The Most Brutal Leg Workout Ever

How to get Definition & Separation in your Legs for a contest – by John Parrillo

Amino Acids clarified..Cardio Variety…Pro-Carb Rocks!

Vic,

What’s the latest word on using the various Parrillo Amino Acids? It is all a little confusing in that you have Ultimate Amino^™, Muscle Amino^™, Liver Amino^™, Enhanced GH^™ – all look worth trying. My goal is to kick my training and strength and physique up to the next level and I want to try using amino supplements. I have read a lot of good stuff about how amino acid supplementation can make a huge difference, particularly if the athlete picks the right amino combination and if the amino acids are made by a legit firm like Parrillo. I would appreciate some suggestions as to how best to get started.

Roger, West by-God Virginia

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Mega Benefits of Omega-3s

For well over 10 years, we’ve known the benefits of fish oil, known technically as omega-3 fatty acids. The omega-3s help:

● Lower blood pressure.

● Decrease levels of triglycerides (harmful-to-the-heart blood fats).

● Reduce arterial plaques.

● Improve memory and concentration.

● Boost mood.

● Protect against cancer.

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Tips and Tidbits – March, 2011

Training Tip

of the month:

Training Legs: Leg Extensions

This exercise is effective for shaping and defining the teardrop muscle and the frontal thighs. Using strict form, bring your legs inward in an arc. The tear­drop muscle is worked the hardest in the last few degrees of the arc—so at the top of the movement, lock out and squeeze tightly. Make the entire motion smooth and continuous with­out any rest. Never swing the weight upward. Keep the work­ing muscles tight. Lower slowly to the starting position, using your opposing muscles. Leg extensions are also excellent for strengthening bad knees—as long as you squeeze very tight.

nutrition Tip

of the month:

When trying to lose weight, be sure that you don’t restrict calories too severely and don’t go too low on carbs. We find that fat loss of one to two pounds a week is optimal. Usually if you try to lose faster than that most of the additional weight lost will be muscle. Also, very low carb diets set you up for this problem. Generally I would not recommend going lower than one gram of carbohydrate per pound of body weight per day, and certainly never less than 100 grams per day. When insulin levels get too low, protein synthesis virtually stops, muscle breakdown is accelerated and muscle cells release large amounts of amino acids in the blood. The liver picks these up and converts them into glucose. This is why people with (untreated) diabetes experience muscle wasting and weakness.

Leg Extension Tips:

• At the top in the fully contracted position, lock out and squeeze tightly.

• Stay tight throughout the range of motion.

Question

of the month:

Question: Can I slack off on my diet when I don’t have a competition coming up?

Answer: Follow the nutrition program year-round. So many body­builders falsely assume that getting fat in the off-season, then rigorously dieting to get ripped for their next contest are the best ways to achieve the ultimate physique. In reality, this practice results in very little gain in mus­cle. Instead, it simply increases body fat. Not only is this unhealthy, but it also hinders the metabolism. That’s because body fat burns much fewer calories than muscle burns. When you start cutting down, those fat cells stay, making it harder to displace the body fat that has formed. And as I mentioned earlier, cutting back on calories only causes the body to lose hard-earned muscle.

News & Discoveries

In Fitness & Nutrition

Fighting Weight Gain A Different Way

Education and coaching centered on health—rather than on weight loss—may help chronic dieters improve their blood pressure, cholesterol and other health indicators. That’s according to a study documented earlier in the Journal of the American Dietetic Association and newly summarized in an obesity-focused issue of Agricultural Research magazine.

Seventy-eight obese women, aged 30 to 45, who volunteered for the investigation were assigned to either a health-centered team or a weight-loss-focused team. The teams met for specialized, 90-minute educational sessions weekly for the first six months of the year-long study, then met for six once-a-month sessions. Both groups were instructed in nutrition basics. But women on the weight-loss track were taught how to monitor their weight and control their eating, while the other volunteers focused on how to build self-esteem and to recognize and follow the body’s natural, internal cues to hunger and fullness.

A total of 38 women—19 from each team—participated in a panel of follow-up exams two years after the study’s start. The health-centered volunteers had kept their weight stable. In contrast, the weight-loss volunteers lost weight by the sixth month of the study, but had regained it by the two-year checkpoint. At the start and end of the study, all volunteers’ total cholesterol and systolic blood pressure were in the normal range. However, the health-centered women lowered their total cholesterol and systolic blood pressure, and they were able to maintain those reductions. The weight-loss women didn’t lower their total cholesterol at any point in the investigation. In addition, they weren’t able to maintain the healthful decrease in systolic blood pressure that they’d achieved just after the six-month weight-loss phase. – By Marcia Wood, March 2006, Agricultural Research Service, USDA

Quick Tip

of the month:

Making and Using Oat Flour

If you come across a recipe calling for oat flour, you could buy a bag of it at the grocery store, but did you know you can easily make your own? All you need is a blender or food processor. Just process the rolled oats until they become a fine powder. You can make oat flour in quantity, just store in an air tight
container. For ideas on how to use oat flour, check out these recipes in the Parrillo CapTri^® Cookbook:

Never Fail Dumplings, Skillet Cake Bread, Sweet Potato Corn Bread, Rima’s Famous Oatmeal Pancakes, Cod Fillet Italiano, Biscuits, and Oat Tortillas.

Dominique’s

Time Cruncher

It’s time for a flavor adventure to spice up your meals! Try out a new spice or blend every couple of weeks to liven up your usual fare. Ever had Za’atar, Herbes de Provence, Chinese Five-Spice, Garam Masala, or Adobo Seasoning? Give them a try!

Betting on Betaine

Right now, you may be taking a number of supplements to boost strength. Maybe some creatine, maybe a protein supplement, or perhaps some amino acids. One little-known strength booster is betaine, found in my Parrillo Advanced Lipotropic Formula^™. More on this in a moment.

Betaine, also known as trimethylglycine, is a metabolite of the B-vitamin choline. Betaine is a little-known but important nutritional compound involved in the normal functioning of the nervous system, the immune system, the heart and blood vessels, kidneys, and liver. It may reduce the risk of coronary artery disease, Alzheimer’s, and birth defects, including spina bifida.

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WhyCapTri is the indispensible supplement

Mass Building 2011: What makes a bodybuilder a bodybuilder? The real bodybuilder needs two distinctive characteristics: leanness and muscle. Lean means low body fat: this is attributable and attainable by paying strict attention to nutrition. The second characteristic of a real bodybuilder is lots of lean muscle mass. Building muscle mass requires a surplus of calories and some serious time in the weight room. But there is an inherent danger with “mass building.” A man can become huge and muscular yet still stay fat. To be a real bodybuilder requires both leanness and muscle and this is where Parrillo comes into play. To lose body fat and build muscle requires a complex approach. The Parrillo approach incorporates and balances comprehensive weight training with a specific type of cardiovascular training. The training is then augmented with a disciplined nutritional game plan that John developed back in the 1970s. His system has been refined and honed and polished since its inception, yet still retains the same two goals: build new muscle and melt off body fat. The Parrillo training and nutritional systems began life as transformative templates for elite competitive bodybuilders.

Mass building and attaining an acceptable muscle-to-fat ratio: There is a lot of danger in attempting to construct new muscle, lean muscle, muscle not marbled with an unacceptable amount of body fat. What is the sense in gaining 20 pounds of scale weight if 12 out of 20 pounds weight gain is body fat? The Parrillo approach to mass building is based upon combining power-style weight training with high caloric intake. Intense weight training is a prerequisite: don’t even consider going on a mass building program if you are not prepared to train at 110% of capacity in every single session: train like a berserker in the weight room and perform copious cardio. The primary mistake mass-builders make is dropping cardio under the mistaken assumption that continuing cardio interferes with the muscle building procedure. Now that is one handy rationalization. “Aerobics tear down muscle tissue!” This convenient muscle myth is complete bunk: in fact the opposite is true: cardio builds endurance, allowing for longer and frequent cardio and weight training sessions; cardio keeps the appetite kicking and intense, Parrillo-style cardio accelerates the metabolism. An accelerated metabolism is the opposite of a sluggish metabolism. An accelerated metabolism enables the mass builder to make sure weight gain is lean muscle. The goal is a high muscle-to-fat ratio. This occurs when the mass builder slams calories – but keeps food selections “clean.”

Want lean mass?

Eat clean calories: It makes no sense to embark on a “bulk up” routine using an indiscriminant “seafood” approach, “see food eat it.” Those that eat anything and everything and ditch cardio end up adding more fat than muscle during a mass-building phase. The main mistake made amongst mass builders is in not being discriminating enough in their food choices. At the professional bodybuilding level, elite competitors eat massive amounts of lean protein, fiber and starchy carbs – and nothing else. The whole idea is to create lean muscle mass without growing fat in the process. To do so, to add serious amounts of muscle mass without adding an equal or greater amount of body fat, requires great discipline. You need to eat lots and lots of calories – but this is where the discipline comes in – the bodybuilder’s calories can only come from ‘approved’ foods, bodybuilding foods.” You can build massive muscles by power training and eating pizza for breakfast – you can get huge and muscular and become fat as a pig all at the same time. The percentage of body fat added when ingesting trash food indiscriminately is unacceptably high for a bodybuilder. Heavy training and heavy eating will add muscle. The key critical question is: how do we add muscle with a minimum of body fat? Parrillo discovered way back in the 1970s that heavy eating combined with bar-bending power training was the secret to building muscle mass. Further, if the athlete trained heavy and ate big but ate “clean,” then that individual could reap the best of both worlds and grow large and powerful and actually increase their lean muscularity in the process. Parrillo developed and systematized an approach for building the metabolism that revolutionized bodybuilding and ushered in our modern era; the era of the massive yet ripped-to-the bone bodybuilder.

Big calories, Big muscles: Professional bodybuilders routinely consume 8,000+ calories per day (or more) in the competitive “off season.” They add size eating huge amounts of clean foods. These same bodybuilders can then “cut back” to 3,000 or 4,000 calories per day (down from 8,000) and get ripped. Imagine eating 4,000 calories per day and attaining a sub-5% body fat percentile? In the final days leading up to a bodybuilding competition, the typical IFBB pro is consuming 3,500 calories in six to eight, 400 to 500 calorie meals. Eating multiple meals comprised of clean food “teaches” the body how to handle thousands of calories of food each day without getting fat. Bodybuilders coax the body into becoming more and more efficient at digesting and distributing food on a continual and ongoing basis. A Parrillo competitive bodybuilder will eat upwards of 50 times per week, consuming a meal every two to three waking hours. Supplement meals are used to augment real food meals. The elite bodybuilder will also consume a wide variety of Parrillo Products each and every day. The Pro starts off his day with the first of several Parrillo Hi-Protein^™ or Optimized Whey^™ shakes. During the day they will consume various Parrillo sport bars – perhaps some Parrillo cake, cupcakes, pancakes, muffins or even Parrillo Ice Kreem^™. Supplement meals allow the bodybuilder some latitude: with the right Parrillo Products lying about, the competitive bodybuilder never has to miss a scheduled meal. Parrillo products introduce variety and taste into often bland diets. It’s nice not to have to cook every bite of food and it’s nice to have acceptable taste treats.

Nutrition and the Parrillo Meal: The Parrillo Nutritional System builds the metabolism. An accelerated metabolism is a wonderful thing for someone seeking to become larger yet seeking to stay lean. Parrillo nutrition is rooted in the expert use of regular food. Potent Parrillo supplements augment a sound nutritional game plan based upon “whole foods.” The Parrillo meal is a thing of structured beauty: a portion of lean protein is augmented with a portion of fibrous carbohydrate and completed with a portion of starchy carbs. Natural, potent and balanced, this particular combination has multiple purposes: the lean protein provides amino acids needed for new muscle construction. Lean protein dampens insulin. Fibrous carbohydrates are wonderful for cleansing and providing critical micro-nutrients. Fiber dampens insulin secretions. Starchy carbs replenish glycogen stores depleted by intense training and provide energy. When protein and fiber are eaten in combination with starch, the insulin-spiking characteristics associated with starch are dampened. The Parrillo meal is an exquisite ballet of muscle-building nutrients and micro-nutrients. The body has to “gear up” to digest and distribute the lean protein and fibrous carbohydrates that make up the lion’s share of the classical Parrillo meal.

Metabolic elevation and CapTri®: The elite bodybuilder weight trains with great ferocity using a full arsenal of Parrillo intensity-amping techniques. Parrillo aerobic training is equally intense. Every time the Parrillo athlete weight trains or engages in cardio with the requisite exercise intensity, they boost their metabolism: the more intense the exercise session the higher and longer the degree of metabolic elevation. Metabolic elevation is a wonderful thing for anyone seeking to lose body fat: just sitting around your house, doing nothing, the elevated metabolism is burning 25% more calories than a “normal” metabolism. Big clean eating boosts the metabolism. Intense exercise boosts the metabolism; after weeks and weeks in a state of perpetual metabolic elevation, the BMR resets itself to an increased level. One dilemma John Parrillo faced preparing IFBB professionals was how to avoid losing precious muscle mass when stripping off the last vestiges of body fat leading up to a contest. The solution was the invention of CapTri^®, a high-calorie medium-chain triglyceride oil that provides the caloric density of a lipid (8.3 calories per gram) yet because of its unique molecular structure, is impossible to end up stored as body fat. CapTri^® has dual
usage…

• CapTri^® is used for building muscle mass: CapTri^® calories are used to construct new muscle. The first step in forcing a muscle to grow is to engage in a high intensity weight workout that triggers the “adaptive response.” If the target muscle is then fed and rested, it grows. Medium-chain triglycerides are used to fuel the construction of new muscle – or they are burned for energy – MCT calories cannot be stored as body fat.

• CapTri^® is used by those intent on shedding body fat: CapTri^® is protection against muscle-wasting in the face of declining calories. CapTri^® calories are used to off-set the requisite reduction in starchy carb intake before a competition. By taking the starch calories out of the diet in the final few weeks, the body is forced to burn body fat. Lost starch calories are replaced with CapTri^® calories to prevent muscle wasting. Tablespoons of CapTri^® are taken throughout the day.

CapTri^® is used as a mass-builder. CapTri^® is used by those seeking to pare down to the lowest possible body fat percentile. This dual-use supplement is unique and because of its uniqueness is often mischaracterized and misunderstood. One aspect of CapTri^® that causes confusion is the fact that CapTri^® is a fat and generally speaking, any fat is the antithesis of good nutrition. There are bad lipids and there are good lipids. CapTri^® is (obviously) a good lipid. Fat chemistry classifies saturated fats into three generalized categories: short-chain, medium-chain and long-chain triglycerides. Conventional “bad” fats are of the long-chain variety. LCTs are easily converted into body fat. In the Parrillo nutritional system, LCTs are avoided. Parrillo proteins are “lean” proteins, i.e., devoid of LCTs. A serving of prime rib might contain 1000 calories, but 700 of those calories likely come from the long-chain saturated fat that permeates this cut of meat. A serving of flank steak might contain only 400 calories; however 300 calories will be protein calories while only 100 flank steak calories will be attributable to LCTs.

How to use CapTri®: MCT calories are impossible to end up stored as body fat because of their “carb-like” molecular structure, excess LCT calories are virtually impossible not to end up stored as body fat. LCTs are so chemically similar to stored body fat that this similarity makes converting LCT calories into stored body fat incredibly easy. MCTs, on the other hand, are not processed by the body like a conventional fat. MCTs are digested as if they were a carbohydrate; MCTs are absorbed directly by the portal vein. CapTri^® can add a boatload of clean calories to your daily intake. That is super good news to those serious about adding mass. Conversely CapTri^® is the best friend of the hard-dieting bodybuilder in the final weeks leading up to a show. CapTri^® is amazingly easy to use; sprinkle a tablespoon over food meals. How easy is that? Many bodybuilders use CapTri^® to cook foods with. Potatoes fried in CapTri^® are delicious; as are sautéed vegetables, such as bell peppers, onions, asparagus and broccoli. Proteins sautéed in CapTri^® are equally delicious: chicken fingers, delicate fish fillets, shrimp with garlic, lean cuts of thinly sliced beef, scallops and shellfish. CapTri^® cooking allows the hardcore bodybuilder to inject flavor and variety into food preparation. Grilled, skinless chicken breast can get real old real quick, particularly if you are eating 40 to 50 meals a week. How wonderful to be able to sauté some fabulous fish fillets or tasty jumbo shrimp in CapTri^®? Doesn’t that sound
delicious?

Building Mass using CapTri®: The finest way to build muscle mass is to set up a 12 to 16 week program where all your efforts are focused on adding a significant amount of lean muscle mass – while minimizing any body fat accumulation. The use of the Parrillo BodyStat Kit is highly recommended. BodyStat tracking is used on a weekly basis and provides you with the statistics needed to monitor body composition. Body fat percentiles are accessed using a nine-point skin-fold caliper test. Results are logged and each successive week changes in lean muscle mass and body fat are observed. This allows the bodybuilder to access overall body composition. Are you gaining muscle or are you gaining an unacceptable amount of body fat? Changes can be made based on science and fact. If you are serious about adding lean muscle mass, consider embarking on a 12-week, three month mass-building regimen using the Parrillo Principles for training, nutrition and supplementation. Clean up your food selections, purchase CapTri^® (and the Parrillo Body Stat Kit) and begin using MCTs daily. Intense weight training and intense cardio form the base: use BodyStats to ensure weight gain is muscle gain and not fat gain. CapTri^® is the mass builder’s best friend and is your best insurance that weight gain is
muscle gain.

How Hard do You Need to Train?

I admit it, I was not in the best of moods; and I was letting something so silly as the weather piss me off. But hear me out, I had a legitimate beef with Mother Nature this time. It was late January, not even halfway through winter here in Massachusetts, and already we’d had three significant snowstorms. The total snowfall thus far in my neck of the woods had exceeded three feet, and the worst part was that due to exceptionally cold temperatures (I couldn’t even remember the last time before this winter I’d seen a negative sign in front of that number), nearly all of it was still on the ground.

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John Pizarro – How adding one hundred pounds of solid muscle changed his under-confident self-image

Young John Pizarro was conflicted as a child; skinny and under-confident, he was enthralled by great physiques. He yearned to look like his screen idols. “At age 13 I was a skinny Filipino-American kid standing 5’8 and weighing about 120 pounds. I grew up admiring athletes and movie stars with powerful looking physiques. I loved when my idols showed unreal strength and power. Whether it was a sprinter, a bodybuilder, a boxer, a WWF wrestler, a character in a movie, or my dad, I wanted to work towards transforming my physique into that of a superhero. I wanted to look, feel and act like that guy who nobody would dare pick on.” Today looking at John Pizarro’s rugged physique, it is hard to imagine a time when this 220+ pound mound of massive muscles was a bullied kid.

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Pick and choose..Iron Sacrilege: curls using the squat rack…

Help! I really like the Parrillo approach towards training and use the Parrillo system in my lifting – I work up to atop set of 1-3 repetitions then pyramid back down and hit high rep sets using a lot of forced reps and dropsets. When I do cardio I like the Parrillo approach and I go hard enough to break a good sweat. I don’t likethe Parrillo nutritional approach as it’s too strict. What’s wrong with having a cheat day or two or three? I likebeer a couple times a week. What do you mean ‘no off season?’ I use my own nutritional system and a couplenights a week I eat pizza and drink beer. I might not look all that great, but I have a lot of fun. My approachis much more realistic and while I might be overweight and might never win (or even enter) a bodybuildingcompetition, I am strong and happy and not a food Nazi!

Karl, San Francisco

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