train to gain - Bodybuilding magazine free download. IRONMAN

Transcription

DECEMBER 2005 / IRON MAN—REAL BODYBUILDING TRAINING, NUTRITION & SUPPLEMENTATION
FREE
FREE POSTER
POSTER INSIDE:
INSIDE: The
The Legends
Legends of
of Bodybuilding
Bodybuilding
Jay Cutler
HIS SIZE-BUILDING
SECRETS REVEALED!
POUND
YOUR PECS
For a Wicked Chest
BUILD FREAKY
FOREARMS
Get a Grip and GROW!
ABBREVIATED
TRAINING
Massive Muscles In 30 Minutes or Less
JAY CUTLER’S MASS TRAINING
SUPERHOT
HARDBODY
Page
Page 234
234
STRONGMAN
MAGNUS
SAMUELSSON’S
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DECEMBER 2005
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Please display until 12/3/05
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www.ironmanmagazine.com \ APRIL 2006 261
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Greg is a former Army Ranger and was
recently voted Hollywood’s top body.
150 DECEMBER 2009 \ www.ironmanmagazine.com
December 2005
Vol. 64, No. 12
Real Bodybuilding Training, Nutrition & Supplementation
FEATURES
82 TRAIN, EAT, GROW 74
The TEG winter mass machine is shifting into high gear.
Here’s how you, too, can grow in the snow.
98 BUILDING A GORILLA GRIP AND
FREAKY FOREARMS
Greg Zulak gives you the lowdown on lower-arm size and
power. A strong grip can improve everything from arm size
to bench press power.
Abbreviated
Muscle
Training,
page 162
126 A BODYBUILDER IS BORN 5
Form, females and fortitude. Ron Harris regales his young
bodybuilding protégé with knowledge about life and lifting.
134 BUG WORLD
Jerry Brainum’s findings on how good bacteria can make
you healthier and set the stage for more muscle.
146 HOLIDAY GIFT GUIDE
It’s that time of year again—time to
start planning your gift giving.
We’ve got some suggestions for
the muscleheads on your list.
Magnus Samuelsson,
page 188
162 ABBREVIATED
MUSCLE TRAINING
Christopher Pennington shows you
how to build more solid size in 30
minutes or less.
172 X FILES
Steve Holman and Jonathan Lawson
explain the less-training-big-gaining
connection.
Jay Cutler appears on
this month’s cover. Photo
by Michael Neveux. Inset
photo of Nikki Warner by
Bill Dobbins.
180 HEAVY DUTY
John Little channels Mike Mentzer and HIT.
Hardbody,
page 234
188 MAGNUS SAMUELSSON
Randall Strossen, Ph.D., explores the Swedish
strongman’s training and propensity for power.
Champ Training
Analysis,
page 214
200 POSITIONING FOR PECS
Eric Broser shows you how to set up for a quick size hit—
upper-pec pounder included.
214 CHAMP TRAINING ANALYSIS
Steve Holman dissects Jay Cutler’s Olympia-assault
workouts.
234 HARDBODY
Nikki Warner’s fit, photogenic physique. Phew!
244 ONLY THE STRONG SHALL SURVIVE
Part 6 of Bill Starr’s back-to-the-rack odyssey includes
complete ISO workouts.
DEPARTMENTS
Holiday Gift Guide,
page 146
32 TRAIN TO GAIN
Walkout overloads, megamax supports and Joe
Horrigan’s Sportsmedicine.
50 CRITICAL MASS
Steve Holman discusses the squat and its X spot,
hardgainer hoaxes and the carb-stacking diet.
54 NATURALLY HUGE
John Hansen’s advice on countering the outer-pecs hex.
64 EAT TO GROW
Branched-chain aminos to foil fat, tips for building on a
budget and Atkins for exercisers.
Mind/Body
onnection,
age 256
94 SMART TRAINING
Bug World
page 134
Charles Poliquin’s reasoning on why you should just say
no to cardio—if you’re after maximum strength.
222 NEWS & VIEWS
Lonnie Teper tells it like it is, and Ruth Silverman checks
out the female-body biz. Jerry Fredrick’s Hot Shots add
humorous fizz.
256 MIND/BODY CONNECTION
Randall Strossen, Ph.D., explains that it’s not what you do
that’s important but what you accomplish. There’s also info
on Dave Draper’s Top Squat device, a must-have gym bag
from Obus Forme and how to defuse the naysayers when
it comes to your lifting lifestyle.
266 BODYBUILDING PHARMACOLOGY
Fit to be tried. Jerry Brainum’s look at anabolics, ’roid
rage and criminal behavior. You be the judge.
272 READERS WRITE
News & Views,
page 222
Pump &
Circumstance,
page 228
!
WEB ALERT
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ppenings fro
For the latest ha
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for www.Ironman uscle.com.
www.GraphicM
Contest crackdown—as in no big bellies and gargantuan glutes. Also, readers comment on IM gems and
Hardbody hotness.
In the next IRON MAN
Next month is our annual Muscle-Science
Roundup, in which we review the latest and greatest discoveries from labs all over the world. It’s a
veritable smorgasbord of size-swelling sizzlers
you’ll savor. Then Christopher Pennington gives
you the blueprint for proper program design. It’s
more than just copying a routine out of a magazine; you gotta make it specific to you. Plus, we
have another blockbuster episode of “A Bodybuilder Is Born” from Ron Harris, a sizzling Hardbody who was a former Playboy Playmate and a
wicked back-blasting feature from Eric Broser. Oh,
and let’s not forget our eye-popping Mr. Olympia
coverage, complete with full-page miniposters of
all the best bodybuilders in the world. Watch for
the jolting January IRON MAN on newsstands the
first week of December.
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John Balik’s
Publisher’s Letter
Founders
1936-1986:
Peary & Mabel Rader
Inspiration
Inspiration can come from anywhere
and last just an instant or be a renewable
resource that you call upon again and
again. The renewable kind usually grows
in importance and power the more you
use it. It has intrinsic substance and
depth—a beacon that guides you when
the decisions become difficult, when
black and white become shades of gray.
My father was a renewable source of
inspiration for me and for many others around him. His
inspiration was not of the ra-ra pep talk variety, although he
could do that too. He simply lived his life with unshakable
character. I don’t think I ever heard him use the word character in that way, but he surely embodied it. He walked the walk
long before it became a euphemism for doing what you say
you’re going to do. He was as tough as the nails he used in his
long career as a carpenter (65 years as a union member), and
he was as demanding of himself as he was of his children and
the people who worked for him. He never asked you to do
something he couldn’t, wouldn’t or didn’t do.
My parents had a lifelong love affair. They were married 64
years. Dad’s focus was always on us—he never wavered in his
devotion to family and a job well done. He took great pride
in his physical endurance and strength and raced bicycles
into his early 80s. His pride was always the pride of performance, never the boastful kind.
His love was not showy but rather manifested itself in an
understanding of a simple truth: family above all else. At my
parents’ 50th wedding anniversary celebration his speech
consisted of one line: “I always tried to do the best for my
family and friends.” Is there a more powerful credo?
My father only went as far as junior high before he entered
carpentry school, but his life was based on bedrock truths
that are easy to lose sight of and even harder to live by. He
passed away on September 7, 2005, just shy of his 88th birthday. If the memorable line from “Gladiator”—“What we do
echoes in eternity”— holds true, and I believe that it does, he
has no problems.
My sense of his lifelong inspiration has actually been amplified by his passing. As my son Justin said, “We were fortunate to have him for such a long time as both a grandfather
and father.”
Good-bye, Dad. IM
Publisher/Editorial Director: John Balik
Associate Publisher: Warren Wanderer
Design Director: Michael Neveux
Editor in Chief: Stephen Holman
Art Director: T. S. Bratcher
Senior Editor: Ruth Silverman
Editor at Large: Lonnie Teper
Articles Editors: L.A. Perry, Caryne Brown
Assistant Editor: Jonathan Lawson
Assistant Art Director: Christian Martinez
Designer: Emerson Miranda
Ironman Staff:
Vuthy Keo, Mervin Petralba, David Solorzano
Contributing Authors:
Jerry Brainum, Eric Broser, David Chapman, Teagan
Clive, Lorenzo Cornacchia, Daniel Curtis, Dave Draper,
Michael Gündill, Rosemary Hallum, Ph.D., John
Hansen, Ron Harris, Ori Hofmekler, Rod Labbe, Skip La
Cour, Jack LaLanne, Butch Lebowitz, Stuart McRobert,
Gene Mozée, Charles Poliquin, Larry Scott, Jim
Shiebler, Roger Schwab, C.S. Sloan, Bill Starr, Bradley
Steiner, Eric Sternlicht, Ph.D., Randall Strossen, Ph.D.,
Richard Winett, Ph.D., and David Young
Contributing Artists:
Steve Cepello, Larry Eklund, Ron Dunn, Jake Jones
Contributing Photographers:
Jim Amentler, Reg Bradford, Jimmy Caruso, Bill
Comstock, Bill Dobbins, Jerry Fredrick, Irvin Gelb,
J.M. Manion, Gene Mozée, Mitsuru Okabe, Rob Sims,
Leo Stern, Russ Warner
Director of Marketing:
Helen Yu, 1-800-570-IRON, ext. 1
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E-mail: [email protected]
Advertising Director: Warren Wanderer
1-800-570-IRON, ext. 1
(518) 743-1696; FAX: (518) 743-1697
Advertising Coordinator:
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Newsstand Consultant:
Angelo Gandino, (516) 796-9848
We reserve the right to reject any advertising at our
discretion without explanation. All manuscripts, art or
other submissions must be accompanied by a selfaddressed, stamped envelope. Send
submissions to IRON MAN, 1701 Ives Avenue,
Oxnard, CA 93033. We are not responsible for
unsolicited material. Writers and photographers
should send for our Guidelines outlining
specifications for submissions. IRON MAN is an open
forum. We also reserve the right to edit any letter or
manuscript as we see fit, and photos submitted have
an implied waiver of copyright.
Please consult a physician before beginning any diet
or exercise program. Use the information published in
IRON MAN at your own risk.
IRON MAN Internet Addresses:
Web Site: www.ironmanmagazine.com
John Balik, Publisher: [email protected]
Steve Holman, Editor in Chief: [email protected]
Ruth Silverman, Senior Editor: [email protected]
T.S. Bratcher, Art Director: [email protected]
Helen Yu, Director of Marketing: [email protected]
Dean Reyes, Dir. of Operations: [email protected]
Jonathan Lawson, Ad Coordinator: [email protected]
Sonia Melendez, Subscriptions: [email protected]
SEXY ROCK-HARD ABS FAST
The Secret to Etching your Granite-Carved Abs in 10 Short Minutes
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visible from across the room or
on the sun-glared beach! And
from the rear, lower lumbars that
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The incredible breakthrough
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The contraction takes place all
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upper abs to the lower abs.
Using the Ab Bench is the
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EFFICIENT WORKOUTS
Balik \ Model: Arnold Schwarzenegger
Order in the Gym
Nearly all bodybuilding programs suggest that you
start your workout with exercises for larger muscle
groups and finish with smaller ones. The rationale is that
larger muscle groups require more energy and working
them after smaller muscle groups may lead to fewer
muscle gains.
A recent study examined the effects of exercise sequence in the performance of repetitions and perceived
exertion, or how difficult the workout felt.1 The subjects
were 14 men and four women, average age 20, with at
least six months of training experience. They engaged in
two different upper-body workouts, with each workout
separated by 48 hours of rest. In the first workout they
began with larger muscle groups and finished with smaller muscle groups. The second workout reversed the
exercise sequence, starting with smaller muscle groups
and ending with larger. They did each exercise for three
sets of 10 reps, resting two minutes between sets.
The experiment showed that whether you train large
or small muscle areas first, by the third set you’re considerably weaker, as measured in number of reps completed. Exercises done in the middle part of the workout,
however, weren’t affected in either workout. Past studies
show that by the fourth set of any exercise, you’re 12.8
to 58.2 percent weaker than you were during the first set.
Most of the subjects said that the workout was considerably harder when they trained larger muscle groups
first. That makes sense, since training larger muscle
areas requires more energy and produces more fatigue
than training smaller muscle areas. Working legs fatigues
the average bodybuilder far more than training biceps.
For that reason nearly all bodybuilders train larger muscle
groups first in any particular workout.
In some cases training a larger muscle area first is so
fatiguing that you simply can’t effectively train smaller
muscle groups afterward. I found that to be true when I
tried to use the popular push-pull sequence of exercises,
in which you work pushing muscles, such as chest and
triceps, one day, followed by pulling muscles, such as
back and biceps, the following day. Legs are usually
trained on the days you train chest and triceps, since
attempting to train the two largest muscle groups, legs
Is training the largest
muscles first the best way?
and back, in one workout is just too hard.
What I found was that I got a good workout training
the initial large muscle group—legs or back—but I had
little or no energy left to effectively train the smaller muscle groups. By the time I got to biceps after training back,
I hardly felt the curls. The same was true of training chest
after thighs.
From a practical standpoint, as this study shows, the
final exercise in any muscle group will be limited by cumulative fatigue. So it’s logical to use a lighter isolation
exercise as the final exercise. Arnold Schwarzenegger
realized that during his competitive days. When training
his biceps, he always finished off with some form of
dumbbell concentration curl, usually in a standing, bentover position. Arnold almost never used more than 40
pounds on the exercise, instead focusing on form and
feel.
Thus, if you attempt to do three large-muscle-group
exercises in one workout, the third exercise will promote
little added muscle size. Better to finish off with a lighter
isolation exercise and just go for the pump and feel, as
Arnold did.
—Jerry Brainum
1 Siamao, R., et al. (2005). Influence of exercise order
on the number of repetitions performed and perceived
exertion during resistance training. J Strength Con Res.
19:152-56.
It’s best to pair large-muscle exercises, like back
work, with smaller-muscle movements, like biceps
work. Training too many large muscles at one
workout diminishes gains.
HE WANTED TO FIGHTUntil I Crushed His Hand!
He was big. He was pissed. And
he wanted to kick my butt. There
was no way out, so I extended my
arm for the opening hand shake—
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If you’re after huge forearms
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You’ll develop a bone-crushing
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You’ll want your forearms to be
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TRAIN TO GAIN
INSIGHT
The Power of
Neveux \ Model: Dan Decker
the Pump
MOTIVATION
The Power of Habits
You become what you do all the time. We all have habits, some good and some
bad. We get up on the same side of the bed, dress ourselves and brush our teeth
the same way every day. If you have empowering habits, you’ll be more successful
in life. If you have habits that limit you, replace them with habits that support your
goals. (I discussed goals in the July ’05 IM.)
How do you develop new and empowering habits? It takes time. The rule of
thumb is that it takes 21 days to develop a new habit. That’s probably true for
small habits, but for large lifestyle changes, like regular workouts, it will take longer.
Imagine exchanging two limiting habits for two empowering habits every year. In
five years that would be 10 empowering habits that you acquire without effort.
That’s with only two a year. What if you did six a year? In five years you’d have 30
empowering habits. Do you think your life would be different with 30 empowering habits? Your successes would pile one on top of the other, and
you’d have an extraordinary quality of life by making small daily changes.
In order to change your habits, you must do the following:
1) Define them; write down all the habits that limit you.
2) Define your new successful habits in detail. Write down what you’ll do
in place of your old, limiting habits.
3) Develop an action plan for each new habit. It may be as simple as
scheduling time to exercise or researching a new business opportunity.
Keep it as simple as possible. Make it easy to be successful in all areas of
your life.
Master your habits, or they will master you.
—John M. Rowley
Intensity techniques (like drop
sets and X Reps) will help you
create muscle pump—the state
of the muscle when it’s engorged
with blood after an all-out set.
Although no one knows the actual correlation between muscle
pump and growth, the pump
appears to be a necessity. If muscle pump weren’t a requirement,
then taking the logic of intensity
to its conclusion, our ultimate
routine would consist of one
maximum repetition per exercise—no pump inducement necessary. Studies indicate, however,
that this low-rep style of training
does very little for muscle growth.
—Steve Holman
Home Gym Handbook
Editor’s note: IRON MAN’s
Home Gym Handbook is available for $9.95 from Home Gym
Warehouse. Call (800) 447-0008
to order, or visit www
.Home-Gym.com.
Editor’s note: John Rowley owned the gym where the movie “Pumping Iron” was filmed, and he was one of the youngest senior vice presidents of any major real estate company in Manhattan. His passion is
teaching people—and companies—about goal setting, staying motivated
and adding a fitness lifestyle to their already busy lives so they’ll have the
energy to pursue their dreams. You can contact him at [email protected].
YOU CAN BENCH BIG
Add 20 Pounds to Your Bench Press Almost Overnight!
How would you like a surge in
upper-body power and a bigger
bench press—say, 20 extra pounds
on the bar—after only a couple of
workouts? Sure, adding 20 pounds
to your bench in two or three training
sessions may sound crazy, especially
if your bench press poundage has
been stuck in neutral for a while.
But nine times out of 10 this stall is
due to an easily correctible muscle
weakness—not in the pecs, delts
or triceps but in a group of muscles
known as the rotator cuff.
The rotator cuff muscles stabilize
the shoulder joint. During the bench
press and almost all other upperbody movements these muscles
protect the shoulder joint and
prevent ball-and-socket slippage. If
these muscles are underdeveloped,
they become the weak link in the
action and your pressing strength
suffers, or worse, you injure your
shoulder. One of the best ways to
strengthen this area and create an
upper-body power surge is with
direct rotator cuff exercise.
Once you start using the
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Walkout Overloads and Megamax Supports
Set new personal records using these nervous system tricks before your next max attempt
It’s not unusual for modern
power programs to include
supramaximal walkouts,
lockouts and supports after
regular lifts. They condition
the body and mind for heavier weights. It works, but
what if instead of walking out
600 pounds after your maximum 500-pound squat, you
did the overload a couple of
minutes before the heavy full
squat? Five hundred pounds
will feel like 400, and an alltime-high 515 will go up like
490.
Every gym rat knows that
the heavier the weight, the
more muscle is recruited.
Manhandling 600 pounds
fires off more motor units
than working with 500
pounds, even if you only hold
the bar. It’s called Henneman’s size principle, probably
because it builds some
serious size—especially if
combined with the aftereffect
phenomenon, or the fact that
your nervous system is a bit
slow on the uptake. Remember pushing your arms
against the doorway at summer camp and then watching
them float up involuntarily? It
happened because your
brain hadn’t caught on quickly enough to the fact that
resistance had been
removed. After you’ve supported 600 pounds on your
back, five wheels will explode
to lockout.
Aftereffect overloads make
you stronger in more ways
than one. In addition to
boosting muscle recruitment,
they lower the sensitivity of
the Golgi tendon organs,
spinal mechanoreceptors
and other governors of
strength. After dealing with
600 pounds, the subversive
sensors think, “Hey, 515 isn’t
too bad!” and pull the brick
from under your gas pedal.
That type of disinhibition
training has awesome potential for reaching the final
frontier in strength development.
Start your aftereffect overload power squat program by
deciding what personal best
you’d like to shoot for today.
How about 10 more pounds
on your max single or four
reps with your all-time-heaviest triple? It’s your call, as
long as you keep your reps to
five and under. Aftereffect
overloads are strictly for
power squatting.
After your last warmup set
load the bar with 110 to 130
percent of your one-rep max.
Don’t go heavier than that. It
won’t make the technique
work any better but will certainly tire you out prematurely.
Besides, an excessively
heavy overload might make
your regular weight feel so
light that your muscles won’t
contract hard enough to lift it.
An optimal, rather than maximal, load delivers the most
powerful aftereffect.
You must consider safety
as well. If you’ve not done
any type of lockouts, walkouts or supports in the past,
take as many workouts as
necessary to build up the
poundage. When you overload, you should feel supertight and powerful, not shaky.
Unrack the barbell, walk it
out, and set up using the
same stance you’re about to
full squat with. Hold your burden for five to 10 seconds,
and park. Stay tight and take
shallow breaths. In two to five
minutes—the optimum rest
time to take advantage of the
aftereffect phenomenon—or
whenever you feel ready, go
for the record!
—Pavel
Beyond Bodybuilding
Neveux \ Model: Tomm Voss
TRAIN TO GAIN
MUSCLE AND MIGHT
Editor’s note: This is an
excerpt from Pavel’s new book
Beyond Bodybuilding. It’s
available from Home Gym
Warehouse for $49.95 plus
shipping and handling. Call
(800) 447-0008, or visit
www.Home-Gym.com.
More
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Fact:
A static grip can limit muscle action and growth.
On many exercises it’s your grip that severely reduces your
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become the Achilles heel that limits growth
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1-800-447-0008
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Crossovers
Rotator Cuff Problems and Shoulder Pain
formed by internally rotating and then
This column began in the May
elevating the shoulder. That motion
1989 issue of IRONMAN by addrives the ball (head of the humerus)
dressing shoulder pain that primarinto the roof (acromion), which creates
ily arises from the rotator cuff, a set
the impingement. Full front raises can
of four muscles that originate, or
cause impingement against the front
attach, on the shoulder blade and
edge of the roof.
insert into the top of the upper-arm
Overtraining can also cause probbone, or humerus, specifically into
lems. Maybe you’re on a six-day trainbony prominences known as the
ing program, with the first and fourth
greater and lesser tuberosities.
workouts typically chest and back. Your
This installment is about the ballrotator cuffs work very hard to dynamiand-socket joint at the shoulder.
cally stabilize the shoulders during those
The rotator cuff muscles pull the
exercises. Days two and five are often
ball centrally into the socket and
shoulder and arm days. Obviously, your
pull the ball down, away from the
rotator cuffs work hard during shoulder
roof of the shoulder. They have
Upright rows have shoulderexercises and during certain arm exerindividual functions as well. On top
damage potential.
cises such as dumbbell and barbell
of the scapula is the supraspinacurls, overhead extensions and lying
tus, which helps raise the arm to
triceps extensions. Days three and six are typically leg days.
the side. The tendon of the supraspinatus is the most comThey may include stiff-legged deadlifts, Romanian deadlifts or
monly torn rotator cuff tendon. Two muscles below that are
traditional deadlifts—which all tax the rotator cuff as well. Also,
the infraspinatus and teres minor, which externally rotate the
if your shoulders are very tight, you must struggle to achieve
shoulder. The muscle under the scapula is the subscapularis,
external rotation to hold the squat bar. The typical high volume
and it internally rotates the shoulder.
of training—and the often included forced reps and negaThe rotator cuff tendon, biceps tendon and a bursa—one
tives—give your rotator cuffs little opportunity to recover. If
of the small, fluid-filled sacs that cushion the bones, tendons
they’re fatigued, injured or weak, your shoulder joints are
and muscles near joints—can be trapped, or impinged, under
compromised and susceptible to injury.
the roof of the shoulder. Long-term impingement can wear
Many trainees need to add a few sets of rotator cuff exerdown the tendons, which can eventually rupture. Stages of
cises to their workout program, perhaps at the end of the
the wear and tear were established many years ago. Certain
shoulder workout. They won’t take much time, but they can
exercises can contribute to the impingement: upright rows,
make your rotator cuff muscles stronger, which will help them
lateral raises done with the fronts of the dumbbells turned
pull the ball away from the roof of your shoulder and decrease
down—as if you’re pouring water—and front raises when
impingement. The added strength will carry over to your heavy
they’re taken up all the way. Over time those exercises can
lifts, such as the bench press, by dynamically stabilizing your
cause pain and may contribute to wear and tear on the rotator
shoulders more effectively so you can focus on the muscles
cuff. The key to why that happens with upright rows and
you’re trying to train.
laterals done in a pouring-water manner is that they’re perThat’s a quick summary about the rotator
cuff. I cowrote a book, The 7-Minute Rotator
Cuff Solution, which was published by Health
For Life and quickly became a best-seller.
Build your rotator cuff
Health For Life closed its doors in the late ’90s,
strength, and your bench
and new copies of the book were no longer
press poundages will soar.
available. Used copies began to appear on
Amazon.com for hundreds of dollars each.
IRON MAN Publishing recently purchased the
rights to the book, and it’s now back in print.
You can contact Home Gym Warehouse at
(800) 447-0008, or visit www.Home-Gym.com
to purchase The 7-Minute Rotator Cuff
Solution.
—Joseph M. Horrigan
Neveux \ Model: Mike Morris
Neveux \ Model: Jonathan Lawson
TRAIN TO GAIN
SPORTSMEDICINE
Editor’s note: Visit www
.softtissuecenter.com for reprints of Horrigan’s
past Sportsmedicine columns that have appeared in IRON MAN. You can order the books
Strength, Conditioning and Injury Prevention for
Hockey by Joseph Horrigan, D.C., and E.J.
“Doc” Kreis, D.A., and the 7-Minute Rotator
Cuff Solution by Horrigan and Jerry Robinson
from Home Gym Warehouse, (800) 447-0008
or at www.home-gym.com.
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Big Men Can’t Jump—Why Not?
Neveux \ Model: Skip La Cour
You train hard, you’ve built an
impressive physique, you’re
strong, and you incorporate longer
aerobic sessions to improve your
endurance. You’re living proof that
bodybuilding really works. Yet
there’s one problem: You can’t run
fast, and you can’t jump high.
Furthermore, in spite of the socalled cardiovascular training, you
can hardly sustain even a few
minutes of sprint intervals or a few
seconds of high jumps. What went
wrong? Something’s missing in
your current training routine, and
that thing is velocity.
Velocity is the epitome of all
human performance capabilities.
It’s been defined as the unique
combination of speed and
strength. What we call speed in
real life always requires strength,
and that combination yields velocity. Failing to incorporate speed
and velocity with strength and
MASS-TRAINING TACTICS
Explosive-Power Training
Powerlifting guru Louie Simmons is a pioneer in the explosive-power technique,
and he’s produced some of the best bench pressers in the world. I suggest you add a
set to your bench press workout using 70 percent of a weight you can get eight reps
with. The weight will feel fairly light, so you should try to work on exploding from the
bottom position. Don’t throw the weight or bounce it off your chest but accelerate it
with control. Think one second up and one second down, no pauses. Do six reps.
After two weeks add a second set of the explosive-power method to your bench
routine. Once you start training the power fibers—fast, glycolytic—directly with explosive reps, you should see some impressive strength increases.
Note: End-of-set partials, or X Reps, right at the semistretch point on the stroke
can also provide unique explosive work and attack new muscle fibers. That may be
one reason X Reps have been so effective for bodybuilders willing to endure the discomfort of power partials for extra mass and strength.
—Steve Holman
Train, Eat, Grow
Neveux
TRAIN TO GAIN
WARRIOR EXERCISE AND NUTRITION
Editor’s note:
Train, Eat, Grow—
The Positions-ofFlexion
Muscle-Training
Manual is available
from Home Gym
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It has something
to do with velocity
endurance training may severely
compromise your neuromuscular
capacity to generate fast, repetitive
action, as well as the ability to accelerate and sustain those actions.
As a human being and in particular
as an athlete, you should have a clear
main goal: building powerful and
functional muscles with maximum
capacity to use fuel and generate
energy. The ability to sustain energy
and resist fatigue is what makes a
person tough and resilient under
extreme conditions. Sustained energy
enables you to come back again and
again with a vengeance, just when
everyone expects you to reach exhaustion and failure. In fact, scientists
believe that our ability to adapt and
endure environmental, nutritional and
physical stressors is the key contributor to our survival.
Real-life human power is the sum
of all performance capabilities:
strength, speed, velocity and capacity
to resist fatigue. If one of those components is missing, the body may
compromise its potential to adapt,
improve and survive. If you’re concerned only with building muscle,
keep in mind that the ability to sustain
speed and velocity marks an increase
in your muscles’ capacity for using
fuel—carbs and fat—to generate
energy and resist fatigue. It will help
you get bigger in the long run.
In practical terms, it’s highly recommended that you incorporate
hopping exercise such as high jumps,
one leg jumps or sprint intervals on
soft and hard surfaces—indoor and
outdoor—in your training routine. A
few minutes of hard-surface hopping
may be sufficient to trigger an increase in ankle and knee flexion with
improved dynamic balanced control
and increased capacity to sustain leg
velocity.
Who said that big men can’t jump?
—Ori Hofmekler
Editor’s note: Ori Hofmekler is
the author of the books The Warrior
Diet and Maximum Muscle & Minimum Fat, published by Dragon Door
Publications (www.dragondoor.com).
For more information or for a consultation, contact him at
[email protected],
www.warriordiet.com
or by phone at (866)
WAR-DIET.
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More Wicked Muscle Size and Serious Blast-Off Power On Every Set
Five Days in a Row for the Big O
In my 20-plus years of training I’ve tried many methods,
always keeping an open mind. A couple of months ago I
decided to break from my usual four-day split and train my
body over five days. The schedule looked like this:
Monday: Arms (my weak point and highest priority)
Tuesday: Quads
Wednesday: Chest
Thursday: Back
Friday: Shoulders and hamstrings
On paper the new split seemed ideal. Arms got their own
training day so I could focus on catching them up, and the
leg training was split over two days so that both quads and
hams could get plenty of attention without one detracting
from the other. And for about a month, I thrived on the fiveday split. I looked and felt better than ever, and most of my
lifts were up as well. Then it all started crashing down.
By chest day on Wednesday I’d feel a little tired. By Thursday it was a struggle to keep up the intensity throughout the
entire back workout. And by the time I got to shoulders and
hams on Friday, I didn’t even want to be in the gym. For a
while I tried to help matters by skipping Friday and training
shoulders and hams on Saturday, but with two young kids
and all the weekend activities they’re involved in, I saw that
plan fall apart fast.
As in overkill
and overtraining
Eventually, I had to face the fact that I was overtraining.
Despite having a very flexible schedule that lets me eat whenever I have to and even take the occasional afternoon nap, plus
access to plenty of supplements like postworkout shakes and
L-glutamine to maximize recovery, I couldn’t sustain five consecutive days of intense weight training, no matter how little
overlap there was between bodyparts from day to day. As soon
as I reverted to my normal schedule of training on Monday,
Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday, I started feeling better and was
certainly more enthusiastic about going to the gym.
A lot of the pros these days train five or sometimes even six
days a week, which leads aspiring bodybuilders to emulate
their programs. Most of them are aware that the pros usually
make use of anabolic steroids to speed up the recovery process, but they may not know that the pros are typically capable
of more training than the average man or woman in the first
place, naturally. That’s a quality shared by most elite athletes.
Those of you who follow the Olympics know that many of the
athletes in the Athens Games trained as much as 10 hours a
day, seven days a week, preparing to go for the gold. The
average bodybuilder, who’s not using steroids and not genetically exceptional, in nearly all cases should never train with
weights more than two days in a row without taking a day off.
I’ve said it before, but now that I’ve actually attempted to disprove it, it makes more sense to me than ever.
—Ron Harris
www.RonHarrisMuscle.com
Even isolation
exercises take a
heavy toll on your
recovery if you
train a number of
days in a row.
Neveux \ Model: Allen Sarkiszadeh
TRAIN TO GAIN
RECOVERY
3-D MUSCLE BLAST
Positions of Flexion Builds Mass Fast!
Critical Mass POF DVD
$24.95
Get maximum muscle fiber
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This DVD
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Positions
of Flexion,
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massbuilding
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achieving skin-splitting
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See this exciting size-boosting
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©2009 Home-Gym.com
With unilateral training you work one limb at a time,
doing an exercise that involves one arm or one leg, then
exercising the other arm or leg. Just about every bodybuilding training system or routine features at least a few
unilateral exercises. A common system is to train a muscle
using mostly bilateral (two limbs at a time) exercises, then
finish off that muscle group with a unilateral exercise.
During his bodybuilding heyday, Arnold Schwarzenegger often ended his workouts with unilateral exercises,
particularly when training his arms, his most impressive
muscle group. Since Arnold always preferred to train with
someone rather than alone, I trained with him several
times. In those days he liked to finish his triceps routine
with one-arm overhead dumbbell triceps extensions, which
he did slowly and with intense concentration. For biceps
bent-over dumbbell concentration curls were usually the
choice. Arnold performed them using perfect form, full
reps with a tight squeeze at the top, or contracted, position of the curl.
Arnold felt that such unilateral exercises had a more
concentrated effect on his muscles. The net effect was to
instill a huge, satisfying muscle pump that he notoriously
compared to an orgasm in the film “Pumping Iron.” While
Arnold may have been joking in the analogy, the engorgement of
blood that
occurred
when he did
Training one arm
his one-arm
has strength
curls and
effects on the
triceps extenother arm as well.
sions wasn’t
so far removed from
the engorgement that
occurs in the
so-called
love muscle.
Training
dogma has it
that you can
obtain a
harder muscle contraction with a
unilateral
movement
than you can
by training
both limbs
simultaneously. From a
pragmatic
point of view,
the brain
supplies the
neural power to work both
limbs for just one limb,
making for a tighter muscle
contraction.
The effect of training one
limb at a time is so potent
that some studies have
shown a crossover effect in
the untrained limb; that is,
training one arm or leg at a
time makes the other leg or
arm stronger even if it doesn’t get direct exercise. Arthur
Jones, inventor of Nautilus exercise machines in the
1970s, recognized that and termed it the “indirect effect.”
In one study the untrained arm showed an 8 percent
strength increase. Several other studies that examined the
training effect found that the amount of strength the untrained limb gains depends on how much stronger the
trained limb gets. A recent study, however, noted that
those studies were often flawed, and the new study
sought to determine whether the crossover strength effect
of unilateral exercises was genuine.1
Twenty-one men and 94 women, all untrained, average
age 20, engaged in three sets of one-arm curls while not
training the other arm. After six weeks the subjects experienced a strength increase of 7 percent in their untrained
arms, although those arms got no direct exercise over the
course of the study. During a follow-up study, 10 subjects
showed a decrease of strength in the untrained arm. The
same subjects, however, had the least strength gain in the
trained arm, underscoring the results of past studies in
which the magnitude of strength gains in the untrained
limb depended on how much strength increased in the
trained limb.
Interestingly, training faster led to an 11 percent greater
strength gain in the trained arm than training at a slower
pace did. Despite the gains, no changes occurred in the
size of the trained arm, indicating that the strength gains
were more related to a greater neural input into muscle
than to muscle hypertrophy. What happens is that with
increased training, especially with one-limbed exercises,
the activation of the muscle motor unit increases, as does
the neural firing rate, inducing a more potent muscular
contraction. The theory is that one-limbed exercises somehow activate the brain/muscle connection in a manner
different from what occurs with two-limbed movements.
Clearly it makes sense to include a few one-limbed
exercises in your training routines. Although nearly everyone has one side of the body that’s stronger than the
other, the research involving the crossover strength effect
induced by unilateral training may compensate for that
imbalance.
—Jerry Brainum
Munn, J., et al. (2005). Training with unilateral resistance exercise increases contralateral strength. J Appl
Physiol. In press.
1
Neveux \ Model: Daryl Gee
mystery of
One-Sided Arguments The
unilateral training
Neveux \ Model: David Dorsey
TRAIN TO GAIN
EXERCISE SCIENCE
COST OF REDEMPTION
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Whatever You Need—Wherever You Train™
Steve Holman’s
Critical Mass
Squat and
the X Spot
Q: I’m very impressed with The Ultimate Mass
Workout [e-book]. I’ve been using X Rep religiously,
and I’ve been very pleased with the results. I like to
do full squats on the Smith machine, and, to get
more stretch in my quads, I go below parallel. When
I can’t get another full rep, I lower into a full squat
and then execute my torturous X Reps down low—
that’s possible on a Smith machine but not when
using a free bar. I prefer the pulses at the bottom
part of the squat due to the stretch I get in my
quads. In the e-book you recommend X Reps on
squats be performed more in the middle to top of
the range of motion. I admit that X-Rep pulses at the
parallel point of the squat are even harder than at
the very bottom, but after pushing a set to exhaustion, it’s too tough to do X Reps near the middle—
and I prefer the quad stretch I get when I pulse in
the lowest range. I’ve been doing all of my X Reps
near the bottom position on everything, including
incline dumbbell presses (what a pump!). Is that a
bad technique? Don’t your muscles generate the
most force at maximum stretch?
A: Thanks for the kind words regarding our UMW ebook and X Reps. We’re getting tremendous feedback from
X-Reppers everywhere. As for your question, yes, on machine squats (hack or Smith) you should do X Reps near
the bottom. We pulse from below parallel up to just above
it. If you’re familiar with Positions of Flexion, you’ll realize
that the low point of a squat isn’t the full-stretch position
for the quads. We call it the semistretched position. A full
stretch is the bottom of a sissy squat, knees forward of the
feet and thighs and torso on the same plane.
The semistretched position is actually where the muscle
generates the most force—not at full stretch. That means
near the bottom of a full squat, as you discovered. X Reps
are impossible with a free bar at that low point. We discuss
that in UMW and suggest pulsing above the middle of the
stroke instead of below the parallel position if you use
free-bar squats. That’s necessary because of a leverage
shift on that particular exercise. It doesn’t happen on
Smith-machine squats or hack squats, so you can do your
X Reps near the bottom, semistretched position, which is
ideal, as you discovered.
That also means you should do your Xes near the bottom of incline presses, as you said you’re doing. Scientists
say that a muscle loses some force production at full
stretch, so you want to be just out of it for your X-Rep
pulses. We like to move the bar
from about the midpoint down to
a few inches off the chest.
The best spot for X Reps
can be different for various
types of squats.
Neveux \ Model: Derik Farnsworth
Q: For losing bodyfat and
retaining muscle while dieting, the most effective eating
plan for me is the Carb Stacking diet that you outline in
your X-treme Lean e-book
[and Train, Eat, Grow book].
For my bulking phase I was
wondering if it would make
sense to go on a higher-calorie
version of that diet in order to
achieve a better ratio of lean
mass with less fat gain. For
instance, taking in larger
quantities of carbs during the
breakfast and postworkout
meals and for the rest of the
day eating mostly protein and
good fats with few carbs.
A: If you can stick to it most of
the time, yes, I think that’s a great
plan for building more muscle
without adding a lot of fat—as long
as your total calorie intake isn’t too
outrageous. I’m heading into a
winter size-building phase, and
that type of diet is similar to what
Jonathan Lawson and I will use.
We’re also going to try sipping
about a third of a RecoverX drink,
our X-Stack supplement combo,
during our workout as well as
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Steve Holman’s
drinking a full
serving immediately after. According to John
Ivy, Ph.D., in
“Nutrient Timing and the Anabolic Switch,”
which appeared
in the August ’05
IM, getting those
aminos and
carbs during a
training session
can help preserve more
muscle and
trigger anabolism. It’s a perfect strategy for
testing over the
winter months
when higher
carbs are on the
mass-building
menu.
Q: Next week
I start the
second phase of the program from 10-Week Size
Surge. I’ve already packed on a lot of mass from the
first phase. My question has to do with incline and
decline cable flyes. I train at home, so I don’t have
cables. Do I need other exercises to work the contracted position?
A: You can use dumbbells for both the contracted and
stretch positions. While dumbbells aren’t as effective as
cables for contracted-position work, they can get the job
done in a pinch. When you use dumbbell flyes as a contracted-position exercise, pull the dumbbells all the way to
the top on each rep and push them together as you squeeze
your pecs for a two-count.
When you use dumbbell flyes for stretch-position work,
do only the bottom two-thirds of the stroke, which emphasizes stretch. Stop the dumbbells when they’re about two
feet apart at the top so you keep tension on your pecs and
move into the stretch position more quickly.
Q: I read in Charles Poliquin’s Smart Training
column that he believes there’s no such thing as a
hardgainer. He explained that hardgainers are generally people who worry too much about being a
hardgainer and therefore raise their cortisol levels.
In other words, their results are a self-fulfilling
prophecy. As much as I like Charles and his articles,
I find his assessment to be a little flip. After 14 years
of training, I still struggle to break a 16-inch arm
measurement. As much as I want to believe he‘s
right, I’m having trouble accepting it. As someone
who considers himself a hardgainer, how do you
feel about that attitude—that there’s no such thing
as a hardgainer?
A: Maybe he didn’t quite mean it that way. Perhaps he
meant that the reason there are hardgainers is high cortisol
levels, among other things (fewer fast-twitch fibers, lower
If you train at home without access to a cable setup,
you can use the squeeze technique on dumbbell flyes to
attack the pecs with a contracted-position effect.
neuromuscular efficiency and so on). We hardgainers
know it’s more difficult for us to build muscle. We just have
to figure out why and try to remedy those situations as best
we can. For example, I’ve found that X Reps help me
leapfrog my neuromuscular deficiency, forcing the target
muscle to keep firing after full-range reps are impossible.
By moving to the max-force-generation point and pulsing,
I get at many more fibers. On the other hand, if I stop at
nervous system exhaustion, when no more full-range reps
are possible, my gains are severely limited. I just can’t get
at nearly enough of my fast-twitch fibers without X Reps.
I’ve also found that supplements that blunt cortisol
release help my gains immensely. Poliquin talked about
that in that same column you mentioned. For example,
when I’m training hard, I take at least 600 milligrams of
phosphatidylserine—about four Cort-Bloc capsules—
before I train and/or at night before bed.
Getting enough protein, carbs and creatine is also important, especially right after training. I use RecoverX and
CreaSol together for about 60 grams of fast carbs, 40 grams
of fast protein and five grams of titrated creatine. It’s the X
Stack that’s available from Home Gym Warehouse or
www.X-Stack.com. Carbs have been shown to help reduce
cortisol release, which may be why I continued to build
muscle during my summer ripping phase—I never let my
total daily carb intake go below 120 grams.
Q: What exercise can I substitute for toes-pointed
leg curls, the midrange movement for calves?
A: There really isn’t one—and even toes-pointed leg
curls aren’t a true midrange exercise for calves. I’ve recently discovered that leg-oriented cardio is the best midrange
work for calves, especially walking hills and sprinting. I’ve
noticed that when I start increasing my cardio as summer
approaches, my calves get considerably better. I’ve also
discovered that less-padded running shoes, like Nike Free,
are best for calf stimulation, whether you’re running or
attacking calf raises in the gym. Shoes that are advertised
as “like running barefoot” give you a more natural movement, and you get less rebound at the important maxforce point near the bottom of the stroke. That means your
X Reps will be much more effective as well—if you can
stand the pain of Xing on calf work.
New! The sharp black POF T-shirt with the original
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Editor’s note: Steve Holman is the author of a number of bodybuilding
best-sellers, including Train,
Eat, Grow: The Positions-ofFlexion Muscle-Training
Manual. For information on
the POF videos and Size Surge
programs, see page 69. For
information on Train, Eat,
Grow, see page 90. Also visit
www.X-Rep.com. IM
Neveux
Neveux \ Model: George Farah
Critical Mass
Steve Holman
[email protected]
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Train ™
\ JULY 2006 181
Mr. Natural Olympia John Hansen’s
Naturally Huge
grab the bar with a grip slightly wider than shoulder width
and keep your elbows pulled back to effectively hit your
outer pecs. Grabbing the bar with a closer grip will work
the inner pecs and the triceps more than the outer chest.
You can also target your outer pecs by doing cable
crossovers. The standard method is to stand in the middle
of the crossover machine with a handle in each hand and
slightly bend at the waist. Bring your arms down in a wide
semicircle from overhead to in front of your crotch. It’s like
doing a most muscular pose, and it really isolates the outer
pecs. Still, you can’t use as much resistance with an isolation exercise like cable crossovers as you can with a basic
exercise like bench presses.
Dips performed on bars that allow for a wide grip are
great for the lower and outer pecs. The key is to bend over
at the waist with your chin on your chest while keeping
your elbows flared away from your torso. Descend all the
way down to really pound your pecs.
I think the best exercise for building mass in the outer
pectorals is flat-bench dumbbell flyes. I like to perform
them the way Arnold did in the movie “Pumping Iron”—
with my legs off the floor and bent at the knees to keep
more tension on the pecs. I keep my arms semistraight—
with only a slight bend at the elbows. Then I let my arms
descend in a wide circle until they’re approximately in line
with the bench. I don’t pull the dumbbells all the way back
to the top. Instead, I stop them when there’s a 10-inch gap
between the arms at the top of the stroke. That helps to
maintain tension on the outer pecs and builds more mass
there.
Here are two excellent chest workouts that focus on
developing the outer pecs:
The OuterPecs Hex
Q: I read one of your “Best Chest” articles at
www.IronManMagazine.com. It sounds like a great
workout, and I’m going to give it a try. But I want to
ask you about chest genetics. I’ve been training on
and off since I was 16. I’m almost 18 now. My chest
has gotten thicker, but my outer chest is really soft.
I’m thinking it’s genetic because I’ve done everything I can think of and still no outer chest. It discourages me. What do you think?
A: I think the problem may be more in your bodyfat than
your chest development. Many times, when your bodyfat is
too high, the outer chest appears flabby and lacking in
development; however, if you lose the fat surrounding the
muscle, you also lose the saggy appearance.
If you need specific work, the best exercises for developing the outer area of the chest are flat-bench dumbbell
flyes, flat-bench dumbbell bench presses, barbell bench
presses, wide-grip dips and cable crossovers. All of those
focus specifically on the outer pecs.
Bench presses done with dumbbells or a barbell are
great movements for the outer pecs as long they’re performed correctly. On barbell bench presses you need to
Workout 1
Barbell bench presses
Incline dumbbell presses
Flat-bench flyes
4 x 6-10
3 x 6-8
3 x 6-10
Workout 2
Dumbbell bench presses
Incline presses
Wide-grip dips
Cable crossovers
4 x 6-10
3 x 6-8
2-3 x 8-10
2-3 x 8-12
Remove the outer-pecs hex with exercises like cable
crossovers, wide-grip dips and flat-bench dumbbell flyes.
Neveux \ Model: Jeff Hammond
Q: What are the best exercises for creating more
sweep on the quads? I just competed in my first
bodybuilding contest, and the judges said I needed
to be better proportioned.
A: I can relate to your question because I had the same
problem with my legs when I began competing in bodybuilding. My legs were always my weakest bodypart, and I
really had to work them hard to bring them into proportion
with my upper body, especially the outer sweep of my
quads.
What I found is that you can target the outer quads with
any exercise that lets you position your feet parallel and
close together, including squats, front squats, leg presses,
hack squats, lunges and leg extensions.
The problem with keeping the feet close together and
parallel on a basic exercise like the squat is that it’s difficult
to keep your back flat throughout the rep. It’s much easier
to keep a flat back when your feet are wider apart and the
knees travel out instead of forward.
That problem can be resolved by doing squats or front
squats on a Smith machine. Since the machine keeps the
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Mr. Natural Olympia John Hansen’s
Naturally Huge
Q: I’m a natural-for-life bodybuilder and have
competed in nine shows, all of which were natural.
You mentioned that you used X Reps in your workout program. I’ve been working out now for 18 years
and never heard of them. Is that when you’re doing
a set and at the end of the forced reps you continue
doing partial reps through about 30 percent of the
range of motion?
bar moving in a straight line, you can position your feet in
front of your body while keeping your back flat without
having to worry about balancing the resistance. Try it. Keep
your feet close together and parallel while doing either
squats or front squats on a Smith machine, and you’ll put
more mass on your outer quads.
Machine exercises are best for creating more quad
sweep because you don’t have to worry about balance; you
can just focus on working a particular area. Even on leg
presses and hack squats I can keep my feet close together
and parallel and still use very heavy poundages without
having to concern myself with keeping my back flat during
the exercise.
I frequently use a training technique on hack squats
called 1 1/2 reps. You descend all the way down but come
up only halfway before going back down again and then
coming all the way back up. That’s one rep. Try it on hack
squats with your feet positioned close together and parallel. You should get a fantastic burn in your outer quads
because of the constant tension on the muscle during the
exercise.
Here are two excellent training routines for the legs that
focus attention on the outer quads:
Workout 1
Leg extensions
Leg presses (feet close)
Squats (feet wide)
Reverse lunges
3 x 15, 12, 10
4 x 12, 10, 8, 8
4 x 10, 8, 6, 6
2 x 10-12
Workout 2
Leg extensions
Leg presses (feet wide)
Hack squats (1 1/2 reps; feet close)
Smith-machine front squats (feet close)
3 x 15, 12, 10
3 x 12, 10, 8
3 x 10, 8, 6
2-3 x 8-10
A: I was introduced to X Reps by Steve Holman and
Jonathan Lawson, two drug-free bodybuilders who experienced great gains from using this advanced training technique. Basically, X Reps are reps worked through a short, or
partial, range of motion after you’ve reached positive failure. Usually, you do them below the midpoint of an exercise’s stroke—and after you can no longer perform any full
reps. That enables you to recruit a greater number of muscle fibers than if you stopped the exercise at positive failure.
Let’s say you were using the incline barbell press for
chest. After you can no longer perform a full rep, you lower
the bar to below the halfway point and do a series of short,
pulsing reps—the bar moves from just above your chest to
the midpoint of the stroke. That makes the set much more
productive than merely stopping at failure.
You can use the X-Rep technique on any exercise, but I
find they are particularly valuable on basic movements
such as presses, squats, incline presses, rows and so on. It
helps to have a training partner standing by because you’re
taking the muscle beyond failure, so you might not be able
to get the bar back on the rack on incline presses, military
presses and squats.
I actually had to reduce the number of sets I was doing
in my workouts when I began using X-Reps. I was reaching
nervous system failure too soon and found I couldn’t continue doing any X-Reps after I reached positive failure with
full reps. By reducing the number of sets I was using for
each bodypart, I had the energy to take the set further with
X Reps at the end of my heavy sets—and my workouts were
much more efficient.
If you want to learn more about how to incorporate XReps into your workout, check out the X Reps e-book written by Holman and Lawson, The Ultimate Mass Workout.
You can read more about it and the research behind the
method at www.X-Rep.com.
Editor’s note:
John Hansen has won
the Natural Mr.
Olympia title and is a
two-time Natural Mr.
Universe winner. Visit
his Web site at www
.NaturalOlympia
.com. You can write to
him at P.O. Box 3003,
Darien, IL 60561, or
call toll-free (800) 900UNIV (8648). His new
book, Natural Bodybuilding, is now available from Home Gym
Warehouse (800) 4470008 or www.HomeGymcom. IM
Neveux
Neveux
Try partials, or X Reps, at the end of your
basic exercises once you reach failure. You’ll
attack more muscle fibers on any set.
John Hansen
[email protected]
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EAT TO
NUTRITION SCIENCE
Fat-Burning Firepower
While other amino acids are metabolized primarily in the liver, the
branched-chain amino acids (BCAAs)
are unique in that the major portion of
their metabolism occurs in muscle.
Under low-calorie conditions, especially when there’s not enough protein in
the diet, cortisol is released in a stressrelated response. In muscle, cortisol
promotes the breakdown of amino
acids—the branched-chain aminos.
Based on that finding, some have
suggested that taking supplemental
BCAAs provides anticatabolic effects
in hard-training athletes. In that scenario, the supplemental BCAAs are
sacrificed instead of the existing
BCAAs in muscle, thereby sparing the
muscle. Besides interacting with cortisol, BCAAs also promote testosterone
release to some extent, especially if
taken prior to intense exercise. Testosterone is an anabolic hormone, directly
opposing the catabolic activities of
cortisol.
A study presented at the 2005
meeting of the American College of
Sports Medicine highlighted another
beneficial effect of BCAA supplements
that has particular relevance for those
on low-carbohydrate diets.1 A major
problem with low-carb diets is the
Neveux \ Model: Allen Sarkiszadeh
The branched-chain amino acids—
leucine, valine and isoleucine—are
essential amino acids, meaning they
cannot be synthesized in the human
body and so must be supplied in the
diet. Recent studies show that leucine
is particularly important for muscle
protein synthesis, since it activates a
number of other substances that play
vital roles in the process.
Do branched-chain amino
acids help blast away fat?
BCAA may ignite your ab-etching efforts.
KNOWLEDGE IS POWER
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Nutrition With a Get-Big Mission
depletion of readily available energy
substrates, such as glycogen, which is
the primary fuel that powers anaerobic
exercise, such as weight training. The
primary source of glycogen in the diet
is carbohydrate.
Glycogen promotes the production
of substances important in the synthesis of ATP, the immediate source of
energy for muscular contraction. One
such substance is oxaloacetate. Without it the cycle that normally produces
ATP just doesn’t function well, leading
to a drop in energy and training intensity.
But an intermediate substance
called succinyl coenzyme-A (SCA)
enhances oxaloacetate availability.
That’s where BCAAs enter the picture,
since they directly increase SCA. The
new study hypothesized that the
energy-promoting effect of BCAAs
was so potent that it could even overcome the effects of carbohydrate
depletion.
The study featured seven men who
depleted their existing glycogen stores
through exercise and lack of food.
Then one group took 300 milligrams
per kilogram (2.2 pounds) of BCAAs,
while the other group got a placebo.
After that the men rode exercise bikes
to exhaustion. Those in the BCAA
group showed higher blood glucose
levels than the placebo group. The
BCAA group also appeared to more
readily burn fat during exercise. The
increased fat availability, coupled with
the higher glucose levels, overcame
the normal negative effects of glycogen depletion during exercise.
—Jerry Brainum
1 Adolpho, T., et al. (2005). Influence
of branched-chain amino acid supplementation on free fatty acid oxidation
during endurance exercise after muscle glycogen depletion. Med Sci
PROTEIN POWER
Amino-Anabolism Connection
Many mainstream dietitians
say that those
engaged in
weight training
don’t require any
type of protein
supplement to
promote increased muscle
gains. They’re not
shy about insisting that buying
such supplements is a waste
of money. Studies, however,
often refute those
views. One such
study involved 20
untrained men
who were assigned to either a protein-supplement group or a group that got
dextrose, or sugar.1 The protein was a whey-casein-and-leucine combination. Whey and casein are the two major milk proteins; leucine is a branchedchain amino acid vital to muscle protein synthesis.
Both groups trained three times a week for 10 weeks, averaging three
sets of six to eight reps with weights equal to 85 to 90 percent of one-rep
maximum. Those in the placebo group got three grams of dextrose daily,
while those in the protein group took a supplement containing 40 grams of
protein, five grams of carbs and one gram of fat. On training days both
groups took their supplements one hour before and within one hour after an
exercise session. On rest days they took the supplements once with breakfast.
The results, which included careful measurements of protein synthesis,
showed that those on the protein supplement made superior gains in thighmuscle mass and strength than those in the placebo group.
—Jerry Brainum
1 Wilborn, C., et al. (2005). Effects of heavy resistance training and proprietary whey, casein and leucine protein supplementation on muscle strength
and mass and MHC isoform mRNA expression. J Int Soc Sports Nutr. 2:5.
www.ironmanmagazine.com \ DECEMBER 2005 65
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Eat to Grow
NUTRITION NOTES
Food Facts
That can impact your
workouts and health
FAT LOSS
Eat More, Lose Fat
It’s all about munching
more frequently
Despite all the hype about low-carb diets being a simple way to lose bodyfat,
one very basic problem is still mired in obscurity. Most people don’t eat often
enough to get as lean and trim as they would like. The standard three meals a
day—breakfast, lunch and dinner—are still what the majority of Americans adhere
to, though surveys tell us a lot of people either skip breakfast or fail to have anything substantial. By going so long between
meals, they’re setting themselves up to fail in
their fat-loss goals.
Long stretches between eating signal the
body to slow the metabolism and store fat—
it’s a survival mechanism left over from our
heritage as hunter-gatherers. So people can
eat a high-protein diet with low carbs and
healthful fats and still not lose as much
fat as they’re capable of because they
aren’t eating often enough. Bodybuilders, as usual, are a good 10
years ahead of the general public.
We were eating low carbs to get
ripped even back in the days of
Arnold and Franco.
Eventually, the nutritional and
medical communities will come
around and realize that eating every two to three hours, as we
often do, is the only way to ramp up the metabolism and shift body composition
optimally toward more lean tissue and less fat. In the meantime you can do your
part by educating those around you who don’t eat often enough. All it usually takes
to convince someone who doubts that your six-meals-a-day plan is superior is to
pull up your shirt and flash a mean six-pack.
—Ron Harris
Editor’s note: Check out Ron Harris’ Web site, www.ronharrismuscle.com.
Calcium is
good for bones
and teeth, but
did you also
know that it’s
required for
muscle contraction? If you
train hard with
weights and
don’t eat much
dairy, you may
need to supplement. Most meal-replacement supplements contain a good dose of the
mineral, but the National
Academy of Sciences
recommends 1,000 milligrams a day for people
19 to 50. And you
probably need
more if you’re a
hard-training
bodybuilder.
Trans fats,
a.k.a. partially
hydrogenated oils,
have been linked to
cardiovascular disease
and have even been
shown to block muscle
growth. Another reason to avoid
them: They may increase the risk of
gallstones, according to doctors at the
University of Kentucky Medical Center
and Harvard Medical School, who
found a 23 percent higher risk. If you
see hydrogenated on the label, don’t
eat it! About 40 percent of
supermarket foods
contain trans fats.
Check those
labels.
Apples are
excellent for
your health,
but the Red
Delicious variety may be best
of all. Canadian
scientists checked the
antioxidant levels in the skins of eight
different kinds of apples. Red Delicious
came out on top, with six times the
antioxidants of the weakest variety.
—Becky Holman
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Eat to Grow
ANABOLIC DRIVE
Protein Plus
Protein vs. carbs in the fat-to-muscle hustle
As far back as 50 years
ago it was common practice
for bodybuilders to eat more
protein and cut carbs if their
goal was to lose fat while
maintaining or increasing
muscle mass. Of course, the
naysayers pooh-poohed the
idea. The mantra “all calories
are just the same” has so
permeated the medical and
dietetics establishment that
any admission of the utter
and miserable failings of
mainstream nutrition practices would be akin to the
Klan Grand Wizard’s proclaiming Jesse Jackson as
his inspiration. (Translation:
It’ll be like pulling teeth to get
them to admit they’ve been
so wrong for so long!)
To wit: A recent study
examined the impact of interaction between exercise and
two diets (one with high
protein and reduced carbohydrates, the other with low
protein and high carbohydrates) on body composition and
blood lipids in women during weight loss. The subjects were
assigned to a protein-only group, a protein-plus-exercise
group, a high-carb group or a high-carb-plus-exercise group.
Diets were equal in total calories and fat (approximately 30
percent) but differed in protein content and the percentage of
carbohydrate. Guess what the researchers found? Well, is it
any surprise that eating more protein and exercising are the
best option?
Those in the protein-plus-exercise group lost an average of
19.4 pounds. The protein-without-exercise group averaged a
13-pound loss. The high-carb-and-exercise group dropped
12.1 pounds on average, and the high-carb-without-exercise
subjects experienced the smallest loss—11 pounds. Further-
more, the protein-plusexercise group lost the
least amount of lean body
mass. Serum lipid profiles
improved in all groups, but
changes varied with carbs.
Subjects in the high-carb
groups had larger reductions in total cholesterol
and LDL—a.k.a. the bad
cholesterol—whereas
those in the protein groups
had greater reductions in
triglycerides and maintained higher concentrations of HDL, the good
cholesterol. According to
the authors, “This study
demonstrated that a diet
with higher protein and
reduced carbohydrates
combined with exercise
additively improved body
composition during weight
loss, whereas the effects
on blood lipids differed
between diet treatments.”
Organizations such as
the American Dietetic Association and American Heart Association have been touting the benefits of high-carbohydrate
diets as a means of decreasing cardiovascular risk factors.
There’s plenty of evidence (much of it garnered in the past
four years) showing that replacing carbohydrate with an
isocaloric amount of protein improves body composition and
decreases your risk of cardiovascular disease. So when will
these organizations alter their position on high-carb diets?
—Jose Antonio, Ph.D.
Editor’s note: Jose Antonio, Ph.D., is the chief science
officer of Javalution (www.javafit.com) and the president of
the International Society of Sports Nutrition (www
.sportsnutritionsociety.org).
PERFECT POSTWORKOUT MEAL
TM
To Kick-Start Immediate Muscle Growth After You Train
Breakthrough research in
exercise metabolism now
reveals this fact: What you
consume (or don’t consume)
immediately after training plays
a critical role in determining
your success or failure! That
time period is known as the
“anabolic window” of growth.
The biggest mistake many
bodybuilders make is eating
a meal of chicken breasts,
baked potato or rice and
vegetables after a workout. This
is an approach doomed to fail
because by the time this meal
digests, the anabolic window
has slammed shut.
The best way to produce this
potent anabolic effect is simply
by drinking an amino acidand-carbohydrate supplement
within 15 minutes after training!
RecoverX™ offers the ideal
combination and provides
the perfect blend of nutrients
for postworkout anabolic
acceleration.
RecoverX™ contains 40
grams of the quickest-acting
bio-available protein from
hydrolyzed whey—extremely
fast protein for immediate
delivery—whey protein
concentrate, glutamine
peptides, arginine and 60
grams of carbohydrate to give
you the necessary insulin spike.
RecoverX
3 lbs. 14 oz.
$30.95
RecoverX™ is the perfect
postworkout meal to kick your
muscle growth into overdrive!
©2009 Home-Gym.com
Eat to Grow
CARB COUNT
Atkins for Exercisers?
Neveux \ Model: Tamer Elshahat
The Atkins diet, which was developed by the late Dr. Robert
Atkins, is an ultralow-carbohydrate diet that initially permits an
intake of less than 1 percent carbohydrate. The concept behind it and other low-carb diets is that most people who have
excessive bodyfat levels produce too much insulin because all
of that bodyfat has made them insulin insensitive. To compensate, the body oversecretes insulin in response to meals,
especially those containing a lot of carbohydrates. Excess
insulin not only perpetuates obesity but also blunts other
mechanisms that promote the use of fat as fuel.
Atkins believed that by limiting carb intake, you lowered
insulin output and would begin to burn excess bodyfat. Critics
of Atkins often lambasted that concept, noting that without
excess calories insulin itself couldn’t make you fat. They also
voiced alarm over the diet’s high-fat aspects, suggesting that it
was a sure route to cardiovascular problems.
Recent research has confirmed many of Atkins’ ideas.
Compared to other diets, low-carb diets prove superior in
promoting initial weight loss. Although some of that loss is
water from glycogen breakdown (glycogen is stored with three
grams of water per gram of glycogen), low-carb diets promote
greater bodyfat losses, an effect traced to their higher relative
protein content. Eating lots of protein imparts greater satiety,
which eventually leads to an automatic reduction of total
caloric intake. Low-carb diets are also superior in promoting
an enhanced thermogenic effect, leading to a greater oxidation
of fat.
Reports of increased cardiovascular disease due to a higher
fat intake with the Atkins diet have also proved false. Indeed, a
surprising aspect of the regimen is a clear beneficial effect on
Is the low-carb plan suitable
for those who work out?
several protective cardiovascular risk factors, such as
increased high-density lipoprotein and lowered blood triglycerides.
The one aspect of the Atkins diet that hasn’t changed since
its inception in the 1970s is its effect on exercise. In his initial
writing on the diet, Atkins explained that his diet plan might not
be suitable for those engaged in intense exercise, which relies
on a sufficient store of glycogen in muscle. The primary nutrient that replenishes depleted glycogen stores is carbohydrate,
and Atkins recognized that. A recent study confirmed the
point.1
Nine people followed the Atkins diet for a week. Their exercise time was reduced by 56 percent, and their blood glucose
levels went down, but
they all also showed a
loss of bodyweight and
bodyfat. One notable
flaw of the study was
its short duration. It
takes a few weeks for
the body to adjust
from a sugar-burning
to a fat-burning machine. In addition,
Atkins himself modified
the diet over the years,
calling for a greater
intake of low-glycemicindex carbs, such as
fruits and vegetables.
That adjustment would
likely permit the beneficial fat-loss effects of
the diet while also
supplying carbs to
replenish glycogen.
—Jerry Brainum
1 Forbes-Lorman,
R., et al. (2005). The
Atkins diet decreases
exercise capacity. Int
Soc Sports Nutr. 2:10.
GRIND OUT THE GROWTH REPS™
Beta-Alanine Gives Your Muscles More Grow Power™
The biggest bodybuilders know that
the last few grueling reps of a set are
the key growth reps. It’s why they fight
through the pain of muscle burn on
every work set-—so they trigger the
mass-building machinery. But sometimes
it’s not enough; the burn is too fierce.
Fortunately, there’s now a potent new
weapon in this massive firefight to help
you get bigger and stronger faster.
Red Dragon is a new beta-alanine
supplement that packs your muscles
with carnosine—up to 60 percent more.
Muscle biopsies show that the largest
bodybuilders have significantly more
carnosine in their fast-twitch muscle
fibers than sedentary individuals for good
reason: Carnosine buffers the burn to give
muscles more “grow power” on every set.
The bigger and stronger a muscle gets,
the more carnosine it needs to perform
at higher intensity levels. You must keep
your muscles loaded with carnosine to
grow larger and stronger. It all boils down
to intensity and the ability to buffer waste
products—hydrogen ions and lactic
acid—so the muscle doesn’t shut down
before growth activation.
Straight carnosine supplements degrade
too rapidly to reach the muscles; however,
more than 20 new studies document that
beta-alanine is converted to carnosine
very efficiently. All it takes is 1 1/2 grams
twice a day, and you’ll see new size in
your muscles and feel the difference in
the gym—you can double or triple your
growth-rep numbers! Imagine how fast
your size and strength will increase when
you ride the Dragon!
Note: Red Dragon™ is the first pure
carnosine synthesizer—so powerful it’s
patented. It contains beta-alanine, the
amino acid that supercharges muscle
cells with carnosine.
Red Dragon
120 capsules
$29.95
©2009 Home-Gym.com
Eat to Grow
BIG IDEAS
Building on a Budget
I get a lot of e-mail from aspiring young bodybuilders who
really want to eat right but just can’t afford the optimal foods
for growth, like steak and chicken breasts. Many of those
guys are in college. I totally feel where they are coming from
because I was broke as a joke back then too, particularly
during my freshman year. I had prepaid access to the dormitory’s dining commons, which meant that breakfast, lunch
and dinner were covered. But that also happened to be the
year that I started taking bodybuilding very seriously, and my
training went to a higher level of effort and intensity. On top
of that, I was attending the University of California, Santa
Barbara, and riding my bike everywhere, probably averaging
10 miles a day. As a result, my metabolism was speeding
like a runaway train, and I was constantly ravenous. Three
hours after dinner my stomach was growling, and I really
wanted to order a pizza—but rarely did I have the cash to
cover it. So for those of you getting your education and
racking up school loans, I’d like to offer my best suggestions
for how to feed your starving muscles on a limited budget.
For quality proteins your best bets are canned tuna and
eggs in bulk. Many a struggling young bodybuilder has
made great gains with those two sources as his dietary
base. Eat the whole egg. Don’t throw the yolks away, as
they’re bursting with many beneficial substances, such as
Cheap eats for the
financially challenged
lecithin and cholesterol
(which is highly anabolic).
Though you probably
can’t afford chicken
breasts, chicken thighs are
generally half the price or less. They’re fattier, but most
college-age trainees need to pile on the calories anyway.
As for red meat, filet mignon is out of the question, but
ground beef is very economical. You rarely hear pork discussed as a viable dietary option for bodybuilders, but it’s an
inexpensive source of protein comparable to chicken thighs.
Of course, you probably also want to have a couple of
shakes to take with you to classes, but you just can’t afford
whey protein. A low-budget protein shake that will work
nearly as well simply consists of powdered milk mixed with
regular milk and flavored with fruit or chocolate powder.
Carbs like rice and potatoes are always cheap, so use them
to fill out your dinner plate and start piling on the muscle
mass.
And when times are tough, remember that in a few years,
once you’re out in the working world, you’ll be able to afford
enough steak and chicken breasts to feed a small village!
—Ron Harris
H E A LT H WAT C H
Neveux \ Model: Abbas Khatami
Bodybuilding-Diet Dangers?
Does a high-protein intake
lead to kidney damage?
A frequent concern about high-protein diets is their effect on kidney function. On the surface that
appears to make sense, since the liver and kidneys are the primary organs involved in protein metabolism and
the excretion of waste products, such as urea. The latter function is handled mainly by the kidneys. The supposition is that a long-term high-protein diet eventually wears out and induces pathology in the kidneys.
The belief is rampant, often voiced even by those who should know better, such as medical professionals. Some
allude to studies to prove their contention about the dangers of a high-protein diet. Perusal of such so-called proof,
however, nearly always reveals that those adversely affected by a high-protein diet already had kidney disease. No
study has ever shown that eating a high-protein diet leads to kidney problems in those with normal kidney function.
While it’s true that kidney function declines with age in many people, with older people showing an average of 40 percent kidney function, functional loss isn’t related to a high-protein diet; it’s most often related to a gradual loss of
nephrons, the kidneys’ filtering units. That loss, in turn, is traceable to various health problems and drugs, such as longterm use of painkillers, including aspirin. Untreated high blood pressure is another primary cause of kidney-function loss,
as is heart disease, due to poor blood circulation through the kidneys. Even healthy people can harm their kidneys
through dehydration, which limits blood flow through the kidneys.
A recent study examined the effect of a high-protein diet in those engaged in
regular weight training.1 It featured 77 men, average age 26, all of whom trained
with weights. Their diets averaged 19 percent protein, which came out to 1.67
grams per kilogram of bodyweight daily, or 98 to 139 percent of the recommended intake for those engaged in weight training. Measurements of the three
primary blood tests for kidney function—creatinine, blood urea nitrogen and uric
acid—showed that all were within normal values. Thus, the study indicates that
a high-protein intake doesn’t stress the kidneys in a normal weight-training
population.
—Jerry Brainum
1 LaBounty, P., et al. (2005). Blood markers of kidney function and dietary
protein intake of resistance trained males. J Int Soc Sports Nutr. 2:5.
From the IRON MAN PRO Style Store
20th ANNIVERSARY
IRON MAN PRO
JACKET
This is the
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All embroidery
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FREE Mass-Packing Secrets to Get You Growing!
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•How the Pros Pack on Extreme Mass
•Arnold’s Size-Stretching X-ploits
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•A Muscle-Building Mystery Solved
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•Bodypart Bloodbath for Super Size
•Monster Arms: Torching Your Tri’s
•Time-Bomb Training
•Lean-Machine Ignition
•Drop the D Bomb for Bigger Bodyparts
•Pre-Ex vs. the Post-X Mass Jack
•Less Training, Big Gaining: The Truth
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It’s exciting
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at building eye-popping bi’s. See issue 03/04/05.
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To read free sample issues, visit
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w w w. I ro n M a n M a g a z i n e . c o m
© 2005 IRON MAN Magazine
It’s a big blast of workout information, motivation and muscle-building science in your e-mail
box every week—and it’s all free! Tons of practical
training tips, analysis and size tactics are jam-packed
into this e-zine from the IRON MAN Training &
Research Center, where there’s more than 50 years of
training experience to get you growing fast! Here are a
few of the latest editions’ titles (online now):
Train, Eat ,GROW
Muscle-Training Program 74
From the IRON MAN Training & Research Center
E\6WHYH+ROPDQDQG-RQDWKDQ/DZVRQ 3KRWRJUDSK\E\0LFKDHO 1HYHX[
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Model: Jonathan Lawson
We love it when
the governor
stops by to train
with us. Man,
he’s still in
fabulous shape.
Maybe he will be
back. Happy
Halloween!
We’ve popped off numerous times
about the 40 years of training experience we have between us—which
essentially just means we’re getting
old and that we expect our muscle
gains to be few and far between.
After you’ve been training hard for
so many decades, a few pounds of
muscle a year is the acceptable
norm—or is it? We’re starting to
think not after seeing the exceptional progress we’ve made over the
past two summers.
The summer of ’04 was when we
stumbled our way to the X-Rep
concept. Information and observations by a number of IRON MAN
authors—including Robert
Thoburn, Jim Hafer and John Little—set off a firestorm of ideas in
our minds and had us poring over
training research. We discovered
the max-force point, or
semistretched position, and
learned why it’s considered the
sweet spot on an exercise’s stroke:
It’s the spot where the target muscle
is strongest and can activate the
most fibers.
“Ah ha,” we thought. “So that’s
where we should do end-of-set XRep partials once we can’t get any
more full-range reps!” And our
gains skyrocketed. If you’ve been to
www.X-Rep.com and/or seen our
before and after photos from that
period, you know that X Reps did
some amazing things for our
physiques in only one month. We
both got leaner and put on about
five pounds of muscle in a little
more than 30 days. (Are you starting
to see why we think bigger gains
may not be so difficult to produce
after all?)
After experimenting the following winter, we scheduled our 2005
ripping phase for just before summer, and we included a number of
hybrid X-Rep techniques, like Double-X Overload, X/Pause and X
Fade, in our pre-photo-shoot program. The gains were immediate,
just as they’d been the summer
before, but this time they seemed to
come even faster. In fact, we did our
photo shoot three weeks earlier
than in ’04, and we were both five
to 10 pounds heavier in ripped
shape. Steve’s bodyweight was
hovering around 200, a number he
usually only sees during the winter—or when he’s holding a
Thanksgiving turkey.
What those fast gains tell us is
that if we train hard and correctly
throughout the year, no slacking,
we should be able to put on more
muscle than we ever have. Can we
add another 10 to 20 pounds of
solid bodyweight? It appears the
answer is yes—if we use X Reps and
X-Rep hybrid techniques correctly,
don’t abuse them and get enough
recovery time and quality calories.
That last one, quality calories,
has been one of our problems in
the past. We were under the mistaken notion that we needed to keep
sight of our abs throughout the
winter; however, we’ve come to
realize that a surplus of quality
calories is absolutely necessary for
drug-free bodybuilders to pack on
lots of muscle. (We added about
five pounds of muscle over the
course of 30 days in ’04 on restricted calories; imagine what could
happen if we got an abundance.)
That means dealing with some
excess baggage, but we now realize
that it’s what signals the body that
starvation is not looming and it’s
okay to jack up muscle size to extreme levels. (Remember, extreme
muscle size is a luxury, not a necessity, and your body will do everything it can to stay the same unless
it has positive reinforcement that
sustenance is plentiful.)
So what’s our game plan for 20
pounds of extra muscle (hey, we
gotta prime the motivation and
shoot high)? Let’s go over our winter
mass-building strategy for 2006.
1) Recovery-oriented split.
We discussed this last month, but it
bears repeating, with a little more
detail.
Week 1
Monday: Workout 1A (delts, etc.)
Tuesday: Workout 2 (legs)
Wednesday: Workout 3A (chest,
etc.)
Thursday: Off
Friday: Workout 1B (delts, etc.)
Weekend: Off (with cardio)
Week 2
Monday: Workout 3B (chest, etc.)
Wednesday: Workout 1A (delts,
etc.)
Thursday: Off
Friday: Workout 3A (chest, etc.)
Week 3
Monday: Workout 1B (delts, etc.)
Wednesday: Workout 3B (chest,
etc.)
Thursday: Off
Friday: Workout 1A (delts, etc.)
Week 4
Monday: Workout 3A (chest, etc.)
Wednesday: Workout 1B (delts,
etc.)
Thursday: Off
Friday: Workout 3B (chest, etc.)
7UDLQ(DWGrow /3URJUDP74
Repeat Week 1
Notice that we hit legs once a
week, every Tuesday, which breaks
up the two upper-body sessions.
Then Thursday is a complete rest
day, and Friday is a repeat of Monday’s workout but with different
positions targeted, which brings us
to our next strategy.
2) Split-positions POF training. Upper-body workouts are categorized as either A or B. If you look
at the program below, you’ll see that
the A workouts contain a big
midrange exercise and a contracted-
position movement for each bodypart. For example, the 1A delt routine has dumbbell upright rows, a
midrange, multijoint exercise, followed by forward-lean laterals, a
contracted-position delt move. At
the next delt workout, 1B, we use
the same midrange exercise, dumbbell upright rows, but this time we
follow with a stretch-position delt
movement, one-arm cable laterals.
That’s how it is for every upperbody muscle group. The midrange
exercise stays constant, but the
second exercise alternates between
a contracted-position movement
and a stretch-position movement.
Here’s an example from the 3A and
3B workouts for upper chest: The A
workout has Smith-machine incline
presses, the constant midrange
exercise, followed by incline cable
flyes, a contracted-position upperchest move; the B workout is Smithmachine incline presses again but
followed by incline dumbbell flyes, a
stretch-position exercise for upper
pecs.
With split-positions POF training
you cover all the positions, or arcs,
IRON MAN Training & Research Center Muscle-Training Program 74
Workout 1A: Delts, Midback, Biceps, Forearms
Dumbbell upright rows (X Reps)
Seated forward-lean laterals (X Reps)
Dumbbell presses (X Reps)
Barbell shrugs (X Reps)
Cable upright rows (X Reps or staged)
Nautilus rows (X Reps)
Bent-arm bent-over laterals (X Reps)
Behind-the-neck pulldowns
(X Reps or staged)
Bent-over laterals
Cable curls (X Reps or staged)
Concentration curls
Rope hammer curls
Barbell reverse wrist curls
Barbell wrist curls
Rockers
2-3 x 8-10
2 x 8-10
2 x 8-10
2 x 10-12
1 x 10-12
2-3 x 8-10
2 x 10-12
1 x 10-12
1 x 8-10
2-3 x 8-10
2 x 8-10
1 x 8-10
2 x 15
2 x 15
1 x 15
Workout 2: Quads, Hams, Gastrocs, Low Back
Smith-machine squats (X Reps or staged)
3 x 8-10
Leg extensions (X Reps)
2-3 x 8-10
Sissy squats
1 x 10-12
Leg presses
2 x 8-10
Hack squats
1 x 8-10
Leg curls (X Reps)
2-3 x 8-10
Stiff-legged deadlifts (partials)
2 x 8-10
Hyperextensions (X Reps)
1 x max
Leg press calf raises (X Reps)
3 x 15-20
Hack-machine calf raises (X Reps)
2 x 12-15
Standing calf raises (X Reps)
2 x 8-10
Machine donkey calf raises (bottom X)
1 x 12
Seated calf raises
2 x 15-20
Low-back machine
1 x 8-12
Workout 3A: Chest, Lats, Triceps, Abs
Smith-machine incline presses
(X Reps or staged)
2-3 x 8-10
High cable flyes (X Reps)
2 x 8-12
Dumbbell bench presses (X Reps or staged) 2 x 8-10
Low cable flyes
1 x 8-12
Middle cable flyes
1 x 8-12
Parallel-grip pulldowns (X Reps)
2 x 8-10
Chins (X Reps)
1-2 x 8-12
Machine pullovers (X Reps)
2 x 8-10
Decline extensions (X Reps or staged)
2-3 x 8-10
Pushdowns
2 x 8-10
Superset
Incline kneeups
Bench V-ups
Twisting crunches
2 x 10
2x8
2 x 10-12
Workout 1B: Delts, Midback, Biceps, Forearms
Dumbbell upright rows (X Reps)
Cable laterals (X Reps)
Dumbbell shrugs (X Reps)
Rack pulls (X Reps)
Nautilus rows (X Reps)
One-arm dumbbell rows (X Reps)
Behind-the-neck pulldowns
(X Reps or staged)
Uncrossovers (X Reps)
Preacher curls (X Reps or staged)
Incline curls
Incline hammer curls
Dumbbell reverse wrist curls
Dumbbell wrist curls
Rockers
3 x 8-10
2 x 8-10
2 x 8-10
2 x 10-12
1 x 10-12
2-3 x 8-10
2 x 10-12
1 x 10-12
1 x 8-10
2-3 x 8-10
2 x 8-10
1 x 8-10
2 x 15
2 x 15
1 x 15
Workout 3B: Chest, Lats, Triceps, Abs
Smith-machine incline presses
(X Reps or staged)
Incline flyes
Wide-grip dips (X Reps or staged)
Decline flyes
Flat-bench flyes
Parallel-grip pulldowns (X Reps)
Chins (X Reps)
Dumbbell pullovers
Cable pushouts
Superset
Incline kneeups
Bench V-ups
Ab Bench crunches
2-3 x 8-10
2 x 8-12
2 x 8-10
1 x 8-12
1 x 8-12
2 x 8-10
1-2 x 8-12
2 x 8-10
2-3 x 8-10
2 x 8-10
2 x 10
2x8
2 x 10-12
Add to Friday’s workout
Seated calf raises
2 x 9-12
Standing calf raises (X Reps)
1 x 20-25
•Where X-Reps are designated, only one set is
performed with X Reps or an X-Rep hybrid
technique.
of flexion, but over two workouts.
That provides a lot of variety, unique
stress and more recovery, since you
don’t have to work all three positions at every workout. It’s really an
ingenious way to train when you’re
after optimal recovery.
3) Muscle feed. Recovery is also
about nutrition and getting the right
compounds in sufficient quantities
to fuel intense workouts and provide
a surplus for growth. Yes, we’re still
depending on our X Stack postworkout combo—RecoverX plus CreaSol
(titrated creatine). That’s got everything we need to take full advantage
of the after-training anabolic window (for more info see page 169);
however, there’s also research that
says you should feed your muscles
while you train. That makes sense
because the bodyparts you train
last get the most from your postworkout drink. Think about it. The
bodypart you train first has to wait
almost an hour or longer for refueling. In reality the first bodypart’s
anabolic window is almost closed
by the end of your workout (and you
thought it was best to work your
weakest bodypart first). The solution is to drink as you train.
Our recipe? We’re going to mix
about a scoop of RecoverX, about a
half scoop of CreaSol and a scoop of
GAKIC together in a water bottle
and sip it throughout our workouts,
trying to down most of it early on.
The RecoverX and CreaSol will feed
and refuel the muscles as we blast
them, especially those that get hit
(continued on page 90)
early in the
ITRC Program 74, Abbreviated Home-Gym Routine: Monday Through Friday
Workout 1A: Delts, Midback, Biceps, Forearms
Dumbbell upright rows or
seated laterals or rack pulls (X Reps)
Seated forward-lean laterals (X Reps)
Barbell shrugs (X Reps)
Bent-over barbell rows
Bent-arm bent-over laterals (X Reps)
Bent-over laterals (X Reps)
Dumbbell curls
Concentration curls
Hammer curls
Barbell reverse wrist curls
Barbell wrist curls
Rockers
2 x 8-10
2 x 8-10
2 x 8-10
2 x 10-12
2 x 8-10
2 x 10-12
2 x 8-10
2 x 8-10
2 x 8-10
1 x 8-10
2 x 15
2 x 15
1 x 15
Workout 2: Quads, Hams, Gastrocs, Low Back
Squats (last set staged)
3 x 8-10
Leg extensions or hack squats (X Reps)
2 x 8-10
Sissy squats
1 x 10-12
Hack squats (nonlock)
1 x 8-10
Leg curls (X Reps)
2 x 8-10
Stiff-legged deadlifts (bottom-range partials) 2 x 8-10
Hyperextensions (X Reps)
1 x max
Donkey calf raises, standing calf raises
or one-leg calf raises (X Reps)
4 x 15-20
Seated calf raises
2 x 15-20
Workout 3A: Chest, Lats, Triceps, Abs
Incline presses (X Reps or staged)
2-3 x 8-10
Incline flyes (squeeze at the top of each rep) 2 x 8-12
Dumbbell bench presses (X Reps)
2 x 8-10
Decline flyes (squeeze at the top of each rep) 1 x 8-12
Flat-bench flyes (squeeze at the top of
each rep)
1 x 8-12
Parallel-grip chins (X Reps)
2 x 8-10
Chins (X Reps)
1 x 8-12
Undergrip rows
2 x 8-10
2 x 8-10
Kickbacks
2 x 8-10
Superset
Incline kneeups
2 x 10
Bench V-ups
2x8
Twisting crunches
2 x 10-12
Workout 1B: Delts, Midback, Biceps, Forearms
Dumbbell upright rows (X Reps) or
seated laterals or rack pulls (X Reps)
Incline one-arm laterals (X Reps)
Rack pulls (X Reps or staged)
Bent-over barbell rows
One-arm dumbbell rows (X Reps)
Bent-over laterals (X Reps)
Preacher curls (X Reps or staged)
Incline curls
Incline hammer curls
Dumbbell reverse wrist curls
Dumbbell wrist curls
Rockers
2 x 8-10
2 x 8-10
2 x 8-10
2 x 10-12
2 x 8-10
2 x 10-12
2 x 8-10
2-3 x 8-10
2 x 8-10
1 x 8-10
2 x 15
2 x 15
1 x 15
Workout 3B: Chest, Lats, Triceps, Abs
Incline presses (X Reps or staged)
Incline flyes (staged)
Wide-grip dips (X Reps or staged)
Decline flyes (staged)
Flat-bench flyes (staged)
Parallel-grip chins (X Reps)
Chins (X Reps)
Dumbbell pullovers
Overhead extensions
Superset
Incline kneeups
Bench V-ups
Ab Bench crunches
2 x 8-10
2 x 8-12
2 x 8-10
1 x 8-12
1 x 8-12
2 x 8-10
1 x 8-12
2 x 8-10
2 x 8-10
2 x 8-10
2 x 10
2x8
2 x 10-12
Add to Friday’s workout
Seated calf raises (X Reps)
2 x 9-12
Standing calf raises
1 x 20-25
•When X Reps are designated, only one set is
performed with X Reps or an X-Rep hybrid
technique.
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(continued from page 86) session.
GAKIC, a MuscleTech product, is an
ammonia buffer that has given us
some amazing strength increases
[see IM Research Team in the
November ’05 issue]. The problem is
that when we took it before the
workout, it wore off about twothirds of the way through. With
continuous fueling as we train, we
should be able to sustain the highpowered results we’ve been experiencing in our early sets with no drop
off.
Along those same muscle-feed
lines, we’re also going to have one or
two scoops of Pro-Fusion protein
powder before bed. That should give
our resting muscles more recovery
and growth-promoting building
blocks as we sleep. We’ve never done
that because of the fear of excess
calories making us fat. Now we realize that it’s necessary to prevent
catabolic actions during the sleeping/fasting phase of the day in order
to max out muscle growth. We just
have to learn to accept some excess
baggage as a necessary evil if we
want to pack on the most muscle
possible over the winter.
4) Continuous variation. We
mentioned that the split-positions
approach will keep the stress on our
muscles fresh, but we also discovered a number of X-Rep hybrid
techniques that helped us add more
muscle very quickly during our ’05
ripping phase. They should work
even better during the winter, when
we won’t be restricting calories. We
plan to rotate them—X-centric
training, X/Pause, X Fade, staged
sets and Double-X Overload—on
most of our exercises, especially the
big midrange movements that stay
constant. For example, we’ll use
Smith-machine incline presses at
every upper-chest workout, but we
may do standard X reps at the end of
a set at one session and one set with
X Reps and the second with X/Pause
at the next, and so on. [For more on
X-Rep hybrid techniques, visit
www.Beyond-X.com. Our new photos are there too, with onfo on the
new e-book Beyond X-Rep Muscle
Building.]
As you can see, our winter megamass program is built on a surplus
of quality calories, optimum recovery, variety, overload and intensity.
Follow us into the growth zone in
this series and by checking our XBlog at www.X-Rep.com for daily
training updates. Can we (and you)
add another 20 pounds of muscle
before next summer? Stay tuned.
Editor’s note: For the latest on
the X-Rep muscle-building method,
including X Q&As, X Files (past enewsletters), our before and after
photos and the new X-Blog training
journal, visit www.X-Rep.com. For
more information on Positions-ofFlexion training videos and Size
Surge programs, see page 69. To
order the new Positions-of-Flexion
training manual Train, Eat, Grow,
call (800) 447-0008, visit www.homegym.com, or see the ad below. IM
AD
TEG book
Charles Poliquin’s
Smart Training
Just Say No
to Cardio
Q: I’m thinking about adding cardiovascular work
to my strength training to help me drop to 7 percent
bodyfat. Do you think that’s the best approach for
me to take?
Neveux \ Model: Dan Decker
A: No. Definitely no. Especially if you’re interested in
strength training and increasing your poundages. There’s
plenty of evidence that aerobic exercise interferes with
strength development, particularly when you’re looking for
power (fast strength). In other words, aerobic training is
more harmful to the Olympic lifter or shot putter than it is
to the powerlifter. Powerlifter is, ironically, a misnomer, as
the powerlifter expresses strength very slowly.
Would damage result from your aerobic work? Damage
would be too strong a word. Geek adaptation would be a
better choice of words. Research out of Finland, Australia
and Canada has shown that prolonged endurance training
makes fast-twitch fibers take on contractile properties of
slow-twitch fibers. It also appears that neural adaptations
are biased to slower velocities of contraction, which, again,
lessens the power output of slow-twitch fibers. What happens with prolonged endurance work is that the brain
arranges contraction patterns to slow rhythmic ones instead of the ballistic ones required for weightlifting. That’s
why doing aerobic work for the upper body worsens your
vertical jump.
Other issues arise from doing aerobic work concurrent
with strength training. One of them is that recovery from
aerobic work and strength training requires amino acids.
When you’re doing both, optimal recovery is
compromised, as some of the amino acids that would be
used for the synthesis of contractile proteins are diverted
to the biological adaptations associated with aerobic training.
Furthermore, aerobic training is associated with increased cortisol production, which is catabolic in nature
and linked to increased storage of central-trunk bodyfat.
On top of that, anytime you increase your cortisol output,
you’re stealing some pregnenolone, a hormone precursor
of testosterone, from the DHEA pathway, further decreasing the anabolic status of your body.
Plus, sitting on a bike doing aerobic
work is damaging to the testes with
pressure and heat.
One of the first things clients who
come into any of the Poliquin Performance Centers do is to submit
samples for a 16-hormone saliva
test. Invariably, the ones with low
androgen reserves (low DHEA) and
high cortisol are the ones who do
the most aerobic work per week.
Genetically we were designed to
throw rocks at rabbits, not run after
them all day long.
So how do you get lean while
strength training? Diet and supplementation. The quickest tips
I could give you on this are:
1) Eliminate all neocarbs.
Neocarbs are carbs that a
caveman wouldn’t have access
to. In other words, if you’re not
sure, ask yourself this question: Would a caveman have
access to this carb food? For
example: Bagels? No. Doughnuts? No. Pasta? No. Berries?
Yes.
2) Take 15 grams of highquality fish oils a day. They
turn on lipolytic genes and turn off
lipogenic genes—and improve
Cardio work can take a toll on
strength. There are better ways
to get a lean physique as you
get stronger, not weaker.
94
Charles Poliquin’s
Smart Training
Neveux \ Model: Daryle Gee
You don’t have to change your workout at
every session. In fact, too much variety can
impair your bodybuilding and strength-training
results.
insulin sensitivity. In my opinion, quality fish oils are the
best fat-burning supplement, and they help promote protein synthesis.
3) Take supplements that increase insulin sensitivity. That includes taurine, fenugreek and banaba tree
extract. The better your insulin sensitivity, the more fat
you’ll burn and the more muscle you’ll pack on.
Diet and supplementation—not supplemental aerobic
work—are the key to getting leaner when doing strength
training.
Q: My personal trainer changes my bodybuilding
routine at every session. He says the variety keeps
the muscles growing. Is that really the best way to
train?
A: No, not really. While variety is the spice of life, and I
am a big believer in it, too much is counterproductive. My
statement is based on experiments we conducted with six
different national teams in preparation for the Albertville
Olympic Winter Games in 1992. The original premise was
that if athletes make great progress changing the workout
every six sessions, then changing it every workout would be
even better. We found that only 2 percent of gifted individuals respond well to every-workout changes—and those
were athletes who’d been preselected for the Olympic
Games! If you extend that to the general population, it’s an
infinitely small percentage.
Personal trainers who espouse the change-everyworkout philosophy usually have three things in
common:
1) They have no concept of long-term planning,
so they don’t know how to take you to your goal.
Workouts have to be planned with a logical
approach. Failing to plan is planning to fail.
2) They’re too lazy to record your progress. By not
recording your poundages and reps, they fail to
apply the most basic training axiom, which is the
overload principle. So they probably always hand
you out the same size of dumbbells and count in a
half-assed manner, if they count at all. They’re robbing you blind.
3) They do so because most gyms are busy, so
they just take you to whatever exercise is convenient
and disguise it as an eclectic approach to training.
Most personal trainers affiliated with corporate
gyms are hired because they possess two things: a
pulse and the age of majority. In other words, they
have the two essential requirements for getting
another adult to sign a contract. Every time I travel,
I’m utterly amazed to see personal trainers who
aren’t in shape; they’re either skinny kids whose
biggest bump isn’t their biceps but the zit on their
forehead, or they’re simply fat. Yet people pay to get
trained by them. Very few of them even bother reading in their respective fields. So I’d view your trainer’s advice with skepticism.
Q: What are the biggest mistakes you see
bodybuilders make with regard to their nutrition?
A: That’s a good question (it would make a great blog).
1) The egg whites-banana-and-oatmeal-withraisins breakfast. Novices often copy that standard probodybuilder breakfast, but it’s a terrible choice. The
combination has a glycemic load that’s too high. No wonder the newbie reaches for ephedra or caffeine after that
type of breakfast. Your blood sugar is crashing because of
the insulin rush, so your body tells you to go to Starbucks
to drink java to increases your cortisol so you can have
energy to work out.
2) Egg whites. This is one of my pet peeves. Eggs
should be eaten whole—forget about the cholesterol propaganda. It has no scientific basis. Egg whites are digested
too fast. Whole eggs are better at supporting healthy glucose levels. When we run food allergies at the Poliquin
Performance Centers, we find that eggs are the most common food allergen, not because of genetics but because
they’re inhaled rather than chewed by bodybuilders.
3) No variety. Most Americans eat only 17 foods over
their lifetime. Bodybuilders are even more restricted in
their choices: chicken, egg whites, oatmeal, broccoli, protein powder, rice and tuna. Because of that, they’re depriving their bodies of many nutrients that are essential for
muscle growth.
Most Americans eat only 17 foods
over their lifetime. Bodybuilders are
even more restricted in their choices.
Because of that, they deprive their
bodies of many nutrients that are
essential for muscle growth.
For example, I have yet to see a
bodybuilder who reports to one of my
centers with normal magnesium levels
and a good antioxidant profile. A
simple trick: Put colors you haven’t
seen in a while into your food cart.
Instead of just eating raisins and bananas, try kiwis, raspberries,
kumquats and so on. The same goes
for animal protein. Bodybuilders
would make far more progress if they
included buffalo, ostrich and venison
in their diets.
The most common element missing
from bodybuilders’ regimens is vegetables. That explains why they usually exhibit poor antioxidant protection
and very low levels of trace minerals.
4) They do not support their
general health. Countless times I
overhear bodybuilders pissing and
moaning between sets about how
their sleep sucks, they’re recovering
from a flu, their joints hurt and so on.
Why? Their diets and supplement
programs are very poor. Bodybuilders
should, at a bare minimum, take
the following:
•a well-balanced multivitamin
that contains a broad base of
antioxidants.
the quality of your restorative sleep.
The brief list above is bound to
eliminate 80 percent of the health
complaints that bodybuilders have.
Missing five days of training because
of a cold is detrimental to your results,
but so is going light because of recurrent joint paint caused by an omega-3
deficiency.
Editor’s note: Charles Poliquin is
recognized as one of the world’s most
successful strength coaches, having
coached Olympic medalists in 12
different sports, including the U.S.
women’s track-and-field team for the
2000 Olympics. He’s spent years researching European journals (he’s
fluent in English, French and German) and speaking with other coaches and scientists in his quest to
optimize training methods. For more
on his books, seminars and methods,
visit www.CharlesPoliquin.net. Also,
see his ad on page 149. IM
AD
•fish oil at every meal, to ensure
better concentration, more fat
burning and greater protein
synthesis.
•extra magnesium. Bodybuilders
tend to be very low in this mineral. Muscular work increases
demands for it, and the standard
bodybuilding diet is low in magnesium. That deficiency will
affect your energy in the gym and
Bradford
•gamma-E tocopherols with
mixed in tocopherols, not the
straight d-alpha tocopherols that
only work in rats
Charles Poliquin
w w w. C h a r l e s P o l i q u i n . n e t
Building a
Gorilla
Grip
and Freaky
Forearms
Huge, Powerful Lower Arms Can Be Yours
by Greg Zulak
Photography by Michael Neveux
Model: Michael Ryan
T
he forearms are
made up of several
muscles groups that
are used primarily
for arm extension
and flexion. The five
major extensor muscles on
the top side of each forearm are responsible for
extending the wrists. Three
major flexor muscles on
the bottom, or underside,
of each forearm bend the
wrist down.
Most bodybuilders barely
think of their wrists and
forearms. In their haste to
develop their upper arms,
chest, back, shoulders and
thighs, the wrists and forearms get overlooked, the
same way the calves get
overlooked. Most bodybuilders don’t realize how
important forearm development is for total arm
symmetry, balance and
impressiveness—not to
mention strength on a
number of key exercises.
Very few work their forearms directly. They do
maybe 12 to 15 sets each
for biceps and triceps and
then throw in a measly
three sets of wrist curls,
and then they wonder why
their forearms aren’t better
built.
AD
Forearms and calves are similar in
composition, made up mostly of red
muscle fibers, tendons and ligaments. They both respond best to
high repetitions, in the 15-to-25
range. That means it’s painful to
train them, although the pain of
developing the calves is worse than
that of training the forearms. In both
cases muscles have to be engorged
with blood and pumped like balloons. In terms of structure, you
might say that the calves are to the
thighs as the forearms are to the
upper arms. They’re two muscle
groups that are impossible to
overdevelop.
DECEMBER 2005 99
Building a Gorilla Grip and Freaky Forearms
Another way the forearms and
calves are similar is that both are
highly influenced by genetics. Just
as some people are born with great
calves and never have to train
them, some fortunate athletes have
gotten fantastic forearm development just from gripping the bar
when performing chins, bent-over
rows, T-bar rows, shrugs, cleans,
upright rows, barbell and dumbbell
curls, preacher curls and other
upper-body exercises.
Several bodybuilders come to
mind in that regard: Mike Mentzer
of Heavy Duty fame never had to
train forearms directly, and neither
did his brother Ray. Mohammed
Makkawy and Steve Brisbois, both
world champions and top pros, had
incredible forearms that were almost as big as their upper arms.
Some fortunate
athletes have
gotten fantastic
forearm
development just
from gripping
the bar on
various exercises.
(Brisbois had the most impressive
forearms I’ve ever seen. In some
poses they actually looked bigger
than his upper arms.)
Other top bodybuilders, past or
present, noted for their great forearms are Dave Draper, Casey Viator,
Sergio Oliva, Chuck Sipes, Bill Pearl,
Larry Scott, Lou Ferrigno, Jusup
Wilkosz, Dorian Yates, Arnold
Schwarzenegger and just about any
of today’s top bodybuilders. You
don’t fare well in pro competition
with poor forearm development—
Model: Steve Brisbois
Huge, Powerful Lower Arms
Most of the top
bodybuilders have
exceptional forearm
development. It looks
as if they could rip
steel bars in half.
Models: Quincy Taylor, Ernie Taylor and Ahmad Haidar
not if you’re standing next to the
likes of Ronnie Coleman, Jay Cutler,
Kevin Levrone, Lee Priest and Craig
Titus, all of whom have great forearms.
All you have to do is see a good
photograph of these men—or, if
you’re lucky, see them in person—
to realize how impressive big, muscular and vascular forearms are. It
looks as if they could rip steel bars
in half. Old-time strong men always
did more work for their forearms
than their biceps because they did
so many lifting feats that required
strong gripping power and powerful
forearms.
Unfortunately, genetics can work
against you. Some people have
what are sometimes called Indian
club forearms, in which all of the
mass is at the top, near the biceps
and brachialis, while the lower
forearms and wrists are small and
underdeveloped. There’s not much
you can do with that type of forearms because there are very few
muscle fibers in the lower area to
develop. All you can do is work your
forearms intensely and make them
as big and as muscular as you can.
Albert Beckles, the ageless wonder
of the ’80s, had Indian club forearms, and it didn’t prevent him
from winning many pro contests.
If you happen to be one of those
lucky devils who have naturally
large forearms, or whose forearms
AD
Model: Michael Ryan
Reverse curls pump
up the forearms,
brachialis muscles
and biceps.
DECEMBER 2005 101
Model: Peter Putnam
Reverse curls on a
preacher bench are
difficult but can
give your grip
strength and lowerarm development a
new dimension.
get all the stimulation they need
from holding the bar on upperbody exercises, then move on to
another article. (On the other hand,
if you want to make your naturally
large forearms even bigger and
more vascular, with veins the size of
garden hoses, you may want to read
on.) But if your forearms are underdeveloped, then you definitely need
to do specific forearm exercises
such as wrist curls, reverse wrist
curls, reverse curls, reverse preacher curls and hammer curls. And you
must work them with high intensity
for the right number of sets, not just
a few measly low-intensity sets
done as an afterthought at the end
of a workout.
If you need a good reason to train
your forearms, I’ll give you three.
With the exception of neck muscles,
the forearm muscles are the most
exposed on your body. They can be
seen from any angle. Having massive forearms gives you a sense of
Having massive
forearms gives you
a sense of power,
and others see you
as powerful.
power, and others see you as powerful because you have such powerful-looking forearms.
Second, the chicks really dig
them. Watch women around top
bodybuilders when they’re out in
public socializing. The women just
love to stroke and caress their forearms. They can’t help themselves.
That in itself should be enough
motivation to train your forearms.
Lastly, working your wrists and
forearms hard increases the
strength of your grip, making it
possible to use heavier weights on
basic movements and to force out a
few extra reps at a point when your
grip would normally give out. If you
really think about it, you’re almost
limited by the strength of your grip
and your forearms on nearly all
upper-body exercises. A weak grip
means using lighter weights, which
means slower or no growth. The
forearms can become tremendously strong with consistent hard training. When you train your forearms,
you’re not just training for muscular
development; you’re training the
tendons and ligaments for strength
and power and a vicelike grip.
If your grip is weak, I recommend
that you stop using wrist straps on
exercises such as chins, rows, deadlifts, shrugs, cleans, upright rows,
and all back and biceps
movements. Straps can become a
crutch, and if you rely on them too
much, your grip has no reason to
get stronger.
An example of how helpful
Model: Daryl Gee
Hammer curls blast
the brachialis muscle
under the biceps, but
they also train the
forearms hard.
With the exception of
neck muscles, the
forearm muscles are
the most exposed on
your body.
hands, wrists and forearms can be
is illustrated by the following true
story. Dave Draper, the Blond
Bomber, a Mr. America and Mr.
Universe winner, was doing posing
exhibitions in South Africa, and he
was staying with three-time Mr.
Universe Reg Park, who lives there.
One day Reg and Dave were driving
somewhere, and their car got a flat
tire. When they went to put on the
spare, they discovered that while
they had a spare tire and a lug
wrench to remove the nuts on the
flat, they didn’t have a jack. No
problem for Reg and Dave. They
simply took turns lifting up the car
while they replaced the tire. If
you’ve ever done a heavy deadlift
for 10 seconds, you know how tiring
Model: Aaron Brumfield
If your grip is weak,
stop using wrist straps
on exercises such as
chins, rows, deadlifts,
shrugs, cleans, upright
rows and all back and
biceps movements.
it is for the grip and the forearms.
Now imagine lifting up a car for
minute or more. That was one time
where Reg’s and Dave’s tremendous
forearm strength came in handy.
One bodybuilder who really
trained his forearms for maximum
size and strength was Mr. America,
Mr. Universe and two-time Mr.
Olympia Larry Scott. As he does
Straps can become a
crutch, and if you
rely on them too
much, your grip has
no reason to get
stronger.
with nearly all bodyparts—especially arms and shoulders—Larry
has made a science of developing
the forearms. It’s actually one of his
favorite muscle groups to train—
the complete opposite of most
bodybuilders. One reason for
Larry’s obsession with forearms was
that early in his career he made the
connection (continued on page 111)
Stronger forearms can
help you squeeze out
more reps on the big,
compound exercises,
which will in turn
trigger more growth.
the development of his wrists and
forearms and the development of
his biceps. In short, the stronger his
wrists and forearms were, the heavier the weights he could use on his
biceps exercises, especially the
barbell preacher curls and the
dumbbell preacher curls—a.k.a.
Scott curls— he masochistically
savors so much. In his prime Larry
could use 100-pound dumbbells for
six reps on the preacher bench
supersetted with barbell preachers
with 150 pounds for six reps, which
he says would have been impossible for him if his grip and forearm
strength had been lacking. He could
also do reverse barbell preacher
curls with 130 pounds for six reps.
In his book Loaded Guns, Larry
says the key to using heavy weights
The stronger your
wrists and forearms,
the heavier you’ll be
able to go on biceps
exercises.
(continued from page 106) between
Model: Michael Ryan
You can’t use much weight
on reverse wrist curls, but
they’re a good isolation
finisher for the forearm
extensors.
on the preacher bench is to have
wrists and forearms strong enough
to get the bar moving. He starts
each rep of preacher curls by wristcurling the bar upward a few inches, then letting his biceps take over.
Whereas it’s often impossible to
complete a full repetition of
preacher curls because you get
stuck at the very bottom of the rep
with the bar fully descended, it is
possible, if your wrists are strong
enough, to wrist-curl the bar to get
it moving.
Says Larry, “If we can get our
wrists curled, we can go deep into
the movement, where all the treasure is buried, with a heavier
weight. To do this, we need raw
power in the forearms, power that
can curl wrists holding weights that
even the biceps cannot handle. I
know I can’t curl the weight on
biceps curls unless I can get my
wrists curled first, and the curling
of my wrists is accomplished completely by forearm work.”
To get that kind of power, you
must train your forearms just as
intensely as your biceps—or even
Larry Scott prefers
to do his wrist curls
on a special low
bench that allows
his hips to be lower
than his forearms.
more—and be concerned with
forearm development as much as
biceps development.
Larry says he was inspired to
develop his forearms to their maximum size and strength after meeting Bill Pearl (Mr. America and
four-time Mr. Universe champion)
at the gym Bill owned in Los Angeles. Pearl had big, meaty forearms
that stunned Larry when he first
viewed them. He asked Bill how he
developed them, and Bill, the modest man that he is, just said, “Oh, I
train my forearms regularly.” Bill
then showed Larry the special forearm bench he and his members
used to do wrist curls. It was an odd
little bench, just 12 inches by 12
inches, and approximately 14 inches high. Although the bench was
thickly padded, it had two parallel
deep indentations running across
it. Larry quickly made the connection between those indentations
and Bill’s massive forearms. He
could tell that Bill had done quite a
few sets on the forearm bench.
Larry asked Bill what kind of
weights he used on his wrist curls.
Bill replied modestly, “Oh, about
250.” Larry wasn’t sure if Bill meant
250 pounds or two 50-pound
dumbbells, so he asked to make
sure. “Yes, about 250 on the
Olympic set,” said Bill. To make a
long story short, after seeing the
size and development of Pearl’s
forearms, Larry was inspired to
train his own with new vigor.
Larry went back to Vince Gironda’s gym in North Hollywood,
where he regularly trained, armed
with new knowledge of what it
takes to work the forearms properly.
He found that many small details
made significant differences in how
his forearms responded to training.
Although he briefly experimented
with performing wrist curls on a
regular flat bench, he found that
such benches weren’t padded
enough, which caused pain in his
wrists, and that they were too high,
so the body was not in an optimal
place for stressing the forearms.
Larry had a forearm bench built
just like Bill Pearl’s—12 by 12 by 14.
A bench of that height enables you
to use an Olympic bar without
having the 45-pound plates hit the
floor when your wrists are fully
extended. Barbells that are soldered
together usually go up to 130
pounds max, which makes it impossible to do heavy wrist curls.
The hips should be lower than
the forearms. If you squat down
and hug the bench with your knees
and calves, you get leverage on the
bar, which really enables you to do
your set purely, with only the wrists
and forearms working.
“I have learned lots of things that
make or break a good forearm program,” says Larry. “Whenever I see
an article about someone doing
forearm work and their thumbs are
wrapped around the bar, rather
than underneath it, I know they are
not forearm experts.”
You need to position your thumb
You’re also training
the tendons and
ligaments for
strength and power
and a vicelike grip.
When you train your
forearms, you’re
not just training for
muscular development.
on the same side as your fingers,
using a thumbless grip. That helps
you to use heavier weights. For
Larry, forearm development is all in
the details—plus tremendous effort
and a hearty lust for pain.
And, says Larry, “It’s almost impossible to overtrain your forearms.” If you think about it, you use
your forearms every day. You use
them in every upper-body movement and even on leg days, when
you have to load and unload squat
bars, leg press machines and hack
squat machines.
Most people like to do their forearm work after they’ve trained
biceps because biceps curls also
work the forearms to some degree
and it gets the pump started. You
can also train forearms after back
for the same reason.
Larry Scott uses a heavy/light
superset attack when training his
forearms. He begins his assault by
targeting the five extensor muscles
on the undersides of his forearms.
On one side of the forearm bench
he places a 250-pound barbell. On
the other side he places a 100pound barbell. He then does backto-back sets of heavy and light wrist
curls, taking as little rest as possible
between sets.
Starting with the 250, Larry holds
the bar with a thumbless grip and
shoots for 20 repetitions. But here’s
a key point. On the heavy wrist
curls he does not perform full repetitions. He does three-fifths of a
repetition, and on the final reps he
might only get half reps followed by
a few burns, where the bar is hardly
moving. That’s not important to
him. What’s important is stressing
the wrists and forearms with very
heavy weights to build power, then
immediately training them with a
lighter weight for pump and blood
engorgement.
Once Larry completes the heavy
bar reps, he hurries to the 100-
Larry Scott uses
a heavy/light
superset attack
when training his
forearms.
pound bar. Again he shoots for 20
or more repetitions, but these he
does very strictly and to full extension of the wrists. By that Larry
doesn’t mean just lowering the bar
down as far as your wrists bend. He
means letting the bar roll down to
your fingertips, forcing it back into
your palms and then wrist-curling
it back to your starting point. Larry
does his first 10 reps that way, but
on his final 10 he stays strict but
doesn’t allow the bar to roll down to
his fingertips.
After three supersets of
heavy/light wrist curls he shifts
Ad
Keeping your thumbs
on the same side of the
bar as your fingers will
give you more power
on wrist curls.
focus to the five extensor muscles
on the top of the forearms. While
you can work those muscles with
reverse wrist curls off your thighs
and knees, as any one who has tried
it can attest, you are ridiculously
and pathetically weak in that position. You just cannot use a heavy
weight to work the tops of your
forearms. At best, reverse wrist
curls are a finishing movement, or
do them first in your forearm workout when your grip and forearms
are at their strongest. Then go on to
the heavy/light wrist curl supersets.
Reverse curls done with an EZcurl bar are good for the extensor
muscles on the tops of the forearms, but again, you’re limited by
your grip strength. By the final reps
you’re barely holding on to the bar
with your thumbs. Hammer curls
are also good for the forearms, as
are Zottman curls, but Scott says
Most people like
to work forearms
after biceps
because all biceps
exercises involve
the forearms to
a degree.
that the best exercise he’s found
that truly enables him to work the
tops of his forearms with heavy
weights and a true blood-engorged
pump (not a false pump from light
weights and very high repetitions)
is reverse curls done on a machine.
Once again, Larry doesn’t use full
repetitions. He does three-fifths of
the arc of the rep on the reverse-
curl machine, never allowing his
arms to fully straighten and never
completing the reps at the top.
Larry uses 250 pounds for three to
four sets of six to eight reps. Then
he does drop sets on the machine
(three or four drops per series). He
says the pump is unbelievable, and
the gains are incredible.
The heavy/light wrist curls and
heavy machine reverse curls work
Larry’s forearms completely. Sometimes he’ll do it as tri-sets: a set
each of the heavy and light wrist
curls followed by drop set on reverse curls on the curling machine,
all without a break. He suggests
three tri-sets.
For those who don’t have access
to a forearm bench like Larry Scott’s
(and 99 percent of all gyms will
not), you can make do by performing wrist curls on a regular flat
workout bench with a 10-inch block
Make a conscious
effort to grip bars and
handles hard during
your workouts to
build neuromuscular
efficiency.
Remember, if you
retire your wrist
straps for a while,
your forearms
have no choice
but to improve.
the middle of your thighs. Without
using straps, lift the barbell off the
supports and count in your mind
how long you can hold the barbell.
At every forearm workout try to
Expect to gain
approximately a half
inch on your forearms
for every inch you put
on your upper arms. If
20-inch arms are the
benchmark for upperarm development, 15
inches is about the
benchmark for
forearms.
increase the time you hold the
weight—say, 225 pounds for 30
seconds—or use more weight for
the same amount of time. Believe
me, this is no easy task, but after a
few months of training on it, you’ll
have a grip you can be proud of.
The forearms are tough to develop. Don’t expect to pack on inches
overnight. Expect to gain approximately a half inch for every inch
you put on your upper arms, which
is the amount you should shoot for
if you’re keeping your forearms and
upper arms in balance. If 20-inch
arms are the benchmark for upperarm development, 15 inches is
about the benchmark for forearms.
I hope you’re challenged to train
your forearms hard and consistently. In three months they should be
stronger, larger and more vascular.
In six months your new wrist and
forearm gains should be paying off
in the form of larger upper arms,
lats, traps and deltoids. IM
set under the back end of the bench.
This turns the flat bench into an
incline bench (It’s not as good as a
forearm bench, but it’s better than
doing wrist curls off your thighs and
knees). You can also do your reps
across the bench, kneeling, not at
the end. That puts your hips lower
than your forearms. Use a folded
towel on the bench for extra
padding to avoid wrist pain.
Lower the barbell slowly and let it
bend your wrists as far down as
possible. Then smoothly curl the
weight upward, holding for a count
of two before lowering again.
If you choose to, you can have a
heavy and a light barbell already
loaded so you can superset the way
Scott does. Remember that you
don’t have to curl the heavy bar for
full reps. Three-fifths to half reps
will be fine. Three or four supersets
should pump your forearms like
balloons.
Then go right to reverse curls. Do
them on a curling machine, with an
EZ-curl bar or on a preacher bench
with a straight bar. Pick a heavy
weight that limits you to no more
than six to eight reps. These can be
done for three-quarter reps, as the
extensor muscles you’re targeting
are worked mostly in the middle
portion of the rep.
You can also do drop sets on the
machine reverse curls. If your gym
doesn’t have a curling machine, do
reverse curls with an EZ-curl bar or
with a straight bar on the preacher
bench. It will be harder to do drop
sets with the free bars and preacher
bench, but if you train with a partner, he can slip the weights off and
steady the bar as you continue for
your first drop. Anywhere from two
to four drops will be right, depending on your development and level
of training.
Need I say that you should do trisets of the heavy and light wrist
curls and the reverse curls for maximum effectiveness? I’ve worked
forearms that way in the past, and I
can attest to the way the combination blasts the forearms and pumps
them to the max.
Another exercise you can do to
make your hands and wrists a lot
stronger is the partial deadlift held
for 20 to 30 seconds. Place a heavy
barbell in a power rack set at about
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Model: Mike Morris
A Bodybuilder ,V%RUQ
Randy had
always
assured
me that all
he did was
drink.
the time, but how do you
feel now? Like shit, right?”
That needed no reply. “You
missed a whole night’s sleep,
and I bet you haven’t eaten
anything since then either,
right?”
Now he shook his head. “I
tried to at least get some
protein powder in a shake
down, but I felt like I was
gonna barf after just a few
sips.”
“Yup, the speed in that
stuff kills your appetite and
keeps you awake. I can’t
think of a worse combination for a guy trying to gain
muscle.” He reflected on
that for a moment.
“Tracy and your other
“Find a girl who goes to
the gym and at least tries
to eat right.”
Model: Brenda Kelly
“What time did you get
in this morning?” I asked.
“A little before three, not
too late,” he croaked. Not
too late—who was he kidding? I glanced up at the
clock. We’d started training
a little after nine.
“So you slept a little
more than five hours,
tops?” He shook his head,
staring at the ground.
“Didn’t get any sleep.” I’d
met his girlfriend. She
certainly was a firecracker,
but I doubted her amorous
attention was really at the
core of this debacle. It
didn’t take Sherlock
Holmes to figure this mystery out, not even the gang
from Scooby Doo.
“You did Ecstasy, didn’t
you?” Randy wouldn’t look
at me. I could almost feel
the heat of the shame
burning in him.
“Look, I’m not a cop, and
I’m not your dad. I’ll leave
the lecturing to them. Besides that, you’re an
adult—sort of—and you’re
responsible for your own
choices. But I’m telling you
this as someone who
knows what it takes to
build a physique: You cannot be using that stuff.”
“I know,” he answered
weakly.
“I’m sure it felt great at
friends—they party every weekend
on that stuff, don’t they?”
“Not every weekend. But at least
twice a month, yeah.”
“I know how crazy this is going to
sound, but…” I hesitated. It was
going to come off pretty heavy. “You
need to stop hanging around with
those people if you really want to
reach the goals you have in bodybuilding.”
Sure enough, Randy was looking
at me as if I’d just asked him to
assassinate the pope.
“Those are my friends since
middle school.” Middle school. We
didn’t have those when I was his
age, just junior highs. No wonder
kids today are so confused.
“I’m not saying you can never see
them again, but they’re obviously a
bad influence. I know you don’t
want to look like a nerd, but I bet if
you keep going to those clubs,
they’ll keep pressuring you into
using X, Special K, I don’t know
what else, Captain Crunch and
GBH.”
“GHB,” he corrected me.
“Whatever. Those are all
extremely bad substances to put
into a body that you want to be a
shining example of exceptional
health and strength. Let me ask you
something else that I should have
brought up before: What does Tracy
think of your dream to be a famous
bodybuilder?”
Randy smirked. “She thinks it’s
stupid. She likes my muscles the
way they are now, but she doesn’t
think I need to look like the guys in
the magazines.”
“I was afraid of that.” I
paused. “Dump her.”
“What?”
“Get rid of her, and find
a girl who at least goes to
the gym and tries to eat
right. Believe me, having a
woman who shares your
fitness lifestyle will make
everything so much easier.
My wife, Janet, supports
what I do. Other guys have
wives nagging them constantly about all the training and eating, and it
makes reaching your goals
10 times harder. It always
leads to big problems in
the relationship eventually.”
“Ron, I really like her,
and she’s so hot.” He was
almost whining now. We
men get that way when we
fear our access to some
amazing girl is about to be
cut off.
“You like her, you don’t
love her, and there are
plenty of other great girls
out there. Believe me, you
won’t have any problems
finding them, you handsome bastard.” It was clear
that set him to thinking.
Deep down he knew I was
right.
We hadn’t done a set in
at least 10 minutes. I was
getting anxious. After all,
I’d slept eight hours and
had had a good breakfast,
and leg day was always
thrilling to me. All we really
had left was hamstrings.
“Go home and get some
sleep, Randy,” I barked at
him out of the blue.
He looked dazed. “We’re
done?”
“You’re done. I’m gonna
finish up on my own here.
You have some things to
think hard about.” Without
another word, he headed
off to the locker room. As I
started to warm up on stifflegged deadlifts, I thought
back to how I’d also had
friends and girlfriends in
my early years who were at
Model: David Dorsey
A Bodybuilder ,V%RUQ
We hadn’t
done a set in
at
least 10
minutes. I
was getting
anxious.
complete cross-purposes to
my bodybuilding goals.
Every time I ditched one of
them, a load was lightened,
and I seemed freer to chase
my dream of a great
physique without hindrance.
Luckily I met Janet when I
was just 20 years old, and
she had helped everything
flow together faster and with
more purpose. I hoped
Randy would find friends
and a significant other who’d
cheer him on instead of drag
him down. He was coming
out of the locker room now.
“Randy, I have noticed a
few cute girls in here giving
you the eye. Why don’t you
try talking to some of them?”
He smiled.
“Oh, I have been, and now
I’ll be talking to them a lot
more.”
“Not while we’re training,
got it?”
“No, I think I’ll just get the
digits and call them on my
time.”
I almost had a tear in my
eye. That’s my boy!
AD
Editor’s note: You may
contact Ron Harris at his
Web site, www.ron
harrismuscle.com. IM
Bug
World
+RZGood Bacteria &DQ0DNH<RX
Healthier DQGSet WKH6WDJHIRU
More Muscle
Photo Illustration by Christian Martinez
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Bug World
By increasing gut acidity,
probiotics promote
intestinal motility, or the
movement of food through
the intestine. That, in turn,
promotes increased nutrient
uptake and prevents
constipation.
Since Metchnikoff’s time, science
has learned much more about the
health benefits associated with
maintaining a healthy balance of
bacteria in the body. The sheer
numbers are amazing: Anywhere
from 300 to 500 different species of
beneficial bacteria, numbering in
the trillions, are found in the large
intestine.1 Scientists suggest that
the number of such bacteria is 10
times more than the number of
cells in the human body.
The gut environment is dynamic.
Just as a human society consists of
good citizens and bad citizens, so
does the intestine, except the “citizens” are bacteria. The good bacte-
ria are termed probiotics,
meaning “prolife,” and the
bad are antibiotics,
meaning “against
life.” Most people
are unaware of
the health benefits provided by
probiotics
until they
take antibiotic drugs.
Antibiotics may
be lifesavers, but
they kill
both bad
and good
bacteria.
When enough
probiotic, or
beneficial, bacteria are
destroyed by a
drug, symptoms
attributed to the antibiotics often appear.
The main one is diarrhea,
which occurs because the probiotics are not keeping the bad
bacteria in the gut in check. When
antibiotic drugs wipe out all bacteria, the bad bacteria often come
back first. The body responds by
attempting to rid itself of bacterial
imbalance—hence diarrhea.
These days probiotics,
including the lactobacillus
that converts carbs into
lactic acid, are most readily
available in dairy-based
foods and supplements.
Another primary probiotic
is bifidobacterium. Two
other common probiotics
are Streptococcus thermophilus and
saccharomyces, the latter
being not a bacterium but
a beneficial yeast organism.
Various factors affect the
composition of bacteria
within the body: age, immune status, stress, alcohol
intake. Certain indigestible
carbohydrates, collectively
known as prebiotics, also positively influence both overall
health and the population of
bacteria in the gut.
Probiotics keep us healthy
through various mechanisms. They
defend against pathogens, or disease-causing organisms, by producing such antimicrobial
compounds as cytokines and butyric acid. Both increase gut acidity,
making it inhospitable for invading
or potentially dangerous bacteria.2
Probiotics also compete with
pathogeni19bacteria for binding
and receptor sites, just as the drug
Nolvadex blocks the cellular binding sites for estrogen. Probiotics are
a second line of defense for the
Anywhere from 300 to
500 different species of
beneficial bacteria,
numbering in the trillions,
are found in the large
intestine.
Bug World
When enough probiotic, or beneficial, bacteria are destroyed by an
antibiotic drug, symptoms attributed to the antibiotic often appear.
The main one is diarrhea.
A calm stomach makes for better
workouts. Probiotics can help.
Neveux \ Model: Eric Domer
immune response because they
help maintain the mucosal barrier
of the gut, which prevents organisms from invading. If that line of
defense is compromised, serious
disease or death can result.
To qualify as a true probiotic,
bacteria must exert a beneficial
effect on the host, which is you.
They must survive the formidable
barriers to absorption, such as the
high acid content of the stomach
and the degrading effects of bile.
They must be able to adhere to the
lining of the large intestine and
favorably affect the microbial balance of the gut.
Studies show that true probiotics
exert a number of protective effects.
They oppose a bad-guy bacterium
called Helicobacter pylori, which
causes ulcers and is involved in
gastric cancer.3 Maintaining a favorable microbial balance helps to
prevent such maladies as traveler’s
diarrhea, inflammatory-bowel
disease, irritable-bowel syndrome
and a rotoviral diarrhea common in
children.4
Probiotics can prevent the bloating that results from eating either
too much food or any amount of
bad food. Much bloating is caused
by gases that bad bacteria release in
the gut. The same bacteria cause
halitosis, or bad breath, which may
be counteracted by taking probiotics. By increasing gut acidity,
probiotics promote intestinal
motility, or the movement of food
through the intestine. That, in turn,
promotes increased nutrient uptake and prevents constipation.5
Probiotics enhance immunity
not only by helping to maintain the
vital gut mucosal barrier but also by
producing cytokines, the proteins
that activate immune cells, including the macrophages that engulf
and digest invading organisms and
the natural killer T cells that attack
viruses and incipient tumors in the
body.
Some preliminary evidence
shows that probiotics help prevent
cancer. In one study lactobacillus
acidophilus blocked colon cancer
in rats. Other strains of probiotics
have blocked cancers of the colon,
liver, small intestine and breast in
animal studies. Some research
shows that probiotics appear to
Neveux \ Model: Sebastian Siegel
Neveux \ Model: Jeff Hammond
Bug World
Bodybuilders and
other athletes
often overlook the
importance of
maintaining an
efficient digestive
system, as
promoted by
probiotic
supplements. But
let’s face it: If you
suffer from
gastrointestinal
illness, your
nutrient uptake is
likely
compromised.
prevent recurrence of bladder cancer in humans.
There is emerging evidence of a
positive probiotic effect against
cardiovascular disease. A probiotic
strain called Lactobacillus reuteri
decreased total cholesterol and
blood triglyceride levels by 38 percent and 40 percent, respectively,
while increasing the HDL-to-LDL
ratio by 20 percent after only one
week. Other studies show that probiotics may lower elevated blood
pressure.
People who experience adverse
symptoms when they eat dairy
products may be gratified to know
that probiotics help break down
and digest lactose, or milk sugar, by
producing the enzyme lactase,
which digests lactose. That explains
how those who cannot tolerate milk
without experiencing bloating and
gastrointestinal discomfort can
safely eat yogurt or other fermented
milk products. The probiotics in the
yogurt break down the lactose before it causes problems.
Probiotics produce short-chain
fatty acids, such as butyrate, propionate and acetate. They act as fuel
for the cells that line the intestine
and appear to protect against mutagenic cell changes that can lead
to cancer.
Recent research suggests that
probiotics may be a useful adjunct
to therapy for manic-depressive
illness. People suffering from that
condition have elevated levels of
pro-inflammatory cytokines, increased oxidative stress and altered
gastrointestinal function. They
have decreased nutrient uptake and
are often deficient in omega-3 fatty
acids. More important, they usually
also have an overgrowth of bacteria
in their small intestines, which
limits nutrient uptake.
They also experience higher
levels of stress, which is known to
decrease levels of beneficial bacteria. That’s important because one
effect of probiotics is to modify
immune response; in depressed
people, the immune response is out
of whack. Probiotics lower levels of
inflammatory cytokines, decrease
oxidative stress through antioxidant
activity and improve nutrient uptake by lowering levels of bad intestinal bacteria.
Bug World
Neveux \ Model: Marvin Montoya
Some research shows that the
type of fat you eat affects your
body’s probiotic levels. One example is research showing that omega6 fatty acids, such as various
vegetable oils, inhibit probioticbacteria growth. Omega-6 fats are
also potent inflammatory agents in
the body and are linked to cancer
development and out-of-control
oxidative reactions. By contrast,
omega-3 fatty acids, or fish oils,
promote the growth of probiotics,
decrease inflammation and promote probiotic adhesion to the
intestinal wall, which is essential to
their function. The combination of
omega-3s and probiotics may promote positive effects on mental
health.
A common question is whether
it’s best to get probiotics from the
food you eat or in dietary supplement form. Some scientists prefer
the food route for synergistic reasons. For example, eating whey
proteins promotes the body’s probiotic uptake, and some wheyprotein supplements now contain
probiotics, which makes nutritional
sense. The buffering effect against
stomach acid that occurs when you
put food in your stomach also promotes probiotic uptake.
In order to get the benefits of
probiotics in your diet, you’d need
to drink about a liter, or just over a
quart, of acidophilus milk per day.
Keep in mind that probiotic effects
are transient; they don’t stay too
long in the body and are swept out
with other bacteria. So you need to
get them in there on a regular basis.
Taking several strains of supplemental probiotics should easily get
you to beneficial levels.
The question of whether probiotics are in any way toxic is a sensible one, as we’re dealing with
bacteria and yeast organisms.6
Some studies indicate that a person
with compromised immunity needs
to be careful when using probiotics
because they can lead to excessive
immune stimulation. Prebiotics,
which are indigestible carbohydrates that promote bacterial fermentation and probiotic growth,
can cause problems simply because
they can’t be digested.7 Too large a
dose of prebiotics can draw water
into the gut and cause excessive
Some preliminary
evidence shows that
probiotics help
prevent cancer. In
one study
Lactobacillus
acidophilus blocked
colon cancer in rats.
Bug World
Various factors
affect the
composition of
bacteria within
the body: age,
immune status,
stress, alcohol
intake.
you maintain a healthy gut environment, aid immunity and promote
health and muscular gains.
Neveux \ Model: Derik Farnsworth
gas, bloating, abdominal pain and
diarrhea.
Perhaps the main problem with
probiotics is that you may not be
getting what you pay for. In a study
presented at the annual meeting of
the American Society for Microbiology in 2001, Belgian scientists reported on 55 commercial probiotic
products. Included in the study
were 25 dairy supplements and 30
powdered products. More than a
third of the powdered products
contained no live bacteria, while
the liquid products all did. Only 13
percent of the supplements, however, contained all the strains listed
on the label. A third of other products contained bacteria not listed
on the label, though they proved
harmless.
The best type of supplement is a
combination of liquid dairy-based
probiotics and prebiotics called
synbiotics. Keep such supplements
refrigerated to maintain maximum
potency.
Bodybuilders and other
athletes often overlook
the importance of
maintaining an efficient digestive system, as promoted by
probiotic supplements. But let’s face
it: If you suffer from
gastrointestinal
illnesses, your nutrient uptake is likely to
be compromised.
When that happens,
you can gulp down
the most expensive,
high-tech supplements available and
still get zero benefit.
Probiotics will help
References
1 Koop-Hoolihan, L. (2001). Prophylactic and therapeutic uses of
probiotics: a review. J Am Dietetic
Asso. 101, 229-238.
2 Isolauri, E., et al. (2004). Probiotics. Best Practice and Res Clin
Gastroentr. 18, 299-313.
3 Zubillaga, M., et al. (2001). Effect of probiotics and functional
foods and their use in different
diseases. Nut Res. 21, 569-579.
4 Rolfe, R. (2000). The role of
probiotic cultures in the control of
gastrointestinal health. J Nutr. 130,
396S-402S.
5 Guarner, F., et al. (2003). Gut
flora in health and disease.
Lancet. 361, 512-519.
6 Marteau, P., et al. (2004). Tolerance of probiotics and prebiotics. J Clin Gastroenterol. 38,
S67-S69.
7 Van Loo, J. (2004). Prebiotics
promote good health. J Clin Gastroenterol. 38 Supp. 2, S70-S75. IM
Holiday
Gift Guide
Muscle Stuff Every
Dedicated Lifter Would Love
to See Under the Tree
E\WKH(GLWRUV
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1HYHX[
T
he holidays are right
around the corner, and
that means gifts—to get
and to give. And what better gift to give—or get—
than the gift of muscle?
Having more muscle bolsters wellbeing, self-confidence and strength,
plus it stimulates your metabolism so
you can more easily burn off that fat, er,
um, bulk you’ve packed on for winter
insulation. If you don’t know what to
give your favorite bodybuilder or what
to hint that you’d like in
your stocking, we have
plenty of ideas. Get out
a pencil and paper and
make your wish list, addressed to the North Pole,
of course. (If Santa has
shafted you before and
you think he may not get
you everything you ask for,
the items in this guide are
available from Home Gym
Warehouse, (800) 447-0008
or at www.HomeGym.com).
—the Editors
Ab Bench:
The Midsection Machete
Standard crunches are only half
an ab exercise; they miss the critical
stretch position.
And adding weight
to crunches can be
downright impossible (Ow, my aching
neck!). The Ab
Bench is the answer. It gives you full-range rectus
abdominis work—from full stretch
to complete contraction—plus
progressive resistance when you
add barbell plates to the weight tray
(plates not included). You get all
that while seated on a comfortable
incline with a rounded foampadded lower-back pad so you can
arch for full-range work. Use the Ab
Bench to etch extraordinary abs in
no time, as well as for lower-back,
chest and biceps work. Special
holiday price: $149 (retails for
$299).
SuperGripper
You’ve probably read that increasing your grip strength can do
everything from helping you build
bigger arms to driving up your
bench press
poundage. Consider also that your
forearms are your
most visible bodypart. Have you ever
seen a bodybuilder
in a short-sleeved shirt? What’s the
first thing you notice? His meaty
forearms and the wicked veins
crawling down them. Sure, barbell
wrist curls are okay, but you also
need to work the squeezing aspect.
That’s where the SuperGripper, the finest forearm- and grip-building
tool on the market, comes
in. Its power coils make
the resistance adjustable—
from five to 150 pounds—
and you can get more coils
as your forearms become
unbelievably powerful.
Just be careful when you
shake someone’s hand
with your new bonecrushing grip. $29.95.
PowerBlock: The
Ultimate Selectorized
Dumbbells
How’d you like to have more than
a ton’s worth of weights in only a
two-foot-square area? Impossible?
Not with the
PowerBlock. Each
selectorized
dumbbell is the
size of a shoebox,
making the set
ideal for home
training. It’s like buying 56 dumbbells but not using up every square
foot of floor space in your home to
hold them (and just imagine what
all those fixed dumbbells would
cost). Simply move the pin up or
down, and the poundage you want
stays on the handle while the other
plates stay on the stand. Ingenious
and a must for every home
trainee—or even if you just like to
do an occasional home workout.
Try training your arms and shoulders at home with your PowerBlock
and an adjustable bench and your
other bodyparts at the gym. Or give
your weak bodyparts a home-gym
blast on the weekend. The
PowerBlock comes in three models:
The Elite Trainer ($349 plus
shipping) goes from five to 50
Each selectorized dumbbell is the size
of a shoebox. Simply move the pin up
or down, and the poundage you want
stays on the handle while the other
plates stay on the stand. Ingenious and
a must for every home gym.
pounds per dumbbell in five-pound
increments, the Elite Set 1 ($588
plus shipping) goes from five to
90 per dumbbell, and Elite 2 ($848
plus shipping) goes from five to
130.
The 7-Minute
Rotator Cuff
Solution
Tired of hearing
a certain someone
whining about sore
shoulders or stalled
bench press
poundages? Giftwrap a copy of this
140-page, large-format book, and
watch those whines turn to grins.
Shoulder injury is one of the major
reasons trainees have to sacrifice
gains on many of the most important strength- and massbuilding exercises—from
bench presses to chins to
pulldowns. With The 7Minute Rotator Cuff Solution you can bulletproof
your shoulders or rehab
injured ones. The contents
include specific rotator cuff exercises and how to do them; stretching
exercises for your pecs, delts, biceps
and external rotators to keep you
injury free and growing as fast as
possible; weight-training exercises
to modify or avoid to protect your
shoulders; the bodybuilder’s complete injury-prevention routine;
and technical info, from detailed
biomechanics to pathology. Author
Joseph Horrigan is a doctor of chiropractic who owns and operates
the Soft Tissue Centers in California; he also pens IRON MAN’s
Sportsmedicine column. Coauthor
Jerry Robinson, the founder of
Health For Life, is a prominent
researcher and has written more
than 20 books on training. A gift of
this book is like the gift of painfree—and power-packed—shoulders. It’s a must-have for every
serious weight trainee. $29.95.
Champ-Training
DVDs
About the only thing more motivating than watching a bodybuilding champion train on a DVD is
seeing that champ work out in
person. If you’re lucky enough to
live near Jay Cutler (Las Vegas) or
Ronnie Coleman (Dallas), seeing
those giants pumping iron in the
flesh is a possibility; if not, their
DVDs are the next best thing—and
with a DVD you can rewind and
freeze-frame important segments
to get their techniques down pat,
not to mention marvel at their
freakazoid development. By the
way, none of what’s on these DVDs
is staged training footage. You’ll
actually see Ronnie Coleman squat-
With a DVD you
can rewind and
freeze-frame
important
segments to get
Jay’s and Ronnie’s
techniques down
pat, not to mention
marvel at their
freakazoid
development.
ting more than 800
pounds and legpressing more than a
ton. They’re the ultimate stocking stuffers
for hardcore bodybuilding fans: Jay
Cutler’s “Ripped to Shreds” twoDVD set, $29.95; Ronnie Coleman’s
“The Cost of Redemption,” $29.95.
Precontest Bible
Speaking of the champs, now you
can get the exact details and secrets
of how the world’s best bodybuilders get into mind-blowing, contestwinning condition. You’ll see their
precontest training and cardio
schedules—the workouts, including
sets, reps and bodypart splits; precontest diets and supplementation—exact meal-by-meal
breakdowns, including food measurements and full supplement
programs; and details of what they
do during the last week, from food
intake and water manipulation to
carb depletion and loading to contest-day meal plans. This largeformat book features the best
bodybuilders in the world, including Ronnie Coleman, Dorian Yates,
Dexter Jackson, Lee Priest, Mark
Dugdale, Victor Martinez, Jay Cutler, Troy Alves and Ahmad Haidar,
among others. It goes into each
competitor’s finishing touches,
providing plenty
of motivational
quotes and personal insight. It’s
almost 500 pages,
so wrap this tome
tight, and watch
the gift getter pump up just from
lifting it. Special holiday price:
$39.95 (you save $10).
Natural
Bodybuilding
John Hansen is a two-time Natural Mr. Universe and Mr. Natural
Olympia winner, so he knows a few
things about building drug-free
mass. He’s put all of that knowledge
into a large-format book that’s a
perfect gift for anybody interested
in building more muscle. Hansen
goes into detail about sizing up
your genetic potential for building
mass and covers training methods,
split routines, eating for maximum
results, all the best exercises for
every bodypart (including large
illustrations, perfect for beginners)
and preparing for competition
(from diets to the mandatory
poses). Hansen has been one of
IRON MAN’s most popular columnists for years, and IM editor in
chief Steve Holman is quoted on
the back of the book: “John Hansen
is one of the most knowledgeable
drug-free bodybuilders on the
scene today. His
passion for lifting
permeates his writing and pumps up
the reader with the
information and motivation necessary for the best gains possible in
the gym.” Amen. $21.95.
“Hansen is one of
the most
knowledgeable
drug-free
bodybuilders on the
scene today.”
“Sizzlefest”
Here’s a DVD (also available in
VHS) that will keep the fires of motivation roaring through the winter.
It’s IRON MAN’s hottest of the hot
from all of the best-selling Swimsuit
Spectacular videos. It’s just about
the coolest stocking stuffer any guy
could ask for, but keep this one
under wraps, as it’s only for the 18and-older set. It’s
jam-packed with
sensational reedited footage,
much of it way too
erotic to publish in
the magazine. It’s
14 hot, beautiful babes primping
and posing in locations from
mountains to the sea, wearing
almost nothing. Ahmo, Amy, Ashley,
Cori, Frostee, Karla, Laura, LeAnna,
Linda, Paulina, Rebecca, Tanya,
Timea and Tina Jo, uncensored and
uninhibited. Wow! Special holiday
price: $19.95.
Train, Eat, Grow:
The Positions-ofFlexion MuscleTraining Manual
This classic is a must-read for all
weight trainees. Often referred to as
the POF bible, it’s loaded with
ammo that all bodybuilders—
novice to advanced—can use in
Often referred to
as the POF bible,
it’s loaded with
ammo that all
bodybuilders—
novice to
advanced—can
use in packing on
impressive new
muscle.
packing on impressive new muscle.
Train, Eat, Grow represents the
evolution of information acquired
from years of experimentation in
the IRON MAN Training & Research
Center. With diet and supplement
tips, meal-by-meal
eating schedules
and a full 16-week
mass-building
master plan, the
book has what you
need to pack your
physique with some serious new
mass and cuts. Its 224 pages contain tons of invaluable info, including midrange-, stretch- and
contracted-position exercises for
every bodypart and more than 20
complete programs, like the POF
Postactivation
Routine, the POF
Hyercontraction
Routine and the
POF Compound
Aftershock Routine.
A bargain at
$19.95. The new Critical Mass POF
DVD is also available at a special
holiday price: $24.95 (you save
$10).
X Stack
This is the perfect postworkout
combo for building serious muscle
size fast. After a workout you want
fast protein to repair damaged
muscle and enough glycogen from
fast carbs to refill spent energy
stores and spike insulin to enhance
supercompensation. That kickstarts the
muscle-rebuilding
processes. And
because your muscles are so receptive at that critical time (the fabled
anabolic window) you want to add
creatine for ATP regeneration to
fuel future muscle contractions and
This is the perfect
postworkout combo
for building serious
size fast.
It’s jam-packed
with sensational
re-edited footage,
much of it way too
erotic to publish in
the magazine.
Pay for the
e-book with your
credit card,
download it and
burn it to a CD from
your computer.
That gives you an
instant gift in about
15 minutes.
swell muscle cells. Combining RecoverX, a postworkout mix of fast
carbs (60 grams) and fast protein
(40 grams), with CreaSol titrated
creatine (five grams per serving)
cranks on the muscle-refueling and
mass-building ignition. We call
them the X Stack—the exact nutrients your muscles crave for more
growth right at that critical window.
It’s time to ignite the anabolic surge
you deserve for your intense efforts
in the gym and make the 20pounds-of-muscle New Year’s resolution come true before summer.
With the X Stack you get three
three-pound-plus canisters of RecoverX and one bottle of CreaSol
(40 servings) all for only $99.95
(that’s a $50 savings off the retail
price!).
X-citing E-books
What’s cool about these e-books,
aside from the
rock-solid
training info on
X Reps they
include, is that
they provide
instant gratification. You go to the Web site,
www.X-Rep.com, pay for the ebook with your credit card, download it and burn it to a CD from
your computer. That gives you an
instant gift in about 15 minutes.
Heck, you can even print out the
Web page with the cover of the ebook you’re giving, cut it out and
put it inside the CD case to make it
look customized. Choose from
these four bodybuilding best-sellers: The Ultimate Mass Workout—
Featuring the X-Rep
Muscle-Building Method, $29.95;
X-treme Lean—Fat-Burning and
Nutrition Guide, $29.95; X-traordinary Abs—Etching a Ripped, Rugged
Midsection With X Reps, $19.95;
and Beyond X-Rep Muscle Building,
$29.95. Merry X-Mas!
E-books available
at www.X-Rep.com.
Editor’s note: To order any of
the items in this gift guide, call
Home Gym Warehouse, (800) 4470008, or visit www
.Home-Gym.com. To download
the X-Rep e-books, go to www
.X-Rep.com. IM
Abbreviated
Muscle
Training
Building More Mass and
Strength in 30 Minutes or Less
by Christopher Pennington
Model: Dan Decker
I
t’s generally believed
that abbreviated
training was originally
developed for lifters
known as hardgainers,
a term used to
describe people who
have difficulty gaining
muscle. The biggest reason
for their lack of training success, according to many
hardgainers, was self-diagnosed bad genetics. That
included poor recovery ability. In essence, abbreviated
training grew out of that
mind-set: that those who
had limited recovery abilities and could not tolerate
normal bodybuilding split
training needed to train differently.
In actuality, someone may have
bad genetics but other factors
contribute to the situation. For
example, we’ve all known people
who say they eat and eat and follow
a strict training schedule but cannot gain an inch—which they
blame on bad genetics. When you
hear those stories, however, you
need to question whether they’re
really true. Are they really eating
enough calories and using an effective training program? In those very
rare cases when the answer to both
questions is yes, the person is a
true hardgainer.
The problem with the word
hardgainer is that it’s relative. Depending on whom you compare
yourself to, anyone could be considered a hardgainer. For example,
comparing your progress to that of
a top bodybuilder would cause you
to quickly conclude that you have
bad genetics when in fact you’re
using an unrealistic yardstick. Top
bodybuilders have the absolute
best of the best genetics. They also
adhere to rigid workout schedules
and are meticulous about their
diets. The take-home message is,
you should not compare yourself to
the pros, period.
What’s more, with so many innovative advances in nutrition, supplementation and training
information—most of which you
can read about in IRON MAN every
month—we can not pinpoint the
cause of lack of training gains as a
deficiency in one of those three
areas. If you take a step back and
analyze those three factors in your
own regimen, you’ll be able to
discover where you’re lacking and
can start making some improvements.
Blaming genetics is a safe, easy
excuse. The truth is that it does no
good to worry about your genetics.
You can’t change them, so you may
as well focus on what you can influence, namely how you train and
what you eat. When you focus your
efforts on what you can change
and improve, without getting upset
over what you can’t, the gains will
come.
Abbreviated Training
for the Hardgainer
All that said, don’t throw out the
baby with the bathwater. You may
not be a true hardgainer, but you
can certainly benefit from abbreviated training. In fact, it is an excellent method of putting on size and
strength. When used correctly for
two to three weeks, this type of
training provides a change from a
typical bodybuilding routine—a
great way of allowing time for supercompensation.
Abbreviated training focuses on a
limited number of multijoint, or
compound, movements, using
them for one to two sets of moderate-to-high reps with a heavy
weight. The intent is to train the
whole body at each workout while
keeping the total session short,
sometimes as brief as 15 minutes.
On average, however, a typical
workout will last around 45 minutes.
Using high reps and heavy
weights requires longer-than-normal rest periods. Anywhere from
two to five minutes between sets is
common. Longer rest periods are
usually reserved for maximalstrength training, but the difficult
nature of abbreviated training
makes them mandatory to ensure
adequate recovery. Normally, you
work your upper body first and
then your lower body. The reason is
that most people will be fried after
doing 15 to 20 reps of squats or
deadlifts, so you want to save those
exercises for the end.
Here’s a typical abbreviatedtraining routine:
Model: David Dorsey
Monday
Weighted dips
2 x 15-20
Bent-over rows
2 x 15-20
Close-grip bench presses 1 x 15
Standing curls
1 x 15-20
Squats
2 x 20
Thursday
Bench presses
2 x 15-20
Close-grip pulldowns
2 x 15-20
Seated dumbbell presses 2 x 15-20
Deadlifts
2 x 20
Model: Berry Kabov
Perform
only one
or two sets
of moderate-tohigh reps
with a
heavy
weight.
Model: Lee Apperson
Abbreviated training
focuses on a limited
number of multijoint, or compound,
movements.
$G
At first glance
the workouts may
seem easy, but if
you’re using a true
15-rep max, you’ll
find that you won’t
be capable of
much more. The
key is that you
can’t hold anything
back. That 15th or
20th rep should be
almost impossible
to complete. If it is,
then you can’t help
but grow!
[Editor’s note:
On most of the
above exercises
you can make each
set even more
intense with X
Reps. See “X Files”
on page 172 for
details.]
(continued on
page 168)
Models: Bolo and David Yeung
More Mass and Strength in 30 Minutes
Abbreviated Muscle Training
Abbreviated Training
Revisited
The intent is to train
the whole body at each
workout.
The reason I discussed the origins and applications of this technique is to help you determine how
you might want to use it. Whether
you’re a hardgainer, you’re under
time constraints or simply want a
change in workout stimulus, it’s a
good program to try. The above
routine uses a common abbreviated workout scheme. Now it’s time
to discuss a new variation that you
can use in specific situations.
I developed this method out of
necessity recently, when I fell into a
168 DECEMBER 2005
Model: Eric Domer
major time crunch, something
we’ve all experienced. I had a very
limited time in which to work out,
and I was under additional work
stress that took a toll on my energy
reserves. I’m a personal trainer, and
business always picks up during the
summer. It’s the off-season for
many athletes, so they can focus on
making some serious strength and
size improvements before training
camps begin. For me that means
more work and more clients but
less time for my own training. It was
impossible for me to complete my
usual workout.
Everyone involved in training
clients has experienced that paradox: The busier you get helping
other people meet their training
gains, the less time you have for
your own.
Here’s the routine I used for a
month, and it worked incredibly
well. Not only did I maintain my
size, but I actually gained strength.
That was completely unexpected,
The first few reps of a
15-rep set will seem
easy, but the last few
will be grueling.
$G
as I really should have been maintaining or experiencing some slight
strength losses.
Monday
Bench presses (heavy)
Deadlifts (light)
3x5
2 x 10
Thursday
Bench presses(light)
Deadlifts (heavy)
2 x 10
3x5
If you think about it, those two
exercises work just about every
muscle in your body. My objective
was to get as complete a workout as
possible quickly and using a minimum number of exercises. I
achieved both of those goals. On
Monday the focus was on heavy
benching and maintenance for the
deadlift. On Thursday the focus was
on heavy deadlifting, with maintenance work on the bench press.
Hitting each exercise twice a week
provided repetition and intensity
variation so I could avoid burnout.
I found this workout to be incredibly productive given my time
Model: Aaron Brumfield
Model: Luke Wood
More Mass and Strength in 30 Minutes
A simple
Whether you’re a
bench presshardgainer, if you’re
and-deadlift
combo routine
under time constraints
a great quick
or simply want a change is
workout.
in workout stimulus,
abbreviated training is an
excellent alternative.
Try an abbreviated-training routine for three weeks,
and you may grow as never
before.
The key is that you
have to work hard.
You can’t hold anything back. That
15th or 20th rep
should be almost
impossible—so you
can’t help but grow!
$G
Model: Skip La Cour
Model: Andre Nielsen
constraints.
After sharing
it with several
clients, I’ve
found that it
works particularly well for
people who
have heavylabor jobs,
such as those
in construction. It may
not be something you use
often, but
when you
find yourself
in a time
crunch, give it
a shot and see
what abbreviated training
can do for
your strength
and your
physique. IM
S
E
L
I
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-Files
Model: Tamer Elshahat
Near the end
of a highintensity set,
when the
highthreshold
motor units
are activated,
you’re
recruiting the
fast-twitch
fibers that
have the most
potential for
growth.
It has to do with the size principle of fiber recruitment. On any
given set the low-threshold motor
units fire first, the mediums fire
second, and the high-threshold
motor units go last. Near the end of
a set, when the highs are activated,
you’re recruiting the fast-twitch
fibers that have the most potential
for growth. What happens if you
stop a set early, before positive
failure, the way Pearl liked to train?
You reach only a few of those key
growth fibers. How do you get at
more of them? Simple: You do more
sets.
On each additional subfailure set
you get a slightly altered fiber recruitment pattern, so a few different fast-twitch fibers come into
play—in other words, you get a
little more growth stimulation. So
you do all those extra reps up front
just to get at a tiny bit more of the
fast-twitch growth fibers. Not very
efficient, is it? On the other hand, if
you have a low pain threshold or an
inadequate nervous system or you
just like camping out in the gym so
you can train for three hours at a
shot, volume-style workouts are the
way to go. (A lot of it has to do with
personality.)
If you’re like us and prefer to
trigger mass as quickly as possible
(we have jobs, for crying out loud!),
you’ll want to take the size principle
of fiber recruitment to its logical
conclusion: Train to failure and
beyond so you get at as many
growth fibers as possible in any
one set—and you only have to
do a few sets for maximum
mass results. Regular IRON
MAN readers know that the
best way we’ve found so far
to supercharge a set is
with X Reps. To
review,
here’s
how the technique works:
When you hit failure on a
set, you’ve already activated
more fast-twitch fibers
than you would on a subfailure set; however, you
still haven’t pulled in the
majority of them. Fatigue
and nervous system
exhaustion have stopped
you short. That’s what
muscular failure is—a protective mechanism of
Mother Nature. To get past
it, you should move to the
target muscle’s strongest
point on the stroke, the maxforce point, and grind out
power partials. The sweet
spot, as we like to call it, is
usually below the midpoint
but not all the way to the
finish position. Repping out with
partials there keeps the fast-twitch
fibers firing so you get extreme
growth stimulation on any one
extended set. It’s super mass-training efficiency.
With that type of overload you
obviously can’t do a lot of sets, but
you don’t need to—because you
stimulate so many more growth
fibers in any one set. It’s the intensity vs. duration argument: If you
pace yourself, as if you were running a mile, you can go longer than
if you sprint all out for 100 yards.
Actually, the pace would be as if you
were doing a whole bunch of halfspeed sprints as opposed to a couple of all-out sprints.
As we said, pacing yourself over
many sets—that is, duration—can
work for building more muscle.
Pearl and others have proven that,
but who has time for all those sets?
If you know how to train and
have the proper temperament for it, doing only a few
all-out sets can work amazingly well. You just have to
take some of your sets to
failure and
beyond
Bill
Pearl.
with X Reps and the
new X-hybrid techniques, and you get the
muscle-building job
done faster and more
efficiently (that’s why
we say a set with X
Reps provides two to
four times as much
growth power as a
standard set).
X Reps worked
some mass-building
magic for us in only
one month the first
time we tried them
(see Jonathan’s before
and after shots on
page 177)—and we
didn’t use steroids.
In fact, training with
excessive sets, too
many that are close to
positive failure, may
be the very reason
-Files
Phase in Huge Gains
As we’ve said, it’s usually your
nervous system that craps out first
on an eight-rep set to positive failure, and that occurs right when key
fast-twitch fibers are beginning to
get into the action. In other words,
one set to positive failure doesn’t
Too much
volume
and/or too
much
intensity
can burn you
out. Phase
training is
the way
to keep
overtraining
at bay.
Model: Steve Mcleod
so many bodybuilders have to resort to steroids—they need the
drugs to help them recover from all
that stress and overwork. Without
them they’d burn out quickly. When
you look at it from that perspective,
you see that shorter, X-Rep-style
workouts are the motivated drugfree bodybuilder’s best route to
maximum mass. Try them, and see
for yourself.
Even with shorter, X-Rep-style
workouts, however, you have to
ramp down the intensity on a regular basis to keep gains coming at a
furious pace. Let us explain.
get the job done no matter how
hard you push. That’s why so many
bodybuilders do set after set—to
get at a few more of those key fibers
as the volume mounts—but it’s
extremely inefficient.
If you add X-Rep power partials
to a few sets, however, you leapfrog
the gain-sapping
nervous system exhaustion, forcing
more key fast-twitch recruitment.
When you do X Reps, one set has
the power of many, so you can
significantly reduce your workout
time, leaving much more energy for
growth. (By the way, X Reps also
ad
-Files
have implications for growth hormone surge as well as ties to hyperplasia, or fiber splitting, which we
explain at www
.X-Rep.com.)
Notwithstanding the benefits,
there’s a caveat to using such a
powerful mass-building technique:
cumulative nervous system drain.
Sure, training beyond positive failure with X Reps is a faster, more
efficient route to muscle mass than
doing excessive sets, but you’re
tossing around dynamite. You want
to avoid the gain-killing explosion
that can be set off if you abuse X
Reps’ power.
Basically, if you use the technique on too many sets and/or for
too many months at a time without
a break, you could spin into an
overtraining downward spiral (yes,
the same overtraining spiral that
occurs with volume training). Don’t
let that happen. A good rule of
thumb is to back off for a week after
six to eight weeks of X-Rep workouts. You can use the same weights
on all of your exercises; simply stop
just short of failure on all work
sets—and, obviously, no X Reps
allowed. That will give your nervous
system a chance to regenerate
because the stress is reduced. Some
trainees may even want to take four
to six days off from the gym—yep, a
complete layoff. (That’s very hard
for the extremely motivated to do,
but it may be necessary if the massbuilding process is going to continue.)
If you keep hammering away
without a break, you’ll eventually
burn out. What does that mean?
Motivation
can be a
double-edged
sword. Yes,
you have to
train hard, but
you also have
to fight the
urge to keep
pushing to
the limit
continuously.
Periodic
mediumintensity
phases are a
must.
Your muscle gains will stop dead in
their tracks, and your size may even
start to regress. Once that happens,
it’s a deep hole to try to dig out of.
Of course, the high-set approach
also puts you in that peril. Doing so
many sets takes a severe toll on
your nervous system as well (unless
you’re really lazy and just going
through the motions or you’re on
steroids), so no matter which approach you use, phase in a lowintensity, low-set week for the best
gains possible. You won’t lose any
size and strength, and you’ll probably come back bigger and stronger
every time.
We use that approach when we
train for our annual photo shoot.
Last year, during our X-Rep experiment, we hammered hard on our
reduced-volume X-Rep program
[listed in The Ultimate Mass Workout e-book] for five weeks. Then we
backed off five days before our
shoot, coasting in the gym so our
muscles could supercompensate
from the fiber-firing sessions. It
worked. Our physiques looked
better than ever thanks to short,
power-packed X-Rep workouts
followed by a brief phase of lowerintensity supercompensation.
This year we honed our system
even more, ramping up the intensity with new X-Rep hybrid techniques like X/Pause, X-centric
training, Double-X Overload and X
Fades and then backing off about
six days before the shoot. The result: We put on even more muscle
with a harder, more shredded look.
We ended up about 10 pounds
heavier and just as ripped (some of
our new photos are posted at www
.Beyond-X.com).
True, you have to train hard, but
you’ve also gotta fight the urge to
keep pushing to the limit continuously. Believe us, it works, big time.
Try it, and then just set your phaser
on “grow.”
Model: Marvin Montoya
Editor’s note: The above is
adapted from material published in
the IM e-zine. You can get an issue
delivered to your e-mail box every
week free: Visit www.X-Rep.com
and click on X-Files. Go to any of
the past installments, and click on
the subscription link at the bottom.
IM
Heavy Duty
Heavy Duty
Heavy Duty
Heavy Duty
Heavy Duty H
Heavy Duty
Heavy Duty
Heavy Duty
Heavy Duty
Heavy Duty
Heavy
Duty
Mozeé
The Art of Enhancing
Muscular Definition
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Heavy Duty
Knowing Where You
Stand
According to Mike, the first thing
an inexperienced competitor must
learn is how to assess his condition
so that he has sufficient time to
make the changes in training and
diet necessary for peaking. The
length of time you require to prepare for a competition will hinge
largely on your bodyfat levels. As
Mike once put it, “The leaner you
are when you begin preparing for a
contest, the less time you’ll need.
There are several ways in which you
can learn how much of your body is
fat; however, the best and most
accurate ones are rather expensive.”
At the time Mike was competing,
the most common means of assessing body composition was the skinpinch caliper measurement. Mike
knew of a better, more accurate
method from his physiology training, however, and opted for hydrostatic, or underwater, weighing.
AD
Here’s how he described the
method:
“Hydrostatic weighing involves
being weighed both in the normal
manner and underwater. Because
muscle is more dense than water, a
bodybuilder’s lean body mass, or
muscle, will sink and be weighed.
Fat, which is less dense than water,
will float and not be counted. Using
standardized mathematical calculations, the difference between your
normal weight and underwater
weight will tell you how much of
your body is made up of fat and
how much is lean muscle tissue.
Hydrostatic weighing tanks can
usually be found on college campuses (in exercise physiology labs)
and, increasingly, at commercial
establishments that perform physiological tests.”
Today, one has many choices in
determining body composition,
including institutions such as Body
Comp Weight Analysis Center,
which features the “Bod Pod.” That
determines body composition
based on air displacement. The
testing procedure is quick (less than
five minutes) and accurate to plus
or minus 2 percent, which puts its
accuracy on a par with underwater
weighing. Still, the skin-pinch
caliper method is popular. In Mike’s
words:
“The skin-pinch caliper method
is much simpler but not always as
accurate. The procedure involves
measuring the thickness of skin
folds at various points of the body,
usually the biceps, triceps and
lower back. By comparing these
values to a standardized chart,
bodyfat levels can be determined.
Calipers can be found in some
pharmacies and all medical-supply
stores.”
If you know how many pounds
of fat you need to lose, you can
calculate how long it will take to
reach a highly defined condition,
which for bodybuilding purposes
would be in the neighborhood of 3
to 6 percent.
Of course, the simplest and least
expensive method of assessing
physical condition is to merely look
in the mirror—a method that Mike
also recommended:
“Are your chest muscles clearly
delineated around the edges, giving
Heavy Duty
right up until the day of the contest
and cut your calories to a belowmaintenance level to lose bodyfat.
As you gain muscle, your metabolism goes up, and you burn more
calories over a greater period of
time. If you need to lose bodyfat
more quickly, however, you might
need to include aerobic activity to
hasten the process. And while it’s
true that increased levels of physical activity burn more calories and
lead to faster weight loss, using
your pecs a squared-off look? Can
you grab fat in the nipple area, or is
the skin tight and close to the muscle? What about the area around
your navel? Does it jiggle, or is it
tight, with no visible roll of fat? One
area that provides an excellent
indication of your overall condition
is the lower back, right above the
hips on either side of your spine. If
you can grab an inch or more of fat
in that area, you’ll probably need
up to 10 weeks of rigid dieting to get
ripped.”
Before a competition Mike would
frequently pinch the skin around
his navel to see if it was thinning
out. If it was, and his muscle size
and strength levels were intact, he
knew it was okay to continue what
he’d been doing. If not, he’d make
the necessary adjustments in diet
and/or aerobic activity. According
to Mike:
“Five or six weeks should be the
minimum length of time allocated
for contest prep, while anything
more than 10 to 12 weeks becomes
too taxing on both mind and body.
Look at fat loss logically: Even on
the most severe diet the maximum
amount of fat you can possibly lose
in one week is three pounds. At that
rate you’d lose 18 pounds in six
weeks, allowing no time for error or
backsliding. Losing two pounds of
fat a week is a more realistic goal,
and it reduces the probability of
losing muscle mass. If you try to
lose fat too fast, you’ll inevitably
burn some muscle for energy.”
weight training simply to burn
calories isn’t a good idea. The reason is that oxygen must be present
for fat to be metabolized for energy.
The demands for energy imposed
by anaerobic activity—such as
weight training or sprinting—are so
great and immediate that oxygen
can’t be supplied rapidly enough to
metabolize fat for that energy. Only
the sugar stored within a muscle—
called glycogen—can be metabolized in the absence of oxygen.
AD
Physical Activity and
Bodyfat Loss
There are two methods of effectively losing bodyfat while retaining
muscle mass. The first is to build
muscle with high-intensity training
Heavy Duty
According to Mike:
“The best formula when preparing for a contest includes weight
workouts that progressively decline
in intensity the last two weeks prior
to a show and aerobic activity that
increases in duration and frequency
over the final four to six weeks. At
the start of your contest preparation period your weight training
sessions should be very intense. As
a result, your aerobic activity
should be of relatively short duration; bicycle riding six to 10 miles at
a slow-to-moderate pace once or
twice a week, combined or alternated with jogging 1 1/2 to two miles,
will be enough.
“As the contest approaches, ridding your body of fat becomes the
ever-increasing concern. Then the
intensity of your training should
decrease somewhat, while the duration of the aerobic, or fat-burning, activity increases. I would
suggest cycling at least twice a week
for 30 to 45 minutes and running
up to three or more miles two additional times during the week on
days you don’t do aerobic cycling. I
prefer running to cycling because it
burns calories more quickly, but
you may prefer cycling, as it is less
traumatic to the knee and ankle
joints. Jogging a mile burns 100 to
120 calories, or roughly 15 calories
per minute, while cycling at a moderate pace (approximately eight to
13 miles per hour) burns about
eight calories per minute.”
Mike advised that one’s aerobic
training should be performed at
what he termed a “relaxed pace.” If
you’re gasping for breath during
your aerobic exercise, you’re increasing the proportion of sugar
Calipers can
help you
with fat-loss
goals.
being burned for fuel and decreasing the use of bodyfat. “If you can’t
talk easily while jogging or cycling,
you’re working too intensely,” Mike
once said. “Perform your aerobics
at a ‘conversational’ pace, and
you’ll be using up to 90 percent
stored fat as fuel.”
Of course, diet is just as important as increased activity in getting
your bodyfat levels down. It doesn’t
matter how active you are, if you
continue to take in more calories
than you burn off through activity,
you’ll be unable to lose fat. Mike
advised that the safest and most
effective approach to dieting to lose
bodyfat for a contest is to maintain
a diet that’s lower in calories. A
well-balanced diet is composed of
60 percent carbohydrates, 25 percent proteins and 15 percent fats,
with the foods derived from the
four basic food groups—meats,
fruits and vegetables, dairy products and grains and cereals.
Remember, as long as you take in
fewer calories than you need to
meet metabolic and physical activity energy requirements, you’ll lose
fat. If you require 3,000 calories a
day to maintain your weight and all
of a sudden you reduce that to
2,000 calories, you’ll lose fat. There
is no magic fat-loss product. All
supplements are derived from
foodstuffs (rather than drugs),
which are derived from the three
macronutrients—protein, carbohydrate and fat—all of which contain
calories. Eating too many calories
results in the creation of fat on your
body—and too many protein calories will make you just as fat as too
many calories derived from carbohydrates or fats. As Mike once said,
“A calorie is a calorie, no matter
what the source.”
How to Lose Fat
To lose fat, Mike advised simply
reducing your calories to a lower
daily figure:
“Don’t be too drastic at the start.
Begin by cutting 500 calories per
day. As each week passes, reduce
your food consumption by perhaps
200 more calories per day. The
gradual reduction, coupled with
progressively increased aerobic
activity, will inevitably result in
Running is
a more
efficient
fat burner
than riding an
exercise
bike.
reaching peak shape on contest
day—if you’ve properly assessed
your initial physical condition and
given yourself enough time to cut
up. Eat a well-balanced, reducedcalorie diet, and you’ll get ripped.
An occasional ice cream cone or
piece of cake won’t hurt, as long as
you maintain a daily calorie intake
below your personal maintenance
levels.”
Mike advised bodybuilders who
wanted to lose bodyfat and maintain muscle at the same time to
continue to train as usual, in Heavy
Duty high-intensity style—that is,
no more than one workout every
four to seven days, no more than
one to two sets per bodypart and
employing high-intensity principles
such as preexhaust and forced and
negative reps. As your energy input
has been lowered, however, your
overall energy levels—and hence
your ability to generate high-intensity muscular contractions—will
diminish accordingly.
Editor’s note: For a complete
presentation of Mike Mentzer’s
Heavy Duty training system, consult his books Heavy Duty II and
High Intensity Training the Mike
Mentzer Way and the newest book,
The Wisdom of Mike Mentzer, all of
which are available through the ad
on page 239 of this issue, from
Home Gym Warehouse, (800) 4470008, or by visiting Mentzer’s official Web site,
www.mikementzer.com.
John Little is available for phone
consultation on Mike Mentzer’s
Heavy Duty training system. For
rates and information, contact
Joanne Sharkey at (310) 316-4519 or
at www.mikementzer.com, or see
the ad mentioned above.
Article copyright © 2005, John
Little. All rights reserved. Mike
Mentzer quotations provided courtesy of Joanne Sharkey and used
with permission. IM
Magnus
Samuelsson
Swedish Symbol
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Magnus Samuelsson
bad-guy persona, Magnus is not
among the macho posturers:
“Being rude is not the way to get
the world to treat you better,” he
says with a laugh. “There is no
reason to be arrogant.
“You don’t have to act tough,” he
adds. “You have to be tough, and
it’s a difference. It’s easier to try to
act tough, but it’s more important
to be tough when it really matters.
When you’re not competing, you
should be as nice as you want
everybody else to be to you.”
Magnus’ biological furnace
burns about 8,500 calories a day.
As you might guess, he takes in a
lot of food, in addition to gainertype drinks, and it includes two
basic meat-and-potatoes meals,
which are his favorite. Even though
he grew up on a dairy farm and
there’s a classic link between
drinking milk and building muscle,
Magnus claims he’s not a big milk
drinker, although he consumes
about a liter of yogurt with breakfast and drinks about a liter of milk
with his meals.
Training is where you pay your
dues, and Magnus began training
at home as a teenager with his
Years ago stellar arm wrestler
John Brzenk explained to me that
the person most likely to get his
arm broken in an arm-wrestling
match is the guy who lifts weights
but doesn’t arm wrestle and who’s
put against an experienced arm
wrestler. Combine that with bad
luck and/or imperfect refereeing,
and the next sound you’d hear
would be something like snapping
a drumstick off a chicken. Magnus
was paired against nearly sevenfoot Nathan Jones, a lifter but not
an arm wrestler, and the script John
Brzenk had described rolled out to
the letter.
Okay, it wasn’t exactly the kind of
World’s Strongest Man debut that
Samuelsson had wanted, but at
least everybody knew who he was,
and from that point forward his
strongman career took off.
While some guys on the fringe of
the strength world like to adopt a
Above: Samuelsson takes the
nearly 400pound Husafell
stone for a stroll
across the
desert at the ’97
World’s
Strongest Man
contest. Right:
One of Magnus’
nicknames is the
Stone King. He
usually wins
that event in any
contest he enters.
Magnus Samuelsson
brother after school and after all his
farm chores were done.
“I am a workaholic in the gym,”
Magnus says. “That’s my problem,
and I have to tell myself not to train
too much. This is the most common mistake—training too much.”
As a result, in the last year and a
half Magnus has been moving toward shorter workouts. He doesn’t
make a big deal about it, but because he is a clean athlete, it’s especially important that he avoid
overtraining.
Magnus’ preferred workout
schedule is two days on, one off.
Day 1: Chest and Triceps
Chest
1) Bench presses: four or five
sets, with the last set an absolute
max for five reps—or he does five
singles. Magnus benches around
600 pounds, touch and go, without
a bench press shirt, and he may
finish off a bench workout by banging out 20 reps with 150 or 160
kilograms (330 or 353 pounds).
2) Incline presses: doubles or
triples to failure.
3) Incline dumbbell presses:
one or two sets of 15 to 20 reps.
He alternates bench presses and
incline-bench presses from week to
week.
Triceps
1) Pushdowns: 1 x 15, 1 x 10
2) Dumbbell overhead extensions: pyramiding up but always
using very strict form and being
particularly careful not to bounce at
the bottom.
You can see why it’s said
that Samuelsson’s arms
are bigger and stronger
than most men’s legs.
Check out the size of
those guns.
Day 2: Legs
Front squats: Magnus says,
“This is the key for practical
strength in strongman events—
from Conan’s wheel to the truck
pull; I do doubles or triples to failure and always squat down to the
absolute bottom.”
Leg presses: either three sets of
five to six reps or one set of about
10 to 12 reps that is absolutely all
out (“I see stars”). Magnus prefers
the latter, and he says he makes a
contest out of it, trying to beat
whatever he did in the previous
workout.
Magnus Samuelsson
Day 3: Rest
Day 4: Shoulders and
Biceps
Biceps: “Biceps have always
been my strength,” Magnus says,
and when you’re talking about 23inch arms, you know that he isn’t
kidding.
1) Straight-bar curls: 15 reps
(60 kilos, or 132 pounds); 10 reps
(100 kilos, or 220 pounds); 10 reps
(100 kilos); 15 reps (80 kilos, or 176
pounds)—“just enough weight for
the muscle to get the message,”
says Magnus. In terms of style, he
says he doesn’t do superstrict curls
but isn’t really loose or cheating
with them either.
2) Dumbbell curls: nothing
unusual as far as style is concerned.
He starts with his palms facing his
sides and ends with them facing
upward. Magnus starts at one end
of the rack, going for eight to 10
reps, and if he hits eight reps, his
reward is to move up to the next
weight.
Shoulders
1) Power cleans and push
presses/jerks: on alternate weeks
he does push presses from the rack
instead. For aspiring strongmen,
Magnus advises doing “everything
standing—you must be comfortable standing.”
Sometimes he does cleans from
the hang (the bar isn’t lowered all
the way to the ground); when it gets
down to about knee height, Magnus
starts the next rep of the power
cleans.
Mangus took a
crack at the worldfamous and fully
fearsome No. 4 Captains of Crush gripper. Now, that’s a
powerful grip—and
it was just after
he’d finished the ’04
Strongest Man contest.
None of the cleans are done with
the polished technique of a competitive weightlifter: Magnus just
rips the bar off the floor with a
mighty one-pull effort!
2) Standing dumbbell presses: three to four sets of 10 to 15
reps.
Day 5: Back
1) Deadlifts: the main exercise.
Magnus alternates between a heavy
week and a light week. Heavy deadlifts follow the workouts when he
does push presses for shoulders,
and lighter deadlifts follow the
workouts when he does power
cleans and push presses/jerks for
shoulders.
2) Seated rows or chins.
3) Bent-over rows.
Grip Training
Magnus does it on leg and back
days, and it consists of three movements:
1) Grippers: He warms up with
the No. 2 Captains of Crush gripper
Magnus Samuelsson
and then moves to the No. 3. When
he’s feeling strong, he goes on to the
No. 4. Magnus is one of five men in
the world who have officially closed
the No. 4 Captains of Crush gripper
and at this writing is thought to be
the only man in the world capable
of closing the gripper starting with
the handles spread wide enough to
let a credit card fit between them,
rather than using “a deep set” to
start.
2) Wrist roller: He uses the
sleeve on an Olympic bar as a wrist
roller and does three sets.
3) Finger curls with a straight
bar: Standing with his arms hanging straight down, Magnus lets the
bar roll down to the tips of his fingers. Then he curls it back up, using
just his finger strength.
Magnus says he “used to train
loads of grip” in his arm-wrestling
days, and his hand strength is
something that makes people gasp
in amazement. At the 1998 World
Strongman Team Event (in Hardenberg, Netherlands), Magnus said,
“Hey, Randy, watch this.” Click,
click—Magnus tapped the handles
on a No. 3 Captains of Crush gripper, both right-handed and lefthanded, as easily as if they were
plastic castanets, and at the 2004
World’s Strongest Man contest,
Magnus’ brother Torbjorn told me
that closing the No. 4 Captains of
Crush gripper has become a regular
thing for Magnus—an amazing
statement about his hand strength.
Magnus is also a past world-record
holder on the Rolling Thunder (a
popular test of hand strength), and
he seems capable of resetting the
world record almost at will.
Sometimes it’s easy to think that
the importance of a positive mental
outlook is the stuff only of fairy
tales or pencil-necked armchair
experts, but listen to what this 330pound 1998 World’s Strongest Man
winner says:
“You need to have this belief that
you can succeed, that nothing is
impossible. You need to have this
belief in yourself, that if you just do
your best, then you can win. You
must believe that you have this gift,
that you can beat everybody if you
just do your best.”
Looking at Magnus Samuelsson,
you can see that he must have, and
it must be true, because he did.
Editor’s note: Randall J.
Strossen, Ph.D., author of five books
and more than 200 articles, is the
founder and president of IronMind
Enterprises, Inc., known worldwide
for products that are designed for
and used by the strongest people
on earth. You can see the full range
of IronMind products, including
Magnus Samuelsson’s two DVDs,
“Swedish Power!” and “The World’s
Strongest Arms,” in IronMind’s online store. For details visit
www.ironmind.com or call (530)
265-6725. IM
AD
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Positioning
Positioning
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Set Up to Size Up
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Model: Peter Putman
A
lthough I pride myself on having a balanced
physique, I’d have to say that my pecs are my standout bodypart. In the off-season I generally wear a
size 54 jacket, but the waist of my pants is only
34. My jacket size is mostly due to the mass and thickness of
my chest more than anything else (which makes me wonder
what size jacket Ronnie Coleman or Marcus Ruhl must
wear—Wow!). Whenever people see me with my shirt off,
their questions and comments are mostly in regards to my
pecs: “How much do you bench?” “How do you find shirts?”
“Wow, your chest is bigger than my wife’s—and she has implants!” But I digress.
The interesting thing about the fact that my chest is now my
best bodypart is that when I started training, it was probably
my worst. While I weighed a paltry 125 pounds at a height
of 5’11” when I touched a barbell for the first time, you
could still see some muscular development in my arms, shoulders and back. My chest, however, was flat. I looked like an
ironing board with nipples.
Positioning for Pecs
Set Up to Size Up
Smith-Machine Incline Presses
When I started, I
looked like an ironing
board with nipples. So
how did I get my chest
to go from minuscule to
massive, pathetic to
powerful? It’s all about
positioning.
So how did I get my chest to go
from minuscule to massive, tiny to
titanic, pathetic to powerful? Did I
have a secret exercise taught to me
by aliens from the planet
Schwarzeneggeron? Nope. I just did
the basics—like bench presses,
incline presses, flyes, dips and
pullovers. Did I have access to an
experimental protein powder developed by Eastern-bloc scientists that
causes site-specific protein synthesis in the pecs’ fast-twitch fibers?
Nope. I used the same old whey,
casein and egg powders that everyone else uses.
The secret? It’s all about positioning.
Let me illustrate by telling you
about a friend I used to train with
years ago. Every time we went
through an intense chest workout,
doing the same exercises, sets and
reps, he’d say that his shoulders and
triceps had gotten a tremendous
pump but that his chest felt as if it
Model: Michael Ryan
A close grip can stress
the inner-pecs more,
but it also brings in
the triceps. Correct
torso positioning can
shift more emphasis
to your chest.
had hardly been worked. Within the
next day or two he would again
complain that he was sore as could
be in his front delts and inner triceps but felt nothing in his pecs.
With me it was the exact opposite.
My chest always got incredibly
pumped and sore from training it,
while my shoulders and triceps
seemed barely touched.
Over the years that we trained
together, my chest continued to
grow and grow, while his never
changed much; however, his
shoulders and triceps developed
quite nicely. The strange thing
about my friend’s pec dilemma
was that he trained with great
focus and concentration, used very
strict form and progressed very
regularly in terms of weight lifted
on each of his chest exercises. He
and I eventually chalked it up to
genetics. We felt that he simply did
not have the genetic capacity to
build a thick, massive chest.
Then one day, when we were
nearing a competition we were
both preparing for, just for the fun
of it, we decided to videotape a
chest-training session. We did
bench presses, incline dumbbell
presses, flat flyes and cable
crossovers. We did a pretty complete job of taping all of the exercises from a variety of angles and
heights. Later on, when we were
watching the tape, I noticed something interesting in the way he was
performing his exercises—something I’d never really noticed when
I was acting as his spotter. On
every movement, as he reached the
top of the rep, his shoulders were
much higher than his pecs.
That shoulder-lifted position
was making his chest basically
concave at the point of contraction. In addition, he was locking
out very hard at the top, but you
could see that he was doing it by
flexing his triceps, not his pecs.
When I examined my own form, I
could see that my rib cage
remained high throughout a set,
while my shoulders stayed down,
pressed into the bench.
My friend was effectively turning
his pec exercises into shoulder and
triceps exercises, while I was optimally stressing my chest. That’s
what I mean when I say positioning with regard to chest training.
As soon as I pointed out his form
flaws, my friend set out to correct
them.
During his first chest workout
done with improved body positioning, he could feel a pump and
burn in his chest as never before.
He also started getting sore pecs,
which was a first. Within a few
months his chest was taking on
new fullness and shape and beginning to come up to his excellent
delts and arms.
Ad
Set Up to Size Up
Smith-Machine Bench Presses
Always arch your
lower back slightly
and raise your
ribcage up high.
If you feel that your pecs are
lagging behind, I urge you to have
someone with a good eye watch
you train chest. Every day at the
gym I see dozens of people committing the same form flaws that
my friend made. They just don’t
understand that it takes more than
simply lying on a bench, unracking
a bar and pushing it from point A
to point B. Each chest exercise—
bench press, incline press, dip, flye
or crossover—must actually begin
before you even move the weight.
Here’s how to properly position
yourself for pec mass:
During his
first chest
workout done
with
improved
positioning,
he could feel
a pump and
burn in his
chest as
never before.
Model: Lee Apperson
Model: Michael Ryan
1) Lie back on the
bench, and set your
feet firmly on the floor.
2) Arch your lower back
slightly.
3) Raise your ribcage
up high.
4) Squeeze your shoulder blades together.
5) Pull your shoulders
downward and push
them into the bench.
Decline Flyes
Incline Flyes
Set Up to Size Up
This superset is a great
upper-pec builder. Most
trainees don’t realize
that pullovers involve
the upper chest.
Dumbbell Pullovers
Model: Jay Cutler
Those same directions apply
to dips and crossovers as well as
seated press and flye machines.
(The part about lying back does
not apply to the machine exercises, but you do want to plant
your feet firmly on the floor.)
Now you’re in position to
achieve maximum pectoral
recruitment with far less delt
and triceps interference. The
Set Up to Size Up
Model: Jay Cutler
key, however, is to keep your
body in that position throughout
the set. It’s not enough to start in
the proper position and then
slowly break back into bad
habits as the set progresses. You
must learn to lock your body and
stay there.
Trust me when I tell you that if
you’re not used to performing
Decline Bench Presses
Model: Berry Kabov
Set Up to Size Up
Cable Crossovers
your chest exercises in this manner,
it will feel awfully strange at first,
and you probably won’t be able to
use your normal weights; however,
with time you’ll get used to this
pec-pounding position, and it will
become second nature. Eventually,
you’ll work up to the poundage you
were using previously. The greatest
reward, however, will be the new
growth you’ll begin to see in your
chest.
Apply these pec-positioning
steps to the following chest routines—but don’t be too upset if that
tux hanging in your closet never fits
again.
Upper-Pec Pounder
Incline dumbbell presses 3 x 6-8
Smith-machine bench
presses to neck
3 x 8-12
Superset
Incline flyes
2 x 8-10
Dumbbell pullovers 2 x 8-10
Middle-Pec Mauler
Narrow-grip bench
presses
3 x 6-8
Smith-machine narrow-grip
incline presses
3 x 8-12
Superset
Flat-bench cable flyes 2 x 8-10
Pec deck flyes
2 x 8-10
Lower-Pec Pumper
Decline-bench presses
Decline flyes
Superset
Cable crossovers
Dips
3 x 6-8
3 x 8-12
2 x 8-10
2 x 8-10
Remember, those
same positioning
directions apply to
dips and crossovers
as well as seated
press and flye
machines.
Editor’s note: For
individualized programs, online personal
training, nutritional
guidance or contestprep coaching, contact
Eric Broser at
[email protected]. IM
Model: Cesar Martinez
The shoulderlifted position
was making
his chest
basically
concave at
the point of
contraction.
In addition,
he was
locking out
very hard at
the top—not
good for
maximum
pec
stimulation.
Close-Grip Bench Presses
6KUHGGHG%HHI
How Jay Cutler Puts His Muscles
Through the Meat Grinder for
Massive Results
by Steve Holman
I
f you’re a bodybuilder struggling
to put on more muscle, you no
doubt look to the biggest bodies
in the business for answers. Guys
like Ronnie Coleman and Jay Cutler
just have to know something the
rest of us don’t—because they’re
eye-ball-popping huge! Is it genetics? Is it pharmaceutical enhancement? Is it sheer willpower? Yes, to a
degree, on all of those counts, but if
you watch them train, you’ll notice
something more—a big part of their
secret to extreme muscle size. It’s
something you can start using
immediately to make your workouts three, four or five times more
productive at packing on mass.
Both Coleman and Cutler use a
lot of semistretched-position overload and partial reps. Each has a
slightly different style, but you can
bet your biceps they’ve discovered
how to hit their muscles with the
precise stress that triggers tremendous increases in hypertrophy—
and maybe even fiber
splitting—and you’re about to read
exactly how Cutler does it, as documented by Mitsuru Okabe on the
“Ripped to Shreds” two-disc DVD
set. Thanks to Mits, we can watch
the best bodybuilders train, analyze
what they do and come up with
ways to jack up the effectiveness of
our own workouts. Let’s uncover
some of Cutler’s mega-mass secrets.
:RUNRXW
Quads. Jay starts by warming up
on an exercise bike for 15 minutes
and then it’s on to Smith-machine
squats. He does two sets of light
nonlock squats, going deep—and
the vascularity materializes almost
immediately, streaking down his
quads like surgical tubing. Why a
nonlock style? Occlusion. Blocking
blood flow to the target muscle
during a set chokes off oxygen and
All training photos are from “Jay Cutler Ripped to Shreds” DVD ©2005 Mitsuru Okabe Co. All World Rights Reserved. Used with permission.
nutrients so that there’s an emergency rush of blood into the muscle
immediately after the set. That does
great things for warming up the
muscle, not to mention getting the
muscle to grow when it’s combined
with heavier weights on work sets.
After three progressively heavier
warmup sets that include lots of
occlusion, Jay does a concentrated,
deep set with three 45s on each side
of the bar for nine reps. Going
below parallel is a must because it
attacks the semistretched position,
the quads’ max-force-generation
point (you’ll see a lot of this
throughout Cutler’s routine; Coleman does the same thing). Then he
adds more weight for the money
set, which is actually a brutal drop
set. He does eight reps, reduces the
weight, does three reps, reduces the
weight again and does four reps. It’s
a wicked extended set!
Next up is leg presses. Jay does a
13-rep nonlock warmup set, then
adds weight for 10 reps. He rests,
then adds weight again for six reps,
but on that set he pauses for a few
seconds at lockout after rep six
before blasting out three more
nonlock reps. You can see his outer
quads twitching from the overload
during that interesting rest/pause
technique.
Now it’s back to the Smith machine for front squats. He does a
semiheavy warmup with 225 for
five nonlock reps, pauses for a few
seconds at lockout and then does
about four more nonlock reps.
Apparently, occlusion on the
warmup is mandatory. After that he
stacks on more weight and does six
reps nonlock style, racks it, reduces
the weight and immediately does
four nonlock reps. Once again,
every rep is d-e-e-p.
Any mortal would be done after
all of that, but Cutler moves to an
open area of the gym and does
walking lunges. He does stints of
eights in the beginning, and it’s a
nonlock style once again—he stays
low, maintaining a crouched squatting position as he moves forward.
It’s that semistretched-position
overload again. For his last set he
does 10 reps, stands up and pauses,
then does three more reps, stands
up and pauses, and then finishes
with three more reps. From the look
to just out of the start,
stretch position, pulses
for one or two explosive
partials, or X Reps, then
drives up through the full
stroke again. Cutler does
that on almost every
exercise, so I’ll designate
that with a hyphen (-)
between rep numbers.
For example, on his first
hamstring exercise, leg
On lower-ab work he moves his
curls, his first work set is
legs past the plane of the
4-3-3-2. That means four
bench for stretch work.
continuous reps,
semistretch-overload X
Reps, then three continuous reps, more
semistretched-position X
Reps and so on.
Hamstrings. He
starts with leg curls, even
using the semistretchedpoint-overload technique on the warmup
set: 1 x 8-6-3. His work
sets are 1 x 4-3-3-2, 1 x 51-1-1-1 and 1 x 4-3-1-1.
He employs the technique rather randomly,
on Jay’s face you can tell it’s a punbut the point is that he uses it often
ishing movement, although the
for extreme muscle-growth stimuweight is relatively light.
lation.
He finishes quads with leg extenHe then moves to seated leg
sions, and this is the first time we
curls, two sets of 10 with various
see shades of the hitch technique
pauses in the semistretched posithat Ronnie Coleman uses on
tion for partials. From there he goes
shrugs. Here’s how Cutler uses it:
to the dumbbell rack and does stiffAfter one warmup set of 13 reps,
legged deadlifts, although his legs
with partial hitches at the bottom,
are not even close to straight (see
semistretched position of every
the photo on page 215). He does
rep—a.k.a. X Reps—he jacks up the
two sets of 10 again with various
weight for his first work set. He
semistretched-position overload
does a few continuous reps, then
partials near the bottom on most
the hitch technique begins. He
reps. It’s the same protocol for
pauses near the bottom,
standing one-leg leg curls—two sets
semistretched point—that’s right,
of 10.
the bottom, not the top—and does
Adductors. You don’t see many
one to three short partial explobig men using the adductor masions before driving through for
chine, but Jay Cutler is a stickler for
another full rep. After he does 12
details. His sets are 1 x 6-5-5-3; 1 x
full reps, he immediately reduces
7-2-2-2; and 1 x 4-1-1-1-1, reduce
the weight and does six reps, every
the poundage and 1 x 4-1-1.
one with the semistretched hitch
Abs. He blasts out three sets of
near the bottom of the stroke. He
18 reps on crunches, some interrests and then does a second drop
spersed with semistretched-point
set interspersed with that imporpartials. Then he stays on the floor,
tant semistretched-overload techrolls onto one side and squeezes
nique.
out oblique/serratus crunches, two
To clarify, the semistretchedsets of 12 reps.
overload technique is a drive to the
Now it gets interesting. He moves
top of the stroke, and then he lowers
to an Icarian kneeup bench, on
which you support your weight on
your forearms in an upright position; however, this bench is angled
back. Why? At the bottom of each
leg lift or kneeup you can allow
your legs to move down past the
plane of your torso in order to hit
the rectus abdominis’ stretch position. Cutler uses the familiar
semistretched-point overload technique as follows: 1 x 5-4-1, 1 x 5-3-1,
1 x 6-2-1-1. Between his second and
third sets he peels off his shirt for
some impromptu posing, and it’s
an oh-my-God display of vascularity, striations and hugeness that’s
absolutely mind-boggling!
:RUNRXW
Calves. Jay begins with a
warmup set on the standing calf
machine for 16 reps, and on almost
every one he does a partial-hitch
near the bottom of the rep—almost
like a double bounce but with control. Then he does three progressively heavier sets—1 x 6-2-2-2; 1 x
5-2-2-1-1; 1 x 4-2-2-1—rests six
seconds, then pushes out three
more reps. Note that he uses a
rest/pause on that third work set to
extend it. He does a final set of 1 x
5-3-1-1 (remember, the hyphens
designate X Reps embedded in the
set).
Now it’s on to seated calf raises: 1
x 7-4-2-1. He adds weight and does
1 x 6-3-1-1-1, rests six seconds and
then does five reps with X Reps on
each. His final set is 1 x 6-1-1-1-1-1,
and then he reduces the weight and
does 2-1-1-1.
Chest. Cutler begins his pec
work on an incline-flye machine,
the type with the roller pads at the
crook of each elbow. He does 1 x 42-2-1-1-1, adds weight and does 1 x
4-1-1-1-1, adds weight and does 1 x
3-1-1-1. On that last set he pumps
out about three X-Rep partials at
the end of the last rep.
Dumbbell bench presses are next
on his agenda. It’s really an awesome sight when he lies back with
massive dumbbells in his hands
and uses the semistretched-overload tactic at the bottom of so many
reps. It looks dangerous, but at least
with dumbbells he can jettison
them if he gets in trouble. He does 1
x 6-2-1, adds weight and does 1 x 4-
Jay uses a doublestretch technique
on most of his
exercises between
reps or groups of
reps. Is he triggering a fiber-splitting
effect?
He almost never
holds contractions,
instead focusing on
the semistretched
position.
2-1, adds weight and does 1 x
5-1-1-1.
Now he goes back to upperchest work with Smith-machine incline presses, working
all reps through the bottom
two-thirds of the stroke only
(semistretched-point emphasis). Yes, he still employs the XRep-style pulses between reps
or groups of reps. First he
pumps out a warmup set of
225 x 4-1-1-1. He adds
weight—three 45s on each
side—cranks out 1 x 4-1-1,
pauses at the top lockout for a
few seconds and does two reps.
Now comes the money set: He
reps 315 x 4-1-1, reduces the
weight for 225 x 3-1-1, rests for
six seconds, then does 225 x 21. Whew! Pec check: They’re
thick, pumped and striated!
For cable crossovers Cutler
does 1 x 7-1-1-1 on his first set.
Then he adds weight and does
1 x 4-1-1-1-1, reduces the
poundage and immediately
does 1 x 3-1-1-1. That may be
the only exercise on which he
squeezes the target muscles in
the contracted position, but he
limits it to about two reps per
set; the rest he works with
more semistretched-position
emphasis, pulsing the pecs at
the top end of the reps.
He finishes off his chest
work with some pushups just
to stretch his pecs, including
lots of X Reps performed with
his chest near the floor.
:RUNRXW
Delts. Seated dumbbell
laterals are up first, but they
really look like seated widegrip dumbbell upright rows. In
other words, he doesn’t do
them very strictly, but that’s
how he gets more resistance at
the bottom (there’s definitely a
pattern here). His first set is a
warmup: 1 x 7-4-3-2. He adds
weight for three more sets,
going all the way up to 70s: 50s
x 4-1-1-1-1; 60s x 4-1-1-1-1; 70s
x 4-1-1-1-1. For the last set he
backs off to 65s and does 1 x 41-1-1-1-1-1.
By now there are veins pop-
ping out all over his gnarly delts.
Incredible. He goes to seated
dumbbell presses, using a seat that
has a back support. He ups the
weight on every set: 1 x 6-1-1-1; 1 x
5-1-1; 1 x 5-1-1-1.
He only does one set of one-arm
behind-the-back cable laterals: 1 x
5-1-1-1-1. He really stresses the
bottom X position on these, and
you can see the medial head firing
at that low position.
Next it’s rear-delt-machine laterals for three sets, the last of which is
a drop set combined with
rest/pause—1 x 6-1-1-1-1; 1 x 5-1-11; 1 x 6-1-1-1—then he reduces the
weight and does 1 x 4-1-1, rests six
seconds and does 1 x 2-1.
He must not have been satisfied
with his medial-head pump because he moves to one-arm machine laterals for one set: 1 x
6-1-1-1. Ah, that’s better. His delts
make him look as wide as an aircraft carrier.
Triceps. A warmup set of rope
pushdowns is first—1 x 15 rapid-fire
reps but none to full lockout. Then
it’s on to extra semistretched overload for three sets: 1 x 5-3-1-1-1-1; 1
x 4-1-1-1-1-1; 1 x 4-1-1-1-1-1. He
reduces the weight and does onearm pushdowns, 1 x 3-1-1-1-1.
More pushdowns, but this time
he uses a slightly bent bar and an
elbows-flared style. He does two
sets of 11 reps, moving the bar
through the top range only—lower
chest to lower abs.
Time for some stretch work with
single-dumbbell overhead extensions: He does 1 x 7-1-1-1, adds
weight and then does 1 x 5-1-1; 1 x
5-1-1-1.
He performs two sets of machine
dips to finish off his triceps—1 x 81-1-1; 1 x 7-1-1-1—with various
pauses and partials at the top and
bottom of reps.
Biceps. EZ-curl-bar curls are up
first, and Cutler even does the
semistretched-point pauses on the
warmup set: 1 x 6-5-4-3. Now he
adds weight over three sets: 1 x 6-21-1-1; 1 x 4-1-1-1-1-1-1; 1 x 4-1-1-11. He reduces the weight by 40
pounds and does 1 x 3-1-1.
For alternate dumbbell curls he
leans back against a bench that’s
slightly inclined. He supinates his
hand on every rep—thumb forward
Mass-Building Lessons
So what can we learn from Jay’s workouts? As with
Ronnie Coleman, it appears that semistretched- and
stretched-position overload are extremely important for
extreme mass development. I’ve been dissecting the reasons for that important phenomenon for a while now in
the pages of IRON MAN, at www.X-Rep.com and in the ebooks Beyond X-Rep Muscle Building and The Ultimate
Mass Workout. Where Coleman uses a lot of rapid-fire
partials, emphasizing the semistretched point and even
using a hitch at that point on every rep of some exercises,
Cutler’s partial-range technique involves performing a
number of semistretched partials between groups of reps
or between reps. Research ties stretch-position overload
to hyperplasia, or muscle-fiber splitting. Could he be
making it happen with his training style? Interesting.
Due to his partial reps, Cutler also gets a lot of continuous tension, which creates occlusion, or blocked blood
flow. That triggers a full-blown pump as well as a number
of anabolic responses. And keep in mind that it’s continuous tension for extended sets. For example, when he does
cable crossovers for 1 x 4-1-1-1-1, it lasts much longer
than a normal eight-rep set because before each of those
singles he pauses and does a few X Reps at the
semistretched point. That means his eight reps last as
long as a normal 12-to-15-rep set.
I said at the beginning of this feature that we look to the
biggest men in the game for muscle-building answers. As
this DVD illustrates, Jay Cutler is one of the most massive
bodybuilders on the planet—and he’s got some interesting answers when it comes to building more muscle, with
semistretched-point overload at the top of the list.
This Interesting
incline curl machine
gives Cutler a unique
biceps stretch.
at the bottom, rotating the dumbbell as he curls till his palm is up at
the top. He does one set of eight
reps, adds weight and does a second set of six.
He does machine curls but not
on a preacher machine; it’s more of
an incline-curl simulator for more
biceps stretch. He performs only
two sets, but the second is a bicepsblistering blast: 1 x 4-1-1-1-1-1; 1 x
4-1-1-1-1-1, reduce the weight for 1
x 4-1-1, rest six seconds and then
continue with 3-1-1. It’s a drop set
with a rest/pause chaser.
To complement
his biceps work, Jay
hits his brachialis
muscles with alternate dumbbell
hammer curls, two
sets of seven to nine
reps. He intersperses the reps with
those hitches he
likes so much near
the bottom of the
stroke.
Abs. Jay ends his
workout with a
variety of abdominal work. First he does full-range
crunches, with his upper back
hanging off a bench so he gets a
stretch in his rectus abdominis. He
doesn’t use any weight and performs a lot of double hitches
throughout the set near the stretch
position: 1 x 5-5-3; 1 x 7-4-3-1-1-1; 1
x 4-2-1-1-1-1-1.
He gets lower-ab stretch with legups on a flat bench, allowing his
feet to move down past the plane of
his torso to the floor. He does the
bottom range of the stroke only,
three sets of 14 reps.
To end his ab workout, he does
those sideways oblique/serratus
crunches on the floor, two sets of 12
with double hitches at the
semistretched point on a number of
reps.
Cutler was one week out from the
Arnold Classic when this DVD was
shot, so after his workout he goes
into the locker room for some posing practice. I won’t describe it, but
I will say that you won’t believe your
eyes—and you will be motivated!
Editor’s note: Jay Cutler’s twodisc “Ripped to Shreds” DVD (three
hours, 15 minutes) is available from
Home Gym Warehouse at a special
price: $29.95 plus shipping (regularly $39.95; you save $10!). Call
(800) 447-0008 or visit www
.HomeGym.com to
order. For more
on X-Rep training, occlusion
and
semistretched
overload, visit
www
.X-Rep.com. IM
Lonnie Teper’s
Swami Sez Dept.
Nationals Picks
Where there’s a will(more)
There’s Bill
Okay, Mild Bill, your time’s about to arrive. Sure, some folks thought you
should have earned pro status at the ‘03 Nationals in front of your hometown
fans in Miami Beach, but Mat DuVal spoiled your afterdinner plans that night. At
last season’s Nationals, in Dallas, you again had plenty of supporters who felt that
you, not Chris Cook, would wind up with the superheavyweight—and overall—
crowns. Hell, there was even a ruckus in the audience between your supporters
and Cook’s when he was eventually crowned.
Should Bill Wilmore have won either of those shows? Let’s say he could
have won; both DuVal and Cook were at their all-time best and were worthy
champions.
But let’s not dwell on the past. The Swami sez 2005 will see Wilmore and his
5’11”, 250-pound physique finally move up to the next level with an overall win at
this year’s Nationals, which are set for November 18–19 in Atlanta. First of all, Bill
has showed up in terrific condition the past two years, and I expect him to do
likewise this time around. Second, who’s going to beat him? At least
in the superheavyweights? Last year’s third-placer,
Marcus Haley, turned pro with a victory
ADD SWAMI
at the North Americans in September. Jerome “Hollywood” FerIt’s time for Mild Bill to become Wild Bill.
guson and Omar Deckard,
Folks like (from far left) Jose
fourth and fifth a year ago and both owners of championship physiques, did the
Raymond,
Randall Chaney and Grigori
USA and North Americans and are probably burned out for any more battles
Atoythis year.
an
Sure,
could
there can
also find
always be
thema surprise
selves
title conwith pro
tender,
cards at
but this
evening’s
year has
end in
Atlanta.
already
seen Phil
Heath come
out of nowhere
to cop the Junior
National and USA
overall crowns. No, the
Swami sez it will be Bill.
omstock
More Picks’ Pics
RETURNS
Class
Warfare
As for the other divisions
Shirts R Us
So, who else should we keep an
eye on at the Nationals? Possible
pros on the way if they can win their
class on the posing dais? Well, for
starters, let’s go with Sting Ray
Arde, coming off a strong secondplace finish in the heavyweight class
at the USA. Grigori Atoyan, second last year in Dallas, is always a
Mark
threat. Then, there’s the North CaroliErpeldna duo of Shaun “Ain’t No Chump”
ing won
Crump and Greg Jones. Ditto for
the
lightRandall Chaney, Eddie Linda
heavy
and Mark Erpelding in the lightclass at
heavyweight
class.
the ’05
In the middles, I foresee a great
North
Ameribattle between Garrett Allin, Stan
cans.
McQuay, Tricky Jackson and
Anthony “Guns” Watkins. And
throw USA champ Jamie Ibone
and runner-up Sam Bakhtiar in the mix too.
Will Jose Raymond try to three-peat in the welterweight class (USA,
Team Universe to date)? Will Perry McRae finally get a pro card? Tell
you what—get your fanny to Atlanta and find out firsthand who’s the best
in the land. Or log on to www.GraphicMuscle.com, the best contest Web
site going, for up-to-date event coverage, featuring my audio reports and
the always sublime stage shots of Bill “Big Daddy” Comstock.
After 32
years of
owning the
largestselling logo
brand in the
world, Gold’s
Gym has
come out
with a retro
edition of the
original
design. Ric
“the Equalizer” Drasin,
The original Gold’s Gym T-shirt,
former pro
designed on a napkin more than
wrestling
30 years ago, is once again availstar, bodyable for purchase.
builder,
artist, producer, stuntman and then some, designed the logo on a napkin in Zucky’s Deli in
Santa Monica in 1973, a time when he was often
the training partner of the guy who went on to
become governor of Kauli-fornia.
Drasin did the emblem as a favor and never
received a dime for his creation. Yes, Irene,
justice can be served; after more than three
decades Gold’s teamed up with Drasin this past
summer to bring the design back as a collector’s
item, with Ric’s signature back right next to the
foot, where it all began in the ’70s.
Since Drasin owns the rights to the original
logo, he will now have the opportunity to get a
share of the income Gold’s has generated with
the logo by way of its 600 gyms and 10 million
members worldwide. (Better late than never, eh,
Ric?)
Contest photography by Bill Comstock
Liberman
MORE SWAMI
Tricky Jackson
(left) or Anthony
Watkins could
make it in the
middles.
For information on tickets to the NPC National Bodybuilding and
Fitness Championships, write to [email protected].
And they’re good as Gold’s
Ric
Drasin
(left),
here
with Bill
Pearl,
created
the logo
as a
favor.
A G I N G W E L L D E P T.
WATCH OUT FOR
Fantastic 50
Scott Peckham
This figure master is standing the test of time
For photos, results and reports of all
sorts from the ’05 Olympia Weekend go
to IRON MAN’s
www.GraphicMuscle.com.
Photo courtesy of Monica Brant
Photo courtesy of Robin Tesvich
It was nice to spend some time with Luke
and Robin Tesvich at the Texas Championships, which were held in Houston in late
July. I’ve known the pair since 1989, the year
they married, and the year Cool Hand Luke
won the mixed-pairs crown with Debby
McKnight and was third in the
middleweight class at the Nationals.
NPC Texas chairman Michael Johnston
brought in the handsome couple to join the
judging panel at the state show. Luke, who’s
currently the chairman for Louisiana, has
been a national judge since 2000 and, along
with Robin, promotes the Greater Gulf States
and USA Wheelchair Championships, which
are held in Metairie each June.
Robin, the mother of now-retired fitness
Robin Tesvich really raised the
and figure competitor Thiel Bradford (who
bar for 50-year-olds when she
earned pro status two years ago at 23 and
showed up in this shape to win
made the Figure Olympia lineup the same
the masters-50-and-over trophy
at the ’05 Southern States.
year), might be the hottest 50-year-old in the
land.
After enjoying an evening of dining and dancing with 75 friends and family last
January in celebration of having lived a half century (it was an Italian affair; even
the band sang in Italian), Robin began dieting for competition. She continued her
contest prep while helping Luke promote
their annual event and traveling every other
weekend to judge contests.
Having competed in either a beauty
contest or an NPC event in her 20s, 30 and
40s, Robin moved into her 50s by taking
the masters figure, 50 and over, at the
Southern States in August.
Fortunately, Hurricane Katrina didn’t
cause severe turmoil for the Marrero-based
couple. “We did have to evacuate and
spent two weeks in Baton Rouge, and then Robin and Luke raise a glass at
the Texas Championships last
we went to Houston,” reports Robin, “But
summer.
we didn’t lose our home, which suffered
little damage. We are scheduled to move
back in October.”
“Luke was also able to keep his vacation plans of a three-week safari in
Ethiopia.”
Robin’s plans included improvements to her physique and a visit to the Masters Nationals in 2006. “I want to be the oldest gal in the masters-over-35 lineup.
What do you think?”
I think you can hold your own onstage with any age group, young lady.
Scott Peckham has proved that his
wife’s isn’t the only hot body in the
family.
Scott Peckham was used to the
stares that headed his way wherever
he went in the physique world, but
they were usually directed at the
lovely lady on his arm, his wife, Monica Brant.
After impressive outings onstage in
the first part of 2005, Scott is now
earning stares of his own. The 5’11",
235-pounder, who turned 35 at the
end of September, finished second in
the light-heavyweight class at both
the Orange County and Contra Costa
(California) championships, and, like
his spouse, Scott usually had the
best set of wheels onstage. Look for
him to hit the national scene in the
near future.
Peckham and Brant are living in
Marina del Rey, California, but are
planning a move to Austin, Texas, in
December. Scott sold his gym and
the couple plan on opening a new
facility in Austin sometime next year.
Says Monica, “Scott loves the
Boston Red Sox and is a great softball player—and husband. And he
can build anything!”
Especially a quality physique.
Comebacks: Hot Bod Back on the Circuit
On the Road Again
Benfatto to end 14-year
Devo-ted
Retirement at the IRON MAN Pro
Neveux
Photo courtesy of Dave Liberman
AnyRemember Fabulous Franbody who’s
come into
cis Benfatto? At 5’6” and
contact with
about 190 pounds, he was
promoter Dave
a smaller version of Steve
Liberman knows
Reeves and was one of
just how far Demented Dave will
the industry’s premier
go to get your
physique artists 15 years
signed check. When
ago, finishing sixth in the
Liberman’s high
’90 Olympia, seventh in
school classmate,
Devo lead singer
’91. Earlier that year FranMark Mothersbaugh,
cis had placed seventh at
played the ClevePASSING THE BUCK: DAVE AND MARK
the
IRON MAN Pro. His last
land Scene Pavilcontest, to my
ion in August, Liberman did what he does
best—badgered helpless Mark until he donated his
recollection, was
check from the concert to Dave’s Natural Norththe ’92 Mr. O,
ern Ohio Championships, which will be held
where he finished
in April in Westlake. Whip it, Dave.
15th—but he beat a guy
Whip it good.
named Ronnie Coleman
that day, so it wasn’t all bad.
Mirror, mirror on the wall, who
Fast-forward 13 years. Benfatto, now 47, got
had the prettiest physique of
the bug to step onstage again after getting in prime shape for an exhibition
them all? Francis Benfatto cerat the IFBB South African Championships last year. The occasion for the
tainly has to make the first
appearance: to promote his Francis Benfatto Signature Series supplement
callout in that round.
line, which is being manufactured by the South American company Musclescience (www.MuscleScience.com).
“I had some pictures taken at the exhibition and since then have not stopped progressing,” says Francis. “This has inspired me
to get back to the pro stage.
“I will bring a new dimension to the science of training by conditioning myself to reach the best level I can without sacrificing my
health and to be in better shape at 47 than I was at 30. I can say, with confidence, that I have not yet reached my full potential and
would achieve this by following my goal with a comeback onstage. Competing at the ’06 IRON MAN would be a dream come true.”
Look for more on fabulous Francis—and one of the classiest physiques of all time—in upcoming issues of IRON MAN.
GYM CHAINS
365 Is Alive
Former Gold’s guys launch new venture
Paul Grymkowski and Rich Minzer, two of the major players in the development and
success of the Gold’s Gym licensing program, are teaming up again, this time to create a
new co-ed fitness venture. 365 Fitness will license 8,000-square-feet-and-larger facilities
featuring state-of-the-art fitness equipment, cardiovascular machines and 30-minute express workouts.
“By focusing on unsurpassed service and cleanliness and providing integrated health
and wellness solutions, 365 Fitness is the re-emergence of simple ideals in the creation of
true profit centers,” said Minzer. “Gold’s Gym in Middletown, New Jersey, is converting to a
Rich Minzer (left) and
365 Fitness. We’ve had more than 100 applications go out, and I’m looking at possible sites
Paul Grymkowski.
in Marina del Rey, Venice and Playa Vista [in Southern California].” The duo has also hooked
up with Neal Spruce’s new bodybugg™ system, which includes a Web-based computer interface for users to log their food
intake and plan their menus.
Sounds pretty exciting, guys. For more info on 365 Fitness contact Paul or Rich at (800) 955-4365.
’05 IFBB North American Championships
Welcome to the Pros
It look longer than
Congrats also go
expected, but
to Kim Perez,
Marcus Haley
the women’s
has finally
overall champ, who
earned the
also earned her pro
right to comcard. Perez, with her
pete for cash
Lenda Murray-esque
physique, really
by taking the
caught my eye at the
overall crown
’04 Nationals, where
at the North
she finished third
American
in the lightChampionships.
heavyweight
The event was held
class.
five weeks after
Haley’s disappointment at
the USA, where he won the supredicts that North American
perheavyweight class but watched as overall L.T.
champs Marcus Haley and Kim Perez
(far left) will more than hold their own
champ Phil Heath and light-heavyweight winner Fakhri
on the flex-for-pay circuit.
Mubarak got the nod to move on to the next level.
The Tampa, Florida, resident has been a pro in waiting for some time now, and he kept punching away until he got there. Thumbs-up, Marcus. See you at the IRON MAN?
KIM PEREZ
ADD NEW GYMS
Plus New Contests It’s masters time
In case you haven’t heard the news, Bev Francis and Steve Weinberger no longer own the Gold’s Gym they’ve run so successfully for the
past 15 years in Syosset, New York. Oh, it didn’t go anyplace, just
changed names—to Powerhouse.
“After three years on our own and 15 years with Gold’s, it was time for
us to move on, personally and from a business standpoint,” says Weinberger. “Over the years Gold’s has become a little too corporate for me.
”When we first started the gym, it was 5,000 square feet—today it’s
Power couples. Bev Francis and Steve Weinberger
(opposite ends) with Ronnie Coleman and Ali
over 35,000. A major reason for the gym’s success is that Bev and I have
Bautista in the ’House.
put our hearts and souls into creating the best gym we could possibly
have. I’ve known the Dabish family [Powerhouse founders] for years, and
they always treated us like family. Will, Norm and Krystal Dabish are extremely attentive and helpful, and we knew we had
to make the change. Now we’re focusing on making it the best Powerhouse Gym in the country. There are no hard feelings
towards Gold’s, and I wish them the best.”
Bev and Steve have also added a new contest to their already impressive lineup of shows. The ’06 IFBB Professional Masters World Championships will run in conjunction with the NPC New York Metropolitan Championships and the IFBB N.Y. Pro
Fitness show in the spring. “Bev and I thought it would be a good idea to put on a masters contest because there hasn’t been
a masters pro show in a couple of years,” says Weinberger. “And with so many masters coming out of the NPC, we figured it
would be a good time to do it. Prize money will be $20,000, with $10,000 going to the winner.”
Sounds like a real powerhouse event, Steve.
Liberman
Liberman
Add NAC
Haley’s comet and Kim’s cuts
CONTEST CORNER
PHOTOGRAPHY BY LONNIE TEPER
HOT SHOTS
BY JERRY FREDRICK
Texas Championships • Houston • July 23
Promoter Michael Johnston with bodybuilding
champs Lisa Guarneiri and Jay Moore.
enter the HomeBoris prepares to
the children!
de
Hi
t.
ffe
Town Bu
Arizona Championships
Phoenix • July 9
Figure
champ Mary
Lila Nance.
Lone Star Classic
Plano, Texas • June 3–4
From left: promoter Miles Nuessle and overall
winners Lynn Widdowson, Rebecca Greaug and
Hugh Henry.
Wile E. Coyot
e’s replacem
looked like
trouble for th ent
e pesky
roadrunner.
Southern States Championships
Fort Lauderdale, Florida • August 4–5
Overall bodybuilding champions Brandon Lowe and Tina Chandler.
IAJE Photography
Kneeling: Debi Laszewski and Darin Page,
overall bodybuilding champs. Standing (from
left) Peter W. Potter,
promoter, and top
trophy winners
Alison Cosentino
(over-30 bodybuilding), Jazmany Castellanos (teen), Ava
Cowan (figure),
Megan Davies (teen
figure and fitness)
and Nardo Dean
(men’s fitness). Far
right: Co-promoters
Maria Bellando and
Manuel Mair.
—we like to
Flowers, trophies
o wear bikinis
wh
n
reward wome
in public.
Ruth Silverman’s
3803 &L5&8067$1&(
TEAM UNIVERSE
New York State of Mind
More tales
from the road
Comstock
The journey that began at
but the big news for 2005 was
the USA Championships in
that for the first time in several
Las Vegas on July 29 included
years the men’s team would
a side trip to visit family in
actually be going to the Worlds.
Pittsburgh and a mind-mellowArriving at Penn Station in
ing train ride through the lush
rush hour on Thursday, August
Pennsylvania countryside for
4, I was flooded with nostalgia
this reporter. For the athletes
as I schlepped my suitcase and
who competed during Team
laptop up the escalator to 31st
Universe weekend in New
Street. My first New York bodyYork on August 5 and 6 it was
building trip had taken place on
a journey to a pro card, a spot
that very block, at the venue that
on the so-called Universe
was then called the Felt Forum
team, a place in the Olympia
of Madison Square Garden: the
lineup—or not. These days
’86 Ms. Olympia. Back in the
Team U weekend includes a
day women’s bodybuilding drew
whole lotta buff bodies battling Men’s story. Jose Raymond, coming off a class win at
4,800 fans at that fabled auditoit out: the T.U. Bodybuilding
rium. Of course you knew that.
the USA, was heavily favored to do some damage in
the men’s division, and he didn’t disappoint, becoming Also that the ’86 Ms. O was won
and Fitness Championships,
the first America welterweight to win an overall title. It by Cory Everson.
the National Figure Champiremains to be seen whether Raymond, who turned
onships and the IFBB New
In the taxi, inching downtown,
down a pro card after winning the lightweights at the
York Pro Figure event. All of
I reflected on how New York cab
them except the pro show are ’01 Nationals, will take the plunge this time. The sufares have grown in the almost
perbly symmetrical men’s posedown included (from
drug-tested and are used to
20 years since my first pro anyleft): Dietrich Horsey, heavyweight; Ron Hackaspker,
pick the teams that will go to
bantamweight; Orlando Smith, light heavyweight; Ray- thing competition—almost as
the IFBB Men’s and Women’s mond; Andre Ewing, middleweight; and Kelly Pettiford, much as the women’s
World Amateur
physiques—and wondered
lightweight.
Championships, which are
whether there would be more or
scheduled for China and Spain, respectively. The NPC would
fewer figure competitors than there’d been at the USA. For the
again be giving pro cards to the overall bodybuilding winners,
answer to that and other penetrating ponderings, read on.
MORE TUW
Patton of Behavior
Third time’s the you know what
Patton pending. Will Debbie
take the flex-for-pay option? In
a word, yes.
Twice-crowned Team Universe
middleweight titlist Debbie Patton
came in 12 pounds heavier this time
and cleaned up, leaving some very
disappointed ladies in the heavyweight class and snaring the overall
for the very first time. Patton who
did what all good bodybuilders do in
the off-season, pulled off the elusive
trick of maintaining the size she’d
built but coming in spot on. With her
naturally tiny waist and beautiful
balance intact, no one in the show
could touch her 137-pound package—including Dallas Johnson
and Mary Bowles, a pair of
promising newcomers who took the
lightweight and middleweight classes, respectively.
MORE NEW PROS
One figure
lass who
took a lap
around
the proqualifying
circuit
this year
is Rebecca Rush.
Numerous
observers
were
surprised
that the 5’
cutie from
Columbus, Ohio,
didn’t get
the call at
the 2004
Nationals,
where she
was fourth in the A class, or at the ’05 Junior
Nationals, where she was fifth. After hauling home
the third-place trophy from the USA, Rebecca
must have known she was on a roll and just kept
going. Good thing she wasn’t in any rush.
F I G U R E N AT I O N A L S
Dirty Dozen
GIRLFRIENDS
They were so-o-o bad
Bradford
Getting a
leg up.
Hollenshade started competing in 2002, and
thanks to this season’s run for the pros, she’s
a doll in the shade no longer.
As for the question,
Which amateur figure
show had more competitors, the USA or the Figure
Nationals? The answer is
the Junior Nationals,
which attracted, by my
count, 138 contestants
compared with 136 at the
USA and 130 at the Nationals. Since four new
pros were crowned at the
Juniors, six at the USA
and 12 at the Nationals,
that meant the odds were
best at the latter. Ladies
who were weary of the
pro-qualifying circuit and
skipped New York may
want to rethink that strategy next time. (Don’t want
people thinking you’re bad
at math, do ya?) Those
who stuck it out got their
due, starting with D class
and overall champ
Danielle Hollenshade,
a 5’5” personal trainer
from Hollandale, Florida,
whose stunning 130pound physique took
runner-up trophies at the
two earlier shows and third
at the Junior USA in April.
M O R E F I G N AT ’ S
Photography by Ruth Silverman
Freed at Last
Also catching the P&C eye at last year’s Figure
Nationals was Jeanette Freed, a 5’3” housewife
from Brooklyn who got third at that show, won her
class at the ’04 North Americans and just missed out
with a runner-up placing at the ’05 USA. When I
spotted her at the athletes’ meeting in New York, she
looked like an easy pick for movin’ on up. Freed was
introduced to figure by her brother, a Marine, who
suggested that his somewhat mesomorphic sister
might be good at it. Though she had no athletic
background, she said, Aye, aye—“I wanted to try.”
She started training and “pulled a diet out of
Oxygen,” she said. Eight weeks later she did her
first competition, the ’03 New York Metropolitan
Local gal is ready for her
Championships,
and another fledgling figure career
trophy shot.
cannonballed onto the field. Pumping up before the
finals on Saturday night, she had every reason to be encouraged by the callouts
she’d gotten at the judging. Still, said the busy mother of five-year-old Brianna
Freed, “I’m blessed to be able to do this on this side.” Some physique followers
might suggest that she’s blessed in the genetics department as well.
Roc ’n’
roll. Georgia fitness
standouts
Sonja
Bruce and
Bethany
Gainey
competed
together
all year
and were
bubbling
with affection for
their
trainer,
IFBB pro
e, I’d
Shabazz. Of cours
bodybuilder Roc
from
earful about them
an
ard
he
dy
ea
alr
d out
all of which turne
c,
Ro
g
lin
bb
bu
the
ce is
fans take note: Bru
to be true. Trivia
y.
Arm
U.S.
a captain in the
Also frequently see
together in
2005 were
Ali
Metkovich
and Alexis
Ellis, who
spent a
year and a
half literally
standing
next to
each other
onstage. At
the Figure
Nationals,
a former hepta
Metkovich,
thlete who comp
eted twice
at the Olympic
Trials, took the
title in the
very tall class,
with Alexis earn
ing the
runner-up trip
to the pros.
No pro
cards
for
fitness
contenders
Karen
Patten
and
Tami
Ough,
who
became
fast
friends
at the
’05
Emerald
Cup,
but
they
had a great time. Ore
gon’s Ough, a
nurse, won that sho
w and took third in
the routines in New
York behind Bethan
y
Gainey and Arizona
ace Lisa McCormick.
Patten, the ’05 Alaska
champ, has got
some six-pack for a
mother of three.
3803 &L5&8067$1&(
FITNESS TYME
MORE DUOS
Fabuloso!
Tumbling returns to the Tribeca
Doublemint Twins?
Cassandra and Selma—or is it Selma on the
left? Which of these ladies is the female flexer?
Allison Daughtry and Bethany Gainey—that’s entertainment!
Fitness came back to the Team Universe with a vengeance after a year’s
absence. The 34 puffed-with-potential performers who traveled to New York’s
Tribeca Performing Arts Center composed a good-looking, smooth-moving
field. Look for the three class winners—Allison Daughtry, Bethany Gainey
and Bridgette Murray—to be sparkling in the pros real soon. Daughtry, the
short-class champ, had a nimble routine and the best physique in her class.
Tall-class victor Murray had won the Junior Nationals earlier in the summer and
more than lived up to her reputation as a routine diva in the making. Gainey was
sheer dynamite onstage in only her third NPC show and had my vote. The panel
picked Daughtry’s classic lines in the final comparison for the overall trophy, but
it’s all good. They all got to move up, along with second-placers Katie Szep,
Sonja Bruce and Jessica Booth.
Speaking of mo
ms with abs
BACKSTAGE TALES
Work in
progress
Guess
who’s
dropping
down to the
ranks of the
quarterturners
now? Only
one of the
most Amazonian
flexers on
the planet.
Towering
Tatiana
Butler, who
stood
almost a
head taller
than my 5’5
to 139 and said
ds
un
po
5
19
m
1/2”, went fro
le off her
to keep the musc
she has to work
that’s a hardw,
No
e.
qu
ysi
ph
mesomorphic
workin’ woman.
Candyland
Alone at the bar at the T.U. host hotel,
the Marriott Financial Center, late on Saturday night, I ordered a cosmopolitan to
celebrate the end of a long day. Casually
glancing at the elegantly coiffed woman at
my right, I did a double-take. Selma? On
second glance I was pretty sure it was not
So Cal figure stalwart Selma McPherson, but it was someone I’d seen onstage
that night. No sooner did I make the acquaintance of middleweight bodybuilding
contender Cassandra Floyd than who
should walk in but sleek Selma herself. On
the other hand, it was one strong cosmo.
Maybe I was seeing double.
Lisa McGreat strides
Cormick (far
left) strikes a
pose for Tara
Carrillo’s
camera.
McCormick’s
routines are
always a
treat, but
this year she
floored the
IM crew with
the info that
she has four
kids and,
even harder
to believe, is
Midt
gh
40 years old.
dlewei
Margaret
Woods
tries the
old
chocolate
for vascularity trick
Fitness sixth-placer
Jessica Nabinger
before
said she already felt
like a winner.
the finals.
“Last year I was in
last place, and this
time I got the second
callout.”
IN THE SPOTLIGHT
M O R E T. U . F I T N E S S
Big O Countdown
Long-legged Ladies
Speaking of
Comstock
Who made it by season’s end?
Clockwise from
upper left: Chandra Coffey,
Monica Guerra,
Jane Awad and
Tracey Greenwood.
Luciana Bell missed out on a
pro card by a single point in
the tall class. Dang. I love how
that girl moves.
Though the big Charlotte Pro weekend, with shows in all four sports, was still
to come as this issue went to bed, the back end of the ’05 season had already
seen an interesting array of athletes elevated to the status of Olympia invitee.
Figurewise, that list included Jennifer Searles and Chandra Coffey, who
took second and third at the New York Pro, where sitting Olympia champ Davana Medina scored an easy win. A month later in Cleveland, at the North
American Pro, Jane Awad, third at the Toronto qualifier in the spring, picked
up her first pro win. Searles was second again, while the winner in the O-invite
derby was vet Melissa Frabbiele, who took third.
On the subject of really big shows, big Betty—and Eddie—Pariso’s Europa
Pro on September 17 in Dallas brought good news, Olympiawise, to bodybuilding class winners Tonia Williams and Bonny Priest, with Priest taking the
overall for the second year running. Tracey Greenwood picked up a big 53point win in the fitness event, with two acclaimed performers, Stacy Simons
and Mindi O’Brien, filling out the top three and ensuring that the fitness round
at the O would be a total talent rotation. The figure event brought three promising new faces to the fore. Recently graduated pros Amanda Savell and Valerie Waugman finished first and second, respectively, while the shapely
Monica Guerra, in third, earned her first ticket to the O.
The figure hopefuls had a contest almost every weekend leading up to the
big finale. On September 24 at the Anaheim Pro it was Christine PomponioPate in the winner’s circle with Savell in second, Guerra in third and fourthplacer Anna Larson getting the sliding invite. To find out if these late-season
entries left Las Vegas with anything in their pockets (like prize money), consult
the colossal Olympia coverage online at IRON MAN’s GraphicMuscle.com.
Liberman
Liberman
No Seer Here
But if I was a betting woman and I saw the
name of Maya Stone, light-heavy winner at
the recent North American Championships,
on the competitor list for the Nationals,
I might be inclined to put up a buck or two.
3803 &L5&8067$1&(
SOAPBOX
Speaking of Numbers
So many figures, so little time
Comstock
petitors away, consider
Every year it’s the
that the Figure Nationals
same old story. IRON
class winners, who are
MAN sends us to the
also eligible to go to the
Team Universe to
World Championships,
support the NPC’s
must submit a urine samhighest-ranked drugple backstage after the
tested bodybuilding
finals, and it’s not keeping
contest, and we shake
them away.
our heads in bewilderSitting in the press row
ment at why there
at the women’s judging,
aren’t more athletes.
contemplating with East
I’m talking about the
Coast shutterbug Reg
women’s division,
Bradford the four
where only 19 thought
lightweights on the stage
it was worth their while
before us, I couldn’t help
to come to New York
starting up another round
and vie for a pro card
The bikini wax is throw down. You can help prove once in for all whether
of the same old, same old.
and a chance to comthe figure athletes look like bodybuilders.
Much later that morning,
pete in Spain if you won
as we contemplated the 130 amateur figure contenders—
your class. As opposed to 56 women at the USA, where one
which brought up a fresh round of the half-these-girls-look-likepro card—and no trip to Spain—was given.
lightweight-bodybuilders same old, same old—a lightbulb
Despite remarks made in the item on page 229, 130 entries
ignited.
is a good thing, so thanks to figure, the Team U promoters can
“Too bad more of them don’t enter the bodybuilding show,” I
afford to keep staging the event, however many women bodyblurted out. “That would be a heck of a contest.”
builders show up, but still: Why hasn’t this show done better in
People thought I was kidding, but I put it to you, ladies: Why
recent years? After all, the odds are better than in Vegas, and
limit yourself to a few seconds of turning around when you can
you are encouraged to have a drug-free physique. For cynics
be posing center stage all by yourself, showing off all your hard
who might suggest that the drug test is what keeps the comwork in the gym? Given the NPC’s campaign to
encourage a more-feminine standard for women
bodybuilders, you just might actually stand a
chance—and you don’t have to wear heels.
“I’ll show you a pair of T.U. trophies!”
Jessica Booth injured her shoulder while
doing her very cute fitness routine at the
judging and didn’t get to perform at the
finals. Not to worry, the judges liked her
5’ 5 3/4” physique so much, she smoked
the competition in the body rounds and
earned the runner-up pro card. In fact,
the long-legged lady from Littleton, Colorado, earned pro cards in two sports, as
she also won the E class at the Figure
Nationals.
Neveux
Liberman
From left: Cynthia
Sharp, Leanna
Thomas, Nina
Luchka and Randi
Post. Pro cards
went to overall
winner Luchka
and to Sharp, who
was second in the
overall balloting.
Neveux
NAC
Amateur
Figure
Neveux
Odds ’n’ Ends
To contact Lonnie Teper about
material possibly pertinent to
News & Views, write to 1613
Chelsea Road, #266, San
Marino, CA 91108; fax to (626)
289-7949; or send e-mail to
[email protected].
You can contact Ruth Silverman, fitness reporter and
Pump & Circumstance scribe,
in care of IRON MAN, 1701
Ives Ave., Oxnard, CA 93033;
or via e-mail at
[email protected].
You can contact Jerry
Fredrick, ace photographer for
Hot Shots and Hardcore
Training, in care of IRON MAN,
1701 Ives Ave., Oxnard, CA
93033; or via e-mail at
[email protected].
.
he world of bodybuilding lost
another of its most renowned
physique photographers and
contributors when Joe Valdez died
in his sleep at 5:54 on Wednesday,
August 16, 2005, at the Motion
Picture & Television Fund Home in
Woodland Hills, California. Born in
Omaha, Nebraska, on May 1, 1932,
Joe was one of the best photographers in the iron game, with 400
magazine covers—many for foreign
bodybuilding magazines—to his
credit. In addition to his prolific
photography, he was involved in
organizing the National Physique
Committee in Southern California
and was its first district chairman.
He was also a prominent physique
contest judge for more than 30
years.
I first met Joe in 1965 at the AAU
Mr. America contest, which was
held in Los Angeles. He approached
me and introduced himself by saying that he worked in the photography department at Warner Bros.
Studios and wanted to learn
physique photography. I set up a
photo session with several of the
contestants for the next day and
invited Joe to observe. From that
day forward he shot physique photos, and within a few years he became one of the best in the
business
Joe’s background as a second
assistant cameraman speeded his
mastery of physique photography.
He worked on every Aaron Spelling
TV production, including
“Dynasty,” one of the top-rated
series of its time. His likable personality made him very popular
with all the stars he met in Hollywood. Joan Collins mentions him a
few times in her biography. Joe was
very close to Academy Award winner Barbara Stanwyck, who affectionately called him “Santa,” and he
was friendly with Charlton Heston
and Angie Dickinson.
Joe was a hard-working person
with a sharp wit. While at Gordon
Mitchell’s memorial gathering at
World Gym in Marina del Rey, Joe
greeted the newly elected governator—Arnold—by saying, “I always
knew you’d be working for me
someday.”
Joe kept amazing records of
T
Photography by Joe Valdez
Joe Valdez R.I.P.
by Gene Mozée
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bodybuilding contests for decades.
He was also one of the founders of
GraphicMuscle.com and was responsible for the Today’s Birthdays
feature that appears daily at GM.
“Joe really did have an idiot savant’s knowledge of bodybuilder’s
birthdays and could remember the
date of anybody’s he jotted down,
which he never stopped doing,”
recalls Bill Comstock. “He’d go up to
complete strangers, anywhere he
would see a bodybuilder, and without introducing or explaining himself ask, ‘When is your birthday?’ I
was with him many times when
bodybuilders didn’t react kindly to
his birthday solicitations. More
than once I thought he was going to
get himself killed.”
Joe was one of the most beloved
personalities in our sport. He
helped many up-and-coming bodybuilders succeed. He always took
three photos of each pose during a
photo shoot: one for the subject,
one for publication and one for
himself. He never charged his models and always gave them free photos. Almost all of his magazine
covers were given to publishers for
free—he only wanted to help bodybuilders get the recognition that
they deserved.
Joe photographed rising young
stars like Rory Leidelmeyer, Robby
Robinson, Bob Paris, Rich Gaspari,
Shawn Ray, Danny Hester, Manny
Molina, Stan McQuay, David Johns,
John Brown, Richard Jones and
many others, often giving them the
first publicity that helped propel
them to worldwide recognition and
fame. He also claimed that he persuaded Vince Taylor to become a
bodybuilder after meeting him on a
photo shoot with John Brown.
In recent years, despite his failing
health, Joe attended almost every
contest in Southern California—in
his wheelchair and with an oxygen
bottle. He truly loved bodybuilding,
and the same can be said about
him by the many friends who
mourn his passing. Joe always
wanted to write a book titled Everybody I Know Is Famous, Except Me.
He’ll always be famous to his many
friends in the bodybuilding world
and his close acquaintances in
show business. IM
Oh, Nikki,
1LNNL:DUQHU:DUPV
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Photography by
Bill Dobbins,
www.BillDobbins.com
You’re So Fine
Hardbody
Stats
Stats
IRON
MAN Hardbody
Height: 5’2”
Age: 27
Weight: 110 (contest), 118 (off-season)
Hometown: Muncie, Indiana
Current residence: Muncie, Indiana
Occupation: Full-time pharmacy student
Workout schedule: Monday, legs; Tuesday, arms; Wednesday, rest; Thursday, chest
and shoulders; Friday, rest; Saturday, back; Sunday, rest. Trains abs and calves two
times per week.
Sample bodypart workout (legs): Squats, 3 x 10-12; leg presses or hack squats,
3 x 10-12; lunges, 3-4 sets; leg extensions, 3 x 8-10; stifflegged deadlifts, 2-3 x 12; leg curls, 3 x 10-12
Favorite foods: “My all-time-favorite food is Chinese
food, especially General Tso’s chicken and those yummy
sugary biscuits. A favorite healthful dish would be eggwhite omelets with fat-free cheese and flaxseed oil along
with a bowl of oatmeal and fruit. I’m a big eater and not
hard to please. I try to eat six small meals daily, spaced
about three hours apart to keep my metabolism in check.”
Factoid: Has a bachelor’s degree in dietetics.
Future plans: “I’ve stuck with bodybuilding since age
15, and I don’t plan on stopping anytime soon. Of the
nine years I’ve been competing, I’ve been at the national level in figure for four and will continue at
that. I’m currently working on a doctorate in pharmacy and will someday become a licensed pharmacist.”
Contact info: www.missnikki.com or
[email protected]
IRON MAN Hardbody
IRON MAN Hardbody
IRON MAN Hardbody
IRON MAN Hardbody
Back to the
Rack
Complete Iso Program Part 5
by Bill Starr • Photography by Michael Neveux
I
’ve said that the best way to introduce isotonicisometrics into your strength program was to insert a
few positions throughout the week as you continue
your regular routine. That enables you to learn how
to perform isos. As I’ve mentioned, even though the
system is extremely simple to understand, it involves
a great deal of technique. The more you do isos, the
more proficient you’ll become, which means they’ll be
more productive.
After a month or so of doing two or three isos a week,
you should feel confident about your form. At some point
you’ll be able to tell for sure that you’re putting forth
maximum effort. Of course, no one can actually contract
his muscles 100 percent. That occurs only in extreme situations of fright—you know, the lady who lifts a car off
her trapped child. You can do contractions in the 75-to80 percent range, however, and that’s sufficient for your
purpose, which is to improve your strength.
Model: Berry Kabov
Only the Strong Shall Survive
• DEADLIFTS •
Back to the Rack
Model: Berry Kabov
Complete Iso Program
Your dynamic
squats will get
a big boost
from isometric
work. You’ll get
new strength
almost
immediately.
• SQUATS •
What often happens when athletes become familiar with this
system of strength training and
discover that the positions they’ve
been using have had a positive
effect on certain lifts is that they
want to do more than just a few
positions during the week. They
want to give isos priority for the
next two months and use freeweight exercises as complementary
movements.
That’s exactly what many of the
Olympic lifters at the York Barbell
Club did in the 1960s. Almost all of
them—including me—did some
isos throughout the year. During
the off-season, from late June to
September, we’d shift to workouts
that featured more iso than freeweight work. The change paid dividends in a number of areas. Doing
less heavy pressing, cleaning and
squatting gave our abused joints a
Back to the Rack
Incline
presses
will aid
in your
quest for
more
overhead
pushing
power.
• INCLINE PRESSES •
much-needed rest. Not having to
worry about moving big numbers in
preparation for an upcoming contest was a huge mental relief. Since
the isos were enabling us to gain
strength, we could concentrate on
honing our technique with lighter
poundages. It was also an ideal
opportunity to deal with weaker
areas and improve our endurance
base.
The relatively quick iso sessions
and lighter-weight workouts left us
with plenty of extra energy to expend on our aerobic conditioning—plus, we had more time to do
so. During the season we’d lift almost every Saturday or at least
every other week, with demonstrations thrown in for good measure.
Hoffman insisted on exposure, and
we all learned how to deal with
competing frequently. Then there
was work. Everyone had a job. No
one got a free pass, though that was
often the conception about York
lifters. Bill Bednarski, Bill March
and Roman Mielec worked in the
warehouse, Tommy Suggs and I put
out Strength & Health, Garcy was a
schoolteacher, and Gary Glenney,
Fred West and Homer Brannum
worked in town. Tommy and I tried
to get to the YMCA at least once a
week to play racquetball or volleyball, but as everyone knows, an hour
a week isn’t going to help much.
In the summer, though, we had
• GOOD MORNINGS •
plenty of time, and we did our best
to do more aerobics: We knew that
having a strong endurance base
was most useful. Some of the meets
would go on until the wee hours of
the following morning. At the Philly
Open one year, Barski was clean
and jerking at 2 a.m., and his class
had started lifting at 6 p.m. We also
realized that a better aerobics base
would help us train harder and
faster. That was a plus when you
ended up following yourself on
platform, and it happened often to
lifters like March, Tony Garcy and
Barski because no one else was
handling nearly as much weight as
they were.
So there were plenty of positive
reasons for us to give isos precedence in our off-season strength
work. When we resumed our regular Olympic lifting regimen and
relegated the rack work to an auxiliary role, we were more physically
fit, free of old injuries, stronger and
eager to get back into competition.
I’ve received a number of letters
from readers—for example, a football player, an Olympic lifter, two
powerlifters and three from older
men who wanted to use isos to help
them maintain a high level of
strength fitness—requesting that I
present sample programs for building a routine around isotonic-isometric exercises. As Dr. John Ziegler
designed the system specifically for
Olympic weightlifters, the first
program is for them. Keep in mind
that the military press was part of
official competition at the time, so
the routine puts more emphasis on
the jerk. I include pressing positions, however, because I think they
improve strength in the arms,
shoulders and back, which is directly transferable to the jerk. In addition, shoulder strength benefits
from both the clean and snatch. It’s
a five-day-a-week program.
Isotonic-Isometric
Program for Olympic
Lifters
Monday, Wednesday and Friday
will be all isos. Tuesday and Thursday will be free-weight exercises.
Monday
Three press positions: start,
eye level and lockout.
Three pulling positions
using a clean grip: start, below
the knees and high top pull on
your toes.
Two front-squat positions:
deep bottom, as low as you can
squeeze under the bar and still
hold your position, and midpoint.
Calf raises.
Model: Idrise Ward-El
Model: Greg Adler
Good mornings ensure
that your
lower back is
getting plenty
of direct work.
• LIGHT SQUATS •
Tuesday
Thursday
Clean and jerks: three cleans
and two jerks per set for six to
eight sets. Use light-to-moderate
weights and concentrate on
form.
Back squats: five sets of five; go
heavy but not to max.
Inclines: three sets of five, then
three sets of three. Work them
hard.
Good mornings: four sets of 10,
and push them to limit.
Front squats: six sets of three.
As with the back squats, go heavy
but not to max.
Wednesday
Friday
Three pulling positions
using a snatch grip: start, just
below the knees and top pull
high on your toes.
Snatches: six to eight sets of
three reps, light to moderate
weights.
Two press positions: start and
another where you climb on your
toes and fix the bar at the top of
your head. You want to emulate
where you drive the bar for your
jerks. When you improve your
strength in the start and the
important follow-through position, your jerk will show instant
improvement.
Jerk lockout while in a deep
split. Try to split a bit deeper than
you normally do when performing the lift.
Two back-squat positions:
deep bottom and midpoint.
Calf raises.
Three pulling positions:
slightly below start using a clean
grip, just below knees using a
snatch grip and waist level with
feet flat to the floor using a clean
grip.
Model: Marvin Montoya
Warm up with
lighter fullrange work
to prepare
muscles, joints
and tendons
for the iso
work to come.
all your reps with minimal flaws is
your goal.
If you think you need to handle
some heavy weights on the two
quick lifts during the week, as many
of the York lifters did, add a Saturday or Sunday session. Meanwhile,
the two exercises in the program
that you do want to lean on are
good mornings and inclines.
The inclines aid your quest for
more overhead strength, and the
good mornings ensure that your
lower back is getting plenty of direct work. I felt that the isos weren’t
hitting my lumbar to the same
degree as they were the other parts
of my back, so I always included
them and worked them with purpose. Good mornings can also be
done as an iso movement, but I was
never comfortable with that position.
Barski liked to start his training
week on Sunday with an iso workout. He’d do two more on Tuesday
and Thursday. On Monday and
Wednesday he handled light
weights on either the snatch or the
clean, did some presses and squatted. He took Friday off, as did the
other lifters. Friday afternoon was
officially party time. Then on Saturday he went all out on the press,
snatch and clean and jerk, and he
finished off with more squats.
Another workable plan that I
have Olympic lifters use is to stay
with the light weights as outlined in
the recommended program, then
every third week drop the Friday iso
session, totaling out on Saturday.
That helps them determine their
progress on the various lifts.
Two press positions: start and
eye level.
Jerk lockout with a tiny split.
Two front-squat positions:
deep bottom and about six inches from lockout. Try to find the
position you use when you dip
down to start a jerk.
Calf raises.
The emphasis on the free-weight
days is perfecting your form on the
three phases of Olympic lifting:
cleans, snatches and jerks. That
means the amount of weight you
use is of little importance; making
Don’t
neglect
calf work.
Back to the Rack
An Isotonic-Isometric
Program for Powerlifters
Some type of
weighted dip is
optional but can
increase upperbody power.
This is the same formula I suggested for Olympic lifters, three iso
workouts per week and two using
free weights.
Monday
Three pulling positions:
slightly below where you start
your deadlift, just below your
knees and midthigh.
Three bench press positions:
start, midpoint and lockout.
Calf raises.
• BENCH DIPS •
Tuesday
Incline presses: three sets of
five plus three sets of three. Work
them to limit.
Back squats: five sets of five.
Work them but not to max.
Good mornings: four sets of
10. Push to limit.
Weighted dips: four sets of
eight.
Wednesday
Three pulling positions: start,
just above the knees and shrug
at waist level.
If possible: inclines: start, middle and finish.
If not possible: standing presses: start, middle and lockout.
Or: bench presses: start, middle and lockout.
Thursday
Bench presses: four sets of
eight.
High pulls with a clean grip:
five sets of five.
Back squats: five sets of five.
Same as Tuesday; work hard but
not to limiour final sets of five
should be with a weight you
could handle for eight.
Weighted dips: five sets of 10.
Friday
Three pulling positions: low
start as on Monday, just below
knees and midthigh.
Three bench press
positions: start, middle and
lockout.
Calf raises.
You may be wondering why I included calf raises, or what the original
iso program called raise on toes, in a
program aimed at powerlifters, who
do not extend high on their toes the
way Olympic lifters do. The reason is
that strong calves are extremely useful
to powerlifters when they break the
bar off the platform in a deadlift and
when they drive out of the hole in a
full squat.
Keep in mind that I’m presenting a
model routine. You can and should
adapt it to your specific needs. For
example, I use only two positions for
the squat. You might feel that your
finish isn’t as strong as you’d like; you
can
l add a top position for the back
squat.
When setting up your program,
always give your weakest lift priority
on both the iso and free-weight days.
If you know that the lift hurting your
total the most is the bench press, do
the exercises for your upper body
first at every session. In the event
that your lifts are all pretty much in
balance, switch the order of the
exercises around regularly. Start
with squats one day, do pulls the
next and presses the next; then
change them again.
A note about incline isos and
overhead presses in the rack. I believe incline isos are most beneficial
because the strength gained in that
angle converts directly to the flat
bench. That’s also why I have lifters
work it hard at the first free-weight
session. I’m aware, though, that
many can’t perform inclines inside
a rack. Some don’t have racks that
are wide enough, and some just
don’t have incline benches. The
next best substitute is the overhead
press. You may well ask how press-
Never do more than
three positions for
any bodypart.
Back to the Rack
Your object on
free-weight day
is to improve
form.
• TREADMILL •
• DEEP SQUATS •
ing overhead can help the flat
bench. The isos strengthen the
deltoids and triceps, which play a
major role in bench pressing. The
added bonus is that overhead isos
hit the muscles of the upper back,
and a stronger upper back helps
you pull and squat heavier weights.
Your objective on the free-weight
day is to improve form. I’d keep the
reps on the bench fairly high to
restrict the amount of weight and to
force yourself to pay closer attention to small points of execution.
You should do every rep perfectly—
same for the squats. Notice I said to
work them hard but not to max.
That may need some clarification.
Let’s say you can handle 405x5.
While you’re doing the isos three
times a week, work only up to
385x5. The lesser poundage will
help you concentrate better on your
technique yet still be heavy enough
to force you to exert yourself.
You’ll notice, too, that I haven’t
put any deadlifts in the routine. You
don’t need them. The isos three
times a week provide the strength
component, and you’ll also be
hitting high pulls hard and attacking your lower back with good
mornings. What’s important is to
establish the same line of pull on
the high pull that you use when you
deadlift. In reality, a high pull is no
more than a deadlift followed by a
shrug. You do it much faster than a
deadlift, and that’s good because
the dynamic move builds a different type of strength.
The weighted dips are optional. I
think they’re a great shoulder exercise and know for certain that they
have a favorable influence on the
bench press. Should you feel that by
adding them to your program
you’re overworking, however, drop
them or do them just once a week.
Every three or four weeks, skip
the Friday iso session and total out
on Saturday. It doesn’t have to be an
all-out test, but you need to go
heavy enough so that you can determine which lifts and what positions require additional attention.
Let’s say your deadlift is stronger
than ever except at the finish,
which had always been a piece of
cake, and now it’s the weakest link.
Remedy: Switch from high pulls to
shrugs on Thursdays, and do iso
lockouts three times a week until
that position gets proportionately
stronger. What you’re looking for
when you max out on all three lifts
is weak points and in very specific
areas. Try to pinpoint a problem in
a lift, and then do isos in the corresponding range. It’s a never-ending
process. Improve strength in the
weakest part of an exercise, determine what area takes over that role,
and then go after it.
Next month I’ll present more
sample iso programs plus an extensive review of all the subtleties of
the isotonic-isometric system.
Meanwhile, here are a few
reminders. When you do any iso
position, the time you fix the bar
against the top pins in a maximum
contraction is more important than
how much weight you’re using. If
you can’t hold the isometric contraction for at least eight seconds,
use less weight.
Never do more than three positions for any bodypart, and change
the selected positions regularly.
Even moving the pins up or down
one hole is beneficial. Make sure
the muscle groups you’re about to
put under great stress are
thoroughly warmed up. Isos are
very concentrated work, and you
must prepare your body in order to
gain the desired results and avoid
being dinged. Move quickly from
position to position. Finally, keep
accurate records: which holes you
used, the amount of weight you
handled and how long you held the
isometric contraction.
Editor’s note: Bill Starr was a
strength and conditioning coach at
Johns Hopkins University from
1989 to 2000. He’s the author of The
Strongest Shall Survive and Defying
Gravity. IM
Model:Dan Decker
The quick iso
workouts will
leave you
time to build
your aerobic
conditioning.
It’s the Right Thing
t first glance it would seem the guy was doing everything
right: He almost never missed a workout, his routines
were taken straight from some star, he could talk
weights until the cows came home. Even his clothes and his
general style in and out of the gym suggested that he was
committed to his training and knew his stuff. There was a
problem, however, and it was a big one: He hadn’t made a lick
of progress in about a year.
A
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It’s not what you do that’s important;
it’s what you accomplish
In the same gym there was another guy whose appearance,
not to mention his training program and the way he did some
of his movements, indicated that he not only didn’t know the
finer points of the game but probably didn’t even know there
were finer points and might not have cared about learning
them if he knew they existed. On the other hand, he did have
something going for him. Almost every week, it seemed, he
made progress, and every few months he seemed to have
transformed himself. His cumulative gains made him
nothing like the guy he’d been before.
To a casual observer the situation might be attributed
to genetics, secret sauce or any number of explanations.
To a student of human performance, however, the answers lay elsewhere because, as Thomas Gilbert noted,
it’s not what you do that’s important; it’s what you accomplish.
Gilbert’s passion was human competence and,
specifically, engineering it. He was devoted to helping
make people good at what they were doing. Whether it
was putting together widgets, whacking a baseball or
making what would seem to be abstract decisions,
Gilbert knew that some people were good at what they
did and some weren’t. Fortunately for most of us, he
didn’t stop there. He developed a variety of analyses and
techniques to help make underperformers more like the
superstars in their field.
One of the first things Gilbert figured out was that
when we analyze people who are doing their thing—
whatever it is—we usually make the mistake of focusing
on just that: what they’re doing, as opposed to what
they accomplish.
Suppose we had a system for evaluating a variety of
performance measures related to training. For instance,
we might see how much someone knew about basic
training principles; whether the person knew an amino
acid from lactic acid, knew Mr. Olympia from an Olympic
gold medalist, and so forth. As you’re a reasonable
person, the approach probably makes sense to you, and
you can think of all sorts of ways to evaluate how much
people know about training and how well they go about
conducting their own. That approach, as Gilbert figured
out, is all wrong.
If we applied the approach to our two fictional
trainees, the first guy would do really well on the tests we
developed, and the second guy wouldn’t. For example,
Randall Strossen
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the first guy can wax eloquent on everything from spider curls
to squat snatches, talk protein synthesis like a college professor and rattle off every Mr. Olympia in history—in order. The
second guy knows how to do some basic stuff in the gym,
has a clue about guys like Yates, Coan and Suleymanoglu,
but that’s about it. If they got into a conversation about training, the first guy could make the second guy’s eyes go glassy
in less than a minute.
Beyond that, a knowing eye
watching both in the gym would see
that the first guy seemed to have a
handle on what he was doing because he was doing lots of little
things correctly—things that might
be nuances the second guy had
never even heard of. In fact, watching the second guy in the gym, it
would be reasonable to conclude
that he was still pretty rough around
the edges.
Those differences would seem
perfectly reasonable and understandable if the first guy was the one
making progress and the second
was the one who was stalled out,
but that’s the opposite of the way
things are. Why?
Gilbert would explain that we were
misled because while the first guy
was doing most things right, maybe
even as many—possibly even
more—than the second guy, he
wasn’t doing the right things right.
The person who does the right
things right makes progress, and the
person making progress is the one
we want to emulate.
Take a power clean. The first guy might be able to rattle off
all the benefits of the movement. He can tell you the theory of
the movement, with intricate biomechanical analyses. He can
blab longer than you’d like about who’s done what in the
movement. If you watched him train, though, you’d see there
must be something wrong because, despite his apparently
complete understanding of the lift, he can’t handle his bodyweight to save his life. Worse, his top set has been the same
for the past 11 months.
The second guy, on the other hand, can’t come close to
the first guy in any conversation about the power clean. When
it comes to doing the movement, he certainly seems to grasp
the basics, but he isn’t even sophisticated enough to know
about, let alone use, things like a hook grip or a dynamic start,
things the first guy does automatically. If you asked the second guy to describe what he was doing, he might say it was
kind of like doing a vertical jump, only while hanging onto a
barbell. His understanding might not impress you until you
realized that he was mauling his bodyweight in the movement
a year ago and now does 150 percent of his bodyweight. To add insult
to injury, the second guy’s gained 25
pounds of bodyweight in the past
year, while the first guy’s gained
three-fourths of a pound, he thinks.
Clearly, the second guy is the one to
copy.
The moral of the story, per
Gilbert’s advice, is to remember that
it’s accomplishment, not behavior,
that counts. That’s the reason two
guys can be on the same squat
program, and while one outgrows
his clothes in less than two months,
the second one doesn’t gain a
whisper.
Don’t worry that this type of
analysis is too complicated for you
to apply to your own training—and
your life in general—because it
usually doesn’t take a Ph.D. to see
who’s making progress and who
isn’t. The key is to always remember
that most people might do most
things right most of the time, but
that’s the road to mediocrity. The
superstars, in all activities, figure out
what’s really critical to success, and
that’s where they shine. It’s as if
someone told them the secret: It’s not how much you do
right; it’s whether you do the right things right.
—Randall Strossen, Ph.D.
(GLWRU·VQRWH Randall Strossen, Ph.D., edits the quarterly
magazine MILO. He’s also the author of IronMind: Stronger
Minds, Stronger Bodies; Super Squats: How to Gain 30
Pounds of Muscle in 6 Weeks and Paul Anderson: The Mightiest Minister. For more information call IronMind Enterprises
Inc. at (530) 265-6725 or Home Gym Warehouse at (800)
447-0008, ext. 1. Visit the IronMind Web site at
www.ironmind.com.
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Top Squat: No Tipping or Shoulder Ripping
ost of us here at IRON
MAN have been iron addicts for years, even
decades. That can make for creaky
and often achy joints (it’s not only
the reps but the aging too). Shoulders are especially vulnerable, and
some of us have the kind of limited
movement that prevents us from
holding a bar behind our necks for
squats—and if we do manage to
get our hands back there, our tight
shoulders cause the bar to pitch our
torsos forward. Not good for proper
form. Well, Dave Draper has come
up with a solution, the Top Squat.
We’ll let him take it from here…
The Top Squat was developed for
the athlete who loves to squat,
realizes the important role it plays in
strength and muscle building and
would like an alternative method for
holding the bar in place across the
back. Shoulder problems are no
rarity among athletes, especially
strength and muscle-building athletes, and securing the bar with outstretched arms can be
distressing, maybe impossible. The Bomber Top Squat is a
powerful apparatus that positions a pair of rugged handles
sensibly in front of the shoulders for comfort, safety and
control.
I conceived the Top Squat in my late 50s, when I overloaded my upper back and shoulders while pursuing some aggressive squat and deadlift training. Humbled and healing, I
realized I could no longer squat, as my shoulder rotation was
limited by the painful and damaging injuries I sustained. Positioning my hands to control the bar or extending my arms the
length of the bar for support was impossible.
I needed to find a way to balance the bar with a comfortable and powerful placement of my hands and arms before
me, like two handles protruding from the front of the bar itself.
Voilà, the Top Squat,
Hefty enough for gorillas and designed for all levels of
fitness advancement, the unit makes squatting possible
again—no longer retired to the heap of bittersweet memories.
Training without squatting is like lightning without thunder.
The bright, instantaneous dance of light is captivating, but
you’ve got to feel the earth move under your feet and hear
the great rumbling down the length of your back.
The Top Squat is as simple as squatting, not the easiest
exercise in the lifter’s repertoire but possibly the most effective. You center the unit on your standard 1 1/16th-inch bar
and press it into place. Secure the beast to the bar with the
pair of nylon and Velcro safety straps provided, and you’re
ready for action. After a few hard workouts you’ll probably
forgo the safety straps, as the unit remains sufficiently in
M
place by pressure. You can affect the
erectness of your back by raising or
lowering the handles, an added
attraction I had not foreseen in the
inception of the Top Squat but one
I’ve come to appreciate.
The action of the squat remains
true. It’s not altered unless you
choose to for lower-back safety,
maximum thigh power or improved
thigh recruitment.
Within a few sets of thoughtful
squatting, I think, you’ll agree the Top
Squat builds strong legs while protecting the shoulders and back. If
your shoulders are troublesome,
you’ll jump up and down—as we do
when we have a spectacular workout. If your shoulders are healthy,
unimpaired and without pain, you
must be young, invincible or new at
the sport. Swell. The chances of
damaging your rotator cuff will be
reduced considerably, as supporting
the bar in the conventional manner
while squatting is a tremendous
stress on the vulnerable and overworked shoulder region.
Put squats back in your workouts, and start climbing those
once-impossible mountains again.
The thick-line polyurethane-coated Top Squat is 18 3⁄4inch, 11-gauge, heat-treated-steel tubing coated with dense
polyurethane. It’s customized to press onto your 1 1/16thinch bar. The plastic-coated tubular section offers a densely
padded three-inch-diameter support with an indented, centrally located vertebra relief for weight distribution and shoulder comfort. Two solid steel one-inch handles extend outward
16 inches at agreeable angles and with slight end curves for
universal functionality. The unit is slick and rugged at 15
pounds.
—Dave Draper
(GLWRU·VQRWH The Top Squat has won the hearts of shoulder-impaired lifters worldwide for enabling them to squat
freely, safely and powerfully. The Top Squat goes for $149
and is available from Home Gym Warehouse. Call (800) 4470008, or visit www.Home-Gym.com.
:HEDOHUW For more from Dave Draper,
visit www.davedraper.com and sign up for
his free newsletter. You can also check out
his amazing Top Squat training tool, classic
photos, workout Q&A and forum.
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MAN Publishing
Train,
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The
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Beyond Bodybuilding by Pavel
The 7-Minute Rotator Cuff Solution by Joseph Horrigan, D.C., and
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10-Week Size Surge by IRON
“Positions of Flexion: The Critical
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“Ronnie Coleman’s The Cost of
Redemption”
“Mike Mentzer’s “High-Intensity
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“Sizzlefest: IM’s Hottest of the
Hottest”
“Jay Cutler’s Ripped to Shreds”
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The Ultimate Mass Workout—
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MIND/BODY
Poolside Wow Power
t was spring break, and all the hotel
guests were out by the pool, basking in the warm midday sun. College
students from across the country had
come to South Padre Island in Texas
for a one-week hiatus, but the trials
and tribulations of academia were still
the main topic of conversation—until
he arrived.
Clad in baggy, bright-orange beach
jams, which couldn’t begin to hide his
massive quads and hams, and a white
torso-hugging York Barbell Club Tshirt, the man had obviously been
hitting the iron hard. The loud conversations around the pool turned to
whispers as he pulled up a lounge
chair, spread his towel and began
peeling off his shirt, every one of his
movements a veritable lesson in muscular anatomy.
As his shirt came off and his arms
came down from above his head, the
poolside populace was entranced.
And for good reason. The man was a
work of art, every muscle developed in
perfect harmony with the others.
One coed who was sitting nearby
turned to her friend and said, “The
scenery just improved 100 percent.
Look at that chest.”
In fact, it was a perfect chest—with
deep lines etching the lower portions
from delt to sternum, a split separating the upper and lower pecs that
jumped into view every time he moved
his arms and a fireworks display of
striations that exploded all the way up
to his clavicles. What was really amazing was how his chest development
was so perfectly balanced—high, full
pecs that brought Steve Reeves to
mind.
So who was this guy? Was he Mr.
America or Mr. Universe, or had the
gods sent him down from the heavens
$G
Comstock
I
to show the mere mortals what was
possible for the male physique? None
of the men there that day ever found
out. You see, no self-respecting male
was going to put his body into comparison range of an Adonis just to ask
him a few questions. That would have
been like giving the women around
the pool the choice between T-bone
steak and a corn dog. Many of the
women, however, got to know him
quite well over the next few days.
—Steve Holman
Train, Eat, Grow
(GLWRU·VQRWH Train, Eat, Grow—
The Positions-of-Flexion MuscleTraining Manual is available from
Home Gym Warehouse for $19.95.
Call (800) 447-0008, or visit
www.Home-Gym.com to order.
Body Building
Clean Teeth, Healthier Heart
Did you know that the same bacteria
that causes gum disease can also elicit
plaque and inflammation in your arteries? One more reason to brush and
floss daily. And don’t forget to make
time for a professional cleaning by your
dentist twice a year.
—Becky Holman
www.X-tremeLean.com
$WWLWXGH
0,1'%2'<
s most of you probably have
figured out by now, not everyone in the world supports your
bodybuilding goals. Often friends
and family do the most to discourage your dreams, though they may
have good intentions (you know
what the road to hell is paved with).
The disheartening words will usually
fall into one of two categories: can’t
and shouldn’t.
The can’t remarks have a unique
sting to them, as they imply that
you’ll never achieve your goals no
matter how hard you try. A few of the
choice samples:
•“You just don’t have those freaky
genetics.”
•“Only guys from X racial or ethnic
group make good bodybuilders.”
•“You can’t build a good physique
without tons and tons of steroids
and GH.”
•“You’re too old/too young.”
•“All those guys started out big
already, and you’re so skinny.”
•“You’ll never be able to show any
definition; you and your whole family
are overweight.”
•“You have a job and a family; to
be a good bodybuilder you have to
do nothing but eat, sleep and train.”
Wow! How’s that for a blast of
negativity? I bet you’ve heard most,
perhaps all, of these. Don’t believe
statements like that
because they’re all
ridiculous if you look at
them objectively. The
next category is more
on the idea of advice—advice that’s
well meant but is
nonetheless bad.
Listen to a few:
•“You shouldn’t
waste your time bodybuilding; there’s no
money in it.”
•“Bodybuilding is a
very unhealthy sport;
you’ll die young.”
•“All that muscle
will turn to fat when
you quit.”
•“You shouldn’t eat
a lot of protein or take
creatine; your kidneys
will be ruined.”
•“You shouldn’t
A
spend so much time training and
eating. What about your poor family?”
•“Bodybuilding is for homosexuals. Is that what you want to become?”
Such statements, while conceding
that there’s a possibility that you can
make your bodybuilding dreams
come true, all insist that you’ll come
to regret it one way or another.
With can’t or shouldn’t statements, you must carefully consider
the source and any motive the
speakers may have before you let
them get to you. Some people are
simply ignorant and have bought into
the myths and misinformation regarding bodybuilding, often served
up to them by sensationalistic mainstream media. Others are jealous or
threatened and secretly don’t want
to see you do anything exceptional
that may make them feel inferior. So
whether the intentions of those
negative statements are innocent or
malicious, do your best to take them
all with a grain of salt, and stay
focused on your goals and dreams.
Remember, nobody can ever take
those away from you unless you let
them.
—Ron Harris
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Model: Jorge Betancourt
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Don’t let the naysayers and negatives knock you out
I R O N
M A N
M A G A Z I N E
P R O U D L Y
P R E S E N T S :
The
Bodybuilding
Stars of
Tomorrow
Here today!
From www.GraphicMuscle.com
Photography by Bill Comstock
To see more great photos
of these and other stars visit
www.GraphicMuscle.com
Manuel Torres
Chris
Smith
Kevin
Cleveland
Dan
Decker
Phil
Heath
Leo Ingram
Bethany Gainey
Nathan
Detracy
Fakhri
Mubarek
Bill
Lawrence
DECEMBER 2005 265
Jerry Brainum’s
Bodybuilding Pharmacology
Fit to Be Tried
Illustration by Christian Martinez
phoria, grandiose beliefs, hyperactivity and reckless or
dangerous behavior. In those who have such mental conditions as depression, psychosis or mania, using steroids
either makes the conditions worse or makes them apparent.
Not all the research indicts testosterone or other anIn a fit of incomprehensible anger, a 16-year-old boy
abolic steroids. In several studies giving testosterone to
kills his 14-year-old girlfriend. The youthful killer has no
men had no effect on any aspect of behavior. Other studprior record of either criminal activity or violence. In
ies have shown that the angriest of men had lower-thananother incident a muscular man goes into an irrational
normal testosterone levels. Then there’s the
fit, using his fists and a metal bar to attack the drivers of
self-fulfilling-prophecy effect: If you think something will
three other cars, thinking that they are the cause of a
happen, it often will. Doctors who prescribe antideprestraffic delay. In a meaningless display of bravado, another
sants often don’t tell male patients that a side effect of
man drives his car straight into a tree. The connection
such drugs is impotence. The fear is that putting the sugbetween those incidents is that the perpetrators were all
gestion in the patient’s head will yield the side effect.
taking anabolic steroid drugs.
No one would deny that anabolic steroids have
Anabolic steroids are often in the news, mainly because
potent effects on muscle. But you have to
of an apparently wide usage of so-called designer
wonder just how much of the gains expesteroids, which until recently couldn’t be
rienced by those who use them accrue
detected by the usual tests. Steroid use
from a strong belief in the drugs, which
seems to explain in many people’s minds
may lead to harder training, better
the often out-of-control personality
nutrition and other factors that
characteristics of professional
result in real muscle gains. The
athletes. Whenever an athlete
same is true for the mental
throws a temper tantrum, people
effects of steroids: Those who
suggest that “the steroids make
think they’re supposed to act
him crazy.” The supposed psycrazy while on the drugs often
chological effects of steroids are
do, then use the drugs as an excuse
known in the popular parlance as
for their bad behavior. Yet not every
“’roid rage.”
athlete who takes steroids shows
The concept of ’roid rage is fueled
aggressive tendencies. Much deby popular media and even physipends on the inherent personality
cians. The basis is simple: Men
of the user. Angry people may get
have higher levels of testosterone
angrier while taking large doses
than women, which explains why
of anabolic steroids. In fact, the
men are naturally more aggressive.
medical literature notes that the
Others like to point out that
higher the doses, the greater the
women never start wars; only men
chance of psychological symptoms.
do (an observation obviously made
The minimal level of testosby those who’ve never gone
terone
through a divorce).
thought
Anabolic
to prosteroids weren’t
duce
always linked to
adverse
increased agpsychologigression. In the
cal effects is
1940s, not long
1,000 milligrams a
after testosterone
week, an amount that
was discovered, it
greatly exceeds the
was suggested as an
dosages suggested for
effective treatment for
testosterone-replacement
depression in men. In fact,
therapy. Symptoms that mania common symptom of hypogofest often abate shortly after the
nadism, or low testosterone levels in
drugs are withdrawn, although they can
men, is severe depression.
last up to a month afterward.
Over the past 20 years,
Do anabolic steroids actually cause so-called
Several case studies in the
however, the medical penmedical literature suggest that
dulum has swung: Testos’roid rage, which can lead to criminal behavsteroids are hard not only on
terone is a drug that induces ior? In a small percentage of users they do
severe mental disturbances
indeed amplify what’s already there—an angry users but also on those closest to
the users, such as family, wives or
in users. Among the sympperson may well get even angrier when using
girlfriends. Although outright
toms associated with anlarge doses of steroids.
psychosis is rare, irritability is
abolic steroid use are
common. Things that would
irritability, aggression, eu-
normally not upset you bring on what could be mildly
called an overcompensation effect. Some athletes on
steroids have beaten their wives or girlfriends to the extent of sending them to the hospital.
Some research links cases of homicide, suicide and
other causes of death to steroids. One study examining
the cause of death in 34 steroid users found that 11 had
killed themselves, nine were homicide victims and 12 died
accidentally. The conclusion of the study was that anabolic steroid abusers were at higher risk because of impulsive
and aggressive behavior or increased depression.1
Steroids affects brain function. Experiments have
demonstrated that anabolic steroids, when given to adolescent rats, lead to a decrease in receptors in the brain for
GABA, an inhibitory neurotransmitter. That substance,
which is synthesized from amino acids, calms the brain.
In fact, most prescription sleeping pills work by interacting with the GABA receptor, and if the receptor malfunctions, mania and delusional thinking, as well as loss of
control, can result.
GABA functions in a section of the brain called the
amygdala, the site of emotional response and anger expression. It’s not difficult to see how inhibiting GABA
could lead to increased aggression and anger.
Anabolic steroids also adversely affect the density of
neurons that express serotonin, a brain chemical associated with sleep and feelings of relaxation. Before it was
unjustly banned several years ago, the amino acid Ltryptophan was often used as a sleep and relaxation aid. It
worked because it was the direct precursor of serotonin
synthesis in the brain.
A lack of serotonin activity would make someone feel
not only jumpy and on edge but also depressed. Many
antidepressants, such as Prozac, work by interacting with
serotonin in the brain. It’s possible that for a person with
tendencies toward depression, using steroids may make
the feelings worse. The suicides related to steroid use
likely occurred through that mechanism.
Testosterone is known to increase a hormone synthesized in the posterior pituitary gland. Vasopressin, or antidiuretic hormone (ADH), mainly helps the body retain
water and maintain vital blood fluid volume. In excess,
however, ADH is associated with increased aggressive
behavior, dominance and memory. ADH has a correlation
with serotonin: When serotonin is low and ADH is high,
increased aggression occurs. Since testosterone increases
ADH while lowering serotonin, the possible aggressionproducing effects are clear. The increased water retention
observed in those who inject testosterone also represents
an increase in ADH.
Some suggest that you can become psychologically
addicted to steroids, especially if you’re taking large doses.
Addiction requires a withdrawal syndrome, a set of symptoms that occur when drug use ceases. Popular movies
have depicted what happens when drugs such as heroin
are withdrawn, with junkies experiencing excruciating
mental and physical effects.
Some studies suggest a withdrawal syndrome likewise
exists with anabolic steroids. The symptoms include
depression; anhedonia, or an inability to feel joy or happiness; fatigue; impaired concentration; and, in some cases,
thoughts of suicide. The feelings can become so overwhelming that the user promptly goes back on the drugs.
In other cases the notion that all the muscle gains made
The interaction of testosterone with serotonin
suggests that increasing serotonin levels in the
brain may help to blunt aggressive tendencies
while on steroids. An over-the-counter
supplement called L-5-hydroxy tryptophan, a
bean derivative, is a good direct precursor of
serotonin.
while on the drugs are dissipating rapidly leads to a return
to the drugs. Most of the addictive effects are more associated with the oral or 17-alpha ankylated versions of the
drugs.
Anabolic steroids have been characterized as gateway
drugs, in the sense that using them often leads to use of
other, more immediately dangerous drugs. Why that’s so
is hard to say, although the mental euphoria induced by
steroids may induce some to experiment with other drugs
that have no anabolic properties.
Although not often discussed, some well-known bodybuilders have indeed become hooked on hard-line drugs.
Some started with a drug called Nubain, which was characterized as nonaddictive. The original rationale for using
Nubain was that it provided an antistress effect during
intense training and dulled pain to the extent that it enabled harder training in the gym. But Nubain turned out
to be not so innocent. Although no one died from using it,
many users went on to drugs such as heroin. The recent
death of a former national champion bodybuilder was
linked to his heroin use. He started with Nubain.
So, do anabolic steroids actually cause ’roid rage? In a
small percentage of users they amplify what’s already
there. That is, an angry person may get even angrier when
using large doses of steroids. Most who use the suggested
steroid cycles that feature large doses of several drugs
experience greater irritability because of the chemical
changes induced in the brain. The key to how a person
acts while on steroids relates to the higher brain centers,
which determine intellectual functions and rationality.
Some people can maintain control and not engage in
antisocial behavior, such as beating people up, crashing
cars voluntarily or throwing insane public temper
tantrums.
For those unable to tap into their higher intellectual
Jerry Brainum’s
Bodybuilding Pharmacology
The key to how a person acts while on steroids relates to the
higher brain centers, which determine intellectual functions
and rationality. Some people can maintain control and not
engage in antisocial behavior, such as beating people up,
crashing cars voluntarily or throwing insane public temper
tantrums.
centers, the drugs represent a serious
mental-health risk. Such people could
represent a danger to themselves,
their families and society. The ultimate solution for those who say that
using steroids drove them to commit
negative acts is to either reduce intake of the drugs or, better yet, get off
them completely.
The interaction of testosterone
with serotonin suggests that increasing serotonin levels in the brain may
help blunt aggressive tendencies
while on steroids. Tryptophan is no
longer available, but another OTC
supplement called L-5-hydroxy tryp-
tophan, a bean derivative, is an even
more direct precursor of serotonin
than tryptophan is. Taking at least 300
milligrams a day while on steroids
may help. One company is also selling
a natural GABA derivative that appears to be able to cross the bloodbrain barrier and exert calming
effects. That, too, may offer benefits
for those experiencing increased
aggression while on steroids.
Fish oil is particularly effective for
modulating aggressive tendencies.
Fish oil, or omega-3 fatty acids, interacts with serotonin receptors in the
brain to help tame aggression. Vari-
ous studies have shown that those with
low brain levels of omega-3 fats are
often depressed and have increased
aggression. A good dose for people
who are taking steroids is five to 10
grams of fish oil a day. The liquid form
of the supplement is preferable, since
you’d need to take far too many capsules to reach that dose range.
References
1 Thiblin, I., et al. (2000). Causes and
manner of death among users of anabolic steroids. J Forensic Sci. 45:16-23.
IM
$'
Readers Write
Contest Crackdown
Exercise Execution
I’m pleased that the IFBB is finally taking steps (supposedly) to control some of the judging standards in bodybuilding contests. It’s long overdue. The argument of
symmetry vs. size has gone on in bodybuilding circles since
the very beginning, but the current problem goes a little
deeper. In today’s bodybuilding world many of the competitors have gotten away from bodybuilding ideals to some
degree. In addition to the bloated bellies and those unsightly synthol lumps (is anyone fooled by them?), physiques are
also being corrupted by overdeveloped glutes, hips and
upper thighs. In my opinion, not every bodypart should be
bulked to the absolute maximum. Sure, a bodybuilder
needs development in all areas, but a man’s physique
should have a V-taper, not the shape of a cinder block.
I don’t put the blame for current bodybuilding trends
entirely on the competitors. The majority of the blame goes
to the judges and the fans. When Rich Gaspari popularized
striated glutes back in the late ’80s, fans started demanding
more and more rear-end development. That’s just one
example of trends that have spilled over into judging and
become commonplace in bodybuilding.
As an artist with a keen eye for anatomy, I can see when a
bodybuilder’s symmetry is severely skewed, but I realize
that recognition isn’t inherent in all fans. That’s why I feel
the judges definitely have to take more responsibility in this
area.
I’m a bodybuilding fan at heart, and I know we all want to
see freaky development; however, I think we can have freaks
and still adhere to bodybuilding ideals. I think Ronnie Coleman is a great champion, but I liked his physique better
when he won his first couple of Olympia titles. To my eye,
the majority of his recent weight gain was in his glutes,
upper thighs and waist. I also felt Dorian Yates represented
an excellent combination of freakiness, size and symmetry
during his first two years as Mr. Olympia.
Much of my inspiration for the IRON MAN Legends
poster series stems from the fact that many of the earlier
champions represented a closer adherence to aesthetics
and symmetry. Perhaps by bringing attention to these great
champions and viewing them through an artist’s eye, we
can educate some of our younger bodybuilding fans. I
applaud IRON MAN for honoring bodybuilders of the past
as well as the future.
Ron Dunn
via Internet
272
Editor’s note: It’s difficult
to show every exercise mentioned in every issue. We often
explain difficult-to-grasp exercises in our e-zine and at our
Web site,
www.IronManMagazine.com.
You can subscribe to our e-zine
free at our home page. As for
occlusion, we’re just beginning
to understand its impact on
muscle growth. There’s more
discussion at www.X-Rep.com
and in the X-traordinary Abs ebook, Chapter 4, Bloodbath
Aftermath, available at
that Web site.
Wow!
After I saw Federica Belli, the Hardbody in the October
’05 IRON MAN, I
had to write. Yes,
yes, yes, she is
absolutely your
hottest Hardbody
ever! We have to see
more of her in a
future issue. Please!
Her physique is the
perfect combination
of toned muscles and
feminine curves. Wow!
Sam Pennington
via Internet
Federica
Belli.
Editor’s note: We’ll see
what we can do about
getting her back in the
studio. In the meantime, here’s another
photo of Federica to
keep you going.
Neveux
Neveux
IRON MAN is my favorite bodybuilding magazine. I
really enjoy the nutrition articles, Bodybuilding Pharmacology and the X-Rep training. However, there hasn’t been
enough explanation about occlusion [or blocking blood
flow to the muscles]. Also, some of the exercises mentioned need to have pictures, like incline lateral raises.
A. Franklin
West Palm Beach, FL
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DECEMBER 2005 \ www.ironmanmagazine.com

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