Nasser El Sonbati: scientist and athlete

In November 2013, at the age of 47, one of the strongest and smartest bodybuilders of the 90s, Nasser El Sonbati, died of kidney failure He was distinguished by his size, colorful appearance and superintelligence. His figure was attractive due to its proportionally developed muscles and aesthetics. In his short life, the bodybuilder managed to defend dissertations in 3 disciplines, learn 7 languages, and become a weightlifting star. It is not known exactly what caused the kidney problems, but according to doctors, it was malaria. He suffered a fever in Egypt in the winter of 2012 while working as a trainer. The complication led to tragedy.

Biography

Sonbati (Nasser El Sonbaty) was born into an international family in the fall of 1965. A Croatian woman and an Egyptian father gave birth to a gifted baby who surprised those around him with his early development and passion for learning languages. A few years later, the parents moved to Stuttgart , where the future champion spent his childhood and youth. Nasser brilliantly graduated from high school in Germany and entered the University of Augsburg. After receiving his diploma, he entered graduate school and defended himself in history, sociology and political science.

In addition to studying, he was interested in sports . Even during his school years, he tried himself in swimming, football, rowing, and kayaking. He was calm about the figures of muscular guys from magazines and believed that fitness was enough to keep in shape. The decision to tone my muscles turned my whole life upside down. Noticing rapid changes in his figure, the guy decided to continue training to see the results. Soon he competed at a local competition , but failed. The guy was so fascinated by strength sports that he decided to go to Yugoslavia for a junior tournament and prove to himself that he is better than others.

The stars have aligned

The turning point occurred in 1993 at the Grand Prix in France. The bodybuilder took first place in all categories . An equally significant event was the 2nd position at the “Night of Champions”. He lost the championship to Mike Francois, with whom he would have a strong friendship in the future. These victories provided the opportunity to participate in Mr. Olympia and become 7th. If the athlete had not lost 13 kg after hard drying, he would have ended up in the top three. In the spring, Nasser outright won the Houston Pro, confidently beating his titled rivals. 2 weeks later, he consolidated his success at the “Night of Champions” and became the main favorite for 1st place at Olympia.

Nasser - Masser

The following May, just 8 months after the Olympia, Nasser put up 121.5 kg of pure muscle at the Houston Pro Invitational. Spectators and judges were shocked: no one could understand how he managed to do it. Of course, Sonbati won this tournament, simply overwhelming Vince Taylor, who was considered the favorite, with his volume. Vince and I are friends, and I respect him very much, but this was the very case when I wanted Vince to start respecting me, remembering the ups and downs of the fight at the Houston Sonbati tournament. Nasser explained the metamorphosis that happened to him by two circumstances: firstly, by the fact that he, together with his life partner named Bizera, moved to permanent residence in the USA (his choice fell on the Californian town of San Diego, which is very close to the legendary Santa Barbara ), where he had new opportunities in terms of training (in the States, unlike Germany, gyms are much better equipped, and they work almost around the clock, in addition, America is famous for its gigantic assortment of sports and dietary nutrition), and secondly, because he began to prepare for competitions differently. “I’ve been very big in the off-season before,” he admits. My usual mass weight ranges around 145-150 kg. However, before I could lose about forty kilograms in preparation for the tournament. In 1995, everything changed, and I lost no more than 20 kg, taking into account dehydration.

Three weeks after the competition in Houston, Sonbati easily wins the Night of Champions and becomes one of the main contenders for the Mr. Olympia title. Olympia-95 left Sonbati with conflicting feelings: on the one hand, he became third, losing only to the British monster Dorian Yates and the American Kevin Levrone, and it was he who received the most applause, but on the other hand, he felt that he could have been first. However, speaking on the pages of popular Kachkov publications, primarily Flex, he did not allow himself a single malicious remark towards his rivals or judges, thereby earning a reputation as a gentleman, noting only that even Yates can be beaten. Nasser is told that he has a weak back, compared to Yates, which is sorely lacking in detail, and for the next year he fanatically bombs his back. As a result, Nasser appeared at Olympia 96 in fantastic shape, with an improved back and weighing about 127 kg! Yates, with his 116 kg, is already quite lost against his background. However, Sonbati is again placed third after Yates and Ray. This news shocked the public so much that the audience, standing, expressed their indignation with a loud roar until Nasser calmed everyone down. No, he didn’t want conflicts and scandalous popularity, continuing to be a good guy in bodybuilding and facing the blows of fate with a smile. Sonbati received one of the most sensitive blows in October 1996, after his triumphant performance in the series of Grand Prix tournaments following the Olympia, where he won three victories: in the Czech Republic, Switzerland and Russia. Nasser was told that his Olympia performance had been annulled because his blood test tested positive for diuretics. Disqualification automatically deprived Sonbati of 30 thousand dollars, however, even here he resisted the vicissitudes of fate: I learned that the test would be carried out too late, and nothing could be corrected.

Annoying failures

Many believed that if he worked on his back, he would have no equal. Targeted training gave amazing results. However, at Olympia, the athlete repeated his previous success, missing out on Sean Ray and Dorian Yates. This decision of the judges caused indignation. The press talked about rigging the results and the unfairness of the decision. According to the audience, Nasser was superior to his opponents in all respects. However, due to the detection of diuretics in the blood, the commission annulled this result.

This story and the undeserved loss to Flex Wheeler at the Arnold Classic angered the strongman. He sent Flex a message where he wrote what he thought about the objectivity of the judges and his victory. Anger motivated me to train and achieve new achievements. In 1997, Nasser took 2nd place at the Olympia. After this, my career began to decline. In 2005, after finishing 14th at the Europe Show, he announced his retirement.

Is the star setting or is everything just beginning?

In the spring of 1999, Wheeler's conscience apparently bothered him, and he decided not to go to the Classic and Sonbati finally managed to win the coveted title. However, it was a Pyrrhic victory: speaking at Olympia in the fall, Nasser fell back to sixth place. At two subsequent competitions: the World Pro Cup in Rome and the English Grand Prix in Manchester, he also finished sixth, managing to lose even to the not-so-strong pro Milos Sarcev. Already at Olympia-98 it was noticeable that he began to change not for the better, and at the Classic this trend intensified. Ron Coleman, Flex Wheeler, Paul Dillett and Shawn Ray, who were present in Columbus as spectators, unanimously declared that the best on the podium was the incredibly improved Cormier, and not Sonbati. However, Nasser is not giving up, and rest assured that he will make his presence known again. I'm not going to hang up my swimming trunks, he says. I enjoy living the lifestyle of a professional bodybuilder, traveling, meeting people, learning a lot of new things. Plus, I still believe I can win the Olympia.

Personal opinion

The “retired” athlete began to travel a lot, read, and take care of his health.

“I have always believed that nothing is more important than health - without it you cannot accumulate capital.”

In 2007, the bodybuilder gave a series of interviews that would form a two-volume book. In them, he sincerely spoke not only about himself, but also:

• training strategies;
• pharmacology;
• attitude towards health;
• personal life;
• about other athletes.

His revelations debunked many myths. When asked about strongman Greg Kovacs, Nasser El Sonbati gave some outrageous examples and didn't have a single nice word to say. But he spoke warmly about the Vader brothers, Milos Sarcev, Andreas Munzer, and Jay Cutler.

About strengths and weaknesses

Sonbati's back is actually his Achilles heel. It is quite broad, but lacks detail, Nasser admits. Obviously, this is due to the fact that for most of my career I did only basic movements for the back with a barbell and dumbbells, consigning the work on blocks to oblivion. Now I'm trying to somehow catch up. If we talk about strong points, then there are many of them. First of all, these are the hips. Many experts agree that Sonbati’s quadriceps are perhaps the best in modern bodybuilding. Approximately the same can be said about the Nasser deltas, which are developed surprisingly evenly; no one bundle is ahead of the other in development and, of course, about the abdominal press. Perhaps no one has cubes this thick! Of course, if an ordinary person were to measure the waist of this monster, he would probably faint; it would be no less than a meter, but against the backdrop of monstrously wide shoulders, it looks more than impressive, and it’s not for nothing that Nasser regularly beats such aesthetes as Ray and Levron. Sonbati's hands cannot be called outstanding, but their size is impressive. I remember how at the Russian Grand Prix-95 the fans, shocked by the size of Nasser, with difficulty returning their slack jaws to their original position, squeezed out: Ask how much his arm is? I asked. Somewhere around 58-60 cm, Sonbati rumbled. The boys felt even worse. They could understand; they had never seen anything like it before.

“If I don’t carry weights, I immediately lose muscle stiffness.”

Nasser is a typical strongman. He trained up to 5 times a week, working 2 zones at a time: one large, the other small. It is impossible to present his system in order.

He believed that “the more chaos there is in training, the faster volumes increase.”

The athlete worked intuitively based on personal feelings, constantly adjusting the program. Complexes with isolating exercises were redesigned more often than the basic ones. Today he could start working on the chest with bench presses, and tomorrow with dips.

“If you do different exercises during training, the muscles are confused. All you have to do is monitor the increase in strength indicators.”

The facts prove that Sonbati was and will remain the pride of strength sports. Photos of the bodybuilder were published in all “Kachkovsky” magazines. His photograph appeared 5 times on the cover of the popular Flex alone. The same Schwarzenegger, who rarely says nice things about modern bodybuilding, speaks with respect of the muscle-bound professor and sets him up as an example for young people.

Not like everyone else

To tell the truth, today’s professional bodybuilding would lose a lot in the person of Sonbati. Nasser is a personality with a capital P, and that says it all. It’s not for nothing that not a single self-respecting Kachkov magazine can do without his photographs or articles about him, and Nasser has already appeared on the cover of Flex five times! The fact that Sonbati is one of the most prominent figures in the world of pros is recognized even by Austrian Oak Arnold Schwarzenegger, who has fired many critical arrows at modern pros. And the point here is not even Sonbati’s education and intelligence, his ability to communicate with people. Among other things, Sonbati is interesting because his judgments are sharp and frank and often diverge from generally accepted ones. For example, he refused to be the subject of a popular traditional column in Flex magazine, which provides biographical information about professional champions, as well as their answers to the questions: What is your favorite color, what is your favorite car, etc. I don't care what color my car is , says Sonbati, black, red or white. And I don't have a favorite movie. And in general there is nothing favorite. I don’t want to repeat after someone, like a parrot, that my favorite vacation spot is Hawaii. I've been to Hawaii ten times, it's just boring. And in general, people are interested in their own passions, and not mine or anyone else’s. But that’s not all: being one of the greatest athletes of our time, Sonbati openly admits his hatred of iron: When you are at the beginning of the journey and work with light weights, all this is a joy, but when you are forced to hang on weight in pursuit of mass barbell more and more weights, when you have three centners on your shoulders, you only think about how to quickly complete the workout and rush away from this damned gym! It sounds a little unusual, but it’s frank. And this is what Sonbati is all about.