It has been a long time since Rich Gaspari won the inaugural Arnold Classic in 1989, but the 62-year-old still looks better than his age, and there's one habit that has helped him maintain his physique.

In a February 21 interview with Muscle & Strength, Gaspari spoke candidly about the workout side of things. He expressed that he used to train six days a week.

“I would train on a six-day cycle, training my body parts twice a week. So, I’d do my whole body in three days and then do it again in three days. That was the Arnold way to train back then, and I did that.”

During the conversation, he admitted that he had overlooked the recovery aspect, which is why his physique never reached peak condition.

On the diet side of things, the ‘BodyBuilding For Life’ YouTube handle expressed that the former Mr. Olympia runner-up focuses on a high-protein diet but doesn’t shy away from adding fat to it.

"He is also not afraid of fat and prefers healthy fats such as eggs, olive oil, and butter. Rich says that 70% of muscle building and fat loss is diet, advocating sufficient calories and nutrient timing to feed the machine."

He now advises people to treat recovery as an essential factor. That’s not all, he even explained why his generation stands at the top.

Rich Gaspari reveals why the 80’s were the best

Looking back at the 1980s, Gaspari described bodybuilding as a sport that was a larger-than-life world shaped by iconic personalities. “Ed Connors gave me a house to stay and he had a house on the beach. So, we're in Venice,” said Rich.

He further added, “And you can walk to the gym, and you went into that gym, and I saw like Tom Plattz there, Samir Bonnout there, you know, Robbie Robinson there. It was just it was just an amazing time, you know, to be in that era and experiencing that era.”

'The Dragon Slayer' recalled how the World Gym back then felt raw and intense compared to Gold’s Gym. There was no music, no distractions; the only sound was the clanging of iron plates.

"Nothing was better than World Gym. They had an outside deck with a gym, and you could oversee the ocean and had all this equipment, and you'd just like be training there with your shirt off, and it was just like just an amazing thing to do,” he concluded.

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Written by

Suryakant Das

Edited by

Oajaswini Prabhu