"I eat," he said.

Moreover, he still claims that they're "clean" calories. No fats or MCTs, *and* he doesn't believe in using a blender - he never drinks his calories.

So, supposedly he gets 30,000 calories from eating the following meal 5-6 times a day (someone should calculate the actual numbers):

Meal:

3 pounds of brown rice.
5 chicken breasts.
15-20 egg whites.
2 cans of corn.
1 can of pineapple.

However, he claims that he wakes up in the morning and goes to the gym *without* having eaten first, and often works out for up to 3 hours.

"A hungry man is an angry man. I like to be angry when I train. I train harder when I'm angry."

So, supposedly, he doesn't get a jump on his 30,000 calories for a good long while after he wakes up...

He claims that he has nothing against Mike, but for some reason Mike kept feeling it necessary to say things about him behind his back. Vic thinks it was done out of some kind of insecurity on Mike's part.

And even though Vic claimed that this stuff doesn't bother him and he couldn't care less about anybody but Vic Richards, he apparently did confront Mike (in San Jose, I think):

"You been talkin' shit?" [this got a laugh out of the crowd]

"No no no - that's just the magazines! I never said those things. They just want to see us do battle because we're the big guys..." blah blah blah

So Vic thought that they had apparently made up, but then he heard Mike was supposedly saying more stuff about him (all through the grapevine, BTW).

Anyway, he concluded that story with:

"I think the reason that Mike and Sandy had so many problems is that, instead of thinking about pleasing Sandy, Mike went to bed worrying about Vic Richards too much."

"You haven't qualified to compete in the Nationals. You haven't qualified to compete in the pro ranks - yet, you do. How do you get to compete with the pros?"

"There is nothing wrong with being competent in one's ability. It's not arrogance, it's just a confidence in what I can do..." blah blah blah

To which the kid goes:

"No no no - you haven't answered my question! You didn't qualify for the Nationals, you didn't qualify for the pros - how come you get to compete?!"

The crowd was laughing.

"That's what I like about young kids. They're not afraid to ask anything. They just come right out with it."

Here he pauses dramatically.

"I don't have to qualify."

More pause.

[paraphrase]
"I believe I am very unique. And when you have a physique like mine, you shouldn't have to qualify."

"When you go to school, you learn about philosophies started by other people. I'd rather make my own. In a way, I graduated and got a degree from the Vic Richards school of life."

His list of big guys was: himself, Strydom, the Barbarians and Jim Quinn. Noticeably missing was Matarazzo, which everyone around me started talking about. (I really didn't care, since I'm not a Matarazzo fan. Hey - I'm really not even a New Englander!)

He also likes to go heavy and take as much rest as he needs in between sets.

"I'm in the gym to build muscle - not to do aerobics."

He wouldn't say what he did, because, as he put it:

"I don't want to give anyone a noose to put around my neck."

I tried asking him about cycles in a way that wouldn't be too personal:

"I'll try to ask this in an impersonal way: What is your *philosophy* on the length of a cycle and the number of cycles done in a year?"

But he wouldn't comment at all. All he said was that he could get in serious trouble if he answered my question, because what if I went out and did something and got hurt, 'cause then I could say "Well, Vic Richards said..."

He said I could ask him one-on-one about it, but I didn't.

"Um, how can I put this nicely... Overtraining is a word used by the weak."

He believes (as I am inclined to) that if a bodypart gets lots of rest between workouts, and you get enough sleep and nutrients, that you won't overtrain.

"One more thing: your hams - they're phenomenal!" (and oh man are they!) What do you do to train 'em?"

"Thank you. Basically, just lying leg curls. I don't like standing curls."

"What about stiff-legged deadlifts? I do them quite often, but never feel my hams as good as with leg curls."

"Me too. The deadlifts don't isolate the hams enough. I hardly do them. Stay with the leg curls - especially lying down."

Overall, I don't know - pretty entertaining. One of my bb friends who was there thought Vic was a hypocrite (especially about the Matarazzo story) and said that he didn't learn anything. I told him that I never go to these things to really *learn* anything - I mean, what are they really going to tell you that you haven't heard before? But he said he's been to some seminars where the guys really give you some good information about dieting and nutrition, etc.

Another friend of mine said that it really would be useless to ask Vic anything, because he probably doesn't know a whole hell of alot because he can rely on his (supernatural - my word) genetics. Whatever. But it is true that some of the hugest guys you see really don't know as much about proper training and nutrition as most of the people even in this group.