Detoxification benefits…High rep sets… Why your lats suck…Lean out lineup

IRON VIC SPEAKS By IRON VIC STEELE

Detoxification benefits…High rep sets…Why your lats suck…Lean out lineup

Mr. Vic,

I wanted to write and tell you how the Parrillo training and nutritional approach has changed my life. I am sure my story of fat-to-fit using Parrillo methods has been told a thousands times in a thousand ways by a thousand Parrillo users, but this is my life and I felt the need to share how I lost 60 pounds of fat in a year, added a bunch of muscle and revitalized my marriage and my life. I had become an embarrassment to myself and my petite wife – though she never said a word and stuck by me as I ate my way into a corner. My doctor shocked me back into reality when he put me on blood pressure meds (at age 38!) and told me I was headed for diabetes. Luckily I came across the Parrillo Performance Press and found out there was a Parrillo Certified Personal Trainer right in my neighborhood. The first few weeks were as difficult physically as anything I had ever done in my sheltered life – however one really overlooked aspect of the Parrillo approach is how good you feel when getting off all the chemicals in all the fake foods and sodas I had been drinking. You guys changed my life!

Bill, San Francisco

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Push/pull stagnation buster…Machine training percentiles… medical professionals and protein…EFAs and flaky skin… Four plateau busting tricks of the trade

Seasonal Greetings!

I am an advanced trainee looking for something new and different in my weight training. I am sick of all my various routines and strategies, none of which fire me up. As you and I both know (as does anyone that’s been in this game for a long time) the ability to hit a workout with real fire in the gut makes a huge difference. I feel like a guy that has the same six movies and I am tired of looking at the same movies over and over. I have two or three ‘in-season’ routines and two or three ‘off-season’ routines and every one of them seems old and stale. Give me something new and different Maestro!

Baz, Toronto

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Lunge-a-holic…Parrillo “Food” for sweet tooth satiation…Why beef liver still rocks…Morning cardio…Flye technique…Parrillo Portability

Vic Steele,

You seem to have a real problem with lunges. What’s up with that! I love lunges and do them all the time. I get a lot more out of lunges, in terms of thigh burn, than I get from squats. Squats strike me as dangerous. Lunges are safe by comparison. Anyway no doubt this letter will set you off on some sort of squat tirade. I may never become a bodybuilder or a great athlete, but I sure like my walking dumbbell lunges and would rather keep them and toss squats (which I pretty much have done anyway!) Hope this letter makes your lunge-hating head explode. 

Jason, Chapel Hill

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Iron Vic Steele – December, 2011

Iron Vic,

I saw an interview with a doctor on TV during which he indicated that exercise can naturally increase testosterone – does that ring true with you? I am starting to get serious: I recently let my health club membership lapse and joined a hardcore training facility. I am 40 and want to improve. I joined a health club about five years ago with all the best intentions of getting into shape, but honestly, the environment was not very good for triggering gains. I ended up spending a lot of my available time in the steam room and the sauna and at the club café eating sandwiches and drinking beer. It was all very fun but I realized I was NOT making any gains in the country club-like environment. So I quit and joined a hardcore, no frills gym. The owner turned me onto you and Parrillo. I am redirecting all the dough I saved dropping out of the spa towards Parrillo supplements. I am ready to roll and any advice would be gratefully accepted.

Boston Rob, Boston

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Loss of workout energy…Parrillo Chocolate Syrup…The first step to losing fat? Eat More!…Energy Drinks?

Hello Mr. Victor Steele,

It seems my workout ambitions can’t match my workout reality. I am the type of person that loves to plan ahead. I create these amazing, extended weight training workouts on paper (based on Parrillo strategies) that include lots of exercises, lots of sets, lots of forced reps, lots of drop sets, fascia stretching and all the other hallmarks of a hardcore Parrillo lifting session. Then when I go to actually train using the Parrillo strategies I get through the first fifteen or twenty minutes and run out of gas. I just totally hit the wall and that’s that. It is extremely frustrating and makes me think I am not cut out for the Parrillo approach.

Any ideas or suggestions?

Roger, Green Bay

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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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Curl Clarification…Football Camp in August…Supplement Timing…Rest Time Between Sets

Hello Vic,

I am looking for something to spice up my bicep training. I have fallen into a rut of doing favored exercises in my usual way for a predictable number of sets and reps (and frequency) and I am getting predictable results – nothing! Though I train my arms twice weekly for 30 minutes religiously, they haven’t grown even 1/8th of an inch in two years. I would love a new approach. Currently I am doing barbell curls with a little cheat added on the last reps and preacher curls on day one. On day two I do machine curls and my favorite: seated dumbbell curls.

Ronnie P – Bay St. Louis

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Weight training for jumping sports…Competitive running and Max Endurance Formula™…A Fiber list…Lame shoulders

Nutritional Hype…Stacking supplements…Exercise machines… Advanced Lipotropic Formula™…Why Romanian Deadlifts suck!

Iron Vic Steele,

I recently got turned on to your column and was struck by the fact that a lot of what you say really goes against what is being said in the big wide world of bodybuilding. For example – the Parrillo Products generally seem a little bit antiquated. If you look at any muscle magazine you see a lot of really exciting products that do a lot of cool stuff. By comparison, Parrillo claims seem to be pretty tame. Are you guys purposefully stuck in the 1970s? How come you don’t have these modern products that provide really rad results? Is your stuff mainly for old people? 

                          Todd, San Francisco

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Parrillo Bars™ explained…Fascia stretching?…Strength, MMA and weight classes…

Hey Vic,

It seems Parrillo has a lot of different types and kinds of bars – it’s all pretty confusing. How are Sport Nutrition Bars™ different from Protein Bars™ or Energy Bars™ or Protein Chew Bars™ or High Protein Low Net Carb Bars™? I have been using the Energy Bars™ exclusively and mainly because I love the taste of Graham Cracker. Am I missing out? I am trying to shed about 15 pounds of body fat while hanging on to my considerable muscle. I have built a lot of mass over the years.

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