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IronMagazine.com™ LLC Newsletter

Date Published 2-03-2005

February Newsletter 2005

In this month's issue...  Editor's Note - by Robert DiMaggio  New Articles - Training, Diet & Nutrition  Expert Q & A - by Tom Venuto  Merchandise - IronMagazine T-Shirt  Jodi's Diet Corner - Trans Fatty Acids  Member Spotlight - Steve (aka Twin Peak)  Product Review - Anabolic-Matrix Rx™  Exercise of the Month - Power Shrug  Website Review - NutraPlanet.com  Dave's Training Zone - AST MAX-OT  Healthy Recipe - Baked Chicken Breast  Free eBook - Diet Supplements Revealed (sample)  Site Sponsors- Please visit! ..................................................................................................................................................................  Top Editor's Note Hello Fellow Bodybuilders and Fitness Enthusiasts, Well, I hope everyone is sticking to their New Years Resolutions! We had a great month on our forums in January including a record number of new members and posts. Our community continues to grow after 4 years of being online. We have surpassed 12,000 members and we are getting near 1 million posts. IronMagLabs will be putting its second product on the market this month! It is called Maximum Pump and it will blow all other creatine and NO2 products out of the water. click here for more info Yours in Fitness, Robert DiMaggio - Owner/President ..................................................................................................................................................................  Top February Articles How To Gain Lean Bodyweight - Part 3: How To Train To Gain by Tom Venuto Worst Thing You Can Do In The Gym That Will Cost You YEARS Of Frustration! by Jeff Anderson Health & Fitness is NOT a 12 Week Program by Tom Venuto Are Low Carb Diets The Best Way To Lose Body Fat? by Tom Venuto ..................................................................................................................................................................  Top Expert Q & A by Tom Venuto      This Month's Question: Morning Cardio Controversy: Does cardio in the morning on an empty stomach really burn more fat? I read your article about doing cardio in the morning to lose more fat, but I recently read another article which said that cardio in a fasted state causes the body to go into survival mode and save the fat - which means you burn muscle. Both theories sound right to me depending on the angle I look from. Any thoughts? Get the answer here! ..................................................................................................................................................................  Top Merchandise IronMagazine T-Shirt                  only $13.99 go to estore... ..................................................................................................................................................................  Top Jodi's Diet Corner Stay Away From Trans Fatty Acids Remember when the big thing was everyone ranting how bad Saturated Fat was? How it was going to kill us and cause coronary heart disease and we were all going to die because we eat eggs and beef. And how about those packaged Twinkies that are cooked in palm oil or lard? We were doomed! Ahhhhhh! Never fear we have liquid vegetable oil. Except...hmmmm, it’s not stable enough and it turns rancid, what do we do now? Ah ha! We will hydrogenate these liquid vegetable oils. Now that’s an idea! Let’s hydrogenate these oils so they handle the food production better and have longer shelf life. Wow, what an idea that was. Now look where it got us. Heart disease is worse now than when they were using saturated fats. It took them this long to discover that as a result of hydrogenation, trans fatty acids are formed. Trans Fatty Acids are found in most prepared packaged foods such as cookies, cakes, crackers, boxed meals, microwave popcorn and commercially fried foods. Basically, any package that lists the ingredients hydrogenated, partially-hydrogenated vegetable oils or shortening has trans fat in it. Trans fatty acids lower HDL and increase LDL therefore increasing the risk of heart disease. There are also recent studies showing that trans fat may linked to Type II Diabetes (Adult Onset Diabetes) as well. Don’t be afraid of fat and be sure to get enough essential fatty acids. Just make sure your diet has as little Trans Fatty Acids as possible. Your heart will thank you! Be sure to read Jodi's "sticky thread" in the forums:  Guide to Cutting, Bulking & Maintenance ..................................................................................................................................................................  Top Member Spotlight Name: Steve (aka Twin Peak) IM: What are your first experience in BB and Competing? Steve: Wow, that’s a loaded question. I could almost start this answer from my wee-childhood, when I was the fat kid, and playing any game “shirts and skins” would cause immediate panic. I first joined Weight Watchers in 7th Grade; I went from 140 to 110 pounds, and became a “lifetime member”. I shortly gained the weight back. My first real attempt at weight-lifting (it wasn’t bodybuilding yet, for me) was when I was 18. I gained strength and muscle fast. I benched over 300 pounds after only four months, but I was still fat. I lifted and dieted on and off throughout college; consistency (or lack of it) was my downfall. However, short periods of training and dieting had dramatic body-altering effects. And this was before I knew squat (no pun intended) about training, nutrition, and supplementation. At 24 I had (finally) been consistent for about 18 months and had acquired a reasonable amount of muscle-mass; and I thought that a natural bodybuilding competition would nicely cap this fat kid’s turnaround. I competed in 1996 in a regional show at ~180 pounds (I am 5’10”) and placed second. It was a blast. My second – and last – show was about two years later. Unfortunately, I had about a year hiatus from the gym (there is that consistency thing again), so I again competed at the same weight and again took second place. IM: How did you come up with your first version of carb cycling and how does it differ from now and why? Steve: I stumbled in to Carb Cycling for that first competition. I catalogue some of my background, and how I formulated the original plan, here, in the section entitled, 'Carbohydrate Cycling' I used it again several times after that show, including for another competition, and training a friend of mine (he actually won that second show I mentioned). Actually, my first public log of Carb Cycling was on IM several years back. A search would probably turn it up. It has morphed since then. As I learned more about nutrition, leptin, refeeds, and experimented accordingly, I honed the diet. The greatest influence on the diet since my original version, is my friend and colleague Caleb Stone (aka Par Deus). His research into leptin and its significance in the body, as well as the importance of the “fed state” is the direct cause of some of the more important changes over the years. For example, initially there was no fruit, little veggies, and it was very low fat. In addition to adding the fruits and vegetables, I have increased the fat recommendations to allow for sufficient EFAs. I have also learned a little about supplementation. As we all know, it is all about diet and training first. But a smart supplement plan with not only improve your physique goals, but it will improve your health and mental well being. We all know the importance of supplemental protein and a multi-vitamin (or at least I hope so) but fish oil and SesaThin are supplements I would now never do without. Together they are an excellent general health and body composition stack. I also take various “joint factors” (glucosamine, MSM and chondrotin) year round, and frequently take additional supplements such as ALA (alpha-lipoic acid) and ALCAR (acetyl-l-carnitine). And of course, from time to time I get fancy with various ergogenic or lypolytic agents. IM: How did you develop Tri-Phase Progressive Training, it is a rather unique program? Steve: I have always been a big proponent of very intense, infrequent workouts, with moderate volume (i.e. 8-12 sets per bodypart, once every 6-8 days, training to failure or beyond). This is been what has worked for me and many, many training partners of mine over the years. The biggest problem with this type of training is that you truly must train intensely and most cannot or will not train intensely enough. I always found it curious, however, that there were so many different and effective training programs. And I have tried them all. For a long time I have understood that the holy trinity of lifting is volume, frequency and intensity. But for the most part, I only focused on intensity. It was also clear to me, that progression was the key to continued growth. Then one day about a year and a half ago I literally had an epiphany. It was as if all I had learned over the years crystallized at one moment in time. And I sat down for several hours and wrote out a program that was probably 70% of what TP-PT currently looks like. I toyed with the program for several months and changed it some. Then I had a handful of friends try it, and I altered the program further to account for how it affected them. I firmly believe that the standard TP-PT cycle should be adapted to each individual user. Indeed, my third and last article on the subject (coming out in February) details how the plan can be optimized. IM: How did you start working for Avant? Steve: I was hired as Avant Labs’ outside legal counsel for the first time at the end of 2002. Working at a private law firm, I was Avant Labs’ and Caleb Stone’s primary legal counsel handling a wide variety of functions (varying from food and drug issues, to trademark and patent, to contract issues). As Caleb and I became good friends, and later colleagues, I became more of a “business consultant” as well, working with Caleb on many aspects of the company. IM: What do you for Avant? Steve: That is a damn good question. Since I no longer work for a private law firm, and do not currently “practice law”, my role with Avant Labs is an evolving one. I handle any legal issue that may arise. I am also involved in all major business decisions, from product development, to marketing, to personnel, and, for example, the recent move of operations from the West coast to the East. I do not really have a defined “role”; rather, it is a constantly growing one. IM: What have you done as a lawyer for Avant? Steve: I have drafted and negotiated contracts, handled food and drug issues, filed trademarks, and offered opinions on various legal matters that affect the business. IM: What other supplement companies have you represented as a lawyer? Steve: I was never actually retained by any other supplement companies when I worked in private practice, however there are several other companies that I have worked with, gave legal guidance to, and in a few instances, assisted them in retaining legal counsel for various issues that may face a supplement company. IM: Where do you see the sport of bodybuilding going in the future? Steve: Now that is a tough question. It certainly seems that the current pros have pushed the envelop far beyond what anyone ever though possible. Of course, if they ever do figure out the myostatin gene, the physiques we see to today may pale in comparison. That aside, it seems that John Q. Public has always had a love/hate relationship with professional bodybuilding. After all, in many ways the pros are nothing more than living cartoon heroes. So in short, I honestly have no idea. ..................................................................................................................................................................  Top Supplement Review - Anabolic-Matrix Rx™ by Marc David of FreedomFly.net Imagine Having More Testosterone And All The Benefits Of Increased Natural Production! When Robert DiMaggio asked me to try out his new line of supplements, Anabolic- Matrix Rx being the first product in his line of testosterone boosting supplements, I was cautious. I didn't want to venture into any Prohormones supplements and I certainly didn't want to take something questionable. But after reading his ingredient list, I found to my surprise that it was 100% natural. Anabolic-Matrix Rx only enhances your body's natural testosterone boosting production. Robert shipped out my 2 bottles in record speed using USPS Priority mail. I received them intact and nicely packaged. Very simple. Just the 2 bottles in bubble wrap. Each bottle would last approximately 3 weeks so I ordered 2 just to make sure I could do a nice easy 4 week cycle. As with any supplement, you should cycle Anabolic- Matrix Rx just the same. The IronMagLabs site as well as the directions on each bottle is very clear on what to do. My personal regime was to take 3 caps in the AM with breakfast and 3 caps in the PM with dinner. I'm very much a fan of taking supplements with food. I've taken plenty of supplements on an empty stomach only to regret it later. Taking this many pills daily according to the bottle was recommended for the maximum effect. What Did I Notice? Within 1 week I could easily tell my sleep habits had improved. Normally I would wake up 2-3 times during the night. Sometimes I would be awake easily an hour or more. Within 1 week of using this product I found my sleep to be much deeper and less disturbed. At the moment, I'm going to bed at a reasonable time and not waking up until the morning. My energy levels have thus increased. My strength over the following week began to increase as well. I've been on a very difficult workout program called "Optimum Anabolics" It's extremely difficult. Over the course of 2 weeks while being on Anabolic-Matrix Rx, I've noticed no loss in strength and in fact, have done some of my personal bests on various lifts. This isn't usual for me with such a taxing routine. Finally, my recovery time is better. I'm able to do more work, in less time and still feel like I could keep on going. Recovery is a huge part in muscle growth. Some of my training days, I get a mere 30 seconds rest between exercises. I'm huffing and puffing just to keep pace. But over the course of a week, I've noticed that I'm ready to hit the weights again. Motivated and energetic. Will This Work for Everyone? It's primarily aimed at men who want to increase their testosterone level naturally. This is usually for building muscle. I've tried other testosterone boosting supplements and noticed nothing. This one seems to be different. I've only take it 2 out of the 4 weeks that I plan but I just couldn't wait to describe my experiences. I've only felt this excitement once before (creatine back in the early 1990's). Why Recommend Anabolic-Matrix Rx? It's not everyday nor every year that a supplement comes along that meets it label claims and the creator stands behind his product. Robert DiMaggio has run IronMagazine.com for about 3 years online. It's a very popular site. And he felt it was time to take charge and create a product that was based on some quality ingredients at an affordable price. As with any bodybuilder, he wanted the very best. So he ventured into this market to create his own product and bring it to the masses. That is how Anabolic-Matrix Rx was born. Just a normal person, like you and I, who's trying to reach his goals. Give it a shot and see what you think!  click here to purchase ..................................................................................................................................................................  Top Exercise of the Month- Power Shrug by Patrick Ward It's all in the Pull! There has been much interest lately about olympic lifts so I have decided to touch a bit on them here in this column and talk about how you can get started on performing them. There are basically 2 pulls and a catch. The first pull is exploding from the hamstirngs and the second pull is shrugging with the shoulders. The catch occurs when you drop underneath the bar into a front squat position to receive the bar, stand up and complete the lift, either by droping the weight and performing another clean, doing a push press, a jerk or a shoulder press. Depending on what your specific program calls for at the time. The lift it self is complicated and can be a bit overwhelming so I will just take it bit by bit and then you can practice for a month (4 weeks) and then get the next part. The first part we will work on is our pulls. This will be in the form of a power shrug or you could more easily think of it as a cheat shrug or explosive shrug. You would want to first start off the floor and then work your way down to pulling from the floor. The set up is pretty simple for this exercise provided you can do a deadlift or a SLDL is more like it actually (deadlift is you are going from the floor). You are going to want to grasp the bar just outside of shoulder width and if you plan on progressing to doing snatches (which I rarely do anymore) you are going to want to work on a much wider grip as well. The grip you are going to use is going to be a power grip. All that means is that you graps the bar and then instead of keeping your thumb outside of your fingers like you are making a fist you are going to place it underneath your middle and index finger. This will allow you much better control of the bar. If you hands are to small then a regular grip will do just fine. Now standing straight up with the bar in hand you are going to bend your knees and assume a slight SLDL position, with the bar just above the knee cap (ofcourse then you would want to work below the knee and then off the floor). What this does is load the hamstrings and prepare them to explosively contract and drive that bar up along with your shrug. Before performing your shrug you need to externally rotate your elbows (or internally rotate your shoulder, however you want to look at it). It should feel like if you had a picher in your hands and you wanted to pour the liquid out of it. What this does is prevent you from trying to reverse curl the bar and helps to make sure you shrug and keep the bar close to your body, otherwise it will drift to far infront of you causing you to loose footing and miss the catch and miss the lift. So before you move that bar go through the check list in your head: 1) Power grip, thumn tucked under fingers 2) elbows externally rotated 3) bent knees, SLDL postion, bar above knee cap Now you are ready to proceed. From here you want to explode up as if you were performing a SLDL. As you start coming out of the SLDL shrug as hard as you can and get triple extension in your lower body (ankle, knee, hip). *note: your heels will come off the ground when you extend your ankle and if you are moving fast enough and extending hard enough your toes may come off the floor slighty as well. This is okay.*. When you extend at your hips you want to drive them forward slightly. This will allow you to get you center of gravity underneath the bar when you finally go for the clean itself. Otherwise the bar will be out in front of you again causing you to miss the lift. You need to drop underneath the bar. Extending your hips will cause the bar to brush your lap. You don't want to hit the bar to hard or you will change the bars trajectory causing it to drift away from you. So it should just brush your body. Make sure you are extending enough adn don't be shy. A freind of mine that teaches the clean to people can sometimes be heard in the gym yelling things like "F*CK THE BAR. F*CK THE BAR" to help them remeber to drive their hips. So that is the power shrug. Here is your checklist: 1) Power grip 2) Elbows rotated out 3) SLDL stance; bar above knee 4) Extend (triple ext. ankle, knee, hip) and shrug explosivlly all in one movement How to implement this: I like to do the exericse on lower body day as there is a lot of hamstring involved. I typically go for power when I do this so I am using a light weight (60-70% of 1RM) that I can move quickly. I usually set my rest interval at 20-30sec and my rep range is about 2-3 for 10-12sets. The lower reps also allow me to work on my form better than if I do more reps because after 3 reps I usually end up thinking to much and then I really mess myself up. It is an explosive exercise so make sure you are moving that bar. Speed is important here. If you are slowing down then lower the weight. A lot of people are nervous about olympic lifts claiming the are to dangerous. For athletes, in my opinion, there is nothing better that they can do as power is greater than strength on the playing field. Ask yourself, "how long does a typical football play take". These power shrugs are excellent for those that are concerned about the safety of cleans as they are safe and still will work on power and type 2x fiber recruitment. ..................................................................................................................................................................  Top Website Review - NutraPlanet.com by David Gill NutraPlanet.com This month I take a look at a little known jewel, but a diamond in the rough, Sam Hong and Nutraplanet. Nutraplanet is performance nutrition at its best. Sam started working actively in the health food industry in 1997. You could really say he was brought up in the industry. His father opened a small health food store in the early eighties when Sam was a small boy. Sam worked on the weekends and over summer breaks helping his father haul empty boxes to a dumpster. He was paid in Tiger’s milk protein bars! After high school, he started working for his father full time during the summer and this time he got paid in cash. What started out as a temporary job, resulted in a permanent endeavor! He worked for his father for 4 years before he branched off and established Newhealth Nutrition which was based on customer service, knowledge and integrity. Sam grew up with his parents teaching him health awareness. It is best summarized in his quote. “The importance of sound nutrition and supplementation has given me the foundation and passion which I carry over into my business. My job is to share and teach these principles to my customers and help them lead a higher quality of life and help them achieve their physical goals. My desire for NutraPlanet is to not only offer customers resources to help achieve an apex in their level of fitness and physique, but also to bring an awareness to the importance of health and longevity. At NutraPlanet, we continually strive to offer you, our customers, the best prices and selection; with a level of service you desire and deserve. We are dedicated to serving your personal needs, but also strive to make a difference in the industry as a whole. We are a member of the NNFA (National Nutritional Foods Association) an organization that lobbies and fights for your health and supplement freedom.” Sam is one of the most dedicated people I know in the industry and one that is genuinely concerned with his customers. I have seen him bend over backward to repair problems from distributors that were not his fault. If he doesn’t carry what you want, send him an e-mail and he will certainly see if he can get it for you. I personally have ordered from Nutraplanet and have had great customer follow-up from the items I ordered. I posted a “how to” thread on another board where some members were having problems mixing a PH into a gel. Sam actually takes times to respond to members questions and concerns and read my thread and commented on it. From most sites, you don’t hear from them after the sell. This does not happen with Nutraplanet. Even after the sell, Nutraplanet wants to make sure their customers are happy and taken care of. www.NutraPlanet.com offers a full line of sport supplements, vitamins and herbal formulas, natural foods, and an array of proteins and MRP’s. Nutraplanet is also a retailer of IroMagLabs products! ..................................................................................................................................................................  Top Dave's Training Zone This Month I am briefly outlining the AST Sports Science own MAX-OT Training System. Max-OT which stands for Maximum Overload Training was developed by AST founder Paul Delia and is used by current pro's Jeff Willet and Skip LaCour. The basics behind Max-OT training is actually very simple. Workouts must be brief, intense and heavy... Period. The Max-OT philospohy is based on overload being the prime reason for muscle hypertrophy, and that overload is best achieved for 6-9 sets per bodypart and a rep range that goes no lower than 4 and no higher than 6. Positive failure must be acheived between this rep range for optimal results. Because of the low rep range, heavy weights can be used and because of low sets, workouts are usually brief and intense. MAX-OT advocates that once you achieve positive failure on 6 reps, then should should slightly increase the weight, but where you can still achieve 4 solid reps. (Positive Failure is when you can no longer under your own power complete another rep in good form.) MAX-OT also only advocates compound exercises that allow the most weight to be used. Maximal weight=maximum overload = maximum growth. I have used Max-OT and modified versions of it for the past 2 years with great success. If you would like a much more in depth look at the training program and the nutrition philosphy behind it, go to www.ast-ss.com and sign up for the MAX-OT training system. Its free...!! If you become an Elite Member on our forums you can download the complete MAX-OT program in a convienent ebook format: click here to upgrade to an Elite Member! Until next time.... Train hard .. and smart. ..................................................................................................................................................................  Top Healthy Recipe Baked Chicken Breast Ingrediants 1 lb boneless, skinless chicken breast 2 teaspoons salt 1 onion, chopped 2 cloves garlic, chopped 2 carrots, sliced 2 stalks celery, sliced 1 tablespoon minced fresh ginger root 1/2 teaspoon paprika 3/4 teaspoon ground cumin 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano 1/4 teaspoon ground cayenne pepper 1/4 teaspoon ground turmeric 1 1/2 cups chicken broth 1 cup crushed tomatoes 1 cup canned chickpeas, drained 1 zucchini, sliced 1 tablespoon lemon juice Directions Season chicken with salt and brown in a large saucepan over medium heat until almost cooked through. Remove chicken from pan and set aside. Saute onion, garlic, carrots and celery in same pan. When tender, stir in ginger, paprika, cumin, oregano, cayenne pepper and turmeric; stir fry for about 1 minute, then mix in broth and tomatoes. Return chicken to pan, reduce heat to low and simmer for about 10 minutes. Add chickpeas and zucchini to pan and bring to simmering once again; cover pan and cook for about 15 minutes, or until zucchini is cooked through and tender. Stir in lemon juice and serve. ..................................................................................................................................................................  Top Free eBook Download Sample version of Will Brink's Top Selling eBook Diet Supplements Revealed Diet Supplements Revealed  www.dietsupplementsrevealed.com - Learn which supplements burn fat fast and which ones are no more than hype... Full table of contents Full introduction Sample supplement review and more... click here to download... ..................................................................................................................................................................  Top Site Sponsors ..................................................................................................................................................................  Top IronMagazine.com - Bodybuilding & Fitness Magazine IronMagazineForums.com - Bodybuilding & Fitness Community IronMagLabs.com - Bodybuilding Supplements