John Parrillo Live on Rx Muscle Radio

John Parrillo will be on RX Muscle radio LIVE Monday, February 28 at 7pm Eastern.

Extreme Training Camp

Parrillo Belt Squat Showdown

IRON VIC SPEAKS by IRON VIC STEELE

Rep speed…Branched-chain amino acids…Forearm training…Adding size for football

Mr. Vic,

Is there any advantage to doing reps really slow? I see a trainer at our gym putting his clients through ‘all machine’ lifting sessions. He has his clients perform the exercises really slowly – like five seconds for the raising and five seconds to lower a weight. Is this some new thing? I had never really thought about rep speed before I saw this guy train his clients. BTW – this trainer is long and lean and really doesn’t have much muscle when compared to a real bodybuilder. So is slow motion weight training the new thing? I know that the fact that he uses machines all the time goes against your philosophy. I hope you have time to answer this letter as I am genuinely curious and would like to try it if you think there is any validity to slow-motion reps.

Mark, Maryland

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The Secret Power of Vitamin C: By Cliff Sheats

I talk about vitamin C quite a bit, but what a lot of people don’t realize is that this versatile nutrient has a hand in helping your body absorb iron. (Be sure to see John’s column this month on the importance of iron to athletes.)

Iron absorption refers to the amount of dietary iron that the body obtains and uses from food. Storage levels of iron have the greatest influence on iron absorption. Iron absorption increases when body stores are low. When iron stores are high, absorption decreases to help protect against toxic effects of iron overload.

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Tips and Tidbits: January 2011

Training Tip of the month:

I see a whole new crop of bodybuilders today with no lower lats—for two reasons. First, they’ve relied too heavily on machines in early training. And second, if they include pull-ups in their routines, they usually perform the exercise with too much of an arch in their backs. This common error places stress on the rhomboids and upper lats rather than on the lower lats.

The first pull is with your shoulders. In other words, pull your shoulders down before you even bend your arms. To prevent your back from arching and to isolate your lower lats, bend and hold your knees out in front of your torso. At the top, make sure your shoulders are pressed down. Pull your elbows into your sides at the same time.

Do your first set of pull-ups without weight, as with all intensity sets. Strive for ten reps. On each rep, pull you shoulders down, bend your knees, and hold them in front of you. At the top, drop your shoulders and bring your elbows to the side of your body. Perform three more sets but hang weight from your waist each set. Be sure to increase the poundage on these sets for maximum intensity. Push for eight reps each time.

nutrition Tip of the month:

Are You Getting Enough Calcium?

One of the most worrisome nutritional practices in bodybuilding is the avoidance of dairy products without adequate regard to eating enough green leafy vegetables or calcium supplementation. To prevent osteoporosis when you’re older, you need to build strong bones while you’re young. If you come out of middle age with relatively poor calcium status, that makes it all the more likely you’ll have problemes when you’re older. You should consume 1,200 mg of calcium per day. Our Mineral Electrolyte Formula™ provides 250mg of calcium in each tablet. Four tablets a day is probably enough when combined with the calcium from your diet. Also note that Parrillo’s Hi-Protein™ contains 280mg of calcium per serving, Optimized Whey™ contains 130mg of calcium per serving, 50/50 Plus™ contains 250mg of calcium and All-Protein™ contains 130mg of calcium per serving.

Question of the month:

Question: I dread doing my aerobics, it’s so boring! Any tips on how to make it more interesting?

Answer: Try taking a “cross-training” approach to your aerobics. Combine several different types of aerobic training into a single session. For example, start with 5-10 minutes on a stair climbing machine, working up a good sweat by pumping your legs as hard as you can. Then switch to an upper body aerobic exercise for another 5-10 minutes. Get on a rowing machine and really push hard through the exercise. Rowing machines are excellent for building specific cardiovascular fitness in the back, helping to alleviate back development problems. For the next 5-10 minutes, hop on a stationary bike. To intensify this part of your aerobics, use dumbbells in each hand. Pump your arms as you pump your legs. This works the muscles even harder. Finish off with another 10 minutes on a ski machine. Really get into it. By the end of the aerobics training session, you’ll wonder where the time went!

News & Discoveries In Fitness & Nutrition

Eating Is Stressful, But Antioxidants Can Help

No matter how pleasant a meal is, eating causes what’s known as oxidative stress. As we digest our food, we create sometimes-harmful molecules known as free radicals. But antioxidants—healthful compounds in fruits and vegetables—can help by neutralizing the free radicals.

That’s yet another good reason to eat at least some antioxidant-rich foods at every meal, according to Agricultural Research Service chemist Ronald L. Prior. To learn more about the effects of antioxidants on postprandial, or after-meal, oxidative stress, Prior and co-investigators collaborated in four clinical studies with healthy female volunteers.

The scientists found that the antioxidant capacity of volunteers’ blood plasma samples declined after eating a test meal that lacked antioxidants. But the scientists also found, for the first time, that consuming grapes with that same test meal prevented the decline in plasma antioxidant capacity of the volunteers during the first two hours following the test meal—the time digestion is the most rapid.

Prior noted that omitting antioxidant-rich foods from meals could lead to cellular damage by free radicals. Such damage is thought to increase risk of atherosclerosis, cancer and other diseases.

- By Marcia Wood, Mar. 13, 2008, Agricultural Research Service, USDA

Quick Tip of the month:

Tired of eating oatmeal for breakfast every morning? Try something new!

There are several different types of grains you can use to make hot cereal. Here’s a sampling of some delicious grains for hot cereal: barley, buckwheat, oat bran, rye, brown rice, cracked wheat, rolled wheat, rolled spelt, or kasha. You can also try a mixture of grains, just look for bags of 10 Grain or 5 Grain mixed cereals, or you can mix you own favorites. You can find bags of cereal grains in the natural food section of most grocery stores.

Dominique’s Time Cruncher

Homemade soups can be a great time saver because you usually end up with several meals worth of leftovers. Speed up prep time by using a food processor for chopping vegetables. You can also freeze individual servings of soup and save them for busy days when you don’t have time for cooking.

Prevent Sports Anemia: by John Parrillo

You’re doing everything right, correct? You lift weights, do cardio, avoid red meat and egg yolks, and generally follow a clean diet. However, if you still feel fatigued, you could be one of the estimated 80 percent of female athletes or 30 percent of male athletes who may be experiencing anemia.

The word anemia is based on Greek words describing “without blood.” There are many different types of anemia, with iron-deficiency anemia and sports anemia among the most common. Anemia occurs when the body’s red blood cell count is abnormally low. This count is important because red blood cells carry oxygen throughout the body to replenish muscles and organs. Too few cells means not enough nourishing oxygen flows through the body and too many can lead to the blood becoming thick.

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The Parrillo Principles: by Andre Newcomb

Mitochondria are a bodybuilder’s best friend. Mitochondria are tiny cellular blast furnaces located inside the cellular organelle. From a bodybuilding standpoint, more mitochondria mean more potential muscle size, increased leanness and improved muscularity. Mitochondria enable a muscle to process food/fuel with greater efficiency. Bodybuilders with lots of these cellular blast furnaces are able to grow larger, stronger and simultaneously become leaner and more muscular. Mitochondrial density improves the ability to recover from intense training and more mitochondria means improved ability to oxidize body fat.

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A Bodybuilder is Born: Generations

Sometimes we know a relationship just isn’t working out anymore, yet we cling to it desperately like a koala to a eucalyptus tree. We can’t imagine letting go, and the very thought fills us with terror. But eventually things come to a head. Maybe one of the people in the relationship is abusive, an addict, mentally ill, a pathological liar – or maybe they just aren’t compatible anymore in some major area of your lives.

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Brenda Dixon: How one determined woman lost 100 pounds in 18 months, changed her body and her life

Inside every fat person is a lean muscular athlete waiting to escape. Bren Dixon changed that particular fantasy into reality and lost 100 pounds in 78 weeks. Now losing 100 pounds is rare – but not unheard of – and losing 100 pounds in a year and a half is rarer still – but still not unheard of – but losing 100 pounds in 78 weeks and ending up so lean, taunt, tight and shapely that this formerly fat person enters physique competitions and places in the top three consistently is unheard of. Bren Dixon did just that. “I’m 5’6” and currently 47 years old. A year and a half ago I weighed 230 pounds and was sick and tired of being fat. Everyday life was a struggle. I was never athletic, however, I have worked out at the gym on a fairly regular basis most of my life. I was in “okay” shape until I was 24 years old. Not fat, but certainly not fit. I became pregnant with my first child and gained 60 pounds by “eating for two.” Child number two added even more weight. I was married at the time and having two children two years apart didn’t leave me with a lot of time or energy to workout.”

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