Ironman Magazine 2008-04

APRIL 2008 / IRON MAN MAGAZINE—WE KNOW TRAINING™

LOW-CARB DIETS: The Latest Scientific Findings ™

SHOCKING

ARMS

Hot Hardbody Photos of Jamie Eason Inside!

Cover Man Dan Decker’s Gargantuan-Guns Workout

OCCLUSION TRAINING The New Frontier of Muscle Growth

BENCH PRESS

SHOCKING ARMS / LOW-CARB DIETS

Wreck Your Pecs, Not Your Shoulders

LOW-CARB LOWDOWN What Science Says

APRIL 2008 $5.99

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www.ironmanmagazine.com \ APRIL 2006 261

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Greg is a former Army Ranger and was recently voted Hollywood’s top body.

150 DECEMBER 2009 \ www.ironmanmagazine.com

IRON MAN MAGAZINE WE KNOW TRAINING IRON MAN MAGAZINE WE KNOW TRAINING IRONMAN MAGAZINE WE KNOW TRAINING IRON MAN MAGAZINE WE KNOW TRAING IRON MAN MAGAZINE IRONMAN MAGAZ

WE KNOW TRAINING™

April 2008

284 HARDBODY Jamie Eason

CONTENTS CONTENTS CONTENTS CONTENTS CONTENTS CONTENTS CONTENTS CONTENTS CONTENTS CONTENTS CONTENTS CONTENTS CONTENTS CONTENTS C

FEATURES

62 TRAIN, EAT, GROW 102 The keys to making the 3D HIT program a bigger-body builder. (Up your mass!)

88 LOW-CARB LOWDOWN Jerry Brainum cites the good, bad and ugly about the fat-burning eating plan.

102 OCCLUSION TRAINING Layne Norton analyzes the research on blocking blood flow and its amazing hypertrophic effects. Plus, a discussion of Charles Atlas’ Dynamic Tension.

130 BENCH-PRESSING ISSUES Top researcher Jerry Brainum looks at the most popular lift in gyms everywhere.

(You want to wreck your pecs, not your shoulders!)

140 A BODYBUILDER IS BORN 33 Ron Harris says weakness during a diet is in the mind. Go mental on the metal!

148 MONSTER TRAPS Greg Zulak tells you how to mass up your midback, Jack.

170 FULL-BLOWN BICEPS Cory Crow talks to Dan Decker about his techniques for sky-high peaks.

204 GREG PLITT The cover model extraordinaire lets you in on his secrets of success.

224 HOLISTIC HYPERTROPHY From the Bodybuilding.com archives: Glen Danbury shows you how to max out the growth of every muscle fiber. It hurts, but it works.

244 HEAVY DUTY John Little channels the wisdom of Mike Mentzer. This month: negatives.

252 VICTOR MARTINEZ Ilir Gatollari reveals how the Olympia runner-up’s controversial placing is fueling his fire to win.

284 HARDBODY

102

OCCLUSION TRAINING Blocking blood flow to grow

Here’s a hottie with a weight-trained body: petite powerhouse Jamie Eason.

298 ONLY THE STRONG SHALL SURVIVE Strength coach Bill Starr on how the weights can make you faster on the field.

130

BENCH-PRESSING ISSUES Wreck your pecs, not your shoulders

Dan Decker appears on this month’s cover.

Inset Jamie Eason.

Hair and makeup

by Alex Almond.

Photos by Michael Neveux.

LOW-CARB DIETS: The Latest Scientific Findings ™

SHOCKING

ARMS

Hot Hardbody Photos of Jamie Eason Inside!

Cover Man Dan Decker’s Gargantuan-Guns Workout

OCCLUSION TRAINING The New Frontier of Muscle Growth

BENCH PRESS Wreck Your Pecs, Not Your Shoulders

LOW-CARB LOWDOWN What Science Says

APRIL 2008 $5.99

Vol. 67, No. 4

PLUS: •Speed Freak—Run Faster With Weight Training •Pro Muscle—Victor Martinez’s Olympia Quest •Monster Traps—Etch Upper-Back Mass Fast C1_April2008_F.indd 1

Free download from imbodybuilding.com

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2/5/08 12:37:54 PM

CONTENTS CONTENTS CONTENTS CONTENTS CONTENTS CONTENTS CONTENTS CONTENTS CONTENTS CONTENTS CONTENTS CONTENTS CONTENTS CONTENTS CO

DEPARTMENTS

28 TRAIN TO GAIN The power of the pump and why we lift. Plus, Joe Horrigan’s Sportsmedicine.

44 SMART TRAINING Coach Charles Poliquin solves another deflated-delt dilemma.

50 EAT TO GROW New findings on creatine, saturated misinformation and Holy cramp!

72 NATURALLY HUGE John Hansen explains proper bench press form for the perfect pec-growing storm.

78 SHREDDED MUSCLE Dave Goodin’s muscle-building decision: To use, or not to use?

274

84 CRITICAL MASS Steve Holman on muscle contraction and the size reaction.

238 BODYBUILDING PHARMACOLOGY Jerry Brainum talks testosterone boosting with estrogen blockers.

PUMP & CIRCUMSTANCE Picture-perfect panache

260 MUSCLE “IN” SITES Eric Broser’s Web-browsing finds—Dexter Jackson is in the house—reviews (Jay Cutler’s latest DVD) and training advice.

28

264 NEWS & VIEWS

TRAIN TO GAIN Power of the Pump

Lonnie Teper covers the wild world of bodybuilding. Plus, the Reg Park memorial.

274 PUMP & CIRCUMSTANCE Ruth Silverman’s physique-comp commentary with plenty of picture-perfect punch.

308 MIND/BODY CONNECTION Bomber Blast with Dave Draper, IRON MAN’s Rising Stars and a review of the new Jon Pall Sigmarsson DVD, “Larger Than Life.”

320 READERS WRITE Cory encore and mistakes galore. Plus, old-guy gusto and NO to grow.

ONLINE ONLINE ONLINE ONLINE ONLINE ONLINE ONLINE ONLINE ONLINE ONLINE ONLINE ONLINE ONLINE ONLINE ONLINE ONLINE ONLINE ONLINE ONLINE ONLIN

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COVERAGE Get the latest, greatest results, photos, video and blogs from the biggest events.

CLIPS LIBRARY >PDF >BEHIND>HOT THE-SCENES Feel your heart Read and/or VIDEOS See and hear interviews with the stars of the muscle world.

race when you view these studio sessions with fit, gorgeous gals.

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Build your muscle-building collection.

Eric Broser presents the nine secrets of manifesting mass mentally. It’s all in the mind, says Boser, as he shows you how to go mental. Then Jerry Brainum continues his low-carb lowdown with the details on getting the most out of the pudge-purging plan without harming your health. Plus, the TEG men reveal how to specialize for new size with their quick-but-brutal 3D HIT blast—loads of occlusion here. Look for the May issue on newsstands the first week of April.

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PUBLISHER’S LETTER PUBLISHER’S LETTER PUBLISHER’S LETTER PUBLISHER’S LETTER PUBLISHER’S LETTER PUBLISHER’S LETTER PUBLISHER’S LETTER PUBLISHER’S LETTER PUBLISHER’S LETTER PUBLISHER’S LETTER PUBLISHER’S

™

Publisher’s Letter

by John Balik

The Five-Minute Workout My friend Bob Gajda, a Mr. America and Mr. Universe in the mid-’60s, started out as a three-letter athlete in high school. He spent four years in the Air Force as a fitness instructor, but his athletic accomplishments, while extraordinary, come in a distant second to his vision and creativity.

I first met him at the Division Street YMCA in Chicago in 1962. The YMCA had given him a couple of rooms in the basement to set up a weight-training gym. Bob took the empty rooms and put together a gym that was equipped with many of his own designs, which he had talked various people into welding together for him. The members of the Y were a diverse ethnic mix who had the common bond of working out.

Bob was the undisputed cheerleader, but they also included the newly arrived from Cuba Sergio Oliva. In addition to Sergio, many local bodybuilders trained there.

The Duncan Y learned of Bob’s skills and hired him away from the Division Y. Now his fertile mind was fueled by not only his enthusiasm but also a budget, which had to bring his ideas to life. Bob created one of the best gyms in the country at that time and attracted a group of bodybuilders and weightlifters equal to the gym. Besides spending many hours keeping it all going, he was working on a master’s degree in kinesiology. Many years before anyone else talked about range of motion, he was already applying his theories on ROM to championship weightlifters and other athletes. He talked about and created devices to enhance balance and coordination, again when no one else in our world discussed it. I sort of tolerated the conversation, since I was only interested in strength and development. Ah, but now the world has caught up with Bob’s vision. There isn’t a world-class athlete today who doesn’t work on range of motion and balance as a part of strength and skill training.

All of these memories have surfaced because of two things: 1) numerous articles that have appeared in the popular press about athletes, stretching for ROM and balance over the past few months and 2) the decline of those attributes with age. These days my workouts contain not only strength and cardio but also stretching and balance work. I wish I had starting doing them back then. As per Bob’s advice from 40-plus years ago, I don’t overdo stretching, and I only do it when fully warmed up—after I have worked the bodypart. Bob was the first to state that everyone has a unique range of motion. If you exceed it, you can damage the joint and cause instability in the joint.

I have recently added a new five-minute routine to my regular program that includes stretches for my lower back, shoulders, hamstrings and quads and some balance work. Those short routines have given my training a new dimension and have reenergized me.

To comment, please send e-mail to ironleader@aol.com. IM

Founders 1936-1986: Peary & Mabel Rader 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: Chester Chin 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

26 APRIL 2008 \ www.ironmanmagazine.com

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SEXY ROCK-HARD ABS FAST The Secret to Etching your Granite-Carved Abs in 10 Short Minutes Picture this... you with tight, shredded abs, serratus and intercostals all sharp, sliced and visible from across the room or on the sun-glared beach! And from the rear, lower lumbars that look like two thick steel girders supporting your muscle-studded back. Imagine looking like a Greek god... in street clothes... in the gym... or anywhere.

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28 APRIL 2008 \ www.ironmanmagazine.com

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B I G G E R B O D Y PA R T S

Neveux \ Model: Lee Priest

Power of the Pump I remember being disappointed and disgusted by the way some of the top pro Paul Dillett. bodybuilders in the ’90s trained when I watched them at Gold’s Gym in Venice.

I distinctly recall seeing Paul Dillett go through an entire shoulder workout without once using what I considered heavy weight, especially for a man of such freakish proportions. Instead, he used higher reps, supersets and short rest periods to blow up his delts to the point where they weren’t much smaller than basketballs. “Pump trainer,” I said dismissively about him and others like him while holding deeper respect for men who pushed and pulled earth-shattering weights, like the reigning Mr. O, Dorian Yates.

That’s how I styled my own workouts, and I took pride in the big numbers I could claim on various exercises. Not coincidentally, I soon accumulated many injuries, just like Yates. I wrote off the pump trainers’ undeniable results as a combination of very gifted genetics and a medicine cabinet full of goodies. Yet it was always obvious that those guys looked like superhuman comic-book heroes, while I looked, well, all too human.

As the years went by, I began incorporating fascial stretching into my workouts between sets on the advice of Cincinnati-based training and nutrition expert John Parrillo.

More recently I’ve been training D.C. style, and aggressive fascial stretching is also part of that system. The theory is that fascia, the very tough connective tissue that sheaths all the skeletal muscle (stronger on a square-inch basis than stainless steel), effectively restricts muscle growth. In other words, you could be training and eating to stimulate growth, but the fascia would prevent it from happening because it had your muscles in a choke hold, like a tight corset.

Finally, after a conversation with nutritionist Hany “the

The importance of engorgement

Pro Creator” Rambod, I came to realize that although the stretches were somewhat effective in expanding the fascia, an even more effective way to accomplish that was to get the best pump possible. Suddenly it made sense how so many pumpers could grow so large despite not always training heavy. By filling up the muscles with more blood than they’d ever held before, they pushed outward against the fascia and forced it to expand.

If you have a problem bodypart, ask yourself how well it pumps compared to your better bodyparts. If you answer, not very well at all, try doing higher reps, multiple sets with very brief rest periods, drop sets and supersets. Be sure to eat carbs and drink plenty of water before training and perhaps even throw in a nitric oxide precursor supplement. The solution to bringing up a stubborn bodypart, or even making overall gains, could be as simple as making it a priority to not only get stronger on basic exercises but also make sure you always get a hellacious pump.

Lifting heavy weights is nice, but believe me when I say that it’s not the only important factor in building bigger muscles.

—Ron Harris www.RonHarrisMuscle.com

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HE WANTED TO FIGHTUntil I Crushed His Hand!

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Train to Gain / EFFORT PRO ADVICE

Neveux \ Models: Markus Reinhardt and Hubert Morandell

Higher Reps for Bigger Delts

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There are three words I never want to hear from my training partner during a set: “It’s all you.” Talk about ironic. Whenever you hear someone shouting that phrase, you can be 99.9 percent sure that it’s all him doing the lift—the guy spotting, not the guy lifting. It’s most commonly used to encourage a guy attempting to bench-press about 50 percent more than he is actually capable of, as his unfortunate spotter is forced to pick up the slack with a heavy upright row to prevent the first guy from being crushed to death by the heavy barbell.

If you really want to make sure a lift is all you, give strict instructions to your spotter not to touch the bar until the lift is complete. A spotter can legitimately assist you in unracking or racking a weight, but in between those two moments, the policy should be hands off.

Kai Greene, a rising pro star with wheels that are truly outrageous, talks about always doing his squats 100 percent on his own strength, even when the bar is bending under a 600-pound load. “My training partner is behind me in case of emergency, but I don’t allow any of that hugging-under-the-armpits nonsense,” he says. “I need to know that every rep I do is really mine. Once someone is helping, there is no way to know exactly how much he did for you.”

Training partners are great, and having a spotter on standby for heavy lifts is a smart idea too, but be careful that you don’t rely on anybody but yourself to lift your weights. For many years I foolishly believed I was using X amount of weight on this or that exercise when in fact I was only lifting a portion of it on my own. At one time I used to load up the squat bar with more than 700 pounds and do half-reps with a spotter behind and under me like a shadow. Now I do the reps with no help, and my physique is infinitely better than it was in the old days.

In short, “it’s all you” shouldn’t be a lie told to you by a training partner or spotter helping you—it should be the truth told from a slight distance.

—Ron Harris www.RonHarrisMuscle.com

Roland Balik

It’s All You!

Are your spotter—and your ego— costing you muscle gains?

Quick show of hands: How many of you have shoulder problems? If not now, then at one time or another? Wow, that’s a lot of you. Now, how many of you have done barbell or dumbbell presses with so much weight that you got only four or five reps? What do you know, same people put their hands up!

Don’t worry, I’m not picking on you.

My hand was up too. I talk to an awful lot of top amateur and pro bodybuilders, and shoulder problems are as common as tribal tattoos and fake designer sunglasses. But I noticed that I never hear female bodybuilders complain about shoulder pain or injuries.

Not long ago I had the chance to ask four-time Ms. Olympia Iris Kyle about the phenomenon, and she answered in a flash. “It’s the male ego. A lot of men are very concerned with being the strongest guy at their gym, and they use the heaviest weight possible to make sure of that.”

Iris has some fantastic shoulders of her own and works them in the rep range of 12 to 15. That’s two or three times as many reps as you see most men performing for their delts, especially if we’re talking about dumbbell or barbell presses.

“Doing low reps on overhead presses makes no sense,” Iris said.

“The shoulder joint is such a vulnerable area, so why would you want to have it support so much weight that you have to battle just to keep it balanced? One false move, one slip out of the groove, and your shoulders are wrecked. For another thing, you barely stimulate the muscle until you get up to at least 10 reps.”

If you don’t mind taking advice from a girl (who happens to be the best female bodybuilder today), you would be wise to listen to what Iris has to say.

Fewer injuries and more gains in your shoulders—doesn’t that sound pretty cool to you?

—Ron Harris www.RonHarrisMuscle.com

30 APRIL 2008 \ www.ironmanmagazine.com

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YOU CAN BENCH BIG Add 20 Pounds to Your Bench Press Almost Overnight!

How would you like a surge in upper-body power and a bigger bench press—say, 20 extra pounds on the bar—after only a couple of workouts? Sure, adding 20 pounds to your bench in two or three training sessions may sound crazy, especially if your bench press poundage has been stuck in neutral for a while.

But nine times out of 10 this stall is due to an easily correctible muscle weakness—not in the pecs, delts or triceps but in a group of muscles known as the rotator cuff.

The rotator cuff muscles stabilize the shoulder joint. During the bench press and almost all other upperbody movements these muscles protect the shoulder joint and prevent ball-and-socket slippage. If these muscles are underdeveloped, they become the weak link in the action and your pressing strength suffers, or worse, you injure your shoulder. One of the best ways to strengthen this area and create an upper-body power surge is with direct rotator cuff exercise.

Once you start using the ShoulderHorn for two or three sets twice a week, your pressing poundages will skyrocket. This device allows you to train your rotator cuff muscles in complete comfort and with precise strengthening action. After a few weeks you’ll be amazed at your new benching power. There have been reports of 20-to-30-pound increases in a matter of days.

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Train to Gain / MATURE MUSCLE

Knee Pain and Quad Gain salmon, skinless turkey and/or chicken breasts—no red meat at all and no protein shakes.

• Your carbohydrates should come from green vegetables and low-glycemic fruits—that’s all. No bread, rice, pasta, oatmeal, nothing that has been made by a human being.

• Your oils should be limited to small amounts of almonds, macadamia nuts and olives—do not cook with any oils.

Here are a few key points to remember: Neveux \ Model: Derik Farnsworth

Q: I’m 49 years old and have trained since my early 20s. Now when I squat, my knees hurt; but everyone tells me that if I don’t squat, my legs won’t grow. Is that true?

A: While squats are a very good multijoint exercise for overall leg size, they’re not the only way to build your thighs. In fact, ideally, you should find your specific biomechanical and musculoskeletal-optimized exercises, based on your bone lengths, joints and muscle fiber variations.

For instance, a tall man—say, 6’5”—with narrow hips and small knees and ankles is going to get very little out of squats. His chances of ever getting enough weight on his back to perform 10 perfect reps, without his upper body tilting forward, are slim to none. For you I recommend one warmup set and two sets of heavy leg presses to failure, followed by leg extensions—as many as you can with as much weight as you can.

Finish with leg curls for three sets of 12 reps. Or you could try doing hack squats, leg curls and leg extensions in a tri-set, taking each exercise to muscular failure.

Another element of your question is interesting—you say that your knees hurt. Are you dropping down too fast and/or bouncing out of the bottom? I suggest that you have a very good physiatrist (a doctor who knows kinesiology, anatomy and the musculoskeletal system better than any other M.D.).

Physiatrists look at the area of concern and do a variety of tests. They can find muscle imbalances. Often people work their quadriceps far too much and neglect their equally important hamstrings. That can cause anything from tightness in the backs of the thighs to knee injuries.

To avoid knee problems, I train with the same fluidity and strict rigidity that I use for my upper-body work. For example, when I work my hamstrings with leg curls, I imagine that I’m doing concentrated barbell curls for the biceps of my upper arms—except I’m doing them with my legs. That helps the feel of the exercise.

When squatting, I use knee wraps and two belts, and I wear boots that support my ankles. Using two weight belts may sound strange, but it helps me. I use them only when I squat for six to 10 reps with very heavy weight—which I rarely do anymore. Because I’m tall, my upper body starts to bow forward; however, having a powerlifting belt around my waist and a regular belt above it, turned so that the buckle faces the back, supports my long upper body. The extra support helps me stay upright throughout the entire set.

If you cannot see a physiatrist, ask yourself whether your knees hurt if you squat slowly without weight to just below parallel and then back up to just before lockout. If the answer is yes, then the problem could be metabolic. Some people form crystallized uric acid–based substances and/or calcification in the joint.

If that’s the case for you, try the following diet for six to eight weeks and see if your knees feel better: • Your protein should come only from egg whites, wild

1) The knee joint is intricate. Always have your knees over your feet when doing any type of squat or leg press. Don’t point your feet inward or outward when squatting or doing a leg press. That will change the way that the knee joint moves.

2) Don’t bounce at the bottom of your squats. That can cause permanent damage to the patella tendon.

3) Use wraps only when you squat heavy. Don’t use them for light sets or for leg extensions or any other leg movement.

4) If you’ve struggled with squats and you’ve tried all of the methods that I’ve suggested but still don’t feel right when squatting, do leg presses or hack squats instead.

5) If your knees continue to hurt, find out if you have an injury; if you don’t, try the diet.

6) Wear above-ankle boots for better balance and stability when you squat.

7) If you’re tall, try squatting while wearing two belts to help keep your body erect.

8) Never lock out when squatting or leg pressing; always keep as much tension on your thighs and glutes as you can.

9) Don’t squat every time you train legs. Once in two cycles is plenty. Rotate in other movements for your thighs.

—Paul Burke 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) 447-0008, or visit www.Home-Gym.com. His “Burke’s Law” training DVD is also now available.

32 APRIL 2008 \ www.ironmanmagazine.com

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The Brothers Grimm It’s been three months since Yiannis and Stelios performed the two pseudo workouts I described in the first column of this series.

The brothers are making consistent progress and are thrilled about what bodybuilding is doing for them.

Their training routines now reflect their different body structures. Previously they’d always followed the same routines. They continue to train together, spot each other and encourage each other.

Although Yiannis, at 6’, is just two inches taller than Stelios, he has a much lankier body structure. Yiannis’ limbs are substantially longer than Stelios’, but his torso is shorter. As a result, Stelios is much better suited to the barbell squat and the bench press than Yiannis, and Yiannis is much more suited to the deadlift than Stelios.

So while Stelios uses barbell squats and bench presses, Yiannis does parallel-grip deadlifts (using a hexagonal shrug bar) and parallel-bar dips. Both use the regular straight-bar deadlift, but only Yiannis performs it full range from the floor. Stelios’ longer torso and shorter limbs make the full-range deadlift an inefficient, high-risk exercise for him. Instead, I have Stelios perform it in a power rack, lifting from knee height. The reduced range of motion has made the exercise safe and more effective for him.

Now that the brothers have had some physical restrictions ironed out by a chiropractor and some soft-tissue therapy from a physical therapist, they have symmetrical flexibility developed through the stretching I’ve had them doing. As a consequence they are now in much better physical condition and able to use correct exercise technique.

Because they had to unlearn bad exercise technique, I had them start out with very comfortable poundages. Now they are training hard on all their exercises except squats, deadlifts and parallel-grip deadlifts. They’re still consolidating correct exercise technique in those exercises, using very comfortable poundages.

Prior to my intervention, the brothers had been following a four-day-split routine, dividing their program into upper-body and lower-body work, hitting each bodypart twice a week.

Not only were they training too frequently, they were doing too much at each workout. They were unable to train hard enough to stimulate growth on such a program, and even if they’d been able to train hard enough, they weren’t allowing enough recovery time in which to grow. I abbreviated their routines and reduced their overall training frequency to three times a week.

Their new program alternates a different pair of routines for each of them—still using an upper/lower split—but over three

A bodybuilding odyssey, part 4

days a week, not four. They train Monday, Wednesday and Friday, alternating upper-body and lowerbody workouts. That gives them four full rest days each week and has them train each bodypart three times every two weeks. On their old program they were getting only three full rest days a week and training each bodypart four times every two weeks.

The gym the brothers trained at didn’t have the small exercise plates they required in order to make gradual progression once they were close to their best current poundages. I had them get their own set of small exercise plates—two pairs of one-pound plates, one pair of half-pound plates and one pair of quarterpound plates. They take them to the gym, keep them in a pouch when not in use, and guard them well. They even have “Brothers Grimm” engraved on the plates.

Before each exercise, Stelios and Yiannis check their training logs for the weights to use for warmup sets and for work sets—and immediately after each exercise they write down the workset weight and the rep numbers they achieved. If one of them made his target, he marks an asterisk alongside his note of weight and reps to remind him to increase the poundage for that particular exercise. Prior to my involvement, they never kept any type of written record.

Right from the start I stressed the importance of good nutrition. They’d both been cutting corners there. They immediately got themselves on a good dietary program—for their health and their bodybuilding. They eliminated all junk food, started to eat every three hours and satisfied their calorie requirements every day, neither overeating nor undereating. I urge you to do the same.

They also stopped shortchanging themselves on sleep.

Because they have to be up at 6:30 every morning for work, they now go to bed at 10:30 every evening. Eight hours’ sleep each night is now their minimum. I urge you to do the same if you want to maximize your recuperation ability.

Next time I’ll take you through the brothers’ new lower-body routines.

—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.

34 APRIL 2008 \ www.ironmanmagazine.com

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Train to Gain / SPORTSMEDICINE

Unexpected Benefits resistance in certain patterns. Research now overwhelmingly indicates that strength training in elderly, deconditioned patients results in improved ability to walk, increased walking distance, increased endurance and improved balance and agility.

The benefits of weight training don’t stop there. Studies have shown that serum lipid levels have been lowered with weight training. Serum glucose—a.k.a. blood sugar—is lowered with weight training. Exercising muscle doesn’t require insulin to transport glucose across the muscle membrane. A marker of inflammation in the body—and one that is often associated with obesity-related inflammation—is C-reactive protein. Diet and aerobic exercise can help lower that marker; however, weight training, aerobic exercise and diet lower C-reactive protein much further. If we can reduce fats in the blood, blood sugar and inflammatory markers by weight training, we’re truly generating good health.

Women can increase their bone density with weight training.

If we combine improved lower-extremity strength, bone density, balance and agility, we can help women reduce the risk of hip fractures. One of the biggest fears of the elderly is falling. That fear can be reduced. Again, weight training promotes health and well-being.

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease affects millions of people. Weight training has been found to improve various factors of COPD. Weight training is now recommended for patients after heart attacks. Thirty years ago it was believed to be harmful to the recovering heart attack patient. Research revealed few irregularities in the heart with weight training, and weight training gives the patient more confidence.

Body-image issues in college-age females have been found to improve with even short-term weight training. So it has mental as well as physical benefits.

My hope is that the ancillary benefits further motivate you. If you’re a young reader, perhaps you can share the information with mothers, fathers, grandparents, aunts, uncles or friends who suffer from any of the maladies mentioned. Show them how to train. Start them very, very slowly and carefully. Make sure their primary doctor knows they’re embarking on a gently progressive exercise program and get the doctor’s approval. When in a few months I post this information on my Web site, SoftTissueCenter.com, I’ll include many references for your interest and follow-up.

—Joseph M. Horrigan Neveux \ Model: Ed Myska

IRON MAN readers have quite an age range. Some have just begun weight training, usually in the high school weight room for football. Others have read IRON MAN for 40 years. Younger readers don’t know the stereotypes and myths that surrounded weight training, many propagated by the medical community. Almost all the myths were based on bias and prejudice.

For example, people were told that training would make them slow, enlarge their heart, stunt their growth,

hurt their knees and so on. Dedicated trainees knew those ideas weren’t true. They kept working out, and eventually, the rest of the world came to realize the myths were unfounded.

If you look at the men in the 100-meter finals in the Olympics, you’ll see heavily weight-trained athletes who aren’t slow. Any NFL or NCAA football game is filled with very fast, very agile and very strong football players. More knees have been ruined by heavy leg extensions than heavy squats. Now we’re beginning to realize that there are benefits from weight training that we never considered.

That should be of interest to older readers, as well as the parents, aunts, uncles and grandparents of younger readers.

When I first started working in physical therapy in the late 1970s, we were taught that structured weight training was worthless in the rehab setting for stroke patients and deconditioned patients. Our focus was to be on specific motions with manual

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.

36 APRIL 2008 \ www.ironmanmagazine.com

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Train to Gain / PLAN TO GROW

Pack on Muscle With the 4 P’s

Neveux \ Model: Eric Domer

More than 20 years ago my Marine Corps JROTC instructor taught me a little catchphrase that stuck in my head. It was one that had served him well during his two tours in Vietnam. He called it “the Four P’s”—Preparation Prevents Poor Performance.

It’s a simple but an important concept in wartime.

Preparation means things like making sure all weapons, vehicles and communication equipment are functioning properly and thinking ahead so you have the ammunition, fuel and other supplies you may need. As wacky as it may sound, the four P’s can be equally applied to ensuring success in your bodybuilding goals.

A large part of success in bodybuilding comes from doing several things correctly and consistently. The most obvious is your training. A lot of bodybuilders and serious weight trainers treat their workouts in a fairly random manner. They may know what bodyparts they will work on a given day, but when it comes to the actual exercises, the weights, sets and reps they will use, they have no plan.

They do whatever the hell they feel like, essentially.

That brings me to another little catchphrase involving P’s: If you fail to plan, you plan to fail. Write out your workouts ahead of time in a training journal, including the weights you’ll use and how many reps you need to get.

That’s a far more concrete way of evaluating the success of a workout than generalizing about getting a pump or

how you feel the training session went.

You should be even more diligent and organized in planning your nutrition and supplementation. Know what you’re going to eat for every meal, every day, as well as which supplements you need to take and when. Stock your foods and supplements so that you don’t ever run out. Cook large quantities of food so you have multiple MOTIVATION meals ready to heat up and eat.

Finally, plan exactly what you’re trying to accomplish at any given time. Without a In his book Primal Branding, Patrick clear and definite goal to aim Hanlon describes why people get attached for, you tend to get lost and to, or even fanatical about, their chosen vacillate between whether you hobby. He used mountain biking in his want to get leaner, gain musdescription, but let’s put lifting in its place cle, get stronger or improve and you’ll feel a sense of pride and identity specific bodyparts. Pick one as you read it: “You [lift] for self-fulfillment, for the or two goals to work toward in adrenaline rush, because the fat guy living a short and finite time period next door to you can’t or won’t or is afraid before moving on to another. to; you [lift] for affirmation, to defy death; To some, taking the time to you [lift] to scare your mother; you [lift] for plan the details of their training a sense of love or abandonment or comand nutrition may seem anal panionship; you lift because you need the endorphins; you [lift] because you are a and nerdy, but they’ll be the screaming kamikaze who needs to feel the first to come up with a list of rattle of the [iron] in your bones in order to feel like your life has meaning and sublame excuses for why they fail stance and emotions that can’t be expressed sitting behind a desk or basking in the to see results themselves. The communal fire of prime-time television. And sometimes you just [lift] to get exercise.” real reason they fail is that they That about says it all. don’t plan!

—Steve Holman —Ron Harris www.X-Rep.com www.RonHarrisMuscle.com Neveux \ Model: Micheal Ergas

Why We Lift

38 APRIL 2008 \ www.ironmanmagazine.com

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Deflated-Delt Dilemma Q: My delts are about as flat as pancakes. Any rapid solution to the problem?

A: Wide, round shoulders have been built with both high loads and high volumes. Powerlifters and Olympic lifters have built impressive shoulders using low reps for multiple sets on compound exercises, such as presses and upright rows. On the other hand, there are plenty of bodybuilders out there with the fantastic deltoid development that comes from high reps, short rest intervals and isolationtype movements. I’m of the opinion that people achieve better deltoid development if they cycle in and out of both approaches.

I find that descending, or drop, sets and preexhaustion are particularly effective at promoting shoulder growth.

When someone has problems adding mass to the middledelt area, tri-sets or Omni-rep breakdown sets can solve the problem.

Tri-sets are three exercises performed one after anoth-

er—back to back—before taking a rest. Here’s a good tri-set for the mid delts: A-1 Standing lateral raises A-2 Low-pulley upright rows A-3 Seated dumbbell presses

3 x 8-12, tempo 4/0/X/0 3 x 8-12, tempo 4/0/X/0 3 x 8-12, tempo 4/0/X/0

Perform A-1, A-2 and A-3 in a series, take a two-minute break, and repeat two more times, for a total of three trisets.

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Lateral raises done as part of a tri-set can help round out flat delts.

44 APRIL 2008 \ www.ironmanmagazine.com

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A lifting belt can impede the deep breathing necessary for proper higherrep squatting. threshold individuals. Wimps should stay away from them. Try each program for six workouts each. I’m sure your deltoids will become more massive and with noticeable roundness.

Q: What’s your opinion of powerlifting training for bodybuilders? I see some guys at the gym using the full paraphernalia that powerlifters use when squatting—supersuit, wraps, powerlifting belt.

A: Unless you’re in the final three weeks before a powerlifting meet, you should avoid knee wraps and the use of a weightlifting belt, which supports the lower back. If your lower back and knees are prone to injury, you must first restore proper body alignment by using corrective exercises, such as stepups and true abdominal-training techniques.

At the Athens Olympics, most of the worldrecord setters and medal winners weren’t using any belts for their snatches and clean and jerks, and those lifts are way more stressful to the lower back than deadlifts and squats. The trend became popular about 15 years ago as doctors and trainers realized that the belts had enabled the athletes to forgo abdominal work, which made them more susceptible to injuring their lower backs. The coaching staff emphasized extensive abdominal work with junior lifters so that they wouldn’t rely on the psychological crutch of a belt. As the years went by, fewer lifters were getting injured because their trunk muscles could now handle the heavy loads.

For bodybuilding purposes, if you squat and always need to wear a belt, you should try to have a qualified strength coach show you how to squat properly—and the belt will soon become unnecessary.

I discourage the use of the belt for athletes, as they won’t be wearing one when they compete in their respective sports. The belt also tends to impede the deep “abdominal” breathing they need to get through high-rep squatting sessions.

To wean yourself off the belt, start not wearing it for sets of more than 12. A few workouts later remove it when doing reps of 10, then reps of eight and so on. Eventually you’ll be able to do a single without one.

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Notice that on the standing lateral raises you should do the concentric, or positive, stroke explosively, as the leverage is disadvantageous in the exercise. For low-pulley upright rows I recommend using a rope attachment, like the one normally used for pushdowns. That will remove some wrist stress.

On an Omni-rep breakdown set you select one basic exercise and its variation and essentially destroy all the fibers that can be used in the movement: 1) Do 6-8RM of standing one-arm lateral raises with a 2/0/X/0 tempo. That targets the highest-threshold fibers in your delts.

2) Do 10-12RM of lean-away one-arm lateral raises using a 2/0/X/0 tempo. By changing the mechanics, you take the supraspinatus muscle out of it and change the strength curve for the medial deltoid. You also tap into the intermediate-fast glycolitic fibers.

3) Do 20-25RM on one-arm low-pulley lateral raises with a 1/0/1/0 tempo. By using a low pulley, you get even tension throughout the movement. The higher reps will finish off whatever low-threshold fibers that can still fire after steps 1 and 2.

Do not rest between steps 1 and 2 or 2 and 3. After performing all three exercises, take a 90-second break, and then repeat with your other arm. Do three Omni-rep rounds per arm.

By the way, these routines are reserved for high-pain-

Q: I read that arachidonic acid and saturated fat in red meat can raise serum triglycerides and cholesterol. I also read that arachidonic acid is a precursor of bad eicasonoids, which have been associated with a variety of ills, including heart disease, chronic fatigue and so on. Is there a way to enjoy steak without feeling like I’m destroying my body?

A: Yes, there is way for meat lovers to enjoy meat with a reduced fat and arachidonic content. The steps to that process are from the book Protein Power by Michael and Mary Dan Eades, M.D. (Bantam; 1999).

46 APRIL 2008 \ www.ironmanmagazine.com

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Marinating steak in red wine and olive oil for 24 hours can help tip the balance to a more healthful protein-packed food. down. When I try to gain weight, I tend to put on too much bodyfat. So I’m at the point that I’d rather just be as strong as possible and increase muscle mass through strength training. My problem is that I tend to make gains for a few weeks and then begin to lose strength or feel burned out. I eat very well—high protein, moderate carbs and fat—and use a few supplements. I’ve also noticed that when I follow your routines, I tend to overtrain. I think it’s due to the higher volume that you prescribe. So my question (finally!) is, What are your recommendations for me to gain maximal strength?

1) Trim all visible fat from the piece of beef.

2) Place it in a large resealable plastic bag along with one cup of red wine and one cup of olive oil.

3) Allow the meat to marinate for 24 hours, flipping the bag and its contents over a couple of times.

4) An hour before cooking, take the meat out of the bag and drain until it’s ready to cook.

5) Season to taste and grill.

The wine leaches out a fair amount of saturated fat, which is replaced by the monosaturated fat found in olive oil. Besides, the wine enhances the flavor of the steak and makes the meat juicier without the high arachidonic acid content. You can use the same process for roasts, but it won’t be as effective as grilling the meat.

Q: The answer to your question is in your question: You are slow-twitch, and you have conflicting goals. You’re interested in maximal strength, yet you also want to make bodybuilding-type gains. You have to decide what you really want.

First, relative strength protocols won’t do much for you if you’re a slow-twitch individual. None of the gold medalists in weightlifting have a poor vertical jump or like to do aerobic work. The lifters at the USOC drive their cars 500 meters to avoid the walk to the cafeteria—no kidding!

Second, you can gain hypertrophy as a slow-twitch individual but not with relative strength-loading parameters. Only individuals like Roger Estep would gain on such protocols. So I suggest that you do no fewer than six reps per set and that you seek out time under tension of 40 to 70 seconds per set for three weeks. Make sure to completely vary your loading parameters every six workouts, keeping them shorter than normal: 42 minutes after warmup should be the maximum workout length for you. I also suggest you do strength training only every nine weeks or so, for a short period of three weeks. That will be a much better ratio for your body type.

You have to deal with the cards that were handed to you at birth.

You cannot turn a Shetland pony into a Clydesdale. Frank Zane didn’t have the gifts of a Gunter Schlierkamp, yet he won a few Mr. Olympias by maximizing his strengths.

Q: I’m interested in increasing strength. I know the basics about the loading parameters—one to five reps, two to four exercises, 85 to 100 percent of 1RM, complete set in 20 seconds or less, rest three to five minutes. I also understand that you like to train each bodypart once every five days and change reps, sets and tempo once every two to four weeks. I’m quite familiar with your ideas and techniques, but I’m hoping to find a way to train for maximal strength for my entire body using your principles throughout the year. I’m 25, 5’4”, 140 pounds, 13 percent bodyfat (I’m working on getting it down). I’ve been weight training for about six years, much of it trial and error until I found your articles a couple of years ago. I think I have a higher slow-twitch makeup, and I have small bones. My metabolism used to Frank Zane made the be much higher, but over the past few years it has slowed best of his genetic gifts

48 APRIL 2008 \ www.ironmanmagazine.com

Photo Courtesy of Frank Zane

SMART TRAINING SMART TRAINING SMART TRAINING SMART TRAINING SMART TRAINING SMART TRAINING SMART TRAINING SMART TRAINING SMART TRAINING SMART TRAINING SMART TRAINING SMART TRAINING SM

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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 trackand-field team for the 2000 Olympics. He’s spent years researching European journals (he’s fluent in English, French and German) and speaking with other coaches and scientists in his quest to optimize training methods. For more on his books, seminars and methods, visit www.CharlesPoliquin. net. Also, see his ad on page 273.

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\ JULY 2006 181

EAT TO GROW EAT TO GROW EAT TO GROW EAT TO GROW EAT TO GROW EAT TO GROW EAT TO GROW EAT TO GROW EAT TO GROW EAT TO GROW EAT TO GROW EAT TO GROW EA

to Grow

Nutrition With a Get-Big Mission NUTRITION SCIENCE

Creatine: New Findings More muscle, better recovery, less bodyfat—it does it all The research base on creatine continues to grow. While many bodybuilders think its primary benefit involves increased training energy, there’s far more to it than that. One recent study featured 11 triathletes, who got either 20 grams a day of creatine or a placebo five days prior to a half-Ironman competition—not to be confused with the IRON MAN Pro bodybuilding contest—that consisted of three consecutive events: a 1.9kilometer swim, a 90-kilometer bicycling round and a 21-kilometer run.

The athletes ranged in age from 34 to 56, and none had used any performance-enhancing drugs or

creatine prior to this study. Nor did they use anti-inflammatory drugs, the significance of which will be explained shortly. In the five days preceding the competition, the athletes were randomly assigned to either a creatine or a placebo group. The creatine group got 10 grams twice a day in a liquid that included maltodextrin, a carbohydrate. The other athletes received a drink containing only the carb.

Damaging a muscle through exercise results in localized inflammation.

The damaged tissue sends a signal that leads to an infiltration of immune cells, mainly macrophages. Those immune cells, in turn, release signaling

chemicals called cytokines, the mediators of the inflammatory process.

You experience the muscle inflammation as a delayed-onset soreness that peaks 24 to 48 hours following an intense workout. While some initial inflammation is desirable because it sets the stage for muscle growth, uncontrolled inflammation could result in muscle catabolism, or breakdown.

In the study of triathletes, those given the creatine showed a marked decrease in inflammatory cytokines compared to the group that got the placebo. Those results imply that taking creatine helps block inflammatory activity in muscle, meaning less muscle soreness and improved recovery after workouts.

Since the study focused on triathletes, are the results applicable to those engaged in bodybuilding?

The muscle damage in a triathlete is caused by eccentric muscle con-

Taking a creatine-andCLA combo may increase your muscle gains.

50 APRIL 2008 \ www.ironmanmagazine.com

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tractions. In bodybuilding, eccentric muscle contractions occur when the weight is slowly lowered. That type of contraction is responsible for most of the soreness that follows after intense weight training. Therefore, creatine would be equally beneficial for bodybuilders in reducing muscle inflammation after intense training.

Another new study examined the molecular effects of creatine supplementation. An ongoing controversy about creatine is how it affects muscular growth. Some scientists say that creatine doesn’t directly promote muscle growth but boosts it by increasing muscle energy, thus permitting more intense training. Others say that any perceived gains in muscle size associated with creatine use is more related to water retention (they used to say the same thing about anabolic steroids).

In a new study of how creatine works inside cells, 12 healthy young men took either 20 grams of creatine for three days, followed by five grams for another seven days, or a placebo for 10 days. Creatine use increased fat-free mass, body water and bodyweight. The results on a molecular level, however, were far more interesting. Creatine increased the activity of genes and protein enzymes involved in sensing cellular water content and also upgraded messenger RNA content, which is involved in protein synthesis. As a result, several cell-signaling events were increased that regulate protein and glycogen synthesis, satellite-cell proliferation and differentiation (the primary impetus to muscular growth), DNA replication and repair and cellular survival. So in practical terms that means the gains experienced while using creatine supple-

ments are real.

Still another new study examined what happens when older adults engaged in a weight-training program receive a combination of creatine and conjugated linoleic acid. CLA is a fatbased supplement often touted for its anticatabolic and fat-reducing effects.

Some studies suggest that taking CLA with creatine would augment creatine’s natural anabolic effects.

The subjects were 19 men and 20 women, all over age 65, who trained twice a week for six months.

One group got five grams a day of creatine, along with six grams of CLA. Others received a placebo.

Although both groups trained on identical programs, those who took the creatine-and-CLA combo showed greater gains in muscular endurance, knee-extension strength, fat-free mass and decreased bodyfat after six months than those in the placebo group. The creatine-andCLA group experienced no adverse effects from using the supplements.

A Canadian study confirmed that the combination of creatine and CLA, along with a protein supplement, synergistically stimuates muscular gains. Fifty-two men and 17 women, average age 22 1/2, were randomly assigned to one of three groups: 1) Protein, consisting of 45 grams a day of whey protein supplement 2) Protein and creatine—36 grams of whey protein and nine grams of creatine daily 3) Protein, creatine, CLA—36 grams of protein, nine grams of creatine and six grams of CLA daily

The supplements were taken during a five-week period of weight training. Those in group 3 had an average 14.3 percent gain in leg press and bench press strength compared to 8.5 percent for the other groups. Group 3 also had a greater gain in lean tissue than the other groups. The two groups that got a combination of creatine and protein had more lean mass gains and bench press strength than the protein-only group. Those findings led to the conclusion that “a combination of protein, creatine and CLA is best for increasing leg and bench press strength, and combining creatine and protein is effective for increasing lean tissue mass and bench press strength.”

—Jerry Brainum

References Bassit, R.A., et al. (2007). Creatine supplementation reduces plasma levels of pro-inflammatory cytokines and PGE2 after a half-Ironman competition. Amino Acids. In press.

Safdar, A., et al. (2007). Global and targeted gene expression and protein content in skeletal muscle of young men following short-term creatine monohydrate supplementation.

Physiol Genomics. In press.

Tarnopolsky, M., et al. (2007).

Creatine monohydrate and conjugated linoleic acid improve strength and body composition following resistance exercise in older adults. PloS. 2(10):991.

Cornish, S.M., et al. Effect of supplementing with conjugated linoleic acid, creatine monohydrate and whey protein during high-intensity resistance training in young adults. Paper resented at the 2007 meeting of the Canadian Physiological Association. www.ironmanmagazine.com \ APRIL 2008 51

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to Grow NUTRITION NOTES

Food Facts That can affect your workouts, weight and wellness

FAT

Saturated Misinformation?

Does saturated fat really cause heart disease, or is it something else?

What if overdosing on sugar, not fat, caused heart disease? That’s not to say that eating a lot of saturated fat is good for you; however, many people who go on low-carb diets improve their blood levels of high-density lipoproteins, the good cholesterol, despite eating saturated fat. The reason may be lower insulin levels.

Researchers suggest when you eat a lot of carbs, enough to initiate an insulin surge, the carbs must be converted to fat. That happens in your liver, where excess carbs are converted to triglycerides.

On low-carb diets insulin remains steady, with no surges—if you eat small, frequent meals. That diminishes the need to store excess carbs as fat because there are no excess carbs. What about saturated fat? It could have adverse cardiovascular effects, but not as severe as when you overindulge in simple carbs.

The lesson is that your carb intake should match your energy expenditure, and you should minimize simple carbs in your diet. Eat small, frequent meals that won’t raise your insulin levels, and you’ll reduce your risk of cardiovascular disease.

—Becky Holman www.X-tremeLean.com

Folate, found in leafy green vegetables, helps make new skin cells. Australian researchers found that folate is the reason leafy greens reduce the risk of skin cancer.

Eggs have more eye-building carotenoids than carrots. Moreover, research shows that eggs, eaten in moderation, do not increase cholesterol.

Kissing increases saliva, which cleans your teeth. So if you can’t brush after every meal, try smooching—or sugar-free gum works too.

An apple a day gives you the same antioxidant boost as 1 1/2 grams of vitamin C, plus fiber.

Selenium is known as a cancer fighter, but it’s recently gained status as a brain builder as well.

Subjects who had a low selenium count had lower cognitive test scores than those who had an adequate count. About 55 micrograms a day is recommended. Nuts are a good source.

Magnesium makes you stronger, according to handgrip tests and leg exercises done with more than 1,000 men and women. It can also help you sleep and recover better, so try one of the popular calcium-magnesium combo supplements available.

—Becky Holman www.X-tremeLean.com

52 APRIL 2008 \ www.ironmanmagazine.com

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Holy Cramp!

MYTHS

Neveux \ Model: Greg Smyers

We’ve all had those involuntary muscle spasms, some of which can be excruciating—like your calf seizing up in the middle of the night after a brutal lower-leg workout.

What causes that annoying, often painful phenomenon? It could be anything from dehydration to the depletion of certain minerals—specifically potassium, magnesium or calcium.

To prevent charley horses, as they’re often called, drink plenty of water, replenish your electrolytes with sports drinks and eat foods that contain the aforementioned minerals, including bananas. You may want to supplement with a multimineral capsule as well; take it with food for best absorption.

If you still get a cramp, gently stretch the affected muscle and massage the area. Better yet, have someone else massage it for you so you can really relax.

—Becky Holman www.X-tremeLean.com PUMP

Gummy Fears If you chew gum during your workout, you’ve probably swallowed a piece or two by accident. The first thing that goes through your mind is, “It’s going to be in my digestive system for seven years!” Don’t fret. That’s an age-old fib told to children to keep them from choking on chewing gum. While it’s true that gum has resin in it that doesn’t get broken down by digestion, the stuff still passes through you in a few days—not seven years.

—Becky Holman www.X-tremeLean.com

Preworkout Chocolate?

Recent studies discussed in the December ’07 Bottom Line Health newsletter show that people who ate dark chocolate or other cocoa-rich products daily for two weeks lowered their blood pressure.

Researchers suggest it’s because cocoa is high in procyanidins, an antioxidant that boosts nitric oxide—yes, the NO you want to increase for a better pump during your workouts. The boost in NO may also explain why chocolate is considered an aphrodisiac in women—perhaps it increases blood flow to our sexier parts. Why not men? Anything is an aphrodisiac to them—even a strong breeze.

—Becky Holman www.X-tremeLean.com

54 APRIL 2008 \ www.ironmanmagazine.com

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You may have heard of the supplement pycnogenol, which is extracted from the bark of a French pine tree. It contains a number of antioxidants that reduce inflammation, and new research shows that it improves breathing in asthmatics.

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investigated the effect of oral phosphatidylserine supplementation on golf performance in healthy young golfers with handicaps of 15 to 40. Perceived stress, heart rate and the quality of the ball flight were evaluated before and after the subjects got 42 days of 200 milligrams per day of phosphatidylserine or a placebo in the form of a nutrition bar. The subjects teed off 20 times, aiming at a green 135 meters from the tee area.

What happened?

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Neveux \ Model: Greg Blout

Imagine eating a fat and then being able to perform a high-skill activity with more grace and panache. That isn’t science fiction—it’s realworld fact. One word: phosphatidylserine.

When most people think of healthful fats, they think of the omega-3s from fish or the monounsaturated fats found in nuts and olive oil. Those types of fat—technically, lipids—have effects that make them special.

Phospholipids form part of the structure of the cell membrane. Two of the important phospholipids are phosphatidylcholine and phosphatidylserine. In some individuals doing very long and intense exercise reduces circulatory choline concentrations.

Because choline is a precursor of the neurotransmitter acetylcholine, some evidence shows that short-term oral supplementation with phosphatidylcholine at about 13 grams for a 150-pound person gets better results when exercise has depleted circulating choline concentrations. Short-term oral supplementation with soy-derived phosphatidylserine reportedly attenuates circulating cortisol concentrations, improves perceived well-being and reduces perceived muscle soreness after exercise. A dose of 750 milligrams per day for 10 days has been demonstrated to improve exercise capacity during high-intensity cycling and tended to increase performance during intermittent running.1 If you like to hit the links—come on, you can’t be in the gym 24 hours a day!—phosphatidylserine may improve performance in that very high-skill sport. A study published in the Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition

effect. Phosphatidylserine supplementation tended to reduce perceived stress during tee-off, whereas stress levels remained unchanged in the placebo group. Supplementation did not, however, influence average heart rate in either group.2 Those findings suggest that phosphatidylserine is a neural agent that could help high-skill activities like golf swing, baseball swing and swimming. If you do high-skill weight-room activities like the snatch and clean and jerk, it should definitely be added to your supplement arsenal!

—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 Jager,

R., et al. (2007). Phospholipids and sports performance. J Int Soc Sports Nutr. 4:5.

2 Jager, R., et al. (2007). The effect of phosphatidylserine on golf performance. J Int Soc Sports Nutr. 4(1):23.

56 APRIL 2008 \ www.ironmanmagazine.com

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to Grow PROTEIN

Milk vs. Soy—Updated Info In a previous issue I reported on a study that compared milk to soy postworkout. It found that milk led to greater amino acid uptake in muscle and a higher level of muscle protein synthesis than soy. Milk protein is more targeted at muscle, whereas soy is metabolized mainly in the gut. The authors of that study recently published an update that added carbohydrate to the mix.

Fifty-six young men with little or no prior training experience trained five days a week for 12 weeks on a resistanceexercise program. The men were randomly assigned to down one of three drinks immediately after and one hour after exercise: 1) Fat-free milk 2) Fat-free soy protein 3) Maltodextrin, a carbohydrate

Neveux \ Model: Carl Suliani

After five weeks those in the milk group had greater gains in type 2 muscle fiber size. Type 1 muscle fibers increased only in the milk and soy groups, with greater gains occurring in the milk group. The milk group also lost more bodyfat. The authors attribute that to the higher calcium content of the milk or to the fact that milk protein aids in fat loss.

Another study examined the effects of various proteins on sex hormones in the body—significant because a frequent criticism of soy protein is that its isoflavones, which are structurally similar to estrogen, lower testosterone.

The 12-week study featured 20 subjects who supplemented 50 grams of protein daily from the following sources: 1) Soy concentrate 2) Soy isolate 3) Soy isolate and whey blend 4) Whey blend only The subjects also engaged in a weight-training program throughout the study. Significant gains in lean mass occurred regardless of the protein source. None of the groups showed differences in testosterone, although the testosterone-to-estrogen ratio increased in all groups, while estrogen decreased. The whey-blend group showed the most significant drop in estrogen.

One reason milk protein may be more effective than soy as a muscle builder is that milk contains more branched-chain amino acids, though the subjects made equal gains regardless of the protein source. That may be because they were all weight-training novices. Beginners make rapid initial muscle gains because of improved neuromuscular efficiency. This confounds the study’s findings.

Soy is known to diminish estrogen because its isoflavones inhibit aromatase, the enzyme that converts testosterone into estrogen. Yet those in the whey group also experienced lower estrogen. The authors explain that the whey protein used in the study contained isoflavones, an ingredient never before found in whey. Or it may be due to an unknown effect of whey itself on estrogen metabolism. The main point of the study, however, was that contrary to popular belief, soy protein supplements don’t lower testosterone levels in men.

On the other hand, another recent study found that soy protein isolate spurs the excretion of estrogen in men. Soy protein isolate triggers the conversion of the active form of estrogen linked to breast cancer and prostate cancer in men into an inert form that is easily excreted.

In fact, soy protein isolate proved superior to milk protein isolate in that regard.

The prostate-protecting property of soy has been demonstrated in another study. Men followed both high- and lowsoy diets for three months. While they were on the high-soy diet, their serum testosterone wasn’t affected, but levels of prostate-specific antigen, or PSA, a marker of prostate cancer, dropped by 14 percent. That points to a protective effect of soy on prostate gland health.

—Jerry Brainum

References Hartman, J.W., et al. (2007). Consumption of fat-free milk after resistance exercise promotes greater lean mass accretion than does consumption of soy or carbohydrate in young, novice male weightlifters. Am J Clin Nutr. 86:373-81.

Kalman, D., et al. (2007). Effect of protein source and resistance training on body composition and sex hormones. J Int Soc Sports Nutr. 4:4.

Hamilton-Reeves, J.M., et al. (2007). Soy protein isolate increases urinary estrogens and the ratio of 2:16 hydroxyestrone in men at high risk of prostate cancer. J Nutr.

137:2258-2263.

Maskarinec, G., et al. (2006). Serum prostate-specific antigen but not testosterone levels decrease in a randomized soy intervention among men. Eur J Clin Nutr. 60:1423-1429.

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PERFECT POSTWORKOUT MEAL

TM

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

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

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©2009 Home-Gym.com

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GRIND OUT THE GROWTH REPS™ Beta-Alanine Gives Your Muscles More Grow Power™ The biggest bodybuilders know that the last few grueling reps of a set are the key growth reps. It’s why they fight through the pain of muscle burn on every work set-—so they trigger the mass-building machinery. But sometimes it’s not enough; the burn is too fierce.

Fortunately, there’s now a potent new weapon in this massive firefight to help you get bigger and stronger faster.

Red Dragon is a new beta-alanine supplement that packs your muscles with carnosine—up to 60 percent more.

Muscle biopsies show that the largest bodybuilders have significantly more carnosine in their fast-twitch muscle fibers than sedentary individuals for good reason: Carnosine buffers the burn to give muscles more “grow power” on every set.

The bigger and stronger a muscle gets, the more carnosine it needs to perform at higher intensity levels. You must keep your muscles loaded with carnosine to grow larger and stronger. It all boils down to intensity and the ability to buffer waste products—hydrogen ions and lactic acid—so the muscle doesn’t shut down before growth activation.

Straight carnosine supplements degrade too rapidly to reach the muscles; however, more than 20 new studies document that beta-alanine is converted to carnosine very efficiently. All it takes is 1 1/2 grams twice a day, and you’ll see new size in your muscles and feel the difference in the gym—you can double or triple your growth-rep numbers! Imagine how fast your size and strength will increase when you ride the Dragon!

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©2009 Home-Gym.com

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Whatever You Need—Wherever You Train ™

Train, Eat,

Grow

From the IRON MAN Training & Research Center Muscle-Training Program 102

by Steve Holman and Jonathan Lawson • Photography by Michael Neveux

I

n the last installment we discussed our streamlined 3D HIT program—essentially one set in each of the three positions of flexion for every bodypart.

Yep, only three work sets for each muscle, but they’re all-out sets and usually include X Reps or an X-hybrid technique to supercharge them. Plus, before the first work set of the big, midrange move, we do two or three progressively heavier warmup sets.

Is that enough to build more muscle? So far it’s working nicely, but we’ve had to really focus on and hone the details. Before we get into those, let’s review our split:

Week 2 Monday: Delts, midback, biceps, forearms Tuesday: Quads, hamstrings, calves, lower back Wednesday: Chest, lats, triceps, abs Thursday: Off Friday: Delts, midback, biceps, forearms Weekend: Off (with cardio)

Week 3

The Trap Bar is designed so you can stand inside it, which enables you to squat in a more upright position. That’s easier on the lower back and more ergonomically correct. Trap Bar deadlifts hit the legs and back hard.

Repeat Week 1 Week 1 Monday: Chest, lats, triceps, abs Tuesday: Quads, hamstrings, calves, lower back

Model: Dave Perry

Wednesday: Delts, midback, biceps, forearms Thursday: Off Friday: Chest, lats, triceps, abs Weekend: Off (with cardio)

Remember, we work legs only once a week; however, we substitute regular deadlifts for the back routine on Friday. That gives us residual leg work at the end of the week as well as a heavy back blast. We follow the deadlift, an anabolic-acceleration exercise, with one or two sets of a direct back exercise—pulldowns if it’s lat day, machine rows if it’s midback day.

By the way, for deadlifts we’ve been using a Trap Bar, which is designed so you can stand “inside” it. The middle of the bar is a square, and you stand inside that configuration and grip handles that are outside your legs near the barbell plates. That enables you to deadlift with a more upright posture—without having to drag a straight bar up your shins. The Trap Bar makes the deadlift safer, and you hit your www.ironmanmagazine.com \ APRIL 2008 63

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© 2005 IRON MAN Magazine

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

Grow

Train, Eat, quads and back much harder without rounding your lower back.

On our new 3D HIT program each workout lasts about 50 minutes. As we said, however, there are critical details we must continually be aware of and put into practice if we’re going to flip the anabolic switch with such brief blasts:

Model: Marvin Montoya

1)

A thorough warmup for each muscle is mandatory. A properly prepped muscle can contract up to 20 percent better than a cold one. We’re following the comprehensive warmup sequence from our e-book 3D Muscle Building, which is two to three progressively

A thorough warmup is critical to getting the most fiber activation on your work sets.

IRON MAN Training & Research Center Muscle-Training Program 102 Workout 1: Chest, Lats, Triceps, Abs Smith-machine incline presses (X Reps) High cable flyes Bench presses (X Reps) Flyes (X Reps) Wide-grip dips (X Reps) Low cable flyes Chins Parallel-grip pulldowns Machine or dumbbell pullovers Rope rows Lying extensions (X Reps) Overhead dumbbell extensions or cable pushouts Pushdowns or kickbacks (X Reps) Incline kneeups Flat-bench leg raises Tri-set Ab Bench crunches Twisting crunches End-of-bench kneeups

1 x 9-12 1 x 12-15 1 x 9-12 1 x 9-12 1 x 9-12 1 x 12-15 1 x 9-12 1 x 9-12 1 x 9-12 1 x 12-15 1 x 9-12 1 x 9-12 1 x 12-15 1 x 12-15 1 x 10-15 1 x 10-12 1 x 10-15 1 x 9-12

Workout 2: Quads, Hamstrings, Calves, Lower Back Leg extensions (warmup) Squats Sissy squats Leg extensions (X Reps) Walking lunges Stiff-legged deadlifts Leg curls Knee-extension leg press calf raises (X Reps) Leg press calf raises (X Reps) Machine standing calf raises or one-leg calf raises (X Reps)

1 x 12-15 1 x 9-12 1 x 9-12 1 x 12-15 1 x 10-15 1 x 9-12 1 x 12-15 1 x 12-15 1 x 12-15 1 x 15-20

Seated calf raises (X Reps) Hyperextensions or Nautilus lower-back machine (X Reps)

1 x 10-15 1 x 10-15

Workout 3: Delts, Midback, Biceps, Forearms Seated laterals/upright rows (X Reps) One-arm cable laterals or incline one-arm laterals (X Reps) Forward-lean laterals Smith-machine presses (X Reps) Bent-over laterals Machine rows (X Reps) V-handle cable rows Bent-arm bent-over laterals Dumbbell shrugs Dumbbell curls Incline curls Concentration curls or one-arm spider curls Incline hammer curls Tri-set Behind-the-back wrist curls Rockers Forearm Bar reverse wrist curls

1 x 9-12 1 x 9-12 1 x 12-15 1 x 9-12 1 x 12-15 1 x 9-12 1 x 9-12 1 x 12-15 1 x 12-15 1 x 9-12 1 x 9-12 1 x 12-15 1 x 9-12 1 x 12-15 1 x 15-20 1 x 8-10

Friday Workout Deadlifts (substitute for back workout)

1 x 9-12

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

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Train, Eat,

Grow

heavier sets with some partial-range reps—X Reps—for occlusion and then heightened blood flow. The bottom line: Warm up thoroughly if you want to get the muscle-building job done with only one work set.

Model: Idrise Ward-El

2)

Your neuromuscular efficiency must improve. Lagging bodyparts usually have weaker nerve-to-muscle connections, which means they’re harder to feel as they contract. So you can’t activate as many growth fibers on any one set. Superior neuromuscular efficiency is one of the big reasons Casey Viator was able to build—or, actually, rebuild—60 pounds of muscle in only four weeks during the Colorado Experiment back in the ’70s. He was a pure fast-twitch animal who could contract an enormous number of muscle fibers on any one set. In fact, he accomplished that phenomenal muscle-

Deadlifts can provide residual leg work on a back-training day.

IRON MAN Training & Research Center Home-Gym Program 102 Workout 1: Chest, Lats, Triceps, Abs Incline presses (X Reps) Incline flyes Bench presses (X Reps) Flyes (X Reps) Wide-grip dips or decline presses (X Reps) Decline flyes Chins Parallel-grip chins Dumbbell pullovers Undergrip rows Lying extensions (X Reps) Overhead dumbbell extensions Kickbacks (X Reps) Incline kneeups Flat-bench leg raises Superset Ab Bench or full-range crunches End-of-bench kneeups

1 x 9-12 1 x 12-15 1 x 9-12 1 x 9-12 1 x 9-12 1 x 12-15 1 x 9-12 1 x 9-12 1 x 9-12 1 x 12-15 1 x 9-12 1 x 9-12 1 x 12-15 1 x 12-15 1 x 10-15 1 x 10-12 1 x 9-12

Workout 2: Quads, Hamstrings, Calves, Lower Back Leg extensions (warmup) Squats Sissy squats Leg extensions (X Reps) Walking lunges Stiff-legged deadlifts Leg curls Knee-extension donkey calf raises (X Reps) Donkey calf raises (X Reps) One-leg calf raises (X Reps)

1 x 12-15 1 x 9-12 1 x 9-12 1 x 12-15 1 x 10-15 1 x 9-12 1 x 12-15 1 x 12-15 1 x 12-15 1 x 15-20

Seated calf raises (X Reps) Hyperextensions (X Reps)

1 x 10-15 1 x 10-15

Workout 3: Delts, Midback, Biceps, Forearms Seated laterals/upright rows (X Reps) Incline one-arm laterals (X Reps) Forward-lean laterals Barbell or dumbbell presses (X Reps) Bent-over laterals Bent-over rows (X Reps) One-arm dumbbell rows Bent-arm bent-over laterals Dumbbell shrugs Dumbbell curls Incline curls Concentration curls or one-arm spider curls Incline hammer curls Tri-set Behind-the-back wrist curls Rockers Forearm Bar reverse wrist curls

1 x 9-12 1 x 9-12 1 x 12-15 1 x 9-12 1 x 12-15 1 x 9-12 1 x 9-12 1 x 12-15 1 x 12-15 1 x 9-12 1 x 9-12 1 x 12-15 1 x 9-12 1 x 12-15 1 x 15-20 1 x 8-10

Friday Workout Deadlifts (substitute for back workout)

1 x 9-12

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

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Train, Eat,

Grow

building feat using only one or two exercises per bodypart, one set each. His workouts took about 30 minutes, and he trained three days a week. For us mere mortals, training each muscle in its three positions of flexion will help build better neuromuscular efficiency, as will doing X Reps.

3)

Use X Reps on most exercises, especially the big, midrange moves. Because most of us don’t have Casey’s superhuman fiber-firing capability, we need to find other ways to get at more muscle fibers. Using the three positions of flexion—3D POF—for each muscle group is one way. Training a muscle from the midrange, stretch and contracted positions gets at more fibers and also produces max force, stretch overload and continuous tension and occlusion.

While POF gives you an enormous muscle-building bang, to make one set in each position as effective as possible, you must leapfrog nervous system failure. That’s what stops your work set right when

you’re beginning to tap into the key growth fibers. You can do that with end-of-set X-Rep partials: When you can no longer do full-range reps, move the resistance to a point that’s near the turnaround, where the target muscle is semistretched, and fire out as many eight-inch partials as you can. For example, do X Reps near the bottom of an incline press.

4)

Extend the tension time on continuous-tension exercises. Contracted-position exercises, like leg extensions, pushdowns and concentration curls, are done last in the 3D POF bodypart routines. Do higher reps and slow down the cadence so your work set lasts around 50 seconds—and do not allow the target muscle to rest during the set. Continuous tension for a longer-than-normal set is vitally important. (We’re beginning to think contracted-position exercises with longer tension times may have almost as much hypertrophic potential as compound moves, if they are performed slowly with long tension times; see “Dynamic Ten-

sion: Was Charles Atlas Right?” on page 125 for details.)

Of course, even with all of the above, one set in each position still won’t be enough for stubborn bodyparts with extremely low neuromuscular efficiency. The slacker muscles require you to specialize for more size—and the efficient, abbreviated nature of the 3D HIT program is perfect for rotating in more elaborate routines for lagging areas. We’ll discuss that next month and provide some examples of specialization routines you can plug into our 3D HIT program.

Note: Our latest e-book, Xtraordinary Arms, is available at X-Rep.com. It includes biceps and triceps specialization routines for width, peak and sweep plugged into the 3D HIT program.

Editor’s note: For the latest on X Reps, X e-books and the X-Blog training and supplement journals, visit www.X-Rep.com. The training e-books are shown below. IM

X-traordinary Workouts — X-ceptional Results!

The Ultimate Mass Workout.

This is the original X-Rep manual. Includes the ultimate exercise for each muscle and workouts.

Beyond X-Rep Muscle Building. More on X Reps and X-hybrid techniques, including X Fade and Double-X Overload.

3D Muscle Building.

Positions-of-Flexion mass training. Includes the 20pounds-of-muscle-in-10weeks size surge program.

X-Rep.com 68 APRIL 2008 \ www.ironmanmagazine.com

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X-traordinary MuscleBuilding Workouts. The big 10 mass-program arsenal.

Includes Heavy/Light, 20Rep Squat, Power Pyramid.

by John Hansen, Mr. Natural Olympia

Bench Press Form for Pec Growth Q: I got your DVD, and it’s very good. I’m a natural bodybuilder, and it helped me very much with my preparation. I have a problem when positioning my shoulders on the bench for bench presses. As a result, I can’t isolate my chest enough. I know you said, “Chest up, expand the rib cage, shoulders down and back, big arch, hold shoulder blades tight.”

But I feel like I’m still missing something. Can you explain step by step how to position my back and shoulders to take them out of the movement—especially shoulders? I noticed that most pro bodybuilders do something before they start to bench. When they first lie on the bench, they grab the bar and make one fast movement. Do I need to do that?

A: Your question is a common one. When I’m training beginners on the barbell bench press, I usually notice

If you want the most chest involvement, roll your shoulders back and hold your chest high during bench presses.

incorrect form, and it turns out they feel the movement more in the shoulders than the chest.

The bench press is a chest exercise, but it also involves the anterior, or front, deltoids and the triceps.

Properly performed, the exercise should be 70 percent chest, 15 percent delts and 15 percent triceps. If you do it wrong, however, you’ll feel it more in your shoulders or triceps.

The proper way to set up for the exercise is by using moderately wide hand spacing on the bar. The rule to remember here is that when your upper arms are parallel to the floor during the exercise, your forearms should be perpendicular to your upper arms. Your hand position should be wide enough to make that happen.

If you use a closer hand spacing, you’ll feel the exercise more in your triceps than your chest. I notice that a lot of people tend to favor a close hand spacing. I think that’s because you feel stronger and tighter when using a narrow grip on the bar. Grabbing the bar wider may make you feel as though you’re at a mechanical disadvantage when you press; however, your primary goal is to develop the chest muscles, not push up the maximum amount of weight. With wider hand spacing, you use your chest muscles more.

If you do the opposite and grab the bar with a very wide hand spacing, (continued on page 102) you use more deltoids than chest. A wide grip limits the range of motion for the exercise and puts an abnormal strain on the Neveux \ Model: Cesar Martinez

NATURALLY HUGE NATURALLY HUGE NATURALLY HUGE NATURALLY HUGE NATURALLY HUGE NATURALLY HUGE NATURALLY HUGE NATURALLY HUGE NATURALLY HUGE NATURALLY HUGE NATURALLY HUGE NATURALLY H

Naturally Huge

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bar with a moderately wide grip and pull your elbows back during the exercise so they’re right under the bar.

I remember reading about the way Tom Platz improved the mind/muscle connection when it came to training his biceps. Tom said that he had a very strong mind/muscle connection when training his legs but a very difficult time doing the same thing when training his biceps.

To overcome the problem, he stopped training his biceps heavy and started doing curls with 10-pound dumbbells. He did the exercise very slowly and deliberately, feeling every muscle fiber contracting during the movement. When he’d firmly established the mind/muscle connection, he moved up to 15-pound dumbbells. He followed the same procedure until he was back up to his normal 75-pounders.

You could do the same thing with the barbell bench press. Go back down in weight and use correct form so that you feel the exercise in your chest instead of your shoulders. When you’ve nailed the mind/muscle connection, you can start increasing the weight on the bar until you get back to the weight you’re using now.

Neveux \ Model: Sagi Kalev

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Naturally Huge

Reducing your poundage and doing ultraslow reps can help you establish the mind/muscle connection that’s necessary for maximum mass. front deltoids instead of the pectoral muscles.

Now that you’ve established the proper hand spacing, let’s go over the rest of the exercise. You need to put your body in the proper position to feel the exercise in your chest and not your shoulders. You want to expand your rib cage and keep your chest high with your shoulders pulled back. Many people have difficulty keeping their chest high and their shoulders back, which is why I recommend expanding your rib cage when you bench. That will make you automatically pull your shoulders backward as your chest expands. Also, by expanding your rib cage, you hold your chest higher. That positions the pectoral muscles to benefit from the exercise.

By keeping your shoulders pulled back, you take them out of the movement and place most of the stress on your chest muscles.

Many people make the mistake of pushing the bar up too far at the conclusion of each rep. By caving in their chest and extending their arms and shoulders to push the bar up that far, they bring in their shoulders, shifting the load to their deltoids instead of the pecs. As long as you keep your rib cage expanded and shoulders back, you’ll feel the exercise in the pecs, not the delts.

If you do all of those things and you still have trouble feeling the exercise in your pecs, I recommend that you start with a very light weight so that you can focus more on feeling the movement in your chest. Keeping your rib cage expanded and your shoulders pulled back, grab the

Q: I recently purchased your book and have read it cover to cover. I’m 22, 6’4” and 350 pounds—not exactly bodybuilding condition, but that’s what I want to work toward. I need to know how to calculate calories for bulking and cutting, as I didn’t see how to do that in your book. I know I should experiment, but there’s a ton of room for error when you don’t even know where to begin. Is there a formula?

Do you calculate using lean mass or total bodyweight? I ask because I wouldn’t think you’d need to add more calories just to feed the fat. One more question: I’m of the endomorphic bodytype, so is it okay to get most of my carbs from brown rice? Your book is very inspiring, and I can’t thank you enough for writing it. Just the information on how to do the exercises correctly was worth the price.

A: The method I use to calculate the calorie requirements for bulking or cutting is to look at each macronutrient separately and establish a number for each. Protein, carbohydrate and fat all play different roles in the body, and they must be adjusted for gaining weight or losing fat.

When you’re trying to lose bodyfat and maintain or build more muscle, protein is the most important macronutrient.

I eat approximately 1.25 to 1.5 grams of protein for each pound of bodyweight when I’m dieting to lose fat. If I weigh 220 pounds when I start my diet, I eat anywhere from 275 to 330 grams of protein per day. One gram of protein equals

One way to add size without putting on too much fat is to alternate the amount of carbohydrate you eat on training and nontraining days.

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Naturally Huge

You must manipulate your protein, carbs and fats, depending on your goals.

four calories per gram, so that comes to 1,100 to 1,320 calories of protein intake alone.

When I’m trying to lose fat, I moderate my carbohydrate intake in order to starve the fat cells while still getting enough carbs to supply the energy I need for my intense weight-training sessions. If I don’t eat enough carbs, I risk losing muscle because the carbs are protein sparing, which means they are used for energy rather than the protein, which should be used for building muscle. If I eat too many carbs, however, I won’t lose bodyfat fast enough because of the excess glycogen, which can be stored as fat or, at the very least, slow down the rate of fat moblilzation.

On the days I weight train, I need more carbs to fuel the session. I also need them immediately after the workout to replace the glycogen I just burned up in my training.

I always have two scoops of the postworkout drink 2:1:1 Recovery from Optimum Nutrition, which provides me with 70 grams of fast-acting carbohydrate after my training session.

On my training days I take in almost one gram of carbohydrate for each pound of bodyweight. Using the above example, if I weigh 220 pounds and I get .95 grams of carbs for each pound of bodyweight, I eat around 209 grams of carbs on a training day.

On a nontraining day I drop my carb intake drastically. I don’t need as many because I’m not training, so I eliminate my postworkout drink, which cuts out 70 grams of carb from my diet. By eating fewer carbs, I’m essentially “starving” the fat cells by not feeding them with nutrients that could possibly be stored as fat.

On a nontraining day I limit my carbohydrate intake to only .7 grams for each pound of bodyweight. If I weigh 220 pounds, I eat only 154 grams of carbohydrate.

As for my fat intake, I eat a moderate amount of fat because my carb intake is low to moderate. If I were eating a higher-carbohydrate diet, I’d eat less fat. To lose fat, you basically need to eat a high-protein diet plus either low carbs or low fat.

Since I lose fat by moderating my carbohydrate intake, I eat a moderate amount of fat.

I prefer the monounsaturated fats in flaxseed oil, salmon and peanut butter. My fat intake is usually between 55 and 70 grams. I eat more fats on my lower-carb days than on my training days.

The calorie breakdown for a diet designed to lose bodyfat comes out to about 45 percent protein, 35 percent carb and 20 percent fat on a training day. On a rest, or a nontraining, day the calories break down to 50 percent protein, 25 percent carbohydrate and 25 percent fat.

When trying to gain weight and put on muscle, the percentages are different. Protein is still important, but the carbohydrate intake should be increased. As with the fat-loss diet, the carbs are the one macronutrient that’s adjusted to achieve the goal.

When I’m trying to gain mass, I eat more carbohydrate than protein. Depending on how fast your metabolism is and your age—metabolism tends to slow down as we get older—you should eat anywhere from two to four grams of carbohydrate for each pound of bodyweight.

At 220 pounds I eat an average of 440 grams a day when trying to add muscle mass. When I was younger, I ate anywhere from 500 to 600 grams to bulk up.

One way to add size without putting on too much fat is to alternate your carbohydrate intake on training and nontraining days. I did that when I was dieting to lose fat, eating more on my training days and fewer on my nontraining days. You can do the same by eating two grams of carbs for each pound of bodyweight on your training days and one to 1.5 grams per pound on your nontraining days.

My protein intake is also high when I’m eating to add size and bodyweight but not as high when I’m eating to lose fat. I get an average of 1.25 grams of protein for each pound of bodyweight. If my weight is 220, that will be 275 grams of protein per day.

My fat intake is about the same on my mass-building and fat-loss diets. Those who have a very fast metabolism would benefit from eating more fat because fats have more calories per gram—nine calories vs. four calories for protein or carbohydrates.

When I was eating to gain size, I ate whole eggs and red meat because of their higher saturated-fat content. That helped boost my calorie intake, which was essential due to my extremely fast metabolism.

The macronutrient breakdown for a bulking diet would be 35 percent protein, 50 percent carbohydrate and 15 percent fat on a training day. On a nontraining day it would be 40 percent protein, 40 percent carbohydrate and 20 percent fat.

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.NaturalOlympia.com. You can write to him at P.O. Box 3003, Darien, IL 60561, or call toll-free (800) 900-UNIV (8648). His new book, Natural Bodybuilding, and new training DVD, “Real Muscle,” are available from Home Gym Warehouse, www.Home-Gym .com or (800) 447-0008. IM

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SHREDDED MUSCLE SHREDDED MUSCLE SHREDDED MUSCLE SHREDDED MUSCLE SHREDDED MUSCLE SHREDDED MUSCLE SHREDDED MUSCLE SHREDDED MUSCLE SHREDDED MUSCLE SHREDDED MUSCLE SHREDDED MUSC

Shredded Muscle

by David Goodin

To Use, or Not to Use? Q: Is it true that you’re a lifetime natural bodybuilder? I’ve been told that you can’t win in the NPC without using steroids. If you really are drug-free

and you’re winning nontested shows, aren’t you tempted to use bodybuilding drugs to get to the next level?

A: Yes, it’s true. I’m a lifetime drug-free bodybuilder. I’ve never used steroids, testosterone, HGH or any other bodybuilding drugs. I know a lot of people out there don’t believe that you can look the way I look without using drugs.

There are even people who know me very well who can’t believe it. I dated fitness and figure star Abby Marie Wolf for more than two years, and she—who knew me better than anybody—would periodically ask me to “come clean” and tell her what I really used.

As I told her a number of times, I gained about 30 pounds of muscle in 20-plus years. That averages to less than a pound and a half of muscle per year. Gaining muscle at that rate is not extraordinary. I’ve seen guys using the juice who put on 30 pounds of lean bodyweight in six months.

The other thing that people say is, there’s no way to get that lean (I measured myself at 2.4 percent the week of the ’07 NPC Team Universe) without using some kind of drugs. Well, first of all, I’m a naturally lean person—in fact, naturally skinny. If I don’t lift, I lose weight fast. Second, I take 14 to 16 weeks to lose eight to 12 pounds. I normally lose eight to 12 ounces per week on my contest diet. Once again, that’s not extraordinary. My “magic pills” are consistency, persistence and discipline.

I figured out the basics of my contest diet more than 20 years ago. I’ve always stepped onstage ripped. I just follow my plan, and as long as I give myself at least one week (preferably a little more than one week) for every pound of bodyfat that I need to lose, I can always achieve the results.

When you look at what I’ve done in bodybuilding—in terms of muscle and leanness—and the time that it’s taken me to do it, you can see that it’s not a stretch. You can see that it is very possible to do it drug-free.

Getting to the temptation part of your question, the answer is yes, it is

It’s taken Dave many years of trial and error to do it drug-free. You can build a lean, muscular physique without steroids.

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I’m often asked if I use steroids, and it feels good to be able to look people in the eye and say, “No, I don’t use them.” I do my best to persuade people not to use drugs, but at the same time it doesn’t make you a bad person. tempting. When I first got interested in bodybuilding, there were no drugtested contests. You could get a prescription for anabolic steroids from a doctor (some built their practices on writing prescriptions for bodybuilding drugs), and almost all of the competitive bodybuilders I knew used steroids. In 1984 I was told by a relatively high-ranking official, “If you’re not willing to take steroids, you shouldn’t be a bodybuilder.”

Nevertheless, some of the magazines were starting to report on the side effects of steroid use. Even the more superficial side effects like accelerated hair loss, acne and testicular atrophy were enough to get my attention. When I started thinking about competing, I decided that I’d give myself at least five years of drug-free training to see what I could accomplish on my own.

I’ll be very honest here: Every interviewer who’s ever asked me about it has gotten the same anecdote. In my fifth year of competition, I lost—at an NPC national qualifier—in a tiebreaker to a guy who was seriously juiced. He went on to take second at the USA Championships the following weekend. I was very upset. I knew that if I’d had even 10 more pounds of muscle I could have easily won the overall at that show. I talked it over with my wife, and we decided that if I was going to move up in bodybuilding, I needed to do ’roids. I did some research and then called Larry Mistric, a former training partner (and worldclass powerlifter), to find out how to go about acquiring them.

Larry told me, “Dave, look at what you’ve done drug-free. Steroids are about to be classified as a controlled substance, and there are going to be drug-tested contests in the very near future. Don’t do it!”

That was all I needed—just someone in the industry to say, “Don’t do

it.” I didn’t, and I haven’t looked back.

If I’d done things differently, could I have been a force in the IFBB for the past 20 years? Maybe, maybe not. Who knows? All I know is that I have, in that time, become somewhat of a legend in natural bodybuilding—at least that’s what people tell me. With my status in natural bodybuilding I’ve affected so many people’s lives, both directly (see the Bodybuilding.com interview of Layne Norton) and indirectly. I know that I feel 100 percent good about what I’ve accomplished in bodybuilding and how I’ve done it.

I’m often asked if I use steroids, and it feels good to be able to look people in the eye and say, “No, I don’t use them.” It feels even better when the next questions comes: “Have you ever used steroids?” Once again, I can look them in the eye and say, “No, never.”

Do I condemn those who use bodybuilding drugs? No, I don’t. I do my best to persuade people not to use them, but at the same time it doesn’t make you a bad person—unless you’re entering drug-free shows and/or lying to people and telling them that you’re natural.

To use or not to use is a choice that each person has to make. Are you willing to risk your health to be more muscular now? Last year I lost a friend to a heart attack, and he was only 40. He was supermuscular, but those who loved him would have loved him even had he been a smaller guy. Even though I’m not competing for the Arnold Classic or Mr. Olympia titles and (I’m sure) never will, I know my loved ones are happy with the path that I’ve chosen.

DESIGNED TO BUILD RES U L T S

®

FROM THE MAKERS OF OHYEAH! COMES RE-SATUR8 ®

™

RELOAD. RECOVER. GROW.

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

www.issresearch.com

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CRITICAL MASS CRITICAL MASS CRITICAL MASS CRITICAL MASS CRITICAL MASS CRITICAL MASS CRITICAL MASS CRITICAL MASS CRITICAL MASS CRITICAL MASS CRITICAL MASS CRITICAL MASS CRITICAL MASS CRITICAL M

Steve Holman’s

Critical Mass

by Steve Holman

Contraction and the Size Reaction

Q: I need some back width— that is, lat development. I’m following your 3D HIT program listed in the e-book X-traordinary Arms, but I’m not getting a pump, and I have a hard time feeling my back working. Do you have any suggestions?

A: The 3D Positions-of-Flexion lat routine in that program is the following: Chins (midrange) Dumbbell pullovers (stretch) Rope rows (contracted)

1 x 9-12 1 x 9-12 1 x 12-15

One reason you may not be getting a big pump is the last exercise, rope rows, a contracted-position lat exercise. While it does place your lats in the contracted position at the top, where your upper arms are slightly behind your torso, it’s not a pure contracted-position movement. Why? Because it’s not isolated enough—you use your arms, specifically your biceps, to pull the rope handle into your waist.

So while you get your lats into full contraction, you use a lot of arm strength. That can diffuse the continuous-tension effect, especially for trainees who have low neuromuscular efficiency, or nerve force, in the lats.

They tend to use their arms a lot more than their back muscles.

A substitute exercise I recommend is stiff-arm pulldowns. Stand slightly back away from the pulldown machine and take an overhand shoulder-width grip on the bar. With the bar at eye level and tension on your lats, drive the bar down in an arc, keeping only a slight bend at your elbows, until the bar is just in front of your thighs; then return the bar in an arc back to eye level. Concentrate on keeping tension on your lats throughout the set.

One of the keys to getting a lagging bodypart to respond is continuous tension and occlusion, which is a blockage of blood flow. As I’ve noted before, a number of Japanese and American studies have found that restricting blood flow during exercise, as you do with most contracted-position movements—like stiff-arm

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Rope rows (left) hit the lats’ contracted position, but for more occlusion try stiff-arm pulldowns instead.

Q: In your arm-specialization programs [listed in

X-traordinary Arms], is it okay to mix up the exercises? Can I do a biceps-peak exercise for midrange, then the stretch move, followed by a contractedposition biceps exercise for width? I like the idea of training for width and peak at every workout rather than emphasizing one over the other at alternating workouts, as you recommend.

Neveux \ Model: Jonathan Lawson

A: Experimentation is good. I believe it’s necessary for anyone interested in gaining the most muscle possible as quickly as possible. Your idea has merit because no matter what arm exercise you choose, you’ll affect all heads of the muscle to some degree. In other words, you can’t work the inner biceps head while the outer head takes a nap or vice versa; however, you can stress one over the other.

Here’s a sample biceps routine you’d use at your first arm workout: Inner biceps (width) Wide-grip curls (midrange exercise) Inner and outer biceps (width and peak) Palms-forward incline curls (stretch exercise) Outer biceps (peak) Concentration curls (contracted exercise)

Q: Most of programs in your articles and e-books don’t have a lot of work sets. Are there any studies that give a benchmark relating to the number of sets that’s best for a workout?

A: Too much stress, whether in relationships or in the gym or when you’re bunjee jumping, causes cortisol to rise.

Cortisol can force your body to eat muscle tissue for energy, and it lowers testosterone. A study that looked at how training volume affects testosterone in men was done in 2004 (Alemany, J.A., et al. Med Sci Sports Exerc. 36:S238).

Group 1: No exercise (control) Group 2: 25 sets Group 3: 50 sets The workouts consisted of big, basic exercises—squats, bench presses, etc.—that have elevated testosterone in other studies. Reps per set were five to 10, with 90 to 120 seconds of rest between sets.

Results: The high-volume group had significantly suppressed testosterone over a 24-hour period. There was no

That’s the standard 3D POF routine I often recommend for overall biceps growth and development, as it’s very balanced; however, you lead off with an inner-head, or width, exercise. So at your next biceps workout change the first exercise to an outer-head, or peak midrange movement—like close-grip preacher curls, followed by stretch, followed by an inner-biceps-head-dominant exercise for width to hit the contracted position, like one-arm spider curls done on the vertical side of the preacher bench.

You’re still alternating biceps workouts that stress different areas, which is what we suggest in X-traordinary Arms. What’s different is that you’re not focusing on one section as much at each workout, as the arm-specialization routines in the e-book do.

Those routines hammer one section, or head, of the biceps in all three positions, with the other head getting less attention. So at the next workout you focus on the other head. Your variation should work. Try it with the triceps width and sweep exercises as well.

Neveux \ Model: Jay Cutler

pulldowns, leg extensions and so on—increases strength, muscle activation and stimulation of anabolic hormones, such as IGF-1 and growth hormone. Scientists at the University of Texas found that occlusion training can activate the TOR-signaling pathway, which triggers protein synthesis and muscle hypertrophy.

That’s the reason we finish off every bodypart with a higher-rep continuous tension and occlusion exercise in the 3D HIT program. In your case, the stiff-arm pulldown should accomplish that better than rope rows for lat pump and development. If you want to take it to the next level, try a drop set on that last exercise to extend the tension time and increase intensity. [Note: For more on occlusion, see the feature that begins on page 102.]

Neveux \ Model: Omar Deckard

such reduction in the moderate-volume group.

I’ve always recommended workouts of no more than about 30 work sets at any one session for drug-free trainees, and the study confirms what I’ve discovered over the years.

Editor’s note: Steve Holman is the author of many bodybuilding best-sellers and the creator of Positionsof-Flexion muscle training. For information on the POF videos and Size Surge programs, see the ad sections beginning on pages 138 and 296, respectively. Also visit www.X-Rep.com for information on X-Rep and 3D POF methods and e-books. IM www.ironmanmagazine.com \ APRIL 2008 85

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Neveux \ Model: Markus Reinhardt

O

n July 31, 2005, the lowcarbohydrate diet was declared dead by the popular media. The occasion was the filing of a Chapter 11 bankruptcy by Atkins Nutritionals, a company founded by the godfather of the low-carb diet, Robert Atkins, M.D. Atkins himself wasn’t around to watch his company fade, since he had died two years earlier after slipping on an icy sidewalk in New York and going into a coma.

Although Atkins’ name was most associated with the low-carb diet, he was hardly the first to advocate that kind of eating plan. The use of a low-carb diet dates back to antiquity—the fifth century B.C. to be exact. A two-time Olympic long-distance champion named Stymphalos attributed his athletic success to following a diet of mostly meat. The legendary Greek wrestling champion Milo of Croton, who won no fewer than five Olympic wrestling events between 536 and 520 B.C., was reputed to eat an average 19 pounds of beef daily to attain his prodigious strength. Milo is also fa-

mous for using the first progressiveresistance exercise regimen, which consisted of lifting a calf every day, even when the calf became a bull.

Whether that bull eventually became a source of protein for Milo isn’t recorded.

The first popular low-carb diet was offered by William Banting, a retired London undertaker who claimed to have shed 45 pounds of fat in 1863 by eating a low-carb diet.

The diet was suggested to him by Dr. William Harvey after Banting consulted him about a recurrent earache. The doctor felt that Banting’s symptoms stemmed from the excess fat in his ear. Banting was so impressed by the results of his diet that he published it in a brief book called Letter of Corpulence that became the first commercial diet book.

In the early 20th century, Arctic explorer Vilhjalmur Stefansson lived among the native Inuit people and adopted their 90 percent meat and fish diet, devoid of carbohydrates.

While consuming this diet, Stefansson noted that he and his fellow explorers remained healthy. In fact,

Low-Carb

Lowdown Part 1: Are Low-Carb Diets Dead?

by Jerry Brainum

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Low-Carb Lowdown the only side effect occurred when one intrepid explorer decided to eat fish only. That led to nausea, which was rapidly rectified when fat was added to his diet.

When Stefansson reported on the diet in a series of published articles, medical professionals expressed skepticism concerning the effects of not eating carbohydrates. Stefansson elected to prove his contention about the safety of the diet by living in a metabolic ward at Bellevue Hospital in New York while eating a carb-free, meat-based diet for one year. During that time he was close-

Stefansson elected to prove his contention about the safety of the diet by living in a metabolic ward at Bellevue Hospital in New York while eating a carb-free, meat-based diet for one year. During that time he was closely observed by medical researchers. The results, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association in 1928, showed zero adverse effects from the diet, not even a vitamin deficiency.

Neveux \ Model: Will Harris

ly observed by medical researchers.

The results, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association in 1928, showed zero adverse effects from the diet, not even a vitamin deficiency.

Since then, numerous versions of the low-carb diet have appeared. The most popular was Atkins’ plan, first published in 1972. The cornerstone of Atkins’ and all other low-carb diets is that bodyfat is largely the result of excess insulin release. Insulin is required for the uptake of glucose into cells, but it also stimulates the synthesis of bodyfat.

According to low-carb-diet proponents, those who have excess bodyfat produce too much insulin because their enlarged fat cells make them insulin insensitive. Carbs are considered the primary culprit because sugars trigger the greatest release of insulin.

A lesser-known fact is that protein also triggers insulin 90 APRIL 2008 \ www.ironmanmagazine.com

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Low-Carb Lowdown Supplements for Low-Carb Dieters Using certain food supplements makes low-carb dieting easier, safer and more efficient.

• Potassium and magnesium. These minerals are particularly beneficial during the initial stages of a lowcarb diet to prevent muscle weakness and fatigue. Aim for at least 450 milligrams of magnesium and 2,000 milligrams of potassium daily. An alternative is to take a well-balanced multimineral supplement that contains both minerals, plus calcium, another mineral often in short supply in people who follow low-carb diets. In fact, a daily vitaminand-mineral supplement provides additional nutritional insurance.

• Fish oil. Omega-3 fatty acids found in fish oil lower elevated blood triglycerides and lower insulin resistance. Some studies suggest that fish oil may also stimulate fat oxidation when combined with exercise. In addition, it significantly adds to the natural triglyceride-lowering effects of low-carb diets, as does aerobic exercise. Aim for a daily intake of five grams or more.

• Creatine. While meat, a staple of low-carb diets, is rich in creatine, it wouldn’t hurt to maximize muscle energy stores with a creatine supplement. That’s especially true for bodybuilders, who depend on the ATP-creatine energy system in muscle to fuel exercise. Taking creatine with a rapidly absorbed protein source, such as whey, removes the necessity of taking it with a simple carb that may trigger excess insulin release.

• Glutamine. Glutamine helps replenish glycogen stores in the body and can act as an alternative fuel source during a diet. Lowcarb diets tend to promote the increased excretion of glutamine, about 25 percent above normal levels. Get five to 20 grams daily.

• L-carnitine. This amino acid product helps the body use fat as an energy source and may be particularly useful during low-carb diets. The goal is two to three grams daily in divided doses, with one dose taken 60 minutes prior to training.

• 5-HTP. It’s a precursor of serotonin, a brain chemical related to a craving for carbs. Taking 5-HTP may help prevent bingeing on sweets. The dose is 100 to 300 milligrams daily.

Don’t take it prior to training, as it can cause drowsiness.

• Total milk protein. High protein intake is key to success during low-carb dieting. Milk protein is easily digested and low in carbs. A useful alternative is a milk protein-based meal-replacement product low in carbs (fewer than 25 grams of carbs per serving).

• Branched-chain amino acids. These are not required if you opt for a milk protein supplement. They’re useful for preventing muscle loss if you’re engaging in aerobic exercise while dieting. Taking five grams prior to training works well.

• Beta-alanine. Beta-alanine improves muscle endurance and prevents premature fatigue during training. Take three to six grams daily in divided doses.

• Protein-and-carb recovery drink. You can have one either before or after workouts without its adversely affecting the rate of fat loss. Taking it prior to training imparts a muscle-sparing, anabolic effect.

Taking it after promotes glycogen synthesis and amino acid uptake into muscle for more efficient workout recovery.

—J.B.

release, explaining why modern postworkout supplements emphasize a combination of protein and simple carbs—taken together, the nutrients maximize insulin release more than either alone.

Critics of low-carb diets point out that it’s calories that count when it comes to bodyfat loss. Many suggest that insulin alone doesn’t stimulate excess bodyfat in the absence of an excessive calorie intake. Studies with diabetics and nondiabetics in which the subjects ate an identical number of calories—the only difference being that one group also injected insulin—demonstrated that those injecting the insulin had significantly more bodyfat. Isolated-fat-cell studies also show that insulin alone doesn’t trigger bodyfat synthesis. If you add sugar to the mix, however, bodyfat synthesis goes up significantly.

Still, the debate rages about the effectiveness and safety of lowcarb diets. Studies published in the New England Journal of Medicine in 2003 found that while low-carb diets are effective for weight loss, it was the drop in calories on the diets that caused the fat loss, not the decreased carb intake.1 What the authors didn’t explain, however, was the average 37-pound weight loss for those on low-carb regimens, compared to the four-pound weight loss for those on a high-carb diet.

Another study found that when compared to a lowfat, high-carb eating plan, low-carb diets proved superior for spurring bodyfat loss for the first six months. After a year, however, both diets showed similar results, which can be explained by the gradual addition of carbohydrates to the diets of initial low-carb dieters. Those on the low-carb diet showed some beneficial changes in cardiovascular risk factors, such as increased high-density lipoprotein and lowered blood triglycerides.2 A more recent survey comparing various diets showed that the low-carb diet proved superior to high-carb, lowfat diets for fat loss.

When Atkins released his book Dr. Atkins’ Diet Revolution in 1972, he was promptly pilloried by his colleagues in the medical profes-

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Low-Carb Lowdown sion. The acerbic critiques targeted Atkins’ espousal of a high-fat intake, even saturated fat, the alleged dietary demon linked to cardiovascular disease.

Atkins, a practicing cardiologist, felt that insulin was a more direct cause of cardiovascular disease than saturated fat. He believed that an increased fat intake wasn’t a problem because you’d use the fat as an energy source in the absence of carbohydrate.

Research over the years has proven that Atkins’ assertions were correct. A low-carb diet offers cardiovascular protection.

Its higher fat content raises HDL, which helps the body remove excess blood cholesterol. Lowfat, high-carb diets are known to lower HDL while Another recent raising levels of triglycerides, or animal study blood fats. Low-carb diets consistently lower triglycerides, an effect found that a amplified when you add fish oil high-fat, lowsupplements to your diet.

Low-density lipoprotein, often carb diet helps referred to as the bad cholesterol, prevent the because of its association with cardiovascular disease, is also favorably enlarged heart affected by low-carb diets. It turns associated out that the smaller, denser forms of LDL are more dangerous than with high blood the larger, more buoyant forms. pressure.

Research shows that a low-carb diet favors the formation of the larger, benign LDL molecules.3 That’s why the low-carb Low-carb diets diet is now suggested as an effective form consistently of therapy to treat the metabolic syndrome, lower a harbinger of cardiovascular disease and triglycerides, diabetes.

A recent study of an effect guinea pigs, which process cholesterol amplified when much as humans do, revealed one way that you add fish oil low-carbohydrate diets help control cholessupplements to terol. A high intake of dietary cholesterol your plan. increases the activity of an enzyme in the liver that synthesizes 94 APRIL 2008 \ www.ironmanmagazine.com

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Low-Carb Lowdown fat. But when the guinea pigs are put on low-carb diets, the enzyme is suppressed, despite a high amount of cholesterol in the animals’ diets.4 Another recent animal study found that a high-fat, low-carb diet helps prevent the enlarged heart associated with high blood pressure.5

Human studies likewise confirm the beneficial effects of low-carb dieting. One example is a recent study involving moderately obese human subjects who followed two types of low-carb diets. One featured foods high in saturated fat, such as meat, similar to what Dr. Atkins originally

A recent animal study found that a low-carb diet lowered a protein that accumulates in the brains of those with Alzheimer’s disease and is considered a major cause of the disease.

suggested. The other diet focused on fish, poultry and shellfish that contained a high content of polyunsaturated fats, which are suggested for reducing elevated blood cholesterol. After 28 days both diets proved equally effective in stimulating weight loss, and neither diet adversely affected blood cholesterol, although the diet that had more polyunsatured fat more effectively lowered triglycerides.6 While some saturated fatty acids, such as palmitic acid, can increase cholesterol, they don’t do so in the presence of polyunsaturated fatty acids, such as linoleic acid, found in vegetable oils and food. The authors observe that fears of soaring cholesterol from eating low-carb diets don’t make biological sense.

Saturated fats are most potent in increasing HDL, while polyunsaturated are the least efficient.

Another study found that eating a low-carb diet seemed to trigger selective bodyfat loss. Seventy percent of the subjects, who were all men, lost more fat on a low-carb diet, even though they ate more calories.

They also lost more fat in the chest and stomach—highly significant because fat stored in those areas is more metabolically active and is linked to cardiovascular disease, high blood pressure, diabetes and the metabolic syndrome. In fact,

According to lowcarb-diet proponents, those who have excess bodyfat produce too much insulin because their enlarged fat cells make them insulin insensitive.

Carbs are considered the primary culprit because sugars trigger the greatest release of insulin.

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Low-Carb Lowdown drate increases insulin. That makes the insulin-degrading enzyme focus on insulin, enabling excess betaamyloid to accumulate in the brain, which has led many researchers to refer to Alzheimer’s as “type 3 diabetes.”

Recent animal studies also show that low-carb diets, by lowering both insulin and insulinlike growth factor 1, may prevent prostate cancer.9 In contrast, diets high in refined carbs are linked to prostate cancer.10 So are low-carb diets dead? Apparently not for those who want to live longer. In Part 2 we’ll discuss why low-carb diets are effective.

Next month, why low-carb diets are so good for a fat-to-muscle transformation.

References 1 Bravata, D.M., et al. (2003). Efficacy and safety of low-carbohydrate diets. NEJM. 289:1837-1850.

2 Foster, G.D., et al. (2003). A randomized trial of a low-carbohydrate diet for obesity. NEJM. 348:20822090.

3 Sharman, M.J., et al. (2004).

Very-low-carbohydrate and lowfat diets affect fasting lipids and postprandial lipemia differently in overweight men. J Nutr. 134:880-885.

4 Torres-Gonzalez, M., et al.

(2007). Carbohydrate restriction alters hepatic cholesterol metabolism in guinea pigs fed a hypercholesterolemic diet. J Nutr. 137:2219-2223.

5 Okere, I.C., et al.

(2006). Low carbohydrate/high fat diet attenuates cardiac hypertrophy, remodeling, and altered gene expression in hypertension. Hypertension. 48:1116-1123.

6 Cassady, B.A., et al.

(2007). Effects of lowcarbohydrate diets high in red meats or poultry, fish, and shellfish on plasma lipids and weight loss. Nutr Metab. 4:23.

7 Volek, J.S., et al.

(2004). Comparison of energy-restricted verylow-carbohydrate and lowfat diets on weightloss and body composition in overweight men and women. Nutr Metab.

1:12.

8 Van der Auwera, I., et al. (2005). A ketogenic diet reduces amyloid beta 40 and 42 in a mouse model of Alzheimer’s disease. Nutr Metab. 2:28.

9 Freedland, S.J., et al.

(2007). Carbohydrate restriction, prostate cancer growth, and the insulinlike growth factor axis.

The Prostate. In press.

10 Venkateswaran, V., et al. (2007). Association of diet-induced hyperinsulinemia with accelerated growth of prostate cancer (LNCaP) xenografts.

JNCI. 99:1793-1800. IM Neveux \ Model: Darly Gee

they lost three times as much fat in the trunk area as those on a lowfat diet.7 While a diet high in cholesterol and saturated fat is often linked to the onset of Alzheimer’s disease, that correlation may not be correct.

A recent animal study found that a low-carb diet lowered a protein that accumulates in the brains of those with Alzheimer’s disease and is considered a major cause of the disease.8 That makes sense because a protein in the brain called insulin-degrading enzyme is known to break down both beta-amyloid, the toxic protein in Alzheimer’s, and insulin. Eating too much carbohy-

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Is Blocking Blood Flow the Next Big Muscle-Building Frontier?

Occlusion Training 102 APRIL 2008 \ www.ironmanmagazine.com

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by Layne

Norton • Photography by Michael Neveux

ild and crazy training methods seem to come out every other week these days. Whether it’s static-contraction training, superslow mo or one-set-per-week workouts, the get-big fads go in and out of style faster than bell-bottom jeans and capri pants for guys.

W

Model: Tom Platz

Occlusion Training

Model: Moe El Moussawi

Researchers have found that occluding blood to the muscles during low-intensity physical activity can produce an anabolic response equal to, or perhaps greater than, moderate-intensity exercise.

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Model: Markus Reinhardt

Could occlusion training someday make heavy training obsolete as the optimal technique for stimulating muscle growth?

Much of that is probably due to the explosion of information available on the Internet. Unfortunately, the explosion has included a lot of collateral damage—unscientific and downright bad training methods being popularized.

What if I were to tell you that one method of training has been proven to cause significant hypertrophy in numerous scientific studies?

That it involved lifting weights that are about half the poundage you’d typically use? Then what if I told you that the method stimulates growth by reducing blood flow to the muscles you’re working? You’d probably say I’m an idiot and turn

the page—but then you’d remember that I mentioned scientific research.

Ah, you are interested.

The method is called occlusive training, and it’s been around for a while, racking up unbelievable results backed by solid data. For some reason nobody’s jumped on the concept, but I’m here to tell you how you can integrate it into your current training to help slap on some big-time muscle.

Research on Occlusive Training Studies show that moderate-intensity training (60 to 85 percent of

one-rep maximum), with short rest periods (one minute) yields optimal strength and hypertrophy gains.

Some scientists suggest that an intensity threshold of 60 percent of 1RM is required to stimulate hypertrophy and strength gains. That renders low-intensity training—20 to 40 percent of 1RM—obsolete in strength training and bodybuilding.

Two primary mechanisms by which moderate-intensity training stimulates growth are greater recruitment of muscle fibers and the accumulation of metabolites—lactic acid, for instance—that serve as signaling molecules for anabolic hormones and other growth factors. www.ironmanmagazine.com \ APRIL 2008 105

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Occlusion Training

Model: Derik Farnsworth

Some isolated continuous-tension exercises produce an occlusion effect without the need for additional wraps or bands.

It’s reasonable to assume that if athletes could simulate the conditions produced by moderate-intensity training, they’d get similar results. Well, assume your brains out, for it is entirely possible, and you won’t even have to train heavy to do it. Researchers have found that occluding blood to the muscles during low-intensity physical activity can produce an anabolic response equal to, or perhaps greater than, moderateintensity exercise. Occlusion training has also benefited the young and the elderly, regardless of training status.

In a short-term study investigating the effects of blood-occlusion training on protein synthesis—a.k.a. muscle anabolism—six healthy male subjects, average age 32, performed two sessions of low-intensity leg extensions for four sets, working at 20 percent of 1RM and taking 30 seconds of rest between sets. They exercised with and without a blood pressure cuff wrapped around their thigh and inflated to 200 mm Hg. The cuff increased blood pressure and impeded blood flow. Protein synthesis increased by nearly 50 percent following occlusion training but was unchanged in the control condition.

Longer-term studies have shown several advantageous adaptations as a result of occlusion training. A research team looked into the effects of performing leg extensions twice weekly for two months in elite rugby players. The athletes were separated into three groups: those doing leg extensions with blood occlusion of the thighs at 50 percent of 1RM, those doing leg extensions without blood occlusion at 50 percent 1RM and a control group doing no exercise.

Strength and quadriceps size improved by 14 percent and 12 percent, respectively, in the bloodocclusion group, while neither increased in the nonocclusion or control groups.

Amazingly, this method works regardless of the age of the trainee.

One study had 24 healthy elderly women, average age 58, perform dumbbell curls twice weekly for 16 weeks. The subjects were

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Occlusion Training

separated into groups: one doing low-intensity exercise—at 30 to 50 percent of 1RM—with occlusion, another doing low-intensity exercise without occlusion and a third doing moderate-intensity exercise without occlusion. Muscle mass was greater in the biceps brachii and brachialis after occlusion training (20.3 and 17.8 percent, respectively) than nonocclusion training (6.9 and 3.8 percent), and occlusion training tended to produce greater hypertrophy gains than the moderate-intensity training (18.4 and 11.8 percent).

More recently, scientists have found 6 percent increases in thigh muscle along with 8 to 10 percent increases in 1RM and isometric strength, respectively, in young men who walked for two five-minute bouts with occlusion, six days a week for three weeks. Conversely, no increases in either muscle mass or strength were observed in the control condition.

Another interesting finding is that occlusion training may improve the

Occlusion during leg training has increased blood GH by as much as 290 percent, while traditional high-intensity training has resulted in up to only 100 percent increases.

conditioned look of a bodybuilder by increasing vascularity. Some studies reveal increased vascular endothelial growth factor, which stimulates the growth and formation of new blood vessels. Overall occlusion training leads to bigger,

stronger and better-conditioned muscles.

Mechanisms of Action Several mechanisms may explain the exciting growth and strength

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Occlusion Training adaptations that occur with blood-occlusion training. The first is related to fiber recruitment. One of the major reasons high-intensity training works so well is that it forces trainees to recruit the larger fast-twitch muscle fibers, the fibers that have the greatest capacity for growth. Studies have demonstrated an increase in fiber activation equivalent to high-intensity training, as measured by electromyographic activity, greater whole-body oxygen uptake and increased depletion of ATP from muscle tissue. Likely, the fatigue in the small slow-twitch muscle fibers in a lowoxygen (no blood flow) environment causes increased motor unit recruitment, as well as inhibiting muscular contraction in those fibers due to lactic acid buildup. As fatigue sets in, the body is forced to recruit larger muscle fibers to maintain force output.

A second major mechanism is related to occlusion training’s stimulation of anabolic hormones. Occlusion during leg extensions increases blood growth hormone by as much as 290 percent. To put that in perspective, traditional high-intensity training has resulted in up to 100 percent increases in GH. The explanation lies within the finding that low-oxygen environments increase lactic acid production, while the occlusion traps it inside the muscle tissue. Past studies show strong correlations between blood lactic acid and GH, a phenomenon most likely explained by increasing acidity in the blood.

Moreover, research suggests that the accumulation of lactic acid in fasttwitch muscle fibers is sensed by

local chemical receptors and carried back to the hypothalamus, which ups the rate of GH secretion.

Myostatin has received a great deal of press over the past decade, and rightly so, as its upregulation stunts muscle growth by inhibiting the addition of nuclei capable of supporting further growth to muscle fiber. That factor was recently found to be inhibited in the quadriceps following short-duration occlusion training.

What really makes the technique unique is its ability to stimulate muscle growth without a detectable

Myostatin has received a great deal of press over the past decade, and rightly so, as its upregulation stunts muscle growth by inhibiting the addition of nuclei capable of supporting further growth to the muscle fiber. That very factor was recently found to be inhibited in the quadriceps following shortduration occlusion training.

rise in muscle tissue damage. That’s amazing, as many scientists suggest that muscle damage is essential to trigger growth. Finally, a number of studies have revealed that cortisol may not increase after occlusion training. By contrast, cortisol rises relative to increasing intensity and is responsible not only for myostatin upregulation but also for overtraining and the breakdown of muscle tissue.

To recap, blood-occlusion training can increase motor unit recruitment, raise anabolic hormones and suppress local (continued on page 114)

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Occlusion Training Unfortunately occlusive training is feasible only for the arms, legs and possibly shoulders, as it would be nearly impossible to occlude blood flow to the chest and back muscles without suffocating.

(continued from page 110) negative regulators of muscle growth. It’s also free from many of the negative side effects of training, such as increased muscle damage and unfavorable catabolic hormone increases.

Model: Luke Wood

Practical Applications “Okay,” you’re saying. “I get it. Occlusion training works. Tell me how to do it already.” After reviewing the studies and doing some experimentation, I’ve devised a few protocols.

Unfortunately, occlusive training is feasible only for the arms, legs and possibly shoulders, as it would be nearly impossible to occlude blood flow to the chest and back muscles without suffocating.

You must place more pressure on the limb you’re trying to occlude than the blood pressure of that area.

That’s how a tourniquet works. In the lab, researchers used a specialized blood pressure cuff to achieve a diastolic blood pressure of around 200 mm Hg—probably overkill, as most people have diastolic pressure of far less than that. Most people’s readings are anywhere from 110 to 140 mm Hg. You can use several different methods to occlude a muscle: 1) Buy the actual cuffs used for kaatsu training. Unfortunately, they’re hard to find, as they’re made in Japan and are on the expensive side.

2) Use a blood pressure cuff. That enables you to get a precise measure of the pressure needed. Still, an actual blood pressure cuff may be a bit awkward to use in the gym.

People may look at you as if your fly is open.

3) Use a Velcro-equipped lifting belt. They’re inexpensive, easy to find and quite fast and easy to use.

The downsides: You’ll probably be able to use it only for legs, as the belt will be too big to properly occlude your arms. You also won’t know exactly how much blood flow you’re blocking the way you do with a pressure cuff. A quick and dirty method of finding out if it’s tight enough is to put the belt around your leg tightly, then stand up and see if you feel a strong “pump” and slight numbness after about 60 seconds. If you do, it should (continued on page 118)

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Occlusion Training Blood pressure cuff

Compression wrap

(continued from page 114) be tight

enough.

4) Use powerlifting knee wraps.

They’re inexpensive and readily available and can occlude the arms or legs. The downside is that it takes time to wrap your limbs, and if they’re not tight enough, you’ll spend more time rewrapping. Additionally, it can be more difficult to get them on both limbs with the same degree of occlusion; you don’t want to occlude one limb more than the other if you’re wrapping them both at the same time. Unilateral training is an easy fix: Wrap one limb, do your sets, and then wrap the other limb.

5) Apply a compression wrap— typically used for injuries—tightly around the trained muscle. They’re particularly effective for small muscle groups such as calves, biceps and forearms, but they can be rather difficult to wrap around the arms. Having someone assist in the wrapping is helpful.

Now that we’ve covered how to occlude a muscle, the next obvious question is which exercises, sets, reps, etc., you should use. I suggest adding occlusion work at the end of a typical leg or arm day. It should take only five to 10 minutes, but be forewarned: Occlusion training is very taxing.

First set: 30 reps with 20 percent of one-rep max Three subsequent sets: 15 reps with 20 percent of one-rep max, taking 30 seconds of rest between sets Four sets to failure with 50 percent of one-rep max, taking 30 seconds of rest between sets

Powerlifting knee wraps

Four sets to failure with 50 percent one-rep max, taking one minute of rest between sets Note: Do not remove the occlusion device until you’ve completed all of the sets.

You may be looking at those poundages and thinking this is some kind of joke. Go ahead and laugh. You’ll be cursing soon enough.

If you’ve occluded the muscle properly, you’ll find that the first

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Occlusion Training few reps feel very easy, like normal.

As the set progresses, however, you’ll find that you hit a wall very fast because the slow-twitch fibers have been prefatigued by the lack of oxygen. The rest between sets will do very little to help you recover. The pump will be intense, but so will the pain if you’re working correctly—so intense that you’ll want to remove the occlusion after every set.

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Model: Raymond Fornsworth

It’s important to note that while occlusion training has proven to be an extremely effective agent of hypertrophy, more is not necessarily better. Safety first: Do not occlude any muscle for more than 10 minutes at a time. Long periods of occlusion can put you at risk for necrosis or embolism. The protocols provided here are for very short periods and are very low risk.

Even so, as with any training program, it’s wise to consult a doctor before starting.

If you want to do more occlusion training, you might try using the protocols multiple times in the same workout, releasing the occlusion between bouts. For example, you could do four sets to failure with 50 percent of your one-rep max, resting one minute in between sets. After those four sets release the occlusion, rest for a few minutes, and then repeat the protocol.

While most exercises are suitable for occlusion training, I recommend that you stay away from free-weight squats, as the occlusion may make it more difficult to balance the weight properly. Keep in mind that occlusion training is no replacement for heavy lifting, which should be an important part of every serious bodybuilder’s arsenal. It builds a strength base that is necessary in order to stimulate significant hypertrophy over time.

It also causes significant muscle tissue damage, which itself is a very powerful signal for growth.

You should use occlusive training as an adjunct to heavy training, and you can use it with great success during deloading periods.

It’s just too hard on the joints to

Model: Skip La Cour

A Cautionary Tale

Occlusion Training lift heavy every day for years on end. You need periods of reduced load to enable your joints to heal and your state of mind to recuperate. Historically, that’s meant sacrificing short-term gains over a few weeks’ time for long-term benefit.

With occlusive training, however, you can achieve significant hypertrophy while lifting light.

Note: Maybe you don’t need a tourniquet at all. For another view of occusion training, see “Was Charles Atlas Right?” on page 125.

Model: Greg Symers

1430.

Hakkinen, K., and Pakarinen, A. (1993). Acute hormonal responses to two different fatiguing heavy-resistance protocols in male athletes.

J Appl Physiol.

74:882-887.

Kawada, S., and Ishii, N. (2005).

Skeletal muscle hypertrophy after chronic restriction of venous blood flow in rats. Med Sci Spts Exerc. 37:11441150.

Kraemer, W.J., et al. (1990). Hormonal and growth factor responses to heavy resistance exercise protocols.

J Appl Physiol.

69:1442-1450.

Kraemer, W.J., et al. (1991). EndogeEditor’s note: nous anabolic horLayne Norton has monal and growth a B.S. in biochemfactor responses to istry and is a Ph.D. heavy resistance candidate in nuexercise in males tritional science. and females. Int J He’s a professional Sprts Med. 12:228drug-free compet235 itive bodybuilder Kraemer, W.J., et It’s just too hard on the joints to lift in the IFPA and al. (2002). Ameriheavy every day for years on end. You NGA. His Web site can College of is www.BioLayne Sports Medicine need periods of reduced loads, but you .com. IM position stand. Prodon’t want to lose muscle during those gression models in resistance training References periods. Occlusion training, with its for healthy adults. unique hypertophic stimulus, may be the Abe, T., et al.

Med Sci Spts Exerc.

(2006). Muscle 34:364-380. answer. size and strength McCall, G.E., et are increased folal. (1999). Acute lowing walk trainand chronic horing with restricted monal responses venous blood to resistance trainflow from the leg flow restriction during low-intening designed to muscle, Kaatsu-walk training. J Appl sity resistance exercise increases promote muscle hypertrophy. Can J Physiol. 100:1460-1466.

S6K1 phosphorylation and muscle App Physiol. 24:96-107.

Burgomaster, K.A., et al. (2003). protein synthesis. J Appl Physiol.

McDonagh, M.J., and Davies, C.T. Resistance training with vascular 103:903-910.

(1984). Adaptive response of mamocclusion: Metabolic adaptations in Gosselink, K.L., et al. (1998). Skelmalian skeletal muscle to exercise human muscle. Med Sci Spts Exerc. etal muscle afferent regulation of with high loads. Euro J Appl Phys 35:1203-1208. bioassayable growth hormone in the Occ Physiol. 52:139-155.

Fujita, S., et al. (2007). Blood rat pituitary. J Appl Physiol. 84:1425Meyer, R.A. (2006). Does blood 122 APRIL 2008 \ www.ironmanmagazine.com

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Model: Todd Smith

Occlusion Training

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Dynamic Tension: Was Charles Atlas Right?

Remember Charles Atlas? He sold muscle-building courses for years. His ads had a cartoon of a bully kicking sand in the face of a 97-pound weakling and stealing his girl. The guy with the buggy-whip body orders the Atlas course, buffs up, kicks the bully’s ass and wins back his babe. The method in the Atlas course was called Dynamic Tension—basically pitting one muscle against another in a type of opposing muscle tug-ofwar. For example, you resist curling your right arm by pressing against it with your left. What a hoax! We all know you have to lift heavy weights to build muscle, right? Not so fast, mass seekers.

Here’s what happened in a study that compared lighter, slower-rep training with heavy, normal-speed sets. Three groups used different styles of training on leg extensions: 1) Low intensity. 50 percent of one-rep max— light—with slow movement and tonic force generation, taking three seconds each to raise and lower the weight, with a one-second pause at the top of each rep. No relaxing phase.

2) High intensity. 80 percent of one-rep max— heavy—taking one second to raise the weight and one second to lower it, with one second of relaxing between reps. Conventional-style training.

3) Low intensity, normal speed. Same rep cadence as for group 2.

The workout consisted of three sets of eight reps, done three times a week for 12 weeks. Results: Significant muscle gains occurred in the first two groups, with no gains in group 3.

How on earth did the slow-rep light training in group 1 build so much muscle? Answer: sustained muscle activation, or longer tension time. Notice that each of the light reps lasted for about seven seconds. That’s 56 seconds of continuous tension on the quads (7 seconds x 8 reps). That produces a high level of blood-flow occlusion due to muscle oxygen deficit, which produces muscle growth—perhaps on a few different pathways from the standard heavy training road.

The authors suggest that the increased gains in size and strength come from localized increase in hormone signaling, which spurs the release of growth hormone and insulinlike growth factor 1. Light, continuous-tension training also produces nitric oxide, which helps muscle satellite cells proliferate. So restricting blood flow to the muscle releases more NO, which dilates blood vessels in an attempt to overcome the decreased blood flow within the muscle, which activates GH release. (In fact, we contend that most of the upper-body muscle development of gymnasts comes from occlu-

flow restriction enhance hypertrophic signaling in skeletal muscle? J Appl Physiol. 100:1443-1444.

Takano, H., et al. (2005). Hemodynamic and hormonal responses to a short-term low-intensity resistance exercise with the reduction of muscle blood flow. Euro J Appl Phys.

sive activation on the rings and floor exercises, as they don’t do any heavy progressive-resistance work. Interesting!)

Yes, heavy sets at normal speed produce the most force, and that activates the fastest-growing fast-twitch fibers toward the end of the set. In 3D Positions-ofFlexion training, you do your big, midrange exercises, like squats and bench presses, with heavy weights for around eight reps at normal speed. That stimulates force-activated fiber hypertrophy. You finish each bodypart with an isolated contracted-position exercise, like leg extensions or cable crossovers. That’s where you get the occlusion—using lighter weight and slower reps with continuous-tension isolation. The occlusiveactivated hypertrophy benefits both fast-twitch fibers and the endurance components, like mitochondria and capillaries—plus brings a rise in growth hormone.

If you do only one style of training—heavy, normal-speed training or lighter, slower-speed occlusive sets—you can miss key anabolic stimulation. In other words, you won’t grow as fast as you could. That’s why it’s important to use both styles, as in this 3D HIT quad routine adapted from the program in our e-book Xtraordinary Arms.

Squats (midrange) 2 x 9-12 Sissy squats (stretch) 1 x 9-12 Leg extensions (contracted) 1-2 x 12-15* *Slower cadence: 2 seconds up, 3 seconds down.

If you keep the weight moving—that is, no rest at the top or bottom—you get some occlusion on the first two exercises. The real occlusion, though, occurs on the last exercise, when you use the slower speed—five seconds per rep, which gives you about 60 seconds of tension time, as in the study.

You also get special mass-building properties from the stretch exercise—as shown in an animal study that produced a 300 percent mass increase after only one month of progressive-stretch overload—but that’s a whole other anabolic can of worms.

So was Atlas right? His Dynamic Tension system definitely had merit, if the trainee kept tension on the target muscle long enough. You could try it, although you’d have to be very innovative for some muscle groups. A better way is to use isolation contracted-position exercises, as illustrated above—longer tension time, maximum muscle occlusion and burn. It hurts, but it works.

—Steve Holman and Jonathan Lawson www.X-Rep.com Tanimoto, M., and Ishii, N. (2006). Effects of lowintensity resistance exercise with slow movement and tonic force generation on muscular function in young men. J App Physiol. 100:1150-1157.

95:65-73.

Takarada, Y., et al. (2000). Effects of resistance exercise combined with moderate vascular occlusion on muscular function in humans. J Appl Physiol. 88:2097-2106.

Takarada, Y., et al. (2000). Rapid increase in plasma growth hormone

after low-intensity resistance exercise with vascular occlusion. J Appl Physiol. 88:61-65.

Takarada, Y., et al. (2002). Effects of resistance exercise combined with vascular occlusion on muscle function in athletes. Euro J Appl Phys. 86:308-314. IM www.ironmanmagazine.com \ APRIL 2008 125

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Model: John Cowgill

Bench-

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Pressing Issues Chest Development

V S .

Shoulder Injury

by Jerry Brainum

T

Photography by Michael Neveux

he bench press can be done with a barbell, a pair of dumbbells or on a machine. It’s considered a basic exercise because it works important muscles in the chest, such as the pectorals, as well as the shoulders and triceps. Nearly all bodybuilding champions do some form of bench pressing at some point in their careers.

You can do bench presses in a flat, incline or decline position.

The idea is that using varied angles focuses the exercise stress on different parts of the pecs. So flat-bench presses target the central, meaty area of the pecs; incline presses focus on the upper portion of the pecs; and decline presses work the lower part of the pecs.

Bodybuilders generally find that the most difficult portion of the pec to build is the upper part, often called the pectoralis minor, though it isn’t anatomically correct to use that term to refer to the upper chest.

Anatomists say that the pectorals are actually just one muscle and that the pec minor is merely a strip of muscle in the upper clavicular

portion of the chest. That means what most bodybuilders are training when they do incline presses is the clavicular portion of the pectoralis major.

Heavy barbell bench presses are more associated with injury than incline and decline presses. There are, however, exceptions to that rule. I injured my shoulder joint a couple of times doing either barbell or dumbbell incline presses. When I did incline presses, I lowered the weight to my neck, which places a disproportionate amount of stress on the shoulder joints. Eventually, that leads to a tear in the joint that manifests as shoulder pain.

Because of the injuries, I’ve had to avoid both barbell and dumbbell incline presses for the past seven years, substituting machine incline presses. I’ve found that using the machine produces no shoulder strain whatever, although I didn’t get the strength and added mass that I would have gotten from using free weights.

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Bench Pressing sions of the exercise. Some eschew any type of flat or decline work, preferring to train only the upper portion of the pecs by doing incline work exclusively. Others favor the dumbbell flat-bench press, figuring

that using dumbbells increases the range of motion, thus working more muscle fibers and building more complete pectoral development.

There are problems, however, with the stretch hypothesis of bench

Correct

pressing. While doing a prestretch is a good idea for most exercises because it lines up muscle fibers and adds an elastic pushing component, that isn’t the case with the pectorals. Because of the way the shoulder joint aligns with the pecs, excess stretch places a high degree of strain on shoulder joints. Indeed, numerous studies show that most pectoral tears occur during the lowering, or eccentric, phase of the rep, since that places a high degree of tension on the pectoralshoulder attachment and may lead to a tear.

Some kinesiologists—experts on body movement related to muscle function—suggest that you should

Some kinesiologists suggest that you should avoid all stretching during any type of flye or lateral exercise for chest, as well as any type of press.

Model: Derik Farnsworth

Incorrect

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Bench Pressing a function of heredity, or muscle attachments, than how you perform an exercise. Using a wide grip on bench presses doesn’t target the outer pecs but does strain the shoulder joints. Using a closer grip, one of slightly less than shoulder width, decreases pectoral stimulation by less than 5 percent over using a wide grip, but it also relieves shoulder stress. Using a close grip is even less stressful on the shoulders, although it tends to shift the exercise focus to the triceps.

As for incline presses, research shows that doing that variation of the bench press doesn’t target what bodybuilders call upper pecs, but it does reduce activation of the sternal portion, or “pec major.” In fact, you may be surprised to learn that most

exercise scientists consider incline presses and flyes useless, ineffective and dangerous because they impose greater stress on the shoulder joints without offering much pectoral development. The problem with such assertions is that they’re often voiced by people who don’t lift weights but who scrutinize anatomy and neural connections to muscle.

Anyone who lifts weights rec-

Using a close grip is even less stressful on the shoulders, although it tends to shift the exercise focus to the triceps.

Model: Alex Azarian

avoid all stretching during any type of flye or lateral exercise for chest, as well as any type of press. They recommend lowering the weight only about halfway when doing bench presses, and stopping a flye as soon as you feel a stretch in the pectorals.

[Editor’s note: On the other hand, many research studies suggest stretching and stretch overload increase hypertrophy and may initiate hyperplasia, or fiber splitting.]

Another common misconception involves grip width. Bodybuilding dogma dictates that using a wide grip during bench presses stresses the “outer portion” of the pectorals, producing a wider-appearing, more aesthetically pleasing pec. Most elite bodybuilders do have that type of pec development, but it’s more

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Bench Pressing

Nearly all bodybuilding champions do some form of bench pressing at some point in their careers.

The late Reg Park stopped doing bench presses and even pectoral work shortly after his last Mr. Universe victory in 1965.

ognizes that there’s a vast difference between flat-bench and incline presses. When I do inclines, I feel the muscle pump entirely in my upper chest, yet according to the academics, I’m actually training my central pecs. Those are the same guys who say that bumblebees can’t possibly fly because their wings violate the laws of aerodynamics—explain that to the nearest bee buzzing merrily around your head and see how far you get.

Still, it makes sense not to overstretch when doing any type of dumbbell press or flye for chest. Contrary to popular belief, overstretching won’t increase muscle development but can result in injury and set you back considerably. That’s the voice of experience talking here.

Other things to watch out for include not bouncing the bar off your chest, which can fracture your sternum. Don’t even think of doing a heavy bench press without a spotter. Most homegym deaths result from someone being choked by a barbell while doing heavy bench presses alone.

One other thing might sur-

prise many of you about chest training. If you like to finish off your chest routines with a pulley crossover exercise, you should know that it doesn’t work the “inner pec” muscles; it works the entire pec muscle.

You’re just bunching up the muscle when you do it. Also, crossing your hands at the end of each rep adds absolutely nothing to pectoral development. (I cross my hands over anyway.)

The late Reg Park, the great three-time Mr. Universe and idol of Arnold Schwarzenegger, stopped doing bench presses and even pectoral work shortly after his last Mr. Universe victory in 1965. Reg was well known for his flaring pectoral development and deep rib cage, but he felt that with age gravity would take a toll and that massive pecs would eventually devolve into sagging sacs. Similarly, women who have large breasts with age, due to devolution of Cooper’s ligament, which is responsible for breast lift.

Women who opt for disproportionately large breast implants should take heed. IM

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A Bodybuilder

Is Born Episode 33—Weakness

Is in the Mind

By Ron Harris Photography by Michael Neveux

Model: Jonathan Lawson

B

oth Randy and I were six weeks out from the New England Bodybuilding Championships. As if he wasn’t discouraged enough about his chances, I was leaning toward dropping down into the light heavyweights, the same weight class he would be in. Though I’ve technically been competing as a heavyweight for the past three years, a more fitting class for me would be known as “barely heavyweight.” In contest condition, I’d weighed in at various times between 201 and 203 pounds when the limit for the class was all the way up to 225.

That meant that usually I was one of the smaller guys in my class. The only guys who ever made me look huge were the ones who probably should have been basketball players but got it in their heads—heads perched atop tall bodies with gangly limbs—that they’d make good bodybuilders. Either that or they tried basketball and sucked at it. Point is, building a thickly muscled physique is a losing battle for very tall men, just as Lee Priest would have been foolish to think that at a very stocky

5’3”, he belonged on the NBA courts with LeBron and Kobe. I suppose he could have too—as the leprechaun mascot for the Boston Celtics. Just jokes, Lee, just jokes!

So anyway, dropping down to 198 1/4 to make lighty heavy wasn’t going to be too difficult for me. I used to note sarcastically that as a heavyweight, I was never more than a couple of missed meals and a healthy bowel movement away from light heavy. Of course, that didn’t sit well with Randy. Now I was one more person he couldn’t beat, as far as he was concerned.

“Kid, if you’re worried about me, you really have problems,” I said.

“There’s one guy in our class I know of who already won his class at the Junior Nationals a couple years ago and is using our show as a warmup to qualify for the Nationals. He’s only 5’4” and a light heavyweight, for Pete’s sake—a freaking fire hydrant. You have to stop losing sleep over who else is going to be in the show. There will be some very good competitors, but you just worry about you.”

“I’m worried. I can’t help it,”

Randy said, glumly hitting a sidechest pose in the gym’s mirror and shaking his head in disgust. It was back day, and we were starting out with parallel-grip chins. I jumped up first and knocked out 12. My weight was around 215. Randy was down to 195. He grimly got his grip on the bar and pulled himself up eight times, struggling on the last one. I scowled, knowing he was punking out, and went to the front desk to ask for the leather belt with the chains on either end that enables you to add weight for chins or dips. Why must it be kept back there? Apparently, the gym owner is concerned that some guys would love to steal it and hang objects from their waists and do weighted chins at the local park from the monkey bars. Or perhaps that it would make a dandy accessory to an S&M outfit.

“What are you doing?” Randy asked as I returned, swinging the belt as if I were a Hell’s Angel about to jump into a rumble.

“We’re adding weight, silly. What does it look like?” I fetched a 25pound plate and leaned it against www.ironmanmagazine.com \ APRIL 2008 141

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A Bodybuilder Is Born

Model: Steve Kummer

Contest prep should still involve taxing the muscles with heavy poundages to maintain muscle mass.

easy way out while preparing for two shows. I switched from a solid mix of free weights and machines to using mostly machines and cables. Even then I wasn’t training as heavy as I could have.

I also killed myself with up to an hour and a half of very intense interval cardio every day in the final six or seven weeks.

The result was that at the second show I weighed in at 197 pounds.

I nearly fainted at the weigh-ins because I hadn’t been under 200 pounds in eight years. Or maybe I nearly fainted from the stench of all the Pro Tan and farts around me from my fellow bodybuilders—all of whom were fully carbed up, con-

Roland Balik

the base of the cable crossover/chin station, then threw the belt at his feet with a jingle of steel.

Randy looked aghast. “Are you serious? Dude, I’m dieting!”

Oh, boy, I thought. Here we go.

Nearly all bodybuilders think that as they diet down for a contest and lose bodyfat, they’re bound to lose strength. The logic is that with the increase in cardio and decrease in complex carbs and overall calories, there simply isn’t enough fuel to move the same weights you do in the off-season.

Not that there isn’t something to that, but I look at it differently. If you’re dieting correctly and taking in just the right amount of protein, carbohydrate and fat, you should be able to maintain your muscle mass—assuming you keep training heavy. Training lighter is a mistake I’ve made in the past with disastrous results. In the spring of ’03 I took the

Art Atwood gets stronger as a contest approaches.

stipated and producing roughly a metric ton of methane gas each. I looked like crap at the show and failed to make the top five for the first time in 10 years. (I tell people that it wasn’t me that year, just a skinny look-alike out to sully my good name.)

Back to my new theory, formed

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A Bodybuilder Is Born haven’t noticed, I’ve been getting stronger on a lot of things.”

“I guess. I mean we haven’t been able to train together too often.”

“Take my word for it.

Pullups are something you should always get better at when you drop some pounds of bodyfat.”

With that, I strapped on the 25 I’d meant for him to use and knocked out another 12 reps. I slid the belt off my hips and pointed to it.

“You’re up. I want to see at least eight reps.”

Randy looked at me as if I was crazy, but then he paused. Something seemed to click in his head. I saw his face change in an instant, and I knew that he got it. A determined grimace replaced the hapless pout, and he strapped himself onto the handles, then kicked away the milk carton we used to stand on.

“Light weight!” he shouted, and several nearby members turned in curiosity. That was Ronnie Coleman’s catchphrase that he used to motivate himself before each set. Randy got seven reps and got stuck halfway up on the eighth. He struggled, face turning crimson, until at last his back and biceps completely gave out and he dropped down from the bar. The difference in effort from his first to second set was like night and day, and it had all been a simple matter of the way he thought about precontest training.

“Not bad at all, kid, not bad at all,” I said, clapping him on the back. “You keep that up, and not only will you not lose any muscle, but you may even gain a pound or two over the next six weeks.”

“You think, really?” he asked, still trying to catch his breath.

“Absolutely.” I went and grabbed a 45 for my next set. “Now I have to make sure you don’t get bigger than me!” IM Model: Ronnie Coleman

In his DVD “The Unbelievable,” Ronnie Coleman is five weeks out from the Mr. Olympia, and he’s still using some ridiculously heavy weights.

in the wake of that shameful loss of enough muscle to feed a family of four for a week. If you can indeed maintain your muscle mass while dieting, you should be able to handle the same weights as in the off-season, or at least close to it. Think about it: Bodyfat doesn’t make you stronger, so why would losing it make you any weaker? IFBB pro Art Atwood told me he actually gets stronger when he diets because he’s so much more focused on his training.

Think about Ronnie Coleman too. In his famous training video “The Unbelievable,” he’s five weeks out from the ’01 Mr. Olympia and dieted down, in very close to contest condition, yet moves some ridiculous weights. He does an 800-pound deadlift, 600-pound

front squats and 200-pound dumbbell flat-bench and incline presses.

Ronnie obviously doesn’t drop his heavy basic free-weight exercises and switch to machines and cables for higher reps when it’s time to get ripped and compete. As a result he’s in a league of his own.

With all that in mind, I turned to Randy. “You’ve dropped more than 15 pounds of fat from your body, correct?”

“Yeah, so?”

“So why are you doing worse on pullups, ya knucklehead? You have less weight to pull up!”

“This diet is just kicking my ass— and the cardio.”

“Wah, wah, wah!” I jeered. “Somebody call a wambulance! It’s all in your head. You think you should be getting weaker, so you are. If you

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Build Monster

TRAPS And Etched UpperBack Mass and Detail

H

ave you ever noticed that most bodybuilders limit their back training principally to lat exercises?

While many train their lats with intensity, doing any kind of training for the traps—the second largest muscle group of the upper body—is often an afterthought. Once they’ve completed all their chins, pulldowns and various rowing exercises, they throw in a few sets of shrugs or upright rows and figure the traps have had enough. You can put that type of training in the category of wishful thinking.

If you look at the trap and upperback development of any Mr. Olympia competitor, you can be assured that it took more than a few sets of shrugs to get those massive traps.

The traps are an unusual muscle group in that they can be seen from any position—front, side or back.

Trap development gives the whole back a distinctive muscle density.

Bodybuilders who don’t train their traps hard often look thin from the side and unbalanced when viewed from the rear. Let’s face it, bodybuilders who wish to develop complete backs and, especially, large, rugged traps and thick upper-

back muscularity and detail, must give their traps an equal share of work—about as much as the lats.

Only then will their backs take on that appealing thickness and rugged appearance.

Some people avoid trap work because they believe it will take away from shoulder width. For most people that’s sheer nonsense. Sergio Oliva, Lee Haney, Serge Nubret, Flex Wheeler and Ronnie Coleman all stepped onstage with huge traps, and yet they appeared tremendously wide and V-tapered. The only people who have to be concerned about overdeveloping their traps are those who have short necks and narrow clavicles. Someone who possesses a short neck with huge traps can take on a no-neck appearance and look “hunchy.” Most women won’t want to overdevelop their traps because it would detract from a feminine shape.

Bodybuilders tend to think of traps and trap development in terms of the upper traps, the part of the trapezius that slopes into the shoulders from the neck. The tops of the traps are certainly important, especially if you want to look good (continued on page 152) in a most-

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Model: Daniele Seccarrecci

by Greg Zulak • Photography by Michael Neveux

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TRAPS

Behind-theNeck Presses

(continued from page 149) muscular

pose, but they aren’t the full story.

For back thickness and density it’s important to develop the middle and lower traps too. While the tops respond well to movements such as shrugs, it takes other exercises to work the total group, from top to bottom. It’s also vital to develop the rhomboids, both major and minor, along with the traps. Many bodybuilders are not aware that the rhomboids lie beneath the traps, as does the infraspinatus, and developing them gives thickness and density to the traps and upper back.

Recipe for Monster Traps Dumbbell bentover laterals This is the best exercise for developing the rhomboids when you

pinch your scapulae, or shoulder blades, together at the top of the rep. If you move the ’bells smoothly just to deltoid height, the rear delts get the bulk of the work. By moving the bells higher and consciously pinching the scapulae together at the top, you work the rhomboids.

Seated behindthe-neck presses Muscle-building guru John Parrillo says that this is one of the best exercises for developing the lower traps. Most people tend to think of the behind-the-neck press as a deltoid exercise, but done the way Parrillo has his pupils do it, it develops the lower traps too. Says Parrillo, “Many bodybuilders have shallow backs because they haven’t built their lower trapezius, which supports the musculature of the back.

Perform behind-the-neck presses correctly, and you’ll get bigger traps and a larger back overall.”

So how do you work your traps with behind-the-neck presses? I’ll let John tell you in his own words: “The most effective way is to drop your shoulders and flex your lats as you press the weight upward.

Straighten your elbows, and, as you lock out, press your hips forward while tightening your abs. Then push the weight back slightly without arching your back.”

What you do not want to do—but what is commonly done by the average trainee—is to arch your back excessively as the bar goes up. Arching, or bending backward, enables you to maneuver heavy weights overhead but leads to poor shoulder flexibility and lets the arms and lower back do most of the work, instead of the deltoids and traps.

Power cleans For overall trap development and for thickening the upper back and bringing out cuts and detail, the power clean (continued on page 156)

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Model: Jay Cutler

START

FINISH John Parrillo says, “The most effective way to perform behind-the-neck presses is to drop your shoulders and flex your lats as you press the weight upward.”

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TRAPS (continued from page 152)

is unbeatable. Albert Beckles had one of the most muscular backs of all time, and one of his secret exercises was the power clean. He almost always included it in his routine. I’m surprised that more bodybuilders don’t use this great trap movement. Besides giving the traps a terrific workout and adding slabs of muscle to the upper back, the power

Power Cleans

FINISH

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Model: Greg Blout

START

clean also works the spinal erectors, pumps the biceps and forearms, develops balance and coordination and, as the name implies, power.

It also gets you huffing and puffing like a steam engine to give you an aerobic effect.

You must take some precautions, though, when doing power cleans. Because you are cleaning the weight—throwing the weight up quickly—you place tremendous stress on connective tissues. It’s important to warm up properly.

Begin with a light weight, and do an easy 20 repetitions on your first set. I also recommend one light set of reverse curls for 15 to 20 repetitions.

That will heat up the tendons and ligaments and get some blood flowing to lubricate the joints. An easy set of hyperextensions to warm up the lower back would be prudent too.

If you’ve never done power cleans before, try to find an advanced lifter at your gym to show you how. I’ll describe briefly how to do them for those who train at home or who don’t have access to an advanced lifter.

Get into position as if you were about to do a deadlift. The bar is on the floor, your knees are bent, your back is flat, and you have a slightly widerthan-shoulder-width grip on the bar. Pull the weight off the floor, and just as it gets to about knee height, suddenly “snap” or clean the weight upward, catching it at shoulder height. It is vital that, as you snap the bar up with your arms, you shrug strongly with your traps and upper back. Then, when you lower the weight, do it with control. Pause and lower the bar to midcalf

TRAPS height—where you’re at what’s called a deadhang—and then clean the weight again.

The power clean is not the type done by Olympic weightlifters as they do their clean and jerks. There is no diving under the weight. The knees bend a little, but that’s about it.

The power clean is not a high-repetition exercise—sets of four to eight reps work best.

After completing one light warmup set of 20 repetitions, add some weight to the

bar and aim for eight repetitions.

For the third set add more weight and go for six reps. Add more weight to the bar so you’ll have a real struggle getting five to six reps on the fourth set. Add more weight to the bar and try to get four reps for your final set.

Believe me, after a few weeks of hard work on power cleans, your entire back will be thicker and more muscular. You’ll kick yourself for not having added this great exercise to your routine months or years ago.

Barbell upright rows These have long been considered a good deltoid-and-trapezius exercise and good for tying in the delts and the traps, but many people seem unaware that you can place more emphasis on the delts and less on the traps, or more on the traps and less on the delts. To work the deltoids primarily, use a mediumheavy weight and move the bar upand-down in a smooth, pistonlike

Model: D.J. Green

START

To work the traps, take a narrower grip—say six to eight inches—and use a heavier weight that forces you to heave the bar to get it to chin height and to shrug hard with the traps.

FINISH

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motion, with no heaving the weight or shrugging the shoulders. Keep your shoulders down and back and use a 12-to-15-inch-wide grip. Keep the bar in constant motion—there should be no deliberate pauses at the top or bottom—and take it just to shoulder height, not to the chin or nose. You just row nonstop until muscular fatigue forces you to stop.

Because you don’t shrug your shoulders, trap involvement is minimal.

To work the traps when doing barbell upright rows, take a narrower grip—say six to eight inches—and use a heavier weight that forces you to heave the bar to get it to chin height and to shrug hard with the trapezius. Lean forward at the start of each rep and shrug hard with the shoulders as you heave-row the bar to your chin. Really get your back into the movement. Keep your repetitions in the six-to-10 range, say, 10, 8, 6, 5-6.

Exercises to Kick It Up a Notch I could stop there—tell you to do the power cleans and the upright rows, followed by several sets of shrugs—and you’d have a pretty

damn good trap-and-upper-back routine. But I have a couple of other exercises that will turn a pretty damn good trap-and-upper-back routine into a great trap-and-upperback routine.

Power upright rows I particularly like this exercise because it works both the upper and lower traps. Here’s how to do it: Pick a fairly heavy weight, one that limits you to five or six repetitions of the barbell upright row as described above. Do as many reps as you can. When you fail—and by fail I mean when you can no longer get the bar to chin height no matter how much you cheat, heave and shrug with your traps and shoulders—lower the bar to the floor with control, as if you were doing a stifflegged deadlift. Then, using speed and momentum, lift the bar from the floor all the way up to your chin.

You can even bounce the bar off the floor a little bit. Basically, you’re using the speed and momentum to help you drive the bar past the sticking point until it gets to chin height.

Lower with control again, and then explode up from the floor to chin height again. Keep going until you hit failure again—that is, you cannot

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TRAPS

START

Model: Jay Cutler

Dumbbell Shrugs

drive the bar to your chin even with the help of speed and momentum.

I find that I can usually do double the reps of what I used for the upright rows. If I did six reps of cheating upright rows, I can do another six reps of power upright rows— sometimes even more than double.

Power upright rows are a fantastic trap exercise that works both the top

and the bottom of the traps. If you do them after you’ve already done the power cleans, your traps will get a really heavy blast.

Shrugs Without a doubt the favorite trap exercise of most bodybuilders is the shrug. There are many variations: You can do shrugs with a barbell,

with dumbbells or on a bench press station of a Universal Gym unit. You do them while holding the weight in front of your body, to the sides of it or behind it. You can do them with an overhand or underhand grip (a Lee Labrada favorite, which he claims works the lower trapezius effectively). You can do them while standing or sitting. You can do them

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VASOFLOW FORCES COLOSSAL MUSCLE PUMPS AND RAPID INCREASES IN MUSCLE BELLY SIZE* in a bent-over position, with your torso parallel to the floor, or with your body at a 45 degree angle.

No matter which style of shrugging you do, there are a few basic rules to follow. Try to keep your arms straight and shrug your traps as high as possible (imagine them touching your ears). Since the range of motion is fairly short to begin with, you need to shrug as fully as you can. The one exception to that might be when you are handling extremely heavy weights in the power rack. If you can shrug 400 to 600 pounds or more using straps to reinforce your grip if necessary, then despite the shortened range of motion, you will still work your traps quite intensely—not to mention your hands and your grip. Some-

times you have to go heavy and the hell with strict form.

Here’s a good trapezius routine to follow: Power clean (warmup) 1 x 10-12 1 x 8, 6, 5-6, 4 Bent-over laterals (pinch scapulae 3 x 8-10, 6-8, 6 at top) Superset Barbell upright rows to power upright rows 3 x 6-8, 5-6, 4-6 Shrugs 3 x 10

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Trap pulldowns

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TRAPS pulldown. It brings out upper-back detail and muscularity like crazy and also carves out separation and increases density and muscularity.

I discovered this exercise almost by accident. The trap pulldown is a cheating behind-the-neck lat pulldown taken to its logical conclusion. Most people tend to think of behind-the-neck pulldowns as a good lat exercise, but the way they perform it, they actually work their traps more than their lats.

Because they use weights that are too heavy for proper form, as they pull the bar to their neck, they hunch over and lean forward, chin pinched to their chest, turning behind-the-neck pulldowns into a move that actually works the traps and upper back more than the lats.

When working lats, it’s vital to keep your torso vertical throughout the movement and to pull your elbows down and back. You can’t use as

START

FINISH

Pinch your scapulae together at the top of each rep.

Model: Steve Kummer

Bent-Over Lateral Raises

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A trap pulldown is a behind-theneck pulldown with a distinct forward lean.

much weight that way, but at least then you’re working your lats.

One day in the gym I was fooling around, trying to find a good finishing movement for the traps using the lat machine. That’s when I hit upon the trap pulldown. I thought, “If leaning forward takes the work away from the lats and increases the traps’ involvement, why not lean forward as much as you want and do trap pulldowns?”

The trap pulldown is all about contraction and squeezing your traps and upper back. The range of motion is relatively short. Here’s how to do it: Kneel on the seat support of a lat machine or brace your knees against it, feet on the floor and balancing on your toes. Bend over until your traps and upper back are almost parallel to the floor. Pull the bar straight down until it touches the traps-and-upper-back area.

Pause and squeeze with all your might for a count of three. Allow the bar to return to the starting position and repeat for several sets of six to 10 repetitions.

All that tensing and squeezing will bring out the cuts and separate

not only the traps and upper back but also the rear delts and the biceps and triceps to some degree.

When you’re doing trap pulldowns and you’ve pulled the bar to your traps, do a rear double-biceps pose for a count of three or four, then relax and return to the starting position. Believe me, you’ll notice an improvement in your upper-back and trapezius development.

To ratchet up the intensity, do a triple-drop set on your last set of trap pulldowns. You can also substitute trap pulldowns for the bentover laterals in the above routine and, man, will your traps ever burn.

If your goal is to work your traps, go ahead and use as much weight as you want, and don’t worry about remaining vertical. Hunch forward all you want so the brunt of the work goes to the traps. Just pull the bar down to the base of your neck while squeezing and tensing your traps and upper back.

Give these exercises a try, and in six weeks you’ll realize greatly improved trap size, muscularity and detail, as well as upper-back definition and separation. IM

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Full-Blown

Biceps Dan Decker’s Techniques for Sky-High Peaks

by Cory Crow • Photography by Michael Neveux

Y

ou don’t want to be that guy. You know who I mean: the guy walking around the mall wearing the “Welcome to the Gun Show” T-shirt who’s got popguns barely stretching the sleeves? That’s right— that guy.

My guess is, if you’ve spent the money to buy this magazine and are taking the time to read this article, you already know what good biceps development looks like. You know that spindly arms in a “Gun Show” T-shirt aren’t going to get the job done (unless ridicule is your goal).

You also know that soft, fluffy biceps aren’t going to pass muster either.

You’re here because you want to expend the effort to build dense, full biceps resembling softballs under the skin, right? To do that you’re going to need a plan, and chances are that plan will involve doing curls. No, not the Olympic competition with the big stone and the brooms. I’m talking curling weights—dumbbells, barbells you name it.

Outside of curling, however, there’s very little consensus as to

what goes into building the perfect pair of biceps. Some adhere to the hard-and-heavy principle, where low reps and high weights are the norm. Still others will tell you that high volume is the key, the object being to engorge the muscle with blood to ensure growth. Who’s right?

Well, they both are. That’s because everyone’s body works differently and responds to different stimuli.

How do you know what’s the right method for you? The answer lies in trial and error. Come on now, you didn’t expect this to be easy, did you?

Biceps Anatomy Whenever I want to learn about training a bodypart, I seek out someone who’s known for having exceptional development in that area. For biceps I tracked down Dan Decker, a top national-level NPC bodybuilder. Dan is known as much for his aesthetic physique as he is for having well-developed arms. I thought he’d be the perfect candidate to dispense some biceps-training knowledge that can help you not

be that guy in the T-shirt at the mall.

Biceps are funny muscles, and a lot of people don’t do them justice when they work out. “Most trainers tend to neglect the outer head and brachialis when they work biceps.”

That was one of the first things Dan mentioned. The biceps brachii actually consists of two heads: the shorter inner head and the longer outer head, with the outer head providing the most mass in the muscle group. Underneath the biceps is the brachialis, which is visible on the side of the arm between the triceps and biceps—if you’re lean and the muscle is developed. When training biceps, you want to make sure that you fully exhaust every muscle in the group, not favoring one section over the other, to ensure full development.

The Full-Blown Workout The keys to any biceps routine are form and range of motion. Poor form on curls can lead to shoulder and elbow injuries, and a poor range of motion can lead to decreased (continued on page 175) movement

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Decker’s Bodypart Split Monday: Chest Tuesday: Back Wednesday: Off Thursday: Shoulders Friday: Arms Saturday: Legs Sunday: Off Note: When he’s on a contest diet, Dan performs cardio every morning on an elliptical machine for 33 minutes. He does limited cardio in the offseason.

—C.C.

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(continued from page 170)

in the arm.

If you’re lucky enough to train at Gold’s Gym in Venice, California, or the Fitness Factory in Costa Mesa on a Friday, you’ll see Dan doing his arm workout—and you’ll see firsthand what good form is all about.

Dan’s biceps workout is typically coupled with his triceps workout, but he took the time to break out the specific biceps movements so we’d get the full-blown info regarding his development.

Incline hammer curls. This is Dan’s favorite starting movement, and he very rarely removes it from the leadoff spot in his biceps batting order. Remember the brachialis? Incline hammer curls specifically target that muscle and the outer head of the biceps.

Dan’s standard plan is to start off with a manageable weight. For him that usually means 50-pound dumbbells for a warmup and then 70-to-80-pounders for three to four work sets of eight to 10.

“Don’t rush it,” he warned. “You want to take your time and focus on having the target muscle move the weight—don’t throw the weight around.”

Don’t get too weight happy when it comes to working biceps either.

If he had to choose between good form and pushing around more weight, Dan would choose the former every time. Big weights may seem cool at the time, but there’s nothing cool about shoulder surgery or having an injury that keeps you out of the gym for weeks or months.

Standing barbell curls. If ever there was a “basic” exercise for a bodypart, the standing barbell curl is it for biceps. Odds are you can walk into any gym in the land at any time and see at least one person performing barbell curls.

The bottom (continued on page 180) www.ironmanmagazine.com \ APRIL 2008 175

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(continued from page 175) line is, they

work. The standing barbell curl is a mass builder for biceps that has no equal, and using the barbell gives

Dan a lot of flexibility, which, again, lets him put equal stress on every part of the target muscle.

Dan uses a pyramid approach on

this movement, starting out with a 10-pound plate on each end of a 45-pound bar. Then he adds five to 10 pounds (continued on page 185)

He goes a little on the lighter side for three sets of 15, which engorges the muscle with blood and increases the fiber activation.

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Incline hammer curls or standard hammers hit the brachialis muscles that snake under the biceps. Developing them gives the biceps new dimensions.

(continued from page 180) per set for

nique, Dan warned again about never sacrificing form for weight.

He also advised that it’s essential to have a spotter, if at all possible, on this movement.

“One final tip,” he said, “is to keep your wrists cocked back to really focus on the biceps and to keep the forearms disengaged.”

Decker’s Full-Blown Biceps Attack Reverse EZ-curl-bar Incline hammer curls (pyramid the poundage) 3-4 x 8 preacher Standing barbell curls (pyramid the poundage) 4 x 10 curls. “A reverse Reverse EZ-curl-bar preacher curls 4 x 8-10 [palms-down] Standing cable curls 3 x 15 grip is a simple Machine one-arm preacher curls 3 x 8-10 way to spread the workload,” Dan said about this exercise. By Running the Rack holding the bar with a reverse grip, you increase the workload on the Although this intensity brachialis. That also activates the technique isn’t officially in his pronator muscle on the underside workout, Dan recommends ocof the forearm, a seldom worked casionally using it as a finishing area that’s responsible for supinamove in place of the machine tion. Because of the risk of injuring preacher curls. He suggests using the shoulder with a reverse grip, the fixed barbells that you find on Dan keeps things relatively simple, a pyramid rack in the free-weight using the same grip width, a moderportion of most gyms, or you can ate weight and a consistent eightuse fixed dumbbells. to-10-rep count.

Choose a weight that allows “I have to rest about three minyou to complete 12 reps at or utes between sets because I’m getnear failure. Perform the set, and ting close to, or hitting, failure on then, taking no rest, move to the almost every rep,” he said. This is next-lighter-weighted barbell and where having that spotter will pay complete 12 reps. Continue movdividends as well. ing to the next-lighter-weighted Standing cable curls. By barbell until you complete 12 this point in his workout, Dan’s reps with the lightest weight biceps are screaming for mercy. available.

After working to failure with heavy This technique is called weights on the previous move“running the rack” or “going ments, Dan switches to more of a down the rack” because it is concentration move: standing cable typically done with dumbbells, curls. He goes a little on the lighter in which case you’d be working side for three sets of 15, which endown the rack of dumbbells, gorges the muscle with blood and choosing progressively lighter increases the fiber activation. Dan weights. It’s not something that performs the reps at a moderate you can do at every biceps workspeed, focusing on keeping his form out because you could become on both the ascending and deovertrained. As an occasional scending halves of the movement. growth shocker or plateau buster, Machine one-arm preacher however, Dan finds it to be just curls. For his finishing move, Dan the thing he needs. Just make likes to take advantage of a machine sure that you have a spotter to asand really isolate the inner head sist you if you start hitting failure of the biceps by choosing a weight so that you don’t drop and damthat’s going to take him almost to age the weights or hurt yourself. failure in eight to 10 reps. He does —C.C. three sets at a moderate speed, focusing on (continued on page 190) around 10 reps each. Dan will do three to four sets total, and he varies his grip width on each set, which changes the force point of the lift.

That way he involves the entire muscle group equally.

In discussing his curling tech-

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(continued from page 185) getting the

full range of movement until he hits failure.

The Gun Show Even if you follow this workout to a tee, I guarantee that you won’t build biceps like Dan Decker’s.

Remember, Dan has chosen bodybuilding as his career, so he lives a lifestyle that allows him to spend more time in the gym than someone who works a nine-to-five job would.

His career as a personal trainer and fitness model is designed to afford

him the opportunity to pursue an IFBB pro card. He also has exceptional genetics.

Does that mean you’ll never have good biceps? Not at all. You should take a look at Dan’s routine and learn the basics of what he’s saying.

Ultimately, your own work ethic— and your genetics—will determine what size biceps you’ll have stretching the sleeves of your T-shirt. You can try his program with fewer sets, or pick out a few key exercises and give them a go. Of course, if you’re experienced and have the time, you can put his full program into prac-

tice and see what happens.

The bottom line is that if you work hard, you can have people gawking at your guns, even if your genetics aren’t that great. Use Dan as a role model: He’ll be at Gold’s, Venice, almost every Friday getting ready for the ’08 NPC Junior Nationals in June. The guy in the “Gun Show” T-shirt will probably be sitting on his couch dreaming.

Editor’s note: To contact Dan Decker for training consultations, guest posings and sponsorships, go to www.DanDecker.net. IM

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The Path Less Traveled Cover Man Extraordinaire Greg Plitt Takes His

Talents to the Limit

by Rod Labbe • Photography by Michael Neveux

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IM: In one month alone, I counted five mags featuring you as their cover boy. We’re talkin’ Cindy Crawford territory.

Crazy.

GP: Yeah [laughs], I’ve had pretty decent luck with covers, knock on wood.

IM: And movies. And television. And commercials. And photo spreads.

GP: Ha. You’re descibing me like I’m a supermodel. I’m just a regular guy who saw a window of opportunity and jumped through it. Right place at the right time.

IM: Okay, let’s hear how a regular guy scores the cover of Muscle & Fitness on his very first try.

GP: It went down like this: Mom’s an interior designer, and when I came back from Korea, she gave me a voucher for a free stay at any Marriott hotel. My buddies and I were heading to D.C., and I thought, Hell, why not use her voucher? So, we find the closest Marriott—it’s dumpy, a bad location, TV in the bar doesn’t work, all shabby and run-down. I’m sitting with my bros, catching up on stories, and there’s a model and acting agency convention going on in one of the banquet rooms. An agent walks out and says to me, “You here for the conven-

E—W MAN MAGAZIN 2008 / IRON

his just in: Greg Plitt rules as America’s number-one male fitness model. Need convincing? Peruse any neighborhood bookstore, and you’ll undoubtedly spot Greg’s mug grinning out from any number of fitness and bodybuilding magazine covers.

“Aw, shucks” handsome, astoundingly ripped, emanating health and vitality, he epitomizes the ideal young American dude, circa 2008.

Okay, that’s the public persona— but we tend to forget our pop culture heroes have histories, unique experiences, opinions and feelings.

As you might imagine, Greg is a busy lad, bouncing between photo sessions like a pinball. He’s also moving aggressively into the acting field, which requires time, dedication and strict discipline—not to mention a thick hide. Squeezing me in took schedule juggling, but he and I were both determined.

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Greg Plitt tion?” “No,” I answer, “just knockin’ back a few beers.”

After more small talk, he gives me his card and asks if I’d mind going upstairs for a few pictures. I’m like, uh, no thanks. My buds had a good laugh over it, but I started wondering, Is this guy legit? I’m the kind who never likes to ponder what-ifs; I’d rather experience the truth of a situation. I researched his agency, and after things checked out, I gave him a call. Two weeks later I’m in New York City doing a test shoot.

IM: There’s that window of opportunity you were talking about.

GP: Exactly, though I had no clue where it would lead. The photographer was professional and smart, and I enjoyed having my picture taken—a kind of wacky experiment, nothing more.

IM: They do claim the best things happen spontaneously.

“No matter what kind of sucky day I’ve had, the gym melts away tension.”

GP: You want spontaneous? Get this—suddenly, I’m on a plane, heading to L.A. for a cover session with Muscle & Fitness. I used to read the mags, never dreaming I’d actually be in one. Unreal.

IM: Think of the kids you’ve inspired.

GP: A sobering thought. My greatest reward is giving back some of what was given to me way back when.

IM: Even with the subsequent media overload, you’ve remained blissfully unaffected.

GP: My personality was set a long time ago, and it’s not in me to go around boasting. The work should speak for itself.

IM: The Muscle & Fitness gig had to be a mind blower.

GP: Man, my feet were

off the floor. A friend called and said, “Did you know you’re on this month’s Muscle & Fitness?” I didn’t— and booked it to Barnes and Noble, pronto.

IM: Anyone recognize you?

GP: At the counter, I’m trying to be nonchalant, keeping the magazine facedown and all. The clerk flips it over, looks at me, and we laugh. And here’s the best part: He pulls cash from his own wallet and pays for it himself.

IM: Way cool. And your family’s reaction?

GP: Mom told everyone she possibly could, and the Gold’s I was training at called Weider’s office for permission to have an autograph session. Come and meet the cover kid. I went along on one condition: They had to hook up my platoon buds with free memberships.

IM: Which Gold’s was it?

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GP: In Arlington, Virginia.

IM: I assume lifting’s a lifetime thing, then—like eating and sleeping?

GP: Seriously, I will do it all my life. No matter what kind of sucky day I’ve had, the gym melts away tension like frost on a warm window pane.

It’s where I control my own destiny, outcome and speed of progress.

After any bad day, I always find solace in a good workout.

IM: You’re empowered beyond the physical.

GP: Big-time empowerment.

Exercise releases endorphins, resulting in a sense of euphoria.

Seeing—but most of all feeling— results is an astonishing emotional buzz. The natural high of my mind and body being in sync makes me feel invincible.

IM: Generating a few bucks from your gym exploits melts that frost even faster.

GP: Weight training paved the way to a career in fitness modeling, an extra, unexpected benefit. Even if that hadn’t happened, though, I’d be maintaining a strict gym regimen. My original goal was to be fit and strong and excel at sports, and I still consider that an honorable goal.

IM: How was your upbringing?

GP: Both my sister and I have been blessed with a wonderful home life and two caring parents.

We were independent, competitive and sports-oriented. My grandfather went pro in baseball and hockey. My dad almost got picked up by the Mets. On their side the firstborn had been a boy for 80 years. Ginnie, my sister, broke that streak.

IM: Little Greg evened things out 15 months later.

GP: Somebody had to do it.

[Laughs] I swear, I was born wearing a cup. (continued on page 212) www.ironmanmagazine.com \ APRIL 2008 207

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Greg Plitt Greg Plitt’s Workout Philosophy I’ve always been fitness-minded, even before I entered the world of modeling. For me, staying in shape’s not merely a way to pay the bills. It’s a lifestyle.

“Ugh, sounds like too much work,” people say, but If you love something as much as I love the gym, it isn’t work.

I train on a five-day split that covers my entire body. When the fifth day is done, I begin again. I don’t schedule off days; they happen on their own due to work or scheduling conflicts. Usually that occurs once a week.

Not a big deal, but when your foundation is based on the high you experience at the gym, a break in routine leaves you out of sync. Believe me, I feel those days! Not lifting is almost like a case of withdrawal.

I was asked to provide my “typical” workout. That’s pretty much impossible. It can’t be broken down and presented simply—the reader won’t learn much. It’s much like that aphorism: Give a man a fish, and he eats for a day; teach him how to fish and.… If you learn the philosophy of shocking your system and changing your workouts, it’ll be like learning how to fish: You’ll never go hungry in the gym again.

A simple change from doing dumbbell presses instead of barbell presses is enough, or throw in a machine press. Switch around the order of your workout. With chest, instead of doing flat, incline and decline presses, do flat presses, incline flyes, decline presses, dips, then incline presses and decline presses.

The only consistent thing in my workout is gym time. I do things differently every day. In order for your physique to grow, you must shock the muscles. When it’s guessing, your body’s forced to adapt. Move out of that comfort zone, dammit!

Go heavy one day, and the next time you hit that muscle group, go light with high reps. It’s easy, and the results will pour into your psyche.

Don’t let your body become complacent. If it expects a certain workout and you give it something else, watch the fireworks!

—Greg Plitt

(continued from page 207)

Kids nowadays are glued to PlayStation and Nintendo. I’d be outside till the sun went down, involved in a game somewhere, and wouldn’t even bother with schoolwork. That proved problematic—especially during summer.

IM: Why then, of all times?

GP: We always had a summer reading list to prep us for the next academic year. Sitting in class was bad enough, but when summer was calling? The last thing I wanted to do was crack a book.

IM: Did you eventually see the light?

GP: Not by myself. I had an intervention. One hot afternoon Dad grabbed me and asked, “How’s your reading going?” Duh, what reading? I hadn’t been doing any. We made a deal. He said, “Either you read half an hour a day or swim 100 laps and do 100 pushups and 100

situps instead. Your choice.” Being the defiant child, I chose working out, and within weeks I was faster and stronger and had increased my endurance tremendously.

IM: Dad didn’t mind that notso-subtle subversion?

GP: Oh, he minded. We reached a compromise, and I began focusing on schoolwork—but the seed had been planted. I loved exercising.

IM: Academics weren’t challenging enough?

GM: I just wasn’t motivated. What I needed was a way to find enjoyment in studying. Mr. Merrick, my fourth-grade teacher, turned me around. He said, “Greg, why settle for a C when you can get an A?” I understood his logic, and from then on, I was a straight-A student.

IM: As a lad, did you have a favorite sport?

GM: Wrestling, bar none. In high

school I was a two-time All-American, second in the nation my senior year and a multiple state champ.

Golf and football were also personal passions. I still toss the pigskin whenever I have a chance, and nothing will ever drag me off the driving range.

IM: Talk about your big sister, Ginnie.

GP: Athletic and definitely more into schoolwork than me. Champions usually come in twos, and my sister and I made a good competitive pair growing up. Ginnie graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy and is now in her fourth year of med school.

IM: Naval Academy? Interesting choice.

GP: Dad suggested it. She’d been applying to all these distinguished Ivy League institutions. With USNA, if you qualify, it’s a free education.

Ginnie threw in an application, went through the selection process—including a Congressional appointment—and discovered a brand-new way of life.

IM: Your focus changed too.

GP: At the high school wrestling nationals, a scout from West Point said I had potential and could likely win a congressional appointment— unless I preferred riding my sister’s coattails. That pissed me off, but I couldn’t come up with one good reason why USNA was better than West Point.

I agonized over every consideration again and again. West Point would mean turning down several wrestling scholarships. In the final analysis, I did the right thing. West Point offered much more of what I was seeking as a developing person. Plus, it would be mine, a new path forged—without any family or friends to fall back on. A major step.

No “riding my sister’s coattails.”

IM: After West Point, military service is required, correct?

GP: Education’s free, but you pay by serving your country. I graduated in 2000 a second lieutenant and spent the next five years going around the world and back again.

I also earned the rank of captain, Airborne Ranger.

IM: Airborne Ranger? Sounds elite.

GP: Becoming a Ranger is tough.

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“The natural high of my mind and body being in sync makes me feel invincible.”

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Greg Plitt “Music, training partners and the right atmosphere are excellent motivators, but believing in yourself is second to none.”

It’s the Army’s equivalent of a Navy Seal. You attend U.S. Army Ranger School and spend 70 grueling days in training. When I started, I weighed 215 pounds, and I left the program a lean 163, shredded.

IM: Don’t you also have something like 800 jumps to your credit?

GP: Try 850. I joined the skydiving team at West Point and loved it.

Its pool of applicants reaches 300 to 400, and only 10 are chosen. I was fortunate to break in as a freshman.

IM: Fresh out of the military, and your career is accelerating—modeling assignments, TV, film. Is there a science to all this madness?

GP: No, and that’s fine by me. I

like the edginess involved. I’m prepping with acting classes, improving my craft and staying in top shape.

IM: What if the phone doesn’t ring?

GP: A real possibility, given the nature of show business. It’s like when I was wrestling. Before every meet, there’s fear inside. Maybe you even question your own abilities or freak out a little. But guess what?

People destroy themselves before entering the arena. Not me. Perspective is everything.

You can slowly lose patience and drive and motivation or switch the mental channel. In the slow times I don’t freak. I plan and prepare. If you’re going into a sketchy situation, feel confident. Look sharp, be sharp.

If my opponent beats me, fine—but I’ll never lose.

IM: Are you a contented guy?

Satisfied with the status quo?

GP: I’m rarely content. If I ever do feel contentment, it’s a temporary satisfaction. The first time I won the state championships in wrestling, I was pumped. But it didn’t last. Same with modeling. You shoot a cover.

It’s neat, and you’re already contemplating that next big assignment.

IM: It helps to have the look, whatever it might be.

GP: The look changes on a whim.

Photographers don’t want someone to smile and pose like an emptyheaded mannequin. They appreciate people who can contribute intellectually.

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IM: Photo shoots: hard or easy?

GP: Easy because I find fun in the work. The shoot is my reward, a culmination of training, dieting and intense preparation.

IM: Your basic appeal lies in the all-American physique—not too big, not too threatening and cut.

GP: I have an all-American physique because I built it the oldfashioned way: through diligent gym time and staying chem-free.

Anybody can have a good body, but they’ve gotta put in the hard hours.

No excuses.

IM: I was gonna ask you about so-called enhancers—um, ’roids.

GP: Bottom line: Anything coming quickly will leave quickly. Working out changes your body, and with steroids an outside element aids in that transformation. Training clean is always better. Wake up at five in the morning, run, go to the gym.

Discipline yourself. The results will be permanent, not fleeting.

IM: You’ve never tried a shortcut?

GP: Listen, when I was a kid, I wanted to leave baseball halfway through, and Dad said no, you gave your word. You’ll stay the season.

Next year, if you still don’t like it, cut out. But not now. That’s how I handle life’s roadblocks, by sticking to my game plan. Looking for shortcuts won’t defeat the challenges.

Go forward, and if you fall, at least you’ve fallen as a warrior. At the end of the day, be happy with your accomplishments.

IM: Motivation is the principal element in any long-term fitness regimen. Finding and keeping it, however—there’s the rub.

GP: Bona fide motivation is internal. Music, training partners and the right atmosphere are excellent motivators, but believing in yourself is second to none. The race can’t be won overnight. Start your morning with this one main goal: to be better and stronger than the day before.

Enjoy the process of getting there.

IM: If you and your bros hadn’t stopped at the Marriott to pound a few, where would Greg Plitt be today?

GP: Who can tell? The last thing I expected to be doing is modeling and launching an acting career in L.A. IM: Was meeting that photographer a crossroads moment?

GP: Absolutely. There were two paths presented to me: the one I’d been on, safe and comfortable. And the other, less traveled, unfamiliar and probably dangerous.

IM: Which do you usually choose in such situations?

GP: The path less traveled. It’s harder to navigate, but rewards far outweigh any pain inflicted.

IM: Speaking of paths less traveled, you were in “The Good Shepherd,” starring Matt Damon and directed by Robert

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Greg Plitt

“I earned the rank of captain, Airborne Ranger. Becoming a Ranger is tough.

It’s the Army’s equivalent of a Navy Seal.”

DeNiro. Is film your numberone goal at present?

GP: It’s the sole reason I relocated to L.A. Landing “The Good Shepherd” as my first credit was an awesome springboard. There’s no one better than Robert DeNiro, and he treated me like a peer.

IM: Ever toy with the idea of doing a soap?

GP: Great minds think alike. I have a small recurring role on “Days of Our Lives” as a cop named Henderson. If viewers like me enough, maybe the writers will build a storyline around my character. Soaps aren’t as easy as they look. Actors are required to memorize upwards of 50 pages of dialogue a day, but nobody can fault the exposure.

IM: You’re dabbling in reality programming as well.

GM: For the Home and Garden channel, yeah—“Designed to Sell.”

It’s HGTV’s number-one show. I’m part of a team, and we transform old and run-down homes for resale. Our work budget is about $2,000.

IM: Meanwhile, your Bowflex spot is all over the tube. Sweet

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Greg Plitt or what?

GP: That one little commercial has brought me so much visibility, it’s insane.

IM: What’s the inside word about your Bravo project?

GP: Oh, “Workout.”

Yeah, I’m doing that right now. It’s a pseudo-reality show. It’ll run the first week of April. Can’t go into details; gotta keep it on the down-low.

IM: C’mon, don’t be coy.

GP: Okay, you convinced me. [Leans forward conspiratorially] Jackie Warner’s a personal trainer who owns a gym. She hires a staff of trainers—which includes me—and much drama ensues. I like to call “Workout” the “world of vanity in a gym.” We’ve got competitiveness, sexual tension, relationships developing and crashing, and Jackie, who’s trying to keep a lid on the pot before it boils over.

IM: And does she?

GP: Stay tuned to Bravo and watch the big premiere.

IM: Your attitude is so positive. Are you Dr. Jekyll in disguise?

GP: Heck, no. I’m an optimist, tried and true.

IM: Between assignments, classes, the gym and casting calls, any time to unwind?

GP: I like golfing, hiking, going for a run. If the mood strikes, I’ll track a flight to some random town and explore it with a good buddy. Not having plans is best, flying back home to my family, being spontaneous. I’m constantly stretching 40 hours into 24 hours.

Editor’s note: For more on Greg Plitt, go to GregPlitt.com. IM

“I’m an optimist, tried and true.”

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Opener: Curls, with biceps fibers showing (like you did with Jonathan’s arm a while back) Other photos: Bench presses; Incline presses; Bent-over rows; Chins; Stiff-legged deadlifts; Squats; Muscle closeup;

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Holistic

Hypertrophy Attack All Muscle Fiber Types for Fast Mass Gains

by Glen Danbury • Photography by Michael Neveux

Training to add mass sounds simple: Recruit and exhaust as many muscle fibers as possible. Unfortunately, the most common methods of training usually fail to exhaust one or another group of muscle fibers. To understand that, let’s look at how muscle fibers differ in recruitment and vulnerability to fatigue. www.ironmanmagazine.com \ APRIL 2008 225

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Presents

Higher-repetition programs miss training the faster-twitch fibers while lower-rep, strength-style training does not exhaust the slower-twitch fibers. You need both.

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More Than Two Types Ask any fitness buff to define the different muscle fibers, and you’ll usually hear fast and slow twitch.

The more reading you’ve done, the more likely you are to cite the slow (type 1), fast oxidative (type 2a) and fast glycolytic (type 2b).

That’s correct, but there are up to seven classifi-

Holistic-Hypertrophy Training: Additional Benefits cations of muscle fibers—type 1, 1c, 2c, 2ac, 2a, 2ab, 2b—and they act in sequence, from slowest to fastest.

The slower the fiber, the lower the threshold of recruitment—meaning the easier it is to activate the fiber— and the more fatigue resistant it is. As the sequence continues, the fibers’ recruitment threshold increases, but their fatigue resistance decreases.

During muscle contraction, fibers are recruited in an orderly

As well as aiming to recruit and exhaust as many potential fibers as possible, this program has other strength and growth benefits:

The last set should feel like hell as the lactate buildup becomes unbearable. You’ll need to grit your teeth, but you’ll also have to swallow your pride because the weight you’re going to be using is almost laughable.

• Post-tetanic potentiation.

As the three-rep set employs near maximal contractions with minimal fatigue, there should be an increase in strength during subsequent sets due to increased neural output and increased calcium levels within the muscle.

• Sarcoplasmic hypertrophy. Higher-repetition training—as in work set 3—can increase stored energy and the cytoplasm within muscle cells. Although that doesn’t aid in strength, it will increase muscle size.

• Increased capillarization. The higher-repetition training will increase the number of small blood vessels— capillaries—in a muscle. That increases the muscle’s overall size and endurance and aids in recovery between sets.

Model: Jeff Dwell

—G.D.

manner—what’s known as the size principle. Basically, the small, slow-twitch fibers with low-recruitment thresholds are recruited first, and as increasing force is required, the larger, fasttwitch fibers are recruited.

So the slow-twitch fibers are recruited first, and the fasttwitch get recruited with greater effort and loads. In order to recruit fast fibers, you need to lift greater loads, yet lifting greater loads means you spend less time lifting [less tension time with heavy weights and fewer reps]. That means the fatigueresistant slower fibers aren’t exhausted.

As a practical matter, therefore, higher-repetition programs miss training the faster-twitch fibers, while lowerrep, strength-style training does not exhaust the slower-twitch (continued on page 231) fibers.

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The method uses a heavy-to-light training program in which you do specific sets, starting with high loads and low reps, and then on subsequent sets decrease the load and correspondingly increase in reps.

Model: Derik Farnsworth

Presents

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(continued from page 227)

In either case potential hypertrophy remains untapped. So most people periodize their workouts, doing strength training for so many weeks followed by another number of weeks of higher-rep work. That approach has some drawbacks in that as one motor ability, strength, is developed, the other motor ability, muscular endurance, starts to diminish.

It’s much more effective to use a program that recruits and possibly exhausts all fiber types. This one is aimed at individuals who wish to add as much size as is possible in the quickest time possible.

Holistic-Hypertrophy Training This program is built on what are called holistic sets. (Don’t worry, you don’t have to use crystals and funky chants, unless that’s your cup of tea.) It’s basically a heavy-to-light program in which you do specific sets, starting with heavy loads and low reps. On subsequent sets you decrease the load and correspondingly increase the reps. Combine those loading parameters with specific tempos, and you have the basis of the program.

Set 1 33reps repsx x95% 95%of3RM 3RM Rep cadence: 1/0/X Rest: 120 seconds Set 2 8 reps x 8RM Rep cadence: 3/2/1 Rest: 60 seconds Set 3 20 reps x 20RM Rep cadence: 4/4/4 Rest: N/A Note: Rep cadence is expressed as eccentric/isometric pause/ concentric in seconds; X means to explode with a controlled but fast movement.

You do only three work sets per exercise: The first work set is heavy, so you should start with warmup sets.

Gradually increase the poundage with low reps to avoid fatigue. A format like the one here should work fine. Figure the weights as percentages of the weight you will use on your first work set.

Warmup 1 50% of work weight x 3 Warmup 2 70% of work weight x 3 Warmup 3 80% of work weight x 2 Warmup 4 80% of work weight x 1 The first work set aims to recruit the fast-twitch fibers. So the load is high (95 percent of 3RM) with the eccentric performed relatively fast (one second); that’s been shown to preferentially recruit the fast-twitch fibers with relative safety. The speed of the concentric, or positive, stroke should be fast. Considering the load, it will move at a slower pace.

After two minutes of rest do your second set, which is a standard bodybuilding affair—eight repetitions performed with a three-second eccentric, a one-second pause in the down position and a two-second concen- (continued on page 234) www.ironmanmagazine.com \ APRIL 2008 231

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Model: Daryl Gee

Presents

(continued from page 231)

tric. The overall time under tension should be about 50 seconds, which will exhaust all of the intermediate fibers with an endurance time under 50 seconds.

Perform the third set after a minute of rest. You’re aiming to exhaust a reasonable number of slow-twitch fibers. The repetitions should be slow—four seconds each for the eccentric, pause and the concentric.

There should be no rest, so the reps are performed in continuous-tension style.

The last set should feel like hell as the lactate buildup becomes unbearable. You’ll need to grit your teeth, but you’ll also have to swallow your pride because the weight you’re going to be using is almost laughable.

Exercise Choice Because the purpose of the program is to recruit as many fibers as possible, the exercises you use should be the big, multijoint ones.

You’re looking at bench presses for chest, bent-over rows and pullups for back, squats for quads, stifflegged deadlifts for hamstrings, and so on.

Do only one round of the three sets for each exercise. Performing

The purpose of the program is to recruit as many muscle fibers as possible.

The exercises you use should be multijoint ones such as bench press, bent-over rows, pullups, squats, stiff-legged deadlifts, etc.

a second round will defeat the purpose. In other words, the fibers should be exhausted, and it would be impossible to develop levels of force that would recruit the highthreshold fibers again.

Perform two workouts for a given muscle group within a week, using two different motor patterns—for example, bench presses at your first chest workout and incline presses at your second. The clavicular heads of the pectorals are recruited during movements in which you raise your arms toward your head, like incline presses, as opposed to raising

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them straight out in front of your body, as in bench presses. A similar example would be bent-over rows and pullups for the back.

Remember, this style of training is aimed at developing maximal hypertrophy in a short period of time. If your goal is pure strength, then a strength-training program will be more suitable. As long as you address the underlying principles of progressive overload and adequate nutrition, holistic-hypertrophy training should create exceptional mass gains over a 12-week period.

Editor’s note: Glen Danbury has an honors degree in sports science and human nutrition and is currently working toward his master’s degree in sports nutrition. For more of his articles, visit www.

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Bodybuilding Pharmacology BODYBUILDING PHARMACOLOGY BODYBUILDING PHARMACOLOGY BODYBUILDING PHARMACOLOGY BODYBUILDING PHARMACOLOGY BODYBUILDING PHARMACOLOGY BODYBUILDING

by Jerry Brainum

EstrogenBlocking Supplements Until two years ago bodybuilders who wanted to increase testosterone levels without using anabolic steroids could purchase pro-hormone supplements. The original forms of those supplements weren’t effective. For example, DHEA, an adrenal steroid produced in the human body, is used in the synthesis of other hormones, including testosterone and estrogen. Based on that, DHEA supplements were touted for increasing testosterone in bodybuilders.

DHEA did do that—but only in women. In men under age 40 it was converted into either estrogen or dihydrotestosterone, a testosterone metabolite associated with acne, male-pattern baldness and prostate enlargement.

Noting the problems, several entrepreneurs scoured the

scientific literature and came up with compounds that, on paper, provided more direct routes to testosterone conversion. The most popular was androstenedione, which was said to be more effective than DHEA because it was a step closer in the synthesis process: In the body DHEA converted into andro, which then converted directly into testosterone.

Andro peaked in popularity after being linked to pro baseball player Mark McGwire. During his 1998 home-run spree, which broke a Major League record, a reporter noticed a bottle of andro in his locker. McGwire didn’t deny using the supplement, noting that it was perfectly legal in baseball. He’s been evasive in denying his use of anabolic steroids.

While it would be wrong to overlook the natural ability of players such as McGwire or Barry Bonds, consider the findings of American physicist Roger Tobin of Tufts University. Tobin estimated that using anabolic steroids can help batters hit 50 percent more home runs by boosting muscle 10 percent. With 10 percent more muscle, a batter can swing about 5 percent faster, which increases the speed of the ball 4 percent as it leaves the bat. Added speed can lead to home runs 50 percent more often—up to 100 percent according to Tobin. Then again, muscle and steroids are only part of the home-run equation; there’s no shortage of muscular ball players who come nowhere near the homerun record.

But I digress. Andro was wildly popular for a while among bodybuilders. Shortly after it hit the market, I looked at the testosterone pathway and noticed that it could easily be converted into estrogen.

When I said so on an Internet forum, I was accused of being “jealous” of andro’s success, but medical studies proved me right. Rather than being converted into testosterone, andro tended to take the estrogen route in men. In women, however, as with DHEA, andro did raise testosterone levels.

So it was back to the drawing board for pro-hormone purveyors.

They came up with a few esoteric androgens that flew under the FDA radar for a while. None were ever definitively shown to build muscle, but some produced such side effects as acne and liver enzyme elevations.

It was left for more technically oriented supplement gurus to turn to the musty old steroid textbooks of the late 1960s and search for more effective compounds. Thousands of potential drugs were originally researched from the 1950s to the late 1960s, but most never reached the market. They were

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described in arcane chemical guides, most notably in Androgens and Anabolic Agents: Chemistry and Pharmacology, a 1968 tome by Julius A. Vida. Several of the compounds— nothing less than full-fledged anabolic steroids, by the way—were resurrected and released as commercial prohormones. But not for long. In 2005 the federal anabolic steroid law, as amended, formally prohibited them.

The last generation of pro-hormones before the ban was unquestionably the most effective. How could they not be, as they were the real thing? Nobody bothered to raise the obvious question of why the drug companies that had done all that R&D didn’t put them on the market. Two words: side effects. Most of the drugs were harder on the liver than the oral anabolics that did reach the market, and they attacked the cardiovascular system even more rapidly. To avoid liability, the manufacturers relegated them to pharmaceutical limbo.

With the demise of such effective but problematic compounds, companies turned to the only other legal means of boosting testosterone: substances that inhibit the activity of an enzyme called aromatase, which is found in such tissues as liver, brain, muscle and fat in the legs and arms, and which converts free testosterone circulating in the blood into estrogen. Aromatase may explain the failure of the first generation of pro-hormones. Even if they did raise free testosterone in the blood, it didn’t take long for aromatase to kick in and convert it into estrogen.

Bodybuilders who use anabolic steroids have long been familiar with gynecomastia, or “bitch tits,” a common side effect characterized by an accumulation of excess glandular tissue in male breasts. The culprit is an overbalance of estrogen vs. testosterone, which can also cause water retention or even interfere with brain chemistry and impede testosterone synthesis.

The original way of dealing with excess estrogen was to take tamoxifen citrate, trade name Nolvadex, which was and still is prescribed mainly for older women who have breast cancer. It’s molecularly similar to and binds to the estrogen cell receptor, thus blocking the path of actual estrogen and rendering it inert. Trouble is, Nolvadex is not only an antagonist but also an agonist of estrogen. That is, it can bind to estrogen itself. So when taken too long or in too great a dose, it interferes with testosterone synthesis.

Drug research has produced other compounds that work more directly than Nolvadex in reducing estrogen levels.

They block the activity of aromatase and considerably diminish the estrogen count. Newer forms of aromatase inhibitors, such as Arimidex or Aromesin, are extremely effective. Many pro bodybuilders rely on them to prevent

estrogen-related side effects.

Despite that, you often see gyno in competing bodybuilders—not because of estrogen but because of progesterone, another female sex hormone. Heavy use of anabolic steroids, such as Deca-Durabolin and the infamous designer steroid THG, ups the body’s progesterone content.

Because a certain amount of the testosterone men produce is Why wasn’t the last generation converted into of pro-hormones sold by drug estrogen—about 1 to 8 percent daily— companies? Because most of those taking a drug that drugs had potential side effects that blocks the activity didn’t warrant the possible legal of aromatase would ramifications. lead to an increase in blood testosterone. That’s the mechanism behind the test-boosting effects of over-the-counter estrogen-inhibiting supplements.

Beyond all the hoopla, however, do those supplements really work as advertised, and are they as side effect-free as the ads claim?

Two of the most popular are Novadex XT and 6-OXO. Novadex XT is marketed by Gaspari Nutrition. Two companies sell 6-OXO, one owned by actor Sylvester Stallone, and the other is associated with Pat Arnold, who was instrumental in popularizing the original pro-hormone supplements. Arnold was indicted after being identified as the person who synthesized “the clear”—a.k.a. THG—the designer steroid at the center of the BALCO drug scandal.

A study examined the effects of providing 72 milligrams a day of Nolvadex XT to a group of young men engaged in weight training.1 After eight weeks researchers measured

American physicist Roger Tobin estimated that using anabolic steroids can help batters hit 50 percent more home runs by boosting muscle 10 percent. With 10 percent more muscle, a batter can swing about 5 percent faster, which increases the speed of the ball 4 percent as it leaves the bat. Then again, there’s no shortage of muscular ball players who come nowhere near the home-run record. www.ironmanmagazine.com \ APRIL 2008 239

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BODYBUILDING PHARMACOLOGY BODYBUILDING PHARMACOLOGY BODYBUILDING PHARMACOLOGY BODYBUILDING PHARMACOLOGY BODYBUILDING PHARMACOLOGY BODYBUILDING PHARMACOLOGY BODYBUI

Jerry Brainum’s Bodybuilding Pharmacology

Because some of the testosterone men produce is converted into estrogen—about 1 to 8 percent daily—taking a drug that blocks the activity of aromatase would lead to an increase in blood testosterone. That’s the mechanism behind the test-boosting effects of over-the-counter estrogeninhibiting supplements. the following increases in hormone levels: • Total testosterone, 283 percent • Free, or active, testosterone, 625 percent • DHT, 566 percent No increase in fat-free mass occurred in the subjects, but their bodyfat decreased by 3.5 percent more than it did for those in the placebo group. Slight increases in estrogen also occurred, indicating that the supplement only partially blocked estrogen activity.

The same researchers then focused on 6-OXO.2 Sixteen young men, average age 26, used either 300 or 600 milligrams of 6-OXO for eight weeks in a double-blind experiment. Free testosterone rose by 90 percent for the 300-milligram group and 84 percent for the 600-milligram group. DHT rose by 192 percent and 265 percent, respectively, and the testosteroneto-estriadol ratio rose by 53 percent and 67 percent. Estrone, a weaker form of esNolvadex XT increased trogen, increased by free testosterone by a 22 percent with the 300-milligram dose whopping 625 percent. and 52 percent with the 600-milligram dose. Estradiol, the most potent of the three forms of estrogen, rose by 27 percent with the 300milligram and 12 percent for the 600-milligram dose. Once again, there was no change in body composition and no side effects or adverse body chemistry alterations.

The rise in free testosterone likely accounted for the increase in DHT, since 5-alpha reductase, the enzyme that converts test into DHT, wasn’t affected by the supplement.

Some published studies suggest that when you inhibit aromatase, the activity of 5-alpha reductase tends to increase, again because there is more free testosterone in the blood available for 5-alpha conversion into DHT. The implications of these studies are that neither Nolvadex XT nor 6-OXO totally blocks estrogen and that both increase testosterone and DHT. The elevation of DHT could prove problematic, as it’s linked to male-pattern baldness,

acne and prostate problems. Purveyors of these products suggest using them for limited periods, such as four to six weeks, as lowering estrogen levels for an extended period could adversely affect cardiovascular function. Estrogen is good for maintaining protective high-density-lipoprotein levels, and women tend to have better HDL counts because they have more estrogen. In addition, users of injectable testosterone show no adverse effects with regard to HDL because some of the test is converted into estrogen. If you add an aromatase blocker like Arimidex, that doesn’t happen. Most oral anabolic steroid drugs also lower HDL and thus are a long-term risk.

Since Novadex XT and 6-OXO don’t completely block estrogen, the safeguard mentioned by the sellers of such supplements is mainly a precaution, assuming that some people, such as those at risk for cardiovascular disease, may be more susceptible to potential problems. Thus far, there is no indication that using them will adversely affect cardiovascular health.

Elevated DHT is a more immediate problem, in my opinion. If you have the genes for male-pattern baldness or acne, you may experience flareups if you take too large a dose or stay on the supplements too long. The same holds true for the drug versions. You can remedy that by taking drugs that block 5-alpha reductase, such as Proscar or Avodart. Natural inhibitors of 5-AD include soy in small amounts, as well as green tea.

There is another problem with the OTC supplements.

I’ve recommended them to men who are interested in boosting testosterone levels but who don’t want to use anabolic steroids. About half have reported a loss of libido.

Since the supplements boost free testosterone, which is associated with elevated sex drive in both sexes, I’m at loss.

It’s not a placebo effect, for the men expected increased sex drive, and it doesn’t happen to every man who takes the supplements. As to what the precise cause is, your guess is as good as mine.

References 1 Willoughby, D., et al. (2007). Eight weeks of aromatase

inhibition using the nutritional supplement Novadex XT: Effects on steroid hormones, body composition, and clinical safety markers in young, eugonadal men. Int J Sport Nutr Exer Metab. 17:92-108.

2 Rohle, D., et al. (2007). Effects of eight weeks of an alleged aromatase-inhibiting nutritional supplement 6-OXO on serum hormone profiles and clinical safety markers in resistance-trained, eugonadal males. J Int Soc Sports Nutr.

4:13. IM

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Heavy Duty

Q&A

The Wisdom of Mike Mentzer

by John Little More on Intensity

Balik

Q: I like Mike’s scientific approach to bodybuilding very much. He renders very technical issues intelligible to lay people like me in a way that makes perfect sense. I’m really intrigued by his writings on intensity in training. What else might he have said about the subject of intensity?

A: Joanne Sharkey and I are asked hundreds of questions about Mike’s Heavy Duty training system, and almost all of the questions deal with a misunderstanding of what intensity is and its role in training.

That confusion goes back over 30 years, as Mike himself discussed in a magazine in the late 1970s.

“What remains obscure to so many bodybuilders, as evidenced by the many questions I receive in letters and at public appearances, is how to progressively increase the intensity of muscular contraction. The obscurity arises from the fact that many still do not fully understand the concept of intensity.

“Intensity is a term that’s been bandied about a lot lately in bodybuilding periodicals but is rarely described accurately. It’s obvious from the various articles that even certain top champions confuse intensity with duration and haven’t grasped the fundamental relationship between the two.”

According to Mike, intensity and duration are mutually exclusive.

Only when a muscle is contracting with the greatest possible force at any given moment is there maximum intensity: “When you’re training so that every rep of every set of every exercise requires an absolute maximum effort, the duration of that workout must and will be brief. High-intensity muscular contraction, in other words, prevents a large number of such contractions. So maximum training intensity limits the duration of your training. What’s even more significant is that anything less than maximum intensity will result in less than maximum results.”

Arthur Jones once told Mike that muscle growth being produced by exercise could be compared to a hammer and a stick of dynamite, in that hitting a stick of dynamite lightly with a hammer won’t produce an explosion no matter how many times you hit it. If, however, you hit it very hard, only one blow is required to stimulate an explosion.

Mike understood the analogy: “Much the same situation exists in stimulating growth with weight training. No amount of light or lowintensity training will produce an increase. High-intensity training is a basic requirement for producing the desired physical change. Large quantities of such stimulation aren’t necessary, nor are they desirable. In

other words, it takes only one hard blow from the hammer to set off the explosion of the dynamite.”

Personal experience has taught most of us that high-intensity training produces an effect on our bodies that we never get from low-intensity work. The effect that training of different intensity levels has on our systems can be better understood if we look at an intensity continuum in which complete inactivity and rest constitute one extreme and absolute, all-out effort constitute the other. The effect each extreme has on our system is obviously very different: Rest—total inactivity (lowest possible intensity) • Pulse rate: slow, 60 to 75 beats per minute • Breathing: shallow and slow, 12 to 14 breaths per minute • VO2 uptake (ventilation-oxygen uptake): 20 to 25 • Respiratory exchange index (energy exchange within body— partial measure of body metabolism): 0 to .825 Maximum effort (highest possible intensity) • Pulse rate: vast, 150-220 beats per minute.

• Breathing: very rapid: 50 to 100 breaths per minute. www.ironmanmagazine.com \ APRIL 2008 245

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Heavy Duty

• VO2 uptake: 30 • Respiratory exchange index: 1.20 Those are just four indices registering the change in your system when you go from a state of rest to one of all-out effort. There are many more indices, such as for pH and lactic acid, but you get the idea.

High-intensity training is hard training, and as such, it has a definite effect on the body’s systems that can be measured in the lab and felt by the individual.

The effect is dramatic and can be very uncomfortable. Whereas rest and total inactivity are experienced as comfortable, training at maximum intensity is brutal. If

you can talk between sets and feel the desire to add more sets to your workouts, you’re not training with maximum intensity. If you’re training with maximum effort, you won’t be able to talk between sets because you’ll be breathing too hard. Instead of thinking about more sets, you’ll begin looking for excuses to shorten your workouts. According to Mike: “While intensity is necessary for anyone wishing to build muscle and its effects are similar on everyone, intensity remains a relative measure, contingent on an individual’s strength and development. Let’s face it: A 12-inch arm contracting maximally won’t require the same amount of fuel or produce the same quantities of by-products and

wastes as a 20-inch arm contracting maximally. Since we require increasingly greater contractions if we hope to continually progress, we must search for increasingly brutal methods to provide such contractions as we get stronger. For the beginner just about any form of resistance exercise will represent an increase in intensity. As trainees progress to the intermediate and advanced stage, however, they will require increasingly intense training methods.”

Training to Failure Q: I keep reading on high-intensity forums that one should “train to failure.” That sounds like a bad (and possibly harm-

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Balik

“Maximum training intensity limits the duration of your training. What’s even more significant is that anything less than maximum intensity will result in less than maximum results.”

ful) thing to do. As Mike was one of the first bodybuilders to advocate the concept, what exactly does it mean?

A: Putting aside all academic and theoretical considerations for a moment, what we’re talking about by “train to failure” is quite simply hard work, or as Mike described it, “gutbusting, all-out effort.”

“Any degree of effort below maximum may yield the bodybuilder some results but never on the same order as all-out effort. When I say ‘all-out effort,’ I’m not referring to the performance of marathon workouts involving set after set after set until you fall over from fatigue.

Training to a point of momentary

muscular failure, where the completion of another full rep is impossible despite your greatest effort, is the only way to force the body to resort to its reserves sufficiently to stimulate real growth. None of us needs to be reminded that growth never comes easy; it must literally be forced!”

Remember, ending a set just because an arbitrary number of repetitions has been completed will do little or nothing to stimulate growth.

As Mike pointed out years ago: “If you can curl 100 pounds for 10 reps and you never try to do that 11th rep, your body has no reason to alter itself, to grow. The body will always attempt to maintain the existing situation. Only when you

impose some extraordinary demand upon it will it change. You needn’t be a physiologist to understand that.

Carrying a set to a point of momentary muscular failure ensures that you pass through the ‘break-over’ point—the level of effort in the set at which growth stimulation commences. Where is that point? Is it 85 percent of maximum effort? Is it at 90 percent? No one knows for sure, but you can be certain that if you train at 100 percent effort, you will have reached the break-over point.”

For those who are just taking up weight training, Mike would suggest that you proceed with caution at first: “If you’ve been sedentary most of your life, weight training will represent a radical departure for you.

Training to absolute failure may be not only unnecessary but dangerous as well. Spend the first several months learning proper exercise form and developing a sense of your capacities. As you develop confidence in handling weights and gain added muscle and strength, start carrying every set (not including warmup sets) to a point of momentary muscular failure. Select a weight in each exercise that will allow approximately six reps in strict form. Maximum reps in strict form means going to a point where you can no longer raise the weight in perfectly strict fashion from a point of complete extension to one of full contraction. Everyone wishing to induce maximum muscle growth should use that method of training to failure.”

Negative Repetitions Q: I heard that Mike Mentzer believed in using techniques such as negatives with his advanced clients on his Consolidated Routine; however, I’ve never read what his thoughts on negative training were or his recommendations for how negative-only repetitions should be used. Do you have any insight on that?

A: Mike wrote quite extensively about high-intensity techniques. He wrote about negative-only training mainly during his competitive days. www.ironmanmagazine.com \ APRIL 2008 247

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Heavy Duty

Neveux \ Model: Berry Kabov

forced reps—which will exhaust your positive and static strength—can you reach a point of true and absolute momentary muscular failure.

Having completed your six positive and two forced reps, have your partner, or partners, lift the weight to the top (or peak-contracted position) so that you can lower it.

“You’ll probably be surprised at your ability to continue lowering a weight even after you’ve reached positive failure. The first few negatives will seem very easy, and you’ll be able to lower the weight slowly. The next couple of reps will become difficult, however. The downward movement will pick up speed, and you won’t have as much control. End the set when you can no longer control the descent of the weight. Or stop a rep before that, as a heavy weight yanking a bodypart out of the contracted position can be dangerous.”

With certain exercises involving large and You can do entire workouts powerful muscles, such in the pure-negative fashion as the thighs, you must or combined with positive use extreme caution. and forced reps.

Mike advised against performing squats in a negative-only fashion According to Mike: for obvious safety reasons, and even “Our skeletal muscles possess leg extensions can be dangerous. three types of strength: 1) positive According to Mike: strength, or the ability to raise a “You may find that the weight weight; 2) static, or holding strength; you used for six positive reps will be and 3) negative strength, or our abil- too light for continued negatives. ity to lower a weight. We’re weakest If that’s the case, your partner will in positive strength and strongest have to apply manual resistance in negative strength. Obviously, we as you lower the weight. Do not—I can’t really say we’ve trained to failrepeat, do not—attempt to halt the ure until we’ve also exhausted our downward motion of the weight ability to lower the weight. Only by when you’re doing negatives. The continuing to lower a weight after knees tend to be delicate. If you completing six positive reps and two fight against a maximum negative

resistance, you could cause severe injury to the knees. Beginners don’t require negatives, as it is a high-intensity method reserved for ambitious intermediates and advanced bodybuilders. Negatives can also be done in a ‘pure’ style—that is, they don’t have to be preceded by positive and forced reps. Take a weight that’s at least 40 percent heavier than you’d normally use in a positive fashion. Have spotters raise it for you, and continue lowering the weight slowly until you’re beginning to lose control. Make sure your spotters remain alert to what you’re doing so they can grab the weight as soon as you signal for them to do so.”

You can do entire workouts in the pure-negative fashion or combined with positive and forced reps as Mike described. He’d be the first to suggest that you improvise. Some suggestions he made for employing their use: “The isolation portion of a preexhaust superset can be done positive/forced/negative fashion and the compound exercise of the same superset in a negative-only style.

There are limitless combinations and ways of employing all these methods so that no two workouts need be the same. I advise against using negatives in every workout, however, since the intensity is so high that it could lead to overtraining.”

Editor’s note: For a complete presentation of Mike Mentzer’s Heavy Duty training system, consult his books Heavy Duty II, High Intensity Training the Mike Mentzer Way and the newest book, The Wisdom of Mike Mentzer, all of which are available from Mentzer’s official Web site, www.MikeMentzer .com.

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

Article copyright © 2008, John Little. All rights reserved. Mike Mentzer quotations are provided courtesy of Joanne Sharkey and are used with permission. IM

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The Real

Victor Even a Controversial Loss at the ’07 Mr. O Can’t Derail This Muscle Bound Locomotive

by Ilir Gatollari

A

s the newest addition to an impressive list of uncrowned kings, Victor Martinez shrugs off his controversial finish at the ’07 Olympia and sets his sights on ’08, where he’ll prove to the world that he’s the real victor.

The ’07 contest will go down in bodybuilding history as a moment when public opinion countered convention. It’s said that in order to defeat the reigning champ, you have to knock him out. When Victor Martinez stood next to the champ during the first callout at the prejudging, it was apparent to wizened eyes—from an IFBB judge and six-time Mr. Olympia who placed Victor first in each round he judged to most of the competitors onstage, as well as writers, photographers in the pit, industry insiders, gurus and the audience at large—that Victor had come out throwing haymakers.

And they were landing. He displayed enough size, shape, symmetry and condition to pack a wallop that knocked out not only the champ but anyone else within striking distance as well.

It was apparent to anyone who has an eye for bodybuilding that the champ was off. What showed up seemed like a civilized version

of the monster we watched claw his way to the top. It wasn’t the man bodybuilding had come to expect on contest day. The champ left the door unlocked, and Victor brought a battering ram. There was no doubt among most who came that Saturday night that we’d be addressing Victor Martinez as Mr. O. Well, as we all know, it didn’t work out that way. Fans voiced their fury all over the message boards and in the magazines. “Victor was robbed,” they said. There was simply no reasonable explanation for what had happened.

“He got more first-place votes than me,” Victor says, shrugging off the question. He does it every time he is asked how it was possible the champ beat him. “But, you know, second isn’t too bad either.”

Victor has that lovable smile, which, along with his humility and diplomacy, makes you think he actually likes being the underdog.

“It’s great to be recognized by the fans and my peers as the winner,” he says. “That means a lot. I put it behind me, and I started right away training for next year.”

A blow of the kind Victor suffered at the Olympia would normally derail a person’s dreams and aspirations, but not Victor. “I really felt I www.ironmanmagazine.com \ APRIL 2008 253

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Victor was the best man on the stage that day,” he maintains. “I did everything I had to do to bring the best package, but it just didn’t go my way.”

Perhaps the win didn’t, but his “not so bad” second place did do one thing. It silenced the critics who said Victor couldn’t get crazy shredded. What did he do differently to outdo the condition he displayed when he won the Arnold Classic earlier in the year?

“I’m getting more and more in tune with my body,” he says. “I can feel what’s happening better so I can adjust my cardio and my diet when I need to. But to tell you the truth, I really believe Dren is what made the difference.”

Dren Silences the Critics—Victor was Ripped to the Bone About 12 weeks out from the Olympia, Victor was visiting MHP headquarters to meet up with Gerard Dente, the company’s president. They usually meet every other week leading up to a show. Gerard

has a great eye for bodybuilding details, having gotten ready for a show or two himself back in the day.

Gerard is also the mastermind behind Victor’s nutrition and supplement program. What Gerard had in mind for the Olympia was not much different from the program he laid out for the Arnold. If it’s not broken, why mess with it? Bodybuilding, though, doesn’t work that way. When you’re splitting hairs at the top, there’s always room for improvement. As Victor was leaving, Gerard handed him a Ziploc bag with bright yellow pills in it and said, “This is going to get you shredded for the O.” Victor looked at the capsules and rolled them around in his fingers. One of the requirements of being contracted to represent MHP products is that you are obliged to be Gerard’s lab

rat—er, “test subject”—when he comes out with a new product. On the other hand, should an assault on the O be considered test grounds?

“Trust me,” Gerard said. “This shit will rock your world. But, don’t take more than one pill. Believe me, one is all you need or will be able to

Victor, the Big Dipper When the talk is about triceps training, you hear quite a bit about skull crushers, cable pushdowns, overhead dumbbell extensions and close-grip bench presses. But one compound movement isn’t mentioned often enough, considering its incredible potency when it comes to stimulating massive growth in the triceps: the dip.

Victor Martinez has been doing it since he was a child: “Back before I had weights, I used to do dips between chairs in my apartment, late at night after my old man went to sleep.”

Later, when he became a full-fledged bodybuilder, he found that weighted dips seemed to be the most effective exercise for building triceps bulk. “I did close-grip bench presses too, but I always felt the dips hit my triceps better,” he says. “I think a lot of people have a hard time with the close-grip bench because they end up working inner chest and front delts more than they do triceps.”

Victor, harking back to fellow New Yorker Marvin Eder—a strength phenomenon from the ’50s who was famous for dipping with 400 pounds at a bodyweight of only 195—has made weighted dips a core exercise for many years. He’s been known to hang up to 200 pounds in plates from his waist for dips—not too shabby at all.

He doesn’t go so far as to credit this one valuable exercise with his hellacious horseshoes, but he does think that a lot of bodybuilders are really missing the boat by not doing dips on a regular basis. “The basic compound movements are always going to be the ones that work best,” he says. “Weighted dips and bench dips with plates on your lap are awesome for building the triceps.”

Machine dips are fine once in a while for variety, but the free-weight version is superior simply because it’s tougher. “If you can build up to the point where you can dip with half your bodyweight or more in plates hanging from your waist, there’s just no way your triceps won’t grow,” he concludes.

I don’t know about you, but that sounds pretty enticing to me.

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“I am getting more and more in tune with my body. I can feel what’s happening better.”

handle. Promise me you’ll only take one.”

Victor did as the master said.

The next day he swallowed a single Dren before his workout and felt like he was jacked. “It was the best and most intense workout I ever had,” he recalls, beaming with the Cheshire cat grin of a man who

knows a secret. “I immediately knew my metabolism was crankin’ because sweat was pouring off me.

Afterward, I called G and said, ‘What the hell did you give me?’”

“Dren is the new fat burner we just developed,” Gerard replied.

“How did you like it?”

“I can’t believe this stuff is legal,”

Victor told him.

After using Dren for a few days, Victor started getting harder and tighter. Every week he just kept getting better. “Usually the few weeks before a show I have to drag my ass into the gym,” he says, “but with Dren I got such a rush that I was fired up for every workout. I think that had a lot to do with coming in bigger and harder than ever at the O. I know that—I could feel it—Dren cranked up my metabolism. It allowed me to train harder than ever.”

Does Dren sound intense? That’s because it is. Victor has more than half of the guys at his gym on Dren and a list of pros to whom he sends it every month, and all of them say, “Dren is the shit.”

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Victor

from here? He has the best shape and symmetry in the sport; he’s as big as a house with full, round muscle bellies, and now with Dren he’s going to be ripped to the bone. What else can he possibly do to ensure the title in 2008?

“I’m going to continue on my path,” he says. “I’m determined to take the crown in 2008. I can’t control the judging, but I will do everything in my power to be the best bodybuilder on the stage. Last year’s training and supplement programs were proven effective, so this year things will remain pretty much the same with a few additions.”

Last year’s formula for success was Probolic-SR, Trac Extreme and GlutamineSR, which formed the core of the program Gerard Dente designed for Victor. Then he kicked it up a notch with Sarm-X, T-Bomb II and CyclinGF, which combined to peak testosterone and other critical growth factors. This year, however, with a full year of Dren’s fat-burning and intense training effects behind him, Victor is sure to come out throwing haymakers at the champ again. To make sure those shots land with a thud, Gerard is adding another weapon to Victor’s arsenal of Olympia battle gear. It’s called Dark Matter.

This new weapon of mass construction might be the most effective muscle builder ever produced.

Dark Matter doesn’t just open the anabolic window—it opens it faster and wider and keeps it open longer for optimal muscle growth.

Dark Matter stimulates protein synthesis faster than whey, spikes

insulin through the roof, replenishes glycogen and increases cell volume.

It does all those things synergistically with new compounds and technologies. One such compound is WaxiMax-C3G, a unique tripolymer that sends insulin through the roof with only 10 grams of sugar and quickly replenishes muscle glycogen. Unlike conventional postworkout formulas that use large amounts of sugar to spike insulin—some have 75 to 100 grams—Dark Matter does it with WaxiMax-C3G. Dark Matter also contains a powerful new anabolic amino acid complex called ProSynthagen, which stimulates protein synthesis faster than whey and is equivalent to 40 grams of protein. Plus, it has an advanced creatine cell-volumizing transport called HydroSize.

The final step in this breakthrough postworkout powerhouse makes the compounds work more quickly and synergistically at the anabolic axis. It’s a new technology that MHP calls High Velocity Nano Physics.

Victor’s been taking Dark Matter immediately after his workouts to maximize the postworkout anabolic window and he’s already packed on 12 more pounds of muscle for this year’s battle. Although he had to withdraw from the Arnold Classic due to a knee injury, Victor intends to get back on his path and settle the score at the ’08 Mr. Olympia.

Sure, his training and supplement programs are extensive, but that’s what it takes to be the best in the world. Last year’s program was enough to open the bodybuilding world’s eyes to the fact that Victor means business. Adding Dren and Dark Matter to an already superior supplement program will be the nail in the coffin for anyone trying to stand in Victor’s way at this year’s Olympia, where he will prove to be—the real victor!

Editor’s note: For more on Victor Martinez and Maimum Human Performance products, visit www .MaxPerformance.com. IM

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

>www.DexterJacksonShredded.com It’s my belief that the overall conditioning of professional bodybuilders has gone down in the past 10 years. While the pros certainly have gotten bigger and freakier, it’s happened at the expense of deep muscle separation, striations and truly crisp definition. The finer details of the physique are becoming more and more obscured in the quest for size. There is one man, however, who continues to hit the stage dry, hard and peeled—head to toe. That man is “the Blade,” Dexter Jackson. According to his site bio, Dex is 5’6” and weighs about 217 in contest shape. While that’s not very big by pro standards—which is just crazy considering that Arnold himself was 6’2” and was only about 10 pounds heavier when he competed—Dexter is packed with full, round and dense muscle quite reminiscent of the great Flex Wheeler, whom Dexter acknowledges as having the greatest physique ever. Particularly outstanding are his chest, arms and shoulders. Check out some of the photos he has for sale on his site, especially the two color shots with the black background, to see a combination of mass, shape and hardness that’s simply amazing.

Something I found interesting is that when asked what accomplishment he’s most proud of, Dex claims it’s his first “major pro victory” at the ’03 Show of Strength. I find that surprising, considering his two Arnold Classic wins. I should note, though, that the man he beat for the SOS title in ’03 was none other than current Mr. Olympia Jay Cutler. All you PlayStation freaks out there might be interested to know that the Blade believes himself unbeatable at Madden Football. While I’m pretty good at that game myself, I don’t plan on challenging him to that, or a posedown, anytime soon. Overall, his Web site is pretty basic in terms of info, but it has a unique look, feel and functionality. Personally, I’d like to see him add to his photo gallery and tell us more about his training and diet philosophies. Still, the site is definitely worth a look—especially if you’re a Dexter fan.

Merv

MUSCLE “IN” SITES MUSCLE “IN” SITES MUSCLE ‘IN’ SITES MUSCLE “IN” SITES MUSCLE “IN” SITES MUSCLE ‘IN’ SITES MUSCLE “IN” SITES MUSCLE “IN” SITES MUSCLE ‘IN’ SITES MUSCLE “IN” SITES MUSCLE “IN” SITES MU

Eric Broser’s

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>www.CatherineAndersen.com With every passing year the IFBB figure ranks become more and more competitive, and ’08 will be no different. One who won’t get lost in the crowded waters is ’07 NPC USA overall champion Catherine Andersen. With her long, dark hair, piercing eyes, radiant smile and beautifully proportioned physique, she’ll be generating some major waves when she makes her pro debut at the Figure International on February 29. An athlete all her life, Catherine didn’t take up weight training until after college, but she noticed changes in her body very rapidly once she did. That led her to compete in, and win, her first bodybuilding competition in ’03, but she refocused to figure in ’06. By ’07 she had her IFBB pro card. If you take a look at her picture gallery, though, as well as the photos she has for sale, it’s easy to see why Catherine has been so successful so quickly. Her body has curves in all the right places, and while she possesses quite a bit of muscle, it’s a perfect fit for her frame. That type of development doesn’t happen by accident. It takes a meticulously planned training and nutrition program. Luckily, Catherine is more than willing to share her secrets with anyone looking to benefit from her knowledge through one-on-one personal training, online training and a series of Adventure Boot Camps that she’ll be running in 2008. Check out her site for the details. While you’re there, you can read more about her. If you’re an up-and-coming figure gal looking to increase your exposure in the industry, CatherineAndersen.com provides links to a sample résumé, sponsorship-request cover letter and an expense sheet specific to the sport. It’s always nice to see a champion help those who wish to one day walk in the same shoes…or in this case, high heels.

>DVD Review: “Jay Cutler: From Jay to Z” Okay, I admit that when I received my review copy of this DVD and saw that it was almost seven hours long, I said to myself, “There’s no way I’m watching this entire thing. If I’m going to spend seven hours in front of my TV, it’ll be for ‘Seinfeld’ reruns or ‘The Matrix’ trilogy.”

Well, guess what? I did watch the whole thing—and I really enjoyed it. It would take many pages for me to tell you all about “From Jay to Z,” as it’s truly packed with entertaining and interesting footage of the world’s greatest bodybuilder. That’s quite unlike most other bodybuilding DVDs. It follows Jay through almost all facets of his life and work.

While the training pieces are enjoyable to watch, the footage outside the gym is the most engaging.

The viewer gets to see Jay meet and greet fans, work at the Muscle Tech booth, hold a seminar at the IRON MAN Pro, talk to other fitness celebrities (and

there are many on this DVD), attend the grand opening of his Max Muscle store in Venice, California, and much more. This DVD truly “humanizes” Jay and shows exactly what it takes to be Mr. Olympia both inside and outside the gym. In fact, after watching Jay in action, I’ve come to respect him even more as both a bodybuilder and a representative of the sport. He’s remained humble, levelheaded, passionate and, most important, approachable and friendly to all of his fans, no matter what the situation. I highly recommend the DVD and applaud Jay Cutler for being such a fine ambassador of bodybuilding. Oops, “Seinfeld” is on. Gotta go.

Editor’s note: “Jay Cutler: From Jay to Z” is available from Home Gym Warehouse, 1-800447-0008 or www.

Home-Gym.com.

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Eric Broser’s >Net

Results Q&A

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

Q: I have an odd problem with my shoulders.

My posterior- and lateral-delt heads are well developed, but my anterior delts look flat. With all of the heavy pressing I do, how can that be?

I can handle 110-pound dumbbells for seated presses, and I bench close to 400 pounds. How can I bring up my front delts?

Neveux \ Model: Dan Gwartney, M.D.

A: That’s an interesting question, as I actually have the same problem and have just recently set out to fix it. I’m not sure if this is the case with you, but I’ve become so proficient at recruiting my pectorals during pressing movements that I believe my anterior delts might not receive enough stimulation, even from seated dumbbell and military presses—and, yes, my chest is my best bodypart. So if shoulder presses aren’t getting the job done, where does that leave us? The answer lies in tweaking the pressing movements and adding some front-delt isolation work. Here are the movements I suggest you add to your program:

than holding the bar the standard way, use a reverse grip. That forces your elbows to remain out in front of your body, which contributes to greater recruitment of the anterior delts. It might feel awkward at first, so take it slow and start with a light weight.

Incline barbell or dumbbell front raises. Holding a pair of dumbbells or a light barbell, lie facedown on an incline bench set at about 60 degrees. Raise the weight to just above shoulder level, using front-delt power only. The angle of your torso takes away any possibility of cheating and makes for a much more intense contraction at the top of the movement.

Cable front raises. Attach a short straight bar to a low pulley. Stand facing away from the weight stack, holding the bar with your palms down and the cable running between your legs. Lean slightly forward at the waist, and raise the bar to just above shoulder level.

Hold the peak contraction for a moment, and lower the bar under full control. The constant tension of the cable provides a unique stimulation for the anterior shoulder fibers.

Use one pressing movement and one isolation movement in each shoulder workout. I suggest that you occasionally superset two of the movements in either preexhaust or postactivation fashion. Each type of superset provides a unique feel and effect.

I started noticing new fullness in my front delts after only four weeks of using those exercises.

Work hard, and you should ex-

Seated twisting dumbbell presses, a.k.a.

Arnold presses, hit the front delts hard. perience the same sensation.

Seated twisting, or Arnold, dumbbell presses.

Instead of keeping your palms facing forward throughout the movement, start with the palms facing toward you, with your elbows slightly in front of your torso. As you press, twist your wrists so the palms face forward at the top. Then reverse the process on the descent.

That will activate the anterior delts somewhat more than standard dumbbell presses.

Preexhaust superset Cable front raises Seated twisting dumbbell presses Postactivation superset Seated reverse-grip barbell presses Incline dumbbell front raises

Seated reverse-grip barbell presses. Rather 262 APRIL 2008 \ www.ironmanmagazine.com

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2-3 x 12-15 2-3 x 6-8

2-3 x 8-10 2-3 x 10-12 IM

LONNIE TEPER’S

Predictions Dept.

Contests Brandon-ing Who’ll be heading to the pros in ’08?

ADD NPC VIPs—A kid who really caught my Jeff Olcsvary. eye at the Nationals was Ozzy. No, not Osborne.

Olcsvary, as in Jeff ”Ozzy” Olcsvary. He stands only 5’4” and weighed in at 151, but don’t let the size fool ya. The chap is real big, both on a posing dais and in the powerlifting arena.

Born in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, but pretty much raised in Moss Bluff, Olcsvary says the first time he saw “Conan the Barbarian” he wanted to be as big as Arnold. Claims he even worked out by carrying a log around the yard, and that he pushed his truck around the neighborhood to get stronger at lineman drills for football.

Though he’ll never be as big as the Governator, at least sizewise, Ozzy 264 APRIL 2008 \ www.ironmanmagazine.com

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Brandon Curry.

Brandon Rey.

Contest photography by Roland Balik and Merv

As you know, in 2007 it was Ben White and DeShaun Grimez leaving the USA with pro cards and overall champ Evan Centopani leading the seven class winners at the Nationals, who are all eligible to move on to the next level. Who’ll be out of the gate first in ’08? Early or not, the Swami is here to tell ya who the main contenders going from the NPC to the IFBB will be. I’ll start—and end—with a couple of guys named Brandon. As in Curry and Rey. Brandon Curry, at only 25, doesn’t need to be in a hurry but is one of my picks for most likely to get a pro card in Vegas at the end of July at the USA. No going out on a limb here. The 5’8” 224-pound Curry was second in the heavyweight class at the USA and Nationals last season. The new age Flex Wheeler would seem to have a lock on the class, but contests are won onstage, not on paper, so Brandon still needs to show up in prime-time condition to earn pro status. I say he does.

Brandon Rey, 28, took the light-heavyweight class at the ’07 Junior Nationals, but the Silver Spring, Maryland, resident will be moving up a division—or two!—this year. At 5’7” the CNN assignment editor-producer was carrying a hard 240 pounds in the off-season and could be producing a segment on himself in a “Look Back at 2008” highlight reel.

Not sure where this Brandon will turn up onstage, the USA or the Nationals, but he’s more than capable of nabbing that pro card at either one. Say, who wants to see a Brandon-Brandon showdown in Vegas? All in favor say aye!

WEIGHTY UNION New things you can do in the gym Pages 267-268

BEST GYMS Where can you build a body like this Pages 268269

CHRISTMAS IN JULY? No, but it explains why Santa loves Southern California Pages 266 through 268

will be making plenty of noise in the industry real soon. At the Nationals he gave himself a wonderful 22nd birthday present by earning a thirdplace finish in a tough lightweight class. A few months earlier he took the division at the Junior Nationals, facing off against Brandon Rey, among others, in the overall posedown.

Olcsvary’s powerlifting feats are something to behold. He’s the owner of American and national records in two weight classes: At the ’05 Collegiate Nationals Ozzy was awesome with a 369-pound bench, a 501 squat and a 468 deadlift at a bodyweight of 148. He set the Collegiate National Bench press record in the 123-pound division with a lift of 303.

What’s more, he’s a “strong” choice to win the lightweight class in Atlanta next November at the Nationals. I’m willing to bench, er, bet, on that too!

IFBB Expansion

Evan Centopani.

Isaac Hinds \ www.LiftStudios.com

Photo courtesy of the IFBB Press Commission

Dan Soloman and Joe Weider.

THREE UP, ONE DOWN—Although the Colorado Pro is gone from the IFBB Professional League men’s schedule after a two-year run, three new contests appear on the slate for ’08. The New Zealand Elite Pro on March 15, the Houston Pro on July 4 and 5 and the Pro Bodybuilding Weekly Championships in Tampa, Florida, on August 9 will make their debuts this season to run the total of events to 11.

Under the direction of promoter Tim Gardner, the Pro Bodybuilding Weekly Championships will be the only men’s pro show staged in the Southeast. In fact, it’s been five years since a pro show has been held in the Sunshine State.

“The PBW contest is a great way for us to give something back to an industry that has helped us popularize bodybuilding talk radio,” said PBW creator Dan Solomon. “The state of Florida has produced countless world-class bodybuilders, and we are excited to team up with Gardner, one of the area’s top promoters. We expect an impressive lineup come show time.” The event will be held at the prestigious Tampa Troy Alves Bay Performing Arts Center, with Larry near the historic Ybor City Pepe. district.

J.M. Manion

Tyler goes to the mat—literally.

ADD SOLOMON—Dan could only shake his head at the conclusion of the ’07 Nationals.

Can you blame him for being upset? I mean, the guy actually bet the Swami a steak dinner that Brandon Curry would win his class and best Evan Centopani. How dare you question my crystal ball? Solomon will be paying up during IRON MAN Pro weekend, at an eatery of my choice. Filet mignon, medium well, please.

ADD PBW—Solomon and sidekick Bob Cicherillo began their fourth season in January, as well as celebrated their 100th show, and this year they have added Larry Pepe’s “Pep Talk” to their Monday night-lineup. It’s good www.ironmanmagazine.com \ APRIL 2008 265

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to have Larry back on the radio; I was a guest on his old show, “Muscle Radio,” a couple of times, along with John Romano, and felt the segments went very well. Larry knows his stuff and is always well prepared.

The 30-minute show airs immediately after Solomon and Cicherillo’s hourlong broadcast. So, what got ya back in the saddle, Larry?

“For the past 20 years I’ve lived the bodybuilding lifestyle and have been a part of virtually all phases of the industry,” said the Pepster. “The opportunity to create 30 minutes of quality content for the fans every week sounded like too much fun to pass up. The popularity of PBW radio speaks for itself.”

Good points, my man.

Anjelica Huston and friend.

People and Events ADD CENTOPANI—As a lot of people figured, ’07 NPC National champ Evan Centopani will be making his first venture into the flex-for-pay arena at the New York Pro. Even so, Centopani fans will have to wait a bit to see the Italian Battalion onstage, as he’s shooting for the ’09 New York Pro. “Last year my off-season was only from March to July, because after the Nationals the year beJohn Balik and Bill Rosendahl. fore I made the mistake of trying to stay in shape too long,” he explained. “For my pro debut I’d Lisa Boushard (with Quincy like to give myself some time and have a full Taylor) at the ’07 New York season to train hard, eat up and grow. I feel I can really make some dramatic improvements Metro. if I allow myself the time.”

Centopani says he knows he’ll “catch some heat” for waiting a year and a half, but “I know what’s right for me, and if I ended up placing high in New York this year but didn’t feel I made any improvements from the Nationals, I wouldn’t be satisfied.”

No heat from this guy, Evan. You’ll just be turning 27 then, and I can see you coming it at a hard 260 (he was 245 at the Nationals) and making a solid run for the title.

People have whined about Phil Heath’s decision to pass on the past two Olympias, but if the Gift has the great season I foresee for him this year, everyone will be telling him just how smart he was.

Happy So I say to Evan, take your time, kid—you have 80th, a long career ahead of you.

George!

Santa Joe Wheatley and his helpers.

OUCH! DEPT.—As Mr. T said in “Rocky III,” “My prediction? Pain!” Tyler Manion is only about 5’2” and weighs around 100 pounds, but you’d better not get the 14-year-old ticked off. Or, more specifically, get him on a wrestling mat.

Son of J.M. Manion and grandson of Jim, Tyler the Terror is 17–2 for the season and unbeaten in junior high competition. Gee, he seems like such a sweet young man. Where in the world did he get his killer instinct? They do say genetics often skips a generation, right, Lats?

Brian Andrews and Flex Wheeler.

KEEPING UP WITH FLEX—With the deepest IRON MAN Pro lineup ever just five weeks away as I write this, it’s not a bad time to check 266 APRIL 2008 \ www.ironmanmagazine.com

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in with Flex Wheeler, the all-time IM record holder with five victories.

Wheeler, 42, has been writing and taking pics for Muscular Development for the past few years, and he recently joined forces with All American EFX, one of the fastest-growing sports nutrition brands in the land, a company whose motto is, “Pure. Potent. Drug-Free.”

If you’ve seen Flex at contests or in pictures recently, you may have noticed the “Natural Freak” T-shirt.

“People find it hard to believe I’m now natural,” said Wheeler. “They see the crazy size I had put on after only six weeks of using only AAEFX products. That was months ago, and I’m still growing. I’m also here to tell you we’re going to shake the industry up with what we’re doing together.

As for my plans, who knows? Hey, I’m Flex Wheeler—you never know what I’ll do!”

Flex says it was a twist of fate that brought him together with AAEFX. “About two years ago I got a sample bottle of their Kre-Alkalyn EFX creatine product at a trade show in Italy,” he related. “After I used it for only a few days, I was hooked. Once I started training again after my shoulder surgery, I wanted to get back on the product again. So I called the number on the side of the bottle, spoke with the president of the company, Brian Andrews, and the rest is history.”

You can learn more about the product at www.getkre-alkalyn.com.

More Milestones Anna and Jeff.

TURNER, 80, STILL GOING STRONG—George Turner, former IRON MAN scribe, bodybuilding star and gym owner deluxe and a personal trainer at Powerhouse Gym in St. Louis, Missouri, recently celebrated his 80th birthday at the facility, which is owned by fitness pro Angela Semsch and her husband, Roger. Turner’s birthday bash was part of the holiday party for staff and members that Angie and Roger threw at the gym. NPC bodybuilding standout Lisa Boushard, who won the New York City Metro Championships in 2007, also works there and tells me that George draws top dollar from his clients—and that they’re all getting major results. I wouldn’t expect anything less, Lisa!

Turner opened his first gym, the West End Barbell Club, back in 1950 and went on to own seven workout centers in the St. Louis area until 1992.

George, who, like the late Joe Gold, made his own Adir equipment, was one of the first to produce 45 and 75 Fihlo. degree leg presses. Ken Waller, Tony Pearson, Samir Bannout and Jeff King are just a few of the stars who trained at Turner gyms over the years.

George still looks great, Lisa looks great, Angie looks great. They must be doing something right at that gym—congrats to all, folks.

MUSCLE BEACH TOY DRIVE—More than 450 toys and $300 in cash donations were raised for Venice’s Bible Tabernacle Church at the initial Muscle Beach Toy Drive, which was held over three days in December at the famous Venice weight pen. The church provides toys to homeless and needy children in Venice and the surrounding area.

Various celebs showed up at the event, including award-winning actress Anjelica Huston and award-winning Santa Claus Smokin’ Joe Wheatley, who brought his helpers, Barb Garcia, Delinia Lewis, Cheryl Stoneham and Marie Cunningham. Joe, next time trim the beard a bit so we can see more than three inches of your face. Were you hiding from anybody in particular?

One of the many highlights of the event was the presentation of a Certificate of Appreciation to IRON MAN Publisher John Balik from the www.ironmanmagazine.com \ APRIL 2008 267

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Jon Jon Park (center) with Mr. Olympias Samir Bannout (left) and Franco Columbu.

City of Los Angeles and Councilman Bill Rosendahl for Balik’s continued support of bodybuilding activities at Muscle Beach.

“The challenge is out for the 2008 season,” said Wheatley, “we’re working on a Venice Christmas Parade, which will culminate with the toy drive.”

IRON MAN, Bodybuilding.com, HeadBlade, Muscle & Fitness and Joe Wheatley Productions sponsored this worthy cause. Thumbs-up to all who supported it.

Teper

Mike Uretz with Carla and Lou Ferrigno.

Junior Cal

Hollywood Bert Perry.

L.T. and the governor.

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Photo courtesy of Bob Bonham

BANNER YEAR FOR BOB—The 2007 season was a banner one for Bob Bonham and his Strong & Shapely Gym. The East Rutherford, New Jersey, facil-

Bert Perry

SAY IT HAS TO BE JAY—Due to strict requirements set by several members of the Pasadena City College staff, two-time Mr. Olympia Jay Cutler doesn’t have a choice about guest posing at my annual NPC Junior California Bodybuilding and Figure Championships. The Ultimate Beef has really grown on many in the PCC family, and they insist that Jay must return to the Sexson Auditorium stage so they can get an up-close-and-personal look at the 5’9”, 290-pounder in his full-but-fairly-tight off-season condition.

So on June 21 I’ll round up the faculty and staff on hand and get the money shot onstage after Cutler does his thing. Might even have Kenny Lawler, PCC’s head football coach and a former physique standout himself a couple of decades back, take off his shirt and pose Jay down.

Last year the contest grew to 100 contestants (from 68 the year before and 38 in 2005), so I’ve added a superheavyweight class in the men’s open.

And at the urging of fitness pro Cynthia Bridges, a strong supporter of my event through the years, I’m also adding in a teen figure division for ages 16 through 19. One of those competitors better go by the name of Jordan Bridges, as in Cynthia’s 16-year-old daughter, who is currently running the offense as a starting point guard on the Newbury Park High School girl’s basketball team.

Kiyoshi Moody, last year’s men’s overall champ—who went on to win his class at the Team Universe—says he’s coming by to view the festivities. Think I’ll get Moody to peel off his clothes onstage at some time during the evening?

Defending middleweight champ Adir Fihlo, who finished second to Moody in the overall balloting at the Junior Cal after winning the overall in both the collegiate and novice divisions, announced he’s coming back to take the overall this time around. Since several other standouts have made similar comments, it looks like the quality will be extremely high again.

For more information on the shebang, go to www.NPCJuniorCal.com.

More Personalities

Fredrick

Fredrick

WILLET TIES THE KNOT—Where else would former Team Universe Overall champ Jeff Willet have the wedding when he married Anna Grossman on December 29? At Jeff Willet’s Powerhouse Gym in Adrian, Michigan, in front of about 100 gym members and family. The new Mrs. Willet is from Waterloo, Ontario, Canada.

Willet earned his pro card at the ’03 T.U. but never competed on the pro level, instead focusing on his gym, which opened the following year, and on producing videos that center around maximizing drug-free performance.

Congrats to Jeff and Anna. Here’s wishing you a lifetime full of wonderful times.

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Bob Bonham with the Strong & Shapely guy.

ity was featured in the November ’07 Powerlifting USA as the Hardcore Gym of the Month, and Bonham was recently profiled in the self-help book How to Climb Your Ladder of Success Without Running Out of Gas!” by IRON MAN contributor John M. Rowley. Actually, the title of the book is even longer, but I don’t have space for the remaining 25 words. John, have them edit it down next time, will ya, buddy?

Additionally, Bonham served as an adviser for an upcoming article in Men’s Health about the best gyms in the country. I’ve been to Strong & Shapely numerous times. Got in some great training sessions, and I always ended things by crushing Bob in a posedown. He always blamed his defeats on water retention.

By the way, Bob has been seen in Southern California quite often of late, and it ain’t ’cause he was visiting me. Brenda Kelly is the reason Bob has tripled his frequent-flier miles in the past three months. Come to think of it, Brenda’s been seen in New Jersey quite a bit recently. Bob has been training hard since the two got together. Guess we’ll have to call the new couple Strong and Shapely.

Liberman

Rick Bayardi and L.T.

GET WELL WISHES DEPT.—NPC Ohio and West Virginia State Chairman Rick Bayardi underwent a triple-bypass surgery in December and then got pneumonia a couple of weeks later. Rick, who’s one of the nicest guys in the industry— and one of the finest expediters to boot—is only 53 and appeared in great health every time I saw him last year.

Here’s to a speedy recovery, Rick—you’d better be in the house at the Natural Ohio in April, or I’m not going to emcee. And you need to stick around a lot longer if you want a shot at winning my Best Dressed award this year after placing a close second to Ken Jones in ’07.

Dennis Tinerino.

A Fitting Ending Thanks to California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and First Lady Maria Schriver for hosting a tribute to Reg Park at the Miramar Fairmont Hotel in Santa Monica in December. A large crowd came out to pay its respects to Reg, who passed away from melanoma at the age of 79 in November.

Once again, I’ll comment on how sad it is that it takes the death of an icon for many of the industry’s major players to get together. Don’t miss my video interviews with Jon Jon Park, Lou Ferrigno, Zabo Koszewski, John Balik, Steve Strong, Franco Columbu, Boyer Coe, Jerry Brainum, Samir Bannout, Peter McGough and Shawn Perine at www.IronManMagazine.com. You’ll find my blog about the touching event there too, as well as a complete video of the affair, which includes the Governator’s euology for the man he idolized.

Photo courtesy of Dennis Tinerino

What Ever Happened to…

Former Mr. America and Mr. Universe Dennis Tinerino was known for much more than his great physique three decades back. Try lucrative illegal ventures, celebrity friends and partying like a rock star. While serving time for pimping and pandering more than 25 years ago, however, the mob-connected Tinerino, who came from the projects of Brooklyn, New York, was, as he puts it, “brought to my knees.

“God let me continue on a path of self-gratification and of trying to fill the void in my heart until I hit rock bottom in jail.… But He didn’t give up on me.”

Fast-forward to 2008. The 60-year-old now travels the world as an evangelist, sharing his story of God’s mercy and redemption and also hosting annual prophetic conferences near his home in Northridge, California.

In addition to preaching in such nations as South Africa, Turkey, Japan and Greece, Tinerino and his wife, Anita, went last year to minister in Europe’s largest church, the Embassy of the Blessed Kingdom of God for All Nations, in Kiev, Ukraine.

To learn more about Dennis’ mission, log on to www.Tinerino.com. IM 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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The Reg Park Memorial Hosted by Arnold Schwarzenegger, December 14, 2007 Photography by Jerry Fredrick and John Balik

A

would have to work if I wanted to achieve my dreams.

“I’ll always remember him making me do calf raises with 1,000 pounds at five o’clock in the morning. It really woke me up that he worked out so hard day and night.

was known as ‘the Legend.’

And he was an astute businessman who used his intelligence, instincts and eternal optimism to become a tremendous financial success.

“Reg was one of a small group of people in my life who were always there to support me. Whether it was winning bodybuilding competitions, starring in a new film or becoming governor, there was always a note and kind words from Reg. That pumped me up and helped inspire me for my next goal.

“As a young man I lived and trained with Reg in South Africa. There I saw another side of him that was impressive. That was the loving, doting father to Jon Jon and Jeunesse and the devoted husband to Mareon, his incredible wife of more than 50 years.

“I didn’t grow up in that kind of environment, but it really impressed me. Seeing him so free with his hugs and kisses and affection, I realized that’s the kind of father and husband I wanted to be.

“Reg was a dear friend, an extraordinary mentor and a personal hero. I will miss him dearly.”

On the next few pages are photos from the event.

Photo courtesy of Jon Jon Park

n event honoring the life of Reg Park took place on December 14, 2007, at the Fairmont Miramar Hotel in Santa Monica, California. He was a bodybuilding legend, a wonderful role model and a hero to many, including Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Here’s what the governor had to say about Reg Park: “Other than my parents, there may be no single person who had more to do with me becoming the person I am today than Reg. I first saw him on the cover of a muscle magazine when I was a kid in Austria in 1962. The photo was Reg in his Hercules film role, and I wanted to be just like him.

“He was so powerful and rugged looking that I decided right then and there I wanted to be a bodybuilder, another Reg Park—and I could not have found a better hero to inspire me.

“I read every article about him. I saw him in his movies.

I found out what his training regimen was and made it my own. He was a three-time Mr. Universe, and when we met and began working out together, it was Reg who impressed upon me how hard I

“He is the reason I was motivated to become Mr. Universe myself and come to America and make movies. And he was like a second father to me.

“Reg was a wonderful role model in so many ways. He was a gracious and proud champion who lived every day of his life to the fullest and was loved by everyone in bodybuilding, where he

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Arnold and Franco Columbu.

John Balik and Jerry Brainum.

Jon Jon Park and Lou Ferrigno.

Peter McGough, George Coates and Boyer Coe.

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Franco, Jon Jon, Boyer and Samir Bannout.

Lonnie Teper and Arnold.

Steve Cepello and Zabo Koszewski.

Jon Jon’s gym honors his father.

From Rick Wayne, Former Pro Bodybuilder and Journalist The first time I talked with the great Reg Park (the secret reason I had persuaded my folks to buy me a ticket to London way back in ’57—1957, that is, not 1857!), it cost every penny in my pocket. A lot more than I could afford on a phone call at the time. Little did I realize that the number I had gleaned out of Reg’s magazine would connect me to his Leeds address, way out in Yorkshire. I believe I’d been in London all of 24 hours. I may well have taken him away from an important work engagement (after all, it was midafternoon), but you’d never have known judging by the superstar bodybuilder’s tone. I must’ve asked a hundred silly questions, including how to build arms and pecs like his. It was only when I asked him to be my personal trainer that I realized his was not a London number.

“There’s no need to come all the way to Leeds,” he chuckled. “There’s a great place near where you are. It’s called Wag Bennett’s Gym. Wag’s a great bloke. Tell him Reg sent you!” To this day Wag and his wife, Dianne, continue to be counted among my very best friends. When I eventually met him in person, Park was every bit the gentleman. Absolutely no airs. And while we were never friends in the way, say, he and Arnold were, we shared many a bodybuilding joke, sometimes at his expense.

While working with Weider in California, I met Reg’s son, Jon Jon, who proved a chip off the old block, in ways other than appearance. Bodybuilding as we know it today has lost a founding father. Reg was our sport’s first monster. (Oh, but look what he inspired!) Naturally, his passing has reminded many of us of our own mortality; reminded us too that life is to be lived to the fullest, that we never get a second chance to do so. I extend my own family’s condolences to Mareon and the rest of the Parks. IM 272 APRIL 2008 \ www.ironmanmagazine.com

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RUTH SILVERMAN’S

About April: • • • •

Fitness Amateur Hour Hot Backstage Bods Eye-Catchers Pump-Pourri

Photography by Ruth Silverman, Roland Balik and Merv

FITNESS AMATEUR HOUR

HEART STEALER Yenny Polanco missed getting a pro card by one point at the Team Universe last summer but passed on following up at the Nationals.

I can’t help wondering where we’ll see the former hair salon owner— and two-time Golden Gloves light-flyweight boxing champ—next.

CAPITOL PERFORMANCE Amanda Marinelli claims to be better known as the wife of top masters-over50 bodybuilder Dave Marinelli, but the Florida fitness flagwaver got everyone’s attention at the Nationals with this routine.

The NPC has scheduled three fitness-pro qualifiers instead of two for 2008.

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IMPRESSIVE EXPRESSIVE Another new face I can’t wait to see more of belongs to Mary Stockbridge, a 4’11 1/2” former cheerleader from Texas who took fifth in her class at the Nationals.

Find great photos, videos and commentary throughout the 2008 season at IronMan Magazine .com.

HOT BODIES ONSTAGE AND OFF

FLEX APPEALING Few would deny that Brett Miller has a fine future ahead on the posing platform.

The 5’4” nurse from North Carolina, who’s been training since she was 14, took second to overall champ Kristy Hawkins at the Nationals—and she’s still in her early 20s.

IN THE WINGS Though she stumbled with an 11th-place finish at the ’07 USA—following a sensational sixth-place debut at the ’06 Nationals, light heavyweight Casey Dougherty looks like the bouncy type—as in ready to bounce back into the top callouts.

B A C K S TA G E S M I L E S 2

1) Holly Powell, hot hardbody and mom, hits a classic pose at the Figure Nationals. She came close to snagging a pro card in September, in the masters division at the North Americans.

Look out, 2008!

2) Michelle Mayberry waves good-bye to the amateurs at the Team U. She made her fitnesspro debut a month later at the Europa Super Show.

3) It’s the end of an era for boybuilding backstage duo Karen Choat and Jennifer Sedia after Sedia won the overall at the USA. She’ll be making new pumproom buddies at the next level from now on.

1

3

4) Speaking of hot backstage presences, on the one hand, Rachel Carraway is just another tall drink of water trying to get noticed in the figure F class. On the other hand, mission accomplished.

4

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Bradford

GALS TO KEEP YOUR EYE ON

HORSE OF A DIFFERENT COLOR Another lass who’s stepping out from the shadows of a bodybuilding relative is Kyla McGrath, a Newfoundlander who’s done quite well at the Canadian Figure Championships.

The sister of IFBB pro Frank McGrath (of ferocious Animal Pak– ads fame), Kyle comes across as a whole different species, wouldn’t you say?

GAMS GOING BYE-BYE Leg men everywhere will be sorry to hear that this pair is out of commission, at least in terms of the bodybuilding stage.

Ironically, Vicki Nixon cites knee problems as the reason she’s retiring from the flex-for-pay arena.

SPEAKING OF MAKING A SPLASH Tenessee Figure champ Brandi Binkley took her class at the NAC in only her second show.

QUICK STUDY “Acting was always a dream, but I never pursued it,” revealed Nancy Hirsch, who nevertheless snagged a role as a sexy scrub nurse on the popular FX series “Nip/Tuck.” The former California Figure champ, who left the pro circuit after only a year, was obviously ready for her close-up—no nips or tucks required.

“THE ART OF FIGURE” Who knew it was an art? Anyone who’s seen Meriza DeGuzman present onstage—or in her hot guest posing with Pete Ciccone at the ’07 Junior Cal—knows the San Diego fitness trainer and nutrition store owner has got it down. For the details on “The Art of Figure” and all things Meriza, go to Meriza Figure.com.

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Are you thinkin’ what I’m thinkin’ about the former Naval rescue swimmer’s chances for success in ’08?

NEWSMAKERS

Soaring Into ’08

Isaac Hinds \ www.LiftStudios.com

FINAL FOUR Fitness represented like gangbusters on the new “American Gladiators.” Of the four women who made the semifinals, three were NPC fitness athletes, including Virginia’s Siene Silva.

WHAT’S UP, DOC? Also among the Gladiatrix fab four, So Cal’s Venus Ramos, M.D. (pictured) and Atlanta’s Shanay Norvell.

OR SHOULD I SAY, HURLING? Canadian fitness pro Sandra Wickham and her longtime sweetie, Ross Webb, plan to marry in Las Vegas on February 14 “in a helicopter flying over the Strip at night,” according to Sandy, who took time from planning her nuptials, her annual amateur show and the ’08 CFBB Fitness and Figure Championships—which she and Ross are promoting in August—to write. You wacky kids—the We’ve Only Just Begun Wedding Chapel wasn’t good enough for you?

TESTOSTERONE CORNER

MEETING OF THE MINDS? Roland Balik caught this off-the-record confab at the Olympia expo (no, the mike was not secretly on). Not long after the shot went online, the person here who is not a blond fitness icon embarked on an arm-training program.

BACK BURNER BOIL-OVER? Ronnie Coleman went through more changes in 2007 than a gal doing fitness and figure in the same show. In addition to cultivating and shedding the above thatch, he lost his rebid to reclaim his crown, retired (presumably) and got married to a lady he’s known since 1998. As she was not the young woman generally perceived to be his girlfriend in recent years, tongues and keyboards wagged overtime when the news broke. Here’s hoping the eight-time Mr. O has found what he’s looking for—and that he and the former Rouaida Christine Achkar find happiness under the Texas skies.

PUMP & CIRC QUOTES OF THE YEAR During the hijinks that took place at the Mr. O press conference, England’s Eddie Abbew, a hairdresser by trade, declared, “This is my first Olympia, but I didn’t know it was so bitchy.” He was topped by Melvin Anthony, who responded in a British accent, “As a matter of fact, I have to pee,” then left the stage. Now, ladies, why can’t you do fun stuff like that at your P.C.?

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PUMP-POURRI—LAST CALL FOR FACES OF 2007

Danielle Hollenshade swears she’s saving the cookie for after the Figure O finals.

In case you were worried that the peek of Debbie Kruck on page 277 was all you were going to get, you can relax.

Lucy Wilson (left, with Amy Neal) is loving her first Nationals. It takes interpreting the callouts to a whole new level.

Left: Bob Cicherillo, Timea Majorova and Charles Glass star in “Touched by a Guru.”

Below: Jim Rockell and Art Bedway guard the results in Pittsburgh.

A familiar behind-the-scenes face at some of the biggest shows, Mark Rupp is a versatile guy. He takes photos and puts out fires.

Photography by Ruth Silverman Above right: ’95 National champ Chris Bongiovanni, serving on the backstage crew, helps a reporter with those tough interpretations.

Below: Doesn’t Theresa Hendricks look as if she should be holding a smart cocktail?

Marika Johanneson and Kris Gethin were married not long after this unusual pump-up room activity took place. And they say bodybuilders’ muscles aren’t useful muscles.

Physique Athlete 101: Meet the photographers. Jennifer Cowan, a couple of weeks before her debut in bodybuilding at the T.U., makes the acquaintance of Brian Moss.

Junior National champ Michael Lockett enjoys the perks of budding physique stardom, courtesy of Amanda Savell.

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

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IRON MAN Hardbody

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IRON MAN Hardbody

Lone Star

Stunner

Former NFL Cheerleader Jamie Eason Compiled by Jonathan Lawson Photography by Michael Neveux Hair and Makeup by Alex Almond

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IRON MAN Hardbody

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IRON MAN Hardbody

Height: 5’2” Age: 31 Weight: 108 Hometown: Houston, Texas Current residence: Austin, Texas Occupation: Spokesmodel for Bodybuilding.com; writer Marital status: Single Sample bodypart workout (hamstrings, glutes and calves): Seated leg curls, 1 x 20 (light), 3 x 15 (drop set on last set); Smith-machine squats (wide stance), 3 x 15 (last set to failure); leg presses (feet high on platform), 3 x 15 (last set to failure); stiff-legged deadlifts, 3 x 15 (last set to failure); seated calf raises, 3 x 10 (pause at the top) supersetted with leg press calf raises, 3 x 20; cardio, one-mile run.

Factoid: “I have a degree in speech communication and organization, and I’m a former NFL cheerleader for the Houston Texans.”

Future plans: “I hope to retire before I’m 40 and live on the lake in Austin.”

Web site: www.MySpace. com/JamieEason.

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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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IRON MAN Hardbody

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Only the Strong Shall Survive

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Speed

Freak Faster

Run Faster With Weight Training

by Bill Starr • Photography by Michael Neveux

Model: Kiyoshi Moody

O

ne of the most important attributes in any sport is speed. Football, baseball, basketball, tennis and lacrosse coaches drool over any athlete who displays blazing speed, and for good reason. Being very fast is a tremendous advantage in athletics. It enables a beaten cornerback to recover in time to make a play, an outfielder to run down a drive to the wall, a lacrosse midfielder to create a sizable gap between him and a defender so he can get an open shot on goal and a basketball player to outdistance his opponent for a slam dunk. Used correctly, speed is always an asset, and everyone wants it. It’s like money or good sense. You can never have too much.

For a happy few being fast comes naturally. We’ve all come across those who were able to fly across the ground or court effortlessly. Speed was in their genes, and all they ever had to do was use it. They, of course, are the exceptions. The vast majority who participate in competitive activities have to work in order to gain any speed.

The good news is that it can be

done. Anyone who’s willing to put in the effort can improve running speed—in some cases quite a bit.

While you may never be as fast as someone with innate speed ability, you can come close and in the process change from being a marginal performer to an outstanding one.

Becoming faster isn’t a complicated process, but it entails a great deal of serious hard work in the weight room, as well as time practicing the skill itself. Generally, coaches overlook the latter point in sports that require a lot of running. They simply instruct their athletes to run a certain distance or do so many sprints with absolutely no regard for technique. Seldom do they consider the fact that knowing how to run correctly is as critical to gaining speed as how far they run. It’s like telling an athlete to tackle a running back several times without bothering to show him how it should be done.

More about that later.

Even if you don’t have perfect running form, you can become faster by applying yourself in the weight room and getting considerably stronger. Strength and speed

are closely linked. Make the muscle groups and corresponding attachments involved in the act of running 50 percent stronger, and you’ll move faster.

I know that’s true because of the many studies that have been done on the subject and because of personal experience. I’ve seen it happen countless times with athletes from every sport that included running. All you need are desire and determination.

The most outstanding example I can give you is Billy Newsome of the Baltimore Colts. In the late 1960s I was hired by the owner’s son, Steve Rosenbloom, who was put in charge of the team. He had some history with weight training and thought it could help the team.

The coaches, however, were either skeptical or openly hostile toward the idea. Strength training wasn’t mandatory—that seems downright absurd now—but that was fine with me. I preferred working with those who wanted to train, not a bunch who were forced to. Billy, a defensive lineman who wanted to pack more muscle on his 235-pound www.ironmanmagazine.com \ APRIL 2008 299

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Only the Strong Shall Survive

Model: Steven Segers

Everyone can lunge, and I encourage athletes to start doing lunges after they’ve built a solid base and mastered the form on back squats

much about strength, but they understand the value of speed. So if lifting weights could make their players faster, they wanted in on the deal.

It needs to be noted that Billy’s faster time in the 40 was due to his new strength and nothing else. No one taught him running technique, and he hadn’t done any actual running other than some short sprint sessions prior to going to camp.

For a program to bring the desired results, however, it has to have two attributes. It must contain core exercises for the muscles directly responsible for the act of running, and the exercises have to be attacked, not done with token poundages. You’re not going to gain the type of strength you’re seeking unless you see the White Buffalo on a regular basis. You’re going to get out of a program only what you invest in it.

The most important muscle groups, obviously, are in the hips and legs, but they’re not the only ones that take part in the act of running. The back and upper body also play key roles. There’s a saying among serious runners that “running starts in the hands,” meaning that your hands and arms are very much a part of it. For the power generated by the powerful lower body to be transferred into the arms, it has to pass through the back. So the back muscles have to be proportionately as strong as the hips and legs. A strong back benefits in another way as well. To run fast, you must stay erect, and that’s possible only if your

body, came to the gym consistently and did the program I gave him with enthusiasm. Like all the rest he was an exceptional athlete and made impressive gains in a rather short period of time—from March to mid-July, when training camp started. At his last session before camp he benched 360, squatted 585 and power-cleaned 300. He’d also moved his bodyweight up to a rockhard 270.

When the coaches saw him, they were stunned, and not in a good

way. They voiced the opinion that he was way too heavy and most likely muscle-bound, a common belief about strength training back then.

Then he ran a 4.6 40-yard dash, a quarter second faster than his previous best, when he’d weighed 55 pounds less. That opened the eyes of a number of teams in the NFL. I was offered a position on two other teams, and it didn’t take long for all the other teams in the league to hire strength coaches.

Football coaches may not know

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To move faster, you must strengthen not only your hips and legs but also your entire body from your feet to your hands.

The running I’m referring to is short bursts—30 to 40 yards, which is what most athletes do—not marathons.

back is quite strong, especially your lower back.

In other words, to move faster, you must strengthen not only your hips and legs but also your entire body, from your feet to your hands.

The running I’m referring to here is short bursts, not marathons, 10Ks or even quarter-miles. Athletes, except for those in track, seldom sprint more than 30 or 40 yards, and usually it’s much less than that.

Even soccer, which is a game of running, rarely entails a dash of more than 30 yards. That’s not to imply that strength training doesn’t benefit distance runners. It most certainly does, although the approach is somewhat different.

Nor do I concern myself with fast- and slow-twitch muscles. Even if I knew exactly what percentage of each type you possessed, I wouldn’t alter your program. My goal for everyone is exactly the same—to get the athlete as strong as possible. If the strength gains are significant, you’ll move faster regardless of your genetic makeup.

I’ll begin with the power source— the hips and legs. Three exercises strengthen them: full back squats, front squats and lunges. I start everyone on the back squat and emphasize the necessity of going very

low. Some lack flexibility in their lower legs, and it takes them longer to assume the desired position.

Yet it will come over time and plenty of repetitions. You must go low if you want to improve your running speed for two reasons. First, when you do a deep squat, you bring many more muscles and their corresponding attachments into play than when you do a partial movement. Second, going low achieves balanced strength in the various groups that form the upper leg: quads, leg biceps, adductors and abductors.

When you go low, all the groups get equal attention—problem solved. That’s why I like front squats; you have to go low. Try to cut them off, and they’re much more difficult.

Many lack the flexibility in their shoulders to rack a weight correctly for the front squat, however, so not everyone can do them. That’s all right, just as long as you hit rock bottom on the back squats.

Everyone can lunge, and I encourage athletes to start doing lunges after they’ve built a solid base and mastered the form on back squats.

I like them because they force a weaker leg to work harder. One leg is always more flexibile and stronger than the other, which is evident at the first lunging session. The disparity doesn’t show up when you squat

because the stronger leg takes up the slack, but when you lunge, each leg stands on its own. Forcing the weaker leg to do more, as in adding extra reps for that leg, will bring it up to equal strength—usually in a short period unless the difference is severe.

You have to work all three leg exercises hard and heavy and do one or the other three times a week.

Some athletes like to do all three during a week, while most prefer to alternate lunges with front squats on their light days and stick with back squats at the other two workouts. As soon as you’re confident that you’re using good technique, start moving the work weights higher and higher. It doesn’t matter which leg exercise you select, so long as you really lean on it. I’ll come back to the lower legs later.

Your entire back needs to be worked for the same reason your upper legs do: to ensure a balanced strength. Should any one area lag way behind—whether the lower, middle or upper back—the transfer of power from the hips and legs won’t be as efficient.

The power clean is the ideal exercise for improving strength in every part of your back and is especially useful for anyone just starting on a strength program. While it’s a high-skill exercise, the power clean is easy to learn, and since it’s a dywww.ironmanmagazine.com \ APRIL 2008 301

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Only the Strong Shall Survive If you want to run faster, you absolutely must have strong calves. They initiate the start of the sprint and help stabilize the ankles during the movement.

Model: Moe El Moussawi

The lower back needs special attention since the lumbars help you remain upright while you run.

namic lift, it activates the muscles in a manner different from more static movements. The power clean was the only back exercise that the Colts players did, but most athletes like more variety, and there’s plenty for the back—good mornings and almost-straight-legged deadlifts for the lower back, bent-over rows for the middle and shrugs for the upper.

For single exercises that overload the entire back in an explosive fashion, try clean and snatch-grip high pulls. If you know how to do full cleans and snatches, you’re way ahead of the game because they’re two of the very best for building strength in the muscle groups used in running.

While you need to strengthen all three segments of the back, the lower back needs special attention since the lumbars help you remain upright while you run. Relatively weak lumbars will cause you to lean, which you don’t want to do because it affects your technique and therefore your speed. So you should do some additional lower-back work from the very beginning in the form of hyperextensions and/or reverse hypers. They’re not taxing, and you can do them as part of the warmup and at the conclusion of a session.

Along the same lines, you must work your abs diligently. They also play a role in keeping your trunk erect. Situps done as part of the warmup and leg raises at the end of the workout will get the job done without any duress.

For your shoulder girdle, or upper body, choose from flat-bench presses, inclines, overhead presses or dips. Many are content to stay with just one exercise and work it hard, while others like to build variety into their routines. Of the three major groups, the shoulder girdle is the least important for running, but you still have to keep it strong.

How about the arms? If you’ve included one or more dynamic pulling exercises in your routine, you really don’t need to do anything specific for your biceps; they’re already getting plenty of work. In fact, when you high-pull 300 pounds, you’re using the entire biceps to a much greater degree than you ever could by curling. Power cleans, clean and

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snatch-grip high pulls, shrugs, full cleans and snatches work the brachialis and brachioradialis, which are the prime movers of the upper arms, quite thoroughly. Doing more adds nothing to the strength level.

Same goes for the triceps. They’re taxed on all the various pressing movements, so extra work is optional. If you want to do something to shape your deltoids, triceps or biceps, that’s fine. It won’t help you run faster, but you may like to look good in motion.

The small muscle groups that do deserve more time in the weight room are the calves and adductors. Even though the adductors get worked when you’re squatting, lunging and doing heavy pulls, they have a tendency to lag behind the quads and abductors. You can eas-

IRONMAN Magazine’ s BULLETIN #5

Model: Alex Azarian

When you do a deep squat, you bring many more muscles and their corresponding attachments into play than when you do a partial movement.

• • •

ily maintain them by doing two or three sets of 20 reps on the adductors machines twice a week.

If you want to run faster, you absolutely must have strong calves.

They initiate the start of the sprint and help stabilize the ankles during the movement. When your calves give out, you’re through running.

To get them strong, you have to hammer them. I’ve discussed training the calves and improving your leaping ability in this space before and won’t go over it again. A couple of key points, however: Work your calves at least twice a week, do high reps—30s—for three or four sets.

The first set is a warmup. Then load up the resistance. When you reach rep 20, your calves should be screaming. Grind out 10 more reps.

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Enclose check or money order for $9.95 plus $6.50 shipping payable to: Home GYM Warehouse, 1701 Ives Ave., Oxnard, CA 93033.

Credit card orders call TOLL FREE 1-800-447-0008, offer ITS CA residents add 8.25% sales tax. Foreign orders (except Canada) add $15 shipping. Payment in U.S. dollars drawn on U.S. banks only.

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Only the Strong Shall Survive

Model: Tomm Voss

and don’t plan on doing any sprinting after you’ve exhausted them.

That’s an invitation to a pulled calf, and, trust me, you don’t want that. If at all possible, do both seated and standing calf raises. The seated version hits the soleus and the standing the gastrocnemius.

Power cleans, Both need to be equally strong clean and snatchto stabilize the grip high pulls, lower leg. Many like to work shrugs, full cleans their calves on a separate day and snatches work so they can give the brachialis and them their full attention and brachioradialis, energy. which are the That seems like a lot of stuff prime movers of to cram into the upper arms. a week’s program. Not really, because you don’t have to do every one of the exercises. Start off with the basics, the Big Three: bench, power clean and squat. Do them for five sets of five while you’re perfecting your technique.

Add the ab and lower-back mornings, almost-straight-legged work before deadlifts, high pulls, shrugs and and at the end of the workouts, plus bent-over rows for power cleans. calves and adductors twice a week, You’ll know when you’re ready to and you’re good to go. increase your workload when you’re After six or eight weeks you can able to fully recover from your workbuild variety into your routine, outs. As you add to your volume, doing inclines, overhead presses and dips in conjunction with the flat run the intensity up frequently by benches. Likewise, you can alternate doing triples, doubles and singles instead of fives. lunges and front squats with back Be consistent and apply yourself squats. You can also substitute good

diligently, and you will get stronger.

Then you will have to learn how to use your new strength in an efficient manner. Just getting stronger isn’t enough to make you extremely fast.

Running is a physical skill that can be improved by following certain techniques, as I mentioned. Since we’ve been running all our lives, though, we take it for granted that we’re doing it right. The truth is, few

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Only the Strong Shall Survive Abs must be worked diligently since they play a role in keeping your trunk erect. Situps as part of the warmup and leg raises at the end of the workout will get the job done without any duress.

Model: Alex Azarian

Tony Seaman, to purchase several of them, and every athlete who used them cut his 40-yard time significantly. It produces results, and athletes can do them unassisted, which gives them lots of leeway as to when they practice the drill.

You can improve your speed in a couple of simple ways; you don’t need any assistance. They were a part of the sprinters’ program at the University of Hawaii.

A few football players took advantage of them as well: running up very steep hills and running down slight declines. The higher the grade on the hills, the better, because it forces you to use all your running muscles to the fullest. If no hills are available, run stadium steps. By contrast, you need to do the downward runs on a slant that is only a few degrees higher than a flat track. The purpose of running down the decline is to condition your muscles and attachments and learn how to modify your technique when you’re moving at a faster-than-normal speed. If the downward slope is too great, your mechanics won’t be revelant to running horizontally.

Keep in mind that all movement depends on strength, from the toddler learning to walk to the person getting back his sea legs after a long illness to the aspiring athlete trying to improve his speed. Get considerably stronger, refine your running skills, and then practice, practice, practice. It’s a formula that always works.

athletes run correctly. I know that I’m not an expert on running technique, but I’ve been around sports programs for a long time, and I can tell when someone—that includes about 90 percent of all athletes—is running with crappy form. That’s why I encouraged sports coaches at the universities where I worked to find an expert on the subject to teach the athletes the finer points of the skill. None took my advice.

They, like so many, believe running to be a natural process. It is, but that doesn’t mean everyone does it properly.

So I’m suggesting that if you’re really serious about increasing your speed appreciably, seek out a person who can teach you how to run better. It might be a high school track coach or a collegiate runner.

Or you may be able to find a camp where running is part of the agenda.

They’re in abundance on the East Coast and West Coast and most likely in other parts of the country as well. Even a one day-clinic can be beneficial. If nothing else, find a video on the subject. The point is, anything you can do to improve your running technique is going to have a positive effect on your speed.

Increase your overall strength and hone your technique, and you’ll

move faster, guaranteed.

Let me back up a bit. Before you get into a serious running routine, be sure to allow sufficient time for your strength program, at least two months. If you attempt to move your lifts up and do a lot of running, you’re going to tap into your energy level too much, and that will adversely affect your strength gains.

Once you have established a solid strength base and are able to recover from the workload, though, you can begin to do running drills with no ill effect. That simple fact is generally overlooked by sports coaches. At the start of the off-season conditioning program, they insist that their athletes run distances right off the bat.

I have to plead with them to wait for a couple of months. Running in January isn’t going to be of any use to them when summer camp comes around, but getting considerably stronger will. The added strength will later benefit running. Running too soon will have a negative effect on the strength program.

Quite a few training devices on the market can to help improve speed. The one I like best is the small parachute. Once the canopy fills with air, you really have to work to maintain your speed. I persuaded the lacrosse coach at Johns Hopkins,

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.HomeGym.com. IM

306 APRIL 2008 \ www.ironmanmagazine.com

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Mind/Body BOMBER BLAST

Questioning One’s Sanity

H

ow crazy can we get? Pretty crazy! Consider my habit of eating smaller meals throughout the day as I go about my tasks at home. The frequent-eating events, though of substantial nutritional worth, don’t earn a place at the dining table with an attractive place setting and glowing candles. Instead, I take in the fare of tuna, water and cottage cheese while standing at the kitchen counter conversing with Mugsy (world-famous cat) or the redwoods outside the window, whichever will listen.

Neither does, not for very long.

Alas, eating alone can be lonely, and the neutral stance is conspicuously tiresome and unproductive. However, neutral becomes quite engaging when thrown into low gear, a groaning four-wheel-drive workhorse. Thus I nourish and labor co-operatively.

A bite of food, and I’m in slow motion. Standing four to five feet away from the waist-high counter, I lean forward with my palms on its edge and commence pushing—as if trying to jump-start a stalled ’56 Buick Roadmaster. My stocking feet

slide on the hardwood surface beneath me as I control the pace and resistance with my body’s positioning. I stretch the calves and hamstrings, I labor the thighs, and soon my triceps and shoulders are aching. I lean, I push, I thrust, I persist.

The Buick goes nowhere, wheels still, engine silent. No sweat, no pain, no burden—just invigorating motion, vitalizing action.

Give it a break, Bomber! You’ve been at this madness too long. Have you considered shock therapy, a lobotomy, a pitcher of margaritas? You’re exhibiting scary signs of kettlebells for brains.

You mock, but weirdness sometimes pays off. The diversion is effective and eases stiffness, soothes aches, accelerates healing, stretches, oxygenates, encourages, pacifies and, last but not least, wards off evil spirits. And it’s free.

I entered the gym earlier today and promptly immersed myself in crunches and leg raises. The only way outta the gym is through it. Go, go—not quickly, not hurriedly, not elsewhere, but here and now, thoughtfully and deliberately, like a locomotive changing cars in a freight yard, a crane loading and unloading cargo at the docks.

I noted at the outset how comfortable I felt just lying on the bench, stretching, flexing and contorting in preparation for the workout.

Mugs indulges in a similar repertoire regularly and purrs. The muscles and joints responded blissfully to the tensing and reaching and arching. If only they knew what Neveux \ Model: Brent Kutlesa

MIND/BODY MIND/BODY MIND/BODY MIND/BODY MIND/BODY MIND/BODY MIND/BODY MIND/BODY MIND/BODY MIND/BODY MIND/BODY MIND/BODY MIND/BODY MIND/BODY MIND/WB

MIND/BODY

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

Relationships

Start Putting Out

S

o you want to get into your gal’s, um, good graces?

Try philanthropy.

It’s not a big word for the act of buying diamonds, although it does have to do with putting out some cash—as in giving. According to scientists at the University of Oregon, benevolent deeds increased the activity in female subjects’ brains associated with enjoying food and sex. So feed your gal a good meal, and then have her watch you write a check to your favorite charity. It may increase giving in a number of ways.

—Becky Holman www.X-tremeLean.com

Destress

Nap Time

A

six-year study with more than 20,000 people, average age 53, found that a 30-minute nap in the middle of the day at least three days a week reduced stress. In fact, it reduced it so much that those who napped were 37 percent less likely to die of heart disease. Now, it may have nothing to do with sleeping and more to do with relaxing, so if you can’t actually snooze, try a quick meditation break.

—Becky Holman www.X-tremeLean .com Neveux \ Model: Cara Doll

Neveux \ Model: Brent Kutlesa

I had in store for them, a merciless pounding, beating and thumping into shape.

I decided for the first time in my training history to everso-slowly simmer the concoction of muscles and bodyparts before bringing them to a full boil. Why not? I’m the head chef, after all, and preparing nutritious gourmet specialties to tantalize discerning palates is my art form. I’m not running a fast food joint, Bub. Feed them right and they come back for more—that’s what I always say.

I grabbed a pair of darling 10-pound dumbbells and lay flat on a bench, the cutesy weights straight overhead. With arms straight and palms forward, I extended the dumbbells behind me, simulating a stiff-arm pullover movement. Thoughtfully and slowly I established a one-two-three-four count from the starting position to the return and retained it through the entire slow six-rep set.

If you don’t try this stuff, Mr. and Mrs. Stuck-in-the-mud Conformist, you’ll never know what you’re missing. So there!

I savored the good feelings within the lats, the grip and bi’s and tri’s, the pecs and about the shoulders. The abs were not without stabilizing contraction, and the buttocks and thighs hugged the bench for support. We don’t often notice that favorable multiplicity of activity or appreciate it or tally it as a valuable part of our muscle-building experience or progress.

This style of training was proving to be a lesson in muscle engagement, extension and contraction, action and response, and exercise groove, while revisiting pump and burn with a side trip to in-depth focus.

Shame on us: We grab, go and power through; we chase the sets, reps and action away, rather than pursue them; we endure the pain, we suffer the burn, we groan with exhaustion as the iron crashes to the floor. Great set... let’s do it again.

Listen, Bizzy Lizzy and Murray-in-a-Hurry: Be encouraged.

Don’t stop, but learn to observe and be aware along the way.

It is a learning process. And it is very colorful, amusing and profitable.

—Dave Draper

www.ironmanmagazine.com \ APRIL 2008 309

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MIND/BODY BodySpace Physique of the Month

MIND/BODY

Jason Phillips

Editor’s note: For more BodySpace bodies and info, visit www.Bodybuilding.com.

310 APRIL 2008 \ www.ironmanmagazine.com

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Photography by Ian Sitren \ SecondFocus

J

ust 23 years old, Jason Phillips has already succeeded in overcoming adversity. A chance meeting with an Abercrombie & Fitch representative who made a modeling offer sent 18-year-old Jason into an anorexic tailspin. In an effort to get abs, he totally disrupted his life. A big meal was one whole egg or two rice cakes.

He wouldn’t go out with friends so he wouldn’t be around food. He lost jobs, had no energy and just wanted to sleep all day.

He ended up at a Gold’s Gym working the front desk, and that’s when this 5’10” kid weighing 123 pounds first saw a bodybuilder. Shortly thereafter he saw his first bodybuilding show, the Body Rock in Virginia. He met a bodybuilder who told him he needed to eat 4,000 calories every day.

Today Jason is a golf pro who toured for more than a year and a half. It was Tiger Woods who said to him, “You need to be strong to muscle the shots.” That reinforced his efforts in the gym. He also wanted to fulfill his interest in lifting, however, so he stopped playing for a while. He’s planning to do a couple of bodybuilding shows in 2008, and he hopes to earn his way back into pro golf again in 2009.

You can find more on Jason at BodyBuilding .com’s BodySpace: JPhillips17.com.

—Ian Sitren

MIND/BODY Performance

Multitasking = Multimistakes? ou’ve heard the buzzword multitasking. It means doing more than one thing at once, and, according to an article in the January ’08 Reader’s Digest, it means doing one of those things poorly.

According to Edward W. Hallowell, M.D., author of CrazyBusy, “Human beings can handle two simple, low-level cognitive tasks at once, like filing and listening to the radio.” Tasks that require a bit more brain power, however, need focus. Adding even a If she’s trysimple activity to a highering to learn level task diminishes comFrench as she prehension. works out, one of those tasks Does that mean you will suffer. can’t chew gum and work

Y

out at the same time? No, those are low-level activities (for most of us), but maybe you should refrain from telling your detailed weekend party stories during your training—or sending e-mail via your BlackBerry—unless you like not making optimal gains and possibly getting injured.

—Becky Holman

New Stuff

Charge! Your Water abrada Nutrition has just released its Charge! SuperShot Energy Drink, which provides energy-releasing B-vitamins plus more than 2,450 milligrams of fruit-based antioxidants to support your body’s natural defenses against cell-damaging oxidative stress. It has just the right amount of caffeine to leave you refreshed and ready to take on the world. The natural antioxidants and bioflavonoids in Charge! smooth out the stimulating effect of the caffeine so you can enjoy longer-lasting energy without jitters or a crash.

Labrada Nutrition CEO and IFBB Pro Bodybuilding Hall of Famer Lee Labrada says, “The new Charge! SuperShot tastes great and gives you a natural lift unlike sugary energy drinks. At just two ounces, it’s perfect—convenient to use. Just add to your bottle of spring water to turn it into a delicious fruit-flavored drink, or drink it straight up as a shot. Either way you get healthful, sustained energy without the jitters or crash. Perfect for any time of the day when you need a pickme-up.”

For more information, visit www.Labrada.com.

L

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MIND/BODY New Stuff

Arson

MIND/BODY MIND/

Legally insane fat incineration

A

rson is an unbridled, bodyaltering fat burner, scientifically formulated to force your bodyfat into a state of meltdown.

Chemically engineered with fat-burning agents and blood-boiling reactive substances to torch fat, Arson represents a new breed of fat burner. After your very first dose, a premeditated thermogenic fire is set, cutting you deeper and sharper for frightening striations and crazy conditioning. Here are its powerful ingredients: • Green tea extract. Research has shown that this is an effective thermogenic aid and can control weight loss in humans. Participants in a study using ingredients in Arson had greater energy expenditure than those who were using a placebo.1, 2 • Cissus quadrangularis. In India this plant extract is traditionally used as an aid for promoting bonefracture healing. New clinical research, however, has revealed its incredible weight-loss power. In fact, the average weight loss of subjects taking the extract over eight weeks was approximately 15 pounds, while subjects taking a placebo lost only five pounds.3 Phytochemical analyses of Cissus quadrangularis showed high contents of ascorbic acid, carotene, naturally occurring keto-steroidal substances and calcium.

• Yohimbine HCI. This research-supported compound is a selective alpha-2-adrenergic receptor antagonist that can improve thermogenic response and vasodilation via an alpha-2-adrenoceptor blockade.

Fused with Arson’s proprietary ingredient blend, yohimbine can facilitate blood flow for increased fat burning.

Other ingredients in Arson scientifically shown to accelerate fat loss and push thermogenesis to the max include caffeine anhydrous, white willow bark and Theobroma cacao extract.

• L-leucine. Playing a critical role in protein synthesis signaling, L-leucine is included in Arson to support the synthesis of lean, metabolically active tissue to enhance energy expenditure.

• Gamma butryobetaine. Preliminary research indicates that GBB, which is non-arginine based, induces endothelium- and nitric oxide–dependent vasodilatation via the muscarinic receptor.4, 5 That helps drive key ingredients to the right physiological sys-

tems, initiating a fat-burning response.

• Xanthinol nicotinate. A potent form of niacin, it’s been studied for its vasoactive and blood-flowenhancing properties. It can help improve blood flow and uptake of key ingredients, enhancing the overall effectiveness of Arson’s thermogenic formula.

Other ingredients in Arson that work synergistically to spike maximum vasodilation and accelerate nutrient delivery: Uridine-5’-monophosphoric acid disodium and Epsilon-polylysine.

Driving the extremely powerful fat-burning Arson formula is state-ofthe-art Wave Pulse technology, which is designed to dramatically enhance micronutrient transport, delivery and uptake, and is the power behind Arson’s ability to obliterate fat.

References 1

Dulloo, A.G., et al. (1999). Efficacy of a green tea extract rich in catechin polyphenols and caffeine in increasing 24-hour energy expenditure and fat oxidation in humans. Am J Clin Nutr.

70(6):1040-1045.

2 Dulloo, A.G., et al. (2000). Green tea and thermogenesis: Interactions between catechin-polyphenols, caffeine and sympathetic activity. Int J Obes Relat Metab Disord. 24(2):252258.

3 Oben, J., et al. (2006). The use of a Cissus quadrangularis formulation in the management of weight loss and metabolic syndrome. Lipids in Health and Dis. 5:24-40.

4 Sjakste, N., et al. (2004). Endothelium- and nitric oxide–dependent vasorelaxing activities of gammabutyrobetaine esters. Eur J Pharma.

495:67-73.

5 Sjakste, N. (2004). Changes of concentration of nitric oxide in tissues under action of different pharmacological agents. Summary of doctoral thesis. Riga.

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MIND/BODY Review

MIND/BODY

“Larger Than Life” The Story of Jon Pall Sigmarsson, the Icelandic Viking

A

ll sports have their heroes.

Boxing has a list that includes the great Muhammad Ali, who transcended the boxing realm to become a national icon; the martial arts have Bruce Lee, who became an international symbol of the martial arts world; and bodybuilding has the legendary Arnold, the representative of not only physical presentation but also success in the land of opportunity. In strongman competition a giant from the land of fire and ice has ascended to the realm of legend.

The DVD “Larger Than Life” is more than just a titillating title; it’s an examination of the life led by one of the world’s most extraordinary strongmen, Jon Pall Sigmarsson. Jon Pall became a living icon during his short life and a legend after his death. He was more than just a symbol of strength in the strongman arena; he was the embodiment of the Viking culture of Iceland.

To the world he was the symbol of Iceland. Tall, blond and massive in size and strength, Jon Pall triumphed in both bodybuilding and strongman competitions—winning the World’s Strongest Man four times.

The documentary has film footage from Jon Pall’s childhood, television interviews and various competitions,

giving us an inside look at the life of a champion who was known for his good nature and extraordinary abilities. It pulls no punches, however: There is the steroid use scandal, the gossip about his love life and the secret he kept to himself that would eventually cause his death.

I recommend “Larger Than Life” to anyone who’s dreamed of being more than just a participant in a gym.

It illustrates what it takes to be a champion and the determination it takes to become something more.

The documentary alone is worth the price of admission; the interviews with Odd Haugen, Geoff Capes and the great Bill Kazmaier—the only man to give Jon Pall a run for his money—and many others are icing on the cake.

After watching it, you’ll be primed to train harder than ever and reach new personal bests.

Editor’s note: “Larger Than Life” is available from Karl Gillingham’s JackalsGym.com and IronMind.com.

—Larry Eklund

New Stuff

S.E.R.5

™

Strength, endurance and recovery

S

CI*FIT has introduced S.E.R.5, a premier strength-, endurance- and recovery-enhancing formula. S.E.R.5 features a synergistic combination of very powerful ingredients, including the potent strength-inducing trio of patented Kre-Alkalyn and the carnosine precursors betaalanine and L-histadine. To enhance its explosive nitric oxide effects, a high dose of citrulline malate is included, plus the powerful cell-volumizing antioxidant R-ALA. S.E.R.5 is a strength, endurance and recovery formulation that’s generations ahead of its time. If you had to choose just one product to take, this would be it.

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Isaac Hinds \ www.LiftStudios.com

M IN D/BODY I R O N M A N R isin g S t a r s

Sara Hurrle Age: 32 Height: 5’5” Weight: 118 contest; 138 offseason Residence: Denver, Colorado Contest Highlights: ’07 NPC Colorado Pro-Am, Overall winner 316 APRIL 2008 \ www.ironmanmagazine.com

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M IND/BODY I R O N M A N R isi n g S t a r s

Roger Ferrer

Roland Balik

Age: 38 Height: 5’6” Weight: 176 contest; 200 offseason Residence: Sunny Isles, Florida Contest highlights: ’07 NPC Arnold, middleweight, 1st; ’07 NPC Junior Nationals, middleweight, 1st

www.ironmanmagazine.com \ APRIL 2008 317

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April 2008

Cory Encore

Neveux

What a great thing: Cory Everson on the cover of IRON MAN at age 50 [February ’08]. She looks incredible, the photos accompanying the article were nothing short of amazing, and the interview showed us the real Cory—sensitive, compassionate and a total class act. Love it all. Encore!

Bill Bradford Cory Everson. via Internet I was delighted to see the cover story on Cory.

Thank you so much for running it. She is an amazing woman in many ways, a terrific role model for the women and young girls of today’s society.

As a long-term iron pusher, Cory needs to stay in the public eye.

Steve Jolkes Rio Rancho, NM

Editor’s note: She’s quite a lady, all right—and what genetics. She no longer trains to build a Ms. Olympia physique, but she still looks like that, and at 50 no less. Whew!

Old-Guy Gusto Thank you for the great article on Clarence Bass in the Feburary ’08 IRON MAN [“Still Ripped After All These Years”]. Bass and his writings have helped me a great deal in getting and staying lean and strong. I began at 53, and I’m now 61, so it’s good to see that Clarence is still going strong and that there’s hope for the rest of us old guys.

Mike Harris via Internet Clarence “Ripped” Bass is the true personification of the pure bodybuilding lifestyle.

Not massive but impressive nonetheless with his streamlined physique and super health at age 70. There’s a lesson there for aging boomers.

Let’s hope they get a clue.

Sylvio Martinez via Internet Editor’s note: Dedicated, persistent and knowledgeable—that’s Clarence Bass.

We’re proud to feature bodybuilders with his style and class.

Laszlo Bencze

READERS WRITE READERS WRITE READERS WRITE READERS WRITE READERS WRITE READERS WRITE READERS WRITE READERS WRITE READERS WRITE READERS WRITE READERS WRITE READERS WRITE READERS WRITE READE

Readers Write

Clarence Bass, age 70.

Supersaturation Rejuvenation I want to thank you for the feature on heavy/light training [Supersaturation for Serious Size,” February ’08]. It rejuvenated my workouts. I was going all out all the time and burning out fast. Going heavy with low reps at one workout followed by lighter pump-style workouts has motivated me, and I’m already seeing new size. Drop sets are part of the reason. What a pump and burn.

Serge Blanchette via Internet Editor’s note: For more programs based on the heavy/ light concept, see the e-book X-traordinary Muscle-Building Workouts—10 Complete Print-and-Go Size and Strength Programs, available at www.X-Workouts.com.

NO to Grow I’m always skeptical when a new type of supplement comes out. Needless to say, when all of these nitric oxide– support compounds starting hitting the market, I shook my head. Taking a pill just to get a bigger pump in the gym made no sense to me. Thanks to Jerry Brainum’s article in the January ’08 issue [“Just Say Yes to NO”], I understand their relevance and how they can help me get bigger and leaner. Thanks, Mr. Brainum, for clearing away the fog and helping me see the light. The NO supplements work.

John Brownstone via Internet Errata: Cory Everson won the Ms. Olympia six times, not seven as we wrote in “Cory at 50” in the February ’08 issue.

Also in that feature, the woman in the photo below with Cameo and Cory is their mother, Christa, not the author.

Vol. 67, No. 4: IRON MAN (ISSN #0047-1496) is published monthly by IRON MAN Publishing, 1701 Ives Ave., Oxnard, CA 93033. Periodical Mail is paid at Oxnard, CA, and at additional mailing offices. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to IRON MAN, 1701 Ives Ave., Oxnard, CA 93033. Please allow six to eight weeks for change to take effect. Subscription rates—U.S. and its possessions: new 12-issue subscription, $29.97. Canada, Mexico and other foreign subscriptions: 12 issues, $49.97 sent Second Class. Foreign orders must be in U.S. dollars. Send subscriptions to IRON MAN, 1701 Ives Ave., Oxnard, CA 93033. Or call 1-800-570-4766. Copyright © 2008. 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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