Rich Piana was a famous bodybuilder known for his extremely muscular physique and intense workout routines. He advocated training each muscle group twice per week, doing very high volume and using techniques like drop sets, super sets, and giant sets to absolutely annihilate his muscles. Piana was open about his steroid and growth hormone use, but he still put in the hard work in the gym to build his massive 250+ pound physique. Let's take a look at how you can train like Rich Piana for each major muscle group.
Chest
Rich trained chest twice a week, typically doing around 16-20 total sets per workout. He was a big fan of starting with flat barbell bench press for heavy sets of 6-8 reps. He would pyramid up in weight, doing a top set with around 275-315 lbs depending on his strength at the time. After benching, he moved to incline barbell press for 3-4 sets of 6-10 reps. Dumbbell presses were also a staple, doing flat, incline and sometimes decline variations for 3-4 sets each. Flyes were done to really isolate the pecs, doing flat, incline and decline flyes for 3-4 sets of 10-12 reps each. Dips were also included for 3-4 sets to failure. All these pressing movements were done with a powerful and controlled tempo to maximize muscle tension.
For chest Piana advocated using techniques like drop sets, super sets and giant sets to totally annihilate the muscle fibers. For example, after finishing his base pressing work he would do a giant set like: Flat dumbbell flyes for 10 reps immediately into incline dumbbell press for 10 reps into cable crossovers for 12 reps. No rest between movements and done for 4 total giant sets. Sets like this caused incredible muscle cell damage and metabolic stress. He would also frequently use drop sets, doing a bench press drop set decreasing the weight and cranking out partial reps with each drop.
Back
For back Piana favored deadlifts and rows as his mass building staple exercises. Deadlifts were done for heavy sets of 3-6 reps, working up to a top set around 600+ lbs. Barbell bent over rows were done for 3-5 sets of 6-10 reps per side. He also included pull ups and lat pulldowns for 3-5 sets of 8-12 reps, focusing on getting a good lat squeeze and contraction. For upper back he would do shrugs or high pulls for trapezius development along with rear delt flyes.
Like with chest, Piana was a big proponent of back giant sets to finish off the muscle. A sample giant set could be: Lat pulldowns for 10 reps, immediately into a set of 10 bent over rows, immediately into 10 reps of straight arm cable pushdowns. Repeated for 4 total giant sets with no rest. His philosophy was to completely exhaust the back musculature through these intensive techniques.
Shoulders
Piana would train shoulders once or twice a week, hitting front and side delts. For front delts, he would do 4-5 sets of dumbbell or barbell shoulder presses in the 6-10 rep range. Lateral raises were a huge part of his shoulder routine, doing 4-5 sets of dumbbell lateral raises for 10-12 reps focused on getting a good squeeze and contraction. He went lighter on these, often just using the 15 or 20 lbs dumbbells but being very strict and controlled.
For rear delts he did bent over rear delt flyes with dumbbells or cables, and would also include facepulls to work the external rotators. He was a big proponent of hitting rear delts from multiple angles for maximum development. For shoulders he would incorporate techniques like drop sets, tri-sets, and giant sets. An example tri-set would be: overhead press for 8 reps immediately into lateral raises for 12 reps immediately into bent over rear delt flyes for 12 reps. Repeat for 4 total giant sets.
Arms
Biceps were trained twice a week, doing 4-5 total exercises for 4-5 sets each. Barbell curls, dumbbell curls, concentration curls and cable curls were staples in his routine. He emphasized getting a big peak contraction, squeezing hard at the top of the movement. Triceps were also hit twice a week, doing 4-5 exercises like pushdowns, skullcrushers and dips for 4-5 sets. He went for higher reps on arms, usually in the 10-15 rep range and using intensity techniques like drops sets and supersets. An example biceps/triceps superset would be: barbell curls for 10 reps immediately into overhead dumbbell extensions for 10 reps. Done for 4 total supersets.
Legs
Piana's leg routine focused on heavy, high volume squats as the main mass builder. He would pyramid up in weight, doing sets of 5-8 reps until reaching a top set of 405, 495 or 585 lbs for 2-4 very deep reps. After squats he moved to leg presses, doing 5-7 plates per side for sets of 8-12 reps. Leg extensions, lying leg curls and stiff leg deadlifts were his auxiliary exercises, doing 3-5 sets of 8-12 reps to bring up his quad sweep and hamstring development. For calves, he favored donkey calf raises on the leg press machine, doing them twice a week for 4-5 sets of 15-20 reps.
