BodyStat for acquiring lean mass… Want to build a monster bench press? Consult Coan! The UFC is in tumult – and that’s a good thing!

Vic,

I want to go on a 10-week mass-building regimen. How would you lay out the supplement part of a mass-building nutritional program? I am coming off a terrific summer season. I got super lean and attained my lowest bodyweight of the year, 188 pounds. I currently weigh 195. I would like to push my weight up to 205 or 210 and bench press 380. Then I want to cut back to 195 (or thereabouts) for a bodybuilding show next spring. I’m lightly muscled compared to my competitors.

I hold body weight well – I carry a 10% body fat percentile year round. I have a hard time eating enough to push my weight up. I also want to enter a bench press competition. I bench 340 raw, weighing 190. Not bad for a tall guy. I am ready to add some muscle and I’m ready to up my bench press. I just don’t want to turn into a fat pig while doing it.  Please write me up a Parrillo supplement shopping list, one aimed at complimenting a power program.

Ron, Raleigh

You’ve maneuvered yourself into an enviable position. I would suggest adding 10-15 pounds of bodyweight in 10 weeks time. Do it in a smart way and take your time. Don’t go crazy. Incorporate Parrillo’s patented BodyStat technology. BodyStat is a tool that allows you to assess your current body fat composition: what is your current ratio of fat to muscle? With BodyStat you eliminate the guesswork. No more diet or nutrition moves based on subjectivity. Make objective decisions using BodyStat. Most serious trainees use BodyStat every week. Perform the 9-point skin-fold test and come up with your current body fat percentile. Create a realistic goal and work backwards. Divide what you want to accomplish into weekly mini-goals. In your case, ten weeks, it would be perfect to push your bodyweight up one to one and a half pounds per week. 10-15 pounds added in ten weeks. Ideally, gain the weight while maintaining your current lean and ripped condition. Maintain your current degree of leanness through constant BodyStat readings. Sync up a power training regimen with the Parrillo nutritional strategy. You will need 1.5 grams or more of protein, per pound of bodyweight, every single day. That’s 280 grams of protein per day for a guy that weighs 192 pounds. Use BodyStat to achieve a degree of leanness you thought unimaginable. BodyStat allows you to exert a degree of exactitude that has to be experienced to be believed.

You MUST consume more calories than you burn off on a consistent daily basis; you must intake nearly 300 grams of protein per day: supplements are the nutritional solution. Keep eating what you are eating, when you are eating it, in the same amounts. Obviously whatever you are doing is working. Parrillo supplements can add 1,000 additional calories per day.

This supplemental template is ideal for a serious individual intent on making rapid gains. Your foundation is gut-busting gym effort and disciplined nutrition. You need to eat often and with clocklike regularity. The deeper into this 10-week periodization cycle you get, the more calories you have to consume. More rice, fish, turkey, potatoes, chicken, fiber vegetables…more Parrillo supplements of every type and variety…supplements are taken often and taken methodically.

w Start the day with a Parrillo Optimized Whey^™ shake and five Liver Amino^™ tabs. The catabolic sleep fast is broken with 40+ grams of high BV protein.

w Consume the first of five daily servings of creatine monohydrate.

w CapTri^® is drizzled over each food meal. CapTri^® contains 120 calories per tablespoon.

On account of its structural construction, CapTri^® is transported directly to the liver via the portal vein. Calories derived from CapTri^® are virtually impossible to end up compartmentalized as body fat. Parrillo supplements are the key to building mass: the magic combination of power training and heavy eating is augmented with ample amounts of potent supplements. To avoid adding body fat during the process, BodyStat is used to alert you if things are on track or flying off the tracks. Fat gains should be miniscule and acceptable. If a man adds fifteen pounds of rock solid muscle and coincidentally picks up a few pounds of body fat in the process, then we’ve been successful. Lift weights four to six times a week and hit the cardio hard especially on the “off days.” Use Parrillo supplements to create a consistent caloric surplus. You need to gain a pound, to a pound and a half of bodyweight per week, every week for ten consecutive weeks, come hell or high water. Use CapTri^® and creatine multiple times each day. Load up with mega-doses of branched-chain amino acids in the form of Muscle Amino Formula^™ before and after weight training. Take five to eight Liver Amino^™ tabs every couple of hours. Each tablet contains 1.5 grams of protein and is loaded with blood boosters. Be selective and discriminating with the calories you choose. Create the caloric surplus needed to construct new muscle using potent Parrillo supplements.

PS – If you successfully add ten to fifteen pounds of rock-solid muscle, you’ll be repping 340 and bench pressing 400!

Greetings Victor,

I want to know how to increase my bench press. How does a normal dude (like me) increase his bench press by say 50 pounds without having to gain fifty pounds of bodyweight?  I am 5-7 and I weigh 150. I have a real tight physique. Not that it couldn’t be better. I would like to push my 200 pound max bench press up to 250 without adding a bunch of bodyweight. I bench twice a week and have been training seriously for 10 years. Any hints or tips would be greatly appreciated.

John, Camp Springs, Maryland

Here’s a bench press routine that was used for many years by Ed “The Giant Killer” Coan. Ed was the greatest powerlifter of all time. Incredibly Eddy is a longtime Parrillo Product user and at his peak, (around 1990) weighing 219 pounds, Ed could bench press 550 pounds (raw) for a double! Ed used this super basic bench routine for nearly a decade…His “cycle” lasted twelve weeks.

Day I

Bench press: three types of flat benching using three different grip widths

Competition grip bench: work up to one max set of 8, 5, 3 or 2 reps

Wide-grip bench

(with paused reps): work up to two max sets of 10, 8 or 5 reps

Narrow-grip bench

(no pauses): work up to two max sets of 10, 8 or 5 reps

w For the first two weeks, one max set of 8 reps using the competition grip

w For the next six weeks, one max set of 5 reps using the competition grip

w For the next two weeks, one max triple using the competition grip

w For the final two weeks, one max double (2 reps) using the competition grip

After a few bench press warm-up sets, work up to a single, all out set using the competition width grip for whatever reps are proscribed: 8, 5, 3 or 2 reps. Ed would then reduce the bench press weight by say 90 pounds and perform his two sets of wide grip bench press using paused reps. The wide grip bench reps are higher than what is used in the single set using the competition grip. Ed would then knock off another 90 pounds and perform two sets of narrow-grip bench press in ‘touch and go’ style.

Then Ed would work the hell out of his triceps…

Dips: sets of 10 reps with 200 additional pounds strapped around his 220 pound torso

Pushdowns: two partners would stand on each toe to keep him from launching upward

Nose-breakers:

300+ pounds for reps

A few days later Ed would come in and perform 3-5 sets of a strict bench press with his feet up on the bench. He could push 315 for twenty super strict, wide-grip paused reps. He’d work biceps for perhaps 6 total sets, using one or two exercises. That was it. This is a classical training template well worth reviving. Coan was a rabid Parrillo Product user: Ed used John’s products through the peak years of his career. “I loved John’s products and particularly his bars; some of them taste great and some taste incredible! I used to go through a box of bars every few days!” Ed was the greatest ever. He was powerlifting’s version of football immortal Jim Brown.

Vic,

I know you are a big UFC fan. The whole MMA world is total chaos. For six months one guy is the champion in a particular division before someone comes along and whips him; now the new guy is proclaimed as the next great thing. Leasner, Machida, Silva, Franklin’s reemergence, Rampage’s saga…The UFC is one big addictive soap opera. What’s your take? Are you including any of their brutal training tactics in your training regimen? Their cardio is kick ass!

Big Ron from Hollywood

Watch for a feature article on UFC cardio training in an upcoming issue of the PPP.

Big Ron do you really live in Hollywood? That used to be my line! Years ago Dr. Fred Hatfield (Dr. Squat) and I would dazzle foreign women at international powerlifting championships with lines like, “Hello ladies! We are two lonely world powerlifting champions stuck in this dull city. We are here until we win our world titles, awards and medals, then we will jet back to our mansions in Hollywood. Did we mention we were rich? My friend here is a Doctor. Do you two live around here? Are you a Capricorn?”

Insofar as your UFC MMA queries, I think we are witnessing a new fact-of-MMA-life: no one is unbeatable! Some guys are custom made to beat other guys; some men fight so unorthodox that they frustrate formally trained fighters. When a champ has been around for a while, his opponents begin to dissect his style. Witness the demise of Tito Ortiz. With his size and power there was a time (and not too long ago) when it seemed that he was the perfect fighting machine, an unbeatable man. He quickly morphed from unbeaten into beaten and beaten more often than not. What happened? The other fighters figured out how to defend against him. Ditto for Chuck Liddell. For a while it seemed Chuck would never be beaten; then everyone began beating him. The rocket ride of Rampage Jackson makes for perfect soap opera fare. He is a great fighter plagued by outside dramas; the type of dramas that have plagued fighters from time immemorial. How about the disintegration of KroCop and the tarnish coming off Wanderlei Silva’s mystique…then there was the rise of Forest Griffin, Rich Franklin and Rashid Evans…all peaked quickly and faded just as quickly. The current dominance of Anderson Silva (the Sugar Ray Robinson of MMA fighters) is fascinating. Man Mountain Brock Leasner finally came through to match his hype: he is now the dominant big man.

The current 205 pound champ, Machida, is one of the most eloquent MMA fighters I’ve ever seen. He fights like Fred Astaire danced. Could he be the long-term 205 dominator? Fedor Emilienenko’s career is a disaster and a debacle: rumored to be “mobbed up,” Fedor’s Russian handlers take one giant misstep after another. Meanwhile the best fighter in the world watches the best years of his career steadily flow by, unproductively. Round and round it goes – what it all points to is that there is no such thing as a completely dominant fighter or a completely dominant style. I am really looking forward to this year’s Ultimate Fighter show. The heavyweights will train under Rampage and Rashid. With Kimbo Slice and several ex-NFL players thrown into the mix, this show promises to be one big Pier 9 brawl from start to finish. When fighters are crammed together and made to live in a single house for six weeks without a TV, bad things are bound to happen. And I want a ringside seat!