The Parrillo definition of hard work…Best of the Best… Lose 20 pounds in ten weeks? Possible but highly improbable…The ice kreem & frosted chocolate cake bodybuilder diet… Run down in El Paso…Don’t be Hate’n!

Parrillo Brownies

Iron Vic,

How long are the typical Parrillo training sessions? I weight train for 30 minutes three times a week.  I jog or swim for 30 minutes four times a week. I got a strong hunch that the reason I have been stuck for so long is that I have fallen into a rut. I do the same things over and over and I am expecting different results

– Isn’t that the definition of being crazy? I have been training the same way for a long time and I am ready for a change. I am going to crank up my pace in swimming and jogging. I am going to establish a 30 minute lap record in both swimming and running then look to beat my best-ever lap count in each session. How much weight training should a guy my age do? I am 37 and in good condition, particularly for a guy my age. I can bench press 225 in strict form. I stand 5-8 and weigh a fit 175. Anytime I try and train longer than 30 minutes I run out of gas completely. Any ideas would be appreciated. I can weight train up to an hour four times a week; I would like to keep my cardio at 4-5 30 minute sessions.

Ron, Fort Myers

Doing the same old things in the same old ways, repeatedly, and expecting dramatic change is more dumb than crazy. You have done many things right and as a result of your diligent efforts you have built a nice physique along with a nice amount of strength. However, if you want to take your body (and strength) to the next level, doing the same things in the same ways will not deliver the radical results you seek. You are very clever to self-prescribe longer weight sessions: the reason anything over 30 minutes gasses you is you are not used to it – you have conditioned yourself to train 30 minutes three times a week. The classical Parrillo strategy for radically increasing muscle size and power is to increase both training frequency and session length. I would suggest that you add time to weight training sessions gradually: if weight training sessions currently last 30 minutes, each week add ten minutes to the session length.  I would raise the reps across the board, up to the 10-12 rep range; crank back on the poundage. Work up to being able to power through a full hour of hardcore weight training gradually.

Over time we double the length of the weight training session. Add one more weight training day; add an additional day, increase the number of exercises, increase the reps and increase the workout pace. Train for sixty minutes and use forced reps, drop sets and Parrillo high-rep extended sets. Currently, in your 30 minute workout, on chest training day, you might be able to squeeze in 5 to 6 sets of flat bench and perhaps a set or two of pec deck before you need to move on to another body part. Now, with sixty minutes and an extra training day, you have all the time in the world to really decimate a target body part. Perhaps you take a few warm-up sets then hit 3-5 static weight top sets in the flat bench; then proceed to wide grip and narrow grip flat benches. Follow with heavy dumbbell incline presses and finish the chest workout with cable crossovers and/or flat flyes. You still will have enough time left in your training hour to squeeze in tons of tricep work…weighted dips, French presses, pushdowns, nose-breakers. Seek to go further and faster in every single 30-minute cardio session. Never forget that nutrition is the cornerstone of our training efforts: eat big, eat clean and eat often. Quality nutrition is needed to support this level and amount of intense physical exercise. Supplement the big clean eating with copious amounts of potent Parrillo supplements. Look to add some muscle mass; test ride this classical four-day per week muscle-building, power-training workout split for eight weeks…

Day 1 Legs and shoulders

Day 2 Off

Day 3 Chest and triceps

Day 4 Back and biceps

Day 5 Off

Day 6 Lighter legs, chest,
shoulders and arms

Day 7 Off

Vic,

Who’s the best bodybuilder you have ever seen? In person. And why?

Len, Upstate

Forced to pick a single man, I would say Sergio Oliva as he appeared in the late 1960s. Never before or since has a bodybuilder been so far ahead of his contemporaries: he was the first bodybuilder to be “too big.” Oliva was shocking, jarring, disconcerting; he was further ahead of the pack than any other bodybuilder at any other time in bodybuilding history. Sergio redefined what was humanly possible: he was a bona fide genetic freak. Wide, wide shoulders sat atop a 29 inch waist over a pair of 29 inch thighs – he sported a genuine 20 inch arm and possessed the best back in bodybuilding. His smallish head made everything on him appear oversized and comic book-like. I was lucky enough to see Dorian Yates at his awesome peak, up close and personal. Before his bicep rip, in those two peak years after his first win in Helsinki, Yates had the best back and calves I have ever seen on a human. He had the ability to stride onstage bigger than anyone yet able to come in as ripped and shredded as the leanest lightweight. I never saw Arnold in person. Ronnie Coleman is gigantic and monstrously strong: much respect towards him; Ron can rep 800 in the deadlift wearing straps; gotta love that! So I would go with Sergio.

Iron Vic Steele,

What is the best way to lose 20 pounds in ten weeks? I have a class reunion and I would like to drop 20. I am a fit female. I lift serious, eat pretty healthy and play competitive racquetball. I weigh 150 pounds standing 5-5. I would love to blow some minds weighing 130. Is this realistic? If so, what’s the best route?

Barb, Palomino

Possible but highly improbable: the degree of exactitude needed to shed 20 in 10 weeks would be great. The margin for error would be zero: you would have to immediately commence perfect weight training and perfect cardio combined with perfect eating. Then be perfect every day for seventy straight days without a single slipup. That’s why I say improbable: on the other hand, if you proved human and had a slip up or two, you could still show up 10-15 pounds lighter and much more muscular. The math is pretty simple: ten weeks to go with twenty pounds to lose means you need to lose two pounds of bodyweight each successive week for ten straight weeks. The trick is to gradually pare off fat, thereby sparing muscle. I would suggest a classical Parrillo multiple-meal eating schedule…

Meal 1 6am: Oatmeal, egg whites w/ CapTri®, All-Protein™ shake, Parrillo Pills

Meal 2 9am: Parrillo Energy Bar™

Meal 3 noon: Chicken breast, salad with CapTri® dressing, green beans, Parrillo Pills

Meal 4 3pm: Parrillo Muffin™, Optimized Whey™ shake, pills

Meal 5 5pm: Post-workout: 50/50 Plus™ shake, Parrillo Protein bar™, Muscle Aminos™

Meal 6 7pm: Cod fish, rice with vegetables, garden salad, Parrillo Pudding™, CapTri®

Meal 7 10pm: Hi-Protein™ shake, Liver Amino™, Enhanced GH™ capsules

You cannot miss a meal; you cannot miss a training session; your nutrition must be perfect. Yes it is possible for a 150 pound athletic female to lose 20 pounds in ten weeks – but this will require pure perfection – a sustained discipline that is exceedingly rare…1 in 100…are you 1 in 100? Maybe. Best of luck.

Vic Steele,

I have a vicious sweet tooth that undermines my fitness efforts – any suggestions?

Tanya, Fresno

I would suggest you start eating ice cream and chocolate cake with frosting every day…Parrillo Ice Kreem™ and Parrillo High Protein Chocolate Cake™ topped with Parrillo Frosting Mix™ creates a luscious taste treat too good to be legal. Each serving of Ice Kreem™ contains 42 grams of protein, with no sugar or fat. The Parrillo chocolate Cake and Cupcake Mix™ creates an eight inch cake that contains a whopping 78 grams of protein, 66 carbs and six grams of fat with no sugar. Make the Parrillo cake more potent by spreading some Parrillo Protein Frosting Mix™ on top of the cake. Take a look at the nutritional stats generated by frosted cake and ice kreem in the chart below…

Just think: eating ice kreem and frosted cake is not only acceptable, it’s encouraged! You could eat this concoction everyday (or twice a day!) and still be completely within the strict boundaries of Parrillo dietary precepts. At Parrillo Performance Products, the folks in the research and development department are continually coming up with creative concoctions, innovative supplements that never compromise on quality or taste. Check out our list of available food products: Hi-Protein Cake and Cupcake Mix™, Protein Frosting Mix™, Ice Kreem™, Hi-Protein Pancake and Muffin Mix™, Hi-Protein/Low Carb Pudding™…our latest offerings are the Contest Cookie Mix™ and the Contest Brownie Mix™, which is microwavable! Now you can have delicious chocolate brownies, even while on a diet, in just 2 to 2 1/2 minutes in the microwave. Don’t forget the venerable Parrillo Bar™, Energy Bar™, Protein Bar™, Hi-Protein Bar™ or Chew Bar™. Factor in the limitless variety of flavors and any sweet tooth can be satiated. I strongly suggest you get on our ice kreem-and-frosted cake diet –
immediately!

Vic,

Any ideas as to how to use nutritional supplements to prevent me from feeling so run down? I own a liquor store and have to put in loads of hours each week. I manage to train in the morning before the store opens – the hard training and long hours are wearing me out!  I know it would be stupid to quit training, but I am really struggling in the final hours before closing. I eat okay but most of it is take out food. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Tex, El Paso

I would immediately start supplementing with multiple daily doses of Parrillo Liver Amino Formula™. Anemia is one of the major undiagnosed maladies in modern American society. People nationwide are tired and listless and the sad part is, in 80% of these cases, the anemia could be easily remedied by taking supplemental heme iron. More than 25% of American women are iron deficient and 15% of men. Hemoglobin is a protein that includes a special chemical structure known as heme, specifically a combination of porphyrin and iron. Red blood cells are responsible for transporting oxygen to all the tissues of the body. This is accomplished by binding oxygen to hemoglobin, the red pigment in the blood. Myoglobin also requires iron to bind oxygen. Without iron the whole oxygen transport/waste product removal system breaks down. Supplemental iron can cure this. However 99% of commercially available iron supplements are weak and impotent.

Parrillo introduced Liver Amino Formula™ in his first wave of Parrillo supplements way back in 1988. What was true then is true now: if you train as hard, heavy and often as you are supposed to, you could be iron deficient. If you feel continually run down, tired and listless, likely you are suffering from iron deficiency and could be anemic. Liver supplementation cures anemia. Parrillo Liver Amino Formula™ is a dynamite product: made from the highest quality beef liver, Parrillo liver tablets are made from defatted liver and pre-digested casein protein powder is added to increase the protein efficiency ratio. Each Parrillo beef liver tablet packs a wallop: 1.5 grams of high Biologic-Value protein. Most competitive bodybuilders start off by supplementing with 3-5 liver tablets with each of their half dozen daily meals; over time, as the competition draws closer, they will increase to 8-10 tablets per meal. Liver Amino Formula™ boosts the body’s oxygen transport capabilities and provides a continual source of muscle-sparing protein. I would advise that you take a handful of liver tabs every few hours throughout the day all day long. Do this for a solid week and I’d bet the farm that your fatigue will evaporate.

Vic,

Why are you a lunge hater? I like them. They burn my quads – isn’t that what they are supposed to do?

Janet, Tulsa

I suppose that elite bodybuilders can do a proper lunge, touching the back knee to the floor on each and every rep. The lunges I see are pathetic: Look! Here comes the walking lunge babe…carrying a 5 pound dumbbell in each hand, barely breaking the knees, awkwardly strolling back and forth across the gym floor. I went to a commercial gym a few years back and was almost run over by a swarm of lungers. Some Rico Suave personal trainer (perfect tan, perfect hair, perfect teeth) had six females lunging in a line like a parade of ducks. They walked right down the middle of the dumbbell area – there was plenty of open walking area over by the cardio machines, but no, Mr. Suave wanted his gaggle of gals to see themselves in the mirror as they duck walked. I was doing a set of repetition dumbbell power cleans when the duck walkers came within a foot of my back as I was struggling to clean the 5^th rep using a pair of 100s. I threw the bells down and let loose with a string of profanities. I cursed Mr. Suave and he took grave offense. Mr. Suave, to his credit, was a pretty good boxer, but, as the old adage goes, don’t box a boxer. I used a single-leg takedown, mounted him and bitch-slapped him a little bit before I let him up. In our struggle we discovered that he wore a toupee. This fact was heretofore unbeknownst to his female clients and many expressed revulsion. The gym owners asked me to leave and never come back. As a result of that incident, I have a real problem with lunges and lungers.