George Spellwin's Blog

When “The Avengers” came out a couple of weeks ago, Mark Ruffalo was the one getting all of the credit for playing The Incredible Hulk. However, the truth is that Ruffalo had some help in portraying the big green monster, and a large thanks is owed to little known Steve Romm.

Romm, who earned the nickname “Green Steve” on set, was filmed running and jumping around an Albuquerque movie studio in green paint. The idea was to get enough footage of Green Steve so that they could create a computerized version to implement into the movie.

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What’s interesting about Steve Romm is that he grew up idolizing Lou Ferrigno, who played The Incredible Hulk in the 1978-1982 TV series. This fueled his bodybuilding career, and helped Romm sculpt a build worthy of the Hulk.

As for how he got the part, the Long Island native moved to Albuquerque where his grandparents lived. This is also where The Avengers casting call was held, and Romm discussed this by saying, “I did one day (auditioned), and when we were done, they asked me if I could stay longer. One of the casting directors said, ‘You’re going to be painted green. You know what that means, right?’”

He continued by talking about how he was in body paint for 30 different days “with these special cameras taking pictures from every angle so they can see every nuance of how the muscles bounce and flex.” Romm added, “They ended up taking Mark Ruffalo’s face and superimposing that on my body.”

When it’s all said and done, the $300 per day that Steve Romm earned for playing the green screen version of the Hulk pales in comparison to the $2-$3 million that Ruffalo will make. However, his contributions are no doubt important, and he got to fill the role of his biggest idol.

As many bodybuilders know, triceps comprise the bulk of our arms at 60% of the volume. That said, I don’t need to convince anybody how important triceps training is. However, lots of people make huge triceps training mistakes during their routine without even knowing it. So in order to help prevent these problems, let’s go over some of the biggest triceps mistakes.

Mistake #1: Putting your toughest exercises towards the end

While it’s always great to change your routine up and shock tri’s, some bodybuilders make the mistake of putting heavy exercises towards the end of a workout. So instead of doing cable exercises or triceps extensions first, put close-grip bench and dips at the front because they’re tougher.

Mistake #2: Not realizing how often tri’s are used

Overtraining is a very common problem with many body parts, but it’s especially easy to do with triceps. That’s because many athletes don’t understand how often tri’s are used; they’re incorporated into compound chest movements and shoulder exercises, along with traditional tri movements. Long story short, don’t overwork triceps with a ridiculous amount of sets because they’re used elsewhere too.

Mistake #3: Over-emphasizing cables and machines

While using cables and machines is great because they enable you to do lots of sets, exercises here should only be used for finishing workouts. Instead, your emphasis should be put on compound triceps exercises like upright dips and close-grip bench; once you’ve done this, move on to the lighter movements.

It’s no secret that some bodybuilders use high-intensity interval training (HIT) to shed pounds and cut for contests. After all, HIT training not only burns lots of calories, but it also increases your ability to work out longer and harder. But one little known benefit of high-intensity interval training is that it can also help athletes build muscle.

Now this isn’t to say you’re going to go from local shows to the Mr. Olympia stage in a year or two with HIT, but when performed correctly, you can definitely get some muscular benefits out of the equation.

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This statement is backed by a recent Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition study. Their research had several males undergo six weeks of HIT training – without any weight lifting involved – and they worked out for 15 minutes daily, three times a week. It’s also worth mentioning that their workouts consisted of 2 minutes of working out for every one minute spent resting.

The results were pretty amazing since the study’s subjects gained an average of 2 pounds of muscle at the six weeks’ end. Long story short, throw some HIT into your training routine, and you should see some extra muscle growth over time.

Hollywood actors are often having to pack on a ridiculous amount of muscle in short amounts of time to fill certain roles. So you’ll often see an actor put 20-30 pounds of muscle on in several months, which is a near-superhuman feat. That said, it’s no wonder why these guys are accused of taking steroids.

The latest Hollywood stud to be accused of juicing is Mark Wahlberg, who’s currently filming Pain and Gain along with Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson. While Wahlberg has always been built, he’s especially looking huge right now for this bodybuilding-themed movie.

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However, an insider source that’s close to Wahlberg denied these allegations by saying, “Even though the film is about steroid abusing gym rats, he took it as a personal challenge to get to the size he is at now and has been training non-stop.” The former Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch singer has also been fueled by The Rock’s build, which only inspires him to work harder.

Now when it comes to actors packing on size and muscle, I’m usually one of the skeptics. But Wahlberg has always had a good build ever since he rose to fame in the early 90’s, so I’m not surprised that he’s exploded with muscular growth, without the use of steroids.

One subject that has really fascinated me over the years is Afghanistan bodybuilding. The reason why is because – throughout all of the oppression in the country – these people have continued to bodybuild and work towards achieving their goals.

And recently, Kabul held preliminaries for the Mr. Afghanistan contest, where over 420 athletes showed up in hopes that they could make the national finals on May 27th. However, the scene here was very different compared to what you’d see in a US bodybuilding competition.

There wasn’t some big, fancy facility, but rather a dark, drab building that serves as a reminder of former Soviet rule. And not everybody was using expensive tanning supplies, but rather a claylike substance that gave their bodies a tan appearance.

Still, the spirit remained strong at this competition as nervous athletes were doing bicep curls to get a pump right before entering the stage. Each athlete was hoping to become the national pride of their country, which highly values bodybuilding.

A 28-year-old Afghan national bodybuilder named Khyal Ahmad said it best about the newfound pride by saying, “The Taliban used to come and laugh at us when we struck our poses.” In reference to how the Taliban made bodybuilders keep their pants on, he added, “After the Taliban left, the pants came off.”

With more freedom to bodybuild than ever and a love of the sport that’s spawned 170 gyms in Kabul alone, it will be interesting to see how far Afghanistan bodybuilding can go.

Here’s one for you bodybuilders who are trying to save a buck or two on the road to a competition…

Many Russian bodybuilders don’t have access to the same funds and supplies as athletes in the US or UK, so they’ve decided to improvise in some areas. Tanning is one of these areas since they’re finding ways around buying lotions, tanning at salons, or getting sprayed. Instead, these Russian bodybuilders are using paint rollers to give their bodies a healthy glow.

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This phenomenon was seen at the Eastern European Cup competition in the Russian city of Stavropol. Here athletes were dipping paint rollers in brown dye, then rolling each other to create a tanned effect.

My first thought upon seeing the pictures was how this is one of the most ghetto things I’ve heard of. But on second thought, you have to make due with what you’ve got, and it appears as if Russian bodybuilders are doing just that.

I’ve seen similar things in other countries where people find ways to compete – even if they’re not blessed with top-notch training facilities. Africa is one place where this comes to mind since these guys are using dilapidated equipment in outdoor gyms. It all makes me feel thankful for the swanky New York City gyms and weight rooms I get to use.

When it comes to building size and strength in your leg muscles, both walking lunges and squats are highly-effective. But it’s important to understand that lunges are not interchangeable with squats in any way.

After all, some of the more inexperienced bodybuilders think to themselves, “Well, I don’t feel like doing squats and lifting my legs heavy today, so I’ll just do lunges instead.” If you’re still thinking that walking lunges could be interchangeable, then consider a recent study done by Swedish researchers.

Their study involved professional soccer players doing a walking lunge for six straight weeks. The workouts were done twice daily, and each one consisted of 4 sets of 12 reps. Athletes had their hamstring and quad strength tested before the six weeks began, and afterward too.

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In the end, the Swedish researchers discovered that the soccer players gained 35% more strength in their hamstrings at the end of six weeks. However, their quad strength was basically unchanged. In other words, while walking lunges may be very good for improving your hams, they won’t do jack for your quads.

Furthermore, this is proof that you need to incorporate traditional squats – or at least front squats – into your routine regularly to work the quads.

A couple of weeks ago, I talked about how Mark Wahlberg was looking pretty ripped on the set of the upcoming movie “Pain and Gain.” While Wahlberg has always had a good build for an actor, he looked especially bulked up for this bodybuilding film. But the truth is that he’s got nothing on The Rock.

New pictures have surfaced of The Rock filming Pain and Gain, and he makes Wahlberg looked quite small in comparison. Of course, much of The Rock’s career has centered on him having a massive, chiseled physique; but even still, I have to say that he especially looks the part for his role. You can check out the pictures here.

If you’re wondering more about this film, it stars a couple of steroid-using bodybuilders who get involved in an extortion ring. The Florida bodybuilders then find themselves in over their heads when a kidnapping plot goes wrong.

What really interests me about this movie is how it’s based on a true story. Bodybuilders Daniel Lugo and Adrian Doorbal got wrapped up in a similar deal years ago, but I’m not sure if their story was quite as comedic as Pain and Gain looks to be. As for when the movie comes out, you can expect to see it in theaters sometime in April, 2013.

One hot story that’s out there right now involves an accountant named Les Brown, who’s the second coming of Vince Papale after rising from obscurity to land spot on the NFL’s Miami Dolphins.

Now to be fair, Brown isn’t your typical, beer-bellied accountant, who’s last workout came when he was furiously scrubbing the mustard stain out of his polo shirt. Instead, Brown was recruited out of high school to play football at BYU, but instead chose to play small college basketball at Westminster College.

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After the accounting firm where he interned at offered him a job, Les Brown put basketball behind him and entered the professional world; at this point, sports pretty much looked out of the picture. However, that would all change when Brown began helping his brother, Braden, get ready to play offensive line for Brigham Young.

While training with his brother, BYU’s trainer, Chad Ikei, convinced Les to quit his job and take up a 10-week football boot camp in Hawaii. Apparently, Ikei thought that Brown had a realistic chance to impress scouts at the upcoming BYU pro day.

And the trainer was exactly right as the former accountant went on to bench 365 pounds, squat 500, power clean 275, run a blazing 4.43 forty-yard dash, and show off a 39-inch vertical leap. Several teams were impressed with his pro day, and Brown completed his meteoric rise by signing with the Dolphins – thus bringing this Cinderella story to a close until NFL training camp. But was this Cinderella’s fairy godmother a needle and dura decabolin?

Yea I know….throwing steroid questions into Les Brown’s amazing story seems a little cliche. However, you also have to consider that, in just 10 weeks, he went from 215 pounds and 15% body fat to 240 pounds and 8% body fat. I’ve seen very, very few people who can do that in my lifetime. But who knows, maybe Brown is the exception.

I don’t know about you, but my grandma is probably busy knitting a sweater and bitching about how there are no more great shows like Murder She Wrote on TV these days. UK grandma Sharon Madderson, on the other hand, is busy training for Miss Olympia – where she hopes to take the title later this year.

Madderson has a solid shot at winning too since she’s currently the fourth-ranked female bodybuilder in the world. However, it’s not easy for the grandmother-of-three to keep this lofty status since she has a full-time job, which has to be juggled along with her demanding bodybuilding training.

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But somehow, Sharon Madderson has been able to keep up with the hectic schedule since she turned 30 and started working out. She initially got into the sport after meeting her future husband in the gym. Staying inspired has been somewhat easy for the UK bodybuilding sensation since then.

She discussed all of this by telling the DailyMail, “I never paid much attention to my body really, that’s just not like me, but I was inspired by the bodybuilders at the gym and I was truly amazed at what they could do with their bodies. I knew then that this was for me.” She continued by saying, “After a short while I began to notice and feel the difference my efforts were making to my body, this incredible feeling helped to motivated me further and I entered my first bodybuilding contest in 1999.”

Judging from her decorated bodybuilding career and elite status within the female bodybuilding world, it’s pretty clear that Sharon Madderson is the one providing inspiration these days.