Ironman Magazine 2008-08 by Iron Man

New Get-Big Tactics: FD/FS and Power X-Rep Partials ™

FAT-BURN Q&A •Best Cardio •Top Supplements •Mega Motivators

TEST & GH The Latest

BENCH PRESS UNDER FIRE Tips From Strength Coach Bill Starr

STACK YOUR BACK With Cover Man Dan Decker’s Detailed Attack

Hormone Research

HOT HARDBODY Tanji Johnson

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www.ironmanmagazine.com \ APRIL 2006 261

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150 DECEMBER 2009 \ www.ironmanmagazine.com

X-treme Lean,

Vol. 66, No. 11

November 2007

page 146

We Know Training ™ FEATURES FEATURES

64 TRAIN, EAT, GROW 97 Still learning after all these years. The TEG men made a number of interesting discoveries as they progressed through their ’07 ripping phase.

94 STACKED DECK Cory Crow provides the details on Dan Decker’s back detailing. Rugged terrain here, gang!

108 A BODYBUILDER IS BORN 28 Ron Harris discusses the fast track in bodybuilding with his young protégé—and how patience is a virtue in this game.

122 TESTOSTERONE AND GROWTH HORMONE Jerry Brainum checks into the research on those two power-packed bodybuiding hormones and how New Get-Big Tactics: FD/FS and Power X-Rep Partials replacement therapy can affect the aging athlete. ™

FAT-BURN Q&A

Hardbody, page 224

Dan Decker’s Back, page 94

146 X-TREME LEAN From the Bodybuilding.com archives, a fat-burn-and-churn Q&A guaranteed to get you leanness without too much meanness. Plus, a list of unique fat-burning supplements and substances.

•Best Cardio •Top Supplements •Mega Motivators

TEST & GH

BENCH PRESS UNDER FIRE

The Latest Hormone Research

Tips From Strength Coach Bill Starr

STACK YOUR BACK With Cover Man Dan Decker’s Detailed Attack

HOT HARDBODY Tanji Johnson

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164 HEAVY DUTY

John Little discusses Mike Mentzer’s Consolidation Program and the oneset workout—that’s one set of one exercise in the entire session! Hmm. Here’s the research.

172 EAT YOUR VEGETABLES Your mom was right, and Clayton South has all the latest info that backs her up. They’re not just for good health but for anabolic wealth too. Eat to grow.

182 PXP—POWER X-REP PARTIALS William Litz puts a new twist on the radically effective extended-set technique. Prepare for big gains—if you can blast through the growing pains!

196 FD/FS TRAINING It’s Eric Broser’s latest mass-building innovation—Fiber Damage/Fiber Saturation. You gotta try this fusion of heavy/light all in one workout. Chase that pump!

224 HARDBODY IFBB figure pro Tanji Johnson has a physique that turns up the heat. And talk about exotic beauty. Whew!

Only the Strong Shall Survive, page 250

250 ONLY THE STRONG SHALL SURVIVE Bill Starr’s take on the bench press—the good, the bad and the ugly.

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Dan Decker and Katie Lohmann, Tanji Johnson (inset) appear on this month’s cover. Photo by Michael Neveux.

Power X-Rep Partials, page 182

DEPARTMENTS

28 TRAIN TO GAIN Use the anabolic rebound to gain ground, hit failure to succeed and build bigger arms the Arnold way. Joe Horrigan’s Sportsmedicine is here too.

42 SMART TRAINING Coach Charles Poliquin provides a dense-muscle-building routine—to help you avoid the balloon-animal look.

48 EAT TO GROW Diet wars, glutamine for mind and muscle and longjack for your testosterone-boosting stack. (It works!)

76 CRITICAL MASS Steve Holman discusses the size-and strength link.

80 NATURALLY HUGE John Hansen’s no-bullsh*t natural training split.

86 SHREDDED MUSCLE Smart Training, page 42

Dave Goodin outlines his philosophy for building plenty of middle-age muscle.

190 BODYBUILDING PHARMACOLOGY Jerry Brainum says the yolks on you. Research shows that cholesterol is anabolic gold. Pass that omelet!

212 MUSCLE “IN” SITES Eric Broser finds food and Freeman—as in Toney the X-man—on the Web. Then he tells you how to get your chest and back jacked!

216 NEWS & VIEWS Lonnie Teper highlights the top stars and up-and-comers from the USA Championships and the Teen, Collegiate and Masters Nationals.

Muscle “In” Sites, page 212 News & Views, page 216

240 PUMP & CIRCUMSTANCE Ruth Silverman presents the women’s side of the USA— plus, a profusion of other shows. Hot photos here!

260 MIND/BODY CONNECTION Ken O’Neill reviews Ellington Darden’s book, The New Bodybuilding for Old-School Results.

272 READERS WRITE Arnold, Rachel redux and shocker mom’s the bomb.

Pump & Circumstance, page 240

In the next IRON MAN Next month check out a gym tale from Eric Broser. It’s a challenge worth its weight in muscle, with size-building applications you can use to get huge. We also have an Arthur Jones memorial feature, complete with a look back at his training principles—and a unique high-intensity program to go with it. You’ll also gain insight from our Legends of Bodybuilding interview with Roger Callard, former IFBB pro—his workout included. Look for the infopacked December IRON MAN on newsstands the first week of November.

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Publisher’s Letter

Transformation Part 2 Last month in this space I discussed Dynamic Longevity ™, and I want to expand on some of those thoughts—as well as the idea of training for a lifetime. Let’s start with the given that you are different from the average person in that you read IRON MAN and know what’s involved. You may be 14 or 80, male or female, but the common thread is that you understand that physical transformation is possible only through a combination of anaerobic work—that is, weight training—plus nutrition, discipline and other relevant factors. Now, transformation means something different to my teenage children from what it means to me. My son wants to be as big and strong as possible and to be a better athlete because of it. My daughter wants to be stronger and leaner to be a better dancer and actress. As they both get physically stronger, I see an awareness and growing appreciation for the feeling of accomplishment they get from the workout. The rewards have begun to expand beyond their original goals. So, regardless of a trainee’s age, the workout builds character, confidence and a feeling of accomplishment. That cascade of rewards may have a bigger impact on your life than the purely physical aspect of training. The process is especially evident in teenagers, who rapidly evolve on many planes from child to adult right before your eyes. Performing a regular, structured workout has made my children much more aware of the relationship between what they eat and how they feel and the progress they make. I no longer have to preach (as much) about following a good diet; they feel the difference in their own bodies. Being aware of foods and their relationship to your physical well-being further distances you from the average. The workout is the basis for growth on a multitude of levels, starting with accepting the rule that there really is no such thing as a free lunch. The workout is a great lesson in reality therapy—you are in control, success or failure. It’s up to you. Arnold has commented many times on how the crucible of the workout formed his work ethic and mental toughness, but it doesn’t work just for Arnold. It works for anyone who does the work. Obviously, Arnold’s accomplishments reside on the extreme right-hand side of the curve, but the lessons gained from the workout are available to anyone who wants to learn and grow. The power of the workout is in its ability to transform your life in many different ways. Keep working out. Note: I have started a blog—My Life in Bodybuilding. Please visit the Blog section at IronManMagazine.com to read it. I welcome your comments. IM

26 NOVEMBER 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: Mary Gasca, Vuthy Keo, Mervin Petralba 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, Roland Balik, Reg Bradford, Jimmy Caruso, Bill Dobbins, Jerry Fredrick, Irvin Gelb, Isaac Hinds, Dave Liberman, J.M. Manion, Merv, Gene Mozée, Mitsuru Okabe, Rob Sims, Ian Sitren, 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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Anabolic rebound: After a period of rigorous dieting, such as contest prep, you can make incredible gains by training hard as you increase your calories.

28 NOVEMBER 2007 \ www.ironmanmagazine.com

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BIGGER GAINS

Balik \ Model: Jay Cutler

Use the Rebound to Gain Ground make gains. Your body is primed for growth, ready to soak up nutrients like a sponge and craving heavy weights after having been given gradually lighter loads over the weeks and months as contest day approached. Yates claimed he made his most significant gains in the weeks following the Mr. Olympia every year, and many credit Cutler’s immediate return to the gym after the big show with his upset of the supposedly unbeatable Coleman last year. Cutler was gaining ground on his arch-nemesis while Ronnie was kicking back in Texas. Even if you don’t compete, you can reap the same benefits by following the pattern. Don’t squander precious time and miss an opportunity to put on some significant new size. Choose a date on which you’ll be in your best condition, and consider that contest day. The very next day shift gears. Reduce your cardio, jack up your calories (a few cheat meals a week are fine), and train with heavy, straight sets on the basic compound movements. Don’t fret too much about losing your definition—you may be surprised at how lean you can stay for at least a couple of months, as your metabolism will take a while to slow down from your dieting phase. Whatever you do, though, don’t remain stuck in some limbo where you’re neither gaining muscle nor losing fat. Results always follow clear goals. And in this case one naturally follows another in a stunning way that you must experience to appreciate. —Ron Harris www.RonHarrisMuscle.com

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Neveux \ Model: Dorian Yates

If you’re like most bodybuilders, your training year follows certain patterns based on the four seasons. Spring and summer, being the warmer months, are usually when we decide to get ripped. The goal is to maintain as much mass as possible while shedding as much bodyfat as we can. Often competitive bodybuilders select their contests so that they’ll be in shape during the warmer months. It makes sense. Why not look your best when you can actually show it off a little? It’s not as if you can go to the mall in January in most parts of the country wearing a tank top and shorts, at least not without looking either incredibly vain or clinically insane. When the cold winter months come, we shift our focus to heavier training with the goal of gaining raw size. Coldweather clothing keeps us covered anyway, so it’s not a big deal if we get a little soft while piling on mass. In the couple of months of transition between the two phases, though, we languish in indecision, struggling to figure out exactly what we want to accomplish with our training. On one hand we’re trying to stay somewhat lean. At the same time we feel it’s time to think about making gains again. We lose valuable training time because we lack a clear direction. It’s happened to me many times, and it should sound familiar to a lot of you too. After some thought, here’s what I propose: Whether you’re competing or not, consider yourself on a contest diet for at least the duration of the summer. Eat clean, increase your cardio, and make a solid effort to get as lean as you can. Pick a certain day when you want to look your best—maybe a Labor Day barbecue at the beach, and your sister is bringing her hot friend; an actual contest in late August or early September; or a photo shoot with a professional photographer who’s recording your progress and your peak condition this year. Next, take advantage of a trick that Mr. Olympia champions Dorian Yates and Jay Cutler are famous for. When the big show was over, most of their rivals went on vacation, or at least took a hiatus from the gym. It could be a week or two, or, in extreme cases, what Ronnie Coleman did for many years, go for months without touching a weight. A lot of competitors believe their bodies and minds need a break after all the months of strict dieting and rigorous training, but that’s the absolute best time to

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Dennis Wolf.

BIGGER BODYPARTS

Big Bad Wolf style

Some of the very best shoulders in pro bodybuilding are perched atop the clavicles of rookie sensation Dennis Wolf from Germany, winner of the ’07 Keystone Pro Classic. Certainly genetics have something to do with his dazzling deltoid development, but there are also a few lessons to be learned from the Big Bad Wolf: 1) Stick with the basics. Wolf has been training for more than 10 years, but his shoulder workout today is nearly identical to the one he was doing a decade ago. While other bodybuilders may consider themselves so “advanced” that they include a variety of machines and cables, Wolf still uses a barbell and dumbbells to get the job done. Military presses, dumbbell laterals and bent-over laterals form the crux of his routine now, as they did then. “The basics work so well that you would be foolish to stop doing them,” he explains in his no-nonsense style. “I think a lot of guys stop making progress—and assume they have reached their full potential—simply because they abandon the most productive exercises.” 2) Train shoulders on their own day. “I trained chest and shoulders in the same workout just once, and never again,” declares Wolf. He instinctively picked up on something that many bodybuilders take years to figure out and some never tune into. There’s simply no way you can do justice to presses for the chest and overhead presses for the shoulders in the same training session. If you choose to ignore that, your shoulders will never be trained with the energy and intensity they deserve, and your gains will stop short of your true potential. Dennis not only trains shoulders on a different day from when he trains chest but also separates the two bodyparts by four days in the training week. That ensures full recovery and eliminates overlap between the two muscle groups. 3) Prioritize rear delts. To a lot of bodybuilders, rear delts aren’t much more than an afterthought. You see a whole lot of shoulders with good mass in the front and some size to the side heads but not much of anything in the back. From the side it’s a pretty incomplete look—as if you had something removed surgically back there. Wolf noticed such a disparity but caught it in time to do something about it. “For a long time I did rear delts first in my shoulder workout, so they were hit hard,” he says. They soon caught up with his front and side heads, and today Wolf’s delts look full and thick from every angle. 4) Hit traps on shoulder day. Bodybuilders often agonize over when to train their traps—on shoulder day or with the back? Dennis Wolf doesn’t hesitate to give what he feels is the definitive answer. “Traps should be trained with shoulders,” he declares. “The back is too large and complex a muscle group to add anything else to that workout. If you are already doing chins, deadlifts, pulldowns and rows, I don’t see how you can possibly have energy left over to really stimulate the traps enough to make them grow.” Those are a few tips from a man who owns a pair of truly amazing shoulders. Apply his methods and get yours growing too! —Ron Harris

Q: I read that the myotatic reflex will get more fibers to fire in a muscle and that to get the benefits of it, you have to bounce the weight along the range of motion. How do I know if I’m bouncing enough to get the effect? A: When they wheel you into the operating room to reattach your torn ligaments and tendons. Seriously, don’t ever bounce along the range of motion. Some advanced athletes use a plyometric technique to enhance explosiveness and improve performance on the playing field, but it’s not necessary for most bodybuilders, and it can be dangerous. That’s not to say you have to forget about the heightened fiber activation associated with the myotatic reflex. While most of the studies on prestretch involve a rapid shift from the eccentric to the concentric stroke of a repetition, my contention is that when a muscle is put in its ultimate stretch position—such as the bottom of an overhead extension—a simple twitch to reverse the movement will trigger the myotatic reflex and put the muscle in a hypercontracted state. That’s one reason I recommend that bodybuilders use stretch-position movements—such as stiff-legged deadlifts, incline curls, overhead extensions, sissy squats and pullovers—at almost every workout. Getting more fibers to fire at any one gym session is a key to achieving the fastest development, but you don’t have to bounce a weight to get that positive reaction—unless you really enjoy tendon-reattachment surgery. —Steve Holman Train, Eat, Grow Editor’s note: Train, Eat, Grow— The Positions-of-Flexion Muscle-Training Manual is available from Home-Gym.com, or call (800) 447-0008.

Neveux \ Model: Dan Decker

Boulder Shoulders

Roland Balik

Fierce Fiber Activation

30 NOVEMBER 2007 \ www.ironmanmagazine.com

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Bigger Arms: Short-Biceps Solutions extension on each rep, keeping his shoulder and body perfectly still—just his forearm moved up and down, turning his wrist as he curled. Each time he raised the weight and turned his wrist, his biceps seemed to grow. That’s the law of biomechanics for the wrist-biceps connection: The more that you can supinate your wrist, the higher your biceps will grow. For that reason it’s difficult to understand why so many people curl with a cambered, or EZ-curl, bar, which positions your wrists between supinated and neutral, so you cannot achieve peak contraction. Try doing the following twice in an eight-day rotation: Straight-bar curls, one warmup set of 15 to 20 reps with 50 percent of your work weight, then three sets of nine to 10 hard reps. As soon as you have finished your final set, grab a moderately heavy dumbbell that you can control, sit on a bench, and let the dumbbell hang down between your legs, shoulders slightly down, with the working arm resting against the inner thigh, slightly above the knee. At the bottom of the stroke, your wrist is in a neutral position, palm facing back. As you curl, start turning the dumbbell so that it reaches full supination at the top, contracted position. Try to turn the pinky-fingerside of your hand as high as possible. As you come to peak contraction, hold it for a millisecond, squeeze and then lower the weight, reversing the supinating action. Keep your elbow slightly forward of your shoulder, and be sure to squeeze as hard as possible while the wrist is in the most supinated position to peak the biceps. Try three sets of eight to 10 perfect reps. After those three sets rest your arm against your inner thigh and squeeze in the supinated peak-contracted position as you apply resistance to your arm with the other hand. Do that for each arm until it is fully engorged, and watch your biceps change within a few weeks. —Paul Burke Neveux \ Model: Omar Deckard

Q: I’m 56 years old and have been training for 10 years. I’ve been making gains in most areas, but I can’t seem to get my biceps to grow. They are short, and I can’t get them to fill out or to peak. Do you have any advice? A: First, there’s a bodybuilding myth that says you can lengthen your biceps if they’re “short”; that is, the biceps are attached in such a way as to appear that the lower part of the muscle is an inch or more above the elbow joint. People used to believe, and some still do, that performing a lot of preacher curls could lengthen the biceps muscle. Unfortunately, that’s physiologically impossible. Where your biceps attach and how much muscle fiber they contain is totally genetic and cannot be changed. That’s not to say that you cannot make them bigger or more peaked. The thickness of your wrists indicates how big in circumference your biceps can naturally become. For example, someone whose wrist measures 6 3/4 inches can never (without the aid of steroids and/or growth hormone) reach a biceps circumference even approaching 20 inches. That person is not structurally built for huge biceps. It’s an evolutionary governor—we can never be stronger than what our bones can handle. So what do you do for biceps when you don’t have a great deal of tissue and you do have a high biceps tendon insertion? Supination, or twisting the hand and wrist during one-arm curls. That can “change” the shape of the biceps. As I indicated, in most cases it’s impossible to change a muscle’s shape, but in this case the wrist can help create peak. You’ll see what I mean when you try it: With your left hand on your right biceps, turn your right wrist clockwise as far as possible and notice what your biceps do; then reverse the movement. As you turn your wrist clockwise (counter-clockwise for the left wrist), the biceps moves up the arm. As you rotate your wrist the opposite way, the biceps is stretched downward. That means that the farther you supinate your wrist while doing curls, the more of a peak you’ll make. Some people have a genetic advantage here as well; however, anyone can make flexed biceps bigger and higher by doing concentration curls with wrist supination. When I first met Arnold in 1974, he said that exercise was his favorite for biceps. When he began doing it, I watched very closely as he executed a very smooth and continuous supination and full Balik \ Model: Arnold Schwarzenegger

TRAIN TO GAIN

MATURE MUSCLE

Editor’s note: To contact Paul Burke, write to 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) 4470008, or visit www.Home-Gym.com. His “Burke’s Law” training DVD is also now available.

32 NOVEMBER 2007 \ www.ironmanmagazine.com

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all-out training all the Hit Failure to Succeed? Will time build more muscle? Years ago I underwent an extended period of high-intensity training. I used a program similar to that espoused by Arthur Jones, the inventor of the Nautilus and MedEx exercise machines—training to utter failure. His rationale was that training to failure was the only way to ensure that you worked all available muscle fibers to capacity, which in turn would practically guarantee gains in muscular size and strength. Since I’d never trained that way, my initial gains were spectacular. Most of my training buddies at Gold’s Gym in Venice accused me of taking anabolic steroids. I went from 180 to 225 pounds in six months, a gain of 45 pounds of pure muscle, and my strength increased accordingly. I was training at the gym one afternoon when I sensed that I was being observed by someone. That someone turned out to be the future governor of California, Arnold Schwarzenegger. “You cannot keep training like that,” said Arnold. “Why not?” I replied. “I’m making the best gains of my life on this type of training.” “You cannot keep training so intensely all the time, because either your mind or your body will eventually give out,” warned Arnold as he strode away to do another set of arm work without going to failure. Arnold’s prediction came true. Although I was training only three days a week, working the entire body with minimal sets and maximum intensity as prescribed by Jones, I came to a point where I just dreaded going to the gym—it repulsed me. I wound up laying off for a week, then returning to a more conventional style of training. A recent review examined whether training to failure is right for all types of weight training, even that featuring multiple sets. The author noted that training to failure is an ideal way for an advanced

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In all of our e-books (and Steve’s training books, like Train, Eat, Grow) we emphasize alternating periods of high-intensity X-Rep-style workouts with one to two weeks of subfailure sessions. It’s called phase training, and it’s a prerequisite for getting the most growth from high-intensity-style workouts. Here’s a section from Chapter 14—50 Ultimate Mass Tactics from our e-book The Ultimate Mass Workout that drives home the point: 26) Take three steps forward, then a half step back. After six to eight weeks of hard training, back off on the intensity for a week or two or take four to seven days off from the gym. That will let your nervous system heal and your recovery ability regroup so you can ratchet up the intensity again without overtraining. In other words, you can take three more growth steps forward instead of having your feet stuck in no-grow quicksand. —Steve Holman and Jonathan Lawson www.X-Rep.com

bodybuilder to break through a tough plateau, in which muscular gains have ceased for an extended time. I recall Aaron Baker, one of the most underrated pro bodybuilders ever, switching to an HIT, training-to-failure system under the guidance of Mike Mentzer. Baker made impressive gains and thickened his physique considerably on the program, but he, too, eventually returned to conventional training. Jones believed that training to failure works because you activate the muscle fibers most amenable to gains in size and strength, the type 2B fibers. Although Jones didn’t have much faith in conventional science, his thoughts on training to failure had a sound scientific basis. Muscles work in an orderly recruitment pattern, with the smaller type 1, or slow-twitch, muscle fibers activated first. As the exercise intensity increases, the type 1 fiber fatigue and the brunt of the exercise movement are taken up by the type 2As, then the type 2Bs. Training to failure is so intense that the type 2B fibers are guaranteed to come into play unless you use too light a weight. In that case, the cause of muscle failure would be metabolic, such as increased muscle acidity or a drop in creatine levels. Training to failure works only when you truly train to failure. It’s easier said than done. Many bodybuilders who think they’re training to failure are stopping considerably short of the true exhaustion point. Training to failure is particularly vital if you engage in a typical low-volume HIT program, doing only one or two sets per exercise. Most studies that have compared single sets to multiple sets have found multiple sets superior to single sets for stimulating muscular size and strength. Many of them featured untrained college students who were incapable of training to failure, even under the guidance of trainers. Under such circumstances it’s understandable that multiple sets would prove superior. Training to true failure may prove too difficult for some. One study comparing multiple-set to single-set training found that training to failure during a single set resulted in a lowering of resting levels of insulinlike growth factor 1. By contrast, those in the multiple-set group had lower resting cortisol and higher total testosterone, which favors an anabolic effect in muscle. On the other hand, another study found that training to failure followed by an immediate reduction in weight with the set continuing—a technique known as drop sets—led to greater gains in muscle size and strength, which was attributed to increased growth hormone release. According to the new review, training to failure should be used in a periodized fashion. Doing it all the time may result in overtraining and overuse injuries. Older people and those with muscle or skeletal injuries should probably avoid training to failure, as the technique is too intense for them. The author of the review also thinks that those who train recreationally or are not interested in competition should also avoid it, an opinion I would disagree with. Since training to failure remains an effective method for breaking through a stubborn training plateau, it can be useful for anyone who lifts weights and is interested in making muscular gains. Just don’t do it all the time or for an extended time. —Jerry Brainum Neveux \ Models: Mike Mentzer and Aaron Baker

TRAIN TO GAIN

HIGH INTENSITY

Willardson, J.M. (2007). The application of training to failure in periodized multiple-set resistance exercise programs. J Strength Cond Res. 21:628-31.

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Stretching increases the length of muscle fibers. Individual muscle fibers can grow longer within a muscle because of the addition of sarcomeres, tiny contractile units, and the connective tissue in and around a muscle can expand, including the fascia that surrounds the bundles of muscle fibers. Fascia is a band, or sheath, of connective tissue that supports, binds, covers and separates muscles and groups of muscles and organs. Nerves also respond to stretching. Nerves don’t take a straight course through the tissues that surround them. When stretched, however, they are pulled somewhat straight. The meandering path of the individual fibers within a nerve can also be straightened in response to a stretch. The enveloping connective tissue has sufficient elasticity to accommodate some additional stretch without damaging the enclosed nerve fibers. Strength training that uses full range of motion can help promote flexibility, but there are some motions that strength training doesn’t typically cover. Furthermore, some strength-training exercises can’t be performed over the fullest possible range of motion without risk of injury. A good stretching routine can, however, cover those ranges of motion safely. If you don’t have a supple body, movement in general becomes restricted, the body has reduced resilience to withstand sudden movements safely, dynamic balance is impaired, and the body’s loose connective tissue loses its lubricating properties. (Loose connective tissue fills the spaces between muscle, nervous and epithelial tissues and between bone and cartilage, tendons and ligaments, and joints and joint capsules.) Muscles lose some of their elasticity and ability to function smoothly, and tendons, ligaments and joint capsules become brittle. Tissues in general

Why you should stretch

Neveux \ Model: Clark Bartram

The Stretching Imperative

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TRAIN TO GAIN

HARDGAINER

become more susceptible to injury, and the body ages at an accelerated rate. Should you ever become excessively flexible, which is extraordinarily rare, ease back on stretching. The muscles will get shorter, and the connective tissues will soon follow suit. So what’s the best type of stretching? Conventional stretching routines, provided they’re done safely and progressively, can produce excellent results. One of the best forms of stretching, perhaps the best, though, is hatha yoga. If done incorrectly, however, hatha yoga will produce injury. So warm up properly, and then perform a sequence of main postures intermingled with rest postures and compensation (or counter) postures, selected by an expert teacher. You want to make progress slowly. Hatha yoga, which is composed mainly of physical postures, is one of the eight branches of yoga—the best known branch in the West. It’s an ancient system of exercise that’s revered by millions of people. It doesn’t require freak-show flexibility or have anything to do with chanting, gurus or religion. You don’t need to learn any strange jargon, Sanskrit names or New Age philosophy. The practice of hatha yoga develops flexibility and promotes many other health benefits, and it’s for women and men. Some top athletes in professional sports have discovered its benefits. For an introduction to hatha yoga and to find out about how some star athletes use it as part of their program for peak performance, see Real Men Do Yoga by John Capouya (2003, Health Communications). —Stuart McRobert www.Hardgainer.com Editor’s note: Stuart McRobert’s first byline in IRON MAN appeared in 1981. He’s the author of the new 638page opus on bodybuilding Build Muscle, Lose Fat, Look Great, available from Home Gym Warehouse, (800) 447-0008 or www.Home-Gym.com.

36 NOVEMBER 2007 \ www.ironmanmagazine.com

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Pulldowns and Knee Injuries The pulldown is considered a very safe exercise. It’s often included in the early stages of rehab after shoulder and back injuries. There are a few precautions, such as avoiding the behindthe-neck variation, especially if you have neck and shoulder problems. Another thing to avoid: Don’t let your arms stretch out completely and then relax. Trying to get the “extra” stretch can be harmful. That makes the weight act as traction and can stretch the ligaments in your shoulder. I’ve discussed these precautions in this space before. I saw a new pulldown injury recently. A recreational trainee enjoyed weight training and set up a nice home gym. He also played a fairly aggressive game of tennis. He usually played four times per week for 90 to 120 minutes each session. He used the Western style of hitting, which can cause a great deal of rotation in the hip and knee. He began to develop pain along the inner border of the knee and below the knee. It began to interfere with his tennis game, so he switched to more weight training and less tennis. He kept increasing the poundage on pulldowns, dumbbell rows, dumbbell presses and all the rest of the exercises, especially since he didn’t have the energy drain from tennis. The knee pain lingered. An MRI revealed a tear of the cartilage inside the knee joint; however, that tear didn’t anatomically correlate with his pain and with the fact that he could perform squats with 250 pounds and walk up stairs without knee pain. His heavy weight training continued. I became suspicious that the guy had an irritated nerve where the pain was—the infrapatellar branch of the saphenous nerve, to be exact. It’s a nerve that doesn’t supply any muscles. Due to the intermittent results of previous treatment, I advised him to see a chronic-pain specialist, Edward Carden, M.D., at Diagnostic and Interventional Spinal Care in Marina del Rey, California. Dr. Carden blocked the nerve with a local anesthetic, and the pain improved. We now knew the pain was being generated outside the knee rather than inside the joint. The first block was designed to last a few days to see if it helped at all. The pain returned after a few days, and we used a longer block that could last three weeks or more.

Leg injuries from back exercises?

During that time the patient could not play tennis or squat, but his heavy upper-body training continued. When the patient went to perform pulldowns, he felt the knee pain again. As it turned out, his home pulldown machine was different from many professional and commercialgym machines. Most of the commercial models have a large cross bar and/or pad to slide your knees under. It usually comes from the main part of the machine attached to another bar that’s parallel to the floor. The home pulldown machine had a vertical bar directly under the pad that held the thigh pad and bar in place. When the trainee performed heavy pulldowns, his inner thighs pulled into the vertical bar, which was square-tube metal. He was irritating the nerve with tennis, but he was also irritating it higher on his thigh by compressing it against the pulldown machine. I’ve worked in sportsmedicine for many years, but that injury was new to me. Dr. Carden had seen it previously but as a result of different causes, including surgery. Since then we have used a long-term block of the nerve done with a radiofrequency procedure, and the trainee is without symptoms, enjoying tennis and weight training. This story reflects my and Dr. Carden’s theory of the injury and hasn’t been proved concretely. The most we can say is that our theory appears to fit, and we’ll watch for more of these cases as home gyms become more popular. If any IRON MAN readers are having complicated or frustrating knee injuries that don’t seem to have a direct cause, please contact me at the Soft Tissue Center. —Joseph M. Horrigan Neveux \ Model: Hubert Morandell

TRAIN TO GAIN

SPORTSMEDICINE

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

38 NOVEMBER 2007 \ www.ironmanmagazine.com

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Smart Training body hasn’t evolved that much since the ’80s (or in the last 40,000 years for that matter), it’s still a rather effective approach. The method calls for using a weight that lets you easily do seven sets of three reps, and you increase the weight only when you can complete seven sets of five. Be patient; do not increase the weight until you can get all seven sets of five. Stick to most-bang-for-yourbuck exercises—there’s no room for flyes and kickbacks here.

Balloon Animals? Q: I want to get stronger and bigger, but I don’t want that empty strength look—like an overinflated balloon ready to pop. What kind of routine would you recommend for that? A: A lot of trainees want to be stronger. They want the look of power—a look that demands respect, not ridicule. They want a look reminiscent of the physique of powerlifting champion David Estep or Olympic lifting superstar David Riggert— lots of muscle, but useful muscle. What sets and reps best accomplish that? I’d say one to two exercises per bodypart, using a 7 x 3-5 scheme, at a 3/0/X/0 tempo. The 7 x 3-5 was a staple of Hungarian lifters’ training in the early ’80s. As the human

A typical program would look like this: DAY 1 A: Power cleans from floor, 7 x 3-5, 1/0/X/0, rest 3 minutes B: Front squats, 7 x 3-5, 4/0/X/0, rest 3 minutes DAY 2 A-1: V-bar dips, 7 x 3-5, 4/0/X/0, rest 100 seconds A-2: Lean away chins, 7 x 3-5, 4/0/X/0, rest 100 seconds DAY 3 A: Power snatches from blocks, 7 x 3-5, 1/0/X/0, rest 3 minutes B: Squats (heels elevated four inches, narrow stance), 7 x 3-5, 4/0/X/0, rest 3 minutes DAY 4 A-1: Incline dumbbell curls, 7 x 3-5, 4/0/X/0, rest 100 seconds A-2: Thick-bar close-grip bench presses in rack, 7 x 3-5, 2/2/1/0, rest 100 seconds DAY 5 Off

Neveux \ Model: Greg Blount

You can do some remedial work at the end of each workout. Twenty minutes should suffice. For example, do grip work on day 4, calf work on day 3 and so on. Give the program a trial for a month, and people will start screaming, “The barbarians are coming. The barbarians are coming.” Q: How can I tell if I have the genetic potential for bodybuilding? I want to know if I’m wasting my time. My high school buddy seems to grow

To get that power-packed look, stick to most-bangfor-your-buck exercises, like front squats.

42 NOVEMBER 2007 \ www.ironmanmagazine.com

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Calves and forearms that respond easily and are large even when not trained directly are good indicators of bodybuilding potential.

just from looking at a barbell, while I have to bust my ass to gain five pounds in a year. What are the genetic factors that make for bodybuilding success? A: Ask yourself the following questions: How good are your muscle-length attachments? The lower a muscle inserts, the more size potential it has. The concept isn’t new—look at the statues made in ancient Rome and Greece. Depictions of Hercules show him with low muscle insertions. It’s easy to see the muscle insertions in the biceps. Larry Scott and Arnold Schwarzenegger are classic examples of people blessed with long muscle bellies in the elbow flexors. Notice that people with great lat development have very low insertions— Franco Columbu and Ronnie Coleman come immediately to mind. Some rare individuals have low muscle insertions in all muscle groups, which enables them to achieve rapid success in bodybuilding. The most striking example of that is Casey Viator, who won the Mr. America at the age of 19. Apparently his arms were more than 17 inches when he was 17—that is, the first day he started training. Yet the Nautilus company used him extensively as a propaganda model to illustrate how great their machines were. The lower the insertion, the higher the mechanical advantage, thus the more force one can produce. It was

rumored that the former East German sports establishment tried reattaching the muscle insertions of wrestlers and judokas, in hopes of producing supermen. Of course, the coordination mechanisms were severely disrupted, so the concept was promptly discarded—probably after a few athletes missed their mouths and stuck ice cream cones in their foreheads. Are your forearms big without being trained? Long-term studies done in the Polish school system in the early ’70s revealed that the best anatomical predictor of the capacity to gain strength and power was the girth of the kid’s calf, and the second best was the girth of the forearm. An untrained kid with 16-inch calves and 14-inch forearms is usually prime stock for power sports. Since the study involved more than 40,000 pupils, we can rely on it, and I’m certain the data also apply to bodybuilding. Many of the most massive bodybuilders, such as Casey Viator and Mike Matarazzo, had massive calves and forearms to start with. Former Mr. Olympia Chris Dickerson was born with tremendous calves and barely trained them to achieve the highest IFBB crown. Is your hormone makeup conducive to size and strength? The ideal hormone makeup for bodybuilding includes a high production of androgens and growth hormone, low levels of cortisol and sensitivity to insulin. Those who have a superior hormone makeup like that will grow muscle even in untrained bodyparts. I remember 23 years ago visiting Dr. Dietmar Schmidtble-

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Charles Poliquin’s

Mozée \ Model: Larry Scott

Smart Training

Don’t give up. Larry Scott overcame some genetic deficiencies, like narrow clavicles, to win the Mr. Olympia.

his massive delts. You may not have the ideal genetics for bodybuilding, but if you enjoy weight training, that is most important. Don’t forget that regular weight training has many health benefits that you may not yet appreciate, such as lowering of blood fats, prevention of osteoporosis and so on. Plenty of baby boomers out there just started training five years ago and have much better physiques than genetically gifted 20-year-olds who have sedentary lifestyles. 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.Charles Poliquin.net. Also see his ad on page Charles Poliquin 193. IM Bradford

icher at the Sport Science Institute of the University of Freiburg. He was showing me CAT scans of subjects who had undergone a triceps-training protocol, and the ones with the highest hormone profiles had experienced growth not only in the triceps brachii but also in the brachialis and biceps, which function antagonistically to the triceps. Do you have superior neurological efficiency? In gym jargon, that translates to: Are you a rep guy or a weight guy? A rep guy will do 20 reps at 80 percent of his max, while a weight guy will only do three. The average trainee will do about seven reps at that percentage. The better-blessed individuals are the weight guys, who can achieve high loads for maximum singles. They can tap into a greater portion of their muscle fibers. Even so, neurological efficiency is the least important factor for bodybuilding; I’ve encountered many professional bodybuilders who were neither rep nor weight types. How good is your black box? More often than not, trainees count out intelligence as a predictor of bodybuilding improvement, especially when genetics on the physical side are suboptimal. Intelligent people search out solutions to their problems. Just look at Mr. Olympia winners Larry Scott, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Frank Zane. They overcame flaws through diligent observation and path corrections, then achieved tremendous results. Fellow IRON MAN writers and others have said that the governator’s drive in his workouts was so high that he used to burn out training partners by the dozen. Fortunately, the Austrian Oak was never short of partners, as everyone wanted to share his glory. Twelve years ago over lunch, Dan Duchaine observed that one of the reasons he thought Dorian Yates was so successful was that his cogni-

tive processes were far superior to the average professional bodybuilder’s, and he therefore approached contest preparation in a more rational and methodological manner. On the other hand, I’ve seen some very successful and yet very dumb people succeed because they were coached by people who knew what they were doing. I wouldn’t get too hung up on the genetic component, as many very good bodybuilders started out with less than optimal genetics. Larry Scott may have been born with great potential for upper-arm hypertrophy, yet his bone shoulder width was, let’s say, not the best. With constant effort, however, he overcame his genetic drawback and became famous not only for his arm development but also for

w w w. C h a r l e s P o l i q u i n . n e t 46 NOVEMBER 2007 \ www.ironmanmagazine.com

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\ JULY 2006 181

EAT TO NUTRITION SCIENCE

Diet Wars

Who wins in the battle of the bulge reduction?

Neveux \ Model: Daniele Seccarecci

In an effort to clear up the considerable confusion about which diet is most effective for fat loss, researchers from Stanford University spent a year testing four popular diet plans on 311 overweight women, aged 25 to 50. Published in the prestigious Journal of the American Medical Association, the study examined the Atkins low-carb plan, which starts at 20 grams a day of carbs and gradually increases to 50 grams a day; the Zone diet, which features a percentage formula of 40-30-30 for carbs, protein and fat; the LEARN plan, a traditional balanced diet usually suggested for promoting good heath, consisting of 55 to 60 percent carbs and less than 10 percent saturated fat intake; and the Ornish diet, which contains 10 percent fat or less. The Zone and LEARN plans call for a specific daily calorie limit, while the Atkins and Ornish plans donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t. Those in the Atkins group lost an average of 10.4 pounds over the year. That compares to a 5.7-pound loss for the LEARN group, 4.8 pounds for the Ornish dieters and 3.5 pounds for those on the Zone. The study confirmed the findings

of many other diet-comparison studies, all of which showed that not only do low-carb diets prove superior for fat loss, but they also produce health benefits. The greatest criticism of low-carb diets is that their high fat content predisposes dieters to cardiovascular disease. That was adamantly denied by Robert Atkins, M.D., the heart specialist who developed the Atkins diet.

Atkins suggested that control of insulin, a cornerstone of low-carb diets, would more than make up for eating lots of fat. Besides, because carbs are so restricted on the Atkins plan, most of the dietary fat is oxidized. Dean Ornish, also a cardiologist and whose diet philosophy is the opposite of Atkins when it comes to eating fat, noted that levels of low-density lipoprotein, or LDL, which is linked to cardiovascular disease, rose in those who followed a lowcarb diet during the study. As one of the authors noted, however, blood triglycerides dropped more than 30 percent in the low-carb dieters. Thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s significant because when triglycerides drop, you get a larger, more buoyant LDL molecule. The type of LDL linked to cardiovascular disease is small and dense and is more likely to oxidize than the larger version. LDL is dangerous only when oxidized. Other critics of the new study said that while those on the Atkins diet clearly lost more fat initially, after a year the differences in fat loss from the diets become similar. The women on the Atkins plan found it easy to follow, with

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GROW Nutrition With a Get-Big Mission no precise guidelines other than carb restriction. The high-protein feature of the Atkins diet brings greater satiety, making it far easier to stick with than lowfat, high-carb diets like the Ornish plan, on which most people get ravenously hungry. Those in the Atkins group also had elevations in high-density-lipoprotein cholesterol, which protects against cardiovascular disease. HDL tends to rise with a higher fat intake, an effect confirmed with those who followed the Ornish lowfat plan. No change at all occurred in their HDL levels, although LDL did drop.

Because most people diet to lose bodyfat, it’s just common sense that the diet with the best results would be more motivating. Losing fat is important for health reasons because excess bodyfat triggers inflammation all over the body that’s linked to all forms of disease and mortality, including cardiovascular disease and cancer. Bodybuilders used low carb-diets long before they became popular with the public. In fact, most top bodybuilders still rely on carb restriction to get into contest condition. They know that when you control insulin release, you rapidly tap into bodyfat stores. It’s

true that glycogen, which is the major exercise fuel source in muscles, is itself a complex carbohydrate, but it’s not that difficult to take your carbs in strategically, meaning before and after training. That makes for maximum fat burning while providing needed energy. —Jerry Brainum Gardner, C.D., et al. (2007). Comparison of the Atkins, Zone, Ornish and LEARN diets for change in weight and related risk factors among overweight women. JAMA. 297:969-77.

VITAMINS

There’s been a lot of information in IRON MAN lately on the importance of vitamin D, and for good reason. It helps prevent a number of diseases, including cancer. Harvard research recently showed a connection between higher levels of vitamin D and a reduced risk of developing multiple sclerosis, a neurological disease, by more than 60 percent. That explains why MS is more prevalent in areas where there are longer periods of less sunlight. Being out in the sun triggers your body to produce vitamin D. It’s also possible that vitamin D can help prevent the flu. Dr. John Cannell, a psychiatrist at the Atascadero State Hospital in California, gave his patients vitamin D supplements. In 2005 there was a severe flu outbreak, and none of his patients got the flu, even though they were in contact with others who had it. It appears that vitamin D boosts production of white blood cells, which improves immune function. —Becky Holman www.X-tremeLean.com

Neveux \ Model: Sherry Goggin

D Is for Disease Derailer

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Eat to Grow NUTRITION NOTES

Food Facts

Neveux

That can affect your workouts, weight and wellness

WARRIOR NUTRITION AND EXERCISE

Glutamine for Mind and Muscle Glutamine is a free-form amino acid that nourishes your brain. The main fuel for the brain is glucose, and when glucose supply is short, the brain converts glutamine into glucose and uses it as a reserve fuel. Glutamine also works as a neurotransmitter, boosting feelings of well-being and assertiveness. When you take glutamine on an empty stomach, it crosses the brain barrier and does its job as a brain booster. When you take it with food, however, it doesn’t reach the brain. The body will use it as fuel or to replenish the lining of the digestive tract. Glutamine is believed to be a stress-hormone blocker. Essential for the anabolic process, it’s found in very high concentration in muscle tissue. Every time you’re under physical stress, your muscles lose glutamine. Chronic depletion of it may lead to loss of muscle tissue. A proper diet should be adequate to supply your body’s demand for glutamine, but it’s worth considering supplementation if you want to boost your mind and muscle performance. —Ori Hofmekler Editor’s note: Ori Hofmekler is the author of the books The Warrior Diet and Maximum Muscle & Minimum Fat, published by Dragon Door Publications (www.dragondoor.com). For more information or for a consultation, contact him at ori@warriordiet.com, www.warriordiet.com or by phone at (866) WAR-DIET.

Watermelon contains key nutrients like lycopene and betacarotene, which increase if you let the melon ripen at room temperature for a few days. Refrigeration slows the ripening process, which means less lycopene and beta-carotene. Melatonin, a hormone linked to relaxation and sleep, may also be an antiaging nutrient. Mice given the compound had less oxidative damage and inflammation, both of which age cells. A few milligrams of melatonin before bedtime is a common prescription for sounder sleep—and apparently slower aging. Flatulent fact: The average person passes gas about a dozen times a day. It’s caused by eating foods that are harder to digest, like fiber, cruciferous vegetables and, of course, beans. Try to avoid those foods a few hours before your leg workout. Capsaicin gives chili peppers their hot taste and may help fry fat cells. A study reported in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry found that fat cells exposed to capsaicin in the lab died. Reason enough to spice up your diet. —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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Eat to Grow SIZE SUPPLEMENTS

Longjack to Jack Your Stack While longjack sounds like the stage name of a porn star, it’s actually an herb that grows primarily in the Malaysian rainforests. Also known as tongkat ali or Eurycoma longifolia, it contains a number of alkaloids that have a long history of medicinal uses. It’s been used to treat malaria, allergies, common fevers and tumors. The glycoprotein content offers benefits in treating cancer, fertility, antiaging and as an aphrodisiac. Nearly all studies reported on longjack come from Malaysia. When rodents were given longjack, their testosterone levels and fertility increased. One study directly compared longjack with Viagra, finding that longjack enhances erection much as Viagra does. Apparently, it earns its name. In vitro, or test-tube, studies found that longjack stimulates the conversion of pregnenolone into testosterone. Early human studies found that it could not only raise testosterone levels but also lower the levels of sex-hormone-binding globulin, which ties up testosterone in the blood. Lowering SHBG would have the effect of boosting free, or active, testosterone. In one double-blind placebo-controlled study, 14 adults took 100 milligrams a day of a standardized commercial extract of longjack called LJ100 or a placebo. For eight weeks both the longjack and placebo groups engaged in intensive weight training. Those in the longjack group gained

H E A R T H E A LT H

more muscle and strength than the placebo group. In another study 20 male subjects, ranging in age from 38 to 58, got random doses of 200, 400 or 600 milligrams of LJ100 or a placebo for two months. Those getting the LJ experienced an increase in sexual desire and performance, and their testosterone and DHEA levels also rose. Blood tests were normal with all doses of LJ100, and beneficial HDL increased. In addition, subjects with diabetes showed increased glucose control. Those getting the LJ100 also had higher levels of thyroid hormone and cortisol, which isn’t so good. On the other hand, their anabolic IGF-1 also increased. The rise of both testosterone and IGF-1, pointing to an increased growth hormone release, indicates that longjack may offer anabolic effects with no apparent toxicity. I’ve used longjack and noted a definite rise in libido, which indicates a rise in testosterone. The same effect has occurred in every man I’ve told about longjack. The main drawback to it is the price. For best results, you need the standardized herb imported from Malaysia known as LJ100, and it isn’t cheap. For those looking for a safe anabolic boost, however, longjack may prove useful. —Jerry Brainum

ANTIOXIDANTS

Kick In the Nuts

For cardio health and less bodyfat

According to Penny Kris-Etherton, Ph.D., a professor of nutrition at Pennsylvania State University, there’s a lot of research demonstrating “a dose-response relationship between nut consumption and reduced risk of cardiovascular disease. In fact, consuming nuts and peanuts five times a week or more decreases risk of CVD 40 to 50 percent. High consumers of nuts and peanuts also have a lower body mass index— not a higher one—compared with non-nut and non-peanut consumers.” Enjoyed in moderation, nuts and peanuts can help your heart and reduce bodyfat. —Becky Holman www.X-tremeLean.com

Fine Wine You’ve heard about the health benefits of red wine, and many believe that they’re the result of a compound called resveratrol, a potent antioxidant. According to Roger Corder, Ph.D., however, “To get enough resveratrol to benefit the heart, you would need to drink 1,000 quarts of wine a day.” Corder says that polyphenols, specifically procyanidins, are the real superhealth compounds in wine. They’re condensed in wine as tannins, which give it an astringent taste. The more procyanidins, the better the vasodilation, which is the widening of the blood vessels. Vasodilation is what increases blood flow, one of the reasons wine is so good for the heart and circulation. —Becky Holman www.X-tremeLean.com

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Eat to Grow ANABOLIC DRIVE

Use Testosterone, Beat WADA? Testosterone enanthate has been studied perhaps more extensively than any other androgen.1 One study gave 13 nonathletic men 200 milligrams of testosterone enanthate every week for six months, with a control group of eight healthy men receiving a placebo. In the testosterone-treated subjects, fat-free mass increased by 10 percent, and fat mass decreased by 16 percent. The authors concluded that “the administration of testosterone enanthate in pharmacological doses for six months resulted in a modest reduction in fat mass and small increases in fat-free mass, muscle strength and bone density.”2 Another recent study also looked at the use of testosterone enanthate but with an interesting twist. The World Anti-Doping Agency prohibits use of testosterone enanthate, and it tests for use by way of the ratio of urinary testosterone to epitestosterone. Published in the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, the lab coats asked these questions: 1) Could injection of 3.5 milligrams of testosterone enanthate per kilogram of bodyweight once per week increase muscular strength and cycle sprint performance in three to six weeks? 2) Could the WADA-imposed urinary testosterone-to-epitestosterone ratio of 4-to-1 identify all subjects who received the 3.5-milligram doses? That dose is the equivalent of a 200-pound man taking 318 milligrams once per week—not much but enough to produce an anabolic effect. Sixteen healthy young men were matchpaired and randomly assigned in a double-blind manner to a testosterone enanthate or a placebo group. They all performed a structured weight-training program and were in-

AMINO AMMO

Sip for Size

To trickle-feed your muscle growth

Neveux \ Model: Todd Smith

Research out of France found that men who sipped a shake containing 30 grams of protein for seven hours increased muscle size more than those who drank the entire serving at once. Can you say, trickle-feeding muscle growth? If you can’t sip a drink during the day, swallow two or three branched-chain amino acid capsules every 20 or 30 minutes. —Becky Holman www.X-treme Lean.com

Testing flaws and faux pas

jected with either testosterone enanthate or saline solution once a week for six weeks. Onerep-max benchpress strength and total work during the cycle sprint increased significantly at weeks three and six in the testosterone group but not in the placebo group. Bodyweight at week six was significantly greater than at baseline in the experimental group but not in the placebo group. Despite the clear ergogenic effects of testosterone enanthate in as little as three weeks, four of the nine subjects getting it (approximately 44 percent) did not test positive for testosterone under current WADA urinary testosterone-toepitestosterone ratio criteria.3 So there you have it—a testosterone enanthate dose of 3.5 milligrams per kilogram of bodyweight produces an ergogenic effect in less than a month, and without a drug-test red flag. —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.Jose AntonioPhD.com. References 1 Wu,

F.C., et al., (1996). Effects of testosterone enanthate in normal men: experience from a multicenter contraceptive efficacy study. World Health Organization Task Force on Methods for the Regulation of Male Fertility. Fertil Steril. 65(3):626-36. 2 Young, N.R., et al. (1993). Body composition and muscle strength in healthy men receiving testosterone enanthate for contraception. J Clin Endocrinol Metab. 77(4):1028-32. 3 Rogerson, S., et al., (2007). The effect of short-term use of testosterone enanthate on muscular strength and power in healthy young men. J Strength Cond Res. 21(2):354-61.

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Eat to Grow ANABOLIC AMMO

Supplement Combo to Grow Whey protein supplements are popular with bodybuilders. Whey is rapidly digested and rapidly releases amino acids. Increased blood levels of amino acids, particularly the essential amino acids (those that cannot be synthesized in the body), favor increased muscle protein synthesis. Whey’s also rich in the branched-chain amino acids, which, research shows, are key to muscle protein synthesis. Creatine is another popular supplement. The only controversy about it is not whether creatine is effective but rather how to best take it and which form is superior. Some studies suggest that creatine is best taken in combination with a simple carbohydrate. That stimulates insulin release, which leads to creatine uptake into muscle. In more recent research scientists have combined creatine with whey protein. The rapid digestion of whey provides amino acids that also trigger an insulin release, so the combination seems to make sense from a physiological perspective. One new study that used recreational bodybuilders as subjects compared the effects of combining creatine with whey (CW), combining creatine with carbs (CC), taking carbs alone (C) or taking whey alone (W), in conjunction with a weight-training program. The focus was on

MIGHTY MINERALS

Potassium Power Potassium does lots of good things for bodybuilders. It helps control insulin, which increases the potential for more fat burning. It also helps the body use and store protein, for building bigger muscles. Even so, bodybuilders tend to shortchange themselves with this mineral in its naturally occurring state. Basically, they don’t eat enough vegetables. Veggies don’t have a lot of calories and are filling, due to their high fiber content. Stick with cruciferous vegetables most of the time—broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower and mustard greens. Not only are they high in potassium, but they’re also anti-estrogenic, which means they can help tip the balance toward testosterone, the musclebuilding hormone. —Becky Holman www.X-tremeLean.com

differences produced by the supplements in strength, body composition and fiber-specific muscle hypertrophy, as well as muscle creatine and contractile protein content. The initial hypothesis was that combining creatine with whey or carbs would result in better musclebuilding than taking whey or creatine alone. The second hypothesis was that a combination of whey and creatine would have greater anabolic effects in muscle than combining creatine with carbs. The participants were 33 recreational male bodybuilders, all of whom had at least six months of training experience and none of whom had taken any type of anabolic drug or supplement for the previous 12 weeks. All subjects got 1.5 grams per kilogram of bodyweight of the various supplements. They were tested before and after the study for strength, body composition and muscle-fibertype changes through muscle biopsies of their thighs. Those in the CC, CW and W groups experienced greater strength gains and muscle-size gains than the carb-only group. The researchers determined that 76 percent of the strength gains in the squat were due to muscle-size increase. As noted, the creatine combos produced greater gains than the carbs-alone group but not the whey-alone group. Creatine and whey were not superior to creatine and carbs. On the other hand, the subjects had a greater increase in muscle contractile proteins in the creatine combo-groups than in the whey-alone group. Those getting only the whey made similar strength gains without a weight gain. The takeaway point here is that combining creatine with whey produced effects similar to combining creatine with carbs. That’s good news for those on carb-restricted diets. —Jerry Brainum Cribb, P.J., et al. (2007). Effects of whey isolate, creatine, and resistance training on muscle hypertrophy. Med Sci Sports Exer. 39:298-307.

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PERFECT POSTWORKOUT MEAL

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

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Train, Eat,

GROW

Muscle-Training Program 97 From the

IRON MAN

Training & Research Center

No matter how long you do this muscle-building thing, you always learn new stuff—if you’re observant and have an open mind. For us, this past summer was a good example. It’s standard procedure for us to start training harder as we move into our ripping phase every April. That’s in preparation for a photo shoot with Michael Neveux, usually in July, and it’s really motivational having that target (you don’t want to show up at Mike’s studio looking smooth, because he gets uninspired very quickly!). This year, for various reasons— like Jonathan’s impending wedding in early fall—we decided not to do the shoot but still strive for peak condition midsummer. Here’s where the learning comes in: Steve got in ripped condition very fast, as his 48th birthday at the end of July coincided with a one-week Yosemite vacation. He had a solid date to shoot for. Jonathan, on the other hand, lagged way behind. Even though he was training hard, or so it appeared, dieting and doing cardio regularly, he stayed fairly smooth through July, while Steve was in

perhaps his leanest condition ever by Independence Day. What did we take away from that experience? Lesson: You make faster gains when you have some kind of goal to shoot for to jack up your intensity. The mind plays a huge role. While Jonathan appeared to be training hard, he just wasn’t into it as in past years. Steve could tell. There was less enthusiasm on every set. No goal and the stress of his upcoming wedding fused to smother his intensity—and his muscle detail. Steve, on the other hand, was inspired by IRON MAN’s ageless muscle and strength issue [October ’07], which he worked on during the summer. He was determined to look great at 48! And he did—but he learned another lesson: The body can stay in X-treme lean condition for only so long before it starts regressing, especially if the lean guy is middle aged. What happened was that Steve was superlean and fairly full—for his hardgainer frame—by July 1, but he couldn’t hold that condition all the way to the end of the month. It’s as if his body said, “Okay, enough

already; we’re starving here!” The result was that he started smoothing out and gradually losing muscle as July 30, his birthday, approached, yet he was still eating the same and training just as hard. The question is, why? Shouldn’t the body be able to maintain its leanest condition for long periods? Not when you consider that a low-calorie diet is stress—especially when combined with intense weight training (cardio wasn’t a big factor, as Steve was doing it only once a week). It all boils down to Dr. Hans Selye’s General Adaptation Syndrome, discussed in his book The Stress of Life. Selye concluded that the human body adapts to any stress in three stages: alarm, resistance and exhaustion. In the case of a calorie-restricted diet, the alarm stage occurs when your calories move below maintenance. We gradually reduce our calories every week or two, so alarm happens in May. We tend to lose a bit of muscle at first as the body adjusts, but it comes back, and then the fat starts melting away—and we actually start building more muscle.

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Model: Jonathan Lawson

by Steve Holman and Jonathan Lawson • Photography by Michael Neveux

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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(You can check out those past editions free at www.XRep.com in the X Files section.) It’s exciting stuff! You’ve gotta subscribe Learn how to make curls three times more effecitve at building eye-popping bi’s. See issue 03/04/05. today so you can start building the muscle size you deserve for your sweat and effort in the gym. You’ve got nothing to lose and plenty of raw muscle to gain! Here’s what to do...

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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 Steve’s Peak-Physique Regression 1) End of June: Very lean, close to peak.

2) Mid-July: Slightly losing leanness but still full. He’s hitting the resistance phase—plateau and regression.

3) End of July (48th birthday): Exhaustion phase—losing leanness and fullness. Time to back off and/or take a vacation. He did, the first week of August...

(See our X-treme Lean e-book, available at www.X-tremeLean.com, for a full explanation of that as well as our Ripping Phase eating schedules.) Our diet strategy includes one or two higher-carb days each week, which prolongs the alarm stage and fends off resistance, or plateau. It’s almost like three steps forward, a half step back. We lose some fat, then slightly overfeed to keep the metabolism cranking, which prevents the starvation mechanism from kicking in; however, the calorie increase may stall fat burning or even cause a small amount of fat to be put back on. It’s a small price to pay to keep resistance at bay.

4) August 7: Steve and family at Yosemite.

Gradually ramping up activity—like running a little farther or walking more frequently—helps keep the metabolism stoked as well. Nevertheless, exhaustion is inevitable, as with any continuous stress, including intense weight training. Exhaustion occurs when the body has had enough and can no longer cope with the continuous stress bombardment. It finally gets overwhelmed. In Steve’s case that began to occur in mid-July (see photos on this page). That’s when he noticed that

his leanest, fullest shape was beginning to erode. From that point his leanness fluctuated, and his muscle fullness dissipated to a degree as his body began overproducing cortisol and his metabolism slowed to a crawl. He took a one-week vacation in early August—no weight training, plenty of unbridled eating—to get himself back on track. That’s basically our Phase Training concept applied to dieting. In Steve’s case the intense dieting—calories below maintenance— lasted 12 weeks, May through July. He achieved his best shape in early July, so it appears that the eightweek mark should’ve been the culmination, with a downshift (vacation and eating up) at that point. What about Jonathan? As we said, his impending wedding and stressful planning for that event had him hitting the exhaustion phase very early—way before he could rip up. He’d start getting leaner and then regress, moving back and forth from resistance to exhaustion. That makes sense considering his stress level—high-intensity workouts four days a week; cardio, often twice a day; work pressures; and wedding plans (“The catering is costing how much?!”). Plus, he was looking for a new place to live with his brideto-be and worrying about finances, starting a family, etc. Whew! Cortisol wreaks havoc on the body and can prevent muscle gain and fat loss. All of Jonathan’s stress also spawned sporadic supplementation. He’d often forget to take critical supplements at crucial times. High stress levels mandate supplementation; unfortunately, cortisol attacks the brain as well as the muscles, so it can cause forgetfulness. Being older and all too familiar with middle-age brain freezes, Steve realizes that all too well. That’s why he was very methodical and used specific supplements that derailed cortisol overproduction. At

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his age he realizes that high cortisol levels can take his already dwindling testosterone into the deficiency zone, making muscle gains and fat loss almost impossible. Here are the primary cortisol-control supplements that helped him get close to his leanest shape ever in eight weeks: Cort-Bloc. As we’ve noted, any stressful situation causes your body to secrete muscle-eating cortisol—from intense workouts to hard dieting to wedding planning (“The honeymoon is costing how much?!”). If you minimize cortisol, you minimize muscle wasting and get bigger and leaner faster. Cortisol forces your body to rely on muscle tissue for energy rather than bodyfat, which it preserves. Not good! To control cortisol, we take four capsules—about 800 milligrams—of phosphatidylserine (Cort-Bloc), a soy lipid, prior to each workout. It’s

a must for high-strung hardgainer types like Steve, who should also use two capsules before bed (cortisol release is very high in the later hours of sleep). It’s also a must when you start taking fat burners that contain caffeine, as caffeine raises epinephrine release, which triggers cortisol surges. That means it’s a good idea to always stack Cort-Bloc with caffeine-based fat burners. Branched-chain amino acids. Studies show that taking about five grams of BCAAs before an intense workout can curb the release of cortisol, preserving muscle tissue. For the same reason we also like to take BCAAs before doing any type of cardio. Plus, we keep a big bowl of amino acid caps handy so we can grab three or four whenever we think about it to keep our nitrogen balance positive. Research supports our BCAA habit. A study out of France found that Training intensely for months on end can cause the body to regress due to exhaustion. Dieting too hard for too long can produce the same result.

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These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. These products are not intended to diagnose, treat, prevent or cure any disease. Call 1-800-477-4462 or visit www.gnc.com for the store nearest you. ©2007 General Nutrition Corporation. May not be available outside the U.S.

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Train, Eat, Grow men who sipped a shake containing 30 grams of protein for seven hours increased muscle size more than those who drank the entire serving at once. Most of us can’t sip a drink throughout the day, but we can swallow two or three branchedchain amino acid capsules every 20 or 30 minutes to get the same anabolic effect. Little things like that can make a huge difference when

it comes to holding on to and adding muscle. Steve did this regularly; Jonathan often forgot. Also, you may have seen at our Web site that the amino acid leucine has been shown in recent studies to have considerable anabolic effects on muscle growth. It’s prevalent in most BCAA supplements, but we also take four grams of L-leucine with our postworkout drink—which

is RecoverX and CreaSol. Those three supplements are anabolically synergistic right after an intense workout, when the muscles are so receptive to nutrients. Fat burner. Most fat burners contain

IRON MAN Training & Research Center Muscle-Training Program 97 Workout 1: Chest, Lats, Triceps, Abs Smith-machine incline presses (X Reps) 2 x 9-12 High-low cable flyes (drop; X Reps) 1 x 8-10(6) Superset Wide-grip dips (X Reps) 2 x 8-10 Dumbbell bench presses or pushups (X Reps) 2 x 7-9 Low/middle cable flyes (drop; X Reps) 1 x 8-10(6) Chins (X Reps) 1 x 9-12 Undergrip chins (X Reps) 1 x 9-12 Superset Machine pullovers (X Reps) 1 x 9-12 Rope rows (X Reps) 1 x 8-10 Superset Wide-grip pulldowns (X Reps) 1 x 9-12 Dumbbell pullovers (X Reps) 1 x 8-10 Decline extensions (X Reps) 2 x 9-12 Superset Pushdowns or kickbacks (X Reps) 2 x 9-12 Dips or Bench dips (X Reps) 2 x 8-10 Cable pushouts (drop; X Reps) 1 x 9-12(6) Incline kneeups (drop; X Reps) 2 x 12-15(7), 10 Tri-set Ab Bench crunches (X Reps) 1 x 10-12 Twisting crunches (X Reps) 1 x 10-15 End-of-bench kneeups (X Reps) 1 x 9-12

Legs: Quads, Hamstrings, Calves, Lower Back Leg extensions (drop; X Reps) 2 x 9-12(7) Squats 2 x 10-12 Hack squats 2 x 10-12 Superset Leg extensions 1 x 9-12 Sissy squats (X Reps) 1 x 9-12 Feet-forward Smith-machine front squats 1 x 9-12 Walking lunges 1 x 10-12 Leg curls (drop; X Reps) 2 x 8-10, 8-10(6) Stiff-legged deadlifts 3 x 9-12 Knee-extension leg press calf raises (X Reps) 2 x 15-20 Superset Standing calf raises (X Reps) 2 x 15-20 Hack-machine calf raises (X Reps) 2 x 10-15 One-leg calf raises (X Reps) 1 x 12-15

Machine donkey calf raises (X Reps) Low-back machine (X Reps)

1 x 10-15 1 x 8-10

Workout 2: Delts, Midback, Biceps, Forearms Seated laterals/upright rows (X Reps) 2 x 9-12 Forward-lean laterals raises (drop; X Reps) 2 x 8-10(6) Smith-machine presses (X Reps) 1 x 9-12 Seated dumbbell presses (X Reps) 1 x 9-12 One-arm cable laterals (drop; X Reps) 1 x 9-12(6) Bent-over laterals (drop; X Reps) 1 x 9-12(6) Bent-over rows (X Reps) 2 x 9-12 Bent-arm bent-over laterals (drop; X Reps) 1 x 9-12(6) Superset High rows (drop; X Reps) 1 x 8-10(6) Dumbbell shrugs (X Reps) 1 x 9-12 V-handle cable rows (X Reps) 1 x 9-12 Preacher curls 1 x 9-12 Cable curls (X Reps) 1 x 9-12 Concentration curls (drop; X Reps) 1 x 9-12(6) One-arm spider curls (X Reps) 1 x 8-10 Superset Incline curls (X Reps) 1 x 9-12 Rope hammer curls (X Reps) 1 x 8-10 Superset Dumbbell reverse wrist curls (X Reps) 1 x 10-12 Forearm Bar reverse wrist curls (X Reps) 1 x 8-10 Superset (20-second rest) Dumbbell wrist curls (X Reps) 1 x 10-12 Forearm Bar wrist curls (X Reps) 1 x 8-10 Rockers 1 x 20-30

Add to Friday Workout: Soleus Seated calf raises (X Reps)

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—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 caffeine, which ramps up cortisol release; however, if they also contain forskolin, you get a testosterone increase that can counter the catabolic effect. We use NxLabs’ Methyl Ripped. Forskolin has also been shown to lower blood pressure and increase high-density lipoprotein. We take two to three capsules prior to each workout (four days a week) and sometimes use it before cardio, although we skip the fat burners if we do cardio late in the day as the caffeine can disrupt sleep, which—you guessed it—can raise cortisol. So here’s our standard preworkout anabolic/anticatabolic stack:

• Cort-Bloc, four capsules • Branched-chain amino acids, five capsules • Methyl Ripped, two capsules We also use a vasodilator intermittently for better pumps, more efficient nutrient delivery to the muscles and heightened fat-burning effects—better blood flow has been shown to spur the use of fat deposits, so try a vasodilator before cardio too. We used NxLabs’ Plasmavol, Gaspari’s SuperPump 250 or ALRI’s N’Gorge prior to many workouts.

Note that SuperPump 250 contains caffeine, so you may want to reduce your fat burner intake if you use that one. All of those supplements work synergistically and helped Steve achieve a very lean physique with a lot of muscle fullness by early July. Unfortunately, Jonathan wasn’t as diligent when he needed it most, which slowed his progress considerably. He knows now how important branched-chain amino acids are before workouts and throughout the day to control cortisol and enhance the fat-to-muscle process, especially when stress is high in other areas of life—like when you take on a wife (“Your family is staying with us how long?!”). See our complete supplement

ITRC Program 97, Home-Gym Routine Workout 1: Chest, Lats, Triceps, Abs Incline presses (X Reps) Incline flyes (drop; X Reps) Bench presses (X Reps) Flat-bench flyes (drop; X Reps) Chins (X Reps) Undergrip rows (X Reps) Dumbbell pullovers (X Reps) Decline extensions Superset Kickbacks (X Reps) Dips or bench dips (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)

Workout 2: Delts, Midback, Biceps, Forearms 2 x 9-12 1 x 9-12(6) 2 x 9-12 1 x 9-12(6) 2 x 9-12 2 x 9-12 1 x 9-12 2 x 9-12 1 x 9-12 1 x 8-10 2 x 10, 8(7)

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

Legs: Quads, Hamstrings, Calves Squats or front squats (nonlock) 2 x 9-12 Leg extensions or old-style hack squats (drop; X Reps) 2 x 9-12(6) Squats or front squats (nonlock; X Reps) 2 x 8-10 Sissy squats (X Reps) 1 x 8-10 Lunges 1 x 8-10 Leg curls (drop; X Reps) 2 x 8-10, 9-12(6) Stiff-legged deadlifts (X Reps) 2 x 9-12 Knee-extension donkey calf raises (X Reps) 2 x 15-20 One-leg calf raises (drop; X Reps) 2 x 12(7) Donkey calf raises (X Reps) 1 x 15-20

Dumbbell upright rows (X Reps) 2 x 9-12 Seated laterals (drop; X Reps) 1 x 9-12(6) Dumbbell presses (X Reps) 2 x 9-12 Incline one-arm laterals (X Reps) 1 x 9-12 Bent-over laterals (drop; X Reps) 1 x 9-12(6) Bent-over barbell rows (X Reps) 2 x 9-12 Bent-arm bent-over laterals (drop; X Reps) 1 x 9-12(6) One-arm dumbbell rows (X Reps) 1 x 9-12 Dumbbell shrugs (drop; X Reps) 1 x 10-12(6) Barbell curls 2 x 9-12 Concentration curls (drop; X Reps) 1 x 9-12(6) Superset Incline curls (X Reps) 1 x 9-12 Hammer curls (X Reps) 1 x 9-12 Dumbbell reverse wrist curls (drop; X Reps) 1 x 12(8) Dumbbell wrist curls (double drop; X Reps) 1 x 12(8) Rockers 1 x 20-30

Add to Friday Workout: Soleus 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—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. 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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schedule, listed on a time line, at our Supplement Blog at www.X-Rep.com. Training note: The workouts weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re now using are listed on page 70. For more on the program, X-Rep Reload, as well as Heavy/ Light, Volume/ Intensity Fusion and Traumatic/ Nontraumatic, see the e-book X-traordinary MuscleBuilding Workouts, available at www.X-Workouts.com. All of the programs in that e-book are organized in printable-template form. Editorâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s note: 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

Vasodilaators can give you a bigger pump in the gym. They increase blood flow so they can also enhance fat burning when taken prior to cardio.

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Steve Holman’s

Critical Mass

Size/Strength Connection Q: How should I be seeing progress from a given routine? For instance, should I experience visible improvements each week? How about weekly strength improvements? A: Strength and size aren’t directly correlated; strength can occur through neuromuscular development (better nerve force) and tendon and ligament strength, and size can occur through capillary-bed enlargement and mitochondria development—that is, endurance-component density. That said, you should strive to get stronger, but it shouldn’t be your main focus, and it won’t happen at every workout—at least not after you’ve been at it for a while. Beginners can get stronger at almost every workout for the first few months. In our e-books we identify max force, stretch overload and tension/occlusion as the three primary facets of building larger muscles as quickly as possible. Cover those, and you should be fine.

The three components of muscle growth are max force, tension/occlusion and stretch overload. Training for strength focuses almost totally on max force, with little size stimulation from the other two areas.

We design our workouts to attack each of them, with max force usually taking the lead. You can do it with full 3D POF programs if you have time. With 3D POF you train the midrange, contracted and stretch positions, using from one to three exercises per bodypart. Triceps is a great example. For midrange (max force) do close-grip bench presses; for contracted (tension/occlusion) do pushdowns; for stretch (stretch overload) do overhead extensions. If you have time constraints, use one big, or compound, exercise per bodypart in a more abbreviated workout structure—for example, Time-Bomb Training in our new e-book, X-traordinary Muscle-Building Workouts. You use the twoset/drop method: one set to exhaustion, with X Reps, rest, then a drop set with the same weight and X Reps on the second phase of the drop. It’s very efficient, covering the three components of muscle growth to a degree, although it’s not as effective or precise as full-on 3D POF. If you lose some bodyfat and train consistently with proven guidelines, you should see spectacular improvements in a month or so, and that should motivate you to keep improving. The gains will be in the form of some strength and visible muscle. Keep your eyes on the mirror, and be aware of how your clothes are fitting. They should be getting looser at the waist and tighter in the sleeves and across the back. Q: I’ve found much conflicting information on the Internet. Some strength coaches have a different interpretation of the size principle of muscle fiber recruitment from yours. They say that during a set, the fast-twitch fibers fire first, and once the rep speed slows, the slowtwitch fibers take over. Some say that’s a reason to not go to absolute failure—because slow-twitch fibers have little size potential. That does seem to make sense, as the rep speed always starts to slow about two thirds of the way into a set. You stated that the size principle is the inverse of that interpretation—that it’s only by going to failure that you begin to engage the fast-twitch fibers. How do you respond to that?

Neveux \ Model: Tamer Elshahat

A: First, let’s clarify the size principle of fiber recruitment that I subscribe to. According to Steven J. Fleck, Ph.D., and William J. Kraemer, Ph.D., two of the most respected strength researchers in their book Designing Resistance Training Programs: “According to the size principle of recruitment of motor neurons, the smaller, or low-threshold, motor units are recruited first. Low-threshold motor units are composed predominantly of type I [or slow-twitch] fibers. After low-threshold motor units, progressively higher-threshold motor units are recruited based on the increaseing demands of the activity. The higher-threshold motor units are composed predominantly of type II [fast-twitch] fibers. Lifting heavier resistance will start with the recruitment of low-threshold motor units (type 1). The high-threshold motor units (type II) needed to produce greater force will be recruited as the force required increases.” So on a bodybuilding-style set of eight to 12 reps, I believe, as Kraemer and Fleck do, that

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Q: I purchased the e-books Beyond X-Reps and The Ultimate Mass Workout at your site [www .X-Rep.com], and I absolutely love them. Gains have been great, and even my trainer has been following my lead and using X Reps in his program (I told him to buy the program, but he’s a bit of a cheapskate—LOL). I love all the research you guys put into this, but I was wondering why in your X-Rep Hybrid Mega-Mass Program in Beyond X you don’t designate the X spot for each exercise. In the Ultimate Mass programs every X spot is pointed out. I’m also somewhat confused by the designations in Beyond X; for example, cable upright rows using DXO + X

Double-X Overload is doing an X-Rep partial in the semistretch position after each full-range rep (note that the top position is pictured; that’s not where the X Reps should occur). You use slightly lighter weights, but you more effectively attack the stretch position and get a longer tension time. Reps. Can you elaborate? A: In Beyond X, the followup to UMW, we explained that the research proves the optimal X spot to be near the start of every rep, when the target muscle is somewhat elongated, on every exercise. In our first e-book, UMW, we were linking the X spot with an exercise’s Position of Flexion, such as Xing at the top of leg extensions, the bottom of sissy squats and the middle of squats. Including the semistretched point on each X Rep, however, appears to be a better approach—Xing near the turnaround, such as the bottom of an incline press, the bottom of a leg extension and so on. Not that you can’t use X Reps in the other positions. In fact, we often use X Reps at the top of one set of leg extensions, and then we do our second set with X Reps near the optimal bottom of the stroke—where the quads are elongated. Again, notice that the ideal X spot is near the start of a rep, where the target muscle is somewhat stretched for max-force generation and fiber recruitment, but why not do it at both spots for unique stimulation? We like the variety and the results we’ve achieved doing that. As for the designations, on cable upright rows with DXO + X Reps, you do your set to exhaustion using DXO reps, which means performing an X Rep at the bottom after each full rep—like 1 1/4s, with the quarters being in the starting, semistretch turnaround spot. When you reach failure, you continue with X-Rep partials near the bottom of the stroke, where the medial delt is somewhat elongated. Neveux \ Model: Berry Kabov

the slow-twitch fire first and the fast-twitch progressively come into play as the reps get harder, with the key fast-twitch growth fibers activating on the very hardest reps at the end. I don’t think you have to go to absolute failure, however, to recruit high-threshold motor units. You can get to a few even if you stop short. Doing more subfailure sets after that will recruit a few more because you get different recruitment patterns on each set. It’s the reason bodybuilders like Bill Pearl got big while using subfailure volume training. If the opposite were true— that the fast-twitch fibers fired first—distance runners would train mostly fast-twitch fibers, as the resistance on every step is like the first few lighter reps of a weight-training set. I admit that I’m still learning too, but that doesn’t make sense to the logical side of my brain, as muscle biopsies show that distance runners have predominantly slow-twitch fibers. I don’t totally disagree with the other interpretation, but I think it applies only to heavy strength-oriented sets, like three-to-five-rep maxes. With resistance that close to maximum, the high-threshold motor units come into play immediately. The nervous system craps out very early, however, and all that are left are the slow-twitch fibers, but they never get in on the action because of lack of anaerobic capacity. In that case the fast-twitch higher-threshold motor units do fire first, but it takes considerably more volume to get at enough fast-twitch fibers to elicit a growth response. Nerve force, a key to strength increases, is taxed considerably and improved on with low-rep training—that’s why it’s considered best for strength and not so great for building size. With bodybuilding sets of eight to 12 reps, on which the first reps are fairly easy, the low- and medium-threshold motor units fire first (probably a mix on eight-rep sets and more slow-twitch fibers on 12-rep sets, where early reps are very easy). That’s why X Reps are so effective on bodybuilding-style sets. End-of-set partials keep the size principle engaged and force more fast-twitch growth fibers to fire after full-range exhaustion.

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 73). For information on the PF videos and Size Surge programs, see the ad sections beginning on page 194 and 248, respectively. Also visit www.X-Rep.com. IM Steve Holman ironchief@aol.com

www.ironmanmagazine.com \ NOVEMBER 2007 77

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Mr. Natural Olympia John Hansen’s

Naturally Huge

Neveux \ Model: Christian Boeving

Natural Training Split Q: I’m a 21-year-old natural bodybuilder striving to get bigger and win my next show and not take second like last time. My question is, What do you believe is the best training split for my age? Right now I do chest and triceps, back and biceps, shoulders and legs and repeat; so I do each bodypart twice a week. Do you think that’s okay, or would I get bigger just doing one bodypart a week?

Training intensely stresses the

Neveux \ Model: Gus Malliarodakis

body as a whole, especially the By training your central nervous system. That A: I definitely think you’ll get much bigger if you take body over four days requires a few days of complete more rest. Training six days a week with no days off is too instead of three, rest every week. much. You’ll grow much more if you take a few more rest you’ll be giving each days during the week. bodypart four days of I recommend that you split your bodyparts over four rest—one more day days instead of three. You could train shoulders by themoff. I also think, however, that you should take a full day selves (maybe adding abs or calves to that workout) and off after training your whole body over four workouts. It’s then train legs by themselves. That will give you more called the four-on/one-off routine. That gives your various energy for training your legs, which are such a demanding bodyparts five full days of rest before you train them again. bodypart that they need to be given a day of their own. Many beginning bodybuilders make the mistake of thinking that as long as they’re training a different muscle group each day, they can train Leg training is demanding every day because they’re not overtraining and usually requires a day all the muscles; what they don’t take into acto itself. count is the body as a whole. Whenever you train with heavy weights and high intensity, you’re putting a strain on your nervous system. Training with that much intensity every day will overstress your nervous system and lead to the production of more cortisol, a stress hormone that tears the body down, creating a catabolic environment. The way to prevent that is to take more rest days and let the body recuperate. At your age you could train four days in a row before taking a day off and still recuperate and grow. Someone older may need to take a day off after two or three days of training. That happened to me when I was younger. As a teenager I always trained six days a week because that’s what everyone did in those days. My training partner and I were training very heavy (for us) and very hard, and we weren’t growing that much. He suggested that we take a day off after four days of working out. I was skeptical because I thought it would be too much rest, and we would not grow; however, after only one month of training on (continued on page 102) the new four-days-on/one-day-off routine, I had put a half inch on my arms. They finally measured 18 inches—and I was only 18 years old. I was blown away by the progress I made in only one month. That rapid growth spurt

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Mr. Natural Olympia John Hansen’s

Naturally Huge

Neveux \ Model: Justin Balik

When you’re training to get bigger, you should be getting a minimum of one gram of protein and two to four grams of carbs for each pound of bodyweight.

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). Look for his new DVD, “The Natural Bodybuilding Seminar,” along with his book, Natural Bodybuilding, and his DVD, “Real Muscle,” at www.Natural Olympia. Also available from Home Gym Warehouse, (800) 447-0008, or www.HomeGym .com. IM Neveux

Many young bodybuilders make drinks of whey-only protein. That’s a mistake. Whey protein is usually very low in calories, and it’s digested very quickly. Use a protein powder that’s going to be absorbed more slowly and contains more calories per serving.

proved to me that we’d been overtraining. Don’t forget nutrition during your growing period. If you’re not eating enough calories, you won’t grow no matter how hard and heavy you train. That’s especially important when you’re young and your metabolism is typically going 100 miles an hour. Many young bodybuilders make drinks of whey-only protein. That’s a mistake. The whey protein is usually very low in calories, and it’s digested very quickly. Use a protein powder that’s going to be absorbed more slowly and contains more calories per serving. I recommend that you use a weight-gain powder instead of a straight protein powder. A product such as Optimum Nutrition’s Pro Complex Gainer contains 650 calories per serving, with 60 grams of protein, 85 grams of carbs and eight grams of fat. That’s much more effective for gaining weight and increasing your muscle mass than a low-calorie whey-protein powder. The protein in the Pro Complex Gainer comes from a combination of whey, egg and casein, which furnishes a sustained source of amino acids. You should be eating a minimum of one gram of protein and anywhere from two to four grams of carbohydrates for each pound of bodyweight when you’re trying to get bigger and gain weight. Good food sources of protein are lean red meat, eggs, milk, chicken, turkey and salmon. To get complex carbohydrates, you should include potatoes (mashed or baked) along with pasta, rice and whole-wheat bread.

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Dave Goodin’s

Shredded Muscle

Q: I hear that you’re 48 years old. How do you look the way you do at your age? I’m turning 40 soon, and I want to look something like you. What’s your secret? A: I just got back from a great showing at the ’07 NPC Team Universe. I’m in the very best condition of my life right now (except for the torn hamstring tendon that I’m getting repaired tomorrow morning). I’d bet that I got a similar question from at least 50 people during my trip to NYC for the Team U. To me, the answer is pretty simple. I’ve been doing serious weight training for 26 years. Consistency is the key—

Neveux \ Model: Dave Goodin

Middle-Age Muscle

and that’s no big secret. I told so many people that I’ve just never stopped training. In the past 26 years the longest that I’ve taken off training in one stretch was six weeks. At that time I was going through a divorce, and my two-year-old daughter lived with me and needed more of my time. My next longest time off is two weeks. I used to take two weeks off after my last show of the year and then two weeks off at Christmas time. I’d read articles that said your body needs the break. What I usually found was that after two weeks of not training, my body hurt worse. I got really sore when I started up again. After a while, I decided to just cut way back on my weights when I feel that my body needs a break. I’ll use about 60 percent of my normal weights but do the same sets and reps. It’s not very fun training that way, but it enables me to recover while still keeping my body conditioned to the weight-training

Neveux \ Model: Dave Goodin

The bodybuilding lifestyle: You gotta love it to keep being consistent and develop your body through middle age and beyond.

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Roland Balik

That’s Dave (far right) going shred to shred with Chris Faildo (second right) at the ’07 NPC Team Universe. He took second in the welterweights to Faildo, who went on to win the overall. While competition is a great motivator, you need more than that to keep plugging away.

movements. After a couple of weeks of easy training I’m refreshed and ready to attack again. I take a maximum of two weeks at a time because of injuries. I’ve had upperand lower-body injuries at the same time and just couldn’t work around them. I’m having surgery tomorrow to repair a ruptured biceps femoris tendon and lateral collateral ligament, but I plan to train upper body again on Tuesday. I’ve done it before. When I tore a biceps tendon 10 years ago, I came back and trained legs and my uninjured arm. I was able to guest-pose just eight weeks after I got the cast off. Looks as if I’ve digressed, but my point is that you have to find ways to keep working out, even under difficult circumstances. It’s always easier to find reasons not to work out. If you let stuff get in the way for a few days, a few days becomes a week, then a week becomes months, and before you know it, you haven’t worked out in years. For me, bodybuilding is a lifestyle. I’m very very motivated by competition, but that’s not the only reason I do it. I like lifting weights. I like getting pumped. I like feeling strong. I like the way that eating clean makes me feel. I like having the discipline to turn down fried foods and desserts. I like that my daughters are proud of the way I look, even though it means that sometimes they sacrifice time with me because of my competitions and bodybuilding appearances. About five years ago I started dating a woman who knew nothing about bodybuilding or exercise. I had begun preparing for the Pro Natural World Championships just before we met. She became interested and started working out. After a few weeks she told me that she was going to diet with me for the Worlds. It was really good for both of us. She dropped about 25 pounds and was looking great when we went to New York. I competed in the show, and when we got back home, I went back to my normal life—training my clients on Monday morning, hitting my normal Monday leg workout. I also grilled my chicken and put it on a salad, just as I’d done nearly every evening of my contest preparation. She looked at me in dismay and asked, “Why the hell are you eating that? The contest is over with.” My reply: “Because I like it.” I love the bodybuilding lifestyle. It’s not just winning a show, it’s the whole journey that I enjoy. And if you approach it like that, you’ll be able to keep doing it, and you’ll be able to stay in great shape for years to come. Editor’s note: See Dave Goodin’s new blog at www.IronManMagazine.com. Click on the blog selection in the top menu bar. To contact Dave directly, send e-mail to TXShredder@aol.com. IM

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Stacked Deck

How Dan Decker Attacks His Back by Cory Crow • Photography by Michael Neveux

Early in my first conversation with Dan Decker I realized that he had “the bug.” A neighbor had come by with some homemade ice cream. Said Dan, “I can’t have it because I’m six weeks out from the USA, but my girlfriend sure will like it.” And then he went back to talking about his training. There are a lot of ways to know that you’ve been bitten by the bodybuilding bug: if you can’t wait to feel the iron rub against callouses developed through years of training, if you’re willing to work even harder in the gym to add a quarter-inch to your biceps to help with symmetry, or even if you’re willing to forgo ice cream to attain perfect condition at your next show. Those who have the bug are willing to skip shortterm rewards in order to experience winning in the future. They love training, love growing, have an appreciation for discipline and have the ability to tolerate extreme diets and seemingly endless amounts of cardiovascular training. All champion bodybuilders have the bug—in addition to their genetic gifts. www.ironmanmagazine.com \ NOVEMBER 2007 95

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SEATED ROWS

“The key to this movement is to pull out on the handle. I feel that you get a better contraction of the upper back that way. Feel as if you’re trying to pull the handle apart.”

Dan’s relationship with bodybuilding began in Indiana during his sophomore year in high school. Weight training to gain strength for football beget muscle growth that far outstripped that of others on his team. Dan realized that his genetic makeup was more conducive to the bodybuilding stage than the gridiron. After two years of training he entered his first show, the ’93 NPC South Bend. He finished fourth out of 15 or so in the teen division, a respectable showing for a kid lacking the fundamental knowledge required for competition. Dan’s response to that experience says a lot about his makeup: He listened, he learned, and he continued to grow. Not long after that, however, he enlisted in the Navy Reserve, where

Dan Decker’s Workout Split Monday: Chest Tuesday: Back Wednesday: Off Thursday: Shoulders Friday: Arms Saturday: Legs Sunday: Off

Note: Dan performs cardio every morning for 33 minutes on an elliptical machine during his contest prep and does limited cardio in the off-season.

he endured an enforced layoff from the gym during basic training. After completing all his military training, he got back to it, regaining lost mass and thinking about competition. Dan tried his hand again at an NPC show in Evansville, Indiana, where he took second in the teen class and won the novice middleweights. After that, however, he took a long break from competing. At the time it just didn’t seem that the rewards of physique competitions were sufficient to justify the expense. Which brings us back to the bug. Dan had the bug, so he could never totally turn his back on competition. Even during his sabbatical he stayed in shape, lifted and grew. He just didn’t have to diet or get in contest shape. That all changed in 2003,

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Dan Decker

UNDERGRIP CHINS

NARROW-GRIP CHINS Dan says using varying grip widths is vital to complete development.

when Dan decided to give competition another try. He won the overall at the ’03 MuscleMania Chicago show, then went on to compete in the MuscleMania Superbody event, where he won the light-heavyweight class and qualified as a pro. Dan didn’t take that opportunity, however. It was a tough decision, but he had other ideas. He wanted to turn pro in the organization where he’d started, the NPC. Dan entered the ’04 NPC Indiana Championships and took the lightheavyweight crown, qualifying for national-level competition. At that point he made another tough decision: that his future in bodybuilding would be better served if he relocated. He moved to Southern California, the mecca of bodybuilding, and settled into a career in fitness modeling and personal training. He entered the Muscle Beach contest on July, 4, 2005, weighing 220 pounds and won not only the heavyweight class but the overall as well. He set his sights on nationallevel competition and began to prepare for the ’06 USA Championships. As it turned out, that show was a humbling experience for Dan. He came in too light at 211 and placed seventh in the heavyweight class, his lowest showing ever in a bodybuilding contest. Fortunately, Dan had the desire to learn from the experience. He understood that he had to build more back fullness and width. Basically, he would have to be wider and heavier to match the size of the heavyweights at the NPC national level.

Bringing Up the Back Growing the back requires a plan. It involves working large muscle groups that have to be hit from a variety of angles. It also requires going heavy—to activate more fibers and fully exhaust the muscles. Dan’s plan involves a combination of tried-and-true basics, with several variations thrown in to keep his muscles from adapting and to ensure that he fully engages each muscle in its entirety. Here’s his back-improvement workout:

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Dan Decker Wide-grip chins 4 x 8-10 Partial deadlifts 4 x 10-15 Bent-over barbell rows 4 x 6-10 Dumbbell pullovers 4 x 8-12 Cable rows 4 x 8-12 Smith-machine shrugs 4 x 8-12

Merv

Wide-grip chins. The first thing Dan mentioned when we talked about performing chins was the gains that he’d made since purchasing a set of Flexsolate straps. It’s rare in bodybuilding for an athlete to give such a ringing endorsement of a product he or she has no sponsorship deal with, but Dan feels that this training tool has greatly aided (continued on page 104) him by en-

“I think that focusing on slow rep speed and deep breathing, to expand the rib cage, brings the best benefit on this exercise. Always focus on getting a full stretch. Come all the way to the top, but don’t lock out. Keep continuous tension on your back.”

DUMBBELL PULLOVERS

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Dan Decker (continued from page 100) abling him to overcome grip limitations. Now he can focus almost entirely on form. He completes each rep by pausing at the top for a squeeze and then slowly descending into the bottom position. He varies his grip width, which lets him hit his back from a variety of angles. “Varying grip width is the key,” he said. “There are different degrees of wide, and all of them attack the muscle from different angles, resulting in more complete development.” Dan goes to failure on the last set. Partial deadlifts. He pyramids the weight on deadlifts till he gets up to around 700 pounds on his last set, on which he goes to failure, typi-

BARBELL ROWS

He focuses on squeezing his shoulder blades together to full contraction, moving slowly on the descent to get the full benefit of the movement.

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Dan Decker

PULLDOWNS

cally at around eight to 10 reps. He prefers partial deadlifts, rather than pulling from the floor, to prevent the hamstrings and other muscles from becoming involved, which happens in the bottom quarter of the rep. Dan squeezes his shoulder blades together at the top of each rep and slowly descends to the bottom, getting the most benefit from every point in the range. The target rep count for the other sets is around 15, depending on energy level and how heavy he’s planning to go at the top end of his pyramid. Bent-over barbell rows. Dan’s next exercise is the classic barbell movement, done with moderately heavy weight. Once again he focuses on squeezing his shoulder blades together to achieve complete contraction, moving slowly on the descent to get the full benefit of the movement. He also keeps his back straight and his head up to avoid injury. The rep count is a little lower for this movement, simply because he likes to go heavy on it. Modified T-bar rows. For va-

riety and to alter the angle of attack, Dan sometimes uses these in place of bent-over rows. His gym doesn’t have a T-bar apparatus, so he improvises by placing a V-handle underneath the collar of a barbell. He secures the handle to the bar for stability and performs the exercise as he would on a standard T-bar. His focus on the movement is the same as on bent-over rows. Dumbbell pullovers. His next exercise is old-school. The classic positioning of the feet—to the side of the bench—is depicted in many of the old black-and-white photos taken at Gold’s Gym in the ’70s and ’80s. Dan’s advice is to cross your feet and pull them closer to the bench for added isolation. He also takes a page from classic bodybuilding on the subject of breathing: “I think that focusing on slow rep speed and deep breathing, to expand the rib cage, brings the best benefit on this exercise. Always focus on getting a full stretch as well—really work on expanding the rib cage and getting a full stretch.

Come all the way to the top, but don’t lock out. Keep continuous tension on your back.” Cable rows. “Keep your abs and trunk tight when doing this exercise,” Dan cautioned, “and don’t rely on a belt to provide the stability that your erectors should be providing.” As a matter of fact, he very seldom uses a belt, except for his heaviest compound sets. He feels that complete development of all of the muscles in the back includes the erectors. That’s a vital element in attaining the back thickness and fullness that all top bodybuilders are known for. “The key to this movement is to pull out on the handle,” he said. “I feel that you get a better contraction of the upper back that way.” Dan believes that the “pull out” should be exaggerated to the point where it feels as if you’re trying to pull the grip apart. Smith-machine shrugs. “I’m not a big fan of Smith machines,” he said. As a matter of fact, he uses them only for shrugs, as a Smith machine lets him lean back more and fully focus on the trapezius. He performs the lift by starting with a narrow grip and working his way to a wide grip while pyramiding up in weight. The Smith machine keeps the bar stable for the narrower grips. By now you’re wondering if Dan has had success with this program. Yes, he has. He placed second at the ’07 NPC Los Angeles Championships, qualifying for national-level competition once again. The bodybuilding bug keeps Dan Decker improving and moving forward in his career. It has taken him to California, to pro status in one organization and now to the brink of turning pro in the largest bodybuilding organization in the world. He could have settled for making a comfortable living through fitness modeling and personal training, but the bug wouldn’t let him. Let’s just hope that after his show the bug will let him have some of that homemade ice cream. Editor’s note: To contact Dan Decker for training consultation, guest posings or sponsorships, go to www.DanDecker.net. IM

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A Bodybuilder

Is Born On the Fast Track

Episode 28

t had been a month since Randy had started to specialize on his arms, calves and upper chest, and the results were already starting to show. His arms measured only a quarter inch larger, but the shape was starting to come out, with an especially pronounced peak to his biceps and a sweep to his triceps. I actually hesitate to use the qualifier “only” when I refer to that quarter inch, because that’s a hell of a gain in a month. If I could add a quarter inch every month for the next 10 months, my arms would be as big as Ronnie Coleman’s. I think a lot of us have our minds warped by ads and articles making outrageous claims of growth. Yes, “before” using Super-Nitric-Pump Andro 5000, the guy is slumped, pasty white, and doesn’t have much of a physique. He looks ready to jump off the nearest bridge. Now check out our man in the after photo. Lo and behold, instead of relaxing, he’s flexing hard. Rather than looking forlorn, a shit-eating grin paints his face, as if he has six or seven Playboy Playmates waiting for him. A bronze tan has replaced the white fish-belly skin tone, and that clump of curly hair on his chest and stomach has been neatly shaved off to reveal all sorts of striations

and veins. The ad copy proclaims such amazing accomplishments as, “Gained 30 pounds of muscle, lost 30 pounds of fat! Added three inches to arms! Increased bench press by 250 pounds! Sold his soul to Satan in exchange for eternal youth and riches!” Oh, wait—they usually don’t have that last part. I’ve tried to expose the scams perpetrated in those types of ads before. To re-create the same results, have some decently built bodybuilder intentionally stop training, eat a bunch of crap, let his body hair grow, and stay out of the sun or tanning beds for a few months. That’s all it takes for that Adonis-like body to regress to something more closely resembling the average slob in the gym. That’s when the before pictures are taken. Now, let’s get that bodybuilder and whip him into top shape. Often that coincides with a big contest the guy is going to compete in. He gets back on his training, cardio and good eating (and often, his “special” supplements), and—shazam! Eight or 10 weeks later our guy is the picture of muscular perfection. Snap the “after” photos at this point and put your ad together, giving all the credit for his transformation to the product being advertised.

Those of us who have been around the game awhile won’t fall for that, but a whole lot of beginners and intermediates out there lap it up the way my dog Chewy gobbles down peanut butter any chance she gets. It wouldn’t be so bad if the only result were that they plunk down their cash on a lot of questionable supplements, but the worst thing is that it convinces the person that he’s an utter failure if he doesn’t achieve a similarly spectacular outcome with his physique in that short time. Randy had seen way too many of those ads, as became clear one Saturday when we were training arms on his volume day. He flexed one of his biceps in the mirror and scowled. “They still don’t look that big,” he pouted. “Young buck, what the hell is wrong with you? Maybe it’s because I don’t see you more than once a week lately, but your arms are definitely bigger and have better shape

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Model: Kiyoshi Moody

by Ron Harris • Photography by Michael Neveux

Model: Skip La Cour

than they did just last month.” Randy digested that for a moment but was determined to shoot down any attempt at a compliment or encouragement. He was a master at that—as most bodybuilders are— though he has a long way to go before he reaches my level of deflecting sincere compliments. “Well, maybe, but they’re still nowhere near big enough,” Randy said. “Maybe I should do that arm routine I saw in a magazine where you can add two inches in one day.” I knew the article he was referring to. It claimed that by devoting an entire day in the gym to arm training, hitting the biceps and triceps every hour on the hour for six or eight hours, you could indeed increase their girth by two inches. Some of it was temporary inflammation from beating the crap out of them all day, the author conceded, even while insisting that most of the gains were permanent. I try to keep an open mind, but that one reeked of bull. The only surefire way I know to add two inches to your arms is to shoot them up with about a quart of synthol each—which is something I’m vehemently against. Call me old-fashioned, but I think bodybuilding is about training hard to build muscle, not just sticking a needle in the muscle and pumping it up with oil to make it look as if it’s grown. Besides, the results of synthol are usually glaringly obvious, as the arms and shoulders, the most commonly injected areas, take on a lumpy, misshapen appearance that brings to mind such tragically deformed characters as Quasimodo, the hunchback of Notre Dame; and John Merrick, the Elephant Man. (We all know what happened to Merrick—his skeleton was eventually bought by Michael Jackson and displayed at his Neverland Ranch. Talk about a fate worse than death.) “Randy,” I said, “forget about these crazy quick fixes, seriously. Muscle growth (continued on page 114)

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quick fixes, seriously. Muscle growth is a painfully slow process, even under the best of circumstances. Right now, by having you specialize on your weaker bodyparts, we’re putting those muscle groups on the fast track to growth. At the rate you’re going, I predict you’ll make more gains in your arms, chest and calves in the few

(continued from page 110)

months you do this than you would have in more than a year of regular training.” Randy still didn’t seem satisfied. “I guess, but I really need 20-inch arms and calves.” “Yes, I know; we all do, and I’m still trying to hit those numbers. I

think the problem is that when God was passing out the genetics for big arms, I was stuck in the bathroom due to some bad nachos at the cafeteria in heaven. My guess is that the cheese went bad.” Randy was at a loss. “What are you talking about?” “The point is,” I said, “you’ll eventually get those measurements, but it’s not

Call me old-fashioned, but I thought bodybuilding was about training hard to build muscle, not just sticking a needle in the muscle and pumping it up with oil to make it look as if it’s grown. 114 NOVEMBER 2007 \ www.ironmanmagazine.com

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“As long as you keep improving, you’re succeeding. If muscle came fast and easy, anybody could look like a champion bodybuilder.”

going to happen for your contest next May. Sorry to break it to you. It may take you two, three, perhaps five years until you get close to the size you want to be. I don’t want to scare you away from bodybuilding, but most of the top guys in the IFBB and even at the Nationals have all been training hard for at least 10 years, many of them for as long as 15 or 20.” “Oh, man,” Randy moaned. “I’m going to be an old man before I’m huge.” “I resemble that remark,” I shot back, self-conscious about being 35 now and staring down the barrel of 40 (the red Corvette can’t be too far off). “You have to remember that bodybuilding is a sport unlike most others. In sports like figure skating, tennis and gymnastics, athletes hit their prime in their teens and early 20s and after that are suited only to skating around in a Buzz Lightyear costume in Disney on Ice or doing

infomercials with Carrot Top. “As long as you keep improving, you’re succeeding. If muscle came fast and easy, anybody could look like a champion bodybuilder. But few do. You have to be tremendously dedicated and work hard for many years to build an outstanding physique.” “Ugh. There you go with that many years thing again. You’re killing me.” “I tell you, the time passes by before you know it, kid. It literally seems like yesterday that I was your age and still trying to figure all this stuff out—without a great, cool, mentor like yours truly, I might add.” “Yeah, I know,” Randy said unconvincingly. “You’re the greatest, Ron.” “As long as you constantly evaluate what needs to be improved in your physique and keep coming up with solid plans in limited time

periods to make those improvements, you really have nothing to worry about.” Randy flexed again, but the pump in his biceps had gone away. Luckily, he had a few more sets to go and would regain the tight, swollen look in his arms that we all get off on. “Hey, do you think you can get next Tuesday off from work?” I said, as if out of the blue. Randy furrowed his brow. “I don’t think so, why?” “I was thinking of hanging out here in the gym from six in the morning until 10 at night to train calves. I bet we can put three inches on those puppies.” I cackled like a maniac as I settled down on the preacher bench for a set of singlearm dumbbell curls. “You can be such a jackass sometimes,” said Randy. “Maybe so, but I am the greatest jackass of them all.” IM

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Testosterone

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& Growth

Hormone

Strength, Muscle and Extended Living Through Chemistry? by Jerry Brainum Part 1 Age is an issue of mind over matter. If you don’t mind, it doesn’t matter. —Mark Twain

uman growth hormone and testosterone are very familiar to bodybuilders as potent anabolic hormones. In fact, most of the massive size gains you see in professional bodybuilders, like the records set in baseball and other sports in recent years, are attributed to extensive use of three hormones: testosterone, growth hormone and insulin. But athletes aren’t the only people interested in them. As people age, they generally become deficient in test and GH, starting with a slow decline that begins about age 40. People may also become insulin resistant, which is directly related to levels of the other two hormones, as well as body composition and activity levels. Baby boomers, especially those born between 1946 and 1964, have considerable interest in delaying or offsetting the physical and mental ravages linked to the aging process. Both T and GH therapy have garnered a reputation as fountain-ofyouth hormones because of their

reputed ability to turn back the clock. The greatest therapeutic results are achieved in those who are clinically deficient in them, as ascertained by medical testing. Men deficient in testosterone show a near miraculous turnaround when they take supplemental versions of the hormone—particularly those engaged in bodybuilding or other physical activity. Not having enough testosterone keeps you from making significant gains in muscle size and strength. Not only do you look bad, but your health is adversely affected as well. Men who are deficient in testosterone tend to accrue the gut that medical studies have linked to the development of cardiovascular disease, metabolic syndrome and diabetes. Although growth hormone had been used for years to treat dwarfism in children, the primary impetus to GH-replacement therapy for adults occurred with the 1990 publication of a study by Daniel Rudman, M.D., that followed 21 healthy older men

deficient in insulinlike growth factor 1.1 IGF-1 deficiency points to a lack of sufficient GH. For six months one group got GH injections three times a week. A control group got a placebo. A dose of 0.03 milligram per kilogram of bodyweight was selected because it equaled what’s secreted by young men and was similar to the dose used to treat GH-deficient children. IGF levels were checked monthly. The men in the GH group experienced an 8.8 percent increase in lean body mass, a 7.1 percent increase in skin thickness and firmness at four body sites, a 1.6 percent increase in vertebral bone density and a 14.4 percent drop in bodyfat. Their IGF-1 rose to the level typical of young men. The initial side effects consisted only of a slight rise in blood pressure and blood glucose. Accordingly, Rudman declared, “The overall deterioration of the body that comes with growing old is not inevitable.” An avalanche of publicity led many to suggest that injecting

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Test & GH

A combination of small doses of GH with normal replacement doses of T led to more improvements in body composition than when the subjects got either hormone alone. The two hormones in combination resulted in a 28 percent greater fat loss than either hormone on its own. GH yielded a fountain-of-youth effect. Less focus was given to followon results observed over the next six months. Side effects kicked in: gynecomastia, or male breast development; excess water retention; joint pain; and carpal tunnel syndrome, an impingement of the nerves in the wrist caused by an overgrowth of connective tissue. When the subjects ceased using GH, the progress

theyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;d made reverted to prestudy levels. That implied that GH had to be used without letup to work its miracles. Later studies showed that the problems and side effects of GH replacement are nearly all avoidable if therapy starts at a lower dose that gradually increases depending on response and IGF-1 measure. A similar scenario emerges with testosterone-replacement therapy,

which doesnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t aim to produce the superphysiological results that athletes want but to provide just enough of the hormone to ease test deficiency. For both GH and big T, the right dosage blocks negative side effects. While giving replacement doses to GH- and T-deficient people does appear to improve their quality of (continued on page 128) life greatly,

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Test & GH an implied effect is life extension. Although the many symptoms of hormone deficiency are correlated with decreased life expectancy, opponents of therapy intervention say that there’s no proof that using hormones will extend a normal life span. Indeed, some critics argue the converse: that using supplemental testosterone and GH will decrease life span for a number of reasons.2 Who’s right? To answer that, let’s take a closer look at the hormones, the effects of not having enough of them and how that relates to longevity. By the way, insulin doesn’t figure into the discourse on longevity because the jury is pretty much in on insulin. Both animal and human studies have demonstrated that the less insulin secreted, the longer the life.3 Techniques such as calorie restriction may be effective because they lower resting insulin levels. The high insulin count brought on by insensitivity is linked to such diseases as obesity, metabolic syndrome, cardiovascular disease, cancer and diabetes—all of which shorten life.4 People who live to advanced age are all known to have low resting insulin levels. Mice that have the fat cell insulin cell receptors bred out of them weigh 15 to 25 percent less than average, have an average of 70 percent less bodyfat than normal mice and don’t fatten as they age—no matter what they eat. They also don’t develop diabetes or glucose intolerance, and they live an average of 18 percent longer than normal mice.5 (continued from page 124)

Growth Hormone: The Facts The reluctance of most physicians to prescribe GH and T to adults—even those diagnosed as hormone-deficient—is curious and paradoxical. One investigation found that doctors just don’t want to run the required diagnostics, which can take six to eight hours.6 Moreover, the primary measure of GH deficiency—the amount of IGF-1 in the body—doesn’t even apply to people over 70. One study found that 75 percent of men and 55 percent of women aged 71 to 80 had

The high insulin count brought on by insensitivity is linked to such diseases as obesity, metabolic syndrome, cardiovascular disease, cancer and diabetes—all of which shorten life. normal IGF-1 levels—despite severe growth hormone deficiency.7 Another paradox has to do with the labeling of GH therapy as “experimental” by medical insurance companies, even though the Food and Drug Administration approved adult GH-replacement therapy in 1996. Since the suggested replacement dose of GH for adults are only 10 to 20 percent of what GH-deficient children get, the cost for adults would be considerably less (though not cheap). Yet the same doctors who recoil in

horror from GH- or T-replacement therapy unhesitatingly prescribe other hormones to treat diagnosed deficiencies. Estrogen-replacement therapy for older women is the most obvious example. Older women low on estrogen experience a number of quality-of-life symptoms—hot flashes, sleep disturbances, rapid skin aging, heart disease and osteoporosis. Estrogen therapy can relieve most of them. So far, so good? Estrogen is the only hormone recognized as a carcinogen and associated with the de-

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Test & GH While insulin is required to treat type 1 and many type 2 diabetics, it comes with its own set of side effects, including the risk of hypoglycemia, or low blood sugar, which in a worst-case scenario can land an insulindependent person in a coma.

velopment of breast, uterine and ovarian cancer in women. A major therapy targeting estrogen-sensitive cancers uses drugs that either block estrogen receptors, such as Nolvadex, or inhibit the conversion of androgens to estrogens, such as Arimidix. Interestingly, anabolic steroids, which are based on testosterone, are also occasionally used to treat breast cancer. Doctors who label GH and T as “modern snake oil” when it comes to antiaging therapy also readily prescribe insulin. While insulin is required to treat type 1 and many type 2 diabetics, it comes with its own set of side effects, including the risk of hypoglycemia, or low blood sugar, which in a worst-case scenario can land an insulin-dependent person in a coma. The case of heiress Martha “Sunny” Von Bülow is an example. On December 21, 1980, someone (her husband, Claus, was acquitted of attempted murder) gave Sunny an overdose of insulin that put her in the coma she has yet to come out of. Long-term insulin is also suspected of causing cardiovascular complications. That helps explain why cardiovascular failure is the primary cause of death in diabetics. So why are most physicians so prejudiced against GH or T as antiaging interventions? Many doctors refuse to accept the concept of adult deficiency in both hormones. Although they treat GH deficiency related to some forms of dwarfism, they say that it’s normal for the body to reduce production of GH and T as a protective device, citing antagonistic pleiotropy, the name given to something useful to the young but dangerous to the old. In older people IGF-1, a by-product of GH release, is linked to various types—breast, prostate and colon— of cancer. Experts suggest that the decline of GH and T is the body’s way of protecting against cancer, thus prolonging life. Of course, that doesn’t explain why the same doctors prescribe estrogen and insulin, which are also linked to cancer and

shortened life span. Scientists who claim that GH poses an unacceptable risk to long-term health point to animal studies to defend their positions. In rodents that are born without GH receptors, that don’t secrete GH or IGF-1 or that have resistance to the hormones, life span tends to increase. One type of rodent bred to have no GH lives 42 to 70 percent longer than normal rodents thanks to heightened antioxidant defense mechanisms, enhanced stress resistance, reduced tumor formation and increased insulin sensitivity. True, those rodents tend to be unusually small, or dwarves. Yet another type of rat bred to overproduce a hormone called klotho, which interferes with IGF-1 pathways, is normal in size but lives an average of 19 to 25 percent longer than normal rats. Interestingly, male rats bred with extra klotho live longer than their female counterparts; in most species, in-

cluding Homo sapiens, females usually outlive the males. Studies show that smaller animals tend to live longer. That’s true of mice and dogs and may be true of humans too. The reason appears to be due to the lesser amounts of IGF-1 secreted over a lifetime. In fact, a recent study showed that the primary difference between large and small dogs is that larger dogs secrete much more IGF-1. The larger dogs also average shorter life spans than smaller ones. Human beings who reach really advanced age, such as over 100, are always smaller than average. While the people on the Japanese island of Okinawa are known for their longevity, the very old stand about 4’8” on average and often weigh not much

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Test & GH more than 100 pounds—and that’s the men. You never see an unusually tall or heavy person over age 100. Growth hormone may shorten life span by suppressing antioxidative protection systems in the body. The resulting oxidative damage may be the cause of the increased mortality seen with GH use—or so say the GH-therapy critics, who point to humans born with genetic mutations similar to those found in rodents. Some of them never receive hormone-replacement therapy yet live long and healthy lives, often exceeding the normal life expectancy. While GH and IGF-1 are required to prevent the premature destruction of brain cells, people who have genetic mutations that leave them without GH have no cognitive or brain problems. A recent study found that humans born with deficient IGF-1 synthesis don’t seem to develop cancer, while 9 to 24 percent of their immediate relatives

having no IGF-1 deficiency developed malignancies, mainly lung, prostate, colon and breast tumors.8 On the other hand, there are documented cases of humans born deficient in GH who died prematurely.9 One involved five males and six females, all brothers and sisters, who were born with GH deficiencies and were dwarves. They were compared with their 11 male and 14 female brothers and sisters, all born normal (except that their parents had to be crazy to have 36 children). The male children lacking GH lived to an average age of 56, while their normal brothers and sisters died at an average age of 75. The primary causes of death in all the siblings were heart disease and infections. The women lacking GH died even younger than the men, average age 46.

GH and IGF-1: The Dynamics A study of older women lacking in IGF-1 showed an elevation of a substance called interleukin-6, which is an inflammatory mediator.10 They had significant limitation in mobility and daily living and were at greater risk of death than women (continued on page 136)

Not having enough testosterone keeps you from making significant gains in muscle size and strength. Not only do you look bad, but your health is adversely affected as well.

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Test & GH Another study involved rodents with a lifetime deficiency of GH and IGF-1. While their life spans were about the same as those of normal rats, treating the GH-deficient rodents from four to 14 weeks of age increased average and maximum life span by 14 percent and 12 percent, respectively. about how rodents born deficient in GH live longer than normal rodents.

Hormone Therapy: Risks vs. Rewards Cancer is the major concern of doctors regarding the use of re-

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Current thinking on dosage and long-term GHreplacement therapy for adults indicates little or no side effects. The body seems to tolerate a normal range of GH and IGF-1.

Neveux \ Model: Lee Apperson

with high IGF-1 and low interleukin-6. Another study involved rodents with a lifetime deficiency of GH and IGF1.11 While their life spans were about the same as those of normal rats, treating the GH-deficient rodents from four to 14 weeks of age increased average and maximum life span by 14 percent and 12 percent, respectively. Autopsies revealed that they had 18 to 30 percent fewer tumors than normal animals. Lack of GH also prevented death from kidney failure, a common cause of rodent death. The total disease burden was 16 to 24 percent less in the deficient rodents; however, the incidence of stroke was 154 to 198 percent higher. Rodents lacking in GH also showed accelerated osteoarthritis and cartilage degeneration. The authors concluded that growth hormone and IGF-1 are â&#x20AC;&#x153;necessary to maximize reproductive fitness and growth of offspring early in life and to maintain cognitive function and prevent cartilage degeneration later in life. The diverse effects of GH and IGF-1 are consistent with a model of antagonistic pleiotropy and suggest that in response to a deficiency of these hormones, increased life span is derived at the risk of functional impairments and tissue degeneration.â&#x20AC;? While some rodent studies show that mutant GH-deficient dwarf rodents live longer, others show that giving them GH can extend life. A 1990 study done at North Dakota State University used 52 mice that were the equivalent of old people. Half received placebo injections, and half got GH injections. After 13 weeks, 16, or 61 percent, of the placebo mice had died, while all but two, or 97 percent, of the GHtreated animals were still alive. The GH animals exceeded the normalmice life span. While that doesnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t prove the same effect would occur in humans, it balances the critiques (continued from page 132)

Neveux \ Model: JIm Morris

Test & GH

Long-term insulin use is suspected of causing cardiovascular complications. That helps explain why cardiovascular failure is the primary cause of death in diabetics. placement therapy in GH-deficient adults.12 IGF-1 is known to stimulate cell division and inhibit the self-destruction of damaged cells, which can turn into cancer. The older you are, the greater the risk of having damaged or potentially cancerous cells in your body. IGF-1 may cause that, although research hasn’t confirmed the theory. Long-term data in children and adults treated with GH for 27,000 patient years reveal no increased cancer rates. A review of GH-replacement therapy in adults indicated that it’s not linked to tumor formation. Patients with acromegaly, which involves an overproduction of GH and IGF-1 due to a tumor in the pituitary gland, show no abnormal cancer increase despite having IGF-1 circulating superabundantly in their bodies,13 although other studies dispute that.14 Another thing to consider is that IGF-1 isn’t

elevated but instead is normalized with GH therapy. IGF-1 binding protein also rises with GH therapy, thus preventing the negative effects associated with active, or free, IGF-1. Doctors also worry about the relationship between GH therapy and diabetes. GH opposes the action of insulin because it triggers high fat release, which interferes with glucose uptake into muscle cells and encourages insulin resistance. Sound plausible? Only two cases of reversible diabetes have been reported from a combined series of 400 treated GH-deficient adults. In a one-year study of adults on GH therapy, subjects experienced increased insulin sensitivity, probably

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Test & GH

A recent 10-year prospective study of the metabolic effects of adult GH-replacement therapy found that the subjects dropped bodyfat early on and kept it off for 10 years. related to bodyfat loss. Another seven-year study of GH treatment in adults found no change in insulin sensitivity. A recent report found that a 36year-old bodybuilder who used growth hormone for three years had diabetic symptoms, such as increased thirst and appetite and excessive urination. He’d used insu-

lin for the past year to counter the high-blood-sugar reaction to GH, a common practice among athletes, but he became dehydrated. Put on intravenous fluids and gradually increasing amounts of insulin over five days, he got over his diabetic symptoms, leading the doctors to suspect GH as the underlying cause. Bodybuilders and other

athletes, however, inject as much as 75 percent more GH than the replacement-therapy doses given to GH-deficient children. That practice places them in unknown territory as far as possible negative health effects are concerned, but it bears no relationship to the far smaller doses used in replacement therapy. A recent 10-year prospective study of the metabolic effects of adult GH-replacement therapy found that the subjects dropped bodyfat early on and kept it off for 10 years.15 The patients experienced sustained improvement in serum lipids, such as cholesterol and lowdensity lipoprotein. They also experienced a decline in glycosylated hemoglobin, a measure of longterm glucose control, although they had higher glucose levels at the start of the GH therapy. The men in the study experienced greater beneficial effects than the women—the usual pattern with most GH-replacement studies. One widely publicized review of GH-replacement therapy for adults came up negative.16 The lead author, Hao Liu, M.D., said, “You’re paying a lot of money for a therapy that may have minimal or no benefit and yet has a potential for serious side effects.” The study found that GH modestly affected body composition, increasing lean mass by an average of two kilograms and decreasing bodyfat by about the same amount. There were, however, no changes in bone density, cholesterol or maximal oxygen consumption, leading to the assertion that “there’s no data to suggest that growth hormone prolongs life, and none of these studies makes that claim.” Here’s a red flag: Liu’s analysis of published GH research studies excluded any that treated diagnosed GH deficiency. A primary symptom of GH deficiency in adults is extreme fatigue, which detracts from the quality of life. The GH-deficient have reduced maximum oxygen uptake, which is related to fatigue, much in the manner of those suffering from congestive heart failure. Giving them GH significantly increases oxygen consumption.17 Liu’s main point seems to be that the risks of GH-replacement therapy outweigh the benefits to those who

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Test & GH effects. The body seems to tolerate a normal range of GH and IGF-1. Many scientists who study GH suggest that further refinement of GH therapy will involve oral administration, based on the discovery of GH-releasing peptides in 1976. These drugs addressed the fact that in most older people the pituitary gland can produce GH, just not in effective amounts. The GH-secreting agents bypass that problem, releasing hormones on a scale similar to that of young people. In addition, the drugs have a built-in safety mechanism because hormone feedback prevents an overdose. These secretagogues, as they’re called, may represent the future of GH-replacement therapy.

Those in the group combining GH and T also had greater muscle mass gains and an increase in maximum oxygen intake, a measure of fitness. don’t have a GH deficiency. Makes sense—until you realize that the majority of people over age 60 are deficient in GH. You’ll recall that most of the side effects linked to GH are avoidable if you start with lower doses.

Neveux \ Model: Katsumi Ishimura

GH and the Future

In the studies analyzed by Liu and his team, the doses of GH were far higher than necessary, leading to numerous side effects. Current thinking on dosage and long-term GH-replacement therapy for adults, however, indicates little or no side

Another possibility lies in combining GH and testosterone therapy. One recent study of 80 older men found that a combination of small doses of GH with normal replacement doses of T led to more improvements in body composition than when subjects got either hormone alone. The two hormones in combination resulted in a 28 percent greater fat loss than either hormone on its own. Those in the group combining GH and T also had greater muscle mass gains and an increase in maximum oxygen intake, a measure of fitness. So will GH-replacement therapy prolong life? One study published in 1999 showed a significant increase in mortality in hospital patients given GH—42 percent, compared to 18 percent for a placebo group.18 Sounds bad, until you consider that the patients were treated with unusually large doses of GH, ranging from 16 to 24 international units per day. When you know that even the largest professional bodybuilder averages three to six I.U. daily, you get a better perspective of this study. Research by Bengt-Ake Bengtsson of the Salgrenska Hospital in Gothenburg, Sweden, studied 333 patients diagnosed with pituitary gland failure between 1956 and 1987. They were given replacement doses of all pituitary hormones except GH. The GH-deficient patients died at twice the expected rate, 107

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Test & GH deaths compared to 57 in the overall population matched for age and sex. The primary cause of death was cardiovascular disease, which occurred twice as often in the GH-deficient patients as it did in the overall patient population. Considering the effects of a lack of GH, such as heart problems and decreased brain function, GH-replacement therapy likely will prolong life. In addition, several studies show that GH-replacement therapy blunts excess inflammation in the body,17 which is strongly linked to several major causes of death, such as cancer and cardiovascular disease. Various markers of inflammation drop significantly within three months of initiating GH-replacement therapy. Giving GH to those deficient in it leads to improved quality of life, whatever the contention of medical “experts” who may have their own agenda when they label GH therapy “snake oil science.” Dr. H.C. Verhoeven, director of the Center for Reproductive Medicine, Endocrinology, Genetics and Antiaging Medicine in Dusseldorf, Germany, sums up GH therapy as follows: “There is no doubt that GH continues to play an important role throughout normal adult life. Abundant data

of reported beneficial effects of GH-replacement therapy in GH-deficient patients cannot be disputed. Long-term follow-up data demonstrate that GH-replacement therapy is safe. The pursuit of physical and mental health in increasing aging is more than human, it is humanistic.” Next month we’ll discuss testosterone.

References 1 Rudman, D., et al. (1990). Effects of growth hormone in men over 60 years old. New Eng J Med. 32:1-6. 2 Laron, Z. (2005). Do deficiencies in growth hormone and insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1) shorten or prolong longevity? Mech Aging Devlop. 126:305-307. 3 Paolisso, G., et al. (1996). Glucose tolerance and insulin action in healthy centenarians. Am J Physiol. 270:E890-E894. 4 Facchini, F.S., et al. (2001). Insulin resistance as a predictor of agerelated diseases. J Clin Endocrin Metab. 86:35743578. 5 Bluher, M., et al. (2002). Adipose tissue selective insulin receptor knockout protects against obesity and obesity-related glucose intolerance. Dev Cell. 3:25-38. 6 Cook, D.M. (2002). Shouldn’t adults with growth hormone deficiency be offered growth hormone replacement therapy? Ann Intern Med. 137:197-201. 7 Mukherjee, A., et al. (2003). Seeking the optimal target range for insulinlike growth factor-1 during the treatment of adult growth hormone disorders. J Clin Endocrin Metabol. 88:5865-5870. 8 Shevah, O., et al. (2007). Patients with congenital deficiency

of IGF-1 seem protected from the development of malignancies: A preliminary report. Growth Horm IGF Res. In press. 9 Besson, A., et al. (2003). Reduced longevity in untreated patients with isolated growth hormone deficiency. J Clin Endocrin Metab. 88:36643667. 10 Cappola, A., et al. (2003). Insulin-like growth factor-1 and interleukin-6 contribute synergistically to disabillty and mortality in older women. J Clin Endocrin Metabol. 88:2019-2025. 11 Sonntag, W.E., et al. (2005). Adult-onset growth hormone and IGF-1 deficiency reduces neoplastic disease, modifies age-related pathology and increases life span. Endocrin. 146:2920-32. 12 Perry, J.K., et al. (2006). The oncogenic potential of growth hormone. Growth Horm IGF Res. 16:277-289. 13 Orme, S.M., et al. (1998). Mortality and cancer incidence in acromegaly: A retrospective cohort study. J Clin Endocrin Metabol. 83:2730-2734. 14 Jenkins, P.J. (2004). Acromegaly and cancer. Horm Res. 62(Supp 1):108-115. 15 Gotherstrom, G., et al. (2007). A ten-year, prospective study of the metabolic effects of growth hormone replacement in adults. J Clin Endocrin Metab. 92:1442-5. 16 Liu, H., et al. (2007). Systematic review: The safety and efficacy of growth hormone in the healthy elderly. Ann Intern Med. 146:104-15. 17 Nass, R., et al. (1995). Effect of growth hormone replacement therapy on physical work capacity and cardiac and pulmonary function in patients with hGH deficiency aquired in adulthood. J Clin Endocrin Metab. 80:552-557. 18 Takala, J., et al. (1999). Increased mortality associated with growth hormone treatment in critical ill adults. New Eng J Med. 341:785-92. 19 Serri, O., et al. (1999). Alterations of monocyte function in patients with growth hormone deficiency: effect of substitutive GH therapy. J Clin Endocrin Metab. 84:58-63. IM

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Presents

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X-treme Lean Q&A by Steve Holman and Jonathan Lawson

E-book Excerpt: Fat Churn and Burn

ost bodybuilders strive to build mass and more mass, and that can often result in bodyfat and more bodyfat. Believe it or not, a lean, ripped 200pound bodybuilder will look much bigger than a 240-pound smooth one. It has to do with delineated muscles, etched-in-granite hardness and streaking vascularity. For example, check out the back shots of Jonathan on pages 148 and 149. He weighed only slightly less in the ripped photo, but it looks as if he weighed at least 20 pounds more. What about women? While most don’t want muscularity or vascularity, the same ripping diet and cutting strategies that smart bodybuilders use can get any woman leaner faster, with curves in all the right places—especially if she lifts weights to boost her metabolism and add some shapely muscle. Becky Holman’s transformation photos on page 149 are proof of that (more on her in the Q&A coming up).

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Neveux \ Models: Steve and Becky Holman

Men and women can use the same strategies to get lean. One key is understanding that carbs are fuel—don’t overfill your tank.

cost than carbs, so eating proteinbased meals will help you burn more calories and, if you keep your meals small—in the 300-calorie range—you’ll limit insulin production. That’s a good thing because insulin stops fat burning and helps your body store excess calories as bodyfat. The only time insulin is good is immediately after a workout, when it helps shuttle protein and carbs into your muscles. Research shows that taking in even 100 grams of carbs (that’s 400 calories) after a workout won’t increase fat deposits. Q: I weigh around 215. I’m pretty active, but I need a better body. If I want to have a fit 190-to-200-pound physique, should I drop 25 pounds—to 190—and then build the muscle, or should I just drop 10 to 15 pounds and then use weight training to build muscle? Ideally, I want to be a fairly ripped 190. A: First, you shouldn’t be so hung up on weighing a certain amount. In fact, you probably shouldn’t weigh yourself. Go by how you look (take photos, as we outline in Chapter 3). If you’re losing notches on your belt, you’re losing fat. When you lose fat and gain muscle, you redistribute your weight. In other words, you’ll look

Here are a few questions and answers from the last chapter of our best-selling e-book Xtreme Lean [www .X-tremeLean.com] that will put you on the road to an attention-grabbing body, whether you’re a man or a woman:

Holman \ Model: Jonathan Lawson

Q: What’s the number-one thing I can do to start dropping fat immediately? A: Exercise! If you mean from a dietary standpoint, the first thing you should always do is start eating five to six protein-based meals a day. As we’ve said, protein has a higher energy 148 NOVEMBER 2007 \ www.ironmanmagazine.com

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Muscle detail makes Jonathan look heavier in this shot than his smooth one at left, but his bodyweight is slightly less here.

same. Think about that, and let it sink in. So step away from the scale!

Neveux \ Model: Becky Holman

Holman \ Model: Becky Holman

completely different if you lose 10 pounds of fat and add 10 pounds of muscle, but you’ll weigh exactly the

Becky Holman’s transformation took place over a few months. It takes consistency, discipline and tactical X-treme Lean eating and exercising.

Concentrate on working out hard, gradually adding cardio, being consistent and eating relatively clean. You’ll be amazed at the changes your body will make. Photos will prove it. Q: I go to the gym with my husband. Is it okay for me to work out with him on one of the programs in your e-books, or will I get too big? A: Work out with him as hard as you can—and include set-extending techniques like X Reps and drop sets to build muscle and burn fat. They create muscle burn, which triggers the release of growth hormone, a potent fat burner—but you won’t get giant muscles! A woman’s overall (continued on page 152) www.ironmanmagazine.com \ NOVEMBER 2007 149

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Neveux \ Model: Greg Smyers

Intensity in the gym is all important, as muscle burn helps the body churn out growth hormone, which is a crucial bodyfat incinerator.

(continued from page 149) hormonal

makeup prevents excessive muscle gain. You have more estrogen and not a lot of testosterone, which means you’ll never look like a male bodybuilder—not even close. You’ll just get curves in all the right places. Case in point: Photos show the astounding four-month transformation of Steve’s wife, Becky. She trained hard three days a week, using set-extending techniques like

drop sets. [Find her story, diet and training program in Chapter 6 of X-treme Lean.] What about women bodybuilders? Look how big some of them are. They take male hormones to make their bigger muscles possible. Even many men have to supplement their male hormones to get extremely big muscles, so you don’t have to worry one iota. [By the way, we do not take steroids, and none of our photos are

retouched.] Q: You tend to favor Pro-Fusion protein powder. Does it work as a good between-meals protein drink, and can I drink it 30 minutes before a workout? What about as my postworkout shake? How many times a day do I use Pro-Fusion? Is it better than regular protein supplements? Can women take it too? A: Pro-Fusion is a great protein

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source because it combines whey, micellar casein and egg. You get fast and slow release of amino acids. Having one or two scoops mixed in water about an hour before you train is an ideal way to use it. You can also use it between meals or with meals—if the meal needs more protein. And, yes, women can and should use it too. As she outlined in her transformation chapter, Becky Holman used it every day. One of her favorite between-meals snacks

Neveux \ Model: Katie Lohman

Women can train hard just like men. Their hormonal profiles make it impossible to pack on pounds of ripped muscle (thank you, Mother Nature!).

during that time was chocolate Pro-Fusion in water with a tablespoon of peanut butter. (She said that it helped quash her cravings for Reese’s peanut butter cups.) You can use Pro-Fusion after the workout as well, but it’s best to mix it in fruit juice instead of water, as you need carbs to replenish glycogen stores then. For the best post-training boost, however, we recommend a postworkout-specific supplement like RecoverX. With

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Increasing activity gradually and replacing some carbs with protein will help you get leaner, but don’t go by the scale. Muscle weighs more than fat. In other words, you can get leaner but weigh the same. increases the use of fat substrates for energy.

specially formulated postworkout powders you get fast protein (whey and hydrolyzed whey) and fast carbs flooding your bloodstream, which is exactly what your muscles need after a hard workout. Oh, yeah, women can and should use postworkout drinks too. Becky always had RecoverX after each of her three weekly workouts. We’re big believers in fast protein and carbs plus creatine after training and take the X Stack, which is RecoverX and CreaSol mixed in water, after every intense workout. Q: Currently, I do four 30minute cardio sessions, one on Saturday, one on Sunday and one on each of my leg days. Everyone I talk with says I should increase the number of minutes so I can get into burning bodyfat for energy. Is that correct—should I do longer sessions? A: A lot of studies say that the body doesn’t begin burning fat during steady-state cardio until about 25 minutes in; however, you can speed that up by doing the following: 1) Not eating any carbs for a few

3) Doing your cardio after a weight-training workout, as the lifting will deplete your bloodstream of glucose and prime your body to shift to using fat for energy during the low-intensity cardio that follows.

hours prior to your session. Instead, have a small protein shake (one scoop) or a few amino acid capsules (at least five) about 30 minutes before to prevent muscle breakdown. 2) Drinking a cup of coffee (or something else that contains about 100 milligrams of caffeine) before your session, as caffeine

You say you do cardio on leg days. New research suggests that it’s not a good idea to do it after your lower-body workout because it can disrupt leg-muscle recovery. A better plan is to do it on the same day but at low intensity before the workout, as a warmup. Or you can do it after if you wait at least 30 minutes—later in the day would probably be better. Doing cardio immediately after an upper-body workout is fine, however, and will enable you to tap into bodyfat sooner. As for your weekend cardio, follow the above three suggestions: Don’t eat carbs before you do it, have some caffeine and a small protein shake or a few branched-chain amino acid capsules 30 minutes before (our anticatabolic/anabolic

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Fat-Churn-and-Burn Supplement Support There’s no doubt that specific supplements can speed and enhance your fat-loss efforts. Here are a few of our favorites, which we use during our ripping phase. Fat burner. You may be saying, “Duh,” but there’s one specific ingredient, besides caffeine, you should look for: forskolin. Several new studies have shown significant fat-loss effects with human subjects who took a forskolin-based supplement—with no serious negative side effects. Positive side effects, other than ramping up fat loss, include lower blood pressure and more high-density lipoprotein, but there’s a musclesize-building twist: Forskolin also pumps up free testosterone, the active form of that key anabolic hormone (Obes Res. 13[8]:1335-1343; 2005)! L-carnitine. This compound helps move fat into the mitochondria of the cells for energy—in other words, it shuttles bodyfat into the furnace—but like forskolin it also has mass-building properties. New research says that carnitine increases anabolic receptors in muscle— something anabolic steroids do (J Steroid Biochem Mol Bio. 93[1]:35-42; 2005). That means much faster size gains. It’s also been shown to boost muscle recovery and muscular force production (J Strength Cond Res. 17:455-462; 2003). (That means it can synergize with creatine and betaalanine to give your X Reps more firepower.) Vitamin C (yes, vitamin C). A study out of Arizona State University found a correlation between low vitamin C and low fat burning during steady-state exercise. Subjects who didn’t have adequate vitamin C levels burned 25 percent less fat than those who had normal levels of the vitamin. Giving vitamin C to those who were deficient increased fat-burning activity. Vasodilator. These are usually arginine-based nitric oxide precursors designed to give you a bigger pump from your weight-training workouts. Studies suggest that one Jonathan and Steve flex roadblock to better fat burnabs: 10374_133.tif ing is restricted blood flow; so it only makes sense to take a vasodilator prior to your cardio to open up the blood vessels and unhinge the fatloss gate. —S.H. and J.L. Gut check. Lawson and Holman display their X-treme lean results. Editor’s note: For specific brand and dose recommendations as well as other muscle-building-supplement suggestions, visit www .X-Rep.com and check out the supplement blog there.

stack—the cardio fat bomb—is discussed in “Super 7 Size Surge Supplement”at X-Rep.com). You can also bump up the amount of cardio you do to 45 minutes; just don’t make it very intense. If you can’t carry on a conversation during your cardio, you’re probably working too hard and dipping into muscle glycogen stores rather than bodyfat. More on that in the next answer. Q: When and for how long should I do cardio to start losing fat? Also, how many days a

week of cardio do you suggest, and what about high-intensity cardio? A: There are two ways to do cardio: slow, steady-state work, which means 20 to 40 minutes of mediumintensity fast walking, and highintensity interval training, or HIIT, which means going all out for 20 seconds, then slow for 40 seconds, then repeating that sequence four to eight times. An example is sprinting the straightaways and walking the curves on a running track.

Steady-state work burns calories and can tap into fat stores during the activity; interval training also burns calories but doesn’t burn as much fat during the session. So steady-state cardio is the ticket if you want to lose fat, right? Not necessarily. HIIT ramps up your metabolism to burn more fat after the workout. In fact, interval training has been found to burn more fat overall than steady-state work, even though it doesn’t burn much fat during the actual activity. The reason is the metabolic uptick you get from muscle repair that takes place after the exercise. That doesn’t happen after steady-state work because little, if any, muscle trauma occurs. In other words, interval training has the same metabolic effect as a hard weight workout and can stress the muscles you use in the same way—it trains fast-twitch fibers in your quads, hams and calves. That means you don’t want to do it the day before or the day after a hard leg workout. You could use high-intensity interval cardio as part of your leg workout or as a substitute for it, but you have to be cautious. Too much can trigger overtraining. Remember, you’re getting the same systemic effect when you hit weights, no matter what bodypart you’re working. Too much intensity training will overstress your recovery system quickly. That’s a lot of info, so let us give you our suggestions. You can do steady-state, mediumintensity cardio anytime, about as often as you can fit it into your schedule—but not immediately

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day or Sunday. (It’s a good idea to schedule at least one workout-free day to give your body time for systemic recovery.) As we said, you can use it as part of your leg routine during the week if you like, but you may want to cut back on quad, calf and hamstring weight work that day. Q: How do you stay motivated? A: Staying motivated is one of the Getting fast carbs is essential after hardest parts of building muscle your workout, when your muscles and burning fat. For us it’s most are primed for nutrient uptake. difficult in the winter, when sugary foods are everywhere and our physiques are hidden from view. And to be honest, we both add some fat between Thanksgiving and New Year’s Day. As spring approaches, say, around the end of March, we start training for some detail and ramp up the intensity. We also begin to gradually drop our calories—or at least eat cleaner. Healthful, proteinOnce we start rich meals and leaning out, our creatine are part of workout intenthe ripping plan. sity automatically after a leg workout. increases, and the looks It’s not as efficient as and comments we get, interval training, but it even from complete can help create a calostrangers, add rocket fuel rie deficit so you get to our motivation. That rid of bodyfat. Plus, it pushes us to gradually won’t steer you toward reduce our calories and overtraining as easily as ramp up cardio activity. interval cardio can. Once you start making You can do high-inX-treme Lean progress, tensity interval cardio you’ll no doubt get lots on days when you don’t of those types of comtrain with weights, but ments, not to mention don’t do it on the day approving glances, with before or the day after a raised eyebrow or two, a leg-training day. Keep in mind that from both sexes. Is it all worth it? it has an effect on your recovery and You bet! And you’ll feel great, with lower body similar to a hard weightself-confidence to spare! training workout, so if you’re on the Editor’s note: For more info on brink of overtraining with weights, the e-book X-treme Lean, visit www HIIT can push you over the edge. If .X-tremeLean.com. See other you’re training five days a week with articles by Steve Holman and Jonaweights, we suggest you do only one than Lawson at Bodybuilding.com interval cardio workout—on Saturas well as X-Rep.com. IM

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Heavy Duty The Wisdom of Mike Mentzer by John Little Q: I’m intrigued by Mike Mentzer’s Consolidation Routine as outlined in High Intensity

Training the Mike Mentzer Way and The Wisdom of Mike Mentzer. Mike explained that two to three sets once a week is all you need to build strength and lean mass. It seems to make perfect sense. Can I use the program to build muscle while dieting to lose fat at the same time, or would I need to include some form of aerobic activity to help burn the fat and become leaner? A: We conducted a study at my facility that tested a once-a-week training protocol that was very similar to Mike’s Consolidated Routine. We went with once a week as the optimal training frequency based on a previous study [see IRON MAN, December ’95, “The Nautilus North Study”]. In February 2006, 33 subjects—22 women and 11 men, aged 25 to 64—took part in a research study at Nautilus North Strength & Fitness Centre. They were members who’d been training with us for more than a year, so they weren’t beginners and were accustomed to the rigors of high-intensity training. After years of listening to “the latest thing” to come down the river of diet programs, we decided to conduct a study to determine just how little exercise was required for losing pure bodyfat. The study lasted 10 weeks. Participants ate a well-balanced, modestly calorie-reduced

diet of food that you can find in any supermarket—three meals a day, plus two snacks—as Mike recommended. No drugs were involved. No supplements were employed, nor were they required. The subjects worked out once a week. We started everyone on a six-set exercise program, consisting of leg presses, seated rows, bench presses, pulldowns, lower-back extensions and seated shoulder presses. Each exercise was performed for one set to failure. Every two weeks we tested the subjects’ body composition in a Bod Pod chamber, courtesy of Body Comp, to see if the weight they were losing was fat, muscle or both. Then we reduced the calorie intake of the subjects by 100, trained them once a week for another two weeks and repeated the process. After the first two weeks they lost fat but also some muscle. I contacted Doug McGuff, M.D., who’s run many diet programs at his Ultimate Exercise facility in South Carolina. I asked if losing some muscle was inevitable whenever you have a negative calorie balance. Doug replied that he believed whenever the body doesn’t have enough energy to maintain its mass, it will jettison its most metabolically expensive tissue—in this instance muscle. We had reduced the subjects’ calories by 100 at that point and, believing that it would be impractical to expect full-tank mileage out of a half tank of gas, we reduced the sets

in the workout from six to four—leg presses, seated rows, bench presses and shoulder presses. We wanted to emphasize compound exercises involving many muscle groups in order to recruit the greatest possible number of muscle fibers, thus lessening the chances of atrophy and giving the body a reason to hold on to muscle during the period of negative calorie intake. After two more weeks we retested body composition and found a general loss, albeit smaller, of muscle along with the loss of bodyfat. Then it occurred to me that trainees who are preparing to perform a six- or four-set workout would have to pace themselves on intensity, or energy out, moment by moment in order to complete the workout. Many of the subjects simply didn’t have the fuel to do justice to all four exercises. They could complete them all, mind you, just not at a level sufficient to stimulate muscle growth. In preparation for weeks 5 and 6 we reduced their calories by another 100 and cut the workout volume to three exercises once a week—leg presses, seated rows and bench presses. When we podded them at the end of week 6, they all had lost more fat. To our delight, however, the muscle loss had stopped and in some cases had begun to reverse. At that point we reduced the workout volume of half of the participants to two sets once a week—leg presses and either seated rows or bench

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Mike Mentzer experimented with various training modalities.

presses on a rotating basis—and kept them at that volume for the remaining four weeks. The next two Bod Pod measurements were most telling. All of the subjects lost more bodyfat and, with the lowest calorie intake at any point in the study, all built muscle. Here is a summary of the results:

Neveux \ Model: Mike Metzer

Heavy Duty

• Upper body, women: 32.51 percent • Average overall strength increase: 35.46 percent • Total lean mass increase: 132.8 percent • Average lean gain, men: 6.21 percent • Average lean gain, women: 4.52 percent

Weight Loss • Total weight loss for 33 subjects: 442.4 pounds • Greatest weight loss, men: 43.2 pounds • Greatest weight loss, women: 23.6 pounds • Average weight loss: 17.02 pounds

• Overall average lean gain: 5.11 percent Never in the history of fat loss and exercise has that much fat been lost from such a small amount of exercise. All of the muscle gain took place not in 10 weeks (all subjects lost muscle during the first six weeks of the study) but in the last

• Total pure fat loss: 405 pounds • Greatest fat loss, men: 33.8 pounds • Average fat loss, men: 20.9 pounds

four weeks, as a result of a two-set workout (à la Mike’s Consolidated Routine) that averaged a mere two minutes only once a week. Moreover, when the results were compared between groups that trained with more exercise and those that trained with less, it was immediately apparent that those who trained the least lost more fat and gained more muscle by a ratio of 2-to-1. They needed no 45-minute-per-day sessions on a treadmill to lose that much bodyfat. Nor did they need any other form of aerobic exercise or four-hour (or more) workout sessions to build muscle. Indeed, those who did the higher-volume workouts lost muscle. Think for a moment of the billions of man hours wasted over the years by people who believed they had to train several hours a week to lose bodyfat. We controlled the diet for everyone who took part, meaning that all the subjects ate the same food, in the same ratios and the same number of calories. The calories were higher at the start (1,700 for the men and 1,400 for the women) and then reduced by 100 calories every two weeks. With a below-maintenance diet like that, we knew we weren’t providing the optimal metabolic environment for growing muscle, which made the gains that much more impressive. Those facts fly in the face of what the fitness industry has preached for decades. But then, the fitness industry exists to

Training too frequently prevents your body from maintaining muscle tissue, let alone growing it.

• Average pure fat loss: 15.58 pounds

Strength Increases (After Only 10 Workouts) • Lower body, men: 43.05 percent • Upper body, men: 30.42 percent • Lower body, women: 43.73 percent 166 NOVEMBER 2007 \ www.ironmanmagazine.com

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Neveux \ Model: Berry Kabov

To build muscle you need to train within its anaerobic pathways, meaning up to 70 seconds.

Health Benefits Given the high number of injuries and osteoarthritis cases from overuse of joints and connective tissues, it’s painfully obvious that the supposed benefit of the present trend of performing “more” exercise doesn’t outweigh its health risks, which are considerable. As Mike pointed out more than 10 years ago, the ideal health prescription would be to perform the precise amount of exercise required rather than trying to determine just how much exercise you can tolerate. While we had initially been looking only to see if building muscle would enable trainees to lose bodyfat without having to resort to daily aerobics, additional health benefits to the participants in our study were nothing short of remarkable: Those with a family history of high blood

pressure no longer needed their medication, a sure sign of cardiovascular improvement. Nor did those with a history of dangerously high cholesterol. One diabetic participant, with his doctor’s blessing, was able to reduce his nightly insulin intake by 70 percent. Moreover, one subject who’d had pain as a result of knee-replacement surgery performed two years previously now found that she could literally bound up flights of stairs, which had been impossible before. Incredible results from a workout that lasted, literally, a fraction of the time that most people seeking to lose weight would otherwise exercise.

The Reason? In a word: science. In the past people desiring to lose weight have looked to the opinion of the commercial fitness

The amount of exercise required to produce exceptional results is much less than people realize.

Neveux \ Model: Brenda Kelly

sell treadmills, supplements and other products, not necessarily to dispense scientifically valid exercise advice.

industry. Consider the following medical facts: • Muscle is metabolically expensive tissue. It requires more calories at rest than any other tissue and is responsible for 70 percent of the calories burned on a daily basis. The more you have of it, the higher your resting metabolic rate, or fat-burning ability, will be. • Muscle is the first casualty in most diets and exercise programs. If you don’t use resistance exercise, you’ll lose muscle. If you use resistance exercise but work out too often or do too many exercises, you’ll also lose muscle. • To build muscle you need to train within its anaerobic pathways, meaning up to 70 seconds; any training beyond that point dilutes the potency of the training stimulus and could cost you muscle. • Doing too many exercises in a workout requires you to pace yourself, thus preventing you from training any one exercise to total failure, which is the real stimulus for change. If you never drain your gas tank, what reason does your body have to build a bigger gas tank? • Training too frequently prevents your body from maintaining muscle tissue, let alone growing it. Mike dealt with these issues in Heavy Duty II: Mind & Body: “Ultimately everyone, no matter what their genetics, will have to reduce the volume and frequency to where only two to three sets of primarily compound movements will be used—and one time a week training or less…. Any exercise conducted beyond what is suggested

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Heavy Duty

Update: A One-Set Workout? During the 10-week Nautilus North fat-loss program we recognized that the clients would have to train as intensely as they could in order to preserve or increase their lean tissue. That would lead to an increased metabolic rate and cause them to burn more calories—even at rest. As the greater the intensity of effort, the briefer such effort can be, we quickly recognized that some clients were running on empty after performing only two sets in their weekly workouts. As mentioned above, we eventually divided them into two groups. One group was kept at three exercises performed once a week, while the other group was reduced to a mere two sets performed once a week. Also as mentioned, the group that did less training gained more muscle and lost more fat by a 2to-1 ratio. That wasn’t an anomaly but rather the normal response for everyone across the board. One of the clients in the two-setsonce-a-week group indicated that she was willing to experiment in reducing the volume of her workout even further. After the study she dropped her weekly workout volume from two sets to one highintensity set per session performed once a week. Supervision played a key role in the process, as most people don’t by nature train their muscles to an all-out effort without sufficient motivation and coaxing. After four more weeks on a reduced-calorie diet and training on average for one minute per week, however, we retested her in Body Comp’s Bod Pod tracking machine. We were stunned that such a brief workout had resulted in her losing an additional five pounds of fat and gaining an additional three pounds of muscle!

We’ll be conducting another study in the near future in which all subjects will perform just one set per week, and we’ll report the findings to the readers of IRON MAN. The implications could completely revolutionize the fitness industry. Editor’s note: For a complete presentation of Mike Mentzer’s Heavy Duty training system, consult his books Heavy Duty II, High Intensity Training the Mike Mentzer Way and the newest book, The Wisdom of Mike Mentzer, all of which are available from Mentzer’s official Web site, www.MikeMentzer.com. John Little is available for phone consultation on Mike Mentzer’s Heavy Duty training system. For rates and information, contact Joanne Sharkey at (310) 3164519 or at www.MikeMentzer.com, or see the ad on the opposite page.

Could it be that one set of one compound exercise per week is all that’s required to build muscle and burn fat?

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Neveux \ Model: Steve Mcleod

will compromise your progress short of optimal.” Mentzer trained and kept records on more than 2,000 people over the course of his career as a trainer. While he was in the know more than 10 years ago, few people who didn’t study under him or read his books are aware of the facts, even now.

Eat Your ables Vegeta For Better Health and Bigger Bodybuilding Results by Clayton South

Vegetables can help curb inflammation.

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Neveux \ Model: Cesar Martinez

nflammation is a huge problem that’s finally getting the attention it deserves. While research into inflammation has been going on for the past 50 years, bodybuilders have only recently begun paying attention to its disastrous consequences, chiefly because inflammation research has reacted to a critical mass. Consensus has crystallized among experts on the central role that inflammation plays in the muscle-building process. While some inflammation is normal, too much is devastating and muscle wasting, and it cripples your growth potential. The fact is, inflammation and the damage it brings are at work in your body—even if you can’t see it or feel it. The good news is that the latest research reveals that eating a wide variety of colored vegetables is the best, most efficient and most effective way to combat the inflammation cascade that can kill your muscle growth.1 While many bodybuilders dislike vegetables because they were forced to eat them as children, it’s time to reacquaint ourselves with these health heroes. Our unrelenting

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thirst for muscle growth must prevail over our conditioning because veggies are the best way to control the inflammation that can stop muscle growth. Eat your veggies; they’ll help you build muscle. Vegetables are loaded with inflammation-fighting chemicals and are best sorted into color groups: • Green • Orange and yellow • Red • White Here’s the bottom-line information on each group.

Green.

Green vegetables include broccoli, collard greens, leafy lettuces, kale, spinach, bok choy, brussels sprouts and watercress. Green vegetables have high

concentrations of chlorophyll, vitamin C, B-vitamins and iron, plus a mouthful of molecular compounds: indole-3-carinol, genistein and two high-powered isothiocyanates— phenylethylisothiocyanate and sulforaphane. Research shows that chlorophyll and vitamin C keep your immune system strong by combating free radicals, which are highly reactive oxidants that dramatically increase during exercise and cause inflammation, tissue damage, catabolism and muscle wasting. Vegetables prevent free radicals from increasing inflammation and damaging your muscles, organs and tissues. The B-vitamins and iron are critical for building muscle and for proper nutrient uptake. Whereas iron is important for muscle contraction and oxygenation, B-vitamins remove pro-inflammatory

Neveux \ Model: Skip La Cour

The B-vitamins and iron in green vegetables are critically important for building muscle and for proper nutrient uptake.

toxins from your body. Indole3-carinol is an important chemical that enhances the repair of inflammation-damaged DNA.2 Combined with the action of genisten, an isoflavone that triggers DNA repair by raising levels of a certain anticancer protein, I3C diminishes inflammation damage even further.3 That’s important; cutting-edge research on inflammation proves that it’s linked to cancer at the cellular level.4 Finally, the isothiocyanates phenylethylisothiocyanate and sulforaphane fight harmful, inflammation-causing toxins by speeding their removal from your body before they can trigger systemic inflammation.

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the likelihood of developing chronic inflammation diseases like arthritis by increasing vitamin A.6 Arthritis can severely limit your gym performance and results. In some cases it can end careers. So preventing inflammation-related conditions is critical for your massbuilding efforts and your longevity. Finally, orange and yellow vegetables stimulate new cell growth— a.k.a. anabolism.

Red.

These include beets, peppers, red cabbage, tomatoes and radishes. They are high-powered vegetables that contain vitamin C, iron, lycopene and beta-cryptoxanthin. We’ve seen the benefits of vitamin C and iron, but red vegetables are also muscle-building inflammation fighters because of their lycopene and beta-cryptoxanthin content. Lycopene is a powerful antioxidant that’s highly concentrated in tomatoes, and research shows that it neutralizes free radicals and prevents cellular damage.7 It’s so (continued on page 180) effective at

Orange and yellow. Orange

Red vegetables are highly concentrated in vitamin C, iron, lycopene and betacryptoxanthin.

and yellow vegetables include sweet potatoes, carrots, pumpkins, corn and squash. They contain vitamin C and betacryptoxanthin. Vitamin C is a powerful anti-inflammatory agent that scavenges for harmful free radicals and neutralizes them before they can induce and prolong inflammation. Preventing free-radical damage also inhibits the secretion of interleukin6, a chemical that triggers inflammation.5 Beta-cryptoxanthin is a pro-vitamin A carotenoid that exerts a powerful antioxidant effect while simultaneously acting as an antiinflammatory agent. It not only neutralizes free radicals but also reduces

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(continued from page 175) stopping

inflammation that it’s been shown to reduce men’s chances of getting prostate cancer. That’s important because the prostate, which some experts view as part of the endocrine system, is critical for testoster-

one production. So a healthy, noninflamed prostate is critical for muscle growth. Like orange

and yellow vegetables, red ones contain betacryptoxanthin but in higher concentrations— in red peppers especially. Like orange and yellow vegetables, red vegetables promote tissue repair and stimulate new cell growth, making them especially potent muscle builders.

Neveux \ Model: Mark Perry

White.

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White vegetables include cauliflower, mushrooms, potatoes, onions and garlic. While all white vegetables are important and have vitamin C, B-vitamins and other nutrients, three are especially beneficial: cauliflower, garlic and onions, important because of their high concentrations of I3C and allicin. The I3C in cauliflower helps reverse inflammation damage and repairs damaged DNA. Garlic is especially valuable because of its allicin and plant sterols, or beta-sitosterols. Allicin acts as a powerful antibacterial and antiviral agent that eliminates inflammation-causing bacteria and viruses. The beta-sitosterols work directly on the inflammatory cascade at the enzyme level. They reduce the secretion of

Eating a wide variety of colored vegetables is the best, most efficient and most effective way to combat the inflammatory cascade that smothers your bodybuilding gains.

IL-6, the inflammation-friendly chemical that your body releases in response to exercise-induced acidosis.8 They also increase T cell and CD4 activity and protect against immune-system failure caused by inflammation and overtraining. That means cortisol goes down and DHEA goes up, indirectly inducing an anabolic effect.9 As research continues, we’ll gain further insight into the central role that inflammation plays in the muscle-building process. One thing, however, is clear: Eating a wide variety of colored vegetables is the best, most efficient

and most effective way to combat the inflammatory cascade that smothers your bodybuilding gains. Eat your vegetables. At the end of the day you’ll know you bolstered your health and muscle growth. Ultimately, that means a bigger, more muscular you.

References 1 Giugliano, D., Ceriello, A., Esposito, K. (2006). The effects of diet on inflammation: emphasis on the metabolic syndrome. J Am Coll Cardiol. 48(4):677-85. 2 Fan, S., et al. (2006). BRCA1 and BRCA2 as molecular targets for phytochemicals indole-3-carbinol and genistein in breast and prostate cancer cells. British Journal of Cancer. 94:407426. 3 Rahman, I., et al. (2006). Regulation of inflammation and redox signaling by dietary polyphenols. Biochem Pharmacol. 72(11):1439-52. 4 Basak, S., et al. A fourth I-B protein within the NFB signaling module. Cell.

128:369-381. 5 Fischer, C.P., et al. (2004). Supplementation with vitamins C and E inhibits the release of interleukin-6 from contracting human skeletal muscle. J Physiol. 558(Pt. 2):633-45. 6 Pattison, D.J., et al. (2005). Dietary beta-cryptoxanthin and inflammatory polyarthritis: Results from a population-based prospective study. Am J Clin Nutr. 82:451–5. 7 Gann, P.H., et al. (1999). Lower prostate cancer risk in men with elevated plasma lycopene levels: Results of a prospective analysis. Cancer Res. 59:1225-30. 8 Keller, C., et al. (2005). Effect of exercise, training, and glycogen availability on IL-6 receptor expression in human skeletal muscle. J Appl Physiol. 99(6):2075-2079. 9 Bouic, P.J.D., et al. (1999). The effects of b-sitosterol (BSS) and bsitosterol glycoside (BSSG) mixture on selected immune parameters of marathon runners: Inhibition of post marathon immune suppression and inflammation. Int J Sports Med. 20:258-262. IM

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P X P

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Power X-Rep Partials

A New Twist on Extended-Set Mass Training and Stretch Overload

by William Litz Photography by Michael Neveux

fter looking at Arnold’s use of partial reps on chins [Train to Gain, August ’07], I began to apply his method to other exercises as well. To recap, Arnold divided the chin into two parts: He did heavy partials from the bottom to the midpoint, and later in the workout he did the top range, squeezing his lats, for so-called detail work. To use standard X Reps, you perform a set to muscular exhaustion and then move the bar to a point on the stroke where the target muscle is somewhat elongated, or stretched, and continue the set with 10-inch partial reps. That extends the time under tension right at the max-force point on the stroke. With Power X-Rep Partials (PXP) you do the entire set in the 10-inch range—X Reps in the semistretch position—with no full range reps before the X Reps.

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P X P

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PXPs may sound a lot like constant-tension reps, and in a sense they are. The main difference is in the rep range—you can crank out higher reps, like 12 to 20. Most bodybuilders use constant-tension sets on finishing movements to keep full tension on the muscle, and the weight is often less than it should be. You are strong in the X-Rep position, so take advantage of it. Heavy weights. Longer times under tension. Precise stretch overload. It sounds like a winning combination to me! Here’s how I apply PXPs to cable curls. To start with, I choose cable curls over barbell curls in order to get constant tension. That makes the X Reps far more effective. First, I do two full-range warmup sets. I also do one set of rope pushdowns and some light stretching. Once I’m lubed up, I pin the stack with more weight than I could possibly do for full reps, and the fun begins. We all like lifting the heavy iron, and that’s exactly what you do with PXP. Plus, you can still hit some high reps for that all-important time under tension. On cable curls I do partial reps from the bottom of the stroke to the midpoint. From the start of the set there’s tension from the cable. Keeping the rep stroke short hits the biceps’ semistretch position. That type of overload has been linked to fiber splitting, and the higher reps increase the time under tension—everything you want from a muscle-building set. Your biceps will grow no matter

These movements also work well with PXP-style reps: • Bench presses—all variations • Dumbbell flyes (exercise caution, as the heavy weights plus extreme stretch may be too much for some people’s shoulders) • Arnold chins, done from a dead hang • Close-grip Hammer Strength pulldowns

• Upright rows, done with a barbell or EZ-curl bar • Leg presses (watch for too much pressure on the knees and do absolutely no bouncing at the bottom) • Preacher curls, particularly the Hammer Strength version • Close-grip Smith-machine bench presses

Models: Jimmy and Suzanne and Mentis

• Lateral raises, done while overloading the bottom of the stroke

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P X P

how stubborn they are. They won’t have a choice. With the superheavy weight I aim for 15 reps and crank out 12 minimum, never allowing the biceps a moment of rest at the bottom. At the midpoint there is of course no rest, as you’ll have maximum tension on the biceps, thanks to the cable. Although you use heavy weights, the PXP technique lends itself well to machine and/or cable movements. While free weights are generally suggested for basic mass

blasting, I feel it’s wrong to ignore machines entirely, especially when it comes to PXP. The extra control and constant resistance provided by some machines makes it easier to get higher reps with heavy weights. I still believe that full reps have merit and that the traditional use of X Reps—full reps done to exhaustion followed by semistretch partials—is extremely useful. If you want to shock a stubborn muscle into growth, however, PXPs can increase the workload without length-

ening the workout. Branch Warren does something similar to this technique on his DVD. Although he uses a slightly fuller range of motion than the pure PXP style described here, you can see the immediate tension he puts on his massive limbs right from the start—and with a shortened range. He also does fairly high reps with massive weights. It’s interesting to note that Branch uses a cable machine for curls, not a standard bar. Perhaps the notion that cable moves are for shaping needs to be revised. Either that or Branch is one scary shape trainer. For further examples of PXP-style training look to the two best bodybuilders in the world—Jay Cutler and Ronnie Coleman. Jay does a lot of traditional X Reps in addition to using the partials between his full-range reps. On some sets, though, he forgoes the full reps and overloads the bottom range of motion. Ronnie uses what some would call loose form, but if you watch closely, you can

see that he does in fact keep a constant pumping motion in the stretch position—and of course, he uses heavy weights. That helps keep the tension right where he needs it. Ronnie also is an advocate of high reps. Yes, he does do max singles on deadlifts and squats on his DVDs, but watch his other sets. Most contain 12 to 15 reps. He has said many times that you need to push a lot of blood into the muscle to cause extreme growth—something that just doesn’t occur on heavy singles. With PXP sets the reps are high and the

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Dobbins \ Model: Ronnie Coleman

Okabe \ “Cost of Redemption” \ Model: Ronnie Coleman

Model: Toney Freeman

With PXP you carnk out 12 to 20 reps, using a short stroke—for example the bottom third of incline flyes.

pump is extreme— some would say insane. So if you have a lagging bodypart (and who doesn’t?), give them a try for four to six weeks. Here’s a good template for a biceps routine using PXP and X Reps:

Cable curls (PXP) 3 x 15 Incline curls (X Reps) 2 x 8 Spider curls (X Reps) 2 x 8

That not only gives you plenty of stretch overload and max-force generation but also trains the muscle through its full range of motion with 3D Positions of Flexion. It hits midrange work with cable curls, the stretch position with incline curls and the contracted position with spider curls (preacher curls performed on the vertical side of the bench so you get continuous tension). I like to finish off this 3D POF XRep routine with an extreme biceps stretch to loosen up the fascia and allow for muscle expansion. I take a dumbbell in each hand, lie back on an incline bench and position myself as if I were going to do incline curls. Instead of curling the ’bells, however, I have my training partner pull back gently on my forearms until I feel an exaggerated stretch in my biceps and hold that position for

60 seconds. On other biceps days I might opt for a stretch using the Smith machine. I adjust the bar so it’s in line with my midback, then face away from the bar and grip it with my palms facing down. I lower my torso to get an extreme biceps stretch. This takes some getting used to,

and you will need to adjust your body angle until you feel the biceps stretch. When you nail it, you’ll know, as the stretch will be intense. If you’re flexible enough, you can even kneel on the floor during the stretch to really separate the fascia. Extreme stretching will add a new angle to any routine you use and greatly increase muscular separation and detail. [Note: For more on 3D POF and X-Rep training, visit www.X-Rep.com and www.3DMuscleBuilding.com.] Editor’s note: Will Litz is a trainer and writer located in Canada. You can contact him at www.adrenaline-supplements.com or at Darren Mehling’s site, www.teamgots.com. IM

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Jerry Brainum’s

Bodybuilding Pharmacology

The Yolk’s On You For years supplements containing plant sterols have been advertised for bodybuilding use. Plant sterols are basically plant forms of cholesterol, and they are structural components of plant-cell membranes. Examples of plant sterols are beta-sitosterol, campesterol and stigmasterol. How plant sterols came to be promoted as bodybuilding supplements isn’t clear. We do know, of course, that cholesterol is the precursor of various steroid hormones, such as testosterone, estrogen and cortisol. The original birth control pills were synthesized from sterols in Mexican yams. Mexican yams were also the original source of DHEA supplements in the 1970s—later removed from the market because of lack of quality control. Today’s DHEA supplements are synthetic. Since plant sterols are structurally similar to cholesterol, the granddaddy of all steroid hormones, and since the name “sterol” sounds a lot like “steroid,” it isn’t hard to figure out how they became known as anabolic supplements. The human body, however, lacks the enzymes required to convert plant sterols into active steroid hormones. The missing enzyme can be added in a lab, which is how the early birth control pills were made from yams. One particular plant sterol, gamma oryzanol, was heavily promoted for its alleged anabolic qualities in the early ’80s and is still sold today for that purpose. The problem here is that studies show that gamma oryzanol

is, if anything, catabolic because it diminishes testosterone by inhibiting the release of luteinizing hormone from the pituitary gland. LH controls testosterone synthesis in male Leydig cells. (Women produce testosterone differently, through conversion of adrenal steroids and some generation in the ovaries.) Does that mean plant sterols are junk? Not at all. The similarity to cholesterol means that plant sterols compete with dietary cholesterol in the intestines and so inhibit cholesterol uptake, thereby lowering blood cholesterol. What raises cholesterol isn’t cholesterol itself, since the body can absorb only so much of it, but rather saturated fat, which is converted into cholesterol in the liver. The liver synthesizes about one gram of cholesterol a day, and the more of it you get from food, the less of it the body synthesizes. Several studies show that dietary plant sterols lower cholesterol in the body. The average daily intake is 200 to 400 milligrams, which can increase to 700 to 800 milligrams if you eat a lot of soy. The intestines absorb plant sterols at a rate of 0.4 to 3.5 percent. Commercial margarines that contain plant sterols are marketed as a way to help control cholesterol. They provide about two to three grams a day of plant sterols. Plant sterols alone can reduce plasma cholesterol an average of 15 percent, and adding aerobic exercise amplifies that effect considerably. Plant sterols can also help prevent prostate disease. One popular herbal supplement recommended for preventing prostate problems is Cholesterol, as an extract of found in egg yolks, saw palmetto, is a muscle builder with its active in that it’s the ingredient, primary precursor of beta sitostestosterone. terol. In fact,

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saw palmetto supplements that don’t contain beta sitosterol are useless in preventing prostate enlargement. How beta sitosterol operates hasn’t been completely nailed down, though it may lower elevated DHT, a by-product of testosterone metabolism that causes prostate enlargement. Drug therapy for prostate enlargement inhibits 5-alpha reductase, the enzyme that converts testosterone into DHT. A recent study investigated an interesting effect of plant sterols. The anabolic steroid boldenone (trade name Equipose) shows up in cattle because bacteria in their feed can convert plant sterols into boldenone and even testosterone. Human food doesn’t normally contain that type of “anabolic” bacteria. Researchers examined whether it’s possible for humans to produce boldenone from plant sterols.1 They had 10 women (women were used because they naturally produce less testosterone) take 25 grams a day in the form of sterolHaving too little cholesterol is linked to depression, enriched margarine for one week. As a control, cancer and stroke. they checked the urine samples of a person who had sitosterolemia. (People with that condipurposes. Research has identified two types of LDL: one tion have 50 times the normal amount of plasma large and buoyant, and the other small and dense. Only sterols because they absorb more and their livers remove the latter is potentially dangerous because it’s more susless. If anyone would show naturally produced boldenone, ceptible to oxidation. High-density lipoprotein, another it would be someone with sitosterolemia.) cholesterol carrier, helps remove excess cholesterol, transNone of the women produced boldenone, not even porting it to the liver, where it’s converted into bile, then the subject who had sitosterolemia. Just as plant sterol excreted. This system fails to function in obese people, supplements don’t affect testosterone in men, they won’t explaining why cardiovascular disease is a high risk for the produce boldenone. obese. What about cholesterol itself? After all, the body syntheSaturated fat stimulates more cholesterol synthesis sizes cholesterol daily, and it’s essential to life. Cholesterol in the liver than any amount of dietary cholesterol. You has a bad reputation because of its association with carwouldn’t want to eliminate cholesterol for several reasons, diovascular disease, but only a certain type of cholesterol the first being cholesterol’s role as a precursor of hormone is considered dangerous. It’s transported by protein carsynthesis, including testosterone. Cholesterol is also used riers in the blood, since it’s not water-soluble (it’s also not to synthesize vitamin D and bile and stabilizes and acts a fat, although it is characterized as a lipid, adding to the as a structural component in cell membranes. A person confusion). Low-density lipoprotein carries cholesterol weighing 150 pounds carries around 35 grams of cholesmade in the liver to all tissues, where it is used for various terol in his or her body. Having too low a cholesterol level is linked to depression, cancer and stroke. A recent study showed that a sudden reduction in cholesterol levels in older people may herald dementia. It’s tough for bodybuilders to avoid eating cholesterol, which is in eggs, beef and poultry. Vegans get little or no cholesterol. They have excellent cardiovascular profiles, but they find it hard to add muscle. While some attribute that to diminished creatine intake (meat is the best source of dietary creatine), there may be other reasons. The vegan bodybuilder who has trouble adding muscle may not be getting enough cholesterol. Over the years several cholesterol-rich foods, such as eggs, have been tagged as excellent for improving muscular size and strength. Famed trainer Vince Gironda often suggested that his trainees eat two dozen a day. Vince felt that their fat content, lack of carbohydrate and high bioprotein value provide a potent anabolic stimulus. He believed that the high cholesterol content of eggs was neutralized by their lecithin content. The supplement HMB, which is produced in the metabolism of the branched-chain amino acid leucine, is

High-intensity workouts that cause extensive muscle damage, usually thanks to eccentric muscle contractions, lower blood cholesterol. It happens within two hours after a training session and can last for a few days.

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Jerry Brainum’s

Bodybuilding Pharmacology

The one immediate implication of the new research is, Don’t throw out the egg yolk. It may contain most of the egg’s anabolic properties. also touted as an anabolic supplement. While recent studies have not confirmed that HMB helps add muscle and strength for those engaged in weight training (although it does seem to help older people), the hypothesis of how it might work is intriguing. The theory is that it stabilizes muscle cell membranes by interacting with cholesterol. Stabilizing the membrane prevents excessive muscle breakdown after exercise, hence the anabolic effect. Studies show that high-intensity workouts that cause extensive muscle damage, usually thanks to eccentric muscle contractions, lower blood cholesterol. It happens within two hours after a training session and can last for a few days. The damaged muscle is thought to accelerate cholesterol uptake for use in tissue repair. Some studies have come up with the surprising conclusion that cholesterol may be an anabolic stimulus to muscle. So far they have involved older adults. In one, people aged 60 to 69 engaged in a 12-week weight-training routine. All subjects got moderate amounts of protein, but half the group also followed a low-cholesterol diet (150 to 250 milligrams daily), while the other half followed a highcholesterol diet (250 to 450 milligrams daily). Those in the low-cholesterol group had no muscle mass gains but did have a 37 percent strength gain. In contrast, those eating more cholesterol gained an average of five

pounds of muscle and experienced an 86 percent strength gain. To quote an early HMB advocate: “It sounds like Deca to me!” The authors suggest that the gains in the higher-cholesterol group may be related to the fact that cholesterol is the precursor of testosterone synthesis (older people are often low in testosterone), and because of the stabilizing effect of cholesterol in muscle cell membranes. Another study found a link between blood cholesterol and muscle growth. Specifically, subjects with cholesterol counts below 178 showed negligible muscle gains, while those with counts of 238 gained about five pounds in muscle. In the most recent study, presented at the 2007 meeting of the American College of Sports Medicine, healthy men and women, aged 50 to 69, again trained with weights for 12 weeks. They were divided into three groups:

against conventional wisdom about the “dangers” of eating too many eggs. So what can we deduce from recent studies linking dietary cholesterol to more muscle and strength? I wouldn’t jump the gun and label cholesterol as an anabolic booster just yet. Consider that the studies have involved older people, who often lack both muscle and anabolic hormones. In that population cholesterol may offer a true boost when combined with weight training. That may also be true for younger people, but the evidence for it isn’t in yet. Older people tend to eat less than younger people, especially those engaged in bodybuilding. There’s no shortage of cholesterol in the average bodybuilder’s diet. The one immediate implication of the new research is something I and others, such as Vince Gironda, have long suggested: Don’t throw away the yolk when you eat eggs. Eating egg whites only makes no nutritional sense. The yolk contains half the protein and is more digestible than the white. In addition, yolks contain all the vitamins and minerals found in eggs. The white contains only protein. As I pointed out in an IRON MAN feature, eggs have a negligible effect on cardiovascular risk in active people. If these studies connecting cholesterol intake to gains in muscle and strength prove true for all ages, those who throw away the yolk could be doing themselves a real disservice. Egg yolks are one of the most convenient and reliable food cholesterol sources. They have zero carbs and can’t make you fat or blunt fat loss, unless for some insane reason you opt to eat 250 whole eggs daily—in which case you’d turn into a large chicken and get a job as a mascot in Major League Baseball. And the yolk would be on you.

References

1) No eggs 2) 1 egg daily 3) 3 eggs daily Those in the three-egg group made significantly greater gains in strength and muscle mass than those in the one-egg group. The most interesting aspect of the study was that blood cholesterol increased only in the oneegg group, which goes completely

1 Ros, M., et al. (2007). Phytosterol consumption and the anabolic steroid boldenone in humans: A hypothesis piloted. Food Add Contamin. 24:679-84. 2 Reichman, S., et al. (2007). Effect of dietary cholesterol on muscle hypertrophy with resistence training. Med Sci Sports Exer. 39(supp):S291S292. IM

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FD/FS Four Little Letters That Can Mean Big Gains! by Eric Broser • Photography by Michael Neveux

Warning: For readers who are afraid of stretch marks, cannot afford to purchase a new wardrobe or simply don’t want to take up more space, please stop reading now! Just put the magazine down, slowly back away, grab the remote, and watch some “Seinfeld” reruns. (“No soup for you!”) For the rest of you—the ones who live to grow—sit back with your favorite protein drink, get comfortable, and read my words because I have a feeling that what follows may be of great interest to you. The wonderful thing about bodybuilding is that, just like life, it’s a constant and ongoing learning process. Nobody has all the answers, but if you keep your eyes (and mind) open wide enough, you’ll slowly but surely pick up more and more pieces of the puzzle. Several years ago I introduced a training system to the bodybuilding world that I believe contains many of the essential pieces. Most IRON MAN readers are familiar with Power/Rep Range/Shock, as several articles I’ve written about it have

appeared in this magazine, as well as on many Internet sites. In addition, Steve Holman and Jonathan Lawson, who write Train, Eat, Grow every month, have been using P/ RR/S in combination with X Reps for the past several months and reporting on it in the magazine and at www.X-Rep.com. For those of you who may be new to IRON MAN and/or have not had the opportunity to read about my P/RR/S training program, however (what, are you living under a rock?), I think it’s important to go over the main points, as P/RR/S was the genesis for what lies ahead. For those of you who are already using it, consider this a quick refresher course.

Basic P/RR/S Training Power/Rep Range/Shock is a cyclical approach to lifting weights in which you use a unique training protocol every week, in three-week cycles, with the goal of tapping into all of the body’s various growth mechanisms. Each of the protocols

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Model: Mark Perry

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FD/FS

Model: Todd Smith

Power/Rep Range/Shock attacks the muscles with different stress each week. FD/FS combines heavy, low-rep work with a highrep saturation chaser.

is meant to bring about a specific physiological effect. By rotating them, you keep your body from adapting to any one form of training, which would eventually result in stagnation. P/RR/S addresses muscle growth from a variety of angles and enables you to make significant gains on a very consistent, long-term basis. Week 1: Power. These workouts are designed to annihilate the highest-threshold fast-twitch muscle fibers, increase raw strength and stimulate a greater amount of natural testosterone to course through your veins. Hereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s the outline for a basic Power week, along with a sample workout:

Model: King Kamali

Rep goal: 4-6 Rest between sets: 3-5 minutes Lifting tempo: 4/0/X Exercises: Mostly compound Sample routine: Back 1) Rack deadlifts 2) Weighted wide-grip chins 3) Undergrip bent-over rows

4 x 4-6 3 x 4-6 3 x 4-6

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Model: Joe DeAngelis

During fibersaturation training, there’s no time for “stretch and squeeze,” as all you want to do is force so much blood into the target muscle that it feels as if it’s going to burst!

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FD/FS If you’re not training intensely enough to damage your muscle fibers, your body will never turn on the anabolic machinery necessary to force hypertrophy to take place.

4) Close-grip seated cable rows 3 x 4-6 Week 2: Rep Range. The goal here is to tear through all the intermediary muscle fibers that lie along the continuum from type 1 to type 2, induce capillarization and stimulate growth-producing metabolic adaptations within muscle cells. Here’s the outline for a basic Rep Range week, along with a sample workout: Rep goal: 7-9, 10-12, 13-15, 16-20 Rest between sets: 2-3 minutes Lifting tempo: 2/1/2/1* Exercises: Compound, isolation, machine or cable * Include a 1-second hold at peak contraction for certain exercises, such as the top of a leg extension. Sample routine: Triceps 1) Smith-machine close-grip bench presses 2 x 7-9

2) Lying extensions 2 x 10-12 3) Rope pushdowns 2 x 13-15 4) Dumbbell kickbacks 2 x 16-20 Week 3: Shock. These workouts will be a true test of your ability to withstand searing muscle pain. The burn and lactic acid that Shock workouts produce will help flood your system with natural GH, bathing your cells in one of the most powerful muscle-producing, fat-incinerating hormones known to science. Here’s the outline for a basic Shock week, along with a sample workout: Rep goal: 8-10 (drop set is 8-10, reduce poundage, 6-8) Rest between sets: cardiovascular and mental recovery Lifting tempo: 1/0/1 Exercises: Compound, isolation, machine or cable Sample routine: Delts

1) Superset Seated lateral raises 2 x 8-10 Behind-the-neck presses 2 x 8-10 2) Superset Wide-grip cable upright rows 2 x 8-10 Bent-over laterals 2 x 8-10 Barbell front raises (drop set) 1 x 8-10(6-8) Once you’ve completed the three-week P/RR/S cycle, return to the beginning and repeat, with the intention of training more intensely on the following cycle. I suggest you use the same exercises for three straight cycles and try to lift heavier weights and/or increase your reps at each workout. After three full P/RR/S cycles either take a complete week off from the gym—or at least train at low intensity for one week—to allow for repair and recovery of joints, muscles and the central nervous system. Upon returning to P/

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Model: Kiyoshi Moody

Intermediate FD/FS Chest Workout

RR/S, feel free to switch some or all of the exercises, and prepare to push even harder through the next three cycles. (Note: For a complete P/RR/S program in printable form, see Chapter 7—X-Rep Reload in the X-traordinary Muscle-Building Workouts e-book, available at XRep.com.)

The Next Step As I said, bodybuilding is a constant learning process, and a pursuit in which complacency is not welcome (not under my watch!). Even though I knew I had hit upon

Model: Chris Cook

Bench presses (3/0/X) 2 x 3-4 Incline presses (6/1/1) 2 x 5-6 Incline flyes (2/4/1) 2 x 7-8 Machine bench presses (1/0/1; nonlock) 1 x 30-40 Smith-machine incline presses (1/0/1; nonlock)1 x 30-40 Cable crossovers (1/0/1) 1 x 30-40

something wonderful with P/RR/S training, I kept digging deeper. That led me to an advanced version of my program, which I discussed in “Power, Rep Range, Shock 2—Variations and Advanced Techniques,” in the April ’06 IRON MAN. And while the protocols that I presented in that piece once again raised the bar on muscle growth, I have to admit

I remained hungry for more. I suppose this relentless pursuit of better ways to stimulate hypertrophy can be looked upon as somewhat compulsive, but long ago I decided to make it my life’s work not only to explore the outer limits of my own genetic potential but also to help as many others as possible do it. (continued on page 206) And here

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Model: Luke Wood

FD/FS

Once you’ve damaged the muscle fibers with low-rep work on big exercises, like presses, the goal is to bathe them with as much nutrientand-hormone-rich blood as humanly possible—isolation exercises, like laterals, for up to 40 reps per set.

(continued from page 203) we are. Take a big breath, and put on some comfortable shoes, because I invite you to take the next step!

First Things First Most often people relate hypertrophy to an increase in “protein

synthesis,” meaning the production of new cellular proteins from amino acids. The process is far more complex than that, however, requiring an overwhelming cascade of physiological events to occur in a specific order. In order for muscle hypertrophy to occur, new cells, known as satellite cells, must fuse with existing

muscle fibers. Normally the satellite cells are dormant and sit, “minding their own business,” adjacent to muscle fiber sarcolemma, or membrane. An intense weight-training workout can trigger satellite cell activation, leading to the first stage of hypertrophy, which is known as proliferation. The cells begin to divide

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and multiply, forming into myoblasts, which then fuse with existing muscle fibers and donate their nuclei in a process called differentiation. Because muscle cells contain many nuclei, increasing their number allows the cell to regulate more cytoplasm, inducing more actin and myosin—the two main contractile proteins in skeletal muscle—to be produced. That increases overall cell size and protein content, leading to a larger muscle mass. So, in a nutshell, what bodybuilding comes down to is a continuous process of damage and repair. Hard weight training traumatizes the muscles, causing injury to the fibers that leads the body to respond by not only repairing the damage but also making the muscle fibers bigger and stronger in the process. (That’s only if the body gets enough rest and is flooded with enough nutrients.) The bottom line is, if you’re not

training intensely enough to damage your muscle fibers, your body will never turn on the anabolic machinery necessary to force hypertrophy to take place. If you do train hard enough but don’t give your body the necessary building blocks (a.k.a. food and supplements) to complete the repair and building process, you’ll be taking one step forward and one step back—leaving you standing still.

Enter FD/FS Training! FD/FS stands for “Fiber Damage/ Fiber Saturation.” I’ve been working with it and tweaking it over the past eight months while looking to add some significant muscle mass to areas that I consider weak points. I should mention that in no way have I abandoned P/RR/S training; I have used FD/FS to greatly augment it. (continued on page 210) With FD/

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FD/FS (continued from page 207) FS the workout is basically broken into two phases. In the first phase (fiber damage), the goal is to use training protocols known to cause significant micro-trauma in the muscle fibers. As I mentioned above, that’s a necessary step toward setting the growth process in motion. Here are the techniques you use in order to achieve that goal with the utmost precision:

1) Heavy weights 2) Eccentric emphasis 3) Stretch under tension If you’ve ever performed a workout using any of those methods, you more than likely felt a good degree of soreness in the target muscles over the following days, which is indicative of the type of fiber damage we’re looking for. When you combine them all properly, you definitely experience a whole new level of muscle pain, ache (the good kind!) and stiffness. Remember, though, that your body must be able to not only repair the damage but also reinforce the muscle fibers by making them larger and stronger. Digging a hole is fine, as long as you refill the hole—and pile some new dirt on top. Got it? This is where the second phase of the workout comes in. Fiber saturation is where the magic happens. Once you’ve damaged the muscle fibers, the goal is to bathe them with as much nutrient-and-hormonerich blood as humanly possible. That’s right, it’s time to chase the pump—big time! In other words, I don’t want you to wait to get home for the recovery process to begin. I want you to facilitate immediate repairs and take advantage of the fact that during a workout—especially when high repetitions are involved—there’s as much as five times the amount of blood flowing directly to the muscles as when you’re at rest. In my experimentation with various FS protocols, I’ve found that these work best: 1) Very high repetitions

2) Continuous tension 3) Postactivation supersets (compound movement followed by isolation movement) The goal with FS sets is to use a pistonlike tempo, where the weight is almost constantly moving. There’s no time for “stretch and squeeze,” as all you want to do is force so much blood into the target muscle that it feels as if it’s going to burst. The muscle has already undergone the necessary trauma during FD; now it’s time to nourish it.

Warning: FD/FS isn’t meant for continual use and should be cycled in and out of your regular training regimen. Use it only for two-to-three-week periods. A Better Look Let’s take a look at what a typical day of training might have in store with a sample chest workout for both intermediate and advanced trainees. (Beginners have no business dabbling in such advanced methods just yet.) Intermediate FD/FS Chest Workout Bench presses (3/0/X) 2 x 3-4 Incline presses (6/1/1) 2 x 5-6 Incline flyes (2/4/1) 2 x 7-8 Machine bench presses (1/0/1; nonlock) 1 x 30-40 Smith-machine incline presses (1/0/1; nonlock) 1 x 30-40 Cable crossovers (1/0/1) 1 x 30-40 Rest between sets on the first three movements should be about two to three minutes. Rest between sets of the last three movements should be no more than one to two minutes.

Advanced FD/FS Chest Workout Bench presses (3/0/X) 2 x 3-4 + 1-2 forced reps Smith-machine incline presses (6/1/1; rest/pause) 2 x 2-3 +1 + 1 + 1 Or Eccentric-only Smithmachine incline presses* (6-second negatives) 2 x 5-6 Incline flyes (2/4/1) 2 x 7-8 Machine bench presses (1/0/1; nonlock) 2 x 30-40 Superset Machine dips (1/0/1; nonlock) 1 x 20-25 Pec deck flyes (1/0/1) 1 x 20-25 Rest between sets on the first three movements should be about two to three minutes. Rest between sets of the high-rep movements should be no more than one to two minutes. Rest between exercises during the superset should be no more than 15 seconds. *When performing an eccentriconly, or negative, set, you must have one to two spotters available to lift the weight back into the start position. Remember, most trainees are 30 to 40 percent stronger when lifting eccentrically than concentrically.

Feed the Machine If you want FD/FS training to fulfill its potential, use the nutritional protocol I’ve developed. The FD training techniques are brutal on both the muscles and central nervous system, which is why the FS stage is a necessary component. Since there will be a tremendous amount of blood traveling to the muscles during FS, take advantage of it by overloading the system with certain nutrients before, during and right after training. The period starting from right before the workout to immediately after is your greatest opportunity to hasten the musclebuilding process nutritionally. I would say that FD/FS training is about 30 to 40 percent more effective for muscle hypertrophy when

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grams Essential amino acids 5-10 grams BCAAs, 15-20 grams Glutamine, 15-20 grams Creatine, 5 grams Beta-alanine, 3 grams 15 minutes postworkout: Whey protein isolate, 50 grams Waxy maize starch or maltodextrin, 50 grams Antioxidant blend (I like Radox by Syntrax), 1 serving Other ingredients can be used as well at all three times, such as ATP, citrulline, arginine and ALA, but the above should be more than enough to feed your muscles what they need.

Notes

With FD/FS training you will experience a whole new level of muscle pain, ache (the good kind) and stiffness.

used with the following protocol. It was not until I began using these exact shake formulas that my gains skyrocketed, enabling me to add about eight pounds over a threeweek period with FD/FS. 45 minutes before training: Whey protein isolate, 50 grams Waxy maize starch or maltodextrin, 50 grams

Vitamin C, 1,000 milligrams Phosphatidylserine, 800 milligrams Sip, starting 15 minutes before workout and then throughout workout: Waxy maize starch or maltodextrin, 25 grams Gatorade or similar drink containing electrolytes and glucose, 25

Because of the extremely demanding nature of FD/FS training, I highly recommend that you use it only during periods when gaining muscle mass is your primary goal. You need to be well fed and well rested to reap all the rewards of this program. I don’t believe that FD/FS should be used during a cutting phase unless you’re a most advanced bodybuilder, and/or don’t train drug-free. Further, FD/FS isn’t meant for continual use and should be cycled in and out of your regular training regimen, whether you use Power/ Rep Range/Shock, DC, HIT, 3D Positions of Flexion or any other method. You should use it only for two-to-three-week periods or you leave yourself open to physical and mental burnout. Consider FD/FS as a short-burst mega-mass-gaining strategy. Oh shoot, look what time it is. I gotta go—it’s time for me to go see my psychotherapist. He’s a client, and I had him try an FD/FS workout. He’s now convinced that I’m completely out of my mind and desperately need help. But I don’t think I need a therapist—only a tailor! Editor’s note: Eric Broser is available for online training, dietary consultation and contest-prep coaching. For more information, visit www.PRRSTraining.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.FoodForLife.com Mr. Olympia Jay Cutler has worked his butt off to become the number-one bodybuilder in the world today. Nothing he does is indiscriminate or haphazard. Rather, it’s meticulously calculated, scrutinized and manipulated for a singular purpose: to remain the world’s numberone bodybuilder. One of his best-kept dietary secrets is his use of Ezekiel 4:9 bread as his main carbohydrate (along with steel-cut oats). I believe that he even carbs up on the stuff right before a show. As an avid Ezekiel bread and cereal fanatic myself, I can attest to how good the foods taste and how healthful and nutritious they are. Every morning for breakfast I either have whey protein along with a few slices of Ezekiel toast or make my famous (at least in my house) egg-white Ezekiel cereal pancakes. Go ahead, hit me with e-mail if you want the recipe. To find out more about the excellent Ezekiel 4:9 products, check out FoodForLife.com. There you can read all about the family-owned and -operated Food For Life Baking Company and its dedication to producing natural, wholesome sprouted-grain foods. Take the time to learn more about the company’s products, and you’ll discover what a tremendous source of bodybuilding nutrition it has to offer.

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>www.ToneyFXMan.com When I think about what X-emplifies the optimum bodybuilding physique, the X-ample that immediately pops into my mind is the man with the most X-treme X-frame in X-sistence today—Toney Freeman. After receiving his IFBB pro card by way of the NPC Nationals in ’02, Toney struggled to make a name for himself on the pose-for-pay dais. Following a series of less-than-stellar placings from ’03 to ’05, he became known as the “if” pro—as in, “If he can bring up his arms, he could be great.” “If he can thicken his chest, he might place.” “If he improves his conditioning, he’ll get more callouts.” “If he could add about 25 pounds, he would be dangerous.” In fact, I worked alongside Toney at VPX Sports for several years, and I told him exactly the same things. I even went so far as to say straight to his face that he could have Mr. Olympia potential if he really went for it. Well, guess what? Toney responded in a big way. He rededicated himself to the sport with a ferocity that he never came close to before. For the first time ever, Toney ate, breathed and slept bodybuilding 24/7, which resulted in a metamorphosis of X-traordinary proportions. Sporting a physique now synonymous with the very definition of the term X-frame, Toney tasted IFBB victory for the first time at the ’06 Europa Super Show. Since then he’s been on a roll, with three victories in ’07, including one at the highly coveted IRON MAN Pro, and an amazing third-place finish at the Arnold Classic. Many are predicting top five for Toney at the upcoming Mr. Olympia. With a back as wide as a Hummer, thighs that sweep more dramatically than a matador on speed and a waist that would make Kate Moss jealous, Toney personifies what it means to be a bodybuilder. His Web site is rather new, but it’s slick and modern, with a gallery that definitely makes it worth a look. And I’m sure he’ll continue to add to it just as meticulously as he’s added new muscle to his incredible physique. Go, Toney.

Eric Broser.

>www.PRRSGuru.ProBoards66.com/ One of the coolest perks of having my own column in IRON MAN is that I occasionally get to plug the Web site of an industry acquaintance, and even sometimes that of a good friend. I love helping out people I know, especially because so many others have been so helpful and supportive of me in my years in the fitness/training/bodybuilding field. There is, however, nothing better than getting to plug a site that I’m personally involved with, and if you check out the Internet address listed above this section, you’ve probably already figured out that yours truly has something to do with it. Yes, this is the new and long-awaited home of the Power/Rep Range/Shock discussion board, where I will be hanging out daily to help answer questions on training, supplements, nutrition and contest prep. I’ve enlisted a terrific group of experienced and knowledgeable moderators to keep the board running smoothly and to answer questions in my absence. It will be a forum for discussing not just P/RR/S but other important training protocols and concepts, such as DC Training, X Reps, Positions of Flexion, high-intensity training and much more. So if you get the opportunity to stop by, please feel free to register and become a part of our “growing” community. I’ll save you a seat.

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Eric Broser’s with a barbell (up to 455 pounds) and dumbbells (up to 150s), but is that enough?

Results Q&A

The Power/Rep Range/Shock innovator answers your questions on training and nutrition.

A: I’ll never argue with people who tell me that something is working for them, even when it goes against what I feel is valid. For example, in general, I believe (from knowledge and experience) that for 95 percent of drug-free lifters, a lower volume/ higher-intensity training method works best for building muscle; however, if people tell me that they don’t get much out of that method and grow only with greater numbers of sets, reps and so on, I won’t dispute it. I will only ask if they gave another method a fair trial before coming to that realization. That said, I feel that in order to accomplish optimal body positioning for pectoral stimulation on bench presses and flyes—a slight arch in the lower back, rib cage high, shoulders down and back—the feet should be planted firmly on the floor. Keeping your feet on the floor also creates a more solid foundation of balance, enabling your central nervous system to focus more neural drive toward better pectoral activation, rather than body stabilization. Nevertheless, if you’ve tried both methods—feet on floor and feet on bench—and honestly believe that your chest works harder using the latter technique, I won’t dispute that. I can’t get inside your head and know what you feel. I’d ask only that you first make sure your chest-pressing technique is correct and that you’re certain you’re using proper body positioning (as mentioned) before abandoning the feet-on-floor position. Just remember that while there are certainly ways to make some exercises safer and more effective, there is no universal rulebook in bodybuilding. Learning from experts is definitely a smart route to take, but to be truly successful in your training, you’ll also need to engage in self-exploration and discovery. Q: I’m incredibly impressed with big traps. I want mine to not only rise high from the front but also jump right off of my back. I do heavy shrugs

Neveux

Q: My chest is a weak point. I asked a personal trainer at my gym for help, and he told me to stop bench-pressing with my feet on the floor and to put them up on the bench. I think I feel my chest working better his way, so is it okay to bench with my feet up?

A: Huge, thick traps are the result of using a combination of heavy weights, a full range of motion, good form and a variety of shrug and upright-row movements. Those who regularly do deadlifts also tend to have excellent trap development (just look at Ronnie Coleman or Johnnie Jackson). A lot of my own trap size has come from very heavy partial deadlifts performed in a power rack for sets of six to 10 reps. The intense static contraction that the traps undergo during the movement provides a unique growth stimulus. To get complete trapezius development, in terms of height, front-to-back thickness and midback “projection,” however, I use several forms of shrugs, including Hammer Strength machine, barbell, dumbbell, standing calf machine and behind the back. I also use close-grip barbell upright rows, a Smith-machine behind-the-back upright-row/shrug combo, made famous by Lee Haney, and single-arm dumbbell upright rows done with an exaggerated range of motion (leaning slightly forward and pulling my elbow very high up and back) for the midtraps. The latter three movements have completely renovated the

Neveux

>Net

landscape of my middle and upper back. One of the biggest mistakes that trainees can make in their trap training is to use too short a range of motion. In an effort to “look cool” shrugging a barbell with five wheels on each side or dumbbells the size of some compact cars, these uninformed characters move all of that weight only a couple of centimeters during each rep, usually getting a better forearm than trap workout. Never compromise your range of motion for heavier weights. You should shrug high enough to bury your traps in your ears while beginning each rep in a fully stretched position. Also, never get stuck in one rep range for traps. Hit them with everything from four to six reps all the way up to 16 to 20 per set. The traps are one of those muscle groups that seem to thrive on greatly varying times under tension. Further, don’t be afraid to play with the position of the dumbbells or width of your grip on shrugs. Any slight change will alter motor-unit recruitment patterns and stimulate your traps a bit differently. IM

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Lonnie Teper’s

NEWS & ViEWS ’07 USA Championships

White Out He’s an “expert” and a champ Okay, so “The Experts” all got it wrong. I predicted A.D. Cherry. Isaac Hinds picked Robert Hatch. Ron “Yogi” Avidan said it would be Peter Putnam. But Ben White got it right at the ’07 USA, the largest in history with more than 400 entries turned in, 362 men and women stepping onstage at Jaguar Jon Lindsay’s annual bodyfest. After a strong performance in 2006 (heavyweight class winner at the Junior Nationals; fourth in the superheavyweight division at the Nationals) Ben was telling everyone who would listen that he would leave the Artemus W. Ham Auditorium on the campus of the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, with the overall crown firmly attached to his crown. Now, the word I’d heard on the Albany, New York, physique star was that he’s quite high on himself. The Muhammad Ali of bodybuilding, if you will. After seeing him onstage at the Nationals last November and viewing his dominating act in Vegas during the last weekend in July, I have to say, the man does have reason to be very sure of his capabilities. The 30-year-old White tipped the scale at a thick 241 pounds, at 5’7”, at the weigh-in on Thursday night and said he carbed up to 230 by the time he hit the stage 24 hours later. No mistake there. He said carbed up, not carp depleted. As his trainer, Jeramy Freeman, elucidated on the morning after Ben’s big win, “When you carb up, you actually drop weight. People are lying when they say they put on 10 to 12 pounds after carbing up.” Competitors lying about their weight? Not to mention their age, academic degrees, bodyfat percentage and the amount of money they make? Longtime readers have heard me preach about this subject for years, so I’ll stop there—let’s get back to the show. Buffed Ben said that Evan Centopani, who bested him for the overall at the ’06 Juniors, should be glad that he didn’t show up at the USA because White’s wheels would have sent him home without a trophy. (You know that his legs would have dominated Evan’s legs, gang.) And that he will make his pro debut—at about 250 pounds, if not more—at the ’08 New York Pro. Promises to leave the auditorium, natch, with the firstplace trophy and 15 grand firmly in hand. One of the industry’s strongest bodybuilders, White says he can bench 711; I do 7-11 two, three times a week. Great deal on the hot dogs. With so many competitors coming up with the stock, “I’m so grateful I was able to win the show; there were so many great athletes onstage,” or, “I don’t want to make any predictions on how I will do on the pro level; I’m just honored to compete against Jay Cuter…Ronnie Coleman…Dexter Jackson,” he’s a welcome breath of fresh air in the quotes department. We could certainly use some excitement in the industry, as long as the words don’t cross over to the personal level. Welcome to the bigs, Ben. (To hear more of what White had to say after his USA victory, check out my video interview with him at www.IronManMagazine.com.)

Ben White.

L.T. conducts the morningafter Interview.

For complete contest coverage— results, video reports and hundreds of photos—go to IronManMagazine.com.

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SNACKTIME? Just what is this bar-tering trio up to? Page 218

KEMISTRY CLASS Is this a formula for success, or what? Page 220

JESSE MARUNDE His untimely passing Page 220

USA Championships photography by Merv

DeShaun Grimez.

Peter Putnam.

Brandon Curry.

OPPOSITES ATTRACT—The other end of the spectrum from Ben White is DeShaun Grimez, who won the heavyweight class and got the second pro card that was given out at the USA, finishing behind Ben White in the overall balloting. DeShaun, out of Lake Forest, California, is a quiet 30-year-old who speaks softly but carries a big stick. At 5’10” and 224 pounds, he bested Tennessee’s Brandon Curry in the heavies before impressing Al the judging panel enough with Auguste. his width, thickness and shape to finish ahead of light-heavyweight winner Peter Putnam, middleweight champ Jose Raymond, welterweight titlist Mark Harris, lightweight winner Shavis Higa and bantamweight champion Bleu Taylor to grab that cherished second pro card. Grimez, fifth in his class at last season’s Nationals, is a Brooklyn-born former Marine who will now take dead aim at his opponents at the ’08 IRON MAN Pro in February. “I plan to come in around 230 or so,” said Grimez, “and not make the same mistake others have by playing the size game when they turn Brian pro.… I’m just going to continue doing what works for me.” I agree, Yersky. Shaun. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.

ADD PUTNAM—Although my co-stars on “The Experts” prejudging wrap-up battled over whether Al Auguste got robbed in the light-heavyweight class—and although the crowd did boo big time when, in my role as emcee, I called out Auguste in second—I think awarding the division to Putnam wasn’t a bad decision. Peter looked great from the front but was soft from the back, especially in the glutes and hamstrings, where Auguste sparkled. But the Auguste, the Tennessee Titan, who competed as a welterweight only two years ago, was weaker in the calves and thighs and in rear width. Putnam, who tipped the scales at 195 1/2 compared to Auguste’s 191 1/2, was really counting on moving up to the pro level after this contest but will have to wait for another time. A fiery competitor, the disappointed Putnam thought he A.D. earned his keep in the posedown. I felt after the judging on Cherry. Friday night that the three best bodybuilders in the contest were Ben White, DeShaun Grimez and Brandon Curry, a former Collegiate National champion who’s sure to be a pro by this time next year—if not sooner—if he brings up his lower body. Of course, going into the show I thought A.D. Cherry would end up with the biggest reward, but A.D. was not at his best at the prejudgwww.ironmanmagazine.com \ NOVEMBER 2007 217

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Tamer El-Guindy. Mandeep Singh.

ADD RAYMOND—Chalk up another title for the amazing Woburn, Massachusetts, star. Jose Raymond has done it all over the years as one of the NPC’s greatest athletes: the Team Universe Overall crown, welterweight champ at both the USA and Nationals and now his USA Middleweight title. I’ve seen him sharper in the past, but that was to be expected since he moved up a class. Still, the 5’4”, 175pounder used his fullness and overall shape to best a superconditioned Tamer El-Guindy. Ruthless Ruth Silverman’s wildcard pic in the division, Mandeep Singh, an overlooked 173-pounder out of Fremont, California, could be a title threat in this class a year from now. I liked the guy too. So, Mandeep, the table is set for ’08; don’t be late.

L.T., Dina and Ron with the bars.

Isaac Hinds \ www.LiftStudios.com

ing, holding too much water, and deservedly ended up in third place. Now the anticipated battle of C & C Company—Cherry and Curry—will be at the ’07 Nationals come November. If Curry decides to compete, that is. If he decides to hold off until next year’s USA instead, head over to the casino and lay down 2-to-1 odds that he will get one of the two aces handed out by the judging panel at the end of the night.

Jose Raymond.

Teper

Add USA

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At right: Ray at the ’05 Nationals.

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Comstock

Teper

Avidan

Teper

FROM HERE TO ETERNITY—Ron Avidan and I flew into Vegas with Sherry Goggin, and, gentlemen that we are, assured her that Isaac Hinds, who was meeting us at the airport with his suped-up Subaru Outback, would have no problem dropping the rep from title sponsor Kemistry off at her hotel before taking me to the Embassy Suites. Isaac, however, had a surprise for us: Dina Al-Sabah was a passenger in the rental car as well, and From left: Kai Green, Merv and Ruth, and Hany Rambod and Phil Heath. “Skipping the O is no who could pass up a chance for “The Experts” to team up with two excuse for cheating on your diet,” says Hany. hot babes in one vehicle? The choice of an Outback couldn’t have been more appropriate; we ended up way, way out back in Las Vegas, thanks to Yogi. The man who gave General Custer directions turned what should have been a 10-minute ride into a 90-minute expedition, assuring Isaac with each wrong turn, “Now we got it.” With the gas tank now at half-empty, and Avidan begging for a grub stop, we finally “got it right” and dropped off Sherry, who had about an hour to check in, change and head over to the venue to work. Isaac, who was now hotter than the temperature (it was a cool 105 degrees), zipped into the nearest eatery, which happened to be Carl’s Jr. Now, I normally would never eat at such Svetlana and Ray Arde.

Trey Brewer.

Teper

a fast-food outlet, but I didn’t want to let down the group, so I caved in. When we got out of the car, however, we found out that Ron had hidden a box of Muscle Milk bars—now melted. He almost got belted. Nice way to start the weekend. Sherry, we’ll chip in for the cab next time around.

Merv

At the ’06 Excaliber (left) and with Rambod (above).

BLIND LEADING THE BLIND—The above incident was the most frustrating of the weekend; the funniest moment came before the finals when Isaac and Ron spotted what they thought was an act of human kindness taking place in the auditorium’s parking structure. “Yogi and I had parked the car and were gathering up our belongings to head into the finals,” Hinds explained. “Out of the corner of my eye I saw what appeared to be a blind woman being helped along by a good Samaritan, who was carrying her seeing eye stick. It wasn’t until a familiar voice yelled out to Yogi that I realized it was actually Merv [Petralba, IM photog] and Ruth [Silverman]. Merv was carrying his tripod and Ruth was wearing the biggest set of blue sun blocker glasses since Babe Winkleman.” Best line of the weekend, Isaac. And, Ron, best picture.

Teen, Collegiate and Masters National Championships photography by Dave Liberman

IM Pro Gets Gifted

Gary Udit with Andy Haman and Anthony Finocchiaro. Don Len.

Paul LaSala.

Former USA champ Phil Heath, passing on the Mr. Olympia competition for the second consecutive year, was in Vegas not only to see the show but also to spend time training, eating and discussing bodybuilding with local icon Jay Cutler. Heath spent an entire week with Mr. Olympia, training twice a day, eating seven meals a day and living in the lap of luxury, bunking at Cutler’s pricey new abode. The deciding factor for Health regarding Kevin Deiner and Casey his skipping the O this time was his fifth-place Fathi. finish at the ’07 Arnold Classic. Heath says he’ll open the 2008 season at the IRON MAN Pro, followed by the Arnold Classic and the Sacramento Pro. The recently married 27-year-old from Denver is one of the industry’s brightest young stars, and I think his plan to wait until 2008 to compete again is a wise one. He needs time to add some thickness to his upper body, and prepping for the Olympia would have prevented those gains. No need to rush. As Mick Jagger once sang, “Time is on my side, yes it is.” Although some people jumped off the Heath bandwagon after his placing at the ASC, I’m not one of them. He’ll only be 28 when he makes his Olympia debut a year from now; Cutler will be 35 by then, as will Victor Martinez and Gustavo Badell. Ronnie Coleman, of course, turns 44 next May, but I’ve heard no word of his impending retirement. Toney Freeman will be 42 and Dexter Jackson just a year shy of four decades. Hey, even the newest wunderkind, Dennis Wolf, is a year older than Phil. Phil will thrill next season. Take that Gift to the bank. Marty

Vranicar.

Brian Smith (second left) with brothers Steve and Tim and Porter Cotrell (far right).

ADD IM PRO—Sting Ray Arde and his lovely wife, Svetlana, were also in the house in Vegas, and the ’05 National Heavyweight champ told me he’ll be joining Phil Heath onstage to make his pro debut at the IRON MAN. Arde planned to compete in ’06 but opened up a personalwww.ironmanmagazine.com \ NOVEMBER 2007 219

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UP, DOWN AND ROUND THE USA

training business, Ray’s Gym, in San Jose, California, and had to concentrate on that first and foremost. I met Ray when he won the very first California Collegiates (now the Junior Cal) back in 1999. It took me about three seconds to see that he was a pro in waiting. And he did make us wait for a long time, but better late than never. The 34-year-old is now focused on competing at the pro level, where at 5’6” and around 210 to 212 pounds, he could make a dent in the scene in a hurry. Ray’s got nice shape and is thick and detailed. I say he could finish in the top five at the IM and qualify for the Olympia his first time out. See what happens when you compete in my contest? To contact Arde, send e-mail to Raysgym@yahoo.com.

ADD ARDE—The guy who put Ray Arde into my first show, Hany Rambod, was at the USA, repping BSN, and had new sensation Trey Brewer by his side much of the time. Beast Brewer, who just turned 22, stands 5’11” and was weighing in the neighborhood of 305 pounds as he trekked up and down the theater lobby. The Atlanta behemoth, who came out of nowhere to win the ’06 Excalibur—in Southern California—will be heading for Chicago and the ’08 Junior Nationals and, according to Rambod, might wind up on the USA stage as well, depending on his finish at the Juniors. Hany says he expects Trey to be around 265 on contest day, and I expect the fans will be saying that his quads are among the craziest in the game today. Want to handicap the ’08 Juniors right now?

Jesse Marunde, RIP

8 7

Neveux

The strongman community mourned the passing of one of its youngest and brightest stars on July 25 when Jesse Marunde, 33, died from an apparent heart attack following a grueling workout. “Jesse was a true ambassador for the strength and fitness industries, embracing fans, cheering competitors and delivering for event promoters and corporate sponsors,” said Marc Missioreck, promoter of the IRON MAN FitExpo. “Jesse was one of the most popular athletes at our Fit Expo,

Neveux

whether he was competing in the All American Strongman Challenge, or emceeing it. “Our thoughts and prayers go out to his family and friends. He will be greatly missed.”

1) Two former NPC champions, Shawn Ray and Flex Wheeler, still in the game. 2) J.M. Manion has things figured out with Liza Kampstra and Jacqui Skibba. 3) Met-Rx’s Frank Sepe, always looking divine. 4) The Denver Dandies, Jeff Taylor and Isaac Hinds. 5) With the biggest USA yet taking place, promoter Jon Lindsay had reason to smile. 6) There sure was a lot of chemistry at the Kemistry booth (from left): Sherry Goggin, Flo Jalin, Christina Lindley and Amanda Savell. 7) Bodybuilding.com’s Ryan and Brianna DeLuca. 8) L.T. and new pro DeShaun Grimez.

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10 Just remember, something will be Brewin’ in Chicago.

STILL MORE USA—Kai Greene was at the Kemistry booth, along with Quincy Taylor, Michael Lockett and the usual slew of great-looking ladies, and this season’s biggest surprise—including his big win at the Colorado Pro in June—told me he’s also passing on the Olympia and will be doing his thing again at next year’s Arnold Classic—if I can’t convince him to do the IRON MAN Pro first, natch. It’s been a tough, long road to getting noticed in the pros for the two-time Team Universe Overall champ, but the entertaining New Yorker has now established himself as a major player in the big leagues—and not only in terms of his posing talents. Congrats on a great year, Kai. I’m sure the best is yet to come.

12 11

Photography by Ron Avidan

FULL HOUSE—Dave Liberman, IRON MAN’s man on the scene at the Teen, Collegiate and Masters Nationals, which was held a week before the USA, said the Gary Udit production in Pittsburgh was a blockbuster, as usual, with a record 360 contestants. Also as always, the contest produced some terrific champs. Hats off to pro card winners Andy Haman (superheavyweight and overall), Anthony Finocchiaro (light heavyweight winner, second overall), Marty Vranicar (50 and over) and Paul LaSala (60 and over). Also, kudos to Teen National champion Kevin Deiner, 19, of Erie, Pennsylvania, and Collegiate titlist Casey Fathi, a 22-year-old from the University of New York at Stony Brook. Liberman even came up with a pretty good look-alike, I must admit, with his George Bush comparison to Don Len, a New Yorker who competed in the 70-and-over division. “One of the most amazing stories from the contest was Brian Smith’s,” Liberman said. “He’s a 41-year-old from Kentucky who took a very close second in the 40-andover class. Brian had a kidney transplant and received a donated kidney from his brother Steve. He and Steve and another brother, Tim, are all bodybuilders. [Former IFBB star] Porter Cottrell is also a close friend.” Yes, Dave, it’s certainly a story worth mentioning. Good job—to you and to the Smiths. IM

9) Peter Putnam and DeShaun have a wheelathon. 10) Flex Lewis, L.T. and Quincy Taylor. 11) Will Harris and Pastor Mike Wenger. 12) Jessica Putnam and her award-winning smile. 13) Dayana Cadeau and Russ DeLuca. 14) Cathy LeFrancois at the Gaspari Nutrition booth. 15) Ruthless Ruth with ’07 Team Universe Overall champ Chris Faildo and his wife, Sunshine. 16) Anyone in the mood for some lounging?

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NPC Blockbuster

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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ff IRON MAN Hardbody

Portrait of a

itness lyer

Air Force Academy Grad Tanji Johnson Soars Higher Height: 5’3” Age: 32

Weight: 126

Hometown: Irmo, South Carolina

Current residence: Seattle, Washington

Occupation: Personal trainer, professional fitness competitor, fitness coach (to fitness and figure athletes), consultant and writer, fitness model and spokesperson for Gaspari Nutrition Marital status: Single

Workout schedule: Monday, back; Tuesday, plyometrics and high-rep leg work; Wednesday, chest; Thursday, delts; Friday, plyometrics and high-rep legs (Note: She also does long runs, track work, hikes, hip-hop classes and gymnastics throughout the week.) Sample bodypart workout (back): Close-grip pulldowns, 4 x 12-15; seated cable rows, 4 x 12-15; bent-over barbell rows, 4 x 12-15; hyperextensions, 4 x 15-20 Factoids: Graduated from the U.S. Air Force Academy in 1997 with a B.S. in humanities and served five years in the Air Force; has won four IFBB pro contests and placed fourth at the ’06 Fitness Olympia and the ’07 Fitness International; is the chairman of the Save Fitness campaign, which is dedicated to recruiting women to compete in fitness; and launched the ExcellentSpirit clothing line in March ’06. Web site: www.TanjiJohnson.com Compiled by Jonathan Lawson • Photography by Michael Neveux Hair and makeup by: Yvonne Ouellette

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IRON MAN Hardbody

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IRON MAN Hardbody

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IRON MAN Hardbody

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IRON MAN Hardbody

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SUPER SHOW FITNESS

Midsummer Madness

So many muscle babes in motion; so little space. Amy Villa Nelson, hiding under Shirley Temple flapper curls, got nice buzz after her performance in the Europa fitness show but landed in eighth. Find complete results and photos from all the Super Show events at IronManMagazine.com.

The Chica’s

The physique circuit, circa 2007, sails along

Got it goin’ on

Now that there’s something besides figure going on, the long, hot summer of pro-women’s physique competition has gotten very interesting. Not that my analysis of the callouts at the New York Pro Figure in last month’s Pump & Circumstance wasn’t absolutely riveting to readers, I’m sure, but when you’ve got all three sports sailing at full speed, you’ve got something to talk about. In this installment that means talking about the Motor City Pro Figure, the Europa Super Show fitness, figure and women’s bodybuilding events and the All-Star Pro Fitness, which is taking place this weekend—August 25—even as I’m pounding the Powerbook keys. And that’s just the pose-for-pesos petunias. The Team Universe festivities, reported last month, were just the tip of the amateur iceberg for summer ’07. I barely got to mention the Figure Nationals, and with the humongous Teen, Collegiate and Master’s Nationals taking place a week later and the mammoth USA a week after that, there’s enough stuff to pump out five or six editions of Pump. So let’s get to it.

Lest anyone think her foray into figure at the Houston Pro was anything more than an effort to pick up a couple of grand, reigning Fitness Olympia champ Adela Garcia turned up at the Super Show fitness event in Dallas three weeks later and danced off with a 13-point victory over runner-up Tanji Adela Garcia. Johnson and a stellar lineup of 26 athletes. The 5’1” Garcia, who calls Texas home these days, won three of the four rounds, taking the physique comparisons unanimously and losing to Johnson by one point in the mandatory routines. Clearly, the sport’s favorite chica Latina is raring to go at the Fitness O. Whether she’ll retain her title after losing to Kim Klein at the International—and with Jen Hendershott deciding not to retire—is anyone’s guess, but by the time you read this, you’ll be able to find the answer at IronManMagazine.com.

SUPER FLEXERS

Mah-Ann Is Mah-velous

Mah-Ann Mendoza sure looked swell notching her first-ever serious pro win, which in this case meant the overall trophy.

Super Shoow promoters Ed and Betty Pariso are all about making opportunities for bodybuilders to shine. This year at their annual Texas-size weekend of physique they instituted an Under 210-pound Division for the men and reinstated weight classes for the women. That turned out to be great news for ’04 lightweight winner Mah-Ann Mendoza, who returned to the scene of her firstever pro win and did herself one better, picking up not only class honors—and an Olympia qualification— but her first overall victory. Looking tighter than perhaps she’s ever been, but with her muscles full, the

symmetrical 5’2” trainer from Oregon got onstage right at the cutoff weight of 135 pounds and commanded a 13-point win in a superb lightweight class before snatching overall honors from heavyweight victor Tazzie Columb. The 22 flexers who heeded the Parisos’ call fell evenly into the two weight classes. In the lightweights Mendoza’s closest competition came from two fabulous-looking rookies, ’06 National Light-Heavy champ Debi Laszewski and real newbie Debbie Bramwell, who’d earned her pro card the previous weekend at the Masters Nationals. In the heavyweights Thressa Bostick, in second, and Beth Roberts, third, were the only ones to challenge Columb, who nailed her conditioning and brought an imposing presence to the Dallas Convention Center stage to grab an 11-point mar-

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Laszewski. No ticket to the O but a buzz-worthy debut.

Europa Super Show photography by Roland Balik

CONTEST UPDATE

S TA N D O U T S

More Euro-Fit Notes

And noteworthies

The big winner at the Super scribed as, “not a routine but a performance,” by Show Fitness event was Mindi those lucky enough to have seen it. Plus, she had O’Brien, who showed up in a pretty good body and, as you can see, was not splendid condition with a wow bad to look at yet finished, along with 10 others, routine to take third, the last in 16th place. What could possibly be not to like? Olympia-qualifying slot. The I heard a couple of reasons being bandied about: winner of the she-should’ve-finone that she had not performed the mandatory ished-higher sweepstakes was moves correctly (though that shouldn’t have affourth-placer Julie Lohre, fected her two-minute-routine score); another that who many observers thought the judges, who are used to rewarding peppy, deserved a top-three decision high-energy performances, were not comfortable from the judges. Not to worry with Grishina’s dramatic and polished but defiabout the Julster, folks. She nitely not peppy moves. earned her ticket to the O at You can find a video of her performance at the the post-Olympia Palm Beach World Championships at YouTube. With her long, show last October and is not graceful legs and snazzy floor moves, Oksana likely to pass up that opportumust have had the international panel wrapped nity. As I haven’t actually seen around her baby toe. The reported reaction of the her compete for some years, pro panel in Texas reminds me of the problems I’m looking forward to the live encountered by another former rhythmic gymnast Lohre experience. from Europe when she hit the IFBB, Alexandra Earning the distinction of Béres. Béres, however, never carried enough the most-overlooked competimuscle to please the U.S.-dominated panel’s Oksana’s passionate performance tor—a.k.a. the What-Are-thetaste—a problem Grishina won’t share, based on in Dallas stimulated massive word Judges-Deaf-Dumb-and-Blind the photos. of mouth; within a week she’d Award—was ’06 World I have a feeling this gifted addition to the fitpicked up a contract with Body Well Nutrition. Amateur champ Oksana ness scene, who has moved to Las Vegas since Grishina, a 5’2 1/4” fitness her World Championships win, won’t be flying trainer from Kaliningrad, a Russian seaport located between under the judiciary radar much longer. To find out how far she Poland and Lithuania on the Baltic Sea. In her pro debut the moved up the ranks at the All-Star Pro, see page 244. 115-pound former rhythmic gymnast gave what was de-

MOTOR CITY MOMENT

Gates Locks It In

Again

Jennifer Gates.

Roland Balik

gin of victory. It was a lastminute decision to name an overall champ, according to reports. Inch for inch, Columb probably had more muscle, but Mendoza had the aesthetic edge, and the panel gave her the nod for best bodybuilder onstage that day. Way to go, Mah-Ann. Let’s see what happens if you come to the Olympia looking like that.

Worth noting. Figure pro Karen Zaremba let it all hang out to hang with the big girls in Dallas. The result: eighth in the lightweight class and one of the hottest competition shots IRON MAN’s Roland Balik got.

Talk about your meteoric rises. Jennifer Gates, who earned her pro card at the Junior Nationals in June and got an Olympia qualification in her pro debut in New York a month later, caught the big bouquet in Belleville, Michigan, on August 4 to nab a five-point victory over the consistently fine Shannon Meteraud at the Motor City Pro Figure on August 4. Added to the invite list for the big show was third-placer Chaundra Coffey, whose physique was definitely more etched than when she just missed out at the New York show.

Olympia factoid: As of this writing, there are 28 women qualified for the Figure Olympia. With one out for maternity leave (Christine Pomponio-Pate), one competing in the Fitness O (Adela Garcia) and one retired from competition (Tara Scotti) and two more competitions before the entry list is finally closed, there are potentially 11 to 16 contenders who will end up tying for 16th place. Find our 3-D Olympia coverage at IronManMagazine.com and see who got totally overlooked. www.ironmanmagazine.com \ NOVEMBER 2007 241

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MORE NPC FLEXERS

SUPER SHOW FIGURE

People don’t give Shannon Meteraud enough credit. The 5’2”, eyes of blue South Carolina supermom—and super fitness athlete—has been charming the judges with her vibrant athleticism and well-toned contours since she placed second (to Mia Finnegan) at the ’95 Galaxy. A dozen years later she’s still got that certain something that catches their eye. So it wasn’t that astonishing when her return to competition after the birth of her second daughter brought runner-up spots at the three shows she entered prior to the Europa. As no one who had beaten her earlier in the year was onstage in Dallas, it was also not astonishing when Meteraud moved to the head of the lineup with a perfect score. Of course it didn’t hurt that she nailed her conditioning once again. Natalie Benson, who went from most-overlooked competitor to fifth at the Houston Pro, continued her upward bounce, taking second, also with a perfect score. Bensen brought perhaps her most balanced package to date. The decision, based on the photos, probably came down to Shannon’s being in better shape—tighter, particularly from the back. It wasn’t a total loss for Natalie though: She got her ticket to the O, where the playing field, except for the top five or six, is leveler than you’d think. Super Show winners (from left): Chaundra Coffey earned the last of Meteraud, Chaundra Coffey and the top-three spots. Natalie Benson.

Merv

Speaking of ladies who are moving up Shannon Meteraud.

One more time. Angie Salvagno brought what might have been her best package yet to take the USA light heavies for the second year running.

Silverrrman

Favorites Old and New

Rip it up. Dr. Michele Neil, an internal and sports medicine specialist from Tulsa, Oklahoma, didn’t give up without a fight.

USA BODYBUILDING

Panel Takes the Middle(weight) Path

Speaking of not being surprised

Jennifer Sedia accomplished that seldom-seen-at-anational-show feat, earning the single pro card up for grabs at the annual Jon Lindsay–produced event. Fifty-four female flexers hit the stage at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, in search of that pro card, producing a top-notch roster of class winners that included lightweight Galina Serdtsev, light-heavy Angela Salvagno and heavyweight Michele Neil, in addition to Sedia. The heavyweight, if she has the size and structure that Neil brings to the posing platform, is presumed to be the victor in these situations, but Michele, who was coming off a class win at the Master’s Nationals—where she lost the pro card to Debbie Bramwell—was perhaps too well conditioned, especially from the rear view, to suit the panel’s taste when it comes to the amateur side of the sport. I had a feeling they’d be looking for an alternative, and Jennifer, with 125 well-distributed pounds on her 5’3” physique, had the polGalina Serdtsev. ish and put-together to be the likely candidate. I felt pretty smart when the 34-year-old environmental specialist from It’s not often that you look at a women’s-bodybuilding Lubbock, Texas, was named the overall winner. Those with posedown and know that the middleweight is going to win. a preference for very-big-muscled women probably had I had that experience at the NPC USA on July 28, where other feelings. Merv

Merv

Jennifer Sedia.

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MORE FIGURE

USA FIGURE

Lovely and Amazing

What I said

About the judges

Was a compliment. That’s a lot of bikini-clad bodies (some terrifically toned, some not so much) parading before their eyes, and unlike wiseass reporters, they can’t, say, duck out after the top callouts and run to the Another fine pick. Jessica Wright ladies room. So moved up from third it takes stamina at the Nationals to to be as sharp rake in a unanimous in viewing the F F-class win. class as you were when the A’s strolled by, which they’ve got. Even so, we’ve all rolled our eyes a time or two at decisions at some of these huge multi-pro-card-awarding shows. Not so much lately, which was the point. There are five NPC competitions per year that meet that description—six if you count the IFBB North Americans—and the top-level judges all do duty at multiple of those events. After five years and thousands of honed hopefuls in heels passing before them, they’ve basically got it down. In a recent tweak, they’ve started reversing the order in which the classes are judged for the second round, which is a big deal if you’re over 5’6” and always have to wait for 150 other women to take their turn in the spotlight.

Isaac Hinds \ www.LiftStudios.com

Those two after that contest, words describe with many of the the outcome same athletes who’d of the ’07 USA been at the NationFigure Chamals taking another pionships, held shot at a pro card, on July 27 the USA panel got and 28 in Las it right once again. Vegas—lovely Andersen, who took being the persixth in the F-class at fect word for the former show and overall winner swept the E-class Catherine in Vegas (apparently Andersen, a she lost an inch over 5’6” recently the two weeks), radiretired printates a fresh athletisales rep and cism that stands out former basketin the sometimes ball player from overglammed Shorewood, throngs of bethonged Wisconsin. The figure hopefuls. amazing part Sporting a look the is that the NPC judges love—a long judges were With a background in sports—and sales— X-frame, stunningly and this body, USA champ Catherine Anable to reach balanced bodyparts dersen is looking at a successful career into a barrelful and a generous in the fitness industry. of 180-plus helping of muscular coiffed candicurves—she was an dates for figure stardom and unearth easy call over fellow class winners— another outstanding overall winner. and new pros—Desha Rodriguez, Recall in last month’s P&C that I was Allison Williams, Lynn Widdowsinging the praises of Figure National son, April Fortier and Jessica champ (and Team Universe Fitness Wright, who the judges did a fine job champ) Nicole Wilkins. Two weeks of finding as well.

TEEN, COLLEGIATE AND MASTERS NATIONALS

National Figure champ.

of Pittsburgh into a main stop on the national-level tour. Wedged in on the weekend between the Team Universe and the USA, it offers pro cards to the Masters over-35 winners in women’s bodybuilding and figure, as well as two in the men’s division, the perfect spot for athletes with a lot of frequent flyer miles who love to compete. This year athlete numbers

Liberrman

Speaking of big shows that set off a feeding frenzy, Gary Udit’s Teen, Collegiate and Masters National Championships, held Going where no woman on July has gone before: Courtney Mahony, 18, of Sum- 20 and 21, has erset, New Jersey, here with promoter Gary Udit, turned my became the first Teen hometown

Welcome to the club. Jenny Lynn with Masters National Figure champ Tivisay Briceno.

swelled to 360 or so, with light-heavyweight champ Debbie Bramwell—a repeat winner from 2006—and figure Aclass winner Tivisay Briceno getting tapped for the next level.

Roland Balik

Bods of All Ages Hit the Stage in Pittsburgh

Long time coming. Masters National champ Debbie Bramwell never finished lower than fifth in national-level competition.

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“I’m so-o-o glad I’m not posing in heels tonight!” says Diana.

VEGAS SHUFFLE: SCENE BACKSTAGE AT THE USA Oiled and ready. Kendra and Felicia line up.

This Star is definitely ready for her close-up.

be a it! Debbie may Come and get aid to get afr t no e’s sh t pro now, bu Lynn flashes her hands dirty. that aboutto-be newpro smile.

Jamie gets kudos for a cute kimono.

Maria’s headed for a fourthplace finish.

Bea, now a proud citizen of the USA, makes her first entry into the USA.

PHOTOGRAPHY BY RUTH SILVERM AN Giulia brings her best ride ’em cowgirl look to the stage. Michele and Sheila show how the heavyweights chill.

Allison looks like a winner (of course, this shot was taken after she won her class).

Erin gets the P&C nod for most likely to get her pro card next time.

Tricia came through a wrenching rehab to make it onstage today.

A L L - S TA R P R O F I T N E S S

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No one who read the stories about the Europa fitness show on pages 240 and 241 will be shocked by the results from the All-Star Pro Fitness, which Chad Nicholls and Kim Chizevsky promoted in Little Rock on August 25. Tanji Johnson took top honors, with Julie Lohre moving into the runner-up slot and Oksana Grishina winning both routine rounds to slide into third. What a difference a couple of weeks make, eh? It was a great season for Tanji, who also shot with IRON MAN’s Michael Neveux this summer. Find the results of that effort on page 224.

Free download from imbodybuilding.com

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

In Case You Were Wondering

Only the Strong Shall Survive

Model: Berry Kabov

Bench Press

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Under Fire

How to Keep the Flame Burning

by Bill Starr • Photography by Michael Neveux

he bench press is no doubt the most popular exercise in all of weight training. Most bodybuilders and strength athletes believe it’s the very best upper-body lift for adding size and power to that area. Since the early ’70s it’s replaced the military press as the standard of strength. People no longer ask, “How much can you press?” but rather, “How much can you bench?” to determine your strength level. The transition came about when the military press was dropped from Olympic competition and at the same time the sport of powerlifting emerged and strength training for all types of sports became the norm. In high schools and colleges with meager equipment, the flat bench could still be done. I knew of several high schools that did the exercise on locker-room benches. It was easy to teach and fit in nicely when the strength coach also happened to be the sports coach. When Tommy Suggs and I formulated a simple but effective program for coaches that could be done with a minimum of equipment and in a

limited space, we selected the bench press as part of the Big Three. Why not the overhead or incline press? At that time the overhead press was getting lots of, well, bad press. Many authorities had declared that pressing heavy weights overhead was harmful to the lower back. So we figured that would create difficulties for athletic directors and coaches. We really preferred the incline over the flat bench, but there was a problem—there weren’t many incline benches available, even in fitness facilities and YMCAs. Shaky as they might be, flat benches were plentiful, and they did build stronger upper bodies. So they became a fixture in strength programs even after incline benches became more prevalent. Everyone was happy—until lately. A number of people have sent me comments that they’ve pulled off the Internet concerning the damaging effect the bench press is having on the chest, back (primarily the rotator cuffs), shoulders and elbows. They contend that the lift should be eliminated from all programs and replaced with inclines as it’s espe-

cially harmful to youngsters and older trainees. They wanted to know what I thought. As most readers know, I’m a big fan of the incline bench. I like it because it hits the target muscles very directly and because there’s less opportunity to cheat on the incline. Also, the motion of the incline is closer to the actual movements made in nearly every sport, whereas the flat-bench press relates to only a few athletic activities. I’m not, however—by any stretch of the imagination—antibench. It was one of the first exercises I did when I found a weight room, and I include it in all of my routines. The exercise is not an evil movement just waiting to do harm. When done correctly, the bench press is a safe exercise and helps enhance strength in the chest, shoulders, and arms, the key word being correctly. When it’s grossly overtrained or when trainees repeatedly use sloppy technique, injuries occur—but that’s the case with any exercise. The lift is not at fault; the lifter is. The reason ugly form shows up so frequently on the bench press is

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Only the Strong Shall Survive

linked to its status as the gauge of strength. Back when the military press held that distinction, the bench press was regarded as an auxiliary exercise and no one paid much attention to how much a person could bench. That’s all changed. It’s the one lift used to test athletes in nearly every sport. Quite often, a football player’s best bench press is listed right next to his time in the 40-yard dash. That makes the bench press extremely important. A lofty bench might catch the attention of a coach at a Division I college and translate to big bucks. You don’t see form noted alongside the amount on the bench. All that matters is the number. As a result, coaches and parents care little about how the lift is done, just so the poundage is noteworthy. In

truth, sloppy technique is encouraged. Excessive bridging, rebounding the bar off the chest, squirming, twisting—anything goes. Big numbers in the bench reflect favorably on the coaches, even if the athletes have to stand on their heads to complete the lift. For those who train in commercial fitness facilities, it’s not the lure of scholarships but peer pressure that results in using poor form. Since, to most, the bench is the only lift that matters, they resort to any means to record a high one. Once bad habits become ingrained, it’s close to impossible to break them. It would be necessary to use much less weight, and the bench is so closely aligned with their egos that few can handle that. What it all means is that there are no rules for the bench press. If

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Model: Dan Decker

When the bench press is grossly overtrained or when trainees repeatedly use sloppy technique, injuries occur—but that’s the case with any exercise. The lift is not at fault; the lifter is.

it touches the chest and is locked out in any manner, it counts. Once trainees have done a certain poundage, they’re not going to change their style, even if it means sore elbows and shoulders. In all of my years of lifting and coaching, I’ve encountered very few who could swallow their pride and learn to bench correctly after handing big weights using sloppy form. The exception was John Phillip, my Tongan friend in Hawaii. I trained with Phillip at the Church College of Hawaii in Laie when I first moved to Oahu. When he found out that I’d competed in some powerlifting contests, he asked me to train him for an upcoming one in Honolulu. At that point he was doing 515 but was rebounding the bar off his chest rather excessively. I told him that he had to learn to pause the bar on his chest for at least a full second if he expected to get the lift passed at the meet. He had to go back down to 405 before he could manage a legal lift. John was a legend on the island, and I fully understood what it took for him to lower his bench by more than 100 pounds in front of all his friends. Yet he did just that. At the contest, three months later, he benched 525 and got three white lights from strict judges. Then there are those who use decent technique on the bench but still have a host of dings or outright injuries to various parts of their upper body because they overwork the exercise to the extreme. They are so intent on improving their benches that they train the lift at every session and add several more exercises for their shoulders and chest for good measure. The workload for their shoulder girdles is often two or even three times greater than what they do for their hips, legs or back. It must be understood that the groups that comprise the shoulder girdle—deltoids, triceps, biceps, pecs, and (yes) the rotator cuffs—are quite delicate and can’t

Only the Strong Shall Survive

Many experience shoulder and elbow trouble because they use a wide grip—but some of the greatest benchers I ever saw used a rather close grip relative to their shoulder size. in itself. I’ll come back to that later. More often than not, the lifters who overtrain their upper bodies also employ ugly bench technique. The combination eventually results in some type of injury or nagging pain that makes sleeping without medication impossible and will ultimately cause them to stop For those who have pain when they training altogether. perform the bench press, the best thing I believe that one reason so they can do is often to stop benching for many people use improper a while. form on the bench press is that they’ve never been taught how to do it correctly. Since it’s really a simple movement—lower the bar to your chest and press it back to lockout—very few bother to examine the many form points of the lift. With light weights it doesn’t matter all that much, but when the poundage gets heavy, it certainly does. If you know that the bench press is causing undue stress to any part of your upper body, here are suggestions that will enable you to continue to bench and avoid being punished in the process. For some, the best thing you can do for yourself is to stop benching for a while. Give your body time to heal. You can still

Model: John Cowgill

take nearly as much work as the more powerful hips, legs and back. True, the upper back is also a part of the shoulder girdle, but it’s seldom included in the programs of athletes obsessed with obtaining a bigger bench, which means it’s a problem

work your shoulder girdle with other exercises, various degrees of inclines, overhead presses done with a bar or dumbbells, and dips. Or just do lots of auxiliary movements for a month or so, such as dumbbell raises, curls, triceps pushdowns, straight-arm pullovers and rows. The rest and high-rep work for the smaller groups often work wonders. Once you decide that you’re ready to start benching again, you must take two steps, and both will be difficult. First, you must forget you did numbers. Old Man Usta died. Set your ego aside, and tell yourself that if you do everything right, you’ll eventually get back to the bigger numbers. That shouldn’t be an immediate goal, though, or you’ll slip back into the old habits right away. Second, you must adjust your program and modify your technique. Your goal should be to achieve the perfect bench press—so clean from start to finish that you could be a model for a training video. That usually means starting from scratch. The time spent away from benching will help in that regard. Muscle memory will still be there, of course, but it won’t be as fresh as if you’d been benching recently. Start with the basics, and pay attention to the

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You Can Get small points, such as the grip.

Many experience shoulder and elbow trouble because they use a wide grip. They do it in the belief that it enables them to handle more weight. Or if they’re bodybuilders, they figure it builds a more impressive chest. Maybe, but benching with a wide grip over a long period of time is extremely stressful to the shoulders and elbows and will take its toll. To my way of thinking, it’s smarter to bench a few pounds less or have a bit smaller pecs and be able to continue to do benches than it is to have to resort to wraps, muscle rub and aspirin just to get through a workout. Besides, some of the greatest benchers I ever saw used a rather close grip relative to their shoulder size. Doug Young stands out as the perfect example. If you start with a close grip and use it consistently, you’ll end up handling as much as or more than if you selected that wider grip. That assumes you

Bigger, Stronger and Leaner

do all other aspects of the lift correctly. The grip I teach to everyone except those who have small or very wide shoulders is this: On an Olympic bar, extend your thumbs until they barely touch the smooth center. That’s a good starting point. You’ll know a grip is right for you if you can keep your elbows under your wrists throughout the movement. When your elbows aren’t directly under the bar, you’re giving away power. Simple fact, but often overlooked. Maintaining the forearms in a vertical position also alleviates a great deal of stress on the elbows and wrists. Grip the bar firmly with your thumbs wrapped around it, I realize many big benchers prefer the false grip, where the thumbs are not around the bar, but I’m not talking to powerlifters or those who have been benching for many years. The false grip is just too dangerous. One slip, and there goes your dental health; it happens more often than you realize, and there’s no reason to use a false grip. Everyone I watch who uses a false grip also bridges to bring the bar through the sticking point. They have to bridge because the false grip works against them whenever the bar moves even the slightest bit forward. By contrast, with your thumbs around the bar, you can guide it back into the proper line should it run forward. As you assume your grip, lock your wrists, and keep them that way throughout

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Model: Berry Kabov

Rotator cuff work—done here with a Shoulder Horn—can strengthen the shoulder structure and improve your bench press poundage.

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Model: Noel Thompson

Only the Strong Shall Survive You’ll know your grip is right for you if you can keep your elbows under your wrists throughout the movement. the lift. Many beginners pick up the habit of cocking or turning their wrists while the bar is in motion, trying to coax it through the sticking point. That doesn’t help, and it works against you because the unnecessary movement of the wrist diminishes the power generated by your chest, shoulders and arms. When the wrists are locked, power flows through them into the bar. Bear in mind that your wrists are delicate joints and very susceptible to injury. The constant cocking or twisting will aggravate them, and they’re one of the tougher areas of the body to rehab. If you find it difficult to stop cocking or twisting your wrists during the lift, tape or wrap them. That will hold them in place and also serve

as a reminder for you to keep them straight. Now let’s move from the hands to the feet, an aspect of benching that is generally overlooked. Bench pressing really starts with the feet. Brace your feet down into the floor before you lie back on the bench. That helps establish a firm base so that when the bar does hit the sticking point, you can power up from the solid foundation into the pressing muscles. If you allow your feet to dangle, though, there’s no source of power when you need it. So you end up bridging or twisting to nudge the bar upward. Neither is permissible for the perfect bench press. Similarly, when you position yourself on the bench, squeeze

down into it. Lock your shoulder blades and glutes tightly, and become a part of the fabric. Be the bench. Trite, I know, but you get the idea. The combination of grinding down into the bench and driving your feet into the floor will ensure that you have a very solid foundation from which to press the weight. Once you’re fixed on the bench and have gripped the bar, have the spotter hand you the bar on your signal. Make sure you and your spotter are on the same page. Quite a few prefer to take the weight off the racks on their own, without any assistance. They feel that affords them more control of the bar right away. Either way is fine. Fix the bar at arm’s length, take a deep breath,

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because it means using a lot less weight, especially at first. I’m talking about pausing the bar on your chest for a full second. Touch and go doesn’t make it. As you pull the bar down to your chest, contract the muscles in your pecs, chest, arms and upper back, creating a solid base on which to position the bar. Stay extremely tight, and focus on driving the bar upward in exactly the same line every time. When you rebound or even touch and go, the starting line may vary a great deal and adversely affect the rest of the lift. When you pause with the bar on your chest, however, you have much more control of the its flight. Until powerlifting became popular, everyone who benched paused with the bar on his chest. Olympic lifters did so because they were doing benches to help them with the start of the military press. The purpose of benching was to strengthen the front deltoids and triceps, and that was achieved by pausing. Rebounding bypassed the target muscles, particularly the deltoids, and didn’t make any sense. Bodybuilders paused, since they wanted to involve as many muscles

If you have shoulder pain when benching with a bar, try dumbbells for more freedom of movement—and pause at the bottom of each rep for a full second. as possible in the movement. As a result, neither group of athletes had any injuries from benching. No sore elbows, shoulders, pecs or damaged rotator cuffs. Once you learn to pause, you’ll discover that you can hold the bar on your chest for four or five seconds and still be able to blast it upward. Until you get the feel of pausing and determine where to drive the bar in the proper groove,

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Model: Mike Morris

and then lower it in a controlled manner to the point where your breastbone ends. Of course, there are variations on where the bar touches the chest, but it shouldn’t touch too high or too low. Remember the rule: Your elbows must stay under your wrists at all times. In order to establish a pattern in which every rep is identical, you must make sure the bar touches your chest in exactly the same spot every time. That happens only when you lower it under complete control and don’t allow it to crash on your chest. Remember Doug Young, whom I consider one of the greatest powerlifters ever? He’d lower the bar so slowly that you’d have thought he was trying to avoid aggravating some old injury. In fact, he was making certain his downward line was precise. Then he exploded into the bar, and it shot up like a rocket. Lowering the bar in a slow fashion also enables you to really tighten all your pressing muscles in preparation for the upward thrust. I compare it to coiling a giant spring, then releasing it. Now comes the part of the bench press that many refuse to accept

be deliberate. After you’re comfortable with pausing and have the line down pat, get aggressive. Think of the start as a boxing punch—short and powerful. As soon as the bar leaves your chest, follow through, and it will float through the middle range, which is where the sticking point usually resides. The bar should move in a straight line off your chest and through the middle; then glide back slightly at the finish so that it ends up over your chin or neck. It will travel upward in an arc, but a small arc. Lock the bar out, and exhale and inhale before doing the next rep. If you’re handling a light or moderate poundage, how you breathe isn’t that important. When you use heavier weights, however, it’s critical. Hold your breath throughout the lift, or at least until the bar breaks through the sticking point. Why? Inhaling or exhaling while the bar is in motion forces your rib cage to relax, and that adversely affects your base. Holding your breath ensures that your diaphragm stays locked, creating a positive intrathoracic pressure. That’s what you want, and there’s little danger of running out of air unless you’re in terrible shape, as the lift takes only a few seconds from start to finish. For those who find it difficult to stop bridging, try this. It’s something lots of powerlifters did to keep themselves from bridging in a contest, which is cause for disqualification. Raise your feet up above the bench and cross your legs. Now you can’t bridge. That also really helps the start because you aren’t getting any assistance from your lower

body. Your goal should be to obtain the perfect bench and, for the time being, forget about the numbers. Five reps will work well, as will threes, but stay away from singles until you’ve built a strong foundation and ideal technique. If you have a history of being injured from benching, do it only once a week. And do only one primary exercise per workout for your shoulder girdle. You can add one auxiliary movement as well, but no more than that. Should you decide you can handle benching twice a week, make sure that one of the days is a light day. Going heavy more than once a week isn’t a smart idea, especially if you’ve had problems with your elbows, wrists, shoulders or some other bodypart in the past. Be sure to include some specific exercises for your upper back. Many athletes tell me of pain in their rear deltoids, and invariably it’s a result of disproportionate strength between the front and rear of the shoulders brought about from too much upper-body work and a severe lack of upper-back work. Shrugs, high pulls and rows will get the job done. If you’re experiencing pain in the back of your shoulders, do a couple of sets of dumbbell rows at the end of every session. Every day is even better. Clean up your technique and do less for your upper body, and in a short time you’ll be able to say that you’re a master bench presser—and be pain free. A good deal, to my way of thinking. Take a moment to consider the big picture. Learn to bench-press perfectly, and you’ll be able to include it in your program for the rest of your life. Or keep abusing your body with sloppy form in order to satisfy your ego, and you won’t. Your choice. 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 www .Home-Gym.com. IM

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Mind BOOK REVIEW

MIND/BODY

The New Bodybuilding for Old-School Results llington Darden, Ph.D., remains the most prolific exponent of high-intensity training with more than three dozen popular publications to his credit. His recent The New Bodybuilding for Old-School Results is a considerable departure from standard HIT works—so much so that one wonders whether dyed-in-the-wool HIT advocates won’t find fault with it. His 2004 The New High Intensity Training did, in fact, meet with complaints from conservative elements of the HIT community, and the new book complements the earlier one. Darden’s recent works break HIT free from the seemingly rigid mold it’s been cast in for more than three decades. The new book brings a sense of the days when training was fun, when gyms were where we met our friends and when training was part of a balanced life. First, he takes us back to the golden era of bodybuilding and weightlifting, that time of in-

credible development before steroids came on the scene. From there he gives his view of how the frenzy of gross overtraining resulted from the steroid culture, which leads us to the development of HIT-oriented training by Arthur Jones. Although that happened years ago, the same issues confront those seeking to gain muscle and strength today. Darden named HIT in the mid-1970s. Originally it was called Nautilus training, but that was before Jones invented the first Nautilus machines. Once those machines came out, the training style was confused with Nautilus machines. Make no mistake: You can do HIT with Nautilus equipment, but it can be done with any other equipment just as easily. Here’s where Darden does HIT a big favor: He identifies its major principles. He readily admits that its key concept, training intensity, is not the opposite of volume; he holds they’re neighbors, perhaps complementary opposites, and says you need both to be complete. He also gives examples of incredible gains on two- and threeway-split routines taking up four and six days a week, respectively. That may get him excommunicated from some HIT groups. Darden succeeds where others fail because his ideas are driven by data. While Darden does talk about the golden era of bodybuilding, when John

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Body Grimek, Reg Park and Steve Reeves were the familiar names, HIT didn’t really come into its own until 1970, when Peary Rader’s Iron Man published a series of revolutionary articles by Arthur Jones that not only were read religiously but also became the topic of many long discussions in gyms throughout the land. Key to Jones’ method is “intensity of effort.” That means every set is taken to complete temporary exhaustion. It’s the same principle that brought success with power rack training in the ’60s, the same principle that Vince Gironda touted as “density.” Darden worked for Jones almost from the inception of Nautilus Sports/Medical Industries. Now, with close to 40 years of training tens of thousands of people using HIT methods, he has a rich repertoire of data to draw upon. He adds two new principles to HIT: adaptation and variation. Recognizing that we adapt to a new routine after anywhere from a few sessions to a few weeks, he recommends changing routines every four weeks. He also recommends doing two-week specialization cycles for lagging bodyparts and radically breaks with HIT tradition by recommending drop sets, partials (a.k.a. X Reps), static holds, staged sets and other strategies familiar to IRON MAN readers. Darden’s style is friendly and engaging, his passion for the iron game, drug-free training and HIT coming off the page like a good conversation among friends. He’s called upon a community of the wise and experienced to tell their versions of the story. They range from champion bodybuilders to the strength coach of the Houston Texans to gym owners and other experts. The result is outstanding: Each has had his successes applying HIT in different ways; that is, there’s no single “right way.” And, of course, the book includes a bevy of HIT routines you can try. The New Bodybuilding for Old-School Results is a musthave, must-read for everyone involved in bodybuilding, strength training and athletics. —Ken O’Neill Editor’s note: The New Bodybuilding for Old-School Results is available at Home-Gym.com or call (800) 4470008. Ken O’Neill, M.A., is a certified trainer, fitness writer and workshop facilitator living in Austin, Texas. To contact him, write to kayoneill@earthlink.net, or go to his Web site, www.longlifefitness.net.

Ease the Disease

Cancer-Fighting Cocoa?

ew studies indicate that a flavonol found in natural cocoa has powerful disease-fighting properties. A study performed by Norman Hollenberg and published in the International Journal of Medical Sciences suggests that epicatechin may have reduced the risk of cancer, heart disease and diabetes to below 10 percent in the Kuna people in Panama. They drink up to 40 cups of cocoa a week. —Becky Holman www.X-tremeLean.com

Happiness

Friend Trend

How to combat depression

id you know that nearly one in 10 Americans has a bout of depression at least once a year? Studies suggest that depression rates are about 10 times higher now than they were 50 years ago. One reason may be more social isolation—caused by computers, TV and video games. To combat depression, be sure you stay socially engaged. Volunteer work and social clubs may help you live a longer, stronger, happier life. Having a good training partner works too. —Becky Holman www.X-tremeLean.com

www.ironmanmagazine.com \ NOVEMBER 2007 261

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Bomber Blast

MIND/BODY

Bodybuilding: Dancing With the Iron

Neveux \ Model: Lee_Labrada

ucky for us bombers, the timeless declaration “You can’t teach an old dog new tricks” does not apply. Sure, there are plenty of old dogs, but there are no new tricks. The tricks are either old tricks in a slick disguise or some dopey distortion of the old to look new—high tech, cutting edge, out of the box, as they say. Nothing cutting edge has appeared in lifting since the introduction of barbells and dumbbells more than a hundred years ago. Any old fleabag knows that. Once you’ve trod the straight path to the center of things, why wander circuitous routes in the name of advanced technology? We’re dealing with the physics of gravity—what comes down must go up; the mathematics of addition—one rep plus one rep equals two reps; the science of nutrition—garbage in, garbage out; the logic of persistence—push that iron intensely; and the philosophy of mankind—only the strong shall survive. Thank God for straight lines, clear views and common sense: obstacles that challenge, injuries that instruct, plans that stimulate, deeds that reward and goals that motivate—blessings available to all of us, not just the elite. I roamed from gym to gym over the years in search of revolutionary ideas and methodologies. Truth is, I’d settle for anything out of the ordinary. My mission was to discover and unveil the newest, latest, hottest exercises and schemes of training on the gym floor. I wasted no ink recording blistering training ideas and remarkable breakthroughs. Heads bobbed up and down as muscle builders performed familiar routines. There’s the curl, the bench press, the squat. Even the most hardcore gyms offered no novel exercises or exercise patterns. The bigger and stronger ironheads you might find hanging out on the steps of the pharmacist’s back door lifted heavier weights in the simplest manner and with as much high-tech influence and finesse as an ox. Just as I suspected, just as I’ve declared—no secrets, nothing new. A testament to hard work and perseverance, that doesn’t make our mission any easier, but it does make it clearer and more certain. All we need to do as individuals is heft the weighted objects we have in hand and awe the riveted audience with our endurance, performance and grit—the audience composed of us, or, more precisely, ourselves; the only real audience. That there is nothing new in no way suggests we’re lacking means. We have single sets, supersets, tri-sets and multisets; high reps, low reps and mixed reps; volume training, power training and fitness training, plus various intensities of training depending on one’s goal, health and constitution. You can use several dozen essential exercises and multiple combinations of muscle groups to form a routine, and they can be applied throughout the week or month in different patterns, based on

time, training involvement, desire, purpose and ability to recuperate. We are in fact rich—one might say loaded. The choices change with the flow of life, trial and error, and maturity in training. Add time of the day-by-day variety, plus attentive application of the basic exercises, plus the patient observation of progress, plus the ever-growing understanding to render modifications, plus endurance of the mind, body and emotions augmented by sound genetics, right eating and living—Got it so far?—to determine the extent, direction and swiftness of development. There you have it. Not a secret or hot idea in the lot. It’s up to us. The idea of the iron tango is multifaceted: (immediately) to enjoy yourself, satisfy and fulfill yourself; (eventually) to build muscle and strength, to burn fat and diminish stress, to improve your health and well-being, to bolster your character and personality and to ready you for daily living and protect you from the enemy. So perform the moves with your eye on continuing practice and perfection of form. Push when passion arouses you and withdraw when inspiration ebbs. Be graceful, but accept an awkward misstep and occasional fall. Picking yourself up and carrying on are the most elegant movements you’ll make. Let them happen naturally. There’s no room for negative thinking in our wonderful act, but it will, like the devil, force itself upon us in the form of monotony, fatigue, doubt, disappointment and selfish desire. Don’t give in to the forces over which we have growing control. To quit is to lose to the loser within. Losing sucks. —Dave Draper Editor’s note: For more from Dave Draper, visit www.Dave Draper.com and sign up for his free newsletter. You can also check out his amazing Top Squat training tool, classic photos, workout Q&A and forum.

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Love and Laughter

sychologists at Appalachian State University in North Carolina say that laughing at the same things keeps marriages stronger. When you laugh together, you validate each other’s opinions, and that creates bonding—which provides joyful memories that can help you get through the rough patches of a relationship.

Neveux \ Models: Clark and Anita Bartram

Relationships

—Becky Holman www.X-tremeLean.com

Optimism

Positive Aging

R Neveux \ Model: Pax Beale

esearchers at the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs found that as we age, most become more optimistic. People over 55 who were exposed to a series of both unpleasant and happier images gave them equal attention, while those under 25 focused on the gloomier photos. It may be a survival mechanism in that when you’re young, you’re more aware of the negative in a situation—as a protective measure. As you age, you gain freedom from that and expect more good results. —Becky Holman www.X-tremeLean.com

Food for Thought

Berry Berry

isetin is a flavonoid found in strawberries and other fruits and vegetables. It appears to stimulate long-term memory. A study by the Salk Institute for Biological Studies shows that fisetin protects and aids the survival of neurons cultured in the lab. It also boosts memory in mice. The compound may eventually be part of the treatment for Alzheimer’s disease. In the meantime, eat your strawberries. An entire cup contains only 55 calories and 12 grams of carbs. —Becky Holman www.X-tremeLean.com

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Gallery of Ironmen

MIND/BODY MIND/BODY

Jerome Ronco

Photos courtesy of the David Chapman collection

rofessional strongmen were plentiful in early-20th-century Europe, and one of the finest of the theatrical ironmen was Jerome Ronco. He was born in the Italian port city of Genoa in 1879. His mother was American, and he went to school in England. It was there, when he was about 18 years old, that he met the man who would change the course of his life, Eugen Sandow. The great strongman had a gym and school of physical culture in London, and the young Italian-American began to train there. He discovered that he had a great aptitude for bodybuilding, and his physique sprouted muscles with only a little prodding. While working out at Sandow’s gymnasium, Ronco met another professional muscleman, Monte Saldo (see Gallery of Ironmen, March ’06), and they became partners in a very successful strongman act. Their first appearance was at the Crystal Palace near London in 1900. Although Ronco was short—5’4”—he had a great abdomen, and he’d pose in imitation of ancient statues. The two young men also lifted block weights and performed other pulling and lifting feats. After working together for two or three years, they split up. Thereafter, Ronco spent most of his time on

the Continent, where he maintained both his popularity and his impressive physique. Monte Saldo had accused his partner of being unmotivated and uninspired, but nothing could have been further from the truth. Over the next decade the Italian-American strongman became a very successful performer on the music hall stages of Europe. His solo act was described as “very original.” It consisted of card tearing, weight lifting and heaving large weights overhead. Perhaps his most spectacular feat involved a large, heavy touring car. Ronco stood in front of the automobile as it careened down an incline and stopped it with his bare hands; afterward, the band would strike up a Sousa march to put an American touch to the act. Ronco proudly displayed the Stars and Stripes in some of his posters, calling attention to his Yankee heritage. Jerome Ronco was still performing as late as 1912, but he seems to have retired around 1914, when the Great War began. He disappeared forever from the history books thereafter. —David Chapman

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Chills and Ills

MIND/BODY

Starve a Cold, Feed a Fever?

ith cold season right around the corner, we should clear up the myth that you should “starve a cold, feed

a fever.” Researchers have found that your body needs more nutrient-dense food to fight off viruses like colds and flu. Virus-fighting T cells need optimum nutrition to function. So feed a cold and feed a fever to increase your immune defenses. If you lose your appetite, try protein shakes or smoothies. —Daniel Curtis, R.D.

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1) “Jay Cutler—One Step Closer” 2) “2006 Mr. Olympia”

Top E-book: X-traordinary Muscle-Building Workouts—10 Complete Print-and-Go Size and Strength Programs by Steve Holman and Jonathan Lawson (available at www.X-Rep.com).

3) “2007 IRON MAN Pro” 4) “Ronnie Coleman: Relentless” 5) “IRON MAN’s Swimsuit Spectacular #9”

Books: 1) Train, Eat, Grow—The Positionsof-Flexion Muscle-Training Manual by Steve Holman

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IRON MAN’s Rising Stars / IronManMagazine.com

Krissy Chin

Photography by Isaac Hines

Weight: Off-season, 130; contest, 124 Height: 5’4” Residence: Miami, Florida Occupation: Physical therapist Contest highlights: ’07 NPC Figure Nationals, D class, 1st; ’07 NPC Junior Nationals, D class, 2nd Factoid: Was valedictorian of her class at Touro College, New York, in 2000; is sponsored by ALRI.

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IRON MAN’s Rising Stars / IronManMagazine.com

Guy Cisternino Jr. Age: 25 Height: 5’6” Weight: Off-season, 220; contest, 176 Residence: West Milford, New Jersey Occupation: Senior account executive at HSBC; personal trainer at Gold’s Gym, Totowa, New Jersey Contest highlightss: ’07 NPC New York Metropolitans, middleweight, 1st; ’07 NPC Junior USA, middleweight, 1st Factoid: Since ’03, he has competed in six shows, placing first in four of them, fourth in one and out of the money in another.

www.ironmanmagazine.com \ NOVEMBER 2007 269

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Readers Write Arnold’s Success Strategies

Shocker Mom

Editor’s note: We’ll see if we can get the answer from Gina, but we’re pretty sure it’s lots of hard work in the gym and not a lot of doughnuts.

Neveux

What an absolute knockout Gina Ostarly is—and with three kids no less. My wife wants to know how to get a stomach that flat after being pregnant three times. David Delgado via Internet

Gina Ostarly.

Long-Winded Wordiness

Wow, after reading the feature on Arnold’s thought processes and goal setting [“ArnoldThink” by Bill Dobbins, September ’07], I can see why the man is where he is. He’s a unique specimen in mind and body. I’ve read the article three times, and I learn something new at each reading. Thanks to IRON MAN for publishing such a unique feature on bodybuilding’s number-one icon. Cal Samuelson via Internet

Neveux

Rachel Redux Is there any chance I can talk you guys into doing an encore pictorial with Rachel McLish? That article and photos a while back [April ’06] were a blockbuster. The lady has still got it going on, and I want to see more of her. Hard to believe she’s almost 50. By the way, her cover is my favorite of all time. Barry Clarkson via Internet

Editor’s note: Rachel is a busy lady, but we’ll see what we can do. If you’re reading this, Rachel, we’re ready when you are.

Editor’s note: Jerry is the quintessential scientist, and he tries to leave no stone unturned in his features. We applaud him for that and try not to censor him. And besides, our Eat to Grow, Train to Gain and Mind/Body sections are full of short shots by Jerry and others. In other words, every issue gives you the long and the short of it.

3D Innovation Steve Holman’s Positionsof-Flexion training method has got to be the most logical, result-producing bodybuilding workout around. It’s helped me bring up almost all of my bodyparts to stellar proportions, and I’m doing far fewer sets than I used to. Less training, much better gaining. What more could a bodybuildJonathan Lawson’s physique er ask for? The “3D Back Blast” is a product of 3D POF [August ’07] was excellent, with training. the four different workouts for giving your back a POF hit. I’m using number 3, and my shirts are getting tighter every week. I highly recommend the POF system. Billy Vega Atlanta, GA Editor’s note: For more information on 3D Positions of Flexion, visit www.3DMuscleBuilding.com. Also see the ad on page 73. Vol. 66, No. 11: 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.

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Neveux

Balik

I love IRON MAN. There’s always so much information in every issue, but some of the articles are just too long. Many of those are by Jerry Brainum, and I often have trouble staying awake. Not that there’s not good information in them, but can’t he be more to the point? John Forbes via Internet