👋 Hi! Tell us about yourself and your training
My name is Brian Dobson. I am 62 years old. I am from Fort Worth, Texas. I am the founder-CEO of Metroflex gym and I work 60 or so hours a week at the original Metroflex in Arlington running the gym, training clients and promoting NPC competitions, right now we have three a year.
I am single and have four kids and two grandkids.
I have been training for 47 years, competed from 17 until my 50’s. I still train like I am competing.
Best competition lifts: 402 bench (not a strong point), 705 squat, 700 deadlift. I have several records state, national and world in various lifts mainly deadlift.
I played all the main sports but love baseball and still try to be a decent player. Most teams I play on now I am the oldest one.
I am an avid outdoors men and love to shoot bows and guns, hunt fish, etc., and of course play baseball.
I train to stay active and fit and after so many years it’s just part of life, and if I don’t train I am generally not too happy.
⏱ Describe a typical day of training
I do abs and calves when I feel them fading.
I generally train four to five days a week, from Monday o Friday. Each body part is once a week and occasionally twice a week.
My routine:
- Chest on Mondays
- Legs on Tuesdays
- Arms on Wednesdays
- Back on Thursdays
- Shoulders on Fridays
I do abs and calves when I feel them fading. lol
My style of training is still pretty hardcore but at this age and with all my injuries and issues, I sometimes have to back off.
👊 How do you keep going and push harder?
I don’t really bulk up anymore. I generally keep my weight at 220-230, 6 ft tall, 10-12% fat on occasion, I will lean down a bit but that’s my normal weight nowadays
I generally train with up and comers or IFBB pros if I can still hang with them. lol
The style at Metroflex that has really produced results for 8x Mr O Ronnie Coleman, Branch Warren, Johnny Jackson and many others is explosive lifting on basic movements with heavy ass weight and then stricter more concentrated movements at the end of workout with lighter weight.
I do a lot of baseball hitting drills as well, usually at the end of my day.
🏆 How are you doing today and what does the future look like?
At this older age, I can’t really do what I once could but I just do the best I can with what I have.
In training, generally, I am excited to work out most days if not I will take some extra pre workout or possibly change routine. At this older age, I can’t really do what I once could but I just do the best I can with what I have.
I have many injuries. I have a complete right shoulder replacement so I don’t bench over 250 or press the big dumbbells anymore. I just do what I can and concentrate on getting a great pump.
It s not hard to make time as I work in the gym.
My training is not where I want it to be right now as I am having some shoulder issues and I need a right knee replacement.
I was one of the first to get arthroscopic knee surgery for torn mcl, pcl, acl, lcl but didn’t know they would remove my cartilage.
After the surgery, the doctor told me I’d be in a wheel chair by late 40s and no more squats but I still squat now though rarely over 365.
I am looking into the right doc for knee replacement and hopefully will find the right one as so many are so cautious but I found a sport doc who is saying with type implant he uses.
I can still squat and leg press a decent amount, play ball just no jogging or high impact pounding movements.
Dealing with this knee has been a challenge for sure, if I could get my legs back decent I would consider bodybuilding again.
If I was able to start over, I would have backed off when I was injured and done a lot more of stretching and therapy to keep joints healthy and probably got this knee fixed earlier.
🤕 How do you recover, rest and handle injuries?
When I train now, I generally do several light warmups before going hard. It’s very easy to get injured as you get older. A lot of times I will just wake up hurt.
I try to sleep eight hrs at night and if it hurts, I will get massage, Theragun, acupuncture, etc.
🍎 How is your diet and what supplements do you use?
I take a lot of supplements like fish oil, red yeast rice, willow bark, joint supplements, Vitamin C, Ronnie Coleman protein drinks at times, immune boosters, blood pressure supplements not that much bb stuff more for health.
I often do 12 hours of intermittent fasting, it doesn’t really bother me as I use sleep time as well.
I generally eat pretty healthy but can eat some pizza or sweets if I am craving it, eat a lot of sushi and wild game like elk and venison.
I love the wild hogs, we hunt but not too often as even the wild boar have a high fat level. I don’t drink coffee too often or drink alcohol often but do use pre workouts.
👍 What has inspired and motivated you?
I typically don’t have much problem getting motivated as their are so many great lifters and bodybuilders around me all the time.
We have a wide demographic of members so we play a big variety of music all of it loud.
I don’t really believe everyone needs a training coach a diet coach, a posing coach, a life coach. At a place like Metroflex you get all that with just your membership.
✏️ Advice for other people who want to improve themselves?
Weight training goes very well with any sport but just don’t neglect the stretching and the other sport techniques.
As far as people not training right I believe just about any method will work, you just have to be intense and don’t rest too long.
🤝 Are you taking on clients right now?
I don’t train a high volume of clients as you can only be intense with 5-6 a day one on one especially if you are training hard yourself.
I also do online training and have had great success with clients there as well.
📝 Where can we learn more about you?
I am on several sites and in lots of videos, have a great book at joshstrength.com with Josh Bryant, Metroflex Powerbuilding Basics
You can also get a lot of Metroflex history and some training workouts in Ronnie Coleman’s new book Yeah Buddy! My Incredible Story available at Amazon.
Our main website is metroflexgym.com
Our Instagram is @originalmetroflexgym and my personal Instagram is @brianmetroflexgym.
NPC Branch Warren Classic – NPC Texas Bodybuilding Contest for our contests we promote.
