Pat Wilson: Strength Camp Sponsored Strongman

When I opened Strength Camp, my warehouse gym in Florida, little did I realize that besides being a place for me to train and to train athletes that it would become a — “Man Cave” of sorts.

Now, I really do hate this term… “Man Cave”, because it assumes that men are nothing more than post modern neanderthals in need of a place to hide from doting women and an oppressive society.   I use the term only because of its recent popularity (along with the televisons portrayal of men as either lazy, dumb-asses like Homer Simpson or as aggressive, testosterone driven competitors who cheat on their wives like Tiger Woods).

Where is popular cultures example of the courageous and responsible man who lives an upright and integrous life?

Anyway, today’s post was not meant for one of my manic rants.

Today I would like to introduce you to one of the neanderthals that train with me in my Man-Cave gym… a place where men can lift heavy things, spit, cuss and have pissing contests without the distractions of “skinny jeans” or Ellen Degeneres”.

Meet Strength Camp’s newest sponsor:

Pat “Young Beast” Wilson

LW Strongman Competitor

Age 19 yrs. old (no shit!)

Ht - 5′11

Wt. 243

Pat just wooped ass in The SW Florida Strongman Event and has been training at Strength Camp with me and a few other strong  boys looking to snatch up some trophies, pro cards and world records next month at The Strongman Show Of Champions in Orlando FL (4/16 - 4/17)

Check out some of Pat’s prowess as he moves heavier things, faster and farther than his competitors. Strongman — What a great sport!?!?!

Hey! — If you have any awesome (and I mean AWESOME) videos of you or someone you know training like a maniac with Strongman implements send them to me at strengthcamp@gmail.com and I may post them here on the blog.

Also, if you are a strongman beast (and I mean a BEAST)… let me know about your upcoming competition and I’ll send you some Strength Camp t-shirts to rock.  All I ask is that you send me some pictures and videos of you kicking butt with while wearing our shirt.

Have a great weekend!

5 Steps to Building Insane Explosive Football Strength and Speed

Guest Post By Coach Steve Morris

The world of football training is in a sad state of affairs.  A downturn, if you will.

See, a lot of programs I see on the internet promise explosive football strength, but, very few deliver. Unfortunately for us football players, most of the workouts and programs are written by some 170-lb personal trainer (who no doubt couldn’t make the team in high school). They come up with these odd programs filled with high volume, stability balls, “core” work and lots of cool, new-age exercises they learned at the latest ACE certification clinic.

Last summer, the football training world hit rock bottom. In a Google search for “football training” one of the top results was a football strength workout written by a trainer from Bally’s and listed on the fraud gym’s website.

What I saw damn near made me vomit with rage. Essentially, everything was 3 x 8, eventually working your way down to 4 reps (strength work, I suppose). It was a horrid combination of the old bodybuilding stand-by sets and reps meeting weenie-personal-trainer inspired Western Periodization.

This sad state of affairs is unnecessary. There’s around 180,000 websites with some sort of football strength training info, and, honestly, about 179,995 of them are total trash. Obviously, Elliot’s site is packed with awesome football training info, and I go out of my way to make sure my site is as well. Maybe it’s because we both actually played the game and know what it takes to excel?

Despite the almost unlimited fountains of misinformation parading as strength training sites confusing players, there is hope. Getting stronger, faster and more explosive for football is actually not that complicated. It’s gut-busting hard work, but it’s not really rocket science. True football training will build your body, mind and character and you will become a better man for having lived through it.

How do you actually go about getting stronger and more explosive?

Glad you asked.

Here are 5 easy steps to building insane explosive football strength and speed.

1. Do Max Effort Work

Make no mistake about it, unless you are strong, you will not be a great football player. Strength dictates all other aspects of athleticism (speed, agility, explosiveness, etc). The stronger football player will almost always win.

This confuses most people. They assume that you don’t need to be super strong to be a great football player. They also fail to see the correlation between strength and speed (we’ll cover that in #2).

Now, a lot of players do accept this but go about it in the wrong way. I get countless emails from people asking me to evaluate their programs. Usually, they’re working hard but not getting the results they want. And, usually it’s because they are confused about how to actually get stronger.

We’ve been conditioned to think that doing sets of 4 - 6 and simply adding 5lbs to the bar every week is getting stronger. It’s not.

First, you’re not building maximum strength.

Second, you will plateau rather quickly. If we all added 5-lbs a week forever, guys would be benching 5,000lbs.

You must work with low reps, yes, even as low as singles, to build raw, max strength.

I know, “low reps are dangerous!” Bull. High reps are more dangerous. Ever watch someone do a set of 10 in the Squat? Reps 7 - 10 are ragged, they twist, their knees pinch in, and they use way too much back. The more reps you do, the more fatigued you will become and the worse your form will get.

If you’re a beginner or you train beginners, and you still fear the single, do multiple sets of 2 or work up to a max set of 2 - 3. This will build top end strength. And, for those of you who feel you need to do higher reps, think of it this way; you’re max bench is 200lbs and you can do sets of 8 with 150. You smarten up, decide to get stronger, push your max up to 250 and suddenly find that you can now do sets of 8 with 200. Which is better? 150 x 8 or 200 x 8?

And, before you get excited, it doesn’t work the opposite way. As many a disappointed “projected-max” following football player will tell you, focusing on increasing your weight on high reps sets has nothing to do with your max strength.

So, you need to do Max Effort work. You need to “work up to” a heavy set of 1 - 3 reps, constantly trying to beat your previous records.

Working up is simple, so stop over thinking it.

It should take 5 - 8 sets; depending on your strength (obviously a 600-lb bencher will need more sets than a guy pushin’ 150).

Do this:

Bar x 5
95 x 3
125 x 3
135 x 3
155 x 3
175 x 3

Next time, beat 155. I know, there’s barely any volume, how are can this make you stronger? Rest assured, most top power lifters, the strongest guys on Earth, use a similar approach.

Lead off one Upper Body day and one Lower Body day with a Max Effort exercise. Stick to big, compound movements like Bench, Incline, Deadlifts, Box Squats, etc.

2. Maximum Force to the Bar

If there is one area of football training, and, strength training in general that confuses people and fuels the fringe, anti-strength idiots it’s the subject of bar speed. The HIT Jedis, the personal training crowd, the CrossFit Cults and the Wobble Board Wrecking Crews all have done a great job teaching young football players and lifters that lifting heavy will make you slow. “Just look at that big, fat Powerlifter Squatting 800-lbs! He’s moving slow, and if you get strong, you’ll be slow too!”

Much better to do Indian Club Juggling Front Squats on a Swiss ball, eh?
What they miss is the intent to move the bar fast that counts. This might be the simplest concept in strength training yet so many miss it. Just try to lift the bar as fast as possible, every set, every rep, every exercise.

You need to train your Central Nervous System to act fast. When it gets the message that we need to move several hundred pounds quickly, it can easily figure out to move just your bodyweight pretty damn fast. Try lifting a heavy weight slowly and see what happens.

When I get high school players telling me they were taught to lift the bar with a 4 seconds up and 3 seconds down bar speed, my head explodes. They wonder why they can’t get faster! Well, they just spent an entire off-season teaching their brain, body and muscles to be slow, what else would you expect.

Dave Tate wrote something to the effect of, “Warm up sets should feel like maxes and maxes should feel like warm up sets.” That, my friends, does a hell of a job summing it up.

Every set, every rep, every exercise…lift the bar like you’re trying to throw it off of you because it’s about to crush you and end your existence. That’s good motivation to get the bar moving.

3. Posterior Chain

If you want to get faster for football, be able to drive a defender into the stands, or run people over, you need to work your posterior chain like your life depends on it. Your hamstrings, glutes, calfs, and all the muscles of the back must be hammered, often.

I don’t blame young players for training the beach muscles. They don’t know any better and that’s where you’ll notice progress the quickest. But, for coaches and writers who over-promote “bodybuilding” style programs, there’s no excuse.

You need to center your program around:

Box Squats
Box Front Squats
Deadlifts
Cleans
Deadlifting of odd objects (sandbags, stones, etc)
Snatch Grip Deadlifts
Romanian Deadlifts
Squats and Front Squats (regular, no box)
Lateral Lunges

If you focus your efforts on those exercises, you will be miles ahead of the competition. Do them heavy, lift them fast, and do them often.

4. Build Transitional Power

Another place where many football strength programs fall short is in the area of transitioning weight room strength into on the football field power.

There are plenty of big, strong dudes who stink up the collective football fields of the world every year. Sometimes it’s because they are just dumb or hopelessly unathletic. More often, it’s because they lifted hard but never took the steps needed to transfer power from the gym to the field.

The two quickest ways to do this are:

Using a modified Dynamic (Speed) Training method
Using a simple Plyometric program

Dynamic training is simply lifting a sub-maximal weight as fast as possible. Typically, this would be 50 - 60% of your max. This is done for leg training exercises like Squats and Box Squats.

Because the body has a built-in protective mechanism, simply lifting a lighter bar has its limitations because the body will slow you down as you reach lock-out. To get around this we need to “accommodate resistance.” This is done by adding bands, chains, or weight releasers to the bar so that as you lift it, it actually gets heavier. In this case, you must continue to accelerate all the way through lockout but you over-ride the body’s instinct to slow down because, again, the bar will move a bit slower despite your intent to move it quickly.

Bands can be a bit extreme for the beginner and hard to set up, so your best bet is to use chains. EliteFTS.com has good ones. By training in this way, you teach the body to have speed and power at every joint angle. See, when we lift, we often over-train the bottom portion and under-train the top, since we are weakest at the bottom of a lift and strongest toward the top.

Chains gather on the ground at the bottom of the lift, and begin to come off the ground as you lift the bar, actually increasing the weight progressively as you near completion.

This can not only make us weaker but it can teach the CNS bad habits. Think of your body position when you start to explode through a tackle…it’s a lot like the last 1/3 of a squat. Why would you want that area to be weaker than necessary?

Plus, it teaches acceleration. Your body is forced to accelerate through the entire movement, rather than slowing down as most do naturally.

The next step in transitioning power is to use a simple plyo program. I do mean simple.

People have this weird fascination with plyometrics. I don’t know if it’s the old “if it’s Russian and secret, it must be awesome!” school of thought or because every commercial for overpriced spandex shows guys jumping around on boxes. Either way, people have managed to take a highly effective training tool and pervert it.

Plyometrics, by definition, are exercises that allow the muscle to reach maximum strength in as short a period of time as possible.1 Re-read that and think of its applications to
football training! That’s what it’s all about. Producing as much force as possible, as fast
as possible. This is what makes them so great at teaching the transfer of strength to the field.

Remember, Force is Mass x Acceleration. Your mass x your acceleration = big plays and big hits…

Plyos are great, but you must start slowly. Guys read an article about plyos and start doing depth jumps off the roof of their house. Don’t be that guy. Start off with something as basic as a Box Jump.

Stand in front of a box, dip quickly and leap onto the box. Step down and repeat.

The next step would be Multiple Box Jumps. Excellent exercise, but this is where guys start going wrong.

When you do multiple Box Jumps, you must absolutely focus on spending almost no time on the ground. Jump, step off, hit the ground and immediately jump to the next box. Too much ground time will make you slower!

When you first start just keep it simple. 3 - 4 sets of 5 jumps before your heavy leg work is plenty. Concentrate on speed and explosiveness and minimizing ground time.

Between the Dynamic Training and the Plyos you’ll be well on your way to taking all of your new-found strength and size and turning it into useable power to mow down your competition on the field…that is the point of all this training.

5. Fix Strength Gaps

Even with all the Max Effort, Dynamic Effort, chains and plyos, you can still fail to reach maximum potential. Don’t get me wrong, those things are the foundation of training and doing them will take you far. But, I know the guys who read this site and the guys I train are not interested in just being good…we want to be elite!

No matter how hard you train in the weight room, you can still develop strength gaps.

Strength gaps are just what they sound like. Little gaps in your strength that can take a 600-lb Squatter and render him unable to throw a block.

See, when we lift barbells we go up and down and, as we discussed, can lose out unless we use bands and chains.

But, even with bands and chains, the weight remains in one plane of motion and relatively fixed in resistance (bands and chains add resistance as the bar goes up).
Dumbbells and K-bells help by training some of the stabilizers and Prowlers and sleds allow us to move laterally. But, there’s still something missing.

That missing something is Sandbags and other Odd-Object/Strongman style training. We tend to go mostly with Sandbags because of the safety factor, but, we also do Farmers Walk, Sled Pulling, Truck Pushing, and some Stone Trainer work.

Sandbags work because they are “alive.” They move, the weight shifts, the bag changes shape…it literally fights back, like an opponent.

I’ve seen some strong dudes get embarrassed by a 150lb Sandbag because they don’t have the stabilizer strength to tackle the beast.

Look at the Sandbag Clean and Press.

You have to pick up this moving blob of weight. Then, you shift it to the thighs and explode up to the chest – all while engaging the muscles of the back, arms, shoulders, biceps, low back, glutes, hamstrings and abs. Now, you have to press this thing overhead.

Again, the bag moves around forcing the stabilizers in the shoulders to work hard (so the bag doesn’t come down on your big head). Once you get it overhead, you’ve worked the shoulders, the triceps, the upper chest (as a stabilizer) and the back and legs again.

It’s a fight from start to finish.

This is the kind of movement that makes the body one piece, a whole of strong, unshakable muscle. No leakage is possible when you are used to wrestling Sandbags.

You can use Sandbags and Strongman movements as finishers at the end of your training session, as a stand-alone conditioning tool, or in place of barbell exercises.

The Take Home

Now you have a plan to increase your explosive strength, get faster for football and become the kind of player you always wanted to be. Or, you can choose to go with the run of the mill style of training and be average. If you choose the latter, don’t worry, you can hide for a while. But, eventually you’ll run into guys who train the right way…and we’ll be waiting for you.

Steven Morris is a Strength Coach in the Philadelphia and South Jersey areas and owner of Explosive Football Training. He still plays football and will only retire at gun-point. He has been lifting weights for over 16 years and has been helping people achieve their fitness and strength goals for over a decade.
You can get the Free Book “7-Steps to Building Insane Game Speed” at www.ExplosiveFootballTrainingProgram and www.ExplosiveFootballTraining.com

Strongman Training Journal Part 5

REAL Happiness (and training).

6 weeks ago when I started writing this journal and titled it my “Strongman Training Journal”, I’m pretty sure you figured that I’d be talking a heck of a lot more about training.  You probably assumed that I’d be outlining exercise reps and sets as well as how to perform what exercises and when.

Well, it’s true that my original intent for this journal was to teach you about my training plans, programs, tricks and tips.  But, if you’ve ever met me or listen to any of my “rants” you understand that I ALWAYS probe several layers deeper when trying to understand or relate a concept.  So in order for me to produce a background or frame of understanding for you to truly grasp my training methods, I thought it was important that you first understand what my innermost convictions and values are.

Elliott, what the heck do Core Values, Convictions and  Principles have to do with lifting heavy shit?

Everything! — You probably know that I am a strength coach / personal trainer that helps men and athletes realize their sports and fitness goals at my gym.  So, for over 10 years I have been in a position to observe and support people on their way to a “Fractioned Self-Realization”.  What I mean by “fractioned” is that when I aim at helping someone lose weight or gain muscle mass or jump higher, I have traditionally attempted this by manipulating their external environment with little regard for their intrinsic motives (ie. what they really want).

What EVERYONE really wants, no matter what they say or how they go about achieving it is To Be Happy!  If you probe deep enough you will learn that the person who wants to lose weight really just wants to be happy.  At first their answers may sound something like, “I want to lose weight so that I can find a hot wife.” But if you keep asking why? - you may get something like, “So we can have lots of great sex.” then, “So my parents will see that I am really not just a fat loser” and, “So I can share my life with someone I love.” and ultimately, “So I can be happy.”

Here’s the funny thing about happiness… you can choose to be happy at any time and under any condition.

In his book, “Man’s Search For Meaning”, holocaust survivor Victor Frankel describes how he met a deep and profound JOY while staring at a cold bowl of water with some fish bones swimming it, while at a Nazi concentration camp!  If Dr. Frankel could find happiness while eating a meal unfit for even the ugliest dog, after being striped of all his clothes, belonging, children and wife… then I think someone living in San Diego who is upset about his beer belly can find happiness in his circumstances too.

Here is my point… before any of us can make a meaningful physical or outer transformation, we must first commit to and strive relentlessly for an inner transformation.  — Jesus once ranted (and he is THE best ranter ever!), “Now then, you Pharisees clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside you are full of greed and wickedness. You foolish people! Did not the one who made the outside make the inside also? But wash first what is inside of the cup, and everything will be clean for you.

His point is this… if you seek to be new, better, different, less fat, holy, whatever… it would be far more effective to begin the “cleaning” process from the inside rather than the outside.  Consider, it is easy to clean the outside of a cup without cleaning the inside, just wipe around it with a wet towel.  But, it is much harder to clean the inside of a cup without at least getting some of the outside clean as the rag and water touches it.

To become happy we must seek FULL self-actualization!  If we start with a fractioned method for reaching true happiness, we will always come up short.  Full self-actualization means an inner and therefore an outer transformation.

If you want to look stronger, first BE stronger; if you want to look prettier, BE pretty; if you want happiness, BE happier!  The magic is in the BE-ing first and the DO-ing second.  We all want to know the “blueprint” for success!   I know because I’ve been there, I wanted someone to tell me what to DO?  How should I DO it?  What do I DO next?

I get e mails everyday from people who want me to tell them what to DO so that they can lose weight or gain muscle mass or run faster.  And every answer I give is fractioned… it is only 1/2 true.  What I really want to tell them is that they need to TRANSFORM… become someone else, become born again, new from the inside first.  But I would never sell any e-books if I said that — people just don’t like that answer.

My Renewed Power Plan For Strongman (sports) Achievement

Last year I was an amateur strongman competitor, this year I am a Professional Strongman.  My title shifted from amateur to Pro in the worldly sense but change of title did not automatically bring about the shift in consciousness` associated it… in fact, I’ve been scared shitless!  These guy I now compete against are good, very, very good!  And many of them a lot stronger than I am.

So, I know that going about my lifestyle and training in the fashion that yielded results last year will not be good enough this time around.  As you can imagine my new plan begins with “inner training” first, followed by what exercises, when and for how many reps.

Inner Training balanced with Outer Training

If you look at the image above, most of it is pretty self-explanatory. To the left is my “cleaning the inside of the cup” training  and on the right is an out line for my “outside of the cup training” So, instead of going into great detail for each one (I can probably write an entire post about each) I am going to share some of my thoughts on something that has been a topic of contemplation for me lately…

Failure

I once heard that, “you can know the success of a man by the amount of times he has failed.” This basically affirms my conviction that there is NO such thing as failure.

People are often shocked that I post videos of myself FAILING at some of my lifts in training, I am even more shocked that these are some of my most viewed and commented on videos on YouTube. — Watch these 2 short videos of me getting my ass kicked by some massive weights below.

When we fail at attempting ANYTHING, we are then armed with incredible feedback about how we can go about our next attempt.

When you saw me drop that 370 pound stone, I didn’t simply fail… I learned that my hip flexors were too tight at the time and didn’t allow for the hip extension that is necessary for me to move the stone higher.  And when I nearly severed me legs from my body by dropping that 355 pound log… I learned that I need to lock my elbows faster when dipping under the log so fast.

My next competition is my first professional competition.  It is in Orlando on April 16th and 17th.  I intend to win.  I always intent to win.  But if I “fail” I have come to grips with the fact that it is strictly feedback for me to adjust my course for my next attempt.  The only real failure is quitting.  And whats even worse , is not even trying.

I have a question for you this week. Feel free to post your response below, but if you don’t please take the time to reflect on it anyway.  Think about it when you are alone and can really focus.

Question - “What would you attempt, in any area of your life, if you absolutely knew with 100% certainty  that you couldn’t fail?”

Now, when you’ve got a nice long list of things that you would attempt if you couldn’t fail… consider the following. — THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS FAILURE… only feedback.

How To Build An Unbreakable Body

Last week I was fortunate enough to get Keith Scott “The Unbreakable Man” on the phone for a 30 minute interrogation where I drilled him for information and secrets that  will allow you to finally Take charge of your physical potential and health once and for all as you:

* Finally, say goodbye to your physical pain. Discover how you can eliminate your physical pain with simple exercises you can do at home.

* Dominate your game or sport, shatter records in the weight room, take back your life! Whatever your game is, reset your body to be physically dominant. With this program, you will set yourself up to dominate on the court, field, gym or in your daily life!

* Leave ineffective physical therapy sessions, endless consumption of Advil, and doctor visits behind forever. This system will allow you to take full control of your physical potential and health. Within one session, you will feel your pain start to go away fast!

* Stop ignoring your pain and physical problems and take back your life. With the corrective exercise programs and specialized “plug-ins” you can start to fix yourself, prevent new injuries, and feel better than you have in years.

* Shatter previous strength plateaus and enhance your full-body strength beyond anything you have done before. With this full, totally balanced, 16-week strength program you will realize outstanding full-body strength increases like you never imagined before. Whether it is in the gym or in daily life, strength is key to being and staying healthy and doing the things you want!

* Never miss a workout or training session again, because of injuries or painful joints. This program will ensure that you get healthy, and never have to miss a workout because of injuries or pain again!

* Burn fat, build muscle, sculpt the body of your dreams and feel like a million bucks! This plan will enable you to blow torch off unwanted fat, pack on heaps of muscle, and attain your dream body, while fixing your issues and keeping your body healthy.

Click The Player Below To Listen To The Interview:

 

==> Click Here To Learn More About Keith and How To Become Unbreakable <==

The History Of Bodybuilding Nutrition

This article is an excerpt from the book - “Muscle, Smoke & Mirror’s” by Randy Roach

The sport called bodybuilding demands the ex-treme in body presentation. No other athletic endeavor requires such high levels of regimentation for muscle development and body fat reduction. To outsiders, such efforts may appear vain and self-centered, even looming out there on the lunatic fringe. Nevertheless, the sport has had considerable influence on other fields of athletics, not to mention the general public.

We must remember that the men (and women) who sweat it out in the gym year after year were using the low-carbohydrate diet long before Dr. Atkins made it popular. Many other dietary strategies of today such as all-raw diets, protein supplementation, eating multiple small meals a day, carbohydrate loading, meal replacement packages and macro-nutrient balancing all derived their initial popularity from the bodybuilding field.

Physical Culture

Credit for the Physical Culture movement in North America, the precursor to the bodybuilding movement, goes to Bernarr Macfadden, an extraordinary entrepreneur who published physical culture magazines, organized physique competitions, wrote 150 books and accumulated millions in the publishing industry. Macfadden preached clean living and whole natural foods. He ate vast quantities of raw carrots, beet juice, fruits, dates, raisins, grains and nuts. He abstained from meat but recommended copious amounts of raw milk. In fact he even recommended an exclusive raw milk diet for extended periods.

The dominant star of the early years was Eugen Sandow, whose career spanned the late 1890s and the early part of the 20th century. He did not display the typical burly brute image, but a finely chiseled body, resembling those of Roman and Greek athletes. With the help of Florenz Ziegfeld, he marketed and displayed his physique in artistic fashion. In fact, it was through this artistic expression that Sandow inspired Macfadden in the mid 1890s. In an 1894 interview on his dietary habits, Sandow claimed to abstain from hard liquor, coffee and tea, but consumed the occasional beer. He ate mostly wholesome foods, but indulged at selected opportunities. Sandow, along with most of the other Physical Culturists of his day, placed more emphasis on the mechanical aspects of diet as opposed to the chemical. He believed in doing what was necessary to facilitate good digestion, including eating at regular intervals, selecting simple foods, applying thorough mastication, eating slowly and tying it all together with a good night’s sleep. He was critical of over-indulgence and recommended foods with a high nutrient value, although he admitted to eating what he wanted, when he wanted, and however much he wanted during his younger years.

Earle Liederman, author and friend of Sandow, also advocated whole natural foods. Liederman pointed out the importance of a strong digestive system enhanced by proper food mastication for men of strength and large appetites. He described the popularity of “beef juice” or “beef extract” for rapid muscle recovery. Liederman also felt obliged to mention that ice cream was very popular, referring to one lifter who often felt it necessary to finish his meals with a quart of vanilla ice cream.

Arthur Saxon of the famous Saxon brothers trio and a contemporary of Eugen Sandow, also recommended nutrient-dense foods for endurance athletes. He warned against the dangers of hard liquor, but condoned beer. In fact, Saxon had a reputation for hefty beer drinking as did many men of strength of the time. He warned against smoking while admitting to being a smoker himself. For gaining muscle, Saxon recommended milk mixed with raw egg after a workout, milk with oatmeal, cheese, beans, peas, and meat. He called milk the perfect food.

According to his brother Kurt, all three of the Saxon brothers had very hardy appetites. Along with his participation in the strength act, Kurt was also the trio’s chef. Kurt’s list of food consumed by the three brothers each day indicates substantial daily intake, with little self-denial. Milk is largely absent from Kurt’s menus.

Raw vs. Cooked

A debate that has been on-going since the early days of Physical Culture is the relative virtues of raw food versus cooked. Sandow referred to the eating of raw eggs and under-cooked meats as nonsense and a practice that was “passing away.”

In the raw food corner was champion wrestler George Hackenschmidt, the “Russian Lion,” a man rivaling Sandow’s strength, and surpassing him in athletic ability. Like Sandow, he was small by today’s standards, standing just under 5’10″ and weighing about 200 pounds. However, he was enormously strong. Both a gentleman and sportsman, George Hackenschmidt reflected a spiritually conservative philosophy towards nutrition. In his book The Way to Life, he stated:

“I believe I am right in asserting that our creator has provided food and nutriment for every being for its own advantage. Man is born without frying-pan or stewpot. The purest natural food for human beings would, therefore, be fresh, uncooked food and nuts.” He stated that a diet of three quarters vegetable food and one quarter meat would appear to be most satisfactory for the people of central Europe but conceded a hardy appetite which, in his early training years, was based on 11 pints of milk per day, presumably raw, along with the rest of his diet. A prophet before his time, he warned about the dangers of refined sugar and meat from artificially fed and confined animals. He believed that most people ate too much flesh food from these improperly raised animals and encouraged more emphasis on natural raw foods.

Vegetarianism

The early bodybuilders also debated the pros and cons of vegetarianism. Macfadden and Hackenschmidt inclined towards diets that excluded meat, or that at least derived a preponderence of calories from plant foods. Juicing was popular among some. In his book Remembering Muscle Beach, Harold Zinkin describes fellow beach comrade Relna Brewer. At 17, Brewer worked in one of California’s first health food stores, located in Santa Monica. Relna’s job was to run the juice press. Because the owners of the store could not afford to pay much, Relna took out her pay in the celery, watermelon, orange and carrot juice she made each day.

Jack Lalanne was probably one of Relna’s customers. Jack began his carreer as a vegetarian, bringing his own food, such as apple or carrot juice and vegetables, to train at the beach during the 1930s. However, Lalanne later ate meat when focussed on bodybuilding. In fact, Armand Tanny says that Jack would visit the local stockyards to acquire cow’s blood to drink while in training. Later Lalanne reverted back to his vegetarian ways, but allowing some fish and eggs.

Lalanne opened one of the first health studios in Oakland in 1936. A colleague writes that Lalanne would work 14 hours a day then drive through the night 400 miles so he could be with the gang at Muscle Beach to participate in all the activities. When it came to pure energy and vitality, Lalanne was, and at 90 today, still is unbridled.

Another vegetarian was Lionel Strongfort who promoted a system of raw foods based on fruits, vegetables, eggs and milk. He recommended very little meat and cooked fat. Strongfort suggested eating only two meals a day, a strategy shared by Macfadden that would re-emerge in the 60s and 70s. Strongfort and Macfadden both advised against overconsumption of food. They claimed overconsumption created a negative stress on the body’s systems, sensible advice that bodybuilding publications would ignore in the coming years.

Perhaps the most accepted food across all the early eating models for bodybuilders was milk. One of the most popular protocols for building size and strength was the combination of back squatting and drinking large quantities of milk. Joseph Curtis Hise was a pioneer of this system in the 1930s and after 70 years this strategy is still going strong in the drug-free world of bodybuilding.

Tony Sansone

Another Physical Culturalist who advised against over-consumption was Tony Sansone, but Sansone understood the importance of flesh foods, including animal fats and organ meats. He wrote extensively on nutrition for bodybuilders and recommended nutrient-dense “foundation” foods such as milk, eggs, butter, meat, vegetables, fruits, and some whole grains, in that order. He also stressed the importance of organ meats such as liver, kidney, heart and cod liver oil and recognized the need to drink whole raw milk instead of pasteurized and skimmed. He believed goats milk was more nutritious and easily digested than cows milk. Fresh butter and cream were his preferred fats. He also recommended six to eight glasses of water per day.

Tony Sansone wisely stressed the importance of generous amounts of fat in the diet to allow the complete utilization of nitrogenous (protein) foods in building muscle tissue–a fundamental and important fact that would be lost as the era of protein supplements took hold. He also knew that weight loss was not a matter of simple calorie counting, as cellular uptake or utilization of food varied on an individual basis. In anticipation of Dr. Atkins, Sansone recommended his foundation foods of milk, eggs, meat, vegetables and fruit for strength and health, and starchy foods as weight manipulators. His recipe for gaining weight was to add more high-carbohydrate foods such as bread and potatoes to the diet, and for losing weight to simply reduce or remove them. Tony Sansone’s caveat to lose no more than two pounds of fat per week is still the standard used in bodybuilding today.

Muscle Beach

Muscle Beach got its start in the 1930s as the meeting place of young athletes who lifted weights, built human pyramids, tumbled, juggled and engaged in any other athletic endeavor they could think of. That era gave us many recognizable names such as Harold Zinkin (creator of the Universal weight machine), Joe Gold (creator of Golds Gym), Jack Lalanne, Harry Smith, and the Tanny brothers, Armand and Vic (who created a popular gymnasium chain). In fact, it is safe to say that much of the fitness industry grew out of Muscle Beach–gyms, gym chains, TV exercise programs, fitness equipment, women lifting weights, even aspects of the natural organic food movement stemmed from this small stretch of sand.

According to Harry Smith, long-time gym owner, ex-pro wrestler and Muscle Beach alumnus, body builders didn’t think much about specialty food or supplements in those days. The emphasis was on training rather than eating and resting. Harry did state that many of them tried to keep their eating clean, and that on a number of occasions they would frequent a small deli about one-half block from the beach. The deli offered freshly ground beef to which some of the guys would mix some raw onions and a little salt and pepper. The meat was eaten raw along with raw milk. Harry said it was a cheap and easy way to eat hardy and keep out of the restaurants.

One important Muscle Beach raw food enthusiast was Armand Tanny. Originally a weightlifter, Armand had a fantastic physique and the strength to qualify him for the wrestling circuit. He visited the Hawaiian Islands just after the Second World War and came away with a lasting impression of the Samoans. “They ate everything raw,” he noted. “You name it, fish, meat, beetles–everything! They were so strong and healthy.” On his return to the US, he became interested in the work of Weston A. Price, stating that Price’s book Nutrition And Physical Degeneration served as his Bible.

In 1948 he shut off his stove and ate just about everything raw from then on–tuna, beef, liver, lobster, oysters, clams, nuts, seeds, fruits and vegetables. Armand recalls wading out into the surf along the Santa Monica Pier and using his feet to kick up 6- to 7-inch Pismo clams, smashing them together to get at the pink and white flesh. Armand also took brewer’s yeast, desiccated liver, yogurt, black strap molasses and wheat germ oil, all recommendations of Gaylord Hauser, a nutritional guru of the era. Hauser also recommended fish liver oil, but Tanny felt he was getting plenty from all the raw fish he was consuming.

Armand credited his 1950 Mr. USA and the Pro Mr. America titles to his raw meat diet. In the 1950s, he helped his brother Vic in the gym business and appeared in a Mae West act. His bodybuilding articles appeared prominently in bodybuilding publications for the remainder of the century, thus providing a link to Weston Price during the decade of the 50s.

Bulking Up with John Grimek

The biggest influence on bodybuilding in the 1930s and 1940s was John Grimek, the second American Athletics Union (AAU) Mr. America and the first to win back-to-back titles, in 1940 and 1941. Many commentators believe that Grimek represents the beginning of modern bodybuilding as we know it today, describing him as the best physique of the mid century.

During the early 1930s, at the start of his career, Grimek came under the influence of Mark Berry, editor of Strength magazine and an advocate of an eating protocol in which an athlete would bulk up in bodyweight and then train it off. At one point, Berry had Grimek beef up his 5’ 8″ frame to 250 pounds. The practice would become commonplace by the 1950s and maintain a foothold for several decades after.

Grimek bulked up on whatever was put in front of him, reports his wife Angela in a 1956 Health and Strength article entitled “Life with John.” “John has an enormous appetite. . . John has yet to find a restaurant that can do justice to his appetite. . . . Sometimes he goes on a restricted diet–and it is surprising how little he can get by on then. But when he goes all out, he can never be filled. . . . but the ‘hog’ (our pet name for John) just eats and eats and still remains trim and muscular.”

By the 1950s, Grimek’s diet included Hershey chocolate bars and hi-protein tablets manufactured and promoted by Bob Hoffman, publisher of Strength and Health, a magazine that provided a platform for Grimek along with the new-fangled supplements coming on the market. Hoffman used Hershey chocolate in his products, so Grimek and the rest of the York gang had easy access to some empty calories.

Protein Powders and Supplements

In the late 1930s a young pharmacist named Eugene Schiff developed a method of processing whey from milk for human consumption. He created Schiff Bio-Foods, a whey packaging company. This was a half century before whey concentrates would emerge as a popular supplement in the bodybuilding scene. For a short time he sold his packaged whey to local drug stores, then sold his own store to enter into the manufacturing and packaging of health foods.

Schiff focused on supplements made from natural products. He began to experiment with whole foods such as brewer’s yeast, wheat germ and liver. He found that these foods were naturally rich in vitamins and minerals. The Schiff company claims that he was first to discover that rose hips was a superior source of vitamin C. Along with the first rose hip vitamin C supplement, he also launched one of the first multi-vitamin products, called “V-Complete.”

The demand during World War II for non-perishable foods allowed the food industry to expand and popularize the market for powdered or dehydrated foods and bodybuilders would eventually find their way into this market. Powdered milk and eggs, and later powdered soy protein, were promoted as an easy way to get additional protein into the diet. Breakfast drinks based on a protein powder emerged into the diet of the legendary Steve Reeves who years later wrote about this practice in his book Building The Classic Physique. Reeves’ impressive natural physique landed him starring roles in the films Hercules and Hercules Unchained in the late 1950s and inspired thousands of young men to adopt weight training. His recipe for a breakfast drink included fresh orange juice, Knox gelatin, honey, banana, raw eggs and a blend of skim milk, egg white and soy protein.

The first protein powders “tailored” specifically for athletes appeared around 1950. One of these was called 44, “The Supplemental Food Beverage,” produced in California by a company called Kevo Products. The principle ingredient was dehydrated powdered whole soy beans, along with kelp, wheat germ, dextrose, and various dehydrated plants, herbs and flavorings. The supplement was sold at health food stores, body-building studios, and health institutes.

Another popular product was Hi-Protein, “a protein food supplement derived from soya flour, milk proteins, and wheat. The free amino acids which include natural tryptophan and the other natural essential amino acids where produced by an acid hydrolysis.” The product was developed by bodybuilder and nutrition guru Irvin Johnson with before and after photographs of weaklings turned musclemen. Bob Hoffman quickly capitalized on Johnson’s success by following immediately with his own soy-based product marketed heavily in Strength and Health. Hoffman’s infamous protein claimed many a victim with hives or gym-clearing gas.

The debates on raw versus cooked and vegetarianism versus meat eating that appeared in bodybuilding magazines during the 1940s gave way to numerous articles on protein supplements in the 1950s, including “Building Biceps Faster With Food Supplements (Iron Man, December 1950,” “More and Better Protein Will Keep you Well (Strength & Health, March 1953),” “The Magical Power Of Protein (Mr. America, February 1958),” “Food Supplements Build Rock Hard Definition (Muscle Builder, June 1958)” and “Everyone Needs More Protein (Strength & Health, July 1959).

Meal replacement products also appeared during the 1950s, with much hype. One product, called B-FIT, was recommended as a replacement for two or three regular meals per day. According to its promoters, B-FIT “is scientifically formulated to contain all the needed vitamins and minerals, plus ample supplies of the effective proteins and yet is so low in calories that the fatty tissue literally melts away. . . . You will not suffer from any nutritional deficiencies because B-FIT is a complete food insofar as scientific experiment and research is possible to develop. Approved by dieticians.”

Advocates for new diet theories–food combining, alkaline-forming diets, even strict vegetarianism–promoted their ideas throughout the 1950s, but the big emphasis was on protein powders and supplements. For the 1954 world weightlifting championships, team coach Bob Hoffman hauled more than 100 pounds of his Hi Protein powder to Vienna, hailing it as the “secret weapon” for his athletes. But Russia, whose athletes finished no lower than second place, had a secret weapon of their own.

The Secret Weapon

It was John Ziegler, a doctor accompanying the American team to Vienna, who exposed just what this Soviet weapon was. Ziegler claimed that after a few drinks, a Russian doctor told him that the Soviet athletes were using–and abusing–testosterone. Ziegler was no stranger to testosterone. With his background in rehabilitation therapy and his connection with CIBA Pharmaceuticals, he was already experimenting with testosterone on himself, his patients and some novice athletes. In fact, author and historian John Fair writes that even the great John Grimek was cooperating with Ziegler and trying his drugs in the summer of 1954. Grimek reported disappointing results.

Both American and German research scientists had identified testosterone and noted its effects as far back as the mid 1930s. CIBA Pharmaceuticals was already targeting bodybuilders with ads for synthetic testosterone in 1947. With Ziegler’s help, CIBA manufactured the most popular anabolic steroid of the 20th century. The drug was Dianabol, which came out in1958.

The acceptance of steroid drugs among bodybuilders got off to a slow start. Drinking a gallon of milk or swallowing 2000 protein pills seemed more logical to them than taking a tiny pill to do the job. Even those who did take them were slow in accepting or acknowledging the fact that it was the steroids that were giving them such tremendous gains in muscle mass.

Out on the West Coast, bodybuilding great Bill Pearl was also curious as to what the Russians were doing, so he took it upon himself to do his own research. During a visit to the University of California at Davis in 1958, he learned from a veterinarian about the successful use of steroids in beefing up cattle. Bill figured that if it was good enough for a bull, then it was good enough for him. While continuing to train hard, he took 30 mg of the steroid drug Nilevar (three times the recommended dose for humans, but an absolute joke by today’s practices) for 12 weeks and brought his bodyweight up from 225 to 250 pounds.

Steroid use among athletes paralleled the challenge to conservative moral standards that characterized the era of the 1960s. It was a time that seemed ripe for the liberation of one’s desires. Individual freedoms took precedence over the rules, morals and ethics dictated by a long established culture–and by Mother Nature. If the new generation could take mind-altering drugs, it could take body-altering drugs as well. Anabolic (”building-up”) steroids such as testosterone ushered in a new bodybuilding look that was larger and more muscularly pronounced than ever before.

During the early 1960s, the magazines emphasized caution about steroids. They acknowledged the rumors concerning Bill Pearl and others but tried to steer their readers away by stating that the drugs didn’t work, wouldn’t produce what bodybuilders expected, or were outright dangerous. Both Iron Man and Muscle Builder magazines warned of side effects and published articles claiming much better results with high-protein products. But behind the scenes, the athletes knew that they worked. Pearl openly acknowledged that he used them for a final time in 1961 to prepare for the 1961 National Amateur Bodybuilding Association (NABBA) Mr. Universe contest. He stated that the drugs by then were no longer underground but well known to the top bodybuilders.

Steroids and Cream

Still, most athletes relied on diet for strength-building, and protein occupied a large percentage of that diet. In the early 1960s, Irving Johnson targeted elite bodybuilders with a milk-and-egg protein blend considered far superior to competing products–including an earlier product of his own–based on soy. By the mid 60s, ads for Johnson’s protein blend began appearing in the bodybuilding magazines. At that time he changed his name to Rheo H. Blair. Blair claimed that his protein powder was made from milk and eggs obtained from animals raised on the rich soil of Wisconsin and that the proteins were extracted at very low temperatures. Wary of the difficulty some might have digesting all that protein, he endorsed hydrochloric acid supplements, to be taken with any protein meal. He also sold supplements such as amino acids, liver extract, B-complex and soybro (a combination of wheat germ, rice germ and soy germ oils). In 1966 he introduced a new protein formula which he claimed had a biological value resembling mother’s milk.

Blair promoted his products with skillful salesmanship but he also made an important suggestion that would ensure that his products actually worked–he insisted that his protein be taken with raw cream or half and half. He was smart enough to know that you must replace the fat removed from protein during processing. He also recognized the benefits of raw dairy products. Athletes of the 1960s used a variety of recipes, varying the proportions of Blair’s protein product with raw cream, raw milk and raw egg yolk. Weight-trainer Don Howorth remembers eating 3 dozen eggs, 1 quart raw cream, and 2 pounds ground sirloin along with 2-3 cups of Blair’s protein powder per day.

Blair had a special method for cooking his eggs. He did not cook them in boiling water but recommended cooking many eggs at one time in water maintained at 181 degrees for 31 minutes. The eggs were then left in the water to cool down slowly. Blair claimed that putting the eggs under cold water “shocked” many of the nutrients, rendering them ineffective and that cooking eggs in this fashion preserved much of their nutritional value.

It is interesting to read Perry Rader’s “Reader Roundup” column in his Iron Man magazine during this time. He tries to explain the spectacular gains made by some of the popular bodybuilders who were using Blair’s products. Many of them were eating 6000 to 9000 calories a day in the same fashion as Don Howorth and gaining muscle while maintaining or even trimming their waist size. Rader published Blair’s response in a 1966 issue of Iron Man. Blair claimed that his protein powders, along with all of his other supplements, were formulated in a special manner to metabolize fat more efficiently. He also warned that taking cream with any protein powder other than his own would result in fat accumulation.

But Blair could not help knowing that these dramatic results were not achieved on food and protein powders alone. Bodybuilders knew that they could expect to build muscle consuming 8000 calories per day, but not lose fat at the same time. That required some additional anabolic assistance. Blair knew his guys were taking steroids. Don Howorth readily admitted his past use of Dianabol, but was adamant about the importance of diet along with it. In fact, some bodybuilders were quite open about drugs. When Larry Scott, two-time winner of Mr. Olympia, was asked about his steroid use he said without hesitation, “Sure, doesn’t everyone?” However, the bodybuilding magazines continued the deception that the new, larger physiques were built on powders and supplements. Thus steroid use artificially inflated the already marketable commodities of bodybuilding.

Vince Gironda

One man who had definition dieting mastered and who never used drugs was the Iron Guru Vince Gironda. Pioneer of a technique involving intense abbreviated training routines rather than long workouts, Gironda began competing in the 1950s and then trained both athletes and movie stars for many decades after. So defined was his physique, he often found himself penalized by judges who seemed confused over his appearance. Says Gironda, “The men who judged physique contests at this time were puzzled by so much muscularity. Quotes from physique magazines stated I didn’t place higher in whatever contest because of too much muscularity. They thought that this type of cut-up physique was slightly repugnant so I lost most muscular titles to smoother men who had that type of definition for that day.”

Gironda often stated that nutrition was 85-90 percent of bodybuilding. His alternative to drugs was eggs. Like Blair, he advocated up to 36 eggs a day for 6 to 8 weeks to produce muscle buildup. (He also took, among many other supplements, “orchic tissue tablets,” that is, dried testicles.)

He recommended following this “anabolic phase” with a short-term vegetarian diet to “re-alkalize” the body. Similarly he alternated a low-carbohydrate diet with periods of carbohydrate loading. He was careful to point out the difference between natural and refined carbohydrate foods. He presented research data that strongly indicted refined carbohydrates as the real culprit in much of the century’s degenerative disease. His articles went into surprising detail on the biochemical pathways through which sugar did its damage, pointing out the relation between sugar and atherosclerosis, abnormal increases in height and weight and skeletal anomalies.

As for protein, he believed the average American could get along fine with just 45 grams of quality protein a day. However, he insisted that bodybuilders needed over 300 grams daily for several weeks to force the growth process. He believed in quality protein powders and used Blair’s milk-and-egg blend until he came out with his own product. When he used the powders, he blended 1/3 of a cup with a dozen eggs and 12 ounces of raw cream or half & half. He was also big on steak and often ate his meat raw.mmended germ oils, amino acids, vitamin and mineral supplements, and hydrochloric acid (HCL). He recommended mineral rich sea kelp for its iodine content and dried liver extract for blood building and oxygen capacity boosting. Many bodybuilders used desiccated liver after the early 1950s experiments of Dr. Benjamin Ershoff. Ershoff who conducted the famous liver study wherein rats fed 10 percent desiccated liver swam far longer compared to controls.

Macronutrientland

In his early years, Blair recommended a very low carbohydrate diet. Later he advocated a diet consisting of 1/3 protein, 1/3 fat and 1/3 carbohydrates to build muscle; then he reversed himself and again urged avoidance of carbohydrate foods. But other bodybuilders included high levels of carbs in their diets. For example, teenage sensation Casey Viator, who became the youngest Mr. America ever at age 19, had his own special peanut butter pudding that consisted of 2 pounds of peanut butter, 1 jar of grape jelly and 3 or 4 bananas. The bananas were optional. This was part of a diet that also included 2 dozen eggs and 2 gallons of raw milk per day. Casey recalls his father not shedding too many tears when he finally moved out.

A columnist in Strength & Health magazine recommended the following carbohydrate-rich concoction for “getting big” along with a diet that allowed unlimited meat and eggs:

A one day supply of Hoffman’s Gain Weight formula (based on soy protein)
2 quarts milk
2 cups skim milk powder
2 raw eggs
4 tablespoons peanut butter
½ brick ice cream
1 banana
4 tablespoons malted milk powder
6 tablespoons corn syrup

By the 1960s, bodybuilders had figured out what they had to do to attain specific goals. Getting lean or “ripped” for a contest required stripping the diet of all carbohydrates, including milk and cream. Milk was a favorite for building muscle, but for losing fat, it contained too much carbohydrate and held water under the skin. Ketogenic diets consisting of meat and water were commonly used to prepare for the shows. During the 1950s, two English researchers–Professor Kekwick and Dr. Pawan–claimed to have isolated a fat-mobilizing substance that showed up in the urine along with ketone bodies after 24 hours on a no-carb diet. In spite of considerable scientific debate, the Ketogenic diet remained a constant in the field of bodybuilding until the 1980s.

Yet it was in the early 70s that the lipid hypothesis began to take hold. The result was a series of diets that emphasized carbohydrates over protein and fats. The pre-game meal of beef was giving way to one of lasagna or spaghetti.

The magazines of 1970 mirrored this confusion. For example, in an issue of Strength & Health, publisher Hoffman praises the African Masai tribe for their reverence of whole milk, while in his other publication, Muscular Development, he recommends skim milk because it is lower in saturated fats. (The vast majority of the nation was now drinking pasteurized milk–long time strength trainer Jim Bryan remembers avoiding raw milk because he was given the impression that it was dangerous.) MuscleMag publisher Bob Kennedy told his readers not to let anyone scare them away from eggs. Frank Zane, Mr. Olympia champion from 1977-79, was still eating the old way with plenty of eggs, lamb, beef, pork, heart, liver, raw milk, protein powder, vegetables, fruit with some potato and brown rice, educating his readers on the misconception of cholesterol and warning against over-consumption of polyunsaturated vegetable oils. But in Iron Man, Sterri Larson was telling readers that the diet of the bodybuilder was not necessarily one to produce good health. He believed that eggs were the best for both building muscle and losing fat, but that saturated fat and cholesterol could prove hazardous. According to bodybuilder Brian Horton, some of the athletes were now eating chicken and fish instead of beef and eggs.

Steroid Use

Meanwhile, by the end of the 1970s, professional bodybuilders were using a number of metabolism-enhancing substances such as amphetamines, Armour (Thyroid), human and animal growth hormone, and multiple steroids (a method referred to as “stacking”). Some of the top pros worked with physicians to monitor their blood parameters as they prepared for their competitions. During the months before an event, these athletes would swallow and inject any substance that would facilitate tremendous muscularity. Very few, if any, bodybuilders could attain such condition without this assistance.

Steroid use suffered a setback with the revelation that 1988 Olympic gold medal sprinter Ben Johnson had tested positive for anabolic steroids, which had been banned from use in the Olympic games since 1975. In 1990, the Food and Drug Administration added steroids to the Schedule III list of the Controlled Substance Act. Since then, any athlete seeking to build muscle via anabolic steroids could just as easily find his next workout conducted in a Federal prison gym — and several have, to the dismay of many in the legal, medical and sports arenas.

The ban on steroid use was no surprise to the bodybuilding world since abuse of the drugs, even at the high school level, was well known. Not only was the number of users growing, but so were the dosages and arsenals in professions where size and strength really made the difference.

The magazines were not yet labeling heart disease as a side effect of steroid use. However, by 1970 they were starting to mention the fact that a number of strength athletes were succumbing at their prime. Columnist Bob Brown described his concern over losing friends at an early age to heart disease and wrote an article in Iron Man entitled “Will Weight Training Kill You?” Brown compiled some death statistics on prominent men of the iron game throughout the century and compared them to some mortality stats supplied from an insurance company. He concluded that even though strength trainers were not immune to early death, they fared better than the average American and stood a much better chance at living a longer life.

Others noted the shortened careers of top bodybuilders. The 1967 Mr. America Don Howorth considered a comeback, but stated he knew his body would not do well with what he had to take at that stage of his life. Even the genetically blessed Casey Viator who was a serious contender for the Mr. Olympia title, walked from any more attempts in 1983 knowing that his body had had enough.

New Dietary Trends

In the early 1980s, bodybuilders became interested in the glycemic index of carbohydrate foods. A team of researchers at the University of Toronto, led by Dr. David Jenkins, demonstrated that different foods affected blood glucose levels at different rates. They developed the Glycemic Index in which many carbohydrate foods were measured against selected reference foods on how quickly they raised glucose levels.

Many bodybuilders and other athletes used the glycemic index to plan their daily menu and carbohydrate selection. With the insurgence of carbs into the diet, along with a well-established reverence for protein, bodybuilders discovered there wasn’t much room left for fat. In fact, by the end of the decade, many found themselves in a competition for who could get their dietary fat the lowest. Some even attempted a theoretical zero fat diet.

But not everyone was taken in. I interviewed bodybuilder Ron Kosloff who said he didn’t change a thing. “I knew what I saw,” he told me. “My grandparents lived on a farm and ate whole milk, cream, eggs, butter, meat, potatoes and homemade bread. My grandfather often ate 6 eggs a day for years, many of them raw, along with lard sandwiches. He lived to 98 while my grandmother lived to 101. What astounded me most was their farmhand who went by the name of Indian Joe. When I first saw him he looked in his 40s and was incredibly cut and muscular. He looked like Conan. I was shocked when I found out he was well into his 70s. Indian Joe lived to 115 years of age and ate nothing but meat, glands and intestines!” Kosloff had consumed a minimum of 6 eggs daily for the previous 20 years with no ill effects. Ron also noted that bodybuilders like Gironda and Blair were warning him back in the late 60s of the real hazardous fats–hydrogenated oils!

Armand Tanny, now in his 60s, was also writing articles contradicting this new trend. All through the 1980s he wrote articles for Joe Weider’s Muscle and Fitness magazine such as: Caveman Diet (March 1986), Meat and the Bodybuilder (Dec 1986), Good Nutrition and Sex (June 1987), Streamline Meat (Oct 1987), Uncooked Delicacies (Dec 1986), and Those Beefs About Meat (Oct 1985).

In the midst of the cholesterol scare in 1984, Vince Gironda released his book Unleashing The Wild Physique, still recommending 36 eggs a day to produce an anabolic effect. However, he also wrote an article defending carbohydrates and warning of the potential risks of high protein consumption.

Putting Those Carbs to Work

A major trend in the 80s and 90s was the concept of carbohydrate loading, first popularized by Vince Gironda back in the 50s and 60s. “I believe that every 3 to 5 days you need to get a ‘carbohydrate loading meal’ into your body

. . . I feel that carbohydrate is necessary every third or fifth day in order to get the glycogen back into the liver.”

Also back in the 1960s, cyclists were using a technique of loading their muscles with carbohydrates to give themselves an endurance edge. Bodybuilders were also loading their muscles just before a competition to give them a fuller look. Into the 1980s, the competitive bodybuilders had brought it into a science with their knowledge of the hormones vasopressin and aldosterone and how they controlled the sodium/water balance in the body. The challenge was to stand on stage on competition day with as much body fluid sucked into the muscles with the carbohydrates and not under the skin. The effect of this technique was so dramatic that hit or missed timing could represent a victory or looking terrible for bodybuilding standards. Often bodybuilders would be banging their heads off the wall one to three days after a big show when all the fluids would shift into the right places–too late!

Similar diets followed including Cyclical Ketogenic Dieting (CKD) variously known as the “Ultimate Diet,” the “High-Fat Diet,” the “Anabolic Diet,” “Bodyopus,” the “Metabolic Diet,” “Anabolic Solution,” and the “Ultimate Diet 2.0.”

The Supplement Boom

Amino acids in their many forms (peptide-bonded, free-form, branch chained, L-crystalline) were popular in the 80s, based on the notion that certain isolated amino acids could stimulate the pituitary gland to release growth hormone. Claims that the free-form amino acids arginine and ornithine could help bodybuilders lose fat and gain muscle actually led to a world-wide shortage of arginine and ornithine. I remember contributing to that shortage. Others touted the amino acid lysine as a growth hormone releaser. Lysine is plentiful in milk, which is what bodybuilders used in the days before amino acid supplements.

Soy protein powder made a big comeback in the 1990s with enough market hype to force the bodybuilding community to take another look. However, soy has never been accepted as a quality protein by the bodybuilders who knew anything about protein. Blair dumped it decades ago for the higher quality from milk and eggs. Vince Gironda simply referred to soy as “that s***!”

Carbohydrate loading was made easier with drinks like CarboPlex, containing maltodextrin. Other products contained medium chain triglycerides (MCTs) derived from coconut oil, to provide energy while bypassing the normal fat-assimilating channels in the body.

It was almost impossible to keep up with the new ergogenic and anabolic aids promoted in the magazines. They had bizarre names like Gamma Oryzanal, Osterolwere, Dibencozide and Inosine. A product called Metabolol containing glucose polymers, MCTs and various ergogenic agents became popular. Completing products–with names like “Ultimate Orange” and “Hot Stuff”–were promoted with clever and outlandish marketing tactics.

More Anabolic Aids

During the 1980s, the world of competitive bodybuilding could be summed up in one name–Lee Haney. Haney ruled the Mr. Olympia competition from 1984 to 1991. He was followed by Dorian Yates, winner for six straight years and then Ron Coleman who is the reigning Mr. Olympia in 2004. These two men ushered in a big jump in size and hardness. To put the size in perspective, Arnold Schwarzenegger was a huge athlete back in the 70s competing at 235 pounds at 6 feet 2 inches. In the 2003 Mr. Olympia contest, Ron Coleman stood under 6 feet and weighed 287 pounds–and he was even leaner than Schwarzenegger!

Were these men better bodybuilders than Schwarzenegger and Haney? Not necessarily, just more daring chemists. Two very anabolic compounds had muscled their way to prominence in the pro ranks in a much bigger way than ever before. These compounds were insulin and growth hormone. Bodybuilders were using natural growth hormone from human cadavers and rhesus monkeys back in the 1970s. However, with the introduction of recombinant Human Growth Hormone in 1985, this product became more widely available. Another anabolic compound was creatine monohydrate, a muscle-hydrating substance. Whey protein came into prominence. Bodybuilders will ingest just about anything in the quest to build muscles–powders, pills, raw meat, blood, glands, and a whole assortment of esoteric concoctions that have been slam-dunked for the sake of the gain.

Until the end of the 1980s, athletes sat on two distinct sides of the line–those who took steroids and those who did not. As Nelson Montana once stated, “Steroids do what all bodybuilders want –they build muscle!” That distinct line became blurred in the 1990s with the fall of the Berlin wall and the introduction of Eastern Block performance enhancing compounds known as “pro-hormones.” In the mid-1990s, supplements of Androstenedione, Androstenediol, Norandrostenedione, Norandrostenediol and DHEA appeared in the magazines. Originally deemed safe alternatives to steroids, the same side effects that manifested with steroids soon became apparent–male pattern baldness, prostrate enlargement, acne, reduced libido, liver and kidney toxicity, and–every bodybuilder’s favorite–gynecomastia (bitch tits).

As more side effects revealed themselves, more precursors (pro-hormones) came on the scene to replace their predecessors. Baseball’s Mark McGuire helped the market in a big way. Bodybuilders started stacking these hormones like regular anabolic steroids along with estrogen blockers, growth hormone enhancers, cortisone inhibitors, stimulators (ephedra), creatine, protein powders and, if there was any cash left, perhaps some vitamins. The recommended diet today is high-carb, high-protein, and low in fat–skim milk, egg whites, protein powders. . . anything but real whole foods. It’s no surprise that early natural bodybuilders, such as LaLanne, Tanny, Gironda and Grimek, enjoyed good longevity in the sport while the health of today’s muscle stars is a huge question mark. As five-time Mr. Universe Bill Pearl recently remarked: “The guy left standing on the stage today at the end of a bodybuilding show is probably the guy in the arena who is closest to death.”

It’s unfortunate that today’s young athletes who have that genetic potential to excel in bodybuilding really have no choice but to go down that pharmaceutical road if they want to achieve top honors at the shows. A friend of mine and long time gym owner Marty Hodgson stated to me, “We must remember it was in fact drugs that played a significant role in building those comic book characteristics that attracted us to the sport over the past 40 years. But those very substances that help make the sport are the same ones that are, with no doubt, destroying it.”

Sidebars

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Daily Menu for the Three Saxon Brothers

Breakfast
24 eggs
3 pounds smoked bacon
Porridge with cream and honey
Tea with plenty of sugar

Dinner
10 pounds of meat
Vegetables
Sweet fruit (raw or cooked)
Sweet cakes
Salad
Tea
Sweet puddings
Cocoa and whipped cream

Supper
Cold meat
Smoked fish
Lots of butter and cheese
Beer

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Sansone’s Weight Gain Diet

Breakfast
Fresh fruit
Medium serving of whole grain Cereal with cream and sugar
2 eggs
2 pieces whole grain toast, buttered
1 glass of milk

Dinner
Steak, lamb, mutton or other meat
1 baked potato with butter
2 pieces whole wheat toast,buttered
1 large leafy green salad
1 large serving of berries or other fruit
1 small piece of plain cake

Supper
1 cup of bouillon or puree
1 medium serving of meat
1 large serving of cooked vegetables
2 pieces whole grain toast, buttered
Pudding or custard
1 glass of milk

Sansone’s Weight Loss Diet

Breakfast
Fresh fruit
2 pieces whole grain toast, buttered
1 egg
1 cup coffee or tea
½ cup hot milk

Dinner
Steak, roast beef, mutton or other meat
1 piece whole grain toast, buttered
1 large serving vegetables
Berries

Supper
1 cup of soup or tomato puree
1 small serving meat or fish 1 large serving vegetable
1 piece whole grain toast, buttered
1 glass milk

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Steroid Side Effects

Anabolic steroids are synthetic derivatives or chemically altered versions of the hormone testosterone. Testosterone is the main androgenic or masculinizing hormone in males. In females, it plays a secondary role and occurs at about 1/20th the amount that occurs in adult men.

Testosterone has two primary characteristics that concern the athlete pursuing performance enhancement. The first and most sought-after attribute for the sport of bodybuilding is its anabolic effect, the ability to stimulate protein synthesis for muscle, bone and blood building. The second and less desired effect, especially with women, is the adrogenic response, the stimulation of secondary male sexual characteristics. Synthetic steroids are designed to enhance the anabolic effects of testosterone, while reducing the masculinizing properties. Unfortunately, the more you reduce the androgenic properties, the more you reduce the anabolic effect. Over the years, many different derivatives of the testosterone molecule have made their way through the sports arena. All of these synthetic versions have had varying degrees of androgenic and anabolic potencies. The more androgenic, the more anabolic and therefore more effective the drug for building muscle.

Anabolic steroids can be taken orally, sublingually or via injection. Oral steroids usually act faster than their oil-based injectable counterparts. Injectable steroids such as Deca-Durabolin have been designed to reduce the androgenic attributes and can stay in the body much longer than oral steroids such as Dianabol. Dianabol travels quickly to the liver where it is broken down to a large degree. This type of steroid places more stress on the liver.

The side effects of steroids can vary depending on gender and individual physiological characteristics. Age, dosage and duration of time on steroids also affect the degree of adverse reactions. Some of the side effects are also surrounded with controversy. For example, much of the media attention towards the serious liver disease through steroid use comes from patients with preexisting illnesses under longterm treatment with steroid medication. Nevertheless, steroid-using atheletes need to have their liver function monitored by health practitioners as the liver is definitely stressed by the practice.

One common side effect of steroids is water retention leading to elevated blood pressure in some athletes; another is kidney damage. The most feared reaction among the male bodybuilders is the paradoxical feminizing known as gynecomastia. This involves the enlargement of the tissue around the nipples. For females, it is the masculinizing effects that do the most damage. Male pattern baldness, facial and body hair, deepening of the voice, and clitoral enlargement are all potential threats to the female taking androgenic steroids. Stimulation of the sebaceous glands may lead to acne in both male and female athletes.

Behaviorial changes are also tied to steroid use. Almost everyone has heard of “roid rage.” Steroid use does not typically turn a mild mannered individual into a madman as the media would have us believe but anabolic steroids can increase aggression to some degree. If you are already an S.O.B., then steroid use may make you a bigger S.O.B. Psychological dependency also occurs, mainly because some athletes cannot deal with the loss of muscle, strength and desired appearance when withdrawing from steroids.

Other possible side effects that may occur during the use of anabolic and androgenic steroids include prolonged bleeding time, headaches, nausea, feeling poorly, increased risk of injury, abcesses resulting from injection, anaphylactic shock (life-threatening reaction) and early death from heart disease.

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Vince Ginonda’s “Hormone Precursor Diet” for Muscle Build-Up

Gironda recommended this diet for four to six weeks, followed by a mostly vegetarian “alkalinizing” diet.

Breakfast
Vince’s special protein drink made of 12 oz half and half, 12 raw eggs, 1/3 cup milk-and-egg protein powder, 1 banana. (Make one to three mixtures of this formula and drink throughout the day, between meals, and before retiring)

Supplements

1 multi-vitamin tablet	3 vitamin A and D tablets or 3 halibut oil capsules	1 vitamin B complex
1 vitamin B-15 tablet	1 vitamin C comlex (300 mg)	2 vitamin E capsules (800 iu)
1 zinc tablet	1 chelated mineral tablets	5 alfalfa tablets
10 kelp tablets	3 tri-germ and wheat germ oil capsules	1 RNA/DNA tablet
3 Lysine tablets (400 mg)	1 hydrochloric acid tablet (before meal)
3 digestive enzyme tablets (after meal)	3 multi-glandular tablets (nucleo glan male or female)

Lunch
1 pound hamburger or other meat
Mixed greeen salad or raw vegetables

Supplements
1 iron tablet
4 calcium tablets
Repeat of breakfast vitamins with omission of vitamin E, tri-germ, wheat germ, halibut oil

Dinner
1 to 2 pound steak or roast meat
Raw or steamed vegetables or salad and cottage cheese

Supplements
Same as lunch

Special Supplements
10 amino acids and desiccated liver tablets (every 3 hours) 5 yeast tablets with the protein drink

4 raw orchic tissue tablets (before and after workouts)

6 each of the following before retiring: arginine, ortithine, tryptophan, calcium tablets

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High-Carb Diet for Bodybuilders

Typical of the new carb-rich diets was the 1979 diet of Clarence Bass, known for his “ripped” appearance:

Breakfast
2 eggs
1 toast
Cereal consisting of:
2 tablespoons wheat germ
5 tablespoons bran
1 tablespoon sunflower seeds
1 tablespoon raisins
1 cup whole raw milk

Lunch
Peanut butter sandwich on whole grain bread
1 cup yogurt from whole raw milk
1 apple or pear

Supper
2 poached eggs
1 piece dry toast
Huge salad

Evening Meal
1 cup whole raw milk mixed with
1 cup water
1 tablespoon Fyblend fiber
1/2 grain saccharin
1/2 teaspoon decaffeinated coffee

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Big Ron’s Confusing Nutrition Advice

Nowhere is confusion on what constitutes a healthy diet more evident than on the website of current bodybuilding champion Ron Coleman (bigroncoleman.com).
His contradictory and watered-down nutritional advice:

1. Eat, eat and eat some more.

2. To add strength and mass, try to consume four to six meals a day. Choose from a variety of food groups at mealtime. Try to include lots of potatoes, rice, pasta, fruits and vegetables.

3. Make sure you are eating enough. A low fat diet and avoiding refined foods are good, but it won’t help you build mass. On the same note you don’t want to eat a high fat diet all the time. Fat provides additional calories, the fat-soluble vitamins A, D, E and K and raw materials for important hormones that stimulate muscle growth.

4. Monitor the amount of mass you are gaining. Measure your body parts and weigh every week to see if you are going in the right direction.

5. Lastly, continue to train hard. And remember gaining mass won’t happen overnight.

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Copyright: This article is excerpted from Randy Roach’s book Muscle, Smoke & Mirrors, available at prfit.com.

This article appeared in Wise Traditions in Food, Farming and the Healing Arts, the quarterly magazine of the Weston A. Price Foundation, Fall 2004.

About the Author

Bodybuilder and trainer Randy Roach has followed most of the bodybuilding diet trends over the past 30 years including methods not so embraced in bodybuilding circles, such as complete vegan vegetarianism. During his protein-drink phase he ate egg whites and discarded the yolks. He has discovered that too many carbohydrates give him all sorts of problems. Over the past 3 years he has migrated to a total raw diet. This includes raw meat, dairy, eggs (especially the yolks), honey, green juices, and some fruits with their seeds. Food for a typical day includes 1/4-1/2 pound raw chicken,1/2 pound raw beef, 1/4 pound raw liver, 16- 32 ounces of raw milk, 2-3 ounces raw cream, 6-8 tablespoons raw honey, 32 ounces raw green juice (celery, parsley, lemon, zucchini, honey, beets) and occasional fruit.

Weighted Power Push Ups

Power Rack Weighted Push-Ups - An Easy Way To Get A Bigger Chest!
Guest Post By Nick Nilsson

Note: This exercise is an excerpt from Nick’s new book “The Best Chest Exercises You’ve Never Heard Of”…53 unique exercises and training techniques for the chest. If you’re looking to break through a plateau, get some training variety or just have some fun in your training again definitely check this book out!

=>http://www.hulsestrength.com/recommends/BigChest

— This exercise is a GREAT way to add resistance to the push-up and get the bodyweight-exercise benefits of the push-up.

If you can do more than 15 reps of push-ups, they won’t build a whole lot of muscle. But when you add significant resistance, they can be even better than heavy bench press for adding mass and strength. Moving your body through space means greater muscle fiber activation and greater functional strength.

This setup allows you to easily add as much (or as little) weight as you want to the exercise! (and it beats trying to find a person to sit on your back).

First, you’ll need a power rack - set one safety rail near the very bottom (this is where your feet will be placed - maybe one or two notches up) and one about 2 to 3 feet or so off the ground (this is where your hands go).

If you don’t have a rack but have a Smith machine or other adjustable-height bar setup, you can very easily use this exercise as well…just set the Smith bar higher and set your your feet on a bench or other low object. The reason you’ll need to get your feet up is that otherwise the plates are probably going to hit the floor at the bottom of the rep.

To add weight, you’ll need a dip belt - I’m using 90 lbs on the belt in the demo here. Start by getting the weight around your waist.

** Now here’s the trick…you won’t be leaving the weight on your waist. Instead, squat down and rest the weight plates on the ground - now slide the belt up to your mid-back. This will place it closer to your chest and shoulders and take any potential stress off the lower back during the exercise.

Basically, you’re putting the weight closer to where your body is supporting it so that you’re not putting pressure on the lower back.

Set your hands on the higher rail - right out to the sides near the uprights (or wherever is comfortable to you for a push-up).

Now step back and put your feet up on the lower safety rail. Your body should be in a pike position (slightly bent at the waist) - this will be the easiest on your lower back. At the top of the exercise, notice how my back is almost horizontal - these two things (along with the belt being higher up on my back) make this easy on the lower back. The pike position really takes the stress of the back and puts it on the chest.

Lower yourself down to the bottom of the push-up position then push back up, just like you were doing a regular push-up on the floor!

Because you’re able to add pretty much as much weight as you like or need, this is a VERY useful exercise. If you ever can’t complete a rep, all you have to do is step down and you’re done. This makes it an ideal way to really work the push-up hard and get the “bodyweight exercise” benefits of the push-up while still getting the “progressive resistance” benefits of a free weight exercise.

Now check out the video!