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Marcia Ferguson is at an age whenmost athletes have long since re-tired and can usually be found sit-ting in a comfortable chair parkedin front of a wide screen TV remi-niscing about their glory days towhomever will listen. Marcia, onthe other hand, has enthusiasticallybegun a brand new career in a newsport and as a result of decades of

hardcore bodybuilding finds herselfalready competing at elite levels inher new athletic activity. The sportis powerlifting and Marcia has set

state, regional, national and worldrecords in her age group andweight class. If Marcia decides tocompete in the Amateur AthleticUnion ‘raw’ division later this year,she could win the world title in theopen division. She related howquickly and completely she took toher new athletic endeavor. “I wasas surprised as the next personwhen I realized how competitive I

JOHN PARRILLO�S PERFORMANCE PRESS

3 August 2004 / Performance Press 1-800-344-3404 www.parrillo.com

www.parrillo.com 1-800-344-3404 Performance Press / August 2004 4

was in powerlifting right from thestart. All those years of hard andheavy weight training done in con-junction with my bodybuilding ca-reer positioned me perfectly forpowerlifting.” She talked at lengthin a phone interview from herhome in suburban Cincinnati, Ohioand mulled over how it was arookie who could perform at sucha high initial level.

“During my bodybuildingcareer I always sought toincrease the poundage Ilifted in the various coreexercises because I knewthat increased strengthwould result in increasedmuscle size. My strengthwas a side benefit in myquest for increased musclemass. When I decided totry powerlifting I found outthat the weights I was us-ing were quite competitive.That was a pleasant sur-prise.” For her it waspleasant surprise; for hercompetitors it was a night-mare. Marcia and her hus-band Mike are well knownto longtime readers of theParrillo Performance Press.Marcia has been one of the lead-ing master (over 40 years of age)bodybuilders in the United Statesfor many years. She has been atthe top of the heap in amateurbodybuilding on the national levelfor a long time and just last yeartook second place in the toughestamateur bodybuilding competitionin America: the NPC NationalMasters bodybuilding champion-ships. She will compete for thatsame title again this summer in

Pittsburgh. She indicated that thisyear’s bodybuilding competitioncould be the end of the line for herbodybuilding career. “I have beena contender for years and yearsand though I have come close onmany occasions I have never wonthe NPC national title. Last year Iwas runner up in my class and Iam giving serious consideration toretiring if I do not win this year.”

There is not a hint of bitterness oranger in her voice as she relatesthis dramatic piece of information.“Bodybuilding judging is subjectiveand at some point you think, per-haps my physique, no matter howtight or muscular, is not the bodytype the judges prefer.” A cougaris a different type of cat from ajaguar, not better or worse, just dif-ferent. If the judges prefer onetype of physique over another itbecomes next to impossible to win.

Preference is allowed in bodybuild-ing judging, but at some point onetype of cat realizes that their breedis not as popular as another breed.Marcia’s physique is dense as agold brick and the lithe, angulartypes seem to be getting the nodon a consistent basis. Marcia feelsit might be time to move onto othercompetitive avenues and pursuits.She has options and retiring from

bodybuilding hardlymeans retiring from com-petition. Another sportbeckons and this sport isfar more objective thansubjective. “Preparing fornational level bodybuildingcompetition is grueling; ittakes a toll on you physi-cally and psychologically.Frankly, in the back of mymind I have this little voicesaying, ‘this isn’t any funanymore’ – that samevoice also is whispering,‘maybe no matter howmuch muscle I build, nomatter how lean or rippedI become, the judges arenot going to pick me.’Bodybuilding is subjectiveto the max and opinions

about who is better are commonand accepted. Frankly, at the verytop levels of NPC competition ev-eryone shows up in shape, every-one packs a lot of muscle, every-one knows how to pose and ev-eryone looks good. So it usuallycomes down to genetics and per-sonal preferences.”

In the end, a panel of judges col-lectively and subjectively selects awinner. “At some point a personhas to come to the conclusion that

Marcia Ferguson with her husband Mike.

MARCIA FERGUSON


perhaps the judges are never go-ing to pick you as the winner. I amabout at that point. I love bodybuild-ing but if I show up once again intop condition and if my physiqueand presentation is up to my stan-dards and if no other competitor issignificantly better than me and ifI lose, I’m going to give seriousconsideration to retiring.” Marciahas other athletic options. “I hadbeen aware of powerlifting but forsome reason it never occurred tome to actually compete; I was sointo bodybuilding that it reallydidn’t occur to me. About a yearago I entered my first powerliftingcompetition and I really liked theatmosphere and the people – ev-eryone was so friendly.” In addi-tion to the excitement of a newathletic format Marcia really ap-preciated the general camaraderieand openness of powerlifters.When bodybuilders gather togetherto compete everyone is grumpy onaccount of the dieting and depri-vation that goes with the finalphase of contest preparation. Plus,bodybuilders compete directlyagainst each other. Powerlifterscompete against each other butreally they compete against theloaded barbell. The bar is the realenemy. There is comparativelylittle subjectivity in lifting: you ei-ther make the lift or you don’t makethe lift.

Is it any wonder that Marcia says,“At this stage of life, the black andwhite world of powerlifting appealsto me.” Powerlifting is fairly mys-terious for most bodybuilders; itslack of exposure and use of equip-ment to aid in the lifts give thestrange sport an even stranger ap-

pearance to outsiders. In competi-tive powerlifting there are separatecompetitions for men and womenand eleven weight classes are con-tested. Each squat, bench pressand deadlift must be completed tothe technical satisfaction of threejudges. Each competitor is allowedthree attempts in each lift. Thebest lift in each of the three liftsare added together to produce a‘total.’ If a lifter were to squat 200,bench press 200 and deadlift 200the total would be 600-pounds. Thelifter with the highest total in eachweight class is the winner. Equip-ment is allowed and used to aidethe various lifts: in the squat, a belt,knee wraps and a squat suit areallowed. A bench shirt and a liftingbelt are allowed in the bench press.Rules governing equipment use andtype vary greatly from onepowerlifting federation to another.Marcia Ferguson has trained herwhole life without using any equip-ment other than a lifting belt andthat is all she uses in herpowerlifting. “In my 20-years ofbodybuilding I never wore any sup-portive gear and now that I’mpowerlifting there doesn’t seemany need to start. The gear thatpowerlifters’ use is uncomfortableto me and I don’t intend to startusing a squat suit or a bench shirt.”

This seems counterproductive;when in Rome, do as the Romans.She said by way of explanation, “Iknow that I’m giving away a lot ofpounds to my competitors that usesupportive gear but I can’t be both-ered.” Not that it matters; Marciais a power phenomena. Compet-ing in the 165-pound class, Marciahas squatted an astounding 400-

pounds, bench pressed 235-poundsand deadlifted 415-pounds. She isdecimating the competition and isdoing so without wearing anypowerlifting support gear. She re-cently set a slew of age group na-tional and world records at the IPAOhio State championships. “I hadfinished lifting in the IPA competi-tion when the president of the fed-eration, Mark Challiet, came overand said, ‘by the way, you set abunch of national and worldrecords.’ It was really a thrill, par-ticularly since I really didn’t real-ize what was happening at thetime.” She is looking into compet-ing in a power federation that hasa particular division that doesn’tallow any supportive gear. TheAmateur Athletic Union has a‘raw’ division that allows athletesthe use of a lifting belt – and that’sit – no other gear is allowed. Thisformat seems tailored made forMarcia. She is looking into com-peting in AAU competitions in thenear future. Her current lifts arefar in excess of the existing nationaland world records in the AAU rawdivision. For the foreseeable fu-ture Marcia intends to continuecompeting in both bodybuilding andpowerlifting. As a bodybuilder hercompetitive weight is 148 poundsand as a powerlifter she competesweighing 158-pounds.

Another amazing aspect ofMarcia’s athletic saga is that sheworks two fulltime jobs. “Duringthe daytime I work in a dental of-fice; this is my main occupation. Istarted a catering business a fewyears back and in the subsequentyears have built my business upconsiderably. The catering busi-


www.parrillo.com 1-800-344-3404 Performance Press / August 2004 6

ness is seasonal and this is my busyseason. I have developed quite astring of corporate clients, all ofwhom, it seems, need my servicesat the same time.” How does shemanage to fit it all in? Powerlifting,bodybuilding, work at the dentaloffice during the day, elaboratecorporate catered affairs at night?“By necessity I have become amaster of time management.” Shesaid. Things promise to heat up asshe swings into summer: cateringis at it peak, the NPC NationalMasters bodybuilding champion-ships are in July and she is prepar-ing for the Canada-Americanpowerlifting championships. Shecontinues to put in 40 hour workweeks at the dentist office and cli-ents are clamoring for her cater-

ing. “If I think about it, it all seemsoverwhelming, so I take it one dayat a time and give 100% to what-ever activity I happen to be doingat the time.” Balance, commitmentand planning are the cornerstonesto the Ferguson approach to ath-letics, work and life.

Marcia intends to compete far intothe foreseeable future. She hasjust scratched the surface inpowerlifting and will no doubt shat-ter every age group ‘raw’ recordin short order. As a lifetime drug-free athlete her accomplishmentsare all the more impressive. Shouldshe make the switch to the Ama-teur Athletic Union (AAU), a fed-eration that is both drug tested andoffers a ‘raw’ no-gear division, she

stands a real chance of not onlybreaking every world record in herage group but also winning theoverall titles in the open division.How impressive would it be for a49-year old to defeat every lifterin her weight class regardless ofage? At an age when most athleteshave long since retired Mrs.Ferguson is laying the wood to ath-letes 1/3 her age as she embarksin a brand new sport. “I intend onpursing a duel athletic path, body-building and powerlifting, for theimmediate future. I am juggling alot of balls but as long as it remainsfun – I’ll continue to do so.”

MARCIA FERGUSON



Workout intensity is the first of ourfour basic principles we will dis-cuss. Intensity determines whetheryou progress or not and it has sev-eral meanings to it. Workout inten-sity is simply changing old pro-grams; this could mean cuttingdown on rest periods, adding anadditional set or two, increasingyour weight, decreasing weight toadd more reps, performing supersetand giant sets. Several people gothrough the same regimen everysingle day, week after week andeven month after month. This is thetime to step up and challenge your-self to a new level of fitness.We’ve found that most people burnout after a while on the same regi-men or get bored with working outall together. The results are com-ing to a stand still, and ultimatelythis leads to injury. A major con-tributing factor to this entire prob-

lem is a lack of diversity. Using theParrillo Performance system, welook at fitness from an overall per-spective. At the Parrillo ExtremeTraining Center we use severaldifferent styles of training and tech-niques. One of our popular pro-grams is the high intensity, high reptraining system. We perform 100rep sets with five different exer-cises and 20 reps each. For ex-ample, if we were working out theback it would go something likethis:

1. Lat Pull downs2. Dumbbell Pullover3. Bent over Dumbbell row4. Seated Low Row5. One Arm Dumbbell Row

This high rep training system couldbe performed several differentways. The program is so diverse,

it doesn’t matter what your fitnesslevel is at the moment. Somethinglike this will create several thingsfor you:

1. It will increase your intensitylevel and keep you from gettingbored.

2. It will keep you and your work-out program balanced and couldpossibly keep you from becominginjury-prone.

3. This will keep your conditioninglevel sharp.

We will discuss part two of ourworkout intensity program in nextmonth’s Parrillo PerformancePress. If you have any questionsvisit us at www.parrillo.com, or callme at 1(800)344-3404.



I had competed in the NPC NewEngland Championships in Bostonfor the past two years, but this timeI was there to cheer on my wife.She had also competed for the pasttwo years, but as a Figure com-petitor. At last she had decided tostop fighting her body’s natural in-clinations and let herself becomethe muscular bodybuilding goddessshe was meant to be. Of course,she wouldn’t listen to me about ap-plying some type of tanning solu-tion, and as dark as my Cuban Mis-sile looked under normal lightingconditions from a couple sessionsof spray-on tan at a local salon, shelooked just as white as me up thereunder the bright stage lights. Butthen again, since when do hus-bands and wives ever listen to eachother? Usually what we hear whenour spouse is talking is that “wawa wa” nonsense gibberish thatCharlie Brown’s teacher made fa-mous. Did I mention that Janetalso came onstage almost two min-utes late at prejudging because shewas chit-chatting backstage? Iknew we were going to have tochalk her first bodybuilding contestup as a learning experience, andtried to enjoy the show.

Randy was with me to also cheerJanet on but more so to check outthe men’s light-heavies. He was

planning on making this his first con-test in the next year, even thoughit didn’t have a Novice division. Iam not sure what he was expect-ing, but when about fifteenlightheavyweights filled the stageat prejudging, Randy instantlyknew he was going to have to busthis ass even more if he had aprayer of making top five in this

very competitive division.“Hmmm,” was all he had to say,and he was frowning the wholetime that class was on. The top fewguys were national-level, for sure,and Randy needed a good tenpounds more muscle before hewould even look like he belongedup there with them.

The night show was going tobe pretty thrilling, because wehad not one but three enormousguest posers: Jay Cutler, GunterSchlierkamp, and Dave Palumbo.That’s almost a thousand poundsof prime beef between those massmonsters, enough to feed a Somalivillage for weeks! I guess if youthrew in a few sacks of rice it couldeven last them a year. What Ididn’t know because he wasn’tlisted on the contest flier was thatthere was a fourth guest poser, onewho would make a much more sig-nificant impression on all of us thanthe three giants would.

Greg Rando was his name, and Ihad known him for about ten years.Greg won the Team UniverseOverall title in 2001, defeatingsome pretty heavy hitters from theother classes to do so: MarvinWard, Derik Farnsworth, TitoRaymond, and Jeff Willett (whohad beaten Skip LaCour that yearto win the Heavyweight division).

Greg Rando never letbeing blind stop himfrom being the best hecould be in body-building.

10www.parrillo.com 1-800-344-3404 Performance Press / August 2004

A BODYBUILDER IS BORN

Greg had earned his pro card inthe IFBB and was just three weeksaway from making his pro debutat the “Night of Champions” inNew York City. He is also a suc-cessful business owner, with hisown gym and a thriving personaltraining business. Oh, wait, did Iforget to mention something? Gregis 34 years old and has been le-gally blind since he was 15.

Emcee Mike Katz announcedGreg and informed the audiencethat he was visually impaired. Asa stagehand led him to the centerof the stage to perform his posingrouting, I nudged Randy.

“I know this guy from way back,he’s amazing! And he looks waybigger and better than the last timeI saw him a few years ago.” In-

deed he did. Rando was very fulland symmetrical at 5-8, 215 poundswith twenty-inch arms and noweak points. Even if you didn’tknow he was blind, you would bein awe of his physique. Knowingthat he is just makes him that muchmore exceptional.

“Wow, how does he train?” Randywondered aloud.

“By feel, of course. He feels hisway around his gym, and countsholes in weight stacks and the littleplates on dumbbells to get the rightweight. Try closing your eyes fora few seconds in the middle of aset sometime and you get a tinytaste of what he has to do everyday. But I tell ya, he must have thebest mind-muscle connection in theworld.”

“Jeez, I just realized he can’t evensee how great he looks, can he?”“No, he can’t. Vain bastards likeyou and me must clock in about anhour of mirror time every daychecking our buffed selves out.Greg is a professional bodybuilderand has never once flexed in a mir-ror to appreciate how awesome helooks. Makes you think, doesn’tit?”

“Yeah,” Randy replied, never tak-ing his eyes off Rando as he movedfrom one impressive pose to an-other. “If he can look this goodwith a handicap like that, what thehell is my excuse?”

“Exactly. Guys like Greg who letnothing get in their way of achiev-ing their goals make us all stop andrealize most of the excuses we

Excuses are nothing but lies we tell ourselves.


A BODYBUILDER IS BORN

have are just plain lame. I haveheard so many excuses from guyswho say they want to have abodybuilder’s physique but theycan’t because they don’t have thetime, they don’t have the money,their kids or their wife are a hassle,they have a bum knee or lowerback problems, you name it. Whatwas your excuse for a while,Randy?”

“Uh,” he stalled, “I couldn’t get bigbecause I wasn’t using steroids.”He shook his head as he admittedthis, knowing how foolish that be-lief had been.

“Well,” I said, gesturing to Greg,who was almost done with his rou-tine, “he has been winning shows

since 1990, all of them drug-tested.So let’s see here, the man doesn’thave the benefit of seeing whathe’s doing in the gym or what helooks like, and he became a pro notonly in spite of that, but he alsonever used any pharmaceuticalaids. From now on, any time I amfeeling sorry for myself and startrunning through all my pathetic ex-cuses for why I haven’t been assuccessful in competitions as Ishould have, I am going to think ofGreg. That should shut up thosenegative voices in my head that tryto tell me the odds are stackedagainst me.”

“Me too,” Randy said, and he wasdefinitely sincere.

I saw Greg three weekends lateron stage in New York, competingagainst 45 other IFBB profession-als. He didn’t win, and he didn’teven make the top fifteen. Butthere was no doubt in the mind ofanyone in that theater that he wasa champion. Rando got louder andheartier cheers and applause thanalmost any other man in the show,even though most of the otherswere plastered over the magazinesevery month and thus far morerecognizable. Flex Wheeler wassitting next to me and stood up togive him an ovation. Since thatnight we saw Greg guest pose, bothRandy and I have had a new atti-tude in the gym. It’s clear nowthat whatever we were allowingto hold us back was nothing but anillusion. Nothing can prevent youfrom making your dreams cometrue unless you let it. There is aphrase that says, “Excuses are lieswe tell to ourselves.” I really be-lieve that. Now you need to askyourself this question, and thinkhard – what was your excuseagain?

“Now I think of Greg and say to myself, what wasyour excuse again?”


Iron Vic,

I know you use and recommendParrillo nutritional supplements– but aren’t the protein powders,carb powder and the varioussport nutrition bars Parrilloproduces dated and old fash-ioned – like black and white TV?The type of product you and JohnParrillo recommend are like an-cient history…that stuff mighthave been the latest word in nu-trition back in 1975 but you guysneed to update: it’s the year 2004so how about getting some newproducts, ones more fittingwith the times. How aboutsomekick-ass ephedrine andandostenedione products?

Wayne S.NYC

You better stock up on androWayne because it’s about to bebanned. Thanks to the Balco de-

signer steroid scandal a bill is mov-ing through Congress at the speedof light to ban the sale of productsthat ‘mimic steroids.’ Andro prod-ucts are at the top of the list andwill soon end up just like your otherfavorite ‘kick-ass’ modern product,ephedrine: banned in the UnitedStates. Apparently everything youlike is illegal Wayne. At ParrilloPerformance we have scruples andwon’t sell products that could bepotentially injurious to our clients inorder to generate a buck. JohnParrillo rejected the idea of produc-ing andro and ephedrine productsyears ago for one simple reason:he felt there was a strong possibil-ity of physical damage to the user.Despite a multi-million dollar lob-bying effort on the part of manu-facturers, Federal lawmakers feelthe same way. One of your favor-ite products has already beenbanned and the other is a month ortwo away from banishment.Knuckleheads like you always

want some sort of a magic bulletproduct, a supplement you can buyover the counter that acts betterthan a fistful of dianabol. You wanta pill or potion that eliminates allthe backbreaking work associatedwith true physical transformation.This mindset makes you easy preyfor every nutritional huckster thathappens along. Guys like you spendas much on miracle products asdark side athletes do on steroids. Iknow a powerlifter who is ex-tremely proud of the fact that he is‘all natural’ yet he routinely spends$500 a month on an exotic collec-tion of ineffectual nutritionalsupplements. He routinely triesevery new miracle nutritional prod-uct introduced onto the market andthis guy is crying like a baby be-cause the government is cleaninghouse. Can I give you some advice,Wayne? Avoid products that claimmore benefits than polio vaccineand cost more than a box of ammofor my .50 caliber Golden Eagle



sniper rife. Basic nutritional supple-mentation works. Proper nutritionusing regular foods purchased atthe grocery (combined with slash-and-burn training) will get you 90%of the way ‘there.’ There being100% of your god-given naturalgenetic potential. Judicious use ofnutritional supplementation can add10% to your efforts – and that’shuge! Supplementation should beused to supplement (not replace)sound nutrition. You have unrealis-tic expectations. Want a realmiracle? A single serving of ParrilloOptimized whey protein contains asmuch protein as ten egg whites andyou don’t have to separate thewhites from the yolks or cook them.Now that’s a realistic miracle!

Iron Vic,

Who is the strongest lifter youever saw?

Timmy S.Bensonhurst

I’ve seen nearly all the great onesof the last half century…I sawAlexev become that first man tolift 500-pounds overhead in Colum-bus Ohio in 1970, I saw Kaz bench661 in a tee-shirt and deadlift 880.I’ve seen Ed Coan and BobBednarki lift, I’ve seen DavidRigert, Doug Furnas and TommyKono lift; I would say that PaulAnderson ranks as number one. Isaw him at his peak back in 1965on a barnstorming tour. He cameout in front of a packed house atthe conclusion of a local Olympiclift meet and he clean and pressed225 for 5-reps, 315 for 3, 405 for 1and finally 440 for 1. At the timethe world record was 418-poundsheld by world and Olympic cham-pion Leonoid Zhabotinsky of the

Soviet Union. Anderson didn’t evenwear a lifting belt and his 440 presswas easy and explosive. He couldhave easily pushed another twentypounds overhead on that day.Anderson then put the barbell onthe squat racks and squatted 450x5,600x3, 700x3, 800x3 and 900x1, allrock-bottom deep. He did thesesquats without a lifting belt, kneewraps or any special equipment.He wore a bathing suit and a tee-shirt and incredibly he squatted inbare feet. He weighed 365 at aheight of 5-10. Some years later Isaw him leap from the floor up ontoa 4-foot (48-inch) platform on hisfirst try to win a bet. The Russianscalled him the ‘wonder of nature’and indeed he was. I would likelyrank Kaz and Vasily Alexeev nextin line to Big Andy. On a pound forpound basis I’d rank IncredibleEd Coan as the number onestrongman. Here is a guy whodeadlifted 870 weighing 195 pounds

and pulled 900 weighing 220 aftersquatting 1,000. Ed is a longtimeParrillo product user and in my opin-ion a modern wonder of nature.

Iron Vic,

Who would win in a fight betweenRonnie Coleman and MarkColeman?

RoccoMiami

I’d bet the farm on Mark the Ham-mer. So many overblown body-builders think that getting massivesomehow makes them bad, but asa former USMC combat fightinginstructor I can tell you first handthat a trained mixed martial artsfighter will tear a bodybuilder toshreds – unless the big lummoxlands a lucky punch. A great ex-ample of this occurred back in 1993when 188-pound Royce Gracie

“On a pound for pound basis I’d rank IncredibleEd Coan as the number one strongman.”



IRON VIC SPEAKS

fought 250-pound Kimo Leopoldoat UFC IV. Kimo looked like KingKong and Gracie had the body ofa 14-year old girl by comparison.When the dust had settled Graciebeat the hell out of Kimo who wasforced to quit or have his left armbroken in half. Mark the Hammeris a Parrillo-using decimator whohas won the Super Bowl of martialarts, The Pride Tournament. Markbeat the Russian Igor Vochanian bypounding the contents of Igor’s cra-nium into jelly using a series ofrapid-fire right knees to the nog-gin. Any Olympia level bodybuilderwould hurt you if they hit you buta good mixed martial artist knowshow not to get hit. I saw a patheticstreet fight years back where a lo-cal bodybuilder thought his blow-fish flexing was pretty damnedscary until he had a few cocktailstoo many and threw down on afriend of mine who happened to bean ex-Big 10 wrestling championas a 180-pounder. The monstrousbodybuilder actually tore his ownshirt off at the commencement ofthe fight in an effort to scare awaymy friend – who was a Parrillo-style bodybuilder himself – it sureimpressed the onlookers. Flexthrew a haymaker right which mypal easily sidestepped before heshot in for a single leg take down.By the time the bodybuilder’s backhit the pavement, my buddy hadachieved ‘full mount’ position, thefighting equivalent of chess check-mate. My pal proceeded to raindown blows on Flex’s tanned face,his 20-inch arms helplessly pinnedto the ground. It cost the giant abroken nose and a shattered ego.Please understand that time spentin the weight room and on the sta-tionary bike doesn’t make you agreat fighter.

Iron Vic,

I’m bored with my cardio;stationary bike or stair stepper –got any suggestions?

ToddWheaton

People think I’m kidding themwhen I tell them I throw a barbellplate into a backpack and hike upsteep hills. Too many bodybuildersdo the same ‘steady state’ stylecardio over and over and after awhile the body gets used to it andthe positive effects diminish. I taketo the hills. I wrap a 45-pound platein a blanket and stuff the wholething into a backpack; the kind kidsuse for their school books. I headfor the hills or hit a public park. Hikeup the grades as fast as possibleand speed-walk or jog down thedownhill slopes. This type of workprovides a lung searing, thigh burn-ing cardio workout that has to beexperienced to be believed. I pop4-6 Parrillo Max Endurance™Capsules 30-minutes before take-off. I also like to drink a cup of javaon the car ride to the cardio course.Here’s another tip: after you aretotally burnt from walking with theweighted pack, drop it off at yourcar and immediately take a light jogfor about 15-minutes. When youtake off the weighted pack andstart to run you feel as if you arefloating above the earth. This trickallows you to effortlessly extend theduration of the cardio session andan extended session equates tomore body fat oxidation. Try it, ifyou’ve got the guts.

Mark the Hammer is aParrillo-using decimatorwho has won the SuperBowl of martial arts, ThePride Tournament.


I was walking around a large fit-ness trade show recently when Icame across a booth staffed by asalesman hawking body fat mea-surements done with a machine. Ihappened to be with a national levelfemale bodybuilder who was incontest shape and holding around5.5% body fat percentile. She waslean as a chunk of polished gran-ite. As we wandered by, a tannedsalesman, super enthusiastic andbordering on evangelical, caughtmy eye,

“Hey!” he said, “C’mon over hereand try the new Acme body fatpercentile measurement system;just hold the handles and within 15-seconds it’ll inform you how muchfat you’re carrying!” He gesturedto us like a carnival barker motion-ing drunken sailors into a girlieshow.

“Sure,” I said, “We’ll give thisthing a test ride…” I turned to myfriend and said “Go on and try it!”I winked at her and she gave methe look; as if to say, ‘why meJohn?’ Being a good sport shewalked into the booth and sat inthe chair. The salesman said, “Nowhold these two handles and I’llcrank it up…” With that he flippeda few switches, adjusted a knobor two and read a dial connectedto the device. My friend was in-structed to hold the handles at arms

length. She looked like a FormulaI racecar driver grabbing a littlesteering wheel. After a few mo-ments the salesman said,

“Okay – I got the results, you canlet go now.” He sat the machinedown and a very officious and se-rious look came over his face. Iwhispered to my compatriot,

“Maybe you’re pregnant.”

She laughed out loud, much to theconsternation of our salesman. Hewas suddenly serious and he an-nounced the results with all dramareserved for selecting the nextAmerican Idol.

“Your body fat percentile is 32%!”

“What!” My friend said. She wasstunned. I had expected it. First off;from a technological standpoint,how accurate could a gizmo thatrelied on electrical impedance runthough two handles held in aperson’s hands actually be? Sec-ondly, a high body fat percentilereading was good for this guy’sbusiness – after all, our tannedsalesman (draped in a $500 Armaniwarm-up suit) needed to make histurbo Porsche payment. He wasselling three things: you could pur-chase the machine; you could pur-chase an individual body fat read-ing, or, once informed of your in-

flated body fat percentile, he wouldsell you a “customized diet” to cor-rect the situation. Meanwhile mygal pal had recovered from her ini-tial shock and began to complain,

“There is no way my body fat per-centile is 32% - I had a caliper testdone day before yesterday and…”“Ah ha!” The salesman inter-rupted, “Calipers are wildly inac-curate and my machine is certifi-ably accurate to 1-100th of a per-cent. Now I know that the fact thatyou’re fat comes as a bit of a shockbut I could write up a customizeddiet for you for a very reasonablefee.”

I thought she was going to bust thisguy in the nose when he said theword fat,

“Does this look fat?” My friendrolled up a sleeve and flexed herincredible right bicep: both headsof the bicep were clearly visible;veins ran down her ripped forearmand you could have hidden a quar-ter in the trench that separatedbicep and tricep.

“Well don’t take it personally butthe facts are the facts…” Thesalesman said.

“Does this look fat?” She pulledher shirt up to reveal a set of shred-ded abs that would have done



Arnold at his peak proud on a goodday.

Never at a loss for words and notabout to lose his composure, theslick salesman smiled like a TVpreacher pitching viewers to sendin donations; his explanation wasamazingly glib and pitched withpolite poise. “You obviously are car-rying a lot of hidden fat.”

“Hidden fat?” I asked. That wasa new one on me.

“Yes; hidden fat. This is a welldocumented phenomenon that oc-curs in overly muscular people –like this lady. It can often lead toproblems in later life if not cor-rected.” He smiled, paused. “I ac-tually have a customized nutritionprogram that addresses the hiddenfat phenomena. If you like…”

My friend was about to stuff themachine up this guy’s butt so I tookher by the arm and gently led heraway. We walked off. I wasamazed at the arrogance and mygal pal was indignant. It wouldhave been funny if it hadn’t beenso sinister. Although we weresavvy enough to see through thecharade, I wondered how manyless sophisticated people would belured into this hi-tech scam. Theproduct and the high pressure pitchused by the salesman worked onhuman insecurity and the unshak-able faith we have in technology.It is so easy to fall prey to indi-viduals who pretend to have theability to tell you what is wrongwith you and in the next breath tellyou that (for a price) they also havethe cure. My advice is to steer a

wide berth around the hi-techhucksters that dazzle with devices.At Parrillo Performance weground ourselves in commonsense.Our approach draws on the lessonswe’ve learned in the past. We learnfrom our mistakes and we learnfrom our successes. We sortthrough the best and the worst thatmodern science and technologyhave to offer and while we don’treject new tools without first hav-ing examined the science behindthem, we always exercise a healthyskepticism towards anything thatmakes outrageous claims.

Body fat percentile measuring canbe inexpensive and effective: werecommend our clients and stu-dents use the BodyStat method tochart progress. Despite thesalesman’s protestations to thecontrary, body fat percentile can

be measured to a realistic degreeof accuracy using skin-fold cali-pers. The calipers we provide inthe BodyStat kit allow the user toestablish an initial baseline and de-termine each week if the body-builder is moving towards or awayfrom the goal. If caliper measure-ments are taken with precision andcare, ideally by the same person inthe same way, you’ll be able toproduce a baseline against whichto measure the future positive ornegative effects of nutrition andtraining. Let me tell you anotherquick incident that occurred whenone of my advanced students wentto a local University to have anunderwater hydrostatic dunk testadministered. Hydrostatic dunkingis the gold standard of body fatpercentile methods but even thisso-called fool-proof method can befraught with inaccuracy. The body-

JIVE TECHNOLOGY VERSUS BASIC COMMONSENSE

Body fat percentile measuring can be inexpensiveand effective: we recommend our clients and stu-dents use the BodyStat method to chart progress.


builder in question held an IFBBpro card and had competed suc-cessfully in several Grand Prixbodybuilding events back in thelate 80’s. He was a rough-and-tumble guy and related afterwardshis disappointment and displeasureat the procedure and the results.

“John, I paid big bucks to be hy-drostatically weighed. I arrived atthe University human per-formance laboratory andstripped down to my posingtrunks. Guys in lab coatsand horned-rimmed glassesstood around the dunk ma-chine with clipboards. Theyexplained all these compli-cated procedures on how Iwas supposed to exhale allmy air after being dunked;I got in, put on the breath-ing gear and as instructedblew out all my breath whilesubmerged. I could hear theguys conducting the testtalking to each other. I’mreally concentrating. I’d paid asmall fortune to have this done andI wanted it done right. So anyway– I don’t know how to put this –I’d had a big helping of cabbageand beans the previous night andjust when the head dork yelled,“Okay – we got the measurement– you can come up now.” Icouldn’t contain myself any longerand let loose with a pants-splitting,bean-and-cabbage powered fart,a huge one that lasted at least 10-seconds. It caused huge methanebubbles to float to the surface andpop…it looked like someone wasswimming with scuba gear beneaththe surface. Anyway, the sciencegeeks – all of whom looked like

either Steve Erkel or Bill Gates –started freaking out…they’re run-ning around in circles bumping intoeach other and dropping their sliderules. The boss nerd is waving hisclipboard and yelling in a squeakyvoice, “This is not allowed! Stopthis flatulence immediately! You’reskewering our test results! This isforbidden! We’ll have to drain andsanitize the tank!”

I got out and demanded my testresults: As it turned out I now hadtwo conflicting sets of results: onepre-fart and one post-fart; it turnsout that my methane explosioncaused me to lose 2-percentagepoints off my body fat percentileresults. So I ended up with tworesults: pre-fart was 10.4% andpost-fart was 8.5% - so which onewas it? The dorks went into ahuddle and I could tell they wereconfused and conflicted; theystarted arguing amongst them-selves. After ten minutes of this I’dhad enough and started yelling thatI wanted a second test. When theyrefused I got pissed and started

cussing and fuming. This sent theminto a panic and they ran into aglass room, locked the door andcalled security. I paid them with acheck, let loose with a final gas-eous burst to remember me by,went home, called my bank andcancelled payment on the check.They’re still chasing me around fortheir $300-bucks.”

Even technological gold stan-dards can be fooled. Stickwith commonsense and don’tfall for the hi-tech high-pres-sure salesmen selling youstuff. Have someone compe-tent take your body fat per-centile using skin-fold cali-pers and have the same per-son take the measurementsthe same way each week.This will allow you to estab-lish that critical baseline.Once you’ve gotten abaseline body fat percentile,work hard to push the per-centile downward using a

logical combination of intense ex-ercise and precise nutrition. Restassured that this method is as ac-curate and consistent as any outthere. Best of all you won’t haveto resort to expensive, hi-tech Voo-doo. Methane flatulence will neveraffect caliper measurement andbecause of the ease and lack ofexpense you can measure weekly.For more information on the ParrilloBodyStat kit, call our toll-freehotline and speak to one of ourspecialists. 1-800-344-3404

JIVE TECHNOLOGY VERSUS BASIC COMMONSENSE

Even technological gold standardscan be fooled. Stick with common-sense and don’t fall for the hi-techhigh-pressure salesmen selling youstuff. Have someone competent takeyour body fat percentile using skin-fold calipers and have the sameperson take the measurements thesame way each week. This will allowyou to establish that criticalbaseline.


Sometimes it’s good to go backover the bodybuilding basics. Onebasic tenant of the Parrillo Philoso-phy is in order to make maximumphysical gains you have to trainhard, train relentlessly, train consis-tently and above all else, trainsmart! It’s that last attribute, trainsmart, that trips up trainees new tobodybuilding. Intensity trumps ev-erything and with training intensityyou can even make gains using adumb and senseless routine – for awhile. On the other hand you mightuse the most sophisticated trainingroutine known to man but unlessyou learn how to generate true gut-busting effort in the gym, nothingmuch will happen. The truth is thatsomeone taking up weight trainingfor the first time will likely makesignificant gains even if they picka bad training program. The secretto bodybuilding success is learninghow to make gains once past thatinitial burst that occurs when youfirst start weight training in earnest.Seems as though anyone can makeprogress when they start out, as-suming they work intensely enough,to trigger muscle hypertrophy. Butthat soon passes as the body learnshow to neutralize the effects of

whatever program you’re using.Unless you have another routineready to roll out and implement,progress ceases. The conundrumis how to make progress past thatinitial honeymoon phase; whichusually lasts four to six weeks.

Most new trainees develop an al-legiance to whatever crazy pro-gram they happened to use whenthey obtained their initial results.They attribute their progress to theprogram when in fact the real rea-son they made any progress at allwas intensity and consistency.New trainees make progress inspite of, not because of, the pro-gram they select. The solution isobvious and logical: periodicallyrotate training routines. Progressoccurs when you find a method thatshocks the body out of whatevercomplacent groove it resides incurrently and there are numeroustraining variables you can play withto keep things fresh and vibrant:you could alter the actual exercises,you can alter techniques, you canchange the rep schemes, you couldtrain more often or you could trainlonger…the possibilities are limit-less. Seek to mix things up on a

periodic basis. Same with cardio:periodically tweak duration, fre-quency, mode and intensity. A con-tinual rotation of methods preventsthe body from getting too comfort-able with any one particular ap-proach. Ease, efficiency and com-fort are not conducive to progresswhether we’re doing progressiveresistance or cardio. Hard, intense,limit-extending effort triggersmuscle growth and oxidizes bodyfat. Anything less is a waste of time.

At Parrillo Performance we’vespent decades working with com-petitive bodybuilders as they pre-pare for local, regional, national andinternational competitions. We’velearned a hell of a lot over the yearsand one thing we’ve learned is thedifference between 1st place and7th is infinitesimal and if you stub-bornly refuse to try new ideas andapproaches, you won’t get very far.

We continually devise and refinenew and innovative methods andmodes for cardio, lifting and nutri-tion. Over the years we’ve tried alot of things and found most of themlacking. Bruce Lee once describedhow he approached physical im-


By Andre �Duke� NewcombBy Andre �Duke� NewcombBy Andre �Duke� NewcombBy Andre �Duke� NewcombBy Andre �Duke� Newcomb

provement: “Expose yourself tonew things, absorb what is useful,discard what is not, then move on.”We at Parrillo Performance havefound that maximum results occurin direct response to maximum ef-fort. Most bodybuilders are capableof training much harder than theydo currently. We demonstrate thistime and again at our Parrillo BootCamps. We put every attendeethrough hands-on demonstrationsduring which we push them througha series of Parrillo-style extendedsets that includes forced reps, dropssets and negatives. We teach subtletechnique variations on the variousexercises and will use high rep sets,low rep sets, super high rep sets,(100-rep sets) super-low rep sets,(doubles and singles) sometimes allin the same workout. The attend-ees have their minds blown andtheir muscles blasted.

The degree of intensity generatedduring a Parrillo extended set re-sults in a body shock that sendstrainees reeling. Some even heavetheir lunch. All have their eyesopened by the experience. Thosewho experience first-hand aParrillo extended set come to real-ize the meaning of hard work. Thistype of training is painful but thispain is more discomfort than ac-tual pain. Discomfort inevitablyaccompanies intense effort and ifyou intend on excelling you’ll needto learn how to delve into the dis-comfort zone. Frankly, those whocannot push themselves into thediscomfort zone will never developa truly outstanding physique. If itwere possible to magically build thebody of a top bodybuilder withoutpain and discomfort, the nation

would be overrun with Arnoldclones and that is hardly the case.In order to maximize gains it is criti-cally important to train incrediblyhard in the gym. Hard progressiveresistance training and intensecardio exercise, done frequently, isa must. There is a hell-of-a caloriccost to all this lifting and aerobicactivity. The human body needsbetween 1,000 and 2,000 caloriesper day, depending on body weight,just to exist. To power breathingand pump the heart requires calo-ries. Digesting food, opening andclosing eyelids, chewing and talk-ing all require calories. Calories areexpended going about day to daybusiness. Locomotion requires fuel

and the more you weigh the morecalories you’ll need.

The mistake most often committedby beginning and intermediate levelbodybuilders is that they don’t eatenough. They take in too few calo-ries in relation to the amount ofenergy they expend. If you liftweights and perform aerobics, thenumber of calories needed is sig-nificant. Hard working beginningbodybuilders often labor under themisguided assumption that in orderto ‘get ripped’ they need to train alot and eat very little and as a re-sult they end up scrawny andstringy. Training long and traininghard and not taking in sufficient

BODYBUILDERS NEED CALORIES...AND LOTS OF THEM!

The degree of intensity generated during a Parrilloextended set results in a body shock that sendstrainees reeling. Some even heave their lunch. Allhave their eyes opened by the experience.



calories inevitably results in ametabolic catastrophe. The bodyis run into the ground by well-in-tentioned bodybuilders who trainhard as hell but derail progress bynot providing enough fuel for thehuman machine to repair itself.Deprived of calories needed thehuman body ‘goes catabolic’ andactually eats muscle tissue to covercalorie shortfalls. How disgusting.The solution is counter-intuitive: ifyou train really hard you have toeat a lot of food. Now before yougo running to the local MegaMartto stock up on Hostess Ho-Hos,pecan pie and Hagan Das, beaware that not all calories are cre-ated equal. Lean protein and natu-ral carbohydrates are the preferredcalorie sources. Sugar and satu-rated fat, highly refined carbohy-drates and junk food need to beeliminated.

Calories should be broken downinto smaller amounts and eaten atequidistant intervals throughout theday. Better to eat 3,000 caloriesspread over six 500-calorie mealsthan to eat three square meals of1,000 calories each. Smaller mul-tiple meals lessen the digestiveburden and allow the body to pro-cess food more efficiently. Howmuch should you eat? How manycalories should you consume? Ev-ery individual is different but atParrillo we use a general rule ofthumb: for those seeking to addmuscle mass, start by consuming1.5 grams or more of protein perpound of body weight. Fibrous car-bohydrates should be consumed atevery meal. Fiber carbs are low incalories and actually dampen insu-lin secretions when eaten in com-

bination with other foods. Starchycarbs round out the meal and theamount consumed fluctuates. Weinsist our clients have a weeklybody weight goal and the amountof starchy carbohydrates con-sumed daily is determined by ourrelationship on that day to theweekly body weight goal. Hypo-thetically speaking, if you weigh200-pounds and seek to addmuscle mass we advise adding 1-pound of body weight per hundredpounds of body weight each week.Our 200-pound athlete would seekto add 2-pounds of body weight perweek for a specified time period.Typically the timeframe lasts fourto twelve weeks.

If, for example, it’s Thursday andour 200-pound athlete weighed200.5 and he needed to weigh 202by Monday, in order to stay on tar-get the athlete needs would ‘up’his starchy carbohydrate intake be-tween Thursday and Monday. Onthe other hand, if it was Thursdayand our hypothetical bodybuilderweighed 203 he would need to cutback on the starch starting onThursday to make sure he weighed202 on Monday. Protein and fi-brous carb intake stay levelthroughout the process. Starch in-take is the wildcard and in constantflux. The process would be re-versed for someone seeking to getshredded and ripped. In a lean-outphase our hypothetical 200-poundbodybuilder coming off a mass-building phase would seek to lose2-pounds a week for the specifiedtime period. In order to maintainexisting muscle mass keep the pro-tein intake at 1.5 grams per poundbody weight and continue to con-

sume fibrous carbs at every feed-ing. Again we modify the starchycarbohydrate intake to achieve theweekly weight loss goal.

Reverse engineer the process toachieve the desired results. Pick agoal and set up a timeframe. Eatyour way to the ultimate goal onebite at a time. Keep protein andfibrous carb intake high whileeliminating junk food, alcohol,sweets and refined carbohydrates.Use starchy carb intake as the le-ver to push body weight upwardor downward. Avoid under-eatingand use ample ‘clean’ calories tostay anabolic and avoid the pitfallsof catabolism. Break the day’scaloric allotment down into mul-tiple meals spaced at even inter-vals throughout the day. Combinesavage weight training with copi-ous cardio and eat lots of cleancalories; do so and successful re-sults are a preordained conclusion.So muster up the moxy and decideupon a course of action. Make sureyou train hard and make sure youeat big but eat clean. Do so andsuccess lies just around the cor-ner.

BODYBUILDERS NEED CALORIES...AND LOTS OF THEM!



In the old days, days long gone,weight trainers practiced andcross-competed in three differentand distinct iron sports: bodybuild-ing, powerlifting and Olympic lift-ing. These triple threat athletesended up with physiques ruggedbeyond belief as a direct result.Sergio Oliva, The Myth, was anincredible athlete and selected forthe Cuban Pan American team asa weightlifter. Arnold, unbeknownstto many, won the Bavarianpowerlifting championships in hisweight division and later that sameyear won the Munich Strongmancompetition. Bill Pearl and RegPark could each squat 600 andbench press 500 using super-stricttechnique way back in the earlysixties. John Grimek was the Babe

Ruth of bodybuilding and competedin the 1936 Olympics as aweightlifter before going on to phy-sique immortality. Nowadays thistype of cross-competing is consid-ered passé; everybody is a special-ist and the physiques show it. Theresults you acquire doing heavydeadlifts or overhead presses can-not be duplicated by doing latpulldowns or lateral raises. It’s justnot the same thing. The only wayto get that rugged look is to handlesignificant poundage in the coreexercises. Bodybuilders who takethe trouble to get super strong inthe basic movements end up withmounds of muscle as a direct re-sult. Power training adds beef toregions where most bodybuildersare deficient: trapezius, mid-back,

rhomboids and teres, erectors, glu-tei/hamstring tie-in, thighs. A powertrained bodybuilder competing at alocal bodybuilding competitionsticks out like Anna Nicole Smithparading around a Girl Scout jam-boree in a tight sequined purpledress.

Truly strong men, men strong in awide variety of exercises, developmuscle thickness that need be seento be appreciated. You can’t de-velop this type of muscle densitythrough polite, precise trainingdone using modest and sensiblepoundage. To develop the mas-siveness of Ronnie Coleman orDorian Yates, to get as thick asBertil Fox or Franco Columbo, youhave to become bull strong – you

Photos By: J.M. Manion

By John Parrillo23 August 2004 / Performance Press 1-800-344-3404 www.parrillo.com

have to handle big poundage inbasic movements using strict tech-nique. The reason RonnieColeman has such an incredibleback is he can deadlift 800-poundsfor reps. The reason Dorian hashumongous pecs is he can inclinebench press 435 for 8-reps. Thereis a distinct, traceable, undeniablerelationship between brute strength

and massive muscle size. In thisage of the specialist, a Retro Manlike Big Joe Sauter stands in boldrelief, a rhino striding amongst aherd of gazelles. Big Joe stands 6-foot 1-inch and weighs a lean 275-pounds off-season. Joe came outof nowhere this past year, steppedright onstage at a major NPC con-test, his first bodybuilding compe-

tition ever and won! The followingweek he took second place (by asingle point) in the toughest ama-teur competition held in the stateof Maryland. He was all set forhis third major contest in three con-secutive weeks when the showwas cancelled at the last moment.This man is now primed and readyfor his second season. Now BigJoe is on the front end of whatpromises to be a long and fruitfulbodybuilding career.

Many knowledgeable onlookers feltJoe should have gotten the 1st placenod at the Maryland State body-building championships but Big Joewas pleasant and philosophic aboutit all; “Oh, I was just happy to bethere. Competing and doing wellat the Maryland State show – acompetition that I’d attended manytimes over the years as a specta-tor – to actually compete and dowell was a dream come true.” Joestepped onstage weighing a shred-ded 241-pounds. Only eighteenmonths earlier, as a world and na-tional champion powerlifter, BigJoe Sauter weighed 341-pounds.Joe shed 100-pounds of bodyweight in eighty weeks. Joe Sauterwon his first major powerlifting titlefive years ago when he capturedthe USPF World Championship asa super heavyweight weighing 320.Joe went on to win the AAU na-tional powerlifting title and was theAAU ‘Raw’ national championtwice. Joe squatted 840 with sup-portive gear and 710 without anysuits or wraps. Even at his heavi-est, Joe was quite athletic and hisprowess as a pickup basketballplayer was legendary. His inten-


Big Joe Sauter stands in bold relief, a rhinostriding amongst a herd of gazelles. Big Joestands 6-foot 1-inch and weighs a lean 275-poundsin the off-season.


BIG JOE SAUTER

tion was to win more National andWorld powerlifting titles and con-tinue on as a super heavyweightlifter. He had unfulfilled goals, Joewanted to squat 900-pounds withequipment and 800-pounds without.Joe was a defending National andWorld champion in two federationsand he seemed ready to settle infor a long run as a big leaguepowerlifter. A protracted series ofminor events caused him to rethinkhis commitment to powerlifting andeventually switch allegiance tobodybuilding.

“I was ready for a change; I wasready to not weigh 340 lbs. any-more.” Joe said. “A lot of my de-cision was practical; I got tired oftrying to stay heavy all the time. Ittook a lot of energy and cost a lotof money to purchase and prepareand consume all the food neces-sary to stay at 340-pounds. I wasspending eight hours a week, usu-ally most of Sunday, preparing allthe food I would consume duringthe following week. In all honestyif I wanted to achieve my futurepowerlifting goals, I would havehad to have pushed my body weightup even higher – to 360-pounds. Iknew that if I wanted to squat 900drug-free, I would have to get evenbigger. I was eating so much foodalready that I couldn’t really seemyself pushing the calories up anyhigher. I felt sluggish. I wanted abreak.” Powerlifting’s loss provedbodybuilding’s gain and Joe took tohis new iron avocation with zealand a manic training intensity. Joecommenced a job as a fulltimetruck driver in about this sametime. “I needed to make a goodimpression at my new job and I

needed to work some overtime.”Everything pointed towards a totalchange in direction. Joe liked theidea of becoming a bodybuilder. Hewas really big and really strong andthe thought of quitting altogethernever crossed his mind; “It wasn’tlike I was just going to quit train-ing; I love to train and I love tocompete. I decided to become acompetitive bodybuilder. I figuredif we could scrape the fat off me,there was probably some prettydecent muscle hidden underneath.”

Joe decided to seek professionaladvice on exactly how to scrapeaway the fat; he sought out his oldfriend Todd “The Maestro” Swin-ney. Joe recollected, “I knew Toddfrom years ago; after I got out ofcollege, I hooked up with ToddSwinney for the first time. I was abeginning bodybuilder and Iwanted to take it to the next level.I followed Todd’s advice to the let-ter for about two years. As a re-sult I gained 40-pounds of solidmuscle and actually lowered mybody fat percentile. I wanted toadd even more size and that’s whenI got into powerlifting. It was sortof funny that after all these yearsaway I’d get back together withthe man who I worked with so suc-cessfully once before.” It was likeold home week; under Todd’s ex-pert advice, Joe slowly took offexcess body fat. The trick was tonot take it off too fast or it wouldcause a certain amount of muscleto disintegrate. All that muscle thatJoe had worked so hard to buildcould be lost in a whirlwind of ca-tabolism if they rushed the proce-dure. Joe was initially anxious; thepace seemed too slow. “It was

tough being patient; I knew I coulddrop 20-30 pounds in a couple ofweeks – but Todd kept remindingme of all the muscle tissue we’dlose if we took that route. So wetook the slow and steady route. Iwhittled off a couple of pounds aweek and this went on for monthsand months and months...”

In true Parrillo fashion Todd hadJoe keep his calories high duringthe entire slim-down period. “I atea whole lot of food for someonewho was continually losingweight.” Joe said. Slow and steadythe two men plotted the downwardspiral; after a year of using theunrelenting process, Joe weighed275 and decided to get seriousabout preparing for a physiquecompetition. Since Joe had alreadycompeted at some of the highestlevels in powerlifting, he decidedto set his sights high and entered aseries of three competitions thatwere held on three consecutiveweekends in the Washington/Bal-timore/Richmond area. With sixmonths to prepare, Joe pressed thepedal to the metal. “I deadlifted 505for 20-reps weighing 250. I try tomaintain as much strength as pos-sible when getting ripped-up.” Nostranger to gut-busting effort anda man with a brutal work ethic, BigJoe assembled a crew of manictraining partners and began mara-thon, Parrillo-style weight trainingsessions, most lasting for overthree hours. Lots of exercises, lotsof sets, high reps, low reps, mod-erate reps, forced reps,negatives…the crazed sessionshad it all and the training partnerswould goad and taunt each otherinto doing more, better, heavier,



pushing each other continually tonew personal records. They wouldspot each other and scream andspit and cuss and provide rep afterforced rep…it was all good. Thecrazy boys would meetfour times a week and noone would leave until ev-ery target body part hadbeen devastated, shat-tered, decimated…Then,like the Vienna ChamberQuartet; they went theirseparate ways until thenext marathon session.

Joe did lots of cardio, “Inthe last three months priorto the contests, I was hit-ting cardio twice a day for50-minutes per session. Ibuilt my endurance up tothe point where I could re-ally put out. I was burningsome serious calories.”The perfect eating, thehigh-intensity, high-volumeweight training, endur-ance-building/calorie-burning cardio, all com-bined to transform Big JoeSauter. He blew a lot ofminds when he steppedonstage at the LendaMurray Classic in Rich-mond. Rookies in their 1st

physique contest are sup-posed to stand in the back-ground and look fright-ened. Rookies are sup-posed to stumble all overthemselves as they go through their1st ever posing routine. We’re sup-posed to say to the embarrassedrookie after his 1st show, “Betterluck next time rookie!” At Big JoeSauter’s 1st show, he took over!From the 1st callout until the mo-

ment when he was announced asthe super heavyweight champion,Big Joe was large and in charge.The very next week Todd Swin-ney put on the NPC Maryland

State bodybuilding championshipsand Big Joe clawed and fought theeventual class winner to a stale-mate. They gave the victory to theother guy in a razor-thin decision.Still, it was quite an auspicious de-but at the hottest amateur compe-

tition in the state of Maryland. “Iweighed 252 at the Lenda Murrayand decided to come in a littlesharper and more defined for theMaryland State championships.

Afterwards, I thought I’doverdone it and came in alittle too stringy. Todd sug-gested we split the differ-ence. I was in my bestshape ever the week af-ter the Maryland States;I weighed 245 and feltlarge and sharp.”

The competition that wasto have been held theweek following the Mary-land State contest wascancelled at the last pos-sible minute. Joe was un-derstandably disap-pointed. “I was really un-happy that the show wascalled off; I knew my con-dition for the 3rd and finalcompetition would havebeen my best. I’d learnedmy lessons in the previousweeks and felt my com-bination of dryness andsize was exactly bal-anced; just where Iwanted them.” CurrentlyJoe is primed and readyto jump back into thecompetitive fray as thenew bodybuilding seasoncommences. He is weeksaway from entering thefirst of three shows.

Asked about short term goals, Joewas modest and alluded to enter-ing some national competitions. “Ifeverything goes right I’d like tocompete at one of the NPC na-tional amateur competitions thissummer.” Joe was quick to change

We’re supposed to say to the embar-rassed rookie after his 1st show,“Better luck next time rookie!” AtBig Joe Sauter’s 1st show, he took over!


BIG JOE SAUTER

the subject and thanked Todd Swin-ney for all the effective advice he’sdispensed over the years. “Todd ismy man and he guided me right towhere I wanted to be.” Joewanted to thank John Parrillo forall the marvelous supplements. “Iwonder if anyone on the face ofthe earth has taken more Parrillosupplements than I have over theyears?” Joe pondered, “…eventhough I’m only 31, I’ve known andstudied under Todd for years and Iwas exposed long ago to Parrilloproducts…all the different fla-vored bars, I love Parrillo bars…Iuse CapTri, Hi-Protein powder, ProCarb, Creatine Monohydrate, allthe Parrillo multi-vitamin and min-eral, all the various amino acid for-mulations, I take them all. Joe alsowanted to mention the fantastichelp that Pete Adams provided him,“Pete Adams is an incredible guy.He helped me with my posing andtraining and I really appreciated hisexpert assistance and advice.”

As far as his ultimate future plans,Joe is very specific: “I want to winan IFBB pro card and become aprofessional bodybuilder.” Struc-turally and genetically, Big Joe hasthe equipment to go far in the sport.He has the skeletal architecture ofa dinosaur and it is easy to envi-sion him weighing 265 and shred-ded. Since he has been bodybuild-ing for only a year-and-a-half, itseems reasonable to assume hehas a lot of room for improvement,which is bad news for the compe-tition. Can Big Joe become thenext Maryland Muscle Machineand follow in the footsteps of pe-rennial Olympia contender KevinLavrone? If Big Joe Sauter hasanother period where he duplicates

the rate of progress he generatedin his first 18-months as a body-builder, you can bet the farm thisguy will become a card-carryingIFBB pro within two years.

BIG JOE�STRAINING SPLIT

Sundaychest, triceps, forearms

Mondaylegs, calves, abdominal

Tuesdayoff

Wednesdayshoulders, rear deltoids, calves

Thursdayoff

Fridayback, biceps, calves

Saturdayoff

Daily MealDaily MealDaily MealDaily MealDaily MealScheduleScheduleScheduleScheduleSchedule

7amParrillo Optimized Whey™ shake,oatmeal, chicken

9amchicken, broccoli, corn

12pmturkey breast, small garden salad,sweet potato

1:30 pmchicken breast, broccoli, corn

3pmchicken breast, rice, small salad

4:30 pmtuna, green beans, corn

6:45pmOptimized Whey™ shake, ParrilloProtein Bar

8:45pmOptimized Whey shake, Hi-proteinbar

11:45pmFish, Optimized Whey™ shake

2:30amOptimized Whey™ shake, ParrilloProtein bar

Joe eats or drinks something tentimes a day. His work scheduleallows him to grab mini-meals in atight cluster around mid-day and hetakes advantage of it. The 2:30 amprotein shake is actually a retro-throwback trick that old champi-ons used; they trained themselvesto get up in the middle of the nightto take a pee and they’d have apre-made protein shake sitting onthe nightstand ready to drink be-fore slipping back under the cov-ers. Joe takes in “around 7,000 to8,500 clean calories” a day in theoff-season and even in the weekbefore a physique competition hewill not let his calories dip below5,000.

PRSRT STDU.S. POSTAGE

PAIDCINCINNATI, OHPERMIT NO. 855

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