“I Relied a Lot on Pre-workout Food; Before the Training, I Always Had Protein and Carbs” - Frank Zane’s Complete Diet and Training Regimen

Frank Zane, a three-time Mr. Olympia (1977-79) is considered to be among the strongest bodybuilders in history.

Zane, with his near-perfect symmetry and clean lines, had the most muscular physique during his bodybuilding days. The legendary bodybuilder often said that during the peak of his career, he primarily focused on compound movements to challenge his strength and consumed a lot of carbs and protein before training.

He says:

I relied a lot on pre-workout food. Before the training, I always had protein and carbs. After the training, I relaxed and sometimes ate a few hours later. It all depended on how demanding my training was. When I got hungry, I just ate. Usually, my first meal after training was a protein drink – some sort of protein-carbohydrate mix."

In this article, we will have a look at how Zane trained himself at the peak of his career, which resulted in his impeccable body strength, shape, definition and symmetry.

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Frank Zane's Diet plan

Frank Zane typically followed a moderate-fat, low-carb and high-protein diet to maintain lean muscle mass and fuel himself with energy for workout sessions.

His daily calorie intake was between 2,000 – 3,000, especially before bodybuilding events. Zane consumed half a gram of carbs and one gram of high-quality protein per pound of his bodyweight to enhance his muscle mass development and stay healthy.

Frank Zane’s meals typically included a lot of seasonal, natural and nutrient-dense foods, such as tuna, fruits, almonds, chicken, beef, eggs, vegetables, etc. Although the retired American IFBB bodybuilder avoided dairy in meals, he consumed cheese for calcium.

Here’s a look at Zane’s typical diet plan:

Meal 1: Baked yam, 3 soft-boiled eggs and 8 oz of calf liver

Meal 2: Vegetables, cottage cheese and 8 oz of steak

Meal 3: Potatoes, cheese and 6 egg omelettes

Meal 4: Large salad and 8 oz of ground beef

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Frank Zane's Workout Routine

During his active bodybuilding career, Frank Zane used different variations of powerlifting exercises. While toning his defined physique, his focus was mainly on overload and blood-pumping exercises. He avoided heavy weights and instead combined high reps with light weights to prevent injuries.

After his first Olympia event, the bodybuilder said that “the best way you can achieve muscle size is through heavy training”. Since then, he started to combine heavy and light training in his muscle size growth training regime.

Here’s what his weekly pre-contest training looked like:

Shoulder workout

• Seated dumbbell shoulder press
• Smith machine overhead shoulder press
• Incline bench rear delt fly
• Upright cable row
• Bent-over dumbbell lateral raise
• One-arm lateral cable raise

Arm workout (Biceps, triceps and forearms):

Biceps

• Alternate dumbbell curls
• One-arm dumbbell concentration curls
• 450degree incline dumbbell curls

Triceps:

• One-arm overhead extensions
• Close-grip bench press
• V-grip press down
• Feet elevated bench dips
• Triceps cable pushdown

Forearms:

• Incline barbell bench press
• Reverse barbell forearm curls
• Flat barbell bench press
• Seated barbell wrist curls
• 70-degree incline dumbbell press
• Standing cable crossover
• Flat dumbbell fly
• Crossbench dumbbell pullover
• 10-degree decline dumbbell fly
• Bodyweight push-up

Back workout

• T-bar rows
• Wide-grip deadlifts
• Wide-grip pull-ups
• Dumbbell pull-over
• One-arm dumbbell row
• Bent-over barbell row

Abs workout

• Leg raise
• Crunches superset with leg raises
• Abs crunches
• Hanging leg raises
• Hanging knee-ups and seated twists
• Seated twists

Leg workout (Quads, thighs and calves):

Quads/thighs

• Back squats
• Leg extensions
• Leg blaster squats
• Barbell stiff leg deadlifts
• Lying leg curls
• Leg press

Calves

• Donkey calf raises
• Standing calf raises
• Seated calf raises

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Takeaway

This was all about the legendary bodybuilder Frank Zane’s diet and workout plan he used to follow during his bodybuilding days.

Overall, his growth programme was comparatively straightforward but intensely productive. He combined isolation workouts with heavy training specifically to build a perfectly proportionate physique.