Richard Gaspari and Lee Haney were not only competitors in the bodybuilding arena, but they were also training partners. Even after retirement, the duo still sparks a lot of conversations in the bodybuilding world. Rich Gaspari was among his era’s most elite bodybuilding champions and became 3x Mr. Olympia runner-up against the 8X Mr. Olympia Lee Haney. However, Gaspari admired and respected his rival to the point where he took tips for workouts from Lee Haney.

In a recent Instagram post, Gaspari went back in time and reminisced about his competition with Lee Haney on stage. While he described their camaraderie, Gaspari also talked about why he trained the hardest.

Rich Gaspari talks about his admiration for Lee Haney

In the Instagram post the picture showed incredible back muscles of Rich as Lee while they stood side by side on stage. Gaspari talked about how he trained his back the hardest and said, ?Me and @lee_haney_official posing our back. I trained back my hardest as I knew I was going against Lee who had one of the best backs in bodybuilding. #back.?

Lee Haney was the Hercules of the bodybuilding world, and defeating him was not easy. The 8X Mr. Olympia had an amazing back muscle group. Haney trained for them and concentrated on back-building which made him have one of the best muscles in the bodybuilding industry.

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So catching up, Rich Gaspari also had to work very hard on his back muscles. He was lucky in one way, because Lee Haney had chosen Gaspari as his training partner.

The rivals were training partners

In one of the previous podcasts, Lee revealed that he chose the New Jersey bodybuilder for a reason. He said,??I saw the hunger and desire in Rich, that was very unique.? Gaspari still implements the training methods of the 8X Mr. Olympia, even to this day.

Gaspari revealed in another post that his favorite exercise for his back muscles was, behind-the-back shrugs. This unique form of shrug was displayed by the ‘Dragon Slayer’ on his Instagram profile through a video. The caption read,??Smith Machine behind the back shrugs with a drop set. Behind the back shrugs I learned from @lee_haney_official which was his favorite trap exercise.?

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What do you think about their relationship with Rich Gaspari?s admiration for Haney? Tell us in the comments.