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IronMagazine.com™ LLC Newsletter

Date Published 5-02-2005

May Newsletter 2005

In this month's issue...  Editor's Note - by Robert DiMaggio  New Articles - Training, Diet & Nutrition  Expert Q & A - by Tom Venuto, Anthony Ellis & Lee Hayward  Jodi's Diet Corner - Refeeds and the Leptin Hormone  Member Spotlight - Melanie (aka HotMom23)  Product Review - Maximum Pump  Exercise of the Month - Hise Shrugs  Website Review - Bodybuilding.com  Site Sponsors- Please visit! ..................................................................................................................................................................  Top Editor's Note Hello Fellow Bodybuilders & Fitness Enthusiasts, Contest time is coming up now that summer is approaching which requires serious dieting, and many of you are just trying to get lean for the summer and vacations. IronMagLabs is proud to announce its third product Lean Fuel XP which is on sale now! If you need a little extra help in your efforts for leanness please give it a try. It contains 9 powerful ingredients one being a fairly new ingredient called Hoodia Gordonii Cactus which suppresses the appetite making dieting much easier. I would also like to recommend two ebooks: Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle, and Fit Over 40. Both ebooks are authored by fitness guru Tom Venuto who is a staff writer and advisor here at IronMagazine.com. We highly recommend his ebooks, and have received nothing but positive feedback from the hundreds that have purchased from us. If you would like a sample of Tom's work he has numerous articles posted here! Yours in Fitness, Robert DiMaggio - Owner/President ..................................................................................................................................................................  Top May Articles Protein Supplements vs. Protein Foods by Tom Venuto Weight Train for Maximum Muscle Gain by Anthony Ellis What is the Glycemic Index? by Gary Matthews Bodybuilding Books, Supplements and Training Programs by Marc David ..................................................................................................................................................................  Top Expert Q & A by Tom Venuto      Can a female get fit at age 43? Get the answer here! by Anthony Ellis      Do you recommend weight gain powders? Get the answer here! by Lee Hayward      How can I get my arms to grow? Get the answer here! ..................................................................................................................................................................  Top Jodi's Diet Corner Refeeds and the Leptin Hormone Refeeds are typically done while cutting; that is, creating a caloric deficit so your body is forced to rely on fat as an energy source. Most people on any low carb diet, i.e. less than 1 gram per pound of bodyweight per day, or implementing any extreme caloric deficit should incorporate a refeed. Refeeds are used to raise Leptin, refill muscle and liver glycogen, as well as providing sanity release from dieting as your body is temporarily thrown into a state of metabolic balance. A Layman’s Explanation of Leptin Leptin is considered an anti-starvation/metabolic balance hormone. As your Leptin levels decrease, the signal is sent to inform that your body is going into starvation mode. As your body goes into starvation mode we all know what happens, your fat loss slows down immensely or in some cases to a screeching halt. So in order to kick fat loss into gear again, you need to raise Leptin. Common sense dictates that the body seeks balance, and if you endeavor to upset that balance, you have to outwit your body. We were built for survival, and unfortunately for the fitness/bodybuilding-oriented folk, “survival” didn’t mean 170 pounds of ripped mass at 6% bodyfat. I can’t count have many people have asked this the question of why they lost fat after cheating. They have been so good and clean on their diets for weeks and results slowed down, they got frustrated, they cheated and 2 days later woke up lighter and leaner than before the cheat. Main reason right there, they raised Leptin. Raising Leptin levels will give your body the kick-start it needs for the next few days to keep you out of starvation mode as you diet. As long as your body is out of starvation mode, the faster the fat loss, and the less likely you are to lose LBM, while suffering on all counts in the process. Be sure to read Jodi's "sticky thread" in the forums:  Guide to Cutting, Bulking & Maintenance ..................................................................................................................................................................  Top Member Spotlight Name: Melanie (aka HotMom23) Age: 23 Height: 5' 3" Contest Weight: Do not know this yet Location: Charleston, SC Years Competing: First Contest is this year! Favorite Body Part: Legs Strongest Body Part: Legs Favorite Supplements: I like them ALL! How Did You Get Started? Well, my husband introduce weight lifting to me about five years. I've been working out every since. What Workout Plan Worked Best For You? I like to work out 4-5 days a week. Example: Mon: Back/Bi's Tue: Legs Wed: off day Thur: Shoulders/Traps Fri: Abs Sat: Chest/Tri's I also do a cardio everyday about 30-60 minutes. What is your Basic Nutrition Plan? 8am: 2 scoops of Whey and Oatmeal 11am: Fruit & Cottage Cheese 1pm: 4oz Chicken, Sweet Potato, Green Veggie 3pm: Tuna Fish & Crackers 5pm: 2 scoops of Whey & Fruit 7pm: Ultra Met & 2 scoops of Whey 9pm: Steak or chicken, Salad, small amount of carbs, i.e. a potato What Supplements Have Given You The Greatest Gains? Creatine What One Tip Would You Give Other Bodybuilders/Figure/Fitness/and Normal People? Love life and work your harders you'll get what you want. What motivates you in the gym? My husband & little girl. What motivates you in the gym? My results! Biggest Pet Peeve? Damb ass drivers! What is one thing people don’t know about you? I can't think of anything. What did you want to be when you grew up? Teacher / Personal Trainer Any advice for people thinking of competing? Do it! Keep focus! Stay strong & have fun! What is your number one goal at this time? To do my first show in August! Who has inspired you the most and why? Brad (my husband). He has just taught me so much about life and how precious it is to live and acheive your goals. ..................................................................................................................................................................  Top Supplement Review - Maximum Pump™ by Marc David At Last! A Product That Works Like The Original NO2 But Doesn't Work On Your Wallet! If You Respond To Creatine And NO Type Products, This One Will Add 10 lbs To Your Curls I'd like to start this out with a Dear Friend or Valued Customer but neither of those would fit. And it would come off like a sales pitch which would be unfair to Robert DiMaggio of IronMagLabs. But how can you tell somebody about a product, review it and look honest? No ideas myself. So here's what I'm going to do. I'm going to break this review into sections: What I noticed Will it work for everybody What is my recommendation You read a lot of reviews and probably get everybody telling you about how their product is the best. And I get a lot of people asking me to review their products. So either way, you and I see a lot of product reviews. But there's something that I have to do (or at least should do) that maybe you don't. That is, I run this site and I'm not going to jeopardize my credibility for a few bucks. What Did I Notice? From Day 1, I didn't notice any muscle pumps. I took the required dosage and I took it faithfully. At first I was looking for the maximum pump. And then over time, things started to change. Let me explain. My first assumption was that I wanted and need the pumps. But really, that is a nice feature but nothing that is necessary to build muscle or get stronger. More important then that... It wasn't the biggest benefit of Maximum Pump. The truth is,... I got Maximum Strength. I'm a creatine responder and somewhere in the range of 30% of people aren't. But for me and the other 70% of us, this product should be renamed. Some of the things I noticed almost immediately: -Faster Recovery -Increase in Strength -More Energy -Why am I doing this? Because there's something I have to tell you... and it involves dumbbells. After my 3rd week on this product something amazing happened. No not a pump. But the biggest boost in strength I've ever had. I would compare it to pro-hormones if I had ever taken any to compare. But I'm jumping ahead... I normally do reps with the dumbbells for curls somewhere between 45 lbs and 55 lbs. I know some of you are laughing as that is only half of what you do. And some of you would like to curl a mid-range weight. But on this particular week and the rest of the following until I was out of the product... My normal dumbbell curls were at 65 lbs! That is 10 lbs more then I do. And I wasn't doing anything extraordinary other then taking Maximum Pump (which I still think should be renamed). Will This Work for Everyone? For those who respond to creatine... YES! For those looking for a pump... maybe. I can't honestly say. Then again not every supplement works for everybody. Does that mean it doesn't work? No. Which is why I would at least recommend you try this one out. What's all this worth to you? Why Recommend Maximum Pump? After trying many creatine products and NO2 style supplements, I've found many that don't do anything and others that give me a pump but no strength. What I am after is the gains. The muscle gains and the strength gains. And after taking this product for a solid month, I was pleasantly surprised. Now I've not yet suggested that IronMagLabs change their product name for me. I doubt they would. But if I was in charge, I would change this product to Maximum Strength. I do recommend that if you are looking for an advanced creatine product with the potential for some strong muscle pumps and faster recovery, this is definitely worth a 1 month trial. Give it a shot and see what you think!  click here to purchase ..................................................................................................................................................................  Top Exercise of the Month - Hise Shrugs by Patrick Ward This is a barbell shrug, a Hise Shrug is with the bar on your back/traps Hise shrugs are kind of a forgotten exercise. I used to do a modified version of them a long time ago on a standing calf raise machine but since the gym I train at now doesn't have one I don't do them anymore. Even when I did do them this way I didn't like them as they often put a tremendous strain on my lower back. Probably had something to do with the fact that it was a machine and the gravational pull is on a weight stack instead of on a barbell on my back where I can distribute the force more effectively. Anyway, I really love this exercise when it is done the traditional way with a barbell on the back. To perform Hise Shrugs you are going to want to load up a bar on the squat rack. Unrack the weight with the bar on your back where you would do a back squat. Actually you want it higher up on your traps to get a good shrug. Those that squat low bar will have to adjust, those that squat high bar (olympic style) are good to go. Stand up as straight as possible and from there it is simple. Just shrug your shoulders up as high as you can towards your ears like you would any other shruging movement. Hold for a second and then lower them to starting position. Aside from the traps you get some nice upper back work and the benefit of the total body having to stabalize heavier weight. You can do way more weight on these than you can squat which is an added bonus. The more weight you get on these, the more confidence you will have with heavier weight when squatting as just feeling this heavy load on your back for a number of reps is taxing on the core. I try to get up to 15-20 reps to get myself under the bar and really feel the weight. As with anything, start light your first few times out and just work on perfecting the form. ..................................................................................................................................................................  Top Website Review - Bodybuilding.com by Robert DiMaggio Bodybuilding.com is the largest bodybuilding site and supplement store on the web. They have a wealth of information on bodybuilding, fitness, supplements and they update their site daily with new content. Their website basically has two sections, the supersite and the cyberstore. The supersite is where you will find articles, nutrition guides, supplement reviews, interviews with pro athletes and just about anything and everything in regards to the sport. The cyberstore is where you go to shop the largest online supplement store that not only carries literally hundreds of products but offers extremely low prices and fast shipping. Basically Bodybuilding.com has become the "Wal-Mart" of bodybuilding supplement stores. They also have an online community, probably the largest of its kind on the web with almost 100,000 members and nearly 5 million posts! Whether you are looking for supplements, the latest contest results, biographies and pics of athletes or articles I guarantee you will find it on this website! And best of all Bodybuilding.com carries IronMagLabs products! ..................................................................................................................................................................  Top Site Sponsors ..................................................................................................................................................................  Top IronMagazine.com - Bodybuilding & Fitness Magazine IronMagazineForums.com - Bodybuilding & Fitness Community IronMagLabs.com - Bodybuilding Supplements