The Secrets to Body Transformation

Remembering the Forgotten Ingredients
by Dr. John Berardi



Nowadays, when a guy gets interested in bodybuilding, body transformation, or building size and strength, all he has to do is pop open his internet browser and type in a few select keywords. Within seconds he's transported to a world of training programs, diet programs, and more.

However, it's a huge mistake to think that finding an awesome training program and diet plan online is all it takes to build the ultimate body. In this article Dr. Berardi shares two intangibles that go beyond sets and reps, calories and proteins; two intangibles that will absolutely make or break your progress.


Pumping Iron

In 1975, George Culp and Wes Brown, aspiring bodybuilders in their mid-20s, decided to take a road trip. You see, George and Wes lived in New London, North Carolina and, well, New London isn't exactly a body-transformation haven. In fact, in the mid-1970s, New London didn't even have a gym. Yet that wasn't going to stop them; George and Wes built their own modest gyms and trained at home.

So one day, toward the end of harvest season, Wes, a tobacco farmer at the time, called up his buddy George and told him to pack his bags.

"Hey buddy, we just got all the tobacco in the barns, let's go to Gold's."

Now, for those of you who don't know anything about "Gold's", Wes was referring to Gold's Gym, at the time the most well-known gym in perhaps all the world. Gold's Gym, located in Venice Beach, California, was owned and operated by Joe Gold and had become the place to train.

In fact, some of the top competitors of the time had moved to Venice just to train in what seemed to be the ultimate bodybuilding environment. Guys like Arnold Schwarzenegger, Franco Columbo, Robbie Robinson, Ed Corny, and many other bodybuilding greats could all be found training at Gold's, eating at one of the local restaurants, or lounging on Venice Beach. Talk about creating the right environment for success!

So, although George and Wes trained regularly, had developed pretty impressive physiques, and actually had both competed at the Mr. North Carolina bodybuilding contest, they both knew that if they really wanted to take their physiques to the next level, they would need to learn from and train with guys better and more experienced than themselves. So, at the end of the 1975 harvest, they traveled the 2500+ miles from New London to Venice Beach. They were determined to enlist the best in the world to take them to the next level.

Interestingly, although they only planned to stay in California for about 2 weeks, not only did they get to train with the best in the world, they ended up walking into Gold's Gym at the same time that George Butler and his crew were filming the classic bodybuilding flick Pumping Iron.



According to George Culp, "Until we got out there, we had no idea that Pumping Iron was being filmed. George Butler couldn't believe that two country boys from North Carolina came all the way across the country to train with Arnold. So they included us in a lot of scenes. Of course, many of our shots ended up on the cutting room floor. However, we did end up in two scenes. You may remember the one in which Arnold was teaching a smaller blonde guy how to pose."

Well, that blonde guy was Wes. And the guy with the moustache in the scene was George, standing along side and learning from the master.


Also, according to George; "Arnold and Ed Corny took us to lunch one day. It was so cool; it was myself, Wes, Arnold, Ed Corny, Robby Robinson, and Ken Waller. We all ate steak and eggs and Arnold told us he was going to retire from bodybuilding that year. It's funny; Arnold still calls us 'the stars of Pumping Iron'."

Now, 31 years later, George is 56 years old and is still Pumping Iron. And he's still training with the best. (Said with tongue in cheek; George worked with me and my Science Link team last year and still follows our principles today.)


Back in the 70's they got most of their training advice from word of mouth and from reading the old Iron Man magazine. The rest, they figured out themselves. Of course, after they got back from Venice Beach, they had a lot of great new information to try out.

"It was like a dream come true. Everyone was very nice to us and offered lots of help if we asked... Wes and I were both already 'committed' to training... Yet training along side Arnold impacted us in the long run, specifically the focus that he had for training. He would joke around quite a bit; but when he trained, the intensity of focus on what he was doing was extremely impacting, almost paralyzing."



Arnold's Intensity Was Almost Paralyzing

Back in 1975, George and Wes sought out mentorship from their legends, their heroes and in doing so, they not only learned how to build muscle, they also learned intangible lessons, lessons about commitment, intensity, mentorship, and social support.

Oh yea, and they also became "the stars of Pumping Iron" along the way. Not a bad road trip, eh?


My Journey

My own body transformation journey began when I graduated high school. Tipping the scales at a fairly unimpressive 135lbs (at 5'8"), I was fed up of being one of the scrawniest guys around. So I committed myself to learning how to get big.

I bought all the muscle magazines (just like George, I read Ironman too, about 15 years later). I regularly visited supplement shops. I joined 2 gyms. And I exercised daily, doing bench presses and biceps curls until I couldn't lift my arms any longer.

Needless to say, I REALLY wanted to change.

Of course, with my new found commitment, although my program wasn't optimal, I did start to get some results. My first year of training produced a 15lb weight gain. And while some folks started to notice my new development, I realized that at the pace I was going, I'd never have the physique I was after (or so I thought). As some of the guys at the gym were my height and around 200lbs, I knew that it would take nearly 4 more years the break the 200lb barrier. I needed a faster way!

I considered steroids. But, to be honest, I was 18 and much too scared of them to actually go through with it. Fortunately for me, my salvation didn't come in a bottle; it came in the form of a mentor.


The 6AM Test

I still remember the fateful day. I was at the gym, struggling away on the leg press machine. There wasn't much weight on the machine but it sure felt like a heavy load. With a few reps to go and my strength diminishing, one of the gym owners, Craig, came over to offer a spot.

Now, let me just say this. Craig wasn't just a "gym owner". At my height and over 230 impressive pounds, he was also the guy that every guy in town wanted to look like. We had never spoken before but after I racked the weight and got up, he offered me a few tips on improving my body.

For a few minutes, we discussed our goals, talked about our training programs, and he shared some valuable wisdom. I was determined to give his advice a try – after all, it worked pretty well for him.

About a week later, Craig approached me again during one of my leg workouts. He told me that he noticed I was taking his suggestions and putting them to good use. Then, surprise of all surprises, he actually invited me to work out with him the next day!

"What time?" was my only question.

At this point, he busted out with what I affectionately call, the "6 AM test."

Craig said he'd be training legs at 6:00 AM the next morning and I should meet him at the gym around 5:50 AM for warm-up.

Uh, oh. My head was swimming with excuses. I had just finished a leg day. And besides, I hadn't been up before 9 AM in a long, long time! There was no way I would be feeling ready to train with this guy.

But I pushed the excuses outta my head and I told him I'd be there.

The next morning we trained legs. It was harder than I had imagined it would be. Yet I did it. Limping out of the gym, Craig mentioned that I could work out with him the next day if I liked. However, we wouldn't be training at 6 AM; that was just a little test. And I had passed.


Mentorship and Commitment

I truly believe that the right people are placed in our paths when we need them most. Yet only if we remain open-minded and willing to learn can these mentors help us reach new levels of development.

Now, I'm not just talking physique development. This works in business, relationships, and any other endeavor.

Seriously, if a great mentor comes along, shut the ego down and listen – you might just learn something important!

Craig turned out to be an important mentor in my life. Heck, in that first workout alone I learned something very important. Lots of people say they want certain things from life, they say that they're interested in specific goals, yet they're unwilling to make the commitment to really go after those things, to really accomplish those goals.

In the case of Craig's 6 AM test, he had posed it lots of times. And lots of people failed the test. I wasn't going to be one of them. From that day on, I realized that there's a difference between interest and accomplishment. People say they're interested, but that's often all talk. Those who are chasing accomplishment get up at 5:30 so that they can be squatting by 6:00.


Step By Step

Of course, Craig taught me a hell of a lot more than how to squat. But, like any great coach, he taught these lessons as I was ready to learn them. In the beginning I learned how to make the commitment to training. After that was solidified, I learned how to do the movements properly. Once I had that down, we experimented with loading parameters and set/rep schemes. It was a step-wise process in which Craig navigated me swiftly toward the stuff that worked, while away from the stuff that didn't.

And I loved the step-wise approach. You see, I'm a relatively impatient person. I like action. So, if I had spent months reading, researching, etc I would have gone nuts. I didn't want, nor did I need, to be a master of exercise programming to walk the path toward "bigness." I didn't need to read 5 books from the exercise masters to know how to drive my lazy butt to the gym and bust it once I was there.

I just needed to get to the gym and learn how to work out. Then, once I knew how to work out, I needed to learn how to work out hard. Then, once I knew how to work out hard, I needed to learn how to work out smart. I didn't need to be a 2 year process either. It just needed to be step-wise; each lesson coming at the time I needed it most. And that's what a good coach or mentor is best at – delivering lessons when they're needed most.

Of course, there was a lot more to my instruction than training.

I learned all about nutrition and supplements, too. After a few months of training together, Craig noticed that I wasn't able to recover like he was. I was getting run-down. So he did a dietary analysis on me. Turns out my diet needed some work too! So instead of making me read 8 books on nutrition or launching into the science of nutrient timing, glycemic indices, biological values of protein, he simply told me what to eat for the next 4 weeks.

There were no compromises, no excuses, no whining about which foods I like and which I didn't. He simply took the hard-line approach. The relationship and the process were simple. He told me what to eat, I ate it, and I got results. No whining, no why this or why that, no excuses. I just did it. I knew I'd figure out why later.

Now, this is a good time for a bit of a tangent. I know that some of you reading this won't like the "do this" approach. You'll say that you need to know "why" before you'll do something.

Well, I argue that you're the person who will have the hardest time with physique change because physique change starts with doing, not analyzing. Although I wanted to know why, Craig told me to shut up and do. In fact, I remember one day he sat me down and told me this:

"You're not entering a classroom to learn nuclear biophysics here; you're trying to build muscle at the gym. Your body doesn't care why something's working. So shut up, do what I tell you and you can learn why later."

So, to be honest, I just shut up and did. After all, the guy was 230lbs and I was 150. And later on, once my adherence was set, he began to teach me how to create my own meal plans and how to find good nutrition resources.

Funny how that works – I had to learn to crawl before learning to walk.


Beyond Exercise and Nutrition

Of course, for many of you, this might be the point where you're ready to check out. Great, I learned how to train and what to eat. Isn't that enough?

Hell no!

The lessons I learned beyond the food and workout stuff were infinitely more valuable. During Craig's mentorship, he took me to the grocery store and to supplement shops. He showed me how to set up my kitchen for optimal results. We went out to eat and he showed me how to cleverly find the right muscle building foods at restaurants, ensuring that I was making the best choices for my goals.

You see, through this process I quickly learned that a written or typed meal plan stuck to the fridge is useless unless you have the right environment surrounding you, an environment designed for success.

What happens to that meal plan if you go out to eat at restaurants and you don't know how to order? What happens if you buy the foods at the grocery store and your kitchen is stocked up with garbage? What happens if you're pressed for time and don't know how to quickly and efficiently prepare your muscle-building meals?

You fail.

Craig had seen lots of people fail and wanted to be sure that I wasn't going to be one of them. So he went beyond the food and the workouts and he showed me how to create the right environment for success. This makes all the difference!


The Power of Social Support

Ok, at this point it should be clear that I owe a debt of gratitude to this guy for taking me under his wing and helping me avoid the pitfalls all around me, for ushering me into a world in which my scrawny butt could build muscle! So don't think for a minute that I don't still owe this guy big-time – I do.

After all, Craig and I ended up sticking together as training partners for 3 straight years. At an average of 5 workouts a week, that means we worked out at least 750 times together, spending more than 1,000 hours together over those 3 years – and that was just in the gym.

Beyond the gym, I also learned a ton. Craig and I started to hang out all the time and he introduced me to his circle of friends. His girlfriend (now wife) would make us muscle-friendly meals. She also happened to be into working out, go figure. And although he did have a diverse group of friends, a lot of them were also into working out. Most of my friends at the time weren't, so it was really cool to have a new social group that I could talk shop with, learn from, and share successes with.

After talking with quite a few people over the years, one thing that has become very clear is that social support matters. According to one reader of T-nation: "Having a training partner keeps me motivated. Many times I've not wanted to get out of bed come training time. But knowing that my partner was there getting stronger made me get out of bed and get to the gym."

TC likes training around others too: "If I'm at the gym, I can't dog it! People can say, 'Isn't that TC over there? Man, he's not training very hard, is he? God, he's a pansy!' Next thing I know, it's reported on a rival website or in the gossip section of MuscleMag. Call me shallow, but I sometimes need the fear of ridicule to motivate me."

Further, in a recent study of over 1000 respondents, Gary Homann of the University of Wyoming found that those who end up exercising for life tend to be involved in what he calls an "exercise community." According to Gary's definition, exercise community involvement means that people become involved with other people, activities, contests and events tied to their regular exercise activities. From Gary's work, it's clear that to those who exercise is more than just a passing fling, exercise communities are critical.

Chris Shugart, assistant editor of T-nation, wrote this:

"It reminds me of a study conducted by a group of psychologists a few years back. They decided to figure out what factors contribute most to a person's success or failure. In other words, person 'A' turns out happy with a satisfying job and a strong family. Person 'B' ends up a crackhead in the clink where he's forced to be some guy's 'catcher' in exchange for cigarettes. The question is, why? What factor in their lives played the biggest role in how they turned out?

"The psychologists assumed that where a person ends up in life is determined largely by socioeconomic level or perhaps intelligence. What they found surprised them. It turns out that while the above factors do play a role, they're not all that important. The real determining factor to your potential success or failure is "the people that surround you."

"Let's face the facts, if you hang out with a bunch of drunks, you'll most likely drink more. If you surround yourself with people who don't train and don't care about what they eat, then they will influence you. You may not quit entirely, but you'll likely alter your behavior and make a few bad choices.

"So, what kind of people do you surround yourself with? Are they rubbing off on you? If so, is that a good or bad thing?"

And yet another well-know coach, strength coach Charles Poliquin, stated it this way: "You're the average of the 5 people you spend the most time with."

Take these comments to heart, folks. They're powerful statements that I also corroborate. During my time training with Craig, I went from a scrawny 18 year old, to a pretty big guy – weighing in at 230 and 12% body fat. And, after hitting my maximum weight, I dieted down to compete in and win the Mr. Jr. USA title. Amazingly, my Mr. Jr. USA victory happened almost 3 years to the day after Craig approached me during that one fateful leg workout.


And I harbor no illusions that I could have ever made the progress I did without Craig's mentorship and the social support network we surrounded ourselves with. There's just no way. When my commitment failed, Craig picked up the slack. And vice versa.

Every day we challenged each other, competed against each other, and pushed each other to new lifting heights. I still remember the day we squatted 405lbs for 20 reps each. No one in our gym had ever seen such a thing.

And it wasn't only the two of us supporting each other. We had a whole group of friends creating the right environment for success. Just like Arnold, Franco, Robby, Ed and friends had. Just like George and Wes were looking for.


Your Social Support

In the end, as you can see, there's so much more to building a great body than just the exercise and food. There are those intangibles you can't record in a food log - commitment and hard work, creating a lifestyle that supports your goals, creating the right environment for good training and good eating, measuring results and appropriately interpreting those measurements, mentorship and social support.

You can buy books, read the web, pick up a few tips, try new programs, and follow different diets. But if you want to really progress, if you really want to learn how to transform your body, you've gotta find the right mentors and enlist a group of individuals who you can feed off of, and who can feed off of you.

Very few individuals can lone-ranger their way to a tremendous body. And even those who can don't enjoy the journey as much. Don't make it harder than it needs to be, find the right group of people to learn from and learn with.

Test Your Metal: Introducing Valeria

by Tim Henriques




Before you adjust your dials, please take note that this is a test. This is NOT a workout program. This is only a test. One bad ass test of strength and conditioning.

Many lifters go their entire training careers without ever testing their mettle (or is it metal?). Virtually every athletic endeavor has a benchmark of some kind to evaluate where you stand against your peers. If you want to test pure strength, you compete in powerlifting. If you want to test your aerobic capacity, you run a marathon.

Even bodybuilding contests are a benchmark of sorts, although the subjective nature of what judges consider a winning physique muddies the waters somewhat. But in the strength and conditioning world, unless you compete in Strongman events, you're kind of on your own.

Strength Coach and competitive powerlifter Tim Henriques has the answer, and her name is Valeria. But be warned, although she might look easier than a Lou Ferrigno spelling bee, taking on Valeria is no Sunday drive in the Poconos. You best be bringing your A-game to the party (and your ralphing pail).

Give this witch a run for her money and post your results in the discussion thread to follow.

— BK



Considering I'm a powerlifter by trade, you might assume that I don't like CrossFit, but that's actually not the case.

I like CrossFit, or at least I like aspects of it. Like many strength trainers who've given the CrossFit system an honest shot over the years, I think it has a lot of positive attributes to offer the fitness community. But it also has a number of significant negatives that due to my powerlifter roots prevents me from blindly endorsing the infamous Glassman Kool-Aid.

So what do I like about it?

I like how it gets people to work hard, which is probably the main element lacking in most recreational lifter's programs. It doesn't just sneak hard work into the workout; it slaps you in the face with it from the get-go. As a coach, I like and respect that.

I like how the entire workout is often timed. One way CrossFit attempts to separate the very fit from the not-so-fit is by tracking how long the workout takes to complete rather than just focusing on simple load or rep progression. That's an interesting and enlightening way of doing things. More on this later.

I like how the system focuses on big, compound lifts. I give tall props to CrossFit for re-introducing the "scary" Olympic lifts like the snatch and power clean back into the recreational lifter's exercise repertoire while deep-sixing the pink dumbbell triceps kickbacks.

I like how CrossFit trains all of the energy systems, which is another thing lacking in many lifters' programs and is great for improving overall fitness and reducing bodyfat.

And finally, I like how everyone can do the same workout so that each lifter can compare themselves to one another. This promotes competition, which is widely regarded to be a major factor in increasing motivation and performance. As a competitive guy myself, it's fun to do a workout and then log in and see where you stand and what times other people are doing. It's nice for the ego when you do well; it's humbling and motivating when you don't.

But as stated in my introduction, CrossFit has a number of weaknesses I just can't get past. The programming is a little haphazard for my taste. Sometimes there is too much load on the shoulder girdle, the knees, and the lower back. It may be okay when you're lifting lighter weights, but ask anyone who can push some serious poundage and they'll tell you that as you get stronger, recovery becomes more of an issue.

Along similar lines, although I like the Olympic lifts a lot, for many lifters that are too old, too inflexible, too big, or perhaps a bit of all of the above, it may not be worth it (or even feasible) to learn how to do things like cleans and overhead squats effectively enough to get a productive training stimulus.

I also think the workouts are a little too intense. I know that may make me sound like a pansy, but once you're skilled at the things you're trying to do, you can take yourself to pure exhaustion relatively easily. Sometimes that's a good thing, but doing energy system work at or near failure 1-3 days a week, combined with heavy lifting 1-3 days a week, is rough to do long term if you have a reasonable level of experience.

And finally, while I like the idea of emphasizing the compound lifts, the idea of doing no isolation exercises at all if you're trying to shape your body or improve weak points is a flaw to me. Call me a meathead bodybuilder, but no forearms (no arms at all for that matter), no knee flexion, etc. is not a positive programming note in my mind.


Introducing the Ultimate Test of Strength and Conditioning
Although the CrossFit system has too many limitations for me to endorse it as stand-alone system, there are too many good things about it for me to abandon it entirely. In particular, I've become a fan of the timed-workout approach, but in a specific application. It's not something I'd use day-to-day to train or develop strength, but it's fantastic for the establishment of training benchmarks, something sorely missing in many strength and conditioning programs.

CrossFitters constantly chew up bandwidth by challenging one another to beat their best Fran time, as it's one of the benchmark workouts that many CrossFitters use to measure themselves by. As strength and conditioning enthusiasts, what would our benchmark be? The old school football standard of a 225lb bench press repetition test? What if you can't bench 225? What if you weigh 400lbs and can bench 225lbs 56 times but can't walk around the block without wheezing? I think we can do better.

So my idea was this: come up with a good, solid CrossFit-style benchmark workout, but geared toward strength athletes, that you could do in almost any gym (no special equipment required). The weights would be heavy enough to challenge even strong folks, but light enough so that almost any lifter could at least get through it, albeit at a slower pace.

CrossFit has their 'Fran', well now we have our 'Valeria'.

Here is the workout: simple, brutal, and if you're perverse enough in the head, fun.

Valeria - Workout for Time (Elite Level):
Bench Press: 275 x 21 reps
Deadlift: 405 x 21 reps
Pull-ups: +50 lbs x 21 reps
EZ Bar Curls: 135 x 21 reps

There are other levels of intensity listed below.

In this workout, you perform all the reps of one exercise before moving on to the next exercise. You can rest whenever necessary for as long as necessary, but the goal is to do the total workout in as short a time as possible.

Another thing I like about CrossFit workouts is that they're scalable. The Elite level is designed to be very challenging, so listed below are 3 different levels for both men and women that you might work up to as you progress. These levels also account for bodyweight. Remember though, this is written for strength athletes, so the expectations of what you can lift will be reasonably high.

Men (220 lbs)

Good (<30:00) Level 1 Very Good (<30:00) Level 2 Elite (<30:00) Level 3
Bench 185 or .8xBW 225 or BW 275 or 1.25xBW
Deadlift 315 or 1.5xBW 365 or 1.75xBW 405 or 2xBW
Pull-ups BW BW + 25 lbs (x.125BW) BW + 50 lbs (x.25BW)
EZ Curls 85 or .4xBW 110 or .5xBW 135 or .6xBW

Women (135 lbs)

Good (<30:00) Level 1 Very Good (<30:00) Level 2 Elite (<30:00) Level 3
Bench 75 or .5xBW 105 or .75xBW 135 or BW
Deadlift 135 or BW 185 or 1.5xBW 225 or 2xBW
Pull-ups 5 15 21
EZ Curls 45 or .3xBW 55 or .4xBW 65 or .5xBW

Remember, you're to do 21 reps of bench, 21 deadlifts, 21 pull-ups, and 21 curls.

A note about the exercises: I chose these exercise for a number of reasons—they cover the majority of the body, they can highlight different weak points a person might have, and minus the curls they're big, compound lifts that most people know how to do with little instruction.

The Bench Press: I chose the bench press because most CrossFitters don't like the bench press. I can respect the idea of the bench press getting too much publicity and liking the shoulder press more, but simply not doing the bench press is a flaw in my opinion. It hits more muscles, improves push-ups and dip performance more, and it's arguably the most popular exercise in the world.

I've seen way too many CrossFitters with a crappy bench fail to make progress in the bench because CrossFit workouts rarely include the bench press. I can see not over emphasizing it, but I can't see basically ignoring it.

Execution: Pretty self explanatory, but just to be clear- bring the bar down to your chest, lightly touch your chest, and then press back up to full or near full extension. That's one rep.

The Deadlift: In this workout, the deadlift reps do not have to be dead stop reps, but they're not loud, bounce reps either. Lightly touch the ground and come back up. I imagine CrossFitters and non-CrossFitters alike will agree on how cool and beneficial the deadlift is.

Execution: Again, pretty self-explanatory: load up the bar, pick it up (whatever style you prefer) to lockout, lower the bar, touch the ground, and do it again.

Pull-ups: Another CrossFit classic, although this is the non-kipping variety (it's hard to kip with weights attached). Pull-ups will also help separate the fat, strong souls who might coast through the other 3 exercises from the in-shape strong souls whom can handle all 4 exercises.

Execution: Pull-ups are pronated; pull yourself up so that your chin is above the bar, then lower yourself down. Go to full or near full extension. I'm not expecting dead stop pull-ups here but half reps don't count either. A little leg movement is fine but you shouldn't look like a flailing inchworm on the pull-up bar.

Curls: I'm sure some of you won't like the addition of curls to the workout, and curls certainly haven't gotten much love lately. Honestly, I don't understand it. I love curls. I loved curls when I was 15 and I still love them today. It's good that the pendulum has started to swing away from people just doing bench and bis 3 times a week like they did back in high school, but in my opinion it's swung way too far to the other side.

Curls are a great exercise for developing your arms and I'll say that using your biceps in relative isolation (elbow flexion) is one of the most functional things (I just said the F-word) that you can do. We do basic biceps curls and holds all day, like lifting something out of the trunk of your car, holding grocery bags or kids in your arms, and carrying the laundry up the stairs.

But whether you like curls or not doesn't really matter to me, the more important question is, how good are you at curls? If you suck at curls, then that's a signal that the compound movements that you thought were doing such a great job of hitting your biceps perhaps aren't doing what you intended.

Curls were also included to prove a point to the CrossFitters that you usually need to do some isolation stuff to get good at the isolation stuff. If you want to whine about including curls but you aren't good at curls (i.e. you can't get through the reps), then honestly I'm not interested in your opinion.

Please note that I'm not saying that curls alone make you strong. I'm saying that if you suck at curls, how can you consider yourself strong?

Execution: Form wise, I'm not expecting a strict curl so this doesn't have to be performed up against a wall, but it should still look like a curl. I call it a power curl where a little bit of swing is acceptable, but if you start leaning forward or backward more than 20 degrees in either direction, you're probably cheating too much.

Having said that, by the time you get to curls you'll be exhausted, so I'll be a little more forgiving on the form than if you were just doing a single set of curls.

One other thing to mention, most EZ curl bars are either 15 or 20 lbs (actually they're often 16 or 22 lbs because they're usually 7.5 or 10 kg), rarely the 25 lbs many people assume they are. Weigh yours if you're not sure. You can do this exercise with the straight bar if you prefer.

(It was suggested to me that dips might be a better exercise than a biceps curl, but I disagree. While that may stem from a long-term programming perspective, don't forget that this is a test of your strength, conditioning, and mental toughness. I like biceps curls here because they target a potential weak point, and doing curls after pull-ups and deadlifts is just extra brutal, which adds to the toughness of the workout).

For all of the exercises in this workout, feel free to use a belt and/or wrist wraps, and chalk is fine as well. No wrist straps, and no other gear like bench shirts, knee wraps, or anything like that are allowed.

Remember, you must finish one exercise completely before you start the next one. No super-setting is allowed.


My Own Experiences With Valeria
My goal is for TMUSCLE readers to give this workout a shot, but I couldn't suggest you perform this workout if I hadn't tried it myself.

Brutal sums it up nicely.

I forced myself to do a cool-down on the treadmill to bring my heart rate down (after lying on the ground for 2 minutes) and then just sat in a chair with my head down for 30 minutes before I even started to feel normal. At a bodyweight of 198, I did it in 14:36 with the Elite weights.

I felt confident I could do it in less than 20 minutes and had dreams of doing it in 12:30, but obviously Valeria had other plans for me. The fatigue built up quickly and the deadlifts and curls were harder than I expected, so I needed 3 sets to complete each one of them instead of 2. That added a minute to each one of those exercises, and is why I was 2 minutes over my ultimate goal.

I think anything under 10 minutes is exceptional, although there are likely some freaks out there that could do it in less than 5 minutes, which I'd consider to be world class.


Final Thoughts
Anyone else brave enough to test their strength and conditioning levels? Why not take a break from your program and give this workout a shot over the holiday? Please post your time in the discussions forum along with your bodyweight and the weights you used. (Note: any ass-kicking times performed with the Elite weights will require video verification.)

Can't (or never could) complete the Good level with the weight and reps suggested in under 30 minutes? Sorry, you're not a strength athlete, but keep training and you should be able to do that in a few months. (But please, until you can at least complete the Good level, go easy on dispensing strength-training advice, especially to non-beginners.)



Finding it too easy? Either move up a level or use the weights listed and/or bodyweight ratios provided, whichever gives you a higher number. The Elite level is what you're after if you want to consider yourself a bad ass. Once you hit the Elite level and the maximum weights, just try to go faster with the same weight.

Just so we're clear, my goal is for people to do this once. Hit it hard, post your time in the discussion thread and see how you measure up. Then, whenever your fitness/strength levels have improved enough that you think you can perform better (by following whatever program you choose like CrossFit, Sheiko, I Bodybuilder, powerlifting, total body, etc.), test it again.

Do NOT repeat this program weekly, even monthly. A couple times a year would be about right. This workout is intended to test your strength and conditioning, not develop it. If you find that in six months your Valeria performance has improved, then you're onto something. If your progress has stagnated or re-lapsed, it may be time to re-work your program so you don't waste another six months of lifting.

So many strength athletes punish themselves for years without ever knowing how well they match up. So if you a want a true challenge of strength and conditioning, give this a try. Valeria awaits.

"Do you want to live forever?"



Do you want to live forever?


To crush your enemies, see them driven before you, and to hear the lamentation of the CrossFitters.


How do you measure up?




Weighted pull-ups.


The bench press.


The deadlift.


Anything under 10 minutes is exceptional, although there are likely some out there that could do it in less than 5 minutes, which I'd consider to be world class.

About Tim Henriques

Tim Henriques is the Director of the National Personal Training Institute of VA (www.nptifitness.com). NPTI is a 500-hour, 6-12 month long school for personal trainers. He has been devoted to fitness for the past 15 years, in college he was a collegiate All-American Powerlifter, he has competed in several local strongman and arm wrestling events, and he currently holds the USAPL VA state record for the deadlift of 700 lbs at 198. He attended James Madison University where he got his degree in Kinesiology with minors in psychology and coaching. He is lifetime drug free. He can be reached via email: NPTITim@aol.com

30 Foods that builds muscle

30 Foods That Build Muscle

(1) Sunflower Seeds – High in protein at 25grams per 100g and a great little snack.

(2) Mackerel - High in omega 3 fats and protein.

(3) Pineapple - strange choice, they said it’s good post-workout.

(4) Edamame Beans – Another name for soy beans. Not a bad source of protein but also contains 10grams of carbohydrate per 100grams with only 14 grams of protein. They do contain all essential amino acids and are a complete protein but animal sources of protein are better for MANS dieters i.e. higher protein, less carbs.

(5) Olive Oil – The monounsaturated fat in olive oil helps prevent muscle breakdown and protects joints



(6) Venison - High protein and vitamin B12 content

(7) Broccoli - I’ve blogged about the greatness of these miniature bonsai trees before in ‘Top 10 Reasons you Need Broccoli in Your Diet‘. I was glad to see it included!

(8) Eggs - Cheap, high in protein, fat and vitamin D which is essential for maintaining healthy muscle tissue! One of the best foods on earth. Go here to learn the top 10 reason you should have eggs in your diet.

(9) Coffee - They stated that caffeine improves endurance by easing muscle pain. I would agree with that and recently wrote about the benefit of a little pre-workout caffeine blast!



(10) Anchovies - Another protein and omega 3 rich food

(11) Turmeric. The explanation is that the curcumin found in turmeric promotes muscle growth and repair. Add a pinch to your chicken curry recipe for added flavor and to experience the benefits.

(12) Full-Fat Organic Milk – Wow! They actually opted for the full-fat version . I’m not a big milk lover but when I do drink it, I take full-fat. Use sparingly on MANS

(13) Ginger - Alleviates muscle pain.

(14) Grass-Fed Organic Beef. Again, I’m impressed! They state, “Nothing beats pure beef protein for building muscles” – exactly right! They also recommend grass-fed beef as it is higher in CLA (conjugated Linoleic Acid) – this is correct.

(15) Live Natural Yogurt - Helps increase good bacteria in the gut which aids protein digestion

(16) Watercress - High in iron and vitamin C.



(17) Quinoa - (pronounced keen-wah) Again, a complete protein and a good choice for high-carb bodybuilders. Men’s health state, “Forget your usual starchy carbs” – good advice!

(18) Ricotta Cheese – Made from whey protein which, of course, aids muscle growth

(19) Kiwi Fruit – Because of the vitamin C apparently – choose broccoli instead and have some kiwi at the weekends if you like.

(20) Tahini - (made from sesame seeds) High in zinc which plays a role in cell growth and protein synthesis.



(21) Cucumber- contains silica which is a component of your connective tissue

(22) Turkey - Protein and glutamine which regulates protein synthesis

(23) Almond Nut Butter. I use this to make my low-carb homemade protein bars. High in protein and also magnesium!

(24) Papaya - Contains papain which breaks dietary protein into easily absorbable compounds


(25) Wheatgerm - Contains chromium, which improves glucose intake into muscle cells.

(26) Red Peppers – Red specifically as they contain more vitamin C than their green brothers. My recipes for taco salad and beef chilli both include red peppers.



(27) Spirulina - 65% protein. It’s also about 20% carbohydrate and not needed by MANS dieters. Could come in handy for vegetarians and vegans though.



(28) Water - Definitely too far down on the list for my liking. Water is crucial for peak strength, aiding digestion and maximizing the effectiveness of creatine monohydrate. Read my article ‘Why you Need Water to Build Muscle.’

(29) Cherry Juice – Reduces Muscle Pain

(30) Spinach - Octacosanol, found in spinach, improves muscular strength and endurance.

This is a great list of foods and I really believe that it demonstrates the changing opinion of the mainstream Heck, the low-carb, high fat TNT Diet is a Men’s Health book!

Enjoy these foods even if your friends or family look at you like you’re crazy. When you reach your goal and look fantastic you can say, “I told you so”

VitaminShoppe 20% discount coupon! HURRY

Final Solutions for Frustrated Lifters: Arms!

by Charles Poliquin
I've been criticized a lot over the years for not responding to emails as often as readers would like.

One reason is simple logistics. I receive a staggering amount of e-mails. If I were to answer even a tenth of the email I get, I wouldn't have time to train and earn a living, much less sleep, spend time with my child, or train myself.

But another reason is quite simply, that I dread answering the same questions over and over again, especially after the guy spent the first two paragraphs brown nosing and claiming to have read every single article I have ever written. For example, if I had a dollar for every time some dweeb has begged me to rationalize that his beloved leg extensions are good to enough to develop massive quadriceps, I would've retired years ago.

That being said, I do get a lot of sincere email from frustrated trainees who are experiencing a plateau of some kind. While their plateaus may vary, they're all convinced that they've "tried everything under the sun and nothing works."

Bullshit. As frustrated as these wieners may be, I know if I spent 5 minutes with them I could likely spot the reason for their lack of progress with ease. So TC has asked me to lump these questions together by bodypart and each month I will answer some of what I receive. This month's installment is dedicated to arm training.

There are basic interventions for plateaus in arm development that work time after time. And if they work with my clients, they will work for you. Remember, despite what your mother may have told you, you are not so darn special. Trust me.

Hey Charles, I've performed every arm routine you've ever published yet I'm still not making any gains. What am I doing wrong?

You have to look at the whole picture. When I get emails like these, my first question is always, 'describe to me your weekly eating plan'. Nine times out of ten, the guy answers,
"Man, I eat like a pig." But when I ask them to repeat what they've eaten this week, it wouldn't be enough to fill up the youngest Jonas brother for breakfast.

First and foremost, no plateau can be overcome without adequate protein. 1.5 grams per pound is the minimum, and if carbs are not your friend, go 2 grams per pound.

Next, peri-workout nutrition is key. Everyone on TMUSCLE is talking about SURGE® Workout Fuel and Anaconda and the way proper peri-workout nutrition can kick start gains. Well, I've been pushing peri-workout nutrition since 1982! Why? Because it works!

But it has to be quality stuff. In the last two weeks on separate occasions, a captain in the Special Forces and a SWAT team member have each relayed to me that during a seminar put on by a strength coaching governing body, the speaker was recommending peanut butter sandwiches for post workout feeds.

Not surprisingly, the speaker had the same physique as the character Allan from that hilarious comedy, The Hangover. He even apologized to the audience for being fat and having to drink a Red Bull to keep himself awake. Both officers told me he looked too dumb to operate a blender and likely needs a checklist every time he makes a peanut butter sandwich.

Anyway, TMUSCLE is loaded with info on cutting edge peri-workout nutrition so look it up.

So address those key elements first. I simply cannot stress this enough; without sufficient protein intake and optimal peri-workout nutrition, even with the best arm routine you are wasting your time, and mine.

I've been doing Doggcrapp training for the last few months, and while I've gotten really strong at weighted dips (up to 80lbs plus bodyweight), my triceps haven't grown a millimeter. I thought adding weight meant growth?

Progressive overload is still the most important factor in muscular hypertrophy, and always trying to beat your last workout performance is good advice. But the research is very clear of the positive correlation between volume and growth. Simply put, the routine you're doing may not have enough volume for you.

I believe the reason that the various low volume routines work is because so many lifters are so grossly overtrained. Noted exercise physiologist and researcher Bannister coined the expression "fatigue masks fitness" to describe how results magically appear when the training stimulus is reduced. Once these guys back off from the volume, they finally give their bodies an opportunity to grow.

So you need volume and you need progressive overload, but you also have to be mindful of not overtaxing the body's recuperative abilities. The way to achieve this is to have an effective volume reduction strategy.

One method that I've used in the past is every 3rd workout, cut the volume by around 40 to 60%. It's basic and it works as most people can't handle more than two high volume exposures in a row before requiring a deload.

Another method I like to use with more advanced trainees is this: Alternate two different arm workouts and reduce the volume every 5th & 6th workout.

For example:

Day 1: Arm Workout A
Day 6: Arm Workout B
Day 11: Arm Workout A
Day 16: Arm Workout B
Day 21: Arm Workout A (-60%)
Day 26: Arm Workout B (-60%)

Note that the two workouts should be relatively similar in design; not GVT for A and Doggcrapp for B. Think hamburgers and turkey burgers: both burgers, but different meat. This system works ridiculously well for advanced trainees.

Deloading workout 5 and 6 is just one way to do it. So which system should you try? Both! You have to figure that out on your own, and the way to do that is through your workout logbook, which I assume you've been keeping. Weightlifting legend Tommy Kono said it best 40 years ago: "The palest of ink is better than the clearest of memories."

By the way, unloading does not make you a lazy bastard. If you did the right amount of work in the first place, you would need unloading.

Hey Charles, I can get great arm pumps, but they still won't grow. Doesn't a pump equal growth?

No. Go do 25 rapid-fire push-ups and I guarantee you will get a decent triceps pump. But even the dimmest trainee knows that push-ups won't do jack shit for you in terms of growth. But do weighted dips, 10 sets of 3 with a 2 second pause in the stretched position? Your triceps will grow, but you won't get a skin-tearing pump.

It's the same with other body parts, too. Look at Olympic lifters; they've never had a pump in their lives and they have quad and trap development that would put most bodybuilders to shame.

But getting back to arms, there are some instances that a great pump can be achieved along with an effective training stimulus. Tri-sets are an example; just be sure to keep the load heavy (4-6 reps) for each part of the tri-set. The heavy load combined with the extended time under tension will stimulate hypertrophy, while the high number of total reps will give you a pump that won't allow you to sign autographs.

I'm trying to employ fascia stretching as a way to help kickstart some growth in my arms. I've heard everyone from John Parillo to Dante Trudel say that it works. Does it?

Fascia stretching works. The problem is, most guys who are advocating it aren't actually stretching their fascia. Look, real fascia stretching is very complicated. French osteopaths developed the best fascia stretches and it takes 20-45 minutes to learn a single stretch; and that is with constant feedback given by the instructor. For every stretch there are about ten things that you need to do at the same time, like tucking the chin or turning the elbow, just to achieve a true fascia stretch. Bottom line, for it to be effective it has to be coached.

I think what most of these guys are doing is actually performing a very deep static stretch. There is nothing wrong with this, and it might even be helpful. But it ain't fascia stretching.

Charles, I do everything right. Routine, loading, frequency, nutrition, you name it. Still, my arms are pathetic. I'm so depressed that I am considering visiting Michael Jackson's medical staff.

There are actually 17 reasons—I'm not kidding—why a body part won't respond. If you are actually doing all the basics right and still not seeing results, it could be that you a have simple subluxation of a vertebrae that innervates that muscle. Get a chiropractic adjustment and you'll see near instant growth. A good acupuncturist can also do wonders in my experience. Vitamin D deficiency could be halting your gains. The norms for vitamin D deficiency are set too low. To grow muscle at an optimal range, your vitamin D levels have to be 25% higher than the upper range in blood work.

Another possible cause of your arm development woes may be in your neck. Have a qualified health practitioner look at it, as a small narrowing of the intervertebral space can limit your nervous system from firing effectively, thus hampering growth. Get some ART done on these structures so the nerves have more space and you'll get stronger, instantly. I see this a lot in American football players and rugby players who repeatedly bang their heads for a living. Often I will put them in a neck traction device right before they lift and they can always lift more. The Saunders Cervical Traction devices have been effective in my practice.

Charles, a lot of guys are saying that you don't need direct arm work if you do a lot of dips and chins. I'm not happy with my arm development so I don't really want to quit training them.

Exercises like dips and chins have the greatest cross-sectional muscle fiber recruitment. If you can't do at least 12 full range chin-ups or 20 dips, then your time is best spent improving these scores, not toiling away on the Scott bench. Once you've built acceptable strength in chins and dips (which shouldn't take longer than 12 weeks anyway), then I suggest adding direct work for the elbow extensors and flexors.

I'm thinking about trying this high frequency, low volume routine where you train arms three days a week, but with only two or three sets per workout. Your thoughts?

A high frequency approach like that might work for forearms or calves, but for arms, every 5 days is best. Go heavy, hit them hard, go home. Interestingly, the forearms and calves are the most genetically pre-determined muscles you can train. Former Mr. Olympian Chris Dickerson was actually a triplet, and his brother's calf development was nearly as impressive as Chris', and he didn't even train!

Charles, I hear using fat dumbbells are the best for developing grip strength. My gym is pretty lame, so fat grip 'bells are a pipe dream. What else can I do?

Thick-handle dumbbells and barbells are a staple in all the gyms I have equipped. However, they are not cheap, and you can only find them in top-notch training centers.

But there is an alternative: Fat Gripz. They are the brainchild of one of my best students, PICP level 2 coach Werner Brüggeman. They're tough as hell and fit on any regular weight-training implement better than anything else I've seen. Get a pair here.

Arms are my top priority. Is there anything I can take before an arm workout to help ensure I have a kick-ass workout?

For stubborn body parts, often I often find a limiting factor to be poor concentration. You want to have the greatest neural drive possible when you go to train.

To achieve this, I like to use a variety of pre-workout nootropics like vinpocetine, acetyl l-carnitine, tyrosine, or Biotest's Power Drive. I find everyone reacts differently, so I rotate until I find the right combination. Biotest's Alpha GPC is also excellent, and has beneficial effects on growth hormone levels.

When designing my own routine for stubborn biceps and triceps, what should I remember to do?

For biceps, don't forget the brachialis. It's the simplest way to stimulate fast elbow flexor growth. Whenever I identify an underdeveloped brachialis, I prescribe reverse curls, hammer curls, and other pronated or semi-supinated movements. And how do I identify this? Easy. You should be able to reverse curl 82% of your supinated curl. So if you can bang out 100 pounds for 5 on the standing EZ curl, you should be able to reverse curl 82 pounds for 5. If not, make your focus driving up your reverse curl numbers.

Next I would check out the long head of the biceps. Your 45-degree incline curl [done while lying back on an incline bench] poundages should match that of your Scott curl exactly. If they under-perform (most people test out at 60%), then the long head of your biceps needs work, so work on driving those incline curl numbers up. Just be sure to keep the elbows pointed straight down for at least the first 90 degrees of the movement.

Time spent improving in just these two movements can result in very rapid arm growth, especially if there was a significant imbalance to begin with. Toss in my aforementioned protein and peri-workout recommendations and you can't help but grow.

For triceps, the biggest problems I see is not enough sets of heavy, low rep work on the big money lifts and ignoring the lateral head. Generally, the triceps exercises where you handle a lot of weight and have to bust your ass are the best. Dips and close grip bench presses are yes's. Kickbacks, pressdowns, and whatever makes the pages of Men's Health are no's.

As for the lateral head? It's also known as the lazy head as research shows it only responds to heavy loads, which is why powerlifters generally have such well-developed lateral heads. Exercises with the elbows positioned directly under the bar are best, like close grip bench presses with a 10-degree decline and seated 1/2 presses in the power rack (with a 2 second pause). And dips, of course. But you probably guessed that anyway.

Charles, just give me a routine I can start tomorrow that will get these pencils growing?

My absolute favorite routine for fast arm growth is the following post exhaustion routine. Do this every 5 days, balls to the wall, spleen through the eye.

Exercise	Sets	Reps	Rest (sec)
1A) Weighted Dips.*	5	4-6	10
1B) Overhead Rope Extension**	5	6-8	120
1C) Weighted Close Grip Chin Ups***	5	4-6	10
1D) 45 degree Incline Curls****	5	6-8	120

* Pause 2 seconds at bottom position.
** Pause 2 seconds in stretch position.
*** Pause 2 seconds at fully stretched position.
**** Keep elbows pointed down first 90 degrees.

By overloading the muscles at two different insertion points, you cause an incredible amount of micro-trauma. Expect some deep soreness.

The accumulating fatigue will likely cause you to reduce the weight with each successive superset just to stay within the target rep-range. That's okay, just continue until you reach a point that you have to reduce the weight below 20% of your first set. Then it's time to terminate the workout. As always, focus on improving your performance with each successive workout.

There's no reason that building big, strong, muscular arms has to be an exercise in futility. By training a little smarter (and probably a little harder) and following sound nutritional practices, you too can start finally stretching out your shirtsleeves.

"Trying everything under the sun" will only get you sunburn.

Six Things You Need to Know About Protein

by Chris Shugart
Lonnie Lowery, PhD, can't talk right now. He's psyching up for the gym, and I have interrupted his ritual — a ritual which sometimes involves listening to the score from Conan the Barbarian — with my phone call.

Dr. Lowery used to lift at the university with the athletes, but he says it's just not the same. Now he trains either in his basement or at a grungy bodybuilding gym near where he lives.

Yeah, that's right, not a fitness center, not a health club. A bodybuilding gym.

"I train my butt off in there," Dr. Lowery says. "I squat, bench, and pull all in one workout, just to toughen myself up. I do this twice per week, then I do everything else, like arm work, in between. I, for one, have got to train my biceps and triceps directly."

Lowery is not your typical professor/researcher/scientist type. You've guessed that, right?

"You know, I almost became a certified strength coach," he adds. "And I'm still intrigued by the prospect. I even joined that professional group. But these guys are largely about athletics and agility in my experience. I only care about hypertrophy right now... and I'm just not going to apologize for it."

This is why Dr. Lowery is one of our favorite PhDs to turn to when it comes to topics like macronutrients. Yeah, he's read the studies. Heck, he's conducted the studies and participated in the studies and presented the studies to rooms full of other academic types. But he's also a hardcore meathead, at home both under the bar and in the lab.

Today we're supposed to be talking about new protein research, little-known facts about protein, and delving into a couple of Lowery's theoretical ideas. But we can't. Not yet. Lowery has to squat first... and bench... and pull.

And, man, you just gotta respect that.

1 Hour Later...

"Everybody is a frickin' expert on the Internet," Lowery says when he calls me back. It seems he's still got some fire in him after his workout. "But let's see if I can lay down some obscure things about protein anyway."

"Great," I say, "Fire one at me." And so we began.

The Truth About Protein, Cooking, and Heat

"When I used to mix whey protein powder in my scalding oat bran, I'd think, 'Am I destroying some of the benefits of this?'"

Like all of us iron addicts, Lowery was once worried about denaturing or otherwise messing up the protein powder. You've probably heard the same thing about cooking with protein powder or even tossing it into your already-cooked hot oatmeal. It "ruins the protein."

Or does it?

Turns out that it doesn't. In fact, you probably wouldn't notice a lick of difference in your physique after a year of "cooking" your protein powder vs. just sticking it in the blender. But heat does affect it.

"Some of the peptides in whey denature at 158 to 176 degrees Fahrenheit," says Lowery. "Peptides, like beta-lactoglobulin and alpha-lactalbumin, degrade in the heat."

Now, although these peptides have some biological benefits such as immune function, you're not really hurting the protein goodness. You're getting the same amino acid profile, including all that yummy l-leucine, and that's why, as a muscle-seeking gym rat, you're consuming protein powder in the first place, right?

Now, maybe not getting the benefits of some of those peptides will affect you after several months to a couple years, but you're probably not going to "cook" your protein powder all that often anyway.

So, you might lose a few of the side benefits of protein when you heat it, but on any observable level, you're not going to compromise your ability to build muscle with all that protein you're pounding away. So, keep sticking it into your oatmeal, pancake batter, and muffin recipes.

Just don't tell anyone you make muffins. It might ruin your rep, tough guy.

Cookies for Mass-Seeking Lab Rabbits... and Bodybuilders

Ever attend a big fitness conference? I have. Dozens of 'em.

You sit for hours watching bad Powerpoint presentations and listening to complex lectures. Funny thing is, the good stuff — the cool info you take home and put to work immediately — usually comes from the conversations you have in the hallways outside the conference rooms.

That's kinda what happened with this next little protein pontification. Dr. Lowery was telling me about how you have to be careful when using protein powder in recipes. A whey-only protein may turn out very differently than a whey/casein blend or other type of protein. In short, plain whey may cause recipes to be "soupy," so be careful.

"This is just an observation I made when I was whipping out these no-bake, weight-gain cookies in the experimental kitchen for our test subjects," said Lowery.

My ears perked up like a Rottweiler watching a piece of bacon fall from a breakfast plate. "Stop. Tell me about those cookies, man," I said. The very idea of cookies used in protein experiments and made in a "laboratory kitchen" was too intriguing to pass up.

Turns out that Dr. Peter Lemon, a God among men when it comes to protein research, had told Lowery years ago that test subjects wouldn't comply with a high protein diet if it consisted of nothing but protein shakes. (Keep in mind that some of these experiments ran for months!) They needed a convenient way to chew at least 50% of their extra protein.

The solution was "no-bake cookies." Simply mix protein powder with uncooked oatmeal and natural peanut butter (or any nut butter really, like walnut or almond). Mush them all together into "cookies." Eat 'em, train your balls off, get big.

And I mean "get big" literally. Lowery reminisced that their research subjects would blow past the university weight room regulars in gains.

"It wasn't uncommon to see our guys put 20 pounds on their bench press and considerably more on their leg press — as well as about five pounds of body mass — during semesters when our research team was collecting data. Better training plus the protein/calorie cookies were clearly effective."

Exact ratios of ingredients? Play with it, then reply to this article and let us know your favorite blend. Hey, if it works for test subjects in experiments, it'll work for you, lab wabbit.

Dr. Lowery's "Utility" Lab Rabbit Cookies

Ingredients (makes 4 cookies)

1.0 Cups Old-Fashioned Oatmeal [raw]
4 heaping Tbsp. Omega-3 Peanut Butter
2 Scoops Low-Carb Metabolic Drive, chocolate
1/4 Cup Water or Skim Milk to allow for mixing

And Lowery provided the nutrient breakdown per cookie:

kcal: 212
Pro: 13g
Carb: 18g (3g fiber)
Fat: 11g

Try not to eat the whole batch in one sitting, unless you're a little skinny bastard. Keep leftovers in the fridge.

Here's my own version that's pretty damn good. It's fairly close to the original, but with a few "Emeril-esque" refinements:

Chris's "Gourmet" Lab Rabbit Cookies

Ingredients

1.5 Cups Old-Fashioned Oatmeal [toasted or raw]
3/4 Cup Natural Peanut Butter or Almond Butter
2-3 Scoops Low-Carb Metabolic Drive, chocolate
1 Cup Organic, Unsweetened Coconut Flakes
Just enough water to allow easy mixing

Directions

Toss the oatmeal into a bowl. Toss the protein powder and coconut on top of it. Add peanut butter and just a little warm water and mash it all together with your grubby paws. Form into cookies (or even just balls) then roll them in a plate of extra coconut flakes if you'd like.

High-Protein Diets Are Bad For Your Bones... NOT!

Most doctors really know their stuff. Problem is, their stuff is often a couple decades old.

Take the subject of high-protein diets and osteopenia for example. What's osteopenia? Think of it as first-stage osteoporosis. Basically, it's low bone mineral density (BMD).

In the words of WebMD, the medical community has "raised concerns about high-protein diets" and a possible connection to osteopenia. The Cliff's Notes version is this: a high-protein diet leaches calcium from the body, leading to bone thinning.

Is it true?

Nah, it's bullshit. Thankfully.

The latest headline at WebMD, despite the early doom-casting?

"High-Protein Diet Could Repair Bone Loss."

"Labs around the country, including mine, are finally debunking this myth," says Lowery. "What I set out to do was show that protein wouldn't leech the bones. The finding we're going to share next month is that the guys who eat extra protein have denser bones."

Basically, Lowery is saying there's a moderately-strong correlation between protein intake and bone density. (1) The more protein you eat, the more dense your bones become. Of course, correlations don't prove a cause:effect relationship but evidence is mounting.

"This is exactly the opposite of what you see in some of these introductory dietetics books," notes Lowery. "That whole thing with calcium in the urine of high-protein eaters seems to be related to increased calcium absorption or other factors, not 'leaching.'"

What? Dieticians perpetuating myths and not keeping up with research? No. Freakin'. Way.

I'm shocked. Really, I am.

"But hold on a sec, Lonnie," I say. "Let me play devil's advocate here. Maybe it's the load-bearing exercise in these weight-training subjects that's building the bones, not the additional protein."

"Fair assumption. I formed the initial protein hypothesis with the understanding that weight training would protect the bones; that's why our control group of non-protein-seekers are strength athletes too," says Lowery. "So, what's probably happening is that the weight training is acting as a stimulus to help grab up all these additional grams of protein — along with ample dietary calcium — to actually build your bones."

This makes sense really; 60% of bone volume is in fact collagen, a sort of protein matrix.

Lowery notes that this is being seen in other populations as well, not just weight-trainin' dudes. Research like this is going to literally rewrite the college textbooks, some of which have devolved into dogma on this topic as they seem to be referencing each other, not the latest science.

"Many personal training courses are teaching the same myth about high-protein diets," notes Lowery. "They're just wrong. Wrong! Modern studies just don't support such 'education'. Maybe they'll catch on soon."

Let's hope so. This misinformation could lead to some serious harm to some of our favorite mammals: female athletes.

Lowery notes: "Imagine the damage being done right now to certain young female athletes. They're coming in overtraining and under-eating. They have suppressed estrogen and loss of bone mass. And what do they hear from some trainers, dieticians, and even doctors? They hear, 'Oh, you have osteopenia. Back off the protein.' It's just the opposite advice they should be getting! They need to be getting more protein!"

Amen, LL. Preach it, brother!

Lowery: Not a Runner!

"The young guys may not realize this," Dr. Lowery said, "but leucine and the branch chain amino acids got pooh-pooed on in certain studies back in the 90's. A sort of bandwagon effect ensued in the literature.

"Oh, a study said that BCAAs didn't boost performance in marathon runners... So what? I don't care about marathon runners! Since those days, newer data exploring protein synthesis with leucine has created a sort of renaissance in the BCAA literature.

"As a strength athlete and not a runner, I'm intrigued enough by the anabolism to spike my shakes with leucine!"

Word.

The Final Answer to "How Much Protein at Once?"

The two most commonly asked protein questions are "How much do I need per day?" and "How much can my body utilize in one sitting?" Well, we may actually now have the answer to the latter.

"Everyone wants to know what the optimal dose of protein is," said Lowery. "How much can you digest at once? Well, most people will say about 30 grams. But that's usually based on a plausibility argument based around how much protein you should eat in a day broken down over six meals. Now we may know the actual answer to that question based on a new study."

This year, Tarnopolsky's lab did a study (2) to examine the effect of how different dosages of egg protein powder affected protein synthesis rates. Researchers had healthy men who had previous weight training experience perform intense resistance exercise and consume an egg protein drink that contained either 5, 10, 20, or 40 grams of protein.

Basically, Lowery explained that researchers found that increasing protein intake stimulated protein synthesis in a dose dependent manner up to 20 grams of protein, after which there was no further increase in protein synthesis. In other words, forty grams didn't stimulate protein synthesis greater than 20 grams.

Researchers speculated that consuming 20 grams of protein five or six times daily would be the optimal measure to increase anabolism and muscle mass.

"Now," says Lowery, "You may still want to eat more than that for volume purposes since you've got to eat something, but the answer to the question is 20 grams... at least with egg protein. And I bet we see different proteins tested over the next year."

I asked Dr. Lowery how this new info is causing him to alter his own protein intake.

"I've actually cut back on the amount of protein I eat at any given time. I just make sure I spike it with leucine. I usually put a scoop and a half, about 7 or 8 grams, of leucine in just 20 grams of protein. But I've stopped sucking down 50 or 60 grams of protein at a time. I just don't do that anymore; I don't think it has that much benefit. Plus this prevents me from becoming a protein oxidizer or burner."

I asked if this changed his total protein intake per day.

"For me, not that much really. Twenty to thirty grams every few hours, spiked with leucine. I'm getting between 180 and 210 grams per day."

"Which brings me to another point," continued the Doc. "There may be benefits to separating protein/leucine boluses.

Lowery was referring to the "protein pulse" approach that Biotest has been studying for some time now.

"There were a few French researchers — the name I remember is El-Khoury — who found about a 15% improvement in anabolism by taking a 'pulse feeding' approach to protein intake."

Essentially, while traditional dogma has urged lifters to keep a steady-state flow of amino acids in the blood stream, the new thinking indicates that it might be best to let amino acid levels fall and then introduce a protein bolus.

Wow, let the discussions begin on that stuff! And let's hope the guys in snazzy lab coats study casein and whey soon.

You Piss A Lot. And That's Okay

Dr. Lowery is doing some work right now on kidney function and he's noticed something interesting in his research.

It seems that "protein-seekers" — which is apparently geek-speak for people who eat a lot of protein — have a much higher urine output than non-protein seekers, dudes who don't eat much protein.

"Average urine output is supposed to be about 1.2 liters daily, maybe 1.5 liters," says Lowery, who's the kinda guy who knows stuff like that, like, right off the top of his head. (It's eerie.)

"Well, the guys in this study who are averaging 250 grams a day of protein are bringing me 3 and 4 liters a day, sometimes hitting 3 liters in only twelve hours!"

Devil's advocate mode again for me: "Well, are they getting a lot of this protein from shakes and therefore just consuming more water?"

"I'm able to look at the urine-specific gravity and see how dilute it is. So I can adjust for this to some extent. Either way: high-protein eaters have a much higher urine output. They're filling up all the containers we provide them! And it's not just the fluid volume that's doing it."

Now, is this a bad thing? Well, for decades there's been something out there called the Brenner Hypothesis. Basically, it states that all this extra filtration, this urine production, is "hard on the kidneys." It causes extra work.

"That's speculation!" says Lowery. "Asking a tissue to do extra work does not equal 'damage.' It does not 'ruin' it. Think about your biceps. When you ask it to do extra work does it ruin it? No, it adapts, it gets better! It's silly to think that your kidneys would get seriously damaged if you ask them to create extra urine. Although not definitive, I see no damage in my studies. And mind you, we're talking about a mean intake of 250 grams per day for over 10 years." (3)

Now, I don't know about TMuscle readers, but I'm glad to hear this. Pharmaceutical ads on TV tell us every day that peeing a lot is a sure sign that we need their latest wonder drug because frequent urination is a bad sign. Well, it can be (prostate issues, etc.), but it seems it can also be a sign of simply eating a high-protein, gym-monkey diet.

Add caffeine and, well, there ya go. Literally.

Summary

1) Don't sweat adding your protein powder to hot oatmeal or other foods. It might tweak the peptides a little, but the amino acid profile is safe.

2) Need more calories and more protein? Make the same "cookies" they use in protein labs.

3) High-protein diets aren't bad for your bones. Quite the opposite in fact.

4) Lowery doesn't give a shit about marathon runners. So there.

5) There's some good evidence that getting about 20 grams of protein per feeding is optimal, at least with egg protein. Lowery likes to do this and spike about four of these 20g feedings with leucine. Furthermore, the "protein-pulse" approach may be the way to go.

6) Eating a lot of protein causes you to pee a lot. But no worries, this doesn't damage your kidneys, at least using standard clinical measures after 10 years of intake, so tell the finger-waggling vegetarians to STFU.

Next up, Dr. Lowery and I plan to tackle carbs, then fats. But not while the Conan soundtrack is playing.

References

1. Hemlepp L., Hartman B, Daugherty A, Glickman E and Lowery L. Dietary protein and resistance training: preliminary data on bone health. [Accepted for presentation] Int Cong Nutr. Bangkok, Thailand, Oct. 2009.

2. Moore DR, Robinson MJ, Fry JL, Tang JE, Glover EI, Wilkinson SB, Prior T, Tarnopolsky MA, Phillips SM. Ingested protein dose response of muscle and albumin protein synthesis after resistance exercise in young men. Am J Clin Nutr. 2009.

3. Lowery L. Dietary protein safety and strength athletes: running down a dream. NSCA-Wisc Annual Clinic. Oshkosh, WI, Apr. 2009.

Hard Science in the Big Easy

by Lou Schuler
I'll tell you one of the dirty little secrets of the fitness industry: If you want to attract the top scientists and practitioners to an annual conference focused on the latest exercise and nutrition research, you stage it in a city not known for exercise and nutrition.

That's why the International Society of Sports Nutrition held its 2009 meeting in New Orleans. Find any list of the fattest or least-healthy American cities, and chances are New Orleans is in the mix. Make a list of the most fun cities to hang out in for a couple of days, and my guess is that NOLA is right there as well.

Remember that scene in Crimson Tide where Gene Hackman tells Denzel Washington that their job is to preserve democracy, not practice it? Kind of like that.

In the interest of preserving the flow of scientific information from the experts to the enthusiasts, I spent two long days and mostly sleepless nights eating pig flesh prepared a hundred different ways (cherries stuffed with bacon — I shit you not), drinking local beers and exotic wines, and digesting as much information as I could handle in a state of sleep deprivation.

Amino Acids and Exercise

Jay Hoffman, Ph.D., was only about three-quarters of the way through his lecture on the nuts and bolts of protein supplementation when the moderator told him his time was up. Hoffman invited the moderator to try to remove him from the podium, and to use everyone seated on my side of the lecture room for backup, if he chose.

The person he challenged, attorney and bodybuilder Rick Collins, is not a little guy. But Hoffman, a former pro football player, is a lot not-littler. Fortunately, they were joking around. It was especially fortunate for me, since I would've been second or third in line for neurological remodeling if an actual brawl had broken out.

Besides, given our druthers, I think everyone in the audience would've preferred to hear the rest of Hoffman's presentation. If you're in the business of making athletes bigger and stronger, you need to know what amino acids can and can't do for your clients.

What they can do:

• increase protein synthesis, especially when used in conjunction with strength training (although they also increase protein synthesis, to a lesser extent, in non-lifters)

• reduce rate of protein degradation caused by strength training

• potentially reduce soreness following high-volume training

• preserve strength during extended periods of overreaching — training beyond your body's ability to recover

What they can't do is less well understood, and mostly related to quantity. Sports-nutrition science has "settled" on the idea that strength and power athletes can use a maximum of about 1.6 to 1.8 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight per day. So for a 200-pound guy, that's between 145 and 165 grams of protein per day, more or less.

There's no harm in having more protein; there's just no convincing data suggesting the extra protein will be used to build bigger muscles. Hoffman, however, added a footnote: Most studies have looked at recreationally trained subjects. What happens when you study competitive strength and power athletes? We have lots of hints that more would indeed be better for these subjects.

But that brings up a footnote to the footnote: Scientists don't have access to elite athletes for the most time-consuming and intrusive types of research, the ones that depend on isolation in metabolic chambers, comprehensive collection of bodily fluids, or the occasional sacrifice of a chunk of flesh for a biopsy.

So they do the best they can with the subjects they have, and those of us trying to apply the data to improve our physiques are left to make educated guesses.

How to Be Fast

If you're an athlete or trainer who works with athletes, you probably know how to make athletes faster. You work on the mechanics of running, improve acceleration off the starting line, and teach the athlete to make better transitions when he has to change directions.

David Sandler, a strength coach based in Las Vegas and science advisor to Jesse James Is a Dead Man and several other TV shows, says those traditional strategies are fine ... if you define speed as the time it takes to cover a specific distance.

The problem is, that's not how speed plays out on the field or on the mat. Game speed is what you can do in less than 0.2 seconds. That's how long it takes you to get beaten on a play.

That's why the athletes Sandler trains work hardest on the first five yards. In a game, the guy who can cover those five yards the fastest will usually come out ahead of his opponent. Sandler puts a secondary emphasis on the next five yards, and a tertiary emphasis on yards 10 to 20. Certainly, a wide receiver in football or midfielder in soccer needs to be fast for more than 10 yards at a time, but the key to beating an opponent is still being faster in those first five yards.

So how do you develop that kind of game-dominating velocity? First, you emphasize speed — moving arms and legs as fast as possible — before mechanics. Working on mechanics first will slow an athlete down, Sandler says.

Second, you have to make a distinction between fatigue and conditioning. You don't want to train for speed while you're fatigued. You need max speed and max effort on every repetition. Put another way, you don't get faster if you're moving slow.

Third, you want to be fast from every possible position. So you don't just work on speed when you're facing your destination with both feet on the ground. Sometimes Sandler has his athletes start from their knees or when lying on the ground.

Finally, you need to minimize body weight. Obviously, body fat will slow you down. But, Sandler asserts, so will nonfunctional muscle mass. Take two identical athletes, strip five pounds off one without changing his body composition and training status, and the lighter athlete will be faster. So you have to balance your need for strength and power with your need for speed.

Creatine

Is there anything creatine can't do? According to Colin Wilborn, Ph.D., an exercise scientist at the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor, supplementation with creatine has been linked to increased muscle mass and strength, lower body fat, better sprint performance, higher vertical jumps, more power, and more productive workouts.

There's also a hint that it might increase genetic activity at the cellular level.

Is there any way to improve on basic creatine supplements? Wilborn says that using beta-alanine in conjunction with creatine might do the trick. Beta-alanine increases the concentration of carnosine in muscles. Since carnosine is a buffering agent, having more means the muscles are able to perform more work before getting fatigued.

Thus, beta-alanine helps increase muscle mass and strength by allowing you to train longer and harder, as Jeff Stout explained in this TMUSCLE article and this interview.

The Future of the Supplement Industry

When Rick Collins wasn't pretending to threaten Jay Hoffman, he took part in two presentations. The first, with James Villepigue, explained how training and nutrition experts can navigate the book-publishing process. (I gave a similar presentation, covering print and online magazines and other media.)

Collins' second presentation, with his law partner, Alan Feldstein, was titled "Supplements, Science, and the Politics of New Washington." Collins is best known for his work defending steroid cases, but he also works with several supplement companies. As such, he's seen the best and worst.

Some highlights from the lawyers' presentation:

• There are some bad apples in the supplement industry, with offenses ranging from "fairy dusting" products with prescription pharmaceuticals (Viagra, Testosterone, weight-loss drugs) to making false and deliberately misleading claims. Those companies ultimately raise the cost of business for everyone, including the companies that are putting out high-quality products and playing by the rules. They make it easier to bring lawsuits and put pressure on the government to impose more regulations.

• Although supplements are a $25 billion-a-year industry, they're a low priority for the Democratic administration and Congress ... for now. But all it takes is one major scandal to move the industry into the spotlight.

• The key to staying out of the spotlight? Collins and Feldstein say that companies need to do more research before products come to market, and beware of making claims that go beyond the current scientific consensus.

Why Bodybuilders Walk Slow

The last time I went to the ISSN, in 2007, I made the mistake of wandering into some lectures that were way over my head. About halfway through one of them, I turned to Chris Shugart and asked if he had any clue what the speaker had just said. His notebook was as blank as mine. It sounded important, but I couldn't for the life of me tell you why, and neither could Chris.

So this time I kept to what was called the "practical track" — presentations for people who apply the research, rather than those who conduct it. The downside is that I missed out on some potentially scintillating lectures, like "Glycine Propionyl-1-Carnitine and Repeated High-Intensity Exercise" and "Oral Cognizin Citicoline Supplementation Increases Brain Cellular Bioenergetics." My personal rule is that if the title includes two or more words I can't define or pronounce, I have to assume I'm not the target audience.

Not that I came away feeling like I hadn't used my time productively. The presentations I attended were enough to fill my head and notebook with information I can use in my own training.

But my favorite lecture of the conference was the least applicable. It was just fun. Adam Locks, Ph.D., a media-studies professor at the University of Chichester in England, is the last guy in the world you'd pick out of a crowd as a bodybuilding fan, but he's all-in with the freaky.

The title of his presentation — "Flayed Animals in an Abattoir: The Bodybuilder as Body-Garde" — is as odd as his obsession with the cultural significance of bodybuilding. (Not that Locks has just one fixation on cultural weirdness; he recently presented at an international conference titled "Beyond Life: The Undead in Global Cult Media." Bodybuilders and zombies — in a way, it makes sense, doesn't it?)

Although no summary could do justice to Locks' passionate presentation, I came out with this take-home message:

Bodybuilding started in the late 19th century as a rebellion against society's concept of what's normal. It was startlingly representational at a time when abstract art was hitting the mainstream.

For a brief period in the 1980s and early 1990s, the aesthetic of bodybuilding found common cause with mainstream American popular culture. It was a time, Locks says, when hypermasculinity symbolized our country's quest for success. It wasn't just Arnold and Sly; even mainstream stars like Clint Eastwood and Harrison Ford hit the weights and put on some camera-friendly contractile tissue.

So what happened? The mainstream didn't give up on bodybuilding, Locks asserts; bodybuilding gave up on the mainstream.

Hard to argue with that.

Wrap-Up

So what did I learn during my two days in New Orleans?

• We have some really, really smart and interesting people doing primary research in exercise and nutrition, and applying that research.

• Creatine with beta-alanine may offer more benefits than either one by itself.

• If you're an athlete who needs to be fast — or a coach of athletes in that category — focus on moving arms and legs as quickly as possible in the first five to 10 yards of movement. Mechanics matter, but you can have the best mechanics in the world and still get beaten by a player who covers the first few yards faster than you.

• There's not much any of us can do to clean up the bad seeds in the supplement industry. All we really have is the power of the plastic. Don't buy products from companies that refuse to back up their claims with basic research.

• Beer connoisseurs don't give Abita Amber, a local brew, the highest marks. One online reviewer called it "light and uninspiring." But I found it inspiring enough for a steamy Monday night in the Big Easy. I can't remember the last time a beer tasted that good.

• If you're ever in New Orleans and happen to dine at Emeril's Delmonico in the Garden District, order the Grand Charcuterie Tasting. It's the most magnificent collection of creatively prepared pig meat you'll ever encounter in this lifetime. Cherries stuffed with bacon — top that, Rachael Ray!