“The wonder energy food!” That’s what Vince Gironda, maverick trainer to the movie stars and champion bodybuilders, said about Desiccated Liver. Energy is nice and all, but this is the part where he caught me hook, line and sinker as a young, impressionable teenage wannabe bodybuilder: “Try this trick: take 2 desiccated liver tablets every hour for two weeks, and watch your measurements grow! I put one inch on my arm measurements without any extra workouts.” Yep, I admit it.. I tried that trick too…

Why not try it? There was no reason not to believe Vince right? After all, this was THE IRON GURU – trainer of the first Mr. Olympia Larry Scott.. trainer of hundreds of movie stars… a man carved out like a Greek statue… the first man who was ever truly “ripped to shreds.” The man promoting NATURAL methods, not drugs!!!! I had to believe him!

So I tried it. 2 liver pills every hour. Two weeks went by. My arms weren’t any bigger. A month went by. Damn arms still weren’t any bigger. I must have been doing something wrong! Must be the arm workout – yeah that’s it!

So I bought Vince’s arm training course. “Balanced arms.” I kept popping liver pills. I also started the new workout routine – giant sets! SIX exercises in a row – for biceps, triceps and forearms – all together. Damn that was tough! What a pump. Gironda’s arm workouts were awesome!

Now THAT worked a bit! I started seeing a little arm growth. No where near an inch Not even a half an inch. But my arms were visibly better. WAIT! HOLY CRAP! I was getting the bicep vein!! YESSSS!

Was it the liver pills – or was it that “shock treatment” of an arm routine? I wasn’t sure, so I kept reading more Gironda articles and bought more courses to learn more.

It was 1984. More significant than Van Halen to me (the older Van Halen’s were better), Robert Kennedy co-authors a FULL LENGTH BOOK with Vince Gironda: Unleashing the Wild Physique! Yeah baby! I snatched that one right off the bookshelf and read it… about 10 times! Read it so many times the cover fell off. (I still have it today, scotch taped cover and all.)

Wait a minute! Holy Mackerel! Right there on page 93 Vince said that intermediates should take no less than six liver tablets per meal! “Every week add an extra tablet of each until you double your starting level. Advanced bodybuilders make fantastic progress on 50-100 liver tablets per day over short periods of time.”

I KNEW IT! I wasn’t taking enough pills! More is better! I ordered more! The BIG bottles this time (ever heard the expression “horse pills?) I grabbed those suckers by the fistful, stuffed them in my pockets and wherever I went, I was all livered-up… ready to go! Even while I was in school, I could keep liver-fortified! YEAH! BABY!

It was all going great…of course, there was that one day in class. I was a sophomore or junior in high school – and I shifted in my seat, leaning a little too far to the side. The contents of my pocket spilled out all over the classroom floor. Liver everywhere…bouncing around the floor… rolling to the other side of the room.

You should have seen the looks on the other kids faces… not to mention the teacher.

I had been mortified for far lesser embarrassments in the past, but this time, somehow, I quickly and wittily blurted out, “I apologize. They’re just vitamins, minerals and protein pills. Trying to stay healthy.”

Nice save huh? No one laughed at me (ok, maybe just a few chuckles), as I scooped up all my little brown Argentinian livers. In fact, I’m certain those girls were checking out my biceps. And with each liver I snatched up off the floor, you could see those extensor carpi radialis longus muscles flex! I knew what they were thinking… “Yeaaahhhh. Tom IS looking good lately…he’s been working out.”

That’s right ladies. See these 15.75 inch pythons… they were only 15.42 inches just weeks ago. Triple compound supersets and beef liver.” Damn I was smooth. So studly.

By then I was the master of the body drag curl, the thumb under dumbbell curl, the PROPER way to do a preacher bench curl (excuse me, the Scott Curl). But my biceps never did put a full inch on just from taking liver.

Well, that didn’t deter me. Persistence always wins! I must have kept up my liver pill habit at that rate for a couple years. Even after I gave up, thinking that it really didn’t make much difference, I often went back and tried again. And again. And again.

Now it’s been so many years, I don’t remember the last time I took a dessicated liver. Can’t say I didn’t try though can you?

Believe me, that was one of just many – dozens, heck, probably a hundred nutritional experiments I tried when I was younger. Many of them prompted by Vince Gironda.

Looking back, do I think liver was a total bust? A waste? A scam? No, not exactly. I simply think Vince oversold it. Here’s the way I look at it today, now knowing a “wee bit” more about nutrition and supplementation than I did when I was 15 or 16.

If you think about it, desiccated liver is just dried organ meat. Red meat. I was taking “red meat pills” right? So what would taking “red meat pills” do for you? Would it make you grow like steroids or would it make you grow like eating… ahem, cough cough… red meat?

I reckon you know the answer. That’s right, taking protein supplements does the same thing that eating protein food does. Yes the protein is important and yes it’s building material for muscles. But the pills are no different than the food. Same thing with protein powder: Think of it as powdered food. But lots of kids today scoop the protein out of those tubs and pop all manners of protein pills thinking there is something “magical” in there…something “like steroids.”

It was foolish to think I would gain an inch on my arms only from protein supplements. maybe if i was horribly protein deficient, I would have seen the difference. But since my protein intake was already beyond adequate, there was no reason to suspect they were – or are today – anything special.

But wait a minute. Vince LOVED his liver so much. He always cited the rat study where group A fed liver swam for hours and group B without the liver was on the verge of drowning in just minutes. And even today you have some folks who swear by this supplement, even as they confess that it’s “old school.” Isn’t there SOMETHING to it? Anything?

Well, on the plus side, liver is a good source of very bio-available iron and some B vitamins. Since iron deficiency is not entirely uncommon, even in athletes (especially women), and such a deficiency could impact performance and recovery, it’s not inconceivable that someone who was iron deficient could notice an improvement in performance, energy and recovery when taking liver.

But that’s a case of going from deficiency state to a normal state.

Vince was famous for his diet programs and supplement recommendations to the point that many of his proclamations became the stuff of bodybuilding folklore. No better example than liver.

But with deep admiration and respect for Vince and my gratitude for all I learned from him in the exercise and bodybuilding arena, I would suggest thinking of desiccated liver purely as a protein supplement and little more.

Quite ironically, there is a HUGE body of research evidence showing that that dairy products contain extremely high quality muscle building proteins. If you want to take some liver as an extra protein source, I won’t discourage you – I don’ think there is anything wrong with it. But if you were forced to choose between liver supplements or whey/casein supplements… knowing what I know now… I’d go for those milk proteins.

Coming up next:

If you thought my liver pill experiment was weird… wait til you hear about my whole egg eating exploits… 3 dozen a day! Next article coming soon..

Until then, train hard and expect success!

-Tom Venuto

PS. By the way, this post was meant (aside from being for your amusement at my expense) simply to help you keep your expectations real. Protein supplements don’t produce drug-like effects. It was in no way meant to “de-bunk” Vince’s advice. To the contrary, far more things I tried from Vince’s playbook panned out than things that didn’t. Like the time I REALLY DID actually gain 12 pounds of LEGIT – DRY muscle in just months using ONE of Vince’s training protocols. That’s coming in a future article in my Vince Gironda series.

In the meantime, that workout program and a lot of others that worked gangbusters for me are featured in Alan Palmieri’s new Book, “Vince Gironda: Legend And Myth.” As the title implies, a few things Vince taught turned out to be myth. But the man was surely a true legend. Click the book cover below to check it out.

This was part of a series of articles about the Vince Gironda: The man, the myth, the legend. If you missed the first article, go to:

www.bodybuildingsecrets.com/articles/tom_venuto_speaks_about_vince_gironda.php

When I hear that a “new” bodybuilding course is being launched on the Internet, usually I yawn, often I groan, and seldom do I give as much as second glance. But when I heard last week that a couple of guys had gotten together online to “resurrect” the long-lost methods of the late, great legendary bodybuilding trainer, The IRON GURU, Vince Gironda (1917-1997), they had my attention. In fact, I was excited!

Mike Westerdal, who might be best known for his bench press courses (amusingly, as Vince thought the bench press was a terrible exercise), joined forces with Alan Palmeiri, a man who knew Vince personally as a student through phone and correspondence courses (long before the days of email and computers).

Alan wrote a book about Vince Gironda and his controversial bodybuilding methods years ago (2003 I believe), but I don’t think it got much attention.

Since Mike was savvy in online promotion, Alan updated his Gironda book with more information and gave Mike permission to re-publish it on the internet and Mike promised he would try to finally get the book – and Vince – the visibility it deserved.

That’s exciting because every Vince Gironda student, fan or friend I have ever known wanted Gironda’s legacy to be remembered. But strangely, just a decade and a half after his passing, many people have never even heard of Vince The Iron Guru even though he was one of the most famous bodybuilding trainers in history.

Some people who have heard of Vince, think he was an eccentric, cranky old curmudgeon whose methods were outdated years ago.

Ironically enough, just last week I made a post on my Burn The Fat blog about how there is really very little new under the sun in bodybuilding – mainly just new arrangements of old ideas… some of which are passed off as new, while the people who pioneered them years ago rarely get the credit they deserve.

I was writing about how the “old school” training methods going back a half a century or more were superior to much of what is being promoted in the bodybuilding world today as “breakthroughs.” I also talked about how today’s pro level physiques are all about “bulk and size at all costs” but the physiques of the pre-steroid era were far more beautiful… more symmetrical… more classical

That is what Vince Gironda was all about: He called it “creating an illusion” in the physique by carefully selecting your exercises and building up some areas while NOT building up others. That appealed to me.

Vince detested steroids and insisted that they ruined the physique. That appealed to me the most because I’m a lifetime natural pro-natural supporter to the core. Vince trained anyone that was sent to him but he preferred working with naturals.

Vince Gironda trained everyone who was anyone back in the 1960’s, 1970’s and 1980’s. Larry Scott, the first Mr. Olympia was one of Gironda’s STAR pupils. Mohammed Makkawy, Mr Olympia contender, was another. Vince’s Gym was frequented by a who’s who of bodybuilding superstardom, but what many people didn’t know was that Vince was the ORIGINAL trainer of the movie stars.

When the movie studios needed an actor to get in shape fast, they sent them to Vince’s gym in North Hollywood. The client roster included Erik Estrada, Ernest Borgnine, Gary Busey, David Carradine, Tommy Chong, Cher, Clint Eastwood, Marty Feldman, George Hamilton, Michael Landon, Burt Reynolds, Kurt Russell, John Schneider, Carl “Apollo Creed” Weathers… even the INfamous OJ Simpson.

Another little-known fact: Vince was Arnold’s Schwarzenegger’s first trainer. That’s right, when Joe Weider brought Arnold to America in the 1960’s, he sent him to the famous Vince’s Gym. What happened when those two egos met is the stuff of legend… and eyewitnesses swear it’s true.

A bulked-up Arnold shows up at Vince’s gym and says, “I am Arnold Schwarzenegger and I am going to be the greatest bodybuilder the world has ever known.” The irascible and inimitable Vince replies, “You look like a fat f*** to me!.

Well, I’m a devoted student of the iron game and I’ve always studied all the greats, going back to the turn of the century strongmen through the “Golden Era.” But I REALLY studied Vince…

I was Vince’s mail order student in the 1980’s and 1990’s. I was not only a student, I was obsessed with Gironda-style training for many many years. I did some nutrition and training experiments based on Gironda’s methods that might seem so bizarre that when you read about them in upcoming blogs, you’ll probably think I was completely out of my mind!

I think I probably know as much about Vince’s methods as a person could know without having actually interacted with him personally and trained in Vince’s gym under his direct supervision.

I started reading the muscle magazines in 1983. The first one was Joe Weider’s Muscle and Fitness. But I had become obsessed with bodybuilding so it didn’t take me long to start picking up Robert Kennedy’s Muscle Mag International and Ironman Magazine, which at the time was still Peary Rader’s publication (it changed hands in 1986 I believe).

It turns out Robert Kennedy was good friends with Vince Gironda and gave Vince a column in Musclemag every month. I collected them and studied every word all through the 80’s and early 90’s. Vince also had articles frequently published in Ironman by him or about him. I collected all them too… and studied every word.

Then I noticed the classified ads for Vince’s famous bodybuilding courses and I ordered the first one. I was still a teenager. With the exception of the rare “red books” (the Vince Gironda Files), the courses were little booklets, usually under 20 pages. Vince signed most of them for me:

“To Tom: Hope you get the same results Makkawy did!
-Vince Gironda ‘The Iron Guru’”

“To Tom: Keep pumping!”
- Vince Gironda”

I didn’t have much money back then so I slowly purchased Vince’s courses one by one until I had collected every last one of them – there were about a dozen or so. It was the most fascinating stuff I had ever read… even if some of it seemed, well… weird.

Gironda’s methods WERE controversial. But even when he met with criticism, he was firm in his convictions. Many would call it dogmatic.

Tell people today that Vince forbade his students from doing back squats or bench presses because they would “ruin the physique” and you get some really weird looks.

Show some of Gironda’s recommended exercises to physical therapists today and they might say Gironda would be good for business.

Explain some of his nutrition theories to the science crowd today and you might hear “There’s no evidence for that whatsoever.”

But few people disagree that he was a genius and light years ahead of his time. Eccentric? A lot of people thought so. But if you really think about it, eccentricity and genius often go hand in hand. As with all visionaries, they are ridiculed first before they are accepted.

Today we can see that many of his ideas were right all along and yet there he was back in 1960, teaching those things long before there was any concrete evidence either way.

It’s all part of the Gironda legend and persona: genius, ahead of his time, bombastic, opinionated, dogmatic, eccentric, moody, controversial, misunderstood and many other adjectives have been used to describe him. He was a fascinating character and that’s why it’s so fun to read what he wrote and what was written about him.

Even if you disagree with Vince’s philosophies and don’t think you’d follow his methods, you can read his work as a piece of iron game history. But if you’re really smart, you’ll sift through Vince’s materials, simply ignore what doesn’t apply or what you don’t believe and you’ll pan out all kinds of nuggets of solid gold worth a fortune to any real student of the bodybuilding game.

If you knew who Vince Gironda was, or if you have ever been a Vince Gironda Fan, or if you’re a fan of Iron game history, you’ll love Alan Palmieri’s book. If this is the first time you’ve ever heard of Vince Gironda, the book is a great introduction to the man. Either way, this is a collectors item and a no brainer purchase, especially while it’s still on sale: http://www.criticalbench.com/gains/vince-gironda.

Mike explained to me clearly that this is NOT a reprint of Vince’s courses – it’s a book about Vince and his methods. I figured as much because I spent hours on the phone with Ron Kosloff years ago and at least at that time, Ron (a close personal friend of Vince’s before he died), was the man who retained the rights to Vince’s original materials.

But when I read Alan Palmieri’s book: Vince Gironda – Legend And Myth, I was surprised at how much of Vince’s course material has actually been included in there – actual details of his training methods. That’s probably because Vince’s info has been republished so many times in so many formats. I know that just from my Gironda article collection. So while this book is somewhat biographical and historical, it’s also a training and nutrition instruction manual.

It’s quite a hodge-podge of articles and information, but I mean that in a good way. There are also classic photographs in there that I had never seen before. And a picture is worth a thousand words in the case of Gironda.

This has rekindled my interest in Vince so much, I’ve decided I’m going to write a series of articles and blog posts about my personal experiences using Vince’s methods.

It’s going to be a trip because, man do I ever have stories:

• “The Desiccated liver pills!”
• Why I ate 3 dozen whole eggs a day
• How I gained 12 lbs of solid muscle – STAGE WEIGHT MUSCLE – between summer 1989 and spring 1990 drug-free using one of Vince’s training systems
• How I got an article about Vince published in IRONMAN magazine and it had the IRONMAN staff talking about it for months afterward
• Why some of Vince’s followers who actually trained with him in person got pissed off at me
• Raw eggs and cream… drink of champions?
• I think I ate an entire cow once. Literally… find out why
• My first ketogenic diet attempt, Vince’s way
• And a lot more

I’m not sure if anyone has ever critically analyzed Vince’s methods. I don’t agree with everything he taught – most people don’t – he was HIGHLY controversial – totally against the grain. But you don’t have to agree with EVERYTHING he said.

I always found that Vince had such a loyal fan following – as do so many “gurus” – that if you criticized his methods, YOU were criticized by his followers. But I’m a student, not a follower. I don’t use the “follow blindly” method. I use the Bruce lee method: Analyze your experience. Take what is useful and keep it. Discard what is not useful. Add what is uniquely your own. That’s how I approached Vinces materials and that’s how I recommend others approach it today.

Don’t get me wrong. I was an excellent student. When I tried something he recommended, I followed it to a T, just as he recommended it, at least once. I feel you OWE that to anyone you entrust as your coach, not to mention, you’ll never know unless you try it. But if I tried it faithfully and didn’t work or if I didn’t like it, I threw it away or modified it.

What I DON’T recommend is a closed mind or disregarding everything he said just because you don’t like a few things he said. I guess that’s my way of saying, don’t throw out the baby with the bathwater.”

So in the upcoming articles, I’ll be going through Vince’s techniques and giving you my personal opinion about his controversial ideas and philosophies. But I’ll also analyze it all with a critical thinking or scientific mind as well.

Well, I’ve already rambled on longer than I thought. Get yourself a copy of Alan Palmieri’s Vince Gironda book at: http://www.criticalbench.com/gains/vince-gironda.

I’ll be adding more articles about Vince’s techniques all week long… And I’ll keep writing them until I get bored! (and if you have any questions, please post them in the comments below – If you email me, it will just go into a mailbox with a thousand other unread emails, but I WILL check back on these comments..

-Tom Venuto

In this second part of the series, you’ll learn more about what it takes to be champion, including the truth about the role of genetics versus outright hard work and dedication. You’ll hear Skip’s thoughts on how you need to approach customizing your training style and what it takes to stay in shape and looking young years after a successful competitive career is over. Plus, you’ll get the latest scoop on what Skip (age 49) is up to these days after retirement from competitive bodybuilding. What’s “life after bodybuilding” like for one of the top athletes in the sport? Get the inside scoop right here…

Continued from Part One

Tom: I’ve noticed that sometimes people say, “That guy has great genetics” but it’s not a compliment – they mean to take away some of your credit as if to say, “He looks like that only because of his genetics.” I’m curious about how you would describe your own genetics and I’m wondering what you think happens when you take someone with world class genetics AND a world class hard work ethic and put the two together, compared to the guy with world class genetics who doesn’t give 100%.

Skip: One year at the Team Universe when my weight class was walking on stage, one of the competitors behind me yelled “Genetics don’t get you up out of bed to train at 5 o’clock in the morning.” That was a line from an article I had written for Iron Man Magazine. Great genetics certainly are not what made me use my abilities to their fullest for such a long period of time.

The truth of the matter is, if I didn’t have both great genetics AND an exceptional work ethic, you wouldn’t even be communicating me with right now. My perspective wouldn’t matter to you or anyone else. You wouldn’t even know who I am unless I trained in your gym at the same time as you did. One without the other doesn’t make you known all over the world for what you do.

All of the people who started on their bodybuilding and training journeys over the last 20 years who had great genetics without an exceptional work ethic are simply unknowns right now. At least in the bodybuilding and fitness world they are unknowns.

People should only be concerned about how much they are taking advantage of their own genetic abilities and becoming the best they can be. Control all of the factors that I’ve mentioned that you can control – and don’t worry about your genetics that you can’t control. This is all about being the best YOU can be – not yourself compared to me or anyone else. Most people fall way short of maximizing their own genetic potential.

My genetics can only be accurately measured when they are compared to somebody else’s. Compared to the vast majority of people in the world, my genetics are indeed great. But when you compare my genetics to elite, successful bodybuilders, they are just pretty good. There were many people at the Team Universe every year who had better shape, flow, and symmetry to their physiques than I did. I simply outworked them with my conditioning and stage presentation.

I’ve had several people during my career volunteer their belief that, even if I took steroids, I wouldn’t be a Mr. Olympia level competitor because of my lack of great genetics. As with everything in life, nothing has any value unless it is compared with something else.

I will say that I am certainly genetically gifted to have to trained so heavily and for so long without any damage to my body. I had no serious injuries that caused me to miss a single workout in 15 years of competitive bodybuilding.

Tom: You’ve always been known for your muscle size. Correct me if I’m mistaken but you’re 5′ 10″ I believe, and you’ve competed in the 220 range? At one point you even reported gaining 16 lbs of muscle in one year. I know you could give a whole clinic on this – and in fact, you have – but very briefly what do you feel are the most important factors for gaining mass steroid-free?

Skip: I’m closer to 5′ 11″ and my actual weight on stage in my most shredded condition was 205 pounds. I, myself, didn’t even realize how little I weighed on stage until my final two years of competing. My weight at the Thursday night Weigh-ins was about 216 to 220 when I was in my best condition.

During my last two years, I wanted to get really detailed about the entire process. I wanted to get as much information as possible about what I did so I could be a better teacher when I stopped competing. That’s when I brought a bathroom scale on my trip with me and learned exactly how much water weight my sodium loading/depleting/potassium loading process caused me to drop in just a couple of days.

Sometimes when you go from being in “off-the-charts incredible” shape one year to just being in “okay” shape the year afterward, it can cause what appears to be impressive gains in muscle.

Tom: Sorry, I didn’t mean to dock you an inch of height! I’ve noticed the same thing about stage weight – it’s mind blowing how light you come in on that one day of the show especially if you pull back water. I’ve weighed 182 or so the week before the show knowing I was stage-ready lean, but by the night show on Saturday, after cutting back water and sweating so much, I weighed more like 172. I’m lifetime natural and I got accused of steroid use all the time even though my heaviest stage weight in peak condition was 175-176 at 5′ 8″. Since your competition size was huge compared to other naturals, you must have heard the steroid accusations even more than the rest of us. How did you deal with it or respond to it?

Skip: I really don’t agree that I was so much more “huge” compared to other naturals – especially for my height.

Without a doubt, I was the most successful competitive natural bodybuilder on stage who racked up the most wins in the most highly-publicized contests; who competed in the most highly-publicized shows; who competed for the longest period of time consecutively in those high-profile contests (10 straight years); who has the most coverage in the international muscle magazines for the longest period of time (whereas most of the other natural bodybuilders received virtually none), had the best supplement company sponsors featuring me in their ads for so many years; and collectively has probably had the most visits to my web site since 1997 than any other competitive natural bodybuilder.

But that’s because of how hard I worked on the business side of things and how well I marketed myself – not because of reality. Trust me, there were many natural bodybuilders over the years who were pound-for-pound as big or bigger than me.

My belief in who I am and what I’m all about is what helped me deal with the steroid allegations. And, as I mentioned earlier, you get used to it after the first million or so times you’ve heard them.

Tom: Yeah there are some other pretty big heavyweights in the natural ranks, but at least from the perspective of a “little” middleweight like me – I’ve always
considered you pretty damn big! Anyway, on the note of training to get big, over the years I’ve had a lot of people ask me what I thought of your workouts or of Max OT training with 4-6 rep sets. So now I finally get a chance to ask the man himself.

You’re as strong as an ox and you had amazing success staying in the 4-6 rep range. My experience has been that in the 4-6 rep range I got superb strength gains but not as much the size gains and my joints started to hurt if I didn’t de-load. I got better size gains and joint relief with a periodized program that alternated the strength and hypertrophy (8-12) range every other workout or went through several weeks of lower reps and then alternated with several weeks of higher reps. I’ve responded really well to high rep leg training too, which I picked up from Tom Platz years ago. I have a theory about this. I think people with a high proportion of fast twitch fibers will get strength AND better muscle size results on 4-6 reps and those with mixed fiber types will do better with both rep ranges. Do you have any thoughts on “different strokes for different folks” with regard to rep ranges?

Skip: I believe all training strategies can be effective in one way, shape, or form. If it isn’t because it is the ideal strategy to give you optimal physical gains, it’s because some component of the strategy helps you with the extremely important mental aspect of bodybuilding and training.

Everyone’s goal is to find out what they feel works best for their body. The only way you can truly do that is through experimentation. Too many people “theorize” about what the best strategy for them is without experimentation. It may be “good” but it may not be the “best”.

I always remind people that even if it turns out that your current strategy isn’t the “best” for you, it doesn’t mean it is totally ineffective. In other words, if the best training strategy for your body is a “10″ (on a scale from “1″ to “10″ and “10″ is the very best) that does not mean everything else is a “zero” on scale from 1 to 10. Executing an “8″ strategy for a long enough period of time until you find that perfect “10″ for will lead to some impressive gains.

Tom: In the “freaky” body part category, there’s the side view of your legs. In the side poses, you blew the competition away. Not only did you show ridiculous width, when you dialed in your conditioning, I don’t think I’ve ever seen so many lines separating the outer quads, hams and glute-ham tie ins as you had. I have to believe that’s not just a genetic gift and that you focused and worked hard on that look very intentionally. Am I right? And if so, how did you train to get that kind of size plus detail?

Skip: To truly know what is genetic and what is not when it comes to conditioning (degree of leanness) is impossible. It’s like you would have to live two different lives executing the same level of discipline in each year of each life.

I didn’t learn what it took to look that way and work that hard until 1998. I had won many contests before then. I didn’t repeat that ultra-shredded look until 2002 and 2003. If it was due to genetics, I should have been able to look that way in 1999 (which I came in second place in my class), 2000 (which I won my class but didn’t win the overall), and 2001 (which I came in second place in my class).

Some people say that type of conditioning is the results of all of the consecutive years of serious dieting for contest. I would not know that for sure unless I lived two different lives.

I’m sure every accomplishment in life has a genetic component to it to some extent – even intelligence (which is defined as the ability to pick up patterns more quickly than others). Figuring what patterns work is definitely a sign of intelligence.

Tom: Bodybuilders are well-known for comebacks – even famous ones like Arnold’s return to the stage in 1980 after announcing his retirement in 1975. So are you really retired from competitive bodybuilding or is there a return to the stage in store for you as well?

Skip: I am retired from competitive bodybuilding. I have gotten everything I wanted from competing many times over. In fact, I sometimes think I competed too long and made achieving some of my other goals in life a little more challenging.

Right now, I’m using the same passion, focus, and work ethic that made me an outstanding, international-recognized bodybuilder to make my supplement company, Skip La Cour’s Mass Machine Nutrition, the best one on the planet!

Tom: As a bodybuilder who no longer competes, but who is obviously still living the bodybuilding lifestyle, what kind of condition do you like to stay in year round these days in terms of the look and the weight and the strength, and what kind of training and nutrition does it take to achieve that?

Skip: If you consider all the “daily disciplines” in all the different facets of bodybuilding (weight training, cardiovascular training, nutrition, mental focus and motivation, and lifestyle organization), let’s just say I was a “10″ when I was competing at the highest level (“10″ being incredibly disciplined and “0″ being a total slacker who can’t follow through). I can maintain my current level of fitness with about a 6.5 effort.

Bodybuilding is still a big part of my identity. My appearance and accomplishments are what makes my supplement company what it is – Skip La Cour’s Mass Machine Nutrition. It’s my brand. So, I can’t let myself go. I don’t miss workouts and I always have some degree of abs showing.

Tom: Speaking of still looking good, I’ve watched some of your new videos from this past year and you don’t look like you’ve aged a day in a decade. Is natural bodybuilding the fountain of youth or do you have some other anti-aging secret to share with us?

Skip: I appreciate that comment. I want to believe my sacrifice and dedication for so many years still has some benefits.

I am positive that eating properly and exercise has helped me to some degree remain healthy and look younger. I am positive that never doing steroids prevented me from doing any harm to myself.

When I really look closely, however, I believe that stress is what causes a person to become unhealthy and age more than any other factor besides genetics.

It sounds strange but the demanding bodybuilding lifestyle was not stressful because of its predictability. At any time in my 15 year competitive bodybuilding career, I could have told you what I was doing at a certain time and day two years earlier – and two years into the future. Sure, the heavy training, strict eating, limited lifestyle, and traveling were challenging at times – but not “stressful” per se. For the most part, my life was extremely predictable.

Starting my supplement company has been the most stressful and most challenging endeavor I’ve tackled in my life so far. It was like waking up in the morning and trying to figure out a different 2,000 piece jig-saw puzzle with your financial future depending on your performance every single day for over two years. That’s stress – and that’s what ages a person!

Tom: When you look back on your bodybuilding career, what are you most proud of and how would you like to be remembered by the next generations in the bodybuilding community?

Skip: What I’m most proud of is coming back to convincingly win the overall title at the 1998 Team Universe after coming in a disappointing 5th place in the heavyweight class the year before. Until now with my supplement company, I had never worked harder for anything in my life before.

Tom: You’ve always been a successful entrepreneur – you even turned bodybuilding into a career for yourself in a sport where many people say you can’t make a decent living. I always found that impressive and I’m wondering what’s new and what’s next for skip the businessman?

Skip: I planned to make Skip La Cour’s Mass Machine Nutrition the best and most effective supplement company in the world. I have 20 years of expert bodybuilding and mental strength information that I plan to share with the world on a larger scale than I have ever before.

I also have a passion for helping men become better leaders. Through my studies and my own experiences, I have developed the MANformation personal development program for men. It teaches men Alpha Male leadership strategies. MANformation teaches a man how to lead his own life more effectively – and then learn how to lead others. I have audio seminar programs and other learning material that I offer at my MANformation.com web site.

Skip onstage teaching his leadership success course

Tom: You’re all over the internet now, You Tube, Facebook and you have more than one website – what are the best places for bodybuilding fans to look you up online?

Skip:www.SkipLaCour.com for bodybuilding and training information. www.MassMachineNutrition.com for Skip La Cour’s Mass Machine Nutrition highest-quality and extremely effective sports nutrition and bodybuilding supplement line. And, www.manformation.com/venuto for Alpha Male Leadership Strategies. For social Networking, you can find me on Facebook: www.facebook.com/SkipLaCourPage; Twitter:www.twitter.com/skiplacour; and YouTube: www.youtube.com/skiplacour

Tom: One more thing Skip – If I’m not mistaken, all of your classic bodybuilding courses – even those ones I mentioned that I’ve had since the late 90′s – are still available on your site, along with a lot of new stuff, like audio MP3s, training DVDs and personal development products. If so, then where specifically can our readers get more info… and do you have any sales or good deals going on right now that you can hook my readers and members with?

Skip: Tom, so much of what we talked about in this interview is about the mental and emotional ingredients for success. I know that I’m the best person to come to when explaining those concepts – and having them apply them to the bodybuilding, training, and fitness efforts.

Your students have picked a great teacher in you for the specific training and eating strategies. I’d like to help bolster everything they’ve learned from you with what I’m known for best.

My MANformation Alpha Leadership Strategies audio courses have “struck a nerve” (in a good way) in thousands of bodybuilders at every level – from beginners all the way up to advanced competitive bodybuilders. Whether they subscribe to my training and eating philosophies or not, I’ve made a special connection with them because of these leadership courses.

I believe the success of this course among bodybuilders and fitness enthusiasts is because the same people who want to improve their bodies understand how important it is to improve their attitudes as well.

In many ways, MANformation is my personal story striving for success in life. It’s culmination of what I learned from the great peak performance coaches and motivational speakers I studied under – and then translated those lessons into my own life. It’s my journey figuring out how to effectively deal with the up and downs; good and bad; high and lows; and everything else that life inevitably put in your path.

We talked about a lot of non-bodybuilding topics during this interview that all factored into my success as a bodybuilder: Self-confidence; Believing in who I was, what I was all about, and my message; How I dealt with this challenging situation or that challenging situation; How I developed such high standards, discipline, focus, consistency; How I avoided the opinions of other people who believe the details aren’t important; How I handled the negative opinions of others, and much more.

Those are the character qualities, characteristics, and actions of a true leader – and that’s what you learn from my MANformation program.

And, Tom, what’s been a very pleasant surprise is all the WOMEN who discovered value in this “MANformation” material!

These perceptive women gained an awareness of how things really work within human interactions – and they’ve used that new-found awareness to take control over any situation. The insights they learned in the MANformation material was like giving them a “sneak peak in to the other team’s playbook”.

Many of the women who appreciated the value in these leadership strategies not only used it themselves, they turned their husbands, boyfriends, and brothers onto them!

As for special deals for your members and subscribers, sure I’d be happy to do that: I’m offering my 11-hour MANformation audio course with workbooks, “The Mindset and Actions of a Powerful Alpha Male Leader” at a 20% discount. All they’ll need to do is type in the coupon code – inner – when they check out.

I’ll also throw in three free bonuses: First, a one-hour audio seminar titled “The Top 10 Qualities, Characteristics, and Actions of a Powerful Alpha Male Leader,” and that’s a $24.99 value.

And I’ll also include two free ebooks: “Disarming the Alpha Male of the Group”: 33 Effective Techniques That Will Put You Back In Control…” And “Skip La Cour’s Daily Training Journal”, that’s the same ebook that made an impression on you many years ago. It’s a $24.99 value and I’ll throw that in free as well.

To get the discount and the free bonus ebooks, don’t go to the public home page, go to the special discount page I set up for you at this link:

www.MANformation.com/venuto

Tom: Thanks for the offer Skip, we appreciate it. Your contest training journal was a real eye opener for me about what goes into contest prep at the national and world-class level. I’m going to check out your new leadership course myself too as soon as I get the chance. Also, thanks for taking the time do do such a detailed interview. We all appreciate you sharing the advice not just on bodybuilding, but on being successful in life and on being leaders and role models to those around us. Hope to talk to you again soon!

Disclosure: Tom Venuto and Burn the Fat Inner Circle have no affiliation with Skip Lacour mass machine nutrition supplements.

Skip Lacour has been a leader in natural bodybuilding for more than two decades. Now an entrepreneur and a much-sought after peak performance, leadership and success coach, Skip will always be remembered by we naturals as a legend in drug-free bodybuilding who not only drove himself to massive success in the sport, but selflessly helped others succeed through his prolific motivational writing and speaking. For years, he has inspired and empowered all kinds of people – from bodybuilders to executives – to realize their personal potential.

Skip’s success was a huge motivator for me in the 1990′s and early 2000′s when I watched him climb to the top of the sport and it was a real honor to finally meet him recently in California after being a fan for so many years. I’m thrilled that he agreed to this detailed interview that shows you what it really takes to be a champion in bodybuilding, and how anyone can become more successful in any area of life, not just by working harder, but also by raising your standards and developing the mindset for success.

- Tom Venuto.

Tom: Skip, it’s a real honor to have this opportunity to speak with you because I’m sure I’m not the only person who considers you a legend in natural bodybuilding. You’re a Musclemania champion, Mr. California, 6-time heavyweight national champion, a two time overall winner of the Team Universe title, which many people consider the pinnacle of natural bodybuilding, you’re a bodybuilding magazine writer, a magazine cover man and a leader in bodybuilding education – as well as in personal success coaching. I’ve been reading your magazine articles and buying your courses and videos since the 1990′s and I’ve been in the audience and watched you up onstage more than once at the Team U in New York. So I just want to open by saying thank you for inspiring me and thousands of other natural bodybuilders for all these years.

Skip: Thank you, Tom. I really appreciate your kind words.

As I look back now, I can see more clearly just how active I’ve been for so many years. When I was going through my journey, however, it was just a day-to-day process that stacked up over time. It was one workout; one meal; one contest; answering one email; conducting one coaching session; writing one book; and producing one DVD or audio seminar course at a time. All of those accomplishments accumulated over time even make me stop and take notice from time to time.

It’s a real honor for me to have this opportunity to speak with you too, Tom. I’ve noticed your huge presence through the years in bodybuilding, general fitness information, and over the internet. Your name would even come up from time to time among the regular people who attended personal development seminars. You’ve had a tremendous impact on so many people. You’ve proven yourself to be an outstanding leader by communicating your message to the mainstream masses, as well, as the more “hardcore” fitness market. Congratulations on all of your success.

Tom: Thanks Skip. Let me start by going back at least a decade, when I bought your “Skip LaCour Daily Training Journal.” That manual walked your readers day by day through the pre-contest life of a champion bodybuilder and that’s when I first fully really realized that the level of dedication and discipline you put into your craft when you were competing was nothing short of other-worldly. Could you explain to us why you took things so seriously and why you were always striving for 100% effort and perfect compliance??

Skip: Just like a lot of people, I grew up as a little boy always wanting to be great at something in life. When I was younger, I put my focus and effort into being a great athlete. I remember one day back in the fifth grade when I practiced signing my autograph over and over again. That was the day I created the unique “S” that’s in my signature today.

I’ve done many things in my life but, when I stumbled into bodybuilding I immediately knew it was that one thing in life I was going to be great at. The way I approached bodybuilding was very hard work that required a lot of sacrifice – but I loved every minute of it. These days, I sometimes ask myself “How else could a person have done something so long at such a high level unless they absolutely loved it?”

The “next level” for my bodybuilding efforts came when I decided to quit my regular, secure job of 15 years to pursue being a full-time bodybuilder. I set out to be much, much more than just a bodybuilder. My plan was a to be a world leader by example, teacher through information products, competitor, and supplement company spokesperson. I “burned the boats”, so to speak, and left myself no other option other than to succeed.

Everything that I had learned during my years studying personal development, peak performance, and motivation, I applied to becoming successful at my bodybuilding, training, and coaching efforts.

Bodybuilding and teaching others became my identity, passion, career, hobby, and obsession.

When a person makes a big decision like that, blocks himself in with no other options, and totally commits their lifestyle to it, they will eventually be successful at some level. There’s no doubt about that.

Tom: Could you give us some contrast now by describing what you think is the difference between the type of effort that must go into building a championship level physique and the type of effort someone needs to simply lose some weight, get healthier and look fitter? I think that understanding this distinction would be very valuable to people with both types of goals — serious bodybuilding and general fitness.

Skip: When it comes to earning the healthy and attractive body that you want, your success will be determined by your training, eating, mindset, and lifestyle organizational habits.

Those components are the same for both men and women. Those components are the same if you’re young, old, or somewhere in between. And, those components are the same if you are just trying to be healthy and get into good shape–or a competitive bodybuilder striving to win national-level bodybuilding contests.

These physical, mental, emotional, and psychological factors for success are the same for everyone trying to execute those factors–no matter how different their ultimate goals may be. Talent, ability, determination, focus, organization, mental and emotional flexibility, resilience, and enthusiasm are just some of those factors that a person must use enough of to reach their goals.

No matter what your goals are, a person will need to obtain and utilize all of the same resources that everyone else has available to them to achieve success. Examples of these resources are time, energy, people to support and help them, and money (to afford food, supplements, a gym membership, and expert coaching).

So, no matter what a person’s goals are, they need to manage their habits and resources in order to reach those goals.

Here’s what separates a champion bodybuilder from a person who simply wants to lose some weight and be more fit: It’s their “standards” or how good “good enough” is when they are pursuing their goals.

A person who wants to become a billionaire must live his life at much different standards than the person who is satisfied with making $100,000.00 a year. Heck, he must even live his life at much different standards than that of a millionaire. Whether you make $100,000.00 a year, one million dollars, or one billion dollars, you can still be a “good person” who “works hard”. But, it’s your standards in so many obvious and not-so-obvious areas of your life that will determine your level of success.

When it comes to person’s fitness goals, the standards that they establish and execute on a consistent basis in each of the many components of physical development will make the difference their level of success.

The higher the goal you hope to achieve with your health and body, the higher the standards you must establish and execute. And, you must do so for a longer period of time.

Tom: I’ve noticed a “dumbing down” of nutrition and training advice in the fitness industry lately, where instead of telling their clients to raise their standards, push themselves harder and become more disciplined, many trainers are saying, “stop taking it all so seriously, don’t worry about eating so clean all the time, and stop being so neurotic over the details.” Is this going in the wrong direction or is this a positive move to help the average Joe be realistic and keep life in balance?

Skip: I’ve noticed that too! I’ve thought about this a lot. I attribute this to one of two things: One is the “I want it now with as little work as humanly possible mentality” that’s gone overboard in our quick fix, short attention span culture. And, the other is the explosion of the interent creating an explosion of experts and gurus into fitness information market. Before, all you had were books in the bookstore and infomercials on late night television.

I believe some of the “dumbing down” is an honest attempt by some experts to teach the most efficient ways to reach your goals–while being just as effective. Look, I certainly understand the value of efficiency. There’s no need to train for three hours a day in the gym if you can get the same or better results in just one hour. There’s no need to cut out the spices and condiments from your food because you mistakenly believe that suffering through a meal with no taste at all will get you into better shape faster.

With all of that being said, there are only so many things you can get away with doing and without doing – and still “look good.” If you are going to lower your standards, you are more than likely going to need to lower your expectations too. You can’t lower your standards -and still expect outstanding results.

I think that mental approach is dangerous. It like a new employee approaching his boss and asking, “I’m committed to becoming the highest-paid employee in this company as soon as possible. Can you tell me what is the LEAST amount of work I can get away for the MOST amount of money?”

I understand where that employee may be coming from but, with so many mental and emotional factors that contribute to a person’s success, that’s not a good attitude. You should be WILLING to do whatever it takes to succeed–but the get right coaching and instruction so you won’t NEED TO.

The explosion of the internet has made more and more fitness experts and gurus available. The threshold of what it takes to get your message out to the masses has been lowered significantly. Years ago, you had better be committed to your profession if you wanted to be successful. There was a lot of time, energy, and money you had to risk to get into business, have your book printed, or have an infomercial on television. Heck, now you can have a nice web site to sell an ebook and support it with YouTube video in a matter of day. All for a cost of less than $100.

I believe some of these experts and gurus sincerely believe that you only need to do so much to “look good”. Those experts believe that their methods are effective while being intelligent and efficient. But, what they don’t make clear is what is their exact definition of “looking good”. Does the expert make that clear to his potential student? Does that expert even know himself?

A fat person who has been inactive most of their life can dramatically improve their level of health and fitness eating just twice a day. I agree that a person can reach a certain level of success using that eating theory–especially in the short-term. If that person thinks they are going to become a national champion drug-free bodybuilder using that approach, they are going to be sadly mistaken. And, the challenge is not going to be because of their inferior genetics or because “everyone else” uses illegal drugs and they don’t.

I believe some fitness experts are simply exploiting many people’s quick-fix mentality. These fitness “marketers” understand that, a lot of the time, if a person just takes any action at all they’ll make improvements. So, if that’s the case, make it as easy for them as possible. Hell, if they’re that lazy they more than likely won’t even read the ebook they bought. If they don’t like the ebook and want a refund (which the marketers are betting they won’t take the time to do either), it didn’t really cost them much to deliver the product anyway. All-in-all, it’s a good gamble on the part of the unscrupulous fitness “marketer”.

When I think about it, there’s one other category of fitness experts. Those are the ones who are extremely ego driven. Sure, they are giving you information but their number one motivation is being important. Experts like these just try to be different for the sake of being different. This should come off loud and clear when most of their material discusses just how great they are. I certainly understand the need to establish yourself as an authority with a certain level of credibility but, after so much of that, the focus should be on how to help the student reach their goals.

Tom: The first course I ever bought from you was a book called THINKING BIG and it was about the mindset and psychology required to be a champion bodybuilder. You actually built a major portion of your career around the mental aspects of bodybuilding. What made you go that route and what was the outcome in terms of client results and your own results?

Skip: I realized very early in my bodybuilding and training journey that a person’s level of success was not solely determined by the training strategy or nutritional program they adopted. All you need to do is look around and see all the people with great bodies using different strategies.

I also chose to believe that great genetics or physique-enhancing drugs were not the determining factors in a person’s level of success either. All you need to do is look around and see people with great genetics who squander their opportunity to be truly outstanding. All you need to do is look around and see all the men who are taking drugs and look terrible.

Now, I want to emphasize that I used the phrase “chose to believe” for a specific reason. I realize that many people who struggle with their health and fitness efforts tend to “choose to believe” just the opposite. They believe that people with great bodies are simply more genetically gifted that they are and/or use physique-enhancing drugs. That choice they’ve made is having a tremendous impact on how well and how consistently they execute all of those physical, mental, emotional, and psychological factors for success I previously mentioned–whether they realize it or not.

I’m not implying that a person doesn’t have genetic limitations. I’m not implying that physique-enhancing drugs don’t help those who use them. What I am stating is that jumping to those conclusions before you have exhausted all of the resources that are available to you will prevent you from becoming the best YOU can be.

I built my teaching and coaching career around the mental aspects because that’s what I 100 percent believe makes the biggest difference in a person’s level of success.

Tom: Honestly, was it ever tough to sell bodybuilders on the mind in bodybuilding concept in a sport where everyone seems more concerned about which supplements to take and what’s the latest bicep building strategy?”

Skip: I’m not sure if I ever thought about how tough it was because I had such strong beliefs about what would help my students the most effectively. Maybe I was just too naive to notice any resistance.

To be an effective leader, I refer to the famous line in the movie Field of Dreams that starred Kevin Costner: “If you build it, they will come.”

I just teach people what I believe in 100 percent. The people who are inspired come and I never hear from the people who I don’t because they are perusing the philosophies that suit them best.

I recently watched an online seminar with six-time Mr. Olympia Dorian Yates. For an hour straight, he was asked specific training and a couple of eating and supplement questions. I was thinking to myself, “Guys! You have this incredibly accomplished person with such an amazingly determined mindset–and you’re using this rare opportunity to ask him which one is better: curls with a straight bar or curls with a EZ-Curl bar?”

Tom: Skip, you talked earlier about the importance of raising your standards and you’ve actually been writing about that for years. That’s a concept I first heard from Tony Robbins, but I think it was you who really made that idea click for me because you applied it to bodybuilding and I could understand and relate to that because you put it in a specific context. Could you explain for our readers what you mean by “raise your standards” and why you believe that’s so important in bodybuilding?

Skip: Sure. Put simply, it’s asking yourself if demanding a little more of yourself in each and every one of all the different aspects of bodybuilding and training could help you reach your goals.

If you only have only five “cheat meals” a week and you aren’t quite as lean as you’d like, ask yourself if cutting them back to only two a week will get you closer to your goals. If you are eating three meals a day and you are not building as much muscle as you’d like as quickly as you’d like, ask yourself if eating five meals a day will be more effective. If you are not able to make the time to eat all the good, clean, healthy meals that you intend to eat every day, ask yourself if getting up in the morning 30 minutes earlier will help solve that challenge.

In the gym, at least ask yourself if lifting “five more pounds”; concentrating on your form and execution just a little more, or limiting your talking to either before or after your session to improve your concentration will lead to better results. Instead of just going through the motions and being satisfied just because you finished your 20 minutes of scheduled cardiovascular training, you push yourself harder and make sure your heart rate is at a certain number throughout the entire session.

I can go on and on with hundreds more specific examples, but I’m sure everyone gets the point.

People who excel at the highest levels have incredible standards – even if they don’t even realize it. I look at what the majority of my Facebook friends are doing and I see they are constantly taking pictures of themselves in the bathroom mirror, taking pictures of their meals, taking pictures of their stocked up refrigerators, posting what they are going to train later that day, and a report back on how that workout went, and more. It’s no mystery why they have amazing bodies compared to the general public who rarely even think about these things–let alone take the time to post it on Facebook. A lot of time these people themselves don’t realize just how much attention they pay to their standards.

Tom: What do you do to protect your self confidence in a sport where the standards ARE so high and where there’s also so much negativity and destructive criticism?

Skip: My 100 percent belief in who I am, what I’m all about, and the message I share with others protects my self-confidence. I understand that people are entitled to their opinions and, at the end of the day, it not about me. I either am or I am not the person who inspires or educates them in way that appeals to them most. As I always say, “There are some flavors of ice cream I like and some I don’t. The flavors of ice cream that I don’t like shouldn’t take it personally.”

All of that AND having enough time and experience dealing with negativity and destructive criticism. I’ve been in this business and in the public eye for over 20 years. You get used to it. You get better at handling it. If I wasn’t able to handle the negativity and destructive criticism, I would have been gone a long time ago. There hasn’t been some sort of criticism that I haven’t heard at least a couple of dozen times in the past. I think after the fifth or sixth time I heard it, I gained the mental and emotional perspective I needed to carry on.

Tom: What advice would you give to our readers about the importance of consistency and persistence in the development of muscle mass and overall bodybuilding success?

Skip: You must always have a “big picture” of what you ultimately want to accomplish with your body.

With that being said, you must realize that your “big picture” is nothing more than knocking down your “daily disciplines”, as I call them, every single day. One weight training session at a time – that consists of one exercise; that has one set; that has one repetition at a time. One cardiovascular training session–that consist of one minute at a time; that has so many hard strokes at a time during that minute. One great meal at a time leads to success. Doing all these things for one day; one week; one month; for several months; for a year; and for several years is what’s going to lead to great results. And, when you consistently knock out your “daily disciplines” you are going to ENJOY the process a lot more. Oftentimes, your level of enjoyment during your journey can supersede you actual results – and you feel like you are winning.

To Be continued in Part 2

Websites and contact info from Skip:
SkipLaCour.com for bodybuilding and training information.
www.MassMachineNutrition.com for Skip La Cour’s Mass Machine Nutrition sports nutrition and bodybuilding supplement line.
www.MANformation.com for Alpha Male Leadership Strategies.

Disclosure: Tom Venuto and Bodybuilding secrets have no affiliation with Skip La Cour Mass Machine nutrition supplements

I told you I’d be back… and I just did back. Here’s the current mass building back routine:

Today, September 1st, 2011 marked an official beginning of a 4 month MASS building phase for me. I’m on a mad quest to get bigger than I have ever been in my life. Never mind that I’m not 25 anymore. Age means nothing. In fact, I’m seeing some of the best natural bodybuilders in the sport today continuing to peak at lifetime bests in their late 40′s.

My weight was fairly steady around 189-191 for a long long time as I had been experimenting with staying leaner and doing body recomposition protocols which I published in my new book, the Holy Grail Body Transformation system.

Using that program I had successfully stayed very very lean but my muscle gains came very very slowly. That was predictable, not a surprise by the way. Body recomp is a tough goal to achieve and you have to be a patient man to succeed with that approach. For the next 4 months, I’ll be doing a somewhat modified mass gaining protocol which still uses the holy grail nutritional periodization techniques (calorie cycling), but is aimed at being somewhat more aggressive in the muscle gains.

My body fat may creep up a bit more, and as long as there are at least some abs showing and I don’t turn into fat bastard, I’m at peace with that. After a long period of time weighing under 190 lbs, hearing the taunts of my training partner about how “small” I was (damn him!), I finally started cranking the food up again. I’m currently about 196 (On the gym scale today, I weighed in just under 200 lbs today with shoes on, fully clothed and fully fed (high carbs) and fully hydrated.

Heaviest I have ever been: Two-o-fat. Er, I mean 205. Yes, the truth is, my body fat was too high last time I was at that weight; it wasn’t ideal. For me to get up to 206-210 without getting as soft as the stay puff marshmallow man will be a monumental achievement, and absolutely new territory.

Alas, THAT IS THE GOAL DAMMIT!

You think it’s hard to get ripped? I find that simple and predictable if not easy. Hitting a higher lean body weight than you ever have in your life, naturally seems more of a challenge to me. If I don’t keep forcing food down my gullet, I tend to immediately drop under 200 lbs. Its a very unnatural weight for me, but I like challenges and I’m determined to enter new territory this year.

That brings us to the first workout. Day one of MASS PHASE: Back day…. second only to leg day for putting on sheer body weight… and if deadlifts are in the mix, back day could arguably exceed leg day as the superior bulk builder.

I didn’t deadlift today though. That will be a future challenge when my low back is a bit better prepared.

Here’s my current program: The old standby… the classic… old dependable… the FOUR DAY SPLIT.

The four day split gives me one day just for training upper back, lower back and calves. That’s a typical mash up for the body parts: one major body part (back) – which is very energy demanding, and one small minor body part (like calves), that is not demanding. It’s all about energy allocation. For example, I would never want to do legs and back in the same day. Not the way I train for bodybuilding anyway. Whatever came second would suffer.

First exercise: Low cable rows; pyramid up: 210 pounds for 15 reps, 220 for 10 reps, 230 for 8 reps, 240 for 7 reps. Stack goes to 300. Plenty of room. Love Strong and Shapely gym and dem big ass weight stacks! Try to find that at Planet Fitness!

Last set was one ultra strict lighter set with 1-2-3 count “mechanical” reps: from stretch position pull to stomach in one long pull, hold and contract, thats ONE! with ZERO upper body movement / ZERO pivoting at the hip, slowly extend the arms until they are straight, TWO! then pivot at the hips, lean forward and S T R E T CH! Thats THREE! then PULL all the way back to contraction… ONE! Each 3 count is one rep by the way. 140 pounds. More excruciating than the 7 with 240. Amazing what you can achieve with tweaks in form, tempo and leverage.

Second exercise: pull up medley: medium grip parallel, wide grip pronated, curl/supinated grip narrow and ultra wide grip parallel. Very strict sets of 10-12 with a hold / contract at the top of each rep. None of that kipping shit. Contractions. Bodyweight only today for very strict reps

Here’s a tip you might try in your own workouts: we are all victims of our own habit patterns. We not only gravitate to the same exercises, we gravitate to the same order of exercises. If you do pullups, do you usally do them first? Yeah me too and so do most people. Pull ups are difficult and the more fatigued you are, the the harder they are do to. But why not throw your body for a loop and do them 2nd… or even last in the workout and see what happens. You won’t lift as much weight or get as many reps, but you may get some new stimulation. Also, by rotating the exercise you do first, whatever it is you do first, you WILL hit that fresher, and hitting different exercises when you are at your strongest can also produce some new stimulation. Mix up your order of exercises more often and see what happens.

Third exercise: T bar rows with pronated shoulder width grip: Very strict with tight contraction and full stretch; 105 lbs, 115 lbs, 125 lbs. I go very heavy and do semi-cheating sometimes on some exercises, but I prefer going strict here with less weight as this exercise is a bit precarious with the lower back. its a GREAT mass builder though. If you dont have a T bar in your gym… get a real gym dammit! Just kidding… I meant to say, you can do corner bar rows. All you need is an olympic bar. Wedge it into the corner and row one end of the bar.

Rope straight arm pulldowns. 3 sets super strict. Stick your butt out, keep a tight arch in your lower back to maximize the stretch and contraction. I take a very tight contraction and squeeze at the bottom position and a full stretch at the top position on every rep – and then even an “extra” stretch on top of that (straighten out my arms and let the weight pull even more on those long fibers of the lats). You can literally feel your scapulae popping out. Drop set on last set. This is the one – this is the exercise that’s going to bring out the front lat spread. Wicked finisher

Next up was lower back. I would tell you what exercise we did, but then I would have to kill you. Sorry, ultra top secret exercise designed to bring out Christmas tree lower back, striated glutes and lower lat striations at the same time – ITS THE COMPETITION CRUSHER! What, you don’t have a striated butt and a christmas tree? Sucka! You lose!

All I can say is I must give my training partner Kostas the “Greek Statue” props for pulling this one out. NO! we’re not telling you. guess you’ll have to come to East Rutherford and spy to find out (then we’ll kill you anyway for spying).

I finished with calves: donkey calf raise machine stack + 2 45′s 4 sets of 20; will increase weight next time. Quads were so crippled from last leg workout couldnt do the seated calf machine (thigh pads crushing down on sore quads = murder)… so instead did hack-style /calf raise machine. Will do seated calf next time

I’ll be back again with more workouts soon, plus I have a “champion’s interview” on deck with Skip Lacour that I’ll publish in the next few days.

Until then, no slackin off on the holiday weekend, ya hear!

-Train hard and expect success!

-Tom V

PSIf your current goal is fat loss check out Burn The Fat, Feed the Muscle – that’s my fat loss bible and the fat loss bible for many of our readers here…

If on the other hand you are interested in “body recomposition” – gaining only lean muscle while losing fat at the same time, be sure to check out the “Holy Grail” body transformation.

BodybuildingSecrets.com has been online since 2005. But with the exception of my last bodybuilding competition (that same year), when i blogged almost daily (the details of my contest prep training and nutrition), this site has been mostly inactive. I’ve never made a “secret” of that… at one point I admitted in a blog post that I was “famous” for being the world’s worst bodybuilding blogger! Why?…

Well, no excuse really, but if I had an excuse it would be that I put almost
all my time and energy into the burn the fat websites and blog including the
(still best-selling) burn the fat feed the muscle site http://www.BurnTheFat.com and
our inner circle social support community at http://www.BurnTheFatInnerCircle.com
(and the body transformation contest, now in its 4th season!)

I suppose it’s a bit ironic because out of all the work I do in the fitness industry
my GREATEST passion always has been and still is in the natural bodybuilding field… hardcore natural bodybuilding!

Over the past several months, a few “triggering events,” several personal meetings/ discussions and some deep thinking has me pretty fired up and I’ve embarked on some of the most serious “hard-core” bodybuilding training that I’ve done in a long time.

And yes, the thought of a competition comeback has entered my mind, but I’ll consider and talk about that more later. Bodybuilding is not just competition to me, bodybuilding is a lifestyle and its the way I live and always have lived – with or without contests.

The bodybuilding secrets website /blog will get a redesign soon as well, but
i’m not sure when. I’m not going to wait for the redesign to start posting again.

For now, I’ve kicked off a muscle mass building phase and I’ve decided to re-dedicate myself to my bodybuilding site and write about some of what I’m doing.

I’ve also decided to re-start my “natural champions” interview series which, while
short-lived, was one of the greatest features on the bodybuilding secrets site years ago.

In fact, the first interview is already confirmed and will be published next week.

The first new interview will be with natural bodybuilding legend Skip La Cour who I had a chance to finally meet in person after all these years, just last week while I was visiting California.

Although Skip has moved on from competitive bodybuilding to other (very interesting) business endeavors, he was as willing as ever to share his muscle building knowledge -the knowledge that made him a 6-time natural national champion, including 2 overall Team Universe titles.

In next week’s interview, he’ll not only be sharing his muscle building secrets – the physical and the mental strategies – he’ll be sharing some insights on the current state of the fitness industry and on “life after contests’ for former champions and how you follow an act like that (one of the greatest natural bodybuilding careers in history)…

I already have additional interviews on deck and only with the BEST OF THE BEST in the world of natural bodybuilding.

So, I hope you’ll put www.BodybuildingSecrets.com/home.php back in your bookmarks and RSS feeds, watch for these emails and keep an eye on what’s to come.

Train hard and expect success!

Tom Venuto
www.BodyBuildingSecrets.com/home.php

Visit my other sites:
www.BurnTheFat.com/bodybuilding_diet.html (fat loss)
www.HolyGrailBodyTransformation.com (body recomposition / lean muscle gain)
www.BurnTheFatInnerCircle.com (fat loss / muscle building support)

QUESTION: Dear Tom: I’m using lipo6x for fat burning. I was wondering if I can stack lipo6x with size-on precontest formula and nitrix and creatine and triblus? Would the combination work better than each one individually? Any advice?

ANSWER: Advice? yes, be sure to flush twice so there arent any floaters left behind.

Best regards,

- Tom Venuto

PS Ok, ok, I’m partly joking. But seriously, 97% of supplements are either a complete waste of money, worthy of dumping down the toilet, or they do not perform as advertised (advertising exaggerates, etc).

The best you get out of todays crop of “fat burners” is a caffeine buzz (which admittedly might be worth something as
a pre-workout stimulant), a very mild thermogenic effect (not much), and possibly sometimes a bit of appetite suppression.

Abs dont come in a pill, never did never will…

Tribulus? If its real standardized extract it *might* do something in libido dept, (and for THAT, you might as well take the little blue pill instead), but I have not seen a shred of evidence suggesting this stuff boosts muscle growth. If anyone has such evidence by all means send it to me – I’ll examine the data and share the results if they’re noteworthy.

If you dig into the research you will find hardly anything on humans, but I thought it was amusing that most of the studies are on rabbits (not mice… rabbits… get it?… rabbits? oh nevermind… )

Size on? I heard of it, but I dont know what it is (If you want to put SIZE ON, try eating some more real FOOD!).

“Muscle Size supplements” often contain creatine and yes, creatine is worth taking – it’s the most studied sports supplement in history. I will do a write up on it, including a write up on why women should take it too, in the near future.

[NOTE: Will Brink is a great resource of info on creatine - it's one of his specialties. Check out his program at www.BrinksBodybuilding.com - supplement reviews are a major strong point of this product.]

The idea of stacking supplements might have some merit. The most famous example was ephedrine stacked with caffeine, AKA the EC stack. Actually that is a drug stack not a natural supplement stack, and ephedrine sales were restricted years ago, but when it was widely available, the addition of the caffeine was research-proven to enhance the effect of the ephedrine.

After ephedra was taken off the market, supplement companies were looking for alternatives and one they found was EGCG, the active ingredient in green tea extract. EGCG at a dose of 270-300 mg per day has been proven to increase metabolism by about 80 calories in 24 hours (not much, but enough to be called significant). Long term effects on fat loss are still unclear. However, like the EC stack, more recent research has suggested that adding caffeine might boost the effects of the EGCG.

Another example is creatine. We know that creatine works, so researchers have studied creatine when taken in combination (stacked) with other supplements such as beta alanine or whey protein. Sometimes the results are favorable but the research is mixed on how superior, if at all the two are in combination as compared to taken alone.

When testing stacked supplements, researchers have to do a randomized double-blind placebo-controlled trial with the individual supplement versus the two supplements stacked to see if there’s any true difference.

Otherwise, it actually clouds the picture because if you take something else with creatine and the study says “this supplement works!” well… no kidding, we already know that creatine works and creatine was in the supplement. The question is, does the additional ingredient have additive or synergistic effects and that is not always clear in every study.

One area I would caution you about is those “everything but the kitchen sink” products. These have been around for decades – it’s one of the oldest supplement company tricks in the book. Basically, they just toss in a little bit of everything, cross their fingers and hope for the best. There is seldom, if ever any research on these mixed products, only (sometimes) research on the individual ingredients.

The problem is, there is only so much room per serving unless you want to choke down handfuls of “horse pills” or bucketfuls of goop. So what happens is, sneaky supplement companies just sprinkle in a little bit of the supplement – a trick known as “fairy dusting.” Now they can say an ingredient is on the label, even though its only there in a tiny amount.

Here’s my question for you: even if that supplement has research evidence supporting its effectiveness, does that little dusting come even close to the necessary dose used in the research? The answer of course is no and therefore it is nothing more than label decoration. So even if there could be some synergy between the ingredients, there’s not enough in there to do anything.

Overall, there’s not too much to get excited about in the muscle building and fat loss supplement world today. Mostly a whole lot of hype if you ask me – and I DO pay close attention to the research.

For me to review all the individual supplement stacks or combinations could take pages, so looking at other product combinations will have to the subject of future columns.

One last thing: Guys (and gals), if you want supplements reviewed through my question and answer columns DO NOT send me brand names. Send me ingredients. You cant tell whats in the product just from the brand name and I just can’t keep track of all this crap anymore…

Although, I must say, the brand names can be pretty amusing these days. They usually sound something like this: “Nitro-methyl dianabel-clenbutrox cypo-nex5! The new frontier in anabolic activators!”

Bwaaaaa hahahahahaha!… yeah, I remember when I was a gullible 16-year old too.

Flush the junk, train hard and expect success!

Tom Venuto, author of
Burn The Fat Feed The Muscle
(The “Fat loss bible”)
Holy Grail Body Transformation System
(For gaining LEAN muscle)