This is Samir Bannout’s workout routine leading up to his Mr. Olympia victory in 1983. “The Lion of Lebanon” was famous for having a dense, hard looking physique. And this is how he built it.
Bannout’s Olympia victory is even more impressive considering he beat bodybuilding legends Frank Zane and Lee Haney. Meaning he brought the total package on stage in order to dethrone the long standing favorites.
Throughout the 1970’s Samir was know as an up-and-comer with breakout potential. He had all the hallmarks of a champion – Good genes, a great attitude, and an insatiable appetite for victory.
Samir Bannout won a lot of bodybuilding trophies and enjoyed (and still enjoys) a long career. When he’s not crushing workouts and putting men half his age to shame with his Adonis physique, he preaches the good word of health, fitness and the bodybuilding lifestyle. Others can learn a lot from listening and watching the Lion in his natural habitat.
Samir Bannout’s Early Years
Bannout was born and raised in Beirut, Lebanon. Samir became fascinated by bodybuilding when he was just a little lion. From the moment he saw the beautiful physiques of the classic bodybuilders he was determined to build his body into a work of art.
Samir started training around 16 years old and never looked back. He was hooked immediately. 3 years after falling in love with the iron game he flew to America to compete in the Mr. Universe contest. He placed 7th and was the youngest competitor. Not bad for his first time on the big stage against the world’s greatest bodybuilders. Samir moved to America soon after that to pursue his dream to be the best bodybuilder the word had ever seen.
Samir Bannout’s Training Philosophy
Do the right things – From exercise selection to mindset/attitude, to training mechanics, do the right things constantly and things will come. Always try to better your best.
Be positive – He took training seriously but made sure to have a good time. (Remember guys, training shouldn’t feel like torture. Enjoy it or you’ll quit.) Defeatist mindsets have no place in the gym.
Master the Mechanics – Learn your body. Maximize. Enjoy what you do and you will kick ass at it.Do it or don’t and if you’re going to do it you better learn to enjoy it.
Train with Intensity – Drop sets. Intensity. Activate the deep muscle fibers.On flyes always squeeze at the top. If your elbows bend or straighten you’re doing it wrong. Slow controlled negative. FEEL the negative.
Training mindset – Before you step foot in the gym get your head right first and foremost.
“Do it with feeling. Attack the weights with a vengeance. No Mickey Mouse bullshit. Hard. Heavy.” – Samir Bannout, on training.
Focus – Be with yourself. Block out the outside world. Tunnel vision is necessary when training. This is the separation between the ones who build a stellar physique and those who don’t. Concentration. Train Instinctually Feel your muscles pump like a balloon.
Foundational Lifts + Variety – Focus on the main mass and strength building exercise but venture out to keep the muscles guessing. Do something different. To have a complete body you need to target the entire body. Meaning hit the muscle from all angles.
Learn your body – You need to learn your body. Everyone is a little bit different. It only takes a small adjustment to make something work for you that doesn’t work for anyone else quite like you. So keep that in mind the tyou have to experiment and be your own teacher.
Your desire is the #1 thing – you can have the best coaches, trainers, nutritionists in the world but if YOU don’t have the killer instinct then you’ll lose.
Samir Bannout’s Workout Routine
Before we launch into the nuts and bolts, here are important points to keep in mind:
Volume – Perform 4 exercises per workout per muscle group.
Training variety – If you want to mix things up try this – For each exercise do one warm up set followed by one heavy set. Then immediately do a couple drop sets. Finish up with 2 regular set and move on to the next exercise.
Grips – Grab the bar tight tight tight. Grip it as hard as you can. This transfers energy and works everything.
Rest between sets 35 seconds.
Time under tension – It’s more about the time under tension and the rest between sets than it is about how much wight you lift. Remember it’s about the feeling in your muscles. That’s what matters most.
Pyramid up the weight – Increase weight as you decrease reps
Worth mentioning here, the Lion didn’t count reps or sets. He training by feel. However, as a beginner you should stick to a set number of sets and reps. This is to ensure you continue to make progress. You need to understand the variables as a way to measure improvement.
After a while you train instinctively. Meaning sometimes you use high reps and sometimes low. Same for weight and same for overall sets. Nonetheless, the workout below is a standard workout providing a reps range and sets required to grow.
As you soon find out, Samir trained 3 days on followed by one rest day. Then repeated the cycle.
Day 1: Shoulders, Biceps, and Triceps
Shoulders
- Front raises with barbell or dumbbells: 4 sets x 6-15reps
- Lateral raises with dumbbells: 4 sets x 8-20 reps
- Bent over laterals on cables: 4 sets x 10-20 reps
- Behind the neck press: 4 sets x 6-15 reps
- Upright rowing with a barbell: 4 sets x 5-15 reps
Biceps
- Alternate dumbbell curls: 4 sets x 6-12 reps
- Preacher curls with barbell: 4 sets x 6-12 reps
- Concentration curls with dumbbell: 4 sets x 6-12 reps
Triceps
- Press-downs: 4 sets x 8-15 reps
- One-arm triceps extensions with dumbbell: 4 sets x 8-15 reps
- Parallel bar dips or reverse dips (Bannout attached weights to his body) 4 sets x 8-15 reps
Day 2: Legs, Calves, and Abdominals
Legs
- Machine leg extensions: 8 sets x 10 reps, 4 sets of 5 reps
- Leg curls: 5 sets x 10 reps
- Light straight leg deadlifts: 4 sets x 8-12 reps
- Lunges or hack squats: 4 sets x 8-12 reps
- Squats: 6 sets x 6-15 reps
Calves
- Warm-up with calf stretches on a block with no weights
- Standing heel raises with heavy weight: 8 sets x 15+ reps
- Seated heels raises with heavy weight: 8 sets x 15+ reps
Abdominals
- Sit-ups: 4 sets x 25+ reps with weight
- Hanging Leg raises: 4 sets x 25+ reps
- Side crunches with pulley machine: 4 sets x 30+ reps
Day 3: Chest and Back
Chest
- Bench press: (warm-up with 1 set x 20-25 reps) 6 sets x 4-10 reps
- Incline press:(increase weight each consecutive set) 6 sets x 6-12 reps
- Flys (inclines or flats): 4 sets x 8-15 reps
- Dumbbell pullover across bench: 4 sets x 8-15 reps
- Parallel bar dip with weights: 4 sets x 8-15 reps
Back
His famous Christmas tree back. Ultra dense lower back muscles.
- Weighted chin-ups: 6 sets x 8-12 reps
- Bent over barbell row: 5 sets x 8-12 reps
- Tee-bar rows: 5 sets x 8-12 reps
- Cable rows: 4 sets x 8-12 reps
Barbell Row – A little rounding of the back is ok IF you can control the weight.Stretch the lats by reaching your arms forward as hard as you can. This develops the lower part of your lat and improves the lower lat tie-in.
Mix up your grip – Close, medium and wide grip. Close grip for lower back. Bring elbows to your lower body and squeeze.
Day: Rest 4
Samir Bannout Diet
Bannout doesn’t overthink his diet. He eats clean and relatively lean and eats carbs in moderation.
The best time to eat carbs is right after a workout. When you train hard your body releases an enzyme that allows you to soak up carbs into your muscles. The window of opportunity is 1-2 hours after a HARD workout.
30-60g carbs and 100-200g carbs if you’re going for performance and growth.
Obviously, copious amounts of protein from a variety of sources were consumed during his heyday. Beef, chicken, swordfish and many other animals from the land, sea and air were consumed.
Concluding Thoughts
Beware of overtraining – Most people do not need to fear over training. Especially if they ramp up their training program intelligently. Safety first and avoid burnout. Samir was one of the guys commonly regarded as going at it to hard and being to extreme. In terms of how hard he trained in a depleted state. He had the drive and he trained past the point most people could tolerate. Most people don’t have the ability to do this so I wouldn’t worry about it too much. But I mention it because that’s what I think sets Samir apart.
If you have confidence then you can make anything work. So go with what you want. If you want it go get it. Set your mind and nothing can stop you.
So, keep in mind there is no magic workout that turns you into a beefcake. It’s not just what you do… it’s how you do it. How you perform each rep makes all the difference. So pay close attention to the feeling in your body while training. You must be your own teacher to an extent when it comes to training.
Samir Bannout Now
You can keep up with Samir on instagram or check out his website. The Lion of Lebanon always has something worth while going on.
Leave a Reply