http://imbodybuilding.com/free/manual/2005-08 by Iron Man

TOP 10 SUPPLEMENTS • NEW CHARLES POLIQUIN Q&A COLUMN AUGUST 2005 / IRON MAN—REAL BODYBUILDING TRAINING, NUTRITION & SUPPLEMENTATION

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To Order Call 1-800-667-4626 More info at www.muscle-link.com These statements have not been evaluated by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Send check or U.S. money order to: Muscle-Link, 1701 Ives Ave., Oxnard, CA 93033. Fax (805) 385-3515. All major credit cards accepted. Call for foreign prices. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease. Results using this product vary from individual to individual. For optimal results consult your physician and follow a balanced diet and exercise program.

www.ironmanmagazine.com \ APRIL 2006 261

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Available at Home-gym.com and Ironmanmagazine.com This DVD features Greg Plitt, one of the top ﬁtness models in the country and up-and-coming Hollywood actor. Seeing Greg’s muscles in motion will motivate you, as he demonstrates the techniques to sculpt your own impressive physique. Greg is a former Army Ranger and was recently voted Hollywood’s top body.

150 DECEMBER 2009 \ www.ironmanmagazine.com

August 2005

Vol. 64, No. 8

Real Bodybuilding Training, Nutrition & Supplementation

FEATURES You’ve Got to Squat!, page 86

72 TRAIN, EAT, GROW 70 Our TEG men are closing in on their most ripped conditions ever—and they’ve discovered some X-cellent sizebuilding innovations in the process.

86 YOU’VE GOT TO SQUAT! Greg Zulak has tips on how to get low to grow. Plus, some deep thoughts from the X-Rep camp.

108 NATURAL BODYBUILDING EXCERPT: 10 SETS OF 10 John Hansen takes you into the trenches with a simple but grueling technique that added two inches to his quads.

116 NUTRIENT TIMING AND THE ANABOLIC SWITCH Ken O’Neill interviews John Ivy, Ph.D., the scientist leading the way in anabolic-feeding concepts—as in when and what to eat to build mucho mass.

142 POWER PUMP 2 C.S. Sloan outlines a complete routine to ramp up your size and power. A bit of the old mixed with some new for a much bigger you.

Hardbody,

154 RESEARCH TEAM

page 200

It’s the ultimate mass hookup. The Motion Transfer Cable Attachment can give you a handle on building a bigger, broader back—as well as new size on other bodyparts too.

Sagi Kalev and Cara Basso appear on this month’s cover. Hair & Makeup Yvonne Ouellette. Photo by Michael Neveux.

162 TOP 10 SUPPLEMENTS Jerry Brainum slogs through the research and determines the best of the best supplements. Cool stuff here, gang!

188 SUCCESS STORY Power Pump 2, page 142

Ruth Silverman talks to Meral Ertunc, a former female bodybuilder who overcame illness to ignite a fitness rebirth. It’s motivation with a training-and-diet twist.

Research Team, page 154

200 HARDBODY Danijela Crevar brings European class and curves to American fitness.

216 HEAVY DUTY Mike Mentzer’s prescription for monitoring gains.

234 LA DOLCE EATER Jerry Brainum’s analysis of the Mediterranean diet. Is it the most healthful eating plan known to man?

262 ONLY THE STRONG SHALL SURVIVE Bill Starr’s rousing recollections of the rack, part 2.

Free download from imbodybuilding.com

DEPARTMENTS

32 TRAIN TO GAIN Lean-machine ignition, muscle firepower and getting huge like a bull. Plus, Joe Horrigan’s Sportsmedicine.

48 CRITICAL MASS Steve Holman swings the preex axe and demystifies the Fade X (no, it’s not a haircut).

56 NATURALLY HUGE Only the Strong Shall Survive, page 262

John Hansen discusses everything from size to sets to splits—and why cardio can be the pits.

60 EAT TO GROW Anabolic ammo, fat for muscle, girlieman protein and how creatine foils fatigue.

Success Story, page 188

78 SMART TRAINING Top strength coach Charles Poliquin writes his first column for IM, and it’s a doozy on bodypart loading— plenty of Q&As for bigger days ahead.

222 NEWS & VIEWS Lonnie Teper and Ruth Silverman team up to give you the goods on bodybuilding, fitness and figure. It’s inside stuff on the big and buff. Jerry Fredrick’s high-flyin’ Hot Shots are here too.

250 MIND/BODY CONNECTION

Randall Strossen, Ph.D., helps you understand overload. There’s also a Bomber Blast from Dave Draper, a bodyweight-blues perspective from Ron Harris and cool IM covers from all over the world!

Smart Training, page 78

Pump & Circumstance, page 228

News & Views, page 222

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tesst ha ing ananddfifitntnes d g FoFor rththeelalate boddybybuuilildin wssatat f o d o rl e wwoorld f bdotheeHHoot tNNew nd rereaad th agazain e.c.coommaand mmag zine.c n . a m m n o n a cle .com. wwwwww.i.iroronm pphhicicmmuusscle ra .g ra w .g w wwww

258 BODYBUILDING PHARMACOLOGY Jerry Brainum’s got new research on L-arginine and its connection to growth hormone surges. Wait, you mean those life-extension hippies were right?

272 READERS WRITE Amen to beautiful bodies, a story on fat-loss success and more thumbs-up for IM, TEG and X-Rep X-citement.

In the next IRON MAN Next month we take a long, hard look at the top10 diet fallacies plaguing just about everybody who eats, including bodybuilders. Like why breakfast shouldn’t be your biggest meal of the day and how eating before exercise can smash your gains to smithereens. It’s thought-provoking stuff from Ori Hofmekler, author of the Warrior Diet. We also have a get-big feature on the deadlift. Is it the king of the mass moves? You’ll get the answer to that and plenty of training tips and tricks to turn you into a human forklift. Plus, we have musclebuilding lessons from Stuart McRobert, Jerry Brainum’s analysis of nitric oxide and its pumpproducing properties and a lot more on X-Rep training. Watch for the sizzling September IRON MAN on newsstands the first week of August.

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John Balik’s

Publisher’s Letter

Founders 1936-1986:

Peary & Mabel Rader

Why Do You Work Out? The answer to that question depends on your goals, which in turn are very age-dependent. Nobody who starts working out as a teenager does so for the longevity and psychological benefits, but if it becomes a lifelong pursuit, you’ll end up appreciating them. My son, Justin, is at the teenage level, and I’ve been at it for 50 years. Working out with him reminds me of why I started—to get bigger, first and foremost, with getting stronger a close second. Not only that, but I wanted to get bigger and stronger quickly. Now, of course, I’m looking for different results. In addition to the pleasure of working out with my son, the psychological boost I get from the workout is far more important to me than the physical. Bigger and stronger are in my vocabulary, but in lowercase letters, whereas in Justin’s they’re bold and uppercase. The people who don’t progress from just wanting to get bigger and stronger to the next level—where they revel in the process itself—never stick with training over decades. Arnold always said to the complainers in the gym, “Find something you love to do, or you will never be very good at it.” In every workout I’m reminded by the process that the pleasure always follows the pain. In fact, the pleasure is especially sweet because it can only be earned. In the final analysis I work out for the pleasure of accomplishment, the reverie engendered by the pump and the knowledge that I have reoriented myself to the real world, the world of cause and effect. What’s so unique about barbell workouts is the almost limitless number of exercises and variations you can do with the tool. Vince Gironda often said that the barbell looked dumb but you had to be smart to use it. Because of the barbell’s limitless nature you can tailor your workout exactly to your needs and forever keep looking for the perfect program. Vince was the original mind/body-connection guy—if you can’t feel it, it isn’t right for you. That’s the other thing you learn: Not every exercise is right for you. The myriad differences in bone lengths, flexibility and muscle attachments among humans guarantee that some exercises won’t feel right. For example, two of my favorite lat exercises are undergrip and parallel-grip pulldowns. I like the stretch at the top, and I feel that those grips are easier on the biceps connections. Over the past couple of years, however, I’ve noticed that my elbows and shoulders are less accommodating to the rotation in those movements. So my aging joints have been making me back off two of my favorite exercises—not a good thing, especially given the psychological effects. Now along comes a patented, adjustable cable bar that’s really gotten me excited. The inventor, David De Jesus, sent me a sample. I immediately tried it, and from the first rep it was apparent that I’d found the answer to my problem. My shoulder and elbow feel fine, I can handle more weight, and I’m once again on the road to better workouts. For more on this unique piece of equipment see Research Team on page 154. It’s truly an elegant solution to a real problem. IM

Publisher/Editorial Director: John Balik Associate Publisher: Warren Wanderer Design Director: Michael Neveux Editor in Chief: Stephen Holman Art Director: T. S. Bratcher Senior Editor: Ruth Silverman Editor at Large: Lonnie Teper Articles Editors: L.A. Perry, Caryne Brown Assistant Editor: Jonathan Lawson Assistant Art Director: Christian Martinez Designer: Emerson Miranda Ironman Staff: Denise Cantú, Vuthy Keo, Mervin Petralba, David Solorzano Contributing Authors: Jerry Brainum, David Chapman, Teagan Clive, Lorenzo Cornacchia, Daniel Curtis, Dave Draper, Michael Gündill, Rosemary Hallum, Ph.D., John Hansen, Ron Harris, Ori Hofmekler, Rod Labbe, Skip La Cour, Jack LaLanne, Butch Lebowitz, Stuart McRobert, Gene Mozée, Larry Scott, Jim Shiebler, Roger Schwab, C.S. Sloan, Bill Starr, Bradley Steiner, Eric Sternlicht, Ph.D., Randall Strossen, Ph.D., Richard Winett, Ph.D., and David Young

Contributing Artists: Steve Cepello, Larry Eklund, Ron Dunn

Contributing Photographers: Jim Amentler, Reg Bradford, Jimmy Caruso, Bill Comstock, Bill Dobbins, Jerry Fredrick, Irvin Gelb, J.M. Manion, Gene Mozée, Mitsuru Okabe, Rob Sims, Leo Stern, Russ Warner

Director of Marketing: Helen Yu, 1-800-570-IRON, ext. 1 Accounting: Dolores Waterman Director of Operations: Dean Reyes Subscriptions Manager: Sonia Melendez, 1-800-570-IRON, ext. 2 E-mail: soniazm@aol.com 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: ironleader@aol.com Steve Holman, Editor in Chief: ironchief@aol.com Ruth Silverman, Senior Editor: ironwman@aol.com T.S. Bratcher, Art Director: ironartz@aol.com Helen Yu, Director of Marketing: irongrrrl@aol.com Dean Reyes, Dir. of Operations: ironreyes@aol.com Jonathan Lawson, Ad Coordinator: ironjdl@aol.com Sonia Melendez, Subscriptions: soniazm@aol.com

26 AUGUST 2005 \ www.ironmanmagazine.com

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SEXY ROCK-HARD ABS FAST The Secret to Etching your Granite-Carved Abs in 10 Short Minutes Picture this... you with tight, shredded abs, serratus and intercostals all sharp, sliced and visible from across the room or on the sun-glared beach! And from the rear, lower lumbars that look like two thick steel girders supporting your muscle-studded back. Imagine looking like a Greek god... in street clothes... in the gym... or anywhere. The incredible breakthrough design of the pad on the Ab Bench pre-stretches the targeted muscles prior to contraction, giving you a full-range movement, making each exercise up to 200% more effective. The Ab Bench takes the physiology of your spine into consideration with its design like nothing else on the market. The contraction takes place all the way into the pelvis where the abdominals actually rotate the spine, forcing the abdominals to completely contract... from the upper abs to the lower abs. Using the Ab Bench is the “sure-ﬁre” guarantee for you to get those attention-grabbing washboard abs. From full stretch to complete contraction—in total comfort. The Ab Bench is the most complete midsection exercise in existence. You’ll feel the incredible difference from your very ﬁrst rep.

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32 AUGUST 2005 \ www.ironmanmagazine.com

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FREE-WEIGHT NIRVANA 2,570 Pounds of Dumbbells in a 2-by-2-foot Area It’s the Ultimate Home Dumbbell Set. The Elite PowerBlock 5-90 pounds base set adjusts in 5- or 10-pound increments. It’s equivalent to 28 pairs of dumbbells, or 2,570 pounds of free weights, with a top weight of 90 pounds per Block. •Selectorized: Adjust the weight instantly by moving the pins. •Safe: No dangerous collars to loosen. •Comfort: The compact, smooth rectangular shape ensures no rolling and allows the use of heavier weights. •Patented: The PowerBlock was granted 5 patents by the U.S. government because the idea is so unique. FREE Bonus Pack: •Exercise poster pack $24.00 value. •CD ROM workout planner $39.95 value. •Free 12-month IRON MAN subscription $29.95 value.

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X FILES

Neveux \ Model: Darrell Terrell

Lean-Machine Ignition Prepare to get very excited: New research says you can jump-start your muscle building and fat burning with one simple training tweak. In the May ’05 IRON MAN Ori Hofmekler reported on a study at the Nutrition Research Institute in the Netherlands that found that intramuscular fat stores function as an important energy substrate during intense exercise. Did you get that? The more intensity you can generate in the gym, the more visceral fat you can shove into the fire (so training intensity equals not only more muscle but also less fat). You want etched, striated muscle filling out your frame? You gotta find ways to start intensifying your workouts—now! (We’ll give you the best ways in a moment.) One key to jacking up your fat-burning, muscle-building results is growth hormone. It’s a fierce fat burner, plus it amplifies the muscle-building power of other anabolic hormones. In other words, GH turbocharges your results. How do you crank up GH output? Intensity again—or, more specifically, muscle burn. So it’s a two-pronged approach: You need some heavy, intense training, and you should strive to torch every muscle (think bodypart barbecue). There are a number of good ways to do that: Drop sets. Do a set to failure, reduce the poundage, and then immediately do another set to failure (that’s two heavy sets of the same exercise back to back). Supersets. Do a set to failure on one exercise, and then move to another exercise for that same bodypart and immediately do a set (for example, lying extensions followed by close-grip bench presses for triceps). Tri-sets. The same as supersets, only you use three exercises instead of two. X Reps. At the end of a set to failure you move the weight to the X spot on the stroke, usually below the midpoint, and pulse in a five-to-10-inch range (that’s heavy power partials with a searing aftereffect). Those techniques enable you to use heavy poundages while also igniting muscle burn (just keep repeating that the fires of hell can fry more fat for fuel). If you’ve been following our “Train, Eat, Grow” series, you know which of those techniques has given us the most spectacular results lately—we even named our Web site after it: www.X-Rep.com. Our one-month transformation after we adopted X Reps stunned even us. Why do X Reps work so well? As we’ve explained in the magazine and at the Web site, they allow you to leapfrog nervous system failure at the end of any set, activating more high-threshold motor units, a.k.a. fasttwitch growth fibers. We’ve also discussed their ability to

You can get bigger as you melt off fat

overload the muscle at the key max-force-generation point along the stroke of any exercise, usually the semistretched position. Stretch overload has been linked to hyperplasia, or muscle-fiber splitting (maybe you can create new muscle fibers). New research also points to occlusion, or blocking blood flow, as a prime stimulus for explosive size and strength gains. X Reps definitely produce the occlusion effect at the end of a set. (The HighDefinition training program in the new diet and nutrition e-book X-treme Lean shows you how to maximize all of those effects.) What about a fat-burning growth hormone surge? Well, if you’ve tried them, you know that X Reps produce an incredible searing effect at the end of a set. We just said that intensity fires up fat burning and that GH is linked to muscle burn. Think about it: With X Reps you can do a heavy, intense set on a compound exercise, like bench presses, and then end that set with power partials to significantly magnify the burn. It’s a much more efficient method than any of the others, with almost zero wasted effort. (That’s why we say that each X-Rep set is at least three times as effective as a straight set to failure.) If you’ve been training for any length of time, you know it’s very difficult to achieve a burn on the big, compound movements. But with X Reps you can make it happen every time. Now you have the power to trigger a musclebuilding, fat-burning double whammy—heavy, intense multijoint exercise with a searing firestorm finale. Do you see why we’re so fanatical about X Reps—and why they were the key method we used during our one-month metamorphosis? They can do the same for you. Just remember that it takes some time to make new size, strength and leanness happen, so you gotta start now, at your very next workout. Think intensity, and incorporate X Reps on at least one set of a few select compound exercises to kick-start the lean-machine turbines. Then, after you’ve been consistent in the gym for a few weeks and watched your eating, you may surprise people when you peel off your shirt at the lake, beach or pool. “Wow! You’ve got abs! And you’re bigger than ever.” —Steve Holman and Jonathan Lawson www.X-Rep.com Editor’s note: The above is adapted from an issue of the IM e-zine. You can get one delivered to your e-mail box every week free: Visit www.X-Rep.com and click on X Files. Go to any of the past installments and click on the subscribe link at the bottom.

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HE WANTED TO FIGHTUntil I Crushed His Hand! He was big. He was pissed. And he wanted to kick my butt. There was no way out, so I extended my arm for the opening hand shake— and then I crushed his hand like a Dorito. Fight over thanks to the Super Gripper. If you’re after huge forearms with the crushing power of an industrial vise, get the Super Gripper. It’s the ultimate forearmand grip-building tool on the market because it provides your muscles with the two essential requirements they demand for awesome size and strength: speciﬁcity (mimics gripping action) and progressive resistance. You’ll develop a bone-crushing grip fast by adding one or a number of power coils for that critical progressive-resistance effect. Remember, when you wear short sleeves, it’s the lower arms that are exposed for all to see. You’ll want your forearms to be huge and vascular to match your thick, beefy upper arms—and now they will.

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Whatever You Need—Wherever You Train ™

TRAIN TO GAIN

HORMONE ZONE

Less Rest for a GH Surge?

EXERCISE SCIENCE

optimal Muscle Firepower And recovery An often repeated rule in bodybuilding is that you should rest a muscle group at least 48 hours between workouts. Training a muscle every day will lead to zero progress, since you never let the muscle recover. The recovery process involves a variety of reactions in the body, including complete muscle protein synthesis, without which there is no progress. Studies show that muscle protein synthesis peaks at the 48-hour mark following a weight workout. Replenishing the body’s store of glycogen—which powers bodybuilding workouts and is required for full muscle repair after training—also takes at least 48 hours. Based on those observations, it would make sense for you to rest at least 48 hours between workouts, but empirical evidence shows that 48 hours may not be enough. That’s particularly true if you’re over 40 or aren’t taking any anabolic drugs, which dramatically increase workout recovery. In a study presented at the 2004 meeting of the National Strength and Conditioning Association, researchers from the University of Alabama examined just how long it takes to recover from a weight-training workout. Fifteen men and 15 women were tested for strength recovery at 48, 72 and 96 hours after a weight workout consisting of three sets of eight repetitions done with weights equal to 65 percent of one-rep maximum in the bench press and leg press. Analysis showed that 66.7 percent of the male subjects needed 96 hours for full recovery on the leg press. In contrast, 93.3 percent of the men showed full recovery on the bench press after 72 hours. As for the female study subjects, 66.7 percent recovered on the bench press after 72 hours, while only 46.7 percent showed full recovery on the leg press at the 96-hour mark. The study underscores the long-held notion that it takes the legs longer than the upper body to recover from workouts. The study also showed that you need at least 72 hours of rest between workouts for the same muscle in upper-body exercises and at least 96 hours for training the legs. Keep in mind that muscles don’t grow and get stronger during workouts; they grow during rest. —Jerry Brainum

A study presented at the NSCA conference by researchers from the University of Connecticut examined whether taking short rests between sets influences the release of growth hormone during exercise. The subjects were 10 bodybuilders with at least four years of training experience and 10 untrained but physically active men. The bodybuilders had previously trained on programs that featured short rests between sets. For the study both groups did six sets of 10 reps on the squat, resting two minutes between sets. Both the trained and untrained men showed similar resting GH levels, and both groups showed a significant rise in the hormone after the workout. The trained men, however, produced more lactic acid, which stimulates GH release during exercise. The ability to train at higher level of lactic acid release appears to enable more-experienced bodybuilders to produce a superior GH response to exercise. —Jerry Brainum

34 AUGUST 2005 \ www.ironmanmagazine.com

Free download from imbodybuilding.com

Neveux \ Model: Mike Morris \ Equipment: PowerBlock selectorized dumbbells, 1-800-447-0008

Neveux \ Model: Jonathan Lawson

Growth hormone release during training

YOU CAN BENCH BIG Add 20 Pounds to Your Bench Press Almost Overnight! How would you like a surge in upper-body power and a bigger bench press—say, 20 extra pounds on the bar—after only a couple of workouts? Sure, adding 20 pounds to your bench in two or three training sessions may sound crazy, especially if your bench press poundage has been stuck in neutral for a while. But nine times out of 10 this stall is due to an easily correctible muscle weakness—not in the pecs, delts or triceps but in a group of muscles known as the rotator cuff. The rotator cuff muscles stabilize the shoulder joint. During the bench press and almost all other upperbody movements these muscles protect the shoulder joint and prevent ball-and-socket slippage. If these muscles are underdeveloped, they become the weak link in the action and your pressing strength suffers, or worse, you injure your shoulder. One of the best ways to strengthen this area and create an upper-body power surge is with direct rotator cuff exercise. Once you start using the ShoulderHorn for two or three sets twice a week, your pressing poundages will skyrocket. This device allows you to train your rotator cuff muscles in complete comfort and with precise strengthening action. After a few weeks you’ll be amazed at your new benching power. There have been reports of 20-to-30-pound increases in a matter of days. A big, impressive bench press can be yours. Get the ShoulderHorn, start working your rotator cuff muscles, and feel the power as you start piling on plates and driving up heavy iron.

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How to Get Huge as a Bull A couple of years ago I was out doing some fishing, and I happened to notice a couple of bulls across the river. They were both incredibly huge. “Look at that,” I thought. “They never train—don’t do anything really. They just munch grass, yet they stay huge. How do they do it? What’s their secret?” There must be some way we can get the kind of chemical boost the bull has without resorting to steroids. If a bull can do it, so can we. I have to be honest with you: I’ve been searching for this very secret for some time now, and I think I’ve stumbled on to something, so if you’re interested, keep reading. If your goal is to get huge, you should consider two things. One, of course, is anything that will increase the anabolic properties in your body. We know anabolism works because guys are getting huge on anabolic steroids. For me, however, steroids are out of the question because I’m not the least bit interested in trading in tomorrow’s health for some extra size today—plus they’re illegal. We’ve also got catabolism to consider. What happens after the workout may be even more important. Have you ever noticed how much size you lose over a weekend? Yet if you train on the weekend, you overtrain. So what’s the answer? Let’s go back to nature again. Ever hear what happens to a brown bear when it goes into hibernation? It recycles its amino acids with almost 100 percent efficiency. It lives almost entirely off its stored fat, holding most of its muscle tissue even during a four-month layoff. Can you imagine what would happen to your muscle size if you took a four-month layoff? If you go into a hospital for just a few days, you lose size like crazy, worse than you would if you just missed a few days of workouts. What’s going on? Why do you shrink so much more when you’ve gone though some kind of health crisis than when you’re just lying around? Whatever it is, we know that with just a little trauma your muscle size goes down the tubes. Dr. Rifat Latifi, under the direction of the Medical Intelligence Unit of the Cleveland Clinic Foundation, gathered research done by 35 eminent scientists and authored a book called Amino Acids in Critical Care. It’s full of the kind of answers we’re looking for. For example: Eighty percent of the amino acids you take in go to maintaining the integrity of the intestinal organs. They don’t go to the muscle tissue at all. Even more important: If you don’t provide enough amino acids to maintain properly functioning intestinal organs, the body synthesizes them itself. Neveux \ Model: Todd Smith

TRAIN TO GAIN

SUCCESS SECRETS

Because it can’t make them out of nothing, it steals them from muscle tissue. The worse the trauma, the more thievery goes on. Are you getting the picture? Let me summarize: If you want to hold on to your size the way the bull does, you’ve got to increase your anabolism and reduce your catabolism without resorting to steroids. Here’s how you do it. (I still haven’t figured out how to get huge without working out yet, but I’m getting warmer.) The first thing to do is make your workouts shorter—much shorter—so you get out of the gym before your growth hormone release peters out. Your goal is to finish within 30 to 40 minutes. You want your GH to still be at maximum level at the end of your workout (don’t forget to keep taking GH releasers like arginine pyroglutamate). You’re going to be working five bodyparts at each workout but with only one exercise per bodypart for four sets. The next thing you do is engineer your intensity factors. By changing the intensity on each set, you can attain maximum GH release without wiping out your joints. •Set 1 is done with light weight and high reps, slowly to full extension and full contraction. •Set 2 is done with heavy weight so you can just make six to eight reps. •Set 3 is your fear set. Use a superheavy weight. It doesn’t matter if you only get quarter reps. What you’re after is fear. •Set 4 is done with light weight, high reps—around 20—to failure from pain. In other words, you stop because you can’t stand the pain, not because of exhaustion. That workout, along with anticatabolics, is incredible for adding size for a whole range of reasons. •You’re in and out so fast. •Your GH release is still climbing. •It’s fun and exciting. •Reduced postworkout pain. •Catabolism hasn’t kicked into full gear. But it has kicked in, so you’ve got to focus on reversing, or at least slowing down, the catabolic process if you want to enjoy the secret of the bull. You have to build up a storehouse of all the goodies the catabolic process is going to rob from you. Dr. Latifi says that BCAAs, glutamine and ornithine alpha ketoglutarate are the first to go under surgical stress. That’s the reason we shrink like a leaky balloon after just a few days in the hospital. I don’t know about you, but even the smell of a hospital sends me into catabolism. Doesn’t it make sense, then, that any kind of stress triggers the same robbing pattern? I’m convinced the stress of a hard workout or the stress of reduced calories strips BCAAs and OKG from the muscles. You’ve got to replace them immediately after a workout. —Larry Scott Editor’s note: Get All 33 of Larry Scott’s reports. Thousands of words of pure training inspiration—a treasure! The collection includes a threering binder and table of contents for easy reference, all for the low cost of $87. Mention that you saw the offer in IRON MAN and receive, free, the “Larry Scott’s Peak Biceps” DVD. Call (800) 225-9752 to order.

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Don’t Overtrain! Or your gains will go down the drain, part 2 next training load before that. With too little recovery there’s no supercompensation or even simple compensation. In stead, your performance begins to decrease. The only absolute method of recovering from overtraining is to stop training and let your body rest. Most trainees don’t want to hear that, but you need to ask yourself the most important question: Why are you training? If overtraining has caused you to stop gaining, perhaps lose strength, lose your desire to train, have insomnia, lose your appetite and/or develop nagging aches and pains and injuries, you may need to adjust your training plan. The nations in the former Eastern bloc (Eastern Europe and Russia) had much success in their sports programs, in which they used many methods to help recovery: adequate sleep, naps, ice baths, cold whirlpools, saunas, contrasting hot and cold baths, massage, nutritional supplementation, proper hydration, electric muscle stimulation, stretching, relaxation and meditation techniques, visualization and “active” rest. The Western world hasn’t wholeheartedly accepted those measures because it’s very difficult to measure recovery other than by improved performance. Active rest was used in Eastern Europe during planned off weeks from training. It includes other activities to prevent deconditioning without taxing the system so much. Russian weightlifting coaches used to have the lifters play basketball during the weeks they weren’t training. The coaches felt that the fitness required to run up and down the court and jump for rebounds was very useful but not nearly as taxing as heavy training sessions. It’s important to note that the programs for lifters of this caliber were very carefully and scientifically designed. So what does all this mean to the average trainee? If you’re showing signs of overtraining, cut back on your workouts. You may find it effective to cut back for two to four weeks. If you’re currently training four days per week, you could train two days per week (a reduction in frequency). You could also cut your weight on lifts. For example, if you bench-press 225 for three sets of eight, try 165 pounds (a 26 percent reduction in weight/intensity) and do one set of six (a 75 percent reduction in volume). That serves several purposes: 1) You greatly reduce the total load on your body; 2) you build some recovery time; 3) you avoid significant delayed onset muscle soreness when you return to training, since you remain active with the weights but at a much lower level. It will be tempting to do more because you may feel that you left the gym without training. That’s exactly what you need. You shouldn’t feel tired. It will help you recover. It’s also wise to cycle, or periodize, your training. It is difficult for the body to keep improving in strength and size for weeks, months and years without a break. —Joseph M. Horrigan

Overtraining is a common problem in the gym. As I noted in last month’s column, overtraining results from too much volume (volume = sets x reps), too much weight (intensity), too much weight used too often (frequency), too little rest between workouts, too little sleep, poor nutrition, dehydration, jet lag and various social stresses that contribute to a lack of recuperation. The levels of overwork are commonly defined by the amount of time it takes to recover: 1) With overreaching the trainee needs a few days to three weeks to recover from the training load; 2) with overtraining the athlete needs three weeks to several months to recover. To avoid overtraining, you need proper recovery—the process by which you achieve the desired results from training and recuperate—so you can apply the next training load at the proper time. The workout requires recovery, and that leads to supercompensation, which is the sensation of being stronger than you were at your last workout. If too much time goes by, supercompensation is lost, so you must apply the

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TRAIN TO GAIN

SPORTSMEDICINE

Editor’s note: Visit www.softtissuecenter.com for reprints of Horrigan’s past Sportsmedicine columns that have appeared in IRON MAN. You can order the book Strength, Conditioning and Injury Prevention for Hockey by Joseph Horrigan, D.C., and E.J. “Doc” Kreis, D.A., from Home Gym Warehouse, (800) 447-0008 or at www.home-gym.com.

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TRAIN TO GAIN

FORM AND FUNCTION

Is Perfect Form Restricting Your Gains? and have discovered that overloading the target muscle group is what stimulates maximum growth. You have to find the right balance between lifting heavy, challenging, muscle-taxing weights and executing the exercise in a way that’s good enough to hit the target muscle group. That may take some time and practice—but you won’t find the right balance IN THE TRENCHES until you make it your goal to do so. Being The more we experiment at the IRON too rigid MAN Training & Research Center, the more while we discover the intricacies of musclestriving growth stimulation. Watching the champs to lift heavier weight can overly restrict the body’s train has also shed light on that fascinating natural movement—and is more likely to cause injury subject. than somewhat loose or more forgiving form. Of Skip La Cour, five-time Team Universe winner, is a good case in course, you don’t want to hurt yourself using form point. He doesn’t train with strict form and goes all out to use heavy that’s too sloppy. Where’s the happy medium? You’ll weights. Would you believe lateral raises with 90-pound dumbbells? have to experiment to find it. Most experts hammer on strict form, but the majority of the biggest Constantly challenging yourself to lift heavier bodybuilders are far from strict on most of their exercises. What weights takes courage. Check yourself. Make sure gives? that you aren’t striving to train heavier because of It has to do with overload, but it’s more than just using heavier and fear. It’s much easier to play it safe and overemphaheavier weights. The so-called cheating style of training overloads a size the importance of strict form than to face that key point on the stroke—the max-force point. That’s where the musfear. cle is in an ideal position to recruit the most muscle fibers; it’s where —Skip La Cour the muscle is semistretched. Scientists confirm that a muscle has to Five-Time Team Universe Champion be somewhat elongated to fire maximally, or generate the most force. For example, on a cheat curl, an Arnold favorite, you lean forward Editor’s note: Take your physique to the next and then heave the heavy weight to your shoulders with a backward level by ordering Skip La Cour’s new DVD “Packing lean. Where is the most overload occurring? Near the bottom, when On Muscle! Max-OT Style.” The two-disc, four-hour the arms are only slightly bent—before the elbows hit a 90 degree instructional and motivational DVD includes a comangle. (Max-force-point overload with cheat curls could be one reason plete week of training, additional exercises and Arnold’s biceps looked like bowling balls.) footage of cardiovascular training, inspirational acOur contention is that you can use strict form and save that maxtion-training segments, tips, contest footage and a force-point overload for the end of the set. On chins, for example, one-hour nutrition seminar. The six-time national when you can no longer get any more full reps, pulse near the bottom champion takes you into the gym as his virtual trainof the stroke, where there’s some elongation in your lats. We call them ing partner for an entire week of workouts. Only X Reps. Pulse till you can’t stand the burn, and you’ll get maximum $49.99 (plus $7.50 shipping and handling, total overload at the key growth-stimulation point and new fast-twitch-fiber $57.49; international orders add $15 shipping and recruitment without the danger of overly loose form. handling, total $64.99). Order online at www.skipla—Steve Holman and Jonathan Lawson cour.com. Credit card orders call (800) 655-0986. Or www.X-Rep.com send check or money or to: Skip La Cour, 712 BanEditor’s note: For more innovative training observations and croft Road #259, Walnut Creek, CA 94598. techniques, visit www.X-Rep.com. The Ultimate Mass Workout ebook is available there as well. What’s your definition of form? Think about that for a moment. How you perceive the meaning of form can make the difference between mediocre gains and packing on the most thick, rock-hard muscle possible in the shortest period of time. You want form that stimulates the muscle to grow, not rigid, deliberate exercise execution. Overloading the target muscle group—not strict form—stimulates maximum growth. Yes, I realize that the textbooks, personal trainers and know-it-alls in your gym always cram the importance of strict form down your throat. But what’s your real goal? To train in a manner that everyone in your gym will accept? Or to train in a way that packs on muscle faster? Focus on what produces results. Think about it. The safest, most conservative advice when it comes to training is, “Always use strict form.” But that advice won’t maximize your potential to build the most muscle in the shortest period of time. Have you ever noticed that some of the most successful and hardest working bodybuilders in the world use what a lot of people would call less-than-perfect form? The best bodybuilders in the world have gone beyond conventional thinking

42 AUGUST 2005 \ www.ironmanmagazine.com

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TRAIN WITH ZANE

Uplifting Feats Last November Sri Chinmoy invited me to participate in his 19thanniversary weightlifting celebration. Bill Pearl was to emcee the event. I’d known Sri Chinmoy since he first began lifting weights in the mid-1980s. It began with dumbbells. Since then it’s been onward and upward: heavier and heavier weights in various lifts, big animals like elephants, many smaller animals like sheep and cows, plus cars and more than 7,000 people. He does it to honor the achievements of others. He’s uplifting the world not only metaphorically but literally. While there are many spiritual leaders in the world, I know of none like Sri Chinmoy. He’s not competing with anyone else to lift more. He’s on a continual quest to better his own achievements, which are remarkable: 1,500 published books, more than 15 million bird drawings, and he’s mastered many musical instruments, including flute, cello, harmonium and sitar. During one of his many concerts he played 150 different instruments—which inspired me to expand my own musicianship. He is also a poet and songwriter. When I first met him at the United Nations, where he taught meditation, I was serenaded by his choir with the “Frank Zane Song.” The least I could do was to write songs about him and sing and play them in his presence at every opportunity. Guru, as he’s known, first lifted the prime minister of Bengal and his entire family using a specially constructed calf machine. There was a dial indicator for the lift, which showed they were lifted a total of two inches. Then began a series of lifts of notable individuals from the audience, in which Guru sat underneath, grasped a dumbbell-like bar with each hand and slid each bar upward—sort of like a dumbbell Smith machine—and held it for a second or two. Among those who were lifted that evening were track star Carl Lewis, gold-medal winner in the long jump at the 2004 Olympic Games; Tatayana Lebedeva, the “Black Swan,” and her husband; triathlete Bridgette McMahon and her husband; marathon champion Ludmilla Petrova; a 385-pound man (extra weight was added to make the total more than 450 pounds); media people; bishops and ministers, and many more. He lifted more than 70 people that night, bringing his total number of people lifted to more than 7,000 in the decade-plus years he’s been pushing skyward. Last to be lifted in this manner were Bill Pearl and his wife, Judy. Guru deliberately held them overhead for at least 10 seconds. Then he lifted more than 2,000 pounds a fraction of an inch in the standing and seated calf raise. I’d never seen 100-pound plates stacked so high in my life. Ten minutes later I was introduced, took the mike and performed my song as a tribute to Sri Chinmoy. Then he lifted me overhead with ease, placed a ribbon around my neck and gave me a trophy. I was high from my performance as well as

Motivation and record setting with guru Sri Chinmoy

from being literally lifted up. The evening had been scheduled to end at 9 p.m., followed by a feast, and it was already 10, so we all adjourned to a room adjacent to the stage and ate a delicious vegetarian meal. Then it was back to our seats for the rest of the lifting. Some really heavy stuff now: A large platform with four grand pianos was moved center stage and Guru’s calf machine was anchored to it. Roberta Flack, who was sitting in the front row, sat at one of the pianos and played while he lifted the entire ensemble over an inch off the floor. Then women from 40 different countries were calf-raised 20 at a time on the platform, and for the final events of the evening he lifted a car clearly an inch and a half off the floor. I could see it dangling. Finally, Guru lifted a human pyramid, quite an impressive sight. It was a very inspiring evening. A choir sang while the lifting apparatus was being moved, and Bill Pearl was the perfect moderator. Before the evening concluded, Bill read a letter from Chris Dickerson saying he was sorry he couldn't attend but was in the hospital suffering complications from a knee operation. Hope he’s okay. I was glad that Guru did no onearm lifts, because I know how hard that is on the back. What he accomplished that night was a tremendous show of tendon strength and stamina. He was lifting for more than five hours and hoisted more than a quarter of a million pounds. Some of his overhead lifts were done for 100 repetitions. I was sore and tired just from watching. I can imagine how Guru’s body must have felt afterward. Some people may ask, “Why does he do this?” Well, it’s not about breaking others’ records, although he’s accomplishing that. It’s more about breaking his own records, and he certainly did that. His students include world-record-holding athletes from all over the world. The feats of many appear in the Guinness World Records annual. One of his students holds the world record for setting the greatest number of Guinness world records. The example he is setting has inspired me to train harder in my own workouts. What excuse do I have not to train harder and more regularly when Sri Chinmoy is training heavier every day? Truly uplifting in every sense of the word. The evening concluded around midnight, and I was up early to catch my flight to San Diego. It wasn’t hard to fall asleep on the plane. The pilot brought me out of my reverie with, “Welcome to the world’s finest city.” It was great to be home again after a very full two days. Happy and inspired from the experience, I found the thought of training hard again appealing. I slept a great deal that day and dreamed of infinite possibilities. —Frank Zane Editor’s note: For more from Frank Zane, visit www.FrankZane.com.

44 AUGUST 2005 \ www.ironmanmagazine.com

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TRAIN TO GAIN

M U S C L E A N D H E A LT H

Hypertension, or high blood pressure, is a major risk factor for cardiovascular disease and the number-one risk factor for strokes. High blood pressure is often linked to excess weight, and is one reason that obesity is considered a risk factor for disease. But what about muscle? Some competitive bodybuilders roaming the professional posing dais today tip the scales at nearly 300 pounds, and they’re usually less than 6’ tall. Surely those men must also have blood pressure problems. According to new research findings, that may not be so.1 The study examined the effects of stress on high blood pressure and featured 127 black and white youths. Measurements taken during the study included lean body mass, fat mass and total percentage of bodyfat. The stress procedure consisted of a two-hour baseline, or rest, period, followed by a one-hour high-stress video game, then a two-hour recovery period. Blood and urine samples were taken every hour, and blood pressure was measured at 15-minute intervals. The primary finding of the study was that more muscle equals better regulation of blood pressure under stressful conditions. The converse occurs with higher bodyfat levels; that is, having a higher level of bodyfat produces problems with blood pressure under high-stress conditions. It all has to do with sodium. Blood pressure is supposed to rise under stress conditions. Blood pressure health problems arise when the pressure doesn’t rapidly subside after the stressful stimulus ends. The stress response of the body demands higher blood pressure to deal with higher heart activity and blood flow, as occurs during exercise. Without the increase in blood pressure, the body couldn’t handle stress conditions. An example is shock—when blood pressure drops due to some kind of trauma. Shock can lead to heart and multiple organ failure, which in turn leads to death.

People with excessive bodyfat levels, especially in relation to their lean mass, or muscle, show aberrations in the secretion of chemicals that control blood pressure modulation. Excess fat leads to an overproduction of angiotensin-1, which is converted into angiotensin-2 by specific enzymes. Angiotensin-2 is a potent vasoconstrictor, the name given to a substance that induces a rapid tightening of blood vessels. Angiotensin secretion retains sodium and induces a release of aldosterone from the adrenal glands, which also leads to sodium retention and potassium excretion. But excess angiotensin production only occurs with high bodyfat levels, not muscle. The lack of excess angiotensin in people who have more muscle means they can more rapidly excrete sodium. Sodium excretion, in turn, results in a rapid lowering of high blood pressure after stressful conditions. Many black people have a genetic enzyme deficiency that results in naturally higher levels of angiotensin and consequent higher blood pressure. Doctors treat that with drugs called angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors, which limit conversion of angiotensin-1 to the vasoreactive angiotensin-2 and thus lead to lower blood pressure. This study also has implications for bodybuilding. Having more muscle gives you more efficient and reliable sodium excretion and less water retention. The process can be speeded even more if you take in nutrients that promote sodium excretion, such as calcium and potassium. Magnesium also acts as a natural angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitor, thus helping prevent the onset of high blood pressure. —Jerry Brainum 1 Wilsona, M.E., et al. (2004). Relationship of body composition to stress-induced pressure natriuresis in youth. Am J Hypertension. 17:1023-1028.

46 AUGUST 2005 \ www.ironmanmagazine.com

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Preex Axe? Q: I read in your IM e-zine and in your Train, Eat, Grow series that the preexhaust technique is worthless. But you’ve recommended it in some of your books. Is the anti-preexhaustion a new revelation?

Q: Everything I read—in IRON MAN and elsewhere—recommends that weight-training athletes get about one gram of protein per pound of lean bodyweight; however, I’ve read that you recommend 20 grams of protein per meal at six meals a day. Unless you weigh 120 to 150 pounds, that appears to be inconsistent with the one-gram-perpound rule. Can you clarify? A: The 20-grams-per-meal number for protein is a bare minimum. I usually stipulate that it should be at least 20 to 30 grams, and postworkout you should get no fewer than 40 grams of fast protein with about 60 grams or more of fast carbs—as in the X Stack. I do believe in about one gram of protein per pound of bodyweight. So if you get an average of 25 grams at six meals and 40 grams at your postworkout feeding, you’ll have 190 grams, which is an acceptable amount for the average 190-pound lifter.

Neveux \ Model: Allen Sarkiszadeh

A: It’s not really a new revelation but a refinement of my past training ideas. I’m not anti-preexhaustion because I think it can work well at the end of a bodypart program, when you’re chasing fatigue. Or it can work up front for arms if you’ve trained a big exercise for another bodypart using your arms. For example, if you train chest and include bench presses and dips and then move to triceps work, you’ve already hit the tri’s with compound work. In that case, you can successfully use preexhaustion at the beginning of your triceps workout. The same with back and biceps. Nevertheless, as a rule of thumb I don’t think you should use preexhaust at the beginning of a bodypart routine. Here’s why: You fatigue the muscle with a lighter, less productive isolation exercise before you move to the more important compound movement without taking any rest. That means you have to use a lot less weight on the compound exercise, making it less productive. Fatigue lessens fiber recruitment. A recent study that was published in the Journal of Strength Conditioning Research verifies that. It was reported on in our January ’04 Train to Gain section by Jerry Brainum (Augustsson, 2003).

The researchers used leg extensions and leg presses for their preex analysis. Conclusion: “Activation of the frontthigh muscles was significantly less during preexhaustion compared to doing a single exercise.” That study mirrors our findings at the ITRC: Most trainees just can’t do the big, more important exercise justice if they prefatigue with an inferior isolation exercise first. Do you really think your squats will be as effective at packing on quad mass if you do them immediately after a set of leg extensions? Think about all the fatigue you create only to work fewer fibers with leg extensions. That’s why you can’t use nearly as much weight on what we call the ultimate exercise—the compound move for each bodypart that involves the most fibers. (In The Ultimate Mass Workout e-book we identify the ultimate exercise for every bodypart.) Fatigue stops you, and mass stimulation is significantly reduced.

Preexhaustion—doing an isolation exercise first followed immediately by a multijoint movement with no rest— lessens the effectiveness of the compound movement, which is the more important exercise. 48 AUGUST 2005 \ www.ironmanmagazine.com

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Steve Holman’s

stop the set. Nevertheless, it can be a great change of pace, especially on isolation exercises like leg extensions and leg curls, on which you can squeeze the target muscle at the top of the movement. 2) We’re no longer doing undergrip chins or pulldowns for biceps because our new split has back day usually falling right after arm day. If we did undergrips on arm day, we might have lat fatigue the following day, when we work back. 3) You can use undergrip rows instead of undergrip pulldowns or chins to work the biceps. We used to do straight-bar seated cable rows with an undergrip. Don’t fully extend your arms on your reps, and only pull till your upper arms are even with your torso. That minimizes back involvement to some degree, but your lats are still synergistic players in the exercise. 4) Drag curls, keeping the bar in contact with your body from start to finish on barbell curls, are technically a midrange movement, although there is very little synergy. I don’t consider them a very good midrange movement. In fact, when we’ve used them in our workouts, we’ve placed them at the very end, as more of a contracted-position exercise— before or after one set of concentration curls. 5) The seated lateral raises I do are a substitute for dumbbell upright rows. I somehow traumatized the brachioradialis in my left arm, Undergrip cable rows work well as a midrange exercise for biceps. which made uprights impossible. I improvised Don’t lock out your arms, and only pull till your upper arms are in with heavy seated laterals, which look more line with your torso. like a cross between laterals and upright rows. I sit at the end of a flat bench, the dumbbells Q: I have a few questions about Train, Eat, Grow, hanging at arm’s length down by my calves. With some Program 67 [May ’05]. You have behind-the-neck upper-body torque, I muscle the dumbbells up as high as pulldowns with a Fade X listed for midback. What is possible with bent arms, trying to keep my torso leaning a Fade X? On biceps training it looks as if you no forward to a degree. It’s similar to the way Larry Scott longer do undergrip chins or pulldowns. Why did describes doing laterals, but I do them seated. Granted, my you drop the exercises? You’ve said in the past that arms never get as high as parallel to the floor, but, as I said, undergrip chins are a superior midrange biceps I’m striving to overload the max-force point near the botmovement. Also, on the subject of biceps, you used tom of the exercise and mimic a move between a lateral to list undergrip rows. How did you perform them and a wide-grip upright row. So far it’s working very well— to work the bi’s and not just the back? Another bimy delts have gotten new detail and roundness from the ceps question: What Position of Flexion do drag exercise. My upcoming photo shoot will tell me whether curls fall under? I’m leaning toward midrange, but they’ve enhanced my overall delt development. the fact that the elbows are behind the body makes me think twice. Finally, the TEG article mentioned New! The sharp black POF T-shirt with the original that you do seated laterals in a not-so-strict form classic logo emblazoned in gold can give you that muswith 70-pound dumbbells. (Wow! You do all cular look you’re after. See page 211 for details. hardgainers proud.) Could you give me some insight on how you perform the exercise? Editor’s note: Steve HolA: Whew! Thanks for all those insightful questions, not man is the author of a numto mention the compliment. Here are the answers: ber of bodybuilding 1) A Fade X is doing X Reps in three positions. At the end best-sellers, including Train, of a set to failure on behind-the-neck pulldowns (these are Eat, Grow: The Positions-ofnot rotator-cuff friendly, but we do them after lats and Flexion Muscle-Training some midback work so the weight isn’t that heavy), we Manual. For information on pulse at the bottom position—about ear level—release to the POF videos and Size Surge the midpoint and pulse there and then release to near the programs, see page 93. For top max-force point and finish with power X Reps there in information on Train, Eat, the semistretched position. The burn is wicked, but it does Grow, see page 77. Also visit shortchange the semistretched-position overload because www.X-Rep.com. IM you hit that point last, when fatigue is screaming at you to 50 AUGUST 2005 \ www.ironmanmagazine.com

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Mr. Natural Olympia John Hansen’s

Naturally Huge

Size, Sets and Splits Q: In the March ’05 IRON MAN, you answered a question about building more size from a 35-yearold man. I’m 45 years old and work out with my adult sons. The two-days-on/one-off/one-dayon/two-off routine looks interesting, but can we customize it to a three-day split? We typically work out three days on, two off. A: The training routine that I recommended went like this: Day 1: Chest, arms Day 2: Abs, legs Day 3: Rest Day 4: Delts, back Days 5 and 6: Rest

Neveux \ Model: Tamer Elshahat

That gives you six days of rest before you train a bodypart again. The routine that you and your sons are following gives you five days of rest between bodypart hits. Since you’re training the body over three days, you can easily adapt your routine to the one I recommended in the March issue. Instead of training three days in a row, though, take a day off after two days and then another day or two off after the third workout. One rest day at the end will give you five days of rest between bodyparts, and two

A rest day after two intense training days in a row is mandatory for nervous system recovery.

days off makes it six days of recuperation before you train a muscle group again. Whichever you choose for the end-of-cycle rest, I think you should switch to the schedule I suggested and add the rest day on day three. That’s better than training three days in a row because you can rest the nervous system when you take the day completely off from training. I like to take a full day off after two days of heavy training. If I go more than two days in a row, I can feel that I’m not giving my all to the third workout because my body is tired (providing that I’ve been training intensely using the basic exercises and heavy resistance). So the muscle groups that I’m training on the third consecutive workout day suffer. When I take a rest day after two days of training and return to the gym on the fourth day, however, I’m able to recuperate from the heavy training, and I have the energy to give everything to that third workout. How much rest you need between workouts for each bodypart depends on how much intensity and volume you’re using. Your intensity and/or volume at each session affects your overall recuperation. I design my training program in cycles. In the off-season I usually train seven to eight weeks in a row before taking a full week off to recuperate. During that cycle I increase the resistance each week so every workout becomes more demanding. Of course, it’s impossible to continually increase the resistance. Sooner or later you’ll reach a plateau, and it won’t be possible to continue to up the weight. After seven or eight weeks of training harder and heavier each week, I find that my body is pretty beat up and ready for a rest. At that point I take a full week off from training and rest. When I start up again, my strength is slightly less than it was during my final week of training, but that’s to be expected. When I begin my next cycle, I start with a slightly reduced poundage and increase it from there. By the end of each cycle I’m using significantly more weight. During the building phase I concentrate on the basic movements: barbell and dumbbell bench presses, barbell and dumbbell incline presses, barbell squats, leg presses, barbell stiff-legged deadlifts, barbell military presses, seated dumbbell presses, barbell rows, dumbbell rows and deadlifts. They’re very demanding movements that require a lot of energy and involve many muscle groups. When you use those exercises with heavy resistance and push each working set to the limit, you put more stress on your body, which you must balance with superior nutrition and recuperation. Returning to the gym for another workout after you’ve blasted your legs the day before with heavy leg presses, squats and stiff-legged deadlifts will only compromise your body’s ability to recuperate. How many days you take before training a specific bodypart again depends on your level of training. An intermediate bodybuilder, still in the process of building strength and muscle mass, won’t be using enough resistance to stress the body to the degree that the muscles will need six or seven days of rest before they should be trained again. Designing a training routine to suit your specific needs can be confusing. That’s why I include an entire chapter on the subject in my new book, Natural Bodybuilding. Q: I do cardio four to five times a week for 30 minutes and burn between 300 and 400 calories. Is that enough to stay cut? Also, I love cold cereal, but I know, with all the empty calories and sugar, it’s bad.

56 AUGUST 2005 \ www.ironmanmagazine.com

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Mr. Natural Olympia John Hansen’s

Naturally Huge

Neveux

Neveux \ Model: Skip La Cour

Is Kashi GoLean a good You’re correct about some cereal—35 grams of carbs cold cereals containing lots of and 10 grams of protein sugar and empty calories. with fat-free milk? Lastly, The Kashi sounds like a good can I do 15 to 18 sets for choice. When you’re trying to muscle groups like chest lose fat, you should write and back, or is that overdown everything you eat training? I do about nine each day and record the to 12 sets for arms. calories, protein, carbohyA: You can use cardio to drates and fats you’re getting. burn fat or to burn calories, The total of your calories and depending on how you perthe percentages of the three form it. It sounds as if you’re macronutrients determine attempting to get leaner, so whether you lose or gain you should concentrate on bodyfat. Don’t worry too doing your cardio to burn fat much about just one food as opposed to merely burnlike cold cereal. ing calories. The number of sets you’re The more intensity you using for your chest and back use when doing your cardio, appears about right, but you the more calories you’ll burn. may be able to reduce it However, those calories can slightly. Make sure that you’re easily be replaced when you not doing multiple exercises eat your next meal, so burnthat train the same part of ing more and more calories the muscle. That will help isn’t the solution to getting you reduce the total number ripped. of sets for each muscle group. To speed up the fat-burnFor example, if you do four ing process during cardio, sets of wide-grip chins and you want to perform the four sets of lat pulldowns to exercise at a moderate speed the front, you’re using two To burn more fat, do your cardio when glycogen availabili- exercises that train the same that will use fat for energy. ty is low, such as after a weight workout. Going faster and harder will area of the back—the upper require immediate energy lats. By eliminating one of from glycogen, the stored carbohydrate in the muscles, as those movements, you can reduce the number of sets for opposed to using stored bodyfat to fuel the exercise. your back and leave room to train other areas of that musAnother trick to ensuring that you burn fat during your cle group, such as the middle lats, the lower lats and the cardio workout is to do it at a time when your glycogen lower back. stores are low. If there’s little to no sugar to be used for I currently do 10 to 12 sets for chest and back. Here’s a energy, your body will have no choice but to tap into the typical chest routine: barbell bench presses, four sets; stored bodyfat. Don’t forget that you only need to perform incline dumbbell presses, three sets; flat-bench flyes, three the cardio at a moderate pace, since a faster or harder rate sets; dumbbell pullovers, two sets. For back I may do widecould kick up the intensity too high and force your body to grip chins, three sets; barbell rows, four sets; seated cable burn glycogen. If your body is low on glycogen and you rows, three sets; deadlifts, three sets. perform your cardio at an intense rate, you risk burning Editor’s note: muscle tissue for energy. John Hansen has I’ve found that the best time for doing cardio is first won the Natural Mr. thing in the morning or immediately after a weight-trainOlympia and is a ing workout. Glycogen availability should be low at both of two-time Natural those times. In the morning your blood sugar level should Mr. Universe winbe low after a night of fasting, and the same is true followner. Visit his Web ing an intense weight workout. site at www As for the intensity level, you can gauge that by your .naturalolympia heart rate during the exercise. You want to perform cardio .com. You can write at 70 to 75 percent of your maximum heart rate. The to him at P.O. Box method of determining your maximum heart rate is to 3003, Darien, IL subtract your age from 220 and then multiply that number 60561, or call tollby .70 or .75. For example, my age is 42: 220 – 42 = 178; 70 free (800) 900-UNIV to 75 percent of 178 is 125 to 133. So when I’m doing my (8648). His new cardio exercise, I want to keep my heart rate between 125 book, Natural Bodyand 133 beats per minute. Anything less means I’m not building, is now working hard enough. If my heart rate is faster than that, available from the exercise is too intense, and I may be burning glycogen Human Kinetics John Hansen for energy as opposed to stored bodyfat. Publishing. IM

John@NaturalOlympia.com

58 AUGUST 2005 \ www.ironmanmagazine.com

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EAT TO SIZE SURGE

Anabolic Ammo The branched-chain amino acids, so named because of their branched structures, are essential amino acids—meaning that they must be supplied in the diet because they can’t be synthesized in the body from other amino acids and nutrients. The three BCAAs are leucine, isoleucine and valine and make up 20 percent of total protein intake. Other amino acids are primarily metabolized in the liver. BCAAs are metabolized mainly in muscle because the liver lacks the aminotransference enzyme that

Can branched-chain amino acids help you pack on more muscle?

initiates BCAA metabolism. In muscle BCAAs constitute about 30 percent of essential amino acid content. Among other functions they provide amino groups in muscle that are used in the synthesis of other amino acids, such as alanine and glutamine. Those, in turn, are vital because they’re primary substrates for the process of gluconeogenesis, the production of glucose in the liver. That’s where the anticatabolic effect of BCAAs comes from—the fact that they spare amino acid degradation for energy purposes. Leucine is the most potent amino acid for promoting protein synthesis. It activates a number of biochemical pathways that result in upgraded protein synthesis. Some nutrition researchers believe that the lean-

Neveux \ Model: Tamer Elshahat

Branchedchain amino acids before exercise can help preserve and build muscle.

tissue-sparing action of high-protein diets is due mainly to the increased leucine intake that occurs. The suggested amount of leucine needed to spare protein is seven to 12 grams a day. That’s considerably more than the generally recommended intake of one to three grams. Research shows that the anabolic effect provided by a high-protein meal lasts five to six hours, which suggests that you shouldn’t wait longer than that if you want to maintain the positive nitrogen state conducive to greater anabolic activity and muscle protein synthesis. Since muscle protein synthesis is lowest after an overnight fast, a high-protein breakfast is critical for starting the anabolic process. Studies also show that age may determine how the body handles amino acids. In both younger adults (aged 30 and under) and older adults (aged 60 and over), giving them essential amino acids creates an anabolic effect leading to increased muscle protein synthesis. When younger people add carbohydrates, they get additional protein synthesis. In older people, however, adding carbs totally blocks the anabolic effects of amino acid supplements. It stands to reason that if BCAAs have anabolic properties, they’re an effective supplement for those engaged in weight training. A study presented at the 2004 National Strength and Conditioning Association’s annual conference examined the relationship of BCAA intake to muscle gains. Six healthy, untrained men took either BCAA supplements or a placebo. Both groups took the

60 AUGUST 2005 \ www.ironmanmagazine.com

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KNOWLEDGE IS POWER The Best of Bodybuilding in the 20th Century Here in one deﬁnitive, information-packed volume, you have the best that IRON MAN has to offer. The articles and photos reprinted in IRON MAN’s Ultimate Bodybuilding Encyclopedia are of enormous and enduring value to beginners and experts alike. A tour de force of bodybuilding information with stunning photos of unrivaled quality, this massive volume covers every aspect of bodybuilding with authority and depth. Included is complete information on: •Getting started •Bodybuilding physiology •Shoulder training •Chest training •Back training •Arm training •Abdominal training •Leg training •Training for mass •Training for power •Mental aspects of training •Bodybuilding nutrition With IRON MAN’s Ultimate Bodybuilding Encyclopedia, you will learn Arnold Schwarzenegger’s insights on developing shoulder and back muscles, along with many other champions’ routines. This massive volume contains 440 pages and over 350 photographs.

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GROW Nutrition With a Get-Big Mission supplements for three weeks, followed by another week of supplement use combined with intense weight-training sessions. The men using BCAA supplements had lower levels of the enzyme creatine kinase, which is associated with muscle damage during exercise, and lower levels of cortisol, the body’s primary catabolic hormone. They also had consistently higher testosterone levels than those in the placebo group. The authors suggest that heavier people need to take greater amounts of BCAAs to get benefits. BCAA oxidation in muscle is activated by fatty acid oxidation. So when you do exercise that uses fat as an energy source, the fat released promotes the burning of BCAAs. That implies that BCAAs taken before you do aerobics will exert a sparing action on muscle protein, something that would be particularly helpful during periods of calorie restriction. The precise dosage of BCAAs for that purpose isn’t established, but good results have been obtained with five grams taken prior to exercise. One thing to keep in mind when supplementing is that you must maintain a certain ratio of the three BCAAs. Research shows that it’s best to replicate the ratio of leucine, isoleucine and valine found naturally in animal protein sources—2-to-1-to1. Taking excessive amounts of a single BCAA, such as leucine, activates enzymes that degrade the other BCAAs, leading to a possible amino acid imbalance. [Note: An amino imbalance may be the reason the study discussed on page 68 showed increased cortisol levels with hyrolyzed-protein-only meals.] —Jerry Brainum

ANABOLIC DRIVE

Watch your fat intake if you want lean mass

Fat for Muscle Australian scientists put one group of subjects on a very lowfat diet (12 percent fat calories) and another group on a high-monounsaturated-fat diet (35 percent fat calories with lots of monounsaturated fat—like nuts). After 12 weeks they found that both groups had lost similar amounts of weight and fat (roughly 13 to 14 pounds). But— here’s the kicker—the lowfat diet produced a much greater loss of lean body mass than the higher-fat diet (6.4 pounds vs. 0.9 pounds). Obviously, it’s better to keep your good fat higher for the sake of muscle preservation. —Jose Antonio, Ph.D.

E AT H E A LT H Y

Nutty Numbers

How many is too many when it comes to nuts?

You probably know by now that nuts are good for your heart because they’re high in monounsaturated fat, vitamin E and fiber. They’re also high in branched-chain amino acids. Many studies advise eating a serving of nuts every day, but what’s a serving? It’s usually an ounce, and the number that make up an ounce varies with the nut. Here are a few guidelines from the Cleveland Clinic Heart Center Newsletter: almonds, 24; cashews, 18; hazelnuts, 12; filberts, 12; Brazil nuts, eight; macadamias, 12; peanuts, 35; pecan halves, 15; English walnuts, 14. Remember, you can eat nuts as a high-protein snack, but they’re also great in stir-fry recipes, mixed in yogurt or added to salads. Always choose dry-roasted, unsalted nuts. —Daniel Curtis, R.D.

www.ironmanmagazine.com \ AUGUST 2005 61

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Calories and Catabolism

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Fish Oil, Aches and Asthma According to Dr. George Wesley, an Orange County, California, cardiologist, “I advise fish oil capsules for my heart patients, as well as suggesting that they increase their fish intake. That helps lower their triglycerides and LDL cholesterol (bad), while raising the HDL cholesterol (good).” If you’re a regular IM reader, you know that already, but here’s something you may not know: Arthritis can be relieved by oily fish and fish oil capsules because they help reduce inflammation. Not only that, but asthma may be controlled by the omega-3 fatty acids found in fish oil or oily fish, such as salmon, trout, sardines and mackerel (Nutrition Reviews, Dec. ’04). Often patients are fine at rest, with normal lung function, but develop asthma, or airway constriction, after exercise. It’s called exercise-induced bronchoconstriction, or EIB. In a number of cases—many involving elite athletes—fish oil supplements are credited with completely reversing EIB. —Daniel Curtis, R.D.

Did you know that when your calories drop below about 1,000 per day, your body starts to pull protein from muscles? You also begin to produce excess lipoprotein lipase, an enzyme that stores fat in your cells. So don’t think a huge calorie cut is going to make you leaner and more muscular. It could do just the opposite. Do as recommended in the e-book X-treme Lean: Gradually reduce your calories. Never let them dip below around 1,500 if you’re a woman or 1,900 if you’re a man. It’s not healthy and could make you shed muscle instead of flab. —Becky Holman www.X-tremeLean.com

MINERALS

Got Fat? According to researchers at the University of Tennessee, if you don’t get enough calcium, your body produces an excess of calcitriol, which promotes bodyfat storage. They found that people who get an average of 255 milligrams of the mineral a day were 75 percent more likely to be overweight than those who get an average of 1,350 milligrams a day. If you take a protein supplement or meal replacement, check the label for calcium content. If you’re not getting enough, supplement or add some dairy, like cottage cheese (high in musclebuilding protein and glutamine), to your diet. —Becky Holman www.X-tremeLean.com

Omega-3 fatty acids may help control or even cure some forms of asthma.

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Eat to Grow MIGHTY MEALS

Postworkout Protein Power Whey? Casein? It may not matter as long as you’re getting enough of the key aminos.

Neveux \ Model: Marvin Montoya

The two primary proteins in milk are casein and whey. Several highly publicized studies have shown that their metabolism and uptake characteristics vary in the human body. Whey is absorbed rapidly, peaking in the blood after about 90 minutes. Casein, on the other hand, is a slow-acting protein. It undergoes a type of clotting in the stomach that results in a more gradual release of amino acids into the blood. Studies comparing absorption characteristics of whey and casein show that casein promotes a slow trickle of amino acids into the blood that lasts as long as seven hours. Amino acids in the blood blunt muscle-protein breakdown. The rapid absorption of whey leads to greater oxidation of absorbed amino acids in the liver and a higher rate of muscle protein synthesis (because of more immediate amino acid availability) but fewer anticatabolic effects than casein provides. One important point about those celebrated milk protein studies is that they were done using nonexercising subjects during resting conditions. More recent research that studied exercising populations—both animal and human—show that supplying essential amino acids both before and after exer-

Whey vs. casein in the race to your muscles

EATER’S DIGEST

Salty Salivation Scientists have found that salt can trigger compulsive eating either because of hormonal changes or because simply making foods more flavorful triggers a bigger appetite. Salt can also cause thirst, and many people confuse thirst for hunger. The moral of the story: If you’re on a diet, go very easy on the salt and salty foods. —Becky Holman www.X-tremeLean.com

cise potently promotes muscle protein synthesis, leading to gains in muscle size and strength. But what about casein and whey? Since they get absorbed at different rates, would one prove superior to the other in promoting muscle gains after weight training? That was the precise focus of a recent study.1 Researchers gave one of three drinks to healthy volunteers one hour after they completed a leg extension workout. The three drinks consisted of:

1) 20 grams of casein 2) 20 grams of whey 3) A placebo, or inactive drink To track the metabolic fate of the proteins, the authors measured the routes of two essential amino acids, leucine and phenylalanine, in the blood. As expected, both proteins caused a positive protein balance. Leucine levels peaked faster after the whey drink, but levels of phenylalanine didn’t. Since amino acids compete for absorption carriers in the body, leucine may have proved superior in that regard. At the start of the study both proteins showed similar uptakes for phenylalanine, but casein showed a higher level in the blood as time continued, which helps confirm casein’s slow-acting attributes. On the other hand, at the conclusion of the study both proteins caused similar blood levels of phenylalanine. That led the authors to observe that from an anabolic perspective there were no significant differences between whey and casein intake following weight training. They also note that the only metabolic fate for phenylalanine is to be taken up by muscle for use in protein synthesis, while leucine, a branched-chain amino, can be metabolized in muscle for energy. The phenylalanine levels are a more accurate indicator than leucine of muscle anabolic response. The rapid absorption of whey also leads to more rapid leucine oxidation; the authors calculated negligible leucine oxidation from casein but a 57 percent oxidation from whey. Of the two amino acids examined in the study, only phenylalanine is used solely in muscle-protein synthesis. Since the fate of phenylalanine was similar for both whey and casein, the authors conclude that both proteins are equally effective in promoting increased muscle protein synthesis after weight training. —Jerry Brainum 1 Tipton, K.D., et al. (2004). Ingestion of casein and whey proteins results in muscle anabolism after resistance exercise. Med Sci Sports Exer. 36:2073-81.

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PERFECT POSTWORKOUT MEAL

To Kick-Start Immediate Muscle Growth After You Train Breakthrough research in exercise metabolism now reveals this fact: What you consume (or don’t consume) immediately after training plays a critical role in determining your success or failure! That time period is known as the “anabolic window” of growth. The biggest mistake many bodybuilders make is eating a meal of chicken breasts, baked potato or rice and vegetables after a workout. This is an approach doomed to fail because by the time this meal digests, the anabolic window has slammed shut. The best way to produce this potent anabolic effect is simply by drinking an amino acidand-carbohydrate supplement within 15 minutes after training! RecoverX™ offers the ideal combination and provides the perfect blend of nutrients for postworkout anabolic acceleration. RecoverX™ contains 40 grams of the quickest-acting bio-available protein from hydrolyzed whey—extremely fast protein for immediate delivery—whey protein concentrate, glutamine peptides, arginine and 60 grams of carbohydrate to give you the necessary insulin spike.

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Eat to Grow NUTRITION SCIENCE

Cancer Answer or Girlieman Protein?

Neveux \ Model: Todd Smith

Depending on whom you ask, soy products are either a such other androgens as dihydrotestosterone (DHT). Blocking great boon to mankind or the worst crap on Earth. Those who androgens before the prostate cancer has spread can lead to advocate the use of soy in its various forms, including soy a shrinkage or even disappearance of the cancer. Prostate protein, tofu and soy flour, point to many studies that show cancer is unaffected by any other type of androgen. protective effects. A study of Seventh Day Adventist men, for From a bodybuilding perspective it’s difficult to justify the example, associated drinking soy milk with a 70 use of soy protein. Although considered a complete percent reduction in prostate cancer. protein, soy is naturally low in the essential In vitro, or isolated-cell, studies show amino acid methionine. Companies that Sorting out soy that the primary active ingredients in make soy products circumvent that soy, isoflavones, can block the problem by adding methionine, confusion. growth of prostate cancer cells. which makes soy protein compare Soy also appears to offer protecfavorably to milk and egg protive effects against estrogenteins. Like whey protein, it’s also related cancers in women, rich in the beneficial branchedsuch as breast and uterine chain amino acids. cancers. Incidence of these Those pesky soy isoflatypes of cancer is lower in vones, though, may still Asian countries, where soy interfere. Studies examining intake is higher. the effects of soy protein on Those who eschew soy in testosterone are equivocal, any form point out that soy with some indicating an interisoflavones are phytoestrogens, ference and others showing no or plant estrogens. Although the effect. naturally occurring estrogenlike In the latest study to examine compounds have only about the issue, 35 men, aged 20 to 40, 1/10,000 the potency of direct estrogot either a milk protein isolate or one gen, they can still interact with hormones of two types of soy protein, one having a in the body. In fact, that’s the main controhigh isoflavone content and the other havversy about soy: It may not only exert estrogening a low isoflavone content.1 After 57 days those getting the soy proteins showed lower levels of like effects in men but also interfere with androgen, or DHT than those in the milk group. testosterone, activity. DHT is testosterone’s evil twin. It has little or no anabolic Scientists like soy’s interference with testosterone because effect in muscle but promotes prostate enlargement and cantest is linked to prostate cancer. While little or no evidence cer, acne and male-pattern baldness. Soy lowered DHT withindicts it as a direct cause of prostate cancer, it does speed out influencing 5-alpha reductase, the enzyme that converts the growth of that disease. Many forms of therapy used to testosterone into DHT. treat prostate cancer block the effects of testosterone and Only the low-isoflavone soy lowered total testosterone, and FAT FIGHTERS that occurred at the 29th day of the study. Free, or active, testosterone was also lowered but not to a significant degree. The low-isoflavone soy also increased DHEA-S, the circulating form of the adrenal androgen DHEA in the body. That may have affected the increased estrogen level seen in the lowisoflavone group at day 5, since DHEA is usually converted It was reported in the June ’04 into estrogen in younger men. edition of the American Journal of Collectively, these results don’t paint a pretty picture of the Clinical Nutrition that conjugated effects on young men who use soy. The mysterious aspect of linoleic acid can help reduce bodyfat. the study, which the authors didn’t explain, was why only the One year of CLA supplementation low-isoflavone soy produced those hormonal effects. Since produced as much as a 9 percent the isoflavones are considered the active components of soy decrease in fat in people who didn’t that affect hormonal activity, the higher-isoflavone soy should diet or up their exercise. Scientists have produced the greatest effects, but that wasn’t the case. say that CLA may lower fat storage There may be something else in soy that affects hormones. and increase its use for energy. —Jerry Brainum You may want to try supplementing with CLA if you’re looking to send your flab away. 1 Dillingham, B.L.,et al. (2005). Soy protein isolates of vary—Becky Holman ing isoflavone content exert minor effects on serum reproducwww.X-tremeLean.com tive hormones in healthy young men. J Nutr. 135:584-91.

Flab Away With CLA

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GRIND OUT THE GROWTH REPS™ Beta-Alanine Gives Your Muscles More Grow Power™ The biggest bodybuilders know that the last few grueling reps of a set are the key growth reps. It’s why they fight through the pain of muscle burn on every work set-—so they trigger the mass-building machinery. But sometimes it’s not enough; the burn is too fierce. Fortunately, there’s now a potent new weapon in this massive firefight to help you get bigger and stronger faster. Red Dragon is a new beta-alanine supplement that packs your muscles with carnosine—up to 60 percent more. Muscle biopsies show that the largest bodybuilders have significantly more carnosine in their fast-twitch muscle fibers than sedentary individuals for good reason: Carnosine buffers the burn to give muscles more “grow power” on every set. The bigger and stronger a muscle gets, the more carnosine it needs to perform at higher intensity levels. You must keep your muscles loaded with carnosine to grow larger and stronger. It all boils down to intensity and the ability to buffer waste products—hydrogen ions and lactic acid—so the muscle doesn’t shut down before growth activation. Straight carnosine supplements degrade too rapidly to reach the muscles; however, more than 20 new studies document that beta-alanine is converted to carnosine very efficiently. All it takes is 1 1/2 grams twice a day, and you’ll see new size in your muscles and feel the difference in the gym—you can double or triple your growth-rep numbers! Imagine how fast your size and strength will increase when you ride the Dragon! Note: Red Dragon™ is the first pure carnosine synthesizer—so powerful it’s patented. It contains beta-alanine, the amino acid that supercharges muscle cells with carnosine.

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Eat to Grow WARRIOR NUTRITION AND EXERCISE

Protein Meals Boost Cortisol Recent studies investigating the effect of high-protein meals on cortisol levels raise serious doubts about low-carb diets and their related ketogenic diets. Ironically, the high-protein/low-carb approach that aims to promote lean muscle gain and/or fat loss may cause exactly the opposite effect. Protein-rich food increases the level of the stress hormone cortisol. Elevated cortisol is also associated with a cascade of severe metabolic impairments, including insulin resistance, muscle waste and fat gain (in particular abdominal fat). Enhanced cortisol release after protein meals was recently investigated by researchers at the University of Lubeck in Germany. The study’s results, published in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism, reveal that intake of hydrolyzed, or predigested, proteins has a more profound cortisol-promoting effect than whole-protein foods. That indicates that the grade of digestion of protein and the presence of certain free-form amino acids are likely the culprits that trigger a high-cortisol response to protein. The study also revealed that cortisol secretion is increased only by oral protein intake and not by infusion. The researchers concluded that high-protein meals, in particular those enriched with hydrolyzed protein, trigger a pituitaryadrenal response that subsequently increases cortisol levels. [Editor’s note: Other studies have shown that taking essential amino acids with no additional carbs blunts corti-

SUPPLEMENT SCIENCE

Creatine Foils Fatigue Chronic fatigue syndrome, or CFS, is a disease that causes extreme physical and mental fatigue. Athletes often have to terminate the sport they’re involved in, and students may have to drop out of school until their symptoms improve. That can take months or even years. Unemployment is common, depending on the physical and mental stresses of one’s job. According to the December ’04 issue of Today’s Dietician, creatine may help: “Creatine, thought to build muscle and improve performance, is a popular over-the-counter supplement used by athletes. Smith and his colleagues wondered whether or not creatine could also be used to help relieve the extreme physical and mental fatigue that strikes CFS suffers.” The researchers state, “In addition to improving muscle metabolic function, recent studies show that creatine supplementation may improve nervous system function as well. Because mental fatigue is a frequent symptom of CFS, we thought that creatine may enhance both muscle and neural metabolic status in people with CFS.” —Daniel Curtis, R.D.

Say what?!

sol; however, any cortisol increase that does occur appears to be insufficient to produce a catabolic effect on muscle. See page 60 for other studies on the benefits of amino acid supplements.] Do all fast-releasing protein meals raise cortisol? The answer is no, quite the opposite. Numerous studies have demonstrated that combining protein with carbs helps negate the cortisol effect. Insulin is generally a potent cortisol blocker and partly contributes to its overall anabolic effect. Recent studies at the Department of Internal Medicine of the University of Texas in Galveston show that supplementing fast-releasing protein or essential amino acids with carbs (in particular simple carbs) has a substantial anabolic effect on net muscle protein synthesis, even in cases of highly elevated cortisol (hypercortisolemia due to prolonged inactivity). [For more, see the interview with John Ivy, Ph.D., that begins on page 116.] In practical terms, combining protein and carbs has a far superior anabolic effect to taking in protein alone. In other words, meat and potatoes are superior to meat alone. For recovery right after a workout you want to have meals that combine fast-releasing proteins such as whey with fastreleasing carbs. That way carbs will balance protein to help inhibit cortisol while inducing an immediate anabolic and anticatabolic effect in the muscle tissues. Be sure to get simple carbs right after you train, when insulin sensitivity is at a peak. The meals that follow the initial postexercise recovery meal should also be balanced with slow-releasing carbs to prevent high insulin spikes and consequent insulin resistance. Note that whole dairy, legumes and nuts are protein-rich foods that are naturally balanced with slow-releasing carbs. [Note: For a perfectly balanced postworkout supplement with fast carbs, fast protein and titrated creatine, try the X Stack. See page 166 or visit www.X-Stack.com.] —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 ori@warriordiet.com, www.warriordiet.com or by phone at (866) WARDIET.

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Train, Eat,

GROW Muscle-Training Program 70

From the IRON MAN Training & Research Center

Model: Jonathan Lawson

by Steve Holman and Jonathan Lawson • Photography by Michael Neveux ere’s a question we commonly get: “Are you guys insane? How can you train five days in a row, especially considering you’re drug free?” Answer: Yes, we are insane, but not just because we train five days in a row. We’re hardcore muscleheads, in our spare time anyway, which qualifies us as insane due to our rigid eating habits, intensity in the gym and obsession with muscle. Oh, yeah, and then there’s that five-days-a-week training thing. To be honest, hitting the weights five days straight is not the best strategy (ah, a breath of sanity). There’s too much overlap. For example, we train delts and arms one day, and the very next day we train chest and back. That doesn’t happen

every week, but it does happen. Here’s the problem: We’ve found that we need to hit each bodypart about every four or five days—once a week just doesn’t cut it. And we have to use a three-day split because a two-day split creates too much work at each session. So here’s what we’ve got: Workout 1: Chest, lats, midback, rear delts, abs Workout 2: Quads, hamstrings, calves, lower back Workout 3: Delts, traps, triceps, biceps, forearms That’s an ideal split—if we could train three days on and one day off. That way there would never be any overlap—a day off would occur after workout 3. But we have lives (Steve has two daughters who play in soc-

cer tournaments almost every weekend, and Jonathan instructs at carracing schools), so Saturday and Sunday training is out. That means we put up with five-days-a-week training—and the overlap—so we can still manage to hit each bodypart once every five days. As we said, though, a three-on/one-off schedule is the way to go if you’re willing to train on weekends. So maybe we’re not so crazy: We’re just trying to adapt our program to our situations and still make the best gains possible. Ah, but lest you think we might be close to normal, we come to the changes in our routine (prepare the rubber room). There are lots, as we’ve honed our program for both ripping and shaping our physiques. Ready? Let’s get crazy. www.ironmanmagazine.com \ AUGUST 2005 73

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Train, Eat, Grow / Program 70

Smith-machine inclines for upper pecs. This is our lead chest exercise. We’re still doing three work sets, although the first set of 10 is more of an extended warmup—we stop short of failure. We were adding weight to each of the three sets and doing X Reps at

the end of the last set. Now we add weight on the second set and tack on X Reps. For the third set we back off the weight slightly and do a stage set. In case you’re new to our ripping phase, you perform a stage set by doing two-thirds of the stroke to

failure and then repping out on the other third of the stroke. It works nicely on Smith-machine inclines because you can rep through the bottom two-thirds, right where the max-force point is, and really stress that key section of the stroke. Then you push to lockout—with help

IRON MAN Training & Research Center Muscle-Training Program 70 Workout 1: Chest, Back, Abs Smith-machine incline presses (second set with X Reps; third set staged)3 x 10, 8, 8 Superset Incline cable flyes (double drop; X Reps) 1 x 10(8)(5) Incline flyes 1 x 8-10 Decline-bench presses 2 x 10, 8 Wide-grip dips (drop set; first set with X Reps; second set staged) 1 x 10(8) Superset Low-cable flyes (drop set; X Reps) 1 x 10(8) Flyes 1 x 8-10 Narrow, parallel-grip pulldowns (last set with X Reps) 2 x 10, 8 Pulldowns (X Reps) 1 x 8-10 Tri-set Machine pullovers (X Reps) 1 x 8-10 Undergrip cable rows (X Reps) 1 x 8-10 Dumbbell pullovers 1 x 8-10 Machine rows (last set with X Reps) 3 x 10, 8, 6 Behind-the-neck pulldowns (staged) 1 x 8-10 Superset Bent-arm bent-over laterals 1 x 8-10 Bent-over dumbbell rows (X Reps) 1 x 8-10 Bent-over laterals (drop set; X Reps) 1 x 10(8) Incline kneeups (X Reps) 1 x 12 Superset Incline kneeups 1x8 Bench V-ups 1 x max Tri-set Ab Bench crunches (drop set; X Reps) 1 x 8(6) Twisting crunches 1 x 10 Bench V-ups 1 x max

Workout 2: Quads, Hams, Gastrocs Hack squats (last set with X Reps) 2 x 10, 8 Smith-machine squats (nonlock) 1 x 10-12 Leg extensions (drop set; X Reps) 1 x 10(8) Tri-set Sissy squats (X Reps) 1 x 8-10 Leg extensions 1 x 8-10 Sissy squats 1 x 8-10 Smith-machine squats (last set staged) 2 x 10, 8 Leg curls (drop set; X Reps) 1 x 10(8) Superset Stiff-legged deadlifts (bottom partials only) 1 x 10-12 Hyperextensions (X Reps) 1 x max Leg curls (X Reps) 1 x 8-10 Leg press calf raises (last set with X Reps) 3 x 20, 15, 15

Superset Hack-machine calf raises (drop set; bottom X, top X) Standing calf raises (X Reps) Superset Seated calf raises (X Reps) Machine donkey calf raises (X Reps) Seated calf raises or one-leg calf raises Low-back machine

1 x 12(8) 1x8 2 x 12 2 x 12 1 x 15-20 1 x 8-12

Workout 3: Delts, Traps, Triceps, Biceps, Forearms Rack upright rows or seated laterals (drop on second set; last set with X Reps) 3 x 10, 8(6), 6 Forward-lean laterals (double drop; X Reps) 1 x 10(8)(5) Smith-machine behind-the-neck presses (second set with X Reps) 2 x 8-10 Superset One-arm cable laterals (drop set; X Reps) 1 x 10(8) Incline one-arm laterals (X Reps) 1 x 8-10 Superset Cable upright rows (X Reps) 1 x 8-10 Shrugs (X Reps) 1 x 8-10 Decline extensions (second set with X Reps in press position; last set staged) 3 x 10, 8, 8 Tri-set Pushdowns (X Reps) 1 x 8-10 Elbows-flared pushdowns (X Reps) 1 x 8-10 Reverse pushdowns 1 x 8-10 Superset Cable pushouts (drop set; X Reps) 1 x 10(8) Bench dips (staged) 1 x max Preacher curls (second set with X Reps; last set staged) 3 x 10, 8, 8 Superset Concentration curls 1 x 8-10 One-arm dumbbell spider curls (X Reps) 1 x 8-10 Incline curls (double drop) 1 x 10(8)(5) Tri-set Reverse wrist curls 1 x 10 Forearm Bar reverse wrist curls 1x8 Dumbbell reverse wrist curls (X Reps) 1x8 Aftershock superset Wrist curls 1 x 10 Forearm Bar wrist curls 1x8 Dumbbell wrist curls (X Reps) 1x8 Rockers (drop set) 1 x 15(10) Superset Rope hammer curls (X Reps) 1 x 8-10 Cable reverse curls 1 x 8-10

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Train, Eat, Grow / Program 70

from your partner—and rep at the top third, flexing your chest hard on each partial. It’s like doing exaggerated X Reps first to really bomb the target and then finishing with pec flexes for a unique extended set. Incline cable flyes supersetted with incline flyes for upper pecs. After incline presses we isolate to chase the pump and ignite more burn for growth hormone release and intermediary fiber activation. We were doing a drop set on cable flyes and then grabbing a pair of dumbbells and doing incline flyes to blast the stretch position. Our only change here is that we’re doing a double drop on the cable flyes. What’s a double drop? Here’s the sequence: We start with incline cable flyes, getting about eight reps, firing out X Reps at the end of the set near the bottom of the stroke. We immediately reduce the weight and crank out about six more reps, this time squeezing at the top on the last rep (contracted-position X Reps). We reduce the weight one last time and rep out. When we hit positive failure, we grab a pair of dumbbells and rep out on incline flyes, doing only the bottom twothirds of the stroke to keep tension on the pecs and overload the stretch position. (You’re questioning our sanity again, aren’t you?) Bench presses for middle and lower pecs. We were doing two sets of flat-bench presses, but both of us began to have shoulder problems without much pec improvement. We switched to decline presses, and our shoulder pain disappeared—plus, we’re getting a much better pec pump. (We gotta review our Ultimate Mass Workout e-book more often. It clearly says that declines and dips are the ultimate exercises for middle and lower chest.) Wide-grip dips for lower chest. We were doing a drop set, with X Reps. Now we still do a drop set, but we do the X Reps on the first set; the reduced-weight set is staged—bottom two-thirds of the stroke first. Pulldowns for lats. We had been pyramiding over three work sets on medium-grip pulldowns. X Reps on the last set got our lats

burning, but they needed more of a jolt. We switched to close-grip parallel-handle pulldowns with the Motion Transfer Cable Attachment (for more on that piece of equipment, see IM Research Team on page 154). Wham! New size appeared almost immediately, especially down low, near the insertion. We moved the X Reps to the second set, and that really set our lats on fire. We follow those two close-grip sets with one set of medium-grip pulldowns with X Reps. Stiff-arm pulldowns supersetted with rope rows for lats. Our shoulders were aching on stiffarm pulldowns, so we decided to morph this superset into a tri-set— without stiff-arm pulldowns. Now we do machine pullovers with X Reps, undergrip cable rows with the Motion Transfer Cable Attachment and X Reps, and dumbbell pullovers with X-pletives. Yes, it’s a #%&@ sequence, but what a lat pump! Hanging kneeups for lower abs. After analyzing hanging kneeups, we realized that the exercise lacks resistance at the important semistretched position, when the legs are down and on the same plane as the torso. Not good if you’re looking for the most efficient exercise. If you’re familiar with XRep training, you know that the semistretch position is the key point for maximum fiber recruitment. We’re now doing incline kneeups with a weight attached to our feet—and our lower abs are screaming, especially during the X Reps at the end of the set. (For more on efficient ab training with X Reps, visit www.X-traordinaryAbs.com.) Free-bar squats for quads. Call us insane (again), but we just can’t get free-bar squats to work for us for very long. Either we get injured after a few weeks or we no longer feel our quads working during the exercise. This time it was the former, as Steve’s hip started hurting (old people tend to have hip problems). We’re now doing Smithmachine squats instead, one set, after our two sets of hack squats. We can go much deeper with impeccable form on the Smith machine, and we’re really feeling it in our quads. The more upright torso position enables us to reach the

quads’ max-force point—right below the parallel position—more effectively, giving our quads a much better thrashing (and, we hope, postponing hip-replacement surgery for Steve). Sissy squats supersetted with leg extensions for quads. You may have noticed a common theme in many of our changes this month: We’re trying to up the intensity and push more blood through the muscle by moving from supersets to trisets or double drops. For quads we’re tacking on another set of sissies immediately after leg extensions. Now the sequence is weighted sissy squats with X Reps, leg extensions and then bodyweight sissies. Be prepared for a scorching direct from the bowels of hell! Leg presses for hamstrings. This was our quad/hamstring transition exercise, but we couldn’t get low enough on leg presses to hit the hams (Steve’s arthritic hip was not happy). So we decided to go to our old friend the Smith machine for more squats. We move our feet forward to get hamstring activation, but the quads obviously take a hammering as well—which is why it’s such a good quad finisher and hamstring lead-in exercise. We still do two sets, but the second set is staged. We attack the bottom twothirds of the stroke first (the important max-force point) and finish with the top one-third, doing a quad squeeze at lockout on each rep. Drop set on hack machine calf raises for gastrocs. We do this after three sets of leg press calf raises. We used to massage our lower legs and scream with pain after the drop. Now we have to limp over to the standing calf machine and rep out—adding X Reps to the end of the set if we’re really feeling insane. Forward-lean laterals for delts. After three sets of our leadoff delt exercise, upright rows, we were doing a drop set of forwardlean laterals. Now we do a doubledrop set to—you guessed it—push more blood through the delts. Presses for delts. Dumbbell presses were all front delt. Sure, we need some front work, but we also want an exercise that brings in the

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Train, Eat, Grow / Program 70

medial head. That’s why we switched to Smith-machine behind-the-neck presses—two sets, the second with X Reps at ear level. Decline dumbbell extensions for triceps. We had been pyramiding over three sets, with X Reps in the press position on the last set. Now we’re adding weight for the second set only and doing X Reps on that set. For the third set we’re backing off on the weight a little and doing a stage set—very carefully and with attentive spotting. We do the bottom two-thirds of the stroke first, finishing with killer partials up top. Talk about longhead activation! Elbows-in pushdowns supersetted with elbows-flared pushdowns for triceps. That’s what we were doing; then we’d rest and do a set of reverse-grip pushdowns. Once again, we needed to up the blood-bath quotient, so we consolidated those three exercises into a

tri-set—with X Reps, of course. Cable curls for biceps. We outran the weight stack on the cable machine for cable curls, so we moved to preacher curls. The preachers are better for max-forcepoint stimulation anyway because of the slight slant of the bench. We do a straight set, X Reps on the second and a stage set on the third (repping near the bottom—maxforce point—first). Incline curls for biceps. We now do a double-drop set instead of a single drop in order to end our biceps workout with a bigger pump. Capillaries are throbbing and visible after this round. We’re even starting to see the small ones that crawl around to the triceps on the inside of the upper arm. Wrist curls for forearms. We ditched the solo sets and went to tri-sets for forearms, incorporating the Forearm Bar (available at www.Home-Gym.com), and doing

a drop set on rockers at the end. Stage sets, tri-sets, X Reps, double drops—it’s all in the name of getting more blood to the target muscle quickly. We don’t have time to waste, so we have to train smart. So far it looks like we’re getting in our best shapes ever in record time (check out our X-Blog at www.XRep.com for daily training updates). Maybe it pays to be a little insane in the bodybuilding game. Editor’s note: For the latest on the X-Rep muscle-building method, including X Files (past e-newsletters), X-Blog (training journal) and before and after photos, visit www.X-Rep.com or www .X-tremeLean.com. For more information on Positions-of-Flexion training videos and Size Surge programs, see page 93. To order the Positions-of-Flexion training manual Train, Eat, Grow, call (800) 4470008, visit www.home-gym.com, or see the ad below. IM

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Charles Poliquin’s

Smart Training

Bodypart Loading Q: Are there approaches to building each muscle group unique to the specific muscle? In other words, should the loading parameters for arms be different from those for legs? A: Definitely. Factors like innervation distribution, fiber type, range of motion and muscle architecture, to name a few, will dictate specificity in program design for a given bodypart. For example, let’s look at innervation distribution. There are only 30 to 50 muscle fibers per motor unit in the hand muscles vs. 500 to 2,000 in the calf muscles. That’s why in grip training it takes only 30 percent of maximal load for all available motor units to be recruited and why grip strength has far less potential for improvement than calves. Since your hopes of recruiting new motor units is small, your best approach in grip training is to use methods that promote time under tension.

Let’s look at fiber type for our other example. The soleus muscle has 88 percent slow-twitch fibers, while the gastrocnemius has 60 percent fast-twitch fibers. Therefore, higher reps are more indicated for seated calf raises, which isolate the soleus, than for standing calf raises, which recruit both the soleus and the gastrocnemius. A lot of bodybuilders start out in high school just training chest and arms. They make fair gains doing eight sets of 10 to 12 reps for those bodyparts, and then, when they start training other bodyparts, they apply the same recipe but don’t get the same results. Even elite bodybuilders find that out. I remember about 10 years ago having a conversation with French bodybuilding guru René Meme. He reported that his pupil Francis Benfatto was sporting exceptional arms, yet his legs weren’t keeping up. Once he stopped training his legs the same way as he trained his arms, he rapidly evolved into one of the most symmetrical physique stars of the past 20 years. So, yes, you need to take those factors into consideration when designing a training routine. Q: Is there any value for the bodybuilder in doing sets of 20 or more reps? A: Sets of 20 reps or more are indicated in some instances: 1) Sets of 20 reps or more work extremely well in certain forms of squats and deadlifts, and, of course, on the leg press high reps can be very effective at creating hypertrophy. The exercises make full use of the stretch-shortening capability of

The soleus muscle has 88 percent slow-twitch fibers, while the gastrocnemius has only about 40 percent slow-twitch fibers. So higher reps are more indicated for seated calf raises, which hit the soleus, than for standing calf raises, which primarily work the gastrocs.

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the muscle involved. For example, doing sets of 20 on dumbbell deadlifts is one of the quickest ways to pack pounds on a lean frame. Studies have also shown that on the bench press a load of 70 percent of maximum will give an individual only 12 reps, while at that same percentage of leg press maximum he or she can perform 40 reps. Twenty-rep squats were the foundation of many quick-mass-development programs years ago. Entire books centered on that methodology have been written, and the system is result-inducing for those willing to work hard. These exercises train muscles that tend to have a greater portion of lower-threshold fibers than other muscle groups, hence the need for higher reps. 2) For most trainees hypertrophy comes from repeated efforts of 40 to 70 seconds under tension per set. Therefore, depending on the range of motion and the tempo at which each rep is executed, sets of 20 can create hypertrophy. Calf training and forearm training are perfect examples. 3) Periodic phases of 20 reps per set let the central nervous system and the joints recover from all the pounding they get from normal workouts. For example, if you just did a 12-week peaking program to achieve new max weights in the front squat and the power clean, doing a few weeks of 20-rep sets will leave you refreshed for a new strength cycle aiming at personal bests, say, in the power snatch and squat. High-rep phases don’t need to be long. Usually one to three weeks does the trick for most individuals. 4) Another method of using high reps effectively is to conclude each bodypart What training principle do bodybuilders overlook the most? Overload! workout with a 20-rep set. My colleague Bill Starr is a fan of that method. It’s a great way to knock off the lower-threshold motor units once you’ve history that it’s not possible to increase loads each week, done your quality heavy work. That’s a very good plateau despite what some outspoken factions in the iron game buster for hypertrophy training. Make sure you do the say. Therefore, after a while methods of load increase need back-off set on an exercise that involves a lot of motor to be a little more complex than simply adding more units. For example, for triceps the close-grip bench press is weight each week. a much wiser choice than the rope pressdown. •The law of diminishing returns kicks in. When just Q: In regard to training methodology, what do adding weight doesn’t work, the strength athlete may conyou think bodybuilders overlook most often? clude that the rate of change in size and strength diminishA: What bodybuilders overlook most often is actually the es as time progresses. That increases the demand for most basic principle of resistance training—overload. The optimal loading methods and planned variation in the basis of improvement in size and strength is overload. training process. Muscles grow larger and stronger by adapting to a stressor. •The temptation is to use the heaviest weight possible The overload principle is that in order to progressively irrespective of the amount of momentum used, the deviaincrease size and or strength, you must expose the muscle tion in optimal technique or the fact that the range of to increased workloads. That includes increased volume movement may have shortened. (number of sets) as well as increased intensity (amount of It’s easier, physically and psychologically, to increase weight). If the stressor doesn’t increase, there’s no reason weight in small increments. Unfortunately, the smallest for further adaptation. plate available in most gyms is 2 1/2 pounds, so the smallWhile simple, that principle has caused some confusion est weight increment on a barbell is five pounds. That’s in strength training: usually the smallest increment on dumbbells as well, •The strength athlete learns early in his or her training which actually makes it 10 pounds (continued on page 84) 80 AUGUST 2005 \ www.ironmanmagazine.com

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Smart Training

Charles Poliquin’s

Smart Training Small magnetic weights easily attach to dumbbells and barbells so you can apply progressive resistance in small increments.

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 is fluent in English, French and German) and speaking to 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 Charles Poliquin on page 157. IM Bradford

(continued from page 80) when you’re using them in pairs. You can readily see that a five-pound increase is too big a jump if you’re using, say, a single 20-pound dumbbell to work the rotator cuff. That’s a 25 percent increase in load, like trying to jump straight to 500 pounds on a lift with which you were only doing 400. You need ways to coax, not force, your muscles to adapt to greater loads. The best way of coaxing your muscles is by application of the kaizen principle. In Japanese, kaizen means “constant and never-ending improvement”—small, incremental improvements made consistently will, over the long term, produce large gains. As practical advice for loading, that translates to increasing the weight at every opportunity, even if the increase is very small. There are three main ways of doing that: 1) PlateMates. These are small magnetic weights that attach easily to dumbbells and barbells. The manufacturer, Benoit Built Inc., offers them in 5/8-, 1 1/4- and 1 7/8pound sizes in two shapes: doughnut and hexagon. I recommend the doughnut-shaped weights, since they fit both circular and hexagonal dumbbells. PlateMates are available from Home Gym Warehouse. Call (800) 447-0008, or visit www.Home-Gym.com. 2) Small discs. All major weightlifting companies sell fractional plates in kilograms. For pound weights your best

bet is Ivanko. You can purchase them by calling (800) 759-6399 or (925) 253-0323 or by visiting www.ivanko.com. 3) Assorted weight collars. At any weightlifting equipment store you’ll see a wide assortment of collars. You can choose from a range of 0.5-, 1-, 1.25-, 1.5- and 2-pound collars. With the exception of the bench press and sometimes the squat, bodybuilders rarely make the effort to strive for higher loads on all the exercises they do. That’s the main reason most people fail to improve. By applying the kaizen principle, you can expect gains to come on a regular basis.

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w w w. C h a r l e s P o l i q u i n . n e t

Model: Chris Cook

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You’ve Got to

Squat! If You Want to Muscularize Your Thighs Fast by Greg Zulak Photography by Michael Neveux

ll bodybuilders—even those who loathe and fear them— admit that squats are the key exercise for developing massive, muscular thighs. Squats, squats and more squats have been the main leg exercise of bodybuilding champions for the past 75 years. Just about every champ you can name, with the exception of a few rare genetically gifted bodybuilders (Vince Taylor and Paul Dillett come to mind), has devoted many hours to the squat rack. The reason is simple. The thighs are the body’s largest muscles, and they’re very powerful. It takes heavy weights to build them up, and squats enable you to use very heavy weights. Squats develop the quadriceps, hamstrings, glutes and lower back. They also stimulate growth all over the body, not just in the thighs, because of what’s known as an “indirect effect.” Arthur Jones, the genius behind the Nautilus machines and training principles, first wrote about it back in the early ’70s in Iron Man.

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Model: Steve McLeod

You’ve Got to Squat!

Muscularize Your Thighs Fast

Leg presses are okay, but they’re no match for heavy squats in the mass-building department.

As Jones explained, when a muscle grows in response to exercise, it stimulates growth in other muscle groups at the same time. If you train a small muscle like the biceps or the triceps, the thighs, chest and back will experience some indirect growth at the same time, although very small amounts. The bigger the muscle group, the greater the indirect-growth effect. Since thighs are the largest muscles, training them stimulates the most growth in the rest of the body. That means you’ll never achieve your maximum size in the back, chest and arms unless you develop your thighs to their maximum potential. Even Vince Gironda, the famed Iron Guru and the man who

You’ll never achieve your potential for overall size unless you develop your thighs to the max. disliked the barbell squat so much he wouldn’t even allow squat racks in his gym, believed that “15 percent of upper-body growth comes from intense leg training.” Vince felt that regular barbell squats, at least the way most bodybuilders perform them—head down, lower back rounded over, and glutes coming up first, ahead of the thighs, in a kind of

combination good morning/bentover-squat—overdevelop the glutes, “spread” the hips and widen the waist, which reduces the V-taper. They also develop the upper thighs too much while not building the lower thighs, creating what he called turnip-shaped thighs. Vince felt that sissy squats, Smith-machine squats done with the feet forward and hack squats developed more aesthetically pleasing leg shape and mass while minimizing growth in the glutes, hips and waistline. Not everyone gets a wide waist or wide hips from squatting. Bone structure and other genetic factors play roles as well. Sergio Oliva, Frank Zane and Brian Buchanan all

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You’ve Got to Squat!

squatted heavy at different times in their careers but retained amazingly narrow hips, glutes and waistlines because of their gifted genetics. Sergio Oliva had been a weightlifting champion of Cuba before he defected to the United States. His narrow hips and waistline were actually handicaps when it came to cleaning, pressing, snatching and jerking heavy weights, but they made him a genetic freak in bodybuilding. It just goes to show that a genetic defect in one sport can be a blessing in another. Bodybuilders from the 1940s and ’50s didn’t have much choice when it came to exercises for developing their thighs. They didn’t have the multitude of leg machines that we have now. They had crude leg extension/leg curl machines, did barbell hack squats and sissy squats and used squat racks for their back and front squats. For that reason alone you had to squat in order to develop thigh mass and strength in those days; however, many avoided any variation of the exercise because doctors and so-called experts said squats caused knee injuries. They tried to get by with just sissy squats, leg extensions and leg curls and wound up with underdeveloped legs and unsymmetrical physiques. Then there were the guys who avoided leg training altogether out of sheer laziness. They were the guys who wore long pants at the beach along with the tank tops that showed off their arms and upper body. By the 1970s two machines had become pretty common—the vertical leg press and hack squat—and bodybuilders who vehemently disliked barbell squats avoided the squat rack like the plague. Instead, they did leg presses, hack squats, leg extensions and leg curls in hopes that it would be enough to build the thigh mass and muscularity that the squatters developed. Nevertheless, most of the big-time champions like

Free-bar or Smith-machine squats are your number-one mass builders.

Model: Jay Cutler

Muscularize Your Thighs Fast

Vince Gironda believed that 15 percent of upper-body growth comes from intense leg training.

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You’ve Got to Squat!

Model: Mike Dragna \ Inset: Chris Cook

Muscularize Your Thighs Fast

Altering your stance and bar placement can completely change the exercise.

Sergio Oliva, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Franco Columbu still did back squats as their main thigh builder. Then, in the late ’70s, Tom Platz arrived on the bodybuilding scene, displaying a kind of thigh mass and thickness and deep separation, even in his lower thighs, that had never been seen before. His main exercise was, of course, the back squat. Tom’s leg workouts were legendary for their intensity and sheer all-out effort. He’d sometimes squat with 405 pounds for 50 reps, and on his

so-called light leg day he’d put 225 pounds on the bar and squat for 10 minutes nonstop! When Platz went heavy, he used 600 pounds for 10 reps. That was unheard of in those days. Some of today’s bodybuilders, fueled by a plethora of drugs and supplements, can lift far heavier weights than Platz did in his prime, but he was the pioneer, the man who set the standard for the massive thighs we see on today’s champs.

When you get right down to it, with the exception of leg extensions and leg curls, just about every popular leg exercise is a variation of the squat. That includes lunges—a form of one-leg squatting—and leg presses. Some bodybuilders still maintain that squats hurt their knees and lower backs too much. That’s more a problem of proper exercise form and the need to warm up properly before lifting heavy weights. With the multitude of leg machines available today, there’s no reason to avoid leg training. There is no reason to have underdeveloped thighs because you’re afraid of injury. With all the variations of squats available, you can surely find exercises that will enable you to develop your thighs without damaging your knees and lower back. Off the top of my head I can list at least a dozen or more kinds of squatting exercises, starting with the standard full barbell squat, a.k.a. the back squat (hamstrings tight against the calves at the bottom). There are also parallel squats, half squats, one quarter squats in the power rack, squats in the top position for a count of 10 seconds in the power rack, bench squats, front squats, Jefferson squats, one-legged Smith-machine squats, Smithmachine squats with your feet six to 12 inches apart and forward so there is no stress on the lower back, regular Smith-machine squats, Smith-machine front squats, Smithmachine sumo squats (feet wide apart and turned out to the sides), Roman-chair squats, barbell hack squats, machine hack squats, hackmachine front squats, sissy squats, three-way sissy squats, reverse sissy squats on the hack machine, Zane Leg Blaster squats (requires a Frank Zane Leg Blaster device) and belt squats (requires a Parrillo belt squat machine), Smith-machine reverse sissy squats, Magic Circle squats (requires a Magic Circle squatting device), barbell lunges, dumbbell lunges, Smith-machine lunges, leg presses and one-leg presses.

Before squatting heavy, do a couple of light sets of leg extensions.

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Model: Jonathan Lawson \ Equipment: Powertec squat/calf machine

You’ve Got to Squat!

Muscularize Your Thighs Fast

Vince Gironda felt that sissy squats developed more aesthetically pleasing leg shape.

I should add that nearly every one of those exercises can be changed by your using a wide or narrow stance and, on the hack squat and leg press machines, by placing your feet low or high on the foot platform, with your knees in or out. You can dictate where you develop your thighs—the outer thighs, a.k.a. the sweeps, or the fronts of the quads—by either pushing from your heels or from the balls of your feet as you ascend. Obviously, you can increase training intensity by supersetting two leg exercises or performing drop sets with the help of a training partner. It would take a book to give proper coverage to every version of the squat, but here are training tips on the most basic variations to help you develop your thighs without injuring your body.

Full and Parallel Squats Performed With a Barbell or Smith Machine These are your number-one mass builders. Unless you’re injured or have a serious problem with your knees or lower back, you should always include a version of full or parallel squats in your leg routine. They require more warmup sets than any other exercise I can think of. Before squatting heavy, do a couple of light sets of leg extensions to get some blood into your knees and warm up your legs. Then perform anywhere from two to four warmup sets of squats, pyramiding

up in weight on each successive set. Remember that these aren’t allout work sets; they’re warmup sets. Pick a weight with which you normally could do 20 reps and do 10. Then choose a weight you could easily use for 15 reps and do an easy seven. And, finally, pick a weight you could squat for 10 reps and do five. If your knees still feel a bit stiff and sore, do another warmup set. If they and your legs feel well warmed up, then go ahead and start your work sets.

You can dictate where you develop your thighs.

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You’ve Got to Squat!

Muscularize Your Thighs Fast

Model: Lee Apperson

Sqatting in a Smith machine allows you to place less stress on your hips, glutes and lower back.

You can squat to parallel (thighs parallel to the floor) or do full squats (hamstrings tight against your calves), depending on your flexibility and preference. Place the bar across your traps, not high on your shoulders. Your lower back should be arched throughout the squatting motion. Never allow it to round over. Tilt your torso forward about 15 to 20 degrees and lock it in. Don’t lean forward as you descend or lean back as you come up. If you lean forward as you squat, your head goes down and your glutes come up—and you don’t want that. It leads to a rocking motion and puts tremendous stress on your lower back. It also causes the load to be placed too much on the glutes and taken off the quads, which is also what you don’t want. Another don’t: Don’t bounce up from the bottom position, as it’s very dangerous for the knees. Try to lock your body into that one tilted-

forward position as you squat and come up, staying tight throughout the set. On the way up push up hard from your heels, trying to keep your hips and heels directly under the bar. For safety reasons it’s best to squat in a power rack, with the safety catches set about where you’d be in the bottom position. That way you don’t have to worry about failing on your last reps and getting stuck in the deep-squat position. You can squat till failure and feel secure that the catches are there in case you need to dump the bar.

Try to lock your body into a tiltedforward position as you squat and come up.

Even when you’re squatting in a power rack, it’s still good to have a training partner—who, ideally, is about your size so the safety catches are set right for both of you. A training partner can give you encouragement and help you do a forced rep by pulling up on the bar slightly, enough to get you past the sticking point. As for Smith-machine squats, some say they are for wimps, but Dorian Yates preferred them to barbell squats, and his thighs were massive beyond belief. Squatting in the Smith machine allows you to place less stress on your hips, glutes and lower back because you can position your feet forward in front of the machine and then lean back into the bar—with the bar high on your shoulders—making it a very pure thigh exercise (especially if you use a narrow stance—say, with your feet six to 12 inches apart). The machine’s design lends itself to deep, full squats, so take advantage of that. Depending on what part of the thigh you want to develop, push off at the bottom from either your heels, for outerthigh mass, or the balls of your feet, for middle-thigh development. Pushing from the heels is best suited to squats done when your feet are shoulder width apart, while pushing from the balls of your feet is best done with your feet six to 12 inches apart.

Sumo Squats You can do these with a barbell or in a Smith machine. The Smithmachine version is a little easier and safer because you don’t have to worry about balancing the bar. In either case take a wide stance—a foot or more outside your shoulders—with your feet turned out to the sides. Sumo squats work the insides of the quads, especially the sartorius muscles. They also work the “thigh rods” at the tops of the thighs, where they blend into the torso. Not only that, but they hit the hamstrings quite rigorously as well. In fact, along with so-called hamstring leg presses—with your feet high on the platform, heels on the top edge and toes completely off the platform—sumo squats are the best hamstring builders around.

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You’ve Got to Squat! When you go heavy, squat in a power rack—and always look straight ahead to protect your back.

Barbell Hack Squats

Machine Hack Squats

Muscularize Your Thighs Fast

Depending on where you place your feet on the platform, you can work more upper or lower thigh, more outer thigh or middle thigh. By placing your feet high and wide on the platform, with your knees wide apart, and pushing from your heels, you can hit mostly outer thighs and sweep. If you place your feet low on the platform, with your knees in, and push off from the balls of your feet, you work mostly lower thigh. If you place them in the middle of the platform with your knees almost touching and push off from the balls of your feet, you target mostly the middle portion of the quadriceps. If you push from your heels, you’ll work mostly outer and upper thighs. Whether your target is the outeror lower-thigh area, come up only two-thirds to three-quarters of the way to maintain constant tension on the thighs. Try to go deep in the bottom position to work the muscles over a fuller range of motion.

Model: Allen Sakiszadeh \ Equipment: Powertec power rack, 1-800-447-0008

Place a barbell behind your body, tucked tightly under your glutes. With a two-to-six-inch block under your heels, squat as low as you can, but come up only two-thirds of the way to keep constant tension on your lower thighs, especially the teardrop muscle above the knee. That technique is a favorite of thigh master Roger Stewart, who prefer the barbell to the hack squat machine.

Front Squats This is an excellent lower-thigh and teardrop developer. Take the bar from the squat rack, resting it across your upper chest and delts, with your hands crossed over your chest for balance. Some lifters like

Imagine your body as a coil under tension, and explode up from the bottom.

to squat with their heels elevated on a two-by-four for better balance. As with other types of squats, look straight ahead, keep your back arched, and try to come up under the weight as you rise to the top. And don’t bounce out of the bottom position. Rather, imagine your body as a coil under tension and use that tension to “explode” up from the bottom position, continuing smoothly to the top.

Sissy Squats Despite its name, this exercise is not for sissies. Even the most hardcore regular squatter can be whimpering in pain after a proper set of bodyweight sissy squats. To do these right, get up on your toes and lean back until your upper body is almost parallel to the floor. Your quads and torso should be on the same plane—in line. Imagine there’s a low bar in front of you and you’re trying to limbo under the bar. As you come up, drive your hips and knees forward. Come up only twothirds of the way to keep constant tension on your quads.

Half Squats and Bench Squats These are great for developing strength and power. They enable you to use very heavy weights and for safety purposes are best done in a power rack. Still, you should have a training partner spotting you in case you get stuck in the low position. Half squats and bench squats are best done for low to medium reps—say, four to eight. Some people like to place a low bench between their legs that stops them six to eight inches above parallel. As soon as they feel the bench, they return to the locked-out position. That movement is a good upper-thigh builder but doesn’t work the lower thighs, so don’t overdo it. Keep an eye on your development. If your upper thighs start getting out of proportion to your lower thighs (and 90 percent of bodybuilders look that way to begin with), reduce your sets or drop the exercise from your routine. Do half squats or bench squats after you’ve done your barbell or

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You’ve Got to Squat! Smith-machine squats, when your legs and body are well warmed up. On your first set of half or bench squats you should use the weight you used during your final set of full or parallel squats.

Quarter Squats and Squat Static Holds

Neveux

Muscularize Your Thighs Fast

A hip injury forced Dorian Yates to eliminate free-bar squats. He used Smithmachine squats, hack squats and leg presses instead, obviously with impressive results.

These two variations won’t build much thigh mass, but they will make you much stronger, so you can use heavier weights on your other heavy leg work—which will result in bigger and more muscular legs. They’ll enable you to use maximum weights, and you should always do them in a power rack. You should also have a training partner to help you get the bar into position. Set the safety bars one or two inches below where you’d be in the top position of a squat. On quarter squats do sets of four to six reps with your maximum full- or parallel-squat poundage plus at least 50 percent more than that. For example, if you squat 200 pounds for six reps: 50 percent of 200 is 100. So for your first set of quarter squats you’d use 300 pounds. The range of motion is only a few inches. Keep your abs and back tight, and just bend your knees two or three inches. At the top, pause briefly before squatting again. Guard against doing the reps too fast because the tendency is to sort of bounce up and down quickly, and the bar starts twisting. Do two to three sets of quarter squats, adding weight to the bar on each successive set, as follows: 1x6-8, 1x4-6, 1x4. You’ll be amazed at how quickly you gain strength from these. After only a few weeks you’ll be using weights you never dreamed possible. For squat static holds all you do is hold the bar across your traps while standing in the most fully erect position. Start with the weight you used on your final set of quarter squats and add weight on each successive set. Do three sets of 10-second holds, resting two to three minutes between sets. Don’t bend your knees at all except for the first repetition, when you have to bend them a little to pop the bar off the racks. It’s best if your training partner helps you with the first rep so you can control the bar. The weights you use are so heavy in comparison to what your body is accustomed to— expect to use 80 to 100 percent over

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You’ve Got to Squat! what you’d use on full or parallel squats—that strength increases will come quickly. And it’s kind of fun to see just how much weight you can hold for 10 seconds. If you really want to push up the intensity, you can try a couple of extra sets on which you reduce the hold time to five seconds and then an absolute maximum effort of one to two seconds. You can also experiment with holding the weights for more than 10 seconds—say 15 to 20 seconds, then 25 to 30. That’s after you’ve been doing the 10-second holds for a month or so. Just because it’s a limited range of motion, or no motion in the case of the static holds, don’t think these are easy. On the contrary, the weights are so heavy that the sets will take all your concentration and strength. It’s hard stuff—so intense, difficult and taxing that I suggest you do quarter squats and the static-hold squats just once or twice a month. Those two exercises make your skeletal frame and the deep, underlying back muscles very strong, along with the spinal erectors, abdominals, hips and thighs. Your whole body gets stronger. If you normally full-squat 315 pounds for six reps, your strength will shoot up rapidly when you start putting 400 and 500 pounds across your shoulders. After you do several sets of 10-second static holds with 500 pounds, the next time you squat, 315 pounds will feel pretty light. You’ll probably get nine or 10 repetitions, maybe even more. If your thighs need more size, sweep, muscularity or power, squats can give them to you in spades. Try an all-squat routine for great results. Pick three of the exercises discussed above and perform three to five sets of each, pyramiding up the weight on each successive set. Here are two sample routines that are bound to improve your thighs.

Balik \ Model: Frank Zane

Muscularize Your Thighs Fast

Frank Zane squatted heavy at different times in his career but retained amazingly small hips, glutes and waistline because of his gifted genetics.

A few sets of 10second static holds with 500 pounds will make your normal work sets feel pretty light.

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Youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve Got to Squat!

Routine B

Dumbbell deadlifts can be a great, safe leg exercise, especially for home trainees who may not have a squat rack.

(Power Program) Leg Extensions (warmup)

2 x 20

Parallel Squats Model: Derik Farnsworth \ Equipment: PowerBlock selectorized dumbbells, 1-800-447-0008

(warmup) 1 x 20, 1 x 10, 1 x 6 (work sets) 5 x 10, 8, 6, 4, 3-4

Bench Squats (start with the weight used on your last set of parallel squats) 4 x 8, 6, 4, 3 optional (in power rack) 1 x 2

Quarter Squats (in power rack, long pins set four inches below lockout; begin with the weight used on your last set of bench squats) 4 x 6-8, 4-6, 3-4, 2-3

Static Holds for 10-Seconds (Begin with the weight used on your last set of quarter squats and pyramid the weight) 3 x 10 seconds

Routine A Leg Extensions (warmup)

2 x 15-20

Smith-Machine Squats (warmup) 1 x 20, 1 x 10, 1 x 6 (work sets) 5 x 10, 8, 6, 4, 3-4

Barbell hack squats can be a good alternative leg movement. MRI studies show they hit all the muscles of the front thigh hard.

Hack Squats

Sumo Squats (warmup)

1 x 15 (the last two sets are double drops 1 x 12, 10(8)(6), 8(6)(4)

Barbell hack squats are especially good for the teardrop muscle above the knee.

Model: Michael Ryan

Muscularize Your Thighs Fast

(warmup) 1 x15 (the last set is a drop) 3 x 12, 10, 8(5)

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Youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve Got to Squat!

Model: Skip La Cour

Muscularize Your Thighs Fast

While half squats miss the quadsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; important semistretched position, a key spot for optimal fiber activation, they can help you build more power.

Using an allsquat routine for 10 weeks can bring up your quads with slabs of new muscle and strength. See the 10 x 10 routine that begins on page 108.

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You’ve Got to Squat!

IM founder Peary Rader and his Magic Circle squat device.

Keep a training diary of the weights you use and the number of reps you perform on each set of each exercise. Then try to beat what you did at the previous workout each time you train legs. If your thighs have stopped growing or you’re cursed with skinny legs, try the all-squat routines for eight to 10 weeks. If you train with high intensity and increase your poundages regularly, you’ll add mass and sweep to your thighs guaranteed. IM

Deep Thoughts There’s always been controversy over squats, be they Smith machine, hacks or free-bar. Some say that going below parallel is a danger to the knees, while others say that stopping when your thighs are parallel to the ground is more dangerous for those fragile joints. Who’s right? The most recent research seems to confirm that putting the brakes on a heavy load at the parallel position throws more stress on the knee joint (although cumulative effects of deep squatting may contribute to arthritis of the knee joint). Going a little lower sends some of that stress to the powerful hip area. But potential injury aside, if you’re talking about packing the most size on your thighs, just below parallel is the way to go. It has to do with the max-force point of the powerful quad muscles. Scientists have determined that a muscle can produce the most force when it’s in a semistretched position—just above a full stretch. That’s where the fibers are perfectly aligned for power-packed action. A full stretch of the quads occurs at the bottom of a sissy squat, with your torso and quads on the same plane, your knees bent and out in front of your toes and your hamstrings against your calves (imagine doing the limbo). To hit the semistretched position, bring your torso upright and your hamstrings just off of your calves. That’s it: the low position of a squat. If you stop above parallel, you don’t quite reach that important max-force-generation point and you don’t achieve maximum quadfiber recruitment. If you aren’t built to go low on free-bar squats—long-legged trainees are usually in that category—try Smith-machine squats instead. Or hack squats. Even dumbbell squats or trap-bar deadlifts can help you reach that below-parallel optimum-fiber-recruitment point that’s so important for mass development. You could even do a set or two of one of those exercises after a few sets of regular squats if you just can’t bear to give up the free-bar variety. If you really want to blast the max-force position and flip on the growth ignition, try X-First stage sets on Smith-machine or hack squats. Squat down to just below parallel, but come up to just barely above the parallel point on each rep. Keep up those partial nonlock reps, dipping below parallel on each one, till you can’t stand the pain, then drive all the way to the top—you may need help getting there— and continue with partials in the top one-third of the stroke, flexing your quads hard on each lockout. You’ll almost feel your quads crackling with new growth after that. —Steve Holman www.X-Rep.com Editor’s note: For more innovative training tips, visit www.X-Rep.com. www.ironmanmagazine.com \ AUGUST 2005 107

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Natural Bodybuilding

Book Excerpt

10 Sets of 10 How I Added Inches of Quad Mass in Only Seven Weeks

by John Hansen • Photography by Michael Neveux raining intensity and volume are believed to be inversely related. If the intensity of a workout goes up, training volume must simultaneously fall. As Mike Mentzer repeatedly preached in his sermons on training intensity, ÒYou can train hard or you can train long, but you canÕt do both.Ó However, despite the prevailing attitude about intensity and duration, it is possible to make a workout more intense by adding more volume. More sets can equate to more work for a muscle. More work can be interpreted as greater intensity, even though each set is not taken to absolute failure. One popular training method for increasing intensity by adding volume is called 10 sets of 10. You use one exercise (preferably a heavy, basic exercise such as squats, bench presses, etc.) and perform 10 sets with 10 repetitions in each set. Obviously, the volume of the rest of the workout for the bodypart must be cut down, or overtraining will result. If you normally do four or five sets of squats and decide to double that amount, reduceÑor eliminateÑthe number of sets for the rest of your leg workout to adjust for the extra workload.

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Model: Jonathan Lawson

10 Sets of 10

Do train your hamstrings, but don’t to any other exercise for quads.

The intensity of the workout will come from the total workload imposed on the muscles and not from the intensity of each set. If each set were taken to failure, it would be impossible to perform all 10 sets without reducing the resistance or the number of reps. Each set must be worked hard but within limits. Total failure is not necessary and will, in fact, prevent you from finishing the workout. If you’re going to use the 10-setsof-10 training method, here are some guidelines. First, choose the right weight. The poundage should be moderately heavy but not so heavy that you will reach failure before doing all 10 sets. Since you will be performing 10 sets of 10 repetitions, a weight that barely allows you to do 10 reps is obviously going to be too heavy. You’d never be able to complete more than two or three sets before the reps began to go down or the muscles completely failed. Since there is no exact formula for determining the correct weight, you’ll just have to use your best judgment. Choose a weight with which it would be relatively easy to perform 10 repetitions. The weight shouldn’t be extremely light but one that you can easily handle and still feel the muscles working. If, for example, you normally use 315 pounds for 10 reps on squats, you may want to reduce the weight to 275 pounds when attempting to do 10 sets of 10. Even that may be too heavy. You won’t really know for sure until you try. It should be very difficult to complete all 10 sets. If performed correctly, the last five sets should be progressively more difficult. If you can do all 10 sets without really

struggling on the last few, the weight is too light, and you need to go heavier. All 10 sets should be done without a spotter. Your goal is to completely exhaust a muscle group by bombing it with both high sets and high reps. The high-volume program will shock the muscles into responding, and it is a great technique for a stubborn bodypart.

My Experience With the 10 Sets Program I used a program similar to the 10-sets-of-10 routine for my legs. In 1996 I was squatting heavy in an attempt to build up the size of my thighs. Beginning in January, I pushed myself at every workout to use heavier weights on both leg presses and squats. By April of that year my knees started to rebel against the abuse I was putting them through each week. My quadriceps tendons were becoming progressively inflamed from all the heavy training. At first my knees would ache for two to three days. After another month or two of heavy training, my quadriceps tendon would be inflamed for five days following an intense workout. It got to the point where they would just start to feel good when it was time to work them again. I knew I needed to cut back on the intensity because my knees were getting worse each week; however, I didn’t want to stop training my legs heavy because I still wanted to build more size. An article in a bodybuilding magazine explained the 10-sets routine. The author stated that you do only one exercise per bodypart but 10 sets for that exercise. He

didn’t suggest doing 10 reps for each set. Instead, he outlined a more progressive program in which the resistance would be increased each week. My training partner and I decided to give the routine a try. My knees couldn’t stand the prospect of going any heavier anyway, so I thought I would just increase the total workload by adding volume instead of poundage. We decided to use squats as the basic movement for our 10-sets routine. We began each leg workout by riding a stationary exercise bike for six minutes to warm up. After the initial warmup my partner and I did two sets on the leg press for 12 to 15 reps. The leg press uses many of the same muscle groups as the squat does, so it’s a perfect beginning exercise before moving on to the target exercise. When we finally began squatting, we did a few warmup sets to get our bodies accustomed to the movement. We used 135 pounds for 12 reps for our first set. On our second set we squatted with 225 pounds for 10 reps. For our final warmup set

The weight shouldn’t be extremely light but one that you can easily handle and still feel the muscles working. If, for example, you normally use 315 pounds for 10 reps on squats, you may want to reduce that to 275 pounds when attempting to do 10 sets of 10.

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Model: John Hansen

10 Sets of 10

You can use the 10 x 10 routine for other bodyparts too. we did 315 pounds for eight reps. Now we were ready to begin the real workout. We decided that 365 pounds was going to be the weight we would use on our first week of the program. Since we were required to do 10 sets of five repetitions on our first workout, we picked a weight that we could do 10 reps with on the squat and used it for 10 sets of five reps. Here is the plan we put together for our cycle of 10 sets of squats: Week 1 365 pounds for 5 reps for 10 sets Week 2 385 pounds for 4 reps for 10 sets Week 3 405 pounds for 3 reps for 10 sets Week 4 385 pounds for 5 reps for 10 sets Week 5 405 pounds for 4 reps for 10 sets Week 6 425 pounds for 3 reps for 10 sets Week 7 405 pounds for 6 reps for 10 sets That routine was deceptively brutal. When we attempted 365 pounds for 10 sets of five reps on our first week, it seemed at first to be too easy. After all, we were accustomed to using well over 400 pounds during our standard workouts. The 365 pounds was still a

warmup weight for us. After several sets of squats I began to think I’d made a mistake estimating how much weight to use—until we got to the sixth set. The last four or five sets were very tough, as the total workload was beginning to take its toll. We soon discovered that doing 10 sets of squats with a heavy weight (even if the reps were limited) was extremely hard. It became as much a mental workout as a physical one. After all, the prospect of getting under a heavy barbell 10 consecutive times would break the will of any normal person. It helped to have a training partner who was going through the same torture I was. Another mental technique I used to make the workout easier to overcome was to bring a piece of paper and a pen with me to the squat rack. Every time my partner and I completed a set, I would draw a line on the piece of paper. That helped me keep track of how many sets I had left. I soon learned to take each set one at a time. Thinking about how tough set number eight was going to be when I was only on the third set was not helpful in getting through this selfimposed torture. The results were well worth the hard work. I took measurements of my legs before and after starting the 10sets program to accurately record the results. I was overjoyed to find out that, at the end of the seven-week program, my legs had grown almost two inches. That’s an amazing gain, especially in less than two months. So much for the argument that the only way to grow is through more intensity with less volume. The reason this routine works is that intensity is gradually increased through a progressive workload. The way to determine the total workload lifted in a session is to multiply the weight used by the number of sets performed and

multiply that by the number of reps performed. The formula looks like this: Resistance x Sets x Reps = Total Workload

Using the formula for the 10-sets program that I used for my legs, you can see that the workload was gradually increased over the seven-week program. As with the cycling principle, the workload was increased overall but not every week. Instead, the workload was cycled to allow for recuperation so I’d have greater gains at the end of the cycle. Week 1 365 x 5 reps x 10 sets = 18,250 Week 2 385 x 4 reps x 10 sets = 15,400 Week 3 405 x 3 reps x 10 sets = 12,150 Week 4 385 x 5 reps x 10 sets = 19,250 Week 5 405 x 4 reps x 10 sets = 16,200 Week 6 425 x 3 reps x 10 sets = 12,750 Week 7 405 x 6 reps x 10 sets = 24,300 I have found that using a highvolume approach like this is great for shocking muscles that will not respond to traditional means of training. The leg routine was extremely intense and couldn’t be followed continually without risking injury or burnout. At most this type of high-volume shock program should be used two or three times per year, with several months between programs. Editor’s note: Adapted from the book Natural Bodybuilding by John Hansen, © 2005. Excerpted by permission of Human Kinetics, Champaign, IL. The book is available for $21.95 from Home Gym Warehouse. Call (800) 447-0008, or visit www.Home-Gym.com. Also visit John Hansen’s Web site, www .NaturalOlympia.com. IM

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Nutrient Timing

Anabolic Switch and the

John Ivy, Ph.D., Discusses What and When to Eat to Maximize Recovery and Muscle Growth

by Ken O’Neill John Ivy is a graduate of Old Dominion College, has a doctorate from the University of Maryland and completed two postdoctoral research positions before coming to the University of Texas 23 years ago. He currently chairs the Department of Kinesiology at the University of Texas, Austin, is the Margie Seay Centennial Professor and also holds an appointment at the College of Pharmacy. Both of his recently published books, Nutrient Timing (2004) and The Performance Zone (2004), are a breath of fresh air for iron-game enthusiasts interested in breaking out of antiquated nutritional models and making real, natural gains. Ivy is a pioneer in the field of sports science as well. He began his career as a lifelong athlete during his college years and today works out up to six times a week. Looking far younger than his 60 years, he’s living proof of a successful application of the results of his own research. Ivy’s work in nutrient timing is nothing less than revolutionary. During the 1990s professional athletes and their advisers shifted from relying primarily on testosterone. First human growth hormone, then insulin joined the “professional” supplement list, bringing about bigger, stronger bodies than anyone thought possible. Ivy’s research shows why those supplements work so well. Of far more importance, though, is that he demonstrates how and why just about anyone can optimize muscular development in a natural, drug-free way by using nutrient timing with easy-to-obtain legal supplements. 116 AUGUST 2005 \ www.ironmanmagazine.com

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Model: Mike Morris

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Nutrient Timing and the Anabolic Switch Ivy and I sat down for a discussion of nutrient timing—its application to aerobic and anaerobic sports, its importance in offsetting type 2 diabetes and its importance to lifelong fitness.

Maximize Recovery and Muscle Growth

Very little was known about the science of muscular development when we were in college in the ’60s. Almost no laboratories were doing research in that area. How did you get started?

How did your research take off? What questions guided you? My research began in the early ’80s—research on glycogen loading, which showed that the muscles are much more sensitive to insulin and get a much more rapid rate of glucose uptake after exercise. When you load carbohydrates immediately after exercise, you get an insulin spike and a very rapid rate of glycogen storage—at least with rats. We did some work showing that if you block insulin release, you still get some glycogen storage after exercise, but you can’t supercompen-

Exercise stimulates the factors in muscle that produce messenger RNA for certain proteins.

Model: Steve Kummer

I started out as an engineering major, attending college first on a football scholarship and then later switching to a baseball scholarship. I changed my major to physical education and took a class from a professor with a new Ph.D. who taught exercise physiology at a very high level. I simply fell in love with the course and thought, “So this is how the body really works!” Then in the early ’70s the field [of exercise physiology] just started blossoming. Biological research was being done, and people were trying to answer basic scientific questions about exercise and muscular growth. The field was no longer just a part of physical education; instead, it was becoming a new discipline in its own right. After obtaining my Ph. D., I did postdoctoral work in both human and animal physiology at two different university research centers.

sate the glycogen levels without the insulin spike. We progressed to working with human subjects and showed that when you give them carbohydrates immediately postworkout, you get an immediate rapid rate of glycogen storage but that if you delay giving them carbohydrates for several hours, you do not. In other words, comparing postexercise supplementation to supplementation several hours later, we found blood levels of carbohydrate and insulin to be the same at both times, hence their availability was equal. Delaying taking the supplement for several hours, however, results in glycogen storage being only half as fast as postexercise—it’s used at half the rate. That started my years of research.

cose transporter protein. So you have the message to produce the transporter, but you really don’t produce a whole lot of transporter until you provide carbohydrate. Then you get a spike in insulin, and you create this protein. As you increase more glucose transporters (which come to the plasma membrane), you increase the transport of glucose into the muscle, and you get more glycogen storage. If you prevent blood insulin levels from rising, you don’t get the expression (production) of this protein. So my idea was that this isn’t the only protein insulin is affecting; this is probably happening to all proteins. In other words, pretty much all the proteins that are being transcribed occurs when you’re working out.

What did you look at next?

So the way you work out is important.

The regulation of glucose transport across the muscle. When you exercise a muscle, it stimulates the factors in the muscle that produce messenger RNA for certain proteins, and one of those is the glu-

How you work out determines which proteins are going to be produced when translation is turned on. For example, if you’re doing resistance training, you activate factors to increase the contractile

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Nutrient Timing and the Anabolic Switch During exercise the body goes from a quiescent state to a catabolic state.

proteins myocin and actin. If you do aerobic-type work, you’re going to produce messenger RNA for mitochondrial biogenesis, cytochrome C and so forth, as well as glucose transporters. But you don’t get a whole lot of protein synthesis unless you make the conditions right. During exercise the body goes from a sort of quiescent state to a catabolic state because it’s trying to mobilize its fuel sources. You get elevations in catecholamines (epinephrine and norepinephrine), cortisol and so forth. You’re supplying energy to the muscles. When you finish exercising, the catabolic condition doesn’t automatically revert to the preexercise state. Instead, protein degradation is actually still elevated. Although some protein synthesis is activated, it’s still a net-protein-loss condition because catabolism is so great then. You don’t have protein synthesis occurring until the bodily environment is right. So the question we faced was, How do you change the bodily environment? If you don’t do anything, it takes a long time to change the bodily environment. By that time the muscle is not in a state where you can rapidly turn on anabolism or protein synthesis.

Model: Randy Vogelzang

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How did you figure out that it’s possible to rapidly turn on the process? I thought the best way to convert from a catabolic state to an anabolic state was to increase insulin levels. Most people think testosterone is the most anabolic hormone, but that’s not the case. Insulin turns on protein synthesis, and further down the line it stops protein degradation and promotes amino acid transport across muscles. It’s actually a very strong hormone for anabolism. By just providing carbohydrate, you can rapidly convert from a catabolic state to an anabolic state. Because the insulin level rises, it drives cortisol levels and catecholamines down. Just in thinking about that, we began doing little studies to see what would happen if we were to provide carbohydrates after workouts. We’d also gotten into the protein

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Model: Frank Zane

Nutrient Timing and the Anabolic Switch

Insulin is actually a very strong hormone for anabolism.

Maximize Recovery and Muscle Growth

When carbs and protein are mixed, you get a greater insulin response than from eating carbs alone.

aspect of it. I noticed that when we gave carbohydrate immediately postexercise, we got glycogen storage. We started asking how much carbo we could provide and how rapidly we could synthesize muscle glycogen and glucose transporters with the process. We found that when we gave more than 1.5 grams of carbo per kilogram of bodyweight every two hours, we didn’t see any greater rate of glycogen storage than we did with 1.2 grams. We found we could give three grams or double or triple that, and it didn’t make any difference. We conducted studies to find out why. We thought the rate at which glucose left the stomach—the rate at which carbohydrate entered the intestines and got into the bloodstream—was limiting. So we bypassed that and did a direct infusion into the blood system. We infused the glucose postexercise, finding that, although the blood glucose levels raised to almost twice as high as when we fed, we didn’t see any higher rate of glycogen storage. So we concluded it wasn’t gastric emptying that was slowing the rate of glycogen storage; it was something in the muscle itself. We also noted that when we infused the glucose, we got the same insulin response, although blood glucose levels were higher. So I asked how we could get the insulin response higher. From rat studies we knew that if we artificially elevated insulin levels we could stimulate greater levels of glycogen storage and protein synthesis. There had once been a medical test in which arginine, an amino acid that stimulates insulin release from the pancreas, was infused into the blood to assess pancreas functionality. So I wondered what would happen if I mixed arginine with carbohydrate—would I get a greater insulin response? We tried that, but the arginine didn’t mix well with the carbohydrate, so we couldn’t use as much as we thought was necessary. Literature we’d reviewed showed that oral administration of arginine doesn’t work as well as infusing it into the blood. What else could we do? We found that in the 1960s scientists were working with diabetics and studying the effect of different

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Nutrient Timing and the Anabolic Switch How did you get from protein-and-carb combinations to nutrient timing?

types of meals on insulin response. When carbohydrates and protein were mixed (such as eating meat with potatoes), there was a greater insulin response than with carbohydrates alone (just eating potatoes by themselves). We decided to mix carbohydrate with protein to see what would happen. We found that we got a much greater insulin response. From that we developed the hypothesis that not only should you get greater glycogen storage [when mixing protein with carbohydrate], but you should also get a greater protein synthesis. Literature somewhat evidenced this, and we have shown that with certain proteins— such as glucose transporter and a few others—you can get a much greater level of protein synthesis using protein and carbohydrate combinations. We have also demonstrated that postworkout protein-and-carbohydrate supplementation results in the elevation of protein synthesis while protein degradation is reduced. That means you can switch from a catabolic to an anabolic state very rapidly. One of the great leaders in protein synthesis work is Bob Wolfe at the University of Texas Health Science Center in Galveston.

I knew that muscle became more sensitive to insulin postexercise very early on in my research, when I was looking at glucose transport work, transcription factors and messenger RNA for certain proteins. We saw that postexercise they were all increased, but the case of those for translation of messenger RNA into protein was very slow unless we converted the muscle rapidly to an anabolic state. We also found that if we delayed converting the muscle from a catabolic to an anabolic state by several hours, the effect of the nutrient supplement is much diminished. That’s how I came up with the idea of nutrient timing—by putting the pieces together over time. I didn’t start out looking for (continued on page 128)

If the conversion is delayed, the effect of supplementation is diminished.

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Model: Derik Farnsworth

Maximize Recovery and Muscle Growth

Model: Eric Domer

You can convert the muscle from a catabolic to an anabolic state very rapidly.

Nutrient Timing and the Anabolic Switch

Model: David Yeung

Maximize Recovery and Muscle Growth

If you get protein and carbs immediately after exercise, you’ll flip on the anabolic switch.

(continued from page 124) nutrient timing; instead, the picture started unfolding through research. The question of how much protein we need daily misses the mark completely. It’s not just how much we take but also when we take it. Protein is not really that effective unless taken postworkout. We’ve shown that if you take it postexercise and continue to take it in small amounts thereafter, you maintain an active anabolic state. Once you’ve started the anabolic process, you can keep it going by continually keeping amino acid and carbohydrate states up in the blood.

“If you reduce fat intake, it’s important to supplement with EFAs to offset deficiency problems.”

Your book Nutrient Timing was published in February 2004. Has anything changed about your conclusions since then? No. People are more accepting of the conclusions now. Some still want to perpetuate stuff debated back in the ’50s, but there’s so much data coming out to support our work—and not just from our labs but from other labs as well. The im(continued on page 136) portant

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People forget that the workout just sets the platform for development. The adaptation occurs postexercise.

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Maximize Recovery and Muscle Growth

Nutrient Timing and the Anabolic Switch

Nutrient Timing and the Anabolic Switch thing we’ve shown is that if you can get protein/carbohydrate immediately after exercise, you’re so much more recovered four hours later. If you have a second competition, say as a powerlifter, for example, you’re in better shape. We documented how tremendous the improvement is. From the point of view of a 24-hour improvement, you’re able to come back and work out harder too. Here’s something people forget. When you’re working out and trying to develop a training adaptation (whether it be an increase in endurance through mitochondrial biogenesis or added strength and increased muscle mass), all you’re doing in the workout is setting the platform for that development— training adaptation. The adaptation occurs postexercise. Now, how effectively that’s going to be is determined by what nutrients you eat and when you eat them. That’s what controls the environment in which you put the tissue to recover and adapt. It’s really important, not just from the standpoint of recovery so you can work out harder but also

Postworkout Supplement Stack Nutrient-timing research is the very reason fast-carb-and-fastprotein postworkout supplements are critical for maximizing muscle gain. They jack up the supercompensation effect, kickstarting the anabolic process immediately after you train. If you want to see what that potent nutrient combination, along with titrated creatine, can do for your gains, try the X Stack postworkout combo. You get three three-pound, 14-ounce canisters of RecoverX postworkout powder and a 40-serving bottle of CreaSol all for only $99.95 (you save almost $50). Order online today at www .X-Stack.com or call (800) 4470008 and ask for the X Stack. A half scoop of RecoverX in your water bottle to sip during your training is also a great anabolic accelerator, sending glycogen and aminos to your muscles as you work out.

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(continued from page 128)

Nutrient timing works with all types of training. from the standpoint of putting the body in a situation where it can most effectively adapt to training. Training adaptation is protein synthesis. It doesn’t matter if it’s mitochondrial, contractile, liver or immune-tissue protein. It just doesn’t matter. The adaptation is protein synthesis. That’s what you want to stimulate.

[Nutrient timing] works with all kinds of training.

What about frequency?

You’re not presupposing any specific level or kind of training?

What you eat and when affect recovery and adaptation.

We haven’t addressed that yet. I do think the nutrient-timing approach allows for a greater frequency of training because it allows for a quicker recovery. As for the training aspect of it, there are a lot of good programs—periodization and so forth. We’re not dealing with training itself but rather with creating the environment in which the adaptation to that training can best be achieved. Some people recover more quickly than others. People have to recognize the limits they have for recovery: Maybe it has to be daily, or every other day, or every third day. Following nutrient timing for me means 1) I’m less sore, even when I do really hard workouts, and 2) I recover better so the next time I train I can work out harder. For me, nutrient timing definitely helps. I’ve always been a slow recoverer.

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Nutrient Timing and the Anabolic Switch

Maximize Recovery and Muscle Growth

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Some people need to train differently because they respond differently.

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Nutrient Timing and the Anabolic Switch John Ivy’s books are must reads for serious bodybuilders and other athletes interested in maximizing performance.

I remember in high school by the end of the football season I’d really be dragging. The coach had me doing what he had everybody else doing. Everybody had to do the same thing. And I think that kind of training is a mistake. Some kids need to be treated differently because they respond differently

Some people hold to the idea that workouts shouldn’t exceed 45 minutes due to onset of the catabolic state. How does nutritional timing address that?

What about carbs? Carbs get a bad rap. If you look at the general population, they take in carbs in the form of simple sugars. But getting the right carbs at the right time is beneficial. Protein synthesis is an energy-requiring process. If you can turn on protein synthesis postexercise with carbohydrate and protein supplementation, you’ll use your fat as energy to support the protein synthesis because the carbohydrate you’ve consumed is rapidly converted into glycogen for storage. So you use fat, and that helps with body composition and recovery.

Carbs get a bad rap.

Nutrient timing offsets it. You do get more of a catabolic response, but the longer you train, the more level it tends to get as far as hormone levels are concerned. At a point, for example, catecholamines and cortisol will normally level off. But that can be actively reversed with nutrient supplementation during the workout and with the postexercise supplement. When you take the postexercise protein-and-carbohydrate supplement, very rapid hormone changes occur. Once that happens, the muscle changes in response. The catabolic state is set up in the first place by the hormonal changes that occur with exercise, and once you reverse the catabolic effect, the anabolic condition occurs pretty rapidly.

You just mentioned supplementation during the workout. What do you recommend taking as you train? You can get a good response mixing about www.ironmanmagazine.com \ AUGUST 2005 139

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Nutrient Timing and the Anabolic Switch

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25 grams of high-glycemic carbs, such as glucose, sucrose and/or maltodextrin, with five grams of whey protein in 12 ounces of water. Drink that during your workout instead of straight water. Other good additives are leucine, one gram; vitamin C, 30 to 120 milligrams; vitamin E, 20 to 60 I.U.; sodium 100 to 250 milligrams; potassium, 60 to 120 milligrams; and magnesium, 60 to 120 milligrams.

Syndrome X onset, up to development of type 2 diabetes, occurs in many people as they age. How important is nutrient timing for them, and what are the benefits of using it along with training? Really important. You can probably take most type 2 diabetics who haven’t progressed to the point where they’re taking insulin injections and have them work out,

change their diets appropriately, incorporate certain principles of nutrient timing as well as a few other food changes, and completely reverse the diabetes. It all has to do with weight loss to some extent, which nutrient timing and certain other dietary changes can effect. The biggest problem with diabetics is they’re so very out of shape that it takes time for exercise to become beneficial. At first exercise is very difficult for them, and they can do very little of it. Otherwise they’re just like anyone else. So when they use nutrient timing, they rapidly store glycogen and they’re going to improve their insulin sensitivity With exercise—which is the problem in the first place—they’re going to promote protein synthesis, and in doing that they’re going to burn fat and lose weight. So it can be quite beneficial for a type 2 diabetic to apply exercise and the principles of nutrient timing. Taking postexercise carbohydrates is actually not bad for diabetics. What people don’t understand is that type 2 diabetics actual-

Model: Tommi Thqrvildsen

When you take a carband-protein postexercise supplement, HGH is elevated above normal five hours postexercise.

ly use up more carbohydrates during exercise than the average person because their bodies don’t use fat efficiently. So they need to replace that carbohydrate, and as they get into better shape, they start burning fat more effectively. With individuals in their 70s protein synthesis becomes very difficult. For the average person muscle mass begins to decline at about age 50. If you work out, you can maintain it, but putting on muscle mass becomes very difficult, especially after the age of 65 or 70. A study done in Germany recently took two groups of individuals, giving them a carbohydrate-and-protein supplement either immediately or two hours postexercise. The age of the subjects averaged 74 years, and all subjects were older than 70. The postexercise supplementing group increased both muscle mass and strength, whereas the two-hour postexercise supplementation group didn’t. Here we’re defying the aging process by putting on muscle with nutrient-timing principles.

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Nutrient Timing and the Anabolic Switch Are there systemic outcomes with increases in testosterone, HGH, etc., from nutrient timing? Nutrient timing does change and optimize hormone levels. Immediate postexercise carbohydrate-andprotein supplementation results in cortisol going down and insulin going up. You see a decline in testosterone, which is elevated during exercise. When we saw that testosterone was declining, we asked what happened to luteinizing hormone, since it controls testosterone secretion. We saw that the luteinizing hormone wasn’t changing. We then hypothesized that the fall in testosterone was due to a greater rate of testosterone uptake by the tissue at that time—which would also turn on protein synthesis. Actually, William Kraemer at the University of Connecticut has now shown that’s what is going on. We also found that when you take a carb-and-protein postexercise supplement, HGH is elevated above normal five hours postexercise.

Nutrient timing dictates that 30 percent of the diet be fat—pretty high for bodybuilders. Why not cut it to 15 to 20 percent? By the same token, 25 percent protein seems too low for bodybuilders. There’s evidence that if you cut fat too much, you lose out on two essential fatty acids. If you do reduce fat intake, it’s important to supplement with EFAs to offset the deficiency. We developed nutrient timing in a way to keep it realistic for the average diet. If someone really wants to cut fat, then that person should use more protein and reduce the fat content. In general, 25 percent protein seems like plenty. How much protein is consumed is not as important as when you consume it to optimize usage. Immediate postworkout carbohydrate-and-protein

supplementation is a must. Then use additional supplementation every two hours for at least four hours to maintain the anabolic condition. Here the percentage of protein to carb increases. We also recommend using slower-digesting casein prior to sleep to have a sustained-release effect to maintain anabolism while sleeping.

How long does the anabolic process last? Can it be sustained for hours or days? You can continue to supplement beyond four hours and still affect the anabolic processes. We propose that you should consider supplementing in a 24-hour cycle (light breakfast, high-protein snack, light lunch, workout, postworkout supplement, post-twohour supplement, dinner, prebedtime high-protein supplement). Of course, your workouts wouldn’t be the same each day. Maybe upper body one day, lower body the next and an aerobic workout the third day. Repeat for the next three days, and then on the seventh day have a light workout or take the day off. That’s close to what I do. We know that you can keep the anabolic process going for more than 12 hours. I haven’t tested it, but I have read several studies suggesting that protein synthesis can be enhanced postworkout for up to 48 hours. I think that’s possible if you work out hard and continue to keep amino acid levels elevated in the blood. Editor’s note: Ivy’s decades of research have revealed what really happens in our bodies as we work out, recover and adapt with increased muscle size and strength. His approach works for athletes of all ages, and his research continues paving the way for those seeking health and fitness. Ivy’s research and the practical, easy-to-follow system for applying nutrient timing are all included in his book Nutrient Timing. Ken O’Neill is a fitness author and personal trainer. His Web site is www.longlifefitness.net, and he can be reached for consultation at kayoneill@earthlink.net. IM www.ironmanmagazine.com \ AUGUST 2005 141

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Power

Pump Training 2

The Next Generation of Mass Building by C.S. Sloan Photography by Michael Neveux 142 AUGUST 2005 \ www.ironmanmagazine.com

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Model: Jay Cutler

rawl through your attic. Dig through your old muscle magazines. If you’re a longtime IRON MAN reader, you may be lucky enough to have the April ’92 issue, which includes a feature by Gene Mozée titled, “Power Pump Training: Build Mass That Lasts.” That gem of an article was responsible for packing a lot of muscle on my frame. Mozée’s piece made quite an impression on me for two reasons. To begin with, it was my first exposure to the famous Vince Gironda quote, “Are you on a training program, or are you just working out?” It was also my first exposure to the idea that combining ultraheavy power movements and pumping exercises was a good thing. Mozée believed it was the ultimate for producing rapid growth of quality, shapely muscles. The gist of Mozée’s system was this: For each muscle group you perform one heavy, power exercise in order to activate more fibers and then superset two more exercises for the same group in order to produce the maximum pump possible. (Note: It’s similar to what Steve Holman and Jonathan Lawson are doing at the IRON MAN Training & Research Center. They spice it up with X Reps. See page 72.) Before giving the Power Pump workout a try, I’d been using basic abbreviated routines—the kind of workouts Steve Holman was espousing in his Homebodies column at the time. I have to admit that the program had laid the groundwork for muscle gains; however, at that point I was stuck in a rut, and PPT turned out to be just what I needed to take my muscle building to the next level. Since that time I’ve tried every bodybuilding program under the sun, and I’ve also delved into powerlifting and strongman training. With all that I can still say that if you want to build quality mass, combining heavy, low-rep power training with light, high-rep pump training is the best way to go. But I also think there’s a better, more efficient way to combine the two methods. Enter Power Pump Training 2.

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Power Pump Training 2

The PPT2 Workout In this four-days-per-week program you train your upper body on two days and your lower body on the other two.

Day 1: Upper-body pump 1) Bench presses, parallel-bar dips or incline-bench presses 8 x 10 Pick a weight with which you can get about 20 reps before reaching failure, and use it on all eight sets. Take only about two minutes’ rest between sets. Rotate the exercises, switching to a different one every few weeks. 2) Wide-grip chins or wide-grip lat pulldowns 8 x 10 Use the same technique as discussed for the first exercise. 3) Superset Barbell curls 5 x 10 Skull crushers 5 x 10 Take each set to a rep or two shy of failure. Rest about one minute between supersets. 4) Lateral raises 4 x 10 Your shoulders should be pretty pumped from all the other exercises, which is the reason that you only do four sets.

Day 2: Lower-body maximum strength 1) Squats, Olympic-style squats, box squats, bottomposition squats or deadlifts (sumo or conventional style) work up to a max set of 5, 3, or 1 Pick one of the exercises, and work up over at least five sets to hit your maximum weight for the rep range you’ve chosen. For example, if you chose squats, and your previous max set was 375 for three, your setand-rep sequence would look like this: 135x5, 225x3, 275x3, 315x3, 350x3, 375x3, 405x2 (hit failure on third rep with 405). Stick with the same exercise for two to three weeks, attempting to hit a new personal record every week. 2) Lunges 5x5 Perform all five sets with the same weight. Only the last two sets should be really taxing. 3) Incline situps Do these on a steep incline bench.

Mass Building

The Next Generation of Muscle Building Thirteen years is a long time to wait for a sequel, but I think you’ll agree that the result is well worth the wait. The difference between Power Pump Training and PPT2 is this: Mozée seemed to base his routine on his personal experience in training and watching many of the bodybuilding champs of the 1960s and ’70s train. While PPT2 is based on my experience in training

Day 3: Off Day 4: Upper-body maximum strength 1) Flat-bench presses, close-grip bench presses, bottom-position bench presses, close-grip bottomposition bench presses, rack lockouts, board presses or incline-bench presses work up to a max set of 5, 3 or 1 Use the same technique as described for the first exercise of day 2. Your flat-bench workout might look like this: 135x5, 175x3, 225x3, 245x1, 265x1, 280x1, 300x0 (missed with 300). Rotate exercises every two or three weeks. 2) Wide-grip chins, close-grip chins, bent-over rows or T-bar rows work up to a max set of 5, 3 or 1 Use the same technique as described for exercise 1. 3) Barbell curls, EZ-curl-bar curls, reverse curls or dumbbell curls work up to a max set of 5, 3 or 1

Day 5: Off Day 6: Lower-body pump 1) Squats, leg presses or hack squats 8 x 10 Use a weight that lets you get about 20 reps before you hit failure. Use it for all eight sets. Take about two minutes’ rest between sets. Rotate exercises every few weeks. 2) Leg extensions 6 x 20 Do these with a weight that will let you get about 30 reps before you hit failure. 3) Leg curls 2 x 25 You simply won’t need very much hamstring work due to the first exercise in this workout and the work you did on lower-body maximum-strength day. 4) Hanging leg raises

Day 7: Off

3 x 20

myself and others (strength athletes as well as bodybuilders) and observing how champion bodybuilders and powerlifters train, it’s also got a little something called science

Gene Mozée’s original “Power Pump Training” appeared in the April ’92 IM.

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3 x 20

behind it. For years powerlifters, Olympic lifters and strength coaches in the Western world thought the best way to build mass was with linear periodization. Basically, you’d focus on different aspects of strength training at different times of the year. In phase one you’d work on building muscular endurance for a couple of months. Then in phase two the focus would shift to hypertrophy training. Three was power, and, finally, in phase four you’d concentrate on building maximum strength. In the West we all said, “Hey, this linear periodization is pretty dern good.” Then came the Russians. Their strength coaches and researchers were determined to find the fastest, most surefire way of producing strength gains. They tried several training systems and decided that linear periodization, basically, sucked. The Russians saw no reason to focus on different aspects of training at different times. They thought that athletes should train all the different methods each and every week. The system they created is called conjugate periodization. The idea is to train the different aspects on different days of the week. In other words, you devote one day to developing maximum strength, another to building speed and power and so forth. Incidentally, the Russians also discovered that combining different methods in the same workout took the concept too far; when they tried it, their results decreased.

On upper-body pump day, superset biceps and triceps.

Barbell Curls

Model: Jay Cutler

Power Pump Training 2

Do your power work separate from the pump sessions.

Conjugate periodization gained popularity in the West thanks to Louis Simmons and his Westside Barbell Club in Columbus, Ohio. Westside training involves maxing out on an exercise for a week or two and then switching to another exercise. The important factor is to hit a one- or three-rep max every week. Westside lifters use that technique once each week for upper body and once for lower body. On another day of the week they train for speed, performing nine to 12 sets of two to three reps with 50 to 60 percent of one-rep max.

Model: Lee Apperson

Mass Building

The Powerlifting Factor

Deadlifts That got me to thinking. Maybe Mozée’s routine would work even better if you did the power work separate from the pump session.

The workout that appears on page 144 is the result. It uses the Westside program as a template but replaces the speed work with pump training.

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Rotate exercises every two or three weeks.

Bench Presses

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Add weight as you get stronger.

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Mass Building

Go for 30 reps on these on lower-body pump day.

Power Pump Training 2

Some Words of Advice This program looks pretty simple, but don’t be fooled. It’s pretty dang tough. The pump days are harder than they look, and you’ll really have to push yourself on the maximum-strength days. If your calves need work—and whose don’t?—then don’t be afraid to do some calf work on every training day. Standing calf raises, seated raises and donkey calf raises would all do the trick. Use higher reps on them. If you want to gain as much mass as possible, make sure you’re eating enough protein and total calories every day. This isn’t a precontest regimen, so don’t be afraid to eat

bread and plenty of red meat, not to mention drinking a lot of milk. Eat at least 12 times your bodyweight in calories each day; 15 times your bodyweight would be even better.

Final comments The subtitle of Mozée’s article was, “Build Mass That Lasts.” With PPT2 you can build mass that lasts and lasts and lasts. Not only will you be massive, but you’ll have the strength to go with it, as well. I’m interested in hearing from readers about this program. If you want to tell me about your results or ask a question, send e-mail to Ironslo27@aol.com. IM

Model: Darrell Terrell

Lateral Raises

This is a good finisher for upperbody pump day.

Work up to a max set on strength day.

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Squats

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Ultimate

Mass Hookup Get a Better Handle on Building Your BackÑand Other Bodyparts TooÑWith the New Motion Transfer Cable Attachment

ou want the biggest size gains possible, right? A growth spurt after every workout? Then youÕve got to realize that just cranking out reps isnÕt nearly enough; youÕve got to feel the target muscle firing. A lack of feel, or innervation, is the very reason that so many bodybuilders have trouble building gnarly back width and thicknessÑthose muscles are hard to get a handle on during pulling exercises. But getting a better handle on those muscles may just be a matter of, well, getting a better handle, as in a superior cable attachment that can help you gener-

ate more force with your lats and midback muscles. From our tests here at the IRON MAN Training & Research Center, weÕve got to say that the new Motion Transfer Cable Attachment is the ultimate mass hookup for your back (not to mention other bodyparts). Its most important feature is the handles at the ends of the bar. Each handgrip has a patented four-point swivel-and-rotation action. That means as you pull, your hands can move, twist and adjustÑtheyÕre not locked in a position that may inhibit target-muscle activation and/or tweak tendons and joints.

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by Steve Holman / Photography by Michael Neveux

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IRON MAN Research Team

Swiveling-hangrip construction and three-position width capability make this cable attachment unparalleled.

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For example, you’ve probably tried undergrip pulldowns with a straight bar. At certain points along the stroke, the movement just feels wrong—like at the top, when your shoulders dance out of their sockets (no, that loud clicking noise is not your partner cracking his knuckles). Sure, you get a decent stretch in your lats, but your shoulders, not to mention your wrists and elbows, feel unnaturally stressed near the top of the stroke because your hands are locked in a fully supinated, or curl-grip, position. That’s just not ergonomic—unless you’re Gumby or Stretch Armstrong. With the Motion Transfer Cable Attachment, however, your hands can rotate to a more natural parallel or near-parallel position at the top so you can generate more pulling power with your lats there, at the max-force point of the exercise. (If you’ve been following the X-Rep muscle-building discussions in IM and at www.X-Rep.com, you know that the max-force point near the top of the stroke is where maximum fiber recruitment occurs due to optimal fiber alignment in the target muscle. If you’re after extreme growth, it’s critical to generate maximum force there.) It simply makes every pulldown or cable-row variation more effective, from top to bottom. Swiveling handgrip construction is only one of the big benefits of this new ultimate cable bar. It’s also adjustable. Its ingenious bar-insidebar design—kind of the way a telescope collapses—and locking pins allow you to adjust the bar to three different widths. That means you can get rid of a whole load of pulldown bars, from parallel wide-grip handles to straight bars to narrowgrip handles. (At the ITRC we’ve already uncluttered the pulldown area by ditching about five cable attachments thanks to the Motion Transfer bar.) The three-positiongrip option is a real plus for home gyms or commercial gyms that need the most functionality possible from every piece of equipment. And you’ve got to love the way the bar is arced. That bend, along with the swivel handles, enables you to pull down or back further for

a better lat contraction. The arc also provides an interesting angle for pushdowns if you want to try them with your hands on top of the bar— something between a straight bar (palms down) and a rope (palms facing). Of course, you can also do pushdowns gripping the swiveling handles for another unique triceps torcher, and the bar architecture enables you to move your hands back past the plane of your torso. Now, that’s a cramping contraction! As you can see, the Motion Transfer Cable Attachment is much more than just a back blaster. The swivel handles make it a unique cable attachment for doing pushdowns, as described above, as well as upright rows—narrow, medium or wide grip—curls, reverse curls, front raises, shrugs and various ab and forearm exercises. And, of

course, for your back you can do all types of pulldowns and cable rows with three different grip widths. Our hats are off to inventor David De Jesus. We thought that, as far as cable attachments were concerned, it had all been done. Wrong! He combined a multitude of ideas into one rugged, functional device that’s the best equipment innovation we’ve seen in ages. If you’re looking to get a better handle on blasting your back, as well as a lot of other bodyparts, hook up with the new Motion Transfer Cable Attachment. It will set your hypertrophy into hyper motion. Editor’s note: The Motion Transfer Cable Attachment retails for $139.95, but you can get it for a limited time at a special IM Research Team price of only $99.95 plus shipping and handling from Home Gym Warehouse (you save almost $40!). Call (800) 4470008, or visit www .Home-Gym.com. IM

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TOP

SUPPLEMENTS What You Need and What WorksÑ From a Scientific Point of View o doubt you’ve seen the claims: “4,000 percent more potent than creatine monohydrate.” In fact, so many farfetched claims have been made for supplements in recent years—particularly the ones that help you build muscle and lose bodyfat—that people have come to believe that all supplements are just expensive forms of snake oil. Others echo medical professionals who implore people to get their nutrients only from real food. It isn’t a bad idea to look to food first for your nutrients. The problem is, few people eat a large enough variety of foods to meet all nutritional requirements. Dieters limit or eliminate foods that contain vital nutrients. An example is the essential fatty acids: alpha-linoleic acid, or omega-3, and linoleic acid, or omega-6. Those who limit fat intake may not eat as much essential fats as they need for health and fitness. 162 AUGUST 2005 \ www.ironmanmagazine.com

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by Jerry Brainum

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TOP 10 While alpha-linoleic acid, or ALA, is listed as the essential form of the omega-3 fatty acids, the body has to convert it into DHA and EPA, the actual elemental omega-3 fatty acids. They are present naturally in fatty fish such as mackerel, sardines and herring. If you don’t get several servings of this type of fatty fish each week, you’re probably deficient in omega-3 fats because your body can’t efficiently convert ALA into EPA and DHA, especially if you’re a man. If you don’t eat fatty fish, you need to take an omega-3 food supplement. Food supplements are a way of providing important nutrients that your daily diet doesn’t supply. A broader definition would include performance supplements, which aren’t necessarily required nutrients. When taken in excess of

what’s found in food sources or synthesized in the body, however, they can provide ergogenic effects, improving your workouts as well as your muscle-building results, or help you lose excess fat.

A Brief History of Food Supplements The earliest known commercial food supplements were offered in the 1950s. Most were crude compared to present-day versions, but they proved popular. One of the first protein products was sold by Irvin Johnson in Chicago—a milkand-egg protein formulation that was years ahead of its time. Johnson somehow figured out that milk

and eggs were two of the best proteins, perhaps because they served as the initial food for many animals and thus were associated with growth. Johnson refined his formulation over the years and eventually moved to California, changing his name to Rheo Blair. His milk-andegg protein was a sensation in bodybuilding and movie circles in the ’60s. One of Blair’s suggestions for those who found it hard to gain weight and muscle was to mix his protein with heavy cream and one of his flavored extracts; coconut was especially suitable. Some of Blair’s followers were the preeminent bodybuilders of the era, including the first Mr. Olympia, Larry Scott, who won that title in 1965. Around the same time Blair was selling his protein, Bob Hoffman

Studies show that recovery drinks can be used advantageously both before and immediately following training. A drink before training increases amino acid delivery to muscles because of the increased blood flow that exercise induces.

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Advertisment from the January 1967 issue of IRON MAN magazine.

and his York Barbell Company were selling their soy-based protein formulas. None of them contained high-quality protein, despite the ads Hoffman ran in his magazines, Strength & Health and Muscular Development. Another York product was Protein from the Sea. Ostensibly made from some type of seaweed, it had the consistency of sawdust and tasted like dehydrated fish scales. Its highest and best use was as an emetic (vomit inducer). As scientific research progressed, it became apparent that the best types of protein came from milk and eggs. That led to the next great revolution in sports nutrition, the engineered food, pioneered by Scott Connelly, M.D., a critical care specialist from Northern California who teamed with a young entrepreneur named Bill Phillips from Golden, Colorado. They marketed the product Met-Rx, a milk protein–based supplement that contained enough added nutrients to qualify as a meal replacement. Phillips’ clever marketing led to a surge in Met-Rx’s popularity, followed by the marketing of similar

products that continues today. The sports-supplement industry has burgeoned over the past decade, and countless products are on the market. While some have research to back up the many claims made for them, others are supported by little more than a well-known athlete’s endorsement. Because so many product labels list scientific references to back up the manufacturers’ claims of performance and efficacy, or effectiveness, it’s important to understand what constitutes a solid scientific study. A single study, even an optimally designed one, isn’t considered scientific proof. The results have to be replicated several times before they’re officially accepted as fact. On the other hand, it’s also unrealistic to expect food supplements to undergo the same rigorous testing the government mandates for approval of a drug. Drug companies spend millions on lab testing, animal studies and human field trials designed to provide safety and efficacy of drugs. The exorbitant expense of similar testing for sup-

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TOP 10 plements is beyond the resources of every company selling them. Pharmaceutical companies reap the rewards of their approval effort by obtaining exclusive rights to sell the drug for a price vastly greater than the cost of manufacture. When looking at studies supposedly proving the efficacy of food supplements, you must first see who or what the experimental subjects were. For example, a study can feature isolated cells, animals or humans as subjects, and what happens in isolated cells isn’t always what happens in the human body. Take the case of the relationship between vitamin B12 and C. In a test-tube environment vitamin C destroys B12. That doesn’t happen in the human body. In another case supplements touted as “myostatin blockers” were formulated from a type of sea algae. In a test tube they effectively blocked the activity of the protein myostatin, which inhibits muscular growth in the body. The supplement ads implied that they’d enable you to develop unprecedented levels of muscular growth, but as it turned out, they didn’t actually work in the human body. Animal studies are also of questionable relevance. The practice of vivisection in animal studies raises serious questions of human morality, since it involves pure, unadulterated pain and torture of innocent animals. Even worse, much of what happens in animals doesn’t occur in humans. Rats, for example, store large amounts of glycogen but have little capacity for fat storage. When lab rats get supplementary dietary fat, they show a considerable increase in endurance. The same just isn’t true of humans. An article in the British Medical Journal noted that many animal studies are poorly controlled and designed, their major justification being to secure financial grants. At most, animal studies may suggest application to human experience, but nothing more. Even human studies can be misinterpreted or manipulated. A few years ago a then-esoteric trace mineral called boron was found to increase testosterone, but only in older women, as it turned out.

Advertisment from the January 1967 issue of STRENGTH & HEALTH magazine.

When boron was tested in young men engaged in weight training, it proved worthless for increasing testosterone. That doesn’t mean boron is useless; it helps the body use the minerals calcium and magnesium, and it appears to increase mental alertness. Another typical flaw is applying information derived from a study of those with a deficiency or illness to healthy persons. The trace mineral vanadium, or vanadyl, acts like insulin in diabetes patients, helping

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TOP 10 control elevated blood glucose levels. It was marketed to bodybuilders as an “anabolic mineral” that would work like insulin to push amino acids into muscle, replenish depleted glycogen stores and lower bodyfat. In fact, vanadyl does none of those things in nondiabetics. In fact, some studies show that it can blunt amino acid entry into cells and promote bodyfat gain. Studies of so-called smart drugs have also been taken out of context. Some “smart” nutrients, available over the counter, are marketed as a way to “increase mental focus and concentration during training.” The problem is that the studies they’re based on involved either animals or people with brain pathology. In

normal people the effects of smart drugs remain unproven, except anecdotally. Still another frequent error made by consumers is trusting the efficacy of a product because a “scientist” endorses it as being effective. While having an advanced education in science may enable a person to more easily separate sense from nonsense, it’s also true, as Howard Hughes is reputed to have said, that “everyone has a price.” Several men with legitimate degrees, including doctorate and medical degrees, have endorsed products that later proved worthless. Those guys were either on the payroll of manufacturers or owned the companies themselves. (continued on page 174)

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Some smart nutrients, easily available over the counter, are marketed as a way to “increase mental focus and concentration during training.”

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TOP 10 So, What Are the TOP 10? Keeping these caveats in mind, let’s survey the top 10 sports supplements. Remember, too, that what’s best for one bodybuilder may be entirely unsuitable for another. A trainee who finds it difficult to eat enough food to gain lean body mass could use a quality weight-gain powder but probably not a meal replacement or a basic protein powder. Creatine is perhaps the most efficient supplement if you’re doing a high-intensity activi-

ty (see the box below), but if your primary exercise consists of aerobics and you’re aiming for an increase in work capacity, creatine would be a complete waste of money.

CASEIN-WHEY PROTEIN SUPPLEMENTS

Milk protein consists of 80 percent casein and 20 percent whey, and that’s the best combination for promoting a positive nitrogen balance in bodybuilders. That’s because casein is a slow-acting protein that delivers its amino acids over a peri-

CREATINE

Few supplements have the solid scientific foundation that creatine has. Studies show that it’s effective for 80 percent of those who use it. Since creatine is found naturally in meat, the more meat you eat, the less likely you’ll need creatine supplementation. Vegetarians or those who rarely eat meat, however, can get huge boosts from most creatine supplements. Creatine’s primary use is as a backup phosphate donor for the replenishment of ATP, the most elemental form of energy and the source of energy for all muscular contractions. In other words, creatine acts like a second battery in your car. It’s also a buffer, helping neutralize the acidity that blunts energy production in trained muscle. The major controversies regarding creatine are its side effects and the best form to use. Nearly all side effects attributed to creatine, such as muscle cramps, kidney disease and gastrointestinal disturbances, haven’t proved significant under controlled scientific scrutiny. Although various claims are made for a variety of creatine supplements, creatine monohydrate, which is 99 percent absorbed, is the best form to use. By the way, the level of creatine in the blood is meaningless. What counts is how much gets delivered to muscle, which is controlled by the so-called creatine transport protein. It’s activated by the sodium/potassium pump mechanism, which in turn is activated by insulin. Recent studies show that combining creatine with a fast-acting protein, such as whey, enable you to get the benefits of increased creatine uptake without having to eat a lot of simple carbs.

od of seven hours, and whey is a fast-acting protein, peaking in 90 minutes. The faster a protein is absorbed, the faster the liver oxidizes its amino acids. That sounds bad, but whey’s rapid delivery of amino acids also favors increased protein synthesis. A longer-acting protein, such as casein, prevents the excess breakdown of protein, an anticatabolic effect, which ultimately promotes an anabolic effect— growth. Besides the high-quality protein content of casein/whey, the newer formulations have little or no lactose, or milk sugar, which some people have negative reactions to. The native milk proteins also provide a host of smaller proteins called peptides, many of which, such as lactoferrin, have vital health benefits. The rich cysteine content of whey acts as a precursor of glutathione, a primary endogenous antioxidant and liver detoxifier in the body.

OMEGA-3 FATTY ACIDS If you don’t eat fatty fish at least three times a week, you’ll be deficient in omega-3 fatty acids. Studies suggest that’s the case with about 80 percent of people. Since the brain is composed of 40 percent DHA, one of the omega-3s, a long-term lack may cause (continued on page 178)

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(continued from page 174) aberrations

in brain neurotransmitter function, resulting in depression and aggression. Omega-3s provide numerous health benefits. Recent studies show that middle-aged people who eat diets rich in omega-3 fats have a 75 percent decreased incidence of Alzheimer’s disease. Omega-3s help prevent several types of cancer,

including breast and prostate cancers. They improve insulin sensitivity and make cellular membranes more pliable so that hormones can more efficiently interact with cellular receptors. Some studies suggest that a generous intake of omega-3, at least five grams daily, blunts bodyfat synthesis and reduces inflammation, which can help relieve sore joints and muscles. You should know that there’s an initial inflammatory feature of muscular hypertrophy, or growth, that can be blunted by omega-3 fats and other drugs. The solution is simply not to take omega-3s before training. The liquid form of omega-3 supplements is preferred because of less “backup” after swallowing and because it takes so many capsules to give you the five-gram dosage. Capsules will do if you can stand to swallow them.

ANTIOXIDANTS Antioxidant is an umbrella word encompassing thousands of nutrients, including vitamins, minerals

and flavonoids. Many are found in fruits and vegetables, which are often not included in sufficient quantity in typical bodybuilding diets, especially fat-loss diets. Exercise produces oxidative reactions that would normally be toxic to your body. The body’s antioxidant systems that work against oxidation are often overwhelmed by exercise. Supplemental antioxidants help them deal with numerous toxic oxidants, such as the free radicals produced when exercise pumps up your oxygen metabolism. Don’t fall prey to alarmist studies that not only decry the health value of dietary antioxidants, such as

Supplemental forms of antioxidants help the body deal with numerous toxic oxidants, such as the free radicals produced when exercise pumps up your oxygen metabolism.

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TOP 10 vitamin E, but even allege that they’re harmful. The truth is that all antioxidants work as a team. When neutralizing an oxidant, an antioxidant is often temporarily converted into an oxidant itself. Other antioxidants, however, donate an electron that converts the former antioxidant back to its “good guy” status. The studies that find fault with antioxidants always talk about just one antioxidant, which wrongly ignores antioxidant teamwork. Typical dietary antioxidants include vitamins E, C and B-complex as well selenium, zinc, manganese and green-tea and grapeseed extracts.

GLUCOSAMINE AND CHONDROITIN

Both substances are found naturally in the body. They mollify the pain linked to sore joints and connective tissue and promote healing. The latter effect distinguishes the glucosamine-and-chondroitin combo from anti-inflammatory drugs, which relieve pain but do nothing to help repair tissue or retard further joint destruction. Reports of side effects linked to glucosamine use, such as interference with normal glucose metabolism, aren’t true. They were based on dosages that would never be used by any human. The one thing to keep in mind about glucosamine and chondroitin is that joints have relatively poor blood circulation. That means it takes time for supplements aimed at joint treatment to work. So plan not to feel anything for about two months after you start using glucosamine. After that, pain control with the supplement is comparable to what happens with drug use, according to various studies. The typical doses are 1,200 milligrams daily of glucosamine and 800 of chondroitin, which can be doubled initially.

POSTWORKOUT RECOVERY DRINKS Although similar to protein drinks, these also contain simple carbs and other nutrients that good research shows help promote increased muscular recovery and growth. The best protein found in such formulas is whey, which is rapidly absorbed. Simple carbs are added because they promote glycogen replenishment and insulin release. Studies show that recovery drinks can be used advantageously both before and immediately following training. A drink before training increases amino acid delivery to muscles because of the increased blood flow that exercise induces. Forget the notion that simple carbs will make you fat or inhibit fat burning. Any carbs taken within 90 minutes of training go directly toward glycogen replacement, with zero spillover into fat. [For more on postworkout-nutrient research, see the interview with John Ivy, Ph.D., on page 116.]

insulin. Since most vitamin-andmineral combinations have sufficient vitamin content but skimp on minerals, it’s prudent to take a high-potency multimineral containing all the ones you need. That’s particularly important if you’re on a diet that restricts food groups, such as dairy products, which are the best source of calcium.

MULTIMINERAL SUPPLEMENTS

GREEN TEA

Toro

It may seem odd to put such a common supplement as minerals on this list, but few people are aware that minerals are enzyme activators. Many vitamins, on the other hand, are coenzymes, which means that without minerals they’re useless. Many minerals, such as zinc and chromium, also interact with various anabolic hormones, such as testosterone, growth hormone and

Although green tea is an antioxidant, research on it is so impressive that I chose to list it alone. The active ingredients in green tea are a group of antioxidant compounds known as catechins. The most active catechin goes under the acronym of EGCG, and it’s about

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About 20 percent of the free testosterone circulating in the blood is converted into estrogen by way of aromatase. So blocking aromatase will lead to an increase in testosterone, which translates into increased size and strength.

The last survivors of the pro-hormone supplements, which were removed from sale last January, estrogen-blocking supplements aren’t pro-hormones but do inhibit the enzyme aromatase, which converts androgens into estrogens. In normal men that enzyme is ubiquitous, being present in such tissues as muscle, brain and skin. About 20 percent of the free testosterone circulating in the blood is converted into estrogen by way of aromatase. So blocking aromatase will lead to an increase in testosterone, which translates into increased size and strength. Estrogen is also related to fat storage, especially fat that’s subcutaneous, or just under the skin. That means lowering estrogen will also help increase muscular definition, especially with proper diet and training. The current estrogen-blocking supplements are safe but shouldn’t be used year-round, since men do need some estrogen. Estrogen blockers should not be used by women. About one-third of their estrogen production comes from conversion of adrenal androgens into estrogen through aromatase activity.

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Toro

OVER-THE-COUNTER ESTROGEN BLOCKERS

100 times more potent in antioxidant activity than vitamins E and C. Green tea offers many health benefits, such as inhibition of cardiovascular disease and cancer. It also has some mild thermogenic effects, independent of its caffeine content, that may assist fat loss. Some studies even show that green tea offers protection against joint

Model: Tommi Thqrvildsen

lower total body inflammation and protects against elevated blood lipids and blood pressure. Soluble fiber (such as guar gum or psyllium) taken just before a meal containing simple or high-glycemic-index carbs will slow the entry of the carbs into the blood. That means less insulin release, less bodyfat and a stabilized blood glucose level. Fiber comes in two forms: insoluble and soluble. A cheap and effective source of insoluble fiber is unprocessed wheat bran. Forms of soluble fiber include pectin, guar gum, psyllium and oatmeal. You need both forms to obtain fiber’s many benefits. Other supplements could easily have been included here, but these are considered the most useful and effective for the majority of bodybuilders and athletes. Although food should always come first, supplements offer an effective alternative for getting nutrients that either aren’t available in sufficient quantity in food or are in foods that you may not be eating. IM

The liquid form of omega-3 supplements is preferred because there’s less “backup” after you swallow, and you don’t have to take a lot of capsules to get the five-gram dose. Capsules will do if you can stand to swallow them.

FIBER SUPPLEMENTS Unless you eat the minimal five servings a day of various fruits and vegetables, you are likely not taking in enough fiber. The popular low-carbohydrate diets are all deficient in fiber. Fiber helps

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Toro

degeneration. If you don’t have the time or inclination to drink several cups of green tea daily, you can get the same or better effects by using standardized capsules or tablets of green tea.

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Meral

Ertunc

Strength in Weights by Ruth Silverman

hatever happened to Meral Ertunc? You know—the pretty, dark-haired Turkish-born bodybuilder from Virginia who won her class at the ’92 NPC Nationals, took third at the ’93 Jan Tana Classic and made it to the Olympia in her first year as a pro? In the rush to develop bigger, harder bodies in the female bodybuilding ranks, then as now, a woman who possessed the truly total package of aesthetics—symmetry, proportion and looks—stood out even if she was only 5’2”. Besides, how could you forget a name like Meral Ertunc? An aerobics instructor who was sidelined by shin splints, Ertunc started weightlifting in 1987 and entered her first show nine months later. After a slew of local and regional competitions—and a close third place at the ’91 Junior Nationals, she took the National Lightweight Championship on her first try, triumphing over a class of 28. Enter the national muscle

media, and before you could say Marjo Selin, she was starring in magazine features like, “Beauty and Brawn,” “A Model of Muscular Beauty” and “Meral Ertunc Shows How Basic Movements Build a Feminine Chest.” Meral got married and moved to Florida. She and her husband opened a gym, and, with her successful training business and her bodybuilding career starting to take off, well, if ever anyone seemed to be on the road to having it all, it was she. Then, suddenly, she disappeared from the scene. What happened to Meral was every woman’s nightmare: She was diagnosed with breast cancer. As a bodybuilder and personal trainer, however, she had some heavy weapons to use in her fight against the disease. She used them in spades. Not only did she beat it back, but she recently took on the rigors of contest prep again, making her debut in figure at the San Francisco Pro in March. The bottom line: Meral Ertunc is one gutsy lady. Here’s her story.

IM: When were you diagnosed with breast cancer? ME: July 4, 1996. I had found a mass under my right armpit. IM: What was going on in your life then? ME: I was in great shape, around 140 pounds. Going to Turkey, where I was born and raised, to do seminars and a radio talk show about my life as a Turkish pro female bodybuilder. IM: What treatments did you undergo? ME: I had surgery to take out the mass that was under my armpit. They went in three inches to my muscle and scraped. Then they took all my lymph nodes from that area, which is a very tender part of your arm. After that there were four treatments of chemo and nine straight weeks of radiation. IM: I’ve talked with people who have gone through this, and most of them have said it was devastating. How did you handle it?

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Success Story ME: I was very scared. I lost my mother to cancer in 1989. She was very young and healthy. She fought for her life for about 2 1/2 years, but the cancer took her life.

recovery? ME: When you’re going through chemo and radiation treatments, food does not taste the same. You get sick to your stomach. My favorite food used to be chicken with pasta, and I loved coffee. When I started my treatments, everything tasted like metal in my mouth. I tried to eat healthy meals and drink lots of water to flush everything out of my system. Coffee tasted like mud. No more coffee. I would get sick to my stomach if I looked at chicken and pasta. However, pizza with anchovies was yummy. I craved salt at all times.

IM: What role did weight training and exercise play? ME: I looked at my cancer as a bodybuilding challenge. I thought, If I can diet six months out of the year and train like a champion, what’s six months out of my life to overcome a deadly disease? My body was so strong from eating healthy and training with weights—I was so ready and focused to attack this illness.

Balik

IM: What kept you strong? ME: I saw what my mother went through, and I was determined to beat the disease. This was a mental focus for me. My ex-husband, Tony Vargas, was there for me mentally and emotionally. I feel very fortunate that he was part of my life back then. He kept me strong and very much loved no matter what I looked like or felt. My family and my friends were my support group as well. Winning the lightweights at the ’92 NPC Nationals.

IM: Any particular nutrients or supplements you relied on? ME: In general, I didn’t take too many supplements. I used protein powder; vitamins, minerals, antioxidants—anything that helped keep my energy up when I couldn’t eat. For the most part I used Parrillo Performance products, such as their mineral-electrolyte formula, essential vitamins and protein bars. IM: How long did it take for your recovery? ME: After my major surgery I started my chemo treatments right away. I would get three hours of injection; then I would go straight to the gym to work out and then go to work to train my clients.

IM: Can you remember the program you used? ME: High, high repetitions, very light weights, circuit training the body. I started a Spinning program and riding mountain bikes and road bikes.

Comstock

Strength in Weights

IM: How soon did you get back into the gym? How did it go once you got there? ME: Four weeks and I was back in the gym. It was very painful to work out. They said I would not be able to lift my arm over my head for about six months. They were wrong. With my training background and determination I was able to raise my arm over my head in weeks. I went to the gym every day and pushed through the pain and wanted so bad to get back to being normal as soon as possible.

IM: You were a personal trainer and a competitive bodybuilder, so “eating right” was probably a way of life for you. How did you use your knowledge of nutrition to aid your

IM: So, basically, you ate what you could stand. How long did that last, and did you get your appetite back intact? ME: I still tried to eat as healthy as possible. When I craved salty food, I would eat that as well. After my chemo was over, I still had that metal taste in my mouth for about four more months. Then, slowly, everything started tasting better.

Competing at the ’05 San Francisco Pro Figure Championship.

IM: What have you been doing since then? (I’m sure that’s a loaded question.) ME: On July 4, 2005, it will be nine years that I’m cancer-free. Wow, so much has happened. I got divorced in May 2000. Opened my own studio, Bodylines by Meral and Johnny G. Spinning, in Winter Park, Florida. I specialize in one-on-one personal training, bodyfat analysis and nutrition, and I also offer Spin-

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Success Story

Strength in Weights

ning classes. I have my own home and two beautiful boxers, Shaba and Jewel. I have been dating, but there’s no one special in my life as of right now. My training is going very well. I train with weights; I run and cycle. I do charity work for breast cancer every year. IM: Looking back, what would you have done differently in fighting the disease and transitioning back into serious training if you knew then what you know now? ME: Absolutely nothing. I did my best. IM: You were always one of the female bodybuilders who didn’t want to “get too big.” In fact, you said in an interview in

1994 that you were thinking of trying fitness competition. Now you’re coming back in figure. Why now—after all these years? ME: It took me a long time to even consider stepping back on that stage. I knew I was not going to go back to being a bodybuilder. Overall, I lost 22 pounds from my muscular offseason weight of around 140, and putting that back on to compete at the level that I was at was someting I had no desire to do. When pro figure came around in 2000, that interested me. The girls had nice lines—they were feminine and not too muscular—however, I felt that I was still too big. It took me a couple of years to decide that I wanted be up there with those girls and say I’m back. IM: What would you say you

have to prove now? ME: To this day people ask about me and want to know how I’m doing. I want to share my story with all of you and let everyone know that I had a huge obstacle thrown at me, I survived, and I’m so happy and excited to step back onstage with such a different look and prove to people you can be a survivor. It’s how bad you want something and how much you’re willing to sacrfice in life to get there. I hope that I can help people overcome some of their fears. IM: How did you approach training for pro figure? Did you need to build yourself up or tone down? ME: I toned down. I did higher reps with less weight and more cardio.

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Success Story

IM: How often do you train, and what bodypart split do you use? ME: I use a three-day split, dividing my upper body over two days and hitting legs on the third day. Then I rotate the workouts again. I listen to my body, and I only take days off from weight training if I feel tired. IM: Can you list the routine— say, a typical round of bodyparts? ME: I don’t train my chest at all; it’s been nine years. I only train my shoulders, back, triceps, biceps, abs legs and calfs. Here’s the routine I was using eight weeks out from the show:

Leg extensions Leg curls Abs: same as day 1

Day 3 Back, Abs and Calves Wide-grip front pulldowns Reverse-grip pulldowns Dumbbell rows Seated rows Abs: same as day 1 Calves: same as day 1

Strength in Weights

Day 2 Smith-machine squats (legs wider than shoulders; toes pointed out) 4 x 20 Smith-machine split squats (per leg) 5 x 20

2 x 15-20 4 x 15-20 4 x 15-20

Legs and Abs Lunge walks with dumbbells 4 x 20 Seated leg curls 4 x 15 Stepups with dumbbells 4 x 20 Stiff-legged deadlifts (with straight bar) 4 x 12-15 Abs: same as day 1

Day 5 Off

Day 6

Shoulders, Biceps, Abs and Calves

Legs and Abs

2 x 15-20

Day 4

Day 1 Seated behind-the-neck Smith-machine presses 4 x 15-20 Dumbbell lateral raises 4 x 15-20 Upright rows (with EZ-curl bar) 4 x 15-20 Alternate dumbbell front raises 4 x 15-20 Standing alternate dumbbell curls 3 x 20 Preacher curls 3 x 20 EZ-curl-bar curls or cable curls with curl bar 3 x 20 Bicycles 2 x 100 Decline-bench reverse crunches 3 x 20 Knee raises 3 x 20 Seated calf raises 4 x 20-30 Standing calf raises 4 x 20-30

4 x 20 5 x 15

IM: What’s the biggest change in your contest prep—and your training in general—now that you’re no longer 22? ME: I eat less than when I was a pro bodybuilder. My training is still intense, and so are my cardio workouts.

Cycle Begins Again As for cardio, from 12 weeks out I was doing one hour of cardio every morning. At six weeks out I increased it to two hours every day. Then four weeks out from my contest I made some changes to my weight routine. I put on upper-body muscle very quickly, so I dropped upper-body training altogether. I also still have a lot of mass in my legs from my bodybuilding days and needed to drop some size there. So I did legs every day, high reps of 20, 30, 50; drop sets, supersets. You name it, I did it. I did lots of lunges, leg curls, leg extensions and split squats. I also worked abdominals and calves every day. Two weeks out I backed off on my cardio by a half hour and kept everything else the same. One week out I cut back to an hour of cardio, abs and calves. It’s all very different from the way I trained in my bodybuilding days.

IM: On the subject of aerobics, you suffered from shin splints when you were younger. What kind of aerobic exercise do you do? ME: I teach Spinning classes four times a week and do stair stepper, Stairmaster and running on the days when I’m not Spinning. IM: For your contest prep, how many times a day did you eat? And would you list a typical day’s diet plan? ME: I ate five times a day—egg whites, fish, turkey some chicken and tofu for protein. I love sushi. I ate all kinds of veggies—zucchini, squash, mushrooms, etc.—and a small potato or some oatmeal once a day, usually in the morning, plus [protein] bars for a snack or treat. IM: What’s the one supplement you can’t do without? ME: I don’t have any addictions to supplements. IM: How can people get in touch with you? ME: They can write to me at bodylinesbymeral@earthlink.net. IM

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IRON MAN Hardbody

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YuGo

Girl!

Danijela Crevar Brings European Class and Curves to American Fitness by Jonathan Lawson

Hair and Make-up by Kimberly Carlason

Photography by Michael Neveux

Danijela Crevar, a Mediterranean, Yugoslavian and Balkan fitness champ, is more well-known in Europe than she is in the United States at the moment, but sheÕs making a quick transition to our friendly shores. Crevar has appeared in dozens of sports-related magazines worldwide and was even the star of her own TV show, ÒFitness for Everybody,Ó in Yugoslavia. With her winning attitude, friendly appeal and desire to promote the fitness lifestyle at any and every opportunity, sheÕs on course for success, and you can expect to see her emerging as a true star in the fitness worldÑstarting here! Editor’s note: For more on Danijela Crevar visit her Web site, www.danijelacrevar.com. www.ironmanmagazine.com \ JULY 2005 201

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IRON MAN Hardbody

Height: 5â&#x20AC;&#x2122;8â&#x20AC;? Weight: 145 Age: 33 Current residence: Vancouver, Canada Born in: Yugoslavia Occupation: IFBB pro figure athlete, fitness model, personal trainer, writer and owner of a lingerie business Favorite foods: Healthful: meat and fruit. Less Healthful: chocolate, but just once a week Web site: www.DanijelaCrevar.com

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IRON MAN Hardbody

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IRON MAN Hardbody

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IRON MAN Hardbody

Favorite bodypart program: “I don’t have a favorite or least favorite. I always focus on balance and body proportion. I like to follow an instinctive training program, doing a variety of exercises. I usually do five to six different exercises per muscle group. I love supersets and believe in intense workouts. I prefer free weights to machines. I train five days a week.”

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Heavy Duty

Heavy Duty Mentzer on Measuring Your Muscle Growth by John Little

Q: What’s the proper standard for gauging whether I’m making the kind of progress that I should from my Heavy Duty workouts— bodyweight gains or strength gains? A: Most bodybuilders use the wrong standard for evaluating workout-toworkout progress. They go by bodyweight increases. I know of bodybuilders—even Mike at one time—who step on the scale as soon as they walk into a gym. If they’re not gaining weight at every workout or in every week, they suspect something’s wrong. In most cases something is wrong, but it’s not necessarily the fact that they’re not gaining weight.

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Balik \ Photo Illustration by Christian Martinez

Monitoring Gains

Heavy Duty

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Neveux \ Model: Ronnie Coleman

Heavy Duty

Ronnie Coleman is a believer in getting stronger to get bigger.

Neveux \ Model: Dorian Yates

“If there was absolutely no relationship between strength and muscular size, it would be conceivable that Dorian Yates (right) could curl only 50 pounds. In fact, Yates curls more than 200 pounds. He got as big as he did, in part, because he got as strong as he did.”

The point is, you shouldn’t evaluate your workout-to-workout efforts according to bodyweight increases. Muscle growth on a daily basis is negligible. Let’s take a bestcase scenario. Say you have the required genetics, and you’re going to train properly and eat adequately for the next year and gain 30 pounds of muscle. As great as that is, though, 30 pounds of muscle in one year averages out to slightly more than one ounce a day—which isn’t enough to register on your typical scale on a daily or even a weekly basis. A pound contains 16 ounces, of course, and if you were weighing yourself each week on a certain day, you’d only be gaining a pound every 2 1/2 weeks or so. And if on that given day you got a haircut and had diarrhea, you’d register a weight loss. Do you see now why bodyweight increases aren’t a reliable standard for evaluating workout-to-workout progress? As Mike once said: “The appropriate standard to use is strength increases. When you’re training properly, you’ll be going up in reps, in weight or both on every set of every exercise—or damn near. And I’ve had clients who have gone up on every set of every workout for many, many months. I’ve had other clients who did almost that well. But all of my clients— every one of them—made regular, continual progress without a doubt. Most bodybuilders don’t know this, but, in fact, a properly conducted bodybuilding program is essentially a strength-training program. Train for strength, and evaluate your progress in terms of strength increases.” Why did Mike favor measuring bodybuilding progress in terms of strength increases? Simply because there’s a relationship between muscular strength and muscular size. If you want to get bigger, you’ve got to get stronger. I emphasize that point because most bodybuilders are reluctant to accept the idea. I recall Mike’s telling me that once when he was in Gold’s Gym, a young man was arguing with him about it quite vehemently and at some length. Mike finally stopped him and asked, “What are you supposed to do to get bigger—get weaker?” And

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Heavy Duty Most people get stronger for a while without getting bigger. As Arthur Jones pointed out, for most trainees strength comes first.

the guy saw the relationship. “Furthermore,” Mike said, “if there was absolutely no relationship between strength and muscular size, it would be conceivable that people like Dorian Yates could only curl 50 pounds. In fact, Yates curls more than 200 pounds. He got as big as he did, in part, because he got as strong as he did. If you want to get bigger, you’ve got to get stronger.” Now, while all that is true beyond a shadow of a doubt, it’s also true— and this is an important follow-up point—that strength increases precede size increases. Most people get stronger for a while without getting bigger, but as long as they continue to get stronger, they’ll eventually get bigger. Let’s give Mike the final word on this matter: “Now, just how strong one gets, how long it takes, I can’t say because those are matters dictated by genetics. But as long as you’re getting stronger, you know you’re on the right track. That’s true for most people, by the way. I was one of those individuals myself; I can remember in the early part of my training career especially there would be periods of even as long as four months during which I would get stronger on a regular basis and

not gain any weight. As a result, I grew enormously frustrated and almost gave up more times than I care to remember. And when I say frustrated, I mean painfully, agonizingly frustrated. It was only years later that Arthur Jones pointed that out, and I saw it was true in so many cases: That for most people strength comes first.” Editor’s note: For a complete presentation of Mike Mentzer’s Heavy Duty training system, consult his books Heavy Duty II and High Intensity Training the Mike Mentzer Way, available through the ad on page 203 of this issue, from Home Gym Warehouse, (800) 4470008, or by visiting Mentzer’s official Web site, www.mikementzer.com. John Little is available for phone consultation on Mike Mentzer’s Heavy Duty training system. For rates and information, contact Joanne Sharkey at (310) 316-4519 or at www.mikementzer.com, or see the ad mentioned above. Article copyright © 2005, John Little. All rights reserved. Mike Mentzer quotations that appear in this series provided courtesy of Joanne Sharkey, © 2005 and used with permission. IM

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Lonnie Teper’s

Commentary: Weighty Matters Resurface

Gone Belly Up Will a mandate from Ben Weider Change bodybuilding’s look in 2005? First came the mandate that the IFBB’s female pro athletes show up with 20 percent less muscularity this year. In April a memo from the office of IFBB President Ben Weider was distributed, embracing the qualities of balance, proportion and the overall flow of the physique. The final paragraph cut to the chase: “Distended abdomens and distorted muscles negatively impact upon symmetry and natural aesthetics and, More Mandate therefore, detract from the overall physique. Athletes and judges are advised that muscle size at the expense of symmetry and natural aesthetics will not be assessed favorably.” Now, what does that all really mean? That Dexter Jackson, Chris Cormier, Darrem Charles, Melvin Anthony, Troy Alves and Ahmad Haidar will finish first through sixth at the ’05 Olympia? They certainly are ownDoes Ben Weider’s mandate mean that Ronnie Coleman’s days as Mr. Olympia are numbered and ers of the preferred “streamlined waist” and “flat, muscular abthat Dexter Jackson’s day is coming? Stay tuned. domen” cited in the memo. Yes, seven-time Mr. O Ronnie Coleman has been criticized several times over for displaying an extended midsection in competition. And Lord knows the Big Nasty definitely might possess, according to most, distorted muscles—that is, if you feel that massive and distorted are synonymous when it comes to muscularity. So does the edict mean that Coleman’s string of consecutive Mr. O titles is about to end at seven? That Jay Cutler’s chances of winning the Olympia are permanently dashed? That Gunter Schlierkamp and Markus Ruhl might as well hang up the posing trunks? I doubt it. If you haven’t noticed, bodybuilding is the poster sport for subjectivity. Although the words in the notice sound nice, the question is, Will the judges really attempt to follow the guideDOES MARVELOUS MELVIN lines? Especially if they’re inclined to reward a colossal, well-conditioned and comparatively balPOSSESS THE IDEAL BOD? anced physique with the championship honors? Another question: What’s the desired outcome of defining what a bodybuilder’s look should be? If the intent is to—here we go again—try and convince mainstream folks to join the party, forget it. Actually, it could hurt the industry, at least from a promoter’s perspective. The people who pay the big bucks to see contests want to see big boys onstage. Big, freaky, outrageouslooking physiques. It doesn’t mean they want to look like them. Just means they want to gape at the very-hard bodies for a couple of hours. As the naysayers point out, similar courses of action have been attempted in the past. To no avail. Will history repeat itself? We’ll all know in about three months. Neveux

Comstock

Questions

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ADD CHANGES

Battle of New Orleans Mandalay Bay is out; Orleans is in for ’05 Big O As they say, what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas. Thus, the mystery surrounding the site of the ’05 Olympia was solved with an official press release from AMI that appeared during the first part of May: Las Vegas will once again play host to the weekend, which is set for October 13–16, but it’s adios to the Mandalay Bay. After six years at the Mandalay Bay Events Center, the Olympia competitions are moving to the Orleans Arena, part of the Orleans Hotel and Casino, which will be the official host hotel. The expo will move a few miles away to the Las Vegas Convention Center. David Pecker, CEO and chairman of AMI, says the moves are a step up in both

quality and quantity. Say what, David? Swapping the Mandalay Bay for the Orleans Hotel and Casino is a step up in quality? Moving the expo across town is an improvement? Having to take a $30-plus round-trip cab ride or a The Olympia Weekend will remain in Las Vegas, but 15-to-20 minute courtesy the Mandalay Bay (above left) is just a pleasant memory as the contest moves to the Orleans Arena. bus trip—in weekend Vegas traffic—to get to the expo is an improvement? Granted, I’m no big Las Vegas aficionado, but I do know that the Mandalay Bay is one of the town’s most luxurious hotels and that the Orleans, while very nice, is not. Am I missing something here? But let’s be fair on this; I’m officially reserving my judgment until the gala is over. Who knows? I may be thrilled with the new venue. Word is the Orleans Arena is quite a place and might be a better one for viewing a bodybuilding contest, despite the purported return of the challenge round. That segment of the competition will be a negative no matter how it’s tweaked. I was hoping they’d just deposit it in the 11-acre Muscle Beach they create for the weekend, only it turns out that there won’t be a Muscle Beach this time around.

HOT SHOTS BY JERRY FREDRICK Backstage there’s always electricity in the air—and even in the hair sometimes.

ing—and Posing oil makes sitt ed much more nak nd rou —a ing slid interesting.

Now, that's a man-s creen TV! And a wicked man-size bac k too.

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BROADCAST

ADD VEGAS

Talks the Talk

Lineup adds heat to summer sizzle

NPC USA

NEWS

Photography by Bill Comstock

And walks the walk

There won’t be a change in venue for this season’s NPC USA Championships, which are set for July 29–30 at the Artemus W. Ham Concert Hall on the campus of the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, but there will be changes in the contest lineup. The organization is adding a welterweight class to the men’s contest, and figure will replace fitness at the Jaguar Jon Lindsay production, with pro cards at the end of the rainbow for all six figure class winners. The top two men will earn their IFBB stripes as well, per usual, along with the women’s overall champ. The last time I spoke with Marcus Haley, the Florida-based heavyweight He also likes the chances of (clockwise from right) Randall Chaney, Hollywood Ferguson and Chic Betancourt.

runner-up (to Will Harris) in ’04, he said that he’s coming back to the desert and won’t leave without a pro card in hand. Marcus definitely rates as one of the faves in the contest, but the guy who was right on his tail a year ago (and fourth in the class in ’03), Faramarz Aghazadeh, really caught my attention and has as good a shot as anybody at bringing home the bacon. Now, if Marcus stays in the superheavyweight class, where he placed third at the ’04 Nationals, both gents might be able to move on to the next level. Another guy capable of winning his class is Jorge “Chic” Betancourt, the Miami Beach ace who earned a very disputed—at least from where I sat—fourth-place finish in the middleweights last year. Ditto for Randall Chaney, yet another Floridian, who took second in the light-heavies to USA overall winner Mark Dugdale a year ago. Randall is a quiet man but carries some bigtime muscle. And who has a more balanced package than heavyweight Jerome “Hollywood” Ferguson?

Mike Lackner

Who are the faves for the upcoming USA Championships? L.T. says Marcus Haley and Faramarz Aghazadeh should do battle for top honors.

IFBB pro Jimmy Mentis, here with his new bride, Suzie, is on the air. To find out where, log on to www.1400espn.com or www.jimmymentis.com.

Jimmy Mentis, to whom I gave the moniker “Greek God” during his NPC days (yes, the man is Greek, so the name fits!), was one of the many sponsors of the Natural Ohio (see item on opposite page). The owner of Pro World Nutrition said he’d recently partnered with the James Crystal Radio Network (www.1400espn.com) to produce and distribute a two-hour weekly show featuring a wide variety of topics related to the importance of personal fitness and a healthy lifestyle. “The Jimmy Mentis Show” will include hot topics, from the Governator to “Desperate Housewives,” as Mentis mixes it up with celebrities and couch potatoes alike, he said. No holds barred; anything goes. Book me, big Jim. “Vital information about the easiest way to achieve a wide variety of fitness goals will be presented with experts and celebrities, giving real-life examples that will be fun and will get the job done,” said Mentis. Sounds like fun. Check local listings as well as the ESPN Web site, or you can log on to www.jimmymentis.com.

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Add NPC Contests: Backstage Story

’05 Natural Ohio Worst ever April snow Can’t slow this show

Who’s a Wuss?

ADD NATURAL OHIO \

A Time to Give

Two-time Figure Olympia champ Davana Medina joined Gunter Schlierkamp and former Natural Ohio winner Justin Wilcox as special guest stars, and I was particularly impressed with the way Davana interacted with the figure competitors backstage. No snob, this lady. She went up to many of the gals and offered her best wishes, advice and other pleasantries. The New Jersey– based beauty also donated her services to support the American Cancer Society. On that note, Geoff DelGrosso, owner of Titans 24 Hour Gym in Mentor, Ohio, kicked in with a generous donation of $1,200. In all, the contest raised $2,200. Impressive lady: Medina with L.T.

Seventeenyear-old Len Kratochvil, who contracted diabetes at the age of seven, doesn’t let it stand in his way.

Mike Lackner

A special Most Promising Bodybuilder award, given in memory of Michigan bodybuilder Steve King, who was killed in a 2001 New York City robbery, went to 17-year-old Len Kratochvil, who competed in the teen and junior divisions despite being a diabetic. King’s mother and stepfather, Jenny King and Dick Wright, were on hand to present the award to Len.

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Mike Lackner

I hate cold weather, okay? That’s why I’m paying egregious real estate prices to call Southern Cal home. So, when the worst April blizzard in Cleveland history came to town the same time I did, I had two concerns: How was I going to survive the glacial temperatures, and how would promoters Dave Liberman and Todd Pember, who’d hired me to emcee the ’05 Natural Ohio on April 2, survive the six feet of snow that arrived in time for contest day? For once, my having too much Damn, those trophies are tall. The ’05 Natural Ohio GUNTER GOT GAME IN OHIO. bodyfat came in handy. And with the rep produced a strong trio of champs (from left): Liberman and Pember have accrued since team- Raquel Bonner, Orlando Smith and Lauren Burnett. ing up five years ago to promote natural bodybuilding in the Cleveland area, the contest still ended up as one of the biggest—and best—in the Midwest. Actually, my troubles began even before I landed in Cleveland. A windstorm smacked the plane up, down and around, or at least it seemed that way. Gunter Schlierkamp, along for the ride as the contest’s featured guest poser, had tears in his eyes when the aircraft went into to shake-and-bake mode. Tears of laughter, that is. “You are a big wuss,” Schlierkamp hooted. “Wait till I tell everyone about this.” You don’t have to, big guy. I’m telling them right now. And I’m also telling ’em that, despite your German upbringing, you were whining as much about the horrific weather conditions as this wuss. Maybe if you’d doubled your bodyfat numbers, you wouldn’t have felt so frosty. Back to the contest. The elements notwithstanding, things turned out swell. Once again, an impressive list of overall winners left the Lakeland Civic Auditorium with 20-foot trophies (okay, perhaps that’s a bit of an exaggeration, but those suckers are tall!). Kudos to men’s open’s champ Orlando Smith, women’s open winner Raquel Bonner and figure open titlist Lauren Burnett. Also, congrats to Michael Lockett (junior men), Carlton Rand (master’s men), Stephanie Togrul (master’s figure), Annie McCoy (master’s women) and 17-year-old phenom Justin Lohrer (teen men). Gunter Schlierkamp, here pumping up prior to his guest-posing appearance at the Natural Ohio, really warmed up the frozen crowd. Hey, how come Jimmy Mentis’ eyes are on Natalie Blommel and not Gunter?

More Ohio Tales

Another Success Story Smashup couldn’t stop

Another

This stellar natural bodybuilder

Steinmetz

Shiloe isn’t the only member of the family who has a quality physique; his wife, Amber, took the B class at the Natural Ohio and went on to place ninth at the Junior USA. See, couples who train together, gain together. Trophies, in this case.

Teper

Shiloe “When I Was Young” Steinmetz spent most of 2000 rehabbing from injuries suffered in a motorcycle accident—he was thrown from his bike after hitting gravel and was lucky to survive. And did he survive. Steinmetz, a 33-year-old pharmacist from Grove City, Ohio, who began competing in 1997, returned to the bodybuilding dais in 2003 and has been onstage in more than 30 contests since then. Along the way he picked up 17 overall victories, and he recently took fifth in the heavyweight class at the Junior USA—as a lifetime natural comHOT COUPLE TRAINING: petitor. He also had the huevos to compete in the North LOOK OUT! Americans last season, placing 12th. I met Shiloe when he won the overall at the ’04 Natural Ohio, and he caught my attention immediately. Shoot, I thought the 5’9”, 208-pounder was Skip La Cour! Could be my best look-alike of the year, eh, gang? Speaking of Skip, Steinmetz’s goal is to win the Team Universe, something La Cour knows something about. And I think Shiloe can, in time, get it done too.

A D D S U C C E S S S T O RY

Teper

Shiloe Steinmetz, onstage in 2004.

Guillermo Escalante

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Comstock

ina, received his If you haven’t undergraduate noticed by now, degree in physical well-versed people education with an impress me. And emphasis on athGuillermo Esletic training—as calante certainly well as an MBA— fills the bill as from La Verne someone who’s University. He much more than a eventually hopes to bodybuilder. Oh, obtain a doctorate the 29-year-old in athletic training. from Alta Loma, Additionally, California, flexes At left: L.T. and World Gym, West Covina, co-owner Escalante at the World Gym Hall of Fame induction banquet in Columbus, Ohio. At right: Escalante at the Orange County Escalante, who is plenty of muscle Classic. married, is certified onstage. He reas an athletic trainer by the National Athletic Trainer’s Associcently won the middleweight class at the ’05 Orange County ation and as a strength and conditioning specialist by the Muscle Classic, which followed a third-place landing at the National Strength & Conditioning Association. I first met him Junior USA. when he was the athletic trainer at East Los Angeles CommuThe 5’5”, 176-pound Escalante, who’s also the president, nity College, and I felt he had the goods to move onward and CEO and co-owner of SportsPros Sports Medicine, Fitness upward in the bodybuilding field. Sometimes I do get it right. and Physical Therapy Centers and of World Gym, West Cov-

ADD LA COUR

T R A G I C E N D I N G S D E P T. He’s just not the retiring kind

Skip La Cour may have retired from competition, but you didn’t think he’d be sitting on his duff very long, did you? La Cour’s new DVD, “Packing On Muscle! Max-OT Style,” is now available, and the two-disc instructional and motivational program includes a comSkip La Cour’s ‘”Packing on plete week of Muscle” DVD set is now training available for your viewing (explained in pleasure. great detail and jam-packed with insights), additional exercises, cardiovascular training, tips for taking your training to the next level, contest footage and a one-hour nutrition seminar. The six-time national champion takes you into the gym as his virtual training partner for an entire week of workouts; you’ll view every set, every rep. If you want to pack on slabs of muscle in the shortest period of time, Skip’s latest creation should be just for you. You can order online at www.skiplacour.com, or for credit card orders call (800) 655-0986.

R.I.P.

Don Youngblood may have gained national prominence thanks to his upset win over Vince Taylor at the ’02 Masters Olympia, but he impressed me more off the stage than on it as one of the industry’s most sincere, downto-earth people. Don Youngblood, here with wife Sue at the ’04 Nationals. In 1992 Youngblood stunned the bodyThus, there was building world by scoring an upset victory over extra sadness in Vince Taylor at the Masters Olympia. the news that Don had died, at 51, in his Alma, Arkansas, home on Sunday, May 8, of an apparent heart attack. Youngblood is the second Masters Olympia champion to pass away in recent times; Sonny Schmidt died of cancer in January 2004. Youngblood, who owned his own trucking company, was a family man, with three children and three grandkids. (He and wife Sue also had a child who died suddenly from an aneurysm several years ago, at the age of 11.) I first met Don in Washington, D.C., at the ’95 Junior Nationals. After the contest a group of us went to a karaoke bar, where Shawn Ray forced me to perform Elvis’ “Can’t Help Falling in Love.” Unlike Shawn, Don was too polite to grade my effort. When I saw Don and Sue in Dallas, at the ’04 Nationals, he said he’d been diagnosed with diabetes but planned on competing again in 2006. He’d come to the show to support Chad Martin, who finished seventh in the heavyweight class. Rest in peace, big guy, You were a class act.

C Ian C. Ware/iajephoto.com

A D D PA S S I N G S

Robert Benavente, the ’03 Southern States winner, passed away due to a heart attack at the young age of 29, on November 6, 2004.

Charles Durr, the ’99 North American light-heavyweight champion and ’91 USA middleweight winner, died at home in Chicago, on May 2, reportedly of an enlarged heart. He would have turned 45 on June 6.

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Pat Casey, whom his close friend IRON MAN photojournalist Gene Mozée has called the greatest powerlifter of all time, died of lung cancer in April. He was 65.

Teper

Don Youngblood MusclePopping DVD

Ruth Silverman’s

PUMP & CiRCUMSTANCE SHOWSAPOLOOZA

N. Y. P R O M E N ’ S F L A S H

Bradford

New York Pro

Homegirl Rosemary Jennings proved that the 20-percent-less-muscle rule does indeed apply, despite any blogs you may be reading. While it’s true that the much more muscular Annie Rivieccio won the heavyweights by 15 points (and with the best body in the bunch), it would seem that the proportionately smaller bodybuilder won the overall. Folks I talked with were raving about how wonderful Ms. Rosemary looked. Of course, some of the other decisions had knowledgeable observers scratching their heads, but, as they say, that’s bodybuilding.

Triumph in Tribeca

Darrem Does It!

o Women’s

’05 New York Pr

mary Jennin Overall: Rose Lightweight nnings* 1) Rosemary Je rone pa Pa e ni an 2) Je os rri 3) Fannie Ba 4) Gayle Moyer to 5) Guisy Capu i cin Fa n sa 6) Su

e Ms. Olympia

*Qualifies for th

Comstock

The IFBB spring season, professional women’s division, part 2, began in late April with the Emerald Cup Pro Fitness and was still going on a month later, as this issue went to bed. Despite the preponderance of figure shows on the women’s circuit, the New York Pro Women’s Bodybuilding Championship, partnered with a men’s bodybuilding contest of the same name, dared to be different. Word is the Tribeca Performing Arts Center was bursting at the seams in more ways than one on May 21, when the show formerly known as the Night of Champions made its downtown debut. Big Apple promoters Steve Weinberger and Bev Francis now have a full complement of N.Y. Pro contests—men’s, women’s fitness and figure—but they stage ’em at different times of the year. Now, that’s a clever strategy for keeping the franchise in the news year-round. Since the alternative tactic requires having Arnold as your co-promoter, it’s brilliant,

Congrats to Darrem Charles, who scored his first Big Apple win at the first N.Y. Pro Men’s Bodybuilding Championship. The suavely symmetrical Charles carried a bit more size than usual and just enough conditioning to earn a perfect score, finishing 33 points ahead of Ahmad Haidar, who beat out local hero Victor Martinez, in third, by just Bodybuilding Ch a few points. ampionship Craig Heavyweigh Richardson in t 1) Annie Rivie fourth and ccio* Capriese 2) Heather Fo ster Murray round3) Maria Calo ed out the top 4) Sarah Dunl ap five, with all 5) Colette Nelso n earning 6) Carmella Cu reton Olympia quali7) Mily Pena fications. 8) Sarah Bridge s

HOT SHOTS BY JERRY FREDRICK Sometimes they have to be hog-tied to have their eyebrows plucked. Ouch!

hug. Any volunteers? Somebody needs a

Tim Meadows of “SN L” fame had this look on his face dur ing most of his backstage babe inte rviews at the IM FitExpo.

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PITTSBURGH DRESSING ROOM TALES

Pittsburgh Patter Further up the Lado and Meteraud rising

Last-minute preparations (from top): Lado checks her tan. Melissa Frabbiele checks her nails, and Rhonda Riley checks her.… “Hey, what is this thing?” says Riley, waving a paper aid a friend had given her for her backstage prep. Called the Whizzy, it was guaranteed to help accomplish certain tasks without ruining your tanning oil. I wonder how that worked out.

Photography by Ruth Silverman

Liberman

Speaking of Darrem Charles, three weeks out from the N.Y. Pro, he was the best conditioned of the eight male guest posers onstage delighting the fans at Jim Manion’s annual NPC Pittsburgh Championships/IFBB Pittsburgh Pro Figure on May 6 and 7. Once again a slew of bodybuilding’s finest—Ronnie Coleman, Jay Cutler, Dexter Jackson, Chris Cormier, Gunter Schlierkamp, Troy Alves, Victor Martinez and Roc Shabazz—came to town and put on a cavalcade of muscle. Once again the Pump & Circumstance camera was on the scene at the Soldiers and Sailors Memorial Hall to make sure everything was on the up and up, women’s physiquewise, in my old hometown. In the figure show I could have phoned it in, based on the rankings at the two contests held earlier in the year. Mary Elizabeth Lado, third Trophy shot: at the Figure International, was a sure bet for Tammy Pies. winner, with Latisha Wilder and Shannon Meteraud, fifth and 10th at the I, respectively, both likely to land a top-three spot. Still, I’d have missed the pleasure of seeing how very good Ms. Lado looked. Ditto for Meteraud, who was positively blooming backstage and presented her best package in many a moon on the posing platform. She finished second to The Pies have it. After beating out Lado, with Wilder in fourth and Michelle 66 competitors to take the overall at the ’05 NPC Pittsburgh Figure Adams rounding out the top five. Championships, Cincinnati’s Twenty-eight blooming bodies made the trek Tammy Pies is a hot prospect to to the Steel City, hoping to get noticed at Mr. pick up a pro card before the Manion’s annual physique spectacular (that season’s out. The 37-year-old (hard to believe) won her very first would be the same Mr. Manion who’s president contest less than a year ago, but of the NPC and head of the IFBB Pro Division). she’s been working out since she More than a few of them did. In fact, so many was 18. The Masters Nationals on people finished 18, it couldn’t be considered a July 23 will be only her fourth or fifth show ever. The one-time black mark. Now, that’s a tough competition. competitive dancer and gymnast Lado’s package—looks, symmetry, height may have started late, but, wow, (she’s 5’7”) combined with just enough muscle look at her go. and just enough conditioning—strikes this observer as being exactly right for the muscularity guidelines issued by the Pro Division at the beginning of the season. It’ll be interesting to see how she does standing next to Davana Medina, along with Jenny Lynn and Monica Brant-Peckham, at the Olympia come October. Call that a callout prediction.

’05 PITTSBURGH PRO FIGURE 1) Mary Elizabeth Lado* 2) Shannon Meteraud* 3) Latisha Wilder* 4) Tara Scotti 5) Michelle Adams 6) Chastity Slone 7) Zena Collins 8) Monica Guerra 9) Melissa Frabbiele 10) Jana Awad 12) Allison Bookless

13) Christine Wan 14) Nicole Pitcher 15) Trish Mayberry 16) Cherie Loomes 17) Jennifer Searles 18) Rhonda Riley, Alejandra Abdala, Carina Dupree, Colette Flack, Lydia Haskell, Nancy Hirsch, Debbie Leung, Kate Shelby, Tamara Sherrill, Laura Sutter, Gemma Williams, Misty Yi *Qualifies for the Figure Olympia. www.ironmanmagazine.com \ AUGUST 2005 229

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PUMP & CiRCUMSTANCE S C E N E AT T H E P I T T S B U R G H

MORE SCENES

Tight Spaces

Low carbs and a high-density body count

What with a huge regional show—67 amateur figure competitors alone—a local competition and the previously mentioned 28 pro figure athletes all occupying the same limited space backstage, conditions were a little cramped. As I picked my way over the carbed-out bodies, I noticed a trim pro figure competitor calmly pulling a posing suit over her altogether. In fact, Canadian challenger Debbie Leung was so intent on catching up with the other ladies, who were mostly dressed already, she didn’t even notice the pair of Mr. Pittsburgh competitors sacked out just a few feet away. Talk about your tunnel vision. It’s very possible that they noticed her, however. Great scam, guys. But you know that I know that you saw me watching you watching.

And Not So tight

High in the catacombs above the Solders and Sailors stage, a trio of wily figure pros found a place to call their own: a tiny, odd-shaped dressing room, complete with private john—and away from prying eyes. Names have been withheld to preserve their anonymity. NEW BUSINESSES

LOBBY SCENES

Up Braided

No F-ing way

Fitness Olympia champ Adela Garcia, the only woman on the guest-posing program in Pittsburgh, did not participate in the herd of bodies mentioned in the item on page 229. Yes, you read that right: Another hyphenate has bitten the dust. After performing her fitness routine, the athlete recently known as Garcia-Friedmansky was found in the lobby greeting fans at the GNC booth. “I’m dropping my F,” announced the Latina princess of fitness. “No more AGF. It’s just A.G. now.” Despite the pose shown here, Adela was not tied up in knots about the loss of her letter. I didn’t have the heart to point out that her initials now spell ag.

MORE PITTSBURGH

Speaking of Olympia Champs Across the crowded lobby at the MuscleTech booth, two-time Figure O winner Davana Medina was signing autographs and explaining that she would compete before the O again this year. Fans can find her across the river from her New Jersey digs defending her New York Pro title on August 5 and 6. Why would she bother? you ask. Because it’s her family and friends’ only chance to see her onstage. Plus, she pointed out, “People forget that it’s only my ninth contest.” Practice makes perfect, eh, Davana?

Diva in the making? Cassie Manion studies Davana’s technique as she signs autographs for her fans. Smile, ladies! Snap. Looks like young Cassie’s got that part of the fitness diva job down pat.

Secondhand Pose? Lydia Haskell’s been putting her business foot forward recently with a new twist on an old rag biz. Pro ConLydia’s bejewelry sale. sign DeCheck it out. signs Online is your first place to shop for the “gently used competition suits that have given the pros the winning edge.” It’s a good deal for everyone, says Haskell, who offers swimsuits as well as costumes for fitness routines. So the pros get to clean out their closets, and up-and-coming competitors get the chance to compete in a designer suit, right? Neat idea, Lyd, but exactly how do you define “gently used”? For more information go to www.fitnessandfigure competitionsuits.com.

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EMERALD CUP

It’s about time for some fitness coverage

Speaking of people who buck a trend, when it came time for promoters Brad and Elaine Craig to add a professional competition to their blockbuster NPC Emerald Cup Championships, they passed on figure in favor

Photography by Bill Comstock

Tanjible Evidence

Crowd pleaser. Rollolazo was second in the routine rounds and seventh overall.

and left town with a ticket to the O as well. Kim Lyons landed in fourth, her best showing to date, with Angela Monteleone-Semsch riding solid physique scores to a top-five finish. Tanji also won the first Laura Mak Best Routine Award with her dance-charged performance, picking up an extra $500 or so in cash and Mak Attack fitness wear. Another former Seattle resident and Emerald Cup champ, Nicole Rollolazo, had Electric. Tanji had the judges in the palm of plenty of partisans in the house, her hand. but the panel liked Johnson, and you couldn’t exactly complain of fitness. A good move, because with no about regional bias there. Acother West Coast fitness shows on the schedcording to IRON MAN lensman ule, the ’05 IFBB Emerald Cup Pro attracted a Bill Comstock, the ladies pre19-woman lineup that had those lucky enough sented one fabulous number to see it raving about the quality. Held on after the other. Semsch, in particFriday, April 29, in Bellevue, Washington, along ular, got his vote for the most with the amateur women’s bodybuilding, fitOn the move. Angie Semsch gets two improved in the routines. ness and figure divisions, the event attracted an biceps up from IM’s Bill Comstock. audience of about 2,000, amazing for a women’s-only program. (The amateur men’s show the following night drew about 3,000.) Mystery of the Score Sheet Solved The Seattle area has always been an unsung hotbed of fitness, and the local talent had a good night, starting with Those who were not at the Emerald Cup Pro had to wonder one-time amateur Emerald Cup winner Tanji Johnson, how routine diva Teri Mooney could have come in last in round 4. Seems Mooney, who was injured onstage at the who earned a perfect score to snag her second-ever pro Fitness Olympia last year, was set for a top-five finish going win and her Olympia qualification for 2005. Former Seattle into the fitness routines. Watching the competitor who perSeahawks cheerleader Julie Childs took third in the fitformed before her, Spain’s Rosi Mena, go down with an injury, ness routines to finish six points behind Tanji, in the runnerTeri reportedly let it spook her just a bit. She performed her up spot, own number beautifully and made it almost to the end when a earning her mishap on a somersault led to a sprained ankle and Mooney’s first-ever having to be helped offstage, not to mention a lousy score in invitation, the round. Fortunately, it wasn’t a bad sprain, and she still while finished sixth overall. Go, Teri! You know you’ll get ’em next time. Tracey Greenwood reminded the judges that the East Coast has talent Seriously on the move. Julie Childs gets her too. She due at last. took third

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PUMP & CiRCUMSTANCE COMERS

Chastity’s Road to Fitness Speaking of figure pros to keep an eye on

STILL MORE SH0WS

This little fiesta was held in Atlanta on May 14 in conjunction with a venerable amateur competition of the same name. A recurring theme in figure, in case you haven’t noticed. Promoter Ty “Ropeman” Felder reportedly set it up as a showcase for women who were not yet qualified for the Olympia. It was a sweet idea—no headliners and only 10 competitors—and a couple of new faces got their Olympia qualifications. Veteran fitness and figure athlete Shannon Meteraud had a happy day, picking up her first-ever pro win in either sport. Though, technically, she’d gotten her invite the week before in Pittsburgh, she looked so good there, it’s not hard to see how the momentum carried her to a win in Atlanta. Second was Tara Scotti, with Michelle Adams earning the third Olympia slot up for grabs. Atlanta homegirl Tammy Leady and Zena Collins rounded out the top five. Olympic high jump equals Olympia bid. Michelle Adams bounded back from not making the cut at the Show of Strength last fall to fifth in Pittsburgh to a Figure O–qualifying third at the Eastern Seaboard. Next time, I swear, we’ll run a shot of her in a bikini.

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Pro Figure

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Eastern Seaboard

Speaking of the New York Pro venue bursting at the seams. It’s hard to believe, but the 32-man lineup in the men’s competition—another NOC tradition carried over— had some folks saying that it was just too much beef at one time. Not so the women’s contest, in which only 14 athletes chose to compete. Ask the question of why the IFBB is doing away with weight classes in women’s pro bodybuilding, and the answer you’ll get is that the athletes don’t support the shows. Bottom line: Many lineups aren’t attracting enough competitors to fill out two classes. With a single class, most competitions will be top-three Olympia qualifiers, just like the men’s shows. Considering how much legitimate complaining goes on about the lack of shows—and lack of chances for the women to qualify—you’d think that at least 30 would have flocked to an opportunity like this. I’m shaking my head about it, and so, reportedly is N.Y. Pro co-promoter Bev Francis, a legendary figure in the sport who needs no introduction (and if she does, see my IRON MAN interview with her, which is posted at www.bevfrancis.com). Now, before you start with how expensive New York is, I would point out that the same thing happened at Betty and Ed Pariso’s Southwest USA Pro Cup last summer: 11 women bodybuilders came on down to Dallas to compete. So what gives, ladies? As N.Y. Pro promoter Steve Weinberger— also famously Bev’s husband—said at the end of “Pumping Iron 2”: “Why? I don’t know. I don’t know. You tell me!”

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Colorful contender. Chastity’s many virtues have been on display this contest season.

Here’s someone who did not finish 18th at the Pittsburgh. Chastity Layne Sloan admits that the love of a good man helped convert her from a gal who loved her granny’s country cookin’ to one who helps others change their eating ways and change their lives. The one-time collegiate hoopster says husband Jason Sloan led her down the path of a fit and healthy lifestyle, and she took to it like a duck takes to, well, you know. Owner of the Fitness Layne one-onone personal-training gym and day spa for women only in Troy, Ohio, Chas took to figure competition too. Having filled out a bit since her amateur days—she turned pro after winning the overall at the ’04 Junior Nationals—she was fourth behind Jenny Lynn, Mo Brant and Christine Pomponio-Pate at the San Francisco Pro and sixth in Pittsburgh, and she could well be Olympia bound before the season’s out.

End Notes

To contact Lonnie Teper about material possibly pertinent to News & Views, write to 1613 Chelsea Road, #266, San Marino, CA 91108; fax to (626) 289-7949; or send e-mail to tepernews@aol.com.

You can contact Ruth Silverman, fitness reporter and Pump & Circumstance scribe, in care of IRONMAN, 1701 Ives Ave., Oxnard, CA 93033; or via e-mail at ironwman@aol.com.

You can contact Jerry Fredrick, ace photographer for Hot Shots and Hardcore Training, in care of IRONMAN, 1701 Ives Ave., Oxnard, CA 93033; or via e-mail at jerryfredrick@aol.com.

Dolce

Eater

The Mediterranean Diet: Is It the Most Healthful Eating Plan Known to Man? ntonio Todde would probably have lived his life in total obscurity had someone not found his birth certificate. It proved that the shepherd from Sardinia, at age 111, was the oldest man in the world. When told of his distinction, the curmudgeonly Todde responded by asking, ÒYou have come all this way to tell me that IÕm the oldest man? Who says so?Ó When scientists examined the possible reasons for ToddeÕs longevity, several factors emerged. Genetics undoubtedly played a role: One of ToddeÕs sisters was 100 years old, and his father had lived to 90. His mother might have made it past 100 had she not eaten a piece of poisoned cheese at age 99. Sardinia, the island off Italy where Todde

spent his entire life, was known for its unusual abundance of centenarians. Was it the simple, relatively stress-free life that enabled Sardinians to live so long? Perhaps. On the other hand, a scientific project designed to identify the secrets behind Sardinian longevity found that most of the older people on the island also had a deficiency of an enzyme called glucose 6PD, which can cause a disease marked by rapid destruction of red blood cells should a person with the deficiency eat (of all things) fava beans. Somehow, the enzyme deficiency interacted with other genes to confer long life. Antonio Todde had a far simpler explanation: ÒYou take one day after the other; you just go on. Just love your brother and drink a glass of good wine.Ó

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• by Jerry Brainum •

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Todde’s diet, as it turned out, was in keeping with current theories about the interaction between what you eat and how long you live. He didn’t take in too many calories, basing his diet on pasta and soup. He did have some pork or lamb each day in moderate amounts, always including a glass and a half of red wine. His diet was a version of what’s known as the Mediterranean diet. The Mediterranean diet is named for the eating style prevalent in European countries abutting the Mediterranean Sea, especially Greece, Italy, the south of France and Crete. It has some of the best features of the Zone diet, as well as the Paleolithic, or Stone Age, diet, both of which have been discussed in detail in past issues of IRON

MAN. What the diets have in common are natural elements that empower the human body to maintain health, energy and longevity.

What Is the Mediterranean Diet? Like the Paleolithic diet, the Mediterranean diet has been around for thousands of years. It’s big on high fiber intake, mainly from fruits and vegetables, and moderate intake of whole grains. It boasts a moderate fat content, averaging between 30 and 35 percent of total daily calorie intake, precisely the same as the Zone diet. Also like the Zone diet, it emphasizes decreased saturated-fat intake and a higher intake of monounsat-

The diet emphasizes high fiber intake, mainly from fruits and vegetables, and features protein from chicken and fish.

Mediterranean Diet Eating Tips So how do you eat a Mediterranean diet? The following are general guidelines: 1) Eat a wide variety of fruits and vegetables while avoiding fruit juices, which are mostly processed junk. Aim for seven to 10 servings of fruit and veggies daily, focusing on low-glycemicindex fruits and cruciferous veggies, such as broccoli and brussels sprouts. Avoid veggies prepared with butter or cream sauces. 2) Eat high-fiber breads, cereals or pasta. Stick with brown rice, avoid white bread, biscuits, breadsticks and other refined carbs. Avoid any food containing high-fructose corn syrup, a highly refined carb that easily converts into bodyfat. 3) Eat protein sources low in saturated fat. That includes lean cuts of red meat, skinless chicken and nonfat dairy. Forget about bacon, sausage and all types of processed meat, which are linked to prostate and colon cancers. 4) Make sure that you eat fatty fish containing omega-3 fats, such as salmon, trout, herring, water-packed tuna and mackerel. If you hate fish, take an omega-3 fish oil supplement. 5) Eat healthful oils, including extravirgin olive oil, canola oil and flaxseed oil. Avoid excessive intake of inflammation-promoting omega-6 oils, such as corn, sunflower, safflower, soybean and peanut oils. 6) Eat peas, beans and nuts. They’re all good fiber sources. Don’t eat salted nuts, stale or rancid nuts or honey-coated nuts. 7) Limit alcohol. If you choose to imbibe, have no more than one five-ounce glass of wine, a 12ounce beer or 1.5 ounces of hard liquor a day. 8) Avoid trans fats. That includes margarine, fried foods, chips, crackers, baked goods, doughnuts (unless you’re a cop) and any food that contains partially hydrogenated vegetable oil.

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La Dolce Eater The socalled good fats offer various heartprotective effects.

urated fat, mainly in the form of extravirgin olive oil. It features lowfat, high-protein sources, such as chicken and fish, with a moderate intake of red meats. The high-fiber fruits and vegetables are rich sources of natural antioxidants that research shows offer potent protection against the two major killers, cardiovascular disease and cancer. Rigorous research has confirmed the protective effects of the Mediterranean diet against cardiovascular disease. The Lyons Diet Heart Study featured 605 people who had previously suffered a heart attack. After four years on a Mediterranean diet rich in alpha-linoleic acid, an omega-3 fat source and monounsaturated fat, the patients showed a 55 percent reduction in the risk of death, with 50 percent to 70 percent less risk of recurrent cardiovascular events than other patients not on the Mediterranean diet. The benefits couldn’t be explained by changes in blood fats, such as cholesterol. The GISSIPrevenzione trial showed that those who went on a Mediterranean diet had more favorable survival rates after four years. Analysis of the

diet showed that its active components included fish, fruit, vegetables and olive oil.

The Fat Connection The so-called good fats, such as omega-3 fats derived from fish and the monounsaturated fat in olive oil, are primary components of the Mediterranean diet. Omega-3 fats are known to have various cardiovascularprotective effects, such as lowered triglycerides, or fat, in the blood and reduction of heartrhythm disturbances. Trans fats, which have been structurally manipulated to increase the shelf life of (mostly processed) foods, are notably missing from the Mediterranean diet. Trans fats may decrease the oxidation that promotes spoilage and rancidity, but they’re the worst type of fat to eat. They’ve been linked to both cardiovascular disease and cancer. They’re even worse than the much maligned saturated fats: While both forms of fat increase lowdensity-lipoprotein cholesterol, or LDL, which is associated with cardiovas-

cular disease, trans fats also lower protective high-density-lipoprotein cholesterol, or HDL. Nuts are integral to the Mediterranean diet. As noted in recent IRON MAN features on nuts, they’re not the demonic food that so many people believe they are. Sure, they’re high in fat, but always the more beneficial monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats—never the saturated form. Nuts are also rich in other protective nutritional elements, such as fiber, vitamin E, folic acid, potassium and magnesium.

A Little Vino—and Other Beneficial Features A happy feature of the natural Mediterranean diet is that it permits a regular intake of moderate amounts of alcohol, mainly red wine. Red wine is rich in antioxidants called polyphenols, which exert potent protective effects and, with the alcohol itself, increase HDL. One study found that men who drink five or six alcoholic beverages a week had a 20 percent lower risk of mortality than nonimbibers. The Mediterranean diet’s chief benefit seems to be that it contributes to a significant reduction in tissue inflammation.1 That’s because research has confirmed that out-of-control inflammation is at the core of most serious forms of disease, including cardiovascular disease, cancer and Alzheimer’s. A study published last year examined 1,514 men, aged 18 to 87,

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Various welldesigned studies have confirmed the diet’s protective effects against heart attack.

and 1,528 women, aged 18 to 89, from the Attica area of Greece who had regularly adhered to a Mediterranean diet. Comparing them with subjects who had not followed the diet, the researchers found that those who followed the Mediterranean plan showed an average of

The Mediterranean diet is named for the eating style prevalent in European countries abutting the Mediterranean Sea, especially Greece, Italy, the south of France and Crete.

20 percent less C-reactive protein, a major marker of overall inflammation in the body. They also had 17 percent lower levels of interleukin6, an inflammatory cytokine, or protein, linked to high cortisol levels, and had lower levels of other inflammatory blood markers, such as homocysteine and fibrinogen. Another study looked at all the elements of the Mediterranean diet related to heart attacks and concluded that one of its major benefits was high fiber intake.2 In fact, those who ate the most fiber while on the diet were a whopping 86 percent less likely to suffer a major heart attack. “Our data suggest that a substantial part of the postulated benefits of the Mediterranean diet on coronary risk might be attributed to a high intake of fiber and fruit,” wrote the primary author of the study.

The Big Benefits of Using Olive Oil Still, the food element most linked to the protective effect of the Mediterranean diet is virgin olive

oil, a monounsaturated fat with phenol compounds. One study found that taking in a minimum of 25 milliliters a day of virgin olive oil would lead to reduced oxidation of the dreaded cardiovascular-disease-prone LDL. Monounsaturated fat, the kind found in olive oil, is less subject to oxidation than other food oils and has a neutral effect on blood lipids, meaning that it doesn’t lower HDL in the blood. As Zone author Barry Sears notes, monounsaturated fats don’t adversely affect the synthesis of fat-based chemicals in the body collectively known as eicosanoids. That means monounsaturated fat protects against both cardiovascular disease and cancer. One scientist has estimated that up to 25 percent of the incidence of colorectal cancer, 15 percent of breast cancer and 10 percent of the incidence of prostate, pancreatic and endometrial cancers would be prevented if people adopted the Mediterranean diet eating style. Monounsaturated fat exists in foods that don’t pack olive oil’s punch. Many scientists think that what sets virgin olive oil apart is its unique blend of antioxidant phenol compounds, such as oleuropein and

hydroxytyrosol, which promote decreased oxidation of LDL in the blood. Olive oil also helps lower blood pressure, and it contains squalene, a substance that guards against various cancers, including skin cancer. Like prescription statin drugs, squalene inhibits

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One reason to use only extravirgin olive oil is that other types don’t contain the protective phenol compounds.

From a bodybuilding perspective, the Mediterranean diet can be used year-round.

the liver enzyme that synthesizes cholesterol from saturated fat and prevents the proliferation of smooth muscle within arterial walls, which narrows blood vessels and promotes heart attacks and strokes. You’ve seen lots of olive oils on supermarket shelves, but extravirgin oil is what you want. Other types don’t have the phenols. You also need to be realistic about what olive oil can do for you. A recent meta-analysis of previously published studies explained that the amount of olive oil used in the typical Mediterranean diet is too small to provide significant antioxidant benefits,3 which underscores the fact that no single element of the Mediterranean diet works magic. Rather, the protective nutrients work in a synergistic fashion.

But Can It Work for Bodybuilders? From a bodybuilding perspective, the Mediterranean diet can be used year-round. Prior to a contest, you would simply need to reduce calories. In actual practice those who follow the diet year-round would likely have low bodyfat levels, making any type of stringent precontest diet superfluous. The generous intake of natural, unprocessed foods means that your food supplement budget would also be considerably reduced. You would need to include nutrients not found in abundance in natural foods, such as vitamin E. Adding a

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A recent study underscores the fact that no single element of the Mediterranean diet works magic. Rather, the protective nutrients work in a synergistic fashion.

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Those who follow the diet year-round would likely have low bodyfat.

Adding a highquality protein supplement would be an excellent idea for bodybuilders, since such products contain almost no carbs. high-quality protein supplement would also be an excellent idea, since such products contain almost no carbs. Following a Mediterranean diet may not allow you to live to 112, as it did for Antonio Todde, unless you also share his genes, but it will assure you of maximal health, help

you avoid most degenerative diseases and permit you to develop a body rich in muscle and very low in fat.

References 1 Chrysohoou, C., et al. (2004). Adherence to the Mediterranean diet attenuates inflammation and coagulation processes in healthy adults: the Attica study. J Amer Coll Cardio. 44:152-158. 2 Martinez-Gonzalez, M., et al. (2002). Role of fiber and fruit in the Mediterranean diet to protect against myocardial infarction: a case-control study in Spain. Eur J Clin Nutr. 56:715-722. 3 Vissers, M.N., et al. (2004). Bioavailability and antioxidant effects of olive oil phenols in humans: a review. Eur J Clin Nutr. 58:955-965. IM

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IRONMIND

Mind Understand Overload ou may well know the story, but it’s worth repeating: Once upon a time in ancient Greece there was a fellow named Milo who began carrying a calf on his shoulders. Each day the calf grew, increasing Milo’s burden. The result was that Milo ended up developing such tremendous strength that, among other things, he became a six-time Olympic wrestling champion. Years later it would be recognized that Milo’s training program embodied the principles of overload and progressive resistance that lie at the heart of systematic weight training for increased size and strength. In the early 21st century most people would say that over-

Beware: It can have positive and negative effects

load has become a fact of life, even if you don’t lift weights. Overload is a two-edged sword: It can cut you to ribbons, leaving you bloodied and beaten, just as easily as it can carve a path to your goals. That’s why we need to come to grips with the overload principle, with the goal of learning how to manage it. In its most basic form the overload principle means that to make progress, you have to do more than you’re used to. That’s a polite way of saying that gaining requires effort. Don’t stop there, however, or you’ll give up before you get started or just end up pounding your head against a wall. If you ask the average person if he likes to struggle and strain while lifting heavy weight, he’ll look at you as if you’re an idiot. “What kind of fool do you take me for?” he might ask. If you need further proof that most reasonable people actively avoid lifting heavy things, see how many takers you get the next time you ask for help moving your sofa bed from the downstairs living room to an upstairs den. On the other hand, If you can’t enjoy your people who lift weights training at some actively seek out heavy level, you should objects—or at least they consider spending should. The bottom line is your time elsewhere. that unless you can actually enjoy your training at some level, you should consider spending your time elsewhere. The second point is that just because something is harder doesn’t automatically make it more productive. Plenty of things can make your training more painful but won’t do much to encourage your progress. For example, I once heard of a guy who dipped his hands in oil before he deadlifted “because it

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Body made it harder.” Sure, but was it more productive? If Rest and Recuperation you whacked yourself on the head with a ball-peen hammer a few times right before you trained, your workout would be harder and, in all likelihood, less productive. Learn to separate harder from better. You also need to avoid the trap of feeling overccording whelmed. For example, if you already lead a hectic life to podiaand are trying to add a demanding training program, trist the effort might seem more than you can handle. As a Nicholas Roresult you throw in the towel and don’t train. That mansky, as remight be acceptable for some people, but it doesn’t ported in work for you because a little voice keeps whispering Bottom that you should be training, that it would be so nice to Line/Health, get bigger and stronger, etc. The result of wanting the wearing a clean benefits of training but not actually training is frustrapair of socks to tion. In that case you need to figure out how to make bed can help training a regular part of your life. you fall asleep A proven strategy for getting into the gym is to faster because choose a time that works best, acknowledging that it it stabilizes your isn’t perfect. That done, you always give training top core body priority in that time slot, to the point where you autotemperature. matically say, “Sorry, but I’m lifting weights then.” As Remember, simple as the approach sounds, it’s remarkably effecbetter sleep tive, and it has the added advantage of developing means more recovery from your workouts. Also, research at into a positive habit—the longer you do it, the easier it Emory University School of Medicine in Atlanta found that sleepis to keep doing it. deprived people may eat more, increasing their daily calorie intake “Okay,” you say, “that’s manageable, but how up to 15 percent. So socking your feet at night may help your fatabout this business of always doing more? I’m not loss efforts as well. trying to be a wimp, but you can’t really expect me to Incidentally, Romansky treats the U.S. World Cup and Olympic just keep lifting more and more.” That’s a valid consoccer teams, so he knows feet. cern because the direction that you should do more —Becky Holman than you’re used to doesn’t simply mean that you just www.X-tremeLean.com keep slapping more plates on the bar and somehow grinding out the same number of reps you used to do with less weight. It will work some of the time, under certain have to be something you try to avoid. Accept it as a key to conditions, but it’s not a universal solution. In fact, one of the making continued progress, learn to manage it, and you won’t most common and misguided pieces of advice along those just make great gains—you’ll have a good time doing it. lines is the notion that if you make the plates small enough, —Randall Strossen, Ph.D. you can keep making straight-line progress forever. If you believe that, I’ve got a great deal for you on the Golden Gate Editor’s note: Randall Strossen, Ph.D., edits the quarterly Bridge. magazine MILO. He’s also the author of IronMind: Stronger Fortunately, there are alternatives, such as increasing the Minds, Stronger Bodies; Super Squats: How to Gain 30 volume or the velocity of your training, changing the exercises Pounds of Muscle in 6 Weeks and Paul Anderson: The Mightiyou do or their order. Variety not only keeps you fresh mentalest Minister. For more information call IronMind Enterprises ly, but it also poses new challenges physically. The best part is Inc. at (530) 265-6725 or Home Gym Warehouse at (800) that novelty can trigger progress in ways that are a lot less 447-0008, ext. 1. Visit the IronMind Web site at www painful than packing more weight on the bar, and it offers .ironmind.com. infinitely more options. Overload doesn’t have to be a dirty word, and it doesn’t

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MIND/BODY

Bomber Blast

Some Things Never Change n the ’60s there weren’t a lot of solid facts on training and diet. You relied on trial and error to set your course—arguably, more direct and less confusing than today, when misinformation and poor research engulf us. I faced a daunting task: gaining bodyweight that begged for muscular size and shape. At 6’ and 230 pounds I wanted another 20

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pounds of sinewy bulk. I was a New Jersey transplant to Santa Monica, California, where the Muscle Beach scene had receded but the bodybuilding energy and learning and growing hadn’t. By osmosis, I took on the training principles that dominated the iron game during the shift from the beach to the Dungeon, the new underground digs for the relocated muscleheads. Powerlifting was infiltrating the ranks of the slick bodybuilders, and supersize was gaining popularity. At the same time none of us wanted to sacrifice muscularity; we wanted to retain as much as we could while packing on the pounds. Some things never change. You proceeded according to your own madness, although common threads were woven through the menus of the progressive lifters: high protein and low carbs, with relatively high fats—red meat, eggs and dairy played primary roles. Salads were big-time favorites, and tuna acquired the status of oxygen. The bad boys carried jugs of water. There were no girls. Thank heaven some things do change. I set out to gain weight and get strong while expecting the muscular size to grow according to the big food intake and the intense power-accented bodybuilding regimens. It worked. It took time, hard labor, patience, discipline and perseverance, which I accumulated along the way. One component of my commonsense mass-seeking procedure coincidentally matched recent scientific consensus. Bulking up day in and day out can be as difficult as dieting to lose weight. It can be as frustrating, as disheartening and as dull. Eventually, I began to eat with stoic deliberation during the week to power my work and workouts. The hardcore bulking phase came on the weekends, when time and relaxation were available and smorgasbord specials were in abundance at the best coastal restaurants. I packed in the calories in all makes, shapes and sizes on Saturdays and Sundays. I ate very well, until my eyes bulged and buttons popped.

I was exceedingly strong for several days after the bulking phase and capitalized on that in the gym for big and heavy workouts. I was tight, pumped with satisfaction, and I had a sense of overall well-being. I stuck with it for three years. Two to three months out of the year, when the summer rolled around and competition or photo sessions were in the works, I used leaning techniques. I deduced that the added offseason weight from the abundance of protein and nutrientpacked foods accounted for the increased power, energy and performance and, subsequently, for the increase in muscle growth. The energy and pump I attributed to the consistent fuel supply provided by the carbs and fats, and the tightness came from the healthy cellular water retention of increased bulky bodyweight. The logic, which I shared with my buddies, was reasonably correct on all accounts. We’re getting close to my pea-brain observation. The diets that interest me today endorse a system of steady, healthy food intake in the balances I instinctively prefer for five days, followed by a heavy loading phase for two days (anything goes). Sound familiar? The proponents of these diets are doctors, researchers and experts in the muscle-building and nutritional fields. They explain the facts behind the muscle-building, fat-burning properties of the up-down feeding mechanism. It has been discovered that the hormones intricately involved in muscular growth—testosterone, growth hormone and insulin—are positively affected by the scheme and can be manipulated by your eating plan to bring about the changes you seek. What I perceived as bulking up for two days until I was satisfied (couldn’t stand the discomfort and bloat anymore) turns out to have been an undeveloped and unheralded version of the popular hormone-adjusting, muscle-building plans of Dr. Fred Hatfield (Zigzag Diet), Dr. Mauro Di Pasquale (the Metabolic Diet) and Rob Faigin (Natural Hormonal Enhancement). I regulated the weekend bulking phase of my diet because I was sure the added quick weight would remain as long-term, insistent fat unless monitored and controlled. That would not do. As the wise and studious experts suggest, the bulking phase provides a surge of carbs (sugar), thus stimulating insulin production. That in turn causes intracellular glucose loading and cellular hydration, the perfect setting for the intense training that stimulates GH and testosterone levels. We’re in paradise. Intense anabolic stimulus, of course, has an unpredictable efficiency curve that must be individually monitored. The bulking phase is simply overeating (quality foods, of course) and, practiced continually and indiscriminately, will add fat beyond control. It seems we have a world of people practicing the bulkingup phase of the plan with unbridled enthusiasm while failing to include phase two, the intense training. They don’t have it half right. They have it all wrong. —Dave Draper

Web alert: For more from Dave Draper, visit www.davedraper.com and sign up for his free newsletter. You can also check out his amazing Top Squat training tool, classic photos, workout Q&A and forum.

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New Stuff

Handi-Tan Applicator odybuilders in the Pittsburgh area are using the new HandiTan lotion applicator to easily apply hair-removal creams and competition oils. The Handi-Tan applicator is designed with a plush roller to evenly distribute specialty lotions and oils, eliminating messy hands or the need for another person. With the onepiece handle/lid construction, the product is leak-free, airtight, reusable and compact and provides easy access to hard-to-reach areas of the body. The idea came to the inventor while she was on a cruise with her female friends and relatives. She was lying in the sun and watching people, including those in her group, contorting themselves into uncomfortable positions to apply sunscreen. With encouragement from her late mother, Lynn Brucker followed through with the patent process and began mar-

keting her idea. The versatility of her product was discovered when a local bodybuilder touted its benefits. For more information contact Sunny Days & Rays at (724) 9725610 or visit www.handitan.com.

New Stuff

Get Ripped Abs Fast! New Rev XP helps burn fat and spare muscle urn fat faster than ever with what could be the most potent fat burner legally available. Rev’s unique formula stacks theobromine with more than 360 milligrams of methylxanthine substrates to provide unprecedented fat-burning and muscle-sparing effects. Rev XP also contains a complete diuretic blend to help you get totally shredded and contest ready. With its targeted 6-Pack™ technology, Rev has redefined the concept of fat burning. It’s available at GNC, Vitamin World, Vitamin Shoppe and health food stores everywhere. For more info visit www.nxcare.com.

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Perspective

Bodyweight Blues e all wanted something before we started to mold our bodies with iron. Some of us were overweight; a fortunate few were already athletic looking. The vast majority of us, though, were underweight and looking to bodybuilding to increase the amount of space we took up on the planet. I was the classic example. All through school I was slight and almost the shortest in my class. By the time I started high school and, at the same time, regular weight training, I was a shrimp at 4’11” and 95 pounds. More than anything (except to lose my virginity, of course), I wanted to be huge—like the wrestlers on TV. As a little guy, I was often pushed around, and girls saw me as cute like a Smurf, not Tom Cruise. I knew that if I could blow up with muscles, things would be different. Though I had only a vague idea of what I wanted to look like, I had a very clear weight goal— 200 pounds. It was such a perfect, even number, and nobody could consider a 200-pound man small, right? I was 21 years old before I finally reached that goal, and by then I’d moved to L.A. and was training at Gold’s Gym in Venice. All of a sudden, the fact that I’d literally doubled my bodyweight over six years didn’t seem like such an achievement. I was surrounded by national-level and pro bodybuilders who were my height but weighed 240 to 270 pounds. My new goal immediately became 225 pounds, which again seemed like a nice round number. It wouldn’t make me anywhere near as big as the freaks strutting around Venice Beach, but it would earn me a bit more respect. In just six months, force-feeding myself roughly 8,000 calories a day, including loads of starchy carbs plus two or three of the high-calorie/highsugar weight-gain shakes that were then in vogue, I managed to get up to 230 pounds, drug-free. Great, right? Not really, because at least 20 of those 30 pounds were pure lard. My ass was the size of two Christmas hams. I had love handles, chipmunk cheeks and a double chin. I look back at photos from those days and cringe. It was three more years before I’d put an end to that idiocy and trimmed down for good. Unfortunately, many body-

MIND/BODY Are you obsessed with taking up more space?

builders are obsessed with weighing more, so they ignore or deny the bodyfat they’ve accrued. If you’ve ever been to the Olympia Expo, IM FitExpo or Arnold Classic, you’ve seen a lot of these guys. They’ll proudly tell you they weigh 260, 270, even 320 pounds. They neglect to mention that they’re 20 to 40 percent bodyfat (many will claim about half their real bodyfat percentage). In recent years the combination of overeating and copious drugs has raised the bar. A 300-pound offseason bodybuilder was a rare thing 10 years ago, but now you can throw a rock in some gyms and hit four or five. The bodyweight fixation has even spilled over to how some think a contest should be judged—with the absurd notion that the heaviest man always deserves to win. What many seem to have lost sight of is the fact that bodybuilding has never been just about size, measurements or weight. It’s also about shape, symmetry, proportion and cuts. That’s the formula Dexter Jackson has been using to beat larger men like Jay Cutler, Chris Cormier and Markus Ruhl. So take your shirt off and look in the mirror—and not in flattering light, either. Can you see your abs? Visible separations between your muscle groups? Are some veins showing? If you answer no to all three questions, it’s time to stop worrying so much about what you weigh and start considering how you look, as well as your health. Gaining weight is great, but only as quality muscle, not water and adipose tissue. Bigger isn’t better when you’re big and fat. —Ron Harris Editor’s note: Visit Ron’s Web site, www.ronharrismuscle.com.

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MIND/BODY

Mass Media

International X-ploits t’s no secret that the X-Rep training method has been creating some pretty incredible muscle gains for people lately. Ever since The Ultimate Mass Workout ebook was released in September ’04, bodybuilders have been X-ing their way to more mass—and the phenomenon is taking on worldwide proportions. IRON MAN Russia, IRON MAN Japan and Sport Revue in Germany have all carried Jonathan Lawson’s “X Files” interview, which appeared in the U.S. IRON MAN’s February and March ’05 issues. To top it off, Jonathan made the cover of all of those international bodybuilding magazines. X Reps have so much appeal because they extend a set after full-range failure right at the maxforce point on the stroke. That’s the spot at which the most fiber recruitment can occur, the place the muscle can generate the most force. It makes sense that when you can’t get any more full-range reps, you should move to the strongest point and continue to

pound the muscle to get more anabolic stimulation. It appears that X Reps make each set three to five times more powerful, which means you can reduce your volume in the gym if you apply the technique properly. Our congratulations to Lawson for taking the X-Rep concept international and adding a few more covers to his portfolio. —the Editors Editor’s note: For more information on X-Rep training and The Ultimate Mass Workout and X-treme Lean e-books, visit www.X-Rep.com.

Health Notes

Chill Out or Check Out study of 200 stroke patients found that 30 percent of them experienced a high-anger response or other negative emotions in the two hours before the onset of symptoms. Stress hormones obviously elevate stroke risk. In other words, chill out or you may check out early. —Becky Holman www.X-tremeLean.com

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Jerry Brainum’s

Bodybuilding Pharmacology

L-Arginine and GH Surges

determine if a GH deficiency existed, especially in children. The IV reliably promoted a release of GH in about 20 minutes, except in people deficient in the hormone. That information trickled down to the popular press, with books on longevity declaring that you could effectively promote GH release by taking arginine orally. Several studies appeared to confirm that assertion. The amino acid L-arginine is most familiar today as the One such study involved 14 men, aged 15 to 30, who primary active ingredient in popular food supplements took 1.2 grams of arginine polyglutamate and 1.2 grams of aimed at promoting the release of nitric oxide (NO). ArgiL-lysine. That particular combination of amino acids nine is the immediate nutritional precursor of, or raw promoted GH release five times greater than when either material for, the body’s synthesis of nitric oxide. The reaamino acid was used alone. Lysine and arginine normally soning behind such supplements is that NO is a potent compete for uptake in the body, since they both use the dilator of blood vessels, and dilation can produce a greater same amino acid transport system. Lysine is often sugdegree of muscular pump during training—the muscle gested as a natural therapy for treating herpes infections benefits through a heightened delivery of oxygen and because the virus requires arginine for growth and propanutrients. gation. Lysine displaces arginine, thereby preventing viral But before arginine became linked to nitric oxidereplication. boosting supplements, it was most associated with growth Over the years other studies have attempted to test hormone release. While several other amino acids prowhether oral arginine is an effective GH releaser. No one mote the release of growth hormone, arginine is particuquestions the effectiveness of infused arginine. The problarly noted for that effect. In fact, an infusion of arginine at lem with oral arginine is that there are a number of a dose ranging from 12 to 40 grams was often used to formidable barriers to its absorption, starting with the liver enzyme arginase, which degrades it. Another involves Flawed methylated arginine by-products of research protein digestion that are inactive designs have analogs of arginine but inhibit genuine kept arginine’s arginine functions, including the synpotential under thesis of nitric oxide. wraps. A few studies that concluded that oral arginine was ineffective for GH release suffered from flaws. One took only a single blood sample after an oral arginine dose, concluding that arginine showed no apparent GH release. Another was flawed because the researchers used too small a dose of arginine. The fear was that too large a dose would either be degraded in the liver or cause gastrointestinal distress. (Large doses of amino acids draw fluid into the intestine, which can result in nausea and vomiting.) A new study, however, overcame most of the flaws of previous research and found some interesting results.1 Eight healthy men, aged 18 to 33, were examined on four separate occasions. The men reported to a lab after an overnight fast and were promptly fitted with a catheter in their forearm veins. Blood samples were taken every 10 minutes for five hours by the attending

A new study done with younger men showed that oral doses of as little as five grams of Larginine boosted growth hormone. 258 AUGUST 2005 \ www.ironmanmagazine.com

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Jerry Brainum’s

Bodybuilding Pharmacology Researchers suggest taking arginine 30 minutes before a workout to get the most GH release.

physician, Dr. Dracula (just kidding on that last one). A half hour after catheter insertion the men took doses of arginine in six ounces of water ranging from five to nine to 13 grams—or a placebo. Six drops of lemon juice disguised the considerable taste of the arginine (often described as being like dog vomit). The placebo had just the water and lemon juice. The five- and nine-gram doses resulted in greater GH release than the placebo, but the 13-gram dose didn’t increase the release beyond that. In fact, the larger dose led to gastrointestinal distress. The GH rise occurred 30 minutes after the subjects took the arginine, compared to 20 minutes after an IV infusion. GH peaked after an hour. Arginine primes the pituitary gland to induce the hypothalamus to release GH. It also suppresses the brain hormone somatostatin, which suppresses release of GH. Some scientists

suggest that somatostatin release increases with age, explaining the drop in GH secretion that occurs in

Taking a preworkout drink that contains protein or carb, which increases blood glucose, will likely blunt arginine-induced GH release. many older people. The study showed that nine grams of arginine produced a GH release 45 percent greater than the five-gram dose, but that was considered statisti-

cally insignificant. More important, however, it showed that the pituitary gland can respond to oral doses of arginine. The authors suggest that if you want a greater GH release during exercise, you should time your arginine dose with the start of your workout. Begin your workout 30 minutes after taking five to nine grams. They caution that some people don’t respond to any dose of arginine in relation to GH release. Taking a preworkout drink that contains protein or carb, which increases blood glucose, will likely blunt or prevent arginine-induced GH release. Keep in mind, too, that other amino acids compete with arginine for uptake into the body. So take arginine on an empty stomach. 1Collier, S.R., et al. (2005). Growth hormone responses to varying doses of oral arginine. Growth Horm IGF Res. In press. IM

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Only the Strong Shall Survive

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Rack

More on When Isometrics Was in Fashion Part 2

Neveux \ Models: Derik Farnsworth \ Equipment: Powertec power rack, 1-800-447-0008 or www.Home-Gym.com

by Bill Starr ast month I mentioned the two most important people in the isometric-contraction craze that swept through the strength-training community in the early ’60s: Dr. John Ziegler, a highly respected physician in Olney, Maryland, and Bob Hoffman, owner of the York Barbell Company and self-proclaimed Father of American Weightlifting, World’s Healthiest Man, as well as the Greatest Chinese Food Eater Outside China and the World’s Greatest Polka Dancer. He took other titles, but you get the idea. He had a huge ego. Ziegler and Hoffman had formed a partnership of sorts to test Doc Ziegler’s theory concerning a new form of strength training. Ziegler was the mastermind behind isometric contractions. Hoffman had the resources to support the research and a magazine, Strength & Health, to publicize the results should they prove favorable. If isometrics could really help improve strength in healthy athletes such as Olympic weightlifters, Ziegler intended to use his find-

ings to help rehabilitate those recovering from serious illnesses or surgery. His motive was purely humanitarian. Hoffman, on the other hand, saw a golden opportunity. If isometrics really did work, his York lifters would have a tremendous advantage over their opponents, and that would increase sales of his weights and nutritional supplements. Since racks were needed to do isometrics, he could capitalize on those as well.

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When Isometrics Was in Fashion

Now Ziegler needed someone to test his theories on, preferably a young weightlifter who was willing to follow Doc’s advice to the letter. Grimek suggested Bill March, a 23year-old 181-pound Olympic lifter who lived in Dover, not far from Hoffman’s residence. Bill weighed 176 and had just won the ’60 Middle Atlantic with a three-lift total of 745. Hoffman liked the idea of having a local product, and Bill was called in for an interview. Like any young athlete, Bill saw this as a chance to move up the ladder in a hurry. All he had to do was train, a luxury afforded no other Olympic weightlifter in the country at that time. The only spanner in the works was that Ziegler had to supervise all the workouts personally at his home gym in Olney, 90 miles from York. Ziegler, who had a large house, suggested that Bill stay with him and his family, but Bill wasn’t keen on that idea. Even though he was anxious to take part in the experiment, he was newly married, and spending five days a week away from home didn’t appeal to him. Besides, the 180-mile round trip through back roads five days a week plus the training looked to be extremely taxing. Bill admitted that he wasn’t sure he could handle such a schedule for very long. That’s where Dick Smith entered the picture, playing a major role in this piece of weightlifting history. Smitty had hung around the York Barbell Gym as a youngster, and when his close friend Vern Weaver became a part of the York team, Smitty tagged along. He never trained for competition, but lifting with Weaver, Grimek, Jules Bacon and Stanko was reward enough. He thoroughly enjoyed being around Olympic lifters and bodybuilders— so much so that he quit his job in a machine shop to go to work at York. He became a jack-of-all-trades and the trainer of the lifting team. Bill March was one of Smitty’s favorites, so he stepped up and offered to drive Bill to and from Olney five days a week and to act as Ziegler’s assistant. Since Smitty was already on York’s payroll, the experiment began. So two more key players were firmly in place. I want to emphasize

Neveux \ Models: David Yeung and Bolo Yeung

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A power rack allows you to start presses from a lockout position. how absolutely indispensable Smitty was to the success of the venture. I don’t believe isometrics would have ever come to fruition, at least not at that time, without Smitty. I don’t think Bill would have made that arduous drive for very long either, and if he’d stopped coming to Ziegler’s place, Doc’s interests would have changed. He was interested in many other concepts, such as a machine that could contract muscles involuntarily, using certain amino acids such as L-lysine to promote better health and an anabolic aid for increasing strength.

Smitty’s role in isometrics development has never been fully appreciated, nor has his contribution to Olympic weightlifting. If Hoffman was indeed the Father of American Weightlifting, Smitty was the kindly uncle who did all that was necessary to help any lifter succeed. Without his efforts isometrics would probably have been put on the back burner, as would the other innovations that came out of Ziegler’s experiment. The key elements were in place: Hoffman’s financial support, Ziegler’s genius, March’s dedication and Smitty’s willingness. Isometric training as designed by Doc Ziegler began. He’d devised his system by applying some originality to research previously conducted in Germany and Russia. Progress came quickly to Bill

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Riecke in 1941, so he was well past his prime—not what Ziegler needed at all. Still, something in Riecke attracted Ziegler. Louie had a pleasing personality and was extremely intelligent. He also had some medical training, another plus in Doc’s view. Louie expressed a fierce desire to try the new system of strength training, and Doc agreed to think about it. He was too busy right now but said he’d let Riecke know after the Olympics. In November, Doc asked Riecke to serve as the second test subject in the experiment. What he didn’t tell the veteran lifter was that he planned to use a slightly different version of isometric training on him. Riecke came to Olney under a cloak of secrecy; Ziegler did not inform Hoffman or anyone else in the York organization. Enjoying the clandestine arrangement, Doc made Riecke swear that he wouldn’t tell another soul what he was learning. We now know that Ziegler was having Riecke use a more advanced form of isometrics, in which the lifter moves the bar a short distance, then locks it in an isometric hold for

Isometrics can give you more strength to squat bigger and grow faster. the desired count. He’d used only pure isometrics on Bill March in order to get a comparison between the two lifters’ results. Once he saw that the system he was to call isotonic-isometric was better than pure isometrics, he put Bill on Riecke’s routine too. Every issue of Strength & Health carried glowing reports of March’s astounding gains. At a time when adding 30 pounds to your total in a year was considered admirable, he’d put 150 pounds on his in 11 months. He’d moved up to the 198 class, which was unheard of, and it was all attributed to isometrics. I was skeptical. I figured March was genetically gifted and had a vast array of nutritional supplements at his disposal. Plus, all he had to do was train. Others in his circumstances would be able to do what he was doing. He had the best coach too, in Bob Hoffman. (Boy, was I off base.) There was also a perception that

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When Isometrics Was in Fashion

Bob Hoffman’s Strength & Health launched isometrics.

Neveux \ Model: David Dorsey

March. When the 1960 Olympic team came to York for final training before going to Rome, Bill pitted himself against Jim George and John Pulskamp and often outlifted them. His rapid gains were the talk of everyone associated with the team. A clinic was held in conjunction with the Olympic team’s stay in York, and one of the lifters invited to take part was Louis Riecke of New Orleans. That put in place the final piece of the isometrics puzzle. While in York, Riecke purchased some new clothes that gave him a rash around his waistline. He went to see Doc, the Olympic team’s physician, at the Yorktowne Hotel and took the opportunity to question Doc in depth regarding the buzz at the York Gym about Bill March’s special training. Riecke wanted to know how March could have made such amazing progress in such a short period of time. Doc was very guarded; only he, March and Smitty knew what was going on in Olney. Hoffman, of course, was in the loop but couldn’t really grasp the nuances in the training system. Doc had never planned to use more than one test subject, and even if he had, Riecke didn’t fit his profile. At 34, Riecke had been competing for more than 20 years. A psychology professor of mine at SMU had lifted against

Back to the Rack

Doc Ziegler named his system functional isometric contraction. what went on at York didn’t apply to lifters in the rest of the country. The York Barbell was to weightlifting what Yankee Stadium was to baseball and didn’t relate to what we were doing at the Dallas YMCA. So I

continued to train as always. What altered my thinking and started me pushing and pulling against a stationary bar wasn’t March’s splendid success but rather Riecke’s sudden improvement. Because there were so few meets in the southwest, Louie would come to Texas to compete. In the fall of ’60, I lifted against him in Dallas. He did a 255 press, 265 snatch, and 315 clean and jerk. I was 20 pounds behind him in the press, 30 in the snatch

but cleaned 325. That gave me hope of challenging him in a year or two. It’s always useful to have a goal, someone to catch. The next time I competed against him was in Houston in March of ’61. My dream of moving closer to him vanished in a flash when he did 295, 285 and 360. Like every other lifter present, I was stunned. Increases like that were simply not possible, but I’d witnessed his lifts with my own eyes. No one had ever heard of someone so far past his lifting prime make such gains so fast. He revealed that Doc Ziegler had taught him the new form of strength training. Back in Dallas, I began incorporating isometrics into my routine, though not exclusively. I enjoyed working out with weights and the tired feeling I got after a hard session. I did isometrics on my nonlifting days under the stadium at SMU, training after the football team completed their workouts, at night. The dark wasn’t pitch black; filtered light came from outside the stadium. But that shows you how simple the routine was. I’d move the bar up and down the upright using my fingers more than my eyes, then do sets for my pulls, presses and squats. I also tried to learn all I could about isometrics to make sure I was doing everything by the book. I bought a course from York and studied it with more enthusiasm than any of my textbooks. Sid Henry, who’d been to York and gone through a session with Bill March directing him, added to my knowledge on the subject. Doc Ziegler named his system functional isometric contraction, a method of developing strength through static contraction. On an isometric movement the muscles don’t shorten as they do in a regular exercise done with a bar or dumbbell. All muscle energy is used in tension and none in movement, which helps develop the maximum amount of strength. The basic program suggested three positions for the overhead press, back squat, pulls and toe raises. You could substitute front squats for back squats and snatchgrip pulls for clean pulls. Of course, with a bit of imagination any exer-

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Neveux \ Model: Jeff Hammond

On an isometric movement the muscles don’t shorten as they do in a regular exercise done with a bar or dumbbell.

Neveux \ Model: Marvin Montoya

When Isometrics Was in Fashion

cise could become an isometric movement: good mornings, bentover rows, curls and so on. You needed straps for the pulling exercises. You did only one rep at each of the positions. Once you locked the bar into position, you went for 100 percent for nine to 12 seconds. You were encouraged to move fast and take only short rests between the positions. I usually completed my workout in 15 minutes, and that included a calisthenics warmup. One reason I moved quickly was that I was trespassing: The racks were off-limits to everyone but SMU’s varsity sports teams. Both March and Riecke continued to make impressive gains, and Hoffman was making a mint on rack and isometric course sales. Indeed, the early ads for racks and courses sold what was called the HoffmanZiegler Isometric System. That quickly changed to the Hoffman Isometric System. Not that Doc cared—he wasn’t doing it for the publicity. Hoffman, on the other hand, angled for attention and wanted the public to believe the concept came from his inventive mind. That was Hoffman’s modus operandi. He made readers of Strength & Health believe that he’d conceived the idea of protein powder, whereas Rheo Blair had come up with that product and sold it to him. When Tommy Kono devised knee bands made out of the same type of rubber used in scuba suits, they were marketed as TK Kneebands. Not for long. Within months, the ads were for BH Kneebands. The guy was truly a piece of work. Does isometrics work? That question was on every lifter’s mind once word leaked out that the two test subjects were also taking an anabolic steroid called Dianabol. Had the new form of training been a grand hoax? Many believed so. To answer the question, however: Yes, isometrics does work. I made noticeable gains, as did my teammates at the Dallas Y. Isometrics worked some bodyparts better than others, and that varied from individual to individual. It boosted my pulling power for snatches and cleans and helped my press but did nothing for my

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Back to the Rack out on machines, there was no real way to tell if you were making any improvement. You couldn’t pull or push against the bar for any longer than the recommended 12 seconds; more ain’t better in isometrics. On the other hand, if one of your primary lifts improved right after you did some isometrics, you could attribute the gains to the static contractions. Despite the weak points of isometrics, I believe it can be a useful supplement to any strength program. It’s a good way to strengthen a weak area in a lift, such as the sticking point in the bench press. Set the pins in a power rack at the exact spot where your bench stalls when the weights approach your max, fix an empty bar up against the pins, and do an isometric hold for 12 seconds. Do it three times a week on the days you don’t do any benches or don’t go heavy on them, and you’ll see positive results. If the top pull on your snatches needs work, isometrics is a way to hit the groups responsible rather easily and effectively. Isometrics is good for a change. If you’re feeling stale, take two or three weeks and do only isometrics. When you return to your normal routine, you’ll be refreshed and have more enthusiasm for your exercises— and you may be even stronger. You may not have a power rack in your gym, but if you have a Smith maNeveux \ Models: Marvin Montoya

squats. Pure isometrics comes with a few drawbacks. The biggest is that it’s difficult to tell if you’re actually exerting max effort. You may feel that you’re pushing or pulling at 100 percent, but in most cases you aren’t. An observer sees no difference between someone applying 50 percent and another applying 80

When Isometrics Was in Fashion

If you have a Smith machine, you can do isometrics. percent. Going full throttle on any movement takes a bit of learning and practice. As Ziegler also pointed out, no one can exert 100 percent effort. That only happens under situations of dire stress, such as lifting a car off a person trapped under it. Another problem for me was that isometrics was boring. Sure, it was quick (many like exercise to be quick), but you get no aesthetic pleasure from one rep at nine or ten stations. Lifting weights was an athletic endeavor that I greatly enjoyed. Isometrics was work and not the least bit of fun—nothing that could compare to a successful full snatch, clean, jerk or even a full squat. Nor does isometrics enhance the cardiovascular and respiratory systems, which are important not only to strength athletes but also to anyone wanting a higher quality of life. Another aspect of isometrics that I didn’t like was that you couldn’t translate what you were doing to actual numbers. As with working

chine, you can still do isometrics. At the Dallas Y we simply turned the hooks upside down and did a complete workout of presses, pulls and squats. Training partners stood on the machine to keep it from lifting off the floor. Remember the portable isometric contraption from last month? The one York sold as the Strength Builder was made with wooden bars, one to stand on and one to hold, with a length of chain that let you do a variety of exercises on it. Peary Rader sold an even better model, made of metal with two lengths of chains. They’re no longer around, but with a little imagination you can make one. It doesn’t take much because I made one while I was a counselor at a boys’ camp in Branson, Missouri, one summer. A number of us used it while on a float trip down the Buffalo River. It would be great to carry along on a trip. You could do isometrics for 15 or 20 minutes, then another 20 minutes on flexibility and then go for a walk or run. It’s better than doing nothing, and it would help maintain your strength. Meanwhile, back at the ranch in Olney.… Once word about Dianabol spread, isometrics dropped out of favor and by the end of the ’60s had disappeared from the scene altogether. Pure isometrics was put in the same boat as isometric contractions with weights, and both got dumped because weightlifters and other strength athletes felt they’d been conned. It was the steroids, people said, and not the newer form of training that had turned March and Riecke into world-record holders and Olympians. The fact is, though, that doing isotonic isometrics or isometrics with weights is one of the very best ways of increasing strength. Next month I’ll detail how to include them in your program.

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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

Readers Write Amen to Beautiful Bodies! More Thumbs-Up I just finished the training phases in your Train, Eat, Grow Positions-of-Flexion book, and I have to say it’s probably one of the best overall workout plans and books I’ve ever run across. Now, on to X Reps! Carlton Sturgis via Internet

Neveux \ Model: Christina Lindley

X-cited About Training Again

The women in IRON MAN are amazing and absolutely beautiful. God bless women; amen. All those photos prove that women can look great with clothes on. John Kapsalas Richmond, VA Editor’s note: We wouldn’t have it any other way. Okay, we lied; we like it both ways (no clothes can be good too).

Fat-Loss Success In less than six months I lost 60 pounds. My bodyweight went from 230 to 170 pounds and my waist went from 36 inches to 30. Instead of going on a diet, I decided to change my lifestyle. I began an eating regimen consisting of fruits, vegetables, legumes, nuts and seeds and whole-grain products. I completely eliminated red meat and ate fish and chicken breasts instead. I also ate my largest meal for breakfast, a medium-size meal for lunch and my smallest meal for dinner. My exercise regimen consisted of a one-hour walk six days a week and weight training three days a week. I am now taking my weight training more seriously, working with a personal Dwayne Ferguson. trainer, bodybuilder Joe Stubbs. I am now the most ripped and muscular I’ve been in my life, and I want to thank IRON MAN for all the inspiration and excellent advice throughout the years. Dwayne Ferguson Nassau, Bahamas

Recently I hit a plateau in my training. I’d been searching for a better way for a while. I tried several—the highvolume stuff, HIT and others. After four to six weeks with each, I noticed very few or no results whatsoever. I was becoming depressed, even beginning to think I was too old (at 38). I started reading the Train, Eat, Grow series in IRON MAN and then got The Ultimate Mass Workout ebook [that includes X Reps]. Wow! I started with a two-day split listed in Chapter 2 and worked up to a direct/indirect workout in Chapter 12. What an amazing change! I started adding weight or reps at every workout, and my strength began to skyrocket. My entire body changed. I’m now a total believer in your research and hard work. It’s the only program I’ve tried that has made such major changes to my body in just four weeks. It’s truly incredible. Jason Helmick via Internet

More X Stuff Let me begin by thanking [Steve Holman and Jonathan Lawson] for an awesome and easy-to-follow workout program. I’ve been training for about seven years on and off and got up to 190 pounds. Then I decided to turn to IRON MAN magazine. That’s when I found out about X Reps. I’m now weighing almost 200 pounds.The results speak for themselves. I started looking leaner and fuller in about two weeks. Jaime Penaranda via Internet Editor’s note: For those interested in learning more about X-Rep training, visit www.X-Rep.com. For Jonathan Lawson’s X-Rep before and after photos, see page 233. Vol. 64, No. 8: 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 ratesÑU.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 1-800570-4766. Copyright © 2004. All rights reserved. No part of this magazine may be reproduced in any manner without written permission from the publisher. Printed in the USA.

272 AUGUST 2005 \ www.ironmanmagazine.com

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