Easy training and undisciplined eating are fun, easy -and a complete waste of time

By Duke Nukem

People bitch all the time about how hard and difficult the Parrillo system is. Many people tell us, “If you people (Parrillo trainers) would just make the physical training a little less difficult, if you would allow the nutrition to be a little less demanding and a lot less strict – then you’d be able to get a lot more folks to follow your methods.” Point-in-fact: the demanding, difficult strictness of the Parrillo system is what elicits the results. Everyone else in the wider fitness world purposefully makes fitness easier and more user-friendly in order to make a sale. This is a classic “Devil’s Bargain.” Make any system of fitness purposefully easier in order to appeal to a wider segment of a potential audience and it loses its effectiveness, assuming (and that’s a big assumption) that it had any effectiveness to begin with. Unfortunately easy and physical improvement is an irresolvable contradiction. There is no such thing as an easy dramatic physical transformation. The reason people continually fail in their fitness renovation efforts is they continually buy into the idea that somewhere there exists an effortless way with which to obtain the dramatic changes they seek without the dramatic effort. This is the biggest lie in all of fitness.

Parrillo the truth-teller: There are legions of unscrupulous individuals that have made a mountain of money telling people that they have a method that enables the user to create incredible physical gains with a minimum of disciplined effort: exercise devices routinely claim, “Create six-pack abs with only two easy, ten minute workouts per week!” Miracle diets claim, “Eat anything you want and still lose fat and melt inches off your waistline!” These lying sales pitches invariably tout some “breakthrough” method that allows you, the purchaser, to avoid all the teeth-grinding physical effort and all the disciplined eating normally associated with the engineering of a true, major overhaul of the human body. In bold contrast John Parrillo has never minced words or downplayed the amount of hard effort and disciplined eating needed to engineer the radical gains people seek. “In order to grow muscle and dissolve body fat, in order to make real and substantial gains, the individual has to train hard – harder than they’ve ever trained in their life – and they have to practice really disciplined nutrition. Does anyone really think halfhearted training and sloppy nutrition is going to result in significant physical improvement?” The Parrillo method is a “tough love” message: the good news is that the Parrillo Method never fails to deliver dramatic results, assuming it is instituted fully and executed properly.

Results are the mighty motivator: The reason people quit “pretend” fitness is that eventually they wise-up to the fact that they haven’t obtained any results. They might lose a few pounds initially but the big gains, the lasting gains, the dramatic gains, the gains they envisioned when they began their “fitness quest” are, in the end, negligible. Real results, deep results, dramatic results, only occur when intense physical effort in the gym is coupled with a sustained Parrillo-style nutritional approach. The training effort and the strict eating needs to be done for a protracted period of time. That is the cold, harsh truth and most people don’t want to hear that tough love message. They prefer to keep window shopping in pretend, fairy fitness-land, being beguiled and enthralled and enchanted by yet another “no pain” training strategy and eat-what-you-want diet plan. Needless to say, zero results occur from these excursions into pretend world. Meanwhile, those rugged individuals that embrace the hard truth and utilize Parrillo methods end up transforming themselves. In pretend world jumping into the training and dieting is easy as eating pie; pretend, no sweat training is fun and the fun and easy sub-maximal workouts are followed by tasty treats. “Gee, this is fun and this is easy!” the pretend trainee thinks. They travel to the gym to engage in patty-cake workouts and then eat pretty much what they want – but maybe a little less of it. Meanwhile in Reality World the person new to Parrillo procedures is thrown into the deep end of the pool – here is how that critical first week for a new Parrillo convert looks…

• 5 am: Wake up, drink an All-Protein™ shake and wash down a handful of “Parrillo Pills”
• 5:30 am: Commence an intense 45 minute aerobic session; profuse sweating is the hallmark
• 6:30 am: 8 eggs whites, one yolk, ½ cup of oatmeal doused with Butter Flavor CapTri®
• 9 am: Parrillo Energy Bar™, Optimized Whey™ shake
• Noon: Chicken breast, large garden salad, brown rice with CapTri®, Parrillo pills
• 3 pm: Parrillo muffins slathered with Butter Flavor CapTri®
• 5 pm: Intense weight training session: forced reps, drop sets and fascia stretching
• 6:45 pm: Post-workout: 50/50 Plus™ shake, Muscle Amino™ and Ultimate Amino™ capsules
• 7:30 pm: Fish fillet sautéed in CapTri®, green beans, yam, Parrillo Hi-Protein Cake™ with Parrillo Protein Frosting™
•  10 pm: Hi-Protein™ shake, Liver Amino Formula™ tabs, Enhanced GH™ capsules

This would be a typical day’s training and eating schedule and food selection would vary day to day. Cardio is done seven days a week while weight training is performed 4-6 times weekly.

• Typical Parrillo-inspired Weight Training Session: chest, triceps & biceps
• Bench press: pyramid up to a top set of 5 reps, reduce poundage, 8 rep sets + forced reps
• Incline dumbbell press: same as barbell bench; 5 rep “top set” then 8 rep sets, forced reps
• Dumbbell flyes: four sets of 10-12 reps “progressive,” adding weight on each set
• Pec-deck: four forced rep sets; failure at rep 8 plus 2-5 partner-assisted forced reps
• Dumbbell overhead tricep press: 4-5 sets of 8-12 reps alternated with
• Seated dumbbell curls: 4-5 sets of 8-12 reps
• Triceps push-downs: 4-5 sets of 8 reps plus 2-5 forced reps alternated with
• Machine curls: 4-5 sets of 8 reps plus 2-5 forced reps

In between each set, or super-set, a specific Parrillo fascia stretch is performed. After the stretch, the athlete flexes the stretched muscle hard, to the point of cramping. This is known as the Parrillo Three-phase Set: pump the muscle, stretch the muscle, flex the muscle.

• The overall weekly template under the Parrillo system might be structured as follows…
• Monday: thighs, hamstrings, calves and shoulders
• Tuesday: chest, triceps, biceps
• Wednesday: off
• Thursday: lats, erectors, traps, biceps
• Friday: shoulders, arms
• Saturday: weak point day (extra work on weak body parts)
• Sunday: off

Sissies need not apply! Those that are serious, those that have had it with patty-cake pretend methods are welcome to step up to the Parrillo methodology. Please be aware that the Parrillo Method is not just for the elite bodybuilder; many individuals mistakenly assume that the Parrillo approach is strictly for the ultra-advanced athlete – nothing could be further from the truth. Effective methods are effective for everyone. While the poundage used for new trainees is a fraction of that used by a bodybuilding professional, the exercises, sets, reps and approach should be adapted and adopted. Ditto the Parrillo nutritional approach: while the new trainee will not be able to fire down the sheer volume of clean calories the seasoned athlete can and does, on a smaller scale, a more modest scale, the serious individual intent on getting onboard with the Parrillo approach will eat the same low-fat proteins, the same natural fiber carbs and the identical selection of starches.

Just as the elite athlete following the Parrillo approach will jettison refined, man made, artificial foods, along with toxic soft drinks and progress-blocking alcohol and fruit, so does the Parrillo novice. The exclusion of fruit from the Parrillo dietary plan is superficially controversial, yet logical and appropriate when looked at scientifically. Fruit sugar turns into fat in the liver and enters the bloodstream as fat, and for that reason fruit is not eaten by those adhering to the Parrillo protocol. Body fat cannot be oxidized if alcohol is present in the body: alcohol goes to the front of the oxidation line and for that reason it is avoided. There is no break-in period for those using Parrillo strategies: right from day one adherents are expected to perform intense cardio and weight train up to and past capacity; hard weight training and equally hard cardio are required to build muscle and oxidize body fat. Parrillo nutrition makes no compromises. Those that use the Parrillo strategy are expected to eat with perfect discipline from day one. The overall Parrillo approach is not for half-steppers, moderates or sissies!

The critical first week: Experience has shown that those new to the Parrillo approach have the most difficult time during the first few days of their transition from “regular” eating and “regular” fitness training to the hard reality of Parrillo training and Parrillo nutrition. Food preparation is critical; to be successful the Parrillo adherent needs to make a goodly amount of approved foods ahead of time – this way the proper foods can be consumed at the proper times in the proper amounts; and since the trainee eats five or more times per day, hunger is avoided. There is a direct correlation between hunger and binging: if approved foods and supplements are ready and available, hunger is satiated and the risk of binging or “falling off the nutritional wagon” is dramatically decreased. Chicken, fish, lean beef and some shellfish can be prepared days in advance; potatoes can be baked ahead of time, rice can be made, and fiber carbs sautéed beforehand. Classically, the Parrillo trainee sets aside a few hours on the weekend to mass produce the requisite foods that are then stored in the refrigerator and eaten during the coming week. Training is regular as clockwork: cardio is done upon awaking and sets the tone for the rest of the day. Weight training is done 4-6 times weekly: pushing up to and past the limits is the name of the Parrillo progressive resistance game. The first few days are critical for establishing new patterns and habits. As the week progresses the trainee “feels better” as the nutritional detoxification process unfolds. With each successive day, with each successive workout, with each successive meal, real improvement and real results appear; these results occur in an astounding number of ways. Lifting poundage increases, aerobic capacity improves with each successive training session; the approved foods taste better as the toxicity of refined foods fades; the trainee feels significantly better almost immediately. By the end of the first week tangible results appear: with each successive week thereafter momentum is built; roughly 85% of the time those that experience a perfect first week go on to successfully engineer a complete physical makeover.

The critical role of Parrillo supplements; the final piece in the transformational puzzle: Optimally, it is recommended that Parrillo supplements are purchased en masse and a month in advance. As John Parrillo famously said, “Supplements are designed to supplement a solid nutritional program built upon the expert use of regular food. This is the foundation. Properly utilized, supplements can add 10-20% to the progress of the user.” That is a huge edge. Which supplements should the beginner purchase? First and foremost, buy a canister of one of the famous Parrillo protein powders: All-Protein™, Optimized Whey™ or the old reliable, Hi-Protein™.

Equally as important as a protein supplement is CapTri®. Many individuals new to the Parrillo method shy away from a supplement that is a lipid (a fat) that promises to add hundreds of calories to the trainee’s nutrition program. As a society we have been brainwashed into thinking that calories are bad when factually “clean” calories, calories that cannot and will not be converted into body fat, are the bourgeoning bodybuilder’s best friend: to build muscle we must establish anabolism and anabolism is a direct result of caloric consumption. If the calories used to establish anabolism are preferentially partitioned into fat storage these calories are known as “dirty” calories, in bodybuilding vernacular. CapTri® calories are derived from medium-chain triglyceride sources and are impossible to end up stored as fat. Ergo, CapTri® is critical for supplying requisite calories needed to establish anabolism, the requisite precursor to muscle growth. The third critical supplement in the Parrillo Triad is 50/50 Plus™, the perfect post-workout supplement. Science has shown that a “window of opportunity” opens after an intense workout and if a 50-50 blend of high BV protein and insulin-neutral carbs are ingested within an hour of the workout, results are actually amplified. 50/50 Plus™ is designed to take advantage of the open window.

Supplementing to avoid a predictable pitfall: A sizeable portion of those new to the Parrillo method have to overcome an addiction to sweets. The amazing assortment of Parrillo “engineered foods,” the cakes, cupcakes, brownies, muffins, pancakes and Ice Kreem™ – to say nothing of the incredible assortment of Parrillo bars, are all used to overcome sweet cravings and fill in the gaps and spaces. Put it all together – the training, the eating, the supplementing and then exert perfect discipline for a mere seven days and you have an outstanding chance of gaining transformative traction and renovating your body in a way you’ve only dreamed about. Beware! The Parrillo System cannot be picked apart, avoid the trap of embracing some aspects (“I like the cardio”) while rejecting other aspects (“The eating is too demanding!”) Like a fine Swiss watch, all the components of the Parrillo System are designed to fit together and work together in a way that amplifies results. Do it all and succeed. Pick it apart and fail. The choice is yours!

Episode 60: The great ‘how many meals?’ debate

As a writer for bodybuilding magazines for over twenty years now (don’t ask me where the time went), I’ve had the privilege of being able to speak to all the great champions and learn their personal opinions about training and nutrition. Not long ago, something 4-time Mr. Olympia Jay Cutler told me got me thinking. Jay feels the need to eat a minimum of four solid meals before he will work out, which has him hitting the gym anywhere from six PM to as late as 10 PM at times. If he can’t get that minimum number in, Jay won’t even train that day as he feels it would be a waste. The quality of the workout would suffer due to insufficient ‘gas in the tank.’ But Ronnie Coleman, 8-Time Mr. O, used to eat just one big breakfast of eggs and cheese and grits before blasting the iron. Arnold Classic Champion Branch Warren eats twice before training. All three of these men have incredible physiques and attacked the weights like ferocious beasts, so which one of them is ‘right’ about how many meals a bodybuilder requires prior to a workout? I think the answer to that depends on various factors.

When do you train?

Some of you may have the luxury of being able to train any time of day or night that you please. In that case, you could theoretically always eat and digest multiple meals before working out. Most of you probably don’t have a very flexible schedule. Unless you are self-employed, chances are your options are limited to training before or after roughly an eight-hour workday that may also involve a sizeable commute. Many parents need to get back home after work to care for their offspring, so it’s either train first thing in the morning or not at all. This means one meal before working out, and I do feel strongly that you do need that one good meal of a lean protein and complex carbs. One thing I am certain of is that weight training on an empty stomach is not only futile, but you will end up eating up more of your own body’s muscle by forcing it to perform without fuel. Don’t even think about it! You may need to wake up a bit earlier to get that breakfast in, but it’s a must. Personally, I have been training after just one meal most of the time for over a decade now, and I do fine.

You also have to consider if putting off the workout until later in the day makes sense logistically for you. Are you a morning person and start fading in the afternoon? If so, it seems to make sense to train when you will perform at your physical and mental peak rather than later on, just so you can be more fully carbed up.

What bodypart are you training?

Some bodyparts are more demanding to train than others. Specifically, they involve such large amounts of muscle and such heavy weight and volume to train properly that they make far greater demands on your muscle glycogen reserves. Legs and back are easily the two areas that require more ‘fuel’ than others. For example, a workout featuring multiple sets of squats, leg presses, hack squats, and walking lunges will take a lot more out of you than barbell curls and dumbbell kickbacks. I’ve always felt it just made sense to eat more, particularly more complex carbohydrates, before and after training legs or back. Therefore you could also argue that if indeed eating several meals before training would offer any advantage, it would also be on the days you train those. Then again, if you have a certain stubborn bodypart and you do find you have better workouts with multiple meals beforehand, those might be the best days for you to eat more prior to training.

Is your training high-volume or not?

Most bodybuilders train with ‘high volume,’ but that term has a lot of room for interpretation. Technically, volume refers to the total amount of sets performed for each bodypart. On average, most of us probably do around 12-20 ‘work sets’ for larger muscle groups (not counting warm-ups), and 9-12 for smaller muscle groups. I wouldn’t consider these to be ‘high volume’ to the point where you would require extravagant amounts of food to have a decent workout. If you are doing more than those ranges, then sure; I could see why you might feel you run out of steam halfway through the workout. Techniques like drop sets, super sets, and giant sets will also take a bigger bite out of your glycogen stores and would justify multiple meals. But if you’re not doing a ton of volume and you’re sticking to straight sets, chances are you can train just fine after just one good meal.

How fast is your metabolism?

We all have different metabolic rates. This is often evidenced in how much food in general it takes for each of us to maintain our weight, or to make any gains. I know Jay Cutler does have a very fast metabolism, because he claims he will easily lose 5-8 pounds of muscle over the course of any weekend in which he misses a few meals – which happens frequently due to his grueling travel and appearance schedule. Also, the sheer amount of muscle mass he has been carrying most of his adult life – 290 pounds at 5-9 – requires a great deal of food every day. And so it also is for many ‘hard gainers,’ those whose bodies incinerate calories faster than they can take them in (which is why they need to be supplementing their food intake with CapTri®, Parrillo bars, and shakes). For these people, one meal eaten after a night of fasting during sleep may not be nearly enough to fuel an intense workout. Two, three, or more may be much better.

Only you can know

So how many meals should you eat before working out? That’s a question that really only you can answer. If your particular schedule only allows for one meal because your only option is to train early in the morning, you don’t even need to think about it. If you do have more leeway in terms of what time of day you train, carefully weigh the pros and cons. Consider how your workouts seem any better or worse depending on how much food you’ve consumed that day, and weigh that against what time of day you seem to have more productive workouts. And in the end, I don’t think it makes a world of difference as long as you are eating quality meals every two to three waking hours, every day. This constant stream of nutrients is what’s really important as far as making gains from your workouts. If you feel that you can train heavier, harder, and with more intensity with multiple meals in your system and are able to do this, wonderful. Go for it. Otherwise, focus more on making sure you get six quality meals in every day, and that at least one of those is eaten before you train.

The fastest growing sport on the planet is Mixed Martial Arts. MMA grew out of a need to see who were the best fighters and what were the best fighting systems. Up until the advent of the MMA format, anyone could claim anything and fight schools everywhere proclaimed loudly that their style of fighting would and could whip any other style of fighting. This all ended when Rorian Gracie and Art Davey devised the octagon and created an essentially no-holds-barred format and invited loud mouth fight style braggarts to show up or shut up. The Ultimate Fighting Championship was created and soon established what fight styles were most effective and which ones were completely bogus.

Over the intervening decades something amazing occurred: a new hybrid style of fighting emerged, not championing any particular style or technique, embracing all effective techniques; the modern MMA fight stylist draws upon a seemingly endless number of tactics taken from dozens of sources to create modern fighters adept at any fight situation without exclusively embracing any single technique. Bruce Lee, the patron saint of modern MMA, predicted this phenomena twenty years before the birth of the UFC with his credo, “Absorb and expropriate what is useful, regardless its source; discard the superfluous.” Lee was ahead of his time in envisioning the hybrid MMA fighter and he was also ahead of his time envisioning the vast array of training techniques and tactics needed to build “the ultimate fighter.”

Bruce Lee embraced hardcore weight training at a time when martial artists purposefully avoided resistance training on the erroneous, unchallenged, and widely accepted belief that weight training would “slow down punch and kick speed.” Lee saw through that BS; Lee wanted the pure power weight training could provide. Lee also was a nutritional pioneer: his 5% body fat percentile, so apparent in any of his movies, showed that a lean, fat-free body was the perfect body for fighting: low body fat improved cardio capacity and when coupled with hardcore lifting provided the fighter, regardless of his skill set, the perfect body for giving and absorbing punishment. Nowadays every MMA fighter includes lifting in their fight training regimen and nutrition plays a huge part in enabling elite fighters to maximize muscle mass within the various weight divisions. A prototypical modern MMA physique has emerged: the world’s best fighters, regardless of their height or weight class, regardless of their muscular proportion, are lean and powerful. Their intense training, disciplined eating and moderate lifestyles have created a remarkably similar physical look: regardless if the fighter is a 135 pound bantam weight, a 170 pound welterweight, a 205 pound light heavyweight or a 265 pound heavyweight, the Ultimate Fighting Championship top ten champions and contenders all sport 10% or less body fat percentiles, all engage in hardcore weight training to increase power, and all perform intense “combat cardio.” In more ways than one, the modern MMA fighter has expropriated many of the Parrillo precepts and used these strategies to provide the powerhouse strength and fat-free body needed to successfully compete as a modern MMA fighter.

Dan Root is a perfect example of the modern MMA fighter: this 30 year old lives and trains in Baltimore, Maryland. Dan teamed up with a local bodybuilding legend, a longtime Parrillo follower named Chris Toland. Chris was asked to help “whittle down” Root’s bodyweight without sacrificing any muscle or power. Dan is an intelligent, intensely disciplined ex-college wrestler and needed to radically reduce his bodyweight in a short period of time. He related, “My ‘walking around’ weight was 205 pounds when my coach at the Team Ground Control fight center, John Rallo, shared with me his view that in order to maximize my potential and given my height of 5 foot 10 inches, I should fight in the 170 pound class. Initially this seemed unobtainable – the last time I had weighed 170 (or less) was ten years prior. It wasn’t like I was completely fat and out of shape at 205.” Dan guesstimated his 205 bodyweight body fat percentile to be 12%. Dan did his weight training at Gold’s Gym, a few short minutes away from the Team Ground Control training center. He had made the acquaintance of a local bodybuilding champion named Chris Toland. “Chris was big and ripped and in shape and when I saw that he did nutritional consulting and counseling, I thought ‘this might be the way in which I could hit the magical 170 bodyweight without destroying my body and losing my mind.’” The two met, hit it off and Chris indicated that handled properly, he felt attaining a 170 pound bodyweight was more than plausible or possible. In fact, Chris felt it was doable and could be accomplished in such a way that Dan Root could actually increase his power and dramatically improve his already awesome cardio capacity.

“I was fired up and ready to roll after consulting with Chris. We essentially laid out every bite of food, every sip of liquid I would eat or drink and Chris got me on Parrillo supplements – and lots of them – immediately.” It turned out to be a perfect partnership: Dan was chock full of discipline; his years of high level wrestling and MMA training made intense, disciplined effort effortless. Chris Toland had the nutritional knowledge and the empirical experience to point out to Dan every pitfall and pothole before it appeared. Dan said, “It was like magic; every week I got lighter and leaner and amazingly, instead of dragged out and beat down – the way I had felt in the past when I had dieted down or slashed weight, now I felt energized and alert; the best part was by losing the last vestiges of body fat, my cardio went through the roof. I was drinking CapTri® by the bucketful and this kept my energy sky-high while I removed all the starch from my diet.” Chris Toland remarked on what a joy it was to work with a determined disciplined athlete that methodically did whatever Chris suggested. “Dan sought my expertise to help him prepare for a fight he had set for April 30, 2011. He would be fighting at the Shogun Fights at the 1st Mariner Arena.  Dan was scheduled to fight weighing 170 or less and did not want to lose any muscle or power. I immediately adjusted his diet according to the Parrillo Nutritional Strategies that I have been using for years. I put him on Parrillo supplements: Butter-flavored CapTri®, Liver Amino Formula™, Ultimate Amino Formula™, Muscle Amino Formula™, Essential Vitamins™, Mineral Electrolyte Formula™, Advanced Lipotropic Formula™ and Hi-Protein Powder™ on a daily basis.  By April 27, 2011, we were able to get Dan’s body fat down to 5.5% body fat percentile while his lean muscle mass came in at 167.86!”

Dan wound up fighting on April 30, 2011 at a “catch weight” of 176 pounds because, ironically, his opponent could not make weight! Dan submitted his opponent with a Rear Naked Choke in the first round. Needless to say, both Dan and Chris were ecstatic about this amazing turn of events: Dan Root had lost 30 pounds of fat without losing an ounce of muscle. In an incredible fairy tale ending, Root then submits his opponent in the biggest fight of his career in a brand new weight class. “I felt reborn.” Chris related Dan’s strong points and why he felt he was so successful so quickly, “Dan trains with an extremely high level of intensity, both at the gym working with weights and at Ground Control when he works his fight skills. During the time he was preparing for this fight, he would tell me that his energy levels and strength were “through the roof like never before.” He said his training partners at Ground Control couldn’t understand where all of his newfound non-stop energy came from. As he told me this I chuckled and told him it’s amazing what our bodies are capable of when we feed them the right ingredients in the right amounts at the right time and have the iron-willed discipline to avoid what we are not supposed to eat or drink.” His next fight was scheduled for October 8th of 2011 and ten weeks prior to the fight he met with Chris to begin his “next phase” nutritional and supplemental plan, synchronized with the fight. By fight time, again utilizing the Parrillo Nutritional and Supplemental Strategies, Dan weighed in at 169 pounds sporting a 6.4% body fat percentile. Again Dan advised Chris that his strength and energy levels were “through the roof; my best cardio condition ever.” This was born out: Dan completely dominated his opponent and won by a technical knockout in the third round. (This fight can be viewed on YouTube: search for Dan Root vs. Diego Peclat)

Dan attributes his success in his last two fights to the nutritional and supplemental strategies which enabled him to train with far more intensity and far more endurance and with zero degradation in his power. Chris commented, “I thought I trained with intensity but Dan Root brings an entirely new meaning to the word intense!” Insofar as future plans, Dan Root is a realist. “I am not a dreamer. I love what I am doing and will continue to do it into the foreseeable future – however there is more to life than MMA fighting and I always have an eye on what I will do when my career ends – as all careers do at some point: for now, I feel I have a ton of room left for improvement and I feel that I can become a far better fighter and a far better athlete.” And at the relatively young age of 30, Dan’s career could conceivably stretch for another decade if he so chooses. Chris Toland is equally enthused about Dan and his potential. “Dan plans to continue utilizing the Parrillo nutritional and supplemental strategies that I have set up for him as he prepares for future fights. He is intense when it comes to his training and he is one of the most disciplined individuals I have ever met. His inherent self-discipline makes his dieting and supplementation relatively easy. Put it all together, the work ethic, the discipline, his amazing pain-tolerance and his indomitable spirit and you have one very tough MMA fighter: his strength is “through the roof” and Dan’s “gas tank” never seems to run out. He’s the kind of guy that will do whatever it takes to improve and he constantly crushes current limits and pushes himself to new limits. It’s an absolute pleasure to work with Dan.” Dan had some final words about Chris, “I consider Chris a mentor and a role model; he not only talks the talk, he walks the walk. In life outside of athletics, he inspires me – I am grateful that we ‘partnered up’ and see us working together for years to come.”

• Meal 3: 150 grams chicken breast, 250 grams broccoli

• Meal 4: 225 grams tuna fish, 250 grams green beans

• Meal 5: 150 grams chicken breast, 250 grams broccoli

• Meal 6: 4 scoops of Parrillo Hi-Protein Powder™

Protein 350 grams

Carbs 98 grams

Saturated fat 14 grams

Food calories 1928 calories

CapTri® calories 720 calories

Total calories 2468 calories

Chris Toland set up and managed Dan’s Parrillo-inspired nutritional approach: “We had to slash bodyweight off Dan as fast as possible and this required we utilize a severe, austere, no room for error approach, right from day one. On Tuesdays and Fridays Dan would add in 1/4 cup of brown rice to Meal #3 and 56 grams of a potato to meal #4.  These were Dan’s hardest training days so we gave him a few extra starches to cope. In addition, Dan would add a tablespoon of Butter Flavored CapTri® to each meal, giving him an additional 720 calories per day. As for Parrillo supplements, with every meal Dan would take an Essential Vitamin and Mineral Electrolyte™ tablet, 8-10 Liver Amino Formula™ tablets, an Advanced Lipotropic™ capsule, three Ultimate Amino™ and Muscle Amino Formula™ capsules. He never misses a meal or skips a supplement. Because of this degree of discipline, he has shed 35 pounds of fat while retaining 100% of his muscle.”

Dan’s Daily Meal Plan

Dan Root’s MMA

Training Schedule

• Monday: Session 1 – 45 minutes weight training; 15 minutes intense cardio

Session 2 – 45 minutes fight technique

Session 3 – 45 minutes live sparing

• Tuesday: Session 1 – 45 minutes weight training; 10 minutes intense cardio

Session 2 – 90 minutes live sparing

• Wednesday: Session 1 – combat cardio conditioning w/strongman implements

Session 2 – 60 minutes of pad work and live sparring

Session 3 – 30 minutes of weight training

• Thursday: Session 1 – circuit weight training six exercises five cycles

Session 2 – light striking for 45 minutes

• Friday: Session 1 – 30 minutes weight training

Session 2 – rotating partner live sparring

• Saturday: Session 1 – combat conditioning with strongman implements

Session 2 – two hours of Muay Tai boxing

• Sunday: Session 1 – three hours of jujitsu, live sparing Muay Tai

Photo by Richard Mullen

A 12-pack of Dentyne Ice gum at that low price? Can’t pass that up. Two dozen crisp Gala apples for what would only get me a few at the supermarket? Come on man, that’s a bargain. Socks – it doesn’t matter how many I have, I always feel like I could use more. What if my wife goes on laundry strike and I run out of clean socks? And so it goes. This time I had come in for eggs, a rotisserie chicken, and Brussels sprouts and so far I also had about ten other items in my cart – all essential of course. Sure I already had the Blu-Ray of Avatar, but not with the six hours of bonus footage! I was particularly interested in the extended scene portraying intimate relations between the big blue aliens with tails. Does that make me a perv?

Ron Harris

It wasn’t unusual for me to run into someone I knew, as I often saw the same faces at my gym, my bank, church, and the supermarket. So it was no surprise when Jeff, father of my one and only training client Jared who should be coming back from freshman year of college for Christmas, rounded the corner. His cart was fairly brimming over with what appeared to be at least a grand’s worth of food – much of if from the bakery section.

“Hey there!” I greeted him. “Long time no see!” And it had been. Jeff and I didn’t hit the gym at the same time too often, but something told me he hadn’t been there in some time. It could have been the little paunch I could see protruding from his unzipped jacket. The real telltale sign was in his face. Not that it was a bit fuller-looking than usual, but I saw that guilt that people always seem to feel around me when they haven’t been training or eating right. Like I’m some kind of Fitness Cop? There have been times when people have even been apologetic as if they were letting me down. I always remind them that they need to exercise and eat right for themselves, not to please or appease anybody else. Least of all me!

Inspecting the vast quantities of foodstuffs in his cart which included boxes upon boxes of frozen appetizers, I asked if he was having a party. He shrugged.

“A little get-together for Christmas Eve, you know.” I suppressed the urge to chuckle. If a couple dozen close friends and in-laws showed up at his place every Sunday to watch the New England Patriots play, I could only guess that he was expecting 50-60 folks the next night to enjoy the generous amounts of food and liquor that would be available. I saw a few bottles glinting at the bottom of the cart and it was all good stuff – Patron, Tanqueray, Grey Goose – no cheap rotgut for my man and his pals. I was actually surprised he wasn’t having his little shindig catered, but I knew that in spite of his considerable net worth, Jeff was not the type to squander money. We chatted for a moment, and he let me know that Jared was indeed back on break and would probably be calling me to schedule a workout soon. Making a real effort not to sound accusing or judgmental, I asked him how his own training was going. You may recall that he had been expressing an interest in returning to bodybuilding competition again for a couple years now. Jeff had last flexed on stage when disco was king, and at the rate he was going, it might be back on top of the charts by the time he donned his posing trunks again.

With a long sigh, he explained that he had fallen off the wagon in recent months. “I started missing a few workouts and meals here and there, and then I felt so bad about it that I didn’t see the point in trying.” The vicious circle he was describing was all too common. Often when a person is on top of their training and nutrition and begins to slide for whatever reason, they start looking and feeling worse. One of two things happens at that point. Either the person becomes disgusted and angry and commits to getting back on track immediately, or they let the fact that they have slipped make them feel guilty and depressed to the point of giving up on their goals. I was afraid that Jeff was on that second road, and I wanted him to turn back now before he continued any further.

“I get it Jeff, really I do,” I began. “You were doing so well there for a while and now you feel like you’ve blown it, right?” He shrugged.

“Pretty much,” he replied. Nearby, an elderly Asian woman was giving out samples of some new type of pizza rolls or some such crap. Jeff kept glancing over in that direction. As luck would have it, I had an English Toffee Protein Chew Bar™ in the inside pocket of my coat. I think it had been there since the previous winter, but he didn’t need to know that.

“Don’t even think about eating those little nuggets of processed flour and saturated fat,” I told him and handed him the bar. “If you’re hungry, eat this.” He thanked me.

“I almost went to the gym last night, but I kept thinking how I look like a slob now,” he confessed. “You don’t even want to know some of the things I’ve been eating before bed the last couple months.”

“I’m sure it’s nothing you and 100 million other people don’t pack away late at night, like ice cream, cookies, chips, and greasy fried food.”

“The fried food has usually been at lunchtime,” he corrected me.

“Whatever, it doesn’t matter. None of it does. You’ve taken a few steps backward with your physique. Everyone does sometimes, trust me. The main thing is that you have to make the conscious decision right now to get back on the right track.”

“Yeah, once the holidays are over…”

“Oh no,” I cut him off. “My boy has karate until noon Saturday, Christmas Eve. The gym is open until five. Can you and Jared meet me there for a workout at one?” He hesitated for a moment, no doubt pondering making a lame excuse, but then agreed they would be there.

“Good.” I gestured to his cart. “After you have one last bad night of eating at your party, you need to start eating clean again. Four

solid meals a day and two shakes or bars. And you can wear big shirts to the gym for a while if you’re feeling chubby, but you need to start hitting the weights again like before. Can you do that?”

“Yeah, I can.”

Before we parted ways, he invited me and my family to the party, but I reminded him that I had been going to my sister-in-law’s raucous party with a house full of Cubans and Puerto Ricans every Christmas Eve now for a full decade. I told him I looked forward to a great workout that afternoon before our respective bashes commenced later on. I thought of all the people who gave up on their own fitness goals for good simply because they had slacked off for a while. It was kind of sad, actually. Although ideally we should all be perfectly consistent with our workouts, our meals and our supplements; beating yourself up over it to the point where you quit is tragic. If you fall off the wagon, don’t let it get too far down the road without you. Just get right back on it and you’ll be well on your way to getting to where you want to go again.

I really didn’t want to be that fat father who just sat on the sidelines watching; I wanted to be involved with my kids in their activities. One of the final straws came when we took a beach vacation and my kids said, ‘Dad, please don’t take off your shirt while we’re on the beach.’ Now that cut deep and was a mental turning point. I decided that I needed to get serious about fitness.” If he needed any further convincing, a subsequent trip to his doctor removed all doubt that it was past time to get serious about fitness. In January of 2009 Jim Kipp got down to

Jim Kipp

serious business insofar as training. “I had a buddy and after the Super Bowl we both vowed to train together and attack our mutual weight problem. We hit the gym and being an ex-athlete I took to the weight training and the aerobic training with a vengeance. The not-so-funny thing was, past the first five or ten pounds, I couldn’t seem to lose any more bodyweight. My unchecked eating habits were undoing the nice training progress I was making in the gym.” Mr. Kipp was getting stronger and improving his cardio capacity, but what he sought the most, a dramatic reduction in his body fat percentile eluded him. Jim Kipp was becoming stronger and fitter, yet still remained fat. He was learning a valuable lesson: hard training without disciplined eating is not enough.

Jim’s fitness quest was more than some ego vanity trip and looking good at the beach. “I had always considered myself to be an athlete. I could not believe how I had let myself go. My doctor gave me another jolt when he related that while my HDL and LDL were alright my triglycerides were sky-high, through the roof, over 300. My doctor told me that I had to do something about what I was eating and I had to reduce my bodyweight or I would need medication. I didn’t listen and ended up on a cholesterol medication. I began conventional dieting, but the low-calorie, low-fat high-carb approach left me always feeling hungry. I was starving myself and it was affecting my mood and personality. I knew that there had to be a better way.”  Kipp happened to train at the same gym as Parrillo cover-man Russ Testo and the two struck up conversations and eventually Jim discovered Parrillo Performance Products. “I finally got diet traction and I finally found out about Parrillo supplements. Suddenly I was shedding fat and adding muscle. I couldn’t believe it: you read about this sort of ‘perfect storm.’ A person is overweight and out of shape and undergoes a drastic transformation; while you hope that someday this same sort of physical miracle will happen to you, that you will experience the incredible gains you read about, it still comes as a shock when you actually hit on that magic combination of exercise and nutrition and supplementation that actually enables you to become that transformed person you’ve read about.” In about the same time Jim was getting gains, losing weight and simultaneously becoming stronger, some training partners noticed that Jim was a really good bench presser. “Back when I was in my twenties and light and fit, I came very close to bench pressing 300 pounds. Within a relatively short amount of time after I decided to get back into shape, now in my 40s, I was benching around 270 pounds and some training partners noticed and were telling me, ‘Jim, for a 40+ year old middleweight (165 pound weight limit) your bench pressing would be very competitive in powerlifting.’ I was like ‘really?’ The furthest thing from my mind was powerlifting – of which I knew nothing.”

To make a long story short, Jim Kipp in fact entered a bench press competition in January of 2011, weighing 165 pounds, and bench pressed 295 “raw” (without using a supportive bench press shirt.) “That was an exhilarating and exciting experience. It was incredible to lose weight and become stronger. I had dropped thirty pounds of body fat and added a good amount of muscle. I had six pack abs, felt incredible and now was winning powerlifting bench press competitions. It was like a really good dream.” And the dream kept

getting better: in February he entered his first official power competition and pushed up a 305 pound bench press. This was followed by several more local competitions. In each competition Kipp was winning trophies and medals and gaining competitive experience. “I cannot say enough good things about the ‘Wednesday night crew’ that trains at my gym, Albany Strength XXXL; without them I would not have undertaken powerlifting and without their support and encouragement I would not have progressed to the degree that I have.” Fast forward to September of 2011 and Jim Kipp wins the open division in the 74 kg weight class (163 pound class) and is crowned the national bench press champion. “That was incredible. Can you imagine? A few short years before I was just another overweight middle-aged guy and now I am a national champion with a completely rebuilt body? What was even more incredible was that by winning the national championships I was named to represent the USA at the world bench press championships at the 2012 International Powerlifting Federation World Bench Press Championships in Plzen, Czech Republic, on May 23rd, 2012. (“If you would like to share in my goal of representing my country at this event, a donation of any size would be greatly appreciated.” You can contact Kipp at wjkipp@gmail.com or http://kippersdailyworkout.blogspot.com)

At a subsequent power competition in November of 2011, Jim benched 325 pounds and though the lift was turned down on a technicality – he moved his foot which actually made the lift harder – this bench showed Jim that a 350+ pound bench press is a very real possibility and in the not too distant future.

It has been an amazingly rapid transition for Jim Kipp in terms of physique and strength. Had someone a few short years ago told Kipp (when Jim was weighing 200 pounds and was struggling with his health issues) that in very short order he would possess a dramatically transformed physique,

complete with the coveted ‘six-pack’ and further that he would be the United States bench press champion and on his way to compete at the world championships, no doubt the rational and level-headed Kipp would have felt that the person suggesting such a wild tale was obviously on drugs and hallucinating badly. “When I sit back and review all that has happened and the rapidity with which it has happened, I feel as if I am dreaming.” Parrillo Performance Products played no small part in Jim Kipp’s incredible rocket ride. “I take some type of Parrillo product every single day. I found way back when I started this transformational journey that starchy carbs and refined foods were the main culprits that were keeping me fat. I went on a ketogenic-type eating regimen where I ingested a lot of protein and fiber carbs and not much else. This worked really well – but not nearly as well as when I began supplementing with Parrillo Products. Every morning I start my day with a Parrillo All-Protein™ shake; this provides me with 30+ grams of pure protein and no carbs. I have a Parrillo Protein Bar™ midmorning and another Protein Bar™ mid-afternoon. Every evening without fail I have a Parrillo Hi-Protein™ vanilla shake. I mix this with very little water in order to give it the consistency of pudding. I love this protein-rich mixture and look forward to it. CapTri® has been a real boost: I use CapTri® every day and will even cook with it, using it to sauté vegetables. Parrillo products provide me with a critical 100 grams of supplemental protein each and every day and CapTri® calories enable me to stay strong and hard without adding to body fat. I make sure to eat with discipline and I make sure to supplement with discipline. I cannot conceive of training as hard and long and often as I do without Parrillo Performance Products!”

Insofar as future plans, Jim Kipp has a world championship to attend and compete in May 2012. This will be followed quickly by the USAPL national championships in August of 2012. “My attitude is realistic: I need to train as hard and conscientiously as possible and see how things turn out. I have no control over my competitors or their lifts; nor the location or circumstances of the competition. What I do have control over is myself and my own preparation. My goal is to shift my body composition around a bit; using Parrillo Products and a newfound nutritional methodology, my goal is to lose body fat while adding muscle – yet stay within the 165 pound weight class. Most of my international competitors will train at 170 to 175 pounds in bodyweight and reduce down to make weight in the 165 pound division. As soon as they weigh-in, they rehydrate and eat enabling them to lift in the competition weighing 170 pounds (or more.) I want to use that strategy myself. I know that additional muscle means a bigger bench press. I have a lot of time between now and May and would love to get below 9% body fat percentile while adding another five pounds of solid muscle: this will undoubtedly help my bench press go up. More muscle equates to more pushing power.” Jim’s power training strategy includes lots of classic power bodybuilding exercises. He augments his power exercise with a wide range of bodybuilding movements. “I love to train. I feel as if I am continually improving my techniques and continually improving my training strategies.” Regardless of how the world bench press championships unfold in May, you may rest assured that Mr. Jim Kipp will be in the fitness/power game for a long time to come. With so little time under his belt, one can only wonder how far he can go. Kipp gives credence to the new contention that “45 is the new 20.” We will keep readers apprised of this amazing man’s amazing progress.

Jim Kipp’s Training Split

• Monday: Flat Bench, Incline Dumbbell, Decline Dumbbell, Dumbbell Flyes
• Tuesday: Squats, Leg press, Leg Curls, Leg Extensions
• Wednesday: Weighted Crunches, Cable Crunches, Weighted Plank, Weighted leg Raises, Bench Press, Board Presses
•  Thursday: Lat Pull Downs, Rows, Seated Rows, Shrugs, Dead lifts
•  Friday: Dumbbell Press, Side Laterals, Front Laterals, Bent Over Lateral Raises
•  Saturday: Skull Crushers, Pushdowns, Triceps Presses, Mule kicks,Various curls

I try and perform aerobics each week. I feel that cardio keeps me lean and enables me to improve my general level of fitness. Being fit allows me to train harder and train longer. Health is an important part of fitness and keeps my metabolism from becoming sluggish.

Jim Kipp’s Daily Meal Schedule

• Meal 1 5:30 AM: 8 egg whites, ½ cup oatmeal, CapTri®, Parrillo All Protein™ shake
• Meal 2 9:00 AM: Parrillo Hi-Protein™ shake, ½ cup rice, Parrillo Protein Bar™
• Meal 3 11:00 AM: Yam, 5 oz tuna, salad greens, CapTri®
• Meal 4 1:30 PM: Optimized Whey™ shake, chicken breast, rice, broccoli, CapTri®
• Meal 5 5:30 PM: Chicken or fish, broccoli, asparagus or brussels spouts, CapTri®
• Meal 6 8:00 PM: Parrillo Protein Bar™, salad with CapTri®
• Meal 7 10:00 PM: Parrillo Hi-Protein™ shake

“What inspired me to become a bodybuilder? An episode of the short lived FOX show “The Adventures of Brisco County Jr” which guest starred Cory Everson as a blacksmith.  I thought to myself “Wow! She’s beautiful and powerful and so confident! I wanna look like that someday!”. But it would be at least another 10 years before I competed at a college bodybuilding show in

2005, and then fell off the fit wagon, got depressed and gained over 100lbs (after losing 60lb) I kept telling myself I’d “get back to it” but I never really did. After a couple of futile attempts,(and being asked twice within 2 weeks when I “was due”), I finally decided that enough was enough, and I contacted a personal trainer to get me going. I then met Scott Canatsey in the fall of 2009 through a mutual friend, and he proceeded to take me under his wing, and helped train and teach me using Parrillo’s concepts and training  techniques. I started into my venture in April of 2009 and did a show in September of 2010. I know I was not nearly as lean as I should or could have been, but I made a promise to myself that I’d do this show, and did it really for the experience.  I know that Scott and Parrillo were both instrumental in my prep. A lot of the times when I’d read an article in Performance Press, it sounded like Scott talking, and vice versa. He worked with John personally and is the 2004 Jr. Nationals Runner Up and well as one of the top lightweight bodybuilders in the country.  Before I headed into a precontest diet for the 2010 OCB Natural Indiana I used  Mineral Electrolyte Formula™, Essential Vitamin Formula™ and of course the Protein Bars™. I dropped out the bars when I was precontesting.”

Carrie has continued to improve her physique and in July 2011, Carrie was a competitor in both the NPC Indiana State Championship and Hoosier Muscle Classic. She placed 2nd in the Indiana State and 3rd in the Hoosier Muscle Classic. Carrie is also working on getting her Parrillo Personal Training Level One Certification. We wish Carrie good luck in her future bodybuilding competitions!

“During my transformation, I started off at 303lbs in April of 2009 and was at 51%(yes….51%) bodyfat, and stepped onstage in September of 2010 at 195lbs and 17% bodyfat.”

Thermogenesis!

Many of you out there compete in bodybuilding or go to watch contests. More of you aspire to compete one day. I thought it would be helpful this month to briefly go over what it is the judges are looking for in physiques. Essentially, the winner is the man or woman who displays the best ‘total package’ of the following qualities. Keep that in mind, because being outstanding in one category alone means little or nothing if a physique is sorely lacking in one or more of the others.

Size

It’s bodybuilding, so a certain amount of muscle mass is needed. Recently after a regional contest I attended, one of the light-heavyweights who had not placed well ranted online about how he was ‘robbed.’ Being robbed is a common complaint in this sport because even when competitors recognize they may not have deserved to win, they never feel they rightfully deserve any worse than second or third place. In this case, the guy placed 11th out of 14 and was so upset at not getting the first or second comparison callout in the judging that he didn’t even bother to go to the night show. The light-heavies in the NPC have a maximum weight of 198 1/4 pounds (don’t you just love that extra quarter-pound?). The enraged bodybuilder in question towers at 6-1, when the better light-heavies even at this level typically range from 5-5 to 5-8. There is no official guideline as to how heavy a person needs to be for his or her height, but suffice to say there is a minimal degree of muscle thickness that’s desirable. If a bodybuilder does not yet have this amount of mass, they need to go back to the gym and the dinner table and pack on more size. There’s a reason bodybuilders have exceptional physiques as compared to regular humans, and the main difference is an exceptional degree of muscle size.

Condition

Next up is a quality that’s equally key, and that’s condition. Being huge is wonderful, but you need to be ripped too or else you just look like a big blob of dough. Walk into any gym in the USA and you’ll usually see at least a few really big guys. But are they lean? Usually not. And in this day and age, being ‘lean’ is not nearly enough. You can see your abs and a few veins? That’s a nice start, but it’s nowhere near proper contest condition. For that, you need to get your bodyfat down low enough to see clear and distinct separations between all the muscle groups, plus the splits and striations within individual muscles like the pecs and the quads. Ideally, perfect contest condition means getting down to striated glutes. The problem with many bodybuilders is that they either don’t know how lean they are expected to be, or else they are delusional and think they are far leaner than they actually are. Don’t look to your non-bodybuilding friends and relatives for a critique. These are the same people who vote for celebrities with blurred-out abs as People magazines ‘hottest beach bodies.’ And forget about standing three feet away from a mirror and focusing on a vein popping out of your front delt. The judges are sitting twenty feet in front of you and that vein is not going to overly impress them. Your bodyfat needs to be down somewhere around 4-6% these days if you expect to do well. You can have a great physique, but if it’s smoothed out by bodyfat, it will not look great. And one last thing – don’t think you’re just ‘holding water’ if you can’t see clear definition. You’re still fat and you need to hit that diet and cardio a lot harder.

Structure and shape

These are qualities you either have or you don’t, unfortunately. There is an ideal bone structure for bodybuilding: wide clavicles, a narrow waist and hips, and torso and limb lengths in pleasing proportion. If you have narrow clavicles and wide hips, the best you can do is pile on as much shoulder and upper back width as possible while keeping your waist from getting any bigger. As for shape, the ideal one is an ‘X-Frame.’ This consists of wide shoulders and back, a narrow waist, and flaring quads with a sick outer sweep. The muscle shapes themselves are important too. You can’t change their shape, but you can carefully target specific areas to improve it as much as possible. For instance, you can focus on close-stance leg presses and hack squats to bring out more quad sweep, or do plenty of wide-grip chin-ups for more back width.

Proportion

Proportion is something you have control over. It’s the overall balance of the physique. The upper body should be equal in development to the lower. You should look as good from the back as you do from the front, and you should also look as thick from the side as you do from the front or back (three-dimensional as opposed to two-dimensional). The hamstrings and calves should be

proportionate to the quads. The upper chest should be as developed as the lower. The back should be wide and thick from top to bottom. No one bodypart should be either overpowering or weak in contrast to the others. The closer a group of competitors are to each other in terms of physique, the more the judges have to look for flaws to find the worthy winner. If for example it comes down to two men who both have impressive size, great structures, and are in shredded condition, the decision might come down to one guy having weak arms or calves. Obviously some bodyparts are going to be tougher to develop due to individual genetics, but that’s why you need to hammer your weak points that much harder than your strong points. Sadly, too many bodybuilders favor their strong points because it’s gratifying, and rationalize that their weak points are ‘decent.’ Until all bodyparts are balanced, you have an easily identifiable flaw that can and probably will be exploited one day on stage.

Presentation

I left this one for last because though it is important, it will only truly hurt someone if the competition is a close one. I have seen guys who looked incredible yet could not pose to save their lives. If they are up against others who also look amazing, they are screwed. If you can’t display your physique properly, the judges won’t be able to get the full effect. For example, I have seen guys who clearly had wide backs but had no clue how to spread them in the rear lat pose. As a result, their backs looked narrow. Others did not control their breathing and let their stomachs relax on stage rather than keeping them sucked in and tight, and looked like they had big pregnant bellies. Another common mistake is not keeping the legs tensed at all times, which can give the appearance that they are smooth and not lean enough. If you don’t know how to pose, find someone who does and get them to help you. Pay them if need be. It’s worth it when you’re up there showing off all your hard work to its best advantage.

Remember: there are other physiques up there!

A final and critical thing to remember is that in a bodybuilding contest, how well you or whoever you are watching up there does depends entirely on who else is up there. Assuming a bodybuilder has worked hard and has good size and condition, they all look great by themselves. Once you get to the level of the top 5-6 men at the Mr. Olympia or Arnold Classic, it becomes even more pronounced. By himself, every single one of those men looks phenomenal. But they can’t all win. The judges are assigned the thankless task of sorting them out as fairly as possible and placing them in order of first to last place. And like I said, at the end of the night usually only one person – the winner – thinks they got it right. Now that you have an idea of what it is they are looking for, it should make more sense as to how and why the athletes are placed the way they are. And if you have not done as well as you wanted to in competition, hopefully now you know what you need to bring to the stage next time to do better!

^{Recognizing that the big gains lie within “the pain zone”}

^{By Duke Nukem}

Then being introduced to the Parrillo approach, two Parrillo concepts are most often cited as defining the Parrillo philosophy: the complex sophistication of the Parrillo Nutrition Program and the intenseness of Parrillo-style training, both in resistance training and aerobic training. The Parrillo nutritional approach is detailed and specific and has been refined and honed to perfection during its 40 years of existence. Parrillo-style training is all about extending the athlete’s current limits and capacities. No matter how adept, no matter how strong and fit, regardless if you can run a Marathon in under three hours or bench press 500 for 8 reps, when you train under John Parrillo’s direct supervision he is going to find your threshold limits in strength and endurance and then very systematically, very precisely and very painfully take you past those limits into new territory. “The big gains occur when the body is taken past capacity – only then are muscles forced to grow and only then is the body forced to burn its stored body fat.” John Parrillo is the absolute master at forcing muscles to grow and forcing the body to give up its body fat.

Let’s take a brief minute and talk about pain: pain when applied to training is different than the pain of burning your hand on a hot stove; perhaps a more accurate phrase for training pain would be intense momentary discomfort. While training-induced pain can be harsh and painful during the actual exercise, this pain goes away when the set is completed and leaves no permanent debilitation. In fact this particular brand of temporary discomfort is beneficial. Another fact: without the painful discomfort of training-related pain the chances for athletic physical improvement of some type or kind are virtually impossible. When asked his opinion, Mr. Parrillo was very much matter-of-fact: “Do you really think muscles are going to magically grow larger and stronger and do you really think the body is going to grow leaner and fitter in response to fun, easy, breezy workouts? That is delusional. It is effort and sweat and pushing past current capacities that force gains.” John makes an outstanding point: if sub-maximal workouts worked, then 3/4s of the entire world would look like Arnold on his best day.

In Parrillo World, training and nutrition are always mentioned in the same breath: there is no separating the training from the eating. “Optimal nutrition amplifies training results. Perfect eating increases the results derived from intense lifting and intense aerobics.” John “underpins” intense, extended, frequent workouts with a high protein, high-calorie nutritional approach that requires the athlete eat more in order to shed body fat and “support” muscle growth. Hypertrophy is the resistance training goal and fat burning is the aerobic goal: neither of these goals, muscle-building/fat burning, is possible unless the training is savage and the nutrition perfect. So do you have to have the pain tolerance of a UFC cage fighter in order to measure up to John Parrillo’s mental acuity expectations? Not exactly; John explained his approach. “Pain tolerance is improved over time. The serious bodybuilder needs to push a little bit harder and push a little bit further into the ‘discomfort zone’ each time they train. Over time, the bodybuilder becomes used to working for an extended period in the pain zone. This is where the real muscle-building/fat-burning gains reside.”

John Parrillo has devised a way in which interested individuals can learn about the Parrillo method: Parrillo Extreme Training Camp is a three day immersion into all things Parrillo: training, nutrition, aerobics, philosophy, mental acuity, BodyStat charting, posing and any and all other bodybuilding-related topics are taught at Extreme Training Camp. Participants are taught in workshops and classrooms; they are fed bodybuilding meals and taught cooking techniques; they are involved in blackboard talks and put through hardcore cardio and weight training sessions. At Parrillo Extreme Training Camp the very first training session requires that camp attendees engage in one of John Parrillo’s patented protocols; this particular workout is a hybrid lifting/aerobic regimen designed to not only build muscle but also to amp up the metabolism and build more mitochondria – cellular blast furnaces. More mitochondria are a good thing: more mitochondria mean more capacity to build lean muscle mass. More mitochondria make it easier for the body to use body fat as an energy source. Mitochondria are only built in response to prolonged, protracted, intense training.

The weight workout John subjects Extreme Camp attendees to on day one is unlike anything seminar participants have ever experienced: imagine a series of exercise stations set up sequentially; athletes perform the required number of sets and reps with the required poundage (this varies person to person) and exercises are executed one after another, without pause or hesitation. Now imagine that the reps done at each station are high, as many as 100 repetitions per set. Let us further imagine that at each exercise station a Parrillo Certified Personal Trainer (perhaps Dr. Mike Feulner or perhaps the Master Blaster himself, John Parrillo) stands next to the station and yells encouragement while administering forced rep after forced rep after forced rep – until the target muscle is totally and completely blasted into muscular submission. This is the heart and soul of the Parrillo training system: find the limit and exceed the limit, using forced reps, drop sets and extended sets. John has an endless trick-bag full of intensity-amping tactics to draw upon. Once the bodybuilder completes the exercise at station #1, they move immediately to station #2, then #3 and so on, until the entire extended circuit is completed.

The bodybuilder completely exhausts their capacity in each exercise at each exercise station. They then move onto the next station and exhaust themselves completely once again; they then move on to another exercise over and over, until the long sequence of exhausting exercises is finally completed. The bodybuilder pushes or pulls just as long and just as hard as possible at each station and at each station they are subjected to endless forced reps, all of which is designed to decimate a muscle or muscle group. Exercise after exercise is done without pause until this giant set from hell is culminated. The Parrillo Giant Set procedure builds muscle and builds mitochondria and promotes leanness while building endurance: this procedure is also perfect for increasing mental acuity. You get a lot of opportunities to deal with the pain and discomfort and increase your acuity using the Parrillo Giant Set forced-rep protocol. Those that embrace this super-tough workout develop (over time) higher pain tolerance thresholds. The biggest gains are reserved for those that linger longest on the other side of the pain barrier. The experience of successfully completing this particular Parrillo protocol has become a Parrillo rite of passage – similar to that other Parrillo rite-of-passage: the 100-rep forced-rep belt squat.

The 100-rep belt squat is an excruciating procedure first devised by John Parrillo as a strategy for training world class powerlifters. In the 1980’s John worked with a power lifer who was stuck with a 600 pound competitive squat for 3 years. After just 3 months of belt squats doing heavy overload sets to increase his golgi tendon reflex threshold and 100 rep sets to open up the high threshold nerve paths the power lifter squatted 740 in his next meet. The tactics that John uses today in the belt squat were first devised to set national and world records. The Parrillo 100-rep belt squat procedure is another mental acuity builder: five spotters assist the belt squatter in completing a 100-rep set. The poundage selected is calibrated so that the lifter runs completely out of leg power in around rep 30. From that point forward the belt squatter is helped (given forced reps) by the spotters to ever greater degrees as the squatter works towards 100 reps. In about the 85th rep the lifter has so completely exhausted their available pushing power that they cannot stand erect unless the spotters lift both the poundage and the lifter. The spotters stand the lifter erect so that the lifter might perform a negative rep; resisting the belt squat poundage while lowering down to the bottommost point. By rep 95 the spotters are on guard for the complete physical collapse of the lifter.

The Parrillo Belt Squat not only resets the athlete’s Golgi Tendon Reflex, (increasing Nature’s shutdown mechanism) the belt squat also resets the athlete’s mental acuity: after going through the pain of 100 reps to positive failure, then onto forced reps and finally negatives, the lifter has a vastly expanded pain threshold: old pain barriers now seem laughable. After going through a belt squat session, the next time the athlete is faced with exceeding a personal record, say for example squatting 12 reps with 250 pounds, compared to the 100 rep belt squat pain, pushing out a few additional reps in regular training seems like a frolic in the park. Once you’ve rolled non-stop through the Parrillo Giant Set or the 100-rep belt squat, veritable Indian gauntlets of torture, you have a new frame of reference for pain and discomfort. As an athlete and as a trainer, you now know what really hard training is all about. With your newfound increase in mental acuity, pushing yourself longer and harder in “regular” training is a relative breeze. After an Extreme Training Camp, how is going for a new bench press record ever going to scare you again? You push deep into the pain zone as a result of the forced marches experienced at Extreme Training Camp.

For optimal fat-burning results, aerobic training, Parrillo-style, needs to be done with maximum intensity. Regardless if your cardio weapon of choice is a stationary bike, a stair-stepper, swimming, running or playing intense competitive games, whatever aerobic mode

• CapTri® is a high calorie MCT oil that amps up the metabolic burn rate while supplying “impossible to end up as body fat” calories. CapTri® fuels recovery and provides calories needed for muscle growth.

• Hi-Protein™, All-Protein™ or Optimized Whey™ protein powder are supplemental musts: two scoops of any one of these three potent powdered shakes provides between 31 and 34 grams of high biologic value protein. Highly beneficial.

• Parrillo Bars™ in all their various flavors and formulations provide “meal in a wrapper” portability. Parrillo Bars™ mean the athlete never needs to miss a meal.

• 50/50 Plus™ powder creates a super shake designed specifically for replenishing the body after an intense, draining session. The body is shattered and literally starved for nutrients after a Parrillo-style workout, one or two servings of 50/50 Plus™ taken within 30-60 minutes after the session will amplify workout results.

On December 2nd 2011 a Level II Parrillo Extreme Camp will be held in Fairfield, Ohio at Parrillo Headquarters. The cost is a supremely reasonable: $325. Included are $200 worth of handouts and tools distributed to seminar participants; including The Parrillo Training, Nutrition and CapTri® Manuals, a food scale, BodyStat sheets, skin-fold calipers, a Parrillo shirt, shaker cup and bar samples. Delicious meals are provided during the Camp. Those serious about taking their training to the next level can call 1-800-344-3404 for reservations and information. Let’s get serious about acuity and let us be clear about where the real results lie. Easy workouts are worthless workouts!

Thanksgiving is still exactly a month away as I write this, but here I am counting my blessings anyway. Tomorrow marks four weeks since the surgery to repair my torn right triceps, and it also happens to be the day of my second and hopefully last procedure for many years, on my left shoulder. I’m having what’s called a ‘decompression,’ which involves scooping out some of the acromion, or the underside of the shoulder socket, to free up more room. Thanks to an MRI, I learned that I had worn away nearly all of the ligaments in there over the course of a quarter-century plus of heavy training.

I could feel sorry for myself and call 9-1-1 for the ‘wambulance’ (as in wah, wah, poor me!) if I were so inclined. It’s now been over a month since I could do any type of training with my right triceps, or any pressing movements for the chest or shoulders. Ripping out the stitches anchoring my triceps tendon to my elbow was enough of a deterrent whenever I have been tempted to prematurely do any of those things against the strict advice of my surgeon, the gregarious Dr. Ray. As such, I have lost a certain amount of size from my upper body, though my legs seem to be bigger than ever thanks to receiving the extra time and energy in the gym denied my upper body. And as my shoulder is about to be sliced open tomorrow, tinkered with, then stitched back up, it’s safe to say I will have to continue taking it easy on upper body work for at least a few weeks.

Among the well wishes for successful surgeries and a speedy recovery, there has also been a fair amount of pity. Knowing how passionate I am about training and building my physique, many have expressed their condolences for the ordeal I am forced to endure: missing workouts and losing precious muscle mass. That’s one way to look at it – seeing the glass as half empty. You can also choose to look at the glass as half full, and see all the positives inherent to the situation.

First, these surgeries are both repairing issues that have both caused me extensive pain and have definitely limited my training for many years now. Did I neglect to mention that when Dr. Ray opened up my right elbow, he found various strips of tendon that were not only detached, but the edges had healed to blunt ends? That means I was walking around with a partially torn right triceps for some period of years, perhaps well over a decade. That explains why that triceps sucked ever worse than the left, and was perfectly flat in the side triceps pose while the left arm at least had a little outer sweep to the tri. So if I hadn’t gone and torn it nearly off the bone, I never would have had the surgery to put the whole muscle and tendon complex back where it’s supposed to be.

As for my left shoulder, that’s been a pain in my ass for well over a decade too. The actual pain would vary in severity. On ‘good days,’ I could still do some very decent presses: 120’s for shoulders, 130’s for incline dumbbells, and up to 315 on the barbell military press. On really bad days, I had to stick to machines. At various times during preparations for contests over the past couple years, my left shoulder would be in such agony that I couldn’t even hit the side triceps pose or the rear lat spread. This would be inconsequential for those of you who do not choose to diet down and get onstage oiled up in little posing trunks, but for a competitive bodybuilder this is like a porn star being limited to only a couple different positions. So if this procedure goes well and has the result my surgeon hopes for, I will have less pain in that shoulder than I have since Seinfeld was the top-rated sitcom on TV.

Generally speaking, the secret to being happy or being miserable lies entirely in your attitude and your perceptions of the world around you. Anyone can be happy in even the most dire circumstances if they choose to be. I’ve read about people in such horrific situations as concentration camps, lands blighted by famine and pestilence, and inner cities rife with poverty and violence who still kept their chins up, and never stopped believing they could rise above it all with the right outlook and a fair amount of hope and faith.

Conversely, we have all at least heard of if not personally known people who seemingly had no reason to complain or feel sorry for themselves, yet insisted on being miserable regardless. This could be a person blessed with good looks, social status, fame, and fortune, yet they still managed to bitch and moan. No matter how good they had it, they only focused on someone else who had more of these things than they did.

“I’ve only got a Lamborghini, that guy has a Bugati!”

“I make 100 million dollars a year, but I have to pay so much in taxes!”

“People magazine didn’t have me in their Top 50 Most Beautiful People issue this year! I was only on the list four times! Oh, I must be hideous!”

Those of us who train hard on a regular basis and who have crafted bodies that stand apart from the average human’s have a lot to be thankful for. For one thing, just having access to a gym and even more so, to quality food and supplements and clean water to nourish our bodies, is something a couple billion people on this planet will never know. Being healthy enough to work out is also not to be taken for granted. Many have illnesses and disabilities that make hard weight training merely a fantasy. Thousands of veterans, most of them 10-20 years younger than myself, returned home from the Middle East missing parts of limbs, entire limbs, or in some cases more than one limb. I am sure many of them were avid weight trainers. What I bet they wouldn’t give to just have one operation and then be able to go back to ‘normal’ in a month or two! As the years have gone by and I’ve gained a tiny amount of wisdom, I’ve learned that being happy is a state of mind that’s easy to find if you stay focused on one key point: being thankful for what you do have instead of worrying or complaining about what you don’t. I had the ‘hater’ mentality for much of my life. I chose to focus on what everyone else had that I envied, whether it was income, women, a better body, etc. That negative thought pattern did nothing but keep me mired in bitterness, jealousy, and self-pity. It was no coincidence that I was struggling all those years in various areas – my career, my marriage, and even in my efforts to improve my physique.

Only when I shifted the focus to myself and what I had control over, and understood that I needed to take full responsibility for my own happiness and success, did the tide begin to turn. I am forever a work in progress and every day I must remind myself to avoid negative thought patterns and attitudes, but suffice to say I am doing a lot better in every way these days than I was not so long ago.

You don’t have to wait for Thanksgiving every year to stop and think about all the things you should be grateful for. When you wake up every day thankful to be alive and to have the chance to be a better person each time the sun comes up again, you will be surprised at how much better your life and the world around you seem to be.

Will bad things happen to you and those you love sometimes? Of course they will. We all have our obstacles, setbacks, and challenges in this life. And we will have absolutely no control over some of those things. But you will always have absolute power in how you look at the world around you, and how you react to anything that occurs. Once you truly understand and integrate this concept, I guarantee you that you will never feel like a persecuted, powerless victim of cruel fate again.

Yes, I am having my second surgery in two weeks tomorrow, and I will not be training at 100% for probably at least a few months to come. For that I am thankful, because I know that I will be back doing what I love in the gym someday soon. Life is good – if you want it to be.