M.E COVER PROFILE
JACO VENTER
WINNING THE
ARMS RACE
A
lthough they are different people –
Juan has a wicked sense of humour
while Jaco is more reserved – they share
some common training philosophies.
Most importantly they both aim to reach
the outermost limits every time they train
their arms.
With recent overall and first place victories
in the Nabba Bloemfontein and Pretoria
Classic bodybuilding shows, Jaco Venter is
clearly as passionate about bodybuilding as
his friend, Juan. It has earned him the prized
spot on our cover for this issue!
Jaco, a sales executive who resides in
Pretoria, was bitten by the iron bug when
his wife Annelize Venter entered a bikini
competition. “I like the competitive nature of
bodybuilding,” he says.
Jaco follows a three day split routine.
“I like John Meadows' philosophy on training
and nutrition. I believe that as a coach he is
second to none. His principles are rooted in
fact and not fiction. I learnt a lot from him
and made significant improvements to my
physique in a relative short period of time
by following his methodology.” Jaco covers
all his body parts in three days and uses the
next three days to do an extra session for
the body parts that he feels are lagging and
need more work.
“I struggle to curl properly on machines
when I do arms – so I would often change
my routine and make curls on cables my
focus for a specific workout,” continues Jaco.
He also admits that his arms were weak and
that he had to train them extremely hard to
match his other stronger body parts. “I only
managed to get them growing in the past
year or so.”
He often trains with Juan, who he believes
is stronger in his arms. “We push each other
to the max. I like the intensity when we train
together.” Jaco only starts to count sets when
he gets to a weight that is challenging for
him. All the other sets he sees as a warm-up.
“My only goal with arms is to focus on the
contraction I get when I train them. Picking up
heavy weights is no accomplishment for me.”
Jaco makes sure his arms are ready for
punishment by warming up with a superset
of tricep pushdowns and barbell curls with
an EZ-bar. He then starts with tricep rope
pushdowns. “I would pause at the bottom of
the movement and squeeze my triceps for a
second or two.” He would normally do 3 to 4
sets of 10 to 12 reps on exercises but it also
depends on how the muscles are reacting
and on his energy and strength levels.
Other exercises Jaco combines in a
superset fashion include hammer curls and
concentration curls. When he feels that there
is enough gas left in his tank he will also do
dips between two benches and an ultra-
strict set of barbell curls. He attributes his
arm development to isometric holds and half
34
Muscle Evolution
“MY ONLY GOAL WITH
ARMS IS TO FOCUS ON THE
CONTRACTION I GET WHEN
I TRAIN THEM. PICKING
UP HEAVY WEIGHTS IS NO
ACCOMPLISHMENT FOR ME.”