Written by: Eli Blahut
Photos by: Bill Comstock
Date of entry: 3/5/10
The Czech Champ, Lukas Osladil, trains chest, back, and glutes after his fourth-place finish in the heavyweight class at the 2010 Arnold Amateur. It is his first time in America. "No one trains like me," Lukas tells me as we enter the gym. "I never have a training partner, and I never talk during my workouts. I only have an hour and a half each day to train, there are twenty two and a half hours left in the day for talking!"
Lukas finds his way over to the Hammer Strength Incline Press Machine to start his Chest routine. He throws 45 lbs. on each side and slowly squeezes out 15 reps.
Lukas' training philosophy involves stretching between each set. "Stretching gives me a better pump and helps relax my muscle between sets. I have been dong it for 20 years." Each repetition is accompanied by a full stretch and squeeze. He does a 3-to-5 second negative and positive on each rep. He routinely uses slow reps with quarter reps and only rarely does explosive reps. Counting reps doesn't apply; he instead focuses on feeling the muscle. He stretches his chest immediately after the set. Without much time to rest he raises the weight to 90 lbs. on each side and squeezes through 12 more reps.
The Godfather of Bodybuilding, Charles Glass, shows up and motions to Lukas. He stops his set, shakes hands with Mr. Glass, who tells him to keep his shoulders down and back as he pushes the weight forward to keep more tension on the chest and less on the shoulders.
He increases the weight to 115 lbs. each side and is only able to squeeze out 5 reps. He then lowers the weight to 80 lbs. each side and does 5 more reps, plus a few quarter reps.
Lukas' second movement in his chest routine is the Hammer Strength decline press. He starts with 45 lbs. on each side for 10 reps, then increases the weight to 80 lbs. each side squeezing out 7 more and finishing with the same weight for 6 reps.
Onto the pec dec. First set is 115 lbs. for 8 reps. He increases the weight to 145 lbs. and does 10 reps. His final set is with 175 lbs. for 8 reps.
Before moving onto his last movement for chest he stops and surprises me by asking âWhat movement would you choose next that is a machine?â I motion for him to try another machine press. He takes my advice and starts with a 45-pound plate on each side for a controlled 8 reps.
He goes back to the machine press and adds a 25-pound plate on each side for another 8 reps.
He starts his back routine with the Hammer Strength iso-lateral high row using 45 lbs. on each side. He does 10 reps, takes a break to stretch, increases the weight to 90 lbs. each side and does 10 more.
I noticed that Lukas' form was unbalanced here. His right shoulder is pulled further back than his left. This makes the stimulation of the movement unequal. It seems even top athletes can still get away with minor imperfections in form.
He uses the Hammer Strength iso-lateral low row for his second movement, starting with 70 lbs. on each side for 10 reps. He quickly does another set with the same weight for 10 more reps and a last set for 8 reps.
For his third movement, he chooses the pullover machine with 65 lbs. for 10 reps. âDorian used to do this movement,â he says. He raises the weight to 110 lbs. and gets 10 reps. His third set is with 140 lbs. for 8 reps and he finishes with 170 lbs. for 8 reps.
He finishes his back routine with the Nautilus lower back machine. He starts with 95 lbs. for 10 reps and quickly raises the weight to 125 lbs. for 5 reps. He waits 1 minute and then does 125 lbs. again, but for 10 reps. He did his last set with 155 lbs. for 7 reps.
Next, he moves onto glutes, which he trains between 2 to 3 times per week. Lukas takes a lot of pride in his glute development. As he stretches I am reminded of Tom Platzâs photo in Arnold's Encyclopedia of Bodybuilding.
He warms up his glutes by swinging his legs in circles and stretching them from different angles. He then sits down in the hip abduction machine and performs a set with 80lbs keeping his back straight. When his form starts to fail he leans forward and knocks out some more reps. Quickly he moves to a modified sumo squat and performs around 80 reps, squeezing his glutes on each one! He did this for 3 consecutive sets before stopping and saying he was done.
After Lukasâ workout we go over to the Firehouse so he can eat and discuss his background and some of his contest prep with me. He orders egg whites, steak, and buckwheat banana-blueberry pancakes as tells me how he got into training.
GETTING STARTED
He started training with 8-pound dumbbells that he found in his grandmothersâ house when he was only 10 years old. When he was 16 he scraped up enough money to buy his first gym membership; however, he never really had it easy. His mother repeatedly discouraged him from training and his father was indifferent to the matter. Thankfully, he had his younger brother of two years, Premysl, to help support his enthusiasm, and 12 years later, the Czech Champ now stands a very muscular and aesthetic 213 lbs!
CONDITIONING
To get into such great conditioning for Arnold Amateur Lukas he ate chicken 3 times a day with a protein shake between each meal. Occasionally, he switched out chicken for beef. He chooses between high-and-low-carbohydrate days depending on how he looks. To peak his conditioning and muscularity he removes carbohydrates the last week before the show, and 3 days before the show he consumes an astonishing 2,200 grams of carbohydrates in 22 hours in the form of rice, rice cakes, and cous cous. That is 100 carbs every hour, making his weight go from 200lbs to 211lbs! He keeps it salt-free and consumes 23 oz of water on that day and continues to keep the diet salt free and the water low up until the show.
COMPETITION HISTORY
He has competed 22 times in his career, earning some very impressive titles. He was the overall IFBB European Champion in 2005, the Vice World Champion in 2006, and The Czech Republic Champion in 2004 and 2005.
