When you think of Tom Platz, you think legs. Even 40 years later, the wheels he was propelled by in the early 1980s still rank as two of the best in bodybuilding history. When it comes to quad size, shape, and cuts, Platz is arguably still the GOAT. He was so far ahead of his time that photos of his legs still stun today. The other thing Platz is celebrated for is his workout intensity. He pushed sets to failure and beyond—far, far beyond, into the deepest depths of the pain zone, until he could barely move the weight. He called it “freaky type training.” This is usually associated with his leg workouts, but Tom Platz went freaky on every body part.
For the first time, from contemporaneous sources, we at The Barbell have compiled Tom Platz’s workouts in entirety—yes, for his legs, but also for every body part. We also have a wealth of quotes from Platz himself, as we explore in depth his “freaky type training” and explain what made Tom Platz’s workouts so brutally effective.
TOM PLATZ, ALMOST MR. OLYMPIA
Born June 26, 1955, Tom Platz discovered bodybuilding as a youth. He finished second in the 1974 Teen Mr. America. Platz remembers: “I was trained by Olympic lifters back home in Michigan in the early 70’s, and the squat rack was their altar. I was taught to revere the squat and work so hard on it that my life should pass before my eyes on the toughest sets.” With $50 to his name, he moved to Venice, California, in 1978 and trained at Gold’s Gym. That same year, he won his class at the Mr. Universe. At first, Platz struggled to make an impact as a pro: eighth in the lightweight class of the 1979 Mr. Olympia and ninth overall in the controversial 1980 contest. His legs were superb (though not as stupendous as they would soon be), but his upper half trailed dramatically.
Then in 1981, the 5’7” Tom Platz (a.k.a. The Golden Eagle) took the bodybuilding world by storm with a completely transformed physique. At a peeled 225 pounds (30 more than the previous year), his legs had reached their legendary dimensions, and the rest of him had inflated to a shocking degree. He should’ve won the 1981 Mr. Olympia. Even so, his third-place finish at only 26 and an avalanche or muscle magazine press over the next year set him up as the Olympia favorite in 1982. Unfortunately, the Golden Eagle tore his right biceps tendon before the 1982 Mr. Olympia, and he dropped to sixth. After sitting out 1983, he competed once in each of the following four years, managing a seventh in the 1985 Mr. Olympia, but his diminished right arm was always a glaring weakness. He wasn’t able to fulfill his promise as Mr. Olympia, but Tom Platz is still celebrated four decades later for his mind-boggling legs and his never-surrender workout intensity.
TOM PLATZ WORKOUT PHILOSOPHY
✷ Tom Platz pushed working sets to failure and then beyond with forced reps, partial reps, and cheating. (This didn’t apply to squats, which cannot safely be pushed beyond failure.) Platz said: “For me the set really starts when you reach failure, then it’s a question of how much pain can you take. How much torture can you apply to the muscles with the help of a training partner and by shortening reps or using momentum? Often, a set of something like leg curls would only end when I couldn’t move the weight even an inch. That kind of exercising isn’t for everyone. Most people can’t do it. But that’s what worked for me.”
✷ Rep ranges could vary greatly, and Platz wasn’t afraid to push them very high. For example, with squats—the exercises most associated with him—he claimed to squat 635 pounds for 15 reps (just before the 1986 Mr. Olympia), 495 pounds for 30 reps, 350 pounds for 52 reps, and 225 pounds for 10 minutes straight for well over 100 reps. If these seem exaggerated, we have video of him squatting 525 pounds for 23 reps in 1992, when he was long retired from competitive bodybuilding.
✷ Platz wasn’t concerned with the number of sets. If an exercise worked well for him, he might do 10 sets or more of it. He typically didn’t even count sets. He went instead, by time, doing 20-25 minutes of favorite exercises before moving on.
✷ In the late ’70s, Tom Platz trained body parts twice weekly and typically trained twice daily. In the 1980s, he settled on a four-day-on one-day-off program like the one below. Alternately, he sometimes did a three-on one-off program and skip legs. That’s because in the ’80s he often trained legs only twice per month and his upper body parts more frequently to bring his upper half more in balance with his lower half.
✷ He stuck to the few exercises that worked best for him but altered them. Platz said: “Throughout my career my training has always been centered on very few exercises. But rather than change the exercises to accommodate different degrees of stress development, I would change the way I performed each exercise. One day I would do [high] reps, one day I would do heavier weights. I could change the way I was holding the weights. I could change the position. There are a lot of things you can do with one exercise that can make it like 15 exercises. That’s something people don’t usually relate to. They’d rather change the exercise.”
✷ The mental aspects of bodybuilding training were paramount to Tom Platz, as he would visualize sets ahead of time until their completion was a foregone conclusion. He detailed his approach to leg workouts: “Mentally, I was rehearsing and visualizing what I would do for well over a week ahead of time. I would always eat pasta or pizza the night before, both for the carbs and to increase water retention around the gut. I had a favorite pair of sweatpants, socks, and sturdy lifting shoes. I learned from the Olympic lifters when I was a kid that you don’t just throw a random pair of sneakers on to squat. The colors red and yellow were favorites to wear because they always made me feel more powerful, and my sweatpants were skin-tight so I felt secure and strong. But I would say that the mental rehearsal was the most important aspect. I had seen and done those sets of squats over and over again many times before I actually got under that bar.”
TOM PLATZ WORKOUT
DAY 1: CHEST (A.M.)
Incline Dumbbell Press — 5-6 x 10-20 reps
Dumbbell Fly — 5-6 x 10-20 reps
Pec Deck Fly — 5-6 x 10-20 reps
Weighted Dip — 3-4 x failure (drop sets)
Analysis: Platz was all about maximizing ranges of motion on presses, flyes, and dips. The dips are a good indicator of his training style as he would begin with a weight attached to a belt, lose the belt when he reached failure, pump out with just his bodyweight, and, as he grew fatigued, the reps grew shorter and shorter until in the end he would stand on a bench but keep doing quick, fast dipping motions, forcing his pecs to keep working.
DAY 1: BACK (P.M.)
Pullup — 8-10 x 15-30 reps
Pulldown — 8-10 x 20-40 reps
T-Bar Row — 5-6 x 10-15 reps
Low Cable Row — 4-5 x 10-15 reps
Dumbbell Pullover — 4-5 x 10-15 reps
Analysis: In 1985, the late writer Peter McGough observed (and spotted) Platz during a late night back workout. Let’s focus on the pulldowns: “On these I take a wide grip and lean back as far as possible pulling the bar to my chest. At the beginning, I’ll do these unassisted, and then I want you [McGough] to push the bar down to my chest as I tire,” Platz said. “Then right at the end of each set, I’ll sit upright and finish off with a few reps to the front with you still pushing down. This movement is great for adding width to the upper lats.” He used the whole 250-pound stack, and did 20 reps with maximum speed with his body almost parallel to the floor. Platz cried: “Let’s go! Wham! Wham!” and McGough pushed the bar to Platz’s chest for around another 20 reps before Platz changed to an upright position and eked out the last few reps. He didn’t count sets or reps, but did these unique (nearly-horizontal to vertical) pulldowns for about 20 minutes.
DAY 2: SHOULDERS
Smith Machine Military Press — 8-10 x 12-30 reps
Dumbbell Lateral — 5-6 x 12-25 reps
One-arm Cable Lateral — 3-4 x 12-20 reps
Upright Row — 4-5 x 10-15 reps
Bent-Over Dumbbell Rear Lateral — 4-5 x 10-20 reps
Machine Rear Lateral — 3-4 x 10-15 reps
Analysis: Again, you can see Platz focusing foremost on the exercise he finds most effect: an overhead press. This was sometimes done to the front, sometimes behind-the-neck, and sometimes he’d begin the set going behind the neck and end it going to the front.
DAY 3: LEGS
Barbell Squat — 7-10 x 10-30 reps
Hack Squat — 3 x 15-20 reps
Leg Extension — 5-8 x 10-15 reps
Lying Leg Curl — 5-8 x 7-20 reps
Standing Calf Raise — 3-4 x 10-15 reps
Seated Calf Raise — 3 x 10-15 reps
Analysis: No leg presses. No lunges. No adductions. No modern leg machines. Squats, squats, and more squats. And hack squats with heels together and toes angled out to focus more on outer quads, going so deep at the bottom that he rolled forward onto his toes. And maybe leg extensions, though he tended to only do them in the final months before a contest. He did only lying leg curls for hamstrings. No seated leg curls (such machines were rare then), and no stiff-leg deadlifts (he was not a fan). All of the leg exercises Tom Platz didn’t do are great for most people, but this is what he did, and it’s what he found worked best for his body.
Squats were typically pyramided up to the two heaviest sets, and those sets were done for 15-30 reps. Platz explained: “But I would usually only do about two sets that we counted. I would work up in weight—I mean, to get to 495 [pounds], obviously I wouldn’t just come in the gym and put 495 on the bar. I might do 135 for a set of 15, 225 for a set of 10, 315 for a set of 10, 405 for a set of five or six reps and then eventually 495.” Then in that final set he went all-out, 15, 20, 25, 30 reps, as many as he could get, accepting no limits. And then he did that again for another set. He always squatted with a narrower, bodybuilder stance and well below parallel on each rep.
“On the two [high] rep-sets, the attitude that I had back then was that my life had to pass in front of my eyes,” he said. “I wanted to climb to that point. And if I couldn’t get to that point, I was disappointed and frustrated and extremely angry at myself, and I would make sure I got to that point every squat workout. When I say your life passed before in front of your eyes, I mean you go to the point where you get 10 reps and then somehow you manage to get 15 or 20. It’s just conjuring up the deep-rooted emotions and the passion and the energy that you have within your body and your soul and your mind to push the weight up one more time and one more time and one more time. It’s very demanding to so that with heavy weights, but I would endeavor to get to that point.”
DAY 4: ARMS
Standing Barbell Curl — 4 x 10-15 reps
Incline Dumbbell Curl — 4 x 10-20 reps
Machine Curl — 4 x 10-20 reps
Pushdown — 4 x 10-20 reps
Close-grip Bench Press — 4 x 10-20 reps
One-arm Dumbbell Triceps Extension — 4 x 15-30 reps
Barbell Wrist Curl — 4-6 x 20-30 reps
Analysis: Platz applied the same intensity to his arms as his legs. He would loosen his form to keep sets of curls going and going and going, so he would eventually be swinging up the weight.
ANY DAY: ABS
Crunches — 2 x 100 reps
Twist — 10 minutes
Roman Chair Sit-up — 4 x 25-30 reps
Analysis: Abs could be done at the end of any workout, and were typically trained several times weekly pre-contest. Calves could also be added to other workouts. This is an outdated ab routine (we’re not fans of crunches or any kind of sit-up), but it worked for Platz.
DAY 5: OFF (or light cardio)
DAY 6: Begin the split again with the DAY 1 Workout
TOM PLATZ WORKOUT FAQS
How many squats would Tom Platz do?
7-10 sets total per workout. Sets were pyramided up to, typically, two all-out, high-rep sets.
How many times did Tom Platz rep 225?
He claims to have squatted 225 pounds for 10 minutes, doing over 100 continuous reps.
Can Tom Platz still squat?
Undoubtedly. He said in an Instagram post that he squatted 365 for five reps on the last day of 2016 at 61. Last year, at 67, he posted an Instagram video of himself squatting 185 for 30 deep reps, using, as he wrote, a “lighter weight” because of a nagging injury.
Did Tom Platz do front squats?
Not regularly. Back squats and hack squats were his mainstay quad exercises.
How much did Tom Platz squat for reps?
He was filmed squatting 525 pounds (238.2 kg.) for 23 reps, five years after he retired from competitive bodybuilding. He claims to have squatted, at his peak, 635 pounds (288 kg.) for 15 reps and 350 pounds for 52 reps, both of which correspond to his documented 525 x 23.
How often did Tom Platz do squats?
Every leg workout, which early in his career was twice a week. But later in his career, when he was trying to get his upper body more in line with his lower half, he trained legs only twice a month.
What was Tom Platz’s heaviest squat?
He publicly squatted 765 pounds (347 kg.) in 1992 at the same “Squat Off” event when he got 525 x 23. If he squatted 635 pounds for 15 reps in 1986, as claimed, that equates to a 952-pound squat. That said, squatting for reps and squatting for a single are two different things. Platz estimates he could’ve squatted 850-900 pounds if he had trained for a single rep at his peak, which seems reasonable, based on his other squatting feats.
