At 6'3", Eslinger's height is a natural advantage in the
super-heavyweight class.
THE WORKOUT
MONDAY [ CHEST ] EXERCISE
BENCH PRESS
INCLINE BENCH PRESS INCLINE DUMBBELL FLYE
SET REPS 4 12–15 4 12–15 4 12–15
STANDING CABLE CROSSOVER 4 12–15 WIDE-ARM PUSH-UP
3 40
HAMMER STRENGTH CHEST PRESS
TUESDAY [ ARMS ] EXERCISE
SEATED ALTERNATING DUMBBELL CURL
STANDING REVERSE TRICEPS EXTENSION
STANDING BARBELL CURL ROPE PUSH-DOWN
EZ-BAR PREACHER CURL DIP
SEATED CONCENTRATION CURL
abuse and addiction. He wasn’t about to take a chill pill every time he wanted to put his fist through a wall.
CHANNELLING
After giving the gym a shot for a time— “I’d watch the biggest guy in the place and just do what he did”—Eslinger got by with a self-prescribed therapy regime of aggressive weight training and heavy drinking. “Imagine going every day of your life for a few years to train to kill someone or actually kill someone,” he says. “You do that every day, and then all of a sudden, boom, it stops. You look around, and you’re like, ‘What now?’” That’s when Eslinger met pro body- builder Mike Horn. Horn, himself an Army veteran, sold Eslinger on the idea of competing as a bodybuilder, “spiffy trunks” and all. He also awakened a desire for structure Eslinger hadn’t experienced since leaving the military. “You don’t have that out here in the real world,” Eslinger says. “Bodybuilding gave me that stability back. Dieting, training, and being regimented cured my craving for that wild side.” It also showed him something that he had no idea was in him—a genetic gift for the sport. At 6'3", Eslinger towers over most of his super-heavyweight opponents onstage, and he’s one of those freak types who seem to get bigger and better with every workout. He competed against—and beat—competitors he knew
74 MUSCLE&FITNESS
were training, and training hard, while he was recuperating in his hospital bed. When he was able to catch up and eventually surpass them in a relatively short period of time, he knew there was something to this bodybuilding thing. “These guys I’m on stage with,” he says, “they look good and they’re jacked, but one thing they don’t have is the experience with the side of life that I have. This body is something they tried to take away from me. I’m not supposed to have it. This shoulder that these judges are critiquing, that’s bigger than the guy standing next to me, it’s really just something I stumbled across.”
NEW LIFE
Eslinger has seen the world through the eyes of a man who’s been shattered, and that, he says, makes all the difference. When you can go from a point of unimaginable weakness to standing onstage, taking second place in a national bodybuilding competition, it teaches you something about what the human body and mind are capable of doing. “Every day I go into the gym, I go in feeling like this has been given to me for a reason. I don’t know why, but I’m going to take advantage of every last second of it, just because I can. If I’m not successful every time, it’s OK, because I’m going to wake up tomorrow and see another day. There were days in my life where I didn’t think I would, but that’s over now.” M&F
WEDNESDAY [ LEGS ] EXERCISE
SEATED LEG EXTENSION BACK SQUAT
MACHINE LEG PRESS WALKING LUNGE
GLUTE BLASTER MACHINE HACK SQUAT
THURSDAY [ BACK ] EXERCISE
LAT PULL-DOWN BENT ROW
DUMBBELL ROW DEADLIFT
HYPEREXTENSION
FRIDAY [SHOULDERS ] EXERCISE
SMITH MACHINE SHOULDER PRESS
REAR CABLE FLYE
DUMBBELL FRONT RAISE DUMBBELL SIDE RAISE
SEATED DUMBBELL MILITARY PRESS
HAMMER STRENGTH BEHIND-THE-NECK PRESS
3 10–12 SET REPS 4 10–12
4 10–12 4 10–12 4 10–12 4 10–12 2 25
4 10–12
SET REPS 5 20
4 10–15 3 10–12
3 60 FEET 4 12–15 3 10–12
SET REPS 4 10–12 4 8–10 4 10–12 3 8–10 3 30
SET REPS
4 10–12 4 12–15 3 10–12 3 10–12
3 10–12 3 10–12
SATURDAY [ HAMSTRINGS AND ABS ] EXERCISE
SEATED HAMSTRING CURL LYING HAMSTRING CURL TORSO TWIST MACHINE WEIGHTED AB MACHINE DECLINE SIT-UP
SUNDAY [ OFF ] CARDIO:
MORNING TREADMILL WALK ON AN EMPTY STOMACH–3.5% INCLINE AT 4.0 MPH.
NIGHT
STAIRMASTER–30 MINUTES ON LEVEL 5.
SET REPS 3 10–12 3 10–12
3 30 EACH 3 30 3 50
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100 |
Page 101 |
Page 102 |
Page 103 |
Page 104 |
Page 105 |
Page 106 |
Page 107 |
Page 108 |
Page 109 |
Page 110 |
Page 111 |
Page 112 |
Page 113 |
Page 114 |
Page 115 |
Page 116 |
Page 117 |
Page 118 |
Page 119 |
Page 120 |
Page 121 |
Page 122 |
Page 123 |
Page 124 |
Page 125 |
Page 126 |
Page 127 |
Page 128 |
Page 129 |
Page 130 |
Page 131 |
Page 132 |
Page 133 |
Page 134 |
Page 135 |
Page 136 |
Page 137 |
Page 138 |
Page 139 |
Page 140 |
Page 141 |
Page 142 |
Page 143 |
Page 144 |
Page 145 |
Page 146 |
Page 147 |
Page 148 |
Page 149 |
Page 150 |
Page 151 |
Page 152 |
Page 153 |
Page 154 |
Page 155 |
Page 156 |
Page 157 |
Page 158 |
Page 159 |
Page 160 |
Page 161 |
Page 162 |
Page 163 |
Page 164 |
Page 165 |
Page 166 |
Page 167 |
Page 168 |
Page 169 |
Page 170 |
Page 171 |
Page 172 |
Page 173 |
Page 174 |
Page 175 |
Page 176 |
Page 177 |
Page 178 |
Page 179 |
Page 180 |
Page 181 |
Page 182 |
Page 183 |
Page 184 |
Page 185 |
Page 186 |
Page 187 |
Page 188 |
Page 189 |
Page 190 |
Page 191 |
Page 192 |
Page 193 |
Page 194 |
Page 195 |
Page 196 |
Page 197 |
Page 198 |
Page 199 |
Page 200 |
Page 201 |
Page 202 |
Page 203 |
Page 204 |
Page 205 |
Page 206 |
Page 207 |
Page 208 |
Page 209 |
Page 210 |
Page 211 |
Page 212 |
Page 213 |
Page 214 |
Page 215 |
Page 216 |
Page 217 |
Page 218 |
Page 219 |
Page 220 |
Page 221 |
Page 222 |
Page 223 |
Page 224 |
Page 225 |
Page 226 |
Page 227 |
Page 228 |
Page 229 |
Page 230 |
Page 231 |
Page 232 |
Page 233 |
Page 234 |
Page 235 |
Page 236 |
Page 237 |
Page 238 |
Page 239