Crazed exercises taught by incompetent personal trainers… Protein differences…why big biceps equate to lousy lats!

Vic,

You mentioned that you periodically train at commercial gyms – you must go crazy watching these no-nothing personal trainers put regular folks through their paces. I myself get a kick out of watching the blind leading the blind. Is it me or has the art of personal training gone backwards over the past few years? Some of the stuff I see taught absolutely defies logic. It seems to me the PTs I see either baby their clients or try and kill them.

Ron, Reno

One quick example: I saw a muscle-less female trainer (follow me on this) set up an incline bench between the cable crossover machine. She had her muscle-less client sit on the incline bench and lay back with two small dumbbells; I thought she was going to have the guy perform incline flyes or bench presses – but no! She then proceeds to hook his wrists up to the low pulleys. Now she hands our hero two light dumbbells. So he has a pulley cable attached to each wrist and a light dumbbell in each hand. The guy begins doing dumbbell incline presses with a low pulley attached to each arm! Insane. A perfect example of the ludicrous crap I see used by idiot personal trainers on a regular basis. My question is where do they come up with this stuff? Is there some moron-ish website dedicated to crazed resistance exercises?? The rationale is pretty easy to figure out: in order for a personal trainer to differentiate from other personal trainers they feel they need to come up with exotic

exercises.

Worse yet are the sadistic personal trainers inspired by the queen of mean, the prison guard fitness guru Jillian Michaels, that bozo from that god-awful show The Biggest Loser.  Jillian Michaels is the fitness equivalent of terminal cancer: she is slowly killing legitimate training with her cruel antics. Her client beat-downs are so horrific that if she were to subject prisoners at Gitmo to what she routinely dishes out to clients (and never participates in herself) she would be indicted as a war criminal. I’ve said this before: Biggest Loser fitness is prison camp fitness. Think about it – what do they do to inmates in a prison camp? Guards subject prisoners to hours of forced labor then starve them within an inch of their lives; what do they do on the Biggest Loser? They subject participants to endless hours of intense physical activity then starve them. Plus they mentally and psychologically torture participants by tempting them with sweet treats and savory foods. How is this any different from a prison guard beating the hell out of inmates then placing delicious food just outside the barb wire fence?  I hope someday this “expert” is forced to undergo the pain and depravation she so easily, callously and cruelly hands out to anyone that falls into her gruesome clutches.

I agree with you in that most personal trainers seem to fall into the “baby the client” or “kill the client” category. We all know about the baby-the-client types; they’ve been around forever. Their modus operandi is easy to understand; they talk a great game, they are terrific salesmen and usually they are good looking. They usually specialize in “training” the opposite sex. One guy who sticks out in my mind as the epitome of this type plied his trade at a facility I trained at a few years back. He was, as Derek Zoolander described himself, “insanely good looking.” We’ve all seen this type: if they’re guys they develop a stable of overweight women clients; if they’re good looking women they work both sides of the street, training lecherous guys and adoring females. We used to call this type the “paid friend.” They spend more time talking to the client and empathizing with the client than actually training the client.

This type always needs to touch the client during the set and with their perfect hair, perfect teeth, great gym outfits, clipboards and stop watches they appear competent when they are factually incompetent. They depend on new business because they always lose clients that eventually quit because they never make gains. No one makes gains under the direction of this type because sub-maximal training using ridiculous exercises does nothing. The Biggest Loser TV show has spawned a whole new generation of sadistic personal trainers. The new breed confuse sadism with training and beat the client into the ground using routines and practices better suited to a forced labor prison camp than a fitness facility. They yell platitudes and slogans at the pathetic client and make the unfit suffer as they do endless sets using horrible exercises until the client collapses. These idiots routinely hurt or injure clients and when anyone complains they scream and rant. This is fitness malpractice and their hurtful practices are turning off generations of potential new clients. People see this stuff and go, “I want to get into shape as much as the next person – but no way am I going to subject myself to that hell on earth.” The Biggest Loser has projected the erroneous idea to millions that getting fit is all about sadism and pain and injury.

The lucky few that have access to a Parrillo Certified Personal Trainer have the best of all worlds. The elite Parrillo Personal Trainer has a battle-tested strategy for weight training, cardio and nutrition. The PCPT locks all these strategies together in a tight, comprehensive regimen that acclimatizes the trainee to ever more difficult degrees of intensity; workouts are conducted in a logical and progressive fashion. The PCPT uses proven methods that actually build muscle and actually burn off body fat when coordinated with a comprehensive Parrillo-style nutrition program. The Parrillo nutritional strategy is the complete opposite of the prison camp/Biggest Loser philosophy of beat ‘em up and then starve ‘em. The Parrillo method combines hard training with a high calorie approach designed to accelerate the acquisition of muscle and the oxidation of body fat.  Parrillo nutrition flies in the face of the ridiculous starve ‘em strategies so prevalent and popular these days. If you are smart, contact Parrillo headquarters to see if there is a Parrillo Certified Personal Trainer plying his trade in your geographic area. Avoid the PT that babies the client and avoid the sadists that hurt the clients.

Vic,

I know this is a stupid question but what exactly is the difference between Optimized Whey Protein Powder^™ and Hi-Protein Powder^™? Which one should an intermediate trainer like me pick and why? I am looking to add muscle and lose fat (who isn’t!) and I am confused over which protein powder to go with.

Bobby V.  Oakland

Good question actually. First off, all Parrillo proteins are the best proteins available: both are expensive and effective isolate protein. Isolate protein is the Rolls Royce of proteins and costs two to three times what cheap non-isolate proteins do. The human body utilizes isolate proteins with far greater efficiency than it does the diluted proteins so widely used. The short answer, the simplistic answer is that the venerable Hi-Protein^™ is a caseinate/whey protein blend and releases its protein payload in a slow and sustained fashion. Optimized Whey Protein^™ is (obviously) whey protein and delivers its protein payload comparatively quickly. There are instances when slow and sustained is preferable and there are instances where instantaneous is appropriate. For example, many of our stable of elite bodybuilders will consume a Hi-Protein^™ shake right before bed. This strategy allows protein to be delivered while the athlete sleeps. To further amplify this excellent strategy, elite bodybuilders will also wash down a half dozen Liver Amino Formula^™ tablets and a handful of Enhanced GH Formula^™ capsules at bedtime. A single serving of Hi-Protein^™ contains 31 grams of slow-release high-biologic value protein. Each Liver Amino^™ tablet contains 1.5 grams of protein. The whey releases first then the caseinate starts systematically releasing protein and in about the time the caseinate is exhausted the protein from the Liver Amino^™ tablets comes online. Consuming the shake/liver combination before bed means 40 grams of protein are slowly released during the sleep cycle.

The Enhanced GH Formula^™ capsules are the icing on this muscle-building cake: growth hormone is secreted during the sleep cycle and the release of GH can be stimulated through the ingestion of two key amino acids: Arginine Pyroglutamate and Lysine Monohydrochloride. This four way combination of whey protein isolate and caseinate protein, liver tablets and GH-stimulating amino acids cause the bodybuilder to grow while they sleep. Optimized Whey Protein^™ is used by elite bodybuilders throughout the day. After a weight training session an Optimized Whey^™ shake means quick replenishment and speedier recovery. Quicker recovery means more training sessions can be squeezed in during the training week. Many of our elite bodybuilders consume an Optimized Whey^™ shake immediately upon arising in the morning. This quick infusion of protein breaks the catabolic state that exists after the long sleep cycle and breaks it immediately. Because a serving of Optimized Whey^™ contains only four grams of carbohydrate, consuming a whey shake upon awaking will not disturb the low glycogen status that makes early morning cardio so effective. The Parrillo athlete has both Hi-Protein^™ and Optimized Whey^™ in his supplemental arsenal. My advice is to have a canister of each on hand. For optimal benefit mix and match these two tremendous protein powders throughout the day as needed.

Vic,

I swear it seems my biceps get more of a workout than my lats when I do pulldowns, chins, seated cable rows or barbell rows. What’s up with that? No surprise that I have great biceps and very poor lat development. I have tried different grip widths, different handle attachments, different pull positions and different exercises and all to no avail. For whatever reason I cannot make a decent lat mind/muscle connection. I cannot activate my lats to save my life and my biceps are continually improving while my lats are going nowhere!

Larry Lat-less, Las Vegas

Actually your dilemma is so common we have a phrase for it, “Show me a man with great lats and I’ll show you a man with lousy biceps; Show me a man with great biceps and I’ll show you a man with lousy lats.” In order to activate the lats we have to pull some sort of poundage from arms length into the body. We can pull down to the body, we can pull in towards the body or we can pull upward to the body. The problem is you are pulling using your arms and not with your back. Arm pulling lat exercises can be avoided using this two-part

procedure…

• Use lifting straps

• Do not wrap the thumb around the bar or handle

Straps allow you to pull without activating the bicep and straps allow you to keep pulling long after the tiny bicep muscles are exhausted. Most people find using lifting straps cumbersome and awkward – this is a shame because correctly used lifting straps allow the bodybuilder to squeeze out extra reps, additional poundage or both. In my own case I can add two or three additional reps to any back exercise through the use of straps. Extra reps mean extra muscle growth. Straps take grip strength out of the back training equation. On limit pulldowns, chins, shrugs, rows or deadlifts the grip will give out before the back muscles give out. Straps allow you to keep tugging and pulling and repping way past the point where grip strength gives out. Buy some straps and learn how to use them.  Another secret to getting the biceps out of back training is to eliminate the thumb as you pull on poundage. Straps allow you to pull a barbell, dumbbell, pulldowns or machine without using the thumb. Place the strap around the bar or handle and cinch each strap tight. Do not wrap the thumb around the bar: leave the thumb atop the bar or handle and begin pulling. The straps allow you to pull without using the thumb and not lose anything off the poundage or reps. Try pulling a weight without straps and without using your thumbs and you will be lucky to pull 50% of what you are capable of using the thumbs. The rationale behind using straps to create a thumb-less grip is simple: the biceps cannot activate without the thumbs exerting pressure. This terrific tactic forces the lats into action. Be aware that you will need to drop the poundage back a bit until you get the hang of thumb-less strap work. Your pathetic, underworked lats will be forced into action whether they like it or not.