GymTraining
🇺🇸 Tom Platz
Biography
American bodybuilder known simply as "The Quadfather": in his prime his thighs measured over 76 cm, and no one since has been associated with leg development so completely. He was part of Vince McMahon's short-lived World Bodybuilding Federation, announcing its formation from the closing ceremony of the 1990 Mr. Olympia. Today he is known mostly for seminars on training and motivation — his squat sets are still used as the benchmark for what willpower under a bar looks like.
Training approach
Platz built the most famous legs in the sport on a combination most lifters treat as either-or: heavy weight AND high reps. Accounts put his squat work at 225–350 lb for 35–50 reps, pyramiding from sets of twenty down to fives, with leg extensions done heavy for high reps and leg curls finished with forced reps. He counted in blocks of five to make long sets manageable, and insisted that leg training is a mental task before a physical one.
Compiled from public sources; accounts of the details differ.
Olympia appearances
Shared the podium with
Photo: Ciuffo · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons