VITAL STATS Name: Lawrence Hosannah E-mail: hosannahfitness@yahoo.com Age: 34 Where: New York City, New York Height: 6' Weight: 220 Lbs. Years Bodybuilding: 16 Favorite Bodypart: Legs and Back Favorite Exercise: Barbell Squat, Deadlift, and High Pull Favorite Supplements: Glutamine and Vitamin C

How Did You Get Started?

A Little Bit about Me

I have researched and applied the performance enhancing aspects of exercise and nutrition for over 16 years. My interest in fitness started in the sports of rugby and British football, I learned early on of the impact that strength and conditioning had on maximizing on-field playing ability and longevity.

In those days weight training was not looked upon kindly by many athletic coaches. It was believed that weight training would slow you down and make you muscle bound; the opposite has proven to be true: correctly applied strength training makes the body bigger, leaner, faster, stronger, more powerful, and more flexible.

Anyhow in those days I did a lot of calisthenics, gymnastics, stretching, sprinting, and middle distance runs; this proved highly effective and transferred well to rugby and football.

When I was in my teens I began to lift weights to rehabilitate a shoulder injury that I incurred at birth, I was intrigued by rapid the increase in strength, power, endurance, flexibility, and coordination that I was able to build in the shoulder. This was a tremendous boost to confidence because that shoulder began to approach the strength and muscle development of the other one. I decided to begin training my other muscle groups.

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I figured that if I could achieve such amazing results in one area I could do so through out my body. I discovered that my body responded even better when I trained my entire body. As I gained more knowledge and experience I began to train and design exercise protocols for my friends and family; mentoring them taught me that everyone could make progress if certain key principles are applied.

Because I was attending school at the time, had other hobbies, had a busy social life, and was impatient, I began to search for knowledge that would help me develop a fitness program that would safely give me maximum results in minimum time.

Through extensive research and using my friends and myself as human guinea pigs I discovered key principles (pillars of fitness) that allowed me to not only reduce my time in the gym but also allowed me to achieve a level of progress which had alluded me up to that point (these principles worked for every one who applied them properly).

I have worked with individuals from all walks of life, children to elderly, the sededentary to the competitive athlete, the able bodied to physically challenged. I have helped people who must be in shape for their career such as athletes, models, actors, fitness consultants, and TV personalities.

I have also improved the fitness level and quality of life of individual with various medical conditions such as: tinnitus, Crohns disease, fybromylagia, diabetes, cancer, spinae bifada, Muscle and tendon tears, scoliosis, pre and post natal.

As a consultant I approach fitness from a scientific and creative viewpoint. The scientific aspect comes from understanding that even though we are all different (body shapes, personalities, experiences, lifestyles) we share similar structural characteristics such as:

We all have (providing you have not had an injury or condition that shows other wise) the same amount of muscles and bones in are bodies.

For More information visit:
www.hosannahdiesel.com or www.bigwithoutsteriods.com

What Workout Plan Worked Best For You?

My Training Philosophy

Workouts are a stress and are traumatic on the body. The body has a limited level of adaptability; as a result your workouts are always a negative. To stimulate growth workouts must be intense (in other words harder not longer; there is a difference), but by being intense they can lead to a drop in recovery capacity.

The way to avoid this is to keep your workouts brief and intense. Intense to stimulate growth, and brief to prevent excess recovery ability from being used up. After the workout you must rest, the muscle, nervous system, heart, kidneys, etc. are stressed and need a degree of rest or reduced stress to allow for recovery and overcompensation.

I lift extremely heavy, utilizing various rep ranges, and speeds. I use mid range, full range, and partial ranges.

Off-season I train 3 times a week (advice that most people would do well to follow, you grow when you rest).

My muscle groups are divided into 4 areas these are

1. Chest/Arms
2. Back/Shoulders
3. Quads
4. Hams/Calves

I train each area directly once every 9 days or so, I can do this because I select exercises which stimulate growth all over the body. For example when I do incline presses my triceps and shoulders are receiving a lot of work, indirectly. I train very heavy so it takes me a long time to recover.

I typically train a day, rest two days, then train a day and rest two more. The only workout that is back to back is my quad and ham/calves workout.

Training like this allows me to train heavier every time I train. I don't plateau much, and even if I do it doesn't last more than 2 weeks.

Reps range between 3-80.

Sets - I don't do many... typically I average work sets (hard sets to failure) per large muscle group such chest, back, quads, hams. Smaller areas receive 1-3 sets. Calves receive more sets, at approximately 5.

I do no direct abdominal work, I don't have to with the exercises I pick and the weight I lift. I haven't done abdominals directly for continuous workouts for over 10 years now.

I don't perform cardiovascular exercise in the traditional sense, yet my cardiovascular system is very healthy.

Here's my basic program (off season):

Day A - Chest/Arms

1. Incline bench press on the smith machine; (3-4 progressive warm-ups, 50-6 reps), 2 work sets to muscular failure of 4-6 reps with drop set on one set
2. Barbell bench press; 1 work set of 6-8 reps including triple drop set
3. Pek dek flyes; 1 work set, 8-10 reps (pre contest)
4. Barbell curl; (1 warm-up set 10 reps) 1 work set, 6-10 reps drop set included
5. Reverse grip lat pull downs; 1 work set, 10 reps drop set sometimes included
6. Barbell pullover and press; 1 work set, 10 reps
7. Triceps PushdownTriceps pushdown; 1 work set, 8-10 reps

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Rest 2 days

Day B. Back/ Deltoids


1. T-bar rows (done off the floor); (3 warm-ups 10 reps), 2 work sets 10-15 reps sometimes do drop set on first set
2. Neutral grip lat pull down; 1 work set, 6-8 reps drop set included (drop 5 times)
3. One arm row on hammer strength machine; 1 work set, 10-20 reps
4. Seated shoulder press in the smith machine; (1 warm-up 10 reps) 1 work set, 10 reps sometimes include drop set
5. Barbell high pulls; 1 work set, 10 reps
6. Include straight arm pull downs in season

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Rest 2 days

Day C. Quadriceps


1. Barbell squat; (4 warm-ups 10-6 reps), 2 work sets, 10-20 reps
2. 45 degree leg press; (2 warm-ups) 1 work set, 10-20 drop set sometimes
3. In-season include jumping squats, step ups, or walking lunges

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Day D. Hamstrings/ Calves


1. Seated leg curl; (3 warm-ups 10 reps) 2 work sets, 8-15 reps
2. Romanian deadlift; (3 warm-ups) 1 work set, 10-12 reps drop set sometimes
3. Seated calves raise; (3 warm-ups 10 reps) 2 work sets, 6-10 reps drop set included on first work set
4. Standing calves raises; (1 warm-up 10 reps) 2 work sets, 10-20 reps (rest pause sometimes)

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Rest 2 days repeat cycle

* Note: during the in-season I include pumping workouts, which are basically, high repetition (20-30) based to increase fat loss and glycogen retention. These are done between heavy short duration workouts.

** Note: I also make use of plyometric training particularly for my thighs and calves. I also started doing off road trek walking which involves moving over rocks, around trees, up hills, down hills, etc.

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What Nutrition Plan Has Worked Best For You?

I try to eat a variety of food to avoid boredom and guard against deficiencies and food toxins.

A typical days eating might be:

Sample Meal Plan

Meal 1. 3 servings of oatmeal (with a little sugar), 3 whole eggs + 4 egg whites, piece of fruit

Meal 2. 2 yogurts, 1 small cottage cheese, fruit and/or bagel

Meal 3. Lean cut of meat or fish, 4 slices of bread or bowl of rice, vegetables and hot pepper to the mix, maybe olives also

Meal 4. 4 servings of sorbet

Meal 5. Fish, vegetables, rice or potatoes, fruit

I also snack on fruit, dried fruit, and nuts throughout the day if I need the energy.

The day before training my legs I carbohydrate load to increase energy storage for my workout. Also post workout I consume a high glycemic carbohydrate to speed up recovery.

What Supplements Have Given You The Greatest Gains?

I like Glutamine due to its restorative properties and ability to reduce muscle soreness. I have also used Vanadyl Sulfate with good success.

Why Do You Love Bodybuilding?

I enjoy competing against myself, the aspect of improving myself over time appeals to me. The experimentation with various repletion ranges, speeds of motion, set quantity, frequency, eating methods, intensity enhancers, etc. appeal to the scientist inside me. Adding a little bit of this and taking away a little bit of that, and coming up with a result.

I also enjoy being strong, having stamina, having a physical resilience. It's enjoyable to be able to lift weight that gives most people a problem.

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Bodybuilding competition history

I'm only going to give you the competitions that I placed well in, only kidding here is what I've done up to this point.

1999 NGA Nationals novice division Hwy wt. 1st place
2000 NPC Natural Mid-Atlantic states open class Hwy wt. 1st place
2001 New Jersey Classic Hwy wt. 3rd place
2003 NPC Bev Francis Atlantic States Lt. Hwy wt. 6th place

What One Tip Would You Give Other Bodybuilders?

Well there are a lot of things that I wish I knew earlier. There are five pieces of advice that I believe hold the most weight in terms of bodybuilding (I know that the question says three but I could not help myself).

My Bits Of Advice (Tips)

Tip 1
The first bit of advice is to emphasize basics before more complex methods. Building larger more ripped muscle is a fairly easy concept. If a trainee emphasizes basic exercise, progressively, adds weights each week, avoids over-training, gets enough rest, and eats well he will make physical progress.

In fact a trainee could follow these basics for the duration of his/her lifting career and produce good to excellent results. Often in a rush to achieve the muscle mass of the stars trainees perform overly long exercise programs that would slay a silver back gorilla, or perform isolation exercises before they have any muscle to sculpt.

The horse should be put before the carriage not the other way around, so emphasize basic before more complex methods.

Tip 2
The second bit of advice is to make sure that you have other interests outside of bodybuilding, that you are well rounded as a total person. Bodybuilding is great and can do wonders for a person but there can be an ugly side if that is all a person does with themselves.

In my strong opinion a person should strive for balance in physique, mind, and spirit. This means staying fit physically but also, having friends, diverse interests, an education, expanding the community, etc. A life of strictly bodybuilding will build a large insecure person who is limited.

Tip 3
The third bit of advice is compare yourself to yourself, in other words if you have achieved a certain level of physical development one month or year do your best to level up for the coming month or year. Basically beat yourself. This kind of focus allows for greater long-term improvement as well a greater degree of happiness in my opinion.

Tip 4
The fourth bit of advice I would give is to educate yourself on the various aspects of physical fitness. I would recommend that trainees read college level books on biology, physiology, and nutrition. I also highly recommend the teachings of Arthur Jones, Mike Mentzer (his earlier teachings), Dorian Yates, Dr. Ken Leistner, Stuart Mc. Robert, among others.

This education should be rounded out with a fair degree of safe experimentation. I have written 5 books on bodybuilding; these will be available at my website soon, it's www.hosannahdiesel.com.

Tip 5
The fifth piece of advice is stay away from the drugs; this is primarily aimed at new and impressionable trainees. Many trainees feel as if they need drugs to produce an outstanding physique.

I'm not saying that I am the most outstanding example but I think I have shown that you can build a good strong physique without growth drugs. The cost of using drugs is way too high; the end result is sickness and loss of the physique that you were after. Of course there probably is a way to be safer with these drugs; the problem is that the typical bodybuilding mindset is not one of balance but one of extremes.

In the past 5-6 years there have been many illnesses and deaths in bodybuilding, it may be a coincidence, but I suspect it is not. In a sport in which a healthy appearance and strength should be sort after people should protect their health as the most important aspect. Of course the end decision is a personal one.

Who Are Your Favorite Bodybuilders?

There are many outstanding bodybuilders on the planet in terms of physical development. I would say Dorian Yates, not so much because of his physique but because of his intelligent and systematic method to reaching his goals. I have read that Dorian studied Bodybuilding for a full month before beginning in order to sift through the nonsense and come up with a plan that would produce the result he was after.

He has shown that he can train through injuries and still produce an outstanding package; he has the mark of a true champion and professional. Also once he realized his goals he was able to move onto other ventures without feeling the need to be as big as he previously was, this shows a level of maturity.

When it comes to physiques I respect, this would include bodybuilders from the pre-steroid era such as John Grimek, Steve Reeves, as well as truly natural bodybuilders from today's era. Grimek in particular was impressive because of his overall athletic ability. I recently saw some pictures of Serge Nubret; what an awesome physique at 200lbs and 6ft tall.

More Pictures!

Pic 1, Pic 3, Pic 4, Pic 5, Pic 6, Pic 7, Pic 8, Pic 10, Pic 11, Pic 12, Pic 13, Pic 14

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