Welcome to Vatterott and Littmann Fitness!
KYLE VATTEROTT RXMUSCLE
GOLD’S GYM VENICE
We thought for our first blog post that it would be unique (and retrospective) to simply offer Kyle Vatterott's first article he wrote for RxMuscle in 2011 during his time at The Mecca, Gold's Venice. This was a beginning step to our journey, we hope you enjoy.
"The ability to shoot with Chris Cormier was an awesome opportunity not only because of the fact that I have always admired what Chris has done for the fitness industry but also because it was my first photo shoot. Being a small town kid from Pacific, Missouri and moving to Los Angeles was a big change but certainly a welcomed change. I didn’t know what to expect from the shoot and working out with Chris, but I did know I was going to work my ass off. Playing football and many other sports allowed me to develop an appetite for hard work. I had a great respect for my high school football coach and that kind of “gritty” hard work you only find in the weight rooms and football fields supervised by ex-NFL players such as himself.
Chris’s “style”, so to speak, was no different. Right after introducing myself to him I knew I was in for a good workout. I was planning on infiltrating the quads and hams, taking them to war…and that’s exactly what we did. I started with a 2 mile warm up on the stationary bike to get my blood pumping and then it was off to work with Chris. First, we hit quads with the leg extension machine. Chris informed me of pointing my toes to the ceiling, which would isolate my quads better, something I never did. This was the first exercise and Chris was already pushing me to bang out more reps than our original scheme. This was the kind of work I was used to, and the kind of work that should be expected at The Mecca of Bodybuilding. The next exercise was done on a machine that actually simulated the driving motion lineman often use. Chris also played football so he knew the performance and functionality this exercise brought to the table. I have never used this machine before and Chris coached my “explosiveness” throughout the lift. We moved directly on to the vertical leg press machine and focused on hitting the outer thigh sweep, one of my weak points. Chris and I are still maintaining the same level of intensity at this point seemingly feeding off of each other’s energy. I banged out 3 sets all until failure (my personal favorite rep range) then I followed Chris outside to find a lonesome barbell that needed a home. We added weight and I hoisted the barbell on to my shoulders, eager to begin the barbell lunges. These were nothing new to me and I thought I would just breeze through them. How wrong I was. Chris was adamant about conducting the lunges with strict form. This was awkward at first as my legs were definitely fatigued at this point but Chris coached and pushed me through it. I finally got the form down near the end and it turned out to be one of the hardest leg exercises I have done in awhile. Covered in sweat but hungry for more we moved to the hamstring curl machine. Another 3 sets of good hard reps were pushed out, the intensity never ceasing only building. I carried the same intensity over to the last exercise Chris had me do. Straight leg deadlift was last but not least on the agenda and it served as an incredible finisher. Once again Chris coached me with that “nothing to it but to do it” mentality and made sure I kept proper form and squeezed hams and quads hard at the top of each rep.
Working with Chris was great and being photographed only gives me fuel for the fire to keep working harder and rise to the pinnacle of the fitness profession. I believe hard work always pays and Chris shares that same mentality, making for a damn good workout. I enjoyed meeting with Chris and I was very happy with the shoot."
