IRON VIC SPEAKS by IRON VIC STEELE

Great Cardio

Mr. Steele,

 I am a bodybuilder who competes. I am looking for ways to move up the competitive ladder. I am twenty-one years old, weigh 165 in the off-season and compete weighing 150, give or take a few pounds. The problem is that I am 6 feet tall and when I step onstage I look like a basketball player. I tower over my competitors. I know I need to gain weight but I cannot gain no matter what I do. I eat a lot of fruit and raw vegetables during the day because they don’t need to be cooked. I eat protein when I can get my mom to cook me chicken breasts or fish. I don’t want to get fat – so I make sure she grills the breasts just right after she strips off the skin. When she can afford it, I like fish. I usually get her to make my protein portions for me after she gets home from work. But some nights she is too tired – so I am inconsistent in my protein intake. I could use some advice. I have a vision quest to become a great bodybuilder. I want to win my IFBB Pro Card in five years. I want to be a competitive bodybuilder the rest of my life! 

Long Live Bodybuilding!

Lance, San Diego 
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Parrillo’s Tips and Tidbits

Lisa Rovella

ATHLETE spotlight

Lisa Rovella

“I am fairly new to competing having started Sept. ‘07 in natural mixed pairs with my husband. I had started following the Parrillo lifestyle in ‘06 with the goal of competing. We won 1st place and I was hooked. I did feel that it was all for nothing, you diet and train and train; get up on stage for 90 seconds and you’re done. This made me look at Ms. Fitness USA. They get on stage three times, now that is more like it! So we went to Vegas in ‘07 to watch the Ms. Fitness USA finals. I knew I had to make it there. By the way, I’m 36 years old. I came home, started training for gymnastics, which involved a lot of time seeing Jesus as my husband hyperstretched me into my splits. I made my qualifier by placing 3rd. I went to Vegas Sept. ‘08 and made it through even though a shoulder injury made my routine bomb. Two weeks later I took 1st and in two more weeks I placed 4th at Natural Team USA. Nov. 8th was INBA/ABA Natural Olympia and we placed 2nd for mixed pairs. I have a couple of mantras that I remind myself to stay on track. Repeat after me, ‘I CAN do this!’ ‘Would Parrillo eat that?’ or ‘What would Parrillo do?’ and ‘Oh, yea I don’t need that’.” 
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Back on the Wagon: My 2-Day Undo Diet

But hold on. Don’t throw in the towel yet. With the holidays over, you can start again with a clean slate and get your momentum going with my 2-Day Undo Diet. Start it on Monday and continue on Tuesday. It will re-energize you, help flush out salt and processed sugar, leave you feeling full, and prep you for dropping fat pounds. Time is of the essence, so let’s get started!

Here are the basic principles:

Pre-Breakfast Aerobics

When your alarm goes off that morning, start with 16 ounces of pure, fresh water. Then get into your exercise clothes for pre-breakfast aerobics. That’s right, do your aerobics on an empty stomach. Then your glycogen levels are somewhat depleted from your overnight fast and insulin levels are low. This internal situation forces your body to start drawing on your fat reserves for energy. With pre-breakfast aerobics, you’ll start stripping away fat. Do pre-breakfast aerobics Monday and Tuesday mornings – for 30 to 60 minutes each time.
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What Separates Parrillo from the Rest of the Pack? > Let us count the ways!

 

Bodybuilding is the art and science of altering the human body. To be successful, the bodybuilder needs to find a system, a method of training and nutrition that enables him or her to accomplish two things: add more muscle and reduce body fat. Within the world of bodybuilding and fitness, “experts” abound and each and every one has a different tactical approach on how best to morph the body from what it is – fat and flaccid or skinny and needing muscle – into what the client/student wants it to be: more muscular and fat free. Experts seek ways and methods to differentiate themselves from their competitors. In order for a fitness professional to become a guru they will champion a certain way of performing exercises. In order to create interest in their approach they will challenge the validity of existing modes and systems, accusing them of being outdated and ineffective.
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Ron Harris > The Power of Focus

Old Man Winter is one miserable S.O.B, I tell ya.  On the last weekend before Christmas the bitter New England skies had opened up and dumped well over a foot of snow on us, just when I thought I might be able to escape off to my vacation on a cruise ship without having to deal with backbreaking hours of shoveling. As a kid I used to go ballistic with joy whenever it snowed. That was years before I had to do anything but sled down hills on it and make snowmen. Now my reaction had drastically shifted from “Yippee!” to “Dammit!” whenever the forecast called for large quantities of snow.

 

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Tracie Euker > Winning Figure Competitions at 41!

The amazing story of how a career schoolteacher & mother of two went from ‘skinny-fat’ to

winning Figure competitions at age 41!

A few short years ago Tracie Euker was the very definition of “normal” in the best sense of the word. An Elementary art teacher in Sullivan County, New York, Tracie had taught school for fifteen years.
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