Anthony Catanzaro Interview

 

Interview with Natural Bodybuilding Champion and Actor, the Superman of Fitness, Anthony Catanzaro

By Ben Tatar

1) Anthony you are known as having one of the greatest physiques in the fitness world. How did you do it? What makes Anthony different than others who are ripped or big but who aren’t necessarily in the ideal condition?

Anthony Catanzaro: I’ve always looked at my physique as the people’s physique. Not the most ripped, or the biggest arms or crazy vascularity. I created my body in what I thought every man would want and admire, and what every woman would drool over.

In my mind I thought of my body as a work of art as a vision of excellence. So when people ask me how I did it of course they know my story of never using steroids or any other enhancement drugs.

I just followed a strict and basic diet and trained very basic and old school, but what did it was my visualization of how I wanted to look. No supplement in the world can do that for you. The body is the student and the mind is the master.

2) You have been ripped for many years.  How do you stay in prime condition today? Do you do everything similar to what you did 10 or 20 years ago or do you do everything different?

Anthony Catanzaro: I still continue to train and diet the very same way I always have. I don’t believe in the latest craze diets like macro diet which to this day I laugh at or a very low carb diet or caveman diet or liquid diet or whatever diet for that matter.

The best diet is a balanced diet and that my friends come straight out of my mouth. Training is the same as well.  The human body has not changed much in the last 100,000 years. So, building muscle back then is the same as now.

How? Break down the muscle fibers so they grow back bigger and stronger. How? By lifting, pushing and pulling more resistance than what the muscles are used to it’s as simple as that.

Editor’s note: Anthony has been at the top of the fitness world for years.

Read his first interview here: http://www.criticalbench.com/Anthony-Catanzaro.htm

3) You come from a big family of 6. What do they think of all the success you have had and the national headlines that you have made?

Anthony Catanzaro: My family is very proud of me and my accomplishments. I’m happy and blessed to have a family who admires me, a wife who loves me and fans who support me.

I think what sets me apart from all the other guys is my heart and my love to genuinely help others. I’m very honest and sincere in what I love and that is to inspire the world to be the best they can be and overcome anything in their path!

4) You have been on many TV shows and made all types of television appearances. What 5 have been your favorite and why? 

In the last 10 years I’ve appeared in shows and TV such as:

Janet Russell Show

Rachael Ray

DR. OZ SHOW

Ford Commercial

Anderson Live

Wendy Williams

Bayou Billionaires -CMT

SlendertoneUSA (co-host)

Tony C’s Pure Power Workouts!

Energym Flexx Bar infomercial (show host)

Game Killers (MTV)

CNBC “The Big Idea”/ Donny Deutsch

“Energym Turbo Charger” home gym (Show Host)

The “Bean Flex 10” home gym (infomercial)

Super Cut Ab Dome (commercial co-host)

Mr. Romance (Oxygen TV

My favorite 5 would be:

1) Game Killers MTV. This is where I played an egotistical, over macho, over confident steroid narcissist. I still crack up when I see it. I blew the directors minds when I went on the casting and started cursing all of them out as that was the characters personality.

2) Ford Commercial: This was one of the funniest commercials I’ve done when all I had to do was just come out and pose which I love to do.

3) Rachael Ray: This was a fun show as I came out and surprised Rachael from the audience. She was so shy, she ran behind the counter like a little school girl then I started posing with the stage director with our shirts off. It was so funny!

4) Bayou Billionaires –CMT: This was a great show filmed down south in Louisiana. I was hired to whip this billionaire farmer into shape.

5) CNBC “The Big Idea”/ Donny Deutsch: This was a funny talk show where I came out and spoke about how famous my abs were. I like this video because I felt I looked the best I ever looked in my life. Also I was able to just sit back and be myself.

Bonus

Anderson Live: This was when I popped out of a cake for Betty White on her 93rd birthday. It was a great time and to come out of the cake with Betty’s arms wide open it was very sincere and sweet.

5) You have been a bodybuilding champion and you also have done plenty of magazine and cover shoots. What do you like best the competing end or mainstream fitness extravaganzas?

Anthony Catanzaro: I’ve never been to any of the fitness show extravaganzas that doesn’t really interest me. I don’t consider myself a fitness guy, I consider myself a fitness savoir.

It’s not about push-ups, it’s about the push forwards. I never wanted to be like anyone. I always wanted to be one of a kind. I love to compete because when I step on stage, I’m able to show what you can do with hard work, trust, and love within your heart.

6) We know that getting ripped is all about diet. Let’s forget super obesity for a minute and talk about someone with maybe 10-25% body fat. What do they need to start doing with their diet to really cut up? For example, do you avoid large portions or even foods like wheat bread? How do you find the discipline when you have hunger cravings?

Anthony Catanzaro: Getting under 10% body fat has a lot to do with your diet. My chiropractor is always around 8% body fat. I don’t believe he works out very often, but I’ve come to learn he is allergic to gluten which means he eats no bread, pastas cookies cakes etc.

This is the reason he is 8% I’m sure if he was able to eat pizza, cake, bread etc. he would be like the average man which is around 23%. So yes, diet plays a huge role. I have a saying “If God made it use it, if man made it lose it.”

This means do not eat anything that God didn’t already form, eat foods in their natural form nothing processed, canned or boxed

7) What’s your tips on getting huge?

Anthony Catanzaro: If we just talk about being ripped without the hardcore components, we might become heels! Getting huge muscles requires lifting more weight with more reps than our bodies are used to.

It also requires that we eat and rest to repair those torn fibers so they can grow back thicker and stronger nothing else needs to be done or said.

8) Do you have any extreme training routines that you have done that you would like to elaborate on?

Anthony Catanzaro: I keep my training old school like I said but I do believe in drop sets, supersets and giant sets not so much for the whole workout just the final sets of a body part to get as much blood into the muscle to create what I like to call “the swell.”

9) Great tips.  What inspires you?

Anthony Catanzaro: I’m very inspired by people who are confidant in their own skin people who love themselves not in a conceited or cocky way, but in a way of respect for themselves because I truly believe that your life will unfold from how your thoughts are of yourself and your capabilities.

If you believe in yourself, then my friend that is all you will ever need because God lives in all of us and he is activated from our faith in ourselves because ultimately having faith in yourself is the same as having faith in God because God lives inside you.

10) Very profound!  How do you want to be remembered?

Anthony Catanzaro: I’m glad you asked me this question because I often think about how I would like to be remembered. Well for one, as the true voice of faith and love for what I love and want to share to the world. I want the whole world to feel what I feel from what working out has given to me.

I want to be remembered as a guy who did it naturally without drugs but with only the courage in his heart. To live forever as one of the greatest men of all time. To truly live up to my name as the “Superman of Fitness”.

Want More From Anthony Catanzaro?

Critical Bench interviewed him about 10 years ago and you can read the entire interview at the link below.

Classic Interview with Anthony Catanzaro

Functional Training RUINED My Size & Strength

By Chris Wilson, CPT author Anabolic AfterGrowth

I was under the illusion that I was still strong.

I had fallen victim to the training I was implementing for a majority of my dedicated clients.  Focusing my time and energy on balance, conditioning and core strength led me down a path to weakness.

I’m not saying that having a strong, flat six pack is a bad goal or that standing on one leg while doing side raises is not beneficial.  It just should not have been the ONLY thing I was doing.

I had abandoned all the compound lifts that made me semi-beastly in my early to mid-twenties.  I wasn’t benching big weight, squats were done for reps (and sometimes using stability balls) and traditional deadlifts weren’t even on the menu.

Yeah, I know…simply pathetic for a veteran personal trainer and gym manager.

This certainly led to me suffering an injury to my manhood (aka scrotum) that kept me from lifting heavy for a long time.  Let me explain.

After speaking with my friend and Criticalbench.com founder, Mike Westerdal, I had decided to begin preparing for a powerlifting competition.  During this time Mike was benching 600s and lifting small cars as a warm up so needless to say, I was quickly motivated to be strong again.  After a few years of not training intensely, I was trying out some sumo deadlifting.

At first, I was electrified since I hadn’t pushed super hard in a while and pulling the 300+ lbs. off the floor felt awesome.  And then it happened…just after I wrapped up for the day.  I felt some searing pain in my groin and after getting checked out, I found out from the Urologist that I had a vericocele.

A vericocele is basically a varicose vein in your balls.  I had severely irritated it with all of the pressure from lifting heavy, something I had not done in several years.  And I’m quite sure my sub-standard form and technique (super rusty) was to blame on top of an overall weakness in my body.

Not doing the traditional compound lifts had cost me BIG TIME.

Instead of pursuing a competition, I was back to light weight and functional exercise.  UGHHH-get me a barf bag.  I was so irritated at myself!!!

Luckily, over a period of years, I was able to recover enough to get back to training with the compound lifts I so badly missed.  I got all of my lifts back in the 300 lb. rep range and felt a flood of confidence along with some well-earned muscle gains.

I thought I was lifting smart for a period of years but all I was doing was maintaining muscle tone and deceiving myself.

Then I began working for Critical Bench in early 2013 and was now frequently around some muscle building monsters.  These relationships only helped strengthen my direction and now the deadlift is by far my favorite exercise in the gym.

The weight I strained my gonads with was now, “LIGHT WEIGHT BABY!”  I now spend most of my time benching, pulling plates and squatting anything and everything from barbells to DBs and even kettlebells!

Never sabotage your efforts in the gym with “fancy” exercises that don’t build real power in your body.  If you make STRENGTH your goal, you can’t lose.  The incredible side effect of intense training is a physique others will admire and bullet-proof muscles that are designed to perform, not just look good.

Would You Like to Add 2 Inches to Your Biceps & 25 Pounds to Your Bench Press While Gaining 14 Pounds of Lean Muscle?

If so, click the link below now…

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