I’m Happy! – Dreams come true for new IFBB pro Franco Santoriello

I’m Happy!

Dreams come true for new IFBB pro Franco Santoriello

1989 was a year of dreams come true for 24-year-old Franco Santoriello. On October 14, he won the light-heavyweight division at the Men’s Nationals with five first-place votes and four seconds. Having finished in the runner-up spot to Vince Taylor the previous year, Santoriello shouted out a heartfelt “I’m happy!” when he was announced as this year’s class winner.

With dream number one under his belt, Santoriello set his sights on an even bigger dream: becoming a professional IFBB bodybuilder. Wasting no time, he went to London, England one week after Nationals for the Weider Challenge Cup. This time he had more reason to be happy: another light-heavyweight class win earned Satoriello his IFBB pro card.

No matter what the song says, wishing on a star had nothing to do with Santoriello’s dreams coming true. He credits his achievements to intense training and a carefully orchestrated, high-caloric diet. The new IFBB pro follows the Parrillo Performance Nutrition Program, taking on over 9,000 calories a day in the off-season. Santoriello maintains a diet high in protein and complex carbohydrates and low in dietary fats. He does, however, allow for an occasional off-season splurge. (Just ask John Parrillo about the five pounds of Christmas cookies that mysteriously disappeared from his kitchen during Franco’s last visit.)

Parrillo and Santoriello first met in 1984, when Parrillo trained the then 18-year old for his overall victories at eth 1984 Teen U.S.A. and NPC Teen Nationals. this was followed by a two-year layoff. When Santoriello wanted to return to national competition, he found himself at 175 pounds and 20 percent bodyfat. he came back to Parrillo for guidance in nutrition and training. Twelve months later, Santoriello took second at the 1988 Men’s Nationals at 193 pounds and 2-1/2 percent bodyfat.

Since graduating from the amateur ranks, Santoriello has been busy with guest posing, seminars and photo shoots for IRONMAN, Muscle and fitness and other top magazines. he is currently preparing for his first professional contest some time in 1990. While he won’t say which sow he plans to enter, it would be no surprise to see Santoriello on stage at the Night of champions in May, followed in October by his first crack at the biggest dream of all: the Mr. Olympia title.

The Olympia would also provide a chance to renew his rivalry with fellow New Jerseyian Rich Gaspari. Santoriello is possessed by the desire to prove he’s the best bodybuilder ever to come out of the Garden State. And if he can continue with his “unchained animal” training and nutrition program, it won’t be long before Santoriello achieves the rest of his dreams.

 

Janet Tech – A Natural Champion

Janet Tech

A Natural Champion

Womens Physique described her as “one of the hardest, yet curvy and feminine physiques on stage” at the 1988 Ms. Olympia. One year later Janet Tech’s symmetry, hardness and femininity have made her one of today’s most popular and admired professional female bodybuilders.

Tech became a pro in 1988 after winning the light-weight class at the Nationals and World Championships. Later that year she placed eighth at her first place at the Ms. International, and tenth place in her second stab at the Ms. O title. Not too shabby for a natural bodybuilder.

The 32-year-old New Jersey native has been weight training since 1981 and competing on the national level since 1984. However, Tech was unable to earn an IFBB pro card until she eliminated fruit, dairy products and refined-carbohydrates (especially bread and pasta) from her pre-contest diet. Now she saves these foods for off-season treats.

With a competition weight of 112 pounds, Tech eats more than most people might think. She takes in an average of 3,000 calories per day in the off-season. Before a contest she cuts down on dietary fats but keeps her daily caloric at about 2,700. Raw potatoes are a favorite pre-contest food. “I like the crunch,” she explains. Tech’s competitive plans for 1990 include just one show: the Ms. Olympia. She hope to see more contestants with feminine shape, symmetry and balance return to this year’s line-up. “Last year, Cory and I were just ripped to shreds and that’s not usually the rule at the Olympia.”

She would also like to see polygraph testing and more random checks instituted as a means of eliminating steroids from female bodybuilding. “Drugs kill the popularity of the sport,” Tech explains. “It doesn’t have to be a freaks show.”

Whether or not Tech’s hopes become realities, she will remain drug free and an inspiration to natural bodybuilders around the world. She is living proof that intense training and proper nutrition can produce phenomenal results, and that’s what being a true champion is all about.

Iron Vic Speaks – Best Triceps Exercise?…MMA and sustained strength… Choose the Chew™…CapTri® & Creatine: stagnation busters Greetings Venerable One!

Do you have any ideas on how to build “titanic triceps?” I am using some old Joe Weider lingo here. I have no tricep development to speak of, despite years and years of religiously performing tricep pushdowns – an exercise that I have been told repeatedly by the local bodybuilders is “far and away” the best of all tricep exercise. I usually work pushdowns hard a couple times per week. Obviously pushdowns ain’t working for me. My triceps suck big time and not coincidentally my bench press and overhead press also suck. I can barely bench 210 despite weighing 180 and my overhead press is pathetic; 135 x 1 using the barbell and only 50 x 4 using dumbbells. Any ideas Vic?

Troy, Indianapolis

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Every Bodybuilding Supplement You’ll Ever Need, from A to Z

Every Bodybuilding Supplement You’ll Ever Need, from A to Z

By JOHN PARRILLO

You can’t build your best physique without a smart nutrition program and a smart training regimen. Nor can you do it by popping supplements and pounding protein powders. However, if your diet and training programs are firing on all cylinders, you can make additional impressive gains through a judicious use of bodybuilding supplements. Here, I present the comprehensive PARRILLO Ultimate Supplement Guide, which provides the basics on the most important bodybuilding supplements. They will give you an edge once you have the basics of nutrition and training covered.

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Tips and Tidbits – October, 2011

nutrition Tip of the month:

Pre-Contest Dieting

The key to successful pre-contest dieting is the gradual loss of bodyfat. If you attempt to lose fat by over-dieting you will inevitably sacrifice muscle tissue. Generally, you can lose no more than one pound of bodyfat per 100 pounds of body weight per week. For example, a 200-pound person could lose no more than two pounds of bodyfat per week without sacrificing lean body mass. It is crucial to monitor your ratio of bodyfat to lean body mass at least once a week during a pre-contest diet. A scale indicates when you lose weight, but it cannot indicate if you lose bodyfat or muscle tissue. By monitoring your body composi­tion, you will know when you need to adjust your diet so that you continue to lose bodyfat without sacrificing muscle tissue. If at any time you begin to lose lean body mass, increase your caloric intake and increase your aerobics. If you stop losing bodyfat, increase your aerobics and lower your intake of starchy carbohydrates. (The Parrillo BodyStat Kit contains everything you need for monitoring your body composition.)

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Good Fat Versus Bad Fat

By Andre Newcomb

Calories cause the body to become anabolic: when a bodybuilder is anabolic, muscle growth is possible; if they cannot attain anabolism, no muscle growth is possible.

– John Parrillo

This sentence is a Parrillo Truism, a statement of fact that is positively profound; assuming you are smart enough to understand its implications and smart enough to understand how to use calories, lots and lots of calories, to your advantage. Smart bodybuilders ingest thousands and thousands of calories a day and instead of getting fat they become larger and stronger and more muscular. How do they do it? They understand the Parrillo Principle of “nutrient partitioning.”

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F*** the scale!

If there was ever a tool that could either do good or cause harm depending on the person using it – that would probably be the gun. But trailing just behind is something else that many Americans have at home – the scale. Most of us are caught up in that number we see staring up at us, and it’s almost never a number we are happy about. It’s either too high or too low. The problem with using bodyweight alone as any type of yardstick is that it says nothing about body composition. This has led to the popularity of hundreds of fad diets over the decades. People, usually women, set weight-loss goals rather than fat-loss goals. They then proceed to embark on the most nutritionally vacant diets imaginable. Various diets have you subsisting only on lemon juice, grapefruit, or some other random thing. When the body is starved, it will drop weight rapidly. Unfortunately, most of this weight is in the form of lean muscle tissue rather than stored bodyfat. The various no-carb diets such as Atkins also give an instant reward to those seeking to see a lower number on the scale. When you take carbs out of your diet, you will quickly lose a substantial amount of water weight, since carbs attract water. In neither of these cases has actual fat been lost. But mainstream folks,

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Building Better Biceps

Biceps, the second most talked about muscle for size and girth. We all want bigger, fuller……biceps. Here is the skinny on biceps that should help you easily add inches and fullness to your……biceps. The bicep muscle is fairly unique in that it crosses three joints. It has two heads, the long head and the short head. Of course we all know that it crosses the elbow joint and helps flex the elbow. The long head also crosses the shoulder joint, although it doesn’t have much leverage to articulate or move the shoulder joint we can use this knowledge to help shape the bicep as we will discuss shortly. The third joint that the biceps articulate is the radioulnar joint. This is the joint in the upper forearm that enables you to supinate (upward rotate) your wrist if your arm is flexed at 90 degrees.

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Mike Ferguson – Wins NPC National Masters Title on 17th Try!

Mike Ferguson is a bodybuilder that epitomizes steadfastness, tenacity and patience: in his seventeenth NPC National Master Bodybuilding Championships, the 61 year old captured his class and the overall title. It was a stunning turn of events. We quizzed Mike on what he did in order to make 2011 different from all his previous tries. “I can sum it up in two words: John Parrillo.” Mike first met John Parrillo in 1976. “I was an Ohio State Trooper and weighed 161 pounds. I had just gotten into bodybuilding and John became my mentor.” Over the next 35 years Mike added nearly 100 pounds of muscle following the Parrillo precepts. While Mike and John remained close personal friends, when it came time to get ready for a physique competition Mike would follow the advice of another nutritional “expert.” Mike recounted, “I guess I lost my way a bit. I hooked up with another guy for my nutrition and among other things he convinced me that I was ‘carb sensitive.’ I always dropped most of my dietary carbs.” Prior to the 2011 NPC show (on July 26th) Mike had John appraise his physique. John told him, ‘Mike you are not eating enough.’ “Thankfully I heard him.” Mike said, “I made changes in my nutrition that enabled me to radically change my physique for the better in a short amount of time.”

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Lee Labrada: Perfect from head to toe

Lee Labrada:

Perfect from head to toe

Lee Labrada’s nickname “Mr. Symmetry” applies to the bodybuilding giant in more ways than one. Yes, most people would kill for his flowing vee taper, his perfect balance between upper and lower body proportions, and his signature charismatic posing style.

But what you can’t see looking at Labrada’s physique is that his symmetry goes a step further — into the delicate dimension of mind-body balance.

You see, bodybuilding is just one facet of Labrada’s diamond-cut life. Before winning the Mr. Universe title, Labrada earned a degree in engineering at the University of Houston. And in between training for the Olympia and running his personalized training business, Starbodies, Labrada still finds time to dabble in real estate.

“You have to find something that’s going to challenge your mind just like bodybuilding challenges your body, “he advises. “Bodybuilding is a long shot. You should give it your best and see if you’ve got what it takes, but don’t put aside your education.”

Labrada himself definitely has “what it takes” to make it in the rough-and tumble world of professional bodybuilding. In fact, after finishing in the runner-up spot at the ’89 Olympia, he plans to take no prisoners at the same event in 1990.

“The writing is on the wall,” Labrada says with assurance. “I feel confident that I can take the Olympia this year. I’m doing my homework and I’m consistently improving.”

His Olympia homework includes what he calls an “intelligent approach” to training–no tricks, just hard work– and a meticulously planned nutrition program.

While Labrada is obviously no slouch in the dieting department (he always shows up in prime shape), he frequently consults John Parrillo for nutritional advice. “John is a superior nutritionist,” Labrada explains.

With his all-around balance and powerful determination, don’t be powerful determination, don’t be surprised if Labrada becomes the second Lee to wear the Mr. Olympia crown. But even then, we’ll still be calling him symmetry.”

 

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