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- I am Arash Rahbar, and I'm IFDB Classic Physique pro.
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Yeah, well,
my family pretty much escaped the Iranian revolution
in 1980, so I was born in Iran and in '81, came over here
with my mom, dad, and sister
and pretty much grew up in the US my whole life.
My dad got me involved in martial arts
at a really, really early age.
And I think at like 12 years old,
I asked my parents to get me some dumbbells.
And I had some like little makeshift weights at home.
By 16, 17, I was a full-blown bodybuilder,
I wasn't competing, and didn't have anyone around me
to even mentor me or show me what to do or how to do it.
But I did my own research,
and I was training six days a week, drinking a gallon
of water a day and, you know, meal prepping,
making my own meals and eating five, six meals a day.
I lived this bodybuilding lifestyle
for well over 20 years before I ever competed
or stepped on stage, it's just who I am.
I don't do the things that I'm doing now to compete.
I competed as a result of doing the things
that I've been doing, training and dieting.
With, or without competing, my lifestyle,
the way that I eat and train would remain the same.
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It wasn't something that I had aspired to do
or planned on doing long-term
it's just kind of where my physique fit in at the time.
I always wanted to be the best bodybuilder
that I could be and was absolutely
like obsessed with the '90s bodybuilding.
But when it came time to compete,
that's kinda where my physique fit in.
You know, I probably would have done well
in a couple amateur bodybuilding competitions
but I wouldn't have gone very far.
So at that time,
that was the size I was, at Fit Men's Physique.
- [Interviewer] The Classic Physique division was announced,
did you immediately jump to the transition?
You're like, I'm doing this?
- Within seconds of hearing the announcement.
Absolutely, when I heard it,
it was just like, all right,
this is why I was doing what I was doing for 20 years.
If you asked me why I was dieting so rigorously
and training so intensely before I ever competed,
I didn't, you know, the answer was just, it feels right.
That was really the only reason.
So when they announced Classic Physique,
I said, huh, this is my time.
This is what I was doing this for all these years.
And it wasn't even a second more than a second of a thought.
It was 100%, I was all in the next day.
You know, the class weight back then was a lot less
than it is now, a solid 10 pounds less.
I was close to it, but obviously not in the look
and condition that I needed to be.
My training didn't change that much.
I've always been a bodybuilder.
I always trained very heavy.
Even when I was a men's Physique competitor,
it wasn't very big, but if you watch videos of me training,
I always trained with high intensity,
and I was pretty strong.
So I just ate more.
And I grew, I allowed my body to grow.
Whereas for Men's Physique, my diet was a lot more strict
and I kind of over dieted to make the look
and the size and did a lot of cardio.
But for Classic, I just focused more on building my legs,
bringing up certain body parts.
My upper body was pretty well developed.
Granted, I'd been training for over 20 years at that time.
So it was just a matter
of bringing up certain areas and eating a lot more,
especially when in prep.
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Nutrition is so important, even if you're not a competitive
at bodybuilder, it'll make or break you,
the difference between someone being 60%
on nutrition and 85, 90% is drastic.
Like you can train hours and hours a day.
You can hit PRs, do different intensity techniques
and bust your ass in the gym.
But if you're not eating properly,
you're not gonna look the way you wanna look.
You're not gonna grow muscle.
You're not gonna lose body fat.
I learned this luckily very, very early on.
So literally in my teens in high school,
I realized how important nutrition was.
And I started eating right.
And I think genetics plays a big role.
I think guys that are really genetically gifted
and just grow, looking at weights,
they don't need to do so much research and learn.
But for me, you know, I was emulating
and looking up to the bodybuilders in the '90s,
and I looked nothing like them.
And I trained and I busted my ass,
but I wasn't making leaps and bounds.
So I just kept researching and reading,
everywhere that I looked, every video that I saw,
every body builder, it was all about food.
So I started shopping myself, my mom and my dad
and my sister had one fridge, I had my own fridge,
I started meal prepping at like 16 years old.
And it made a huge difference.
I didn't look competition ready,
but I grew at a much faster rate.
So in my late teens to my mid 20s, I grew a lot.
And I dedicate all that growth
to not only training hard, but the nutrition.
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There's always these debates
about what's the best way to train?
What creates the most hypertrophy, right?
Muscle growth.
Is it heavyweight low volume?
Is it higher volume, lighter weight?
And you know, the answer is pretty simple, it's intensity.
You can grow muscle
and you can create muscle hypertrophy with everything
with all different intensity techniques, with high reps,
lighter weight, with heavier weight, lower reps.
But the key is intensity.
And I see people following different programs,
listening to different coaches, having a gym bag full
of all these toys and gadgets to make your muscles grow.
But I don't see enough guys training with intensity.
So it's, I always say this,
It's not what you do, but it's how you do it.
So if you're training with intensity, pushing yourself,
making every exercise more difficult and training
to or close to failure, you will create muscle hypertrophy.
Of course, if nutrition is on point
and you're eating an adequate amount
to create muscle growth, but that's the real key.
And that's a real fundamental.
And I feel like everyone is just saying, no, no, no,
this is the best way, no this is the best program.
This program will get you the most amount of muscle.
Whereas, it's not necessarily the details
in the program or the exercise in the program,
but how you do them, how hard you push yourself.
(indistinct) Bodybuilding is a progressive sports.
So you can't be expected to get stronger every single week.
If that was the case, after 20 years,
I'd probably be benching like 3000 pounds,
but one of three things need some progressive increase
on a weekly basis
for you to keep progressing at a fast rate.
It's weight, the amount of weight you push, volume,
how many reps or how many sets or intensity.
So one week you might do 100 pounds for 10 reps.
Next week, you'll do 105 pounds for 10.
The week after you might not go up in weight,
you might do that same 105, but you'll do 11 reps,
the next week, 12 reps.
The next week after that,
you might not go up in weight or reps
but you'll do the same weight and reps 105 for 12,
a lot slower with maybe a pause at the bottom,
maybe emphasize the squeeze.
So intensity, weight, or volume.
One of those three things needs to increase consistently.
And that is why so many people in gyms,
when you look around,
and everyone you've been training around for the past year,
two years kind of look the same because they hit a wall.
They hit a plateau.
Your first year of training
is like your first year of living.
You know, like from day one, a baby,
to day 365, is the most they'll ever grow in their lives.
They never grow at that rate again.
And your first year of training
you can do everything wrong, you're still gonna grow
but thereafter, you need to create a new stress,
a new stimulus and progressively increase
one of those three things to keep growing
and have maximum hypertrophy.
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- [Interviewer] Are you gonna compete this year?
- Yes, my plan is to compete.
I've been saying this for few years
but I still feel like I haven't brought my best.
I'm just, I'm not done with competing.
You know, I sat out I was qualified for 2020 Olympia,
and I sat out because it just wasn't feeling right.
I had a torn labrum that I found out during COVID.
It was bothering me for months
but I finally got an MRI when we're in lockdown.
And that was a big bummer.
And I worked around it, my shoulder,
my biceps had been hurting me
and I've been working around them.
But when I got up to eight,
and seven weeks out of the Olympia,
and I was pushing the prep, it just wasn't feeling right.
I wasn't training at 100%,
almost every single body part I was training
was problematic, and it just didn't feel good.
And I knew for me to get back in that top five,
or I rather, top three, I had to be at 100%.
I had to drastically improve.
And I wasn't sure if that was gonna happen.
So that's why I pulled out.
For 2021, my goal is to be 100% healthy,
get rid of these injuries and this pain
and be able to progress.
I know what I need to do in my physique
to get back up there in the top five.
And I will compete when I feel like I'm there mentally
and physically, and I'm just feeling a lot better.
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