A lot can be said about enigmatic Kevin Levrone, arguably the best bodybuilder to never win the Olympia. No one has been runner-up more than he without hoisting a Sandow. His four seconds span his pro career, from his rookie year in 1992 to his next-to-last in 2002. Along the way, he earned 20 pro titles. And that’s not even getting into his music and acting or the time, when weighing 250, he raced an Olympic sprinter.
FUN FACT: As his bodybuilding career wound down, Levrone formed the rock band Full Blown. He was lead singer.
Then there were his stupendous triceps. The upper lateral and long heads were so enormous they gave a rare “hang” to his arms, even in his side chest pose. Yet another interesting thing about the two-time Arnold champ was how remarkably strong he was. There’s a video of him benching 495 for a triple less than two weeks before the 1998 Olympia. Levrone believes too many bodybuilders rely on isolation when they should be hoisting heavy metal in the compound basics.
LEVRONE ON TRICEPS TRAINING
“Close-grip bench presses are the single best exercise for packing meat on the triceps.”
“I always try to go as heavy as possible on free-weight exercises in the 6-8 range.”
“I usually do close-grip benches with an EZ-curl bar.”
“With pushdowns, I go for higher reps. My focus then isn’t on a maximum pump, it’s on a maximum burn.”
