Ironman Magazine 2007-08 by Iron Man

ARNOLD PHOTO SPECTACULAR: Incredible Full-Page Pullouts AUGUST 2007 / IRON MAN MAGAZINE—WE KNOW TRAINING™

™

Rare, Vintage Full-Page Pics of

ARNOLD A 60th-Birthday Celebration

GIANT ARMS Ammunition to Get Q&A Your Guns Growing IM PRO WINNER

TONEY FREEMAN ARNOLD—RARE FULL-PAGE PHOTOS

His X-Man Training Program and Diet

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PLUS: •Ellington Darden’s High-Intensity Training •Getting Started With Mr. Natural Olympia •Vitamin E—New Findings You Need to Know

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www.ironmanmagazine.com \ APRIL 2006 261

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150 DECEMBER 2009 \ www.ironmanmagazine.com

August 2007

Vol. 66, No. 8

Happy Birthday, Arnold, page 142

We Know Training ™ FEATURES FEATURES

68 TRAIN, EAT, GROW 94 The TEG men get candid about their different body types and explain the pain of training for max gains.

100 HIT REDUX, PART 2 More from Ellington Darden about old-school bodybuilding and Nautilus. Plus, a few complete HIT programs.

118 A BODYBUILDER IS BORN 25 Ron Harris helps bring the bodybuilding lifestyle to the younger generation.

128 BIG-ARMS Q&A From the Bodybuilding.com archives: Hugo Rivera has arm-building answers to get your guns growing.

142 HAPPY BIRTHDAY, ARNOLD The big man turns 60 on July 30 (in case you want to send him a card), and we celebrate with page after page of rare classic photos of the Oak in his prime.

180 BEYOND VITAMIN E Only the Strong Shall Survive, page 282

Toney Freeman, page 228

Jerry Brainum explores the so-called sex vitamin and explodes the latest negative research.

ARNOLD PHOTO SPECTACULAR: Incredible Full-Page Pullouts

™

Rare, Vintage Full-Page Pics of

ARNOLD A 60th-Birthday Celebration

GIANT ARMS to Get Q&A Ammunition Your Guns Growing IM PRO WINNER

TONEY FREEMAN His X-Man Training Program and Diet

3D BACK BLASTS Positions-of-Flexion Workouts AUGUST 2007 $5.98

$7.98 in Canada

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198 HEAVY DUTY John Little channels the wisdom of Mike Mentzer. This month: size vs. strength.

PLUS: •Ellington Darden’s High-Intensity Training •Getting Started With Mr. Natural Olympia •Vitamin E—New Findings You Need to Know

C1_GATEFldAUG07_F.indd 1

214 3D BACK BLAST Steve Holman explains the 3D POF approach to building a big, broad back—with detail that’ll make mountain climbers drool. Plus, four complete POF programs.

228 TONEY FREEMAN David Young talks to the body X-traordinaire about training, diet and winning the IM Pro.

250 HARDBODY Hot picks for your femme-muscle fix, courtesy of Bill Dobbins.

270 WEIGHTS VS. CARDIO, PART 2 Research gone wrong. Jerry Brainum looks at the latest studies on metabolic stimulation.

282 ONLY THE STRONG SHALL SURVIVE 3D Back Blast, page 214

Bill Starr’s inside look at goal power. (No, it’s not about soccer).

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6/1/07 12:50:52 PM

Arnold Schwarzeneggger appears on this month’s cover. Photo by Gene Mozée.

Train to Gain, page 32

DEPARTMENTS

32 TRAIN TO GAIN Pulldown praise, the power of the press and Arnold and X Reps.

46 SMART TRAINING Coach Charles Poliquin gives you the specifics on how to get bigger and leaner.

52 EAT TO GROW Does fish oil help burn bodyfat? Fewer carbs, less need for sleep? Find the answers here.

86 CRITICAL MASS Steve Holman shakes off a training daze and explains away exercise haze.

Weights vs. Cardio, page 270

92 NATURALLY HUGE John Hansen outlines a complete quick-start routine for building muscle.

240 MUSCLE “IN” SITES Eric Broser uncovers printable workout e-books, Mark Dugdale’s site and a worthy drug-free bodybuilding organization. Then he discusses dieting for contest prep.

Hardbody, page 250

244 NEWS & VIEWS Lonnie Teper’s our man in the know; he’s got the goods on who’s doing what to win the big show.

258 PUMP & CIRCUMSTANCE Ruth Silverman has her ear to the stage and her eyes on the Internet for all the happenings on the women’s side of the sport. And, of course, lots of hot pics.

264 BODYBUILDING PHARMACOLOGY Use steroids, become a criminal? Does a higher testosterone level predispose you to violence? Jerry Brainum dissects the research.

Pump & Circumstance, page 258

News & Views, page 244

292 MIND/BODY CONNECTION Randall Strossen, Ph.D., explains why you should write it down after you pump it up. Lots of New Stuff here too.

304 READERS WRITE On a Hardbody roll, Mentzer mania, awesome Aukland and axe the X?

WEB ALERT!

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In the next IRON MAN Next month we start with an inside look at Arnold’s psychology of success. You’ll learn a lot from this think piece. Then Steve Holman throws a barrage of questions at Eric Broser about his Power/Rep Range/Shock mass-building system. Everything from hardgaining to home training is covered. We’ll also have a blockbuster interview with Kevin Levone on what he’s doing now and how bodybuilding changed his life. Plus, training tweaks to put some freak on your physique. Watch for the sizebuilding September IRON MAN on newsstands the first week of August.

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Publisher’s Letter

“I Will Run If I Believe I Can Make a Difference” The day before Arnold Schwarzenegger appeared on “The Tonight Show With Jay Leno” and announced that he would run in the recall election for governor of California, I received a phone call from him. At that point there had been a great deal of speculation in the news media about Arnold’s running, and the naysayers were coming out of the woodwork to attack him. His purpose for the call was to get my opinion on a piece of exercise equipment he wanted for his home gym. Once that subject was out of the way, the conversation moved to our families—his oldest daughter is the same age as my son, so we naturally focused on them. I then asked him why he was even considering running for governor. Before he could answer, I recited a litany of reasons that I thought he shouldn’t run. He agreed that there were major risks. I asked him if he was going to do it, and he said he wasn’t sure yet, but, “I will run if I believe I can make a difference.” I think believe is the key word here. Arnold has never been less than very successful in anything he truly believes in. He won that election, and on a daily basis he creates current events that become history. Last week I had the opportunity to spend (invest) a day with Arnold as he went about his activities as governor of the Union’s most populous state. It had been two years since I’d spent any extended time with him. At 8:30 a.m. I took the elevator to Arnold’s quarters, and he greeted me as if we see each other all the time—the two years felt like yesterday. Arnold’s ability to make everyone comfortable and his knack for being comfortable with anyone are traits that were evident from our first meeting at Vince’s Gym in 1969 and traits that shine today. Many times throughout the day I saw him naturally create an atmosphere of mutual respect with everyone from Air Force generals and legislators to those on his staff. He’s very proud of his staff and never misses an opportunity to tell them that. They’re all involved in a very serious business, but because of Arnold’s style, there’s as much laughter as there is deep discussion. It was really a short course—12 hours—on how to get things done while having a great time. The last words Arnold spoke to me as we shook hands were, “Now you can see why I love this job.” Arnold, focused and driven as he is, has applied the same skills that made him a great bodybuilder to being a great governor. Many people are driven and focused, but very few take such obvious joy and exhilaration from the challenges. Arnold is the right person in the right place at the right time. He remarked to me that Maria thought he was the luckiest guy in the world, but if you look back at the past 40 years, you see a man with a vision who’s unafraid of pursuing that vision, always ready, as he’s said, “to make a move.” There are photos from our day together on page 170. Be sure to go to IronManMagazine.com to hear Arnold’s inaugural speech—a tour de force of his vision. And in next month’s IRON MAN, Bill Dobbins will further explore Arnold’s personal philosophy. Happy 60th birthday to someone who makes a difference every day. IM 30 AUGUST 2007 \ www.ironmanmagazine.com

Publisher/Editorial Director: John Balik Associate Publisher: Warren Wanderer Design Director: Michael Neveux Editor in Chief: Stephen Holman Art Director: T. S. Bratcher Senior Editor: Ruth Silverman Editor at Large: Lonnie Teper Articles Editors: L.A. Perry, Caryne Brown Assistant Art Director: Brett R. Miller Designer: Emerson Miranda IRON MAN Staff: Vuthy Keo, Mervin Petralba, R. Anthony Toscano Contributing Authors: Jerry Brainum, Eric Broser, David Chapman, Teagan Clive, Lorenzo Cornacchia, Daniel Curtis, Dave Draper, Michael Gündill, Rosemary Hallum, Ph.D., John Hansen, Ron Harris, Ori Hofmekler, Rod Labbe, Skip La Cour, Jack LaLanne, Butch Lebowitz, John Little, Stuart McRobert, Gene Mozée, Charles Poliquin, Larry Scott, Jim Shiebler, Roger Schwab, Pete Siegel, C.S. Sloan, Bill Starr, Bradley Steiner, Eric Sternlicht, Ph.D., Randall Strossen, Ph.D., Richard Winett, Ph.D., and David Young Contributing Artists: Steve Cepello, Larry Eklund, Ron Dunn, Jake Jones Contributing Photographers: Jim Amentler, Ron Avidan, Reg Bradford, Jimmy Caruso, Bill Dobbins, Jerry Fredrick, Irvin Gelb, Isaac Hinds, Dave Liberman, J.M. Manion, Gene Mozée, Mitsuru Okabe, Rob Sims, Leo Stern

Director of Marketing: Helen Yu, 1-800-570-IRON, ext. 1 Accounting: Dolores Waterman Subscriptions Manager: Sonia Melendez, 1-800-570-IRON, ext. 2 E-mail: 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

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32 AUGUST 2007 \ www.ironmanmagazine.com

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VARIATION

The Power of the Press

For delts that impress

Neveux \ Model: Marvin Montoya

If your shoulders haven’t been growing despite hard feel your shoulders working in a completely different way work on military presses and seated dumbbell presses, from the standard slow, controlled presses they’re acperhaps it’s time you treated your delts to some variations customed to. to stimulate new growth. Cuban press. It’s amazing how many good exerOne-arm standing press. All fans of the movie cises somehow manage to fade from our collective “Pumping Iron”—and that should encompass quite a few repertoire in the gym. One is the Cuban press. It’s a nice of you—will remember the scene with Mr. Universe Mike change of pace from any standard types of shoulder Katz muscling up a heavy, rusty dumbbell for reps of this pressing. Start with the bar on the ground or a rack, and forgotten gem of an exercise. Though he was mainly pick it up with an overhand grip. Lift it like a wide-grip upknown for his massive barrel chest, Katz also had a powright row until the point where your upper arms are horierful set of shoulders that were among the best of his era. zontal. Then, rotating at the elbows, flip the bar around Long before the phrase unilateral training became widely so it’s roughly level with the top of your head. Press it known, bodybuilders were focusing on one shoulder at a overhead. That’s one rep! Start with a light weight, and time with this lift and building some mighty melon delts. chances are you won’t need to go too heavy to feel the I find it best to stabilize the other arm by holding on burn. to something about shoulder level, such as the uprights Arnold press. Everyone should use the Arnold press of an incline bench. Don’t worry that you can’t press as from time to time, but people just forget. My theory is that much that way. You’ll be working the shoulder harder, more guys don’t do it because it’s a bit of an ego buster. and the results will prove it. If you can press 100-pound ’bells in the standard seated Clean and press. Many of the best shoulders of press, you probably can’t handle more than 70s or 75s the ’50s and ’60s belonged to Olympic lifters like Norwhen you add the rotation of the Arnold press. If you bert Schemansky, Tommy Kono, Steve Stanko and Bill believe in quality over quantity, though, the Arnold press March (the latter three were also champion bodybuilders). delivers a monstrous bang for the buck. You start with It’s no coincidence that a pair of the best shoulders in your palms facing you, then rotate them as you press bodybuilding today belongs to Silvio Samuel, a former upward so that you finish in the palms-facing-away posirecord-setting weightlifter for his native Nigeria. The tion typical of standard presses. On the negative, you snatch and clean and jerk gave his delts a very thick and rotate your palms back so they face your body again at solid foundation. You don’t necessarily need to practice the bottom. That rotation is what makes the Arnold press the Olympic so incredibly lifts to reap effective. The their benefits. contraction Instead, try and pump you the clean and feel in your press. Begin deltoids are a with the bar clear sign that hanging in you’re hitfront of you ting them in a as if you were novel manner going to do an that will defiupright row. nitely lead to In one fast new gains. motion, flip —Ron Harris it up to your www.Ron Arnold press. shoulders and HarrisMuscle then press .com it overhead. You’ll definitely

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WEIGHTS AND MEASURES

MASS MOVES

Praise for Lat Pulldowns You’ve probably heard a million times that if an impressive back is your goal, you have to do chinups. I ought to know, because I’ve been saying it for years. Lat pulldowns are nothing but an inferior substitute—the training equivalent of romancing a blow-up doll instead of a real woman. But is that written in stone? Do we all need to pay tribute to the chinup bar? One man who thinks otherwise is IFBB pro Leo Ingram. Even in his early days of training, Leo never liked chins: “I found that chins lent themselves too much to cheating and that feeling the lats working was almost impossible,” he says. “It’s harder to control the movement, and everybody tends to jerk when getting tired. That’s an easy way to wreck your shoulder joints. Lat pulldowns work much better for me. I can control the movement much better and focus on squeezing the lats at the point of contraction. That’s almost impossible to do with chins because you have gravity pulling your bodyweight downward.” There’s another reason Ingram doesn’t chin these days, though most of us wouldn’t have to concern ourselves with it—he weighs close to 300 pounds most of the year at just 5’9”. Few men that heavy can do chins with any semblance of decent form. And even if they could, the danger to their shoulder joints would be significant. Leo’s had great success with lat pulldowns. He starts each back workout with four sets of eight to 12 reps, pyramiding up in weight and pulling to the front. Later in the session he does four more sets, using either a narrow grip or pulling behind the neck. One tip he offers for getting the most out of lat pulldowns is to use a false, or thumbless, grip—thumbs on the same side of the bar as your four fingers. “If you wrap your thumbs around the bar like most guys do, you’ll use too much biceps,” he explains. “I know; I used to. A false grip lets you use the hands more like hooks, transferring more of the stress directly to the lats, where you want it.” If chins are working well for you, by all means don’t let me cause you to drop them from your routine. If you’ve never quite felt they were doing the trick and have only been chinning out of guilt or a sense of duty to the venerable exercise, though, let this be your permission slip to head for the pulldown station. —Ron Harris www.RonHarrisMuscle.com

Phil Heath’s nutritionist, Hany Rambod, recalls being asked roughly a thousand times what Phil was going to weigh for his much-anticipated 2007 debut at the Arnold Classic. “I don’t care if he doesn’t gain an ounce,” he’d reply. “My main concern is that he improve a couple areas of his physique that need to come up and that his conditioning is as spoton as it was when he won his pro debut at the Denver show in 2006.” Heath did in fact make the improvements and maintain his freaky cuts and grainy hardness, and in doing so, he managed to beat men who were anywhere from 20 to 60 pounds heavier. I say it all the time, but I obviously still need to keep repeating it—it’s not about bodyweight. I just received photos from an NPC Superheavyweight who’d been promising to send the shots from his most recent contest for months so I could evaluate his potential. He’d told me he was 240 pounds in contest condition at 5’10”, so I was expecting a pretty impressive physique. Not to berate the poor guy too much, but when I finally saw his photos, his was just about the ugliest body I’d ever seen in a pair of posing trunks, with a big pregnant belly, stick legs and misshapen muscles Phil Heath. all over. I could compare it to Frankenstein’s monster in the sense that it appeared to be an assortment of mismatched bodyparts, but I wouldn’t want to insult Frankie. In contrast, I’d just looked at some photos online of a natural pro bodybuilder named Rob Hope who weighed only 170 pounds. Believe me when I say that any of you would much rather look like him than the 240-pound troll, as his physique had incredible shape, wonderful proportions and clear, deep muscle separations that made him appear much larger and more visually stunning than his weight would have made you think. So again I continue my mantra in hopes that it will catch on in our iron brotherhood. It’s not about what you weigh, people. It’s all about how you look, and the scale is no indication of that. Make it your goal to look better, not just to weigh more. —Ron Harris www.RonHarrisMuscle.com

34 AUGUST 2007 \ www.ironmanmagazine.com

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Merv

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MATURE MUSCLE

eating for muscle, Diet for Big-Gain Hunters Paleolithic health and leanness

• The human body stopped evolving approximately 40,000 years ago. That is to say that all of our organs—the pancreas, liver, kidneys, adrenal glands, hypothalamus, pituitary and so on—stopped evolving at that point. That was long before the age of plant and animal domestication, which began some 30,000 years later. • There were tribes of nomadic men, women and children that often chased the food they would kill and eat. Those hunter-gatherers had to fight extraordinary weather and enormous beasts for their protein. • Omnivorous—basically carnivorous—behavior occurred all over the world, with the exception of the equator, where tribes ate plants; however, those who lived on the plains and were primarily carnivores had the greatest amount of muscle and skeletal size. Those who lived in the thick jungle around the equator were much smaller. • Paleolithic peoples had the greatest physicality and what we might call athletic ability. Those muscular, lean, powerful and athletic people had been developing their bodies for thousands of years while team hunting for giant animals in the wild. They ate wild meat, wild roots and wild nuts, fruits and berries. At their peak of muscle size and strength the average man was about 6’1”, weighing 220 pounds of lean muscle. Women were also taller, leaner and more muscular than any other group to that point. • Hunter-gatherers of the Paleolithic era began to disappear gradually about 12,000 years ago due to food processing. Bodies began declining thanks to plant and animal domestication. Humans had cleverly begun to realize that the 1 percent of foliage on earth that was suitable for human consumption could all be domesticated, replanted in neat rows and harvested. Animals were also crossbred and domesticated for food. • Over some 9,000 years the human body began shrinking at a rate of about .5 inches per millennium; muscle was declining at the rate of about five pounds per millennia—and bodyfat was increasing. Plant and animal domestication made life easier, but men were shorter, fatter and less athletic than during the hunter-gatherer era.

muscle and athleticism, had lost an average of seven to nine inches of height and 40 to 50 pounds of muscle. Why? Bodies weren’t being exercised or fed wild meat and wild plants. The stage was set for a human musculoskeletal meltdown, and, sure enough, it happened. That brings us to the invention of the grist mill, which pulverized grain for making flour in the early 18th century. Some nutritional anthropologists believe this to be the beginning of every biological marker of aging—from diabetes to heart disease. Cancer, although not a biological marker for aging, nonetheless was and is a killer related to “new” food technologies and mental stressors. We’ve now progressed to what I call the Great Synthetic Food Experiment of the 20th and 21st centuries. Just think how difficult it is for your unevolved pancreas to deal with flour, candy, sugar, maple syrup—if man has made it, there is a consequence for eating it. Think of this too: The meat that was once running wild and that was hunted by the great Paleolithians was ready to eat raw after the kill. Nothing is assimilated and conjoined with the right enzymes into the cell more than raw meat or fish. We now eat marbleized meat, which is loaded with hormones and antibiotics. So the best things to eat for muscle mass are fresh fish, the leanest meats possible—containing no steroids—so-called organic vegetables, fresh fruits, monounsaturated oils, fresh nuts and wild berries. That type of diet makes lean muscle, and it makes sense based on human evolution. Before eating something, you have to ask a question: Is it something that the great hunter-gatherers would have eaten, or is it something that humans have altered with chemicals bearing names like yellow dye no. 5? Also, most cereals are worthless because they’re refined. Even smoothies aren’t great simply because they’re blended into an unnatural consistency that may wreak havoc with the pancreas—despite the fact that all of their ingredients may be raw, with micro- and macronutrients and good protein. Blended means it’s altered from its original, natural state, which makes it an aging-type food, contributing to insulin resistance. What was eaten 40,000 years ago, the Paleolithic diet, created the most massively muscular athletic bodies. We should stay as close to that type of eating possible to be lean and muscular. —Paul Burke Editor’s note: To contact Paul Burke, write to him at pbptb@aol.com. Burke has a master’s degree in integrated studies from Cambridge College in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He’s been a champion bodybuilder and arm wrestler, and he’s considered a leader in the field of over-40 fitness training. You can purchase his book Burke’s Law—a New Fitness Paradigm for the Mature Male, from Home Gym Warehouse. Call (800) 447-0008, or visit www.Home-Gym.com. His “Burke’s Law” training DVD is also now available. Neveux \ Model: Joe Kozma

Q: How should I eat to complement my workouts so I gain the most muscle and lose fat? A: Eating for lean muscle growth (and fat loss) is a key element in your quest for a healthy, aesthetic, muscular physique. In order to understand why one should follow the diet I recommend, we must go back in time, for to know the history of human food consumption is to know the very pillars of the way we should eat today. Here are some key facts:

By the 11th century Homo sapiens, once a marvel of pure 36 AUGUST 2007 \ www.ironmanmagazine.com

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Was Arnold the first X-Repper? Probably not, but he may have been the most famous to instinctively do partials in the stretch and semistretch position of certain exercises. Take chins, for example. It was written that the Oak could do chins with 300 pounds strapped around his waist. In fact, however, Arnold had a hard time with full-range chins. That’s not to take anything away from him (he was, is and always shall be the greatest), but everyone has weaknesses. I’m sure his long arms made chinning more difficult, but they also helped him pull 700 pounds in the deadlift. So you win some, you lose some—even if your name is Arnold. But Arnold being Arnold, he wasn’t going to just give up on chins. He saw their value and knew that pulldowns wouldn’t cut it. What Arnold did—and what we should all do from time to time—is analyze why something isn’t working and find a way around it. He found that he got the best gains in the semistretch position—the point near the bottom of the rep on chins. In his words, the stretch at the bottom plus the first part of the stroke hit “the mass of the lat muscles.” So Arnold took the chinup and split it into two separate movements. It’s been mentioned before in IRON MAN, but it bears repeating: Arnold employed his early version of partials (X Reps) on many movements and for bodyparts that were considered his best. (Incidentally, he rarely did extended X-Rep-type sets for his quads and hamstrings, and those two muscle groups were often criticized as being his weak points. Hmm. Of course, Arnold’s weak points beat most others’ strong points any day, but it makes you wonder if his quads and hams could’ve been even better with partials and stretch overload.) Now, it’s doubtful that he knew of the possible fiber-splitting, or hyperplasia, effect of stretch exercises (even today the theory is just coming into mainstream training), but he did know his own body. Being the master trainer that he was, he instinctively trained the ever-important stretch position as often as possible. What Arnold found worked best for size building was to use a weight belt and hang plates or dumbbells from it. He’d then do partial chins from the full stretch to roughly the midpoint of the stroke. He didn’t use 300 pounds, but he did go heavy. His version of X-Reps on chins was to do a full set of partial-pulse reps—X-only sets. The standard way is to add the partials at the end of a regular set, as so many trainees are starting to do now. The X-only technique is something he also

Balik \ Model: Arnold Schwarzenegger

Arnold’s X-Overload Chins used on dumbbell flyes. Arnold would pull the dumbbells up from the bottom, stretch position to midrep, then return to full stretch. That kept tension on his pecs, and he could use heavy weights to hit the deep fibers in the belly of the muscle. It was the same with chins. The extra weight hanging from his waist made it impossible for him to do full reps, so he did bottom-end partials, or X Reps, and overloaded the belly of

his lats, stimulating incredible size gains. Arnold also saw value in the top of the chin, the peak contraction. So after his heavy bottom-end set, he would decrease the weight on his belt and get to the top of the chin by stepping on a bench or stool. He’d hold the contracted position for a moment, then descend to the midpoint before returning to the top, contraction point again. He’d continue the top-end partials to exhaustion, then hang from the chin bar to stretch the scapula and his monstrously wide back. When it comes to chins, you can copy Arnold and do XRep partials exclusively at the bottom with very heavy weights, or you can do regular chins to failure and then add X-Rep bottom-end partials at full-range exhaustion. The latter is the more traditional way of doing X Reps—but try overloading the stretch position with heavy weights and see how it works for you. Here’s a sample routine you may want to try: General warmup and lat/chest/shoulder stretch Bottom X-Rep partial chins 2x8 Top-end peak-contraction chins (hold the top of each rep for a count to squeeze) 2 x 10 Superset Cable rows 2 x 12 Dumbbell pullovers 2 x 12 Hyperextensions 2 x 20 Reverse hyperextensions 2 x 20 Extreme lat stretches (grab upright with one arm, lean forward, drop your hips and stretch) 60 seconds per side Train your traps on shoulder day. Give this two-in-one chin routine a try, and see if you don’t add some slabs of beef on your back. —William Litz Editor’s note: For more on X Reps, visit X-Rep.com.

38 AUGUST 2007 \ www.ironmanmagazine.com

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The L-flye isn’t an exercise that builds lots of muscle, and it’s not an exercise that you commonly see. It is, however, an important exercise and should be included in every bodybuilder’s training program to help keep the shoulders healthy and strong. A strength imbalance between the opposing external and internal rotators is a major contributing factor to shoulder problems. The external rotators tend to be weaker, and the internal rotators, which include the powerful pecs and lats, tend to be stronger. The L-flye reduces the strength imbalance. To distinguish between the external and internal rotators of your humerus, imagine you’re shaking someone’s hand with your right hand. Keep your right elbow bent at a right angle and your elbow fixed at your side. Moving your right hand to the right is external rotation; moving it to the left is internal rotation. The L-flye strengthens two commonly neglected articular shoulder muscles, meaning that they connect to the shoulder joint: the infraspinatus and teres minor, both of which rotate the humerus externally, or laterally, and also adduct it. The other two articular muscles are the subscapularis, which rotates the humerus internally, or medially; and the supraspinatus, which abducts the humerus only. The tendons of those four muscles fuse with tissues of the shoulder joint at the rotator cuff. The L-flye has a small weight potential. A male novice may need a year or more to build up to using just 10 pounds, and a female novice may need a year or more to build up to using just four or five pounds. The use of small disks is critical to ensuring that progressive resistance is applied gradually. Performing the L-flye. Lie on your left side on a bench, and place your left hand on the floor for stability. With a small plate or very light dumbbell in your right hand, form a 90-degree angle at your elbow—the L shape. Put your right elbow on your right oblique muscles or hip, depending on your body structure. A folded towel placed in the hollow between your hip and rib cage may help you to maintain the correct elbow position. Lower the weight until your right forearm rests against your abs, then raise your right forearm as far as possible. Keep your right elbow fixed against your side throughout the set. Inhale on the descent, and exhale on the ascent. Finish the set, turn around, and work your left side.

How to keep your rotators healthy

Do the exercise slowly—three seconds for the lifting phase, pause for a second at the top, three seconds for the lowering phase, pause for a second at the bottom, and then smoothly move into the next ascent. Never train the L-flye to failure, never raise your elbow, and never roll backward even a little. Variations. You can perform the L-flye while standing, using a cable or band that runs horizontally to the floor at about waist height. Stand sideways to the cable, right foot nearest the cable, your feet about hip width apart, a single cable handle in your left hand, left elbow near your left side and bent at a right angle, and left forearm across your abdomen. Rest your right hand on your right hip or thigh. That’s the starting position. Slowly and smoothly move your left hand outward. Keep your left humerus vertical, left elbow near your left side, and left forearm parallel with the floor. Pause for a second at the point of fullest rotation, and smoothly and slowly return to the starting position. Pause for a second, then repeat. Take special care with any variation of the cable or pulley L-flye. The muscular tension is such that when your muscles tire near the end of a set, it’s easy to lose the groove of a rep and get injured. The dumbbell lying L-flye can be controlled better and is safer. Furthermore, depending on the minimum resistance of the cable or pulley arrangement, you may first need to build sufficient strength by using the lying L-flye, on which you can start with a tiny plate or other item. Incremental resistance isn’t possible with the type of cables that come in bands—to progress from one band to two, for example, is a huge jump. On the other hand, you can apply incremental resistance to the lying L-flye and the pulley L-flye. —Stuart McRobert www.Hardgainer.com Editor’s note: Stuart McRobert’s first byline in IRON MAN appeared in 1981. He’s the author of Build Muscle, Lose Fat, Look Great, the new 638-page opus on bodybuilding, available from Home Gym Warehouse (800) 447-0008 or www.Home-Gym.com.

40 AUGUST 2007 \ www.ironmanmagazine.com

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Tune In, Turn It Down If I’ve noticed one disturbing phenomenon more than any others in my more than two decades in this game, it’s the mysterious vanishing act that seems to befall a large number of competitive bodybuilders. They don’t vanish literally—but their muscle mass sure does as they diet down. I’ve seen some guys who were packing serious offseason beef—thick mothers—who somehow managed to lose a frightening amount of that by the time they got onstage. Sometimes the transition from big and full to sickly, flat and stringy didn’t happen until the last four or five weeks before the contest. I’ve seen guys who a month out were looking as if they were going to do some major damage show up onstage like shadows of their former selves. I’ve seen one of those guys too many times, and I still see that fool every time I look into a mirror. What went wrong? What happened to the lean mass? In my case, getting too fat in the off-season and trying to burn off 40 pounds of lard in 10 or 12 weeks was often to blame. For others the reason is overtraining. As a contest approaches, they drastically increase their training intensity, volume and frequency. It’s not uncommon to see athletes doing more different exercises and sets per bodypart—supersets, drop sets and forced reps. They may even be weight training twice a day, ostensibly to devote more focus and energy to each individual muscle group. What’s

Comstock

Jay Cutler.

really going on is overtraining. At the same time they’ve greatly increased their cardiovascular training while drastically reducing overall calories in general and carbohydrates in specific. We all know that you don’t build muscle while you’re getting ripped. It’s just not possible; you’re taking in too few calories to support muscle growth. What you should really be aiming to do in a contestprep period is to maintain as much muscle mass as possible while simultaneously burning off the maximum amount of bodyfat. To do that, you need to take purposeful measures. Champion bodybuilders like Jay Cutler, Bob Cicherillo and Gary Strydom have all said that they actually reduce their training volume as a contest approaches. They keep the weights heavy and don’t do a whole lot of reps—maybe 10 to 15 for the upper body and 12 to 20 for the lower. Strydom saves the supersets and giant sets for the off-season, simply doing heavy straight sets precontest. Using significantly lighter weights in the precontest phase is a very efficient way to force your muscles to shrink. If thighs that can squat with 500 pounds are trained with 300 pounds long enough, the odds are good that the thighs will atrophy a bit. Obviously, you can’t and shouldn’t lift 100 percent of what you can handle at your off-season weight, but you still need to lift heavy enough for it to be a real challenge. That’s the best recipe for staying big and full that I know of. So before you start spending a lot more time on the weight floor as a contest approaches, think twice. It’s not the time to burn your muscles out. It is the time to downshift your training volume to allow for better recovery during a period that’s stressful for the body. Do that, and you have nothing to lose—literally. —Ron Harris www.RonHarrisMuscle.com

42 AUGUST 2007 \ www.ironmanmagazine.com

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Q. What’s your take on training with Swiss balls? A: The problem with Swiss balls is that people do things with them that their bodies aren’t designed to do. For example, squatting on a Swiss ball is completely moronic. It’s a party trick. One of the problems is that you have to squat bowlegged. One guy in the industry was showing off by doing it at a seminar. He jumped off and blew out his ACL. What happens is that you put the ligament in a bad stretch from squatting bowlegged. Now, if you use the Swiss ball to modify the strength curve, as I’ve done with some arm-training movements, it’s fine. With Poliquin’s lean-away eccentric curls, you sit with your back and triceps resting against the side of a Swiss ball. Perform the concentric (lifting) range of a seated

Using barbells and dumbbells activates and overloads the prime movers much more than trying to do the same exercise on a Swiss ball or other unstable device. 46 AUGUST 2007 \ www.ironmanmagazine.com

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Balls-to-the-Wall Training

dumbbell curl. Once you curl the dumbbells to the top, raise your hips so that your thighs are parallel to the floor. Your upper body should then be on top of the ball. Lower the dumbbells down and away from you. Lower your hips and repeat until you hit your target number of reps. Swiss balls are good for certain core exercises. There are people out there, however, making outrageous claims—Swiss balls cure cancer and get the IRS off your back. Recent research has shown that Swiss ball training for your core works only for six weeks (which is what I’ve been saying since ’94). You’ll get more abdominal activation from the squat and deadlift than any Swiss ball exercise, no matter how difficult. So if you’re an untrained person, you can do the Swiss ball, but after six weeks you’ll top out on the gains you’ll get. Incidentally, about 70 percent of Swiss ball exercises are worthless. It’s just one of those things where people are taking an idea too far. There’s some value to it, but it’s not a cure-all. Most personal trainers and strength coaches just don’t know how to get people strong. I remember talking with one trainer who uses a lot of stability gizmos. I asked him why he used all that shit, and he said, “I’m not good, so I have to do these weird things so people will come to see me.” I remember seeing him make a postmenopausal woman do one-hand split jerks with a fat dumbbell. Now, Adam Nelson is one of the best shot-putters in the world, and I don’t make him do that. The risks are way too high. The problem with using rubber disks and similar devices is that you have to use loads that are so insignificant that none of the prime movers really get activated. So if a woman can overheadpress a 25-pound dumbbell, she’ll only be able to use an eight-pounder while performing this circus act on a stability device. She just won’t be overloading her muscles. I call it entertainment training, not strength training. And any time I see that horseshit, I want to kick the personal trainer in the head with a pair of steel-toed construction boots. And the BOSU ball? The BOSU ball is a Swiss ball for morons. When you stand on it, you’re always bowlegged. Why do you want to get into a position that’s not good

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Smart Training inertia. What makes you overcome inertia? Getting stronger. Entertainment training gets you better at the specific skill that you’re practicing, but it doesn’t make you stronger, and it doesn’t transfer to the field. It’s a way to make money as a personal trainer, but it’s not a way to make money as a strength coach, because your athletes won’t get any real results. By the way, if you look at the studies on the core, it’s actually the least trainable part (after the hands) of all the muscles in the human body. (The calf is actually the most improvable.)

Good personal trainers strive to make their clients stronger. Those who rely on gimmicks and games don’t produce results.

Q: Are meal-replacement shakes really a healthful alternative to eating breakfast, lunch or dinner? Neveux \ Model: TK Frey and Ken Yasuda

A: They can be. It depends on their content. Most of the meal-replacement powders are downright terrible. They’re often vitamin and mineral–fortified but improperly formulated and sometimes neurotoxic due to elevated manganese levels. And some have unnecessarily high copper and iron content. Because of the added vitamins and minerals, they often need to be sweetened, which raises their glycemic index. Some of the sweeteners used in those powders are linked to all manner of negative impact on the nervous system. In order for a mealreplacement powder to get the thumbsup from me, it must be low carb and contain omega-3 fats and protein from varied sources, such as whey and casein. That diminishes their impact on blood sugar. If you use one, add a scoop of nut butter to it, which A good meal replacement contains lowers the glycemic index protein from a number of sources— like whey and casein. and so creates a more stable

for your knees and ankles? One of the dumbest things I see is the lying dumbbell press done on a Swiss ball using only one arm. The most a 180-pound guy will be able to use is about 45 pounds. Why? Because if you use more, you’re going to flip over. The same guy can use much more than 45 pounds on regular flat-bench dumbbell presses. So what’s the point? “It activates the core.” Yeah, and to what degree? All you’re doing is firing some stabilizers just to control yourself so you don’t flip over, but you’re not overloading the pressing muscles. It’s circus training, and it doesn’t do anything. These devices do work well—in marketing terms. It’s like those speed ladders. Parents see them and get impressed, but no world-class sprinter has ever used a speed ladder. It’s never made anyone faster on the track or the field; it only made them better at doing speed-ladder drills. Once the speed ladder has become an Olympic event, I’ll train my athletes for it. What we know from an industry standpoint is that all those centers that rely on gimmicks and games, especially the ones geared for teenagers, need to have 76 new clients a month to stay afloat. Why? Because client turnover is very high. The kid goes there and does all this circus training, but he doesn’t get faster on the field, and he doesn’t get stronger. He goes to camp and gets tested on the bench and power clean and comes off like an 11-year-old stamp collector and gets cut from the team. Whenever you sprint, jump or throw, you’re overcoming 48 AUGUST 2007 \ www.ironmanmagazine.com

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Charles Poliquin’s

Smart Training Split Option C Day 1: Hamstrings, calves Day 2: Back, shoulders Day 3: Off Day 4: Quads, calves Day 5: Chest, arms Day 6: Off Split Option D Day 1: Back, calves Day 2: Chest Day 3: Hamstrings, abs Day 4: Shoulders, arms Day 5: Quadriceps, calves Day 6: Off Day 7: Off Q: I can’t seem to add any more size to my biceps. Any suggestions? A: When bodybuilders complain that they can’t add mass or strength to their elbow flexors, I often suggest that they do some direct grip and foreStrengthening your forearms and grip will help you use heavier weights in arm work. A few forearm your curling exercises, which will result in bigger arms. muscles, such as the flexor carpi radialis, contribute to elbow flexion. Consequentblood sugar curve. ly, if you build them up, it’ll lead to enhanced biceps and brachialis development. Elite bodybuilders of the ’60s, like Q: I was hoping you could tell me what would be Chuck Sipes and Larry Scott—known for handling hercubetter for muscle growth. In the past I’ve worked lean poundages in curling exercises—were proponents of each muscle group twice a week: Monday and that training principle. Thursday, chest, triceps; Tuesday and Friday, back There’s another benefit to working on your forearm and and biceps; Wednesday and Saturday, shoulders and grip strength. If you perform regular grip work, it’ll permit legs. I was wondering if I’d get the same effect workyou to use greater loads in key back exercises, such as pulling each muscle group once a week. What if I were ups and various rowing movements. As you know, using to work chest and tri’s on Monday, back and biceps heavier weights means a greater overload on the muscular on Wednesday, shoulders and legs on Friday? Maybe structure, and a greater overload on the muscular structure you could suggest some kind of workout that would means greater hypertrophy. give me better results.

Split Option A Day 1: Chest, back Day 2: Legs, abs Day 3: Off Day 4: Shoulder, arms Day 5: Off Split Option B Day 1: Back, triceps Day 2: Quads, hamstrings, abs Day 3: Off Day 4: Chest, biceps Day 5: Shoulders, calves Day 6: Off

Editor’s note: Charles Poliquin is recognized as one of the world’s most successful strength coaches, having coached Olympic medalists in 12 different sports, including the U.S. women’s track-and-field team for the 2000 Olympics. He’s spent years researching European journals (he’s fluent in English, French and German) and speaking with other coaches and scientists in his quest to optimize training methods. For more on his books, seminars and methods, visit www .CharlesPoliquin.net. Also, see his ad on page 237. IM Charles Poliquin w w w. C h a r l e s P o l i q u i n . n e t

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Bradford

A: That is way too much volume and frequency. Your best bet is to use one of the following splits. The one you select will be influenced by factors such as recovery ability, strong and weak points, schedule and gym hours:

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\ JULY 2006 181

GOOD FAT

Does Fish Oil Help Burn Bodyfat? More than 40 years ago famed bodybuilding trainer Vince Gironda, whose trainees included many of the top bodybuilders of the ’60s and ’70s, stated that to lose bodyfat, you needed to eat fat. Dietary fat has nine calories per gram, 2 1/4 times as many calories as protein and carbohydrate (four calories per gram each), so fat is the densest form of energy. In addition, studies show that it’s far easier for the body to convert dietary fat into bodyfat than it

For fish oil to have an effect on fat burning, you have to use it regularly.

is to convert protein or carbs. So was Vince wrong about fat? No. Science has confirmed that Vince was prescient. He also advocated a low-carbohydrate diet, and we now know that restricting carbs turns the body from a sugar-burning machine to a fat-burning machine, the result being that you not only tap into bodyfat stores but also oxidize, or burn, fat more rapidly. Vince had observed that polyunsaturated fat seemed linked to a greater use of bodyfat as fuel for exercise. Recent studies have confirmed that and have found that polyunsaturated fat can turn off fat-synthesizing genes in the body, though some forms are better at it than others. Omega-6 fats, found in various vegetable oils, qualify as polyunsaturated fats. Linoleic acid, for example, is one of two essential fatty

acids, meaning that the body cannot synthesize it and must get it from food. Enzymes convert linoleic acid into arachidonic acid, which is trouble because that’s the major substrate for eicosanoids, substances that are potent inflammatories. Out-of-control inflammation is now recognized as the underlying cause of most degenerative disease, such as cardiovascular disease and cancer. Clearly, taking large doses of omega-6 fats to speed bodyfat loss is a nonstarter, unless you’re interested in a slow, painful death. Omega-3 fats, the other essential fatty acids, are present in fish oil and are quite another matter. They suppress inflammation and offer many other health benefits. The question is, Do they help you lose bodyfat? Animal studies show that taking in a lot of omega-3 fat blunts bodyfat synthesis, even when you eat a lot of saturated fat, which is ordinarily associated with insulin resistance and bodyfat gain. Another type of fat, conjugated linoleic acid, encourages fat loss in rodents and other animals, but the effect in humans isn’t as clear. Among the various isomers of CLA, only one kind can induce fat loss. In terms of their influence on fat loss, omega-3 fats are nearly as controversial as CLA. A recent study provided a generous dose of fish oil supplements to eight healthy young men, average age 24, whose average bodyfat level was 19 percent and who were engaged in exercise.1 Some of them took 7.2 grams a day of a fish oil supplement while others took nothing for 14 days. They exercised for 30 minutes on a stationary cycle at a low level of intensity to maximize the use of fat as fuel. The men took six capsules of a fish oil supplement, two with each of three

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Nutrition With a Get-Big Mission meals. They ate a meal consisting of 80 percent carbs, 8 percent fat and 12 percent protein 2 1/2 hours before the workout. Since eating that much carbohydrate before exercise is known to block the use of fat as a fuel source, four of the men in the supplement group didn’t eat anything but did take the supplement. There were no differences in fat burning in those who got the fish oil and those who didn’t. Another study found the same result: no acute effect of fish oil intake on fat oxidation during exercise. That study, however, came to a different conclusion.2 Seven young men (aged 21 to 27), all of whom were actively engaged in both weight training and endurance exercise, were divided into the following groups:

four grams daily, but took that dose for 24 to 28 days. As with the other study, taking a large dose of fish oil before exercise didn’t affect fat oxidation in the short term. When used for a longer period, however, the fish oil significantly increased the use of fat during exercise. Conclusion: You get better fat loss when you take fish oil supplements long term. Fish oil aids fat burning because it helps suppress bodyfat synthesis and amplifies fat oxidation in both the liver and muscle. It also lowers malonyl coenzyme-A, a substance produced from carbohydrates that blunts fat burning during exercise. Fish oils stimulate the activity of a gene activator called peroxisomal proliferator-activated receptoralpha, or PPAR-A, which ignites genes 1) No meal involved in thermogenesis, fatty acid transport and fat oxidation. 2) Exercise four hours following a A recent study examined the fat-oxihigh-fat meal dizing effects of EPA, one of two major omega-3 fatty acids.3 Rats were given 3) Exercise four hours after a high-fat a high-fat diet that paralleled the kinds meal in which some of the fat was of food eaten by obese humans. One replaced by a caloric equivalent of group of rats also got supplemental fish oil EPA and gained significantly less About four grams of fish oil a day The subjects can give you a leg up on fat burning. bodyfat than the jogged at low unsupplemented intensity for rats. The rats on 60 minutes. In EPA experienced the first phase an increase in of the study PPAR-A activity they received and in apoptoa massive, or sis, or the self“acute,” dose of destruction of fish oil—16 to fat cells. They 22 grams—with also had higher a high-fat meal levels of adipojust prior to nectin, an antiexercise. In the inflammatory second part of substance that the study they favors fat oxidagot far less fish tion, as well as oil, averaging decreased tumor

necrosis factor-A, an inflammatory. Leptin, still another substance released by fat cells, became normalized in the EPA rats, a metabolic scenario friendly to bodyfat loss. While some have suggested taking 15 grams or more a day of fish oil for fat loss, the study suggested a daily dose of four grams. Flaxseed oil, which is often listed as a good source of omega-3s, contains alpha linoleic acid, a precursor of DHA and EPA, the active omega-3 fats. Unfortunately, the human body converts only up to 5 percent of ALA into EPA and DHA, making fish oil a far more reliable source of those valuable nutrients. —Jerry Brainum

References 1 Bortolotti, M., et al. (2007). Fish oil supplementation does not alter energy efficiency in healthy males. Clin Nutr. 26(2):225-30. 2 Huffman, D.M., et al. (2004). Chronic supplementation with fish oil increases fat oxidation during exercise in young men. J Exerc Physiol Online. 7:48-56. 3 Matute-Perez P. (2007). Eicosapentaenoic acid actions on adiposity and insulin resistance in control and high-fat fed rats: role of apoptosis, adiponectin and tumor necrosis factor-A. Brit J Nutr. 97:389-98.

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NUTRITION NOTES

Food Facts That can affect your workouts, weight and wellness

Frequent carb depletion and replenishment can pump you up.

WARRIOR NUTRITION AND EXERCISE

Glycogen Stretching

To boost metabolism, build muscle and lose bodyfat

Glycogen is the carbohydrate energy reserve in the muscles and liver. In sedentary people glycogen supplies only a few hundred calories. After those calories are burned, they may experience some unpleasant symptoms, such as dizziness, nervousness or exhaustion. Conversely, a trained person will be able to burn twice as many glycogen-available calories without side effects. Maintaining a proper diet and exercise routine can increase glycogen reserves and endurance. Let’s say that you work out like a warrior on an empty stomach and then overeat. After a few months you may increase the glycogen reserves in your muscles by simply depleting and then overcompensating carbs on a daily basis. Your body gradually adapts by increasing its own glycogen reserves. Glycogen holds water in the muscle tissue. That’s what gives your muscles a pumped look. When people are depleted of glycogen, they may look as if they’ve shrunk. They haven’t lost muscle, however; they’ve lost glycogen. Replenishing empty glycogen reserves by overeating will give the muscle back its pumped look. The more you deplete and pump, the more the adaptation process will lead to glycogen stretching. —Ori Hofmekler Editor’s note: Ori Hofmekler is the author of the books The Warrior Diet and Maximum Muscle & Minimum Fat, which is 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.

Cinnamon may help lower cholesterol and triglycerides. In one study subjects experienced a 13 percent decrease in cholesterol and a 23 percent decrease in triglyceride levels after 40 days of taking one to six grams of cinnamon a day. Cherries are packed with antioxidants. According to the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, a 90-calorie cup of cherries has more antioxidants than three ounces of almonds. Plus, they may help prevent the risk of inflammatory diseases such as arthritis, heart disease and some cancers. Hemp contains protein. It’s one of the few plants that have all nine essential amino acids and is a good source of omega-3 fatty acids, a good fat. Look for hemp-based food products and hemp seeds—but eat them, don’t smoke them. Oatmeal is included in the breakfast of many dieting bodybuilders. It’s a fine source of lowglycemic carbs, plus it keeps you feeling full longer. A recent study found that the fiber in rolled oats reduces appetite with few calories. Onions can protect you from cancer. In a study reported in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, researchers found that people who ate at least two per week had almost a 40 percent lower colorectal cancer risk and a 56 percent reduced risk of throat cancer. The study didn’t comment on lack of close friends.

—Becky Holman www.X-tremeLean.com

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

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BEEF IT

Twenty-nine men between the ages of 51 and 69 participated in a diet study. Nineteen were put in a group that ate meat and 10 in a vegetarian group. The protein content was the same for both diets, 15 percent, with both groups following the same resistance-training program. Even so, the group eating meat showed greater gains in fat-free mass and skeletal muscle than did those on the vegetarian diet. The only explanation researchers could find was that testosterone levels had tended to be lower in the group getting a vegetarian diet in other studies—even when protein was higher. A vegetarian diet may be helpful for older men’s heart health due to its effect on blood fats. On the other hand, building more muscle in older men may increase the protective HDL cholesterol and help reverse sarcopenia, or agerelated muscle degeneration. A solution may be for older men to eat

FAT BURN

Neveux \ Model: Pax Beale

Muscle: Vegetarians vs. Meat Eaters

very lean meats while increasing their intake of fruits, vegetables, grains and lowfat dairy products. —Daniel Curtis, R.D.

VITAMINS

Fat-to-Muscle Hustle C Your Abs L-carnitine is getting high marks as a potent fat-to-muscle supplement, as it helps move fat into the mitochondria of cells for energy production. A recent study showed that having higher levels of muscle carnitine helps preserve glycogen and forces the body to burn more fat for energy. Another study found that it increases anabolic receptors in muscle tissue, an effect that would make anabolic steroids more powerful muscle builders. Two to three grams of L-carnitine, spaced throughout the day, can help you get bigger and leaner. —Becky Holman www.X-tremeLean.com

A study out of Arizona State University found a correlation between low vitamin C and low fat burning during low-intensity exercise. Subjects who were lacking in vitamin C burned 25 percent less fat than those who had normal vitamin C levels. Giving vitamin C to those who were deficient upgraded their fat-burning activity. Perhaps a 500-milligram dose of vitamin C before cardio is good fat-burning insurance. —Becky Holman www.X-tremeLean.com

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BOOKS

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ANABOLIC DRIVE

Combo to Grow Looking for a combination of proteins and amino acids that’ll increase muscle mass all the way down to the molecular level? Look no further. Scientists from Baylor University and the University of Oklahoma studied the effects of 10 weeks of weight training and the intake of supplemental protein and amino acids on muscle performance and muscle physiology. Nineteen men were randomly assigned to supplement groups containing either 40 grams of a protein-and-amino cocktail or 40 grams of a dextrose placebo. Here’s the supplement cocktail breakdown: 14 grams 6 grams 4 grams 4 grams 12 grams Histidine 0.22 grams Leucine 6.0 grams Methionine 0.44 grams Valine 0.22 grams Glutamine 2.0 grams

The dose was split so subjects got 20 grams one hour before and 20 grams after exercise. On nonexercise days they got their supplement in the morning upon waking. For exercise they did three sets of six to eight reps at 85 to 90 percent of one-repetition maximum. Results: The protein-and-amino cocktail added six pounds of bodyweight—6.4 pounds of lean body mass with a loss of about two pounds of fat. But just as impressive was the fact that the subjects getting it gained strength in the bench press and leg press. The scientists discovered that the actual muscle protein gained was clearly much greater in the proteinand-amino group. In fact, the difference was an astounding 137 percent.

ANTICATABOLISM

Tea Time Tea has lots of health benefits, and not just the green variety. In a recent study, conducted at the University College London, subjects who drank black tea had lower levels of cortisol, the muscle-eating stress hormone, than those who drank a placebo with the same quantity of caffeine. —Becky Holman www.X-tremeLean.com

Neveux \ Model: Randy Vogelzang

Whey protein concentrate Whey protein isolate Milk protein isolate Calcium caseinate Free amino acids Arginine 0.22 grams Isoleucine 0.14 grams Lysine 0.44 grams Tyrosine 2.0 grams Aspartate 0.12 grams Phenylalanine 0.20 grams

For all the academic nitwits out there who still subscribe to the delusional notion that it doesn’t matter when you eat your calories, read this study. Even though both groups got roughly the same number of calories at other meals—and more specifically, protein grams per day (approximately 2.2 to 2.3 grams of protein per kilogram of bodyweight)—the group that supplemented before and after training with a specific cocktail of amino acids and protein did remarkably better. I distinctly remember being told by one of my exercise physiology professors that “it doesn’t matter when you eat this stuff since nearly all your recovery occurs when you sleep.” If that were true, both groups should have adapted similarly. So what’s the scientific rationale for these differences? It’s not—or not only—due to serum insulin, since the placebo group, getting more carbohydrate, had a more pronounced insulin rise. The protein-and-amino supplement had a greater effect on serum IGF-1 and muscle IGF-1 mRNA. Because the participants’ intake of macronutrients did not change and all participants trained with the same exercises and relative intensity, the consistent elevation in pre- and postexercise serum insulin and IGF-1 ultimately translated into the greater increases seen in thigh mass, fat-free mass, total-body mass and muscle strength. Furthermore, the addition of free amino acids, particularly the six grams of leucine, gave an extra kick to muscle protein synthesis. Bottom line: Drinking sugar-only concoctions like Gatorade ain’t gonna cut it. You need protein. Protein. Leucine. Aminos. —Jose Antonio, Ph.D. Editor’s note: You can listen to Dr. Jose Antonio and Carla Sanchez on their radio show Performance Nutrition, Web and podcast at www.performancenutritionshow.com. Dr. Antonio is the CEO of the International Society of Sports Nutrition—www.TheISSN.org. His other Web sites include www.SupplementCoach.com, www.Javafit.com, www .PerformanceNutritionShow.com, and www.JoseAntonioPhD .com. Willoughby, D.S., et al. (2006). Effects of resistance training and protein plus amino acid supplementation on muscle anabolism, mass and strength. Amino Acids DOI. In press.

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LOW CARB

Fewer Carbs, Less Need for Sleep? Sleep is an integral part of the recovery process, and if you don’t get enough, you simply won’t grow. We all know that. But how much sleep do we really need? And is it possible that a simple dietary factor could be making us think we need a lot more sleep than we actually do? I started considering that in depth after speaking recently with ’07 IRON MAN Pro champion Toney Freeman. Just prior to his incredible spring ’07 season, Toney began working with Dave Palumbo on his diet and adopted the extremely lowcarb diet that Dave espouses. Expecting to feel exhausted and cranky without carbs, Toney was shocked to find that he actually had more energy. “When I was eating an average of 700 to 800 grams of carbs a day,” he explains, “every afternoon I’d totally crash and need a long nap. My energy levels were always shooting up and diving H E A R T H E A LT H

Not just for Thanksgiving

According to the November ’05 issue of Prevention, cranberries promote healthy blood flow because they’re loaded with antioxidants, such as polyphenols. Researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison bred pigs to develop constricted arteries, then fed the animals cranberries for six months. Result: The pigs’ arteries returned to their normal healthy state. You can munch raw cranberries (they’re tart) the way you munch grapes. Or use dried cranberries as you would raisins—over hot and cold cereals, in salads or mixed with unsalted dryroasted nuts for a trail-mix snack. —Daniel Curtis, R.D.

Neveux

Cranberries

down. Now that I’ve replaced those carbs with the healthful fats in foods like raw nuts, olive oil and wild salmon, my energy levels are nice and steady all day and night.” Personally, I’ve noticed that when I’m dieting for a contest, I seem to require significantly less sleep. Many other bodybuilders have observed the same phenomenon and have speculated that it had something to do with the metabolism running at a higher rate. Now I’m wondering if the actual reason could be that in the final stages of a contest diet, most competitors are taking in far fewer carbohydrates than usual. Normally, I’m not a big fan of low-carb diets for bodybuilders at all. But I have definitely experienced the fluctuating energy levels related to blood sugar surges and crashes that carbohydrate-rich meals can cause. If you’re tired of that happening to you, or if you just can’t deal with the afternoon knockout anymore, perhaps a low-carb diet is worth a try. —Ron Harris www.RonHarrisMuscle.com

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

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Whatever You Need—Wherever You Train ™

Muscle-Training Program 94 From the IRON MAN Training & Research Center by Steve Holman and Jonathan Lawson • Photography by Michael Neveux e continually change our workouts. If you’ve been reading this series for a while, you’ve seen our program rotate from relatively simple bodypart workouts to more complex routines—with supersets, drop sets, X Reps, tri-sets and so on—and then back again. Why don’t we just stick with something relatively simple and shut up already? The biggest reason is that muscles grow with change. The human body is superb at adaptation, so when you hammer a muscle a few times over a few weeks with the same workout, it starts coasting—and stops growing. Another big reason we change things often is that we have different body types. Steve is an ectomorph, a classic skinny hardgainer type who probably should have picked marathon running instead of bodybuilding back in his high school days. Jonathan, on the other hand, is more mesomorphic, the

Model: Jonthan Lawson and Steve Holman

athletic body type more suited to bodybuilding. He also has some hardgainer tendencies, however— but, then again, he has a harder time losing bodyfat than Steve. It’s an odd pairing of two different body types training together. That makes it extremely difficult to devise programs that work for both of us at the same time. For example, Steve has known for a long time that lower-rep sets don’t do much for his muscle size. Jonathan can make pretty good gains with that type of training, but he also responds to higher reps. A recent study verified what we’ve discovered over the years with regard to our different requirements for growth. Researchers took about 100 randomly selected subjects and trained them using various set-and-rep protocols. Those with a so-called ACE-2 variant, or endurance, gene (skinny folks, like Steve) responded best to training with 12 to 15 reps— extended tension times. When they

used heavier weights that limited their reps to around eight, they got zero results. Hardgainers, read that again. The subjects who were more anaerobic, having something called an ACE-DD variant, showed similar gains from both types of loads. They also made greater strength gains than the endurance-oriented group. Still, the anaerobic DD group made the most gains from the heavier training, which implies that they respond best to that kind of lower-rep weight work [Colakoglu, M., et al. Eur J App Physiol. 95(1):20-26; 2005]. As we said, we’ve noticed that very thing in our own training, as Steve’s muscles are more endurance oriented (ACE-2) and Jonathan’s are more anaerobic (ACE-DD). And therein lies the reason our training can get somewhat complicated: If we do too much extended-tension work, Jonathan stagnates; if we do too much heavy straight-set work, Steve’s muscle gains stall or regress. www.ironmanmagazine.com \ AUGUST 2007 69

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w w w. I ro n M a n M a g a z i n e . c o m

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

Train, Eat, Grow / Program 94

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

Model: Skip La Cour

Rep Range

On the two-set/drop sequence we now move from a freeweight exercise to a machine exercise for the drop set.

For the first exercise you pick a weight that allows you to get seven to nine reps. For the second exercise you do 10 to 12 reps. On the third you move the range up to the high-end of fast-twitch recruitment—13 to 15 reps.

Shock Here you put 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 extendedset techniques are a must. After using those standard P/ RR/S protocols during the fall and winter, we decided to bastardize them and include some work that’s best suited to our individual body types. For example, we started doing a lighter back-off set of 10 to 15 reps for the big exercises in Power workouts. That gave Steve some extended-tension time on the important compound moves—but he was still doing the majority of sets in the four-to-six range. Also, remember that Jonathan has some hardgainer tendencies, so he’s not a total low-rep guy. It’s good for him to do some low-rep sets, but he also needs some longer tension times. He benefitted from the backoff set, but we’ve recently retooled our Power workouts to better suit our individual needs.

Everyone needs to do both types of training to max out muscle mass, but the right amount of each can be different depending on your genetics. We thought that Eric Broser’s Power/Rep Range/Shock would cover all the mass-building bases for both of us—and it did to a degree. Jonathan responded well to all three

protocols, for the most part. (Remember ACE-DDs respond to both types of loads.) Steve was the problem, mostly during the Power phase because it’s all low-rep work. Those workouts did nothing for him (ACE2s get very little from low-rep work). Before we go any further, here’s a review of standard P/RR/S:

New Power Using a back-off set was okay, but after rereading one of our e-books, specifically the discussion of muscle fibers in Chapter 11 of 3D Muscle Building, we ran across the two-set/ drop method that we prescribe for

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Train, Eat, Grow / Program 94 those who don’t have much time to train. It’s efficiency oriented in that it encompasses all of the different growth stimulators, to varying degrees. Here’s how it works:

Work Set 1 Do a set with a weight that gets you to exhaustion at around rep nine; then add as many X-Rep partials as you can at the semistretch point—for example, near the bottom of an incline press.

Work Set 2 After a 2 1/2-minute rest take the same weight and rep out with it, getting seven or eight reps. At exhaustion reduce the weight enough that you can immediately rep out and get six to eight more reps—and tack on X Reps to the second phase of the drop set. Obviously, during Power workouts the first work set has got to be

in the four-to-six range, as does the second, but the drop on work set 2 remains in the six-to-eight range, which gives Steve the extended-tension time his muscles need—four to six reps followed immediately by six to eight reps, plus X Reps for even more tension time. That two-set/drop method is so efficient and effective that we’re now using it on the first exercise for every bodypart no matter which protocol we’re in. The sequence remains exactly the same—the rep range for

IRON MAN Training & Research Center Muscle-Training Program 94 Workout 1 (Power): Chest, Lats, Triceps, Abs

Workout 2 (Power): Delts, Midback, Biceps, Forearms

Incline dumbbell presses (drop; X Reps) 2 x 7, 6(7) High cable flyes (drop; X Reps) 1 x 4-6(7) Wide-grip dips (drop; X Reps) 2 x 4-6, 4-6(7) Middle cable flyes (drop; X Reps) 1 x 4-6(7) Chins or pulldowns (drop; X Reps) 2 x 4-6, 4-6(7) Superset Machine pullovers (X Reps) 1 x 4-6 Rope rows (X Reps) 1 x 7-9 Superset Undergrip pulldowns (X Reps) 1 x 8-10 Dumbbell pullovers (X Reps) 1 x 7-9 Decline extensions (drop; X Reps) 2 x 4-6, 4-6(7) Superset Reverse-grip pushdowns (X Reps) 2 x 5-7 Kickbacks or bench dips (X Reps) 2 x 8-12 Cable pushouts (X Reps) 2 x 7-9 Incline kneeups (drop; X Reps) 2 x 12-15, 12(7) Tri-set Ab Bench crunches (X Reps) 1 x 6-8 Twisting crunches (X Reps) 1 x 10-15 End-of-bench kneeups (X Reps) 1 x 7-9

Seated laterals/upright rows (drop; X Reps) 2 x 4-6, 4-6(7) Laterals raises (drop; X Reps) 1 x 4-6(7) Forward-lean laterals (X Reps) 1 x 8-10 Seated dumbbell presses (drop; X Reps) 2 x 4-6, 4-6(7) Bent-over laterals (drop; X Reps) 1 x 4-6(7) One-arm cable laterals (drop; X Reps) 1 x 6(8) Bent-over rows (drop; X Reps) 2 x 4-6, 4-6(7) Bent-arm bent-over laterals (drop; X Reps) 1 x 4-6(7) Behind-the-neck pulldowns (X Reps) 1 x 7-9 Dumbbell shrugs (X Reps) 1 x 7-9(7) Preacher curls 1 x 4-6 Cable curls (drop; X Reps) 1 x 4-6(7) Concentration curls (drop; X Reps) 1 x 4-6(7) One-arm spider curls (X Reps) 1 x 7-9 Incline curls (X Reps) 1 x 7-9 Incline hammer curls (drop; X Reps) 1 x 4-6(7) Superset Dumbbell reverse wrist curls (X Reps) 1 x 7-9 Forearm Bar reverse wrist curls (X Reps) 1 x 9-12 Superset (20-second rest) Dumbbell wrist curls (drop; X Reps) 1 x 7-9 Behind-the-back wrist curls (X Reps) 1 x 9-12 Rockers 1 x 20-30

Legs (Power): Quads, Calves, Hamstrings Leg extensions (drop; X Reps) 1 x 9-12(7) Leg extensions (X Reps) 1 x 8-12 Squats 3 x 10, 10, 8(6) Leg presses (nonlock; X Reps) 1 x 5-7 Leg extensions (X Reps) 1 x 7-9 Sissy squats (X Reps) 1 x 7-9 Feet-forward Smith-machine front squats 1 x 8-12 Leg curls (drop; X Reps) 1 x 4-6(7) Leg curls (X Reps) 1 x 8-10 Superset Stiff-legged deadlifts 1 x 7-9 Hyperextensions (X Reps) 1 x 7-9 Stiff-legged deadlifts (X Reps) 1 x 7-9 Knee-extension leg press calf raises (drop; X Reps) 2 x 15, 12(7) Superset Standing calf raises (X Reps) 2 x 15-20 Hack-machine calf raises (X Reps) 2 x 10-15 Machine donkey calf raises (drop; X Reps) 1 x 10(7) Low-back machine (X Reps) 1 x 8-10

Add to Friday Workout (Power): Soleus Knee-extension leg press calf raises (drop; X Reps) Seated calf raises (X Reps)

2 x 15, 12(7) 2 x 10-12, 15-20

Note: The leg workout is always performed on Tuesday; that is, legs are worked only once a week every week—with seven full days of recovery. Workouts 1 and 2 alternate on Monday, Wednesday and Friday, so upper-body muscles get four to five days of recovery.

Note: Where X-Reps are designated, usually only one set or phase of a drop set is performed with X Reps or an X-Rep hybrid technique from the e-book Beyond X-Rep Muscle Building. See the X-Blog at www.X-Rep.com for more workout details.

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Train, Eat, Grow / Program 94

Power

2 x 4-6, 4-6(6-8)

Rep Range 2 x 7-9, 7-9(6-8) Shock

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

The two-set/drop technique— one straight set followed by a drop set—attacks all of the different growth factors to some degree: Max force on the straight set and the first phase of the drop set Semistretch-point overload on the X-Rep partials at the end of the first set and on the second phase of the drop set

We use that method to kick off every bodypart routine; however, we’ve found a twist that has made it even more effective—we often use a machine for the second phase of the drop on some exercises. Why? So stabilizer and/or

A machine exercise is an ideal follow-up to a free-weight move. With machines there are no balance restrictions.

Model: Steven Segers

Continuous tension and ex-

tended tension on all sets, with reps performed in nonlock style for continous tension and two sets done back to back—the drop set—for extended time under tension.

Model: Hubert Morandell

the two sets is what changes from protocol to protocol—but the drop is always in the six-to-eight range. Here’s how the sets and reps look for each protocol:

Some machines, like the pulldown (below) allow you to attack the target muscle from a unique angle. Compare it to the chinup, in the top shot.

secondarymover muscles don’t derail target-muscle stimulation. On incline dumbbell presses, for example, keeping the dumbbells in the right groove to stimulate the upper-chest muscles can be difficult when fatigue starts setting in. In fact, Jonathan’s front delts are so strong that they begin taking over when pec stress starts red-lining. So when we hit exhaustion on the second set of

dumbbell inclines, we immediately move to the Smith machine for the drop and continue repping out for six to eight. With a machine we can totally focus on pushing and frying the target muscles, in this case the upper pecs, without worrying about balancing the dumbbells. And the end-of-set X Reps are superstrict and severe. An even better example is freebar squats. When we do the second phase of the drop, our lower backs fail before we sufficiently tax our quads. So instead of a drop, we do our second set of squats and immediately follow them with leg presses or hack squats—compound moves that don’t include lower-back involvement. Brutal! If you train at home with basic equipment, try dumbbell squats for the second phase of the drop, holding a dumbbell in each hand next to your outer thighs. That position eliminates most of the lower-back involvement. (Note: As we explain in our e-books, you won’t be able to do

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Train, Eat, Grow / Program 94 X Reps at the low point on free-bar squats, but you can do mid-point X Reps at the end of your first set and low-range X Reps on leg presses or hack squats, if you have an attentive partner—and a high pain threshold. Low-end X Reps are also possible on dumbbell squats, so fight through the pain and then leave the dumbbells on the floor when you’re done.) We didn’t designate the machine exercises in the program listed on page 72 because we know it won’t be possible for most trainees who train in a crowded commercial gym; however, if you have the opportunity, we highly recommend using a machine for the second phase of your drop sets, even if you can only do it once

in a while. Other examples include chins to pulldowns, dumbbell presses to Smith-machine presses and barbell rows to machine rows—or two-arm dumbbell rows with chest support.

Drops, DXO and TXO

Jonathan prefers cardio to calorie cuts when he’s shedding bodyfat.

So we use our two-set/drop method for the midrange move, but how about the other two positions in 3D POF, contracted and stretch? For the contracted-position exercise that we do second—for example, high cable flyes after dumbbell incline presses—we still do a drop set, with the first part in the Power

ITRC Program 94, Home-Gym Routine Workout 1 (Power): Chest, Lats, Triceps, Abs Incline presses (drop; X Reps) Incline flyes (drop; X Reps) Bench presses (drop; X Reps) Flat-bench flyes (drop; X Reps) Chins (drop; X Reps) Superset Undergrip chins (X Reps) Dumbbell pullovers (X Reps) Undergrip rows (X Reps) Decline extensions (drop; X Reps) Superset Dips or bench dips (X Reps) Overhead extensions (X Reps) Incline kneeups (drop; X Reps) Superset Weighted full-range crunches or Ab Bench crunches (drop; X Reps) End-of-bench kneeups (X Reps)

2 x 4-6, 4-6(7) 1 x 6(7) 2 x 4-6, 4-6(7) 1 x 6(7) 2 x 4-6, 4-6(7) 1 x 4-6 1 x 9-12 1 x 8-10 2 x 4-6, 4-6(7) 1 x 4-6 1 x 9-12 2 x 10, 8(7)

1 x 8-10(8) 1 x 8-10

Workout 2 (Power): Delts, Midback, Biceps, Forearms Dumbell upright rows (drop; X Reps) 2 x 4-6, 4-6(7) Seated laterals (drop; X Reps) 1 x 4-6(7) Seated laterals (X Reps) 1 x 8-10 Dumbbell presses (drop; X Reps) 2 x 4-6, 4-6(7) Bent-over laterals (drop; X Reps) 1 x 5-7(7) Incline one-arm laterals (drop; X Reps) 1 x 5-7(7) Bent-over barbell rows (drop; X Reps) 2 x 7, 5(7) Bent-arm bent-over laterals (drop; X Reps) 1 x 4-6(7) Dumbbell shrugs (drop; X Reps) 1 x 7-9(7) Barbell curls (drop) 2 x 4-6, 4-6(7) Concentration curls (drop; X Reps) 1 x 4-6(7) Incline hammer curls (drop; X Reps) 1 x 4-6(7) Dumbbell reverse wrist curls (drop; X Rep) 1 x 9(8) Dumbbell wrist curls (double drop; X Reps) 1 x 9(8) Rockers 1 x 20-30

Legs (Power): Quads, Calves, Hamstrings

Add to Friday Workout (Power): Soleus

Squats or front squats (nonlock; drop; X Reps) 2 x 6-8, 6-8(7) Leg extensions or old-style hack squats (drop; X Reps) 1 x 6-8(7) Leg extensions or old-style hack squats (X Reps) 1 x 8-10 Squats or front squats (nonlock; X Reps) 1 x 8-10 Lunges 1 x 6-8 Leg curls (drop; X Reps) 1 x 4-6(7) Leg curls (X Reps) 1 x 8-10 Superset Stiff-legged deadlifts 1 x 7-9 Hyperextensions (X Reps) 1 x 7-9 Stiff-legged deadlifts (X Reps) 1 x 7-9 Knee-extension donkey calf raises (drop; X Reps) 2 x 15, 10(7) One-leg calf raises (drop; X Reps) 2 x 8(7)

Knee-extension donkey calf raises (drop; X Reps) 2 x 15, 12(7) Seated calf raises (X Reps) 2 x 12, 20 Note: The leg workout is always performed on Tuesday; that is, legs get worked only once a week every week—with seven full days of recovery. Workouts 1 and 2 alternate on Monday, Wednesday and Friday, so upper-body muscles get four to five days of recovery. Note: Where X-Reps are designated, usually only one set or phase of a drop set is performed with X Reps or an X-Rep hybrid technique from the e-book Beyond X-Rep Muscle Building. Note: For drop sets it’s best to have a selectorized dumbbell set, such as the PowerBlock, if you don’t have a rack of fixed dumbbells of various weights. If you don’t have a leg extension machine, do old-style hacks, nonlock style. Use partner resistance, towel around the ankles, if you don’t have a leg curl machine.

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Train, Eat, Grow / Program 94 often, so we can tax the stretch position with a slightly heavier weight.

Model: Todd Smith

Model: Steve McLeod

New Diet Theories

Machines and free weights have advantages and disadvantages, which is why we now combine them in the quick, efficient two-set/drop method. range, four to six reps, and the second phase for around eight. That way we train the exercise in the Power range, but we also get extended-tension time with the drop—and we add X Reps to the second phase to further lengthen the tension time. The stretch-position exercise usually gets one or two straight sets of seven to nine reps, whether we’re in Power, Rep Range or Shock mode. We really like the Double-X Overload technique on stretch moves because it enhances the stress at that key, semistretch point. For DXO you do an X Rep in the stretch position after each full rep. We’ve also been experimenting with Triple-X Overload; that is, two X Reps after each full rep.

To stay in rhythm, you can count off each time you hit the stretch position. When the weight reaches the stretch point on your first rep, count, “One,” drive it up about eight inches, lower to full stretch again, and count, “Two.” Drive it up eight inches again, then lower to the stretch point and count, “Three.” Now move the resistance all the way to the top for a second full rep, and so on. That’s Triple-X Overload. DXO and TXO take a little practice, but once you get the hang of them, you’ll feel the stretch-overload difference. After all, you’re hitting the stretch position two to three times more than you do during a standard full-range set. Nevertheless, we do straight sets every so

We know from experience—and the new study we mentioned—that our different body types and fiber makeups require different training modalities for maximum gains, but what about diet? You’ve probably read that hardgainers need more carbs, usually based on the idea that they burn more calories and produce more cortisol. Carbs are believed to blunt excess cortisol production somewhat, but the hardgainer’s different fiber makeup could have something to do with it as well. You saw that hardgainers need longer tension times, and we believe that’s due to their having more fasttwitch fibers that include a highendurance component. The fibers are called 2As, and they have both power and endurance capabilities. Could it be that the 2As require more glycogen than the pure power fibers, the 2Bs? Do bodybuilders who are more mesomorphic require fewer carbs because their dominant fiber type runs more efficiently on the ATP cycle, which depends on creatine and carnosine? It’s something to think about. Don’t involve pro bodybuilders in your thought process, however. If they’re taking drugs, all bets are off—as is the way the body responds to diet and exercise. Natural adaptation and metabolism are mutated by anabolic steroids, etc. In our own diets we’ve noticed that Steve gets leaner quicker while taking in more carbs—usually between 140 and 170 grams per day. Jonathan reduces his carbs to that level and even a bit lower, but he leans out much more slowly. He appears to have more of an aversion to carbs—it’s as if his muscles don’t need them as much as Steve’s and more are shunted to bodyfat. To solve the problem, Jonathan does more cardio to burn off the excess carbs. He doesn’t like the feeling of taking his carbs down too low, and besides, he does have some hardgainer tendencies. Steve, who is

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almost a pure hardgainer, does very little cardio but still leans out faster. Here’s another interesting observation: Jonathan seems to need more protein than Steve. He takes in more than 300 grams per day compared to Steve’s 200 or fewer grams. Perhaps the power fibers, which Jonathan has more of, require more aminos to rebuild than Steve’s more endurance-oriented ones, which appear to thrive while getting more glycogen from extra carbs. You can see our diets and cardio strategies in our e-book X-treme Lean. When we wrote it, we hadn’t made these observations, but you can see the reasoning behind them in our macronutrient totals and our cardio schedules. So perhaps fiber types govern macronutrient needs as well as training requirements. It’s definitely something to ponder. Till next month, keep training hard. Note: Our latest Power workouts

are listed on page 72. For all of our workouts in printable form, see Chapter 7—X-Rep Reload in our latest e-book, X-traordinary MuscleBuilding Workouts, available at www.X-Rep.com. It also contains analysis and printable templates for the Volume/Intensity Fusion Program, the 3D Power Pyramid Program, the 20-Rep Squat routine, Time-Bomb Training and many others—10 different print-and-grow workouts, most of which have been tested and perfected in the IRON MAN Training & Research Center over the past decade. 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 and supplement journals, 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

Model: Jonthan Lawson and Steve Holman

Train, Eat, Grow / Program 94

Our different body types require different training methods and dietary manipulations for fast results.

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Steve Holman’s

Critical Mass

Workout Daze Q: I’ve been working out for a long time, but I’m still trying to add some mass with definition. I have always worked each bodypart once a week. I got the “Critical Mass POF” DVD and am a little confused as to how many bodyparts to train in one workout and how many days per week to train each muscle. Is the Positions of Flexion workout specifically designed for a certain schedule of workouts? Do you recommend working each muscle group once or twice a week? By the way, the DVD is excellent—very motivational too. A: POF isn’t specific when it comes to training days per week. Some bodybuilders make great gains training each muscle once a week. I don’t. Jonathan (Lawson, my training partner) and I have tried it numerous times and just seem to spin our wheels. We try to work each bodypart once

every four or five days, although at the moment we’re training quads and hams only once a week—but everything else is getting a hard hit more frequently. POF is more about exercise selection—specific movements so you train each muscle through its full arc of flexion—rather than how many days a week you train. The concept is to work each muscle in its midrange, stretch and contracted positions. Can you do more than one exercise for each position? If you’re an easy gainer, sure; however, I usually recommend one exercise for each position and one to three sets for each exercise, reps around nine, plus X Reps on the last set of each exercise to extend tension time. Triceps is the best example: decline extensions (midrange), overhead extensions (stretch), pushdowns or kickbacks (contracted). Q: I have been using [your 3D Power/Rep Range/ Shock program from your 3D Muscle Building ebook] for about nine weeks, and I’m getting stronger and increasing in size. I have questions on a couple of exercises. I’ve tried Smith-machine sissy squats, but I have difficulty finding the right position for getting an effective stretch. Is there a picture or video demonstrating this exercise? Also, in the forearm routine I’m not sure what rockers are.

Neveux \ Model: Jonthan Lawson

A: The sissy squat can be challenging from a form standpoint. It’s very easy to cheat by bending at the waist, driving your knees too far forward and using momentum. I suggest you go back to using a barbell plate on your chest. When you get up to using a bigger plate than a 25, wear a lifting belt and 3D POF is hook the plate about exercise under the top selection to front behind train a muscle the buckle to through its help support it full arc of on your chest. I flexion— also suggest you midrange, try the Doublestretch and X Overload contracted technique to positions. more effectively For triceps create stretch that would overload. DXO be decline is basically extensions, performing overhead an X Rep after extensions and each full rep, kickbacks. and we’re now experimenting with TXO—Triple-X Overload—doing two X Reps after each full rep. Count “one, two, three” each time you reach the stretch position, then drive up for a full rep. To do forearm rockers, hold a dumbbell in each hand at arm’s length down by your outer thighs. Now curl your

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Sissy squat: At the start your knees should be unlocked so tension is on your quads. Use the nonlock style throughout the set.

Q: I recently experimented with negative-only training. I don’t have a workout partner, so I use it only on one-arm overhead extensions and one-arm preacher curls. I use my free arm to aid in lifting the weight so I can lower it with my working arm. My question is, In what phase of Power/Rep Range/ Shock do negatives fit? I think they’d be least fitting during Rep Range week, but I can’t decide if I should do them at Power or Shock workouts. Any insight? A: Considering the damage heavy negative-only training does to muscle fibers, I’d say the Shock week is the best place for them for most trainees, including hardgainers; however, if you’re more of an easy gainer, the Power week may be a better fit. Why? Because Shock week acts as more of a downshift that allows for supercompensation for easier gainers. Since I’m more of a hardgainer—an ectomorph—and my training partner, Jonathan Lawson, is more of a mesomorphic easy gainer, we found that Power week does very little for me, likely because of lower neuromuscular efficiency—my nervous system shuts down very early with heavy low-rep work. That’s probably why studies show that lower reps don’t do much for a lot for hardgainers (there’s more on that in Train, Eat, Grow, which begins on page 68). That means the Power week acts as a downshift for hardgainers, and putting negatives there would disrupt that function. For easier gainers with good neuromuscular efficiency, Power week produces more stimulation. That means negatives are appropriate there but less so in Shock week. Shock week is more of a downshift phase for easy gainers because of the inclusion of more endurance work (longer tension times) and fewer sets. Shock week is still a good growth stimulus for easy gainers, just not as much as it is for hardgainers. That may be nitpicking, but a lot of trainees have found that some type of downshift is necessary every three weeks, and P/RR/S makes that happen automatically if you follow the rules. Then again, easy gainers may not need a downshift as often as hardgainers. They could include negatives in both Power and Shock workouts for two to three cycles, then remove them for a cycle to get a downshift for supercompensation. I’ll be interviewing the creator of P/RR/S, Eric Broser, in the next issue of IM, so I’ll get his take on it.

I’ve been working out for 35 years, but I’m always looking to improve. I don’t think I’m a hardgainer, just an overtrainer. But I don’t think training with too much volume is my problem, as so many experts would suggest—I think training to failure absolutely devastates me for days. I often find it hard to function at work or play after a so-called productive all-out workout—using even less volume than you suggest. I eat well and sleep great and do very limited aerobics. Any advice would be appreciated. A: Yes, some trainees have an aversion to pushing to failure. It can cause an overproduction of cortisol, which slows or prevents muscle gains. However, if you use subfailure training, I believe you require a few more sets to get the muscle-building job done. That’s explained in many of our e-books, including the latest, X-traordinary MuscleBuilding Workouts (available at X-Rep.com). The Volume/ Intensity Fusion program in that e-book alternates short, high-intensity workouts with higher-volume subfailure sessions for each bodypart—which builds muscle quickly for many people, even hardgainers. Based on the size principle of fiber recruitment—lowthreshold motor units fire first, followed by middles, followed by the important (for growth) high-threshold motor units when the reps get hard—I suggest you do a few more sets when you use subfailure training. When you stop a set short, you don’t tap into as many high-threshold fibers. When you do more subfailure sets, the recruitment pattern is altered on each, so you tap into different high-threshold fibers at the end of each set. You may want to try three subfailure sets in each position of a 3D POF program. Neveux \ Model: Jonathan Lawson

hands up and in to hit the flexors, lower, then curl your hands up and out to hit the extensors. It’s a rocking motion that really blasts the forearms effectively and efficiently. If you have time for only one forearm movement, this is it. We are planning to do video clips of exotic exercises and post them at X-Rep.com soon.

Editor’s note: Steve Holman is the author of many bodybuilding best-sellers, including Train, Eat, Grow: The Positions-of-Flexion Muscle-Training Manual (see page 79). For information on the POF videos and Size Surge programs, see the ad sections beginning on page 210 and 278, respectively. Also visit www.X-Rep.com. IM Steve Holman ironchief@aol.com

Q: You have many great ideas regarding training.

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Mr. Natural Olympia John Hansen’s

Naturally Huge

Q: I was reading an article about you on the Internet, and I was wondering if you could give me a few tips on how to start bodybuilding. What training should I do with free weights, and what should I eat to lose fat but build muscle? By the way, I’m still in high school. A: I’m glad you’re asking for advice on how to start a bodybuilding routine. Too many beginners just wing it when they first start out, and they usually end up performing the wrong exercises with improper form and too many sets. Start slow. At this stage of the game you can train your whole body in one workout. There is no need to train different bodyparts each day. You need to lay the foundation first. Choose one basic exercise for each major muscle group and perform the routine two to three days a week. The basic exercises all use several muscle groups, so you’ll build more muscle mass and strength right off the bat. I think it’s also important to use free weights—barbells and dumbbells—when you begin. Machines and

Neveux \ Model: Justin Balik

Getting Started

cable exercises won’t force you to balance and coordinate the resistance the way barbells and dumbbells will. Free weights recruit more nerves and muscle fibers that will help you to build more strength. Divide the body into 10 different muscle groups: the chest, back, shoulders, biceps, triceps, abdominals (upper and lower), quadriceps, hamstrings, calves and forearms. Use one basic exercise for each of the muscle groups, and do two to three sets of each exercise. Here’s a good beginning routine: Incline situps (upper abs) Hanging knee raises (lower abs) Barbell squats (quadriceps) Stiff-legged deadlifts (hamstrings) Standing calf raises (calves) Barbell bench presses (chest) Barbell rows (back) Barbell clean and presses (shoulders) Parallel-bar dips (triceps) Barbell curls (biceps) Barbell wrist curls (forearms)

2 2 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3

x x x x x x x x x x x

30 20 10 10 15 10 10 10 10 10 12

Your goal at this stage is to gradually build the strength and size of each muscle group. Aim for three sets of 10 reps on each exercise (except for abs, calves and forearms) at each workout. When you can perform 12 reps or more on each set of an exercise, increase the resistance to bring the repetitions back down to 10. At the beginning it’s not unusual to increase the weights on each exercise every week. Keep the sets low so you don’t overtrain the muscles by overloading them with more than they can handle at this stage. Some would consider that undertraining, but by slowly increasing the resistance with low volume, you’re providing plenty of recuperation time, which will help you to consistently add size and strength. Also, by using the basic exercises and recruiting several muscle groups on each, you’re forcing them to work together to lift the weight. You could begin by doing this routine three days per week on nonconsecutive days; say, Monday, Wednesday and Friday. As you add strength and use heavier weights, you could increase the number of rest days between workouts so you’re doing the full-body routine twice a week; (continued on page 102) for example, Mondays and Thursdays. I suggest you use the basic routine for at least three to six months before moving into the intermediate stage. By that time you should have noticeably increased your strength and your muscle mass. When you begin training each

By using the basic exercises, you recruit a number of muscles during each set. 92 AUGUST 2007 \ www.ironmanmagazine.com

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Mr. Natural Olympia John Hansen’s

Neveux \ Model: Sebastian Siegel

Naturally Huge shift in your metabolic rate will require more calories to feed your increasing muscle mass. Choose foods that are high in protein and complex carbohydrates, as those macronutrients will help you to build muscle mass. Some good choices would be whole eggs and egg whites along with oatmeal for breakfast, tuna fish or chicken breast on whole-wheat bread along with potatoes or pasta for lunch and steak, turkey or salmon with potatoes or rice for dinner. In addition to your whole-food meals, protein drinks feed your muscle cells more protein and provide your body with the calories it needs to grow. The best protein powder combines whey, casein and egg proteins. That combination is absorbed by the body much more slowly than straight whey and keeps the blood sugar more stable between meals. You can add some fruit, such as a banana or strawberries, along with a tablespoon of flaxseed oil to get even more quality calories. Keep your training and your nutrition basic and simple in the beginning, and you should consistently make gains in muscle and strength. Good luck!

Q: I was on a strong workout program last year, but I had to slow it down due to school Beginners should use a basic and exams in the winter. I want to get back program for three to six into the weights big time this spring and months before moving to an summer. I would like to know how much intermediate routine. protein I should be taking before and after my workouts. Last year I was taking a whey protein isolate (27 grams protein, 0 fat, 0 carbs, 110 muscle group twice a week with more exercises, you’ll be calories per serving). I ended up getting really cut ready for the additional volume. but not gaining a lot of weight. This year I was told to As for nutrition, you mentioned that you want to build use a weight-gaining protein, so I bought [a popular muscle while losing fat. Unless you have a lot of bodyfat to one] (55 grams protein, 160 grams carbs, 17 grams lose, you should focus more on eating a well-balanced diet fat and 1,021 calories per serving). I just got back that will provide sufficient amounts of calories, protein, into my workouts a couple of weeks ago. I have alcarbohydrates and fats to help you build muscle. ready gained five pounds—from 145 to 150—but I’m You can begin by eating three meals per day along starting to gain some flab on my stomach on top of with three protein drinks between meals. Even if you’re in my abs, as well as love handles. I am gaining more school all day long, you’ll be able to eat every three hours muscle, especially in my pecs and shoulders, but I’d by adding the protein drinks. Here’s an example of how you like to have defined abs along with everything else. I could structure your eating plan: have a great workout routine; I just need a balanced diet. I heard that you should get a gram of protein 7 a.m.: Breakfast for every pound that you weigh after each workout 10 a.m.: Protein drink (in my case it would be 150 grams). Is that true? I know that too much protein can be unhealthy, so 1 p.m.: Lunch I wanted to get your advice on how much protein 4 p.m.: Protein drink I should take, along with what kind and when I 5 p.m.: Workout should take it. 6 p.m.: Postworkout recovery drink 7 p.m.: Dinner 10 p.m.: Protein drink By eating every three hours, you’ll be feeding your muscle cells the amino acids (protein), glycogen (carbohydrates) and calories they’ll need to recover from your heavy training sessions and grow. Your metabolism will be changing because you’ll be adding more muscle tissue, which burns more calories even when you’re resting. That upward

A: The reason you’re putting fat on your abs is that you’re taking in more calories than you’re burning. That’s not surprising, since the protein powder that you recently started using contains more than 1,000 calories per serving. Two or three drinks will add 2,000 to 3,000 calories a day. It sounds as if you went from eating not enough calories to eating too many. Since you didn’t know exactly how many calories you need to slowly add muscle, you went from one extreme to another, and now you’re getting too

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Mr. Natural Olympia John Hansen’s

Naturally Huge

5,000 calories a day before I began to gain weight. My training at the time was extremely heavy (five to eight reps per set) and focused on the basic exercises. Most of those extra calories were being put to use fueling my intense training sessions or helping me recover from the workouts. Unlike you, I wasn’t concerned with what my abs looked like. I just wanted to get big. I wanted big arms, big thighs, big calves, a big back and a big chest. If my waist grew during this bulking up period, it was fine with me as long as I was getting bigger and stronger everywhere else. Gaining muscle while staying lean seems to be a big issue with many of the younger guys I talk with. They want big muscles, but they want to have clearly defined abs. That’s very difficult to achieve because you need excess calories to get bigger, and you need a deficit of calories to get leaner. As you can see, those objectives are completely opposite. If you want to get bigger while staying lean, you have to eat exactly the right amount of calories to slowly add muscle but not bodyfat. That may be possible but it will take a lot of experimentation on your part, and you’ll have to be very strict with your diet. I suggest that you begin writing down everything that you eat. Get a kitchen scale and weigh everything that you eat. Then record the calories as well as the number of grams of protein, carbohydrates and fats that you’re taking in every day. That’s the best method for determining how many calories you need to gain muscle without adding too much fat. Make sure you eat good bodybuilding foods: completeprotein foods like eggs, milk, steak, chicken, fish and turkey and complex carbohydrates like oatmeal, rice, pasta, potatoes and bread.

Neveux \ Model: Marvin Montoya

Adding a little fat to your waist when you’re packing on muscle is perfectly acceptable.

Instead of a protein drink that contains 1,000 calories, use a good meal-replacement supplement like MuscleLink’s Muscle Meals and add some fruit and flaxseed oil to it to increase the calories. I also suggest you use a protein powder or meal replacement that contains a combination of whey, egg and casein proteins (Muscle Meals does, as does its sister protein supplement, Pro-Fusion). As for your question about the amount of protein you should get after a workout, one gram of protein for each pound of bodyweight would be way too much. You’re probably thinking of the suggestion that bodybuilders should eat one gram of protein for each pound of bodyweight daily. You only need about 30 to 40 grams of whey protein after a workout, but you also need carbohydrates to restore the glycogen that you used during your session. I normally take in 40 grams of whey protein and 60 grams of fast-acting carbs (the amount contained in three scoops of RecoverX) immediately after a workout. If you weigh 150 pounds, you should probably shoot for around 190 to 200 grams of protein each day along with at least 400 to 500 grams of complex carbohydrates. That would be a good starting point to gain muscle without putting on too much fat. Be sure to train heavy and hard at each workout, and limit your gym sessions to three to four workouts a week. Remember that your muscles grow after your workouts. If you add a little fat to your waist while you’re gaining muscle, don’t freak out. Just make sure that most of your added bodyweight is muscle and not fat. If you’re training hard and eating the right foods, you should slowly add muscle without getting too fat. After you get as big as you want to be, you can cut back on the calories and get your ripped abs back again. Editor’s note: John Hansen has won the Natural Mr. Olympia and is a two-time Natural Mr. Universe winner. Visit his Web site at www.natural olympia.com. You can write to him at P.O. Box 3003, Darien, IL 60561, or call toll-free (800) 900-UNIV (8648). His new book, Natural Bodybuilding, and new training DVD, “Real Muscle,” are now available from Home Gym Warehouse, www .Home-Gym John Hansen .com or (800) John@NaturalOlympia.com 447-0008. IM Neveux

many calories. As a result, you’re starting to add bodyfat. How many calories you need to gain weight and add muscle depends on your age (your metabolism decreases as you age), your body type (ectomorphs typically have very fast metabolisms) and your activity level. You must be in your teens or early 20s, so you’ll need more calories than a 40-year-old who works in an office all day. When I was 19 years old and desperately trying to gain weight, I kept increasing the amount of food I was eating every day until I finally started to gain weight. I was eating a tremendous amount of food each and every day until I began to bulk up. I would estimate that I was eating around

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An Intense, Eye-Opening Interview With Ellington Darden, Ph.D. Part 2 by Chris Mason

Ellington Darden, Ph.D., is one of the staunchest proponents of high-intensity training. He worked with Arthur Jones, the creator of Nautilus and the father of high-intensity training, and has penned numerous books on the intense, brief and infrequent training that is the cornerstone of HIT. Dardenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s most recent book is The New Bodybuilding for Old-School Results, which we were discussing at the end of Part 1. www.ironmanmagazine.com \ AUGUST 2007 101

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Pro bodybuilder Franco Columbu (left) compares arms with Casey Viator. Franco trained with Arthur Jones in Florida in the early ’70s. CM: In Chapter 4 you touch on some of the scientific support for your and Arthur’s training methods. You note that recent studies support Jones’ protocol of one set to failure for optimal size and strength results. Through my involvement with the powerlifting community I’ve been able to speak with Louie Simmons of the Westside Barbell Club in Columbus, Ohio, with some frequency. As you probably know, Louie is one of the most respected strength coaches in the world. The training methods he espouses for building maximum demonstrable strength differ rather dramatically from those of Jones and yourself. He certainly does not consider one set to failure to be the optimal method of building strength. Do you still feel that one set to failure is the best way to train for optimum strength, and what sort of a routine would you recommend for a competitive powerlifter?

ED: Powerlifting, as you know, is a sport that requires both general and specific strength training. In my opinion, you should train all the involved muscles generally, in the best possible way to make them stronger—stronger according to the biomechanics of the human body. I would prefer to do that with machines, but you could use barbells or barbells and machines. Then you must develop your skill at powerlifting specifically—using barbells and low repetitions—with the coaching of someone who understands strategic teaching and learning. The duration and frequency would be up to the lifter and coach, but I’d always lean toward less duration and less frequency. One set to failure would apply to general strength training, but it would not apply well to skill training. CM: Okay, so if I understand, you recommend HIT to increase one’s general

strength and then a multiple-set approach for powerlifters to enhance their skill in performing the big three powerlifts—squat, bench press and deadlift. Could you provide a sample routine to outline that approach? ED: You’re pretty much on target with my overall approach. It’s been quite some time since I worked with powerlifters, but I’d head in the following direction. First, I’d organize two general strength-training routines. I’d select eight exercises for routine A and another eight exercises for routine B. Here are examples:

Routine A 1) Leg curls (machine) 2) Leg presses or hip adductions (machine) 3) Calf raises (machine or barbell) 4) Overhead presses (barbell) 5) Bent-over rows (barbell) 6) Lower back (machine) 7) Biceps curls (barbell) 8) Side bends (one dumbbell)

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Routine B 1) Leg extensions (machine) 2) Stiff-legged deadlifts (barbell) 3) Bent-arm pullovers (barbell) 4) Negative-only chins or negative-only dips 5) Triceps extensions (barbell) 6) Wrist curls (barbell) 7) Neck flexion and extension (machine) 8) Bent-knee situps On either routine the lifters perform one set of eight to 12 repetitions in good form to momentary muscular failure. Second, I’d put together two specific powerlifting routines, routine C and routine D. Routine C would focus on the squat and the bench press, while D would feature the deadlift. In routine C, I’d zero in on the skill of the bench press and the squat, with both medium and heavy repetitions. The focus would be on performing two or three reps much more frequently than onerep maximums. And depending on the strength and experience of the lifter, I’d regularly add not-to-failure sets to avoid stagnation. In routine D, with the deadlift, I’d do some things similar to the bench press and squat, but I’d also include some cage work. In a power cage I’d divide the deadlift into equal halves and spend time focusing on them both. Plus, I’d do heavy shoulder shrugs in the cage. Over a two-week period I’d schedule two workouts a week, in the following sequence:

Monday: Routine A Thursday: Routine C Monday: Routine B Thursday: Routine D I’m sure, as trainees progressed, I’d have to modify some of the routines. But you should be able to get the hang of where I’m coming from and where I’m headed from the above examples. I know you’ve had some experience with using bands and chain

to augment the powerlifts. In the 1960s Arthur Jones applied chains to certain barbell exercises as well as pulldown movements. They were an early form of variable resistance, which he later incorporated more effectively with his Nautilus cam. In fact, Jones’s Duo-Squat machine had an increasing strength curve, and so did several of his bench press machines. With my motor-learning background, I’d have to place any type of band and chain attachments in the general-strength-training area—routines A and B. As for as specific sets and reps on routines C and D, I’d have to get in the trenches with you and some of your lifting buddies—for three months of trial-and-error training—and hammer out some numbers. CM: Motor learning and its implications for strength training are discussed in Chapter 10. I find your thoughts on the matter highly intriguing and spot-on. Can you briefly discuss the common misperceptions about explosive training with weights and its transference to the athletic playing field? ED: Moving explosively with a barbell or machine can certainly build strength, but it does so at the cost of potential damage to the involved joints and muscles. Why risk injury? The idea is to build strength so you can perform better in your chosen skill or activity. I have noted in many of my books how effective negative training—working solely in or emphasizing the lowering, or eccentric, portion of an exercise—can be. One reason has to do with the required slowness of the lowering. Slow, smooth movements are more thorough on the involved muscles—and they are much, much safer. Yet coaches and athletes almost universally believe that you must, “Lift fast to be fast.” Just the opposite, “Lift slow to be fast,” is much closer to the truth. What should be (continued on page 108)

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Drug-free powerlifter/farmer Wilbur Miller deadlifted 715 pounds in 1964 at a bodyweight of 245. www.ironmanmagazine.com \ AUGUST 2007 105

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Powerlifting isn’t just about strength; it also requires skill in the lift, so more than one set is needed. done fast is the skill training—at least, for the vast majority of sports. Coaches and athletes need to separate strength training and skill training. Do not try to combine the two, which is what’s happening all over the country. I conclude in my motor-learning chapter that it’s to your advantage to make strength training differ from skill training as much as possible in content, form, method of execution, environment and meaning.

all time, might not even have been capable of such a feat— one rep, yes; two, perhaps. Did you ever see Ray squat with anything close to 900 pounds, and if not, do you feel he was capable of such a feat? ED: Ray Mentzer worked at the Nautilus headquarters in Florida for about eight months in 1983, and, yes, I trained him many times—but I never used barbells. At that time he weighed between

(continued from page 105)

Balik

CM: That chapter is truly worth its weight in gold! On the subject of training for maximal strength I would like to clear up a long-standing doubt I’ve had. I have read that Ray Mentzer was capable of a raw—meaning he used no special powerlifting equipment—barbell back squat of 925 pounds for two reps. I know some of the strongest men in the world, and that would be an absolutely incredible feat for a bodybuilder, especially one under 300 pounds. In fact, Don Reinhoudt, one of the strongest raw squatters of

“On the Nautilus leg machines [Ray Mentzer] was the strongest athlete I’ve ever worked with. Casey Viator was a close second.”

250 and 260 pounds. On the Nautilus leg machines he was the strongest athlete I’ve ever worked with. Casey Viator was a close second. Casey could outperform Ray on most of the upper-body machines. In 1983 Jones had just introduced the Nautilus Duo-Squat machine. This huge machine had a weight stack of 500 pounds. I saw Ray get into the machine, and loaded with the entire stack, he did 10 repetitions with each leg. They were not easy reps; in fact, he was really huffing and puffing, but he did them. After that I never saw or heard of anyone handling the entire stack for even one rep. About that same time Ken Leistner visited the Nautilus headquarters and brought a world-champion powerlifter with him. I can’t remember the guy’s name, but he was about 5’7” tall, weighed 180 pounds, and his best lift was the squat. He couldn’t get a rep with 450 pounds, much less 500 pounds, on the Duo-Squat machine. But back to your original question: Did I ever see Ray squat with anything close to 900 pounds? No, I never saw him do a barbell squat. Do I believe he could have performed such a feat? Well, I saw

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Model: Berry Kabov

Model: Andre Nielsen

Training to muscular failure limits the duration of a workout.

Casey Viator do 13 reps with slightly more than 500 pounds on the barbell squat totally raw—and that was after preexhausting his thighs for two minutes. Viator could, no doubt, have done 600 pounds for a single—and maybe as much as 650. Ray, in my opinion, was stronger in his hips and thighs than was Casey. My guess would be that

Ray could have done a 750-pound squat in an official powerlifting contest. Of course, in a gym setting and under less strict conditions he probably could have done more—but not 900 pounds! CM: Thanks for clearing that up. I knew Ray was a strong man, but I always thought that claim—made by others—was

an exaggeration. I really enjoyed reading the thoughts of Andrew Adams with respect to the HIT vs. high-volume training debate. What gave you the idea to include the input of one of the members of your Web site (www.DrDarden.com) in the book? ED: I’m always on the lookout for outside-the-box ideas related

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Models: Markus Reinhardt and Hubert Morandell

A partner or trainer who pushes you in the gym can make HIT much more effective.

CM: Chapter 9 goes into detail about all forms of negative training. To what do you ascribe the incredible results you have seen from that technique? How often should trainees incorporate it into their training? ED: I believe that negative training—because of the abnormal overload and the effects of fullrange slowness of movement— provides more potential for slight tearing of the involved myosin and actin muscle tissues. This slight tearing is a necessary part of the muscular-growth process. Of course, you’ve got to walk a thin line: Too much tearing and you’ll suffer an injury; too little and nothing happens. It has to be just the right amount of tearing. That can vary from trainee to trainee. Generally, I apply negative-only training on a few exercises once a week. With my stronger trainees I reduce that to every two weeks.

“Generally, I apply negative-only training on a few exercises once a week.”

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Model: Jeff Hammond

to HIT. Adams opened my eyes to some new concepts, so I asked him if I could reprint some of them in my new book. Bill De Simone and Ryan Hall also made some salient contributions to that section, and I appreciate their input.

“I am a big fan of the preexhaustion technique [such as performing leg extensions followed immediately by squats].”

Model: Jose Raymond

Squats bring in other muscles to help push the preexhausted quadriceps to keep firing.

CM: Chapter 20 provides “the plain truth.” What is that truth, and how do you feel trainees should apply it in their own training. ED: Yeah, the plain truth. That involves Wilbur Miller, a tall, muscular 69-year-old farmer from Kansas who I was sitting next to at Ronnie Ray’s strength-training reunion in 2004. Wilbur was the holder of the world deadlift record when he lifted 715 pounds in 1964. Anyway, we’d just finished watching a video collection of champion bodybuilders and lifters from the 1940s and 1950s. There was footage of bodybuilders such as John Grimek, Steve Reeves, Steve Stanko, George Eiferman and Clancy Ross, as well as lifers such as Ike Berger, John Davis, Marvin Eder, Ronnie Ray and Wilbur Miller. I pointed out how big and muscular all those guys were—even when we compared them to the steroid giants of today. Wilbur, who is about as humble and sincere as anyone can be, noted that during the majority of his competition training, he never worked out in a commercial gym and never had a training partner. Furthermore, he never used an Olympic barbell, except in contests. He trained alone in his barn after he finished his day job: wheat farming.

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Metabolic conditioning is ideal for football players. It combines strength training and cardio conditioning into one workout. “I can’t understand,” Miller said, “why anyone interested in lifting and bodybuilding would want to get involved with drugs. All it takes to get bigger and stronger is an understanding of weighttraining basics and hard work.” And, I might add, patience— the patience of a Kansas wheat farmer. I learned something very important that day from Wilbur. He is the embodiment of the plain truth that I want to get across in my new book. That thousands and thousands of men throughout the middle of the last century strengthened and built their bodies without drugs—in the oldfashioned way, with plenty of hard work and patience. CM: You provide myriad routines throughout the book. What are your personal favorites? ED: I’m a big fan of the preexhaustion technique, so my favorite would be something along these lines: 1) Leg curls (machine) Superset 2) Leg extensions (machine) 3) Barbell squats or leg presses (machine)

4) Calf raises (machine or barbell) Superset 5) Lateral raises (dumbbells) 6) Overhead presses (barbell) 7) Bent-over rows (barbell) Superset 8) Bent-arm flyes (dumbbells) 9) Bench presses (barbell) 10) Biceps curls (barbell) 11) Wrist curls (barbell) All the exercises would be performed for one set of eight to 12 repetitions, in proper form, to momentary muscular failure. Preexhaustion would be applied on exercises 2 and 3, 5 and 6, and 8 and 9. You’d organize your equipment so you could move quickly between the pairs of exercises. Exercises 10 and 11 can be varied. Sometimes I might drop them and add a couple of neck, abdominal or lower-back movements. My other favorite would be to start off working the biceps and triceps in the “unvarnished arm cycle” that I describe in Chapter 3. That would entail the slow, onerepetition chinup immediately followed by the biceps curl and the slow, one-repetition dip immediately followed by the triceps extension performed with one dumbbell

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Model: Tamer Elshahat

Fast movements are dangerous and can cause momentum to detract from muscular involvement.

went immediately into chinups, performing as many as he could do in good form for 40 seconds. Then he sprinted again, down and back, in 20 seconds or less and went immediately into dips, as many as possible in 40 seconds. Note that if an athlete couldn’t do normal chinups and dips for the required 40 seconds, he continued doing them in a negative-only manner. In other words, he used a bench or chair to climb into the top position, from which he then lowered himself slowly, using only his arms. So that was the cycle: 20 seconds of sprinting followed by 40 seconds of chinning; then 20 seconds of sprinting followed by 40 seconds of dipping. Two minutes of activity that would quickly raise your heart rate to 180 to 200 beats per minute. The goal was to repeat that twominute cycle six times, for a total of 12 minutes. Simple, right? Wrong! Even our bestconditioned athletes could not finish the first time they tried it. Most of them would make it through five or six minutes. A few could achieve nine or 10. But after three or four sessions most of them could continue for the entire 12 minutes. I’ll tell you, the athletes who accomplished this goal all progressed into their football training in the best possible condition. It was

held in both hands. After that I’d do four or five other exercises to round out the routine. CM: You spend a couple of chapters on promoting metabolic conditioning for football. Would you briefly describe your thoughts on that topic? ED: Metabolic conditioning is what happens when you combine muscular strength and cardiorespiratory endurance into a single workout. It’s like preexhaustion— not for two minutes but for 12 minutes. The key is being able to move from one exercise to the next with little rest in between. Here’s a starter routine that we used to get football players’ attention. It involves sprinting for the lower body alternated with chins and dips for the upper body. First, you need a place to sprint at least 50 yards. Second, you need a horizontal bar for chins and parallel bars for dips. We had a Nautilus Multi-Exercise machine, on which you could do chins and dips, and we moved it into a large parking lot. Fifty yards away we placed a cone on the ground. The goal was to sprint down and back—100 yards—12 times. Each sprint took 20 seconds or less. After the first sprint the athlete

amazing. With a little creativity this metabolic-conditioning cycle could be adapted to an entire football team. When that happens, look out. CM: You have written more than 14 books on HIT. What’s the one thing about HIT that you’ve changed your mind about the most? ED: Good question. I suppose it would be the concept of wholebody vs. split routines. I’ve gotten very good results applying wholebody routines, even with my advanced athletes, but more and more fitness-minded people seem to be demanding split routines. I’ve trained people using various splits, and the results are often better than I’ve predicted. So in my next book I’m going to explore split routines a bit more. CM: Dr. Darden, it has been a pleasure. I hope you continue to remain active in the iron game and to educate the masses with your wonderful writing. ED: Thank you for your interest and your thought-provoking questions. This discussion brought back a lot of memories.

Editor’s note: To order The New Bodybuilding for Old-School Results for $39.99 plus shipping and handling, call Home Gym Warehouse, (800) 447-0008 or visit www.Home-Gym.com. IM

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Lee Apperson/Justin Apperson

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A Bodybuilder

Is Born Missionary Work by Ron Harris

Episode 25

Photography by Michael Neveux

andy had brought various and sundry young ladies to the gym to train (or, should I say, to watch him train and marvel at his amazing physique in action), but he’d never brought a guest when he was meeting me there. So I was surprised to see him in the company of a short, fairly overweight teenager with a sullen demeanor and raging acne. The kid wore jeans that looked like they were meant for a man with a 40-inch inseam and a 50-inch waist—the baggy, saggy style youngsters are into these days. Funny, when I was in high school, we actually rolled and cuffed our pant legs so they

would never hit the ground. This kid’s pants were filthy and frayed at the bottom, as if he’d been intentionally dragging them over the Appalachian Trail. His shirt was equally oversize, black and emblazoned with the logo and image of the band Slipknot. For the uninitiated, Slipknot is a “death metal” band that performs while wearing scary masks and has an album titled “666.” I am not completely sure that Satan has a CD player in his car, but if he does, Slipknot’s Greatest Hits is probably in it. “Uh, Ron, I hope you don’t mind. I brought my brother with me. You know, I train before the dealership opens most days and.…” I waved him off. www.ironmanmagazine.com \ AUGUST 2007 119

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A Bodybuilder Is Born There’s more to bodybuilding than looking great at the beach— although that’s a great perk.

Model: Debbie Kruck

health risks associated with obesity, such as diabetes and heart disease. Concerned, she had demanded that her older son, the health and fitness nut, do something fast before it was too late. So here they were. “Ron, this is Mark; Mark, this is Ron.” I stuck out my hand and smiled, wondering if he was going to shake my hand or spit in my face. I could sense that he was either threatened or intimidated by me, simply because I was 220 pounds and muscular. No doubt he assumed I was judging him by his slovenly appearance and the fact that he was out of shape. To my relief, he shook my hand and muttered, “What’s up?” so low I almost couldn’t hear him. “You mind if he tags along and I show him a couple things today?” Randy asked nervously. He knew I was getting ready for a show and all of my workouts were crucial at this stage. And the selfish part of me wanted to tell him to go ahead and work out with his brother while I trained alone, as the kid would slow us down. But then the angel sitting on my other shoulder immediately realized that this was an opportunity to connect with someone who desperately needed to start exercis-

“No, it’s fine.” I was surprised because Randy never talked about his brother. I had only a vague recollection of his ever even mentioned having a younger sibling. Later he laid out the whole scenario for me. Mark was 14 and nothing like Randy. Whereas Randy had played sports since early childhood, Mark wasn’t athletic in the least. Apparently, the only exercise he got was his thumbs manipulating the controls on his PlayStation 2 during any waking hours when he wasn’t in school, and his hands and arms got their workout stuffing junk food and soda down his gullet. The kid was a loner, and he had been steadily gaining weight over the past two years. At 5’6” he was now up to 210 pounds, with a prominent belly and a wide butt. It seems that Mark had recently been to the family doctor for his annual physical exam, and his cholesterol was high. The doctor had cautioned their mom about the

ing. I decided to take over, seeing as how I had been a personal trainer for a couple years back in L.A. and had a lot more experience working with beginners and those who weren’t exactly supermotivated to train in the first place. Besides which, seeing as how they were brothers, Mark was a lot more likely to listen to me and accept my authority than he was Randy’s. The last thing I wanted was for this to erupt into a shutup-you’re-not-the-bossof-me shout-fest. “You’re that guy with the Web site Randy’s always looking at, right?” Mark asked. “Yeah, that’s right,” I said. “Your wife’s hot.” “Oh, uh, thanks.” I looked at Randy. “Well, at least we know he’s got normal testosterone levels for a guy his age. Let’s all warm up with a few minutes of fast walking on the treadmill, okay?” Mark found a treadmill far from us so he could watch Jerry Springer on TV. Some woman was taking off her top, and either her husband or boyfriend leaped across the stage in a vain attempt to stop her. The volume was off on all the TVs, but you could read the close captioning at the bottom of the screen: “AUDIENCE: JERRY! JERRY!” “So, how much is your mom paying you to do this?” I asked Randy. “I’m going to pay Mark 20 bucks every time he comes to the gym with me,” he answered. “Wow, I used to joke to the hotties in the gym when I was a trainer

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Regular cardio takes discipline, but leanness can often be more impressive than bigness.

A Bodybuilder Is Born

Model: Justin Balik

Model: Nathan DeTracy

Working out for yourself is great, but helping a youngster get started right can be even more rewarding.

more healthful food was all anyone asked. We cooled down with a few minutes on the treadmill. Randy seemed pleased at the way everything had transpired. “Think he’ll be back?” I inquired. “Yeah, he wants a new Mustang when he turns 16, which is just over a year away, and he’s saving up now. So at 20 bucks a workout, he should be able to pay cash for it by then, seeing as I’ll get it to him for dealer’s invoice,” he sighed. “You’re a good brother,” I told him. “Yeah, Mark is a little punk sometimes, but he’s still my brother. I don’t want to see him get really fat and then get sick or something.” “It felt good helping someone who really needs to start living a more fit life rather than someone who just wants big muscles to win a bodybuilding contest or have a ripped six-pack to get the girls drooling.” I nudged him in the elbow. “Sound like anyone you know?” Randy just grinned sheepishly. “Yeah, I would feel really good if I could help him drop the weight and start looking and feeling better,” Randy agreed. “All of us who are in great shape need to consider it a sort of missionary work to convert the people around us to some sort of exercise and nutrition regimen. It’s the least we can do to give a little something back for what we have been blessed with, don’t you think?’ “Uh, I never really thought about it that way,” he replied pensively. “Oh, one other thing,” I said casually. “What’s that?’ “When Mark gets into really good shape eventually, and his acne clears up and he gets that Mustang.…” “Yeah?” “You keep him the hell away from my wife!” IM

that I would train them for 75 bucks an hour because that’s all I could afford.” “That line ever work?” “It sure did. I used it in front of my wife one time, and she stayed mad at me for three days, a record that stood for almost another year before being broken.” It happened to be back day for me and Randy, but I managed to have Mark do a full-body workout with light dumbbells and machines between our sets. The poor kid was in horrible condition, sucking air like a fish out of water from seemingly minimal effort and so weak, it was tough to watch. On the leg press, for example, I

started him off with just a quarter on each side to be on the safe side, but he struggled with that. I made sure I kept his pace just fast enough to keep his heart rate up, and I wasn’t having him work to failure on anything. I knew that if he woke up sore all over tomorrow morning, he would probably form an instant negative opinion about weight training, which was exactly the opposite of what we wanted. I encouraged and praised him and even joked around and had him laughing a little bit. I can be charming and funny when I want to be, even though it’s a lot harder on a contest diet. I’m a lot friendlier when I can have the occasional few slices of pizza or Chinese food to put a sparkle in my eye. All in all, I thought it went well. I explained to Mark that nobody was expecting him to try and be a bodybuilder like us. Just exercising on a regular basis and having a strong, healthy body was the most important thing. If he ever decided he wanted to take it to another level, I assured him that Randy and I would both be willing to help him. But for now, just getting started on a regular gym regimen and eating

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presents...

Arm-Train

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ing

Q &A

Ammunition You Need to Get Your Guns Growing by Hugo Rivera Photography by Michael Neveux

Q: How can I get big arms quickly? A: A combination of factors, such as how well periodized your routines are, how good your form is, how good your nutrition program is and so on, affect your ability to build big arms quickly. There are a few pointers I can give you for fast muscle growth. Concentrate on basic movements. When training your biceps, use exercises like EZ-curl-bar curls, preacher curls, incline curls, lying cable curls (use an overhead pulley, lie on a bench under it, and curl the bar to your forehead), EZ-curl-bar reverse curls (done standing and on a preacher bench), hammer curls and undergrip chins, which are performed with a narrow-curl grip on a chinup bar.

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workout only once a week for five weeks before moving to routine 2. Otherwise, do it twice a week, with two or three days between arm For your triceps concentrate on parallel-bar dips, close-grip bench presses, lying EZcurl-bar extensions (preferably done on a decline bench for better stimulation), overhead extensions and pushdowns performed with a bar or rope. Those are all great exercises. Introduce variety into your training. Follow a periodized routine and change your exercise selection often. The biggest mistake I see most people make is following the same routine all of the time. I can’t overstate the importance of training variety for continually challenging the body to induce gains. The more advanced you become as a bodybuilder, the more crucial this is. Since I’ve been at it for 15 years, I change my routines every time I hit the gym. Here are a couple of programs for gaining more arm size. Note: To perform supersets, take no rest between exercises, and rest one minute after the second exercise.

Dips

workouts, and use it for three weeks before moving to routine 2. Note for routine 2: To perform a modified compound superset, rest 90 seconds after each set of each exercise.

Quick-Arm-Gains Routine 2 Modified compound superset Undergrip chinups 8 x 6-8 Close-grip bench presses 8 x 6-8 Modified compound superset Incline curls* followed immediately by incline hammer curls* 3 x 10-12 Lying extensions 3 x 10-12 *Use the same weight on both. If you’re the naturally skinny person described above, perform this workout only once a week for five weeks before moving to another program. Otherwise, do it twice a week, with two or three days between arm workouts, and use it for three weeks before moving to a new routine. When you use modified com-

Machine Curls

Superset Preacher curls Dips

10 x 10 10 x 10

Superset Hammer curls Pushdowns

2 x 12-15 2 x 12-15

If you’re a naturally skinny person—a hardgainer who always has abs regardless of diet—perform this

Models: Mike and Holly Semanoff

Quick-Arm-Gains Routine 1

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Pull-Ups

Model: Dan Decker

I canâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t overstate the importance of training variety for continually challenging the body.

Model: Jeff Hammond

Close-Grip Bench Presses

pound supersets, you rest three minutes plus the amount of time that it takes you to perform the other exercise (so you rest a given muscle for three to four minutes). Pairing exercises not only saves time and keeps the body warm, but it also enhances nervous system recovery between sets. That allows

you to lift heavier weights than if you stayed idle for minutes. Nutrition. Remember that nutrition is key for gains. If you have an average metabolism, multiply your bodyweight by 15 and use macronutrient percentages of 40 percent carbs, 40 percent proteins and 20 percent fats to gain muscle size.

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If you’re a hardgainer, multiply your bodyweight by 24 and use a nutrient split of 50 percent carbs (with an even split between simple and complex carbs), 25 percent protein and 25 percent good fats. Also, whether you’re a hardgainer

or average gainer, remember to have a postworkout protein shake with simple carbs to spike insulin levels and induce growth. Form. Use perfect form when executing arm exercises. Less than that will activate other muscles and reduce arm stimulation. You need to concentrate and feel the biceps and triceps contract as

you work them. Forget about using superheavy weights and jerking them up. Practice perfect form and think isolation at all times. Q: How often can I train my arms? A: Most people should train their arms twice a week—with two to three days between arm work-

Rope Pushdowns

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Model: Jose Raymond

Most people should train their arms twice a week—with two or three days between arm workouts.

Model: Binais Begovic

Hammer Curls

Pushdowns

Q: How many sets should I do for my arms? A: For absolute beginners four to six sets twice a week works best. For intermediate bodybuilders 10 to 12

Model: Dave Goodin

outsâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;unless theyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re hardgainers. In that case once-a-week arm training is best. Another exception is extremely advanced bodybuilders. They have so much muscle mass and strength that once-a-week training works best.

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Close-Grip EZ-Curl-Bar Curls Incline Hammer Curls

Q: How can I make my arms look wide? They look big when I flex them but small when viewed from the front. A: You need to train the biceps brachialis in order to create the illusion of width. The biceps brachialis is that little golf ballâ&#x20AC;&#x201C;shaped muscle that is located on the outside part of the arm in between the biceps and triceps. By increasing the size of that muscle, you increase not only the size of your arms but also their width. Hit the brachialis muscles with hammer-curl and reverse-curl movements. Q: What other bodyparts can I 134 AUGUST 2007 \ www.ironmanmagazine.com

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Model: Noel Thompson

sets twice a week works well, and for advanced athletes 12 to 14 sets once a week usually works well. As you get more advanced, you start learning more about your own recovery capability, but in my experience most people seem to tolerate 10 to 12 sets well. Again, remember that if youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re an ectomorph with a superfast metabolism, once-a-week arm training is a better frequency.

Model: Dave Fisher

For beginners four to six sets twice a week works best. For intermediate bodybuilders 10 to 12 sets twice a week works well, and for advanced athletes 12 to 14 sets once a week usually works well.

train with my arms? A: I’ve used a multitude of splits over the years with great success. Here are a few of my favorites:

Twice-a-Week Splits Split 1 Monday and Thursday: Shoulders, biceps, triceps Tuesday and Friday: Thighs, hamstrings, abs Wednesday and Saturday: Chest, back, calves Split 2 Monday and Thursday: Chest, biceps, triceps Tuesday and Friday: Thighs, hamstrings, abs Wednesday and Saturday: Back, shoulders, calves

Once-a-Week Splits Split 1 Monday: Chest, biceps Tuesday: Thighs, abs Wednesday: Shoulders, trap, calves Thursday: Back, triceps Friday: Hamstrings, glutes Saturday: Calves, abs Split 2 Monday: Chest, back Tuesday: Thighs, abs Wednesday: Shoulders, traps, calves Thursday: Biceps, triceps Friday: Hamstrings, glutes Saturday: Calves, abs

Model: Dan Decker

One last comment: I always seem to get better results when I train biceps and triceps at the same workout. So while I work them on separate days in some splits, 90 percent of the time I train them together. Editor’s note: Hugo Rivera is a competitive drug-free bodybuilder. He’s an ISSA–certified personal trainer, a sports nutrition specialist and a graduate in computer engineer from the University of South Florida. He owns www.hrfit.net, a free Web site providing fitness and nutrition information. For more of his articles, visit www.Bodybuilding .com. IM

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Happy Birthday A Celebration of the Oak’s 60th

Zeller

Photography by Gene Mozée, Art Zeller, Michael Neveux and John Balik

On July 30, 1947, at 4:10 a.m., Arnold Schwarzenegger was born in Graz, Austria, to Gustav and Aurelia Schwarzenegger. He grew up there, cultivated a hunger for bodybuilding, competed in Europe and with the help of Joe Weider came to America in September 1968 at the age of 21. The rest, as they say, is history. Arnold went on to bodybuilding greatness, business success and movie superstardom, and he is now the governor of California. To honor him on his 60th birthday and thank him for all he’s done for the art and sport of bodybuilding, we present this collection of classic images— capped by a selection of recent shots by John Balik on page 170. Happy birthday, Governor. —The Editors Free download from imbodybuilding.com

Mozéé

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MozĂŠe

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Neveux

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A Day In The Life John Balik spent a day with Governor Schwarzenegger and captured these images. We will have more next month in a special feature about Arnoldâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s psychology of success by Bill Dobbins.

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by Jerry Brainum â&#x20AC;˘ Photography by Michael Neveux

Recent reports in the popular media have suggested that those who take vitamin E and other antioxidants may be harming themselves. In fact, the most recent quoted studies conclude that vitamin E may cause premature death. As a result of such reports, many wonder about the wisdom of using not only vitamin E supplements but vitamins and minerals in general. Bodybuilders may find this particularly troubling, since many of their supplements contain extra vitamins.

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How can something as natural as a vitamin be so toxic? The truth is, it isn’t. A closer scrutiny of all these vitamin E studies shows that they had major flaws, rendering their findings completely wrong. For example, many of the studies were meta-analyses of previously published studies. You can easily prove anything you want by using the negative studies about a subject and ignoring the studies that show benefits. And that’s precisely what was done with the recent negative vitamin E studies. In addition, some of the studies used subjects who were near death, then gave the moribund patients vitamin E. Since many were past the point of no return in a health sense, the vitamins not only didn’t work but appeared to hasten their deaths—hence the misleading headlines. Still another problem with the recent studies about vitamin E is that in most cases only one form of vitamin E—alpha tocopherol—was used. Alpha tocopherol is considered the most potent form of vitamin E, but it is only one of eight forms. All forms exist in nature, and like other nutrients they work best together. In fact, some members of the vitamin E family that aren’t

included in most food supplements go well beyond the health benefits offered by alpha tocopherol alone.

Man Does Not Live by Alpha Alone In 1922, researchers found that without vitamin E rats couldn’t reproduce. That link to reproduction branded vitamin E a “sex vitamin,” despite the connection between the nutrient and sex being tenuous at best. Other scientists isolated vitamin E from wheat germ in 1936 and figured out its chemical structure. The word tocopherol is from the Greek words tokos and pherein, and the two words combined translate into “to bear and bring forth offspring,” a reference to the initial discovery that rats deprived of tocopherol suffer spontaneous abortion. The vitamin E complex consists of four tocopherol forms: alpha, beta, gamma and delta, with the differences being minor structural changes. Also included in the complex are tocotrienols, which have four members as well: alpha, beta, gamma and delta. The tocotrienols have a slightly different structure

in the tail sequence that gives them some highly beneficial properties. As noted earlier, some recent studies showed that alpha tocopherol, which is what most people think of when they consider vitamin E, provides surprisingly little cardiovascular protection. Yet other studies show that when consumed in food, vitamin E appears to offer potent cardiovascular protection. Why would getting the same nutrient in food prove superior to taking it in supplemental form? The answer is that foods contain the entire vitamin E complex. That touches on an ongoing controversy: whether the natural or synthetic form is superior. While many scientists suggest that the synthetic version is just as potent as the natural, other research shows that natural vitamin E is clearly more potent and that it takes twice as much of the synthetic version to equal the effects of the natural version. Vitamin E’s history is similar to whey’s. For years whey was considered a waste product of dairy production and was discarded. Eventually, the great nutritional properties of whey became evident, and the picture changed dramatically. After the discovery of vitamin E, it became known that soybean oil was a rich source of alpha tocopherol. The biggest producer of soybean oil was the Eastman Kodak

As a result of the recent negative reports on vitamin E, many wonder about the wisdom of using not only vitamin E supplements but vitamins and minerals in general.

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The biggest producer of soybean oil was the Eastman Kodak company, which used it in photo processing. Someone at the company realized that they could extract alpha tocopherol from the soybean oil waste products and then sell it in bulk to vitamin companies. To this day a division of Eastman Kodak is still the largest supplier of natural vitamin E. company, which used it in photo processing. Someone at the company realized that they could extract alpha tocopherol from the soybean oil waste products and then sell it in bulk to vitamin companies. To this day a division of Eastman Kodak is still the largest supplier of natural vitamin E. But that form of vitamin E isn’t as natural as many think. The soybean oil is processed by a chemical methylation technique, extracting only the alpha tocopherol form. The other vitamin E forms are discarded, even though they are found naturally in the soy oil. So even “natural” alpha tocopherol isn’t truly natural, since it doesn’t exist in an isolated form in nature.1 The two most common forms of vitamin E found in food are alpha tocopherol and gamma tocopherol. The predominant of the two is gamma tocopherol, since the best sources of natural vitamin E are various vegetable oils, all of which contain larger amounts of gamma tocopherol than alpha tocopherol. The tocopherols are there for a good reason. Vegetable oils are polyunsaturated fats, which means they are highly prone to oxidation and rancidity. Tocopherols prevent that. Note that natural oils contain the entire vitamin E complex. If they only contained alpha tocopherol, they would turn rancid because, when found alone in oils, alpha tocopherol becomes a pro-oxidant. Those who take fish oil supplements should consider that effect. Most commercial fish oil supplements, whether liquid or capsules,

contain only alpha tocopherol. To prevent fat oxidation in the oil, however, would require the presence of other tocopherols besides just alpha tocopherol, such as gamma and delta tocopherols. Indeed, some studies have tested fish oil supplements and found them to be oxidized. Now you know why. While alpha tocopherol is considered the most potent antioxidant of the tocopherols, it’s ineffective against some types of free radicals, which are by-products of oxygen metabolism that attack fatty structures in the body, such as cellular membranes. Gamma tocopherol, unlike the alpha version, defuses one of the most potent free radicals, peroxynitrate, and other nitrogen species that are linked to disease. Peroxynitrate is simply a combination of nitric oxide and the hydrogen peroxide that’s produced during normal metabolism. Nitric oxide precursor supplements, usually based on the amino acid arginine, are popular among bodybuilders. On the other hand, NO itself is a free radical, which is harmless unless it meets up with hydrogen peroxide in the body. Thus, those who take NO-producing supplements would be well advised to also use a supplement containing either mixed tocopherols or gamma tocopherol. Many free radicals are produced as a result of the metabolism of certain minerals, such as copper and

In 1922, researchers found that without vitamin E, rats couldn’t reproduce. That link to reproduction branded vitamin E a “sex vitamin.”

iron. They are highly destructive, and are linked to various neurodegenerative diseases, such as Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s. While alpha tocopherol has little effect on those mineral-associated free radicals, gamma and delta tocopherols attach to them and thus render them harmless. The other tocopherols also have an anti-inflammatory effect.2 Inflammation is now known to be the cornerstone of most serious diseases, such as cardiovascular disease and cancer. In addition, while some initial inflammation is required for muscular growth, extended inflammation blunts muscular recovery after training. That’s why antioxidants are often suggested for bodybuilders. While the anti-inflammatory power of alpha tocopherol is zilch, gamma tocopherol shows potent effects in that regard.3 It inhibits inflammatory eicosanoids made from dietary fat and also inhibits the same enzyme, COX-2, that is blocked by popular analgesic drugs used to treat arthritis and other types of chronic pain. Unlike the drugs, however, using gamma tocopherol won’t also increase the risk of dying from cardiovascular side effects. Since high levels of COX-2 are linked to various types of cancer, such as colon cancer, gamma tocopherol may offer preventive effects. Alpha tocopherol is useless in that area. Diabetics experience low-level inflammation in the pancreas, which can destroy the beta cells that produce insulin, thus worsening the disease. Studies show that gamma and delta tocopherols block that inflammatory effect. An increase in the density of vascular smooth muscle cells is linked to cardiovascular disease. While alpha tocopherol does inhibit that, taking the other tocopherols increases the potency significantly and thus offers more protection. In addition, mixed tocopherols are far more potent than the alpha variety alone in preventing platelets from sticking to each other in the blood.4 The clot that forms when this happens is often the immediate cause of most heart attacks and strokes. One of the most exciting findings about gamma tocopherol occurred in a study of 20,000 men. It found a protective effect of gamma tocoph-

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Model: Omar Deckard

erol against prostate cancer, an effect not offered by alpha tocopherol. Men with the highest level of gamma tocopherol were 80 percent less likely to develop prostate cancer than men with the lowest levels. Gamma tocopherol inhibits the growth of prostate cancer cells far more than does alpha tocopherol. In addition, gamma tocopherol seems to prevent the cells from turning into cancer in the first place. Reactive nitrogen species, a form of free radicals, are implicated in the

The best sources of natural vitamin E are various vegetable oils.

onset of Alzheimer’s disease. The brains of those who suffer from that dreaded disease show higher levels of nitrates, which are linked to brain destruction.5 Only gamma tocopherol protects against that internal onslaught in the brain, not alpha tocopherol. Bodybuilders would also be interested in another effect of gamma tocopherol. The primary breakdown product of the gamma form acts as a natural diuretic that promotes the excretion of sodium, thus alleviating water retention. From a health standpoint, that means less risk of high blood pressure. From a bodybuilding vantage, it means more muscular definition. Gamma tocopherol helps prevent high blood pressure thanks to its ability to protect nitric oxide in the blood from oxidation. NO dilates blood vessels, leading to a greater muscular pump, along with the notable “side effect” of lower resting blood pressure. The primary tocopherol blood carrier protein produced in the liver has a preference for alpha tocopherol over the other tocopherols (only 9 percent of gamma tocopherol is carried in that manner). That leads the other forms of vitamin E to be broken down much more quickly than alpha tocopherol. On the other hand, more recent investigations show that gamma tocopherol tends to concentrate in tissues such as fat, muscle and skin. One problem with taking large doses of alpha tocopherol (more than 100 units a day) is that the more alpha tocopherol you take in, the more gamma tocopherol is rapidly excreted. Conversely, taking in larger amounts of gamma tocopherol does the same thing to alpha tocopherol—more rapid excretion.6 The answer may be to use either a mixed, balanced blend of tocopherols or to take gamma tocopherol and alpha tocopherol supplements at different times. Sesamin, a lignan from sesame seeds, prevents the premature breakdown of gamma tocopherol, and some specific gamma-E, or mixed-tocopherol, supplements contain sesamin for that reason. On the other hand, rat studies show that combining sesamin with gamma E also blocks the production of the beneficial diuretic breakdown product of gamma to-

copherol. Not all scientists think that consuming a lot of gamma tocopherol is a good idea. For example, Jiyan Ma, an assistant professor of molecular and cellular biochemistry at Ohio State University, published a study that involved exposing isolated brain cells taken from mice to high levels of end products of the metabolism of alpha and gamma tocopherols called quinones. The gamma tocopherol quinone led to cellular destruction by preventing an essential process called protein folding while alpha tocopherol quinones did not have that toxic effect. The experiment was also repeated with kidney cells from monkeys and on skin cells from mice, with similar results. Commenting on the results of the study, Ma said, “We think that gamma tocopherol may have this kind of damaging effect on nearly every cell in the body.” But once again, this study involved isolated cells taken from animals, not humans. In addition, the researchers looked at the activity of only alpha and gamma tocopherol by-products—not the actual nutrients. There is no human evidence that the toxic metabolite in question—gamma tocopherol quinone—accumulates or even exists in human cells. In fact, in the human body, half of ingested gamma tocopherol is converted into gamma-CEHC, the metabolite

Most commercial fish oil supplements contain only alpha tocopherol. To prevent fat oxidation in the oil would require the presence of the other tocopherols as well.

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Bodybuilders would also be interested in another effect of gamma tocopherol. The primary breakdown product of the gamma form acts as a natural diuretic that promotes the excretion of sodium, thus alleviating excess water retention. That means more muscular definition due to less extracellular water retention.

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tocopherol doesn’t affect lipo (a); in fact, most nutrients—other than niacin in large doses—don’t help in that regard. It’s clear that man does not live by alpha tocopherol alone, indicating once again that you cannot improve on the inherent wisdom of nature. Those wanting the complete health benefits offered by vitamin E need to take the entire complex, not just alpha tocopherol.

References Model: Hidetada Yamagishi

1 Saldeen,

While some initial inflammation is required for muscular growth, extended inflammation blunts muscular recovery after training. That explains why antioxidants are often suggested for bodybuilders. of gamma tocopherol that offers diuretic effects, and is excreted. In nature antioxidants work as a team, preventing toxic reactions that may develop from the normal metabolism. The tocotrienols are even rarer

NO itself is a free radical, which is harmless unless it meets up with some hydrogen peroxide in the body. Thus, those who take NO producing supplements would be well advised to also use a supplement containing either mixed tocopherols or gamma tocopherol.

than gamma tocopherol, though specific supplements, usually based on a palm or rice bran oil, are available. The tocotrienols have properties not offered by other members of the vitamin E complex.7 For example, only tocotrienols inhibit the enzyme in the liver that synthesizes cholesterol.8 Inhibiting that enzyme would lower blood cholesterol levels, and the most popular drugs prescribed to treat cardiovascular disease, statins, work in that manner. Tocotrienols may more effectively block the oxidation of low-density-lipoprotein cholesterol in the blood.9 Tocotrienols are distributed more evenly through the fatty membranes of cells, thus offering more protection than other members of the vitamin E family. Animal and cell studies show that tocotrienols alone may help prevent breast cancer. They also prevent the destruction of neurons from overexcitation caused by large releases of glutamate in the brain.10 That happens during most strokes and accounts for the brain damage that often ensues. Tocotrienols reduce lipoprotein(a), which acts like low-density lipoprotein in accelerating cardiovascular disease, by an impressive 17 percent. Alpha

K. ,et al. (2005). Importance of tocopherols beyond a-tocopherol: evidence from animal and human studies. Nut Res. 25:877-889. 2 Jiang, Q., et al. (2001). Gammatocopherol, the major form of vitamin E in the US diet, deserves more attention. Am J Clin Nutr. 74:714-22. 3 Jiang, Q., et al. (2000). Gammatocopherol and its major metabolite, in contrast to alpha-tocopherol, inhibit cyclooxygenase activity in macrophages and epithelial cells. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA. 97:11494-9 4 Liu, M. , et al. (2003). Mixed tocopherols inhibit platelet aggregation in humans: potential mechanisms. Am J Clin Nutr. 77:700-6. 5 Williamson, K.S., et al. (2002). The nitration product 5-nitrogamma tocopherol is increased in the Alzheimer brain. Nitric Oxide. 6:221-227. 6 Yoshikawa, S., et al. (2005). The effect of gamma tocopherol administration on alpha tocopherol levels and metabolism in humans. Eur J Clin Nutr. In press. 7 Theriault, A., et al. (1999). Tocotrienol: a review of therapeutic effects. Clin Biochem. 32:309-19. 8 Black, T.M., et al. (2000). Palm tocotrienols protect apo+E mice from diet-induced atheroma formulation. J Nutr. 130:2420-26. 9 Qureshi, A.A., et al. (1997). Novel tocotrienols of rice bran modulate cardiovascular disease risk parameters of hypercholesterolemic humans. Nutr Biochem. 8:290-98. 10 Packer, L., et al. (2001). Molecular aspects of a-tocotrienol antioxidant and cell signaling. J Nutr. 131:369S-373S. IM

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Heavy Duty The Wisdom of

Mike Mentzer by John Little

Balik\ Model: Mike Mentzer

Q: There’s been a lot of talk on the Internet lately about whether or not strength increases are necessary to build muscle. What was Mike’s view on the matter? A: It comes down to natural training vs. drug-assisted training. If you’re taking steroids or other growth drugs that cause the body to retain water (of which muscle is 76 percent), then almost any type of training program will cause you to grow measurably bigger muscles—at least for as long as you’re synthetically helping your body to retain such fluid. If you’re looking to build muscle without using potentially dangerous substances, however, then you need to thicken the cross-sectional area of actual muscle tissue, its protein component. That requires high-order stimulation as well as time to produce the growth you’ve stimulated.

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Heavy Duty Every time you work out and you’re up in reps or weight (or both), you’re stimulating your muscles to get bigger—but only a little bit. It takes many, many such strength increases to produce a discernible mass increase and many such mass increases to produce an increase that registers on a bodyweight scale. Studies we’ve conducted at Nautilus North indicate that you’d be doing well to produce an average gain of three-quarters to 1 1/2 pounds of muscle over a two-week period. That rate of growth may not be sustainable on a progressive basis from month to month—that is, there may be periods when your lean levels go up for several weeks and then plateau, only to go up again several months later. Mike often pointed out that most bodybuilders use the wrong standard for evaluating their workout-toworkout progress—bodyweight increases: “I know of bodybuilders—I was once myself a bodybuilder who did

this—who every time they walk into a gym, the first thing they do is step on the scale. If they’re not gaining weight every workout or every week, then they suspect something is wrong. In most cases something is wrong, but it’s not necessarily that they’re not gaining weight. The point I’m making here is that you shouldn’t evaluate your workoutto-workout efforts by the standard of bodyweight increases. Muscle growth on a daily basis—even at best—is negligible. “Let’s take a best-case scenario. Say you have the required genetics, and you’re going to train properly in the course of the next year, eat adequately and gain 30 pounds of muscle. As great as that is, 30 pounds of muscle in one year averages out to only slightly over one ounce a day—which isn’t enough to register on your typical bodyweight scale every day or even every week. “There are 16 ounces in a pound, and if you were weighing yourself each week on a certain day, you’d

be gaining a pound only every 2 1/2 weeks or so. And if on that given day you got a haircut and had diarrhea, you’d register a weight loss. Do you see now why you shouldn’t be using bodyweight increases as your standard of progress? “Of course most bodybuilders want to gain weight. And they will— ultimately. But [as bodyweight gains come so slowly] workout to workout, you want to know that you’re on the right track so that you ultimately do gain muscle—noticeable bodyweight increase and muscle mass increase. “The appropriate standard to use for evaluating bodybuilding progress is strength increases. When you’re training properly, you’ll be going up in reps, in weight or both—on every set of every exercise, or damn near. I’ve had clients who have gone up on every set of every workout for many, many months. “While all that is true beyond any shadow of a doubt, it’s also true that strength increases precede size

Every time you work out and you’re up in reps or weight (or both), you’re stimulating your muscles to get bigger—but only a little bit.

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increases. Most people get stronger for a while without getting bigger, but as long as an individual continues to get stronger, he’ll eventually get bigger. Just how strong he gets, how long it takes, I can’t say because those are matters dictated by ge-

netics. But as long as you’re getting stronger, you know you’re on the right track. “That’s true for most people, by the way. I can remember, in the early part of my training career especially, there would be periods of

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“Strength increases precede size increases. Most people get stronger for a while without getting bigger, but as long as an individual continues to get stronger, he’ll eventually get bigger.”

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Heavy Duty gains, and 2) you might better be able to assess your rate of progress using those two examples as touchstones. Again, however, the common denominator is that if you train for strength, the mass will follow. If you’re using tape measures (particularly without proper body composition analysis methods) and are seeing “gains” on a daily or weekly basis, then chances are the gains you’re measuring are something other than muscle (most often in-

be weeks when you do gain five pounds. By the way, that’s how Mike Mentzer gained muscle: “I’d go for several months without gaining any weight and then, all of a sudden—voilà—I step on the scale, and I’m five pounds heavier.” Q: I understand Mike’s theory of intensity being the most important factor in the growthstimulation process. Now that I have this first principle, however, I want to know exactly how

“Overtraining is not just something ‘kinda’ negative; it’s the single worst training mistake you can make.” flammation, water retention and/or fat gains). It takes the body much longer to produce real muscle. Frustration is often the greatest hindrance to bodybuilding progress, and part of the reason for frustration is ignorance. In other words, you’re not going to gain five pounds of muscle a week, though there may

Neveux \ Model: George Farah

even as long as four months during which I’d get stronger on a regular basis and not gain any weight. I grew enormously frustrated and almost gave up more times than I care to remember. For most people, though, strength comes first.” Like Mike, I’ve trained clients who over a two-month period have gone up as much as 80 pounds on their squats and as much as 150 pounds on their shrugs but are discouraged that such strength gains yielded only a three-pound gain in muscle. I point out that this is progress—as it should be, particularly if they were not grossly underweight to start with and if they’re not taking anabolic drugs. Think about it: If you were to gain three pounds every two months, by the end of one year you’d have gained 18 pounds of muscle, which is excellent progress. As Mike once pointed out: “Some people wonder just how much muscle that is. Visualize sitting in front of you on your dinner table a single, one-pound beefsteak. Now imagine 18 of them. That would probably be enough to almost cover your dinner table.” If you were able to sustain that rate of growth for two years, you’d gain 36 pounds of muscle—think of all the beefsteaks. I want you to gain a rational perspective on what you can reasonably hope to achieve with proper strength training, which is what bodybuilding exercise is (based on the progressive overload principle of muscle physiology), and thus avoid frustration. Dr. Doug McGuff, an emergency room physician who also owns a personal-training center in South Carolina, recently trained an individual who had excellent genetics on a variation of Mike’s Consolidation Program (three exercises performed once a week). That person gained 30 pounds of muscle over the course of a year. So if training for strength increases combined with good genetics might see a 30-pound gain of muscle over the course of a year and training for strength increases combined with fair genetics might see an 18-pound gain of muscle over that same time period, you can see that 1) training for strength increases produces substantial muscle

many of those sets I should do for best results. A: That’s an excellent question, as a proper science of bodybuilding should tell you exactly how many sets to do. Most trainees (and not a few muscle magazines) continue to tell everybody to do 12 to 20 sets. As Mike often pointed out, though,

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Heavy Duty

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“It’s possible to drive yourself into an overtraining situation that takes months to overcome.” that’s not very exact: Is it 12 or is it 20? And if it’s 12, why would anybody want to do 20? And if more sets are really better, as many imply, then why not do 200 sets? Why stop at 20? Where did they ever get the number 20 anyway? It’s arbitrary, as Mike once pointed out: “Remember, science is an exact and exacting discipline; there’s no room for the arbitrary in science. Let’s go back to my favorite people—NASA headquarters—right before a man-moon launch. The director yells down to the end of the control module, ‘Hey, Fred. Why don’t you try throwing a blue switch this time instead of a red one? Let’s see what happens.’ Not very likely their moon missions would succeed.” Mike made an even more apt analogy with medical science. If you were going into surgery tomorrow, you’d very much want your anesthesiologist to give you the “precise” amount of anesthesia required— any more than that and you could die. Now apply that principle to exercise science; in both cases we’re dealing with the human body. The anesthesiologist is looking to infuse the human body with the precise amount of anesthesia required. In

exercise science we’re looking to not infuse but impose on the body the requisite training stimulus. Too little intensity, and there will be no effect; too much, and you’ll be overtrained. That’s all it takes: Even one set more than is minimally required to build up your muscles will cause you to go into the negative—a loss of muscle. Here’s Mike on that important issue: “Overtraining is not just something ‘kinda’ negative; it’s the single worst training mistake you can make. The greater the overtraining, the more dire the consequences. It’s possible to drive yourself into an overtraining situation that takes months to overcome. If you were to get a sunburn, you wouldn’t keep going out into the sun, would you? “We don’t have quite as clear an alarm signal when we’re overtraining in bodybuilding. I know of people who overtrain every day for months—they know nothing about this stuff. What they do amounts, in essence, to running to the newsstands each month, grabbing up a bundle of muscle magazines and grabbing a program of some champion’s. Then they go into the gym and slavishly adhere to it for months and even years, during which time

they make no progress or very, very, very little. They conclude—erroneously in many cases—that they have terrible genetics, that they’re hardgainers or nongainers. Then they give up training entirely or continue going to the gym as a sort of social ritual. “In many of these cases these individuals have great genetics. The point I’m making here is that without the proper methodology you could have Mr. Olympia genetics and not even know it. If a surgeon doesn’t master the principles of surgery, he’s not going to be as successful a surgeon as the guy who got all A’s and was very disciplined and mastered the principles of surgery. What we need here is the ‘specific appropriate knowledge to achieve our goals.’” So what we’re looking for here is the precise amount of exercise required, and the logical place to start—even if you’re skeptical—is with the least amount possible. If one set doesn’t work, you can always go to two. Mike’s experience can save you the time and the headache; he trained more than 2,000 people. Since opening my fitness center, I’ve supervised (continued on page 208)

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Heavy Duty to high-intensity sunlight as well as others, some don’t tolerate highintensity exercise stress as well as others. For an exercise physiologist to tell everybody to do exactly the same program is an admission of ignorance about genetics and the body’s response to stress.” Editor’s note: For a complete presentation of Mike Mentzer’s Heavy Duty training system, consult his books Heavy Duty II, High Intensity Training the Mike Mentzer Way and the newest book, The Wisdom of Mike Mentzer, all of which are available from Mentzer’s

Building muscle is a lot like getting a suntan. If you tan for too long, you burn, blister and lose skin.

Neveux \ Model: Laurie Donnelly

42,000 workouts. Our collective experience has caused us to conclude that one set per exercise and never more than two sets per muscle is all that’s needed. That’s just the way it is. According to Mike: “If you’re skeptical, your subconscious child is telling you that ‘more is better.’ In some cases that’s true; more money is better than less—but you can’t take that principle and blindly apply it to exercise and expect to get anything out of it. One set per exercise, never more than two sets per muscle. Even if you’re skeptical, that’s the logical place to start. If you start out with 20 sets and that doesn’t work, you’re lost. Where do you go—up to 21 or down to 19? If one set doesn’t work, you can go only upward, and very methodically. Medical science had to do a lot of research to develop the chemical compounds and dosage that would be effective as anesthesia. Bodybuilding isn’t quite as formally disciplined; we don’t have universities working on the precise “dosage” for muscle-building stimulus. In fact, in Mike’s opinion, university exercise physiology departments still teach their students to do “three sets of 10 reps,” which is baseless. Mike’s take: “Where did fascination with the number three come from in exercise? There’s the Three Stooges; there’s the Father, the Son and Holy Ghost; there’s three square meals a day; bad luck comes in threes. Meanwhile, a very important principle of science is that there’s no room for the arbitrary. “For some people ‘three sets of 10 reps’ is gross overtraining. Just as some people don’t tolerate exposure

Neveux \ Model: Moe El Moussawi

(continued from page 205) more than

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

If you train too long at a high intensity, you overtrain, which produces catabolic reactions. Catabolism is the opposite of anabolism; it’s the loss of muscle tissue.

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An Excerpt From the E-book 3D Muscle Building by Steve Holman Photography by Michael Neveux

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Pulldowns

he first part of 3D Muscle Building features an analysis of the program Jonathan Lawson used to pack on 20 pounds of muscle in 10 weeks in the 1990s. It was a two-phase approach, the first being a three-daysper-week anabolic-primer program and the second a 3D Positions-ofFlexion every-other-day program. The following excerpt from Chapter 6 looks back and improves on the 3D POF back workout Jonathan used:

Lats Midrange: Pulldowns Stretch and contracted: Machine pullovers Midback Midrange: Behind-theneck pulldowns Stretch: One-arm dumbbell rows Contracted: Bent-arm bent-over laterals Upper traps Stretch and contracted: Forward-lean shrugs

2 x 7-9 2 x 7-9

2 x 7-9 1 x 7-9 2 x 7-9

2 x 7-9

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That’s a solid POF routine; however, we’ve found that behind-theneck pulldowns can be stressful to the shoulder joints and that standard pulldowns for the lats also work the midback midrange position effectively. We’ve found that we can skip the exercise for that position or do some type of machine row or dumbbell row, as you’ll see below.

stretch at the beginning and some contraction with resistance at the end of both of those movements, you achieve neither position completely.

Back Analysis The upper back has many smaller muscles, but efficiency-minded bodybuilders will realize that they only have to train the larger masses, the lats and traps, to fully develop the smaller muscles if the work is hard and heavy. That’s especially true if you train the large areas from their three positions of flexion. Using 3D POF enables you to hit every crevice of your back without wasted effort. Let’s take the two major areas of the upper back, divide each into its three positions and identify the movements that work them.

Stretch The bottom of a pullover— upper arms overhead with the elbows slightly below the plane of the torso—puts the lats in the total-stretch position. The resistance pulls your arms back, not out or up, as in a pulldown or chin.

Contracted For you to achieve total peak contraction in your lats, your upper arms must be down, close to and behind your torso, as in the bottom of an undergrip pulldown to the lower chest, a stiff-arm pulldown or a bent-over undergrip row. Scapulae rotation, which you achieve with the aforementioned exercises, is important when you’re striving for complete lat contraction.

Latissimus Dorsi Midrange

Holman

Front chins or front pulldowns— with your upper arms pulling down from overhead and into your sides— work the lats’ midrange position with help from the biceps and traps. Note that although there’s some

10-week results (above): Jonathan Lawson used a big, basic routine for five weeks followed by a fiveweek 3D POF program for a 20-pound bodyweight gain in the ’90s. Today (at right) he uses refined 3D POF programs that include X Reps and X-hybrid techniques to build more size and etch in detail. (Photos from www .X-Rep.com)

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Model: Jonathan Lawson

Stiff-Arm Pulldowns

Stiff-arm pulldowns hit the lats’ contracted position, while pullovers elongate the lats to attack the muscle’s stretch position.

Dumbbell Pullovers

Midback (Trapezius) Midrange As you saw above in Jonathan’s original Size Surge program, I used to recommend behind-the-neck chins or behind-the-neck pulldowns for midrange midback work; however, pulldowns performed during the lat program do a good job of hitting the middle traps, as well as the lats. Unless your midback needs specialization, skip the exercise for this position—or you can do some type of machine or bent-over row. 218 AUGUST 2007 \ www.ironmanmagazine.com

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Stretch The bottom of a close-grip cable row or one-arm bent-over dumbbell row—torso forward and bent at about 90 degrees to the thighs, arms extended, hands or hand moving to the centerline of the body—completely stretches the midback. The resistance pulls the arms and scapulae forward, not up, as in a pulldown.

Contracted The top of a shoulder-width cable row or bent-over row—elbows back behind your torso and angled slightly up and away from your body and shoulder blades together. A more isolated version of the action is bent-arm bent-over laterals, a movement that’s between a twoarm bent-over dumbbell row and a strict bent-over lateral raise. Now let’s construct a productive back attack that will push the

bodypart to new levels of width and thickness with as little wasted effort as possible.

Efficient Back Training The POF training strategy gives your upper back a thorough workout, but you should follow a couple of rules for best results: •Work the weaker of the two back areas first. For example, if your midback is fairly well developed but your lats are lagging, work the lats first and the midback second. (That’s why Jonathan chose to work lats first; his midback is better.) •Use a medium grip—only slightly wider than shoulder width—on most exercises. That will give you better leverage and optimal (continued on page 222)

Chins

Chins, with a grip slightly wider than shoulder width, provide a lateral-pulling action, the midrange position for the lats. Free download from imbodybuilding.com

V-Handle Close-Grip Cable Rows Free download from imbodybuilding.com

Model: Will Harris

Model: Robert Hatch

Bent-Over Barbell Rows

Bent-over rows blast the midback with contractedand midrangeposition work. Close-grip cable rows work the entire back, but the armâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s extended position spreads the scapulae for midback stretch-position action.

Undergrip pulldowns involve a number of muscles, including the biceps, lats and midback; however, the finish position is the latsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; contracted position, and the top, armsextended position provides some lat elongation. With two exercises, overgrip pulldowns and undergrip pulldowns, you can hit all positions for a very efficient lat-building program. (continued from page 219) target-

muscle activation.

The 3D POF Back Attack Lats Midrange: Front pulldowns or chins, 2 x 9-12 (No pause at the top or bottom.) Stretch: Barbell pullovers or dumbbell pullovers, 1-2 x 9-12 (At the bottom, or point of stretch, use a quick twitch to involve more muscle fibers; no pauses.) Contracted: Undergrip pulldowns, undergrip

Undergrip Pulldowns

bent-over rows or stiff-arm pulldowns*, 1-2 x 9-12 (No pause at the top or bottom, and donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t lock out your elbows.) *A pullover machine will work both the stretch and contracted positions, as in Jonathanâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s lat routine. You can substitute machine pullovers for pullovers and undergrip pulldowns if you have one available. Midback Midrange: Trained during pulldowns or chins for lats Stretch: Close-parallel-grip cable rows or one-arm dumbbell rows, 2 x 9-12

(No pause at the top or bottom; use a quick twitch at the bottom for a more powerful midback contraction.) Contracted: Bent-arm bent-over laterals, 1-2 x 9-12 (No pause at the top or bottom.) Upper Traps Stretch and Contracted: Forward-lean dumbbell shrugs, 1 x 9-12 (No pause at the top or bottom. Keep your torso leaning slightly forward, and at the bottom of the stroke direct the dumbbells to move in front of your thighs for a www.ironmanmagazine.com \ AUGUST 2007 223

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3D Back Program 1 Lats M: Chins S: Dumbbell pullovers C: Stiff-arm pulldowns Midback M: Bent-over barbell rows S: V-handle cable rows C: Bent-arm bent-over laterals Upper traps S/C: Forward-lean dumbbell shrugs

2 x 7-12 1 x 7-12 2 x 7-12

2 x 7-12

Chest-Supported Rows

3D Back Program 3 Lats M: Wide-grip chins 2 x 7-12 S: Dumbbell pullovers 2 x 7-12 C: Undergrip pulldowns 2 x 7-12 Midback M/S/C: Two-arm dumbbell rows (with chest support) 2 x 7-12 Upper traps M: Close-grip upright rows 2 x 7-12 S/C: Barbell shrugs 2 x 7-12

3D Back Program 4

Dumbbell Shrugs

Model: Derik Farnsworth

Chestsupported rows hit the stretch- and contractedpositions of the midback with muscle synergy. You essentially train all three positions of flexion with one exercise. Add shrugs, and you have a killer midback attack.

Model: Jonathan Lawson

3D Back Program 2 Lats M: Pulldowns 2 x 7-12 S/C: Machine pullovers 2 x 7-12 Midback M: Covered with lat work S: One-arm dumbbell rows 2 x 7-12 C: Machine rows 2 x 7-12 Upper traps Covered with midback work

Lats M: Chins 2 x 7-12 S/C: V-handle or undergrip pulldowns 2 x 7-12 Midback M/S/C: Two-arm dumbbell rows (with chest support) 2 x 7-12 Upper traps S/C: Forward-lean dumbbell shrugs 1 x 7-12 Note: M = midrange, S = stretch and C = contracted

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Model: Steve Kummer

Bent-Arm Bent-Over Laterals advanced, skip the shrugs and stick with the lower set numbers for eight total sets. (You’ll find sample programs on page 224.) Also, to pare down the volume even further, you may want to do one of the full lat routines and then follow with two sets of chest-supported dumbbell rows as your single midback movement. It’s very efficient, as it hits the stretch position if you allow the dumbbells to come together at the bottom and hits the contracted position if you pull your hands wide at the top. Plus, it has the synergy of a midrange movement. Keep in mind that most lat exercises also train your midback to a degree. On the other hand, if your midback is a weak point, you should use a 3D POF routine that includes an exercise for each position. Editor’s note: For more on 3D POF, visit www.3DMuscleBuilding .com. IM

Bent-arm bent-over laterals are a more isolated contracted-position midback exercise, while one-arm dumbbell rows hit the stretch position—if you direct the dumbbell to move to the torso’s center line at the bottom of the stroke. One-Arm Dumbbell Rows

You train your upper traps, which tend to work somewhat independently of the middle traps, at the end of your back routine because you’ve already hit the midrange position with most of the other back exercises. Note, however, that you should do shrugs only if you need upper-trap work, which refers to the area from your shoulders to your neck. Most bodybuilders get plenty of indirect stimulation in that area from other delt and back exercises. If you choose to do shrugs, the dumbbell variety is the most efficient—provided you have dumbbells heavy enough—because you have the freedom of movement to hit the traps’ stretch and contracted positions, as described above. Keep in mind that this is an intermediate-advanced routine. At the top end you do 11 sets, which is quite a bit of work, so unless you’re 226 AUGUST 2007 \ www.ironmanmagazine.com

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Model: Mike Morris

trap stretch. Then, as you shrug, direct them to move out to your sides to hit the completely contracted position.)

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Body

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Toney “the

X-Man” Freeman

Talks Bodybuilding and his Road to the Winner’s Circle by David Da Young

Photog graphy by Michael Neveux

efore his win in Texas at the ’06 Europa Super Show, Toney Freeman was the fans’ choice for the most underrated pro on the circuit. After every one of his contests the Internet message boards lit up with the same threads: Tony was robbed! Why aren’t the judges giving this guy a closer look? Unlike the fans, however, Toney didn’t complain; instead, he did what a champion is supposed to do. He re-evaluated his physique, got new advice and went to work in the gym. He dug down deep, found out what he was made of and hit the gym with newfound vigor. After Toney’s Europa win the boards lit up again: Is this guy now a serious contender? Can he do damage at the Olympia? Freeman placed seventh at the ’06 Mr. Olympia, a fine showing, and the buzz turned to how he was primed for more pro wins—the ’07 IRON MAN, for instance. In fact he went on to take the IM Pro and the San Francisco Pro and to place third at the Arnold Classic. The X-Man is definitely on a roll. Let’s get the scoop. Winning the ’07 DY: How old are you, and where did you grow up? IRON MAN Pro. TF: I was born on August 30, 1966, in South Bend, Indiana, very close to Notre Dame University. I lived in Indiana until I was 13; then in 1979, I moved to Alabama. Later I moved to Savannah, Georgia. In 1983 I moved to Atlanta, and I’ve been here ever since. www.ironmanmagazine.com \ AUGUST 2007 229

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DY: How did you get started in bodybuilding? TF: I was always a skinny kid. My mother is 5’4”, and my dad is 5’7”. I was introduced to weights in ninth grade during the football program— but they just cared about how much we could bench and squat. When I was in high school, I hated weights—I was weak; I sucked at it. DY: So what turned you around? TF: After high school I didn’t lift weights again until I was engaged to my former fiancée. It was 1986, and one of her best friends was a bodybuilder. I lived in Atlanta, and they lived in Savannah. One day she showed me a picture of him, and he had just won second place in the

“I feel that bodybuilding needs a good swift kick in the pants in a positive direction.”

Mr. Georgia. I saw that his physique was pretty awesome, and I thought that I needed to step it up or he might steal my woman. So that’s how I got started in bodybuilding and lifting. I was 6’2”, 160 pounds, and I joined the gym the following week. I was lucky enough to get together with a couple of seasoned bodybuilders who showed me the proper way to train. I started making progress, so I began to like it. DY: A lot of people get frustrated and give up because of lack of progress. It sounds as if you got some good advice, though. TF: Well, my first goal was to reach 200 pounds. I just wanted to put on a little size. It took me about a year and a half to reach that goal—actually, I got to 195 pounds. That’s when I really started enjoying it. In 1991, I was just under 200 pounds when I saw Kevin Levrone win the NPC Junior Nationals and the Nationals. In January 1992, I decided to give bodybuilding a shot, to kind of make a career out of it, so that’s when I got serious. I started working with this guy named Harold Hoag, who was into wrestling. He took me from 200 pounds to 255 in about 2 1/2 months. DY: You gained 55 pounds in 2 1/2 months? Dang! TF: Yes, it took 10 or 11 weeks. Harold knew how to get results. DY: I understand that you had a long road of overcoming injuries and obstacles leading up to turning pro. TF: Yes, I starting competing in 1989 and did my first national show in 1993. I was on the national level for five years and was in the top five four years in a row. DY: What happened after that? TF: I tore a pec in 1996 and left bodybuilding. I didn’t train at all for five years. I finally got my pec operated on late in 2000 and got the clearance to start rehab in February of 2001. I started serious training in August 2001 and got eighth at the Nationals. So I thought, “Hey, I can still do this.” That’s when I rededicated myself

to bodybuilding, and the next year I got my pro card. DY: You must have been exhilarated when you finally won. TF: You’re right. I was overwhelmed. It was an incredible experience—one of those experiences that is really very hard to describe. You just have to experience it to really understand how it feels. Especially since I had such a long, hard road. People said that I was washed up, I couldn’t do it. I had started to believe that myself. I never gave up. I allowed myself to take a break, and I’m glad I did. It turned out to be a blessing in disguise. I allowed my body to heal. I felt brand-new. And here I am. DY: That’s persistence. I’m curious: Do you ever see the girl who got you started? TF: Oh, yeah. We got married, and we have a 17-year-old together. I keep the girl; I never lose the girl, brother. We’re divorced now, but you know, it’s all good. DY: What do you weigh today? TF: I was 286 at the Olympia last year. I turned pro weighing 250 at the ’02 Nationals. DY: Before you turned pro, what did you do for a living? TF: I was in construction, and I was working on a lot of government jobs. I was basically struggling through school, and I decided to join the workforce full time. I had a career in construction for 10 years. I also made some extra money as a male stripper for women. DY: Beside bodybuilding, do you play other sports? TF: I’m a fisherman at heart. I love to fish. I’m also a singer. Once I retire, I want to sing the National Anthem at the Olympia. DY: I guess both of those activities are good ways to relax and get your mind off the rigors of competitive training. What type of music are you into? TF: My father was a preacher, so I’m into gospel and R&B. I’m not really into rap, but I like some of it. I’ve been singing since I was talking, I guess. I used to have a group when I was a teenager. I think because my dad was in a band and he knew all the stuff that came with the music industry, he kind of steered me away from pur-

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suing it as a career. He just did not want me to get caught up with the stuff that he experienced, and he was right because I probably would not have been able to handle it, especially looking at the entertainment industry today. DY: So your dad is a pastor? TF: He is a Seventh-Day Adventist church pastor. He has a church in Atlanta in the West End, which has around 3,000 members. Before he became a minister, he sang in a band. He was the lead singer, and he also played basketball. DY: What was it like when you were growing up? TF: My parents were very strict— very firm but very loving. They taught us how to be humble, respectful, and how to be good people. I have total love and admiration for my parents. We were very poor growing up, but they did their best to provide us with whatever we needed. DY: A lot of guys turn pro and then never get in great shape again. It’s very demanding mentally. What motivates your training and diet today? TF: I have different ways of looking at things now. When I was younger, I liked the way I looked. It was fun. I liked the reaction I got from people. Now I’m 40 years old, so I’m trying to maintain my youth, and I’m making a good living at it. I also feel that bodybuilding needs a good swift kick in the pants in a positive direction. So that motivates me to try to become the best. Kind of the way Arnold was. Arnold made bodybuilding great. He made people love bodybuilding. He made the bodybuilding industry. We’ve kind of lost track of that. People like me, Phil Heath and Dexter can hopefully bring back the aesthetic look over that of sheer mass. I also put pressure on myself. I always thought that I was in good shape for a pro-level competitor, but now I realize that my accomplishments were mainly because of my size and shape. For this year’s competitions I’m bringing an entirely new level of conditioning. I work better under pressure. I like being in the underdog position. It makes you crawl and scratch your way. DY: Pressure adds a new element of motivation. It kind of puts you in a different mind-set. www.ironmanmagazine.com \ AUGUST 2007 231

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I understand that your diet strategy is something new, correct? TF: Yes. I’m working with Dave Palumbo. His philosophy is different from most people’s. A lot of people do low-carb diets. I basically go on a no-carb diet—I only get 50 grams of trace carbs a day. The diet’s full of essential fatty acids and protein. It switches the body over from burning glucose to burning fat. I’ve been able to put on a lot of muscle and really tighten up. DY: Do you do that in the off-season too? TF: Yes, but in the off-season I’ll be doing carbs at certain meals and no carbs at other meals. I was actually growing on 350 grams of protein, 50 grams of carbs and 120 grams of fat a day. It works like crazy. DY: That’s really intriguing. Tell us more. TF: After waking, I do my first session of cardio. As soon as I’m done, I take four caplets of VPX BCAAEX branched-chain amino acids and 10 grams of VPX Ultra Pure Glutamine powder. Then the rest of the day looks like this: Meal 1 6 whole eggs with 4 extra whites 3 capsules CMZ amino acid–chelated minerals Meal 2 50 grams Zero Carb Protein with 2 tablespoons peanut butter 1 scoop VPX FiberTeq Fiber is very important on a restrictedcarb diet both for health and for fat loss. Many people forget that. Meal 3 8 ounces chicken breast 1⁄2 cup almonds Preworkout 4 caplets VPX BCAAEX 10 grams VPX Ultra Pure Glutamine Postworkout 4 caplets VPX BCAAEX 10 grams VPX Ultra Pure Glutamine

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Meal 4 50 grams Zero Carb Protein with 2 tablespoons peanut butter 1 scoop VPX FiberTeq Meal 5 8 ounces red meat Salad Meal 6 50 grams Zero Carb Protein with 2 tablespoons peanut butter 1 scoop VPX FiberTeq DY: How much cardio are you doing for competitions? TF: I’m up to 2 1/2 hours a day, broken into two sessions. DY: What other strategies do you feel have added to your getting where you are today? TF: I eat clean and train hard all year long. I throw in a cheat meal once a week in the off-season. That pizza or whatever goes down easy, but to be honest, those meals make me feel just awful. So I enjoy staying clean. It’s just too hard to get fat and get lean again. DY: How do you organize your training week? TF: Here’s my split: Day 1: Quads and light hamstrings Day 2: Chest and light triceps Day 3: Back and light biceps Day 4: Hamstrings and light quads Day 5: Shoulders Day 6: Arms 234 AUGUST 2007 \ www.ironmanmagazine.com

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“I’m in control of the weight 100 percent of the time. I want longevity, so I train lighter and more focused.”

I always start with a basic, compound barbell movement, then a compound dumbbell movement. After that I do a shaping movement; then I move on to various machines. Now at 40 and to avoid injuries, even when I’m doing free weights, I’m in control of the weight 100 percent of the time. I want longevity, so I train lighter and more focused. For example, at one time I was doing deadlifts with 405 for sets of 10. Now I might do only 225 for sets of 15. A full workout means that I do three to five exercises, four to six sets per exercise. A light workout means I do only two exercises but still four to six sets. DY: Give me an example of what a week’s worth of exercises might look like. TF: Here it is: www.ironmanmagazine.com \ AUGUST 2007 235

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Quads Squats Leg presses Leg extensions Hack squats Walking lunges Hamstrings Lying leg curls Stiff-legged deadlifts Chest Incline-bench presses Dumbbell bench presses Flyes Hammer Strength incline presses Cable crossovers Triceps Smith-machine close-grip bench presses Pushdowns Back Chins Wide-grip pulldowns Dumbbell pullovers Hammer Strength rows high Hammer Strength rows low Biceps Barbell curls Machine curls Shoulders Smith-machine presses Dumbbell presses Dumbbell lateral raises Machine rear-delt laterals Shrugs

â&#x20AC;&#x153;A full workout is three to five exercises, four to six sets per exercise. A light workout means I do only two exercises but still four to six sets.â&#x20AC;?

Calves Standing calf raises Seated calf raises Leg press calf raises Machine donkey calf raises Quads Hack squats Walking lunges

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Hamstrings Lying leg curls Seated leg curls Lying leg curls (different machine) Stiff-legged deadlifts Biceps Barbell curls Alternate dumbbell curls Dumbbell hammer curls Reverse preacher curls Machine curls Triceps Smith-machine close-grip bench presses Machine dips Pushdowns (bar) Pushdowns (rope) Machine extensions Machine overhead extensions DY: Of course those are just guidelines, right? TF: Yes, they are guidelines. I remember when I first started out, I wanted to be really wide, so I set goals like, “I want to do 100 wide-grip chins.” I was weak, so it might have taken me 20 sets to get the 100 reps, but I’d do it. It would be challenging but achievable. I change it every workout, and I go with good form. When you truly get that mind/ muscle connection, it’s not really about the numbers or the specific exercises anymore; it’s about just getting in there and focusing on the workout. DY: What do you do to keep and develop that Xframe? TF: It’s mind-set. It certainly doesn’t happen by accident or by wishing it. You have to have a good eye so you can see what you’re lacking; then you have to develop a plan to achieve it. Like when I first turned pro, my legs were way ahead of my upper body, so my first two years as a pro, I didn’t really train legs at all. Then, when I got to the IRON MAN last year, they said my legs were too small for my upper body. I thought that was the funniest thing in the world. Then my arms were too small, so I started training arms three times a week, and now they’re

one of my best bodyparts. DY: How about keeping your waist small? TF: Well, I take in plenty of fiber and vegetables, and I think that’s important. I also keep my meals small. A lot of guys have forgotten that. DY: That was one of the original reason that bodybuilders started eating many small meals—to keep the waist small. When they started chasing size, the meals got bigger and bigger and stretched the waist. TF: That’s right. I have an entire health protocol, and we have a

company called Progressive Medical Center that we’re about to launch. I’m working with a team of doctors on natural longevity. DY: That’s great. Tell me about your life philosophy. TF: I’m really into being a good dad for my children. I’m living my dream. I want to do the best I can for them. DY: What are your future goals? TF: I want the Arnold, and I want the Olympia. DY: What have you learned from bodybuilding? TF: From bodybuilding you learn

what you’re made of. To be a champion you have to ask, What do I have to do to be the best? You have to keep searching until you reach your goal. You can’t let obstacles stop you; you find a way to get around them. DY: What advice do you have for someone who wants to compete in bodybuilding? TF: It’s just like anything. I think you should start by doing research. Go to a show and see what it’s all about. Maybe hire a trainer, perhaps somebody who has actually done it before—not just somebody who says they know what they’re doing. People can’t give you direction for something that they’ve never done before. You might as well get a map and find it yourself. So if you’re trying to compete, go approach someone who has actually done well as a competitor. Seek advice from an expert and prepare your mind for the task at hand, because it is not a joke. People think that just because they go to the gym, just because they do cardio, that they are supposed to be a good bodybuilder. There is more to it than that. It’s also a mental game. It’s just like a recipe. You have to have all the ingredients in it to get it right. Bodybuilding is all about trying to get as close to perfection as possible. When you train, you should train for quality and symmetry. If you don’t have good symmetry, then you should photograph yourself and get advice from others on what your weaknesses and your strengths are and focus on your weaknesses and maintain your strengths. On the posing routine, I have a couple of people who are giving me tips and pointers because I am a little rusty from not competing for so many years. But right now I’m practicing my posing, focusing on my physique and making sure that I dial in my conditioning. The more you do it, the better you get. Editor’s note: Visit Toney’s Web site at www.ToneyFXMan.com. Also visit VPX at www.VPXSports.com and www.ProgressiveMedicalCenter .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.NationalGym.com The National Gym Association was formed in 1979 and is one of the oldest, most reputable and well-organized natural bodybuilding organizations in the world. NGA founder and president Andy Bostinto is a longtime friend of IRON MAN publisher John Balik and is one of the hardest working and most passionate ambassadors of the drug-free bodybuilding movement. Andy is an accomplished bodybuilder and fitness author himself (he recently published his new book Become Your Own Personal Mental Fitness Trainer) and has trained such high-profile clients as Al Pacino, Regis Philbin and Penelope Ann Miller. The NGA holds dozens of amateur and professional drug-tested bodybuilding, fitness and figure competitions all over the United States (as well as in other countries through their affiliate organizations), which draw thousands of dedicated athletes every year. I myself am an NGA professional bodybuilder and quite proud of it; some of the toughest natural competitors in the world compete in the NGA ranks. In addition, for those looking to further their education in the areas of exercise, nutrition, anatomy, biomechanics and more, the NGA offers comprehensive home-study fitness-certification courses. The material is invaluable to anyone seeking a career as a personal trainer, strength coach or nutritional consultant. All the information you need to get started is right on the site, along with testimonials from such bodybuilding/fitness icons as Jack LaLanne, Lou Ferrigno, Larry Scott, Bill Pearl and yes, the Governator himself (who’s often heard muttering, “Get NGA certified, or I’ll be back”). One of the newest additions to the site is the NGA discussion board, where natural bodybuilders are invited to share their knowledge and experience, ask questions and correspond with top NGA pros. Grab a protein drink and surf on over. I’ll meet you there!

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>www.MarkDugdale.com In 1993, when Dorian Yates stepped on the Olympia stage at 257 shredded pounds, the world of professional bodybuilding was changed forever. It was unheard of for any man less than 6’ tall to carry such monstrous amounts of muscle mass in contest condition. Once the dam broke, however, the idea that more is better began to rule and the age of the freaks erupted. We’ve witnessed in recent times Ronnie Coleman shake the stage at 300 pounds and newly crowned Mr. Olympia Jay Cutler stomp around (what else could you do at that weight with tip-toeing out of the question?) at 280-plus! But the extra weight comes with a price: bigger waistlines, fewer V-tapers, bloated bellies, reduced sharpness and less overall aesthetic appeal. That doesn’t mean, however, that there isn’t a small-but-strong contingent of modern-day Frank Zanes and Lee Labradas still fighting for respect and firstplace trophies in the IFBB. Men like Troy Alves, Melvin Anthony, Darrem Charles, Phil Heath and Mark Dugdale continue to carry the torch for beautiful lines, outstanding proportions and washboard stomachs over size for size’s sake. Every pound they add to their bodies is meticulously placed—and only to enhance the very things that make their physiques unique. How convenient that I mention Mark Dugdale, as I recently visited his Web site and wanted to tell my fellow IRON MAN readers more about Mr. Mass with Class. Mark is a true family man—happily married to his training partner Christina and the father of three beautiful daughters (talk about being outnumbered). Mark earned pose-for-pay status as a light heavyweight at the ’04 USA Championships and has had success as a pro with several top-six finishes, including the runner-up slot at the ’07 IRON MAN Pro. Excellent pictures from both of those competitions, as well as several others, can be viewed in his photo gallery. The absolute best shots, however, are the ones of his wife and children, and it’s apparent how much love he has for them. Mark is a proponent of high-intensity, low-volume workouts and has been influenced greatly by Dante’s D.C. training style. His training video “Driven” is available for purchase in the site’s store, along with some great color photographs. If you would like to meet Mark in person, he also has a link to all of his upcoming appearances, and unlike the links of many other bodybuilders, they’re all up to date (I’m guessing his wife runs the site—lol). Mark is truly a class act.

>www.X-Rep.com I’ve featured this site before, but Steve Holman and Jonathan Lawson, the ripped proponents of X-Rep training concepts, continue to bring innovation to the muscle-building experience (or should I say X-perience?). They have a training blog, in which they report on their workouts, and a supplement blog, where they update what they’re taking and when. They continue to feature relevant articles and research, most recently, “The Super 7 Size-Surge Supplements.” Now they’ve just released their latest e-book, X-traordinary Muscle-Building Workouts, the perfect complement to their other offerings. I don’t know how many times I’ve received e-mails and letters asking, “Hey, can you write me a program?” Well, the e-book is jam-packed with them, each one unique (and two even include my Power/Rep Range/Shock concept). There’s the 3D Power Pyra-

mid, 20-Rep Squat, Time-Bomb Training, Volume/Intensity Fusion, T/NT (traumatic/nontraumatic), Heavy/Light and X-Rep Reload. Some of those may look familiar, but each has been retooled, updated and Xed for more muscle-building power. The workouts are presented in printable templates so you can pick the one that appeals to you, print it out and head to the gym. Space is provided for workout poundages, so take a pencil too. There are two-, three-, four- and five-day programs, and each is introduced and explained in detail, so you’ll understand what you’re doing and why you’re doing it. This e-book is a tool you’ll refer to again and again throughout your bodybuilding career to ignite new size surges. There’s also a bonus chapter on stretch overload that alone is worth the price. Go to the site and head to the X Shop for more details—and prepare to grow! www.ironmanmagazine.com \ AUGUST 2007 241

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Eric Broser’s >Net

Results Q&A

The Power/Rep Range/Shock innovator answers your questions on training and nutrition. Q: I’ve done four natural bodybuilding contests so far, and each time I’ve looked better the week before the show than on the day of the contest. My coach has me do the standard three-day carb deplete/load, as I gradually cut my water and sodium down to almost nothing a few days before. That seems to work so well for others, why not me? I just end up flat and less cut. What should I do differently?

A: Well, first, fire your coach. Okay, maybe that’s a bit harsh, but seriously, ask yourself a question: If your final-week preparation did not work well the first time, what made you (or your coach) think it would work better the second, third or fourth time? Have you ever heard the saying, “Don’t fix it if it isn’t broken?” Well, in your case it obviously is broken and should have been fixed two or three contests ago. You say you looked better a week out than on contest day before each show. If that’s the case, why mess with your body so much the final week? Why not continue on the same basic path right up until the show? I’ve competed in about 20 contests over the years and have prepared clients for at least 100, and one thing I can tell you for sure is that there are no “magic tricks” that need to be performed in the final week. If you’re in shape, you’re in shape. Yes, some small adjustments should be made in the final days in order to help you peak for the show, but nothing radical, because more often than not it backfires, just as it has in your case. The body is in a very delicate state near the end of a contest-preparation period. You’ve been eating the same foods, drinking the same amount of fluids and taking the same supplements for weeks, or even months, on end. You’re also overtrained and underrested, as well as experiencing a tremendous amount of stress, both physically and emotionally, from everything involved with contest prep. Thus, doing things

differently in the final few days can cause unpredictable reactions in your internal chemistry, causing you to hold water, flatten out, lose vascularity or all of the above. Here’s another saying for you: “Keep it simple, stupid.” That’s also known as the KISS principle. And with that in mind, I suggest you do the following for your next show. Make sure you are literally ready to step onstage a week out. That means all bodyfat should be incinerated, and the only thing you should have left on you is some subcutaneous water. Forget the carb depletion/loading and water restriction, as that rarely works. From Monday through Friday eat the same amount of carbs (and same types) and drink the same amount of water as you normally would on any training day. Split your upper body into three sections (no leg training the last week), and train on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. Don’t go near failure on any exercise, and keep your reps in the 12to-20 range. Stick with about 10 sets for large muscle groups and six for smaller ones. Try to move relatively quickly and go for a nice pump. On Thursday practice your mandatory poses and your routine, but don’t exhaust yourself. Friday should be a day of complete rest so that your mind and muscles are fresh for Saturday’s event. The only variable you should manipulate to any great degree the final few days is your sodium. Keep your intake normal Monday and Tuesday. On Wednesday begin to cut back to about half your regular amount. On Thursday again cut back by about half, and on Friday take in only what naturally occurs in what you eat and the spring water you drink. All the fluid you’ll be drinking will help flush out excess sodium and subcutaneous water while keeping your muscles full and helping them to store glycogen. As a result, you won’t flatten out, and your muscles will push against the skin quite nicely. On game day before prejudging, eat a couple of medium-sized protein and carb meals, with small amounts of water. About 30 minutes before pumping up, you can eat something sugary, like a chocolate bar or a Pop Tart, with a sip of water, which will help bring the veins to the surface. If you use that strategy, I can promise you that you will look your best when you are supposed to—onstage in front of the judges instead of in the gym locker room in front of your training partner the week before. Good luck. IM

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Lonnie Teper’s

NEWS & ViEWS ’07 USA Predictions

Cherry Picking He was second in the heavyweight class at last season’s Nationals, third at the USA four months earlier. But to this point A.D. Cherry has drawn more attention for his various hair styles—and colors—than for his outstanding physique. Now it’s time for the 34-year-old from Modesto, California, to move into the winner’s circle, where he belongs. That’s where the Swami sez he’ll be when the ’07 USA Bodybuilding and Figure Championships conclude on Saturday, July 28. The man has Peter outstanding shape and has shown up at recent events in sublime condition; if Putnam. he duplicates that sharpness in Vegas, the overall crown could be his. What about the second pro card? Good question. That one looks wide open. Peter Putnam and his wicked wheels finished second in the lightheavyweight class last year, and if Pete can bring up his upper body to match his lower half, he could be joining Cherry in moving to the next level. Of course, there will be plenty of top-rated athletes onstage at the Artemus W. Ham Concert Hall (on the campus of the University of Nevada, Las Vegas) who have the goods to say, good-bye, NPC; hello, IFBB. Superheavyweights Robert Hatch and Jerome Ferguson (third and fifth last year, respectively) won’t go down easily. And I liked the all-around package Malcolm Marshall presented last year en route to a seventhplace finish. David Hughes and Dan Decker looked good in ’06 and will push Cherry in the heavyweights; ditto for hometown fave Manny Torres in the light heavies, who placed behind Putnam a year ago. For more on the battle in the desert, go to www.LindsayProductions .com. And make sure to check frequently at www.IronManMagazine.com during the weekend of the show for video reports and photos.

USA Photography by Bill Comstock

Will A.D. produce a victory in Vegas?

Cherry v. Hughes?

Manny Torres. Robert Hatch.

New York Pro—Down, but Not Out Let’s not skirt the issue. A year ago Branch Warren was one of the hottest bodybuilders on the planet. But after his disappointing finishes at last season’s Mr. Olympia (11th) and this year’s Arnold Classic (seventh), 244 AUGUST 2007 \ www.ironmanmagazine.com

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Dan Decker.

Find results and photo galleries from all the top contests at IronManMagazine.com.

MOTHER’S DAY She’s not your typical bodybuilding fan Pages 246 and 247

SPY WORKS Did Jay accept a secret mission? Page 248

GRAB SHOTS Bet you can’t guess what Huong is doing Page 249

Big Apple top five (from left): Desmond Miller, Silvio Samuel, Dennis Wolf, Dennis James and Branch Warren.

Junior USA Photography by Isaac Hinds \ www.LiftStudios.com

Junior USA lineup toppers (clockwise from upper left):

Bethany Wagner, Mike Horn, Paola Almerico and Tammy Patnode.

Warren’s wheels of fortune appeared to be moving in reverse. All that changed after he scored something of an upset win at the New York Pro on May 12, overcoming a Dennis James lead going into the finals to take home the 15 grand first prize. And, more important, to prove that it ain’t over till it’s over in terms of both this contest and his status as a top-tier competitor. Viewing the Webcast, I felt the show was between my pick to win it, James, and the other Dennis from Germany, Dennis Wolf. Several people I talked with who’d been there echoed my thoughts. It only matters what the judges felt, however, and it was Branch, perhaps the best conditioned athlete in the 19-man lineup, who won them over. Warren picked up another $1,000 when he was honored with the Best Legs award. Wolf placed third, rookie Desmond Miller finished fourth in his pro debut, and Silvio Samuel rounded out the top five. Shari “King” Kamali, always a topic of interest, finished down the road in ninth. For complete results and hundreds of Roland Balik photos, log on to IronManMagazine.com.

More NPC: Junior USA HORN BLOWS LOUD AND CLEAR IN CHARLESTON—I attended my first Junior USA Championships in many years on April 28 after promoter Tres Bennett www.ironmanmagazine.com \ AUGUST 2007 245

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RONNIE COLEMAN CLASSIC—A week before the above event I was at the mic for another huge show—155 contestants and an overflow crowd—Brian Dobson’s annual Ronnie Coleman Classic in Grapevine, Texas, and saw a lot of familiar faces. I never realized that NPC Texas Chair Lee Thompson had a twin brother. Not until I saw him seated next to Lee at the judge’s table. Oh, he tried to pass himself off as some guy named Cecil Ballard, the state’s vice-chair, but you can’t fool Buffdaddy. Quincy Taylor, extra large and in charge at 348 pounds, was there and said he’s doing the Europa Super Show in August. He also said that he’s leaving Texas and moving to his original hometown, Las Vegas. Regarding the Europa, promoters Ed and Betty Pariso were on hand to make sure everyone in the house got a flyer for their 14th Annual Sports and Fitness Weekend. No exaggeration when they say, “This event has exploded!” Check out the details at www.EuropaSuperShow.com. Fitness pro Jen Cook, who served on the judging panel, told me she’s finishing up her master’s in social work at the University of Texas, Arlington, and plans to make a comeback in the near future. 246 AUGUST 2007 \ www.ironmanmagazine.com

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Coleman Classic Photography by Lonnie Teper

brought me in to Charleston, South Carolina, to emcee his first-class event. Tres also flew in the grade-A expediting team of Steve Stone and company to run the backstage area, and did likewise with Isaac “I Be Liftin’ Booze” Hinds, who was there repping Bodybuilding.com and IronManMagazine.com (check out Isaac’s pictures, as well as the videos we produced, at GM). On Friday night Hinds and I took to the road with our walking shoes to find an eatery. We wanted to shoot a prediction video by “The Experts,” but the third member of the team, Ron “Yogi” Avidan, had stayed home in California, where he was attending public-speaking seminars (at my request). Initially, when I asked him if he was coming to South Carolina, he replied, promptly, “It is what it is.” Needless to say, I decided to pay for the seminars. Isaac and I landed at La Hacienda, a pleasant Mexican restaurant that featured the largest margaritas in town. Isaac, who takes to that type of refreshment like Johnny Depp takes to hit movies, proved he’s the overall winner when it comes to the Liquid Ingestion Championships by downing three in just over an hour. I crushed him in the eating event, however. The physique show attracted 191 competitors, 121 of whom came for the figure competition, which figures, since the Junior USA now awards pro cards to the top two ladies in the overall voting. Congrats to Mobile Mike Horn (as in Alabama, gang; not as in portable) for winning both the superheavyweight and overall titles, and to his wife, Jan Horn, for finishing third in the figure E class. That division was taken by eventual overall champ Paola Almerico, a red-hot Chile pepper who moved from there to Miami in 1984. Paola and Tennessee’s Valerie Haines, who topped the field in the B division, earned pro status. Lightweight winner Tammy Patnode proved to be a heavyweight when it came to getting the panel’s votes, as she was crowned the overall champ in women’s bodybuilding, while Bethany Wagner captured the short-class and overall trophies in fitness. Check out the picture page at the end of this column for more behind-the-scenes happenings at the Junior USA.

Clockwise from top: Ron and Jessie; Brandi, Cassadie and Brian Dobson; Jen Cook; lookalikes Lee and Cecil; Elizabeth Beckon and the book; Elena and Tatiana Koshman; the Parisos with their Super Show flyer.

Quincy Taylor.

Lauren Bishop.

Personalities Greg, Nancy and L.T. eat at J-Lo’s.

WELCOME TO MY WORLD—Canadian Fitness model, figure competitor and pro salsa dancer Nancy Di Nino flew into Los Angeles from Toronto in April for some photo shoots and wanted to get an up-close-and-personal look at the city of Pasadena. Your wish was my command, Nancy. Fellow Pasadena City College physical education instructor and assistant women’s basketball coach—as well the school’s answer to Lance Armstrong—Greg Smith and I took Nancy to dinner at the Cheesecake Factory in Old Town Pasadena, where she and I tied in the carrot cake–eating contest. The 6’5”, 188-pound Smith was a Photo courtesy of Rich Gaspari

Odis McCullough.

Gene Carangal

Benson and Terrell.

I met Texas promoter Andrew Zamora, hubby of top NPC figure competitor Kathleen Zamora, for the first time (at least formally), and Dandy Andy Ronnie said he wants me to host the contest that he runs guest in Lubbock every year. Lubbock? The home of posed. Buddy Holly? The home of Texas Tech and Bobby Knight? Only if I can perform “That’ll Be the Day” and “Peggy Sue” at the beginning of the show. Darrell Terrell was in the audience and, to my shock, is still holding hands with IFBB figure pro Natalie Benson, who he met at this event a year ago. You know, the Halle Berry look-alike. Darrell continues to impress me, on and off the stage. The Big Nasty guest posed and was in better shape than he normally is this far out from the Mr. Olympia. So let the hype begin. Can Ronnie, who turned 43 in May, get his title back from Jay Cutler? What about Victor Martinez’s chances? I’ll leave the rest of that discussion for another time and space. It was nice to meet Ronnie’s mother, Jessie Benton. Pastor Troy Brewer of Open Door Ministries in Joshua, Texas, provided some neat sounds both prior to the show and at intermission, fronting his group, Joshua Rising. He wouldn’t, however, take off his shirt and strike a pose when asked during the awards presentations. The MVP of the Coleman Classic, of course, was Elizabeth Beckom, who does such a terrific job of putting together the emcee book, complete with results, prior to the start of the evening. Don’t lose this lady, Lee, no matter what the cost! Thumbs-up to bodybuilding champions Odis McCullough and Lauren Bishop, and to figure and fitness champs Melissa Pearo and Chelsea Gockel. Double thumbs-up to Odis and Lauren for keeping their word and hanging around to take the picture that appears in this space. Okay, Melissa also gets a delayed thumbs-up for her class victory at the Junior USA the following week. I was surprised to see Tatiana Koshman, who won the figure overall at the Texas Championships last July, jumping back Pastor Troy into this show. At least it looked like Tatiana. Turns out it was and Joshua Rising. actually her sister Elena, a 22-year-old dental school student. Talk about genetics! Complete results and Gene Carangal photos from the Ronnie Coleman Classic are posted at IronMan Magazine.com. You done good, Brian. Congrats.

Rich and Elizabeth welcome Sophia Gilda Gaspari.

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Ron Avidan Ron Avidan

TEPER’S TALES—Just how popular is Mr. Olympia Jay Cutler? Popular enough that the famed superspy Austin Powers flew into Boise, Idaho, in April to meet the Ultimate Beef at Russ DeLuca’s annual Boise Fitness bash. Two weeks later Jay was at the Max Muscle store in Venice, California Beach, which officially became Jay Cutler’s Max Muscle, a joint venture with current owner Dave Bourlet. Many of the industry’s big names came out to the grand opening, including Melvin Anthony and his close friend Shawn Ray, Jenny Lynn, Bob Cicherillo, Lionel Brown, Michael Ergas and his dog and Cathy LeFrancois, to name a few. That evening Jay guest posed at the Orange County Muscle Classic and was joined onstage by Marvelous Melvin for an impromptu posedown.… Congrats to Rich GasJay and Austin buddy up. pari and wife Elizabeth on the birth of their first child. Sofia Gilda (Rich’s mother’s name) Gaspari joined our world on March 10, 2007, at 9:27 p.m. and weighed in at a cut six pounds, two ounces. Great news, Rich and Elizabeth. She looks like a bundle of joy.… I’ve been hired by Flex Wheeler to emcee his first Flex Wheeler’s Bodybuilding and Figure Classic, which is set for August 18 at the William Saroyan Convention Center in Fresno, California, the town where Flex grew up and first competed. Dexter Jackson and Troy Alves are the featured guest posers. For more information, go to www.FlexWheelerClassic.com. Jackson is also getting into the promotion business with his Dexter Jackson Classic in Jacksonville, Florida, on August 4, and Cutler tells me the Jay Cutler Classic will take place next year. Branch Warren will run his first Branch Warren Classic on July 7 outside Houston. Bill Grant is also putting on an NPC show, with the ’07 Bill Grant SportsFest Bodybuilding and Figure contest being part of the Lehigh Valley SportsFest, which is scheduled for Sunday, July Bill Grant. 15, at Cedar Beach Park in Allentown, Pennsylvania. For more info contact Grant at bill@billgrant.net.… Condolences to Sandy Ranalli and her family; Sandy’s father passed away in late April, which kept her from her usual duties as a judge at the Junior USA.… Former Mr. Olympia Chris Dickerson has a new Web site, www.ChrisDickerson.net. Chris moved from New York to Florida three years ago. IM

Mr. O and Marvelous Melvin.

Ron Avidan

distant third when it came to dessert consumption. Three days later we did dinner again, this time at Madres, the bistro owned by Jennifer Lopez. Since Nancy and J-Lo have a lot in common—matching dance moves and bumps, for starters—it was a nobrainer. The versatile Di Nino, who shined in front of Michael Neveux’s lenses in the April ’07 issue, is a real go-getter and recently added radio co-host to her résumé. Nancy has joined Dr. Z. Catherine Navarro on “Living Beautiful Radio,” a new streaming-worldwide fitness radio show dedicated to women. “It will cover a wide range of women’s issues related to health, fitness and sexuality,” said Di Nino. Since I teach a course in human sexuality at PCC, it was only natural that Nancy ask me to be a guest on the program to report on the latest trends in that area. The show, another creation of the ever-so-creative Dan Solomon, airs every Sunday on WWNN Radio, 1470 AM, out of Palm Beach, Florida. Sponsored in part by Bodybuilding.com, ProBodyuildingweekly.com and Bodysport.com, it’s also available via podcasts and replays at www .LivingBeautifulRadio.com.

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Chris Dickerson.

UP, DOWN AND ROUND THE JUNIOR USA Photography by Lonnie Teper and Isaac Hinds

Kim Klein and Andrea Stone work on the emcee book.

Huong Arcinas feeds an insatiable L.T.

Texas standout Bryan Barth gets special attention backstage.

Steve Stone and Peter Potter discuss who will judge and who will expedite.

California’s Danielle Edmonds had her family on hand for support.

Mike and Jan—two Horns are better than one.

L.T. with Junior USA promoter Tres Bennett.

Kim bets Carla Salotti she’s under five feet.

Neveux

ico toast Paola Almer Nelson and win. her overall

Isaac Hinds displays his area of expertise.

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.

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IRON MAN HardBody

Hot-Body For Your Femme-Muscle Photography by Bill Dobbins \ www.BillDobbins.com

IRON MAN is always pleased to present the work of Bill Dobbins, who’s been photographing beautiful ﬁt women for decades. Bill has his own special way of capturing inner emotion and beauty as well as the sensuality of the female form—from the massively muscled to the terriﬁcally toned. His Web site, www.BillDobbins.com, is a showcase for his incredible images. Once you see the shots we’re highlighting here, you’ll scream, “Encore!” Don’t worry. We’ll have more from the Dobbins collection in future issues of IRON MAN.

(continued on page 102)

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Pics Fix Flavia Crisos

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IRON MAN HardBody

Abby Marie Wolf

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Leslie Morris

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Cassandra Creech

IRON MAN HardBody

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Valerie Waugaman www.ironmanmagazine.com \ AUGUST 2007 255

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IRON MAN HardBody

Cathy LeFrancois

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Adela Garcia

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PITTSBURGH PRO FIGURE

Massive Owning

Sonia sweeps the field

debuters. Galvan, who finished fourth at last year’s Europa Super Show, was, by my informal assessment, the next-highestranking athlete—and a gal who’s got the kind of silhouette the folks with the score sheets seem to go for. Not rocket science—as we always say. You just have to be paying attention. No disrespect to the rest of the worthy contenders who came together in my hometown to strut their stuff onstage at the Soldiers and Sailors Hall, but it was Sonia’s night. The ’06 Figure National Overall champ, who also scored a topthree finish in her pro debut at the Tournament of Champions last fall, already had the panel’s attention. All she had to do was come in shape, which she did, and they rewarded her with a perfect score. Galvan looked good as well and earned a perfect runner-up score to pick up her first Olympia qualification. After that whatever happened was going to be a surprise. As the results It’s an attractive quintet of quarter-turners who broke out of the pack in Pittsburgh. As the long, hot summer of figure (eight shows in 12 weeks) gets under way show, performance in the amateurs is not with the Cal on May 26, we’ll see how many can actually go the distance. always an indication of who will break out in the pros. Take Amy Fry, who earned Is there anyone who didn’t look at the competitor list for her card with a second-place finish in the Pittsburgh Pro Figure on May 5 and know that Sonia the extremely tall call class at the Figure Nationals, where she Adcock would be the winner? Or that Bernadette Galvan missed out on a first-place trophy by one point. In Pittsburgh, would be in the top three? Coming off a third-place finish at third place—and the last Olympia invite—went to the 5’9” Fry, the Figure International, the 5’, 108-pound Adcock with her while Cheri Lewis, the woman who beat her at the Nationpetite-but-powerful package was a shoo-in to take the lead als, landed in ninth. in the 30-woman lineup of mostly stars-in-wanting and proOn the other hand, Elisha Archibold, another class

B A C K S TA G E S T O R I E S In case anyone is wondering whether Amy Fry is ready for her close-up, the answer is definitely yes.

Wonder Woman lives. Twokids-mom Meteraud said she go t back onstag e because sh e needed a goal to stay in shape. Now, if Shan non could just find the time to wor k on a fitness routine.…

Hot rookie. Elisha Archibold brings a fresh look to the pro-figure ranks—not ripped but definitely in the toned zone. Plus, she’s kinda cute, don’t you think?

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MORE PITTSBURGH

Thoughts

On figure

lt wasn’t difficult to find fan commentary online declaring that the Pittsburgh Pro results were a total travesty, complete with names of competitors who allegedly had been screwed. To double-check my own recollection that such was not the case, I took the time to look through a photo gallery from the show. I scrutinized every competitor front and back— but in reverse order, from the 10 women who were scored 21st all the way up to Sonia Adcock, and you know what? IFBB judges—not so blind. Oh, you could nitpick a placing here or there or argue that someone might have been overlooked, but generally, you could see the progression of shape and condition and, yeah, the cut of the posing suits, as you moved up the lineup. The way I see it, except for the Fast track. Pittsburgh champ Adcock little matter of the prize money, everyone who got noticed sufficiently to score in paid her dues by coming in third at the top 10 was a winner there. After the finalists, that her first two shows, then took first included, in order, Amy Peters, Nicole Pitcherat her next two. Oh, yeah, she won the Cal too. Scott, Elizabeth White-Lamm, Cheri Lewis and Natalie Benson. winner from the ’06 Nationals, finished My choice for most overlooked athlete was not fourth in her pro debut. She landed just the woman declared in the above-mentioned online a point ahead of veteran fitness and figdiscussion to have been violated by the judging. (That ure athlete Shannon Meteraud, who woman needs to take to heart suggestions made by returned to competition after a twoknowledgeable forum members regarding her presenyear layoff and the birth of her second tation.) It was surprising to me, however, that threechild and looked as if she hadn’t left. time Australian champ Rosa-Maria Romero, with Way to go, Shannon. Way to go, her classic blond look and classy physique, could only ladies. manage 19th in her pro debut, looking as she did. Canadian Speaking Jill St. Cheri Lew is has of paying finished se Laurent, venth, your dues. eighth an another d ninth Amy Peters, at her pa rookie, sixth in contests. st three It’s called Pittsburgh, could getting no ticed but creeps closElizabeth White-Lamm. still stuck also have in the er to a topEighth out of 30 ain’t bad landed mud. five slot with in your pro debut. higher every show. than 20th—which is not to say that either should have been in the top five. Still, there may be something to the notion that competitors who don’t hail from the United States have a harder time getting the judges’ notice. On the other hand, my wonderings also include why Benson didn’t do better than 10th in that group, and she’s from Texas. Find results and photos from the long, hot summer of figure—along with maybe a few surprises—at IronManMagazine .com. Photography by Ruth Silverman

Natalie Benson gets a lot of fanschoice buzz but so far hasn’t impressed the pro judges.

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MORE BACKSTAGE

NEWCOMERS

Figure Fisticuffs

Illusions

(Bet you can’t say that 10 times)

Before you get the wrong idea about this photo

Here’s a gal whose name just rolls off the tongue. RosaMaria Romero finished fourth in her class at the ’06 IFBB World Championships—the highest-placed Australian figure competitor ever—but she couldn’t get arrested in Pittsburgh. A former dance teacher (with a passion for flamenco) and aerobics champ, Romero is also a flight attendant for Qantas and the mother of two young sons, Dylan, seven, and Jamie, five. As mentioned in the commentary on page 251, she was her country’s national figure champion for three years running and last year added national mixed-pairs champ (with her fiancé, Sam Iliopoulos) to Rosa-Maria appeared on the her résumé. Some ladies might cover of the December ’06 IRON lament a so-called top-20 finish MAN Australia, but to make it in the pros, the Aussie flight attenafter flying all the way from Syddant will have to make use of her ney, but not Rosa. employee discount. “I’m a fighter,” said Romero, who planned to return to the states for the California and Colorado events. “I’m going to come back until they know my face.” With a face like hers, that shouldn’t take too long.

Amanda Savell (right) is always ready to show newcomers how to go for the grab shot. Here she introduces a friendly photographer to her workout buddy Kathy Moore before the finals of the NPC Pittsburgh Championships. The ladies hail from Texas, where Moore earned a couple of thirdplace trophies in 2006, including the open figure competition at the amateur Europa. Savell, who won the pro-figure division of that show for the second time in a row last August, says she’ll be sitting out the long, hot summer of you-know-what in favor of coming to the Olympia with her buns and other bodyparts fresh. Declared the runner-up at this season’s Figure International, “I’m going to get top three at the Olympia, y’all!” In the meantime, helping Moore get ready to hit the stage was her immediate focus. Her advice must have been primo, as Kathy took the overall in the master’s figure division.

MORE NPC

FLEXERS

Worth Noting

Newsworthy It took three weeks for Anita Perman to convince her trainer that she had the discipline to prepare for a figure competition. He should have known better. The 39-year-old former TV news reporter is a testament to the powers of exercise, diet and determination in combating physical challenges. Three years ago she was diagnosed with fibromyalgia and had to leave her job in broadcasting. Her doctors gave her pills and said they couldn’t cure her condition—they could only control it. Perman, who’d always enjoyed working out, had a better idea. “I went back to the gym,” she said. Anita, who lives a couple of counties north of Pittsburgh, has been so successful in controlling her condition with diet and exercise that she Perman awaits her found herself looking for a new goal. Hence the first figure finals. A girl’s got to have a request to her trainer to “take me to the next goal after all. level,” which led to her figure debut in the masters division at the NPC Pittsburgh. She finished third out of three in her class, but most folks would call her a winner. Even so, I’m betting she’ll be back—and I bet I can guess what her next goal will be.

Liberman

Speaking of ladies with determination

Before earning its reputation as the home of a profigure show to be seen at, the NPC Pittsburgh was known for turning out national-champion bodybuilders. Kim King, Sarah Dunlap and twotime Team Universe lightweight winner Tracy Tucker come to mind. Amber DeFrancesco, the ’07 Pittsburgh Heavyweight and Trophy shot. Amber is Overall victor, has the the wife of ’06 North stuff to follow in their American Heavyweight tanning-oil-stained champ Kirk DeFrancesfootsteps when the co. Wonder if they’ve ever experimented with time is right, don’tcha dual contest prep. think?

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CHAMPS

Figures On Figure

The Ballad of Bubba Morgan

Bradford

PHOTO OP

Nola Trimble was one of 125 figure contestants vying for two pro cards at this year’s Junior USA, held in Charlotte, North Carolina, in April. That’s almost 30 more bods than hit the stage at that show in 2006—in case you were wondering if figure’s popularity would be peaking anytime soon. The competition isn’t getting any easier, either. Trimble, who took third in her class last year, could only manage sixth out of 18. For more on the Junior USA see page 245.

Speaking of overcoming challenges Pittsburgh open-heart promoter Jim surgery and, Manion was eventually, the quick to point amputation of his out to media left leg below the members an knee as well as a extraordinary substantial porathlete who tion of the muscle was competin his lower-right ing in the Teen leg. division of the Told he’d NPC Pittsnever walk again, burgh. SevenBubba proved the teen-year-old doctors wrong, Bubba Morand today he’s gan would walking and be receiving a Inspirational. The next time running—as well special award as lifting weights. you think you’re having a for the Most In- bad day.… An enthusiastic spirational Athwrestler and lete, which he earned the minute soccer player, he’d just started he stepped onstage. Diagnosed getting into bodybuilding when at 13 with a heart condition, the above events took place. Morgan went to the hospital for Afterward he made pumping iron an outpatient procedure, and his focus, and though he had to what followed was one of those give up the other sports, he was nightmare tales you don’t repeat able to get onstage and comto anyone who’s going anywhere pete at the Pittsburgh. near a hospital anytime soon. As John Wayne might have His medical misadventures that said, the kid’s got true grit. day included two heart attacks,

DOINGS

The Bride Wore Biceps

Once upon a time a little girl in Sweden dreamed of becoming a bodybuilder and living in Venice, California. That she achieved those dreams—and found her muscular Prince Charming—is a testament to the talent and perseverance of pro flexer Marika Johansson. “Cinderella Story,” produced by Joel Barham, is a glimpse into her magical life in the mecca. Episodes include our heroine training with six-time Mr. O Dorian Yates and eight-time Ms. O Lenda Murray; hosting a party with her prince, Kaged Muscle publisher Kris Gethin; and preparing for the ’06 Europa Super Show. There’s plenty of backstage footage from that competition, as well as scenes of Marika enjoying the sights of Venice and hanging with some of the luminaries of the sport. To get your copy, go to www.MJViking.com.

Isaac Hinds \ www.LiftStudios.com

VIDEO CORNER

Dylan and Heather: off their contest diet at last.

Rookie-pro sensation Heather Policky blasted into the 2007 season by blowing away the competition at the Sacramento before landing in the top three at the Ms. International. That’s a tough act to follow, but Heather was on a roll and scored an even bigger day on May 21, when she married her longtime fiancé—and trainer—Dylan Armbrust in Denver. The couple left for a honeymoon in Mexico, but not before the bride announced that she’d be retiring—her name, that is. Look for the ’06 USA champ to be billing herself Heather Armbrust at her next competition, the Ms. Olympia. Give yourself low marks for paying attention if you find yourself going, Who? when her name is announced in an early callout.

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Photography by Ruth Silverman

STILL MORE TALES FROM THE PITTSBURGH

More fashion awards. Tinamarie Bloomfield had the Best Postcontest Frock.

Peter and Ze na took the simultaneous cont est prep ch allenge. How’d that go, kids?

joys a quiet Bernadette en r curling moment with he als. fin iron before the

, Paufan favorites r Best Speaking of fo d ar aw C e P& line gets th Room. the Dressing Dressed in

Somebody told Nicole that pumping up means you can only pump in one direction.

Another hiatus bites the dust. Mari came back to the stage after 2 1/2 years with the full support of daughter Lenna, 5 1/2. BSN sent its heavy hitters to greet the Pittsburg h fans. I don’t know about you, but I can’t tak e a bad picture of this woma n.

e look for the siz Linda and Dave last contest. r he ce sin t she los

Speaking of heavy hitters, Cassie celebrated a big day on the softball field by taking her parents to a bodybuilding show.

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. Neveux

rt in the anRonnie took pa posedowngh ur tsb nual Pit e only one th I Am a. a-ram ’s a whole he s ink th o wh with hair? de du t en differ Don’t let Vince’s quiet demeanor fool you. He was in the best shape of anyone in the star-studded (four-months-out-from-the-Mr. O) finale, which also featured Jay Cutler, Ronnie Coleman, Victor Martinez, Dexter Jackson, Phil Heath, Vince Taylor, George Farah, Eric Fankhouser and Victor Konovalov. Love the headband, Vince.

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Jerry Brainum’s

Bodybuilding Pharmacology

Use Steroids, Become a Criminal Men tend to be more violent than women, a trait often attributed to men’s higher testosterone levels. If testosterone is the root of male violence, it stands to reason that those who self-administer higher-than-normal levels of it or its synthetic derivatives—i.e., anabolic steroids—should represent the most violent sector of male society. Studies of prisoners of both sexes show that the most violent criminals often have high testosterone levels. On the other hand, controlled studies also show that men with low testosterone levels are the angriest men in the subject sample. Aberrant behavior among steroid users is called ’roid rage, yet the evidence that using large ’roid doses will convert a mild-mannered man into a raving lunatic is far

from definitive. Much of the psychological and behavioral response to steroids depends on the person involved. Most instances of bad behavior attributed to anabolic steroid use occur in those who have an extensive history of bad behavior without using steroids. By the time you read this, a trial in Nevada involving a professional bodybuilder and his fitness champion wife—both indicted for murder—will have begun. Long before the trial began, however, rumors suggesting an element of ’roid rage circulated, mainly on the assumption that since the accused couple were physique athletes, they must have taken extensive quantities of steroids. Not only is there no evidence of steroid use at the time of the crime, but there is some preliminary evidence showing that Clyde Cuts and Bonnie Biceps weren’t using steroids but instead amphetamines and cocaine, which can both produce extreme paranoia. That would help explain the seemingly pointless behavior they exhibited, such as allegedly setting their own car—with a woman’s bound and gagged body inside—on fire in a remote part of the Nevada desert. Steroids are merely another handy excuse for brutish, antisocial behavior. As anyone who drives on Southern California freeways can readily attest, most cases of road

Studies of prisoners of both sexes show that the most violent criminals often have high testosterone levels. On the other hand, controlled studies also show that men with low testosterone levels are the angriest men in the subject sample.

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rage have nothing to do with ’roids. Steroids do, however, aggravate whatever is going on with your brain chemistry. If your neurotransmitters are out of whack, steroids may amplify the effects of the imbalance. Depression, for example, is caused by an imbalance in such neurotransmitters as serotonin and norepinephrine. Some hapless teenagers have committed suicide while allegedly using steroids, leading their grief-stricken parents to mistakenly conclude that steroids pushed them over the edge. The takeaway lesson here is that steroids don’t induce depression but may emphasize it. Indeed, a common effect of steroids is euphoria. Some who overuse steroids wind up with the opposite of depression—mania, where thoughts and actions come on so fast that behavior turns irrational. Adding to the controversy about the mental effects of steroids is a recent study suggesting that steroid use is linked to criminal behavior.1 The study sample consisted of more than 1,000 Swedish men, some of whom were steroid users. In their introduction the authors cite previous research showing that bank robbers often use steroids prior to committing their crimes (perhaps the thieves figured larger biceps could help them carry out more cash). In the new study subjects who took steroids were found to have used weapons in the commission of a crime twice as often as nonusers. The authors think that steroid users are more often engaged in serious crimes, such as armed robbery and collection of crime-related debts. They are at an advantage because they are muscular and big—more intimidating. On the other hand, steroid users were found to engage in less violent behavior than their clean counterparts, an apparent paradox. The explanation is that a tendency toward violence must exist for a violent crime to ensue. In addition, the authors note, “Crimes among anabolic steroid users might reflect an overrepresentation of individuals with psychiatric disorders or substance abuse, obscuring the effect of anabolic steroids alone on violent behavior.” So the authors seem to take the view that it’s not the steroids that predispose someone to crime; it’s the person’s mind-set. An interesting aspect of this par-

As anyone who drives on Southern California freeways can readily attest, most cases of road rage have nothing to do with ’roids. Steroids do, however, aggravate whatever is going on with your brain chemistry.

ticular study was that when it was reported in the popular media (popular with whom?), the stories mentioned only that steroids were more likely to produce criminal behavior and that steroid users were more likely to engage in fraud. In fact, the study found an equal level of fraudulent behavior in steroid users and nonusers. Besides, if fraud were directly attributable to steroid use, that would mandate drug testing among many purveyors of food supplements, few of whom actually use steroids, judging by their often puny appearance.

Amphetamines found in weight-loss supplements? Steroids found in overthe-counter bodybuilding supplements? It happened.

A Surprise in Every Bottle A pleasant memory from when I was a kid is the excitement of opening a box of Cracker Jack to find the prize. Never mind that the surprise in every box usually turned out to be a useless trinket of some kind—the anticipation was what mattered. A modern version of that surprise has to do with certain over-the-counter supplements. The ingredients listed on the label may be innocuous, but the ones not listed could also include toxic ingredients purposely added by unscrupulous purveyors. Three cases have been reported in different medical journals. In the first case a 25-year-old woman showed up at a local emergency room complaining of increasingly severe abdominal pain that had first appeared two weeks earlier and had now escalated to include nausea and vomiting.2 The only medications she reported using were Advil, which she’d stopped taking five days earlier, and a Brazilian weight-loss supplement that she’d obtained from an Internet site. She stopped using both the supplement and the Advil at the same time. When taking the weight-loss supplement, she’d felt heart palpitations and tremors. Friends also using the supplement noted similar side effects. When consulting doctors two weeks earlier, her initial diagnosis had been gastroesophageal reflux disease, a.k.a heartburn, but none of the prescriptions she got proved effective. Emergency room blood tests showed normal values, with one exception: A urinary toxicological screen was positive for amphetamine. When questioned, the patient admitted previous use of both cocaine and marijuana but denied having used speed. She instead suggested that the speed now in her system—the source of her present symptoms— probably came from the Brazilian weight-loss pills. She added that some of her friends using the supplement had lost more than five pounds in less than a month. She’d stopped using it, not because of side effects but due to expense—$270 a month. The doctors obtained some samples of the product, then had it analyzed. Sure www.ironmanmagazine.com \ AUGUST 2007 265

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Jerry Brainum’s

Bodybuilding Pharmacology enough, it contained 5-cyanoethyl amphetamine, which was never sold in the United States. In a list of product ingredients on the company’s Web site, various herbs are listed, such as ginkgo biloba, chamomile, gota kola and even hydroxycitric acid, a common ingredient in American fat-loss supplements. No mention, however, is made of any amphetamine. Doctors treated the woman with Reglan, a drug used to control nausea and vomiting, and Protonix, a drug used to treat heartburn. She was also provided with Tylenol for pain. She was discharged from the hospital three days after her symptoms subsided. She was told to stop using the supplement and said that she would comply. Her friends, however, continued to use the supplement, despite knowing about its undisclosed ingredient, because it was so effective. The ER doctors who treated the woman reported her case to the Food and Drug Administration, which confiscated much of the product shipped into the United States. The case, however, is still being investigated, and Web sites offering the product are still up and running. One site selling a similar product has a product analysis certificate showing that it’s free of amphetamines. The FDA had

previously confiscated eight other products sold by the same company. Those foolish enough to take the Brazilian weight-loss formula may soon find themselves up the Amazon without a paddle. Another case involved an overthe-counter anabolic pro-hormone supplement.3 As any reader of this column knows, the last of those supplements was banned in January 2005. Even so, this particular case is so egregious that it needs attention, if only to explain why many pro-hormone supplements proved so effective. The short explanation is that the supplements weren’t pro-hormones but were actual hormones—such as true anabolic steroids. The case here involved two products with the brand names Parabolan-S and Stanozolon-S. They sound like anabolic steroids, and for good reason—they were. Analysis showed that Parabolan-S contained 16.8 milligrams of metandienone, also known as methandrostenolone—Dianabol. It also contained a pro-hormone called norandrostenolone. Stanozolon-S contained 14.5 milligrams of stanozolol, known by the trade name Winstrol. It also contained 9.6 milligrams of norandrostenedione. The drugs were oral anabolic

Tainted supplements are making more and more people skeptical.

steroids in the 17-ankylated form, meaning that they didn’t rapidly degrade in the liver. The level of the drugs was high enough to produce both their anabolic effects and their negative side effects, such as liver enzyme abnormalities and adverse effects on blood lipids. Women who used the supplements could find themselves becoming masculinized. The products contained a cornucopia of other anabolic agents, including testosterone, 1-testosterone, boldenone (Equipose) and even dihydrotestosterone (DHT) and estrone. DHT is a metabolite of testosterone linked to male pattern baldness, acne and prostate disease. Estrone is a weak form of estrogen that readily converts into estrone sulfate, which in turn can convert into estradiol, the most potent form of estrogen. The question is why those drugs were added to an over-the-counter supplement in the first place—profit comes to mind, as the drug would likely produce dramatic muscle gains in those who otherwise avoided steroids. Since the ingredients listed appeared to be innocuous, a user could take the supplement with peace of mind. The truth would emerge, however, if people had the misfortune of undergoing drug tests. One can only wonder how many athletes were busted as a result of unknowing use of the hard stuff. Perhaps the most direct damage perpetrated by unscrupulous purveyors of such supplements is the public skepticism they induce about other supplements. Trash supplements do lasting damage.

References 1 Klotz, F., et al. (2006). Criminality among individuals testing positive for the presence of anabolic androgenic steroids. Arch Gen Psychiatry. 63:1274-79. 2 Nguyen, M.H., et al. (2006). Amphetamine lacing of an Internet-marketed neutraceutical. Mayo Clin Proc. 81:1627-1629. 3 Parr, M.K., et al. (2007). High amounts of 17-methylated anabolic-androgenic steroids in effervescent tablets on the dietary supplement market. Biomed Chromatography. 21(2):164-168. IM

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Recent Research on Getting Rippedâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;Gone Wrong, Part 2 by Jerry Brainum â&#x20AC;˘ Photography by Michael Neveux

The general prescription for losing bodyfat is to reduce your total calorie intake and increase your exercise. That makes your body use stored fat as an energy source. Most experts strongly recommend that you follow an exercise program when you undertake any type of weight-loss diet so you can maintain lean mass, which is mostly muscle. Dieting too stringently often results in muscle loss. Using diet alone to reduce bodyfat can lead to a loss of 50 percent bodyfat and 50 percent muscle.

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Model: Ken Yasuda

The best combination for losing maximum fat while preserving muscle is to reduce your total calorie intake and do weight workouts plus judicious— that is, not more than one hour at a time—aerobic training. Besides the obvious aesthetic considerations—losing muscle as well as fat will make you look like a thin fat person—losing muscle also lowers the resting metabolic rate. So you burn fewer calories at rest, which requires a long-term commitment to eating much less food than you used to. Since most people don’t have the willpower to adhere to such stringent eating, the lost bodyfat soon returns, which explains the 97 percent recidivism rate with dieting alone. A good example of this occurred with television billionaire Oprah Winfrey a few years ago. Oprah went

on a protein-sparing modified fast that permitted her to take in only a specially prepared low-cal nutritional supplement. She ended up losing 67 pounds and dramatically illustrated it by rolling out a wheelbarrow containing 67 pounds of fat. Within a short time, however, Oprah’s lost weight returned with gusto; in fact, she got heavier than she’d been before. Turned out she hadn’t done much exercise while on her special diet. The significant loss of muscle with the fat set her up for weight regain. Owning a restaurant in Chicago that specialized in her favorite French pastries didn’t help either. The point here is that dieting without exercise is bound to fail.

Stringent dieting may cause weight loss, but most people don’t have the willpower to adhere to such spartan eating plans, so the lost bodyfat soon returns.

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Model: Joe DeAngelis

Many bodybuilders avoid doing aerobics in the belief that it will lead to muscle loss. That’s been confirmed by research showing that aerobic training done too often, too long or too close to a weight workout interferes with strength and muscle gains.

Exercise-Only Fallacy? On the other hand, a newly published study declares that all we’ve accepted about the relationship between diet and exercise may be just a bunch of hooey.1 What the study found was that eating less and exercising more—as long as the calorie deficit is the same—makes no difference in fat loss. Among the study’s findings were that spot reducing, or loss of fat in specific areas of the body, doesn’t exist. That notion isn’t new, but you still see people training their abs with high reps every day for purposes of selectively losing fat in the abdominal area. A more controversial claim made in the new study is that adding muscle mass doesn’t boost resting metabolism and won’t help you lose fat or maintain fat loss. As researcher Eric Ravussin of the Pennington Biomedical Research Center in Louisiana told a news agency, “So long as the energy deficit is the same, bodyweight, fat weight and abdominal fat will all decrease in the same way.”

Twenty-four subjects participated in the six-month experiment, half of whom took in 25 percent fewer calories than normal and half of whom cut their daily intake by 12.5 percent while also increasing their physical activity. The idea was to burn another 12.5 percent of calorie intake, thus making their total daily calorie reduction equivalent to that of the nonexercise group. Those in the exercise group trained five days a week, but as you’ll see, the type of training they did invalidated at least one conclusion of the study. Both groups lost about 10 percent of their bodyweight, 24 percent of their fat mass and 27 percent of their visceral, or deep-lying, abdominal fat, the kind linked to diabetes, cardiovascular disease and the metabolic syndrome. The fat both groups lost was systemic, not greater in specific areas of the body. The authors suggest that people are genetically programmed for fat storage in a specific pattern, not in one “spot” of the body or other. Unlike what occurred in other studies, those in the diet-only

group didn’t lose any more muscle than the exercise group. Ravussin suggested that, if anything, highly trained people, presumably those with more muscle mass, burn fewer calories at rest. He also thinks it’s a myth that exercise preserves muscle under dieting conditions, despite abundant evidence, both clinical and practical, to the contrary. The trouble is, Ravussin’s own study doesn’t support his contentions. For one thing, the exercising subjects did aerobic exercise only— on a treadmill, stationary cycle or stair-climbing machine. They were required to maintain a minimum exercise heart rate but could select their own level of training intensity. Now add the well-known fact that aerobics isn’t the best choice for building or maintaining muscle during dieting, and you’ve invalidated all assumptions in the study relative to maintaining lean mass while dieting. Many bodybuilders avoid doing aerobics in the belief that it will lead to muscle loss. That’s been confirmed by research showing that aerobic training done too often, too long or too close to a weight workout interferes with strength and muscle gains. So the idea that aerobics alone could maintain muscle mass is a little silly. The best combination for maximum fat loss while preserving muscle mass is to reduce your total calorie intake and do weight workouts plus judicious—that is, not more than one hour at a time—aerobic training. Attempting to maintain muscle with dieting alone just doesn’t work, regardless of what some researchers claim. The next study to examine the issue should use a weight-training protocol. I’m betting the results would considerably differ from the results in Louisiana.

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The energy cost, a.k.a. calorie expenditure, of muscle repair after a weight workout proved to be more extensive than was previously believed— and the main fuel that powered postworkout recovery turned out to be fat.

For years aerobic exercise was considered superior to weight training for losing bodyfat. The reasoning was that aerobics increased the resting metabolic rate more than lifting weights did. Weight sessions are typically anaerobic, or lacking a high oxygen intake, which means the fuel for them is primarily stored glycogen in muscle, rather than fat. Because fat can be oxidized only in the presence of oxygen, the greater oxygen intake typical of aerobic sessions seemed to prove that aerobic exercise was better at getting the lard out. Research tipped the pendulum toward weights when it became clear that more muscle meant a higher resting metabolic rate. The energy cost, a.k.a. calorie expenditure, of muscle repair after a weight workout proved to be more extensive than was previously believed—and the main fuel that powered postworkout recovery turned out to be fat. The extra fat used during recovery led to a higher and

longer resting energy expenditure— REE—than aerobic training provided. A new study compared the effects on REE of 40 minutes of aerobics and 40 minutes of weight training in 23 black and 22 white young women randomly assigned to an aerobic group, a weights group or a control group that didn’t exercise.2 The aerobic training consisted of exercise done at 80 percent of maximum heart rate, a high level of intensity. Those in the weights group did eight exercises for two sets each at moderate intensity. Both groups trained for 25 weeks, and resting energy levels were measured after a 12-hour fast. Resting energy expenditure was compared 19, 43 and 67 hours after training. It was still elevated at 19 hours after the aerobic workout but not by the 43-hour mark. No increase in REE occurred in the women who only lifted weights. Whoa! What gives? Does that mean aerobics is superior to weight training for increasing REE after all? Keep reading. Model: Greg Smyers

Tipping the Research Scale

Higher-intensity aerobic exercise, such as interval training, creates a greater release of hormones linked to fat oxidation than steadystate aerobic exercise.

The Intensity Variable We know from a big body of research that weights are far superior to aerobics for building muscle, and more muscle means more calories burned at rest. How big an increase you get after a weight workout depends on its intensity level. The weight workout used in the REE study was of moderate intensity. That wouldn’t yield the kind of muscle damage that occurs under higher-intensity conditions and so wouldn’t produce the increased REE associated with extensive muscle repair and recuperation. Past studies show an elevation in REE lasting from 24 to 48 hours following a high-intensity weight session. In this study the aerobics group did train at a higher level of intensity, which generally leads to a greater sympathetic response, meaning the release of hormones linked to fat oxidation. Sure enough, the women

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Model: Zdenka Novotna

Trying to get lean by dieting alone can result in muscle being burned for fuel. If your muscle isn’t being used, your body considers it expendable and throws it in the energy furnace.

in the aerobics group had higher levels of norepinephrine metabolic products in their urine than those in the weights group. An interesting note is that the aerobics group in this study used a steady-state training style, maintaining their pulse at 80 percent of maximum heart rate for the entire 40-minute session. Other experi-

ments, however, have found that using an interval style of aerobic training—alternating high and low intensity—produces far more fat burning and a higher postworkout REE than conventional steady-state aerobics. Another factor affecting the study results was that those in the aerobics group burned three times more

calories during exercise than those in the weights group. The authors note that if the calorie burn rate had been matched between the two groups, there would have been an increase in REE in the weights group. Because of the disparity in the calorie cost of training, however, the weights group would have had to either train for two hours or work out at a higher level of intensity to have experienced a considerable increase in REE. The increase in REE in the aerobics group was small, amounting to only 15 percent of the calories used in the actual training session. Building more muscle through weight training or doing interval training rather than steady-state aerobics would have significantly increased the REE. What we’ve got here is an academic activity that gets an incomplete. Studies like this show that the conclusions of scientists don’t always tell you the whole story. Underlying attributes of a study can—or should—call its results into question.

References Redman, L.M., et al. (2007). Effect of calorie restriction with or without exercise on body composition and fat distribution. J Appl Physiol. 92:865-872. 2 Hunter, G., et al. (2006). Increased resting energy expenditure after 40 minutes of aerobic but not resistance exercise. Obesity. 14:20182025. IM

Model: Jessica Payson

Attempting to maintain muscle mass and lose fat with dieting alone just doesn’t work, regardless of what some researchers claim. Weight training is key to holding on to or even building muscle as you slim down.

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Model: Jose Raymond

Only the Strong Shall Survive

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Goal Power!

Setup for Success by Bill Starr Photography by Michael Neveux

etting stronger and building an aesthetically pleasing physique are all about numbers. Sets, reps, workload, selection of warmups and top-end weights concern numbers. Length of time spent training, frequency of sessions and tempo during the workouts are also numerical. In weight training, numbers are the one constant in an ever-changing setting.

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Luck isn’t a factor in getting bigger and stronger, and shortcuts have negative ramifications. Whatever we accomplish in the weight room is a direct result of our own efforts and no one else’s.

That’s because the body seeks complacency. Except for a few rare individuals, our bodies prefer comfort over being put into situations that require mental or physical stress. Given the choice between going to a gym and squatting with poundages that make the White Buffalo appear or lounging in front of the TV and watching teenage figure skaters zip and spin around an oval pond in lingerie, what relatively sane male wouldn’t opt for the latter? Luckily, our minds have the final say. Otherwise even more obese people would be waddling around malls and supermarkets, using what little energy they have to procure more calories. Our minds are responsible for motivating us to Goals give us get up off our bums something and head out to the tangible to gym three or four work toward. times a week and indulge in one or two hours of strenuous exercise that in no way could be considered fun. Yet we condition ourselves to make it a pleasurable experience because it helps us achieve positive goals we set for ourselves— better muscle tone, greater strength, trimmer waistlines, more energy and flexibility—with the side benefits of being

able to sleep more soundly and elevating our self-esteem. When we set goals to be accomplished in the weight room, then apply ourselves and end up doing what we set out to do, we feel elated. It’s a genuine boost to the ego and quite addictive, because there just aren’t that many things in life that can give us so much satisfaction. Amassing large amounts of money seems to be the goal of a high percentage of the population, but invariably, the satisfaction that comes from attaining more money than anybody will ever need is a shallow feeling—mostly because monetary success requires the

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Models: Morandell/Reinhardt

Anyone who starts lifting weights quickly becomes aware of that fact. Trainees learn right away that one area is noticeably weaker than the others and that they must spend more time and effort on that area in order to improve the numbers. It’s not just the final work sets that must change but the total volume of work as well. In fact, the top-end numbers depend on how solidly you build the foundation for that area of your body. So you constantly change your program. After you’ve succeeded in improving that weaker area by doing more total work and adding a couple of specific exercises for it, you must focus on another area that’s lagging. That’s the only way to achieve balanced strength or a symmetrical physique. Sometimes the changes are dramatic, as when you shift from a pure strength program to one that emphasizes endurance. At other junctures the alterations are almost indiscernible. Rest assured, though: They’re happening. A program is never completely stagnant, even when you follow the same set-and-rep sequence and do exactly the same exercises. You’re either making progress or slipping backward. If you benched 310 last Monday and managed only 305 this Monday, you’ve done less on your workload and intensity. You must continually alter your program if you want to make steady, long-term progress.

Model: Omar Deckard

Strong Shall Survive

Strength competition is an excellent long-term goal, something to strive for. labor of many others, usually some shady dealings and lots of luck, regardless of how self-made a person claims to be. Luck isn’t a factor in getting bigger and stronger, and shortcuts have negative ramifications. Whatever we accomplish in the weight room is a direct result of our own efforts and no one else’s. Strength training and bodybuilding are definitely not team sports. Training mates and coaches can advise and encourage, but when we step on a lifting platform to perform a snatch or deadlift or prepare to go after a personal-record squat, we’re on our own. Or at least we should be. I’ve watched spotters do more actual work during

the execution of an incline or flat bench than the lifter. This “all-you” system of training is ridiculous and counterproductive. Don’t get me wrong. Serious trainees care about money, since it’s necessary for survival and the luxuries we all enjoy. It’s just that they take greater pride in the fact that they can squat 400 pounds, bench 525, deadlift 500 or clean and jerk 500 more than they do in their net worth. I’ve never been impressed with anything that can be bought. No one can purchase eye-popping arms or rock-hard abs or state and national titles, and that’s exactly why they’re so precious. Goals are important. They give us something tangible to work

toward, as opposed to merely going through the motions without any objectives in mind. There are short-term and longterm goals. The short-term goals should be connected to the longterm ones. It’s also important that your goals be realistic. I’ll comment more on that later on. When I came across my first set of weights at the Great Lakes Naval Station gym, I was 17 and weighed 140. The routine I followed consisted of several exercises that I remembered from a Charles Atlas course I’d purchased while in high school. I wanted to gain bodyweight, lots of bodyweight, and get stronger, but most of all I wanted big arms. At the time my upper arms

Personal records can be set in the gym or on the lifting platform. Either way, P.R.s are a tremendous confidence builder.

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measured just 13 inches, so my long-term goal was to add three more inches. I knew that wasn’t going to happen overnight, so I concentrated on my short-term goal of gaining bodyweight. Even though I was a rank beginner, I understood that I’d never obtain 16-inch arms unless I packed a lot of muscle on my frame. As long as I was getting heavier, my arms were also growing. It took two years of consistent training before I gained 50 pounds of bodyweight and attained the arm size I’d dreamed about. It was almost magical to be able to alter my physique in that fashion, and that’s one reason weight training has been a vital part of my life ever since. Just when I achieved my goal of bigger arms, I became interested in the sport of Olympic lifting and suddenly had completely different goals. Muscular strength replaced muscular size. All that mattered were the numbers on the three Olympic lifts: press, snatch and clean and jerk. I was stationed in Iceland at the time, so there was no one to teach me the lifts. I did the best I could with the quick lifts, but mostly I enjoyed pressing. It seemed more like a pure strength feat to me. My short-term goal was to press my bodyweight, 190, and my longterm aspiration was to eventually win a medal in a contest. On my return to the states and having the benefit of an Olympic bar on which to train, I achieved those two goals within six months. Right away my goals changed again. Now I wanted a 200-pound press and a gold medal. I did the press rather quickly, but it took quite some time to win my first gold because I was discharged from the Air Force and no longer had a weight room for training in Maryland. Within a year I moved back to Texas, got married, entered SMU and began training under the guidance of Sid Henry at the Dallas YMCA. My goals became lofty there. Unthoughtof numbers were fixed firmly in my short-term goal list: 225 press and snatch, along with a 300 clean and jerk. My long-term goal was to qualify for the Collegiate

Nationals. I accomplished them all over the next two years, although I never got to compete in the Collegiate Nationals. With a wife and child I simply couldn’t afford the trip. I did win the Southern and Southwestern Collegiates, however, so that sort of counted as a victory. Four years later I arrived at York, where my aspirations soared to a level I would never have imagined in my wildest speculations. I had visions of pressing what I’d once clean and jerked, snatching 500 and jerking 400. Now I believed that if I continued to train hard, I could win a national title and qualify for the Olympic trials. That final goal had gotten fixed in my head after I watched the ’64 trials at the New York World’s Fair. It seemed a bit farfetched at the time, but four years later I achieved my highest aspiration. The point of a jaunt down Bill Starr Lane is not to boast about my Olympic lifting career because it wasn’t extraordinary. Hundreds of lifters did a great deal more and overcame many more handicaps than I ever encountered. My experiences in competitive lifting were typical, not special. What I want to convey is that each rung I climbed up the strength ladder was a direct result of a success at a lower level. There was no skipping of any rungs. I had to press 295 before I could handle 300. Each advance required work and time—on occasion lots of work and time because the gains did not come in a steady fashion, except for those early years when every lift was a new adventure and I was putting on bodyweight rapidly. Even when gains came rarely, I kept my eye on my short-term goal, believing that if I could move up to my intended number on some exercise, I’d be able to proceed to the next higher one. I never got ahead of myself— well, hardly ever. Sometimes I attempted lifts that I wasn’t yet ready for and always failed—and learned a hard lesson. At Johns Hopkins, just before the testing week at the end of the off-season strength program for football, several players would ask

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me what I thought they might be able to do on the three tested lifts: power clean, squat, and bench. Rather than answer, I turned the question back on them. The majority had higher expectations than their current lifts showed. I didn’t want to dampen their enthusiasm, because who knows, they might just be the kind of athlete who can do more than he’s supposed to. What I did was remind them that a max single in any lift rarely exceeds more than 20 pounds over what they are currently doing for a triple. So a 480 triple in the squat translates to 500 while 470 doesn’t. I didn’t discourge them from trying their target poundages but wrote down what I thought they would actually do. In every case I was correct. You just don’t beat the numbers, though every so often someone proves me wrong. The example that always comes to mind is Mike Curtis when he trained with me and other members of the Baltimore Colts the season they won Super Bowl V. He was one of the greatest linebackers ever to play the game, in my opinion, but I’m prejudiced. He worked as hard in the weight room as he did at practices and

during the games. Mike always gave 100 percent. When they were running half-speed drills, he’d still flatten the ball carrier. The coaches would scream at him to slack off before he hurt somebody, but he never did. The next time a running back or receiver was in his zone, he got decked. Mike liked Olympic lifters and was delighted when Ernie Pickett visited one afternoon. Ernie was slightly stunned, since Mike was regarded as one of the very best in a highly popular game while few outside the sport of weightlifting knew who Ernie was. Because he was enthralled by

Model: Nathan Detracy

Strong Shall Survive

Olympic lifts, Mike did military presses instead of the flat benches that the rest preferred. After a couple of months training on the lift and perfecting his technique, he had worked up to 225 x 5, which I thought was impressive, as he weighed only 235. I didn’t know of any competitive lifters who’d made

Getting ready for a show may be all the incentive you need to train with a frenzy. The goals are well defined.

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that much progress so quickly. The next time he was scheduled to press heavy, he told me he wanted to try 300. I started to laugh, then checked myself. Mike wasn’t known as Mad Dog for nothing. I did mention that he might wait until he moved his fives higher, but he was determined, so I began encouraging him and advising him on his jumps and reps. He did 225 for a double, then proceeded to single 250, 270, and 290. Already I was surprised, but I still believed 300 was out of his reach. For one thing, 300 is a difficult numerical barrier, maybe the most difficult of all. We loaded the bar to 300; he fixed it on his shoulders and stepped back out of the squat rack. All the while I was giving him form pointers. He drove it up, but it came crashing back down. He placed the bar back in the rack, turned to me and said, “Don’t talk to me this time.” I pressed my lips together. Without taking any rest, he racked the bar, stepped back, and rammed the bar overhead. It was the most amazing display of strength conversion I ever saw, before or since. By all accounts he shouldn’t have been able to do much over 265, yet he exceeded his best five by 75 pounds. It was a simple case of mind over matter and

helps explain why he was such a superb football player. There was no doubt in my mind that if he’d chosen to be an Olympic weightlifter, he would have been a champion. Being able to convert like that is reserved for a handful of gifted athletes. Bob Bednarski, Bill March, Ken Patera, Doug Young and John Phillip were the only others I ever met. The rest of us have to abide by the prescribed guidelines, which means we constantly widen our strength base before we can expect to move our best singles higher. Keep in mind that just because you made rapid gains when you first started training doesn’t mean you can expect that same rate of increase forever. If that were true, everyone would eventually bench 500, squat 700, and clean and jerk 600. Even though you moved up to a 400-pound squat in two months, it may take you twice that long to get to 450. That’s because it takes time to expand your base. The process can’t be hurried. The muscles can get stronger rather quickly, but the attachments can’t. And ultimately, muscular strength is linked to tendon and ligament strength. If you attempt to force the process, you’ll overtrain. I’ve found it helpful to focus more on the threes and fives than

on the singles. Move the work sets up, and the singles will take care of themselves. I’ve watched a number of trainees who had their hearts set on a certain number on the bench press, usually 300, pay little attention to their lead-up sets and only start concentrating when they attempted their target weight. Invariably, they failed. Had they applied more energy in the lead-up sets and even the back-off sets, they would have widened their base sooner and achieved their goal much faster. Those who participate in a strength program for their sport or compete in strength events such as Olympic lifting, powerlifting and strongman competitions have little trouble setting goals. There are meets to prepare for and personal records to be conquered, which provides plenty of motivation. Same holds true for physique contestants. Getting ready for the next show is all the incentive they need to train with a frenzy. The goals are well defined. Once athletes end their collegiate careers, however, and competitive lifters and strongmen hang up their belts, they enter a period of limbo where goals are suddenly fuzzy. Changing from a program based on pure strength to one aimed at general overall fitness is extremely difficult for many athletes. It requires a huge shift in mind-set, and not everyone is able to handle it. The group that handles the transition the best is bodybuilders. After they retire from competition, they simply cut back on their intensity, lower their workloads and increase the reps on their selected exercises, which for the most part are the same exercises they used in their contest-preparation sessions. They also stay on a healthful diet and are very aware of their appearance, which keeps them training consistently. In contrast, lots of strength athletes and competitive weightlifters have difficulty in switching over to a routine that requires higher reps and lower weights. Somewhere along the www.ironmanmagazine.com \ AUGUST 2007 289

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Strength athletes generally have more trouble than bodybuilders transitioning to their noncompetitive years because their self-esteem is often linked to their ability to lift heavy weights, which dwindles with age. 290 AUGUST 2007 \ www.ironmanmagazine.com

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Model: Hubert Morandella and Markus Reinhardt

Strong Shall Survive

line their self-esteem became linked with their ability to lift heavy weights in certain exercises, such as squats or, more typically, the bench press. When events occur that force them to forgo using heavy weights, they have trouble making the change to what is, in effect, a bodybuilding program. They hate the fact that they’re no longer one of the strongest members of a gym, detest high reps, dislike any exercise that’s considered a bodybuilding movement and really do not know how to put together a routine of this nature. A large number cease all weight work. Some, though, understanding that any type of training is better than none at all, bite the bullet and accept as a challenge an extremely different way of staying physically fit. My longtime friend Jason is a perfect example. After playing football at Western Maryland College, he became a nationally ranked powerlifter. A football knee injury forced him to give up that sport, but he continued to train hard and heavy and was one of the strongest men in the gym on nearly every exercise he did in his program. Then in his mid’50s osteoarthritis struck with a vengeance. In a two-year span he had a hip and knee replacement plus arthroscopic surgery on a shoulder. His heavy-lifting days were over. He was, quite naturally, despondent and didn’t do any systematic training except for a few rehab exercises. We talked often, and I encouraged him to get some weights, preferably dumbbells, and start training at home. That way he wouldn’t have to compare himself with his former lifting mates in the gym. I told him about others I knew who were in a similar situation and what they did in their programs. He confessed that he didn’t like the way he felt or looked and decided he’d give the high-rep, low-weight concept a try. I suggested that he set some goals, and he said that he already had two: to regain some of his former strength so that he could at least do everyday tasks and

enjoy a few recreational activities like hiking. He also wanted to get back some muscle tone and size. All without irritating his hip, knee or shoulder. He called me periodically to report his progress. He set goals in terms of reps and pushed toward a goal until he got feedback telling him he was doing too much. Then he’d either drop the reps back and add an extra set or two or substitute another exercise for that bodypart for a length of time. He said the regular changing of exercises really helped him to stay motivated because it always gave him a new personal record to go after. I don’t recall all of what he did, but 550 crunches, 202 leg raises, 100 curls and 200 inclines with 20-pound dumbbells stick in my mind. Six months ago I ran into Jason at the supermarket. We talked training, and he related that he’d just started back doing pushups. He’d tried them before but ran the reps up too fast and caused problems for his bad shoulder. “I only did 10 reps for two sets and am only going to add a few reps a week and see how far I can go with them.” Last week he called and announced, “I just did two sets of 50 pushups!” I was impressed and told him so. I didn’t know anyone who could do that many. He gushed, “You know something, I’m as tickled with those 50 pushups as I was the first time I benched three and four hundred pounds. Ain’t that a hoot?” Indeed it is, and I’m sure that Jason will continue to train just as diligently as nature will allow for the rest of his days. It’s simply a matter of setting realistic goals and pursuing them without allowing time to be a factor. 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— Strength Training for Football, which is available for $20 plus shipping from Home Gym Warehouse. Call (800) 447-0008, or visit Home-Gym.com. IM

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IRONMIND

Mind Training Tablets

hest, 29”; expanded, 30”. Waist, 26”. Arms, 8”; flexed, 9”. Height, 4’8 1/2”. Bodyweight, 74 1/2 pounds... March 27, 1942. This person ain’t exactly in the mold of a strongman, right? Who’d guess that from that modest beginning would emerge the sensational Tommy Kono, who set more than two dozen world records, winning gold medals in two Olympics (plus a silver in another), six world championships and a string of physique titles, including Mr. World and Mr. Universe. The list of Tommy’s accomplishments goes on and on, but you get the picture. As Tommy gained more than 100 pounds of muscle, he marked each step in his 10 training logs—books in which he recorded “every set, rep and weight lifted in training and in competition” during the 15-year period when he built himself from a skinny boy into one of the greatest weightlifting stars ever. Lest you think those training books were just busywork, consider that Tommy later said, “The more I became involved in weightlifting, the more training notes I started keeping. It was at this point that I noticed that the amount of improvement made in my lifts was in direct proportion to the number of notes I kept.” Tommy’s training logs not only tracked what he actually lifted, but they also contained notes about new ideas, technique, goals, training methods and so forth. Tommy explained that his training book became “a diary of everything concerned with weightlifting. I referred to it often in checking the progress I was making and to correct any weak points of my lifts by reviewing the

Write it down after you pump it up technique notes I kept.” Contrast that systematic approach with the more common one of maybe scratching down a routine on the back of an envelope, maybe bringing it to the gym and maybe consulting it—with mediocre results usually following. Making good use of a training log puts some powerful psychological tools to work for you. That’s why training logs can be so productive. One of the most exploited topics in popular psychology— from self-help to performance enhancement—is goal setting, and for good reason: If you don’t know where you’re trying to go, you’re unlikely to get there by the shortest path. On the other hand, if you have a goal, you can do everything in your power to stay directed toward it. IronMind receives a steady stream of calls and letters from people asking for training advice. Some of them know exactly what they want (“I’m trying to increase my crushing grip,” or, “I’m trying to add 25 pounds to my bench press”), and others don’t (“Well, you know, I want to make progress and I was thinking that maybe...”). You can guess how much easier it is to be helpful when people know exactly where they’re trying to go. When you use a training log, you can set goals—by the workout, the week, the month, the cycle or whatever else might work for you. Your goals are down in black and white, and there will be no question about whether you reached them. Once a workout is completed, you can’t go back and change it—the opportunity to perform any additional growthexploding reps is gone forever. All those gut-busting reps you did do, the ones that will give you the gains you want, can never be taken away. A training log helps you understand the sense of finality because each time you write a set in your diary, you can think of it as being carved in stone. Your training log will take on the significance and permanence of stone tablets, which will serve as a tremendous incentive to make each workout the best it can be. Giving people feedback has proven to be an incredibly powerful tool in everything from learning new skills to boosting productivity: It’s one of the key benefits coaches should provide. Otherwise, it’s like target shooting in the dark. When you have a training log, you have a feedback trail; for example, you can see what happened when you went to 36 sets per bodypart vs. when you tried a high-intensity program. You can see the results of explosive training with 75 percent of your onerep max vs. the constant search for new personal records.

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Body It’s all right there in your training log—a written record of everything you tried, from training to supplements to how the phases of the moon might have affected your power clean. Let’s say you start a new program, and within two weeks you can see that something is happening, something good. That’s reinforcing, meaning that you’re more likely to continue doing what you were doing. What could be better? It’s as if your training log creates momentum for you because each workout you record helps fuel your next one. The belief that we can accomplish something, that we can succeed, is what psychologists call self-efficacy. While that might sound like just another fuzzy concept that has little bearing on real-world behavior, it isn’t. In fact, self-efficacy is a powerful predictor of all sorts of behavior. As you might guess, our past experience has a strong influence on our sense of self-efficacy. That’s why success breeds success and failure breeds failure. Now think of what happens when you buckle down and commit to a training program that includes welldefined, aggressive but realistic goals. You practically bleed to do it, but you make each workout as planned and record your progress at each step in your training log. There it is: proof of how you mastered the situation, which is pure rocket fuel for your sense of self-efficacy. That in turn helps trigger your next round of progress. One of the nicest things about training logs is that you can gain all of the benefits at almost no cost in time or money. Once you get into the habit, you’ll automatically record each set as soon as you finish it, and you can study your results whenever you wish. As for the training log itself, you can choose from a number on the market, but you can also just use a simple pad, notebook or calendar. The great Tommy Kono recorded all of his workouts on stenographer pads, which you can buy for about a dollar. Most of us could never begin to approach Kono’s success as a weightlifter, but if we train hard and smart, we can make sensational progress. The first step is to make wise and generous use of a training log. —Randall Strossen, Ph.D. 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.

Fat Facts

Lard-mobiles

ccording to the April ’07 edition of Reader’s Digest, cars in the United States burn nearly one billion additional gallons of gas a year because of overweight drivers and passengers. That’s from a University of Illinois study that used a mathematical model based on gas consumption and weight gain from 1960 to 2002. Another reason people should slim down—it’s one more way to reduce global warming. —Becky Holman www.X-tremeLean.com

Fruit Fix

Apple Acuity he antioxidants in apples appear to improve acetylcholine levels. Acetylcholine is a neurotransmitter that’s key to memory. According to the May ’07 issue of Prevention, scientists reported in the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease that mice suffering from age-related memory loss got a memory boost when they got a daily dose of apple juice. Could an apple a day keep the Alzheimer’s away? —Becky Holman www.X-tremeLean.com

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Bomber Blast

MIND/BODY

About Us and the Things We Do

Sleep

Snooze to Lose ost bodybuilders know that growth hormone is a potent fat burner. One of the biggest surges of GH occurs in the first two hours of sleep, so being relaxed and getting into deep-sleep mode early, without restlessness, is important. There are a few things you can do to help make that happen more readily, like dimming the lights about an hour before bedtime. Light hampers melatonin, a hormone that regulates your sleep cycle. Also, a hot tub session or a warm bath can help you fall asleep faster. —Becky Holman www.X-tremeLean .com

Neveux \ Model: Omar Deckard

he days, they go by. Monday will always be Monday, blue as a bruise. Tuesday is chest-and-back day, the only way you can identify the everyday day, give it distinction. Wednesday is the day in the middle of the week, and the center of things is generally agreeable. Thursday offers hope, as most of the work or school week is complete, and tomorrow is Friday. Yes! Friday is Friday, a rainbow of colors if you plan to paint it. And where there’s a rainbow, there’s a pot of gold—the weekend, Saturday and Sunday. Greet each day with a hug and a pat on the back; better yet, make that a bear hug and a slap on the back. Recognize them or not, they’re some of the best friends you’ve got—here today and gone tomorrow. The days are separate and distinct, yet there are times when they follow each other like soup cans on an assembly line. Hum, clink, clink. You count the cans as they wobble by, bored and thankless. Hum, clink, clink. Suddenly and without notice, the machinery stops and the doors are thrown open to cold winds and the rush of traffic. Soup cans resemble scrap metal as they pile up one on the other. Urgency fills the air, and things must be done. Catch a plane, consult a lawyer, stop the bleeding, or console the grieving. No surprise. You adapt and, as always, wish you’d been grateful when you had the time. Instead, you’re grateful now, the best you can do. Exciting days, those filled with hope, inspiration and encouragement, the days of production, enlightenment and achievement—the winning days—consume us on momentous occasions and leave us spinning. Too good to be true we forgo appreciation and anticipate their end. Or, convinced we

deserve them, we bask in their glory as if they’ll never end. Hum, clink, clink.... Soup’s on, cream of celery, your favorite. We’re learning, day by day. Thank heaven for weightlifting and muscle building, which help us make every day a special one. Once past the front counter and dumbbell rack, we can finesse our training into a fulfilling challenge or an engaging game; a skillful sport, an uplifting activity or a delightful diversion. Soup-can days and days of eruption and disruption can be transformed into entertaining, productive and healing days. Does your workout seep into your workday, or does your workday seep into your workout? Do you succumb to the follies of life, or do they become dust under your strong, lengthy strides? Are you hampered by momentary intrusions, halted by daily obstacles or propelled by the power of a vigorous spirit, mind and body? Where you have control, take control: Exercise and eat right! Training rules, and you’re the law. It’s the stabilizer when your foothold slips, the fortifier when plans are laid waste, the friend you know amid strangers, the oxygen and fruit of life in a barren place. Exercise and fitness aren’t options. They’re essentials. Remember that. —Dave Draper Editor’s note: For more from Dave Draper, you can 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.

294 AUGUST 2007 \ www.ironmanmagazine.com

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he most exciting new fat-burning product this year has to be Gaspari Nutrition’s new Cytolean. Using a unique, patent-pending formula exclusive to Gaspari Nutrition, this amazing product promises to burn fat, reduce appetite, increase energy levels and induce a feel-good effect that’s sure to take the industry by storm. If you remember the good old days of ephedra and phenylpropanolamine, then you’re going to love the feel of Gaspari Cytolean. Using a multitier system that increases lipolysis, energy levels and the ability to concentrate while decreasing appetite and fat deposition, Cytolean stands alone in the fat-loss-supplement marketplace—it’s the only product that really works without giving you the jitters or stomach discomfort. If you’re using a fat-loss supplement and it’s not Cytolean, you really aren’t maximizing your fat-loss potential. Get Cytolean today. For more information, visit www.GaspariNutrition.com or call (888) 742-7727.

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PX products marry the latest in science to the best of real-world experience. With that combination the company has broken new scientific ground by introducing NO-Shotgun, which takes advantage of the combined potent satellite-stimulating effects of creatine and the hydrogen ion–buffering capacity of beta-alanine. It contains those compounds plus several others that are engineered with ethyl ester pharmaceutical-delivery enhancements. NO-Shotgun is the first product of its kind to combine ethyl ester technology with compounds such as creatine, arginine, glutamine, beta-alanine and branched-chain amino acids. Those substances enter the bloodstream nearly 100 percent intact, then get shuttled across muscle cell membranes, where at near full potency they cause explosive muscle pump and growth. So drop that ineffective, old-school NO2 and/or creatine-based product you’re currently using and switch to NO-Shotgun. For more info log on to www.NOShotgun.com or call VPX direct at (800) 954-7904 to speak with a customer-service representative. Be sure to ask how you can receive a free sample of NO-Shotgun—while supplies last.

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Gallery of Ironmen

MIND/BODY MIND/BODY

Ivy Russell

Russell poses as a female discuss thrower. girl to health, but she continued to exercise. Before long she was able to surpass her fellow students as well as her instructor. In 1925, at age 18 and at a bodyweight of just 134 pounds, Russell had progressed far enough in her training to do an amazing clean and jerk of 176 pounds. Her appearance, however, made her even more remarkable. It was reported that Russell’s biceps were the same size as German boxer Max Schmeling’s, and her thighs were bigger than those of “the Brown Bomber,” Joe Louis, but she managed to look feminine at the same time. Ivy’s musculature and her pleasing figure caused many in

Ivy Russell hurls a javelin in this image from 1932. her era to reassess their ideas about female strength and fitness. She was, as one historian, declared, “a new archetype for women weightlifters.” In 1932 Russell succeeded in establishing a female division in the distinguished British Amateur Weight Lifting Association. That same year she won the first sanctioned women’s competition when she hoisted a 300pound barbell over her head. While Ivy was competing as an amateur, she worked as a domestic servant. After her sporting triumphs she left her brooms and dustbins behind and became a professional wrestler. Thanks to her strength, beauty and publicity, she had a successful career in a rough-and-tumble sport. —David Chapman

... and as a sprinter.

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Photos by Ron Rennie \ Courtesy of the David Chapman Collection

omen weren’t supposed to be muscular in the 1930s, but Ivy Russell must not have gotten the message. She had one of the most impressive physiques of her generation. Russell was born in the English county of Surrey in 1907, and by the age of 14 she’d moved to London and begun training with weights. It was all the more extraordinary because many people considered lifting barbells to be potentially dangerous for everyone, but especially for girls. Ivy and her parents were worried because the girl was suffering from the early effects of tuberculosis, and heavy lifting was the only cure that seemed to work. The workouts restored the young

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3) “Ronnie Coleman: Relentless” 4) “IRON MAN’s Swimsuit Spectacular #9”

5) The Precontest Bible by Larry Pepe 3D Muscle Building—Featuring Positions of Flexion and the 20Pounds-of-Muscle-in-10-Weeks Program by Steve Holman and Jonathan Lawson (available at www.3DMuscleBuilding.com).

5) “’07 IRON MAN Pro” Books: 1) 10-Week Size Surge by IRON MAN Publishing 2) Train, Eat, Grow—The Positionsof-Flexion Muscle-Training Manual by Steve Holman 3) The 7-Minute Rotator Cuff Solution by Joseph Horrigan, D.C., and

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MIND/BODY

Hormones

Priest Confesses That His Test Is Low

Neveux

n a very popular Internet message board recently, someone asked Lee Priest what his testosterone levels are when he’s off performance-enhancing agents. The Blonde Myth reported that his total test these days between cycles is about 240 to 260 nanograms per deciliter, which is slightly below the normal reference range of 280 to 800. Lee also said that when he was 19 to 25 years old, it was 700 to 900, which would be

in the very high-normal range. I’m by no means an endocrinologist, but Priest is only 34 years old and, theoretically, should still have normal testosterone levels, especially as his body clearly produced a rather abundant amount at one time. As Lee pointed out, he is not worried, because if his test levels go even lower, he can always get a doctor to prescribe artificial testosterone injections as legitimate hormone replacement therapy. The reason I feel all of this is worth mentioning here is that Lee has gone on record many times as saying his doses of anabolics have always been very moderate. If Lee has already damaged his body’s own testosterone production by using smaller amounts of gear, I can only imagine what those who are far less cautious have to look forward to. I’m not just talking about pros and top amateurs, but the recreational bodybuilder who does a couple of fairly heavy cycles every year for anywhere from five to 20 years. I’d never tell you what to do with your body, and neither would IRON MAN, but it’s definitely something to consider. I know bodybuilding isn’t all about health and fitness anymore, but it shouldn’t be about impairing your body’s normal functions, either. Just as it’s possible to turn around a life of sin before you’ve gone too far, there may still be time for many steroid users to get off the runaway train before it’s too late. Just something to think about, fellow iron warriors. —Ron Harris www.RonHarrisMuscle.com

New Stuff

Oral Form of “Deca” Found in BIOGENETIX

hat’s right; all of the caplets in this radical new supplement line contain key ingredients bonded to a decanoate ester. As scandalous as it may sound, it’s great news for natural bodybuilders or even those who are in between cycles. Looks like the advantage is finally starting to sway in favor of the bodybuilder who’s searching for the best of both worlds. Even though the Biogenetix researchers have put Deca Delivery Technology (D2T™) in each formulation, it’s a form of decanoate approved for sale in stores—not in someone’s basement. Touted as the all-in-one solution to completely changing your body, the Biogenetix kit comes complete with Bioburn-D2T, Creatine-D2T and NO-D2T—all time-released by just one daily dose. The low-priced 28-day kit even includes a 100-plus-page manual that explains in detail everything you need to know about diet, training and cycling your Biogenetix gear. Assistant brand manager for Biogenetix Nathan Hinks tells it like it is: “We’d never insult anyone by saying our product delivers faster results than underground steroids, but I know we’ve come as close as legally possible without the painful injections or nasty side effects.” Biogenetix is available exclusively at GNC. For a free copy of The Ultimate Guide to Total Body Transformation (while supplies last) call (800) 511-8464. For more information and updates be sure to log on to www.Bio-Supplements.com.

300 AUGUST 2007 \ www.ironmanmagazine.com

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Graphic Muscle Stars / GraphicMuscle.com

Shaun Crump Weight: 225 onstage; 250 off-season Height: 5’7” Occupation: Social worker Contest Highlights: ’06 Nationals, 4th light heavyweight; ’05 Nationals, 7th light heavy Factoid: Started weight training at the age of eight. “My father had special weight-training equipment made for me to lift, such as for squats, because I was really short. When other kids saved their money for toys, I bought whatever protein I could afford.” www.ironmanmagazine.com \ AUGUST 2007 301

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Readers Write On a Hardbody Roll

Awesome Aukland

Editor’s note: Was her back muscularity that good? Oh, “back” shots. We get it.

Abby Wolf.

I’m not a fan of women’s bodybuilding. I look to competitive bodybuilders for inspiration, so, being a man, I check out contest photos for male physiques with lines, mass and muscularity, like Dexter Jackson’s, that motivate me to keep hitting the weights. Paging through the June ’07 issue of IRON MAN, however, I ran across a small photo of Lisa Aukland [in Ruth Silverman’s Pump & Circumstance]. Holy cow! That’s how I want to look—without the extra pec mass, of course. Her delts pop and her abs are sharp, but her legs are her best bodypart. I’ve been looking at that photo before every leg workout. I want mine to look like that when I’m walking down the beach this summer. I’ll take her delts too. Sam Strickland via Internet

Lisa Aukland.

Neveux

Ax the X?

Mentzer Mania I’ve been a Mike Mentzer fan since he came on the bodybuilding scene back in the late ’70s. His Heavy Duty training revolutionized weight training, making bodybuilders think about what they do in the gym and the ramifications of those actions instead of just blindly following the crowd. I truly appreciate that John Little has carried the Heavy Duty torch since Mike’s passing, and I want to thank IRON MAN for providing a forum for those ideas to continue to be presented. It’s the first thing I go to in every issue. Also, thanks for the full-page classic shot of Mike that opens each Heavy Duty feature. They’re great additions to my homegym walls. Stan Dobrowski St. Louis, MO

Roland Balik

IRON MAN has been on a hot Hardbody roll the past few issues. Nancy Di Nino (April ’07) and Dina Al-Sabah (May ’07) were fabulous, and now Abby Wolf (June ’07). Wow! My only complaint about Abby’s layout: More “back” shots next time. John McDonald via Internet

When you guys first introduced X Reps, I was skeptical. I thought, “Oh, no, not another miracle mass-building magic bullet.” I even sent you an e-mail that said to give the X stuff a rest in the magazine. But after putting some of [Steve] Holman’s and [Jonathan] Lawson’s ideas to the test in the gym, I’m now a believer. After all the hoopla, I decided to purchase their e-book 3D Muscle Building. Lots of great info that made a lot of sense. I then put the 3D arm programs into my workout, with some of the sets including X Reps at the end. My arms responded immediately. I gained about a half inch in one month, and my biceps are much more peaked. I am ecstatic and adding variations of 3D programs for all of my other bodyparts. I wasn’t doing stretch-position exercises before I read the e-book, but now I’m convinced that that type of stress is part of the reason for my new gains. I formally retract my previous e-mail. More X stuff, please. Jason Richardson via Internet Editor’s note: Holman and Lawson have just released a new e-book, X-traordinary Muscle-Building Workouts, that contains new information on stretch overload as well as 10 complete, printable programs. For more on that, see page 241, and visit www.X-Rep.com. Vol. 66, No. 8: IRON MAN (ISSN #0047-1496) is published monthly by IRON MAN Publishing, 1701 Ives Ave., Oxnard, CA 93033. Periodical Mail is paid at Oxnard, CA, and at additional mailing offices. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to IRON MAN, 1701 Ives Ave., Oxnard, CA 93033. Please allow six to eight weeks for change to take effect. Subscription rates—U.S. and its possessions: new 12-issue subscription, $29.97. Canada, Mexico and other foreign subscriptions: 12 issues, $49.97 sent Second Class. Foreign orders must be in U.S. dollars. Send subscriptions to IRON MAN, 1701 Ives Ave., Oxnard, CA 93033. Or call 1-800-570-4766. Copyright © 2007. All rights reserved. No part of this magazine may be reproduced in any manner without written permission from the publisher. Printed in the USA.

304 AUGUST 2007 \ www.ironmanmagazine.com

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