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THE LEGEND GROWS.  
And no one can stop it.      
BY JULIAN SCHMIDT       

   Our muses are where we choose to find them. Descartes had his night shirt and claustral cabin fireplace, Poincaré his stroll along cliff overlooking the sea, kant his deserted streets of Konigsberg when the town was fast asleep, and Bill Brown his Underwood bar at closing time, but it's a chorus of inspiration that sings to Frank Zane. It might be the thrum of a toxophilite's bow, or the rational beauty of mathematics, or even the Platonic peace of a 2,300 internal dialogue. Whatever the voice, Frank answers to his muse than to his fellow man.
 
   When his teen peers herded themselves like Gardarene swine into the pop ritual of football, Frank took a hike. He starred at the sport his powerful legs and miraculous grip landed him a starting varsity position and all-scholastic honors but for the hungry intellect, football quickly became a crushing bore, so Frank left the snorting herds and headed for the hills.

   "I loved the outdoors," he explains, "and I loved to hike. I still walk a lot, but every weekend when I was a kid, I hiked, usually alone."

   Insatiable and irrepressible, his Pac-Man mind devoured thoughts by the bushel on these hikes. Out there, alone, he thought about how it all came to be and the order, and about survival. He had no coaches nor cities nor homes to restrain his growth.
 
   Under such circumstances, most people become burdalanes, shunning society from their extremism, but Frank Zane's other muse mathematics held his life in healthy balance. Whatever led Frank to transcend common man also led him to noble peers: Frank joined the Boy Scouts.
 
   Even there, he excelled with highest honors Explorer Scout, Eagle Scout, 50 merit badges, Order of the Arrow culminating in every boy scout's dream: two summers at renowned Philmont Scout Ranch in New Mexico.
 
   "Back in the fifties, it was difficult for a high school kid to get a job, but , fortunately, these were the days before automatic pin-spotters in bowling alleys, and I was lucky enough to get a job as a pin boy. When I was a sophomore, I was making about $25 a week, which was a lot of money in those days. So I saved it and went to Philmont. It was a good experience. Ever since, I've been fascinated with travel."
 
   Little things fed Frank's curiosity for life. "As an Explorer Scout, I really learned a lot about the outdoors, about survival and the development of many skills," one of which is archery, as iconoclastic a pursuit as any bodybuilder has encountered. Here's how Frank explains his introduction to the sport:
 
   "I remember there being a bow around the house a long bow about five feet and as I grew up, I remember looking at that bow and wanting to shoot it. It held this fascination. So when I was old enough, I became thoroughly involved to the extent of making my own bows and fletching my own arrows. I spent a lot of time with it and began to appreciate the concentration required. In fact, I was the one who got Arnold involved, and we have some sophisticated equipment, still. When he shows up at my place, we generally shoot some archery. I have found that, because of archery, my traps are in really great shape."
 
   It was in the Boys Scouts that Frank found his philosophical home, the mens sana in corpore sano center that has sustained him since. The "strong minds, healthy bodies" credo of the Scouts had been waiting to embrace this eager boy. "At Philmont my first year," Frank relates, "there was this log around the campfire that everyone tried to lift. Only two guys could do it. I wasn't the one, although I came close. That inspired me, so I returned to home, I started training. I had been overemphasizing intellectual pursuits during my childhood to the partial neglect of physical strength; I felt I should at least be able to lift that log."
 
   Most of us are lucky to find a message in life at all; Frank Zane discovered it in his early teens. He was always an academic whiz breezing through math and chemistry, valedictorian office class, winning an academic scholarship to Wiles College in Pennsylvania but now he felt the synergism of mind and body, and at a precocious 15 years of age, he began yoga.
 
   This fusing of muses worked. His response to the weights was phenomenal, the yoga enabled him to run for 10 miles without fatigue only after two months, and the academic foundation his  father nurtured in him flourished. Says Frank, "He gave me an awareness of the need to know mathematics and science. Since he was an electrician, I was really interested in electricity, physics, equations and experiments. I liked those subjects, and I had a high aptitude for them."
 
   For 13 years, Frank taught mathematics and chemistry, during which time he won the IFBB Mr. America in 1968. A week later, Frank beat Arnold Schwarzenegger in the Mr. Universe. In 1967, he married Christine , and two years later, they moved to California where he leveraged his bodybuilding success into Mr. World in 1970 and three consecutive Mr. Olympias in 1977, '78, and '79.
 
   With remarkable ease, Frank had become an immortal, one of the triumvars along with Dave Draper and Arnold Schwarzenegger. That was more than two decades ago, and to this day he is still ahead of his time, remaining both apotheosized and misunderstood in spite of hundreds of ersatz pretenders to his legacy. Utter the name Frank Zane and the metaphor is "symmetry." Frank, however, cringes at the term. "Bodybuilders use the word to mean something that isn't symmetry." Symmetry is a mirror-image of two halves. For example, when humans are bilaterally symmetrical, you can split them in half, and the left and right sides can overlay each other perfectly. Of course, no one has that kind of perfection, and I, of all people, am one of the least symmetrical.
 
   "Yet that's not what bodybuilders mean when they speak of symmetry. Instead, they mean proportion, which is a relation of equality between ratios. If you measured  all bodyparts, there would be a mathematical relationship among all of them. If the thighs are too big for the calves, the number (of the measurement) would be too big and would throw off the proportion. So proportion is what I have, and I have it because I've spent my life working on it."
 
   At the same time, Frank has fostered the illusion of symmetry on his 5'9", 200-pound frame. "If you watch big guys in a contest, they have so much mass that they want to display it to its fullest, so they pose straight on; in other words, symmetrically. But it's not very interesting, and it's awkward."
 
   "When I began competing, I didn't have a lot of muscle, so what I did was to assume different positions to make it more interesting. They were never symmetrical, by a lot, usually."
 
   Notice Frank's double-biceps pose. It is usually never straight on. He tilts his body and places one arm higher than the other so no one has a chance to compare his left and right symmetry. All that is observed is a presentation of pleasing lines, which are assumed must result from symmetry.
 
   "In keeping with this proportion," Frank continues, "I've always considered each bodypart separately as well as part of the whole and worked for relative mass, size and definition. I've always kept an eye on the total picture, been aware of my weak parts and asked myself every year, 'What do I need to work this year?' To this day, I do that. Even though I no longer compete, I get into real good condition each year. It's a pattern that has developed in my life. I've been doing this for more than 30 years, and I still peak in the fall, and I'm still getting better in certain ways."
 
   In training, as well, Frank was a vanguard. Bodybuilders in his day were powerlifting and olympic lifting, but even then, the aesthetics he visualized was the aesthetic of the future. Frank explains, "I developed little areas no one else had, but I took a long time to do it. If there is one thing that distinguishes me from other bodybuilders, it's that I'm not in any kind of hurry. My career is representative of achieving goals of a more protracted nature, to do something and, as a result, to do it really well."
 
   In training, Frank feels this means many different movements. With his extensive gym at home, he draws from about 70 exercises that he has determined provide the most effective work with the least chance of injury. "Total sets per bodyparts are 16 to 20, broken down into five to six exercises. Larger bodyparts are at the upper end of that set range; smaller bodyparts, such as the forearm, might only get six sets. I don't believe in constantly changing exercises because there are only certain movements you can do effectively for each bodypart. My average repetitions are 10, and for peaking, I will rest only one minute between sets as opposed two off-season, and I also pay more attention to negatives and a slower movement. That way I get more out of a weight. By slowing down the movement, the muscle interprets that as a heavier weight. And form is very important. I don't cheat.
 
   "Nutritionally, I've always believed in getting a substantial amount of protein from all animal sources; vegetables sources as well. More recently I've been lowering my fat intake and increasing my carbohydrates to where my carbs are at least as much as my protein intake. For the last 15 years, I've always been supplementing my diet with amino a acids. That, I feel, is responsible for alot of my success in training, although increasing my carbohydrates seems to make me feel better and gives me a better pump."
 
   One Zane talent that will never be surpassed is presentation. Eminent authorities in the sport still hold him as the greatest and recall with reverence how he devastate competitor after competitor who dared to share the same stage.
 
   It has been said that the competition is an immature impulse. If so, Frank Zane has never been known arrested development. Watching him at work onstage is a wordless sermon on solitary pride. Flanking Frank, other bodybuilders are reduced to trembling lemmings, their eyes nervously tracking his every twitch as they rush their routines and force their poses, completely at his mercy. To Frank, no one else exists. He is alone up there, confident, serene, his presentation crescendoing from poses struck and held with sustained power and excruciating patience as they are constructed one upon the other into an exquisite mosaic.
 
   In bodybuilding today, that may be a lost art as routines get caught up in the flash and frenzy of the nineties. The classic Zane, on the other hand, spent hours of practice holding his poses. "Lots of people practice posing today, and they ever stand still for one second," admonishes Frank. "That's not the way I pose. Posing is composed of two parts: A) tension, when you hit the shot and sustain it, and B) movement. But I never practiced movement; that always came naturally. I only practice tension. Today, bodybuilders primarily practice movement. I worked up to a point where I was able to hold the shot for a full movement without moving. That was of tremendous value in competition."
 
   Such discipline takes more than commitment. It takes inner strength that few can tap. Or comprehend. Frank, however, has spent his life in that effort. "It's possible to be posing onstage and be completely relaxed. A lot of that comes from confidence, which comes from succeeding, but it can also come from changing your consciousness to enhance your motivation and performance. The psychology of bodybuilding is really coming to the fore right now and is of great value in this regard. I'm currently studying that for my master's degree in experimental psychology, so I'm interested in cognitive psychology and motivation in general, as well as deep relaxation techniques. I want to integrate aspects that are psychologically valid with the bodybuilding lifestyle.
 
   "My thesis is on whole-brain listening listening to two different things at the same time, one in each ear. It does change your consciousness. I have written scripts on tapes for this technique and people have been using them for two years. In the process, positive suggestion is imbedded for performance or relaxation or both. The technique is based on homonyms words that sound the same but have different meanings."

   Even when he competed, Frank used meditation, affirmation and deep relaxation techniques for a month before a show, as well as "right speech," which is saying what he wanted to happen. "Even now, I don't think negative thoughts. I state my goals and my intentions, then work to make them happen. That was the essential in winning. Attitude, confidence, talking positive all the time I don't mean boasting, but, rather, feeling like a winner. It's cognitive restructuring, changing words you use in you speech and thought, changing your internal dialogue, and you can only be successful. It applies to every area of life."
 
   Quod erat faciendum: Zane Haven was begun in Palm Springs in 1980 when he and Christine gathered eight people together and conducted from one to three seminars a month. It has evolved into the Zane Experience, a five-day bodybuilding "intensive" where Frank personally trains his client and teaches motivation, nutrition, and deep relaxation. He also administers individual consultations with advanced bodybuilders on posing and contest preparation. Frank Zane at 47 has become an industry.
 
   "I achieved," he insists, "because I was more aware of more things than the average bodybuilder, probably because I have knowledge in lost of fields. For example, I can teach any subject in high school, and I've always felt it essential to keep improving my mind. I've been always restless in that regard. Even my wife is concurrently getting her M.S. in psychology; already she is a practicing psychotherapist.
 
   "I know have a California teaching credential for all subjects. When I complete my master's degree, I will be certified to teach in junior college, as well as mathematics, chemistry, biology and social science. "I've continued to go to school all of my life."
 
   Frank Zane is a school in himself. He came on the scene as an alien among bodybuilders in every facet and emerged as a genuine classic in the sport. He is aspiration instead of ambition, but few of us have either the patience of character for that. We might be ennobled by his example. But don't expect to equal it.
 
Copyright © 1990 FLEX magazine

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