Victor Richards

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Statistics | Address | Placings | Interview


Height: 5'10" (177cm)
Competition weight: 330 lbs. (150 kg)
Off-season weight: 360 lbs. (164 kg)
Age: 33
Born: 1964
Training since age 16
Hair: Black
Eyes: Black
Neck: 22 1/2"
Shoulder width: 43"
Chest: 67"
Arms: 26"
Wrists: 12 1/2"
Waist: 36"
Thighs: 37"
Calves: 24"

Contact Addresses

Postal: 7974 Haven Ave.
Suite 120-117
Rancho Cucamonga, CA 91730
Phone: (909) 989-4448

Competitive Record

1992 Nigerian Championships -- 1st and Overall
1989 Mr. Barbados -- 1st
1984 California Gold Cup Classic -- 1st
1983 Teen Los Angeles -- 1st
1982 American Cup -- 2nd

My Encounter with Vic Richards

by Ron Cecchini

Originally posted to
Date: 28 Oct 1993 16:38:38 GMT

(Posted without permission from Ron--sorry, I didn't think you'd mind and it is a *public* newsgroup. This post has NOT been edited.)

I saw Vic Richards last Friday night at a seminar he gave at Vinny Greco's Powerhouse Gym in Watertown, Ma.

I didn't write anything down, so I'm going just from memory. Anyway, I'm just going to ramble...

First of all, Vic Richards *is* the largest human alive. I am now convinced of it. I've seen pros in person before (side note: if you've never seen a pro in person, you're in for a shock. You can not imagine how big they really are just from the magazines.), but this guy pretty much blew my mind away.

He started off with his background and stuff, why he doesn't compete, etc. He believes that you should bodybuild for the love of it, not to win fame or trophies. If you do it for those reasons, then you'll never succeed. But if you love it, and pour your all into it, those things will eventually come.

He said that at 16, he was already 220 pounds with 17" arms. BTW, he is 5'9" or 5'10" and claims to be 315 pounds. I didn't believe it at the seminar, but the following night he guest posed at a contest and, after seeing him without his clothes, I was more apt to believe it.

He said the Barbarians are the ones that got him into training, and taught him everything for the first 4 years. He also says (like someone else did around here) that they're 2 of the nicest people you'll ever want to meet. He says that they always have time to talk to anyone - no matter how small you are - to talk about training, etc. He believes the reason they're so nice goes along with why they don't compete. They bodybuild because they love it, not to win trophies.

Other things (in non-chronological order):

[NOTE: All quotes are paraphrased. Sorry - didn't have a tape recorder.]

  • He backed up his claim of eating 30,000 calories.

    "I eat," he said.

    Moreover, he still claims that they're "clean" calories. No fats or MCTs, *and* he doesn't believe in using a blender - he never drinks his calories.

    So, supposedly he gets 30,000 calories from eating the following meal 5-6 times a day (someone should calculate the actual numbers):


      3 pounds of brown rice.
      5 chicken breasts.
      15-20 egg whites.
      2 cans of corn.
      1 can of pineapple.

  • Vic believes carbs are more important than protein, and says that eating large amounts of carbs is one of the biggest secrets in bodybuilding. He eats almost at least 15 pounds of rice a day , and says that you should never go to bed hungry.

    However, he claims that he wakes up in the morning and goes to the gym *without* having eaten first, and often works out for up to 3 hours.

    "A hungry man is an angry man. I like to be angry when I train. I train harder when I'm angry."

    So, supposedly, he doesn't get a jump on his 30,000 calories for a good long while after he wakes up...

  • Being that this is Matarazzo's home town (and Vic annoyingly called him "Mazaratto" the whole time), someone asked about his run-ins with Mike.

    He claims that he has nothing against Mike, but for some reason Mike kept feeling it necessary to say things about him behind his back. Vic thinks it was done out of some kind of insecurity on Mike's part.

    And even though Vic claimed that this stuff doesn't bother him and he couldn't care less about anybody but Vic Richards, he apparently did confront Mike (in San Jose, I think):

    "You been talkin' shit?" [this got a laugh out of the crowd]

    "No no no - that's just the magazines! I never said those things. They just want to see us do battle because we're the big guys..." blah blah blah

    So Vic thought that they had apparently made up, but then he heard Mike was supposedly saying more stuff about him (all through the grapevine, BTW).

    Anyway, he concluded that story with:

    "I think the reason that Mike and Sandy had so many problems is that, instead of thinking about pleasing Sandy, Mike went to bed worrying about Vic Richards too much."

  • One young kid (apparently with pretty big nads) asked him:

    "You haven't qualified to compete in the Nationals. You haven't qualified to compete in the pro ranks - yet, you do. How do you get to compete with the pros?"

    "There is nothing wrong with being competent in one's ability. It's not arrogance, it's just a confidence in what I can do..." blah blah blah

    To which the kid goes:

    "No no no - you haven't answered my question! You didn't qualify for the Nationals, you didn't qualify for the pros - how come you get to compete?!"

    The crowd was laughing.

    "That's what I like about young kids. They're not afraid to ask anything. They just come right out with it."

    Here he pauses dramatically.

    "I don't have to qualify."

    More pause.

    "I believe I am very unique. And when you have a physique like mine, you shouldn't have to qualify."

  • He dropped out of school after one year. He doesn't believe in following an "established" philosophy:

    "When you go to school, you learn about philosophies started by other people. I'd rather make my own. In a way, I graduated and got a degree from the Vic Richards school of life."

  • Said that bodybuilding was about being big, and that a "little" guy should never win.

    His list of big guys was: himself, Strydom, the Barbarians and Jim Quinn. Noticeably missing was Matarazzo, which everyone around me started talking about. (I really didn't care, since I'm not a Matarazzo fan. Hey - I'm really not even a New Englander!)

  • He doesn't have a pre-set schedule. He never knows what he's going to train until he gets to the gym. He never counts sets or reps. He just works until he feels like he's done.

    He also likes to go heavy and take as much rest as he needs in between sets.

    "I'm in the gym to build muscle - not to do aerobics."

  • He beat around the bush on the drug issue ("I'm not saying I do, I'm not saying I don't.") but eventually indicated that he does do it (duh...).

    He wouldn't say what he did, because, as he put it:

    "I don't want to give anyone a noose to put around my neck."

    I tried asking him about cycles in a way that wouldn't be too personal:

    "I'll try to ask this in an impersonal way: What is your *philosophy* on the length of a cycle and the number of cycles done in a year?"

    But he wouldn't comment at all. All he said was that he could get in serious trouble if he answered my question, because what if I went out and did something and got hurt, 'cause then I could say "Well, Vic Richards said..."

    He said I could ask him one-on-one about it, but I didn't.

  • When asked about overtraining, he goes:

    "Um, how can I put this nicely... Overtraining is a word used by the weak."

    He believes (as I am inclined to) that if a bodypart gets lots of rest between workouts, and you get enough sleep and nutrients, that you won't overtrain.

  • I splurged and spent the $10 for his autograph. While I was up there, I said:

    "One more thing: your hams - they're phenomenal!" (and oh man are they!) What do you do to train 'em?"

    "Thank you. Basically, just lying leg curls. I don't like standing curls."

    "What about stiff-legged deadlifts? I do them quite often, but never feel my hams as good as with leg curls."

    "Me too. The deadlifts don't isolate the hams enough. I hardly do them. Stay with the leg curls - especially lying down."

    Overall, I don't know - pretty entertaining. One of my bb friends who was there thought Vic was a hypocrite (especially about the Matarazzo story) and said that he didn't learn anything. I told him that I never go to these things to really *learn* anything - I mean, what are they really going to tell you that you haven't heard before? But he said he's been to some seminars where the guys really give you some good information about dieting and nutrition, etc.

    Another friend of mine said that it really would be useless to ask Vic anything, because he probably doesn't know a whole hell of alot because he can rely on his (supernatural - my word) genetics. Whatever. But it is true that some of the hugest guys you see really don't know as much about proper training and nutrition as most of the people even in this group.


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