Monsters, Inc: four-time Mr. Olympia Ronnie Coleman invited young beastie Dennis James to train back with him. What happened next was just plain scary - Another Flexclusive!

Time to wriggle out from under your bed or emerge from behind the Smith machine, or wherever you were hiding when the two frightening freaks in the sweaty tank tops were casually tossing around 200-pound dumbbells and expanding their lats to the width of a pterodactyl wingspan. Take a deep breath and calm yourself--the back workout awesomely performed by RONNIE COLEMAN (opposite, bottom) and DENNIS JAMES is now history. Mr. Olympia has gone back to his Arlington, Texas, home, and Dennis the Menace is happily lounging at his crib in Pattaya, Thailand. All that remains of this theater of pain and absurdity are the photos by ace FLEX lensman Chris Lund.

What came out of Lund's camera is the real Monsters, Inc. Coleman and James aren't studio-generated computerized Images--no one in Hollywood has that outrageous an Imagination--but a real flesh-and-blood scream team. The 37-year-old Coleman has what many of the sport's analysts feel is the best back ever, and young master James, 32, is a fast-rising star on the verge of joining the cream of the physique elite - especially after beating Chris Cormier at the 2001 European Pro Championship and landing In seventh place at last year's Olympia.

Even before the two partnered up for this FLEXclusive pictorial, James had used techniques and exercises gleaned from Coleman's videos to help add beef to his back, and this shock session only added to his education. According to the Menace: "I learned a lot from this workout. My back's Improved because of Ronnie."

So secure is Coleman of his prominence in the sport that playing mentor to the Menace gives him no pause. To the Ronster, this brutal back smack was a backslapping good time. "It was fun," said Coleman. "Real fun."

To James, perhaps the most painful part of the workout had nothing to do with weights. "Ronnie insisted on singing while I lifted," revealed the Menace. "He sang 'Hero' by Mariah Carey. At first it made me laugh. Then it hurt. Ronnie, you're Mr. Olympia, but you cannot sing! Stop It. Don't ever sing in public." Coleman admitted to his aural slaughter. "Yeah, I'm probably the worst singer in the world," he said. "But that won't stop me from singing."

Although you won't hear the chilling soundtrack, the veinbulging freakfest unfolds in all Its monstrous glory over the next 17 pages. James said training with Ronnie "is a dream come true," but for their competition, this pictorial is nothing short of their worst nightmare.

BRUTE BUDDIES

We went for huge weights during the workout. Chris [Lund] knows i'm one of the strongest bodybuilders, and Ronnie is the strongest bodybuilder in the world. I'll go on record saying that, because I don't think anybody else comes close. That inspires me to train even harder. I've taken a lot of his exercises and applied them to my back program to bring out more details. I'm still using his techniques. I can see the results - better thickness and detail. It's all coming out better now. Next time you see me flex, you'll know exactly what I'm talking about."

STILL GROWING AFTER ALL THESE YEARS

"Lifting a heavy weight has a lot to do with maturity. I'm 37. I've been around a long time. The older you get, the stronger you get. I can do 800-pound deadlifts for reps now. When I was in college, I wouldn't in my wildest dreams even think of doing anything like that. Ten years after college, I couldn't do that. I wasn't able to do it until last year. Strength has a lot to do with genetics, of course, but also how you work out and apply your philosophy. You have to stay motivated and consistent. I've been extremely consistent over the years. I've never taken time off from working out for a long period of time."

HE GOT CABLE

"Ronnie handles the weights really well. You can tell he's been doing this for a long time. He knows exactly what he's doing. I can see that he feels his back with every rep, and that's something I'm still trying to achieve. I used to have a problem feeling my back while training heavy. Watching Ronnie do a couple of back workouts, I actually saw how he moves the weight and feels it, and I can really feel the muscles in my back much better now. I would like to train back with him for a month or two. I could learn more tricks of the trade.

CONTROL FREAKS

"I apply strict control to all my workouts, not just back. I've been working out for 25 years now, and I've long passed the stage where I need to have pride at how much I can lift. Now, I concentrate on bringing the muscle out and making it better. You've got to get past all the hype about who can lift the most and who's the strongest. You need to move on to other things. That's how you break the monotony of working out. That's how you motivate yourself: doing different things during a workout, challenging yourself. Put your mind into every rep."

WELCOME TO MY SPREAD

"It took me years to build the development you see here. It took the kind of hunger many guys lose alter they turn pro. Dennis is different from a lot of guys. He's got the drive to work hard and to be the best. A lot of people don't pay attention to the details. He does. A lot of people may overlook him now, but they'll be sorry in the long run. Kevin Levrone, Shawn Ray -- all of them -- they'll wish they'd have worked out harder, that they'd worked as hard as Dennis. I can guarantee that Kevin's regretting it every day already."

WORKING IN THE REAL WORLD

"Ronnie has no magic potion. I don't think there are any great bodybuilding secrets in Arlington, Texas. Pure, simple, basic workouts got him to where he is. Why should he know something nobody else knows? The fans think that whoever is on top has got something that other people don't have, but that's not true. He just works for it, that's it, and he's improved gradually because of his efforts. Ronnie always looked good, he was always in top condition, but nobody noticed him. Finally, they noticed, and It was all down to hard work."

THREE HUNDRED POUNDS? IS HE HUMAN?

"I made the 200-pound dumbbell rows look easy because they were. Two-hundred-pound dumbbell rows aren't heavy at all to me. I've done 300-pound rows. Actually, I've done eight reps with 300 pounds. I did it about four years ago when I was in Hawaii, where I met a guy who had 300-pound dumbbells, but I haven't seen one of those since. So 200 pounds is kind of easy for me, even to bring the dumbbell up and hold it for four or five seconds while Chris Lund took the picture. Dennis was impressed, but that's only because I have a little bit more invested in this than he does. I've been doing it longer."

LOOKING UP TO THE MAN

Ronnie's strenqth is amazing. He made the 200-pound dumbbell rows look easy. He doesn't go too fast or too slow. He gets a good stretch for a full range of motion, positive and negative, beginning to end. He never lets the weight control him like some guys who pull it up, drop it, pull it up, drop it. A lot of guys use their arms, then they develop problems with their forearms or they can't grip the bar for the last few reps and their hands go numb. Not Ronnie. You can see his back is doing all the work. That's something you can't just perfect overnight, you've got to know exactly what you're doing.

STARRING RONNIE COLEMAN!

"I laugh when Ronnie says, 'Here we go with a warm-up.' That's motivating. I live in Thailand, and I don't have guys over there that can train with me, so I look elsewhere for motivation. I'm inspired by other bodybuilders, and I even watch their videos. I've learned a lot from watching Ronnie train in person and from his video [The Unbelievable]. And I'll keep learning from Ronnie. That's how you get better."

UNBELIEVABLY GENEROUS

"The Unbelievable is a pretty fine video, if I do say so myself. I'm not afraid of teaching the other pros too much. That's how I got what I got, learning from other people. Of course, look at me now. I can't not show people how to work out. In a way, it's my duty. Life is about giving and taking. I've been given a lot, so I try to give back a lot. In order to get what I got, I had to take from other people. In the end, it all works out. Who could argue with being the four-time Mr. Olympia?"

BACK-TO-BACK WORKOUTS

"I've been doing heavy and light back sets for years. I don't do them on the same day, but, basically, I do my heavy workout with free weights--bent rows, deadlifts, T-bar rows, dumbbell rows, etc.--performing three or four exercises, three sets for 10-15 reps. The next day or a couple days after the heavy workout, I'll do a session of cable movements with high reps, never exceeding 20. I do that year-round. My workouts are the same for contest and off-season. I don't change anything."

DOUBLE DUTY

"After talking to Ronnie and Dorian Yates, I added an extra session for back. In the morning, I do a heavy basic free-weight routine--four sets, eight to 12 reps. Then I come back at night and do light cable movements for detail, four exercises of 12 sets for 30 reps. I just recently started that, and take it from me, it works. Ronnie also taught me a heavy back exercise where you wedge a barbell into a corner and use it like a T-bar by employing a V grip. And it's working. I also now do deadlifts every other back workout because of Ronnie. He proved to me how effective basic exercises--heavy--followed by light cable stuff could be. Nothing like it."

HE'S A BADMAN

"Some people say I looked bad at the last Olympia. I been bad for four years. Nobody knows how I feel but me. They can go around and say anything they want to say about how bad I looked at last year's show. But nobody knows how I really feel and what goes through my mind. They don't know how in touch I am with the sport and how in touch lam with my body and what goes on in the sport. My mental focus is stronger than ever. I give credit for that to God. This is what He put me here to do. My faith makes it even more worthwhile to inspire other guys to be their best. And I certainly don't care what other people think."

THE BIG GUY UPSTAIRS -- AND IN THE GYM

"Ronnie's a professional. He's the four-time Mr. Olympia, and when he gives me props, it means a lot. I don't care what people say about the 2001 Mr. Olympia and if he deserved to win. He won, and that's what counts. He trains and he works hard for what he achieves. I know he thanks God for his success, but God's not doing the training for him. Ronnie trains harder than anybody, and I admire his work ethic. He deserves everything he gets. But that won't stop me from trying to take what's his. And he knows it. Every pro is trying to be Mr. Olympia. We're not hiding it. We're all going after the same guy, and that happens to be Ronnie. But he's not scared of anybody. He ain't worried."

HE DIDN'T BACK DOWN

"Dennis did a good job keeping up with me. It was good to train with him. I'm not used to training with another person. I don't believe in forced reps or partial reps. I train alone for the most part, so I don't have anybody to force me to do anything. That's why my training's not instinctive at all. I've been doing this for so long that I always know what I'm going to do, how much I can lift and how many reps I'm going to do. I always know my limitations. I have a plan and I stick to it."

IN CHARGE

"Ronnie was in charge of the workout. I just followed him. He's the champ, after all. I give him all the respect--he's older and bigger. He knows I'm serious, that I want to be where he is. But that didn't stop me from riding him. I told him, 'I know you've got the best back, Ronnie, now don't let me catch up to you. We're all trying to get you, Ronnie, we're all coming to get you. Chris Cormier is going to beat you this year.' He'd say, 'Hell, no!' He knows he's not wasting his time with me. I'm not somebody who just wants to be in a photo with him. We took care of business real good."

NICE GUYS FINISH FIRST

"Ronnie is so down to earth. Every time I see him, he's nice to me. He gave me advice at the 2000 British Grand Prix. He said, 'Work hard, improve, stay calm, and keep quiet.' That's what I did. I followed his advice, then I came into the [2001] Arnold Schwarzenegger Classic and finished third. His training tips continue to help me. I started doing the T-bar rows he taught me, and now I'm at 10 [45-pound] plates. He goes up to 12 plates! I can't see how he does 12 plates for 12 reps. And he does 585 pounds for reps of bent rows. I don't know how he does it. He's sick."

-DENNIS

WAY TO ROW

"I'm glad I could teach Dennis something. I didn't realize I helped him so much with those barbell T-bar rows. Training heavy is second nature to me, and so is keeping myself calm. There's no reason to go around complaining and worrying too much about where you place. You've got to train as hard as you can and leave all that other stuff up to a higher power. Put in the work and everything will come out all right. Look at me. I'm the best example of that."

-RONNIE

NOT JUST ANY SONG AND DANCE

"As far as I'm concerned, if Ronnie's doing It, I have to do it, because I want a back like his. He's got the best back in the sport, maybe of all time. That 200-pound dumbbell row was intense, but if that's what I've got to do to improve, then that's what I've got to do. Besides, if I can handle a 200-pound dumbbell, why should I mess with 120 or 140 pounds. I have to put in the heavy weight workouts too. The bodyweight difference between Ronnie and me isn't that much, so I've got to try to advance to his poundages."

-DENNIS

DENNIS IS A MENACE

"We had a lot of fun. I enjoyed the workout. I like the way he tries to motivate himself. He was trying to do what I was doing. I can tell by the way he was pumping himself up and trying to get into a mindset before we did the photo shoot that he's different from most other guys. His mental focus is very strong. The way Dennis was training and trying to keep up with me gives me extra motivation. And for the most part, he did keep up with me. He's pretty tough. He complained about my singing, though."

-RONNIE

FEAR THE KARAOKE

"I told Ronnie that the only way anybody can beat him this year is by putting a stranglehold on him. Keep him in a headlock and out of the Olympia. He's got to stop singing, though. Maybe strangling him is the only way to keep him from singing. I can't bear to listen to that song 'Hero' anymore. Man, I still can't believe how bad he is."

-DENNIS

RONNIE'S SONG

"Yeah, I'm the worst singer in the world. I agree with Dennis on that one. That doesn't stop me from having fun, though. 'Hero' is the song I posed to at the Olympia, so I like singing it. I was singing it when he was lifting that heavy weight. I was trying to motivate him, and it sounds like I did. I can't wait to sing to him again."

-RONNIE

MONSTERS, INC. BACK-BLASTER WORKOUT


EXERCISE               SETS    REPS

Deadlifts               2 *     20
Deadlifts               4    6,8,10,12
T-bar rows              4      10-12
Cable rows              4      10-12
One-arm dumbbell rows   4      10-12

Note: Unless you're Ronnie Coleman or Dennis James, do this workout once
a week for 10 weeks for maximum back strength and thickness. Apart from
warm-up sets, do all sets to failure.

* Light warm-up sets.

COPYRIGHT 2002 Weider Publications
COPYRIGHT 2003 Gale Group