The photos to go with this are in the mag.
Brutal Legs with Gary
& Martin
By lee @photo-flex
On this day I met Martin Holdroyd & Gary Noakes at
Listers Universal Gym Harworth, Doncaster.to do a small piece on how they train legs. Big
thanks to Gary Lister and Becky Williamson for letting us shoot there.
Now there not training partners, but its not uncommon for
competitors to train together for extra motivation. As Masters over 50’s
athletes there not shy when it comes to hardcore training. Both are known for
balls to the wall levels of training that shows when they step on stage.
We all know that any physique just isn’t complete without a
huge set of wheels. A little like a Bentley with 13” rims. It just doesn’t
work.
Martin & Gary are top level athletes who have both
stepped on the Nabba Universe stage. To even get this far is really something.
It was to be a pleasure and eye opener to watch them train. I won’t go into
lots of detail about sets and reps, but give a brief account of what happened
that day. This was a while ago too.
Although up against each other on stage, the sporting
friendship was evident from the first set. I know both to be true gents anyway.
So that was no surprise.
To start this session they went to the squat rack. Listers
Gym has it all so it was a great place to shoot this. The routine for these
guys would change regular, hence not going into too much detail. But the reps
were very strict, no half reps, no messing, just ass to the grass squats (Gary’s
phrase).
Nothing was held back, it wasn’t long before they were
sweating buckets. Once warmed up they
went onto the beast of a leg press machine. Not for the faint hearted the
plates went on., and on.
This was to be brutal, rest pause, forced reps, whatever it
took to fail. No wonder they have quads like they do. Most 20 year olds would
struggle at this point. And these guys are are 50! .
After what seemed like a lot of sets, they moved to leg
extensions. This crazy aspect included drop sets. And they looked painful.
Right down to very light weight and very partial movement. Every fibre taxed.
After a mix of other exercises we got back to heavier squats. I know, it’s
mental but they went back to squats. I don’t think I could have squatted a bare
bar, never mind the extra weight. But they still kept it very strict.
The leg session didn’t consist of lots of movements or exercises,
but the key point was hitting the quads with compound movements, with some
isolation thrown in. By the end I remember Gary falling to the floor. Legs
totally numb. I got thumbs up and left him to come back to life. Martin was
hanging onto the squat rack.
Words and photography by Lee Archer photo-flex
www.photo-flex.co.uk
