The Healthy Skeptic: A Critical Analysis of Barry Bonds’ Training Routine

With the media brouhaha over the book Game of Shadows, this is a good time to re-examine Barry Bonds' workout regimen, which was designed by Greg Anderson.

Here’s Bonds’ weight training routine as published in the June 2003 edition of Muscle and Fitness.

Monday: Chest and Biceps
Standing cable fly; standing cable biceps curl; incline Hammer-machine press; seated one-arm dumbbell curl; flat-bench dumbbell press; bench push-up; exercise-ball crunch.

Tuesday: Quads and Hamstrings
Single-leg extension; two-leg extension; lying hamstring curl; adductor machine; abductor machine; single-leg press; leg press; barbell squat; walking lunge

Wednesday: Back and Abs
Wide-grip pull down, close-grip pull down; seated row; pull-up; low-back extension; standing calf raise; seated calf-raise; crunch

Thursday: Shoulders and Triceps
Seated rear-delt machine; one-or two-arm dumbbell lateral raise; one- or two-arm dumbbell front raise; cable triceps press down (with straight bar or rope); standing machine dip

Friday Quads and Hamstrings
Single- or two-leg extension; lying leg curl; adductor machine; abductor machine; uni-lateral or regular leg press; barbell squat; stiff-legged dead lift; seated leg curl; standing single-leg hamstring curl; exercise-ball crunch

Bonds followed this routine both in and off-season. He maintained the same, five-day per week schedule and only reduced the daily workload of total sets performed for his in-season phase from 12-14 sets to 8-10 sets. Bonds performed 10 repetitions per set during both phases of his program.

This workout is in no way responsible for building Barry Bonds’ physique. This workout is classic “Body Building 101” and is not an appropriate manner of training for an elite, world-class athlete. This workout is a joke that is beneath any able-bodied person, and is even more ridiculous when you consider that it is being credited for building the impressive physique of Barry Bonds. This routine won’t build the kind of muscle mass Bonds sports, and is counter-productive to the goals of an athlete as well.

All of the exercises in this workout — with the exception of the squat and walking lunge — are machine-based, single joint exercises that in no way can prepare an athlete for the rigors of their sport. Most of these exercises are performed in a seated position that makes them even less suitable for inclusion in the training program of a real athlete.

Seated, machine-based, single-joint exercises are inappropriate because they work the muscles of the body in isolation. There is no task that any person performs in which a single muscle group does all the work at the exclusion of all other muscle groups.

Article Author: Sal Marinello

Sal Marinello is a National Strength and Conditioning Association Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist and Certified Personal Trainer, a U.S.A. Weightlifting Certified Coach, a full-time, private Professional Strength and Conditioning …

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