Shawn Nutter's
FUSION TRAINING SYSTEMS , LLC
Where does your POWER come from...?
FUSION BLOG
Common Sense to Contest Prep
I've been helping people get ready for shows since 1999 and this year, 2013, will mark the year that I have helped over 100 hundred people compete in bodybuilding, figure, bikini, physique contests.
I've had several clients win local and state shows, compete in nationals and won…and a few clients have turned PRO. My goal is to get each and every one of my clients to turn pro, get sponsorships, and make a living at what they love to do. Every time I sit down to talk with a client to discuss the many things that are involved in getting ready for a show; the number 1 question I get asked all the time is, “What’s your secret to pre contest dieting”. I guess I could make up some lie and make people think I have some secret way to diet to help make a name for myself, but I don’t need to do that. My clients winning shows will do that for me.
I will tell you this now and believe me when I tell you this BIG secret…….
There is NO secret way. Take this advice, and save yourselves the time and the trouble to stay clear of the so called nutritionist. Or, some trainer who can barely train soccer moms, but tries to take on the task of preparing people for shows and acts like there is some secret way… or gives you some cookie cutter program and makes you pay an arm and leg for his help.
I guess these types of guys are useful to me, because I end up getting their clients the last few weeks in need of desperate help to do the show they have just spent over 14-20 weeks preparing for.
There is no “one size fits all” contest prep...I will use very high carb based diets, keto diets, carb cycling, fat cycling, ect………the list goes on. I will use what works for the client.
I base each client’s prep on many things. I consider the client’s Body type, BMR, goals, body fat levels, carb sensitivity, medications, health problems, Natural or hormone assisted, activity levels, and many more things to figure out a diet for the individual.
The ultimate goal is having the client come in at their absolute best conditioning to win. The diet I construct for them at the beginning will continually change throughout the 12-16 week prep. The body will always change and throw obstacles at me and I need to know how to overcome those problems. Having a college degree or calling yourself a trainer will not teach you how to do all these things. Only experiencing this yourself by competing and helping many others compete will teach you. So you can shove that Fitness Degree up your ass, because it doesn’t apply to the real world. Yes, many times I get people who have a degree in nutrition or some other degree in health and fitness try to tell me things they think they know or were taught from some fat, lazy teacher that knows nothing about bodybuilding, nutrition or actually training. They know only what they read and were taught. It cracks me up at the people who actually write these books that they learn from in college. They wouldn't know a dumbbell if it hit them in their face.
As the client gets closer to a show, it’s my job to keep the metabolism on fire to stay in fat burning mode, and also to maintain as much muscle as we can.
What to do when fat burning slows down? There are many things that can be done to pick things back up and fire up metabolism. Change diet around a bit and change their macros around, increase or decrease food, increase or reduce cardio, look into their workouts to look for under or over training, add certain supplements, throw in a re-feed meal or day, and other things to do to help.
The body wants to stay in continuous homeostasis so don’t make any drastic changes. If things are done correctly you shouldn't have to.
A lot of people including myself, when I started working out years ago, always assume, “if we workout 7days a week for hours at a time we will reach our goals faster”. That’s the furthest from the truth. When I set up an athlete’s training program and they see they are only working out for 25-40 minutes, they always ask me if it’s going to be enough. But after the first training session I put them through they realize pretty quick it’s plenty. The workout program, cardio, and diet all work together to fit the individual. I don’t do anything for the hell of it…or have a few cookie cutter programs for everyone. EVERYTHING I do fits the client.
What I’m trying to say is:
1) Everyone is different
2) Everyone needs different ways of doing things
It’s my job to find out what those needs are!
After I design everything the client needs to get ready for a show, I keep a constant eye on them. There are a lot of things I’m looking for to make sure everything is in order and working accordingly. A lot of people make the mistake of always messing with the diet way too often. Be patient and give the diet at least 10-14 days to work. If not, you’re asking for trouble.
Most of my Clients that want to get ready for show will diet anywhere from 8-14 weeks. I won’t let them make the mistake of getting too fat in the off season. I try to keep them around 10% in off season, so when it’s time to diet we can maintain more muscle going into the pre contest phase.
I’m sure you are wondering how I design the diets for my clients.
I can’t give you my secrets for free…..LOL. Remember there are none.
Of the 17 people that I’m preparing to compete this March, April, and May, not one of them is following the same diet. I have some running keto, some running high protein, medium fat with carb cycling, some doing low protein, high carbs and low-med fat, and some doing protein, carbs and fats every day. I have a 55 year old male who will be competing for the first time running full keto 6 days straight and then on day 7 re-feeding on 1000 grams of carbs in 1 day and getting leaner every day. His metabolism is one of the fastest I’ve ever seen of any age. It’s so high he’s base lining his weight in 4 days after re-feeds and changing clothes at night while he’s sleeping due to all his sweating from high metabolism.
You see everyone is different with different ways. There is no set standard. All the stuff we are taught about “X” amount calories, “X” amount of protein, fats and carbs is all hog wash. Take what you learn from a book with a grain of salt. Real world results speaks volume. And please, please don’t ever have someone help you prep for a show that has no clue what they’re doing. Just because they are a trainer, doesn’t mean they know how to prep for a contest. I’ve heard horror stories where someone had a guy prep her and he stopped her salt intake 4-6 weeks out from a show. I’m surprised something bad medically didn’t happen to here. All my clients consume salt all the way up to a few days before show and sometimes I don’t cut it at all depending on their conditioning. I’ve heard people cutting their water intake so far out I don’t know how they survived. We cannot live without it. Our bodies are made up of approximately 70-75 % of water. So don’t cut it too soon! Yes, there is a way for the last few weeks where you load with water, carbs, salt, fats and sometimes potassium to pull all the subcutaneous water out and push it into the muscle to give you a leaner, fuller look. But it has to be done correctly or you can ruin your physique in a matter of days that you worked so hard for.
And what about supplements needed? To be honest you need very little supplements if your diet is on target. Sure I could make some extra money pushing every supplement under the sun and say you need them, but that’s not me. I’m not saying they don’t have their place, some of them do. But, only use them if needed. Some of the supplements that I use are based on each individual and their diet they are on and the progress their making. I’m not going to recommend them just because Jay Cutler says he uses every product produced from the company he’s getting paid by. Use common sense.
Here’s a list of some of the supplements I may use for someone getting ready for a show.
1. Essential/ NON-Essential Fats-Omega 3 fish oils, Evening Primrose oil, Olive oils, Macadamia Nut oil, Nuts. A lot of my clients will use these, especially natural athletes and keto based diets.
2. Creatine-I’ll use this with some clients for the entire time of prep or only last week of show or some won’t use it at all.
3. BCAA-I’ll use these sometimes pre or post workout, pre or post cardio or middle of night, or all times of the day. If their running keto, I most likely won’t use them.
4. Stimulant/Non Stimulant fat burners-I’ll use either or, but only if needed or if my client is getting extremely tired. If they use stimulant form I watch for raise in cortisol levels.
5 .Multivitamin/Juice Plus-Most clients will use either one of these or both.
Don’t think just because you throw in a new product that it’s going to work a miracle or use it just because. Know why you’re using it and only IF you need it.
Last but not least, cardio. This is so overrated….
This is something that is to be used as a tool to help you aid in fat burning or help get metabolism going. Don’t overdo it. It won’t help. Look at all the people that get on the cardio machine every day for hours and still look the same 2 years later. I could get deep into the science of how and why cardio works and why a lot of time it doesn’t, but I don’t feel like boring myself because I have to explain this to the same people on a daily basis and they are still that hamster on the wheel whose running but isn’t going anywhere.
Sometimes I’ll use H.I.I.T cardio; sometimes I’ll use L.I.S.S, Fartlek Cardio, A.I.T cardio, ect. A lot of this depends on the client, the diet they are on and progress they are making. And believe it or not I have had several clients do a show and we did ZERO cardio! That’s right none. How you ask? Their diet was spot on; they didn’t cheat, trained with full intensity and had the genetics where they didn’t have too. Cardio isn’t a must. It’s a tool.
I’m going to end this blog with advise I gave you earlier in case you forgotten.
If you’re going to have someone help you get ready for a show, whether it is bodybuilding, figure, physique or bikini, please make sure they know what they’re doing. Do your homework and check to see if they ever competed, how many shows they done and how well they did, who all they have helped, and how well their clients look for their shows.
Remember this is your body and money not their’s!
MY LIFE AT WESTSIDE BARBELL
MY LIFE AT WESTSIDE BARBELL………………………….
Many times I get asked. “What was it like at Westside”? And as I’m thinking of my answer in my head that I would like to tell them, it’s a place where you wouldn’t last 1 hour. I end up telling them the most hardcore place you could ever lift.
My life at Westside Barbell started back in 2005 and lasted up to 2010.
But The thought of lifting at Westside started all the way back when I was in high School through the late 90s.I remember getting Powerlifting USA and always skipping every other article just to read Louie Simmons Westside articles. When I was in High School, I played Baseball, Football and I Wrestled. I always loved competition and being strong. When I was a sophomore playing football that year, I remember out lifting every senior player we had. I was bench pressing 335lbs without trying that hard. I was squatting 405lbs ass to the floor. So I always knew I had some pretty good strength and a good work ethic which I’d like to give full credit to my dad. He was a very big guy and strong naturally from owning our own construction business. During the summer breaks from school, when other kids were sleeping in and swimming, I was carrying 12inch block, mixing mud, helping dig footers, carrying bricks up and down 50ft ladders, and this started when I was 10. I hated it then, but now I look back and so glad my dad made me do this. It taught me a lot about myself, when I wanted to give up and not be in the scorching heat working when I could be sleeping but I kept working and didn’t complain. My dad is the hardest working man I have ever known. And from saying that, I followed in his footsteps of being a hard worker, strong, disciplined, and didn’t take shit from anyone……So that kinda of gives you an idea where I get a lot of my traits from. Thanks DAD.
Before I started in powerlifting, I began doing bodybuilding and competed in shows from 1997-2003. When I was a bodybuilder I loved going to the gym and lifting weights and always trying to see how much weight I could push. But after I started training with the gym owner, of where I lifted at, Steve Slater, he taught me bodybuilding is about building the body, not always 1 rep maxes. But I loved heavy weight. So I went through the years of doing very well and learning a lot from bodybuilding. But there was always this voice in my head telling me to go heavy, max out, break records and my training partner knew that.
Around 1999 Steve and I started a lot of strongman training and traveled all over the states competing in strongman shows and doing very well in them. I liked them, but didn’t love them. It wasn’t the same as bench pressing, deadlifting or squatting. Walking up to the squat rack listening to Slip Knot with tears flowing out of my eyes and every hair on my body standing up as I wanted to smash the weight and kill everything around me. That’s what I loved. Lifting heavy ass weights only normal lifters dreamed about doing.
So around April of 2005, Steve and I were working out and doing a typical bodybuilding workout and Steve stopped what he was doing and told me to call Louie from Westside and start lifting there. I looked at Steve and couldn’t believe he told me to do that. As I was always dreaming of lifting there and he knew that. So I asked him if he thought I was strong enough to lift there and he told me he’s been into lifting for a very long time and has been to Westside a few times to check it out and he told me I have what It takes to be there.
So this is where the story begins……………
That day after we trained, I drove home as fast as I could and called Westside Barbell. The phone rang and ranged and finally someone picked up and all I could hear was heavy metal music, people yelling and plates being slammed. The guy who answered, who I could hardly hear said hold on and he shut a door. He got back on the phone and said, “Westside, this is Louie”. I couldn’t believe I was actually talking to him. I think he said hello 3-4x before I actually said anything. So we talked for a few minutes and explained to him who I was, where I was from and would like to train there. He asked me what all I could lift and told him it had been awhile since I did a 1 rep max; that I did bodybuilding and he instantly started laughing.
He invited me to come to the gym in 2 days and see if I had what it took to lift there. Those 2 days couldn’t have gone by any slower. I was all I thought about.
So the day finally came and I arrived at Westside. I pulled up to this building which you couldn’t tell was a gym from the outside, had tinted windows on the glass and a big overhead garage door that was wide opened with music blaring, a pit bull walking around the gym, which was Louie’s dog and about 40 big powerlifters all in different groups doing their own thing. Some were doing floor presses, bench presses, board presses and some doing accessory work. When I walked in, it felt like the whole place stopped and was looking at who the new guy was. Louie came up to me and introduced himself to me and asked if I would like to get started. I said “Hell yea”…..
So he put me with a few of the heavyweight guys, 308lbs and over and at the time I was weighing 235lbs. I felt a little small. LOL…They were already warming up and had 315lbs on the bar so I started to take some weight off to warm up, and a few of them yelled, “you start with what’s on the bar when you show up late”.
So I got under the bar on the floor press, no one would hand out to me so I got it myself and banged out 20 reps like it was the bar. I got up and they put more weight onto the bar and every guy went until everyone in the group hit a 1 rep max. There were 5 of us when I started and now there is only me and a very big heavyweight seeing who can get more. At this time Louie and a lot of the other members were watching to see how much the new guy, being me, could do.
I ended up getting 515lbs, which was a new PR for me. I was so happy inside but didn’t want anyone to see that. So I followed the rest of the group as we did 4-5 more exercises and were done. The whole time Louie was watching me to see if I had what it took. When I was all finished Louie walked up to me and asked if I’d like to start training there. I couldn’t say yes fast enough. He told me before you’re a member there; everyone is put on a 10 month trial period then all the members including Louie voted you in or out. At Westside they have 3-4 groups training at all different times of the day depending on your strength and work schedule. I was put with the morning crew. 7am-9 am. I had no clue who was in that crew. So 2 days later I showed up to start my life at Westside and there was Louie, Chuck Vogelpohl, Tony Bologone, George Halbert, J.L Holdsworth, Big Will, and a few others…some of the best in the world. I couldn’t believe I got to lift with this crew. I was so thrilled. That day was a Friday and that was our dynamic day for lower body. Speed squats, speed pulls and a lot of accessory work. I left there with my ass being kicked. I have never trained that hard and heavy. But I loved it. This is what I wanted. To be the best I could be.
About 7 months went by of driving from Lancaster to Westside of Columbus 4 x weeks, every week, every month. You don’t miss days at Westside. When your there, that becomes #1 in your life. Over everything…your life, job, family, friends, etc.……everything.
There was a big powerlifting meet that was coming up in November and every crew was getting ready for the meet. Even though there were a few crews there, it’s all 1 big family. Everyone comes together and helps each other with everything. At meets we went to when we came through people moved for us, watched everything we did, stayed the hell out of our ways. Westside is the best. If you weren’t with US, you were against US. That was every one’s attitude.
SO this was my first meet I ever did, heck it was the first meet I’ve even been to.
I competed in the 242lb class. I was warming up back stage for the squat and was trying to think what weight I was going to open up with when I got on stage. I asked one of my training partners what I should open with and he started laughing and said Louie calls out our numbers. So I had no clue what weight I was going to attempt on my first lift. You see Louie know everything that goes on in the gym. He knows what peoples weights are, there PRs, there openers, what you should take on your last attempt. So I heard my name being called that I was in the hole and next up. I waited there back stage waiting to see what my first attempt was and everyone from Westside was back there pumping me up getting my adrenaline going. So my name was called and 805lbs was called out. That was 100lbs more than I ever had on my back. I didn’t care; I was ready to kill the weight. All the guys were yelling for me, smacking me on my back, in my face pumping me up. I got under the bar, took it out and went as deep as I could and came up like there was no weight on my back. I finished the day with an 860lb squat, 565lb bench and a 675 deadlift. Not bad for my first meet. I won my class and got my elite status. As I was packing my stuff up, Louie came up to me and asked how long I’ve been there now and I said 7 months and I have 3 months to go till I’m Voted in. He told me I was just voted in and you’re a member now. He said your WESTSIDE!!!
That was one of my happiest days of my life besides my daughter Baylee being born in 1999 and meeting Robyn.
So from 2005-2008, I spent many hours at Westside, doing meets and got my pro card in the end of 2008. Some of the people there came and left, trained with new people, met a lot of strong guys. I always stayed with the morning crew but it changed from time and time also with people moving, new people showing up. But we were still family and the strongest gym in the world. After every training session I’d stay after just to talk and bull crap around with Louie. He taught me so much about strength training. It’s not just getting under a bar and lifting. Taught me dynamic training, progressive over load, max effort method, conjugate system, repetition method, different forms of periodization (ie. Linear/non-linear, undulating,ect) the laws of accommodation, figuring out peoples strengths and weaknesses and how to make them a better athlete. To say the least, He taught me a lot that I use today with my clients. Not just powerlifters.
SO now we move forward a bit and go through 2008-2010 where the story gets close to its ending.
I did my first PRO show in Cincinnati, Ohio and competed in the 242lb. class.
Some of the best lifters from all over the world were there competing for their country and big prize money. I did very well my first PRO show. I squatted 930lbs, bench pressed 635 and deadlifted 735lbs. Took 3 in my class which was very good considering who else I was competing against. So after that show was over in the summer of 2008, we were all back into the gym training for our next big PRO meet in Nashville, Tennessee in the early part of 2009. So fast forwarding to the show in Nashville, I was probably the strongest I ever was in my life and I knew I was going to put up some big numbers in this show. I was planning on squatting 1,010lbs, benching 650lbs and deadlifting 750.
After warming up real good I was on my last warm up set on the squat before I was to get ready and go out on the platform and hit something big. On my last warm up I was taking 940 lbs. My adrenaline was rushing; music blaring and I knew there was a big crowd waiting for the Westside guys to squat. Normally on every lift I always check everything to make sure everything is good. Well unfortunately this time I didn’t. I took the weight out like it was 135lbs, started to go down deep and all of a sudden the bar started twisting to one side and my left side of my lower back snapped and thankfully my training partners caught me and the weight and helped me to a chair where I was in a lot of pain. One of my training partners, Phil, who was the 181lb. world record holder ran over to some girl who he knew that was a firefighter/medic and asked for her help. As I was lying in the chair in terrible pain, that you can’t imagine how bad it felt, she came over to me and started asking me questions to help me. This is the same girl I seen hours earlier walking around at the meet and I told some of my buddies I’m going to get that girl. LOL…. I know funny right? A few of them knew her, I only knew her name as she was the world record holder for many years in powerlifting, but she lived in Virginia and I lived in Ohio and they said it would never happen. So when I was in the chair and she was asking questions she put her hand on my back and her face up against mine as she knew I was hurting very badly and as soon as she did, we both looked at each other and knew something had just brought us together. By that time the ambulance was on their way and came and took me to the hospital where I found out I had 4 bulging discs in my lower back and a few in my neck. After being at the hospital for a few hours and going through tests after test and being on so much morphine it would’ve put an elephant down, the Doctor told me I had to stay there and probably have surgery. I said hell no, I had to get back to my team and help them. As stubborn as I was I signed out A.M.A and went back to the meet. As soon as I arrived people couldn’t believe I came back because they knew how bad the injury was. After helping many of my teammates lift, Robyn came up to me and asked how I was feeling and what the Doctors said. We exchanged numbers and email and said good bye. After the meet was over me and some of my training partners drove back home to Columbus and it was the worse drive ever because I was in so much pain.
All the guys at Westside took a few days off after the meet and then it was back at it training and focusing on the next meet. The next meet was in Cincinnati, Ohio 3 months after the one in Nashville. I was doing my own rehab work to my back and neck and also trying to get ready for the meet. At Westside you have to suck things up very quickly and get over the injury. There was no time for breaks. Louie always kept on us because in the 1980s he broke his back 2 times and neck once and got right back into the game. So if he could do it, everyone else has to. Just the way it is. After a few weeks of rehabbing I was feeling better and stronger each day and couldn’t wait for this meet to crush the weight. If I would’ve listen to most Doctors and went through there pathetic rehab work it would’ve taken me years to get back lifting weights and would’ve been told many times never lift weights again. No one was going to tell me I couldn’t do something especially most doctors that have no clue about lifting weights or nutrition. So now I’m a week out from the meet and in Virginia visiting Robyn. The night before I left to head home, we went to a very late movie and I started to feel sick. Then when we were walking to the car after the movie it felt like I got bitten or stung by a bug. I woke up the next morning to head home and the spot where the sore is, and was 5 times the size it was the previous night. So I didn’t think much about it and headed home with no problems. The very next day at Westside we were deloading preparing for the meet this weekend. The whole morning I felt awful and everyone was asking me what was wrong. Louie even took me to the side and talked to me and asked what was wrong and to pull out of the meet. I wasn’t going to back out now and didn’t tell anyone about the sore on my stomach. After the workout was done I headed to the emergency room to find out what the heck was going on. After the doctors came in and looked at it and did several blood tests, I was told I had MRSA and they were preparing me for surgery in a few hours. I couldn’t believe it. How in the hell did I get that, and why me. I was there by myself and wasn’t going to let anyone know because I knew my dad, mom, daughter and Robyn would freak out. So I had surgery and stayed until Thursday. Now the day before, everyone at Westside was deloading again for the meet and I knew I had to be there but I was stuck in the hospital. I had a whole in my stomach the size of my fist and I.Vs in every arm. What was I going to do….? I talked the doctors into letting me walk the hallways of the hospital and stop my I.Vs while I took a walk. As soon as they did I knew I had to drive to the gym, workout and let no one know what has happened to me. I wore a long sleeve shirt to hide the I.Vs and packed my wound with as much gauze as I could. After I lifted my last bench press for the day, I stood up and one of my partners yelled across the room at me and said “ man your fricking bleeding….” I looked down and blood was pouring out of me like a flood of water. I ran into the bathroom and cleaned it up best I could and came out and said I had got bitten by a spider and the wound broke loose. They all fell for it and I got lucky they didn’t want to see it. Soon as the workout was over I knew I had to rush back to the hospital because they were probably looking for me. The hospital was 15 minutes away and I drove as fast as I could to get back. As soon I got onto the floor every nurse and worker came running up to me asking me where I have been. They were freaking. I told them I went outside to relax. So they kept me an extra night and I got out Friday. Now Saturday morning I woke up early to drive to the meet in Cincinnati and I swear I pulled over every 10min to throw up and my blood sugar kept dropping very low. I finally made it to the meet, weighed in at 241lbs, 22lbs lighter than I was 6 days ago…..I was able to finish the meet and played it well enough where no one knew about what has happened. I squatted 930lbs, benched 635lbs and pulled a PR deadlift for 770lbs. I couldn’t believe I did that. But I had the will power and drive to keep going. After the meet was over, I drove as fast as I could back to Columbus, to the hospital I was at few days ago and they instantly admitted me. The doctors came in after the tests were done and said if I didn’t get here when I did I would’ve been dead in a few hours. My whole life just flashed before my eyes and I knew this was serious and I couldn’t keep hiding it and had to take care of it.
So I called Robyn and my family and broke the news to them and my dad was there instantly staying by my side. My mom came there soon as she got off and Robyn was coming to the hospital from Virginia. After 10 weeks of being in the hospital and 9 surgeries later I knew my life was about to change drastically. After the last surgery the doctors came in the room and pretty much threw their hands up and told me there isn’t much more they could do for me and I was probably going to die. It was just me and Robyn alone, and as I was laying there on the bed, it was if GOD punched me in my face and told me I had to change everything I was doing in life. My way of life, my priorities, my choices and my future. This was something that was happening to me that Robyn didn’t have any idea what was going on between me and GOD and I looked at her and said” I have to quit Westside and everything about me had to change this exact moment.” As we laid there together holding each other crying and praying we both fell asleep in a way I have never slept before. The next morning I woke up and the nurse came in to do blood work and change my wound. About 2hrs later a few doctors came in to talk to me and they were all very puzzled what they were about to tell me. They said all my blood work was back to normal and my MRSA was gone. They have never seen this happened. Soon as they told me that I knew exactly GOD wasn’t done with me and had big plans for me and Robyn. And was he right…..I called Louie and few of my training partners and told them I was done with powerlifting and had many things to change in my life. Some were upset but not mad and Louie understood. He told me if I ever wanted to come back, I was always WESTSIDE. Normally if you leave, you don’t ever get to come back. I appreciated that from him. So after months and months traveling back and forth from Virginia, Robyn finally moved here and got a job here at Children’s Hospital. The way that worked out is another story in itself. But the works of Christ can make anything happen. So just a year later, I finally was able to do what I have always dreamed about doing and had to deal with so many people telling me I could never make a living at it. This goal started back in 1997 when I first started to compete. And had people from day one saying I will never make it. Well here I am doing IT, and being able to help people achieve their goals and help them do, what others say they can’t do.
I look back into my life, even years before MRSA and realize I’ve had to go through so much pain and bad luck in life to get to be where I am today and made me the person I am today.
Do I ever regret leaving Westside? Hell NO. I had fun, learned so much, got stronger, traveled all over, but realize what I have now and where I’m at today in my life with my job, family and my faith. I wouldn’t trade it for anything.
Westside will always be the strongest gym in the world with the most dedicated guys you will meet. It is a place where most people wouldn’t last 1 day due to the intensity, dedication and drive you have to have to be there. I’m very proud to look back and say I was there, a member, one of the best, and trained with the best. But it’s over and I only look forward in life and have so much more I want to do. And if anyone out there thinks for 1 second you can hold me down, say I can’t do it, or get into my way, make sure you think real hard what you’re getting yourself into…………
I wanna thank my DAD for always being by my side, believing in me when other people wouldn’t and always there for me when times get tough. I couldn’t have done it without you. My mom for always keeping it real and helping me also with struggles I have overcome. Baylee. My beautiful daughter. My angel. If it wasn’t for her I can honestly say I probably wouldn’t be here. When times got tough for me I always thought to myself that she will not go on in life without a dad, and I picked myself up and fought the battle till I won. She’s everything to me.
Robyn. The girl of my dreams. My wife that I will forever love and can’t ever get enough of. A person who believed in me and knew what I could do. She never doubts me. Together we are a TEAM that can’t be stopped.
I Love you all…………..
And for all my haters and doubters. I have to thank you guys also for giving ME the power, courage, the fire in my heart to overcome people like you every day of my life. Without you people I wouldn’t have learned what I know now and become the person I am today. So please keep making me stronger………
And GOD. For saving me from going down the path of hell and making me realize what I can do in life with trust in him.
“With man it’s impossible, but not with GOD, for with GOD all things are possible” Mark 10:27
Your Diet is Killing You!
I came across this article on AOL news this week (see article below) that made me laugh…as my good friend and fellow trainer Luan would say…”seriously?!” Do we really need a rat study to inform us that eating crap is bad for us?
In 2004 Morgan Spurlock made himself a human “rat” subject when he starred, filmed, and directed the documentary SUPER SIZE ME. For 30 days Spurlock ate only a diet of McDonald’s food.
The results are as follows:
· 24 ½ pound weight gain
· 13% body mass increase
· 230 Cholesterol Level
· Mood Swings
· Sexual Dysfunction (!!! GASP!!!)
· Fat accumulation in his liver
The crazy thing of all…if the above wasn’t enough, the damage he did in 1 month, took him 14 months to fix!!! (SuperSize Me, 2004)
But researchers have “discovered” that the foods we eat, and no exercise has a serious and in some cases fatal effect on us. OH MY! Thank goodness they discovered this now, before it’s too late….sense the sarcasm…
WEDNESDAY, Oct. 3, 2012 (HealthDay News) —People who eat a so-called "Western diet," which is high in fat, salt and sugar, are at significantly greater risk for stroke or premature death, according to a new study involving rats.
Researchers from Canada found this type of food, also known as the "cafeteria diet," creates what they called "a ticking time bomb of health problems."
For the study, the researchers gave sedentary rats a choice of nutritional food pellets or junk food items including cookies, sausage and cupcakes. The animals were also given a choice of water or a 30 percent sugar solution that imitated soft drinks.
Like humans, the researchers said, the rats preferred the treats. And after eating a high-calorie, high-sugar and high-sodium diet for just two months, they developed symptoms of a condition known as metabolic syndrome, including high blood pressure, high cholesterol and blood sugar levels, and obesity —factors that increase the risk of stroke and other health problems.
The researchers noted that the rats were only the equivalent of about 16 to 22 years old in human years.
"I think we'll soon start to see people in their 30s or 40s having strokes, having dementia, because of this junk food diet," the study's lead researcher, Dr. Dale Corbett, scientific director of the Center for Stroke Recovery at Canada's Heart and Stroke Foundation, said in a foundation news release. "Young people will have major, major problems much earlier in life."
The study authors said their findings underscore the need for regular exercise and a well-balanced diet to prevent metabolic syndrome.
"We're not sure whether metabolic syndrome can be reversed," noted Corbett. "If it can't, and we continue to live and eat like this, then we're each a ticking time bomb of health problems," he added.
Another expert, Dr. Mark Bayley, co-chair of the Canadian Stroke Congress and medical director of the Neurological Rehabilitation Program at Toronto Rehab, pointed out in the news release that "metabolic syndrome and stroke are huge health concerns for the public. We cannot afford to continue making poor nutritional choices. Our diet is killing us."
The study authors concluded that more research is needed to investigate the risks of a poor diet on animals that have other health issues.
"Laboratory models often use relatively young animals who are healthier and on better diets than we are," Corbett noted. "However, it is important to remember that for many people, the consequences would be even worse, since a lot of people with stroke also have pre-existing health problems."
The study was scheduled to be presented Monday at the Canadian Stroke Congress, in Calgary. The data and conclusions of research presented at meetings should be viewed as preliminary until published in a peer-reviewed journal. In addition, experts point out that results from animal research are not necessarily applicable to humans.
And while the study found an association between the unhealthy diets and an increase in health risk factors in the rats, it didn't prove a cause-and-effect relationship.
References:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Super_Size_Me
MORALS
“Baseball players will take anything. If you had a pill that would guarantee a pitcher 20 wins, but might take few years off his life, he’d take it.”
Jim Brouten wrote that 40 years ago…….
He also listed some of the things he’d taken over the years of playing professional sports. Butazolidin (a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory they give to horses). I actually used this many times getting ready for a powerlifting meet. After we would weigh- inn, we would take few 100mgs. Every few hours and put back on 15-20lbs. Stuff was amazing.
But back to the story….
DMSO (a fast penetrating solvent believed to help with inflammation) people back then thought it would blind them. Novacaine, cortisone, and xylocaine. He leaves the impression that if there were things he didn’t take, it’s because he didn’t know about them. (Steroids were not an issue because baseball players back then avoided lifting weights for fear they’d lose flexibility.)
We get outraged when athletes use steroids….but, why are we surprised???
They’re doing what we want them to do…i.e, everything they can to win.
We want are sports stars to do glorious things as our hero’s. We don’t care about their lives after sports. We condemn the player who sits out and nurses a small injury, who pulls up shy of the fence instead of crashing into it in pursuit of a fly, who veers out of bounds instead of taking a hit. We praise the gamer who gives us everything he has on every single play whether it’s smart or not. We applaud Curt Schilling for risking serious damage to his ankle by pitching the bloody-sock game after a quick procedure. We idolize Willis Reed for playing on an injured knee, after getting a Carbocaine injection to block all pain signals from his leg to his brain.
So why are we so upset when a player takes something to aid in his recovery from workouts???
It’s not as though we’re a society opposed to enhancing performance.
You can’t watch a sporting event for more than a few minutes without seeing ads for a specific kind of performance enhancer. We use Rogaine for our thinning hair, Prozac for depression, Xanax for anxiety, Prilosec for heartburn, Lamisil for toenail fungus, Viagra for fun, Botox for wrinkles-and we get pissed when athletes take drugs that make them better at their jobs. Read the side effects of the drugs I just listed. WOW….you’ll never take anything again.
But, what about the dangers???
What about them?...According to Dr. Norman Frost, the Professor of Pediatric Medicine and Director of the program in Bioethics at the University of Wisconsin. The side effects of steroid use, as reported scientifically in medical journals are: hair loss, acne, infertility, lowered voices in women, and testicular shrinkage, all of which are reversible when the user stops. In his thought-provoking documentary “Bigger, Stronger, Faster” (which I was when they shot footage of the movie) Chris Bell notes, that while alcohol and tobacco cause 75,000 and 435,000 deaths respectively in America each year. Anabolic steroids are believed to cause 3 in history. Among reasons for emergency room visits, steroids rank 142 behind multivitamins.
What about Lyle Alzado? He died because of steroid use, didn’t he?
Alzado died of a brain tumor and he also had HIV AIDS at the time his health declined. But Alzado blamed steroids. His great escape goat….
But medical experts don’t; Dr. Charles Yesalis, Professor Emeritus of Health Policy and Administration, and Exercise and Sport Science at Penn State, who has published more than 70 articles about steroid use, told Bell, “I don’t know of any of my colleagues who link his central nervous system lymphoma with his steroid use.”
Performance enhancement is not a single thing; it is a continuum. At one end is nutrition; at the other, perhaps, is Bouton’s mythical 20-win pill. But no matter what anyone chooses to use, the athlete is still doing the work. You can’t lay down a bottle of steroids on the bench press and watch it lift 650lbs. The athlete still has to want it. Blood, Sweat and Tears.
Steroids can’t produce or make will power and the want to be #1. Most people don’t have it in them to be #1. So they blame everyone else taking them and tell everyone there drug free and just use supplements cause they know in there heart they can’t push themselves that far or do what it takes to be on top. And the funny thing is, most people that go around telling people there drug free, are using more stuff then the guys who keep their mouths shut. And they are weak pussies who talk behind people’s backs.
Yes I know who you are….and it’s only a matter of time till you’re eating out of a straw.
….LOL. I just had to get that out. That’s a whole other story in itself. I’ll get to that in another blog.
Back to the story...
But where does the moral boundary lie? It’s perfectly fine to eat liver to get extra iron that will aid you in storing and transporting oxygen in the bloodstream; it’s a violation to take r-EPO (recombinant erythropoietin), an artificial hormone that causes increased production of red blood cells to achieve the same effect. (used a lot in cycling Tour De France).
Why is one ok and the other not? What’s the moral distinction?
One of them is natural, the other isn’t.
Actually steroids are derivatives of testosterone, and test is natural.
True, but most people don’t see it that way.
Why is it okay to train and sleep in chambers constructed so they mimic high-altitude conditions, forcing the body to adapt to a lower-oxygen environment in ways that have benefits in competition at sea level? Why are hyperbaric treatments to speed healing acceptable for athletes?
In the weeks leading up to the Super Bowl, as reported by Sports Illustrated, Peter King, Troy Polamalu and Hines Ward of the Steelers had blood drawn and put into centrifuge to concentrate the platelets before the blood was given back to them, in the interest of hastening their recovery from injuries. Is this natural?
Does that matter? How is blood doping morally different from steroids?
If Pro Athletes are doing these drugs, kids will, and we don’t want kids messing with this stuff…..That’s total hog wash.
I agree wholeheartedly young kids should not use steroids. There are a lot of things that pro athletes do that we don’t want young kids doing. Forget about actions like drinking, smoking, sex, and reckless driving (all at once sometimes); I mean things like throwing curveballs and playing football and training for a sport fulltime. Is it hypocrisy to tell kids that some things are off-limits until there’re older? Ask the nearest parent. A criminal ban on providing steroids for performance enhancement to anyone under 21 would be wholly appropriate.
What about everything else?
It is difficult to discuss steroids rationally, because they were banned so quickly and totally that scientific research became impossible. Did you know in 1991 President Bush made steroids a banned and controlled substance, in the same class as some very hardcore and dangerous drugs? Even our FDA and DEA were against the idea. It’s not like you have ragging muscle heads roaming the streets breaking into homes, cars and pharmacies needing there quick fix of a testosterone shot. Well if you believe everything the media tells us, then you’ll believe so.
After 50 years of mostly illicit use, however, we know much more about them than we did their cartoonish image was developed. An injection will not give you instant abilities; you still have to put in the work, and be exceptionally gifted to begin with. They will not cause freakish bulk overnight, if that’s your aim, they will help you tolerate the effort it takes to get there, but you can use them and train safely without turning into a stuffed pig and croak. “They’ve been used in medicine since the 1930s” Dr. Yesalis told Bell. “Can they be used safely? Yeah” Do you really think doctors would put their license on the line if they knew steroids were gonna kill their patient when they prescribe it to the sickest of all people? You think the FDA would allow steroids to be used if they were so bad? And do you really think billion dollar pharmaceutical companies would make an investment in these hormones if they didn’t work?
The answer is NO….
Do I really think steroids are okay for professional adult athletes? YES.
But I think the issue is much muddier than the current hysteria makes it seem. In prior generations, amphetamines (“greenies”) were the drug of choice; Mike Schmidt wrote in his book, “Clearing The Bases”, that they were “widely available in baseball clubhouses,” and there was testimony in the Pittsburgh drug trials of 1985 that Willie Mayes kept liquid amphetamines in his locker. When performance is needed, enhancement will be tried.
Dr. Frost once asked an audience at one of his lectures he was giving,” to quickly name, in your own mind, a single elite athlete who’s had a stroke or a heart attack while playing sports. It’s hard to come up with one. Anabolic steroids do have undesirable side effects, which will go away when you discontinue the hormones. But sports itself is far more dangerous, and we don’t prohibit it. The number of deaths from playing football and college football are 50-100 times higher than even the wild exaggerations about steroids.
“More people in all sports have died of the sport itself than have died of steroid use.”
In general, the argument against allowing performance enhancing drugs in sports tends to lack any coherence. Rather, people who complain about performance enhancing drugs seem to have the same sort of visceral reaction as people of a different era had when anesthesia became widely used to alleviate pain during childbirth-it just violates widely held moral intuitions that amount to one society-wide “ick” at the thought of athletes explicitly modifying their body chemistry with hormones in order to achieve better performance.
I suspect that future generations will look at the use of steroids in sports in much as the same way we look at the medical use of leeches in old days. We understand what they were trying to do, but can you believe they used something so crude? With any drug or hormone, it’s a matter of balancing effectiveness with risk-and that’s a question of tactics, not morals.
APRIL
Point A
When I am out buzzing around town I like to time to reflect on my life. I think about where I have been in my life, the struggles I have faced head on and what I can do to better me and Shawn’s life.
The other day I was talking to Luanne (another trainer at the gym) and Danni (one of Shawn’s clients). I love this time I have with these lady’s…we chat often. Our conversations can range from motivation (either us needing some, or trying to give some), what we would change about ourselves, food recipes, clothing, bodily functions…general “woman folk” talk. If you’re a “woman folk” you know what these talks consist of…if you’re a man, well they are not much different from “man folk” talk.
One a particular day we were talking about Point A…what I mean by “Point A” is looking back at your starting point of a particular challenge. One thing I always stress to clients is…this is your beginning point, to get them excited on where they will be when they reach “Point B”. It is about setting goals and following through with them.
Shawn and I are faced daily with these questions:
· How do I lose weight?
· How do I get stronger?
· How do I tone up?
· How do I get rid of my belly?
Our answer is this…WORK...the silence that follows this answer is almost deafening. Despite what folks think, the only true and honest answer is you have to work to get results, with anything. Think about it…how much work does it take to sit on the couch with a bag of chips and watch TV? How much work does it take to ask the kid at the coffee shop to make you a triple creamy frothy caramel Frappuccino? How much work does it take to order a pizza for delivery? NONE…and we like that right? We enjoy fast and easy, and let’s face it…lazy results for what we want. I am guilty of this; I have actually felt my blood pressure rise when there are more than 3 people in line at the Dairy Queen when all I want is a peanut butter chocolate anything! I get stressed because I have to wait for 5 minutes on something I don’t need anyway.
The bottom line is this; I did not come out of the womb with muscles. I had to work for it…very hard. My starting point was over 15 years ago when I was so skinny I had to use a safety pin to keep a size “1” pant from slipping off my waist. My starting point was when my mother threatened hospital treatment and tubes in my nose to get me my food. My starting point was a decision to get healthy. If you could talk to my mom or sister about that time they would probably tell you that they expected any morning to find my dead in my bed.
My father was an un-excitable man…he ran a Rock Quarry…was the only man in our household…and tried his best to throw a football ball with us girls than play Barbie’s. He never raised his voice, never yelled with joy…he was quiet and when he talked he usually had something pretty important to say, and he only said it once. But, that man would squeal like a school girl at my Powerlifting Meets… would actually jump up and down. I am not sure if this is because he didn’t have to play Barbie’s anymore or if he was so proud that I pulled myself from the deadly grasp of anorexia.
Shawn, I actually believe came from the womb with muscles. He is almost mechanical when it comes to lifting and working to get stronger. If you have ever watched him deadlift…really watch...you would understand. His intensity is freakish, he knows his pivot points so well that when the weights get heavier, it appears almost easier for him. He literally trains like a machine.
My point in all this is…there is no short term easy resolution to all the questions we are asked. Work is the answer…if that’s not the answer you are looking for, keep looking. When you discover a quick and easy way to get to Point B…please share that with us!
JANUARY
IT IS WHAT IT IS…
FITNESS / NOUN / [fit-nis]
Capability of the body of distributing inhaled oxygen to muscle tissue during increased physical effort.
This is the dictionary’s definition of FITNESS…
I have several magazine subscriptions, some I have no idea how I even ended up getting. For example, CIGAR AFICIONADO started coming to the house last month. Mind you, neither Shawn nor I smoke cigars and I am sure he was a little nervous of what people would think of a cigar magazine showing up at the Nutter house. I mean, we do run a personal training business…But, it makes good bathroom reading, so I tossed it in the basket with all the other magazines.
This month I got my February issue of a women’s FITNESS magazine. (which will remain nameless) Well, as I was browsing this FITNESS magazine looking for tips I may want to apply to my workouts I became discouraged and a little angry. This FITNESS magazine has a total of 140 pages. 66 of these pages are ads, 11 pages were articles about hair and makeup (huh? it’s a fitness magazine) 6 pages of food recipes. There were a total of 7 articles on FITNESS, consisting of 20 pages...of those 20 pages, 1 ½ pages were showing the latest cutesy clothes to work out in, 1 page was boasting the latest and greatest MP3 players and prices, and 2 were just the title pages for an article! Of these 17 ½ actual article pages…the articles took up an average ¼ of an 8 ½ x 11 page.
Is it just me…or is there a bit of a problem here? Basically what I am gettin’ at is that this FITNESS magazine is just as worthless to me as a CIGAR magazine sitting in the bathroom of the home of 2 bodybuilders. Now don’t get me wrong…I appreciate seeing the newest, cutest shoes that are out there. Or the pastel colored tank tops and sports bra’s that cost between $45.00 and $110.00…YESSS! There was one advertised that was $110.00!!
However, what I wear is not going to get me the results I am striving for in the gym. What is going to get me results are hard, gut busting, vomit inducing work outs. The latest and greatest MP3 players are not going to get me shredded for my next show…I am going to get me shredded for my next show. The diet, the cardio, the training…the measuring of olive oil, the rotating of carbs, the thought if I have to eat one more piece of Tilapia I am going to grow gills.
I will let you in on the secret that Shawn and I are always asked, the secret to getting stronger, the secret to dieting for a show, the secret to losing fat and gaining muscle…
The secret is the realization that the mental, muscle aches and pains that come from dieting for a bodybuilding show, preparing for a powerlifting meet, training for a fight, rehabbing from an injury, or trying to bring your cholesterol down 10 points does not compare to the pain Jesus Christ suffered hanging on the Cross. When I feel like I just can’t go another day I visualize his suffering, give thanks, and realize…this is cake.
NOVEMBER
Robyn’s Blog- NPC National’s
When Shawn and I started Fusion Training and came up with our slogan…” Where does your POWER come from?...” it’s meaning is more than just weight lifting for us. It stands for a number of things. It stands for one’s intestinal fortitude to perceiver, not quitting to what you have set your mind to do. Digging so deep to complete something, when your muscles and your mind are shot…and it’s your heart that pushes you over the finish line. Both of us can honestly say we have “been there and done that…more than once!”
Shawn’s clients and our close friends know that my training for this show was probably the most heart wrenching ordeal I, and me and Shawn have had to go through. We set up my training and diet for 14 weeks and every week I was ahead of the game. Which was awesome because we knew I had to come in shredded for this show. 9 weeks into training my life came to a screeching halt…
I got a call from my mom Friday morning that she had taken my dad to the ER at 3 in the morning with severe stomach pain. After the tests they admitted him with liver failure. Shawn and I went to Virginia to see him that weekend and came home Sunday…I went back Tuesday and Shawn joined me several days later and we stayed till his death a week and a half later.
He rapidly declined with his kidneys shutting down along with a painful alcohol withdraw. His mind faded and his ability to get himself out of bed diminished overnight. When he wanted to get up to go to the bathroom, he wanted me to help him because he trusted my strength. It was the worst moments I have ever had with my father, but I would never take them back. I had to be there for him, my mom, sister and myself. I managed to somewhat stay on my diet while I was there, relying on mostly on my Beverly International protein shakes, tuna, and grilled chicken that the cooks at the hospital were kind enough to make for me. My training was hit or miss and cardio was virtually obsolete…and sleep…none. His final day was thankfully peaceful and Shawn and I were both with him when he took his last breath.
After the funeral, Shawn and I had a long discussion about what was the right thing to do…keep moving forward with the show or scrap it. I wanted Shawn to just tell me what to do because I could not make that decision. He would not and it ultimately had to come down to me finding where my true POWER was exactly. Whatever decision I was to make would not be wrong… but it had to be the one I had to live with. I laid awake several night mulling it over and then it came to me…my dad would have been pissed as hell if I would have flat out quit something, and he would have been very sad at himself if he was the cause of my quitting.
At that time the rubber hit the road and I moved forward…with a lot of hearts ache over the loss of my Pop. When I thought I could not even get out of bed because the sadness was so overwhelming, I thought about the couple days that my dad was hell bent on walking the halls. There were 2 nights that my sister and I escorted him up and down the halls. I know he was only doing this for our benefit, to make us feel like he was getting better. But when I looked in his ice blue eyes I saw them becoming more tired and dull and I know the chairs at the end of the hall must have felt like an eternity for him. He wheezed and shuffled his feet as we steadied his weight…not giving up getting to that prize of the cushioned chair that awaited him. I would be on the stair climber in the gym several mornings almost in tears…but never giving up.
2 weeks before the show I cracked open a fortune cookie, it read “Pleasures await you at the shore…” Yeah…I got chills too. We landed in Miami and everything was perfect, right down to the 2 hour Mani/Pedi I got from a little Cuban Salon. My mom came to the show and she landed in Miami a day later. The fact that she ventured out of the small town I was raised all by herself was a huge accomplishment. The show was awesome…I met tons of great folks and Meggan and Austin Clay were the most fun to have gone to the show with.
When I competed in Powerlifting I would literally black out in the hole of my squats. I’d see black and the only voice I could here was my Pop cheering for me. He and my mom came to almost every Powerlifting meet over my 10 years of competing. When I stepped foot on stage Saturday for prejudging at the biggest National show of the year…I felt his presence and another supportive voice became the only one I heard…Shawn’s. I had found my POWER over that last 5 weeks preparing for Nationals.
Shawn, my Mom, Meggan, Austin, and me celebrated the wonderful weekend Sunday night at Prime One Twelve. There were Miami football players to our left, Miami Heat players scattered about, the lead singer to Good Charlotte 2 tables over…but I sat at the table watching my Mom smile and enjoy her steak oblivious to the stars that surrounded her. At that moment the fortune from that cookie had completed itself….Pleasures had awaited me at the shore, and again in my life..I found where my true Power was…
Thank you Shawn…you are the love of my life…
Thank you Greg, Cheryl, Carol, Brad, and Baylee for all your love...
Thank you Meggan and Austin for your laughter and support…
Thank you Mom, for being my Mom…
Thank you my sister, Karen, for your support of your little sister...
And thank you Daddy…for still teaching me how to be stronger…
In Memory of Gary W. Martin
09/09/47-10/11/11
SEPTEMBER
We all know the guy in the gym, strutting around with an average physique, constantly rotating their workout from MMA-fighter-style, to powerlifting, bodybuilding, to sculpting and for all their effort, they go nowhere, achieve nothing. They never have and never will, and yet they tell everyone in the gym how to lift, how they should train for particular goals, how to get ripped, how to do this, how to do that…and the list goes on. And make every excuse to never compete!!
Watch them train. They use too much weight, moving moderate loads about an inch at the top of the movement, building neither size nor strength. They befriend the gym goers who excel in their training, never plateau and achieve levels of performance and fat loss that seems miraculous, as if proximity imparts exceptionalism, while they can barely reach even modest goals.
Worst of all—and what pisses me off—is given the chance to spot someone exceptional, they scream commands to impress the newbies, to establish themselves as the source of talent, dedication and know-how that went into somebody else’s achievement. When this happened to me, when I set up for an easy 525 on the bench, when I had to yell at the guy to get his hands off the bar in the middle of a rep, when I had to listen to him screaming meaningless commands, I felt like throwing him out a window. In retrospect, maybe I should have.
Don’t be one of these guys. If you’ve never been there—and “there” might be a 600 lb bench, a 900 lb squat, 7% body fat, a 700lb. deadlift—don’t tell others how to get to a place you’ve never even seen. Don’t tell a 215 lb guy who just squatted 930 lbs that his form sucked and he got lucky to sneak one past the judges. Don’t tell someone their biceps could use a nicer peak when yours don’t even exist. Watch, listen, and learn: until you’ve been there, this is all you should be doing.
Ask questions, do some research and experiment. Successful people are successful for a reason: they don’t need your opinion; they need facts; they need experience. And contrary to popular belief, not all opinions stand on equal footing. There are ignorant people and their opinions count for dirt. And its normally the guys who wear skin tight shirts, try hard to act a way they are not, and sport their arms and chest with a pathetic back, forearms and legs….you know who you guys are……..
When you can out bench me, out squat me and out deadlift me, while staying leaner, tighter and eating cleaner, or beat me on a bodybuilding show, then you can give me your opinion. Until that happens, shut the hell up and pay your dues!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
APRIL
The other day I was reading an article in Muscular Development that struck me with outrage…the first sentence made me stop and take notice.
“If a certain proposal that’s ever closer to being passed gets through our political system and is made into law, we’ll be robbed of our freedom to freely access nature.” [1]
CODEX ALIMENTRIUS stands for “food and nutrition code” in Latin, it is also known as “Codex”. In 1962 the United Nations established free trade standards, which was accepted and administered by the World Health Organization and the Food and Drug Organization. This Code was to “protect” the public’s safety by standardizing vitamins, food, nutrients, and botanicals. Unfortunately this “for your own good code” has turned into a cash cow for big industry and pharmaceutical companies. Who wins and who loses? Well, the money wins… and that folks is not us. We are worker bees. Do you really decide on what goes in your gut? Think…
The FDA will not allow natural supplements (sold as dietary supplements) advertise as a treatment or cure for a disease. Who can make that statement? Pharmaceutical companies can. If something natural cures your disease, does that mean a crime has been committed, it wasn’t approved right?...by a group of people who say what is best for you… I thought I knew what was best for me.
Pharmaceutical company’s ideal is to keep you and your disease alive in a chronic state, to keep you on their prescribed drugs as long as possible. “The last thing they want us to do is to find a cure and most certainly not a natural cure they don’t control.”MD
In 1994 the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act (DSHEA) was formed to protect American’s rights to purchase dietary supplements without prescriptions. Unfortunately what that means is the cash cows ends up losing cash. This has lead to numerous lawsuits against DSHEA to try to destroy it…in turn, destroy OUR freedom.
Have you seen those commercials recently on TV for a prescription Omega 3 pill…a miracle pill to help your heart? You can purchase it without a prescription at your grocery store, it’s called Fish Oil. It is a supplement that has benefits and soon it will be prescribed, and who wins and who loses?
Freedom is becoming endangered…if we don’t stop the government and pharmaceutical companies; here are a few examples of the new laws being pushed through CODEX:MD
1) No herb, vitamin, mineral, or natural agent will be permitted to be freely sold for any therapeutic reason.
2) Personal access to dietary supplements will be limited to the bare minimum, which will have little to no effect on health, age, and performance.
3) Basic vitamins and minerals (Vitamin C, Creatine, Protein Powder…) will all require a Doctor’s prescription to obtain. (with no prescription, these will be considered a drug)
“If the people let government decide what food they eat and medicines they take, their bodies will soon be in a sorry state.” –Thomas Jefferson
Muscular Development “Codex Calamity” 3/2011