under a brilliant trainor/instructor. Many of us athltetes, myself included, possessed sloppy frail body types with no muscular genetics and yet made it to the top as national-level athletes while just new into powerlifting.

In less than a year of powerlifting training, I decided to try it out in the National Powerlifting Novice Competitions in 1991, and wondrously landed as Bronze Medalist on the Lightweight division. Emboldened by the victories of our Zest Team and the medal I won, I worked hard for a year to qualify for the National Class A Powerlifting Competitions in 1992, and landed as Silver Medalist in the Middleweight division.

During both competitions, I was witness to how the Zest Team lionized the greatest number of medals and bested all other gyms in the total Team scores. PH’s topgun powerlifters—Mon Dabuque, Tony Taguibao, Eddie Torres, Allan Paje, Erlina Pecante—whom we can correctly classify as ‘world class’ athletes today, are from Zest.

To be able to qualify as a national-to-international class athlete, one has to carry a total of over 7 X his/her body weight, by adding altogether his/her performance in Squat, Deadlift, and Bench Press. On my last competition, with body weight at around 68 kilograms, my Deadlift was 210 kg, Squat at 167 kg, and Bench Press at 92 kg. I was near that mark just barely 18 months or so into powerlifting, thanks to scientific training.

I also became a member of 200 Club, comprising those who can carry a load of over 200 kilograms in any event—I did it in deadlift. Later, I would learn that Eddie Torres and Mon Dabuque became members of the 300 Club, enabled as they were to carry a load breaching 300 kilograms in their deadlift and/or squat. I was truly ecstatic at my own feat, just 18 months into powerlifting then, and felt edified to have been a Team Mate with the topguns who also became my friends.

I was about to train for the Asian Powerlifting in 1993 when PH was entitled to send a double team (meaning two athletes per weight division). Unfortunately, I was knocked out cold by lingering tonsillitis, decidedly had to undergo surgery, and eventually led to the huge drop in my performance. Late that year, after surgery, I decided to retire from competitive sports, and focus instead on using power training as my regular physical fitness regimen.

Twenty-one years later, I still am a consummate gym worker amid my advancing age. Let me express herewith my gratitude to Zest gym and its core trainor Mon Dabuque, and my continuing appreciation and admiration of topguns Mon Dabuque, Eddie Torres, Erlina Pecante, Tony Taguibao, Allan Paje, and my other Team Mates.

To Zest Gym, Mabuhay!

[Philippines, 01 February 2011]

@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@

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interesting.

[Eddie Torres]

i'm planning to enroll here.

when's the best time and day to go here to inquire?

at paano mag commute papunta dito kung galing ka ng makati/mandaluyong?

Zest is open on Mon-Sat 9am-8pm and on Sun at 9am-12noon.

Here’s a link to a map:
http://www.zestpowergym.com/Others/Z.../slide0001.htm

You can take a bus up to Q-Mart (just before Kamuning). Then you’ll need to take the pedestrian overpass to get to the other side of EDSA.

If you want to avoid going up the high pedestrian overpass, there is a jeepney terminal in Cubao that will pass right on Ermin Garcia (where Zest is located) but I can’t recall where the terminal is. Once you finish you training at Zest, you can always take that jeep, which passes almost right in front of Zest, to get to Cubao/EDSA

[qwerty_nosedive]

Zest is open on Mon-Sat 9am-8pm and on Sun at 9am-12noon.

Here’s a link to a map:
http://www.zestpowergym.com/Others/Z.../slide0001.htm

You can take a bus up to Q-Mart (just before Kamuning). Then you’ll need to take the pedestrian overpass to get to the other side of EDSA.

If you want to avoid going up the high pedestrian overpass, there is a jeepney terminal in Cubao that will pass right on Ermin Garcia (where Zest is located) but I can’t recall where the terminal is. Once you finish you training at Zest, you can always take that jeep, which passes almost right in front of Zest, to get to Cubao/EDSA

Hi sir. May contact number po ba kayo sa gym or cell number? Di po kasi ako familiar sa lugar. I'm from fairview. Sino po pwede ko hanapin dun pag nagwalk in ako. TIA.

[Eddie Torres]

Hi sir. May contact number po ba kayo sa gym or cell number? Di po kasi ako familiar sa lugar. I'm from fairview. Sino po pwede ko hanapin dun pag nagwalk in ako. TIA.

Zest doesn't have a landline. But i'll PM my cel # to you.

If taking a bus coming from Fairview, just get down at Ramon Magsaysay school. That's right after the bus (or your car) comes down from the Timog/Kamuning flyover. Then just refer to the map for the short walk to Zest from EDSA,

The gym instructor's name is Deh. If you are an absolute beginner, Deh can give you the beginner's program. If you are more advanced and are serious in strength training i can give you a program.

[redhotred]

sir eddie,
pwede po bang magtanong about sa training programs?
gusto ko po sanang magincrease yung lifts ko sa DL, SQ, BP, and overhead press.
gusto ko rin po sanang magkaroon ng noticeable muscle gain sa back.

is SL 3x5 program enough?
salamat po.

[Eddie Torres]

Got your PM.

I dont know what SL means. Your lifts are decent for a beginner. You don't have to follow the "5 or 10 pounds increase per work-out". The increase should vary on each individual.

I would start you with higher reps in the 12-15 rep range then gradually reduce the reps & increase the weight in the weeks to come. You'll just need to manage your total volume.

[redhotred]

bale pano ko po malalaman kung gaano kabigat ang kailangan for that rep range? saka pano po yung pagiincrease ng weight?
ano po bang meron sa total volume?

[Eddie Torres]

bale pano ko po malalaman kung gaano kabigat ang kailangan for that rep range? saka pano po yung pagiincrease ng weight?
ano po bang meron sa total volume?

Regarding weight to use:
Use a weight that you can do for the rep range w/o failing. If you have doubts you could do 1 more rep, then stop right there. On some occasions, you can even stop w/ more reps to spare depending on circumstances. I know it could be difficult to figure out the exact weight to use unless you actually try it but in time, you’ll be able to estimate based on how the warm-up feels and how you did in the previous training session. If an experienced coach is present, he may be able to help you estimate depending on what he sees you do.

There is no fixed increase in weight progression. It depends on how you did last session and what your new rep target is. I could make an estimate for your next session if you let men know the weight and reps you did and how easy/difficult it was (e.g. you feel you could squeeze out an extra 2 reps in the last session).

Regarding “ano ang meron sa total volume”:
Too much volume can cause you to overtrain which can lead to slower progress, no progress, or even a decrease in performance. And it’s not just for total volume in a single session but also volume for a longer duration like training too much too often. Total volume can be increased with multiple short session work-outs

Intensity of the volume is also a factor. You would normally do less volume, more rest days, when training at higher intensities.

[Eddie Torres]

Here's the article:
http://philboxing.com/news/story-70172.html

The team included 6 lifters from Zest, 1 from UP, and 1 from Gayanes' Gorillas.

Many thanks to PSC, POC, Dewfoam, and Gold’s Gym for supporting the team