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Mark MetzgerJOHN PARRILLO’S PERFORMANCE PRESSto make progress; I continue to build muscle andI am continually findingnew ways that allow meto achieve ever-greaterdegrees of contest condition. As long as I amable to improve I shallcompete.”Bodybuilding is a wonderful activity in that participants are able to makesignificant gains in theirforties and fifties. In whatother athletic activity docompetitors actually improve as they age? Therehave been numerous Mr.Olympia winners in their40s. “I feel as though asI am aging I am training smarter, eating withalmost effortless discipline and understandingmy own body better witheach passing year.” UsPhoto by Pamela Vicking his own body as his“I feel as though as I am aging I am trainingprivate testing laborasmarter, eating with almost effortless disciplinetory, Mark is able to “testand understanding my own body betterdrive” procedures andwith each passing year.”strategies that, if proveneffective, he will pass along to hisas a lightheavy in the 1999 Southclientele at Metzgerbodies for useern USA contest. Four years laterrdin their own more modest effortshe took 3 place, again as a middleweight, at the 2003 Mid-Atlantic to improve their physiques. Not allof his bodybuilding sojourns havenational qualifier. In 2004 he wonndbeen smooth and effortless. “I had aMr. Florida and in 2005 he took 2place at the Southern States Open. bodybuilding incident recently thatcaused me to rethink my preparaIn 2007 at the North Americantion process. In 2012 I competed atBodybuilding championships hethe North American bodybuildingtook 13th place as a middleweight.championships held in PittsburghIn 2011 Mark captured the Southover the Labor Day weekend. I wasern USA, over 40, middleweightcompeting in the ‘over-40 years oftitle. He is a bodybuilding veteranage’ middleweight division. Myand intends to compete far intogoal was to make the top five.the foreseeable future. “I continue December 2012 / Performance PressAccording to many people whowere at the show, I would havemade the top 5. While standingonstage at the morning prejudging, my right inner thigh suddenlycramped and cramped hard. Thiswas immediately followed by severe cramping in both hamstrings.I could not move onstage and I wasbent over in agony. Two paramedics rushed onstage and had to carryme offstage. Backstage, the crampsgot worse and worse, and it wasstrongly suggested I go to the hospital. I was suffering from dehydration. I was unable to continue. Iwas extremely disappointed as mycondition was very sharp and crisp.I have competed in over thirty NPCshows and this has NEVER happened to me before. I will competeagain next year.”Mark Metzger’sTraining SplitMonday: chest & calvesTuesday: quadsWednesday: shoulders & tricepsThursday: biceps and hamstringsFriday: backSaturday and Sunday: OFFDaily Meal SchedulePhoto by Doris BarrilleauxIn what other athletic activitydo competitors actually improveas they age?1-800-344-3404www.parrillo.comMeal 1: 6 ounces of sirloin, 7ounces of baked potatoMeal 2: Parrillo Hi-Protein with1/2 cup oatmeal in shakeMeal 3: same as Meal #2Meal 4: 7 ounces of chickenbreast, 1 cup rice, green beansMeal 5: Parrillo Hi-Protein Meal 6: 6 ounces of chickenbreast, green beanswww.parrillo.com“I am planning on competing in the2013 Junior National bodybuildingchampionships that will be held inChicago next June. I always seek totrain as hard as humanly possible,but I never sacrifice technique andform for the sake of handling morepoundage. I am old enough andhave enough experience to knowthat I need to rest and recuperate.I am not a robot. Periodically Ihave to take off for a day, or two,or three, and let my body heal andrecover. The immature bodybuilder thinks this is being lazy or represents a missed opportunity; themature bodybuilder understandsthat real recovery is the key to realgains.” Mark uses Parrillo Hi-Protein powder by the case and goesthrough CapTri like it was water.He loves another Parrillo product:“Being an old school guy that grewup back in the days of Arnold andFranco, I am a huge fan of Parrillo Liver Amino tablets: each tabcontains 1.5 grams of high BV protein and I like to take these by thehandful throughout the day.” Precompetition aerobics are done for30 minutes per day at the start ofthe competitive process. By the endof the preparation cycle Mark willhave worked up to two forty-fiveminute sessions per day. One 45minute aerobic session upon arising and the second cardio sessionis done prior to bedtime.a 3% body fat percentile. In the offseason I will not let my bodyweightgo above 205 pounds carrying an8% body fat percentile. In order toget super-lean at a contest, I need to‘eat clean’ all year round. If I neverget above an 8-10% body fat percentile, it makes it so much easierto diet down for the actual competition. I need to get down to a sub5% body fat percentile to be competitive nationally. As a personaltrainer I always want to maintaina certain look. I could never letmyself get so heavy in the off season that people cannot tell I am abodybuilder.” We seriously doubtthat anyone anywhere would lookat Mark Metzger and not think thathe is bodybuilding personified.“I’ve decided to drop back downto the middleweight class insteadof going up in bodyweight andattempting to compete as a lightheavyweight. I feel I am morecompetitive on the national levelas a middleweight. My best contestbodyweight is 175 pounds carrying1-800-344-3404Performance Press / December 2012Photo by Doris Barrilleaux

JOHN PARRILLO’S PERFORMANCE PRESSIt’s a question I get all thetime, because a great deal ofconfusion swirls around thesubject. Do you need to getstronger to get bigger? The shortanswer is, absolutely you do.The more complicated answer isthat sooner or later there willcome a time when you willneed to incorporate othertactics to stimulate furthermuscle gains, because youwill approach your absolutestrength limit long beforeyou hit your absolute limitas far as how much musclemass you are capable ofbuilding. You could theoretically stop trying to put onany more size at that point ifyou so desired, but a bodybuilder who feels he’s ‘bigenough’ is about as rare asany man who feels he’s gotenough money or is havingenough sex. We always wantmore, more, more!A BODYBUILDER IS BORN: Generationsmuscle mass. Beginners often seevery decent gains even when theyfail to eat enough or get enoughsleep, mainly because the stress isstill such a novel thing.But as time goes by and you become stronger, you need to keeptain point all you are building ismuscular endurance, which is notthe same thing as strength. This iswhy, for example, just doing pushups with your own bodyweightwill give you some results interms of size in the chest, shoulders, and triceps up to a point.Once you are able to knockout 30, 40, 50 or more pushups however, you will findthat you are doing more andmore push-ups than ever before, yet your muscles aren’tgrowing any larger. This iswhen most guys realize thatthey do have to switch to abench press in order to placeheavier loads, since theirown bodyweight is now fartoo light to stress the chest,shoulders, and triceps.and witnessed seemingly impossible feats of power, especially in the lower weightclasses. For example, theworld record clean and jerkin the 56 kg. weight class(123 pounds) was set in 2001by Halil Mutlu of Turkey,at 369.6 pounds. How can aman that small be so strong,and why isn’t he heavier andmore massive? It’s becausetraining for explosive poweris not the type of training thatstimulates muscle growth.Training for power is reallymore about training the nervous system and the connective tissues rather than theactual muscles.“Reps do need to be highenough to stimulate growth,not just strength gains.”and your muscular endurancewould be top-notch, but your legswould be nothing special at all interms of size.This basic concept can beapplied to all the musclegroups. If you start off struggling to squat the 45-poundOlympic bar for 10 reps today and in a couple yearsIn the beginning, there isyou are doing the same 10almost an exact correlationreps with 315 pounds, there“Getting stronger is key toto strength and size gains.is no question that your legsmuscle growth.”Weight training is such awill be far thicker and morenew type of stress to yourmassive. Had you stayedbody that it struggles mightily to using more and more weight. You with the bar alone and workedadapt. This adaptation comes in can’t just do more reps with the up to doing sets of 100 reps, youthe form of increased strength and same weight, because after a cer- would be getting fantastic pumpsBut now another concept needs tobe understood - TUT, or time under tension. Why is it that we advise 8-10 reps for the upper bodyand a bit more for the lower body,instead of simply doing maximumlifts? Not all the mechanisms ofmuscle growth are understoodyet, but one thing agreed on isthat if the muscle isn’t kept under tension for long enough, youwill see gains in strength withoutcorresponding gains in musclemass. Many of you have probablywatched Olympic weightlifting10www.parrillo.comDecember 2012 / Performance Press1-800-344-3404www.parrillo.comI see a perfect example of this every dayat home with my wifeJanet. Janet trainedwith me for manyyears as a bodybuilderbefore switching over toCrossFit in the summer of2010. CrossFit has plenty ofweightlifting in it, but thegoal is always expressed interms of maximum lifts oras many reps as possible.They are never concernedwith the feeling in a muscle, getting a pump, etc.Janet is technically stronger now than she ever hasbeen. The other day shepulled a new personal bestdeadlift of 300 pounds at abodyweight of 134. Just acouple years ago, she wasabout 150 pounds and carried far more muscle mass1-800-344-3404- because she trained for size anddid ‘sets’ of each exercise thatkept the target muscle under tension the whole time, rather than aseries of explosive efforts as shedoes now. Her best deadlift backthen was about 250 the one timeshe tried to max out - yet her backwas far more thickly developedback then, because she trained itfor reps and sought to ‘work’ theback with good muscle contractions rather than just lifting theweight.Another thing to consider that I alluded to earlier was that eventuallythere will come a time when youwon’t be getting much stronger, if“Eventually there comes atime when your strength ismaxed out for good.”Performance Press / December 201211

JOHN PARRILLO’S PERFORMANCE PRESSat all. If this were not true, therewould be plenty of guys benchpressing 1,000 pounds for reps anddoing the same with 2,000-poundsquats. Luckily, you can continue to stimulate musclegrowth even though yourstrength is maxed out.Ways to do that includefocusing more on contractions, slowing downthe rep speed, super sets,drop sets, forced reps,and pre-exhaust. You canalso try new exercises orolder ones with a slightlydifferent angle of pushingor pulling, different grips,hand width spacing, footstances, etc. Even something so simple as changing the order you do yourexercises in or shorteningyour rest times betweensets can be enough of adifference to force themuscle to keep adaptingand growing.the raw materials they require torepair the damaged muscle tissueand grow.As the years go by, it becomesIt also needs to be said“Luckily there are ways tothat proper nutrition playskeep growing long after youan essential role in buildcan’t get any stronger.”ing muscle mass. All thebest training won’t yieldappreciable results unless you get increasingly difficult to makeenough quality protein, carbohy- any further gains in either size ordrates, and healthy fats in your strength, simply because you arediet. Supplementing quality meals approaching your absolute limitwith Hi-Protein , 50/50 Plus , (injuries often also play a role asand Pro-Carb shakes along with well as more nagging issues likeother Parrillo staples like Liver tendonitis). What is your limit?Aminos , Muscle Aminos , Ul- No one can answer that questimate Aminos , Evening Prim- tion for you or even tell you howrose Oil , CapTri , and bars will long it will take you to get there.give your muscles the fuel they Some people reach theirs afterneed to train all-out, as well as only 4-5 years of training, oth12December 2012 / Performance Pressers might keep making slow andsteady gains in size, strength, orboth even after 20 or more yearsof training.This brief discussion hasbarely scratched the surface of the subject, buthopefully it’s enough toget you thinking and looking at things in a slightlydifferent light. The takehome message is this:You do need to get stronger to get bigger, but thereps need to be sufficiently high enough to keepthe muscle under tensionlong enough to stimulatea growth response. Andeven after your strengthis completely maxedout, you can still ‘trick’the muscles into furthergrowth for years. Nowthat you know all that, gouse it in the gym to reachyour own physique goals!Performance Press CoverAthlete and Trainer DavidPatterson from Tacoma,Washington shared thisphoto with us:“We just had the WA Ironman Naturally Championships this past weekend (Oct. 6th, 2012) and I hada friend take a picture of me, Colleen Fisher, andCarey Jonas. Those names should ring a bell as we’veall been Parrillo covers. Colleen was there promotingher new book, “Fitness is Forever: Finding Your HealthyBalance”, and I was there promoting my new clothingline, “Buffed Wear” featuring our ‘Naturally Buffed’and ‘Buffed Wear’ shirts.” Thanks for the photo Dave! Find out more onColleen’s website: www.fitness-is-forever.com andDave’s is www.TheDrBuffExperience.com.RonHarrisis theauthor ofReal Bodybuilding,available o.comwww.parrillo.com1-800-344-3404Performance Press / December 201213

High Volume, High Intensity Training for Max ResultsThe Parrillo PrinciplesHigh Volume, High IntensityTraining for Max ResultsIBy Andre Newcombs there a defining elementor aspect to the Parrillo approach toward weight training and aerobic training? Is therea single trait (or traits) or an identifying characteristic that separatesthe Parrillo approach from all theother bodybuilding and fitnesstraining systems and strategies?Yes, there is a defining characteristic and that uniqueness is theintensity, the pure physical effortJohn Parrillo insists his elite bodybuilders undergo in order to buildmuscle and melt off body fat. Therest of the bodybuilding and fitness world tries to lure traineesinto buying their modes and methods by stating that they can provide all the results of a Parrillostyle training program with halfthe excruciating effort. Basicallytheir message is, “Why put forthall that harsh and sweaty physical effort when our revolutionary methods can give you all theresults you seek with little or noeffort?” People desperately wantto believe that make-believe easyas-pie methods work. The idea14that “easy works just as well asdifficult” makes for a much easiersales pitch. Of course this is a totalfantasy. Real muscle building onlyoccurs in response to gut-bustingeffort in the weight room. Real fatburning is a direct result of hardcardio and spot-on nutrition.The truth of thematter is this:If you want to buildmuscle you needto train harder thanyou’ve ever trained;if you want to reducebody fat you needto exert intensecardio effort. We need to trigger hypertrophy and the hypertrophy only occurs when the targeted muscle isstressed past capacity in someway, shape or form.December 2012 / Performance Press Real fat burning only occurs inresponse to lung-searing aerobiceffort. The body needs to havecertain nutritional prerequisitesmet for optimal fat burning.John Parrillo has always maintained that in order to build muscle and melt body fat the trainee– any trainee – must exert “extreme physical effort.” Easy, fun,weight training (think Pilates)might be easy and fun, but froma physiological perspective, it isimpossible to build muscle using sub-maximal effort. Anyonewho thinks this through understands the logic: if sub-maximaleffort truly built muscle individuals built like Arnold at his peakwould be everywhere. If submaximal aerobics (devoid of anynutritional consideration) meltedoff body fat, lean and ripped individuals would be commonplace.The truth of the matter is this:if you want to build muscle youneed to train harder than you’veever trained; if you want to reducebody fat you need to exert intense1-800-344-3404www.parrillo.comcardio effort. Bodybuilding success is defined as radically renovating the body and radical renovation occurs as a direct result ofskillfully blending Parrillo-stylenutrition with intense Parrillostyle exercise. The human bodyonly responds to intense physicaleffort. That intense physical effort is then underpinned by strictand disciplined Parrillo-stylenutrition.The best way to avoid overuseis to confine their use to the lastset of the big lifts. Generally oneforced rep set per exercise is allthat is needed, required or recommended. On the “small” exercisessuch as curls, pushdowns, lateralraises, etc. more than one forcedrep set will not adversely impactthe central nervous system. Youwould never, for example, perform multiple forced rep sets ofto positive failure and then having a training partner administera perfect forced rep or two; thiswill completely exhaust a muscle.No more than one, two or at mostthree forced reps. The perfect forced rep: the procedure for the forced rep set is toallow the trainee to push or pulluntil they cannot perform anotherrep on their own – at that juncture the training partner(or partners) steps in andprovides the trainee theminimum amount of helpneeded to complete another rep. The trainee thenhas the option to verballyrequest another forcedrep or in rare instances,perhaps a third rep. Theresponsibility of the training partner is to provideenough help so that the barmoves smoothly (if slowly)to completion and is neverallowed to go backwards!How hard is hard?The forced rep strategy:We assume that becauseyou are reading the PPPthat you are smart enoughand savvy enough to understand the truth in whatwe are saying and thatyou are ready, willing andable to train hard enoughto obtain real results. Thenext logical question is“how hard is hard?” Onereason John Parrillo hasalways been a proponentof forced reps is that whenthe forced rep strategy isThe perfect forced repinvoked properly thereset always ensures thatis no question the targetthe trainee has takenThe perfect forced rep set alwaysmuscle is being forced tothe targeted muscle pastensures that the trainee has taken thework “past capacity.” Theits capacity. There is notargeted muscle past its capacity.problem is forced reps arequestion about the facta bit like Goldilocks’ dithat a perfect forced replemma: too little is worthless, too leg presses or heavy presses.exhausts any muscle but keep inmuch is counterproductive and Forced reps should be limited to mind that capacities can changejust right requires a real sense of 1-3 forced reps per set: how often workout to workout. Regardlessbalance and proportion. Here are have you been in a commercial of the trainee’s available strengthsome force rep guidelines gym and seen the local bozos do- on a particular day, going to posiing bench presses performing 5-10 tive failure and adding a perfectly Forced reps should only be used forced reps? After the first three applied forced rep or two is theon the final set of the exercise: reps the spotter is getting more surefire way to make sure thatoverusing forced reps wreaks hav- work than the trainee. The per- you are working up to the Parrillooc on the central nervous system. fect forced rep consists of going intensity e Press / December 201215

High Volume, High Intensity Training for Max ResultsJOHN PARRILLO’S PERFORMANCE PRESSMore is better: Another charac- classical Parrillo muscle-building defines cardio intensity and whyis it important to perform aerobicsteristic of the Parrillo approach prescription.with intensity? If you listen to thetowards weight training is JohnParrillo’s contention that more Parrillo-style aerobics also vast majority of fitness and bodyweight training is far better than needs to be intense: John Parrillo building experts you would hear aless weight training. Parrillo will was the first bodybuilding expert lot of talk about the “fat burningrecommend 4, 5 and even 6 lifting to insist his champion bodybuild- zone” and why it is counterproducsessions per week. His long stated ers include an aerobic component tive to go “too fast.” The fat burnposition has become a command- in their training regimen. Back ing zone myth is based on somement: “there is no such thing as in those ancient days, cardio ex- studies that show that by stayingover-training, only under-eating.” ercise was deemed to ‘tear down in the 50-65% range of maximumheart rate a greater percentIntense weight training, theage of fat is burned. This iskind that continually stressa convenient strategy thates the human body past itsgives those that prefer to encapacity, real training, thegage in “easy cardio” a perkind that gets real results, isfect excuse to tool along at ashocking to the system. Themodest, moderate, sensibleantidote – as John Parrillopace. Frankly, modest, modhas stated for decades – iserate and sensible doesn’tcalories. The Parrillo apdo jack squat if the goal isproach is simple: the moreburning body fat. What isweight training the traineethe point of tooling alongengages in the better; ergo,at 60% of capacity whento train often and to trainafter 30 minutes you burnwith the requisite intensity,a grand total of 150 calowe need to eat often andries? So what if you burn asupplement often. The worstTrain often, train intensely, eatslightly greater percentagething the serious tra

the “bodybuilding lifestyle” and lit-erally inspires others with his very presence. This dynamic dude lives in Tampa, Florida and runs one of the premier training facilities in the Tampa/Saint Petersburg area: Metzgerbodi