1 1/2 pounds flank steak

3 tablespoons light rice vinegar

1 tablespoon coconut oil

1 stevia packet (optional)

1/4 teaspoon minced ginger

1/4 teaspoon minced garlic

1 teaspoon red curry paste

1/4 teaspoon curry powder

1/4 teaspoon Italian seasoning

3 squirts Maggi seasoning

1 tablespoon sriracha sauce

Rinse the meat and pat it dry. Score both sides.

Combine all the remaining ingredients, stirring well. You may need to warm the coconut oil slightly so that it’s in liquid form.

Place the meat in a ziplock bag or shallow dish. Pour the marinade over the steak, seal the bag and shake or turn the meat in the dish to cover it completely with the marinade. Refrigerate for up to four hours.

Preheat the broiler and place the meat in the center of a broiling pan. Broil for eight minutes. Turn the steak and broil for another six to eight minutes depending on thickness. Allow it to rest for a minute or two before slicing. The steak will continue to cook once it’s out of the broiler, so be sure not to overcook it.

The macronutrient values below represent all of the ingredients used in the marinade; however, as you discard most of the marinade, you are actually taking in a little less.

Makes six servings, each containing: calories, 204; fat, 10.42 grams; carbohydrate, 2.76 grams; protein, 24 grams

—Jenny Grothe

Editor’s note: Jenny Grothe is a trainer, nutritionist, motivator, speaker and author who enjoys playing in the kitchen. Having lost 60 pounds, going from a size 14 to a size 4, she knows firsthand the importance of regular training and a clean diet in maintaining a healthful lifestyle. Since losing the weight five years ago, she has competed in seven figure competitions, placing in five, and has run three marathons, including the Boston Marathon in 2011. To contact Jenny and learn more about her services, go to www.jen-fit.com.

Q: What other muscles are in the abdominal wall besides the six-pack muscle?

A: There are four parts to the abdominal wall. The six-pack muscle is the rectus abdominis, commonly called the abs. It’s the front muscle of the abdominal wall, connecting the pelvis to the lower ribs. It compresses the abdomen and flexes the trunk. Some people don’t have a six-pack but more of a four-pack, and a few have more of an eight-pack. Even if your abs aren’t visible, you can feel your particular formation if you push through the subcutaneous fat into tensed abs and sense how many clear rows of muscle you have there.

The obliques are the two muscles at each side of the abdominal wall—the external abdominal obliques and internal abdominal obliques—connecting the ribs with the pelvis. They compress the abdomen and flex and rotate the trunk.

The transversus abdominis is the deep muscle of the abdominal wall, beneath the rectus abdominis and the obliques. It compresses the abdomen and flexes the trunk.

The quadratus lumborum is the deep muscle on either side of the lower spine that helps form the rear of the abdominal wall.

—Stuart McRobert
www.Hardgainer.com

Editor’s note: Stuart McRobert’s first byline in IRON MAN appeared in 1981. He’s the author of the new BRAWN series, Book 1: How to Build Up to 50 Pounds of Muscle the Natural Way, available from Home Gym Warehouse (800) 447-0008 or www.Home-Gym.com.

According to the January ’13 Bottom Line Health, “Sugars in sweets and sweet beverages (including fruit juices) diminish the ability of the lymphocytes to fight off viruses.”

In fact, after a sugar surge your pancreas secretes insulin and your immune system remains in a depressed state for more than five hours. One theory is that elevated blood sugar “prevents vitamin C from attaching to and entering white blood cells, which makes the immune system less effective.”

—Butch Lebowitz

One way to minimize it is with large doses of branched-chain amino acids, according to a recent study in the Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition. This important study is one of the first to use a weeklong loading period in which participants took 20 grams of BCAAs and then took bolus doses of 20 grams immediately before and after a fast eccentric-training protocol. The exercise included 100 drop jumps with a maximum-effort rebound jump, which would normally produce significant muscle damage and lead to delayed-onset muscle soreness.

The results showed that compared to a placebo group, the BCAA subjects reported much less soreness and had lower biomarkers of inflammation, as measured by creatine kinase. Creatine kinase is measured to test muscle damage after hard training; elevated levels indicate damage to the sarcolemma of the muscle fiber, which cause enzymes to “leak” from the cell into the blood. Less creatine kinase indicates that the BCAAs helped maintain the integrity of cell membranes during training, leading to less damage and less muscle soreness.

The BCAA subjects recovered maximum strength faster than the placebo group, indicating enhanced protein synthesis to restore function. The findings suggest that supplementing adequately with BCAAs is more beneficial for recovery and performance than other popular methods, including cold-water immersion and taking nonsteroid anti-inflammatories.

—Charles Poliquin

How old are you, and where are you from? I’m 39 years old and originally from British Columbia, Canada, currently living in the Chicago area.

What got you into lifting, and how old were you? I first got into lifting because I had been a high-level endurance athlete for years, and I wanted to get big. I really got serious about it when I was 17 years old.

How often do you work out now? I train generally four or five times a week, depending on what program I’m using.

What is your best training tip? In my experience, I’ve found that the “genetic limitations” that most people think they have when it comes to building muscle are usually a result of the training they’re doing. It just isn’t properly preparing the physiology of their body to develop maximum muscle mass.

That’s something I go into in great detail in Mad Scientist Muscle, using specific training techniques to target the four things you can change about your body to better support muscle: connective tissue (improving tendons and ligament strength), circulation (increasing capillary density), nervous system (improving efficiency) and fascia (stretching to expand it).

By strategically targeting those aspect of your physiology with combinations of very heavy partial training, very high-rep training, explosive training and stretch-focused training, you can set the stage for substantial growth and erase those so-called genetic limitations you think you have.

What are diet tips that have helped you achieve your lifting goals? One of the most important things to remember about diet is that your body reacts hormonally to what you eat. It’s not just about calories and nutrients. You have to know how your body reacts to certain foods—for example, carbs—and how to use those hormonal reactions to best support muscle growth and fat loss. That’s one of the most powerful concepts natural bodybuilders have at their disposal to get results.

Once I figured that out, I found that I could build muscle and lose fat pretty much at will. It’s a powerful concept.

What keeps you motivated to train? Beyond just building muscle and strength, it’s a creative outlet. I’m known as the “Mad Scientist of Muscle” for a reason—I’m constantly creating new exercises and training techniques, not just to be different but to make things work better. And I honestly love sharing this stuff with others. It makes my day when people write and tell me that one of my exercises solved a problem they’ve been struggling with for years or that my program helped them build muscle when nothing else worked.

What is the biggest mistake you see in the gym? The biggest mistake I see is double trouble—poor form and exercise selection. People are either using the wrong exercises for the goals they’re trying to achieve or they’re using such poor form that the exercises aren’t giving them the results they should be getting—or both.

One of my primary missions with my books, articles and Web sites is to fix that bad form and give people exercises that really work, whether they are the common basic exercises or the unique stuff that I come up with in my basement “training lab.”

Do you have any upcoming projects? Absolutely. If you’re interested in building muscle and strength fast, I’d highly recommend checking out my Muscle Explosion program at www.28DayMuscleExplosion.com. It’s extremely challenging and is all about fast results. If you’ve hit a plateau, this would be a great fit for you.

If you’re looking for fat loss while maintaining muscle, try Metabolic Surge—Rapid Fat Loss (www
.MetabolicSurgeRapidFatLoss.com). You can also find my insane exercise e-books at www.TheBest
Exercises.com.

Q: What do you think of preacher curls?

A: The popularity of the preacher curl owes much to Larry Scott. He was the first Mr. Olympia—in 1965 and again in ’66. He retired from competition after that, although he made a brief comeback in ’79. Scott used the preacher curl heavily in his prime and promoted it in his writings for many years following his retirement.

Although I didn’t start bodybuilding until the ’70s, I acquired bodybuilding magazines from the ’60s and earlier. While Scott in his prime looks modest relative to today’s pros, in the ’60s he was phenomenal, and he was probably bodybuilding’s top superstar during that period.

Some of the most memorable and motivating photographs I’ve ever seen were black-and-whites of Scott training in his prime—real high-intensity training shots, including barbell and dumbbell preacher curls. Although his type of training never did anything positive for me, some of the photos were hugely inspirational.

Scott was best known for his arm development, especially his biceps. The bellies of his biceps were unusually long, which permitted outstanding development and shape. Although Scott attributed a lot of his extraordinary biceps development to preacher curls, it was his genetically determined biceps length and shape that were the biggest factors. He would still have had fantastic biceps if he’d never done a single preacher curl, provided he had worked hard on other curls.

Many bodybuilders who have short, “knotty” biceps used the preacher curl a great deal in an effort to try to lengthen their biceps and produce a better shape, but they never managed to do it do. Safely performed, the preacher curl is an option, but it won’t do anything to change the shape of your biceps. All it can do is what any biceps exercise can do if used correctly—develop strength and muscle size.

One caution: If you lose control of the resistance, the preacher curl can cause serious injury to your elbows and arm flexors, especially if you use the sloped side of the preacher bench.

Stick with the vertical side of the bench, choose a weight you can handle in correct form, maintain a controlled speed up and down, and pause briefly at the top and the bottom of each rep. Never bounce or jerk at the bottom, and always have a spotter standing by in case you lose control or fail on a rep and need assistance.

To involve your biceps completely on preacher curls, take a fully supinated grip on the barbell or dumbbells. Your wrists must be fully rotated outward.

Take it easy for the first few workouts. If you rush into intensive preacher-curling—even if you use correct technique—you may be in for extremely sore, if not injured, lower biceps.

—Stuart McRobert
www.Hardgainer.com

Editor’s note: Stuart McRobert’s first byline in IRON MAN appeared in 1981. He’s the author of the new BRAWN series, Book 1: How to Build Up to 50 Pounds of Muscle the Natural Way, available from Home Gym Warehouse (800) 447-0008 or www.Home-Gym.com.

That comes from a study published in Computers in Human Behavior, and the reason may be that “posting status updates encourages you to focus on the positive aspects of your life.”

Just don’t let it spiral out of control into attention seeking and narcissism—and don’t use it to replace real friends.

—Becky Holman

Most bodybuilders and athletes prefer to get their milk protein in supplement form, rather than drinking whole milk or eating a lot of dairy products, as they believe that dairy foods contain too much carb and fat. Others believe that milk contains estrogen, a steroid hormone associated with increased fat deposition, especially under the skin. Bodybuilders prefer to stick with concentrated protein supplements, which are devoid of excess calories, fat and carbs.

The point to keep in mind about protein supplements is that they’re nothing more than concentrated food protein. They offer a convenient way to take in greater amounts of protein without also getting additional calories, which gives you greater control of your body composition while you’re building muscle.

Commercial milk protein supplements contain two types of milk protein, whey and casein. While some have both types, others focus only on whey. Casein-based products are also available, although whey is far more popular because of its higher amino acid content and ease of digestion and absorption. To further complicate the situation, whey protein supplements come in varying forms—whey concentrates, whey isolates and hydrolyzed whey. They vary in protein content as well as carbs (in the form of  lactose) and fat. The whey concentrates often feature less protein, averaging about 80 percent, and also about 5 percent lactose. Even so, the concentrates retain all of the beneficial whey bioactive peptides.

Whey isolates have a higher protein content, about 90 percent or more, and also retain most of the active peptides—but they are much more expensive than the concentrates due to the additional processing involved.

Hydrolyzed whey features a predigested array of amino acids, making it the most rapidly absorbed form. Since the quick availability of amino acids postworkout plays a dominant role in kick-starting muscle protein synthesis, hydrolyzed whey is considered the best form to get after a workout. In truth, however, whey is so rapidly absorbed that the uptake advantages offered by hydrolyzed whey are not as significant as you might expect. That’s especially true when you consider that muscle protein synthesis peaks 48 hours after a weight workout.

The primary differences often cited between whey and casein are related to their absorption properties. Whey, as noted, is a rapidly absorbed protein that peaks about an hour after ingestion and is gone by the 90-minute mark. In contrast, casein is a slowly absorbed protein that actually curdles in the stomach, which provides a slow release of amino acids that lasts as long as seven hours.

Thanks to its rapid amino acid uptake, whey is generally considered to be superior to casein for boosting muscle-protein-synthesis; however, the slow-release property of casein suggests that it is ideal for triggering an anticatabolic effect in muscle. Specifically, having a higher concentration of amino acids in the blood tends to boost insulin, which helps lessen muscle protein breakdown. The greater amino acid content also tends to offset the effects of cortisol, an adrenal steroid hormone that is the major catabolic hormone in the body.

Since the effects of casein last for seven hours, it seems reasonable to assume that taking a casein-based supplement before going to sleep will have not only a major anticatabolic effect but also a way to boost muscle protein synthesis during sleep.

A major feature of the sleep process is body restoration, which includes repair of damaged tissues. It’s one reason that growth hormone peaks during the first 90 minutes of sleep, with the onset of deep sleep cycles. It stands to reason, then, that the slow-drip amino acid release provided by casein would enrich the normal sleep-restoration process and also significantly add to muscle protein synthesis, translating into increased muscle growth.

Although casein is often recommended for this late-night anabolic boost, it’s effectiveness has never actually been tested until recently. A group of scientists from the Netherlands decided to measure the effects of taking casein before bedtime on muscle protein synthesis.¹ Sixteen young, healthy, active men who were not athletes were divide into two groups, with one group getting 40 grams of casein and the other a placebo before going to sleep. To measure the effects on muscle protein synthesis, the researchers added a tracer of the amino acid phenylalanine and  gave the men an amino acid intravenously as they slept.

During the day the men ate a conventional diet containing 57 percent carb, 13 percent protein and 30 percent fat, which came to an average of 1.2 grams of protein per kilogram—2.2 pounds—of bodyweight. They weight trained in the evening, doing only lower-body exercises and taking 45 minutes to complete the workout. Following the workout, they had drinks that contained 60 grams of carb and 20 grams of whey protein. Before sleep they got either the tracer-enriched casein or a placebo. During the night the researchers monitored the rate of amino acid uptake from the casein and found a substantial rise in plasma amino acid content that lasted throughout the night, as expected. Half of the ingested casein became available as plasma amino acids. Why only half? The authors didn’t discuss that in detail, but I suspect that the other half was oxidized. It takes surprisingly small amounts of essential amino acids—say, six to 10 grams—to maximize muscle protein synthesis after training, and any aminos not used for that purpose are oxidized in the liver.

The scientists observed a higher rate of whole-body protein synthesis throughout the night after the subjects drank the casein supplement. Whole-body protein synthesis doesn’t reflect the rate of muscle protein synthesis, however, so the scientists also collected muscle biopsies before and after the casein ingestion to determine the actual muscle-protein-fractional-synthetic rate. They found that direct muscle protein synthesis was 22 percent higher in those who got the casein before sleep than in the placebo group. The researchers speculate that the rate of muscle protein synthesis produced by the casein was greatest during the first four hours of sleep, but they took measurements only during that time, so they don’t know for sure how long the muscle proteins synthesis was sustained, although they suspect that it was longer than four hours, considering casein’s seven-hour absorption rate.

Besides its obvious implications for bodybuilding, the authors suggest that this confirmation of the anabolic properties of casein could also greatly benefit older people, most of whom suffer from a relative anabolic blocking effect because of their inability to use amino acids from meals completely. I would further suggest that it could also benefit bodybuilders over 40, who don’t absorb amino acids as easily as their younger peers. Since recovery is one of the major differences between the young and the old, casein’s overnight anabolic boost may provide a definite anabolic advantage for those over 40 who are engaged in regular weight training.

So, based on this and other studies, it seems prudent to use a whey protein supplement before and after training to take advantage of the rapid digestion and uptake and switch to a casein-based supplement to maximize nighttime anabolic activity and blunt the early-morning rise of cortisol. Or you can get the best of both worlds by using a supplement that features both, which gives you the rapid amino acid uptake of whey as well as the longer, slow release of casein. The preferred form of casein is micellar casein, which undergoes minimal processing, leaving the beneficial peptides intact.

—Jerry Brainum

Editor’s note: Have you been ripped off by supplement makers whose products don’t work as advertised? Want to know the truth about them? Check out Natural Anabolics, available at JerryBrainum.com.

¹ Res, P.T., et al. (2012). Protein ingestion prior to sleep improves post-exercise overnight recovery. Med Sci Sports Exerc. 44(8):1560-9.

Having strong traps is important to every athlete but particularly to those participating in contact sports—including hockey, football, rugby, lacrosse, soccer and basketball. Even those who participate in tame, noncontact sports need strong traps, as they are the primary muscle group that stabilizes the shoulder girdle.

Very few strength programs include heavy shrugs, although most do have some exercises that hit the traps, such as power cleans, power snatches, high pulls and full snatches and cleans. Any exercise in which the bar is pulled above the waist involves the traps, and those movements are all helpful, but in order to make the traps herculean strong, you have to hammer them.

All athletes should covet powerful traps. Not only will they help you perform at a high level in your chosen sport, but they can also save you from a cervical spine injury. Softball isn’t regarded as a contact sport, yet I read that an outfielder sustained a broken neck when he collided with a fellow outfielder while attempting to catch a long fly ball.

The traps are made up of four overlapping muscles. They originate at the base of the skull, tie in with the deltoids and form a triangle down to the middle of the back. They act as a cantilever bridge for the entire shoulder girdle.

Bodybuilders and powerlifters who walk around with a “bookbag slump” are examples of athletes who have neglected their traps, spending the majority of their time in the weight room doing flat-benches presses. That leads to disproportionate strength between the upper back and chest, and if the relative weakness isn’t rectified, they will have discomfort and eventually a great deal of shoulder pain. The lack of strength in the traps pulls the deltoids, and if nothing is done to reestablish the balance, all exercises that involve the shoulders will eventually have to be dropped.

A few years ago many coaches were advocating doing shrugs with straight arms—from start to finish. Their theory was, if an athlete didn’t bend his arms, he worked the traps more directly. Not true. On all the lifts I mentioned above, the arms are bent at the end of the movement. The truth is, the higher the bar is lifted, the more the traps are worked—as well as a great many other groups, such as the lats and rear deltoids.

While it would appear that shrugs are a simple exercise to do, they’re one of the most difficult in all of strength training. You must perform all the sets precisely, and you do the final couple of sets with a very short stroke in a hair-thin line, with all the other mechanics absolutely perfect.

It helps if you have learned to do power cleans and snatches and high pulls before shrugs, but it’s not essential. There are two styles of power shrugs: those done in a power rack and those done outside a rack, which I call “Hawaiian shrugs.” For the first two years I was the strength coach at the University of Hawaii, we didn’t have a power rack. In order to shrug, the athletes had to take the bar off short pins on the back of the squat rack, step back, do their set and then replace the bar on the pins. As you might expect, those are a great deal harder than shrugging inside a power rack. Even after we got a rack, however, I still had them shrugging outside of it every so often, as the Hawaiian style worked the traps in a slightly different fashion.

When using  a rack, set the pins at midthigh. Always use straps. You may not need them in the beginning, but you will once the weights get heavy.

Strap onto the bar. You can alter your grip to build more variety into your trap routine, or just stick with the clean grip. Start with 135. Tuck the bar in tight against your thighs, with your arms straight and your feet at shoulder width. Look ahead or slightly up. Squeeze the bar off the pins instead of jerking it off, and then pull the bar as high as you can. On that initial set the bar may soar up over your head. Good, that’s exactly what you should be trying to do—for two reasons.

First, the higher you pull the bar, the more muscle groups come into play. Second, you want to establish the correct line of pull from the very beginning, and that is, tight to your body all the way up. Coordination and timing are key factors in doing a power shrug.

You must keep your arms straight until you have fully contracted your traps. Only then will you bend your arms—your elbows should turn out and up, not back and down. Should you bend your arms too soon, the bar will come to an abrupt halt. The bar has to stay snug to your body the entire time. If you allow it to float forward, even as much as an inch, you’re not going to be able to finish the shrug strongly or handle much weight.

At the same instant that you bend your arms, climb high on your toes. When the weights get heavy, you may not extend upward very much, yet that little bit helps elevate the bar a few inches—and every inch adds more strength to your traps.

Lower the bar back to the pins in a controlled manner. Don’t get in the habit of letting it crash down on the pins. That isn’t good for your wrists, elbows and shoulders—or your eyeteeth. Reset to make sure the bar is snug against your thighs and your front deltoids are a bit in front of the bar, and do your next rep, concentrating on coordinating your traps with your arms and, finally, your feet. Once you get that down pat, the bar will start jumping.

Five sets of five works well for power shrugs, and in order to build powerful traps, you have to load up the weight. The goal I set for my athletes is to handle the bar plus six 45-pound plates on each side—585. It will seem like a lot at first, but once you master the form, the numbers will climb each week. The only athletes who did not achieve that goal were the smaller ones, but everyone made considerable improvement during the off-season strength program.

While the final couple of sets may only move six or eight inches, if you’re still using perfect form, you’ll be hitting the traps directly. These are best done on Fridays so you have two full days to rest your back. If you’ve fully applied yourself on this lift, your traps will get sore every week. If you don’t, you didn’t work hard enough.

For me, however, one of the most gratifying feelings is to wake up and discover that my traps are sore. Sore is always a good thing in strength training. Power shrugs should be a part of every serious strength athlete’s program. They help stabilize the shoulder girdle, protect the cervical spine, strengthen the upper back and, as a bonus, improve posture. You really can’t ask for more than that from a single exercise.

Editor’s note: Bill Starr was a strength and conditioning coach at Johns Hopkins University from 1989 to 2000. He’s the author of The Strongest Shall Survive—Strength Training for Football, which is available for $20 plus shipping from Home Gym Warehouse. Call (800) 447-0008, or visit www.Home-Gym.com.

Q: Any tips on how to stretch the calves? I stretch them every day with the basic wall stretch, but I don’t feel anything. I need to improve flexibility in my calves because I believe they are limiting my ability to squat with an upright posture.

A: You’re correct that having more flexible calves will assist you in properly performing the squat, as the shins must incline forward in order for you to maintain an upright posture. Even so, the typical static stretches just won’t cut it. The best way to stretch your calves is to use a standing and a seated calf machine.

First, position yourself under the pads of the standing calf raise machine, lock your knees and lower your heels as far as possible. Remember, keep your knees locked, as that will ensure that both the soleus and the gastrocnemius are fully stretched. Hold the stretch for a full 15 seconds.

Bend your knees to lower the shoulder pads, and take a five-second break during, which you increase the weight by two or three plates. Repeat the “stretch-rest-add-weight” process for another three to five reps.

Now move to the seated calf raise machine to give your soleus muscles a superior stretch. Use the same training methodology: Hold the stretch for 15 seconds, rest five seconds, and add weight for a total of five or six reps.

—Charles Poliquin

Q: I’ve noticed that your abs are not just ripped—they look like bricks. Did you always have thick abdominal muscles? I have a six-pack, but it doesn’t look like yours even at 4 percent bodyfat!

A: No, I absolutely did not always have thick ab blocks (as I like to call them). The washboard you have been seeing online in more recent photos is a direct result of my training and the focus I have been putting on thickening my abdominal muscles in recent years.

While I have most definitely been blessed with a small waist and rather narrow hip structure, it was not until I reached my early 40s that my abs became a truly impressive aspect of my physique. Here are the key actions that led to my abdominal metamorphosis. Try them, and see what they can do for you.

• Train your abs twice weekly.

• Treat them as you would any other muscle group, not an afterthought.

• Slow the tempo, and focus on the stretch and squeeze of each exercise.

• Add more resistance to every abdominal movement so that you can perform fewer reps.

• Take every set to failure.

• Find a core of abdominal exercises that you “feel” the most, and stick with them.

In regard to that last point, the most productive exercises for me are weighted floor crunches, cable crunches, seated machine crunches, hanging straight- and bent-leg raises, incline straight- and bent-leg raises, lying side crunches and cable side crunches.

Although I’m the creator of the Power/Rep Range/Shock training system and use it and its hybrids most of the year for all of my muscle groups, I rarely included abs in that regimen until recently. Instead, I would simply throw in a few sets of ab work at the end of one or two workouts per week with no real strategy. Once I took stock of my physique and realized that my abdominals were decent but lacking the wow factor, I decided to get serious and attack them with the same focus and ferocity as I would hit back, bi’s or delts. With that decision the following P/RR/S ab-zapping program was born:

Power week

Weighted floor crunches (with heavy

DB on chest)

3-4 x 10-12

Hanging or supported

straight-leg raises

(DB between feet) 3-4 x 10-12

Rep Range week

Cable crunches 2-3 x 13-15

Incline straight-leg raises 2-3 x 16-20

Lying side crunches 2-3 x 21-25

Shock week

Seated machine crunches

(drop set) 2 x 16-20(8-10)

Superset

Hanging or supported

bent-leg raises 2 x 16-20

Incline bent-leg raises 2 x 16-20

Cable side crunches 1 x 13-15; rest

10 seconds, max reps;

rest 20 seconds, max reps

After two P/RR/S cycles I shuffle the exercises around a bit to provide variation and keep stimulating the muscles, mind and central nervous system in a unique manner. I should also point out that I have built a very strong mind/muscle connection in my abdominals, which helps immensely in keeping the hip flexors out of all leg raise movements.

There is no magic formula behind building “bricks” for abs. What it takes is committing to treating them just as you would any other major muscle group!

—Eric Broser

Editor’s note: Eric Broser’s new DVD “Power/Rep Range/Shock Max-Mass Training System” is available at Home-Gym.com. His e-books, Power/Rep Range/Shock Workout and The FD/FS Mass-Shock Workout, which include complete printable workout templates and Q&A sections, are available at X-Workouts.com.

Shoulders and arms. We all want big melon delts that fill doorways, and arms? My goodness gracious, I have been asking Santa for a pair of monster guns every Christmas since the early 1980s (apparently I was never a good enough boy). In particular, we often hear that shoulders can never be too big. Normally, that’s accurate, but if your chest or back isn’t keeping up, continuing to build your shoulders and arms will only highlight your lack of development in the other areas. Paul Dillett was a star of the ’90s who had some of the biggest, freakiest shoulders and arms a human being ever built. From the front he was Mr. Olympia. When he turned to the rear and hit his back poses, the effect was underwhelming—his back needed a lot of work. Evan Centopani is a great example of someone who recognized that issue and caught it before things got out of hand. His chest doesn’t respond anywhere near as well or as quickly as his shoulders and arms, but rather than allow his delts, bi’s and tri’s to grow out of control, he wisely keeps the reins on them as he busts his ass to bring up his pecs.

Traps. Who has the best traps in bodybuilding today (and in my opinion of all time)? That honor goes to Johnnie Jackson, who also happens to be known as the world’s strongest bodybuilder. I have seen some thick, ear-scraping traps in my time, but his are on a whole other level. Yet Johnnie will be the first to admit that if he could have done it all over again, he wouldn’t have allowed them to get that immense. It took him many years to make his shoulders thick, wide and round enough that he didn’t appear narrow. He succeeded, but it took a whole lot of growth in his delts. Since traps do seem to grow faster than side delts for many guys, be mindful of their balance.

Legs. Johnnie’s training partner is Branch Warren, considered by many to have the best leg development in the sport today. Branch’s legs were always very responsive, and in his amateur years they overpowered his upper body. It took him two separate periods of not training legs for nearly a year to get his upper body to catch up. There have been and continue to be top-level amateur bodybuilders who have better genetics for leg growth than they have for everything above the waist. Their more-average upper bodies only make them look completely bottom heavy. A lot of guys wish that their legs responded better, but if you’re one of those guys (or girls) whose legs blow up when they just walk past a squat rack, it may be time to lay off them and work on the upstairs.

Abs. One unfortunate eyesore that the era of mass monsters ushered in was big guts. To be fair, some guys just have wide waists and big hips. You can’t change your bone structure, but you do need to keep that already large midsection from getting any larger. If the abs and obliques are overly developed in a man who already has a thick waist, it’s only going to make the midsection more of a barrel shape. If your Creator didn’t bless you with a particularly small midsection, don’t make matters worse by using heavy weights for abdominal exercises and performing exercises that cause your obliques to thicken—as deadlifts seem to do in many cases. —Ron Harris

Editor’s note: Ron Harris is the author of Real Bodybuilding—Muscle Truth From 25 Years in the Trenches, available at www.RonHarrisMuscle.com.

Taking steroids can lead to an enlarged heart that goes beyond that induced by exercise alone. That can set you up for future heart failure. Steroids can also damage the cells of the heart muscle, which, in turn, can put you at risk for a fatal electrical disturbance in heart rhythm known as an “arrhythmia.” Steroids are linked to higher blood pressure, which is the primary risk factor for strokes. The immediate cause of most heart attacks is an internal clot that obstructs a coronary artery. Steroids come into play because they promote internal clotting. Using steroids tends to thicken the blood due to overproduction of red blood cells, a condition known as polycythemia. Having too thick blood not only makes it harder to breathe but also boosts a person’s chances of having a stroke.

Steroids cause damage to the endothelium, which is the lining of blood vessels, decreasing how fast the blood vessels can dilate. Finally, steroid use may increase homocysteine, a metabolite of the amino acid methionine that is associated with damage to the endothelium.

Many of the negative effects are due to long-term use of steroids. The structural damage to heart cells comes under that heading. Steroids can also cause some rapid side effects, especially if taken in large amounts or in combination with other steroids in a cycle. Changes in blood-lipid profiles are a primary example.

Oral steroids potently affect an enzyme in the liver that degrades high-density lipoprotein, which is considered protective against cardiovascular disease. HDL ferries cholesterol from the blood back to the liver, where it’s degraded into bile. That’s the only way the body can rid itself of excess cholesterol, since cholesterol cannot be oxidized like fat. Steroids also boost low-density lipoprotein, the major cholesterol carrier in the blood, and having higher LDL is considered to be a major cause of atherosclerosis, especially when the LDL is oxidized.

Injectable steroids, in contrast to oral versions, are considered to be more benign in their effects on blood lipids, mainly because the injectables are not immediately metabolized in the liver, as the orals are. One study, for example, compared the effects of taking only six milligrams a day of Winstrol, a popular oral steroid, with 200 milligrams of testosterone enanthate, an injectable steroid. While the Winstrol was taken daily, the testosterone was injected once a week. After six weeks the Winstrol lowered beneficial HDL-2 by 71 percent. Those taking the injection showed lower levels of another subfraction, HDL-3, by only 9 percent. LDL rose by 29 percent with Winstrol but dropped 16 percent with the testosterone injection.

On the other hand, a recently published study suggests that the effect of only a single injection of testosterone on cholesterol is far more potent than was previously believed.¹ To understand how that is possible, you need to know how cholesterol is produced. Cholesterol is produced in the liver. The rate-limiting enzyme for cholesterol synthesis, meaning the enzyme that determines how much and how fast cholesterol is produced, is HMG-COa reductase—HMG.

This is the enzyme that is inhibited by statin drugs, which are the primary drugs prescribed to treat cardiovascular disease. Statins effectively lower elevated blood cholesterol by inhibiting the activity of HMG. The body, however, has its own feedback mechanism, in that large amounts of LDL turn off the gene that produces HMG, which turns off cholesterol synthesis in the liver. The process depends on the activity of LDL cell receptors, which are involved in cell uptake of cholesterol. The more active the receptors are, the less cholesterol circulates in the blood. Once in the cell, cholesterol is used as a starting substance for a variety of vital functions in the body, including the stabilization of cell membranes and production of steroid-based hormones like testosterone, estrogen, cortisol and activated vitamin D.

In the new study 39 healthy volunteers, aged 18 to 50, got a 500-milligram injection of testosterone enanthate, which is equivalent to 360 milligrams of testosterone (that is, without the enanthate). This dose is considerably higher than what’s prescribed for the treatment of low testosterone. Although testosterone injections are rarely used to treat age-associated low T, when they are, the usual dose is about 100 milligrams, once a week. Doctors favor other forms of therapy because injections tend to peak after two days, then gradually decline. Using other forms of testosterone, such as creams, produces a lower level of in the blood but a more steady release of it.

The researchers measured the subjects’ total blood cholesterol at the start of the study to determine baseline values. Just two days after being injected with testosterone, the men’s blood cholesterol levels rose an average of 15 percent. After 15 days they dropped back to baseline. The researchers found that in 80 percent of the men the gene that controls the production of HMG in the liver increased by 80 percent within two days of their getting the testosterone injection, thus accounting for the rapid rise in blood cholesterol. There was no effect on liver function, as shown by no elevation in liver enzymes, so the effect was solely due to the testosterone-induced simulation of the gene for HMG in the liver.

To ensure that the effect was from the injection, the authors exposed isolated liver cells to an amount of testosterone equal to what the men in the study got. They observed that the testosterone did, in fact, promote increased activity of the HMG process in the liver cells. The higher cholesterol returned to baseline 15 days after the injection because of the body’s built-in feedback mechanism, whereby cholesterol controls its own synthesis by shutting that whole thing down. That is, higher blood cholesterol leads to a shutdown of liver cholesterol production as the gene for HMG is turned off.

There are a few factors to consider with this study. For one, as noted, unlike oral steroids, injected testosterone does not ordinarily lead to bad effects on blood lipids. If anything, dangerous LDL levels are reduced with testosterone injections, while HDL levels are barely affected. Why the difference between oral and injectable steroids?  One reason is that the orals potently boost the activity of the liver enzyme that degrades HDL, with 143 to 232 percent greater activity of the enzyme. Injectables don’t do that. Another difference is that some of the injectable testosterone is converted into estrogen through the activity of the enzyme aromatase, which is found all over the body.

Since many bodybuilders who use steroids are concerned about aromatase converting them into estrogen, they use other drugs, such as Arimidex, to block the aromatase. They do it to prevent various estrogen-related side effects, such as gynecomastia and water retention. The question is how that affects the protective cardiovascular benefits offered by estrogen. In one study, subjects were given a 280-milligram injection of enanthate per week. Other subjects got the same injection but also used an aromatase-inhibiting drug called testolactone. The third group in the study took the oral steroid methyltestosterone, at a dose of 20 milligrams a day. The study lasted for 12 weeks, and the researchers noted only small changes in the HDL levels in those who got only the testosterone injections. After four weeks, however, those who got the testosterone as well as the aromatase-blocking drug showed an average 25 percent drop in HDL. Those who took the oral steroid fared even worse, showing a 35 percent drop in HDL after a month.

The point here is that although the 500-milligram testosterone injection used in the study did cause a rapid rise in blood cholesterol after only two days, an injection that big would likely result in considerable conversion of the testosterone to estrogen by way of aromatase. The increased estrogen, in turn, would boost protective HDL, thus neutralizing most of the bad effects of the higher cholesterol levels induced by the injection. Of course, if a drug is also used that blocks aromatase, the protective effect is lost. Interestingly, another drug used to control estrogen, tamoxifen citrate—trade name Nolvadex—works not by inhibiting aromatase but rather by competitively interfering with estrogen binding to cell receptors. As such, using Nolvadex to control estrogen would not have as bad an effect on lipids as the aromatase-blocking drugs.

The final point to consider about this study is that the dose of testosterone used, 500 milligrams, is about five times greater than any dose used to treat low testosterone in men. The medical dose not only doesn’t cause problems with blood lipids but even reduces dangerous LDL levels. So the results of this study don’t pertain to those who are on any type of medically supervised testosterone therapy.

Editor’s note: Jerry Brainum has been an exercise and nutrition researcher and journalist for more than 25 years. He’s worked with pro bodybuilders as well as many Olympic and professional athletes. To get his new e-book, Natural Anabolics—Nutrients, Compounds and Supplements That Can Accelerate Muscle Growth Without Drugs, visit www.JerryBrainum.com.   IM

 ¹ Garevik, N., et al. (2012). Single-dose testosterone increases total cholesterol levels and induces the expression of HMG CoA reductase. Sub Abuse Treat, Prevent, and Policy. 7:12.

My expert opinion: Motivation is like a warm bath. You may feel it for a while, but it soon wears off.

It’s a catchphrase that defines an industry but does little, if any, good because it seldom includes actionable items for you to do while motivated.

As an IRON MAN reader you know what the actions are. You just need to execute them on a regular basis.

I feel I am more of a “restorational” speaker and author. We are all born as a blank slate—no habits good or bad; no challenges, just complete dependence on our caretakers, who are usually our parents.

As the years go by, we pick up bad habits and ditch the dependence. After all, we all want to be self-made.

Here are three easy steps to living a restored life:

• Determine the bad habits that you have picked up.

• Replace them with good habits.

• Start being dependent again.

About that last one: Realize that no one is self-made, but make clear choices about who you are dependent on and surround yourself with. We don’t get to choose our parents, but we do get to choose who we surround ourselves with.

The key to success in any area of life is habits, so think careful and decide what habits you want in your life. If you want to be lean, you should eat well. Drinking beer and eating chips will not help you with that goal. If you want to be wealthy, spending all your money will not catapult you into the financial elite, but working hard, saving and investing wisely will.

The bottom line is that your habits will make or break your life. The good news is, it’s completely in your control. I recommend that you take a peek at HabitForge.com to help make your habits a habit!

—John Rowley
OldSchoolNewBody.com

According to the December ’12 Bottom Line Health, 70 to 80 percent of the United States population is deficient in magnesium, which can trigger spasms in the cerebral arteries that lead to migraines.

Try taking  100 milligrams in the morning and another 100 milligrams at night. Co-enzme Q10 may help as well because it’s an antioxidant that reduces inflammation.

Q: I will be celebrating my 50th birthday this spring. I really like your “walking down the beach at age 52” photo, which I saw in IRON MAN. I have a solid base of muscle from years in the gym, but I’ve never gotten ripped. How much cardio do I need to do to achieve your level of shredditude? And do I have to run? Running really irritates my knees. 

A: Congrats on making it to the half-century mark! You seem to be approaching your 50th birthday with the same mind-set that I had. I was looking forward to being 50 years old and being in the best shape of my life. I turned 50 in 2009 and had, arguably, the best year of my bodybuilding career. Attitude makes a tremendous difference, so keep thinking the way you’re thinking!

In terms of how much cardio you need to do, I’m going to tell you exactly what I tell all of the competitors I train: “Do as little cardio as you can get away with—while losing the fat you want to lose.”

In my 30 years of competing I’ve had only one year in which I didn’t have to do any cardio while preparing for a show. Of all the people I’ve trained in the past 25 years, only two men didn’t have to do any cardio to get in ripped condition. So for most people who want to get superlean, it’s a fact of life. Still, individuals vary considerably in the amount of cardio that they have to do.

I’ve had clients who’ve gotten into tremendous shape doing only 15 to 20 minutes of cardio per day and clients who had to do as much as 2 1/2 hours per day. It all depends on your individual metabolism and how strict you are with your diet. Start with 15 to 20 minutes in the morning. For most people that will get the fat coming off at a steady rate. I recommend shooting for one pound per week. I will get into the progression for adding cardio time and intensity below.

My next recommendation is to do cardio the first thing in the morning. That really turns on your metabolism and fat-burning machinery. Getting up earlier is no fun, trust me—I’m not a morning person. Once I resign myself to the fact that I’m going to get up every morning early enough to get my cardio done, it does get easier.

I’ve been through this so many times with myself and my clients, and I promise you that doing cardio as soon as you get up will dramatically accelerate the fat-burning process. If you’re a coffee drinker, by all means have a cup before your cardio. You will feel better, and the caffeine will help with the fat burning. (Caffeine is also the main ingredient in most of the thermogenic products on the market) I recommend using a BCAA supplement before or during your cardio  work as well. I use Xtend by Scivation. I add a scoop or two to a bottle of water and sip on it during the session.

Keep in mind that doing too much cardio will cut into recovery from your weight-training workouts—and doing way too much cardio can actually start cutting into muscle protein. Up your cardio time only when you hit a plateau in your fat loss. You should have your body composition measured weekly so you can distinguish weight loss from fat loss.

Quite often people gain muscle and lose fat when they clean up their diet and get focused on a fitness goal. Their bodyweight isn’t dropping, but they are losing bodyfat. Without measuring body composition, they think they’re not losing fat, so they increase cardio and/or decrease calories. Increasing the calorie deficit when it’s not necessary will inevitably slow your metabolism, and you don’t want that. Take body-comp measurements on a weekly basis. If your bodyfat percentage stalls out, add 10 minutes to your morning cardio. That should get the fat coming off again.

It’s quite common to hit a fat-loss plateau. My philosophy has always been to add more cardio gradually to coax the body into giving up the fat. At our age “shocking the body” is not a good practice. Once I’ve increased my morning cardio to the point where I’m doing 30 minutes, I hold it there. I just don’t have that much time in the morning—who does? So, when I hit another fat-loss plateau, I add a second cardio session to my day, usually 20 to 30 minutes in the evening after work. You will definitely see the bodyfat melting off again when you add an evening session.

Finally, if I’m doing two sessions a day and I hit another plateau, I will add a midday cardio session on the days that I’m not weight training. I really don’t enjoy doing cardio, but sometimes you just have to go there to get your bodyfat well below what your body wants to be.

You asked about running. No, you don’t have to run. I was a runner in college, and I used to love it, but now it hurts me. The only time I run is when  I’m out on a walk and I need to get back quickly to use the bathroom!

Running is fantastic cardiovascular exercise, but your body takes too much of a pounding, as there is a jarring impact each time your foot strikes the ground. All my cardio is done walking fast (at least 15 minutes per mile) or riding my Lifecycle. Sometimes I add hills and stairs to increase the intensity of my walks, or I gradually increase the intensity level on the Lifecycle as I get in better condition. Again, keep in mind that you are doing cardio to burn fat. You don’t want to kill yourself to the point that you start losing muscle.

I can’t stress enough the necessity of doing things gradually and just coaxing your body into giving up the fat. After 50 years our bodies have a lot of wear and tear, regardless of how careful we’ve been (and who was careful in his teens and early 20s?). Start with just a little cardio and only increase it as necessary. Increase the intensity as you get in better condition. The fat will come off, and you will stay healthy.

Best of luck with your quest for superfitness at 50!

Train hard, and eat clean!

Note: The Texas Shredder Mass Workout e-book is available at X-Workouts.com.

Editor’s Note: See Dave Goodin’s blog at www.IronManMagazine.com. Click on Blogs in the top menu bar. Check out his new Web site at Shredderbuilt.com. To contact Dave directly, send e-mail to DaveGoodin@iCloud.com. IM

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TRY THIS AT YOUR NEXT WORKOUT
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Full-Range Back-to-Basics Mass Workout–Simple But It Works

Q: I just started reading up on your [Positions-of-Flexion] mass-building method. The full-range hit on each muscle makes so much sense that I can’t wait to try it. A friend said it helped him build 10 pounds of new mass in just six weeks. Where do I start? Is there a basic 4-days-per-week POF mass workout I can use?

A: We have POF in almost all of our e-books because it makes so much sense and has built so much muscle for so many–including us.

One of the best back-to-basics POF mass workouts is the 3D Power Pyramid Program, chapter 1 in the X-traordinary Muscle-Building Workouts e-book.

That program is a 2-way split, so you divide your body over Monday and Tuesday, then repeat on Thursday and Friday.

You basically do a 3-set pyramid on the big midrange move, so your reps go 8, 6, 3-4. Keep your form strict, but go heavy.

Then for the stretch- and contracted-position exercises you do one to two sets of 8-12 reps. Simple. For example, biceps is…

Midrange: Barbell curls (add weight each set), 3 x 8, 6, 3-4
Stretch: Incline curls, 1-2 x 8-12
Contracted: Concentration curls, 1-2 x 8-12

Right after we released this power-mass program, K.T. Fostoria wrote and said, “I’m 31 years old and started lifting weights shortly after I graduated high school. In 10 years of training I didn’t put on much muscle weight. Then I was introduced to 3D Positions of Flexion. I tried the Power Pyramid Program and went from 195 to 215 in two short months [almost 20 pounds of muscle in eight weeks]. Thank you very much for POF. Without it I might have given up.”

Pretty powerful stuff. Of course, K.T.’s results are some of the best we’ve had reported–but who knows what YOU can do till you try it on for size.

Is the program tough? Absolutely, but that’s what makes it so productive. Luckily each bodypart routine does not take long, so you don’t sap your recovery ability–but you do blast each target muscle hard through it’s full range of motion. That’s key for ultimate fiber activation and mass stimulation.

Also, the 3D Power Pyramid works well with the 4X moderate-weight, GROWTH-THRESHOLD method as well. You can do a 4X or 3X sequence on each exercise instead of heavy straight sets…

Pick a weight with which you can get 15 reps, but only do 10; rest 35 seconds, then do it again. Repeat for the designated number of sets, and on the last one–set 3 or 4–go all out to failure. If you get 10, add weight to that exercise at your next workout.

4X is great for older trainees–less joint stress–and it works well with almost all of the BIG 10 mass programs in the XMB Workouts e-book…

Those other program in XMB Workouts, many based on POF, include: X-Rep Reload, Traumatic/Nontraumatic (T/NT), Volume-Intensity Fusion and Heavy/Light. Plus there’s a bonus chapter on stretch-overload research.

Use them as listed or devise your own hybrid size-building routines. Lots of proven mass workouts you can use to get HUGE.

SPECIAL-PRICE NOTE: This question inspired us to put the X-traordinary Muscle Building Workouts e-book on sale at a rock-bottom price of ONLY $10–it was over $40 when it was first released. It contains the BIG 10 size-and-strength-building programs. Check it out HERE <==

OR grab XMB Workouts AND 3D Muscle Building, the original Positions-of-Flexion mass-building manual for ONLY $20 and save even more. Check out this combo-to-grow offer HERE <==
Till next time, train hard–and smart–for BIG results.

–Steve Holman and Jonathan Lawson
www.X-Rep.com

Newly Updated E-book: The Ultimate POWER-DENSITY Mass Workout 2.0 with SUPER TORQ training–ONLY $12…
The Updated Power-Density Mass Workout 2.0 is only $12 (regular price is $24). We’ve revised this classic e-book with new chapters and workouts, including an interview with Mr. America Doug Brignole on his unique high-rep mass method–and we’ve included his complete workout with what we call Super TORQ: Only one exercise per muscle with a 50-40-30-20-10 sequence. We also outline 2 more new programs, OUR Super TORQ routine, based on Doug’s but tweaked with a few standard sets, and a Power-Density version that has Super TORQ at one workout and heavy full-range Positions-of-Flexion training at the next. This is our most exciting e-book yet. For more on the updated Power-Density Workout 2.0 with Super TORQ (ONLY $12 for a LIMITED TIME), Go HERE <==

OTHER SPECIAL OFFERS…

LIMITED-TIME $14.99 to $19.99 BEST-SELLERS: We’re offering each of these at their lowest price ever to get you big and ripped by spring. Click on the title you’re interested in for more info…

1) The 4X Mass Workout–fast, simplified supersaturation training for X-treme size

2) The X-traordinary X-Rep Workout–the latest update to our original X e-book

3) The X-centric Mass Workout–the negative-accentuated training manual

4) The Ultimate Fat-to-Muscle Workout–total body transformation training

5) X-traordinary Muscle-Building Workouts–10 complete mass programs

6) X-traordinary Arms–includes the 3D HIT workout system with big-arms routines

7) 3D Muscle Building–the original Positions-of-Flexion mass-training manual

8) X-treme Lean—Fat-Burning and Nutrition Guide (with training too)

9) The Ultimate Power-Density Mass Workout

10) The Ultimate 10×10 Mass Workout

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To follow the ITRC training program in “Train, Eat, Grow,” get a copy of the latest issue of IRON MAN.

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This Special Report was submitted by Jonathan Lawson and Steve Holman.
The IRON MAN Training & Research Team
www.ironmanmagazine.com

The ITRC Training Newsletter is not intended as training advice for everyone. You must consult your physician before beginning any diet or training program. You may forward this email to as many friends as you want, but do not photocopy or reprint this report in any format without the written permission of the copyright holder.

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All Content (c) Copyright 2013 IRON MAN Magazine
All Rights Reserved

First, I’ll list the supplements I use regularly and then the individual meals in my daily diet.

Supplements:

• B-complex, 50-milligrams (timed-release)

• Vitamin E, 400 international units

• Multimineral, 2 per day, with food

• Vitamin D, 2,000 international units

• Vitamin C, 1,000 milligrams (timed-release), 2 per day, with food

• GlutuLean (L-glutamine powder), 10 grams

• BCAA capsules, 5 before each meal

• PowerCarb, 1 scoop after workout

• Lean Body meal-replacement shakes

• HICA MAX, 3 tablets after workout

• SuperCharge, 2 scoops prior to workout

Meal 1

10 egg whites

1 cup oatmeal

1 cup nonfat Greek yogurt

Workout: Take L-glutamine powder, BCAAs and

SuperCharge preworkout powder at start

Meal 2 (postworkout)

Lean Body meal-replacement shake

1 scoop PowerCarb

1 tablespoon fish oil

3 HICA MAX tablets

Meal 3

8 ounces chicken breast

10 ounces sweet potato

1 cup vegetables

Meal 4

8 ounces chicken breast

1 1/2 cups rice mixed with black beans

1 cup vegetables

Meal 5

8 ounces salmon, orange roughy or halibut

10 ounces sweet potato

1 cup vegetables

Meal 6

Lean Body meal-replacement shake

1 tablespoon fish oil

—Lee Labrada

Editor’s note: For information on Labrada Nutrition products, visit Labrada.com.

After being runner-up for the second straight year in the over-60 lightweight class at what is arguably the most prestigious masters bodybuilding contest in the country, I had approached one of the judges seeking advice on how to improve my standings. When he asked what class I competed in, I answered, “Over-60 lightweight.” The judge, with knitted eyebrows, replied, “You’re over 60? It is what it is. Just work on conditioning.”

Now, that extremely revealing statement was doubly surprising to me since I am generally known for coming into a show in good condition. The judge went on to admit that he didn’t even take notes on contestants in that age category. Rather than take this decidedly dismissive answer personally, I asked myself, “What does this attitude mean, and where does it come from?”

Here’s what it means: “It is what it is. Just work on conditioning.” Translation: “At your age you are not going to improve in muscular development; all that is left for you is to work on your conditioning.”

And here, in part, is where that attitude comes from: Our culture has accepted and perpetuated powerful and pervasive negative assumptions about aging. Many of which are false. Even within the supposedly enlightened bodybuilding community many widely held yet unsupported beliefs form the basis of our training methods and goal setting.

Don’t believe it? If you read the pages of this magazine (and others as well), you will find that legitimate research has continued to debunk some of bodybuilding’s most sacred bovines. For example: Keto diets are probably not your best bet for long-term bodybuilding success. Low reps and heavy weight are great for strength but are not necessarily the optimum way to build size.

Old beliefs, like old habits, die hard. Sometimes, experiencing something for yourself is the only thing that can change a long-held belief. I encountered a great example of that recently.

While competing at the Florida Championships (got first in over-60 division), I had a chance to chat with respected national judge and NPC Central Florida District Chairman Peter Fancher. We discussed the other judge’s comments, and Fancher, himself a successful masters competitor in the early ’90s, admitted with his usual candor that up until lately he had believed the same thing. Pete, who is in his ’60s, changed his mind when he observed recent significant improvements in his own physique, which he credits to a friend’s guidance in adopting advanced training techniques.

Indeed, many of today’s top masters competitors are forging new ground in areas of physique excellence—virtually redefining the limits of age-related muscular development. You can see this from the top IFBB pros, many of whom are in their mid-to-late 40s, on down to the ripped and muscled masters competitors showing up in increasing numbers even at smaller, local shows.

The top show promoters are well aware of this trend. Gary Udit, promoter of the  NPC Masters Nationals, told me that he advises anyone even thinking of competing in one of the national events to either attend the show first as a spectator or take a close look online at the amazing quality of the competitors.

“What you believe is the most powerful predictor of what you will achieve.”

What if you are an older gym rat, one who’s never been to the Masters Nationals or wasn’t quite lucky enough to have a friend who helped guide you to bodybuilding success in your later years? You might believe, just as the first judge I talked with did, that meaningful muscle-building progress is not possible because of your age. If that is what you believe, then that is how you will train—tentatively and with a kind of fatalism, certain that your best days are behind you.

Even if you are a young bodybuilder, you may still have fallen prey to a negative assumption. Let’s say that somewhere along the line in the pursuit of your sport you accepted the label of “hardgainer.” From then on your training likely suffered as much from the belief in that label as from any actual genetic disadvantage.

As far as muscle hypertrophy and aging are concerned, I have yet to see a scientific study that has placed a definitive age limit on the human body’s ability to generate muscle. In addition, I, and many others, have seen considerable muscle growth well into our 60s.

So don’t fall victim to poisoned perceptions. Train with passion and perseverance, and find out for yourself what your own potential might be—at any age.

—Tony DiCosta

Nothing like a long, exciting list of incentives to invigorate one’s training.

What happened to the original motivators: big guns, barn-door lats, cannonball delts, four plates clattering on a steadily ascending Olympic bar? They came, they conquered, they moved on, and here we remain, bright-eyed traumatized victims, grinning empty hulks, giggling remnants of hard-fought bloody battles.

Let’s face it, steel heads, without the iron we’d be a mess.

I never know what’s gonna take place at the gym these days. There was a time I knew exactly what was going to happen, give or take two reps or a 2 1/2-pound plate. Grab iron; toss, hoist, shove repeatedly; pump, burn, sweat a lot; grow strong and big most certainly. Boom, zoom.…

Today, getting there twice a week for an hour is a major accomplishment—and a major necessity, I might add. Without the dreaded duo I would not be deliriously happy, a laugh a minute and a heap of jokes. I would be, instead, delirious, a laughable heap, a joke.

Sixty minutes, one slim hour, is my max: slender, symmetrical, skeleton training sessions.

Seriously? Seriously. Short and sweet and still satisfying.

Push-pull combinations with heart, body and mind intently focused on tailored form, maximum muscle engagement, light weight, max exertion (6, 8, 10, 12 reps) with intelligent care and caution. Injuries and downtime, big-time costly, are eliminated.

The older, the lesser. It works. The sooner you welcome less-demanding, less-punishing workouts, the longer you and your muscles and strength and joy will last. The wise survive.

Heavy weights have done their work. Time for friendly force, focus, form and finesse. Spare the shoulders, save the elbows, rescue the joints. The big question to ask: Are we wearing ourselves out or building ourselves up?

Don’t spend yourself in one place at one time. Save some for a rainy day, a windy day, a sunny day, another day, the day after tomorrow.…

Growing old and growing up are two entirely different phenomena. The former is certain; the latter is optional—or you might say, in the hands of the beholder, up for grabs. Never let go. Growing old simply happens, but growing up is tricky. It takes finesse and consistent practice along the way.

Bomber Code: Befriend time, exercise daily, eat right, rest well, laugh often, love lots, and do not step in front of oncoming buses.

“Next stop: Fourth and Broadway.…”

This is where I get off.… See ya…the Bomb

—Dave Draper

Editor’s note: For more from Dave Draper, visit www
.DaveDraper.com and sign up for his free newsletter. You can also check out his amazing Top Squat training tool, classic photos, workout Q&A and forum.