Iron Guru

Lose Fat - Gain Muscle

Posted Thursday, January 17, 2008

Filed under Optimal Eating, Vince's Gym, Training

I am 21 years old and have been training for quite a while. I love bodybuilding. It's definitely my number one sport.

My goal is to have a physique like Lee Labrada's. We have almost the same size measurements, except that I weigh a soft 200 pounds, while Lee weighs 185 pounds of pure muscle.

What would be the best way to lose my excess fat and still gain muscle at the same time? I want to weigh a solid 185 like Lee. Most importantly, what is the best training method?

My friends say, I should train six days a week, while in the magazines they say to train three days a week. Can you please lead me in the right direction?

Firstly, just because you are the same height as Lee Labrada, and weigh the same, doesn't mean you'll look like Lee, unless you have identical proportions to him. If you do, you should be a top professional and winning pro shows. Don't expect to look like Lee just because you get your weight down to 185 pounds.

As to the best training method to lose fat and gain muscle, I suggest you utilize my Four Sides to a Muscle course, using four exercises per muscle group, for four sets each. Keep the reps down in a 10-8-6-15 format. I suggest you rest only 45 seconds between sets. Train each muscle group twice a week. Train four days a week, splitting your body in two.

Eat Sensibly

Posted Saturday, December 08, 2007

Filed under Optimal Eating, Vince's Gym

"Eat for nutrition and food value. Emphasize natural foods, avoid processed foods and eliminate junk entirely."

- Vince Gironda

Eating After A Workout

Posted Sunday, October 21, 2007

Filed under Optimal Eating, Vince's Gym

It's very important for bodybuilders to keep their systems stocked with nutrients.

When I trained at Vince's Gym, Guy Gironda, Vince's son, instructed me to eat something immediately after a workout - preferably protein.

That worked out fine for me because I was usually shaking too much from the workout to drive anyway, so I'd gulp down some half-and-half. He also said that I should eat throughout the day.

People may question the validity of the Girondas' theories, and there's nothing wrong with that. If you actually trained at Vince's, followed his and Guy's advice and didn't get bigger, then by all means your criticism is warranted.

But I did train there, so I know firsthand that their knowledge is amazing. Guy could even tell what I'd eaten for breakfast just by how strong I was, and he was never wrong - never.

Permalink / Your Thoughts? (2)

Fat Loss Ideas

Posted Thursday, October 11, 2007

Filed under Optimal Eating, Training

The bodybuilders in the Sixties turned to Vince Gironda for advice on how to strip fat. Basically, one eats meat and eggs in limitless amounts. Then, every third or fourth day, the athlete consumes a high carbohydrate meal with salad to keep the “pump.” This is not different than the Atkins’ Induction Phase or some of the various “Caveman” diets currently popular. Yes, it works and it is that simple.

Do Amino Acids Work For Muscle Gain?

Posted Tuesday, September 25, 2007

Filed under Optimal Eating

Do amino's work? Find a champion in the top five who doesn't use them. Doesn't mean they're good because the big guy uses them, just means that those guys would've axed the aminos a long time ago if they didn't work.

I have seen Vince Gironda use a liquid hydrolyzed amino acid product on his students for years. It is not one of those collagen-based aminos. It is derived from healthy glandular tissue. No one has ever returned a bottle for a refund in the over ten years that Vince has used the stuff. The liquid contains the funny little peptide chains that everyone is in love with these days.

Inosine looks good, but there are some factors that have to be looked into. If you have joint problems (i.e. nagging elbows, bum knees, etc.) take five of this product.

Many California athletes use an aloe vera juice that contains papain and bromelain enzymes. They wash down their supplements with it after meals. Seems to work especially well for those on a high carbohydrate diet.

Bulging Deposit of Fat

Posted Thursday, July 19, 2007

Filed under Optimal Eating, Training

I've been having a perpetual bodybuilding problem that I cannot seem to correct. I certainly hope that you can eliminate it for me.

The difficulty is in trimming down that slightly bulging deposit of fat on my obliques and on each side of my lower back just above my rear end.

I have had success trimming and tightening my front abdominals with your teqhniques but twists, sidebends and bent over twists don’t seem to help the rest of my waist where it is also important.

I tried a diet you described in MuscleMag but the low carbohydrate intake decreased the mass on my whole body that I worked so hard to build up, and the fatty layer remained but on a smaller scale. In other words, proportionally I looked the same.

Vince, I want the V-shape taper that comes with all around tight, trim waistline, but have met with only frustration.

Can you please suggest some things to melt away this problem on my obliques and lower back? Should I continue the low carbohydrate - high protein diet? (I cannot consume or afford the best quantities of Choline and Inositol necessary to do any real good).

Increase the reps on my present waist exercises? What should I do!?

I am 28 years old, 5 ft. 11 in. tall and 177 lbs. I’ve been lifting regularly for two years.

1. You have a metabolic problem.

2. You need a digestive support at each meal (HCL or Enzymes).

3. You must stop combining carbohydrates and protein at the same meal.

4. You must stop those so called High-Rep reducing exercises (twists and bendovers). They are responsible for you losing muscle tissue. (Hormone Depletion).

5. If you can afford kelp tabs and Vitamin C, take three a day and fifteen kelp.

Anabolic Effect in Eggs

Posted Friday, July 13, 2007

Filed under Optimal Eating

Thanks so much for your letter concerning protein intake and the use of fertilized eggs.

Would you please tell me if the ingredient which causes the anabolic effect is to be found in the white or the yellow of the egg or must the entire egg be consumed in order to achieve the desired results?

Also, how long do you recommend that an individual stay on the fertilized egg diet?

The ingredient that causes the anabolic effect in eggs is the fat (cholesterol). The yolk as you probably know, is 50 % fat!

I, however, would not advise the exclusion of the white because science can only test for that which they are aware, or already know.

This does not mean that justifies the removal of something that is not understood. Science plays it safe; science is not an experimentor. The real scientist is the guy who is trying to discover something that was there all the time (nature), and takes the first step (unscientific) and discovers nature’s secrets.

Actually, there is nothing new at all. The facts were always there. I do not subscribe to man’s laws (science). My information comes from a different source.

All I have to tell you is that I am turning out men like Don Peters, who at 43 years of age looks better now than he ever did when he was 20 years younger and taking steroids. Just put my findings to use and see for yourself.

I will put my reputation on the line to prove that steroids are not any better or as good as four dozen fertile eggs, 100 liver tabs, and 100 amino acid tablets per day.

More Definition

Posted Friday, July 06, 2007

Filed under Optimal Eating, Training

I need more definition. Please Vince, I hear you have trained many champions. Even Bob Kennedy, Publisher of MuscleMag, says he listen to everything you say.

How can I get a lower body fat percentage?

Take no milk products. Take 300-500 mg of Vitamin C daily. Do not drink water during workouts. Avoid sodium (cottage cheese, hamburgers and fast food contain high sodium (salt).)

Increase fats while decreasing overall calorie intake. (Fats aid protein assimilation and can step up metabolic rate).

Read my bulletin #5 Secrets of Definition.

Vince Gironda and Eggs

Posted Tuesday, July 03, 2007

Filed under Optimal Eating, Vince's Gym

I must have read it a hundred times but I still do not understand your position on the eating of eggs Mr. Gironda.

Please answer these three questions.

1. How many eggs do you eat a day?

2. How many eggs would you recommend a person with a high cholesterol count to eat daily?

3. How many eggs should person who is allergic to eggs eat?

The answers to your questions are as follows:

1. I personally eat no eggs at all. The reason for this is that I am not currently trying to add muscle size.

2. A person suffering from high cholesterol should keep his fat low.

Only eat eggs occasionally as they are high in fat.

3. I should have thought the answer to this question is obvious.

Of course a person allergic to eggs, should not eat them!

Now, as to my stand with regard to eggs, that so many seem to find amusing or absurd. I recommend the egg as an excellent source of nutrition for the bodybuilder because it is recognized by nutritional scientists as being the highest quality protein known to human kind.

You probably hear the word "biological" used in terms of nutrition when referring to protein. A biological percentage is not the percentage of protein in a food, it is a term that refers to the structure of protein, indicating how near it is to human tissue.

For example, according to British expert Bernard Beverley human tissue is 100 percent biological.

Since we can’t go around eating each other, we have to settle for second best. That is…eggs!!

They are 95 percent biological in terms of amino acid structure. They are not 95 percent protein. In actual fact, an egg is only about 6 percent protein, but that protein is 95 percent usable in building human muscle tissue.

Next in line to eggs comes milk, organ meats, liver, kidneys, heart - then red meats such as steak, lamb and finally poultry and fish. Protein derived from the soya bean for example, is not high on the list. It’s only about 22 percent biological, so you need a large amount of the higher quality protein foods to supply the essential amino acid balance.

Rather than take steroids I advise bodybuilders in normal robust health to take up to three dozen eggs daily, to push their muscles to a new plateau. I do not suggest that they do this for the rest of their lives.

Nutrition is to be used to achieve a specific goal. You want size, then go for it with eggs. There is nothing better, so get crackin’. After 6-8 weeks or so you can drop down your egg intake to just one or two a day.

Try another diet such as red meat and fresh vegetables…or a diet high in milk products or fish. There are scores of regimens to follow, and each will help you achieve a specific goal.

Single vitamins

Posted Thursday, June 28, 2007

Filed under Optimal Eating

I am 15 years old and I have been bodybuilding for about 1 ½ years. I weigh 175. You should receive my order for your arm course very soon in the future.

I have a question. I hope you will please answer. I saw an add about Formulas B3 and B7. It said in one of the testimonials that it is a substitute for anabolic steroids but it is natural. Do you know if this stuff works?

Does it hurt your body in any way? I don’t ever want to use anything that would harm my body in any way.

Single vitamins (Mono Substances) cannot work, they need catalysts to be utilized.

If you’re interested in producing male hormones in your body, do as the fellows in my gym are doing.

1-3 dozen raw fertile eggs mixed in ½ & ½ cream and milk beaten, and taken every 3 hours will produce an anabolic effect by putting you in a positive nitrogen balance.

It’s as easy as that. The effect is really miraculous.

Fat Burning Plan

Posted Tuesday, June 26, 2007

Filed under Optimal Eating, Training

Please can you give me a good alternate fat burning plan. My doctor says I must cut my carbs right down.

I am sick of the regular diets. Give me something new please Vince.

This diet is designed for those who are on a low or zero-carbohydrate diet as well as for those on a high-protein diet who are at a standstill and want to lose more fat.

This is a total, about-face plan, contrary to anything you have read or been told by diet experts. This diet plan will jog your metabolic rate and cause an immediate weight and fat loss.

It is a meatless, natural carbohydrate regime, composed solely of steamed (organic) vegetables and raw salad greens and fruit.

No meat, fish, chicken, eggs or cheese. Whole grains and rice are allowed.

The following will give you an idea of how to design your meals:

Breakfast:
Steamed Grains or Steamed Rice or Steamed Vegetables.

Lunch:
Caesar Salad or Raw Vegetable Salad or Fresh Fruit Salad

Dinner:
Wheat Pilaf or Steamed Vegetables or Eggplant Casserole

Sesame salt may be used on vegetables. Organic honey on steamed or cooked grains for breakfast.

Select the vegetables from the following list: Green beans, zucchini, Italian squash, acorn squash, eggplant, rutabaga, broccoli, asparagus, artichoke, carrots, onions, lima beans, green peppers, cauliflower.

Supplements

Posted Friday, June 22, 2007

Filed under Optimal Eating

Vince, I take all the diet supplements that are needed for building super muscle size such as protein powders, vitamins and minerals, but I am still not achieving the progress that I feel I could be making.

Your advice would be welcome.

I feel you shouldn’t take supplements more than five days in a row.

A brief rest of two days to detoxify and then you can go back to them. In this way the body will grab all the nutrients when they are available without super saturating and over toxifying.

Lose around the waist

Posted Thursday, June 14, 2007

Filed under Abdominals, Optimal Eating

I was wondering if you could give me some extra help with a problem I am having.

I have been training for 8 months, and can’t seem to lose around my waist.

I do situps, leg raises, frog sit ups, and side bends. I don’t seem to be losing any inches around the middle.

I eat 800 calories a day, but this doesn’t help. Any help would be appreciated.

The first step I take when preparing for a photo session or contest is to get rid of any soft tissue on my body. How do I do it? I go on a meat and eggs diet. Then I begin my training!

In your letter, you list three worthless abdominal exercises, the only good one being the frog ½ sit up.

As a matter of fact, the side bend has not been performed in professional Gyms for the last ten years.

Nutrition Contradiction?

Posted Monday, June 11, 2007

Filed under Optimal Eating

I certainly enjoy reading your articles. Your opinions carry a lot of weight due to your years of experience. However, two articles which appeared in Iron Man magazine appear to be contradictory:

1. Iron Man, January, 1979, Volume 38 No. 2: "I have seen students gain one inch on arms in 3 days, eating one dozen eggs and one pound of beef daily."

2. Iron Man, September, 1978, Volume 37 No. 6: "I advocate a relatively 'low' protein intake, about 65 grams per day. The body can’t digest more than 20 grams per meal."

One dozen eggs and a pound of beef would amount to approximately 180 grams of protein a day, far in excess of what you recommend in the September, 1978 article.

Would you please explain?

Sorry about the confusion.

My feeling about body builders seriously training for maximum muscle size is simple; 4 fertile eggs every three hours is a necessity to achieve positive nitrogen balance.

This is the bottom line in body building nutrition. It’s the easiest way to achieve the anabolic state.

Men over 40, like Don Peters and Don Howorth look better now than they did at age 30 or under. Don Peters is at present up to 4 dozen a day, and looks unbelievable. I personally achieved the best condition of my life on 65 grams of protein a day (eggs, meat and butter).

You are opening a Pandora’s Box by expecting a simple answer to your questions. If you ever get to California perhaps I could go into detail and cover every aspect of this with you.

To summarize this, I go on record by stating that you would be far better off with 65 grams of protein, than 300.

Rheo Blair Protein - How to mix the protein drink

Posted Thursday, June 07, 2007

Filed under Optimal Eating

A man normally uses the 1/3-cup measuring scoop filled level
with Blair's Instant Protein (or the 1/4-cup scoop filled heaping)
mixed with a glassful of liquid. A lady normally uses the 1/4-cup
scoop filled level. Using the blender, a man mixes four of the
1/3-cup scoopfuls (same as one and one third cupfuls) to the
quart; a lady uses four 1/4-cup scoopfuls, or a cupful, to the quart.

The 1/4-cup scoop filled level with protein equals approximately
18 grams of protein; mixed with a glassful of half-and-half it
comes to about 26 grams. The 1/3-cup scoop filled level (or the
1/4-cup scoop filled heaping) yields about 24 grams of protein;
mixed with a glassful of half-and-half it's approximately 32
grams of protein.

The preferred liquid for mixing the protein is half-and-half, and
for a good reason. Nature seems to indicate that protein and fat
should be taken in even balance. Milk with 3% protein is
balanced with an equal amount of fat. Likewise eggs, meat, etc.

Blair's Instant Protein is extracted from milk and eggs without
this normally occurring fat; both eggs and milk were defatted in
processing. Whole milk is normally balanced by itself, so if
we mix the protein with milk we throw off this natural balance.
However, by mixing the protein with half whole milk and half
heavy cream we restore some of the fat removed during
processing and we achieve a product more normally balanced
as to proportions of protein and fat.

Remember, you are not actually drinking half-and-half when
you follow this suggestion. The protein with half-and-half
makes a "milk" drink which is equivalent to whole milk in
the balance of protein and fat. It is thick and creamy
because it is concentrated.

The "half-and-half" sold by most dairies is not a true "one half"
plus "one half" but it can be used. We prefer to mix our own,
using one-half whole milk and one-half heavy (whipping)
cream. We recommend using raw milk and raw cream if it is
available.

Do not be alarmed that we suggest using cream, for cream
is not necessarily fattening for all people. By eliminating from
the diet the high carbohydrate foods (those high in starch
and sugar) you may find the body uses fats for a superior
source of energy. Fats in the diet often tend to burn off
accumulated body fat.

This protein drink made with half-and-half is delicious and
tasty, especially if you make sure that the milk and cream
are VERY COLD!

Note: Rheo Blair A.K.A Irvin Johnson was a famous nutritionist.
Health faddists,movie stars,celebrities and professional
bodybuilders from around the country flocked to him for
his expertise and his high quailty protein products.

All the great bodybuilders of the 50's, 60's and 70's (Arnold,
Frank Zane, Larry Scott, etc.) followed this guy's advice
and got in the biggest and best shape of ther lives. He
had the secret of achieving steroid-like results without drugs.

Rheo rationalized that the highest quality protein in terms of
supporting human growth and well-being would be found
closer to home - in mother's milk. It is the food that has
been honed by millions of years of evolution to nourish
newborns and carry them through their most rapid period
of growth. Plus, enzymes found in milk, such as colostrum
and lactoferrin, were believed to have powerful immune
system-enhancing properties. His famous protein powder
was based on the amino acid ratios in mothers milk.

As Rheo Blair products began to fill the shelves of health
food stores stories abounded of the amazing physical
transformations he performed on hundreds of "hopeless
cases," regularly turning 97-pound weaklings into
strapping men by way of his protein and a vigorous
volume-based weight training routine.

Similar results were being reported by even advanced
bodybuilders on the Blair system. In an article in the
May 1967 issue of Iron Man magazine a bodybuilder
wrote, 'After being on Rheo's program for only three
weeks, I made more gains than I had in the past six
years. I put almost a half-inch on my arms. And after
two months I [put on] almost 20 pounds [of pure muscle]."

Blair died an untimely death in the early 1980's, some
say his protein powder was better then anything on the
market today. But almost forgotten are his amino acid
capsules that bodybuilders did anything they could to
get their hands on, because of their almost magic muscle building and fat buring effects.

Continue reading Gain Weight

Gain Weight

Posted Wednesday, May 30, 2007

Filed under Optimal Eating, Training

I’ve lost 25 lbs. and would like to gain it back.

Would you please send me the name of your product for a body building food to gain weight.

I will then send you a money order for the cost of this gain weight supplement, and the shipping charges.

Would appreciate a reply from you as soon as possible.

Continue reading Hungrier after exercise

Hungrier after exercise

Posted Monday, May 21, 2007

Filed under Optimal Eating, Training

I am always hungry and all my life I have eaten pretty well what I like. As a consequence I am fat.

Now I am starting to exercise with weights to get in shape (finally at 49 years of age!)

I read in a book that exercise curbs the appetite, but it seems to me that I get hungrier after exercise.

What do you think? Also, will salt make me fatter?

Developing Muscle by Vince Gironda

Posted Tuesday, May 15, 2007

Filed under Optimal Eating, Training

This consists of two parts - developing more capillaries and more nerve pathways, or better and stronger nerve impulses to the muscle.

Also, to acquire larger muscles, you must increase the intensity of work done within a given time. This means minimum rest between sets. (Push yourself.)

I feel workouts should be timed, and constantly strive to shorten the time it takes to get through your routine. (This is a form of Progressive Resistance.) It does not matter how much work you do. What counts is how fast you do it.

This is known as the "overload principle". The overload principle explains why sprinters have larger leg development than long distance runners. It is more work to run a mile than 100 yards, but the sprinter is doing more work per second.

I have found that the maximum amount of sets that can be performed to create a maximum pump to a muscle, is 12 sets. Clancy Ross and Bill Pearl both claim that if you can’t get a workout in 15 sets, you are not concentrating properly. Anything above or beyond this is overwork and causes the muscle to contract and lose its blood supply.

I have seen this happen to top physique stars, as well as myself. This is not theory, but fact!!! (This is a major fault I find with most beginners.)

I would like to point out here that maximum pump at every workout does not build tissue. It only keeps it pumped up and bloated, but you cannot grow on this much work. Maximum pump workouts should not be employed more often than once a week. Remember, it takes 72 hours to rebuild tissue after this type of workout.

Again, I repeat. There is a fine dividing line between enough work and too much work. If you decide to employ this routine, it is best performed by working with a weight that is about 60% of your maximum.

Overenthusiastic workouts produce bloated muscle tissue, but no gains.
Top physique stars take maximum workouts every workout. But they work each muscle only twice a week. Even with their superior metabolism, they still need 72 hours recuperation.

Take heed - that workouts tear down tissue - rest builds it. Talk to any champion. Because of his wide horizon of instinctive knowledge, he cannot and will not give you pat answers. Without consciously knowing the reason for his success, he is unable to guide you.

Champions, you must understand, are not necessarily teachers. But they are observers. Watch any champion train, and you will recognize the fact that they appear to be doing something extra, even though they are doing the same exercises as you. That something extra is concentration and an absolute singleness of purpose. I find personally that I can get in top condition by deciding to do so.

While my workout partners never seem to consider themselves to be in shape, they also say I am doing the same exercises as you and I am using the same amount of weight; that I am working out at the same speed; but I cannot seem to feel the exercise. The answer to this statement is, think about every part of the movement as you do it.

Don’t turn your mind off. In short, concentrate.

Sweets and Flab

Posted Thursday, May 10, 2007

Filed under Optimal Eating

Thanks for your course and please may you do these things for me please.

1. Can you tell me some way I can stop eating so much sweets?

2. Can you give me some advice on trimming my flabby waistline?

The reason you crave sweets is because you need proteins and fats in your diet.

You trim the waistline by taking liver tablets and amino acids every three hours.

No problem.

Soft Drinks

Posted Monday, April 30, 2007

Filed under Optimal Eating, Training

I do not like to drink milk because I find that I gain too much flab.

Would it be OK if I had a couple of cans of pop a day instead?

Soft drinks may taste good but they are definitely not good for you. The sugar, caffeine and chemical additives contained in soft drinks can trigger weight gain (two cans of pop a day would add 110,000 calories a year and get you on the way to gaining a full 32 pounds!) also you run the risk of physical and mental dependency, dental decay and increased illness as you get older.

You cannot compare the nutritious value of milk and pop. Milk (especially raw milk) contains a little of almost every nutrient known to man. Soft drinks have no nutritional benefit at all.

Black Coffee?

Posted Thursday, April 19, 2007

Filed under Optimal Eating

I have heard that you like to drink a great amount of black coffee, Vince. Do you believe it helps training?

I drink very little coffee now, but I did drink it when in my best shape a few years ago.

Coffee is a stimulant and may serve to give you a lift. It can be helpful as a substitute for food when you are on a diet.

Incidentally, I didn’t have any coffee until I was 33 years of age. Currently I am partial to fresh mint tea.

Continue reading Turn fat into muscle?

Turn fat into muscle?

Posted Monday, April 16, 2007

Filed under Optimal Eating, Training

I’m a professional Wrestler from Montreal, Canada. I presently wrestle in Puerto Rico and soon I will go to Los Angeles.

Here are my problems.

I have no more than one hour and a half, three times a week to workout, due to a heavy wrestling schedule and long trips by car.

I’m 5’10” about 215 lbs. and I have small bones or a medium frame. I would like to bulk up and look husky and solid, but not get fat.

Please let me know the best routine possible for my goal.

I have a round back or shoulders and I would like to know how to correct it.

Also, which is better for me, press in front or press behind neck?

Please explain to me the difference between the two presses and which muscle each of them work.

Excess Tissue

Posted Friday, November 17, 2006

Filed under Optimal Eating, Training

I have been an ardent bodybuilder for several years and I am not overweight, but I do have a bit of excess tissue about my waist and hips.

How would you suggest I go about reducing my waist and hips, while continuing in the development of the rest of my body?

I've been running about a mile three times weekly and I believe this is helping somewhat.

Start on a meat, eggs and water diet immediately. Also, do not work your abdominals any more sets and reps than you would any other muscle.

And above all…stop running.

Continue reading Need my booze!

Need my booze!

Posted Monday, November 06, 2006

Filed under Optimal Eating

Vince, when you were training for competition and you consciously set yourself short-term goals to achieve. Today from what read one must keep using the mind to motivate and carry through to success. I have bought courses, books, and tapes on motivation and goal setting but I still keep missing workouts and partying. From Friday till Tuesday I just like to drink. But I always regret it when I’ve had a hangover the next day. Please help me because deep down I do want to be a bodybuilding success.

CARBOHYDRATE LOADING

Posted Friday, November 03, 2006

Filed under Optimal Eating

(Musclemag Vol 2 issue 1)

I see by Fitness For Living, January-February issue, that my carbohydrate meal every third day when on a total protein diet is now being used by athletes to load the liver with glycogen for maximum performance. Procedure is as follows: six days prior to competition, the athlete trains very hard on protein and fat and depletes his reserves of glycogen. Three days before competition, he adds considerable carbohydrates to his diet and loads up the glycogen in the liver and by so doing, improves his endurance up to 150 per cent. During mild exercise, muscles get all of their energy from fats. During strenuous exercise, the muscles must rely increasingly on carbohydrates in the form of glycogen. Also, numerous studies show that muscles do not grow larger or stonger on abnormally high protein intake.

Cholesterol

Posted Thursday, November 02, 2006

Filed under Optimal Eating

(Musclemag Vol 2 issue 1)

This controversial subject has caused great confusion in the mind of the general public. A few of the following facts should help to clear up this high fog index. Cholesterol belongs to the classification of fats known as sterols and is chemically not a fat. But, it is found in all fats and oils. I'd like to point out that the body synthesizes and metabolizes daily a far greater amount than is consumed in the diet.

It has never been established that natural fats raise cholesterol. In fact, certain types of fats cause a drop in cholesterol levels in the blood. The body manufactures 15 grams of cholesterol per day. Thus, the more cholesterol you eat, the less the body normally manufactures. Without cholesterol, the slightest cut would cause you to bleed to deatch so it is important in the proper amounts.

All foods that contain cholesterol also contain lecithin which is a fat emulsifier. The best fat emulsifier known, however, is EXERCISE. I feel that cholesterol is primarily a product of tensions, anxiety and stress. Further, modern man no longer can revert to Fight or Flight in his daily life as did our ancestors. Yet this was the only real way for nature to emulsify cholesterol ... today we must train and exercise!

Vitamin C

Posted Wednesday, November 01, 2006

Filed under Optimal Eating

(IronMan Magazine Nov 1973 Vol. 33 No. 1 and Musclemag Vol 2 issue 1)

NUTRITION NOTE: Try increasing your Vitamin C intake to help you release excess fluids. 300-500 mg. of Vitamin C daily are as effective as medicinal diuretics. medical experts recommend large amounts of Vitamin C to counteract the harmful effects of air pollution. Long recognized as a cold fighter, recent research proves that adequate amounts of Vitamin C help prevent cancer and heart disease. 1,000 milligrams per day is the minimum recommended dosage.

KELP HAS AMAZING EFFECTS

Posted Tuesday, October 31, 2006

Filed under Optimal Eating

(IronMan Magazine Nov 1973 Vol. 33 No. 1 and Musclemag Vol 2 issue 1)

Kelp tablets are perhaps the best source of the rare trace mineral elements so often lacking in the average bodybuilder's diet. In addition to preventing iodine and other mineral deficiencies, kelp aids in fat metabolism and appears to have a beneficial effect on hair growth. Kelp has been found to contain over forty-four different mineral elements.

Nucleic Acid RNA

Posted Monday, October 30, 2006

Filed under Optimal Eating

(IronMan Magazine March 1977 Vol. 36 No. 3)

EDITOR'S NOTE - This article maybe a little difficult to understand, but it does bring some interesting information about some food items that could and should be very useful to bodybuilders in the future.

Nucleic acids of the various kinds found within the nuclei of all living cells are the fundamental substances used in clinical investigation into aging and other aspects of human health. These nutrients are essential to life. They include the nucleoproteins ribonucleic acid (RNA) and deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA), discovered by science to contain the very blueprints by which all living matter knows how and when to reproduce itself. DNA contains the master blueprint; RNA is the messenger which carries the pattern to cells throughout the body. A vast amount of scientific research is now concentrated upon these fantastic elements which constitute the very basis of life itself. And it is through further knowledge of DNA and RNA discovered by microbiologists that the entire scientific world expects major breakthroughs in the understanding of nil life processes.

NATURAL - NOT SYNTHETIC

As stated, the nucleic acids DNA and ENA are the cellular components which control heredity and subsequent ability of the body to keep reproducing its inherited patterns. But more - these strands of acid within the cell nucleus also govern all life processes in health and disease. All organs and tissues of the body appear to undergo some form of aging. With the passage of time, many of the functional parts of the organs may be replaced by nonfunctional fibrous tissue. The cells or organs may degenerate through development of fat, accumulation of pigment, formation of vacuoles, or because of hyaline changes in the cell.

On the other hand, cells may proliferate, rather than degenerate, and produce a larger than normal organ, which may be either harmless or cancerous.

One of the most obvious effects of aging is the wrinkling of skin. In aging skin, there is a decrease in elasticity, and a thinning due to loss of fat and water. Lines and wrinkles in the face and hands become more prominent. The backs of the hands, highly visible indicators of age, become shiny, spotted with lentigus (brownish pigmented areas), and perhaps may develop senile keratoses (horny, wart-like growths).

Why do all these changes occur? Because the cells which contain the blueprints for the formation of the various organs are tired and worn and no longer able to maintain the pattern they inherited.

To maintain youthfulness one must find ways to help the body's DNA and ENA renew themselves so as to keep their patterns of genetic information etched clean and fresh. Work already done with DNA and ENA and related metabolites demonstrates the importance of these substances to the quality, as well as length, of life. They point not only to a longer life free of disease, but to the marvelous quality of being young as long as you live.

Aging involves decay of DNA which, in turn, leads to an improperly formed messenger, RNA. Since RNA is responsible for the formation of enzymes needed by the body, these enzymes are not formed properly, or perhaps they may not be formed at all. If they are not formed properly, obviously they cannot have normal metabolic function.

RNA, especially when combined with metabolically associated B Vitamins, Minerals, Amino Acids and Sugars, will enter the cell and aid in normal regeneration of the decayed metabolic organization of the cell, and in so doing will bring about normal enzyme synthesis and activation.

The results obtained by using an oral formula with a dietary regimen rich in nucleic acids have been highly important. Basic ingredients of the oral formula are RNA, Amino Acids, B-Complex Vitamins, Minerals, Sugars and Lipids. Dosages of between 30 milligrams and 300 milligrams daily, plus B-Complex factors in the form of Vitamin capsules were used.

There appears to be no absolute contraindications to the use of nucleic acid, particularly RNA, in therapy. Gout or high serum uric arid levels are relative contraindications, but even in these circumstances RNA-based therapy can be given as long as adequate management is employed. Lower RNA doses of ½ grains have been used in these cases.

The most immediate effect from using these substances even in dosages as low as 30 milligrams of RNA daily, was an increase in energy and well-being. Higher doses produced this effect as early as the second or third day.

The most striking effects are observed on the skin of the face. Again, within the limits tested, the higher the dosage, the more rapidly these effects were observed. The first results observed were a healthier, rosier appearance and a simultaneous apparent smoothing of the skin of the face, but without any actual change in wrinkles and lines. This occurred within the first or second week of treatment, usually within the first week.

When dosages as low as ½ grain to 1 grain of RNA were given daily, or five days each week, these early changes occurred in about two or three weeks. When doses of 5 grains daily, five days weekly were used, the changes occurred within the first week. After one or two months of treatment, sometimes earlier, there not only was an increase in smoothness and color of the skin, but lines and wrinkles began to diminish also.

Wrinkles in the forehead were often the first to decrease in depth. lines around the eyes took longer to decrease in depth, and though there was not a total disappearance of any wrinkles or lines, in the large majority of cases there was a distinctly noticeable decrease in their depth. Skin tightened, as well, and recovered moisture.

Skin on the back of the hand improved in smoothness in the vast majority of cases in three or four months. Roughness of skin of the elbows and other joints was lessened.

One standard test of aging of skin is the return to normal condition of pinched skin of the back of the hand. The treatment produced, after three or four months,m a quicker return to normal condition of the pinched skin in the majority of patients. In 15 patients, including nine women and six men, varying in ages from 40 to 71 years, the pinch-return time was improved by 30 per cent to 40 per cent. These patients were taking 5 grains of RNA daily, 5 days a week, for three months, along with a therapeutic B-complex capsule.

My conclusions are that RNA is the super catalyst - and if combined with Niacin it should be even more effective. I feel that RNA should be included in all Vitamin, mineral, protein formulas.

MAXIMUM DEFINITION DIET

Posted Friday, October 27, 2006

Filed under Optimal Eating

There has always been considerable mystery and misconception concerning a definition diet. Let’s hope this article will help to straighten out a few of these.

To begin with, all carbohydrates must be removed from a maximum definition diet. This means – all fruit, all vegetables, all salad greens and all milk products (cheeses, yogurt, ice cream, milk and buttermilk). The only milk products that can be used are butter and cream.

Any kind of meat, fish or fowl and eggs are the only foods permissible. You must, however, eat some carbohydrate every four or five days because you will find that you will smooth out and veins and cuts will disappear. You will find also that you are not getting the pump you should and your strength will decrease. This is because a zero carbohydrate diet drains all the stored glycogen from the liver, and only carbohydrate will replenish it. But don’t try to eat a small amount of carbohydrate each day.

You will only find you are smoothing out.

This high protein diet will tend to make you nervous because of the phosphorus in the meat. That is why I suggest you keep your calcium (tablets) intake high.

Gironda Tells You How - A Muscle Building Diet

Posted Thursday, October 26, 2006

Filed under Optimal Eating

(IronMan Magazine Jan 1976 Vol. 35 No. 2)

(EDITOR'S NOTE - The following diet as recommended by Vince Gironda and used on some of his people in his gym, is not to be used as a permanent type diet, but only for a short period of time foe special purposes of stimulating added muscle growth.)

When I am approached in my gym by anyone who asks about gaining weight, I usually ask this question: "Do you want increased bodyweight, or is it size that you are after?" Invariably the answer is "Size"!

So let's not confuse bodyweight with muscle growth. (How much do you think an extra inch on your arm will affect the scale?)

This diet is designed to step up muscle tissue growth - not out on bodyweight. Remember, muscle size is desirable - not bodyweight - which will only smooth out your definition and increase the size of your hips and waist and cause a loss of symmetry.

Breakfast -

12 oz. Half and Half
2 eggs
1 Tablespoon Milk & Egg Protein
1 oz. Amino Acids (mixed in a blender)
Supplements to be used with this drink:
3-4 Hydrochloric Acid tablets
3-4 Enzyme tablets
1 R.N.A. tablet
1 Organic Iron tablet
3 Tri-Germ Oil Capsules

Lunch -

Hamburger patty and Cottage Cheese
Supplements:
Same as Breakfast except for Iron and R.N.A.

3 o'clock snack -

Natural (Not processed cheese)
1 oz. Amino Acids

Dinner -

Steak or Hamburger (up to 1 lb.)
Cottage Cheese
Supplements: Same as other two meals except iron.

Before retiring -

Protein drink

Between Meals -

(Every three hours) 6 Liver Tablets

In Defense of Cholesterol

Posted Wednesday, October 25, 2006

Filed under Optimal Eating

(IronMan Magazine July 1976 Vol. 35 No. 5)

An excerpt from the March, 1975 Issue of Science Digest

John Yudkin, professor emeritus of nutrition at the University of London and an egg fancier, recently defended cholesterol against the charge that it's the main culprit behind heart disease.

Speaking before the annual conference of the International Egg Commission, Yudkin attacked what we called "the Reader's Digest view" of coronary thrombosis - namely, that eating too much cholesterol, or animal fat, leads to a high concentration of cholesterol in the blood, which in turn leads to deposits in the coronary arteries and ultimately a clot that cuts off the blood supply to the heart. In short, eating such high-cholesterol foods as eggs eventually dumps you on the floor with a heart attack.

"Ridiculously oversimplified," says Yudkin. Recent studies that indicate high blood cholesterol as the most distinctive characteristic of coronary victims, he points out, ignore several of their other salient traits. Looking at countries with a high rate of heart disease, says Yudkin, we do find a tendency to eat fatty foods, but we also find a larger proportion of people with diabetes and with a high blood level of triglyceride, or ordinary neutral fat. Yudkin claims scientists have homed in on cholesterol as the villain partly "because it happens to be easier to measure."

In defense of cholesterol, Yudkin points out that not everyone who eats a diet high in animal fat ends up with a high cholesterol level in his blood, and even those with high cholesterol counts don't always get coronary thrombosis. he cites a study of Eskimos, who eat a lot of fat, that shows they have just as much cholesterol in their blood as Americans, yet suffer far fewer heart attacks.

"So there is a limit," he continues, "to what you can do with epidemiology, and you can show that in general terms there is an association between consumption of fat in a population and a high risk of getting heart attacks. You can do the same with a whole lot of other factors. You can get just as good as or better association with sugar consumption."

Yudkin emphasizes that as yet no sure link has been established between diet and coronary thrombosis, but states that triglyceride level in the blood is a much better indicator of coronary risk than cholesterol. And blood triglyceride, he says, is determined by how much sugar, not how many eggs, you eat.

Beefing it?

Posted Tuesday, June 20, 2006

Filed under Optimal Eating

I read somewhere that you had Mohamed Makkawy eating beef just before a pro contest which he won.

I thought that this is outdated now. Surely bodybuilders are into fish and chicken before contests, not red meat?

My dietary recommendations vary with each individual I train.

In Mohamed’s case he needs red meat to hold maximum size. There are times when I recommend fish and poultry but only when I feel they are absolutely right for the bodybuilder concerned.

Serge Nubret is another bodybuilder who can still rip up (and how!) while eating red meat.

And getting back to my dietary advice to Mohamed…he won didn’t he?

NSP Food Combining Chart

Posted Friday, June 02, 2006

Filed under Optimal Eating, Ron Kosloff

Vince Gironda

Vince’s European Weight-Gaining Trick

Posted Sunday, May 21, 2006

Filed under Optimal Eating, Supplements

Vince claimed this mix was a proven and tested way to gain weight and he stated he had students that gained as much as 40 pounds following it.

Simply mix equal parts of half & half mixed in ginger ale. Drink this mix three times a day between meals. That’s it!

Special Supplements

Posted Tuesday, May 16, 2006

Filed under Optimal Eating, Supplements

6 Amino Acid and desiccated liver tablets every 3 hours

4 Raw orchic tissue tablets before and after workouts

6 Each of the following before retiring. Arginine, Ornithine, Tryptophan, Phosphorus free Calcium tablets.

At 10 am – 2 pm – 4 pm and before retiring, have a protein drink.

Also eat some protein before you go to bed: eggs, cottage cheese, or a piece of meat.

Fat

Posted Saturday, May 13, 2006

Filed under Optimal Eating, Training

I have been criticized for my training philosophy of “creating an illusion.”

Actually, my advice does not vary widely. I believe simply in enhancing a man’s or woman’s physique by adding and subtracting muscle in the right places. Note that I said “muscle” and not “fat.”

Personally, I would rather not have to deal with fat at all. In reality, however, since I am known as the “trainer of the stars,” I do have to deal with fat. So many men and women are sent to me by the movie studios with the accompanying request that I get their star in shape. Sometimes I’m expected to accomplish positive results in as little as five days!

With experienced bodybuilders, I lose my patience when it comes to fat. Typically, I receive thousands of letters from would be Mr. Olympia enthusiasts. They claim to have read all my articles, courses, and instruction manuals, and beg me to let them train in my gym in North Hollywood. Although I do have much success with many people who put their faith in my training methods, it often happens that they are less than honest with themselves at the start.

Frequently, they arrive totally unfamiliar with my training methods and downright fat!

If a guy is really keen on getting the most out of my bodybuilding methods, the least he can do is turn up for his training in reasonable shape. It is an insult to me for a serious bodybuilder to arrive at my gym for advanced tuition and be fat!

It’s like reporting for ski-jumping classes without being able to ski.

Weight Gaining

Posted Tuesday, May 09, 2006

Filed under Optimal Eating

"Weight-gainers can keep that 28-inch waist and still gain up to 60-pounds by eating small quantities of food five to six times daily, rather than stuffing themselves at one sitting."

— Vince Gironda, Blueprint for the Bodybuilder

NEW DISCOVERIES WITH DESICCATED LIVER

Posted Monday, May 08, 2006

Filed under Optimal Eating

(Musclemag Vol2 issue 1)

Only within the last few years have the important values of desiccated liver been proven and new light shed on this outstanding food.

One of the most important facts about desiccated liver is its ability to help the body detoxify many chemicals that are dangerous but extremely hard to escape from. When eating meat it is almost impossible to escape from the intake of Desdiethylstilbesterol, a synthetic female hormone in the meat. Hopefully, this hormone will be taken out of all beef shortly. With enough regular daily intake of desiccated liver the body can detoxify DES. It can also detoxify cortisone, many pharmaceutical drugs, nicotine, alcohol and marijuana.

Only within the last few years has the most important factor in desiccated liver been uncovered. It took 20 years before it was discovered. It was made by Dr. Minor J. Coon, Univ. of Michigan. He succeeded in isolating and testing a red protein pigment which was given the name of P-450. This pigment tested and retested in the laboratory proved it was able to perform all the functions of liver that had been previously tested on the vitamins but not found attributable to them.

P-450 is not water soluble, and that the drying process in concentration of desiccated liver from whole liver does not remove this newly discovered liver factor, but rather concentrates it.

P-450 is a catalyst which speeds up oxidation of chemicals important to human life and detoxifies poisonous substances that we breathe in and digest in food. Production of energy is a process of oxidation of glucose within the cell. This in turn produces fatigue toxins that gradually slow down energy. P-450 can improve the energy production process and also improve the ability of the body to detoxify the fatigue toxins. That is why the rats were able to continue on for so long.

Later tests on human children were made. The results were confirmed. The unidentified factor in liver is as important to human growth and endurance as it is to that of laboratory animals.

Organic Living

Posted Saturday, May 06, 2006

Filed under Optimal Eating

(Musclemag Vol 2 issue 1)

Organic Gardening, (January) points out a startling similarity between feed lot raised cattle and human nutrition. Feed lot cattle are fed hormones, pesticides antibiotics and their food is raised in commercial fertilizers. They are also fed too much protein in order to fatten them.

All these things overload their livers and cause diseases of that organ such as abscesses, watery tissue and excessive fat. These diseased livers are lighter in weight and give off a strange odor. Over 50 per cent of the livers from animals raised in this fashion are unfit for human consumption. Aren't these substances the same as we are getting from supermarket foods and meat which is produced in this manner? And to top it off, the bodybuilder or athlete is also using additional steroids! How can our livers be any different than these animals if we eat their flesh?

WHAT IS DESICCATED LIVER?

Posted Friday, May 05, 2006

Filed under Optimal Eating

(Musclemag Vol 2 issue 1)

Desiccated liver is liver; whole beef liver concentrated by vacuum drying at a low temperature. This concentration preserves all of the nutrients and this makes desiccated liver the equivalent of four times as much as whole liver.

Actually desiccated liver is better than cooked liver, being the equivalent of raw liver.