Jeff King Says "Bring those "dead" body parts back to life!"

By Maggie Greenwood-Robinson from Muscle & Bodybuilder magazine, Winter 1985.
With permission from contributing Editor Bob Gruskin and Jeff King.

Ask Jeff King what you can do to put colossal size on your chest, back, shoulders, arms, or legs, and he might advise you to choose your parents more wisely. A wave of discouragement will pass through you before he explains that although hard-gaining body parts are largely hereditary, it's not too late to make the most of what you do have.

"Your whole body is programmed from the day of conception," says Jeff, "but you can still bring any 'genetically dead' body part up to its maximum potential." When he says this, you can believe he means it. He has an indelible look of reassurance.

King's own formula for infusing new life and fast growth into dormant muscle fibers is to train them consistently hard with exercises that will isolate the lagging muscle groups. Isolation training overloads a single muscle or a group of muscles with the goal of triggering the fibers into growth. Unlike most proponents of isolation training who feel that "light is right," King will tell you to use heavy weights for isolation exercise. On that point, he is clearly unyielding. To Jeff King, "heavy" is synonymous with "mass."

His singularity doesn't end there, however. This bodybuilder is honest about his own body and what he has to do to hammer it into championship form.

When he assesses his own Herculean physique, this Mr. America/Mr. Universe admits that his back and abs lag slightly behind the rest of his body development. So he takes an explosive dose of his own formula —  heavy sets of isolation work for both areas, including shrugs for his traps, cable rows for his lats, and weighted crunches, leg raises, and Nautilus crunches for his abs.

He also uses a 20-pound bar draped across his traps for twists, and he whirls violently "like a helicopter" to chisel his obliques into perfect shape.
If you've ever watched King work out or observed him on stage, you'll quickly realize that these training methods have turned his body into a well-tuned engine. His physique is mightily strapped with striated layers of fat-free flesh.
One reason King has been able to excel so early in his already remarkable career is his ability to buttress muscle with intelligence.

Degreed in exercise physiology and advanced nutrition, King, a self-proclaimed "scientific bodybuilder," knows how the body works. Muscles that may seem slow to respond, he says, relate to their anatomical attachment.
"A muscle may be as thick as other body parts, but because it is not tied into an adequate line to receive maximum stimulation, it will not respond as well," Jeff says. "The center portion of my back is a good example of a muscle group that does not respond well. When I do a lot of back work, my rear delts really take a beating. Because of their tie-in, they are very well-developed compared to other body parts.

By contrast, the center of my back does not seem to receive the same stimulation as my delts, so I have to do many sets of heavy shrugs to bring it back in line with the rest of my body.
"Isolation exercises ignite those muscle groups that are cut off from direct stimulation. By applying intense stress to the muscle fibers, isolation exercises help bring those lagging muscle groups up to their maximum development.

"When you're battling lagging muscle groups," he cautions, "be intense, concentrate on the muscles you're working, and always use strict form."
Although he is an advocate of isolation training for certain physique problems, King adds mass the conventional way. He packs it on with good old basic training — bench presses, barbell shoulder presses, front squats, curls, E-Z bar triceps extensions, and his favorite, the deadlift, which he says is "truly the best exercise you can do to build a powerful physique."

For all aspiring bodybuilders — including hard gainers — this champion advises working out with a routine fortified by these core exercises. "You can't go wrong with the basics," he says. King's ripped, mammoth body is the physical testament to his ironclad approach to training.

Jeff King, the hottest and most popular amateur bodybuilder today, has another credo, too — perhaps more important than any other factor in physique development: Always Strive for Balance.

"Work toward symmetrical proportions," he stresses. "You might have the most massive and ripped legs, arms, or whatever, but unless those body parts are in balance with the others, you're off. Superstar physiques are not necessarily the ones with every muscle great, but rather with every muscle good and in symmetrical balance with the rest of the body. Go with your own strengths, but never neglect the total look."

Is Jeff King true to his own advice? One look at his incredible muscularity says YES this is so.

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