Iron Man magazine 2007 04 - Bodybuilding magazine free

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APRIL 2007 / IRON MAN MAGAZINE—WE KNOW TRAINING™
HIGH-INTENSITY TRAINING • THE LOST MIKE MENTZER INTERVIEW
™
GROWTH ZONE
TRAINING
For Olympian
Muscle Size
•Rep-Range Reload
•X Reps and Burns
•Rest/Pause
•Power/Rep Range/Shock
Get Your Body Back
Reclaim Your Size and Power!
GROWTH ZONE TRAINING
Deltoid Detonation
Shoulder-Blasting Workout
The Muscle Mineral
Are You Getting Enough?
APRIL 2007
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•Carbs and Cardio—the Truth
•Mind/Muscle Explosion!
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Nancy Di Nino
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www.ironmanmagazine.com \ APRIL 2006 261
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recently voted Hollywood’s top body.
150 DECEMBER 2009 \ www.ironmanmagazine.com
Growth Zone,
April 2007
Vol. 66, No. 4
page 106
We Know Training™
FEATURES
FEATURES
58 TRAIN, EAT, GROW 90
More Power/Rep Range/Shock tweaks for bigger, stronger physiques.
88 MIND/MUSCLE EXPLOSION
Peter Siegel teaches you how to push your belief threshold higher for mega gains.
106 GROWTH ZONE
Dwayne Hines II revs you up to push to the limit and
beyond for mind-numbing size.
114 PARTIALS, BURNS AND X REPS
William Litz’s take on extending time under tension for
extreme growth—and he’s got before and after photos to
prove his point.
HIGH-INTENSITY TRAINING • THE LOST MIKE MENTZER INTERVIEW
132 REP-RANGE RELOAD
Chris Pennington plays the numbers
game for a bigger bench and
massive pecs. X-Files is here too.
™
GROWTH ZONE
TRAINING
For Olympian
Muscle Size
•Rep-Range Reload
•X Reps and Burns
•Rest/Pause
•Power/Rep Range/Shock
Get Your Body Back
Reclaim Your Size and Power!
142 MAGNESIUM
Jerry Brainum explores the research
on the so-called muscle mineral.
(Can it help pump you up big time?)
Mind/Muscle Explosion,
page 88
158 A BODYBUILDER IS
BORN 21
Deltoid Detonation
Shoulder-Blasting Workout
The Muscle Mineral
Are You Getting Enough?
APRIL 2007
$5.98
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$7.98 in Canada
70992 37390
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PLUS:
•Anabolic Firestarters
•Carbs and Cardio—the Truth
•Mind/Muscle Explosion!
HardBody Hotness!
Nancy Di Nino
C1_r3-aprl2007_F.indd 1
Jay Cutler and Nancy
Di Nino (inset) appear
on this month’s cover.
Photos by Michael
Neveux
Rise of the machines. Ron Harris
explains why free weights aren’t always the answer.
166 CARDIO AND CARBS
From Bodybuilding.com: Shannon Clark explains why
bodybuilders need both, whether massing or ripping.
180 HEAVY DUTY
Part 1 of a lost Mike Mentzer interview from 1986.
BEFORE
AFTER
Partials, Burns and
X Reps, page 114
198 DELT DETONATION
Eric Broser takes you through a shocking shoulder
workout that’ll swell ’em like melons!
216 CHAD MARTIN
The ’06 Junior USA winner talks bodybuilding, life and leg
training.
230 ANABOLIC FIRESTARTERS
Delt Detonation,
page 198
Certain vitamins, minerals and compounds can create a
hypertrophic firestorm. So says George Redmon, Ph.D.
268 HARDBODY
Nancy Di Nino shows the bod that weight training built.
282 ONLY THE STRONG SHALL SURVIVE
Bill Starr on how to get your body back after a layoff.
1/30/07 1:35:24 PM
DEPARTMENTS
28 TRAIN TO GAIN
Knee-wrecking wrap-up and drop-set solutions. Joe
Horrigan’s Sportsmedicine covers a new grip aid.
42 SMART TRAINING
Charles Poliquin discusses eating out and ripping up.
48 EAT TO GROW
Anabolic Firestarters,
page 230
Protein and muscle resizing, glycemic-index insights and
more beta-alanine benefits (that stuff works!).
74 CRITICAL MASS
Steve Holman on the adaptation-confusion theory. Plus,
creatine dosing and eating tips for leaning out.
78 NATURALLY HUGE
Hard Body,
page 268
John Hansen cranks on the competition ignition—advice
for the newbie bodybuilding competitor.
246 NEWS & VIEWS
Lonnie Teper’s got a fever, and the cure is the pro-season openers. Plus, Jerry Fredricks’ Hot Shots are back.
Let the gargoyle games begin.
252 MUSCLE “IN” SITES
Eric Broser takes a look at bodybuilding Web sites from
legends Ed Corney and Lee Labrada. And his always
popular Net Results Q&A has answers on supersets.
258 BODYBUILDING PHARMACOLOGY
Does testosterone kill brain cells? Jerry Brainum explores
the newest research and also checks out whether anabolic steroids help endurance athletes.
Train to Gain,
page 28
A Bodybuilder is Born,
page 158
News & Views,
page 246
262 PUMP & CIRCUMSTANCE
Ruth Silverman’s review of ’06 continues with a look at
what went on in the amateur femme-physique ranks.
292 MIND/BODY CONNECTION
Randall Strossen, Ph.D., explains why progress is your
responsibility. Dave Draper chimes in with muscle-building
attitude, and a couple of hot Graphic Muscle Stars will
inspire you to hit the gym.
304 READERS WRITE
Jenny is worth every penny—Timea too. But Great Scott
didn’t get a shot.
WEB ALERT!
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In the next IRON MAN
Next month we’ll have an in-depth look at stretch
overload that will change the way you train forever—if you want to get huge! Contraction is great,
but progressive-resistance stretch may be the real
key to growth. We’ll present part 2 of the lost Mike
Mentzer interview, in which he discusses his body’s
response to steroids and the 45-minute training
program he used to become Mr. America. We’ll also
switch on the recorder with Flex Wheeler, who has
some eye-opening views on bodybuilding and the
too-huge crew. Watch for the mind-bending May
IRON MAN on newsstands the first week of April.
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John Balik’s
Founders
1936-1986:
Peary & Mabel Rader
Publisher’s Letter
Big Dreams
Dreams, in the sense of visualizing the
future, are as personal and unique as the
dreams we experience while we sleep. Everything starts with the dream. Whether it’s a
home at the beach, the physique you aspire
to or anything else, it all starts with a dream.
I love the quote from computer scientist Alan
Kay that Ferrari has been using in its ads:
“The best way to predict the future is to invent it.” Only a few words but they have lifechanging power.
I just reread a book I first came across in
the late 1960s, The Magic of Thinking Big.
Don’t be put off by the hokey title. Life’s accomplishments—be they family-, business- or bodybuilding-related—
are all about being able to see yourself as you want to become rather
than the way you are. As a testament to the book’s power and truth, it has
been in print for more than 40 years. Buy it, read it, and then reread it. It
will be time well spent.
When James Cameron won the Academy Award for Best Picture for
“Titanic” in 1997, the presenter—I believe it was Kathy Bates—asked
him in wonderment, “Who gave you permission to create a project of
such impossible proportions?” Cameron’s simple but profound answer
was that he gave himself the permission. The fact is, we all give ourselves
permission to become who we are and what we do. It is the irrevocable
law of accountability.
In January my daughter, Lilli, and I had the honor of attending Arnold
Schwarzenegger’s second inauguration. His vision for the state of California, as projected in his inaugural speech, was a masterful example of
thinking big. (You can hear the speech at IronManMagazine.com.) I was
struck by the elegance and power of his vision and got to thinking about
the way his vision propelled him from Graz, Austria, to the center of the
bodybuilding stage and beyond to become one of the most recognized
celebrities in the world. None of that happened by accident. Now he
has moved to the world stage in politics as the leader of the world’s sixth
largest economy. He calls California a “nation state.”
It was interesting the way people reacted to Arnold’s vision. On the
radio the next day three Sacramento pundits were commenting on his
speech, and two of them did what negative people always do—they
started to go through the litany of why Arnold’s ideas were riddled with
obstacles and why the speech was overly optimistic. The third person
observed that while the speech might have been very optimistic, he
believed that anything Arnold puts his mind to, Arnold believes he can
do. As Arnold used to joke in the gym many years ago, “It’s mind over
matter—if you don’t have the mind, nothing matters.” Arnold has had a
lifetime of impossible dreams that he made possible because he never
gives up until the impossible has been obtained.
There is only one Arnold, but the same rules apply to all of our
dreams. IM
26 APRIL 2007 \ www.ironmanmagazine.com
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 Art Director: Aldrich Bonifacio
Designer: Emerson Miranda
IRON MAN Staff:
Vuthy Keo, Mervin Petralba,
R. Anthony Toscano
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, John Little, Stuart McRobert, Gene
Mozée, Charles Poliquin, Larry Scott, Jim
Shiebler, Roger Schwab, Pete Siegel, 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, Ron Avidan, Reg Bradford, Jimmy
Caruso, Bill Dobbins, Jerry Fredrick, Irvin Gelb,
Isaac Hinds, Dave Liberman, J.M. Manion, Gene
Mozée, Mitsuru Okabe, Rob Sims, Leo Stern
Director of Marketing:
Helen Yu, 1-800-570-IRON, ext. 1
Accounting: Dolores Waterman
Subscriptions Manager:
Sonia Melendez, 1-800-570-IRON, ext. 2
E-mail: [email protected]
Advertising Director: Warren Wanderer
1-800-570-IRON, ext. 1
(518) 743-1696; FAX: (518) 743-1697
Advertising Coordinator:
Jonathan Lawson, (805) 385-3500, ext. 320
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]
Jonathan Lawson, Ad Coordinator: [email protected]
Sonia Melendez, Subscriptions: [email protected]
SEXY ROCK-HARD ABS FAST
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PREVENTION
Can knee wraps
do damage?
probably more so for powerlifters, who do squats as
Knee wraps were once used almost exclusively by
heavy as possible for singles, doubles and triples. For
powerlifters, but lately more bodybuilders can be seen
bodybuilders, who tend to do higher reps for comon leg day wrapping up their knees before getting
pound leg movements, wraps might be something
under a heavy squat bar. Some guys wrap their knees
you can, and possibly should, do without.
before every set of leg presses and hacks too.
—Ron Harris
You could see it as a prophylactic measure. The
wraps keep the knee tight and
warm. That sounds good, but is it?
When Dorian Yates
Some top bodybuilders don’t think
was urged to use knee
so. Dave Henry, runner-up at the ’06
wraps so he could
IRON MAN Pro, believes wraps don’t
squat with heavier
weights, he said a
belong in a bodybuilder’s gym bag.
big spring in his ass
“They compress the patella, which
would do the same
can’t be a good thing,” he says.
thing—with the same
“There’s a reason there’s space and
zero-muscle-building
fluid behind the patella—because
effects.
it acts as a sort of shock absorber.
Taking that shock absorber away so
you basically have bone grinding on
bone sounds like a recipe for disaster in the long run.”
Another pro who gives knee
wraps the thumbs-down is Art Atwood, who’s managed to build some
seriously enormous quads and hams
without using wraps. “I’ve only seen
two guys tear their quads in my
entire life,” he explains, “and they
were both using knee wraps when
they did it.”
Here’s a final word on knee wraps
from six-time Mr. O Dorian Yates, a
laconic champion who spoke only
when he had something meaningful
to say. Once a fan was urging him to
start using knee wraps, arguing that
they’d enable him to handle more
weight on squats. “I could also stick
a big spring in my ass too,” Yates
replied, “but what good would that
do me?”
The bottom line is that knee wraps
can be a worthy training aid, but
Neveux
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Knee-Wrecking Wrap-Up?
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TRAIN TO GAIN
WHEELS
Comstock
Peter Putnam.
BIGGER BODYPARTS
The Red-Headed Stepchild of Muscle Groups
What is it about the back muscles that makes them so neglected? Much of the
blame has to go to sheer ignorance. In my high school lifting years, not only did I
not train my back, I had no idea I could. Occasionally I’d jump on the chinup bar to
challenge myself, but I didn’t realize the exercise was anything more than a means
of testing strength or getting in general condition for sports or military boot camp. I
was far from alone in my naiveté.
Recently I was speaking with USA light-heavyweight runner-up Peter Putnam,
who’s currently playing catch-up with his own back as he strives to bring its development in line with the rest of his thickly muscled physique. “My early years of
weight training were as a high school football player,” he said. “The main goal was
to improve our explosive power so we could keep driving forward down the line.
We did a lot of bench-pressing, military presses and squats but not a single row,
chin or deadlift.”
Even when his emphasis shifted to bodybuilding a few years later, he failed to
give his back the work it needed. “I had no guidance and wasn’t even reading
the magazines yet, so I just put all my effort into the muscles that I could see in
the mirror.” Putnam believes he’s been training his back as hard and heavy as he
should for only the past three years and that the improvements he’s making are
satisfactory. “It’s only a matter of time now before it’s a very good bodypart for me.”
Back neglect is so common in gyms and health clubs that there ought to be a
hotline to report it—800-LAT-LESS. Few gym rats have any desire to develop their
lats, traps, spinal erectors and the smaller upper-back muscles like the rhomboids
and teres major and minor. Even many who identify themselves as bodybuilders
give short shrift to back training, knocking out a few unenthusiastic sets of cable
pulldowns and cable rows every once in a while when the mood strikes. They may
have no desire to compete—yet. But many a competitive bodybuilder recalls a
time when he or she could never imagine getting onstage and flexing in a skimpy
little posing suit. So there may come a day when you start to wonder how the physique you’ve built would fare against others. You don’t want to realize at that point
that you have a huge area like the back to develop to match everything else.
Work your back just as hard as the rest of your body, with productive movements like chins, deadlifts and barbell and dumbbell rows. You’ll be glad you did,
whether it’s when you’re in a lineup of bodybuilders onstage and are asked to turn
around, or walking away from a group of girls and hearing the gasps of appreciation at the powerful back in their view.
—Ron Harris
RonHarrisMuscle.com
Lower-back injuries are about as
common among bodybuilders as tribal
tattoos. As a result, many in the iron
crowd shun squats in favor of the leg
press, in which the back is fully supported. Overall that’s a good thing,
as the leg press enables you to train
heavy without putting your lower back
at risk, especially if you have a history of injury to the area. The trouble
begins when you’re lulled into a false
sense of security, mistakenly believing
that it’s impossible to injure the lumbar
spine on leg presses.
IFBB Pro Chris Cormier discovered
just how wrong that assumption is.
Chris was just beginning his preparations for the ’06 Mr. Olympia, a contest
he desperately wanted to do well at
in order to redeem himself after his
13th-place finish in ’05, the only time
he’d missed the top 10 in as many
appearances at the O. The Real Deal
has a history of
lower-back problems going back
15 years, so he
often uses the leg
press as a tool to
craft his phenomenal legs. On that
particular occasion
he was using the
vertical leg press,
feeling fantastic
and going heavy.
His training partner noted that he was
going deeper than usual on reps.
Though Chris felt no pain then, by the
next afternoon he was lying on his
back on the floor, unable to move. He
spent two weeks in the hospital.
Looking back, Cormier realizes that
lowering the weight too far was the
culprit. “With any leg press, but even
more so the vertical type, you can’t
ever let your tailbone curl up toward
your torso, which is what happens if
you lower too far.” Chris had herniated
two disks in the past, and now he’d
compressed another two. If someone
with Cormier’s training experience and
savvy can make a mistake like that, so
can any of us. All it takes is one rep—
taken too deep with enough weight
loaded up—to bring about lower-back
disaster. So go ahead and use the leg
press, but always keep safety in mind,
and descend only to parallel or just a
bit below.
—Ron Harris
www.RonHarrisMuscle.com
Neveux
The Leg Press
and Back Stress
YOU CAN BENCH BIG
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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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rotator cuff muscles in complete
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©2010 Home-Gym.com
Stretch to Grow
Q: Can you explain why I should stretch after
working out with weights?
A: It is very important, especially as you age. First, if you
do everything correctly from a stimulation standpoint with
weights—from refueling to getting proper rest and recovery—
the result should be some muscle growth. Now, when muscles are growing, they’re actually shortening to a degree. So
as they hypertrophy, they’re also getting shorter and tighter.
If you weight-train for years on end and then attempt a very
fast motion, such as throwing a baseball hard, the tendon at
the lower biceps insertion can rupture. That’s because you’ve
trained the muscles and tendons at a slow speed and with
heavy resistance. Once they encounter a fast, lighter form of
movement, the unique stress can cause a rupture. You should
incorporate other types of exercise so that your muscle won’t
develop one dimensionally—and that includes stretching.
Stretching can also positively affect the myofascia, which
encases the muscles. Think of the skin on a chicken. Beneath
the skin but on top of the meat is a thin, whitish layer. That’s
the myofascia. It can become tight and thick when the body
is under too much stress or at rest too often. Stretching can
help loosen the tissue, but a more aggressive remedy is myofascia trigger point therapy. If you’re feeling tightness in odd
places, like the neck, lower back or top of the pecs, you may
have fibromyalgia. It was once thought only people who were
INTENSITY
Neveux
Drop-Set Solution
Q: The drop-set concept you recommend works! I’ve already put on
about 10 pounds of muscle in two
months. My question is, How do I
do drop sets on dips and chins? I
only use 20 pounds on those exercises, and that’s not a big enough
poundage reduction to enable me
to get more reps on a subsequent drop set.
A: Try using a similar exercise for your drop set. In other
words, make it a superset instead. For example, after you fail
on dips, do pushups—that is, if you’re working chest. If you’re
using dips for triceps, go to bench dips when you hit failure.
For bench dips you set two flat benches parallel to each other
a few feet apart. Position yourself face up, hands on the edge
of one—behind your back—and heels on the edge of the other.
Now dip. Bench dips are much easier than bar dips, so you
should be able to knock out at least eight to 10 immediately
after your weighted dips.
As for chins, go to pulldowns when you hit failure. If you
don’t have a pulldown machine, you can do undergrip barbell
rows. Those actually work very well with chins because the
undergrip rows train the lats in their contracted position, while
chinning with an overhand grip is midrange work for the lats.
You’ll feel a searing burn in your lats during undergrip rows,
guaranteed.
—Steve Holman
3D Muscle Building
3DMuscleBuilding.com
And prevent injuries as well
Neveux \ Model: George Farah
TRAIN TO GAIN
MATURE MUSCLE
inactive got fibromyalgia, but it’s now known to hit anyone at
anytime (provided a certain predisposition gene is exacerbated
by stress and some other immune factors). The likelihood
of this disease happening to a bodybuilder is slim; however,
having myofascial problems is common for those who use
their muscles daily. If stretching and some recovery time don’t
relieve the problem, take a trip to a good physical therapist.
One last point on injuries: Near-max attempts can cause
problems. I have seen bodybuilders rupture the pectoraldeltoid tie-in and the vastus lateralis, the outer part of the
quadriceps, where the muscle attaches near the knee. The
ruptures are usually due to steroid use, which can result in
lifting weights that are far too heavy for the body’s frame and
tendons and ligaments. Smart bodybuilders never use weights
that can’t be pushed (or pulled) for a minimum of five to six
perfectly smooth reps for the upper body and eight to 12 for
the lower body. Staying with moderate, low-end rep counts
will almost ensure a rupture-free bodybuilding career.
How to stretch will be the topic next month—and you’ll be
surprised at my recommendations.
—Paul Burke
Editor’s note: You can contact Paul Burke via e-mail at
[email protected]. Burke has a master’s degree in Integrated
Studies from Cambridge College in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He’s been a champion bodybuilder and
arm wrestler, and he’s considered the leader
in the field of over-40 fitness training. You
can purchase his book Burke’s Law—a New
Fitness Paradigm for the Mature Male, from
Home Gym Warehouse. Call (800) 447-0008,
or visit www.Home-Gym.com. His “Burke’s
Law” training DVD is also now available.
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SPORTSMEDICINE
Get a Grip
For better training and gaining
Foam rubber grips
have been used in heavy
bench press training by
bodybuilders for ages. The
idea is that extra padding
protects the nerves in your
hands. Some trainees report numbness after many
sets of heavy regular- or
reverse-grip bench presses. The foam pads seem
to help somewhat. Some
trainees have used gloves
in training to prevent calluses. Sports performance
catalogs carry denser,
thicker grips to use when
bench pressing. They also
carry “fat” bars to spread
out the force on your hand.
There may be other
reasons that having something to grip or squeeze
can improve the performance of a lift like the
bench press. There are
theories in kinesiology and
in neurology that activating
the gripping muscles can
improve the strength in the kinetic chain. Kinesiologists refer to
that as the transfer of strength from one bodypart to another.
I recently came across a new product simply called Grips.
E.J. “Doc” Kreis, D.A., head speed-strength and conditioning
coach at UCLA, gave me a pair to try. The grips caught my
attention immediately.
Dave Pearson, Ph.D., director of the strength research
laboratory at Ball State University in Indiana, had quite a bit
to say about the purpose of the grips. “The grips do not replace gloves. The grips are a performance aid. The flexors of
the hand and wrist isometrically contract around the Olympic
bar. I have gripped the bar since I was 19 years old. It’s never
changed in 40 years. I noticed when I used the grips, I began
to knock out one more rep in the pullups and pulldowns. The
best explanation we have thus far is the fact that the grip diameter was changed, and this produced new joint angles. This
would change the strength and recruitment of the muscles of
the hand and wrist.”
Kreis added, “The grips won’t work as well with other materials. The material is durable and will not unbalance the hand.
People have tried using other materials, such as leather and
canvas, without as much success.”
From what athletes are reporting, it appears that lifts in
which two arms are used are most affected. That includes
pressing, pulling and rowing.
Kreis added, “Female and smaller male athletes can’t use
fat bars effectively, due to the diameter of the bar. Fat bars
also can’t be used for power cleans, which are a key exercise.
Female athletes in water polo and softball started using the
grips and liked them.” Athletes reported improved throwing
velocities.
Pearson chimed in, “These are anecdotal reports and results. These types of reports always precede research.”
Why do the grips appear to help trainees get at
least one more rep out of
each set? There are several ideas. Pearson noted,
“There is enough data on
muscle recruitment and
activation with isometric
exercise to support the
idea that changes can
occur with a change in the
diameter of the bar with
the grips. That may have
a significant impact on the
racquet sports—baseball,
hockey and tennis. The
baseball bat is bigger than
an Olympic bar. The added
grip diameter is a good
idea for performance.”
If the grips only prevented calluses, no one would
be excited, but these grips
fall into the performanceenhancement category.
“We can see the change
in a single use of the
grips,” he continued. “That implies a neurologic effect because the muscle isn’t stronger yet. Rather, more fibers were
recruited. Female athletes gain strength through recruitment
rather than through hypertrophy. Therefore, the female athletes
respond faster than male athletes to the use of the grips.”
On the other hand, he said, “We don’t believe the grips are
useful in a ballistic exercise like power cleans because the bar
must rotate just right, and too much grip force is not useful in
that lift.”
Pearson concluded, “I spoke with one of our biomechanists, and he stated that each person’s hand has an ideal grip
diameter. For example, gripping a pencil is overkill, but gripping the thick end of the baseball bat is too much. The range
is somewhere in between. If a trainee has used the Olympic
bar for years and now uses the grip, he or she will have the
feeling that his or her grip sinking in. I think coaches who are
looking for subtle change will be interested in the grips. I also
think tennis is a great choice too. There’s so much overreaching and overuse in tennis, leading to the development of tennis elbow. The grips may turn out to be a great training aid.
Perhaps the best part is there isn’t any real downside to the
grips.”
For more information or to order, visit www.lynxpt.com.
—Joseph M. Horrigan
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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TRAIN TO GAIN
HARDGAINER
How to Avoid Injury
In the last issue I gave you the first 10 recommendations
for how to avoid injuries. You simply can’t make bodybuilding
progress if you keep getting injured. Many bodybuilders seem
to constantly struggle with injuries—one injury after another.
Follow the recommendations in this series, and you won’t get
injured.
11) Use the right weight for you. Use weights you
can handle with correct technique. Most bodybuilders use
more weight than they can handle correctly. That leads to
cheating and a loss of control.
12) Choose safe exercises.
An exercise that’s safe for some
bodybuilders may not be for others. If
you’re a beginner, your intensity and
poundage will be low, so you’ll be able
to maintain correct technique. But because of physical anomalies, accidents
or other injuries, specific exercises may
be problematic, especially if you’re not
a beginner. Don’t use exercises that
aren’t suited to you. If an exercise irritates a joint or causes sharp, stabbing
or sudden pain, don’t persist with it.
13) Avoid high-risk lifting. All
types of weightlifting can be dangerous
if not done correctly, but some forms
carry a higher risk than others. For
example, rock lifting and handling other
awkwardly shaped objects carry a far
higher risk of injury than barbell, dumbbell and machine training.
14) Don’t follow the examples of the genetic
elite. A few bodybuilders can withstand training abuse that
would cripple most bodybuilders. But eventually even they pay
a heavy price. Don’t take liberties in the gym—you’ll pay for
abuse.
15) When using machines, follow the manufacturers’ instructions. For some exercises you may have to
line up a specific joint with the pivot point of the machine. The
right setup is critical. Changing the seat’s position (and thus
your position) by just one peg, for example, can make a difference in the comfort of a given exercise.
To accurately line up a given point on a machine with a
given point on your body, your eyes need to be at the same
level as the points being lined up. That usually isn’t practical,
so ask someone to help line you up. Once you have the right
setup for a specific exercise, make a note in your training log
of future settings you require, for reference.
If you’ve used a machine as the manufacturer advises (often
through instructions fixed to the equipment) and have tweaked
the setup to suit you and have used smooth rep speed, and
yet the exercise still irritates a joint, substitute an alternative
exercise.
16) Don’t squeeze machine handles more than
necessary. On some machine exercises, such as the leg
curl and the leg press, you need to stabilize yourself by holding onto handles or other grip supports. Don’t squeeze the
handles more than necessary to stabilize yourself. Intensive
squeezing increases blood pressure.
17) Be safety conscious. Never begin an exercise
without having first checked safety considerations. Check
that bolts are tight, cables aren’t frayed, cable connections
are secure, rack pins are securely in position, adjustable
weight saddles are fixed in place, locking pin(s) for adjust-
Part 2
able benches and seats are
secure, and benches are stable
and strong. Never use dumbbells
without checking that the collars
are securely fixed. A dumbbell
coming apart while you’re using
it, especially overhead, could be
disastrous.
Remember, just one accident could stop you from training
for a long time. Be careful.
18) Avoid singles and low
reps. Any exercise performed in
Sore muscles are
any rep range will hurt you if you use
more prone to injury.
poor technique. If you always use
correct technique, all rep counts
can be comparatively safe, at least
in theory. Your body must, however,
be accustomed to the rep count
you’re using before you start to push
yourself hard. That especially applies
to singles (one-rep sets) and low
reps (sets of two to four reps). If you
get out of the ideal groove during a
maximum single, you’re more likely
to hurt yourself than if you get out of
the groove during a set of medium
or high reps. That doesn’t mean
high reps with reduced weights are
guaranteed safe. If you use poor
technique, you’re asking for injury
no matter what rep range or poundage you’re using. Beginners should avoid singles and low-rep
work. Stick with medium or higher reps.
19) Don’t train when you’re very sore. Sore and
tight muscles are easily injured, although a little local soreness,
especially for beginners, shouldn’t prohibit training. When
you’re training following severe soreness, reduce your effort
level a little and build on it over several workouts to prevent
a repeat of the excessive soreness. Keep in mind that when
you’re sore, you may be more prone to injury. Give yourself
extra rest before you train the sore area hard again. Low-intensity aerobic work gets blood flowing and can ease soreness
somewhat. Massage may help, as may a hot bath. Paradoxically, another bout of the exercises that made you very sore—
but done very light and easy—may help relieve the soreness.
20) Don’t train when you’re fatigued from a previous workout. If you’re systemically wiped out—which
may or may not be accompanied by muscular soreness—rest
for an extra day or two. Then when you’re back in the gym,
reduce your training volume or intensity and build it back over
several workouts to give your body a chance to adapt. If you
get wiped out again and the components of recuperation are
in order, there’s something amiss with your training. Modify it;
abbreviate it.
—Stuart McRobert
www.Hardgainer.com
Editor’s note: Stuart McRobert’s first
byline in IRON MAN appeared in 1981.
He’s the author of the new 638-page opus
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More Wicked Muscle Size and Serious Blast-Off Power On Every Set
Fast Mass
Or is it just nervous
system coordination?
A recent study, which I discussed in a previous issue,
showed that muscle gains come quickly when a person
starts weight training. Most exercise physiology texts say
that initial gains are usually in strength rather than muscle
size. Your brain develops more efficient communication with
your muscles, or, to put it in scientific terms, you develop
neuromuscular efficiency. As the brain and muscles work
in tandem to recruit muscle fibers, changes occur, such as
increased muscle protein synthesis, that result in muscle size
gains. According to the texts, though, that doesn’t occur until
after an average of two to three months of regular training.
Recently, however, researchers found that college students who did leg extensions were able to add muscle to
their front thighs in as little as two to four weeks, far faster
than previously believed. The authors cite the rapid response
of anabolic hormones induced by the training.
A new study expands and confirms those findings and
suggests that exercise intensity is the major factor responsible for rapid initial muscle gains. Seven healthy young
men trained for 35 days doing leg extensions on a special
flywheel-based machine. The design of the machine made
it gravity-independent, which maximizes both the raising
(concentric) and lowering of the weight (eccentric) during
the exercise. Maximum stress was applied to the exercised
muscles.
Past studies may have overlooked early signs of muscle
growth because the equipment used was incapable of examining the muscle changes occurring at a molecular level. For
example, more recent investigations of muscle growth show
that satellite cells, or progenitor muscle stem cells involved
in the hypertrophy and repair processes after exercise or
trauma, begin to proliferate within four days of a single weight
workout. Muscle protein synthesis increases 60 percent
within 4 1/2 hours of a workout featuring both concentric and
eccentric muscle contractions—the usual style of bodybuilding training.
The men training on the leg extension–flywheel apparatus
showed a rate of front-thigh muscle growth of 3.5 to 5.2
percent after only 20 days. That translates to a 0.2 percent increase per day. Maximum muscle strength rose by
Neveux \ Model: Michael Turcotte
Stretch lines up the muscle
sarcomeres for a number
of mass-building effects.
38 percent by
the end of the
training period.
Since the crosssectional area of
the front thighs
(an indicator of
muscle increase)
increased by
7 percent, the
strength gain
largely came
from neuromuscular changes,
confirming long-held findings.
On the other hand, the gains in muscle size surpassed
previous expectations of the time required to acquire gains.
The maximum voluntary muscle contraction improved significantly in only 10 days, detectable before any size increase.
That points to increased muscle efficiency.
At the molecular level the training rapidly led to production of intramuscular growth factors, mainly insulinlike growth
factor 1 and its cleavage form, mechano-growth factor. The
upgraded production of IGF-1 signals a biochemical cascade
resulting in increased muscle protein synthesis, which in turn
leads to muscle hypertrophy, or growth. The authors think
that the flywheel design of the machine maximized every
rep done by the subjects, and it was the maximal effort that
promoted the IGF-1 response.
Another interesting finding was that a muscle’s internal
architecture changes with the onset of exercise. The purpose
of the change is to prepare the muscle for growth. Structures
in muscle called sarcomeres are lined up in an orderly pattern
conducive to muscle growth. As it happened, the flywheel
apparatus provided more stretch—which facilitates the lineup
of sarcomeres within muscle—than usual machines.
While the authors suggest that some of these changes
occurred because of the unusual design of the machine, the
principles could be applied to any type of resistance training. For example, since the machine imparts more muscle
damage due to a potent emphasis on
both raising and lowering the weight,
that aspect should also be emphasized
in any exercise. The stretch aspect can
be duplicated by using a full range of
exercise motion, including a prestretch
at the start of every rep. Again, that lines
up the muscle sarcomeres, not only leading to a stronger muscle contraction but
also acting as a precursor of the muscle
architectural changes that precede actual
muscle growth.
—Jerry Brainum
Seynnes, O.R., et al. (2007). Early
skeletal muscle hypertrophy and architectural changes in response to high-intensity resistance training. J Appl Physiol.
102:368-373.
Neveux \ Model: Nathan Detracy
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Charles Poliquin’s
Smart Training
Eating Out and
Ripping Up
Q: I’m presently reducing my fat percentage for
beach season. I’m tired of going to the beach and
being uncomfortable with my shirt off. Everything
is going well except when I have to eat out. My job
requires me to “do” lunch with coworkers and meet
with advisers from other companies. I can’t take my
lunch with me because I look like a weenie or some
cheap freak, and I can’t ever decide what
to eat. Any tips?
A: No problem at all. Actually, your worrying
about it is probably pushing your cortisol level
up and doing more harm than anything else.
Rarely do I find a restaurant that doesn’t have
anything suitable to eat. It may not be perfect,
but it’s about making the smart or the best or, in some
cases, the least worst choice. I haven’t met you, so I can’t
prescribe a specific diet. Generally, though, I suggest lowcarb choices.
If you can, always book the restaurant yourself. That way
you know there will be something appropriate to eat. If you
let the others reserve the spot, you don’t know where you’ll
end up—it could be at an all-you-can-eat Chinese buffet or
the VIP table next to Rosie O’Donnell. Here are some tips
for eating out:
1) Have water with lemon or lime. That helps alkalize
your system. The more alkaline you are, the easier it is to
combat stress.
2) There’s always steak, chicken or other meats on the
menu. The problems arise with the preparation and/or
the toppings that come with the meat. Ask the waiter
about any sauces or topping to check for hidden carbs.
3) Order a salad with your meat, and get balsamic vinegar and oil to make sure there
are no hidden carbs again. It’s
quite common for restaurants
to add sugar to salad dressings
for taste. The balsamic vinegar
actually lowers the glycemic
index of your meal by up to 20
percent. Ask for your salad to
be served with the main meal.
If it comes early, put it aside
and eat it after your meat.
4) When you order, ask for
vegetables, and make sure
they’re steamed or raw. You
don’t want the side of potato
or rice. Order veggies—or
extra veggies—instead, and
you won’t be tempted to eat it
while you wheel and deal million-dollar deals.
5) Tell the waiter that you won’t be having dessert,
so he or she won’t ask you at the end of meal. That
way you’ll be less tempted when coworkers order
it.
Neveux \ Model: Markus Reinhardt
Q: I train first thing in the morning, an
hour after I get up at 4 a.m. That’s the only
time I can fit in workouts. My brother-in-law
is a personal trainer and says I should eat
before my workouts, but I feel sick if I do and
usually have to stop my workout. Any suggestions?
A: Even though I find that people’s gains accelerate when they have two meals before they work
out, that approach may not be realistic for many
individuals—particularly for people who operate in
the corporate world and have children. I suggest a
protein-only shake as soon as your feet hit the floor
Eating out at restaurants frequently
doesn’t have to smooth out your
muscularity—if you make smart choices.
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Whatever You Need—Wherever You Train™
Smart Training
On reverse curls and hammer
curls keep your wrists in
a neutral position, but on
supinated, or palms-up,
curls cock your wrists so
your hands are back. That
will give you better biceps
activation.
A: I just finished reading the
The Brain Diet by Alan C. Logan,
an excellent book that explains the
connection between diet, mental
health and realizing the full potential of our intelligence. It shows how
poor nutrition adversely affects our
mental health and success and what
can be done to achieve optimum
intellectual capacity. It’s a book that
should be required reading for all of
our political leaders, not to mention
bodybuilders.
Another great book that I recommend strongly is The Greatness
Guide by Robin Sharma. He’s a great
self-help author who’s lectured to
many Fortune 500 companies. He
gives you 101 success formulas of
the über-successful. Each chapter
is short and to the point. I’ve given
this book to all of my top clients this
year.
in the morning. Use a whey protein concentrate instead of an isolate, as it enhances your
immune system. Muscle growth is correlated
with the strength of your immune system—as
the survival of so many longtime AIDS patients
can attest.
Then drink a mixture of branched-chain
amino acids and glutamine while you train.
I suggest one gram of BCAAs for every five
pounds of bodyweight. Make sure that leucine
is the most abundant amino acid in the stack.
As soon as your workout is over, down
your postworkout shake. As close as you can
to one hour after your shake have your first
solid meal of the day. Meanwhile, remember
what Thomas Jefferson said: “The sun has not
caught me in bed in 50 years.”
Q: I want to thank you for your help
over the years; I have all of your books
and love studying to be a better trainer. I
was wondering what good books you’ve
Q: Why
do you recommend
cocking the
wrists down
and back on
supinated
curls?
Neveux \ Model: Jose Raymond
read or suggest for trainees.
A: That
trick was
shown to me
by bodybuilding trainer
and nutritionist Bill MacDonald of
Fresno 24
years ago. Bill
had trained
a host of
Mr. America
contestants,
including
Gary Leonard,
who later
turned IFBB
pro. MacDon-
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Smart Training
negative-accentuated rep.
Don’t worry if your curling
poundages go down. The levels of
growth in your elbow flexors will
compensate for the diminished
loads. Because of the better overload, you should be handling your
previous loads in the new style of
curling in no time.
Franco Columbu, Mr.
Olympia and one of Arnold’s
training partners, believed in
establishing a strong mind/
muscle connection.
Q: What is your opinion on
selecting exercises based on
“feel”?
Neveux
A: I first learned this one from
Franco Columbu, D.C., who was a
world-class bodybuilder and training partner of the Governator at his
bodybuilding peak. Multiple Mr.
Olympia Dorian Yates confirmed
that concept with me. The premise
is that if there’s no mind/muscle
connection, you’re wasting your
time.
Having talked to a number of
high-caliber bodybuilders, I find
that they tend to use exercises that
they could feel well. For example,
Columbu told me he felt nothing
from decline barbell presses, so he
scrapped them.
My good friend IFBB pro Milos
Sarcev is also of that opinion. He
reports that he may start every arm
workout with very light concentration curls and focus his mind on
the shortening/lengthening cycle
to the point where he can feel the mind/muscle connection, then proceed with his planned workout.
The mind is an often neglected element of training. I
always encourage athletes to make that mind/body connection as early as possible in their training careers.
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 183. IM
Bradford
ald was way ahead of his time in terms of nutrition and
training. Too bad the bodybuilding media never discovered
him. He showed it to me as we were discussing the effect of
tempo on muscle hypertrophy. Most people unconsciously
initiate the action by curling the wrist in, or they curl it in
when approaching fatigue. That reduces the resistance,
thus improving your leverage. Since some of the load is
being taken by the forearm flexors, the burden on the
elbow flexors diminishes.
The rationale is that you prevent the use of the forearms during curls by extending the wrists down and back.
The consequence is that you increase the overload on the
elbow flexors, which is what you really want when you do a
curling exercise.
You may well ask if that increases the stress on the
wrists: No. In the past 24 years, none of the trainees with
whom I’ve shared that tip have ever reported wrist pain
or forearm strain from it. However, you should extend the
wrists down and back only in supinated (palms-up) curls.
When doing reverse curls or hammer-style curls, your
wrists should stay in a neutral position.
Another way to use the technique is to extend the duration of a set. When you can’t get any more reps with your
wrists cocked back, curl your hands forward during the
concentric action, and then lower the weight with your
wrist cocked back. Since you’re about 15 to 20 percent
stronger with your wrist curled up than curled down, that
can substitute for having a partner apply upward pressure
for a forced rep or two. In other words, it would be like a
Charles Poliquin
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\ JULY 2006 181
EAT TO
NUTRITION SCIENCE
Protein and Muscle Resizing
that can last up to seven hours.
The rapid release of amino acids
promotes protein synthesis after exercise. It also promotes the breakdown of
those amino acids in the liver, explaining
why they disappear after 90 minutes.
While rapid amino acid appearance favors increased muscle protein synthesis
following exercise, that’s only part of the
muscle-building
equation. The
other aspect
Many protein
supplements
involves an antidesigned for
catabolic effect,
bodybuilders
also controlled
now contain
by the presence
whey and
of amino acids in
casein.
the blood.
Since
muscle protein synthesis
occurs for 36
hours following a weight
workout, an
optimal nutritional environment will
constantly
supply amino
acids during
that time.
Casein fills
the bill here,
since its
amino acids
are released
over seven
hours. As a
result, studies
show that casein
is superior to
whey for antiNeveux \ Model: Omar Deckard
Milk contains two primary proteins:
whey and casein. Several studies have
examined their uptake. Whey is rapidly
absorbed, reaching peak values of
amino acid entry into the blood within
90 minutes, after which amino acid
blood levels return to normal. In contrast, casein curdles in the stomach,
leading to a slow release of amino acids
New protein studies
show mixed results
catabolic effects.
A number of studies both dispute
and support those findings. One study
found that both proteins produced an
equal amount of protein synthesis after
exercise. Another found that providing
more frequent whey feedings had an
anticatabolic effect similar to that of
casein. Still another found that with a
constant infusion of amino acids into
the blood, all muscle protein synthesis
ceases after four hours.
Adding to the confusion are two
recently published studies that examined the anabolic effects of milk protein
metabolism. The first study looked at
precisely how different milk proteins
affect the body’s anabolic processes. It
compared the metabolic fates of three
types of protein formulations: 1) micellar casein (MC); 2) milk-soluble protein
isolate (MSPI); and 3) total milk protein
(TMP), which contains both casein and
whey. The proteins were labeled with
radioactive tracers to map their metabolism in 23 healthy subjects divided into
three groups. Each group got one of
the three protein formulations. Prior to
the study, they were all on a standardized diet containing the same amount
of protein in each meal for one week.
The fate of the proteins was measured over an eight-hour period. The
MSPI, which had the most rapid digestion rate, also produced the highest
rate of amino acid breakdown into
urea, the liver’s major metabolic protein
waste product. The rapid release of
the amino acids from MSPI promoted
the liver breakdown of its amino acids,
despite the high amino acid content of
MSPI, including leucine, a branchedchain amino acid largely responsible for
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inducing muscle protein synthesis. The
breakdown occurred within two hours
and produced levels of urea twice as
high as occurred with the other two
protein forms. After eight hours MSPI
showed an amino acid breakdown 7
percent higher than that of casein.
While the high branched-chainamino-acid content of MSPI, which is
similar to that of whey, should have led
to a sustained muscle protein synthesis
effect, the BCAAs in the blood returned
to baseline after four hours, in contrast
to the sustained BCAA levels produced
by the other two protein sources. The
rapid breakdown of amino acids from
MSPI makes it unlikely to have anabolic
effects in muscle, according to the
authors.
The total milk protein produced the highest nitrogen
retention of the three, which
would point to a greater anabolic effect in muscle. That was
thought to be related to an early metabolic and hormonal effect of the whey
protein fraction, followed by a sustained
effect from the casein portion.
Another study came to a different
conclusion. It compared hydrolyzed
whey isolate—similar to the MSPI used
in the previous study—to casein on
strength, body composition and plasma
glutamine levels during a supervised
10-week bodybuilding program. Thirteen noncompetitive male bodybuilders
took either whey isolate (WI) or casein
(C) in amounts of 1.5 grams per kilogram of bodyweight per day throughout
the study. Thus, a 200-pound bodybuilder would get 135 grams of protein
supplement daily. The study used a
double-blind design, so neither group
knew who got the whey or the casein.
While the primary focus of the study
compared the effects of the two major
milk protein supplements, a secondary
focus was on their effect on plasma
glutamine levels. Some studies show
that higher-protein diets have an inverse effect on glutamine levels. Other
studies show that weightlifters have
lower blood levels of glutamine than
other athletes. High-intensity anaerobic
training, such as bodybuilding, is also
known to lower plasma glutamine.
Since whey is rich in BCAAs, which are
the precursors of glutamine synthesis,
the authors wanted to see how a whey
or casein supplement would affect glutamine in the trained bodybuilders.
After 10 weeks neither group
showed any changes in glutamine
levels. The whey group, however, had
significantly greater lean mass gain,
greater fat loss and greater strength
gain. On the other hand, the whey
group got an average of 250 more calories daily than the casein group. That’s
significant because past studies show
a direct relationship between calorie
intake and protein requirements, in that
a higher protein intake is supported
by the intake of additional calories for
purposes of increasing muscle.
Interestingly, the authors suggest
that whey’s higher content of the amino
acid cysteine led to a reduced production of urea. That’s in direct opposition to the findings of the study that
showed greater urea production from a
wheylike protein source because of its
rapid amino acid uptake. The cysteine
content of whey isolate is also thought
to account for the fat loss. The casein
group experienced no change in fat
loss during the study.
Those in the whey group also tended
to reduce their intake of food protein
in favor of the whey. That could relate
to the satiety effect of concentrated
protein, which can have a marked effect
on appetite. On
the other
hand, as
mentioned
above,
the whey
group
consumed
slightly
more calories than
the casein
group.
So
Total milk protein,
which
that contains
casein and whey,
protein is
produced the
better for
highest nitrogen
muscleretention.
building
purposes, whey or casein? It’s
probably best to play it safe by
getting both forms, such as with
a total-milk-protein supplement.
That provides the best of both
worlds, with the rapid uptake
and increased muscle protein
synthesis provided by whey,
along with the sustained, anticatabolic effect produced by casein. That
equation equals more muscle growth.
—Jerry Brainum
References
Lacroix, M., et al. (2006). Compared
with casein or total milk protein, digestion of milk-soluble proteins is too rapid
to sustain the anabolic postprandial
amino acid requirement. Am J Clin Nutr.
84:1070-1079.
Cribb, P., et al. (2006). The effect of
whey isolate and resistance training on
strength, body composition, and plasma glutamine. Int J Sports Nutr Exerc
Metabol. 16:494-509.
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Eat to Grow
NUTRITION NOTES
Food Facts
That can affect your
workouts, weight and wellness
Mixing foods changes the glycemic index of the meal, as
compared to eating a lone carbohydrate.
WARRIOR NUTRITION AND EXERCISE
Glycemic Index Insights
GI for carb
selection?
The glycemic index shows how much insulin your body secretes when a nutrient
is introduced into your blood. Although it sounds simple, it’s actually quite confusing. The same food can have a different GI depending on how it’s cooked. Pasta
al dente (pasta that’s cooked for a shorter time and so remains slightly hard) has a
lower glycemic index than well-cooked, soft pasta. Baked potatoes have a higher
glycemic index than mashed potatoes because of a difference in the
macrostructure of the carbohydrate.
When you add butter, milk, monunsaturated oil or essential fatty
acids to food, it usually lowers the GI. So if you eat a baked potato
with oil, for instance, it has a lower glycemic index than a plain baked
potato. Fiber slows carbohydrate absorption and therefore may help
reduce the glycemic index of the carbs. Whole grains have a lower
glycemic index than refined grains.
Even though many people consider
the glycemic index as the
key to selecting carbs,
I don’t believe that
the GI is always as
critical a factor as
it’s believed to
be. Fructose,
for example, has a lower GI
than white rice. In my opinion,
though, high-fructose corn
syrup, which appears in many
commercial foods, processed foods
and health bars, is one of the most
dangerous and destructive sources of
carbs. White rice, with
its higher GI, is the far superior
choice.
—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.
Sun exposure
early in life may
ward off multiple
sclerosis. According to Bottom Line
Health, a study
of more than 700
pairs of twins
found that those born in northeastern
states were almost twice as likely to
get MS as those born farther south.
Researchers link less risk with early
sun exposure.
Amino acids reduce
muscle soreness. Japanese researchers gave
30 subjects a mixture of
amino acids isoleucine,
leucine and valine before
squat workouts. The subjects experienced significantly less soreness and
fatigue than those who
took a sugar pill, which would indicate
that taking amino
acid supplements
before training is a
good idea.
Coffee cranks
up your workout
energy, but it can
also help prevent
type 2 diabetes by
more than 40 percent. That’s what
a Harvard study
found—and it only
takes two to three
cups of coffee a
day.
A high-fiber
breakfast can
help keep your appetite in check. You
should get about 30
grams of fiber a day,
but try to get a big
dose in the morning.
Pomegranate
juice appears to reduce the growth rate
of prostate cancer, says a
new study. It looks as though it also
promotes blood flow to the sexual
organs and to the heart.
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SUPPLEMENT SAFETY
Is creatine safe for young athletes?
Many parents and coaches wonder if creatine supplements are safe for teenage athletes. Some suggest that as
teens are still growing, creatine may somehow adversely affect
their health. They suggest that despite having no evidence
whatsoever to support such ideas. A study presented at the
American College of Sports Medicine Conference on Integrative Physiology of Exercise in 2006 examined the effects of
creatine use on teen athletes.
Twenty 16-year-old male football players from Spokane,
Washington, were divided into two main groups. One group
ate large amounts of protein and carbohydrate and supplemented their diets with a daily intake of 10 grams of creatine.
The others ate whatever they wanted but also took 10 grams
of creatine daily. Two subgroups, one of which ate a highprotein and high-carb diet, while the other group ate whatever
they wanted, didn’t take creatine. All groups followed a fourday workout program, training two days on and one day off.
After 26 weeks those on the creatine who ate a lot of protein and carbs showed a 20 percent improvement in various
measures of physical performance, including speed, strength
and agility. They also had more muscle mass and less bodyfat.
None showed any signs of side effects from the creatine. This
study demonstrates that creatine use, combined with good
nutrition, offers teenagers significant benefits for sports performance and body composition without any side effects.
—Jerry Brainum
Dami, D. (2006). The effects of oral creatine in combination
with specific nutrition to enhance adolescent sports performance. Med Sci Sports Exerc. 38: Supp 1:S30.
FAT FLUX
WEIGHT LOSS
Calorie Counterattack
Stay Warm, Lose Weight
Conjugated linoleic
acid is a fatty acid
found in dairy foods
and beef—and it may
help you control your
weight. Scientists
at the Univerisity of
Wisconsin had 40
overweight subjects
take four grams of
CLA or a placebo with
breakfast. After six
months the CLA users
had lost 1.3 pounds,
while those who took
the placebo gained
2.4 pounds. Although
CLA isn’t a miracle
fat-loss compound, it does appear to be helpful in curbing
fat gain.
—Becky Holman
www.X-tremeLean.com
Did you know that cold temperatures tend to stimulate
appetite? Folks with naturally low body temperatures are
more prone to weight gain because of that. In fact, every
degree increase in
body temperature
increases metabolism by 14 percent.
One reason may
be that higher
temperatures are
more conducive to
growth hormone release. If you’re training in a cold gym,
bundle up to keep
your muscles warm,
your metabolism
stoked and the GH
flowing.
—Becky Holman
www.X-tremeLean
.com
Neveux \ Model: Robert Hatch
Neveux \ Model: Justin Balik
Teen Toxicity?
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Eat to Grow
ANABOLIC DRIVE
The Dimension of Time and Hypertrophy
pound person, that translates into 32 grams of protein, 34.4
grams of carb, less than 0.4 grams of fat and 5.6 grams of
creatine monohydrate.
Guess what? The group that took the supplement before
and after training had better adaptations. They demonstrated
a significantly greater increase in lean body mass and onerepetition-maximum strength on the squat
and bench press. That group also had a
greater increase in the size of their type 2,
or fast-twitch, fibers and contractile protein
content. Last but not least, preworkout and
postworkout supplementation also resulted
in higher muscle creatine and glycogen levels
after the training program.
The take-home message: Take a combination of carbs and protein immediately
before and after training. Your strength, lean
body mass, fast-twitch fibers, intramuscular
creatine and intramuscular glycogen levels
will improve to a significantly greater extent.
—Jose Antonio, Ph.D.
Neveux \ Model: Jeff Dwelle
When I was an undergrad wa-a-a-y back in the 1980s,
my nutrition professor told me that it didn’t matter when
you ate as long as the total calories throughout the day
balanced your energy needs. Of course, she was the same
professor who said too much protein was bad for your
kidneys and that it was a waste of money to take multivitamins. Hmm, I hope she’s still not saying that stuff today.
Times have changed. We definitely know that when you
eat matters. Nutrient timing is one of the most intriguing
new subfields of sports nutrition, and the research that is
pumped out each year is amazing. Ask yourself this: Rather
than taking my supplements pre- and postworkout, why
not just take the stuff when I wake up and then again in
the evening? It’s certainly more convenient. Well, buckle
your chinstraps, my friend, and take heed with the latest
research showing that timing does indeed matter.
A recent study looked at the effects of supplement
timing on muscle-fiber hypertrophy, strength and body
composition during a 10-week weight-training program. In
a single-blind (meaning the investigators knew what they
were giving the subjects but the subjects didn’t know what
they were getting), randomized protocol, resistance-trained
males were matched for strength and placed into one of
two groups. One group got a supplement (one gram of the
supplement per kilogram of bodyweight) containing protein,
creatine and glucose immediately before and after weight
training. The other group consumed the same dose of the
same supplement in the morning and late evening. For a 176-
Editor’s note: You can listen to Dr. Jose
Antonio and Carla Sanchez on their radio
show Performance Nutrition, Web and podcast at www.PerformanceNutritionShow
.com. Dr. Antonio is the CEO of the International Society of Sports Nutrition (www
.TheISSN.org). His other Web sites include
www.SupplementCoach.com, www.Javafit.
com, www.PerformanceNutritionShow.com
and www.JoseAntonioPhD.com.
Cribb, P.J., and Hayes, A. (2006). Effects
of supplement timing and resistance exercise
on skeletal muscle hypertrophy. Med Sci
Sports Exerc. 38(11):1918-1925.
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Eat to Grow
SUPPLEMENT SCIENCE
Beta-Alanine Benefits
Beta-alanine is best known for its role in improving
exercise efficiency by reducing the buildup of hydrogen ions, or acid, in muscle. The increase in acidity
produces muscle fatigue by inhibiting the function of
energy-producing enzymes in muscle. Beta-alanine
works because it’s a direct nutrient precursor of Lcarnosine synthesis, which is a major intramuscular
buffer.
But beta-alanine has lesser-known functions in
the body, such as antioxidant activity and the ability
to reduce the accumulation of beta-amyloid, a protein that is directly related to the onset of Alzheimer’s
disease. A new study shows that beta-alanine may
also help protect the liver from the toxic effects of
various substances.
The study found that beta-alanine decreased the
liver content of another amino acid, taurine, by 60
percent. Taurine and beta-alanine compete for uptake into
Does beta-alanine protect
organs?
the body because they share a transport system.
Taking taurine with beta-alanine results in the
rapid excretion of taurine in the urine. In effect,
beta-alanine blocks the normal reuptake of
taurine in the kidneys. Taurine is synthesized in
the body from sulfur-containing amino acids,
mainly cysteine and methionine. When betaalanine causes the body to excrete taurine, the
body responds to the loss of taurine by retaining more cysteine.
That’s significant because cysteine is required for the synthesis of glutathione, a major
cellular antioxidant and one of the primary detoxifying elements found in the liver. In the new
study, mice were given 3 percent beta-alanine
in their drinking water for one week, then were
exposed to carbon tetrachloride, a substance
known to cause liver toxicity. Other mice didn’t receive
the beta-alanine. The mice that didn’t get the betaalanine had elevated liver enzyme levels indicative
of impending liver damage. Those that received the
beta-alanine, however, had no liver enzyme elevations.
The study showed that beta-alanine increased
both glutathione and taurine levels in the liver, likely
through increasing cysteine availability. So beta-alanine may be a natural liver protector, since
the major job of the liver is to degrade toxins. Beta-alanine may ease the work of the
liver by promoting increased liver glutathione.
Another new study looked at the effects of betaalanine in women who train. Twenty-two women got
either beta-alanine or a placebo for 28 days. They underwent various tests, such as fatigue threshold and
maximal oxygen consumption, before engaging in a
submaximal cycling bout. Those in the beta-alanine
group showed a 13.9 percent increase in ventilatory
threshold, a 12.6 percent increase in time to fatigue
and a 2.5 percent increase in time to exhaustion.
Those in the placebo group showed no changes from
baseline values.
The study shows that women respond
much as men do to beta-alanine supplements. The increased exercise capacity in
both sexes is related to the higher muscle
carnosine stores they experienced after
using beta-alanine supplements.
—Jerry Brainum
Neveux \ Model: Rachel McLish
References
Lee, S.Y., et al. (2006). Effect of beta-alanine administration on carbon tetrachloride-induced acute
hepatotoxicity. Amino Acids. In press.
Stout, J.R., et al. (2006). Effects of beta-alanine
supplementation on the onset of neuromuscular
fatigue and ventilatory threshold in women. Amino
Acids. In press.
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
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the perfect blend of nutrients
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RecoverX™ contains 40
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©2009 Home-Gym.com
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
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Red Dragon
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©2009 Home-Gym.com
Muscle-Training Program 90
From the IRONMAN Training & Research Center
by Steve Holman and Jonathan Lawson • Photography by Michael Neveux
ou could say that we’re
on a quest to find the
perfect muscle-building
routine—but, ironically,
the perfect routine doesn’t
exist. Oh, sure, a sound training
program works for a while, but
eventually you have to move on
to something else. Why? Adaptation.
The human body is designed to adapt as it strives
for homeostasis—to maintain
equilibrium. But we don’t want
equilibrium; we want to continue to grow, and that means
that when adaptation morphs
into stagnation, you gotta
throw the body a curve.
Eric Broser’s Power/Rep
Range/Shock is designed with
the body’s high level of adaptability in mind—you change
things fairly drastically every
week. To review, here’s how
P/RR/S works:
Model: Eric Broser
Y
Week 1: Power
Train every exercise with
straight sets—no supersets,
tri-sets or drop sets—and reps
stay in the four-to-six zone. We
use slightly higher reps on endurance-oriented muscles like
calves, abs and forearms.
Week 2: Rep Range
For the first exercise you pick
a weight that allows you to get
seven to nine reps. For the second exercise you do 10 to 12 reps.
On the third exercise you move
the rep range up to the high end
of fast-twitch recruitment—13 to
15 reps. (Note: That works exceptionally well with 3D POF. We use
a big, midrange-position exercise as our first movement and a
stretch-position exercise as our
second, and then we finish with
a contracted-position movement for continuous tension. For
example, for upper pecs we do
Smith-machine incline presses,
incline flyes and high cable
flyes.)
Week 3: Shock
This week is for putting your
muscles through the meat
grinder with supersets, drop
sets and so on. Reps for most
muscles stay in the eight-to-10
range, but extended-set techniques are a must.
Cycling through those three protocols has given us lots of new insights into training, not to mention
some incredible strength gains. As
for size gains, we’ve reported that
they’ve been sporadic, but according to many, that’s how size gains
happen—size surge followed by
drought, even when strength is increasing. Maybe cutting back a bit
and intensifying our efforts could
kick up some mass.
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FREE Mass-Packing Secrets to Get You Growing!
ITRC Muscle-Building Tactics Delivered to You Every Week—FREE!
•How the Pros Pack on Extreme Mass
•Arnold’s Size-Stretching X-ploits
•The Forgotten High-Intensity Growth Trigger
•A Muscle-Building Mystery Solved
•Pounds of Muscle in Days
•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
(You can
check out those
past editions
free at www.XRep.com in the
X Files section.)
It’s exciting
stuff! You’ve
gotta subscribe Learn how to make curls three times more effecitve
at building eye-popping bi’s. See issue 03/04/05.
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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 / Program 90
Model: Derik Farnsworth
We’ve been
supersetting
incline flyes, a
stretch-position
exercise for
upper pecs, with
high cable flyes,
a contractedposition
movement.
Abbreviated Workouts
The winter holidays threw a bit
of a monkey wrench into our training—and eating—as usual, but we
didn’t miss workouts. Instead, we
chose to condense and combine
them, training only three days instead of four during Thanksgiving,
Christmas and New Year’s weeks on
the following split:
Workout 1: Chest, back, abs
Workout 2: Quads, hamstrings,
calves
Workout 3: Delts, triceps, biceps,
forearms
Even with three-days-per-week
training, hitting each bodypart only
once every seven days, we got stronger on many exercises, so we weren’t
just maintaining.
To speed up our abbreviated
workouts even more, we would
often do multirep rest/pause, in
Dante’s D.C. style, on the first midrange exercise for each bodypart.
That means we’d take a weight that
allowed us to barely get nine reps;
we’d rest for 20 seconds, hit another
set, rest another 20 seconds, then hit
a third and final set, usually with X
Reps. Yes, our rep total dropped on
each set, going something like nine,
six, four, but that’s what’s supposed
to happen. It’s intense, especially
with X Reps tacked onto the end,
but it helped us blow through three
heavy sets rather quickly.
After that we usually supersetted a stretch-position exercise with
a contracted-position one. So for
upper chest we’d do Smith-machine
incline presses in MRR/P—multirep rest/pause—style; then we’d do
incline flyes supersetted with high
cable flyes, keeping the reps on both
exercises in the seven-to-nine range.
For shock effect we like ending
stretch-position exercises, like incline flyes, with a static X—a hold
at or near the stretch position—and
contracted-position moves, like
high cable flyes, with an X Fade;
that is, X Reps in the contracted, or
flexed, position, followed by X Reps
in the bottom, semistretch position.
Those quick workouts provided
super pumps very quickly; however,
we did feel that max-force generation was lacking in most cases. Why?
The latest studies show that the
best rest between sets for max force
is three minutes. Now, 20 seconds
on MRR/P does good things for the
muscle cells’ endurance components but leaves them somewhat
lacking in the force-production
department due to fatigue accumulation—the muscle doesn’t have
time to regenerate sufficiently to fire
with max force. (Note: That may not
be as big a deal for those with superior neuromuscular efficiency and
exceptional recuperative powers.)
To ramp up force production a
bit, you could do one set, rest for
three minutes, then do another
set, rest 20 seconds, then do the
third—a max-force/MRR/P combo.
That gives you two sets on your big
exercise with max force, then the
third added on as a rest/pause set to
transition into endurance-component work. That takes a little longer,
but it’s more balanced.
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For quads we
superset sissy
squats with leg
extensions. As
strength increases,
you’ll have to
begin using
specific machines
for sissies, like
the Smith or the
Powertec squat/
calf.
Here’s how that looks for quads:
Pulldowns
2 x 4-6
Pulldowns
1 x 10-12
Superset
Machine pullovers 1-2 x 10-12
Undergrip pulldowns 1-2 x 8-10
Model: Sebastion Siegel
Squats
Squats (MRR/P)
Superset
Sissy squats
Leg extensions
1x9
1 x 8(4)
1-2 x 9-12
1-2 x 9-12
Still a pretty quick workout, even
if you do two supersets to finish.
That makes it a good template
for condensed workouts. We were
thinking about using that style for a
few weeks, training with the threeday split outlined earlier but four
days a week—Monday, Tuesday,
Thursday, Friday (Monday’s workout repeats on Friday; pick up with
Tuesday’s workout on Monday and
so on). So while you use less volume, you train each bodypart more
frequently, and the frequency varies
from four to six days, depending on
where it falls in the cycle (trainingfrequency variation—nice!).
That may be our next experiment,
but we’re not quite ready to give up
on training each bodypart only once
a week just yet (those strength gains
are motivating!). What we’re experimenting with now are combination
Power/Rep Range/Shock workouts;
that is, using all three protocols
to some degree in every workout.
Here’s an example of how we’ve
been training lats on the P/RR/S
combo system:
So we train the Power range
on the first two sets of the big,
midrange exercise, then do a
back-off set to hit the midrange
exercise within the so-called
ideal hypertrophic rep range.
Next we finish off the bodypart
by supersetting a stretch-position
exercise with a contracted-position
movement, but we use different rep
ranges—higher on the first exercise.
You may be asking, But where’s
the 13-to-15-rep set? We figure that
by supersetting two exercises for the
same bodypart, we get that higherrep effect. In fact, the combined rep
total is usually more than 15. As we
said, for Shock effect we do X Reps
and/or a Static X on the stretchposition exercise. We’ll do the same
on the contracted-position move, or
we’ll do an X Fade. That all adds up
to mucho intensity and a pump and
burn you won’t believe.
How long will we run with that
combo protocol? We want to see if
it will trigger a size surge, so we’ll be
on it at least a few weeks—or till we
start craving some standard P/RR/S
workouts, whichever comes first.
D.C. Apologies
In the July ’06 IRON MAN Dante,
the creator of DoggCrapp training,
was interviewed by Ron Harris.
Ron did a very thorough job of
interrogating the D.C. master on his
system; however, the sidebar that
listed exercises for each bodypart
was misleading—at least to us. It led
us to an erroneous conclusion—that
in D.C. training you use three
compound exercises for each
bodypart at every workout.
As it turns out, the three exercises
listed under each muscle group
are supposed to be rotated. In
other words, in D.C. training you’re
supposed to use only one exercise
per bodypart, not three as the table
made it appear. Our apologies to
Dante and D.C. followers for that
misrepresentation.
That shot a few of our theories
in the Train, Eat, Grow in that
same issue all to hell. For example,
we said, “Performing [nine] sets
of compound exercises [for each
bodypart] may drain your recovery
ability.” Wrong, because it’s only
three sets, not nine.
We also suggested that maybe
three exercises for three sets each
was Dante’s prescription in order
(continued on page 66)
(continued from page 62)
to make up for the lack of force
production. As we said, performing
sets with less than 2 1/2 minutes
between them reduces force
production on successive sets due
to fatigue-product accumulation.
That’s similar to what studies
have shown with preexhaustion,
when you immediately follow an
isolation exercise with a compound
movement for the same muscle—
force production is reduced on the
important compound movement.
Nevertheless, if you’re looking for
more endurance-component work,
preex is excellent. For example, it
works great on light day if you use a
heavy/light program—or traumatic/
nontraumatic (T/NT) from the
book Train, Eat, Grow. Because D.C.
includes some rest between sets
and is mostly compound-exercise
work, it has more force-generation
potential than preex, but not as
much as straight sets performed
with 2 1/2-to-three-minute rests.
That’s not to say D.C. training
doesn’t work. It’s built lots of size
and strength for a number of
IRON MAN Training & Research Center Muscle-Training Program 90
Monday (Shock): Chest, Calves, Abs
Superset
Incline presses (X Reps)
High cable flyes (X Reps)
Incline flyes (X Reps)
Superset
Bench presses (X Reps)
Low/middle cable flyes (X Reps)
Wide-grip dips (drop set; X Reps)
Flat-bench flyes (X Reps)
Superset
Knee-extension leg press
calf raises (X Reps)
Machine donkey calf raises (X Reps)
Superset
Hack-machine calf raises (X Reps)
Standing calf raises (X Reps)
Seated calf raises (drop set; X Reps)
Superset
Incline kneeups (drop set; X Reps)
Flat-bench leg raises (X Reps)
Tri-set
Ab Bench crunches (X Reps)
Twisting crunches (X Reps)
End-of-bench kneeups (X Reps)
Thursday (Shock): Quads, Hamstrings
2 x 8-10
2 x 8-10
1 x 8-10
2 x 8-10
2 x 8-10
1 x 8(6)
1 x 8-10
2 x 10-12
2 x 10-12
2 x 10-12
2 x 10-12
2 x 12(8)
1 x 10(6)
1 x 10-12
1 x 10-12
1 x 10-12
1 x 8-10
Tuesday (Shock): Back, Forearms
Superset
Wide-grip pulldowns (X Reps)
2 x 8-10
Machine pullovers (X Reps)
2 x 8-10
Parallel-grip chins (X Reps)
2 x 8-10
Undergrip pulldowns (drop set; X Reps)
1 x 8(5)
Behind-the-neck pulldowns (drop set; X Reps)1 x 8(5)
Superset
Nautilus rows or cable rows (X Reps)
2 x 8-10
Bent-arm bent-over laterals (X Reps)
2 x 8-10
V-bar cable rows (X Reps)
1 x 8-10
Superset
Smith-machine close-grip
upright rows (X Reps)
1 x 8-10
Dumbbell shrugs (X Reps)
1 x 8-10
Superset
Reverse wrist curls (X Reps)
2 x 10-12
Forearm Bar reverse wrist curls (X Reps) 2 x 10-12
Superset
Wrist curls (X Reps)
2 x 10-12
Forearm Bar wrist curls (X Reps)
2 x 10-12
Rockers (drop)
1 x 12(8)
Superset
Machine hack squats (nonlock; X Reps)
2 x 8-10
Leg extensions (X Reps)
2 x 8-10
Superset
Leg extensions (X Reps)
1 x 8-10
Leg presses (nonlock)
1 x 8-10
Leg presses (nonlock; X Reps)
1 x 8-10
Smith-machine sissy squats (drop set; X Reps) 1 x 8(5)
Lunges
1 x 8-10
Stiff-legged deadlifts (low partials; X Reps) 2 x 8-10
Superset
Leg curls (X Reps)
2 x 8-10
Hyperextensions (X Reps)
2 x 8-10
Leg curls (X Reps)
1 x 8-10
Low-back machine (X Reps)
1 x 8-10
Friday (Shock): Delts, Triceps, Biceps
Superset
Smith-machine wide-grip
upright rows (X Reps)
Forward-lean laterals (X Reps)
Dumbbell upright rows (drop set; X Reps)
Superset
Incline one-arm laterals (X Reps)
One-arm cable laterals (X Reps)
Superset
Behind-the-neck presses (X Reps)
Dumbbell presses (X Reps)
Bent-over laterals (drop set; X Reps)
Superset
Close-grip bench presses (X Reps)
Pushdowns or kickbacks (X Reps)
Decline extensions
Overhead dumbbell extensions
(drop set; X Reps)
Superset
Barbell curls
Preacher curls (X Reps)
Concentration curls or one-arm
spider curls (drop set; X Reps)
Incline curls (X Reps)
Cable hammer curls (X Reps)
2 x 8-10
2 x 8-10
1 x 8(6)
1 x 8-10
1 x 8-10
1 x 8-10
1 x 8-10
2 x 8(6)
2 x 8-10
2 x 8-10
1 x 8-10
2 x 8(6)
2 x 8-10
2 x 8-10
1 x 8(6)
1 x 8-10
1 x 8-10
Note: Where X-Reps are designated, usually only one
set or phase of a drop set is performed with X Reps or an
X-Rep hybrid technique from the Beyond X-Rep Muscle
Building e-book. See the X-Blog at www.X-Rep.com for
more workout details.
people, including pro bodybuilder
David Henry (although recently
Henry has said he’s increased the
volume of his D.C. workouts, so
maybe our three-sets-of-threeexercises misinterpretation was a
premonition). Pure D.C. training is
a great back-to-basics way to train
for a few months. It also works well
in a force/extended-tension (F/X)
program, as outlined in our e-book
3D Muscle Building—we use D.C. on
the extended-tension days, as well
as drop sets, and straight sets on
max-force days.
No matter how you’re training,
however, you’ll want to work in
other methods after a few months
to shift gears. It’s that adaptation
thing we alluded to at the beginning
of this installment. For example, the
F/X program in 3D Muscle Building
is a five-week phase; it’s followed by
five weeks of classic 3D POF (that’s
a good example of throwing your
muscles a curve).
If you do give pure D.C. a try,
you may want to follow Dante’s
suggestions:
1) Rotate two or three exercises
for each bodypart at each successive workout. For example,
for biceps you’d do preacher
curls at the first workout, barbell
drag curls at the next and dumb-
bell curls at the next.
2) Work each bodypart twice
every eight days:
• Monday: Chest, shoulders, biceps, back width, back thickness
• Wednesday: Biceps, forearms,
calves, hamstrings, quads
• Friday: Repeat Monday’s workout
• Monday: Repeat Wednesday’s
workout
3) Do only one compound exercise for most bodyparts, three
sets with 20-second rests. Your
reps should go something like
nine, five, three.
ITRC Program 90, Abbreviated Home-Gym Routine
Monday (Shock): Chest, Calves, Abs
Superset
Incline presses (X Reps)
Incline flyes (top squeezes;
drop set; X Reps)
Incline flyes (low partials; X Reps)
Superset
Bench presses (X Reps)
Decline flyes (top squeeze; X Reps)
Decline flyes (low partials; X Reps)
Donkey calf raises (drop set; X Reps)
One-leg calf raises (drop set; X Reps)
Seated calf raises (drop set; X Reps)
Superset
Incline kneeups (X Reps)
Flat-bench leg raises (X Reps)
Weighted full-range crunches or
Ab Bench crunches (drop set; X Reps)
2 x 8-10
2 x 8-10
1 x 8-10
2 x 8-10
2 x 8-10
1 x 8-10
3 x 12(8)
2 x 12(8)
2 x 12(8)
1 x 10-12
1 x 10-12
1 x 12(8)
Tuesday (Shock): Back, Forearms
Chins (MRR/P; X Reps)
Undergrip rows (drop set; X Reps)
Dumbbell pullovers (X Reps)
Superset
Bent-over barbell rows
Bent-arm bent-over laterals (X Reps)
One-arm dumbbell rows (X Reps)
Shrugs (MRR/P; X Reps)
Reverse wrist curls (drop set; X Reps)
Wrist curls (drop set; X Reps)
Rockers
1 x 8(6)(4)
1 x 8(6)
1 x 8-10
2 x 8-10
2 x 8-10
1 x 8-10
1 x 8(6)(4)
2 x 10(6)
2 x 10(6)
1 x 13-15
Thursday (Shock): Quads, Hams
Superset
Squats
Leg extensions or
old-style hack squats (X Reps)
2 x 8-10
2 x 8-10
Leg extensions or
old-style hack squats (drop set; X Reps)
Sissy squats (drop set; X Reps)
Front squats or lunges
Superset
Stiff-legged deadlifts (low partials)
Leg curls (X Reps)
Leg curls (X Reps)
2 x 10(6)
2 x 10(6)
1 x 8-10
2 x 8-10
2 x 8-10
1 x 8-10
Friday (Shock): Delts, Triceps, Biceps
Superset
Dumbbell upright rows
or rack pulls (X Reps)
2 x 8-10
Seated forward-lean laterals (X Reps)
2 x 8-10
Incline one-arm laterals (drop set; X Reps) 1 x 8(6)
Dumbbell presses (drop set; X Reps)
1 x 8(6)
Bent-over laterals (drop set; X Reps)
2 x 8(6)
Superset
Close-grip bench presses (X Reps)
2 x 8-10
Kickbacks (X Reps)
2 x 8-10
Decline extensions
1 x 8-10
Overhead extensions (drop set; X Reps)
2 x 8(6)
Superset
Barbell or dumbbell curls
2 x 8-10
Preacher curls (X Reps)
2 x 8-10
Concentration curls (drop set; X Reps)
1 x 8(6)
Incline curls (X Reps)
1 x 8-10
Incline hammer curls (X Reps)
1 x 10-12
Note: Where X-Reps are designated, usually only one
set or phase of a drop set is performed with X Reps or
an X-Rep hybrid technique from the e-book Beyond
X-Rep Muscle Building. For more workout details see
the X-Blog at www.X-Rep.com.
Note: If you don’t have a leg extension machine, do
old-style hacks, nonlock style. Use partner resistance,
towel around the ankles, if you don’t have a leg curl
machine.
3) Train each bodypart an average of once every five days, a
little less frequently than with
standard D.C., but remember
that you’re doing more work for
each bodypart—an extra midrange set and stretch- and contracted-position work. You could
develop your own three-day
split or use the split we outlined
earlier:
• Monday: Chest, back, abs
• Tuesday: Quads, hamstrings,
calves
• Thursday: Delts, triceps, biceps,
forearms
• Friday: Repeat Monday’s workout
• Monday: Repeat Tuesday’s
workout
The first exercise
for each bodypart
is a big, midrange
movement that
involves multiple
joints and heavy
weights.
Or you can try our variation,
which incorporates 3D Positions
of Flexion and a bit more force
generation:
2) Follow with one or two supersets of a stretch-position exercise and a contracted-position
exercise, with a Static X on the
stretch move and an X Fade on
the contracted-position exercise.
At some workouts
we do the midrange
movement in D.C.
style—multirep
rest/pause with
20 seconds beteen
sets.
Model: Jeff Dwelle
1) Start with a midrange, or
compound, exercise for each
bodypart. Do a warmup-set sequence—see Chapter 12: Prelude
to Mass in our e-book 3D Muscle
Building—then do a straight set
of nine reps to exhaustion, with
X Reps. Rest three minutes, and
then do standard D.C. training
on that exercise, three sets with
20 seconds of rest after each.
Lots of choices and info this
month. If you want to see what
we’re doing in the gym at any given
time, check out our training blog at
www.X-Rep.com. Also, it’s almost
spring, so that means it’s time to
start ripping it up. Check out our
supplement blog at www.X-Rep
.com for what we’re using to get lean
without getting too mean.
Pro bodybuilder David Henry
has been using D.C. training.
Note: Our Shock week is outlined
on page 66. For our complete P/
RR/S program—three weeks of 12
separate workouts—in a form that
you can print out and take to the
gym so you can experiment along
with us, see pages 103 through 114
in Chapter 15 of the e-book 3D
Muscle Building.
Editor’s note: For the latest on
X Reps, including X Q&As, X Files
(past e-zines), before and after photos and the X-Blog training journal,
visit www.X-Rep.com. To order
the Positions-of-Flexion training
manual Train, Eat, Grow, call (800)
447-0008, visit www.Home-Gym
.com, or see the ad below. IM
Steve Holman’s
Critical Mass
Confusion
Q: In one of your articles you mentioned “adaptation confusion.” What I’ve been led to believe about
that is that it can happen from using different rep
schemes and loading parameters in the same workout. Supposedly that confuses the body about which
way to overcompensate. Does that sound legitimate?
Neveux \ Model: Steve Namat
A: The theory I proposed was that perhaps using many
rep schemes and loading parameters in one bodypart
workout may overpower recovery—there’s too much damage to sufficiently recuperate from.
For example, if you do a number of low-rep sets, higherrep sets, supersets, drop sets and so on, you’re training
many different fiber types as well as stressing the endurance components of the muscle cells. On the other hand, if
at one workout you did mostly lower-rep sets, with only a
set or two of extended-tension work, and then at your next
workout you did mostly extended-tension sets with only
one or two lower-rep sets, you’d be stressing primarily maxforce components and fiber types at the first session and
more endurance components at the next.
That may be one reason champs in the past, before
steroids were so prevalent, relied on a heavy/light system
of training. Also, if that’s true, Eric Broser’s Power/Rep
Range/Shock routine has a lot of merit because you more
Q: In a recent Critical Mass column you recommended taking creatine before and after a workout.
Considering a Monday-Wednesday-Friday program or even a high-intensity routine with longer
breaks—say, three to five days between workouts—
should I take creatine every day?
A: You should probably take creatine before and after
you train on those days and then perhaps a five-gram dose
the day after just to be sure your creatine stores are fully
replenished. Take it again on your next training day.
So if you train Monday, Wednesday and Friday, take creatine before and after you train. Take a five-gram dose on
Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. Don’t take it on Sunday.
With more days between workouts, you’d obviously have
more days like Sunday, a second off day in a row, on which
you wouldn’t take any creatine.
Q: I’m a 40-year-old woman, not a bodybuilder,
but I train with weights two to three times a week.
I’m having trouble figuring out what to eat just to
stay healthy. I crave hamburgers and fries; that’s
about it. What should I do?
A: Eat small meals, but try to eat often. Find a good
protein bar you
like and eat half
or a whole one
between regular
meals. Make
breakfast some
type of cereal
you like, even
if it’s Captain
Crunch, and cut
it with Fiber One
(one-third Fiber
One, two-thirds
other—or, better, half of each).
Drink some orange juice and
have a small glass
of milk—in addition to what
you put on your
cereal. Then
midmorning have
a protein bar.
(A protein drink
Neveux \ Model: Dror Okavi
Adaptation
or less concentrate on one type of stress each week.
It does make sense, so much so that when I revised
the old 10-Week Size Surge program in the new e-book
3D Muscle Building, I retained the three-days-a-week
format of phase 1 but alternated a max-force workout
with an extended-tension workout. Trainees are already
reporting some great gains with that F/X application.
[Note: For more on P/RR/S, 3D POF and F/X training, visit
www.3DMuscleBuilding.com.]
Mixing lots of heavy lower-rep straight-set work with a
number of extended-tension techniques could overload
recovery because too many growth components are
stressed at once. Making workouts either max-force
dominant or extended-tension dominant may be a better
recovery-oriented solution.
Steve Holman’s
Q: I have a few questions: What are the considerations for determining workout frequency—or does
it just depend on your schedule? Can I focus each
day on a different bodypart with four or five workouts per week and get the same effect as training
each bodypart more often, like every four days? I’m
just not sure how to determine how often a bodypart
should be trained for best results.
A: That’s one of the bigger challenges when it comes to
bodybuilding: You have to experiment to find your optimum workout frequency, and that can change depending
on stress levels, age, workout volume and intensity, diet
and so on. Of course, your schedule comes first—you have
to work out on the days your schedule permits. If you force
it, you won’t stick with it. I usually ask people interested in
starting a weight-training program how many days a week
they want to train—then I subtract one from their answer
so they stay hungry for the pump.
As for training each bodypart only once a week, you can
experiment with that using your current program. It’s how
I set up the Power/Rep Range/Shock program at the end of
3D Muscle Building, which is the way Jonathan Lawson and
I are training now. It’s a four-day split, with each bodypart
trained once a week. We work out on Monday, Tuesday,
Thursday and Friday. It’s best to try not to work out three
days in a row so your system as a whole recovers (although
we break that rule every year during our ripping phase).
Has training each bodypart only once a week worked for
us so far? As we’ve reported in the Train, Eat, Grow series in
IRON MAN and in our training blog at www.X-Rep
.com, we’ve gotten some outrageous strength gains, but so
You have to experiment to determine your best training
frequency—and that can change depending on stress
levels, workout volume and intensity, diet and so on.
far only minor blips on the size meter. We’re tweaking the
P/RR/S program to gear it more toward building size than
strength—for example by using a back-off set on the big
exercise for each bodypart during low-rep Power week.
It all comes down to experimentation. We’ve tried training each bodypart once a week in the past, but it never
worked for us. The new P/RR/S system, however, has a lot
of potential from both size and strength standpoints—it’s
just a matter of customizing it.
I’m a hardgainer type, so I need more extended-tension
time—longer sets, drop sets and so on—with fewer lowerrep sets. Easy gainers with more pure fast-twitch fibers
tend to respond best to straight sets done with lower reps,
but they also need some extended-tension work to build
the endurance components of specific fiber types. If you
read our training blog, you’ll see how those experiments
are panning out for me and Jonathan, who is more of the
athletic ectomorphic type than I am. Trying to figure it all
out and getting muscle growth spurts along the way are
what make it so interesting and fulfilling.
The sharp black POF T-shirt with the original
classic logo emblazoned in gold can give you that
muscular look you’re after (sorry, large size only). See
page 235 for details.
Editor’s note: Steve
Holman is the author many
bodybuilding best-sellers, including Train, Eat, Grow: The
Positions-of-Flexion MuscleTraining Manual (see page
72). For information on the
POF videos and Size Surge
programs, see the ad sections
beginning on page 220 and
278, respectively. Also visit
www.X-Rep.com. IM
Neveux
would be better, but I know that most nonbodybuilder
types won’t take the time to pull out the blender and powder.)
Lunch could be a hamburger once in a while, but if you
go for fast food, a better choice is Taco Bell chicken tacos—
good protein, not a lot of carbs, plus lettuce and tomatoes.
Or yogurt. If yogurt has loads of sugar, that’s still not too
bad; however, be sure to cut it with a few nuts. I like pecans.
That will slow down digestion and diminish the insulin
surge (which causes fat deposition). Beef jerky is a
good protein source too—it’s portable and
has very few carbs. Cottage
cheese is excellent, and so
are apples—they’re a very
low-glycemic fruit with lots
of fiber. I eat one every day
with my lunch. [There are
more suggestions and choices, as well as meal-by-meal
diets, in the X-treme Lean
e-book, available at www
.X-tremeLean.com.]
Dinner should be protein
and vegetables or chicken
salad. Having pasta every
so often is okay, but pasta is
empty calories. I hate it for
Yogurt can be a good
that reason. If I’m going to
snack, but if it has added
have empty carbs, give me
sugar, a few pecans
dark chocolate and wine!
stirred in will slow
At least they have loads of
digestion and diminish
health benefits, not to meninsulin production.
tion warm-buzz potential.
Neveux \ Model: DJ Green
Critical Mass
Steve Holman
[email protected]
Mr. Natural Olympia John Hansen’s
Naturally Huge
Competition
Ignition
Monday: Chest, calves
Tuesday: Abs, legs
Wednesday: Off
Thursday: Delts, calves
Friday: Abs, back
Saturday: Arms, forearms
Sunday: Off
If you aren’t doing it now, begin writing down what you
do at each workout so you can gauge your progress. You
should be training heavier or harder each time. That progressive increase in intensity will help you to gain muscle.
As for your goal of putting on 20 pounds of muscle in
one year, that’s very difficult to do. You mentioned that
you’ve always been overweight and that losing fat might be
a problem for you. Because of that, I don’t recommend trying to put on 20 pounds in the next year—it will probably
result in more fat deposition in addition to muscle gains.
If you’re considering entering a contest in the near future,
you don’t want to bulk up when you already feel that you
have too much fat on your body.
Begin writing down everything you eat, and figure out
Merv
Q: I’d like to enter a bodybuilding competition
in a year or two, but I want your advice. I’m currently in a job where I can make it to the gym only
once a day for about an hour (I work from 9 a.m. to
midnight every night and usually go every day or at
least five days a week in the morning before work).
In the past year or two I’ve hit a bit of a plateau—I
haven’t really gained much (still a chubby 230 at
6’), and my lifts have stayed constant (235 x 8 on the
bench, 305 deadlift, 305 squat). If possible, I’d really like to break that and gain a solid 20 pounds
in the next year. I’m a hard worker. Do you think
it’s doable with only an hour a day during the week
and whatever is necessary over the weekend? Also,
what type of diet and supplement commitment am
I looking at? I’m a good cook, so I can make pretty
much anything. My concern is that I need to eat at
specific times of the day—once every two or three
hours, right? I just turned 24, and I’ve always been
a little overweight, so losing the fat might be harder
for me. I’ve also been lifting on and off for about
three years. My first year I decided to step it up and
got a bodybuilding trainer. We trained for three
months—not for a competition, just for general fitness—and I dieted pretty rigorously: 10 egg whites
for breakfast with oatmeal; four meals of chicken,
steak or fish; and I was taking pro-hormones when
they were legal.
A: I think your goal of entering a bodybuilding competi-
tion in another year or two is completely realistic. Since
you’re limited in the time you can train, the morning, I
recommend that you train five days a week. You can train
a major muscle group along with a smaller one at each
workout to keep your sessions shorter instead of doing two
major muscle groups or a major muscle group and two
smaller ones each workout.
I don’t think you should train five days in a row, however,
as you’ve been doing. Taking a day off after two or three
days of training is much better. Your body needs complete
recuperation after two or three days of heavy training. Plus,
since you’re working so many hours a day at your job, it
would be nice to have a day off from training in the middle
of the week, when you could sleep in a little later.
Here’s the routine I recommend:
Naturally Huge
If you have limited time to train, work on a
major bodypart and one minor one.
Meal 1 (preworkout): 1
serving whey protein with
water, 1 cup oatmeal, 1/2
banana
Meal 2 (postworkout):
3 scoops RecoverX with
creatine
Meal 3: 1 egg, 7 egg
whites, 1/2 cup oatmeal
with 1/2 cup blueberries
Meal 4: Protein drink
made with water, 2 scoops
Pro-Fusion protein powder, 1 tablespoon flaxseed
oil
Neveux \ Model: Derik Farnsworth
how many calories, protein, carbs and
fats you’re consuming on a daily basis.
That will give you a good idea of where
you need to go.
Many bodybuilders who begin a
precontest diet don’t have any idea of
how many calories they’re eating in
the off-season. When they start dieting
for the contest, they often cut their calories or carbs too low. They might be
able to eat more calories and still lose
the fat while keeping their metabolism
fast if they knew what they were eating
in the off-season.
Yes, you need to eat every 2 1/2 to
three hours. It doesn’t matter what
time you eat as long as you eat consistently in that time frame.
If you’re training early in the morning, I recommend that you have a
whey protein drink with oatmeal
about 45 to 60 minutes before starting your workout. That
will give you the amino acids and carbs you need to fuel
your workout.
Immediately after your workout have a drink like RecoverX, which contains 40 grams of fast protein and 60 grams
of fast carbs. That will give you the nutrients you need to
properly recuperate from your session.
When you get home from the gym, you can eat break-
fast, which could consist of egg
whites and oatmeal. The rest of
your meals should be either protein
drinks (I recommend the combination of whey, casein and egg protein found in Pro-Fusion protein
powder and Muscle Meals meal
replacements) or lean protein (such
as chicken, fish, turkey or lean red
meat) and vegetables.
To get leaner, you should eat
most of your complex carbs in
the morning and early afternoon,
tapering them off as the day progresses. If you can continue building muscle mass while staying lean,
you’ll be in a better position to
prepare for a contest when the time
comes.
Here’s an example of a good offseason diet that will keep you lean
while letting you build muscle. Experiment with it until you find the
number of calories and amounts
of protein, carbs and fats that you
need.
Meal 5: 5 ounces chicken,
150 grams sweet potato, 3
ounces broccoli
Pro-Fusion protein powder
Meal 7: 4 ounces lean
steak, 1 cup green beans
Pro-Fusion protein powder, 1 tablespoon flaxseed oil
Q: What do you think is the best age for reaching
your peak in bodybuilding? Many people feel that
natural bodybuilders don’t reach full muscle maturity until they’re in their 40s.
A: Reaching your peak in bodybuilding is really specific
Naturally Huge
both worlds, muscle maturity, size and strength combined
with a metabolism that would let me bulk up and cut up
with little difficulty.
When I reached my late 30s, I noticed a definite change.
My metabolism was slower, and bulking up in the off-season resulted in more fat deposition than muscle gain. It
was also much harder to lose fat when it came time to diet
for a contest, and I noticed that my strength and muscle
mass had decreased slightly.
The reason for those changes has to do with the naturally declining hormone levels as we age. Our growth
hormone (which regulates bodyfat deposition) and testosterone (which regulates muscle mass and strength in addition to other masculine characteristics) decline after the
age of 25. By the time we get to our late 30s and early 40s,
those hormone levels are naturally lower than they were
when we were in our 20s and early 30s.
In this column last month I had a story on Murrell Hall,
an outstanding 64-year-old bodybuilder from Illinois. Murrell has an incredible physique, with abs that most 20-yearolds would die for. He’s been training hard and consistently
since he was in his 20s. Murrell recently took fifth place in
the open division of the NPC Natural Mid-States, where he
competed against guys who were in their 20s and 30s.
Even so, he recently admitted to me that he believes
he’s lost about 15 pounds of muscle mass over the past 30
years. Murrell is probably as dedicated a bodybuilder as
you’ll ever find, but he’s lost some muscle because of his
naturally declining hormones.
Despite being in his 60s, he’s maintained a physique
that’s fantastic for any age. He still trains hard and eats a
clean bodybuilding diet all year long and he has the physique of someone 20 to 30 years younger because of it. But
even Murrell would admit that he peaked physically when
he was younger.
That’s why I feel that the early to mid-30s is the peak
period for natural bodybuilders. If you’ve been training for
at least 10 years at that point, you will have developed the
muscle mass and maturity and your metabolism will still
be fast enough to enable you to reach your best condition.
Editor’s note: John Hansen has won the Natural Mr.
Olympia and is a two-time Natural Mr. Universe winner.
Visit his Web site
at www.natural
olympia.com.
You can write to
him at P.O. Box
3003, Darien,
IL 60561, or
call toll-free
(800) 900-UNIV
(8648). His new
book, Natural
Bodybuilding,
and new training DVD, “Real
Muscle,” are
now available
from Home
Gym Warehouse, (800)
John Hansen
447-0008 or www
.Home-Gymcom. IM J o h n @ N a t u r a l O l y m p i a . c o m
Neveux
Photos courtesy of Murrell Hall
to the individual. BodybuildMurrell Hall is ers who are
still competing so-called easy
at age 64. gainers will look
fantastic when
they’re in their
teens and early
20s. Arnold
Schwarzenegger, Casey Viator
and Lee Haney
immediately
come to mind
when I think of
bodybuilders
who achieved
incredible development while
they were still
teenagers.
Arnold had
nearly 20-inch
arms as a teen,
and he won
the NABBA Mr.
Universe contest
at only 20 years
old. Lee Haney
won the Teenage
Mr. America at
19 and was the
biggest bodybuilder competing in the ’80 Mr. USA at 20. Casey Viator set
the record for the youngest Mr. America winner when he
won the title at 19.
I think a bodybuilder who begins training when he’s in
his teens has a big advantage over one who starts training
in his mid- to late 20s. The teenage body is growing and
responds rapidly to heavy training and nutritious food. In
fact, many people have very fast metabolisms at that age,
so they can eat lots of calories and stay lean while adding
muscle mass.
Arnold, Lou Ferrigno, Haney, Viator, Boyer Coe, Jay
Cutler, Rich Gaspari and many other professional bodybuilders built the foundation of their physiques during
their teenage years. The muscle mass and development
that they created then paved the way for the incredible
physiques they displayed as they matured.
I did the same thing when I was young. Although
competing so often as a teenage bodybuilder (I entered
10 competitions between the ages of 16 and 19) kept my
bodyweight down because of the constant dieting, I was
able to bulk up to 230 pounds by the time I reached 21. The
size I developed at that age was a major asset to me in later
competitions.
As for muscle maturity, I think a natural bodybuilder
reaches his peak in his early to mid-30s. I won my first
Natural Mr. Universe contest at 29, but I think I reached my
physical peak when I was between 32 and 35.
When I was in my early to mid-30s, I was able to bulk up
in the off-season to 235 to 240 pounds, and my metabolism
was still fast enough to enable me to get down to around
205 ripped pounds for my competitions. I had the best of
Mind/Muscle Explosion
Pushing Your Belief Threshold
to New Size Detonations
by Peter C. Siegel, R.H.
hink about those who possess big, powerful,
muscle-packed physiques. Then think about
you. Hmm, what’s the difference? Well, responses
here frequently include genetics, drugs, number of
years training, being an easy gainer and so on.
Yes, perhaps those factors have played a role in
structuring the physiques of the standout athletes
you want to be like. You’ve been training for a while
now, though, haven’t you? You’ve also been consistent with your workouts, training hard and heavy
and tenaciously pushing yourself. No doubt you’ve
made gains compared to where you were when you
began to train.
So why aren’t you bigger and stronger than you
are now—at least close to the champs you emulate? “Uh, well, those other guys take steroids.”
Maybe they do, but let me tell you, there’s a factor
just as powerful, perhaps more so, as drugs that
moves you into realms of increased size and power.
Let me give you some personal stats here that
may surprise and inspire you. First, I do not use
steroids. I take a little creatine with apple juice
about one hour before each of my workouts and
have a protein shake after I’m done.
I train intense and heavy and push myself to the
max, every workout (I’ve been training like that for
32 years). I’m 50 years old, and I do leg presses with
up to 1,000 pounds for 10 reps. I work up to barbell
rows with 315, dumbbell rows with a 200-pound
dumbbell and seated cable rows with the stack—300
pounds.
All natural, all “balls to the wall,” all conquest
intensity and challenging myself to the limit
at each workout. I’m not as huge as the Mr.
Olympia competitors who consult me, but I am
at a size and power level that provide me an
abundance of self-respect and esteem. Hey,
I’ve worked my ass off to get where I am, and
I strive to keep improving. (You can come to
World Gym in Marina del Rey, California, between 8:30 and 10 nightly to see me walking
the walk.)
Having been around the sport for so long
now, having written and published hundreds
of articles on the mind and bodybuilding since
1980, and having personally worked with individuals who’ve gone on to win Mr. America,
Mr. Universe and Mr. Olympia titles, I can tell
you one thing right here: What moves people
into the realm of champion is what they honestly, subconsciously believe about:
• How big they can get
• How strong they can get
• How powerful they can become
• How physically commanding and
dominant they can become
• How successful they can ultimately become
Let me go more deeply into that awareness, so
you’ll fully understand what I mean.
Belief-directed mind
power fuels the workout
machine, and what fuels
the machine determines
what it will ultimately
produce.
The Workout Machine
Do you think
Ronnie Coleman
puts any limits
on how big he can
get? No way!
Comstock
You know the ones. They always
look around at life—seeing what
exists outside of them—and by selfassessment and so-called reason
determine what they can and cannot
have, do, be, acquire and/or become.
They’d really like to drive the sleek
new cars, wear the high-fashion
clothes and reflect accomplishments
and successes similar to those they
see on TV and read about in magazines. In so many cases, however, as
they think about those things, they
creatively think of all the “justifiable”
reasons that they can’t have them
instead of thinking about what they
could do, pursue or produce that
would enable them to get what they
say they want.
Belief-directed mind power fuels
the workout machine, and what fuels
the machine determines what it will
ultimately produce. Three imponderables are at work here:
1) Why do they think they’re incapable of reaching or experiencing
the increase they say they really
want, embracing limiting, self-compromising beliefs?
2) Why do they wait to see what
the world around them offers and/or
produces (and then become “want
seduced” by others’ creations)?
3) Why, instinctively, don’t they
consider why they possibly could
get/acquire/achieve what they say
they want—and then, fueled by total
confident resolve, go about creating
and/or actualizing it?
Here’s the understanding that will
either floor you or kick your ass into
proactive-success gear: You’ll wait
for the world to bring forth new and
evolved things, or you’ll position
your “what I feel is possible” framework in relation to acquiring and
producing what is new (and desired).
From that contrast, you’ll establish
your “what I can and cannot have/
be” beliefs.
Or (and here’s the secret to increased muscular growth and increase in any area of your life) you’ll
look deeply into yourself, indeed,
more deeply into your very soul,
and will become a self-starter who
forges an expanded belief regarding
what’s possible for you. You’ll then
invest your full power into the selfconstructed new belief and move to
actively externalize it.
Retooling Your
Belief System the
Champion’s Way
Were you born to “can’t”? Were
you born to “not to”? Are you here
to want but (in so very many cases)
not have? What do you sense about
those who bring forth the new and
evolved believe? I can tell you unequivocally that they think in terms
of advancing what is, going beyond
the current, widening their possibility scope—and then creating the
more they believe they can.
They perceive more is possible,
and possible for them. They see it
clearly in their minds. They give
themselves every conceivable reason that they can, are capable of,
should and will produce, acquire
or actualize it. More important,
through a compelling faith—
through invincible, expanded
belief—they act and keep acting,
filled with self- and earth-moving
conviction, until their belief becomes materialized fact.
Do you think Ronnie Coleman,
Jay Cutler, Gunter Schlierkamp or
Lee Priest put any limits on how
big they can get? Or how strong
they can become? Or on their
ability to use the poundage they
know they must to get to the size
and power realms they determine
they’ll reach?
They don’t. Neither does any
other champion in bodybuilding or
life. Sir Edmund Hillary had an expanded belief when he conquered
Mount Everest. Howard Schultz
had an expanded belief when,
despite continual negative external
commentary, he went on to found
Starbucks Coffee. Arnold Schwarzenegger, Lee Haney, Dorian Yates
and Ronnie Coleman all had (Coleman still does) expanded belief—
which drove them year after year
to keep growing and improving in
their pursuit to win the Mr. Olympia title numerous times (which
they all did).
So just what do you believe regarding how big you can get, how
powerful you can become—indeed, how successful you can become in your bodybuilding efforts?
If such beliefs are not inspiring
and do not suggest progress and
triumph, why do you embrace
them? Indeed, why do you have
and entertain them at all? (Are
they, in fact, even yours—truly
self-determined, self-established,
self-legislated by you, of you, and
for you? Hmm, probably not.)
“Yeah, Pete, but the people you
just cited are all monster individual success stories; I’m just, well,
me.” Exactly my point. At one time
they were just so-called ordinary
people with dreams and aspirations. What separated them from
the others, what compelled them
to the heralded levels they reached
lay in what and how they believed—and because they believed.
Belief is your choice. Belief is
your responsibility. Belief is your
personal commitment to move
yourself toward a greater, more
substantive and more successful
life.
If you keep it in check and constricted, your body, and life, will
reflect it. If you expand it (in a
moment I’ll show you how), you’ll
clearly come to grow and advance.
You can think of all the reasons
you want as to why something
“can’t” or you “can’t.” New and expanded belief, however, poignantly and demonstrably overcomes
it all. Just ask little shepherd boy
David what he believed before he
went on to kick Goliath’s ass.
You taking a 16-inch arm to
17. Or 17 to 18. Then 18 to 19 follows suit. So does, for example,
coming to bench more, building
more massive delts, lats, pecs and
quads—and coming to forge the
thickly chiseled muscle and power
you’ve been holding in the back of
your mind as what you really ultimately want from your training.
Literally, what you believe, you
become.
Expanding Your
Bodybuilding Belief
Threshold (the Mental
State That Compels
Increased Training
Intensity and Growth)
Now we’ll work on expanding
your bodybuilding belief regarding
the size and strength possible for
you so you don’t limit yourself and
so you can bring forth the most and
best you’re truly capable of.
Can you become bigger and
stronger than you now are? Well,
you already know the answer is yes.
Before we get into the specific muscular-belief and inner-power expanding process, let me first discuss
the concept of belief momentum.
Once you experience it, you can
produce an increase-related result
because you naturally broaden your
belief with the awareness that what
you either didn’t know was possible
or never before experienced is now
possible. Your mind instinctively
says, “Interesting. If I did that, then
I can go even beyond that.”
Then your belief expands even
more, and you begin focusing
on a realm beyond what you just
experienced and produced. You
tenaciously reach toward—and
attain—that level, and the “belief
broadening awareness” process,
which naturally focuses on even
greater success (and the behavior
you use to actualize it), continues.
The belief momentum has
bearing on any process of increase—whether it’s making
money, generating peak athletic
performance, personal production levels or building a powerful,
thickly muscled physique.
It stops only when you “determine” that’s all there can be, or
is, for you. Let me tell you from
almost three decades as the country’s leading peak-performance
hypnotherapist: You never hit your
ultimate potential. All you do is actualize and unfold more of it as you
continue to expand your belief.
The belief
momentum
has bearing on
any process of
increase—whether
it’s making money
or building a
powerful, thickly
muscled physique.
Neveux \ Model: Hidetada Yamagishi
Where’s Your Belief
Regarding What
You Can Physically
Become?
Comstock
Give yourself every reason you can to believe
that it’s fully possible for you to create and
bring forth increased muscular dimension.
First, thoughtfully read through
this five-step process in its entirety.
Then apply it exactly as outlined.
Step 1: Perceptual Contrast.
In your home, preferably in the
evening after you’ve completed your
major activities, do the following:
Decide on the bodypart you really want to improve (chest or lats
or whatever). Focus on only one
bodypart, so all your mental energy
can be dialed in.
Next, lie comfortably on your
back on either your couch or bed,
and take three l-o-n-g, d-e-e-p
breaths—inhaling deeply through
your nostrils and exhaling easily
through your mouth.
Now, to the best of your ability,
graphically envision and f-e-e-l the
muscle in its current dimension.
Then, mentally expand it—and feel
it occurring to a level beyond where
it is now and into a realm you decidedly know is possible for you to
produce (17-inch arm to 17 1/4 to
17 1/2, etc. ).
Vividly experience (and feel)
yourself possessing the increased
muscular size. Visualize a tape
measure clearly indicating that you
possess the bigger size.
Step 2: Visualize the Workout
Effort You Know Will Produce
the Experience of More.
Step 3: Self-Convincing:
Giving Yourself the Reasons
It’s Possible—and Possible
for You.
Shift your attention to you workNow, having completed steps 1
ing out at your gym. Mentally,
and 2, direct your thinking so you’re
graphically perform one set of two
giving yourself every reason you can
different exercises you’ll be doing to
to believe that what you just menactualize your expanded belief.
tally experienced is possible for you
For example, for your arms, you’d
physically.
visualize standing barbell curls, or
For example, you might want to
preacher curls, or incline dumbbell
use notions such as:
curls, etc.
Once you decide on the
two exercises you’ll mentally engage, imaginatively
step into the workout scenario, begin your set, and
thoroughly f-e-e-l yourself
performing each tenacious,
locked-in feverish rep of
each set. (Really mentally
crank out each rep with
total intensity.)
Don’t be surprised to
find your heart rate, body
temperature and breathing rate magnify as you get
deeply into training that’s
geared to actualizing your
expanded belief.
Then, after you’ve envisioned yourself mentally
performing both sets (as
outlined), let yourself
feel the intense flush of
blood—and the burn—
your lasered effort produced in the muscle you
mentally trained.
Arnold’s expanded belief drove him in
bodybuilding and still drives him today.
Balik
The Process: Pushing
Your Belief Into New
Growth-Inducing
Realms
• When I’ve trained exceptionally
hard, I’ve gotten noticeable
results. As I continue training
fiercely hard, I’ll continue getting
results.
• If I truly believe something is
possible for me—and fully set my
mind to it—I can and will make
it fact.
• When I’m seriously motivated
and confident that success can
happen for me, I feverishly work
in the way I must—for as long as I
must—until it does.
• When I eat right, train
tenaciously like a warrior and
invest my whole mind in getting
bigger, stronger and more
commanding, I make my body
grow. I can and will do exactly the
same thing—now.
You can use these notions or compose your own. Remember: Give
yourself every reason you can to
believe that it’s fully possible for you
to create and bring forth increased
muscular dimension.
Next, to return to your full conscious awareness, feel the backs of
your arms, legs, torso and head on
the mattress or cushions beneath
you. Then just easily let your eyelids open. Inhale deeply. And s-t-re-t-c-h. Then go on to engage your
next planned activity.
Step 5: Committed Action
Follow Through.
Now you become conscious of
upholding your expanded belief
(regarding the bodypart you’ve
chosen to increase) when you work
out. You see and think of it this new
way. You train every set the intense
way you visualized. You mentally
exclaim your triumph affirmation
before and after each workout. You
stay in this mental-conviction zone
until you physically experience that
your expanded belief has become a
muscular fact.
I guarantee that if you stay with
steps 1 through 5 as I’ve outlined
them, you’ll come to experience
your new belief as fact. You’ll then
start enjoying the exceedingly positive impact of belief momentum.
The Reinforcement
Neveux \ Model: Carmen Garcia
Stay with steps 1 through 5 regularly, until your physique conclusively reflects your new, expanded
belief. That means setting aside
time each day to mentally condition yourself to grow.
If you’re serious about wanting
more, you’ll engage the process
eagerly and regularly. Why? Because
you’ll realize you have the missing
link now to bypass self-imposed,
limiting beliefs. Remember: What
you truly believe, you will truly
become.
If you want it, believing it can
happen is the first step.
Step 4: Subconsciously
“Ingest” the Expanded Belief
Triumph Affirmation.
Now, firmly say to yourself (and
mean it), “I choose what I believe.
I determine what’s possible for me.
And the more I envision and experience it, the more I direct my workout
efforts to decidedly unfold that belief.”
Editor’s note: Pete Siegel is
the country’s foremost sports and
peak-performance hypnotherapist.
Check out his acclaimed Think &
Grow BIG and Steppin’ Up to MegaMuscle and Power!, mental-training
programs for massive bodybuilding
success at www.IncredibleChange
.com. There you’ll also see the list
of bodybuilders he’s worked with
who then went on to win Mr. America, Mr. Universe and Mr. Olympia
titles. IM
Model: Hidetada Yamagishi
Take It to
the Limit—and Beyond—
to Build Extreme Muscularity
by Dwayne Hines II
re you growing? When it comes to building the
muscularity of your physique, that’s a crucial
question—and so is your answer. Look at it
this way—if you’re not growing, what are
you doing in the gym? Trying to break even? Breaking
even is good for the guy who doesn’t want to end up
in a nursing home, but for anyone who’s serious about
muscle, the bottom line is growth.
The obsession with growth applies to all areas of life.
In finance, the ready money goes to companies that
are growing, and big companies are always trying to
grow their dividends, their income, their assets. Even
relationships are discussed in terms of growth.
Growth shows up everywhere because it is vital for life.
There are three alternatives here on planet Earth—you’re
breaking even, losing ground or growing. That paradigm
can be applied to most anything, and especially to
building the body.
Complacency Kills
must send the body a signal that it
needs to step it up—which it will
never do unless you step it up in the
gym. Gallagher makes a very succinct statement: “The human body
does not alter itself in response to
sameness.” Doing the same routine
or any routine that doesn’t push the
envelope for your physique will not
bring about change.
Complacency is the deadly
enemy of growth. Although loss (decrease, shrink, diminish) is the opposite of growth, complacency is the
tool that delivers it. It’s insidious,
and that’s precisely the reason that
complacency is so nasty. Complacency serves up loss in such a subtle
manner that many people don’t
recognize what’s going on. Facts
don’t cease to exist simply because
you ignore them, and you incur the
loss nonetheless. You can see countless examples in any gym—guys
whose arm size never increases,
weight loads that remain the same,
max-out totals that never increase.
Complacency kills progress. Are you
complacent?
The opposite of complacency is
challenge. To break out of the complacency trap, you must challenge
your body—and your mind—at
various levels. As five-time world
master powerlifting champion
Marty Gallagher puts it, “To trigger
physical progress, you have to bump
up against current boundaries. You
have to test the limits and break
the barriers. You have to deal with
the pain and discomfort a serious
exercise induces. You cannot trigger
muscle hypertrophy (the core goal
of all progressive-resistance training) by training submaximally.”
So, the question becomes, Are
you bumping up against current
boundaries? And if not, why not?
If you’re not challenging yourself—if you are coasting below your
physique’s boundaries—you cannot
expect progress. To trigger physical progress in your physique, you
Keep a training journal to
minimize guesswork.
Tracking Training
Trajectory
As the Eagles said, “Take it to
the limit one more time.”
Intelligent Barrier
Busting
Complacency kills progress.
Challenge kills complacency.
The key to forcing the body to
change is to break through barriers. Exactly how do you do that?
The Eagles sang, “Take it to the
limit one more time,” and that is
the perfect answer. It’s essential to
take your body beyond where it has
been. That said, you need to apply
a little intelligence. You don’t want
to push yourself to oblivion at every
workout. That’s a sure ticket to overtraining, injury and a compromised
immune system. Instead, push your
body to new limits systematically
over a period of time. Your training doesn’t have to produce new
achievements at every workout, but
it should be producing new achievements over time. You may break
through a barrier every other week.
Or every month. Or maybe every
three months. The goal is the overall
trajectory of your training—is it up,
flat or down? Gallagher suggests
establishing a baseline performance
level that you strive to exceed in
some manner or fashion; for example, nudging poundage or repetitions upward.
If you want to track your training
trajectory accurately, keep a training journal. Without one, everything
you do is guesswork. The thinnest
line is better than the stoutest memory, it is said, and keeping track by
getting your training achievements
down on paper is crucial to growth.
It will help you set up incremental
increases in your work that will get
you beyond the previous workout’s
numbers. It will show you in black
and white if you are really progressing. Keeping a training journal helps
remove much of the subjectivity of training and enables you to
track even subjective factors. For
instance, if you’re feeling under the
weather prior to a workout, you can
note that for future reference.
The path to growth is no mystery.
You must push your body further
in a measured pace. Forget all the
fancy workouts and supposedly
secret tips. The bottom line is that
your body won’t grow unless you
make it. Yes, that involves a lot of
pain, but that’s where the growth
lies. If you want to make progress
with your physique, you have to
push into the growth zone.
Your body won’t grow unless
you push its pain threshold.
Further Than Failure!
Normal muscular failure means you can no longer
do another full-range rep in good form, which is fine
most of the time. Sometimes, though, you have to take
it to the next level—further than failure and into the
growth zone. That means going past the point of normal muscular failure by using one or more of the following techniques:
1) Cheat reps. Loosen up your form a bit and use
some momentum to complete a few more full repetitions. For example, if you’re doing barbell curls, when
you reach the point where another strict rep is impossible, swing the weight up using a slight torso bend at the
beginning of each rep and perhaps lean back a bit to
complete the rep. The point is to use the least amount
of cheating possible to complete the rep.
2) Forced reps. A spotter helps you complete one
or more reps when you cannot get any more on your
own. For example, during bench presses, when you get
stuck at the midway point, your spotter will pull up on
the bar just enough to enable you to complete the rep.
Your spotter should provide the least amount of help
possible.
3) Negatives. A spotter helps you complete the
positive portion of the next rep so that you can lower
the bar as slowly and with as much control as possible.
(Unlike what happens with a forced rep, the spotter
helps you get the bar back to the top with you using
the least amount of force possible.) You reach positive,
or concentric, failure first, but the muscle hasn’t yet
reached negative, a.k.a. eccentric, failure; so with your
partner’s assistance you can continue the set working
only the negative portion of the rep.
4) Rest/pause. Pick a weight that you know you can
only get two to four reps with. Once you reach failure,
set the weight down for about 15 seconds. Pick up the
weight and attempt to get another one or two reps. Set
the weight down for another 15 seconds, and repeat.
You may be able to do it three or four times before the
entire rest/pause set is complete; that is, you can’t get
any more reps.
Model: Lee Apperson and Alexander Lee Apperson
Balik
5) Drop sets. Lift a weight to failure, and then remove 15 to 20 percent of the weight (or grab lighter
dumbbells if it’s a dumbbell exercise) and continue to
lift without resting. You can repeat the process two to
three times before terminating the set. The drop-set
technique works particularly well with dumbbell exercises in what are called down-the-rack sets. That’s
where you begin an exercise, like laterals raises, with,
say, 35-pound dumbbells, and when you reach failure,
you go to 25s, 15s and then 5s. Yes, it’s pretty painful—
but very effective!
6) Partials. Perform half or quarter reps after you
reach failure on full-range reps. End-of-set partials
produce a very painful lactic acid burn in the muscle,
especially when you do them rapidly. They’re best used
on exercises like curls, laterals, leg extensions, leg curls
and similar movements, rather than bench presses,
squats, deadlifts and so on, on which you need a spotter and the danger level is high. End-of-set partials
done at the max-force point on the stroke of an exercise
are called X Reps, and they are an even more effective
form of the partials technique [see www.X-Rep.com for
more info].
Just remember that going beyond failure is not for
beginners or even most intermediates. Most people
can grow quite nicely simply by training near or right
at normal failure. Only advanced trainees should
push themselves to that level, as their bodies are better adapted to the rigors of such training ferocity.
They often need to push themselves that far to force
continued overcompensation to take place—the key
to growth. That said, it’s easy to overtrain using techniques like the ones discussed above no matter how
advanced you are, so use them sparingly.
See you at the gym—the only place in the world
where failure is a positive thing!
—Eric Broser
www.PRRSTraining.com IM
Partials,
Burns & X Reps
Extending
Time Under Tension for
Extreme Muscle Size
lot has been written recently about time under
tension and the optimal amount of time a set
must last to trigger hypertrophy. For pure
strength gains a shorter time under tension
is best, as it aids in fortifying tendons and ligaments. Basically, one to five reps works best for power. If your goal is to
add mass, however, you need a longer time under tension.
Even top pros like Ronnie Coleman use higher reps with
great success. Coleman does flirt with maximum poundages on certain lifts, but if you watch him train, you’ll notice
that a good portion of his sets are in the eight-to-15 range.
(I think the max-single attempts on squats and deadlifts
that he does on his various DVDs are as much for show as
they are for building strength. Not to take anything away
from the man—an 800-pound deadlift is amazing at any
time, and at five weeks before the Mr. O it’s insane. But it
makes for a good DVD more than it makes for good size
training.)
Model: Ronnie Coleman
by William Litz
Photography by Michael Neveux
Partials, Burns and X Reps
There are other ways to extend
the time under tension than just
doing higher reps. Steve Holman,
IM’s editor in chief, and Jonathan
Lawson have written a lot in the
past few years about X Reps and
their variations. The X-Rep concept
is an insightful new way of looking
at an older training technique that
was on the verge of becoming extinct—burns.
Burns were developed in the
1950s as a way of extending the time
a muscle was under fire. Once a
trainee could no longer do full reps,
he did a series of short partial reps,
or burns, near the top or bottom of
the stroke.
Larry Scott was famous for his
use of burns at the top of the stroke
Model: Larry Scott \ photo courtsey of Robert Kennedy
Larry Scott
often extended
his sets with
partials at the
top and bottom
positions for
more tension
time.
Photos courtesy of William Litz
on preacher curls. After
six heavy reps to failure
he’d be helped into the
top position and would
squeeze out four to six
burns. He sometimes
did burns at the bottom
as well.
New research indicates that bottom-, or
stretch-, position burns
are more beneficial,
but to keep variety
AFTER
BEFORE
alive—and maybe hit a
few different fibers—I
believe it’s useful to
work X Reps at different
points on the stroke,
even within a single set,
as you’ll see in my calftraining example coming up.
Keep in mind that
stretch-position partials can activate a lot
of growth fibers and
may even lead to fiber
splitting, if such a
phenomenon actually
exists. Training various
positions with X-Rep
partials will help avoid
stagnation, however,
and who can argue with
Larry Scott’s results?
The man had arms that
even by today’s freaky
William Litz took his physique from a soft standard were amazing.
Holman and Law220 to a hard, abs-blazing 210 in only eight
son’s X Reps primarily
weeks using X-Rep partials and stretch
focus on bottom-posioverload. His legs responded nicely too.
tion, stretch- or semi-
stretch-point partials. While they
do at times train the top, contracted
position, usually on continuoustension isolation exercises like leg
extensions, most of the time they
prefer doing X-Rep partials at the
end of a set to exhaustion, at a point
where the muscle is elongated and
under tension, like near the bottom
of the stroke of an incline press.
They believe that it’s the max-force
point of the target muscle, where it
can fire most effectively and, therefore, activate the most fibers.
I’ve been doing variations of
partials and burns since the early
’90s, when I first saw “Pumping
Iron.” I was struck by how Arnold
did his dumbbell flyes—he never
brought the dumbbells together at
the top; instead, he focused on the
stretch position only. In that same
movie Lou Ferrigno did his incline
presses in the same manner—he
only did the bottom half or third of
the stroke. It appeared as though he
was “bouncing” in and out of the
stretch position, overloading the
muscle to the max while avoiding
the top part of the rep. If you watch
closely, you’ll see that while Arnold
finished off his massive pecs with
cable crossovers to get a strong
contraction, he holds the stretch
for a definite pause on many of his
reps, something Holman and Lawson noticed Jay Cutler doing on his
training DVD “Ripped to Shreds” [an
observation that evolved into the Xhybrid technique known as DoubleX Overload].
Keep in mind that X reps are more
Ronnie Coleman
uses continuoustension exercises
in his workouts,
but he rarely holds
the contracted
position.
Models: Jonathan Lawson and Steve Holman
than just burns, which were usually
performed in the contracted position. As I said, I like to do X Reps
in the contracted position too, but
I think the stretch position takes
priority. That’s the beauty of X Reps;
they can be tailored to any movement and can work at various positions.
Doing heavy X-Rep-only sets,
as Ferrigno did on incline presses
in “Pumping Iron,” can attack the
stretch position and wake up sleeping pec fibers. Hitting that bottom
stroke of the rep on the Smith machine will give anyone an unreal
burn. Holman and Lawson describe
standard X Reps as end-of-set partials. So you would do a full-range
set to exhaustion, lower the bar to
Holman and
Lawson’s XRep concept
primarily stresses
the bottom,
semistretch point
at the end of a
full-range set.
near your chest, and then fire off
eight-inch partials in the stretch-position range. Once again, incredible
burn.
What about top-end X Reps on
presses? The top of pressing movements is almost all triceps, so if
you’re hitting chest, stick with bottom-range partials. Work in and
around that bottom half of the
rep, banging out as many partials
with constant tension as you can.
Machines can make the technique
more effective. On Smith-machine
inclines, for example, you can focus
on pushing without balance issues,
so you have more control. All it
takes is two bottom-end sets with
X Reps on Smith-machine inclines,
and my chest is toast.
X Reps are spawning many variations called X-hybrids. I mentioned
Double-X Overload earlier. Others include various pulse-pushing
methods performed at certain areas
along the range of motion and/or in
combination with other techniques
like multirep rest/pause, also known
as Dante’s D.C. training. The evolution is excellent because all good
training methods should be flexible
enough to be tailored to a trainee’s
individual needs.
Here’s an example of how I’ve
adapted the X-Rep concept to my
leg press calf raises, an approach
you can easily use on donkey or
standing calf raises.
Start with two warmup sets. Then
stretch each calf for 30 seconds and
then 60 sec- (continued on page 122)
The biggest bodybuilders
usually start bench
presses in the lockout
position but don’t lock
out again till the end of
the set. Bottom partials
stress the low, semistretch
point of the stroke for
continuous tension and
maximum fiber activation.
onds. For
the first work set load a weight that
lets you crank out 10 to 12 reps. At
full-range exhaustion let your heels
sink as far down as they will go and
hold the stretch for 10 seconds. Now
push the footplate up as far as you
can and do five pulsing X Reps. Hold
the fifth X Rep in the full stretch position for 10 more seconds. You can
stop there if the pain is too intense; I
usually don’t quit.
I get the weight back up by hook
or by crook to the top and do five
squeezes at the contracted position;
then I lower and hold the bottom
stretch for yet another 10 seconds.
At that point I’ll stop, have my
partner strip off a few 45s and then
immediately crank out 12 more full
reps. On rep 12 I lower and hold the
stretch for 30 seconds. But I’m not
done.
I jump/hobble off the leg press
and on to a wooden block, where I
do more freehand stretches. I do a
deep stretch for 60 seconds on each
calf followed by a few bodyweight
calf raises.
Ouch! Two rounds of that torture,
or something similar, is all I can
take. I finish with one set of seated
calf raises for 50 to 100 reps, usually
with just a 45 on each side. On the
last rep I hold the contraction as
long as possible before racking the
weight, and I’m usually sobbing like
a little girl—but a little girl with very
big calves!
X Reps combined with static
stretches aren’t fun unless you’re
the kind of person who enjoys being
tied up and flogged (but that’s really none of my business). Despite
the pain they cause, X Reps and
X-hybrid techniques are some of
the best training tools I have ever
used, and I recently proved just
how effective they are. After allowing myself to indulge in a doughnut
diet (I don’t suggest it—it’s tasty
but not that great for muscle size),
I found myself in very brutal shape.
I needed to get lean and add some
size in a hurry. X Reps combined
with stretch overload and extreme
stretching transformed my physique
in eight weeks (see photos on page
118). I went from a fat 220 pounds
to a tight 210 with abs in only eight
weeks. You can see that I dropped
bodyfat while adding lots of muscle
and strength, something I’ve always
found difficult to do.
I noticed immediately that X
Reps work very well with fascial
stretching (popularized by trainer
John Parrillo and more recently by
Dante). The intense stretching helps
loosen the fascia surrounding the
muscle, thus allowing more space
for the muscle to grow. Often lifters
who have a stubborn muscle group
will find that the fascia surrounding that particular muscle is too
constricting. Stretching and stretchoverload exercises, as well as X
Reps, can help remedy the situation
somewhat.
Why burns fell out of favor is
beyond me, as all top bodybuilders
used the technique in the 1950s and
’60s. It clearly produced amazing
builds in the decades before chemical warfare became the norm. Now
X Reps and other current methods
take that old technique and run with
it—to painful and strange places
where huge bodybuilders roam.
Note: For more on X Reps, visit
www.X-Rep.com.
Editor’s note: William Steven
Litz is vice president of R. Litz &
Sons Co. LTD. and is the founder of
Cobra-Gym Training Systems. He’s
been training for 15 years and for
the past eight has trained clients
of all ages—from high school athletes to senior citizens to top-level
powerlifters and national-level
bodybuilders. He offers online- and
personal-training consultations and
is in the process of opening a new
state-of-the art strength-training
facility. IM
Model: John Cowgill
Partials, Burns and X Reps
Model: Ken Yasuda
132 APRiL 2007 \ www.ironmanmagazine.com
Rep-Range Reload
Techniques
for Building a Bigger Bench
and Impressive Pecs
by Chris Pennington • Photography by Michael Neveux
Model: Ray Campisi
ost bodybuilders strive for a big bench—not
necessarily because they have powerlifting
aspirations, but because they understand that
having a strong bench aids muscle growth. That goes for
more than just in the pecs, by the way.
Increasing bench press strength seems to have an overall strengthening effect on the upper body. It works the
chest but also stimulates many other muscle groups,
much as the squat and deadlift do for the lower body. The
trick to keeping gains coming is to not kill the goose that
lays the golden eggs.
The problem with the bench press is that enthusiasm
for the exercise leads to overuse. Good intentions, bad
outcome.
Rep-Range Reload
Using excessive volume and/or
intensity on the bench press can
quickly lead to a breakdown in technique, overtraining and the worst
possible outcome: injury. How can
you avoid all of that? With smart
workout design.
The Multisided Approach
to Development
Your goal is to develop both muscular hypertrophy and strength.
One way to achieve that is to combine low- and high-rep training
to stimulate both metabolic and
neural systems. Repetition selection is important because it dictates
the load you’ll use and the type of
stimulation. Obviously, the weight
you use for a 10-repetition set will
be much lighter than what you’d
use for a six-rep set, assuming the
rep speed is the same for both.
(Slow-motion or acceleration training—using either very slow or very
fast tempos, respectively—would
be an exception, but not too many
bodybuilders train that way.)
Which rep bracket is best? If you
want size and strength, don’t get
stuck on one favorite. I speak from
experience. For years I benched
strictly within the four-to-six-rep
range because I got great results
with it. If it’s not broken, don’t fix
it, right? Wrong. The problem was
that I used it without any variation.
I needed change. I should’ve spent
some time benching in higher and
lower rep ranges. Eventually, I figured that out, but not until after I hit
a training plateau.
The need for rep-range variation
goes beyond the bench, however; all
the assisting muscle groups, such
as the triceps and back, should get
it as well. It’s important to note that
both strength and hypertrophy are
developed at all rep ranges. So it’s
not an either/or situation. Still, the
degree to which either is stimulated
is highly influenced by the number
of repetitions you do.
Lower repetitions tend to develop
strength to a greater degree while
higher repetitions—up to a point—
tend to favor hypertrophy. That’s a
generalization because factors such
as fiber type, recovery ability, training experience and supplement use
come into play, and your specific
situation could be different. Nevertheless, those guidelines are safe for
most bodybuilders.
The key, then, is to get the best
of both worlds by systematically
changing rep ranges from week to
week or performing a single workout that combines multiple rep
ranges. Both techniques are excellent, and you should use both. The
week-to-week method is more of
a long-term approach. The second
option, using multiple rep ranges
in a single workout, is more of a
short-term solution—you can’t use
it for long periods because it takes a
heavy toll on recovery. Let’s look at
some examples.
If your goal is to
build both muscle
and strength, you
need to combine
low- and high-rep
training.
Model: Eric Broser
Weekly Variations in
Repetitions
Making periodic variations in
volume and intensity is a good way
to encourage steady muscle growth
because it helps prevent overtraining. Keep in mind that the nervous
system will eventually adapt to any
constant stimulus. So it’s not a matter of whether there’s a need for
variation but, rather, when it should
occur.
One way to vary repetitions is to
base them on a percentage of your
one-rep maximum for the exercise
at hand. The following is a common periodization scheme used by
Olympic athletes in many different
sports, and bodybuilders can benefit from using it from time to time.
Simply work with a certain percentage of your 1RM for a certain number of weeks, and then change the
working percentage for another two
weeks and so on. Here’s how you
could do it on bench press.
Rep-Range Reload
X-Files: Shocking Strength with Muscle-Size Side Effects
If you’ve been reading our Train, Eat, Grow series
in this magazine or our weekly e-zine (sign up free at
IronManMagazine.com), you know we’ve been using
a version of Eric Broser’s Power/Rep Range/Shock
system. It’s a way to vary rep ranges, and it’s sent our
strength gains through the roof!—90-pound incline
dumbbell flyes, 75-pound seated laterals, 400-pound
hack squats, 400-pound shrugs and 1,000-pound leg
presses. (None of those poundages will have Ronnie
Coleman peeing with fright,
but not bad for a couple
of drug-free muscleheads
weighing in the lower 200s.)
Now, we’re not throwing
out those numbers to brag
because, truthfully, strength
isn’t our thing; we’re after
muscle. In many cases,
however, more strength can
translate into a serious size
surge—eventually. Arthur
Jones, the creator of Nautilus exercise machines, put
Eric Broser, the
it this way:
creator of Power/
“When the actual progRep Range/Shock.
ress of an individual trainee
is carefully charted over a
period of a few months, several rather surprising results will become immediately apparent;
for example, while strength levels will increase
in a series of gentle curves, increases in size of
the involved bodyparts—and thus apparent
increases in muscular mass—will result in a
stair-step pattern.”
What Jones was saying is that strength increases
are usually fairly steady, fluctuating slightly up and
down but on a distinctly upward trajectory, while size
increases come in sudden bursts followed by plateaus—a stair-step pattern. Says Jones, “In effect, size
increases permit strength increases—and strength
increases force size increases.”
After nine weeks, or three cycles, of P/RR/S training
infused with X Reps and 3D POF—and huge increases
in strength—we noticed a distinct mass move. We’re
both suddenly five pounds heavier. As we’ve said in the
past, though, a strength increase doesn’t always lead to
more size.
Strength can increase due to neuromuscular efficiency (improved nerve-to-muscle connections) alone,
which may or may not produce a size increase. And
muscle growth that you get via capillary bed expansion
and mitochondria size—that is, by training the endurance components—may not cause much, if any, increase in force output, or strength. So strength and size
are somewhat related, but there’s not always a direct
cause-and-effect relationship.
Power/Rep Range/Shock, however, covers all the
bases in three-week cycles, so it produces significant
strength and size gains—eventually. Here’s a quick
summary of each week so you can see how that hap-
pens:
Week 1, Power: Train every exercise with straight
sets—no supersets, tri-sets or drop sets—and keep
your reps in the four-to-six zone. You may want to use
slightly higher reps—eight to 10—on endurance-oriented muscles like calves, abs and forearms during
this low-rep week.
Week 2, Rep Range: For the first exercise pick a
weight that allows you to get seven to nine reps. For
the second exercise it’s 10 to 12 reps. On the
third exercise move the rep range up to the high
end of fast-twitch recruitment—13 to 15 reps.
(Note: That works exceptionally well with the
3D POF exercises: We use a big, midrange-position exercise as our first movement, a stretchposition exercise as our second and then a
contracted-position movement to finish off the
muscle group with continuous tension, occlusion and an awesome pump thanks to the higher
rep range.)
Week 3, Shock: This
week is for putting your
muscles through the
meat grinder with supersets, drop sets, multirep rest/pause (D.C.,
ROB, etc.) and extensive use of X Reps and
X-hybrid techniques.
Reps for most muscles
stay in the eight-to-10
Lawson and Holman.
range, but extended-set
techniques are a must.
Think brutal bodybuilding!
(Note: All the workouts, 12 total, are available in a
printable format in the e-book 3D Muscle Building.)
If you read through each P/RR/S week, you should
realize why it’s so effective: because you cover all the
muscle-building pathways multiple times over three
weeks. During Power week you use straight sets for low
reps, so you focus primarily on max-force generation.
Rep-Range week has you run the gamut of hypertrophic rep ranges, so you hit a multitude of fiber types
with max force and extended tension. And Shock week
has you jacking up the intensity and tension times for
a mix of anaerobic and endurance-component development, not to mention blasting up anabolic hormone
output with severe, almost unbearable muscle burn.
If you’re looking for some major strength gains with
a significant side effect of size, this type of three-week
mega variation is at the top of the list. You can adapt
it to any program you’re using. Keep in mind that we
do X Reps or an X-hybrid technique on one set of each
exercise every week. In other words, we shoot for some
muscle burn whether we’re doing Power, Rep Range or
Shock work. That’s important for keeping the anabolic
hormones flowing—and your muscles growing!
—Steve Holman and Jonathan Lawson
www.X-Rep.com and www.3DMuscleBuilding.com
Weeks 2-4
12-15 reps, 65 to 70 percent of
1RM
Weeks 5-7
3-5, 86 to 90 percent of 1RM
Weeks 8-10
10-12 reps, 70 to 75 percent of
1RM
The need for reprange variation
goes beyond the
bench, however;
all the assisting
muscle groups
should get it as
well.
Weeks 11-13
4-6 reps, 82 to 88 percent of 1RM
In this training structure you
perform the specific number of reps
for a few weeks. Each time the rep
range changes, the poundage you
use must change. That can be anywhere from one to four weeks, but
in the above example it’s every two
weeks. Again, that’s assuming the
Model: Luke Wood
Weeks 1-2
6-8 reps, 78 to 82 percent of 1RM
Rep-Range Reload
rep speed stays the same, which it
should except for near the end of a
set, when fatigue slows you down.
You don’t need to perform a
bunch of 1RM tests to determine
what weights correspond to the various percentages of your 1RM on the
bench press. Instead, pick a weight
that will let you get the appropriate
rep range. Your 1RM is good information to have, but it’s simply not
practical to be constantly testing for
1RMs. As long as you increase the
weight from your last workout done
in that repetition bracket, you’re
heading in the right direction. This
model keeps the body stimulated by
varying the training demand on a
consistent basis.
The drawback is that your body
isn’t a machine. Just because a specific rep scheme is laid out doesn’t
mean that it’s optimal for your body
at that time. You have the final say
on how you feel and what you think
you’re capable of. For instance, if
during weeks five through seven in
our example you really don’t feel
that you can handle three to five
reps, you can increase the reps or
take some time off. Use the chart as
a guide, modifying it as needed. As
a side note, the bench press is the
exercise illustrated, but you can and
should work other muscle groups in
the same manner.
The next example shows a different way to incorporate repetition ranges in what is known as a
pyramid scheme. It’s an extremely
popular workout routine, and it has
been used for many years by lifters
for both strength and mass development. The base is higher repetitions
of moderate weights until you hit
a peak of heavy low-weight training. Earlier weeks focus on muscle
hypertrophy, while later weeks focus
on strength.
Work with a certain
percentage of
your 1RM for a
certain number of
weeks, and then
change the working
percentage for
another two weeks,
and so on.
Week 1: 12-15 reps
Week 2: 10-12 reps
Week 3: 8-10 reps
Week 4: 6-8 reps
Model: Skip La Cour
Week 5: 6-8 reps
Week 6: 3-5 reps
Week 7: 3-5 reps
Week 8: Cycle begins again, or
attempt 1RM
Rep-Range Reload
All-Rep-Ranges-in-One
Workouts
In this you vary the rep ranges
within the workout itself. It’s a very
productive but incredibly hard
method of training. In addition to
multiple sets of different rep ranges,
you give equal attention to important muscle groups, such as the
back and lats, and add some extra
work for triceps at the end. Keep in
mind that this is only one workout.
The program listed here probably
doesn’t include enough isolated
triceps work for most trainees, so if
your triceps are a weak point, you’ll
need extra work for them on another day.
Bench presses
Seated rows
Bench presses
Seated rows
Shrugs
Lying extensions
4x2
4 x 6-8
2 x 6-8
2 x 10-12
3 x 8-10
2 x 12
During the first four sets of
bench presses the reps are low and
the weight should be heavy—very
heavy! You’re stimulating the nervous system and tapping into type 2
muscle fibers.
The bench sequence is then broken up by four sets of seated rows,
which work the midback and lats,
two very important assisting muscle
groups for the bench. Then it’s time
to revisit the bench, only this time
the reps are significantly higher.
You’re after metabolic changes and
also looking to fatigue the slower
motor units within the muscle. As
you can see, you’re really getting the
best of both worlds with this type of
workout.
If you’ve been hammering away
at the same set-and-rep scheme
for the past couple of months, it’s
time to change your routine. Vary
the number of reps you use. It may
seem awkward at first, but that’s
your body’s way of letting you know
that you’re finally giving it a novel
stimulus, just what it needs for progressive strength and muscle gains.
Note: For another effective
rep-range-variation protocol, see
“X-Files: Shocking Strength with
Muscle-Size Side Effects” on page
136. IM
Using multiple rep
ranges in a single
workout is more
of a short-term
solution—you
can’t use it for long
periods because it
takes a heavy toll
on recovery.
Model: Berry Kabov
Recently, that training approach
has been taking some hits. The
basic disagreement is similar to
what was discussed above—that
the body should be trained more
by feel than by a rigid program.
That’s a legitimate concern, as no
workout scheme can replace the key
indicators you receive from your
body. Even so, many lifters have
been using the program successfully
to build bench press strength and
upper-body muscle mass.
As with any program, there are
people who like it and those who
dislike it. The only way you can find
out if it works for you is to give it a
try. It also works incredibly well for
squats and deadlifts.
The
Muscle
Mineral
by Jerry Brainum
If you were to ask the average bodybuilder which nutrient
was most vital to promoting muscular growth, he or she would
likely answer, “Protein.” Indeed, the literal translation of the
word protein means “of first importance.” Few would argue
the necessity of optimal protein intake in the quest for a more
muscular body. Truth is, though, that protein, while important,
is only part of the bodybuilding-nutrition equation. You need all
the required nutrients to make training progress. That means an
array of essential nutrients other than protein, such as vitamins
and minerals.
Some vitamins and minerals are directly linked to building
muscle. Most vitamins are coenzymes, meaning that they’re
part of the enzyme structure. Minerals, meanwhile, are enzyme
activators, which means vitamins without mineral support can
be useless. Of the minerals most linked to building muscle, two
stand out. One is zinc; the other is magnesium.
Magnesium
Magnesium
in the Body
Zinc activates some 200 enzymes
in the body, and magnesium more
than 300. Many of them are related
to magnesium’s active role in the
physiology of adenosine triphosphate, or ATP, the most elemental
energy source. All foods are eventually converted into ATP, but without
magnesium ATP activity would be
inhibited, leading to a number of
possible complications. Magnesium
stabilizes the phosphate bonds in
ATP, enabling enzymes that break
those bonds to work more efficiently and thus release actual energy.
Any enzyme reaction in the body
that requires ATP also requires magnesium.
ATP helps deliver phosphates to
other enzymes. Creatine kinase is
the enzyme that adds phosphate
to creatine, thereby activating it in
muscle. The metabolite AMP, which
is made from ATP, requires magnesium and is involved not only in
hormone release, but also in the
series of reactions that result in fat
release from fat cells.
Magnesium acts as a natural
calcium regulator in the body and is
often called a natural calcium channel blocker because it competes
with calcium for entry into cells. As
a result, it’s implicated in everything
from muscle relaxation to antagonizing calcium’s role in blood clotting.
Magnesium has a close relationship with potassium. Without
magnesium, potassium cannot be
retained in cells and is excreted
from the body. That’s why taking potassium without magnesium doesn’t
make physiological sense. Magnesium regulates intracellular potassium and keeps blood potassium
within the normal range. Together
magnesium and potassium regulate the cellular sodium-potassium
pump and are involved in creatine
uptake in muscle.
Magnesium’s regulation of calcium and potassium also affects
heart function and blood pressure.
It influences the stability of cellular
membranes, which are prone to
oxidation because of their fat content. Many cardiovascular problems
are related to oxidation; magnesium
is an indirect antioxidant. Animals
deficient in it show signs of prooxidant activity, such as lipoprotein
oxidation and a proinflammatory
state linked to many diseases.
The body’s total stores of magnesium are between 21 and 28 grams,
about one ounce, in a 150-pound
adult. Most of the stored magnesium is in bones (50 percent), with
the remainder in soft tissue. Muscle
contains a fourth of the body’s
magnesium, and a small amount
circulates in the blood. The kidneys
control magnesium retention and
excrete excess amounts.
The more magnesium you take
in at one time, the less your body
absorbs. When your body stores
of magnesium are low, you absorb
considerably more; the usual absorption rate is 30 percent of the
dose. One study found that with
an intake of 36 milligrams a day
of magnesium, 65 percent was
absorbed.1 When the daily intake
increased to 973 milligrams, the
absorption rate dropped to only 11
percent.
Several substances are known to
favor or hinder magnesium absorption. Fructose and fermentable
carbohydrates favor magnesium
uptake, and excessive fiber intake
may slightly blunt absorption. Natural food elements, such as phytates
from wheat and oxalates from vegetables, could impair magnesium
uptake by forming an insoluble
complex with the mineral, but the
chlorophyll in many vegetables
forms its own complex with magnesium, favoring absorption. Too
much zinc also may interfere with
magnesium
Magnesium
also acts as
a natural
calcium
regulator
in the body
and is often
called a
natural
calcium
channel
blocker.
Magnesium
phorus. Conversely, a high magnesium intake results in phosphorus
excretion—no problem, as phosphorus is ubiquitous in all proteins.
Magnesium’s
role in
regulating
calcium and
potassium also
affects various
cardiovascular
functions,
such as heart
function and
blood pressure.
Natural Mineral Facts
(continued from page 144) uptake.
Moderate protein intake boosts
magnesium uptake, while getting
more than that impairs it.
Excess intake of fat, refined sugars and alcohol, as well as the use of
diuretics, can promote magnesium
excretion. Many bodybuilders have
experienced painful muscle cramps
after taking diuretic drugs, such
as Lasix. That’s because the drugs
trigger the excretion of sodium,
water, magnesium and potassium,
and mineral loss is what causes
muscle cramps. Use of high-dose
thyroid drugs, such as Cytomel,
also promotes magnesium losses.
When magnesium is deficient, the
body secretes more aldosterone, an
adrenal hormone that encourages
sodium retention along with potassium and magnesium excretion—
leading to a vicious metabolic cycle.
A high insulin release causes a shift
of magnesium from blood into cells,
lowering blood levels. Recent evidence shows that magnesium plays
an essential role in both preventing
diabetes and controlling insulin
levels.2,3 The good effects of magnesium on blood fats and insulin also
mean that it may help prevent the
metabolic syndrome.4
Calcium promotes muscular
contraction, and magnesium helps
to temper that activity. That may be
helpful in situations where excessive contraction may be a problem;
for example, in the case of the hy-
peractivity of the smooth muscle
in bronchial tubes that occurs with
asthmatic attacks, magnesium can
help relieve bronchial constriction.5
Because magnesium is a natural antihistamine, it may also help prevent
the allergic onset of the disease.
Another mineral that reacts with
magnesium is phosphorus. Excess
consumption of phosphorus leads
to magnesium excretion, which
explains why drinking a lot of cola
lowers magnesium levels, since
carbonated drinks are high in phos-
Most of
the stored
magnesium
is in bones
(50 percent),
with the
remainder
in soft tissue
(mainly
muscle,
containing
a fourth of
the body’s
magnesium)
and a small
amount
circulating
in the blood.
Stress is an important cause of
many types of disease. It affects
bodybuilding negatively, due to
higher cortisol release and loss of
vital nutrients. Research shows that
magnesium helps blunt its negative
effects in the body.6
When magnesium is deficient,
stress-related cardiovascular damage is increased during heart attacks. Even the release of fat from
cells lowers blood magnesium because the liberated fat bonds with
magnesium in the blood, resulting
in magnesium losses. Catecholamines, such as epinephrine, stimulate the release of fat, but they also
overstimulate the heart. The body
releases more catecholamines—
which are considered stress hormones—when magnesium levels
are low.
A lack of magnesium increases
aggressive behavior, which you can
reverse with magnesium supplementation. Magnesium helps promote the sleep you need to break
down accumulated stress hormones. Studies show that magnesium may reverse age-related sleep
problems.
Cancer usually involves cellular
mutations that result in damage to
DNA, and magnesium is involved
in DNA repair. It activates enzymes
that are required for DNA repair.
Magnesium’s antioxidant activity, control of resting insulin levels
and role in DNA repair explain recent findings showing that a high
magnesium intake helps prevent
colon cancer.7 Cancer also involves
elements of the immune system
and out-of-control inflammation;
studies show that lower blood magnesium leads to a greater release
of inflammatory mediators in the
body.8 Another mineral, selenium,
is linked to lower cancer rates,
but without magnesium, the body
doesn’t absorb or retain selenium.9
Magnesium intake may be even
more vital as you age. A recent study
of 1,138 men and women, average
age 67, showed that older people
with higher magnesium levels also
That’s why it’s included in a food
supplement that also contains zinc,
which is involved in the activity of
(in milligrams)
such anabolic hormones as testosterone, growth hormone and insuTofu, 1/2 cup, 118
lin. Since magnesium promotes the
Sunflower seeds, 1 ounce, 100
synthesis of prostacyclin and nitric
oxide, it facilitates vasodilation in
Baked halibut, 3 ounces, 80
muscle, which increases muscle
Cashews, 1 ounce, 75
pump during training and oxygen
delivery to muscles. Magnesium
Baked potato with skin, 1 medium, 55
further aids muscle endurance by
helping to boost production of 2,3
Navy beans, 1/2 cup cooked, 50
DPG, a substance in red blood cells
Watermelon, 1 slice, 50
that helps release oxygen.
The short, intense exercise that
Peanut butter, 2 tablespoons, 45
characterizes bodybuilding helps
Raw spinach, 1 cup, 44
increase blood magnesium levels,
probably due to dehydration and
Plain yogurt, 1 cup, 43
the movement of magnesium from
Banana, 1 medium, 34
muscle into blood. On the other
hand, overtraining lowers magCooked oatmeal, 1/2 cup, 32
nesium levels, probably related to
2 percent milk, 1 cup, 33
the increase in stress hormones,
such as cortisol and the catecholWhole-wheat bread, 1 slice, 26
amines, which trigger the mineral’s
Chicken breast, 3 ounces, 25
excretion. Studies show blood level
reductions of magnesium ranging
Lean ground beef, 3 ounces, 16
from 5 percent to 25 percent folBrewed coffee, 3/4 cup, 9
lowing long-distance running and
after 90 minutes on a treadmill.
Egg, 1 medium, 5
You also lose magnesium in hot
weather.
High-intensity exercise may inhave stronger muscles. Think about
crease magnesium excretion for
that in light of the main reason
several reasons. During intense
people end up in nursing homes:
training the kidneys’ ability to confrailty. Another study found that
serve magnesium is temporarily
magnesium helps reverse memory
impaired, leading to magnesium
loss in middle-aged people through
excretion, an effect amplified by
its interactions with the NMDA
the rise of several hormones that
receptor in the brain.10
occurs during hard exercise: aldosterone, antidiuretic hormone and
thyroid hormones. They can remain
elevated for as long as 14 hours after
intense training. The rise in blood
lactic acid during hard exercise can
Since muscle stores a fourth of
elevate plasma phosphate (to bufthe body’s magnesium, it seems that fer the excess acid), and phosphate
magnesium must play a vital role
pushes magnesium out of the body.
in exercise. Magnesium regulates
A big debate is whether the drop
neuromuscular activity, excitation
in blood magnesium represents an
and muscular contraction, and it
actual loss or a redistribution of the
promotes the activity of enzymes
mineral from blood to muscle. The
that participate in muscle protein
latter implies that when the exercise
synthesis. Thanks to its role in ATP
session ends, magnesium levels rephysiology, it’s essential for muscle
turn to normal. But some scientists
energy. Its antioxidant and antithink the return-to-normal process
inflammatory activities help delay
isn’t efficient in many people, leadfatigue and boost muscle recovery.
ing to lower magnesium levels. In
Magnesium is needed for the
addition, the acidosis that results
synthesis of insulinlike growth-horfrom high-intensity training causes
mone-1 (IGF-1), which is anabolic.
magnesium to be excreted.
Food Sources of Magnesium
Magnesium and
Exercise
Research shows
that magnesium
helps blunt the
negative effects of
stress on the body.
Model: Steve Namat
Magnesium
Mag Scientists
The results of studies that have
looked at magnesium in athletes
have been contradictory, some
showing beneficial effects and
others no effect. Athletes with full
stores would show no effects from
added magnesium intake. On the
other hand, many athletes avoid
the best food sources of magnesium
(legumes, dark green vegetables,
seafood, grains and nuts). They
may take in substances that lead to
magnesium losses, such as caffeine,
fats and phosphate (from soda and
other sources). So—no surprise—
many athletes come up short on
magnesium. That’s especially true
in sports that have weight limits,
where diets are often restricted.
Drinking hard water adds magnesium to the diet (9 to 27 percent).
Studies show that most Americans get about 76 percent of the
suggested daily dose of magnesium;
deficiency begins when you get 70
percent or less. Studies of strengthtrained athletes show that most
average about 135 percent of the
RDA for the mineral. But since a
high-protein diet uses up magnesium and popular low-carb, high-fat
diets often don’t include magnesium-rich foods, bodybuilders and
other strength athletes are still more
prone to marginal deficiency. Food
processing and the depletion of
magnesium in farm soils also limits
access to the mineral.
One study examined the effects
of supplemental magnesium during strength training.11 For seven
Moderate
protein
intake
boosts
magnesium
uptake;
getting
more than
that impairs
magnesium
absorption.
Another
mineral that
reacts with
magnesium is
phosphorus.
Excess
consumption
of phosphorus
leads to
magnesium
excretion,
which explains
why drinking a lot of cola
lowers magnesium levels,
since carbonated drinks are
high in phosphorus.
weeks, young men received either
a placebo or a magnesium supplement at a dose of eight milligrams
per kilogram of bodyweight. The
placebo group got an average of
250 milligrams a day of magnesium
from food, while the supplement
group averaged 507 milligrams
daily. Peak-torque leg extension
levels increased by 20 percent in
the supplement group, while those
in the placebo group gained by 11
percent.
Even those taking food supplements may not have optimal blood
magnesium. About a quarter of all
athletes show magnesium intake
below the RDA. A dietary limit for
magnesium saturation may exist.
The suggested dose of magnesium
for a hard-training athlete is estimated at eight milligrams per kilogram of bodyweight daily, or 720
milligrams for a 200-pound athlete,
taken in divided doses. The dosage
includes food intake; taking more
than 350 milligrams at once gives
you diarrhea.
Excess magnesium is an issue
mainly for those with renal failure,
since the kidneys regulate magnesium retention and excretion.
Some people experience excess
magnesium levels when they take
over-the-counter medications that
contain magnesium, such as Epsom
salts or antacids. Magnesium is also
elevated in some medical conditions, such as low thyroid and viral
hepatitis, and in those taking lithium. In extreme cases, excess magnesium can cause death by stopping
the heart. The treatment for excess
magnesium involves forced diuresis and administering intravenous
calcium.
Magnesium
Model: Frank Zane
Magnesium intake may be
even more vital as you age.
A recent study of 1,138 men
and women, average age 67,
showed that older people with
higher magnesium levels also
have stronger muscles.
Model: Markus Reinhardt
A lack of magnesium increases aggressive
behavior, which you can reverse with magnesium
supplementation. Magnesium also helps promote
the sleep you need to break down accumulated stress
hormones.
Supplement Issues
Some magnesium supplements
are better than others. Organic
forms, such as citrate, aspartate and
fumarate, are better absorbed than
inorganic forms, such as magnesium oxide and hydroxide. Unless
it’s finely ground, magnesium oxide
has low water solubility and thus
lower bioavailability than, say, magnesium citrate, which is absorbed
4.5 times better than oxide. Magnesium carbonate is chalk, has a low
absorption rate and can lower plasma magnesium. Magnesium sulfate,
better known as Epsom salts, has
more use as a relaxing bath soak.
Magnesium hydroxide is sold as
Maalox, an antacid; long-term use
is linked to heart problems in some
people. Magnesium chloride is sold
as a timed-release drug called SlowMag, but less of it is absorbed than
from food sources, such as almonds.
Good organic sources of
magnesium supplements
include the following:
• Magnesium citrate
• Taurate (magnesium
combined with the amino
acid taurine, especially
good for heart function)
• Magnesium pidolate,
good for relaxation
• Magnesium malate,
which may have some use
in treating fibromyalgia, a
muscle-pain disease
• Magnesium aspartate
and magnesium diglycinate chelate, both good
for those with sensitive
stomachs
Magnesium
Magnesium
is needed
to activate
the enzymes
required
for creatine
storage in
muscle as
well as the
sodiumpotassium
pump
mechanism
that powers
the creatine
transport protein that actually
pushes creatine into muscle.
Since magnesium
promotes the synthesis
of prostacyclin and
nitric oxide, it facilitates
vasodilation in muscle,
which increases muscle
pump during training and
oxygen delivery to muscles.
For maximum absorption rates,
it’s best to take smaller doses. The
larger the dose, the less absorption
and the greater the chance of the
primary side effect, diarrhea.
One newer form combines
magnesium with creatine—very
sensible, as magnesium activates
the enzymes required for storing
creatine in muscle as well as the sodium-potassium pump mechanism
that pushes creatine into muscle.
One study showed improved bench
press numbers after subjects used a
magnesium-creatine supplement,
but the same effect occurred with
creatine alone. In another study the
mag-creatine supplement increased
intracellular water content, which
acts as an anabolic signal in muscle.
Then there’s ZMA, which combines magnesium, zinc and vitamin
B6. That combination is touted as
a potent anabolic complex; both
magnesium and zinc are involved
in anabolic hormone function. The
originator of the supplement (who
later achieved notoriety by distrib-
uting designer steroids to athletes)
maintains that nearly all athletes are
deficient in those nutrients. Studies that have evaluated ZMA have
found no anabolic effect, though
one experiment detected an increase in IGF-1 in football players
who took the supplement. If your
diet is low in those nutrients, you’d
benefit from the supplement. Since
the recommendation was to take it
before sleep, the magnesium content would help with relaxation and
sleep. Sleep itself breaks down accu-
Magnesium
Model: Robert Hatch
Magnesium
activates more
than 300 enzymes
in the body.
The results of one study
showed that peak-torque leg
extension levels increased by
20 percent in the magnesiumsupplemented group, while
those in the placebo group
gained by 11 percent.
mulated stress hormone levels while
promoting growth hormone release.
References
1 Fine, K., et al. (1991). Intestinal
absorption of magnesium from food
and supplements. J Clin Investig.
88:396-402.
2 Lopez-Ridaura, R., et al. (2004).
Magnesium intake and risk of type2 diabetes in men and women.
Diabetes Care. 27:134-40.
3 Song, Y., et al. (2004). Dietary
magnesium intake in relation to
plasma insulin levels and risk of
type-2 diabetes in women. Diabetes
Care. 27:59-65.
5 He, K., et al. (2006). Magnesium
intake and incidence of metabolic
syndrome among young adults.
Circulation. 113:1675-1682.
6 Eby, G. (2006). Rescue treatment and prevention of asthma
using magnesium throat lozenges:
Hypothesis for a mouth-lung biologically closed electric circuit. Med
Hypotheses. 67(5):1136-1141.
7 Seelig, M. (1994). Consequences
of magnesium deficiency on the
enhancement of stress reactions:
Preventive and therapeutic implications. J Amer Coll Nutr. 13:429-46.
8 Larsson, S., et al. (2005). Magnesium intake in relation to risk of
colorectal cancer in women. JAMA.
293:86-89.
9 Tam, M., et al. (2003). Possible
roles of magnesium on the immune
system. Eur J Clin Nutr. 57:1193-97.
10 Jimenez, A., et al. (1997).
Changes in bioavailability and tissue distribution of selenium by
magnesium deficiency in rats. J Am
Coll Nutr. 16:175-80.
11 Slutsky, I., et al. (2004). Enhancement of synaptic plasticity
through chronically reduced cellular
flux during uncorrelated activity.
Neuron. 44:835-849.
12 Brilla, L.R., et al. (1992). The
effect of magnesium supplementation on strength training in humans.
J Am Coll Nutr. 11:326. IM
A Bodybuilder Is Born
The Rise of the Machines
by Ron Harris Photography by Michael Neveux
Model: Jorge Betancourt
S
ome arguments are destined to rage
on forever. Which religion is right?
Who is the greatest baseball player
of all time? Should you buy American or foreign cars? For those of us
in the fitness world, the eternal debate is, Which are better for building muscles,
free weights or machines? And wouldn’t you
know it, Randy and I were about to have the
same heated discussion that countless others
before us had engaged in regarding those two
very different training tools.
“No more machines!” Randy announced
as we were putting our gym bags away before
our chest workout. “I just read in blank’s [a pro
bodybuilder I won’t name here for reasons that
will become clear in a minute] column about
how he thinks only free weights can make you
grow. Machines and cables are for sissies!” I
tried to hold in my smug chuckle.
“Don’t you know I write that column for
blank?”
“You do?” Randy looked confused.
“Yes. Just as I will never have his 21-inch
arms, he will never have my God-given ability
to string words together. Besides, to most people, sitting down and writing is about as much
fun as a root canal.”
“But he did really say that, right?”
“Yes he did, and he believes it too. Blank
avoids machines like the plague in his workouts, and he has built a hell of a thickly muscled
physique with free weights.”
“So he’s right then, isn’t he?” Randy really
Episode 21
A Bodybuilder
thought I was going to go along with him that
easily. Little does he know the fur on my back
bristles (up until about age 29 I didn’t have any
hair on my back—aging sure is fun) whenever
someone tries to claim that any one thing is
the only path to results and everything else is a
waste of time. That’s like trying to say that Jennifer Lopez is the only truly beautiful woman
on earth. Wait, that was a bad example. She is.
“The thing about that pro is that he’s incredibly gifted genetically. I find it hard to believe
that he wouldn’t be as impressive if he’d used
more machines in his training over the years.”
“You’re not going to try to tell me machines
are better than free weights now, are you?”
Randy said, challenging me.
“No, because that wouldn’t be true either.
Free weights are the toughest training tool, and
the core basic movements like bench presses,
squats, deadlifts, rows, overhead presses and
dips have packed more muscle on more bodies
combined than any machine ever could.”
Randy shook his head and threw up his
hands—it seemed as if I’d defeated myself in
this debate with that admission.
“However,” I continued, “there are some
machines that free weights can’t duplicate the
motion of, or at least not very well. A couple of
good examples are leg extensions, leg curls and
pressing machines like the leg press and hack
squat. Squats and Romanian deadlifts are the
best overall mass builders for the thighs and
hamstrings, but for complete development
you also need to use those machines. Even
Ronnie Coleman is a big
proponent of free weights, but
he also uses a lot of machines.
Comstock
Machines can
be a godsend
when your
lower back is
tweaked.
Ronnie Coleman, who is a big
proponent of free weights, uses
the full spectrum of free weights
and machines for his leg training.
Of course, he leg-presses 2,500
pounds on top of 800-pound
squats. And how big are his legs?”
“About the size of my whole
body,” replied Randy glumly. This
wasn’t exactly accurate. Combined, Ronnie’s legs were probably no more than 170 pounds,
even at his off-season weight of
320. So Randy still had the upper
hand—barely.
“The problem is that for years
machine manufacturers, in particular Arthur Jones of Nautilus,
tried to convince the world that
free weights were obsolete now
that we had those wonderful
machines to use. The Nautilus
machines were very good—and
ahead of their time in many
ways—but when bodybuilders
tried training only on machines,
they quickly learned that they
could not even maintain the
same levels of size and strength
as before, much less improve. Even
the famous bodybuilders who Jones
persuaded to switch to machineonly training, such as Mike Mentzer,
Casey Viator and Boyer Coe, eventually went back to using more free
weights and fewer machines in their
training. Thus, bodybuilders became disenchanted with machines
in general and dismissed them as
nothing more than marketing hype.
And that was unfortunate.”
“But why?” Randy demanded. “If
all they’re good for is a couple leg
exercises, what’s the big deal?”
“That’s not all machines are good
for. For example, today we are hitting chest. We’ll start with a dumbbell press, flat or incline, and do four
good work sets of five to 10 reps. But
if I try to do the other type of dumbbell press after that, what happens?”
“You turn into a pumpkin?”
Randy offered.
“No, wiseass. I have to use much
lighter weights. For the first dumbbell press I can use as much as 140
or 150 pounds, but then if I try a
second one, the weights are down to
around a hundred pounds.”
“Big deal,” Randy replied, shrugging. “So your strength goes down
after your first exercise.”
“No, that’s not what’s happening,”
I corrected him. “It’s my ability to
balance the weights that goes to hell
in a handbasket. I still have plenty of
strength left in me. If I go to a Hammer Strength machine next, I can
load up a few plates on each side
and blast away. Not everyone is like
me. You don’t seem to be, but there
are a lot of bodybuilders who have
to be fresh in the workout to be able
to balance heavy free weights. For
us machines are a perfect way to
continue training heavy for a couple
more exercises.”
Most
machines
remove the
need for
balance,
so you can
better focus
on pushing.
Model: Tamer Elshahat
As a
bodypart
workout
wears on,
free weights
can become
less effective
thanks to
stabilizer
fatigue.
“Okay,” Randy conceded, “that
sounds right. But since I don’t lose
my ability to balance, why do I need
machines?”
I reached around Randy and
tapped him on the lower back.
“Remember this?” I said in my
most evil voice—which sounds a
little like Darth Vader to me. Others
have commented that it sounds like
I’m trying to imitate Dan Rather.
Randy’s face turned the color
of ash, letting me know that the
memories of his back injury from
last year had all just flooded back in
Technicolor. He seemed to be reliving the pain as he winced.
“You couldn’t squat for a while,
so you did heavy leg presses. And
your legs didn’t shrink, they grew.
You couldn’t do bent-over barbell
rows while your back was healing,
so you used the supported T-bar row
and a couple of Hammer Strength
back machines. Your back got more
muscular. If you hadn’t had access
to any machines, what would your
training have been like during that
time, Junior?”
“About as intense as a turtle on
Valium,” he said, echoing one of my
pet phrases.
“You got that right. God forbid
you hurt your back again, though
I find it hard to believe you never
will. When that day comes, you may
need to use more machines again
for a while, or your training options
will be quite limited.”
Randy looked satisfied with my
explanations. “Machines aren’t so
bad, I guess.”
“No, they are not. I would never
tell anyone
trying to put
muscle on to
abandon the
free-weight
basics, because that
would be a
huge mistake.
But to categorically deny
yourself the
advantages
and training
variety machines offer
just because
some genetic
freak told you
to would be
as bad.” I let
that sink in
Pulldown
before conmachines enable
tinuing.
you to blast
“Now let’s
the lats from
argue about
different angles
more imporby angling your
tant matters.
torso. You can’t
Who’s hotter,
Britney or
do that on chins.
Jessica?”
That one went on for the rest
of the workout, and we never did
agree. But if we all liked the same
things, what fun would that be? And
for the record, it’s Jessica Simpson
by a long shot. IM
Model: Marvin Montoya
Model: Kyoichiro Morinaga
There is no
free-weight
substitute
for leg
extensions,
which isolate
the quads.
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CARDIO
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Two Important Bodybuilding
Factors You May Be Neglecting
by Shannon Clark • Photography by Michael Neveux
Model: John Hansen
any bodybuilders
and fitness athletes
today are adopting
one of two strategies: They
either cut cardio out of a
workout program in an
effort to gain mass or cut
carbohydrates out of their
diets in an effort to lose fat.
While both strategies work
for most individuals, a far
better approach would
be to include moderate
amounts of both cardio
and carbs, regardless
of your goal. There are
physiological as well as
psychological reasons for
doing so.
Cardio:
Adding Muscle Mass
When it comes to adding quality
mass, many people believe cardio
will hinder their efforts, as they’ll
burn away precious calories that
could be used to build muscle tissue. True, cardio burns calories, but
as long as you don’t do so much that
you begin to resemble a pet gerbil,
you can just add the calories that
you burn back into your diet.
Performing cardio while putting
on muscle mass will enable you to
speed up your metabolism, which
will help your body remove by-products and build new, stronger muscle
at a quicker rate. Performing cardio
will also help reduce the amount of
fat you add while you’re eating the
hypercalorie diet you need in order
to gain muscle tissue.
For someone on a mass-building program, it would be ideal to
perform high-intensity cardio in the
form of sprints two to four times a
week for 15 to 30 minutes per session. Just keep in mind that you’ll
need to replace the calories you’re
burning. So the longer your cardio
session, the more you’ll have to eat
(and if you’re already eating 4,000plus calories a day, you’ll probably
want to keep cardio on the shorter
end of the scale).
The important thing, however,
is to get your heart rate up high
enough to send all your metabolic
processes into overdrive.
Cardio for Fat Loss
At the other end of the spectrum
are people wanting to lose fat mass.
Most of the time they’re well aware
that they need to be doing cardio.
Sometimes, however, they use the
wrong approach, especially women.
Far too often I see women at the
gym spending hour upon hour on
the treadmill or elliptical trainer.
Yeah, they’re going to burn a large
number of calories, but they’re just
going to end up being a smaller version of themselves, with the same
percentage of bodyfat.
It makes much more sense to
use cardio to change your body
composition and lose weight in the
form of bodyfat, rather than lose fat
combined with muscle. That’s where
high-intensity training comes into
play. You should follow the same
principles as someone who wants
The important thing
is to get your heart
rate up high enough
to send all your
metabolic processes
into overdrive.
to put on muscle, but you’ll want
to perform a few more sprints (to
make the total time a little longer)
A faster metabolism
will help your body
remove by-products
and build new,
stronger muscles at
a quicker rate.
Model: Daniel Decker
and maybe decrease the intensity of
the sprints slightly so that you can
sustain yourself for the longer period of time.
For maximal fat loss you should
perform two to three longer cardio
sessions of moderate intensity and
duration per week in addition to the
fat-loss sessions described. Just be
sure to keep it under one hour. That
will give you the best of both worlds.
The longer session will enable
you to burn more calories, while the
shorter session will enable you to
burn calories after you’re finished
working out. In the meantime the
body tries to repair itself from the
good ass-kicking you just dealt it (a
principle known as EPOC).
Cardio’s Health Benefits
A final reason you should include
cardio in your workouts is for the
lose bodyfat.
Even if you’re trying to shed bodyfat, you still need to include carbs in
your diet. Focus on the fibrous carbs
that come from vegetables such as
broccoli, cauliflower and cabbage,
which are less calorie dense. To
increase mass, focus more on the
calorie-dense, low-glycemic carbs,
such as oatmeal, whole-wheat pasta
and bread and sweet potatoes.
The best way to
give your heart
a workout is to
get it beating
faster and keep
it there for
an extended
period.
Model: Sebastion Siegel
Psychological Benefits
health benefits it has to offer. Far
too often you get wrapped up in
the aesthetics of working out and
forget why you’re here (or should be
here) in the first place: to improve
your health and increase your vitality. Your heart is a muscle too, and
many people seem to forget that.
The best way to give that muscle
a workout is to get it beating faster
and keep it there for an extended
period. That will make your body
much more efficient at transporting blood and nutrients around the
body, increase the amount of oxygen the body can use at any given
time (VO2 max) and keep your blood
pressure and resting heart rate in
check.
Add Cardio, Add Carbs
When you add cardio to your ex-
ercise program, it only makes sense
to add carbohydrate-rich foods to
your diet. The main form of energy
used when you perform cardio is
stored glycogen (which you get from
carbs). Because you’ll be performing cardio on a regular basis, you
need to keep your glycogen levels
up, especially if you’re trying to add
muscle mass.
By keeping carbs in your diet,
you’ll be eating a sufficient number
of calories, which will keep your metabolism higher as well as provide
you with the nutrients and fiber in
those foods.
You’ll also prevent your body
from turning to its precious muscle
tissue for energy when your muscle
glycogen and blood sugar are low.
Eat more carbs if you’re trying to
add muscle mass (since you’ll be
taking in a greater amount of total
calories) and less if you’re trying to
There are many psychological
reasons for adding cardio to your
workout and carbs to your diet.
Research shows that cardiovascular
exercise of any kind improves mood
and reduces depression. I’m sure
almost all of us have experienced a
postexercise high after a hard run
or sprint session. It may feel like
torture while you’re doing it, but
afterward you never regret that you
did it.
Another factor that improves
mood during cardio is the endorphin rush. That occurs during
long-duration exercise when a
hypothalamic neurotransmitter is
released from the anterior pituitary
gland. The endorphins then block
the pain sensation, promote a feeling of euphoria and reduce feelings
of stress in the body.
A final reason cardio helps your
psychological well-being ties in with
sustainability. If you’re performing cardio, you’ll be able to include
more food in your diet, since
you’re burning more calories. That fact alone
is enough to
put people
in a good
measures, such as training for
a bodybuilding show, which requires extremely low bodyfat).
Carbohydrates cause the body
to release a neurotransmitter
called serotonin. Studies have
shown that people who have
depressive symptoms are often
low in serotonin. By getting some
quality carbohydrates in your
diet, you’re providing your body
with enough serotonin, which
helps reduce chances of depression. (Note: I’m not suggesting
that depression is caused by low
serotonin or that you can cure
depression by eating carbs, but
you may help offset that disorder
or reduce symptoms by eating
enough carbohydrate.)
The release of serotonin will
improve your mood and therefore
make staying dedicated to fitness
and eating healthfully seem like a
lesser challenge.
The final thing to remember is
that everyone is different. Some
people will need more or less
cardio to accomplish their goals.
Plenty of individuals can stay lean
by doing cardio only once or twice
a week while others need it on a
daily basis. People also respond
differently to different diet combinations.
I personally do not feel good on
a high-protein diet, while others thrive on chicken breasts and
tuna. The important thing is to
not go to extremes and completely cut those factors out of your
life. There are reasons, other than
aesthetics, that make cardiovascular training and carbohydrate-rich
foods important in every healthful
lifestyle.
Model: David Dorsey
By eating carbs, you
prevent your body
from turning to its
precious muscle
tissue for energy
when your muscle
glycogen and blood
sugar are low.
mood. How many times have you
or people you’ve known started a
diet on which they felt deprived and
wound up cranky and depressed
and eventually just decided to screw
it and go off their diet?
The number-one reason
diets fail is that people don’t
like to feel deprived. So if
you can eat a little more
food each day, there’s less
chance you’ll feel deprived
and binge on unhealthful
foods, destroying the progress that you’ve made.
Now to move on to the psychological reasons for including
carbohydrates in your diet. First
and foremost, carbs give you energy. They are your body’s primary
fuel source. If you want to be able
to work out hard, perform cardio
and have an abundance of energy
during the day, you’re going to need
carbohydrates.
Don’t get me wrong: Eating a
high-glycemic, all-carb meal is
not the proper way to include that
nutrient in your diet. You need to
balance it with a good source of lean
protein and some healthful fats. The
key is moderation. There’s nothing
wrong with a moderate amount of
low-glycemic carbs in your meals
(assuming you’re not doing anything that requires more extreme
Editor’s note: Shannon Clark is
a graduate of the University of Alberta’s Bachelor of Physical Education program,
specializing
in sports performance.
She is a certified personal
trainer living
in Edmonton,
Alberta. For
more of her
features, visit
Bodybuilding
.com. IM
Heavy
Dutyy
Lost
Mike Mentzer
Interview, Part 1
Recently I was cleaning out some
old boxes in my office. As my
family has moved some seven
times (covering two states and two
countries) over the past 14 years,
you can imagine the boxed-up
materials accumulated over time.
During the most recent cleanup,
I was shocked to discover a
transcript of an interview that I
conducted with Mike Mentzer
back in 1986.
It’s a historic interview. Mike
opened up on many subjects that
I’d never heard him touch on
before, such as his appearance
in the nationally televised
Superstars competition. He
also offered a keyhole through
which to view the evolution of
his thinking on high-intensity
training. He hadn’t yet made
the full conversion to one set
per exercise, but even then he
was considering its validity as a
training method. It was four years
before he started training clients
and amassing the huge database
that caused him to completely
reformulate high-intensity training.
So the “lost” interview is
particularly meaningful. Reading
it brought back fond memories
of Mike—his dry sense of humor
and our dialogues over the years
concerning exercise and the
“ultimate” training program. It’s a
response to the question I’ve heard
so often since he passed: “What was
it like to speak with Mike Mentzer?”
JL: If you had to get back into
top shape quickly, what would
you do regarding training and
diet?
MM: Well, let’s say I had a contest
in two months and there was a $500
million cash prize.
Neveux
Balik \ Model: Mike Mentzer
I am the master of my fate;
I am the captain of my soul.
—“Invictus”
by John Little
HEAVY DUTY
JL: Yeah, something very
realistic.
MM: I could be in very close to
top condition from now in about
eight weeks. The first three weeks I’d
progressively increase the intensity,
and I’d be at full tilt for the last five.
JL: Speaking of intensity, I
noticed that when you worked
out the other day, you did
more sets than I would have
assumed. When you say that
you’d increase your intensity,
you’d also decrease your sets,
wouldn’t you?
MM: Yes. Part of the reason for
doing the somewhat higher sets
in the beginning would be just
to increase my conditioning and
exercise tolerance. The reason I’m
doing it now is to burn calories
and stay toned. I’m not locked in
dogmatically to the notion that if
you do more than three sets, the
world is going to stop revolving
or my head is going to explode or
something.
It was obviously a haphazard
workout at best anyway. Given a
contest two months from that day,
though, I’d progressively increase
the intensity, and in three weeks I’d
be at full tilt and remain there for
the last 3 1/2 weeks or so.
During that time
I’d also progressively
increase the duration
of some aerobic
activity—probably
bicycling—until I was
doing it three to four
days a week, up to
about an hour and a
half per session. I’d
keep my calories quite
low—1,500 to 2,000
at the most, with an
occasional higher
burst in there when
I needed it—and I’d
still gain muscle and
lose fat despite the
lowered calorie intake
and the increased
activity.
Neveux \ Models: Tito Raymond and Derik Farnsworth
“Almost 99.9 percent of all
bodybuilders—in fact 99.9
percent of most people—do
everything that they do because
other people do it. They do
what they do out of convention,
imitation, tradition and outright
fear—fear of being different.”
JL: Why is that?
MM: In part
from the increased
intensity, in part from
tissue memory—I’d
be gaining back my
old size. I wouldn’t
think that in two
months I could
improve on my
former size. Unless it
was something that
was to prove very
lucrative, I’d be very
strongly disinclined
to get back into
my previously best
condition or even
close because of the
strain that it puts on
my entire physical
and psychological
being. It’s just too
much. The biggest problem I have
is the dieting. Any bodybuilder
can get cut up on three weeks of
merely dropping the Twinkies and
ice cream. For me to get ripped, I’ve
got to spend nearly three months
starving.
JL: A thing that I found
interesting is that when
you were in the Superstars
competition [Note: The concept
was that big-time pro athletes
competed in sports very
different from their own.], you
couldn’t shed any muscle mass,
even though—perhaps for the
first time in your life—you
really wanted to.
MM: It was my intention to go
from my bodyweight at the time,
217 pounds, down to about 190.
I knew that the sport I was going
to engage in didn’t require all
that much upper-body mass, and
it would actually prove to be a
hindrance, not in terms of making
me “muscle bound,” but it would be
extra baggage I had to carry around
in the running events, for instance.
So in the two-month period that I
spent preparing for the Superstars,
I didn’t lift weights aside from
practicing the jerk from the racks.
Apparently, however, the intensity
of the bicycling—which I did three
days a week—and swimming and
running and so forth were sufficient
to maintain my mass, which had
been accumulated relatively slowly
over a period of more than a decade
of heavy training. I think that’s the
reason it tended to stay, when for
the first time in my life I wanted it
to leave.
Arthur Jones said years ago that
“the longer you take to build muscle
and the longer you hold it, the more
it becomes part of your system,
and the longer it would take to lose
it.” Any amount of muscle that you
gained in a month you’d most likely
lose the next month if you stopped
training. But if you were to spend
10 years acquiring and maintaining
considerable muscle mass, you’d
keep it for a longer time after you
quit training, although it would
eventually atrophy until you were
back to normal levels. So I didn’t
lose any bodyweight. As a matter
of fact I entered the Superstars
weighing 217. (continued on page 186)
HEAVY DUTY
JL:
What are your thoughts on that
contest? Did you enjoy being in
it?
MM: Oh, it was great fun. I
thought that I’d do better than I
did in my actual placing overall,
although I did, I think, quite well
given the level of competition.
I completed it, but on that particular
lift, as with all the previous ones, I
never perfectly locked out my left
arm because my left elbow had been
broken and it’s very difficult for me
to lock out. The distance that I didn’t
lock out was so minor that you
could barely notice.
JL: You were competing, quite
literally, against the world’s
best athletes.
MM: One of the primary things
that held me back was the extra
bodyweight.
JL: How about the swimming?
Did you find the extra
bodyweight to be a hindrance
in swimming?
MM: It was. I still did very well—I
got second place in the swimming.
I lost by two-tenths of a second to
a guy who I found out later was a
champion swimmer in high school
and college in the freestyle. He was
very light in bodyweight.
JL: I
understand
that you were
defeated in the
weightlifting
event by none
other than the
“Hulk” himself,
Lou Ferrigno.
MM: Well, I
jerked whatever
it was that he
did. I think it
was 335 pounds.
Whatever it was,
JL: So they’re really lacking in
knowledge.
MM: They assume, and maybe
it’s natural to think, that once an
individual has attained a certain
level of development—for example,
Mr. America or Mr. Universe—then
that person “must” know something
about what he’s doing or he
wouldn’t have reached that level.
And while he may know something,
he may not. In most cases genetics
and a certain amount of discipline
and hard work (which is laudable)
got them where they were. Anyway,
I no longer scratch my head, get
upset or whatever when I see all the
“It’s been claimed that
bodybuilding is scientific,
but it’s probably one of the
most primitive endeavors
engaged in by modern man.”
Balik
JL: Given the density of your
physique, you’d sink like the
proverbial stone.
MM: It requires more energy
just to stay afloat and propel
yourself. As a result, you have an
advantage when
you’re lighter.
I did enjoy the
competition,
though, and
that’s the main
thing. I made
a little bit of
money and
received more
public visibility,
which helped.
JL: What’s it like to go into a
gym, given what you know, and
see people pumping out set
after set—the marathon-style
trainees?
MM: I don’t make it a practice
to preach, but I give advice
when solicited. Where I may
see somebody doing something
potentially lethal and they don’t
know it, I’ll walk up and offer my
advice.
For instance, I’d say, “Excuse me,
but I have some advice on what you
are doing. Would you mind if I told
you what it was?” If they respond
politely and seem to be receptive,
I’ll continue. If not, I’ll let them kill
themselves. And where someone
approaches me and politely asks
for advice, I’ll give them all the time
that is practical at the moment.
Often, however, I’ve scratched
my head in wonderment. Even
though it’s been claimed that
bodybuilding is scientific and all, it’s
probably one of the most primitive
endeavors engaged in by modern
man. There’s no rhyme or reason to
what most people do. When I went
to Europe in 1983, I began all of my
seminars with a rather audacious
statement: “Everyone in this room
does everything wrong from the
moment you walk into the gym until
the moment you leave, from how
you grasp the bar, to the number
of sets you do and so forth.” Never
once was anyone certain enough
about what they were doing to voice
an objection. More often than not,
I saw a lot of heads bobbing rather
sheepishly in the affirmative.
HEAVY DUTY
things that are done improperly in
gyms.
JL: With good genetics, can
an aspiring bodybuilder reach
his potential using Nautilus
principles—that is, one set per
bodypart, eight to 12 reps, 12
total sets, three days per week?
MM: Not necessarily one set per
bodypart. One set per exercise?
Yeah, I think so. In fact, I know so,
without question.
JL: That’s refreshing to hear
from someone in the upper
echelons of the sport. Often the
young bodybuilder only hears
those who refuse to look at
training rationally and instead
goes by tradition.
MM: Almost 99.9 percent of all
bodybuilders—in fact 99.9 percent
of most people—do everything
that they do because other
people do it. They do what they
do out of convention, imitation,
tradition and outright fear—fear
of being different. Rather than risk
disapproval from the group, they
completely go along and do what
they see others doing—not knowing
why it’s done or even if it’s going to
be productive.
JL: Why is one set woefully
inadequate for totally
stimulating a bodypart even
if performed at maximum
intensity?
MM: I’m not sure it’s woefully
inadequate, but it takes me one
good set to warm up.
JL: Let’s say you’re doing a
whole-body workout. After
you’ve elevated your body
temperature by even one
degree, you are, in effect, as
warmed up as you’re going to
be.
MM: It’s almost impossible
to do just one set per bodypart,
even if it’s only through indirect
stimulation when you’re doing
other exercises. But again, Nautilus
never recommended, or at least I’m
not aware that it recommended,
doing just one set per bodypart.
One set per exercise, maybe. That’s
essentially what Boyer Coe did
during that six-month experiment
when I was down there. He did
improve dramatically. I was there
for almost every workout, and I can
testify to the fact. He entered the
experiment after a considerable
period of no training at all—and no
steroids. He was, to put it bluntly,
in bad shape at the outset. He was
JL: And that was a steroid-free
experiment?
MM: Right. There were no
steroids. He gained only three
pounds during the six months,
but he lost considerable fat. So
his actual lean weight gain was
probably much more than three
pounds. But the important thing
was that his appearance improved
dramatically. He put on a lot of
muscle and lost a lot of fat in order
to appear the way he did. He was
even doing numerous exhibitions
and looking quite good. I saw those
appearances.
Next month Mentzer discusses
recovery ability, steroids and the
workout program he used to win the
Mr. America.
Editor’s note: For a complete
presentation of Mike Mentzer’s
Heavy Duty training system, consult
his books Heavy Duty II, High
Intensity Training the Mike Mentzer
Way and the newest
book, The Wisdom of
Mike Mentzer, all of
which are available
from 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 on
the opposite page.
Article copyright ©
2007, John Little. All
rights reserved. Mike
Mentzer quotations
are provided courtesy
of Joanne Sharkey and
used with permission.
IM
Neveux \ Model \ Dave Fisher
“It’s natural to think, that once an individual
has attained a certain level of development—for
example, Mr. America or Mr. Universe—then that
person ‘must’ know something about what he’s
doing or he wouldn’t have reached that level.”
smooth and small, but six months
later, using about 50 minutes
total training a week, he was in
phenomenal shape! He was ripped
to the bone—more ripped than I’ve
ever seen him. You could actually
see every fiber in his back.
With a Power/Rep
Range/Shock Twist
by Eric Broser
Illustration by Larry Eklund
It was a rare but welcome rainy day
here in my newly adopted hometown
of Fort Lauderdale, Florida, where we
had just come through about three
straight weeks of sunny, blazingly
hot weather. At this point I think
most everyone was looking for a
little cooling down—well, all except
for me, that is! While most people
were happy to stay at home and
listen to the raindrops rhythmically
pounding against their windows, I
was looking to heat up my shoulders
at the local L.A. Fitness with a little
Power/Rep Range/Shock treatment.
Model: Luke Wood
Hybrid Power/
Rep Range/
Shock combines
elements
from all three
protocols into
one workout.
Model: Noel Thompson
You activate
the anabolic
machinery
through every
possible
physiological
mechanism.
It was about 5 p.m. when I arrived, and by then it was raining
so hard, I had to make a mad dash
from my car to the gym. Luckily, I
don’t have a single hair on my head,
so no worries about getting my do
messed up. (Ah, the perks of being
bald.)
Once inside I said a few hellos to
some gym regulars and then headed
for the locker room for my “pregame
warmup.” After a quick trip to the
restroom, I downed about 10 grams
of BCAAs, five grams of L-glutamine
and 2.5 grams of creatine mixed in
water, which has become rather
widely know as the Body FX Cocktail
(Body FX being my screen name on
many of the bodybuilding message
boards). I then grabbed my belt,
towel and straps, cranked up my
MP3 player with a little Godsmack,
and muttered to myself, “Okay, let’s
go to war!”
As I was walking out of the locker
room, I ran into a friend whose
name is Charles; however, I affectionately refer to him as “UpChuck.” And, yes, it’s exactly what
you’re thinking. Every time I train
with Charles, he ends up in the
bathroom, praying to the porcelain
god. Great thing about Up-Chuck,
though, is that he keeps coming
back for more. Yeah, we’ve put in
some great workouts together, even
when he’s not tossing his cookies.
“Eric! What’s up, playa?”
“Not much. Just here for some
deltoid detonation!”
“You’re training shoulders today?
So am I!”
“Cool. Did you start yet?”
“No, I just got here. Can I train
with you?”
“That depends: How close to the
workout did you eat?”
“Oh, stop! I won’t puke from
shoulders!”
“You said the same thing about
the arm workout we did two weeks
ago, and—”
“Okay, okay…but I came back
and finished the workout, didn’t I?
“Yes, you absolutely did. You are a
warrior, bro!”
We con(continued on page 204)
(continued from page 204) tinued our
conversation as we walked out to the
free-weight area, where I started to
warm up my rotator cuffs with some
internal- and external-rotation exercises (yeah, I’m getting old!), as well
as a series of light lateral raises.
“So, Eric, are you doing Power, Rep
Range or Shock today? This is my
Power week, but I will do whatever
you’re doing.”
“Well, I’m doing all three!”
“Huh? I don’t get it.”
“This week I’m working with what
I like to call Hybrid P/RR/S training.”
“Hybrid P/RR/S? Explain, please.”
Model: Joe DeAngelis
Rear delts get
the Rep Range
protocol: set
one, seven to
nine reps; set
two, 10 to 12
reps; and set
three, 13 to 15
reps.
“Hybrid P/RR/S combines elements from all three protocols into
one workout. It’s something I like to
add into the mix every four to eight
weeks, and it provides a unique
training experience. You activate the
anabolic machinery through every
possible physiological mechanism
and stimulate the mind with the
challenge.”
“So, how will it work with our
shoulder training today?”
“Well, rather than tell you, I’ll just
show you. Let’s get to work.”
First stop was the seated military
press station. The goal was to follow
the Power-week protocol, which
means choosing a weight for your
work sets that will take only four
to six reps to get you to concentric
failure. The lifting tempo is 4/0/
X—a four-second eccentric rep with
no pause—zero seconds—following
it and then an explosive concentric
contraction. The rest between sets
for this particular movement would
be about four minutes, to allow for
maximum recovery and synthesis of
ATP and creatine.
“Do you always start a Hybrid
workout using the Power-week pro(continued on page 208)
tocol?” Up-
Model: Sagi Kalev
For Shock work,
doing X-Rep partials
near the bottom of
the exercise extends
the set at a key fiber
activation point on
the stroke.
Adding isolation
work after a
big, compound
exercise is
great for max
contractions
thanks to
heightened
nerve force.
queried.
“Yes—because Power training
is best for stimulating the central nervous system, which then
carries over into the rest of the
workout.”
“And by stimulating the CNS,
the benefit is what?”
“More-powerful muscle contractions and increased fiber
recruitment.”
“Which means more growth
potential?”
“Correct, Up-Chuck!”
Luckily, when it comes to
Model: Luke Wood
(continued from page 204) Chuck
Warmup: 135 x 10
Warmup: 185 x 7
Warmup: 225 x 4
Work set: 255 x 5
Work set: 255 x 4
Work set: 245 x 5
“Damn, Eric, those felt great! I’ve
been using your preworkout cocktail consistently lately, and it has
made a big difference.”
“Like with everything in this
game, my friend, the basics work
the best.”
“Okay, what’s next?”
“The reverse-flye machine for
rear delts!”
“And what style are we using
here?”
“Bro, you have no style. I mean,
look at you, still wearing baggy
clown pants from the 1980s.”
“Yeah, yeah, and the chicks love
me. Always smiling my way.”
“No, bro, they’re laughing, not
smiling!”
“You’re a real comedian. Are we
using Rep Range or Shock training
for this movement?”
“Rep Range.”
The reverse-flye machine is definitely my favorite exercise for rear
delts. Although I will also use various dumbbell and cable bent-over
lateral raises, I find I get the tightest
contraction in my posteriors delts
from reverse flyes.
On this occasion we used a pronated grip, so our palms were facing
the floor. I actually prefer that to the
semisupinated grip on this movement.
You have to
train all facets
of the muscle
if you want
extraordinary
growth.
Comstock \ Models: Marcus Rühl and Ronnie Coleman
shoulders, Charles and I are of very
similar strength levels, and we were
able to follow the same warmup and
work-weight patterns:
Hybrid DeltoidDetonation Workout
Model: Skip La Cour
Seated military presses 3 x 4-6
Rear-delt machine flyes
1 x 7-9, 1 x 10-12, 1 x 13-15
Superset
Wide-grip upright
rows
2 x 8-10
Seated lateral raises 2 x 8-10
Because
we were using the Rep Range protocol, our goal would be to get seven
to nine reps on set one, 10 to 12 reps
on set two and 13 to 15 on set three,
again working to positive failure
on each. Our rest between sets was
about two minutes, and the lifting
tempo was 2/1/2/1—a two-second
negative with a one-second pause
before we performed the positive
portion of the rep in two seconds.
The final number in the tempo
refers to the contraction point. With
movements on which you can get
a strong peak contraction, like this
one, I often add a one-second pause
there for even more muscle-stimulating action.
Here’s how our sets panned out:
Warmup: 120 x 8
Work set: 180 x 9
Work set: 165 x 12
Work set: 150 x 14
“Man, Eric, I am loving this!
Going from four to six reps to seven
to 15 reps feels great! The pump is
outrageous. I feel like someone just
injected my delts with synthol!”
“God forbid, bro! Your delts look
round and full, not distorted, like
synthol users’ shoulders!”
“You know what I mean, you mad
scientist! What’s next?”
“I’m not sure. How are you feeling? You look a little pale.”
“Oh, stop! I’m fine! Bring it on!”
I must admit that when UpChuck told me to bring it on, I immediately became quite motivated
to see him on his knees doing the
Technicolor yawn. And what better
way to accomplish that than with
some Shock-week techniques?
My exercises of choice for what
would be a postactivation superset—a compound movement followed immediately by an isolation
movement—were wide-grip barbell
upright rows and seated laterals.
That combo really zeroes in on the
medial-deltoid heads. I’m a great
believer in paying the most attention to the medial, or side, delts, as
they’re not only the most difficult
delt heads to develop but also the
ones that do the most to improve
the overall look of a physique.
Since we were about to engage
in a Shock-week protocol, the corresponding rules would apply: A
lifting tempo of 1/0/1, keeping the
up-and-down movement almost
constant and the rest between sets
to the minimum time it takes to
catch your breath and mentally
prepare for the next assault.
After I did my first superset, I told
Up-Chuck to add X-Reps partials to
his seated laterals. Yes, I was trying
to send my friend over the edge.
Our two delt-destroying supersets were as follows:
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Work Superset 1
Upright Rows, 135 x 10
Seated Laterals, 40 x 9
Work Superset 2
Upright Rows, 135 x 9
Seated Laterals, 40 x 8
“Holy crap, my delts are
torched!” Up-Chuck exclaimed.
“Seriously, Eric. I can’t even lift my
arms.”
“Yeah, Hybrid P/RR/S usually
has that effect because the muscles
and CNS are literally attacked from
every angle.”
“So let me ask you: Should I work
Hybrid week into my regular P/RR/
S rotation?”
“For the past year or so I’ve occasionally done a full four weeks
straight of Hybrid P/RR/S—but I
change the workouts completely
each week. Remember, however,
that I’ve been using P/RR/S for
six years. You’ve been using my
program for only six months, so I
suggest you hit a Hybrid week every
seventh week in the rotation (P/RR/
S/P/RR/S/H).”
“Cool, man. That was an amazing
workout.”
“I’m glad you enjoyed it! And
look at that, you didn’t even end up
with your head in the toilet bowl!”
“Guess you have to stop calling
me Up-Chuck, bro.”
“Not so fast my often-vomiting
friend. Tomorrow is legs. Care to
join me?” IM
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Arkansas Muscle
Chad Martin, ’06 NPC Junior USA
Winner, Talks Bodybuilding and Life
by Rod Labbe • Photography by Bill Comstock
o ahead. I tripledawg dare ya. Ask
any pro bodybuilder if he has
it easy. Should
you still be standing by the time
he’s finished, you’ll understand
one irrefutable fact: A pro’s life is
fraught with terrific insecurities.
Sure, quick cash can be generated
through seminars, and the mags
are more open to photo spreads
and an occasional cover or profile. A few lucrative endorsement/
sponsorship deals might even develop. But it’s not an easy road or
easy money.
Now ask an amateur bodybuilder the same question: Does he have it easy? You’ll undoubtedly hear
woeful tales involving money, lack of publicity, bad
placings, moral corruption and rampant drug abuse.
Kinda makes you wonder why anyone would choose
competitive bodybuilding as an avocation, huh?
Amateurs, though, have one significant edge over
the pros: freedom. And nobody knows that better
than Chad Martin, a young amateur bodybuilder from
Arkansas.
Martin’s bodybuilding mission is deceptively simple: He preaches the muscle gospel. Winning titles and
competing keep him visible, but Chad’s gone the extra
mile by modeling, producing and starring in DVDs
and forging pathways where many pros find brick
walls.
“I went into bodybuilding to better myself,” he
related as he prepped for still another photo shoot.
“Twenty-four/7, I’m tweaking training routines, experimenting, working on presentation and promotion.
When you’re a competitive bodybuilder, there’s always
more to do, another setback to overcome.”
It’s a frantic lifestyle (pundits might say too frantic),
but Chad’s approach is and always has been decidedly
mellow. During the time we spent together, he multitasked like an efficiency expert, and never once did I
see him lose his smooth Southern-boy cool.
Business acumen and an affinity for self-promotion
are key to keeping any career afloat, and Chad’s developed quite the knack. Nonetheless, choppy waters
present themselves now and again. Scoring effective
magazine exposure is particularly prickly, and when
navigation goes awry, connected folks like yours truly
step up to the wheel.
Get your streamers ready, ladies and gents. The USS
Arkansas Muscle has just pulled into port!
Arkansas Muscle
“Competitive bodybuilding’s a hardball
game, especially for amateurs. You
gotta stay on your toes. The slightest
distraction, and a year’s worth of
progress can be derailed.”
RL: Before 2003 you were
building up considerable steam
on the competitive circuit. Then
an unscheduled layoff derailed
everything. Or did it?
CM: You’ve heard of Murphy’s Law,
right? Well, ol’ Murphy came down
hard on me, with both feet. Crunch!
I broke two bones, and my
recuperation took longer than
expected. For a while I felt a little
lost—but in life you make do, you
cope. By the time I’d recovered, I
was dedicated and re-energized
enough to win the ’04 Ronnie
Coleman Classic. That qualified
me for the Junior Nationals and
Nationals.
RL: So, even with your
injuries, ’04 was a good year?
CM: An exceptional year!
I went forward, doing the
best I could. My modeling
opportunities opened up too.
Ever hear of Ulrich Oehmen? I
did a lot of stuff for him, and he’s
a superb technician. Irv Gelb’s
another guy with an amazing
ability to capture mood and
feeling.
RL: Don’t underestimate
your own contributions.
You’re rugged, with charisma
and plenty of all-American
charm. That’s solid résumé
material.
CM: Thanks. Competitive
bodybuilding’s a hardball game,
especially for amateurs. You gotta
stay on your toes. The slightest
distraction, and a year’s worth
of progress can be derailed. And
if you want to break into other
areas, the stakes are higher.
RL: Yeah, considering
Arkansas isn’t exactly known
for producing nationally
ranked bodybuilders.
CM: There aren’t many here,
I’ll admit. [Laughs] Very few
hardcore gyms, either.
RL: Given such sorry
circumstances, what set off
the bodybuilding fuse in
young Chad Ray Martin?
CM: Same old Charles Atlas
story—I wanted to be big and
strong and equated muscles
Arkansas Muscle
“Education
is primary in
bodybuilding.
Not a lot of
novices bother
to learn from
experience.”
with manhood. At 18 I became
addicted to lifting. I was living
with my grandma, and she fed
me well. With her cooking and
my weight training, I made fast
gains. After high school I signed
on with the Air National Guard,
and that was a good move. I
packed on 20 pounds in basic.
RL: Basic is what, only six
weeks? Dude, you must’ve
been chowin’!
CM: Whenever I had the
chance! Air Force food’s free,
plentiful and mighty filling!
Following basic, I attended tech
school in Colorado, where all
I did for four months was lift
weights, eat and go to class. I
came home at 190, 30 pounds
heavier than when I’d left.
One year later I was competing
as a light heavyweight novice and
winning.
RL: You won your first
show?
CM: The very first. I was green,
but nobody could question my
determination.
RL: And you’ve competed
about every eight months
since?
CM: For six years straight. It’s
been difficult, what with life’s
sundry responsibilities. Just the
same, I do love contest prep.
Watching your physique grow and
noting improvements that become
more and more apparent with each
training day is uniquely satisfying.
RL: The layoff apparently
didn’t slow you down any.
CM: Those injuries were blessings
in disguise. Because of them, I’ve
had tons of free time to plan, project
and rethink strategies. Taking a
breather also gave me clarity; I
became emotionally restored and
couldn’t wait to jump back into
competition.
RL: From the truckload of
trophies surrounding us, it’s
obvious you’ve been an athlete
your entire life.
CM: As a kid I enjoyed being
active—camping, skiing, riding
my bike. Name the sport, and I’ve
probably played it at least once. No,
make that dozens of times. Sitting
on the sidelines has never been my
thing. I’ve got to get in there and
raise hell.
RL: Did athletics lead you to
the iron?
CM: Organized sports gave me
discipline, but I was inspired more
by “Predator,” back in 1987. Arnold
and his crew were beefy, ripped
and manly. Once I saw them kick
ass, I couldn’t run to the weight
room fast enough!
As I grew bigger and more
proportioned, people kept asking
me when I was going to compete.
That finally happened in 1997. Just
starting the (continued on page 222)
Arkansas Muscle
“Watching your
physique grow and
noting improvements
that become more and
more apparent with
each training day is
uniquely satisfying.”
(continued from page 219) process
fulfilled a long-held fantasy, and
when I walked out and did my
routine, I was flyin’!
RL: How old were you then?
CM: Twenty and I weighed 191
pounds.
RL: That was the Caveman
Classic—in Missouri?
CM: Yes, a good experience.
I’d read everything I could lay my
hands on about proper dieting and
contest preparation beforehand, but
things were still sketchy.
During the process of getting
lean, I lost too much muscle. Kind
of a stumble, but the lessons were
worthwhile. Education is primary in
bodybuilding. Not a lot of novices
bother to learn from experience.
RL: You’ve had a steady
stream of competitions,
including an impressive win at
the ’04 Arkansas Classic.
CM: I started 2004 with a
plan, to fine-tune my precontest
preparation and diet and then
tackle several top-level regional
shows. Winning the Arkansas was
a significant personal step because
friends and family were there to see
me. What an unforgettable moment!
before or after?
CM: Before. At the Lone Star I
placed third in the heavies even
though my physique hadn’t peaked.
RL: Were you pleased with
third?
CM: Man, anytime I make
top five, I’m one happy camper.
[Laughs] That show taught me
important lessons about what works
and what doesn’t in precontest prep.
RL: Two high-profile placings,
capped by an incredible
performance at the Junior
Nationals. Stylin’ or what?
CM: The Junior Nationals in
’04 was a record breaker—more
than 100 athletes in the men’s
competition alone. Wall-to-wall
testosterone! And every guy there
had trained, dieted, planned and
prayed. Including me!
RL: Was the Lone Star Classic
Arkansas Muscle
You Can Get
Chad Ray Martin’s Hardcore Leg Blast
I hit the iron almost every day, sometimes twice a day. If a contest is
more than three months away, I train six days a week, with two of those
days as a double split. Here’s my leg workout. Warning: This is not for the
squeamish!
I train legs on Wednesday and Sunday, with hams getting hit harder on
Sunday and quads suffering more on Wednesday.
The week starts with front squats, lunges, high leg presses, leg curls
and stiff-legged deadlifts. If I’m training for mass, I use three-week
cycles: week one, four sets of 10; week two, four sets of eight; week three,
four sets of six. When contest prep begins, I switch to four sets of 12.
On Wednesday I preexhaust my thighs with a few good sets of leg
extensions. Then I start the workout by doing squats—plenty of warmup
sets and then my work sets stay in the rep range according to whether
I’m in contest-prep mode. I go pretty heavy if I’m not in contest prep,
usually around 505 for eight or 565 for six, and I squat deep. Depth
makes a significant difference in how your legs grow. Legs are tough to
train, and you must focus on what’s at hand and not let anything mess
with you.
Front squats are next. I do them the same way, as high as 315 for six.
After that I roll into hack squats. Remember, if it’s competition season, I
stick with 12 reps on everything.
One point I should make about contest training has to do with the last
set: 12 is not the number, pain is. I push till the legs go! I love to get 15,
but sometimes I barely clear 12. Other times I roll beyond to 20. It depends on how much animal I can pull out that day. My training partner,
Marc Sparks, makes sure I go to the outer limits.
Next up is leg presses. I pile up the sled, and Marc sits on top of it and
screams, “Let’s roll!” This really hits hams and quads. Note: Always keep
your feet flat, or you could strain your calves.
After leg presses all
I have left are leg curls
and leg extensions. I
superset them.
People ask if I
have a difficult time
sleeping on leg day.
Normally, no. Sometimes, though, my
legs twitch all night.
I always get a lot of
carbs right after leg
training. For example,
if I’m dieting, I take
in 90 grams of carbs
from white rice. If I’m
growing, I’ll take in
two cups of oats, one
tablespoon of honey
and about 48 ounces
of water. Thirty minutes later I’ll eat a
solid meal with protein and vegetables
and another portion
of carbs—about 50
grams of protein and
50 grams of carbs.
—Chad Ray Martin
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Arkansas Muscle
“Same old Charles
Atlas story—I
wanted to be big
and strong and
equated muscles
with manhood.”
RL: When they called you out
for the fourth spot, it had to be
a Kodak moment.
CM: Oh, dude, I was so pumped!
And I could use a few other
words too—overjoyed, thrilled,
dumbstruck and amazed! Thirty-
two heavyweights competed, and to
place fourth shocked me to the core
of my being.
But I couldn’t have done it alone.
I’ve got to thank my family, friends,
and all the fans who contributed to
this wondrous accomplishment.
RL: Don Youngblood, the ’02
Masters Mr. Olympia, played
an important role in your
bodybuilding success. His
recent passing at such a young
age must’ve devastated you.
CM: It did, totally. He was an
exceptional individual, an icon who
constantly gave of himself.
We’d known one another since I
was little. I saw Don not only as an
excellent trainer but a close friend.
My prayers go out to his wife and
family.
RL: On a lighter note, you’ve
been making serious headway
in the past two years—lots of
magazine coverage, some covers
and higher visibility. Is this your
time, man? And what’s next for
Chad Martin?
CM: It’s been insane, but I like that
kind of insanity. I’ve already set my
sights on the 2007 Junior Nationals,
USA and North Americans. I might
do the Junior California, too, if time
permits.
RL: Being a competitive
bodybuilder requires
considerable financial resources
Arkansas Muscle
and a tough-as-steel attitude.
Agreed?
CM: Agreed. And it’s easy
to lose motivation after a bad
placing. That’s one reason
competitors drop out of the
game. Their bar is raised too high.
Setting realistic goals at the outset
is important. You must prove
yourself in local and regional
shows first, then go on and take
charge. Guys who hit the gym
should realize they can derive a
lot of pleasure and health benefits
from bodybuilding, without
competing.
RL: The benefits part—is
that what you’re after?
CM: Of course! Being healthy
is the bottom line. I like to
compete—it’s fun—but I’m after
lifelong health.
RL: And a fantasy chassis is
the cherry on the sundae!
CM: With whipped cream and
nuts [flexes right biceps]! When
you’re healthy, you can’t help but
look good.
in another DVD, “Flexed
Physiques,” I gave it the old
college try. You’re a potent team!
CM: Sagi’s an easygoing guy. And
you won’t find any bodybuilder
more dedicated to achieving
perfection.
I’m the same way. I train
specifically to meld muscle mass
and proportion. If I need to bring a
specific bodypart up, I’ll do it—with
an eye to building a complete
physique.
Competitive bodybuilding’s
not for the weak of spirit. Heck,
I know pros who are struggling.
Bodybuilding won’t make you one of
the beautiful people—but if you do
it right, you’ll have health and wellbeing for the rest of your days.
RL: If pros aren’t making ends
meet, what about amateurs?
CM: Amateurs need to be smart
and take the bull by the horns.
Being a bodybuilder isn’t limited to
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RL: What kind of physique is
your ideal?
CM: One that combines
symmetry, aesthetics and mass.
Too much either way, and you
end up with bodybuilders who
look more like gymnasts, ballet
dancers, long-distance runners,
sumo wrestlers, weightlifters or
football players. You can’t have
mass without cuts and deep
muscle separation, nor can you
be ultraripped and dry without
muscle fullness. Achieving the
correctly balanced combination
is a trick I call the Power Package.
And that’s the title of my first solo
DVD.
RL: Why do a video?
CM: Inspiration! If folks see
my videos and are motivated
and inspired to start an exercise
or fitness program or take their
program and nutrition to the next
level, I’ve succeeded.
RL: My quest for motivation
ends when pain begins—but
after watching you and
Sagi Kalev assault the iron
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Arkansas Muscle
“Organized sports gave me
discipline, but I was inspired
more by ‘Predator,’ back in
1987. Arnold and his crew
were beefy, ripped and manly.”
proudest of?
CM: I’m proudest
of maintaining a
consistent placing
and showing up in
excellent condition for
all my competitions.
It’s a personal
standard. Off-season
is not part of my
vocabulary! Maybe
that’s obsessive,
but if it is, I’m a
perfect candidate for
bodybuilding. Actually,
I do take time off once
a year—approximately
three months—to give
my body a rest. But
I’m never what anyone
would consider fat or
out of shape.
contests and gym time. Publicity’s a
major component. Besides my own
Web site, I have a sponsor, MHP.
I’m traveling, competing, attending
contests, doing shoots and planning
several workout videos.
RL: Your bodybuilding
career has taken you
far from Arkansas. What
accomplishment are you
RL: So the
motivation is
not difficult to
maintain?
CM: There are days
when I’m tempted
to slack off, but
that’s dangerous.
As a nationallevel competitor I
must maintain the
motivation to improve.
With the help of my
family and friends, I
do.
My wife, April,
family and close
friends support me
100 percent. April and our two girls
offer encouragement and smiles
whenever I need them. It’s a good
life. I’m able to do the things I want,
without restrictions. And I can
look at myself and my physique
objectively, which also makes me
happy.
Like most people, I have my good
days and not so good days. But with
a loving group of family and friends
behind me, those bad days rarely
raise their ornery heads. None of us
can expect things to go our way all
the time; one day you’re up, and the
next, you’re down.
RL: Still, a sunny attitude goes
a long way.
CM: Competitive bodybuilding
is a sport where a sunny disposition
comes in very handy. Since I’m
always myself, I tend to bring
that attitude to my bodybuilding
pursuits, even with the pitfalls.
RL: I’ve got a sneaking
suspicion 2007 might see a turn
of the tide, pro card and all.
Then what?
CM: Aside from celebrating, I’ll
be able to make more money as a
bodybuilder. Seminars, exhibitions,
guest-posing gigs, etc. It’ll be a
whole ’nuther ball game.
Editor’s note: Visit Chad
Martin’s Web site, www
.ChadRayMartin.com. IM
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and minerals to the body’s proper metabolic and anabolic functions that
without them you would be unable to convert your food into hormones,
tissue and energy.
A One-Minute Primer
Vitamins are essential nutrients
required for normal chemical processes to occur in the body. They
are components in enzymes and
coenzymes. Enzymes are molecules
involved in speeding up chemical reactions necessary for human
physiological functions to occur,
such as energy production or the
assembling of tissue components.
Coenzymes are partners that help
the enzymes conduct chemical
reactions. Vitamins and minerals
are essential components in many
metabolic processes, as well as
building and sustaining the structure and integrity of the body.
The Mineral Connection
Classified Information
Like most supplements, vitamins
and minerals are classified as either
water- or fat-soluble. Water-soluble
vitamins aren’t stored in the body
and must be readily replenished.
Fat-soluble vitamins are stored to
some degree, usually in the liver,
and require some fat for assimilation when taken. So taking your
supplements with a full meal is advised to ensure proper breakdown
and assimilation.
The water-soluble vitamins are
vitamin C and all the B vitamins—B1
and B2, niacin, B6, folic acid, biotin
and pantothenic acid. The fatsoluble vitamins are vitamins
A, D, E and K. Minerals are classified as either major or minor.
Major minerals are needed
in the body in dosages of 100
milligrams or above. Minor,
or trace, minerals are needed
in quantities of less than 100
milligrams. The essential major
minerals are calcium, chlorine,
magnesium, phosphorous, potassium, sodium and sulfur. The minor
minerals are chromium, cobalt,
copper, fluorine, iodine, iron, manganese, molybdenum, selenium and
zinc.
Anabolic Spark Plugs
While no brief account can cover
all of the anabolic capabilities of
these dynamic firestarters, here’s
an overview of some widely used
vitamin and mineral supplements,
sometimes referred to as anabolic
spark plugs.
Start with vitamin C, known
as the master nutrient. It’s water(continued on page 238)
soluble.
Neveux \ Model: Randy Vogelzang
The human body uses minerals
for the proper composition of bone
and blood and normal cell function.
As discussed above, they are, along
with vitamins, essential components of enzymes and coenzymes. If
an enzyme is lacking the necessary
mineral, it can’t function properly,
no matter how much of the vitamin
is available. In other
words, vitamins are useless without their mineral partners. Paradoxically,
while carbohydrates,
proteins, fats and vitamins are all organic substances, the nonorganic
minerals are responsible
for starting and sustaining the metabolic actions
of organic nutrients.
(continued from page 234) Several
studies have shown that dosages of
1,000 milligrams of vitamin C can
significantly reduce muscle soreness
and enhance your recovery after a
workout. Many sports and exercise
physiologists maintain that C’s critical importance is misunderstood
and certainly underutilized in the
bodybuilding community. That can
hinder your ability to achieve a state
of anabolic tranquillity.
Vitamin C plays a key role in
building collagen, the most abundant connective tissue in your body.
Collagen gives your body form and
supports other organs as well. It’s
essentially the glue that holds your
muscles to your skeleton and your
skin to your muscles.
Research supports the notion
that poor bone strength is related
to a loss of collagen in and around
the bone matrix. Collagen assists in
healing sprained joints, bones, cuts,
strains and other injuries. That’s
why vitamin C is critical to accelerating your recovery. Furthermore,
vitamin C has
powerful antioxidant capabilities,
protecting muscle
cells from damage, that enhance
your growth potential. It’s also
involved with the
construction and
distribution of
steroid hormones
throughout your
body.
Like the Great
Depression of 1929, when money
supplies and the American economy collapsed, natural biological
shortages of vitamin C wreak havoc
on your muscle tissue. Because it’s
one of the most water-soluble nutrients, it quickly dissipates when
it enters the body, breaking up and
scattering within a watery environment. The more muscular you become, the more water your muscle
cells are composed of. Consequently, diminishing levels of that vital
anabolic nutrient can occur rapidly.
In practical terms, you as a bodybuilder need to replenish your vitamin C several times a day—more
than a nonbodybuilder or sedentary
person.
Vitamin C plays a
key role in building
collagen, the
most abundant
connective tissue
in your body.
The Cortisol Connection
Vitamin C regulates the effects
of cortisol, known as the death
hormone because of its ability to
accelerate muscle wasting and atrophy. Although in stressful situations
cortisol helps you meet the stress
head on by increasing the levels of
fat and sugar in the bloodstream
and supplying added fuel to the
brain and muscles, it also readily
destroys muscle tissue.
Visualize the intense sparks flying as the engineer of a train tries to
slow down a speeding locomotive.
Compare that to the destruction
and tearing of all the muscle tissue
you work so hard to attain. When
elevated levels of this stuff linger
in the body, that’s what’s going on.
Paradoxically, you generate tons of
cortisol during intense training, so
controlling or minimizing its effects
should be high on your list.
Elevated cortisol levels cause
much more than muscle wasting.
They also cause:
1) Decreased testosterone
2) Insulin resistance
3) Increased blood sugar
4) Increased bodyfat
5) Breakdown of muscles, tendons and ligaments
6) Accelerated bone breakdown
7) Shrinkage of brain cells
Because cortisol is your worst
nightmare, take your vitamin C
every day.
The Royal B
Next to vitamin C, vitamin B6
is the most important anabolic
cofactor you can take. Known as
the master vitamin for processing
amino acids, water-soluble vitamin
B6 helps start more that 100 enzyme
systems necessary for the proper
regulation of protein metabolism.
Though generally referred to as
pyridoxine, vitamin B6 has three
chemical forms: pyridoxine, pyri-
doxal and pyridoxamine. Pyridoxal
(PLP) is its most active form.
Being intimately involved with
protein and amino acid metabolism, pyridoxine is responsible for
processing, meaning it helps make,
as well as take apart and rebuild
many of those building blocks of
protein. Pyridoxine is also a coenzyme for glycogen phosphorylase,
the enzyme that stimulates the
release of glucose stored
in the muscles, known as
glycogen. That helps fuel
your tired muscles, thus
sparing precious muscle
tissue.
While you already
know that protein builds
lean muscle, you may be
unaware of the fact that
the pyridoxine form of
B6 is directly responsible
for protein metabolism
and therefore key in the
overall anabolic process.
An increased intake of protein
needs to be matched with additional amounts of B6. The additional
intake helps the body maintain an
adequate balance of amino acids
circulating in and around your system.
The recommended dose for vitamin B6 for all healthy individuals is
1.3 milligrams daily. Don’t take more
than 100 milligrams; it could lead to
nerve damage.
Buy the Vowels
Best known for its ability
to protect the eyes and boost
the immune response, vitamin A has definite anabolic
capabilities. It’s not a welldiscussed fact that the body
needs vitamin A to synthesize
new protein; oddly enough, a
high intake of protein tends to
diminish body stores of vitamin A.
Another fact not widely
publicized centers on vitamin A’s
ability to regulate testosterone production. Reliable and consistent
data shows that vitamin A within
the testes increases testosterone
secretions and a number of anabolic
growth factors, such as IGF-binding
protein, androgen-binding protein,
transforming growth factor-beta
and a substance known as steroidogenic acute regulatory protein. The
last-named protein plays a critical
role in transporting cholesterol into
the mitochondria (the body’s energy
factories) to be transformed into
steroids. Vitamin A also works in
the testes to reduce the formation
of estrogen, as well as regulate the
production of glycogen.
Take 5,000 to 25,000 international
units per day. When taking levels
above 10,000, use beta-carotene.
The body will convert as much of
it to vitamin A as it needs, and that
form doesn’t have the toxicity of
vitamin A from fish oil sources.
One of the most widely used
vitamins,
Anabolic Mineral
Compounds
Calcium is the most
abundant mineral in
the body. It is common
knowledge that calcium
builds strong bones—an
often overlooked aspect
of building a world-class
body. As you gain size,
you need a strong skeletal
foundation to hold all of
that new lean muscle.
Substantial evidence confirms the
need to supplement calcium during
intense workouts. New data reveal
that during a two-hour workout
the body can lose via sweat up to
400 milligrams of calcium. That can
severely compromise your efforts in
reaching your long-term bodybuilding goals, by decreasing your workout capacity and making you more
susceptible to skeletal injuries.
Calcium is also mainly responsible for regulating muscular contractions, and it controls heartbeat.
Because you probably take in lots
of protein, you should get adequate
calcium and its cofactors (phosphorus, vitamin D, magnesium) to limit
the withdrawal of calcium from
bones.
By the way, vitamin D assists
in calcium absorption, while low
magnesium levels cause
hypocalcaemia, or low
calcium. High protein
intake can increase
calcium’s excretion.
You should maintain a
calcium-phosphorus
balance in the bones
of two parts calcium to
one part phosphorus. An
imbalance will increase
calcium loss, which can
cause bone loss. The recommended dose is 1,000
to 1,500 milligrams daily.
According to the Food and Drug
Administration’s most recent reading of the experimental literature,
chromium picolinate may reduce
the risk of insulin resistance. Studies
suggest that chromium picolinate
promotes the anabolic affect of
insulin on skeletal muscle by sensitizing insulin-dependent brain
receptors that control appetite and
fat burning.
Supplemental chromium
leads to improvements in
lean body mass and percentage of bodyfat and
bodyweight loss. In a study
appearing in the International Journal of Biosocial
and Medical Research, investigators concluded that chromium picolinate, because of
its ability to accentuate the
development of lean body
mass and concurrent loss of
bodyfat, could serve as a safe
alternative to anabolic steroids. You
need 50 to 200 micrograms daily.
The mighty mineral magnesium
has recently gained much press for
its ability to relieve symptoms of
chronic fatigue and fibromyalgia.
Most of its prominence, however,
centers on its ability to control
blood pressure and treat ischemic
heart disease, a deficiency of blood
to the heart.
Magnesium is best known for its
ability to help preserve precious
bone and its regulation of more
than 300 biochemical reactions
in the body. As a bodybuilder, you
should know that it’s essential to
all energy-dependent reactions,
including the use and production
of ATP, the body’s main intercellular
energy molecule.
Additionally, magnesium assists
in amino acid synthesis, fat
metabolism, neurological
transmissions and muscular
contractions and relaxation.
Magnesium actually activates amino acids and helps
the body construct protein.
Low magnesium levels can
definitely affect the way
your body makes proteins.
As with calcium, a high
protein intake can adversely
affect your magnesium
levels.
Calcium is
responsible
for regulating
muscular
contractions,
and it controls
heartbeat.
Vitamin D assists
in calcium
absorption.
Neveux \ Model: David Dorsey
(continued from page 239) fat-soluble
vitamin E, has powerful antioxidant
properties. Like vitamin C, it helps
prevent muscle weakness and soreness via its ability to neutralize free
radical production and the buildup
of toxic by-products that cause
muscle wasting.
The recommended daily dose
of vitamini E is 200 to 800 international units.
In many ways magnesium stands
alone, but it’s also a cofactor of
the enzyme creatine kinase, which
transforms creatine to creatine
phosphate, or phosphocreatine, the
storage form of creatine. It’s more
powerful than creatine monohydrate because of its ability to recycle
ATP at a faster pace. What that
comes down to is that it increases
your anabolic endurance threshold,
which gives you more energy and
strength for short, powerful lifts or
the reps that are key to resistance
training.
There’s also considerable evidence that magnesium prevents
muscle cramps and muscle spasms,
which can occur when you lose it
during strenuous exercise. Studies
have shown that the more anaerobic
the workout, the more magnesium
is withdrawn from blood plasma
into the red blood cells. That’s why
your need for magnesium may be
greater. You need 300 to 500 milligrams every day. [For more on magnesium, see the feature that begins
on page 142.]
Last but far from least: zinc. When
you think of zinc, visualize some
200 workers building, repairing
damage and helping you recover
from your intense training session.
Zinc helps stimulate about 200
enzyme systems into action that
supports growth. In fact, zinc regulates many hormones that control
growth, including testosterone, and
thus is vital to your ability to build
lean muscle. Zinc also stimulates
the release of growth hormone in
conjunction with the mineral magnesium.
Supplements containing zinc and
magnesium asparate have gained
much publicity over the past several
years, under the name ZMA. When
taken 30 to 60 minutes before sleeping, that combination sends your
anabolic potential into overdrive.
The recommended dose is 15 to 50
milligrams daily. ZMA is suggested
in doses of 450 milligrams of magnesium and 30 milligrams of zinc.
All Together Now...
Overwhelming evidence confirms
just how important these small
but dynamic substances are to the
function of the body’s metabolic
machinery. They should be the
foundation of your supplement
regimen, not unsung heroes of your
strength and size gains. Use them
daily and consistently, starting with
a multiple vitamin-and-mineral
formula. Your muscles, hormones,
enzymes and every anabolic cycle in
your body will thank you. IM
Neveux \ Model: Art Dilks
Zinc regulates
many hormones
that control
growth, including
testosterone.
Lonnie Teper’s
NEWS & ViEWS
Dexter
Jackson.
Expert Predictions
Balik
Who Will Wear
the Columbus
Crown?
To find out
who really did
win the Arnold
Classic, log on
to Graphic
Muscle.com.
Balik
As always, the lineup at this year’s Arnold Schwarzenegger Classic is a strong one. What’s different is that the field looks to be perhaps
the most balanced in years, with as many as four or five physique artists
having a realistic shot at taking the
crown in Columbus, Ohio. So who
other than “The Experts” could let you
know in advance how things will turn
out at Veterans Memorial Auditorium
on March 3?
Yesiree, the tantalizing trio who
made their debut on
GraphicMuscle.com
at the ’06 Olympia—
me, the most objective; Isaac Hinds, the most biased; and Ron “Yogi”
Avidan, the least knowledgeable—will return for the
new season better (and in Ron’s case, bigger) than ever.
And we’re all going with different people to win the
ASC. I say it’s heaven in ’07 for Dexter “the Blade”
Jackson, who will make it a three-peat. Hinds predicts
last year’s rookie sensation, Phil “the Gift” Heath, will
score a major upset. Avidan places Victor “the Future”
Martinez at the top of the list. Here are the rationales
behind those picks.
Jackson, the Jacksonville, Florida, resident, is still
great at 38. In addition to his second victory in a row at
the Arnold last season, the Blade finished fourth at the
Mr. Olympia. At 5’6 1/2” and about 215 pounds, Dex always shows up in prime condition, and I have no reason
to think history won’t repeat itself in Ohio. Besides, the
University of Florida set a new NCAA record by becoming the first school ever to win the national crown in both
football and basketball in the same year, so the Sunshine State is certainly on a big-time roll.
Hinds says that last year’s Rookie of the Year is now
the Sophomore Sensation and that his favorite bodybuilder, Phil the Thrill,
will be taking it all at the Arnold.
“Heath proved himself last year, winning back-to-back shows [Denver
Victor
Martinez.
Phil
Heath.
Isaac Hinds \ Lift Studios
The tres amigos stick their necks out
again
PREDICTIONS
How accurate
can these three
guys be?
Pages 246 and
247
POSEDOWN IN
JERSEY
Who’s got the
hottest sixpack?
Page 249
HOT SHOTS
They’re
ba-a-a-ck!
Pages 250 and
251
and New York], with a photo shoot in between the two contests and despite having
his food lost before the New York contest,”
Hinds says.
“Phil has put on some quality muscle
and is rested going into the Arnold. His two
biggest challengers, Dexter Jackson and
Victor Martinez, didn’t have as much time
to rest. We all know this show will be won
or lost on conditioning; Heath will match
the insane conditioning he had at the Colorado Pro [where he weighed 214 at 5’9”]
and prove once again that he is our ‘gift’
to bodybuilding. The veterans better watch
out because there’s a new kid on the Arnold
Classic block.”
Is Hinds going a bit overboard about the
27-year-old wunderkind? Well, they both
reside in Denver and had to suffer through
those horrible snowstorms during the holidays. Even so, Hinds insists that his high
praise for Heath is no snow job.
Avidan is picking Martinez because, well,
he really didn’t give any specifics other than
he was impressed with Victor’s physique
at the ’06 Olympia,
where he finished third,
and that he thinks
the New Yorker has
a shot at winning this
year’s Olympia. When
I reminded Ron that
we were talking about
this year’s Arnold
Classic, he said, “Oh,
yeah, look for Victor to
replace Dexter as the
Arnold Classic chamRon Avidan, L.T. and Isaac
pion.”
Hinds.
Let’s give Avidan the
help he desperately
needs and add that Victor has a great combination of size and shape at 5’9” and 240 pounds
and that he’ll be the biggest of the three contenders discussed. Also that I called him “the Future”
because Ronnie Coleman himself predicted a
couple of years back that Martinez was the guy
who would become the next Mr. Olympia when
Ronnie decided to hang up his posing briefs. Of
course, Jay Cutler put a quick end to the Big
Nasty’s prognostication skills last September, but
that’s another story.
Now, some other fellas who are not sold on
these predictions will be flexing it out onstage in
Columbus: Branch Warren, Toney Freeman
and Gustavo Badell for starters.
Warren finished second to Dex last year and won the Most Muscular
award in the process. He was a major disappointment at the Olympia,
Gustavo
Badell.
Toney
Freeman.
Contest photography by Bill Comstock
Branch
Warren.
dropping three slots to 11th from his ’05 placing, and has plenty to prove.
Freeman, who I named “the Future” way back in 1994, earned my
Comeback Bodybuilder of the Year award in ’06 after winning the Europa
Supershow and placing seventh at the Olympia. Badell is a bad man and
has a couple of wins on the pro circuit (the ’05 IRON MAN and the ’06
San Francisco Pro) to go with a pair of third-place finishes at the Mr. O.
The Freakin’ Rican was off at both the Arnold and Olympia last year and
is out to prove
he still has the
Kerry and
Jay Cutler.
tools to win the
title.
Let’s get it
on.
Teper
Teper
ADD
HILL: A
GIFT FROM
PHIL—I have
to admit, Phil
Heath was
impressive in
those back-toback wins in
his rookie year, and fans can now watch his journey
on his new DVD, “The Gift, A New Beginning.” Phil
teamed up with Isaac Hinds—who else?—to
document his Colorado Pro debut. “This is unlike any
other bodybuilder’s story,” says Hinds, “and fans will
see Phil transform over 12 weeks. Living in the same
city made it convenient for us to film this incredible story. The fans will see Phil train, pose and take
home the gold.” Visit www.TheGiftDVD.com for more
details.
New Vibration Training: Effortless Size and Strength Gains!
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PLUS:
•Medical Doctor Talks High-Intensity Training
•Testosterone Replacement: Is It for You?
•Faster Workouts and Anabolic Acceleration
C1_Dec06_F.indd 1
JAY RE-UPS WITH MUSCLETECH—Jay Cutler
has been good for Muscletech; the supplement company
has been good to Cutler. So it only made sense that the
Ultimate Beef re-signed with the Toronto, Canada–based
firm before the end of 2006.
I couldn’t get the exact terms out of Jay, but according
to inside sources, Cutler inked a multiyear deal that made
him the highest paid bodybuilder in the history of the game.
Now, since Ronnie Coleman has been getting in the
neighborhood of 600K a year from BSN for the past two
years, we know where we can start with the figures. And
I’d venture that the deal pays the recently crowned Mr.
Olympia substantially more cash than that.
Good for Jay. As I’ve said many times before, he’s the
most dedicated, focused competitor I’ve ever seen. Bodybuilding is not a seasonal sport for Cutler; it’s his job 12
months a year, and he trains hard and follows a solid nutritional program year-round. Of course, he has the heart of a lion.
He also has, in addition to the mega-deal, a new mega-home
located about 15 minutes north of the Summerlin residence he
and wife Kerry purchased when they first moved to Nevada a few
years back. It’s more than 5,000 square feet, complete with six
bedrooms, six baths and casita.
It was nice of Cutler to add the guesthouse for me just in case I
need some R&R in Vegas. Oh, it’s for Jay’s father? Well, guess he
got us mixed up.
9/27/06 11:23:07 AM
Isaac Hinds \ Lift Studios
DECEMBER 2006
$5.98
People Dept.
Jorge
Betancourt.
For complete results and
photo coverage of the
Sacramento Men’s and
Women’s Pro Bodybuilding
Grand Prix, log on to Graphic
Muscle.com.
Photo courtesy of Bob Bonham
Bob Bonham
and Ira Mayan.
Teper
Melvin
Anthony.
NO MAS FOR JORGE—Jorge Betancourt, the gent on our
December ’06 cover and a former teen sensation who took the ’91
Southern States Overall crown, besting Mike Francois, says his
competition days are over after scoring a ninth-place finish in the
middleweights in front of his hometown fans in Miami Beach at the
’06 Nationals.
“I told myself that if I didn’t make top two or three, I’d be done, so
I’m done,” Betancourt said. “I can’t put in the time that is required
to be a top champion anymore—or I’m just not willing to risk it all
again. When I was younger, it was different because that’s all I had
and I was willing to kill myself to get there. Bodybuilding is a 24-hour
job, seven days a week, year-round—none of this four-month crap
like I’ve been doing.”
Jorge and wife Charlene are parents to son Sean and want
to have another child. “That would put me two years behind, and
at this point I don’t think I’ll be willing to start all over,” the 35-yearold of Cuban and Puerto Rican descent said. “I will always stay in
shape, and as soon as my wife gets pregnant, I will set up more
shoots to promote myself and my product line without having to
compete anymore.”
At Betancourt Nutrition, Jorge and company formulate everything
in-house; and the products all bear the NFL logo for quality control.
Betancourt says his most popular product is the fat-burning thermogenic “Ripped Juice Extreme,” which, he says, sells tens of thousands of bottles worldwide.
Given his drive, Betancourt, who took a 13-year time-out from
competition before returning to the stage with a strong fourth-place
finish at the ’04 USA, is bound to shine in a lab coat as brightly as he
did in posing briefs.
FOREVER YOUNG—Bob Bonham, owner of Strong &
Shapely Gym in East Rutherford, New Jersey, has been
Dennis
challenging me to pose downs
James.
for years, only to back out
when he got a glimpse of me
without a shirt. Or did he pass
out when he glimpsed that
nasty sight?
After seeing the accompanying photo of Buffed Bob
posing down with his woman,
Ira Mayan, a.k.a. the Jewish
Jewell, at his facility in January, I’m glad we never went
through with that above challenge.
Ira, of course, wins this
one; she’s used to taking
home the grand prize, having
nabbed the Ms. Israel Figure
crowns in 2003, 2004 and
2005 and come in third runner-up at the Ms. Universe
event last season.
And, at 30 years old, she is nearly half the age of the 55-year-old Bonham, who, I hate to admit, is doing very well in his efforts to try and keep
up with his sexier half. Those abs look tight, Robert. Having a babe that
much younger is more than enough inspiration for taking every training
session to the limit, huh, guy?
New Radio Show—No Bull
So, whaddaya get when you throw three Italian dudes, all bodybuilding devotees raised in New York, behind a microphone? “No Bull Radio,”
featuring the Muscle Mob,” which airs every Monday at 7 p.m. EST/4
p.m. PST.
The mob is made up of Larry Pepe, bodybuilding journalist and
“Muscle Radio” veteran; John Romano, Muscular Development senior
editor (and, as Pepe refers to him, “chief instigator”); and Muscular
Development.com Editor in Chief Dave “Jumbo” Palumbo. Jumbo’s
main job is trying to keep Gregg Valentino from crashing the show
each week, but he’s had little success of late.
Pepe put together the “No Bull Radio” team in October. Along with
Dan Solomon and Bob Cicherillo of “Pro Bodybuilding Weekly” they
have greatly expanded the fans’ on-air opportunities to get an inside look
at our industry.
I’ve been a guest several times on both shows and give a thumbs-up
to all involved. Recently, I wrote about PBW’s being added to the Sirius
satellite radio lineup. NBR’s team has good chemistry and a mix of talents
that complement each other and provide some edgy, funny moments that
Pepe likes to compare to the “Best Damn Sports Show Period.”
Like “Pro Bodybuilding Weekly,” “No Bull Radio” has had many of the
industry’s biggest names as guests—Dexter Jackson, Victor Martinez, Markus Ruhl, Gustavo Badell, Branch Warren, Desmond
Miller and Dennis Wolf, to name a few.
Visit the Muscle Mob at www.MuscularDevelopment.com. Click on the
No Bull Radio link for the live show and on-demand replays, which are
available 24/seven for your convenience.
HOT SHOTS
Photography by Jerry Fredrick
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MORE MEDIA: NEW WEB SITE DEPT.—Dave Palumbo told
me to join the 21st century, so I’ve had a Web site created for my annual
Junior California Bodybuilding and Figure Championships. Yogi Avidan
gets the credit (or blame) for the invention of www.NPCJuniorCal.com,
where you can find everything and anything you want to know about the
show: contest specifics, entry forms, videos, photos, the whole ball of
wax. Check it out, and I’ll see you at Pasadena City College on June 23.
The sculptor calls this, “Woe Is a Contest
Diet.” Competitors like Carol can obviously
identify with the emotion of a dessert-free
lifestyle.
Teper’s Tales
Melvin Anthony and Dennis James both underwent hernia surgery a few months back. The operation will keep James out of the Arnold
Classic. Marvelous Melvin, who was a Vyo-Tech athlete last year, is no
longer with the company and has inked a deal with MuscleTech. Sources
tell me Anthony will be required to compete twice; at this point it looks like
the New York Pro and the Olympia will be the posing platforms of choice
for last season’s fifth-place finisher at the Big Dance.... Shawn Ray has
added Monster Barbell Company to his list of employers, signing a deal
in January to promote the
firm’s products. Ray and wife
Kristie, who are expecting
their second child in July, will
be moving from their Yorba
Linda, California, digs to
Corona in June.… Smokin’
Joe Wheatley, promoter of
the Muscle Beach shows, has
added a “Return to Muscle
Beach” program to his lineup
of events at the Venice, California, landmark. The program
will include bodybuilding and
Kevin Levrone and L.T. toast Kristie and Shawn
figure demonstrations, inforRay.
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spray is a
great heinie
highlighter
under stage
lights.
It must be Ro
sa’s arm da
y. Any
questions on
why Big Scot
never misse
s a workout t
?
Cassie has superh
ero potential—Gold’s
Gym’s Abdomintor
to the rescue!
BodyOkay, we admit it:
is in its
building tailgating
infancy.
mation on mandatory poses and training regimens
and interviews with athletes. Free to the public, it will
be held on six Sundays, starting on May 20, from 2
to 4 p.m. Athletes interested in participating can log
on to www.MuscleBeachVenice.com or send e-mail
to Joe at [email protected].… Troy
Alves became a grandfather in January, which made
him at 40 the youngest granddaddy in the IFBB—I think.… Fire
in the Desert, a book by Glenn
Puit about the Craig Titus
and Kelly Ryan murder case,
was released in January. Puit is a
reporter for the Las Vegas ReviewJournal and has been covering the
story almost since the beginning. The book,
217 pages and 26 chapters, is available at
To contact Lonnie
Amazon.com.… Celebrity Bodybuilding and
Teper about material
Fitness photog deluxe Irv Gelb has a new
possibly pertinent to
Web site, www.IrvinGelb.com, for fans and
News & Views, write
potential clients alike. With Gelb’s extento 1613 Chelsea
sive background in the industry—and with
Road, #266, San
Marino, CA 91108;
the Who’s Who of major stars who have
fax to (626) 289-7949;
posed for his lenses over the past 15-plus
or send e-mail to
years—the site is a must-see for admirers
[email protected].
of superb physique photography. IM
Photo courtesy of Irv Gelb
Neveux
Comstock
Most sports have streakers, but since
bodybuilders are almost naked, they
get theirs fully clothed. Weird.
Clockwise, from top: Irv goes
online; Troy, here with his wife,
Tara, goes tri-generational; and
Puit puts a nonfiction murder
mystery out there.
Eric Broser’s
If you find something on the Web that IM readers should know about, send the URL to Eric at [email protected].
>http://EdCorney.net
In the classic bodybuilding motion picture “Pumping Iron,” Arnold Schwarzenegger uttered the words, “Now that…that is what I call posing.” And to whom
was the Governator referring when he spoke so passionately? None other than
bodybuilding legend and former Mr. USA, Mr. America and Mr. Universe Ed
Corney. Inducted into the IFBB Hall of Fame in 2004, Ed had an incredible competitive career that spanned more than 30 years. Now that is the true meaning
of iron man. Corney had one of the most proportionate, pleasing and shredded
physiques of all time but is known for his dynamic and artistic posing routines
(just as Arnold mentioned). In fact, a review of the ’77 Mr. Olympia competition
in Muscle Builder/Power magazine (now Muscle & Fitness) said of Ed’s posing
artistry: “Perhaps the most popular performance of the contest was by Ed Corney,
44, who received a standing ovation at both the prejudging and evening competition by virtue of what veteran observers claimed was the greatest posing routine
in the history of the sport. Corney electrified the house with a most dramatic
demonstration of grace and power.” And if you’d like to learn to pose like the
master himself, EdCorney.net offers a DVD containing never-before-seen footage
of Corney giving two historic guest-posing exhibitions, one from 1985 and the
other from 1987. It’s a must-have DVD for anyone who truly appreciates the art of
muscular display. Also on this wonderful site you’ll learn about Ed’s stellar bodybuilding career, his competition history, and how appearing with Arnold in “Pumping Iron” brought him worldwide recognition. Perhaps my favorite part of the site is where Corney discusses his “Passion for Training.” “You have to look forward
to your workouts at the gym, as if it were good sex; you have to live for your training and forget everything else the moment
you walk into your gymnasium.… It’s the only way to productive bodybuilding that I know.” Trust me when I tell you that if
you’re a fan of Ed’s or a younger bodybuilder who wants to learn about one of the pioneers of modern bodybuilding, then
get on your “surfboard” and ride the cyberwave to www.EdCorney.net.
>www.LeanBodyCoach.com
In my opinion, one of the best physiques ever to
grace a bodybuilding stage was owned by one Mr. Lee
Labrada. His classic proportions, beautiful aesthetics,
spot-on conditioning and graceful presence made
him one of the most successful IFBB pros ever, with
22 first-place trophies to his credit. Lee retired from
competition in 1995 but remains a force in the fitness
industry through his sports supplement company,
Labrada Nutrition. Launched in 1996, it reached Inc.
500 status in only six years, making it one of the fastest-growing privately held companies in the United
States. Lee considers himself a “fitness evangelist,”
and he’s constantly looking for ways to help others
improve their health and physiques. From June ’02 to
January ’04, he led a nonprofit campaign designed to
educate Houstonians about health
and fitness issues. Nowadays Lee
provides free ongoing training and
nutrition education and information through weekly e-newsletters
and the Lean Body Coaching Club
(www.LeanBodyCoach.com). Recently I visited the site for the first
time, and after a quick registration
process, I found I had access to a
plethora of extremely useful training, nutrition and supplementation articles, FAQs and downloads.
Lee has assembled a wonderful
team of contributing authors,
who include such fitness experts
as Rehan Jalali, Douglas Kalman,
Chris Aceto, Mark Tallon and
Thomas Incledon. I spent more
than an hour going through the
“Tip of the Week” archives, reading some great articles, such as “Intelligently Select your Supplements,”
“Eating Breakfast Like a Pro Bodybuilder” and “Getting Pumped: The Neurotransmitter Connection.” As
a member of the club you can also check out dozens
of FAQs on training and nutrition, many answered
by Lee himself. If you have a question of your own,
just click on “Ask Lee,” and either Mr. Labrada or one
of the coaching club’s degreed professionals will hit
you back with the answers you have been searching
for. And if that isn’t enough, by taking the time (and
we’re talking under a minute here, okay, you impatient
ironheads?) to become a coaching club member, you
will also receive free workout and nutrition tips every
week, as well as a deep discount on all of Labrada’s
fantastic products. It’s a win-win deal if I ever saw one.
>www.IronManMagazine.com
Not to be self-serving, but if you haven’t visited our site and signed up for IM’s free weekly
e-zine, you’re really missing out on some killer
info, not to mention motivating words of wisdom direct from the IRON MAN Training & Research Center. Some of the most recent e-zine
titles are “3D Arm Assault,” “Massive Muscles
and Surging Strength,” “Muscle-Building Mistakes You Don’t Want to Make,” “Muscle-Mass
Mutations,” “Twig-to-Big Muscle Moves” and
“Stretch-Hold Overload.” The e-zine is all about
helping you make the best gains possible in
the shortest time—not wasted effort. Sign up
today—it’s totally free.
Eric Broser’s
>Net
with eight to 12 weeks with no supersets. That will give
you the best of both worlds while preventing boredom,
stagnation and burnout.
Results Q&A
Interesting queries and replies from message boards
and forums across the Internet, answered with precision, accuracy and plenty of outrageous opinions...
Q: When using supersets, what’s better, an
isolation exercise followed by a compound exercise or vice versa?
A: Supersets are a great intensity technique and
are excellent for building mass while bulking and for
quality while cutting. The question of which is better, preexhaust (an isolation exercise followed by a
compound exercise) or postactivation (a compound
exercise followed by an isolation exercise), is difficult to
answer. Both methods have merit and have been used
successfully by bodybuilders for many years. Preexhaust enables you to fatigue the target muscle first,
and then when it fails, to continue the bombardment
with a compound movement that brings in assisting
and stabilizing muscles. With postactivation you begin
with a heavy compound exercise (usually for four to five
reps) that greatly stimulates the central nervous system,
which then enables the isolation exercise that follows
Neveux \ Model: Daryl Gee
Neveux \ Model: Moe El Moussawi
Immediately following
an isolation exercise
with a big compound
move can improve
size gains.
to activate more muscle fibers than it usually would.
Some studies have shown that preexhaust supersets
reduce force production in the compound exercise,
which makes some experts believe that they’re inferior
to postactivation supersets. I disagree. My personal
experience, along with a ton of anecdotal evidence,
has proven to me that preexhaust supersets are very
effective. In my opinion, both of those methods have
advantages and physiological effects that induce hypertrophy. I suggest that you use both techniques for
a period of time and see which works better for you.
Give each a fair trial for four to six weeks. Follow that
Q: Should I wear a weight belt during my
workouts?
A: Personally, I feel that wearing a belt provides
more of a psychological advantage than a physical
one. Let’s face it: Having a weight belt tightly cinched
around your waist makes your physique look better by
enhancing the appearance of a V-taper and makes you
feel more “serious” about what you’re doing. A belt also
provides a feeling of tightness around your waist, which
would seem to protect your lower back—but does it?
Here are some reasons why wearing a weight belt may
not always be best:
1) It can weaken the muscles of the trunk by causing too much intra-abdominal pressure. In an effort to
prevent this, the body may force the abdominal and
lumbar muscles to relax while lifting, which over time
can weaken them and cause back problems.
2) It can accelerate degenerative disk disease by
restricting the natural motion of the lumbar spine.
3) It can cause poor posture by compressing the
lower abdominal region. That will force you to restrict
your breathing to the upper-chest area, which can
throw off posture as well as cause tension headaches
and upper disk problems.
4) It alters the natural biomechanics of the spine,
especially during rotational movements. It can also
weaken the smaller, stabilizing muscles, which can
result in back pain and possibly osteoarthritis.
My advice to you would be to avoid the use of a
weight belt, except during your heaviest sets of compound movements like squats, bent-over rows deadlifts, military presses and so on. At other times, let your
body stabilize itself without a belt, or wear it somewhat
loosely around your waist if you simply like the feeling
of having something there. I never wear a belt during
any subfailure sets but often wear one during all-out
sets. I rarely keep it very tight around my waist, however, preferring to let my core do most of the stabilization. IM
Jerry Brainum’s
Bodybuilding Pharmacology
who have low testosterone levels have a higher incidence
of degenerative brain diseases, including Alzheimer’s. A
just-released study found that middle-aged men low in
testosterone are more prone to mental depression.
According to the results of the new Yale study, however,
when brain neurons are exposed to higher-than-normal
levels of testosterone, a cellular process is initiated that
results in the death of neurons. The process, known as
apoptosis, amounts to cellular suicide. In the case of tesIn late September last year news wires around the
tosterone, when neurons are exposed to normal levels of
world described research conducted at Yale University.
testosterone, calcium ions enter the brain cells in an oscilThe gist of the story was that exposure to testosterone
lating fashion; that is, the amount of calcium that enters
led to a series of events that culminated in the death of
the cell varies. When the neurons are exposed to higher
neurons, or brain cells. Those who read the details of the
levels of testosterone, however, a continuous high cascade
study found that the effect resulted only from large doses
of calcium enters the cell, which acts as a signaling device
of testosterone, similar to what athletes—including many
that turns on the process of cellular death.
bodybuilders—administer to themselves. Lead researcher
The neuron-suicide scenario occurs in many degeneraBarbara Ehrlich, Ph.D., a professor of pharmacology and
tive brain diseases. The researchers also used estrogen but
physiology at Yale, was quoted as saying, “Next time a
found that it had no adverse effects on brain cells.
muscle-bound guy in a sports car cuts you off on the highSeveral aspects of the study must be considered. For
way, don’t get mad. Just take a deep breath and realize that
one thing, it used an in vitro, or test-tube-isolated cell,
it might not be his fault.”
protocol. It also used neuroblastoma cells, which are
The results of that study initially seem alarming.1 Does
derived from a type of brain tumor and which are used in
it mean that those who use large doses of testosterone are
preference to normal neurons because they react more to
facing a future of dementia? If that’s true, why aren’t there
stimuli than normal brain cells. The isolated tumor cells
already athletes, many of whom used large doses of testoswere exposed to elevated testosterone levels for six to 12
terone years ago, experiencing obvious mental decline?
hours.
Testosterone affects various regions of the brain, inIn order to get into the brain, testosterone must pass
cluding the hippocampus, preoptic area, amygdala and
through the protective network of blood cells known as
medial hypothalamic areas. When secreted in normal
the blood-brain barrier. Testosterone can pass through the
amounts or when testosterone blood levels are within the
barrier to some extent because it is lipid-soluble.
normal physiological range, testosterone is beneficial for
One pertinent question is whether normal brain cells
brain function. Indeed, various studies show that men
would react in a similar way. Does what occurs in an
isolated tumor cell exposed to high levels of testosterone for up to 12 hours also happen in the
human body? The authors suggest that the effect is cumulative, meaning that the loss of brain
neurons would likely not become apparent for
many years.
Another aspect to consider is that athletes use
other substances that may counter the effect of
testosterone on brain cells. Growth hormone
and insulinlike growth factor 1, for example, are
known to protect neurons. In fact, IGF-1 prevents
apoptosis.
How much testosterone, for how long, is required to kill neurons? Does it take years of consistently using larger-than-normal doses? Since
the Yale study showed that estrogen not only
doesn’t cause neuron death but may offer some
protection, that’s another factor to consider. Testosterone is converted in the brain into estrogen—
would that be enough to counter the negative
effects of elevated testosterone on neurons?
The authors imply that the testosterone neuron
death effect is so potent that it would be immeA recent study showed that
diately apparent in some people. Very well—who
exposure to high levels of
would such people be? Someone with prior brain
testosterone creates cellular
damage? Because the study raises more questions
suicide in brain tissue—but
than it answers, it must be considered prelimithat doesn’t gibe with what
nary. Clearly, further research is necessary before
actually happens when
ultimate conclusions can be drawn about the efathletes use testosterone?
fects of high levels of testosterone on brain cells.
Testosterone
Kills Brain Cells?
Do Anabolic Steroids
Aid Endurance Athletes?
Recently, American cyclist Floyd Landis won the
grueling test of endurance and athletic power known
as the Tour de France, succeeding another American,
seven-time winner Lance Armstrong. Before he could
savor his victory, though, sports officials announced
that Landis’ urine had tested positive for testosterone. Within days the finding was confirmed by testing another of his samples; however, Landis pleaded
innocent to the charges of doping, saying that he
used no banned substances in his quest to win the
race. Landis’ protestations seemed hollow with the
announcement that his testosterone-to-epitestosterone ratio was 17-to-1. The normal ratio is 1-to-1, with
an upper normal limit of 4-to-1. Anything over 6-to-1
is considered proof of testosterone use, though some
rare athletes have a natural ratio of 10-to-1.
At this time no adequate explanation has been
offered for Landis’ highly elevated testosterone levels,
though he still denies using any type of testosterone
drug. It isn’t the first time that rumors of rampant
drug use by Tour de France athletes have emerged.
Armstrong has been dogged with accusations that he
used various banned substances during his championship tenure, despite never having failed a drug test.
The drugs most often linked to endurance events,
such as the Tour de France, are those related to blood
doping, which in years past meant stored red blood
cells were injected back into the body, leading to an
elevated hemoglobin level in the blood. That, in turn,
gave the blood increased oxygen delivery capacity,
which translated into increased endurance and diminished fatigue.
The original blood-doping system wasn’t perfect,
however. The technique could lead to an overabundance of red blood cells, abnormally thickening the
blood. That not only decreased oxygen delivery to
muscle but also increased the risk of internal blood
clots and strokes.
That form was supplanted by recombinant erythro-
No one questions
the effectiveness of
steroids for sports that
involve strength and
power, but the medical
literature examining
their effectiveness in
endurance sports is
equivocal.
One possible way
that anabolic
steroids may
aid endurance
athletes is through
increased recovery.
poietin, or EPO, a hormone produced in the kidneys that
boosts red blood cell production much in the manner of
the old blood-doping technique. Some of the same side
effects, such as increased blood thickness, can also occur
with EPO. One advantage of EPO is that it’s hard to detect
in doping tests.
Newer tests, however, take advantage of the fact that
EPO and a longer-acting version called darbepoetin both
contain additional sugar chains in their structures that
aren’t present in naturally produced EPO. When they detect those extraneous sugar residues, the test is considered
positive for EPO.
While the advantages of using EPO seem clear for various endurance sports, the picture for anabolic steroids
and endurance sports is murkier. No one questions the
effectiveness of steroids for sports that involve strength
and power, but the medical literature examining them in
endurance sports is equivocal at best.
Steroids aid such sports through improved training
recovery. Athletes walk a fine line between making training progress and overtraining. Anything that forestalls
overtraining tips the balance toward progress. Steroids
may help prevent overtraining through their pronounced
Jerry Brainum’s
Bodybuilding Pharmacology
Neveux
Athletes, including bodybuilders, use
growth hormone for its fat-burning and
connective-tissue-bolstering effects.
anabolic effects on muscle and their
positive effects on the restoration of
muscle glycogen, the rate-limiting
fuel source for most sports. Positively
influencing the rate of glycogen synthesis would be a definite advantage.
Steroids provide a minor blooddoping effect because they promote
EPO synthesis in the kidneys. Anadrol-50, a popular oral anabolic steroid, was originally used in medicine
to treat a hereditary disease called
Fanconi anemia. The increased red
blood cell production could offer
endurance athletes an edge.
Many endurance athletes use
human growth hormone, not to
increase muscle growth but to foster greater training recovery—and
because GH offers connective-tissue protection. It may help prevent
injuries incurred during hard training
and speed the healing of those that do
occur. GH also promotes beneficial
body composition changes, mainly
lower bodyfat levels.
Along with the advantages of various anabolic drugs, there are a few
significant problems linked to their
use. The most notable disadvantage
is getting caught in a positive doping
test. Both anabolic steroids and GH
have potent water-retaining effects
that could prove a problem in events
that require speed. One way around
that is the diuretics many bodybuilders use to counter the water-retaining
effects of anabolics. Since diuretics
are also banned in most sports, athletes use versions that pass under the
drug-detecting radar. Such “designer
diuretics” are widely used in bodybuilding, especially in the pro ranks.
A recent study examined whether
using two types of anabolic steroids
improved endurance performance.2
Endurance athletes took either a placebo or testosterone and nandrolone
(Durabolin) 12 times for a month. The
doses and use of the drugs mimicked
the ones used by real-world athletes.
Interestingly, those who used the
drugs showed no improvements over
those who used the placebo.
The notion that testosterone use
was largely responsible for Floyd
Landis’ Tour de France victory is
mistaken at best. Odds are good that
dozens of other cyclists in that race
were using similar drugs but weren’t
tested. Or they may have used socalled designer steroids that aren’t
detectable in testing procedures, or
perhaps human growth hormone,
also undetectable. Landis won on his
athletic ability, not his alleged testosterone use.
Those who doubt the assertion can
easily test it by traveling to France,
renting a bicycle, then following the
route of the Tour de France. My guess
is that you won’t get far, even if you
triple the dose of the steroid used by
some pro bodybuilders. As the saying
goes, it’s not the wand—it’s the magician.
References
1 Estrada, M., et al. (2006). Elevated testosterone induces apoptosis in neuronal cells. J Biol Chem.
281(35):25492-25501.
2 Baume, N., et al. (2006). Effect of
multiple oral doses of androgenic-anabolic steroids on endurance performance and serum indices of physical
stress in healthy male subjects. Eur J
Appl Physiol. 98(4):329-340. IM
2006 ROUNDUP, THE AMATEURS
For little girls
And bigger girls, and even bigger girls
Balik
What a season it
was for the women’s
physique sports in 2006.
Big, ripped (albeit symmetrical) physiques
made a comeback in
bodybuilding, while in
figure the opposite was
true: Striated shoulders
and other such accoutrements were definitely
O-U-T. In fitness the
judges had more good
routines to choose from
and some promising
newcomers like Nicole
Wilkins (pictured) to
help keep the entertainment value high.
The quality of the
competitors was up in
general, not that it was
bad before. In bodybuilding, in particular, the
exodus of the season’s
top physiques to the
pros leaves a still-rich
field returning for 2007.
The NPC, with a little
help from the IFBB-banDouble-barreled talent. Nicole Wilkins brings 12
nered
North American
years of gymnastics experience to fitness, but it
Championships, graduwas her physique scores that earned her a top-five
trophy at the Nationals.
ated so many women
to the professional level
from women’s bodybuilding, fitness and figure last year that I lost count. (Well,
actually, I lost count of the figure figures; it was 12 fitness athletes and seven
female flexers, the same as in 2005, movin’ up.) To celebrate their achievements,
here’s a look at some of the hottest bods of 2006.
Unbridled
Muscle
Lora
Ottenad.
Balik
Thank Heaven
FLEXERS
Big-muscle gals won big at the big
pro qualifiers in 2006—so much so that
folks were speculating that attempts to
limit the extreme-muscularity factor had
gone all to heck. For the first time since
the light-heavyweight weight class was
resurrected in 2004, the overall crown
did not go to the light-heavy winner
at the NPC USA. Instead, Denver’s
Heather Policky, a 5’7” 174-pounder, took the show’s only pro card up for
grabs. It was her second try, too; that is,
BICEPS BRIGADE
’06 NPC/IFBB Bodybuilding Champs
Comstock
Junior USA, April 29, Heidi Bagwell
Junior Nationals, June 16-17, Tracy Mason
Team Universe, July 14–15, Stephanie Kessler
Masters Nationals, July 21–22, Kim Buck
USA, July 28–29, Heather Policky
North Americans, September 15–16, Sherry Smith
Nationals, November 10–11, Lora Ottenad
Woman to watch in 2007. Tracy Morgan, flanked by Junior Nationals
promoter Pam Betz and Debbie Patton, won the Juniors and took third
at the North Americans. And to think she’s only a middleweight.
NEWSMAKERS
More Muscular
Dobbins \ www.BillDobbins.com
her second time winning the heavyweights.
That could have been a sign. Jon Lindsay’s
midsummer Las Vegas musclethon has traditionally advanced to the pros female flexers
of the more sveltely symmetrical nature, if you
know what I mean. Like Amanda Dunbar, the
light heavy who beat Policky for the title—and
pro card—in ’05. Or Jennifer McVickar,
Heather
Policky.
Mah-Ann Mendoza and Rosemary Jennings in 2000 through ’02.
The Nationals has been more of a big-women’s show—the last time anyone but the heavyweight champ won the overall was 1999—but
even so, Lora Ottenad is pretty darned big.
At 5’8” and 170 pounds Ottenad had more
top-five finishes on her résumé than most figure
pros have contests, period. All those oh-soclose landings, losing out to “smaller” heavyweights. For her to win now, well, it must be
another sign, declared the conspiracy theorists.
Declared this reporter, Nah, she won because she had the most polished and complete
package onstage that day, the same as ocMoving weights. Lora and Heather
curred in Las Vegas. To put it another way: The
will bring 11’5” and 344 pounds to
judges didn’t see anyone they liked better.
the pro ranks.
Policky and Ottenad are both scheduled to
compete at the Ms. International contest on March 2 in Columbus, Ohio, where they’ll
stand next to the biggest names—and bodies—in the sport (Do Kyle, Cadeau,
Oriquen, Rivieccio ring a bell?). The opportunities for success, or failure, don’t get
any huger than that.
On the amateur level the new season will be a whole different story, although the
immutable truth about the best body onstage will still hold true. The galleries at Graphic
Muscle from 2006—as well as the past year’s editions of this column—are full of upand-coming muscular Marcys and symmetrical Sallys who will be pumping overtime to
break through in ’07. We’ll be keeping track, so stay tuned.
FITNESS FUN
Liberman
Lookin’ Good
Amy Villa Nelson has
that rare triple-C
combination—cute
physique, cute routine,
cute look. Could we
be looking at the next
Susie Curry?
That headline about sums it up. Numbers and talent were
encouraging at the national shows but nothing like the old days,
B.F.; that is, before figure. Efforts by some pros to persuade
young athletic types to try fitness may bear some fruit, as the
saying goes. Thanks in part to revised rules in which the amateurs are judged 50 percent on physique and 50 percent on
routine, the class of ’06 includes some promising contenders,
meaning women who could maybe stand up to the divas who
have dominated pro fitness for several years. Though I doubt
any of them will win the Fitness International in March, a couple
may well make it to the Olympia before season’s end.
I know, I said that last year, but with three tiers of veteran
divas to get past—and only five qualifiers before the O in
2006—the promising members of the class of ’05 are only now
starting to make names for themselves in the pros. Considering
how many of that old guard are over 30, it’s hard to believe there
won’t be some changes at the top of the ranks over the next
couple of years. And standouts from ’06, like Hollie Stewart,
Laticia Jackson and Karen Patten from the Team Universe
and Amy Villa Nelson, Nicole Duncan and Lisa Hughes
from the Nationals, will be ready to fill in the gaps.
Musings
Bradford
Trend or twist of fate?
Ready to do some damage.
That last year of prepping for
another pro-card run gave
Debi extra incentive.
Those who look for trends
every time a larger- or smallermuscled female wins a big
contest always forget one key
point. This ain’t rocket science.
The judges like who they like,
and the indefinable things that
occur when an athlete really puts
it all together are as obvious as
they are difficult to quantify.
A trickle of contestants matriculating from figure and fitness
to the posing platform had some
observers hoping that it would
bring more balance to the ranks
of the amateur bodybuilders.
That’s another trend to keep an
eye on. A review of the top five
class finishers at the ’06 pro
qualifiers shows an abundance
of talent in all shapes and sizes
who will be back to try again
in ’07—particularly in the light
heavyweights at the Nationals,
where three or four points was
all that separated the top-three
placers, Debi Laszewski,
Elena Sieple and Kristi
Hawkins.
Laszewski, who earned a
controversial runner-up trophy at
the ’05 Nationals, had nipped a
little here, polished a little there,
softened a little everywhere and
got the best revenge: a class
win and a pro card. On the
other hand, no one would call
the 5’3”, 138 1/2-pound Florida
flexer a little girl.
STILL MORE WINNERS
F I G U R E F O RT U N E S
Downsizing
Sensational Six
Speaking of trends
’06 NPC/IFBB Figure Champs
Roland Balik
Comstock
The old Goldilocks controversy (this one’s too
hard; this one’s too soft) reared its head at the big
pro-figure qualifiers of 2006. In this case the judging
trends were not speculation. Looking like a lightweight bodybuilder was definitely a no-no, and a few
competitors were encouraged to try—or go back
to—bodybuilding. Others, who were encouraged
to put on more size last year, were left scratching
their salon-select coifs about their next move. The
suggestion that those who want to keep a lid on the
muscularity and hardness factors in figure were more
in control on the judging panels certainly had merit.
For this observer it was not so much a change in
course as it was making good on the promises of a
year or so before.
The real question is, What pro-figure qualfiers
weren’t big last year? NPC promoters welcomed
98 comely contenders at the Junior USA, 136 at
the Junior Nationals, 127 at the Figure Nationals
and 173 at the USA, plus the slew who came to the
North American Championships and the Master’s
Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania’s
Nationals. Naturally, some of them were repeats, but
Simona Douglas jumped from
my gosh, that’s a lot of toned triceps waving on the
third in the extra-tall class at
runway. I’ll spare you any more silly figures (as opthe Fig Nat’s to USA Overall
Figure champ. And she did it
posed to fit figures), but the numbers were so good
in high heels.
that the most junior of national shows, the Junior
USA, moved up a notch in status. Instead of just one
pro card going to the overall champ, a second card goes to the gal who finishes
second in the overall balloting. Same at the North Americans, where a third card
goes to the master’s winner. Now, there’s a solution to world peace. Two or three
more buff-but-not-too-buff babes bouncing up to the next level.
Sonia
Adcock.
Junior USA, April 28,
Lisa Morton
Junior Nationals, June 16–17,
Elizabeth Lamm
Figure Nationals, July 14–15,
Sonia Adcock
Masters Nationals, July 21–22,
Stephanie Togrul
USA, July 28–29,
Simona Douglas
North Americans, September
15–16, Briana Tindall
MORE WINNERS
Steady Progress
NPC Fitness Champs of 2006
All earned pro cards.
Junior USA, April 28,
Christy Green
Junior Nationals,
June 16–17, Breean
Robinson
Team Universe, July
14–15, Hollie Stewart
Nationals, November
10–11, Amy Villa Nelson
Comstock
Hollie
Stewart.
Leisurely pace. National champ
Sonia Adcock (above) waited a whole
nine weeks and passed up three
pro-figure events to make her quarter-turn-for-quarters debut in front
of a hometown Southern California
crowd at the Tournament of Champions in late September. A third-place
showing earned the 5’1/2” hair stylist from Oceanside, who took first
at every amateur show she entered
in 2006, the right to go right to the
Olympia the following week. Adcock
decided to give it a rest—she’d been
competing since April, and why
get lost in the clash of the veteran
vixens? Smart strategy. Slow and
steady wins the race, eh, Sonia?
Absolutely
Thrilled
Speaking of things that happened in September. Big news
blew out of Santa Susanna,
Spain, on the 24th when Team
Universe Heavyweight and
Overall champion Stephanie
Kessler earned the fourthplace trophy in the over-57-kilogram class at the IFBB World
Amateur Championships. It
was the best showing for a
U.S. athlete at the prestigious
international competition since
Colette Nelson snatched the
over-57 and overall honors out
from under the European heavy
hitters in 2004. As we said in
this column after her T.U. win:
Kessler killed.
Comstock
Stephanie
Kessler.
DOINGS
A Classy Farewell
Silverman
When I heard the news,
I almost couldn’t believe
it—Tara Scotti was throwing in her bikini after qualifying for the ’07 Figure O with
a third-place finish at the
postseason Palm Beach Pro
last fall. But, then, knowing
the 5’5” New York standout,
I didn’t really find it so surprising.
“Yes, it is true. I am done.
Finished. Retired,” said Scotti, who had dropped out of
competition once before, in
the early days of figure, and
had come back with definite
goals about making a mark.
“I want to get married, have
kids, eat and have some fun
A great run. Tara will be in the
for a little while.
audience come Olympia time.
“I had a great run and
enjoyed every minute of it,” she continued. “I never signed with
any big management companies, never trained with any of the
‘big name’ trainers and still managed to place in the top five in
almost every show I competed in (except the Olympia), including
a win in Toronto last year. I always did it my way. I am very proud
of that.
“I don’t want to overstay my welcome. Lots of young, new
girls out there with pro cards—this is their time to shine.”
The Olympia invite she earned in Florida was “just icing on the
cake,” said Tara. “It’s a nice way to leave the sport.”
MORE DOINGS
Personality Notes
• New Figure O
champ Jenny Lynn
has come up with
a motivating way to
spread her knowledge
as a personal trainer:
Jenny Lynn’s 12-Week
Transformation Challenge, in which “clients
compete for an all-expenses-paid weekend
to come and train with
me while I prepare for
the Olympia this summer,” said Lynn, who
moved from Northern
California to Louisville, Kentucky, a couple of months
ago (it must be love). The contest is going on as this
mag goes to press, and the deadline for entry is April 30.
Contestants receive individualized workout and nutrition
programs plus Lynn’s feedback and guidance throughout
the 12 weeks. Said Jenny, “The winner will be the client
who has made the most impressive transformation under
my guidance.” For compete info, check it out at
www.JennyLynnFitness.com.
• Also spreading the word about getting in shape is
’05 Fitness O and Fitness I champ Jen Hendershott,
whose The Curvelle Lifestyle, 9 Weeks to Slimmer
Thighs, Tighter Buttocks, and Sexier Curves, is set for
publication in midwinter. “The book is an inside look at
my way of thinking about training, nutrition and life. It is
a guide for anyone who is looking to become the best
they can be,” said Hendershott, who certainly knows a
lot about that subject. (Her Phat Camp 2007 tour will
hit 14 locations from the Gold Coast of Australia to New
York City, including co-ed camps—where does she find
the time?). The book goes for $29.94, including shipping. You can get yours, as well as the details on how to
become a Phat camper, at www.JennyH.com.
• How could anyone resist this must-have DVD?
“Timea Majorova: Living the American Dream”
presents an inside look at the Slovakian-born favorite’s
once-dreamed-of life in the “Los Angeles sand and surf,”
according to the cover blurb. This world fitness champion and “one of the most photographed fitness models…
takes you through a rigorous workout and a stretching
segment as well as a trip into the kitchen, a personal tour
and a behind-the-scenes look at a photoshoot.” Fans
of Timea will get an eyeful for sure—and maybe some
insight about
why this Slovakian siren
had the right
stuff to make
her dreams
come true. It’s
available at
www.Timea
Majorova.com
for $15 plus
shipping.
Silverman
I N T E R N AT I O N A L S TA G E
MORE SCENES FROM THE ’06 AMATEUR CIRCUIT
Jerry Fredrick
at the Cal.
Good to see
you, kiddo.
(Find Jerry’s
Hot Shots on
page 250).
Debbie Bramwell and Kenny
Kassel at the Arnold Fitness
Expo. Girl looks pretty good for
off-season.
More T.U.
backstage.
Cassandra Floyd
flashes the
biggest
smile for the
camera.
n
X-woma
Olivia
Garner
strikes a
pose.
Goody for
Grace.
Action Jack
son, caught
w
carb in her
mouth while ith a
lining up
backstage at
the Team Un
iverse.
ile out
Meanwh y, Bev
bb
lo
e
th
in
are
and Mark ets
ck
ti
g
in
k
ta
rtaining
and ente
.
ss
re
p
e
th
More celebrated lightweights. Claire
RohrbackerO’Connell takes
class honors at
the USA.
Two mighty lightweights. Carla
Salotti, ’01 T.U. Lightweight champ,
puts the finishing touches to ’06
winner Tracie Tucker’s physlque.
Nita Marquez announces that she’s retiring from
fitness to pursue her showbiz interests. Her
indie flick “The Whistler” recently premiered.
Also at
the USA.
Rebecca
Greaig sits
for the
quintessential
backstage
portrait.
And, finally. How could I have gotten through those long
ladies’ judging sessions without Grace’s Goody Girls?
No, they’re not some bizarre breed of scouts but a new
line of healthful snacks that are even tastier than thin
mint cookies. Grace Crane, wife of NPC/IFBB judge Matt
Crane, named her dairy-free candylike snacks after
some of her favorite women, and the gals practically
saved my life at the Figure Nationals. Carob and natural
peanut butter are the main flavor sensations (Who knew
carob could be so decadently rich?), with almonds,
raisins and grains jazzing up three melt-in-your mouth
varieties. They’re available at select East Coast gyms
and online at www.GoodyGirlsTreats.com, so give them
a nibble. You, too, can have Taylor’s Choice, Decadent
Debbie and Maddie’s Mojo melting in your mouth at contests or wherever a sweet pick-me-up is needed.
Halcyon
Duarte,
who won
our NPC
IRON
MAN Figure show
at the
season’s
start,
works the
Olympia
expo and
wonders
what’s in
store for
2007.
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].
Neveux
Mary Jo
Cooke got
her pro card
not long
after this
shot was
taken. By
season’s
end she’d
nabbed a
top-five finish—at the
Tournament
of Champions Pro
Figure.
Photography by Ruth Silverman
Nancy Di Nino Fuses Fitness,
Fashion and Dance While Working
as a Men’s Correctional Officer
Height: 5’ 3 1/2”
Age: 34
Weight: 137 off-season;
126 competition
Hometown: London,
Ontario, Canada
Current Residence:
Toronto, Canada
Occupation: Split between
working as a correctional
officer in a men’s jail and
fitness, modeling, dancing
and TV-personality jobs
Marital Status: Single
Workout Schedule: “My
workout schedule always
changes. It includes 1 1/2 to
two hours of cardio a day.
With weights I basically
train one bodypart a day five
days a week.
Sample Bodypart
Workout (Quads):
Walking lunges
supersetted with leg
extensions, 4 x 10;
weighted lateral squats
supersetted with walking
diagonal lunges, 4 sets;
leg curls supersetted
with weighted top
squats, 4 x 10-15; stifflegged deadlifts, 4 x 10
Favorite foods: “My
favorite cheat foods
are cookies, carrot
cake, French vanilla ice
cream and pancakes.
My favorite diet foods
are oatmeal and protein
pancakes made with
egg whites and protein
powder.”
Factoid: “I have an honors bachelor of arts
degree in sociology and criminology, hence
the reason I’m working in a men’s jail as a
correctional officer—although the fitness
industry work has been changing that career
direction. I’m a professional fitness model
and national-level figure competitor. I’m also
a professional salsa dancer who performed
at Bacardi World Salsa Congress in Puerto
Rico. I was the host for the DVD documentary
series of Arnold Fitness Weekend 2006, which
was produced by HBE. I like to see myself as
a positive role model fusing fitness, fashion,
poise and dance all in one dynamic package.”
Future plans: “I’ll be
taking some time away
from the stage to focus
more on marketing
myself and working on
projects related to both
fitness and mainstream,
urban and Latin
interests. I want to focus
on being a working
businesswoman in the
industry, concentrating
on opportunities
in modeling and in
television work—as
a personality,
correspondent and
event host—as well as
print and commercial
assignments.”
Contact info: www.
nancydinino.com or
www.myspace.com/
nancydinino.
Only the Strong Shall Survive
Reclaim Your
SIZE
POWER
and
How to Get Back Into Training After a Layoff
by Bill Starr
Model: Steve Kummer
G
etting back into a routine of
regular training is a recurring issue for a large majority of those who lift weights for
bodybuilding, strength or overall
fitness. People take layoffs for many
reasons. Nearly every scholastic and
collegiate athlete takes some time
off from lifting after the season is
over. Football players, in particular,
need to give their bodies some rest
in order for the dings and sore spots
to heal. Even those who didn’t get
much playing time are physically
and mentally tired.
Athletes not engaging in a contact
sport also need downtime. While
swimming or tennis may not be as
traumatic to the joints as rugby or
lacrosse, they place huge demands
on the muscular and nervous systems. In fact, it’s the nervous system
that’s often in the greatest need of
a break from serious training and
competition.
There are, of course, other reasons people take breaks. Serious
illnesses, severe injuries or surgery
force the most dedicated individuals
to forgo training. Moving to a new
location or taking a job that requires
extra-long hours often results in a
cessation of all physical exercise.
Vacations are not conducive to
systematic training for most. While
some may venture into the hotel fitness facility and run through a quick
circuit on the machines, that’s a far
cry from what they normally do.
Then there are those who take
layoffs from weight training on a
regular basis so that they won’t get
tired of the activity. My brother
Donald fit into that category. He
was a competitive powerlifter who
eventually won a national title in
the master’s division. Every summer
he left the weights alone and played
tennis three times a week. When fall
rolled around, he resumed his lifting
schedule in earnest. He told me the
layoff worked wonders for his mental approach to training. Physically,
he felt more refreshed and motivated to go after bigger numbers than
he handled before. It worked well
for him, Every year, on into his late
50s, he continued to make progress
on the contested lifts.
Since Donald took annual layoffs,
knowing how to get back into his
routine wasn’t a problem. It’s definitely a problem for most strength
athletes, however, because they
attempt to do too much too soon.
When the Johns Hopkins football
players started their off-season
strength programs, 95 percent of
them hadn’t trained since the end
of the previous season. They had
to prepare for midterm exams;
then came Christmas and midterm
breaks. They weren’t ready to deal
with big weights or expanded workloads.
Yet every athlete was bursting
with enthusiasm. Those who’d been
through the program before were
eager to set personal or perhaps
gym records. The freshmen wanted
to prove they could lift with the best.
Of course that attitude is what a
strength coach wants. On the other
hand, it must be held in check or
the consequences can be detrimental. It’s no easy matter convincing
robust young men that they have to
FINISH
Model: Lee Apperson
Getting back
into training
means you’ve
conquered big
weights in the
past, but don’t
rush to regain
that strength.
most discover that the layoff
has helped improve their technique on many lifts, especially
high-skill movements such as
power cleans, full cleans, power
snatches and full snatches.
You’ve also conquered certain
numbers previously, and, make
no mistake about it, strength
training is all about beating the
numbers. So a 300-pound bench
press or 400-pound squat is no
longer an intimidating barrier.
If you’ve lifted them once, you
have the confidence to do it
again.
You also understand how your
body responds to training and
specific exercises more effectively than a rank beginner. No
manual or coach can teach you
that. It’s learned only through
experience in the weight room.
So through trial and error, you
know that you can do a great
deal of back work and recover
all right, but any extra for your
upper body always results in
dings to your
shoulders and
elbows.
That’s all
good, right?
Not always: The
advantages can
turn into disadvantages if you
don’t pay attention. Because
your form is
perfect and the
numbers are no
longer a barrier,
there’s a tendency to overtrain
during those
first few weeks
back. Of course,
overtraining is a
relative term. The workload you’ll
eventually be able to handle may
be 10 times what you can get away
with when you’re starting back into
training. You have to organize your
program from the standpoint of
where you are now, not next week or
next month. Today is all that counts.
When in doubt, do a bit less. You
can always increase the intensity
and volume later.
It’s easier to hold back if you train
alone. Should you return to your old
START
handle much lighter poundage than
they know they can lift.
My primary role as strength
coach during the first few weeks of
an off-season program for any sport
is to hold the athletes back, limiting the amount of work they do at
a session as well as the amount of
time they spend in the weight room.
During this phase, less is better than
more.
The most important point to
keep in mind when starting back
into any weight program is to make
haste slowly. That’s because your
body is only able to adapt at a certain rate. For most of us that rate
is slow rather than rapid. Even fast
gainers have to be wary of doing too
much too soon. Invariably, one area
of their bodies doesn’t respond as
quickly as the rest, and when that
slower-reacting
bodypart or joint
can’t keep up,
something has to
give.
Even though
I realize it’s difficult, you have
to approach the
situation as if you’ve never trained
before. In truth, that’s where your
physical plant stands. Your mind
may be contemplating personal
records on a host of exercises, but
your body isn’t ready just yet.
The good news is that when you
start back into a training schedule,
you have several advantages over
someone who’s never lifted at all.
A huge plus is that you know how
to perform the various exercises
in your program. Oddly enough,
Why must you proceed with caution? Lots of reasons. Tendons and
ligaments respond to the new stress
much more slowly than muscles.
Once you overwork them, they don’t
just get sore, they register the abuse
in the form of pain. Few think about
it, but everything changes once you
start back into training—not just
your muscles and your attachments,
1
Model: Moe El Moussawi
Model: Berry Kabov
gym, your buddies will encourage
you to do another set or go heavier.
Not wanting to look like a wimp,
you comply—and suffer the consequences.
2
THE BIG THREE:
Model: Binais Begovic
POWER CLEAN,
SQUAT AND
BENCH PRESS
3
earned gains extremely fast. I was
aware of that while doing some
research for an article when I was
editing Strength & Health at York.
Yet it was no more than a theory
to me since I never laid off. The
longest periods that I missed lifting
were never more than five days, and
I did that only a couple of times in
my 15 years of competing in Olympic weightlifting.
Then my life changed drastically.
I retired from competitive lifting
and moved to Oahu. I decided I’d
switch from heavy weight training
to a form of exercise that was less
demanding on my body, especially
the joints I’d been pounding for all
those years. I rented a house on the
North Shore and planned on swimming, running, along with walking
lunges, situps, chins and pushups.
I’d figure out the rest as I went
along.
I firmly believed that the backlog
of hard work I’d
built up over
the years would
serve me well
into the future.
Boy, was I in for
a surprise—and
it wasn’t long
in coming. A
few days later
I was touring
the campus of
Church College
of Hawaii in Laie
(now BYU Hawaii) and walked
past a chinning
bar. Chinning
was on my list
of exercises to
do, and it was a
good time to get
started on them.
Before I stopped
training, I could
do 18 chins. So
I was shocked
when I barely
managed three.
To add to my
dismay, I had to
lie down on the
Keep a training log. Knowing
grass because
exactly the measure of your
the effort had
made me dizzy.
workload is useful in planning.
What a revelation. I had no
Model: Eric Domer
but your circulatory, digestive, respiratory and nervous systems are
altered as well. That doesn’t happen
abruptly. Rather, the transformations occur gradually. It may not be
the way you like it, yet that’s how it
is.
A hard fact that’s difficult to swallow is that once you stop training,
you lose strength at a rapid rate. Everyone is different, but the average
loss is 40 percent in just two weeks.
In addition to the top-end numbers,
your overall fitness level drops like
a rock, so you’re no longer able to
handle as much total work. While
we all know someone who comes
back to the gym and is right away
able to hit the same numbers he did
prior to the layoff, those are exceptions. I’ve been involved in strength
training for a long time, and I can
count all the anomalies I’ve seen on
one hand.
The rest of us lose our hard-
he did two sets, same reps, same
weight. Third session, he added another set. Then he began to increase
the poundage and number of sets in
his routine while adding more exercises. Within two months he was
once again ahead of me.
Observing how he slowly but
steadily increased his workload
and intensity drove home the point
that it doesn’t matter where you
start—only where you end up. So
that’s how I approached my comeback. I didn’t begin as timidly as my
former Dallas teammate, however,
since I’d laid off for only six weeks,
not six months. I started with three
sets of five on the Big Three and
proceeded from there. There was no
one in the weight room who knew
me and pushed me, and I wasn’t in
any rush to regain my old strength
level, which enabled me to move at
a slower pace than I would have had
I been at York or Muscle Beach.
I did two other things that helped
my cause greatly. First, I kept a close
record of every workout, and with
that data I was able to calculate
exactly how fast I was progressing
in terms of top-end numbers and
total workload. I didn’t record my
sessions right away. I just remembered them. When I added sets and
The most
important point
is to make haste
slowly.
Model: Justin Balik
idea I’d gotten that weak.
The very next day I was back
at the college and got permission
from the athletic director to work
out in the weight room in exchange
for helping the students. Since I’d
never taken an extended layoff, I’d
never had to deal with starting over.
I had seen others do it successfully,
however. The comeback that came
to mind happened at the Dallas
YMCA when I first got serious about
Olympic lifting under the guidance
of Sid Henry. One of the members
of our lifting team showed up after
an absence of six months. Later we
learned he’d been in prison, so I’ll
not mention his name. He told
us he hadn’t trained at all since
he left. He was starting back cold.
He had been one of the top 198pounders in the state. I watched
him with keen interest, since I’d
never seen an accomplished lifter
come back from scratch. That was
long before steroids came on the
scene; he was going through the
process without any pharmaceutical help.
At his first session back, he did
one set on three exercises: back
squat, power clean and overhead
press. He did 10 reps on the squats
and five on the other two lifts. He
used 135 pounds. That was it. I
was amazed and wondered how in
the world he expected to get back
to where he’d been by doing such
an easy workout. Next session
START
FINISH
more exercises, though, I found that
I couldn’t recall how much I’d used
for some of the intermediate sets.
Without that information, I was
unable to figure my workload precisely. That prompted me to write
my workout in my training book as
soon as 1 got home from the gym.
The record was one of the keys that
kept me from moving too fast. The
Everyone is different, but the
average strength loss is 40
percent after just two weeks of
inactivity.
back a bit. It was the long-term goal
I was after, and I didn’t care if it took
a year to achieve. It turned out to be
six months before I was back to the
strength level I’d had before stopping training. So much for storing
up strength for the future. It’s definitely not like putting money in the
bank—more like investing in a bad
stock. It was an ordeal, yet a couple
of good things came out of the
experience.
I learned firsthand how to
come back from an extended
layoff. I’ve used that information to help others in the same
situation over the years. Further, I vowed never to take such
a long break from training ever
again, a vow I have kept religiously. Once was more than
enough for me, and I’m certain
that going through the process
now that I’m older would be 10
times as difficult.
Model: Todd Smith
FINISH
numbers never lie.
Second, I paid close attention
to how I felt the morning after a
workout. If some muscle group or
joint was hurting rather than telling
me it had been worked just right, I
made adjustments, such as doing
less on exercises that involved the
offended group or joint for the next
few sessions. I didn’t mind pulling
START
A Very Special
Anyone who hasn’t trained for a
month or longer I consider to be a
restart. Athletes going into an offseason program usually fall into
that category. At their first workout
back they do three sets of five on
the Big Three: power clean, squat,
and bench press. I keep the weights
light, regardless of how much they
handled previously. For example,
someone who’s squatted 400 for
reps will do 135, 185 and 225. If I see
that he’s shaky with 185, he’ll stay
with that same weight for his final
set.
Second session back: same exercises, same reps, but one additional
set. They’ll move their numbers up
a bit, but not much. Our 225-pound
squatter will advance to 245. The
final workout of week one, five sets
of five on the Big Three, once again
improving the last set. Our squatter
will end the week by using 265.
All three workouts in the second
week will follow the same set-andrep formula, five times five, and the
Big Three are used exclusively. The
only change is that the last set on
each exercise will be higher than the
previous workout. The emphasis
during this breaking-in stage should
be on perfecting technique. Then,
when the poundage starts to be
demanding, the good form will be
an asset.
All auxiliary work is shunned,
with the exception of warmup exercises for the abs and lower back.
You want to reserve 100 percent of
your energy for those large muscle
groups.
By week three, most are ready
to kick it up a notch. Those who
have gone through the off-season
program before are usually ready to
begin handling a bigger workload
and doing a wider range of exercises. But not always. At that juncture the coach has to look at each
athlete and determine whether he’s
ready to handle more work or needs
to stay with the basics a little longer
in order to establish his foundation
even more solidly.
Those who train alone or don’t
have the benefit of a coach have to
be able to honestly appraise their
physical states. That’s where keeping a training log helps a great deal.
Knowing exactly the measure of
your workload is useful in planning.
If you’re not sure you’re ready to
add more lifts and move the numbers higher just yet, stay with the
same poundages for another week
or two. In the larger picture, moving cautiously is often the smartest
move.
Starting back cannot be rushed.
The process entails a lot more
changes in your lifestyle than just
going to the weight room three
times a week. You need to alter your
diet, including plenty of foods that
give you the energy you need for
your workouts and increasing your
intake of protein to rebuild your
muscles and tissues after they’re
depleted during a tough workout.
You’re going to require more rest
once you get back into the rhythm
of training and start handling demanding poundages. That might
require you to miss a favorite latenight TV show or pass on attending
a party with your friends. If you’re
serious about regaining your former
strength level, you must walk into
the weight room rested and ready
for the challenges ahead.
Odds are, you stopped taking
your supplements when you quit
training. Reinstate them because
they help you train harder and recover faster. You especially need the
water-soluble vitamins and minerals, which are lost rapidly when you
sweat. They must be replaced, or
your body won’t function properly.
Perhaps the most important
attribute that you must possess in
order to stay the course is determination. Just because you were
once able to bench 300, squat 400
and deadlift 500 doesn’t mean that
you’re going to automatically waltz
back up to those numbers. Coming
back after a layoff isn’t a cakewalk.
On the contrary, it’s a tough, uphill
fight with countless obstacles and
setbacks. Only if you’re able to remain firm in your resolve to regain
a high level of strength will you be
successful in your quest. Just keep
in mind that the rewards are well
worth the battle.
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
Thank You
From
MAGAZINE
To Our 2007
Sponsors:
TITLE SPONSOR
PRESENTING SPONSORS
We Couldn’t
Have Done It
Without You!
Look for results, gossip, video
and photo coverage at
www.ironmanmagazine.com
Progress: It’s Your Responsibility
A
t a certain moment in time, two guys—in two different
gyms—are about to do a set of squats. Both guys have
315 on the bar, and for both of them it’s a heavy weight.
The kicker is that the two even look pretty similar; they’re about
the same age, have similar physiques and so forth. What’s
funny is how differently they approach the set.
The first guy remembers all the bad stuff he’s ever heard
about squatting: how squats’ll ruin your knees and break your
back, and, if they don’t kill you, they’ll at least leave you with
a big rear end. He even tells himself that it’s okay not to squat
because other exercises are supposed to be just about as
good. He builds on that foundation, reminding himself that his
last set, 275, felt heavy, heavy, heavy, and it’s really not very
likely that he’ll make the 315. “Oh, well,” he sighs, “I guess I
can try, but I don’t think I’ll make it.” And he doesn’t.
The second guy thinks about all the good stuff he’s ever
heard about squats: how they’re magic for gaining size and
strength even if they’re a lot of work. He reminds himself that
Neveux \ Model: Moe El Moussawi
IRONMIND
Mind
the greatest squatter of all
time, Paul Anderson, said he
always hated doing squats
but that he put up with them
because he knew they’d
help him reach his goal of
being the world’s strongest
man. The second guy remembers that more than 50 years ago
heavy squat programs gave bodybuilders and lifters a whole
new idea of what “fast gains” and “big gains” meant. Using that
as a warmup, the second guy thinks to himself, “I can do this
weight.” And he does.
That’s only the tip of the iceberg. If you really want to see
how differently these two guys approach their training, listen to
what they say to themselves after the set.
The first guy says, “See, I knew it. I knew that weight was
too heavy. I knew I couldn’t do it. I’m not built for squats, and
they’re dangerous anyway. If I had better genetics, I could do
it.”
The second guy says, “See, I knew it. I knew that even
though it was heavy, I could do it. I knew it wasn’t much more
than I did last week, and if I tried hard, I could do that weight.”
Psychologically speaking, the key difference between the
two guys has to do with the idea of personal responsibility.
That’s not the type of responsibility that keeps people from
driving when they’re drunk or letting children play with loaded
guns. It has to do with your deep-down beliefs about who’s in
charge: you or someone else. Notice that the first lifter looks
outside himself for reasons to explain why he can’t squat 315—
it’s a dangerous exercise, he’s not built for the movement, he’s
genetically disadvantaged. He attributes control of his fate to
what psychologists would call external forces, things outside
himself—and if something is external, you can’t control it. That
reduces your motivation in a very big way. Why try to do something that’s beyond your control? This lifter admitted defeat
even before he got under the bar.
The second lifter feels that through his own efforts he can
make the weight. He sees himself as being responsible for
outcomes. His sense of personal responsibility and personal
control motivates him to try harder.
The eminent research psychologist Martin Seligman has
demonstrated that when people—or animals—have no sense
of controlling their fate, they quit trying and accept whatever
happens, no matter how shocking. On the other hand, if you
teach them that they have control over what happens to them,
they take charge of their situation, which gives them tremen-
Body
Editor’s note: 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. Or you can visit the IronMind Web
site at www.IronMind.com.
Destress
Think, Breathe, Repeat
eeling stressed? You
know that can have
a negative impact on
your muscle gains. How
do you fight it? Simple:
Mantrafy your life. A study
of more that 60 adults
who learned to silently and
consciously repeat a word
or phrase of their choice,
a.k.a. a mantra, were more
relaxed when they practiced
that technique throughout
the day. A few times during
the day, pause, close your
eyes and repeat the word calm a number of times as you
breathe deeply—and let the negative stress slip away.
—Becky Holman
www.X-tremeLean.com
F
Neveux \ Model: Karen McDougal
dous advantages. For anyone who’s lifting weights, the implications are striking.
Consider the person who feels he’s buffeted by external
forces. He’s forever blaming his lack of progress on everything from genetics to his gym to “those drug fiends.” Because he sees himself having little responsibility for or control
over those elements, his training gets less than 100 percent
effort.
On the other hand, the person who feels that what he
does directly influences what he gets always digs a little
deeper. He’s the guy who makes the last three reps that the
other guy never even tried. He’s the guy who takes the time
to pick a good training routine and stick with it. He’s the guy
who takes his nutrition and his recovery very seriously because he feels they matter.
Generally when you’re aiming for a star, it’s hard to go
overboard in terms of taking personal responsibility for your
fate, but there are exceptions. Suppose you’re sitting at a
red light, and out of the blue a car slams into you. Do you
take responsibility? “Of course not,” you say, but some
people blame themselves for everything that goes wrong in
their lives, whether or not it was something they could have
controlled. When they do this in a big way, they can become
seriously depressed. Be sure to keep an eye open to the real
possibility that there are some negative things that you may
not be able to control. There really have been crooked judging decisions, fraudulent food supplements and worthless
routines. Don’t make yourself responsible for things that are
clearly beyond your control.
Also, as Seligman points out, it’s wise to consider bad
events as temporary. When you miss a weight, don’t think
that means your progress is over forever—you just missed
the weight today. Next workout or the one after that you’ll
probably make it. It might be that you were tired today, a little
overtrained or any number of other things—none of which are
permanent.
Seeing yourself as being in charge and putting setbacks
into the proper perspective are two of the keys to making
progress: It’s your responsibility.
—Randall Strossen, Ph.D.
Brain Gain
Marijuana Memories
A
ccording to the January ’07 issue of Bottom Line
Health, people who smoked pot in the 1960s snd
’70s are less likely to develop Alzheimer’s disease
later in life. Why? Chemicals in the pot may reduce brain
inflammation and
improve memory.
So that’s how Keith
Richards remembers how to play all
of those songs during a Rolling Stones
concert.
—Becky Holman
www.X-tremeLean
.com
Bomber Blast
MIND/BODY
Musclebuilding, Bombing and Blasting
Persistence
Keep On Keeping On
Neveux \ Model: Mike Dragna
E
xperts suggest that
it takes about one
month for your exercise regimen to become ingrained as a habit. It takes
that long for your mind and
body to accept your new
schedule. Plus, a month
is right about the time you
start noticing results.
—Becky Holman
www.X-tremeLean.com
ful warmup), low-incline dumbbell curls (5 x 8)
supersetted with overhead triceps extensions
(5 x 15), standing bent-bar curls supersetted
with lying triceps extensions (same set-and-rep
scheme) and three quick sets of eight to 10 reps
of thumbs-up curls and machine dips. As usual I
labored continuously and with vehemence, yet I
set no records. The thrill was there in the midst of
it all, and so were the agony and retreat. I inspired
myself; I punished myself; I grunted, whined and
pumped.
Between sets I considered—earnestly sought,
stealthily hunted, deeply dug, humbly begged and
prayed for—better ways to achieve my goals but
returned to my original plan with hopeful resignation. Here’s a list of
the dumb questions I asked and answered in my search for the impossible: Is the routine too much? Probably. Not enough? Unlikely.
Does it work? Apparently. Is it fun? Not exactly. Is it new? It wasn’t
45 years ago, when I first unearthed it in a dungeon.
During my workout I also observed ever so briefly those around
me during their labor for muscle development and listed with
speedy efficiency the things one should not do: Watch people
around you and make dumb lists—hello; ride the recumbent bike
for 30 minutes while staring at the TV and then shower and leave;
talk in depth about the game or politics or the opposite sex or anything between or during sets; read a novel, the newspaper, comics or anything while on the gym floor; loiter, linger or hover about
benches and racks aimlessly or suspiciously while scratching your
butt; exert more time, energy and focus on updating a journal than
performing the exercises therein.
Get to work. You’d think it was Sunday at the park.
On the other hand, I also note that I unceasingly suggest, “We
blast it with all our might, bombers.” What’s that all about? What’s
the urgency? Where’s the pause for reflection? Are we all training
for a major contest, Miss Perfectly Cute and Mr. Large ’n Ripped?
For the most part (and for the sanity of mankind) we within the
sound of crashing weights are lifting to be happy, healthy and
fit—and those three terms are relative to you, yesterday, today and
tomorrow.
Some of us need to blast it, some of us must, and some of us
should. Some of us never have and never will. Some cannot; some
ask why. It’s all good, very good. I sort of lean on training intensity—bombing and blasting—because I’m a product of my era
and an adherent of my advice, a subject of habit and a victim
of need and a seeker of desires, and because it works. It works
when onward and upward is your favorite direction and your
tail’s on fire.
I swoop through the air in what can be best described as a
refurbished biplane with its tail on
fire. I make a lot of smoke, but it’s
mostly for effect.
Bomb away with sufficiency.
—Dave Draper
Neveux \ Model: Joe DeAngelis
L
ater this morning I’ll affix my armor (ragged
muscle T), gather my weaponry (ratty
gym bag full of junk) and cross the rugged terrain (the traffic-bound freeway) to the
battleground (the weight room), where the war
rages on (arm day). Danger, heroics and triumph
await me in the fields of cold steel. My strategy is
simple and straightforward: Engage the opposing forces head-on, swiftly and intensely. Apply
fundamental tactics, allow no retreat, and take no
prisoners. Fortify myself with a generous supply of Bomber Blend. (I can’t shake the warrior
thing.)
I have six curling movements in my arsenal for
biceps that I practice and interchange regularly: standing barbell
curls with a standard bar or thick bar or bent bar, seated dumbbell
alternate curls, low-incline curls (20 degrees), thumbs-up curls. I
choose two for my arm workout and superset them with any of
some six favorite triceps exercises: lying triceps extensions with
straight or bent bar, machine dips, overhead-pulley triceps extensions, pulley pushdowns in varying positions. Here I’m limited in
choice, as pain from injury restricts my gripping ability. No matter,
there’s plenty of ammo for getting the job done.
Preacher curls and one-arm concentration curls and steep-incline curls have lost favor with me as the years have gone by. They
seem dull, restricted in action—isolated—and less productive and
alluring than those on my short list. Wrist curls have been a part of
my bi-tri routine since I first discovered my arms.
We must not forget the added load our biceps, triceps and forearms undergo—and profit from—during the execution of shoulder,
chest and back work. When we design our routines, this consideration will save us from subtle overtraining or mild undertraining.
We’re a system of muscles working together, not a collection of
individual muscle groups working separately. With that awareness
every training session increases in value and purpose, incentive
and appeal. Scene fades to black.
The morning has come and gone, the freeways and byways
have been traversed, and the gym is behind me.
Here’s what my training session looked like today: wrist curls
supersetted with pulley pushdowns (5 x 12-15, after a care-
Editor’s note: For more from
Dave Draper, visit his Web site,
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.
New Stuff
All Hail
America’s newest number-one
fat burner
G
ood news travels fast. Introduce a product
that really works, and pretty soon consumers will beat a path to your door. Or, in this
case, to the doors of independent online ratings
services, where they’ll fill cyberspace with unsolicited praise for your product.
That’s been the story with Tetrazene ES-50,
the innovative new fat burner from BioQuest, and
competing manufacturers from coast to coast are
playing catch-up, trying to figure out how BioQuest
unlocked the physiology of fat loss so brilliantly.
The buzz started rising in volume earlier this
year. Satisfied consumers began flooding all the
big independent online consumer ratings Web sites
(rateitall.com, ratings.net, remedyfind.com and
others) with raves for Tetrazene. In a matter of weeks it rocketed to the top of
their user rankings for weight-loss supplements.
It may be because of Tetrazene’s innovative, superadvanced pairing of a
high-molecular-weight polysaccharide and a state-of-the-art thermogenic
complex. The stuff works, big time.
Remember when Xenadrine RFA-1, the ephedra-based breakthrough of
several years ago, took the country by storm? We could be looking at a similar frenzy here. Needless to say, now might be a good time to lay in your own
supply. Go to www.Tetrazene.com, or call (866) 377-8378.
Patented Bionic Gloves
B
ionic Gloves, from the makers of Louisville
Slugger bats and gloves, are designed for
a wide variety of uses. They’re made for
golf, light gardening, heavy gardening, professional
work, dress/driving, equestrian sports and now for
fitness training.
Bionic Fitness Gloves extend the line of bionic
glove technology originally developed for professional athletes in the National Hockey League
and Major League Baseball, with top players like
Manny Ramirez, David Ortiz and Chris Burke wearing Louisville Slugger TPX Batting Gloves. Many
more gloves for sports and recreation featuring
bionic technology are under development.
Until Bionic, most gloves were simple pieces of leather, cloth or a synthetic
material cut in the shape of a hand. Most gloves didn’t fit wearers well.
Studies show that such gloves typically reduced grip strength and caused
hands to tire. That’s because cumbersome glove materials resisted the natural hand functions of pinching, gripping and turning.
Bionic Gloves are different. Bionic’s supple, washable sheepskin leather
and many patented ergonomic designs work in
concert with the human hand, supporting the hand
and providing remarkable comfort. Wearers say
they “fit like a second skin.” Their snug yet flexible
and comfortable fit supports while helping ward off
blisters and calluses.
Bionic Gloves are available online at www.Bionic
Gloves.com or by calling toll-free to (877) 5-BIONIC.
They’re also available at selected retail outlets. The
suggested retail price is $39.95.
Gallery of Ironmen
MIND/BODY
MIND/BODY
Abe Goldberg
Lon \ Photo courtesy of the David Chapman collection
Warner
S
ome gym owners have made a
huge impact on bodybuilding.
One man who clearly relished
his job as coach, mentor and gym
proprietor was Abe Goldberg, and
he not only possessed one of the
finest physiques of his time, but he
also helped others to maximize their
athletic potential.
Abe Goldberg was born in the
New York borough of Manhattan on
November 14, 1924. He was small,
skinny and not particularly strong
until his brother persuaded the 14year-old Abe to begin exercising in
order to put on muscle. He began by
doing dips on a high bar, thus laying
the foundation for his magnificent
shoulder and lat development. It
wasn’t until he was 17 that Goldberg
bought his first set of weights and
began to work with them. The results
were quickly apparent, and, by the
time he reached 20, he had what was
described as a flawless physique.
Unfortunately, World War II had
broken out, and Goldberg joined
the Army to fight in Europe. Despite
being wounded in action, the young
New Yorker returned to bodybuilding
shortly after he was discharged. He
found work in the warehouse at Joe
Weider’s New Jersey headquarters.
There the young man was able to
pick up many important tips from
the bodybuilders who were always
around. It was a great place for a
young man with ambition and talent,
but it wasn’t where Abe wanted stay.
He wanted to open his own gymnasium and be his own boss.
In 1950 Goldberg finally inaugurated his own gym in New York’s Lower
East Side. It was a state-of-the-art
facility and soon became a mecca for
major physique stars of the time. Reg
Park, Marvin Eder, Clancy Ross, John
Tristram and even Joe Weider worked
out at Goldberg’s excellent gym.
While he was operating his business, Abe wasn’t
neglecting his own
muscular build, and
he continued to
compete in various
contests. Goldberg
had a magnificent
physique, but it was
his upper body that
attracted the greatest attention. Your
Physique magazine
declared in 1951
that Goldberg had
“perhaps the most
magnificent chest
development in
America.” Photos
from the time confirm that estimation.
Abe Goldberg remained a respected
figure in New York’s
physical culture
scene until his
death on December
4, 2002.
—David Chapman
New Stuff
MIND/BODY
Lean Body RTD
abrada Nutrition, the most trusted
name in sports nutrition, recently
introduced its new and Improved
17-ounce Lean Body Ready-to-Drink
shakes.
Lean Body shakes provide bodybuilders and other athletes with a quick,
all-in-one nutrition solution for building
muscle and burning fat. Just open the
convenient resealable cap and drink. It’s
that easy.
Here’s what you get in every 17ounce Lean Body Ready-to-Drink
shake:
• Award-winning taste—just like a
delicious, creamy milkshake
• 40 grams of LeanPro muscle-building protein—high in BCAAs and glutamine for high nitrogen balance
• 25 percent more protein than the
leading brand of Aseptic RTD
• Half the fat of the leading brand of
Aseptic RTD
• Patented container with resealable
top delivers more undenatured protein
than canned protein drinks
• No artificial flavors
• No sugar—zero! Great for low-carb
diets
• Lactose-free—no bloating or stomach upset
• Nutritional powerhouse—fortified
with 22 vitamins and minerals
L
• 20
percent
daily value
of fiber—to
improve
digestion
and cardiovascular
health
• No trans fats—no hydrogenated oil
Labrada Nutrition’s research and development team not only improved the
Lean Body formula nutritionally but also
created the best-tasting ready-to-drink
muscle shake ever.
It’s hard to believe that an RTD that
has won the American Culinary Institute’s Gold Medal Taste Award could
be made to taste even better, but the
new 17-ounce version is even creamier
and more flavorful than the original Lean
Body RTD. It tastes just like soft ice
cream!
Labrada Nutrition, headquartered in
Houston, was founded by bodybuilding legend and former Mr. Universe
Lee Labrada. Labrada products are
distributed nationally and internationally
through health food stores, fitness centers and gyms, and other retail outlets
and on the Internet at www.Labrada
.com.
www.Home-Gym.com Best Sellers
Books:
1) Train, Eat,
Grow—The
Positionsof-Flexion
Muscle-Training Manual by
Steve Holman
2) 10-Week
Size Surge by
IRON MAN
Publishing
4) “IRON MAN’s Swimsuit Spectacular #9”
5) “Ronnie Coleman’s The Cost of
Redemption”
Top E-book:
3D Muscle Building—Featuring Positions of Flexion, Mass
F/X Training and the 20-Poundsof-Muscle-in-10-Weeks Program by Steve Holman and
Jonathan Lawson (available at
www.3DMuscleBuilding.com).
3) The 7-Minute Rotator Cuff Solution by Joseph
Horrigan, D.C., and Jerry Robinson
4) The Precontest Bible by Larry
Pepe
5) Ronnie Coleman’s Hardcore
DVDs/Videos:
1) “Jay Cutler—One Step Closer”
2) “2005 Mr. Olympia”
3) “Ronnie Coleman’s On the
Road”
IRON MAN MAGAZINE PROUDLY PRESENTS:
MIND/BODY
The
Bodybuilding
Stars of
Tomorrow
Here Today!
To see more great photos
of upcoming physique stars, visit
www.GraphicMuscle.com
Comstock
Alex Azarian
Weight: 154 contest; 165
off-season
Height: 5’4”
Occupation: Physical
education teacher
Residence: Sunland,
California
Factoid: “I have a one-yearold daughter, Alexis.”
Contests: ’06 NPC L.A., 1st
welterweight; ’06 NPC USA,
1st lightweight
Merv
Liaw Teck Leong
Weight: 176 contest; 200 off-season
Height: 5’ 6”
Occupation: Businessman
Residence: Malasia
Factoid: Team Milos member
(www.MilosSarcev.com)
Contests: ’06 NPC Excaliber, 1st
middleweight; ’00 Mr. Asia
Readers Write
Jenny Worth Every Penny
or Scott, curl but on Vince Gironda’s spider curl bench
as well—lying horizontally, facedown, isolating the most
incredible biceps ever built. I wish all you magazine guys
would get it right and feature more fantastic Scott photos.
He was truly the California golden boy (from Idaho), with
Hollywood good looks and
a magnificent physique.
Richard F. DiLorenzo
via Internet
Editor’s note: Vince
Gironda created those two
curling benches, and Scott
popularized them with
his outstanding biceps. To
make up for our not mentioning him in that column, here’s a shot of Larry,
with guns ablazing.
Larry Scott.
Neveux
Southern States Thanks
Jenny Lynn.
I was starting to think that those fitness and figure
women were getting too muscular. Then I saw your Hardbody with Jenny Lynn [February ’07]. Wow! She has the most
perfectly toned body I’ve ever seen. No wonder she won the
’06 Figure Olympia. By the way, that Hardbody section was
worth the price of the issue all by itself!
Paul Wentworth
Atlanta, GA
FULL-PAGE PULL-OUT PICS OF THE WORLD’S FITTEST FEMALES
Timea Too
™
I know you recently did a
Hardbody with Timea Majorova [December ’06], but I
want an encore. Judging by the
cover of your February issue,
she has to be the most beautiful fitness model on the planet.
James Rolindo
via Internet
BIG-6
FAST-MASS FACTS
And the Science
of Muscle Size
Hardbody Extra!
Figure O Champ Jenny Lynn
3D CALVES
Build Lower Legs
From the Fourth
Dimension
FEBRUARY 2007
$5.98
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PLUS:
•More Incredible Jay Cutler Stage Shots
•Fitness, Figure and Ms. Olympia Coverage
•What It Takes to Gain Mega Strength
Editor’s note: Photographer extraordinaire Bill Dobbins (www.BillDobbins.com) shot that Hardbody for us.
You’re right, Timea is extremely hot and worthy of another
pictorial soon. We’ll work on it.
C1_FEB2007_03alt_F.indd 1
12/1/06 12:18:17 PM
Left-out Larry
Larry Scott does not get the respect he deserves as
the first and, in my opinion, the best ever Mr. Olympia.
The Sportsmedicine column on spider curls [January
’07] doesn’t give Larry his due. He was featured time and
again in the magazines performing not only the preacher,
I’m indebted to Lonnie Teper for his coverage of my ’06
NPC Southern States
Bodybuilding, Fitness
& Figure Championships in his News &
Views [February ’07].
Not only did he give
us two photos and
a fine write-up, but
you also included the
overall winners on
your contents page.
Peter Potter
via Internet
Editor’s note: We’re feeling generous, so here’s that shot
of your Southern States winners one more time.
Inspiring O
I was so inspired at the ’05
Olympia that I returned to the
’06 contest with my camera
ready. People don’t realize how
hard these guys work—and they
have extreme willpower. As tired
as they were from contest prep,
though, not one of those gentlemen refused me a photo.
Nicolette T.
Staten Island, NY
Nicolette with Ronnie
Coleman and Jay Cutler.
Editor’s note: Well, it’s
pretty obvious why none of them
refused a photo op with you.
You’ve got that Faith Hill thing
going on.
Vol. 66, No. 4: IRON MAN (ISSN #0047-1496) is published monthly by IRON MAN Publishing, 1701 Ives Ave., Oxnard, CA 93033. Periodical Mail is paid at Oxnard, CA, and at
additional mailing offices. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to IRON MAN, 1701 Ives
Ave., Oxnard, CA 93033. Please allow six to eight weeks for change to take effect. Subscription rates—U.S. and its possessions: new 12-issue subscription, $29.97. Canada, Mexico and
other foreign subscriptions: 12 issues, $49.97 sent Second Class. Foreign orders must be in
U.S. dollars. Send subscriptions to IRON MAN, 1701 Ives Ave., Oxnard, CA 93033. Or call
1-800-570-4766. Copyright © 2007. All rights reserved. No part of this magazine may be
reproduced in any manner without written permission from the publisher. Printed in the USA.

Iron Man magazine 2007 04 - Bodybuilding magazine free

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