Recently I saw unbelievable before and after pictures of German bodybuilder Hubert Metz. At the left, he’s around 32 years old, and on the right, you see a 65-year-old and jacked Hubert Metz. Age is just a number, and Hubert proved it. He was able to maintain and conserve his whole muscle appearance over decades! In 2019 the German Website Team-Andro.com interviewed him and what he has to tell about bodybuilding is just incredible.
Here’s Hubert’s story
He was born on 29.03.1949 in Allgäu, Germany. At the age of 15, he was learning to become an automotive mechatronics technician, and during his school years, he met two guys who were bodybuilders.
“They invited me to train and showed me how weak I was. I didn’t want to accept that and started training myself.”
In the beginning, he built his home gym with the most straightforward equipment. In the photo above, you can see a cable pulley, dumbbells, and a bench. On the wall were posters of famous bodybuilders like Dave Draper and Jusup Wilkosz.
According to Hubert Metz, it was customary to start like this; everyone in the 70s had their own little weight room.
Later in 1973, he started to train in a gym, which Erwin Knoller was running. He spotted the talent, came up to him, and said, ‘Take your clothes off. Do some posing for me.’ Erwin Knoller taught him how to pose and prepared him for the upcoming “South German Championship” competition.
Further, he participated in the German Championship (1975 & 1976) and finished 4th place both times.
In the subsequent decades, he practiced various professions, and he was in the German army, then a truck driver, and then a personal trainer.
In 1977 in Augsburg, he became the overall winner. The incredible thing about it, he had been a truck driver at the time and could only train on the weekend. Word got around in the bodybuilding scene that he only trained on Saturdays and Sundays. He created this beautiful and natural body with only training two days a week.
The legendary French bodybuilder Serge Nubret was on the jury, and he was so impressed that he invited him to come over to France.
“He invited me to Paris for a few days. I told him how I was training, and he laughed and said, ‘that will never work.’ I then adopted his advice; years later, I became European heavyweight champion in 1979.”
After winning World Amateur Championships – IFBB in 1979, he travelled to Philadelphia to compete again. A Watch Company sponsored this competition, and they paid all the bills like airline tickets and the Philippine Plaza hotel.
The local press had a great interest in documenting the competition! It was a great historical event because the dictator Ferdinand Marcos was a great bodybuilding fan and watched the competition live for 4 hours. He was in the front row, and afterwards, he handed over the trophies to Hubert Metz.
Everyone from the audience came up to Hubert and congratulated him as follows: “Wow, you were allowed to handshake with Dictator Marcos.”
According to Hubert, it was used to be that the reigning world champion was qualified for the Mr. Olympia election. In 1981 Hubert got an invitation through Albert Busek or Erich Janner to the Professional Couples World Championship in North Atlantic City; he was there with Inge, the titleholder of a Bavarian championship.
Thus, he was able to meet and make friends with the CEO of the IFBB named Wayne Demilia.
Hubert remembered the meeting as follows:
“I planned to be in America only for two days. It was such a great experience. I went to the casino at the season palace. There I met Wayne Demillia. He asked me if I would like to stay and go to New York for the competition Night of the Champions. But I wasn’t equipped for staying two weeks in America, and I just wanted to be for a weekend.”
So, Hubert was allowed to live in Wayne’s house. They drove to Long Island to his property. Hubert said that in Wayne’s house were living 11 cats and some bodybuilding legends like Albert Beckless and Johnny Fuller.
Hubert remembered some conversation back in the day.
“Wayne asked me, ‘What do you want to eat?’ I replied with ‘turkey schnitzel’…He told me that I have to be rich; turkey schnitzel is very expensive in America. I remember Robby Robinson eats only fish. We then trained with the title holder of Mr. America named Steve Michalik”.
Hubert laughed and said, during that time, he got leaner. At the Night Of Champions, he placed 7th. Chris Dickerson won first place.
In 1981 he competed at the Grand Prix in England. He placed 6th and shared the pedestal with Sammir Bannout, who reached the same score. Then he met the Australian bodybuilder promoter, Paul Graham. He asked Hubert to come over to Australia. Hubert’s English was broken, and he jokingly remembered that his favorite phrase for travelling and guest posing always was “Spend me a ticket.”
Hubert: “I was in Sydney for a week at the competition Pro World Cup and then in Melbourne at the Grand Prix. I always placed fifth or sixth. So, I was in Australia for two weeks. In the fall, I was at the Mr. Olympia election (1982), and there I placed eleventh, and only the top ten were qualified for the real Mr. Olympia competition. So, I was eliminated, and I didn’t participate in any competitions. But I trained and ate well for one year.”
Hubert Metz’s Diet
Hubert Metz heard the rumour that drinking milk will make you fat. But He never had a problem with drinking milk; he justified it by saying that he grew up in a village and used to drink milk since he was born, so he never had a problem. In addition, he made the statement that it works for him, but not all people are the same.
I published an article called ‘The Golden Way of every Mr. Olympia Winner,’ in which I cited the competitor and winner Larry Scott. Larry made the same statement about milk as Hubert.
He said: “My greatest gains were made on milk and egg protein. Don Howorth and Dave Draper could not use it without “smoothing out.” They made tremendous gains on meat product proteins. I grew stale and lost weight on meat product protein. EACH PERSON IS DIFFERENT; EACH PERSON MUST KNOW HIMSELF.”
Further, Hubert told about his training as follows: “At that time, we trained twice a day, four times a week, which means we trained hard eight times a week. My mistake was that I trained too much and for too long. Two hours later, I ate steak with salad. Today we know that you should refill your glycogen stores after training.
“Many have said that I had the best form in 1983 at the competition Mr. Olympia in Munich. I always kept a strict diet until the night before the competition. Then I ate cheesecake or pancakes with apple sauce.”
According to Hubert, David Hoffman is the best German bodybuilder. Hubert says, “Everyone wants to look like him. I read on the Internet that he’s doing a different new diet. That’s how I used to do it too.
He keeps a strict diet until the competition, and then he went shopping in the supermarket. He buys muffins and chocolate, and the next day he looked terrific. I know it from my own experience! In Munich, at the German championship, we went straight to the coffee restaurant “Wiener. “We ate scrambled sweet pancakes, apple strudel, and all sorts of things. The next day our body was full of veins and lines.”
Hubert listed his old school diet as follows:
During the whole day, he eats 3 pounds of Magerquark (Note by Siteowner: I know there in the States, ‘Magerquark’ does not exist. So, for my American readers: the look and consistency are similar to cream cheese, but here in Germany, the protein intake of Magerquark is very, very high. One small package (500gr) has 60gram protein, and it only costs 0,80 – 1 dollar.)
Lunch: fillet or salad, turkey escalope, when he was hungry, one pound of magerquark.
Hubert added, “I always ate a strict diet for six days a week, and on Sunday, I ate everything I wanted.”
Occasionally he prepared his coffee as follows. He used a blender and mixed water with sweetener and Caro malt coffee.
In the interview, he said that there were no stimulants or boosters for psyching up at his time. So, he developed a solution. His pre-workout booster was Japanese mint oil.
“I placed a few drops on my hand and smelled it. I was able to breathe more air into my lunges, and it positively affected my squat workout.”
The Famous Schwarzenegger Protein Powder PROVITA
In Hubert’s times, especially in Germany, there was only the famous Schwarzenegger protein called “Provita.” The protein was distributed by the German magazine “Athletik Sport Journal,” and rumor has it that the inventor “Peter Fasching” made a lot of money with it.
On the can was the picture of Schwarzenegger, that’s it. A table about the ingredients of the product did not exist.
In the Interview from 2019, Hubert Metz said that he met the owner Peter Fasching and revealed the secret recipe for that protein powder as follows:
“I visited Peter Fasching in Essen. We were in his warehouse, and he explained to me ironically, ‘Look, Hubert, there are bags of sugar, skim milk powder, and bags of kakoa, and that’s the famous Arnold Schwarzenegger protein powder Provita!’ Hubert Metz started to smile, shake his head, and added, “I guess Arnold never tried his own supplement.”
During the research, I found a German Forum; there’s a thread published in 2008. A user called “Oldiegerd” used to consume that Protein Powder back in the day and reviewed it as follows:
“The protein powder, Provita, I tried it, and I was getting pimples everywhere. As I recall, it dissolved only in warm milk. It was accompanied by orange-flavored wheat germ oil, liver/iron tablets, brewer’s yeast powder, and lecithin powder.”
Hubert’s Oldschool Training
Hubert summarized his training as follows: “We trained the muscle twice every week. Arnold has already trained twice a day. Serge Nubret trained 5 -6 hours a day.”
Hubert used to give seminars in Germany; he never studied nutritional science. When he looks back, he admits to having talked garbage sometimes.
Hubert used to say, “People don’t eat fat. Fat makes you fat.“
But today, he knows we need healthy vegetable fats. Hubert never ate carbohydrates and fats in his career, which is why he always looked rough. Because of that, he had the reputation of always being in shape.
“Today, I eat more fats and oat bran early in the morning; 100 grams with whey protein and a tablespoon of linseed oil on top. We did ten sets of heavy leg workouts twice a week. I squatted deep down, then trained leg flexor muscle for five sets and leg extensor for five sets.
Hubert’s training split
Monday morning, he did legs, then back and biceps at noon.
Tuesday morning shoulder, at noon chest triceps
Wednesday break
Thursday and Friday the same.
“The people with training licenses claim a 45 degrees squat is enough. But I followed the principle of the weightlifters. When snatching and jerking, they use the full range of motion, and bending their knees completes down. Why did the dear prophet give us knees where we can bend?
The trainers are always trying to teach us to squat above parallel. But at 45 degrees, the gluteus is not trained in a great deal. Today my training looks different; after 45 years of training, my knees are also in order. My mistake was the low-fat diet; if you are always on a diet and dry, your joints will be dry too.
In my storeroom, I always had bodybuilding magazines. I made my training plans from the magazines. There was a training plan from Serge Nubret; he did 20 sets for the exercise bench press with 25 repetitions. The second exercise was the same principle, flying with dumbbell next exercise chest training with the exercises “pullovers” and” incline bench press” all for 20 sets and so on. I followed it all.
Then there were training theories from Bill Pearl. 6 sets as heavy as possible, I also tried.You stay injury-free if you train light; Serge Nurbret had never had a muscle injury. Dorian Yates trained with Mike Mentzer, and he had a biceps tear and thigh tear. This is the result of heavy training. I met people like Bertil Fox, and he trained incredibly hard. He did exercises that made the cable tower fall.
Today I train five times a week, my weak points three times a week, my well-developed muscles once a week.
I never liked to be on stage; everyone told me to laugh. I have always remained serious. But I always remain faithful to training; my favorite bodybuilding phrase is “I will train to the last pose.”
Hubert has never done any cardio training; the endurance training has been done by short breaks. In 1994 the first Master Olympia was running, and the CEO of IFFB Wayne Demilia asked Hubert to compete there.
Hubert remembered it as follows: “I said yes. You paid $200 for a license in those days, and you could compete in all the events. I always got an invitation, my airline ticket was paid, my hotel was always paid, and if I was successful in the competition, I could make a little money. Today, in our gym, someone took part in the “Natural Championship” in Miami…he had to pay for his flight and hotel. (Huber starts to laugh) and got a little trophy. Today they all have to pay high entry fees…”
At the 1994 Master, Mr. Olympia Hubert placed 9th, and there in the preparation room, he met Lou Ferrigno.
“He was the absolute superstar at the time because he played the Incredible Hulk in the movies. I saw him in the dressing room; he’s sitting there with his belly hanging out, and I thought to myself, ‘he’s not that impressive.’
Then he was on stage, and I couldn’t believe my eyes. He was quite brutal.”
In 1995, he was at a competition in Prague called Grand Prix. The winners were then allowed to Mr. Olympia. Hubert made third place, but only the first and second placements were qualified for the Mr. Olympia election.
Hubert was sitting in the car with his girlfriend, and she asked him, “Why are you doing all this to yourself?” Hubert Metz decided to stop competitive bodybuilding. In 1977 a gym owner saw Hubert at a championship in Landshut, Germany. He offered him a job as a fitness trainer. From 1977 until today, Hubert works as a passionate personal trainer in Nuremberg, Germany. Further, he’s running a supplement company in Germany.
Before and After Picture of Hubert from Facebook (Click Here)