powerlifting compe-titions as a teen. He competed in six shows in an 18 month period. He was in his early 20s and he was single and single-minded. Then, bodybuilding had to be put

� June 2015 / Performance Press 1-800-3��-3�0� www.parrillo.com�

Justin savichPart of a new generation of personal trainers

5www.parrillo.com 1-800-3��-3�0� Performance Press / June 2015

For many years John Par-rillo has trained personal trainers. John created his own personal trainer cer-

tification to address a real need: the level of bodybuilding/fitness instruction given and received was, to Parrillo’s way of thinking, woefully inadequate. The person-al trainer “certification factories” were producing PTs like auto-mobiles: the problem was the PT didn’t know anything of any value and, despite being “certified” the newly certified personal trainer was in no position to train any-one. Parrillo summed it up, “The really good personal trainer can be a force for good that can suc-cessfully guide a client or student through every step of the body-building process. A bad personal trainer can ruin a person on fitness forever. Bad personal trainers have caused more people to quit fitness than injury.” To that end, Parrillo established a certification pro-cess that created Parrillo Certified Personal Trainers. As you might imagine, the Parrillo certification became the industry standard: John’s certification was (and is) extensive and comprehensive. The Parrillo Certified Personal Trainer

was schooled in subtleties of Par-rillo-style nutrition; certification graduates had to pass an extensive written test and was expected to be

able to custom design meal plans, calculate and manipulate nutrients and administer accurate skin-fold caliper tests. The Parrillo certified


By Marty Gallagher

Justin savichPart of a new generation of personal trainers

� June 2015 / Performance Press 1-800-3��-3�0� www.parrillo.com

personal trainer was schooled and drilled on high-intensity hardcore weight training and high-intensity Parrillo-style cardio.

The Parrillo certified personal trainer is given every tool needed to become the best bodybuilder possible they can become and, in turn, this knowledge equips and enables them to guide oth-ers through “the process” and be able to share with clients and stu-dents the benefits and positive as-pects to adopting the “bodybuild-ing lifestyle.” The bodybuilding lifestyle has been the hallmark of the Parrillo approach for de-cades. Over the years, Parrillo PTs have fanned out nationwide and spread the Parrillo gospel of clas-sical bodybuilding done right – no shortcuts, no miracle products, no lies. The Parrillo certified per-sonal trainer teaches clients that in order to succeed they need to work

harder than they have ever worked in the gym and they will need to become effortlessly disciplined in their Parrillo-style nutrition and supplementation. Parrillo certified PTs are making a difference in the lives of their clients. They make a difference, not because they are nice people or that they are charm-ing, witty or funny, they are mak-ing a difference because they are obtaining results, real results, for their clients. Justin Savich is a young man steeped in Parrillo also trying to make a difference. He is a 36-year-old financial advisor that lives and works in Valparaiso, In-diana. Justin’s passion is fitness. He is an impassioned professional trainer attempting to bring some Parrillo-inspired ideas and ideals to his fitness clientele. Justin is a bodybuilder and former power-lifter who uses Parrillo tactics and

supplements in his own ongoing quest to im-prove his physique. It is only natural that he rec-ommends to his clients and to his students the same training and nutri-tional strategies that he uses in his own fitness quest. “The Parrillo ap-proach towards nutrition and supplementation made total sense to me,” Justin said. “I was intro-duced to Parrillo strate-gies by some very good bodybuilders years ago. Those men knew how to get results and what it took to get results. I saw how hard they trained

and how strict they dieted.” Jus-tin has used the Parrillo strate-gies and supplements to renovate his own physique. When he is in competition mode, he becomes ro-botic about his eating; eating six food meals per day, seven days per week for months on end. He trains hard, eats often and he eats “super clean.” He supplements with Par-rillo supplements and because he is consistent he consistently gets results.

“I found myself in the worst shape of my life and I made a decision to use Parrillo strategies and products to put myself into the best shape of my life. I use Parrillo products every single day. I have used them for years and recommend them to all my clients. Parrillo products have the potency I am looking for and the taste is amazing.” Justin understands the need for strict and disciplined nutrition firsthand; he

� June 2015 / Performance Press 1-800-3��-3�0� www.parrillo.com

JOHN PARRILLO’S PERFORMANCE PRESS

“I made the decision in late 2013 that I was going to compete in a bodybuilding show sometime in 2014. And I did just that.”

�www.parrillo.com 1-800-3��-3�0� Performance Press / June 2015

is a competitive bodybuilder who takes his career seriously; he is his own laboratory. The methods he recommends have first been tested and used by him. “I have my own goals in bodybuilding. I feel as if I am getting better at it as I get older. I also want to be a positive role model for my three children.” Indeed, Justin is a father of three young children and must juggle work, kids, family, schools, body-building and meal preparation, all

ongoing and all on a never-ending continual basis. It has made him a master of multitasking. Still, he finds time for bodybuilding and he “underpins” his intense weight training with high calorie eating. “I remember the first time I went on a strict Parrillo nutritional regimen, this was years and years ago…I immediately changed everything and went from eating 2,500 crap-py calories a day to eating 7,000 ‘perfect’ calories a day. I began

supplementing with CapTri® and other Par-rillo supplements and to make a long story short, I gained nine pounds of muscle and lost nine pounds of body fat in a two week period, this was checked with skin-fold calipers.”

His current bodybuild-ing career is actually a bit of a comeback; Justin competed in powerlifting compe-titions as a teen. He competed in six shows in an 18 month period. He was in his early 20s and he was single and single-minded. Then, bodybuilding had to be put on the back burner while Justin was get-ting his young family started. Simultaneous-ly, he was getting his business career started. It was during that pe-riod he self-admittedly and understandably, “Let myself go” in that he gained a lot of body

fat. “I was eating a lot of fast food and junk food, strictly for the ease and convenience, it seemed I had no time to do anything.” After the chaos that was his life settled down, he decided it was time for Justin to pay some attention to his own his own health and wellbeing. He wanted to put the brakes on his


Photo by Christopher Foss

Photo by Christopher Foss

Justin savich

8 June 2015 / Performance Press 1-800-3��-3�0� www.parrillo.com

physical disintegration. “I made the decision in late 2013 that I was going to compete in a bodybuild-ing show sometime in 2014. And I did just that.” His comeback was a total success: he took the gold and won the middleweight class in a very tough and prestigious bodybuilding competition, the NPC Natural Mid-States Muscle Classic in Rockford, Illinois on November 22nd, 2014. “The ac-tual competition was a wonder-ful experience. Winning made the whole experience fantastic – the real highlight was hearing my four year old son and three year old daughter screaming from the audi-ence, ‘That’s my daddy!’ and ‘Go DADDY!’ The whole competitive experience was amazing.”

Justin stands five foot eight and normally walks around weigh-ing a tight 190 pounds. When he

competes he will pare down to 170 to become maximally lean. “I use the Parrillo ap-proach and have my body fat percentile measured as I get deeper into the bodybuilding preparation cycle.” Justin will reduce his bodyweight gradually and methodically. He does so in order to not burn off any hard-earned gym muscle. He has given this issue much thought and to that end, he has developed a fat loss strategy that he has systematized. “Dif-ferent from other weight loss programs, my Pure Fat Loss Challenge focus-es on fat loss, not weight loss. Weight loss can be deceptive. If a person los-es five pounds of body fat and simultaneously gains

five pounds of muscle, the scale says, ‘nothing has happened,’ when in fact something dramatic has happened. I track and moni-tor participants to make sure they are losing fat and not muscle.” He has developed a series of protocols that enable his clients to maximize fat loss while retaining, or even building muscle.

In order for Justin to maximize his own bodybuilding potential, he has to train harder and smart-er and when it comes to nutrition he uses Parrillo products because they work. “Parrillo is the best for all things bodybuilding. Par-rillo provides all the resources needed for a motivated person to completely revamp their physique to a point where they can get out of their seat in the audience and




compete onstage. One of the smart-est bodybuilding-related things I ever did was purchase and absorb the Parrillo Training Manual and the Parrillo Nutrition Program.” With all of his many time com-mitments, Justin creates his train-ing time in the evening. “I get to the gym after I take care of all my other work and family priorities for the day. I almost never watch TV and use that time for gym time.” He intends to continue his bodybuilding career. “I would love to win the overall title at the 2017 NPC Natural Mid-States. I am re-alistic in that I don’t see me add-ing a huge amount of bodyweight in order to improve as a body-builder – rather I see me staying

as a middleweight, but be-coming a better and better middleweight by coming in more muscular and far leaner. I am confident that I can present a significant-ly improved physique this year.” Justin has a cool dream. “One day I hope to switch places with my four year old son Austin and hope one day to be cheering him on from the crowd, with me yelling, ‘That’s my son! Go Austin Go!’” We at Parrillo might suggest how cool it would be if one day fourteen years from now, the then-18 year old Austin and the then 50 year old Justin compete onstage together – now that would be worth seeing!


Justin with his family after winning at the NPC Natural Mid-States Muscle Classic in 2014.

Justin’sWeekly training split

Justin savich’s Daily Meal schedule

Day 1: legsDay 2: chest, tricepsDay 3: back, bicepsDay 4: shoulders, abs, calvesDay 5: back, absDay 6: offDay 7: off

Justin savich

6 am: Chicken, green beans, rice9 am: Turkey, mixed vegetables, Parrillo Bar™

Noon: Chicken, mixed vegetables, rice3 pm: Chicken, sweet potato, broccoli6 pm: Turkey, rice cake, cauliflower9 pm: Chicken, green beans, Parrillo Hi-Protein™ shake

Parrillo supplements: Essential Vitamin Formula™; Parrillo Protein Bars™; Optimized Whey Protein™; CapTri®; Fish Oil™; Creatine Monohydrate™; Bio-C™; Liver Amino Formula™


Post your Photos &

Progress Updates

on Parrillo’s

Facebook page!

We want to see your photos and hear about your progress! Be sure to add your pics and tell us about your progress in the gym or how you did at your competitions on Parrillo’s weekly Facebook progress posting!

FINALLY did it, 1st place!!


Post your Photos &

Progress Updates

on Parrillo’s

Facebook page!

We want to see your photos and hear about your progress! Be sure to add your pics and tell us about your progress in the gym or how you did at your competitions on Parrillo’s weekly Facebook progress posting!

FINALLY did it, 1st place!!


I have trained mostly with train-ing partners over the 31 years I have been lifting, and the ben-

efits are myriad. You always have a spotter when you need one. You always have to bring your A game, because you and your partner are there to push each other and bring out the best in one another. And it’s just more fun doing something you love with another hu-man being. Why do most golfers play with friends? Most of us are just better off training with someone else. That being said, I have also had many periods where I trained on my own, and I still have weekend days when I hit the gym solo. Do my workouts suffer on those days? On the contrary. In many ways they are just as good, and in some ways those workouts are even better. Here are a few reasons training on your own can be pretty great in its own right.

1. Train at your own pace.One thing you compromise when you train with others is the pace of the workout. At times that pace is

perfectly fine. Your partner or part-ners do their set, and then you go. At other times, you may want to take shorter rest periods between sets, such as when utilizing a tech-nique like ‘Sevens’ from Hany

Rambod’s FST-7, or any similar style that involves doing multiple sets of a given exercise with mini-mal rest between sets. If you have been training for many years and

are extremely in tune with your body, you have an innate sense of just when you are ready to start an-other set. With a partner, that might mean waiting for them to complete his or her set, or it might mean you

need a bit more rest and keep them waiting around. When training by yourself, you can go at that exact moment you are ready, and not a second sooner or later.

2. Do the exercises you want to.Older trainers like my-self often have various injuries or issues such as arthritis or sporadic lower back or shoulder pain that limits what we can do in the gym. Sometimes my lower back or shoulders are feeling fine, at other times they are far from fine. And when you train with others who have their own history of joint problems, there will be times when ei-ther or both of you has

to find a ‘middle ground’ of mu-tual exercises that are safe for both of you to perform. That can mean they don’t do certain exercises they would like to, and neither do you.


“Training with a partner has many benefits.”



Facebook: Ron Harris WriterTwitter: @RonHarrisMuscleInstagram: ronharrismuscleYouTube: RonHarrisMuscle

Chocolate™Mix

HIGH FIBER

To order, call Parrillo at 1-800-344-3404Order online at www.parrillo.com

Yes, you can have Chocolate Syrup even if you’re on a

strict diet! With Parrillo’s High Fiber Chocolate Syrup Mix, you won’t blow your diet because one serving is only 20 Calories, has no fat or sugar, plus you’ll be getting 12g of prebiotic fiber. It’s deli-cious on Parrillo Ice Kreem, Cakes, and Brownies! For an extra spe-cial treat, how about this: a Con-test Brownie or slice of Hi-Protein Cake, topped with a scoop of Par-rillo Protein Ice Kreem and driz-zled with Chocolate Syrup! Now that’s the way to diet.

• Only 20 Calories• 0g Fat and Sugar• 12g of Prebiotic Fiber

Just add water!

Chocolate syrup on a strict diet? That’s right!

When you have two banged-up guys training together who each have different injury issues, this can lead to an extremely limited reper-toire of exercises. Training partners of mine have missed out on things like full deadlifts, which are pure suicide for my lower back, squats when my back is not feeling stable, and any type of heavy free weight press for chest or shoulders when my cursed left shoulder is in agony. On your own, you don’t have to worry about anyone else and what they can and can’t do. You pick and choose the exercises that work your muscles the hardest and give you the best pump and burn, yet don’t put you in jeopardy of get-ting injured. You’re not missing out on anything you would rather be

doing, and neither is any-one else.

3. Get in your own zone.When training with some-one else, I don’t have headphones in (earbuds fall out of my ears). I need to be able to hear them. On my own, I plug in and tune out any and all dis-tractions. I do my sets to music that gets me fired up, like AC/DC, Slipknot, Marilyn Manson, Rob Zombie, FFDP, and more. I am able to focus 100% on me and my own sets without any thought about others and what they are

doing.

4. Train when you want to.For better or worse, I enjoy sleeping in when I am able to. During the week, I need to be up at six to start cook-ing breakfast for me and my son before eating and taking him to high school, so meeting my training partners at nine works out perfectly. On the weekends, I like to wake up whenever I want to, usually having stayed up a bit later the night before than I would on a school night. Getting just that extra hour or so of sleep makes a big difference for me and my recovery. I also like the freedom of knowing I can hit the gym whenever I want to and am ready to. If I was meeting a

training partner, there would obvi-ously need to be a time previously agreed on to train.

Now don’t get me wrong here with all this. I have two great train-ing partners and we feed off each other’s energy and intensity. I also happen to like both of them a lot as friends with common interests. We have very productive workouts and have a lot of fun at the same time. But I also love my solo workouts too. And if you can’t always meet up with your training partner, or if you don’t have one, know that it’s okay. You can still have awesome workouts!


“Training alone can also be productive.”

“Some of your best workouts may be done solo.”


Facebook: Ron Harris WriterTwitter: @RonHarrisMuscleInstagram: ronharrismuscleYouTube: RonHarrisMuscle

Chocolate™Mix

HIGH FIBER

To order, call Parrillo at 1-800-344-3404Order online at www.parrillo.com

Yes, you can have Chocolate Syrup even if you’re on a

strict diet! With Parrillo’s High Fiber Chocolate Syrup Mix, you won’t blow your diet because one serving is only 20 Calories, has no fat or sugar, plus you’ll be getting 12g of prebiotic fiber. It’s deli-cious on Parrillo Ice Kreem, Cakes, and Brownies! For an extra spe-cial treat, how about this: a Con-test Brownie or slice of Hi-Protein Cake, topped with a scoop of Par-rillo Protein Ice Kreem and driz-zled with Chocolate Syrup! Now that’s the way to diet.

• Only 20 Calories• 0g Fat and Sugar• 12g of Prebiotic Fiber

Just add water!

Chocolate syrup on a strict diet? That’s right!

1� June 2015 / Performance Press 1-800-3��-3�0� www.parrillo.com

We were at dinner af-ter an all day seminar when someone asked, “Why do normal peo-

ple have such a hard time making gains?” John Parrillo had a lot of en-ergy on that particular topic. At the table were world champion athletes and spec ops soldiers. John’s strong opinions were based on decades of experience. “The number one rea-son regular people don’t make the gains they expect from their weight training is they don’t train hard enough.” “How do you define ‘hard enough’?” someone asked. John re-sponded without hesitation, “The body has to be stressed passed ca-pacity. I work with a lot of smart, educated people with advanced de-grees and lots of money. They are successful in life – yet they fail at fitness. The reason that they fail is that they have no clue as to how hard a person must exert in order to elicit muscle gains. They think they are training hard when they are not – not by a long shot.” John Parrillo gives object lessons in intensity at the Parrillo training camps he con-ducts at his fitness facility in Cin-

The Parrillo PaPers

cinnati. One crucial lesson taught at every Parrillo training camp in-volves coming to understand, first hand, the degree of sheer physical effort required to grow muscle.

At any Parrillo training camp the Master Blaster shows attendees what real training intensity is all about. It is a shocking revelation

for the uninitiated. John puts the bodybuilders through ultra-intense ‘drills’ that are designed to give all seminar attendees a shocking fu-ture frame of reference regarding how hard a person needs to weight train. John will select an exercise, arbitrarily, and then put the entire group through that exercise using the Parrillo methodology. The idea

is to highlight the difference be-tween a Parrillo workout and the workouts seminar attendees were performing back home. John might have the attendees perform a chest sequence or he might show them the Parrillo way to rep out using the leg press machine or John might put them through the dreaded 100-rep belt squat drill. Regardless the exercise selected, he will take the participants way past their limits. “Past your limits are where the gains reside,” he famously says.

How hard is hard: One surefire way to grasp the degree of effort needed to shock the body into grow-ing muscle is to actually experience intense training firsthand. Imagine you are attending a Parrillo week-end training camp. Each day John will lead attendees through select-ed progressive resistance exercises, showing the trainees the optimal techniques and then putting them through actual workouts. Tech-niques are demonstrated and then the trainees train, Parrillo-style, in order to experience how hard they should be training. Let us imagine

“Past your limits are where

the gains reside,” John Parrillo

famously says.


“It’s the Intensity, Stupid!”

By Duke Nukem


that John is putting seminar stu-dents through a Parrillo-inspired shoulder workout. John might start them off with seated press-behind-the-neck. Each student, in turn, would perform the first set with light poundage. John makes “light weights heavy” using the patented Parrillo “intensity set” protocol. Even on the lightest warm-up set, the bar speed is slowed to make the weight heavier, much heavier. A classical Parril-lo shoulder routine for an intermediate-level body-builder/student might go as follows…

• Press-behind-the-neck: 95x10, 135x8, 155x7 + 3 forced reps, 175x5 + 2 • Machine overhead press: 8 plates, 5 reps + 3 forced; 10 plates, 4 reps + 2• Standing dumbbell press: one drop set, 60s, 50s, 45s, 40s, 35s, each to failure• Cable lateral raises: three sets of 10 + 2, 3 forced reps• Machine lateral raises: two sets to failure, 10-12 reps + 3-5 forced reps

The Parrillo three-phase set: Obviously, to use forced reps you will need a training partner and a good one. Administering a proper forced rep is a skill. Between each lifting set the trainee performs one of the fol-lowing Parrillo Fascia Stretches: bottom-position dip delt stretch, skin-the-cat, wide-grip chin grip delt stretch, reverse-grip chin grip delt stretch. Each stretch is eased into; the maximum stretched

position is held for approximately 10 seconds. We seek to stretch fur-ther and deeper with each subse-quent set and stretch. After every shoulder/delt stretch, the trainee then flexes the delts to the point of cramping. This procedure: pump the muscle, stretch the muscle, flex the muscle, is called the Parrillo three-phase set, and is designed to pump a muscle maximally, then

loosens tight fascia with intense stretching that increases flexibility. The stretch also ‘resets’ the muscle before the next set. Finally, flexing the pumped and stretched muscle, repeatedly and maximally, sends newly pumped and flexed muscle into just-loosened fascia.

Intensity actualized: By the time

the seminar trainee finishes the shoulder session, the deltoids, all three heads, front, side and rear, are past pumped, they are swollen, beet-red and shaking from the ef-fort. The muscles of the shoulder region have been decimated, ut-terly and completely. The overhead presses are brutal: set after forced-rep set in the press-behind-the-neck; the PBNs are immediately

followed with heavy, strict, forced-rep machine press-es. The pushing portion of the shoulder workout ends with a delt-searing, five-phase dumbbell press drop set. The single drop set forces exhausted push muscles to push even more, carrying the shoulder mus-cles deep into the decima-tion zone. The trainee fin-ishes the shoulder workout with five sets of forced rep cable and machine lateral raises. Between the over-head presses and the lat-eral raises, every function, every movement pattern of the deltoid muscles are at-tacked and worked past ex-haustion. Parrillo takes his seminar trainees to places they have never been.

Stretch and flex: In ad-dition, the Parrillo trainee under-taking this type of shoulder routine would perform no less than fifteen stretches. That’s a lot of stretching! This would be followed by fifteen intense shoulder poses. For regular normal people used to performing sub-maximal sets of ten half-assed reps, seated on a comfortable ex-ercise machine back home at the



“The 100-rep belt squat was easily the physically hardest thing i have ever

done in my entire life.”

By Duke Nukem



health club, being subjected to the Parrillo method is a rude and shocking experience. Like being thrown into an icy river, training under John Parrillo at a Parrillo training camp is maximally shock-ing. One seminar attendee shook his head and smiled as he remi-nisced about being put through a Parrillo 100-rep belt squat routine. “The 100-rep belt squat was easily the physically hardest thing I have ever done in my entire life. On a good day I might be able to belt squat 200 for maybe 8-10 good reps. So at the camp, John Parrillo loads the belt squat to 100 and then he and three other spotters surround me. I start repping and about rep 20 I run out of gas and they start helping me. A little bit. By the time I get to rep 50, even with their help I am completely exhausted; they keep me go-ing. By rep 80 the spotters are picking up the 100 and my 200 pounds, my legs are so shot I can’t even stand up! They are picking me up as I hang onto the belt squat device.

“At rep 100, I just collapse. I fall down and throw up. Not to worry they say, it happens all the time; that is why they keep a special ‘puke bucket’ within five feet of the belt squat platform. After my 100-rep Par-rillo belt squat set, I had an entirely new perspective on exercise inten-sity. I also knew I was capable of a lot more than what I gave myself credit for. After going through the Parrillo 100-rep set, I find I can go

deeper and stay longer in the ‘pain zone.’ It was hell to go through the belt squat horror, but I wouldn’t trade the experience for anything because now, since the belt squats, I get a lot more out of my weight training.” The real gains in muscle, strength and power occur when the bodybuilder is able to push past their current limits; past the lac-tic acid buildup, past the discom-

fort, the champions push through the pain. Intensity always occurs when we equal or exceed what we are currently capable of. As John puts it, “The 100-rep belt squat really helps people redefine what they are capable of – and that is a good thing.”

Parrillo intensity enhancers: Parrillo has an arsenal of ‘intensity enhancing’ training tactics. John shows training camp attendees how to safely and effectively use forced reps, drop sets, rest-pause sets, super-sets, slowed reps, explosive reps and long-chain extended sets. Parrillo creates intensity-enhanc-ing techniques to dig ever-deeper muscular inroads. A person that

has been through a 100-rep drop set is not going to shy away from a 3rd forced rep in a bench press. The real gains lie in exceeding our current limits. If a man takes a weight to positive failure, regardless the progressive resistance training exercise selected, and at that point, unable to perform another rep unaided, the training partner steps in and helps administer one, two or more additional forced reps, there is no question that trainee has taken that muscle up to and then past it’s limit. What more could a man do? Go-ing to positive failure and then performing forced reps assuredly drags us past our limit. “Extra reps equate to extra growth.” Another Parrillo truism.

“It’s the intensity, stu-pid!” A famous political

consultant once wanted to drill an idea into his candidate’s head: in an upcoming debate with an oppo-nent, his best debate weapon was the state of the economy. The con-sultant hung a giant banner in the candidate’s office, it read, “It’s the economy, stupid!” The candidate


John says, “The 100-rep belt squat really helps people redefine what

they are capable of – and that is a good thing.”


1�www.parrillo.com 1-800-3��-3�0� Performance Press / June 2015

had to stare at the banner for the two weeks leading up to the debate. At the debate, he had no problem beating his opponent about the head and shoulders (metaphori-cally,) mercilessly and relentlessly, over and over bringing up the “pa-thetic” state of the economy. All during the debate, he would expert-ly swing the conversation back to the economy. He won the debate and went on to win the presidency. We pass along to you an equally profound, paraphrased message: in the world of result-producing progressive resistance training, our banner would read, “It’s the intensity, stu-pid!” Exercise intensity is all about how hard we train, how close to our limit do we dare go? How often? Hard-core resistance training incorporates innumer-able intensity-enhanc-ing techniques. These techniques enable the bodybuilder to achieve the requisite train-ing intensity in every training session. John Parrillo is a master of enhanced resistance techniques. Don’t go crazy: As with most things in life, too much of a good thing can be a bad thing. Too many forced rep sets in a sin-gle workout can fry your central nervous system. We need to limit the number of times we use forced reps. Confine your forced rep sets

to three or four top sets per session. The forced reps and partner-as-sisted stuff should be saved for the all out sets in a particular exercise. Add more forced rep sets slowly and carefully, over time. One fi-nal note on intensity: a good train-ing partner is worth their weight in gold. A good training partner knows how to administer a perfect

forced rep, “Goldilocks-style,” i.e. not too much help, not too little help, just enough help to allow the bodybuilder to finish the rep. Avoid asking strangers for a spot and never ask a stranger to administer a forced rep. A bad spot is worse

than no spot at all. Drop sets can be used as a terrific alternative to forced-reps when no spotter/train-ing partner is available.

Other tactics: The drop set pro-cedure is always the same regard-less the exercise: pick an exercise, a tool and a technique and rep to positive failure. Immediately lessen

the payload by 10-20%. And rep out again, on the same exercise. Once again lessen the payload (a second time) and be-gin another set. Drop set lengths are usually 3 to 5 sets in length. Drop sets work par-ticularly well with both machines and dumbbell exercises. You can self-administer drop sets easily using the various resistance machines. Rest/pause is an inter-esting training tactic: you rest between reps. Rest/pause is usually done using a resistance machine, something you can rest the payload on between reps. All of these Parrillo-inspired intensity-amping tactics are designed to do one thing: get the trainee to work hard enough, intense enough, so that his training efforts are

worth the effort. The only way in which to ensure your resistance training efforts are sufficiently in-tense is to take your weight train-ing right to the limit. And past the limit. Now you know how.


a good training partner knows how to administer a perfect forced rep, “Goldilocks-style,” i.e. not too much help, not too little

help, just enough help to allow the bodybuilder to finish the rep.



Calories 17Protein .9g Fat .1gTotal Carbs 4g

Fiber 3.1gSodium 2mgCholesterol 0mgCalcium 19mg

Iron .24mgVitamin A 29 IU Vitamin C 2.8mgPotassium 211mg

Recipe Idea from the CapTri® Cookbook:

Nutritional Information for 100g, raw:

Training Tip of the month:

tipsof the month

tidbits&RECIPE

spotlight

18

Food of the month:

• Add endive leaves to a fresh green salad and top with Green Goddess Dressing (recipe at left) or CapTri® Raspberry Vinaigrette

nutrition Tip of the month:

Endive• Also known as Belgian endive• Compact leaf vegetable, pale green or reddish in color• Can be cooked or eaten raw in salads• Loaded with vitamins B, C and K, calcium, iron, zinc,

magnesium, and folate • Endive’s cup-like leaf shape is great for serving

hummus, spreads or dips. It’s a great healthy alterna-tive to crackers, chips or bread

The decline bench press works the entire chest. Incorporate all points of proper bench press form into this exercise. Keep your shoulders down, your sternum high and your elbows back. Lower the barbell until it touches your lower pecs. Press back up to the starting position, staying tight throughout the full range of motion.

Decline Bench Press

Mix ingredients, using additional lemon juice and CapTri® to thin dressing as desired. Let sit a few min-utes. Pour by tbsp. over raw or cooked vegetables.

Green Goddess Dressing3/4 cup CapTri® Mayo (see recipe below)3 tbsp. snipped parsley3 tbsp. chives or green onion

3 tbsp. dill leaves or 1 1/2 tsp dried dillweed1 tbsp. lemon juice1 tbsp. CapTri®

It’s not carbohydrates themselves that make fat loss more difficult, but rather the

insulin release they induce. Insulin inhibits lipolysis, not carbs per se. Therefore, by proper food selection and meal structuring we can do a lot to reduce insulin levels and still be able to eat some carbs. First off, avoid all simple sugars, includ-ing not only refined sugar and sweets but also foods that con-tain natural sugars such as fruit, juice, dairy products, honey and syrup. Limit your carb selections to natural, unrefined, complex carbohydrates such as potatoes, rice and vegetables. Avoid refined carbs like bread and pasta. Always be sure to consume your carbs with pro-tein, and eat plenty of fibrous carbs like broccoli and green beans, along with your starches. Doing this will dramatically slow the rate of release of glucose into the bloodstream, keeping insulin levels low. This is also why you should be eating 5-6 small meals throughout the day, rather than a few large meals.

70 g. egg whites2 tbsp. lemon juice

1 cup CapTri®

1 tsp. dry mustard

CapTri® Mayo

Beat egg whites in blender on low speed. Add lemon juice and dry mustard. Continue to blend and slowly drizzle in CapTri®. Continue blending until smooth. Keep refrigerated! Makes about 1 1/2 cups.


news & discoveries

In Fitness & Nutrition

InterestingArticle Fact:

Branched-chain amino acids require insulin for absorption into muscle cells so take them with food (carbs) rather than on an empty stomach! Read more in John Parrillo’s article on page 20.

19

Five Days of Eating Fatty Foods Can Alter How Your Body’s Muscle Processes Food

Supplementof the month:

When you are boiling asparagus, after you drop in the veggies, put a paper towel over the boiling wa-ter. When the paper towel puffs up, that signals the asparagus is done!

You might think that you can get away with eating fatty foods for a few days without it making any significant changes to your body. Think again.

After just five days of eating a high-fat diet, the way in which the body’s muscle processes nutrients changes, which could lead to long-term problems such as weight gain, obesity, and other health issues, a new study has found. “Most people think they can indulge in high-fat foods for a few days and get away with it,” said Matt Hulver, an associate professor of human nutrition, foods, and exercise in the Virginia Tech College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. “But all it takes is five days for your body’s muscle to start to protest.” Hulver and other Virginia Tech researchers found that the manner in which muscle metabolizes nutrients is changed in just five days of high-fat feeding. This is the first study to prove that the change happens so quickly.

“This shows that our bodies are can respond dramatically to changes in diet in a shorter time frame than we have previ-ously thought,” said Hulver, who is the head of the depart-ment and a Fralin Life Science Institute affiliate. “If you think about it, five days is a very short time. There are plenty of times when we all eat fatty foods for a few days, be it the holidays, vacations, or other celebrations. But this research shows that those high-fat diets can change a person’s normal metabolism in a very short timeframe.”

Questionof the month:?

nutrition Tip of the month:

Question: I’ve noticed my training partner getting pretty sloppy in his lifting technique, and always seems to lift like he’s in a big hurry. How can I explain to him he’s not getting maximum benefits if he’s not lifting correctly?Answer: Tell him it’s essential to use slow, strict reps in both the lifting and lowering portion of each ex-ercise. When you’re moving too fast through the exercise, inertia - and very little of your own muscle power - is doing all the work. So you’re really not getting much from the exercise. Plus, fast lift-ing is very stressful on your con-nective tissue. Each rep should be performed in a slow, controlled fashion throughout the range of mo-tion. There’s one exception, however. If you need to strengthen your connective tissue for another sport, perform the last rep of each set in a fast, explosive way, or do an entire set this way.

• When you need to boil a pan of water, put a lid on it as this will cause the water to boil faster.

• If you buy fresh ginger root for a recipe and only need to use a small piece of it, peel the rest with the edge of a spoon, wrap in plastic, and store in the freezer. The ginger will last longer and is actually eas-ier to grate when frozen.

- Virginia Tech, April 14, 2015, edited for length

Quick Tips of the month:

Kitchen TipsIdea Corner Vitamin C is essential in the production of collagen, which is

involved in the building and health of cartilage, joints, skin and blood vessels. Vitamin C also has natural antihistamine properties. Bioflavonoids have powerful antioxidant proper-ties and help to prevent vitamin C oxidation in the body. Bioflavonoids also help to promote improved cardiovascular health.

• Helps to build a strong immune system• Contains 1000mg of vitamin C and 500mg of Citrus

Bioflavonoids

Parrillo Bio-C™



Not since Batman and Robin has there been such a dy-namic duo – I’m talking

about supplementation – as creatine monohydrate and branch-chained amino acids. Taken together they provide a WOW – ZAP – POP for training and physique development.

Creatine MonohydrateMade from three amino acids (ar-ginine, glycine and methionine), creatine is produced naturally in the liver, kidneys, and pancreas – at the rate of about 1 to 2 grams a day. Most of your body’s creatine is de-livered to the muscles, heart, and other body cells. Inside muscle cells, creatine helps produce and circulate adenosine triphosphate (ATP), the molecular fuel that powers muscular contractions. Creatine is also found naturally in red meat. About 2 ½ pounds of raw steak yields roughly the equivalent of a single 5-gram dose of creatine. (I don’t recom-mend red meat on the Parrillo Nu-trition Program, due to its fat con-tent, so creatine supplementation helps here.)

Creatine is available from Parrillo Performance as Parrillo Creatine Monohydrate™. Through supple-mentation, you can build the vol-ume of creatine in your muscle cells. There, creatine increases levels of a high-energy compound called cre-atine phosphate, which serves as a tiny fuel supply, enough for several seconds of action.

A little biochemistry review: Cre-atine phosphate also allows more rapid production of ATP. The more ATP that is available to muscle cells, the longer, harder, and more power-fully you can work out. Thus, creatine monohydrate can indirectly help you lose body fat, since longer, more in-tense workouts help incinerate fat and build lean muscle. The more muscle you have, the more efficient your body is at using energy and burning fat. Creatine also works by increasing levels of insulinlike growth factor-1 (IGF-1) in muscles, which is critical for triggering growth. So we know for sure that creatine is effective for muscle building and has a hand in fat burning.

What can you expect from creatine? Typically, hard-training bodybuild-ers can expect an increase of 4-14 pounds of lean mass during the first month of use. The more muscle mass you have, the more creatine you can assimilate leading to greater weight gains. We’ve seen athletes experi-ence a 5-15% increase in strength on their maximum lifts and an in-crease of about 2 reps per set with their working weight during the first month. This increase in intensity al-lows you to put a greater load on the muscle, which will indeed increase your gains in muscle mass over time. Endurance athletes can experience a 5-10% increase in speed and a 10-20% increase in time to fatigue.

Some very recent studies are start-

ing to prove creatine’s benefit in anti-aging. In a study of 357 older adults who supplemented with cre-atine, plus lifted weights, strength and muscle mass increased more than just weight training alone in the subjects. The researchers concluded that: “Retention of muscle mass and strength is integral to healthy aging. The results from this meta-analysis are encouraging in supporting a role for creatine supplementation during resistance training in healthful ag-ing by enhancing muscle mass gain, strength, and functional performance over resistance training alone.”

Another study found that the elderly could take creatine without exercis-ing, and the creatine prevented age-related muscle loss and improved day-to-day physical performance! Scientists are now thinking that cre-atine may be a safe therapeutic strat-egy to help decrease muscle loss in functional performance of everyday tasks.

The question is: how much creatine do you need? To start, we recommend for the first one to two weeks you use 20-30 grams each day, divided into even servings of 5 grams each taken with each meal or with a Hi-Protein™, Pro-Carb™, or 50/50 Plus™

drink. This is the loading phase. Use the lower end of these recommenda-tions if you’re in the 150-200 pound range and the upper end if you’re over 200 pounds. We recommend one to two weeks, but the loading



THE DYNAMIC DUO

phase can last up to four weeks in some individuals. After this, 5-10 grams a day should be sufficient to maintain elevated muscle stores of creatine. It takes approximately 4-8 weeks to deplete creatine stores after you stop taking it.

Are there any medical concerns with taking creatine? Creatine is nontoxic even when taken in huge doses. The only known side effect is stomach upset if you take too much at once. Five to ten grams shouldn’t bother you. If you take 30 grams at once you might feel stomach cramps or nausea, but usually not.

Excess creatine is converted into creatinine (note the similar spelling) and excreted in the urine. If you take too much creatine, you’ll just lose the excess in your urine. If you have any blood work done you might find that creatine elevates your creatinine level. Doctors use the creatinine level in the blood as an index of kid-ney function. If your doctor notices an increase in your creatinine level and expresses some concern about your kidneys, tell him or her that you’re using creatine. Creatine does not damage the kidneys in any way, but is contraindicated if you have pre-existing severe kidney disease (for example, renal dialysis or kid-ney transplant patients). People with severe kidney disease have trouble eliminating creatinine, and creatine supplementation would increase cre-atinine levels further.

Branched-Chain Amino Acids (BCAAs)The term branched-chain amino ac-ids refers to leucine, isoleucine and valine, the absolute most critical aminos for repairing and building muscle tissue. Specifically, this trio also increases energy during work-

outs, blunts cortisol (a stress hor-mone that inhibits testosterone and increases muscle breakdown), and prevents muscle soreness following workouts.

The reason I pair BCAAs up with creatine is they help drive creatine into muscle cells to work its magic.

BCAAs are found in our Muscle Amino Formula™. The time to use this product is immediately before and after training. Hard dieting is also a great time to supplement with branch-chain amino acids. During

times of energy insufficiency (diet-ing), your body will actually break down its own muscle to use as fuel if no other is available. Catabolism is a dreadful metabolic state that oc-curs when glycogen stores have been depleted and fat oxidation has maxi-mized. Metabolically, your body requires a certain level of glucose (blood sugar) to be maintained in or-der for the brain to function. While body fat provides a long-lasting en-ergy supply, fat cannot be convert-ed into carbohydrate by the human body. But protein (amino acids) can. Under adverse conditions, carbohy-

drates are exhausted and your body breaks down protein stores (muscle tissue) to convert into carbohydrate to supply energy. Branched chain amino acids are effective because they form a substrate for growth and are metabolized as fuel directly with-in muscle cells. A handful of Muscle Amino Formula™ capsules will help prevent the onset of catabolism and has both anabolic and anti-catabolic properties.

BCAAs require insulin for absorp-tion into muscle cells so take them with food (carbs) rather than on an empty stomach! But my main point is that if you’re taking creatine, you should be supplementing with BCAAs. They work synergistically.But for supreme results, both supple-ments work best with a nutritious diet that supplies ample calories, as outlined in the Parrillo Nutrition Program. Remember, creatine itself has little impact on gaining muscle when taken alone. The building blocks (BCAAs) and extra calories must also be present in the muscle for serious gains to be made. Most people will see a significant increase in size and strength when using this dynamic duo, but a lot of this depends on the amount of protein and quality calories you are eating. If you don’t eat enough to support muscle gain, you won’t see any, it’s that simple.

ReferencesCandow, D.G., et al. 2014. Comparison of creatine supplementation before ver-sus after supervised resistance train-ing in healthy older adults. Research in Sports and Medicine 22:61-74.

Moon, A., et al. 2013. Creatine supple-mentation: can it improve quality of life in the elderly without associated resistance training? Current Aging Science 6:251-257.


When you’re taking the Dynamic Duo,

be sure to eat enough protein & quality calories to support muscle gain!


Why Parrillo insists on high caloric intake: If you are a serious bodybuilder, cal-

ories can and should be eaten often in meals or snacks that are consumed 4 to 8 times per day, every single day. The calories must be of the right type and kind. We call a proper, body-building-appropriate calorie a “clean” calorie. Clean calories eaten in ample amounts boosts the metabolism and supports the hardcore weight train-ing and the copious cardio John Par-rillo insists we do if we are to fulfill our genetic potential as bodybuilders. We need lots of calories to promote healing and growth. A Parrillo Pro bodybuilder has large, shapely, pro-portional muscles because of what he eats, when he eats and how much he eats; the Parrillo Pro bodybuilder is able to accomplish the most difficult feat in all of bodybuilding: adding muscle size without adding body fat. Anyone can grow muscle; the trick is build muscle without adding an unac-ceptable amount of body fat.

The basic mass-building formula has been known for decades: eat tons of calories on an indiscriminate basis while simultaneously engag-ing in hardcore power training; use super heavy, very basic exercises; train heavy, eat everything that’s not nailed down and be sure and sleep a lot. Using this strategy, anyone with a pulse can grow muscle – and just as surely add body fat. Powerlifters have used this approach for eons: eat big, lift big, rest big, grow big and in the vast majority of cases, grow fat! This “see food” diet is unacceptable to the Parrillo bodybuilder. The amount of body fat accumulation is unaccept-able. Besides, John Parrillo has de-vised a devilishly clever way in which to add muscle size without adding an unacceptable amount of body fat. He bases his approach on the expert use of regular food and amplifies a clean-

•130 Calories•22g of Protein•17g of Fiber•Only 3g Net Carbs

•Deliciously soft and chewy texture

Satisfy Your Sweet Tooth with the Soft Chew Bar!SOFT CHEWSOFT CHEWBAR TM

HIGH PROTEIN HIGH FIBERNEW! NEW!

Try Our

Peanut Butter NEWest bar:Post workout replenishment…Lance is a disgrace…Parrillo on rep speed…

Eat your protein!...How fast to lose fat yet spare the muscle?


Why Parrillo insists on high caloric intake: If you are a serious bodybuilder, cal-

ories can and should be eaten often in meals or snacks that are consumed 4 to 8 times per day, every single day. The calories must be of the right type and kind. We call a proper, body-building-appropriate calorie a “clean” calorie. Clean calories eaten in ample amounts boosts the metabolism and supports the hardcore weight train-ing and the copious cardio John Par-rillo insists we do if we are to fulfill our genetic potential as bodybuilders. We need lots of calories to promote healing and growth. A Parrillo Pro bodybuilder has large, shapely, pro-portional muscles because of what he eats, when he eats and how much he eats; the Parrillo Pro bodybuilder is able to accomplish the most difficult feat in all of bodybuilding: adding muscle size without adding body fat. Anyone can grow muscle; the trick is build muscle without adding an unac-ceptable amount of body fat.

The basic mass-building formula has been known for decades: eat tons of calories on an indiscriminate basis while simultaneously engag-ing in hardcore power training; use super heavy, very basic exercises; train heavy, eat everything that’s not nailed down and be sure and sleep a lot. Using this strategy, anyone with a pulse can grow muscle – and just as surely add body fat. Powerlifters have used this approach for eons: eat big, lift big, rest big, grow big and in the vast majority of cases, grow fat! This “see food” diet is unacceptable to the Parrillo bodybuilder. The amount of body fat accumulation is unaccept-able. Besides, John Parrillo has de-vised a devilishly clever way in which to add muscle size without adding an unacceptable amount of body fat. He bases his approach on the expert use of regular food and amplifies a clean-

•130 Calories•22g of Protein•17g of Fiber•Only 3g Net Carbs

•Deliciously soft and chewy texture

Satisfy Your Sweet Tooth with the Soft Chew Bar!SOFT CHEWSOFT CHEWBAR TM

HIGH PROTEIN HIGH FIBERNEW! NEW!

Try Our

Peanut Butter NEWest bar:longer practical. So I am turning to supplements for post-workout replenishment – what works best? Brad, Troy

Indeed, start with 50/50 Plus™. This product was designed to be the optimal post-workout replen-ishment supplement. Each serv-

ing of 50/50 Plus™ contains 20 grams of protein and 17 grams of carbs. Big bodybuilders will take two or three servings of 50/50 Plus™ after a body-shattering workout. The procedure is simple: buy a Tupperware shaker and keep it in your gym bag. Put dry 50/50 Plus™ powder in your shaker; af-ter the workout walk to the water fountain and activate the pow-der with cold water and vigorous shaking. Bang! A double serving of 50/50 Plus™ is equal to eating a chicken breast and a serving of rice! The ease of preparation is unbeatable and since it is lique-fied, 50/50 Plus™ distributes vital, regenerative nutrients to shattered muscles as soon as it is consumed. 50/50 Plus™ uses slow-release carb


Post workout replenishment…Lance is a disgrace…Parrillo on rep speed…Eat your protein!...How fast to lose fat yet spare the muscle?


Hello Vic!Longtime fan! I have an unusu-al problem in that I work weird hours and I have to train at weird hours and have a real problem eating afterwards. I am a 20-year bodybuilder and work in under-cover law enforcement. I know all about hard productive training. What supplements would you rec-ommend for post-workout replen-ishment? I will pick up some Par-rillo 50/50 Plus™, anything else? I had been resistant to the whole post-workout supplementation thing – feeling that it was better to eat a food meal after training rather than to take supplements. For years that was what I did; I prepared and ate a bodybuilder meal after a workout. That is no


powder that doesn’t cause wild insulin spikes.

I would also give serious consid-eration to using a couple of differ-ent types of Parrillo bars. You can eat a bar, or two, as post-workout replenishment. The Parrillo Pro-tein Bar™ contains 20 grams of protein, 30 grams of slow-release carbs (that don’t spike insulin) and 230 calories. This bar is a meal in a wrapper. Eat two Parrillo Pro-tein Bars™ and you have eaten 460 calories, including 40 grams of protein and 60 grams of carbs – this is the nutritional equivalent of a food meal consisting of a 4 ounce serving of salmon plus a serving of rice and broccoli. For those deep in di-ets, for those looking to lean out maximally, a fantastic post-work-out replenishment supplement are the Parrillo Soft Chew Bars™. Each little powerhouse bar contains a mere 130 calories – however, those cal-ories include 21 grams of protein and 17 grams of fiber carbs! The big boys eat two Soft Chew Bars™, post-workout, thereby consum-ing 260 calories. However those 260 calories contain 42 grams of carbs and 34 grams of highly ben-eficial fiber carbs! What a great way to replenish! If you have to let the food meals go, these three fabulous Parrillo post-workout replenishment supplements will enable you to commence session

recovery immediately.

Greetings!I saw a NetFlix special on Lance Armstrong and his demise – how exactly would steroids help a cy-clist? I can see steroids helping a lifter, or a sprinter or a shot put athlete – but how do steroids help a cyclist bike faster? The blood-doping stuff was pure Dr. Fran-kenstein. What’s your take?

Bill G., Rockville

Armstrong was a really bad man to have as an enemy. He went out of his way to crush ‘the little people’ that were telling the truth. The guy was sociopathic-psychopathic and was able to bald-face lie with tre-mendous sincerity and conviction, he’d lie so convincingly that he made you believe it. He was guilty as sin, right from the start, and he took pure pleasure in ruining people’s lives. Anyone that dared level accusations at Saint Lance was carpet-bombed with lawyers, lawsuits, depositions, false ac-

cusations leaked to the press and ridiculed. After all, this was Saint Lance, cancer survivor and found-er of a cancer charity that raised multiple millions for the noblest of causes – he met with presidents, hung out with Bono and was en-gaged to Sheryl Crow – how could he be anything less than noble and hip and admirable? In fact he was a diabolical tyrant. He created an empire that generated millions; his endorsements netted him one hundred million dollars.

The fiendish real-ity was that he used a dozen different illegal drugs and turned himself into a cyborg cyclist. Steroids enable the athlete to recover quicker from shat-tering training ses-sions and steroids make the athlete stronger, much stronger. Stronger, more powerful legs make climbing steep

mountains and radical inclines much easier. He blood doped to improve endurance, he took syn-thetic growth hormone and EPO, Lance was mentored by an Italian drug doctor and was on the cut-ting-edge of drug technology and the cutting edge of evading drug tests. He beat tests and he paid off testing officials, he got test results squashed by lawyers and he used money, power and influence to bully his way to the top. Luckily, he got caught, but he came incred-ibly close to getting away with



How exactly would steroids help a cyclist bike faster?

Photo by Ulrik De Wachter


it all forever.

Iron Vic,What is the Parrillo approach to rep speed? A lot of fitness profes-sionals are placing a lot of empha-sis on how fast or slow the bar or dumbbells are raised and lowered and how long they are held, or paused, at the ‘turnaround.’ How fast or slow is the bar pushed or pulled on the concentric, how fast or slow is the eccentric phase of the rep? These coaches notate sets with numbers, like ‘4-1-2’ on a bench press to denote four seconds to lower the bar, one second paused on the chest and two seconds to push to lockout. Does Parrillo address bar speed in his training approach? Ted, Tulsa

John has definite ideas about rep pacing and bar speed, but his ideas are a lot more commonsense, practical and less cum-bersome than the overly complex ‘4-1-2’ time-the-speed-of-every-phase-of-every-rep approach. Let John tell it, “In certain instances we advise slowing the bar speed down: one common mistake we see is when the lifter starts playing with the bar speed they invariably slow the barbell, dumbbells or ma-chine handles down too much. If you radically reduce bar speed, strength nosedives: a man capable of 200 x 10 in the “regular speed” bench press will be forced to use 100 pounds (50%) if slowed to a

“super slow” rep speed. That is an unacceptable drop off in poundage handling ability – there is no way 100 pounds is going to provide any muscle-building effect for a man capable of 200 x 10 no matter how slow you move it. I suggest ‘barely slowed’ when we go slower; barely slowed allows the 200 x 10 guys to handle 170, if the bar speed is slowed but barely slowed. Slowing a rep is a great tactic for a stalled bodybuilder.” On the other hand, John also touts the benefits of

explosive reps. “At Parrillo we also like to have our elite body-builders, men that have been us-ing regular rep speed or slowed rep speed, to switch to exploding their reps. Pushing the weight over the ‘loaded’ portion of the rep as fast as humanly possible is called ‘compensatory acceleration’ and is a terrific muscle-building tac-tic.” So as you can see, at Parril-lo we always have a rep speed in mind. We have three rep speeds:

barely slowed rep speed, normal rep speed and explosive rep speed. Always have a rep speed in mind before commencing each and every set.

Vic,Do I really need to eat 300 grams of protein a day if I weigh 200?? I mean that’s a lot of protein to buy, cook and eat – that’s a lot of canned tuna and groceries and hassle. Does a high protein in-take really make that much of a

difference?

Paul, Wheaton

It doesn’t matter if you are not training super hard. To obtain real results you need to weight train, hardcore style, 3-6 times weekly. You also need to do sweaty, pre-breakfast cardio 5-7 days a week. That’s a lot of hard training. Parrillo feels a body subjected to training that much and that intensely needs that much protein to cope. If you wanted to get nitpicky, you could get away with a gram of protein per

pound of lean muscle mass per day. If a 200-pound man is carry-ing a 15% body fat percentile, he is packing 170 pounds of lean mus-cle mass; ergo, he could ‘get away’ with consuming 170 grams of pro-tein per day if the goal was 1 gram per pound of bodyweight. The easiest way to deal with high daily protein intake is to supplement. At 6am take a serving and a half of Optimized Whey Protein™ powder (40 grams of protein.) Mid-morn-

IRON VIC SPEAKS By IRON VIC STEELE


Always have a rep speed in mind before commencing

each and every set.


ing, eat a Parrillo Protein Bar™ (20 grams of protein.) After working out have a double serving of Par-rillo 50/50 Plus™ (40 grams of pro-tein.) While watching TV at night eat two Parrillo Soft Chew Bars™ (40 grams of protein.) Add to this some Parrillo Beef Liver Amino™ supplementation: six times daily take six beef liver tabs, 36 tablets per day equates to 54 grams of pro-tein: add it all up and the Parrillo product user can take in 200 grams of supplemental pro-tein – it hardly takes any food to hit protein minimums if you are supplementing to that degree!

Vic Steele,If a guy (like me) is carrying a 16% body fat percentile, how long should I allow in order to cut down to 9%? I am 6-foot tall and weigh 205 pounds with 16% body fat. I want to enter a novice physique com-petition and I want to be at 9%. Is three months enough time? Is that too short a prep time? I could take a show in three months or five months. I am ready to take this thing to the next level, commit to com-pete, I am really looking to get serious and get into seriously good shape.

Renny, Kentucky

Good for you dude! Three months will do but you have to nail every-thing down right away. Based on the short letter, we’ll assume that you have the time to train and a good situation and are ready to

commit completely to the effort. We’ll also assume that you know the ropes and are at least an in-termediate-level trainee, based on the fact that you are at 16% (not bad!) and looking good enough to consider competing. So here is what we know: we’ll assume you are getting accurate body fat read-ings – ergo, at 205 pounds, with a 16% body fat percentile you are carrying 33 pounds of body fat.

To hit 9% body fat, you have to melt off 20 pounds. That would put you at 185 pounds. This as-sumes you lose no lean muscle mass during the process. That is a BAD assumption: almost every bodybuilder preparing for a show loses lean muscle mass as they diet down. This really screws up

the calculations: most competition dieters lose as much muscle as they lose fat because they use starva-tion diets and go catabolic. So you use the wrong diet and lose the 18 pounds and you now weigh 185 but guess what?? At 185 pounds you are still carrying a 13% body fat percentile!

The solution is to lose fat Parrillo-style: take a long slow lead-up to

a bodybuilding show. Look to lose no more than 1 pound per 100 pounds of bodyweight per week: at 205 you would seek to lose at a rate of 1-2 pounds per week. Any faster and you risk melting muscle; any slower and the effort is hardly noticeable. The Parrillo proto-col calls for sky-high protein intake as protein spares lean muscle mass in the face of di-eting. John thinks nothing of having his elite bodybuilders intake two grams of lean pro-tein per pound of bodyweight per day. I’d recommend 1 to 1.5 grams of protein per day. So for you, 200 to 300 grams. If you are weight training hard and hitting daily cardio – and Parrillo will often recommend TWO cardio sessions per day for competitive bodybuilders – you need protein to counter-

act the beating the body is contin-ually subjected to. John will typi-cally suggest the bodybuilder take 10-16 weeks as a lead up period to a show. By whittling body weight downward slowly and consistent-ly, you burn off the body fat while sparing the muscle.


By whittling body weight downward slowly and consistently,

you burn off the body fat while sparing the muscle.



PRSRT STDU.S. PoSTage

PaiDCinCinnaTi, oHPeRmiT no. 855

Documents

powerlifting compe-titions as a teen. He competed in six shows in an 18 month period. He was in his early 20s and he was single and single-minded. Then, bodybuilding had to be put