Protein consistency…Tired all of the time… Lateral raises not lateral heaves…Can’t fight a lick!

Vic Steele,

Any tips for upping my lean protein intake? I finally got serious about the Parrillo Principle of taking in 1.5 grams of protein per pound of bodyweight per day and have been real diligent about it for the last three weeks. I cannot tell you what a difference this has made. I have never been on steroids, but I imagine this is what it feels like.  I haven’t missed eating 250 grams per day for 22 straight days. I’ve added five pounds of muscle, lost body fat and I feel amazing. Plus I have been breaking personal records in my lifts right and left. The problem is I am getting really bored with chicken breasts and canned tuna. I would love some protein alternatives – I want to keep this progress train rolling!

Arn, St. Paul

Arn has discovered what John (Parrillo) has been preaching for decades: one of the real keys to building muscle is consistently firing down ample amounts of ‘clean’ protein. Couple serious and consistent protein intake with serious and consistent hardcore weight training and experience the muscle building effect you speak of. The key is in hitting the 1 to 1.5 grams or more of protein per pound of bodyweight goal every single day! More often than not, the ‘normal’ bodybuilder will achieve their protein goal on Monday and Tuesday before letting down and falling short on Thursday and Friday; they might get back on the protein bandwagon on Saturday before missing the goal once again on Sunday. 50% of the time they make the goal and 50% of the time they miss the goal. This is not enough to create the muscle building effect you speak of. To develop the muscle momentum you speak of requires you hit the protein goal for at least 14 straight days. It takes that long for the real gains to become apparent. Once you have two unbroken weeks under your belt, the athlete will start adding visible muscle and shattering personal bests in the gym. At that point it becomes (relatively) easy to stay on task. Egg whites are a terrific and inexpensive way to add lots of lean, fat-free protein to the diet; eggs do not have to be limited to breakfast: a massive egg omelet made with a dozen egg whites, diced onions, bell pepper and spinach, all sautéed in butter-flavored CapTri®, makes for an amazing, filling, protein-packed dinner.

Here are a few egg preparation tips: first, always sauté veggies in CapTri®. Place the egg whites in a blender for a few seconds. Pour the egg whites over the veggies and then place the entire pan into a preheated 350 degree oven for 10 minutes. This creates a delicious egg soufflé. Make sure the pan is all metal and can safely be placed into a hot oven. Seafood is a terrific protein source. A pound of steamed shrimp makes an incredible protein-packed, weekend treat. Parrillo supplements are critical for hitting protein goals. Here is one way to hit protein intake goals with the greatest of ease using the vast array of Parrillo products (see chart below)…

Now that goes a long way towards hitting daily protein goals. Eat two to three chicken breasts per day, toss in a couple cans of tuna, eat a big egg omelet and how about some seafood! You can hit 200-300 grams per day with the greatest of ease. We haven’t even mentioned turkey, fish or the various lean beef cuts such as flank and skirt steak. Also seek to expand your food preparation abilities: there are a dozen ways to prepare a chicken breast. Most of us fall into the habit of grilling or broiling a boneless skinless breast and that is too plain, too boring and too one dimensional. Check out cookbooks and check out the Food Channel for prep tips.  Be consistent in consuming protein and be consistent in working out. Hold the course for fourteen days and experience the anabolic power of protein!

Iron Vic,

I am having a hell of a time recovering from my workouts. I am in an off-season mass-building phase and after an intense weight training session I feel like I am walking through a vat of mud. This sluggish feeling lasts for the next 48 hours!  I am an advanced guy with ten years of hardcore training under my belt and I have NEVER had a problem recovering session to session. Of course I have never been bigger (220) or stronger (500 for reps in the squat) and I have never been older – is age a factor? Any ideas? I have had to cut my weight sessions back to three times a week and I’m still not recovering.

Old and tired in Ohio

Parrillo has identified this phenomenon on numerous occasions and in a nutshell it can be summed up in two words: ‘under-eating.’ You are taking in an insufficient number of calories in relation to the amount of work (training) you are performing. Your problem will clear up if you dramatically increase your caloric intake. Depending on if you up your caloric intake with “clean” calories or with “dirty” calories will determine if the resultant weight gain – and there will be a resultant gain in bodyweight – is fat or if the weight gain is muscle. In order to trigger muscle gain the body needs to be trained hard. Fine and good; however if you slaughter the body in killer weight training sessions (as is your duty as a Parrillo adherent) and then eat like a super model on a diet you will end up going backwards. Over-training and under-eating creates catabolism when we seek anabolism. Create catabolism and the body will strip muscle walls of amino acid content in order to feed itself and cover the caloric shortfall. On the other hand if you go crazy and use this advice as an excuse to eat pie, chips and waffles with gravy, you will factually avoid catabolism and factually establish anabolism and factually end up fat! It is easy to construct a massive amount of body fat! Strike the Parrillo balance: train like a maniac but eat like a bodybuilder; avoid foods easily compartmentalized as body fat. Eat loads of foods preferentially used to construct muscle. I am not going to waste time identifying the acceptable and unacceptable foods. Elite bodybuilders routinely consume a 50/50 Plus™ shake after training without fail: 50/50 Plus™ contains 21 grams of protein and 17 grams of carbs with zero fat or sugar. Big men will double the recommended serving size. Drink your 50/50 Plus™ as the workout winds down and when you get home eat a “Parrillo Meal” containing a large serving of protein, a serving of vegetables and some glycogen-replenishing starchy carbs, such as rice or potatoes. Eat like a man! A gram of protein per pound of bodyweight per day is the bare minimum! Plus eat lots of natural carbs and tons of vegetables. As John is fond of saying, “There is no such thing as over-training –
only under-eating!”

Vic,

Am I wasting my time doing lateral raises? I can’t really feel any ‘pump’ in the deltoids when I do them – with bench presses, pec dec, curls, triceps, etc. I can feel the target muscle getting pumped up as I do them – not so with lateral raises. Maybe I am doing them wrong – I use dumbbells. Are these things worth doing?

Ross, Atlanta

You are likely going too heavy and likely using the muscles surrounding the delts to raise the too heavy dumbbells. First off you need to keep the traps out of the lateral raise effort. The usual culprit in lateral raises is that the traps come to the aide of the weaker deltoids and ‘help’ the delts out. The idea is to isolate the delts and the biggest mistake is using poundage so heavy that the traps are called into action. Anytime I see a bodybuilder using a pair of 60s or 70s in side laterals, I wince. Unless you are Dorian Yates or Ronnie Coleman, heaving a pair of 60s upwards for a few inches, using a ton of body action to get them moving, is worthless. You are turning a potentially fine shoulder isolation exercise into a half-ass shoulder shrug. So how do you get the traps out of lateral raises? Slash the poundage, slow the rep speed down, increase the range of motion and eliminate any body English to get the bells moving. Grab a pair of 20s, sit down on the end of an exercise bench and consciously keep the traps relaxed as you lift the bells slowly and with great deliberation to shoulder height. Hold the top position – arms parallel to the floor – for a full second before lowering. Don’t let the dumbbells drop back to the start; resist gravity all the way down. That’s one rep, now do 15 reps. Another excellent delt raise tip comes from elder bodybuilding statesman and three-time Mr. Olympia Frank Zane. “At the top of every lateral raise – ‘pour the tea’ – during the one second pause and hold at the top of each lateral raise, twist the wrist forward and down, as if you were pouring tea from a kettle. Pour forward then return the wrists to the normal position before lowering slowly.” This takes some practice and really isolates the delts. Do lateral raises slow and precise and you will experience the best deltoid pump of your entire life.

Vic,

I ain’t proud to admit it but I got my ever-loving ass kicked in a fight this past weekend – by a guy half my size. I am 6 foot and weigh 200 pounds. I have a 325 bench press and have done well in a bunch of local bodybuilding competitions. So I thought I could handle myself. I admit that I actually started the fight – we were at a party and I hit on this guy’s girlfriend. He took offense and we squared off. Next thing I know he tackles me and is on top of me pounding my face – this dude might have weighed all of 150. How embarrassing! I thought my weight training and cardio and size would have been of more benefit – what happened? And what can I do to prevent it from happening again??

Ass-beaten in Idaho

Stop hitting on other guys’ wives and girlfriends for starters. Bodybuilders and powerlifters all think that because they have these great bodies, great size and great power, that that automatically makes them great fighters. Wrong! I don’t know if you had an opportunity to watch one of the few TV shows I watch with any regularity, “The Ultimate Fighter” last year when they featured heavyweight fighters. They had several ex-NFL players as contestants; massive giant dudes, huge muscular guys, genetic wonders, absolutely awesome physically. Unfortunately not one of them could fight worth a damn. You had the misfortune to cross paths with a trained fighter: he simply took you down, likely with a very basic double-leg takedown, mounted you, and proceeded to pepper your face with his tiny little fists. Because you didn’t know how to sprawl to avoid the takedown, because you didn’t know that allowing him to pass your guard and mount you was a fatal mistake, because you didn’t know how to buck him off, (likely he had “hooks” in) you took an unnecessary but deserved ass-whipping. You are damn lucky he didn’t throw an arm bar on you and break your elbow. Hope you learned a lesson.

I remember back when I was a young man earning extra money bouncing at an infamous roadhouse outside of Memphis. This
giant bodybuilder, who shall remain nameless, squared off with a skinny redneck in the club parking lot. Me and my bouncer pals watched – it was a slow night, we were bored, they were in the parking lot, not in the club and we were like, ‘So what! Let ‘em fight – this should be interesting.’ So the first thing the massive bodybuilder does is rip off his shirt, like the incredible hulk; he swells up like a blow fish and starts cussing and saying how he was going to ‘gut’ the redneck. I noticed the country boy had a lot of knuckle scar tissue. That’s what we call a clue; as soon as he dropped into his stance and started circling to the left I knew the massive ape-man was in trouble. The big guy was sooooo slooooooow – his fists moved as if he were in slow motion. Meanwhile the skinny guy was fast as Ali. Bap! Bap! Bang! Every time the giant lumbered forward to grab the redneck, country boy stepped to his left and delivered two stiff jabs followed by a haymaker looping right cross. On the third try the giant went down unconscious when the looping right impacted the monster man’s ‘jaw button.’ We stepped in and stopped it and I’ll never forget country boy taunting the downed monster, “Why you ain’t nothin’ but a damned bodybuilder!” Go to the yellow pages and find a mixed martial arts gym or a jujitsu studio, go there humbly and with respect; put in the time to learn the craft of self-defense. Those that really know how to fight avoid fighting because of the legal entanglements that befall a trained fighter when the law gets called in after the trained fighter beats the hell out of a disrespectful idiot like you. I hope you learned a valuable lesson; trust me you got off easy – this time. Being big and strong is zero guarantee that you can defend yourself. Defend, don’t offend!