Rachel Mclish on 1984 Donahue Show

  • last month
Transcript
00:00Good care of her body. Rachel, would you kindly step forward here for just a moment?
00:08Rachel
00:10You're you look like
00:13Most women want to look I'll tell you that
00:15Would you be good enough to pose for us while I tell them?
00:19This is this is Rachel McLeish
00:22Who has been a dancer for most of her life?
00:24She's been involved in bodybuilding for now for about eight years and has been competing for three and a half
00:29She has won every major title in women's bodybuilding. Not surprisingly
00:34She's the US champion in 1980 Miss Olympia in 1980 and 82 and the professional world champion in 1982
00:42She's always been interested in fitness and bodybuilding was a natural adjunct to this interest
00:54Rachel let me ask you a few questions
00:59You this is still America and you're free to decline to answer any questions I may ask you how old are you I'm 27 years
01:06old and
01:07I were you always athletic and into this or was this a yeah, when did this happen to you this interest?
01:14I've been weight training for eight years and I initially started because that was the quickest a sufficient way of getting me body
01:22I wanted
01:23You must feel real good about yourself and it must do a lot for your emotional
01:29I feel pretty good about myself because I've got pretty much total control over my physical being and that gives you quite a
01:37Feeling of control, right? How long do you spend in the gym? I mean, I should I assume you there daily
01:42I spend between four and six days a week. They're an average of an hour and a half and a half hour each session
01:49Oh, that's not too bad. It really isn't
01:52Inconsistent and
01:54Keeping it up all the time getting in shape is not an end
01:58It's something you always have to be on top of you have to commit yourself to it and then continue it from now on
02:04I assume you and you have a coach
02:07No
02:10My major is exercise physiology with a minor nutrition and so I feel I'm my own expert and I'm my own guinea pig as
02:17Well, right. Are you single Mary? I'm single
02:22Well, you must draw a crowd. I mean
02:28I don't all right. Let's go with some of the corny questions. Okay
02:32Some women are concerned that this will make muscles less than feminine and unappealing
02:37It's a paradox because I initially wanted muscles to make my body more feminine. I started out with a dancer's body
02:44I had enough
02:46Bulk in my legs, but my upper body was scrawny
02:48I figured if I had a v-shaped torso, it would make my waist look smaller
02:53But in order to get a v-shape in my back, I needed to add muscle
02:57So I have rounded out my shoulders and just added shape to my upper body to proportion
03:04You actually then divide your body up into areas and
03:08That's it. There's seven major body parts. There's the arms biceps and triceps. There's the chest
03:14There's the abdominals
03:16the quadriceps the biceps the leg biceps calves and
03:22An extra area for women is the buttocks because I really feel we need to pay special attention to that since we do carry our
03:30Center of gravity much lower therefore more fat collects there. So we train just like men, but I feel women should
03:38Pay special attention to the buttock area and it does pay off. Women have a lower center of gravity than men
03:50Well, I guess about time we'll wrap up this interview
03:54The have your breasts as your breast size and enlarge since you've worked
03:59Yes, and no during a competition the fat your fat percentage lowers dramatically the average fat percentage for women
04:07in America is 25%
04:09During competition it goes down to somewhere around 6%
04:13The mammary gland being mostly fat
04:16It's only natural for you to lose it there too, but I have increased the musculature
04:22That supports the mammary gland. So therefore
04:25The size under normal conditions and not contest preparation time. You're much bigger fuller more rounded with more support
04:34So you're more pronounced you have a more pronounced breast area for example in a strapless gown exactly
04:41So you can enhance the cleavage so to speak. Yes, you can even create a cleavage like I did
04:50Not with a wire brassiere, but with
04:55You could be able to count the sternum in my chest, but now
05:00There's actual flesh there on your body. You've got a choice. You've got bones
05:04You've got flesh and that flesh can be muscles or fat
05:09And muscles is what shapes your body
05:11What exercise does that?
05:24Which one
05:30Oh
05:35It's important to follow the muscle function
05:38According to the function it performs the function of the pectoral muscle is to bring your arm across the midpoint of your body
05:45So any movement that does this or this, you know, remember those bust?
05:50Developers that mark Eden brought out years ago. He was trying to follow the function of the pecs
05:56So nowadays there's Nautilus peck deck machines
05:59flies or at home you can pick up an old army booth and iron or
06:06Dumbbells and lay down and go forward
06:09Anything like that? I would need a bench for this
06:23Yeah, otherwise she'll have one well, you know what I mean
06:27I'm here to there
06:30from here to there and
06:34You can alter the angle or degree of development by having a slightly inclined
06:41Bench decline or a flatbed stand up with the handheld. Okay and come down and look down. Okay
06:46There you go. This way now we're gonna do it. Yes, ma'am
06:49This
06:54Is just women this is a fly you can also do presses which affect the pectorals which also affect the triceps
07:01Which is the back of the arms?
07:04The great thing about bodybuilding is that you zero in on specific body parts and exercise it
07:11According to however degree of development or tonus that you want
07:18In any event you have total control over what happens to your body your muscles don't magically grow overnight, which some people
07:24Tend to be afraid of are you naturally athletic person or were you in high school? Were you?
07:31You really are very gifted may we say that
07:34In anatomically speaking and then you're certainly very bright as well. But did you run or were you in track?
07:41I was always the dancer the cheerleader
07:44And I was always
07:46Active I went to college my first year and I didn't do anything
07:49I went home one day and my dad said that's not the legs
07:52I used to know and him being a man a few words
07:55I immediately went to a gym, but the first time in my life thought there were two what?
08:00Flabby, I mean I wasn't fat, but I lacked
08:04the vibrance the
08:06The tautness that I had as a youth
08:09Okay, I was 18 at the time. So I went to a health spa
08:13This is the first time I ever went into a gym and I immediately fell in love with the atmosphere
08:17There was chrome-plated equipment and dumbbells and barbells and I thought wow, look at these toys
08:23That give me a great-looking body. Not that the harder I worked the better my body responded
08:28Do you is that your natural skin tone?
08:31I'm tanned right now because all of us competed last week, but it's naturally
08:38I
08:42Rachel McLeish as we've established as the professional world champion of 1982. We once we want you to meet some other
08:49Young women who are also involved in this the activity of bodybuilding when we give this audience a chance to ask
08:54Could I do this too, and we hope you'll join us
09:04You