Sam Sulek plans to earn his IFBB Pro League card at the Arnold Amateur.
Sam Sulek has officially made his bodybuilding debut with an impressive performance at the 2025 NPC Legends Classic. Held in Las Vegas, the competition saw Sulek clinch first overall in the Classic Physique category.
This monumental win marks a milestone in his career and qualifies him for the Arnold Amateur, where he looks to hear his IFBB Pro League card. Despite criticism for his unconventional training methods, Sulek has silenced skeptics with his triumphant debut. He’s already setting his sights on the next big challenge: winning the 2025 Arnold Amateur Classic Physique division. The event will occur in Columbus, Ohio, from February 27 to March 2, 2025. This post will dive into Sulek’s recent arms, back, and chest workouts to prep for the event.
| Full Name: Sam Sulek | ||
| Weight | Height | Date of Birth |
| 240 lbs | 5’11″ | 2/7/2002 |
| Profession | Era | Nationality |
| Bodybuilder & Fitness Influencer | 2020s | American |
Sam Sulek’s Workout for Arnold Amateur 2025
Sulek shares that leading to the Arnold Amateur, nothing much will change yet. He plans on keeping his calorie count, resistance training, and cardio normal. Sulek emphasized the need to increase his cardio. This study shows that doing cardio can help improve heart rate and benefit cardiovascular health (1). Here is a list of his workouts.
Chest Workout
Incline Bench Press
Sam Sulek starts his chest exercises with the incline bench press. He uses a plate-loaded machine and slow, controlled movements, hitting three sets. He then takes some sets to failure to maximize muscle hypertrophy and adds several partial reps. A study shows that training for failure can promote increased muscle mass, which is good for hypertrophy (2).
Chest Fly
Next for his chest exercises is the machine chest fly. During each rep, Sulek applies about two to three seconds of concentric holds to get a good squeeze from his pecs.
Bent Over Cable Fly
Sulek initially intended to do a chest press but abandoned it for the bent-over cable fly.
“Had to mission abort those machine chest press sets because I was getting way too much front delts,” Sulek explained. “So instead, let’s do some slightly bent over light blood flow inducing flies, a bit pumpish, but this is contrasting the squeezing sets of pec deck earlier, which had long holds.”
He starts slightly bent over and works his chest muscles, then switches to a fully bent-over position to finish his remaining reps for the set while training to failure. Sulek then immediately takes a break to check his chest pump by doing some poses for the camera.
After his chest exercises, he does about 30 minutes of cardio and calls it off for his chest day. “I think a full hour might be a little bit much, especially since I did an hour in the morning,” Sulek said.
Back Workout
| Exercises |
| MAG Grip Lat Pulldown |
| Seated Row |
| Wide Grip Straight Bar Seated Row |
| Half Pulldown Half Row |
Before getting into his back workouts, Sulek does cardio for about an hour.
MAG Grip Lat Pulldown
Sam Sulek begins his back exercise using a MAG grip lat pulldown. This MAG grip attachment reduces strain from your grip, allowing you to focus on the target back muscles. Sulek does this exercise using a full range of motion, effectively hitting his back muscles. He does three sets of this exercise, training to failure on each set.
Seated Row
Up next for his back exercise is the machine seated row. Sulek sits facing the machine with his back straight and does a couple of reps for this exercise. For his second set, he drops the weight and does a couple of reps with four-second holds for each rep, then rounds up this set training to failure.
Wide Grip Straight Bar Seated Row
Sulek moves to another rowing movement on a cable machine. He uses a wide bar attached to a low pulley to do a seated row. For each rep, he holds it for about three seconds to get a good squeeze in his back muscles, and he finishes off with some partial reps.
Half Pulldown Half Row
Next, he performs a half-pulldown, half-row routine for his back exercise. He sets up his rotating D-handles for this exercise and works his back muscles. During this exercise, he alternates from an overhand to a neutral grip, allowing him to work on different body parts with one movement. He trains to failure during this exercise.
After his back day exercise, he does a posing session and ends the day doing 30 minutes of cardio.
Arm Workout
| Exercises |
| Triceps Pushdown |
| EZ Bar Curl |
| Tricep Dip |
| V Bar Cable Curl |
| Superset — Tricep Pushdown & Cable Curl |
Triceps Pushdown
Sam Sulek starts his arm day by doing cable tricep pushdowns. He uses slow, controlled eccentric, concentric movements and a full range of motion to target his tricep muscles. Sulek does three sets of this exercise training to failure before moving to his next routine.
EZ Bar Curl
“Let’s actually start with some slow, controlled EZ bar curls,” Sulek said. For every rep of this exercise, he does a second hold and slow eccentric movements working his biceps muscles.
Tricep Dip
“Good squeeze, slow eccentric, nothing crazy,” Sulek said as he began his exercise on the tricep dip machine. He does two sets of this exercise and includes partial reps to get the most from his exercises.
V Bar Cable Curl
For the standing V bar curls, Sulek does two sets of this exercise using suitable form and isolating his biceps muscle.
Superset — Tricep Pushdown & Cable Curl
Next, for Sulek’s arm exercise, he grabs the bar to perform some triceps pushdowns to work his triceps and immediately switches to performing a cable curl to work his biceps, ending his arm day workout. He does some standard poses, flexing his arms.
“There we go. Arms complete, triceps, biceps both pumped up as much as I can muster.”
— Sam Sulek
Wrapping Up
From a young enthusiast sharing fitness videos on YouTube to a rising star in professional bodybuilding, Sam Sulek’s unwavering commitment to training earned him a victorious debut, and this is just the beginning. Sam Sulek is already hailed as one of the top contenders and is looking to the Arnold Amateur in a few weeks.
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References
- Nystoriak, M. A., & Bhatnagar, A. (2018). Cardiovascular Effects and Benefits of Exercise. Frontiers in cardiovascular medicine, 5, 135. https://doi.org/10.3389/fcvm.2018.00135
- Santanielo, N., Nóbrega, S. R., Scarpelli, M. C., Alvarez, I. F., Otoboni, G. B., Pintanel, L., & Libardi, C. A. (2020). Effect of resistance training to muscle failure vs non-failure on strength, hypertrophy and muscle architecture in trained individuals. Biology of sport, 37(4), 333–341. https://doi.org/10.5114/biolsport.2020.96317
