Q & A with Ed Corney - discussing training and diet:

Question: How many bodyparts do you train in one workout session?

Answer: That depends. On Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays I work my abdominals, chest, shoulders, biceps and forearms. . . and my calves. On the other days I work my legs, calves, back, triceps and the abdominals one more time.

Question: Earlier someone asked if you liked supersets. I am not sure you answered that. Do you?

Answer: Sometimes I use them. It all depends on how I feel during a workout. I am very much an instinctive trainer. What I am after is a certain feel, a certain something that tells me I am getting what I want from a particular workout.

Question: Explain that certain feel you referred to.

Answer: That's a good one. It's something very personal that you have to experience to fully understand. It's as if you can feel your muscles growing from a set. . . You look in the mirror and you know you've hit your target: It feels good, believe me. .

Question: Do you prefer high or low repetitions? And how about sets?

Answer: I do not generally count my sets. After you have been training as many years as I have, you soon get to know your body reactions well. I go on until something in my head tells me a bodypart has had enough. Then I go on to something else. Call it instinct if you like. But I would say I hardly ever go over twenty sets a bodypart.

Question: Judging by your pictures taken at the 1976 Mr. Olympia contest you seem to have made considerable improvement in your muscular definition. How did you achieve that?

Answer: Well, I think it came as a result of a combination of things. In the first place I kept my mind on just the contest this year. The year before that, well I was doing exhibitions all over the place and I completely mistimed myself. I trained a lot harder for the '77 contest too. And then my diet played an important part too.

Question: How often do you train?

Answer: I train six days a week, whether in the off-season or at contest time. The difference is in the training intensity. For the first part of the year I will train just eight sets per bodypart, concentrating on building power, going after heavier training poundages. But with a contest approaching I train longer because of the increased sets and so on. But it still adds up to six days a week training.

Question: Do you drop carbohydrates from your diet before a contest?

Answer: If you mean do I eliminate carbs from my diet altogether at contest time then the answer is no. But I do go down to about 50 grams. That's what I did for the ''77 OlympIa and It seems to have worked!

Question: Do you take supplements with your meals?

Answer: Yes, I use B, C and E, kelp, dessicated liver, multi-vitamins, amino acids, minerals. Every bodyuilder should take those. But I'm not a supplements freak at this point in my training. They are necessary, however.

Question: Would you outline your normal training diet?

Answer: My protein intake through the year is approxirnately 200 grams daily. I take about 150 grams of carbodrates. I gradually decrease that intake until the last week before a contest so that I'll be consuming 160 grams of protein and about 25 grams of carbohydrates.