This article was originally published on Instagram and Facebook this week. Neckberg provided the majority of the training and diet info, and if you’ve not checked that site out yet, you should (the diet stuff is directly copied and pasted, by the way). I’ve added his forearm workout from the Gold’s Gym Book of Bodybuilding by Ken Sprague and Bill Reynolds (1983) and background info from Musclememory, BoxingRec, and various online bios.
Think a man who’s 5’6″ and 195lbs in competition shape could run a full marathon? Probably not, yet here he stands, and he was likely stronger, faster, and way weirder than you have ever considered being. Johnnie Fuller (1942-2006) was a one-time training partner of Arnold and Franco, banned from a gym in 1987 for hogging equipment because his workouts were so legendarily long and ridiculously structured that it likely looked like he was just trolling the gym, a pro boxer, powerlifter, and bodybuilder.
Fuller began his pro athletic career as a boxer, going a very tragic 3-12 with 3KOs at 145lbs before hanging up the gloves to take up powerlifting. After hitting a 650 squat (probably in one of those old marathon suits that have less pop than a pair of shitty modern knee wraps), 440 bench, and 665 deadlift at 181 (Sprague), Fuller moved into bodybuilding, winning his pro card in 1980 at the IFBB World Amateur Championships, but a pec tear kept him from winning the overall in any pro show (though he was almost always on the podium at the end of a competition).
Johnny Fuller’s workouts were fucking silly in their structure, and demonstrate exactly how stupid it is to stress over program structure because it’s the effort that yields results, not the program. Though his forearm workouts were exempted from his 10 sets of 32 rule, everything else was trained with such high reps and volume it boggles the mind… at least until you see how he ate.
Johnny Fuller’s Training Routine
Monday – Chest
Bench Press- 10×32
Dumbbell Bench Press- 10×32
Incline Bench Press- 10×32
Incline Dumbbell Bench Press- 10×32
Flat-Bench Dumbbell Flyes- 10×32
Incline Dumbbell Flyes- 10×32
Tuesday – Back
T-bar Rowing- 10×32
High Angle Cable Pulldowns- 10×32
Low Angle Cable Pulldowns- 10×32
One-arm Rowing With Dumbbell- 10×32
Bent-over Rowing- 10x32Chins- 10×32
Wednesday – Shoulders
Press Behind Neck- 10×32
Dumbbell Press- 10×32
Upright Rowing- 10×32
Floor Cable Laterals- 10×32
Thursday – Thighs – Triceps
Leg Presses- 10×32
Leg Extension- 10×32
Leg Curl- 10×32
Squats- 10×32
Hack Squats- 10×32
Pressdowns- 10×32
Lying Barbell Extensions- 10×32
Lying Dumbbell Extensions- 10×32
Friday – Biceps
Barbell Curls- 10×32
Scott Curls- 10×32
Incline Curls- 10×32
Concentration Curls- 10×32
Saturday
Runs Three Miles, Plus Calf Work
Sunday
Runs Three Miles
Monday: Starts Cycle Over Again With Chest Work
And as for forearms? He did them three or four times a week to ensure they always looked like canned hams hanging out of his short sleeves.
Forearms
Narrow Grip Reverse Curl- 4-5 x 10-15
Barbell Wrist Curl- 4-5 x 15-20
Barbell Wrist Curl- 4-5 x 15-20
2380 calories, 126g protein, 182g carbs, and 126g fat.
Johnny Fuller’s Wacky-Ass Diet
Mon-Wed
Breakfast– Rises at 7 a.m. and consumes half a box of milk powder mixed with water. He takes the following supplements also: B-Complex, B15, ginseng, and potassium.
He then goes back to sleep and has the other half a box of milk powder mixed with water when he wakes up again at 11 a.m.
Lunch– consists of another half a box of milk powder mixed with water, plus the same supplements he had at 7 a.m.
Dinner– At night Johnny says he swallows a dozen soya-based protein tablets with water!It is really quite amazing that Johnny stays on this feeding regimen for a full three days [which is only 6 grams of protein according to the nutrition in modern soy protein tabs]
“These three days are my high protein days, and I take in nothing but protein!” he says
Thur, Fri, and Sat
Breakfast– One pound of liver. Six poached eggs. He then goes back to sleep for another two or three hours.
Lunch– 20 oz. of mixed vegetables including carrots, cabbage, turnips, peas, beans, etc.
Evening Meal– One whole chicken plus vegetables, or two and a half pounds of steak, plus vegetables.
On Sundays, Johnny has no food whatsoever, allowing his system to totally rest after all the heavy food it has digested throughout the week.
Are you crazy enough to try any of that? I have never done more than 4×20 for squats in a single workout, so I doubt my quads are in any kind of shape to take that kind of abuse, but given the fact that his quads were feathered in an era prior to heavy diuretic use, I’d say that crazy bullshit is worth trying.
And 10×32 on pullups? Sweet six pound, ten ounce, tiny baby jesus that is fucking preposterous.
Be better than you are. Johnny Fuller certainly was. And for fuck’s sake, stop naysaying and shitting on programs for being weird- the weird motherfuckers are the only ones in the gym getting shit done.
Hahaha, many don’t train in their whole lives as much as Fuller in a week.
He seems to be in the Poddah/Michalik club, any crazy stories (apart from the training and diet) from this chap?
Very interesting,
sometime in the 90s a friend gave me a video of the 1983 Mr. Olympia contest. Fuller took part there and finished eighth (ahead of my old friend Hubert Metz). He was hard and massive, but unfortunately the pec tear was clearly visible. To this day I had known nothing of his extraordinary training and feeding methods.
Apparently, everyone thought he was directly out of his mind. Maybe he was, but I like that kind of crazy.
I’d never heard of Metz, but he definitely has the looks of a bodybuilder in the late 70s/early 80s, haha. That man was LEAN! Thanks for name-dropping someone I’d never heard of- I love finding a new name worth knowing.
10 sets of 32 lol what the fuck. I wonder what his rest periods were like? Either way, his muscular endurance had to be off the charts.
I didn’t see any rest periods listed, but he did 60 sets in two hours- I’d say that’s a minute rest between sets, with about a minute to get the set done. That dude must’ve been literally addicted to being pumped.
Would love to know the weights he was moving
By the end of it, probably about 20 pounds lol.
I love reading about these guys who threw conventional notions to the wind and did things their own way and forged their own path. Thanks for your brutal research, and talking about these “lesser known” guys, Jamie
No worries bro! I’ll keep digging in the crates for more weirdos, haha.
Almost vomited reading all of that…most would scoff at his routine but look nothing like him. I wouldn’t even dare attempt that…
In March 1987, Johnny had an argument with the management of the gym and was banned after allegations that he was “hogging” the equipment.
But Johnny thought he was good for the gym, and said he offered help and training advice to other users.
At the time the bodybuilder told the Advertiser: “I’ve always been courteous and made many friends at the gym.
“I think the reason for the ban must be jealousy. Bodybuilding is a very competitive sport.”
I thought I might be over training, then I read this……
Every time someone reposts this workout, a Mike Mentzer disciple explodes.
I wonder if the torn pec led him to the very high rep range, I mean, maybe he saw it as a safety thing. I imagine that sets of thirty are going to be safer for the roider. I could be wrong.
How the fuck did you manage to bring steroids into that
Why 32???
He’s dead, so we will likely never know. It seems he liked that number, and it definitely worked well. People in the 70s and 80s didn’t pretend that science had anything to do with their training methods.