What does Frank Zane consider to be the key to training?

Zane, 80, said on social media that body­builders often under­es­ti­mate the impor­tance of stretch­ing. Stretch­ing is more than just a warm-up or cool-down. This is an inte­gral part of any strength train­ing — the for­mer cham­pi­on is engaged in fit­ness even now.

Zane believes that stretch­ing increas­es blood flow to the mus­cles, improves joint mobil­i­ty and reduces the risk of injury. “When train­ing a spe­cif­ic body part, you should per­form about ten dif­fer­ent stretch­es dur­ing the rest peri­ods between sets,” says the body­builder.

Con­tin­u­ing his thoughts on the val­ue of stretch­ing, Zane not­ed, “Each stretch should last 15–20 sec­onds. After a set, you want to rest and low­er your heart rate. It’s ide­al for restor­ing your strength while you relax dur­ing a stretch. It saves a lot of time and keeps you warm.”

By adding stretch­ing exer­cis­es to your work­out, you can improve flex­i­bil­i­ty, per­for­mance, injury pre­ven­tion, and over­all well-being. Zayn reg­u­lar­ly posts health and fit­ness relat­ed con­tent on his social media accounts. He also recent­ly revealed a “one-hour solu­tion” for bet­ter recov­ery.

How does Zane rebuild his muscles?

In pur­suit of results, it is easy to over­load the body and over­do the inten­si­ty of train­ing. How­ev­er, prop­er recov­ery can­not be under­es­ti­mat­ed. It’s dur­ing rest that mus­cles grow, as Zane reminds us: “It’s impor­tant to rest. Sleep or med­i­tate.”

Zane believes med­i­ta­tion can be more effec­tive than sleep: “The truth is that med­i­ta­tion is twice as restora­tive as sleep. As I get old­er, I notice that I sleep less (5 hours a day) and med­i­tate more (1–2 hours a day).”