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Page 1: Call for information on future dates! · Todd entered his first bodybuilding competition in 2003 and took 3rd place at the Southern Classic. “I entered the junior division as a
Page 2: Call for information on future dates! · Todd entered his first bodybuilding competition in 2003 and took 3rd place at the Southern Classic. “I entered the junior division as a
Page 3: Call for information on future dates! · Todd entered his first bodybuilding competition in 2003 and took 3rd place at the Southern Classic. “I entered the junior division as a

Call for information on future dates!

July 10-11......Master Level Certification Cincinnati, OH

Page 4: Call for information on future dates! · Todd entered his first bodybuilding competition in 2003 and took 3rd place at the Southern Classic. “I entered the junior division as a
Page 5: Call for information on future dates! · Todd entered his first bodybuilding competition in 2003 and took 3rd place at the Southern Classic. “I entered the junior division as a

www.parrillo.com 1-800-344-3404 Performance Press / July 2004 4

JOHN PARRILLO�S PERFORMANCE PRESS

Todd Fulwood is a Captain on the Olive Branch Missis-sippi police force in suburbanMemphis and at age 33 has beenweight training for ten years.“When I first became serious aboutfitness I didn’t know too muchabout training and eating but afriend of mine knew John Parrillo.Through my friend I became fa-miliar with all the basic ParrilloPrinciples and was introduced tothe bodybuilding lifestyle. Thesophistication of Parrillo’s ap-proach to bodybuilding was arevelation, particularly the pre-cision and exactness of the nutri-tional component.” Todd really tookto the Parrillo approach and hisphysique responded quickly to theintense training and disciplined eat-ing Parrillo preached. “My littlebrother lived in Cincinnati andknew John Parrillo quite well. I gotto talk with John myself and hehelped me fine tune my efforts.About five years ago I becamesuper serious about bodybuilding.I decided that bodybuilding was

something I wanted to do competi-tively and kicked my commitmentand dedication up to the nextlevel.” Things got off to a rockystart; Todd picked a bodybuildingcompetition to enter and began acompetition training cycle. “I wasreal green and I didn’t pace my-self; halfway through my prepara-tion I burned myself out. Betweena crazy work schedule and train-ing too much and being new to thewhole bodybuilding procedure, I gottoo strict too fast and ended upover-trained and under-fed. I hadto back out of my first competi-tion.” Still Todd was determinednot to let his efforts go to waste.Shifting gears, he entered a seriesof bench press competitions andwon every single one. Weighing alean and lithe 181-pounds Toddbenched 435-pounds which is quiteastounding when you consider thathe is just short of six-feet tall. Mosttop powerlifters are thick anddensely constructed yet here wasa relatively tall and thin individualbenching with the best.

Todd Fulwood is a Captainon the Olive BranchMississippi police force insuburban Memphis.

Page 6: Call for information on future dates! · Todd entered his first bodybuilding competition in 2003 and took 3rd place at the Southern Classic. “I entered the junior division as a

onstage this year I will present asignificantly improved physique forthe judge’s consideration.” What isparticularly interesting about Toddis how he is able to fit competitivebodybuilding into an extremelybusy life. So many people complainthat they cannot fit garden-varietyfitness into their busy lives yet hereis Captain Fulwood successfullyjuggling a career in law enforce-ment with national level bodybuild-ing and raising family and all thatentails. Todd is married and hasthree girls: Kaylen, age 5, Kelsey,age 3 and Karli who is 4 monthsold. Professionally Todd is a po-lice officer and has been for thelast twelve years. “I am a Captainin the Olive Branch Mississippi po-lice department. I am an executiveofficer; I do a lot of the budgetingand I’m also the SWAT team com-mander.”

Every three months SWAT teammembers must pass a physical fit-ness test. “SWAT team members

Todd entered his first bodybuildingcompetition in 2003 and took 3rd

place at the Southern Classic. “Ientered the junior division as aheavyweight and thought I did wellfor my first competition. You learnso much about yourself and yourphysique during a pre-competitionpreparation phase. Since theSouthern States Classic I haveimproved significantly and nowhave set my sights on improv-ing my placing. I’ll be enteringthe 2004 Southern States in a

few weeks.” If Todd does wellin this national qualifier he willcompete at the NPC Junior Na-tional bodybuilding championshipsin 2005. He intends on also com-peting at either the SoutheastGold’s gym classic or the Missis-sippi State bodybuilding champion-ships. Todd stands 5-11 and weighs245-pounds in the off-season. He’llcompete this year weighing sliced-and-diced 215-pounds. “I’ve beenable to add a lot of quality muscleover the past year and when I step

So many people complain that they cannot fitgarden-variety fitness into their busy lives yet hereis Captain Fulwood successfully juggling a career inlaw enforcement with national level bodybuilding andraising family and all that entails.

JOHN PARRILLO�S PERFORMANCE PRESS

5 July 2004 / Performance Press 1-800-344-3404 www.parrillo.com

Page 7: Call for information on future dates! · Todd entered his first bodybuilding competition in 2003 and took 3rd place at the Southern Classic. “I entered the junior division as a

www.parrillo.com 1-800-344-3404 Performance Press / July 2004 6

are required to run a mile in undereight minutes, carry another officerfor 50-yards, perform five pull-ups,five dips, 50-sittups and 50-pushups.” Asked if he had been inany dangerous situations Todd re-sponded, “Oh absolutely; I havebeen a SWAT team member foreight years and have been involvedin hostage situations, delt with bar-ricaded suspects and been in inci-dents where shots have beenfired.” Between work, family andtraining, Officer Fulwood’s time isat a premium. “Somehow I makeit all fit. My wife Shana is a regis-tered nurse and she works 10-hourdays. I spend 18 to 20 hours aweek in the gym. My oldest childis playing T-ball and my middle girlis a cheerleader so it is tough try-ing to shuttle everyone to their vari-ous practices – plus I have to findtime to train and cook all that body-building food. I cook and it takes alot of time to prepare meals for thecoming week. Heck, prior to acompetition I eat 30-pounds of fisha week and it doesn’t prepare it-self.” Todd has a few thoughtsabout John Parrillo and his prod-ucts, “I want to thank John Parrillofor all his fantastic advice and fan-tastic supplements; I’ve tried mostall the commercially available nu-tritional products on the market andParrillo Performance Products arehands down the absolute best I’veever used. Parrillo products com-bine potency and taste and I can-not imagine using any other nutri-tional supplements again ever. Mywife loves John’s products asmuch as I do; she drinks the shakesand loves the Parrillo energy bars.The Parrillo Energy Bars taste sogood I feel as if I’m cheating on

been at my breaking point andwant to binge on certain foods shehas said, ‘If you want 1st place youshould pass on that piece of pizzaor pop tart or soda.’ I could nothave made near the progress with-out her in my life.”

Training SplitTraining SplitTraining SplitTraining SplitTraining SplitMondayquadriceps

Tuesdaychest, calves

Wednesdaylats, traps, rear delts

Thursdayoff

Fridaydeltoids, hamstrings

Saturdaybiceps, triceps

Sundayoff

Cardio and abdominal work is donesix days a week: “I get up at 5:30am and power walk for 45-min-utes. Then in the evening, after thelast meal of the day, I’ll perform asecond 30-minute cardio session;either another power walk or per-haps I’ll ride the stationary bike.Six times a week I’ll hit my ab-dominal region with a variety ofexercises. Each abdominal sessionwill last approximately 15-20 min-utes.”

my diet every time I eat one.”

Todd is very much a family manand his wife and children providehim all the love and support hecould ask for. “My wife Shana isincredibly supportive of my body-building efforts. As a family weattend the competitions togetherand my kids love seeing their fa-ther onstage. It makes the entireprocess so much easier when yourfamily is involved and supportswhat you are doing. Shana trainsherself and she trains hard; shecould be quite competitive in Fig-ure competitions. As a medical pro-fessional she understands the sci-ence and logic behind what I’mattempting to do. Shana is amaz-ing; after our youngest daughterwas born January 28th she haddropped 30-pounds by April 15th

and two months after having ababy had six-pack abs. She works50-hours a week and between uswe make it all work. My wife andI have a number one priority: rais-ing our children. We rotate aroundin order that one of us is with thegirls at all times. It would be easierto drop them off with day care orput them in a nursery but we con-sciously make an effort to ensurethat one or both of us are there forthe kids. We flip-flop back andforth so the kids don’t suffer or areneglected. Handled correctly, fit-ness can bring a family togetherinstead of driving them apart. Towin in bodybuilding you have to goto extremes and my wife aides mein my pursuits. I cannot tell youhow many times she has picked meup when I have been emotionallyor psychologically down. I cannottell you how many times when I’ve

TODD FULWOOD

Page 8: Call for information on future dates! · Todd entered his first bodybuilding competition in 2003 and took 3rd place at the Southern Classic. “I entered the junior division as a

TODD FULWOOD

7 July 2004 / Performance Press 1-800-344-3404 www.parrillo.com

Daily MealDaily MealDaily MealDaily MealDaily MealScheduleScheduleScheduleScheduleScheduleMeal 16:30ameight egg whites, two yolks, ¾ cupof oatmeal, Parrillo OptimizedWhey™ shake.

Meal 28:30am¾ cup of oatmeal, double servingof Parrillo Optimized Whey™shake

Meal 311ambroiled catfish, asparagus, ½ cupbrown rice

“Prior to a bodybuilding competi-tion I will eat 30-pounds of fish perweek and consume around 3,500calories per day during the pre-competition phase. I will kick thecalories up considerably in the offseason and eat a wider variety offoods. In addition to Parrillo Opti-mized Whey™ protein shakes and50-50 Plus, I take Parrillo Essen-tial Vitamin™, Mineral Electro-lyte™, Muscle Amino™ formulaand lots of Liver Amino™ formula,30 tablets per day. I use CapTri®and Parrillo energy bars™ in theoff-season.”

Meal 42pmbroiled catfish, asparagus

Meal 54pm50-50 Plus™, six egg whites

Meal 66pm50-50 Plus™ (post-workout doubleserving)

Meal 77pmcatfish, cucumber, asparagus

Meal 810pmParrillo Optimized Whey™ proteinshake before bed

Page 9: Call for information on future dates! · Todd entered his first bodybuilding competition in 2003 and took 3rd place at the Southern Classic. “I entered the junior division as a
Page 10: Call for information on future dates! · Todd entered his first bodybuilding competition in 2003 and took 3rd place at the Southern Classic. “I entered the junior division as a

9 July 2004 / Performance Press 1-800-344-3404 www.parrillo.com

JOHN PARRILLO�S PERFORMANCE PRESS

After a fruitful off-season in whichI had built some good size andstrength, it was time to lean out forthe summer and more importantly,for my contest in September. Thatmeant that cardio, which had beenminimal during those cold monthsof heavy lifting and stuffing myface with obscene amounts offood, was back as a regularpart of my workout regimen.Randy, my protégé and copy-cat, was also doing cardio. Ofcourse, his only motivation wasto, and I quote, “make all thebabes drool over my six-packat Hampton Beach this sum-mer.” I will be sure to bring someKleenex along and walk ten stepsbehind him, dabbing away at all theexcess saliva on the chins of hisfemale admirers.

Randy preferred to walk fast onthe treadmill, while I like the Precorelliptical runner as it’s easier on myknees. The two are right next toeach other in my gym. We are alsodifferent when it comes to whatwe do while we perform ourcardio. I put my headphones onand blast my CD player, withburned compilations (all legallydownloaded, of course!) with driv-ing rock music from bands likeDisturbed, Marilyn Manson, andGodsmack. There may also besome tracks from less macho mu-

which had to mean he was lookingover the latest gossip and newsitems about the pro bodybuilders.

“Did you hear about ——? Hejust got busted again for receivingsteroids from China in the mail!And —— just got out of jail for

steroids.” He flipped a fewmore pages in the gossipsection. “—— just left hiswife and kids and now he’swith this bimbo fitness pro,”he continued, “and onlinelast night they were talkingabout how ——— lookedso bad at his last show be-

cause he’s a big Nubain addict.Can you believe these friggingguys?’ He said this with genuinedisgust. “Some role models theyare.” He was clearly waiting forsome reaction from me. “Doesn’tit piss you off?”

“No, I honestly don’t even careanymore.” Randy was mortified.“How can you say that? We aresupposed to look up to these guys!”The kid was on a holy roll with this.“They are professional athletes,aren’t they?”

“Yes they are. Which meanswhat? That they are exceptionalat their chosen sport. Nothingmore, nothing less. CharlesBarkley said ‘I am not a role

sicians as Avril Levigne andBritney Spears, but you don’t needto know that. Randy prefers toread, and his gym bag is alwaysfull of dog-eared bodybuildingmagazine he pores over as hesweats and burns fat.

To each his own would normallybe the case, but not with Randyand his magazines. He is nevercontent to merely read them, healso feels the need to engage mein discussions about every littlething on the pages before him. It’sthe same thing every time. He willcall my name, and I ignore him,pretending I can’t hear him overmy headphones. That only buysme about two seconds of peacebefore he taps me on the shoulder.Sighing to show that I would muchrather be listening to good tunesthan debating someone’s calf rou-tine or whether beef is a betterprotein source than chicken, I re-move the headphones from the earfacing him and say, “what?” To-day he was really eager to talk,

“Charles Barkley said ‘I am not arole model,’ and I think that wasone of the most genuine andmeaningful statements to evercome out of an athlete’s mouth.”

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10www.parrillo.com 1-800-344-3404 Performance Press / July 2004

A BODYBUILDER IS BORN

model,’ and I think that was one ofthe most genuine and meaningfulstatements to ever come out of anathlete’s mouth.”

“Yeah, but. . .” Randy trailed off.He didn’t really have any rebuttal.“Randy, look at something like theKobe Bryant incident.” I knew thiswould work because unlike me,Randy actually watched profes-sional sports and was somewhatof a fan whenever it came downto playoffs. “Does what Kobedoes in his personal life off thecourt make his achievements andskills on the court any less impres-sive? Was he a better player whenyou thought he was a Boy Scout?Let’s broaden the scope of this.There have been plenty of brilliantpeople with drug problems throughhistory. Sir Arthur Conan Doyleand Freud were both addicted tococaine.”

“Sir Arthur who? What did he, in-vent the Conan the Barbarian char-acter?” At least I think he knewwho Sigmund Freud was – I hope.

“Okay, let’s make it easier. Therehave been many famous rock starsand musicians who struggled withalcoholism and drug addiction. Butyou still love and appreciate theirmusic. Hemingway was one ofthe greatest writers of the twenti-eth century, and also happened tobe an incorrigible drunk. Is any ofthis getting through to you yet?”

“Not really, because bodybuildersare supposed to be role models, atleast more than those other typesof famous people.”

“Look, you can train the way theseguys train and eat the way they eat,but it has to end there. If Jay Cut-ler buys a lime-green MercedesBenz and enjoys foreign films, doesthat mean you have to?”

“I work at a Ford dealership,”Randy reminded me. “And foreignfilms? They make movies in othercountries or something?”

“You’re missing the point. Youneed to separate the physiques ofthese men and the hard work thatwent into them from what they doin their private lives.”

Randy snorted,“Yeah, becausethey’re a bunch of degeneratesthese days.”

“That’s not true at all. I knowplenty of top amateur and pro body-builders, and at least ninety percentof them are solid, upstanding men

“Right, and why is that? It’s be-cause this is the only sport wheremost of the fans are trying to bestars themselves. How many guyswatch baseball and then spend twohours a day, six days a week prac-ticing so they can be the next BarryBonds? So because most body-building fans are trying to look liketheir idols in the IFBB, they try toemulate them down to the last de-tail.” Randy had now tossed themagazine to the floor. He hadn’tbeen paying attention, and had al-most hit the leg of the woman onthe treadmill next to us. Luckilyshe was so entranced reading thesubtitles on the TV monitor nowshowing Regis and Kelly that shehadn’t noticed.

“Okay then, so see what I meanhow these guys are letting us downgetting into legal problems and ev-erything?”

“We expect bodybuilding stars to be role models.”

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11 July 2004 / Performance Press 1-800-344-3404 www.parrillo.com

A BODYBUILDER IS BORN

and women with integrity and char-acter to spare. I’m not saying theyall have haloes gleaming aroundtheir heads, but they are good, de-cent people. But bodybuilders arehuman beings. Just as in anycross-section of the population, youwill always have a few that are intodrugs, criminal activities, that areviolent, whatever the case may be.That doesn’t mean you can’t lookat their photos in a magazine or onthe Internet and draw inspirationfrom them. It doesn’t mean thatthey have nothing to offer when itcomes to showing the rest of ushow to train hard and eat right. Iknow it’s very hard to look past thelurid gossip and appreciate what

with my good and bad points. Ifsome people want to consider mea role model because I have a wifeand kids, am somewhat success-ful in my industry, and stay out oftrouble, fine. But I would neverstand up on a pedestal and proclaimmy perfection to the world. Everysingle one of us has faults andmakes mistakes. The faults andmistakes are just different for allof us, and when you are in the pub-lic eye as a professional athlete, thewhole world knows about them.”

I looked down at the display on mymachine. Thirty-two minutes, andonly 410 calories. If I had beenrocking out to my CD player Iwould have kept a faster pace andwould have been up over 500 bythis point. I scowled, consideredtelling Randy this, and instead saidnothing. Randy was now watch-ing Regis and Kelly with his mouthhanging open, as the Olsen twinswere now the guests.

“Jailbait,” I said.

“Na ah, they just turned eighteen,dude.”

“You doing okay at work, sellingsome cars?”

“Yeah,” he replied, only paying halfattention. I reached over to thenewspaper someone had left onthe machine next to me, wheresomething had caught my eye.

“Best Buy is having a big sale onCD and MP3 players starting to-day. I think you should go and pickone up immediately.”

these men and women have doneand continue to do as athletes, butyou really need to try.”

Randy was pensive. He lookedover cautiously.

“What about you, Ron – you’re nota role model?” This was a ques-tion I am never comfortable an-swering.

“You know what? I don’t know. Itrain hard and eat right and do mybest to show as many people as Ican how they can do it too, but Iam not an angel. I’m not JeffreyDahmer or Pablo Escobar, but I amjust a human being like anyone else

“But we are all just human beings with good andbad points.”

Page 13: Call for information on future dates! · Todd entered his first bodybuilding competition in 2003 and took 3rd place at the Southern Classic. “I entered the junior division as a
Page 14: Call for information on future dates! · Todd entered his first bodybuilding competition in 2003 and took 3rd place at the Southern Classic. “I entered the junior division as a

JOHN PARRILLO�S PERFORMANCE PRESS

13 July 2004 / Performance Press 1-800-344-3404 www.parrillo.com

Creatine does it all: increasesmuscle mass, builds strength, andenhances endurance, according toa growing body of scientific re-search. (1-6). We’ve been doingour own trials here as well andhave seen impressive results.

What is creatine, and how does itwork? For background, the imme-diate source of energy for all cel-lular activity, including muscle con-traction, is a molecule called ATP.This stands for adenosine triphos-phate. ATP is formed from thechemical energy contained in food.Food is oxidized, or burned, in thebody to release energy. This en-ergy is used to form ATP, whichthen goes on to power cellular ac-tivity. The body’s stores of ATP arevery limited. In fact, each musclecell contains only enough ATP topower contractions for a few sec-onds. Therefore, ATP must be con-tinuously regenerated.

That’s where creatine fits in.When ATP is broken down to aspart of the energy-producing pro-cess, creatine (in the form of cre-atine phosphate, or CP) steps inand chemically regenerates ATP(1). This allows high energy musclecontractions to continue. Afterabout 45 seconds to 2 minutes (de-pending on the intensity of effort)the creatine phosphate is also usedup, and power production by the

ine? Doubly bogus, since creatinetends to break down when storedas a solution.

So how exactly does creatine in-crease muscle size and strength?It increases strength by increasingthe intracellular levels of creatineand creatine phosphate, which al-lows more rapid ATP production.This means more energy is avail-able to the cell, allowing it to workharder. This same mechanism ex-plains why creatine increases en-durance performance too. If youincrease the creatine pool inside themuscle this increases the cell’senergy reserve, allowing longer, aswell as more powerful, contrac-tions. Creatine is very popularamong endurance athletes, and iswidely used in track and field.

Creatine increases muscle size be-cause it attracts water. Creatine isabsorbed into the muscle cell andpulls a lot of water along with it,causing the muscle to swell. Thisresults in larger, firmer muscles anda better pump. Please realize thatcreatine itself does not directly in-crease muscle protein. As with allsupplements, it is vital that you usecreatine in conjunction with a solidbodybuilding diet. You need proteinto build muscle tissue and carbo-hydrates to provide energy. Cre-atine itself is not burned to produceenergy, rather it acts as an energy

muscle rapidly declines. This iswhat happens when you fail at theend of a set – you’ve used up allyour ATP and CP, which meansyou’re out of fuel. This is also whyhigh intensity weight lifting setsusually last about a minute beforeyou fail. After the CP is used up,ATP cannot be regenerated fastenough to maintain a high level ofintensity. Lower intensity exercise(aerobic exercise like bike riding)can be continued almost indefinitelybecause you can generate CP andATP fast enough to keep up withthe energy demands of the activ-ity.

You’ll notice supplemental creat-ine comes in the form of creatinemonohydrate. Why isn’t creatinephosphate or ATP itself used as asupplement instead? Simply put,because it doesn’t work. Mol-ecules such as CP and ATP are notabsorbed through the intestine.

Creatine monohydrate, on the otherhand, is readily absorbed and doesin fact reach the muscle cell whenadministered orally (2). This is whyit can be used as an effectivesupplement. Once inside themuscle cell it is converted to cre-atine phosphate. What about thesublingual route? This is bogus,since the molecule still has to crosscell membranes to reach the cir-culation. What about liquid creat-

Page 15: Call for information on future dates! · Todd entered his first bodybuilding competition in 2003 and took 3rd place at the Southern Classic. “I entered the junior division as a

14www.parrillo.com 1-800-344-3404 Performance Press / July 2004

CREATINE

buffer to transfer the energy de-rived from carbohydrate and fatoxidation to ATP. Creatine is notincorporated into protein. It will,however, indirectly increase theprotein mass of muscles over timeby allowing you to perform higherintensity workouts. That is, ofcourse, if you are eating enoughlean protein and quality calories tosupport muscle gains.

What can you expect from creat-ine? Typically in hard-trainingbodybuilders, we observe an in-crease of 4-14 pounds of lean massduring the first month of using cre-atine. This is remarkable. This doesnot mean you have to consume 4-14 pounds of creatine. Remember,most of the weight gain and sizeincrease comes from water. Cre-atine is stored in muscle cells,where it attracts water. The moremuscle mass you have to start with,the more creatine you can assimi-late and the more weight you willgain from using creatine. Smallbodybuilders usually gain 4-6pounds and the really big guys gain10-14 pounds. We have verifiedthat this weight gain shows up asan increase in lean body masswhen you do body composition test-ing. Remember that lean mass is ameasure of everything in your bodythat’s not fat, including the skeletonand muscle, including water. It’shard to imagine anybody happierthan a bodybuilder who gains 10pounds of lean mass in one month.

Regarding performance, we’veseen athletes experience a 5-15%increase in strength on their maxi-mum lifts, and an increase of about2 reps per set with their workingweight. This increase in training

term, firm numbers cannot be at-tached at the onset. A lot dependson whether you are eating enoughprotein and calories to supportgains. If you don’t eat enough tosupport muscle gain, you won’t seeany, it’s that simple. But with asolid, high-calorie, high-protein dietand intense training, your musclegains can be incredible. Regard-ing endurance exercise, we’ve seenathletes experience a 5-10% in-

intensity allows you to put a greaterload on the muscle, which will in-deed increase your gains in muscleprotein mass over time. Theamount of strength gain each indi-vidual can make may differ con-siderably, because the strength ofyour tendons also determines howmuch weight the muscle can lift.While it seems clear that creatinewill allow faster and greater gainsin size and strength over the long-

Creatine does it all: increases muscle mass, buildsstrength, and enhances endurance, according to agrowing body of scientific research (1-6).

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15 July 2004 / Performance Press 1-800-344-3404 www.parrillo.com

crease in speed and a 10-20% in-crease in time to fatigue.

As with nearly all supplements, ac-tual usage will vary from personto person and will likely change asyour body and training changes. Tostart out, I recommend for the firstone to two weeks you use 20-30grams a day divided into even serv-ings taken with each meal, or witha Hi-Protein/Pro-Carb drink. Thisis the loading phase. One scoop orheaping teaspoon is five grams, soone of these with each meal isabout right. Use the lower end ofthese ranges if you’re 150-200pounds, and the upper end if you’reover 200 pounds. We recommendone to two weeks, but the loadingphase may take as many as fourweeks. When you find that you’rereally getting a good pump, theloading phase has filled the creat-ine stores in your muscle. Afterthat, 5-10 grams a day is enoughto maintain your creatine stores.Cycling creatine is of no advan-tage. If you stop taking creatine,you simply deplete your existingstore, which takes 4-8 weeks.

Creatine can be mixed in plainwater too. Don’t be concerned thatcreatine doesn’t dissolve fully; justdrink the suspension. It gets ab-sorbed very well. Don’t’ mix cre-atine in water too far in advanceof when you take it, however, sinceit begins to break down. A greatway to pack creatine is to take ashaker bottle with a scoop of Hi-Protein or Pro-Carb, plus a scoopof creatine and put it in your gymbag or cooler. Then just add wa-ter, shake, and drink. Another con-venient way to use creatine is tomix it into oatmeal. Creatine has

3. Crim MC, Munro HN.Proteins and Amino Acids.Modern Nutrition inHealth and Disease 8: 9-10, 1994.

4. Greenhaff PL, Casey A,Short AH, Harris AC,Soderlund K, and HultmanE. Influence of oral cre-atine supplementation onmuscle torque during re-peated bouts of maximalvoluntary exercise in man.Clin. Sci. 84: 565-571,1993.

5. Harris RC, Viru M,Greenhaff PL, andHaltman E. The effect oforal creatine supplementa-tion on running perfor-mance during maximalshort term exercise inman. J. Physiol. 467: 74P,1993.

6. Ernest CP, Snell PG,Mitchell TL, Rodriguez R,and Almada AL. Effect ofcreatine monohydrate onpeak anaerobic power,capacity, and fatigue in-dex. Med. Sci. Sports.Exerc. 26: S39, 1994.

no flavor, but it is a little grainy.

Are there any medical concernswith taking creatine? If you haveany blood work done you might findthat creatine elevates your creati-nine level. Doctors use the creati-nine level in the blood as an indexof kidney function. If your doctornotices an increase in your creati-nine level and expresses some con-cern about your kidneys, tell himor her that you’re using creatine.Creatine does not damage the kid-

neys in any way, but is contraindi-cated if you have pre-existing se-vere kidney disease (for example,renal dialysis or kidney transplantpatients). People with severe kid-ney disease have trouble eliminat-ing creatinine, and creatine supple-mentation would increase creati-nine levels further.

References

1. Maughan RJ. Creatinesupplementation and exer-cise performance. Inter-national Journal of SportNutrition 5: 94-101, 1995.

2. Greenhaff PL. Creatineand its application as anergogenic aid. Interna-tional Journal of SportNutrition 5: S100-S110,1995.

CREATINE

As with nearly all supple-ments, actual usage willvary from person to per-son and will likelychange as your bodyand training changes.

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16www.parrillo.com 1-800-344-3404 Performance Press / July 2004

One of my bodybuilding friendswas stuck and couldn’t figure outwhy: his eating was damned nearperfect and he lifted hard, heavyand often using Parrillo methodol-ogy. His cardio was the culprit andthat came as a bit of a shock be-cause this man regularly ran 3-5miles at a crack, five times a week.The problem was his body hadgotten so used to his running rou-tine that his body was no longerresponding. We found all this outwhen he came to visit me for aweekend of training. Rather thandoing his usual five-mile run hedecided to tag along with me whenI did my cardio – which is of adecidedly different flavor. I live atthe base of the Catoctin Mountainsand for my cardio I hike up anddown the steep trails that crisscrossthe mountains. This is lung searingwork; the grades are nearly verti-cal. I usually walk for about anhour before breakfast in order toburn off body fat. As you are prob-ably aware, hitting a serious aero-bic session first thing before break-

“Yep…we’re going up that – nowremember the number one rule:watch out for snakes. I had a vi-per rear up on me out here lastspring. It scared the hell out ofme.”

This further agitated Tom. Hiseyes got wide at the mention ofvipers and he frantically begansearching around the roadside fora suitable tree branch which hebrandished like a club. He lookedready to bash some snake brains.I strapped him up with my Polarheart rate monitor to see how ourpower walking would impact thisvery fit guy. The monitor consistedof a watch and a chest band. Amicroprocessor in the chest strapelectronically sent the pertinent in-formation to the watch. When westepped off his heart rate was at83-beats per minute, absolutelynormal for a healthy 30-year oldguy who’d just had a big cup ofjava. We took a path along the rightside of the tree line; snowmobiledrivers had plowed the foliage

fast and before taking in any car-bohydrates forces the body to burnstored body fat to fuel activity. Mypowerwalks would technically betermed ‘interval training’ since thisapproach to cardio requires peri-ods of intense effort interspersedwith periods of relative ease, allwithin the same session. Tom wasstaying with me for the weekendand we thought we’d get in an earlymorning cardio session, then lift andget some breakfast.

We piled into my jeep and insidefive minutes we were staring up asteep fire trail that bisected SouthMountain. A fire trail is a fifty yardwide swath the forest service cutsup the side of a mountain. If a for-est fire breaks out the fire trail pre-vents the flames from spreading.“Good Lord,” Tom moaned, “thathill looks like it’s straight up! We’regoing up that?” Tom was incredu-lous as we stood at the base of themountain and stared up towardsthe summit.

JOHN PARRILLO�S PERFORMANCE PRESS

By Marty Gallagher

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17 July 2004 / Performance Press 1-800-344-3404 www.parrillo.com

down flat over the years and thismade for easy walking. The sunwas bright and the sky a deep,cloudless blue. The footing wasfine and we made great time onthe ascent. It took us a full twentyminutes to hit the first crest andtowards the end I could hear himbreathing heavily behind me. Whenwe hit the first ridge I singled tostop and checked his heart ratemonitor: his heart rate was regis-tering 171 beats per minute; sincehe was 30-years old this came to90% of his age-related heart ratemaximum. Our elapsed time to thispoint was 21-minutes.

“Okay,” I said, “let’s stand here aminute and let your heart rate sim-mer back down to 120 which is70% of your age-related heart ratemaximum, then we’ll push upwardto the peak.”

“That was damned tough work!”Tom said, “My thighs are on fireand my lungs are burning…the airout here is so pure.” He wiselybegan to stretch his legs and lowerback using some Parrillo-stylestretches. After a minute hadpassed I asked him to look at theheart rate monitor on his watch.

“It says my heart rate is 121 beatsper minute.” He said.

“Alright, let’s hit it.” It took us tenmore minutes to get to the top ofthe mountain. By the time we hitthe summit he was huffing like asteam locomotive laboring up asteep grade.

“WOW! I got to sit down! My legsand lungs are fried!” Tom said. Hisheart rate was 191; over 100% of

ton. “You burned 785 calories inthose 45-minutes. That’s rocking!”

“It about killed me – my legs arestill shaking – the last time I feltlike this was when John Parrillo putme through a 100-rep belt squatset!”

The next day we headed to the lo-cal high school track and for a com-parison I again had Tom wear theheart rate monitor. “Now just dowhatever it is you normally do foryour cardio exercise; I want tocompare yesterday’s mountainclimbing session with your usualcardio fare: flat track running.” Hewas more than game and off hewent. I got to admit I was im-pressed; Tom had great flow anda professional looking runningstride. He didn’t slam his feet ashe ran he glided along like a ga-zelle; it seemed as if his feet barelytouched the ground. He ran forfive miles, 21 laps, when I stoppedhim at the 45-minute mark.

“Alright – let’s see what the re-port card says.” I took the watchfrom him and toggled through thebuttons, “Very interesting…according to the monitor you av-eraged 131-beats per minute forour 45-minute session. That comesto 69% of your age-related heartrate maximum. What did you hityesterday?”

“82% and today was easy com-pared to yesterday.”

“Well yeah, I can see that in thenumbers; the problem is if dura-tion is equal then harder is better,82% and 785 calories burned is ahell of a lot better than 69% and…”

his age-related heart rate maxi-mum. Our total elapsed time to thispoint was 31-minutes. He waszapped. We took a minute to checkout the amazing view and let himcatch his breath.

“Good news!” I said. “It’s all downhill from here. Here’s the deal: onthe way back down I want you tomaintain at least 130-beat perminute pace. You’ll have to bal-ance speed with nimbleness. Don’tlet that heart rate dwindle down tonothing but don’t trip or you’lltumble 200-feet. Watch your stepbut let’s move downhill as quicklyas safety allows.”

“Can I have another minute? I’mstill at 160 beats per minute.”

“Sure: when your heart rate dropsto 130, let’s hit it.” The interestingthing about systematically elevat-ing the heart rate (the goal of allcardio exercise) is while it’s hardto get the heart rate up initially onceyou achieve a significantly elevatedheart rate it is relatively easy tokeep it elevated. Tom found thisout on the way down the moun-tain. He had no problem maintain-ing 130 or more for the entire de-scent. When we arrived back atthe jeep I asked him to hand methe watch off his wrist. I puncheda series of buttons on the watch,

“Okay,” I said, “Here’s your cardioreport card: the session lasted 45-minutes and your average heartrate was 155 beats per minute. Aquick calculation tells me that sinceyour maximum heart rate is 190,you’ve averaged 82% of your age-related heart rate maximum. That’sreal good.” I pushed one final but-

JOHN PARRILLO�S PERFORMANCE PRESS

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I pushed the calorie button on thewatch “…550 calories burned.”

“So what’s the bottom line?”

“Your current running program iswhat we call ‘steady state’ and bythat we mean that you run on aflat track – no grades or elevation– and you do so using a steadypace. Nothing is wrong with thisapproach as long as it is effective.In your case the body has becomeused to the pace and durationyou’ve chosen and the body is nolonger responding. You’ve becomeso damned efficient at running ona flat track for five miles that it’snot doing you much good.”

“What’s the solution?”

“You need to consider trying somenew cardio approaches and modesin an effort to keep the aerobicportion of your bodybuilding train-ing fresh and effective. It is nolonger difficult for you to run fivemiles at an eight minute per milepace and in order to bust throughthis plateau you should try somenew things…you could stick withflat track running and kick up theintensity by going at a faster pacebut you’d have to reduce the du-ration of the session.”

“I’m kinda tired of running but Idon’t have any mountains where Ilive…”

“No, but I bet you have a publicpark with some nice steep hills.Doesn’t that gym you belong tohave a swimming pool – how aboutdoing some serious lap swimming?How about trying some fast sportslike racquetball or basketball?

The sweat pours off me when Iplay. I took your advice and nowswim laps two days a week be-fore going to work. Swimming is agreat form of exercise and easyon the joints. I’ve worked up totwenty non-stop laps and let me tellyou, it is tough work! On Thurs-day and Friday I still do my flattrack lap running at the high schooltrack but I am now significantlyfaster. All the different cardiomodes seem to improve one an-other. All in all I am convinced thatas far as cardio goes, variety is thesecret to success.”

“You’re living proof of that!”

If you feel stagnant in your cardio,consider alternative aerobic modes.There is strong circumstantial evi-dence that suggests by rotatingaerobic modes you not only avoidstaleness and stagnation but alsoreduce the chance of incurring arepetitive motion injury. This is areal problem for those who run allthe time or engage in high impactcardio exercise using the samemode for extended periods of time.By alternating different cardiomodes the body is not allowed tobecome complacent and becomeused to one particular type of ex-ercise and neutralize the effects.Simultaneously by mixing modesyou avoid the risk of a stress-im-pact injury. Participating in differ-ent exercise modes makes cardiofun and when something is fun wenaturally want to do more of it. Ifyou are aerobically stagnant con-sider widening your exercise hori-zons.

There are lots of ways to jump thatheat rate up and keep it elevated.”

“I’m a good swimmer – its funnybut I never really thought of usingswimming as cardio exercise.”Tom said. “I’m actually kind ofexcited; I was becoming bored run-ning laps on a flat track day afterday. I’m going to shake it up.”

And so he did. Tom came to visitme three months later and helooked great. He’d lost a ton ofbody fat and had added a lot of leanmuscle in the process.

“Man – you look significantly bet-ter – how’d you do it?”

“I changed my whole approach tocardio; I added some new twistsand after a few weeks of using anew cardio approach the fat startedto melt off me in buckets.”

“I’m dying to know – what did youdo?”

“I joined a racquetball league andevery Monday and Saturday Iplayed three lightning fast games.

18www.parrillo.com 1-800-344-3404 Performance Press / July 2004

HAVE YOU HIT A CARDIO PLATEAU?

“You need to consider tryingsome new cardio approachesand modes in an effort to keepthe aerobic portion of yourbodybuilding training freshand effective. It is no longerdifficult for you to run fivemiles at an eight minute permile pace and in order to bustthrough this plateau youshould try some newthings…”

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19 July 2004 / Performance Press 1-800-344-3404 www.parrillo.com

JOHN PARRILLO�S PERFORMANCE PRESS

The Trainer’s Corner, a new col-umn to the Parrillo PerformancePress, is designed to help our cus-tomers make the right choice whenit comes to health and wellnessquestions. Our Parrillo CertifiedTrainers will help to make sure thatyou get the right information inyour hands to progress. We willshow you that by applying theParrillo Training System, you willput an end to all the confusion aboutexercising and nutrition. Duringthis program, we will take thewealth of information we havelearned in our certification and ap-ply it to you, our clients. I can tellyou, as a new addition to theParrillo Team and a Certified Mas-ter Trainer, it doesn’t matter whereyou came from or who you are,the information we will give youwill always be consistent.

In the months to come, we will

share with you real experiencefrom the trainer and client perspec-tive. We will show you how to takethe Parrillo Performance systemand use it to your advantage. Oneof the most important things to dowhen starting an exercise programis to get an evaluation. A ParrilloCertified Trainer or your trainershould be able to give you an ideawhere to start.

An evaluation should consist ofcardiovascular test, muscularstrength, muscular endurance, flex-ibility (hidden essential) and leantissue to fat ratio. At our trainingcenter we do our BodyStat systemon a weekly basis to help makeadjustments in our nutritional guide-lines. Once you get the particu-lars, then you are really in positionto get the results you’ve alwayswanted. There are four basicthings to adhere to: Increase your

aerobic capacity, increase youworkout intensity during resistancetraining, work on increasing flex-ibility by using our stretching prin-cipals and apply the same inten-sity you do on your workouts to nu-trition and supplementation. Thesebasic principals will jump start youto a new success and have an ev-erlasting effect on your body andmental attitude.

Again, in months to come, we willbreak down the program fromeach category and show you howto benefit. All components of fit-ness are equally important, so weshould take a wholistic approachwhen it comes to health andwellness.

If you have any questions, pleasecall us at our headquarters at 1-800-344-3404 or email me directlyat [email protected]

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21 July 2004 / Performance Press 1-800-344-3404 www.parrillo.com

JOHN PARRILLO�S PERFORMANCE PRESS

For too many years now, exercis-ers and wannabe exercisers havebeen a little misled by reports thatany type of exercise, even mildforms like gardening, golfing, andstrolling in the park, is good forhealth and fitness. Not true! Whileit’s fair to say that some activity isbetter than none, you’re simply notgoing to develop fat-burning muscleor peak cardiovascular fitness withlow-level exercise. I love to playgolf, but I don’t rely on it to achievepeak fitness!

You’ve got to perform higher-in-tensity exercise to get results. “In-tensity” has several differentmeanings depending on the type ofexercise you do, but it basicallydescribes how hard you work out.

Intensity in weight training, for ex-ample, refers primarily to the de-mand you place on your muscles— in other words, how muchweight you can lift. Intensity isever-changing. What felt heavyto you last week may feel lighterthis week because your musclesare responding to the demandsplaced on them and growing stron-ger as a result. For your musclesto respond — that is, get strongerand better developed — you haveto “overload” them. That meanscontinually putting more demands

on them than they’re used to — inother words, increasing yourweight training intensity.

Aerobic intensity refers to howhard you work out when you’rewalking, jogging, running, bicycling,swimming, or performing any othertype of heart-pumping activity. Toburn fat and build cardiovascularhealth, you must gradually increasethe intensity of your exercise ef-fort. Aerobic intensity is generallydescribed in one of two ways:VO2 max and heart rate.

VO2 max, otherwise known as“aerobic capacity,” describes theability of your body to take in, trans-port, and use oxygen. It is usuallyexpressed as a percentage of “oxy-gen consumption” during exercise,or put another way, the maximumamount of oxygen you use whileworking out aerobically. A usageof 40 percent to 60 percent of VO2max is considered moderate inten-sity; more than 60 percent of VO2max is considered vigorous or highintensity.

Is there a way to tell what yourVO2 max is while exercising?Exact VO2 max is measured inlaboratory settings with specialdevices and techniques, so unlessyou have access to a lab, you can’t

really get a specific percentage foryour aerobic capacity. However, agood rule of thumb to follow is this:If you’re breathing hard, yet stillable to carry on a conversation,you’re working out in the higher-intensity range of your VO2 max.When you exercise in this range,more oxygen can be “extracted”by your muscles, and more storedfat and carbohydrate can be usedto supply energy.

Heart rate, another measure ofaerobic intensity, indicates theamount of work your heart doesto keep up with the demands ofvarious activities, including exer-cise. At rest, your heart averages60 to 80 beats a minute. This isreferred to as your “resting heartrate.” In unexercised, sedentarypeople, the resting heart rate canbe as high as 100 beats per minuteor more. By contrast, well-trainedendurance athletes may have rest-ing heart rates in the range of 28to 40 beats a minute. The more fityou become aerobically, the loweryour resting heart rate becomes.

For best results, you should exer-cise at a level sufficient enough toraise your heart rate to 70 to 85percent or higher of your maxi-mum heart rate (MHR). MHR isexpressed as 220 minus your age.

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22www.parrillo.com 1-800-344-3404 Performance Press / July 2004

For example, suppose you’re 35years old, and you start an aerobicexercise program. Your maximumheart rate is 185 (220 - 35). Youshould work out at an intensity suchthat your heart reaches between130 and 157 beats a minute (85percent of 185 beats per minute =.85 x 185 = 157).

Higher-intensity exercise producesthe fat-burning, health-building re-sults you want from exercise. Tolook at it another way: The valueof low-intensity exercise can be lik-ened to earning 10 percent on$20,000, whereas higher-intensityexercise is more like earning 3 per-

cent on $1 million. There’s just thatmuch difference in health and fit-ness gains!

Does all this mean your workoutshould be time-consuming? Not atall. Intensity doesn’t necessarilycorrelate with time. It’s the effortyou give for the time you put in,whether it’s 20 minutes or 45 min-utes.

You must gradually increase yourintensity — just like you learned togradually increase your calories onthe Parrillo Nutrition Program —and knock fat off for good, plus behealthier for it. You’ll be amazedat what your body can accomplishphysically.

To do this successfully, you’ve gotto have plenty of energy. That en-ergy comes from food. Lots offood! With the Parrillo NutritionProgram, you gradually increaseyour calories — all from specificfoods that supercharge your per-formance and fat-burning potential.

You really can’t separate nutritionfrom exercise if your goals are todevelop a lean, firm body. WendyB. found that out early on. She hadstarted weight training 10 yearsago in an effort to stave off os-teoporosis, which had afflicted hermother. Wendy was also a self-proclaimed aerobics fanatic, at-tending aerobics classes five timesweek. The only problem with allthis was that she ate a mere twomeals a day. After three years ofweight training, Wendy had gainedonly five pounds of muscle. Eventhough her body fat registered inat a lean 19 percent, she wanted

to get leaner still. It’s no wondershe wasn’t making any progress,considering her extremely sub-pardiet. I persuaded her to change hereating habits. Here’s what Wendysays about her progress:

“The results were amazing. Igained three pounds of muscle inthe first four months. Another fourmonths later, my body fat percent-age had dropped to 15.17 percent.Everyone, including my husband,began commenting on my muscles.These compliments gave me theincentive to work out even harder.

“After more than a year eating thisway [increased calories], I decidedto compete in a bodybuilding con-test. I was at a level that I felt con-fident enough to get on stage andsee how well my physique stackedup.

“Unfortunately, a few months af-ter deciding to compete, I was in acar accident. Thank goodness, onlymy knee was injured, and I had tohave surgery. I was out of com-mission for awhile, but stayed onthe program, adjusting my caloriesslightly to match my reduced ac-tivity level. Sticking with the nutri-tion program definitely helped merecover more quickly.

“Now at age 50, after seven yearsof following this program, I’m alean 142 1/2 pounds. My energylevel is still tremendous, and I havewell-defined, beautiful muscles. Ifeel and look better than I did atage 25.”

Chalk it all up to higher intensity— in nutrition and in exercise.

You must gradually in-crease your intensity —just like you learned togradually increase yourcalories on the ParrilloNutrition Program —and knock fat off forgood, plus be healthierfor it.

PUMP UP YOUR INTENSITY

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By John Parrillo23 July 2004 / Performance Press 1-800-344-3404 www.parrillo.com

irginia Mark has writtenanother long letter address-

ing the issue of 20-set perbody part weight training; in his

first letter Mark unequivocallyaccused me of ‘irresponsible jour-nalism’ for recommending a 20-setper body part training regimen toanyone other than a steroid mon-ster. I can’t decide how best torespond to his follow-up letter be-cause it raises so many refutablepoints that I literally could use all26-pages of the Parrillo Perfor-mance Press to dispute everysingle one of his contentions andassertions – with one or two ex-ceptions. Since Virginia Mark’sletter is two and a half pages long,I’ll excerpt Mark’s contentions

before offering my slam-dunkcounter-arguments. This will be forthe readers benefit as I labor un-der not the slightest illusion thatanything I say will dent any part ofVirginia Mark’s cranium to any sig-nificant degree. Both our minds aremade up and as I’ve said beforeI’ll say again, “A man convincedagainst his will is of the same opin-ion still.” And I sincerely doubtMark will ever change his mind inresponse to my words anymorethan I will in response to his yetthe exchange of iron philosophiesmight prove of interest to the read-ers. So let’s vivisect VirginiaMark’s thesis and I’ll counter withmy antithesis.

Mark is full of clarification in hislatest letter: in the original he wasquite unequivocal and strident andplain spoken; now he seeks to ret-roactively modify the stand he tookin his original letter. He now sayshe meant to say he uses a modi-fied version of the Arthur Jonesone-set-to-failure principle. Origi-nally he leapt up to defend Arthur’smethodology but now Mark statesthat alas, he does not practice pureone all-out set to failure style train-ing as espoused by the late ArthurJones, but rather Mark uses amodified version, more like apowerlifter, more along the lines ofhow Ed Coan or Dorian Yatestrain. In this version the athletetakes as many warm-up sets as he

JOHN PARRILLO�S PERFORMANCE PRESS

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24www.parrillo.com 1-800-344-3404 Performance Press / July 2004

or she deems appropriate beforetackling the critical all-out top set.The problem is Mark that this isone hell of a lot different than theprotocol championed by ArthurJones. One set to failure in JonesWorld meant no warm-ups – oth-erwise it couldn’t be called a one-set system. This is one hell of aretroactive clarification Mark. Iattacked the idiocy of Jones’ sys-tem precisely because it didn’t al-low for warm-ups. I also disputethe effectiveness of doing exer-cises on cumbersome, inefficient,antiquated Nautilus machines.They looked so Jettson-like backin 1976 but now they just lookdated and tired – like the Jones phi-losophy. I wrote how doing a singleall-out set of anything withoutwarm-up is lunacy and in responseyou jumped all up in my face.

In the first letter you threw a bunchof experts at me, half of whom Iknow personally. In the second let-ter you said: “I’m not talking aboutHIT or Arthur Jones’ Nautilus rou-tine.” Well my comments on Jonesare what prompted you to write inthe first place. Here’s the dealMark; if you now say that warm-up sets are okay before the top all-out set that puts you more in agree-ment with me than with Jones.How many warm-up sets are youallowing? A strong guy will need2, 3, 4 even 5 warm-up sets be-fore tackling the really big stuff, thetop poundage in a particular exer-cise. If you take three or fourwarm-up sets and then hit the topall-out set you cumulatively end updoing four or five sets per exer-cise - so in terms of sheer numberof sets per exercise, you and I are

virtually in agreement. Assumingyou do more than one exercise fora body part, this puts us in near totalagreement regarding overall train-ing volume. Jones recommended30-minute sessions done 2-3 timesa week – now that’s hardly enough– who trains like that and makes

progress? only a stone-cold begin-ner. Add warm-up sets to a top set(or god forbid: two top sets) andyou recommend virtually the sametraining template I recommendedin my initial article.

You keep bringing up new authori-

“Virginia Mark’s” latest point of reference isCoan: The Man, The Myth, The Method written byMarty Gallagher

IRON VIC STEELE BITES BACK: REDUX

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ties; in your latest letter it’sGallagher. You say in your secondletter, “You may want to read‘Coan, The Man, The Myth, TheMethod’ which outlines Ed’s ap-proach to the one-set theory that Iespouse and follow.” Here’s thedeal on that: you get mad at mefor ‘name-dropping’ but you keeppicking personal friends of mine asyour defense witnesses: I startedGallagher lifting weights backwhen he was a twelve-year old kid.Gallagher was called Big-Head andwas a dead-end punk just out ofreform school and headed straightfor the Big House. The court sys-tem handed him over to me andFather Biff O’Flarhitty back in1962. We’d give Gallagher demer-its every time he mouthed off orstepped out of line. Every demeritrequired a 440-yard lap be runaround the church rectory in un-der 60-seconds. He got loads ofdemerits. It was just like a sceneout of Cool Hand Luke. He wasLuke and I was the guy with the20-inch guns, the shaved head, theshotgun and mirror sunglasses. Ifhe didn’t break 60-seconds in hisrun he got to do it over and overuntil he made it. He got real fitunder my tutelage.

No sooner had we gotten that half-wit straightened out than he(Gallagher) started bringing aroundanother dead-end kid from hisneighborhood. This latest punk kidwas Manson cubed. He had anasty little attitude that caused himto inflict harm on the other teenmales around him. This one had anego bigger than all of outdoors andthought his fecal matter didn’tstink. Well let me tell you what, our

training group consisted of lawenforcement officers, criminalsand Special Forces members andwe didn’t cotton to having anypunk kids around to begin with,particularly smart-mouthed ones.The law men wanted to drag thekid outside and administer a col-lective wood shampoo, the SpecialForces and SAS guys wanted togive him the Ranger Choke untilhe went into unconsciousness andthe criminals wanted to use the kidto recreate Ned Beatty’s romancescene from the movie Deliver-ance. A compromise was reachedand like Gallagher before him, hewas allowed to stay but he wouldbecome our weight changer andnot talk; in return he would be al-lowed to lift with us but he’d haveto follow any crazy lifting routinewe decreed. If he deviated orcouldn’t hang, we’d kick him out.

His first assigned task was to squat405 for twenty reps with no gear.We thought for sure that wouldcause him to whimper and cry andrun away shrieking for his mommybut no, this kid was belligerent andconfrontational and damn if withinsix months he didn’t do it! Next wedecreed 500x10 and he got thatinside a year. Then 600x5….then700x5….after four years he even-tually squatted 800x3 super deepwith no supportive gear, not evena belt. That’s when we slipped theleash on the beast and let him outof the basement. The kid becamethe Lawrence Taylor ofpowerlifting. Six straight IPF worldchampionships, seven national titlesin three different weight classes;he still holds the IPF world squatrecord in the 275-pound class,

1,003-pounds, eight years after hisretirement. The Russian just brokehis 2,303 total records…Sorry todigress….anyway guys like BigHead and Manson-cubed had to beheld back; they always wanted todo more. Lots of serious iron pump-ers perform 20-set per body part;you make it out like it was somesuper human feat. It need not killa person or cripple a person orcause the user to become sore forweeks. The trick is to graduallyacclimatize the body to handle thework. You don’t need to washdown a fistful of dianabol in orderto cope. Do you want to check outreally hard work? Here is the Bul-garian Olympic lifter training campschedule.

BulgarianTraining CampSchedule

Monday, Wednesday, Friday –eight hours long

The day’s first workouts begin @9am sharp:

Squat 30-minutes, rest 25,jerk 45, rest 25, snatch 45,rest 25, jerk 30, rest 25,snatch 30

The day’s second workout com-mences @ 4pm

Snatch 45-minutes, rest 25,jerk 45, rest 25, snatch 45,rest 25, jerk 45, no rest,squat 30

The day’s third workout begins @9pm:

JOHN PARRILLO�S PERFORMANCE PRESS

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26www.parrillo.com 1-800-344-3404 Performance Press / July 2004

Jerk 30-minutes, no rest,snatch 30-minutes

Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday –five hours long

The day’s first workout begin @10am sharp:

Squat 30-minutes, rest 25,jerk 30, rest 25, snatch 30,rest 25, jerk 30, rest 25,Snatch 25, no rest, squat30

Maximum intensity % of 1-repmaximum in each lift

Monday 100%Tuesday 90%Wednesday 100%Thursday 80%Friday 100%Saturday 80%

Sundayoff(unless the coach is pissed off andcalls a Sunday practice.)

Now that’s hard work! So please,don’t try and convince me thathumans are not capable of per-forming 20-sets for biceps and 20-sets of triceps twice a week with-out suffering some sort of physi-cal calamity or resorting to mas-sive amounts of chemicals. I’veseen way too many examples ofhungry, aggressive young men in-tent on making the maximumprogress in the minimum timeframeeat up 20-sets per body part andcome up smiling and saying, “thankyou sir….may I have another!” Inmy neck of the woods, the kidscome up harsh and tough and

thick-headed and rebellious andtestosterone-laden and I can hardlykeep them under control: they wantto do 10 sets of 10 using 100% inevery exercise every single daybecause they’re crazed and des-perate to transform their physiquesand maximize their power andstrength. To tell you the god’s hon-est truth, the crazed ones, the oneswho err on the side of doing toomuch instead of too little, the onesyou have to hold back and continu-ally keep an eye on, the daredev-ils, the fearless ones, these are the

ones who succeed. Through sheerguts, willpower and discipline, thecrazed ones acquire the muscle andpower they sought way back whenthe quest began.

In my experience those who worryexcessively about ‘over training’and fret continually about gettinginjured are not the ones whoachieve the ultimate in physical andathletic excellence. Those whotrain safe and sane can build nicephysiques and make good progress,but to become one of the iron eliterequires a degree of fanaticism andmanic intensity that puts true ex-cellence decidedly beyond thegrasp of those who shy away from

the pain zone. Injury is a non-eventif the trainee trains smart. 20-repper body part training is about vol-ume and pace and full-range ofmotion and the poundage handledis less, out of necessity and com-mon sense. Start poundage artifi-cially low and get through the en-tire workout using quick pace, fullrange-of-motion; go for ‘feel’ andcontraction over sheer poundage.Over time the athlete naturallybuilds up the poundage while main-taining the workout integrity. Eatbig and eat clean and make sureand do some lung-searing cardio.Go buy some bigger clothes.

Virginia Mark no matter how muchyou jump up and down and accuseme of ‘irresponsible journalism’ forrecommending a perfectly validtraining tactic, you have to realizethat I am just at the end of a longchain of champion athletes whohave used and recommended ahigh volume approach to weighttraining: pre-steroid guys likeGrimek, Steve Reeves, ClancyRoss and Marvin Eder; laterchamps like Reg Park, Bill Pearl,Sergio Oliva and Leroy Colbert, allthrived on high volume training. Noone is going to die from doing 20-sets for a body part twice a week;experts have been recommendinghigh volume bodybuilding trainingregimens since Jesus was a car-penter. You need to reconsideryour politically correct sensibilities:wake up and smell the high vol-ume roses.

IRON VIC STEELE BITES BACK: REDUX

�So please, don�t tryand convince me thathumans are not capableof performing 20-setsfor biceps and 20-setsof triceps twice a weekwithout suffering somesort of physicalcalamity or resorting tomassive amounts ofchemicals.�

Page 28: Call for information on future dates! · Todd entered his first bodybuilding competition in 2003 and took 3rd place at the Southern Classic. “I entered the junior division as a

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