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JOHN PARRILLO’S PERFORMANCE PRESSRon with his wife Janet. “My wife and childrenare the loves of my life and give me thatmuch-needed balance and foundation.” among bodybuilders with less training experience andgives a really polished look to thephysique. I knewI was ready, and Ihad a good feelingabout this show.I had made upmy mind that thiswould be my finalcontest, or at leastfor a few moreyears. That meantI had to do my abPhoto by Steve Marksolute best possible“I wanted to be able to say I had truly done everything I could to win.”job with my training, diet, cardio,rest, and supplements. I wanted to beand went on to sweep the Overallable to say I had truly done everywith a perfect score. Still, the shockthing I could to win.of winning forced me to drop downto one knee and thank God for suchI weighed in at 194 pounds, the lighta blessing.est I had been in a few years. But as Ialways point out, bodyweight in andActually, I have much to be grateof itself tells you nothing. Since myful for. My wife and children arewaist was smaller, my V-taper wasthe loves of my life and give me thatmuch better than before, so there wasmuch-needed balance and foundaactually an illusion of greater size.tion. I have a great career doingAlso, I had worked hard to make mysomething I enjoy and am passionshoulders wider and rounder, andate about, and my flexible schedulecapitalized on my natural outer quadgives me time to spend with my famsweep with plenty of deep squats andily and time to keep working on myhack squats and leg presses with feetbody. My writing and my web sitetogether and low on the platform,have let me reach many thousandstricks I had picked up years ago fromof people all over the world. ManyMr. Parrillo.have become friends even though wehave never met. And I have been ableSince I started competing, I had noto transform myself from the skinticed that at virtually every contest,ny, scared little Ronnie I once wasthere was one competitor that stoodto a muscular, confident man. I oweout from the start. You knew thisit all to bodybuilding. Some peopleguy was going to win, and the restthink I must be crazy for spendingof us would be left fighting for theall these years going to the gym virother placings. I had seen ‘that guy’tually every day and striving to moldmany times, and dreamed that onemy body into something exceptionday I would be him. At last, I was.al. They can’t comprehend how I canI won the light-heavyweight divisioneat six to eight times a day and takeNovember 2007 / Performance Press1-800-344-3404www.parrillo.comenough supplements to stock a GNCfranchise. It all makes perfect senseto me, though. Bodybuilding is ahuge part of my life and who I am,and it has given me so much. It haseven allowed me to give somethingback to others that will eventuallyhelp others reach their fitness goals,and so on.So how does it feel to finally beable to call myself a winner? Itfeels good, I have to admit, but thefact is that I was always a winner.Bodybuilding is really a competitionagainst yourself as you take on thesignificant challenge of beating yourprevious best. That’s why you don’thave to win a contest to succeed inbodybuilding. You don’t even needto compete. As long as you are inthe gym every day training hard andeating right, you can keep improvingfor years and years. I will be turning forty in two years, but you knowwhat? I will be even better then. Ageis just a number, and the iron is trulythe fountain of youth.2007 contest diet*7:15 AM: 1 whole egg, 6 egg whites,cup of rolled oats, a few strawberries,or half sliced apple, 1 scoop ParrilloHi-Protein powder (15 g protein)9 AM: Weight train10 AM : BCAA powder, 5 g glutamine10-10:45 AM: Cardio10:45 AM: 60 g whey protein,50 g Gatorade, 50 g waxy maize, 5 gcreatine, 10 g glutaminePhoto by Warren GrammanI began my prep by starting to cleanup my diet in January, seven monthsout from the contest. My startingbodyweight was 235 pounds at 5-8.I knew from past experience that along, very gradual diet was the safestway to get ripped while maintainingall my hard-earned muscle mass.John Parrillo had always advisedlosing about a pound a week on acontest diet, and that’s the strategy Ihave found works the best. Over thenext few months I became confidentthat I was going to be tough to beat. Ihad worked hard on my weak pointsso that my body was proportionate from head to toe. My waist hadbeen starting to get blocky over recent years, but this time I was able tobring it down to 32 inches, the smallest it had been in almost a decade.Over twenty years of hard and heavytraining had given me excellent ‘muscle maturity,’ a hard, striated look tothe muscles that always stands outRON HARRIS: PERSISTENCE PAYS OFF!12 PM: 2 turkey breast burgers,small sweet potato, large raw carrot2:30 PM: 60 g protein shake,½ cup unsalted nuts4 PM: 12 oz salmon, medium slicedcucumber7 PM:againProtein shake and nuts9 PM: 5 whole eggs, large greensalad, tbsp natural peanut butter1 AM: approx 35 g protein shake4 AM: approx 35 g protein shakeSupplements:Photo by Warren Gramman“I have been able to transform myself fromthe skinny, scared little Ronnie I once was toa muscular, confident man.”www.parrillo.comParrillo Hi-Protein , OptimizedWhey , Liver Aminos , EssentialVitamin , Mineral Electrolyte ,1-800-344-3404“Bodybuilding is really a competitionagainst yourself as you take on thesignificant challenge of beatingyour previous best.”Advanced Lipotropic , CreatineMonhydrate, Evening PrimroseOil , Bio C , Natural E-Plus On days I do not weight train, firstmeal is whole eggs, I have a wheyshake and an apple after cardio, thenevery meal is either protein and veggies or a protein shake and somenuts.*This was the diet from 16 weeksout until 4 weeks out, at which pointthe only change I made was to cutthe carb intake in half.Performance Press / November 2007

In Praise ofIRon Harris By Marty Gallaghern the whacky world of health,fitness and bodybuilding, thepeople who write the articlesare often out-of-shape individualsthat write passionless articles basedon reflected knowledge. Most ofthese fitness writers have never participated in any athletic undertaking – and if they have it was with nogreat degree of distinction or success. A huge percentage of fitnesswriters have zero athletic experience, they have journalism degreesfrom so-so colleges and throughchance or circumstance they findthemselves in the fitness industry,churning out articles about a subject matter that honestly they couldcare less about. Most will move onto other writing jobs in other fields.These passionless writers might aswell be writing about biscuit recipesas bicep building. They are professional journalists who care littleabout the various subjects they arepaid to write about. This type of fitness writer has zero athletic experience and zero passion about building a better body. They secretlydespise their readership and cannotwait until an opening occurs at thelocal newspaper so they can changejobs and write about the State Fair,crime, or review new automobilesor movies for the style section.Writing about bodybuilding for thistype is a J.O.B. There are very fewwriters that have real experience inthe field they write in – and usuallythose who have the real experience“couldn’t write their way out of a10wet paper bag” to paraphrase General George S. Patton. (His actualquote was, “An army run withoutprofanity couldn’t fight its way outof a piss-soaked bag.”) So you haveprofessional writers who depend onreflected knowledge and interviews,people with zero passion or interestabout what they write about. Youhave the knowledgeable individualswho can’t write a coherent sentenceif their life depended upon it. Thenthere are a rare few who have boththe athletic credentials and the writing chops. These people possess apent-up passion for the subjectmatter. Those select few that havethe background, the chops and thepent-up passion create articles thatpossess real soul and that shinesthrough in their pieces.Ron Harris is a good writer whohas gotten consistently betterover time. Ron Harris is a good bodybuilder who has gotten consistentlybetter over time. He has a rare combination of in-the-trenches experience and the ability to write aboutit coherently. The reader is the winner. Some of us in the whacky worldof “fitness” really do care about theart & science of improving the human body. If you are in the deal, ifyou are really passionate about yoursubject matter, if you have intimatepersonal experience, if you havegood writing chops, then that passion and excitement comes throughin the final finished product. ErnestHemingway once rightly pointedNovember 2007 / Performance Pressout those who haven’t been to war,who haven’t seen bodies blownapart, those who haven’t smelt shellcordite and felt deep fear of imminent death cannot write about warwith the same gruesome realism asmen who have seen, smelt and dealtwith war up close and personal. Thefact that Leo Tolstoy was involvedin intense combat as a Russian artillery officer at the siege of Sevastopol gave him the depth of experience that allowed him to write Warand Peace. Hemingway saw lotsof action in World War I and thisserved him well in writing his 49short stories and his many novelson and about war. If you want to really get inside what works and whatdoesn’t in bodybuilding, who betterto quiz than a successful competitive bodybuilder? Unfortunately ifthe bodybuilder is incoherent or illiterate, it can be tough to extractthat information any way other thanverbally and in person – and as aman who’s had to interview bodybuilding champion Sonny Schmidt,even this can be problematic.So Parrillo Performance Pressreaders, please be aware thatRon Harris is both a terrific bodybuilder and a terrific writer, passionate about his subject. Be grateful that you have someone who hassuccessfully built his own body andhas the chops to relate to you howbest to do it. Them that can do andthem that can’t get jobs as passionless fitness .com1-800-344-3404Performance Press / November 200711

Part OnePart OneBy Duke NukemThe Circus Hill trailer park wasno place anyone wanted tovisit except to buy drugs. Thepolice routinely patrolled this whiteghetto by the railroad tracks tryingto keep the lid on the blatant sale ofcrystal meth. Circus Hill was methcentral and the tweakers came fromfar and wide to buy the finest meth inthe region. Somewhere hidden aboutwas a meth lab, but with five hundred single-wide and double-widetrailers, it was anyone’s guess where.Usually meth labs have telltale odorsbut somehow some way the CircusHill crystal factory was odorless andundetectable. Bootsie Schaeffer wasCircus Hill royalty. His father Rocwas locked up on parole and gun violations and had a claim to fame noone in Circus Hill could trump: he’dbeen featured on “America’s MostWanted” for his kidnapping of a local Dunkin Donut owner. The Asianman had been snatched and heldfor almost a month until his familyforked over 100,000. They’d caught12Roc in Reno at a keno table in theinfamous “Blackout Bar.” There hadbeen a shootout and Roc ended up ina wheelchair. He would be a guest ofthe feds for the next 77 years withoutpossibility of parole. This lineagemade Bootsie, along with his halfbrothers Frank Slaughter and Donand Roger Penier, Circus Hill royalty. Bootsie and his boys were knownas the Viers Mill Krew. They controlled the meth traffic on the cornerof Viers Mill and route 97. This wasthe best corner in all of Circus Hillbecause the suburbanites and theoutsiders didn’t have to pull into themaze of trailers to buy their dope. Inaddition, because of the cypress anddroopy willow trees, the cops had ahell of a time with surveillance. Photography was impossible and anyKnock-Os throwing a raid could beseen from an eighth of a mile awayby the 10 and 12 year old lookoutsBootsie kept on the payroll. Lifewas good for Bootsie and his ViersMill Krew.November 2007 / Performance PressThe Schaeffer boys lived in threedoublewides lined up all in a row.Bootsie lived with Denise, his 300pound 36 year old grandmother.Bootsie’s mother had disappearedunder mysterious circumstances andmost suspected his mom had gotten on the wrong side of Roc andwas likely dismembered and buriedsomewhere close by. Life was notso good for George Hecter and hisgrandmother Lilly. He was 20 andshe was 80 and they had the misfortune to live in a single-wide right nextto Bootsie and the Viers Mill Krewenclave. Grandma Lilly had lived inCircus Hill since she and Will (herdead husband) had first moved thereback in 1961. Will had been a barberand died in an auto accident. Georgewas the son of Grandma Lilly’s onlydaughter, Jane. Jane had also diedin the same auto accident that killedWill. That had been in 1995 andthings hadn’t been quite right since.George was a rail-thin wonder-kid.Off the charts smart, the motherless1-800-344-3404www.parrillo.comboy had an intelligent quotient of 175and had skipped grade after grade.He graduated high school at age 15and was offered a variety of academic scholarships. The one he took wasto a local college, a good school. Heand grandma were fused in grief andhe refused to go to school anywherehe could not drive to and then drivehome from afterwards. Someonehad to take care of grandma. Georgemade extra money as a computerprogrammer. He constructed videogames as a private contractor anddid so from his tiny bedroom. Hewas 20 years old, stood six foot sixand weighed 160 pounds. He rarelywent outside. Neither did grandma. If they did they might run intoBootsie, Frank or those two creepytwins, Don or Roger. Bootsie’sgrandmother Denise hated grandmaLilly. The fat woman would sit outside on the stoop and fan herself.She always wore a housecoat and awig and chain smoked Marlboroswhile she chugged endless cans ofRed-White-and-Blue lite beer. TheSchaffer Boys, out of pure spite, hadhung a stinking pee-stained mattressover the fence that adjoined the twoproperties. The fence had been putup by Will and was owned by grandma Lilly. She loved her little yardand had flowers and bushes arrangedwonderfully. When she had pushedthe puke-stained mattress back overinto the Shaffer’s yard, a feud startedthat was now entering it’s forth year.The mattress still sat on the fence.Bootsie’s grandmother had threatened Lilly. “I’ll cut off your freakinghead – and the head of that ridiculous looking skinny boy of your’n ifyou ever touch my mattress again.”Denise would throw her empty beercans and flick her cigarette buttsinto Grandma Lilly’s garden. Eachday Lilly would wordlessly pick upwww.parrillo.comthe cans and butts.Grandma, at George’s urging, onceactually called the cops. Theycame out and removed the mattressand lectured the Schaffer Krew.Obstinate, ugly and confrontational,the Boy’s just laughed and tauntedthe cops. The police left and the mattress went right back on the fence.Then Fluffy, grandma’s cat wasfound poisoned. Grandma stoppedcalling the cops. A few days laterGeorge was set upon and beat downviciously by the Viers Mill Krew. Helost some teeth and the emergencyroom bill cost them 1,000 that theyA few days later Georgewas set upon and beatdown viciously by theViers Mill Krew.were still paying off. The mattressstayed on the fence and George andGrandma pretty much stayed insidethese days. George’s real love wasarcheology. The local University hadone of the best archeology programsin the country and George appliedand was accepted on scholarship atage 16. Within three years he hadobtained a degree and had been accepted into the post grad program.He still lived at home. The strangetwosome lived huddled inside incontinual fear. George dreamed ofthe day when he could start teachingarcheology and they could move outof Circus Hill and into a real housein a normal suburb. One day in JuneProfessor Jacobson proposed a jobopportunity to George that would1-800-344-3404change his life: the archeology department, in conjunction with the USDepartment of the Interior, would beparticipating in an ongoing archeological dig in a newly discoveredNavaho cliff village in New Mexico.Would George be interested in participating? The salary would be excellent. The professor was aware ofGeorge’s unusual circumstance andadded another sweet enticement: ifGeorge was interested, he could, inaddition to being a paid member ofthe dig team, also be hired as the sitenight watchman. It was an extremelysensitive and important dig site andone member of the University delegation would have to remain onsitearound the clock. George wasn’t interested in leaving Grandma underany circumstance and refused – until he heard the financial punch line:with the daytime dig salary, the sitenight watcher salary, and round-theclock overtime, George could make 75,000 for six months work.“This could be our way out of thisdump Grandma!” George saidbreathlessly as he related the details. Grandma Lilly was excitedand apprehensive. He could readher like a book. Her face was excited but she was scared; scared tobe left in the trailer alone; scared tobe next to the Schaeffer animals andthat evil woman. On the other handshe sensed that this was a once ina lifetime opportunity. The money,even after taxes, would allow themto put down a huge down paymenton a nice home in a nice neighborhood. George could work for theUniversity and his new paycheckwould be massive. No more government cheese, no more food stamps,no more cutting the air conditioneroff at night to save money. Plus sheneeded to think of George: she hadPerformance Press / November 200713

Part Oneto admit that as much as she lovedstill was the youngest staff memberthe boy, he was growing stranger byby far and the Painted Desert landthe day. He went to school, but didn’tscapes, the odd vistas, the plateaus,mingle or make friends. He was tallthe weird mountains took his breathand gawky and self conscious aboutaway. While everyone else in campthe way he looked. He was smart andwoke up each day wondering howhe was always the youngest personsoon this hellish task would be done,in his classes. It had been that wayGeorge Hecter awoke thrilled not tosince grade school. It set him apart.be coming awake in Circus Hill. TheGeorge worked mostly at the comsenior archeologist was an interestputer and that didn’t help his socialing man.skills. He was taunted and slappedaround by the thug boysin the neighborhood. Heawokewould go to school, go toretceHeGeorgthe grocery store, go tobe comingottondchurch and come home.thrilleus Hill.cThat was his life. He wasriCnieawaka hard worker who wouldspend hours at the computer working on videogames. For relaxation he’dwatch the history channel or the science channel.Every Sunday after churchthe two of them would stopand eat at Denny’s theycould both eat at the breakfast buffet, leave a dollar tipHis name was Dr. Johnand only spend 12. That was theirMcLaughlin. He was a 50 year oldweekly treat. Grandma decided thatScotsman and unlike any profesGeorge had to take the opportusor George had ever met. The mannity. “You have to go son. I’ll manwas physically imposing: 6 foot tallage somehow. Mrs. Smith from theweighing 240 with rippling muscuchurch will carry me to the grocerylarity. He was an ex-Strategic Airstore after Sunday service and the sixService commando and had seenmonths will be over before you knowaction in Northern Ireland and Theit.” George, permanently slumpedFalkland Islands. He had been afrom being 6-6 and living in a trailerprize fighter and played professionalwith a 6-5 ceiling, stood up. “I’mrugby. The women staff membersgonna do this: we’ll make enoughthought he looked and talked like amoney to get out of this humanmuscular Sean Connery. The malegarbage pit!”college boy archeologists were petrified of the guy. He was gruff and allNew Mexico in August was ungodlybusiness. Unlike the other membershot. While all the other college memof the twenty five person dig team,bers of the archeological dig staffDr. McLaughlin never left the digcomplained and moaned about thesite. Instead of living in the air-condry heat, George was in heaven. Heditioned comfort of the Holliday Inn“14November 2007 / Performance Press”in Taos five miles from the dig siteDoc Savage, as the interns calledhim, lived alone in a tent onsite. After the gates were locked each nightat six, Dr. McLaughlin and Georgewere the only two people on the 200acre site. The fence that surroundedthe site was equipped with motionsensors and George’s job was to sitin the main tent and keep an ear onthe sensor m

ate from head to toe. My waist had been starting to get blocky over re-cent years, but this time I was able to bring it down to 32 inches, the small-est it had been in almost a decade. Over twenty years of hard and heavy training had given me excellent ‘mus-cle maturity,’ a