Sam Sulek
Bodybuilder and YouTuber · Spring Bulk gym vlogs
Ohio bodybuilder who turned a phone camera and a car ride into one of the biggest fitness channels going. He dove competitively for Miami University, quit to lift, and started posting gym vlogs in January 2023. Millions now watch him train, eat and think out loud. The amateur debut came in 2025, then the Classic Physique overall at the Arnold Amateur and an IFBB pro card; he placed eighth at the 2026 Arnold Classic. No coach, most sets to failure, thirty minutes on a seated bike every day.
- Entries
- 30
- Does
- 29
- Recommends
- 0
- Discusses
- 1
Gear
10 pieces of gear in this stack
- GearDoes it$$$Expensive: Several hundred dollars and up.
Home gym
His garage holds a hack squat, sled leg press, pendulum hip press, Arsenal chest and pullover machines, a cable station and a stationary bike, with kit stacked on scaffolding to make it fit. The leg corner he calls the dungeon.
Source: Fitness Volt: Sam Sulek Reveals Inside Look at His Private Garage Gym SetupView item: Home gymOn record from 7 of 62 tracked people: 5 do it, 2 recommend it - GearDoes it$$$Expensive: Several hundred dollars and up.
Leg press machine
The sled leg press is the third of the machines he names as his quad bread and butter, with the hack squat and the pendulum hip press. There are plenty of leg machines in the garage, by his own count, and he singles out these three from the rest.
Source: Fitness Volt: Sam Sulek Reveals Inside Look at His Private Garage Gym SetupView item: Leg press machineOn record from 3 of 62 tracked people: 3 do it - GearDoes it$$$Expensive: Several hundred dollars and up.
Smith machine
The Smith machine in his private gym is mostly kept for squats, he said on the tour, though he added that he might use it for curls now and then.
Source: Fitness Volt: IFBB Pro Bodybuilder Sam Sulek Gives Tour of His New Private GymView item: Smith machineOn record from 2 of 62 tracked people: 2 do it - GearDoes it$$$Expensive: Several hundred dollars and up.
Cable machine
His private gym holds a full-size cable station built with custom 300-pound weight stacks, going by BarBend's report on the tour of the place. It stands in the same room as his Hammer Strength rows, the Arsenal machines and the dumbbell rack.
Source: BarBend: Sam Sulek's Private Gym Prioritizes Tension CurvesView item: Cable machineOn record from 1 of 62 tracked people: 1 does it - GearDoes it$$$Mid: Roughly $50 to $500, or up to $50/month.
Dumbbell set
His gym has a commercial rack running from 5 to 150 pounds, and he stopped it there on purpose. Heavier pairs at 200 pounds were something he thought about and turned down, on the view that nothing would ever get lifted with them.
Source: BarBend: Sam Sulek's Private Gym Prioritizes Tension CurvesView item: Dumbbell setOn record from 1 of 62 tracked people: 1 does it - GearDoes it$$$Expensive: Several hundred dollars and up.
Hack squat machine
He groups the hack squat with the sled leg press and the pendulum hip press as the quad bread and butter of his garage setup. It sits in the corner he calls the leg press dungeon, where machines went up on scaffolding, stacked on each other, because the room would not take them side by side.
Source: Fitness Volt: Sam Sulek Reveals Inside Look at His Private Garage Gym SetupView item: Hack squat machineOn record from 1 of 62 tracked people: 1 does it - GearDoes it$$$Expensive: Several hundred dollars and up.
Lat pulldown machine
On the gym tour he set his pulldown against a standard one. Because the arm pivots as it travels, he gets a lat stretch at the top, where a regular machine has him pulling straight down. He described the path his version takes as more rounded.
Source: Fitness Volt: IFBB Pro Bodybuilder Sam Sulek Gives Tour of His New Private GymView item: Lat pulldown machineOn record from 1 of 62 tracked people: 1 does it - GearDoes it$$$Expensive: Several hundred dollars and up.
Pendulum hip press
A Rogers pendulum hip press is one of three machines he calls the quad bread and butter of his garage gym, alongside the hack squat and the sled leg press. His point was that leg work usually ends up on a rack or a Smith machine, while these three sit apart from that.
Source: Fitness Volt: Sam Sulek Reveals Inside Look at His Private Garage Gym SetupView item: Pendulum hip pressOn record from 1 of 62 tracked people: 1 does it - GearDoes it$$$Expensive: Several hundred dollars and up.
Pullover machine
An Arsenal pullover machine went into the new gym, and he told the camera it was something he had been missing out on. He likes cable pullovers, and says this gives him the same thing with a seat belt holding him in place. Rare kit, by his account: he is not sure he has ever seen one in Ohio.
Source: Fitness Volt: IFBB Pro Bodybuilder Sam Sulek Gives Tour of His New Private GymView item: Pullover machineOn record from 1 of 62 tracked people: 1 does it - GearDoes it$$$Mid: Roughly $50 to $500, or up to $50/month.
Recumbent exercise bike
Half an hour a day on the seated bike is his cardio. He picked it on the numbers: the readout gives him 300 and sometimes 400 calories in that half hour, where walking on a treadmill would take 45 minutes to show 300. The StairMaster he passes on, saying it feels like too much work.
Source: Fitness Volt: Sam Sulek Discusses Bulking, His Favorite Form of Cardio, and Getting JackedView item: Recumbent exercise bikeOn record from 1 of 62 tracked people: 1 does it
Supplements
1 supplement in this stack
- SupplementDoes it$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
Intra-workout carbohydrate drink
A carbohydrate drink goes down mid-session, about 100 grams on the day he counted, mixed in a bottle from Hosstile, whose supplement line sponsored him at the time. Blue Gatorade had been doing the same job before that.
Source: Fitness Volt: Bodybuilder Sam Sulek Shares 4,887-Calorie Winter Bulk Full Day Of EatingView item: Intra-workout carbohydrate drinkOn record from 1 of 62 tracked people: 1 does it
Protocols
14 entriesStructured routines and practices with a defined method.
One muscle group a session, six exercises deep, mostly machines and cables. Fitness Volt watched him run a back and rear delt day where every set finished at failure rather than at a rep count, opening on lat pulldowns with the full stack plus plates and stripping weight from there.
Source: Fitness Volt: Sam Sulek Full Day Of Eating And Back WorkoutAround 250 grams a day is the one number he says he will not fudge. Everything else he treats as calories and macros, but the protein has to come from what he calls a high-quality source, which on this day meant a pound of steak, milk poured over cereal and an intra-workout shake.
Source: Fitness Volt: Bodybuilder Sam Sulek Shares 4,887-Calorie Winter Bulk Full Day Of EatingThe recumbent bike wins on arithmetic, he says: roughly 300 calories in thirty minutes against the 45 minutes a treadmill walk would need for the same reading. The Stairmaster feels like too much work to him, and sitting down to pedal does not.
Source: Fitness Volt: Sam Sulek Discusses Bulking, His Favorite Form of Cardio, and Getting JackedThirty minutes a day is the line he repeats to viewers, and he tells them the machine matters less than turning up. His definition is deliberately loose: half an hour with the heart rate up somewhere in the 140s or 150s counts, ball games included.
Source: Fitness Volt: Sam Sulek Discusses Bulking, His Favorite Form of Cardio, and Getting JackedSets end when the weight stops moving rather than at a count. On lat pulldowns he starts with the full stack plus extra plates, strips weight as he goes, and says he does not mind finishing barely able to shift the handle.
Source: Fitness Volt: Sam Sulek Full Day Of Eating And Back WorkoutFirst movement of the day is deliberately light: rope extensions or a chest-supported row, squeezed and held. Starting that way, he says, leaves the muscle pumped and activated so the nastier reps later in the session feel good.
Source: Fitness Volt: Sam Sulek Builds a Huge Back With Intense Workout 5.5 Weeks from the 2026 Arnold ClassicTwo speeds, and he switches between them by feel. On chest-supported rows he goes slow and controlled with a hold and a squeeze, while saying he likes the throw-the-weight-around style just as much; sometimes the machine decides which one he uses.
Source: Fitness Volt: Sam Sulek Full Day Of Eating And Back WorkoutFood choice is mostly beside the point to him. He says he looks at calories in and calories out and the macros attached, and that he has never been much of a believer in hitting set meals. Chex cereal, steak, mashed potato and two packs of ramen made up a day totaling 4,887 calories.
Source: Fitness Volt: Bodybuilder Sam Sulek Shares 4,887-Calorie Winter Bulk Full Day Of EatingAfter the Arnold Classic UK he put himself on a maintenance phase instead of an off-season. Coming off mid-2500 calories, he said jumping to 4,000 would be no challenge at all and would mostly add body fat, so he is easing the number up over a few weeks.
Source: Fitness Volt: Sam Sulek Focused on Adding Back Mass After 2026 Arnold Classic UK, Breaks Down Maintenance Nutrition PlanWeight comes off at a rate he sets rather than by a deadline. Filming at 241.5 pounds, he said the number was matching the trajectory he was aiming for; that day totaled 2,477 calories with 258 grams of protein.
Source: Fitness Volt: Bodybuilder Sam Sulek Breaks Down His 2,477-Calorie Full Day of Eating for Weight LossOnce full reps are gone he grinds out partials, explaining that the little movement left is coming from scapular retraction through his lats. He treats it as the tail of the set, not a separate technique.
Source: Fitness Volt: Sam Sulek Full Day Of Eating And Back WorkoutPosedowns went in straight after lat pulldowns in the weeks before his pro debut. He used them to read his own condition as much as to rehearse, saying he felt flat and low on glycogen at that point in the prep.
Source: Fitness Volt: Sam Sulek Builds a Huge Back With Intense Workout 5.5 Weeks from the 2026 Arnold ClassicHe ran his first pro prep without a coach, because looking in the mirror is a quicker check-in than texting someone and waiting for a reply. He is careful to add that he is not claiming it is better, only that it is how he wants to do it.
Source: Fitness Volt: Sam Sulek Shares Why He's Coaching Himself for 2026 Arnold ClassicSleep is where he says the growing actually happens. A canceled 8:30 class read to him as a couple of extra hours in bed and therefore as gains, though he has never put a target number of hours on it.
Source: Fitness Volt: Sam Sulek Discusses Bulking, His Favorite Form of Cardio, and Getting Jacked
Habits
5 entriesRecurring behaviors recorded in public statements.
Counting is the whole system, and he reckons a bulk forgives sloppy tracking in a way a diet never will. Dieting down, in his phrasing, needs Mr. Monk levels of care about the gram of fat per serving that most people read straight past.
Source: Fitness Volt: Bodybuilder Sam Sulek Shares 4,887-Calorie Winter Bulk Full Day Of EatingBarBend puts batch-cooked ground beef with rice on standby among his dieting hacks, quoting him on how well a tub of both, already cooked and ready to scoop into Tupperware, works. Tuna, egg whites and white rice sit on the same list, picked for predictable macros.
Source: BarBend: Sam Sulek's Muscle-Building Diet HacksA two-liter bottle of flat diet soda opened one of his cutting days, standing in for a first meal. He argues it draws more criticism than it deserves, and reckons two cans of the full-sugar version would be the stranger choice.
Source: Fitness Volt: Bodybuilder Sam Sulek Breaks Down His 2,477-Calorie Full Day of Eating for Weight LossAdjustments get made against the scale, not the calendar. If the number stops moving he changes something, and he says he would rather eat less than push cardio past the hour a day he already splits between morning and night.
Source: Fitness Volt: Bodybuilder Sam Sulek Breaks Down 2,541-Cal Full Day Eating in Prep for 2026 Arnold ClassicRice cakes carried most of the carbohydrate through his Arnold prep. He crushes half a sleeve into a bowl with canned chicken and sugar-free barbecue sauce, calls that format the shape of most of his meals, and keeps three back as a bedtime snack.
Source: Fitness Volt: Sam Sulek Details His 2,449-Calorie Contest Prep Diet Less Than 3 Weeks from the 2026 Arnold Classic
In their own words
Checked word for word against the linked source
“30 minutes of cardio a day, seated bike, but it doesn’t have to be the seated bike you can do whatever you want. … On the seated bike, you know, I can do 300 calories in 30 minutes, and that’s usually what I go for.”
Fitness Volt: Sam Sulek Discusses Bulking, His Favorite Form of Cardio, and Getting Jacked (opens in a new tab) · 2 Dec 2023 On Daily cardio
“I think we’re all aware that all of your actual growth is going on when you’re sleeping, when you’re chilling. The longer you can stay in bed and dream around in your REM sleep cycles, the better.”
Fitness Volt: Sam Sulek Discusses Bulking, His Favorite Form of Cardio, and Getting Jacked (opens in a new tab) · 2 Dec 2023 “But protein is a little different. I do definitely put a lot of emphasis on making sure the 250 grams of protein I do get a day is from a high-quality source.”
Fitness Volt: Bodybuilder Sam Sulek Shares 4,887-Calorie Winter Bulk Full Day Of Eating (opens in a new tab) · 28 Jan 2024 “I want to do my thing and just see what happens. That’s how I like it. For me, to coach myself, it keeps it more simple. I don’t have to send somebody my check-ins, and it’s way quicker. I can just look at myself in the mirror. That’s my check-in.”
Fitness Volt: Sam Sulek Shares Why He's Coaching Himself for 2026 Arnold Classic (opens in a new tab) · 23 Jan 2026 “There are so many people who get so many different results doing so many different things, … It’s a snake oil of an idea instead of a product.”
Fitness Volt: Sam Sulek Talks Validity of Science-Based Lifting (opens in a new tab) · 10 Sep 2025
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