CT Fletcher: Bigger, Badder: CT Fletcher Speaks, Part 1

New Exercise and Fitness Review

Vital Stats

Name: CT Fletcher
Born: June 8, 1960
Location: Long Beach, CA
Occupation: Trainer, MetroFlex Long Beach
Website: www.ctfletcher.com

Long before CT Fletcher was the louder-than-life “Superman of Compton,” he was just your average, everyday behemoth—maybe one of a handful of the strongest men on earth on any given day during the 1990s and 2000s. Look around online and you can still find him, surprisingly calm and soft-spoken as he asks if his belly is hanging out before banging out rep after plate-rattling rep. “The hardest part is the sit-up afterward,” he jokes.

Of course, the “CT motherfuckin’ Fletcher” you know and love was in there as well, raging and roaring backstage before doing battle with the great pressers of his day. The records that resulted have become an inextricable part of his persona: a precise blend of “drill sergeant, preacher, and raving lunatic,” capable of commanding any weight to move and muscle to grow.

In part one of an exclusive interview, Fletcher gives us the inside scoop on his heaviest lifts, his legendary diet, and the first time he felt like he was “king of the jungle.”

Q You’ve trained for just raw strength, reps, and “sidewalk-cracking” size, and been successful at all three. What accomplishments are you proudest of?

One of the things I’m proudest of is a failed attempt with 705 pounds in my last competition. It was raw and drug-free, and I’m proud of that because it was the biggest stage with the best bench pressers in the world, all gathered together for an invitation-only contest. I showed up, and instead of going for a safe amount that I know I could do, I called for what then was the world record.

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For the biggest crowd I had ever bench-pressed in front of, I gave it my all. I didn’t fuckin’ half-step. I went balls out and pushed as fuckin’ hard as I could. I was unsuccessful in my attempt, but I gave it one hell of a run. To me, that is my best lift.

And did you just go back to work at the post office the next day like nothing happened?

Well, sort of. I first started having heart problems when I was training for that contest— that the doctors told me about anyway. They told me that my heart was enlarged—they actually told me the day before that competition. I told them what I was going to try to do, and they said the strain of that much weight could cause my aortic valve to rupture. They said: “No repairing it. If it ruptures, you are going to die. And are you still planning on competing?”

They thought I was crazy, but I thought that was a crazy question for them to ask me. They were looking at me like, “Do you understand what we’re telling you, Mr. Fletcher? You can die!” And I’m like, “Fuck yeah, I understand, but what better way to die than to fuckin’ be on the bench press in the biggest contest of my life, going for the most weight I ever went for? Am I going to compete? Are you out of your fuckin’ mind? Of course I’m gonna compete!”

“Am I going to compete? Are you out of your fuckin’ mind? Of course
I’m gonna compete!”

After the lift, did you feel incredible relief simply for not dying?

Oh no, no, no. I didn’t give a fuck. I really, sincerely did not give a fuck whether I died or not, making that attempt. What I felt relief in was that I didn’t shirk from the pressure of the moment. It was a tremendous amount of pressure being on that stage against the best in the world. I could have cowered, I could have backed down, but what I felt good about was that I did not. I faced the moment, I stared it down and I gave it my fuckin’ all, so I felt great.

Another of your most famous lifts is a 225-pound strict curl that, as far as I can tell, is still a record by a fair margin.

Yeah, you know things have changed, because in strict curl competitions these days there is no wall involved in the competition. In my day, a strict curl, you had to have your head, back, and butt up against a wall in order to make the curl. It’s a lot harder to curl 225 pounds standing up against a wall than it is just to curl 225 pounds. I can fuckin’ curl 225 pounds without a wall now, and I’m an old washed-up has-been motherfucker.

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So are you going to show everybody how it’s done and defend your record?

I’m gonna god-damn sure try. Just like the 705, I’ll be giving it my fuckin’ best, that’s for sure.

You often refer to a moment when you were in the hospital after your surgery, and a doctor who knew who you were said, “What happened to you?” How did you find your way out of the pit?

I knew where I came from, and I knew the feeling of being king of the beasts. I knew the feeling of being the baddest man, when I felt that nobody on the planet was stronger than me. I just had to go in search of that feeling. I knew what it felt like, so I just had to try to turn back the hands of time and show him that I’m still CT motherfuckin’ Fletcher. I may look fucked-up now, but I’ll be back!

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Do you remember the first time you felt that nobody on the planet was stronger than you?

Oh, yes. I remember the workout. I was training for a bench-press competition and I was doing board presses. I started out with 600 pounds and did that easily. Put a 650 next, did that easily, and put a 705-pound board press and did that pretty easily. I knew I had room left, and my training partner was saying, “Hey man, let’s just see how far you can go!”

I said, “I really don’t want to know how much I can do, because right now I’m feeling like my limit is limitless. I don’t have a motherfuckin’ limit. And I like the way this feels, so I’m just gonna walk the fuck out the gym right now and go get me a couple double cheeseburgers.”

Speaking of food, your old diet is legendary. Hundreds of desiccated liver tablets, raw eggs, cheeseburgers every day. How is it different now?

Oh yeah, it’s totally different but all of that stuff is very, very true. I would get a dozen raw eggs and a hundred, two hundred desiccated liver pills because that’s what they told you in the fuckin’ books. I always believed excess was better, so I always overdid it. If this guy was eating 10 raw eggs then I had to eat 12 or 15. This motherfucker was not going to out-eat me! So I would eat all that semi-healthy shit, and then I would go to McDonalds and eat all the fucked-up shit too.

So are you a three-squares-a-day, steamed vegetables kind of guy now?

Yes, very much so. When I’m doing what I’m supposed to be doing, I’m on a good diet. Spinach is my favorite green, and sweet potato is my favorite carb, and some type of fish. I eat fish three times a day with spinach and sweet potatoes. I don’t mind eating the same fuckin’ thing every day; it don’t bother me at all.

Stay tuned for the second half of this interview, where CT talks about his storied competitive history. If you just came here because you want to train some MF arms with CT as your guide, check out CT Fletcher’s Armed Warfare Workout.

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Nick Collias is the Senior Content Editor at Bodybuilding.com.

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CT Fletcher: Bigger, Badder: CT Fletcher Speaks, Part 1

Bigger On A Budget With High-Quality Meat

New Exercise and Fitness Review

Vital Stats

Name: Vince Del Monte
Height: 6’0″
Weight: 205 lbs
Occupation: WBFF professional fitness model, personal trainer, and author
Website: vincedelmontefitness.com
Facebook: vincedelmontelivelargetv

My regular readers and the people I coach know I place a huge emphasis on eating organic, particularly when it comes to meat. The health benefits of organic, grass-fed, pasture-raised meat and poultry over commercially raised meat are significant and legit. Organic meat contains less overall fat and calories, more healthy fats like omega-3s, a superior micronutrient profile, and is free of junk like extra hormones and antibiotics. It tastes way better, too!

One thing I hear a lot is that this type of meat is too expensive for people on a tight budget. With some planning, there are ways to find money in your budget for quality groceries and maximize every dollar you spend on these foods. Believe me: You can afford to feed your body the best possible food, even on a really limited grocery budget. You just need to abandon the frozen food aisle and step up to the cutting board!

Find the Money to Eat Right

The first thing to do if you don’t think you can afford high-quality meats is to evaluate your grocery budget. If you’re still buying processed foods, stop right there. Frozen “healthy” meals, prepared fish and chicken, and anything else that’s premade needs to go. Wave goodbye to packaged snacks, bars, and wraps as well. This alone can free up enough money to pay for a week’s worth of grass-fed meats and organic vegetables, giving you the nutrients you need to grow—and none of the garbage you don’t need.

If your grocery budget is already pared to the bone, and you haven’t been wasting any of it on processed foods, look at the rest of your budget. Are you prioritizing your money according to your health goals? Be brutally honest. Maximum health and fitness requires some investment. Money can’t be wasted caving to cheap thrills, temptation, and distraction.

If you spend $ 50 a week on lattes or $ 100 a week on entertainment, reconsider your priorities. How much are your bodybuilding and fat-loss goals really worth? Take half the money you spend on these things and buy wholesome food. Put your money where your priorities are.

“Wave goodbye to packaged snacks, bars, and wraps as well. This alone can free up enough money to pay for a week’s worth of grass-fed meats and organic vegetables, giving you the nutrients you need to grow.”

Make a Little Go A Long Way

The key to making healthy home cooking both affordable and feasible is to make it as efficient as possible. When you make the most of your time and your ingredients, you’ll be amazed by how much you can eat, how well, and for how little time and money.

Healthy home cooking doesn’t have to be complicated. Let’s start with my top three tips for eating better-quality meat and saving time and money along the way.

Tip 1

A package of four chicken breasts can cost $ 10, and you might get 2-4 servings out of it. And guess what: They’ll all be some variation of grilled chicken breast. On the other hand, you can buy a 5-pound organic whole chicken for the same price and get several different meals out of it. Not only that, you can make all of those meals in less than two hours.

1. Season an organic whole chicken with salt, pepper, and herbs like thyme and rosemary. Toss it in the oven for about 90 minutes at 400 degrees.


2. Halfway through, add some coarsely cut carrots, sweet potato, celery, and onion. How much you can fit in will depend on the size of your chicken and your pan, but you should be able to fit a couple of carrots and at least one of each of the other veggies.


3. When a meat thermometer reads 165 degrees (inserted into the thickest part of the thigh, without touching bone), let the chicken rest for 10 minutes. Carve off the breasts, thighs, and drumsticks—there are countless YouTube vids that show how to break down a whole chicken. Now you’ve got the fixings for all of your meals, which I’ll outline shortly.

This approach holds true for just about every meat. Pork chops will cost you $ 3-4 a pound, even on sale. Four decent-sized chops to make 1-2 meals will easily cost you $ 10-12. A whole pork shoulder will usually run you about $ 1.20 a pound. At an average of 10 pounds, it will also cost you about $ 12. The difference is that you can roast the shoulder once and have enough meat to last a week when you turn it into stir-fry, stew, wraps, and beanless chili.

Tip 2

Most of us are pretty good at combining errands and multitasking in other areas of our lives, but in the kitchen we’re stuck on the idea that meals get cooked one at a time. This is a waste of valuable time!

There are two great ways to cook once and eat several times. The first is to simply double or triple whatever recipe you’re making. Instead of preparing one pork loin, prepare three. Rather than cooking one batch of chicken soup, cook two. Let the extra portions cool while you eat dinner, then pack them into the fridge and/or freezer for later. This is the classic bodybuilder way of handling food prep. The downside—just like with the chicken breasts—is that you end up eating the same thing over and over again.

A better way to save time is to cook two or more different meals at once using some of the same ingredients. Remember that organic whole chicken I just showed you how you cook? Here’s how to make it set you up for days.

“A better way to save time is to cook two or more different meals at once using some of the same ingredients.”

Meal 1

Chop up the thigh meat and put it into a large plastic container with a lid. Take 1/3 of the veggies you roasted with the chicken. Put half into a blender and blend until smooth. Add one cup of chicken broth to the blender and blend again. Pour the chopped veggies and pureed veggies into the container with the chicken and stir. You have at least two servings of thick, creamy soup for tomorrow.

Meal 2

Slice up the chicken breast, and wrap half of it to be used in a salad or two during the week.

Meal 3

Portion out the other half of the chicken breast and another 1/3 of the veggies into one or two lunches to take to work, or a couple of dinners for after the gym.

Meal 4

Pull the drumstick meat off and shred it with your fingers. Divide it between some large romaine lettuce leaves, add the remaining veggies, top with some good salsa and fresh spinach leaves, and roll it into wraps. You should get two good-sized wraps out of two drumsticks.

You just turned that $ 10 chicken into four different meals, making 6-8 total servings. Including the other ingredients, that’s about $ 2.00 per serving in less than two hours. Bonus: You don’t have to cook for a few days.

This same approach also works for the pork shoulder I mentioned before. Roast some carrots, parsnips, onions, turnips, and other root vegetables with it while it cooks, and you’ve got the ingredients for great soup, as well as enough toppings to make the best split baked sweet potatoes you’ve ever eaten.

Tip 3

The slow cooker—aka Crock-Pot—is a busy bodybuilder’s most valuable kitchen tool. You can spend a few minutes prepping whatever healthy ingredients you have around, toss them into the slow cooker with some broth and spices, and let it all cook while you’re at work or the gym.

In addition to saving time, the slow cooker can also save money. Cheaper cuts of meat come in handy when you’re on a budget, and slow cooking is always the way to go with the cheaper cuts. The slow-and-low approach never fails to turn even the toughest meat into incredibly delicious and tender meals.

This is especially great when you’re struggling to afford organic grass-fed meats. The cheaper cuts such as chuck roasts will cost half as much as rib eye steaks, but they’ll be just as good if cooked in the slow cooker, and may even go farther.

Keep Learning, Eating, and Growing

When my baby daughter was born last year, my nutrition and overall health went into a serious tailspin. Because my wife and I were running demanding businesses and taking care of a newborn, we found ourselves eating out much more often than usual. As I explained in my article “A New Father’s Guide to Fitness,” I quickly became fatigued, my hormone levels went nuts, and I felt horrible.

I knew I needed to act quickly if I didn’t want to find myself in a state that would take months to recover from. One solution I came up with was taking private cooking classes from one of my favorite professional chefs, Amy Stoddard from www.SaySheAte.com.

Learning to cook was life-changing. Once I got the hang of it, I started feeling fantastic. I slept better and awoke well-rested, had tons of energy, and didn’t struggle with cravings. My workout recovery times improved, and I and saved a lot of money in the process. I was also able to bulk up to my most muscular physique—230 pounds on the nail.

Take it from me: You can permanently improve your quality of life and your physique, which is why I focused an entire recent season of my online series Live Large TV on cooking and instruction from Amy. Take control of your kitchen today, and you’ll thank me for years to come!

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Bigger On A Budget With High-Quality Meat

Squat Bigger With The GZCL Method

New Exercise and Fitness Review

When I began competing in powerlifting, I decided to train like a powerlifter—an obvious choice to make at the time. However, I found that none of the pre-existing programs felt right. They would leave me crushed under too much volume coupled with too great of an intensity, or I’d walk out of the gym feeling like I’d hardly worked a sweat. I needed to find a sweet spot at which to train—somewhere between the heavy weights of a powerlifter and the higher volumes of a bodybuilder.

Through experimentation and looking back through my training logs, I inadvertently created my own training methodology that I now call the GZCL Method, which doesn’t really stand for anything. Two years after its conception, my powerlifting total—deadlift, squat, and bench press—has increased by over 200 pounds.

GZCL is not a program per se, but rather a set of recommendations designed to help you squat bigger and better. Hell, it’ll work with any lift you want to improve, but I’ll warn you right now that gains come only with hard work, time, and patience. Let’s dive into the details of the method and how they apply specifically to the squat.

“I needed to find a sweet spot at which to train—somewhere between the heavy weights of a powerlifter and the higher volumes of a bodybuilder.”

What Is The GZCL Method?

While this is only a primer, the GZCL Method establishes a few basic guidelines to help manage a training program’s intensities and get people on the right path toward progress. Here are the things you need to know about the GZCL Method:

• Your goal weight: A weight somewhere in the 2-3 rep max range. This is a weight you can already do so that your training will push the limits of progress in a safe and effective manner. This is what your main lift percentages will be based off.


• Tiered intensity lift structure: I’ll dive more into this shortly, but you’ll build your program around three different intensity tiers.


• First tier is your main lift at 85-100 percent


• Second tier is a primary accessory at 65-85 percent


• Third tier is a secondary accessory at 65 percent or less


• 1:2:3 ratio of volume to intensity: For every rep you do in the first tier, do two reps in the second tier and three in the third tier. This will help you balance intense lifting and higher volume in the same workout.

This is what it looks like, all neatly packed into a table:

GZCL Method
Tier	Intensity	Volume Range
1st	85-100%	10-15 total reps
2nd	65-85%	20-30 total reps
3rd	65% or less	30 or more reps

Keep in mind that these guidelines are “soft” rules, meaning that there are times to push the upper limits on intensity and volume. Treat these more as gradients rather than hard transitions.

Building Your Strength Pyramid

Think of building strength as a pyramid, which can stand as tall as its base allows. In order to build a tall and structurally sound pyramid, its foundation must be wide enough to support it! Therefore, the intensities you use stand at the apex of your pyramid and the volumes are its base.

Tier One (T1)

This is your main compound movement for the day—in this case, the squat. In T1, you concentrate on moving heavy weights and practicing what could be your competition movement if you’re a powerlifter or a weightlifter. With this movement as the central focus of your workout, you’ll be able to fit in frequent technique practice with appropriate intensity and volume, thus building more confidence in that lift, which is something many strength training programs lack. It’s crucial to feel confident under the bar in order to move around heavier and heavier weights. The GZCL Method certainly cultivates this mindset.

“In Tier 1, you concentrate on moving heavy weights and practicing what could be your competition movement if you’re a powerlifter or a weightlifter.”

Tier Two (T2)

This is your primary accessory movement to your squat. One or two exercises should suffice here. As with any accessory movement, it should improve upon your ability to squat bigger and better and should be performed in the 5-8 reps per set range for a total of 20-30 reps total. For example, if your squat is weak due to an excessive forward lean, you could help remedy this with a front squat or a good morning. Or you could make your T2 movement a lighter variation of the squat. As they say, practice makes perfect.

Tier Three (T3)

Now you’re moving into bodybuilding territory! T3 movements consist of 1-3 movements that are often isolation-type exercises to help build the muscles that perform both your T1 and T2 movements.

With T3 exercises, you can move much lighter weights for higher repetitions and really focus on building specific muscles. As you become stronger, building bigger and stronger muscles plays an important role in continual progress down the road. I would suggest some leg curls to help develop your hamstrings for better transfer to your squat, or glute bridges to develop your glutes. Whatever your sticking point may be for your squat, focus your T3 movement on those and perform them in the suggested total rep scheme.

If you choose, you can continue to squat here for higher-volume training. If that’s the case, you would use, say, 50 percent of your goal weight. In contrast, something like a leg curl would be in the 8-12 rep range for the 30 or more prescribed total reps.

Putting it all Together

All right, let’s get the GZCL Method working to make your squat bigger, better, and stronger! In the following workout, I’ve designated the T2 and T3 accessory exercises to develop common weaknesses in lower body development.

Front Squat

A single workout could look like this:

GZCL Method – Lower Body Development
Tier	Exercise	Sets/Reps
1st	Back Squat	3 sets of 4 reps at 85%
2nd	Front Squat	5 sets of 5 reps at 65%
3rd	Superset – Leg Curl/Leg Extension	3 sets of 10 reps

Here’s a 4-week progression chart:

Week 1
Tier	Exercise	Sets/Reps
1st	Back Squat	3 sets of 4 reps at 85%
2nd	Front Squat	3 sets of 10 reps at 65%
3rd	Superset – Leg Curl/Leg Extension	3 sets of 10 reps

Week 2
Tier	Exercise	Sets/Reps
1st	Back Squat	5 sets of 3 reps at 90%
2nd	Front Squat	4 sets of 6 reps at 75%
3rd	Superset – Leg Curl/Leg Extension	3 sets of 10 reps

Week 3
Tier	Exercise	Sets/Reps
1st	Back Squat	5 sets of 2 reps at 95%
2nd	Front Squat	3 sets of 8 reps at 70%
3rd	Superset – Leg Curl/Leg Extension	3 sets of 10 reps

Week 4
Tier	Exercise	Sets/Reps
1st	Back Squat	3 reps at 90%, 2 reps at 95%, 1 rep at 100%
2nd	Front Squat	4 sets of 5 reps at 80%
3rd	Superset – Leg Curl/Leg Extension	3 sets of 10 reps

As prescribed by the progression chart, you begin with higher volume. As the weights increase, your total number of reps decrease. The only difference is that in the T1 category, all of the weights are decently heavy. Likewise, the T2 progresses in intensity, but in an alternating weekly fashion. With T3, you can focus on adding a bit of weight each week.

On the fourth, most intense week, you work your T1 up to as many reps as possible with 100 percent of your goal weight. This approach allows you to set a new, higher goal weight. Progress! If you were able to complete one rep of goal weight, that’s still progress, especially after being fatigued from the previous sets. You may want to work on accessory movements and technique to be able to do more.

“If you were able to complete one rep of goal weight, that’s still progress, especially after being fatigued from the previous sets.”

If you find that you can do more than 4 reps, you want to add at least 15 pounds to your current 100 percent goal weight. Being able to complete additional reps at 100 percent of your pre-established goal weight is how you measure and continue progress with the GZCL Method. This way you can maintain rep quality, speed, and consistency without having to test for an actual max. Save those hard-earned efforts for when they count—on the platform!

For more information on the GZCL Method, check out my personal blog: Swole At Every Height. Drop your questions and thoughts in the comments below!

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