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JANUARY 2007 / IRON MAN MAGAZINE—WE KNOW TRAINING™

MR. OLYMPIA: FULL-PAGE PICS OF MASSIVE MUSCLE GIANTS

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MUSCLE SCIENCE ROUNDUP NEW RESEARCH

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Fierce Fat Burner (It Jacks Testosterone Too)

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www.ironmanmagazine.com \ APRIL 2006 261

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150 DECEMBER 2009 \ www.ironmanmagazine.com

Mr. Olympia,

Vol. 66, No. 1

January 2007

™

page 202

We Know Training ™ FEATURES FEATURES

60 TRAIN, EAT, GROW 87 More details on how the TEG men have merged Power/ Rep Range/Shock with X Reps and 3D Positions of Flexion. Strength is soaring—would you believe 90-pound incline flyes?

96 A BODYBUILDER IS BORN 18 Ron Harris teaches his young protégé that going back to basics—like regular deadlifts—can pack on some serious size fast.

104 MUSCLE-SCIENCE ROUNDUP It’s a muscle-building, research-wielding anabolic buffet! We take a close look at many of the most important studies of the past year that can help you build more lean mass and burn more ugly fat. Oh, MR. OLYMPIA: FULL-PAGE PICS OF MASSIVE MUSCLE GIANTS there’s some sex-improvement stuff here too. ™

136 GROWING STEADY Cory Crow delves into the chestchiseling tactics of Omar Deckard, the superheavyweight and overall winner at the ’06 NPC USA. (This is one big dude, gang!)

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154 HEAVY DUTY John LIttle explores the wisdom of Mike Mentzer. Was Mr. Heavy Duty anti-aerobics?

Fierce Fat Burner (It Jacks Testosterone Too)

X-Files Discovery Page 164

www.IronManMagazine.com

Growing Steady, page 136

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C1_JAN2007_03EM.indd 1

10/26/06 6:01:57 PM

David Fisher appears on this month’s cover. Photos

by Michael Neveux and Keith Berson.

164 X-FILES It’s a size-building revelation—one of the missing links to more mass. It could be one of the big reasons Casey Viator gained 60 pounds of muscle in four weeks back in 1973. A scientific study says so.

X-Files, page 164

Muscle-Science Roundup, page 104

176 POWERFUL MUSCLE MEDICINE 2 John Little continues his interview with Doug McGuff, M.D. This month they talk about once-a-week workouts, ways to increase the anabolic response, Ray Mentzer, Arthur Jones and advanced high-intensity methods.

202 IFBB MR. OLYMPIA You probably know by now that Jay Cutler defeated Ronnie Coleman for pro bodybuilding’s top title in Vegas in September. But you haven’t seen our in-your-face coverage with loads of giant full-page pics that’ll have your eyeballs popping and your motivation hopping.

232 ONLY THE STRONG SHALL SURVIVE Bill Starr continues his look at the overhead press. This installment is all about how to overcome sticking points so you can put up ponderous poundages. (Now, where did I put that strongman-contest entry form?)

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DEPARTMENTS

26 TRAIN TO GAIN Ronnie Coleman’s pec-pressing rotations, stretching and strength loss, and Joe Horrigan analyzes the spider curl.

40 SMART TRAINING Coach Charles Poliquin explores building more muscle and strength in record time.

46 EAT TO GROW Protein and anabolic acceleration, anti-estrogen strategies and pumping up with preworkout arginine.

Train to Gain, page 26 Powerful Muscle Medicine 2, page 176

Mind/Body, page 244

56 CRITICAL MASS Steve Holman prepares you for winter mass mutations, with supplement and training info for the size-building season.

80 NATURALLY HUGE John Hansen gives you the ups and downs of high and low lat growth.

192 MUSCLE “IN” SITES Eric Broser wanders the Web to find wondrous musclebuilding info. Look, it’s Melvin Anthony and Jenny Lynn.

Plus, Broser’s column expands with his new Net Results Q&A. Cool stuff!

196 NEWS & VIEWS Lonnie Teper pulls no punches in his Mr. Olympia coverage. Should Ronnie have lost? Will he retire? Is this good or bad for pro bodybuilding? L.T. reveals all.

226 PUMP & CIRCUMSTANCE Ruth Silverman was hanging out in Vegas too, covering the women of the body sports. And lucky for us, she snapped loads of hot pics. Check out all the clicks, chicks and picks, direct from Sin City.

240 BODYBUILDING PHARMACOLOGY News & Views, page 196

Pump & Circumstance, page 226

Jerry Brainum tells you whether to get off the pot—as in marijuana. Don’t bogart that info, dude.

244 MIND/BODY CONNECTION Randall Strossen, Ph.D., has more motivation for you.

Then Dave Draper talks about extra mass at X-mas.

256 READERS WRITE More raves for Rachel, an unreal spiel and e-zine mania.

WEB ALERT!

In the next IRON MAN Next month we have coverage of the uncovered babes in Vegas—loads of full-page photos of the Ms., Fitness and Figure Olympias. Bonus: Our Hardbody layout features none other than beautiful Jenny Lynn, the ’06 Figure Olympia winner. You won’t believe your eyes! We also have an exceptional excerpt from the new 3D Muscle Building e-book, Jerry Brainum’s take on the science of muscle growth and our top-six size-surging facts you can use to get huge. Watch for the phenomenal February IRON MAN on newsstands the first week of January.

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Publisher’s Letter

Arnold’s Rules for Achievement I am writing this two weeks before election day. In the race for governor of California, Arnold is the clear front-runner, endorsed this time by the Los Angeles Times. In fact, he’s been a front-runner for the 35-plus years I’ve known him.

The early Arnold and the present Arnold are fundamentally the same person. His approach to the governor’s race has been the same as his run for the Olympia titles.

He plans everything to the last detail, he is totally focused on his goal, and he gives an all-out effort till the goal is achieved.

Arnold loves hard work. As I’ve mentioned here before, his mantra has always been, “Whatever I do, I always have a good time,” and he applies that to everything. He surprised a lot of people in politics with his unlimited capacity for work and his apparent enjoyment of that effort. He says that his 16-hours-a-day, seven-days-a-week effort is the most satisfying thing he’s ever done. In his words, “I love it!”

In his bodybuilding days, Arnold continued to raise the standard over five consecutive years when he had no real competition. For the most part he was head and shoulders (pun intended) above his contemporaries. In general, competition is an impetus to achievement; however, Arnold was different. He was his own competition. The challenge for him was—and is—internal, and that ability to keep improving when there was a lack of true competition only underscores his bodybuilding achievements.

Arnold has always bet on himself. Over the years he has invested $30 million in his various political initiatives: from after-school programs for kids to the Special Olympics to his current campaign. His confidence is the product of a clear vision and the ability to follow through with all-out effort. That knack for recognizing opportunity and acting on it also reflects his grasp of the way things really work.

He never stops learning. When Arnold took his plans to the people, his ballot initiatives failed. He had misread the electorate, but he learned instantly from the experience. After that misstep many people counted him out in his reelection bid, but they underestimated Arnold’s ability to learn from his mistakes and turn them into a springboard to the next step upward. Arnold is fundamentally a pragmatist: The past is only history to learn from. He lives totally in the present but looks to the future. These are lessons that are of value to everyone.

Character is the cornerstone of a life well lived. 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 Art Director: Aldrich Bonifacio Designer: Emerson Miranda IRON MAN Staff: Vuthy Keo, Mervin Petralba, R. Anthony Toscano Contributing Authors: Jerry Brainum, Eric Broser, David Chapman, Teagan Clive, Lorenzo Cornacchia, Daniel Curtis, Dave Draper, Michael Gündill, Rosemary Hallum, Ph.D., John Hansen, Ron Harris, Ori Hofmekler, Rod Labbe, Skip La Cour, Jack LaLanne, Butch Lebowitz, Stuart McRobert, Gene Mozée, Charles Poliquin, Larry Scott, Jim Shiebler, Roger Schwab, C.S. Sloan, Bill Starr, Bradley Steiner, Eric Sternlicht, Ph.D., Randall Strossen, Ph.D., Richard Winett, Ph.D., and David Young Contributing Artists: Steve Cepello, Larry Eklund, Ron Dunn, Jake Jones Contributing Photographers: Jim Amentler, Ron Avidan, Reg Bradford, Jimmy Caruso, Bill Comstock, Bill Dobbins, Jerry Fredrick, Irvin Gelb, Isaac Hinds, Dave Liberman, J.M. Manion, Gene Mozée, Mitsuru Okabe, Rob Sims, Leo Stern

Director of Marketing: Helen Yu, 1-800-570-IRON, ext. 1 Accounting: Dolores Waterman Subscriptions Manager: Sonia Melendez, 1-800-570-IRON, ext. 2 E-mail: 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 Jonathan Lawson, Ad Coordinator: ironjdl@aol.com Sonia Melendez, Subscriptions: soniazm@aol.com

24 JANUARY 2007 \ www.ironmanmagazine.com

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Whatever You Need—Wherever You Train ™

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If you always start your chest training with flat-bench presses, take a tip from the Big Nasty and alternate them with inclines.

26 JANUARY 2007 \ www.ironmanmagazine.com

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BIGGER BODYPARTS

Pec-Pressing Rotation

movement. It’s not enough to do incline presses at every workout if you always do them later, after you’re fatigued from flat and perhaps also decline pressing.

Ronnie’s chest is full and thick from top to bottom, which is why few men on this planet can stand next to him in a side-chest pose. Most human beings will never be able to build such an incredibly massive set of pecs as Ronnie’s, but we can all build chests that are proportionate if we follow his lead and initiate every second or third chest session with incline presses. If your pecs are already bottom-heavy, I’ll go one step further and suggest doing inclines first all the time in order to correct the imbalance.

—Ron Harris

Comstock

Model: Ronnie Coleman \ “Cost of Redemption” ©2006 Mitsuru Okabe Co.

In his most recent training DVD, “On the Road,” Ronnie Coleman explains how he chooses a pressing movement to start off his chest workouts: “For the most part, I like to switch it back and forth.

Last workout, if I started with an incline, next time I’ll just start with a flat. I switch between incline, flat— sometimes I start with a decline. So it all depends on what I did in the last workout.”

The once and perhaps future Mr. Olympia makes a lot of sense. Most guys always start with flat-bench presses—usually with a barbell. Over time that leads to overdeveloped middle and lower pecs and weak, shallow upper pecs. It’s a droopy, saggy, unattractive look, and you can easily avoid it if you use inclines in every second or third workout as your first pressing

Ronnie Coleman style

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Whatever You Need—Wherever You Train ™

TRAIN TO GAIN

PREVENTION

FAT BURN

Cardio Convenience Get ripped like the pros

Neveux \ Model: Dan Decker

What is one major advantage that Ronnie Coleman and Jay Cutler, the two best bodybuilders alive today, have over most bodybuilders when it comes to getting ripped for a contest? If you said mutant genetics, you wouldn’t be entirely off base, but the answer is in how they have made it so convenient to do their morning cardio on an empty stomach, when stored glycogen levels are at their lowest and the body immediately taps into bodyfat for fuel to burn.

I’ve been to Ronnie’s house, and he has a treadmill in his bedroom. For his evening cardio he doesn’t have a whole lot farther to travel. Just outside his kitchen door is his fully equipped home gym, with two commercial-grade Stepmills.

Cutler has his cardio machines in the garage of his Las Vegas home, and more and more pros and top amateurs these days invest in that kind of equipment. The issue is time and convenience. If you have to spend time driving to a gym in the morning or evening to do your cardio, you’re far more likely to avoid doing it. If it’s right there in your home, you’ll be less likely to blow it off. There’s no commute time, and when you’re done, your own kitchen and shower are right there.

New cardio pieces can run you a few thousand dollars, but searches online or in your local PennySaver are sure to turn up some barely used treadmills, elliptical trainers or stair stepper machines at bargain prices. So if you want to get shredded like Ronnie and Jay but haven’t been able to find the time or motivation to drive all the way to the gym, do what they do: Get your own machine at home. Making cardio more convenient means you’ll probably do a lot more of it.

—Ron Harris

If you’ve been paying close attention to the Train to Gain section here in IM for the past year or so, you’ve read at least a few times that straight bars can be disastrous for your wrists and elbows. One man who truly believes that is Masters Pro World champion Bob “Chick” Cicherillo, who has more than a quarter century of training experience to back up that assertion.

“Our hands were not meant to rotate that far,” he explains. “When you stand with your arms at your side, where are your palms facing?

Are they out in front, as in a barbell curl? Are they facing to the rear, as in a pushdown or skull crusher with a straight bar? No. Your palms are facing each other. That’s where they want to go. Anything too far away from that is unnatural and will wreak havoc over time on your shoulders and elbows.”

That’s why Bob favors cambered bars like the EZ-curl, V-shaped bars for triceps pushdowns and dumbbells over barbells for most upperbody work. “You can only force the body to do something that works against its own biomechanics for so long,” says Chick.

I agree with Bob on that one—if your elbows or shoulders hurt when you train, it could be the straight bar that you need to ditch.

—Ron Harris

28 JANUARY 2007 \ www.ironmanmagazine.com

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Neveux \ Model: Bob Cicherillo

Comstock \ Models: Jay Cutler and Ronnie Coleman

Save Your Wrists

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.

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TRAIN TO GAIN

REVIEW

“Real Muscle” DVD Never has the distinction between the natural and the “chemically enhanced” bodybuilder been more pronounced.

Just look at the lineup at any Mr. Olympia contest over the past few years and note the mind-boggling physiques on display.

Bodybuilders who are training without the help of steroids or other performance-enhancing drugs are likely to be intimidated by the blown-up physiques of pro bodybuilders.

They’re also likely to be confused if they decide to follow the training programs of those physique superstars.

In addition to building muscle and strength in excess of the body’s normal capabilities, steroids contribute greatly to recuperation and recovery. That enables a bodybuilder who’s “juicing” to train very differently from a bodybuilder who does not have those chemical advantages.

John Hansen, author of the book Natural Bodybuilding (Human Kinetics, 2005) as well as the column Naturally Huge here in Iron Man, sheds light on how a natural bodybuilder really needs to train for maximum muscle mass. It’s all in his new DVD, “Real Muscle.”

Hansen has an extensive competitive background. He began training at the age of 14 in 1977 and started competing only two years later. Over the next 25 years John competed in more than 40 bodybuilding contests. He won the Natural Mr. Universe twice, as well as the first Natural Mr. Olympia title (in 1998). He recently won the overall at the Natural America’s Cup at the age of 41.

In the DVD’s introduction, John presents photos of himself FLEXIBILITY

Stretching and Strength Loss

Neveux \ Model: Joe DeAngelis

Recent studies suggest that stretching before lifting may decrease maximum strength. Precisely how much stretching causes that, however, isn’t known. A new study presented at the 2006 meeting of the American College of Sports Medicine looked into that controversial aspect of training.

The study featured 18 college students who performed a one-rep-maximum test of knee flexion after doing either zero, one, two, three, four, five or six 30-second hamstring stretches. Just one 30-second stretch significantly reduced one-rep maximums by 5.4 percent. After the subjects did six 30-second stretches, their strength declined by 12.4 percent.

Better to stretch after the workout than before.

—Jerry Brainum

John Hansen shows you how to build loads of drug-free muscle

as a skinny 14-yearold dramatically morphing into a big and bulky 230pound bodybuilder by the time he was 21. You’ll see the basic exercises that he used to naturally add muscle mass and thickness to his frame and pack on almost 100 pounds of muscle without resorting to steroid use.

The DVD covers a full week of John’s training routine. Day 1 includes chest, triceps and calves; day 2 is abs and legs; day 3 is when he trains delts, traps and calves; and day 4 concludes the cycle with back and biceps.

The DVD has both instruction and motivation. Most bodybuilding DVDs now available assume that viewers know what exercises the bodybuilder is doing and why he is doing them.

On “Real Muscle” John fully explains both how to correctly perform the exercise and why it is so important to include it in your training routine.

Immediately after the instruction set, John shows the “intensity set.” He demonstrates how to perform the exercise with the greatest intensity for maximum muscle growth.

The intensity set is filmed in black and white, which adds to the hardcore atmosphere, as do the rock music and the sound of heavy weights clanging in the background. John trains extremely hard with some very heavy weights, and he takes each intensity set to the limit. I actually found myself gritting my teeth while watching some of the high-intensity sets.

I also learned a few new techniques while watching John train. Although he sticks with mostly basic exercises involving barbells and dumbbells, there were some interesting variations. For example, he performs his barbell shrugs seated at the end of a bench to better isolate his traps. He also holds the bottom position of each rep on squats for two seconds to make the exercise harder on the quads.

All in all, I highly recommend the “Real Muscle” DVD. You’ll learn how to train for maximum muscle mass without drugs—proper execution of the most effective exercises with the right amount of intensity is the key to real muscle!

—Jeff Preston www.IronAge.us Editor’s note: John Hansen’s “Real Muscle” DVD is available for $24.99 from www.Home-Gym.com.

32 JANUARY 2007 \ www.ironmanmagazine.com

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FLEXSOLATE

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An old favorite for bigger, better biceps

The bench press and the curl are the two most popular lifts in any gym, whether it’s a professional gym, a home gym or a college or high school weight room. There are many versions of curls: barbell curls with a straight bar or cambered bar, standing or seated dumbbell curls, preacher curls, incline curls, concentration curls, reverse curls, hammer curls and— one that’s rarely discussed—spider curls.

The spider curl earned most of its limited popularity from bodybuilding legend Sergio Oliva. For those readers who are not familiar with Oliva, he was the three-time Mr. Olympia when a newcomer named Arnold Schwarzenegger arrived on the professional scene. Oliva and Schwarzenegger had bodies that were very different, but both were worthy winners. Oliva was known for his incredible mass, full muscle bellies and small pelvis and waist.

One of Oliva’s favorite exercises was the spider curl. He made it as well known as Larry Scott made the preacher curl, which became known as the Scott curl.

The spider curl is somewhat similar to the preacher curl but has a completely different feel. A bench is used for the spider curl, but instead of being angled anywhere from 45 to 60 degrees, the padded back is vertical. You lean over the spider curl bench and place the back of your upper arm against the vertical pad. Then you lower the barbell or dumbbell carefully.

If you lower the weight too quickly, you risk significant hyperex-

tension in your elbow.

Trainees who perform the spider curl describe feeling the effect “in the middle of the biceps muscle.” We know that it’s not possible to separate portions of a cylindrical muscle.

The entire muscle contracts during any curl. That description is most likely the feeling of the biceps performing all the work because the spider curl bench doesn’t let other muscles assist (except for other elbow flexors such as the brachialis and the brachioradialis).

Similarly, trainees often state that the preacher curl targets the “lower biceps” and point to the obvious pump in the lower arm. The preacher curl actually slightly reduces the recruitment of the biceps and targets the muscle under the biceps, the brachialis, on the lower part of the upper arm. As the brachialis pumps, it pushes the lower biceps upward, creating the illusion of isolating the lower biceps.

When trainees perform standing barbell curls, it’s easy to see how other muscles assist the movement and how momentum can contribute. The spider curl eliminates those contributing factors.

The spider curl also presents relatively few injury risks—the main one being elbow hyperextension at the bottom of the curl if the weight is dropped too quickly. When that happens, the ligaments—which attach bone to bone—on the front of the elbow are subject to overstretch or even partial tear. The other risk, although minor in comparison, is that the bony prominence at the back of the elbow can become irritated and develop bursitis, which would cause swelling. The key to avoiding bursitis is to make sure there’s sufficient padding on the spider curl bench. It’s important to note that both of those injuries are rare and shouldn’t discourage you from performing the spider curl.

The spider curl has been somewhat forgotten. Give it a try, and watch your biceps become bigger and better.

—Joseph M. Horrigan

The spider curl was a favorite of legendary bodybuilder Sergio Oliva’s.

Neveux \ Model: Jay Cutler

Spider Curl

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TRAIN TO GAIN

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Editor’s note: Visit www.SoftTissue Center.com for reprints of Horrigan’s past Sportsmedicine columns that have appeared in IRON MAN. You can order the books, Strength, Conditioning and Injury Prevention for Hockey by Joseph Horrigan, D.C., and E.J. “Doc” Kreis, D.A., and the 7-Minute Rotator Cuff Solution by Horrigan and Jerry Robinson from Home Gym Warehouse, (800) 447-0008 or at www.Home-Gym.com.

34 JANUARY 2007 \ www.ironmanmagazine.com

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Leg Press Lowdown The squat, deadlift, parallelgrip deadlift, sumo deadlift, leg press, front squat and hip-belt squat are all major exercises for the thigh (front and rear) and hip musculature; and other than the leg press and hip-belt squat, they involve the lower back too. Each of the seven exercises works more than half of the total musculature of the body. The thighs, hips and lower back form a unit that’s the foundation of bodybuilding—and mobility.

To optimize your bodybuilding progress, include one or two of the seven in any training program. It’s critical to find at least one of the seven that’s safe and effective for you.

No matter how effective an exercise may be for someone, if it doesn’t suit you, it will do Beware of hip you no good and may even do roll and knee you harm. When considering pressure. the preferences of a trainer, coach or author, consider your limitations and technical proficiency. “First do no harm” is the medical prime directive— equally applicable to training.

In previous issue of IRON MAN I extolled the virtues of the parallel-grip deadlift. Now let’s look at the leg press.

In my youth I had a blind devotion to the squat that distracted me from serious pursuit of the leg press and variations of the deadlift. In hindsight, I believe I should have exploited the potential of the squat, deadlift, parallel-grip deadlift and leg press. I urge you to do the same.

There are at least four ways to use the leg press: 1) As one of the major multijoint exercises in its own right, regardless of whether you squat well.

2) As an alternative to the squat when you want or need a break from squatting.

3) As a squat alternative for bodybuilders who have leverages that make the squat only marginally effective, if not dangerous.

4) As a substitute for the squat if you can’t perform it because of lower-back or knee limitations.

The caveat is that you must perform the leg press safely and effectively on a machine that suits you.

The leg press is technically simpler than the squat and the parallel-grip deadlift. It’s also easier to maintain correct technique on than those other exercises.

With correct technique the leg press lets you work your thighs and hips hard without your lower back coming into the picture other than as a stabilizer. That’s great for bodybuilders who have lower-back problems or lower backs that fail before their thighs. With some machines knee stress may be lessened. It may let bodybuilders with knee problems work their thighs and hips hard and heavily.

You need a safe machine, however. There are several types

Make this quad exercise effective and safe

of leg presses. Each can stress the thighs and hips differently because of the different angles of body positioning. Some machines, because of their design and insufficient adjustability, produce more compression of the lower back than others.

Excessive compression can lead to injury.

Vertical leg presses, including those done on a Smith machine, put great stress on the knees and lower back, so I don’t recommend them.

Although they may not harm young, injury-free bodybuilders, they can cause havoc for others.

There are 45 degree machines. Some may reduce the knee and lower-back stress.

If used with caution and correct technique by bodybuilders who have no injury limitations, the 45 degree leg presses can yield good results.

For most bodybuilders the leg press of choice will be from another category—the near-horizontal type, such as the leverage-style models from Hammer Strength and the Nautilus XP Load, which are plate-loaded. Other companies, such as Cybex and MedX, have selectorized models. They’re convenient because they don’t require handling plates—leg presses typically require loading with many plates once the user is beyond the beginner stage.

A few leg press machines can be used one limb at a time, the isolateral or unilateral models. The unilateral leg press gives you the option of working both limbs bilaterally, too, although each limb will have its own resistance to overcome.

A unilateral leg press applies asymmetrical and rotational stress to your lower back because both limbs don’t push at the same time unless you use the machine bilaterally. It’s best to avoid asymmetrical stress on the leg press because it increases the risk of injury. Because the unilateral model can be used bilaterally, you should be conservative and stick with using it in bilateral mode.

Next month I’ll explain what I mean by correct, safe, effective leg-pressing technique. The way that many bodybuilders leg press, it’s no surprise that injuries and frustration are common.

—Stuart McRobert www.Hardgainer.com Neveux \ Model: Steven Segers

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HARDGAINER

Editor’s note: Stuart McRobert’s first byline in IRON MAN appeared in 1981. He’s the author of the new 638-page opus on bodybuilding Build Muscle, Lose Fat, Look Great, available from Home Gym Warehouse (800) 447-0008 or www.Home-Gym.com.

36 JANUARY 2007 \ www.ironmanmagazine.com

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Duty Calls, Muscle Stalls

Leo Ingram is back to his winning form after years on ship-bound duty

We often envy the bodybuilders whose pictures appear in magazines because we imagine they lead lives that revolve around their chosen sport. They have all the time in the world to work out, eat and sleep—and that’s part of why they look so fantastic.

The real world is very different for most of us. There are times when other duties and responsibilities take over our lives for lengthy periods and make the bodybuilding lifestyle all but a fantasy. Maybe you have to work two jobs to support your family. Perhaps you’re a new mother with nobody to help you watch your baby. Perhaps you’re in a highly demanding academic situation, such as medical school or law school. Whatever the obstacle, there are times and situations when training and eating like a bodybuilder aren’t possible.

You may have to watch your once-awesome physique fade away.

The good news is that the gym will always be there, and muscle has a memory. Not only can you get back anything that you lost, but you can be better than ever. For proof look at new IFBB pro Leo Ingram. Leo was within a hair of earning his pro card in 1997, taking second place to overall champion Ken Brown at the NPC USA. Not long after that the United States Navy, his employer, assigned him to a guidedmissile frigate based in Japan that traveled over the next few

Comstock

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years to hot spots near Iran, Iraq, Egypt and Jordan.

“As an engineer I was on call 24 hours a day,” he says.

There were weights onboard, but Ingram rarely had a chance to use them. “On some missions I’d have just three hours out of a 24-hour day when I didn’t have to be on duty. It was either train or sleep, and we all have to sleep sometime. I had an important job to do for the safety of my shipmates and my country, so that took priority for a few years.”

Leo’s diet also suffered, and he was forced to watch as his rock-hard muscles were buried under a smooth layer of fat. It all turned around in 2004, when he was assigned to a shore duty in Hawaii and was once again able to resume training and eating like a champion bodybuilder. As you can see from the accompanying photos, he not only recaptured his winning form from the ’90s; he surpassed it. Having won the overall at the ’06 North American Championships, he’s now a looming threat to other IFBB pros.

Let his story serve as inspiration when you find yourself unable to train and eat the way you want to for extended periods. Don’t worry about what you lose or what you look like compared to your old self. The day will come when you’ll get back on track, get it all back and then start reaching for new heights.

—Ron Harris

38 JANUARY 2007 \ www.ironmanmagazine.com

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Lean Machine Q: How fast should I lose weight? I look at the winners of these supplements spokesperson contests, and there’s no way I can match their results. What do you think is realistic for the average person?

A: First of all, weight loss in terms of pounds doesn’t really mean anything. For example, in a severely restricted diet you’ll lose glycogen and water first, giving the illusion of rapid progress. Trying to lose too fast can be quite detrimental. You should use bodyfat levels as your true measure of fat loss. The question is, of course, which method best measures bodyfat changes. There are plenty of electronic gadgets out there for that, but, in my opinion, they’re not yet sophisticated enough to measure bodyfat accurately.

For example, one of my colleagues “lowered” his body-

fat three percentage points overnight, as measured by an electric impedance device, after eating an entire salami and loading on water. The nitrates and the sodium in the salami made him retain water, which increased the velocity of the current in his body and therefore made him measure leaner than he really was.

To accurately assess your bodyfat levels, I recommend hiring a skilled exercise physiologist to do a skin caliper. Experts on body composition generally agree that the sum of 10 sites can accurately monitor changes in bodyfat. Don’t bother trying to convert the sum of skinfold into a percentage of bodyfat, as the validity of most formulas is questionable. The 10 sites I recommend to measure are chin, cheek, pecs, biceps, triceps, subscapular, midaxillary, umbilical, suprailiac, patella and medial calf.

As you lose bodyfat, the sum of skinfolds will move lower. You should realistically aim at lowering the sum of 10 skinfolds by five to 10 millimeters a week. If you convert that figure into a loss of pounds of fat, that would be one to two pounds of fat a week. Of course, if you use a supplement profile that suits your genetic and lifestyle fat distribution profile, which I call the biosignature, you can easily double that rate. For example, if your biosignature indicates poor cortisol management, then a tailored supplement protocol of cortisol modulators, such as phosphatidylserine, can double to triple that rate of skinfold lowering.

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Q: I have trouble spotting my training partner when we do flatbench dumbbell presses. I normally kneel behind his head and spot him from the elbows, but we’ve almost had a few accidents. He suggests I spot him standing by holding his wrists. I find that even more cumbersome. What’s the best way to spot on this exercise? Is it under the elbows, or should I grab the wrists?

Neveux \ Model: Sebastian Siegel

A: Neither. Spotting from under the elbows by applying upward pressure on the triceps has resulted in many accidents. Jerky spotting and/or uneven spotting can make the trainee drop a dumbbell on his shoulder or, even

When attempting to lose bodyfat, you should shoot for dropping one to two pounds a week; however, specific supplements can help you safely double that rate.

40 JANUARY 2007 \ www.ironmanmagazine.com

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by Shiek. To purchase those quality lifting straps, call (800) 772-4435.

Q: What are the most popular supplements among top-level athletes?

Neveux \ Models: Tom Voss and Erika Thonpson

A: My colleagues from various countries tell me that the most commonly used supplements are vitamin C, mineral capsules, postworkout shakes and meal-replacement packets. Please keep in mind that I’m talking about strength and power sports; those in endurance sports mostly use carbohydrate powders.

There’s a wide difference from sport to sport.

For example, at the Nagano Olympic Games, the Canadian bobsled team among all the Canadian delegation probably used the most supplements, even though the medical staff believed it was a waste of money. Yet that was the only team that didn’t contract the flu that was going around and that put many of our athletes, from speed skaters to hockey players, in bed for days at a time. I’m completely convinced that the bobsledders’ regular use of supplements kept their immune systems so strong.

As far as dosages are concerned, here’s what I could gather from discussing it with the athletes from leading sporting countries: Vitamin C is used in dosages of three to 10 grams. It keeps the immune system functioning at optimal levels and accelerates the tissue-repair rates from the training loads. Some nations issue vitamin C supplements combined with vitamin E, selenium, glutathione, alpha lipoic acid and various other antioxidants to ensure a more balanced intake of all antioxidants and greater absorption of the vitamin C. Mineral supplements are extremely popular for endurance events like cross-country skiing and biathlon.

According to sports nutritionists, those athletes are most likely to be deficient in minerals, particularly the trace ones like zinc and manganese. The capsules tend to have all minerals known to enhance human health, including calcium, magnesium and selenium. Most athletes take 1,000 milligrams of magnesium and 35 milligrams of zinc a day.

Flat-bench dumbbell presses can pose problems for a spotter. Lifting straps can help. worse, on his face, permanently imprinting its brand name on his forehead.

Spotting by the wrists can be safer but doesn’t work with advanced trainees. The forearm girth of an advanced male trainee doesn’t leave much space between the dumbbells’ inside plates and the wrists; therefore, one cannot grab the wrists properly to help with the concentric, or lifting, range.

The best way to spot on flat-bench or incline dumbbell presses is to use lifting straps. The trainee should have the straps around his wrists with the tongue of each positioned on the forearm flexors side of the forearm. If you’re spotting, you should hold the strap tongues lightly, grasping the material between your index fingers and thumbs. Apply no tension to the straps until he reaches muscular failure. Once that happens, grab the tongues like a pair of hammers and apply judicious force upward, enough so he just completes the concentric range.

You can use the same setup if your partner wants to do eccentric, or negative, training on dumbbell presses—the difference being that as spotter you apply more upward force to help him complete the concentric range.

I recommend straps padded with neoprene around the wrists for more comfort, like the ones made

Vitamin C is one of the most popular supplements in the athletic community.

42 JANUARY 2007 \ www.ironmanmagazine.com

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Charles Poliquin’s

Smart Training Can a history of aerobic sports affect your ability to gain muscle? Yes, because fasttwitch fibers can act more like slow-twitchers.

The good news is, you can change that with specific training.

Q: I always did lots of aerobic-type sports—like rowing, road cycling and cross-country skiing 10 to 14 hours a week. I took up weight training three months ago, but my gains have been slow. My exercise physiologist friend says that the problem is all the aerobics I do. Is he right? Am I screwed for life?

A: Your friend is right, but the good news is that you’re not screwed for life. Your gains in strength are slow to come for three physiological reasons: conversion of fiber type, central nervous system adaptations and hormonal adaptations. Let me expand on them.

It’s been shown that people who have done volumes of aerobic work have fast-twitch fibers that behave like slowtwitch fibers. In other words, their fast-twitch fibers have greater endurance, smaller diameters and slower time to peak force and are weaker. Fast-twitch fibers normally have large diameters and short time to peak force and are stronger, but because in your case they were exposed to high volumes of aerobic work, they adapted to the training response.

Unfortunately for the strength and power fanatics out there, the reverse is not true: Slow-twitch fibers do not take on fast-twitch properties if the strength-training volume is high. So, if you want to perform well in sprinting, you better have chosen the right parents and be born with a

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-andfield team for the 2000 Olympics. He’s spent years researching European journals (he’s fluent in English, French and German) and speaking with other coaches and scientists in his quest to optimize training methods. For more on his books, seminars and methods, visit www.Charles Poliquin.net. Also, see his ad on page Charles Poliquin 189. IM w w w. C h a r l e s P o l i q u i n . n e t Bradford

Meal-replacement packets are very popular with Olympic athletes, particularly during the competitive season.

That’s because most cities—or most hotels that host World Cup–participating teams—only offer at best three meals a day. Since top-level athletes like to eat five to six times a day, meal replacements ensure quality nutrition. Mealreplacement packets seem to be more popular in English-speaking countries than the German ones, probably because of greater education and/or availability. Athletes from German-speaking countries prefer to supplement their diets mostly with bars.

Postworkout shakes are a staple, but their carb-to-protein composition varies from 1-to-1 to 4-to-1.

greater-than-normal percentage of fast-twitch fibers.

Another possible mechanism for your slow gains in strength is that when you do slow, cyclical-type activities, the brain tends to organize contractions in that manner.

In other words, it’s hard for the brain to do ballistic highforce contractions. A Japanese study done a few years ago showed that the more you increase your V02 max, the more your vertical jump decreases. A Finnish study showed that doing aerobic work for the upper body made your legs slower, indicating that the negative power adaptation didn’t come from the muscles themselves but from the nervous system.

Doing excessive amounts of aerobic work has been shown to lower testosterone and increase cortisol; however, normal testosterone production can return in no time, providing that nutrition is optimal, particularly trace elements.

The good news is, there’s evidence that when you stop doing the aerobic work, the fast-twitch fibers will return to their original form. That’s why long-distance swimmers who stop training increase their vertical jump by four inches—without even training their vertical jump. I have a client who was a national team road cyclist. He weighed 154 pounds at just under 6’ tall. After nine months off and a switch to weight training his bodyweight climbed to 192 pounds, but the gains in size, though appreciable, were very slow for the first six months. At the sixth month he started to grow like a weed, particularly after he dramatically increased his protein intake. In my opinion, it takes about four to eight months to detrain the aerobic effect. Be patient; the gains should come sooner or later.

44 JANUARY 2007 \ www.ironmanmagazine.com

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EAT TO NUTRITION SCIENCE

Protein and Anabolic Acceleration devoid of protein.

The subjects took the supplements for six weeks in conjunction with a weight-training program. The authors hypothesized that those on the whey protein source would show the highest level of muscle gains, since previous studies have shown whey to be superior to soy for muscle-building benefits.

Make sure you The sugar was give yourself added to the enough digestion protein drinks time after your to disguise preworkout shake. their differences in texture and taste and to show less differentiation between the protein sources and the carbohydrate placebo. The authors chose the specific protein intake (1.2 grams per kilogram of bodyweight) because that Neveux \ Model: Jeff Hammond

Some newly published studies confirm what bodybuilders have known for a long time: Taking a protein supplement has anabolic effects on trained muscle. The first study compared the changes in muscle size, strength and muscle protein breakdown that result from combining either soy or whey protein with weight training.1 It featured 18 women and nine men, all untrained, with an age range of 18 to 35. The subjects were assigned in a double-blind manner to the following supplement groups: 1) Whey protein, 1.2 grams per kilogram (2.2 pounds) of bodyweight, combined with 0.3 grams per kilogam of bodyweight of sucrose, or common table sugar.

2) Soy protein, with the same proportions of protein and sugar as the whey group got.

3) Placebo, with the same proportion of sugar as the two other groups got plus maltodextrin, which is a carbohydrate source

New studies

You need more than whey or soy to prevent muscle breakdown. A slower protein like casein is the best way to get that anticatabolic effect.

had proved effective in building muscle in previous studies.

In fact, neither soy nor whey proved superior in building muscle; they worked equally well.

Noting that previous studies had shown that whey was superior to soy, the authors suggest that since the study lasted only six weeks, a longer experiment might provide different results.

The study also showed that while the protein supplements had beneficial

46 JANUARY 2007 \ www.ironmanmagazine.com

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These newly published studies confirm what bodybuilders have known for a long time.

Neveux \ Model: Daniel Decker

effects, they apparently didn’t offset muscle protein breakdown. Although it was not discussed in the study, that’s not surprising. Whey and soy are considered fast-acting protein sources—they’re digested and absorbed rapidly. That rapid uptake favors increased muscle protein synthesis but has little or no effect on muscle breakdown, or catabolism. A longer-acting protein, such as the casein found in milk, does have a significant level of anticatabolic effect in muscle because it takes longer to digest, gradually releasing amino acids.

Another new study examined the effects of whey protein supplements on body composition, strength, endurance and anaerobic capacity during 10 weeks of weight training.2 Thirty-six trained men were placed into three discrete supplement groups: 1) 48 grams of carbohydrate placebo 2) 40 grams of whey protein and eight grams of casein 3) 40 grams of whey protein, three grams of branched-chain amino acids and five grams of glutamine While several studies have shown the benefits of taking whey protein for bodybuilders, none has looked at the effects of a whey-and-casein combination. As it turned out, the wheyand-casein group had the best results. That isn’t surprising either, since whey and casein have complementary effects.

Whey is a fast-acting protein that favors muscle protein synthesis, while casein is a slower-acting protein that boosts anticatabolic effects in muscle. The combination provides superior protein balance in trained muscle and subsequent increased muscle and strength gains.

—Jerry Brainum

References 1 Candow, D.G., et al. (2006). Effect of whey and soy protein supplementation combined with resistance training in young adults. Int J Sports Nutr Exerc Metab. 16:233-44.

2 Kerksick, C.M., et al. (2006). The effects of protein and amino acid supplementation on performance and training adaptations during 10 weeks of resistance training. J Strength Cond Res. 20:643-53.

www.ironmanmagazine.com \ JANUARY 2007 47

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Eat to Grow NUTRITION NOTES

Excess estrogen can cause your abs to go into hiding.

Food Facts That can affect your workouts, weight and wellness

WARRIOR NUTRITION AND EXERCISE

Anti-Estrogen Strategies Questions and answers from The Anti-Estrogen Diet book Q: My problem is stubborn belly fat. I’ve tried virtually every fatloss product with no results. What makes EstroX different?

A: Most fat-loss products today don’t even address the problem of excessive estrogen, nor do they offer any solution for stubborn fat. EstroX was designed to specifically address estrogen-related disorders, including stubborn fat. Its ingredients have demonstrated the capacity to exert anti-estrogenic effects. That helps create a metabolic environment that favors the breakdown of fat tissues, including areas that generally resist fat burning.

Q: Can I take estrogen inhibitors like EstroX with other supplements?

A: EstroX can be safely taken with other supplements.

Its ingredients are derived from botanical sources that have proven to be both safe and beneficial in helping treat ailments.

EstroX does not adversely interfere with vitamins, minerals or antioxidants. In fact, we highly recommend taking EstroX with a multivitamin supplement to maximize its benefits.

Note: EstroX is available from www.Home-Gym.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) WAR-DIET.

Dark chocolate improves blood vessels. Researchers at the University of California, Davis, gave 16 healthy men cocoa drinks, one with 174 milligrams of epicatechins from chocolate and one with only 7 milligrams. The 174-milligram group had 129 percent better blood vessel function after they drank the cocoa.

Water quenches your thirst, but it’s also a metabolic booster.

German researchers found that drinking two eight-ounce glasses of cold water can increase metabolic rate by 30 percent for 90 minutes.

Plastic water bottles can become a health risk—if you put them in the dishwasher. The high heat can damage the plastic and cause chemicals to leach into the water when you refill.

It’s fine to reuse water bottles, but wash them by hand, not in the dishwasher.

Pork is more healthful to eat than you think.

It’s now 16 percent leaner and has almost 30 percent less saturated fat than it did about a decade ago. The USDA found that a threeounce serving of pork tenderloin has less fat than skinless chicken breast. Now, that’s impressive!

Fish relieves depression. A study published in The Lancet found that those who eat fish more than twice a week are less likely to be depressed than those who don’t.

—Becky Holman www.X-tremeLean.com

48 JANUARY 2007 \ www.ironmanmagazine.com

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Whatever You Need—Wherever You Train ™

Eat to Grow PREWORKOUT RITUALS

I always wonder what people are thinking when they eat a full meal immediately before training. Ostensibly, they’re providing energy for the ensuing training session. Of course, food must be digested before it can provide energy or nutrients.

Also, exercise profoundly affects the digestive process. Research has shown that high-intensity exercise delays gastric emptying, likely because the exercised muscles get preference for the available blood supply. In other words, food or drink just sits in the stomach for the duration of the training session.

There are, however, exceptions to the rule. A sports drink containing no more than 7 percent carbohydrate, along with electrolyte minerals such as potassium, magnesium and sodium, is absorbed even faster than plain water. What about amino acids, which are already in their elemental form for uptake into the body?

That’s a highly relevant question, because many protein or amino acid supplements touted for bodybuilding come with suggestions to take immediately before training. A study presented at the 2006 meeting of the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) charted the fate of arginine taken at rest and prior to an intense training session.

Nine men, average age 27, who fasted for 10 hours before the study measurements, took either a placebo or arginine tablets (50 milligrams per kilogram of bodyweight, or 4,500 milligrams for a 200-pound man) with 400 grams of water. The drinks were taken at rest or just before engaging in a 60-minute weight-training program. The treatment was repeated four times, with a seven-day interval between treatments.

Blood levels of arginine increased after arginine intake both during rest and before exercise. Peak levels occurred after one hour in the rest group but were delayed by the exercise for an

VEGGIES

Neveux \ Model: Binais Begovic

got to give your Arginine Prior to Training You’vesupplements time

additional hour. Clearly, taking amino acids just prior to training leads to delayed absorption of the amino acids, just like anything else.

—Jerry Brainum Mero, A., et al. (2006). Acute effect of strength exercise on plasma arginine after oral ingestion of arginine in men. Med Sci Sports Exerc. 38:S339-S440.

PREVENTION

Can the Corn? Trans Fat Trap Did you know that kernels of corn, on or off the cob, are classified as a vegetable, but popcorn and the processed variety used to make muffins and cereals are grains? The grain form isn’t very nutritious, but the vegetable form has traces of vitamins, minerals and some fiber. Yellow corn also has phytochemicals—such as lutein, which is good for your eyes.

Bottom line: Sorry, we can’t classify movie popcorn as a serving of veggies.

—Becky Holman www.X-tremeLean.com

You probably already know that trans fat can increase your risk of heart disease and make you fat.

Now a 14-year study of nearly 46,000 men has found that those who ate the most trans fat—about 4.5 grams a day—had a 25 percent higher risk for gallstones. That may be due to the LDL cholesterol increase from trans fats.

Once again, if it says “partially hydrogenated” on the label, don’t eat it.

—Becky Holman www.X-tremeLean.com

50 JANUARY 2007 \ www.ironmanmagazine.com

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Eat to Grow ANABOLIC DRIVE

Supplements vs. Foods teins prior to and following resistance exercise.

Healthy volunteers were randomly assigned to one of two groups.

They got a solution of whey proteins immediately prior to (PRE) or immediately following exercise (POST).

Each subject performed 10 sets of eight repetitions of leg extensions.

Interestingly, amino acid uptake was not significantly different between the groups.3 So if you want to take advantage of the preworkout window, the combination of carbohydrate and essential amino acids is still the daddy of supplements.

There you have it. Whole foods— even in the form of whey protein, which is a superlative source—are no match for essential amino acids (plus sugar). If you want the optimal results, reach for the EAAs. —Jose Antonio, Ph.D. Neveux \ Model: Derik Farnsworth

How often have you heard the remark, “Foods are always better than supplements.” Oh, and, “You need to clean up your diet first before you take supplements.” Uh, well, not necessarily—on both counts.

Don’t get me wrong.

To get the best results for developing your physique, muscular strength and muscular endurance, you need an excellent diet combined with a periodized training program and proper supplementation.

Proper supplementation, however, can help even those who have an average diet—and quite a bit at that.

A recent investigation determined the net muscle protein synthesis in healthy elderly individuals (65 to 79 years old) following the intake of 15 grams of intact whey protein supplement (WY) or 15 grams of an essential amino acid supplement (EAA). Both supplements stimulated the mixed muscle fractional synthetic rate, but the increase was greatest in the EAA group. The authors concluded, “While both EAA and WY supplements stimulated muscle protein synthesis, EAAs may provide a more energetically efficient nutritional supplement for elderly individuals.”1 How about this interesting study: Scientists wished to determine whether taking in a between-meal supplement containing 30 grams of carbohydrate and 15 grams of essential amino acids (carbs-EAA) altered the metabolic response to a nutritionally mixed meal in healthy, recreationally active male volunteers. A control group (CON) received a liquid mixed meal (i.e., carbs, fat and protein). The experimental group (SUP) got the same meals but, in addition, were given EAA supplements. The researchers found that carbs-EAA supplementation produced a greater anabolic effect than intact protein without interfering with the normal metabolic response to a meal.2 Another study, this one hot off the press, examined the response of muscle protein balance to ingestion of whey pro-

Editor’s note: You can listen to Dr. Jose Antonio and Carla Sanchez on their radio show Performance Nutrition, Web and podcast at www.PerformanceNutritionShow.com.

References 1 Paddon-Jones,

D., et al. (2006). Differential stimulation of muscle protein synthesis in elderly humans following isocaloric ingestion of amino acids or whey protein. Exp Gerontol.

41:215-9.

2 Paddon-Jones, D., et al. (2005). Exogenous amino acids stimulate human muscle anabolism without interfering with the response to mixed meal ingestion. Am J Physiol Endocrinol Metab. 288:E761-7.

3 Tipton, K.D., et al. (2006). Stimulation of net muscle protein synthesis by whey protein ingestion before and after exercise. Am J Physiol Endocrinol Metab. In press.

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Eat to Grow DIET AND DISEASE

High-Protein Predicaments A continuing criticism of high-protein diets is their alleged danger to liver and kidney function. The thinking behind the assertion is that since dietary protein is metabolized primarily in the liver, with protein waste products excreted through the kidneys, a longterm high-protein intake strains those organs, eventually leading to disease.

Much of that idea assumes existing pathology. In those with liver or kidney disease, reducing protein may be useful. For those with normal function, though, there is no solid evidence indicting high-protein diets as a cause of disease.

That’s underscored by a study presented at the 2006 ACSM meeting. Forty-five men, average age 23, were divided into exercise and protein groups, with protein ranges from one

Is a high-protein intake hard on internal organs?

to three grams per kilogram of bodyweight. The subjects took protein supplements on three nonconsecutive days per week, the same days on which the workouts took place Those who trained and used the protein supplements showed definite improvements in strength and body composition. Lab tests revealed no adverse effects on any liver or kidney functions, no matter how much protein was consumed.

—Jerry Brainum Duck-Chui, L,, et al. (2006). Effects of resistance training and protein supplementation on muscle strength, body composition, liver, and kidney.

Med Sci Sports Exerc. 38:S340.

MINERALS

Does Chromium Fight Fat? Chromium is a trace mineral required for a variety of functions in the human body, including protein digestion. Its most familiar function, however, is its interaction with insulin. Chromium appears to interact with cellular proteins to maximize insulin connections with its cell receptor. Doing so makes insulin work better. Since insulin has anabolic as well as fat-promoting effects, increasing its effectiveness should lead to fat losses and possibly increased lean-mass gains.

Several studies have shown those effects. Others have shown either no or equivocal effects on body composition. In a recent study presented at the 2006 ACSM meeting, researchers examined the effects of supplementing chromium picolinate on body composition. Eighty-six healthy women, aged 19 to 50, ate balanced diets—three meals and a snack—daily for 14 weeks. The diets contained an average of 20 to 30 micrograms of chromium, underscoring the difficulty of obtaining the suggested daily requirement of 50 to 200 micrograms. The diet was adjusted over a two-week period to match the subjects’ individual energy needs for maintaining bodyweight.

In the next phase of the study the women were randomly assigned to receive 200 micrograms a day of chromium picolinate, 1,420 micrograms of picolinate without chromium or a placebo for 12 weeks. Those who took the actual chromium supplement showed higher blood levels of chromium, but none of the groups showed differences in bodyfat or fat-free-mass levels. Since all groups ate a controlled calorie intake, the conclusion was that chromium picolinate doesn’t promote body composition changes.

—Jerry Brainum Lukaski, H., et al. (2006). No effect of chromium picolinate supplementation on bodyweight/composition of women fed controlled diets. Med Sci Sports Exer. 38:S126.

54 JANUARY 2007 \ www.ironmanmagazine.com

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PERFECT POSTWORKOUT MEAL

TM

To Kick-Start Immediate Muscle Growth After You Train Breakthrough research in exercise metabolism now reveals this fact: What you consume (or don’t consume) immediately after training plays a critical role in determining your success or failure! That time period is known as the “anabolic window” of growth.

The biggest mistake many bodybuilders make is eating a meal of chicken breasts, baked potato or rice and vegetables after a workout. This is an approach doomed to fail because by the time this meal digests, the anabolic window has slammed shut.

The best way to produce this potent anabolic effect is simply by drinking an amino acidand-carbohydrate supplement within 15 minutes after training!

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SteveHolman’s Holman’s Steve

Critical Mass

Winter Mass Mutations Q: I consider myself an advanced bodybuilder, but I was intrigued by Jonathan Lawson’s 20-poundmuscle gain in 10 weeks, which you discuss in your latest e-book [3D Muscle Building]. I want to try the program, but the first five-week phase, working out only three days a week, seems too basic. Do you think it will work for me, considering I’m about 220 pounds and under 10 percent bodyfat? I’ve been training for about 10 years.

A: At our expo two years ago an advanced competitive bodybuilder came up to me, shook my hand and said he wanted to thank me for the 10-week program Jonathan used because it had helped him pack on pounds of muscle two winters in a row. He told me that he gained almost 15 pounds of muscle the first time he tried it and about eight pounds the second time. Remember, he was a very large, advanced bodybuilder.

I think it does any bodybuilder good to go back to basics once in a while, and the first phase of that 10-week program, which we outline, analyze and update in the e-book, is ideal for that. The second five-week phase is an everyother-day 3D POF program that provides more extensive full-range work for each muscle, which means it effectively builds on the first phase. We provide the classic 10-week

program Jonathan used back in the ’90s, and then we supercharge it with various techniques, including X Reps and multirep rest/pauses. We also update the POF phase with new techniques and info. Either version—the classic program or the supercharged version—is an ideal winter massbuilding regimen, whatever your bodybuilding experience.

I’ve got more than 30 years of training under my belt, and I plan to use that 10-week program this winter for a power and mass surge. You can learn more about how Jonathan and I are training at our blog, which you can get to by visiting www.X-Rep.com.

A new study says timing your creatine intake can significantly improve your size and strength gains.

Neveux \ Model: Jimmy Mentis

Q: I’ve read up on creatine, and I’m convinced it works, but I have two questions: 1) Do I need to load it (20 grams a day for five days)? 2) When is the best time to take it to get the most results possible? One more: What brand of creatine do you use?

A: Paul Cribbs, Ph.D., just completed a study at Victoria University in Australia that may help answer your questions. It was a 10-week project that used experienced adult male bodybuilders as subjects. Half of the participants supplemented only in the morning and at night, using whey protein and creatine monohydrate.

The other half used the same supplements but took them just prior to and just after their workouts.

The results were dramatic. While both groups improved in strength and body composition, the group that took their supplements preworkout and postworkout achieved double the results. That’s right, they got twice the strength increases, as measured by a one-rep max, and twice the muscle gains.

Based on that, I suggest you take two to three grams of creatine right before you train and the same dose immediately after your workout. Here’s what Dr. Cribbs had to say:

Whatever your training experience, you’ll often get a new size surge when you go back to a basic routine for a few weeks.

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Critical Mass

Q: I am in total agreement with you when it comes to using stretch-position exercises. I read in your Beyond X-Rep Muscle Building e-book about the animal study that produced a 300 percent mass increase after a month of stretch overload.

I built 10 pounds of extra muscle in about four months after I started using stretch exercises, so I’m a believer. One muscle group I’m having trouble with is triceps. My elbows hurt when I do overhead extensions, even when I use an EZ-curl bar. I don’t

Cable extensions done in a forwardlunge position can provide stretch overload for the triceps without as much elbow strain as free-weight stretch exercises. want to neglect the triceps’ stretch position. What should I do, give up stretch work for triceps?

A: There are a few things you can try before you ditch stretch-position work for your tri’s. First, get rid of the EZ-curl bar and try using dumbbells with your palms facing each other. Drive them up simultaneously, but stop short of lockout on every rep. According to MRI studies, that hand position activates more of the triceps’ three heads—using a bar neglects the long head somewhat.

If the dumbbell version still causes elbow pain, try cable extensions done in a forward-lunge position. Because the angle of pull is up and back rather than straight back, as in overhead extensions done with free weights, you’ll get less elbow strain but still achieve plenty of stretch overload on your triceps.

The sharp black POF T-shirt with the original classic logo emblazoned in gold can give you that muscular look you’re after (sorry, large size only). See page 219 for details.

Editor’s note: Steve Holman is the author many bodybuilding best-sellers, including Train, Eat, Grow: The Positions-of-Flexion Muscle-Training Manual (see page 78). For information on the POF videos and Size Surge programs, see the ad section beginning on pages 225 and 186. Also visit www.

X-Rep.com. IM

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Neveux

Neveux \ Model: David Dorsey

“Having a high concentration of creatine in the blood [during your workout] will mean that more of it is delivered to the working muscles. Additionally, supplementation with creatine immediately after training will ensure rapid uptake of this nutrient by depleted muscles, ensuring a greater anabolic response.”

What about loading? Once your creatine stores are full, taking in more creatine will only cause extra creatine to be excreted. If you take five grams a day, without loading, your creatine stores will be maxed out in about 20 days, even if you’re training hard. Loading 20 grams for five days in a row will probably fill your stores faster, but a lot of it will be wasted—like overfilling your mug every time you go to the keg at a party (reckless beer spillage is not looked upon kindly by hosts who shell out the bucks for booze, and the same should be true of you who dole out hard-earned cash for supplements).

What do I use? Preworkout I like to swallow creatine capsules, so lately I’ve been taking two capsules of a pH-balanced creatine like Kre-Alkalyn EFX or Sci-Fit’s Kreation, which also has some caffeine and amino acids.

Postworkout I use Muscle-Link’s CreaSol—also a pH-balanced creatine—for maximum absorption. I put one scoop, five grams, in my RecoverX postworkout drink.

That’s the X Stack Jonathan and I recommend for optimizing the anabolic window.

Steve Holman ironchief@aol.com

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It’s a big blast of workout information, motivation and muscle-building science in your e-mail box every week—and it’s all free! Tons of practical training tips, analysis and size tactics are jam-packed into this e-zine from the IRON MAN Training & Research Center, where there’s more than 50 years of training experience to get you growing fast! Here are a few of the latest editions’ titles (online now):

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Train, Eat,

GROW Muscle-Training Program 87

From the IRONMAN Training & Research Center

by Steve Holman and Jonathan Lawson • Photography by Michael Neveux o quote Peter Boyle’s character from “Everybody Loves Raymond,” “Holy crap!” The strength increases we’ve achieved on our latest program after only six weeks are incredible—more than we’ve ever experienced on any routine we can remember. How about 90-pound incline flyes, 75pound seated laterals, 400pound shrugs, 400-pound hack squats and 1,000-pound leg presses?

Model: Jay Cutler

T

We’re not throwing around those numbers to brag—in fact, we don’t care much about strength because it’s not our primary goal. We are merely reporting our experience so far—that our newfound power is still shocking us at almost every workout,

as the weights keep moving up and up. (And, no, we haven’t been making trips to Mexico.)

So is it really the program, or is it something else we’ve been doing?

We’ve always said that small details can add up to big results; however, we believe that our new program is a big part of the equation because of its rep-range variety—one week out of every three has us training in the lower, power rep range, which we haven’t done in a long while. Nevertheless, we believe that there’s more to our results than that; in fact, there are three things: 1) Red Dragon, which is a betaalanine supplement that loads the muscles with carnosine, an intramuscular buffer that allows you to push further into the pain zone on every set, enabling you to get more growth reps and X Reps.

(We’re very impressed with this

product, as you may have seen on our training and supplement blogs at X-Rep.com. When you try it, keep in mind that it’s a cumulative power effect, building over two to three weeks until strength takes off!

You’ll find details of how we use it on our supplement blog.)

2) Our new split, which has us training each bodypart only once a week. We’ve experimented before with seven-days-between-bodypart-hits regimens and noted that while we got stronger, our size gains were sporadic. (That may be the nature of the size-to-strength adaptation, as we’ll explain.)

3) Power/Rep Range/Shock, the program we’re currently using, which provides variation within its three-week cycles. It was developed by Eric Broser, and we infused it with X Reps and 3D Positions of Flexion.

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Train, Eat, Grow / Program 87

Model: Skip La Cour

During Shock week we use contractedposition exercises as the second movement in a postactivation superset— immediately after a big, midrange exercise.

P/RR/S For those who missed our summary of P/RR/S training last month, here’s another look:

Week 1: Power Train every exercise with straight sets—no supersets, tri-sets or drop sets—and keep your reps in the four-to-six zone. We use slightly higher reps on endurance-oriented muscles like calves, abs and forearms.

Arthur Jones, Nautilus creator and high-intensity innovator, often said that strength progresses in an upward curve while size moves forward in a stair-step pattern.

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Train, Eat, Grow / Program 87

Comstock

New pro Mark Dugdale is now experimenting with multirep rest/pause training, a.k.a.

Dante’s Doggcrapp method—three sets per exercise, 20 seconds of rest after each set.

Week 2: Rep Range For the first exercise pick a weight that allows you to get seven to nine reps. For the second exercise it’s 10 to 12 reps. On the third move the rep range up to the high end of fasttwitch recruitment—13 to 15 reps.

That works exceptionally well with 3D POF: We use a big, midrangeposition exercise as our first movement, a stretch-position exercise as our second and then a contractedposition movement to finish off the muscle group with continuous tension, occlusion and an awe-

some pump thanks to the higher rep range. For example, for upper pecs we do Smith-machine incline presses (midrange), incline flyes (stretch) and high cable flyes (contracted).

Week 3: Shock This week is for putting your muscles through the meat grinder with supersets, drop sets and so on.

Reps for most muscles stay in the eight-to-10 range, but extended-set techniques are a must.

Now, we’ve said many times that strength increases don’t necessarily

result in size gains. And we know that low reps, like the four to six we do during Power week, primarily build strength. So the question becomes, Will this program build muscle size, or is it a strength-only protocol?

If we were doing low reps exclusively, we’d be somewhat concerned. Because we’re getting so much variation, however, we believe we’re hitting all the necessary size-building facets—we’re just not training those other components as frequently as we’re used to. In most (continued on page 68)

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Train, Eat, Grow / Program 87 (continued from page 64) of our other

programs we do extended-set work—drop sets, for example—at every workout. Now every week is different—and we only use drop sets and supersets during Shock week.

The other two weeks are all straight sets.

To make up for that somewhat,

we add X Reps to one set of each exercise every week, increasing lactic acid, which studies show increases anabolic hormone release. They also give us a bit more tension time: Lowrep sets, while still power oriented, move closer to the size-building time under tension with the addition of X Reps.

Supercompensation for Super Size We said last month that we think of the low-rep week as an intensity downshift that results in critical supercompensation. Heavy-weight, low-rep sets cause the nervous

IRON MAN Training & Research Center Muscle-Training Program 87 Monday (Shock): Chest, Calves, Abs Superset Incline presses (X Reps) High cable flyes (X Reps) Incline flyes (X Reps) Superset Bench presses (X Reps) Low/middle cable flyes (X Reps) Wide-grip dips (drop set; X Reps) Flat-bench flyes (X Reps) Superset Knee-extension leg press calf raises (X Reps) Machine donkey calf raises (X Reps) Superset Hack-machine calf raises (X Reps) Standing calf raises (X Reps) Seated calf raises (drop set; X Reps) Superset Incline kneeups (drop set; X Reps) Flat-bench leg raises (X Reps) Tri-set Ab Bench crunches (X Reps) Twisting crunches (X Reps) End-of-bench kneeups (X Reps)

2 x 8-10 2 x 8-10 1 x 8-10 2 x 8-10 2 x 8-10 1 x 8(6) 1 x 8-10

3 x 10-12 2 x 10-12 2 x 10-12 2 x 10-12 2 x 12(8) 1 x 10(6) 1 x 10-12 1 x 10-12 1 x 10-12 1 x 8-10

Tuesday (Shock): Back, Forearms Superset Wide-grip pulldowns (X Reps) 2 x 8-10 Machine pullovers (X Reps) 2 x 8-10 Parallel-grip chins (X Reps) 2 x 8-10 Undergrip pulldowns (drop set; X Reps) 1 x 8(5) Behind-the-neck pulldowns (drop set; X Reps)1 x 8(5) Superset Nautilus rows or cable rows (X Reps) 2 x 8-10 Bent-arm bent-over laterals (X Reps) 2 x 8-10 One-arm dumbbell rows (X Reps) 1 x 8-10 Superset Barbell shrugs (X Reps) 1 x 8-10 Dumbbell shrugs (X Reps) 1 x 8-10 Superset Reverse wrist curls (X Reps) 2 x 10-12 Forearm Bar reverse wrist curls (X Reps) 2 x 10-12 Superset Wrist curls (X Reps) 2 x 10-12 Forearm Bar wrist curls (X Reps) 2 x 10-12 Rockers (drop set) 1 x 12(8)

Thursday (Shock): Quads, Hamstrings Superset Machine hack squats (nonlock; X Reps) 2 x 8-10 Leg extensions (X Reps) 2 x 8-10 Superset Leg extensions (X Reps) 1 x 8-10 Leg presses (nonlock) 1 x 8-10 Leg presses (nonlock; X Reps) 1 x 8-10 Smith-machine sissy squats (drop set; X Reps) 1 x 8(5) Lunges 1 x 8-10 Superset Stiff-legged deadlifts (low partials; X Reps) 2 x 8-10 Leg curls (X Reps) 2 x 8-10 Hyperextensions (X Reps) 1 x 8-10 Leg curls (X Reps) 1 x 8-10 Low-back machine (X Reps) 1 x 8-10

Friday (Shock): Delts, Triceps, Biceps Superset Rack pulls (X Reps) 2 x 8-10 Forward-lean laterals (X Reps) 2 x 8-10 Dumbbell upright rows (drop set; X Reps) 1 x 8(6) Superset Incline one-arm laterals (X Reps) 1 x 8-10 One-arm cable laterals (X Reps) 1 x 8-10 Superset Behind-the-neck presses (X Reps) 1 x 8-10 Dumbbell presses (X Reps) 1 x 8-10 Bent-over laterals (drop set; X Reps) 2 x 8(6) Superset Close-grip bench presses (X Reps) 2 x 8-10 Pushdowns or kickbacks (X Reps) 2 x 8-10 Decline extensions 1 x 8-10 Overhead dumbbell extensions (drop; X Reps 2 x 8(6) Superset Dumbbell curls 2 x 8-10 Preacher curls (X Reps) 2 x 8-10 Concentration curls or one-arm spider curls (drop set; X Reps) 1 x 8(6) Incline curls (X Reps) 1 x 8-10 Cable hammer curls (X Reps) 1 x 8-10 Note: Where X-Reps are designated, usually only one set or phase of a drop set is performed with X Reps or an X-Rep hybrid technique from the Beyond X-Rep Muscle Building e-book. See the X-Blog at www.X-Rep.com for more workout details.

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Train, Eat, Grow / Program 87 system to balk before a lot of muscular fatigue occurs. So keeping the volume relatively low during Power week means we’re not overstressing our systemic reserves, even with a few X Reps here and there.

We can tell that the Power-week workouts aren’t as stressful because we don’t feel drained after we perform them, although we do feel a deep muscle ache, probably due to our having hit some power fibers that aren’t used to getting into the action. Doesn’t that mean the muscles are getting more stress than usual? No, because the endurance components of the 2A fast-twitch fibers aren’t getting much stress. Also, the aforementioned early nervous

system crap-out prevents complete muscle fiber activation—when the high-threshold motor units begin to kick in, the nervous system balks, forcing the set to end early. All of that means the Power-week workouts are less stressful and muscle supercompensation can more easily occur. That should translate into size increases—eventually.

Size Follows Strength—Sometimes We say size should come “eventually” because it appears that size follows strength, at least sometimes.

Arthur Jones, the creator of Nautilus

machines, always said that strength occurs first. Here’s an interesting quote from his Nautilus Bulletin #1, published in the late ’60s, that clarifies our point: “When the actual progress of an individual trainee is carefully charted over a period of a few months, several rather surprising results will become immediately apparent; for example, while strength levels will increase in a series of gentle curves, increases in size of the involved bodyparts— and thus apparent increases in muscular mass—will result in a stair-step pattern.”

What Jones is saying is that strength increases are usually fairly

ITRC Program 87, Abbreviated Home-Gym Routine Monday (Shock): Chest, Calves, Abs Superset Incline presses (X Reps) Incline flyes (top squeezes; drop set; X Reps) Incline flyes (low partials; X Reps) Superset Bench presses (X Reps) Decline flyes (top squeeze; X Reps) Decline flyes (low partials; X Reps) Donkey calf raises (drop set; X Reps) One-leg calf raises (drop set; X Reps) Seated calf raises (drop set; X Reps) Superset Incline kneeups (X Reps) Flat-bench leg raises (X Reps) Weighted full-range crunches or Ab Bench crunches (drop set; X Reps)

2 x 8-10 2 x 8-10(6) 1 x 8-10 2 x 8-10 2 x 8-10 1 x 8-10 3 x 12(8) 2 x 12(8) 2 x 12(8) 1 x 10-12 1 x 10-12 1 x 12(8)

Tuesday (Shock): Back, Forearms Chins (MRRP; X Reps) Undergrip rows (drop set; X Reps) Dumbbell pullovers (X Reps) Superset Bent-over barbell rows Bent-arm bent-over laterals (X Reps) One-arm dumbbell rows (X Reps) Shrugs (MRRP; X Reps) Reverse wrist curls (drop set; X Reps) Wrist curls (drop set; X Reps) Rockers

1 x 8(6)(4) 1 x 8(6) 1 x 8-10 2 x 8-10 2 x 8-10 1 x 8-10 1 x 8(6)(4) 2 x 10(6) 2 x 10(6) 1 x 13-15

Thursday (Shock): Quads, Hams Superset Squats Leg extensions or old-style hack squats (X Reps)

2 x 8-10 2 x 8-10

Leg extensions or old-style hack squats (drop set; X Reps) Sissy squats (drop set; X Reps) Front squats or lunges Superset Stiff-legged deadlifts (low partials) Leg curls (X Reps) Leg curls (X Reps)

2 x 10(6) 2 x 10(6) 1 x 8-10 2 x 8-10 2 x 8-10 1 x 8-10

Friday (Shock): Delts, Triceps, Biceps Superset Dumbbell upright rows or rack pulls (X Reps) 2 x 8-10 Seated forward-lean laterals (X Reps) 2 x 8-10 Incline one-arm laterals (drop set; X Reps) 1 x 8(6) Dumbbell presses (drop set; X Reps) 1 x 8(6) Bent-over laterals (drop set; X Reps) 2 x 8(6) Superset Close-grip bench presses (X Reps) 2 x 8-10 Kickbacks (X Reps) 2 x 8-10 Decline extensions 1 x 8-10 Overhead extensions (drop set; X Reps) 2 x 8(6) Superset Barbell or dumbbell curls 2 x 8-10 Preacher curls (X Reps) 2 x 8-10 Concentration curls (drop set; X Reps) 1 x 8(6) Incline curls (X Reps) 1 x 8-10 Incline hammer curls (X Reps) 1 x 10-12 Note: Where X-Reps are designated, usually only one set or phase of a drop set is performed with X Reps or an X-Rep hybrid technique from the Beyond X-Rep Muscle Building e-book. See the X-Blog at www.X-Rep.com for more workout details.

If you don’t have a leg extension machine, do oldstyle hacks, nonlock style. Use partner resistance, towel around the ankles, if you don’t have a leg curl machine.

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Train, Eat, Grow / Program 87

Shock-Week Tactics

Model: Noel Thompson

Back to Arthur Jones. In Nautilus Bulletin #2 he says, “You cannot increase your strength by mere repetition of things that are already easy—and to get much in the way of muscular growth stimulation, you must constantly attempt the momentarily impossible. Below a certain intensity of effort, no amount of exercise will produce growth stimulation.”

That’s what the Shock week of P/RR/S training is all about—cranking up the intensity. What’s interesting is that the Shock week gets more shocking for our muscles on every three-week cycle because we’re using more weight on most exercises. In theory, that should produce some great size increases.

What shock tactics are we talking about? If you glance at the program on page 68, you’ll recognize many of them. Let’s discuss.

steady, fluctuating slightly up and down but on a distinctly upward trajectory, while size increases come in sudden spurts followed by plateaus—a stair-step pattern.

Says Jones, “In effect, size increases permit strength increases—and strength increases force size increases.”

We’re hoping that he’s right and that our increasing strength, which at the moment is going up at almost every workout, results in a sudden spurt of muscle size; however, we realize that strength can increase due to neuromuscular efficiency alone, which may or may not produce a size increase. We also know that muscle growth we get via capillary bed expansion and mitochondria size—that is, by training the endurance components—may not cause an increase in force generation, or strength. So strength and size are related, but there’s not always a direct cause-and-effect relationship.

Remember, we are experiment-

Shock-week workouts are brutal, with lots of extendedtension techniques like X Reps and drop sets, but the length of each session is relatively short. ing here. While we said that we don’t really care all that much about strength, getting stronger so quickly is a great motivater—and we need all the motivation we can get, especially in the winter months.

Even if strength increases don’t bring immediate spurts of muscle size, there’s the other school of thought that many bodybuilders, especially the old-timers, subscribe to: Build strength in the winter, and then use your new strength during bodybuilding-style workouts in the spring and summer to pack on new size. Either way, this program, which has proven to be a big strength booster, is perfect for us as we move into winter, and we’re hoping to move up the size staircase with it as the new year approaches.

Supersets Doing two exercises back-toback is a sound way of increasing intensity. What may pop into your mind is preexhaustion, a technique in which you do an isolation exercise for a muscle to prefatigue it and then follow immediately with a compound exercise to bring in the assisting muscles, presumably forcing the target muscle to work harder.

For example, leg extensions followed immediately by squats and cable crossovers immediately followed by bench presses are classic preex supersets.

Preex is a tremendous way to focus on the continuous tensionleads-to-occlusion factor; however, we believe that force generation is more important in the hierarchy of mass-building components, and research indicates that doing an isolation exercise first followed immediately by a compound move significantly reduces force output on the second exercise—the compound mass movement.

Therefore, we choose to use postactivation, switching the order of the superset, to lead off our bodypart workouts during Shock week. We do the midrange-position exercise first, for max-force generation, and

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Model: Michael Turcotte

Train, Eat, Grow / Program 87

Stretch-position exercises, like incline flyes for upper pecs, finish the target muscle with severe stretch overload, which has been linked to fiber splitting. then follow immediately with a contracted-position movement, for extended tension. Postactivation supersets have been shown to actually increase force production on the big exercise in the second superset because of heightened neuromuscular activation.

We use two rounds of a postactivation superset on almost every muscle—for delts it’s rack pulls supersetted with forward-lean laterals, for upper chest it’s Smith-machine incline presses supersetted with high cable flyes and so on.

If you train in a commercial gym, supersets may be impossible. In that case you can begin each bodypart routine with drop sets on the compound exercise or use multirep rest/pause, which we’ll explain after we look at drops.

Drop Sets When it comes to creating extended-tension/occlusion effects, this technique is at the top of the list, especially when applied to exercises that keep tension on the target muscle throughout the set—for example, leg curls. For those of you new to our training, a drop set involves doing a set to exhaustion with a weight that will get you to that point at about rep nine, and then reducing the weight by about 20 percent and immediately repping out again for another six or so (as designated in the programs by the number in parentheses).

In some respects drop sets are better than supersets—you use the same exercise on both phases, so there is less rest. You don’t have to spend time moving to another piece of equipment. In our Shock program we do drop sets on some contractedposition exercises, ones we don’t use in postactivation supersets, such as bent-over laterals. We also like to use drops on stretch-position exercises, like sissy squats.

As we said, if you train in a crowded commercial gym, you will have to rely on drop sets instead of supersets, as it’s hard to hold two pieces of equipment; it’s much more efficient to reduce the weight on the same exercise. Or, if you don’t like reducing the weight, you can use MRRP.

Multirep Rest/Pause A big thumbs-up to Dante and Rob Thoburn for refining this technique. We’ve discussed both versions here before, but let’s review.

ROB stands for rest only briefly, and it’s Rob Thoburn’s method. Thoburn is a muscle-building researcher who has been corresponding with scientists worldwide for years, and he currently works for BSN, the supplement company that employs Ronnie Coleman. To use ROB, you pick a weight that lets you get eight to 10 reps. Rep out with it to exhaustion, rest 10 seconds, then repeat. Keep doing that, using the same weight, until you can get only one rep. That may take you anywhere from four to

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You can do sissy, or limbo, squats, the stretch move for quads, while holding a plate, on a Smith machine or on some squat machines. six sets.

DC stands for DoggCrapp, which is Dante’s MRRP method. You start with a weight that allows 10 reps, rep out to exhaustion and then rest for 20 seconds—10 more than with ROB. You do three of those sets in the sequence, so your reps go something like 10, seven, five.

Either of those methods can produce great results. We usually merge them: We start with a weight that allows about 10 reps, rest 10 seconds and then repeat that twice. In other words, do three sets with the same weight, resting 10 seconds after each. That provides a bit more work for the endurance components than Dante’s method due to the shorter rest, but you don’t do as many sets as with Thoburn’s version. We don’t want as much volume because we’re also using 3D POF, which calls for us to follow with stretch- and contracted-position exercises; Thoburn usually suggests one exercise per

Dumbbell shrugs qualify as both a stretch- and a contracted-position exercise for upper traps, which makes them a good finisher for midback.

bodypart.

Nevertheless, you may want to experiment with both MRRP styles. Just remember that the ROB method leans more toward endurance-component work. Because you rest longer with Dante’s DC training, it provides more force generation—but not as much as straight-set work.

At the moment Dante’s method is being used by two pro bodybuilders, David Henry and Mark Dugdale, if that helps convince you of its merit. While we haven’t been using it lately during Shock week, we plan to incorporate it down the road for an intensity uptick. We’ve included MRRP in the home-gym program on page 70, so you get an idea of how you can incorporate it. If you’re more of an endurance responder, a.k.a. hardgainer type, use our version or ROB. If you’re looking for a little more force, use Dante’s DC version.

Stretch/Pause This is a.k.a. Static X. We just started using it again on many exercises; however, as we said back in the ’90s when we first recom-

mended it, it’s best on stretchposition exercises—like overhead extensions for triceps, incline curls for biceps and donkey calf raises for calves—to emphasize stretch overload. Go to exhaustion, then lower weight to the X spot, near the full-stretch point, and hold to failure—or till you can’t stand the pain. That’s especially effective on exercises on which you can’t manage X-Rep partials—but even if you can manage X Reps, you may want to do a Static X on those. (It’s a killer on calf work!)

Full-range reps followed by X Reps followed by a Static X makes sense: After going to full-range exhaustion, tax the fibers with partial movements first, if you can, and then finish by forcing them to cope with an isometric contraction—which takes them to another level of exhaustion and can bring in even more fibers. It’s like attacking three different levels of fiber firepower: full range, partial range and, finally, static. That’s very effective for getting the most sizeand-strength stimulation from any one set via stretch overload. (Note: For more info on the Static X tech-

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Model: Ken Yasuda

Model: Jonathan Lawson \ Equipment: Powertec Squat/Calf machine

Train, Eat, Grow / Program 87

Train, Eat, Grow / Program 87

The bottom part of the stroke is key for heightened fiber activation.

nique, or stretch/pause, see X-Files on page 164.)

We’ve been using the same Shock program on every bodypart, with our big strength increases causing a significant intensity uptick every time we get to that week. We think it may be time to up the intensity

in other ways. To accomplish that, we plan to work in more X-hybrid techniques—such as Double-X Overload, X Fade and so on, from our Beyond X-Rep Muscle Building e-book—plus double-drop sets, which include two weight reductions instead of just one; and mul-

tirep rest/pause. Doing that should be more effective at stimulating size gains as our strength gains tail off.

And if they don’t tail off, look for us in the World’s Strongest Man competition soon.

Note: Our Shock week is outlined on page 68. For our complete P/RR/S program, presented so you can print it out, take it to the gym and experiment along with us, see Chapter 15 of 3D Muscle Building, available at www.3DMuscleBuilding.com.

Editor’s note: For the latest on X Reps, including X Q&As, X Files (past e-zines), before and after photos and the X-Blog training journal, visit www.X-Rep.com. To order the Positions-of-Flexion training manual Train, Eat, Grow, call (800) 447-0008, visit www.Home-Gym.com, or see the ad below. IM

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Mr. Natural Olympia John Hansen’s

Naturally Huge

High-Low Lat Growth

a good contraction when your arms are close to your torso.

That will focus the stress on your lower lats.

By developing that area of your back, along with the upper and middle lats, you’ll display complete development even if your lats are attached high, and the judges at bodybuilding contests won’t consider your back a weak area of your physique.

Keep in mind that bodybuilders such as Dennis James, Nasser El Sonbaty and Alq Gurley all have high lat attachments, but they’ve been able to achieve incredible back development through intelligent, hard workouts.

Here is a good routine that focuses on the lower lats while hitting the rest of the back as well:

Q: I’ve been training for about three years, and I’m considering entering my first bodybuilding competition. Some of the guys at my gym who watched me pose said I have “high lats.” What does that mean, and is it a good thing or a bad thing? If it’s not good, is there a way I can overcome it?

A: If you have high lats, it means that your latissimus dorsi muscles—the major muscles in your back that create width—are attached higher on the back instead of closer to the waist. The lower your lats are attached, the more growth potential they’ll have and the bigger they’ll look from the back.

Bodybuiders such as Lee Haney, Franco Columbu, Dorian Yates and Ronnie Coleman all have low lat attachments, and they also all have incredible back development.

Although you can’t alter the attachments of your lower lats, just as you can’t change the attachments of your biceps or any other muscle through training, you can still develop the muscles to their fullest potential.

The best exercises for developing the lower lats are close-grip pulldowns and close-grip chins. Try using a parallel-grip attachment or an undergrip, keep your elbows in front of you when you perform the exercise, and aim for

Close-grip pulldowns Wide-grip chins Undergrip barbell rows Deadlifts

3 x 12, 10, 8 3 x 8-10 4 x 10, 8, 6, 6 3 x 8, 6, 6

Q: I’m 24 years old and weigh 240 pounds at 5’8”.

I went to the Arnold Classic, and it inspired me to get back into lifting. In high school I weighed 180 pounds, played football and was in great shape. I’ve now been lifting consistently for a week, and I’m already noticing some gains. I’m working out four days a week, but it’s depressing not lifting what I used to lift. I do have a pretty big gut now from my lack of exercise for six years. Do you have any workout and diet tips that might speed my results? I’m eating tuna, chicken breasts and fish. I’m taking Myopro protein by EAS, CLA supplements, vitamin C, Mega Men Vitamins and Body Fortress amino acids.

I really want to get into bodybuilding, but everyone tells me I have more potential to be a powerlifter.

I’ve never been able to develop my muscles, but I’ve always been able to put up quite a bit of weight.

Right now I’m only maxing 250 on the bench and repping 405 for six on squats. I just want to get rid of my gut before I get too old to do it. If I just lift like hell and do ab work, will I get rid of it? Or should I include cardio in my workout? I greatly appreciate and admire what you do.

Neveux \ Model: Derik Farnsworth

If your lats attach low on your torso, they have more growth potential.

A: It’s great that you’ve decided to start training again after six years. As I’m sure you’ve discovered, it’s very hard coming back after an extended layoff.

The good news is that muscles have memory, so to speak, so they’ll come back faster than if you’d never trained before. However, it’s still going to take some time to build your strength, endurance and muscle size to their previous levels.

I think the ideal training routine for you at this stage of the game would be to use moderately heavy weights three to four days a week, with the emphasis on slowly building up your strength and size. You could split your bodyparts over two days, training chest, back, shoulders and abs on the first day and legs and arms on the second.

If you want to train three days a week, you could keep (continued on page 102) alternating those two workouts, which would mean doing the first workout twice during the first week, the second workout twice the second week and so on. If you wanted to train more than that, you could structure your routine to train chest, back and shoulders on Monday and Thursday

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Mr. Natural Olympia John Hansen’s

Naturally Huge portant for building muscle. Chicken and fish are complete proteins (they contain all the essential amino acids) that are also low in fat. You can also eat lean red meat (flank, round and sirloin steaks), eggs and egg whites for protein. I also include protein shakes made with Pro-Fusion protein powder or a meal replacement like Muscle Meals several times a day to supplement my protein intake.

In addition to protein, you need complex carbohydrates. Without carbs in your diet you won’t have the energy to perform your workouts. Carbs are also important for muscle-tissue repair.

I stick with carbohydrates that are high in fiber—they don’t stimulate a large release of insulin. Oatmeal, sweet potatoes, brown rice, oat bran and vegetables are ideal for the bodybuilder who’s trying to get bigger while still staying lean.

You should also make the effort to eat foods that contain essential fatty acids. The omega-3 fats, found in salmon, mackerel, sardines and flaxseed oil, help make muscle cells more carb sensitive and fat cells more carb insensitive. I try to eat salmon three times a week and take two tablespoons of flaxseed oil every day in my protein drinks.

Your diet is critical to changing the look of your body.

Stay consistent with your workouts and keep eating the right foods six times a day, and you’ll be on your way to not only regaining your high school physique but surpassing it as well.

and legs and arms on Tuesday and Friday. That program would have you training each bodypart twice per week.

For now I recommend that you train only three days a week because in the beginning you want to give yourself plenty of recovery time. There’s no sense trying to rush after being off for so long. You’re still very young, however, so you should be able to get back in shape very quickly.

After two to three months of training consistently on a three-days-a-week routine, increase the training program to four days a week. It’s a good intermediate routine to follow, and it will enable you to build more size and strength.

You mentioned that you have powerlifting potential, but you want to compete in bodybuilding. In order to look like a bodybuilder, you need to train like a bodybuilder. In other words, don’t concentrate so much on lifting heavy weights at the expense of developing your physique.

Use weights that limit your repetitions to six to 10 per set. That’s the best rep range for building muscle mass. You want to use a weight that will allow perfect form, however, so you emphasize the muscles you’re trying to train. Don’t lift heavy just to get the weight up—like a powerlifter.

Instead, focus on using heavy weights as a tool for building your physique.

The ideal shape for a bodybuilder is wide shoulders and a small waist with proportionately developed muscles in the chest, back, deltoids, arms, forearms, thighs and calves.

If people have commented that your physique looks like a powerlifter’s, then you need to emphasize width in your upper body. You can do that by developing your upper lats and medial deltoids. In your lower body you need to develop outer-thigh sweep and more width in your calves via soleus work. Also, you want a small waistline with abdominal development.

As for your diet, eat at least six small meals per day in order to feed your body the nutrients it needs to develop muscle tissue and keep your metabolism stimulated. You mentioned that you’re eating lots of protein, which is im-

Editor’s note: John Hansen has won the Natural Mr. Olympia and is a two-time Natural Mr. Universe winner. Visit his Web site at www.natural olympia.com. You can write to him at P.O. Box 3003, Darien, IL 60561, or call tollfree (800) 900-UNIV (8648). His new book, Natural Bodybuilding, and new training DVD, “Real Muscle,” are now available from Home Gym Warehouse, (800) 447-0008 or www .Home-Gym.com. IM

Neveux

Balik

Bodybuilders train specifically to develop certain attributes, like wide shoulders and a small waist. Simply lifting heavy weights won’t accomplish that; you have to focus on the muscles, not just pushing up big poundages.

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John Hansen John@NaturalOlympia.com

A Bodybuilder Is Born

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A Bodybuilder

Is Born Back to Basics

Episode 18

by Ron Harris Photography by Michael Neveux

t first there was the nagging voice in the back of my head (no, not the one that says, “Kill! Kill!”). It said I was a slacker for avoiding full deadlifts.

Then there was the nagging voice of IFBB pro Johnnie Jackson on the other end of the phone accusing me not only of being a slacker but also of depriving Randy of the back he was capable of building.

Johnnie himself is no slouch in the back department. Fellow pro Victor Martinez remarked of Jackson’s back, “I never seen oatmeal that lumpy.” (Apparently Vic never tried using a little less water and stirring in some protein powder.

I think I actually made a good 3-D map of the Hawaiian Islands like that one morning in my bowl.)

Johnnie is also a competitive powerlifter and thus strongly feels that all bodybuilders need to include the three big lifts in their routine if they are to grow to their maximum potential. “The one thing I hate,” he told me with real scorn in his voice, “is when pros and other advanced bodybuilders tell young kids they don’t need to squat and deadlift just because they don’t anymore. They’re cheating those kids out of so much overall muscle on their bodies, I feel like slapping them.”

“Yeah, those jerks,” I agreed, all the while thinking Johnnie would probably slap me if he got the chance.

You see, though I had been diligently forcing Randy to squat—except for the few weeks after he hurt his lower back a while ago—I’d never so

Model: Skip La Cour

A

much as shown him how to do deadlifts. Sure, we did rack deadlifts from the knees up sometimes, but lately I’d been starting to think those were about as close to full deads as second base was to intercourse. After looking at my contest pics from last spring, I had finally figured out that my back could definitely stand to be thicker (I had to admit it couldn’t always be bad stage lighting), I began to look at the guys with the best backs and what they did for them. The best back in the world for the past few years has belonged to Ronnie Coleman, and we all know from watching his videos that he’s capable of full deadlifts with more than 800 pounds.

Jackson is another back freak (his traps actually do touch his ears), and he has deadlifted 825 in an official USPF meet. Even Martinez, who took third at the ’06 Mr. Olympia, does full deadlifts in every back workout. I asked him about half, or rack, deadlifts, but he dismissed them as wimpy.

“I like to get my money’s worth when I deadlift, not half the exercise.”

It was settled. I hadn’t done full deadlifts except for a few months back in 1998 when I’d trained with a powerlifter and former Army Ranger named John Lamphiere. To be brutally honest with myself, I didn’t even know how to do them right anymore, if I ever had. It sure isn’t like riding a bike. Luckily I’d been e-mailing back and forth with a personal trainer from Massachusetts named Mike Westerling, and from his Web site (www.BodiesByMike.com) I knew he was a big believer in deadlifts. Maybe

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Model: Jorge Betancourt

A Bodybuilder Is Born

After the deads the rest of the back workout was chinups, one-arm rows and shrugs.

he could teach me, and I could turn around and pass on the correct technique to Randy. Luckily, Mike was willing to come to my gym on a day when Randy and I don’t train together anyway and show me how it’s done.

The session went very well, though my ego had to be left outside in the freezing cold while I practiced the deadlift with moderate weights. Mike patiently kept reminding me to pay attention to little things like keeping

my back flat, my butt up and pushing with my heels. His description of the correct form feeling like “falling backward” helped a lot. Prior to this, my deadlifts had unwittingly been nothing more than squats, just holding on to the bar instead of setting it across my shoulders. That’s why I’d always felt the first half of the lift only in my legs and glutes and had concluded that only the top half of the exercise’s range of motion worked the back. How wrong I had

been!

Now I was hardly bending my legs at all, but my back was working like crazy the whole time. My lower back in particular was pumped for about an hour after the deadlifts, and I was sore for a full five days.

Exactly one week later Randy and I met up to train back, and it was confession time.

“Randy, we’re going to start doing deadlifts today.”

“Huh?” He was clearly confused.

“What do you mean—don’t we deadlift all the time?”

“Not really. We’ve been faking the funk, and it’s all my fault as the leader in this dynamic duo. It’s time we started doing deadlifts from the floor.”

“I thought you said we only had to do them from the knees up to work the back, didn’t you?”

“Well”—I carefully chose my words—“I’ve reconsidered, and now I think we’ll actually get more benefit from using a full range of motion. All those powerlifters with their thickass backs must be on to something.”

Randy thought a minute. “To be honest, I always wondered why we weren’t doing them that way. I watch that Ronnie Coleman video at least once a month for motivation, and

Pro bodybuilder Johnnie Jackson, who is also a powerlifter, strongly feels that all bodybuilders should include the three big lifts in their routines.

Comstock

Balik

Much of Jackson’s thick back detail is the result of full deadlifts.

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A Bodybuilder Is Born

FINISH

Model: Robert Hatch

START

Mike patiently kept reminding me to keep my back flat and my butt up and to push with my heels.

one-arm dumbbell rows and shrugs.

We were going to stick purely with the basics for a while to beef up our backs.

The room where we do our deadlifts and squats is wall-to-wall mirrors, and at the conclusion of the workout, Randy peeled off his tank top and started maneuvering around to see his back as he hit some poses for it. As his skin hadn’t seen the sun or a tanning bed since Labor Day, his pasty complexion was almost blinding. Apparently,

Comstock \ Model: Ronnie Coleman

he’s a monster on deadlifts. My back has come up a lot, but I still feel as if something is missing.” That last part sent a fresh pang of guilt twisting in my gut.

“Okay, don’t rub it in. At least you’re not starting these at age 34 like me, Sparky.”

Randy’s form was even more awkward than mine had been, and I wouldn’t let him go any heavier than 135 that day. By the end, though, he had it pretty much down. The rest of the workout was just chinups,

The best back in the world for the past few years has belonged to Ronnie Coleman, who deadlifts with more than 800 pounds.

Randy was convinced the deadlifts were already working their magic.

“Yeah, baby!” he exclaimed as he did a lat spread. “Blockin’ out the sun!”

“It’s been overcast for days,” I countered. “There is no sun.”

“Ronnie Coleman is gonna be in big trouble soon!” was his next proclamation.

“Why, has he been claiming each limb as a dependent on his tax returns or something?”

Randy’s enthusiasm couldn’t be diminished. He was fired up, because even though he’d only been deadlifting for one day, he already knew instinctively, as I did, that big changes were soon going to be taking place in his traps, lats and spinal erectors. He crunched into a rear double-biceps and squeezed the knotted muscles together with all his might. When he spoke, it was between gritted teeth and while attempting to hold his breath.

“Whaddaya think of that?” he grunted. I paused.

“I ain’t seen vomit so lumpy. At least not since New Year’s Eve in 1987, when I was eating nuts and drinking tequila.” IM

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Muscle-Science

Roundup

10 Recent Research Reports That Can Help Accelerate Your Muscle Gains and Fat Loss Compiled by Steve Holman Photography by Michael Neveux

It’s our January 2007 issue, which means it’s time to look back at some of the key scientific studies of the past year that can have significant impact on your size, strength and fat loss. Much of the following was researched

by IRON MAN’s number-one science scribe, Jerry Brainum.

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Muscle-Science Roundup

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1) Extend Your Sets for Pain to Gain

Model: Mike Morris

The burn promotes anabolic hormone release and appears to increase the level of muscle fiber recruitment.

Training may induce muscular growth by promoting the release of anabolic hormones, such as growth hormone, insulinlike growth factor 1 (IGF-1) and testosterone—but it’s got to be the right kind of training. For a long time scientists have been looking for the type of training that best elicits increases in anabolic hormones. Some studies show that using a weight you can lift for 10 reps, then resting no longer than one minute between sets leads to the greatest rise in both growth hormone and testosterone. In contrast, using a weight that you can lift for only five reps and resting three minutes or more between sets results in no change in anabolic hormone release. That partly explains why many powerlifters and Olympic lifters are strong but don’t have dramatic muscle size.

Scientists have found that the primary impetus for promoting the release of anabolic hormones is stress induced by the accumulation of metabolic waste produced in the muscle during exercise. Such waste includes lactate and hydrogen ions, which produce the familiar burning sensation in a muscle during an intense set. Studies also show that occlusion of blood vessels during training results in greater gains in muscle size and strength, again because of the buildup of waste products in the muscle that sends a signal to release anabolic hormones.

A recent study examined the effects of induced metabolic stress in relation to promoting gains in muscular size and strength.1 Twenty-six healthy young men, average age 22, all of whom had training experience, were divided into three groups: 1) no rest, 2) with rest and 3) control. The control group didn’t exercise, but the no-rest and rest groups trained with the same exercises, using the same level of intensity. Both groups did the same routine: three sets of 10 reps of lat pulldowns, three sets

of 10 reps of shoulder presses and five sets of 10 reps of leg extensions. The no-rest group, despite the name, rested one minute between sets.

While the rest group used the same routine, participants rested between the fifth and sixth rep of each set. That protocol was designed to reduce the amount of metabolic waste products that would otherwise have accumulated in their muscles during a set.

The no-rest group showed elevations of lactic acid, growth hormone and norepinephrine, while the rest group did not.

Further, muscle growth occurred only in the no-rest group, with an average 13 percent increase in the muscle cross section.

Strength gains were also far greater in the no-rest group. That led the researchers to note, “The current results clearly indicate that continuous repetition without pause is an important factor for strength gains following resistance training.”

The increased acidity in muscle during intense training not only promotes anabolic hormone release but also appears to increase the level of muscle fiber recruitment. The brain apparently senses the heightened metabolic stress and compensates for it by recruiting additional fibers. More fiber recruitment translates into more muscle used, and that in turn leads to greater gains in muscular size and strength.

That may explain why extended-set techniques, such as drop sets and end-of-set XRep partials, are so effective at triggering a muscle-growth response—more muscle burn and occlusion, as well as more muscular-force production.

Note: See www.X-Rep.com for more on extended-set training, occlusion and max-force generation for muscle-mass increase.

1 Goto, K., et al. (2005). The impact of metabolic stress on hormonal responses and muscular adaptations. Med Sci Sports Exer. 37:955-963.

(continued on page 110)

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Muscle-Science Roundup

(continued from page 107)

2) Forskolin: FatBurning, TestosteroneChurning Compound

Model: Derik Farnsworth

The forskolin group had a significant decrease in bodyfat.

The forskolin group got a big boost in serum free testosterone as well.

Forskolin is an extract made from the roots of Coleus forskohlii, a perennial herb with fleshy fibrous roots that is a member of the mint family.

A study published in Obesity Research examined the effect of forskolin on body composition, testosterone, metabolic rate and blood pressure in overweight and obese men. Thirty subjects participated in a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled experiment for 12 weeks. They reported to the laboratory on a weekly basis to receive forskolin (Forslean: 250 milligrams of 10 percent forskolin extract twice a day) or a placebo. What did the researchers find?

The forskolin group had a significant decrease in bodyfat from baseline (35 percent) to final measurement (31 percent). The placebo group showed no significant difference in bodyfat. Fat mass dropped significantly in the forskolin group with no change occurring in the placebo group. There was a trend toward a significant increase of lean body mass in the forskolin group. Serum free testosterone was significantly increased in the forskolin group compared with the placebo group. The change in serum total testosterone concentration was not significantly different between the groups, but free testosterone increased 17 percent in the forskolin group and decreased 1 percent in the placebo group. There were no changes in blood pressure for either group.

So 250 milligrams of 10 percent forskolin extract taken twice a day for 12 weeks favorably altered body composition while concurrently increasing bone mass and free testosterone in overweight and obese men.1 To get that fat-to-muscle effect, look for a fat burner that contains the right dosage of forskolin. You’ll get leaner faster and build more muscle too, thanks to its testosterone-increasing effects.

1 Godard, M.P.; Johnson, B.A., and Richmond, S.R. (2005). Body composition and hormonal adaptations associated with forskolin consumption in overweight and obese men. Obes Res. 13(8):1335-1343.

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Peak contraction is probably less important for hyperplasia.

Model: Allen Sarkiszadeh

Model: Moe Elmoussawi

Stretchposition exercises like overhead extensions and stiff-legged deadlifts may help trigger fiber splitting.

Model: Jay Cutler

Muscle-Science Roundup

(continued from page 110)

3) Muscle-Fiber Division: Split to Be Sized Jose Antonio, Ph.D., is a proponent of the muscle-fiber-splitting theory of hypertrophy.1 In other words, he believes hyperplasia occurs. Here’s his latest summation: “Muscle physiologists have long been fascinated with what those who have taken muscularity to extreme heights look like at the cellular level. In a study published in the Journal of Physiology, researchers took needle biopsy samples from the outer-quad muscles of five male bodybuilders, average age 27, who’d been performing heavy resistance exercise for at least two years, and from five male active but untrained control subjects, average age 30.2 In the bodybuilders a preferential hypertrophy of fast-twitch fibers took place, which was to be expected, but there was more.

“The very large hypertrophy of the outer-quad muscles could not be fully accounted for by singlemuscle fiber hypertrophy. In fact, the cross-sectional area of the muscle was 54 percent larger in the bodybuilding group than in the control group, whereas mean fiber area was only 14 percent larger in the bodybuilding group. What does that mean? That bodybuilders likely had to increase their fiber numbers in order to account for the much larger total size of the muscle.

“It appears that the increase in muscle fiber numbers, or hyperplasia, may account to some degree for the extreme muscle size the bodybuilders attained.”

In a study Antonio was involved with, he achieved a 300 percent mass increase in the latissimus muscle of a bird via stretch overload. That triple-mass increase ocurred after only 30 days of stretch overload, with appropriate rest

days, and was accounted for by a 90 percent increase in muscle fibers.

That’s impressive stuff!

It leads us to believe that if hyperplasia exists and can be triggered with progressive-resistance exercise, the obvious way to do that would be with stretch-position exercises, such as stiff-legged deadlifts for hamstrings, flyes for pecs and overhead extensions for triceps.

Note: Stretch-position exercises for each bodypart are included in 3D Positions-of-Flexion programs.

For the latest on that training, visit www.3DMuscleBuilding.com.

1 Antonio, J., and Gonyea, W.J. (1993). Skeletal muscle fiber hyperplasia. Med Sci Sports Exerc.

25:1333-45.

2 D’Antona, G., et al. (2005).

Skeletal muscle hypertrophy and structure and function of skeletal muscle fibres in male bodybuilders.

J. Physiol. 570:611-627.

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4) Gene, Gene, Mass Machine: Customize Your Muscle-Building Workouts for Big Gains The best mass training for you may depend on your genes. In a new study 99 subjects were randomly assigned to three groups: 1) single set, 2) multiple set and 3) control. Both training groups used a periodization system to create variations in training intensity and volume. During the first three weeks they used loads that were 60 to 70 percent of maximum, which permitted an average of 12 to 15 reps per set. For the next three weeks they upgraded to using 70 to 80 percent of maximum weight, with a rep range of eight to 12. For six weeks they trained three times a week, working nine to 11 muscle groups per session, with the singleset group doing one set of each exercise and the multiple-set group doing three.

The subjects were genetically

tested at the start. Those with the ACE-2 variant, or the endurance gene, responded best to the multiple-set system using 12 to 15 reps.

When doing the slightly heavier eight to 12 reps, however, that group showed no difference in strength.

Those with the ACE-DD variant showed similar gains for both types of loads and systems. They also made the greatest strength gains—and made the same gains no matter how they trained. Still, the DD group made the most gains from the heavier training, implying that they respond best to that kind of weight work.

The ACE-2 subjects responded to the higher reps more favorably because of their inherent endurance capacity. Such people are more likely to also respond to the experimental “hypoxia training,” during which blood vessels are purposely occluded, somehow leading to greater gains in muscle size. People who have the ACE-2 variant get greater tissue oxygenation, which can elevate the contractile properties of heart and skeletal-muscle

tissue. They would also have less lactate buildup, reflecting reduced muscle fatigue.

It appears that those who make exceptional gains with high-intensity, heavy training have the ACE-DD variants. They’d gain from just about any type of training program. Those with the ACE-2 variant wouldn’t respond favorably to a workout that features heavy weights and low reps; their physiology is geared toward endurance. For them a program that features multiple sets and a rep range of 12 to 15 per set would produce the best results.

If you’re a skinny hardgainer, you probably have the ACE-2 variant.

The big mistake most hardgainers make is to plug away on a few sets of low reps. They should do the opposite—a few more sets with higher reps and/or extended-set techniques like drop sets and X Reps.

1 Colakoglu, M., et al. (2005). ACE genotype may have an effect on single vs. multiple-set preferences in strength training. Eur J App Physiol.

95(1):20-26.

Model: Jose Raymond

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Muscle-Science Roundup

Model: King Kamali

Wearing a lifting belt during squats was found to activate more fiber recruitment in the lower body.

5) Belt Up for Leg-Size Blastoff—and Less Oblique Development Should you wear a lifting belt or not? Some say wearing one can weaken midsection muscles because a belt relieves the abs and lower back of stability duties. But the intra-abdominal pressure a tight, wide belt creates may be more important.

One study found that IAP was 25 to 40 percent greater when a lifting belt was worn during heavy squats.

That would both stabilize the spine and decrease spinal compression.

Another study found that wearing a belt during heavy lifts decreased the

perception of effort during the exercise, thus making the lifting seem easier. Wearing a lifting belt leads to greater activation of both the lowerback muscles and the abdominal muscles, both of which increase lower-back support.

Another study looked at the effect of wearing belts during two styles of deadlifts and found that not wearing a belt produced greater oblique muscle activity.

The obliques are the “love handle” muscles that frame the abdominals. The same study also showed, however, that the shift of muscular activity transferred to the abdominals. That’s a positive finding: The abdominals help stabilize the lower back, and the obliques stabilize the abdominals and trunk muscles.

Yet another study looked at muscle involvement during squats and found that the belt increased the muscular involvement of the prime muscles in the thigh—both front and rear. It also found a 23 percent increase in the involvement of the lower-back muscles when subjects wore a belt. The belt likely increased the thigh-muscle involvement because of improved lowerback stability, which enabled greater focus on the targeted muscles. In addition, wearing a lifting belt leads to increased exercise speed, which would increase muscle activation.

So wearing a lifting belt during heavy exercise makes sense on a number of levels, especially if you’re after bigger quads.

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(continued on page 124)

Muscle-Science Roundup (continued from page 118)

6) Anabolic Amino Ammo: Derail Overtraining A new study found that most of the adverse hormonal effects of overtraining and overreaching are blunted if you use amino acid supplements. A high level of amino acids in the blood is associated with increased muscle protein synthesis and a blunting of muscle catabolism.

In the study, 17 men with weighttraining experience were randomly assigned to either an amino acid or placebo group. They underwent four weeks of purposeful overtraining. Those in the amino acid group took 0.4 grams per kilogram of bodyweight of a supplement containing essential and conditionally essential amino acids. They took the supplement one hour before meals and two hours after meals, as well as one to two hours before and after training. Those in the placebo group got an inert supplement on the same schedule.

As expected, after one week of overtraining, those in the placebo group experienced a loss of strength, but those in the amino group did not. Levels of substances indicating muscle damage were elevated only in the placebo group.

The amino group maintained levels of total and free testosterone, but not the placebo group. In addition, those in the placebo group showed higher blood levels of sex-hormone-binding globulin, a protein that locks on to free testosterone, rendering it inactive. The placebo group, however, showed elevated levels of growth hormone. The authors suggest it was the body’s attempt to offset the lowered levels of other anabolic hormones that resulted from the overtraining.

The authors note that “amino acid requirements to maintain optimal repair and recovery of skeletal muscle may be greater during highvolume or high-intensity resistance training.” Earlier studies showed that amino acid supplements promote increased muscle protein synthesis when taken after intense

training. Recent studies show that the effect occurs with as little as six grams of essential aminos. The greater availability of amino acids appears to decrease muscle damage incurred by hard training. That’s how you maintain strength.

Other studies show that branched-chain amino acids can reduce muscle breakdown by inhibiting proteases, or enzymes that degrade protein in muscle. In addition, the maintenance of optimal testosterone levels during intense training exerts a potent anabolic effect that is also conducive to building muscle size and increasing strength.

Those in the placebo group showed decreased levels of hemoglobin, the oxygen-carrying protein in red blood cells. A loss of hemoglobin could adversely affect both energy and muscular endurance while promoting premature fatigue during training.

Bottom line: While purposeful overtraining isn’t a good idea for most people, you can negate many of its effects with a judicious intake of amino acids.

Model: Nathan Detracy

Amino acids can thwart many of the negative effects of overtraining.

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Model: Amy Lynn

Muscle-Science Roundup

Better sex and more anabolic receptors? Pass the L-carnitine!

7) L-Carnitine: Sexy Supplement and Anabolic Receptor Increaser A six-month study compared testosterone undecanoate with propionyl-L-carnitine plus acetyl-Lcarnitine and a placebo in the treatment of sexual dysfunction among aging men. A total of 120 patients were randomly assigned to one of three groups. Group 1 was given testosterone undecanoate, 160 milligrams per day; the second group got propionyl-L-carnitine plus acetylL-carnitine, two grams per day. The third group got a placebo.

Results: The researchers assessed a whole host of variables related to mood and penile function. They discovered that testosterone and the carnitines significantly improved the

peak systolic velocity, end-diastolic velocity, resistive index, nocturnal penile tumescence, International Index of Erectile Function score, Depression Melancholia Scale score and fatigue scale score. The carnitines proved significantly more active than testosterone in improving nocturnal penile tumescence and International Index of Erectile Function score. Yes, carnitines were better than testosterone at producing erections. Testosterone significantly increased the prostate volume and free and total testosterone levels and significantly lowered serum luteinizing hormone; the carnitines did not.

So there were no hormonal side effects with the carnitines. No drug significantly modified prostatespecific antigen or prolactin. The carnitines and testosterone proved effective for as long as they were administered; cessation of treatment resulted in a return to baseline.

According to the scientists, “Tes-

tosterone and, especially, carnitines proved to be active drugs for the therapy of symptoms associated with male aging.�

So what does that have to do with building more muscle? It’s been shown that carnitine also increases anabolic receptors in muscle tissue.2 Anabolic-receptor proliferation is one way anabolic steroids help speed muscle growth. Try two to three grams of L-carnitine a day, if you can afford it. It is pricey.

1 Cavallini,

G., et al. (2004). Carnitine versus androgen administration in the treatment of sexual dysfunction, depressed mood, and fatigue associated with male aging. Urology.

63:641-646.

2 Ratamess, N.A., Kraemer, W.J., et al. (2005). Androgen receptor content following heavy resistance exercise in men. J Steroid Biochem Mol Bio. 93(1):35-42.

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(continued on page 131)

Do your cardio after your weight training for better fat oxidation.

Model: Ron Harris

Model: Tomm Voss

Muscle-Science Roundup

(continued from page 126)

8) Cardio Timing for Fat-Burn Priming Should you do aerobics before or after your weight workout? Many prefer to do their aerobic exercise first to get it out of the way and as a general warmup. A recent study, however, suggests that the best time to do aerobics is after a weight workout and that how long you rest between the two can make a difference in both hormone release and fat oxidation.1 Presented at the 2006 American College of Sports Medicine meeting, the study featured 10 healthy men who did three types of exercise regimens on different days: 1) Endurance exercise only (EE) 2) Endurance exercise after weight training and a 20-minute rest (RE20) 3) Endurance exercise after weight training and a 120-minute rest (RE120) The weight workout consisted of six exercises, each done for three to four sets of 10 reps. The endurance exercise consisted of stationary cy-

cling for an hour at low intensity (50 percent of maximum heart rate).

Doing the weight workout before aerobics led to marked increases in lactate, norepinephrine and growth hormone. Before the endurance exercise those in the RE120 group had the highest levels of free fatty acids in their blood, while those in the RE20 group had higher levels of norepinephrine and growth hormone. During the endurance and weight exercise, blood levels of free fatty acids and glycerol were higher in both weight groups than in the endurance-only group, meaning that those in both weight groups were burning more fat during the exercise.

The study clearly shows that doing a weight workout before aerobics leads to hormonal changes that favor increased fat oxidation during the subsequent aerobic workout.

1 Goto, K., et al. (2006). The effects of prior resistance exercise on lipolysis and fat oxidation during subsequent endurance exercise.

Med Sci Sports Exer. 38:S545.

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Muscle-Science Roundup

Moderate beer consumption appears to lower estrogen synthesis in men.

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9) Block Estrogen, Build Testosterone, Pack On Muscle—With Beer?

Bodybuilders and athletes on steroids counter the effects of elevated estrogen in two ways. The older solution blocks estrogen receptors with a drug such as Nolvadex. A better solution inhibits the activity of the aromatase enzyme itself. Drugs that accomplish that were developed to treat estrogendependent breast cancers, especially in older women. Aromatase-blocking drugs are now the most popular means of controlling estrogen.

What’s not generally known, however, is that natural aromatase blockers exist in certain foods and supplements.

Red wine, green tea and grapeseed extract all contain polyphenols that have aromatase-inhibiting properties. A new study identifies another aromatase blocker: beer.1 The particular ingredients responsible for the effect are hops and barley malt.

Hops add bitterness to beer, while malt is a flavoring compound. So-called prenylflavonoids in hops are thought to offer cardiovascular protection and protection against cancer. They don’t interfere with the synthesis of aromatase (as do the drug versions) but instead seem to throw a biochemical monkey wrench into its activity. The net effect, however, is lower estrogen synthesis.

What isn’t clear from the study is how much beer is effective against aromatase. That’s because the study design was in vitro, involving isolated cells.

Earlier research showed that a flavonoid called chrysin was just as effective as anti-estrogen drugs. Later studies, however, showed that while chrysin works great outside the body, a living human being has difficulty absorbing it.

That doesn’t mean the active ingredients in beer suffer a similar fate. Beer’s many benefits indicate that natural substances are indeed absorbed. The information shouldn’t be construed as a license to drink vast amounts of beer.

Too much alcohol can lower anabolic hormone levels and directly destroy muscle fibers. Drink beer in moderation.

1 Monteir,

R., et al. (2006). Effect of hop (Humulus lupulus) flavonoids on aromatase (estrogen synthase) activity.

J Agric Food Chemist. 54:2938-2943.

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Muscle-Science Roundup

Beta-alanine gets you further into the pain zone so you get more key growth reps on every set.

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Model: Sagi Kalev

10) Creatine Plus Beta-Alanine: The New MuscleBuilding Gasoline A study presented at the 2006 meeting of the ACSM investigated the effects of combining creatine with betaalanine, a new supplement that increases levels of L-carnosine, a dipeptide amino acid, in muscle.1 Carnosine is a major intramuscular buffer that neutralizes the effects of the higher muscle acidity produced during anaerobic metabolism.

Researchers examined the combined effects of creatine and beta-alanine on strength, power, body composition and hormone changes in strength and power athletes during a 10week weight-training program.

Hormones tested included testosterone, growth hormone, IGF-1 and sex-hormone-binding globulin, which is bound to testosterone and estrogen in the blood.

Thirty-three male athletes were randomly assigned to one of three groups: 1) Placebo (P) 2) Creatine only (C) 3) Creatine and beta-alanine (CBA) The CBA group gained more lean mass and lost more bodyfat than the P and C groups.

The CBA group also gained greater strength than the other two groups, as measured by maximum squat and bench press lifts. The creatine-only group had the only hormonal change—an increase in resting testosterone levels.

This preliminary study shows that creatine and betaalanine appear to work together in promoting gains in muscle strength and a loss of bodyfat.

And let’s not forget the leanmass increase. Beta-alanine enables you to keep pushing past nervous system failure, extend tension time and get

at many more fast-twitch fibers. It has to do with the size principle of fiber recruitment.

During any set to exhaustion you recruit the low-threshold motor units first, the mediums second and the important high-threshold motor units last. Those highs trigger the most fast-twitch growth. The more you can continue firing the muscle during highthreshold recruitment—into the so-called pain zone—the more hypertrophic stimulation you’ll get in any one set. Betaalanine makes that pain zone more bearable—or at least more accessible—and every all-out set becomes more anabolic. So when you combine beta-alanine with creatine’s ATP-boosting power, you’ve got a super muscle-building smart bomb!

Muscle biopsies have revealed that the biggest bodybuilders have loads of carnosine in their muscles.

(Remember, beta-alanine converts to carnosine, which accumulates in muscle tissue.) Scientists surmise that because they do so many painzone sets, the biggest bodybuilders adapt to that training by stockpiling carnosine, so they continue the adaptation process—they get bigger and stronger. If your body is inefficient at that process or doesn’t have the raw materials to make it happen—or you lack the pain tolerance to force that adaptation—your gains will be much slower. Taking beta-alanine solves the problem and gets you there much faster—it automatically increases muscle carnosine, giving you the ability to blast the muscle into the growth zone more often.

1 Hoffman, J., et al. (2006).

Effect of creatine and Balanine supplementation on performance and endocrine responses in strength/power athletes. Med Sci Sports Exerc.

38:S126. IM

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OmarDeckard

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How ’06 USA Champ Omar Deckard Chisels His Chest

by Cory Crow

en Affleck was on “The Tonight Show With Jay Leno” recently, discussing his role in “Hollywoodland,” a drama about the circumstances surrounding the death of George Reeves, the actor who played Superman on TV in the 1950s. Normally, an appearance by Affleck on any show wouldn’t make the pages of IRON MAN. This is a guy who used chest padding when he played Daredevil rather than hitting the gym to build his own muscle, but one comment he made stood out: “Back then the action stars walked around with their chests puffed out in a way that was almost larger than life.” While watching old films and news clips to prepare for the role, Affleck had realized how pervasive the notion was that being barrel-chested was the masculine ideal. Bodybuilding history is full of images of Arnold, Steve Reeves, John Grimek, Eugen Sandow and even a young Joe Weider hitting a side-chest shot with their chests protruding.

Photography by Michael Neveux

Bodybuilding has gone to focusing more on the arms, back and legs of late. Not that the top bodybuilders in the world are lacking chest mass, but the emphasis on building a world-class chest has diminished in favor of freaky back detail (like Ronnie Coleman’s) and insane leg development (Jay Cutler’s, Branch Warren’s).

Enter Omar Deckard, the ’06 NPC USA Superheavyweight and Overall champion and new IFBB pro. Omar is a throwback to the old days, a bodybuilder with a superior chest who’s had to work hard to bring up other bodyparts to match it. As a young lifter, Omar was a chest and biceps devotee. His early days were spent under his dad’s tutelage, doing bench presses and other basic lifts, and his chest routine is the result of years of training and refinement.

When you see Omar for the first time in a bodybuilding lineup, you’re struck by his sheer size. Omar is a big man, he’s barrel-chested,

with pectorals that spread out like sails on a clipper when he hits certain poses. Not that his chest development was forged overnight—Deckard spent years slowly building his physique, a philosophy that he learned at an early age. “I’ve never been in a rush,” he says. “I just want to see what I can do.”

It’s been a long, gradual ascent to pro status for Omar. How long? Try 13 years of working, improving and growing until he was rewarded with a pro card at the age of 33. The road wasn’t linear either. Omar started his NPC career in 2000, finishing second in the superheavyweight class at the California Championships and winning the overall at the Los Angeles Championships. His first national-level appearance came at the ’00 USA, where he placed a respectable ninth.

For Deckard, 2001 was a forgettable year, with no placings listed on his page at MuscleMemory.com, a virtual encyclopedia of contest results. His sole competition was the (continued on page 140)

www.ironmanmagazine.com \ JANUARY 2007 137

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GrowingSteady

Omar Deckard’s Training Split Omar uses a three-on/ one-off split; however, depending on how his body feels, he may occasionally take a second day off to ensure complete recovery.

Nevertheless, he always takes the two days off in succession—never breaking up the three-day stretch of workout days (barring illness):

Bench presses (warmup) 135 x 2 x 30-50 (hybrid sets, prepping for work sets) 225 x 2 x 12-15 (work set) 405 x 1 x 10-12 (heavy work set, usually to failure 500 x 1 x 6-8 Dumbbell presses 120s x 3 x 6-8 Cable crossovers 3 x 10-15

Day 1: Hamstrings, calves (a.m.); shoulders (p.m.)

Protect the Joints

Day 3: Traps, triceps (a.m.); back (p.m.)

When a tall bodybuilder lifts heavy, his joints can get a lot of stress. Omar is very conscious of that and devotes his first two sets to warming up. He performs the two sets of 30 to 50 reps at a rapid pace to get his body moving and ensure that a maximum volume of blood is transported to the muscles and joints.

How important is the warmup?

Omar will tell you that it’s paramount to having a successful workout. “You can’t neglect your joints or you risk serious injury down the road,” he explains.

“Don’t take shortcuts; gains come with time and patience.”

And don’t neglect stretching occasionally between sets. One thing he feels bodybuilders overlook is their flexibility, especially as they get bigger: “You will need that flexibility later on, for posing and just for life in general.”

Don’t forget the pump either.

Omar is certain to get a good, deep pump when he trains chest.

You can start with any exercise, but he has good reason for sticking with the basic bench press on chest day: his dad. “My father always told me to start with the heavy, compound movements because the beginning is when you are strongest and can lift the most weight.” The first exercise may vary from incline to flat bench, but the routine is always true to his father’s advice—always built around a form of the bench press.

Day 4: Off Comstock

Day 5: Cycle begins again

(continued from page 137) USA, which

was held in Las Vegas. He rode a Greyhound bus to get there and had enough money for a hotel room, a small amount of food and not much else. He didn’t make the top 15.

That experience led him to seek the advice of Larry Pepe, whom he credits with giving him the nutritional foundation he needed to get to the pros. Omar bounced back in 2002 by winning the superheavy class at the Cal and placing fourth at the USA. The next four years saw him continue to improve, never finishing lower than fifth at the USA and Nationals (minus a speed bump in 2003, when a tired and depleted Deckard took seventh at the latter). The pattern continued till 2005, when Omar came excruciatingly close to turning pro by taking second in his class at the IFBB North Americans and third at the NPC Nationals.

In 2006 Omar put it all together, and last summer he finally got the pro card he’d been working for, besting a game Leo Ingram in the superheavyweights and outmassing a ripped Mike Ergas in the battle for the overall (Ergas got the second pro card).

Step 1

Day 2: Quads (a.m.); chest, biceps (p.m.)

—C.C.

As with the rest of his career, however, turning pro didn’t come without a struggle. Due to economic downturns, Omar’s father was forced to close his fast-food restaurant during Omar’s prep period, but his family—and especially his girlfriend Heidi—circled the wagons to give him the support he needed to come into the show in his best condition to date.

After six years of work Deckard is refocusing his training for his professional debut, which he’ll make in Pasadena, California, in February at the season-opening ’07 IRON MAN Pro. To take that next step up, he’ll be refining his already complete physique and adding about five pounds of quality mass to his 6’1’’ frame.

Oddly enough, Omar feels that his physique was flat at the USA—where he weighed in at 258—and that he can ideally tip the scales at 265 to 270 in Pasadena. In order to reach that weight, he’ll use the tried-and-true chest routine that he fashioned in his youth following advice Arnold Schwarzenegger gives in his Encyclopedia of Modern Bodybuilding and by studying the ultimate bodybuilding movie, “Pumping Iron.”

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GrowingSteady

Hybrid sets gradually prepare the joints for a heavy load and further engorge the muscle with nutrients.

Step 2

Work Up to the Heavy Stuff Omar’s in no hurry to get to the heavy sets. The next two bench press sets are designed as a bridge from the warmup to his heavy working sets. He calls them “hybrid” sets, and their purpose is to gradually prepare the joints for a heavy load and to further engorge the muscles with nutrients via increased blood flow into the target muscle. If you were thinking that two sets of 15 at 225 burns, you’d be right. Near the end of those sets Omar is ready to begin reducing reps and moving heavy weight to really exhaust the muscle, pushing it to grow.

If you’re reading this and are thinking that the reps are high at this point, you’d also be right. Time has proven that high rep counts are the key to keeping Deckard’s body improving. Omar is all about blood volume training and moving a lot of weight.

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GrowingSteady

“Form comes first, and then once you get the form down, the strength will come.”

Step 3

Form Follows Function Heavy benching has become almost a rite of passage for lifters. Too often you see novice (and advanced) trainees use poor form to lift too much weight in the name of ego. To Omar’s mind that’s a bad thing.

“I see hundreds of mistakes, but the most common is arching the back and lifting too much weight. Arching your back won’t do anything for you.”

Omar is also dismayed when he sees people trying to lift too much weight.

His theory about that makes sense, as does his argument against it: “The bench press is the ego-buster of the gym. If people can’t lift a lot of weight, they’re called out. That’s not right because the bench press is just one lift.” As he likes to remind bodybuilders, “Form comes first, and then once you get the form down, the strength will come.”

Because he’s so concerned with form, Omar doesn’t lift nearly as much weight on his heavy sets as he did in his younger days. Another reason for his decrease in pounds (if you consider 500 pounds for reps to be a decrease) is that he likes to stay leaner during the off-season now than he did before. Not only does he feel better, but he believes that being lean improves his body’s anabolic condition, giving him more efficient muscle growth. Considering that early in his career he didn’t always have the resources to eat right, efficiency is very important to his musclebuilding philosophy. (continued on page 148) 144 JANUARY 2007 \ www.ironmanmagazine.com

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If Omar had his way, he’d encourage all gyms to at least think about catering to the hardcore audience.

(continued from page 144)

Step 4

Hit It Again At this point Omar’s chest is sufficiently pumped, and the burn he’s getting is deep and intense. His next sets are designed to increase fiber recruitment and further stimulate the pectoral muscles. The key to the dumbbell press is to get the heaviest set of dumbbells that you can control for three sets of six to eight reps. For Omar that’s easier said than done. Like most of us he works out at a big chain gym. Unlike most of us he has trouble finding a pair heavy enough. It seems that some insurance policies won’t allow gyms to stock dumbbells that weigh more than 125 pounds.

Omar makes do. “I’m pretty easygoing,” he says with a laugh.

“I just make do with what I have and go from there.” If he could, however, he’d encourage all gyms to at least think about catering to the hardcore audience. There are quite a few trainees out there who are looking for heavier weights to lift, he says.

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GrowingSteady

He says he wants to be someone like Lee Haney, who was great not only at bodybuilding the activity but also at bodybuilding the tool for helping others.

Step 5

Finish It Off By the time he reaches the final exercise, Deckard’s chest has had enough heavy pushing. That’s why he does cable crossovers as a finishing move, to work on detail. The weight can fluctuate wildly based on how he feels. The last exercise not only changes the movement on the muscle (pulling vs. pushing) but also gives him one last chance to infuse the muscle group with more blood.

One thing he advises lifters not to overlook is the importance of changing things up in a routine. He alternates flat-bench and inclinebench presses and swaps out cable crossovers for pec deck flyes. By continually altering his workout to hit the muscle from different angles, he ensures that his growth is steady.

Deckard knows that bodybuilding takes time. He also knows that a lot of people don’t know that. Now that he’s a pro, one of his goals is to educate the public on the lifelong dedication that most bodybuilders display.

“People don’t see the hard work and the dedication; they only see the negative stuff. I want to show them the positive, the time and consistency that bodybuilding requires.

Bodybuilding is a personal journey, but the more you learn about it, the easier it is to take it for granted.”

Omar hopes that he never takes for granted the fans, who are “the best,” he says, and he wants to be someone like Lee Haney, who was great not only at bodybuilding the activity but also at bodybuilding the tool for helping others.

Despite all of the difficulties he experienced in getting this far—the bus rides, the bad nutrition, the

wondering if he could go on—Omar feels that it’s all been worth it. He likes where he is and hopes to perform well enough in the professional ranks to grab the attention of a sponsor, which would give him even more freedom and opportunity to spread a positive message about bodybuilding.

At the IRON MAN Pro in February the IFBB will welcome a new group of competitors to the pro stage. At least one of them will have been preparing for that day for a very long time. Omar Deckard will be ready, and it’s guaranteed that he’ll have one of the best chests onstage.

Editor’s note: Omar Deckard is an IFBB pro based in California. To contact him for personal appearances, guest posings and sponsorship inquiries write to omardeckard2@yahoo.com. IM

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HEAVY The

Wisdom Of Mike Mentzer

Anti-Aerobics?

Q

: I heard from a friend who is a bodybuilding historian of sorts that Mike Mentzer was against aerobics. Is that true—and if so, why?

A: Your friend is only partially right; Mike believed that aerobic health was important. During the early 1970s he worked in a cardiology clinic in Maryland, where he and the resident M.D. developed a strength-training program that also addressed

cardiovascular health. He did not, however, believe that lowintensity exercise of the kind performed on a daily basis in fitness centers all over North America was either the best or safest way to achieve a healthy aerobic system. Focusing on such exercise actually prevents you from attaining a more important goal—total fitness. Mike’s clinical work suggested that properly executed high-intensityresistance exercise provides all of the total fitness benefits you require. According to Mike: (continued on page 158)

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Balik \ Model: Mike Mentzer

by John Little

DUTY

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HEAVY DUTY “For well over two decades the American public has been force-fed the notion that aerobics is the summum bonum, the be-all-and-end-all of fitness. That highly repetitive, steady-state activities, such as jogging, bicycling, spinning, Stairmasters, dancing, etc., are the best means of achieving it—none of which is true. Aerobic condition is only one element of a broader concept: total fitness.

“Total fitness comprises several elements, including skeletal muscle strength, flexibility, aerobic and

(continued from page 154)

anaerobic endurance, the building and maintenance of lean body mass and a positive self-image.

The major point I want to make is that only by engaging in a properly conducted, high-intensity weighttraining program can total fitness be achieved. Conventional aerobic activity, by and large, does nothing for increasing the strength of the body’s many skeletal muscles.

In fact, by grossly overtraining certain muscles to the exclusion of working others at all, aerobic work can create dangerous imbalances in the skeletal-muscle system,

Neveux \ Model: Jose Raymond

“Total fitness comprises several elements, including skeletal muscle strength, flexibility, aerobic and anaerobic endurance, the building and maintenance of lean body mass and a positive selfimage.”

There has been an inordinate focus on the heart alone as the key to longevity and health. which increases the likelihood of injury. Nor does conventional aerobic exercise improve flexibility, anaerobic endurance or lean mass.

Further, the overtraining that many aerobic obsessives engage in makes them sacrifice lean mass—known as overuse atrophy—and lose muscle tone, causing their appearance to deteriorate. Thus they look flabby.”

It should also be pointed out that conventional aerobic exercise— being a low-intensity activity— activates so few muscle fibers that it burns very few calories. So it’s a very poor way to lose fat. As Mike pointed out years ago: “You may be interested to know that one pound of fat will fuel at least 10 to 12 hours of steady-state aerobic activity. The reason many IFBB champs do extensive aerobics is that they believe it will help them get more defined. That simply is not the case. None of the top IFBB champs has the slightest clue as to how to properly conduct his training efforts; he merely follows the herd.

In every case the extremely defined look is due to the use of a wide range of dangerous drugs, many of which boost the metabolism and aid in fat burning.”

Over the past 25 years there has been an inordinate focus on the heart alone as the key to longevity and health. However, it must be pointed out that all of the physiological subsystems—the heart, lungs, liver, pancreas, thyroid and skeletal muscles— must be properly stressed to achieve improved overall organic functioning. Exercise science has been myopic over the past decades in that regard, and it was Mike’s sincere desire to change that perspective on the topic and thereby expand the scope of investigation in exercise science.

Mike would have been delighted (though not surprised) at the results of a hugely significant study that was performed at McMaster

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Have Your Mike often commented on the 1975 exercise-science study funded by Nautilus Sports/Medical Industries. Conducted at the United States Military Academy, it was overseen by Colonel James Anderson. Its purpose was to identify the consequences—good or bad—of a short-duration, high-intensity-training program.

Questions included how much skeletal-muscle strength can be achieved from intense but brief workouts and how strength training affects an individual’s degree of cardiovascular fitness and flexibility. As Mike described it: “The study involved 18 varsity football players who trained all of their major muscle groups with 10 different strength exercises for one set to failure three times a week for eight weeks. An extensive battery of tests and measurements was administered to the subjects after two weeks of training and at the conclusion of the eight-week project. As Dr. James Peterson wrote in his report of the experiment, ‘The pre-study testing was not scheduled until after two weeks of training to minimize the learning effect on individual performance.’ The results? After only six weeks of training, the 18 subjects increased the amount of resistance used in

“The overtraining that many aerobic obsessives engage in makes them sacrifice lean mass.”

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Neveux \ Model: Robert Sager

University (my alma mater, by the way) and reported in the June 2005 issue of the Journal of Applied Physiology. Martin Gibala, Ph.D., an associate professor in the Department of Kinesiology at the university, summed up the study for me: “Short bouts of very intense exercise improved muscle health and performance comparable to several weeks of traditional endurance training.”

The research found that performing repeated bouts of high-intensity sprint-type exercise resulted in profound changes in skeletal muscle and endurance capacity. Formerly, it was thought that results like that required hours of exercise each week. There were 16 participants: eight who performed a two-week sprintinterval program and eight who did no exercise. The workouts consisted of between four and seven 30-second bursts of “all-out” cycling followed by four minutes of recovery. They were performed three times a week for two weeks.

The researchers found that endurance capacity in the sprint group increased on average from 26 minutes to 51 minutes, whereas the control group showed no change. The muscles of the trained group also showed a significant increase in citrate synthase, an enzyme that varies with the tissue’s ability to utilize oxygen.

Indeed, the subjects in the sprint group doubled their cardiovascular endurance. The control and the other trained group (who cycled for 90 minutes, three times a week) did not. “This type of training is very demanding,” said Gibala, “and requires a high level of motivation; however, less frequent, higher intensity exercise can indeed lead to improvements in health and fitness.”

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HEAVY DUTY Mentzer Way and the newest book, The Wisdom of Mike Mentzer, all of which are available from Mentzer’s official Web site, www.MikeMentzer .com.

John Little is available for phone consultation on Mike Mentzer’s Heavy Duty training system. For rates and information, contact Joanne Sharkey at (310) 316-4519 or at www.MikeMentzer.com, or see the ad on the opposite page.

Article copyright © 2006, John Little. All rights reserved. Mike Mentzer quotations provided courtesy of Joanne Sharkey and used with permission. IM

Neveux \ Model: Daryl Gee

their 10 exercises by an average (or more) a day to develop only of 58.54 percent. And, despite your cardiovascular system, or such a tremendous increase in you can train (as in the McMaster strength—and the associated study and Mike Mentzer’s increase in overall physiological suggested workouts) for about stress that attended—the duration six minutes a week and double of their workouts decreased by your cardiovascular endurance nine minutes! while simultaneously increasing “As a measure of the functional your strength, flexibility, lean composition and total fitness application of intense, shortlevels. The choice is yours. duration strength training, the actual subjects and a control group Editor’s note: For a complete (who didn’t train at all or did so presentation of Mike Mentzer’s on their own) were administered Heavy Duty training system, three items—a two-mile run, a 40consult his books Heavy Duty II, yard dash and vertical jump. With High Intensity Training the Mike the two-mile run the actual test subjects’ improvement was 4.32 times greater than the control groups. It was 4.57 times greater in the 40-yard dash, and close to two times greater in the vertical jump.

“What about cardiovascular improvement? While conventional strength-training practices have precluded cardiovascular improvement owing to the long, arbitrary rest periods between sets— which prevents maintenance of an elevated pulse rate—in the study the subjects were trained so as to keep the rest periods as brief as possible, eventually down to a few seconds. On none of the 60 “The major point I indices used to evaluate the want to make is that effects of the training on only by engaging in a cardiovascular function was properly conducted, the control better on the high-intensity weightfinal testing than the actual training program subjects. can total fitness be “Those supervising achieved.”

Project Total Conditioning were keenly aware of the importance of flexibility in human performance and used four measures here: trunk flexion, trunk extension, shoulder flexion and shoulder extension.

The subjects achieved a much higher degree of improvement than did the control group. In fact, they averaged an 11 percent increase in flexibility, while the control group members averaged less than a 1 percent increase (.85).”

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X

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FILES --FILES Missing Link To Major Muscle

Model: Binais Begovic

by Steve Holman and Jonathan Lawson • Photography by Michael Neveux In our new e-book, 3D Muscle Building, we look at the Colorado Experiment, which took place in 1973, and at some of the reasons Casey Viator was able to pack on more than 60 pounds of muscle in four weeks.

(Yes, he was severely depleted when he started, not to mention his superman genetics, but it’s still a phenomenal accomplishment.) We say that, in addition to training the full arc of flexion of his largest muscles, like his lats, there was a small detail Viator used that may have helped him get more

mass stimulation from every set—a forgotten anabolic accelerator you can try at your very next workout.

Arthur Jones, the creator of Nautilus machines, is considered the father of high-intensity training, and he also organized the Colorado Experiment. He often said that one all-out set for a muscle is enough to trigger muscle growth, and that’s what he had Casey do—on about 12 exercises, mostly on Nautilus machines, at every workout, but.…

As we’ve explained in IRON MAN and at our Web site, X-Rep.com, the nervous system craps out before you can activate a lot of fast-twitch growth fibers. It’s the reason one positive-failure set doesn’t build much muscle size for most people, unless they have extraordinary neuromuscular efficiency and loads of fast-twitch fibers—like Casey.

Did Jones know about the nervous system roadblock? Possibly. It may be why he often told trainees who were using low-volume, highintensity workouts that to get the

best results in size and strength from one set, they must train to failure and then—and this is a major point—move the resistance as far as possible and hold it for an isometric contraction to failure.

That hold at the sticking point creates a lot of anabolic power, but most people using high-intensity training back in Nautilus’ heyday never did it and rarely do it today.

(Could that forgotten element be one of the big reasons HIT hasn’t lived up to its hype?) There’s no doubt that Jones had Casey do it on every exercise because he knew it would trigger the most mass stimulation from one all-out set. It’s a big key to making shorter workouts much more effective.

We’ve taken Jones’ suggestion to the next level with X Reps. We’ve found that doing short pulsing actions at the end of a set is much better than using a static hold, as muscles are used to priming optimal fiber activation with movement. In other (continued on page 168)

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Casey Viator gained 60 pounds of muscle in four weeks in 1973 during the Colorado Experiment.

tion—the max-force point we call the X spot.

It’s excellent news, especially for those times when partial pulses aren’t possible. In some cases, even when X Reps are possible, a static hold may be better for specific massbuilding effects—like at the key stretch point on stretch-position exercises.

A static hold on stretch-position exercises, like flyes for pecs, may be extremely important in triggering mass increases if you execute it at, or very close to, full elongation. In our e-books we discuss an animal study that produced a 300 percent mass increase after only one month of stretch overload, an amazing gain. It happened when researchers merely hung a weight on a bird’s wing so that it was stretched against resistance—and increased the resistance progressively throughout the study.

As for real-world gym applications, we’ve discussed Jay Cutler’s method of double-clutching at the stretch or semi-stretch position on many exercises—we call it Double-

Photos courtesy of Arthur Jones

ing Power week of our new Power/Rep Range/Shock program, when we do almost all exercises in the fourto-six-rep range (see Train, Eat, Grow on page 60 for more on P/RR/S). As our nervous systems crap out even earlier when we use extremely heavy poundages, however, BEFORE AFTER it’s impossible to do (continued from page 165) words, to X Reps on some exkeep the max number of fast-twitch ercises. For example, on overhead fibers engaged, do short partials presses we often do a Static X at the instead of an isometric contraction. semi-stretched point at the end of a Nevertheless, on some exercises set instead of X Reps. you can’t pulse—and in those cases Now we see that science conwe suggest you use a Static X, or a firmed years ago that a static conhold at the semi-stretched X spot traction at the semistretched point for five to eight seconds, as Jones works big time: In a study that recommended. We’ve found that appeared in the Journal of ApJay Cutler does a lot of technique especially effective durplied Physiology (64[4]; 1988), stretch- and semi-stretch-point three groups of men holds during his workouts. did static holds during If it’s not possible to do end-of-set workouts over a fiveX Reps, you can substitute a static week period: hold at the X Spot to extend the •Group 1 trained their set and enhance fiber recruitment. biceps with a static hold at 25 degrees (0 degrees is full extension, so 25 degrees would be the X spot).

•Group 3 trained their biceps with a static hold at 120 degrees (near full contraction).

All subjects experienced some strength increases throughout the range of motion— not just in the position trained with a static hold; however—and this is important—group 1 had the greatest increase. That’s the group that did the Static X at the semistretched posi-

Dobbins \ www.BillDobbins.com

Model: Jonathan Lawson

•Group 2 trained their biceps with a static hold at 80 degrees (almost halfway up).

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You Can Get X Overload. Sometimes, however, he just uses a hold in the stretch position for a few seconds between reps. Considering his volume—the number of sets he does per bodypart—that overload adds up. Could the cumulative stress of the muscle stretch be the key stimulus to triggering fiber splitting, as evidenced by the bird study we mentioned above?

Dante, the creator of DoggCrapp training, a multirep rest/pause technique we discuss in 3D Muscle Building, recommends stretch work at the end of DC bodypart workouts. He says that it’s necessary for fascial stretching. The fascia are sheaths that encase muscle fibers, constricting bundles of fibers, and can restrict muscle growth. The theory is that if you loosen them up, you can unleash extraordinary size increases.

In the late 1990s we got excellent gains with something we called stretch/pause, which is, now that we think about it, a Static X. It’s a hold at the stretch point at the end of a stretch-position exercise, like donkey calf raises. You do a set to exhaustion and then hold the stretch—with extreme tension on

Model: Tomm Voss

the target muscle—for as long as possible.

You can see the common thread from Jones to Dante to our stretch/ pause technique—Static X: A static stretch at a muscle’s fully elongated point of flexion has been linked to everything from fascial loosening (which can allow unbridled muscle growth) to hyperplasia (fiber splitting) to anabolic hormone surges (testosterone and growth hormone) to better neuromuscular efficiency (nerve-to-muscle connections). It may have been all of the above that triggered the 300 percent muscle increase in the animal study and accelerated Viator’s mass gains in the Colorado Experiment. So is stretch overload important to fulfilling your size potential? You bet!

Obviously, taking the time to stretch a muscle after you train it takes, well, time. That’s why we’ve gone back to using the end-of-set Static X, or stretch/pause, on most stretch-position exercises during our bodypart workouts (we train on our lunch hour, so we don’t have a lot of extra time). On most stretchposition exercises—a good example is incline curls for biceps—it’s difficult to do X-Rep partial pulses and for many trainees impossible. So a better massStretch-position stimulating strategy is to exercises are do a Static X, a hold at or painful, but the very near the point of full results are worth stretch, at the end of a set the excruciating of full-range reps. effort.

If you’re after some new size and strength, give the Static X technique a try on the last set of each of your stretch-position exercises.

It could be another one of those minor details that ignites major muscle growth—as in pounds of muscle in only a few weeks!

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Muscle Medicine Doug McGuff, M.D., Discusses High-Intensity-Training Dose/Response for Muscle and Strength - Part 2

by John Little

I

Neveux \ Model: Daryl Gee

n Part 1 Dr. McGuff explained his beliefs regarding short, high-intensity workouts and how one five-set workout every seven to 14 days can increase size and strength. The conversation continues.

JL: In your video you cited two studies that support the validity of once-a-week training.

Tell me about that and about how you fought the idea of training once a week until you did it—and then went on to make the best gains of your life.

DM: Well, in the study they essentially took groups of subjects who were training three days a week and two days a week and looked at their rates of progress. The threetimes-a-week trainees went down to training two times a week, and the two-times-a-week trainees cut back to training once a week. When that happened, their progress— measured on an absolute basis per unit of time—improved. There have been other, similar studies. The trainees decrease their frequency and actually do better in a lot of cases—particularly the elderly. Even in younger subjects that’s borne out.

As far as my training is concerned, it was Mike Mentzer’s writings that influenced me. He had a kind of “Eureka!” moment, came back into the fray and started training clients. That’s when he argued for decreasing training frequency, and I finally just decided to bite the bullet and wait a whole week and see what happened. At about the same time I’d visited Greg Anderson in Seattle. He put me through a workout that was five sets—total. It was the most

impressive workout I’d ever been through in my life. The guy just hammered me. At that point I had managed to push my training out to every fourth or fifth day.

He said, “You know, I remember talking with Rob Seraino some time ago, and when we look back on our records, the best progress we ever made was when we were training once a week.” I told him that when I got back, I’d give it a try.

The first time I took seven days off, going back to the gym was a completely different experience: The weight that I’d selected for myself that had previously been very challenging and right at the edge of my capabilities felt light. I actually had to check the resistance to make sure it was right. I got more repetitions with it than I had on the previous workout by a long shot.

Reaching “failure” wasn’t like it had been previously. It was the sort of thing where you were creeping up on failure and thought you were going to fail on a rep, but you’d eke it out. Then you’d start your next rep and think, “Surely I’m going to bite the dust on this one,” but you’d

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Neveux \ Model: Darrell Terrell

”Muscle is hard to acquire because it’s a metabolically expensive tissue, and we evolved as a creature that can’t afford high levels of metabolic expense.“

manage to gut it out. You’d think, “Okay, I’m not going to make it this time,” and you’d barely eke it out.

Finally, on the fourth one, you’d bite the dust.

So you had a very gradual reaching of muscular failure, whereas previously muscular failure had been just like running into a brick wall. It would be just like a boot dropping—Bam!—and you were done.

I think when I trained more often, whole sets of fast-twitch motor units hadn’t reached recovery, so when I had to recruit those motor units, they just weren’t there.

When I laid off the full seven days, they were there again.

JL: Haven’t you found that in some

instances even more time might be required?

DM: Absolutely. With certain clients we’ve found that we have to look at the total context of their life—the ones with significantly stressful lifestyles especially.

In my practice I had a partner who worked full-time nights and had four children. We fell into this pattern where we thought, “Well, training once a week is good for everyone.” What we found, though, was that the guy would not progress; he could not make a strength improvement unless we waited. We kept pushing it out until we found that for him training every 12th day worked best, given the circadian

disruption of being a full-time night worker and having four small children. You’ve got to look at what else is going on in the person’s life and plug in the right recovery equation.

JL: When you look at it in that context, high-intensity training is really a different species of exercise— as opposed to, say, walking, golf, jogging and so on.

DM: Context is everything. From an evolutionary standpoint, how

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often is the organism going to confront that level of intensity? It just can’t be that much. If you’re a hunter-gatherer, you’re going to have a big kill every once in a while—going to that level of fatigue—but then you’re going to have an adequate respite because you’re not hunting again until the opportunity presents itself.

Keep context in mind when you’re thinking about what you’re doing. For bodybuilders who are trying to get bigger, much neurosis is involved, and that neurosis is exploited for commercial purposes.

Within reason, all the hair splitting over training theories is probably unnecessary because, from the organism’s standpoint, if the stimulus had to be that perfect for muscle growth to occur, it wouldn’t have any survival benefit. The fact that we’re all here means that we

probably don’t need that perfect a stimulus to get an adequate response. The problem is that a lot of times we want our bodies to respond like the body of someone who has a completely different genetic makeup.

JL: True. I was impressed with another study that you cited in your book that had been done on quail that gained huge amounts of muscle mass. You calibrated

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Powerful Muscle Medicine - Part 2

DM: Over time those issues will be settled biochemically, based on information about your genetic makeup. That and certain chemical messengers are going to be able to tell you when it’s time to train again—rather than relying on your neurotic urges to return to the gym.

JL: Arthur Jones used to study lions in the wild and commented

that they basically go lenge will arise less often. out once every week or JL: Why is the two, exert themselves muscle-building 100 percent to fight process so damned for territory or to slow? chase down and eat prey, and then sleep up DM: Well, because we evolved in an environment of food scarcity. I to 20 hours a day for don’t know how many of your readers have done survival training in another week or two. the military, but I have. In the natuDM: There’s an extension to that argument. As the lion becomes bigger and stronger and more dominant, it’s going to have to fight less frequently. As you become more dominant, you’re going to be challenged less often, but when you are challenged, it’s going to be by someone who thinks he has a chance.

So the intensity of that challenge is going to get higher, but the chal-

ral environment, as we evolved, getting food was damned hard.

You had to expend a lot of energy to acquire it, and its calorie density was quite low.

Muscle is very important for survival. If you can’t move—that is, if you don’t have adequate muscle or can’t move efficiently and effectively, you can’t get food and can’t keep from becoming food. So muscle is very important. Above a certain level of musculature, however, the

“If you reintroduce a stimulus [training] to the organism before it has a chance to make its adaptive response [muscle growth], you interfere with its ability to make that adaptive response.”

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Neveux \ Model: Tommi Thorvildsen

the every-two-days training frequency of quail to human metabolism, which might mean that you train only once every 20 days.

Powerful Muscle Medicine - Part 2 All of those things lend the organism the resources that will enable its adaptive response. Remember, we’re asking the body to invest in a tissue it considers metabolically expensive. The body perceives sleep, water, food and security as more immediately necessary, so if any of them are unaddressed, production of metabolically expensive tissue will be held back. Never underestimate the power of paying attention to the basics in terms of recovery.

returns quickly diminish. Muscle is hard to acquire because it’s a metabolically expensive tissue, and we evolved as creatures that can’t afford high levels of metabolic expense.

Too much muscle growth places unnecessary metabolic demands on the body. So there has to be a really good stimulus that tells the body, “Hey, this tissue is necessary, and it’s worth the metabolic sacrifice to have it.”

JL: Realistically, is there anything you can do to hasten the recovery and growth processes?

DM: Very basic things actually, such as getting adequate sleep.

Being adequately hydrated is also very important. Drought always precedes famine in an evolutionary sense, as you see if you watch the Discovery Channel and look at the dry season in Africa. Similarly, when you become dehydrated, that’s a big stressor. It sends an alarm signal to the organism that it is in a low-energy environment, and the organism will therefore slow its metabolism, including the metabolic pathways necessary to produce muscle growth. So it’s necessary to get adequate sleep and hydration.

You need adequate—but not excessive—nutrition, because excess nutrition can stress the body as well.

A generally relaxed state of mind is also important, where you’re not under any real or perceived threat.

JL: Given your medical background, you might have a keener insight into this than most of us.

Why is there such a broad range of exercise tolerance and recovery ability among individuals?

Our species’ musculoskeletal system is pretty standard.

DM: Well, I think when you ask that question you have to look at the nature of evolutionary biology in general and not from an “intelligent design” standpoint. A single base substitution on a DNA molecule can altogether change the expression of a gene. Single base substitutions can occur randomly and as a result of exposure to environmental elements, and that creates an organism that is basically the same but has a broad expression of different physical characteristics and capabilities.

Over time the species as a whole produces adaptive advantages to enable propagation of that particular species.

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Powerful Muscle Medicine - Part 2 I was always fond of Arthur Jones’ saying that “specialization is for insects.” One of the major problems with people is that they’re way too specialized, but from a biological standpoint, all the variation in our metabolic capabilities benefits the species as a whole. If you’re a hunter-gatherer and you’re moving in a tribe of 25 to 50 people, two or three people in your tribe who are extraordinarily gifted in endurance and one to two people who are extraordinarily gifted in strength contribute overall to the survival of the entire band. Two people who are really gifted in endurance can chase down an animal until it can be killed. After you’ve killed it, it’s going to benefit you greatly to have two people who are more metabolically adapted to dragging it back to the camp.

We have so many people in the middle of the bell curve who admire extremely strong individuals who are two standard deviations out to the right. We try to emulate them to produce results like theirs when it’s just not in the cards for us. In general, though, that wide variation of metabolic capabilities benefits the species as a whole.

ed him for drinking coffee, and he told him to shut up. His legs were astounding! Someone asked him, “What are you doing for your legs?

What’s your leg workout?” And he said, “Well, I did one set of squats 30 days ago.” He said, “My quads have always been very responsive.”

That really drove home to me,

particularly for someone who has good muscular potential, how little exercise might be actually required to produce really dramatic results.

We talk a whole lot about the stimulus side of the equation. What Mike should be most credited with is really paying attention to the recovery side of the equation as it applies to

“Someone asked [Ray Mentzer], ‘What are you doing for your legs?’

And he said, ‘Well, I did one set of squats 30 days ago.’”

DM: That was in San Antonio when I was a teenager. Ray Mentzer came out to Olympic Gym for a seminar. He had on a Nautilus Tshirt and khaki shorts, and he was standing there with a Styrofoam cup of black coffee. Someone chid-

Balik

JL: I remember an article that you wrote for Mike Mentzer’s Web site. You said that when you first saw Ray Mentzer, he told you that he hadn’t trained his legs in one month.

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Powerful Muscle Medicine - Part 2 the average person.

The future, however, is going to be paying attention to the organism—not by jamming steroids and growth hormone into the body but by focusing on the molecular level.

An article in the Journal of Applied Physiology describes the relation of Interleukin 15 [IL-15] protein to genetic variation in its response to resistance exercise. All sorts of minute genetic issues very profoundly affect what the muscular response to the stimulus is going to be. And the technology is already present and available to enable the organism to produce a more profound response.

JL: I think that you should get credit for bringing to the

attention of the DM: There’s a lot going on with bodybuilding public that. I’m not sure bringing it up was a good thing. I created anthe existence of other opportunity for supplement companies to shake down gullible myostatin and its bodybuilders by producing their own “myostatin inhibitors”—which, role in the growth by the way, did not work in any way, shape or form. process. I don’t believe anyone in the industry JL: Could you review was looking in that the high points of the direction until you myostatin story? came on the scene.

Myostatin, or GDF8, is a growth Have there been new and differentiation genetic factor that produces a protein that circudevelopments in that lates in the bloodstream and places a ceiling on muscle growth. I think area of gene research? it evolved to (continued on page 188)

Neveux \ Model: Sagi Kalev

“The future is going to be paying attention to the organism— not by jamming steroids and growth hormone into the body but by focusing on the molecular level.”

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Powerful Muscle Medicine - Part 2 protect the organism from excess muscle mass because of the metabolic cost issues. It was discovered in cattle, a Belgian blue, bred for muscle mass, that had two to three times the muscle mass of a normal cow.

The animal was lacking the gene for GDF8, a negative regulator of muscle growth. If you’ve ever seen a photo of one of these animals, it looks like a bovine Dorian Yates.

The thing is huge and does not lift weights, work out or take supplements. It just stands there and eats grass.

Researchers at Johns Hopkins University produced a genetic recipe that deleted the myostatin gene from mice. Boom! Muscle mass went up twofold to threefold.

The reason that was of scientific interest was that an overexpression of myostatin is thought to contribute to certain kinds of muscular dystrophy. So if you could eliminate excess expression of myostatin, somehow you could cure or alleviate certain kinds of muscular dystrophies. The problem was that deleting myostatin was an “all or nothing” scenario; you either had it or completely removed it.

It would be better to just downregulate it somewhat. So instead of doing genetic manipulations to try to eliminate myostatin, they decided to make a compound or antibody that binds to the receptor site on myostatin that prevents its expression in the tissue. Rather than try to eliminate the gene that produces the protein, they tried to find something that inhibits the protein’s expression.

They found a compound called fallostatin that did just that and were able to clone antibodies to myostatin to bind it. Now you can bind the myostatin molecule in a dose-dependent fashion to ramp up and ramp down the degree of muscularity or myostatin expression that you want. That was a very important drug development—for agricultural, veterinary, meat-production and medical reasons.

On the medical side the originators of the whole process created a company called MetaMorphix Inc., which owns the patents to this.

The patents on the human side

were sold to Wyeth Pharmaceuticals, which has already done phase one and phase two trials of the myostatin antibody, called MYO029. So far the human trials indicate that it works.

I think that in the near future people may be able to alter the organism to such an extent that this very optimal stimulus can reliably produce a very optimal response. I think that’s coming down the pike.

(continued from page 184)

JL: Your other contribution to highintensity-exercise science is your doseresponse model. Your essay “The DoseResponse Relationship of Exercise” seems to me the single best

presentation of what exercise is really about. Could you explain that concept?

DM: I came up with it when I was rifling through some of my pharmacology notes from medical school, and it was basically just discussing the process of determining the optimal dose of a medication during the development of any drug. It boils down to the fact that the medication is a stimulus. To determine the appropriate dose, you need an adequate stimulus. It must be high in order to increase your chance of producing a desired response.

Optimal dose frequency has to be determined too—the largest gap in dose frequency possible so that the medication can be taken at more convenient intervals. That meant the highest stimulus possible that wouldn’t produce a toxic effect.

I applied that process to the exercise stimulus in terms of producing the optimal response. How

Neveux \ Model: Marvin Montoya

“When you become dehydrated, it sends an alarm signal to the organism that it is in a low-energy environment, and the organism will therefore slow its metabolism, including the metabolic pathways necessary to produce muscle growth.”

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Powerful Muscle Medicine - Part 2

JL: It was an absolutely first-rate article.

You extended that to include the “narrow therapeutic window” concept and how too much of something can produce toxic or detrimental results.

DM: Some of the most therapeutically powerful medications have a narrow therapeutic window—that is, the amount of stimulus from a drug that’s going to produce a therapeutic effect is extremely close to the level that’s going to produce a toxic effect. People need to remember that about all medications—no medication has a single effect. All medications have side effects, and the greater the therapeutic effect, the greater the side effects will be.

So when you see one of these commercials for an antihistamine on TV that says, “Side effects similar to placebo,” what you’ve got to remember is if it says that, then therapeutic effect is also similar to placebo. The two go hand in hand.

Same thing is true with exercise—the greater the therapeutic effect from the exercise stimulus, also greater will be the side effects.

The greater the exercise stimulus, the more profound it is, the greater the side effects, and the narrower the therapeutic effect becomes.

JL: If you’re doing what we would call an advanced technique, such as negativeonly training, have you made such a leap in intensity that you’re right

on the edge of that narrow therapeutic window and have to be very careful about the volume of your workout, particularly the frequency of your training sessions?

DM: Exactly. That is exactly what Mike Mentzer was talking about.

When I wrote the dose-response article, I wasn’t presenting any new knowledge whatsoever. I was just

“Often when trainees decrease their training frequency, they do better.”

Neveux \ Model: Jorge Betancourt

it applied to high-intensity strength training quickly became evident: trying to produce a stimulus of adequate intensity to demand an adaptive response but push the dose interval out long enough to enable that response to occur in the first place. What was evident in my pharmacology notes was that if you reintroduced a stimulus to the organism before it had a chance to make its adaptive response, you’d interfere with its ability to make that adaptive response. The relevance of that to strength training hit me like an ax between the eyes.

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Powerful Muscle Medicine - Part 2 framing it in the context of how dosage of medication and frequency of dosing are determined experimentally.

JL: You did another very interesting article, “The Biology of Exercise,” in which you looked at the biology of adaptation and likened the increase in size and strength of human muscle tissue to the effect of using tanning salons—and how they’ve found that once a week for 10 minutes, if the extraneous elements are removed, is more than sufficient to produce the desired response.

DM: The neat thing about the tanning industry—all the health issues aside, because we all know the risk for skin cancer—is people don’t have all the issues of psychological addiction attached to the goal of obtaining a tan. Unlike bodybuilding, where just the activity and the process itself seem to have a psychological addiction for many people, the tanning industry was able to say, “Look, you want a tan? We’ve got to figure out what the key stimulus is and remove all

the extraneous elements from it.”

The key stimulus is ultraviolet light radiation. They make bulbs that produce that and only that. It’s possible to get a concentration of the stimulus that is adequate and has to be applied only for a brief period of time—infrequently at that.

Editor’s note: In Part 3 Dr. McGuff discusses the myth of periodization, the most productive muscle-building programs he’s ever

used and advanced high-intensity techniques.

John Little is one of the leading fitness researchers in North America. He, along with his wife, Terri, own and operate Nautilus North Strength & Fitness Centre. He is the innovator of the Max Contraction Training system of bodybuilding exercise (www .MaxContraction.com). IM

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Eric Broser’s

If you find something on the Web that IM readers should know about, send the URL to Eric at bodyfx2@aol.com.

>www.IntenseMuscle.com Unless you live in a cave or under a rock in some far-off land, chances are you’ve heard about a man named Dante (all 280-plus pounds of him) and his infamous style of training, which he affectionately refers to as Doggcrapp.

In fact, in a recent issue of your favorite bodybuilding magazine (IRON MAN, of course—July ’06), Ron Harris presented a very enlightening interview with the man himself, describing his methods and madness. While Dante lurks about on many of the Net’s biggest and best bodybuilding discussion boards, his main hangout is a place called IntenseMuscle.com, where he serves as a “supermoderator” and “roundtable expert.” If you’re interested in the Doggcrapp method of training or have questions about it, it’s a board you definitely want to join. Once you register, you can click on the “Dogg Pound” forum, where you’ll find the answers to your most burning (and smelly?) Doggcrapp training queries. If that isn’t reason enough to log on, then let me further whet your muscle-inducing, fat-reducing appetite by telling you that another very well-known bodybuilding guru calls this board home as well. He goes by the name Skip, and he’s rapidly becoming one of the more sought-after contest-prep coaches in the industry.

There are also separate forums dedicated to such topics as powerlifting, health news, nutritional analysis, bulking up, dieting down, members’ pics and the training and dieting concerns of female athletes. If you’re serious about reaching your bodybuilding goals, I suggest you add IntenseMuscle.com to your favorites list. Although you will find a lot of Doggcrapp, there’s no need for a pooper scooper.

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>www.MelvinAnthony.com “For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly father will also forgive you” (Matt. 6.14). That’s one of several Bible verses you’ll find on each page of IFBB pro Melvin Anthony’s official Web site. Melvin admits to having become a very spiritual man, one who “has accepted Jesus Christ as his Lord and Savior.” While I personally am not a very religious person, I must admit it’s refreshing to see a pro bodybuilder openly discuss his faith while involved in an industry that has unfortunately dragged many down a less-than-positive path. Melvin is known for two things in the world of bodybuilding. First, for his posing—he’s perhaps the most entertaining performer in the sport and rarely fails to win the best poser award if there is one. Second, he has one of the most dramatic V-tapers you’ll ever see. His waist is impossibly tiny (most women would be jealous), and his back flares into a pair of wings that look as if they’d actually sustain him in flight. You can get a good look at the man’s amazing proportions in his photo gallery, which covers competitions from ’02 to ’05, as well as various guest posing stints, precontest pics, his trip to Peru—even his wedding. Of all the men’s pro sites I’ve visited, I’d say Melvin’s has one of the most up-to-date and complete photo sections. I was particularly impressed when I clicked on “Training” and found an in-depth discussion of Melvin’s general philosophy on working out, which includes plenty of volume, high reps and intensity techniques like supersets and drop sets. There are also specific articles on how he trains his arms and his wide back. The online store includes photos, videos and clothes, as most pro sites do, but Melvin also offers something unique—one-on-one posing clinics with Mr. Entertainment himself. Now, that is cool! Can’t you just see yourself, popping, locking, moonwalking and doing splits at your very next show?

>www.JennyLynnFitness.com Yummy is a word that I’d normally use to describe a good slice of pizza, but for some reason it’s also the word that pops into my head when I glance (well, okay, stare) at a photo of figure pro extraordinaire Jenny Lynn. I mean, seriously, take a look at her and tell me what is not yummy about Jenny. Now, if I could only get her to go out with me for a slice of pizza (begin dream sequence now)—but I digress. She’s a natural-born entertainer. In the site’s “Background” section she describes singing and dancing for her family when she was a child. As she got older, she became involved in competitive cheerleading and aerobics. Later she began weight training and was amazed at how easily she was able to build muscle and change the shape of her body. When she finally decided to enter her first fitness competition, it was also supposed to be her last as well. (Time for all of us men to get on our hands and knees and thank the heavens she did not stop there.) Fortunately, she continued to compete, so we can enjoy the exquisite photo gallery, filled with a couple of dozen yummy (yes, I said it again) images of this gorgeous lady. Several pictures have even been documented to raise natural testosterone levels by 200 percent. Okay, I’m lying; there’s no documentation—but I certainly wouldn’t be surprised if it were true. While Jenny Lynn is one of the most successful figure pros on the circuit today, with multiple first-place trophies to her credit, one title continued to elude her: Figure Olympia champion. Last July on her home page Jenny mentioned that her preparation for the world’s top figure prize was in full swing and that she was filming a DVD, chronicling every step, so you could see exactly what it takes to make it to the top of the

sport. And make it she did, nailing the ’06 title in Vegas this past September. Aside from being a competitor, Jenny’s a busy personal trainer in Walnut Creek, California, where she works with clients of all types, from competitors to those who just want to be healthy and strong. Click on the “Personal Trainer” link to find out how you can schedule your own session with Yummy…er, I mean Jenny. Walnut Creek, here I come!

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Eric Broser’s >Net

Results Q&A

Interesting queries from message boards and forums from across the Internet, answered with precision, accuracy and plenty of opinion...

Q: We’ve all heard phrases like “shoulder-towaist ratio,” “X-frame,” “V-taper” and so on.

According to classic and/or modern standards, what exactly does a symmetrical body consist of? I’m sure lots of people on the board have judges to tell them their weak points, but what about us average, everyday muscleheads who don’t compete? How could we determine what we need to work on to be more symmetrical and have a competitive-level physique? (From www.BuildingMass.com)

shoulders dominate the chest or arms and so on.

So it comes down to trying to make sure that you are symmetrical and proportionate. We also look for the best V-taper possible, which means a wide back and shoulders and a small waist. Take that further and you have the X-frame, which includes thighs that sweep nicely out to the sides, from the hip to the knee.

Remember one thing: Bodybuilding is subjective.

What might constitute the perfect body to me might not be what you feel represents perfection. There are those who feel that the freakiness of Marcus Ruhl defines perfection, while others feel it’s Flex Wheeler or Shawn Ray. Some purists consider all IFBB pros too large for their bone structures and have a much greater appreciation for guys like Steve Reeves or Reg Park.

It all comes down to looking in the mirror and deciding for yourself what “perfection” is. Nobody on the planet has your exact structure, insertions and shapes, so you must look to simply make yourself the best you can be in your eyes, especially if you don’t plan to step onstage in front of judges. In other words, you need to be your own judge.

Q: Are there any differences involved in designing a workout program for a man or a woman? I’m female, and my trainer says that men and women should be trained the same way. (From www.IronMagazineForums.com)

A: Technically, perfect symmetry means that both the left and right sides of the body are equally developed. Is it possible to achieve? Visually, I’d say pretty much so, although everyone has slight variations between bodyparts on each side, sometimes up to an inch or so on a tape measure; however, you don’t need perfect symmetry to be successful as a bodybuilder. Jay Cutler, who has one thigh that looks larger than the other, proves that every year.

Another important aspect of the equation is something called proportion. That means every bodypart is in balance with the others. Is there such thing as perfect proportion? There are formulas to describe it, but few people actually fit its measures. I think proportion is more a visual thing, in that it’s easy to see when someone’s arms look too big for the chest, someone’s thighs are too small in relation to the upper body or someone’s

•joint instability differences •orthopedic concerns •structural differences •posture differences •hormone differences •metabolic differences •the menstrual cycle •psychological differences •aesthetic goals •sports experience

Neveux \ Model: Jessica Paxson

A: Your trainer is wrong. That is a subject I learned quite a bit about from studying the work of Paul Chek, an expert in the field of holistic health and corrective and high-performance exercise. While the topic would take up way too much space to answer completely, here’s a list of considerations essential to account for when implementing a training protocol for a female (as opposed to a male) client:

Keep in mind that this is a general list; each of these considerations is a specialized issue. Some of the differences are genetic, some are social/environmental, and some are due to differences in footwear (high heels) and hair length. So although men and women are equal, we’re not the same.

IM

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Lonnie Teper’s

NEWS & ViEWS ’06 Mr. Olympia

Jay Walking Cutler snaps Coleman’s streak and keeps on rolling

At the podium (from left): Shawn Ray, Lee Haney and Bob Cicherillo.

Find hundreds of photos, videos and audio reports from the ’06 Olympia Weekend at www.GraphicMuscle.com.

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Photography by Bill Comstock

Jay Cutler.

Balik

Of course, you know by now that Jay Cutler finally beat Ronnie Coleman at the Mr. Olympia. Unless you’ve been in a coma for the past two months, that is. “You also know that Cutler’s win snapped the Big Nasty’s eight-straight-victory string, leaving him tied with Lee Haney for the all-time record. And that Jay took home the largest purse in Mr. O history, $155,000.

What you may not know, though, is that the 30 grand Cutler picked up the following weekend in Europe might be much more significant than his dream-come-true triumph in Las Vegas in front of a large, howling throng of fans at the Orleans Arena.

Yup, Cutler’s sweep of the grand prix events in Austria, Romania and Holland, all $10,000 paydays, shut the door on all the Olympia conspiracy theorists, those who’d conjured up a scenario in which the judges had voted for Cutler just because they felt it was time for a change, that a new Mr. O would be good for the sport and that a Cutler victory would result in the sale of the most tickets ever in 2007 for the anticipated rematch. Three consecutive wins, in three different countries, with three different judging panels. ’Nuff said.

Now, Jay’s admitted to me more than once that for him to win, Coleman would have to come in “off.” Ronnie supplied that window of opportunity at the prejudging, which was held for the first time Guess who? since 1997 on a Friday night, a full 24 hours before the finals. Coleman was too heavy, and the extra fluid washed out much of the detail in his thigh and back regions. Cutler was tighter and, as he did last year, bested Coleman in a back double-biceps shot—something I would have considered sacrilegious to say a couple of years ago.

Jay’s legs, as always, were deeply separated, his hams thick and gnarly.

As he did in 2001, Jay held a six-point advantage after the first two rounds.

Although Coleman came back to the finals 12 pounds of water lighter and looked vastly superior to the package he displayed at the prejudging, by the conclusion of the event Cutler had extended his margin to 16.

EXPO NEWS Two, three, four...tell the people what they wore.

Page 201

DISGUISES Where was Moses when the lights went out?

Pages 196 to 198

People keep asking, “Was Jay at his all-time best?” I’m still partial to the physique he brought to the stage in ’01, the year he got my unofficial vote at the O. But does it really matter? You just have to be better than the people you’re standing with now, not better than you were a year, or two, or three ago. Which would Gustavo be the sweeter words: “Congratulations, you were Badell. in your all-time-best shape,” or, “Congratulations, you are Mr. Olympia”?

Let’s cut to the chase. Should Coleman come back next year and try, at 43, to regain the crown?

Or should he, as some have suggested, retire now and save his legacy? The former, by a long shot.

Based on the pictures from the grand prix events I’ve seen online, I’d say that Coleman was getting better with each show, and the decision at the finale in Holland definitely could have gone Ronnie’s way.

Did he lose the Olympia title because he’s washed up or because he missed his peak? I say the latter. Sure, there are detractions that were not apparent in years past (see the comments below on his left triceps and back detail tribulations), but who in the Olympia lineup, which featured the best bodybuilders in the world, didn’t have flaws?

Vince Taylor.

This is a guy who’s considered by many as the greatest bodybuilder of all time. Although I feel you can’t lump different eras together for that kind of comparison, Ronnie might get my vote if I were forced to choose, and I refuse to count him out if he decides to attempt to regain his crown in 2007.

Now, I was disappointed by Ronnie’s reaction to losing the title, although I certainly understood his frustration.

Wasn’t it Vince Lombardi who said, “Show me a good loser, and I’ll show you a loser”?

Reportedly, for some reason I’ll never comprehend, somebody backstage told Coleman that Jay was the winner—while the show was still going on! Onstage, Ronnie shook his head, then gave the thumbs-down in disappointment to a group of supporters in the audience.

I was told by a backstage source that Coleman was Dexter extremely upset after the contest and that Haney and Jackson.

Vicky Gates were summoned to cool off the big fella.

History was on the line, and Ronnie never thought Jay would beat him. Again, I can appreciate the feeling. Even so, Coleman has always been gracious in victory, and he should have shown that same courteous behavior in defeat. Cutler didn’t like losing over the years—Jay thinks he deserved the Olympia crown on at least two other occasions—but he handled himself with class, even in defeat.

Another popular story being bandied about is that Cutler isn’t good enough to dominate the Olympia stage, that his run will be a short one, that a Coleman victory—or a Victor Martinez win—is the logical outcome for next year. Really? You’ll have to convince me of that one. Unless Jay suddenly ups and retires, that is.

Cutler is only 33; Ronnie didn’t win his first Olympia until he was 34. Jay is the most dedicated, focused competitor I’ve ever encountered. What he lacks in God-given genetics he makes up with resolve. Nobody works harder in the Balik

Victor Martinez.

WHO’S THE FREAKIEST? Can you say, Ru-u-u-uhl?

Page 198

Melvin Anthony.

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gym on a year-round basis. Nobody sticks to a sound nutritional program, day in and day out, like Cutler. In my Olympia preview piece in this magazine I wrote that I wouldn’t bet against Jay, either. Now you see why. He’ll make a great champion, and he doesn’t plan on going away any time soon.

Let’s get back to Coleman for a second. Thumbs-up for his taking the time and effort to try for something different in the posing round. Coleman got boxing broadcaster Bruce Buffer to do his intro, announcing him as the “Champion of the World,” with Ronnie (or, more likely, a Coleman pal) coming down the rear aisle completely covered by a hooded boxing robe. Then Coleman appeared onstage, dressed as Moses in a wig and robe and carrying two tablets representing the 10 Commandments—of Bodybuilding. I appreciate the effort, Ronnie. You look different with hair.

Markus Ruhl.

Olympia couplings: Bob and Tocha (above), Peter and Jessica (right) and Ronnie, Lonnie and Isaac (top right), a.k.a. “The Experts.” To find out what the tremendous trio was up to in Vegas, go to GraphicMuscle.com.

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Ian L. Sitren \ SecondFocus

Ian L. Sitren \ SecondFocus

IN SUSPENSION—Lee Priest was missing from the lineup because he’d been suspended for competing (and winning) an unsanctioned event, the PDI Night of Champions, a couple of weeks earlier. There was talk Priest might try to get an injunction against the edict, which was issued by Ben Weider, but that didn’t happen. The IFBB president gave Lee the opportunity to meet with him in Montreal in mid-October to discuss the issue, but I’ll bet a burger to a hot dog that Priest won’t take Ben up on his offer.

Still, Priest was at the Olympia Expo, making his final appearance at the Twinlab booth.

Did Lee get the boot because of his allegiance to the PDI? Naw, he said—the company wants to “go mainstream” again, and bodybuilders don’t fill the bill.

We’ll keep tabs on this one. Never a dull moment with the Priest, to say the least!

Troy Alves.

Balik

AWARDS DEPT.—Instead of going over the strengths and weaknesses of the lineup, stuff you’ve probably read 50 times on various Internet sites, let’s jump to the L.T. Olympia Awards for 2006. These decisions could cause even more debate than the results.

Freakiest: Markus Ruhl Most Aesthetic: Melvin Anthony Best Biceps—Ronnie Coleman Best Chest/Triceps tie-in—Gustavo Badell Best Abs: Dexter Jackson Best Back (conditioning): Victor Martinez Best Back (width and thickness): Jay Cutler Best Legs: Cutler Best Calves: Vince Taylor Best Posing Routine: Anthony (performance), Coleman (originality) Tough Guy: Anthony, who was in a car accident on Saturday afternoon but was onstage at the finals that night.

Most Overlooked: Troy Alves, David Henry, Ronny Rockel Watch Out For: Toney Freeman Physique I’d most like to possess: Anthony, Jackson, Freeman, Troy Alves. But I’d settle for Taylor, Darrem Charles or David Henry. Hell, I’d take any of them, even for a day!

Toney Freeman.

ADD THUMBS-UP—Props go to Robin Chang and the team at AMI (and to Jim Manion) for a very smooth, well-run weekend. If you remember, last year’s ill-fated production at times resembled a “Saturday Night Live” skit. Getting rid of the bells and whistles—like the challenge round and the wildcard qualifier—and putting the money into the men’s purse, where it belongs—did the trick. A 180 degree turnabout from 2005.

A gratifying moment took place on Saturday night, when co-emcees Bob Cicherillo and Shawn Ray brought Lee Haney to the stage and had some fun bantering with the “Totalee Awesome” one, who received the Flex Vanguard Award at the postcontest banquet for his “selfless contributions to bodybuilding and beyond.” People forget that Lee was but 31 in 1991, when he hung up his posing trunks after his eighth win. He would have been the first person to jump for joy if Coleman had broken the tie—that’s the type of man he is.

Chang must be smiling right now, looking at all the hype he’ll have for the 2007 contest (if AMI is still promoting it in 2007). He has the new champ, in his prime, back to defend the title.

He has an irritated Ronnie Coleman, who Paul will be more focused than ever, returning to Dillett. get that record win. He has Victor Martinez, third this year and a guy who looked like he could win it when he first stepped onstage at the judging, being considered a co-favorite. All that plus “the Gift,” Phil Heath, who will add more depth to what is sure to be a glorious lineup. Shucks, I’m getting revved up already.

Lee Priest.

King Kamali.

Jim Lorimer.

Montreal Pro p hotograph by Gary Bartlett

Leo Ingram and NAC promoter Gary Udit.

Johnnie Jackson.

Mickey Hargitay, with L.T. in 2004.

ADD CICHERILLO—Saying that Bob didn’t have much time to relax during the weekend would be tantamount to saying Tom Cruise has been acting a bit strange of late.

The Chickster, in his role as IFBB athletes’ rep, held a meeting for all pro competitors on Wednesday, co-hosted the press conference with Dan Solomon on Thursday, worked the Bodybuilding.com booth on Friday and Saturday, co-emceed both night shows with Shawn Ray and was at the podium for the awards ceremony at the banquet. In a spare moment on Saturday morning he met with his real estate agent, signing the final papers on his new, plush abode in Castaic, California, near Magic Mountain.

Oh, yeah. He did it all while preparing for his wedding to 24-year-old Tocha at Caesar’s Palace on Sunday afternoon. And damn if he wasn’t at his usual post, pairing with Solomon on the Monday-afternoon Webcast of “Pro Bodybuilding Weekly.”

So, Bob, were you totally exhausted by the time your wedding night arrived? Details on “PBBW,” please.

ADD WEDDINGS—NPC star Peter Putnam and pro figure starlet Jessica Paxson tied the knot on the same day, at same place as the above-mentioned nuptials but three hours apart—and one night after 23-year-old Jessica impressed with an 11th-place finish (out of 21) at the Figure O. Peter, who recently signed with Met-Rx, was coming off a second-place finish in the light heavies at the USA last summer and is zeroing in on the ’07 edition of that Las Vegas contest to make sure she isn’t the only pro in the family.

Famed wedding photog Ian Sitren, better known in our world as famed Bodybuilding.com lensman Ian Sitren, shot both weddings and receptions. The dude does good work, so if you’re thinking of getting hitched, don’t think any more about who to get to photograph the festivities. You can contact Ian at secondfocus@mac.com. www.ironmanmagazine.com \ JANUARY 2007 199

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UP, DOWN AND ROUND

THE ’06 OLYMPIA WEEKEND

More Contests Dept.

ACTION JACKSON—It was lost in the late-season shuffle, with more pro contests than ever taking place in 2006, but I did want to salute Johnnie Jackson for his victory at the Montreal Pro in early September. It was Johnny’s first pro win, and judging by the Gary Bartlett photos featured here, one well deserved. Johnny, who landed in 13th at the Olympia, right behind his buddy Branch Warren (who inked a new deal with Gaspari Nutrition at the O), muscled his way past runner-up Darrem Charles and third-placer Quincy Taylor in Montreal. That was also the show where Shari “King” Kamali qualified for the Olympia with a fourth-place landing because the three musclemen who placed ahead of him had already earned their Mr. O berths. In the end, neither Taylor nor Kamali competed at the big show.

The contest also marked the long-awaited return of Paul Dillett, competing in front of his hometown fans. As you can see in the photo, King Paul was way off and had to settle for 10th place. Still, it was good to see Dillett flexing onstage again. He was one of the best at one time and perhaps can return to that form next year.

INGRAM’S DOMINATION—It’s about time. Leo “the Lion” Ingram, coming off back-to-back second-place finishes in the superheavyweight class at the ’05 NPC Nationals and USA, finally earned pro status with his overall win at the IFBB North American Championships in September. The 37-year-old, who will soon finish a 20-year-stint in the Navy, can do some damage in the pro ranks. At 5’9” and 250 pounds he’s got the size to go with his good shape, and if he can really dial in on his conditioning, look out.

With the IRON MAN Pro now a top-five Mr. O qualifier, Ingram has a good shot at earning his right to stand on the Olympia stage at the John Balik and Michael Neveux–produced event, which is set for February 17, 2007, at the Pasadena (California) Civic Auditorium.

MILESTONES—How did Jim Lorimer celebrate his 80th birthday on Saturday, October 7? By sitting at his desk in his Worthington, Ohio, office, hard at work in preparation for the ’07 Arnold Fitness Weekend— how else? It’s hard to believe it’s been 13 years since Lorimer first hired me to emcee the Arnold Classic (and the Ms. International, which was held on the same night in those days); the man has as much energy and creativity now as he did when he was a mere 67.

Lorimer keeps on going, and the ’07 edition, which is scheduled for March 2–4 in Columbus, keeps on growing. Happy birthday, kid—and here’s to many more. Looking forward to working with you again soon.

1

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3

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Passings—Mickey Hargitay, R.I.P. Bodybuilding lost another icon on September 14 when Mickey Hargitay succumbed to multiple melanoma at the age of 80. Mickey was a great guy. The last time I saw him was a couple of years back, at the memorial luncheon for Joe Gold, where he got a kick out of me tugging on his mane to see if it was real. Mickey was a humble man and was always in good spirits whenever I saw him.

The former Mr. Universe, married at one time to starlet Jayne Mansfield (remember the ’80s television movie on Mansfield, in which Arnold played the role of Mickey?), lived long enough to see daughter Mariska Hargitay’s first child, August, who joined our world at 10 pounds on June 28.

Mickey leaves his wife, Ellen, Mariska, sons Zoltan and Mickey Jr. and 10 grandchildren. Look for Gene Mozée’s feature on Mickey in an upcoming issue.

1) LT shows off Carolyn Bryant’s great glutes, and Carolyn shows her allegiance.

2) Larry Scott is on the book trail.

3) IM’s John Balik sets the lights at the Orleans Arena.

4) Phil Heath displays his “Gift” poster.

5) Chris Cormier greets his fans after a long stay in New Jersey.

6) David Yeung demonstrated a thumbsonly pushup.

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7

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8

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7) Labrada Nutrition is in the house.

8) And so are the babes at the Champion Nutrition booth.

9) Mits Okabe makes it very clear. “Shawn is the star of the videos. I am the humble auteur.”

10) Timea Majorova and Russ DeLuca, having a great time, as usual, at the Bodybuilding.com booth.

11) Jeff Taylor says, “I have in my hand a magic ticket.” To the ’07 Colorado Pro-Am, natch.

12) Stan McQuay is in fast company at the Biotech booth.

13) More butt-related advertising. Says Spiro Kandis, “What’ll they think up next?”

14) More books. Betty, Joe and Ben Weider sign copies of Ben and Joe’s new memoir, Brothers of Iron.

15) Balik greets Red Dragon rep Sagi Kalev.

16) Met-Rx’s Frank Sepe says, “You think your booth’s got hot babes? I’ll see your babes and raise you four.”

17) “Er, fellas,” says L.T., “I think I’ve got a full house here at ThermoLife. Ladies, my card.” IM

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14

17

Photography by Bill Comstock, Ron Avidan and Dave Liberman

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.

www.ironmanmagazine.com \ JANUARY 2007 201

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2006 IFBB

Olympia

Mr.

JAY HAS HIS DAY, TAKES OUT THE BIG NAST-AY Photography by John Balik, Bill Comstock and Bill Dobbins

To find hundreds of photos, visit

www.GraphicMuscle.com

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1) Jay CUTLER

’06 IFBB Mr. Olympia 1) Jay Cutler 2) Ronnie Coleman 3) Victor Martinez 4) Dexter Jackson 5) Melvin Anthony 6) Gustavo Badell 7) Toney Freeman 8) Markus Ruhl 9) Dennis James 10) Gunter Schlierkamp 11) Vince Taylor 12) Branch Warren 13) Johnnie Jackson 14) Darrem Charles 15) Troy Alves

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2006 IFBB

Mr.

Olympia 2) Ronnie COLEMAN

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3) Victor MARTINEZ

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2006 IFBB

Mr.

Olympia 4) Dexter JACKSON

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2006 IFBB

Mr.

Olympia 5) Melvin ANTHONY

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6) Gustavo BADELL

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2006 IFBB

Mr.

Olympia 7) Toney FREEMAN

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8) Markus RUHL

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2006 IFBB

Mr.

Olympia 9) Dennis JAMES

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10) Gunter SCHLIERKAMP

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2006 IFBB

Mr.

Olympia

11) Vince TAYLOR

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12) Branch WARREN

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2006 IFBB

Mr.

Olympia 13) Johnnie JACKSON

Find hundreds of Olympia photos at

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CONTEST UPDATE

Olympia Journal

Livin’ it like a rock star reporter

Dobbins \ www.BillDobbins.com

What can en’s physique competitions at my fingertips. Callouts blogged one say that even as the ladies are moving into the center. Videos posted wasn’t splayed on YouTube and elsewhere. This year’s new gimmick: Some over the InterGerman guys put up a page where you can create your net within 15 own Mr. O comparisons. It’s all way cool, but the fact is, it’s minutes of the not even the next-best-thing to being there. (That would be crowning of the network TV coverage.) ’06 Ms., FitNo view through a monitor can ever compare with soakness and Figure ing up the evergy, live. The drama, the buzz, the sounds of Olympia chamslot machines permeating the air—and at the Olympia Expo, pions—not to bar samples as far as the eye can see. For the athletes this mention the is as big as it gets, competitionwise, and there’s a lot of time unseating of spent in front of the fans: at the press conference, Meet the eight-time Mr. Athletes, the expo and the Orleans Arena stage. Most have O Ronnie worked their butts off, literally, for years to get there—and Coleman by stay there. The first-timers lap it up with stardust in their eyes the persistent and truly mean it when they say they’re just glad to be in Jay Cutler? the lineup. The vets all claim to be good friends—and fierce In an age when competitors—and they any fan with a truly mean it as well. Said computer who Olympia rookie Dena hates Vegas Westerfield, “I’m livin’ it can order up like a rock star!” a Webcast With four new champs (for a modest emerging on September fee) and catch 29 and 30, the ’06 Olymall the action pia Weekend provided no in real time— shortage of excitement. maybe—the Those whose job it is to Rookies exemplify the spirit of the O. “Hey, I didn’t finish last!” exclaimed Colette results go up report on it couldn’t help Nelson, beaming, after the show. Nelson’s within minutes, but get caught up. Here, “Devil With a Blue Dress On” got the P&C and photos then, is something you award for best bodybuilding routine, if only follow quickly. can’t find online: a bit of because she didn’t have to be told how to bring it downstage and sell it.

By sundown perspective from someone on Sunday the who lived it like a rock star desk chair experts pretty much know everything. Lol. reporter.

Dena Westerfield, D.C., admits Make no mistake, I love the ways the Internet puts wom- she’s not in Missouri anymore.

EYE ON THE O: MEET DA ATHLETES

lected before her Cool, calm and col earance, Tanji fourth Fitness O app her biggest trophy Johnson collected check. yet, the fourth-place

Meet the athletes’ mothers.

Another Olympia newbie, Esther Peñalo, came from Puerto Rico to see her daughter Adela Garcia reclaim the fitness crown.

So this is the original chica mama?

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Soon-to-becrowned Figure O champ Jenny Lynn was seen on the arm of the same fella she was with last year, Blaire Mone. Nice going, Blaire.

This time you get in the picture

MORE MS.

M S. O LY M P I A

Movers and Shakers

Photography by Ruth Silverman

The top two. “My waist is tiny,” Dayana Cadeau (left) declared before the contest, and she wasn’t kidding. Iris Kyle outdid herself, though, and flexed herself to her second Olympia crown. Third if you count her class win in 2001.

Triumphs and surprises abounded at the Vegas Games, starting at the Ms. Olympia, where almost everyone walked away a winner. Officially, of course, the winner was Iris Kyle, the 2004 Olympia and Ms. International champ, who devoted 2006 to regaining the titles she lost in ’05 to Yaxeni Oriquen.

That mission is now accomplished.

Those who fretted that Iris had held herself back last year in presenting her version of 20 percent less muscle (and I use the phrase loosely) had nothing to complain about this time. Deciding to please herself and the heck with it, Ms. Kyle kicked it up a notch and a half and then timed her peak just right. The judges awarded her perfect scores in all rounds but the posedown, where she came in third. One can only wonder what that was about and roll one’s eyes.

Dayana Cadeau, third last year, displayed a personal best in the V-taper, among other attributes, to finish two points behind Iris Kyle in second. Annie Rivieccio, looking radiant, flexed her way to the third-place check after finishing 13th in 2005. With a 12-year amateur career on her bio, she’s the ultimate late bloomer. Bonny Priest, sixth last year, could be the most consistent female flexer in the pros. A perfect presentation brought Bonny Priest’s stock is going her into fourth. up, up, up.

The reports from Atlantic City a week before the O had not lied. Lisa Aukland had nipped in her waist and pumped up her back, and as a result, she picked up her first top-five Olympia check. Later, at the postcontest banquet, she was named Most Improved Female Athlete of the Year, beating out nominees from all three women’s sports. At 48 Aukland proves that the old ad slogan, You’re not getting older; you’re getting better, works overtime for the ladies who pump. Ditto for Betty Pariso, 50, who was right behind her, in sixth, sporting the best—and most aesthetic—package I’ve ever seen on her.

Dobbins \ www.BillDobbins.com

Oh, that

Balik

Results

Annie Rivieccio enjoys a welldeserved postcontest brewski.

SLACKERS, LACKERS

And Everyone Else Defending Ms. O Yaxeni Oriquen just wasn’t in game day condition and thudded into seventh. Canadian Helen Bouchard was eighth in her first crack at the big show, while Gayle Moher landed in ninth in her first O since 2001.

Jitka Harazimova, fourth last year, was felled by something that sounded like food poisoning a day or so before the contest, and her physique suffered almost as much as she did. The judges placed her 10th. There were some surprises in the bottom of the 15-woman lineup as well, with, in order, Tazzie Columb, Heather Foster, Colette Nelson, Dena Westerfield and Brenda Raganot landing in those spots. Raganot, a symmetry sweetheart and longtime panel favorite, was so far off condition, even the rookies beat Yaxeni Oriquen. her. I’m sure there’s a story there too.

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Dobbins \ www.BillDobbins.com

Guess who’s got a new video?

Canadian fitness fave Mindi O’Brien brought her training and lifestyle vid, “All About Mindi,” to the fan show-andtell. To see the actual video, go to AllAbout Mindi.com.

FITNESS

MORE O BABES

Animal House

Figure Time

A tale of a bat and a cat

EYE ON THE O: EXPO SCENES Speaking of back in the day.

Here’s Gayle Moher and her daughter Courtney, a highschool senior.

It’s their first dual appearance in this column since Courtney was a lot smaller.

Tracey Greenwood gives a big thumbsup to her orthopedic surgeon.

Brenda Kelly gets the gals together for an on-air gabfest at the Bodybuilding.com booth, or as it’s become known to those in the media, Switzerland.

Balik

It was no big shocker when the Adela fights results crime in of the fitness.

Fitness Olympia echoed those of the Fitness International at the beginning of the season. Adela Garcia, the 2004 winner, moved back into the winner’s circle, while ’05 winner Jen Hendershott dropped to third and Kim Klein took second, coming within six points of Garcia. The shocker was in the score sheet, which had routine queen Hendershott taking third in the two-minute performances, with Adela beating Kim by a point for the top spot.

One judge I spoke with mentioned a lack of strength moves in Hendershott’s routine and that Tanji Johnson, who eventually finished fourth, came right after her with a strength-filled performance. I admit that neither JenHen’s nor Adela’s routines were my favorite entries ever from them, although the themes were cute— Garcia as Batman and Hendershott in a big cat suit—but that doesn’t mean they were weak. Some of it may have been because our press seats—miles away from the huge Orleans Arena stage and on a level that kept the athletes’ legs and floor moves out of view—made everyone look less impressive. Even so, I thought Jen’s jammin’ stage presence would carry the round, with the charismatic Adela right behind her.

Guess I’ll have to get the CD and take JenHen lets the a closer cat out of look.

Balik

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The competition at the Figure Olympia was as tough as it was expected to be—not one of the 21 entrants got onstage out of shape. They did get onstage in some interesting costumes, with distracting prints on one-piece suits threatening to become an epidemic if someone doesn’t say something. (Consider it said.)

As soon as word got out that three-time defending champ Davana Medina would not be in the show, two-time International champ Jenny Lynn moved into the favorite’s spotlight, with Monica Brant expected to land in her traditional spot right behind. (Come on.

Was anyone really expecting the panel to suddenly prefer Mo’s physique to Jenny’s?)

Icing on the cake. Jenny also scored a I had a feeling that Brant photo shoot with IRON MAN’s Michael was gonna drop a place in the Neveux. Hot Hardbody layout coming up pecking order. It was bound to next month. Consider this fair warning. happen, although I would have predicted that Valerie Waugaman would be the one to cause it, as Val had beaten both Brant (at the ’05 Sacramento Pro) and Lynn (at the ’06 Colorado Pro) in the past year. Obviously, I underestimated the threat from Amber Littlejohn, fourth last year, who did not compete earlier in the season.

Amber arrived in Vegas with every one of her 68 inches looking impossibly fresh and slid solidly into second, bumping Brant into third, for the second year, and leaving Christine Pomponio-Pate and ’06 Figure I winner Mary Elizabeth Lado to round out the top five.

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the bag.

Q&A

QUARTER TURNERS

Dobbins \ www.BillDobbins.com

Much Ado

Wonder Waugaman. She Floats like a butterfly.

Valerie Waugaman has taken quite a drubbing online and elsewhere for her attempt to spice up the action at the Figure O with colorful costumes and some highly stylized moves on her quarter turns. It was pretty generally agreed that her efforts were not successful: Both the moves and the suits simply distracted from her physique.

Waugaman, who performed her routine at the Palm Beach Pro a week later, paid the price—12th is not a sweet landing when you start off a favorite—and there were bound to be comments. But it’s three weeks later as I write this, and the discussion has not died, to the point where some people seem to be making a project of dumping on her.

Wonder what that could be about? I know I do.

Check out an industry-related Internet forum near you. If it’s still going on when this issue hits the stands in early December, the real story will be told: Some people just have too much time on their hands.

MORE FITNESS

Divas Under Discussion Tanji Johnson’s rise to fourth from 10th last year and sixth at the International was no shock to anyone who understands the concept of upward trajectory. Last year’s fourth-placer, Tracey Greenwood, competing with a special brace whipped up by her orthopedic surgeon after she injured her thumb at the Atlantic City show a week earlier, had to make way for Tanji, but she still scored her fourth-straight top-five finish. Not too shabby.

For my money, the best body in this contest belonged Julie Palmer. to Julie Palmer, who may have nailed her best-ever conditioning. The panel scored it third-best, placing her sixth overall. Jules, who won the A.C. show, got to salve her wounds at the Palm Beach Pro, where she picked up the first-place check again.

Filling in the next three slots were Julie Childs, seventh; Angela Semsch, eighth; and Mindi O’Brien, ninth. Regiane Da Silva was 10th—another competitor whose routine I liked better at the Fitness I last March, although I doubt that’s what kept her from doing better here.

M O R E D I VA S

In Case

After all, it is figure

Unfortunate Circumstances

Davana Medina’s expected retirement from competition came earlier than the figure star planned. Just days before she was to leave for Vegas, the three-time Figure O champ suffered a medical emergency and had to pull out of the contest. Officially, Medina is still thinking about whether to compete again, but don’t be surprised if she decides to go ahead and hang it up.

Listening to her “Hardbody Radio” interview with Larry Pepe, originally Webcast in June, in which she talked about starting a family with new hubby Johnny Dente, I got the feeling that Davana was just kind of done with this portion of her life. Still, she intended to go out with a bang: successfully defending her title—in front of all her family and friends. As the saying goes, it was not to be.

Reliable sources say that Davana will still be around the scene; she just won’t be competing. In any event I look forward to seeing her soon, either getting back up onstage or successfully getting started on the next stage of her life.

You were wondering Whoops. Kim Klein’s nearmishap, incurred when she tried to get her scooter offstage at the end of her twominute routine, was due to a last-minute change of stage directions, Klein. reported the Fitness O runnerup. Fortunately, it proved to be “just a little scratch on my leg.” Now that she’s no longer a grade-school teacher, Kim seems to enjoy cruising on the wild side. “I’m having a ball,” she said, beaming. Oh, yeah.…

Eager beaver.

Childs.

Was it me, or was Julie Childs’ cheerleader-themed routine a little off at the fitness finals? It was, admitted the one-time Seattle Seahawks’ rah-rah gal. “I ripped off my skirt too soon.” Which, you’ll agree, would be enough to put anyone a little off-step.…

Guts award. Heidi Fletcher, posing here with Lisa Aukland, pulled her hamstring at the beginning of her 90-second routine at the fitness judging and kept on going—all the way through the finals, although, she said, she was forced to take out moves and make changes to her long routine at the last minute. Why didn’t Fletcher pull out?

“I figure it’s two minutes,” she said.

“I’m in the gym a lot longer than that.”

Fletcher (right) and Aukland.

www.ironmanmagazine.com \ JANUARY 2007 229

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EYE ON THE O: CHARACTERS WELCOME “If you’ve got anything to say about girls who wear glasses, say it to my face,” declares D.J.

Michael and Debbie do the O. “Nobody dresses up anymore,” says Deb. Not since the last time you made the scene, Ms. K.

ikini Bite gatory B The obli sn’t even e o d e? It shot. Bit ndrea.

A nip, says

When Toney hits the money shot, slots all over the casino go, Ca-ching!

There goes L.T.—posin’ down the women again.

“I never took so many pictures in my life!” muses Aneta.

Can’t imagine why.

Speaking of posing down.

Anyone placing bets on the Amanda-Jennifer matchup?

MONICKERS

INTRODUCING Helen Bouchard, ’03 Canadian champ.

Thanks to Olympia all-around master of ceremonies Bob Cicherillo for my new

That’s me with a couple of cute guys Mike Neveux introduced me to. Wonder whatever happened to them.

Neveux

nickname, Rosemary. Chick inadvertently addressed me as Rosemary at the press conference, and the guys at GraphicMuscle are never going to let me forget it. Afterward, Chick apologized. The stage lights had blinded him. Besides, he exclaimed, “you don’t look anything like Rosemary.” Quick on his feet, that Bob. He was referring to veteran muscle reporter Rosemary Hallum, Ph.D., but what Here’s Rosemary introducing me to Bob and the guys don’t know is that Rosea kid she thinks will go far in the mary, a.k.a. Redd Hall, Ph.D., and I were sport.

“Separated at Birth,” at least in a spiritual sense. For one thing, we were about the only females covering men’s bodybuilding back in the day. As you can see in the accompanying shots, Rosemary and I were all over the ’95 Olympia like oil on the Atlanta Civic Center stage.

Good times.

Nicole Ball, ’06 Canadian champ.

Bouchard made her Olympia debut in 2004— winning the Battle of the Biceps at the expo. In ’06 she made it to the Orleans Arena stage—and trained Ball to her national championship.

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

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Neveux

Sister Rosemary

A trip down memory lane

Only the Strong Shall Survive

232 JANUARY 2007 \ www.ironmanmagazine.com

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How to Get Your Press Numbers to Soar

Photo courtesy of Randall Strossen, IronMind.com \ Model: Bill March

by Bill Starr • Photography by Michael Neveux y now you’ve decided whether to make the military or Garcy-style press one of your primary exercises, at least for a while, or use it just as an auxiliary movement to augment your upper-body development. Either way, you still want to get stronger on the lift.

Previously, I suggested that you start out with the basic five sets of five. If you’ve been doing that for a month or more, you’re ready to alter your set-and-rep formula. Do two warmup sets of five, followed by five work sets of three with the same weight, plus a back-off set of eight.

That will enable you to get stronger in a couple of ways: The lower reps hit the attachments more than the

fives, and the extra work expands the base. Also, the triples let you concentrate more fully on your technique, and as your form improves, so will the top-end numbers.

If you feel that might be too much of a load to jump right into, then move into the routine gradually.

Start off with three work sets rather than five, and add the other sets when you’re able to handle them.

Do the back-offs from the very beginning. They’re important to success.

The key to making the routine bear fruit is getting all the reps on your work sets before you increase the weight. No cheating. That means if you manage only two reps on your last set with 175, you must stay with that same number the next

time you do the routine. That serves two useful purposes. It ensures that you get in the necessary work, and it makes you pay closer attention to every single set—a practice that will pay dividends in the future, not only for the press but for all of your exercises. It also helps instill discipline in your training, a critical attribute for long-term progress.

Once a month substitute singles for triples. You might want to do three warmup sets before hitting the singles. Whenever you move your best single higher, it helps you use more on your triples. Breaking a number barrier always boosts confidence. Let’s say you’ve been unable to make all your work sets with 185 for two straight weeks. You determine it’s a good day to single. You’re

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Stern \ Model: Pat Casey

Only the Strong Shall Survive

Try to perfect your technique at every press workout.

ther progress.

You can accomplish that by using supplemental exercises that strengthen those muscles. One of the best auxiliary movements for helping any pressing movement, including bench presses and inclines, is weighted dips. What I like about them, particularly for beginners, is that they work the muscles and attachments that are involved in pressing without stressing the lower back. Heavy pressing, especially the dynamic style, can fatigue the muscles in the lumbar region, and until they get strong enough to handle the burden, you have to proceed cautiously.

I start my athletes out with freehand dips: four sets of as many as they can do. Once they’re able to do all their sets for 20 reps, I graduate them to weighted dips.

Your first set should always be freehand, done for 12 to 15 reps.

Follow that with four sets using weights, eight reps per set. Gradually increase the weight on each set, as long as you meet the rep requirement. Should you fail on any set, lower the weight next time around.

It may not seem like much to miss two reps on your final set with 70 pounds, but that reduces your workload by 140 pounds. You would have been ahead of the game by using 65 pounds and making all eight reps.

Auxiliary triceps work is a must.

234 JANUARY 2007 \ www.ironmanmagazine.com

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Model: Jonathan Lawson

motivated to do well since you’ve failed with the triples lately, and you ram up a personal record of 205.

Now you breeze through the five sets with 185, partly because you’ve handled considerably more weight and partly because the max single strengthened your attachments.

And because you had to concentrate more intently on the singles than the triples, that focus carries over to your upcoming sessions.

At every press workout you should be trying to perfect your technique, especially if you’ve selected the explosive form of the lift.

Honing your technique can add 20 pounds to your press without any great increase in pure strength. So review the style points and attempt to use them more precisely on every rep.

Alas, all lifters fully understand that sooner or later the numbers on any exercise are going to level off no matter how diligently they apply themselves. It’s simply a part of strength training and can’t be avoided.

Sometimes your press numbers are stuck because you’re overtraining. That happened frequently at York Barbell, where many Olympic lifters worked the exercise hard four times a week. It could also happen if you do the program I outlined twice or three times a week. The solution in those cases is to pull back on your load. You might go to pressing once a week and doing auxiliary movements at the other workouts. Or do the recommended routine once and use lighter weights at another session, where you drill on form.

The reason for most plateaus, however, is that the muscle groups responsible for moving the weight overhead from your shoulders need more work. They have to be overloaded if you’re going to make fur-

After two or three weeks using eight reps, you’re ready to build more variety into your dip routine.

Start alternating the four sets of eight with five sets of five and this sequence: two sets of five followed by four sets of three. Always precede the weighted reps by one freehand warmup set. After the heavy work sets, add a back-off set using 50 pounds less than your top weight for that day. The back-off set really expands your total volume, and after handling 100x3, 50 pounds suddenly feels light. Knock out as many as you can. Some of my athletes were able to do 20 reps on back-off sets.

That really bumps up the workload and isn’t that demanding.

The most important form point to remember when dipping is that you have to keep the weights under control. Letting them swing like a pendulum will adversely affect the execution of the exercise and greatly reduce the number of reps you’ll be able to do. Besides, thrashing around can be harmful to your elbows and shoulders.

Here’s the best way to maintain control of the weights. Pull a bench up close to the dip bars. Fix the plate or dumbbell to your dip belt, and lock your knees tightly together with the weight behind your legs. Now slowly ease into position on the dip bars, trying to keep the weight from swinging at all. Make sure you’re steady, and then start your set. Go as deep as you possibly can. The deeper you go, the more muscles and attachments you involve, and that translates to more strength.

Perform both the up and down motions in a smooth fashion. When you get to the heavy sets and start to stick near the top, look up and lean back slightly. That will help you break through the sticking point.

After you lock out, take a brief mo-

Only the Strong Shall Survive

Model: Daryl Gee

Incline presses can help your overheadpress numbers.

ment to be sure the weight is steady before doing your next rep. Once you’ve finished the set, carefully step back on the bench.

About every five weeks go after a max single, but don’t bother with any singles until your form is perfect and you’re handling some respectable weights for three reps.

Respectable in my mind is at least 75 pounds for three.

Nearly every York lifter spent some time working on his start for the press. A strong start is certainly beneficial if you’re doing military presses, but it’s critical if you use the Garcy style. With that dynamic technique you absolutely must have a powerful start in order to be successful with a heavy weight. So somewhere along the line you need to include an exercise or exercises that will strengthen the groups responsible for blasting the bar off your shoulders.

At York we had two exercises to improve our starts: working isos in a power rack, which I’ll cover later, and overloading the start. The very first thing you do to prepare for the overload starts is to make sure your abs and lumbar muscles are thoroughly warmed up because you’re going to be putting a heavy demand on them. One set of situps, crunches or leg raises and a set of back hypers will suffice. Then do as many warmup sets of presses as necessary to get all your muscles ready. Some like to work fairly heavy before moving to the overload starts, while others prefer to stay with moderate weights so they can leave plenty for the heavy work ahead.

Load the bar with 20 pounds more than your best single. Back out of the rack, set yourself in a solid starting position, and drive the weight as high as you can. Here’s the trick to getting results: When the bar reaches its highest point,

don’t let it come back down right away. Instead, apply pressure and try to hold it in place. With the really heavy sets, of course, that hold may be only a second, but it will still help your cause. Drive, hold; drive, hold; drive, hold. Three reps are plenty because they’re as taxing mentally as they are physically and require concentrated effort. Add another 20 pounds, and continue in that manner until you know you’ve had enough. As long as you’re giving the bar a ride, though, stick with them. You’re doing them to overload your pressing muscles, but you’re also learning how to drive the bar upward in a very precise line. You’ll quickly discover that when you hit it perfectly, the bar climbs much higher, and when you misdirect the bar, it doesn’t go far. Each rep forces you to focus intensely. The next time you do military or Garcystyle presses, you’ll find that they go more smoothly because of your new strength and finer form.

An effective variation of the same exercise is to work inside a power rack. The uprights, however, have to be spaced far enough apart to enable some movement in the rack, or you’ll end up rattling around in it unless you have flawless technique.

Position the lower pins below where you rack the weight, and set the higher ones at a height you want to reach when you drive the bar upward. Let the higher pins dangle.

Don’t lock them in place. Otherwise you’ll jar your eyeteeth loose if you happen to get an extra-strong thrust. As you increase the weight on the bar, lower the top pins accordingly.

Many trainees like that method of overloading their starts because it gives them a tangible target to shoot for, yet others say they feel restricted inside the rack and prefer doing them outside. Either way is effective,

so select the one that lets you drive the hardest.

Another exercise beneficial to the overhead press is the incline press.

Like dips, it doesn’t put a great deal of stress on the lower back. The incline enables you to overload your pressing muscles and attachments, and you don’t have to deal with the balance or technique that military or Garcy presses require.

The steeper you can set the incline, the better, because you want to hit your deltoids more than your pecs. Pecs do very little when you’re lifting a weight overhead, but deltoids do a lot.

Alternate these two set-and-rep sequences: five sets of five with a back-off set of eight, and three sets of five followed by three sets of three plus a back-off of eight. Every so often, go after a max single. If your bench is adjustable, vary the angle occasionally. Even when the change is slight, it helps work some muscles differently, and that’s always good.

What about flat-bench presses?

The majority of the Olympic lifters at York shunned them, believing that they tightened their shoulders and added mass to their chests, which most of them didn’t want because they had to make a weight class. They didn’t want to put on muscle that wasn’t useful.

A few of us did do bench presses for a short duration, always keeping the reps low. We also made sure we did extra flexibility exercises for our shoulders before, during and after each bench workout. I did benches at least once a year and found that they helped my presses and jerks. I believed it was a viable way to overload the pressing muscles. Another reason I did them was that they came easy to me—almost the only exercise I can say that about.

During a noon workout at the York Gym, Bob Bednarski and I got into a discussion about the usefulness of doing bench presses. I told him I was going to bench at my afternoon sessions on Mondays for the next six weeks. I wanted to strengthen my base in preparation for the difficult program I was planning to do for the upcoming Senior National two and a half months away.

Barski had never done bench presses and loved a challenge, so he

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Only the Strong Shall Survive

One set of situps, crunches or leg raises and a set of back hypers will suffice as a general warmup. joined me. We used the same grip on the flat bench as our overhead presses and maintained very strict form. No rebounding the bar off our chests, bridging or twisting.

We did three warmups sets for five reps, then maxed out on singles at every workout. Each week we added five pounds to our previous best and ended up gaining 30 pounds overall. That may not sound like much, but it was almost a 10 percent increase. Keep in mind that we were also doing our regular presses several times a week along with one or more primary exercises for our shoulder girdles.

Barski ended up with a 390 bench and wanted to stay with the lift until he reached 400. I suggested he save that goal for another cycle—something to look forward to—and he agreed. The Seniors were getting closer, and how much he benched didn’t matter at that contest.

His showing on June 9, 1968, at the William Penn High School in York was one of the most memorable displays of strength in American weightlifting history. In a classic battle with Joe Dube, Barski set two world records: 456 1/2 press and 486 1/2 clean and jerk. I’m not contending that the six weeks of bench pressing were the reason he set those records—he was doing lots of other work that directly affected his overhead strength—but he believed they helped.

In addition to regular benches, close-grip benches can benefit your overhead press. Again, keep the reps low. You’re not seeking a pump. In fact, you want to avoid flushing a lot of blood into your chest. Warm up with some fives; then do six sets of doubles. That’s it. If they help your

presses, good: Keep them in your program. If not, drop them, and pick another auxiliary exercise. You have plenty to choose from.

The very best way to jar your press out of stagnation is to incorporate some isotonic-isometrics into your routine. Pure isometrics can be effective, but pressing a weighted bar a short distance before locking it into an isometric hold is more productive.

You can put them into your program in two ways. If you know exactly where your sticking point is on the press, set the higher pins in the power rack at that position, and do isos several times a week.

Perform two warmup sets, where you only hold the bar against the top pins for a brief second, and one work set, where you attempt to drive the bar right through the top pins for an eight-to-12-second count. Since you’re having to exert yourself on only one set, you can do them after you’ve completed your regular press workout or one of the other supplemental exercises.

Let’s say, however, that you feel all parts of the press need to be strengthened. In that event work three positions: start, middle and finish. They’ll take the place of all other upper-body work for the day.

When you fully apply yourself to the three work sets, you’ve tapped into your energy supply for the day.

Adding other exercises for your pressing muscles and corresponding attachments would be counterproductive.

Before doing any isos, be sure to warm up thoroughly. A few sets of presses with light weights is sufficient, but never lock into an isometric hold with cold muscles.

I’ve said it in passing, but I want to emphasize the importance of maintaining strong abs and lumbars as you’re attempting to improve your overhead press. Back hyperextensions should be a part of your general warmup, and it’s useful to finish up with reverse hypers.

You can also do them on your nonlifting days. The reps add up nicely during the week. Be sure to include one primary exercise for your lower back in your routine and work it hard. I prefer good mornings, although almost-straight-legged deadlifts get the job done as well.

That is, when they’re attacked. Do five sets of eight on both.

Same holds true for the abs. Do situps, crunches or leg raises along with back hypers at the beginning of your workout, and throw in another at the end. Many Olympic lifters used to do weighted situps to strengthen their abs. They believed that helped them drive the bar off their shoulders more forcefully. It was reported that Zhabotinsky and Alexeev used very heavy poundages, but there’s a drawback to that.

They tend to thicken the midsection, making it appear fat. Few desire that look, yet those who were more interested in pressing big weights did heavy weighted stups regularly.

Pressing heavy poundages, with either the military version or the more involved Garcy style, can be extremely rewarding. Those presses build functional upper-body strength that you can use in every athletic activity and are particularly useful to throwers, such as shotputters and, of course, Olympic weightlifters. Even if you’re only training to stay fit, presses will be most valuable if you make them a strength lift rather than relegating them to an inconsequential role in your program. First master the technique. Then load up the bar.

Once you get to the point where you’re handling some impressive numbers, you’ll really enjoy pressing.

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

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Jerry Brainum’s

Bodybuilding Pharmacology

Get Off the Pot? Richard Lake (not his real name, for reasons that will soon be apparent) was a top professional bodybuilder in the mid to late ’60s. Although he did use anabolic steroids, he disavowed using most drugs later in his career—with one notable exception. Lake had a preworkout ritual that he claimed enabled him to train more intensely and concentrate more effectively throughout his training session.

The secret source of his preworkout ritual became evident one day in the locker room of Gold’s Gym. The gym had a defunct sauna room, located in the back of the men’s locker room. It was the perfect place to engage in clandestine behavior, which was exactly what Lake wanted. What he couldn’t conceal, however, was the grassy fumes that diffused into the nearby gym floor.

Lake smoked marijuana in that room—and not just a puff on one “joint,” either. No, Lake reveled in a marijuana orgy, losing his thoughts in the smoke that rose slowly toward the ceiling in his secret alcove. He would emerge in an hour or so and head directly to the gym floor, working out with no apparent sign of his activity.

Although marijuana is illegal, many athletes, not just bodybuilders, regularly smoke weed as a means of relaxation and mind expansion. Erstwhile bodybuilding champion and current politician Arnold Schwarzenegger openly smoked a joint in the 1977 film “Pumping Iron.” In a 1989 interview with a Los Angeles Times reporter, Arnold noted, “We smoked pot once or twice a week before we went to the gym. Sometimes at parties someone would pass around a joint. It never interfered because it was so casual.” A long-held tenet of the drug culture is that marijuana emphasizes the mood you’re already in. Thus, if you

feel good, you’ll feel even better after THC, the intoxicating component of pot, does its job on your brain.

Marijuana has always been considered relatively innocuous compared to other mind drugs, such as cocaine and heroin. Entire volumes have been written documenting its physiological effects, but few people are aware of its true effects on the body. Since this is a bodybuilding magazine, let’s examine the impact of marijuana relevant to bodybuilding and health.

Active Ingredients Known to botanists as Cannabis sativa, marijuana grows wild throughout the world in temperate climates.

Analysis of the 100-species plant yields 460 compounds, of which 60 are cannabinoids. The only one to have psychoactive effects, however, is delta-9-THC, the ingredient that makes you feel high. Interestingly, not long ago scientists discovered nerve receptors in the brain that are specifically affected by THC, suggesting that the body produces its own natural form of the substance.

In 1992 a cannibislike chemical was isolated from pig brain. It was made in the body from arachidonic acid, the precursor of other chemicals called prostaglandins, most of which cause inflammatory reactions. The substance was named anandamide, derived from the Sanskrit word for bliss.

Different parts of the marijuana plant vary in THC content. The bracts, flowers and leaves have the most, while the stems, seeds and roots contain lesser amounts.

The most concentrated form is hash oil, the distilled liquid resin of the female marijuana plant. It contains up to 65 percent THC, compared to the 1 to 3 percent found in the average joint. Street pot has gradually increased in potency through the years, and current versions are thought to be five to 10 times more potent than the stuff used to “turn on and tune in” in the ’60s. In the ’70s the average joint contained 10 milligrams of THC; today the average is 60 to 150 milligrams or more.

When inhaled, THC is rapidly absorbed.

Studies show its systemic bioavailability is about 18 percent, with heavier users absorbing more than casual smokers.

Compare that to the mere 6 percent of oral uptake (as from a pill). The peak effects occur within 20 to 30 minutes and last for two to four hours.

THC circulates throughout the body and, being highly fat soluble, easily enters the brain. About 80 to 90 percent of an intravenous dose of THC is excreted from the body in five days, although metabolites remain detectable in urine for 10 days after a single dose and more than 20 days after chronic use. Due to its proclivity for storage in fatty tissues of the body, in some cases THC may take up to a month to be eliminated.1 How marijuana affects a person varies with individuals. A recent study funded by the United States National Institute on

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Jerry Brainum’s

Bodybuilding Pharmacology

Marijuana’s amandamide content may result in the formation of blood clots in the coronary arteries.

Drug Abuse involving identical twins found a genetic basis in whether you’ll find pot enjoyable. The effects can even vary in the same person.

Users of the drug frequently describe a dreamy, relaxed state, in which they feel more in tune with their senses. You get a false sense of time—it appears to pass more slowly.

Others, however, get what the drug culture of the ’60s used to call a “paranoid reaction,” characterized by panic and dread. Much depends on such factors as the user’s mood, expectations and personality.

A 1970 medical review of marijuana described the following effects in a user of the drug:2 “Typically, the user feels a series of jittery ‘rushes’ soon after inhaling.

A sense of relaxation and well-being follows. There is awareness of being intoxicated not unlike that produced by alcohol. The user becomes acutely conscious of certain stimuli to the extent that his whole attention is focused, immersed and at times lost with the sensory experience. In this state, jokes are funnier, misfortunes more poignant and human relations more deeply perceived.

“The appreciation of food, sex and, in particular, music is intensified. The user may believe that his thoughts are unusually profound (an impression rarely shared with observers). Paranoid thoughts and feelings of depersonalization have been reported by

subjects and observed in the laboratory. Visual imagery is increased, and in larger doses, colors may shimmer and visual distortions occur. There are feelings of changed body proportion.

Among the most striking perceptual changes is the subjective slowing of time.”

At least two effects rapidly occur in most people who smoke marijuana: The eyes redden, and the heart beats faster. The increased load on the heart tends to impede athletic performance, as shown in some studies. That’s because while pot speeds the heart, the cardiac stroke volume, or amount of blood pumped by the heart, decreases.3 One study showed that in men cycling against increasing workloads, pot decreased exercise performance.

A recent case study reported on a 21-year-old man who suffered a heart attack, despite showing no apparent cardiac risk factors, other than drinking too much the night before. THC can cause vasospasms, or contractions, of blood vessels, particularly in the brain, that may predispose to stroke. The substance is also linked to causing heart rhythm disturbances secondary to increased release of catecholamines, such as epinephrine.

The body’s amandamide promotes increased blood platelet activation.

That, in turn, can result in the formation of a blood clot in the coronary arteries that is the most prevalent cause of heart attacks.

Those facts have led some researchers to suspect marijuana use as a factor in heart attacks with normal (not blocked) coronary arteries, which occurs in only 6 percent of heart attacks, but at a frequency of 10 percent in those under age 35.

Another study showed a general decrement in standing steadiness, simple and complex reaction times, and other athletic skills in 161 men and women who took THC.5 Contrary to the beliefs of the bodybuilder described at the beginning of this article, pot, if anything, decreases training concentration and focus—an effect so potent that it can’t even be overcome with concomitant amphetamine use.6 From a bodybuilding perspective, a crucial question is how smoking pot affects anabolic hormones, such as testosterone.

Marijuana and Hormones A brief report concerning the appearance of gynecomastia, or male breast development, in three male pot smokers published in 1972 sparked a number of subsequent studies that examined the relationship between marijuana use and testosterone levels.7 Gynecomastia, however, is not a common side effect of marijuana use.

The condition is usually the result of an imbalance between testosterone and estrogen in men, with something increasing the latter. Various studies have shown that the active ingredients in pot don’t have any estrogenic activity; however, a recent study did find potent estrogenlike substances in the smoke emitted from a marijuana joint.8 Since joints are inhaled deeper than cigarettes (which, by the way, also provide estrogenic compounds), you are getting a considerable estrogenic effect from smoking marijuana.

Next month we’ll discuss how pot affects testosterone, as well as other effects on health and performance.

References 1 Jones,

R. (1984). Marijuana: Health and treatment issues. Psychiatric Clinics of North America. 7:703.

2 Pillard, R.C. (1970). Marijuana.

New England J Med. 283:294.

3 Tashkin, D.P. (1978). Cannibis: 1977 UCLA Conference. Annals of Internal Medicine. 89:539-549.

4 Caldicott, D.G., et al. (2005). Keep off the grass: Marijuana use and cardiovascular events. Eur J Emerg Med. 12:236-44.

5 Bird, K.D., et al. (1980). Intercannabinoid and cannabinoid-ethanol interactions and their effects on human performance. Psychopharmacology. 71:181-188.

6 Forney, R., et al. (1976). The combined effect of marijuana and dextroamphetamine. Ann NY Acad Sci. 281:162.

7 Harmon, J., et al. (1972). Gynecomastia in marijuana users. New England J Med. 287:936.

8 Lee, S.Y., et al. (2006). Estrogenic effects of marijuana smoke condensate and cannabinoid compounds.

Toxicol Appl Pharmacol. 214:270-78.

IM

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More Motivation: The Training or the Titles

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Comstock

I

t’s no secret that motivation fuels your workouts. When your motivation is high, you have workouts that virtually guarantee progress, and when your motivation is low, your training takes a turn that causes you to slide backward. Everyone probably buys the basic idea, but how do you take the next step? Just what is that motivation stuff, and what can you do to boost yours? Even though motivation might sound like a mushy concept, you know there’s nothing mushy about adding another inch to your arms or 50 pounds to your best power clean—and you know motivation is a key ingredient in making that kind of progress.

We’re all familiar with the Hollywood approach to motivation: Our hero, usually a big-time underdog, trains his heart out, spurred on by the image of himself defeating Mr. Big—if you listen carefully, you can hear the theme from “Rocky” in the background. A lot of people focus their motivational efforts on trying to win a certain contest or beat a certain person. In fact, people, most of the time, it’s not the best route to take. Let’s that tactic can work, but it’s only part of the story, and for most talk about a couple of key principles involved in understanding motivation and then apply what we’ve learned to your training. If that sounds fuzzy, remember our goal is to produce results that can be measured in pounds and When you train inches—which is about as concrete as you can get. as hard as you Some years ago research psychologists develcan, always oped a theory of motivation that looked at the two pat yourself on primary types of goals people try to achieve. One the back. type is ego-oriented, which means things like winning or beating a specific person. That’s the familiar Hollywood approach to motivation. The second type is task-oriented, which means things related to actually going through the motions. For example, taking a task-oriented approach to your training means focusing on your form, your progress and so forth—it puts the spotlight on what you’re doing without comparing it to another person.

Researchers have found that as children we generally all start off leaning toward task-oriented goals, but as we get older, we shift toward ego-oriented goals, although our exact orientation is the result of what our parents, teachers and coaches emphasize. For example, if a coach is tough on mistakes, pits athletes against each other and dotes on the stars, he or she creates an ego-oriented environment. On the other hand, if a coach emphasizes effort over results, values all athletes and urges everyone to improve technically, he or she probably builds a task-oriented environment.

Neveux \ Model: David Fisher

IRONMIND

Mind

Body Editor’s note: Randall Strossen, Ph.D., edits the quarterly magazine MILO. He’s also the author of IronMind: Stronger Minds, Stronger Bodies; Super Squats: How to Gain 30 Pounds of Muscle in 6 Weeks and Paul Anderson: The Mightiest Minister. For more information call IronMind Enterprises Inc. at (530) 265-6725 or Home Gym Warehouse at (800) 447-0008, ext. 1. Visit the IronMind Web site at www.IronMind.com.

Fun Facts

he bikini is 60 years old, and to celebrate, Kelly Killoren Bensimon has just published The Bikini Book, 400 pages devoted to a few triangular pieces of cloth and some string.

Did you know that the suit was invented by a Frenchman, Louis Reard?

Men everywhere will want to honor him with a holiday, I’m sure.

—Becky Holman www.X-tremeLean.

Neveux \ Model: Zdenka Novotna

Bikini Birthday T

Sex

More Sex, Live Longer

M

ore than 900 men, ages 45 to 59, were the subjects in a Welsh study that showed an active sex life may extend your life span.

During the 10-year experiment, subjects who averaged two or more orgasms per week had half the risk of dying of subjects who had orgasms only once a month.

Could it be that women who withhold sex from their husbands are merely trying to kill them off early?

No comment.

—Becky Holman

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“So,” you ask, “how do these two types of goals affect my motivation, and what in the world do they have to do with my lifting?”

An ego-oriented approach can, in fact, be very effective for an elite athlete, but there’s also a downside, and it’s a big one. Researchers have found that people who overemphasize ego goals can have a tough time dealing with defeat. It can leave them in a fragile position. As you’d guess, people who are strongly motivated by ego goals tend to quit when they’re not doing well and, in general, seem to derive less long-term satisfaction from what they’re doing than people who have more balanced goals.

On the other hand, a task-oriented approach gives athletes a stable base for continuing to hammer away day after day. That’s because task-oriented athletes focus on such things as technique and how much progress they’ve made without comparing their results to those of others.

That perspective appears to be much better for sustaining consistent long-term effort and for weathering the inevitable slumps.

The recipe for maximum motivation consists of something like several parts task-oriented goals to each part ego-oriented goals—that will keep you going day after day.

Try to reserve the ego-oriented goals for the added surge required to make the final, gut-busting push. On a dayto-day basis enjoy your training, try to do the movements correctly, and try to coax progress by doing a little more today than you did yesterday. Take satisfaction in that type of progress, regardless of the guy next to you with 10 plates on the bar. At the same time remember that progress isn’t made in a straight line, so there’s no need to think your world has fallen apart when you have an off day or lose some ground you fought hard to gain.

Odd as it sounds, the real key to sustaining championship-level motivation over the long haul is to focus on the training, not the titles.

—Randall Strossen, Ph.D.

www.ironmanmagazine.com \ JANUARY 2007 245

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Bomber Blast

MIND/BODY

All I Want for Christmas Is My Two Front Teeth And a 450-pound bench, 20-inch arms, 6 percent bodyfat and a red Ferrari

H

Neveux \ Model: Joey Gloor

ang onto your hat, socks and the seat of your pants; the countdown has begun—10... nine... eight. Just a reminder, lest you forget: Christmas is upon us. Some of you are saying, “Hellooo, bomb brains, everyone knows that,” while some of you are jotting the dates on the palm of your hand in indelible ink.

I got socks, underwear and a tank top at Wal-Mart for Laree for Christmas. She’ll flip out; she loves surprises. Nothing but the best for my baby! I expect we’re all a little tied up these days running around like a bunch of bodybuilders without their 110-pound barbell set, so I’ve gone through my top secret files and chosen some recent queries from ya’ll to answer as best I can. Makes for good late-night reading under the blankets with a flashlight and a handful of cookies.

Q: Up here in Canada we want to know what you think of warming up, stretching and cooling off for training.

A: As a weightlifting musclebuilder, I paid no attention to warming up prior to training until recent years. As a young man I’d walk into the gym and train with an instinctive understanding that you must get the weights rolling and build up momentum as you proceed. I let my spirit and enthusiasm carry me along, slugging it out from the first set, persuading, inspiring and prodding myself through the thick of the workout and slowing down as fatigue and waning desire entered my bones.

On your lighter warmup sets you want to loosen and stretch out the kinks with slow, controlled reps.

Neveux \ Model: Jorge Betancourt

Midsection training can be an ideal warmup.

It’s always been my concern that the delay in aggressive action presented by passive stretching and warming up would hinder my mood, thwart my enthusiasm and swallow up my available time, energy and focus for training. Outta my way; I’ve got serious work to do!

Specific pregame warmup and stretching are important for athletes preparing to vigorously engage in their sport. Ball players, track-and-field participants, wrestlers, powerlifters and so on must have warm, flexible muscles and joints and an increased and sustained heart rate for explosive action, peak performance and lower risk of injury.

The preworkout limbering I employ these days consists of lighter weights for higher reps of the same exercises I’m about to practice. Within the lighter sets I’m able to loosen and stretch out the kinks and locate possible areas of joint, tendon and muscle difficulty. Through the manipulation of the reps I can challenge the hang-ups, modify the exercise groove to accommodate my needs and determine an efficient training approach.

I seek to achieve the healthy stretching the strong, athletic body needs through the practice of full range of motion within each exercise. I don’t exercise one muscle exclusive of the muscles around it. Rather, I train my body as a system of interrelated and cooperating muscles, seldom performing isolated-muscle techniques. I use noncheating body thrusts and body rhythm to engage the muscles as a functioning whole.

My training methodology contributes to a synchronized, wellstretched, fully engaged and total functioning flesh-and-blood machine. More fun, more stimulating.

Moderate aerobic training has been profitable for me in the past—raising the core temperature of the body, preparing the mind for the dynamic training ahead and serving as an investment in training, confidence and sense of achievement. Of course, lest we forget, there’s the cardiovascular value of the aerobic exercise as well.

Another popular warmup scheme I endorse is working the midsection first in my training routine. That not only accomplishes the needed (and oft-neglected) torso development but

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also warms and limbers up the body and readies the mind for some tough training. Note: Fifteen to 20 minutes of midsection work well performed can easily be more aerobic, more muscle-demanding and more interesting and fulfilling than 15 to 20 minutes on the stationary bike or the treadmill.

I train till I drop and let cooling down happen naturally, as I reenter my normal life patterns. Moderate temps in my neck of the woods do not expose me to frigid air or monster heat, and I’m not required to engage in demanding physical activity postworkout. I feed the body a Bomber Blend and take ’er easy till a shower puts me back on track.

More Q&As next month.

—Dave Draper Editor’s note: 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.

New Stuff

The Sweatshirt Will never be the same

T

he sweatshirt has lost its sweat. It’s better than ever, however, and maintains its position as the icon of American style.

Russell Athletic, the company that invented the sweatshirt 80 years ago and has led in sweatshirt sales ever since, is introducing the most significant technology breakthrough in the history of America’s classic clothing icon. The new technology, which manages moisture and transfers sweat away from the skin, recently debuted in Russell Athletic sweatshirts under the brand name of Dri-Power Fleece.

Ultimate in comfort, Russell Athletic’s Dri-Power technology is a dual moisture management system that first pulls sweat away from the body and then transfers it to the top layer of fabric, keeping the wearer’s body drier than with untreated fabric.

Remember, staying warm is important during exercise. New research says that heat can improve results in muscular size and strength, so keep your physique covered—with a Russell Athletic sweatshirt—when the gym is cold.

For more information visit www.RussellAthletic.com.

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Gallery of Ironmen

For immediate release...

THE

MIND/BODY MIND/BODY

John Tristram

IRON MAN FITEXPO Announces

To Sponsor NPC Women’s Figure Competition

• The Hottest Figure Contest In Southern California!

• A Line Up of the NPC’s Best Athletes!

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For more details, watch this column or go to www.IronManMagazine.com or www.thefitexpo.com

Photos courtesy of the David Chapman collection

S

ome athletic stars shine continuously in the sporting heavens, and some are merely comets that streak past and then disappear from view. Larry Scott is certainly one of the steadiest lights to ever participate in bodybuilding. In 1962 he won the IFBB Mr. America contest, but the man who won the short category in the same contest was John Tristram, an English-born athlete who showed great promise but whose career was as brief as it was bright.

Tristram was born in 1936 and was raised on a farm in Gloucestershire. There he laid the foundations of a good physique by doing outdoor work, building his legs by cycling over the hilly English countryside. By the mid-1950s the young athlete had served in the merchant marine and moved to New York City, where at age 23 he began serious training at Abe Goldberg’s gymnasium.

It was about this time that he began to compete in bodybuilding. His photos began appearing in physique magazines about the same time, but it was not until he moved to the West Coast that Tristram’s athletic career really took off. Like many other hopeful athletes, Tristram had been drawn to California because of its climate, glamour and gymnasiums.

The most experimental of L.A.’s gyms

was run by muscle guru Vince Gironda, and it was there that Tristram put on much of the upper-body musculature that was his best feature.

By 1962 the Anglo-American star was nearing the top of his form, and he managed to win both the short division of the Mr. A and the top prize in the Mr. Venice Beach contest.

Tristram continued to compete in national and international contests, but he was also building his mind as well as his muscles. In 1963 he was studying modern languages at the University of California at Los Angeles and was interested in “translation by electronic computer method.” Computers were not widely available in the early 1960s, so it shows that the young man clearly had an interest in cutting-edge methods.

Several writers have confirmed that Tristram was as intellectually gifted as he was physically developed, but by the 1970s the athlete’s greatest triumphs were in the past. Tristram placed second in the short division of the Mr. International contest in 1974, but after that his competitive career was effectively over.

John Tristram died of AIDS-related illness in Los Angeles in 1985.

—David Chapman

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New Stuff

MIND/BODY

Two New Ways to Say OhYeah!

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ollowing on the success of the OhYeah! bar, ISS launched two new bars that are guaranteed to live up to the OhYeah! name.

The OhYeah! Protein Wafer sandwiches a smooth, creamy filling with light, snappy layers and smothers the whole delectable bar in rich chocolate with only 90 calories and one gram of sugar per stick—the crisp crunch of a protein bar has never sounded so good!

OhYeah! Natural gets back to basics with a great-tasting, light and all-natural protein bar. An excellent source of protein and fiber, OhYeah! Natural is filled with wholesome oats and nuts and is a surprisingly satisfying way to fuel your body.

For more information visit www.ISSResearch.com.

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Readers Write More Raves for Rachel

As a natural bodybuilder of 20 years, I found it difficult to believe the claims made

by Mike Semanoff in your October ’06 issue. He said he added 20 pounds of muscle naturally while reducing his bodyfat in only two months.

The assertions made in XMike Semanoff.

Rep training articles are becoming very similar to those made by so many supplement companies, which reduces credibility in my mind.

Paul Cieslak Redondo Beach, CA

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Rachel McLish.

Ultimate E-zine

Photo courtesy of Nancy Mitchell

I really enjoyed seeing pictures of Rachel McLish in the April ’06 IRON MAN. I’ve been a fan of hers since the ’80s, when I first began dabbling in fitness, nutrition and bodybuilding. I am now 50 years old. I feel that it’s important not only to get in shape but to stay that way, especially as I get older. I firmly believe that by maintaining a healthful lifestyle, I and many other baby Nancy Mitchell. boomers can set a new standard for how a middle-aged woman should look. I’ve heard it said that 50 is the new 30. I really believe that.

Nancy Mitchell via Internet

Editor’s note: IRON MAN magazine and X-Rep.com had nothing to do with Mike’s training experiment. He did it all on his own and wanted to report in our pages what happened when he began using X Reps in conjuction with supersets. We didn’t solicit him or sponsor him in any way. Yes, 20 pounds of muscle in two months is amazing, but keep in mind that he probably wasn’t in peak condition when he started. He’d probably backed off training somewhat, lost some muscle and then started training for the competition season (he won two drug-free contests after he packed on the extra muscle). Our guess is that he probably rebuilt five to 10 pounds of muscle and added another 10 pounds of new muscle in that two-month span. Not to take anything away from Mike—that’s still an incredible gain. And we thank him for verifying the X-Rep concept.

Editor’s note: Watch for more on ravishing Rachel in our upcoming over40-bodybuilding issue.

Weird Science I love all the research articles you have every month in IRON MAN. The report by Jerry Brainum on the ISSN Conference was excellent [“Stardust Muscle Memories,” November ’06]. Because of that one article, I’ve started taking a meal replacement and L-carnitine [to increase anabolic receptors] an hour before I train, and I’m already noticing new energy, strength and muscle. Thank you!

Sam Whipset Denver, CO

I just read e-zine 131, about doing two sets of the ultimate exercise for each bodypart [with X Reps]. I alternate that abbreviated-style workout with full 3D Positions-ofFlexion routines for each bodypart. I get so pumped, and I’m almost always sore. I’m growing too. My upper body is finally catching up with my legs. I recommend the X-Rep .com Web site to everyone, as well as the e-books. I even recommend the train-at-home book [IRON MAN’s Home Gym Handbook by Steve Holman] that came out years ago to anyone who’s looking to get started in bodybuilding.

Patrick Winn Indianapolis, IN Editor’s note: For more information on 3D Positions-of-Flexion mass training, visit www.3DMuscleBuilding.com. To order IRON MAN’s Home Gym Handbook at the special low price of only $9.95, visit the newly redesigned Home Gym Warehouse Web site, www.Home-Gym.com, or call (800) 447-0008.

Vol. 66, No. 1: IRON MAN (ISSN #0047-1496) is published monthly by IRON MAN Publishing, 1701 Ives Ave., Oxnard, CA 93033. Periodical Mail is paid at Oxnard, CA, and at additional mailing offices. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to IRON MAN, 1701 Ives Ave., Oxnard, CA 93033. Please allow six to eight weeks for change to take effect. Subscription rates—U.S. and its possessions: new 12-issue subscription, $29.97. Canada, Mexico and other foreign subscriptions: 12 issues, $49.97 sent Second Class. Foreign orders must be in U.S. dollars. Send subscriptions to IRON MAN, 1701 Ives Ave., Oxnard, CA 93033. Or call 1-800-570-4766. Copyright © 2006. All rights reserved. No part of this magazine may be reproduced in any manner without written permission from the publisher. Printed in the USA.

256 JANUARY 2007 \ www.ironmanmagazine.com

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